"'I made a covenant with your fathers,' God says, 'in the day that I
brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, saying, At the end of seven
years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew which hath been sold
unto thee. But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his
servant to return, and brought them unto subjection. Ye have not
hearkened unto me in proclaiming a liberty every one to his
brother;--behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the
sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.'

"Thus it is evident that the relation of master and servant was
originally ordained and instituted by God as a benevolent arrangement to
all concerned,--not 'winked at,' or 'suffered,' like polygamy, but
ordained,--that it was full of blessings to all who fulfilled the duties
of the relation in the true spirit of the institution; and, moreover, it
is true that there are few curses which will be more intolerable than
they will suffer who make use of their fellow-men, in the image of God,
for the purposes of selfishness and sin; while those who feel their
accountableness in this relation, and discharge it in the spirit of the
Bible, will find their hearts refined and ennobled, and the relationship
will be, to all concerned, a source of blessings whose influences will
bring peace to their souls when the grave of the slave and that of his
owner are looking up into the same heavens from the common earth."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TENURE.

"One part, one little part, we dimly scan
Through the dark medium of life's fevering dream;
Yet dare arraign the whole stupendous plan
If but that little part incongruous seem;
Nor is that part, perhaps, what mortals deem;
Oft from apparent ill our blessings rise."--BEATTIE, _Minstrel_.

Mr. North then said, "Let us change the subject a little. Please to tell
us why, in your view, any slave who is so disposed may not run away.
Would you not do so, if you were a slave, and were oppressed, or thought
that you could mend your condition? Where did my master get his right
and title to me? God did not institute American slavery as he did
slavery among the Hebrews. If I were a slave to certain masters, South
or North, I should probably run away at all hazards. I should not stop
to debate the morality of the act. No human being would, in his heart
blame me. It would be human nature, resisting under the infliction of
pain. We catch hold of a dentist's hand when h