the torch
of rebellion and war; and the further spread of the gospel would have
been drowned in the blood of its founders. But they took the very course
which God adopted among the Israelites in regard to servitude, not
directly prohibiting it, but inculcating principles of social equality
and progress, restricting the master's power, and protecting the
servant's rights, till, master and slave blended in one, the name of
slave was lost in that of Christian. 3. The relation and duties of
master and servant are defined by the apostles exactly as they might be
to-day in England or the free states--as those of men, _never_ as owner
and property; on the contrary, all ownership of man by other than God is
expressly denied. 1 Cor. 6:19, 20, "What! know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost in you, which ye have of God, and _ye are
not your own_? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in
your body and your spirit, _which are God's_." There the ownership is
clearly asserted; how can man claim it? "Render to Cesar the things that
are Cesar's, _and to God the things that are God's_," lest you be found
robbing God himself. Again, 1 Cor. 7:21, 23, "Art thou called, being a
servant? care not for it; but, if thou mayst be made free, (+dynasai
genesthai+, canst become free,) use it rather." What can be more
explicit than this? First, ownership of man is denied even to _himself_,
much more to _another_. Next, the exhortation to slaves is, if they
_can not_ get free from this great wrong, to bear it as such, but, if
they _can_, "use it rather;" and the reason given is followed by a rule
of action to be adopted wherever possible. Verse 23, "Ye are bought with
a price; BE NOT YE THE SERVANTS OF MEN." If this be not express
prohibition of chattelism, and command to slaves to free themselves from
it, then the language is totally contradictory and unintelligible.

Contrast these laws of Paul with the laws of most of the southern
states, forbidding even the master to free his slaves, while states and
Congress unite in hounding back to whip and task the poor slave who
dares obey that command; nay, offer large rewards for men, even
Christian ministers, when attempting to obey it. "But Paul sent back
Onesimus to his master, and therefore sanctioned the sending back of
fugitives." We answer, there was no sending back at all. Paul, a
prisoner, could not send him back: a Jew, he was forbidden by his
religion to do so.