through many discouraging scenes, and to
humble themselves under the remorseless hand of poverty. Unable to
secure, permanently, the services of a clergyman, they were driven to
the necessity of obtaining whomsoever they could when the Sabbath
came. And what a blessed thing it was for them that they were placed
under the severe discipline of want! It taught them humility and
faith--lessons often so hard to acquire. They bore their trials
heroically, and esteemed it great joy to be counted worthy to suffer
for Christ. When one Sabbath was ended they knew not whom the Lord
would send the next; and yet they never suffered for the "Word of
God." For He who careth for the lilies of the field, and bears up the
falling sparrow, fed them with the "bread of life," and gave them to
drink of the waters of salvation. "Unto the poor the Gospel was
preached."

After a few years of pain and waiting, after the watching and praying,
the hoping and fearing, God seemed pleased to hear the prayers of this
lonely band, and gave them a leader. It was whispered in the community
that a very intelligent and useful man, by the name of "Grimes," of
New Bedford, could be retained as their leader. After some
deliberation upon the matter, they chose one of their number to pay a
visit to "Brother Leonard A. Grimes, of New Bedford," and on behalf
of the company worshipping in "an upper room," on Belknap Street--now
Joy Street--Boston, extended him an invitation to come and spend a
Sabbath with them. In accordance with their request he paid them a
visit. Impressed with the dignity of his bearing, and the earnestness
of his manner, the company was unanimous in an invitation, inviting
"the young preacher" to return and remain with them for "three
months."

The invitation was accepted with alacrity, and the work begun with a
zeal worthy of the subsequent life of "the beloved pastor of the
Twelfth Baptist Church." Brother L. A. Grimes had been driven North on
account of his friendly and humane relations to the oppressed. He had
been incarcerated by the laws of slave-holding Virginia, for wresting
from her hand, and piloting into the land of freedom, those whom
slavery had marked as her children--or, rather, her "_goods_." A soul
like his was too grand to live in such an atmosphere. In keeping the
golden rule, he had insulted the laws of the institution under whose
merciless sway thousands of human beings were groaning. He would live
no longer where his