then that he formed the determination to destroy, not only Mordicai, but the whole race with which he was identified. And at the bottom it is the same spirit against which we have to struggle in this country. If we were willing to efface ourselves, to accept the position assigned us by our enemies there would be no trouble. The thing that offends, that excites the ire of the whites is the assertion or exhibition of manhood on the part of the Negro; it is because he has the temerity to claim for himself what they claim for themselves, and precisely on the same ground. The thought of the Negro as a slave has so taken possession of them as to entirely obliterate from their minds the thought of him as a man and citizen. And these are the people who are in the seat of power; these are the people who have the ears of the country, the people who control, largely, the press and pulpit, the business and labor organizations, and who command, in virtue of their wealth, the best legal talents of the country. We seem to be hopelessly in their power, as hopelessly as the Jews seemed to be in the power of Haman. But Haman did not succeed in carrying out his diabolical purpose; and the power that checked him, and that overthrew him, was the power of prayer. We, as a race, must use this power more than we have been in the habit of doing. Those among us, in every community, who believe in God, and who are trying earnestly to serve him in sincerity, for unless we are our prayers will avail nothing, should make it a business to take our race troubles to him as well as our individual and family troubles. God has promised to help, and to help right early if we call upon him. And this is what we must do; and do more largely than we have been in the habit of doing. The exhortation of the apostle is, “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”--Phil. 4:6. A praying race or people has nothing to fear from enemies, however numerous or powerful. And the sooner we learn this the better it will be for us. And now with the thought of Gideon’s Band before us, the thought of the kind of men they were, and what they accomplished under the divine direction, and in reliance upon God, in view of the adverse influences against which we have to contend, we may well ask ourselves the question: (1). Are we seeking, as members of this race, to possess the noble qualities of the men of Gideon’s Band? They were men of character; men of courage; men dominated by a great purpose; men who fully realized the seriousness of the business in which they were engaged: they were not of the giddy, frivolous, pleasure-seeking, namby pamby type that is so often met with to-day, especially among our young people, and, often, it is no better among the older ones.