Note 166 — Chapter VIII

The ‘Iwe Irohin,’ appearing October 1862, has the following sensible but curious article upon the subject of slavery: ‘It is the boast of Englishmen of the present day that no one is a slave on British ground; and they have a right to be proud of it, for in 1834 they gave the large sum of twenty million pounds sterling as a compensation to the slave owners; but though there is no doubt that a land where every man is free is in a better state than where slavery exists to a large extent, yet we must remember that slavery is recognized throughout the Bible, not only in the patriarchal times and under the Mosaic law, but also very distinctly by St. Paul, who lays down the relative duties of masters and servants to the Churches of Ephesus and Colosse, and exhorts Timothy to teach the slaves at Ephesus to count their own masters worthy of all honour, especially if their masters were Christians, 1 Tim. vi. 1, 2; and sent back to his master, Philemon, Onesimus who had been converted under his ministry at Rome, St. Paul had fully acknowledged the right of Philemon to his servant, though he thought it convenient for him as a Christian to release him; and he insists upon the duty of Christian servants to obey their masters, though he wished them to obtain their freedom if they could, 1 Cor. vii. 21. The tendency of Christianity is no doubt to diminish slavery, but it does not do this by exciting the slaves to revolt or run away; on the contrary, it commands them to please their masters well in all things, but it exhorts masters, as it does all other Christians, to do to others as they would they should do to them.’