'While he would not counsel Onesimus to run away, yet I
can only say, that, fleeing from certain cruelty and death, I doubt if
he would have been remanded. But Paul told servants to be "subject to
their masters," "not only to the good and gentle, but also to the
froward." He speaks to them of "suffering wrongfully;" of "doing well,
and suffering for it;" and he refers the suffering slave to Christ,
"who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered,
threatened not." Moreover, he says: "For even hereunto were ye called;
because Christ also _suffered for us_, leaving us an example that ye
should _follow his steps_." That is certainly death.'
"'If Paul did not send Onesimus back to Philemon, however, it would not
be because it was wrong, in his view, for Philemon to hold him in
bondage; please observe this distinction; but, judging the case by
itself, he would decide whether the slave ought not, under the
circumstances, to have the right of asylum,--Paul himself having once
been "let down by a basket," to escape from the Damascenes. Paul and any
other man would, in certain cases, protect even a fugitive son or
daughter from a father; and this consistently with his recognition of
the parental and filial relation.
Pages:
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302