"'What a comment is this on the words: "In Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free." Not that there shall be "no bond," according to the brother's interpretation; for then it would be equally right to interpret the other part of the passage literally,--there is no Jew, no Greek, and none free! How perfectly does the relation become absorbed by that state of heart which makes it proper for Paul to say: "Art thou called being a servant, care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather." Notwithstanding this advice, he sends back this man-servant. "'Paul might have manumitted Onesimus by his authority as an apostle; this, however, would have been rebellion against government, for our laws recognize slavery. "'My brother says that the Hebrew law forbade the surrender of a fugitive slave. Yes, if the slave fled into Israel from a heathen master, he must not be sent back to heathenism; but'-- "'But,' said the brother from Laodicea, 'there is no limitation of that kind. I insist that it was of universal application to slaves of all kinds.' "'Find the passage, if you please (in Deut. xxiii.),' said the Colossian speaker. "The passage was found by the pastor, and was read, as already quoted: 'Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant that is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him.' Deut. xxiii. 10, 15. "'Now,' said Theodotus, 'it is absurd to say that God proclaimed to all the servants throughout Israel, If any of you are dissatisfied, for any cause, and wish to run away, you may do so; and wherever you wish to live, the people-of that place shall provide a residence for you. After being there for ever so short a time, if you do not like it, you may flee again; and so keep moving all your lifetime, the people everywhere being obliged to allow you a place of abode. Did the Most High mean to encourage such vagabondism? "'No; He merely provided that a fugitive from a heathen master should not be sent away from the worship of Jehovah into heathenism.' "'That is undoubtedly the true meaning,' said the pastor, 'if Theodotus will allow me to put in a word. "Thee," in that passage, means Israel as a nation, not each man.' "'I thank you, Sir,' said Theodotus; 'and now I maintain that the injunction not to give up a fugitive to his heathen master, but to keep him in Israel, is a powerful argument in favor of retaining slaves where they will be most benefited in their spiritual concerns. God thus makes the soul of man and its eternal welfare paramount to all external relations, including slavery.' "'May I inquire, then,' said the Laodicean: 'Suppose that Philemon had been a cruel heathen master, and Onesimus had fled for his life, would Paul have sent him back?'