d. If, indeed,
slavery be so great a sin, would it not have been easier for the divine
teacher to say, Let it be abolished, than to lay down so many minute
precepts for its regulation? Would this have tended to swell the gospel
into a vast library, or to abridge its teachings? Surely, when Dr.
Wayland sets up such a plea, he must have forgotten that the New
Testament, though it cannot notice "every thing," contains a multitude
of rules to regulate the conduct of the master and the slave. Otherwise
he could scarcely have imagined that it was from an aversion to
minuteness, or from an impossibility to forbid every evil, that the sin
of slavery is passed over in silence.

He must also have forgotten another thing. He must have forgotten the
colors in which he had painted the evils of slavery. If we may rely upon
these, then slavery is no trifling offense. It is, on the contrary, a
stupendous sin, overspreading the earth, and crushing the
faculties--both intellectual and moral--of millions of human beings
beneath its odious and terrific influence. Now, if this be so, then
would it have been too much to expect that at least one little word
might have been directed against so great, so tremendous an evil? The
method of the gospel may be comprehensive, if you please; it may teach
by great principles rather than by minute precepts. Still, it is
certain that St. Paul could give directions about his cloak; and he
could spend many words in private salutations. In regard to the great
social evil of the age, however, and beneath which a large majority of
even the civilized world were crushed to the earth, he said nothing,
lest he should become too minute,--lest his epistles should swell into
too large a volume! Such is one of Dr. Wayland's defences of the gospel.
We shall offer no remark; we shall let it speak for itself.

A third reason for the silence in question is the alleged ease with
which precepts may be evaded. "A simple precept or prohibition," says
Dr. Wayland, "is, of all things, the easiest to be evaded. Lord Eldon
used to say, that 'no man in England could construct an act of
Parliament through which he could not drive a coach-and-four.' We find
this to have been illustrated by the case of the Jews in the time of our
Saviour. The Pharisees, who prided themselves on their strict obedience
to the _letter_, violated the _spirit_ of every precept of the Mosaic
code."

Now, in reply to this most extraordinary passage, we