tion. None of these
relations creates slavery as such; and they should not be allowed, as
has sometimes been done, to obscure the argument.

The limits of a brief tract on a great subject compel us to pass
unnoticed many questions which will occur to a thoughtful mind. It is
believed that they all find their solution in our fundamental positions;
and that all passages of the Bible relating to the general subject, when
faithfully interpreted in their real harmony, sustain these positions.
It is admitted that the following argument is unsound if it does not
provide for every logical and practical exigency.

The primary truth which is now to be established may be thus stated:
_All men are invested by the Creator with a common right to hold
property in inferior things; but they have no such right to hold
property in men._

Christians agree that God as the Creator is the original proprietor of
all things, and that he has absolute right to dispose of all things
according to his pleasure. This right he never relinquishes, but asserts
in his word and exercises in his providence. The Bible speaks thus: "The
earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein, for he hath founded it. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture"--ourselves, therefore, subject to his possession and
disposal as the feeble flock to us. Even irreligious men often testify
to this truth, confessing the hand of providence in natural events that
despoil them of their wealth.

Now, under his own supreme control, God has given to all men equally a
dependent and limited right of property. _Given_ is the word repeatedly
chosen by inspiration in this connection. "The heavens are the Lord's,
but the earth hath he _given_ to the children of men." In Eden he
blessed the first human pair, and said to them, in behalf of the race,
"Replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth. Behold, I have _given_ you every herb bearing
seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the
which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed." This, then, is the
original and permanent ground of man's title to property; and the
important fact to be observed is the _specific divine grant_. The right
of all men equally to own property is the positive institution of the
Creator. We all alike hold our possessions by his authent