e in so many words proscribed, for that would, under the
circumstances, have led to the abnegation of relative duties and the
disruption of society. It is accepted as a prevailing institution
recognized by the civil powers. However desirable freedom might be,
slavery was not inconsistent with the Christian profession: "Art thou
called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made
free, use it rather."[e] The duty of obedience to his master is enjoined
upon the slave, and the duty of mildness and urbanity toward his slave
is enjoined upon the master. But with all this was laid the seed which
grew into emancipation. "_Our Father_," gave the key-note of freedom.
"Ye are _all_ the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." "There is
neither bond nor free, ... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."[f] "He that
is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman."[g] The
converted slave is to be received "not now as a servant, but above a
servant, a brother beloved."[h] The seed has borne its proper harvest. Late
in time, no doubt, but by a sure and certain development, the grand
truth of the equality of the human race, and the right of every man and
woman to freedom of thought and (within reasonable limit of law) to
freedom of action, has triumphed; and it has triumphed through the
Spirit and the precepts inculcated by the Gospel eighteen hundred years
ago. Nor is it otherwise with the relations established between the
sexes. Polygamy, divorce, and concubinage with bondmaid's have been
perpetuated, as we have seen, by Islam for all time; and the ordinances
connected therewith have given rise, in the laborious task of defining
the conditions and limits of what is lawful, to a mass of prurient
casuistry defiling the books of Mohammedan law. Contrast with this our
Saviour's words, "_He which made them at the beginning made them male
and female.... What therefore God hath joined together let not man put
asunder_."[i] From which simple utterance have resulted monogamy and (in
the absence of adultery) the indissolubility of the marriage bond. While
in respect of conjugal duties we have such large, but sufficiently
intelligible, commands as "to render due benevolence,"[j] whereby, while
the obligations of the marriage state are maintained, Christianity is
saved from the impurities which, in expounding the ordinances of
Mohammed, surround the sexual ethics of Islam, and cast so foul a stain
upon its literature.