DISCOURSE XIII.

THE DUTIES OF CHRISTIAN SERVANTS ENJOINED AND

ENFORCED.

1 PET. ii. 18-25.-Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

In these words we have a further illustration of the general injunction laid on Christians by the Apostle at the 12th verse of this chapter, to "have their conversation honest among the Gentiles;" that is, so to conduct themselves as that even their heathen neighbours should be constrained to approve them. That injunction is, as it were, the text of a considerably long paragraph which immediately follows. The manner in which that command was to be obeyed, was by a careful performance of relative duties, especially such as they owed to their heathen connexions. Of the excellence of such a course of conduct they were qualified judges, which they were not of duties of a more strictly religious and Christian character. All Christians were, therefore, to yield a loyal subjection to civil authority, as lodged both in

its supreme and subordinate administrators; to cherish and display a becoming respect for all who on whatever ground had a claim on respect; to cultivate and manifest that peculiar regard to the Christian society, which in Christians even heathens could not help considering as becoming and proper; and to show a reverence for the supreme civil power, based on, and only limited by, the reverence due to Him who is "King of kings, and Lord of lords." The natural tendency of such "good works," habitually and perseveringly maintained, was to overcome the prejudice of their heathen neighbours, and constrain those "who spoke against them as evil-doers, to glorify God in the day of visitation."

Another way in which the same desirable object was to be sought is that specified in our text: such Christians as stood in the relation of servants, especially to heathen masters, faithfully discharging the duties, and patiently submitting to the hardships connected with the situation in which they were placed. The passage contains an account first of the duties of Christian servants generally, and of the manner in which they should be performed; they are to be "subject to their masters," and they are to be so "in all fear." And then of the duty of a particular class of servants; they who have not good and gentle, but froward masters, and of the motives which urge to its performance. Though their service may be harder, and their treatment more severe than those of their more favoured brethren, they are to be equally obedient and submissive; and they are to act in this way, because such conduct is peculiarly well-pleasing to God, and because it is a part of that holiness, that conformity to Christ, to which as Christians they were called. Let us turn our attention to these important and interesting topics in their order.

§ 1. The foundation and nature of the relation between Servant and Master.

Servants, at the period when, and in the country where, the Christians, to whom the Apostle's Epistle was directed,

lived, were divided into two classes, the bond and the free; the first, slaves, persons who had been taken in war, or had been born in a state of slavery, or had, for certain considerations, sold their freedom; the second, hired servants, persons who, as in this and other free countries, voluntarily sell their time and labour, during a specified time, for a certain price, under the name of sustenance and wages. The injunction of the Apostle is intended for both these classes; for, however a person may be brought into the condition of a servant, the duties of that condition are substantially the same. Before entering on the consideration of these duties, it may not be without its use to unfold, in a few sentences, the nature and foundation of that relation in which these duties originate.

All men, viewed merely as men, are equal. They have all the same nature, and there are rights and duties common to all. They all belong to the same order of God's creatures, "God has made of one blood all the nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth." Their bodies have the same members, their minds the same faculties. They are all rational, responsible, immortal beings, and every man is equally bound to treat every other man according to the laws of truth, justice, and humanity.

But while, in reference to nature, men are equal, in reference to condition they are endlessly diversified. In bodily qualities, such as beauty, strength, and agility; in mental faculties, such as judgment, imagination, and memory; in external circumstances, from the rudest state of barbarism to the highest state of refinement, from the most abject poverty to the most abundant wealth, the greatest differences prevail among the possessors of our common nature. And these differences, to a great extent, are the necessary effect of the operations of the God of nature and of providence.

In consequence of this diversity of condition, individuals are not sufficient for their own comfortable support, and stand in need of one another's assistance; and the happiness of

1 Acts xvii. 26.

VOL. II.

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society depends on mutually giving and receiving: giving what they can spare, receiving what they need. Out of these facts grow all social arrangements, and, among the rest, the relation of master and servant.

A person possessed of property finds it inconvenient or impossible for him to do personally many things which he finds it desirable should be done, and he parts with a portion of his property to induce another person, fit for accomplishing the objects in view, who has time, and skill, and capacity of labour to dispose of, to do for him what he cannot do, or is not inclined to do for himself. The master has no natural authority over the servant. He has no more right to demand the labours of the servant, than the servant has to demand his property.

The relation, when legitimately formed, originates in a bargain or agreement between two independent individuals; the one having property, the other labour, to dispose of. The master stipulates that the servant shall perform certain services for certain wages; and the servant stipulates that the master shall pay him certain wages for certain services. The result of the bargain is, that the master has authority to demand the stipulated service, and the servant has a right, which he may call on their common superior to enforce, to receive his wages.1

§ 2. The duties of Christian servants in general.

Having thus stated, as shortly and plainly as I could, the nature and foundation of the relation of the servant to the master, let us now attend to his duties. These are all summed up in one very comprehensive word in the passage before us: "Subjection." "Servants, be subject to your masters" that is, let your will be regulated by their will. In other words, be obedient to their commands; be submissive to their arrangements.

In this and the succeeding part of the discourse, the author has availed himself of the useful labours of Bishop Fleetwood, in his "Sermons on Relative Duties," and of Dr Stennet, in his "Discourses on Domestic Duties."

(1.) Servants are to be obedient to the command of their master; that is, they are to do what their master bids them, in the way in which he requires it to be done, to the best of their ability. A servant cannot reasonably expect to be his own master; to be allowed to choose how he shall employ his time; what he shall do, or even in what manner the service required shall be executed. He has taken a price for his time and his capacity of labour, and it is but just that he who has bought them should dispose of them. They are no more his than his wages are his master's. He is a person under authority, who, when bid come, must come; when bid go, must go; and when bid do this, must do it.

The servant's obligation to obey, however, is by no means unlimited. It has bounds corresponding with the master's right. No master has, or can have, a right to command any thing that is inconsistent with the Divine law; and of course no servant can be under an obligation to comply with such a command. The rule is plain and absolute, when the will of an earthly master is opposed to the will of our Master in heaven, "We ought to obey God rather than man."1 Should a master require his servant to speak falsely, to act fraudulently, or to violate any Divine command, such a command should meet with a respectful, but peremptory refusal. And it is for the servant to judge whether a particular command is or is not consistent with the Divine law: for "every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." It will not be sustained as an excuse at the Divine tribunal, for a servant doing what was wrong, that his master commanded him to do it. Servants ought, however, to take care not to withhold obedience to a just command, from a pretended regard to conscience, when the true cause of their non-compliance is their sloth or self-indulgence. In such a case there is a double guilt contracted. The human master is disobeyed, and the Divine Master is insulted. There is a shocking union of dishonesty and impiety.