| 890 divide the North against the South on the subject of slavery, we have thought it advisable to give the following proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterians in the United States upon the subject, viz:-
The unfinished business of the morning was taken up, viz: a motion to appoint a committee to draw up a minute expressive of the views of the house in deciding against the validity of baptism of Catholic Priests.
The motion prevailed.
The marriage question was postponed, and made the third order of the day for to-morrow afternoon.
The committee to whom was referred the memorials on the subject of slavery, beg leave to submit the following report:
The memorials may be divided into three classes, viz:
1. Those which represent the system of slavery as it exists in these United States as a great evil, and pray this General Assembly to adopt measures of the amelioration of the condition of the slaves.
2. Those which ask the Assembly to receive memorials on the subject of slavery, to allow a full discussion of it, and to enjoin upon members of our church, residing in States, whose laws forbid the slaves being taught to read, to seek by all lawful means the repeal of those laws.
3. Those which represent slavery as a moral evil, a heinous sin in the sight of God, calculated to bring upon the church the curse of God, and calling for the exercise of discipline in the case of those who persist in maintaining or justifying the relation of master to slaves.
The question which is now unhappily agitating and dividing other branches of the church, and which is pressed upon the attention of the Assembly by the three classes of memorialists just named, is, whether the holding of slaves, is under all circumstances a heinous sin, calling for the discipline of the church.
The church of Christ is a spiritual body, whose jurisdiction extends only to the religious faith, and moral conduct of her members. She cannot legislate where Christ has not legislated, nor make terms of membership which he has not made. The question, therefore, which this Assembly is called upon to decide, is this Do the Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, without renunciation of which should be made a condition of membership in the church of Christ.
It is impossible to answer this question in the affirmative, without contradicting some of the plainest declarations of the word of God.-That slavery existed in the days of Christ and his apostles is an admitted fact. That they did not denounce the relation itself as sinful, as inconsistent with Christianity; that slaveholders were admitted to membership in the churches organized by the apostles; that while they were required to treat their slaves with kindness, and as rational, accountable, immortal beings, and if Christians, as brethren in the Lord, they were not commanded to emancipate them; that slaves were required to be "obedient to their masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, with singleness of heart as unto Christ," are facts which meet the eye of every reader of the New Testament. This Assembly cannot, therefore, denounce the holding of slaves as necessarily a heinous and scandalous sin, calculated to bring upon the church the curse of God, without charging the apostles of Christ with conniving at such sin, introducing into the church such sinners, and thus bringing upon them the curse of the Almighty.
In so saying, however, the Assembly are not to be understood as denying that there is evil connected with slavery. Much less do they approve those defective and oppressive laws, by which, in some States, it is regulated.-Nor would they, by any means, countenance the traffic of slaves for the sake of gain: the separation of husbands and wives, parents and children, for the sake of "filthy lucre," or for the convenience of the master, or cruel treatment of slaves in any respect. Every Christian and philanthropist certainly should seek, by all peaceable and lawful means, the repeal of unjust and oppressive laws, and the amendment of such as are defective, so as to protect the slaves from cruel treatment by wicked men, and secure to them the right to receive religious instruction.
Nor is this Assembly to be understood as countenancing the idea that masters may regard their servants as mere property, not as human beings, rational, accountable, immortal. The scriptures prescribe not only the duties of servants, but of masters also, warning the latter to discharge those duties, "knowing that their master is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him."
The Assembly intend simply to say, that since Christ and his inspired apostles did not make the holding of slaves a bar to communion, we, as a court of Christ, have no authority to do so; since they did not attempt to remove it from the church by legislation, we have no authority to legislate on the subject. We feel constrained further to say that however desirable
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