Personal Recollections of Pardee ButlerButler, Pardee
Religion
Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler
Butler, Pardee
Kansas -- History -- 1854-1861
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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