priate exercise. Let us consider, while speaking of loans, other merciful precepts on the same subject, which might shame the conduct of Christians, viz:-the positive prohibition to take usury, (meaning thereby, undue advantage of a brother's necessities,)—and the injunction not merely to restore, before the going down of the sun, the pledged garment of him whom the want of it might expose to sleep uncovered-but with considerate delicacy to forbear intruding on the possible poverty of his dwelling, by going in to fetch the pledge, and remaining at the door till it should be brought out. Surely "He who knew what was in man," and "had compassion on our infirmities," could alone have framed precepts at once so discriminating and benign!

Was it property alone, which at the end of seven years was to be released?

MARY. No, Mama; slaves every seventh year were to go free. How came God to allow the Jews to have slaves at all? is it not wicked?

MAMA. Domestic slavery, my dear, prevailed universally at this time, and long after, in the world. And its regulation by Divine authority among the Jews, and the apostolic injunctions to submission under it, among the early Christians, are undoubted proofs of the Almighty's toleration of what was perhaps, in the then state

of society, an inevitable evil. But as this state of servitude was among heathen nations (even the most polished ones) frightfully abused, to the neglect, degradation, and even murder of millions of fellow human beings-nothing could better testify the goodness of God than the Mosaic obligations to conduct diametrically opposed (in this as in many other cases,) to heathen practice. Even while the bond continued, the master was forbid to oppress or maltreat his bondman. If his life suffered from ill usage, that of his owner was forfeited. If an eye or tooth was injured, freedom was the compensation. And stripes were to be limited to forty, not merely from regard to humanity, but "lest thy brother should seem vile unto thee, if beaten with many stripes!" How might the brutally treated slaves of the enlightened Romans have envied the despised Jewish bondman !

But was mere freedom from captivity all that was secured to the Hebrew slave by God, "who is no respecter of persons?"

MARY. No; his master was to furnish him liberally with all that he required, out of what God had blessed him with.

MAMA. And for what affecting reason?

MABY. "Thou shalt remember that thou

wert a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee."

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MAMA. Let us hope that this consideration, in its higher Christian sense, still influences those, who in our day endeavour so strenuously to ameliorate the condition, and in due time to burst the bonds of those few remaining slaves, whom the mild light of Christianity has as yet failed to let go free." But never let us forget the difference which that light, even imperfectly followed, has put between the lot of those heathen " servants," (or slaves as the original means) whom St. Paul nevertheless exhorts to obedience-and the poor negro of our own day. The greatest men among the Greeks and Romans, even Cato, whom we are accustomed to hear called "godlike," starved their slaves to death when old and past their labour. Whole households were tortured on the slightest suspicion, and massacred in wantonness on the death of their owners; they were kept, when off work, chained in dens like wild beasts; in short, were of less account than the "brutes that perish"-while the influence of our blessed religion has obliged even those who slight its direct authority, to provide amply for the physical wants of their slaves-to spare them in sickness and maintain them in old age, allow them time for recreation, and even, of

late, admit them to the participation of their own immortal privileges. Remember this is the work, not of human advancement, (as many will tell you,) but of Christian principles; and for these, observe how admirably the precepts we are considering must have paved the way. As a proof of the degree in which they were obeyed, you will observe slaves are sometimes here supposed to be too much attached to accept emancipation; and I am happy to say similar instances not unfrequently attest the kindness of masters at the present day.

There is a precept in the 24th chapter regarding the "hired servant or labourer, which our civilized times would do well to adopt and cultivate. What says the 14th verse on this head?

MARY. "Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers. At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it. Lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin upon thee."

MAMA. And a "sin it truly is, upon the heads of many selfish and unprincipled persons, young as well as old, among ourselves, to withhold-either from improvidence or mere thoughtlessness-that payment of labour which is not

only the just due, but perhaps the "all" of the industrious families, condemned by their remissness to undeserved, and, we may be assured, not unrequited suffering. Their "cry," it is to be feared, daily ascends from every corner of this Christian land, to Him who will sooner or later avenge them. Let not extravagance, or culpable indifference of our's, Mary, ever go to swell the fearful sum of misery caused by neglect of the precept you have read!

What further benevolent provision for the poor, (besides direct charity,) do you find in this 24th chapter?

MARY. "When thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field, and hast forgot a sheaf, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and the widow." And the same, Mama, with gleanings of olives and grapes. How kind of God to think of them! and how considerate all this must have made the Jews!

MAMA. HOW considerate ought it to make us, Mary, for whom also these things were written; and who are aware of the calamities which neglect of them, (as well as of the higher duties of the first table) brought upon the nation of the Jews. If we compare the conduct to which blessings and promises are here annexed, with