The Clergy And Slavery

The old organization Abolitionists - or, wc should rnther say- a large portion of them, are violent in their anathemas ngainst the Clergy as a body, on account of their being proslavery. Mr. S. S. Poster has written a book, the object of which is to show that all the American Clergy, excepta ve) y few,are a great brotherhood of Tbievc. We have not seen the work, and cannot therefore gay hoTv far he has succeeded in his position. But we regard thia warfare on the clergy, as such, as botli unjust and unphilosophicol. Ministers are like other men, and it is to be presumed, are influenced by the same motives. The clergy have furnished far more than their nomerical proportion of the whole body of Abolitionists. Compare the number ofantislavery ministers with the antislavery lavvyers, and the contrast will be striking. But, the clergy, like the laity, are coming in various states of transition.But there are Proslavery Clergymen, and Iiow should they be treated? We define Ihose to be proslavery, who deiend slaveholding as a Bible institution, or who contend for it as morally right. Such it appears to up. are unworthy of support. Shall we sustain ns reh'gious teachers those who would huve no scruples, either moral or religious, to reduce us and our families to slavery, if the laws would only permití Nor does the plea of cerlain circumstances" alter the case. If I am suSèring under the lash, as a slave, what difibrence does it make to me whether tny master chooses to cnll himself a voluntary or "involuntary" slaveholder? The injustice is the same to ms; and he is the voluntary agent of that injustice. The truh is, there :s no middle ground; and tho3e who raise so many difficulties and nice distinctions about different kinds of slaveholding, do it as a means of evading an absolute decisión. Thevarelike the school boy memioned by Abbott, who was callcd on bj the master to recite his lesson. The boy appeared very reluctant to commence: and at length the master said to him,"Why do you noí procced with the lesson?' "Why, Sir, to teil you the truth, I have been meditaling1 for some days upon a difficult point, wJiich intimately concerns my duty to you, bul I have not been nble to solve it to my mind. If I could get that disposed of, I coiild procced with my studies." "Wel!, said the teacher," Iet us know what your problem is." "Why, Sir, my father has taught me that as a dutiful son, l must always obey him; and os a dutiful scholar, Í must always obey my teacher. Now suppose my father sliould command me to do somothing1, andyoushould commnnd me not to do it, whom is it my dutv to obey?'But" said the teacher, "what has th.it to I do with recil ing this lesson? Has any col lision happened betwoen your falher'scominanrt anti miñe?" "No, Sir," replied the pupil, but then I did not know how Koon such a case might occur, and I have concluded I vvill decline ío act with the rest of the scholars any longer unti] I can have this important point decided to my Batisractioii.1' Thns it is with the proslavery clergy. - Tnstead of acting openly and fairly against the ten thousand plain cases of unrighteous slaveholding ivhich stare them in the faco, they will look over the entire list to eee if they cannot find one whose features are less hideous than the reet; or e!se conjure up an imaginary case: and when they are requested to unite with others in nnti-slavery act on against ten thonsand cases , of plain iniquity, they start back. Say they: "Stop, gentlemen, you are going too fast. Be not so indiócriminale in your ilennnciations. I am not prepared to say that all slaveholding is sin; for on? of thece men is under peadiar circumstances; and circumstances alter cases; and unless you will agree with me that this man holds Iris 6laves rightfully, I shall stand aloof from your enterprise, and shall denounce you as slanderere of this good broMier!" We admit that this course may sometimes be bonestly taken by ministers through extreme cautioueness, or extreme conscientiousness; but in most cases we believe it is the result of extreme umvilüngness to do a present duty.A correspondent has wrítten to us concerning a Methodist clergyman who says he can prove the propriety of slaveholding trom the Bible, and inquires whether it is right to support an orgunization vvhich knowingly employs a teacher of such a religión. On this inquiry. we are not prepared to give advice. The question of wilhdrnwing from church fellowship embr&cesa greatvariety of considerations of the most serious import, concerning which each must judge for himself. There can be no qnestion thar there are adequate and sub - slantial reasons for separation from religious bodies. All the sects in the world are substantially but so many forms of seceseion from the primitive Chiircli; ami we are vvell satisfied that by these secessions, as a whole, Christinnity has gained far more than it has lost.- The same may be said of politica! revolutions. Tliey have had their evils, and serious ones too; but the result has been far better for humanity than would have been the undisturbed reign of iron despotisra .