Indented apprenticeships in this commonwealth are within the
memory of all who are forty or fifty years of age. We remember the very
frequent advertisements: 'One cent reward. Ran away from the subscriber,
an indented apprentice,' etc. The descriptions of such fugitives, all
for the sake of absolving the master from liability for the absconding
boy, and sometimes the hunt that was made, with dogs to scent his
tracks, when his return was desired, are far within the memory of the
oldest inhabitant.
"In Israel, this descent of a family from a prosperous to a decayed
state, and the consequent servitude, were used by the Most High to
cultivate some of the best feelings of our nature. It touched the finest
sensibilities of the soul. Let me read from the fifteenth of
Deuteronomy:--
"'And if thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto
thee, and serve thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt
let him go free from thee.
"'And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let
him go away empty.
"'Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy
floor, and out of thy wine-press: of that wherewith the Lord thy God
hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
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