LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES
"When I was at Richmond,
U.S., the colored people were going to have a meeting. It was the first day
of their freedom. I went to the African church, and never before or since heard
such bursts of native eloquence.
"Mother," said one,
"rejoice today. Your little child has been sold from you for the last time;
your posterity are for ever free. Glory to God in the highest! Young men, you
have heard the driver's whip for the last time; you are free today! Young maidens,
you have been put up on the auction- block for the last time!" They spoke right
out, they shouted for joy; their prayers had been answered, it was the gospel
to them. In like manner Jesus Christ proclaims liberty to the captives. Some
have accepted it; some, like the poor negroes, scarcely believe the good tidings;
but it is none the less true. Christ has come to redeem us from the slavery
of sin.
Now, who will accept
of that redemption? There was one colored woman, a servant in an inn in the
Southern States, who could not believe she was free. "Be's I free, or be I not?"
she asked of a visitor. Her master told her she was not, her colored brethren
told her she was. For two years she had been free without knowing it. She represents
a great many in the Church of God today. They can have liberty, and yet they
don't know it."
Dwight Moody
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