3. Some circumstances are recorded from which we obtain presumptive evidence that they did not own slaves. Take for example, an incident in the life of Abraham. He was sitting in his tent door in the cool of the day and saw at a little distance three strangers whom he immediately approached and invited, in the spirit of genuine hospitality, to tarry with him and partake of some refreshments. When he had obtained their consent, he hastened unto the tent to Sarah and requested her to bake some cakes with all possible dispatch, while he should run to the herd and fetch a calf tender and good and have it dressed. The repast was soon provided, the guests were seated around the wholesome meal, and Abraham stood by them under the tree while they ate. Now, I submit, had this patriarch been a slaveholder, he would have ordered "Cuffee" to the flock after the calf, and had Sarah been a mistress of slaves she would have ordered "Dinah" to the kneading trough. In this incident there is no mention of slaves. A "young _man_" is respectfully noticed without the slightest hint that he was a slave. Abraham and Sarah went about preparing this entertainment precisely as good people do, who attend to their own work, and have no slaves to order around. 4. We have good reasons for believing that chattel slavery had no existence in the world at the time the patriarchs referred to, flourished. Abraham was born only two years after the death of Noah, and when as yet the postdiluvian world was in its infancy, and it is not probable, leaving history out of view, that slavery could have been instituted at so early a period. But the most ancient and reliable history furnishes evidence that for a period after the flood, reaching down far this side the patriarchal age, universal freedom was preserved.[7] On the authority of _Diodorus_, Shuckford says, that "the nations planted by Noah and his descendants, _had a law against slavery; for no person among them could absolutely lose his freedom and become a bondsman_." (_Shuckford's Connections, Vol. II, pp. 80._) "Athenaus, a Greek historian of great merit, observes that the Babylonians, Persians, as well as the Greeks, and divers other nations, celebrated annually a sort of Saturnalia, or feast, instituted most probably IN COMMEMORATION OF THE ORIGINAL STATE OF FREEDOM, IN WHICH MEN LIVED BEFORE SERVITUDE WAS INTRODUCED; AND AS MOSES REVIVED SEVERAL OF NOAH'S INSTITUTIONS, so there are appointments in the law to preserve the freedom of the Israelites."