"THINK NOT TO SAY WITHIN YOURSELVES, WE HAVE ABRAHAM FOR OUR FATHER."

In disposing of those precepts and exhortations which have a specific
bearing upon the subject of slavery, it is greatly important, nay,
absolutely essential, that we look forth upon the objects around us,
from the right post of observation. Our stand we must take at some
central point, amidst the general maxims and fundamental precepts, the
known circumstances and characteristic arrangements, of primitive
Christianity. Otherwise, wrong views and false conclusions will be the
result of our studies. We can not, therefore, be too earnest in trying
to catch the general features and prevalent spirit of the New Testament
institutions and arrangements. For to what conclusions must we come, if
we unwittingly pursue our inquires under the bias of the prejudice, that
the general maxims of social life which now prevail in this country,
were current, on the authority of the Savior, among the primitive
Christians! That, for instance, wealth, station, talents, are the
standard by which our claims upon, and our regard for, others, should be
modified?--That those who are pinched by poverty, worn by disease,
tasked in menial labors, or marked by features offensive to the taste of
the artificial and capricious, are to be excluded from those refreshing
and elevating influences which intelligence and refinement may be
expected to exert; that thus they are to constitute a class by
themselves, and to be made to know and keep their place at the very
bottom of society? Or, what if we should think and speak of the
primitive Christians, as if they had the same pecuniary resources as
Heaven has lavished upon the American churches?--as if they were as
remarkable for affluence, elegance, and splendor? Or, as if they had as
high a position and as extensive an influence in politics and
literature?--having directly or indirectly, the control over the high
places of learning and of power?

If we should pursue our studies and arrange our arguments--if we should
explain words and interpret language--under such a bias, what must
inevitably be the results? What would be the worth of our conclusions?
What confidence could be reposed in any instruction we might undertake
to furnish? And is not this the way in which the advocates and
apologists of slavery dispose of the bearing which primitive
Christianity has upon it? They first ascribe, unwittingly perhaps, to
the primitive churches