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high moral station of "kings and priests unto God," Rev. v, 9, 10, with the exercise of which slavery continually interferes.

The same great sacrifice has been made for the slave as for the master; and therefore, the soul of the slave is worth as much as the soul of the master. As a redeemed sinneran heir of heaven-the slave is equal to his master. He has the same right to forsake his sins, repent, believe, pray, worship God, practice all the duties of religion, enjoy all its privileges-as marriage, government of his children and his house, etc.—as his master has. All this is indisputable, from the privileges of redemption; in consequence of which the slave is entitled to employ his body and soul in God's service, and to enjoy all the means of grace.

But slavery takes no cognizance of its victims as the redeemed creatures of God. It exposes them to sale, robbery, deprivations, and cruel treatment. It forbids them to read or to learn to read. Its code puts their time, conscience, body, and soul into the hands of an oppressor; and all the duties, privileges, and advantages flowing from redemption are neither known, heeded, nor provided for, in the code of American slavery. If some slaveholders treat their slaves differently from this, no thanks to slavery for

this.

And how can any Christian, who has himself partaken of the benefits of redemption, hold another Christian brother in bondage, regard him as property, sell him to others, break up his domestic relations, or interfere with any of his rights as a husband, father, son, Christian? Where is the right, authority, or warrant, from the word of God, by which one Christian holds another as property? Where is his right to sell him or keep him, to transfer him, by contract or will, to others, to appropriate the avails of his labor to his own use, to regulate exactly his manner of living, to separate him from his wife, and children, and

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home, and to determine the times and seasons, if any, when he may worship God? There is no warrant for such treatment of a fellow-Christian, or a human being, derived from the word of God.

Indeed, the early Christians very generally deemed it repugnant to Christianity, for any Christian to hold another in slavery, basing their argument on the declaration of Paul: "Ye are bought with a price; be ye not the servants of men." Accordingly, Contantine the Great, in 330, made a decree that no Jew or Pagan should retain a Christian as a slave. (See lib. i, Codicis, tit. Ne Christianum, etc.) And the three sons of Constantine confirmed and continued the same law. (Sozomen, lib. iii, c. 17.) Gregory the Great did the same. (Greg. Mag., lib. iii, Epist. 9.) The Council of Toledo enacted similar laws. (Concil. Toletani, iv, c. 64.) Aquinas speaks approvingly of these laws. (Aquinas Sum. Theologiæ, 2, 2, q. 10, ar. 10.) (See Cornelius a Lapide on 1 Cor. vii, 22.)

4. Slavery is a usurpation of Divine right. Man is responsible to God for the use of his powers. It is true, we may exercise our powers under such limitations as still leave us at liberty to govern them by a supreme regard to the will of God. A more absolute control than this over us, by any human being, is subversive of the rights of the Divine government. Such is the power of the slaveholder, by which the will of the slave is subjected, on pain of fearful penalties, to the absolute dictation of his master. "A slave is one who is in the power of a master, to whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, his industry, and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any thing, but what must belong to his master." (Louisiana Civil Code, art. 35.)

The claim of slavery equals the claim of God. It claims the whole man-his soul, body, and strength-all he can possess, all he can acquire. The slave may be legally

required to sin against God, by restraining prayer and exhortation, by whipping his parents, by lying, by Sabbathbreaking, by adultery; and, in case of refusal, he may be doomed to excruciating pain. It is that despotic power which can not be exercised without oppression, and which it is sinful to confer on any other; or to hold it, except under protest, with the purpose of getting rid of it as soon as possible. It never can be exercised without sin. And, if conferred by law, it can never be held except so far as to hold it in view of getting rid of it for the benefit of the oppressed. No one can long, if at all, hold this power without exercising it. And the exercise of it interferes with the freedom of conscience and moral agency, by forcibly detaining another in a condition where the duties of parents, children, friends, citizens, Christians, etc., can not be freely and fully discharged. Whatever liberty may be allowed a slave, he must suffer restraint in regard to plans of prospective duty, enjoyment, and usefulness. Yet, were the slaveholder's power not employed to involve the slave in the commission of sin or the omission of duty, the possession of such power is usurpation; it is holding Divine power, or it is exercising the prerogative of God. It is placing man in complete dependence on the will of his fellow, and holding him under legal liability to be forced against his conscience and his duty. It is putting one man in the place of God to another, as far as this can be done, than which no sin can be greater. And whenever this fearful power is conferred by law on a person without his knowledge or consent, he can not exercise the power without sin, or even retain it except under protest-that he can not hold it, much less exercise it, except so long as legally to get rid of it.

5. The system of slavery is contrary to the natural equality of mankind.

The Bible teaches this equality. "God hath made of

one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth," Acts xvii, 26. And Malachi asks, "Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?" Mal. ii, 10. (See, also, Job xxi, 15.) Here is established the unity and sameness of human nature, wherever men are found, and whatever their varieties may be. There are as many distinct persons as there are individuals in the human family; but there is only one nature in all. Human nature is a unit, and all possess it in common. Hence, all men are born equal, and have equal natural rights. No man, according to God's law, can be born either the lord or the slave of another. The Declaration of Independence, the echo of Scripture in this matter, declares, “All men are created free and equal." Hence, all men are entitled to their natural rights, of personal liberty, personal security, and the right of holding property; although these very rights are withheld from nearly three millions of human beings, who live under the flag of liberty.

This declaration of human equality, borrowed from the Bible, does not mean that all men possess equal wealth or learning; that the parent shall have no right to the services of the child; that the wife shall not be in subjection to her husband. This equality, according to the plain dictates of common sense, means, that all men, in coming into the world and going through it, have an equal opportunity to exercise all their own powers of body and mind for their own happiness; that one parent shall have as good a right to the services of his own children as any other shall have to the services of his children; that every wife shall be in subjection to her own husband, and to no one else; and that no man shall be deprived of his liberty for an alleged crime, "without due process of law."

The natural equality of mankind is one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, on which the whole system

is based, and which sends its influence into all parts of the system. One of the fundamental doctrines of slavery, that one class of men is superior to another, is at variance with this Scripture doctrine. On this ground Aristotle maintained slavery. And the doctrine of the essential equality of mankind, will prove fatal to slavery: that all men have one common father, that the same blood flows in all human veins, that all are redeemed by the blood of Christ, that all are partakers alike of Christian privileges, that all are bound to perform the same Christian duties, that all are heirs to the same everlasting inheritance-these great truths, flowing from the equality of human nature, are directly subversive of slavery, and at no distant day they will overthrow it.

6. Slavery is contrary to the end or chief good of man, which is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.

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As slavery so places men under the complete dominion of a master, that the slaves are not at liberty to dispose of their time for the service of God or the enjoyment of him, they are prevented from the exercise of reading, meditation, and prayer. God commands all men to seek and exercise religion. But the slave is bound to submit to the master's authority, come what will. The slaveholder's power is exercised over the private relative duties of the slave, without being controlled by the laws of government. usurpation of that power constitutes the sin of slavery. The cruel administration of that power is only an aggravation of that crime. The grand reason why a tyrant should be deposed, is not merely because his administration is cruel, but because he has usurped the power which knows neither bounds nor restraints. Now, this power interferes with or even frustrates the great end of man's being-to glorify God and enjoy him.

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