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regarded as slaves, and masters as owners, then the laws of God would no more have permitted any two-legged property to run away from the owner, to steal itself from the master, than four-legged property; a man would have had no more right to run away than a horse or an ox; the right to possess property gives a right to secure that property and prevent its escape. "If thou meet even thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again." But, "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which has escaped from his master; he shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place he shall choose in any of thy gates where it liketh him best, but thou shalt not oppress him." In one case the Jew was quite justifiable in turning the beast back, in the other he was not justified so to do, because the right of property was recognised in the beast, but not in man; for "in the image of God created He him." Man coming from the plastic hand of Omnipotence, with a mind capable of comprehending the nature and character of his Creator—a heart to feel, a soul to love Christ and His holy religion; created a little lower than the angels, to be hunted down and dragged into perpetual bondage in a land calling itself free, the freest in the world, is almost incredible, but it is a lamentable fact, a fact not to be disguised nor varnished. Stealing men was a capital offence for which the offender was put to death.
