The Church also in the course of time sought to bring about practical ameliorations of the state of servitude. A surprising illustration of this is afforded by Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 33, where it is laid down that slaves are to be exempt from labour at all the great ecclesiastical seasons, on the days of apostles and martyrs, and on both the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord's Day. The refer- ence to enfranchisement ' at the public expense ' found in the quotation from Ignatius given above points also to the encouragement given by Christi- anity to the liberation of slaves as its influence increased. Christian slaves, as such, had no claim to help from the Church in order to purchase their freedom, yet cases occurred in which such help was given. After the time of Constantine still more is heard of the manumission of slaves by Christian masters. It came to be regarded as a meritorious, and even expiatory, act.
It must be fully admitted that in the ancient non -Christian world there were those who felt the manifold evils of slavery. Sentiments of enlarged philanthropy were not wanting. Among the Jews, the community of the Essenes, with their interesting experiment in social reconstruction, must not be forgotten. Philo says : ' There is not a slave amongst them, but all are tiee' (Quod omnis prohus liber, 12). The Stoics held the fraternity of mankind. ' We are members of one great boily,' says Seneca (Ep. 95), and the same spirit breathes in many of his writings. Cicero, too, emphatically proclaims universal brotherhood (see, e.g., de Officiis, iii. 6). Still, such voices were compara- tively rare. Men for the most part acquiesced in the system : some argued for its necessity. It is idle to ask if humaner sentiments would have gained force in time and brought about the over- throw of slavery, had Christianity not emerged. All that we know is that Christianity, with all its imperfections, is the one power that has most ett'ectively led to such a result.
6. In no instance has the incubus of slavery been easily or speedily removed. Serfdom , that modified form of slavery, lingered in Europe well into the last century. In Scotland colliers were legally serfs up to the end of the 18th cent. ; and Archibald Geikie {Srottish Reminiscences, Glasgow, 1904, p. 341) speaks of having talked in his boyhood with men and women who had been born in servitude and had worked as serfs in the pits of I
Midlothian. And long after the system itself in any particular instance has disappeared, its baneful etlects are clearly traceable, sometimes in condi- tions of national decadence, as Wallon says regard- ing Greece : ' degradation of the man, disorganiza- tion of the family, ruin of the States — these were the certain efi'ects of slavery' (Histoire de I'esiiavnge dans Vantiquitf, i. 452). Our very language, too, bears witness to long-lingering legacies in char- acter and temper derived from this source, e.g. in ' servility ' and a ' domineering ' spirit — both hate- ful things.
Slavery still exists in various parts of the world, and anti-slavery campaigns are not unnecessary. The sons of freedom themselves sometimes succumb to the temptation to make slaves practically of their weaker fellow-men. If the cause of world- wide liberty for men is to prosper, the teaching of the NT must have full effect given to it. Chris- tians have, indeed, sometimes defended slavery (as in America), and often failed to carry out the Christian doctrine of brotherhood : but the doctrine is there, and its corollary is liberty. Nor has Christianity wholly failed in exemplifying both brotherhood and the passion for freedom. It is surely bias that makes I. Benzinger hold up Islam and ancient Israel as perfect examples of ' the brotherhood in the faith,' and declare that this ' has come to be, in the Christian world, a mere empty phrase ' (art. ' Slavery,' in EBi iv. 4658 ; also in his Hebrdische Archdologie', Tiibingen, 1907, art. ' Sklaven ').
LiTERATTTRB. — H. WalloD, Histoire de Fesclavage dans VantiquiW, 3 vols., Paris. 1S79 ; W. W. Buckland, The Roman Law of Slaverii, Cambridge, 1908 : L. Friedlander, Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire (tr. from Die Sittengeschichte BomsT, Leipzig, 1901), 3 vols., London, 1908-1909 ; S. Dill, Homa7i Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, do., 1904 ; W. E. H. Lecky, History of European MoraW, 2 vols., do., 1886; J. B. Lightfoot, Colossians and Philemon, do., 1879, Philippians*, do., 1878 (Excursus on 'Caisar's Household). J. g. CLEMENS.
SLEEP. — The English word ' sleep,' derived from O.E. slcepan, denotes that normal periodic condi- tion of the organism in which the inactivity of certain nerve centres is accompanied by uncon- sciousness, moi'e or less complete. In the OT the two most common words are the noun njB>, ' sleep,' and the verbs, ]p',, ' to rest in sleep," and 33^, ' to lie down to rest,' the latter being the most frequent to describe the condition of those who were laid to rest with their fathers, and who thus sleep in death. In the NT the noun Sirvo! means sleep jjroper, whilst the verbs KadevSeip, ' to lie down to rest,' and Koi/xdcrBai, ' to fall asleep,' are in most common use. Both these words refer to ordinary sleep, and in a symbolic manner they are em- ployed with reference to death. Christ uses the former in describing the condition of Jairus' daughter (Mt 9-\ Mk 5^^, Lk S"^-), and the latter in respect of Lazarus (Jn 11"). In both these cases natural death is spoken of by Christ as 'sleep,' on the gi'ound doubtless that through the exercise of His miraculous power this ' sleep ' would be followed by an awaicening in the present world. As in the OT, sleep is used in the Apostolic Church as a euphemistic term for death. Steplien is said to have fallen asleep when he died as the ett'ects of stoning (Ac I''"). According to St. Paul, true believers live and die unto the Lord, under the symbolism of waking and sleeping respectively (1 Th 5'°); hence the beautiful phrases occur, ' fallen asleep in Christ ' (1 Co 15") and ' those who sleep (or are fallen asleep) in Jesus' (1 Th 4"). Sleep is also used as a symbol of spiritual torpor and death, especially in several of our Lord's parables ; hence the duty of watchfulness (Mt 25'"'^ etc.). St. Paul is emphatic in warning men