It has made poor unlearned men heroes and deliverers
of their countrymen from slavery and ignorance. It has made weak women
martyrs and saints. It has enabled men who made great discoveries to
face unbelief, ridicule, neglect, poverty; knowing that their worth would
be acknowledged at last, their names honoured at last as benefactors by
the very men who laughed at them and reviled them. It has made men, shut
up in prison for long weary years for doing what was right and saying
what was true, endure manfully for the sake of some good cause, and say,-
-
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage.
If I have freedom in my thought,
And in my love am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty."
Yes; settle it in your hearts, all of you. There is but one thing which
you have to fear in earth or heaven,--being untrue to your better selves,
and therefore untrue to God. If you will not do the thing you know to be
right, and say the thing you know to be true, then indeed you are weak.
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