ueen of Israel
and mother of Solomon; and in 2 Sam. 24:18-25, another, Araunah the
Jebusite is a householder, and more, is praised as acting like a king
toward king David, who bought property of him whereon to build an altar;
and yet, forsooth, they were not inhabitants!

But, as if to prevent equivocation, Moses defines the phrase "all the
inhabitants;" "Ye shall return _every man_ to his possession, and ye
shall return _every man_ to his family." Not every Hebrew, but every
_man_, the same generic term as in the law against killing or stealing
"a man;" it is unqualified and universal. Thus with one blow this noble
law strikes down the two principal sources of social oppression--monopoly
of land and monopoly of labor. All who had by poverty been compelled
to part with the old farm and homestead received it back; all claims of
service against any person, however mean and humble, were canceled; and
the land and its inhabitants were again free as God had made them.

These accumulated arguments, each separately weighty and forcible, but
collectively insurmountable, we think prove conclusively that the form
of servitude among the Israelites was not chattel slavery, and that
there is no sanction or authority for it in the Mosaic laws and
regulations.

Thus in Jewish history we see the Israelites groaning under Egyptian
bondage, and God's arm outstretched to rescue them when fugitives, and
punish their pursuers--a warning to all such thereafter; we see laws
enacted to prevent the existence of chattelism among them, by
restricting the master's power, and securing the servant's freedom at
regular intervals, and the opposite doctrine of equality among men
asserted; we see the Israelites disobeying these commands, and adopting,
with the idolatry of their neighbors, their slavery also, and God's
fiery wrath denounced on them for it by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel,
and fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar in the destruction and captivity of the
state.

NEW TESTAMENT.

_Teachings of Christ._

Ages pass, the Jews are restored to their land, but the Roman eagle
overshadows it and all the civilized world. Despotism is enthroned; and
the idea that the world and its people are the property of Rome and its
citizens is questioned only in murmuring whispers. All the relations of
Roman life partake of this idea of absolutism; slavery is every where,
liberty nowhere. Then the glad tidings of Messia