Fifty Years of Freedomwith matters of vital importance to both the white and colored people of the United States
repented, changed his mind, and started in pursuit of them with all his hosts, his chariots and horsemen, to bring them back. We are also told that when the children of Israel saw them approaching they were terrified. And then occurs this passage: "And the angel of the Lord, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: and it came between the camp of the Egyptians, and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud of darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night." God stood between Israel and the enemy. And that is just where we want to have him stand, between us and our enemies. What we need to do is to rest in the Lord, is to put our trust in him. He is more than a match for our enemies. The song which Moses and the children of Israel sang after they had seen the advancing hosts of the enemy approaching was,

And if we trust him, if we make him our hope, we will be able in the end to sing the same song; we, too, will triumph gloriously.

In the voyage of the apostle Paul to Rome the ship was caught in a terrible storm. For fourteen days and nights it raged. The wind blew furiously; heavy, dark clouds shut out the light of the sun by day and of the stars by night. There seemed no hope of escape. Of the nearly three hundred souls on board, all except one man were filled with the most appalling apprehension. That man was the apostle Paul. During all those awful days and nights he alone was calm, self-possessed; he alone showed no fear, no apprehension. And why? It was because the angel of the Lord had stood by him and had said to him, "Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." And it was because he believed what the angel had said to him. The fierceness of the storm, the raging of the elements, the appalling darkness that enveloped them, had no disquieting effect upon him. It was the triumph of faith—faith that 18saw safety, and rested in sweet content in the face of the raging storm. And faith in God is what we need if we are not to become discouraged in face of the gathering hosts of darkness, in face of the constant accessions to the ranks of the enemy. David once exclaimed,

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But he comforted himself with the thought,

And we may find comfort in the same thought. Let this new half century be one of abounding trust in God; let us more and more accustom ourselves to dwell in the secret 
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