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Show 220 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. taken from the connection in which they stand, dissevered from the words which precede and follow them, and then made to teach that slaves should not submit to the authority of their masters, should not continue in their present condition. It is certain tlmt no one but an abolitionist, who has lost all respect for revelation except when it happens to square with his own notions, ~ould thus make the apostle so directly and so flatly contradict himself and all his teaching. Diftin·ent interpretations have been given to the words just quoted; but until abolitionism set its cloven foot upon the Bible, such violence had not been done to its sacred pages. Conybeare and Howson suppose that the words in question are intended to caution the Corinthians against "their servile adherence to party leaders." Bloomfield, in like manner, says: "The best commentators are agreed," that they arc "to be taken figuratiYely, in the sense, 'do not be blindly followers of men, conforming to their opinions,' &c." It is certain that RosenmUlle•·, Grotius, and we kuow not how many more, have all concurred in this interpretation. But he the meaning what it may, it is not an exhortation to slave• to burst AROU)IENT FROM TilE S CRIPTURES. 221 their bonds in sunder, unless the apostle has, in one and the same breath, taught diametrically opposite doctrines. Yet, in direct opposition to the plain words of the apostle, and to the concurrent voice of commentators and critics, is he made to teach that slal;es should throw off the authority of their masters! Lest such a thing should be deemed impossible, we quote the words of the author by whom this outrage has been perpetrated. "The command of the 23d verse," says he, " 'be not ye the servants of men,' is equally plain. There arc no such eommauds uttered in regard to the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, as are here given in regard to slavery. No one is thus U?·ged to dissolve the marriage relation. No such commands are given to relieve children from obedience to their parents," &c.* Nor is any such command, we repeat, given to relieve slaves f1·om obedience to their masters, or to dissolve the relation between them. If such violence to Scripture had been done by an obscure scribbler, or by an infidel quoting the word of God merely for a purpose, i• * Elliott on SlA-very, Vol. I., p. 295. 19• |