more
than anything that was said. He confessed that the whole subject of the
relation of master and servant,--in a word, slavery, was, for a long
time, a sore trouble to him, because he constantly found himself
searching for his right, his warrant to hold his slaves. At last he
resolved to study the Bible on the subject. He naturally turned to the
last instructions of the Word of God with regard to it, and in Paul's
injunctions to masters and servants, he found relief. There he perceived
that God recognized the relationships of slavery, that the golden rule
was enjoined, not to dissolve the relation, but to make it benevolent to
all concerned. He found the Almighty establishing the relation of master
and servant among his own chosen people, and decreeing that certain
persons might be servants forever, being, as he himself terms them 'an
inheritance forever.'

"Hereupon, he said, his troubles ceased. He gave up his speculations and
casuistry, and concluded to take things as he found them and to make
them better. He became more than ever the friend and patron of his
servants, rendered to them, to the best of his ability that which was
just and equal, felt in buying servants and in having them born in his
household, somewhat as pastors of churches, he supposed, feel in
receiving new members to be trained up for usefulness, here, and for
heaven. He said that he had a hundred and seventy-five servants, and
that he doubted whether there was a happier, or more virtuous, or more
religious community anywhere.

"'But,' said the young Northern lady, who had recently come to be a
teacher in the family where we visited, 'what will become of them when
you die?'

"'Why, Miss,' said he, 'what will become of any household when the
parents die? The truth is,' said he, 'I believe in a covenant-keeping
God. I make a practice of praying for my servants, by name. I keep a
list of them, and I read it, sometimes, when I read my Bible, and on the
Sabbath, and on days set apart for religious services. I have asked God
to be the God of my servants forever. I shall meet them at the bar of
God, and I trust with a good conscience. Many of them have become
Christians.'

"'Do you ever sell them?' said she.

"'I have parted with some of my servants to families,' he replied,
'where I knew that they would fare as well as with me. This was always
with their consent, except in two or three cases of inveterate
wickedness, when, instead of sending th