4. Of wider sweep in its influence and of inexpressible value was _the system of periodical emancipation_. The term of service for the Hebrew-born was limited to six years. At the end of this term they went out free. Servants of foreign birth (as we shall see) went out at the Jubilee, each fiftieth year.――――The effect of this law was at once to lift from the heart the terrible incubus of a life-long bondage――that sense of a hopeless doom which knows no relief till death. Whatever the amount of discomfort or suffering involved in servitude might have been, the Hebrew servant had under this law the prospect of his freedom at no distant day.――――Moreover the accompanying provisions of this law were thoroughly humane. The servant who had sold himself through extreme poverty (Lev. 25: 47–55) might be redeemed at any time by a friend, or if he could command the means by extra labor or skill, he might redeem himself.――――When his term expired, his master must not send him away empty, but must furnish him liberally out of his flock and out of his floor (grain), and even out of his _wine-press_――of any thing and every thing wherewith the Lord had blessed the master, he was to impart liberally to his manumitted servant (Deut. 15: 12–15). So the servant would have a fair start in his new self-supporting life. It was a fore-thoughtful provision, full of the milk of a more than human kindness. Apparently this periodic emancipation applied to every class of Hebrew servants――to him who had sold himself because he had become too poor to provide for his family; to him who had been taken and sold for debt; and to him who had been sold into servitude for crime. This latter case, however, is doubtful. Noticeably, this law provides for the family rights of the servant. If he had brought his wife with him into this state, he took her out with himself, and of course his children also. If his master had given him a wife, he retained her because of his property interest in her services, and her children with her for humanity’s sake; for children under six years of age need their mother’s care. Wives in that age of the world were paid for.