“I sit here as I write on the banks of a clear river that runs towards the South land.
“My little cabin stands on its banks, and I sit literally under my own vine and fig-tree, and I can say of my home as the prophet of old said of a fair city: ‘It is planted in a pleasant place.’
“As my eyes grow dim to earthly things I catch more vividly the meaning of immortal things hidden from me in my more eager and impetuous days.
“I am now willing to abide God’s will.
“I see, in looking back to those old days, that I was impatient, trying to mould humanity according to my poor crude conception.
“I am now willing to wait God’s will.
“I see it plainly working out the great problem which vexed me so sorely.
“How slowly, how surely has this plan been unfolding, even in those long days of slavery, when the eager and impetuous ones distrusted God’s mercy and scouted at His wisdom.
“But how else was it possible to have taken these ignorant ones from the jungles of Africa and made of them teachers and missionaries of Christianity and civilization to their own people?
“How else could the story of Christ’s life and Christ’s sufferings and risen glory have been so clearly revealed to them as when they were passing through deep waters and coming up out of great tribulations?