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Show ) Edwin M. Wheelock. · Said the ancrstor. of this man two ccnturie~ ago to the Long Pm·liament, "If you want your law ~ obey d, make them fit to be ob(•ycd, and if not- Cromwell," n.ml the deYilism of England hcanl and trembled. Their child of to-day lm:-; but sounded forth the sarne idea, and the devili"m of America trembles likewi:-;c. It is fitting that he should die. lie has done enough, and borne enough. One ·uch example of sclf-forgctt ing heroism, sanctified by such tenderness and faith, meeting the eye and fillincY the heart of the civilized world, spreading its noble 0 in piration far and wide through a continent, quickening the pul ·cs of heroi. m in a million souls, is God's prime benefaction to our time- the immortal !ire that keep humanity's highest hope aflame. To lil't a nation out of the ignoble rut of money-making, stagnation, anti moral decay, Freedom has offered the blood of her noblest son, and the result is worth a thousand times the co tly price. On the ccoml day of Decem bcr he is to be strangled in a Southern prison, for obeying the Sermon on the l\Iount. But to be hang ·d in Virginia is like being crncified in Jerusalem- it i ~ the la. t tribute which sin pays to virtue. John Brown realized the New Te tament. lie felt thnt he owed the same duty to the black mnn on the plains of Virginia that he did to hi· blood brothe:r. This was his insanity. lie does not belong to th is age ; he reaches back to the fir~ t three centuries of the Chri ·tian Church, when it was a pro,·erb among thr. followers of Je ~ u s, "No good Chri ·tian die in his bed." Their fanatiei, m wa~ his fimatici ·m. Hear his word; to the lave court which tried him for his life, without giving him time to obtain coun cl whom he could trust, and while be wa, partia.lly deaf from hi.' womHl~, and unnblc to stand on hi :-; f'<·et: "Had I interfered in this mnnn<' l' in lH!half of' the rieh, the powc·rful, the intellig<'uf, tl11• ~:o-1·:d ! . ·d great,- or in behalf of any of their frienc.l.~, either J;dl!t;l', Edwin M. Wheelock. 193 mot her, wife, o1· cl1ild, or any of that clasR, -and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this nt erprisc, it would have been all ri g-ht. Ev •ry man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of rewanl. This court ackt1owle<.lges, too, a. I suppo e, the validity of tllC law of God. I F<Ce a book ki.- cd, which I suppo. c to be the Bible, wl1ich icachc me thn.L 'all things whatsoever tktt men should do to me, I . hould do even so to them.' It teaches me far ther to 'remember them that arc in bonds as bound with them.' I tried to act up to that in trudion. I say that I am yeL too young to under tand that G o<l is any r especter of per::;onR. I believe that to i·nterferc a ~ I lmvc done in belwlf of his de~pi sed poor, I did no wrong, but right. Now, if it is c1 ·crned ncces, ary that I sl l() tdd fm-f'·it my life, and mingle my blood with the blood of my chil <.lren, an<l with the blootl of millions in this slave land, whose rights arc di ~ rrganle <l by wieked law , I say, let it be done." Ah, friends, l10w ncar i: that land to moral ruin where , uch men arc counted "mml"! Virginia that day doomed to dr at It her b c~t friend- he who would have saved her from falling . omc day by the hands he ha' manacleu. '• I know full well that were I a slave and mi erabl , forbidden to call my '"i fe, my child, my right arm, my own soul, my own, -liable to he chained, and whipped, ancl sold,- the voiec 1 hat shonl<l . peak Freedom to me would be holier in its accc11t:; th an tl1c m11sic of hymn aml cathedral- as sacred as the Yoicc of an angel c.lescencling from God. "In the eye that should be turned on me with rescue and. help, a light wonld beam before whi ·h the shine of the un wo11 h1 grow dim. "The hand that should be stretchc<.l out to smite off my chain ~, it wolll<.l thrill me like the toueh of Chri t. In his most blessed name, what on earth hn.Ye his followers to do, what arc they h ' re foJ', if not to fiy to the help of the oppressed, 1o maintain tlw holy cause of human frce(lom, and to stand out the quyiehling opponent ' of outrage and wrong?'' 17 |