Newspaper Page Text
SOUTH-WESTERN BAPTIST, ' THE CHRISTIAN HERALD,
of Alabama. in.- 0F Tennessee.
ESTABLISHED I 8 21.
Table of Contents.
Fiist Page—Alabama Department: Address
of W. Wilkes; The Religious Press.
Second Page—Correspondence: An Evan
gelistic 1< ur; Baptist Inconsistency ; The
Average Minister ; Church News; A Work
oi Grace; Reminiscences of Mercer; Jot
tings By The W ay. Missionary Departs
ment.
Third Page—la It You?—poetry; Bits of
Advice, etc. The Sunday -school —Idolatry
Punished: Leeson for September 11th.
Fourth Page-Editorials: Prayer for Gui
teau; We uns and You’uns; Inconsider
ate Criticism ; Glimpses and Hints; Geor
gia Baptist News.
Fifth Page—Secular Editorials: German
Emigration ; Books and Magazines ; Bap
tist History and Biography; Georgia News.
Sinh Page—The Household. Anchored In
Heaven—poetry ; “Live While You Live, '
An Address to Young Men; “He Giveth
His Beloved Sleep”—poetry ; September—
poetry (illustrated). Obituaries.
Seventh Page—The Farmers’ Index: Farm
Work for September; Second Quarterly
Report of the Department ot Agriculture;
Colton Statistics.
Eighth Page—Florida Department: Facts
and Figures; Baptist News; Mission Re
ceipts ; A Good Mission Work.
Alabama Department.
BY SAMUEL HENDERSON.
ADDRESS OF REV. IF. WILKES.
We cheerfully yield up our space
this week to the following address by
Rev. Washington Wilkes, delivered by
appointment at the last session of the
Alabama Baptist Convention. It
handles the subject discussed with an
ability, dearness and force which those
who heard are free to pronounce ex
haustive. Perhaps there is no subject
now confronting the religious people of
this country that surpasses it in its
present and prospective importance.
Bro. Wilkes has given it much thought,
and has cuee>reded quite well in invest
ing the whole question with a practi
cal interest that must produce a pro
found impression. We have often
wished that many of those earnest,
telling thoughts that are thrown off
at our great denominational gather
ings, could be caught up and impris
oned, so to speak, in our newspaper
literature. This, in part-, we aim to do
in the publication of this address, at
the instance of a large number of intel
ligent men who heard it, as we could'
not yield our space to any matter more
profitable to our readers.
Evangelization of the Colored
Race. —“God hath made of one blood
all nations of men to dwell on all the
face of the earth.” This wonderful
family of Adam is diversified by differ
ent languages and orders, colors and
castes. Nor are these differences the
result of climate or accident; but of
divine purpose and providence. As one
star differs from another star in glory,
and variety marks the whole physical
world, so also of the social and intellec
tual world.
But all these countless millions of
human beings are subjects of the same
divine government; accountable to the
same awful Judge; and destined to a
state of endless existence.
The Gospel is appointed to be preach
ed to “all nations” —“to every creature.”
Yet not to all at the same time. For
the spread of Christianity was to be
progressive and expansive. It has its
analogy in the seeds sown in the field,
the grain of mustard cast into the soil,
and the leaven placed in the meal.
Salvation pours its blessings through
the dispensation of the fulness of time.
The Jews had their dispensation till
the beginning of the fulness of the Gen
tiles was brought, in. Since then, the
nations of the Gentiles have had and
are having their gospel visitations ac
cording to the prophets. Creation was
the work of six days. Redemption the
work of something over four thousand
years. And the evangelization of the
world will be the work of all the future,
as it has been of all the past part of the
Christian dispensation.
But the object of this address is to
consider one branch of the subject only.
And that is the evangelization of the
colored people in the United States ;
and more especially, of the Southern
States.
ITS IMPORTANCE.
The importance of the work cannot
reaeunably be denied. On the contra
ry, I believe, it is generally ackonwledg
ed. It is a part of the great woik of
the ‘world’s evangelization. It is em
braced, therefore, in the commission.
The gospel looks to every kindred and
race for a people to be taken out for the
Lord. This link in the chain oi divine
purposes must not cannot, with impu
nity—be over looked. It has an impor
tant bearing'on the whole framework
of our American compact and interests.
It sends out its appeals from the shores
of eternity, and lifts up its cries for the
knowledge of the way of life.
ITS GRANDEUR.
Nor does its importune! outmeasure
its grandeur. Christian lienevolence
gathers increasing glory with its des
cending steps to do good. What were
all the honors of Egypt with which
Joseph was crowned, compared with
the peerless grandeur of character,
evinced in the tender words he uttered
to his weeping father’s helpless and un
worthy children, when he said, “I am
Joseph your brother.” And Moses
but the mere mention of his name in
clines us to turn away, as he did at the
burning bush, for the glory that covers
his character— refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. And
for what? For suffering and service
with the people of God! John the Bap
tist, preaching the gospel to the rude
multitudes in the wilderness; Paul the
apostle, becoming all things to all men ;
the Son of God himself, exchanging
celestial honors and glories for a broth
erhood of adversity with fallen human
ity ; these are among the instances
which illustrate the true grandeur of
character, when self forgets itself in the
interest of immortality.
A DUTY.
To promote this work is no less a
duty than it should be a pleasure.
Common philanthropy unites with
Christian obligation to impel the
friends of an improved state of human
ity to favor this mission. If the law
of Moses was comp, nsative in its pro
visions for the well being of manumit
ted servants among the Jews, surely
the law of Christ cannot be Jess gener
ous in its provisions for the spiritual
good of freedmen among Christians.
The seeds cf this nation’s wealth have
deen sown, in no inconsiderable degree,
in the Northern sales and Southern
labors of the colored people. The du
ty of all, therefore, would seem to be
emphasized by such considerations.
RIGHT AND WRONG MOTIVES.
But the duty would lose both its
virtue and hope of success in a section
al spirit. One country and one peo
ple—one work and one God; this
should be the motto of workers in the
vineyard of Christ.
Nor would a temporizing spirit be
less subversive of the true character of
Christian duty. Bible principles are
deathless and changeless. Practices
get their character from the principles
that actuate them. If we of the South,
therefore, were ever unprepared, on
principle, for this work, we are yet un
prepared. Certainly so, except a
change has been wrought in our senti
ments and convictions. But in the
absence of moral and religious agencies,
which alone would be adequate to such
a result, the change were impossible.
External, martial agencies can never
effect an internal, moral, or religious
change. Nor was such a change need
ed. We are consistent and sincere
without it.
FACTS IN PROOF.
Facts are imperious things. What
are these? One is, that Africa has re
ceived her largest Missionary benefac
tions, proportionally, from Southern
beneficence. Another fact is,that South
ern Christians, more than all others,
have given religious attention to the
African race in America. Everywhere
—in country or village, in town or city
—a fair proportion of church accom
modation was always furnished for
them, either in the same house with
the whites, or alone to themselves. It
was the practice no less than the pleas
ure of Christian preachersand pastors,
to preach to both colors, either at the
same hour on the Sabbath, or to the
white people at 11 and the colored at
3 o’clock. Nor did any of our churches
seek or desire these people to withdraw
from our Sabbath-day worship. No
otbejs of this race know as much of
Christian doctrine and church polity
as do these Southern Christian negroes.
Good church buildings were erected for
them, and able preachers employed to
preach to them; and in some cases
this was done by a single slave owner
at his own voluntary chargee, for his
own slaves, and free to others who
might attend the worship.
These proofs are but a few which
might be adduced out of hundreds, in
attestation to our consistency in work
ing for the salvation of the negro race.
ALANTA, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER I, 1881.
And such an array of FACTS is the just
award of history, and should ever be
kept before each rising generation in
truthful memory of our departed
fathers. •
We do not. claim perfection for our i
ancestors. Far from it. But we do ’
claim that the worst type of slavery is
not its true history. Thousands of
Southern hearts throb with tearful emo
tion to-day, as deploring recollections
go back to its abuses. And in the reli
gious concerns of these people, our
foreparents did not, and we do not,'
come up to the full measure of duty.
But who is perfect? Who has met the
full obligation, to give the gospel to
every creature? But brethren, in the
inscrutable providence of God a wider
door of utterance is set open before us.
Let us move up to the situation. And, j
like Issachar of old, have knowledge of I
the times, to know what Israel ought j
to do.
A CLOSER VIEW.
A closer view of the subject, in three
brief points, will lead us to consider:
1. The natute and circumstances- of
the work. It is singular and peculiar.
No other work is like it. Its subjects
are among us—at our doors—in our
dwellings. They are here. Here they
must remain. There is no other coun
try for them suited to them. Their
attachments, interests, and preferences
will keep them here. They must help
in shaping the nation’s economy and
the nation’s destiny. They are a liv
ing influence in society—a character
in American history—a factor in the
problem of our futute national weal or
woe!
Whatever may be the external dis
tinctions between them and us, there
is nevertheless, deep down in the na
ture of things, a oneness beyond hu
man control. Shades of character will
blend together. Rivulets of influence
will gather into strong currents.
Character is essehtfal in free govern
ment. Religious establishments and
civil despotisms, do not depend so
much on the character of their mem
bers and subjects. But where a peo
ple are free in person, property and
conscience, every thing depends on
character. What evangelical religion
makes of a people thus free, is about
all ' hat can be relied on for harmony
and prosperity among themselves, or a
proper comprehension of their relation
to law and order. This mission, there
fore, would seem to press its claims on
American Christians, with more than
common force.
SLOW PROGRESS.
The progress of this work, at best,
must be slow, in the very nature and
circumstances of the case. The field
of Christian beneficence is large. It is
the world. The laborers comparatively
are few. Other missions are establish
ed, and cannot be abandoned to sup
ply the lack of service here. Strong
prejudices on all sides are to be eradi
cated. Christianizing a people is not
the fitful work of a moment, but the
progressive work o Aime; not the work
of engraftment, but of evolution. No
people can be lifted up until they come
to realize their own needs and respon
sibilities. Out of themselves must
evolve a hearty response to proffered
aid. What is done for them will not
supply the place of what must be done
by them. To bring up a people to
these conceptions is no hasty or light
work. Nor do the advantages enjoyed
by the people among us make theirs
an exceptional case, as compared with
others in a strictly heathenish state.
For these advantages have been too in
formal and inorganic to lay the foun
dation of a thorough Christian enter
prise in. They were restricted by the
supposed if not the real ‘necessity of
those times.
The gospel of their salvation was not
restricted either in its nature or its ful
ness. But church organism was. For
it was thought to be better and safer
on all sides that the discipline and
government of the church should be in
the hands of the more intelligent and re
sponsible owners than of the less intel
ligent and less responsible slaves. Nor
was this a strange view of things as
they then existed. For it was then
known, as it is known now, that a state
of slavish bondage and full evangeliza
tion, in depth, and scope, and form,
can never go together. Hence, the re
ligious attention which we gave our
colored friends while slaves, looked
mainly to their souls’ salvation. Very
little attention was bestowed, or thought
advisable, byway of organizing them
for an aggresive cooperation with our
selves. Moreover, these partial advan-
tages have been largely countei balanc
ed by post-bellum extremes and exces
ses in icligious matters. Freedom with
many of these people was religion, and
the natural exhilaration which followed
was Christian revival and rejoicing.
; He was a bard case, indeed, who went
1 through one of their six or eight weeks’
I meetings, and did not get happy and
I see visions.
All these things are to be overcome
and corrected. And to correct wrong
habits is far more difficult than to in
• duce right ones. And although scores
of thousands of these souls have heard
and embraced the gospel; and although
their knowledge of church matters is
better than that of their race elsewhere,
yet so smattering and imperfect is
their knowledge of the form and order
of religion, as to render a revision of
the whole external structure of Christi-
I anity among them necessary.
I 2d. What., now, are some of the
( qualifications for this work?
SOUND KNOWLEDGE AND COMMON SENSE.
They who would engage successfully
ip this duty must be possessed of sound
practical knowledge and common sense
not to say a tried and tested piety.
A correct knowledge of the race they
work among; their real wants and pe
culiarities; their habits of feeling and
thinking and acting—in short, of their
whole idiucrasy.
Workers in this cause must have, al
so, an affecting knowledge of the ne
groes true condition and possible future
in /hie country. He is a stranger and
a sojourner here, in a strange land ; .'ar
ar- iy from his ancestral home. Though
born and brought up among us, he is
nevertheless a natural exotic; thus,
in m important sense, friendless, home
less. helpless, hopeless. Christian Eu
rope has help for her children abroad.
Heathen Africa has no help for hers!
T ie dollar and cent, indeed, once aided
u 8 his guardian and his nurse.
li’Jw far.* now pbliticaf consideration’s
may go in ’making him the friends he
seems to have, God must judge and et
ernity disclose. Anyway, when the
last of these ties and incentives is sun
dered, —when he can no longer be
utilized for profit or party,-what hope
shall remain for the colored man be
yond that which he may find in a pure
gospel generosity? Only those, there
fore,—always comparatively a small
number, —whose benefactions are un
selfish, will come to his aid.
Poor “red man of the forest!” No
man once cared for his soul! For none
were bound to him by ties of money,
politics, or national blood. Only of
late, under the setting sun of his earth
ly existence, has he begun to share in
a full Christian beneficence. What bet
ter would the state of the black man
be under similar relations and circum
stances I
• SELF DENIAL.
Self denial, also, is a necessary qual
ification for this service.
They that wear soft raiment are in
kings’ palaces—not among the motley
throngs in the wilderness of the Jordan,
nor the sable multitudes of these United
States.
Every mission has had its opposition.
Added to opposition in this, there will
be criticism and censure. This state
of things will demand a firm convic
tion and strong moral courage. The
more thoughtful few must bring up the
less thoughtful many to harmony and
cooperation. The delicate complications
which environ the epbject complete
the. list of reasons for the necessity of
self-denial.
MUTUAL QUALIFICATIONS.
And there must be mutual qualifi
cations between the workers and the
subjects of the work. Mutual Chris
tian sympathy and confidence. Nor
is this feeling hard to find between the
white and colored people of the South.
What might seem to be signs to the
contrary,are only the results of extrane
ous influences in secular affairs. The
good feeling which former master and
servant had for each other has never
been obliterated. Wherever they meet
until to-day, the most hearty band :
shaking shows the deep and abiding
friendship which they feel for each
other. Their children and ours, also,
show closeness of feeling for the fathers’
sake. They and we love to meet at the
dear old homestead ; saunter around
the old dwellings and cabins; walk
about the old, waste plantations; and
stand in mournful silence by the graves
of the departed dead—both theirs and
ours. No such kindred feeling is to be
found between any other two national
ities as that which exists between these
two races in the South. For this reason,
therefore, it is not arrogance to say, no
other people are so well fitted for this
service as those whose home bred sym
pathies and feelings have grown up
together with those whose good is to
be sought.
3rd. Wherein is to be found the true
I ground of success?
UNION OF HEARTS AND HANDS.
This can be found only in the union
of hearts and hands—oneness in senti
ment, and cooperation in practice.
Union is strength. Harmony is power.
Division is weakness. Dissension is
childish. Animosity is wickedness.
When the cause of disease is remov
| ed, the sick man is expected to get
’ ■ well. If he does not, there is something
.' else wrong. Bad blood, or an ill tem
. i per, a hasty exposure to an unhealty
j atmosphere, or a disordered state of
; the constitutional functions in some
way, either or all of these things, may
retard his recovery to a former state of
health. Nay, his disease, only acute
1 at first, may be thrown into a chronic
form, and then baffle all skill to arrest
! I it. Such is true in a figure of the
’ body, social, religious, political.
The strongest possible bond and
motive to Christian harmony, is to be
found in the work of bringing sinners
to Christ. The elevation of these mil
lions of colored people, furnishes the
most hopeful basis of reunion and co
| operation that can ever be presented in
| God’s providence to American Chris
' tians.
And it should be remembered by all
' anti-Papal Christians that, if religious
deliverance does not come from them
to the colored race, religious bondage
• i will come upon them from another
' source—a bondage far worse than their
former domestic bondage. For Roman
• Catholic bondage is that of soul and
! conscience!
I j Nor should Baptists especially ignore
£be significant fact that they,den«jmin-
I I ationally,are above ail other’orders most
! welcome among the colored people.
■ Without religious bias, because un
courted for their influence, they readily
see and eagerly accept the plain
teachings of the New Testament in re
gard to its doctrines and ordinances.
Said an able, but excentric white
preacher of my acquaintance twenty
five years ago, when about to baptize
quite a number of colored applicants,
“Now, my friendsand brethren, it takes
a great deal of learning and arguing to
get people to be sprinkled ; but when
we negroes want to be baptized, we just
look into the New Testament, and go '
right to the creek.” These people will be
Baptists, if you will give them a chance.
Nor is union of hands - cooperation
—of scarcely less importance than
union of hearts-harmony of sentiment.
This would easily follow the other.
Both are indispensable.
Southern Christians cannot meet all
the demands of the work. They may
—no doubt they have —the qualified
men. But they have not the means.
They are poor. Especially are these
more southern States poor. This very
useful, but too much idolized old
"King Cotton,” has made his throne
too high in our hearts, and extended
his dominions too wide in our fields.
He has ruled, indeed, till he has almost
ruined us! He has emptied our corn
cribs, and swept our meat houses! He
has blinded our minds and turned our
eyes abroad for our daily support! All
this wild rage for cotton-raising, per
sistingly continues in the grim face and
crushing jaws of the painful experience
that our present system of labor is the
most unreliable, irresponsible, and un
controllable in the world! Thus the
price of our folly in agricultural econ
omy, added to the loss of millions of
money in the results of the late war, —
these things united, make us very poor.
Our people are generous. But when
the whole financial machinery of over
a century is up-turned from its very
foundations, the generosity of a people
can only weep, while their disability
limits its deeds.
Our brethren at the North are rich.
They may not have the qualified men
as we have, qualified by a thorough
personal acquaintance with the pecu
liar temperament of the race. But they
and we must learn to work together.
Our limited means and their abundant
resources must be united to make a
common fund for the support of this
enterprise.
, FINAL QUESTION.
Can these things be done? Can those
i who were once enemies ever become
■ friends? Can Christians cease to hate,
• and learn to love? How long shall the
, Son of God be wounded in the house
VOL. 59—NO. 34.
of his friends? The world is waiting
for an answer to this varied question.
Infidelity is shouting over its past his
tory and doubtful future! Our breth
ren in the Old World are searching to
know what are the signs of the times
over here. The issues of eternity bang
on the problem! Three worlds are con
cerned in its final solution! Let others
do as they may, why should not Am
erican Baptists see together, act wisely
and do their mighty part. And why
should not Alabama rise up to her full
measure of duty, until every kindred
and race in our bounds shall have
heard the gospel of the grace of God?
rhe Religious Press.
Dr. J. R. Graves speaking in the
Baptist of the action of the Richmond
Board in recalling the appointment of
Messrs. Stout and Bell, says:
But we took up our pen to express our
hearty approbation of the action of the For
eign Board in declining to sei d forth these
disciples of Prof. Toy. to inform the benight
ed heathen of China that the Scriptures we
propose to give them in lieu ot their Sacred
Scriptures, are possibly uo more inspired
than theiis, and that certainly large parts of
them are purely mythical, and the state
ments of other pans wholly unreliable as
facts.
* * * * * * *
Had the Board sent them foith after learn
ing from them that they did not believe in
the plenary inspiration, and much less in
the verbal inspiration, of the Scriptures, and
that they did believe that very many of
the narratives of the Old Te.-tameut are pure
fictions, we should have felt it our duty to
say that the Board had justly forfeited all
claim to the confidence of the churches
whose agents they profess to be.
And The Index would have felt it
its duty to do the same thing and so
we think would every Bap.ist paper in
the United States, except the Courier
of South Carolina.
But in another column Dr Graves
speaking of those who are- willing to
“iiV*ept M church-fellowshipypersons
who havfe b§en baptized by ministers
not Baptists, calls them “time-sbrvers.”
It would be easy for the persons so de
signated to say, “You’re another.” But
nobody would be convinced, and both
parties would feel aggrieved. It would
be better for the reply to take this
shape: “Brother Graves, we are sorry
that you think us so base as your lan
guage describes us to be, but we hope
to be enabled by divine grace, so to live
as to convince you that you are mis
taken.”
We find in the Christian Register,
'a Unitarian paper, published in Bos
ton, a most excellent sermon, from
which we copy an extract. The text
is, “The world by wisdom knew not
God,” and the object of the sermon is
to show that intellectual culture is no
remedy for sin, a doctrine often advoc
ated by The Index.
Under the wide spread influence of Ch rigs
tian faith, we have never had in modern
Europe a state of society so foul as that of
the higher classes in the Roman Empire in
St. Paul’s day. But there are differences
enough in the various countries ot Europe
to day to make it evident that the centres of
intellectual activity and of outward civiliza
tion are not the centres of the most efficient
moral and religious influence, and cannot
be pointed out as illustrating the greatest
strength of moral character and purity of
moral life. Look also at onr own country
and among men whom we personally know,
* * * * * * *
Some of the noblest examples that I have
known were highly intellectual and cultivat
-1 ed persons; but some also whom I have held
in highest respect for their moral strength
and faithfulness to a clear andjofty concep
tion of honor and duty have certainly been
laboring men and serving women, who did
not know enough of human learning to
write their own names. But their names are
written inetfaceably in my memory, and on
the eternal records of tbe just made perfect.
Knowledge is not wisdom, it is but a tool
for wisdom to use; and it is a tool which
wickedness and moral folly can use also. A
merely intellectual education increases a
man s power, not only tor good, but, il the
man chooses, for evil. A merely intellectual
education, so far from improving a man’s
character, may, by injudicious guidance, do
it harm.
Yes, and observe those portions of
our country where education is most
prevalent, and compare their morals
with those where it is least prevalent.
Where is divorce aj one to nine of the
marriages? Where is foeticide a wide
spread sin? Where is Spiritualism, and
where are all the other isms? Educa
tion is valuable in morals only where
it is under the influence of the Gospel
of Christ. If we must choose between
high culture and illiterate but genuine
faith, we have to say, "I count all
things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord.”
—Rev. W. E. Paxton, of Warren, Ark.,
will soon publish "A History of Louisiana
Baptists,” a book of some 500 pages. He
will make it a work of value.