Looking Back: An AutobiographyRichardson, Merrick Abner
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Looking Back: An Autobiography
Richardson, Merrick Abner
Richardson, Merrick Abner, 1841-
"About 25 miles up the mountain, and 10 miles down; but I am still
good for four miles an hour. Say, Mrs. Thompson, set on something for
me to eat, the very best you have, for the Bible says, 'Be not slow
to entertain strangers for thereby you may be entertaining angels,
unaware.'"
Soon after, early one morning, we saddled our horses and rode over to
call on our new neighbors, when Brown would hear nothing but that we
must stop with them overnight, and although we all visited, cooked, ate
and slept in the same room, we did enjoy ourselves.
Before retiring, we all knelt in family worship, when Brown prayed
so clear and fervent that no one could doubt his faith in the loving
Father, who he believed was listening.
Ruth, Brown's eldest daughter, and her husband, Henry Thompson, were
with them, and several of the younger children. Oliver, one of those
killed at Harper's Ferry, recently, was then about 10 years old.
After supper, Brown and I climbed onto the great rock, beside where
his body now lies, when he revealed to me his disconnected plans of
venturing into a slave state and arming negroes who could fight for
their own liberty.
"But," said I, "the law gives those Southerners the right to hold
slaves."
"What law?" he exclaimed as he extended his lower jaw defiantly and
repeated, "What law? Jesus defined laws as the will or mandate of
Jehovah. If you call the conclusions of an assembly of men today
which another assembly of men tomorrow can prove to be felonious, law,
then John Brown is an outlaw; but if the Saviour's definition, 'Love
the Lord, thy God, with all thy mind and soul, and thy neighbor as
thyself,' is law, then John Brown is a law-abiding citizen, and will,
if needs be, die for those who are in bondage, who have committed no
crime."
Then raising his tall form and moving slowly to and fro in the
moonlight on the great rock, he continued in a soft tone.
"God calls every man and woman to duty and requires a response
according to their individual ability. I feel that I have had a call to
open the gate of freedom to the slaves in this, Columbia. This call is
not a direct communication from God, but more in the line of duty. I
am somehow impressed that I am the man to answer this call, for, when
I pray for guidance, the echo seems to come back, 'Your strength is
sufficient.' When you and I were boys, Dan, we read of famous persons
whose characters glittered before us, but we somehow overlooked the
fact that duty and praise do not travel hand in hand, but rather, that
duty treads the thorny way and fame creeps softly after.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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