As respects slavery, the whole power of the master and the obligation of the servant is found in the proper meaning of the words of such precepts as these "Masters, render unto your servants that which is just and equal;" "servants, obey your masters," etc. All within such limits is the doctrine which is according to godliness—all beyond, whether on the part of the master or the slave, and which is attempted to be foisted into the church as a part of the apostolic doctrine, is schismatical, and essentially fills up the picture drawn by Paul: "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing'—from such withdraw thyself." In these precepts no right is given to the masters to buy and sell, to traffic in slaves; no right to enslave the children, and the children's children of his servants; no right to hold them in a relentless bondage which knows no limit but the grave, and in which the heritage transmitted by the slave to his children, is a heritage of bondage to all generations.
On the 26th of August, 1858, the same season that the foregoing correspondence took place, Bro. Butler wrote to the editor of the Christian Luminary the following letter, which is given entire, as showing the exact position which he occupied ministerially at that time:
OCENA, ATCHISON CO., KAN., Aug. 26, 1858.
DEAR SIR:—Three churches—one meeting at Leavenworth City, another at Mount Pleasant, Atchison county, and a third at Pardee, same county—have formed an organization for the purpose of propagating the gospel in Kansas. For four months I have been in the employ of these churches. My first business was to travel over the Territory and ascertain where we have brethren in sufficient numbers to make it expedient to organize churches. To that end I have traveled over that portion of the Territory north of the Kansas River, and embraced in the counties of Leavenworth, Atchison, Doniphan, Jefferson, and Calhoun; also, to some extent south of the Kansas River.
I will not say that this has been the pleasantest labor of my life. A long and wearisome ride across wide prairies, under a burning sun, has often been followed by a fruitless effort to excite interest enough to justify established preaching. I would not convey the idea that this region is not full of promise to the missionary, notwithstanding I am fully persuaded that we are not to expect such immediate results as have followed my own labors elsewhere. We must first sow, and then, in due time, we shall reap, if we faint not.
The M. E. Church reports 120 preachers in Kansas and Nebraska; the U. B. Church, 9, sustained in part by contributions from abroad. The Missionary Baptists make good their right to the name they have chosen, by sustaining four missionaries. I confess it is a matter of profound humiliation to me that the demonstration that ours is primitive apostolic Christianity, is found in the fact that we can afford but one missionary in Kansas, and that to his support not one dime has been contributed from abroad. The brethren in the Territory, under an unexampled pecuniary pressure, and out of their deep poverty, have done all that has been done. Two new churches have been organized—one at Big Springs, Douglas county, numbering twenty-eight members; the other at Cedar Creek, Jefferson county, of eleven members. We have also the nucleus of a congregation at Atchison, and another at Elk City, Calhoun county. Thus we have in this part of Kansas the foundation laid for eight churches, all of which are steadily increasing in numbers; and the brethren composing them, in all the elements of future growth, and in moral and in religious excellence, are at par value with the brotherhood in any of our States or Territories.
If the older churches, blessed with such abundant means, would aid us in this hour of our need, it is my opinion they would be no poorer on earth and much richer in heaven. But whether they aid us or not, I trust we shall hold our own, and ultimately prove that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We have a number of young preachers, who are giving promise of future usefulness. Very truly, your brother,
PARDEE BUTLER.
P. S.—Five persons in this congregation, and one at Big Springs have been recently added by baptism; also two from other denominations.
On the 1st day of July, 1859, Bro. Butler made a very interesting report of his labors, and especially of his tour in several of the free States—mostly where he had labored in the gospel before his removal to Kansas. As the document is too long for publication entire in this volume, only the more important extracts can be given. The first two paragraphs being only a fuller statement of what is already written, the first extract will show the voluntary indorsement of Bro. Butler by the churches for which he had been laboring, as follows: