William Marsh to Frederick Douglass, January 21, 1856

For Frederick Douglass Paper.

NATIONAL AND CHURCH POLITY

Frederick Douglass, Esq., Dear Sir,—

Allow me a little space in your columns to express my sentiments on the allimportant subject of our National and Church Polity. However small my natural, or acquired abilities may be, I only ask you to give them their just weight, if worthy of your notice. I say, then, no man or set of men can be safe and wise politicians, who shut God out of their creed. Divine Revelation is the pricipal [principle] means of our knowledge of God, of our relation to Him, our responsibilities, and His reasonable and just requirements of us, as His creatures and subjects, and He our rightful Lord and moral Governor of the Universe. In these characters, appropriate to each, He demands an acknowledgement, both in word and practice. All short of this, is disobedience, and renders us liable to His power and displeasure. God is the source of life, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. Hence arises our obligation of subjection to Him, " for His is the Kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever" God is not only the original source, but the continual preserver, and up holder—" He upholds all things by the word of His power." "Hence there is no power but of God ;" all rightful, authority belongs to God. "God hath spoken once, (said David,) twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God"—all created power is from Him and limited by Him. "By me Kings reign and Princes deem justice. By me Princes rule, and Nobles, even all the judges of the earth; counsel is mine, and sound wisdom, I am understanding, I have strength." I am not writing these texts, supposing that I am informing others of these facts and truths, but of the importance, yes more; of the indispensable duty and necessity, of observing them. He that sinneth

against me, says God, wrongeth his own soul— all that hate me, love Death. Both civil and ecclesiastical authority, are of God's appointment, and, as such, are His deputed authority, and ought to be regarded accordingly. Notwithstanding, God has not vacated his throne, nor given unlimited authority to frail erring man. God declared His essential attributes to Moses, and the Israelites—and God said unto Moses, I am that I am, and he said, thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you—I am He that exists, implying self-existence, independence, unchangeableness, eternity, the source of existence and perfection. Again He said to them, and by the same authority, to us, when He delivered the law from Mount Sinai, I am the Lord thy God. God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God—I am Jehovah, the source of existence, and, consequently, of all power and authority. By this high authority, the grat Law-giver enforces obedience to the moral law. God alone is qualified to be the law-giver and judge to the universe.

The moral law, given by God himself, is an emanation of His own nature, and has its foundation in the nature of God and man, in the relation man bears to Him, and each other, and in the duties resulting from them, and is unmistakeable and universally obligatory. Scott.— Although God has appointed the authorities in Church and State, yet, as I have said, He had not abidicated His throne, nor resigned His supremacy as the moral Governor of the Universe. " For the Lord your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewards. He doth executure the judgement of the fatherless, and widow, and loveth the stranger in giving him food and rainment. Love ye therefore the stranger—thou shalt love him as thyself. Again, God standeth in the congregation (or congress) of the Mighty .; He judgeth among the Gods. "How long (says He) will ye judge unjustly, and accept the per-

sons of the wicked? Defend the poor, and fatherless, do justice to the afflicted, and needy. Deliver the poor and needy, rid them out of the hand of the wicked—slaveholder. This is so plain a reproof of our Congress, Church and Nation, that it hardly needs a comment. These commands are a "higher law," so much ridiculed, and profanely made a by-word, to the disgrace of our so-called Christian nation. They are not spoken by one of subordinate authority—as merely higher, but by the supreme Jehovah— by Him who timely, and kindly admonishes us, when He says, "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you—ye have heaped up treasure for the last days. Behold(!) the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, (while the poor slave has sweat and toiled, in hunger and nakedness, to support you,) ye have nourished your hearts, (like the senseless ox,) as in a day of slaughter," and as insensible to the exuberant goodness of God, and as regardless of the high behests of heaven as he. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass (the stupid ass) his master's crib; but Israel (nor Americans) doth not know, my people do not consider!" Ought we not, Mr. Editor, to pause, and consider our responsibilities to God, as our law-giver and Judge, and to the present, and future generations yet unborn? Are we not responsible for the gift of revelation, and for the improvement we make? If all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, how important that we improve it as such, and how criminal to slight and neglect it? What contempt is cast upon the authority of God! How important it is, that we receive the instructions given by the Prophets to God's ancient people, as given directly to us, under like circumstances, and receive their reproofs, in the same manner, and

also those of Christ, and his Apostles, else we shall get no benefit from divine revelation.— Their instructions were grounded on the moral law, and their reproofs were for its violation.— The moral law being immutable and universal. is obligatory on all, equally so, on Nations and Churches, as such, as on individuals. They are responsible in a twofold sense—liable for their corporate acts, when they violate the great principles of natural justice, and moral requirements of God revealed in his word, to be involved in national judgments in this life, and also to be judged at that Day when God will decide each one's secret motives, and influence, either for good or bad, according to his standing, capacity, and trust reposed in him. Hence the different responsibilities—to whom much is given of the same will be much required. This rule extends to Nations and Churches, as well as to Individuals. How important, as well as solemn, the consideration and reflection of the wide spread influence of our national acts, and laws! How solemn and awful the weight of responsibilities which rest on those to whom this trust is committed, and what is more solemn, and important is, that neither those who are elected to these offices of trust, nor those who elect them, are sensible of their accountability, or even believe the fact that they are accountable to any higher authority. If God comes out in judgment, as He surely will, what must be our doom? No nation on earth has received such signal blessings as we, none have enjoyed the privileges, in none has the meridian light shone brighter on the path of duty, none have made more solemn vows, and declarations before God, and the nations of the earth, and none—no, not Israel of old, have been so faithless—so God-provoking and Heaven-defying. How have we treated self-evident truths, uttered with our own mouths, before God, "that all men are created free and equal, and have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!" With what unblushing effrontery have we raised our star spangled flag toward heaven, as a badge of our own freedom, and victory over oppression, as if we could make Omniscience believe the sincerity of our profession, while holding every sixth man in the most degrading and cruel Slavery, compared to which,

Egyptian bondage was not a shadow. With what abhorrence must a holy God, and the inhabitants of heaven witness our grateful acknowledgment to God for the blessing of liberty, on the memorable Fourth of July, grand with gun powder and rum, as though we would awake heaven to our obscenity. What shall we say, Mr. Editor—rather, what shall we do, fellow-citizens, and Christians? Can we rise up against God and prosper? No policy can avert the stroke of the Lord's vengeance, when the time arrives; are not we admonished by the Prophets, and by Christ and his Apostles, in plain, unmistakeable language, if we were disposed to make due application to ourselves? And for what other use were they recorded, and declared to be recorded, but for our "profit— correction and instruction?" Are we prepared to take up the lamentation, "The harvest is past, the Summer is ended and we are not saved?" Will our Ministry and Church, continue—yes, I say continue—to harbor the sin of Slavery at the North, by a participation of the abominations of the South? I say, will they, while (to use their own language) calling it the giant sin, the abomination of abominations, and the sum of all villainies combined, will they? Will associations of ministers, and consciations of churches, meet, again and again, and that while the whole nation, and I might say, the world, is convulsed, with legions of evil spirits which compose the sum of Slavery,—I say, will they meet, professedly, to consult the welfare of Zion, the upbuilding of Christ's Kingdom, and the salvation of deathless souls, and forget this giant sin, forget that their Lord came to destroy the works of the devil, forget the antagonism between Christ and Belial! Can they forget that the Lord requires money, (money to the oppressed,) money, and not sacrifice. What are sacrifices of prayers, but hypocrisy, when made a substitute for judgment, mercy, and truth? "Cry aloud, (says God,) spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not, wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast,