turies, containing any direct, professed, or intended
denunciation of slavery. But the apostles found the institution
existing, under the authority and sanction of law; and, in their labors
among the people, masters and slaves bowed at the same altar, communed
at the some table, and were taken into the Church together; while they
exhorted the one to treat the other as became the gospel, and the other
to obedience and honesty, that their religious professions might not be
evil spoken of!

_Secondly._--The early Church not only admitted the existence of
slavery, but in various ways, by her teachings and discipline, expressed
her approbation of it, enforcing the observance of certain Fugitive
Slave Laws which had been enacted by the State. And, in the various acts
of the Church, from the times of the apostles downward through several
centuries, she enacted laws and adopted regulations touching the duties
of masters and slaves, _as such_. This, in our humble judgment, amounts
to a justification and defence of the institution of slavery.

_Thirdly._--Our investigations of this subject have led us regularly,
gradually, certainly, to the conclusion that God intended the relation
of master and slave to exist. Hence, when God opened the way for the
organization of the Church, the apostles and first teachers of
Christianity found slavery _incorporated with every department of
society_; and, in the adoption of rules for the government of the
members of the Church, they provided for the rights of owners, and the
wants of slaves.

_Fourthly._--Slavery, in the age of the apostles, had so penetrated
society, and was so intimately interwoven with it, that a religion
preaching freedom to the slave would have arrayed against it the civil
authorities, armed against itself the whole power of the State, and
destroyed the usefulness of its preachers. St. Paul knew this, and did
not assail the institution of slavery, but labored to get both masters
and slaves to heaven, as all ministers should do in our day.

_Fifthly._--Slavery having existed ever since the first organization of
the Church, the Scriptures clearly teach that it will exist even to the
end of time. Rev. vi. 12-17 points to "The Day of Judgment," "The Last
Day," "The Great Day," and the condition of the human race at that time,
as well as the classes of persons to be judged, rewarded, and punished!
A portion of this text reads, "And the kings of the earth, and the great
men,