The
services were conducted by Elders John Boggs, of Clyde, and J. B.
McCleery, of Fort Leavenworth. The house was full, notwithstanding it
was a stormy day, raining continuously from morning until night. Word
had been sent to all the churches in this and adjacent counties, and
hundreds who were preparing to attend the funeral were disappointed by
the inclement weather.
CHAPTER XL.
PRO-SLAVERY HINDRANCES.
BY ELDER JOHN BOGGS.
Although our dear departed brother, Elder Pardee Butler, was never
classed with the Garrisonian Abolitionists, he began his ministerial
life when the demands of the South were being felt in all the North,
both in church and State. If slavery could not be advocated by the
Northern conscience it must at least be ignored by all candidates for
popular favor. It had divided some of the most popular religious
denominations; and was the most exciting subject of discussion known
to the religious world at the middle of the present century. Among the
Disciples of Christ the slavery question was peculiarly perplexing, as
there was a large per cent, of the membership who were actual
slaveholders, and the leaders among us, although publicly committed
against "_slavery in the abstract_," were endeavoring to soften the
hard features of slavery in the Southern States by arguing that the
relation of master and slave was not sinful _per se_, as it was
recognized and regulated both in the Jewish and Christian scriptures.
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