Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery.
--Lawana Blackwell, The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark, 1999
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.
--Bob Marley (1945 - 1981)
Wide-sounding Zeus takes away half a man's worth on the day when slavery comes upon him.
--Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Odyssey
Life without the courage for death is slavery.
--Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
Enjoy things which are pleasant; that is not the evil: it is the reducing of our moral self to slavery by them that is.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)
The most onerous slavery is to be a slave to oneself.
--Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
There is no slavery but ignorance.
--Robert Ingersoll (1833 - 1899), The Philosophy of Ingersoll (1906), "Fragments"
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
--Sojourner Truth (1797 - 1883), Women's Convention, Akron Ohio, 1851
They have exiled me now from their society and I am pleased, because humanity does not exile except the one whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression. He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty.
--Kahil Gibran, Spirits Rebellious
BIBLICAL CONNECTIONS
There were slaves during New Testament times. The church issued no edict sweeping away this custom of the old Judaism, but the gospel of Christ with its warm, penetrating love-message mitigated the harshness of ancient times and melted cruelty into kindness. The equality, justice and love of Christ’s teachings changed the whole attitude of man to man and master to servant. This spirit of brotherhood quickened the conscience of the age, leaped the walls of Judaism, and penetrated the remotest regions. The great apostle proclaimed this truth:
Galatians 3:28 (New Living Translation)
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians—you are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28 (Message Bible)
In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Christian slaves and masters are both exhorted in Paul’s letters to live godly lives and make Christ-like their relations one to the other—obedience to masters and forbearance with slaves. “Bondservants (m), be obedient unto your masters, as bondservants (m) of Christ And, ye masters forbear threatening: their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with him” (Eph 6:5-9).
Ephes. 6:5-9 (New Living Translation)
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. [6] Work hard, but not just to please your masters when they are watching. As slaves of Christ, do the will of God with all your heart. [7] Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. [8] Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
[9] And in the same way, you masters must treat your slaves right. Don't threaten them; remember, you both have the same Master in heaven, and God has no favorites.
Christ was a reformer, but not an anarchist. His gospel was dynamic but not dynamitic. It was leaven, electric with power, but permeated with love. Christ’s life and teaching were against Judaistic slavery, Roman slavery and any form of human slavery.
The love of Jesus' gospel and the light of His life were destined, in time, to make human emancipation earth-wide and human family-hood as universal as His own benign presence.
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