| OCR Text |
Show 206 LIBERTY AND SLAVER~ innocent cause" as :Mr. Barnes would have us to believe he is, then, we ask if those abolitionists are not in the right who despise both tho apostle and his doctrine? No other abolitionist, it is certain, will ever imitate his example, as that example is represented by :Mr. Barnes. No other abolitionist will ever suppress the groat truths--as he conceives them to be-with which his soul is on fire, and which, in his view, lie at the foundation of human happiness, lost he should "cause hard feelings" in the bosom of a slaveholder. It may be said, perhaps, that the remarks and apology of Mr. Barnes do not proceed on the supposition that Onesimus was a slave. If so, the answer is at hand. For surely Mr. Barnes cannot think it would have been dishono~able in the apostle to ad vise, or even to urge, " a hired servant," or "an apprentice," to return and fulfil his contract. It is evident that, although :b1r. Barnes would have the reader to believe that Onesimus was merely a hired servant or an apprentice, he soon forgets his own interpretation, and proceeds to reason just as if he himself regarded him as a slave. This, if possible, will soon appear still more evident. .ARGUMENT FROM TilE SCRIPTURES. 207 The apostle ilid not, according to Mr. Barnes, wholly conceal his abolition sentiments. lie made them known to Philemon. Yes, we are gravely tolil, the letter which Oncsimus carried in his pocket, as he wended his way back from Rome to Oolossc, was and is an emancipation document! This great discovery is, we believe, due to the abolitionists of the present clay. It was first made by Mr. Barnes, or Dr. Channing, or some other learned emancipationist, and after them by Mr. Sumner. Indeed, the discovery that it appears from the face of the epistle itself that it is an emancipation document, is the second of tho two "conclusive things" which, in Mr. Sumner's opinion, constitute "an all-sufficient response" to anti-abolitionists. Now supposing St. Paul to have been an abolitionist, such a disclosure of his views would, we admit, afford some little relief to our minds. For it would show that, although he did not provoke opposition by proclaiming the truth to the churches and to the world, he could at least rnn the risk of hurting the feelings of a slaveholder. But let us look into this great discovery, and see if the apostle has, in reality, whispered any such words of emancipation in the ear of Philemon. |
