Page:Daniel Minort Baxter - Bishop Richard Allen and His Spirit (1923).pdf/55



There is one thing I wish to impress upon my readers more than any other, our patron father Richard Allen’s most admirable traits were his religious fervor, his independent spirit, and good business sense. When Bishop Asbury wanted him to go South and preach to the slaves and sleep in the carriage in which they were to travel during the trip, offering him as pay his victuals and clothes, but no money. He answered thus: “I can’t travel with you on those terms, I have a family to support, but besides that if I work for nothing what am I to do when I get sick and old?” He said “people should lay aside something while they are able to support themselves for times of sickness and old age.” Had he not saved a portion of what he made we would have had no Bethel, for when those who had agreed with him to buy the lot (Sixth and