 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
| HELPERS AND SYMPATHIZERS, 539 I fear I give the subject too much relative importance. la this possible? I preach, lecture, and write for the slave continually. And yet I don't do enough. Still I fear I neglect the great concerns of religion at home, in my own heart, iu iny congregation, and in the community. I wish we were located near to each other. We are far separated. I am almost isolated. You are surrounded by many friends of the cause. Still we are laboring ou the same wall, though far apart Are we not near in spirit? You see by the papers that we have been trying to do something in our Green Mountain State. The campaign has fairly begun. We will carry the battle to the gate. I see our friend, Miss \Vatkins, is still pleading for the dumb. Noble girl! I love her for her dcvoteducs-i to a good cause. Oh, that, her voice could be heard by the millions! I hope that we can have her again ia Vermont. Give my kind regards to our mutual friend, Miller McKira. Will I not see him and you at the anniversary in New York ? Do you ever see Rev. Willson ? Is he doing anything for the cause ? I •wish I could peep into your house to-night, aud see if there are any " packages " on baud. God bless you in your labors of love. Yours, truly, for the slave, N. R. JOHNSTOST. While it was not in the power of Mr. Johnston and his coadjutors, to render any great amount of material aid to the Committee, as they had not been largely blessed with this world's goods, nevertheless, the sympathy shown was as highly valued, as if they had given thousands of dollars. Not unfrequently has the image of this singularly faithful minister entered the writer's mind as he once appeared when visiting the Synod of his church in Philadelphia. Having the Underground Rail Road cause at heart, he brought with him—all the way from Vermont—his trunk well filled with new shirts and under-clothing for the passengers on that Road. It was characteristic of the man, aud has ever since been remembered with pleasure. From another quarter, hundreds of miles from Philadelphia, similar tokens of interest in the cause of the fleeing bondmen were manifested by a Ladies' Anti-slavery Society, in Western New York, which we must here record. As the proffered aid was wholly unsolicited, and as the Committee had no previous knowledge whatever of the existence of the society, or any of its members, and withal, as the favors conferred, came at times when the cause was peculiarly in need (the Committee oil-times being destitute of clothing or money), the idea that the Underground Rail Road was providentially favored, in this respect, was irresistible. |