above all there was the cogent plea that compromise or
division was the only present choice. The "_half-loaf_" argument was
wielded most effectually, and here, especially, the "practical men" came
to the front, while on the heads of the devoted Abolitionists were
showered without stint the epithets "fanatics" and "visionaries."

So much zeal for the slaveholders, and so much sacrifice of
self-respect, not to say of conscience, surely deserved a better fate;
but all was in vain. The slaveholders scorned the compromises, and
ruthlessly rent asunder the great national churches and missionary
societies. The Congregationalists, never numerous in the South, clung
with great tenacity to their few churches, but at length surrendered
them.

ECCLESIASTICAL COMPROMISES ABOUT CASTE.

So ended the first chapter of humiliating and fruitless Church
compromises; but a new chapter has begun to be written, and so far
promises to read just as the other did, both as to the facts to be
recorded and the end that will be reached. Slavery is dead, but the son
and heir and legitimate representative, _race prejudice_, arises to take
its place. This does not propose to remand the colored race back into
slavery, but to hold them as inferiors, to be discriminated against as
to equal rights and to bear with their color the perpetual ban of
separation and degradation. This might be expected in the political
world, but not in the Church where "_all are one in Christ Jesus_." And
it would be a specially sad fact if the Church should be more tardy than
the State in the recognition of the equal manhood of the two races.

One great effort in the present ecclesiastical struggle is to secure the
reunion of the sundered Churches; and, as in the case of slavery, other
issues have been waived or compromised, leaving race-prejudice as the
real point in the contest. Great have been the endeavors for harmony.
Committees of Conference have been appointed, have met and conferred;
enthusiastic public meetings have been held; communion services have
been celebrated jointly, and great feasts have been spread to welcome
visiting delegations. But the South has been inflexible on the
color-line. The Northern leaders have made concessions, and in some
instances have been ready to surrender the main point, but the mass of
Northern Christians seem unwilling to deny the Saviour in the person of
the man whose ostracism is demanded for no fault of his own, but only
beca