iiii i rv^ y^%'^'.'\^^^^% "'^S^^' j^\. ^-y^W<*^'^ ^^ - * ''ok ^y *^ * • • o A° < .4."^ *: o > <> *'7V. * I' :U" ^ ■1 o^ X .^ "^^^' t 'n^' .^ ^1 'I .4y <>» • ^^^' OUK COUNT RYS SIN S £ K M N PREACHED TO THE MEMBERS AND FAMILIES OP THE NESTORIAN MISSION, AT OROOMIAH, PERSIA, JULY 8, 1868. BY REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D. D., MISSIONARY OF THE A. B. C. P. M. NEW-YORK: H. 13. KNIGHT, 4 8 B E E K M A if STREET. 1854. John A. Gray, Printer, 95 and 97 Cliff Street. OTJK COUNTRY'S SIN SERMON PREACHED TO THE MEMBERS AJSD FAMILIES OP THE NESTORIAN MISSION, okoo:miah, peesia, JULY 3, 1853. BY REV. JUSTIN PERKINS, D.D., illSSIOXAKT OP THE A. B. C. F. M. NEW-YORK: H. E. KXIGHT, 48 BEEKMAN STREET. 18 5 4. TO THE KEY. LEONAKD BACON, D.D., A FEIKND OF THE MISSION AUT, AND A FKIEND OF THE SLAVE. THIS SERMON IS EESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED AUTHOR. IN aXCHANGB SERMON. JOHN T:48. HAVE ANY OP THE KULEKS OK OF TDK I'UARISEF.S BELIBTED ON HIM? The rulers and the Pharisees were the repositories of influence among the Jews, at the time of our Saviour's sojourn among men. The former had attained this eminence by means of the civil authority which, in the low state of the national morals, they wielded far more for purposes of oppression and personal aggrandizement than to protect injured justice and promote the public weal; while the influence of the latter had been secuied through their arrogated sanctity, more hypocritical than real, by working on the popular reverence, superstition, or fears, in connection with the corrupt priesthood, who were never- slow to cooperate with them in arts of imposition and religious despotism. Still theirs was a dominard infiuencc, however unworthily acquired and exerted ; and as is the case in better lands and better times, it ex- ercised a controlling and unquestioned sway, where it ought to have been rigidly canvassed, judged, and condemned. The interrogatory of our text was addressed by some of those con- ceited and self-constituted arbiters of opinion at that time, to the officers of the chief priests and Pharisees, who had been dispatched to appre- hend the Saviour. On hearing him speak "as never man spake," those officers were convinced of the truth in their own consciences, which were less seared, and in their understandings, which were less warped, than those of their employers ; and they had returned without the hunted victim. And the Pharisees said, " Why have ye not brought hi m V The oflicers answered, " Never man spake like this man." Then an- swered them t,he Pharisees, " Are ye also deceived ? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him ? But this people who knoweth not the law, are cursed." 1. It is obvious to remark, from the case before us, that the sway of influence, exercised by those in power and rank, is mighty. With what OUR COUNTRY S SIN. complacent assurance is the interrogatory in our text propounded : " Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees beheved on him V As if this were the end of all strife on the subject — paramount to argu- ment — ignoring fact — and even setting aside miracles. And we marvel at the noble independence of the high-minded Nicodemus, who rose so far above the servility of his age, and the tyranny of his sect, as to inter- pose for poor suffering common honesty and common sense, in this con- nection. " Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) [that is, one of the Pharisees,] Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth ? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee ? Search and look ; for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Fortunately for the world, there have always been here and there in- dividuals, who have stood out as exceptions in the dominant ones of their sect and their time, rising above the power of human influence, and asserting the higher claims of truth and right, in spite of the frowns and rebukes of rank and station. Honored be the name of Nicodemus for daring thus to interpose, though the influence of his sect was so overpowering that he must needs go to Jesus by night, for fear of the Jews. 2. It is obvious, to remark further, that the sway of influence may be as blind as it is powerful. In the instance we are contemplating, on what giound did the influence rest ? Simply on the ringing and reiter- ation of names and titles. " Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him ?" In ftict, the power of its sway is often much in pro- portion to its blifidness. How long in that case, and, we may say, in most similar cases, would it have stood before the light of careful and candid examination ? Even the single pertinent inquiry of the inde- pendent Nicodemus, " Doth the law judge any man before it hear him ?" etc., seems to have impressed his gainsayers with such a consciousness of the weakness of their power, so fav as argument is concerned, that it soon silenced them ; for it is forthwith recorded of them, that " every man went unto his own house." 3. It is further obvious to remark, in view of the case we are con- templating, that the sway of influence may be as tyrannical as it is blind and powerful. What could have been more overbearing, despotic, and vindictive, than the language of those haughty Pharisees, to the ofiScers who had honestly forborne to arrest the Saviour ! " Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees, believed on him V Just as if thej/, and their sect, had the right to arrogate to themselves the province of thought and opinion, and deprive all others of that high prerogative, given by God to every human being ! And then, by a transition as na- tural as it is rapid, they pass from their lofty assumption to its not unsuita- MR. PEEKIN3 SERMON. 5 ble concomitant — anathema — as its most appropriate suj)poi't. " This people, who knoweth not the law, is accursed." Was ever tyranny- more monstrously glai'ing than this tyranny of influence ? As matter of fact, how much better did those unread officers — and it mav be, the mass of the Jewish peasants of that period, appreciate the high chiinis of God's law, than their selfish, despotic, hypocritical rulers, sciibes and Pharisees I 4. It is obvious, to remark further, in view of the case before iis, that the sway of human influence is very liable to be tvielded against truth and righteousness. In this instance, it was directed against the best of beings, and the holiest of causes. The blessed Saviour himself was the doomed victim it murderously pursued ; and his kingdom of hght, mercy, truth, and salvation, was the cause it would crush and smother at its dawn. And this kingdom, from that day to the present, has ever found its most deadly antagonists among the rulers and the Pharisees — who have not believed on him, or whose influence, if they have be- lieved, has been so leavened with the love of the world, that it Lad been far better for that cause to have simply leaned on Jesus' bosom, a perse- cuted outcast in the world, than to have been rocked and caressed by such doubtful friends, from the royal cradle of Constantine downward. Verily, the kingdom of Christ "is not of this world." If such may be the character of the sway of human influence, it is clear that the Christian has great reason to suspect it, and to beware how he implicitly follows it in principle and in practice. In view of its his- tory in past ages, whether under a Jewish or a Christian dispensation, he has much reason in any given case, to suspect it, d priori, as erring and evil. Shall then the believer repudiate the influence of his time, or the ex- ample of preceding ages, and set up for himself — adopting his own standards of principle and of morals — rendering himself singular — turning radical — in tbe common Qii\m.i\iio\\, ruyming mad — and con- tributing to turn the world upside down ? I reply, that he should not do this unnecessarily. There is no merit in courting singularity for its own sake. No good will result from a reckless disregard of the opinions and feelings of maiikind — certainly, so far as they are right, or barm- less. But the Christian has a more sure word of prophecy to adupt and to follow, than human influence, whereunto he doeth Avell to take heed. The woKD and the testimony are his only lawful oracle, on all subjects and at all times. From this oracle he can never swerve with a good conscience or with safety, whithersoever it may point him, though the rulers, and the Pharisees, and the chief priests, of the whole world frown upon him ; though he find himself, like Daniel, a solitary wor- shiper of the God of heaven ; and though his daring to be singular in 6 OUK. COUNTRY S SIN. this, threaten to cast him into a den of lions, I repeat, the Christian has the revealed word of God as his unerring standard of principle, of duty, and of action ; and not man nor angel has the power to absolve him from a strict and habitual allegiance to that standard. The Christ- ian who adheres to that standard will be very likely often to part com- pany with the rulers and the Pharisees, as his divine Master did before him ; and he may always justly suspect that company, at least rigidly canvass it, whenever it is tendered for his acceptance. We would gladly feel compelled to look back to the corrupt Jews who lived eighteen centuries ago, or to distant ends of the earth, to the furthest possible remove from ourselves and our beloved native land, at this day, for practical illustration of the mighty, the blind, the tyrannical and the misdirected sway of human influence. But, alas, the middle of the nineteenth century is the period, and the dear land of our fathers is the theater, when and where this subject is exhibited in a manner as aft'ecting — nay, as appalling, as has perhaps bean the case, since Jesus was thus hunted by the rulers and Pharisees who believed not on him, and who wielded the power of their influence to prevent others from believing on him. And at this hallowed hour, on this sacred day preceding our nation's birth-day, when the din of its joyous celebration, not unmingled with the clank of the sable captive's chain, is ready to burst forth, hardly able to Avait the waning watches of holy time, proudly. to echo and reverberate from ocean to ocean, — I trust it will not be deemed inappropiiate that we, in our distant missionary exile, direct a thought to that land far away, and that we drop a tear over its guilt and its danger, and lift to heaven our feeble prayer for its salvation, as well as thank God for all that his distinguishing favor and blessing have made it and done for it. We need make few protestations of our Christian and filial patriotism. No Ameiican heart throbs more warmly and tenderly than the mis- sionary's, with the love of his native country. His honest language in regard to it habitually is, " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; if I prefer not Jerusalem above nay chief j-y." The very ardor, sinceiity, and depth of our love of country, however, should, and they doubtless do, lead us as heartily to deplore its sins, as gratefully to glory in its superiority over all other lands. You have anticipated the brief reference I would make, in this con- nection, to our country's sin and our country's shame, American Slavery. On a subject so familiar to us all, I shall attempt to say nothing new ; but as the season suggests the theme, and none can doubt that it claims our deep concern, our fervent prayers, and it may be, our feeble eftbrts, I may be allowed to allude to a few points in regard to the subject, MR. PERKINS SERMON. / which may stir up our minds, by way of remembrance, though they be things already quite familiar to us. I hold, among others, the following theses, on the subject of American slavery, which if I do not now establish, it is not for the want of ample proofs at hand, but because their truth is too evident to the minds of those before me, to require argumentation. I. / hold that American slaver^/ is the crowning abomination of the present age. A "stupendous wrong" was the mildest term by which the "Albany Convention," one of the largest, most intelligent, and most estimable convocations of clergymen and Christian brethren ever assembled in America, could designate this evil, last fall ; and hardly less emphatic and condemnatory were the epithets applied to the system by the Gene- ral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, convened in Charleston, South Carolina, nearly thirty years ago,* before the raising of cotton had be- come so lucrative, and the system so commercially and politically in- volved, and when its enormities were more courageously looked in the face, more frankly acknowledged and more faithfully reprobated, by that great, excellent, and influential church, than is done at this day. This is good testimony ; but the palpable facts, on this subject, must them- selves carry conviction to any unprejudiced mind that contemplates them for a moment. Think of the most enlightened, the most free, and the most favored nation under heaven, — and in some respects the most religious and the most benevolent people on the face of the earth, holding more than three millions of their fellow men in . iron bondage — a bondage that reduces man to a chattel — annuls the marriage relation, and brings in its train the innumerable miseries, suffer- ings, and sins which these two conditions of it (to mention no others) involve and must readily suggest to our minds; — and all this, in the face of the political axiom, blazing up at the threshold of our national Constitution, that " all men are created equal," to say nothing of the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, " love thy neighbor as thyself," which a Christian people is of course bound to follow, in its legislation and its practice. II. I hold that American slavery is the greatest human obstacle to the spread and triumph of Christianity that exists at the present period. This would naturally follow from the preceding position, the crowning abomination of the age being, almost as matter of course, the mightiest hindrance to the spread of the Gospel. But it will be more clearly apprehended as such, by a moment's reflection. The system itself begins by denying the Gospel to three millions of souls for whom Christ died. * Sec Appendix. OUR COUNTRY S SIN. 1 am aware tliat it may be urged, that many of these souls receive the Gospel, and embrace it, in their bondage; and I gratefully admit the fact ; but we must have in mind, that this is not owing to the merits of that system, — but is in spite of it. The holy and heavenly influences of Christianity rally around many a poor African, and, like the good Samaritan, pour oil and wine into his bleeding wounds to some extent, even under the frowns, the maledictions, and often the flagellations of " men-stealers " who have stripped and wounded him. The Christian and self-sacrificing efforts of some pious masters, in circumstances so embajrrassing, are above all praise, but no justification of the system. But it is not three millions of slaves alone that are, as a mass, virtually deprived of the kindly influences of the Gospel, by American slavery. Think of the depressing, the paralyzing, and the petrifying effects of the system on the hearts of masters and overseers, and of the degrading inffuence of it on the entire Southern population ; nay, rather on the population of our whole country ; for it is obvious to observe, that an American, even a Northern abolitionist, has a modified abhorrence of slavery, compared with that of an Englishman, less familiar with the debasing relation in any form, and untrammeled on the subject by con- flict with his patriotism. And can this appalling national degradation, hampering the ministry and the religious press, and thus turning the edge of the sword of the Spirit, can it thus exist^ and not j^rove a mighty hindrance to the progress of the Gospel at home ? Is not our entire country — the whole American church, in a sickly, morbid moral state, certainly on that subject, and more or less so on others? Are not even the free portions of it in a condition analogous to that of the criminal Roman soldier, doomed to carry the corpse of his executed comrade bound upon his back, till he too was often overpowered, and fell under the rotting carcass ? Nowhere in the wide world, probably, has mammon, for instance, a stronger sway at this hour than in America. Nor is it strange, among men, or in proximity to them, who can in the light of the present period reckon human blood and sinews as chattels, and eagei'ly amass wealth by the sweat, the tears, and the groans of their fellow men in bondage. But Americans, no more than Jews and heathens, can worship God and mammon. But the influence of American slavery is not felt alone in our own country. It is a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men — and a most mortifying spectacle. That land which, from its ennobling his. tory and exalted privileges, should be the glory of all lands, emphatically ImmauueVs land, a mountain of holiness and a habitation of righteous- ■ness, whose light should blaze upward and onward unobstiucted — a moral sun — melting the chains of oppression and despotism, and dis- MR. PERKINS SERMON. 9 persing- the darkness and death-shade of every false religions system the wide world around, really stands forth, presenting the puzzling — the appalling anomaly, of pure Protestant Ciiristianity, republican freedom, unexamjiled general |)rospei'ity and progress, and iron servitude, com- bined more monstrously than the discordant sections of Nebucha-luezzar's prophetic image, confoundiog and astounding the gazing nations, who would look to America for a hope of deliverance I Have we not reason to fear, that our country thus does as much to hinder, as to advance, the progress of the Gospel beyond its own borders ? Think too of the schisms and the alienations among Christians which American slavery creates, in our own country, and throughout Protestant Christendom. How much stronger is the bond of connection, which the supporters of that dark system find in it, with each other, both within and without the Church, than many professing Christians, in difl'erent sections of our country, and of different views on this subject, in the same section*;, tind practically in their relation to a common Saviour! And then, beyond the ocean, who of us can be ignorant of the fact, that both in England and in Germany, and other Protestant States of the Continent, the best Cliristians find it difficult to extend to the Ame- rican churches the right hand of fellowship, and to cooperate with them against a common enemy, feeling compelled, and not without some rea- son, to regard them as all involved, directly or indirectly, in the sin of slavery ? How lamentably are the forces of Protestantism thus weakened, and its glory obscured !. And how can the Church of Christ, thus divided thus warned, shine forth in her strength, clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners ? I have sometimes said to the Nestorians, that Popery — Anti-christ — is the greatest obstacle now existing to the progress of the Gospel. But I apprehend that American slavery, in all its bearings^ may be even a greater obstacle. II r. I hold that Northern influence — and primarihj the influence of Northern Christians, is the strongest and the most responsible supiiort of Ameri'on slavery, at this time. This, I am aware, is a serious charge. But those familiar with the facts on the subject, can hardly doubt that it has foundation. The Church is set as the light of the world, and if its light be darkness, how great is that darlerio'l. I would ask no one to be a more hearty abolitionist than was this great and good man, in bis retiring, modest, vc-t decided way, for the last iBirty years ; and I would not dare to be a leas symjjathizing friend of the suffering African. The Lord increase the number of such martvr '■p rits in America, and especially at the North, where rests such fearful re- sponsibility, £ir more easily disdiarged than at the South, for the re- moval of slavery ! IV. I hold that our beloved native country is in moit imminent perU, from the fearful vjitera of American ilatery. of falUny into deep na- tional disgrace, of calling doven tipcn itself the ngnal judgments of heaven, and tfius of blighting, for a long period, the fairest and the highest loupes of a suffering world. If the positions which I have already asserted are tenable, of which I think there can be little reasonable doubt, this follows as matter of course. The majority of good people in America, even at the Xorth, are strangely apatheiic or strongly sympathetic on the subject of slavery, and, I fear, more and more so each successive year. And the power and tendency of the system, thus to blind and warp the judgment asd the ecaisdences of good men, more strikingly than any thing else, reved its intrinsic subtle wickedness and its wholesale desolating influence The wakeful, thoroughly determined opposers of the "stupendous wroE?." in our country, are comparatively but a handful. The system is confessedly an evil of enormous magnitude, and its removal a moet difficult problem, under any circumstances. Add then to the greatness of the evU, and the difficulty cf its removal, the general apathy on the subject, on the part of those who are the greatest sufferers from it, (except the poor slaves them&elves.) who are in most danger of being over- whelmed by it, and with whom, humanly speaking, rests the power of its abolition, and how fearfully imminent is this peril ! C : " ■ / rican people, amid their juir * • - - --e the :_ _ r gallant sL'p, coursing pro'- Itesly into the Niagara river, under pressed sail — friendlv hand or call from either i?Lore, enveloped ij _ - - .1 14r 2I!H L - irLAI J i Xa S^'. - - - .:t ^^_ __ 'T5 ifiie- nsdi^ss marmssi iahTK f -.,, ,_ ..^j. aa. 4mi4 T _- .-~ :_ "iioneJL 1 - a. csrmuL sw; ia its B^irt&aiica l-.r- :L-r J- - - ii lifi: pHSSss Gif lie ~ " " -jjts^ pHiKioiLttL iiir rjiinszy. \i& _^ _=± _ _ aransEas — ami ';i.ir jar it.. ^ ^ — -a 2ssL ^t^'Mt ]}iiaifmifi. 3ir Ae aanroifi: BeasHL tScst - - - 15 ail. r. nav laciraihr scb~. wiiac pracueal a-earfn^ ias niia ain;'- . „ .. Jicmtarans. wiiii is fbnsesi miBScaifflnies ? W* ail ^ -.J .-•- i^rmmadca if aiaverv, iac ^aac •i2IL?bb ia jQ IiaffijaLitSrdowii- 5^.- _ iCi;^^. "V- ir lift e- 3K-TMcrrn2- 16 OUR COUNTKY's SIM. wrong," — or cease to pray and labor for their removal. We surely can not forg-et, in our missionary toils, our trials, our sufterings, our self- denials, and our prayers, in this benighted land, that this whole Xestorian people is more than thirty times outnumbered by the number of im- mortal souls, in the heart of our dear native country, groaning under the rigoi-s of an iron bondage, and many of them in a far worse condition than those for whose salvation we thus pray and labor. Our charity, our sympathy, and our prayers, may and should begin at home, though they stay not there, but go forth and embrace the world. " Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him ? " No, blessed Jesus, with few exceptions of here and there a noble Nicodemus ! Thou art still despised and rejected of men. To the poor the Gospel is preached. " For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh — not many mighty, not many noble, are called ; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to con- found the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to conf jund the mighty ; and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." Here, poor, sufteriug, bleeding African, is thy charter and thy hop*! We do glory, but it is in Christ, and in this precious, provision of his Gospel. We would not look to the great, nor the privileged, as guides for our principles or our practice. We would go to the Bible and to Calvary. We hold that a prophet has come out of Galilee. We would make him our prophet, our priest, and our king. We would implicitly fol- low, trust, and obey him, and recommend him to others as the only Saviour of a lost world. And if the '' stupendoiis wrong," which we have now so hastily contemplated, be ever removed from our dear, dear native land, it will be by the power of the cross of Christ — by the energy of his word, taithfully proclaimed in the ears of men, and set home by his Spirit shed forth in their hearts, convincing them, that to hold their fellow immortals in bondage, or to sanction, or abet, or connive at that practice, is a heaven-provoking sin. Just this grand object would we, in our very humble measure, advance, for the well-being of our loved country, and the salvation of myriads of souls, as precious as our own. Let us to-day seek to approach that mighty, that compassionate, that suffering Saviour, in a becoming spirit — in love, in tenderness, in hu- mility, and in penitence. If the subject of our meditations is unusual here on the Sabbath, and especially at our communion seasons, I trust it will not be deemed misplaced — particularly, coming as it does, in proximity with an annivei-sary so deeply interesting to every American, and not the least so, certainly, to everv American missionary. With us the subject cea-e repeat that we tenderly sympathize. At the same time we earnestly exhort them to continue, and, if possible, to in- crease then- exertions to effect a total aljolition of slavery. We exhort them to suffer no greater delay to take place in this most interesting concern, than a regard to the public welfare truly and imUspensally demands. "As our country has inflicted a most grievous injury on the unhappy Afri- cans, by bringing them into slavery, we can not, indeed, urge that we should add a second injury to the first, by emancipating them in such a manner as that they will be likely to destroy themselves or others.* But we do think, that our country ought to be governed, in this matter, by no other consideration than an honest and impartial regard to the happiness of the injured party ; unin- fluenced by the expense or inconvenience which such a regard may in^•olve. * In this false pnnciple of pcnnitling the continued existence of an acknowledged moral oril, wu Bee the cause of the downward coiiKe of the Presbyterian Church, on this subject. — \^EdUor o/t/ic Xeic-yor/c EdUiun.l ■■&. 20 APPENDIX. We therefore warn all who belong to our denomination of Christians, against unduly extending this plea of necessity ; against making it a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or a pretense for not using efforts that are lawful and practicable to extinguish the evil. "And u'e at Vie same time exIioH others to forbear harsh censures and un- charitable reflections on their brethren, who unhappily live among slaves whom they can not immediately set free ; but who, at the same time, are really using all their influence and all their endeavors to bring them into a state of free- dom, as soon as a door for it can be safely opened. " Having thus expressed our views of slavery, and of the duty indispensably incumbent on all Christians to labor for its complete extinction, we proceed to recommend — and we do it with all the earnestness and solemnity which this momentous subject demands — a particular attention to the following points. " We recommend to all our people to patronize and encourage the Society, lately formed, for colonizing in Africa, the land of their ancestors, the free people of color in our country. We hope that much good may result from the plans and efforts of this Society. And while we exceedingly rejoice to have witnessed its origin and organization among the holders of slaves, as giving an unequivocal pledge of their desire to deliver themselves and their country from the calamity of slavery ; we hope that those portions of the American Union, whose inhabi- tants are, by a gracious Providence, more favorably circumstanced, will cordi- ally, and liberally, and earnestly co6j)erate with their brethren in bringing about the great end contemplated.* " We recommend to all the members of our religious denomination, not only to permit, but to facilitate and encourage the instruction of their slaves, in the principles and duties of the Christian religion, by granting them liberty to attend on the preaching of the Gospel when they have the opportunity ; by favoring the instruction of them in Sabbath-schools, wherever those schools can be formed ; and by giving them all other proper advantages for acquiring the knowledge of their duty both to God and man. AVe are perfectly satisfied, that as it is incumbent on all Christians to communicate religious instruction to those who are under their authority, so the doing of this in the case before us, so far from operating, as some have apprehended that it might, as an excitement to insub- ordination and insurrection, would, on the contrary, operate as the most power- ful means for the prevention of those evils. "We enjoin it on all Church Sessions and Presbyteries, under the cai'e of this Assembly, to discountenance, and, as far as possible, to prevent, all cruelty of whatever kind in the treatment of slaves ; especially the cruelty of separating husband and wife, parents and children ; and that which consists in selling slaves to those who will either themselves deprive these unhappy people of the blessings of the Gospel, or who will transport them to places where the Gospel is not proclaimed, or.where it is forbidden to slaves to attend upon its institutions. The manifest violation or disregard of the injunction here given, in its true spirit and intention, ought to be considered as just ground for the discipline and * Tliis expression of the Assembly's views was made in 181S, before the characteristic aims of the Colonization Society were generally understood, and when it was believed, by most minister?, that its iulluence would be against slavery. Developments have since been made which show thai this was a great mistake, and that its tendencies are in support of slavery. — See -writings of Hon. "Wm. Jay. Also Stebbins on Colonization. — lEditor of ike KeiB-York, Edition.l APPENDIX. 21 censures of the Church. And if it shall ever happen that a Christian professor in our communion shall sell a slave who is also in communion and good stand- ing with our Church, contrary to his or her will and inclination, it ought im- mediately to claim the particular attention of the proper church judicature ; and unless there be such peculiar circumstances attending the case, as can but seldom happen, it ought to be followed, without delay, by a suspension of the offender from all the privileges of the church, till he repent, and make all the reparation in his power to the injured party."* The following is the unanimous resolution of the Albany Congregational Convention : " Resolved, That m the opinion of this Convention, it is the tendency of the Gospel wherever it is preached in its purity, to correct all social evils, and to destroy sin in all its forms ; and that it is the duty of Missionary Societies to grant aid to churches in slave-holding States, in the support of such ministers only as shall so preach the Gospel, and inculcate the principles and application of Gospel discipline, that, with the blessing of God, it shall have its full effect in awakening and enlightening the moral sense in regard to slavery, and in bringing to pass the speedy abolition of that stupendous wrong ; and that wherever a minister is not permitted so to preach, he should, in accordance with the directions of Christ in such cases, ' depart out of that city.' " * So long as the Church permits the preat enielty nnd sin of Slnrehnlilhiff, it Avill he in \ain for Ikt to attempt, or to recommend acts of discipline for the incidental cruelties and scandals (inchidinjt the slave traflic) that grow out of it. The history of the Presbyterian Church proves this.— [/JV/eVy/- qfOte Jfew-Yori: JEdiiion.] L.ofC. SUPPLEMENT TO THE APPENDIX. BY THE EDITOR OF THE NKn'-YORK EDITION. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, iu 1794, occupied a higher ground than the preceding. In a note to the 142d (|uestion of the larger Catechism in the Confession of Faith, they said : " 1. Tim. 1:10. ' The law was made for men stealers.' This crime, among th(> Jews, exposed the perpetrators of it to capital punishment. Exodus 21 : IG, and the Apostle here classes them with sinners of the first rank. The word he uses, iu its original import, comprehends all who are concerned in bringing any of the human race into slavery, or retaining them in it. Stealers of men are those who bring oSf slaves or freemen, or keep, sell, oil but them. ' To steal a freeman,' says Grotius, ' is the highest kind of theft. In other instances, we only steal human property, but when we steal or retain men in slavery, we seize those who, in common with ourselves, are constituted by the origmal grant, lords of the earth.' Gen. 1 : 28." The same General Assembly of 1818, that adopted the " Full expression of views," which we have copied, directed the erasure of this Note o/1794. In 1838 the Assembly was divided into two bodies. After this, the " Old School" Assembly has taken no new action against slavery or its " abuses." In 1838, they declined discussing the subject. In 1843, they laid anti-slavery memorials on the table without reading. In 1845, they said they could no'.; treat slavery as necessarily a sin, " without charging the apostles of Christ with coimiving at such sin." " For the Assembly to make slav. holding a bar to com- munion would be to dissolve itself." In 1850, iu reply to a courteous communica- tion from the General Association of Connecticut expressing the conviction that the cause of religion required the removal of slavery, they declared that such action was '• offensive, and must lead to an interruption of the correspondence which subsists between the Association, and the General Assembly." The " New School" Assembly has twenty slaveholding Presbyteries, be- I v,'cen one and two hundred ministers, and from fifteen to twenty thousand aiembers, in the slave States, all walking iu religious fellowship with slave- holders. In 1850, at Detroit, the Assembly adopted the following Resolution : '• That the holding of our fellow-men in the condition of slavery, except in those cases Avhere it is unavoidal>le by the laws of the state, by the o))ligation3 2i arpHLEaresT lo tbe awkxuo:. C-: sTisTiL-. " r daaasffife of taumMtr. is am ofeo^ 52. ite jr:">rr :zi~«:r; of 122JI Ta:-_ - ■ -^ •&? B(D«fe of DscipKiiie. Clap. 1, S€CS- 3, ani sii:::-i te Td& -wjs neaSrsH^ aS tte needng <€ lite AssesabJr at BalEiIo, asid "to eazseltss inrsnaiirjQ." Jfce. i*?-, liise Pre^'Tterfes ia Ste ^'TO states wae r^ q_-Q£s:cd tc- seM totistEest Asaaijkfcffl statefaeiitstondiiiglief:-:'"!::^ ■ i.; Tte EQiEit!«3r ef ^TdKiSier? ia e:::3«ssit«i. 'wMi liie drardis hl ^ . " ' " ' ' bv diem. 1 bj am unaTtHdafaie neees^fy '^ im- i^ .- ^SHdi^llieiitKdof 6odieq[DireE,BenDeed Ij,^^ ; T saexedsesB of tiie eangi^al ami paiasial i^r iIM»i is iae X-Mitmal Era, and wWdi has receiirei saO. fcw^ e-'nzi£QiiiC-eAJv fe ebcw to be IsA in panflikt fesm wi& cover, at the DeiKjaScey of tit Aisers-^SQ sdq F.j»regii Amti-Slairerf Sock*y, 43 Beekraaa arest. Xer-Toti, Pme 15 esnite sai^ cepeSr §12. 50 pa InmdEed. 54 > % .%'■ '-^Sr * 4 O .«' '. , e " » ^ *^ ."^" C. ♦-i^