How can the Pastor Encourage
or Discourage Allen
League Workers?
BY
• REV. S. S. MORRIS, A. B., B D.
PORTSMOUTH, VA.
♦
• A M R. Sl'NDAV SCllOOl, UNION
Nasiivilli:. Tknn.
1907.
How can the Pastor Encour¬
age or Discourage Allen
League Workers?
bv
REV. S. S. MORRIS, A. B., B. D.,
of th e
VIRGINIA CONFERENCE,
Corresponding Secretary of the
VA. STATE ALLEN C. E. LEAGUE.
Prepared per Program for the Biennial Allen
League Convention at Nashville,
Tenn., July 2-8, 1907.
Read before the Va. State Allen League Cou-
i ention, Newport News, Va.,
August 29, 1907.
A. M. E. SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION.
Nashville, Tenn.
1907.
How Can The Pastor Encourage or Dis
courage League Workers?
To discourage is to weaken, to encourage is to
strengthen; to discourage is to hinder, to encourage
is to inspire; to discourage is to retard, to encourage
is to cheer; to discourage is to obstruct and impede,
to encourage is to give impetus and acceleration; to
discourage is to invite death, to encourage is to in¬
ject life.
It is fortunate that many a man who has been dis¬
couraged in life's journey has paid it a deaf ear.
Many whose names are fresh in our memories and
whose praise we sing because of the world's grati¬
tude to them, were not sickened by the noxious clouds
of discouragement, but arose above them into the
pure atmosphere of cheer and inspiration, and left
their footprints upon the sands of time.
Discourage a young man and he may become a Ju¬
das, or Auuanias,of Scriptural fame,the very mention¬
ing of whose name invokes our censure and indig¬
nation. Encourage a young man and he may be¬
come a Napoleon in moral potency and Christian in¬
fluence.
(3)
4
How Can the Pastor Encourage or
Discourage the young people of our Church and
you inject poison into the ecclesiastical body which
will in the course of time destroy the life of our be¬
loved branch of Zion.
Encourage our young people and you stimulate
life, and send nev*- blood through every vein, artery
and capillary of the system, insuring not only a
healthy body, but a growing one; for if our church
is to continue its phenominal growth it must depend
upon the young people for such growth. Conver¬
sions among our elderly people, when they occur and
bring accessions to our ranks have our approbation;
proselytes from other faiths, who, of their own voli¬
tion, seek shelter under our roof, are not to be de¬
spised, but more important than these classes for the
growth and prestige of African Methodism are the
boys and girls who have been begotten of African
Methodist parents, reared in African Methodist
homes on African Methodist knees: Roys and girls
who have been taught in the A.M.E. Sunday School,
and trained in the A. M.E. Young people's Society,
these are they having so come up, whom we expect
to preserve the legacy of Allen inviolate, and per¬
mit not the old flag to trail, or to be trampled in the
dust.
In this work which looms up before us so funda¬
mentally important, how can the pastor encourage or
discourage? how can he help or hinder? This is the
question to be answered, the problem to be solved.
Discourage Allen League Workers. j
The pastor is the most important link in the heir-
archy of Methodism.
I am aware that within a half century the intelli¬
gence of the pew has been leveled up toward that of
the pulpit. The minister is no longer the well-educat¬
ed man in the community. Sunday School teachers,
with the help of the best scholarship of the age, are
studying the Bible as earnestly as the preacher. The
intelligence of Christian women is flowering out and
bearing fruit. The youth in the Sunday School and
Christian Endeavor are all pouring a flood of contri¬
bution into the common work of the Church Yet
the pastor is the one man with his hand on every
lever and valve of the church machinery. His ap¬
proval usually brings success; his disapproval inva¬
riable failure. His approval produces fruitful results,
his disapproval invites stagnation and decay. All
center around and revolve upon the pastor. No one
person is so important, none occupy so unique a posi¬
tion. So important is he that the laurels of success
in any part of the church are placed unstintedly up
on his brow,and the causes of failure any where along
the line are charged to his account.
If the Pastor wishes to discourage he may begin
by, First, Inattention. Failure to attend religious,
business, or social meetings. Failure to announce
League meetings, or to emphasize the importance of
attending. People especially, young people are inat¬
tentive. If the pastor by inattention places upon the
League the ear-mar of insignificant, certainly others
6
How Can the Pastor Encourage 07
will follow in the wake, and the result will bode evil
for the future.
In the next place. Lack of an appreciative word
will often discourage faithful workers. Every hu
man being, especially if engaged in a gratuitous
work, cheerishes an appreciative word from a sincere
heart. The Pastor who fails to appreciate, or fails to
express his appreciation in graceful language to these
who are laboring in the Allen League movement, is
giving room for the doubts which precede discour¬
agement and failure.
Again non-familiarity with League work is dis¬
couraging to intelligent workers. It is possible that
there are pastors who have not read that part of the
Discipline referring to this movement, and who are
not familiar with the Constitution and By-Laws;who
con not define duties of Officers and Committtees;who
can not show the beauty of the weekly prayer and
religious service, and the attractive variety of the
meetings. Such a pastor is not only a great hind¬
rance, but is a positive obstruction.
The last way to discourage that we mention is,
lack of discretion in organization.
The pastor should see that the best women and men
available have places of leadership; I repeat the,best
men and women; men and women with strongest
characters, highest intellects and most earnest deter¬
mination to work for the Master. Such persons
should be chosen, as far as practicable from among
the young people.
Discourage Allen League Workers. 7
This movement is intended primarily for the young
Our mothers and fathers have their feet so firmly set
in the path of duty that we are not alarmed concern¬
ing them; and again, many of them have served with
credit their day and generation. It is the young that
we must bind by cords of love, and train for the re¬
sponsibilities of to morrow.
Suppose we get an Allen League Thermometer
and measure the enthusiasm of the pastors of African
Methodism throughout the Connection. I fear that
many otherwise noble pastors would be found at 32
Farenheit, which is freezing point.
May we not privately take our temperature, and if
we are below blood heat, I pray that such a wave of
enthusiasm will deluge us that we shall emerge like
the red-hot sparks from Allen's anvil, a positive in¬
fluence for good among the young people in the com¬
munities where we live and in the churches which we
serve.
It is always easier to destroy than it is to build up
Unbought ignorance may 1 aze the most colossal
building that required long, and hard-earned intelli¬
gence to erect. The assumptive passive attitude of in¬
difference may discourage, but nothing less than a
positive co-operation will encourage.
How can the Pastor Encourage?
We submit the following:-(a) Let the pastor take
the initiative in making suggestions. The Master
came to this earth seeking to save men, so God's re¬
presentatives must not wait to be sought always for
8
How Can the Pastor Encourage or
advice and counsel, but let the Pastor, who has the
interest of the League at heart, send for the Presi¬
dent, or for the Chairman of the Prayer Meeting
Committee, or the Chairman of the Lookout Com¬
mittee, or for all of them and give them plans
and suggestions in full or in skeleton form.
In public meetings or in private intercourse be
ready always to give such advice that shall be readily
grasped and converted into energy for the utilization
of the League.
In the second place the pastor should magnify the
importance of each office, and the indispensability of
each officer. President Finley of the Southern Rail¬
way, in a recent address at the cornerstone laying of
a R. R. Y. M.C. A., emphasized the fact that the
success of the great Southern Railway system depend¬
ed as largely on the fidelity to duty, and integrity of
purpose of the car-wheel greaser, and the brakeman
as it did upon the General Passenger agent and the
President. Kach in his place doing faithful service
was essential to the success of the whole. O, that
every officer, committeeman and Leaguer in African
Methodism would realize the importance of his posi¬
tion and the responsibility devolving upon him.
Again the pastor should place the League on a par
with other auxiliaries of the church, and impress
upon the leader the fact that he is expected to plant
his banner by the side of the Sunday School and
Mite Missionary banners, at the apex of the moun¬
tain of success.
Discourage Allen League Workers. g
If the League is to succeed it must have place and
prominence. The pastor should as much delight in
announcing its meetings as he does the Class meeting
and the Love Feast. Let him magnify the meetings,
and speak kindly and complimentary of the efforts
put forth by those in authority. Urge Local League
Unions and co-operation with Conference and State
Conventions, that young ambitious and talented
workers may see the broader field of usefulness just
ahead inspiring them to be faithful over the few
things, that they may be rulers over many.
At this juncture I desire to recommend as a source
of encouragement coming from Pastor to League
worker, a remedy that has never failed, a balm tl;at
when properly applied always cures. Its efficiency
has been heralded every since the first incense ascend¬
ed from Abel's alter, to-day it has its witness in
every clime and on every shore. Time does not per¬
mit that I describe its virtues, nor recite its victories.
I beg to say prayer is essential to the success of this
work.
Let the pastor pray not only in general, but in par¬
ticular, pray not only in public but in private. Let
prayer season his suggestions, let prayer direct his
counsel, and no wicked device can operate to bring
his work to naught. Hear the conclusion of the
whole matter: Let the pastor give full co-operation
in all that pertains to the work. He should attend
the weekly meetings unless he has some reason that
he can conscientiously give to his Lord and Master.
io How Can the Pastor Encourage or
He should be present at the business meetings. He
should grace the Social gatherings with his presence,
and thereby develop the social side of Christianity in
a manner not repugnant to the principles of (he
Christian religion, nor in violation of the Discipline
of our Church.
It is no longer a question that the Young People's
problem is a serious one with the Church today.
This Twentieth Century civilization holds out such
tinselled inducements, the grass of hope was never
greener, the flower of expectancy never more beauti¬
ful than they appear now to young man and maiden;
but our young people must differentiate between
the temporary and the permanent, between the
transient and the abiding, between the evanescent
and the uncharging.
Let the pastor lead by encouragement rather than
by the whip of discipline. "Isabelle encouraged
Columbus and he bade farewell to the Old World, en¬
tered upon the trade-winds, and began his fearful and
eventful course westward. With mutinous apd ill
appeased crew he sailed on, and on, until he beheld
tokens of land, the cloud-banks on the western hori¬
zon, the logs of driftwood, the fresh shrub floating
with its leaves and berries, the flocks of land birds,
the shoals of fish that inhabit shallow water, and fi¬
nally, on that ever memorable night of the 12th. of
October, 1492, the moving lights were seen by the
eye of the great discoverer himself, and in the morn¬
ing, real land with its plains, hills, forest, rocks,
streams and strange new races of men."
Discourage Allen League Workers. u
The advice, counsel, and kind words of Phoebe,
Priscilla. AqUilla and Mary inspired the Apostle
Paul to be strong, and to "endure hardness as a good
soldier until he had finished his course with joy, and
received as his reward a crown of everlasting life."
Klijah got up from under the juniper tree after
God's messengers brought him a word of good cheer
and encouragement, and girded again his sword of
duty, and went forth to conquest and to victory for
the L,ord.
A thousand years ago a little acorn that had been
wafted thither by the breeze, buried itself in the
earth to receive the encouraging influence of moisture,
heat, air and sunshine. To-day with its roots firm
and deep in terra firma, and its massive houghs
stretched heavenward, it challenges the admiration
of all beholders, a mighty, stalwart, giant oak. Some¬
where in the ages long ago a tiny stream broke forth
from its narrow confines and began its meandering
way. Nature seems to have conspired to give it im¬
petus, soon it journeyed, gathering inspiration and
encouragement from slope and valley, and we look on
it to-day and call it the "Father of Waters" rolling
down to the sea.
Out there above the beautiful streams that traverse
your State, the sun-beam directing its benign rays
upon a waterdrop encouragingly bids it leave its
aquatic bed and come up higher. Despite the force
of gravity which commands the little water drops to
cling near the center of the earth, it mounts upon the
12 How Can the Pastor Encourage—
wings of ambient air, and takes its place in the cloud,
that it may perform lirger service as it returns to re¬
fresh the earth.
There are hundreds of young people, in our church,
I have no doubt, waiting for the hand of encourage¬
ment and the word of inspiration, ere they enlist in
the battle of the L,ord against the mighty.
May God help us to environ our young people with
the moisture, heat, air and sunshine of helpful influ¬
ences. May the Almighty help us to pour in upon
them from hillside, slope and valley the best advice
and council. May divine strength be afforded us to
stretch forth our hand of persuasion and bid them
get up from the beds of indifference, ease and pleas¬
ure and take their places in the clouds, whose silvery
lining will inspire them with greater love for God
and unstinted service for their church.
Pastors, encourage by thought and word; encour¬
aged in deed and truth; encourage by precept and
example; "line up line—precept upon precept,—here
a little and there a little," and I am persuaded that
the day will come when this department of our church
will spread her boughs like a green bay tree to shel¬
ter the multitudes that shall gather (retreat) with¬
in its palms. Encourage, encourage, encourage,
until tens of thousands of the sons and daughters of
Allen shall march, singing, "Our mother's Chruch,
our father's Church, mine evermore shall be."