“_And_, _ye lords_, do the same things towards them”--be as good to your slaves as they are required to be towards you. A bold application this of Christ’s great rule: “What you would that men should do to you, do even so to them.” In many instances this rule suggested _liberation_, where the slave was prepared for freedom. In any case, the master is to put himself in his dependant’s place, and to act by him as he would desire himself to be treated if their positions were reversed. Slaves were held to be scarcely human. Deceit and sensuality were regarded as their chief characteristics. They must be ruled, the moralists said, by the fear of punishment. This was the only way to keep them in their place. The Christian master adopts a different policy. He “desists from threatening”; he treats his servants with even-handed justice, with fit courtesy and consideration. The recollection is ever present to his mind, that he must give account of his charge over each one of them to his Lord and theirs. So he will make, as far as in him lies, his own domain an image of the kingdom of Christ. FOOTNOTES: [148] We cannot absolutely _prove_ infant baptism from the New Testament texts adduced on its behalf; but they afford a strong presumption in its favour, which is confirmed on the one hand by the analogy of circumcision, and on the other by the immemorial usage of the early Church. Titus i. 6 shows that stress was laid on the faith of children, and that discrimination was used in their recognition as Church members. [149] 1 Cor. xi. 32; Heb. xii. 5, 11, etc. [150] Acts vii. 22, xxii. 3; Rom. ii. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 25, iii. 14. [151] 1 Cor. x. 11; Col. i. 28, iii. 16; 1 Thess. v. 14, etc. [152] The word _family_ (Latin _familia_) denoted originally the servants of the establishment, the domestic slaves. Its modern usage is an index to the elevating influence of Christianity upon social relations. [153] Rom. i. 1; 2 Cor. iv. 5; Gal. i. 10, etc. _ON THE APPROACHING CONFLICT._ CHAPTER vi. 10-20. Ἰδοὺ ὁ Σατανᾶς ἐξῃτήσατο ὑμᾶς, τοῦ σινιάσαι ὡς τὸν σῖτον. LUKE xxii. 31. CHAPTER XXVIII. _THE FOES OF THE CHURCH._ “From henceforth be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual _hosts_ of wickedness, in the heavenly _places_.”--EPH. vi. 10-12.