church less corrupt than the state, she exhibits now just such a departure from primitive purity as is described by the prophet Ezekiel in speaking of the Jewish Church.—"Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, because of thy renown. Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and my silver which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them. And tookest thy broidered garments and covered them, and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them." Is it not the fear and the idolatry of man which makes so many of those who fill the sacred office of ministers of Jesus Christ stand dumb on the watch-tower; so many unclose their sacrilegious lips to stigmatize the God of Love as the founder of the system of American slavery—what but the deep corruption of the church could tempt her to cast over this bloody moloch her broidered garment, and try by snatching a few jewels to adorn her diadem from Ceylon and the Sandwich Islands, from Burmah, and from the Rocky Mountains, to turn away the public gaze from the leprosy which consumes her vitals.

Let us not be deceived by the seeming prosperity of our country. Babylon was filled with gold and with silver, and Belshazzars impious feast was crowned with wine and luxurious delicacies, yet even then the hand-writing on the wall was appointed, the doom of that great empire was decided in the court of heaven, and the irreversible sentence was soon pronounced upon her haughty monarch, "Thou hast lifted up thyself, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it." Let us not be deceived by the fair appearances of the church, her efforts, and her revivals. Slavery is the master sin of our country; it is twined around the horns of the altar—it is couched beneath the table on which are laid the sacramental elements—it rises rampant in our pulpits—its spirit may be seen stalking with unblushing effrontery through almost every temple of benevolence, every seminary of learning,[2] every Church of God where the white and the colored are as carefully separated as though the one was washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb, and the other was an unclean thing, whose very touch was contamination. We feel constrained to enter our solemn protest against this unrighteous practice in all its forms.—"God has created of ONE BLOOD all the nations to dwell on all the face of the earth," and whoever interposes a barrier to their living as brethren, breaks the harmony which He has established. Let the Church in America deck herself as she may with the Lord's jewels, so long as she cherishes the Hydra-headed monster slavery in her bosom, so long will her oblations on heathen shores be vain, her incense an abomination, her solemn meetings a mockery. Our souls are drawn out in tender sympathy to our dear brothers and sisters who are the victims of this cruel prejudice, may you experience that peace which the world can neither give nor take away, and rejoice in the promise that the last shall be first.