him. It showed the deep and hallowed interest which the cause of abolition had excited. The question was,—Ought the members of christian churches to organize a union upon the subject of Slavery? His reply to that question was,-Yes! The union is desirable. It is proper-it is important it is indispensable-it is is overwhelmingly imperative. The inquiry had been started, what has the church to do with slavery? The answer was-Every thing. The honor, the purity, the usefulness, the glory, nay, the very existence of the church was concerned. The churches at the south had to do with slavery. Slavery was upheld by the churches. Essentially wicked, it had no self-sustaining energy. Were the sanction and participation of otherwise good men withdrawn, it would be condemned and annihilated with the common consent of mankind. The Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and some other minor denominations of Christians were at the present time the pillars of the hateful fabric. Hundreds of ministers were slaveholders. Thousands of professing christians were slaveholders. The minister of Christ was paid out of the hire of the laborer, kept back by fraud. Church property frequently consisted of slaves. There were many human beings, who, when asked by whom they were owned, replied-By the congregation! The followers of Christ buying, branding, bartering, toiling, and debasing God's image, and God's poor daily robbed to support the ordinances of a just and equal God, who hath made of one blood all nations of men! In view of these things would it be said, the churches had nothing to do with slavery? Had northern Christians no regard for the honor of their religion-the purity of the body to which they belonged? Must every sin be boldly denounced but the sin of slaveholding? Must the harlot, the swindler, the gamester, the Sabbath-breaker, the drunkard, be thrust out of the church, and the slaveholder kept in, and soothed, and excused, and long and labored apologies framed for him and the abomination with which he stood connected? Was such a course a just or impartial one? If a man was known to sit down and spend an occasional hour in shuffling and exchanging pieces of painted paper, he became the subject of church discipline, and

if he persisted, was ejected from the visible church of Christ. But thousands of slaveholders were permitted to gamble with immortal souls-speculate in human bloodredeemed beings-and were all the time recognized as worthy members of the church of Christ, and were comforted, first by the direct countenance, co-partnership and participation of their own ministers, and next, by the silence and fellowship of northern professors of the same denomination. The southern churches were thoroughly corrupt, and would remain so as long as the churches of the north refrained from bearing a testimony for God against their crimes.

One fact would show the state of feeling amongst Christians at the south. The editor of a religious newspaper, the Charleston Southern Baptist, had recently stated in behalf of his brethren around him, the following views: 'We do not contemplate Slavery with hatred and horror, and our southern people do deny in the abstract, the injustice of slavery. We think that we can prove that slavery is not necessarily founded on injustice !'

Mr. Thompson proceeded to support the motion for an organization, at considerable length, and advanced a variety of arguments and illustrations, which, as we cannot correctly report, we must pass over. He concluded by saying-My hope is in the churches. I earnestly desire that the abolition feeling of the North may flow onwards towards the South, through the sanctifying channels of the Christian churches. There are millions in this and every land, whose help I should deplore, unless checked and controlled by the wisdom and authority of those who fear God. The humble, prayerful and believing follower of Christ is the man to whom we must look. The man who seeks and enjoys the royal privilege of audience with the Deity. The man that grasps the promises, that in Christ are yea and amen to those that believe. The man who looks to rescue, not the slave alone, but the slave's master-to this man we must look. I love the cause in which we are engaged too well, to wish to see it under the conduct of irreligious, and therefore irresponsible men. I feel little anxiety to enlist the unsanctified eloquence of the demagouge. I would not make a speech to win a

rabble multitude that would cover the spacious common that adorns your city; but I would weep and plead till midnight, or the blushing of the morn, to gain the righteous man whose faith, when exerted, grasps omnipotence, and whose effectual fervent prayer would avail to the speedy overthrow of the unhallowed institution.

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MR. THOMPSON'S FAST LECTURE.

In these days of slavish servility and malignant prejudices, we are presented occasionally with some beautiful specimens of christian obedience and courage. One of these is seen in the opening of the North Bennett-street Methodist meeting-house, in Boston, to the advocates for the honor of God, the salvation of our country, and the freedom of enslaved millions in our midst. As the pen of the historian, in after years, shall trace the rise, progress and glorious triumph of the abolition cause, he will delight to record and posterity will delight to read, the fact that when all other pulpits were dumb, all other churches closed, on the subject of slavery, in Boston, the boasted 'CRADLE OF LIBERTY,'-there was one pulpit that would speak out, one church that would throw open its doors in behalf of the down trodden victims of American tyranny, and that was the pulpit and the church above alluded to. The primitive spirit of Methodism is beginning to revive with all its holy zeal and courage, and it will not falter until the Methodist churches are purged from the pollution of slavery, and the last slave in the land stands forth a redeemed and regenerated being.

On Fast Day morning, 9th inst. Mr. Thompson gave a very powerful discourse from the pulpit of the Bennettstreet meeting-house. The house was thronged to excess at an early hour; and although the crowded auditory had to wait for the appearance of Mr. Thompson, an hour beyond the time appointed for the meeting, (he having had the erroneous impression that the services commenced at 11, instead of 10 o'clock,) yet their attention was rivtted to the end.

Mr. Thompson took for his text the 28th chapter of Isaiah, exclusive of the two last verses. He stated that he had made choice of the chapter just read, because of its full, significant, and emphatic bearing upon that grave and interesting topic, to which it was expected he would that day draw the attention of his hearers. The text contained all that was necessary to illustrate the importance of attention to the subject of slavery, and explain the duties connected with that subject. It pointed out the consequences flowing from a faithful discharge of those duties, and moreover, directed us to the means by which we were to bring others to a sense of their sins, and the discharge of their obligations. Thus was the subject in its length and its breadth, brought before us.. Founding our remarks upon the word of God, and carefully drawing our directions thence, we should be kept from falling into error, touching our faith and practice.

To whom was this chapter addressed?

The chapter was manifestly addressed, not to the profane, ungodly, and openly irreligious, but to those who professed to serve God-persons scrupulously attentive to the externals of piety. Declare unto MY PEOPLE their TRANSGRESSIONS-unto the HOUSE of JACOB their SINS.'unto those who seek me daily, who delight to know my ways, who ask of me the ordinances of justice, who take delight in approaching to God, who fast often, who afflict their souls, who bow down their heads as bulrushes, who spread sackcloth and ashes under them. Shew unto these their transgressions and their sins.

What were the sins of this people?

1. In the day of their fast they found pleasure. It was not a day of inward mortification-of penitent prostration of soul-but of pharisaical and self-complacent attention to outward forms and ceremonies, the observance of which obtained for them amongst men the reputation of superior sanctity.

2. On that day they exacted all their labors. While appearing to serve God, they were robbing the poor-multiplying tasks-growing rich by the labor of their slaves at

home.

3. They fasted for strife, and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Their fasts were too frequently