Mrs. North said that in our next conversation she would suggest that we consider the relation of Christianity to Slavery. I told her that I had some night thoughts on that subject, which I would with pleasure submit, at another time. As the rain continued, Mr. North and I resorted to the wood-pile in the shed for exercise, till dinner-time, Mrs. North following us to the door, and charging us not to converse upon this subject till she should be present. CHAPTER IX. DISCUSSION IN PHILEMON'S CHURCH AT THE RETURN OF ONESIMUS. "My equal will he be again Down in that cold, oblivious gloom, Where all the prostrate ranks of men Crowd without fellowship,--the tomb." JAMES MONTGOMERY. "I will now relate to you," said I, as we resumed our conversation, "the thoughts which came to me one night as I lay awake meditating on this subject. I wrote them down the next day. "The subject in our conversation which suggested them was, The relation of Christianity to slavery. * * * * * "About the year A.D. 64, two men, travellers from Rome, entered the city of Colosse, in Phrygia. Asia Minor, both of them the bearers of letters from the Apostle Paul, then a prisoner at Rome. "A Christian Church had been gathered at Colosse. Its pastor was probably Archippus. Some think that Epaphras was his colleague. This church, according to Dr. Lardner and others, was most probably gathered by the Apostle Paul himself. Mount Cadmus rose behind the city, with its almost perpendicular side, and a huge chasm in the mountain was the outlet of a torrent which flowed into the river Lycus, on which the city was built, standing not far from the junction of this river with the Moeander. "One of the two men who bore these letters was a slave. His name was Onesimus. He robbed his master, Philemon, of Colosse, fled to Rome, heard Paul preach, was converted, and now by the Apostle is sent back to his master with a letter, in charge of Tychicus, who, with this Onesimus, was the bearer of a letter to the Colossian Church. "Let us attend the church-meeting. The pastor, Archippus, presides. Epaphras is at Rome. "What an interesting company do we behold as we sit near the pastor's table, in full view of the audience! The inhabitants of this place were noted for the worship of Bacchus, and Cybele, mother of the gods; hence her name, _Phrygia Mater_. Every kind of licentious language and actions was practised in the worship of these deities, accompanied with a frantic rage called orgies, from the Greek word for _rage_. This was a part of their religious worship. From among such people, converts had been made to Christianity, together with some who had been turned from Judaism.