The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-12-14
THE CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF
ABOIITIONISM


them the necessity Of the measures have suggested
indispensable to the restoration of amity between the
States and the preservation of the Union.
EAzz@-z-r--.----
THE CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF
ABOLITI0NISM.
A correspondent desires US to publish the follow
ing verses from the l7th chapter of st. Luke, pre-
missing that the word 'servant" in the 7th verse is
the Greek word 'doulos," which all commentators
agree signifies "slave" as contradistngushed from
"hired servant" 1t will be observed that the
conversation is between Christ and His Apostles.
Luke xvii, 5.-And the Apostles said unto the Lord
increase faith.
G. And the Lord said, ifye had faith grain of mus
tard seed ye might unto this tree Be thou
pucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea-
and it should obey you.
7. But which of you, having a servant ploughing or
feeding CATTLE will say unto him by and by, when
from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
And will not rather say unto him. Make ready where
with may sup, and grid thyself and me, till
have eaten and drunken and afterward thou shalt eat
and drink?
o. Doth he thank that servant because he did the
things which were commanded him? trow not.
10. So likewise We, when ye shall have done all things
which are commanded you, say, We improbable
servants We have done that which duty to do
A SERMON BY HENRY j. VAN DYKE, PREACHED
IN THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BROOKLYN,
NJ y, ON SUNDAY EVENING LAST.
Concluded
1.-THE PRINCIPLES OF ABOLlTToNIsM HAVE BEENPROp-
MISREPRESENTATION
ABUSE.
| Having no foundation in Scripture, it does not
| carry on its warfare by Scripture weapons. Its
prevailing spirit is fierce and proud, and its Ian
guage is full of wrath and bitterness Let me prove
| this, by testimony from its own lips. / quote DR..
| Claiming, of Boston, whose name is tower of
strength to the abolition cause, and whose memory
is their continual boast In work published in
! 1886, | find the following words:
"The aholitionsts have done wrong beiieye nor is
their wrong to be nked at because done fanacay
with good intentions, for how much mischief may be
wrought with good designs They have fallen into the
of enthusiasts that of exaggeratng their
object of feeling if no evil existed but that which they
opposed and if guilt could he compared with that
of countenancing and uphoding it. The their
newspapers so far as have seen them, has often been
fierce bitter and abusive They have sent forth their
orators some of them transported with fiery zeal, to
sound the alarm against slavery through the land to
gather together young and old, pupils from schools fe
males hardly arrived at the Of discretion the gno
rant, the excabe, the impeuous, and organize these
into associations for the battle against oppression
ored people, and collected them societies To thi:
mixed and eXctable multitude minute heart.rcnding de
scrptons of slavery given in piercing pas
son and Shareholders held up monsters cruelty
and crime The abolitionis indeed proposed to
Shareholders, and for this end he approached them will
yituperation and exhausted on them the vocabulary
! abuse. And lie has reap as he sowed"
| Such is the testimony of Dr.. Claiming, given il
| the year 1886. What would he have thought and
| said if he had lived until the year 1860 and seen
| this little stream, whose infant violence he
lamented, swelling into torrent and flooding the
land? Abolionism is abusive in its persistent mis-
representation of the legal principles involved in
| the relation between master and slave They reit.
crate in thousand exciting forms the assertion
that the idea of property in man blnts out his man.
hood and degrades him to the level Of brute or
| stone.
| trust and pray, and call upon you to unite with
Inc in the supplication, that God would give aboli-
tiOnists repentance and a better mind, so that in
! time to come they may at least propagate their
principles in decent and respectful language.
| HL-ABOLGTtoNIsM LEADS IN MULTTUDEs OF CASES,
AND BY A LOGICAL PROCESS, To UTTER INFIDELTTY.
On this point | would not and will not be misun-
derstood. l do not say that abolitioniSm is inf
deity. speak only of the tendencies of the svs-
TEN as indicated in its avowed principles, and de-
| monstrated in its practical fruits.
1t does not try slavery by the Bible, but, as one
| of its leading advocates has recently declared, il
tries the Bible by the principles Of freedom. II
insists that the word of God must be made to sup
port certain human opinions or forfeit all claim!
upon our faith. That | may not be suspected 0
exaggeraton on this point, let quote from tht
recent work of Mr.. Barnes, passage which may
well arrest the attention of all thinking men,
'There are great principles in our nature as God ha
made which never be set aside by any authority
of proessed revelation. If book claiming to be
ation from Cod by any fair Interpretation defended
slavery, placed it on the basis the relation
husband and wife parent and child guardian and ward
such book would not and could not be received by tn
mass of mankind as Divine eVelation."
This assumption that men are capable of iudg
| ing beforehand what is to be expected in a Divin
revelation, is the cockatrices egg from which il
all ages heresies have been Matched. This is th
! spiders web which men have spun out of thei
own brains, and clingng to which they have at
| tempted to swing over the yawning abyss of inf
| deity. Alas! how many have fallen in and beer
dashed to pieces When man sets up the grea
principles of our nature (by which he always
means his own preconceved opinions) as the sul-
preme tribunal before which even the law of God
| must be tried-when man says, " the Bible must
teach abolitonism will not receive it," he has
already cut loose from the sheet-anchor of faith
| Trne belief says, Speak, Lord thy servant waits
to hear" Abolitionism says, " Speak, Lord, but
speak in accordance with the principles of human
nature, or they cannot be received by the great
mass of mankind as a Divine revelation" The
fruit of such principles is just what might expect
Wherever the seed of abolitionism has been sowI
broadcast, plentiful crop of infdelity has sprung
up. In the communities where auti.slavery ex
citement has been most prevalent, the power o
the Gospel has invariably declined; and when tn
tide Of fanaticsm begins to subside, the wrecks o
church order and of Christian character have beel
scattered on the shore. l mean disrespect t.
| New England-to the good men who there stanC
by the ancient landmarks and contend earnestly fol
the truth-nor to the luxurious dead whose prais,
is in all the churches but who does not know tha
the States in which abolitiOnism has achieved it
most signal triumphs at the same time tn
great strongholds of iniidelity in the land? | hav
often thought that if some of those old pilgrim
fathers could come back, in the spirit and power
Elias, to attend grand celebration at Plymouth
Rock, they might well preach on this text: "If y
were Abraham's children ye would do the work
of Abraham" The effect of aboitiOnsm upon ind
viduals is no less striking and mOurnul than it
influence upon communities.
1t is a remarkable and instructive fact, and on
at which Christian men would do well to pause an
consider, that in this country all the promnen
leaders Of aboltionism, outside of the ministry
have become avowed infdels; and that all our no
torious abolition preachers have renounced th
great doctrines OF grace as they are taught in tn
81 lat,
to the most violent processes of Interpretation Il
avoid the obvious meaning of plain Scripture
texts and aScribed to the apostles of Christ princl
plies from which pety and moral courage insunc
lively revolt. They make that to be sin which
the Bible does not declare to be sin. They de
nnunce, in language such the sternest prophets
of the Law never employed, relation which Je
sus and his apostles recognized and regulated
They seek to institute terms and texts of Christian
communion utterly at variance with the organic
law of the church, as founded by its Divine Head
and, attempting to justify this usurpaton OF Divine
prerogativesb by appeal from Gods law to the die
tates of fallen human nature, would set spritua
tyranny more odious and insuiferable because mOrt
| arbitrary and uncertain in its decisions, thar
Poperv itself. And the tree is, have its fruit
been. 1t is not a theory, but demonstrated fact
that aboltionism leads to intidelity. Such men a:
Garrison, and Giddings, and Gerrit Smith, have
yielded to the current of their own principles and
thrown the Bible overheard. Thousands of hum
bier men who listen to abolition preachers will g
and do likewise And whether it be the restraint
of official position, the preventing grace of God
that enables such preachers to row up the stream
and regard the authority of Scripture in othe
matters, their influence upon this subject is al
the more pernicious because they prophesy in th
name of Christ. In this sincere and plain utteranc
of my deep convictions, | am only discharging m
conscience toward the flock over which am set
= When the shepherd seeth the woit coming he
bound to give warning.
, V.-ABOLITIoNlsa Is THE CHIEF CAUSE OF sTRIF
THAT AGITATEs AND THE DANGER THAT THREATEN
| OUR COUNTRY.
Here, as upon the preceding point, will not
t misunderstood. | am not here as the advocate {
opponent of any political party; and it is NOR
than simple justice for me to say plainly, that
not consider Republican and Abolitionist as nece
sariy synonymous terms. There are tens of thol
e sands of Christian who voted with the success
q full party in the late election, who do not symp
thize with the principles or aims of abolitionism,