ery questionable expenditure of time and energy; for how is
love to be _taught_? Besides, a master and a slave might be attached to
each other--as was often the case--without either seeing that Slavery
was a violation of the law of love. What was needed was the sentiment of
_Justice_. That has broken the chains of the slave. The Stoics were
on the right track after all, while Christianity lost itself in idle
sentimentalism.

"Slavery denies the Equality of Men," says Mr. Henson, while
"Christianity asserts it strongly." I regret I cannot agree with him.
Certain amiable texts which he cites might easily be confronted with
others of a very different character. What did Christ mean by promising
that when he came into his kingdom his disciples should sit on twelve
thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel? How is this consistent
with his saying, "call no man master"? What did Paul mean by ordering
unlimited obedience to "the powers that be"? What did he and Peter mean
by telling slaves to obey their owners? Is all this consistent with the
doctrine of human equality? Mr. Henson simply reads into certain New
Testament utterances what was never in the speakers' minds. His abstract
argument is indeed perilous in regard to such composite writings as the
Gospels and the Epistles. Let it be assumed, for argument's sake, that
Christianity does somewhere assert the Equality of Men. Then it condemns
Royalty as well as Slavery; yet Peter says, "Fear God and honor the
King." I leave Mr. Henson to extricate himself from this dilemma.

I repeat that all this dialectic is a kind of subterfuge; at least it
is an evasion. The great fact remains that Jesus Christ never breathed
a whisper against slavery when he had the opportunity. Yet he could
denounce what he disapproved in the most vigorous fashion. His
objurgation of the Scribes and Pharisees is almost without a parallel.
Surely he might have reserved a little of his boisterous abuse for an
institution which was infinitely more harmful than the whole crowd of
his rivals. Those who opposed _him_ were overwhelmed with vituperation,
but not once did he censure those who held millions in cruel bondage,
turning men into mere beasts of burden, and women, if they happened to
be beautiful, into the most wretched victims of lust.

Let us now turn to Paul, the great apostle whose teaching has had more
influence on the faith and practice of Christendom than that of Jesus
himself. Mr. Henson say