One of the hardest things in the world is to keep down a man who is determined to rise. He comes up like a plant of spontaneous growth, and the more we try to keep him down, the more he will persevere in his determination to stand upon his own feet like other men. This was often shown in the days before the war, when the bold, intrepid slave, who clearly saw that the whole system was wrong, made up his mind at least to be free, and the next thing we hear of him is a daring and successful attempt to shake off the chains of slavery, through his successful escape to the free States of the North, or to Canada, or even to Europe. But this determined spirit to at least be free, did not confine itself merely to such adventurous and successful escapes, but assumed the form of acquiring an education also; and no better illustration of this can be given than that of the late Bishop Daniel E. Payne, of the A. M. E. Church, who was born in South Carolina, in the year 1811. The heinous system of slavery in that rebellious State treated as a crime the teaching of any slave or free colored person whatsoever. But Daniel E. Payne had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and in order to flank the evil system that then prevailed, and to gain that knowledge to which he was as much entitled as the President of the United States himself, he procured the assistance of a friendly white man, who taught him in a cellar, where neither friend nor foe could see what they were doing. Daniel was an apt and clever student, and above all things, as the Bible says, "He had a mind to work," and an enthusiastic mind at that. It did not take this young hero long to take in the entire situation regarding slave lands and slavery when once his mind had begun to expand. Like Moses and many other famous leaders, the Lord had work for him to do, and he was preparing him for it at this time.