remarkable and historic man, Abraham Lincoln, is loved and revered as their deliverer. They accept and honor him as the "Moses" of their salvation. Never can I forget the countenance of a negro man I saw one day in March, 1875, contemplating a statue of Mr. Lincoln in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington city. Evidently he was not a resident in the city. Like myself, he was a visitor, seeing what he could. It may be counted a weakness or a want of taste in me, but no matter; of all things I saw in Washington city, that negro's countenance most impressed me, and it is now my most vivid remembrance. He stood still and silent before the voiceless marble, gazing at it as if he would read the very soul of the man it represented. His face and attitude moved me deeply. It was plain that the negro wanted to talk to the statue; that he longed to bless with loving thanks the man who made him free. I was not mistaken in his feeling. I know the negro face. There was something almost worshipful in the man's manner and expression as he stood in silent contemplation. He looked as if the sight of that marble statue was the fruition of a pilgrimage, and as if he felt that he stood on "holy ground." That man represented the feeling of his race. All over the South the name of Abraham Lincoln is, to the negroes, the name of a saint and martyr of God. They are in singular ignorance of the men and women who

nobly fought their battles. Garrison, Sum Seward, and Greeley are names that, to the of them, are unknown. But the name of Abra Lincoln is engraved on all their hearts. It is surprising that they should know him only, or they should almost worship his memory.

Many of the negroes look beyond Mr. Lin for the gift of their freedom; they look upon as the instrument of the divine Providence. the majority of them do not look beyond the strument. It seems to me a matter of vast ment to both races that the hand of God should recognized in this whole history-one of the m remarkable that belongs to the annals of any nat It is important to the emancipated negro to God in his freedom, that there may be in his he and life a right conscience in the use of his freedo This lesson a few of them--very few, I fear-h learned. The majority accept the fact, in a bl sort of way, as deliverance from restraint, as cense to do what they will. But their freedom never bring them its fullness of blessing till t heart of the emancipated race is penetrated a saturated with this conception: "The good ha of God is in all our history; he overruled t slavers who brought us here; he overruled slaver he gave us our freedom."

I would not diminish their gratitude to M Lincoln or to the party he represented; I wou

be glad if I could deepen their gratitude to God.

It is equally important, so far as their duties to the negroes are concerned, that the people of the North and of the South recognize God's hand in his providential dealings both with slavery and its termination.

There has been, I must believe, much sin and unbelief, as well as confusion of thought, on both sides in our attitude toward this subject of the emancipation of the slaves. In the North, with many notable exceptions, there has been much boasting and self-laudation. Where men ought to feel humbly that God has used them-used them in their weakness and folly, as well as in their strength and wisdom-as unworthy instruments to accomplish a great design, they have boasted overmuch in their triumph over their late antagonists in a fierce and bloody war. Sometimes, alas! there has flamed out in sermons and orations and essays somewhat of the fatal pride of Nebuchadnezzar, intoxicated with his greatness: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" Proud and weak man, he had forgotten his vision of the great tree and of the warning cry of "the watchers and the holy one."

The men of the North can never realize the vast

import of the freedom of the negroes in Amer long as they indulge a spirit so boastful and of their own relations to emancipation. No they realize their high duties to this race, w preparation for a great future has been only b We of the South have not been without and unbelief and sin in our attitude toward fact of emancipation. We have been slow to cept its full significance, even when we fully finally accepted the fact. It was not unnatural we felt bitterly the humiliations of our overth nor that we writhed in agony when we looked the poverty and desolation of our land when it all over. It was not unnatural that our people slow to accept the issues of the war.

speaking of what was wise, but of what is natu It was not unnatural that we felt ourselves goa to desperation by many of the requirements. events of reconstruction. History will not d that there were unnecessary exasperations in m of the methods employed to settle the questi that grew out of the war. Rarely have a br and high-spirited people endured such trials their patience, their wisdom, and their faith. I many follies we committed, for many wrongs t were done by some people of the South, there is defense to be made. Nor can defense be made. many of the acts of the conquerors that dro Southern men to desperation. Earth and Heav