Introduction.



As part of the great slavery discussion, Rev. A. Barnes, of Philadelphia,
published, in October, 1856, a pamphlet, entitled, "The CHURCH and
SLAVERY." In this tract he invites every man to utter his views on the
subject. And, setting the example, he speaks his own with the greatest
freedom and honesty.

In the same freedom of speech, I have considered his views unscriptural,
false, fanatical, and infidel. Therefore, while I hold him in the highest
respect, esteem, and affection, as a divine and Christian gentleman, and
cherish his past relations to me, yet I have in these letters written to
him, and of him, just as I would have done had he lived in France or
Germany, a stranger to me, and given to the world the refined scoff of the
one, or the muddy transcendentalism of the other.

My first letter is merely a glance at some things in his pamphlet, in
which I show wherein I agree and disagree with him,--_i.e._ in our
estimate of the results of the agitation; in our views of the Declaration
of Independence; in our belief of the way men are made infidels; and in
our appreciation of the testimonies of past General Assemblies.

The other letters I will notice in similar introductions.

These letters first appeared as original contributions to the Christian