“Their masters.”
“Yes, Rosalie; and it is from among their number that the first great successful reformer of the great evil must arise!”
“Why do you think so, Mark?”
“From fitness: we are unwilling to be taught our duty by an antagonist who reasons in partial ignorance of the facts, judges harshly and unjustly, and speaks not the truth in love so often as falsehood in hatred; and from analogy: all great successful reformers that the world has ever known, have arisen—not from the outside, but from the very midst of the evil to be reformed. Martin Luther sprang, not from among the Illuminati, but from the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church and priesthood. Nay, Christ himself came not in clouds of glory, clothed with the majesty of Godhead from Heaven—he arose from the midst of the people whom he came to redeem. So, Rosalie, the apostle of liberty must arise in the South.”
She had listened to his words with loving and reverent attention, and now she fixed her gaze upon his eyes, and said, with penetrating earnestness—
“Mark Sutherland—‘Thou art the man!’”
His very soul thrilled to her inspiring words and glance. He walked hastily from her side in agitation, but, soon returning, said—
“Nay, Rosalie, nay; this mission is not for me. I hear no voice from heaven calling me to the work!”
“Have you listened? The voice of God speaks not often in thunder from Heaven. It is a ‘still, small voice,’ breathed from the depths of your spirit. ‘The word of God is within you.’”
He pressed his hand to his brow, throwing back the dark hair that fell in waves around it. He was still agitated, excited.