made such an ill-assorted match.  Whilst she is about to be engaged in spiritual exercises, her husband will probably contrive some scheme for her annoyance; and her zeal may be expected to awaken his jealousy, and provoke his opposition.  “If there be a prayer-meeting, the husband will devote this day to the use of the bath; if a fast is to be observed, the husband has a feast at which he entertains his friends; if a religious ceremony is to be attended, never does household business fall more upon her hands.  And who would allow his wife, for the sake of visiting the brethren, to go from street to street the round of strange and especially of the poorer class of cottages? ...  If a stranger brother come to her, what lodging in an alien’s house?  If a present is to be made to any, the barn, the storehouse are closed against her.” [324:1]

The primitive heralds of the gospel acted with remarkable prudence in reference to the question of slavery.  According to some high authorities, bondsmen constituted one-half [324:2] of the entire population of the Roman Empire; and as the new religion was designed to promote the spiritual good of man, rather than the improvement of his civil or political condition, the apostles did not deem it expedient, in the first instance, to attempt to break up established relations.  They did not refuse to receive any one as a member of the Church because he happened to be a slave-owner; neither did they reject any applicant for admission because he was a slave.  The social position of the individual did not at all affect his ecclesiastical standing; for bond and free are “all one in Christ Jesus.” [324:3] In the Church the master and the servant were upon a footing of equality; they joined in the same prayers; they sat down, side by side, at the same communion table; and they saluted each other with the kiss of Christian recognition.  A slave-owner might belong to a congregation of which his slave was the teacher; and thus, whilst in the household, the servant was bound to obey his master according to the flesh, in the Church the master was required to remember that his minister was “worthy of double honour.” [325:1]

The spirit of the gospel is pre-eminently a spirit of freedom; but the inspired founders of our religion did not fail to remember that we may be partakers of the glorious liberty of the children of God, whilst we are under the yoke of temporal bondage.  Whilst, therefore, they did not hesitate to speak of emancipation as a blessing, and whilst they said to the slave—­“If thou mayest be made free, use it rather;” [325:2] they at the same time declared it to be his duty to submit cheerfully to the restraints of his present condition.  “Let every man,” said they, “abide in the same calling wherein he was called; for he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman.” [325:3] They were most careful to teach converted slaves that they were not to presume upon their church membership; and that