The relations of the American Church to slavery, and the duties of private Christians, the whole casuistry of this portion of the question, so momentous among descendants of the Puritans,—­have been discussed with great acuteness and rare common-sense by Messrs. Garrison, Goodell, Gerrit Smith, Pillsbury, and Foster.  They have never attempted to judge the American Church by any standard except that which she has herself laid down,—­never claimed that she should be perfect, but have contented themselves by demanding that she should be consistent.  They have never judged her except out of her own mouth, and on facts asserted by her own presses and leaders.  The sundering of the Methodist and Baptist denominations, and the universal agitation of the religious world, are the best proof of the sagacity with which their measures have been chosen, the cogent arguments they have used, and the indisputable facts on which their criticisms have been founded.  In nothing have the Abolitionists shown more sagacity or more thorough knowledge of their countrymen than in the course they have pursued in relation to the Church.  None but a New-Englander can appreciate the power which church organizations wield over all who share the blood of the Puritans.  The influence of each sect over its own members is overwhelming, often shutting out, or controlling, all other influences.  We have Popes here, all the more dangerous because no triple crown puts you on your guard. * * * In such a land, the Abolitionists early saw, that, for a moral question like theirs, only two paths lay open:  to work through the Church; that failing, to join battle with it.  Some tried long, like Luther, to be Protestants, and yet not come out of Catholicism; but their eyes were soon opened.  Since then we have been convinced that, to come out from the Church, to hold her up as the bulwark of slavery, and to make her shortcomings the main burden of our appeals to the religious sentiment of the community, was our first duty and best policy.  This course alienated many friends, and was a subject of frequent rebuke from such men as Dr. Channing.  But nothing has ever more strengthened the cause, or won it more influence; and it has had the healthiest effect on the Church itself. * * *

Unable to command a wide circulation for our books and journals, we have been obliged to bring ourselves into close contact with the people, and to rely mainly on public addresses.  These have been our most efficient instrumentality.  For proof that these addresses have been full of pertinent facts, sound sense, and able arguments, we must necessarily point to results, and demand to be tried by our fruits.  Within these last twenty years it has been very rare that any fact stated by our lecturers has been disproved, or any statement of theirs successfully impeached.  And for evidence of the soundness, simplicity, and pertinency of their arguments we can only claim that our converts and co-laborers throughout the land have at least the reputation of being specially able “to give a reason for the faith that is in them.”