t the best and most acceptable to God. Unless we
can approach the consciences of men, clothed with some more imposing
authority than that of our own opinions and arguments, we shall gain
little permanent influence. Men are too nearly upon a par as to their
powers of reasoning, and ability to discover truth, to make the
conclusions of one mind an authoritative rule for others. It is our
object, therefore, not to discuss the subject of slavery upon abstract
principles, but to ascertain the scriptural rule of judgment and conduct
in relation to it. We do not intend to enter upon any minute or extended
examination of scriptural passages, because all that we wish to assume,
as to the meaning of the word of God, is so generally admitted as to
render the labored proof of it unnecessary.

It is on all hands acknowledged that, at the time of the advent of Jesus
Christ, slavery in its worst forms prevailed over the whole world. The
Saviour found it around him in Judea; the apostles met with it in Asia,
Greece and Italy. How did they treat it? Not by the denunciation of
slaveholding as necessarily and universally sinful. Not by declaring
that all slaveholders were men-stealers and robbers, and consequently to
be excluded from the church and the kingdom of heaven. Not by insisting
on immediate emancipation. Not by appeals to the passions of men on the
evils of slavery, or by the adoption of a system of universal agitation.
On the contrary, it was by teaching the true nature, dignity, equality
and destiny of men; by inculcating the principles of justice and love;
and by leaving these principles to produce their legitimate effects in
ameliorating the condition of all classes of society. We need not stop
to prove that such was the course pursued by our Saviour and his
apostles, because the fact is in general acknowledged, and various
reasons are assigned, by the abolitionists and others, to account for
it. The subject is hardly alluded to by Christ in any of his personal
instructions. The apostles refer to it, not to pronounce upon it as a
question of morals, put to prescribe the relative duties of masters and
slaves. They caution those slaves who have believing or Christian
masters, not to despise them because they were on a perfect religious
equality with them, but to consider the fact that their masters were
their brethren, as an additional reason for obedience. It is remarkable
that there is not even an exhortation to masters to li