A BROADER MISSION
OF THE
MODERN CHURCH.
BY REV. JOHN T. JENIFER, D* D.
-BY-
Rev John T. Jenifer, D.D.t
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
DISTRICT CONFERENCE
of the BALTIMORE DISTRICT of the
A. M. E. CHURCH,
HELD IN
Bethel Church, Baltimore, Maryland.
jiugust 5th and 6th, 1903»
Resolution of Commendation:
At the conclusion of its delivery, Rev. Arthur Jones arose and
inquired, "What is the District Conference going to do with that
discourse? Is it only to benefit us that are here? "
Bishop James A. Handy arose and in words of high commenda¬
tion moved that the discourse be printed at the expense of the Con¬
ference and be distributed among the people for wider reading.
The motion was seconded by Rsv. W. C. Goens and unanimous¬
ly adopted. The author thanked the brethren but promised to
publish it under his own supervision and at its own expense
REV. JOHN T. JENIFER, D. D.
THE BROADER MISSISON OF THE MODERN CHURCH.
"David said to his son Solomon:—Now behold, in
my trouble,or poverty,I have prepared for the house
of the Lord an hundred thousand'talents of gold, and
a thousand thousand talents of silver, and of brass
and iron without weight, for it is in abundance: tim¬
ber and stone also have I prepared, and
thou mayest add thereto'" 1 Chron. XXII, 14.
"My Father worketh hitherto and I work."-John V 17.
Jk jt jt
When we speak of a broader mission of the modern
church, it might be asked, by some, if the Churches' mission in all
ages is not the same ? Yes, in spirit and purpose it is. Absolute
truth is the same yesterday, today and forever; relative truth only
is variable. The Gospel of Christ is the same at all times in its
mission as a means to save mankind. The Holy Ghost is the same
now and forever,
The blood of atonement, in its merits for pardon and its power to
cleanse from sin and guilt,is ever the same. These are the chief means
of grace for the redemption of the lost and tlje saving of the world.
But as to the agencies, through which these means of grace work
upon this world, and are brought into contact with man's condi¬
tion, and needs, there are diversities of forms and administrations,
and many changes. When we speak of the agencies through which
these chief means of grace reach, and operate upon mankind, we
have in mind the diverse ecclesiastical bodies, or organizations,
with their different creeds, rules and forms of ceremonies, Each
one of these bodies calls itself a Church. Others, on the outside,
may term each one, a branch of the church, and call it a denomi¬
nation.
These ecclesiastical bodies change their views, alter their creeds
and readjust their forms of administration and worship as knowl¬
edge advances and light increases, When, therefore, we speak of
the chief means of grace being the same, we speak not of the body
of the church, but of the spirit; not of the pipes which bring the
water into the city, but we speak of the water; not of the gas
fixtures or electric plant, but of the light. So the river of the water
6
of life has been, and will be, the same in qualities, aims and affects
in its flowing from Eden on to the judgment, i. e. the salvation of
man—the life of the world. Hence, when we speak of "The Broader
Mission of the Modern Church," we have in mind the needs for
broader purposes,aims and efforts: Wiser application of these means
of grace through improved methods, so as to meet the wants of
mankind the present day, The calls for these broader and improv¬
ed methods of administration arise with increasing strength out
of the changed condition of things. This is a day of rapid transit,
difusion of knowledge, of electricity and its appliances, of wireless
telegraphy, of aeriel navigation and the like.
This changed condition of the world is generally conceeded to
be for the best. But it should be kept in mind that the wicked is
not asleep nor lacking in enterprise. That many of the achievements
which are regarded as higher evidences of our civilization are seen
to be employed to facilitate evil to such an extent, as to make the
conditions of society more perilous, and access to the souls of men
more difficult. The steam printing press that prints a Bible a
minute, is made to give the non church goers the Sunday newspa¬
per; to multiply trashy and immoral literature as well as co skim
the world's filth, and immoral villiany, and bring it with the news,
to vour daily mental breakfast. The electric trolley car and wheel,
which carry men to business and healthful recreation,and to church,
take multitudes to the pleasure parks for Sabbath desecrations
and to moral wreck and ruin.
The ship that carries commerce, the Bible and the missionary to
the pagan, takes along the rum, the opium and the gun. Hence,
while the field broadens, the work becomes more difficult. It is not
somnchthe lack of means that besets the church today and retards
her in her progresses it is the want of wisdom to use with energy and
skill what she has. Soverign faith and tact. Hence when we speak
of''The Broader Mission of the Modern Church," we mean the
church of today. We have in mind the many open doors to new
and broader fields where there are calls to her to enter and to do
good. These voices say to the church: "In view of your superior
facilities, knowing as you do our more numerous besetments in sin
and misfortune, come over and help us. Come over with your wise
contrivances and improved methods. Come with deeper sympathy
and more faith and zeal. Come against our beseting sins with
counter influences. Lay hold on us, lift us up and bring us out.
Make us free."
This voice asks not the church to do away with the plain
truth or to change it. It accepts the simple gospel. It wants t&e
Holy Ghost. It does not reject the blood of Jesus' atonement. It
does not ignore the need of repentance, pardon and cleansihg from
7
sin. It accepts regeneration, witness and comfort of the spirit, and
the growth in grace. These are the the forces that the condition of
the needy world most loudly calls for to day and in every age. But
the voice says to the modern church: "In your unalterable a.nd<:ternal
mission to mankind, in efforts to disseminate truth, life and light
you can have greater success if you exercise greater wisdom,strong¬
er faith, deeper love.
Go to mankind with such means as his condition demands;
adopt new methods, and use such- appliances in your administra¬
tions as the age calls for and the times and changed conditions need
Let it be ever borne in mind, however, that tuat visible thing com¬
monly called the church, is only the water tank, not the water; only
the light fixtures, not the light itself.
I. The Ancient Church.
II. The Church of Christ.
III. The A. M. E. Church.
IV. The Baltimore District shall be the subject of the fol¬
lowing discussion:
"And Thou Mayest Add Thereto."—1 Chron. 22-14.
I, Having under diverse conflicts and hinderatices collected
much material for the erection of the Temple to Jehovah, David
called his son Solomon, to whom he delivered the plans, and said
unto him. "Now behold in my trouble I have prepared for the
house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold; and a thous¬
and thousand talents of silver, and of brass and iron without
weight; for it is in abundance. Timber also and stone have I pre¬
pared afid thou mayest add thereto."
From each preceeding age and dispensation, comes this com¬
manding voice to its successor in relation to each and all its ac¬
complishments: "And thou mayest add thereto,"
Solomon,the son and successor of David,did build upon the solid
rock. Mount Moriah, the Temple; a magnificient religious object
lesson, and instructive type of the Church of God. By wisdom
it was devised; in strength it was established and with beauty it
was adorned. Striking illustrations of fundamental truths, of vir¬
tues and principles were there symbolized in the mystic order of 3,
5, 7 and twelves (12.)
The brazen sea, resting on the backs of 12 oxen in the court,
told the gathering assemblies, and the daily worshipers of the out¬
flowing gospel of Christ, deep and cleansing, to every land, to offer
life and salvation to a perishing world. The altar of burnt offer¬
ings at your right speak of atonement saying: "Without thesheding
of blood there is no remission of sin." The twelve loaves of shew
8
bread, reminding' them of the nourishment that feeds the soul of
' O
man, that have faith in Christ, every day the year around.
The Golden Candlestick of seven lamps, speak of the unceasing
light and perfections found in spiritual religion. The Ark, with its
mercy seat; the Law, Aaron's Rod, and pot of Manna, told that
in God's church there is law, government, the living ministry, and
the hidden manra of sustaining and grace mercv abounding to each
and all in the covenant of God's promises. Each and all these found
reality and fulfillment in the Ark, Christ Jesus. But in front of this
Ark, and backed by the lamp and the shew bread, stood the altar
of incense, near the second veil; with it*- ferver and perfumes teach-
by its ascending smoke of the constant devotion of the saints of
God in prayer. Here was the Shrine of Jehovah. The Ancient
Church of the Living God. There was whither the tribes went up.
"The tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks
unto the name of the Lord."
The people assembled as a nation three times yearly to worship;
for religious instruction,for national reunion and fellowship; and to
gain fresh inspiration in the things pertaining to their personal and
general welfare as a people. This system of religion was made to
suit the needs of that age of the world. An Israelitish Patriarch
standing in the midst this of gorgeous display, might have exclaim¬
ed: "Surely we have reached the measure of all that is grand and
good." But, Paul the apostle tells us that all this gorgeous display
invisible forms and decorations, were simply patterns of the things
in the heavens, And history records that this system in its prestine
glory, lasted only 30 years Nebuchadnezzer's armies wiped it out.
God, under Cyrus, by the hands of Zerubbabal and Joshua, the
High Priest, repaired the temple, larger, though far inferior to the
first. Yet the prophet Haggai assured the Fathers that, the glory
of the latter house should exceed the former. And, so it did. be¬
cause Jesus the Messiah, Saviour of the world, came to it. The
feet of the Son of God trod its precincts and taught in its courts.
All these splendid things pointed out, and predicted by this first
temple, were in Christ fulfilled. Hence, they the shadows, He the
way, the truth, the life. He went about doing good; teaching,
preaching aud relieving men of their sufferings. The deaf were caused
to hear, the lame to walk, the blind to see; the leper to be clean; the
dead to be raised, and the poor to receive the gospel preached to
them. He dies to atone for sin and seals the truth of God with his
own blood. He conquered death by the resurrection and founded:
II. The Church of Christ.
My father worketh hitherto and I work:—said Jesus our Lord,
That is to say, My Father worked in his way, in the past—to this;
day; and the Son is now to work in his way.
9
"The methods and the administrations may differ, but the work
is the same in purpose."
"I am simply following the purposes and plans of God my
Father"—causinggood to come from the bad; better from the good,
and bringing the best to take the place of the better.
The Church of Christ was small at the beginning, having only
one with twelve—Christ and the Twelve. It was small at Pente¬
cost and simple in its administrations. For a while it had peace
and grew; ere long persecutions broke out against the Church at
Jerusalem. When "they that were scattered abroad went every¬
where preaching the word."
Throughout Asia Minor to Africa, up into Europe, to the Isles
of the Sea and to the Continent of America the Gospel of Christ has
spread till a little one has become a thousand and a small one a
mighty nation.
Branches of the Church have been organized under different
names; buildings erected; schools and colleges established; publish¬
ing houses and printing presses with their periodicals; humane in¬
stitutions and benevolent organizations have sprung up, so that
the tide of Christian civilization has followed on in the wake of the
Gospel.
Commencing with 13, the Church of Christ has marched on at
the increasing rate, till its increase in membership in 1880 was
4-15,000,000.
And it is being added to.
One, who, considering the astonishing progress and achieve¬
ments in the realms of science and art, in discovery and invention,
may ask, what more is there to be known, or to do? But possi¬
bility and necessity would answer: "Thou mayest add thereto."
They might say: The best secrets of science are yet scarcely
known. The era of electiicity and of light with their manifold
powers and possibilities, has just dawned.
The finest machine is not yet constructed; the fastest engine
with its train has not yet started; the most elegant building has not
been erected.
The doctor of today is but a schoolboy of tomorrow in medical
science. The ablest oration has not been delivered, nor has the
best sermon been preached, nor the sweetest song been sung. When
the ablest efforts of head, heart and hand of man have been con¬
tributed to the plans and the purposes of the Creator, then, and
not till then, shall God say it is enough. "Add no more.
As in temporal things, so in matters of religion.
Standing where we do today, our eyes dazzled with Gospel
light; inspired and enthused by the victories of the conquering
Cross, some may be led to ask, What more is there to do?
10
But truth and necessity will immediately reply, "Thou mavest
add thereto."
Countless regions there are where there are neither Churches
nor missionaries, nor schools or teachers. Millions there are yet un¬
saved. Even in the heart of the highest Christian countries there
are thousands who are strangers to the consolation of the Gospel.
And how to reach the masses; to withstand and to destroy the
drink habit; to lift up the fallen, and to bring back straid-away, is
yet the most perplexing question with which the Church of today
is called to grapple—hence, as said the Lord to Joshua: ''There
remaineth yet very much more land to be possessed, heart foes to
be subdued; more prayers made; faith exercised; more money to
be contributed to God's cause; more covetousness destroyed and
loving sympathy exercised for human sufferings.
III. The A. M. E. Church
King David and the Fathers in Israel gathered much materials
out of which to erect a house for the God of Israel, That was a
rich legacy bequeathed by the Fathers to their sons.
They said, "We have done what we could, but you must do
better."
Richard Allen and the Fathers in 1787 began gathering the
material out of which to build the African M. E. Church. They
said unto their sons and daughters, "Thou mayest Add thereto."
And they have.
They have been adding, preaching, singing and praying, work¬
ing and giving.
Establishing Missions, erecting Churches and organizing Con¬
ferences.
Organizing schools and erecting and founding colleges and uni¬
versities. They have been "Adding thereto."
In 1816, Allen and his 16 associates at Philadelphia organized the
first General Conference when African Methodism took on its Con-
nectional form.
1832 Joseph M. Carr and Geo. Hogarth laid the foundation of
our Publishing Department, out of which has come the Recorder
and our other publications.
In 1844 the General Conference at Pittsburg, Pa., laid the
foundation of our Missionary work.
In 1863 Bishops D. A. Payne, J. G. Mitchell and James A
Shorter laid the foundation of our Educational Work, i. e.—24
schools, and the General Conference at Baltimore, 1884,systematiz¬
ed the work.
In 1866 the General Conference at Washington, D. C., laid the
foundation of our Financial Department.
11
In 1884 Rpv. C. S. Smith and the Bench of Bishops at Cape May
laid the foundation of the Sunday-School Department.
In 1892 Revs. W. H. Hunter, B. F. Watson and John T, Jenifer
laid the foundation for the Church Extension Department.
In 1897 was laid the foundation of the Connectional Preachers'
Aid Association. So you see that they have followed the command
—and added thereto until we now have—See Statistics — (A.)
750,000 members, 90,000 probationers, 700,000 Sunday-School
scholars, 7,000 itinerant ministers and at least 3,000,000 worship¬
ers in our Churches.
Standing on the threshold of the 20th century, we hear the
voice of the Fathers:
Coming down to us, "Now. Behold in our trouble we did what
we could, but thou mayest—'Add thereto.' "
You must pray more and sing sweeter, have better music than
we could get. You must build better Churches, give more money
for their support and manage their temporal concerns more after
business methods than we could.
You must make your churches and their services more power¬
ful and more attractive, by erecting more inviting and convenient
Church buildings and Parsonages.
By abler Sermons in the Pulpit; more suitable and spiritual
singing in the choirs. Take advance steps.
By Hymn books and Bibles in the Pews.
By coming to Church, Choir members and Congregation at the
proper time, so as to unite with the Pastor in the conduct of the
tsoul-inspiring preliminary services.
Bv means of the Auxiliary Organizations Attending Class and
Prayer meetings weekly, and conducting them intelligently; mak¬
ing them instructive, edifying—hence attractive.
By having a live Sunday-School—a spiritual Choir—An active
and interesting Christian Endeavor Society—Junior and Senior;
Church and Mite Missionary Society, active and interested.
By Officers, Trustees, Stewards, Stewardesses and Class
Leaders being loyal, pious, energetic and capable in each of their
departments. These, with two good Working Clubs, Church Aid
and Parsonage Aid Societies, all filled with the Holy Ghost and the
spirit of missions, we shall have the Church the Age is calling for.
IV. The Baltimore District.
One element that enters to broaden the Missions of the modern
Church is: A fresh call for a revival of the missionary spirit in our
ministry and laymen; the going abroad among the people with per¬
sonal solicitations in behalf of their souls, of Christ and of the
PVmrrli.
12
Here is found one of the secrets to the rapid multiplications and
growth of the Baptist Church.
It is time to do more than thrash over and over the old stream.
Seek to bring in new material, get men converted. Like the poli¬
tician, we need do more electioneering. There is no good reason for
so many empty Churches or small congregations. This, I have said,
is the day of the Sunday newspaper; the social club, the trolley car,
the wheel and the pleasure park. The Church must provide counter
attractions and exert counter influences.
Next, there is the slum work and the rescue.
The Salvation Army, in purpose and ft ort, is setting the Church
a practical example in this direction.
There is call, and that very urgent, upon the Church to go to
the rescue of the girlhood and the boyhood of the race; hence the
decreeing by the General Conference of the Order of Deaconess in the
A. M, E. Church; hence the effort at Roanoke, Va., to establish a
girls' training School and Deaconess Home—indeed—decreed by the
General Conference or not, you have only to study this question in
the light of the known facts and what is seen in city, town or
country to convince you that something must be done.
In the words of Mrs. Fannie B. Williams:
"There can be no feature of our race problem more important
than that of saving our young women; we can excuse their vanities,
but idleness is the mildew on the garment of character," and, we
may add, a menace to all that is pure and sacred in womanhood.
Idleness The Parent of Many Vices.
Every hour is worth at least ten cents to the common laborer.
A working week spent in idleness is $7.20 lost.
The Drink Evil.
Intemperance or the drink habit is on the increase to an alarm¬
ing extent among our women as well as the men in social circles, as
well as at the saloons and the side counters of the country grocery.
And gambling is a common practice among the young men and
boys. We as a people are too weak and too poor to afford to drink
or gamble or to be idle and vicious.
These things serve in adding to the statistics of crime among
Negroes, and in filling the jails and the penitentiaries with the prime
manhood of the race.
The Improvement of Home and Church Property.
A people's homes advertise what they think of themselves and
of their standing in community.
A people's church property advertises what they think of God—
of the God who adorns the skies, the earth and sea, bird, beast and
fish and plant with such exquisite beauty.
13
God thinks more of a whitewashed doghouse than he does of
the dilapidated home of a shiftless man.
At some of our Churches of twenty years standing, places for
retirement for women and children are not found; some are an
eighth of a mile away to be reached through rain, snow and slush,
else to the woods through wet grass two feet high. The times of
this ignorance once God winked at, but now he requires men every¬
where to repent.
Our Church Papers and Periodials Among the
Officers and Laymen.
Last year I had in the Easton District 40 Churches. Some had
as many as forty members of the Quarterly Conference. Asking the
27th disciplinary question on this subject: "How miny of our
periodicals taken? "As many as take anv one of our Church Papers
hold up your hands.,' Only one or two hands go up.
It is generally the brother who spends 10 cents a week—$5.20
per yearfor useless tobacco, sometimes that other thing, that claims
to be too poor to pay $1.00 for his Church paper which comes 52
times a year to his home filled with light and thrilling information
as to what his Church stands for, is doing, and wishes him to enjoy
and help to do.
Our Local Ministry.
The emergencies of the times and the urgent demands upon her
argue that the A. M. E. Church has now no accepted place for an
ignorant leadership.
The Local Ministry, with some exceptions, is not in the Church
what it used to be. It has not gained through the letter what it
has lost in spirit. In other times the local ^preacher was a power
for good in our Churches. They were as a class, pious, prayerful,
earnest, studious and spiritual-minded.
Under their labors, chiefly, the spirit of revival was kept active
in our churches, weekly meetings were relishabfc and well attended
conversions were common because looked for, labored for and prayed
for. Hence the demand is urgent in the modern Church to pray for
a return of these elements of power among us.
Another call is made upon us to consider that, while we are, with
commendable and needful vigilance, reaching out to save Africa, and
the Isles of the Sea, we are losing giound in Maryland, else stand¬
ing still.
We should have at least 20 churches in the city of Baltimore,
and many more in other parts of this State. Even as it is one of
each of our strong Churches should throw itself around a weak
point of promise and cease not till a broad foundation is laid upon
which a flourishing Church is built.
14
I had last year in the Easton District 40 Churches, and had I
had the means and the men I would have organized six more.
Chicago is not the only city for an Institutional Church; there
is need for one A. M. E. I. C. in Baltimore. How about Payne
Memorial?
In whatever aspect or light we may view the aspect of the
Church of the Living God—as a part of it, and as workers in it,
more is yet to be accomplished.
If viewed in its military aspect, as a moving army, she must do
more fighting, conquer more territory, broaden her dominion and
gain more subjects.
If in her architectural aspects, as a mighty structure, we must
gather mone material and do more on the building.
If it. be m its agricultural aspect as a field, vineyard or garden,
we must dq%iore plowing, sowing and reaping.
Should we view it as a vast Empire, a Kingly region, of whieh
our Lord Jesus Christ is King, we must not forget that each divi¬
sion is part of the one territory, through which continually flows
the stream of Divine grace whose Aim is Life and fruitfulness.
Like the great Mississippi River having its beginnings in the
small Lake Itaska in Minnesota, wandering and broadening in its
course to the Gulf and to the Ocean, touching numerous States, cities
and towns, fertilizing farm, field and gardens along its way, so
flows from the throne of God the River of Waters of Life, on and
on, down through this Kingdom of God to the Ocean of eternity,
giving life, vigor and prosperity to each and to all that comes
under its influences.
May the A. M. E. Church in the years to come as in years gone
by, be a fighting army, a constructive builder, a fruitful branch, a
working hive, productive field in the empire of God, so that when
the binding is completed the harvest shall be gathered in, the King,
at his coming shall be able to say: "Well done good and faithful
servants. Add no more." Amen.
Baltimore District Meeting, Baltimore, Md., August 5, 1903.
15
THE ITINERANT PREACHER.
Heralds of Caristian Civilization
A Methodist Itinerant Preacher has been the herald of Christian
civilization. Amid the wilds where they hunt the fox or chase the
deer, seeking the lonelv cabins few and far between, the faithful
itinerant is found seeking the lost sheep. He hunts his congregation
and gathers his own church. In cabin or quarter, cotton gin or
tobacco barn, upon a stump or beneath a brush arbor he proclaims
the glad tidings of a free and full salvation through repentance to^
wards God and faith in Christ. Soon a congregation is gathered,
society organized, Sunday school formed, church erected, stationed
minister sent and a settlement established. Next a town grows up,
schools are started, newspapers printed, business flour*hes. cars
come along and prosperity springs up everywhere. Hejvisjts also,
the populous city, the churches cold and formal, Athens-"lik£, gone
away into popular idolatry. His heart is moved, he mounts a dry--
goods box at the street corner, or the court-house steps, lifts up his.
clarion voice against the popular sins of the place. Many are
awakened, cry for mercy and are converted. The rumseller is
brought to God, cards are burned up, banjo and fiddle laid by, tfte
the whiskey traffic ceases, barrel heads are burst in and the hot
stream of hell-fire set flowing down the gutter.
Far back in the hovels of vice, where poverty and wretchedness
reigns, a father is drunk, the mother is sick, children cold, barefoot¬
ed, crying for bread. The faithful itinerant advises, prays. The
Gospel of Christ enlightens, converts, sanctifies and saves The sick
wife revives in full assurance in a hew found hope, the drunken fath^
er is reclaimed, industry and economy are practised, when prosper¬
ity and plenty enter that home again. Such a held developes a
Moral Heroism of its Laborers.
History tells us that during the late war a company of Union
soldiers were stationed at a point to hold the fort, Superior num¬
bers of the enemy cut off their supplies, besieged the fort and de^
manded their surrender. From da}' today in dread suspense, star¬
vation stared them in the face, with no evidences of relief. Nearly
driven to surrender, terrible consequences were dependent upon the
result of an hour While eager eyes turned in all directions, far in a
distance one caught a glimpse of a white signal moving above the
approaching army, upon which was inscribed. "Hold the fort, we
are coming. Sherman.
At conference, Bishop stations us at a charge. We strangers*
work, poor and broken-down, people discouraged, hypocrites op¬
pose and false professors grumble. Wife at home sick, children
cr3ring for bread, no money to go with or to send. Board of Stew-
16
ards against you, cut of your support, wife says "Come home" and
the devil cries "Surrender!" With heavy heart and anxious mind
the question of giving up is argued, but the Spirit says "Wait on
the Lord." Faith discerns in the distance the African Methodist
flag flying above the head of approaching Conference, on it inscribed
"Hold the charge, we are coming. Bishop." Courage fires the
soul and we begin to sing—
"111 suffer on my threescore days
Till my deliverer comes."
In this field of holy warfare the faithful itineraut has his trials
and his triumphs. Battling with the world, opposed by the devil
and beset J)y the flesh, confronted by principalities, powers and
spiritual Wickedness in high places, armed with the panoply of God
he marchess bravely on to conquest and victory Following the
wake of the pioneers in Ihe fight he comes to where many have
fallen upon the field; halting at the tomb of those fallen in the
sacred conflict faith reveals the epitaph, "Asleep in Jesus," when
hope begins to sing,—
"Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep,
From which none ever wake to weep,
A calm and undisturbed repose,
Unbroken by the last of foes.
"Asleep in Jesus ! Oh, how sweet !
To be for such a slumber meet;
With holy confidence to sing,
That deatn has lost it venomed sting.
"Asleep in Jesus ! Oh, for me'
May such a blissful refuge be;
Securely shall my ashes lie,
And wait the summons from on high."
J. T. Jenifer.
Pit JESS OE THE
ARRO-AMERICAN COM/'AXV,
307 ST. PAUL STREET,
BALTIMORE, MD,