The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1861-02-27

ed out MS broken neAft IN tne llty-0rSt fSalm
as He did sanction slateholding, by inserting In
His law express directions as to how they were
to be committed? There cannot be found any
where in the Leyitical law, either permission
that man may have two wives or any dIrec-
ton as to how he shall obtain them The near
est approach to sucha precept is found in Deut.
xxi. 10, where it says, ''if man have two
wives" he shall do thus and so with the chill.
dren. If man have two wives! Is that the
same thing as to say man may have two
wives? When the law says, "if o man smite
his servant till he de-" is that the same thing
as to sanction the beating OF slave to DEATH
The most that has ever been claimed for po
lygamy under the Leyitcal Law is btre toter
alton. Michaelis, who is the great authority
on that side ofthe question, says: sit does moi
appear that Moses permitted polygamy willing.
ly, or az matter OF Indifference, in either
moral or political view, but, as Christ express
es it, merely on aceotnt Of the hardness of then
hearts. In other words, he did not approve
but found it advisable to tolerate it as point O
civil expediency. - Commentaries on the Lat6,
of Moses, vol. 2, p.S.
Now even if we admit that for ekpcdiency
sake the inspired lawgiver tolerated polygamy
it must be evident to every candid reader, that
saveholding holds very different position Tin.
der the divine law. Slaveholding is there not
merely by by silence which gives consent, but
it is there as a matter of cypress enact1nent.-
It was anticipated by law. 1t is not true, as is
so often asserted, that Moses found slavery a
naonq the isruetites. At the time when he came
to set up their nationality under the most per-
feet theocracy the world ever saw, they had
themselves been slaves for generations. When
they went out of Egypt, they had no social OF
commercial ties to bind them to relation which
the cruelty OF their heather masters had Sc
long used as an instrument of OPPRESSION
There was not one slave in all that mighty
host who gathered around Mount Sinai. to re-
ceive the law by which their future institutions
were to be moulded.
Regarding Moses las Michaels and other IA.
tionalistic commentators do) merely in the light
Of human lawgiyer, how easy would it have
been for him, by the insertion of one positive
prohibition into his code, or evel by the preach
ing OF one abolition sermon, to put the stigma
of his disapprobaton forever upon slavehoidDg.
How easy for him to keep silence, as it is al
lodged he did, in reference to polygamy and
thus saveholding on the footing of an eUil toler-
ated fer erpediency sake! Or to speak more
like Christian minister, how easy it would
have been for God, il he regards slaveboldDg
as sinful, in those days when his chosen peo-
pie trembled before Sinai, under the utterance
of that law which was to shape their character
and destiny as a nation, to write the doctrine
Of Abotionism in His holy law, and grave il
indeibly upon the inspired records ofthe world
The fact that he uttered no such doctrine, but,
on the contrary, instructed the chosen seed TO pLu'
chase and hold, and bequeafhed their boroncn to
their posterity shuts every man up to the alter
| tn yofn yAb bnl, II
Moses as an inspired lawgiver.
1t must be admitted that the Jewish liabbis,
who taught for commandments the doctrines oi
men, construed the law into sanction ofpolyg,
amy. But Christ, the true expounder, showed
them how their traditions made void the law.
Read his deliverance on this subject in Matt.
xix. 80; Mark X. IL; Luke xvi. Is. He ad-
mits that Moses suffered man to marry Sec
ond wife, provided he had previously divorced
the first; but declares that even this permission
was because of the hardness of theft hearts,
and then re 'erring them to the original and
model marriage, by which twain were made one
flesh, he promulgates that great divine law,
which, however it is tramped on now by the
legislatures OF nominally Christian states, was
strictly observed in the Apostolic Church, so
that Christian man as we'll as a Christian
minister, was "the husband OF one wiie.',A
Admitting, for the sake Of the argument, that
the Levltcal law gives no more sanction to
slaveholding than it did to polygamy, we ask
the advocates of Aboltionism If Christ ever re-
buked the prevailing practice in regard to the
one, as he did in reference to the other? Leav-
ing Moses and the Prophets, let us turn now to
Jesus and His Apostles.
There are men, even among protesting Chris
tians and not few ministers of the gospel
who answer the argument from the Old Testa.
ment Scriptures, by a simple denial of their au-
thority. They do not tell us how God could
ever or anywhere countenance that which is
morally wrong, but they content themselves
with saying that the Levitical law is no rule Of
action for us; and they appeal from its decisions
to what they consider the higher tribunal oil
the gospels Let us, therefore, Join issue with
them before the bar Of the New Testament
Scriptures. Here there is no lack Of witnesses
in the case. 1t is historic truth acknowledg.
ed on all hands, that at the advent ofJesus
Christ slavery existed all over the civilized
world, and was intimately interviewer with its
social and civil institutions. In Judea, in Asia
Minor, in Greece, in all the countries where
the Saviour OF his Apostles preached the Cos
pei, slaveholding was just as common as it is
to day in South Carolina. 1t is not alleged by
any one, or, at least, by any one having any
pretensions to scholarship or candor, that the
Roman laws regulating slavery were even as
mild as the very worst statutes which have been
passed upon the subject in modern times. II
will not be denied by any honest and wel.in.
formed man. that modern civilization and the
restraining influences of the gospel, have shed
ameiorating influences upon the relation be.
tween master and slave, which were utterly un.
known at the advent Of Christianity. And
how did Jeses and bis Apostles treat this sub
iect? Masters and slaves met them at every
step in their missionary work, and we're present
in every audience to which they preached. The
Roman law, which gave the full power OF life
and death into the musters hand, was familiar
to them; and all the evils connected with the
system surrounded them every day ,as obviously
as tho light OF heaven. And yet, it is remark
able fact which the Abolitionst does not, be-
cause he cannot deny, that the New Testament
is utterly silent in regard to the alleged sinful
ness OF slaveholding. In all the instructions o.
the Saviour; in all the epistles they were NOV
ed by the Holy Spirit to write, for the instruc'
ton oil coming generations--ther is not one
distinct and explicit denunciation of slavehold
ing, nor one precept requiring the master to
emapcipaie his slaves, Every acknowledged
sin is openly and repeatedly condemned, and in
unmsasured terms. Drunkenness and adultery,
theft and murder--all the moral wrongs which
aver have been known to affiict society, are for
hidden by name; and yet, according to the
teaching of Abolitionism, this greatest Of all
sins---this sum ofall villaniss--is never spoken
Of except In respectful terms. How can this
be accounted for?
i ss,ns ys.rsanee. DR.. Wnviand puhii,.Iv nssert.