more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord.”  Who authorized the professor to bereave the word “not” of its negative influence?  According to Paul, Philemon was to receive Onesimus “not as a servant;”—­according to Stuart, he was to receive him “as a servant!” If the professor will apply the same rules of exposition to the writings of the abolitionists, all difference between him and them must in his view presently vanish away.  The harmonizing process would be equally simple and effectual.  He has only to understand them as affirming what they deny, and as denying what they affirm.

Suppose that Professor Stuart had a son residing, at the South.  His slave, having stolen money of his master, effected his escape.  He fled to Andover, to find a refuge among the “sons of the prophets.”  There he finds his way to Professor Stuart’s house, and offers to render any service which the professor, dangerously ill “of a typhus fever,” might require.  He is soon found to be a most active, skilful, faithful nurse.  He spares no pains, night and day, to make himself useful to the venerable sufferer.  He anticipates every want.  In the most delicate and tender manner, he tries to sooth every pain.  He fastens himself strongly on the heart of the reverend object of his care.  Touched with the heavenly spirit, the meek demeanor, the submissive frame, which the sick bed exhibits, Archy becomes a Christian.  A new bond now ties him and his convalescent teacher together.  As soon as he is able to write, the professor sends Archy with the following letter to the South, to Isaac Stuart, Esq.:—­

“MY DEAR SON,—­With a hand enfeebled by a distressing and dangerous illness, from which I am slowly recovering, I address you on a subject which lies very near my heart.  I have a request to urge, which our mutual relation to each other, and your strong obligations to me, will, I cannot doubt, make you eager fully to grant.  I say a request, though the thing I ask is, in its very nature and on the principles of the gospel, obligatory upon you.  I might, therefore, boldly demand, what I earnestly entreat.  But I know how generous, magnanimous, and Christ-like you are, and how readily you will ’do even more than I say’—­I, your own father, an old man, almost exhausted with multiplied exertions for the benefit of my family and my country and now just rising, emaciated and broken, from the brink of the grave.  I write in behalf of Archy, whom I regard with the affection of a father, and whom, indeed, ’I have forgotten in my sickness.’  Gladly would I have retained him, to be an Isaac to me; for how often did not his soothing voice, and skilful hand, and unwearied attention to my wants remind me of you!  But I chose to give you an opportunity of manifesting, voluntarily, the goodness of your heart; as, if I had retained him with me, you might seem to have been forced to grant what you will gratefully bestow.  His temporary absence