SCOTLAND'S REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF THE FOUR HUNDRED CONFEDERATE PREACHERS.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 28, 11 January 1864, Page 6 (Supplement)

SCOTLAND'S REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF THE FOUR HUNDRED CONFEDERATE PREACHERS.

A thousand Scottish clergymen, of all denominations, headed by Drs Candlish, Guthrie, Goold, C. J. Brown, Macduff, Lindsay, Alexander and Andrew Thomson, have sent the following " reply '' to the address of the " four hundred clergymen'' of the Southern States of America : — " \\ T e, the undersigned ministers of the churches in Scotland, in reply to the appeal made to us in the 'Address to Christians throughout the world,' recently put forth by the clergy of the Confederate States of America,' feel bound to give public expression to our views, lest our continued silence should be misconstrued, as implying either acquiescence in the principles of the document or indifference to the crime which it seeks to defend. " We refer of course to a single topic — that of slavery — as it is handled in the address. We desire to say nothing inconsistent with our country's attitude of strict neutrality as regards the war raging across the Atlantic. We dp not discuss any of the political questions connected with its origin, progress and probable issues. We offer no opinion on the measures adopted on either side. Nor are we to be regarded as shutting our eyes to the past and present sins and shortcomings of the North in relation to the African race. The one object we have in view is to express the deep grief, alarm, and indignation with which we have perused the pleading on behalf of slavery in general, and American slavery in particular, to which so mauy servants of the Lord Jesus Christ have not scrupled to append their names. With the feeblest possible incidental admission of ' abuses ' which they may ' deplore iu this, as in other relations of mankind,' we find these men broadly maintaining, in the most unqualified manner, that 'the relations of master and slave' — 'among us,' they add, to make their meaning more explicit — ' is not incompatible with our holy Christianity. 1 They thank God for it, as for a missionary institution ; the best, as it would seem, and the most successful in the world. They hold it to be their peculiar function to defend and perpetuate it. And they evidently contemplate the formation of the Southern Confederacy upon the basis of slavery as one of its fundamental and permanent principles or elements, not only without regret, but 'with entire satisfaction and approval. " Against all this — in the name of that holy faith: and that thrice holy name which they venture to invoke on + ]■>*> c?rjp C e P c "'°tf"T ¥ »v*>ic'* trfi»t* lnl--(i ,!'"!•?, I'-i-'- 1 l"qu» (H-o'". , i iii.f> i iii <>f r i\ cor 1 - \i ■■ i . i/i (jr-.nec j r i^' \ fc r • •* <t * uti- , „ ■<•-) q ♦> "• fi t» i -

be*n regarded by the wkolobf Oliristen-j dooi.as' past ami pone. Apolo ists For slavery, attempting to shelter themselves and it under the authority of God's toord and the Gpspel*bf. Jesus Christ, are to he denounced as really, whatever may be their intention, the worst enemies of both. "■ All reasonable allowance, no doubt, should be made for the circumstances of -Christian ministers called in Providence to labor where slavery exists. ■Some soreness even on their part under what they regard as unjustifiable and dangerous movements on the other side might be excused as not unnatural. And if we saw them manfully lifting their voice on behalf of universal liberty, and setting themselves to aim. at the instant redress of the more flagrant of the wrongs incident to a state of bondage, we should be prepared calmly to listen to their representations as to the best and likest practical methods of promoting the present amelioration of the condition of the slaves, and securing within the shortest period consistent with safety, their complete and final emancipation. "We are reluctant to abandon the hope that, upon reconsideration, and in view of the sentiments now unanimously held and expressed on this subject everywhere else, all over Christendom, our American brethren may yet be induced to take up a position more worthy of our common faith than that which they at present occupy. But at all events, the obligation lying upon us, as things now stand, towards them, towards ourselves, towards the Church and the world, towards the Bible and the Gospel, is to record, in the strongest possible terms, our abhorrence of the doctrine on the subject of slavery which the Southern clergy teach, and upon which they act ; and to testify before ad nations that any State, Empire, or Republic constituted or reconstructed, in these days of Christian light and liberty, upon the basis of that doctrine practically applier', must in sight of God be regarded as founded on wrong and crime, and as deserving, not his blessing, but his righteous wrath."