Page:Daniel Minort Baxter - Bishop Richard Allen and His Spirit (1923).pdf/27

19 had begun and they were nearly done singing and just as we got to the seats the elder said let us pray; we had not been long upon our knees before I heard a considerable scuffling and low talking, and raised my head up and saw one of the trustees H M said ‘no you must get up now or I will call aid and force you away.’” There is where the last straw was put on the camel’s back and the strain broke it, and the first spark of Negro self-consciousness was kindled, and Captain Richard Allen awoke from a long listless torpor and took the helm of the little ship with her cargo, Negro religious freedom aboard, and sailed out into the sea of prejudice, persecution and envy, upon which she has been sailing over a hundred years and still her flag is high above the malicious wave which would destroy her. God is on this ship of Zion.

Let us learn a lesson today from that of a hundred years ago. You who have lived in the North thirty-five years ago can remember almost every place was opened to you, but