' 'Whatsoever ye
would that men should do unto you, do you even so to them.'
"He maintained that to own a fellow-creature was inconsistent with this
law of equal love; that it was giving sanction to a feature of
barbarism; that, practically, slavery was the sum of all villanies; an
enormous wrong; a stupendous injustice.
"If any one should reply that the Mosaic institutions recognized
slavery, he had one brief answer:--'which things are done away in
Christ.' Moses permitted this and some other things for the hardness of
their hearts. Polygamy was allowed by Moses, not by Christianity; its
spirit is against it; the bishop of a church must be 'the husband of one
wife;' slavery is certainly none the less contrary to the spirit of the
gospel.
"But inasmuch as it is inexpedient to dissolve at once, and in all
cases, the relation of master and slave, he contended that while the
relation continued, it should be regulated by the laws which God himself
once prescribed. Every seventh year should be a year of release; every
fiftieth, year should be a jubilee. And as to fugitives, he would refer
his brethren to that Divine injunction: 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his
master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall
dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in
one of thy gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.
Pages:
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286