sciences while guilty of this tremendous "all deceivableness of unrighteousness?" You say, "the slave is always exposed to evils in their very worst degree and form, from the hands of a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and avarice may suggest"❞—you know, that all these evils are perpetually realized by colored christians, and from the hands of the officers and members of our church; and yet the task master meets with no censure, no interruption, no discipline and no suspension, but is caressed, flattered, dignified with imposing titles, and not only journeys on to eternity with a palpable lie in his right hand, but blindfold leads his willingly deceived flock also to the judgment of God, there too late to learn that human expediency and carnal policy only receive the accursed doom which the Son of God will denounce against "the fearful, the unbelieving, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Revelation xxi. 8, 27; and xxii. 14, 15.

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia, in the year 1787, promulged similar doctrines and injunctions; they were occasionally repeated, until the year 1818-then in an elaborate form the subject was concocted; and we have already seen, slavery was denounced as unchristian; speedy abolition urged; all delay branded as hypocrisy and a cloak for sin; the immediate melioration of the degraded state of the people of color recommended; and church Sessions and Presbyteries were enjoined to exercise discipline, censure and suspend all transgressions of justice and benevolence, so far as equity and kindesss can be exhibited by a slaveholder. Fifteen years have revolved, and what has been achieved? Not one single object so pompously enumerated by the General Assembly.

What preacher resounds the duty to abolish slavery, what minister of the gospel puts away the stumbling block of his iniquity? The Presbyterian church, so far as slavery is concerned, has neither "ceased to do evil, nor learnt to do well. They have neither washed nor made themselves clean, nor put away the evil of their doings from before the eyes of the Lord. The oppressed are not relieved; the fatherless are not judged; they smite with the fist of wickedness. The bands of wickedness are not loosed; the heavy burdens are not undone; the oppressed go not free; the yoke is not broken;

they deal not their bread to the hungry; the cast out poor they bring not to their house; they cover not the naked; and they hide themselves from their own flesh." Isaiah i. 16, 17; and lvii. 4-7. Well, therefore, may we dread lest the Lord should speedily say of us as he did of the Jews, "When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood. Bring no more vain oblations;-the calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity even the solemn meeting.— They are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah i. 10-20. It is self evident that the long suffering of God, and the patience of man, in reference to slavery, are nearly exhausted. Slavery must and slavery will be abolished, in this union, within seven years. "The wild and guilty fantasy, that one man is the property of another," cannot longer be defended, except by men who have abandoned all moral sensibilities and conscience, and who have become incorrigible in transgression. There is not an intelligent reflecting person upon earth, who does not even instantly perceive that slaveholding and christianity, as our General Assembly truly maintain, are "utterly inconsistent, and totally irreconcilable." No alternative exists; either the sanctuary must be cleansed, prior to the abolition of slavery, or it will be overwhelmed in the overthrow of the system. If our brethren, who are slaveholders, are solicitous to verify their title to christianity, and to demonstrate that they are sincere in their abhorrence of slavery and their wish for its extermination, let them come forward now, and by their voluntary act, obey God rather than man, and abolish slavery, every one for himself. Let others do as they please; it his duty, without delay, to effect the abolition of slavery. He must proclaim liberty to his own captives; then we will hail him as a penitent sinner who has brought forth "the fruits of righteousness;" but if he gripes the descendants of the kidnapped Africans, until the mandate of Omnipotence has crumbled the shackles of slavery into impalpable dust-we shall hold his christianity, even then, as of no more sterling value than now. He would be exactly in the situation. of a felon, who, having robbed the bank, upon his discovery, is

forcibly divested of his plunder, and so situated, that he can steal nơ more. Just such will be the coerced honesty of every slaveholding professor of religion, who pertinaciously refuses to emancipate his slaves, until resistless authority, in some mode, hinders him from longer grasping the produce of their toil, and their most precious and sacred rights."

Now then, brethren, to your duty. Every thing claims that you immediately "efface that blot of our holy religion," slavery, from the church. Banish all the pleas of expediency, and substitute gospel honesty. Cast away "the fear of man, which bringeth a snare," and put your trust in the Lord; then shall you be safe. Enjoin upon the slaveholders, within a short definite period, to emancipate their slaves; or, if they refuse, assure them that they shall be excluded from the church. Put not off to the uncertain future your present obligations. Half a generation has passed away since the General Assembly met in 1818; hundreds of thousands of slaves have accused us before the throne of God; and tens of thousands of christian men-stealers have already answered for the "hardships, injuries, and evils, in their worst degree and form, which their inhumanity and avarice suggested and inflicted!” Remember Lot's wife! She lingered, and loved Sodom in preference to the word of God, and yet remains an awful monument of that procrastination which cries, "To-morrow !"—while God thunders in our hearing, "TO-DAY!"

New York, April 16, 1833.

PRESBYTER.