I adhere to the Apostle.

If questioned as to my right to hold Onesimus in bondage, the answer immediately suggested is that an inspired Apostle sanctions it in my case.

If right in my case, it is right in principle; for if slave-holding be a violation of rights, I am guilty of that violation, however humane a master I may be.

The Apostle does not reprove me, nor require me to manumit Onesimus, but tells me that I now receive him "forever," and he teaches me how to treat him.

I could occupy your time by arguing the abstract question relating to property in the services of men,--but I rest my case for the present on the letter of Paul the Apostle, brought to me by the hand of my fugitive servant, returning to what the laws call his bonds.
"'Let me add a few words, however, on the general subject, to the argument of Theodotus.
"'Our good brother from Laodicea tells us that slavery and polygamy are "twin barbarisms." He argues that slavery was winked at, like polygamy; was "suffered," by the Most High.