* * *

We wish you to feel with us, that there is a terrible responsibility now resting upon us all as Christians, in this trying time of our country. We in the South are satisfied in our judgments, AND IN OUR HEARTS [their own capitals], that the political severance of the Southern from the Northern States is permanent, and SHOULD BE SATISFACTORY. We believe that reason, history, and knowledge of human nature, will suggest the folly and futility of a war to re-establish a political union between the severed sections. * * * Has it not occurred to you, brethren, that the hand of God MAY BE in this political division, that both Governments may more effectually work out His designs in the regeneration of the world? While such a possibility may exist, let His people be careful not to war against His will. It is not pretended that the war is to maintain religious freedom, or extend the kingdom of Christ. Then, God's people should beware how they wage or encourage it. In the name of Christ and His divine teachings, we protest against the war which the Government at Washington is waging against the territory and people of the Southern States; and we call upon all the Young Men's Christian Associations, in the North, to unite with us in this solemn protest.

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THE BAPTIST CHURCH.

The Southern Baptist Convention, a body representing 'a constituency of six or seven hundred thousand Christians," in session at Savannah, Georgia, May 13, 1861, "unanimously" adopted resolutions, in which the following sentences are found:

In view of such premises, this Convention cannot keep silence. Recognizing the necessity that the whole moral influence of the people, in whatever capacity or organization, should be enlisted in aid of the rulers, who, by their suffrages, have been called to defend the endangered interests of person and property, of honor and liberty, it is bound to utter its voice distinctly, decidedly, emphatically, &c. ** * Resolved, That we most cordially approve of the formation of the Government of the Confederate States of America, and admire and applaud the noble course of that Government up to the present time. * * * Resolved, That we most cordially tender to the President of the Confederate States, to his Cabinet, and to the members of the Congress now convened at Montgomery, the assurances of our sympathy and entire confidence.

With them are our hearts, and our hearty co-operation. * * * Every principle of religion, of patriotism, and of humanity, calls upon us to pledge our fortunes and lives in the good work. * * * Resolved, That these resolutions be communicated to the Congress of the Confederate States at Montgomery, with the signatures of the President and Secretaries of the Convention.

METHODISTS, BAPTISTS, EPISCOPALIANS, PRESBYTERIANS, LUTHERANS, GERMAN REFORMED, AND OTHER CHURCHES.

In April, 1863, all the leading religious bodies of the South, as above named, united in putting forth "An Address to Christians throughout the World," declaring the causes of the revolt, and intended to justify their course in sustaining the rebellion and the war against the Government of the United States. The Address is signed, on behalf of these various branches of the Church, by ninety-six ministers. It is a very long document, going fully into the religious and political "situation," and takes substantially the same views as are found in the extracts from other Addresses, above given.

Among other things, they set forth that "the war is forced upon us-we have always desired peace ;" that "the Union cannot be restored;" that the "Confederate Government is a fixed fact;" and, assuming that the President's Proclamation of freedom to the slaves was designed to provoke an insurrection, and that it would result in "the slaughter of tens of thousands of poor, deluded insurrectionists," they thus speak further of this document, and what may result from it:

*

The recent Proclamation of the President of the United States, seeking the emancipation of the slaves of the South, is, in our judgment, a suitable occasion for solemn protest on the part of the people of God throughout the world. * * Make it absolutely necessary for the public safety that the slaves be slaughtered, and he who should write the history of that event would record the darkest chapter of human woe yet written.

They argue at length to show the grounds on which all Christians in the world should unite with them in a solemn protest against this Proclamation, and yet, like other Southern writers, pretend to regard it, after all, but a brutum fulmen, a mere political document." They

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heartily approve of and sustain the "Confederate Government," and the war it is prosecuting against the lawful Government of the United States, and they highly compliment the Christian character of their rulers, generals, soldiers, and people; and, in a word, throw the whole power of the Southern Church, in all its denominations, into the scale of treason, rebellion, and war.

SOUTHERN RELIGIOUS PRESS ON THE REBELLION.

One of the most efficient aids of the rebellion, early and late, has been the religious press of the South, conducted by leading clergymen. We have given long citations from Southern quarterlies. We give a sample of the weekly religious press.

AT NEW ORLEANS.

The New Orleans True Witness, long before the Presidential election in November, 1860, warned its readers at the North, that, in case of Mr. Lincoln's election, there would be great trouble, and disunion would be the result. Immediately upon the issue being joined between Unionists and Secessionists in New Orleans, soon after the election, it openly espoused the rebel fortunes, and from that day until New Orleans surrendered to the Union arms, it battled heartily in the cause. A single paragraph from its issue of April 27, 1861, upon the attack made upon the Massachusetts troops in Baltimore, on the 19th of that month, will serve to show its spirit, and the means used by a religious journal to "fire the Southern heart."

RELIGIOUS PRESS AT COLUMBIA, S. C.

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Maryland is kindling with Southern fire, while Baltimore has stood at the font of baptismal blood, in solemn covenant for the Confederate States; and Providence ordered that this thrilling deed, this sealing ordinance, should be on the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, Mass., the memorable 19th of April. Thus the same day beheld the first blood of '76 and of '61-fortunate omen of the result.

The editor of that paper, who is responsible for this transparent blasphemy, Rev. Richmond McInnis, took his seat, in May following, in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which met in Philadelphia, and "solemnly protested" against the terrible defilement of religion with politics, because the Assembly resolved to stand by the Government which he, through the encouragement thus given to treason and rebellion, was using all his might to overthrow.

AT COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA.

Another specimen of the Southern religious press is seen in the Southern Presbyterian, published at Columbia, South Carolina. We of course do not look for any thing else from that quarter but treason. Its utterances, however, do not outrage the solemn ordinances of religion, when commending a cowardly attack upon the country's gallant defenders. On the 15th of December, 1860, when as yet no State had seceded, it thus speaks of the contemplated Convention of South Carolina :

It is well known that the members of the Convention have been elected with the understanding and expectation that they will dissolve the relations of South Carolina with the Federal Union, immediately and unconditionally. This is a foregone conclusion in South Carolina. It is a matter for devout thankfulness, that the Convention will embody the very highest wisdom and character of the State; private gentlemen. judges of her highest legal tribunals, and ministers of the Gospel. *** Nothing, at present, assumes any definite shape, except the resolve in South Carolina, in the face of all obloquy, and ridicule, and menaces, of all the wrath and contempt of those who alternately curse and jeer her,

to assert her independence. Before we issue another number of this paper the deed may be done-the Union may be dissolved-we may have ceased to be in the United States.

Thus, we have another instance in which the religious press, controlled by the clergy, went ahead of any acts o the civil authority, in "aiding and abetting" the rebellion. In the same issue, this paper, in an article on "Be not deceived," and in still another, in reply to a spondent," thus speaks of the cause of the "contest” upon which the "foregone conclusion" is given :

"Boston corre

We entreat our readers to let nothing mislead them on this point. The real contest now in hand between the North and South, is for the preservation or destruction of slavery. * * * We ask our correspondent, we ask all or any of the sober men of the North, if it is not the almost unanimous resolution of the Northern people to forbid THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY? We believe it is; and the Southern people, for a thousand reasons, must regard that as a wrong that CANNOT BE SUB

MITTED TO.

AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.

The Central Presbyterian, of Richmond, Virginia, edited or mainly controlled at the time by two clergymen of Northern birth, and Pastors of large Churches in Richmond, Dr. Moore, a native of Pennsylvania, and Dr. M. D. Hoge, a native of Ohio, in connection with Rev. Wm. Brown, spoke as follows, before the secession of Virginia, after the attack upon Fort Sumter:

We are henceforth a divided nation. We do not now search for the causes, or the place of blame. The stupendous fact is before us, “like the great mountains" of God, deep-rooted and high-plain to the eye of the whole world and immovable. We are a separate people. The answer of the President at Washington to our commissioners, and his proclamation calling for an armed force of seventy-five thousand men to "execute the laws,"—that is, to subjugate the seven seceding States,— is an end of the matter. Separation is unavoidable. *

* The