_____16 _______ goeth; and to another come, and he cometh; and, to my slave, do this, and he doeth it.” Matthew viii.,9. Tho word rendered here “servant” in our translation, means slave. Itmeans justsuch a servant as all our slaves at the South are. I have the original Greek. [Here the’ hammer fell. Mr. Stephens asked that he might be permitted to go on as long as the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Campbell] had taken up his time. He had but a little more to say. Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, objected; and what follows is the substance of what he intended to say, if he had not been cut off by the hour rule.] The word in the original is doulos, and the meaning of this word, as given in Robinson’s Greek and English Lexicon, is this—I read from the book: “ In the family the doulos was one bound to serve, a slave, and was the property of his master—‘a living possession,’ as Aristotle calls him.” And a^ain: “The doulos, therefore, was never a hired servant, the latter being called mislhios,’1 &c. This is the meaning of the word, as given by Robinson, a learned doctor of divinity, as well as of laws. The centurion on that occasion said to Christ himself, “ I say to my slave,1 do this, and he doeth it, and do Thou but speak the word, and he shall be healed.” What was the Savior’s reply ? Did He tell him to go loose the bonds that fettered his fellow man ? Did He tell him he was sinning against God for holding a slave ? No such thing. But we are told by the inspired penman that: “ When Jesus heard it he marveled and said to them that followed : Verily, I say unto you, (.have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west epall sit . down witii Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,in tihe xsngimxJ of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall bevas>>l out into utter darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said, unto the centurion, Go thy way, , and as thou bast believed so be it done unto thee. And . his servant [or slave] was healed in the selfsame hour.” i Was Christ a f doughface,?” Did He quail before the slave power5 And if he did nett rebuke the lordly centurion for speaking as he did of his authority over his slave, but healed the sick man, and said that he had not found so great faith in all Israel as he had in his master, who shall now presume, in His name, to rebuke others for exercising similar authority, or«say that their faith may not be as strong as that of the cen- ■ turion’s? . In no place in the New Testament, sir, is slavery held up as sinful. Several of the Apostles alluded to it, but none of them—not one of them, mentions or condemns it as a relation sinful in itself, or violative of the laws of God, or even Christian duty. They enjoin the relative duties of both master and slave. Paul sent a runaway slave, O.nesimus, back to Philemon, his master. He frequently alludes to slavery in his letters to the-churches, but in no case speaks of it as sinful. To what he says in one of these epistles I ask special attention. It is 1st Timothy, chapter 6th, and beginning with the 1st verse: “ 1. Let as many servants [douloi, slaves in the original, which I have before me] as are under the yoke [that is, those who are the most abject of slaves] count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. “ 2. And they that have believing masters, [according to modern doctrine there can be no such thing as a slaveholding believer; so did not think Paul,] let them not despise [or neglect and not care for] them,because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and belovtu, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. | “3. If any man teach otherwise and consentnot to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord^Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness : “4. He is proud, [or self-conceited,] knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, “ 5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thy self. ” This language of.St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, is just as appropriate this dtfy, in this House, as it was when he penned it eighteen hundred years ago. No man could frame a more direct reply to the doctrines of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Giddings,] and the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. Dunn,] than is here contained in the sacred book. What does all this strife, and envy, Mid railings, and “civil war” in Kansas come from, but the teachings of those in our day who teach otherwise than Paul taught, and “ do not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ?” Let no man, then, say that African slavery as it exists in the South, incorporated in, and sanctioned by, the Constitution of the United States, is in violation of either the laws of nations, the laws of nature, or the laws of God ! And if it “ must needs be” that such an offense shall come from this source as shall sever the ties that now unite these States together in fraternal bonds, and involve the land in civil war, then “ wo be unto them from whom the ffense Someth !”
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