"I only know," said I, "that slave-holding was to be a subject, as has
proved to be the case, which would involve the interests of at least
two of the continents of the earth, one of them being then unknown. Here
the Church of God was to have large increase. Here, too, slavery was to
exist, and to thrill the hearts of millions of citizens from generation
to generation. It is very remarkable that one book of the Bible, which
was to be made known to all nations by the commandment of the
everlasting God, for the obedience of faith, should be exclusively on
the subject of slavery, and that the whole burden of the Epistle should
be, The Rendition of a Fugitive Slave!"
"This never occurred to me before," said Mr. North.
"Suppose," said I, "that instead of sending back Onesimus, the epistle
had been a private letter from Archippus at Colosse to Paul at Rome,
clandestinely aiding Onesimus to escape from Philemon, and that Paul had
received Onesimus and had harbored him, and had sent him forth as a
missionary, and that not one word of comment had appeared in the Bible
discountenancing the act. What would have happened then?"
"Then," said Mrs. North, "one thing is certain; the business of running
off slaves to Canada would now have been more brisk even than it is at
present.
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