HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 40-43.-The Exodus. View it in three lights. I. As AN EMANCIPATION OF SLA VEB. God is the sworn foe of the slave-holder. Only in a very modified sense was slavery tolerated in Israel; and the laws were such as gradually to undermine the system. Historica.lly, God's religion has proved itself the great slave-liberator. 1. In Egypt. Here were two millions of a slave population set free in a single night. 2. In Israel. Consider the effect on the abolition of the slave system of the single precept in ver. 44 of this chapter. 'rhe slave sat down with his master on equal terms at the board of the passover. The same thing happened in the Christian Church. When the Lord's Supper was dispensed, the Christian slave remained ; the master, if he was only a catechumen or a penitent, retired. 3. In Christian cowntries. Christianity, it is true, did not preach a crusade against slavery- a. course which would only have led to a slave-revolt-but it inculcated truths and principles which undermined the system. Slavery was the corner-stone of the ancient civilisations. Philosophers defended it. The pagan religions did nothing to overthrow it. But the Christian Church took up from the very first the cause of the slave. The master who ill-treated his slave was excommunicated. He was compelled to marry the female slave whom he had seduced. He sat with his slave at the Lord's table. The slave might hold office in the chw-ch, and thus become, in a spiritual point of view, the superio. of his master. The iufluence of the Church was used to secure the liberation of the slave. Under Domitian, a prefect of Rome, named Chromatius, freed one thousand four hundred slaves who had become Christians, saying, " 'rhose who have become the children of God ought to be no longer slaves of men." Says J. S. Mill, "In an age when the weak wcro prostrate at tho feet of the strong, who was there but the Church 21JG THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [ en. XII. 43-61.
to plead to the strong for the weak ?" (Dissert. ii, 155). The emancipation of four millions of American slaves-so long a blot on a so-called Christian civilisation-has been accomplished in our sight, a second exodus. "We can say to-day that, with some trilling exceptions, the soil of Christian nations is free from the disgrace of slavery, Under what influences have the efforts been produced which have brought about such a result? We have @ly to look at recent facts, and we see tho whole clearly. What men, in the middle of le.st century, were the first to advocate and emancipate slaves? 'l'he Quakers of America, who held that bondage was contrary to the Gospel. Wlmt men have pleaded the cause of the negroes in the English Parliament with the most power and perseverance? Decided Christians-Wilberforce and Buxton. What spirit animated the book called Uncle Tom, which acted so powerfully upon opinion in fo.vour of the negroes ? A spirit steadfe.stly Christian. To what sentiment did the Czar of Russia appeal, when he gave liberty to twenty millions of men? Read his proclamation of Feb. 19th, 1864." (Ernest Naville.) Revealed religion-the religion of the Bible, is thus the great liberator of the slave. II. As A TEMPORAL DELIVERANCE OF TRE CHURCH, Many such deliverances has the Church, both in Old and in New Testament times, experienced since. Deliverances under the Judges; destruction of Sennacherib; edict of Cyrus, and return from captivity; Maccabrean Era.. Read Christian Church history. See the Church emerging triumphant, laden with the spoils of the foe, from the days of persecution under the Roman Emperors. Later instances in the Albigenses, in the Lollards of England, in the Huguenots of France, in the Covenanters of Scotland, etc. III. As A TYPE OF A GREATER DELIVERANCE THAN ITSELF. Redemption from sin and wrath through Christ. See previous Homilies.---J". 0.
EXPOSITION. Vers. 43-51. - SUPPLEMENTARY ORDI- extreme abuses (eh. xxi. 20-27). It put no NANCE WITH RESPECT TO THE PASSOVER. The check on the traffic in slaves. When thou hast position of these verses is cnrious. We should circumcised him. The Jewish commentators say, that the desire of the slave to receive the have expected them to have followed imme- rite and become a Jew is here implied. But it diately on ver. 20, or else to have been reserved would seem rather, tha.t opposition and refusal for the further consideration of the subject in is not thought of as possible (see Gen. xvii '!h. x.xiii. It is snggested, in order to accoUDt 13, 17). The case is like that of baptism for their ple.ce, that they formed the IIlJl.tter of e.mong the barbarous nations, where no sooner was the king converted than a general order a special revele.tion made to Moses at Snccoth. went forth for the baptism of his subjects, They comprise three main points :-1. The which no one thought of resisting. Then !lbsolnte exclnsion of all UDcircnmcised per- shall he eat thereof. It was a principle of sons from participation in the passover rite ; the Jewish law that the slaves should be 2. The extension of the rite (implied in admitted to complete religious equality with the native Israelites. (Compare Lev. xxii ver. 19) to all full proselytes; and, 3. The 11.) injunction that not a bone of the le.mb should Ver. 45.-A foreigner. Literally "a so- be broken. (This last is repeated in Nnm. journer "--i.e., a foreigner who is merely pass- ix. 12.) ing through the land, or staying for a time, without intending to become a permanent resi- Vers. 43.-This ill the ordinance of the dent. The Septuagint ..-&poucor well ex- pusover--i.e., "This is the law, in respect presses the meaning. An hired servant. It of the persons who a.re to partake of it "- is assumed that the " hired servant " will be there aha.ll no Btranger eat thereof, or lite- a foreigner; and intended to guard against rally, "No son of a stranger shall eat thereof." any compulsion being put upon him. By a " stranger " here is meant one of a Ver. 46.-In one house shall it be eaten. foreign race who wishes to retain h.i.B foreign Compare the directions in vers. 3-10, which character and to relilWll nncircnmcised. Com- imply this, and see the comment on ver. 10. pare ver. 48. Neither shall ye break a bone of it. Kalisch Ver. 44.-Every man'• servant that is thinks that the l.e.mb was a symbol of the bought for money. Or "every m.e.o's slave." unity of the nation, and was therefore not te The Mosaic Law fonnd servitude existing, have any of its bones broken. This view may e.nd left it existing, only gwu-ding against its be a true one, without being exhaustive It Clll. XII, 43-61.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 297