"THE TRUTH IN LOVE."                 BOSTON: CONGREGATIONAL BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 1857. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by SEWALL HARDING, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. CAMBRIDGE: ALLEN AND FARNHAM, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS....

A benevolent individual, who has numerous friends and acquaintances both North and South, and who has had peculiar opportunities for learning the state and condition of all sections of the nation, perceiving the danger of our national Institutions, and deeply impressed with a sense of the importance, in this time of peril, of harmonizing Christian men through the country, by kind yet faithful exhibitions of truth on the subject now agitating the whole community, offered a premium of $100 for the

T he undersigned, appointed a Committee to award a premium of one hundred dollars, offered by a benevolent individual, for the best Essay on the subject of Slavery, "adapted to receive the approbation of Evangelical Christians generally," have had under examination more than forty competing manuscripts, a large number of them written with much ability. They have decided to award the prize to the author of the Essay entitled, " The Error and the Duty in regard to Slavery ," whom they find, on ope

BY REV. R. B. THURSTON. T he great and agitating question of our country is that concerning slavery. Beneath the whole subject there lies of course some simple truth, for all fundamental truth is simple, which will be readily accepted by patriotic and Christian minds, when it is clearly perceived and discreetly applied. It is the design of these pages to exhibit this truth, and to show that it is a foundation for a union of sentiment and action on the part of good men, by which, under the divine

I NTRODUCTION.—SOUTHERN COURTESY AND HOSPITALITY.—CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SOUTH AND NORTH.—NO ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE AT HEART.—THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BETTER.—A FREE INTERCHANGE OF SENTIMENT DESIRABLE.—SINCERE PATRIOTISM AND PIETY COMMON TO BOTH.—THESE AN EFFECTUAL SAFEGUARD TO OUR UNION AND GOOD-FELLOWSHIP . My dear Christian Brother ,—I embrace the first moment at my command since leaving your pleasant home, to express the gratification afforded me by my recent visit to the "Sunny South

A DIFFICULT AND DELICATE SUBJECT PROPOSED.—AGITATION OF IT UNAVOIDABLE.—CHRISTIANS NORTH AND SOUTH SHOULD GIVE THE DISCUSSION OF IT A RIGHT DIRECTION.—WE ARE ALL INTERESTED IN THE ISSUE.—NORTHERN DISCLAIMERS. My dear Christian Brother ,—In my last I intimated that I hoped you and I, by our correspondence, would be able to furnish the world a practical illustration of good-nature and kind feeling in the discussion of a subject that has been a fruitful source of trouble and unchristian invective.

T HE REAL SUBJECT.—NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH ANCIENT SERVITUDE.—NOR TO BE JUDGED OF BY ISOLATED CASES.—NORTHERN MEN COMPETENT AS OTHERS TO DETERMINE ITS TRUE CHARACTER.—SLAVERY IGNORES OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.—IS INCONSISTENT WITH OUR CONSTITUTION. My dear Friend and Brother ,—I propose in this and subsequent letters to take a brief, candid view of some of the prominent characteristics of American slavery. I speak of servitude, not as it existed in patriarchal times, for that is essentia

S LAVERY TRANSFORMS MEN TO CHATTELS.—SOUTHERN LAWS.—SLAVE-AUCTIONS.—MEN PLACED ON A LEVEL WITH BRUTES.—NO REDRESS FOR WRONGS.—IGNORANCE PERPETUATED BY LAW. My dear Christian Friend ,—A second characteristic of American slavery is, It regards human beings, declared to be in the "image of God," as "chattels,"—things or articles of merchandise. "Slaves," say the laws of South Carolina and Georgia, "shall be deemed, sold, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be chattels personal in the hands of th

D OMESTIC LIFE.—THE MARRIAGE RELATION.—DOMESTIC HAPPINESS A RELIC OF PARADISE.—ITS ENDEARMENTS.—ITS VALUE.—THE BARBARISM OF INVADING THE DOMESTIC SANCTUARY.—AN ILLUSTRATION. My dear Brother ,—I come now, in the third place, to speak of slavery as it is related to the endearments and duties of domestic life. On this subject my heart is full. I am almost afraid to speak, lest I say what I ought not; and yet I cannot keep silence. I can, in a good measure, sympathize with Elihu when he said,— "For

S ACREDNESS OF THE MARRIAGE RELATION.—GOD ALONE CAN DISSOLVE IT.—THE "HIGHER LAW."—SLAVERY SANCTIONS POLYGAMY AND ADULTERY.—RELATION OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN.—FEARFUL RESPONSIBILITY ASSUMED. My dear Christian Brother ,—My objections to any system of government that interferes at will with the family relation, and forcibly separates husbands and wives, parents and children, do not arise chiefly from the personal wrongs and bitter woes inflicted upon its victims. A contemplation of these is ca

T HE CROWNING EVIL OF SLAVERY.—PRECIOUSNESS OF THE BIBLE.—OUR CHART AND COMPASS ON LIFE'S VOYAGE INDISPENSABLE.—ORAL INSTRUCTIONS INSUFFICIENT.—DANGERS.—SHIPWRECK ALMOST INEVITABLE.—WITHHELD FROM THE SLAVE.—SHUTS MULTITUDES OUT OF HEAVEN.—AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY.—TESTIMONY OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY.—OF SYNOD OF KENTUCKY.—OF DR. BRECKENRIDGE. My Dear Brother ,—There is one feature of slavery, fourthly, which gives me more pain by far than any other, and I may say more than all others put together, and t

T HREE QUESTIONS SUGGESTED.—1. MUST SLAVERY BE PERPETUAL?—2. DOES THE CHURCH OF CHRIST SUSTAIN ANY RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS MATTER?—3. WHAT SHALL WE DO? My Dear Christian Friend ,—I fear I shall make myself tedious to you by dwelling so long upon this, to me, painful subject,—slavery. I will, therefore, in the present letter, finish what I have to say for the present, hoping that our future correspondence may be on more grateful themes. There are a few questions which are suggested to us by the br

BY REV. TIMOTHY WILLISTON. IS AMERICAN SLAVERY AN INSTITUTION WHICH CHRISTIANITY SANCTIONS, AND WILL PERPETUATE? AND, IN VIEW OF THIS SUBJECT, WHAT OUGHT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO DO, AND REFRAIN FROM DOING? Homo sum; humani nihil a me alienum puto.— Terence. Bear ye one another's burdens.— Paul....

A great moral question is, in this nineteenth century, being tried before the church of Christ, and at the bar of public sentiment. It is, Whether the system of servitude known as American slavery be a system whose perpetuity is compatible with pure Christianity? Whether, with the Bible in her hand, the church may lawfully indorse, participate in, and help perpetuate, this system? Or whether, on the other hand, the system be, in its origin, nature, and workings, intrinsically evil; a thing which