or there, but we ourselves, are in a spiritually lifeless condition. The evidences we have before us. A state of death is a state of inaction."*

"The rubbish must be removed, and Zion must be rebuilt. There will be a separating from the nations. So it was in the Pentecostal. Ministers disconnected themselves from everything else. They would not even consent to distribute gold and silver, but deacons must be chosen for this very work. Look at the result. The people came forward and laid their possessions at the Apostles' feet. A man would be accounted a madman in this land who would do as these did under the Apostles' ministry. Let us take up our cross and follow Jesus." +

But we must hold our hand. These penitential utterances are sufficient to subserve our purpose; which is to show that a prevailing sentiment exists that the Gospel ministry of the present day are failing to come up to the standard of efficiency required by the vows which are upon them. But in this, as in much else, there is, we believe, a great amount of misconception on the part of the ministry, as well as upon the part of the public. A minister considers his life unsuccessful, unless he can show such brilliant successes as shall demonstrate clearly that he is a bright particular star. This result may flatter his pride, but it is not God's plan of promoting the kingdom of Christ in this world. It is the quiet men who are the successful men, though they may die without being conscious of having wrought much good; and in thus dying, they demonstrate the great truth connected with God's moral government of the world. His rule of action is this: "My glory I will not give to another, nor my praises to graven images ;" and the minister who aims at personal glorification in his ministry, must expect to be disappointed. He may do good; but, as a Paul may plant, and an Apollos water, yet it is God who giveth the increase, so God will take all the glory of the world's redemption to himself.

A remark here, and we have done. How does it come, that a body of men who exhibit so much humility in the practice of their sacred profession, should be so daring in their claims of a right to dictate in civil affairs?

* Church Memorial, p. 298.

† Ibid., p. 311.

CONCLUSION.

OUR labors are now terminated. Had not so many more pages than was anticipated been filled by the materials used, we should have closed with a somewhat extended répresentation of the points proved in our book. But, as the passing comments upon each subject discussed are often quite full, we must leave the intelligent reader to make his own generalizations. A few propositions, however, out of many that are fully demonstrated, may be noted, to serve as guides to those who wish to gain an intelligible view of the great problem before the country-the restoration of the Constitution, and the reconstruction of the Union, through the cooperation of the loyal population in the revolted States, and those who may return to their allegiance.

This, as we read events, is the great aim of the President, and is the only scheme for saving the country that has the merit of being both practicable and beneficent. A reference to a few of the points proved in this volume, will show that every other measure proposed can bring nothing but ruin in its train. Among other things, we have proved:

1. That the British theories on slavery are untrue, as applied to America; and that slavery is not necessarily a bar to the evangelization of the African race, but may be made greatly subservient to the promotion of that object.

2. That the ecclesiastical legislation, based upon the supposed truthfulness of the British theories, has been uncalled for, injudicious, and destructive to the harmony of the Church, and the peace of the country.

3. That, but for the ecclesiastical legislation at the North on the question of slavery, political abolitionism could never have had a basis upon which to found its action; and that, but for these

two causes combined-ecclesiastical and political abolitionismthe South would have had no cause of alarm for the safety of its constitutional rights, and would have felt no necessity of defending itself against aggressions from the North.

4. That the early anti-slavery writers, in their efforts to prove that slavery was sinful, were driven to the necessity of denying that the Apostles of Christ understood their duties in relation to Roman slavery; and that, by denying that the teachings of the Apostles are a proper guide to us now, on American slavery, they were laying the basis for the rejection of the Scriptures as infallible guides upon other moral questions, and thus promoting doctrines of infidel tendency.

5. That the converts to Christianity among the African race, in all the mission fields outside of the United States, are more than two hundred thousand less than the colored converts within the slave States; and that the Christian character of the converts in the slave States is at least equal to that of the converts in the Protestant missions anywhere throughout heathendom.

6. That the colored church-membership, in the slave States, is nearly ten times greater in number than the converts in all the foreign missions of all the American Protestant churches; and that it is almost double the whole number of converts in all the heathen missions under the care of all the churches of Protestant Christendom.

7. That the whole of the white membership in both branches of the General Assembly Presbyterian Church, in 1859, fell short of the number of the colored church-members in the slave States, to the extent of more than fifty thousand; and that the membership in the Scottish American Presbyterian Churches, in 1861, fell short of the number of the colored membership by more than three hundred and eighty thousand; and yet, these Churches were the first to pronounce slavery a barrier to African evangelization!

8. That emancipation does not necessarily improve the moral and physical condition of the colored race, but, on the contrary, in many instances, it has been injurious and ruinous; that careful moral training alone, under suitable constraint, can elevate

the colored people, whether in bondage or in freedom; and that as the Gospel is extensively preached to the slaves of the South, and with eminent success, the Churches can find no justification for attempting to interrupt that work by emancipation.

9. That the African race, wherever fully emancipated, and left free to act-though capable of fitful labor to the extent of supplying the actual necessaries of life — have proved themselves wholly unreliable in the cultivation of staple productions, such as now enter so largely into the commerce and manufactures of the world; that when thus set free, and left unaided by the superior race, they invariably show themselves incapable of making any intellectual or moral progress; and that this result has been so uniform, and so universal, that emancipation, in the southern States, must necessarily be expected to lead to an almost total suspension of the culture of their staple products, and the relapse of the colored population itself back again toward its original barbarism.

10. That the southern States have been increasing the annual exports of the products of their soil, until it had reached, in 1860, the value of more than two hundred millions of dollars, while the northern States supplied, of similar products, for export, not more, at any time, than fifty millions of dollars; and that the dissolution of the Union, or the emancipation of the slaves, would be equally fatal to the prosperity of the country, as it would deprive it of this immense amount of the elements of its foreign commerce.

11. That the success of abolitionism would prostrate, for generations to come, the agricultural interests of the West, by depriving its people of the only practicable market they have ever possessed; that the success of secession, in addition to affecting this market injuriously, would leave the Western agriculturist liable to the payment of tribute to the Confederacy, for the use of the Mississippi, and subject the country to the frequent recurrence of civil wars; and that neither emancipation nor secession can be allowed, as either would bring ruin upon the Northwest, as well as upon the country at large.

12. That with the light we now possess on the "Cotton Question," there can no longer be any doubt that the restoration of

the Union would at once enable the United States to resume and perpetuate the monopoly of the cotton markets, so as to make the world again tributary to us for that commodity, and restore to the Northwest its former prosperity, by once more putting it in possession of the free navigation of the Mississippi, and the profitable markets the Southwest affords for Northwestern productions.

13. That as the slave population of the South have made greater moral progress than the same number of Africans anywhere under the sun, whether slaves or freemen; and as, by the Constitution, the government is bound to protect all loyal men in possession of their slaves; there can be no argument for emancipation based upon the grounds of humanity, and much less can there be any justification of it upon Constitutional grounds: because the liberation of one-half the slaves, or those belonging to the disloyal, would render the remainder worthless in the presence of so many free negroes, and thus the innocent be involved in ruin along with the guilty-the government thus showing itself unable to protect its loyal citizens.

14. That the conservative men, both North and South, in allowing two antagonistic sectional factions to keep the country in a continual uproar, and, ultimately, to involve it in civil war, have been criminally remiss in the discharge of their Constitutional obligations, and are now justly suffering the penalty of their apathy to the safety of the Union.

The bearing of the question of the preservation of the Union can now be perceived. If the abolitionists succeed, the markets of the Northwest will be almost annihilated, and the foreign commerce of the country dwindle down to insignificance as compared with its former extent. If the secession movement prevails, every section of the Union will suffer, and the nation at large be ruined. But if the plan of the Executive is sustained, so that the Constitution and the Union shall be restored to what they were before the rebellion, and the secessionists on the one hand, and the abolitionists on the other, are forever driven into the insignificance they deserve, by the frowns of an indignant people, then,

* See opinion of Judge M'Lean, in the Dred Scott case, where he asserts that the right of the master to his slave "is guaranteed by the Constitution."