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Show I ~ II 122 NO TE S ON of perjury in having taken a solemn ~ath to support it; i~ he should say it was in accordance w1th that law, the~ hts occupation's gone. tVhat honest man can have any patience with such a shuiHcr ? Dut the" higher law"-what is it? Ay, sure enough l what is it? 'rhe law of each man's conscience, hcaltl1y or diseased cnlirrhtencd or uncnlightcned,-that persecutes the Ch~rch :nd verily thinks with itself it is doing God service -th~t sets itself up above the teaching of the Bible, and th~ practice of the holy Apostle! And is this 1·cligion, "which can bend and turn," and be one tbmg here, ami anotlJCr thing there, and therefore, nothing everywhere? "No! When I look for a religion, I must look for something above me, and not something" morel! within: (val. ii . . 265.) I must have an objective reality, and not the psh ifting fancies of this, that and tho other m. d" "d !I IVl ua. . But is a man to go counter to his own conscience? Of course, not. But then, the gist of the. matter lies here:a man in a Christian land has no busmcs.s to hav~ su.ch a. conscience, and he will be held aceount:1ble for ha.vm¥ 1t. How, then, arc we to ascertain our duty? I answer, By the teaching of Holy Scripture. Bqt how a.re w.c to get at that teaching? One man interprets a passage tlns way, another, that: which is right? l">rolmbly neither. ~Iost men ?o to. work the wrong way to get n.t tho truth. '.fh~t "Spint of '1\uth," which is giYcn to men to lead them mto .all : ruth, is given to them only in the Church, ~nd .he who .Is wtt~wut its p::tlc has no right to be confident m l11s own •ntcrpl ctation of :.m obscure passage; and by the Church, I m~a.n, not this that or the other sect claiming that appellatiOn, but tha.~ whic\1 is the Church. Here, then, we get rid of ninetynine out of every hunJred of the higher-lcLw men: they arc without the pale of the Church, 3nd therefore though they may interpret ·a difficult :tnd obscure passage correctly, the chances arc Jga.inst them. U N C L F. T 0 :\l ' S C A n [ N, 123 But the passages involved in the present inquiry are neither obscure nor difficult: there are some passa«es where the meaning lies S<;l on the face of Iloly Scriptur~ that no one need mistake it ; anU these arc of the numb~r. 'To come, at once, to tho point :-It cannot be denied that St. Paul did senu back a converted runaway sb vc to his Christian master, for we have the Epistle that he sent with Lim : there was, therefore, nothing w1·ong in his scndin(T him back; it may not have been obl£gatory; I do not touch tha: point; it c~rtainly was not wrong. But further : Holy Scnpturc reqmres servants (~ov,.oi>;) to be subj ect to their mafl.tcrs, not only to the believing ones, but to the unbclieving,- not only to the good ami. gentle, but to the froward· (1 'l'im. vi. 1 ; 1 Pet. ii. 18.) It follows, therefore, iha; they who run away even from unbelieving and frown.nl masters,. sin against God; that sin they arc bound, at once, to repent of; and as repentance is good for nothin" unless it brings forth fruits meet for repentance, they ;;c cqual1y bound to return, at once, and submit themselves to their masters. Now if it is their duty to return, it cannot be 1.orong in us to put them in the way of duty,-tha.t is, to send them back : moreo\'Cr, whatever the bws of our country require us to do tltat £.s not wrong, we arc bound to do: it follows, therefore, that we are bound to send them back. But here we arc met with a passage from the OIU 'l1cstament; for the Abolitionists, so many of whom dislike that '' antiquat~d" volume, ar.e very ready to quote it when they £nd, or t1unk they find, 1t on tlwir side. 11he passa..,e is :::s follows:-" '11hou shalt not deliver un to his master :he servant which is escaped from his master unto thee: lie s hall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy ga.tes, where it likcth him best: thou shalt not opp1·ess him."' (Dcut. xxiii. 15, 16.) Thi• |