thought a great and unwarrant.ed liberty. Did he demand the freedom of Oneeimus by hi1,1 apostolic authority, it might appear that he was magni- fying hie office overmuch. If he should put into too great prominence the spiritual obligations under which Philemon lay, the act would be ungene- t'OUS, and would go far to cancel them. Yet he could not send hack the young man Oneeimu11 to meet the puni!1hme11t of a runaway-.ftagellu ad mortem caisua. The tact and skill with which all these opposite dangers are avoided in the letter before us is remarkable. The writer persuades without alien- ating, and wins hie correspondent to obedience without seeming to demand it. At once the reverend senior, the confiding friend, and the persuasive suppliant, he requests on behalf of his protege a favour which we can hardly doubt was as willingly and gladly granted as it was gratefully received. The letter of Pliny to Sabinianus on behalf of the offending servant of the latter, has often been referred to as an exact parallel to the Epistle to Philemon, and is at all events a useful contrast tu it. It is given below for the purpose of oomparieon : - " To &binianua. "Your freedman, whom you lately mentioned to me with displeasure, has been with me, and threw himself at my feet with as much submission as he could have done at yours. He earnestly requested me, with many tears, and even with all the eloquence of silent sorrow, to intercede for him; in short, he convinced me by hie whole behaviour that he sincerely repents of his fault. I am persuaded he is thoroughly reformed, because he seems deeply sensible of his guilt. I know you are angry with him, and I know it is not without reason; but clemency can never exert itself more laudably than when there is the most cause for resentment. You onoe had an affection for this man, and, I hope, will have again; in the mean while, let me only prevail with you to pardon him. lf he should incur your displeasure hereafter, you will have so much the t1trunger plea in excuse for your anger, as you show yourself the ruore exorable to him now. Concede something to his youth, to his tears, and to your own natural mildnei,e of temper; do not make him uneasy any longer, and I will add, too, do not make yourself so; for a man of your benevolence of heart cannot be angry without feeling great uneasiness. I am afraid, were I to join my entreaties with hie, I should i,eem rather to compel than request you to forgive him. Yet I will not scruple even tu unite mine with hie; and in so much the stronger terms, as I have very sharply and severl:lly reproved him, positively threatening never to interpo~e again in hie behalf. But though it wo.e proper tu say this tu him, in order to make him more fearful of offending, I do not say so to you. 1 way, perhaps, again have ocoasion to ~ntreat you upon his account, and again obt"in your forgivene&1; aupp011ing, I mean, his fault 11huuld be euch as may become me I( INTRODUCTION TO
to interoede, and you to pardon. Farewell" (Pliny's • Letters,' bk. ix, No. 21, edit. Melmoth). Pliny WII.II a man of high rank and oonsiderable culture; he was a p~ feBBed letter-writer; he regarded it as an accomplishment to oompose elegant epistles to his friends. But even so, how fa.r is the letter to Philemon superior ! The other haughty, curt, and frigid, not so much persuades his correspondent as a favour to what he asks, as demands it as a. thing due to his condescension in asking. The one is based through- out on a religious motive; the other, on a casual and somewhat contemptuous feeling of kindliness. In fact, the two letters are apt types respectively of the "friendship of the world" (Jas. iv. 4) and of the Christian charity that "seeketh not her own" (1 Uor. xiii. 5). Erasmus aptly observes, •· Quid festivius etiam dici poterat vel ab ipso Tullio in hujusmodi argu- mento?" It has been well said by Bishop Wordsworth that the gospel, " by Christianizing the master, enfranchised the slave." It did not pursue the method (far more imposing and showy indeed, but, as all history would teach, one sure to purchase temporary success by eventual failure) of at once declaring i;;lavery unlawful.1 That would ha"\"tl been to excite a servile wa.r, to uproot existing institutions of society, and to make itself the oce&Bion of unnumbered atrocities. Another was adopted whioh, if slow and gradual in the extreme, created no disturbance at the time, and brought about a permanent elevatiou of the class of slaves. 'l'o benefit the slave, it filled the heart of the master with the love of Christ. For a long time, therefore, the ownership of slaves was not, in the Ch.rii;tian Church, held to be unlawful. As late as the time of Theodosius, as we learn from St. Chrysostom, there were wealthy persons who held as manv as two or three thousand slaves. But Christian writers were con- stant in inculcating the duty of behaving considerately and humanely towards them (Clem. AleL, • Predagog.,' iii. 12). The laws of Justinian also introduced many amelioratione into the treatment of slaves, or more probably recognized those already accepted by Christian society. The barbarian incursions which brought about the fall of the Roman empire threw back the cause of the slave for a time, since these new-comers not only brought with them great numbers of slaves, principally Sclavcs (whence our word "slave"), but brought into bondage many of the inhabit.ants of the conquered provinces. But at length 1,lavery became e.ltogetber transformed into the milder form of i:;erfdom-at least in Europe. We may see in this letter before us the first stage of this beneficent process. • "The word •emancipation,'" says Bishop Lightfoot," eeem.11 to be trembling on hie lips, and yet he ~ 11.ot once uiMlr it" (' hitroduction,' p. 389). THg EP18'£LE TO PHIU:MON. xi