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THE RELATIVE DUTIES OF MANKIND. [Part III.
us by God ; such as that written by St. Paul, c as knowing thatwe also have a Master in heaven.’ The master must not be alion in his house, lest his power be obeyed and his person hated ;his eye be waited on, and his business he neglected in secret.No servant will do his duty, unless he make a conscience, orlove his master ; if he does it not for God’s sake, or his mas-ter’s, he will not always need to do it for his own.”*
3. “ Servants born in the house, or bought with the money,”of their master. The greatest part of the servants mentioned inthe Scriptures were of this third class.f And the rule prescribedby the enlightened and equitable understanding of Cicero, nearlytwo thousand years ago, for the treatment of servants of this de-scription, continues to be applicable to their condition at this day;“ uti ut mercenariis, opera exigenda, justa prcebenda ; ” | thatis, their masters are to treat them as they treat their hired servants ,a suitable portion of labor is to be required of them, and justallowances of the necessaries and comforts of life are to befurnished them. Hence, on the ground of this ancient, just, andequitable rule of the great Roman moralist, the directions givenby Bishop Taylor to masters, in the case of hired servants, be-come applicable to the class of servants whose case we are nowconsidering. The duty of the master is to give them healthfuland comfortable diet, clothing, and housing; medical attendanceand nursing when requisite, and moral and religious instruction;since servants are co-heirs with their masters, of the hopes, thepromises, the consolations, and the ordinances of the Gospel.§
In return for these, the servant is to give his labor, in single-ness of heart, not with eye-service, counting his master worthyof all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blas-phemed. || The interest, too, as well as the duty of the master,will lead him to give suitable protection to his servants. It is,moreover, both his right and his duty to maintain suitable dis-cipline over them. But he is to do this, remembering, that ashe is a master over others on earth, so he has himself a Masterin heaven, to whom he is responsible for the discharge of his
* Holy Living, p. 183.
t Michaelis’ Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, Dr. Smith’s translation, Vol.II. p. 155 —191 ; Horne’s Introduction, Vol. III. 419 - 425.
t De Officiis, I. 13. § 1 Tim. vi. 1, 2; 1 Cor. vii. 20 - 22. || 1 Tim. vi. 1.