The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1857-06-18

SLAVERY IN THE TIME OF CHRIST AND THE
APOSTLES.

Gibbon says: There still remained in
tho centre of every province, and of every
family, an unhappy condition of men who
endured tho weight, without sharing tho
benefits, of society. In tho free states of
antiquity, the domestic slaves were exposed
to the wanton rigor of dcspotism. The
slaves consisted, for the most part of bar
barian captivcs, taken in thousands by the
chance of war, and purchased at a vile
price. In the camp of Lucullus, an OK sold
for drachma, and a slave for four drach-
NAL (about seventy-fivc cents.) But when
the principal nations Of Europe, Asia, and
Africa, were united under the laws of ono
sovereign, tho source of foreign supplies
flowed with much less abundance, and the
Romans were reduced to the milder but
more tedious method of propagation. Tho
existence of slave became Of greater value,
and though his happiness still depended on
the temper and circumstances Of the master,
tho humanity OF the latter, instead Of being
restrained by fear, was encouraged by
sense ofhis own interest. The progress of
manners was accelerated by tho virtue or
policy of the emperors. The jurisdiction
of life and death over the slaves, power
long exercised and often abused. was taken
ont of private hands, and reserved to the
magistrates alone. 1t was once proposed
to discriminate the slaves by peculiar
habit; but it was justly apprchcnded that
there might be some danger in acquainting
them with their own numbers. The youths
of a promising genius were instructed in the
arts and sciences, and their price was ascer.
tanned by the degree Of their skill and tai
ents. Almost every profession, either liber-
al or mechanical, might be found in the
household Of an opulent senator. The
ministers Of pomp and scnsuality wcro null
tiplicd beyond the conception of modern
luxury. 1t was moro for the interest of the
merchant or manufacturer to purchase,
than to hire his worknen and in the
country, slaves were employed as the cheap
est and most Iaborious instruments of agri.
culture. To confirm the general observation,
and to display the multitude Of slaves, we
might allege variety of particular instan-
ces. It was discovered on very melan-
choly occasion (thoy were all executed for
not preventing their masters murder} that
four hundred slaves were maintained i'll a
single palace of Rome. The same number
of four hundred belonged to an estate which
a Carthaginian widow, of very private con-
dition, resigned to her son, while she reserv-
ed for herself much larger share of her
property. A man, under the reign of Au-
gustus, though his fortune had suffered
great losses in the civil wars, left behind
him three thousand six hundred yoke Of
oxen, two hundred and fifty thousand head
of smaller cattle, and what was almost in
cluded in tho description of cattle, four
thousand ono hundred and sixteen slaves"
The historian transcribed and translated
the above from tho works of such writer's
as Cicero, Pliny, and Tacitus, who were
eye witnesses, and whose statements are as
we'll authenticated as anything recorded in
history. No man living or dead ever dis
puted their testimony. Well, these things
existed at the time, precisely, when the Sa-
viour of the World and his apostles and
disciples walked the earth. Slavery was
all around them everywhere, and in their
very midst. They lived in the Roman Un-
ion, under Cesar, and they could nowhere
turn their eyes without beholding tho in
stituien." Moreover. slave property then
was not confined to the Ethiopian. Thou
sands, and hundreds of thousands, were as
white as their masters-and yet they wero
merely f" "chattles," both duling the Roman
Republic, and tho Empire under Cnsar.-
And yet neither Christ nor any Of his apos-
ties uttered ono word in condemnation of
tho "iniquity." Let the New Testament
be searched. But if Mr.. Kalloch, or Mr..
Cheeyer, or Mr.. Beecher, will study the
Decalogue, they will find out exactly what
the Saviour did forbid them to PRACTICE
And if Christ himself submitted without a
murmur to the political Jurisdiction of Ce.
sar, and if the apostle Paul appealed to him
for the benefit Of the rights of the citizen.
we do not see wherein the preachers of the
present day have found either an example
or an authority for their partisan opposition
to tho Supreme Government of their coun-
try. And if the pious and inoffensive apos-
ties and disciples of that day were the true
and righteous followers of the meek and
lowly Jesus, of whom, in the namo of
Heaven and Christianity, are our modern
political bafsops the foiiowers3-,Southern
Monitor.
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