Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1859-04-13
CORRESPONDENCE OF LID. ISAAC
ERRETr AND ED. PARDEE
BUTLER.

The great length of the correspondence
between these two gentlemen relative to
the propriety of the ignoring of the slave
ry question by missionaries, prevents us
from giving it in full. We can only
make a few extracts, and will endeavor
to deal fairly with both sides, leaving il
with our readers to Judge for themselves
as to which is in the right, matter
which judging from the published letter,
seems TO us very plain. .-.
In replying TO the first letter of Mr..
Errett, which we spoke of in our last pa
per, Mr.. Butler says:
OcrsA. Atchison. Co., Kansas Territory.
BRoTHER ERRETT: Dear Sir.-You
say in your letter before me, sit must,
therefore, he distinctly understood, that
if We embark in missionary enterprise
in Kansas, this question of slavery and
anii-slevery must be ignored"
lrespond. This Reformation; pledg-
ed before heaven and earth, AMI under
covenants the most solemn and binding
into which men can enter, to guarantee
freedom of thought and of speech to our
brotherhood-not indeed on subjects
purely abstract, speculative, and inoPera-
tise, but on Bible neutrality-suspicious.
which involve the well being of humani-
iy. This matter of slavery is Bible
question: question of justice between
man and msn-of mercy and humanity.
il is what Jesus would call one of the
weightier matters of the law, and de
mands, therefore large place in our in-
vesiisstions.
Did the Jewish Sanhedrim demand
more of the Apostles than this-you must
be silent? Did Rome demand more of
Luther than that he should be silentl-
Would ever a schism have taken place
between US and the Bspiists. if we had
yielded 10 their demands that we should
be silent? Has not our brotherhood par
AIDED their love of discussion before the
world, more os!entatiously than any 9TH
er community that ever went before
lhem2 And shall we in our turn draw
back our head under our denominetional
she'll, and do the very things we have so
treprobaied in ecclesiastical forefalhers?
How often have we impaled our adver-
saries by the cabalislic worth, "Truih
never fears the light, ,'-"Men love dark.
ness rather than light, because their
deeds are vil,"-ssHe that doeth truth
cometh 10 The light" &c. While some
brethren in their verdancy are sill tell
ing how the "sects" hate discussion, and
how we love il, and how the truth iri
umphs by it; il is hard and bitter fact,
that no "sect" enforces ole zee on le-
gilima,e subject of Bible discussion with
more constancy than do some of US.
The "History of Schism,' as publish
ed by ourselves in the Campbell and Rice
debate, and in essays and sermons innu-
merable, is this: the refermer discovers
a new truth and he must utter it. A
tumult is made, and the church com.
mands silence. The reformer cannot be
oilent. 1t is a fire in his bones, and he
must speak. The aid of the iron bed
stead is invoked, and the audacious son,
who has had the temerity to grow above
the stature of his fathers, is decspiiateG.
Thus q new denomination is born. Ia
infancy they declaim against the folly
and tyranny of iron bedsteads, but when
their sons multiply. grow above the or,
thodox standard, they in their turn are
converted to the sanctifying grace and
saving efficacy of the ecclesiastic gu;llo-
tine, and demonstrate that is easier to
declsim against tyranny when we are
weak and oppressed, than it is TO be mag
unanimous when we are prosperous an
powerful.