SLAVERY UNCHRISTIAN.
There is a deep and growing conviction in the minds of the mass of mankind, that slavery violates the great laws of our nature; that it is contrary to the dictates of humanity; that it is essentially unjust, oppressive, and cruel; that it invades the rights of liberty with which the Author of our being has endowed all human beings; and that in all the forms in which it has ever existed, it has been impossible to guard it from what its friends and advocates would callabusesof the system. It is a violation of the first sentiments expressed in our Declaration of Independence, and on which our fathers founded the vindication of their own conduct in an appeal to arms. It is at war with all that a man claims for himself, and for his own children; and it is opposed to all the struggles of mankind, in all ages, for freedom. The claims of humanity plead against it. The struggles for freedom every where in our world condemn it. The instinctive feeling in every man’s own bosom, in regard to himself, is a condemnation of it. The noblest deeds of valor and of patriotism in our own land, and in all lands where men have struggled for freedom, are a condemnation of the system. All that is noble in man is opposed to it; all that is base, oppressive, and cruel, pleads for it.
The spirit of the New Testament is against slavery, and the principles of the New Testament, if fairly applied, would abolish it. In the New Testament no man is commanded to purchase and own a slave; no man is commended as adding any thing to the evidences of his Christian character, or as performing the appropriate duty of a Christian, for owning one. Nowhere in the New Testament is the institution referred to as a good one, or as a desirable one. It is commonly—indeed, it is almost universally—conceded that the proper application of the principles of the New Testament would abolish slavery every where, or that in the state of things which will exist when the Gospel shall be fairly applied to all the relations of life, slavery will not be found among those relations.
Let slavery be removed from the church, and let the voice of the church, with one accord, be lifted up in favor of freedom; let the church be wholly detached from the institution, and let there be adopted by all its ministers and members an interpretation of the Bible—as I believe there may be, and ought to be—that shall be in accordance with the deep-seated principles of our nature in favor of freedom, and with our own aspirations for liberty, and with the sentiments of the world in its onward progress in regard to human rights, and not only would a very material objection against the Bible be taken away,—and one which would be fatal if it were well founded,—but the establishment of a very strong argument in favor of the Bible, as a revelation from God, would be the direct result of such a position....
There is not vital energy enough; there is not power of numbers and influence enough out of the church to sustain slavery. Let every religious denomination in the land detach itself from all connection with slavery, without saying a word against others; let the time come when, in all the mighty denominations of Christians, it can be announced that the evil has ceased with them for ever; and let the voice from each denomination be lifted up in kind, but firm and solemn testimony against the system—with no mealy words; with no attempt at apology; with no wish to blink it; with no effort to throw the sacred shield of religion over so great an evil—and the work is done. There is no public sentiment in this land—there could be none created—that would resist the power of such testimony. There is no poweroutof the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustainedinit. Not a blow need be struck. Not an unkind word need be uttered. No man’s motive need be impugned, no man’s proper rights invaded. All that is needful is, for each Christian man, and for every Christian church, to stand up in the sacred majesty of such a solemn testimony, to free themselves from all connection with the evil, and utter a calm and deliberate voice to the world,AND THE WORK WILL BE DONE.
Rev. Albert Barnes.