Part 16 (1/2)

6. _We infer that servants were voluntary, from the fact that there is no instance of an Israelitish master ever_ SELLING _a servant_. Abraham had thousands of servants, but appears never to have sold one. Isaac ”grew until he became very great,” and had ”great store of servants.”

Jacob's youth was spent in the family of Laban, where he lived a servant twenty-one years. Afterward he had a large number of servants.

When Joseph sent for Jacob to come into Egypt, the words are, ”thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks and thy herds, and ALL THAT THOU HAST.” Jacob took his flocks and herds but _no servants_. Gen xlv. 10; xlvii. 6; xlvii. 1. His servants doubtless, served under their _own contracts_, and when Jacob went into Egypt, they _chose_ to stay in their own country.

The government might sell _thieves_, if they had no property, until their services had made good the injury, and paid the legal fine. Ex.

xxii. 3. But _masters_ seem to have had no power to sell their _servants_--the reason is obvious. To give the master a _right_ to sell his servant, would annihilate the servant's right of choice in his own disposal; but says the objector, To give the master a right to _buy_ a servant, equally annihilates the servant's _right of choice_. Answer. It is one thing to have a right to buy a man, and a very different thing to have a right to buy him of _another_ man.

Though there is no instance of a servant being bought of his, or her master, yet there are instances of young females being bought of their _fathers_. But their purchase as _servants_ was their betrothal as WIVES. Exodus xxi. 7, 8. ”_If a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do. If she please not her master_ WHO HATH BETROTHED HER TO HIMSELF, _he shall let her be redeemed_[A].”

[Footnote A: The comment of Maimonides on this pa.s.sage is as follows: ”A Hebrew handmaid might not be sold but to one who laid himself under obligations, to espouse her to himself or to his son, when she was fit to be betrothed.”--_Maimonides--Hilcoth--Obedim_, Ch. IV. Sec. XI.

Jarchi, on the same pa.s.sage, says, ”He is bound to espouse her and take her to be his wife for the _money of her purchase_ is the money of her _espousals_.” ]

7. _We infer that the Hebrew servant was voluntary in_ COMMENCING _his service, because he was pre-eminently so_ IN CONTINUING _it_. If, at the year of release, it was the servant's _choice_ to remain with his master, so did the law guard his free will, that it required his ear to be bored by the judges of the land, thus making it impossible for the servant to be held in an involuntary condition. Yea, so far was his _free choice_ protected, that his master was compelled to keep him, however much he might wish to get rid of him.

8. _The method prescribed for procuring servants, recognized their choice, and was an appeal to it_. The Israelites were commanded to offer them a suitable _inducement_, and then leave them to decide. They might neither seize by _force_, nor frighten them by _threats_, nor wheedle them by false pretenses, nor _borrow_ them, nor _beg_ them; but they were commanded to BUY them[A]; that is, they were to recognize the _right_ of the individuals to their own services--their right to _dispose_ of them, and their right to _refuse all offers_. They might, if they pleased, refuse all applications, and thus oblige those who made them, _to do their own work_. Suppose all, with one accord, _refused_ to become servants, what provision did the Mosaic law make for such an emergency? NONE.

[Footnote A: The case of thieves, whose services were sold until they had earned enough to make rest.i.tution to the person wronged, and to pay the legal penalty, _stands by itself_, and has no relation to the condition of servants.]

9. _Various incidental expressions throughout the Bible, corroborate the idea that servants became such by virtue of their own contract_. Job xli. 4. is an ill.u.s.tration, ”_Will he_ (Leviathan) _make a_ COVENANT _with thee? wilt thou take him for a_ SERVANT _forever?_”

10. _The transaction which made the Egyptians the_ SERVANTS OF PHAROAH, _shows entire voluntariness throughout_. It is detailed in Gen. xlvii.

18-26. Of their own accord, they came to Joseph and said, ”We have not aught left but our _bodies_ and our lands; _buy_ us;” then in the 25th verse, _”Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be servants to Pharaoh._”

11. _We argue that the condition of servants was an_ OPTIONAL _one from the fact that_ RICH _strangers did not become servants._ Indeed, so far were they from becoming servants themselves, that _they bought and held Jewish servants._ Lev. xxv. 47.

12. _The sacrifices and offerings which_ ALL _were required to present, were to be made_ VOLUNTARILY. Lev. i. 2, 3.

13. _Mention is often made of persons becoming servants where they were manifestly and pre-eminently_ VOLUNTARY. The case of the Prophet Elisha is one. 1 Kings xix. 21; 2 Kings iii. 11. Elijah was his _master_. The original word, translated master, is the same that is so rendered in almost every instance where masters are spoken of throughout the Mosaic and patriarchal systems. It is translated _master_ eighty-five times in our English version. Moses was the servant of Jethro. Exodus iii. 1.

Joshua was the servant of Moses. Numbers xi. 28. Jacob was the servant of Laban. Genesis xxix, 18-27.

IV. WERE THE SERVANTS FORCED TO WORK WITHOUT PAY?

Having already shown that the servants became and continued such _of their own accord_, it would be no small marvel if they _chose_ to work without pay. Their becoming servants, pre-supposes _compensation_ as a motive.

That they _were paid_ for their labor, we argue,

1. _Because, while Israel was under the Mosaic system, G.o.d rebuked in thunder, the sin of using the labor of others without wages. ”Wo unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work._” Jer. xxii. 13. Here G.o.d testifies that to use the service of others without wages is ”unrighteousness,” and He commissions his ”wo” to burn upon the doer of the ”wrong.” This ”wo” was a permanent safeguard of the _Mosaic system_. The Hebrew word _Rea_, here translated _neighbor_, does not mean one man, or cla.s.s of men, in distinction from others, but _any one with whom we have to do_--all descriptions of persons, not merely servants and heathen, but even those who prosecute us in lawsuits, and enemies while in the act of fighting us--”_As when a man riseth against his_ NEIGHBOR _and slayeth him._” Deut. xxii. 26.

”_Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy_ NEIGHBOR _hath put thee to shame._” Prov. xxv. 8.

”_Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy_ NEIGHBOR.” Exod. xx.

16. ”_If any man come presumptuously upon his NEIGHBOR to slay him with guile_.” Exod. xxi. 14. In these, and in scores of similar cases, _Rea_ is the original word.

2. _We have the testimony of G.o.d, that in our duty to our fellow men,_ ALL THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS _hang upon this command, ”Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself._” Our Saviour, in giving this command, quoted _verbatim_ one of the laws of the Mosaic system. Lev. xix. 18. In the 34th verse of the same chapter, Moses commands obedience to this law in all the treatment of strangers, ”_The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and_ THOU SHALT LOVE HIM AS THYSELF.” If it be loving others _as_ ourselves, to make them work for us without pay; to rob them of food and clothing, as well as wages, would be a stranger ill.u.s.tration still of the law of love!

Super-disinterested benevolence! And if it be doing to others as we would have them do to us, to make them work for _our own_ good alone, Paul should be called to order for his hard sayings against human nature, especially for that libellous matter in Ephes. v. 29, ”_No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it_.”

3. _As persons became servants_ FROM POVERTY, _we argue that they were compensated, since they frequently owned property, and sometimes a large amount_. Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, gave David a princely present, ”An hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.” 2 Sam. xvi. 1.

The extent of his possessions can be inferred from the fact, that though the father of fifteen sons, he still employed twenty servants, of whom he was the master.