in removing some of the obstacles out of the way. The better we behave ourselves, the more we make of ourselves, the more, I know, we are hated by some, but that doesn’t destroy the force of the general principle we are here laying down.

(3). There is still another force that we can utilize in the great struggle that we are making against our enemies, and that is the force that lies in effectual, fervent prayer, the force that links us with God, with the Mighty God. We have the reputation of being a religious people. I don’t know whether we are really religious or not. We have, I know, a great many professors of religion among us; but as to whether there is a great deal real true religion, which consists in loving God and in keeping his commandments, among us, may be a question. One thing I know, however, in the days of slavery, when the iron heel of physical oppression was upon our necks, there were many, many of the fathers and mothers of the race who believed in God and in the power of prayer, and who by day and by night, in the cotton fields and in the rice swamps, sent up their petitions to heaven. And while I know that Garrison and Philips and the noble band of anti-slavery worker labored earnestly and faithfully to quicken the national conscience; and that the armies of the North, under Grant, and Sherman, and Sheridan and others, marched in the South and grappled in a death struggle with the forces of rebellion; and that Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, nevertheless, I believe that among the mightiest forces that wrought for the slave were the prayers which they themselves sent up to Almighty God. Prayer became a power in their hands mightier than armies and proclamations. And that power we can wield to-day and ought to be wielding it. God can do wonders for us if we will rely upon him, if we will put our trust in him. He can soften the hard hearts of our enemies; he can raise up friends for us; he can open ways for us that we know not of. I have just been reading over the Book of Esther, known as the book of God’s Providential Care. How wonderfully did he interpose in behalf of the Jews; but it came as the result of days of fasting and prayer. When Esther suggested three days of fasting and prayer, everything seemed to be against them. Their arch enemy was highest in the favor of the king; and he had not only obtained permission to destroy the Jews throughout the empire, but the decree had already been issued and the day fixed for its execution. It was at this juncture that earnest, incessant prayer was made to Jehovah, and the result was the man that sought their ruin was hurled from power, and hurled into eternity to answer at a higher than earthly tribunal for his infamous 

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