Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-02-18
From the tiberaor.
PLYMOUTH CHURCH SUSTAINING THE
AMERICAN BOARD.

Henry Ward Beecher has long had the credi,
with those who not abotionsts, of being an
abolitionist. To those who really hold that
ground, it has been very plain that he has never
taken it, His occasional sharp hits against slave
ry, like his occasional sharp hits against ortho-
doxy. and for heterodoxy, shows merely what the
combination of his Internal feelings, with his ex
ternal surroundi ngs put i. into his head to utter
at that moment but VIII oever expects to hold him
the next day. or the next week, the position in
dicated by those utterances, will probably be dis
appointed. lie is sen.mentally opposed to slave
ry like every man of humane feelings and sense
of natural justice; and thus when he speaks of it
without bias from professional considerations, he
is likely to speak against it; but, in the eyes Of
clergymen, the credit of the clerical body is more
important than justice more important than hu-
mainly; and in the great debate which has Just
closed in the Plymouth church at BROOKLYN, the
question was whether confidence should be with
drawn, and cash withheld. from body so Rever-
end, pious, and venerable as the American Board
merely because it was pro;slavery; whether, il
short, the fruit of Christian ife as well as the
leaves Of high 'professlon,' should be demanded
Of that mdch-professing Asssocation; and wheth-
er, in failure of such fruits tue Plymouth church
should say plainly, OF and to the Board, that it
was weighed in the balance and found wanting,
anG that therefore, the stewardship which it had
misused should be taken from it, and given to an.
other,
The question whether the money raised by the
Plymouth church for Foreign Missions should lie
entrusted, as heretofore, to the American B, ard
or given to some Association free from completely
with slavery has been debated in tha. church,
with intense carnestness for month past. When
the close Of this discussion approached, the friends
of the Board in shat church found themselves so
hard pressed by the reformatory party, under the
leadership Of Mr. Thcodote Tilton, that they sen,
for Mr.. Beecher, their pastor, (who was fulfilling
some lectuiiog engagements in Boston) to come
to their help; and he went at once for that pur-
pose. breaking his engagement to preach at the
Music Hall. Providentially, the gap thus made
was flled,at the last moment, by preacher eu ual.
ly eloquent and more Christian, Mr.. Wendell Phil
lips, but many of the 2Sth Congreg gational Society
were astOnished to hear that it to labor in de.
fence of slavery that the eloquent Brooklyn pres-
cher had broken bis promise to them.
have. from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and
"Wednesday evening, 25th instJ for the discussion
Of this subject, which was attended by two thous.
and persons.
MI Tilton had the floor, to reply to Mr.. Beech.
ers argument on Monday evening; but Mr..
Beecher inerposed his request that expressions of
applause and dsapprobation might be refrained
from, as unsuitable to the character of "a church
of Christ
Mr.. Tilton bestowed high praise upon Mr..
Beecher, as he is accustomed to do, but said he
did not join in the opinion which seemed to be
gaining ground that pastor could do no wrong.
lie called their attention to the fact that this Board
was the representative of combination of Amer.
lean churches, whose completely with slavery was
so direct and so extensive, that their ministers and
church-members are now holding 600000 human
beings in bondage. lie reminded them that the
members Of the Indian mission churches had al
ways been allowed to hold slaves and that their
missionaries had always refused to direct church
discipline against this sin, and yet that the Board
had never even required the exclusion of slave
holders, still less dismissed the missionaries for
50 prostuting their Office. lie expressed his sur
prise that Mr.. Beecher called the Board 'veners-
ple ihsnlutoh' aiter such conduct as this; and
that he would suffer its age and its Repatriation
for pety to counterbalance such direct votatou of
Christian duty. He wondered that Mr.. Beecher
should single out from praise tha; missionary who
had declared i. impossible to exercise discipline
for the buying or selling of slaves He wonder
ed yet more at Mr.. Beechers advocacy of the
admission Of Shareholders to church communion.
" by not make the door of the church 50 narrow
that a stakeholder could not en,er it carrying
slave with him And, as to the claim that the
ownership in question wss for the good Of the
slave, why not ask the slave himself to testify It