8. The method prescribed for procuring servants, recognized their choice, and was an appeal to it.  The Israelites were commanded to offer them a suitable inducement, and then leave them to decide.  They might neither seize by force, nor frighten them by threats, nor wheedle them by false pretenses, nor borrow them, nor beg them; but they were commanded to BUY them[A]; that is, they were to recognize the right of the individuals to their own services—­their right to dispose of them, and their right to refuse all offers.  They might, if they pleased, refuse all applications, and thus oblige those who made them, to do their own work.  Suppose all, with one accord, refused to become servants, what provision did the Mosaic law make for such an emergency?  NONE.

[Footnote A:  The case of thieves, whose services were sold until they had earned enough to make restitution to the person wronged, and to pay the legal penalty, stands by itself, and has no relation to the condition of servants.]

9. Various incidental expressions throughout the Bible, corroborate the idea that servants became such by virtue of their own contract.  Job xli. 4. is an illustration, “Will he (Leviathan) make a COVENANT with thee? wilt thou take him for a SERVANT forever?”

10. The transaction which made the Egyptians the SERVANTS OF PHAROAH, shows entire voluntariness throughout.  It is detailed in Gen. xlvii. 18-26.  Of their own accord, they came to Joseph and said, “We have not aught left but our bodies and our lands; buy us;” then in the 25th verse, "Thou hast saved our lives:  let us find grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be servants to Pharaoh.”

11. We argue that the condition of servants was an OPTIONAL one from the fact that RICH strangers did not become servants. Indeed, so far were they from becoming servants themselves, that they bought and held Jewish servants. Lev. xxv. 47.

12. The sacrifices and offerings which ALL were required to present, were to be made VOLUNTARILY.  Lev. i. 2, 3.

13. Mention is often made of persons becoming servants where they were manifestly and pre-eminently VOLUNTARY.  The case of the Prophet Elisha is one. 1 Kings xix. 21; 2 Kings iii. 11.  Elijah was his master.  The original word, translated master, is the same that is so rendered in almost every instance where masters are spoken of throughout the Mosaic and patriarchal systems.  It is translated master eighty-five times in our English version.  Moses was the servant of Jethro.  Exodus iii. 1.  Joshua was the servant of Moses.  Numbers xi. 28.  Jacob was the servant of Laban.  Genesis xxix, 18-27.

IV.  WERE THE SERVANTS FORCED TO WORK WITHOUT PAY?