H. T. Johnson
JOHNSON'S GEMS
CONSISTING OF
BRIEF ESSAYS
AND
DISSERTATIONS
ON
LITERARY, ETHICAL, RELIGIOUS
AND
CURRENT TOPICS.
ILLUSTRATED
Entertaining and Instructive to Young
and Old.
ALL RIGHTS RJESER VED.
Dedication
to
Bishop Evans Tyree, M. D., D. D.,
Rev. J. S. Slipper, D. D.,
Rev. W. D. Chappelle, A. M., D. D.,
Rev. J. A. Jones, D. D.,
Rev. J. A. Lindsay, D. D.,
Rev. E. H. Coit, B. D.,
And others, by whom it was inspired, this
literary volume is respectfully dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Introduction 11
Application 17
Ambition 22
Africa—Redemption (Cut) 27
Afro-Americans—Dying Out 29
Age Discounted 32
Beauty 35
Books 39
Celibacy 44
Charity 48
Christain Liberty 51
Church Politics 54
Courage 56
Courtesy 60
Cross and Crown (Cut) 65
Criticism 67
Decision 68
Devotion 72
Education 76
God's Poor 82
Gratitude . . . ' 85
Humlity 88
Ingratitude . 89
"Life ■ 91
Literary Thieving 94
Longsufifering 97
Love (Cut) 100
Mars 102
Negro Curse 106
G
Negro Emigration Ic9
Negro Triumphant JI3
Prayers I23
Preachers and Politics I24
Preachers' Library I26
Preachers' Dress 129
Pride l32
Pulpit and Press 133
Religious Jealousy 135
Sympathy 137
The Image of Christ 139
The Lord's Prayer 141
The Times 143
Tobacco 146
Truth 149
Watchmen » 153
PREFACE.
HE African race-variety and reading
pnblic regard the Rev. H. T. John¬
son, D. D. as a scholar, a writer and a
philosopher of rare ability.
He certainly ranks among the most
distinguished Negroes of his generation.
His continuance as Editor of The Chris¬
tian Recorder for eight years and his re¬
election for another term of four years
clearly shows the estimate which the
A. M. E. Church places upon him. His
editorials, books, essays and lectures con¬
stitute a group of some of the most valu¬
able literature that has been produced by
the Negro during the present generation.
Dr. H. T. Johnson has often been urged
to compile, in a small volume, some of
his most choice productions. He has at
last yielded to the urgent request, and
the present volume will be found to cover
a very wide range of thought.
10
Dr. Johnson, as Editor, is the eyes of
the A. M. B. Connection, and his editorial
utterances are the utterances of the
Connection. This little volume will re¬
cord the march of thought and the
growth of" character of the A. M. E.
Church for the past decade and more.
John M. Henderson.
Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 23,1901.
INTRODUCTION.
Life is what we make it—and it is in
this sense that every man is the architect
of his own fortune. As we look around
us, we see those who once filled the
humbler walks of life occupying more
exalted positions; we observe some
wielding an influence that, to us, seems
marvelous, when we contrast the now with
the then; we notice others still com¬
manding the respect and honor of the
world, either on account of their intrinsic
moral worth, their financial possessions,
or their literary, acquirements.
This change from a lower to a higher
sphere of activity is not altogether an
involuntary act. It depends upon the
individual himself—the grit within him.
He must construct the ladder, and
" mount to its summit round by round."
Success comes from the cultivation of
a habit of constant and diligent applica¬
tion of mind in whatever one undertakes ;
12
from concentration of thought—from an
even, temperate and well-balanced life.
Success is a legacy tliat may belong to
all. It is within their grasp, if they will
only reach out and take it.
The old maxims : "Where there is a
will there is a way;" "I endeavor to
make circumstances submit to me, not
submit myself to circumstances;" "I
have ever held it as an important truth,
never to do that through another which
it was possible for me to execute myself;"
"He who follows two hares is sure to
catch neither," etc., etc., are simply the'
sayings of men to inspire the young with
a desire to press forward, to fill them¬
selves full of pluck, resolution, decision
and perseverance, that—as some one has
well said—like a balloon they may go up
despite their surroundings. There is in
every mind a natural bent—an inclina¬
tion toward one or more vocations ; con¬
sequently we should choose that calling
in which we have an abundant evidence
that we can and will succeed. It is a
common saying that there is always room
13
at the top ; that the lower rounds of the
ladder are always crowded, and that it is
here that the fiercest competition goes
on. The truth herein expressed is patent
to the most casual observer.
Balzac, the brilliant French author,
when told by his father that in literature
a man must be either king or a hodman,
replied, " I will be king." Do you mean
to get on in the world ? Do you mean to
make your mark? Do you intend to
ascend the heights of fame? Then let
the will, have free play. Be strong.
Stout hearts and determined wills will
break down barriers, insurmountable as
they sometimes appear. In the great
conflict of life it is the men and women
who are full of earnest endeavor, and
who never flinch in the accomplishment
of duty that stir the world.
The sincere inquirer after truth em¬
braces every opportunity offered. He is
not deterred by anything that may arise
to thwart his designs from learning what
he can, where he can, and from whom he
can. His eyes are fixed upon the goal
14
to which lie directs his unfaltering foot¬
steps. Another idea that I would em¬
phasize is that of excellence. The master
workman will find a place for himself, or
make one despite of obstacles. If one
has a more difficult task than another ;
if it is less easy for him to rise because
of circumstances, it is all the more nec¬
essary that he should make his way
through the mediocre mass and reach a
place where his services will be in de¬
mand, because he represents the best
workmanship in his line. In literature,
in art, in science, as well as in the gen¬
eral routine of life, the same rule main¬
tains its force. Occasionally we hear of
a student in school who, seemingly, is
very active in bringing up at the foot of
his class, never rising higher, but in
after life, when school days are over, by
some mysterious freak he surpasses all
of his competitors, taking the first rank
as a specialist, or as a man of many
parts—a man of varied learning. This,
however, is the exception and not the
rule.
15
Madame Campau, in answer to Napo¬
leon's question: "What does France
need most?" replied: "Mothers." In
answer to the question, What does the
world need most ? What do we need
most? I reply, men and women—men
and women who shall combine character,
culture, knowledge and skill—practical
men and women. We live in a practical
age; we inhabit a practical country, and
are surrounded by a practical people.
Practical things are demanded of us ;
hence, the importance of thorough fitness
for the work before us. It is to be hoped
that this little volume may be the means
of accomplishing much good—of stirring
up the lethargic to make, as the poet
says, " stepping stones of their dead
selves to higher things." May the au¬
thor's anticipation be realized in the
fullest sense.
W. S. SCARBOROUGH.
Wilberforce University.
APPLICATION.
"Stick to your aim ; the mongrel's hold will slip,
But only crow-bars loose the bull-dog's grip."
S the rudder is to ship or mag¬
netic needle to mariner's compass,
so is application to the successful man.
Unhelped by this spiritual attribute, the
eye of many a science had never opened,
and the world would be a stranger still
to many a golden conquest. From the
infant dawn of savagery to the highest
altitudes of mental and moral evolution,
one can discern the foot-prints of this
mystic power. To understand the secret
of all great results, of all grand inven¬
tions, of all reforms, of the triumph of
learning, of the march of civilization, of
the flights of poetry and eloquence, you
have it in this multumparvo form—Appli¬
cation. It led Newton from unknown
labyrinths of gloomy uncertainties into
the clear sunlight of scientific greatness.
It conducted him to a seat upon the arena
18
of princes. It enabled Franklin to lasso
the steed of Vulcan and rein tlie dynamic
courser to tlie chariot of science. It
taught Watt to listen to the unpiped
notes of shouting steamers, of whistling
flotillas, of loud-heaving engines, from
the ebullitions of heated laughter escap¬
ing from the mouth of the tea-kettle. (
We have often heard, and repeat the
assertion, that much of what the world
calls genius is a by-word of mythical
meaning. Those who don't happen to be
heirs to this misnomerical possession
have a great propensity for beholding it
in others through exaggerating lenses.
To such, if there is anything that a
genius has to do, it is that which good
luck or smiling fortune fails to perform
for him. He has but very little to do
himself, except to sit and watch the
flights of fancy or listen to the caroling
of inspiring songsters saluting him with
" Here we are!" Oh, the luxury of
this favored offspring of genius ! He
has only to fold his arms and bask in
heaven's ever-greeting sunbeams. No
19
marvel that thousands envy the genius
and aspire to be geniuses.
Now the genius himself indulges in no
such reveries as these. He is an inhabit¬
ant- of no such imaginary realm. If the
genius knows any one thing above an¬
other, it is that there is no royal road to
greatness. He knows that if he has any
genius at all, it is the genius for hard
work, the genius of application. Every
one loves to refer to Shakespeare as a
genius, and one he was indeed, and yet
his genius was most manifest in his
capacity for hard work. So, also, was
Sir Walter Scott a stalwart in the ranks
of genius, but there was no man to
outrank him in mental travail, as the
monuments of his work will show. St.
Augustine, a monarch in the realm of
ecclesiastical lore, was a man of prodig¬
ious powers of application, as his two
hundred and more volumes testify. A
pyramid of books, Robert Groteste is said
to have built. They say Paschal killed
himself by hard study. The eloquent and
mighty Burke was thought perhaps the
20
most laborious of all human beings.
Burnett, Matthew Hale, Bishop Jewel,
John Wesley, and a host of others too
numerous to mention, all scaled the
mount of greatness by means of applica¬
tion.
To the young contestant for life's
shining prizes, we say, toil on and wait.
Yet let him rest not upon his oars too
long. The strokes must be more con¬
stant than hard if one would pull for the
shore. It is not the spiritual impetus—
not the native exertion alone that tells
in the race of life. How often has it been
said that the battle is not to the strongest
nor the race to the swiftest? Who, then,
waves the flag of victory or bears the
palm of triumph ? He that endureth to
the end. The man composed of such
stout materials as will stand the wear
and tear of life will find the rough places
to smooth, the threatening clouds to fade,
the valleys to rise, and the mountains to
bow at the majestic approach of his foot¬
steps. Tortoise-like, he may be slow,
but let him be sure, and at th estake he
21
will have arrived first and be earliest in
the rank of those to congratulate his
more agile companion whom he has out¬
distanced in the journey.
AMBITION.
" He that is not satisfied to begin with being inferior
will never end with being superior."
'' All greatness is born of ambition. Let the ambition
be a noble one, and who shall blame it?"—Shakes¬
peare.
MBITION is a term popular in usage,
yet obsolete in proper application.
It is an aged word, whose golden mean¬
ing lies concealed beneath, its hoary locks.
The latent spark kindled in the human
breast, causing man to look upward and
move onward toward his Creator was
ambition. But now the expression seems
to savor of bad taste. It is no longer the
torch of inspiration pointing to greatness
or grandeur. An illusory phantom it
has now become, whose fox-fire lure only
illumines one's journey to the tomb.
Ambition! Bad word. Synonym for
heart pangs, anxiety, discontent, strug¬
gles, prowess, death. Whisper it softly,
else the departed ghosts of Caesar, Napo¬
leon or Alexander will frighten us for
23
excitement. Follow not its siren sound,
or else quagmires of crushed hopes will
swallow us. Once glorious term, though
now ill-used and obscured, we loath to
give thee up. Though others seek not
the fervor of thy glow, to us a celestial
beacon art thou and to all earthly pil¬
grims.
A man without ambition is a man
without life. He may move among men,
but he is only a walking corpse. He
looks neither upward nor forward. He
is like the traveler who begins nowhere
and makes no progress. The eagle may
cut the clouds in his upward movements,
but the man devoid of ambition sees no
lesson in the sight He is most truly the
creature of circumstances. As the winds
may blow or the tides drift him he takes
his course. He is at the mercy of the
elements, because within himself there is
no impelling force. If the winds of
adversity should strike his frail craft, he
would be unable either to luff his bark
or come about through turbulent breakers.
The simple desire to rise above one's
24
surrounding and excel, is all that may
be claimed for ambition. That is not
ambition which would wear a crown
soaked in human gore—it is madness,
blood-thirstiness. The spirit which would
exult in the overthrow of another, or
rejoice in his downfall, so as to secure a
post or prestige, is not ambition—'tis
envy, satanic envy. Such, according to
Miltonic version, is imputed to the chief
of fallen angels, who not only refused
allegiance to heaven's appointed Ruler,
but warred against him and clamored for
the throne. Such, if it be ambition, is by
no means laudable. It is as despicable
in men as in devils.
What gaseous motor is to soaring air
vessel, what puffing steam is to moving
engine, that ambition is to man. It not
only drives him onward, but lifts him
higher. Without it he could never scale
the mount of greatness—could never out¬
ride the winds of adversity. With it he
can make the clouds of misfortune upturn
their silver lining, and mock the eagle in
his upward flight above the storm.
25
Give a man all the ambition his nature
can sustain. Think no more of suppress¬
ing this force of nature than you would
the mettle of a full-blooded courser. If
you disturb it at all, treat it as you would
your favorite horse—curb, regulate ^nd
control it. The proper direction of one's
ambition is as important as its possession.
Better have none at all than be unable
to control it. Many a man has stunted
his progress, or missed his mark, or
jumped the track of life, or been buried
in obloquy, simply because he didn't
know what to do with his ambition. He
that is unable to manage his ambition,
will in turn be managed by it, and that
badly, too. It is all a mistake to suppose
that this native ardor of soul confers
upon its possessor the right to do as he
pleases. The right to do anything or
everything has been wisely reserved by
the donor of this gracious gift.
Has ambition, then, any limitations ?
Its qualified bounds consist mainly in
faithfulness and thoroughness. The
infinite domains of the universe are out-
26
stretched before it and above it, but only
to those who have discharged all trusts
below is the invitation given to "Come
up higher." One must first be faithful
over the few before he is entitled to ruler-
ship over the many.
AFRICA.—REDEMPTION.
THE hope of saving Africa will not be
well grounded as long as a larger
element of common sense does not enter
into the problem from the human side.
In dealing with the matter it might as
well also be conceded that until the ele¬
ment of honesty be more largely supplied
on the part of the professed friends of the
Dark Continent, its general Christianiza-
tion will remain an event of indefinite -
postponement. Those whose interest in
Africa extend beyond the surface and
shadow of words should first understand
that its redemption implies a condition
rather than a theory. Denominations
and societies laboring in this field for
years without adequate returns would do
well to bear this fact in mind.
Along with the gospel lamp the torch
of civilization must be borne to the mil¬
lions who sit in regions of darkness.
Those who bear the light must themselves
28
walk in it, while those who represent
civilization must desist from methods
unworthy of countenance in the code of
heathen manners or morality. Whether
as missionaries or traders, the labors of
bad or unworthy men should not be
counted upon as material to the well
being of either place or people. Unfit
missionaries are mockeries to the Chris¬
tian spirit and mission, while the business
adventurer is a travesty upon civilization
and a constant menace to the pioneer
work of the church.
AFRO-AMERICANS DYING OUT.
THE white press of the country of late
has been trying to revive the hue
and cry of the great mortality among
colored people. Aside from the element
of truth conspicuous for its absence from
said claim, the contention should carry
neither surprise nor sadness when it is
remembered that no one is ever compared
with Japhet without suffering from the
comparison, save when some one besides
Japhet makes the comparison. Had the
fabled lion been the sculptor, the head of
the white man would have been carved
beneath the paws of the king of beasts.
Because the white man was the sculptor
we have the reverse. Until Ham returns
with his chisel, brush and pen to his
erstwhile lofty place in the workshop of
the world, he need not be surprised to
find himself more than a dwarf if even
standing room is allowed him. When
Japhet has a say about it, other things
30
being equal, of course, the burden of
proof falls upon Ham and lie must show
that he is not a pauper class, that he is
not an ignoramus, that he is not a greater
criminal, or that he is not dying out
more rapidly than anybody else.
It used to be asked of old " Can any¬
thing good come out of Nazareth ?" The
him would treat his case. Dr. De-
Sausure may make multitudes believe
that Negroes around Charleston, Sa¬
vannah, Mobile, New Orleans and other
Southern seaport towns are dying out
in greater proportions than the whites,
but his assertions will carry weight
only with the credulous and thought¬
less. The Southern Medical Asso¬
ciation before whom his remarkable
saying aptly sug¬
gests itself to the
colored man when¬
ever those who once
held him down and
who now delight to
nurse their exploded
theories respecting
31
paper on Negro mortality was set forth is
composed of those who thirty years ago
predicted that the race then freed would
soon die out from sheer starvation when
left to care for itself. The wish then
ventured is more than likely the father
of the thought now expressed as to our
dying out more rapidly than the whites.
AGE DISCOUNTED.
THE smallest argument that can be
used against any man, is tlie num¬
ber of years lie has lived or the place that
gave him birth. Those who use such
logic against individuals, otherwise in¬
vulnerable, incautiously proclaim their
own mental shallowness or lack of moral
bravery. So rife and current is this sort
of criticism becoming in the circle of
church discussions, that it is time to
publicly signify its value as mean and
meaningless or base and baseless.
It is not unusual to hear this pop-gun
criticism against venerable preachers,
presiding elders and a bishop occasion¬
ally now-a-days. "He's too old and can't
do the work," they say. Some younger
man or one more vigorous is insisted
upon as just suited to fill the bill. The
critic in this case may be some unduly
ambitious Timothy who would have Paul's
mantle descend upon him without settling
33
the fact whether he can wear it or not.
Or, it may be some envious elder on the
retired list himself, but still able to war
with the good fortune that sees fit to
smile upon others of his class.
As wisdom is not always commensurate
with years, neither is charity or justice
always shown by those of high authority
or position. Men seldom outgrow con¬
stitutional or inherited shortcomings of
any kind. The adult who fights his
seniors unjustly only soaks the rod to
be applied to his own back in years to
come. Little is to be thought of young
men who ridicule the years of the aged,
but less is to be thought of ungenerous
elders who discount vigor or middle age
in the higher trusts of providence. At
no time in the history of the church or of
the world has age been an accepted
standard of eligibility or fitness and it is
folly at this late day to attempt to reverse
the universal verdict. Napoleon achieved
his greatest victories under thirty. Roose¬
velt reached the presidency at his forty-
second mile-stone, and Washington of
34
Tuskegee fame scaled the heights from
slavery's pit to the goal of world-wide
note and world-acknowledged greatness
before turning his two-score year point.
Such cases multiplied only go to show
that it is not the number of years one
lives that tells so much as how well these
years are lived.
BEAUTY.
" Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good ;
A shining gloss that fadet'n suddenly ;
A flower that dies when first it 'gins to bud ;
A brittle glass that's broken presently ;
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower ;
Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour."
—Sh akespeare.
^DBAUTY," says our lexicographer,
J—' " is that which pleases the eye."
Homer called it "a glorious gift of na¬
ture." Socrates, "a short-lived tyranny."
Theophrastus," a silent cheat." The poet
may treat it as evanescent, the philoso¬
pher may mystify its meaning, the cynic
may regard it as vanity of vanities, but,
after all is said and written, it is beauty
that moves the world. Whether in art,
or person, or character, or manners, or
nature, it exerts the same insuperable
influence over man.
Before the magic power of beauty
kings have become captives, and many
a Samson has crouched at the wave of a
36
Delilaliian wand. According to a certain
writer, Rome liad not perished so soon if
tTie nose of Cleopatra liad been less per¬
fect. Tliis tyrant beauty conquered
Anthony and excited Medusa's mistress
to transform her into a most frightful
monster. The cheat has controlled
princes' purses; has brought million¬
aires to the rank of poverty ; has hum¬
bled the proud and inflated the poor.
This, and more, has been accomplished
by beauty—physical beauty—beauty ex¬
ternal and skin-deep. What a tyrant!
What a cheat ! In this sense it is like a
flower called the imperial crown. Invit¬
ing in appearance, most beautiful is it to
behold. But approach it if you dare,
and instantly you are smitten by its un¬
pleasant smell.
If "beauty is as beauty does" be an
admissible definitiofi of the mystic art,
perhaps it would be wise to look more for
its exhibition to conduct. In this way
we may find a very excellent help in the
opinion of the philosophers on the sub¬
ject. According to these, beauty is a
37
blending of contrasts, a harmony of va¬
riety. If this be true, a homely person
of pleasing mien or winning ways is a
beautiful person indeed. The company
of such an individual is generally sought
and always agreeable. Magnetic and
spontaneous in influence, a character like
this tells among the masses and draws
from every quarter of society. Bven
irrational creatures manifest a fondness
for those of pleasing propensity. In
dogs, and cats, and birds, and sometimes
reptiles, it is often marvelous to witness
the responsiveness to this attribute.
How often is the vain wish to be beau¬
tiful expressed! How often are those
arts and devices resorted to which may
atone for nature's slight or oversight !
And, after all, what is accomplished in
being beautiful after this order ? Per¬
sonal beauty is but an expression of na¬
ture and superficial. Acquired beauty is
but the manifestation of a fastidious am¬
bition, and is only artificial. That beauty
alone is substantial and imperishable
which comes from truthfulness of heart,
38
purity of character and sweetness of soul,
presided over by a spirit of self-sacrifice
for others. One is as evanescent as the
sparkling dew-drops, the other as abiding
as the stream of time. The one is as
fragile as potter's clay, the other inheres
the durability of Parian marble.
BOOKS.
" Books should to one of these four ends conduce :
For wisdom, piety, delight or use."—Dedham.
BOOKS are the greatest monuments
of antiquity—the noblest heritage
of the race. In the infancy of the world
and the golden age of man these monu¬
ments-were unreared. History perpetu¬
ated itself without them, and fame was
co-extensive with longevity. Father and
son walked hand in hand and listened to
each other for half a myriad of years.
Whatever was said or done of value was
stamped with the seal of memory, or en¬
graved upon the iron walls of tradition.
During those marvelous times, thoughts
flashed through centuries, and men had
their say across mighty periods. Pos¬
terity caught every whisper and treas¬
ured every syllable in the audiphone of
memory. But after a while humanity
began to witness a sad degeneracy ; the
forms and frames of men became less
40
stalwart, the human intellect dwindled,
mortal longevity waned, and yet the race
continued to think and do. Before long,
so great was the accretion of thought and
things, that the mother of invention
heaved a sigh and the infant book was
born.
From our perfect system of voluminous
wonders, whoever views this crude off¬
spring of antiquity is constrained to re¬
gard it as a literary monstrosity, indicat¬
ing not the slightest sign of evolution to
its present form. Think of Arcadian
records of brick and rock inscriptions ; of
the decalogue carved 011 stony slabs ; of
the Ninevan library, consisting of cunei¬
form characters on tablets of burnt clay,
and you have an idea of the highest ad¬
vancement of the early fathers in the
book line of business,
41
The Saxons have given us our term
book from their boc, meaning beech ; then
beech-board, the material on which their
writing was done ; as liber among the
Latins, denoting the birch-bark used by
them for the same purpose. From tree-
bark, leather-skins, parchment and papy¬
rus we have the development of books to
its present evolutionary stage. The
block method of printing has given way
to the lightning press, and the almost
fabulous volume at a thousand cost has
given place to a thousand volumes for
the same amount.
Among the multitudinous facilities for
information none is comparable to books.
By means of locomotion a man may ac¬
cumulate vast stores of valuable facts.
By going through the world with his
eyes open he may see and learn inesti¬
mable things, such as come to us from
history, geography, politics, travels, etc.,
only in a better manner. Through the
argus-eyed press he may be able to see
in almost every direction, and collate
Storehouses of knowledge incredible to
42
every one but himself. But with advan¬
tages limited to these sources alone, he
can at best be but narrow and superficial.
To consider him otherwise is to consider
him wise who shuts his eyes to light, or
trudges along when he can either ride
or fly.
Whatever progress a man may
imagine himself to make, however flat¬
tering the opinions others may entertain
of his movements, he makes better time,
rises more rapidly, soars higher, or con_
tinues on the wing longer, with less
expenditure of force, having the impetus
of books than otherwise. By their use
he is not only more systematic, but more
logical in his undertakings and aims.
Through books men see with better eyes,
hear with new ears, and move through
the world with greater momentum. They
are lights from the distant ages, shining
from every quarter and reflecting upon
everything. They are the wisdom of
philosophers, the dicta of sages, the
dreams of poets and the fulfillment of
prophecy. The one who would get
43
along without tliem ridiculously apes
the folly of a man with tallow candle in
quest of objects beneath the glare of an
electric blaze.
He, then, who would successfully
prosecute the voyage of life must provide
himself with the chart of books. They
are like tried seamen at the helm, who
know the shoals and how to behave in
storms. It is far better to secure a title
to books than to first invest in lands. If
you would acquit yourself for business
or profession, don't get the books you
want so much as the books you need.
Better have a small library of which you
are the master than a large one of which
you are only the owner. The Bible is
the king of books, in that it is a lamp to
the feet and a light to the path of the
successful pilgrim through time ; and
next come Milton, Shakespeare, and an
unabridged dictionary.
CELIBACY.
'' But earlier is the rose distilled
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness."
URIOUS and commonplace are the
objections generally urged against
celibacy. Concerning them we have only
to state that a single life may be benefi¬
cial or baleful, bap.py or unhappy, wise or
otherwise. Some of the best and greatest
men the world ever knew were strangers
to the bonds of wedlock. Some of the
worst cases on human record are included
within the sacred pales of married life.
Our advice, therefore, to the young is to
be married or remain single on condition.
First, if you have fallen in love with
science or art, if you are an earnest lover
of any branch of learning, if you are in
pursuit of knowledge for her own sake,
or through her golden gates would reach
the immortal heights of fame, think not
—Shakespeare.
45
you'll ever find in Hymen's bonds a help¬
meet to your aim. Matrimony requires
of all lier subjects to immolate every ob¬
ject upon her vestal altar. Her fiat is :
"Thou shalt have no other gods before
me." Bven in a book a rival will not be
brooked. Whate'er invites the thoughts
or divides the affection will not be enter¬
tained.
Second, if you are wedded to your profes¬
sion, if you seek the highest skill as j urist,
the greatest eminence as theologian,
the most laudable rank as benefactor,
say to this natural impulse to get married:
"Get thee behind me, Satan"—provided
you don't want to. Should the enchant¬
ress still beset you, speak out and have
the moral courage to say : " I am already
engaged."
Third, if the services of religion or the
Gospel require it, and thou art loosed,
seek not a wife. Let envious censure
sneer; let the critical world turn up its
nose in scorn ; pursue the even tenor of
your way. There is encouragement here
in the example of some of the mightiest
46
defenders of the faith. Paul is good au¬
thority. Don't say the precept of the
Apostle is that of a chronic bachelorship ;
that he was probably aged or dwarfish—
at least out of sympathy with the race
when he wrote his individual views on
the subject. Don't say that his condition
was abnormal, and that for that reason
he was no representative of normal man.
Remember, he was at one time both young
and vigorous. It is inferential that his
advice is rather the result of self-mastery
than otherwise. So, too, the example of
our Lord is an argument in favor of single
blessedness. It need not be objected
that the strength of His humanity was
derived from His divinity, for He was
tempted in all points like as we, yet with¬
out sin.
The folly, then, of criticising an un¬
married state is at once admitted. While
superiority cannot be claimed for it justly
above the opposite state, yet it has its
peculiar advantages under proper con¬
ditions. He who advances the first step
with Paul in his dictum, that "He that
47
giveth in marriage doetli well," stands
upon solid ground. But to claim for him
who giveth. not in marriage something
better, is a position not quite so warrant¬
able. Let the divine institution be sancti¬
fied by a lofty conscientiousness, and it
is the highest condition of mcrtal com¬
fort. Let the unmarried life be conse¬
crated to the services of God and human¬
ity, and man attains a nobility of being
comparable only to angels.
CHARITY.
" Great minds, like heaven, are bent in doing good,
Though the ingrateful subjects of their favors,
Are barren in return."—Rowe s Tamerlane.
THAN charity there is no lovelier dis¬
position in man. Kven among tlie
celestial graces slie is represented
with sceptre in hand, indicating her ex¬
cellence at once. Paul represents her
the youngest of the triune sisterhood.
With coronal splendor he -invests them
all, but awards to this youngest the
superlative palm. From this sentiment
the verdict of the race will never waver.
The highest encomiums of earth, in imi¬
tation of heaven, will ever remain sub¬
servient to the option of charity.
Much of what the world calls charity,
is not often worth " Satan's picking up."
It is only a miserable stuff, base and
baseless. Often that which is not wanted
is labeled "Charity" and put in the
Lord's basket or distributed to the Lord's
49
poor. Again, the man who delights to
publish upon the housetop what he does
in the corner, is entitled more to the meed
of vainglory than to that of charity. It
is not tolerated by charity to parade her
performances, unless it be by the unbid¬
den mouthpiece of another's praise. How
many there are who give more for the
praise of the thing than for its sake.
But it were bringing charity into dis¬
repute to suppose alms-giving her pre¬
eminent trait. Charity may have no
goods to feed the poor, her purse may be
penniless, her own condition abject in
the extreme, and yet she remain the
same lovely offspring of heaven. She
may walk in tattered garments, but her
footsteps indicate the tread of an angel.
Her bed may be in the dust, but she has
a throne—'tis found in a benevolent
heart.
A disposition to put the best construc¬
tion on the actions of our fellows is
charity godlike. Kven when the keen
lance of censure is felt, the pain will be
assuaged when borne with a spirit of
50
long-suffering and kindness. It is much
better to feel that our harm was not in¬
tended than to think that our injury was
designed. The spirit that gloats over
wrongs done, not only becomes imbit-
tered with resentment, but is rendered
miserable and incapable of happiness.
Are you made to suffer much at the
hands of calumny ? Remember," Charity
suffereth long and is kind." No matter
how others may prosper, "Charity en-
vieth not." Let itself prosper or be flat¬
tered, "Charity vaunteth not, is not
puffed up." Unsolicitous of its own
interest, charity seeks the good of others.
When often approached, "is not easily
provoked." In its loving breast no evil
thought is harbored, no rankling passion
indulged. It is the most perfect and im¬
mutable thing in the boundless realms
of nature. Prophecies shall fail, tongues
shall cease, knowledge shall vanish away,
but in its eternal presence the ages are
as moments.
CHRISTIAN LIBERTY.
OINCE the dawn of Christianity, the
^ liberty of its subjects seems to have
been an ever recurring problem. In our
times no less than in those of the Apos¬
tles, the Christian disciple is in need of
an emancipation that liberates and a
freedom that makes free indeed. Now as
then there is such a thing as exchang¬
ing one form of servitude for another,
such a thing as escaping from the yoke
and dominion of Satan or an evil con¬
science into enslavement to creed or cap¬
tivity to consciences ofttimes not more
trustworthy than our own. Next to the
bondage of sin, these restraints are op¬
pressive to the religious impulse and are
quite unfriendly to Christian life and
development. To be free and enslaved
at the same time is an anomaly and con¬
tradiction, but such as finds actual illus¬
tration in the refugee from the camps of
unrighteousness to the broader castle
52
where doubt and freedom ffieet. Like
the clock pendulum lie may swing in
either direction indicated but he can be
no disciple in the truest sense until he
appreciates that he has been called unto
the liberty which exempts from fear on
the one hand and a false estimate of the
Christian's prerogative on the other.
It is this latter exaggeration of the
idea and fact of liberty that the average
Christian of to-day needs most to fear.
Christian liberty means Christian privi¬
lege embraced rather than ungodly
license indulged. Antinomianism revels
in sin, claiming that thereby divine grace
is magnified and Christ exalted. The
partly freed Christian uses his liberty as
an occasion to the flesh, giving the reins
to his weaknesses and full bridle to his
appetites.
Now, Christian liberty has no halter
for the neck nor bit for the mouth of its
willing subjects. Bven the yoke of the
law, mitch less that of churchly creeds,
is found too small to bind his shoulder
or admit his neck. He pulls in the
53
gospel harness and is led by the Spirit of
Christ, the Spirit of God. The fetters of
sin nor ties of flesh can keep him down.
Kagle-like and on wings of love he
mounts the believer's heavens and sings
as,he soars, "Nearer,my God, to Thee."
CHURCH POLITICS.
HAT political methods should for
once be allowed to enter the eccle¬
siastical domain is shameful and very
bad indeed. That the spirit and practice
of demagogism should ever become pre¬
valent in the religious realm augurs no
good to the church and reflects no credit
upon those whose duty it is to promote
truth and honesty.
When a surface glance is taken at the
religious field as it relates to campaign
methods and office seeking practices, the
question forces itself, "What is the
church coming to ? " To a greater or less
extent the demoralizing short coming is
applicable whenever there is a variety of
official grants to be had and where, in
order to obtain such, anything but true
merit will insure right of way to the
prize. Fat charges and appointive trusts
are targets at which the prize marksman
will aim either high or low with as much
55
intentness as in the direction of the easy
chair to be occupied by consent of the
popular will.
Pleasant, however, it is to reflect that
the situation has a side more genuine
than that which is only surface deep and
which usually distresses the attention it
arrests. Upon a closer inspection and
more serious thought it will be found
that the vast majority are on the side of
truth, consistency, temperance and God.
To the multitude, a lie is not just as
weighty as the truth, nor will base pre¬
tentiousness hold out as far as unshowy
sincerity. Aside from the clamorous
few there are the silent, thoughtful,
thinking many who usually institute all
reforms and shape the course of the
church. In spite of the croaking of
croakers or the din of dust raisers, the
church will not go to the bad. In fact,
the church is liberal enough to allow all
spectacular exhibitions of the kind while
it continues its own development along
all intelligent and gracious lines.
COURAGE.
" A valiant man
Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger,
But worthily and by selected ways.
He undertakes by reason, not by chance.
His valor is the salt t' his virtues.
They're all unseasoned without it."—Bc7i Jonson.
OUR AGE is that quality of mind
which enables one to encounter
danger and difficulties with firmness, or
without fear or depression. So says Mr.
Webster. This firmness of spirit is not
limited to the battlefield. In times of
peril and carnage, no doubt, its oppor¬
tunity for culmination is most favorable.
In seasons of mortal conflict, at some
national crisis, men have risen from ob¬
scurity and flashed their greatness iipon
the world by the display of courage in
some mighty deed of valor or act of con¬
quest. On the enduring escutcheon of
fame the names of Hannibal, of L'Over-
ture, of Grant, will ever stand as monu¬
ments of courage.
57
But the great field for courage—natu¬
ral, simple, necessary courage—is the
arena of everyday life. Here every man,
woman and child may distinguish them¬
selves for knight-gallantry; may win
58
trophies and purchase the most glorious
renown. Here will be met foes whose
names are legions; here will be met ob¬
stacles at times insuperable. Sometimes
imprisonment, captivity and dire adver¬
sity become one's lot. Whether an in¬
mate of doubting castle or a victim to
the hand of giant despair, it becomes
necessary for the soul at times to sum¬
mon its latent energies not only, but to
focus and keep them at a given point.
In this way alone is ultimate triumph
possible; in 110 other manner is present
prowess certain.
It takes courage to oppose the wrong
and maintain the right. It takes courage
to forsake evil and cleave to that which
is good. It requires courage to stem the
tide of adverse thought—to open one's
breast to the arrows of censure and say :
"Conscience first and consequence next."
It requires courage to climb the rugged
hill of life, to meet the foe, to seize the
flag and waft an eternal triumph. Yet in
the heroic effort one may fail, the foot¬
hold may be lost. But courage finds a
59
rock to sinking footsteps. It has a prop
for weary hope, a tomb for bygone ills.
True courage is capable of self-abne¬
gation. It is careful to pursue a beeline
of policy only as it runs parallel to right.
Some men are famously brave, if it
should happen to be known beforehand
that it pays to be so. Other men are re¬
markable for relaxation in the chase of
truth, because she gives a note of par¬
tial payment at long interest. It is not
courage to champion the right because
you are in the majority. Courage is as
immutable as invincible. A man who
feels for the pulse of popularity is ready
to turn with the tide at any time.
COURTESY.
"Shepherd, I take thy word
And trust thy honest offered courtesy,
Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds
With smoky rafters, than in tapestry walls
And courts of princes where it first was named,
And yet is most pretended."—Milton.
AMONG the many valuable statements
to be met with in the writings of
the Apostle Paul is the excellent
injunction : " Be courteous." In his day-
society had some rough edges to be
smoothed and much crudeness to give
way to the refining influence of ordinary
civility. As long as human nature occu¬
pies an immutable attitude, as long as
the doctrine of depravity is susceptible of
general application, the command of this
disciple of Gamaliel should be universally
esteemed as a rule of action.
It costs but little, after all, to be polite.
A coarse and boorish individual, of all
men, is the most worthy subject of con-
61
tempt. He who lias no respect for the
rights, no regard for the feelings of
others, should be rewarded only with
payments in his own coins. What a
despicable worm mnst be the wretch who
continually crawls in the dust of un-
couthness. At his sight the sensitive
shrinks away, while he is studiously
avoided by every lover of good manners.
The discourteous man may seem to glide
smoothly along in life, but he has gener¬
ally a rough time. He may not be
openly criticised, but in the hearts of
well-bred people, he is an object of pity
and censure. The ignorant man may be ex¬
cused for not knowing, the indolent man
may escape for not doing, but neither
the one nor the other is exempt from
being a gentleman.
Courtesy may not be two-faced, but it
is two-sided. It has an inside and an
outside. At the same time it is free from
hypocrisy. It does not seem to be what it
is not. Its outwards are the promptings
of its inwards. Its manners are the evo¬
lution of its morals. He who only studies
62
courtesy may be the peer of a dancing-
master. In measure and movements lie
may be faultless. Lord Chesterfield may
be his inferior in the art of locomotion or
graceful deportment. He may know the
latest rules from Paris—may have all the
laws of etiquette down by note. After
surveying the entire code of civility,
after reading all the statute books of
social intercourse—may say with the
complacent scribe of yore: "All these
have I kept from my youth." Yet with
courtesy, the sine qua non, wanting, the
answer, " One thing thou lackest," may
silence his boasting.
True courtesy is everything. Suppose
you are poor. With this gem of character
you may purchase that which the miser's
gold can never command. You will have
a moral claim upon the affections of the
pure in heart. A man is never too poor
to be polite. He that is upon the beggar's
throne—the dung-hill of poverty—is not
yet disgraced, if his lot is not one of
choice. A son of poverty may be both
courteous and proud. His poverty en-
63
titles him to disgrace only when coupled
with rudeness of behavior.
The true gentleman is always cour¬
teous. His civility will serve to distin¬
guish him more than rank or riches. No
matter where he is and how environed
by circumstances, he has an ingrained
respect for the individuality, feelings
and rights of other people. He has
naught but kindness in his heart and
sunshine in his looks.
So, too, with the man of education.
He is truly educated only in proportion
as his doing is in keeping with his know¬
ing. He knows he is higher than men
beneath his learned plane, but he stoops
to lift them up. He knows the foibles of
his fellows ; still, he either curtains them
with the mantle of his charity or eclipses
them by believing that the strong should
bear the infirmities of the weak. What
is true of the gentleman is also true of
the lady. The woman devoid of graces,
without kindness, and destitute of man¬
ners, is more intolerable than the man
of kindred traits. To her we look for
64
beauty, for nobility of carriage, for fine¬
ness of soul, and refinement of life.
Should she present a horrid contrast, she
is at once an abnormal being—a social
monstrosity. If society has no place
within its sacred pale for the uncivil, un¬
couth, unrefined, ungentlemanly apology
for a man, its sentence of banishment to
the coarse, rude, masculine of a woman
is justly sustained. If the one is ostra¬
cized the other should be stigmatized.
Yet, because one is the weaker vessel, we
should deal tenderly with her ; but treat
the other with courteous sternness, until
the rough edges of uncivility give way
to the polish of good manners and the
refinement of good morals.
CROSS AND CROWN.
A VERITABLE burdensome drudgery
is the Cross to not a few who bear
the title of Christians. To this class it
is a cross to bear the Cross, as the thought
has been aptly expressed by another.
Rather than bear this weapon of victory,
they shrink from the contest with the
vain hope of waving the victor's palm or
wearing the crown of the conqueror in
the end.
There are certain things which pre¬
suppose their converse in the invisible
as in the visible world. Toil implies rest
here and struggles here imply conquest
hereafter. Present burdens prophesy
future rest and present pain symbolizes
the relief or ease in store for the patient
victims.
The doctrine of the Cross is taught by
nature, in art, science, invention, in
everything and everywhere, if men but
have eyes to detect and hearts to interpret
CRITICISM.
THE propriety and difficulty of re¬
maining silent under the fires of
criticism is strikingly illustrated at
times by incumbents of lofty trusts as
well as by occupants of ordinary posi¬
tions. However unjust the attack or pain¬
ful the reticence of those who are victims
of the same, the latter should not be for¬
getful of the debt they owe the public as
well as themselves even under the most
trying circumstances. Newspaper con¬
troversies, involving no more than the
susceptible reputation of the participants,
is the poorest sort of investment at best,
nor is the value changed, though well-
accredited churchmen or learned laymen
be the figuring parties. The position
occupied and records made are the best
arguments that need be made to un¬
warrantable assailants.
DECISION.
"So much to win, so much to lose,
No marvel that I fear to choose."—Loudon.
IN the great struggle of life, no quality
of soul is more helpful to triumph
than decision. Wherever this is lack¬
ing all may be lost. There may be
genius, culture, power, but if there be
no decision behind these, you have a
beautiful ship without helm, a splendid
air mansion without visible means of
entrance or egress. So fortuitous are
the circumstances of life, so fleeting
its golden moments, so vital and deter¬
minative those eventful periods upon
which one's destiny may be hinged, that
it is absolutely required of him who would
be and achieve much of consequence that
he possess this moral stamina in no
slight degree.
Strength of intellect and force of char¬
acter are most striking expressions of
decision. Where one or the other of
69
these attributes is lacking, you have a
mail as stationary as tlie oscillations of
a pendulum. Though, not capable of
ubiquity of motion, it will be exceedingly
difficult to keep up with him in pace or
time. Like the proverbial flea of Erin's
fame, his acts will be inversely as your
thoughts. How contemptible the unre¬
liable man! How dangerous is such an
one to the order and interests of society.
He who cannot see sufficiently far to
forewarn those* dependent upon him of
the insecurity of his props, of the fragility
of his promises, is a victim to the double
failing of poverty and imbecility of mind.
What a pity it is that characters of this
stamp are not less numerous ! You will
find those infesting even high places
whose sense of honor is so blunted that
you dare not take them at their word.
Their promises are as pie crust, their
covenants are like mist. It is altogether a
mistake to say that manifestations of
character like these can be attributed to
bad memory, weak-mindedness, and so
forth. It is ratjier the heart's disease. It
70
is not singular that tlie retentive facul¬
ties may become impaired by over-exertion
or disease, so that it will be difficult to be
mindful of personal duties or even
individual interest. But what is most
remarkable about some men is that they
are never failing only in reference to the
concerns of others. Their own doors will
always be kept clean in this respect, but
weeds and thorns may infest those of
neighbors by their sloth fulness.
To keep one's word, or maintain one's
position irrespective of every considera¬
tion, is not what we understand by de¬
cision. This, at times, would be sub¬
versive of the highest good and detri¬
mental to one's well-being. Of course,
by this, it is not meant that the obliga¬
tion to keep a promise is slight in the"
least. The obligation to adhere literally
to a particular attitude is always true,
other things being equal. But how often
is such not the case? Suppose a judgment
is formed according to a given amount
of light. Suppose the same judgment by
the reflection of more light should sub-
71
sequently appear to be erroneous. Are
we not bound to be true to our intelli¬
gence ? It is true that the wisest men
change their mind ; an honest man may,
with perfect consistency, change his
also. It has long since been conceded by
ethics that bad promises do not neces¬
sarily obligate those who make them.
Still, care should be exercised in drawing a
line just at this particular point. We are
not less bound to exercise wisdom than
truthfulness. While an ironclad policy
in reference to everything should be
disfavored, the reverse of weathercock
similitude should be met with universal
disdain. Where wisdom and truthfulness
combine in decision, the compound is
always happy and desirable.
DEVOTION.
" The immortal gods
Accept the meanest altars that are raised
By pure devotion ; and sometimes prefer
An ounce of frankincense, honey or milk,
Before whole hecatombs of Sabian gems,
Offered in ostentation."—Massinger.
pvIVERS and many are the objections
' urged against devotion. So firm a
believer are we in the doctrine that no
arguments can move us from the moor¬
ing of our faith. The anchor maybe sev¬
ered from the ship, the bond of wedlock
between mother-earth and yon monarch
of the forest may be broken, but our faith
in prayer and a prayer-answering God is
as abiding as the everlasting hills.
Of all frames, that of devotion is the
noblest, the most sublime. It is like the
sun—it glorifies its subject and casts a
flood of light on objects dark. It is
like a lever it lifts the weighted soul
above its plane. 'Tis like a ladder—real,
with base on earth and summit resting
on the mercy seat. Not a visionary one
73
like that observed by Jacob. The angels
of God, in truth, keep constant inter¬
course 'twixt earth and heaven. It is
like a flower that yields its fragrance,
gladdens the heart, and is most eloquent
in love. It is a child that tells its wants,
74
sobs its anguish, prates its joys, and
pours its tender self in loving ears. De¬
votion is an eye that sees through, dark¬
ness—a hand that grasps the intangible
promises of God.
A godless, prayerless life is as impo¬
tent as the arid waste of Sahara. . Dust
and dearth no more distinguish the
one than spiritual drought and dreari¬
ness the other. The traveler across the
Great Desert, worn with fatigue, scorched
with sand-heat, parched with thirst, and
smothered with dust, is in a pitiable
state, indeed. But though confronted by
the death-dealing Simoon, his condition
is no more deplorable than that of the
unpraying pilgrim through the howling
wilderness of this world.
There are some who excuse themselves
from this enjoined means of grace on the
ground of Divine omniscience and Divine
immutability. They believe in God, but
don't believe His will can be affected by
human wants. Is it unreasonable to
suppose that the all-knowing and un¬
changeable One has eternally decreed
75
prayer as a condition of many blessings
or even contingent providences ? Bnt
tliis is the bleat of agnosticism, the folly
of blind unbelief, so we pass it by on the
other side.
But we anticipate the demurrer that
this is the twaddle of Christianity. You
are not so much as a professor. Permit
us to resort to a sort of argumentum ad
hominem method of reasoning, and inquire
into the character of your extraction. If
you are of Christian parentage, certainly
your attitude finds a constant rebuke in
its wholesome examples. How can you
dishonor that Being to whom your mother
has yielded a life-long devotion ? How
can you treat irreverently that Name
which iu infancy you learnt was above
every name in earth, hell or sky, and to
whose services you were dedicated in
childhood? You may be a prodigal now,
but your thoughts must recur to your
Father's house. The bowels of His mercy
seem poured out in the invitation : u Re¬
turn unto me, all ye backsliding ones,
ajid I will heal your backslidings."
EDUCATION.
"A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring ;
For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking largely sobers us again.' '—Pope.
EDUCATION is a jewel both beauti¬
ful and excellent. Look at it in
any light, estimate it by any
standard, and you have a pearl of great
price, a thing of incomparable value.
He who sees in it no grandeur has long
slumbered in the night of intellectual
darkness. He who has derived from it
no value could never have boasted of its
possession, but has contented himself
with being a stranger to the remotest
bounds of its territory. Whenever one
is heard to speak indifferently or dis¬
paragingly of this priceless boon, rest
assured that he is prating in an unknown
tongue, and is therefore but poorly
qualified for the discussion.
Radically education means to draw
MORRIS BROWN COLLEGE, ATLANTA, GA.
78
out. Primarily its concern is the
capacities and possibilities of one's
nature. What these are is its business
to determine. Itself recognizes the re¬
sponsibility of its mission, and at once
enters upon its discharge. It comes as
a heavenly halo to the soul groping in
darkness, and says: " Follow me." With¬
out it a man could never leave the
threshold of ignorance—could never
graduate from the helpless state of
childhood.
The development and expansion of the
individual in every desirable and attain¬
able respect is the province of education.
Says Addison: " I consider a human soul
without education like marble in the
quarry, which shows none of its inherent
beauties until the skill of the polisher
fetches out the colors, makes the surface
shine, and discovers every ornamental
cloud, spot and vein that runs through
the body of it. Education, after the same
manner, when it works upon a noble
mind, draws out to view, every latent
virtue and perfection, which, without
79
such helps, are never able to make their
appearance. What sculpture is to a
block of marble, education is to a human
soul. The philosopher, the saint, or the
hero, the wise, the good, or the great
man, very often lie hid and concealed in
a plebeian, which a proper education
might have disinterred and have brought
to light."
Kducation not only awakes the dor¬
mant energies of nature, but imparts to
them vitality and activity by healthy ex¬
ercise. Says Daniel Webster: "As a
man is in all circumstances under God
the master of his own fortune, so he is
the maker of his own mind. The Creator
has so constituted the human intellect
that it can only grow by its own action.
Bvery man must therefore educate him¬
self. His books and teachers are but
helps ; the work is his. A man is not
educated until he has the ability to sum¬
mon in an emergency his mental powers
of vigorous exercise to effect its proposed
object. It is not the man who has seen
the most or read the most who can do
80
this ; such an one is in danger of being
borne down like a beast of burden,''by an
overloaded mass of other men's thoughts.
Nor is it the man who can boast merely
of native vigor and capacity. The great¬
est of all warriors who went to the siege of
Troy had not the pre-eminence because
nature had given him strength and he
carried the largest bow, but because self-
discipline had taught him how to bend it."
The road to learning and culture is
through the golden gateway of education,
though the latter is the sum of which the
former are only parts. These are partial,
referring merely to intellectual condi¬
tions ; that is universal, and comprehends
also the moral and spiritual in man. So
that it is a mistake which frequently
supposes education to be a thing of the
head alone. A man may possess ever so
much knowledge and yet not be educated.
It is quite possible for the head to be so
full of facts and ideas that a farther ex¬
pansion would be impossible, while the
heart has been left to feed upon its own
undeveloped resources. The result in-
81
variably in such instances is a liead re¬
plete with knowledge at the expense of
wisdom, a narrowly contracted heart the
seat of a shriveled being. That education,
therefore, which fails to encompass the
whole being, is neither broad nor liberal.
Such has the effect of making a man one¬
sided, squint-eyed, supernatural and un¬
natural.
GOD'S POOR.
BETWEEN God's poor and the poor of
Satan there's all the difference imag¬
inable. Those who are wont to make no
distinction between subjects of the former
class and those of the latter would do
well to reflect that the world teems and
swarms with examples of both, each shad¬
ing off into varieties of every kind. They
crowd thoroughfares and ring the door
bells of almost every home. They fill
almshouses and multiply lazarettoes
throughout the earth. Their being cared
for shows that they are wards of the Al¬
mighty though they were for ages ne¬
glected and cast away until Christ
through the Church opened his arms to
receive them. Buddha, Mohammed and
Confucius were great reformers after a
fashion, but none of them founded an
institution for the blind, or hospital for
the infirm or suffering. The gospel has
taught man the duty of uplifting and
83
caring for his suffering brother. The
brow of humanity has been kissed of
heaven in the words, " Blessed is he that
considereth the poor."
The breach between the Devil's rich,
and the poor of the Almighty only too
truly symbolize the vast disparity be¬
tween the two classes as operating on the
divine or satanic side of the situation.
As to earthly condition, the ranks of the
Almighty are composed neither of princes
nor paupers. Both classes comprise the
kingdom of God in the present world
and the one to come.
Poverty is not a disgrace nor is the
possession of wealth a badge of Divine
favor. Foolish indeed is the surmise
that all Dives are reprobates either here,
or hereafter, or that to occupy Abraham's
bosom by and by it is necessary to have
the poverty of Lazarus now. Regarding
the kind of individuals rather than the
degree of their riches or poverty, the
moral of the parable only goes to show
that men may be lost in spite of wealth
or saved in the face of their impover-
84
ished condition. It is material, thefe^
fore, for those to whom it is applicable
to inquire not so much, How came I
poor? as, What use do I make of my
poverty ?
Happy and exalted are the truly poor
of God. They have been made such
possibly by no fault of their own and
heaven has recognized their helplessness
by hedging them about with countless
props on earth. There are those who
draw the line upon the poor of the high¬
ways refusing to drop a penny in the box
of the blind or lend an ear to the tale of
woe the distressed passer by seeks in
vain to pour out. They prefer to give
through the channels of organized chari¬
ties or at stated times to some special
object. This all may be well, but better
far is it to remember that he who has to
give is a steward of the Lord and he
who gives not to a pleading, needy soul
may neglect an angel in disguise.
GRATITUDE.
HTHB annual commemoration of their
1 emancipation is a practice among
our colored race-variety no less con¬
sistent than commendable. Than the
beginning of the calendar year no time
can be more appropriate or impressive
for the liberation of long embondaged
millions or for the expression of such
feelings and sentiments as that act would
inspire. As long as reason is regnant or
memory holds its sway the name of
Abraham Lincoln will ever afford a
standard around which sable millions
will gratefully revolve. With equally
genuine devotion will the kindred spirits
of Lovejoy, Garrison, Phillips, John
Brown, Sumner and others of that sub¬
lime galaxy be recalled.
The first of January to Afro-Americans
is more than the Fourth of July to the
most typical American, the American
without restriction of class, condition or
86
color. To such tlie Declaration of In¬
dependence was but a theory, a prophecy,
a belief until the fact as subsequently
realized by the Fathers left their assump¬
tions no longer in doubt.
The birth of each recurring year sug¬
gests the death of the infernal system
and the execution of Mr. Lincoln's
provisional agreement to destroy it world
without end.
It is well and incumbent that these
occasions should bring under review
every milestone in the march of the race
to a higher status. It is right that the
obstacles surmounted be recounted, but
it is equally proper that every mountain
that thwarts or every barrier that threat¬
ens our future progress should be brought
under the most careful and righteous
survey.
Whatever else therefore these days of
gratitude should offer they should bring
the race face to face with the fortifications
of the enemy; they should be character¬
ized by a united and earnest effort toward
the dislodgement of such adversaries no
87
matter how inveterate or deeply in¬
trenched.
Above the civil and political phases
assumed by these gala days of freedom,
the devotional and supplicational side
and value of them should be most ac¬
centuated and pronounced. Oratorical
pyrotechnics and impractical displays, or
pertinent reflections should be given a
subordinate place to the ills, shortcomings
and grievances which need redress at the
high Court of Heaven. Will our loyal
fellow citizens, with their public-spirited
leaders, accord prayer an unprecedented
place in the program of Emancipation
Day ? If they will not we call upon
colored Christianity and lovers of justice
everywhere to do so. Judge Lynch and
hell born caste will give way before
thunderbolts forged at a throne of grace.
HUMILITY.
THAN humility there is scarcely a
greater Christian grace or virtue.
That it should overtop all else or come
out more than conqueror in the end is
self-evident from the nature of its consti¬
tution. The man of humility has a broad
basis whereon to rest, hence need fear no
downfall. Air castles are not his abode
nor are men of high estate his com¬
panions ; he is rather an associate of the
meek, to whom is the inheritance of the
earth. The root-base of this rare and
unpopular tower of Christian strength is
humus, i. e. the ground. The pyramids
overlook the ages and defy the assaults
of time, because of their earth-embracing
foundations. So, too,
'' He that is down need fear no fall,
He that is low no pride ;
He that is humble ever shall have
God to be his guide,"
INGRATITUDE.
SOME one lias classed ingratitude
among the worst of sins. However
that may be. one thing is true, that lie
who can be not only forgetful of, but
unkind to those who have been kind to
him shows a baseness of feeling almost
impossible to describe.
At this particular time promises are
being made, friends are serving each
other and confidences are being ex¬
changed between men of the highest
Christian position—ministers of the Gos¬
pel. It behooves them to be true to
these things and to remember that which
they promise.
Considerations of this kind should
make men careful how and what they
promise. Friendly services rendered puts
one under moral obligations to those
rendering them, to the extent at least
that should it come within the power of
those to whom these services are given
90
to do a kind act for those who have given
them, it must be done. This does not
mean, however, that one man's service
to another should be measured by just
what is to be received in return. Chris¬
tian honor demands that one friend aid
another and be true to him without con¬
sidering the question of payment, and if
one is true to his friends and they are
not to him, there is a just law of com¬
pensation, an edict from the Throne:
"Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he
also reap."
LIFE.
IN itself considered and in relation to
1 its mortal subject, life is a theme of
universal interest. Neither the scientist
who would probe into its whence, nor the
theologian who inquires into its ultimate
whither, has been able to exhaust its
interminable interest or import. When
men asked what is life they are not satis¬
fied with the answer biology or evolution
gives. When the question becomes per¬
sonal and it is asked, What is your life,
and disconsolate revelation tersely re¬
plies, Only a vapor, the soul turns away
with an air of solemn protestation against
the answer given and sighingly seeks for
a better one.
Around this chief of mortal boons
poetry weaves its gilded fabric and says
of life, " Tis a golden peak between two
eternities." This suggests the thought
that after all poetry comes nearer the truth
of life than either prose or philosophy.
92
The muses make men concern them¬
selves with the brighter career, teaching
them adjustment to its changeful hues
and forms. Such fortunate ones find
little difficulty in making light spring
of darknesss and can sing amid the
storms. The individual who would se¬
cure everything in and from life, as well
as he who wears it as a prisoner does his
shackles and dungeon, to be gotten rid
of, are alike to be feared as warning
signals to the children of men. That is
its false theory that makes life a creature
ever to be pampered and gratified. No
wonder then that from the nightmare
of such delusions that thousands wake
up only like Judas in time to hang
themselves, descending into dishonored
graves with the lying hope that "death
ends all."
Not his own ultimatum is man, but
God is his origin and end. As every¬
thing below the scale of humanity
ministers to man, so all things else with
man included must contribute to the
glory of God. As great as life must be?
93
eternal life is greater, and tlie Christ of
God is tlie author and offer of both. His
is tlie true life whose birth springs from
above. Such honored souls can trium¬
phantly exclaim, " I live yet not I but
Christ' liveth in me and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the son of God."
LITERARY THIEVING.
QUITE widespread and indifferent is
tlie habit of appropriating and
parading the thoughts and writ¬
ings of others in high and low circles,
and by plagiarists both modest and im¬
pudent. The preacher who fortifies
himself behind the word and makes the
pulpit his battery, violates the eighth
commandment just as actually when he
cites or reiterates the sermon of another
without giving credit, as if he should
appropriate a horse or take a chicken
without the owner's knowledge or per¬
mission. The thoughtless, uninformed
multitude can be easily fooled by the
ambitious and labor-saving pulpit or pen
trickster, but seldom can the man of
information and retentive faculty be thus
taken in. Daring ventures of the kind
may be successfully made in the way of
purloining sermons and repeating the
addresses of others. When, however,
95
the plagiarist resorts to the text-book
with which the average preacher is
supposed to be familiar, he engages in
a risky business to be sure. The com¬
mand, "Thou shalt not steal" applies
to things beyond our ability as to things
within our reach.
These thieves in the literary world
are just like the common thief; they
will not work, they will not exercise
their own minds, but live by plunder
of others. It seems bad enough for
the man of the baser order to be a
thief, but when men, of what is supposed
to be the best class, morally, are thieves,
we all have reason to blush. Yet it is
true that many of the sermons that are
preached, papers read before conventions
and literary efforts made on prominent
occasions; even newspaper articles are
sometimes stolen.
The word used in literary life to de¬
scribe this dishonesty is plagiarism, but
it simply means stealing another's liter¬
ary productions and using them as one's
own.
96
Bach man lias the right to benefit by
the thoughts of others ; he reads to stim¬
ulate his own mind, and gather know¬
ledge, but not to steal.
Some persons have beautiful art collec¬
tions which they sometimes put oil public
exhibition. All are at liberty to go and
enjoy the beauties, to feast their eyes
upon them and get whatever refining
influence comes from seeing such things,
but surely this does not give them the
right to carry them away as their own.
It is a very different thing to read a book
or a sermon and learn something from it,
and to take that sermon or a passage
from that book and call it one's own.
The effect is bad, first, morally, as it
is just as wrong to steal a man's thought
as it is his coat ; second, intellectually,
the man who takes the productions of
others as his own, will never learn to
produce anything himself, but be a
weakling all his days.
LONG SUFFERING.
WHOEVER or whatever else may dis¬
parage the Negro he can not afford
to disparage himself. No matter who bids
him look down and be dejected he mnst
himself look up and take fresh courage.
However dark may be the heavens about
him, aggravated now and anon by out¬
breaks of vengeful thunderbolts in the
form of onslaiights upon his manhood,
his rights or his life, he must not turn
aside from the weather-beaten path of
providence. He should bear in mind
that Gethsemane's Garden, the way of
Golgotha and the rugged burden of the
cross must all be endured before the
Prince of darkness gives way to the
Prince of peace.
Before getting out of heart themselves
and causing others to doubt or deny the
justice or goodness of that dispensation
which thus long and so mysteriously has
preserved them, let those who pose as
98
prophets and leaders disallow or under¬
value no element or agency whose ten¬
dency or effect has been or may be a
ministration for good and of a philosoph¬
ical or providential value. In array and
variety such messengers of hope and
encouragement are the stars of the firma¬
ment. Literature, commerce, legislation,
war and dogma have all been marvelous
in their outworkings for good toward our
race-variety and others against whom
they were thought to have been designed
or manipulated. The agencies of men
for evil seldom fail to overleap them¬
selves, but those ordained of Heaven are
as unerring as they are precise and
exacting.
In one of his celebrated chapters the
author of "An Appeal to Caesar" sets
forth the future of the Afro-American
in colors beautiful and inviting to the
despondent. The land of his subjugation
has been transformed by prophecy into
a realm of his ultimate dominion and
lordship. Was such a promised land
reached at a single bound of the writer's
99
imagination ? As a philosopher he dis¬
covered this final condition and effect to
be the result of specific causes. Given
certain antecedents there was no question
to his mind of the scope and nature of
the consequents, the element of- time
being granted. Labor, pray and wait are
the logical exhortations of that prophetic
unfolding.
LOVE.
IN the experience of most individuals
there is something which the pos¬
sessor is willing to risk as love, whether
as a conception, sentiment or force, the
one in whose mind or breast it obtains
will hug it as among the fondest illusions
if it be charged as such. Whether it be
a dream or a fact, the thing which men
term love has the same meaning in every
language and conveys the same language
to its countless subjects. Though differ¬
ing in degrees of scope or potency, it is
the same in kind to all who have not es¬
caped the range of its mighty sway.
None would withhold a tribute from this
sovereign treasure of the human heart.
And yet it has shortcomings which it
would be well to appreciate. It is unsat¬
isfying, disappointing, selfish and mis¬
leading unless viewed in the light of its
celestial reflection or gauged by its fruits
as borne in the bosom of its author in
101
heaven. The personification of ideal
love is not found in the heart of man, but
in the heart of God. The works and
Word of the Almighty vie with each
other in the effort to make clear the truth
that God is love. The quality of this
love can be best conveyed in the language
of Him who was Love Incarnate and
whose declaration was : " God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth in Him might
not perish but have everlasting life."
MARS.
OF all the heavenly families Mars is
our nearest planetary neighbor.
This justifies the interest universally felt
in her behavior, which makes our eager¬
ness to learn the secret she would impart,
after years of silence and death-like
remoteness, the more curious and intense.
If the data furnished by Science are to be
relied upon, Mars is much older than the
earth and her inhabitants far superior
to those of our globe in point of
evolution and prowess. It is not strange,
therefore, that we should hold her in
such esteem and veneration as is our
wont whenever her chariot of closest
intercourse is allowed to swing within
the nearest range of our visual and
telescopic grasp, once every fifteen years.
Not only is the eye of every astronomer
turned upon her at this period, but the
thoughts of every thoughtful person as
well.
103
From the study and observation of this
planet some curious suggestions as well
as useful lessons have insinuated them¬
selves. It has been discovered that its
circumambient atmosphere is analogous
to that which surrounds our planet; that
it has waters and seas like ours, therefore
animal life and commerce by inference is
attributed thereto. Mountain peaks and
vast reflecting lights thereon have been
espied, and therefore according to a law
of speculation, it must stand to reason
that our planetary kinsfolk up there are
trying to attract our attention by their
immensely luminous displays which at
this time more than another can be most
effective in their impression upon us.
Though many million miles away, their
superior knowledge probably enables them
to know more of us than we can of them.
The evolutionary nature of knowledge
and progress of science should possibly
modify the smile of incredulity with
which these suggestions are met. But,
whether so or not, orwhether the prophecy
of science, will ever be fulfilled in afford-
104
ing us more accurate kuowledge through
different channels respecting this and
other planetary neighbors floating above
and about us, there are some prime
conclusions that man might reach, some
plain lessons he may take home to his
profit.
The consciousness of his littleness but
seldom dawns upon man. In the pride
of his intellect, the march of his progress,
the intoxication of his dreams, the vanity
of his spirit, he imagines himself to be
some great one—master of the situation
and monarch of all he surveys. It is not
until he climbs the dizzy heights of the
heavens or scans the bewildering wonders
of the stellar universe that a glimpse of
his real self begins to dawn upon him.
In the reflections of burning worlds and
shining systems he is not slow to discover
the truth that he is only a trifle more
than a mere speck upon the surface of
existence. Dazed by what the Almighty
is pleased to disclose through the mirror
of his stupendous creations, he is ready
to ask when he comes to himself, ''What
105
is man?" To the sea there is a bound
as'there is also to our world and its teem¬
ing kindred of the skies. But to pro¬
gressing mind and triumphant truth
the gates of the universe are ever open
and eternally wide.
NEGRO CURSED.
THIS potential proposition borrows
weight from various sources and
suggestions. It is worth possibly
more than a moment's entertainment
in the light of an affirmative verdict
reached by "wresting the scriptures,"
more applicable, however, to the past
than to the present. It demands consid¬
eration in the face of arrogant assump¬
tions on the part of those who make bold
the assertion of Negro subordination and
Negro inferiority. It is in point in virtue
of existing conditions and far reaching
intimations from a dark past and unin¬
viting prospects.
A favorite proof text with those who
contend that the Hamitic people are
victims of an eternal anathema is found
in the " Cursed be Canaan " of the wine
distempered Noah. A curse to be such
must have more than a human backing
or authorization. Note the abortive effort
107
of Balak and Balaam against Israel.
Observe the reverse result in the
Almighty's dealing with Meroz through
the prophet.
Those who have striven to prove the
mental incapacity of the Negro with
those who have ruled him across the
human line into animal classification,
have not the slighest show of reason,
revelation or righteousness on their side.
The unanimous consensus of opinion
among the best men and greatest think¬
ers, side with the view of one com¬
mon race origin and the equality of all
men. It* is only a day since a learned
and great educator at one of the leading
institutions of the land, informed the
writer that after an experience of thirty
years' service among whites and colored,
he was prepared to say there was abso¬
lutely no difference, but that of complex¬
ion, between them. But it is not de¬
signed to chase a reduction to absurdity
in this connection. Those who construe
a divine curse in connection with the
history, and destiny of our race variety,
108
must attend to tlie burden of proof which
falls to their lot. We cheerfully deal
with the brighter and more certain ele¬
ment of the problem. Our marvellous
increase and progress as a people are
unmistakable evidences of the Almighty's
blessings upon us.
Negro emigration.
HEN Afro-Americans leave one sec¬
tion of the country for another, or
the place in which they live for some un¬
known land, they only do that which has
been done from time immemorial. The
memory of man runneth not to a time
when pilgrimage and emigration did not
shape the destiny of the nation or indi¬
vidual. In olden times Abraham jour¬
neyed not knowing his point of destina¬
tion. Israel went into Bgypt and departed
thence into Canaan. Indeed, the entire
history of that people is one of embarka¬
tion and vicissitude to such an extent
that they are universally spoken of as
the "Wandering Jews."
The nations of mediaeval history mani¬
fested the same unsettled condition, and
in modern times the same disposition is
prominent in every land where the
environment is hostile and unpropitious,
and where, by a change of base, the
110
people believe they will better their con¬
dition and that of tlieir posterity.
To this rule of nations, the Afro-
American is a willing subscriber, but as
yet is not willing to pay the bill. The
inarch of all powerful nations lay through
lowlands of adversity and pathways of
difficulty. As a people, the question is,
are we willing to follow in their footsteps ?
If so, why so disposed to complain of blis¬
tered and bleeding feet, and of encoun¬
tering so many thorns and so few roses.
Those who are dissatisfied with their
present surroundings should sit down,
count the cost and see to it that they are
prepared for a change, and thus put the
stamp of disapproval upon all hasty and
in temperate movements. There are certain
necessary preparations, without which,
except in cases of emergency, our people
had better remain where they are. They
must possess courage and backbone be¬
fore they flatter themselves that success
can be made out of the poor stuff they
constitute. If they possess this ingre¬
dient, they may arm themselves with the
Ill
other outfits and be ready for marching
orders at any time.
Among the essentials for the pilgrimage
of any sane individual, or set of individ¬
uals, is money, enough and some to spare.
The average Afro-American emigrant
does not believe in acting upon this ad¬
vice. He believes in " taking nothing
for his journey." This emptiness of
purse and absence of staff may not
hinder one's journey to the " city out of
sight," but will never do in the prosecu¬
tion of a passage to Liberia or Oklahoma.
Then the requisite of sense, good sense,
and sound judgment, must not be left out
of the calculation. Where these are
exercised the subject will be spared dis¬
appointments from without and self-
deception from within. The delusion that
flowery beds of ease will convey him to
the land he seeks will not be indulged
for a moment. That he will inhabit
palaces of plenty and luxury after he
gets there is a dream that can only soothe
his hours of slumber. With sound com¬
mon sense as his chief stock in trade, the
112
emigrant may hope for the best, while he
is prepared for the worst.
Let those who have cast their lots and
have tried their fortunes in a strange
land cultivate the virtues of patience and
fortitude. This is what the Pilgrims, the
Puritans, the Quakers, the Huguenots,
and our own African ancestors did when
they first came to this virgin country.
Since then centuries have passed away,
but not so the fruits of their patieuce
and fortitude. Some of the pioneers
turned back, it is true, but by far the
greater part, through their ancestors,
have continued to this day. As a result,
America stands out among the nations of
the earth as a garden of the Lord in many
respects. Let the Negro understand that
his hand, his sweat, his blood and his
muscles have helped to till and make it
what it is. Then, as he snuffs now and
anon the odor of its blooming grandeur,
let him be content to know that it is his
home, as well as that of the sober, indus¬
trious and aspiring of all the earth
besides.
NEGRO TRIUMPHANT.
TF there ever was a time wlieii justice
^ overslept itself or honor seemed dead
in the case of the American Negro, it
was when slavery tried to crush out his
manhood and seal his hopes in the grave
of blind despair. But even in those dark
and trying times hope saw glimmering
stars, and with songs in the night
shouted loud : " There is a just God to
plead our cause." Long before our
fathers prayed that heaven should hear,
the God of justice had decreed that stern
judgments should overthrow the oppres¬
sor, and that the songs of freedom should
drown the bloodhound's bay or crack
of slave drivers' whip. The pen and
tongues of the brave and true of those
days united their wholesome energies
with the faith and prayers of the right¬
eous. In the preachings of Haven and
Beecher, the writings of Garrison, the
speeches of Douglass, the poems of Whit-
tier, heaven set a thousand batteries in
114
motiun and touched them off at the proper
time. Though many of the stalwarts
for right forsook both Church and State
and trusted to the triumph of a righteous
cause, there were thousands reserved to
Heaven who never indulged a doubt or
crooked the knee to Baal. Lovejoy was
mobbed, and John Brown slain on the
holy altar of freedom, yet stout hearts
like those of Sojourner Truth and Lu-
cretia Mott beat on ti e music of truth's
eternal reign. v The State was lifeless,
the Church a walking corpse in the mat¬
ter of human freedom, and yet many
brave hearts needed to have their ener¬
gies quickened by the challenge, u Is
God dead?" which helped the great
German reformer, Luther, and which
served as a battle axe to Sojourner
Truth. No one should lose heart in
these later days of race adversity before
giving history full credit for what is
recorded in our favor. Until we have
tried the God of Heaven and He fails to
answer by fire, we should take our stand
with Klijah and "^low the false prophets
115
of Baal to cut themselves to their hearts'
content.
Ever and anon there are periodical
outbursts of adversities which darken the
heavens about us and which threaten to
undermine our march to the land of
promise before us. It seems as if every
step of our progress must be contested
before our footing is secure or before we
are prepared for the higher stages of our
destiny. With every curse of adversity
peculiar to our career since emancipation
there are associate blessings, and clouds
of despondence should not be allowed to
curtain them from our view. Faith and
philosophy are the glasses which, if well
adjusted, will enable us to discern a sil¬
ver lining to these o'erhanging clouds,
and gather apples of gold from the pic¬
tures of silver which crowd the galleries
of all people for whom heaven has re¬
served a large destiny.
Scarcely had the glad tidings of liberty
greeted the ears of our long captived
millions before the dogs of persecution
began howling upon our footsteps. The
11G
first of tliese brutes to bring us to bay-
were the bloodhounds of political antag¬
onism. Not until the bloody chapters of
Ku-Kluxism are unfurled in the light of
the judgment will the world ever learn
what the Negro paid for the experiment
of protecting with his ballot what was
purchased for him by bullets. Through
the ravages and havoc of this particular
type of adversity, it were no extrava¬
gance to say that in less than two dec-'
ades the blood of fifty thousand dark-
skinned victims stained Southern soil
and appealed to Heaven for vengeance.
The, parting counsel of the arch-champion
of slavery and secession to his sympa¬
thetic fellow-countrymen was, "Keep the
'niggers' down." The advice wTas given
in all sincerity, and no doubt the effort
was made to put it into lasting effect,
but in so doing the fact remained that in
the effort to degrade or exterminate the
Negro, Jefferson Davis and all such
morbid spirits contributed a negative
service which reacted most visibly in the
Negro's welfare. The fire-eating Negro-
117
phobist and States' Right chieftain lived
long enough to see the temple of his
cherished hopes anent the black man
dissolve like a summer's dream. In the
flesh he was an eyewitness to the
remarkable vitality and possibility of the
subject he would forever suppress with
shot-gun power or iron pressure. From
his own proud State he saw sable princes
mount the law-making chariot of his
country and drive to goals not dreamed
of. He .saw his own proud home, his
senatorial seat, his beloved state institu¬
tion of learning, the oligarchy of pride
and greatness, the throne of the Caesars
of Southern aristocracy, all, all over¬
thrown and passed into the hands of
former subjects, under the dominion of
those who, by the decree of divine
economy, have been ordained to reign
after a career of faithful service.
While slavery was a curse, we should
bear in mind that ignorance was, and is
a curse also. While the whites have
measurably paid and must still pay the
penalty of the one, the Negro cannot
118
hope to be exempt from tlie penalties of
the others. The barren wastes, the idle
resources, the hide-bound prejudice and
comparative poverty which abound
throughout the Southland, betray the
lingering lioofmarks of the slave monster
as his ghost hovers over this section
to day. The sound of justice cried to
the South for the wrongs of slavery, and
it gave millions of treasures and rivers of
blood. Almighty justice would soon
burn the mortgage still held against this
people if they were less disposed to
repudiate their over-due notes and begin
with a clean bill of health from Heaven.
As already noted, ignorance is a curse,
and entails suffering, no matter what the
hue or nationality of the victim be.
With Israel of old, the fact led the
prophet to vent the lamentation, " My
people are destroyed for lack of know¬
ledge." Other things being equal, the
possession of greater intelligence on the
part of those who so largely suffer at the
hands of the oppressor would serve as a
shield of impenetrable thickness against
119
his snares and fiery darts. Let us take
the instances of recent outbreaks which
so fearfully wrecked the confidence of the
race members in various communities
and sections against each other. Had
the sufferers been cemented together by
bonds of unity or guided by the light of
intelligence and wisdom there would
have occurred none of the lamentable
tragedies recorded, or if so the accounts
would have shown a different ending.
In the dark days of mob sway and out¬
rageous treatment the question properly
suggests itself, has the Negro friends ?
and will they aid him in the hour of dis¬
tress ? On first thought the impulse
naturally would be to pass beyond local
circles and go abroad in search of charity,
if such is to be discovered anywhere.
Let it not be concluded, however, that be¬
cause our local friends seldom show them¬
selves, or because they are rarely out¬
spoken save in cases of gross and flagrant
crimes, where no excuse can be given for
the whites who perpetrate them, let it not
be supposed for a moment we say, that in
120
any community where the "Cracker"
element does not predominate, the Negro
can not count on friends among the white
people. Without the pressure of such,
the residence or existence of colored
people among the whites would be well-
nigh impossible. To the credit of hu¬
manity and the glory of our Christian
civilization, let it be known far and near
that the colored man of the South can
point to individual friends among white
professional and business men and in
private families who will aid him in times
of need and go their cable's length in
helping him in any way. This is true,
however, of the experience of the indi¬
vidual colored man rather than of colored
men as a class. The claim by Southern¬
ers that they are better friends to the
race than Northeners are, is plausible, on
the ground that association with the for¬
mer is more general and less strained be¬
cause their friendliness is more pro¬
nounced in favoring the colored man who
is fortunate enough not to forget his place
as defined by Southern sentiment.
121
That the friendship cherished by the
whites of the North toward colored peo¬
ple is unsentimental, yet at the same time
genuine, only he who reasons blindly
will pretend to deny. If freedom is valu¬
able, if citizenship is more than a myth,
if civil rights amount to aught, if the pur¬
suit of happiness, the protection of prop¬
erty, the security of life, are hallowed
boons to be devoutly wished for by the
Negro, then he has these in larger meas¬
ure in the North than in the South; It
has been said by way of contrasting and
summarizing the relative value of the
North and South, that in the latter the
Negro has greater opportunity for making
money, while in the former he can spend
it more freely. Let Satan be given his due
by admitting that while one section is
a decided sinner in refusing to grant the
colored man his rights as a citizen, the
other is far from saiutliness in withholding
from him his dues as a brother. In the
North the schools are thrown open to him,
and class legislation does not oppose him
in any form. " Still the unwritten laws
122
exclude him from workshops and labor
unions, place a check upon the Negro as
a class, and invite indolence and crime in
larger measure among his kind.
The white man,, whether we meet him
first at the base of the Ural or Caucasus
mountains, or amid the barbaric hordes
of primitive Germany, in the undeveloped
England, or wild America, lays the broad
and deep foundation for the career he
plays, and the achievements he has made
by the embracement of the Christian
creed and faith profession in the Word of
God. There is no other safe passageway
or royal road to Negro race excellence
than that taken by our dominant brother.
In a word, if the race would rise and Hold
its own like others it must suffer as well
as toil like other races. On the Almighty
and mighty dollar it must take a firmer
grasp. Finally it must learn that know¬
ledge is power, and this with love and
faith will supply a three-fold cord which
no mortal power can break.
PRAYERS.
THE petitions offered in behalf of
others of a voluntary and benevolent
nature may be, after all, the most effica¬
cious, because the least selfish. Such
devotions indicate a frame and tone the
most heaven-honored, because the most
akin to the spirit and influence whose
subjects are in closest touch with the
mercy seat. He who commanded men
always to pray was not only a translucent
example of unceasing prayerfulness him¬
self, but the matchless personification of
its purest benevolence. The burden of
his intercessions while He lived was the
welfare of his independent followers.
His agonizing plea on the cross was in
behalf of those who sought to harm him
most.
It requires mammoth grace and good¬
ness to make others the subject of one's
thoughts and anxiety. When this is
done to the extent of toiling unselfishly
in their behalf, 110 greater evidence is
needed of the genuineness and effective¬
ness of our approach to the mercy seat.
PREACHERS AND POLITICS.
MUCH has been said and written about
the relation of the preacher to politi¬
cal matters. As might be expected unsound
conclusions are reached in the premises
since theories are considered of more
value than facts and since writers seldom
overcome the temptation to color their
theories with their prejudices or pre¬
possessions. If those who insist upon
the minister's sphere as being apart from
politics, would look beneath the surface
of the subject or beyond their noses
they would concede to the church and
preacher a relationship to politics not
only admissible but vital.
Once upon a time religion was straight-
jacketed and kept its subjects from every¬
thing save the life of a recluse. By it
art, commerce, education and whatever
magnified man in relation to his fellows
were condemned as unnecessary evils.
That was the darkest age of the Church.
When light was turned on, it was discov-
125
ered that music, letters, commerce, in¬
vention and wealth are creatures of God
and that whenever available are to be
harnessed into service to bless his cause.
Probably more light is needed to enable
men to see that the world still belongs
to God and that its dominion and govern¬
ment are not left entirely to either the
Prince of darkness or those of his choice.
Much of the deadly miasma with which
the political atmosphere is charged would
teem with new life and soundness by the
touch and contact of righteous teachers
and rulers.
The matter of politics, like the ark of
the covenant, is intolerant of human in¬
terference. What is wanted is to correct
the modes and methods and allow the
divinely instituted plan of civil govern¬
ment to take care of itself. When the
preacher is exhorted to pass by the affairs
of politics on the other side, the ex-
horter becomes more noticeable for self¬
ishness and self-seeking than for his
manifest sympathy for the wounds and
bruises of the suffering subject.
PREACHER'S LIBRARY.
A GOOD mechanic finds his tools an in¬
dispensable outfit and condition of
success. . The same is equally true of
the pulpit workman or sermon builder.
Such a person must have a well ordered
tool chest and make use of the same if
he would indulge the slightest dream of
becoming a master of assemblies of work¬
man that needeth not be ashamed. The
trowel, jack-plane, crow-bar and plumb-
line are mainstays in artisan vocation,
while books and papers may be depended
upon by the preacher to make him fully
equal to his special task. It is to be
noted however that unless he lives in the
inside rather than on the outside of his
books, the best stored library will do its
ministerial owner no more good than an
amply supplied larder or pantry will do
the digestive organs of him who only
looks thereon or is contented with the
nominal possession of such a blessing.
127
Bvery preacher should Have a good
working stock of books, but lie should
also see to it that he secures the same in
no surreptitious or dishonorable manner.
Better have 110 library at all than for
every shelf of it to contain some silent
but irrepressible testifier to the fact that
its inviting member has strayed or was
stolen.
The library maker who gathers his
volumes by friendly borrowing is not a
highway robber, but a rather sleek cus¬
tomer after all and entitled to no little
pity and a great deal of watching. The
bookcase of his honest neighbor or friend
may become scanty and lean, but since
his swells out in fatness the odds is the
difference. He will beg here, borrow
there and appropriate from yonder quar¬
ter until his stack of volumes mi^ht ad-
vertise his literary width and professional
depth. If such mortals be more than
book misers, they are not missed far in
the denomination of book pilferers or
literary sneak thieves. If any such have
crossed the reader's pathway may Heaven
128
forgive them. The writer with diffictilty
forgives, but will not soon forget, his
countless prodigal volumes and the
friends who aided their departure under
false pretense.
PREACHERS' DRESS.
'"THB minister should at all times be
1 a pattern for godliness. In practice
as well as profession sliould this be so.
His looks as well as his acts should pro¬
claim him an ambassador of righteousness
as well as the credentials he holds or the
appointments he fills. If cleanliness is a
form of godliness as the Scriptures declare,
he should be recommended as well by the
dress he wears as by the titles he bears.
The style or quality of his clothes is not
taken into account, for his support or
circumstances may warrant only a simple
and perhaps scanty outlay in the form of
wearing apparels. It matters not, how¬
ever, whether his garments be few or
poor, he is not and cannot be excused
from keeping them clean or from appear¬
ing neatly. A patched but unsoiled
shirt or a broken or mended shoe re¬
deemed by polish will go further in
the way of recommending the visiting
130
preacher or new appointee than their
unsightly opposites.
In high places of the Church there
have appeared those whose shabby dress
and slouchy looks indicate that they
were neither clergymen or gentlemen.
Henry Ward Beecher was sometimes seen
with upturned pants, soiled boots and
uninviting headgear. But the great
preacher under such conditions had an
object in view which he could best ac¬
complish without making known his
profession or identity. Under this un-
connnendable guise he could get closer
to the common classes than in any other
form and thus secure excellent material
for pulpit work and soul-saving service.
The class of our clergy who adopt this
slip-shod mode of appearance neither
magnify their office, commend themselves
or promote their work by so doing.
We have known Bishops to reject un¬
tidy applicants for admission to con¬
ference because they wore dirty collars
rather than clean ones or none at all.
Let such candidates but cross the minis-
131
terial gap and there will be no such, thing
as arresting their demoralizing progress
afterwards. Some of the best patterns of
neatness as well as godliness known to
the writer have been preachers of hum¬
ble stations and scanty income. The
dress is suggestive of character and
since this is so, the best possible appear¬
ance of the minister is highly in order.
PRIDE.
INORDINATE pride is a dangerous
1 form of weakness to the man, woman
or child who becomes its unhappy victim.
"Pride goeth before destruction"and "The
Lord knoweth the proud afar off," are
danger signals whose flame and thunder
the vain and haughty might well afford to
heed. Profane no less than sacred his¬
tory teems with instances confirmative
of the danger of harboring and nurturing
this canker-worm of the soul. Proud
conquerors, proud rulers, proud nations
have all lived to see the decline of their
pomp and vainglory, while the wrecks
of their grandeur are trodden under foot
by the rushing multitude of every
generation. Pride is a sign of weakness
not of power. The man, minister or
angel swayed by it has his price audit's
only a question of time for the Devil to
close the bargain.
PULPIT AND PRESS.
LONG since it used to be said that
kissing went by favor. The essence
of the trite observation, upon re¬
flection, will be found to flavor much of
the current charity and all of the average
religion of to-day. The institution the
people like, they will support. With all
its faults, they love the party of their
choice. Should they not fancy their
minister, a blue-mass pill, devoid of
the regulation sugar coating, is no less
palatable than the words that proceed
from his mouth. The few in a hundred
who will put God ahead of the preacher
and maintain the church because it is
right, can be expressed by the digits of
a single hand.
Were the pillars supporting the civil
and governmental structures so frail as
those 011 which society, both secular and
religious, depends, the entire fabric might
at any time cave in. In that case, the
134
citizen would consult liis inclination
before paying liis tax bill, or take up
arms to defend liis country from no will
or choice of his own. As it is, 110 such
indulgence is given to the subjects of the
higher powers. When the roads are to
be worked they must be worked. When
taxes are due they must be cancelled.
Every citizen must obey the summons
of authority or show cause why he should
not be held for contempt.
As educators of the masses, the great¬
est the ages ever evolved, there is a
mighty work before the pulpit and the
press. It is not enough for the schools,
the books or ethics to inculcate lessons
of duty. The thundering pulpit and
silent press must teach men to do right
because it is right, and to love virtue
and godliness for their own sake.
RELIGIOUS JEALOUSY.
HTHERE is all the difference between a
* zealous Christian and one that is
jealous. Yet, judging from the preva¬
lence of the latter class the Christian
virtue seems to be rapidly transferring
itself to the exchange list of the world,
flesh and the Devil. In all our born days
we have never known of so much zeal in
everything on the outside of the Church
nor of so much jealousy on the inside of
the Church. The cankerous spirit alluded
to ranges all the way from the mildest
form of admissible rivalry to the most
striking case of abominable envy. The
class leader, local preacher, minister,
presiding elder and even bishop devotes
altogether too much time to his more
gifted or successful neighbor and too
little by odds to those things by which
his own character and position can be
advanced.
It is good to be zealously affected in
every good thing, says the Word of in-
136
spiration. To be j ealousy affected because
of another's excellence or prosperity
along any line is evil, mean and diabolical.
The Church is choked to gasping with
such meanness in high and low places
while the world is overrun with such
diabolism. Unsanctified David may
symbolize the one while evil-spirited Saul
may stand for the other. With a king¬
dom in his grasp the one becomes incensed
because of the more fulsome eulogy be¬
stowed upon an underling like David.
In the same position later on the royal
shepherd appropriated the solitary ewe
lamb of a defenseless subject while his
own fold was remarkable both for abun¬
dance and variety.
It is not always necessary to show the
hand to determine the existence and in¬
tensity of one's jealousy. Often in high
places this evil spirit lurks and operates
like a cut-worm. The coat-of-mail in
the form of divine grace is the only armor
that resists its open or concert movements.
No weapon can prosper against those
thus entrenched and fortified,
SYMPATHY.
IB mission of Christianity is largely
the mission of sympathy. Men are in
need of sympathy as they are in need of
water to refresh, or air to sustain their
vitality. Because they fail to get it,
thousands constantly go down beneath
the waters of life to rise no more.
A strong indictment is in order against
the church for not expressing more of
the sympathy that blesses the giver and
receiver alike. Outside of the organized
charities there are numberless bodies to
be clothed and mouths to be fed. Aside
from the needless multitude upon which
gifts are lavished or beneficence is ex¬
pressed, there is a standing army of
unfortunates whose sores run, whose
nakedness is exposed, whose stomachs
ache from hunger, while purple and fine
linen rustle on every side, their wearers
faring sumptuously every day.
Let us sympathize with the erring,
138
considering lest we ourselves be tempted.
Let us give to those wlio ask alms, not
less than a kind word or a gentle look at
any rate. Those who would borrow of
lis let us not turn away without the sat¬
isfaction of having lent somewhat to
them.
However, it is not the lowly or im¬
poverished alone who need our sympathy,
but those in high places as well. Great
souls and exalted mortals receive but
little sympathy because poorly under¬
stood, if indeed at all, by those not in
touch with their environment and make¬
up. If upon such it is difficult to bestow
sympathy it is as little as we can do to
extend to them the hand of charity.
THE IMAGE OF CHRIST:
HE children of God should reflect the
image of Christ. In order to do
this it is necessary to know Christ, to do
His will, to assimilate His nature. As
the Son is the express image of the
Father, so must the sons of God be like
their Blder Brother. " Kvery man hav¬
ing this hope in him purifieth himself
even as he is pure."
How is this image to be obtained,
should be a pertinent question. % We
recall the cause of its fatal forfeiture by
Adam ; we should hail the occasion of
its total restoration by the Second Adam.
The Beast and his image are stamped
upon men in their fallen nature. To
destroy this work of the Devil was the
Son of God manifested.
The image of Christ is the likeness of
God. This latter consists of knowledge,
righteousness and true holiness, so Paul
tells us. The process of developing this
140
image is simple enough on the ground
of natural analogy. Why does the child
resemble its parents ? Why does it par¬
take of their image, in other words.
Being what it is the child becomes what
it does and spontaneously takes on the
parental similitude in spite of itself.
Begotten in Christ, living with Christ,
feeding on Christ, meditating on Christ,
longing for Christ and living for Him, it
is only a question of time for the child
of God to reproduce the life and looks of
his Saviour.
By singling out the attributes of Christ
and imitating them, progress of a gra¬
cious sort there may be. It will help me
to know how he acted when tempted or
when opposed, sinfully contradicted, or
persecuted and maltreated, but I will
never be able to exhibit his fortitude,
display his courage, exemplify his purity
or express his love unless the life of
Christ radiates from within.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
HE Lord's Prayer is the most match¬
less and perfect of all creature ex¬
pressions. The lips of Brahma, nor
tongue of. Confucius, nor breath of
Mohammed, nor mind of Buddha ever
vented or invented such a model of
human divine simplicity and complete¬
ness as this pattern prayer of Jesus the
Great Teacher of men. From centre to
circumference, from beginning to end it
is strength and fulness, depth and power,
beauty and richness, love and tenderness,
grace and untold beneficence. But this
is its divine side in its bearing and appli¬
cation to men.
The contents, if not form, of this uni¬
versal prayer should be the basis of
every hope and longing whose goal is the
ear and bosom of the Kternal. The
Spirit of this prayer at once elevates the
supplicant from his cell of individualism
and narrowness to the world-embracing
142
platform of love to God and love to man.
Gf course the individual petitioner is
blessed and benefited, but only as lie
casts himself in the boundless sea of
humanity and offers his frail craft to the
service of imperilled mortals besides
himself. His signal of distress is heeded
only as it carries with it a due sense of
the danger and needs of other kindreds
and peoples and tongues aside from his
own.
This opening sentence of the Lord's
prayer has ever accomplished more for
mankind than sword or constitution, no
matter how two-edged or far reaching.
There are walls and jungles made high
and dense by ignorance, pride and pre¬
judice which its heaven-charged dyna¬
mite is destined to penetrate and de¬
molish.
THE TIMES.
EVERY age is strongly marked by a
spiritual individuality of its own.
Not that peculiarity winch asserts itself
in one ethical or religious form or
another, but that which gives overmas¬
tering scope and intensity to these or
others besides. Its wave movements
excite concern never, unless in their
leaps and surges the shores of public
safety and human interests are threat¬
ened or imperilled. At just such a stage
of the progress of this " Zeitgeist," the
world may well be alarmed to-day. From
its violent and reckless expressions and
manoeuvres, however, no part of the
world need be so much alarmed as the
free and progressive country we inhabit.
By that we mean the courteous welcome
and entertainment accorded visitors and
emigrants from foreign shores. The
other is inseparable from the web and
woof of our social, business, intellectual
and national life.
144
In intensity and latitude the animus
of to-day is far more serious than that of
any preceding age. Malevolent in aim,
far-reaching in limits and devil-daring
in its methods, it threatens to undermine
society, overthrow governments, destroy
the church and curse the world as never
before. It is the uncompromising enemy
of'the home, the State, the sanctuary,
though professedly the friend of each.
Good will and prosperity may be the
missions of its tongue, but mischief is in
its heart. The end of its advent is to
kill, to destroy and to devour.
The wolf in sheep's clothing is abroad
in the land. Its fetid breath taints the
atmosphere of politics, of theology, of art,
philanthropy and philosophy, and
would poison every ramifying stream
throughout the realms of life and
thought. The time long since prophesied
of must have surely dawned upon the
world. Perilous times must not only be
at our doors, but already must have
forced an entrance. In deed are men
" lovers of their own selves, covetous,
145
boasters, proud, blasphemers, without
natural affection, truce breakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of
those that are good, traitors, heady, high-
minded." The pent-up meaning and full
force of the Ciceronian apostrophe. " O
tempore, O mores !" can best be appre¬
ciated now.
TOBACCO.
IF not an evil per se or tlie cause of
such, it will be generally admitted
tliat tlie universally popular weed known
as tobacco is at least the occasion of some
evil and no little evil speaking. Its
"use and abuse" would be the logical
method of disposing of it as an argument.
It is remarkable, however, that those who
use it less abuse it seldom, while those
who use it least abuse it most. Against
this luxury or vice as it is equally
reputed, the committees and floors of
conferences generally afford exciting
fields of engagement. As the forces
pro and con are marshalled in battle
array it is interesting and at times
amusing to the beholder to note the
waste of ammunition upon so deft a foe
at long range.
Under the guise of reports on temper¬
ance it is customary in a number of con¬
ferences to arraign the use of tobacco in
147
terms no less forcible than unjustifiable
at times. In this category we have heard
it denounced on every hand as "filthy,"
by some as a positively "immoral" in¬
dulgence, while on other occasions it is
put under the ban of an " unpardonable
sin " because its commission was nothing
short of a defilement of the Lord's temple
in the form of the body.
In such intemperate onslaughts on the
weed and those who use it there would
be much danger of accomplishing more
harm than good if a certain amount of
humorous equanimity of thought and
temper were not kept up by those
assailed. A certain devotee of tobacco,
on being assailed for smoking by a
ministerial critic who was known to be
guilty of greater shortcomings, con¬
tended that he preferred to smoke here
than to smoke hereafter, as would be the
fate of the self-righteous fault-finder. On
another occasion, upon listening to the
imputation that tobacco shortened life, it
is said that a patriarchal patron of the
plant admitted the plausibleness of the
148
claim on the ground that lie was one
hundred and twenty years of age, and
would probably live ten yeafs longer had
he been free from the habit.
Should more common sense and con¬
servatism be mixed with arguments con¬
cerning the vice or luxury of the tobacco
habit, it is more than likely that the
cause of temperance and righteousness
would profit by the experiment. In our
humble judgment, only those can speak
with authority in' the tobacco premises
who neither "use" nor "abuse" the
weed.
TRUTH.
HK question of Pilate goes echoing
through the ages. Men would do
well never to become impatient in its
presence and rush away to avoid its
claims. Pilate did this when he sought
the favor of the mob rather than the
counsel of Jesus. Possibly he had no
faith in the unlettered Teacher to answer
so profound a question, since the greatest
teachers the world ever knew were un¬
certain and misleading in the answers
they ventured to the mighty query.
Is a man justified under all circum¬
stances to tell the truth ? He is, says
ethics ; he may not be, says philosophy.
Is it ever right to mislead in word or
act, or conceal the truth, by look, silence,
suggestion or in any voluntary way ?
To thus discriminate is by no means
equivalent to asking : Is it ever right to
lie ? Is it lying for me to wear an invisible
patch on my shoe or to meet and greet
INNOCENCE.
151
an adversary with a pleasant smile ? Is
it lying to change the tone or tenor of
one's remarks upon the approach of a
third party? Should children be enter¬
tained with tales and stories? Much is
said after all about a man's duty to truth,
but it is seriously to be feared whether
that duty is clearly understood or not.
It is certain, however, that truth is both
relative and progressive. What I may
conceive and feel to be a truth may only
be its fraction or a satellite of some full-
orbed truth. The pupil of the eye may
so contract or its organic office become so
impeded by small light obstructions that
the individual may see only slightly or
not at all. Our prepossessions, ignorance
and biases ofttimes produce a similar
effect upon our truth-discovering faculties.
Those of us who feel heaven sent upon
missions of reformation would do well to
remember that the truth is onward in its
march and infinite in its sweep. No
individual knows it all and no age con¬
tains it all. The most any can hope to
do is to live the truth for he cannot
152
proclaim it all. To attempt the latter is
to soon mingle one's life with the martyr's
flame in perhaps more than a figurative
way. Incarnate Truth laid down an
inestimably suggestive truth when he
said to his disciples : " Many things have
I to say unto you, but ye cannot bear
them now."
WATCHMEN.
IT was the mission of the sentinel over¬
looking the walls of olden cities to
declare what he saw. The same duty
was enjoined by Heaven upon the
prophets stationed upon the walls of the
Church or nation in ancient times. Of
these by inspiration the Almighty is
made to say : " I have set my watchmen
upon thy walls, OJerusalem. They shall
not hold their peace day nor night."
The spokesman of church or leader of
national commission can not afford to be
derelict in the discharge of that commis¬
sion. He is not to be like the idol gods
which have eyes but see not or lips and
tongues but speak not. Were he to see
nothing and say nothing the Almighty
would have done just as well or better
by stationing blind, deaf and dumb
officers upon the outposts of his cause.
The cackling of geese saved the city of
Rome once upon a time. Unless the
154
representatives or guardians of a people's
interest or well-being are more silly tlian
geese, they must speak out. Men may
bid them hush, but if God bids them
speak, they must cry aloud and spare
not.