might be bought off from the service vowed.  The price for males from one month old to five years, was five shekels, for females, three; from five years old to twenty, for males, twenty shekels, for females, ten; from twenty years old to sixty, for males, fifty shekels, for females, thirty; above sixty years old, for males, fifteen shekels, for females, ten, Lev. xxvii. 2-8.  What egregious folly to contend that all these descriptions of persons were goods and chattels because they were bought and their prices regulated by law! 4.  Bible saints bought their wives.  Boaz bought Ruth.  “Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased (bought) to be my wife.”  Ruth iv. 10.[A] Hosea bought his wife.  “So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of Barley, and an half homer of barley.”  Hosea iii. 2.  Jacob bought his wives Rachael and Leah, and not having money, paid for them in labor—­seven years a piece.  Gen. xxix. 15-23.  Moses probably bought his wife in the same way, and paid for her by his labor, as the servant of her father.[B] Exod. ii. 21.  Shechem, when negotiating with Jacob and his sons for Dinah, says, “Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me.”  Gen. xxxiv. 11, 12.  David purchased Michael, and Othniel, Achsah, by performing perilous services for the fathers of the damsels. 1 Sam. xviii. 25-27; Judg. i. 12, 13.  That the purchase of wives, either with money or by service, was the general practice, is plain from such passages as Ex. xxii. 17, and 1 Sam. xviii. 25.  Among the modern Jews this usage exists, though now a mere form, there being no real purchase.  Yet among their marriage ceremonies, is one called “marrying by the penny.”  The similarity in the methods of procuring wives and servants, in the terms employed in describing the transactions, and in the prices paid for each, are worthy of notice.  The highest price of wives (virgins) and servants was the same.  Comp.  Deut, xxii. 28, 29, and Ex. xxii. 17, with Lev. xxvii. 2-8.  The medium price of wives and servants was the same.  Comp.  Hos. iii. 2, with Ex. xxi. 32.  Hosea seems to have paid one half in money and the other half in grain.  Further, the Israelitish female bought-servants were wives, their husbands and masters being the same persons.  Ex. xxi. 8, Judg. xix. 3, 27.  If buying servants proves them property, buying wives proves them property.  Why not contend that the wives of the ancient fathers of the faithful were their “chattels,” and used as ready change at a pinch; and thence deduce the rights of modern husbands?  Alas!  Patriarchs and prophets are followed afar off!  When will pious husbands live up to their Bible privileges, and become partakers with Old Testament worthies in the blessedness of a husband’s rightful immunities!  Refusing so to do, is questioning the morality of those “good old slaveholders and patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”