Meeting as unfit for the station, under the vague charge of disqualification. And the committee continued, to make further report, if other obnoxious members should be found. It should constantly be borne in mind that the professed cause of the adoption of these proscriptive measures, was that of some Friends going contrary to the advice and travail of the body; and surely a disregard of the general code of discipline should not be considered of less importance. . .

Ministers and Elders who do not abandon the Anti-Slavery societies, or turn their hand against such as do not, or, in other words, unite with the 'advice and travail of the body,' are by special direction, to be removed from their stations. Agreeably to the course adopted and most strenuously adhered to by the Yearly Meeting, these committees have endeavored to prohibit any examination of the subject, except on their own side. They have invariably manifested a disposition in meetings, not to hear the reasons we would advance in our behalf. In short, like the poor victims for which we plead, we are not permitted to plead for ourselves. . .

' . . . is it better for us to suffer ourselves to be separately disowned, and scattered abroad, to be deprived of the comforts, consolations and preserving influence of church fellowship, or to avail ourselves of our indisputable right to form a religious society in which we can enjoy these privileges? The answer to this inquiry, we apprehend, must be obvious to every sober and reflecting person who has any confidence in the usefulness of religious society. Consequently we have deemed it our duty to adopt the lat

ter alternative. . .

We wish not to be understood as denying that there is any Anti-Slavery feeling among the members of the Yearly Meeting, from which we have now seceded; on the contrary we doubt not but that many of them are desirous to promote immediate and unconditional emancipation, and are only restrained from active labors in the cause by the proscriptive measures of the ‘Body' so called; measures which have been brought about chiefly by the agency of those individuals who, we believe, are too anxious to ‘retain a place and influence with the rulers of the land.' Our opposers have argued for, and some who have appeared to be strong Abolitionists, seem to have adopted, the doctrine, that it is the duty of members to yield obedience to the authority of the Yearly Meeting even when its requisitions are contrary to their own convictions of what is right. Such we conceive to be in a very precarious situation, and in danger of quenching the spirit, in order to obey the body.

we. in

With entire consciousness of our innocence and the justice of our cause, humble confidence in the protection of the God of the oppressed, submit that cause to Him who judgeth righteously."

Text-Edgerton: A History of the Separation in Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends,

pp. 74-92.

XIV. THE BAPTIST DIVISION ON THE ISSUE OF SLAVERY

Sce page 589f.

XV. THE METHODIST DIVISION OCCASIONED BY THE ISSUE OF SLAVERY

See page 594f.

XVI. THE MISSIONARY ON THE PLANTATION

"Memory carries me back to the time when, early in the morning, through heat and cold, sunshine and rain, I used to see a plantation missionary set out in his buggy and go to preach the gospel to the slaves on the surrounding plantations; and my joy would be full as I would be invited to take my seat in the buggy and go with the missionary on his rounds.

When we reached the plantation gate, the cry would be heard on all sides, 'Preacher's comin'! preacher's comin'!' and from every side we could see the little negroes gathering. At least twenty of the grinning, ebony-faced little creatures would spring forward to open the gate for us and to escort the preacher's buggy up to the 'catechising place.' Others of the larger children would hurry to deposit the little brothers and sisters they were nursing with the old 'maumas' at the hospital; while others, again, impressed with a sense of the decorum of the occasion, would go through the ceremony of hand and face washing ere presenting themselves before the preacher.

At last silence and perfect order reigned. A line would be drawn under the shade of some spreading old oak and the catechising begin. The class was rarely under fifty in number, ranging in age from the toddling wee thing of three and four to boys and girls of fourteen and fifteen, clad generally in the most airy of garments. I cannot now recall one instance of bad conduct, nor do I remember once having seen one of the class deprived of the handshake from the preacher, an honor most highly prized by them all, and never denied except in cases of extreme naughtiness.

The preacher would then carry them through Capers's Catechism, the Creed, and Commandments, give them a little-very little talk, then sing a simple hymn, and afterward, with bared head, kneel upon the ground, and, with all these slave children clustering around him, together they would repeat: 'Our Father who art in heaven.'

Since that time I have seen God worshiped in many ways. I have knelt with the multitude in the grandeur of a great cathedral, where the 'dim religious Light' came softly stealing through the pictured glass and the rich-toned organ melted the heart to thoughts of prayer I have listened to the gospel in the midst of a crowd of grayuniformed men, whose next orders might be a summons to death. I have heard the words of truth proclaimed on the top of a lotty mountain, where we seemed 'to see God in every cloud, and hear him in the wind.' I have mingled with the throng around the holy altar in the midst of a widespreading forest, where every breeze that swept by seemed to say: 'The groves were God's first temples' I have sat in the rustic church amid the humble country worshipers, sunburned with toil and hardened with care, when I have said to myself: 'God is here worshiped in spirit and in truth.' Yet now as I look back, it seems to me I have never been in circumstances so pleasing to God and his holy angels, or seen worship so welcome to them as when I saw that man of God teaching the little negro slaves to say: 'Our Father.'

The catechism lesson being over, the preacher would inquire for the sick. If any were very sick or too old to leave their cabins, he would be taken to them to minister of spiritual things, and sometimes, though, little child as I was, I knew it not, I was very near the gate of heaven. Often I have seen the missionary's face radiant with the light of the throne as he came from these ministrations beside the bed of the dying Christian slave.

As we were leaving a pleasing scene would occur, pleasing to me at least, for then the old 'maumas' would come from their cabins with two or three eggs apiece, or the

children with old birds' nests, sassafras roots, blackberries, and other simple treasures, to show their love of the missionary by these humble offerings to his little daughter. These scenes would recur at one plantation and another until the whole of a long summer morning would be exhausted, and so would pass the week away.

When Sunday morning would come, the grown negroes, who were at work in the fields during the week days, would assemble for preaching in neat, clean garments. Sometimes this would be in an upper room over the ginhouse, nicely arranged with pulpit and benches, or again in a pleasant little church built by the liberal and pious slave owners. Long before we reached the plantations gates we could hear the untutored voices of the assembled worshipers in songs of praise. Then would follow the simple service of the Methodist ritual and a sermon gloriously beautiful in its gospel simplicity, followed by the repeating of the Commandments and Creed by the whole congregation, occasionally by the administration of the holy communion, and very often a marriage and baptism."

Text-Isabel D. Martin: Recollections of a Plantation Missionary's Daughter, quoted in Harrison, The Gospel Among the Slaves, pp. 276-278.

XVII. THE SCRIPTURAL DEFENSE OF SLAVERY

Slave-holding does not appear in any catalogue of sins or disciplinable offences given us in the New Testament.

This fact, which none will call in question, is presumptive proof that neither Christ nor his Apostles regarded slave-holding as a sin or an 'offence.' That we may give to this presumption its proper weight, we must take account of such facts as the following:

§ 2. First. The Catalogues of Sins and Disciplinable Offences, given us in the New Testament, are numerous, and in some instances, extended and minute.

§ 3. Second. All the books of the New Testament were written in slave-holding states, and were originally addressed to persons and churches in slave-holding states: One of them—the epistle to Philemon-is addressed to a slave-holder. . . . .

§ 4. Third. The condition of slaves in Judea, in our Lord's day, was no better than it now is in our Southern states, whilst in all other countries it was greatly worse. § 5. Fourth Slavery, and the relations which it establishes are frequently spoken of, and yet more frequently referred to by Christ and his Apostles.

§ 7. II. The Apostles Received Slave-Holders into the Christian Church, and Continued them therein, without giving any intimation either at the time of their Reception, or Afterwards, that Slave-Holding was a Sin before God, or to be accounted an offence by the Church. Proof.-Eph. VI. 9, Col. IV. 1, I Tim. VI. 2, Philemon I. 2. ...

§ 8. Paul sent back a Fugitive Slave, after the Slave's hopeful Conversion, to his Christian Master again, and assigns as his reason for so doing that Master's right to the services of his Slave. Proof.-Philemon, 10-19.

§ 9. The Apostles repeatedly enjoin the relative Duties of Masters and Slaves, and enforce their Injunctions upon both alike, as Christian Men, by Christian Motives; uniformly treating the Evils which they sought to correct as incidental Evils, and not part and parcel of slavery itself. Proof.-Eph. VI. 5-9; Col. III. 22-25, IV. 1, 1 Tim. VI. 1, 2; Titus II. 9, 10; 1 Pet. II. 18, 19."

§10. Paul declares that his Doctrine respecting the Duties of Slaves and Masters is wholesome doctrine, according to Godliness and the Doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. Proof.-1 Tim. VI. 1-3. . .

$11. Paul treats the Distinctions which Slavery creates as Matters of very little Importance in so far as the Interests of the Christian Life are Concerned. Proof.-Gal. III. 28; 1 Cor. XII. 13; Col. III. 11; 1 Cor. VII. 20, 21. . .

§12. Paul directs the Christian Minister to teach this Doctrine respecting the Duties of Slaves and Masters in the Church, and prohibits the teaching of any Doctrine at variance with it under most solemn Sanctions. Proof.-I Tim. VI. 3-5; Titus, II. 9, 10, 15. . .

Slavery, in the Bible sense of the term, is a Condition of Mutual Rights and Obligations. The rights of the master, and the corresponding obligations of the slave, are to obedience and service. ..

The Rights of the Slave and the Corresponding Obligations of the Master are, to 'that which is just and equal'. . .

The Scriptural theory respecting the origin of Slavery, may be stated, in brief, thus:-The effect of sin, i.e., disobedience to God's laws, upon both individuals and nations, is degradation. A people under this influence, continued through many generations, sink so low in the scale of intelligence and morality as to become incapable of safe and righteous self-government. When, by God's appointment, slavery comes upon them an appointment at once punitive and remedial; a punishment for sin actually committed, and at the same time a means of saving the sinning people from that utter extermination which must otherwise be their doom, and gradually raising them from the degradation into which they have sunk. . .

Where sin has been persisted in for a time by any people, then comes the second degree of slavery, i.e., subjection to despotic government. The deep foundations of despotism in Europe are laid in the degradation of the people. Overturn those despotisms a thousand times, and you cannot make the people free, unless you can first raise them in the scale of intellectual and moral being. Where sin has been persisted in for many generations, and a people have become deeply degraded, then comes the third degree of slavery, i.e., personal slavery. Uniformly the people who have been reduced to slavery, have been those degraded by the long-continued operation of sin in just this way.

Text-Armstrong: The Christian Doctrine of Slavery, pp. 9-112.

XVIII. GOD'S WAY WITH SLAVERY

"Where God has appointed a work for his Church, he has generally appointed the way also in which that work is to be done. And where this is the case, the Church is as much bound to respect the one appointment as the other. . .

In the case of a race of men in slavery, the work which God has appointed his Church-as we learn it, both from the example and the precepts of inspired men—is to labor to secure in them a Christian life on earth and meetness for his heavenly kingdom. . .

In what way is this work to be done? We answer, By preaching the same Gospel of God's grace alike to the master and the slave; and when there is credible evidence given that this Gospel has been received in faith, to admit them, master and slave, into

the same Church—the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which 'there is neither bond nor free-and to seat them at the same table of the Lord, that drinking of the same cup, and eating of the same loaf, they may witness to the world their communion in the body and blood of the same Savior. And having received them into the same Church, to teach them the duties belonging to their several 'callings' out of the same Bible, and subject them to the discipline prescribed by the same law, the law of Christ. And this, the teaching of the Church, is to be addressed not to her members only, but to the world at large; and her discipline of her members is to be exercised not in secret, but before the world, that the light which God has given her may appear unto all men. This is just the way in which Christ and his Apostles dealt with slavery. The instructions they have given us in their life and in their writings prohibit any other.

In this way must the Church labor to make 'good masters and good slaves,' just as she labors to make 'good husbands, good wives, good parents, good children, good rulers, good subjects'. With the ultimate effect of this upon the civil and political condition of the slave the Church has nothing directly to do. If the ultimate effect of it be the emancipation of the slave -we say in God's name, 'let it come.' 'If it be of God, we cannot-and we would not if we could-overthrow it, lest haply we be found even to fight against God.' If the ultimate effect be the perpetuation of slavery divested of its incidental evils—a slavery in which the master shall be required, by the laws of man as well as that of God, 'to give unto the slave that which is just and equal,'and the slave to render to the master a cheerful obedience and hearty service-we say, let slavery continue. It may be, that such a slavery, regulating the relations of capital and labor, though implying some deprivation of personal liberty, will prove a better defense of the poor against the oppression of the rich, than the too great freedom in which capital is placed in many of the free States of Europe at the present day. . .

To this way of dealing with slavery, thus clearly pointed out in God's word, does God in his providence 'shut us up,' for years to come. None but the sciolist in political philosophy can regard the problem of emancipation-even granting that this were the aim which the Christian citizen should have immediately in view-as a problem of easy solution. . .

Is slavery to continue? We want the best of Christian masters and the best of Christian slaves, that it may prove a blessing to both the one and the other. Is ultimate emancipation before us? We want the best of Christian masters to devise and carry out the scheme by which it shall be effected, and the best of Christian slaves, that their emancipation may be an enfranchisement indeed. And this is just what the Bible plan of dealing with slavery aims at. The future may be hidden from view in 'the clouds and darkness' with which God oft veils his purposes; but there is light— heaven's light-upon the present. And it is with the present alone we have immediately to do."

Text-Armstrong: The Christian Doctrine of Slavery, pp. 131-136.

XIX. THE SECESSION OF THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIANS ON THE ISSUE OF SLAVERY

See page 607f.