The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-07-07


can lessen the agonies it inh.cts only by
debasing the minds and souls of the race
on whom it intlicts them, Is your Chris
tanity, then, he would say, a respecter
Of persons, and does it condone the sin
because the sinner cannot contribute to
your coffersl Was there ever a Simonv
like this, that does not sell, but with
holds the gift Of God for prices
The world naturally holds the Society
to stricter accountability than it would
insist upon in ordinary cases. Were they
only club of gentlemen associated to-
gether for their Own amusement, it would
be very natural and proper that they
should exclude all questions that would
Introduce controversy and that, however
individually interested in certain reforms,
they should not force them upon others
who would consider them bore. But a
society Of protesting Christians, united
for the express purpose of carrying both
the theory and the practice of the New
Testament into every house hold in the
land, has voluntarily subjected itself to
graver responsibility, and renowned all
title to fall back upon any reserved right
OF personal comfort or convent nee.
We say, then, that we are glad to see
this division in the Tract Society,-not
glad because of the division, but because
it has sprung from an earnest effort to re-
ieve the Society of a rel ro:cl which was
not only inpairing the Society of its USE
fulness, but doing an injury to the cause
of truth and sincerity everywhere. We
have no desire to impugn the motives of
those who consider themselves conserva-
tive members of the Society: we believe
them to be honest in their convictions,
or their want Of them; but think they
have mistaken notions as to W at conserv-
atism is, and that they are wrong in sup
posing it to consist in refusing to wipe
way the film on their spectacle-glasses
which prevents their seeing the band wri-
ting on the wall, or in conserving rever-
emily the barnacles on their ships bottom
and the dry-rot in its knees. We yield
to none of them in reverence for the Past,
it is there only that the imagination can
find repose and seclusion; there dwel's
that silent majority whose experience
guides our action and whose wisdom
shapes our thought in spite of ourselves
but it is not length of days that can
make evil reverend, nor persistence in in
consistency that can give it the power or
the claim of orderly precedent. Wrong
though its title deeds go back to the days
of Sodom, is by nature thing of yester-
dav,-while the right, of which we be-
came conscious but an hour ago, is more
ancient than the stars, and of the essence
of Heaven. If it were proposed to estab-
fish Slavery tomorrow, should we have
more patience with its patriarchal argu-
ment than with the parallel claim of Nor
monism? That Slavery is old is but its
greater condemnation; that we have tol-
Grated it SO long, the strongest plea for
our doing so no longer. There is one in
stitution to which we owe our first allegi-
ance, one that is more sacred and veneer
able than any other,- soul and con-
science of Man.
What claim has slaveay to immunity
from discussion? We are told that dis
cl,ssion is dangerous. Dangerous to
whats Truth invites it, courts the point
of the Ithuriel-spear, whose touch can but
reveal more clearly the grace and grand
eur of her angelic proportions. The adj
vocates of Slavery have taken refuge in
the last covert of desperate sophism, and
affirm that their institution is of Divine
ordination, that its bases are laid in the
nature of man. Is anything, then OF
Gods contr;ving endangered by inquire :
Was it the system of the universe, or the
monks that trembled at the telescope Of
| Gallleo? Did the circulation of the fir
mament stop in terror because Newton
laid his daring finger on its pulse! But
it is idle to discus a proposition so mon
strous. There is no right of sanctuary
for crime against humanity, 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 al
that its apologists assume it to be, and
that the relation of master and slave were
of Gods appointing, would not its abuses
be just the thing which it was the duty o
Christian men to protest against, and, as
far as might be root outs Would oul
courts feel themselves debarred from in
terfering to rescue a daughter from a pa
rent who wished to make merchandise
of her purity, or q wife from hurband
Who was brutal to her, by the plea tina