ing him unto the judges, (in open
court,) he shall also bring him unto the door, or unto the door post,
(so that all in the court-house, and those in the yard may be witnesses,
and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall
serve him forever." It is useless to spend more time in gathering up
what is written in the Scriptures on this subject, from the giving of
the law until the coming of Christ.

Here is the authority, from God himself, to hold men and women, and
their increase, in slavery, and to transmit them as property forever;
here is plenary power to govern them, whatever measure of severity it
may require; provided only, that _to govern_, be the object in
exercising it. Here is power given to the master, to separate man and
wife, parent and child, by denying ingress to his premises, sooner than
compel him to free or sell the mother, that the marriage relation might
be honored. The _preference_ is given of God to _enslaving the father_
rather than _freeing the mother and children_.

Under every view we are allowed to take of the subject, the conviction
is forced upon the mind, that from Abraham's day, until the coming of
Christ, (a period of two thousand years,) this institution found favor
with God. No marks of his displeasure are found resting upon it. It
must, therefore, in its moral nature, be in harmony with those moral
principles which he requires to be exercised by the law of Moses, and
which are the principles that secure harmony and happiness to the
universe, viz: supreme love to God, and the love of our neighbor as
ourself.--Deut. vi: 5.--Levit. xix: 18. To suppose that God has laid
down these fundamental principles of moral rectitude in his law, as the
soul that must inhabit every preceptive requirement of that law, and yet
to suppose he created relations among the Israelites, and prescribed
relative duties growing out of these relations, that are hostile to the
spirit of the law, is to suppose what will never bring great honor or
glory to our Maker. But if I understand that spirit which is now warring
against slavery, this is the position which the spirit of God forces it
to occupy, viz: that God has ordained slavery, and yet slavery is the
greatest of sins. Such was the state of the case when Jesus Christ made
his appearance. We propose--

Third. To show that Jesus Christ recognized this institution as one that
was lawful among men, and regulated its relative duties.

Having s