The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-12-09


vine favor. When Abram, the faithful,
and tho friend OF God, was SO years old,
1891 years after the flood,) God changed his
name to Abraham, made covenant with
him, and engrossed slavery on that cove
nant, by Incorporating it with the ordinance
of circumcision. Be silent, and hearken
to the voice Of God: "He that is born in
thy house, and he that is bought with thy
money, must needsfbe circumcised. and my
covenant shall be in your flesh for an euer.
lasting corenant." Gen. II: Is. Sand
God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep
my covenant therefore; thou, and thy seed
after thee in their generations"
About 430 years after this occurrence
when God was about to lead the lsraelites
out Of the land of Egypt, and make them a
great nation, he gave them the ordinance oil
the Passover, and engraved the institution
of domestic slavery ON that also, as he had
previously done on the ordinance Of cir
cumcision. "And the Lord said unto Mo-
ses, and Aaron, This is the ordinance OF
the passover, There shall no stranger eat
thereof. A foreigner. and a Airsd sergant
shall not eat thereof" Exodus, IL: 43-45.
Thus did Jehovah stereotype his approba-
ton of domestic slavery by Incorporating it
with the institutions Of the Jewish religion,
the only religion on earth that had the d.
vine sanction from the calling of Abraham,
367 years after the food, till the introduc-
lion of Christianity. The following statutes
respecting slavery are worthy Of serious
consideration. ''lf thou buy an Hebrew
servant, six years be shall serve; and in the
seventh he shall 60 out free for nothing. II
he came in by himself, he shall 90 out by
himself. IL he were married, then his wife.
and if she have borne him sons and daugh
tiers, the wife and her children shall be her
masters, and he shall go out by himself
And if the servant shall plainly say, | love
my master, my wife, and my children; !
/ will not 60 out free; Then his master shall
bring him unto the Judges; he shall also
bring him to the door, OF unto the door post;
and his master shall bore his ear through
with an awl and he serve him forever. >
Exod. 81: 90.
| III q uldll scINu vi Ills
with a rod, and he die under his hand; he
shall be surely punished. Notwithstand-
ing, if he continue a day or two, he shall
no, be punished, for he is his money" Elk.
81: 20, 81.
The Jew might not hold the Jew in bond
age, unless it were voluntary as above spe-
CITED, longer than till the year Of Jubilee.
(See Lev. 25: 39-41,) Not so, however,
with respect to the Gentiles. "Both thy
bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou
shalt have, shall be Of the heather, that are
round about you: of them shall we buy
bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover OF
the children Of the strangers, that do so.
ioarn among you. Of them shall ye buy,
and OF their families, that are with you,
which they begat in your land; and they
shall be your possession. And ye shall
take them as an Inheritance for your chill.
dren after you, to inherit them for posses
sion: they shsll DO your hondnas. fe.s~...
but over your brethren, the children OF Is
rael, ye shall not rule one over another with
rigor. Lev. %: 44-46.
/
to buy Gentle into perpetual bondage, be
was prohibited from delivering up to hea
then master, slave that might have esca
ped, and come unto him. (Deut. 13: Is.
16) In these apparently conflicting stat
utes, there was manilestly Che same benevo-
lent regard to the moral and religious i'm
provement Of the heather, whether deliver
ed into perpetual bondage, as in the one
case, or escaped thereirom as in the other
Among the Hebrews alone, had they an op
portunity of being taught the only true re-
lision. Better be slaves among them, than
enjoy freedom amidst the darkness Of hea
then dolatry. How similar the case of do
mestic slavery, as it exists in these United
States. By it multitudes have been saved
from heathenish idolatry and superstition
thousands and tens Of thousands have beer
turned from darkness to light, and from the
power Of Satan to God; and, at the same
time, their temporal condition has beer
greatly improved.
shall barely notice another provision o.
the Jewish religion on the subject Of slave
Try. Whilst the Jew, as we have already
seen, was permitted by express statute to buy
a Jew into bondage for limited time, and
a Gentle into bondage forever. and willis
he was prohibited from delivering up to g
heather master the servant that had fled tc
him for refuge--nevertheless, if Jew
should steal another Jew, and sell him into
slavery, be was to be put to death. See
Deut. 4: Z.
The foregoing is an ePitome Of the Di
vine Legislation on the subject Of bondagt
generally, from The time, when man Of hi:
own FREQ will made himself the bond-slave
of Satan in the Garden Of Eden, till the in
PRODUCTION OF christianity. During the
whole of this period it is obvious, that by
express statute or Jehovan, various grades
of bondage existed, domestic slavery inclu
ded, as penal consequence Of sin, and ye
benevolently designed to cooperate with q
remedial economy in effecting its cure.
unhesitatingly call the design benevolence
For as the bondage Of Satan and selEwil
is infinitely the most CALLING in its nature
and fearful in its tendencies, that can posi-
bly, be conceived--both wisdom and benev
olence would decide, that smaller evil, re
garded as a remedy for one infinitely great
err, should in that view be esteemed as {
positive blessing. Hence, il the Bible b
true, to denounce slavery as being essentially
criminal, is to blasphenae God by pronoun
cling sentence Of condemnation on his stat