Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1861-01-17

ter and slave to the fountain of Emanuel S
blood; if the agencies Of the blessed Gospel
had only been suffered to work their way
quietly, as the light and dew of the morn
ing, into the structure of society, both North
and South, how different would have been
the position of our country this day before
God! How different would have been the
privileges enjoyed by the poor black mans
soul, which, in this bitter contest, has been
too much neglected and despised. Then
there would have been no need to have con-
[verted our churches into military barracks
for collecting fire arms to carry on war upon
a distant,fr frontier. No need for sovereign
State to execute the fearful penalty Of the
law upon the invader for doing no more than
honestly to carry out the teaching of aboli-
ton preachers, who bind heavy burdens,
and grievous to be borne, and lay them on
mems shoulders, while they touch them not
with one of their fingers. No need for the
widow and the orphan to weep in anguish Of
heart over those cold graves, for whose dis
honor and desolation God will hold the real
authors responsible. No occasion or pretext
for slavehelding States to pass such stringent
laws for the punishment of the secret incen-
diary and the prevention Of scrvile war.
shall not attempt to show what will be
the condition of the African race in this
country when the Gospel shall have brought
all classes under its complete dominion.-
What civil and social relations men will sus-
tain in the times of milennial glory do not
know. I cordially embrace the current
opinion of our church that slavery is per-
mitted and regulated by the divine law un-
der both the Jewish and Christian dispensa-
tions, not as the final destiny of the enslaved
but as an important and necessary process
in their transition from heathenism to Chris
tianity-a wheel in the great machinery Of
Providence by which the final redemption is
to be accomplished. However this may be,
one thing l know, and every abolitionis'
might know it if be would, that there are
Christian families at the South in which a
patriarchal fidelity and affection subsists be.
tween the bond and the free, and where
slaves are better fed and clothed and instruc-
ted, and have better opportunity for sal
vation than the majority of laboring people
in the city of New York If the tongue o1
Tabolitionism had only kept silence these
twenty years past, the number of such fami.
lies would be tenfold as great. Fanatieisu
at the North is one chief stumbling e. block ir
The way Of thd Gospet at tue South. -f1Hthts
is one great grievance that presses to-day
upon the hearts of our Christian brethren al
the South. This, in a measure, explain.
why such men as DR.. Thornwell. of Soutt
~ II ~ ~ -
men whose genius and learning and piety
would adorn any State or station-are will.
ing to secede from the Union. They fee
that the influence of the Christian ministry
is hindered. and their power to do good both
to master and slave crippled, by the constant
agitations Of abolitionism in our national
councils; and the incessant turmoil excited
by the unscriptural dogma that slavehelding
is sin.
TO BE CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT