Page 315: “Up to the time when its truths (the gospel’s) were made known, the great mass of mankind had no scruples about its propriety; they regarded one portion of the race as inferior to the other, and as born to be slaves. Christianity disclosed the great truth that all men were on a level; that all were equal.”
Page 317: “If a man should in fact render to his slaves ‘that which is just and equal;’ would he not restore them to freedom? Would any thing short of this be all that is just and equal?”
Page 322: “No man has a right to assume that when the word δοῦλος, doulos, occurs in the New Testament, it means a slave.”
Page 331: “No argument in favour of slavery can be derived from the injunctions addressed by the apostles to the slaves themselves.”
Page 340: “From the arguments thus far presented in regard to the relations of Christianity to slavery, it seems fair to draw the conclusion, that the Christian religion lends no sanction to slavery.”
Page 341: “The Saviour and his apostles inculcated such views of man as amount to a prohibition of slavery.” Page 345: “He (Jesus Christ) was not a Jew, except by the accident of his birth, but he was a man; in his human form there was as distinct a relation to the African * * * as there was to the Caucasian.”
We have understood that one popular clergyman at the North (an abolitionist) has gone so far as to say that Jesus Christ was a negro! To what folly and extravagance will not wickedness subject its slaves!
Mr. Barnes says, page 375—“These considerations seem to me to be conclusive proof that Christianity was not designed to extend and perpetuate slavery; but that the spirit of the Christian religion would remove it from the world, because it is an evil, and displeasing to God.”
To all of which, worthy of answer, it may be well to apply the sentiment which he attributes to Dr. Fuller, that the New Testament is not silent on the subject of slavery; that it recognises the relation; that it commands slaves to obey their masters, and gives reasons why they should do so. And it may be steadily affirmed, if slavery be a sin, that such commands and counsels are not only a suppressio veri, but a suggestio falsi; not only a suppression of the truth, but a suggestion of what is false!