Contrasting then the unhappy state with that of the past, he said, “The first and primitive Christians had all things common, not from commandment but from spirit by which they were influenced day by day; so when the time of restitution takes place, which will be long before the consummation of all things, then the Law of Nature, from Moral principles will be practiced and the world will be as one concentrated Family.”  “The openings to Providence preparatory to that day should be attended to, from principles of duty—­lest judgments should perform what offered mercy if not rejected may be ready to accomplish.  To feed and clothe another is both the interest and duty of all Masters—­and the sixth chapter of Ephesians is an excellent tract on the subject to all who wish for advice, both as masters and servants."[11]

It was likewise in keeping with Dow’s fearlessness to denounce the efforts to discriminate against Negroes in the early Churches.  He questioned the far-reaching authority of Bishop Coke, Asbury, and McKendree, and accused Asbury of being jealous of the rising power of Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Church.[12] He refers at considerable length to the incident in a Philadelphia church which ultimately made Absalom Jones a rector and Richard Allen a bishop:  “The colored people were considered by some persons as being in the way.  They were resolved to have them removed, and placed around the walls, corners, etc.; which to execute, the above expelled and restored man, at prayer time, did attempt to pull Absolom Jones from his knees, which procedure, with its concomitants, gave rise to the building of an African meeting house, the first ever built in these middle or northern states.”

Here at least was a man with a mission—­that mission to carry the gospel of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth.  He knew no standard but that of duty; he heeded no command but that of his own soul.  Rude, and sharp of speech he was, and only half-educated; but he was made of the stuff of heroes; and neither hunger, nor cold, nor powers, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, could daunt him in his task.  After the lapse of a hundred years he looms larger, not smaller, in the history of our Southland; and as of old we seem to hear again “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

BENJAMIN BRAWLEY

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] Very little has been written about Lorenzo Dow.  There is an article by Emily S. Gilman in the New England Magazine, Vol. 20, p. 411 (June, 1899), and also one by J. H. Kennedy in the Magazine of Western History, Vol. 7, p. 162.  The present paper is based mainly upon the following works:  (1) “Biography and Miscellany,” published by Lorenzo Dow, Norwich, Conn., 1834; (2) “History of Cosmopolite;” or “The Four Volumes of Lorenzo Dow’s Journal concentrated in one, containing his Experience and Travels,” Wheeling, 1848; (3) “The Dealings of God, Man, and the Devil; as exemplified in the Life, Experience, and Travels of Lorenzo Dow,” 2 vols. in one.  With an Introductory Essay by the Rev. John Dowling, D.D., of New York.  Cincinnati, 1858.