Maryland free press., 1863-02-06

angry ana agltated STATE OF the county ioi
many years past, no Southern man in Gener-
| al Convention could have introduced such
subject, without exposing himself, among his
| people to the charge of furnishing political
capital to the abolitionists of the North; and
that no Northern man could have moved in the
matter without at cnce destroying his influence
for good, by provoking the suspicion that he
was in political sympathy with fhe fanatics of
his own section of the country. We also
knew, however, that in a Church assembly
composed wholly ofrersons from slavoholding
States, such considerations would prepondcr.
ate no longer: and therefore, in urging, months
| ago, the adoption of the Provincial System,
we gave as one strong ason for it that South
ern Dioceses meeting in Synod by them-
selres, would feel free to handle all such local
topics without danger of offence, and with
much greater effect upon the public mind than
could be exercised by the Diocesos separately.
Tho Pastoral Letter issued at this first
"GcneEal Council the Church in the South
ern Dioceses strikingly vindicates the correct
ness of our position on all these points in times
past. And; to those who have wondered
at our Church's conservatism hitherto, we
now present another aud an equal subject of
wonder. That same Church, which alone has
had the courage and strength to resist the spirit
of meddlesome fanaticism at the North; which
clone experienced no attempt at ecclesiastical
separation until it could be platsibly claimed
that political separation was already cohlpletei
that church which vas the. .slo!teSt and the last
of all religious bodies at the South in forming
any separate organization at ALI and which
alone, III fotmiug now organization, has no
words but of kindness and love in which to
bid farewell to the old: tbs same Church, we say,
at tie South, where ii is there Jusincss is the first
in that section of the country to proclaim the
great truths that 'the slaves of the South are
not merely so much property, but are sacred
trusts committed to us, as people, TO be pre-
pared for the oork ptich Gok may hare for them TO
do in tie .future''; that God expects the masters
to give to their slaves, that religious and moral
instruction which is to eicedte them in The scale Of
Bcihg''; that this must be, to laity and clergy,
"tGbor Of lope''; that slaves have right to
tose sacred relations tehici God has created, and
which man cannot, consistently with Chsistian
duty, aaRul'; that 'the separation Of parents
and children and of husbands and wives" are
"uncNristiGn .featUres' in their present system,
which must be "gotten rid off,; and that "Me
Church should lead the hssts Of the Lord in this
work ofjtistice and of mercy"
rns HFf not t ash2r{ea @ 9f the Tes9Fd maqs RE
South. The people of this tempest-tossed
land will at length begin to learn that the
conservatism the Church is not timc-serving
or Indifference, or cowardice but the highest,
and purest, and calmest, and wisest courage.
If this dark season of national discord and
trial teach nothing else, it will teach at least
is,--that in the midst of all convulsions, and
in spite of the madness of the people, the
Church of the Living God is the only spirit
ual Tower of fstr5ngth, the last hope OF Mod.
Grafton and Unity,-tle only impregnable
Stronghold of mutual Love.