Page:Ecclesiastical Relation of Negroes.djvu/16

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16
Speech, etc.

injustice to our church, and by righteous means. Then, as the second alternative, I would assist and encourage them to build up a black Presbyterian Church, ecclesiastically independent of, and separate from ours, but in relations of friendship and charity. To this end, I would extend to them ministerial and missionary labour liberally. I would aid them in church building. I would provide schools, separate from our own, for training black men to be pastors of black churches; and I would, if necessary, give ordination to enough men to form a separate Presbytery, when enough can be found possessed of constitutional qualifications. But I would make no black man a member of a white Session, or Presbytery, or Synod, or Assembly; nor would I give them any share in the government of our own church, nor any representation in it. "It is confusion."

NOTE.

The above is substantially what was spoken in the Synod. But it was delivered without much premeditation or method, and under great haste from the fear of prolixity. Hence some things were probably said, which are here omitted, and some things which I intended, were omitted in the speaking. I have therefore introduced a few sentences here and there, in the way of expansion and illustration of points actually made in the Synod, which were not spoken there.

R.L.D.