periodical
emancipation of all that were in bondage; thus aiming a fatal blow at
the very existence of servitude in the Hebrew commonwealth. I may not,
consistently with the necessary brevity of a tract designed for popular
perusal, go into any demonstration of the facts above asserted. For
proof that they are facts, let my readers studiously examine the Mosaic
books, and the Rev. A. Barnes's "Inquiry into the Scriptural Views of
Slavery." I see not how any candid and discriminating investigator can
help being convinced that the servitude which was temporarily tolerated
in the Jewish church, was, in numerous respects, very unlike to that
which exists among us, and far less repulsive.

But suppose, for argument's sake, it had been just as repulsive a system
as ours, would the fact of its having been tolerated under the Jewish
economy prove it to be intrinsically good, and worthy of being
perpetuated? Then, by parity of reasoning, the good men of ancient times
might safely have concluded that certain other practices were good and
would endure, which we know were not good, and were not to last. Had the
question been propounded in Abraham's or in David's day, whether
polygamy and concubinage were approved of God, and would be perpetuated
in the church, it is probable that even the saints of those periods
would have responded affirmatively. The fact that God had so long
allowed his people to practise these things unrebuked, might, to them,
have seemed sufficient proof that these practices were intrinsically
proper, and were to rank among the permanent fixtures of human society.
But were Abraham and David now on the earth, with what changed feelings
would they regard the cast-off system of concubinage and a plurality of
wives. Again: suppose the conjecture had been hazarded, three thousand
years ago, that woman, from being a menial drudge, or a mere medium of
bestial indulgence, would one day occupy the dignified position to which
Christianity has actually lifted her, would not incredulity have lurked
in every heart, and found expression on every tongue? Now there are
plain indications, not only in the Word, but the providences of God,
that he never regarded slavery with complacency, any more than he did
polygamy, concubinage, or the serfdom of woman; and that he never
designed its perpetuity. Scrutinizing that Word and those providences,
one needs no prophetic ken to enable him to predict with certainty,
that, when Christ's