4. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. James iii, 17.

5. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth Your gold and silver is cankered; and the

eaten.

with unwonted solemnity, that if he would earn, by extra labor, a certain sum of money, amounting to several hundred dollars, he should be free. The slave fell to work once more with redoubled energy. He toiled long and hard, and at last the blessed day dawned, on which, according to the stipulation of his master, he was to be enfranchised. But that treacherous and brutal individual, before the day arrived, had sold him to a slave-trader to be carried away to NewOrleans, and on that day he was destined to receive, not his promised pardon, but a new suit of chains.

"The heart-stricken man told his tale to the trader; how he had been promised his freedom-how he had toiledwhat cherished and often deferred hopes would be blasted forever He entreated him in the most touching language, to renounce the sacrilegious bargain,—but in vain. Finally, seeing that his prayers and tears were disregarded, he became desperate, and told the dealer that if he did take him, one or the other of them must die, and that he then gave him fair warning. The trader was highly diverted, and said he liked such a spirited fellow.' He went on board a vessel, and, during a serene evening in that delicious climate, the trader reposed himself upon the deck. In the dead of the night, the slave contrived to rid himself of his hand-cuffs, and groped until he grasped a heavy hand-spike, and, thus armed, stood over the sleeping man. He waked him and told him his purpose. Then God have mercy on me,' said the trader. "God will not have mercy on you, neither will I,' said the slave, and dashed out his brains."--[D. L. Child, Esq.]

rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. James V, 1.

6. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. James v, 4.

7. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. James v, 5.

8. And many shall follow their pernicious ways: by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you; whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 2 Peter ii, 2.

5. Shall eat your flesh as it were fire. What fearful language is here! Alas! for those who are so aptly described in the following verse, and to which these fearful denunciations, by the inspired writer, are applied.

6. Kept back by fraud. Let the reader say whose fields are tilled and reaped by those to whom no wages are paid, in this land. See Chap. ii, 26, and vii, 5, supra. If slaveholding is not set down as a sin against God in this passage, and the others here referred to, then no sin is described in any part of the Bible.

8. By reason of whom, &c. When persons err who profess the Christian religion, it gives the greatest occasion for the wicked and unbelieving to speak evil of Christianity. Hence it is that the example of Christians who make, vend, and use ardent spirit, as an article of living or luxury, is so much deplored by all the true friends of the temperance cause; and hence also it is, that the example of Christians who enslave their species, tends, in so great a degree, to perpetuate the slavery system. As long as wicked and

9. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and the gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 1 Peter ii, 18.

unprincipled men can refer to the example of slave-holding ministers and members of the Christian church, just so long slavery and the slave-trade will be continued.

9. Be subject to your masters. See the note on Chap. x, 9. "Even a slave, if a Christian, was bound to serve him faithfully by whose money he was bought, however illegal that traffic may be considered. In heathen countries, slavery was in some sort excusable; but among Christians it is an enormity and a crime, for which perdition has scarcely an adequate state of punishment."—[Dr. A. Clarke.]

Here the word rendered servants is oikérat, which signifies household servants; but even this word does not necessarily imply those who were the entire property of another; it is true that oiKETns had this signification sometimes among the Greeks, but not always; and the reasons before assigned show that it is by no means certain that this is the sense in which this word is used here. It occurs but in three other places in the New Testament, and in one of them the reader will perceive at once that it could not have been used to signify one who was held as the entire property of another. This is Luke xvi, 13. See also Acts x, 7. Rom. xiv, 4.

"We are told that slavery is a very delicate subject, and a political subject, and that the Apostles (very properly, it is also said) did not meddle with the relation at all, but left it to the laws of human society to regulate, and that they received both masters and slaves into the church together, without any change in the relation, and that they got along with it as well as they could in this way. Now where is the proof of all this?

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For proof we are commonly referred to those passages in which the Apostles prescribed the duties of masters and servants, where they told servants to be obedient to their masters, and masters to remember that they also had a

master in Heaven, and so on. But what does this prove? It takes for granted-what cannot be proved, and what is not true, and is contrary to known historical fact and the use of language-that all servants were slaves and all masters slave-holders. Whereas, the fact is, there were two distinct relations of servitude. And there were also two classes of masters, described by two different terms in Greek, though all are called by the same word, masters, in our English translation. The Apostles always used the words correctly and in a discriminating manner. The two words used in Greek are kyrios and despotes. The first, kyrios, is a title of respect, denoting either authority or worth. Sarah used the term in addressing her husband. Mary addressed it to the gardner at the sepulchre; the jailor of Phillippi to the Apostles, &c. The same term is proper to be used of any master, or person who employs others in his service, whether they are hired laborers, or servants, or apprentices. These masters, kyrioi, are addressed as Christians, and exhorted to be just, and render to their servants that which is just and equal. And all the servants of such are exhorted to be obedient heartily and with good will.

"But the word for slave-holder is despotes. And when the Apostle speaks to the servants of a despotes, he summons up all the Christian sympathies, and exhorts them to be patient under their trials, and points them forward to the blessed hope of the gospel beyond the grave. The passage is interesting and instructive. See 1 Pet. ii, 18-25.

"Servants, (oiketai-slaves, not douloi-servants-the translators ought to have made the distinction as plain in English as it is in Greek) be subject to your (despotais) masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but commit

ted himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

"But you see here he does not turn round and tell the despotes how to treat his slaves. God never regulates sin, nor teaches us how to do wrong, how to steal, or oppress, or to do any other wickedness. The Bible never speaks to a despotes as a brother in the church. It tells them to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free. And in case they do not heed the admonition, tells them the hire of their laborers, who have reaped down their fields, which is kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

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It is not true that the Apostles addressed slave-holders as Christian brethren, as has been often asserted. On the contrary, I maintain that they must have taken it for granted, that as soon as a slave-master became a Christian he would let his slaves go free, as a matter of course. I defy the world to prove that there ever was a slave-master admitted and tolerated in the Christian church, until after the Bishop of Rome sanctioned it, when he divided Africa be tween Portugal and Spain. The very fact that Christianity uniformly extinguished slavery wherever it came, is proof that the Apostles and early laborers preached in such a manner that slavery could not exist in the church.

"And if you carefully study the writings of the Apostles, you will find that the whole spirit and tenor of them corresponds to this view. Hear what the Apostle Paul says,

1 Tim. i, 9, 10.

Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers, for man-slayers, for whore-mongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

"Here it is observable that the word rendered men-steal. ers is not a word denoting an act of robbery, but an act of