The weekly pioneer and Democrat., 1861-02-15

WOreOIU lAuSC lucy uovS ~ ~F, SAs
other men besides them will claim the right
to speak-other interests will need to be con-
served besides the cause upon which they
assume that victory perches and
the smile of Heaven rests. "Let not him
who putteth on his armor boast as he that
putteth it OFF, SO .o -sna.p.le ~ |
When the thousands of working-men whose
subsistence depends upon our trade with the
South, many Of whom have been deluded by
Abolition demagogues, shall clamor in our
streets for bread, free labor may present
some problems which political economy has
not solved And when the commerce OF this
cosmopolitan city is paralyzed, and all her
and industrial institutions are
whitening in the heat of this unnatural con.
test it may become questi0n-nay, is it not
already whispered in your counting -houses?-l
whether this great metropolis can be sepera-
ted from the people with whom her interests
and her heart is bound up, and continue to
be controlled by legislative policy against
which she is continually protesting; or
whether following the great lights OF his |
tory, she will at all hazards, set up for her |
self, and, unbolting the gateway of her mag
nificent harbor, invite the free trade of the
world to pour its riches into her bosom,
Such are few of the problems which bring
the question of dissolution of the Union home
to us. ii we We're sure of peaceful sOlu-
ton, at whatever pecuniary or social sacri-
fees, we would not feel SO deeply nor speak
so earnestly. But who knows that it will be
peaceful? Where is the surgeon who can
sever even one member from this body polite
without the shedding of blood? Where is
the statesman or political economist who will
undertake to control the parties, or direct
the industrial interests of any one State,
amid the confusion and alarm of dissolution?
Let us not deceive ourselves. The chasm
before US is-a yawning abyss, into whose
depth no eye but Gods can penetrate.
Other men may cry "Who's afraid?' and
whistle to keep their courage up; but con
fess my fears. Through the curtain that is
about to rise, see shadows at which the
horrors of great darkness settles down
upon my spirit, and the hair Of my flesh
stand up. Oh, my country! have loved
thee with an affection passing the love Of
moman! The glories of thy history, mingled
with the life-blood of my childhood; thy
prosperity has been the pride and boast OF
my ripper years; and mingling in my heart
tine love of country with the love of Christ,
have cherished the hope that thy brightness
would never be diminished until it blended
with the glories of the millennial day; that
thy consummation would be like the setting
of the morning star.
(which goes not down
Behind the darkened West, nor hides obscured
Among the tempests of the sky, but melts away
Into the light Of heaven"
And must this precious hope be dispelled
Must this light 60 out: and the brightest
prospect the world ever beheld, disappear
amid confused noise, and garments rolled in
blood? Must the interests of thirty millions
of white men be sacrificed, and the sun Ol
- x;op ho f,,rp hoo tho dial nj
the worlds history, by fanaticism which all
experience proves to be the black mans
bitterest enemy? Let us appeal to the Goo
of peace. in whose hands are the hearts OF all
men, to dispel the fearful vision, to infuse
his loving Spirit into our national councils
to give our public men the meekneSS of wis
dom, and to bind the hearts of all the people
once more in bonds of brotherly kindness
But. if we would have these supplications
answered, let us prove our faith by OuI
works; take the beam out of our own eye
and obey the twofold precept of the text
..These things teach and exhOrt; and if any
man teach otherwise, from such withdraw
thyself. Z"
(a) Mr.. Blrnes adopts most extraordinary
method to avoid the force of the precept which
commands slaves who have believing masters
to ''do them service, because they are faithful
and beiored, pavt0kers Of the benefit" He says
''The passage before US Only proves that Pau
considered that man who was a Shareholder
might be converted, and be spoken of as a be.
lever or Christian. Many have been convert
ed in similar circumstances, as many have been
i'm the practice of all other kinds OF iniquity
WHAT was their duty after their conversion was
another question; and what was the duty OF
their servants or slaves, was another question
STILL"
Again he says: ''The passage does not teach
that q man can be Christian and continue to
hold others in bondage. 1t does nOt teach that
he ought to be considered as maintaining a
good standing in the church if he continues to
be stakeholder. The fact that q man might
be converted who was a STAKEHOLDER, no more
proves that it would be right and desirable that
he should continue that relation. than the fact
that Saul of Tarsus became Christian when
engaged in persecution proves that it would
have been right for him to continue in that
business, or than the conversion of the Ephe-
slams. who used curious arts proved that j,
would have been proper for them to continue
in that employment. Men who are doing
wrong, are converted in order to turn them
from that course of life, not to justify them in
it." Now, in view of these extracts, have
three remarks to make. Q.) They illustrate
the power of fanaticism to embitter the heart.
Mr.. Barnes well knew when he wrote these
passages, that multitudes of the noblest and
holiest men of this land have been, and are,
slavehOlders-that many of the founders of our
government, with Washington at their head,
were Shareholders that there are now in our
Southern States thousands of Charleston mas.
ters who give every scriptural evidence of pie
ty, and yet in a way that is all the more Sc
we're, because of its quiet and seemingly gentle
manner. he teaches that slaveholding is crime
on par with the impOsture of the Ephesian
sOrcerers, with the slaughter of Saul the per.
secutor, crime so obvious and enormous that
convert from heathenism, without any in-
9Dired instruction the Suhipcf a
and instinctively, abandoned it. (2) These
extracts illustrate most pitiably how fanati-
cism warps the human intellect. The inspired
Apostle commands that siaUes tcho haze 6eiiPp.
ing ma tiers (nOt masters tch0 might become be-
levers. as Mr.. Barnes with an amazing ingenu-
ity intimates, but beiieuing masters-masters
who dad been cOnverted) should do them serrice.
And why? Because they are faithful and be-
loved, partakers of the benefit" Because
these masters had been converted, were be-
their social duties, were partakers of the bene-
fits of Divine grace--THEREFORE, their slaves
were to be the more obedient and respected
for their department. Now does not any one
ance of the relation between the Christian mas.
ter and the slave? Would Paul so stutify him.
self rs to give commandments for the regula-
tiOn OF that relation, based upon the fact of the
masters conversion, if he had expected and
known this fact would instantly dissolve the
your parents in the Lord" does he not imply
that the parental relation is to be continued? /?
And 30 when, in the very same passage (Ephe-
SLAMS vi, l-5). he says, "servants (douioi.
slaves), be obedient to them that are your
masters according to the fesh," does he not
intimate, in the strongest form, that he ex-
poets that relation to cOntinue2
(3.) These passages cast an imputation upon
the integrity and candor of the great Apostle.
] do not say Mr.. Barnes meant such an imputa
ton; speak of the effect of such interpreta-