SLAVERY
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SLAVERY
Egypt through all its known history. In modern slav- ery there has not been very great severity, the male black slave being treated with more consideration than the free servant. He leads a life well suited to his lazy disposition, and if discontented with his situation, can easily compel his master to sell him. The female slaves are generally negroes, Abyssinians, Georgians, or (Jreeks. They occupy all positions from that of the lowest menial to the favorite companion, and even wife, of the master (^Lane, -Manners and Customs oj' Modern Er/i/ptians, i, 275 sq.). Slavery has been nominally abolished in Egypt, although it still exists to a large degree in Nu- bia and lipper Egypt. In the interior of Africa the slave-traffic is still carried on with much severity, prin- cipally by Arab traders. See Chambers's Encydop. s. v. ; Johnson's Cyclop, s. v. For literature, see Appletuns' Cyclop, s. V.
SLAVERY, Relation of, to Chrtstiantty. This topic has necessarily been touched upon in the preced- ing articles, but its importance justifies a fuller consid- eration separately. (In doing this we avail ourselves in part of the treatment in Herzog's Real-Encyklop.')
The New Test, teaches that salvation is the common privilege of all mankind, and that all men have an equal right to the benefits it confers (Tit. ii, 11 ; 1 Tim. ii, 4). This princi]ile alone would, of necessity, determine the Christian view of slavery and lead to the extinction of that state (Gal. iii, 28; Col. iii, 11). Christianity, moreover, does not deal with nations and masses of people, but with individuals, whom it sever- ally invites, exhorts, and receives into its communion. It sets forth faith as an inward liberating life-principle (.lohn viii, 3(5), through which the individual lays hold on Christ and becomes united with liim. This in- volves a recognition of the rights of the inner man. which the heathen nations never apprehended, and which were veiled from sight even in the Old Test., though clearly stated in the New (Gal. ii, 19-21 ; Acts ii, 41; xiii. 4(5), and which in their progress and com- plete realization under Protestantism must idtimately bring about the utter extirpation of slavery from the earth. Ciirist postulated the law of liberty, and made freedom the privilege of believers (.John viii, 32; .James i, 25; ii, 12; Rom. viii, 2), thereby accomplishing the predictions of the Old Covenant (comp. Luke iv, 18-21 with Isa. Ixi, 1 sq. ) ; and, though the proclamation of liberty by the apostles had primary reference to the inward states of the soul (1 Cor. vii, 23; Gal. v, 1 ; 1 Pet. ii, IG; comp. Gal. ii, 4, 5, 13; 2 Pet. ii, 19), it nec- essarily led to the great principle that with Christ lib- erty in general had come to man (see Luke i, 79; 2 Cor. iii, 17). They taught that while freedom begins in the religious consciousness, it is not restricted to that field, but involves consequences in other departments of human life as well, even as the saving of the soul in- volves that of the body likewise (Rom. viii, 23); and that the Christian is a freeman, and entitled to all the blessings which (iod sheds abroad in the earth (1 Cor. iii, 21-23). The realization of that ideal, however, was shown to be the work of a progressive Christianity, ad- vancing in knowledge and in influence over the con- ditions of the Wf)rld; and they consequently discoun- tenanced all tendency to rebellion against the properly constituted and existing authorities of the nations of the earth. It is evident from Rom. xiii, 1 sq. that a disposition to refuse obedience to governments existed to some extent in apostolic times, and, from the case of Onesimiis. that bondmen sometimes broke away from their masters' rule. In the latter instance Paul suc- ceeded in effecting the voluntary return of the fugitive Christian slave by imparting to him a deeper and more correct knowledge of the nature and aims of Cliristian- itj' (Philem. 10-16). A similar principle is embodied in the important passage 1 Cor. vii, 21 : existing con- ditions, however adverse to the spirit of Christianity, are not to be subverted by outward force, but are to be displaced by new conditions whose root is the priu- IX.— E E E
ciple of Christian freedom implanted in the human heart. As a rule, converts to Christianity are exhort- ed to continue in the station and condition of life to which the Providence of God has assigned them. The argument by which that rule is enforced, that the pres- ent is a time of distress in which it becomes prudent for the unmarried to retain their virgin state and the slave to remain contentedly in his bondage, indicates its primary reference to the Corinthian Christians of that day; but the further considerations adiiuced, that the time is short, the work to be done is all-in)portant, and the grand catastrophe throuoh which the world's conditions shall be changed is drawing near, have uni- versal force, and adapt the rule to the conditions of all Christians. It is, however, evident that the apostle does not strike at the right to liberty and personal in- dependence in these instructions. 1 Cor. vii, 23 asserts that right most forcibly, and shows that the saving grace of the Lord involves a setting-aside of all human bondage. A denial of that right would bring him into conflict with his own claim to freedom (1 Cor. ix, 1), and with his fundamental statement that in Christ all things shall become neiv (2 Cor. v, 17).