The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-06-11
The Old School Presbyterian AS
sembly--Df. Thomas and Df.

The Old SCHO0 Prc8DyteEtHhli as
sembly--Dr. Thomas and Df'
BroOkes. $50 jw bua.1 ld n1Jd
"would describe preacher such rs PAul .q
Were he on earth, would hear approve and ovn
Paul should himself direct me; N9nia KY ~ tfase
would express him simple, grave, sincere: N'i
dPectOndts fn kuok IH.''
And keader IN address as well becomes t.i moli
A messenger OF grace TO guilty mem '.f. %.
- 70 --1 -7|-lf CowPERy
The Old School Presbyterian Church OF
this country, until the beginning of the
civil war which 80 recently ragged among
us, was noted among all the religious de-
nominations of the land, for its conserya-
tism. The General Assembly of 1915 being
asked to pronounce that the relation of mas
ter and slave was sinful, positively refused
TO do so saying in substance. that in their
Judgment no sensible Christian man, with
the Bible before him, could possibly assert
any such thing. And upon the question Of
sembly composed of near two hundred
ministers and elders, from all parts of the
country. there were only thirteen found to
record their votes against it!
The Abolitionists in the Church, headed
by Doctors THOMAS and McMAsTER, matle
frequent efforts, in subsequent Assemblies,
to secure the resembling of this deliverance,
but always in vain, until the war-fiend had
taken possession ofthe people and led them,
blinded, from the path of truth. In 1854
the General Assembly in the name of pa
triotfsm-which they seemed to forget,
though 1t be the duty Of the citizen, is not
even mentioned in the word Of God rs a
Christian virtue--turned their backs upon
the deliyerances of former venerable As
semblles upon the subject, and adopting,
not only the spirit but the cant of the Abo-
litionists, declared slavery an ''evil,"
guilt 'sin," the ''root of rebellion,
bloodshed, and the cause of a long list of
horrors" ..fi .I...sU -ri
And this was not all. Under the same
evil influences and following the same fa-
natical leaders, in the very face of the let
ter, as well as the spirit of that section of
the Constitution of the Church--the Con-
fession of Faith-which declares that ec-
clesiastical bodies are to 'handle and con-
clnde nothing but what is ecclesiastical, and
are not to intermeddle with civil affairs
which concern the Commonw ealth," the
assemblies of 81, '62 '63 and e5, in the Ian
guage of the venerable DIR. HODGE of
Princeton, n. j., did Sdecide the great po-
litlcal question which agitated and divided
the country" ...f,u ".gbaI..
The war was founded upon question of
constitutional construction, viz: Has a
State right to secede These assemblies
rushed into the domain of the statesman
and the lawyer, and with infinite presump-
tion and folly, declared that State in this
Union possesses no such right. We don't
assert that it has but simply say that these
Assemblies were not competent to decide
that question, and even If they had been, it
was not their business to do so. t..
Against these and similar acts of pre-
sumption and self-stultiflcation, the Louis
Vile Presbytery, with virtuous indi 9nation,
and in the exercise of their indisputable
right, solemnly misunderstanding that
they could not and would not obey the
orders of the Assembly upon the subject OF
loyalty and slavery, and would withhold
their contributions from the Education and
Publication Boards of the Church until they
should cease to disseminate these false prin-
ciples. Thus stood the question at the
beginning of the session of the Assembly OF
1866. Ofthe action which has just been
taken, we presume our readers are informed.
Acting under the influence of the fiery
passions excited by the war, which year
of peace seems not to have allayed or miti-
gated and under the instigation, as we
believe, OF that bad old man RoBT. j
BRRCKiNRIDoR, of Kentucky, the delegates
of the Louisville Presbytery were sum
marily and ignominiously excluded from
the Assembly, without even hearing the
offenses mentioned for which they were
thus punished. eve will have no dis
eussions of this natter" said the leaders oi
the arrogant majority. f'We are four to
one, and we have made up our minds"
There is abundant material for sad rehec-
tion in this bit of current history, for such
facts are among those things that the stu,
dent Of human nature and the Statesman
must receive as stubborn arguments against
the doctrines Of the perfectibility of oul
race, and the capacity of men for self-goy-
ernment. i'
terest in this matter, because three Of the
most prominent names In the Assembly
were those Of the present pastor Of the First
Presbyterian Church of this city DR.
THOMAS, aud his immediate predecessors.
Drs. BRookEs and GURLEY. The latter
OentIa,nan' exhfhifhd the stock of Christian