Page:Daniel Minort Baxter - Bishop Richard Allen and His Spirit (1923).pdf/28

20 today things have changed. The reason is, the same spirit which caused the break at St. George Church repeats itself. As long as there were few Negroes attending the church, there was no general complaint, but when Allen by his spiritual sermons drew large crowds of Negroes, the thing changed. When there were few Negroes in the North, one or two in the school room, a few at the churches, and places of amusements, not many to stand the civil service examinations, and get political jobs, or to enter into business and to be brought into social contact, there was not much fault to find. But now, as then, when the number increased, race prejudice increased with it. Will we like Allen meet our difficulties and overcome them as triumphantly as he has done? We can only do so, in, and with his spirit. We have looked in vain for some greater leadership to guide us, but we have found none with more self-dependence, more real manhood courage, and thrift, more genuine perseverance than that Richard Allen handed down to us over a hundred years ago. Our country has gone wild, violence is common, foul murders and lynchings are frequent, and the courts are not respected; and