But some have even said that Jesus Christ did not condemn slavery. To this I reply, that our Holy Redeemer lived and preached among the Jews only. The laws which Moses had enacted fifteen hundred years previous to his appearance among them, had never been annulled, and these laws _protected_ every servant in Palestine. That he saw nothing of _perpetual_ servitude is certain from the simple declaration made by himself in John, viii, 35. "The servant abideth _not_ in the house for ever, the son abideth ever." If then He did not condemn Jewish _temporary_ servitude, this does not prove that he would not have condemned such a monstrous system as that of AMERICAN _slavery_, if that had existed among them. But did not Jesus condemn slavery? Let us examine some of his precepts. "_Whatsoever_ ye would that men should do to you, do _ye even so to them_." Let every slaveholder apply these queries to his own heart; Am _I_ willing to be a slave--Am _I_ willing to see _my_ husband the slave of another--Am _I_ willing to see my mother a slave, or my father, my _white_ sister, or my _white_ brother? If _not_, then in holding others as slaves, I am doing what I would _not_ wish to be done to me or any relative I have; and thus have I broken this golden rule which was given _me_ to walk by. But some slaveholders have said, "we were never in bondage to any man," and therefore the yoke of bondage would be insufferable to us, but slaves are accustomed to it, their backs are fitted to the burden. Well, I am willing to admit that you who have lived in freedom would find slavery even more oppressive than the poor slave does, but then you may try this question in another form--Am I willing to reduce _my little child_ to slavery? You know that _if it is brought up a slave_, it will never know any contrast between freedom and bondage; its back will become fitted to the burden just as the negro child's does--_not by nature_--but by daily, violent pressure, in the same way that the head of the Indian child becomes flattened by the boards in which it is bound. It has been justly remarked that "_God never made a slave_," he made man upright; his back was _not_ made to carry burdens as the slave of another, nor his neck to wear a yoke, and the _man_ must be crushed within him, before _his_ back can be _fitted_ to the burden of perpetual slavery; and that his back is _not_ fitted to it, is manifest by the insurrections that so often disturb the peace and security of slave-holding countries. Who ever heard of a rebellion of the beasts of the field; and why not? simply because _they_ were all placed _under the feet of man_, into whose hand they were delivered; it was originally designed that they should serve him, therefore their necks have been formed for the yoke, and their backs for the burden; but _not so with man_, intellectual, immortal man! I appeal to you, my friends, as mothers; Are you willing to enslave _your_ children? You start back with