conduces to the well-being and happiness of all. The distinction between master and servant existed in the earliest ages, and in every country, and appears to have been arranged and permitted by the Lord, that the reciprocal virtues of love and gratitude might not only have existence, but perpetuity.
Compassion and thankfulness, charity and respect, kindness and sympathy, originate in love and gratitude, and may be described as their offspring. Hence the utility of difference of station; and hence the wisdom that ordained it. If all were equal, there would be no place for kindness or gratitude, and men would remain unsocial, if not sullen, in their own solitary grandeur. The Christian graces and virtues would lie dormant; the kindly feeling of the good Centurion could hardly have been known, but for this inequality; and the beneficence and mercy even of the Redeemer would have shone less transcendently, had He chosen His disciples from among the rich and noble, rather than from among the humblest and the most hard-wrought of mankind—poor fishermen. The very inequality which appears to divide mankind in reality constitutes their true bond of union. As, then, there has ever existed masters and servants, and both are likely to continue in existence, it cannot be an improper subject for meditation, to ascertain the duties, and to see to the performance of the duties devolving on masters and servants.
The relationship subsisting between masters and servants is a necessary one, because it tends to unite and render happy those who perform its duties; and these duties, faithfully performed, are not merely beneficial to the body, but to the mind also. But all
