Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-07-10
WHOLE NO. 665.


brought them was not peace, but sword. II was
no sword of territorial conquest but that farflng
blade Of conscience and selfconvictioh which
lighted between our first pafenta and their lost
Eden that sword Of the Spirit that searcheth all
things,-which sewers one by one the ties Of pas
sion, of interest, Of self PRIDE that bind the soul
to oarth whose implacabe edge may divide NJ
e man from family, from lrends, from whatever IL
nearest and dearest,-Gnd which hovers before
hith. like the airdrrwn dagger of Macbeth beckon-
ing him not to crime but to the legitimate royalites
of selfdenial and sefsacrifce, to the frsedonY
J which is won only by surrender of the will.
Christianity has never been concession, never
peace; it is continual aggression; one province of
wrong conquered, its pioneers are already in the
heart of another. The mile'stones Of its onward
march down the ages have not been monuments
of material power but the blackened stakes of
martyrs trophies of individual fidelity to convic-
ton. For it is the only religion which is superior
to all endowment, TO all authority which has a
bishopric and cathedral wherever single hui,
man soul has surrendered itself to God, That
very spirit of doubt, inquiry. and fanaticism for
private judgement, with which Romanists re-
proach Professionalism. is its stamp and token Of
authenticity, y,-the seal of Christ, and not of the
Fisherman.
We do not wonder at the division which hos ca.
ken place in the Tract Society, nor do we regret
| it. The ideal life Of Christian IS possible to
very few; but we natural, look for nearer ap'
proach to it in those who associate together to ds
seminae the doctrines which they believe to be it,
formative essentials, and there is nothing which
the enemies of religion seize on so gladly rs any
Inconsistency between TIE conduct and professions
of such persons. Though utterly Indifferent to
the wrongs Of the slave the scofer would not fail
to remark upon the hollowness of christisnity
which horror stricken at dance Sunday
drive, while it was bandly silent about the sepa.
ration of families, the putting asunder whom God
had joined the selling Christian girls for Christian
harems, and the thousand horrors of a system
which can lessen the agonies it inflicts only by
ldebasing the minds and souls of the race on whom
it inficts them. Is your Christianity, then, he
would say, respector of persons and does il cons
done the sin because the sinner contribute to
your Golfers? Was there ever a Smony like
ths,-that does not sell, but withhold the gift of
Cod for priceP
Tho world naturally holds the Society 70 strict
er accountability than it would insist upon in ordi-
nary cases. Were they only club of gentlemen
associated for their own amusement, it would be
very natural and proper that they should exclude
oil questions which would introduce controversy,
and that, however individually interested in GER
tain reforms, they ehould not force them on others
who would consider them q bore. But q society
of protesting Christians, united for the express
purpose of carrying both the theory and the prac-
tiee of the New Testament into every household
in the land has voluntarily subjected itself to a
graver responsibility, and renounced all title to fall
back upon reserved right Of personal comfort Of
convenience.
sion ID the Tract Society glad because of the
division but because it has sprung from an earn.
est effort to relieve the Society of d reproach
which was not only imparing its usefulness. bdf
doing an injury to the cause Of truth and sinceYff
ty everywhere. We have no desire to impugn the
motives Of those who consider themselves conser-
vatiye members of the Society; we believe them to
BE honest in their convictions, or their want Of
them; Two think they have mistaken notions as
to what conservatism is, aa1 that they are wrong
N cnp psia in fusn fn
the film on their spectaclegasses which prevents
their seeing the handwriting the wall, or id
conserving reverently the barnacles their ships
bottom and dryIrot in its knees. We yield to none
of them in reverence for the Past it is there only
that the imagination can find ropose and seclusion;
there d~eIls that silent majority whose expert
ence guides our action and whose wisdom shapes
our thought in spite Of ourselves /; but il is not
length of days that make evil reverend, rof
persistence in Inconsistency that can give it the
power or the claim Of orderly precedent. Wrong,
though its title deeds 90 back to the days of
SodOm, is by nature thing OF yesterday-while
the right of which we became conscious but an
hour ago, is more ancient than the stars and of
the essence Of Heaven. If it proposed to-
establish slavery tomorrow should we have
more patience with its patrarchal argument than
with the parallel claim Of MormOnism That
slavery is old is but its grea,er condemnation;
that have tolerated it SO long, the strongest
plea for our doing no longer. There is one in.
stitution to which owe our first allegiance, one
that is more sacred and venerable than any other
the soul and conscience of Man.
What claim has slavery to immunity from dis.
cussion We are told that disunion is dangerous.
Dangerous to what2 Truth invites it, courts the
point OF the lthuriel spear, whose touch but
reveal more clearly the grace and grandeur of
her angelic proportions The advotates Of slave.
ry have taken refuge in the last covert Of despef-
ate sophism, and affirm that their institution is of
Divine ordination, that its bases laid in the
nature of man. Is anything, then, of Gods con-
triving endangered by inquiry Was il the sys-
tenn Of the universe; or the monks that trembied
at the telescope of Galileo? Did the circulation
Of the tirmamert stop in terror becanse Newton
laid his daring finger on its pulse? But it is idle
to discuss proposition so monstrous There is
no right Of sanctuary for crime against humanfI
ty and they who drag an unclean thing to the
horns Of the altar bring it to vengeance and not to
safety.
Even granting that slavery were all tina. its an.
)logsts assume it to be, and that the relation of
master and slave were of Gods appointing would
lot its abuses be just the thing which il WAS the
iuty of Christian to protest ngafast, and, as
ar as might bo, to root out Would our courts
eel themselves debarred from interfering to res
,ue q daughter from parent who wishes to make
merchandise of her purity, or wife from her
husband who was brutal to her, by the plea that
parental authority and marriage were Of Divine
ordinance Would police justice discharge a
| drunkard who pleaded the patriarchal precedent
lt Noah or would he not rather give hn an
'ther month in the House of Correction for his
mpudence?
The anti'savery question is not one which the
Tract Society can exclude by triumphant MAORI
les, nor put to shame by a comparison of respec-
abilities. Mixed though it has beens with poll.
les. IL is in sense political, and, springng nat
rally from the principles of that religion which
races its human pedigree to q manger and whose
rst apostles were twelve poor men against the
'hole world, it can dispense with numbers and
arthly respect. The clergyman may ignore il in
pc pulpit but it conlronss him ia his study the
hurch'memter, who bas suppressed it in parish.
leetins' opens it with the pages of his TESTAMENT
le merchant, who has shut it out Of his house
nd his heart fnds it lying in wait for him.
aunt fugitive, in tho hold of his ship the lawyer.
Tho has declared that it is no corcern of his finds
thrust unnn him In tie hrief of tie slaxe LuatxI.