a sacred right, but a selfish acquisition; that government does not exist to establish rights, but to protect privileges, and that mankind are not brothers, but foes. It is to turn the shadow upon the dial of human progress backward toward the ages of oppression and chaos.
And just there is the problem that confronts us, South and North together. What shall be done in this dire extremity? I remember years ago hearing of a fire in Charleston in which that beautiful spire of St. Michael's took fire and some one had to be found to go up beyond the reach of the hose to put out the flame kindling and flickering there. No one was found until a Negro stepped forth and climbed that tower, taking his life in his hands, and put out that flame. And when he came down again, one man said, "Name your reward," and he replied, "Let me but be counted a man." And that we have got to do, or God will shake down our civilization and our Nation as he shook down that spire of St. Michael's in the earthquake three years ago. It is certain to come unless we follow the line of God's appointing that this must be a free Nation, absolutely free, free everywhere. As yet, emancipation is but an outward and formal thing. What we wait for now, is the emancipation of a true and an elevated will in the South, and Christian citizenship. Into that, this Association pours its strength, its money, and its life. It took half a million lives to emancipate the slaves outwardly, and it may yet take hundreds and thousands of lives—our lives—our children's lives—poured in upon this problem, that so we may lift the Negro to that point where he feels himself, and where we feel him to be, a man—taught to labor, protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of his labor, without which the strongest arm grows palsied, trained in a strong, self-reliant Christian manhood, holding the reins firmly on the neck of all passion—a man. And that we will do; and the very greatness of the problem, I believe, is our redemption. It was the greatness of the crisis that thrilled the Nation's heart when the war burst upon us. It is the very greatness of our present problem that calls in trumpet tones to men and women and children all over the land; "Come and help solve this problem for Christ."
A few weeks ago, in one of the beautiful towns of Northern Illinois, a young man, the only son of his father and mother, hearing at Sabbath evening the alarm of fire, sprung forth and took his place upon the burning building and there did the work of a fireman. In the attempt to put out the fire he was hurled headlong and in one moment his life had gone hence. A few weeks afterward, as a friend was talking with his mother about it, she said, "Our son was always so swift to heed any call of need or duty, it seems to me as if he heard suddenly some call from God from some farther clime and sprung forth and was gone from our sight." Blessed, heroic faith! But, brethren and friends, fathers and mothers, we need that same faith for our living sons and living daughters, to send them forth into this work of God. When the Christ child was on the back of the giant Christophorus crossing the stream, how heavy he grew as the giant plunged his way through the waters. God weighs heavily upon this Nation this greatest of all national problems, what to do with these despised ones. But bear the burden we must, and bear it through we must to the farther shore of a Christian solution, or we and it will go down the flood together. There is no help for us except in this solution which makes brothers of these men.
I see a possible issue in this large Christian faith of our land; and I see the time coming when the black and the white shall dwell together in a mutual helpfulness, with a more complete national feeling, a deeper dependence upon him from whom alone comes strength, less display of material resources, but more faith in God. That time must come. And then I see the army enlisting for the conquest of that dark continent of Africa, shrouded in gloom, so long robbed of her children, but now at last finding that, like Joseph, they were taken from her that they might come back to save life. So our Nation shall be not a mirage awakening the hopes and aspirations of mankind but to mock them, and leaving the sands of human experience still more arid and barren; but it shall be a mountain of God, its base resting on the eternal foundations of law and liberty; its summit drawing down from the willing heavens the streams of prosperity which shall enrich all the lands of the earth.
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