The North Star (Rochester)/1848/01/14/To the Editors of the North Star
To the Editors of the North Star:
Gentlemen:—In the revolutions passed at the Yearly Anti-Slavery Meeting, held on Sunday, December 19th, in Minerva Hall and published in the North Star of Jan. 7th, there is one that particularly attracts my attention: not only on account of its intrinsic importance, but also on account of a circumstance which occurred at the time. It appears as the first resolution which was offered for the opinion of that meeting, and is a follows:
Resolved, That in assembling on this day for the purpose of lifting up our voice in behalf of the oppressed and plundered fellow countrymen, we but follow in the footsteps of Him who has said, "It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day."
That resolution appears to me important, because if the principle propounded in it be carried out, it opens up the whole question of slavery, as well as, I had almost said, the more important one of practical religion; tho' if both these questions be pursued to legitimate results, we shall find that they are only parts of the same subject. Living as we do, in the middle of the 19th century of the Christian era, it would appear at first sight almost preposterous to offer such a resolution, for the acceptance of so enlightened an audience.—But on the other hand, when we look around us, and perceive the superb and aristocratic establishments, called churches, with their stately architecture, their splendid ornaments and cushioned seats, denoting their relationship to the ritual ordinances of a former dispensation, we admit at once the appositeness of the resolution. The Great Master, at whose death the veil of the temple was rent, and who, as far as He was concerned, withdrew "the veil that was spread over all nations," sufficiently explained his mission, to leave no doubt upon the minds of the pure and simple-hearted, as to the true meaning and intents of His doctrine. But there was then, as now, another class of individuals who claimed to be preeminently the righteous; and although he sufficiently unmasked these hypocritical pretensions of superior purity, and denounced them in the plainest and strongest terms, we find at the present time the same love of outward show, the same attention to mere ceremony, the same "making clean of the outside of the cup and of the platter;" the same paying tithe of mint, and annise, and cummin; and of omitting the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; the same making of hypocritical long prayers and sad countenances, and of disfiguring of faces, "that they may appear unto men to fast," instead of the pure and noble ethics promulgated by Jesus Christ: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Although the Mosaic law contained the same sublime sentiment, it was necessarily in a more diffused form, and scattered among a variety of other precepts equally important at that period: "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man." "The stranger that dwelled with you shall be unto you as one born amongst you, had thou shalt love him as thyself." These precepts are only so many parts of the same principle of equity and love; but for the time being it was necessary that they should be enshrouded and interwoven with a variety of outward forms and ceremonies. This circumstance becomes self-evident when we take into consideration the ignorant and benighted condition of the surrounding nations; their superstitition; their idolatrous, lascivious, and cruel practices, and withal the general tendency of the unguided passions of man to induce him to gratify his sensuality and pride, made it necessary to observe strictly the outward forms and ceremonies of the law, until its inward principles were sufficiently engrafted upon the mind of man to prepare him for the more sublime doctrines of Jesus. It is not, under these circumstances, to be wondered at that the inherent ignorance and selfishness of our race, should induce the greatest portion of the Jews, as well as of other nations, to place their chief dependance for their acceptance with the Deity upon these outward forms and ceremonies. This was especially the case with the Pharisees at the advent of the Saviour. It appears that they wore garments of a peculiar shape, and bandages, with impressive mottoes, or sentences of scriptures written upon them: they were in the habit of ostentatiously giving alms to the poor, and making long prayers at the corners of the streets, "that they might be seen of men," and also of observing, very minutely every punctilio of the ritual law, as well as the traditions added to it by their over-zealous predecessors. And while they made this parade of the ceremonial and outward forms of religion, assuming that they were so much more righteous than others, they were guilty of the most grievous oppression and wickedness. We can hardly fail to recognize the wonderful resemblance in the position of the church of the present day to that we have described above. And when we look at the Great Harlot, and all her daughters, and remember that John told us that Anti-Christ was already in the world, we are impressed with the necessity of exposing this foul hypocrisy, this "gaping at a gnat and swallowing a came1." If Antichrist was then in the world was it not that dependence upon forms and ceremonies, instead of "the righteousness of the law?" that grasping at the shadow, and suffering the substance to escape, which St. Paul was continually combatting? (Rom. viii. 4: Gal. iii. 2: Col. ii. 17.) Suppose we admit, for argument's sake, the dogmas of the (so called) orthodox church there to be true; is there any man, at the present day, insane enough to believe that his attendance upon its outward ordinances, and his pretended belief in these dogmas will procure for him everlasting beatitude, when it shall please God to call him from this sphere of action? or is the church a ponderous political machine, got up, and kept up, for the purpose or covering up and concealing the blackest of crimes, under the specious mask of the religion on the meek and lowly Jesus.
I could almost wish to leave this question to be answered by those whom it most concerns; but actions speak louder than words. If we follow the course of this pretended church of Christ, from the age of the apostles downwards, we shall find its track so deeply marked in blood, that it has excited the deepest detestation to every liberal mind in every age. We have seen the superstition and persecutions of the Romish Church produce her own downfall, though yet she thinks she is no widow, by forcing half Europe into open infidelity and atheism. We have seen her oldest daughter, the Protestant Church of England, following so closely in her footsteps, until, according to statistical writers, three-fourths of her people are either citizens or dissenters, and many of her wealthiest citizens have been obliged to seek an asylum from her persecutions in this land of freedom (?) And what shall we say of this nondescript, many-headed monster, which has taken to itself the name of the Church of Christ in free America. Are the skirts of her garments free from blood? Let the present condition of the colored people in this country, and her silence, even in the northern states, upon the monstruous sin of slavery, answer; while in the southern states she is rhe open abettor of the crime: that crime which, as my friend Douglass truly said, included all others in the decalogue. Such gentlemen, are some of the circumstances which rendered the proposing of such a resolution necessary, as appears at the head of this communication, which, with your permission, I will take an opportunity to discuss in a future number.
RICHARD SULLEY.