Old Sambo and “Massa.” – Dwight Lyman Moody

A friend of mine said he was down in Natchez before the war, and he and a friend of his went out riding one Saturday— they were teaching school through the week—and they drove out back from Natchez. It was a beautiful day, and they saw an old slave coming up, and they thought they would have a little fun. They had just come to a place. where there was a fork in the road, and there was a sign-post which read, “40 miles to Liberty.” One of the young men said to the old darkey driver, “Sambo, how old are you?” “I don’t know, massa. I guess I’se about eighty.” “Can you read?” “No, sah; we don’t read in dis country. It’s agin the law.” “Can you tell what is on that sign-post?” “Yes, sah; it says 40 miles to Liberty.” “Well, now,” said my friend, “why don’t you follow that road and get your liberty. It says there, ‘only 40 miles to Liberty.’ Now, why don’t you take that road and go there?” The old man’s countenance changed, and he said, “Oh, young massa, that is all a sham. If the post pointed out the road to the liberty that God gives, we might try it. There could be no sham in that.” My friend said he had never heard anything more eloquent from the lips of a preacher. God wants all his sons to have liberty.