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104 Lastly, Show Thyself a Man Religiously,

I think it was Socrates who said that a nation without a religion was like a ship with out a helm. As a people we are all religiously inclined but inclination is one thing and possession is another. There are all kinds of ethical codes, but the religion I have reference to is the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ in its purity. I hope I am talking to a Christian, but if not I adjure you in the name of God, in the name of your race, in the name of your own interest to accept Him now. Don’t go back on the church, she has been our only salvation, she is our only future hope, had it not been for the church we would to day have the manacles on our limbs which our fathers wore for 250 years. God rest the ashes of our sainted Lincoln who shewed him self a man and signed the proclamation of Emancipation, but it was the prayer of our fathers which went up to God who aroused the conscience of the nation and gave Lincoln the courage to do the most beneficent act in the annals of the world. Sincere prayer will bring us our second freedom. The church has stood for equal rights for all men, and whenever the people of this nation have