FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

THIRD SERIES.

VOL. II.	BETHANY, VA. JANUARY, 1845.	NO. I.

PLEASANT HILL, August 11, 1841.      

CYRUS M'NEALY:

      Much esteemed Brother--YOUR very affectionate and earnest appeal to my feelings upon the subject of a nominal concurrence with your proposed address to our brethren in the South, upon the vexatious subject of Slavery, has induced me to examine most seriously the contents of said address, and to compare them with the divine contents of the Good Book, upon the subject of Bible slavery: the results of which are here most respectfully submitted to your most serious consideration; in the mean time, nothing doubting, but that, according to your conviction, yon will make the proper use of them, for the satisfaction of all concerned.

      1st. And Noah said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant. And God shall enlarge (or persuade) Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. Gen ix. 25, 27.

      2d. And when Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them to Dan. Gen. xiv. 14.

      3d. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man-child in your generations; he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised; and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. Gen. xvii. 12, 13.

      4th. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof; but every man-servant that is bought, for money, when thou hast circumcised him then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof. Ex. xii. 43, 44, 45.

      5th. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet [3] thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. Ex. xx. 17.

      6th. He that smiteth a man so that he die, shall be surely put to death. If a person smite his servant or his maid, and he die under his hand, he shall surely be punished; notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his money. If a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. And if he smite out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake, If an ox that was known to push aforetime, hath killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. If the ox shall push a man-servant or a maid servant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned. Ex. xxi. 20, 21, 26, 27, 32.

      7th. If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve thee, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he was married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. Ex. xxi. 2-4.

      8th. If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold to thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant, but as a hired servant; and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee till the year of Jubilee. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. Both thy bond-man and thy bond-maid which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bond-men forever; but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall rule one over another with rigor. Levit. xxv. 39, 40, 44, 46.

      9th. The Lord will have mercy upon Jacob, and will yet choose Israel and set them in their land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids, and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. Isai. xiv. 12.

      10th. He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. Ex. xxi. 16. If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandize of him or selleth him; then that thief shall die, and thou shalt put evil away from you. Deut. xxiv. 7.

      11th. Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is escaped from his master to thee; he shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him. Deut. xxiii. 15, 16.

      12th. New Testament.--Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant, care not for [4] it: but if thou mayest he made free, use it rather, For he that is called in the Lord being a servant, is the Lord's free man; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. 1 Cor. vii. 20-24.

      13th. Servants, he obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters, do the same things to them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Eph. vi. 5-9.

      14th. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God; and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. Masters, give to your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Col. iii. 22, 25, and iv. 1.

      15th. Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. 1 Tim. vi. 1, 2.

      16th. Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, in all things. Tit. ii. 9, 10.

      17th. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is acceptable, if any man for conscience towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully: this is acceptable to God. 1 Peter ii. 18, 20.

      So much for the divine documents respecting servitude or slavery. And here let it be observed, that we have numbered the above extracts from I to 17, for the sake of reference. We now proceed to remark--

      1st. That slavery, or servitude, of the most servile and degrading character, was divinely pronounced and inflicted upon a portion of the human family, on account of sin; even as we see it at this day. And that the offspring of Shem and Japheth are allowed to execute this sentence upon a portion of the posterity of Ham, even as at this day. See extract No. 1.

      2d. That to have and to hold servants, as purchased and permanent property, is divinely permitted; yea, actually granted to Abraham and his covenanted offspring. See Nos. 3, 4, 5, 8.

      3d. That this state or condition of servitude, or slavery, was sometimes voluntary; but that in many cases it was involuntary, is also evident. See Nos. 3, 7, 8, 9. Whence it appears that children might [5] he born into a state of slavery, their parents or even their mother being in that state. Or they might be sold by their parents when very young; or be taken captives in war, or be sold for debt. These things being evidently so, it necessarily follows, that, according to the express tenor of the divine legislature above referred to, "all men are" not "born free and equal:" consequently, are not the subjects of equal rights. Nevertheless, it is equally evident from the above extracts, as well as from the universal tenor of the Good Book whence they are taken, that all possess natural rights, of which they cannot be deprived upon any pretence, without a manifest violation of the express laws of God:--namely, a competent portion of the necessaries of life for their bodily health and comfort, with the full enjoyment of the religious privileges with which God has graciously favored their masters.

      4th. That as fraudulent and violent means of reducing persons to slavery, except in case of lawful war, that is, war divinely authorized, are divinely prohibited; and as he that encourages the transgressor, is a partaker in his evil deeds; and especially as the Christian is divinely commanded to love his neighbor as himself, and to do to all as he would have them to do to him, therefore Christians should have nothing to do with encouraging involuntary servitude. See No. 10, &c.

      Thus, dear Cyrus, you have my investigation of, and practical conclusion upon, the entire doctrine of Bible slavery. But still the whole of my premises will not admit of your conclusion, or rather assumption,--that "slavery is sinful in the extreme." On the contrary, like many other temporal evils, it appears to be a consequence and a punishment of sin--a penal adjunct to the original sentence, "Thou shalt eat bread in the sweat of thy face, till thou return to the ground. That this adjunct, like the primitive sentence, has been the occasion of much evil, cannot be denied. But that it has also been the occasion of much good may be equally granted, if we consider its beneficial effects both in the patriarchal and Jewish ages, while the knowledge and worship of the true God were mostly confined to the holy patriarchs, and their covenanted seed, the Jewish nation.

      See Abraham's family itself as a specimen; see his three hundred trained servants, born in his house, with the pious Eleazer, of Damascus, at their head; see the victory they achieved. Hear again the prayers of this same Eleazer at the well, when he went to the city of Nahor, to take a wife for his master Isaac. Hear again the divine commendation of Abraham. Gen. xviii. 19. And then say, was it not a high privilege, yea, a spiritual blessing, to be brought up in such a family? And who can tell how many hundreds, yea, thousands have not only been saved from the ruthless sword of cruel war, but also from an infinitely worse destruction, by becoming the servile property of pious Jews, and Christians since the days of Abraham? Therefore, it was not unworthy of God to make it a subject of special legislation amongst his peculiar people, as he did with respect to divorce and polygamy, not only to prevent worse evils, but, also for the sake of doing the intended good. But to return to your assumption, that "slavery is sinful in the extreme:" I would next observe that the arguments you adduce to prove it appear quite irrelevant. Your first, namely,--"that it is an express contradiction of the fundamental principle of the American Constitution," is of no weight; for the above [6] extracts evidently show said principle to be antiscriptural; for they declare the very contrary; see Nos. 7 and 8. Besides, the argument is political, and therefore does not affect the Christian as such, unless he actually approve of it. But a man may have bond-servants, and yet not approve of involuntary servitude, nor yet treat his servants in an unchristian, unscriptural manner.

      Your second argument, namely, that "slavery is the offspring of violence," is not more conclusive than the first: for the person may become a slave by self-disposal, by insolvency, or by birth. See Nos. 7 and 8. with Lev. xxv. 47.

      Your third argument, viz. that "for man to hold property in man is unauthorized by the word of God," is, I may say, an express contradiction of the Holy Scriptures. For proof positive of the truth of this assertion, I appeal to the whole of the above extracts, from both Testaments.

      Your fourth argument, though not so objectionable as the preceding, is yet equally inconclusive: for the divine law secures to the slave the inalienable rights of a competent supply of the necessaries of life; together with the enjoyment of the religious privileges which God has graciously granted, without respect of persons, to all classes of men. Wherefore it does not follow, that "because man is possessed of inalienable rights, therefore he cannot be held as the property of another;" but only that the person who holds him must not infringe upon his inalienable rights above specified. Passing over your fifth and sixth arguments, which seem to have still less bearing upon the subject than the former, I proceed to your seventh and last, namely, that "because man was made for improvement--for happiness--for heaven, therefore he cannot be the, property of another." This argument would, indeed, be conclusive if his so being rendered those high destinies of his nature unattainable. But this no Christian can grant after what the Apostle Paul has said upon this all-important subject. "Art thou called," says he to the servant, "care not for it," that is, for thy servile condition; "but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called by the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freed man." Now could the Apostle have thus addressed the believing servant if his servile condition interfered with his salvation? Surely not. Had this been the case, the Apostle must and would have said to the servant, "Run away! Flee! Flee!. Your salvation is in imminent danger!" Whereas he only says, "If thou mayest be made free, use it rather"--that is, give it the preference. Upon the whole, inculcating upon every Christian to be content with the condition of life in which the gospel found him; whether rich or poor, bond or free, married or single; saying, "Brethren, let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God." See No. 12, with 1 Tim. vi. 1, 21: this, with 1 Cor. vii. 1, 40, above quoted, if duly attended to, would, with Christians, go a great length to settle the matter about ranks and conditions of life. They would evidently perceive, to their ineffable satisfaction, that it is a matter of indifference what rank or station of life they occupied, provided they did their respective duties: that, in so doing, master and servant were equally acceptable to God who is no respecter of persons.

      Upon the whole, with respect to American slavery, wherever [7] distinguished by any inhuman and antichristian adjuncts, by any unnatural, immoral, and irreligious usages, we may justly and reasonably conclude that as Christianity and truly moralized humanity prevail, it must and will go down; and that, in these respects, no Christian can either approve or practise it. It may also provoke God to destroy it more speedily by terrible judgments, as in the case of Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh, and Jerusalem, wholly destroyed on account of their cruelty and oppression.

      Wherefore, it becomes the American people, both as citizens and Christians, to consider these things, and so to discharge their duties, both civil and religious, for the amelioration and ultimate abolition of slavery; especially those of them that have embraced the gospel. They lie under special obligation to do every thing in their power for the comfort and salvation of their fellow-creatures, especially of those whom God has put under their power, as is the case with servants. Christian masters ought therefore to consider the apostolic injunctions with respect to their servants, knowing that whatever they do in obedience to Christ, and for his sake, he takes it as if done to himself.--They should so do both with respect to the souls and bodies of their servants as they would desire to be done to them in like circumstances.

      I most seriously wish you, my dear friend, to make the desired use of this letter, both for your own satisfaction and that of others; and, in the mean time, to take a special care of it, and to return it safe to me when you have done with it, as I expect to make a further use of it.--You can copy it if you please.

      With kindest respects to your amiable consort, I remain, much esteemed brother in the good cause of Christian liberty and human rights, your affectionate co-operant,

THOMAS CAMPBELL.      

      The preceding document we have thought might not be unacceptable to many of our readers in this period of excitement and extremes upon a very exciting subject. It is the calm, considerate, and candid reasonings and conclusions of one of the most disinterested of mankind--an octogenarian, of sound mind and discriminating judgment--well read in sacred literature--and, in my opinion, as pure a philanthropist as breathes. He has long thought upon the subject. The crisis calling upon me for some remarks upon this theme, I have thought good to preface my remarks by a republication of this document.

A. C.      

[The Millennial Harbinger (January 1845): 3-8.]

      Thomas Campbell's "Elder Thomas Campbell's Views of Slavery" was first published in The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1845. The electronic version of the essay has been produced from the College Press reprint (1976) of The Millennial Harbinger, ed. Alexander Campbell (Bethany, VA: A. Campbell, 1845), pp. 3-8.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. I have let stand variations and inconsistencies in the author's (or editor's) use of italics, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in the essay. Emendations are as follows:

            Printed Text [ Electronic Text
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 p. 4:   Ex. xii. 20, 21, 26, 2G, 32. [ Ex. xii. 20, 21, 26, 27, 32.
         Ex. xxi 16. [ Ex. xxi. 16.
 p. 8:   and oppression [ and oppression.
         we have thougnt [ we have thought
         octogenarean, [ octogenerian,
 

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 24 March 1998.
Updated 9 July 2003.