Page:A defence of the negro race in America from the assaults and charges of Rev. J. L. Tucker.djvu/21

 it? We will, for Dr. Tucker's sake, make large concessions, (a) on account of the ignorance of these people; (b) for the taint of immorality, the heritage of slavery, which, doubtless, largely leavens their profession; and (c) because their religion is certainly greatly alloyed with phrensy and hysteria, and tinged with the dyes of superstition.

But, after all, is it not, in the main, genuine and true? Is it not, simple and childish though it be, in its essence, ? Does it not lead to prayers, and faith, and Sabbath keeping, and holy meetings, and sacramental observances? Does it not produce fruits of righteousness? Does it not beget astonishing self-sacrifice for the glory of Jesus, and the lavish outpouring of moneys for the extension of Christ's kingdom and the building of churches?

Surely this is the testimony of scores and hundreds—Presbyterians, Congregationalists, above all, Methodists and Baptists, the very men who have done the most for them, lived most with them, and who know them better than any others.

Dr. Tucker, however, has deliberately declared of this immense multitude of Christians (1) "that they have a form of Christianity without its substance, and that they have no comprehension of what that substance ought to be!" (2) "That the great mass of them are hypocrites, and do not know it." (3) "That their religion is an outward form of Christianity, with an inner substance of full license given to all desires and passions." (4) "That almost a whole race of them is going down into perdition before our eyes!"

We have a dreadful picture in the 1st Epistle of the Corinthians of the demoralization of an Apostolic Church; and yet the holy Apostle St. Paul did not dare to speak of that Church in the sweeping and destructive way that Dr. Tucker speaks of millions of disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Southern Negro churches. And I cannot but ask, if it is not a horrible thing that a minister of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ should thus assume the prerogative of