EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF SYNOD
By J. W. Morton
After some discussion, the above Libel was decided to be relevant, and the Clerk was directed to serve a copy on me, with citation to appear for trial the next day, after noon. I went to my lodgings that evening with a heavy heart. I was convinced, from the spirit of determined opposition that had been manifested by many of the brethren, when the Libel was under consideration, that the majority had already determined that I should not be permitted to “speak for myself.” True, I knew very well that the Apostle Paul had once enjoyed this liberty, through the cool civility of a Roman Governor, and afterwards, through that of a Roman King; but I knew just as well, that Felix and Agrippa were heathens, while my brethren are Christians; and that the dignity of a court, composed of “worms of the dust,” has been much better understood, since the famous “Diet of Worms,” than ever before. Still, I could not forbear asking myself, Why is there now such bitter opposition to an Institution that was once the delight of both God and man? Why do men hate with such perfect hatred, what Jehovah made, and blessed, and sanctified, before sin had entered into the world? Why should this daughter of Innocence be spurned from every door, and loaded with the damning reproach of Judaism, while her twin sister, Marriage, sucks the breasts, and is dandled upon the knees of Orthodoxy?—Why should I be ranked with thieves and murderers, for believing that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God?” Bitter were the tears that flowed; and more bitter still was the reflection, that “when I wept, that was to my reproach.” I was hedged in round about, and what could I do? I could only exclaim with the “sweet Singer of Israel,” “Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord131God of Hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children. For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” Never shall I forget the sensation experienced while the last sentence was passing through my mind. “And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” I know not how often, during that night, I repeated these words and compared them with the exhortation of the Apostle: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” These were the comforts that, “in the multitude of my thoughts within me,” then delighted my soul. I was about to go forth “without the camp,” and indeed it was refreshing, in that hour of trial, to believe, that I was bearing a portion of the same burden that once bowed down the “Man of sorrow.” My trial came on after noon, May 25th. The following extract from the published Minutes of Synod is, I believe, a correct, and sufficiently full, account of the final issue; only it makes no mention of the fact that I protested against the proceedings, and appealed to the head of the Church, for reasons to be given in afterwards. Why this fact was not recorded, I have not been able to ascertain. EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF SYNOD.
Order of the day; viz., the case of Mr. Morton, called for. The libel was then read by the Clerk; when Mr. Morton having, in reply to the Moderator, answered that he was prepared for trial, the substance of the libel was again stated in his hearing. Mr. Morton was then called upon, according to the rule provided for in such cases, either to confess the charge or put himself upon his trial. Mr. Morton in return acknowledged that he had denied that the day commonly called the Christian Sabbath is so by Divine appointment, and then proceeded to plead the irrelevancy of the charge by endeavoring to prove the perpetuity of the law for the observance of the seventh day. While so doing, he was arrested by the Moderator, who informed him that the charge contained in the libel was such that Mr. Morton could only prove its irrelevancy to censure by proving that the appropriation of the first day of the week, known as the Christian Sabbath, to secular employments, or teaching so to do, is not relevant to censure, which attempt the Moderator would consider disorderly, and would not allow. From this decision J. M. Wilson appealed, when the Moderator’s decision was unanimously sustained. Upon this, Mr. Morton declined the authority of the court. Resolved, That Mr. Morton’s appointment as missionary to Haiti be revoked. Resolved, That inasmuch as Mr. Morton has now publicly declined the authority of this court, he be suspended from the exercise of the Christian ministry, and from the privileges of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. The Moderator then publicly pronounced the sentence of suspension on Mr. Morton, agreeably to the above resolution. Not long afterwards I presented to the Moderator the following Reasons of Protest and Appeal, with a request that he would allow them to be laid before the court, which he utterly refused to do. REASONS OF PROTEST AND APPEAL.
I do respectfully protest against the action of Synod in my case, on the 24th of the present month, and appeal therefrom to the Lord Jesus Christ, the King and Head of the Church, for the following reasons:— 1st. Because I was not allowed to prove the irrelevancy of the charge made against me, by an appeal to the Bible, “the only rule of faith and manners.” 2d. Because I believe that the statements, on the subject of the Sabbath, set forth in our subordinate standards, are inconsistent with one another, and in part contrary to the Word of God: yet it was by these unscriptural portions, that I was tried and condemned. Brethren, I entertain no hard feelings towards you. My daily prayer to God is, that you may be saved and led into all truth. I did hope that you would hear and consider the claims of the Lord’s holy Sabbath, when presented in a mild and affectionate manner. But either I have failed to present the question with sufficient tenderness, or you have determined to avoid all discussion in regard to it. It grieves me to the soul to bid you farewell.—Both God and man will bear witness, in the day of final reckoning, that you have trampled down, by the resistless force of an overwhelming majority, one who was endeavoring with both hands to hold up the standard of the great Covenant God of our fathers. But though for the present cast down, I am not dismayed. The Sabbath of the Lord God is a richer treasure than the richest you can either give or take away. “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.” Brethren, I shall meet you before the judgment seat of Christ, on that day when he shall come “with ten thousand of his saints.” “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.—Even so, amen.”
J. W. MORTON.
Philadelphia, May 29th, 1849.