Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1855-09-05
Slavery and the Pulpit.

OAAN1 III Allo BA0SCH 49,
God in History. He gave short but
graphic sketches of the rise. progress,
and fall, of the ancient great nations OF
the earth, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Edom,
Greece and Rome /; spoke briefly of the
fall of Hungary, crushed by the COM
bined powers of Austria and Russia of
the mission of KOSSuth to the United
States, of his wonderful ~eloquence /; of
the causes wi ich made that mission a
failure, $50 far as benefit to Hungary
was concerned, sketched briefly the
origin of Sla' cry in the United Stafes' lis
effect in causing the separation OF the
Methodist Episcopal Church. North and
South; of the breaking down the barriers
which AVE secured to freedom, the vast
territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and
the leaving them open to the influx Of
Slavery. He spoke of the bitter perse
cution waged in those territories, against
the Clergyman of his Church /; of that
kind of Christianity which makes the
Bible a sealed book 10 the slave which
debars him from all knowledge of future
life which makes it a penal offence TO
preach Christ to a Slave, and which
sanctions the buying and selling of man
and omar He showed incontrover-
libly, that it was tie duty of every citi-
zen, more especially of every Christian,
so to act, and so to vote, that his influence
directly, and indirectly should favor free
dom and the right; and not ser.e to
bind still iImer the shackles of the slave,
nor spread the whitening, blighting curse
of slavery, and mob law, over the fair
heritage of freedom.
Another idea, advanced by ELDER
Balm, struck US particularly. We have
been so accustomed to concede to the
Slave Slatcsthe right tomaintain Slavery,
to hold Slaves within their own borders,
and we still say hat We would not in
~ierfere with their internal laws, and we
are moi responsible for them, that we,
in common with most of our readers
had almost arrived at the conclusion that
it was right TO hold Slaves in the Slave
States. But Mr.. Balm asks, who gave to
the Slave States this right? Where did
they get it? When did they get it p
We should ike TO know who can answer
these questions.
If Slavery is an evil, a religious and
moral, as well as a political and social
evil, if clergyman are c~onservators of re-
ligion and morals, then clergymen have
the right to denounce Slavery. If the
pulpit is the place to which we are to
look for pure religion ana pure morals,
then is the pulpit the most fit place in
which to hold up to view the enormities
Of that system, which permits the mas
tiers to prostitute their own flesh and
blood, which takes the life long labor OF
a fellow-man without any equivalent,
which makes him, body and soul, the
property of another.
If clergymen of any denomination can
keep silent Upon this subject, it would be
too much to ask Of human nature. to ex-
pect it from those belonging TO the Meth
odist Episcopal Church North, when
preachers of their faith are prescribed,
tied upon RATS, insulted with a mockery
of flags, and set adrift upon the Mis-.
souri, River, tarIed and feathered, driven
ION their families, and their lives threat
ened by the minions and border r~uffians
of Missouri.
The founder of Methodism justly char
acterized slavery as the sum of all vii
lainies. There can be no freedom of
speech, even in the pulpit where the bar
barism of slavery prevails. This is no
time for trimming and compromises.
There is no such thing as standing aloof,
and remaining neutral. A man must
be for slavery, or against it. He must
be its supple tool. its minister, and pro-
pagandist or he must oppose, denounce
it. and call it by its true names curse
of the deepest kind +; a crime of the
blacklist die.
The issue is at last made up, and we
rejoice that it is so and even the non
slave holding freemen of the southern
states begin to feel that they must be-
come slaves themselves, or trample the
institution under their feet.
Ours is a political, and not a religious,
newspaper. We do not profess, or as
pire to be the keepers of any mans con-
science. but we do say that man is terri
bly, inconsistent, who, in this free state
and in this age of the world, processes that
religion, whose precept is, Glove thy
neighbor as thyself," and then attempts
to defend slavery, or to bolster it up by
indirectly lending it his aid. Nor will it
longer do to plead ignorance as an ex-
cuse. No man has a right 10 be igno-
rant, when the light is staring him in
the face when every newspaper, not
utterly pro. slavery. is teemihg with &C
counts of the outrages, the new and in
creasingdemands, and grasping assump-
tons Of slavery.
News from the Crimea
Positive intelligence has been received
of a defeat of the Russian army under
General LipIandi, outside of Sebas opel.
General Liprandi with from so, 200 10
$4,000 men attacked the French aid
Sardinians on the Tchcrnaya, and was
in the 20 rise OF three hours with