Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 41.djvu/16

 4 than submit to a usurpation, as well as of the cavaliers who charged with Rupert, they were the direct descendants. They had their faults, faults that were not lovely and that are not palliated. They were not free from evil and for the evil neither defense nor excuse is offered. They were religious, but religion does not accomplish what some people suppose. Neither the color of the hair, nor the racial characteristics are changed by religion. Real religion cleanses the soul, and sets before us the highest and noblest purpose that can be presented to the imperishable spirit. A forcible and passionate persecutor was Saul of Tarsus; an able and powerful apostle was Paul of the Church of God. To the man's powers were given purer motives and a different direction; he was a new creature, but there was no change in his identity. The Southerner of to-day has lost none of the strength of his Anglo-Saxon ancestors; he has simply put off some of his cruelty and heathenism, and has clothed himself in a measure of gentleness and charity.

Most of us are Anglo-Saxons. That race is no parvenu. Through long centuries of incessant conflict, often in the midst of most stubborn circumstances, frequently forced down and at times almost consumed, there has been some saving quality in the race which has enabled it to survive and to succeed. Submerged by the Dane, above the bloody waters arose at length his obstinate head, and in his eye was the flash of life. Beaten down by the Norman, with many a groan and racked with pain he struggled at last to the summit of his ruins, stammering a little in his speech, but with the same mother tongue, and to his conqueror finally giving both law and language. In a western wilderness, surrounded by inhuman savages, the curling smoke of his yule log announced the planting of a home, and the crack of his trusty rifle the determination to defend it. This rather slow-minded, yet masterful Anglo-Saxon, does he become any the less effective when he is converted? When God comes into the soul He does not obliterate the man's human nature, He glorifies it. Under the peals of Patrick Henry the very nature of our people thrilled, and with rare patience and grim tenacity, obediently, resolutely and devotedly they followed the sword of