The Methodist Episcopal Church, Vs. Abolition

Human nature is so constituted, that wherever power is possessed, there is great danger of its perversión. It is oiten employed ío promote the purposes of injua tice, fo'ly or selfi3nness. All history leacli es this fact. It is equally true thut power I is pervericd l'rom its legilimate end, in ecclesiasticul as wcll as in civil govern ments. In bolh cases the rulers are men, and so far as thej are seliish and sinfuh selfishness and wickednesa wiü be found to mingle more or less, in all the measures of thcir achninistration. The persecutions and cruellies practised by the Government of the Roman Ctttholic Cliurch, show how fur the wickedness of ecclesiastical rulos will developc itself, when not ojposcd by counteracting circumstances. It filis one with horror end indignation to rcad of the cruelties practised b) the leaders of the church on thousands far better than themselves, of the delusions imptsed on the ignorant and simple, and of the open and barc-fuced lyrrany which they exerciscd towards ihe rights and féeüngs of those who opposed their iniquities. Yct sofar as the ruling principies of aclion are concerned, ihe M. E. Church of the United States will well bear comparison with the darkest days of Popery. Truc, ihsv have conílscaled no. one s propertv, nr' burnt any one at the stake fur lieresy: b Jt lliey have boen guilI ly ofoppressing and injuring morfi than a hundred thousund of iheir members who are leas-able todcfend thcmselves ffora insult and injury. Is it usked whérein they have cotnaiitted ihis wickedness. - We answer.: 1. They have voluritarüy upheld and supporied ihe slivery of nearly one liun- dred thousand üfthcirnurnber. They have set their faces as a flint againt cvery attempt to procure the emancipa tion ot'iheic brethren and sisters, uniese accompanied by a system of culonizatiun, disgraccfu!, ruinous and hopeless. They have becorne the patrons ijf siavery, graluUously. - There was r.o néed of their defendin it. J3ut now they have stepped in l;etweenj their felluw Mcthodists in boi:i!age, nnd liberty, and have virtually declareri. ''So far as we can prevent it,you shall not become free."I The Genera! Conference of 1830 passed the follüwing: Resolved, By (he delégales of iho annual conferences in General Conference assembled, tlial they are decidedly opposed to modern aljoülionism, and whoüy (Jisclaitn any riglit, wish or intention to interfere in the civil and pol tica I relation between masler and slave, as it exisis in iho Slavühulding States of this Union. The Biiltimore Conference passed the following resolution: Rcsolv3d,Thu.l we are opposed in every part and particular to the proceedings of the abolicionista vvhich look lo the irnmediate, indiscrirninate and general emancipation of slaves.2. The represenfalives of thcchurcb,in General Conference assembled, May, 1840, voled to deprive a large portion of their brethren and sisters of one of the privileges granted to them by Jesus Christ wlien they became suljects ofhislungdorn. He bas commanded bis disciples,in certain cases where they are injured by a broiher, to teil their grievances to the church : but the General Conference resolved,"Thatit is inexl-edient and unjustifiable for 3ny preacher to permit colored persons togive lestimony against white persons in any Slate where they are denied that privilege in trials at law." Jesus Christ haa commanded the colored man to complain to the church: but the Conference says it is "unjustifiable for the mini ster to Iet him complain !By virtue oí'thía rule, nocolored person can bear testimony against a white church member, whatever wronga may have been received. This rule operates rigorously on some 40,000 of the femule rrembers of the church who areslaves. They hnve no protection for their persons or purity of character fom the laws of the State. - Marriage is not recognized by law, neitlier are thoy protected from outragfi and insult by public sentiment. Their only hope,then, ('or the preservation of a virluous character, would be that ihe church, wbich had received them nto its bosoni, would listen to ilie story of tbeir wrongs, and shield them, to some extent at least, by the weight of its influence, from the snares which beset them on every side. Violcnce and oppression of every kind may thusbo practised upon the colored church member by a white Methodist brother. without the possibility even, of making his complaint- -==s heardby thecliurch. And iftheRULERs are determined not to hear the cotnplaint of the injured persons, howvery far would they bc (Votn doing them justice! The baseness of this act of the General Conference should forever shut their rnouthg from ultering a word concerning ihe oppressions and iniquity of Popery. 3. The course taken by the authorities of the church toward theabolilionists, has been unjuslifjable and oppressive. Thcy have pursued abolition as though that were itselfacrime, which would shui every anti slavery Methodist out of heaven. The church has no authority tomakethat a crime which is not forbidden by the word of God, and whcn it does so, it usurps a power which was never conferred uponit by the great Ilead of the church. Nothing is properly an effenee, except it bc something contrary to the will or word of God, or clearly deducibie therefrom. I3 Aboliüonism uiiy where condemned in the Scriptures? Yet it'rnis been accounteda crime by the aulhoritiesof the church. The New York anaual conference rersolved as the sense ofihatbody: That any of its members or probation-, ers who inay patronize Zion's VValchmaii' uy writing in commeudatioñ of its charac ter, by recommonding itto our people, by ublaining subscribers, or by collecliugor remitting monies fór it, shall bc considered guilty ol' indiserction, and be ceiumred by the Conference? Patronizing a paper called Ziou's VVaJcü man, is made a disciplinable ofTence. it 3 not alledged that it is a licentiou?, immoral or infidel paper: not at all. But t is luiowu to be an Abolition paper, and that is enough. The members of the conference had just as much authority to adjudgo a church inember deserving of censure, who should wear his hat in presence of the Bishop,as to pass the rcsoluiion above. In doingeitlier, they usurp authority nev. er guaranteed lo them by our holy religión, and expresely viólalo a principie laid down by the General Conference of 1828, which was as foliinvs: ''Our minister and membera ofcvery class, are entitled to the FULL LIBERTY OP SPEECH &THE PRESS, EQUA1.LY WITH ANY 0T11ER CITI2ENS OF THE UNITED STATES.' This vas in the days of her tsimolicity, beforethe iydra-headed monster Slavery liad shown tself in the fqrm of EPISCOPAL OP5RESSIO. and ECCLES IASTICAL HISRULE.Patronizing Zion's Watchimn is by the Michigan Annual Conference dcemed an ofTenco calling for the interfercnce of the government of the church. This Conference has created a new crime. It declares "that those preachers which take acovrse calculated tovxjure ourofficialperiodica.lt to give plaee to ubolition or otherperiodicals,violate1heir obligations to the church nnd should be dealt with accordingly." - Wbat obligntions have the church inerabers entered into to sustain "our periodicals" let them contain what they will?- Is a Methodist bound to be a subscriber for life, and be liable to cliurch discipline becausehe discontinúes "owr" paper and subscribes for another, or because he re.oommentls to his neighbor to do ihesame? Besides, tho rule is the most indefinite ihat ever was put togclher. "A cour?u calculated to injure our periodicals," nrn mean any thing the Conference choo.-rs to have it mean . It is a gross invasión uí the rights of individual church members. It has been the poliüy of the "primo ministers," to drive abolitionists from the church, as far as possible. Heretofore, however, onlyasmall portion have thought it necessary to secede. The greater part of them have dreaded the evils of disorgan iziiion, and have probably agreed in feeU ing with the sentiment ofEdmund Burke, "that wih or without reason, a revolution will be the very last resort of the thinking and the good." But there is reason tobelieve thnt even this lastresott will be a dopted by the abolitionists in the M. E. Church, unless tie unjust and vindictivc policy .vhich has been pursued towards them by the authorities or the church shall cease. Jt is their undoubted right to wita draw from all connection with anecclesiastical government which fails tofuliUthu purposes for which it wasfirstestablishei', and this right they will mostassuredly üm; when they shall have become fully convinced (liat all hope of a return, by the ïreat body of the church, to primitive purity, truih and righteousness, has forevei' 3assed awny.