We will, therefore, make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings, for “All that are in authority.”
The duty of supplications in behalf of the Government is rendered more binding upon us, when we consider the circumstances under which it was written. St. Paul lived under the reign of Nero, the bloody emperor, who having set Rome on fire, amused himself with drinking and music while the city was in flames; and afterwards, accused the Christians of the crime which he himself had committed, thereby causing many of them to be put to death in the most cruel manner.
Now, if it was the duty of the ancient Christians to pray for such monsters of wickedness, by how much more is it our duty to pray for a Christian Government.
Congress need our supplications, they shall have them. The President and his Cabinet need our prayers, they shall possess them. The Supreme Court, that awful emblem of impartial justice, need our intercessions, it shall not be forgotten.
Upon all these departments of law, authority and power, we shall beseech the God of Nations to send the spirit of wisdom, justice, liberty—of wisdom seeing the end from the beginning—of justice incorruptible—of liberty governed by righteous law.
To make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving for these authorities, is the peculiar privilege of the Colored People in the United States.
They are not permitted, as in the days of the Revolution and the war of 1812, to take up arms in defence of the Government. Some, both among Anglo-Saxons and Anglo-Africans, complain of this prohibition. For my part, I am glad of it, because I think I see the hand of God in it.
The present war is a kind of family quarrel. Therefore, let a stranger take heed how he meddles, lest both parties unite to drive him out of the house. “Why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt?”
But we can wield a power in behalf of the Government which neither rifled cannon, nor mortar, nor rocket-battery can assail, nor bomb-proof walls resist.
That power is the right arm of God—of God, who lifts up and casts down nations according as they obey, or disregard the principles of truth, justice, liberty.