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Show 182 TnuE Srrna OF REFOR!L world tlJOsc evil practices wlrich obstruct the growth of the harvest of pure and undcfilcll relig ion. "rrhc husbandman waitcth for the precious fruit of the cartlr, and hath long patience for it, until l•c receive tl1c early and latter Tain." So are 1rc obliged often to have" long patience," until we sec the mnni· fest Ucssing of God on our labors. Dut patient waiting becomes a virtue, only when COinbincd with tl10 cxcr~.;iso of our Lest powers in promoting tho object of our ilcsirc. \V c must a<l:lpt our efforts to the express object which we seck to attain. 'l'aking those spiritual weapons which arc "mighty for the pulling down of the strongholds" of sin, Jet us assault the great evils of slavery and oppression of c\·cry name and kind, always marching under the bonners of the Prince of Peace, whose conquests arc achieved not by violence, but by the subduing power of God- ] ike love. Let us go fo1-tb, brethren, sisters, a feeble band though we may seem to the eye of man, yet strong in the assurance that the hosts of heaven arc encamped mund about us, and that "more arc they that arc with us, than they that arc" on the side of the oppressor; and let us not fhltcr until in God's own good time the word shnll oe spoken, not as, we TnuJ-: SPJH I T OF REFORM. 183 would hope, in the wl1irlwind or the earthquake, but in the "still small voiccn of the oppressor's own con~ fs, vi<.:tion, saying to the slaves, "Go free!" |
