at Sarah, that princess as her name signifies, baking cakes upon the hearth.  If the servants they had were like Southern slaves, would they have performed such comparatively menial offices for themselves?  Hear too the plaintive lamentation of Abraham when he feared he should have no son to bear his name down to posterity.  “Behold thou hast given me no seed, &c., one born in my house is mine heir.”  From this it appears that one of his servants was to inherit his immense estate.  Is this like Southern slavery?  I leave it to your own good sense and candor to decide.  Besides, such was the footing upon which Abraham was with his servants, that he trusted them with arms.  Are slaveholders willing to put swords and pistols into the hands of their slaves?  He was as a father among his servants; what are planters and masters generally among theirs?  When the institution of circumcision was established, Abraham was commanded thus; “He that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed.”  And to render this command with regard to his servants still more impressive it is repeated in the very next verse; and herein we may perceive the great care which was taken by God to guard the rights of servants even under this “dark dispensation.”  What too was the testimony given to the faithfulness of this eminent patriarch.  “For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment.”  Now my dear friends many of you believe that circumcision has been superseded by baptism in the Church; Are you careful to have all that are born in your house or bought with money of any stranger, baptized?  Are you as faithful as Abraham to command your household to keep the way of the Lord? I leave it to your own consciences to decide.  Was patriarchal servitude then like American Slavery?

But I shall be told, God sanctioned Slavery, yea commanded Slavery under the Jewish Dispensation.  Let us examine this subject calmly and prayerfully.  I admit that a species of servitude was permitted to the Jews, but in studying the subject I have been struck with wonder and admiration at perceiving how carefully the servant was guarded from violence, injustice and wrong.  I will first inform you how these servants became servants, for I think this a very important part of our subject.  From consulting Horne, Calmet and the Bible, I find there were six different ways by which the Hebrews became servants legally.

1.  If reduced to extreme poverty, a Hebrew might sell himself, i.e. his services, for six years, in which case he received the purchase money himself.  Lev. xxv, 39.

2.  A father might sell his children as servants, i.e. his daughters, in which circumstance it was understood the daughter was to be the wife or daughter-in-law of the man who bought her, and the father received the price.  In other words, Jewish women were sold as white women were in the first settlement of Virginia—­as wives, not as slaves.  Ex. xxi, 7.