y deserves notice." Now, even if not for
our benefit, we think there are two reasons why such passages as the
above were worthy of Dr. Channing's notice. In the first place, if he
had condescended to throw the light in his possession on such passages,
he might have saved Dr. Wayland, as well as other of his admirers, from
the necessity of making the very awkward admission that the Almighty had
authorized his chosen people to buy slaves, and hold them as "bondmen
forever." He might have enabled them to see through the great
difficulty, that God has authorized his people to commit "a sin of
apalling magnitude," to perpetrate as "great a crime as can be
conceived;" which seems so clearly to be the case, if their views of
slavery be correct. Secondly, he might have enabled his followers to
espouse the cause of abolition without deserting, as so many of them
have openly done, the armies of the living God. For these two reasons,
if for no other, we think Dr. Channing owed it to the honor of his cause
to notice the passages of Scripture bearing on the subject of slavery.

The Mosaic Institutes not only recognize slavery as lawful; they contain
a multitude of minute directions for its regulation. We need not refer
to all of them; it will be sufficient for our purpose if we only notice
those which establish some of the leading characteristics of slavery
among the people of God.

1. Slaves were regarded as property. They were, as we have seen, called
a "possession" and an "inheritance."[164] They were even called the
"money" of the master. Thus, it is said, "if a man smite his servant or
his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be
punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be
punished, for he is his money."[165] In one of the ten commandments this
right of property is recognized: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor _his_ man-servant,
nor _his_ maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is
thy neighbor's."

2. They might be sold. This is taken for granted in all those passages
in which, for particular reasons, the master is forbidden to sell his
slaves. Thus it is declared: "Thou shalt not make merchandise of her,
because thou hast humbled her." And still more explicitly: "If a man
sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the
men-servants do. If she please not her master who hath betrothed