What was the character of ancient and eastern slavery ?--Especially what (legal) power did this relation give the master over the slave?
PROFESSOR STUART'S REPLY.
ANDOVER, 10th April, 1837.
REV.

AND DEAR SIR,--Yours is before me.

A sickness of three months' standing (typhus fever,) in which I have just escaped death, and which still confines me to my house, renders it impossible for me to answer your letter at large.
1.

The precepts of the New Testament respecting the demeanor of slaves and of their masters, beyond all question, recognize the existence of slavery.

The masters are in part "believing masters," so that a precept to them, how they are to behave as _masters_, recognizes that the relation may still exist, _salva fide et salva ecclesia_, ("without violating the Christian faith or the church.") Otherwise, Paul had nothing to do but to cut the band asunder at once.