DRAKE & THOMPSON. "Lexington, June 17, 1838." "$50 REWARD.--Ran away from the subscriber, his negro man, Pauladore, commonly called Paul. I understand Gen. R. Y. Hayne _has purchased his wife and children_ from H. L. Pinckney, Esq. and has them now on his plantation at Goosecreek, where, no doubt, the fellow is frequently _lurking_. T. DAVIS." The wife has been sold to the speculator in human flesh! The sacred relation has been for ever sundered by God's overseer! The husband has been orally taught to say,--"Thou shalt not commit adultery," and to consider such to be a divine command. But he is strong and healthy, and his master orders him to live with another woman. What is he to do? If he obeys, he commits adultery, and disobeys God's commands. Truly a difficult matter to settle! What ardent prayers will the church send up to heaven, that their brother may have strength given to him to enable him to save his soul alive! What earnest entreaties! How solemnly will the church remonstrate with its member against the commission of so great a sin! And, when prayers, entreaties, remonstrances, have all been tried and have failed, how sternly will the church proceed to the last extremity,--excommunication! If the man who marries his deceased wife's sister must be cut off from "membership in the Saviour's body" as impure,[N] how much more must that man be cut off who is faithless during his wife's lifetime? How admirably does the Savannah River Baptist Association harmonize the worship of God and mammon, and reconcile obedience to the commands of the master with obedience to God! This Association, in reply to the question (Brooke's "Slavery," p. 38),-- "Whether, in a case of involuntary separation, of such a character as to preclude all prospect of future intercourse, the parties ought to be allowed to marry again," Answer-- "That such separation among persons situated as our slaves are, is civilly a separation by death; and they believe, that, in the sight of God, it would be so viewed. To forbid second marriages in such cases would be to expose the parties, not only to stronger hardships and strong temptation, but to church-censure for acting in obedience to their masters, who cannot be expected to acquiesce in a regulation at variance with justice to the slaves, and to the spirit of that command which regulates marriage among Christians. The slaves are not free agents; and a dissolution by death is not more entirely without their consent, and beyond their control, than by such separation." A similar decision was made by the Shiloh Baptist Association in Virginia. This question was presented for solution ("The Church as it is," pp. 76, 77),-- "Is a servant, whose husband or wife has been sold by his or her master into a distant country, to be permitted to marry again?"