Year: 1859




Church, these grounds, demands its liberation,
demands the admission Of shareholders into the
Church by the right of possession in crime by the


principle of squatter sovereignty on the premises


of God passing into sacred, sanctifying custom


and being exalted into la~-theh the conscience


of the world must inevitably oppose and despise


the conscience Of the Church uGchristiar


conscence the moral sense of the world canno


do otherwise than reject such piety as unsound


and rotten, such professed godlness as an abom


nation, such orthodoxy and benevoence as hypoc


risy and lie.


The dealings and character Of the Church be-


come condemned and vile in the sight of the


world on tho points o. fcommonj justice and humanfj


Jettoeen man and man. aud, if the church were the


only hope of the worlds salvation in such case


If the worlds knowledge and reception Of true


piety depended on the Church, there would be nc


hope no possible redemption. The world will sci


the Word of God itself against the Church. and


the Church must become o scofing and by-word


Here is ,he alternatives either a total blank inf


deity, else the reception and belief of false


anti; Christian slaveholdiDg Christianity; either


the reception of the Word and rejection Of the


Church, or the rejection of the Word and recep-


ton of the Church. Either the Church is false, or
the Word is FALSE Which dilemma is to be adop-
ted Or will the world, unable to distinguish be-
tween the Church and the Word, reject both to-
gether? Such is the frghfui gulf which tho
practice Of any sin by the Church, though con'
demned in the Word of God opens before us.
Now, if there is any sin at all in Slavery, slave
holding is that sin. And if the system Of slave
holding is wrong, the STAKEHOLDER himself is the
sinner. There could be no such thing as Slavery,


if the STAKEHOLDER himself did not voluntarily hold
slaves. If he holds them not as slaves, but as
freemen. denying any mans right to them as
property, but only to protect them fiom being
held slaves, then he is not STAKEHOLDER. If,
in such a case, he is compelled, in order to keep
the power Of protecting them, to seem to be slave
holder, then, in order to avoid the appearance Of
evil and preserve The Church from seeming to
sanction the crime of slavehoding he ought to
be kept out of the Church. in order that saveho-
ding be not brought in and sanctioned.


The pretence of injustice toward q good man, in
keeping him ou. of the Church because Of his ems
taglement in this Sin, must be made shield for
the continuance Of the injustice of Slavery. 1t
might just as well be argued that murder is not
sin per Sc, because murder is simply the killing
of man ; but the sheriff also kills man when
he hangs the murderer, and therefore, murder can
not be indeed as n sin per SC since the sheriff
has to do murder as a Write. The Church may
not seem to do evil, and thus emboldcn others to
practice the evil and maintain it as right
Rather than embolden the world to practice Slave.
ry by letting them imagine, from the admission of
SlavehOlding to the Church that slavehodng is
not essentially sinful, but may consist with piety
and the will of God, let every stakeholder in ap-
pearance be kept out OF the Church, that the slave
holders in reality may not get in. Ten thousand
evil examples out Of the Church are not so bad as
one within. Hence the indignation, sarcasm
contempt against rum selling deacons.-I
Hence the very popular storm of rebuke against
the American Tract Society for its course In pro-
tecting the iniquity of Slavery. 1t is singular
contradiction when those who accuse the Tract
Society for covering up this Elm refuse to call upon
the American Board not to sanction it, or even de-
nounce as Abolition agitators, who ask the Board
to keep this 81 out of the Churches. The Amer
lean Board itself in 1896 passed q resolution for
bidug the missionaries to hire slaves even though
at the wish Of The slaves, and for the purchase of
their freedom, because this could not be done with
out incurring the reou:atIa OF slaveholdng
So careful the Board at that time of their
appeared to the Committee that in consequence
of these transactions the Board, or its missiona-
ries, have been regarded by some as holding
slaves, therefore resolved that the missionaries
among the Southwestern Indians be instructed
to enter into no more such contracts, and to reln-
quish all such contracts" This is certainly
the right principle. But if proper to be applied
to the hiring Of slaves how much more to the hold
ing of them by Church members how much more
to the exclusion of such Shareholders from the
Church? and if the imputation upon missionaries
themselves of being shareholders was so anxiously
to be avoided, why not also in tho case of Church
members Is it more sinful for missionary to
hold slaves than for any Church member2 Or
can the Board any more easily afford to wink at
Slavery in the Missionary Churches, than in the
Missionary household In either case it is such an
enormity that the Board ought not to De willing
for moment to incur the mputatiOn of it. The
Board ought to have placed themselves in absolute
and total opposition to this wickedness in any
shape. As Board OF Commissioners for the sal
Vation OF the African race, they might annually
have renewed their testimony against Slavery, and
heir demand for its abolition in various appropri-
'te and powerful modes. At sny rate they should
carefully have avoided sanctoning it oven in ap.
'earance. They have had it for 48 years directly
n their way, directly beneath their power, direct
calling Tor action against it. Under the sys-
EN- OF inac1ion and indifference, it has so main
aimed Its ground that at length NOT only the Ec-
esias"cai BODIES that maintain the system which
makes them the reproach Of Christendom stand
eady to receive and nourish the slaveholding
'ohcy and power of the United States, are waiting
receive Slave State. into the Union, from un-
Ter the favorable tuiti,n and moulding of the reg-
on of the Board for nearly fifty years Expert
nce shows that the only attack with the word of
iod against sin which cannot be eyaaed, is that