t is not a science. When no two will tell
you the road to Heaven,--that is, giving you the same route--and if you
would inquire of them all, you would just give up trying to go there,
and say I may as well stay where I am, and let the Lord come to me.

Do you know that this world has not been fit for a lady and gentleman
to live in for twenty-five years, just on account of slavery. It was
not until the year 1808 that Great Britain abolished the slave trade,
and up to that time her judges, her priests occupying her pulpits, the
members of the royal family, owned stock in the slave ships, and
luxuriated upon the profits of piracy and murder. It was not until the
same year that the United States of America abolished the slave trade
between this and other countries, but carefully preserved it as between
the states. It was not until the 28th day of August, 1833, that Great
Britain abolished human slavery in her colonies; and it was not until
the 1st day of January, 1863, that Abraham Lincoln, sustained by the
sublime and heroic North, rendered our flag pure as the sky in which it
floats. Abraham Lincoln was, in my judgment, in many respects, the
grandest man ever president of the United States. Upon his monument
these words should be written: "Here sleeps the only man in the history
of the world, who, having been clothed with almost absolute power,
never abused it, except upon the side of mercy."

For two hundred years the Christians of the United States deliberately
turned the cross of Christ into a whipping-post. Christians bred
hounds to catch other Christians. Let me show you what the Bible has
done for mankind: "Servants, be obedient to your masters." The only
word coming from that sweet Heaven was, "Servants, obey your masters."
Frederick Douglas told me that he had lectured upon the subject of
freedom twenty years before he was permitted to set his foot in a
church. I tell you the world has not been fit to live in for
twenty-five years. Then all the people used to cringe and crawl to
preachers. Mr. Buckle, in his history of civilization, shows that men
were even struck dead for speaking impolitely to a priest. God would
not stand it. See how they used to crawl before cardinals, bishops and
popes. It is not so now. Before wealth they bowed to the very earth,
and in the presence of titles they became abject. All this is slowly,
but surely changing. We no longer bow to men simply because they are
rich. Our