The Holy Bible tells you, and man’s experience has always demonstrated
it, that “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.”
You are fearful that you will not win. Why? Is it not because you are
looking backward instead of forward?
You have had much to contend with, let us say; very well, are you going
to lie down now that you can see daylight ahead?
We are living in the present, acquiring strength for the future, the
past is dead and should be buried. The man who looks back is useless for
present needs.
Get away from the downtrodden notion, the servant idea, and be a man
with an intelligent brain aspiring to higher things.
Every man is what he thinks himself to be, and if you have no
aspirations beyond your present occupation, then you will remain in that
occupation and nobody can pull you out of it.
On the contrary, a man who thinks he is fitted for some better
occupation than the one he is engaged in, will soon find that other
occupation; he will soon be his own master.
No man is kept out of a thing unless he wants to stay out. It is true
there are sometimes many difficulties, and in the case of our Colored
Americans, they have been appalling and discouraging. But the light is
breaking, the black clouds are disappearing, and soon, if you keep in
the race, you will find the land of sunshine and happiness.
Don’t give up the ship as long as there is a timber to float on.