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of servants (y male slaves) look unto the hand of their mas

ter; and as the eyes of a maiden (

shiphhah, female slave)

unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us." Ps. cxxiii. 1, 2. Ps. cxxiii. 1, 2. If then the paradise of old was the type of the paradise eternal, it would seem that the labour of the ebed was excluded therefrom: "Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage (Sovλsias, slavery) of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." Rom. viii. 21. And for this very good reason, that slavery, the consequent of sin, could never find entrance there regeneration is therefore indispensable.

"It strikes me that the use of the verb (abad, Gen. ii. 5) presents no difficulty that calls for explanation. The language of inspiration is man's language, though employed by God. The events, facts, things, acts, that preceded man's creation, must still be described by language and terms that had come into use after man's creation. Man must first exist before there could be words

to be used in conveying knowledge to man. A word implying slavery might therefore most reasonably be found in a description of things prior to the existence of man, or of slavery, which description was written long afterwards by Moses, and in language which was in use amongst the men for whom he wrote. When Moses wrote, when God inspired him, ebed was a familiar word." Extract from manuscript letter of the Rev. J. B. Stratton to the author.

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But in the pursuance of the chain of thought that first was impressed on our mind, we have to remark that the word Eden meant pleasure, happiness. It seems to have been derived from or cognate with the Arabic words aden, and means softness, gentleness, mildness, tenderness, and daintiness, in that language. The Hebrews had also another word from this same root,adi, to mean ornaments, &c., and adain, to mean luxuriousness and delicate. The word, as used in the text before, is applied to a district of country, and confers the adjective qualities to said district, i. e. a district of country of great pleasure and delight. The general boundaries are given and described by the naming of its rivers. It was of considerable extent, embracing, perhaps, more than the whole of the ancient Armenia.

"And a garden was planted eastward in Eden." Garden is translated from gan. The word is derived from 1

ganan. 1

The

word means, to protect, protection, a thing protected. The idea expressed by it is not confined to a single walled area; but the two words are often used together, as if it was intended to convey the idea of the fact that the protection extended to the whole of Eden. And it may be well conceived that innocency was its protection. Here cunning art never wove its web for the entanglement of its victim. Here no crocodile tears enticed sympathy within the reach of harm. Here no vile wretch ever betrayed a brother's confidence. Here the lion and the lamb might have couched together, and the infant have played with the tiger's paw. We are aware that some modern scholars consider the description of the garden of Eden by Moses a mere picture of the mind. Rosenmaeler says that it is on a par with Virgil's description of the Elysian fields. This class of philosophers consider the whole as a fiction but man had his commencement somewhere, and it is a fact that four large rivers, answering to the outlines of the general description of Moses, do flow from fountain-heads not more than thirty or forty miles apart, in the central and most elevated region of Armenia. These streams meander through the same countries described by him, and exhibit the same mineral productions: nor would it be any thing remarkable, if investigation should yet prove that they were all indebted to one and the same source. Let us consider then, whether it was not a fact that the garden of Eden was not confined to a little plat of ground, but included a whole district of country, embracing the visible sources of the rivers named: a district of country, from the mildness of its climate, fruitfulness, and other causes of pleasure and delight, exceedingly well adapted to the early residence of man. We have therefore no well founded reason to believe that the account given by Moses of the garden of Eden was a fiction, independent of Divine authority. But his account must be understood so as to be consistent with itself, and with the facts now existing of which it speaks. We are not under the necessity of supposing that the felicity of our first parents was confined to the locality named: a paradise was to them anywhere. It was their innocence, not the location, that made it so; and thus they were driven out of paradise, perhaps, without a change of location. The use of the word ebed Tay, in ii. 15 of Genesis, might then well be of the same foreshadowing import as in the first instance of its use, even before the creation of man. For, who must not conclude, when man was first placed in paradise, that God did not as clearly see his apostasy

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then, as now? By his wisdom, power, and mercy, all nature was ready-prepared for the change, and poor fallen man, without change of habitation, found that habitation no longer heaven, and commenced his first act of slavery by the vain attempt to hide himself from God and his own contempt. And here, let us remark, we find the true commencement of slavery. "And Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant (Sovλos, slave) of sin." John viii. 34. Force, disease, ruin, and death were now introduced to man. For, "A servant ( slave) will not be corrected by words." Prov. xxix. 19. God had mercifully contrived that he should be forced to action. "He that tilleth ( slaveth) his land shall have plenty of bread; but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." Prov. xxviii. 19. When God made "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew," foreseeing the apostasy of man-its poisonous effect upon his moral and physical condition-its direct influence to produce immediate ruin and death, he also provided, ordained, and decreed a relation, a law between man and his mental and physical wants, which must cleave unto him, upon his apostasy, and be of the utmost value and efficacy in alleviating, removing, and preventing the final evils incident to his poisoned condition. This relation, law, institution, was the ebeduth, the institution of slavery, as expressed in Ezra ix. 8, 9: "And give us a little reviving in our bondage (11 ebeduthenu, slavery). For we were bond-men (y abedim, slaves), and yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage," y. So in 2 Chron. xii. 8: “Nevertheless, ye shall be his servants (le-obedim, his slaves), that they may know my service (y slavery), and the service (♫y and the slavery) of the kingdoms of the countries." So in Esther vii. 4: "For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bond-men (in) and bond-women, I had held my tongue.”

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TOWARDS the close of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses, having delivered to the children of Israel such of the laws of the Almighty as were then deemed necessary for their government and guidance, proceeds to inform them of the consequences of disobedience; and boldly informs them, xxviii. 15, "But, if it shall come to pass if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments, and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. 16: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. 17: Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. 18: Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 19: Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 20: The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all thou settest thy hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly, because of the wickedness of thy doings whereby thou hast forsaken me." "And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee. Thou shalt see it no more again, and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bond-men (□ la obedim, for slaves), and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you." They should be so trifling and worthless that no one would wish to buy them. Josh. ix. 23-27: "Now, therefore, ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bond-men ( slaves), and hewers of wood and drawers of water," &c. 66 'And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water, for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day."

LESSON XI.

(slaves עֲבָדִים) servants

BEFORE closing this subject we offer a few more examples of the Hebrew use of this word. "Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants ( slaves) now-a-days that break away every man from his master." 1 Sam. xxv. 10. Nabal pretended in his drunkenness, that he might be a runaway slave. 1 Kings ii. 29, 40: "And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants (Day ebedim, slaves) of Shimei ran away unto Achish, son of Maachah king of Gath; and they told Shimei, saying, Behold thy servants ( slaves) be in Gath. And Shimei arose and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants (y slaves), and

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Shimei went and brought his servants (y slaves) from Gath." 1 Kings ix. 20, 21, and 22: "And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebuzites, which were not of the children of Israel, their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon these did Solomon levy a tribute of bond-service (y obed, slavery) unto this day. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bond-men," (y ebed, slaves.) 2Chron. viii. 9: “But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no ser

vants (□'y la ebedim, no slaves) for his work, (enbeh his works, labours.) But they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horsemen." 2 Kings iv. 1: "Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen,” (y la ebedim, for slaves.) In 1 Chron. xxvii. 26, this word is used in a sense quite analogous to slave-labour, thus: "And over them that did the work (meleketh, i. e. the particular

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