Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

138 LETTERS.
question the old hero's claims to reverence, or to
doubt his sanity of mind. All they knew about it
was, that he was the friend of their oppressed race,
and that he proved it by dying for them. It was very
touching to hear them sing appropriate Methodist
hymns so plaintively. Some of their prayers were
uncouth, of course, because the pride and prejudice
of white men have prevented their having a chance
for mental culture; but many of them were eloquent,
from the simple effect of earnestness. One old black
maln who informed the Lord that he " had been a
slave, and knew how bitter it was," ejaculated with
great fervor, "and since it has pleased thee to take
away our Moses, oh! Lord God! raise us up a
Joshua." To which all the congregation responded
with a loud " Amen! " The 16th of December was
more painful to ne than the 2d. Those other victims were young, and wanted to live; and they had
not so many manifestations of sympathy to sustain
them as their grand old leader had. If Brown had
not taken the arsenal, but had simply taken off such
slaves as wanted to go, as he did in Missouri, and had
died for that, I should be more completely satisfied
with his martyrdom. But he lilked Old Testament
heroes better than I do. He had his mind filled with
the idea of founding a " city of refuge; " and as he
acted fromi his own conscientious convictions, I have
no disposition to blame him, though I wish it had
been otherwise. The lesson I learn from it is to try
to act up to my own standard of duty as faithfully
as he did to his. In a nmoral point of view his failure will prove a magnificent success, worth a thousand
such as he planned.
"God moves in a mysterious way,
Ilis wonders to perform."