Deut. 23:15. It was simply a recommendatory letter
sent with Onesimus, returning voluntarily to Colosse and his master. Let
us look at the letter. Verse 8 begins, "Wherefore, though I might be
much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet, for
love's sake, I rather beseech thee. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus,
... _which in time past was to thee unprofitable_, but now profitable to
thee and to me; whom I have sent again, ... not now as a servant, but
above a servant, a brother beloved," &c. Here Onesimus is described as
having been, while heathen, an "unprofitable" trouble to his master, and
had either run away or been sent away by him. Converted at Rome, Paul
heard his story, and in his letter, instead of thinking he is doing
Philemon a favor, has to earnestly "beseech," almost command, his
reception as a favor to himself. Not one word of _property_ or _right_
in him, save the right of love as one of the brotherhood. "NOT NOW AS A
SERVANT, but _above a servant, a brother beloved, especially to me_, but
how much more to thee!" Onesimus had left the "slave" in his heathenism;
in Christ he became the "brother" of Philemon and Paul. Instead of
sanctioning chattelism, it positively denies it by affirming voluntary
service, the equality of men as brethren, to be loved as Christ
himself.

Thus Christ and his apostles, so far from upholding chattelism in their
teachings, denounced the ownership of man by any but God, and inculcated
its opposite--love, liberty, equality, and fraternity--by precept and
example. And subsequent history showed the result.

Christ said of the teachings of the Pharisees, "By their fruits ye shall
know them." Apply this test to the teachings of the apostles and the
primitive churches in regard to slavery. When they went forth, "darkness
covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" slavery sat enthroned
in might over Europe; and the cries of the oppressed millions had only
had a hearing on the battle or before the throne of God.

When the Reformation came slavery had disappeared in Europe; and the
voice of the people was heard asserting their rights, feebly, indeed, at
first, but ever since growing stronger and stronger "as the voice of
many waters." What has caused this change?

Historians, Protestant and Catholic, ascribe it to the influence of the
church, not by direct emancipatory decrees, but, following the example
of God through Moses, by gradually restricting the