The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-26


Reform Tract and Book Society-is such as
pledges it to bring the whole Gospel to bear
against all that is antagonistic TO 1t. 1t MAKES
no compromises with evil. With weapons not
carnal, but spiritual, it assails sin IN It's every
stronghold, and pursues it through all Its out
goings. 1t asks itself, not what is popular,
or what is expedient ?-butwhat is duty duty
in the highest Gospel sense-believing that no
other policy will be blessed of God to convert
the world from sin, and save the souls of men.
Ought not such a position to enlist the sym
patty and the prayers of good men everywhers?
We have no quarrel with our brethren OF the
others Societies. Far from this we heartily
wish them God-speed in all their good works,
and our continual prayer is, that they may have
more and more light shed upon their path But
with such views and aims we believe that our
Society will, so far and so fast as It's distinctive
character is known, receive the cordial support
of all Evangelical Christians in the West. We
will briefly state few reasons for this conf
dence.
|. Only the American Reform Tract and
Book Society meets the convictions of the
Northwest. The resolutions of synods, presby
teries, and associations, and the issues of the
religious press, from the Allegheny to the
Rocky Mountains, and from the Ohio river to
the extreme northern limit of this valley-all
utter a clear, emphatic condemnation of Sla-
very ITSELF horror of its evils and an honest,
earnest determination to leave no lawful means
unemployed to bring it to an end. Certainly
the conviction gathers strength every hour in
the Western mind, that the final conflict has
here come on, and that Slavery must go down,
or our religion and our country must be speed
lily buried in one common ruin.
2. We believe that the men and the means
CT h a;,lxy ID o4oI 30
carry on the great Tract canse in our midst
Christians in Christian countries have sent
out their missionaries into heather lands, and
this was wise and right. But has not all ex-
perience shown that such efforts could only in
troduce the leaven of the Gospel, and that this
must be taken up by native ministries and
agencies called out on the spot, if the work is
ever to be accomplished? No nation or peo-
pie was ever thoroughly evangelical by foreign
missionaries or influences from abroad.
Our Eastern States, too, in the very spirit
and wisdom of the Gospel, sent out with their
sons and their daughters, as these boldly adj
vanced into this then Wilderness the living
ministry, and the Bible, and the Tract, and the
Sunday-School Book. This was absolutely ne
cessary in their weakness and their early
struggles, to keep alive their religious convic-
tions and plant the Church of God among
them. And the West owes great debt of
gratitude to the East for this Christian nurture
in the days of her childhood
But has not the time come when the West
must do this work for herself or it will languish
and die? What mean those rebukes now
so often heard by Western applicants for
Eastern aid" You expect too mach Of as
help yourselves ?" There is much truth in
this rebuke and if we do not give heed to it,
the cause OF Christ will drag more and more
among US, and we shall remain children-fee-
bic, sickly children-poorly qualified to use our
own hands and our own means-almoSt entirely
dependent upon Eastern Christians. Surely, the
day is come when We may emphatically say to
the Churches and the people Of the West !:
Qun yourselves like men be strong
3. Who can know the mind and the spirit
the wishes and the wants of the West, better
than Western Christians themselves? Every
portion of our vastly extended country, New
England, the Middle States, the South, and the
West, has its peculiarities, and none more so
than the West. We, who live and labor here
most clearly see this. And who can more deep
ly sympathiZe with the West, and will be more
likely to command the confidence of the West,
and call forth the men and the means of the
West, than the Christian men and Churches in
our midst? Surely, where there is such knowl-
edge and such influence, there must be cor
responding responsibility. The work is en-
phatically ours ; and woe to us if we fold our
hands in view of It'll We must be up and do
ing with our might, if we would save ourselves
and the multitudes who, with so much reason
and right, look specially to US.
Our Society, then, confidently looks to West
ern Christians and Churches to sustain her in
the great work she has undertaken for them, and
the perishing souls all around us. With their
hearty prayers and liberal cooperation, the
work will be done. If not in this way, can it
ever be done at all?
By order of the Directors.
GEORGE L. WEED, Secretary,