not perceive that as soon as this golden rule of action is applied to
_yourselves_ that you involuntarily shrink from the test; as soon as
_your_ actions are weighed in _this_ balance of the sanctuary that
_you are found wanting_? Try yourselves by another of the Divine
precepts, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can we love a man
_as_ we love _ourselves_ if we do, and continue to do unto him, what
we would not wish any one to do to us? Look too, at Christ's example,
what does he say of himself, "I came _not_ to be ministered unto, but
to minister." Can you for a moment imagine the meek, and lowly, and
compassionate Saviour, a _slaveholder_? do you not shudder at this
thought as much as at that of his being _a warrior_? But why, if
slavery is not sinful?

Again, it has been said, the Apostle Paul did not condemn Slavery, for
he sent Onesimus back to Philemon. I do not think it can be said he
sent him back, for no coercion was made use of. Onesimus was not
thrown into prison and then sent back in chains to his master, as your
runaway slaves often are--this could not possibly have been the case,
because you know Paul as a Jew, was _bound to protect_ the runaway,
_he had no right_ to send any fugitive back to his master. The state
of the case then seems to have been this. Onesimus had been an
unprofitable servant to Philemon and left him--he afterwards became
converted under the Apostle's preaching, and seeing that he had been
to blame in his conduct, and desiring by future fidelity to atone for
past error, he wished to return, and the Apostle gave him the letter
we now have as a recommendation to Philemon, informing him of the
conversion of Onesimus, and entreating him as "Paul the aged" "to
receive him, _not_ now as a servant, but _above_ a servant, a brother
beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the
flesh and in the Lord. If thou count _me_ therefore as a partner,