# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1856_S232
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Slavery and the Bible. 232

—and the emancipation of slaves is only a relatively good and useful work, the apostle nowhere commands the latter, although it is already implicitly expressed in the commandment of love. It is, further, in accordance with love that, so long as the believing master recognizes his slaves' being bound as more beneficial for them than being free, he should not only treat them justly, fairly, gently, and unselfishly, but should also, and above all, care for their immortal souls through Christian instruction and upbringing, and do so as conscientiously as if they were his own children. The question whether it is permitted to a Christian to buy slaves is likewise decided only by love. To buy a slave with the intention of possessing him like a horse or a dog is in any case unworthy of a Christian; but to buy him with the intention of making his hard lot more bearable, and of being able to care all the more successfully for his eternal salvation, is not against love, but in accordance with it. To sell a slave, on the other hand, is throughout contrary to love, since one does not know into whose hands the one sold will fall; rather, love demands that provision be made during one's lifetime so that slaves are not, after their master's death — as the course of civil law brings with it — sold to the highest bidder, marriages torn apart, unraised children taken from their parents, and those sold placed altogether into the hands of godless masters. Love lays it upon those Christians who have a share in the legislation of a state, as their holiest duty, to prevent the passing of such laws as make gradual emancipation impossible, permit the tearing apart of the orderly marriages of slaves, allow the separation of underage children from their parents, forbid the full schooling of slaves, or which, altogether, merely to the advantage of selfish masters, only make the lot of the slaves harder. If Christians cannot prevent such laws, they should solemnly protest against them. Christian legislators are bound to work toward such laws as secure for the slaves full protection and general human — especially Christian — instruction, and make a gradual emancipation possible. It would not conflict with the law of love to secure for masters a fair compensation for the slaves they are to set free. Finally, contrary to the commandment of love is all zealotic agitation of pretended or real friends of the slaves, who promise them only bodily freedom, leaving them in ignorance of true spiritual freedom, or who, by provoking hateful feelings in the slaveholders, only worsen their lot.

This is the holy inconsistency, as we called it above, which, however, is in fact the strictest consistency, in that it consistently applies the royal commandment — Love your neighbor as yourself — to all relations between masters and servants.

In the propositions above, an evangelical preacher is at the same time shown the standpoint he is to take toward the institution of slavery. To be sure, in order to secure his own conscience, and, should the need arise, to be able to give a well-grounded opinion, he must for himself