[Footnote 40:  Verse 19.]

[Footnote 41:  Verse 21.]

Now, how must all this have been understood by the church at Colosse? —­a church, doubtless, made up of such materials as the church at Corinth, that is, of members chiefly from the humblest walks of life.  Many of them had probably felt the degradation and tasted the bitterness of the servile condition.  Would they have been likely to interpret the apostle’s letter under the bias of feelings friendly to slavery!—­And put the slaveholder’s construction on its contents!  Would their past experience or present sufferings—­for doubtless some of them were still “under the yoke”—­have suggested to their thoughts such glosses as some of our theological professors venture to put upon the words of the apostle!  Far otherwise.  The Spirit of the Lord was there, and the epistle was read in the light of “liberty.”  It contained the principles of holy freedom, faithfully and affectionately applied.  This must have made it precious in the eyes of such men “of low degree” as were most of the believers, and welcome to a place in the sacred canon.  There let it remain as a luminous and powerful defence of the cause of emancipation!

But what saith Professor Stuart?  “If any one doubts, let him take the case of Paul’s sending Onesimus back to Philemon, with an apology for his running away, and sending him back to be his servant for life."[42]

[Footnote 42:  See his letter to Dr. Fisk, supra pp. 7, 8]

“Paul sent back Onesimus to Philemon.”  By what process?  Did the apostle, a prisoner at Rome, seize upon the fugitive, and drag him before some heartless and perfidious “Judge,” for authority to send him back to Colosse?  Did he hurry his victim away from the presence of the fat and supple magistrate, to be driven under chains and the lash to the field of unrequited toil, whence he had escaped?  Had the apostle been like some teachers 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 a 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 of Divinity, who once gave public notice that he saw no reason for caring for the servitude of his fellow men.[43] 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