only escaped utter destruction through this bondage. They had filled the land with wicked abominations, and were unfit to live; they must be controlled in order to be reformed.

Whoever will carefully and candidly examine the statutes of Moses cannot fail to see that the sentiment of kindness and mercy is constantly mingled with the just judgment against sins and crimes. It was forbidden to "muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn;" or to "take the mother bird with its young in the nest;" or "seethe the kid in its mother's milk." It was sin to " curse the deaf;" or "lay a stumbling block before the blind," or in any way to wrong or oppress the widow and the fatherless." The Hebrews were enjoined to do no unrighteousness in judg

'ment:

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"Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.

"Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither stand against the blood of thy neighbor.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."-(See Leviticus, chapter 19; Deuteronomy, chapters 22 and 24.)

Did the holy God, who inspired all these wise, merciful, and harmonizing injunctions for the government of His chosen people— did he allow wrong to be done or sin committed by His laws of slavery?

In the name of American Christians, we answer, No. The system of servitude or slavery, established by Moses, was right and good; the laws that regulated it were wise and righteous.

And here we would call attention to one point in these laws, namely, that the property of the master in his bond-servant is not only acknowledged, but it is shown that this ownership is a great safeguard to the slave against cruelty and injustice. The loss of the servant falls on the master as a punishment.-(See: Exodus, chap. 19, verse 21.)

The Hebrew servant was not subjected to these penalties. He was to be treated like a "hired servant," or "sojourner." * The period of his service was limited; his ultimate freedom secured. He was sold and bought because he was poor and could not main

"And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant :

"But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee :

"And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall

he return.

"For they are my servants which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not not be sold as bond-men.

"Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear God."—Leviticus, 25: 39 to 43.

tain himself, but he escaped imprisonment for debt, or the debasement of the almshouse. And when his time of freedom (the seventh year, or the jubilee) came, he took his former place in all his relations of life. These facts show that slavery, of itself, is not sin, nor crime, nor wrong; but that it was imposed as a penalty by Moses to prevent or punish sin and crime and wrong. The laws of Moses did not allow those monstrous evils of modern Christian civilization-pauperism, and penitentiaries. Yet his legislation provided for the employment of both free and slave labor. Both were made legal for the tribes; both kinds were brought together and maintained under all the changes of the Hebrew government, throughout the whole period of Jewish nationality, from the great LAWGIVER to the greater LAW EXPOUNDER, and never a word of rebuke or an accusation of evil results is recorded in the Bible against this system of free and slave labor.

As another proof showing the care taken to prevent wrong to masters, to servants, and to free citizens, we will cite the law concerning man-stealing :

"He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in hie hand, he shall surely be put to death." (Ex. chap. 21, verse 16.)

This statute was promulgated immediately after that of Hebrew servitude, showing that there was then established the relation of master or owner, and bought servant or property. The man taken away must be in this condition, or liable to it, otherwise he could not have been stolen. A hired servant would not be thus guarded.

That the law was good and worked well, we have the testimony of Moses. Forty years after its enactment he thus reiterates it:

"If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise of him, or selleth him; then that thief shall die; and thou shalt put evil away from among you."-Deut., chap. 24, verse 7.

The punishment of death is not, by the laws of Moses, imposed for any theft except this of stealing a Hebrew, either from his master, or to sell. The rights of the servant to his freedom on the seventh year, or at the jubilee, were guarded by this severe law; also, the right of the master to the services of his servant for the specified period were as strictly guarded.

Whether the death punishment was inflicted for stealing a heathen servant, whose bondage was fixed and "forever," we are not told; but as the right of property in them was complete, it is not probable that the theft was made a capital crime. The relation between the Hebrew master and servant, being exalted

by the ties of blood and religious faith, was more sacred than bond service. It came next after the nearest family relationship.

The Israelites were the servants of God. The posterity of Canaan, the son of Ham, were to be drawn to God through their servitude to the posterity of Shem and Japheth. Hence these slaves were unspeakably benefited by being sold from their heathen to their Hebrew masters. Hence we find immunities guarantied to the slaves who, escaping from heathen masters, threw themselves on the charity of God's people.

"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee:

"He shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best.”—Deuteronomy, chap. 23, verses 15, 16.

No Biblical commentator nor honest expositor has ever interpreted this statute as having any bearing on the bondmen of the Hebrews, encouraging those to run from one tribe to another, in

order to be free.

Moses had settled the law of heathen servitude and reaffirmed the right of the Hebrew master to hold those "bought with his money" in bondage "forever." He would not thus stultify his own enactments, nor destroy the internal harmony of the tribes. If he had done this, the history of his people would be sure to show the turmoil it raised.

But it was merciful thus to protect, by solemn pledge, those who, as strangers, voluntarily came to place themselves under the Hebrew government. The law making man-stealing a capital crime was also needed to protect these and other exiles in their freedom; because the Hebrew commonwealth was slaveholding.

Thus surely and unequivocally was servitude, both Hebrew and heathen, established and regulated by the laws of Moses, and never revoked by any subsequent statute, nor set aside by any usage or declaration recorded in the Old Testament.

We meet references to this domestic institution in all the sacred books, from Genesis to Malachi, and never a censure or reproof of the system of slavery itself, and but very rarely any rebuke of those particular sins which might be ascribed to, or be developed by, this state of society.

The wrongs against the poor working classes, forbidden by the laws of Moses, and condemned by inspired prophecy, were those committed against hired servants and other classes of the poor who have none to care for them, such as widows, orphans, captives, and strangers. The slave or bondman, among the Hebrews, had always a protector in his master.

In nearly every case where heathen bondage is alluded to, the glimpses given us show it to have been good both for master and servant. Let us read over a few of these brief sketches from the oracles of divine truth; it may serve to calm the feelings and enlighten the mind of many a true Christian now seeking for light on the exciting subject of slavery in our own country. Is it not a duty to study well the Bible record before we condemn as sin what God has ordained and justified?

Job, who must have been a very large slaveholder, and who reckons it among his great sorrows that he had lost them-"I called my servant, and he gave no answer;" see chap. 19, verse 16-thus urges that kindness and justice to servants were considered the distinguishing virtues of a good man:

"If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me;

"What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

"Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb ?"-Job, chap. 31, verses 13, 14, 15. (Read the whole chapter.)

Yet Job says nothing against slaveholding; he only shows that having bond-servants, like power, wealth, and other distinctions which a man may lawfully hold, he is answerable for the manner in which he uses all these blessings.

David thus pictures the trust of the slave in the kindness and power of the slaveholder:

"Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.-Psalm 123, verse 2.

What a wonderful ascription of praise to the love and tenderness of the good master and mistress!

In Proverbs many allusions are made to servants, showing how the system of domestic slavery was inwoven with the whole Jewish polity; yet not a single reproach is launched against slaveholding, which, as Solomon's precepts are eminently practical, and must be wise and true, because inspired, proves that the institution was neither wrong nor injurious to the Hebrew

nation.

"He that is despised, and hath a servant, is better than he that honoreth himself, and lacketh bread."-Proverbs, chap. 12, verse 9.

"A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren."-Chap. 17: 2.

"A servant will not be corrected by words: for though he understand he will not answer.

"He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length." -Chapter 29, verses 19, 21.

"Accuse not a servant unto his master,' lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty."-Chap. 30: 10.

"For a servant when he reigneth, the earth is disquieted."—Chapter 30, verses 21, 22.

Malachi, the last of the prophets, thus bears testimony to the good influences that pervade the household where servitude is a permanent state, like the relation of parent and child:

"A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master; if then I be a father, where is mine honor? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name."-Malachi, chap. 1, v. 6.

There is still another proof that slavery cannot be sin of itself any more than poverty, sickness, degradation, and other penal ties, physical and moral, that the crimes and vices of men bring on themselves and their posterity.

The Hebrew people, for their national sins, were, by their law, doomed to terrible evils and sufferings; one of these punishments was servitude to heathen masters. Surely and sorely was this sentence fulfilled. From their first bondage, about sixty years after the death of Joshua, when "the Lord sold them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia, and they served him eight years," until the Hebrew polity was broken up, and the king and people of Judea carried into Babylonish servitude, (the kingdom of Israel had been enslaved previously.) The whole history of this rebellious race is filled with their sins and punishments; the ultimate result of their idolatries and disobedience to God's law was bondage to heathen masters.

And it is very apparent that this bondage or slavery, more than any other punishment, brought those rebellious Hebrews to repentance and reformation. It did them good and not evil. It was the discipline they needed. It acted precisely as just judgment on the criminal is now intended to act. The criminal. must be subjected to the penalty of the statute he has violated, or he will have no respect for the majesty of law, and would never reform; and he must be placed in a condition that not only restrains him from committing the crime for which he is punished, but allows him opportunity of repentance, or he would have no hope for the future.

Is it "horribly wrong" that human law should punish men for

* See Judges 3: 8. The Hebrews were servants of the Lord; and "the Lord sold them" into slavery! Mark the language, and the punishment for sin.