reafter, let me urge thee to abandon this occupation.
It is not necessary to argue its intrinsic wickedness, for thou
knowest it already. I would therefore beseech thee to listen to
that voice which, I am persuaded, sometimes urges thee to 'put
away the evil of thy doings,' to 'do justice and love mercy,'
and thus cease to draw upon thyself the curse which fell upon
those merchants of Tyre, who 'traded in the persons of men.'
That these warnings of conscience may not longer be neglected on
thy part, is the sincere wish of one who, while he abhors thy
occupation, feels nothing but kindness and good will towards
thyself.

"Thy friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE.

"_New York, 6th Month 30th, 1841._"

The Baptist Convention alluded to in the foregoing letter was one whose
proceedings I regarded with considerable interest, for it had been
generally understood that the ministers delegated from the South, as
well as some of those from the Northern States, intended to exclude
abolitionists from every office on the missionary board, and especially
to remove my friend, Elon Galusha, a distinguished Baptist minister,
from the station of vice-president, for the offence of attending the
London Anti-Slavery Convention, and more particularly for supporting the
following resolutions of that assembly:

"1. That it is the deliberate and deeply-rooted conviction of
this Convention, which it thus publicly and solemnly expresses
to the world, that slavery, in whatever form, or in whatever
country it exists, is contrary to the eternal and immutable
principles of justice, and the spirit and precepts of
Christianity; and is, therefore a sin against God, which
acquires additional enormity when committed by nations
professedly Christian, and in an age when the subject has been
so generally discussed, and its criminality so thoroughly
exposed.

"2. That this Convention cannot but deeply deplore the fact,
that the continuance and prevalence of slavery are to be
attributed in a great degree to the countenance afforded by many
Christian churches, especially in the Western world, which have
not only withheld that public and emphatic testimony against the
crime which it deserves, but have retained in their communion,
without censure, those by whom it is notoriously perpetrated.

"3. That this Convention, while it disclaims the