The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 888 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4.

The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 eBook

American Anti-Slavery Society
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 888 pages of information about The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4.
unto ALL the inhabitants thereof.”  It may be objected that “inhabitants” here means Israelitish inhabitants alone.  The command is, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto ALL the inhabitants thereof.”  Besides, in the sixth verse, there is an enumeration of the different classes of the inhabitants, in which servants and Strangers are included; and in all the regulations of the jubilee, and the sabbatical year, the Strangers are included in the precepts, prohibitions, and promises.  Again:  the year of jubilee was ushered in by the day of atonement.  What did these institutions show forth?  The day of atonement prefigured the atonement of Christ, and the year of jubilee, the gospel jubilee.  And did they prefigure an atonement and a jubilee to Jews only?  Were they types of sins remitted, and of salvation proclaimed to the nation of Israel alone?  Is there no redemption for us Gentiles in these ends of the earth, and is our hope presumption and impiety?  Did that old partition wall survive the shock that made earth quake, and hid the sun, burst graves and rocks, and rent the temple veil? and did the Gospel only rear it higher to thunder direr perdition from its frowning battlements on all without?  No!  The God of OUR salvation lives.  “Good tidings of great joy shall be to ALL people.”  One shout shall swell from all the ransomed, “Thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood out of EVERY kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

To deny that the blessings of the jubilee extended to the servants from the Gentiles, makes Christianity Judaism.[A] It not only eclipses the glory of the Gospel, but strikes out its sun.  The refusal to release servants at the jubilee falsified and disannulled a grand leading type of the atonement, and was a libel on the doctrine of Christ’s redemption.  But even if forever did refer to individual service, we have ample precedents for limiting the term by the jubilee.  The same word defines the length of time which Jewish servants served who did not go out at the end of their six years’ term.  And all admit that they went out at the jubilee.  Ex. xxi. 2-6; Deut. xv. 12-17.  The 23d verse of the same chapter is quoted to prove that “forever” in the 46th verse extends beyond the jubilee.  “The land shall not be sold FOREVER, for the land is mine”—­since it would hardly be used in different senses in the same general connection.  As forever, in the 46th verse, respects the general arrangement, and not individual service the objection does not touch the argument.  Besides, in the 46th verse, the word used is Olam, meaning throughout the period, whatever that may be.  Whereas in the 23d verse, it is Tsemithuth, meaning, a cutting off, or to be cut off; and the import of it is, that the owner of an inheritance shall not forfeit his proprietorship of it; though it may for a time pass from his control into the hands of his creditors or others, yet the owner shall be permitted to redeem it, and even if that be not done, it shall not be “cut off,” but shall revert to him at the jubilee.

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The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.