sins and crimes by sending them into servitude in penitentiaries, penal settlements, prisons? Do we say of these abridgments of human freedom," often for life, that they are "damnably wrong?"

And has not God, who created man and gave him whatever. of "rights and liberties" he enjoys, the just right to abridge the freedom of any portion of his creatures, or take it away entirely, if He sees that the righteousness of His holy law demands this punishment for their sins?

"Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."

While that sentence stands on the Bible record as the revealed judgment of the Lord God against a race of sinners; and while this sentence is corroborated by the requirements of His Moral Law, and carried into effect by the statutes He inspired for the government of His chosen people, the charge that "slavery is sin,' "the sum of all villanies, damnably wrong," is no other than denouncing the righteousness of God, and charging Him with injustice and sin.

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That the institution of slavery was established in the Hebrew Commonwealth no Christian can deny; that it was continued, under all the changes of Government and nationality till the end of the Old Testament, we have conclusively shown. Nor is there in this long history of the moral and civil life of the people for eleven hundred years, a single record that denounces slavery as evil, or that charges the wickedness of the people to this source, or that threatens them with punishment for sins imputed to this institution. Two instances only occur, where the law of Hebrew slavery, which was incidental and limited, had been violated; and these are severely condemned.

The first instance is related in the Book of Nehemiah, chapter 5. The second is found in Jeremiah, chapter 34; verses 8 to the end. But slavery is not condemned. On the contrary, the bondage of the heathen to their Hebrew masters is constantly brought out by the sacred writers, always without rebuke, and often in a manner that shows it to have been good for both master and servant.

This result every Christian is compelled to believe, because no man nor woman can be a Christian who rejects the divine authority of the Scriptures or imputes unrighteousness to God.

The question, then, is settled. Personal servitude, an institu

tion of involuntary bondage, where the servant was the property* of his master, could be bought and sold, and held as "a possession forever;" as "an inheritance for your children after you"such slavery for the heathen Canaanites was and is sanctioned by the authority of the Old Testament.

Was this law of personal servitude condemned, reversed, set aside, by the later authority of the New Testament? Let us examine the Gospel.

* Property is held by many tenures. This right of property in persons was the right of the master to the services of his bondsmen, and held by and from the appointment of the Most Highest. The law should be productive of good to both parties.

PART II.

IS SLAVERY SANCTIONED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT?

In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, American abolitionists, who profess to believe the Bible, insist that the revocation of the Mosaic statutes concerning slavery, may be found.

Where?

The Gospel brought "peace on earth, and good will to the children of men;" that is, it brought the announcement, the hope, the light, and the way for these glorious blessings: but not a word is said of "personal freedom," of "human rights," of "political privileges."

The whole scope of our Lord's teachings was to convince men, all men, of sin, and bring all to repentance. Christ never meddled with secular authorities. He freed men from the bondage of Satan, from the chains of sin, from the prison-house of wicked delusions, where in darkness and despair they were lying bound, bruised, starving, naked, and loathsome with the festering soul and body diseases of sickness and of death, eternal, as well as temporal.

If the Saviour had been sent to open, literally, the prison doors to those placed there by human authority, why did He not free John the Baptist, who was unjustly confined?

"My kingdom is not of this world," was His declaration.

Had Jesus Christ accepted the governments of all the earth, which the devil urged upon Him, then He would doubtless have rectified what was wrong; but He would not accept.

He went about preaching the Gospel of personal repentance and eternal salvation by the Son of God, doing good, all the while, to the poor, the oppressed, and afflicted; but never counseling them to demand from men the redress of their grievances.

He had disciples in all ranks, though most among the lowly. He did not alter the personal condition of a single believer. He sought only to purify the heart, exalt the hope, and set men free from sin. He never interfered with the civil government, nor with questions pertaining to the public relations of his hearers. He dealt with the individual man in his conjugal, parental, family, and neighborly feelings and interests; in each and all of

these He urged the law of holiness and love. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself."

"Ah, yes!" cries the abolitionist, "that is the very matter! The slaveholder would not be a slave himself, therefore he should free all his slaves. He should do as he would be done by."

Are you sure you have given the right interpretation? You have a hundred thousand dollars; you are rich. Here is your poor hired servant, who wants half your money. You would not be a poor hired servant. Will you give him one-half of your gold, and equalize your conditions? If he was in your place and you in his, would you desire him to give you one-half of his money? Would you think it unchristian if he did not?

The explanation of this duty to our neighbor is given by the Saviour himself, in the parable of the man that fell among thieves.* It is to help those that need, and to have pity upon the afflicted, as you would hope to be helped, if you, like them, were in trouble. It does not teach the relinquishment of our just rights, or the giving up what belongs to us. The good Samaritan did not leave his "beast" to the poor man, nor buy him any raiment, nor divide his purse with him. He simply "had compassion" on the wounded traveler, and helped him for the time, and left a pledge that he would do more if it were needed; but he had the right to expect that the wounded man would exert himself to the utmost not to be chargeable to his benefactor. That was the neighborly duty of the man who had been helped.

I have dwelt at length on this parable of our Saviour, because it is the only portion of His teachings which has any bearing

"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

"And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

"And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

"And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. "And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him: and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

"Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?

"And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."-Luke, chap. 10, verses 30—37.

on the argument that slavery was abrogated by the Gospel. Servitude, or slavery, is no more abrogated than was the kingly government, or the civil institutions, or municipal rights, or official dignities. The Gospel was offered equally to all men. Whoever accepted was released from the bonds of sin, made free in the spirit, united in the brotherhood of all true believers, was entitled to a heavenly inheritance, and had, over his redeemed soul, no master save Christ. Yet he might have been one of the poorest and most abject of all the dwellers at Jerusalem. His social position mattered not. The slave of a Pharisee, if converted by the teachings of the Saviour, would have been an heir of eternal glory in the life to come, but in this life would have remained the bond-servant of his earthly master.

No person who has read the New Testament will assert that the Saviour ever openly rebuked the masters of slaves; and these must often have been present at His teachings. He never, by precept or parable, classed slavery-the right of one man to hold another man as personal property, which the Jewish law allowedamong the sins of the rich, covetous, selfish, unrighteous men whom He condemned for the specified sins of licentiousness, cruelty, hypocrisy, and oppression.

Was not this very strange, if slavery be "the sum of all villanies?"

Ought not He, who knew the heart of man and the importance of all the just restraints of moral law, ought He not to have warned the world against this system, if it be "utterly incompatible with Christianity?"

Not only did Jesus Christ not do this, but He has left His own holy approval of the good slaveholder on record. He has drawn a picture of slavery which shows not only its lawfulness, but its righteousness, and exemplifies the manner in which it should be conducted.

There are two important parables in the Gospel of St. Matthew, which have never, as we believe, been considered in their application to earthly duties as well as to heavenly hopes. The "parable of the vineyard" is one of these. It was given to illustrate the justice and the free grace of God. It does so, and moreover, it teaches the rights and duties of property holders and "free" or hired laborers. We will give the text, because we can never study the sacred Word too carefully:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.

"And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

"And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place,