The position I think is invulnerable, that in the nations which arose and peopled the earth, immediately after the flood, slavery had no existence; and as the patriarchs flourished in that period, the inference is clear that they did not own slaves, and were not slaveholders. Those holy men would hardly be the first to violate the free institutions of Noah, and disgrace the golden age of freedom, by the enslavement of their brothers. But it is asserted with a show of confidence that the word servant, as applied in the scriptures to a class of persons, means precisely what our word slave means. Hence, when it is said that Abraham had _servants_, it is assumed that he had SLAVES. Now, although what has been proved, is altogether sufficient to exculpate that good man and all the patriarchs from the charge of slaveholding, we deem it important that the word translated servant be well understood; and with the aid of the best authorities we shall now proceed to make it plain. The Hebrew words translated servant, service, and servants, are derived from _abadh_, meaning to labor, _to work_, to do work. This word occurs in the Hebrew scriptures some hundreds of times, in various forms of the word, and is never rendered _slaves_. Occasionally, our translators have prefixed the word _bond_, and made it read _bond_-servant, but this was done without authority, as precisely the same word is used in the original. The original word is used to denote the following kinds of service: To work for another; Gen. 29: 20. To serve or be servants of a king; 2d Sam., 16: 19. To serve as a soldier; 2d Sam., 2: 12, 13, 15, 30, 31. To serve as an ambassador; 2d Sam., 10: 2, 4. It is applied to a worshipper of the true God; Nehemiah, 1: 10. To a minister; Isaiah, 49: 6. It is also applied to king Rehoboam; 1st Kings, 11: 7, and to the Messiah, Isaiah, 42: 1.[8] It is used in Gen. 2: 15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to DRESS IT. Adam was put into Eden, not to _serve_ or _dress_ the garden as a SLAVE, but as a man. The same word is used to express the service performed for Laban by Jacob. The relation of Joshua to Moses is expressed by the same word; Ex., 33: 21. It is also used in the fourth commandment. Six days shalt thou _labor_, etc. From these examples of the use of the word it is clear that the idea of chattel slavery is not found in it. It is used to express all kinds of service--the service of God, a king, a friend, or an employer.