| 877 of some importance, originated, it would seem, by Dr. D'Aubigne. At a conference of one hundred and sixty clergymen and literary and theological professors, lately held at St. Gall Switzerland, he submitted a proposition for uniting all the Protestant churches in the world in a common confession of faith, thereby manifesting, "in contrast with the apparent unity of the Roman Catholic Church, their true and spiritual unity." The proposition contemplated the appointment of a committee to prepare a confession of faith, embracing all the fundamental truths embodied in all confessions of the Protestant faith, and to correspond with all Protestant churches. The movement met with universal approbation, and a committee was accordingly appointed.-Gazette.
(->) We have seen nothing that appears so emphatically according to our notions of the second beast as the above move to unite the Protestant powers of Christendom. If such a combination of the powers of man cannot do wonders, what can?
It is enough to rejoice the soul of a saint to think what an auspicious day he lives in!-Men's hearts are beginning to fail them. And the fig trees are leaving amidst all the trees of the forest: Behold summer is nigh; even at the doors.
MORAL TREASON.
The article below, may be taken as a fair specimen of the disunion of all the denominations of the old sectarian churches in the United States, upon the subject of slavery. If there be any that have not split (the North against the South) upon negro slavery in the church, they are ready to do it, and will the first fair opportunity. The best part of the holy farce is, that each becomes the original; in a split; and each accuses the other of Treason or moral Treason: Now which is which?
Paul the apostle must have had his eye upon just such a time as this when he spoke to Timothy as follows:
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God."
Now read the extract.
From the Louisville Journal.
METHODIST CONVENTION.
- -1845.
The convention met pursuant to adjournment, Bishop Andrews in the chair. Religious services by the Rev. G. W. D. Harris, of the Memphis conference.
Dr. Smith, of Virginia, rose in his place, and called up the resolution which he, in conjunction with Dr. Pierce, yesterday offered, instructing the committee on organization to bring in a report in favor of separation. Dr. Smith spoke for over two hours in a very plain, but eloquent style, in support of the resolution which they had offered. The audience was very large, and the attention sustained, during the whole address.
We should, said Dr. Smith, be equally unfaithful to the country as to the church. The decision of this high court of appeals, as he had already shown, declared it to be the law and long settled policy of the Methodist Episcopal Church to extirpate slavery from the States of our National confederation-unchecked by the policy and laws of the more immediately concerned.
Here Dr. Smith showed it to be a treasonable movement upon the part of the church, which, however, was not that form of treason known to the statute books, and which implied the taking up of arms against the State, but was nevertheless moral treason; a form of treason more disastrous in its practical operation and final results than that attempted by Aaron Burr and the unfortunate Blanerhassett, because, in its ultimate results, it involved the taking up of arms under a maddened religious, fanaticism more ungovernable than the waves that lash the ocean shore, or the tempest that lays waste the mountain forest. The only safe basis of compromise on which our union could operate conservatively, he felt assured the Northern majority would never consent to. Compromise, therefore, was at an end. He cited the fable of the kite and the cat, which, whilst it exhibited the only ground of compromising the existing difficulties in the church, produced a most thrilling effect.
He commented upon the epithets, "seceders," "disunionists," &c., which had been applied to the South by the editors of the principal church papers. He showed this to be a mere trick of those editors to involve us in the guilt of schism. It was sought to prove us schismatics, to divest us of our legal title to our houses of worship. He examined the property question, and showed that all attempts to deprive us of our houses or worship would prove abortive. He demonstrated that the general conference was but the creature of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and not the Church itself; that, therefore, to separate from the
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