The Church and The Slave Trade
There are cases where not to speak is a strong form of assertion — not to condemn is to approve — When a great moral question is made a test question before the public mind — or a great evil is threatening to spread in a community — and any body of men professing eminently to be the representative men of Christianity, decline publicly & clearly to express any opinion about it this want of assertion is immediately received by the powers of evil as the strongest affirmation.
The history of the slavery question has been such constant history of such instances, among different religious bodies professing to represent the Christian church as to give rise to more unbelief in Christianity as a practical working force than any other one cause. — Two marked instances of this kind have lately occurred — The Episcopal Convention in New York and the American — Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Boston being importuned have refused to testify against an inhumanity the most loathsome & horrible that ever defaced human history — — the slave trade. — Nor can it be plead in excuse that this is a bye gone & obsolete kind of wickedness — since it has come back on us like the demoniac with seven other spirits more wicked than itself — It is computed that a slave ship leaves the port of New York every week fitted out for this infernal traffic — to say nothing of what is done in other ports — It is known that officers appointed by government to prevent this horror are constantly bribed into connivance & that these floating hells with their living cargoes of horror & despair are riding the waves with the connivance if not the money of men who hold seats in our churches & profess to be Christians.
— The very refusal to testify — shows how the poisonous roots of the cancer have spread in the so called Christian church — — A few years ago who was offended with denunciations of the slave trade? — Nobody — that was " given up to Satan " — & the cheap rhetoric of those who defended slavery expended itself in valiant abuse of the slave trade — It was as lawful a subject of abuse as Nebuchadnessar or Amaziah or Jeroboam or any of the old testament sinners whose transgressions afford such splendid targets for those who wish to avoid personalities in their own times — — — But the same arguments which demoralised the conscience & frittered away the moral sense in regard to bearing testimony against slavery hold equally good against the slave trade & that is beginning to be understood — — All evil is ligically connected & will invariably run in its immutable sequences — There is no abomination can be mentioned or can be conceived, that might not be suffered to gain ground in a community by steadily pursuing the same course that the American church has done about slavery — —
It has come now to be delicate ground to talk against the slave trade — & christian bodies instead of speaking in thunder piously shut their eyes & give thanks that so very embarrassing a topic has not been suffered to divide the hearts of brethren or interrupt the rejoicings of a solemn jubilee to commemorate the triumphs of Christianity —
It is a delicate matter it appears for a board of commissioners for foreign missions to condemn the setting on fire the villages of the heathen, & seducing the frightened inhabitants — driving them in herds to the seashore & stowing them for a long voyage with only the room allowed by a coffin — the sweat the filth — the pantings — the loathsome diseases the daily throwing overboard of the dead the after procession of sharks who complete the work of fear, agony & despair — all this it appears is in some way such delicate & controverted ground to express an opinion about it might be a disturbing element among ciristian brethren — — What is the use of sending a gospel to Dahomey that does not remonstrate against such horrors in N York? — If there isnt power enough in what we profess to prevent civilized christianized church going people from sinking into this abyss of barbarism what do you expect to make of the Hottentots If the salt have lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted?
— But the gospel has not died out of America — it is only like a strawberry bed — when the life has gone out of old plants into young runners. The gospel of Christ is expounded at this day more truly in many of the political speeches of the republican party than in some pulpits — & some so called religious papers — That invisible but mighty force which we call the spirit of the age is burning like an oven against all the devices of injustice & cruelty & those whose eyes are truly opened know who it is that is breathing that powerful breath thru all the ways of man — & as the prophet of old they fall on their faces when the Spirit of the Lord passes by
The history of the slavery question has been such constant history of such instances, among different religious bodies professing to represent the Christian church as to give rise to more unbelief in Christianity as a practical working force than any other one cause. — Two marked instances of this kind have lately occurred — The Episcopal Convention in New York and the American — Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in Boston being importuned have refused to testify against an inhumanity the most loathsome & horrible that ever defaced human history — — the slave trade. — Nor can it be plead in excuse that this is a bye gone & obsolete kind of wickedness — since it has come back on us like the demoniac with seven other spirits more wicked than itself — It is computed that a slave ship leaves the port of New York every week fitted out for this infernal traffic — to say nothing of what is done in other ports — It is known that officers appointed by government to prevent this horror are constantly bribed into connivance & that these floating hells with their living cargoes of horror & despair are riding the waves with the connivance if not the money of men who hold seats in our churches & profess to be Christians.
— The very refusal to testify — shows how the poisonous roots of the cancer have spread in the so called Christian church — — A few years ago who was offended with denunciations of the slave trade? — Nobody — that was " given up to Satan " — & the cheap rhetoric of those who defended slavery expended itself in valiant abuse of the slave trade — It was as lawful a subject of abuse as Nebuchadnessar or Amaziah or Jeroboam or any of the old testament sinners whose transgressions afford such splendid targets for those who wish to avoid personalities in their own times — — — But the same arguments which demoralised the conscience & frittered away the moral sense in regard to bearing testimony against slavery hold equally good against the slave trade & that is beginning to be understood — — All evil is ligically connected & will invariably run in its immutable sequences — There is no abomination can be mentioned or can be conceived, that might not be suffered to gain ground in a community by steadily pursuing the same course that the American church has done about slavery — —
It has come now to be delicate ground to talk against the slave trade — & christian bodies instead of speaking in thunder piously shut their eyes & give thanks that so very embarrassing a topic has not been suffered to divide the hearts of brethren or interrupt the rejoicings of a solemn jubilee to commemorate the triumphs of Christianity —
It is a delicate matter it appears for a board of commissioners for foreign missions to condemn the setting on fire the villages of the heathen, & seducing the frightened inhabitants — driving them in herds to the seashore & stowing them for a long voyage with only the room allowed by a coffin — the sweat the filth — the pantings — the loathsome diseases the daily throwing overboard of the dead the after procession of sharks who complete the work of fear, agony & despair — all this it appears is in some way such delicate & controverted ground to express an opinion about it might be a disturbing element among ciristian brethren — — What is the use of sending a gospel to Dahomey that does not remonstrate against such horrors in N York? — If there isnt power enough in what we profess to prevent civilized christianized church going people from sinking into this abyss of barbarism what do you expect to make of the Hottentots If the salt have lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted?
— But the gospel has not died out of America — it is only like a strawberry bed — when the life has gone out of old plants into young runners. The gospel of Christ is expounded at this day more truly in many of the political speeches of the republican party than in some pulpits — & some so called religious papers — That invisible but mighty force which we call the spirit of the age is burning like an oven against all the devices of injustice & cruelty & those whose eyes are truly opened know who it is that is breathing that powerful breath thru all the ways of man — & as the prophet of old they fall on their faces when the Spirit of the Lord passes by
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