Courage And Common Sense

Courage should be coupled with common sense. After Frederick Douglass published his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, Douglass sent his former slave owner, Thomas Auld, a copy of the book.

The Chinese invented the umbrella. Sometimes we need our friends to cover our courage, so that a bad situation doesn't rain on us.

Friends helped Douglass to get out of the United States and to seek refuge in England, which had abolished slavery in 1807.

By 1846 friends purchased Douglass' freedom from Thomas Auld. They also gave Douglass money to start an anti-slavery newspaper. By 1847 Douglass published the North Star. Former president and friend of Abraham Lincoln Benito Juarez said, "The respect for the rights of others is peace." The North Star was not only concerned with the rights of African Americans. The motto of the North Star was "Right is of no sex--Truth is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and all we are brethren."

Proverbs 3:27-28 Amplified Bible says, "Withhold not good from those to whom it is due [its rightful owners], when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, Go, and come again; and tomorrow I will give it—when you have it with you."

Douglass' friends could have spent their money on something other than purchasing Douglass' freedom and his newspaper. To have chosen to spend their money elsewhere would have probably meant that Douglass would be returned to slavery, separated from his wife and children, unable to provide for them economically and an international voice of inspiration for human rights would have been silenced.

Is God telling you to help someone?

Instead of making excuses, why not consider all the ways good could come out of it, and do what God says to do. A Japanese proverb says, "Do quickly what is good."