it would be a specially sad fact if the Church should be more tardy than
the State in the recognition of the equal manhood of the two races.

One great effort in the present ecclesiastical struggle is to secure the
reunion of the sundered Churches; and, as in the case of slavery, other
issues have been waived or compromised, leaving race-prejudice as the
real point in the contest. Great have been the endeavors for harmony.
Committees of Conference have been appointed, have met and conferred;
enthusiastic public meetings have been held; communion services have
been celebrated jointly, and great feasts have been spread to welcome
visiting delegations. But the South has been inflexible on the
color-line. The Northern leaders have made concessions, and in some
instances have been ready to surrender the main point, but the mass of
Northern Christians seem unwilling to deny the Saviour in the person of
the man whose ostracism is demanded for no fault of his own, but only
because God made him black.

The Presbyterian Church (North) deserves special mention for having, in
the last General Assembly rejected a compromise that approved "the
policy of separate churches, presbyteries and synods." The prize was
nothing less than the ultimate reunion of the Northern and Southern
branches of that great Church. The leaders in the Church and in the
Assembly were committed to it and warmly advocated it, but when the test
vote came, it was rejected by an overwhelming majority! _God grant that
when the test comes for the Congregationalists they may show as much
back-bone!_ The present stage of the controversy finds the Methodists,
Baptists and Presbyterians still divided, with little prospect of
reunion. The Episcopalians in South Carolina have surrendered on a
compromise that permits the one colored minister in the Convention to
remain in it, but utterly forbids the admission of any others.