Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-03-25
LETTER FROM MICHIGAN.
BATTLE CREEK, Mich, March S,
Columbiana, March 5th, 1854.

have been to-day to hear two sermons upon
American Slavery, one at the Presbyterian, and
one at the Episcopal church. Perhaps it is hardly
worth while to enquire whether the anti-slavery
meetings held in this village, and which have To-
some degree infused an anti-slavcry warmth
throughout a considerable part of community, had
any agency in causing this movement on the part
of the ministry, but it is certain they had some
thing to do in giving shape and color to these
discources. M
The Presbyterian sermon was the first heard,
and the preacher took his text from Jer. VI,
l6:-" Thus saith the lord, Stand ye in the ways,
and see and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest
for your souls. But they said, We will not walk
therein" After speaking of the condition of the
people to whom this language was originally ad-
dressed, and showing it was also applicable to
this nation, he proceeded to sketch the character
of our Puritan fathers and to depict the trials to
which they were subjected. II was their religious
faith and desire for religiuos freedom that caused
them to seek a new home in the wilderness Of thit
land. They read extracts from the Catholic masE
in the liturgy of the Episcopal church, and in it
rites and ceremonies they saw traces Of its Rom
ish character, and hence they sought upon thu
western shores Of the Atlantic place where they
might worship God according to the dictates o
their own conscience. Their embarkation wal
hallowed by TIE spirit Of prayer, it was in thu
spirit Of prayer they proposed and adopted thu
civil regulations to which they subscribed befor,
landing; prayer consecrated the hour in which
they first trod Plymouth rock, and every churcl
and school house which they Quilt was blessed b!
the influence of prayer. They were men who car
ried their religion with them into politics. wit
made the daily acts Of their lives conform Il
its teachings; and when, at another PERIOD thci
descendants fought for their freedom and won it
they succeeded, because the element of religion
liberty and Of christian faith was their governing
principle. 1t was this religious principle thi
reverence for christianity, that led our fathers
adopt shat hearen ordained Instrument" the Cons
titution of the United States, but their childre
have departed from 'thc old path" and have fol
gotten "the good way"
The speaker then adverted to the pro-slayer
action of the government, and gave brief histor
of the Nebraska bill and its antecedents, nsistin
that in our governmental relations when the law
of man conAicted with the laws of God, we shoul
obey the latter and disregard the former II
earnestly entreated the people to go back to tn
old path" to "the good ways" of their fathers
and his soul seemed to yearn for the restoration
that time when prayer should sanction every deeC
when profanity and sabbath-breaking should
scarcely known, and puritanic integrity of purpos
and puritanic religious faith should prevail as
the early days of New England.
To form true estimate Of the character Of m
people, it is as necessary to remember their fault
MS TO extol their virtues-the lights and SHADOW
A of the picture should both be presented; ar
though the Puritans had many good qualities, the
# were unquestionably not the demi-gods that son
- would have us believe. They had moral coural
enough TO contend for their right to worship Gt
\ as conscience might dictate but they could n
sufficiently appreciate religious liberty to &c
a nowledge the same right in others; they low
a civil freedom for themselves as does John Mitch,
q and like John Mitchell. they denied it to other
d they had christian sternness, but not christie
charity, the zeal of p-osolytesm, but not the jud
IS ment of love.
If While the preacher was expressing his longir
for return to "the good ways" Of the fathers,
b, mind rolled back the curtain of the past and sa
n those fathers engaged in fierce and bloody conAi
1t with the red men Of the land, conquering theI
q not by fair dealing and christian love, as Penn d
N tho Indians of his colony but by the deadly mu