Every day's observation teaches us, that much the largest portion of the religious community, by the course they are pursuing towards the anti-slavery cause, not only stand in the way of the slave's emancipation, but bring discredit upon the religion which they profess to love. It not unfrequently falls to our lot to hear a justification of slavery from the lips of those who name the Saviour with reverence, and to hear them denounce those who wish to remember “those in bonds as bound with them.” Ten years ago, to bear the name of an Abolitionist, was to bear the character also, of fanatic, disorganizer, incendiary, troubler of the peace of the church, &c. Times have changed somewhat for the better; but still the religious with a few exceptions, stand in the way of emancipation, and are the great bulwark of slavery; and not only so, but see the effect their action has upon religion also.

The following extracts are from a sermon recently delivered by the Rev. W. W. Patton, of Hartford, Connecticut. Will not the person into whose hands this little tract may fall carefully read and thoughtfully ponder its solemn truths?—not the less true because less grateful.

“Our investigation of this subject will not be even generally complete, unless we notice the effect produced upon many of the opponents of slavery, by the past action of the church. The truth is precisely this, unpalatable as it may be to the mass of the churches. 0002 2 There are many ardent advocates of Anti-Slavery principles, men, who, from the bottom of their hearts, loathe slaveholding, who axe moral in their lives, men of truth, of charity, of honesty, of moral daring, from whose lips no oath, no impure word proceeds, but who, nevertheless, are thoroughly infidel in their principles. I could name some of the most prominent, if necessary. I have heard them denounce the Bible, and have more often read their words of condemnation. Their number is increasing, and their principles are successfully instilled into minds, whose ardour out-weighs their judgment. Every year that passes, witnesses the conversion of many from Christianity to infidelity.

“I am well aware that pro-slavery ministers have derived an argument, from these very facts, against the anti-slavery cause. They have denounced it as tending to infidelity, and made the opinions of some, attached to the party, a text, from which to warn their people against labouring for the slave. I am as keenly alive to the evil influence of the Anti-Church abolitionists, as firmly opposed to their extravagance of opinion and action, as willing publicly and privately to deprecate their course, as are those to whom I have referred. But, nevertheless, I have a word of truth, in the name of crushed humanity and of the living God, to speak to these ministerial friends of oppression.

“Rail on, scoff on, at this infidelity—if you please; but know two things, that you scoff at the work of your own hands, and that the longer you continue your position, the larger will be the number of such infidels who will attack the church. Nay! start not at this announcement, as though it were something strange. I re-affirm it, that the infidelity of certain abolitionists, whose names have become a by-word with you, is occasioned by your conduct. You often call them ‘the troublers of Israel.’ I will answer in their behalf, out of that blessed book 0003 3 which your inhumanity has brought into contempt: ‘And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel: but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.’ There was a time when these men believed in the religion of Jesus Christ, when they attended upon the worship of God in the sanctuary, and respected the ambassadors of the Saviour. What has occasioned the sad change over which I, as well as yourselves, mourn? Hear me, ye ministers and church members who have been false to humanity and to God, in the cause of the slave! These men were sensible to the wrongs inflicted on their brother-man; they saw the scourge which descended upon his naked body, and buried itself in his quivering flesh; they beheld him as the tear ran down his cheeks; they listened to his groans—his cries for help thrilled through their hearts; they were witnesses of the degradation of body and soul to which he was reduced, and were roused to action as he crouched before them, spoiled of his rights—a miserable dehumanized chattel. Their souls, burning with anxiety to abolish a system which thus outraged millions of their fellow-men, they came to you, expecting that the ministers and followers of the compassionate Saviour would remember those in bonds as bound with them! What was the reception with which they were met? You denounced them as fanatics; you refused to open your houses of worship, that the voice of the slave might be heard; you defended the slaveholder, and declared that the Bible sanctioned the claim of property in man; you admitted slaveholding preachers and professors to your pulpits, and to your communion tables; and were, in fact, so busy in ‘tithing mint, anise and cummin,’ in regulating church government and correcting heretics, that you ‘omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith,’ With you joined the 0004 4 theological seminaries, the religious press, the ecclesiastical bodies, of the land, all asserting that the rights of the master were guarantied by the book of God. One extreme begets its opposite. They took you at your word— They believed that the Bible did sanction slavery, and, as their consciences condemned it, they followed out the path you prescribed, and cast away the Bible. I do not defend their course,—but I charge its guilt in a great measure upon you. And now what is the result? Your indifference to humanity, your wanton practical perversion of the sacred scripture, drove them to ‘ come-outerism’ and infidelity; and now, forsooth, you strengthen yourselves in opposition to anti-slavery principles, by reference to their irregularities! This reacts upon them, and they again upon you, and thus the breach widens, the evil increases, the cause of emancipation suffers, and the Bible is dishonoured!

“A few words in conclusion, and I have done. My hearers, the present crisis is one of intense interest to the true follower of Christ. A new race of infidels has arisen, not profane, unchaste, immoral, as were their predecessors, but evincing a regard for God, for truth, for humanity, for morals, and whose complaint is, that the churches are arrayed against God, against truth, against humanity, against sound morals. It is an evil hour when Infidelity can marshal its forces, with Humanity for its watchword, with the conscience of the world on its side, while Christianity, in the hands of those who betray it, leads its host to battle for oppression. In such a conflict, infidelity must triumph—the Bible must fall. Then will be true of the church, what was anciently said of Jerusalem:—All that pass by, clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?”

Issued by the “Union Anti-Slavery Society,” composed of Members of the M. E. Church.