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slavery, even at that early age of the world. Slavery there was among the Hebrews, but few of its evils. The entire dispensation of the Jews made at once a bold and decided invasion upon its abuses and eradicated them. And yet it is a fact equally clear, that it left the relation between master and servant untouched, and instead of denouncing slavery as a crime, is offended only with its abuses.

Such was the melioration which the Bible introduced in regard to this large class of our fellow-beings, for whom it so kindly and wisely legislated under the old dispensation and down to the coming of Christ. And nothing is more obvious than that, while it exerted the happiest influence upon this relation of social life, it did not overturn and destroy it. The same essential principles of reform, and no others, we find every where developed in the New Testament. Employed exclusively in propagating the doctrines of their Divine Master, his apostles no where opened a crusade upon the despotism of the government under which they lived, or upon the institutions sanctioned by its laws. Melioration in civil affairs they left to be gradually brought about by the silent operation of those divine principles which purify the heart; which have in their progress banished such an amount of sin, tyranny, and slavery from the world; and which are destined, in the same heaven-like way, to complete their work. In all the mutual intercourse of men, the great maxim which they enforce is one and unchanging "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." This spirit runs through the whole of the New Testament, and addresses itself equally to the master and the slave. One cannot but observe with admiration, the

high-born wisdom, the meekness and gentleness with which the apostles conducted this discussion. The religion they taught is a religion of love. It breathes peace on earth and good will to men. What incongruity with such a spirit to have excommunicated every slaveholder! or to have made immediate emancipation the condition of church membership! What incongruity with such a spirit to have excited revolt among the Christian slaves, or to have disseminated. notions which must have revolutionized the principles of social order, and broken down all the distinctions of rank and condition! They did nothing of all this. They were taught from above, and their wisdom and meekness gave efficacy to their ministrations. They had access to the slave population of the Roman empire; they penetrated "Cæsar's household;" they urged the cause of their Master in the palaces of kings, and carried the hearts of masters and slaves by gaining their impartial attention, and expressing the gentleness of Christ.

I have been not a little affected with their instructions to both these classes of men. Mark their delicacy, and at the same time their tenderness and sympathy when they address the poor slave—just weak enough to begin to think he is an emperor, because by the grace of God he has become a Christian. "Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it. But if thou mayst be free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman. Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called!" How wise! how kind! How different from some modern reformers ! I seem to see the great apostle laying his paternal hand upon the head of the poor slave, and hear him say, Care not for your slavery. You are the Lord's freeman.

Stay where you are. You shall have a throne hereafter. And that your master may share it with you, let him see your spirit of love and meekness. "Be obedient to your masters, according to the flesh, with good will doing service as unto the Lord, and not unto men. Account your masters worthy of all honour that the name of God be not blasphemed!" If you have Christian masters, demean not yourselves superciliously on this account, but rather more affectionately and dutifully; "despise them not because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved!" Nor is it to the slave only that they address their counsels. While they neither excommunicate, nor even rebuke the master, simply because he is a master, they do not withhold their rebuke of all his oppressien and injustice-nay they thunder forth their anathemas against the degradation, the ignorance, the misery, the wickedness, and every violation of the personal and domestic rights to which he subjects his slaves, and solemnly remind him of the fearfulness of that day when God shall call him to account. They admonish him not to be unmindful of the obligations to his slaves on his paft. They say to him, "Master, give unto your servants that which is just and equal. Do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening; knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there any respect of persons with him!" They say to him, You are responsible as well as your slaves; and as you would enjoy the favour of your Judge, honour his religion, and find mercy at that day, be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful. Your slaves are not things, but persons; they are not brutes, but men; they are not your creatures, but God's; they are not your property, but his who made of one

* Δούλοις, slaves.

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blood al. nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, if haply they might feel after him and find him.'"

Thus do the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament treat the subject of slavery. They sanction no other slavery than this. The exclusive title of man over a fellow worm, who belongs not to him, but to God; the assertion of any human will as supreme over a fellow-creature, when there is no supreme will in heaven or on earth, but the divine will; the lording it over the conscience of the slave, when God alone is Lord of the conscience-this they rebuke and indignantly condemn. Whatever servitude denies the slave the rights of his moral nature, annihilates his capacity of improvement, crushes intellect that would otherwise brighten and expand, subdues affections that would otherwise be elevated to the spirit of heaven, shuts out the light of truth, and binds body and soul in the chains of ignorance and death, they denounce as one of the things which the Lord hateth. But a slavery that is dissevered from all these evils, and dissociated from the abuses to which it is so exposed from the corrupt propensities and selfish passsions of men, it no where, to my knowledge, forbids. Such a slavery, for example, as Onesimus sustained to Philemon, a state of Christian servitude, a state in which the master and the slave were required to conduct themselves as brethren and heirs of the common faith and salvation, Paul certainly did not forbid, when he restored this fugitive slave to his master. So far from justifying him for absconding, he required him to go back, at the same time furnishing him with a letter of introduction to his master, entreating him to overlook his fault, and regard him as a penitent and faithful servant, and "brother beloved."

I hold myself ready to revise these views, whenever I see evidence from the Bible that they are not true. Nothing is more plain to my mind, than that the word of God recognizes the relation between master and slave as one of the established institutions of the age; and that while it addresses slaves as Christian men, and Christian men as slaveholders, it so modifies the whole system of slavery, as to give a death blow to all its abuses, and breathes such a spirit, that in the same proportion in which its principles and spirit are imbibed, the yoke of bondage will melt away, all its abuses cease, and every form of human oppression will be unknown. The Bible is no agitator. It gradually meliorates what it cannot suddenly remove. Instead of carrying fire and sword throughout the world without the least prospect of advantage, it aims at making men holy, and fitting them for heaven. It changes human governments only as it changes the human character; and thus produces all those alterations which commend themselves to a mind enlightened by the truth and Spirit of God. It aims at transforming the world; but it is by transforming the dispositions and hearts of men, and diffusing throughout all the social institutions, the supreme love of God, and the impartial love of man.

Let us now take a brief view of the practical effect of these general principles, as they have actually been applied by several Christian states. European civilization may be said to have commenced from the fall of the Roman empire. To say nothing of antecedent periods, from this time, the Bible, though often in the hands of a corrupted hierarchy, has been exerting a powerful influence on all the social institutions. Barbarism gradually subsided into feudalism, and feudalism gave way to the various modifications of civil liberty

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