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as love. For with “the likeness of sinful he foregoes that right, and restrains that flesh” he took also every sinless infirmity | power, in order that he may save men “by and frailty common to our nature. He, The sacrifice of himself," and thus win new the Infinite One, voluntarily limited him right and power as man's Redeemer and self to the scope and measure of his crea- | Head Death, with all its unknown tures, and submitted, as one of them, to his horrors to his untainted nature, he chooses own law. For “though he were a Son, rather than life, that “through death he yet learned he obedience by the things might destroy him that had the power of which he suffered.” Surely, even the simple death, that is, the devil.” And the severest fact of the Incarnation is a more wonderful | pang of all the withdrawment of the “sign from heaven” than Israel had ever Father from him—though it forces forth beheld.

that loud and bitter cry, moves not his II. If, however, we can discern in the will nor changes his feelings towards God simple humanity of Christ a revelation of or man; for while bearing of our sins in his Divine power, how much more impressively own body on the tree,” he can get say, “ My do his sufferings and his death reveal the God," " Father, into thy hands I commend “ power of God”! He could say of his my spirit.” condition amongst men, “The foxes have With what deserved emphasis, then, may holes, and the birds of the air have nests, we say, “ Christ crucified” is “the power but the Son of man hath not where to lay of God!” Dearly as we prize the truth his head.” But while his outward life was that the death of Christ is the grand revemarked by privations and hardships which lation of Divine love, and deeply moving he never relieved, although he fed the mul as that view of the cross ever is, yet we titudes by his power, his spirit within him must admit that it passes human wisdom was continually grieved and burdened. to determine Contact with human misery and wicked

" Which of the numbers best is writ, ness tortured his pure and compassionate

The power, the wisdom, or the love." heart, and, ever foretasting the bitterness of death, he was truly “a man of sorrows, and

This, however, we may say, that if the

cross of Christ bear witness to the conacquainted with grief.” And when the last hour, with its power of darkness, came, it

stancy and perfection of Divine love, it brought such an overwhelming burden upon

also inspires us with confidence that He his soul, that he was constrained to cry

who laid down his life for us is "able to out, “My God, my God, why hast thou

save unto the uttermost all who come unto forsaken me?" Yet he yielded not; he

God by him.” If the Saviour is “love inendured unto the end. His constancy and

carnate," he is clothed with omnipotence,

and the most touching expressions of his self-sacrificing generosity vanquished his

love are the loudest testimonies of bis own human weakness and all the forces of the devil. Retaining even upon the cross

power. the possession of infinite power, wherewith

Yes, although the shame and sufferings he might have smitten his taunting foes,

of the cross were “a stumbling-block” to or answered their challenge to come down

the Jews, by whom a Messiah, * made perfrom the cross by some marvellous act of

fect though suffering," was blindly convengeance, he endured with patience and

temned; to those who believed, both Jews fortitude all their jibes and reproaches, and

and Greeke, Christ crucified' was “the amidst all the physical and spiritual agony

power of God and the wisdom of God.” of that hour, he prayed forgiveness for his

And still does the wondrous sight confirm

our faith and increase our joy. The penitent murderers, because " they know not what they do."

trembling with alarms, and the mature man Is not this verily “the power of God"?

in Christ, alike gaze on this scene, and fetch Perfect patience (and infinite might are

thence their peace and strength. For there,

in weakness, shame, and agony, is He who, joined together in “ Christ crucified.”

through that very suffering, is "mighty to Having power to deliver himself, he holds

save : " “ Christ crucified the POWER OF that power in abeyance by the stronger and nobler power of self-sacrificing love, though every shrinking nerve appeals against his

« The Cross ! it takes our guilt away,

It holds the fainting spirit up; resolved will. And having right to claim

It cheers with hope the gloomy day, obedience, as well as power to constrain it,

And sweetens every bitter cup.

God.

THE CONFLICT IN THE UNITED STATES. *

. BY THE REV. ALFRED C. THOMAS. DIVERSITY of opinion is not only possible, but common and even inevitable, on almost all subjects. We do not escape it in regard to the simplest things ; how much less in regard to complex questions. This diversity on matters of grave moment is often intensely painful, especially to minds who form their opinions with conscientious care, and who believe in man's responsibility for his beliefs. No one that loves truth can be indifferent about the diversity or agreement of the opinions of others with his own. To promote agreement is, to such a mind, not a mere duty it owes to personal convictions, but is demanded by loyalty to truth, and by a benevolent regard for the good of our fellowcreatures. All my readers will admit that the American crisis is a complex question; that the widest diversity of opinion exists in this country respecting it; that the greatest issues are involved in it; that we, as a nation, are profoundly interested in it; that the strongest motives prompt us to watch, study, and understand it; that we are involved in the most serious moral, religious, and political duties in regard to it; and that to bring the judgment of our country into closer harmony with the logical inferences of the facts of this crisis, is the duty of every Christian man.

Under these convictions I address the readers of THE CHURCH, and humbly implore their thoughtful attention to the facts and inferences now laid before them. “I speak as unto wise men: judge ye what I say."

Our brethren of the once prosperous and United States of America are engaged in the most deadly and deplorable civil strife the world has ever seen. This “irrepressible conflict” has become the subject of universal attention throughout the civilized world. Questions are asked, and opinions freely offered on it in the Parliament, the press, and at the firesides of our country. No questions respecting it are more frequently asked, and to none more conflicting answers given, than these : Had slavery anything to do with it? Is it the cause of it or not? The eagerness with which these questions are put, shows that in the mind of this country that is the point of our chief interest in it.

These important questions will be best answered by a careful answer to other questions bound up with them; for example: Is the American Constitution proslavery? Was it forned to favour slavery? It is often stated, and more frequently implied, that it does favour slavery. What is the truth ? American independence was the fruit of revolution; the rising of the great colonies of the West against what they deemed the oppression of our Government. The spirit that invoked and animated that revolution was the spirit of liberty, the spirit that places a nation's rule in a nation's will, not in a distant sovereign, or government, or aristocracy of wealth and station. That revolution was not a caprice, but a principle; not an accident, but a long-cherished growth. The men of the revolution were profoundly imbued with the spirit of liberty. In the Declaration of Independence they say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi: ness." This was the first time in the world's history that national life was based on this national political faith.

In the preamble to the Constitution they say, “ These are to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty." In one of the amendments to the Constitution these words stand: “ No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," instead of, 28 proposed by Virginia,“ No freeman.This was the spirit which gave birth to the American nation. Could it favour slavery ? Slavery existed then in their midst. England introduced and left “the accursed thing,” and was well content to leave it intact. Dreadful legacy! “ It was interwoven with domestic habits, pecuniary interests, and legal rights." So far were the framers of the Constitution from favouring it, so careful to avoid even implied sanction of slavery, that the words slave, slavery, and slave-holding, are excluded from it; and even the word servitude (first employed in reference to the rendition of fugitive slaves from the original slave States) was changed (on the motion of Mr. Randolph, of Virginia) into service, and unanimously adopted, for this reason,-that “ servitude was thought to express the condition of slaves, and service the obligation of free persons." Why this care P Because the founders looked forward to the early extinction of slavery, and wished their republic everywhere to enthrone liberty.

* It would not be convenient to make THE CHURCH a medium for the discussion of political topics. Mr. Mursell's article in our last Number having, however, given one view of the American struggle, deem it but right to present the other view to our readers, especially as it is presented in the above article by so able a hand as that of Mr. Thomas.-EDS.

As far as they could, they provided for this. In reference to the territory lying beyond the existing States, the ordinance of 1787 declares this to be its purpose : for “ extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty ; to fix and establish those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions, and governments, which for ever thereafter should be formed in said territory." Further, one of the articles of “compact between the original States and the people and States of those territories, to remain for ever unalterable, unless by common consent," provides, that “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should exist in the territory otherwise than as the punishment of crime."

This ordinance had the unanimous vote of all the States. True, the Constitution did not interfere with slavery in existing States, for the reason that it is a fundamental law of the Constitution to recognise the autonomy of each State, which is sovereign within its political jurisdiction ; but the national Government was by these men intended to be for ever free from slavery in all places of national legislation, and to promote its early abolition by the States. Jefferson said, “ Nobody wishes more ardently than I to see the abolition, not only of the trade, but of the condition of slavery ; and certainly nobody will be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object." Washington said, “It is among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished by law.” The Constitution was received and greeted with many such remarks as these : “ Slavery will never be introduced into the new States." “ Slavery was confined to the States now existing : it could not be extended.” “The principle of emancipation has begun with the Revolution.” “When the entire abolition of slavery takes place, it will be an event which must be pleasing to every generous mind and every friend of human nature.” Mr. Chase, the present Secretary of the Treasury, said in 1845, “There is not a line of the instrument which refers to slavery as a national institution to be upheld by national authority.” I am compelled by limited space to allow these facts to operate in the mind of the reader in favour of the conclusion, that the Constitution is eminently free from pro-slavery taint.

I ask in the next place, How and by whom has the legislation of the United States been made to violate the Constitution in favour of slavery? I presume no one needs to be told that much of the national legislation has been in favour of the continuance and extension of slavery. How has this come to pass with such constitutional checks to its extension? The Constitution decrees, that in each existing slave State the master shall have the right of representation for three-fifths of the slaves. This was probably intended as a censure upon slavery, by denying to the slave States the full number of votes to which they would be

entitl I had they been free ; manhood suffrage being the law for all the other States on national questions. This is the weak point of the Constitution. And as the strength of anything is the strength of its weakest part, so this has proved to be the measure of the actual strength of the Constitution in regard to slavery. It has been taken advantage of by the slave-holders to push themselves into the front rank of legislation. Having this power of voting, and being bound together by common ties, they have acted in concert, and their representatives in Congress have always worked with energy and vigilance in the special interests of the very small class to which they belonged. This aristocracy of slave-holders, like all aristocracies, sustained itself by making encroachments on liberty. The nation soon becoming divided into parties, this compact party made the price of its support the protection and advancement of slavery.

It soon became the dominant party; and for fifty-six years out of the seventyfour of American national life, it has held the reins of government. The slave. holders themselves number at the present time about three hundred thousand, and have nearly the whole voting of the South in their hands ; the uonslave-holding white population being for the most part without the franchise, and commonly designated “the mean whites," " white niggers,” “the poor trash,” &c., though they are about 51 per cent. of the population, while the slave-holders are but 4 per cent., and the blacks 41 per cent.

The government of the country being carried on by majorities, it will be seen how they acquired this majority. “Florida, a slave State with 47,000 white inhabitants and twenty-three millions of property, had as much influence in the United States Senate as New York, with its three millions of inhabitants and one thousand millions of property. And the 25,000 slave-holders of South Carolina had as much control of the Government as the 2,500,000 free people of Pennsylvania," each slave-holder having three votes for every five slaves he possessed. It was said of this party in 1845, “ It has upheld slavery in the district of Columbia and in the territories, in spite of the Constitution ; it has added to the Union six slave States, created out of national territories ; : .... it has detained in slavery multitudes who are constitutionally entitled to their freedom ; it has waged unrelenting war with the most sacred rights of the free, stifling the freedom of speech and of debate, setting at nought the right of petition, and denying in the slave States those immunities to the citizens of the free which the Constitution guarantees ; and finally, it has dictated the acquisition of an immense foreign territory, not for the laudable purpose of extending the blessings of freedom, but with the bad design of diffusing the curse of slavery, and thereby consolidating and perpetuating its own ascendency." Heavy as this indictment is, it is not half the truth. This party carried on the African slave trade, though it was contrary to law, and punishable with death; and during the last administration the Government connived at the escape of a Captain Latham from prison under sentence of death for this crime. This trade was carried on from New York with the connivance of the authori. ties. You will ask, How did this party master the forces of the free States ? The answer is mournful, but incontestable; viz., through the influence of foreign immigrants, and mainly through that of the Irish, not so much through the corruption of the native-born Americans. I cannot comment on this. This party, commonly known as the Democratic party, has employed all the authority of Government in the interests of slavery and in violation of the Constitution, until not only the slave, but the whole land, groaned beneath its oppression and insolence.

Let me ask further, What correction has been applied to this pro-slavery and anti-constitutional legislation ? and with what success! The slave trade of this country was abolished in 1807, after twenty-four years of agitation. In 1838 slavery in the British dominions ceased, after thirty years more of conflict, This struggle could not be without its influence on American sentiment in regard to slavery. About 1840 a party was formed called the Liberty party, with this platform of principles : Equal rights and fair wages for all, and the Union as it should be;" meaning that the Union should be in practice what it is in principle, in favour of the equality of all men in the eye of the law.

This is now known as the Republican party, holding the slave system in utter abhorrence, and its further extension into the territories of the Union as a gross violation of the Constitution, and infringement of liberty, but resolved that all its action in furtherance of its principles shall be strictly in keeping with the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

That party nearly carried the election of Fremont for President in 1856. against Buchanan. This was a warning to the South; a warning which they used during the next four years for their own purpose, inasmuch as they employed all the forces of the Union to prepare for dismembering it, in the event of this antislavery party carrying the next election. They filled the arsenals of the South with nearly every weapon of war belonging to the Union, thus stealing a march upon their political rivals for which they were unprepared, and which, had they known, they could not have prevented, for President and Government were all in league for the same purpose. This is matter of history. The Republican party carried the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, on this avowed principle: That the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom ; that as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, it becomes our duty, by legislation, whereever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; and we deny the authority of Congress, or a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States."

This is a plain avowal that slavery is not national according to the Constitution, and that its extension is in utter violation of the fundamental laws of that Constitution. Here then is an anti-slavery and constitutional party in twenty years rising from the command of about 7,000 votes to nearly 1,900,000 votes, and placing an anti-slavery President and Government in power.

(To be continued.)

THE SAVIOUR'S COMMENDATION.

BY THE REV. T. R. STEVENSON. " She hath done what she could : she is como aforeband to anoint my body to the burying."Mark xiv. 8.

HUMANITY is the same in all ages. It is on this ground that the historical Though laws, customs, and habits may portions of the Bible are of value to us. change, man himself is, for the most part, By showing us the lives of those wbo were unchangeable. “That which bath been is exposed to our temptations, and subjected now.” Vices and virtues sit by our fire to trials which we are called to bear, the sides, walk our streets, throng our marts sacred writers teach us how to guard of commerce, and frequent our haunts of against the power of our spiritual enemies ; pleasure, which existed before the confu and by sketching the characters of such sion of tongues at Babel and the destruc as served their God faithfully, and their tion of the world by the flood. Our Lord fellow-men lovingly, they stimulate us to acknowledges this fact when he says, “ As go and do likewise. It may not, therefore, it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be be useless for us, my readers, to enter, in in the days when the Son of man shall be thought, the house of Simon, in Bethany, revealed."

that we may gaze again at the well-known

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