that, practically, slavery was the sum of all villanies; an
enormous wrong; a stupendous injustice.

"If any one should reply that the Mosaic institutions recognized
slavery, he had one brief answer:--'which things are done away in
Christ.' Moses permitted this and some other things for the hardness of
their hearts. Polygamy was allowed by Moses, not by Christianity; its
spirit is against it; the bishop of a church must be 'the husband of one
wife;' slavery is certainly none the less contrary to the spirit of the
gospel.

"But inasmuch as it is inexpedient to dissolve at once, and in all
cases, the relation of master and slave, he contended that while the
relation continued, it should be regulated by the laws which God himself
once prescribed. Every seventh year should be a year of release; every
fiftieth, year should be a jubilee. And as to fugitives, he would refer
his brethren to that Divine injunction: 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his
master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; he shall
dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose, in
one of thy gates, where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.'

"That a slave having escaped from his master could not rightfully be
sent back into bondage, was evident from these considerations:

"All men are born free and equal, and have an inalienable right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If a slave sees fit to walk off,
or run off, or ride off on his master's beast, or sail off in his
master's boat, he has a perfect right to do so. Slavery is violence;
every man may resist violence offered to his person, except under
process of law; the person cannot be taken except for crime, or debt, or
in war; every man owns his body and soul; the person cannot become
merchandise, except for the three causes above named, which he
acknowledged were justifiable causes of involuntary servitude at
present. But to forcibly seize a weaker man, or race, and hold them in
bondage he declared to be in violation of the laws of nature, and
contrary to the Christian religion.

"If it should be replied that Paul the Apostle countenanced slavery by
sending back Onesimus, he would answer, that Paul was a Jew, and was not
yet freed wholly from Jewish practices and associations of ideas.
Gnosticism has supervened upon the rudimental childhood of spiritual
truth. He believed in progress. It was contrary to the instinct of human
nature to sen