# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1856_S230
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Slavery and the Bible. 230

—abolish it, a model of how the institution of slavery is to be regulated according to justice and equity; but to wish to borrow from them a divine sanction of slavery conflicts with the analogy of faith.

In order finally to be able to meet the third objection, taken from several passages of the New Testament, especially the Pauline and Petrine epistles, a deeper inquiry into the nature of the Gospel, the relation of the kingdom of God to the kingdom of this world, and the sanctifying and elevating influence of faith upon all persons and relations, is necessary.

If we have arrived, in our discussion thus far, on a biblical basis, at the result that the estate of slaveholders, considered in itself, is not to be regarded as a normal, divine estate, to be placed on a level with other holy estates and orders, then from now on a turning point sets in, where it becomes a matter of applying an abstract principle to normal cases. Though we may well be charged with inconsistency, that troubles us little, since we know from Christian ethics that there is also such a thing as a holy inconsistency, which, however, at bottom is the strictest consistency, namely, the unconditional submission to God's Word and the supremacy of the royal commandment of love over all other commandments. On the other hand, we decline any such consistency as would sacrifice the Bible itself to a burning hatred of slavery, or as would, in order to carry through a divine right of slavery, trample underfoot the holiest commandment of love of neighbor. Let us now come closer to the matter.

The peculiar character of the Gospel consists in this: that it is not a doctrine of worldly, civil justice, but of the eternal righteousness that avails before God, and of eternal life; it does not prescribe laws, but preaches forgiveness of sins; it does not alter the outward orders of the world, but changes hearts; it does not bring and promise bodily freedom, but brings the infinitely higher and more important freedom from sin, death, the devil, and damnation; it does not abolish the evils in the world, but it brings comfort and strength to overcome the evil; it does not abolish the distinction of worldly estates, but it brings forth, in the hearts of those who receive it in faith, the love which esteems all men equally and shows equal service to all. It should not, accordingly, surprise us if the Gospel takes no notice of slavery as an outward thing, and touches upon it only in passing, exhorting masters or servants to the exercise of faith and love. It does not command the abolition of slavery, but it transforms, first of all, the heavy iron chain into a lovely, beneficial bond that unites master and servant. Governed by the Spirit of Christ, a believing master will no longer insist upon his right over against his slave, but will consider himself all the more bound to show him every love, the more forsaken and hel—