Happily, by universal consent, one hitherto impracticable difficulty in the reconstruction of the southern social state has been obliterated; and Christanity has now the fairest of opportunities to accomplish for the colored race, all which it could ever accomplish for the freest of human beings. I say Christianity; since it is a grievous mistake to suppose that Christianity has ever sanctioned slavery, though it has endured it, and not interfered with it, as a civil institution. So our Saviour endured the system of Roman taxation, and paid his tribute punctually to a Roman emperor; while in direct reference to another Roman emperor, one of his apostles-the very chiefest of them, as some will have it—said most explicitly, "Honor the King."* Did our Saviour approve the laws, which governed the collection of internal revenue in the Roman Empire? Did St. Peter approve the tyranny and bloodthirstiness of Nero? No more did Christianity approve of slavery, when it bade those in bondage obey their masters. The real sentiments of Christianity respecting slavery can be seen in the antidote, which it offered a baptized slave for his sad subjection—an antidote such as no system of philosophy, or ethics, or political economy, ever gave him, or ever could give him. It pronounced him the freeman of his God! This was a comfort, which no * 1 Peter, ii, 17.

+See 1 Corinthians, vii, 22. St. Paul could scarcely pronounce, to my mind, a higher condemnation of slavery, per se, than by maintaining

earthly affluence could buy for him; nay, a privilege which no earthly potentate could confer upon him. Wherefore, Christianity, and the church after her, inculcated the doctrine that no one-no one-within their pale, could be degraded or impoverished in the eye of all eyes, the eye of God, by any involuntary predicament or condition.

The church, I mean the church catholic, primitive, and apostolic-the church which we believe has been transmitted to us from earliest times, and which we profess our faith in, in the Creeds-this church began at once to modify and to repress slavery, to the best of her ability. Doubtless, it was a conflict of ages with human governments, and above all with human purses. It was the purses of London merchants, which forbade the British Ministry to listen to the importunities of South Carolina, when, before the American Revolution, it prayed that no more slaves might be imported into Charleston. It is a battle with filthy lucre, which the church catholic has had to fight, that the man, whom it would fain hold in life-long bondage, might be, all the while, God's freeman. And yet it has been argued, a thousand times, that, in his Epistle to Philemon, he encouraged a fugitive slave-law. He did no such thing. He fully sustained the doctrine, that no baptized person should be held in bondage. He enjoined upon Philemon (as he had a right to do, Philemon being a professed Christian), to receive Onesimus as “not now a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved" (see verse 16), or, as the Greek fully authorizes me to render the passage, “as no longer a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved." That is, receive him as your equal and your brother; for, inasmuch as he is a freeman (or made free, as the margin has it) of the Lord, his servitude with you, as a Christian, has forever ended!

in establishing as one of her axioms of Christian law, that the freeman of God should be the freeman of man likewise. But, happily, the axiom has been established; and I may now announce to you as a self-evident Christian principle, that no one, be his nation, his rank, or his color what they may, should ever be held in bondage, who has had the name of the Trinity invoked upon him, and the sign of the cross impressed upon his brow. That blessed name, that blessed sign, ought to be a complete protection to any one, be his color or his quality what they may, from the degradation of servitude. That protection was accorded peacefully in Mexico and Russia: England, I am sorry to say it, left out the Christian reason for manumitting her bond-servants. In our own dear land (how much sorrier am I to say so), liberation for the slave has been extorted, by the red right hand of war. But, come by what instrumentality soever, it has come at last, with apparent security. And may God Almighty grant, that it never be abused by friend, or wronged by foe!

I cannot stop here, my brethren, to indulge in comments upon the offices and influence of government, upon the condition of those who have been emancipated from thraldom. Time will not permit me; and, moreover, I cannot but think such a topic belongs rather to others. But this I may say, and this I ought to say, as Christ's minister, there is now a future of hope for a down-trodden race, if Christianity may

bring to bear upon them, all her beneficent and elevating influences and inspiratious. I will never despair of the civil, as well as the moral regeneration of any beings, for whom Christ died, so long as Christ's religion may be theirs, in its whole fullness and freedom. Let Christianity then baptize the African as the freeman of man. Let her educate him as such. Let her instruct him as such, how to lead "a godly, righteous and sober life." Let her marry him as such, and give him a home as inviolable as the white man's. Let her offer him a welcome at her goodliest altars. Let her follow him to the grave, with the same commitment which is bestowed upon the highest of human society. And if they who have been esteemed fit to be goods and chattels only, do not reward such treatment, then we may reverse the prophet's petition, and pray for the coming of a day, when the sharp edge of chastisement shall awaken them to sensibility.

But that day, my Christian hopes prompt me to believe, will never come to haunt us with the spectres of ingratitude. Christianity has never failed with the most refractory of human races. It has now but to have its legitimate influence, and we may apply to our united country, the promise of days long gone.

And to the South, Keep not back;'

Bring my sons from far,

And my daughters from the ends of the earth:
Even every one THAT IS CALLED BY MY NAME."*

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.†

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE STATE STREET METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

BY CHARLTON T. LEWIS, ESQ.

At the close of winter, it is the custom of the Christian part of the nation to observe a day of fasting and humiliation. Many had looked forward, some months ago, with heaviness and anxiety to that day, as it approached. But the nearer it came, the greater was our success in our national struggles; and the whole sky was brightening with triumph and hope, so that the fast lost all its sorrow and became a jubilee. Soon after, the hope was more than realized; the land was filled with joy and exultation; and our late good President, referring all blessings to their source, appointed the twentieth day of April as a day of thanksgiving to God, for his goodness to the naIsaiah, xliii, 5, etc.

*

t Ephesians, iii, 20, 21.