SERMON V.

DUTIES OF MASTERS TO SERVANTS.

COLOSSIANS iv. 1.

Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven.

In proportion as the Christian scheme of religion, taken as a whole, exceeds immeasurably any other scheme of religion that has been proposed for the reception of mankind, so does each individual part, examined separately, manifest the same unvarying superiority. Of the utility, or even of the necessity, of some rules for moral observance, man, by the light of nature, that is to say, by the primary revelation of the will of God, made

in the instant that the shapeless dust assumed an animate form, has attained a defective conviction; when violence, treachery, oppression, injustice, bad faith, were found to be of dangerous consequences to society,-which they were found to be almost as early as society existed, and it was seen that order, fidelity, protection, justice, good faith, mainly contributed to promote its stability and welfare, the reflecting part began to consider by what methods they could curb the former propensities, and recommend the latter. They took the line and the plummet; they, as accurately as their imperfect knowledge admitted, measured the genius and character of man; they placed him in every possible circumstance, they viewed him in every imaginable relation; they overtook him in the cradle, and they followed him to the grave. Many and various were the conclusions which resulted; these they

analyzed, they compared, classed together, and made the ground-work of their system; laws appeared, wherein the several duties of society were specifically enforced, relating to husbands, wives, fathers, children, masters, servants; to secure obedience to these laws, they attached to their violation the only penalties they knew of, or could believe available, namely, such as affected the person or the estate of the offender; farther than this they went not, they sought to inculcate no higher motive, the stream of natural affections was suffered to flow on in its accustomed channel, they had not fathomed the secret of diverting its current for the use and amelioration of mankind: let us not despise them for this, let us not smile at their weakly and abortive efforts; it is highly probable, notwithstanding the rapid advances in cultivation we have been making, and are making still, it is highly probable, I

repeat, that had we lived in their times, we should have fallen far short of them, either in moral science, or political dis

cernment.

Turn your eyes now to a different quarter, behold a ruined country, a degenerate people; see, there, the reputed son of a poor and humble mechanic, one who had never swelled the train of the Epicurean, nor lingered in the portico of the Stoic; mark him, the persecuted and despised of men, the clouds of heaven alone sheltering his head; look on a brief life, closed in a felon's death, and admire and adore the beautiful morality of Christ. Truth is simple; the nearer, therefore, we approach simplicity, the more closely are we treading upon truth. Agreeable to this never-failing characteristic, we find the whole compass of our conduct comprised within this easy and intelligible rule" Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name

After this fol

of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." lows (I am extracting at present from Colossians iii.) a succession of moral obligations, which, unlike those I have previously adverted to, are impressed on the mind without the slightest reference to judicial penalties, but only by a systematic allusion to the grand principle on which they all depend: thus, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord"-" Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord"-" Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God; and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men"-" Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven." In Ephesians v., where a recapitulation