says Gibbon, existed in every province
and in every family of the Roman Empire. Jesus ordains in the 13th
chapter of Romans, from the 1st to the end of the 7th verse, and in 1
Peter, 2d chapter, 13th, 14th, and 15th verses, that the _legislative
authority_, which created the relation, should be obeyed and honored by
his disciples. But while he thus _legalises_ the _relation_ of master
and slave as established by the civil law, he proceeds to prescribe the
mutual duties which the parties, when they come into his kingdom, must
perform to each other.

The reference of my correspondent to disprove the _relation_, is a part
of what Jesus has prescribed on this subject to _regulate_ the _duties_
of the relation, and is itself proof that the relation existed--that
its legality was recognized--and its duties prescribed by the Son of God
through the Holy Ghost given to the apostles.

The 12th reference is, "Let as many servants as are under the yoke,
count their masters worthy of all honor. And they that have believing
masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather
do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the
benefit." If my reader will turn to my remarks, in my first essay upon
this Scripture, he will cease to wonder that it fails to convince me
that slavery is sinful. I should think the wonder would be, that any man
ever quoted it for such a purpose.

And lastly. My correspondent informs me that the Greek word "doulos,"
translated servant, means hired servant and not slave.

I reply, that the primary meaning of this Greek word, is in a singular
state of preservation. God, as if foreseeing and providing for this
controversy, has caused, in his providence, that its meaning in Greek
dictionaries shall be thus given, "the opposite of free." Now, readers,
what is the _opposite_ of _free_? Is it a state somewhere _between_
freedom and slavery? If freedom, as a condition, has an opposite, that
opposite state is indicated by this very word "doulos." So says every
Greek lexicographer. I ask, if this is not wonderful, that the Holy
Ghost has used a term, so incapable of deceiving, and yet that that term
should be brought forward for the purpose of deception. Another
remarkable fact is this: the English word servant, originally meant
precisely the same thing as the Greek word "doulos;" that is, says Dr.
Johnson in his Dictionary, it meant formerly a captive taken in war, and
rese