our _tears_ and _our blood_, is now our
_mother country_, and we are well satisfied to stay where
wisdom abounds and the gospel is free."

"RICHARD ALLEN,

"_Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the
United States_."

I have given you, my brethren, an extract verbatim from the letter of
that godly man as you may find it on the aforementioned page of
Freedom's Journal. I know that thousands and perhaps millions of my
brethren in these States, have never heard of such a man as Bishop
Allen--a man whom God many years ago raised up among his ignorant and
degraded brethren, to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified to
them--who notwithstanding, had to wrestle against principalities and
the powers of darkness to diffuse that gospel with which he was
endowed, among his brethren--but who having overcome the combined
powers of devils and wicked men has under God planted a church among
us which will be as durable as the foundation of the earth on which it
stands. Richard Allen! O my God!! the bare recollection of the labours
of this man, and his ministers among his deplorably wretched brethren
(rendered so by the whites,) to bring them to a knowledge of the God
of heaven, fills my soul with all those very high emotions which would
take the pen of an Addison to portray. It is impossible, my brethren,
for me to say much in this work respecting that man of God. When the
Lord shall raise up coloured historians in succeeding generations, to
present the crimes of this nation to the then gazing world, the Holy
Ghost will make them do justice to the name of Bishop Allen, of
Philadelphia. Suffice it for me to say, that the name of this very man
(Richard Allen,) though now in obscurity and degradation, will
notwithstanding stand on the pages of history among the greatest
divines who have lived since the apostolic age, and among the
African's, Bishop Allen's will be entirely pre-eminent. My brethren,
search after the character and exploits of this godly man among his
ignorant and miserable brethren, to bring them to a knowledge of the
truth as it is in our Master. Consider upon the tyrants and false
christians against whom he had to contend in order to get access to
his brethren. See him and his ministers in the states of New York,
New Jersey, Penn. Delaware and Maryland, carrying the gladsome tidings
of free and full salvation to the colored people. Tyrants