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Show 18G LIDEJtTY .AND SLAVERY. question denotes a sla,.,.c, or a hired servant, or, as he has elsewhere said, an apprentice. It denotes "servant of any kindt whether "voluntary or involuntary." Such is the positive assertion of Mr. Barnes. But where is the proof? Wbere is the authority on which it rests? Surely, if this word is applied to hired servants, either in the Greek classics or in the New Testament, Mr. Bamcs, or Mr. Sumner, or some other learned abol itionist, should refer us to the passage where it is so used. We have Mr. Barnes' assertion, again and again repeated, in his very elaborate Notes on the Epistle to Philemon; but not the shadow of an authority for any such use of the "'ord. But stop: in making this assertion, he refers us to his " Notes on Eph. vi. 5, and 1 Tim. vi." Perhaps we may find his authority by the help of one of these references. We turn, then, to Eph. vi. 5; and we find the following note: " Servants. (// iJou!.ot. The word here used denotes one who is bound to render service to another, whether that service be free or voluntary, and may denote, therefore, either a slave, or one who binds himself to render service to another. It is often used in these senses in the New Testa- ARGUMENT FROM TllE SCRIPTURES. 187 ment, }ust as it is elsewhere."* W11y, then, if it is so often used to denote a hired servant, or an apprentice, or a voluntary servant of any kind, in the N cw Testament, is not at least one such instance of its usc produced by Mr. Barnes? lie must have been aware that one such authority from the New Testament were worth more than his bare assertion, though it were a hundred times repeated. Yet no such authority is adduced or referred to; he merely supports his assertion in the one place by his assertion in tbe other! Let us look, in the ne>.i; place, to his other reference, which is to 1 Tim. vi. ·1. licre, again, we find not the shadow of an authority that the word in question is applicable to "hired servants," or "apprentices." We simply meet the oft-repeated assertion of the author, that it is applicable to any species of servitude. lie refers from assertion to assertion, and nowhere gives a single authority to the point in question. If we may believe him, such authorities arc abundant, even in the New Testament; yet he leaves the whole matter to rest upon his own naked asscrtio"n ! * The Italics are ours. |