between master and servant, is placed upon new and more sacred grounds than ever; over and around which the gospel of peace and love throws her fostering influence; and sheds the light of her countenance upon it. See, also, Collossians, iii. chap., and 22d verse, and 1 Peter, ii. chap., and 18th verse, in which the same doctrine is inculcated by both Paul and Peter. And we wish you to observe, that, in these epistles, these two eminent apostles connect the duties and obligations of servants with all the other duties of life; the civil, the conjugal, the parental and the filial: thereby showing that all these relationships, duties and obligations, have all come under the supreme authority of the obligation to obey the gospel; and that they are all alike sanctioned and sustained by the gospel dispensation: and, therefore, by a just and logical deduction, to tamper in any way with slaves, so as to excite them to revolutionary action, or cause them to render an unwilling obedience to their masters, is just as criminal, and as much a disregard of the authority of God and Christ, as it would be to excite to rebellion, citizens against their governors, wives against their husbands, and children against their parents. The abolitionists may plead humanity and religion in justification of all they say and do, and they may be honest and conscientious too, but here are the law and the testimony of the head of the church: here are unequivocal scriptural facts and precepts, which no sophistry can entangle, no ingenuity can weaken, and no explanation destroy. But alas! how often is scripture set aside or compromised by men calling themselves Christians, and assuming the ministerial robe, in order to establish and carry out their own systems of false philanthropy and religion. We know—for such is the history of our race—that men have violated every precept in the Christian religion, and all for religion; and every principle of humanity, for humanity: and that the demon of malignity on the altar of benevolence, has ever held his richest and sweetest banquets: and we know also, that even honesty and conscience, when not guided by truth and knowledge, are as terrible and desolating in their career, as the worst passions of the human heart. How important then, to have the revealed will of God, and how necessary that we should be guided, in all things involving the deepest consequences, by its positive and unequivocal precepts alone. But whenever we undertake to hunt for the will and purposes of God in his word, and which he has not revealed to us, you may rest assured that ninety-nine times out of every hundred, we return from the investigation with our own wills, and with our own purposes, which we mistake for the will and purposes of God; and it is then and there, where we least expect it, that pride has been most triumphant, and Satan most successful over us.
We will give you one extract more from the writings of Paul on this subject—one which, of itself, is sufficient to settle the
