in the American churches, he might, as a professor of sacred literature in one of our seminaries, or a preacher of the gospel to the rich in some of our cities, have consented thus to subserve the “peculiar” interests of a dear slaveholding brother.  But the venerable champion of truth and freedom was himself under bonds in the imperial city, waiting for the crown of martyrdom.  He wrote a letter to the church at Colosse, which was accustomed to meet at the house of Philemon, and another letter to that magnanimous disciple, and sent them by the hand of Onesimus.  So much for the way in which Onesimus was sent back to his master.

A slave escapes from a patriarch in Georgia, and seeks a refuge in the parish of the Connecticut doctor, who once gave public notice that he saw no reason for caring for the servitude of his fellow men.[B] Under his influence, Caesar becomes a Christian convert.  Burning with love for the son whom he hath begotten in the gospel, our doctor resolves to send him back to his master.  Accordingly, he writes a letter, gives it to Caesar, and bids him return, staff in hand, to the “corner-stone of our republican institutions.”  Now, what would any Caesar do, who had ever felt a link of slavery’s chain?  As he left his spiritual father, should we be surprized to hear him say to himself, What, return of my own accord to the man who, with the hand of a robber, plucked me from my mother’s bosom!—­for whom I have been so often drenched in the sweat of unrequited toil!—­whose violence so often cut my flesh and scarred my limbs!—­who shut out every ray of light from my mind!—­who laid claim to those honors to which my Creator and Redeemer only are entitled!  And for what am I to return?  To be cursed, and smitten, and sold!  To be tempted, and torn, and destroyed!  I can not thus throw myself away—­thus rush upon my own destruction.

[Footnote B:  “Why should I care?”]

Who ever heard of the voluntary return of a fugitive from American oppression?  Do you think that the doctor and his friends could persuade one to carry a letter to the patriarch from whom he had escaped?  And must we believe this of Onesimus!

“Paul sent back Onesimus to Philemon.”  On what occasion?—­“If,” writes the apostle, “he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on my account.”  Alive to the claims of duty, Onesimus would “restore” whatever he “had taken away.”  He would honestly pay his debts.  This resolution, the apostle warmly approved.  He was ready, at whatever expense, to help his young disciple in carrying it into full effect.  Of this he assured Philemon, in language the most explicit and emphatic.  Here we find one reason for the conduct of Paul in sending Onesimus to Philemon.