subjecting
To a brotherhood of service,
And a mutual law of love.

"'Own me, then, at last, thy servant,
When thou com'st in majesty;
Be to me a pitying Father,
Let me find thy grace and mercy;
And to Thee all praise and glory
Through the endless ages be.'

"Leaning on the arm of Onesimus, Philemon returned to bless his
household.

* * * * *

"Thus far," said I, "you have my Night Thoughts." I asked Mr. North if
he accepted the present New Testament Canon as correct? He said that he
did. I then inquired if he regarded the Scriptures as the only and
sufficient rule of faith and practice.

To this he also agreed. I then asked him if he did not think that, in
making up the canon, that is, in directing what books and epistles
should go into it, God had reference to the wants of all coming times?
He signified his assent. I then asked his attention to a few thoughts
connected with that point.

"Here is the Epistle to Philemon, placed by the hand of the Holy Spirit
himself in the Sacred Canon. It is on a small piece of parchment, easily
lost; the wind might have blown it from Philemon's table out of the
window, beyond recovery; it was not addressed to a Church, to be kept in
its archives; it is a private letter, subject to every change in the
condition of a private citizen. Yet, while the epistle to Laodicea, sent
about the same time, is irrecoverably lost, this little writing,
addressed to a private man, goes into the Bible, by direction of God!

"Do you not suppose," said I, "that God had a meaning in this beyond
merely informing us how a master received a servant back to bondage?"

"What further purpose do you think there was in it?" said he.

"I only know," said I, "that slave-holding was to be a subject, as has
proved to be the case, which would involve the interests of at least
two of the continents of the earth, one of them being then unknown. Here
the Church of God was to have large increase. Here, too, slavery was to
exist, and to thrill the hearts of millions of citizens from generation
to generation. It is very remarkable that one book of the Bible, which
was to be made known to all nations by the commandment of the
everlasting God, for the obedience of faith, should be exclusively on
the subject of slavery, and that the whole burden of the Epistle should
be, The Rendition of a Fugitive Slave!"

"This never occurred to me before," said Mr. North.