CHAPTER XXV.

RIGHT REVEREND BROTHER: From the well-known volumes of the Presbyterian divine, Dr. Macknight, I proceed to the critical and exegetical commentary on the Greek Testament, by Henry Alford, B.D., Dean of Canterbury, Third London Edition of 1857, a work of extraordinary learning and most extensive research. Here I find an interesting passage in which the old interpretation of St. Chrysostom is vindicated, in opposition to the majority of the modern expositors. The text is in St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. 7: 21: "Art thou called being a servant ? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather." exegesis, viz. :

And this is Dean Alford's

"Wert thou called (converted) a slave, let it not be a trouble to thee, but if thou art even able to become free, use it (i. e., remain in slavery) rather. This rendering, which is that of Chrys., Theodoret, Theophyl., Oecum., Phot., Camerar., Estius, Wolf, Bengel, Meyer, De Wette, and others, is required by the usage of the particles.—It is also required by the context, for the burden of the whole passage is: 'Let each man remain in the state in which he was called.'-It would be quite inconsistent with the teaching of the Apostle that in Christ freeman and slave are all one, (Gal. 3: 28,)—and with his remarks on the urgency and shortness of the time in this chapter, to turn out of his way to give a precept merely of worldly wisdom, that a slave should become free if he could.-Christ's service is perfect freedom, and the Christian's freedom is the service of Christ. But here the Apostle takes, in each case, one member of this double antithesis from the outer world, one from the spiritual. The (actual) slave is (spiritually) free. The (actually) free is a (spiritual) slave. So that the two are so mingled, in the Lord, that the slave need not trouble himself about his slavery, nor seek for this world's freedom, seeing he has a more glorious freedom in Christ, and seeing also that his

brethren, who seem to be free in this world, are in fact Christ's servants, as he is a servant."

In the Prolegomena of the same author on the Epistle to Philemon, (vol. iii. p. 113,) we read as follows, viz.: "Onesimus, a native of Colosse, the slave of Philemon, had absconded, after having, as it appears, defrauded his master, (ver. 18.) He fled to Rome and there was converted to Christianity by St. Paul. Being persuaded by him to return to his master, he was furnished with this letter to recommend him, now no longer merely a servant, but a brother also, to favorable reception by Philemon."

I conclude this long array of authorities with some eloquent and very admirable extracts from the late work of the Rev. Chr. Wordsworth, D.D., Canon of Westminster, entitled, "The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the original Greek, with Notes," London Edition of 1859, where he speaks thus, on the Epistle to Philemon, in Part iii, p. 327:

66 Some persons in ancient times expressed surprise that this short Epistle, addressed to a private person on a private occasion, should be publicly read in the Church, and be received as a part of Canonical Scripture."

"But the world's history has fully justified the Church in this respect."

"In the age when it was written, Europe was filled with slaves. Wheresoever the word 'servants' occurs in the New Testament, we must understand 'slaves'-slaves purchased with money or taken in war, or reared from slaves in the house of their master. Phrygia, in which Colosse was situated, was the land of slaves. A Phrygian was another word for a slave. than their condition."

Nothing could be more miserable

"But Christianity was for all. How would it affect them? What would it do for them? Would it leave them in their present misery? Would it mitigate the rigor of their sufferings? And if so, by what means ?"

"The answer to these questions is supplied by the EPISTLE TO PHILEMON."

“That short letter, dictated from 'the hired house' of the aged Apostle, a prisoner at Rome, may be called a divine Act of Emancipation; one far more powerful than any edict of Manumission promulgated by sovereigns and senates; an Act, from whose sacred

principles all human statutes for the abolition of slavery derive their virtue; an Act which, by its silent influence, such as characterizes all genuine reformations, gradually melted away and thawed the hardships of slavery, by softening and warming the heart of the master with the pure and holy flame of Christian love; an Act which, while it thus ameliorated the condition of the slave, not only did not impair the just rights of the master, but greatly improved them, by dignifying service, and by securing obedience to man as a duty done to Christ, and to be hereafter rewarded by him, and by changing the fearful slave into an honest servant and a faithful brother, and by binding every Onesimus in bonds of holy communion with every Philemon, in the mystical body of Christ, in the fellowship of the same prayers, and of the same Scriptures and sacraments, in the worship of the same Lord, and in the heritorship of the same heaven."

"Therefore the writing of this short letter was like a golden era in the history of mankind. Happy is it for the world that this Epistle, dictated by the Holy Ghost, has ever been read in the Church as Canonical Scripture. And every one who considers the principles laid down in this Epistle, and reflects on the reformation they have wrought in the domestic and social life of Europe and the world, and on the felicitous results which would flow from them in still greater abundance if they were duly received and observed, will acknowledge, with devout thankfulness to God, that inestimable benefits, civil and temporal as well as spiritual, have been conferred on the world by Christianity."

"St. Paul did not constrain Philemon to emancipate his slave Onesimus, but he inculcated such principles as divested slavery of its evils. The Gospel of Christ, as preached by the holy Apostle, did not exasperate the slave-owner by angry invectives, and by contumacious and contemptuous sarcasms. It did not embitter him against the slave, and injure the interests of the slave himself by an acrimonious advocacy of his rights, and by a violent and intemperate partisanship, and thus inflict damage and discredit on the sacred cause of Emancipation. But, by Christianizing the master, the Gospel enfranchised the slave. It did not legislate about mere names and forms, but it went to the root of the evil, it spoke to the heart of man. When the heart of the master was filled with divine grace, and was warmed with the love of Christ, the rest would soon follow.

The lips would speak kind words, the hand would do liberal things. Every Onesimus would be treated by every Philemon as a beloved brother in Christ."

"Here is the genuine specific for the abolition of slavery. Here also is the true groundwork for the extinction of caste in India. It is to be found in the Incarnation of the Son of God, and in the incorporation of all nations and families of the earth in the mystical Body of Christ. Wise will be the Sovereigns, Senates, and States, who recognize this truth."

To this quotation, which is worthy of all praise, I shall only add the comments of the same author on St. Paul's first Epistle to Timothy, ch. 6: v. 1: “Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honor,” etc.

"St. Paul here," saith Dr. Wordsworth, "combats and condemns that false teaching which, under color of preaching the doctrines of Universal Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity in Christ, enlisted the passions of slaves against masters, and subjects against their rulers, and thus exposed the Name of God and the doctrine of the Gospel to reproach and blasphemy from the Heathen, as if it were a religion of anarchy and sedition, and ministered to man's evil appetites and love of lucre, under the name of piety and godliness."

"These anarchical doctrines were a natural product of a diseased Judaism. The Jews, supposing themselves to be the favored people of God, resented all secular rule as an usurpation on the prerogatives of Jehovah. Their Rabbis taught that it was a sinful thing to own any mortal master, and to be bond-servants to heathens."

"They might, therefore, in hatred to Christianity, maliciously pervert the doctrines of the Gospel to purposes congenial to their own notions; or they might, even unwittingly, so misunderstand and misinterpret them, as to render them hateful to society, and subversive of civil government and of domestic peace."

"The great Apostle had, therefore, a difficult task to perform, in vindicating and maintaining, on the one side, the great doctrine of Christian Liberty against some of the Judaizers; and in asserting and upholding the duty of Christian subjection, on the other hand, against those of the same class who abused the sacred name of Liberty into a plea for licentiousness."

"How beautifully does the divine wisdom, charity, and courage,

with which the holy Apostle was endued, shine forth in the execution of this difficult work in his Epistles!"

"The relative duty of masters and slaves is to be borne by both parties. Each of the two takes hold of it at its own end, and like the fruitful cluster of the grapes of Eshcol, (Num. 13: 23,) it is to be carried on the shoulders of both. And, like that cluster, this burden is also a benefit. St. Paul will not flatter masters at the expense of their slaves, nor slaves at the expense of their masters. Each is to be a benefactor to the other. The master owes food and wages to the the slave owes faithful service to the master."

slave;

"The force and wisdom of this Apostolic teaching will be more evident and impressive, when it is borne in mind that these words of St. Paul, addressed to the Bishop of Ephesus, would be listened to by masters and slaves, gathered together in the Church, and hearing this Epistle publicly read in the religious congregations at Ephesus and other great cities of the world."

"If any man, under color of Christian liberty, teaches otherwise, and exempts slaves from obedience to their masters, St. Paul, in holy indignation, inveighs against such a man, as one that is proud and knoweth nothing, but doteth about questions and strifes of words.”

"The false teachers ingratiated themselves with slaves, and other dependents, by flattering them, that because all men are equal and brethren in Christ, therefore they need not be subject to their masters; or that, if they were subject, they had a claim to greater temporal advantages than they enjoyed; and thus they excited slaves to disobedience, and made the profession of the Gospel to be a matter of secular traffic and worldly lucre."

"St. Paul commands masters to give to their slaves what is just and equal, (Col. 4: 1,) but he also teaches slaves this lesson: If a man have food and raiment, let him be therewith content."

With these excellent comments of the Rev. Canon Wordsworth, I concur most heartily; in fervent thankfulness to God, that up to the year 1859, our venerated mother Church of England has proclaimed none other but the pure doctrine of the Apostles, and that her latest utterance is in harmony with the only divine standard of wisdom, truth, and peace.