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Show 58 presbyteries or conferences, have declared the inconsistency of the system with the princi pies of Christianity, and with the law of love. Still the churches and congregations of the free States, have in the main looked coldly on the subject, and discouraged too effectually the free expression of thought and feeling in regard to it by the religious teacher. Under that legislation of public opinion, which, without courts or offices, sways more despotically than Czars or Sultans, the pulpit and the press, have, in no small degree, been reduced to silence as to slavery, especially in cities, the chief seats of this invisible power. Some fervent spirits among us, seeing religion, in this and other cases, so ready to bend to worldly opinion, have been filled with indignation. They have spoken of Christianity, as having no life here, as a beautiful corpse, laid out in much state, worshipped with costly homage, but worshipped very much as were the prophets, whose tombs were so ostentatiously garnished in the times of the Savior. But this is unjust. Christianity lives and acts among us. It imposes many salutary restraints. It inspires many good deeds. There are not a few, in whom it puts forth a power, worthy of its better days, and the number of such is growing. Let us not be ungrateful for what this religion is doing, nor shut our ears against the prophecies which the present gives of its future triumphs. Still, as a general rule, the Christianity 59 of this day falls fearfully short of the Christianity of the immediate followers of our Lord. .Then, the meaning of a Christian was, that he took the cross and followed Christ, that he counted not his life dear to him in the service of God and man, that he trod the world under his feet. Now we ask leave of the world, how far we shall follow Christ. What wrong or abuse is there, which the bulk of the people may think essential to their prosperity and may defend with outcry and menace, before which the Christianity of this age will not bow? We need a new John, who, with the untamed and solemn energy of the wilderness, shall cry out among us, Re~ pent. We need that the Crucified should speak to us with a more startling voice, " He that forsaketh not all things, and followeth me, cannot be my disciple." We need that the all-sacrificing, all-sympathising spirit of Christianity, should cease to bow to the spirit of the world. We need that, under a deep sense of want and wo, the church should cry out, "Thy kingdom come," and with holy importunity should bring down new strength, and life, and love from Heaven. 4. I pass to another topic, suggested by Mr. Gurney's book. Accor~ing to this and all the books written on the subject, Emancipation has borne a singular testimony to the noble elements of the ne |
