s

* Jo

* So AMERICAN SLAVERY 2 7

§ 3. To say that the Bible has nothing to do with politics or science, is a bad way of escaping from a difficulty of our own

s X creating. The Bible has much to do with politics and sci

ence, and with everything that enters, as all parts of our
social and intellectual state do enter, into the moral life of
man. But it does not suddenly reveal political and scientific
truth without calling for any effort on the part of man himself
to attain them; because such a revelation, instead of promot-
ing, would have defeated the end for which, as the voice of
our free moral nature assures us, the world was made. It
implants in man the principle which leads him to good action
of every kind. The love of God and Man, moving to disin-
terested efforts for the good of the community, is the source
of all political improvement, at least of all that is real and
lasting. And the same affection moves the high and self-
devoted labors which have led to the discovery of scientifie
and philosophic truth. And thus in its onward progress hu-

so the likeness of its Maker. Why God should choose
gradual improvement rather than immediate perfection, this
is not the place to inquire. That He does so, appears from

`s the history not only of the moral, but of the physical world. • *- The Bible recognizes Progress. The New Testament says k s of the Old Testament that Moses gave the Jews certain things . { | for the hardness of their hearts; not, of course, for their o g : wickedness, to which God would not bend His law, but for ~ 5 § their rude and uncivilized state. And not merely for their , so § rudeness and want of civilization, but for the primitive narrowS. ness of the circle of their affections; for it is only in the

course of history, and with the -increasing range of man's
social vision, that his affection extends from the primeval
family to the tribe, from the tribe to the nation, and from the
nation to mankind. And as to the New Testament itself, it
breathes in every page boundless hope for the future, together
with the charity which is the source of social effort, and with

man nature is by the very condition of that progress changed

the faith which carries each man beyond the sensual objects of his own short life. And it closes with that splendid vision of the consummation of all Christian effort in the perfect reign of God on earth, from which folly attempts to cast, like an astrologer, the horoscope of nations; but which is in truth the last voice of Christianity, as it passes from the hands of the Apostles and commits itself to the dark and dangerous tide of human affairs, breaking forth in the assurance of final victory.

The true spiritual life of the world commenced in the Chosen People. He who denies this would seem to deny, not a theory of Inspiration, but a great and manifest fact of history. But the spiritual life commenced under an earthly mould of national life similar in all respects, political, social, and literary, to those of other races. The Jewish nation, in short, was a nation, not a miracle. Had it been a miracle, it might have shown forth the power of God, like the stars in heaven, but it would have been nothing to the rest of mankind, nor could its spiritual life have helped to awaken theirs.”

This commencement of the spiritual life was marked by the appearance (1.) of a Cosmogony which, unlike those of heathen nations, gave a true account of the origin of the world and of Man, and a true account of the relations between Man and his Creator; (2) of a series of histories written on a moral and religious principle, and still unrivalled among historical writings for the steadiness with which this, the true key to history, is kept in view; (3.) of a body of religious literature, in the shape of hymns, reflections, preachings, apologues, which, though not Christian, and therefore not to be indiscriminately used by Christians, was wholly unapproached among the heathen ; (4.) of a Code of Laws the beneficence of which is equally unapproached by any code, and least of all by any Oriental code, not produced under the influence of Christianity.

* See the author's work on Rational Religion, p. 50.

This code of laws takes the rude institutions of a primitive
nation, including Slavery, as they stand, not changing society
by miracle, which, as has been said before, seems to have
been no part of the purposes of God. But while it takes
these institutions as they stand, it does not perpetuate them,
but reforms them, mitigates them, and lays on them restric-
tions tending to their gradual abolition. Much less does it
introduce any barbarous institution or custom for the first
time.
To show that this principle is not invented for the case of
Slavery, we will try to verify it in some other cases first. It
will be the more worth while to do this, because if the prin-
ciple be sound, it may help to relieve the distress caused by
doubts as to the morality of the Old Testament on other
points as well as on the question now in issue. It may do
this at a less expense than that of supposing the existence of
two different Moralities, one for God, the other for Man, and
thus making Man worship what to his mind must be an
immoral God.
... In times before the reign of Law, justice was done on the
murderer by the nearest kinsman of the murdered as Avenger
of Blood. Such justice was a degree better than no justice;
and a custom which assigned the sacred duty of revenge to a
particular person, instead of leaving it to any chance hand,
was the first step towards the appointment of a regular magis-
trate. This institution seems to have been universal among
primitive tribes. A relic of it lingered in the law of this
country till the reign of George III., when Wager of Battle
having been demanded in a case of murder by the nearest of
kin against the murderer, as a common-law right, the demand
was with difficulty evaded.
The law of Moses, accordingly, recognizes the Avenger of
Blood (Numb. xxxv., &c.).
But the custom was liable to great abuses, which were apt

to make it a step backwards instead of forwards in morality

i

and civilization. (1.) The same revenge was taken for blood however shed, whether wilfully or accidentally, which confounded men's notion of crime, and in fact multiplied murders. (2) When covetousness overcame revenge, and the slain kinsman was not very dear, a sum of money (called by our German ancestors the wehrgeld) was taken for his blood instead of the blood of the slayer; and this practice grew into a regular system, which destroyed the distinction between crime and civil injury, took away the sanctity of human life, the foundation-stone of civilization, and moreover sharpened . barbarous divisions of class, since the price of a man's blood was assessed in the tariff according to his rank. (3.) Revenge became hereditary, and blood feuds arose between family and family or clan and clan, which filled the world with slaughter. Such blood feuds were common in the Highlands while the old clans existed, and they are still common among the wild tribes of Syria and in other parts of the East. Now (1) the law of Moses expressly distinguishes wilful murder from accidental homicide, and confines the office of the Avenger of Blood to wilful murder. “And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. . . . . Or if he smite him with a hand weapon of wood, wherewith he may die, and he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death. The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer: when he meeteth him, he shall slay.him. But if he thrust him of hatred, or hurl at him by laying of wait, that he die; or in enmity smite him with his hand, that he die: he that smote him shall surely be put to death; for he is a murderer : the revenger of blood shall slay the murderer, when he meeteth him. But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything without laying of wait, or with any stone, wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it upon him, that he die, and was not

his enemy, neither sought his harm : then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood according to these judgments: and the congregation shall deliver the slayer out of the hand of the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled: and he shall abide in it unto the death of the high-priest, which was anointed with the holy oil.”” (2.) The taking of money as a satisfaction for blood is strictly forbidden. “Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to death. And ye shall take no satisfaction for him that is fled to the city of his refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.” f (3.) Hereditary blood feuds are forbidden with equal strictness.; “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” By providing judges in all the tribes to do equal justice between man and man,S and by calling the congregation to judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood, Moses secures the speedy departure of the need of private revenge and the speedy advent of a reign of public law. The right of Asylum is another primitive institution which is recognized by the Law of Moses; and which was not without use in its day, as the history of the Middle Ages, no less than that of the more ancient barbarism, can bear witness. It gave vengeance time for reflection, and in default of a magistrate armed with sufficient powers, helped to prevent society from becoming a slaughter-house. But this institution also was liable to the grossest abuses. It sheltered the wilful murderer as well as him who had killed a man accidentally or in self-defence, and in the case of wilful murder led to a