The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-01-05
s E r vi O N
PREACHED BY THE REV. Dr.. CuMhiINS,
RECTOR OF ST. PETERS CHURCH,
ALTIMORE,
ON THE 4TH JANUARY, 1861,
THE DAY OF NATIONAL HUMILIATION, FASTING AND
PRAYER.
THE AFRICAN A TRUST FROM GOD TO
THE AMERICAN

IT. will do for my servants sakes that ma
not destroy them a'' Isaiah lxv. s.
We are assembled to day in the house Of God under
circumstances most solemn and affecting to every Christ
ian heart and at period o: national history fraugh
with imminent peril The chief magistrate of great ma
ton has called its people keep this day holy by hum
ation fasting and prayer before God that His omnpotent
arm us from the awful effects of ourown crimes
and follies
II an nhabitant of other planet, distant
region Of the globe could be present among today
the first time he might ask with unfeigned surprise
arises the need of this soemnity and what the
the land, like eclipse of the MONDAY? Is some
foreign invader off the coasts of the land with an over
wheming force threatening burn your cities desoae
the country and subject it anew to TIE yoke of foreign
tyranny is the noisOme pestiience abroad on the
wings of the wind, making the whole land Baca or vale
OF weeping over Its ravages and have implore
God to arrest the destroying angel? Nay not these are
the pers from which We seek relief by prayer peni.
tence but evil which would gladly exchange for
the pes nee from God invasion from foreign foe
| Willingly would we accept David's choice when
God gave to him liberty to elect of three fearful modes
of Divine punishment, war; peStence famine and saw
with the King of Israel Le fall into the hand of the
Lord and not into the hands of man
Move should have to reply the visitor from some
other sphere are not trembling before the rapid ap
proach of foreign foe pestilence or famine but this
is peril people of this once happy and heaven
blessed land are no longer united people heart and
bro'hery love and generous sympathy but though OF
blood of one of language of one literature
of religion of inheritance past and
sing hope for the future inamed by sectional
hatred and jealousy be almost ready to plunge into
all the horrors of civil and nernecne war; having
found no hope of deliverance from men, from statesmen
turn the hearts of men TO peace and Cancellation and
US from anarchy and ruin.
As ambassador of Him whose birth was hailed bv
angels as bringing peace earth and good will towards
men, and whose sublime title is Prince of Peace - it is
my part today not only in solemn prayers and ltanis
but from the pulpit ITO labor for acct and single
word which might increase strife would be sadly out Of
place at such time and in such service Nor do de-
sign 10 utter one such word But there does 10 be
very special appropriateness in occupying this hour in
derlies the present crisis in national affairs
| conscientious obligations arising out of it,
1t cannot be denied by that the existence one
element in our national life, is that out of which has
arisen all troubiestha the presence our midst of
the African race, numbering now oneSxh of the popu-
atlon and for the most part in state Of involuntary
servitude is the cdsG c1enS which prejudice and pas
sion have fed upon until awaken to see a yawning
gulf OF destruction before US, from which only
nipotent Were it for the internix
ue of the two races, the Ango-American and the Af
the presence of two cviiz atoms We can scarcely
imagine serious danger arising to threaten
the perpetuity of this nation unless it Should spring
the vices following in the train orluyurv and
inflated pros per ity. But this country is divided geo
graphically between two sections marked by two diverse
and yet necessarily antagonistic social systems: ff
teen OF the thirty three States Of the conederacy being
States where African slavery is recognized and establish
ed by law.
Now the political aspect of the slavery question
do not propose to day to utter word It is the glory
of the Protestant Episcopal Church this land that her
ministers AID her bishops, her ecclesiastical councils
both State and national, have kept from inter
meddng with this vexed question. Though existing in
State of the conderacy from Maine Texas and
from the Atlantic to the Pacific her ministers with scarce
exception, have deemed subject not living within
their province to settle; and her
every section have met in general convention for rs
years. from the first session in New in 1855 under
the pariarchal Bishop White, the in Richmond in
1922 and IN all these not word this subject of
ona politics has been heard to interrupt the flow har
mony and brotherly love From this true position of
teacher of religion and guide in spiritual matters alone
it is not depart And if union of these
States must be shattered by the agitation this question
the future historian of these times shall not point to the
Episcopal Church having part of the rut
lying at her door.
shall therefore, not enter into discussion wb,tbor
tn
wel-being of State-whether certain conditions of eli
mate and soil and culture render it necessary or motor
whether the Constitution protects prohibits it in the
national territories. Upon all these questions | have
the right to form and held an opinion rs nrivate
citizen of the State and nation, but no right to bring
them into this holy place and promuIge them to you
But there moral and religious phase the question
of African slavery, it exists among which is strictly
within my province to discuss. And it is this aspect of
the subject which has reached such a complexion that
every conscientious Christian living where domestic
slavery exists is called upon to the light of his
duty to God for his position towards it, and his response
bilities arising out of it.
For thirty years past persistent unwearied and Gu
muative effort has been made train the mind of one
great section of country and that largest and
strongest to regard slavery and avehoding all
circumstances as moral arrOng, wrong against God
and man, a violation of His will and word and crime
against humanity and of course sin which excludes all
who have part in it from the kingdom of grace here t
kingdom OF heaven hereafter BY the press secular and
religious, by books and without number by the
writings of novelsts by the teachings school and coll
ege, by denuncations from the pulpit and lecture room
by itatons in ecclesiastical conferences synods and
sembiies, by all these agencies multiplied thousand
fold and repeated through the lifetime of generation
the result has been reached; and majority of the c
zens of one great section Of the country where slave
holding does not exist have been brought the convic
ton that their bretheren of the other section are q
in this thing of crime against their fellow men and
sin against their God This deep feeling has extended
into other lands where rather we mioht say II had ito
origin and Protestant England and Scotland Catholic
France and Ireland have united in our condemnation
Turning our gaze to that section our land visited
with such severe condemnation what do we behodp
moral waste? barren wilderness as to its religious
character? Communities given over to the powers of
nj ant Of hpl,, I;,i4
blackness? Nay the Church Christ existing in all its
integrity and funess of spiritual life-poweri and m
merous churches ministers OF Christ quarter
and numbered by thousands; communicates the affairs
of the churches numbered by hundreds of thousands
holy men and women of faith and prayer proving the re-
atty of religion in lives consecated to selfsacrce and
self denying Christian TOLL type of pety unsurpassed
for excellence and simpic and purity in any
ton of the globe agencies for
dusng the gospel throughout the world among the
spiritually destitute at home missionary societies send
ing forth evangests to India and China and Burmah
and Africa phanthropic soc ties minsterng to the
poor the sick and the prisoner; Howard associations
less distinguished for daring amidst the pest
than the famous Foentine Brothers of Mercy the
Gospel preached faithfully proclaimed by St
Paul. by Chris true and fai hful servants souls daily
converted and added to the church, revyals of religion
the fruit of the Holy spirit making the Gospel the power
OF God unto salvation; learned Divines devotng their
lives to the study OF the sacred Scriptures public teach
ers of morals in schools and colleges; semnaries for
training youth for the Gospel ministry-in word Gods
people acknowledging His word their guide claiming
His holy spirit as their teacher owning Christ
model and great eXemplar.
can speak especially for the church Of which
humble minister that in this section where do
nestle slavery exists, there welnigh fifty thousand
COMMITMENTS served by nearly hundred cergymen
and presided by sixteen bishops many of whom
would have adorned the Church Of Christ in aDy age
And if for al these, yet surely may not presumpu
ousy claim to speak to-day for the thousand commu
nicans of the Protestant Epscopll Churc in me ST.
OF Maryan True indeed not all of these are themselves
holders of slaves, but all included in like cIndenl
nation il be just one, since to live surrounded by
great and fragrant moral wrong and to be witness
against 1t and to labor for its removal sharer in
its guilt
Wba ,ba
ians OF the South towards this great question? venture to
to express the opinion that the time come to let all
christendom know what that posture is-what answer
they have to make at the bar of God when charged with
uphodlng system of iniquity. would speak then To-
day IN behalf OF the Christian whose lot has been
amd5a social system where slavery is of its marked
features speak not only for the Christian Shareholder
Tor am not one of the number, but also that large
cass VINO nave neen born and reared under its influence"
Let me state the Of these: He is born into
lie IN Southern cline and in Southern home and al
most the hrSt faces with which he becomes familiar are
the dark faces of another the one which ave
him birth The first guardian and nurse of his infancy is
African; the earliest paymates his Childhood
the children of this race; he grows to manhood sur
rounded by their faces now become familiar, and
Now he comprehends their position that thew are in
state OF servude to the superior that they are the
descendants of heathens and savaCes who were bopb
from their distant homes in Africa perhaps an hundred
years ago Soon he finds that he take upon him the
personal responsibility of being the master of such ana
while receiving the benefit of their labor provide for
Their well-being, and the welbeing of their children
Seeking honestly to comprehend all the duties and re-
VI MS re'dtlon, ne sets himself
all the truth concerning it, And the very first step he
reaches is too patent be overlooked by any, and
that is this
l. That he is not responsible for the presence of this race
around hun, nor tort condition Of SeruIde Nor was
his father responsible both received IL az
an anher'tance, whether for good evil still an inner
ltance he cannot decline, burden he cannot shrink
from He tries to trace back this institution to its source
but finds 1t coeva with the existence the nation and
at at the time OF the formation of the confederacy slave
ry existed in all the thirteen States of the Union Thus
ne mas IL to have been beques from the mother coun-
Try, GREAT Britain; and looking into its history there he
traces Its existence to the very earliest periods Of Saxon
history; and still extending and widening his view he
perceves tpervading all the great historic nations It.
ay Greece the Eastern kingdom the chosen people
Goa, even up 10 the the
antiquity of slavery would itself satisfy his mind
his duty towards it, itself justify it. for
error aud wrong may be hoary with age well truth
and right - ~
II. Another step then is to ascertain Gods acU
concerning 1t, and Christians tolcards the race in
bondage in the light of the teachings ofhe Word of God
The entire argument concerning the teaching
to the moral and religious phase slavery is one which
might fill volume far better than a page Of sermon;
and we must be content only mention its leading
points.
l. The first of these is the attitude which our Blessed
Lord maintained during His earthly ministry to-
wards slavery and Shareholders When our Saviour ap-
peared on the EARTH domestic servude existed by law
throughout the entire Roman Empire, from Britain to
fartia, anu no part OF the dominion O |
Casars was exempt from it. Slaves were acquired by
war, by commerce, by inheritance even freeborn
Romans could be seduced slavery by the operation of
law. In the population of Italy, under Augustus there
were three slaves to every free The Romans who
were masters of Judea transported their thther
as an indispensable part of their domestic arrangement
The Divine Redeemer His missions of mercy, could
not fail to be brought into with the system
i NJ ind F. 4 =