"And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir." This servant, as he doubtless was, of the patriarch, was heir apparent to his estate. Such seemed to be the custom of the day, in case a master was childless. This custom was neither prohibited, altered nor disturbed, by the law which was given long afterwards. This certainly does not favor the chattel principle, for a chattel cannot inherit property. Besides the law of American slavery expressly declares, "a slave can acquire nothing but that is his master's." Also, before there was any specific legislation on the subject, we find in Genesis xvii. 10, 13, that God took into his covenant, under the seal of circumcision, all the males of a family, including, with peculiar emphasis, those born in the house, those "bought with money, of any stranger which is not thy seed.' This made them members of the church, and gave them an equal title with all others, to the privileges of the church, and the blessings of the covenant. The civil condition of a servant, after the law as well as before it, was such that the servant was in the position of a minor, or a person under age, in law, according to St. Paul. Gal. iv. 1. 66 Then, at the year of Jubilee every servant was freed. Liberty" was proclaimed "throughout all the land, to every inhabitant thereof." Lev. xxv. 10. Now the chattel principle makes the slave a brute, in law, without social, civil, or religious rights; so that the relation he sustains to his master is that "of a quadruped to his owner.' The chattel principle neither knows nor proclaims any year of jubilee. It may not be amiss to add, in this connexion, that provision was made according to Jewish law, for a Jew's going into the service of his fellow Hebrew. Of this we read in Exodus xxi. and Deuteonomy xv. In such cases the serving party was to go free in seven years, unless he preferred to remain, then, if so preferring, he was permitted to remain for ever. But, his remaining is distinctly made conditional upon his choice, on account of love to his master, a choice which he openly declares before the elders or magistracy. But in the fiftieth year, the year of Jubilee, all servants were freed. To this view of the case, I am aware, it may be objected— 1st. That they were to buy bondmen and bond women of the heathen, "foreigner." Lev. xxv. 46. 2ndly. That the servant is plainly called his master's " money." Exodus xxi. 21. 3rdly. "And they shall be your possession." Lev. xxv. 45. A word or two only on these passages. 1. The parties "bought," &c., could not be made chattels of, for the plain reason, that neither in the origin nor the progress of the institution of Hebrew servitude was the chattel principle in existence. 2nd. The laws regulating the system contain nothing of this sort, but they are from beginning to end quite opposite to it. 3rd. It follows, therefore, that the buying and the considering the bought the money of the purchaser must be understood according to the legal and actual relations into which the servants entered. These we noticed above. 4th. The term "for ever" in its connexions simply implies this: you may occasionally buy a Hebrew servant; but the permanent rule-for ever-is that you buy of the heathen. You may have the services of a Jew for 6 years, but you may have those of a heathen for ever-even till the Jubilee, 49 years. See Weld's Bible against slavery. The chattel principle renders a law for the reclamation of Fugitive Slaves both necessary and proper. Necessary, because slaves will run away; proper, as a chattel is property, to whose person his owner has an undoubted right. If the chattel principle be right, so is and must be the Fugitive Law. What is the Old Testament upon this matter? "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master, unto thee." Deut. xxiii. 15. The chattel principle is a wholesale system of man-stealing. It began in man-stealing on the African coast, and the purchaser and the inheritor of the slaves have and hold their chattels by no other tenure than a successive series of transfers from one man-stealer to another. The Old Testament says:"He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." Ex. xxi. 16. What would become of modern slave-holders were this law enforced now? Does God approve of slavery? Aye, does God order a man solemnly and legally and 'surely" to be killed for doing what God approves? But if our slavery-upholding brethren be right, this horrible consequence follows! I referred just now to what St. Paul says about the civil and social status of a Hebrew servant. I wonder that those who find democracy in the Scriptures should overlook testimony so important, pointed, and emphatic. Perhaps the explanation is, that the same persons who defend and inculcate democracy from the Bible, also glory in finding the same volume a defence of the veriest opposite to democracy. St. Paul says (Gal. iv. 1), "Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all.” St. Paul being of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, learned in the Jewish law, and inspired as well, could speak, ex cathedra, of the legal and civil condition of a Hebrew servant. His testimony is, that the heir while a child, or during his minority, differed nothing from a servant, and, of course, the servant differed nothing from the heir, during the minority of the latter. Nothing, in the humble opinion of the writer, could be more conclusive in the shape of testimony against the sanction of the chattel principle claimed to be afforded by the Old Testament system of servitude. Suppose, in closing, we direct our attention for a moment to the moral code. Keeping in view the real question, which is, Does the Bible, i.e., the God of the Bible, sanction slavery ?the chattel slavery of modern Christendom-modern Protestant Christendom for, as Rev. Albert Barnes (vide his admirable work on slavery, a copy of which I had the honour of presenting to the Rev. James Newman) says, that is the question. | slave at the mercy of the master in this matter. The Decalogue enjoins the filial duty of honouring the father and the mother. Slavery degrades the parent before the face and eyes of the child, and sells the one from the other, at the will of the master. Nothing but my mother's escaping with me prevented such a sale of my mother from me when I was a child. The Decalogue forbids theft. Slavery is wholesale theft. "Thou shalt not kill," says God's law. Slavery allows of killing a slave legally, "by moderate correction." The Seventh Commandment is one of God's canons. What does the large and increasing number of mulatto slaves proclaim as to the obedience of slaveholders and slavery to this canon? God's lex scripta forbids the "coveting the wife or any thing that is thy neighbour's." Slavery covets and appropriates the wife and every thing that is thy neighbour's. Now, our question is, Does the Jehovah of the Bible sanction at one and the same time this holy law and the cool, deliberate violation of every part and parcel of it? Indeed, I am ashamed to confess almost that I was born in a Protestant country, whose leading divines make the discussion of such a question necessary. No act of Infidels, scoffers, nor Atheists, nor all of them combined, do such deep dishonour to God and the Scriptures as do these preachers. I beg most earnestly that the heathen of my fatherland be spared from connection to such a religion. And perhaps the worst feature of it is its hypocrisy. They don't believe what they teach. They uphold the slavery of the black man from the Bible, while they demand liberty by virtue of the same volume for the white man. The root of it all is their deep, chosen, incorrigible negrohate. SAMUEL R. WARD. The Decalogue enjoins supreme reverence to Jehovah the Jehovah "who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the HOUSE OF BONDAGE.' Slavery ordains supreme reverence to London, March, 1855. some poor mortal of the hour who claims ownership over the body and the soul of the slave. The Decalogue makes it "the right and the duty," as Dr. Edwards, a proslavery divine, hath it, "of every human being to have and enjoy the Sabbath.' Slavery acknowledges no such right, enjoins no such duty, but leaves the " HOPE AND ASSURANCE. Continued from p. 56. To style the winner of the prize only dochimos would have been a disparagement of his dignity, when, by his success he had acquired the admiration of all Greece. He was N hetes, a conqueror. Such were universally honoured and almost adored. On their return home they rode in a triumphal chariot into the city, the walls being broken down to give them entrance, which was done, as Plutarch says, to signify that walls are of little use to a city that is inhabited by men of courage and ability to defend it. At some places they had presents made to them by their native city, were honoured with the first places at all shows and games, and ever after maintained at the public charge.* Cicero reports that a victory in the Olympic games was not much less honourable than a triumph at Rome. On the other hand it would have been unjust to have styled those adochimoi who failed to gain the prize when they had been honestly striving to obtain it, because that appellation implied something discreditable, whereas it was an honour to be engaged in such contests at all. But there was a class who after engaging in the contest were thus called in a degrading and criminal sense, i.e. such as by surreptitious means had entered on the stadium, or by unlawful stratagems had obtained an advantage. These being found guilty on further examination were forbidden the prize and reckoned among the adochimoi, always with disgrace and frequently with heavy fines, but still on the principle that they were really disqualified, and had their characters been previously known, they would not have been permitted to engage in the contest. So that nothing could have disqualified a competitor to receive the crown but what would, if known, have equally disqualified him to enter on the competition. What then is there in the christian life which, by fair analogy, can be considered as corresponding with the qualifications required in competitors for the honours of the Grecian games? Let the New Testament answer-"Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." -John iii. 3 and 36. It is quite unnecessary to quote the passages at large in which the same truths are affirmed, since none "who profess and call them Xenoph. Col. in Epigram. + Orat. pro Flacco. selves christians" will deny that regeneration and faith are essential to the christian character. Without these none can run "the race that is set before us or engage in the spiritual contest, or be finally crowned. " Thus far points of comparison only have been noticed, but in order to understand the passage clearly, those of contrast are of equal importance. In the Grecian games only one received the prize, hence arose keen competition and rivalry between friends and relatives aiming at the same end, but in the christian contest there is no just occasion for jealousy, because all may obtain their desire, and at the same time be helpers of each others joy. Believers are, in fact, opposed by malignant and determined foes. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, &c.'' Ephesians vi. 12. Among the Greeks it was manifestly impossible for the herald or preacher, from the nature of his office, to be at the same time a combatant, at least in reference to the same game, but the apostle for the sake of imparting salutary instruction unites the two characters in his own example, and indicates that he should feel it utterly inconsistent to recommend a race to others in which he was not qualified to win a prize. And his expressions convey a grave admonition to others that it is possible to be a preacher of christianity without being a christian. He knew that Judas had been an apostle, and that he was at the same time "the son of perdition" hastening forward "to his own place." It is a fearful thought, but there is no reason to suppose that (mepos) here implies any doubt respecting himself, but it is rather designed to express his detestation of such a character and his determination that it shouldnot be applicable to himself. The gaining of the victory was uncertain and depended on the personal superiority of the runner or combatant in the Grecian contests. In the christian conflict the crown is already laid up and the believer can sing during its course, "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."-1 Cor. xv. 58. Birmingham, April 21. J. JONES. THE ADAPTION OF THE GOSPEL TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MAN. 71 THE ADAPTATION OF THE GOSPEL TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MAN. The gospel is a gracious message from God to man, and is in every way suited to his fallen condition. "A sovereign balm whose virtues can, Restore the ruined creature man." 66 Where but in the gospel can we find an all-efficacious remedy for the innumerable ills of the present life? He sent his word and healed them." It finds man guilty and offers him pardon. It finds him polluted and presents to him moral purity. It finds him weak and imparts to him strength. It finds him enslaved and enfranchises him with the most precious liberty, "the glorious liberty of the sons of God." It finds him wretched and miserable and opens up to him the door of real and substantial bliss. It finds him dead, and gives him life. "Its words are spirit and life." It finds him hopeless, godless, portionless, and fills him with a good hope through grace; a hope blooming with immortality, and assures him of God's willingness to become his, and to be his portion for ever. It finds him with no prospect but a certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, and places in full view before him glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life, urging him to forget those things that are behind, and to reach forth to those that are before, animating and encouraging him in the pursuit by its exceeding great and precious promises, and by the communication of strength to enable him to hold on his way and to wax stronger and stronger; and as an inducement it holds out to him unfailing pleasures, imperishable riches, immortal honours, glorious mansions, an immovable kingdom, an unfading crown, an eternal weight of glory, a happiness pure, perfect, uninterrupted and never-ending in the presence of God, in which is fulness of joy, and at his right hand pleasures for evermore. Herein we discover the complete adaptation of the gospel to man's circumstances and wants. It meets man in all directions, and comes in contact with him from every point. It alone unfolds an all-sufficient remedy for his numerous woes and maladies. Now it is this adaptation that constitutes it so emin ently the religion of man, and carries with it to his inner consciousness a demonstration of its divinity. Wherever man is found the gospel meets him in all his moral wants, in all his feelings, sympathies, wretchedness and moral destitution, in all his exposure to suffering and to peril, and fully meeting these exigencies and necessities, reveals the only way of salvation, the only basis of hope, and the only path to happiness and glory. There is not a want of his but the gospel anticipates and can supply, not a hope but it can fulfil. The densest cloud it can scatter, the deepest stain it can remove, the vilest sinner it can pardon and save, and the meanest wretch it can ennoble and enrich. "What if we trace the globe around, So just to God, so safe for man.' In order that we may see its blessed adaptability to man's circumstances let us illustrate a few of these particulars. 1st. Man is guilty; guilty of transgressing Jehovah's laws. He has not done what God expects from him, and has violated the divine laws. This character of guilt belongs to the whole human family; for all have sinned, and all have gone astray. Guilt exposes to danger, to the penalty of death, even to the death of the soul; for the soul that sinneth shall die. The wages of sin is death. All whose names are not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life shall be cast into the lake of fire; this is the second death. But the gospel announces life. "Life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel.' Its divine Author is emphatically the "resurrection and the life," and "He came that we might have life; yea, that we might have it more abundantly." By His death on the cross He opened the path of life, and now through Him all that believe are fully justified. The sentence of death is repealed. "Their sins are blotted out as a cloud, and their transgressions like a thick cloud," and they are constituted the heirs of eternal life, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. He gives unto them eternal life, and none shall pluck them out of His hand. Thus the gospel announces and imparts life; a life spiritual in its nature, endless in its duration, commencing in grace but terminating only in glory; a life which is hid with God in Christ." "He shall bathe his weary soul 2. Man is polluted, and the gospel | to a glorious and safe haven of repose, presents a medium of purification. It where points to the fountain of a Saviour's blood, "which was opened for sin and for uncleanness, and his blood cleanseth from all sin." When this blood is applied by the Spirit's influence, the soul, though red as scarlet or as deeply dyed with crime as crimson, becomes as wool; yea, whiter than the snow. That blood has infinite merit toward God to take away the guilt of sin, and infinite merit toward man "to redeem him from all iniquity." It is a fact that we delight to assert with unwavering confidence, and which we contemplate with ineffable pleasure, that the atonement of Calvary must be sufficient whenever applied by the Spirit's influence to the objects of it. And there can be no prospect of the sinner ever entering heaven but as he is "washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb." 3. Man is possessed of boundless desires after happiness, and the gospel presents a happiness equal to the infinite wishes of the soul. The gospel proposes for his enjoyment the love, smile, and favour of God, and "His favour is life, and His loving kindness is better than life." It presents to him God as reconciled through Christ-as his affectionate Father-as possessed of an infinite fulness of blessings, and all freely and graciously proffered to the penitent and earnest soul, who believes the testimony God has given of his Son and willingly accepts the overtures of his grace. God becomes his portion, his infinite portion, and fills his soul "with a peace that passeth all understanding, and with a joy unspeakable and full of glory." 4. Man is immortal, and destined to live for ever. Well, the gospel presents and freely offers for his acceptance an enduring substance and a never-ending felicity. When the earthly house of his frail tabernacle is dissolved it opens to the eye of his faith a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. When the toils of the wilderness are past it presents to him a country, even a better and a heavenly one, a land of pure delight, a city whose builder and maker Jehovah is. It discloses to his view a tree of life, laden with immortal fruita river of life, overflowing in streams of perennial bliss, and "a crown of life which fadeth not away.' And when the storm of life's voyage is over, the gospel points the tempest-tost mariner In seas of heavenly rest, the gospel to man's circumstances and Thus we discover the adaptation of wants. The gospel alone meets the breadth and depth and magnitude of man's necessities. Oh, with what unutterable gratitude should we embrace it, that we may partake of its blessings, and share in its glories. Thus life shall be happy and honourable, death welcome, and eternity unspeakably glorious. May this, dear reader, be your happy lot and mine, for Christ's sake. E. S. H. St. Ives, February. We hope to be able so avail ourselves of the offer of two of our friends to furnish a Sermon preached by the late DR. HAWIES before the Missionary Society: we now publish THE PRAYER before Sermon, at Spa Fields' Chapel, September 22, 1795. THOU great and glorious Head of thy Church and people, exalted to the throne of majesty on high, and reigning till every foe be made thy footstool, look down in tender compassion upon us, who bow before thee, our God and Saviour, and cry for wisdom and strength; conscious, that, without thy arm, every effort is impotent, and, without the guidance of thy Spirit, every counsel is vain. King of kings, and Lord of lords, bless the land of our nativity with all the glories of thy reign, that every knee may truly bow to thee, and every tongue in faith confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Bless the Sovereign, that through thy good providence, sways the sceptre of this realm. Give the king thy judgments, O God, that so he may reign in the hearts of his people, and over the neck of his and their enemies. Bless the Royal Family, and every branch of it, and grant that there never may be wanting, to the latest times, in the house of Brunswick, an heir to the throne, endued with thy Holy Spirit, and enriched by thy heavenly grace. |