d and when touched were sure to
prompt him to corresponding action. He would listen with moistened eyes
to a tale of outrage, and go away saying never a word. But the story of
wrong would work upon him; and through him upon others. His own feelings
were communicated to his friends, and his friends would send gifts to
the Committee's treasury. A wider spread sympathy would manifest itself
in the community, and the general interests of the cause be visibly
promoted. It was in the latter respect, that of moral co-operation, that
Dr. Furness's services were most valuable. After hearing a harrowing
recital, whether he would or not, it became the burden of his next
Sunday's sermon. Abundant proof of this may be found in his printed
discourses. Take the following as an illustration. It is an extract from
a sermon delivered on the 29th of May, 1854, a period when the slave
oligarchy was at the height of its power and was supported at the North
by the most violent demonstrations of sympathy. The text was, "Feed my
Lambs:"

"And now brothers, sisters, children, give me your hearts,
listen with a will to what I have to say. As heaven is my
witness, I would not utter one word save for the dear love of
Christ and of God, and the salvation of your own souls. Does it
require any violent effort of the mind to suppose Christ to
address each one of us personally the same question that He put
to Peter, 'Lovest thou me?' * * * And at the hearing of His
brief command, 'Feed my lambs,' so simple, so direct, so
unqualified, are we prompted like the teacher of the law who,
when Christ bade him love his neighbor as himself, asked, 'And
who is my neighbor?' and in the parable of the good Samaritan,
received an answer that the Samaritans whom he despised, just as
we despise the African, was his neighbor, are we prompted in
like manner to ask, 'Who are the lambs of Christ?' Who are His
lambs? Behold that great multitude, more than three millions of
men and feeble women and children, wandering on our soil; no not
wandering, but chained down, not allowed to stir a step at their
own free will, crushed and hunted with all the power of one of
the mightiest nations that the world has yet seen, wielded to
keep them down in the depths of the deepest degradation into
which human beings can be plunged. These, then that we despise,
are our neighbors, the poor, stri