Harbinger, Dec. 1, '63. church will be planted to the glory of the After proclaiming the Gospel in the Tem- sorrow. Death has visited some and threatened others, and not the least among the sufferers have been our Brother and Sister Evans. The painful exercises which they have passed through have appeared to militate considerably against our progress, but Divine grace has been abundantly manifest in our experience; for He who has promised not to leave us to our own resources in times of need, has granted us strength equal to the day. Our pur pose in writing is, to solicit the prayerful sympathy of brethren generally, to the end that our afflictions may work out for us an exceeding weight of glory. J. DERRICK. CAMDEN TOWN, LONDON. HENRY. S. EARL. CARLISLE. BIRMINGHAM, MANCHESTER, STOCKPORT, &c. October 19 I left Sussex with much regret, knowing that at Piltdown some were under conviction whom I would have seen enter the kingdom, but the regret was dispelled when in a few days I heard that four had made the good confession and been buried by baptism into death. The next Lord's day I spent in Birmingham, comThe arrows of divine truth have pierced mencing its public duties by immersing one who had during my absence confessed the heart of many of our King's enemies, her faith in Jesus and concluding the and twelve have thrown down their wea evening service by receiving the confession pons of rebellion and sued for pardon. Nine of another and placing him in the grave of of them have "put on Christ," and are enwater. Lord's day, November 1, I spent rolled among the soldiers of the cross. The in Manchester, where we had three meet- other three will shortly tread in their footings. The two Lord's days following I de- steps. The meetings continue well attendlivered addresses in Grosvenor Rooms, hav-ed and considerable interest is prevailing. ing full meetings, and last Lord's day one declared his desire to join himself to the Lord in baptism. I have spoken at Open. shaw, Stockport, and Whaley Bridge, and have now arrangements for preaching every evening except Saturday. At Stockport last week I had a full meeting in the ordinary meeting-place, and next week (D.V.) I commence a course of lectures in the large room of the Odd Fellows' Hall. At Whaley Bridge, 16 miles from Manchester, I have this week delivered two discourses, to large and attentive congregations, in a chapel owned by some fifty members who attend every first day to the Apostles' doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers. I found them, seemingly, an earnest and pious people, who avow their determination to be guided only by the Bible. Let them carry out that determination and things in which they are yet defective will soon be put right. I am further to speak to them next week. On Monday evenings I am delivering a course of lectures in Manchester. The subjects are-The Reformation, its divine mission and its sin-Christ's Church Identified The Progress of the Reformation in the present century-The Coming of the Lord. After the first lecture a clergyman of the district, in kindly terms, urged that we had mistaken the unity commended by the Apostles for uniformity, which led to pleasing and useful discussion. BRISTOL. D. KING. Several of our dear brethren and sisters have been passing through deep waves of Spent four Lord's days in the town of Carlisle, revived from time to time by the presence of faithful and beloved brethren from neighbouring churches. It resembles all the rest of the old cathedral towns in the spiritual stagnation which reigns, for they might all seem to be built on the shores of the Dead Sea, unvisited by life or motion. It required some effort to bring out the people, but there was a slow steady increase and the last gathering was the best. Shortly before my arrival Bro. Dunn immersed into Christ a person of good standing. During my labour there the church by its own healing and recovering action accomplished the restoration of six persons who had been wandering as sheep without a shepherd. Brethren Brown and Dunn are still hopeful and earnest in the noble and holy cause. G. GREENEWLL LOUGHBOROUGH. On Lord's day, November 8, Bro. James Wallis delivered an address to the church and preached the gospel to sinners. the same day a female was baptized upon a confession of her faith. PILTDOWN, SUSSEX. J. B. On You will be pleased to hear the result of your labors at Piltdown. Bro. Corrie was with us last Lord's day, and before the morning service he immersed four whom you left under conviction. G. K. October 29th. I visited Piltdown the Lord's day after you left, and baptized four young disciples into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One formerly baptized was received into fellowship. I spent a very comfortable day. We had good meetings, all things considered. Bro. Schey visited them last Lord's day, and had excellent meetings. I am to be with them next Lord's day week. Bro. Black is also to visit Piltdown, and what with the promise of help from the Evangelist Committee, I trust, by God's blessing, they will be carried through, and more good be done than has been for some time. JOHN CORRIE. Since my last, dated Nov. 1862, much has arisen to arouse our sympathy and to call into exercise the confidence we have in Him who is too wise to err and too good to be unkind. It has been our painful duty to consign to the grave two of our beloved sisters: Mrs. Hardie, after a painful illness of two years, during which she remained cheerful, rejoicing in the Lord; and Sister Battson, my dear wife, who fell asleep after nine months' wasting away. She was a loving wife and fond mother, and most inseparably attached to her Saviour. Her life from the age of sixteen was most exemplary, and it may be said that she was in heaven before she left the world, so happy and peaceful was her end. memory is blessed, and her epitaph may be found recorded in the 31st chapter of Proverbs, from the 10th verse to the end; whilst her faith during life was sustained by the 14th chapter of John's testimony. Her The church meeting in Hanover-street, Dunedin, continues to hold its ground. We do what we can, and continue to be at one, so that if our number is not great our union is; and I pray God it may endure, for better is a poor but wise child than an old and foolish king-I mean, it is better to be few with peace than many without it. We rejoice over three additions in three weeks, two of them by immersion and one from another portion of the church; also Bro. Reid, from Scotland. We have not yet been able to finish our building, from want of funds; but the name of Jesus is set forth every Lord's day. Sept. 1863. F. BATTSON. NEWTOWN, NEAR SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES. I write to make you acquainted with the sudden death of our brother, James Wain Harbinger, Dec. 1, '63. wright, of South Creek, about twenty-six miles from this place, formerly of Nottingham, and well known by our beloved Bro. James Wallis. He desired us by letter, about eight weeks since, to visit South Creek and proclaim the gospel. On the first Lord's day we met four who had believed and been baptized, and attended to the institutions of Christ; and on the Lord's day before his death we immersed three men and two women into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and received them into the church-in all, nine, with whom we were greatly comforted and our dear brother greatly rejoiced, remarking, "It is one of the happiest days of my life.' On the Wednesday morning, in his usual health, he returned from his walk, sat down at the breakfast table, bent his head on his hands on the table, and died in an instant, without a word or any motion of the body to indicate that the spirit had gone to Him who gave it. We sorrow truly, but not without hope. He sleeps in Christ. We shall meet again in the resur rection of the just, and be ever with the Lord. Sept. 22, 1863. JOSEPH KINGSBURY. THE JAMAICA MISSION. September came safely to hand, and caused us, in the midst of deep trial, to "thank God and take courage." The day your letter arrived I had just received a letter from one of our brethren in the country concerning his present state of utter destitution, and in reply had tried to comfort him with the unfailing promises of Jehovah, having no money to send him, but before the letter was forwarded yours came to hand, the amount (£5 10s.) was cashed, and I sent a portion of it to his relief. Another brother had just left me, being obliged to pawn his watch to enable him to get means to go back to his people in the country, and having a sick wife in town. I put a few shillings into the hands of the latter the same evening. I had also an application the following day to send a pound to two other brethren in the country whose families are at present suffering from illness. I assure you that remittancesmall though you are pleased to consider it has made all our hearts to leap for joy. It is a bow of promise athwart the heavens that were looking very gloomy - it was God's gracious "opportunity" that came Harbinger, Dec. 1, '63. THE CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. OBITUARY. 431 to our relief in a time of "extremity." Ac. | I remain, my dear brother, yours in faith, cept, for yourself and the other kind do- hope, and love, J. O. BEARDSLee. nors, our warmest thanks for your remem- Kingston, Jamaica, Oct. 22, 1863. brance. It was very providential that the money was sent direct to us. Had it gone to America it would have been a long time in coming, would have depreciated in value by exchange, and failed of accomplishing the good it has done at this time. I shall give a report of it to our home board, with a copy of the kind letter that brought it. At Loughborough, after a long and painfull illness, Sister Sally Beven departed this life on the 3rd of November, 1863, aged 55, leaving six children. In meekness and patience she fell asleep in Jesus, in full expectation of a joyful resurrection unto eternal life. J. B. OPEN COUNCIL. THE CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. "No doubt Bro. King will say he is comparing all the sects with the Book- this, however, with the addition of placing them in contrast with the movement that so fully embraces his sympathies. His table of marks we do not think very happy or even fair; for why should the nine items of church order named by him be made to condone such flagrant deviation from the moral requirements of the Gospel, as churches in America involved in slaveholding exhibit to the scandal of the Christian name? We confess that our sympathies are much more with churches that protest against this protean evil, even though not able to tabulate all these nine marks of orthodoxy, as our good brother holds it."-Review of "The Reformationour Place and Duty, by D. King," from "The Christian Advocate." THE notice of which the above is part seems to indicate that our good| Bro. Milner has a strong objection to the indication of a clear line of distinction between "the church" and "the sects," and to evince his sympathy for associations not of the apostolic order, even where, as thank God is the case here, slavery has no existence. This, however, would have been unnamed by us but for the charge (so uncalled for and unjust, that we condone "flagrant deviations from the moral requirements of the gospel." Now, in regard to slavery, we stand with the Apostles, and condone nothing. We hate it even as it existed in the churches to which Paul wrote. But, then, slaves and slave-holders did exist in the first churches, and therefore we could not, even if T. H. M. could, write down as a mark of the church, that under all circumstances slave-holders are excluded. But shew us the man who, holding slaves, treats them not as men, or not as brethren, if they be brethren shew us the master who gives not to his slave that which is "just and equal," and we refuse him fellowship. Shew us the church that, knowing on his part any violation of the moral requirements of the gospel, will retain him in membership, we denounce that church, whatever may be its faith and order. Let Bro. Milner prove that any church is thus guilty, and we shall be as forward as himself to stand aloof from it. But our position is this-1, The simple ownership of a slave by a member of the primitive church was not by the Apostles deemed a sin, though the unjust treatment of that slave was. 2, That as it was in the primitive church, so it is now. The following is from a recent issue of the Christian Record— "It is no crime in a man that he was born in a Slaveholding State, and that he has inherited by law numerous slaves. But, says the objector, he ought immediThe ately to emancipate them: let us see. law says he cannot emancipate, without removing them; his means are limited ; some of his servants are old and decrepit, some diseased-what is to become of this helpless class? It is criminal for him to hold them and provide for them? Take another case; suppose, a slave about to be sold into a distant State away from his family, asks a benevolent man to buy him, and keep him near his family, and his request is granted -is this act of benevo lence criminal? But, says the objector, the new master ought to emancipate him at independent of this consideration the law once; but is not the slave his debtor? and will not allow the emancipation without the removal of the freeman, which would separate him from his wife and children, to prevent which separation was the very object of the purchase. 432 THE CHURCHES AND SLAVERY. Thus much to shew that the relation is not necessarily criminal in the persons who sustain it. Well, says one, then slavery is a divine institution- the system is from God!-Quite the contrary. It rather proves that the system is wrong -that the law and the public opinion that sustains it are crimes. How so? We have shewn how an innocent man without any will of his own, or through a feeling of benevolence, may be involved in slaveholding, and that the Christian law in such cases commands him to give to his servants that which is just and equal, knowing that he has a master in heaven. Now, if the law of Christ demands justice and equity for slaves from a master, can it sanction a system which denies them justice and equity -which, as a system, dooms them to ignorance, denies the sanctity of their marriages and the sacredness of their domestic ties? If it is wrong for a Christian master to brutalize his slave-is the system right which does it? Harbinger, Dec. 1, '63. many poor slaves, and this argument speaks volumes in favor of the work. For of what avail is a religion of decency and order without righteousness?' Alexander Campbell, though always a conservative, has never been a friend to slavery. The volumes of the Harbinger abound with anti-slavery articles. On page 86, volume 3, 1832, in an article headed 'The Crisis,' occurs the following language:- Slavery, that largest and blackest blot upon our national escutcheonthat many-headed monster - that Pandora's box-that bitter root -that blighting and blasting curse, under which so fair and so large a proportion of our beloved country groans-that deadly Upas whose breath pollutes and poisons everything within its influence.' In the same article he regrets that Mr. Clay did not propose to the National Congress the appropriation of a certain sum per annum for the colonization of all people of color, either slaves or free persons, in---; until the soil of our free and happy country shall not be trod by the foot of a slave, or enriched by a drop of his sweat or blood; that all the world may be asserting all men to have certain natural and inherent rights which in our practice we deny; and shedding crocodile tears over the fall of Warsaw, and illuminating for the revolution of the Parisians, while we have millions of miserable human beings at home held in involuntary bondage, in ignorance, degradation, and vice by a Republican system of free slaveholding." 'The Bible recognises the relation of master and slave, therefore slavery is a divine institution,' is a gross non sequitur. The gospel was first preached in slave-lieve that we are not a nation of hypocrites, holding communities, and in many cases it was embraced by masters and slaves. The Apostles did not enjoin a war between the parties, or a universal liberation, but a certain gentle and humane spirit which would soften the rigors of bondage, and, in many cases, give liberty to the bondman. With the system as established by law they had nothing to do, except as the divine precepts and the whole spirit of the religion they proclaimed condemned it. The Apostle Paul has recorded one brief sentence, which ought effectually to silence the outrageous libel that American slavery is a divine institution. Speaking to the slave, he says, Art thou called being a slave? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather (1 Cor. vii.-21.) Freedom is preferable to slavery. Though a man be a slave, yet having the consolation and hopes of the true religion, he ought not to be unduly depressed; yet the Great God says to him, 'If thou mayest be made free, use it rather.' In the same chapter the freeman is enjoined not to become a slave. The freeman must not become a slave; the slave, if lawfully it can be accomplished, is commanded to become a freeman. B. W. Stone, in his Autobiography published by Elder John Rogers, page 44, speaking of a great revival of religion, says My mind became unearthly, and was solely engaged in the work of the Lord. I had emancipated my slaves from a sense of right, choosing poverty with a good conscience in preference to all the treasures of the world. This revival cut the bonds of A. Campbell would hold no slaves- he became possessed of them, prepared them for liberty, and gave them liberty. B. Stone left himself poor indeed by doing the same thing, but then they were in positions which admitted of so doing. In other localities Christian benevolence would have required them to act otherwise. The law would not allow a freed slave to remain in the Stateto send them away would be to send them to starve and to tear, it might be, mother from daughter or father from son. A. Campbell has denounced slavery as the curse which would destroy the United States if not removed - he has given liberty to the slave, and yet in Scotland men could be found to disgrace themselves and their country by seeking to hunt him down as a manstealer. But why? Because they feared his influence as a Christian Reformer. We fear the remark of Bro. Milner may possibly be taken to justify conduct which was a disgrace to Edinburgh. THE BRITISH MILLENNIAL HARBINGER, DEVOTED TO THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY AS IT WAS AT THE FIRST AND THE DEFENCE AND PROMOTION OF BIBLICAL TRUTH. VOLUME XVII. FOURTH SERIES. IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING FOR DOCTRINE THE COMMANDMENTS OF MEN. LONDON: ARTHUR HALL & CO. 25 PATERNOSTER ROW. 1864. |