Page:John Brown (W. E. B. Du Bois).djvu/384

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372
JOHN BROWN

month, with a good opportunity to look the whole thing as 'fair in the face' as I am capable of doing; and I feel it most grateful that I am counted in the least possible degree worthy to suffer for the truth."[1]

"I can trust God with both the time and the manner of my death, believing, as I now do, that for me at this time to seal my testimony for God and humanity with my blood will do vastly more toward advancing the cause I have earnestly endeavored to promote, than all I have done in my life before."[2]

"My whole life before had not afforded me one-half the opportunity to plead for the right. In this, also, I find much to reconcile me to both my present condition and my immediate prospect."[3]

Against slavery his face is set like flint: "There are no ministers of Christ here. These ministers who profess to be Christian, and hold slaves or advocate slavery, I cannot abide them. My knees will not bend in prayer with them, while their hands are stained with the blood of souls."[4] He said to one Southern clergyman: "I will thank you to leave me alone; your prayers would be an abomination to God." To another he said, "I would not insult God by bowing down in prayer with any one who had the blood of the slave on his skirts."

  1. Letter to his younger children, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 596–597.
  2. Letter to his wife and children in Sanborn, pp. 585–587.
  3. Letter to D. R. Tilden in Sanborn, pp. 609–610.
  4. Letter to Mr. McFarland, 1859, in Sanborn, pp. 598–599.