But again—­we live under the glorious and new dispensation of Christ; and He came to establish God’s will, and to confirm such laws as were to continue in existence, to destroy such rules as were not to govern our lives!

When there was but one family upon the earth, a portion of the family was devoted to be slaves to others.  God made a covenant with Abraham:  he included in it his slaves.  “He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money,” are the words of Scripture.  A servant of Abraham says, “And the Lord has blessed my master greatly, and he is become great, and he hath given him flocks and herds, and silver and gold, and men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and asses.”

The Lord has called himself the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.  These holy men were slaveholders!

The existence of slavery then, and the sanction of God on his own institution, is palpable from the time of the pronouncing of the curse, until the glorious advent of the Son of God.  When he came, slavery existed in every part of the world.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came from heaven and dwelt upon the earth:  his mission to proclaim the will of God to a world sunk in the lowest depths of iniquity.  Even the dear and chosen people of God had departed from him—­had forsaken his worship, and turned aside from his commands.

He was born of a virgin.  He was called Emmanuel.  He was God with us.

Wise men traveled from afar to behold the Child-God—­they knelt before him—­they opened their treasures—­they presented to them gifts.  Angels of God descended in dreams, to ensure the protection of his life against the king who sought it.  He emerged from infancy, and grew in favour with God and man.  He was tempted but not overcome—­angels came again from heaven to minister to him.  He fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law, and entered upon the duties for which he left the glories of heaven.

That mission was fulfilled.  “The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”

Look at his miracles—­the cleansing of the leper, the healing of the sick, the casting out unclean spirits, the raising of the dead, the rebuking of the winds and seas, the control of those possessed with devils—­and say, was he not the Son of God—­yea, was he not God?

Full of power and goodness he came into the world, and light and glory followed every footstep.  The sound of his voice, the glance of his eye, the very touch of the garment in which his assumed mortality was arrayed, was a medicine mighty to save.  He came on an errand of mercy to the world, and he was all powerful to accomplish the Divine intent; but, did he emancipate the slave?  The happiness of the human race was the object of his coming; and is it possible that the large portion of them then slaves could have escaped his all-seeing eye!  Did he