COcC<) -&UVU, THE SCOURGING OF A RICE, -and other sermons and addresses by W. Bishop Johnson, D. D., LL. D., Pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Washington, D. C.; Editor of the National Baptist Magazine. Copyright, IQ04, by W. Bishop Johnson, D. D., LL. D. City of Washington : Beresford, Printer, 618 F Street, N. W. I9°4 DEDICATED to the memory of my dear mother, MATILDA JOHNSON, whose Christian character and moth¬ erly instruction have been an inspi¬ ration and benediction to me all through life, and whose spirit I shall again commune with " when the mists shall roll away" iii Biographical Sketch of the Author. William Bishop Johnson was born in Toronto, On¬ tario, Canada, December n, 1858. He graduated from the public schools of Buffalo, N. Y., in 1870; the Nor¬ mal School, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1874; and Wayland Seminary, now Wayland College, of the Union University, Richmond, Va., in 1879, graduating as valedictorian of his class and taking the prize as best orator. He was baptized by Rev. J. W. Mitchell, then pastor of the Queen Street Baptist Church, Toronto, Ontario, in 1872, and was ordained in 1879 for the pastorate of the First Baptist Church, Frederick, Md., where he built a large congregation and was beloved by all classes of people. In 1881 he was appointed by the American Baptist Home Mission Society general mis¬ sionary for Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and in this position did great service for the educational work of 'the denomination, collecting thousands of dollars for its support and awakening the co-operation of the churches and con¬ ventions with Wayland Seminary. In 1882 he was appointed. Professor of Mathematics and Political Science at Wayland Seminary, a position he 'held for twelve years, until he voluntarily resigned to devote his time to pastoral work. During his con¬ nection with Wayland, as a member of the faculty, he acted as soliciting agent for that institution, traveling from the mountains to the sea, securing students, until iv the institution was too small to contain them. Hun¬ dreds of young men in all professions, in this country, love and honor their old teacher, and point to him as the first man that gave them a start in life. In 1883 he accepted the pastorate of the Seoorid Bap¬ tist Church, Washington, D. C., a congregation that had long been afflicted with internal dissensions, until its membership numbered less than one 'hundred. It now has a membership of 2,200 and one of the most beautiful church edifices in the city, built at a cost of $75,000 in 1895, with a present indebtedness of $20,- 000. It is one of the largest and most intelligent con¬ gregations in the city. Dr. Johnson is the originator of the Sunday School Lyceum idea in this country, having organized the first in 1885. After nineteen years of continuous existence, the Lyceum of Second Baptist Church is the most popular literary organiza¬ tion in the Capital City, gathering between 1,500 and 2,000 on Sunday afternoons, of Washington's bright¬ est and best people, and is a splendid tribute to his administrative ability as well as his literary taste. Dr. Johnson is still pastor of this church, and greatly beloved by all classes of Washingtonians. In 1891 he organized the National Baptist Educational Con¬ vention, which has since become the Educational Board of the National Baptist Convention. Through this organization he showed Negro Baptists their strength. He federated all schools owned, controlled, and managed by Negro Baptists, making them a part of the educational machinery of the denomination in co-operation with the National Baptist Educational Board. He gathered educational data and statistics from these institutions and showed their number, loca¬ tion, property valuation, and gathered since 1900, $618,333.10 for their maintenance and support. After reducing the work to a system and making it pay a living salary of $1,200 and expenses to a general secre¬ tary, he resigned the work at Philadelphia, Pa., in V 1903, not having received one cent of salary in estab¬ lishing a work that took over ten of the best years of his life to make a success. In 1893 he was elected managing editor of the Na¬ tional Baptist Magazine, the literary organ of the Na¬ tional Baptist Convention. The Magazine was to pre¬ pare the way for our publishing house. This it did by locating strong writers and showing that the de¬ nomination was ready for such an- institution. The Magazine was the finest periodical ever published by the denomination. Dr. Johnson showed himself to be one of the most powerful and versatile writers con¬ nected with the race. He had previously been editor of the Baptist Companion in 1886, and the Wayland Alumni Journal, in 1890. Dr. Johnson holds many positions of honor and trust, among which we name the following: Life member of the American Baptist Home Mission So¬ ciety; Virginia Baptist State Convention; National Baptist Convention; Trustee of Virginia Seminary and College; Trustee of Baptist Ministers' Home; Direc¬ tor of Young People's Christian and Educational Con¬ ference, and several others. As a preacher he is one of the most eloquent orators in America; he is an erudite scholar and a strong writer on any subject. We quote an extract from the pen of the scholarly Editor Isaac, of the Baptist Union, the organ of Negro Baptists. "We agree with our Connecticut contemporary that he is a magnetic, thrilling speaker. Dr. Johnson is a ripe scholar, with intellectual endowments of a rich and rare variety. He is well informed on subjects secular and religious. His appearance before an au¬ dience is a guarantee that the audience, if composed of thinking people, will be abundantly satisfied. He has the eloquence of intellect, not of imagination, and it is amazing to what heights he can reach. He excites his opponents in debate most easily; annihilates all con- vi flicting opinions, and turns whole assemblies into aston¬ ishment, admiration, and awe." He is in sympathy with all race enterprises and be¬ lieves in the capability of the Negro, first, last, and all the time. In 1888 the State University of Kentucky conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1904 'he received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the Virginia Theological Seminary and College. E. M. Brawley, President Bible Institute. Fernandina, Fla., July 25, 1904. INDEX. PAGE. Biographical Sketch of the Author, .... iii The Scourging of a Race i A Broadened Vision the Need of Twentieth Century Chris¬ tianity, 18 The Wheels of Providence 32 The Coming of Shiloh, 39 A Throne of Glory, .50 Citizenship, Suffrage and the Negro, .... 59 Ruth—A Noble Type of True Womanhood, 73 The Divine-Humanity, 81 The Baptists and the Reformation, 91 Seven Seals, 99 What Next ? 108 Eulogy on William J. Simmons, D. D., LL. D., . . 112 The Religious Status of the Negro, 124 National Perils, 133 The Character and Work of the Apostle Paul, . . . 140 Robert G. Shaw, 144 The Religious and Secular Press Compared, . . . 148 viii Index. The Value of Baptist Principles to the American Govern- ment, 154 The Church as a Factor in the Race Problem, . . 167 The Divinity of the Church 173 Christian Resources of Afro-Americans, . 181 The Vacant Tomb, 189 The Negro in War and Peace, . . 196 Human Character. Its Sure Foundation, 205 The Unspeakable Gift, . 215 The Church and the Age, 224 The Scourging of a Race. When a man's ways please the Lord: he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with ihim.—Prov. xvi, 7. And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto .the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.—Exodus xix, 3-8. The hour of trial is upon us. Nearly forty years have rolled into the deathless past and the American Negro has contributed his part to the world's civiliza¬ tion, and to the peace and progress of the American people, under the most discouraging and humiliating conditions that have confronted any people in all his¬ tory. It will be conceded that the peculiar economic and social surroundings of the Negro American are not of his making. He was made an element, in the life of this republic, without his consent, and has for nearly three hundreds years' residence in this Country, been a source of solicitude, a problematical quantity, in our national equation, which we seem as far from satisfactorily solving to-day as when we first com¬ menced its solution. All the wisdom and farsighted acumen of the people is baffled, and in spite of every imaginable barrier l 2 The Scourging of a Race. thrown in bis way, 'he has managed to stand up and contend for existence, giving as 'his right to live, the possession of wealth, religion, and education, three of the most important forces in the rise and progress of any people. Every question, affecting the development of a peo¬ ple in strength and efficiency, has its dark as well as its bright side. That the Negro has made unparalleled strides toward the meridian of the highest and best achievements no student of history will dare to deny. But while he has shaken the dews of a dark and be¬ nighted night from his locks, and helped to burst the chains of his own enslavement, so that he now stands with his face to the rising sun; new environments and stronger barriers, almost insurmountable, have thrown themselves in his path and he finds himself confronted with conditions that must contest his right to live among a people, whose traditions, language, institu¬ tions, and laws are against him. Whatever of sympathy he enjoyed in the morning of his freedom is now passed away, like the mists of the mountain top before the uprising sun; whatever friends stood in the fray in his behalf and battled for his betterment, with voice and purse and pen, have dis¬ appeared from the arena of public life and usefulness and he is left, without sentiment to make sentiment; without law to create a law for himself; without a voice to be his own voice, crying in the wilderness of American prejudice and Caucasian hatred, for the right to live and move and have his being, not as a slave nor pauper, not as a -criminal nor moral leper; but as a man, a citizen, a brother. ^ Here he stands; interwoven into the life and blood of the American people. Menacing their peace and progress, ten million strong. Here he stands; within his sable hands he bears the implements of toil; upon his sable face he wears the marks of intelligence and character; within his heart, The Scourging of a Race. 3 he bears no ill will to the hand that has forged the chains that enslaved him, nor the wild and senseless prejudice that blinds its sight to every evidence of his progress and all the record of his devotion to the best interests of every community where he lives. Here he stands; with a history for patriotism, that was writ¬ ten in the crimson tide that flowed from the body of Crispus Attucks in Revolutionary times and curled itself through every war waged by the American peo¬ ple, until it wrote of his daring and love of country, amidst the howling, dying, and smoking battlefields of El Caney and San Juan Hill, and e'en now carries his life in his hands, along with his white brother in the Philippines, to attest to the world, that though hated and oppressed at home, crushed and bleeding in the land of his birth, yet he dies fighting for the flag that protects every man but the Negro, who dies a willing sacrifice for it, away from home and native land. But it is not to our persecutors outside of the race that I wish to call your attention; it is to some facts as they relate to the vitals of race existence. It is to the danger line of our development. It is to remind the Negro of himself and to direct him to his God that I have asked you to be present this morning. The mighty achievements of the Negro stand like the granite walls of a Gibraltar; the silent and perma¬ nent progress he is still making, in spite of all obstacles thrown in his way, will be written up by some future historian. It is with the present I wish to deal. Nearly forty years of freedom finds us more heavily burdened than ever. Before our eves, we have seen swept away, everything that stands for citizenship, and that helps to make a people happy and prosperous. Now, why should the Negro be scourged so unmercifully after these years of sacrifice and service, in a land he has helped to enrich, and which he still helps to beautify and maintain? 4 The Scourging of a Race. If these hateful conditions affected one man, I should be inclined to pass them by unnoticed, but when they affect ten million Negroes, and steadily increase in their intensity and unreasonableness, from year to year, I am inclined to look behind all this constancy of persecution to find another cause and see whether the God of heaven 'hath not a purpose in passing- the Negro through these crucial fires, in order to teach a great lesson of love and endurance. "When a man's ways please the Lord He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." Do the ways of the race please the Lord ? God is in all history, and all history has a unit because God is in it. Provi¬ dence is the light of history and the soul of the world. It is only when we see God in history that we get at its clear significance and truth. God's providence is the golden thread that passes through the entire web of human destiny and gives it its strength and beauty and consistency. National calamities mean more than individual ones, because they affect a wider circle, since nations repre¬ sent more than the individual. Nations live longer than individuals, hence they make a record, more stable and lasting; their positions as creators of ideals and sentiment is vastly more far-reaching than the in¬ dividual. What is true of nations is also true to a lesser extent of races. Now, when God deals with a nation or race, and permits that race to prosper or retrograde, He has some mighty object in view— either that of punishment or reward. Whatever pun¬ ishment God extends to individuals or nations, on earth, is intended for their reformation, not always their utter destruction. If they hear and repent, God will be merciful to them and help them. If they persist in their evil course, God will utterly destroy them or cut them short of their glory. God punishes nations on earth; individuals in eternity. This was true with God's dealing with the Egyptians, The Scourging of a Race. 5 Babylonians, Grecians, Romans, and especially so of the Israelites, whose history during the forty years migration in the wilderness I have selected as a parallel of the Negro's forty years of meanderings in the land of freedom. I find many parallel lines and I shall show how God scourged Israel forty years. In the world's infancy, God made a promise to Abraham, one of the most august characters in history, and the Father of the faithful, saying, "I will make thee a great nation; and I will bless thee and" make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." —Gen. xii, 2-3. Seven hundred years after this promise, Abraham's children—Israel—are found in captivity to the Egyp¬ tians, where they are held in slavery, until liberated by the hand of the Lord. Upon the very hour of eman¬ cipation, Israel started upon an expedition to the promised land—a forty years' tramp in the wilderness. In this wilderness campaign they murmured against Moses and wished themselves back in Egypt. God gave them quail and manna. They murmured for water, and Moses smote the rock, so that they were supplied; they warred with the Amalekites; God 'gave them victory. They lapsed into idolatry while Moses was upon Sinai's burning brow, receiving the law from the hand of God, and the Lord destroyed the idolaters. In the midst of the journey, hostile nations arose against Israel and contested every foot of the ground and sought to keep them from the promised land. The Amalekites, Canaanites, Gibeonites, Amorites, Hittites, Perrizites, Jebusites, Hivites, and subsequently the Phillistines. Their enemies, in number, were as sands upon the seashore, and in size as giants; they fought Israel by day and night, but long as Israel remembered its covenant with God, and walked in his fear, she triumphed, but when she turned away from her de- 6 The Scourging of a Race. liverer, and went after strange gods, the God of heaven forsook her. All these enemies and adverses were brought upon these chosen people because of their ingratitude to God for his benefits to them as a people. Hear the record in Judges x, 6-J, "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim and'Ashtaroth and gods of Syria and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Phillistines and forsook the Lord and served not him. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he sold them into the hands of the Phillistines and the hands of the children of Ammon, and that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel eighteen years." Here is the indictment against them. Judges ii, 10-23. "And there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord, God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and 'he sold them into the hands of the enemies round about; so that they oould not stand any longer before their enemies. "Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them; and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges, which delivered .them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but .they went a whoring after other The Scourging of a Race. 7 gods, and bowed themselves unto them; they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so. "And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. "And it came to pass, when the judge was' dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant, which I com¬ manded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died; That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. "Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driv¬ ing them out hastily; neither ^delivered he them into the hand of Joshua." 1. They murmured against their leader, Moses. 2. They murmured about their condition. 3. They made a golden calf and worshiped it, and God applied the scourge to them, in order to bring them to their covenant with God and their duty to their deliverer. 4. They murmured against God and Moses—and God sends fiery serpents among them and they bit them unto death. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken^ against the Lord, and against thee, pray unto the Lord' that he take away the 8 The Scourging of a Race. serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. —Numbers xxi, y-io. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. And the children of Israel set forward and pitched in Oboth. Their disobedience was so marked, the forgetfulness of God so frequent, that only Caleb and Joshua were permitted to see the promised land, after forty years of toil, privation, sorrow, danger, disappointment, death, and expectancy in the wilderness. Truly, "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform, He plants his footsteps on the sea, And rides upon the storm." There is a close analogy between God's dealing with Israel and his way with the Negro, especially since emancipation. We all know in the dark, dark days of slavery, our mothers and fathers called upon the God of heaven to be liberated. They wanted to breathe liberty's atmosphere, and they promised God to serve him, even better, when slavery's chain had been bursted and they could worship him under their own vine and fig tree. We also know how Providence brought the creation of sentiment in the republic against slavery, through the matchless oratory and services of such men as John Brown, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Loyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson, Theo. Parker, Fred¬ erick Douglass, and Henry Ward Beecher. We do not forget how God put it into the hearts of Christians and philanthropists to establish schools and colleges for the education of the great illiterate masses of humanity, which we^e not prepared to take the first step in self-government nor self-support. We cannot eliminate this element of providence from any part of The Scourging of a Race. 9 our racial lives and whatever vantage ground we oc¬ cupy to-day, both in our individual and racial capacity, is directly due to that hand, "that holdeth all things in its grasp, and that gracious spirit that doeth as he willeth in the kingdom of heaven and among the in¬ habitants of the earth." We must not forget that the deep religious fervor, the unwavering faith in God, the beautiful fidelity of the Negro, to the principles of Christianity, is one of the most remarkable things in his history, and in spite of prejudice has deeply impressed the people among whom we live. Providence has led thus far. Let no one think, we do not figure in the divine economy, or that we are not an element, in the divine scheme for the world's enlightment and civilization. God is still with us. His sleepless eye is ever upon us. His arms, everlasting, are still around us. He is still our Sun and Shield. He still gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. But while God loves us still, we must not forget his word, which says, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." Let us look at the ev.ils, that have overtaken us as a people in the last few years and see if God is not per¬ mitting our enemies to scourge us as he did Israel. God has no new way to deal with nations or races. He says, "If any man will serve me, him will my father honor." And this honor is to be conferred in life as well as in death. "The hill of Zion yields A thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the .heavenly fields, Or walk the golden streets." He has been applying this rule of service and re¬ ward, since our first parents stood amidst Eden's bow¬ ers ; clad in innocency and dwelling in perpetual union with their God. io The Scourging of a Race. What is the scourge he is using to bring the Negro Race to duty? No one will deny that we are forget¬ ting God; we have spent too much time with the de¬ velopment of the intellect at the expense of our moral and spiritual natures. God has made man a sym¬ metrical being—put within him a trinity of forces— the intellect, will, sensibilities. He intended that no man should be properly trained until all these forces had been governed and disciplined. He intends that the .mighty powers of the soul should be directed to God and his law—that the heart should be made re¬ sponsive to duty to God and man. There is a notable loss of manhood among us. We are not chivalric in our treatment of the woman¬ hood of the race. We allow our women to be sub¬ jected to insults without resentment or demand for satisfaction, and so our children do not feel that father is much protection to the home. This weakness is seen in a disposition to live by our wits, to catch hold of any makeshift, in order to keep up life; to ignore honest labor, and to scorn the man whose hand is hard and horny, and whose sinewy arm is the bread winner for the home. If you take away from any race its manly men, you reduce that race to the worse condition of poverty. I mean by manly men, those who are swayed by noble principles, honesty, industry, purity of morals, thrift, courteous, friends of truth and righteousness. We suffer in¬ tensely from the lack of race unity. This keeps us from being strong and mighty instrumentalities, in the hands of God, toward advancing his Kingdom. We are not getting nearer together. The intelligent Negro, all things considered, is worse than his illiterate members of the race. This lack of cohesion, I regard as the most dangerous enemy to Negro progress. I find nowhere in history, where a race has become strong, that did not stand together as a unit upon the fundamentals of race development. This lack of unity The Scourging of a Race. II is responsible for all the evils, that have fastened upon us. We are disposed not to be led; to vilify and slander the men, whom we have selected to lead or who by superior advantages are in the lead; to under¬ rate their character and ability, to white people, when they have no concern in the matter. The Negroes are the only people who murder their leaders, with slander and misrepresentation, and then permit them to lead as though they were paragons of perfection. They have allowed none to escape, from the highest to the lowest. No people succeed without leaders and it is a slander upon the race for any man to publicly announce that there is no Negro good enough to lead another Negro; no Negro physician, no Negro law¬ yer, no Negro teacher, no Negro preacher, to be trusted. Shame on any Negro who shows his weak¬ ness by such statements. We are not careful enough about the moral atmosphere of the home. There are dangerous and deadly enemies, asking admission into our homes. There can be no place on earth like home. No race will rise higher than its home life. It is the basis of race existence and development. It is the supply house for the moral energy of the race. From its sacred walls must go forth the real men and women, who are either to honor or dishonor. We should not exclude God and the Bible from the home. God in the home means peace and prosperity; means inspiration and hope for the young and com¬ fort and edification for the old. The light of the Bible is like the body of heaven in its clearness; its vastness like the bosom of the sea; its variety like the scenes of nature. It towers beyond the blue secrets of heaven, and spreads all its trophies at our feet. Thank God for the Bible in the home. We are not growing in -our faith in God. We are depending too much on secondary things. A race, without faith in God, is a race of idolaters. Man rriust have some object of worship. God says, "Thou shalt 12 The Scourging of a Race. have none other Gods before me." We are told by a man, who stands for much as a leader, that we ought not to say so much about dying, and more about liv¬ ing; that we should get more of the world and less of religion; such doctrine as that will be responsible for any army of infields in the next twenty years. Heaven help a race that forgets God. That is one of the rea¬ sons God scourged the children of Israel, to bring them to God and duty. We make the mistake of attributing all our pros¬ perity to secondary causes. Here is a man who says, "I am prosperous because I attend to my business; I am honest, industrious, temperate." These are beau¬ tiful things in themselves—honesty, industry, temper¬ ance—but no man is prosperous only in so far as God permits him to prosper. "Every good and perfect gift cometh from above." There can be no permanent prosperity when we ignore God, as the bountiful giver to mankind. Thousands of men have been shipwrecked upon this rock. Read the record of illustrious men; how melancholy, often, are the latter days of those who have climbed the heights! Caesar is stabbed when he has conquered the world. Diocletian retires in disgust from the government of an empire. Godfrey languishes in grief when he has taken Jerusalem. Charles V shuts himself up in a convent Gallileo, whose spirit has roamed the heavens, and surprised the secrets of the most distant stars, is a prisoner of the Inquisition. Napoleon mas¬ ters a continent, and then expires on a rock in the ocean. Mirabeau dies of despair when he has kindled the torch of the revolution. The poetic soul of Burns passes away in poverty and moral eclipse. Madness overtakes the cool satirist, Swift, and men¬ tal degeneracy is the final condition' of the fertile minded Scott. The high-souled Hamilton perishes in a petty quarrel, and curses overwhelm Webster, in the halls of his early triumphs. What a confirmation of The Scourging of a Race, 13 the experience of Solomon! "Vanity of vanities"— write it on all walls, in all the chambers of pleasure, in all the places of pride. God sees in the Negro evils to remedy, which he cannot see himself. His wisdom is gradually fitting him to play a mighty part in the world's history. God is our master, and it is his prerogative to throw around us whatever discipline, as shall best fit us, for what¬ ever service he may have for us in the great sweep of divine foreknowledge, and in the very work yet to make us "pillars in the temple of our God." There has always been an inseparable connection between sacrifice, service, and suffering. No people has ever been placed upon the altar of sacrifice by the Great High Priest of the universe, who has not served a high purpose in the economy of grace, and God has not called any people to sacrifice, service, and suffering without crowning their lives with rich and abundant reward when they have been faithful. It is the language of divine inspiration, "He that is faithful in few things, I will make ruler over many." The attempt of our enemies to humiliate, crush, and destroy the Negro, is one way God is applying the scourge to the race. In every section of this country race hatred and prejudice is on the increase. In many places where its poisonous breath has never been felt before; in sections, noted, heretofore, for fairness and justice, it has forced men to forget the common laws of humanity, and join the howling mob that cries, "Down with the Negro!" "Kill him!" "Lynch him!" The fact that in all the South, vitiated and devilish public sentiment born of ignorance and sectional preju¬ dice has placed upon the statute books laws that force the railway companies to provide a separate coach for Negroes; and that puts no premium upon respectability nor financial worth, but says to the immoral, criminal, and diseased, "Go mingle with the moral, purity, best brain and character of your race; huddle in the dirt 14 The Scourging of a Race. and filth of a separate coach, and pay the same fare as those who ride in a luxurious adjoining car," and this in a country of boasted liberty; the friend of suffering humanity abroad, while festering crowds are suffering within our own gates. This legislation intended to humiliate the best Negro; to crush his manhood and destroy his race pride, is the scourge in the hands of the Almighty, driving the Negroes together and preparing them to surprise the world in racial unity and self-protection. The disfranchisement of the Negro, by which he is reduced to a political nonentity, is another scourge with which God is whipping the Negro to acquire property and education. It is simply making him a stronger man -in the community, and while it robs him of the badge of citizenship, it brings him to the point where he finds it to his advantage to build character and make himself so thoroughly an essential element of progress and prosperity that an exalted public senti¬ ment will be created against this relic of human selfish¬ ness, American prejudice and race legislation, which will bring the South to its senses and sweep it forever from among a people whose declaration of independ¬ ence declares all men "free and equal." Such legislaton as Jim Crow car laws cannot live long among a free people and at this stage of civiliza¬ tion that is everywhere putting a premium upon worth, not color; upon character, rather than accident of birth. The fact that the Negro is not secure in his life and property, but is ruthlessly lynched under any pre¬ text or exiled from home because he has an opinion and expressed it, is another scourge. That such an appalling sentiment could exist; such a dangerous and deadly unwritten law could be sustained, in a country like this, shows an unjust and wicked public sentiment that sustains it. Here are the courts that guarantee a fair and impartial trial to the humblest citizen, ignored and a state of anarchy and mob violence placed in their The Scourging of a Race. 15 stead. Men administer law to suit themselves, in the face of duly appointed administrators, appointed by the State and elected by the suffrages of the people. There are but few places in America where the lives and property of Negroes are secure.. The civilized world knows this. Our fame as a nation of lynchers, who does not believe in the courts we, ourselves, have established, but resorts to lawlessness and murder is internatonal—universal. This lawless spirit among us takes-the American people out of the list of humani¬ tarians and classifies them with the Russian Massacre, Chinese Boxers, and African Cannibals. Lynching is now an American pastime. And no one can tell when the most representative Negro will be subjected to the noose or provide a roast for a howling mob. All this makes the Negro unhappy and creates in him a temptation to be unpatriotic when the nation's life is in danger and puts him out of harmony with everything American. The Negroes do not intend to leave America, and the American people might as well arrange to take him along. Assimilate tljem as a part of the people; and let them go up or down upon their own merits. If they cannot stand the severe pressure of competition with other people; if they have not in them the natural qualities that can fight resistance, legitimate resistance; if they cannot stand the crucial fires, along with others, then they ought to die and be forgotten. God is permitting all this lawlessness, this flagrant injustice, this ingratitude of the American people for the Negroes, who gave their lives to save this country against the white men who plotted to ruin it; God per¬ mits these things to come upon us, that we may be made perfect through suffering and ready for the battle that will come some day in this country between right and wrong; between the weak and strong. Be¬ cause a race is once backward is no sign it will al¬ ways be so. Japan is an illustration of how "a little 16 The Scourging of a Race. one may become a thousand," and how that same little one .will some day surprise the world. The American people are as unreasonable as they are unjust. They damn us if we do; and they damn us if we don't do. The Negro has reduced his illiteracy at a greater rate than any other people. He has shown that an education does for him what it does for every man—-makes him conscious of his relation to others; improves his condition; makes him a better citizen and a nobler man. And yet we are told the educated Negro is a failure, and 'that education unfits him for service. Whatever may be the criminal record of the race in this country, it is not made up of the educated Negroes. They have not contributed to the prison houses and the great army of those who care not for law and order. The door of opportunity has been closed and barred in their faces, and they have been denied the smallest chance to succeed among the people, yet we find them in possession of sterling character, church, school, and private property; their homes are models of refinement and their children clothed in neat and becoming apparel. Can the Anglo-Saxon say as much ? Does he forget the large percentage of educated crimi¬ nals, who 'hold position of public trust? Is there an¬ nals, Who languish in prison cells; the malfeasance in office of those who hold positions of public trust? Is there another people, judging from grand jury indict¬ ments, and judicial decisions, who hold a more just title to outlawry, thievery, bribery, embezzlement, robbery, murder, and every other crime found in the catalogue of. crimnology than the white people, and do not the educated classes among them find a large representa¬ tion in jails and prisons? Now, if education ruins, whom does it ruin, the Negro, or the white man? No one need worry about the Negro and his education; he has such a fine start up the steeps of knowledge, that only God can hinder them from reaching the Pierian heights. All these evils are the scourge of the Almighty, provoking the The Scourging of a Race. 17 Negro to a larger faith in God, and a more devout Christian life and service. The lives of our fathers were marked by prayer to God for direction and pro¬ tection. The lives of their children must be charac¬ terized by the same. It means heaven's sympathy; heaven's assistance; heaven's protection. The hour has come when the race must fall upon its knees and in the name of that God that hears the cries of the oppressed; that Christ whose sacred heart is filled with sympathy and whose holy and omnific arm is always outstretched in behalf of those who love him, and who declares no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that rises in judg¬ ment shall be condemned—call, with unwavering faith, for 'help against the mighty; against those who fill the earth with widows and cause the orphan's heart to bleed. Wlhen a man's ways please the Lord ;he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. See to it that our ways please the Lord. That the heart beat of the race is in union with God and in harmony with his law. See to it that no other gods shall take the place of him who weighebh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance and who meteth out the heavens with a span and holdeth the waters in the hollow of 'his hand. Let us turn our faces toward the God of heaven, acknowledging our sins and finding forgiveness in the blood of a crucified Redeemer. Then shall our enemies turn from us; then shall the Lord return to Zion and everlasting songs of deliver¬ ance shall be upon our tongue; and the desert and solitary place shall clap their hands and men shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation, neither shall they learn war any more. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 2 i8 The Scourging of a Race. A Broadened Vision the Need of Twentieth Century Christianity. riftv-Cighm Rnniversarv Sermon of Emanuel Baptist Church, New Haven, Conn., Rev. A. C. Powell, D. D., Pastor, 1903. "Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it."— Psalm xc, 16-17. Between the mount of vision and the mount of ful¬ fillment there stretches the wide, deep valley of sacri¬ fice, service, and suffering; the way of crossing this reveals the method and character of the one passing from mount to mount. Many have visions, a few have fulfillment; but the price paid in the valley tests the character. Joseph, the son of Jacob, stood on the mount of vision in the morning of life. The garnered grain in the harvest field and tlhe sources of light in the fields of space were of letters of gold and silver for the spell¬ ing of the vision. At high noon of life's day Joseph sat upon the mount of fulfillment with a waiting world at 'his feet. Between the morning and the noontide stretched . the valley with its pit, prison, and palace. The measure of the man is found, not in the vision, nor yet in the fulfillment, but in the valley between. Moses, the son of Jochebed, had a vision of a freed people: he thought his countrymen would understand how Jehovah meant to free them by him, but they understood not. Eighty years later he stood on Nebo's The Scourging of a Race. 19 mount looking down upon an organized nation, a dis¬ ciplined army, out upon the Promised Land, waiting for the call of God. Between the vision and the ful¬ fillment stretched the forty years in the country back of the desert, and forty years in the wilderness of wandering. These eighty years are the price of suc¬ cess and the measure of character. - Jesus, the son of Mary, stood upon the mount of temptation and had a vision of the world with the kingdoms thereof. The sum of the world's civiliza¬ tion passed before Him in panoramic beauty; power is the condition of conquest, and surrender is the price of power. Three years later He stands upon the mount of fulfillment. All power is given Him in heaven and in earth. The price asked on the mount of vision would have cost Him power in heaven; the price paid in the valley returns him power in heaven and in earth. Tihe three years of sacrifice, service, and suffering re¬ veal Christ's missionary method, and by the method the character. In winning the world Christ depends upon two forces—truth and life. Truth must be taught; life must be sacrificed. Christ was a Teacher and a Sacrifice. He calls on the church to teach truth and to sacrifice life. Christ was the Great Teacher. On the threshold of his mission Nicodemus welcomed Jesus as a Teacher sent from God. He accepted the title, called His fol¬ lowers disciples, depended upon teaching to draw men to Himself, sent His disciples into the world to make disciples. Isaiah," speaking for Jehovah, says: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways." The ways express the thoughts. Thoughts are the soul of ways, ways are the body of thoughts. To lead men in God's ways we must first teach men God's thoughts. "As a man thinketh in his 'heart so is he," and as ihe is so is the universe to him. Every man stands at the center of his universe. To change the center is to change zenith, nadir, and horizon. To 20 The Scourging of a Race. change the mind is to change the center. The key¬ words of the kingdom of God are repent,^ believe, to repent is to change the mind, to believe is to accept the new truth. "The mind is its own place, and of itself can make a hell of heaven, a heaven of helL Christ came into the iworld to bear witness to the truth: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Christ's kingdom is truth; it may be taught, received, and received changes the character and transforms the life. In every undertaking we have an end or ends to an¬ swer, to which all our labors are directed. It is no less so in religious undertakings than in others, and as these are pure and worthy of pursuits, such is the good or evil of our exertions. What are, or at least should be, the great end of 3 Christian congregation in rearing a place for divine worship? What are the main desires of serious peo¬ ple among you now it is reared? If I mistake not, they are depicted in the passage I have read: That God's work may appear among you in your own time —that it may be continued to posterity—that God would beautify you with salvation and prosper the work of your hands. All the work of God is great. He is a being whose center is everywhere, but whose circumference is nowhere. He is easily understood by the lowest of his spiritual children, but incomprehensible to the highest and mightiest seraphim that burns and blazes around His throne or hurries to do heaven's high be¬ hest. His work is great in miniature as well as mag¬ nitude. With one hand He -holds the pillars of a bound¬ less universe in their places and rwith another paints the lily with beauty; with one hand He weighs the towering mountains in scales and the hills in a balance and with the other places the golden sand grain in position, by the restless heaving sea; with one hand 'he is making a ring of one hundred thousand miles The Scourging of a Race. 21 in diameter, to revolve round a planet like Saturn and with the other is forming a tooth in the feather of the humming bird or a point in the claw of the foot of a microscopic insect. With one hand iHe leads forth the Sun from his oriental chamber, until its meridian rays guild earth and -sky, and with the other whips the surging, angry billows of old Ocean into silence, saying, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further." With one hand He feeds the myriad hosts of feathered beauties and with the other scatters His blessings among the higher order of His creation. Nothing escapes His notice; nothing lives without His smile. He spake, and out of the womb of chaotic confusion leaped a beauteous world. He commanded and there stood man, the noblest work of creation. Man, the breath of the Almighty. The imprint of Jehovah. The wonder of angels; the being that filled heaven's eyes with tears, in his fall, and called out the highest acclama¬ tions of glory in his redemption. Man—noble in reason; infinite in faculty; in form and moving ex¬ press and admirable; in action like an angel; in appre¬ hension like a God. Let the work of creation appear. The Psalmist de¬ sired an enlargement of vision, a widening of spiritual sweep. He prays for visibility. It is necessary for our spiritual growth and development, to take a sort of panoramic view of the works of God. To stand upon the height of faith, and let pass all of God's goodness, in creation, providence, redemption. To hear, anew, the infant voice of a new-born universe and see worlds roll up out of nothing and take their places in the magnificent spectacular procession of the works of God in creation; God among the nations; God moving in His unchangeable and eternal purposes, along the line of human history—of human destiny. God rolling out of the confusion that sin has made, a world pre¬ pared for the coming Messiah; God "moving in a mys- 22 The Scourging of a Race. terjous way His wonders to perform, planting His foot¬ step in the sea and iriding upon the storm." In the work of God, the smallest beginnings lead to some sure result. Great revolutions result from the most insignificant starting point in the government of God. pod said at the fall of our parents, when Para¬ dise trembled with his wrath, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's .head." It took four thousand years to teach the world what Jehovah meant by this first promise to our first parents. There are no dis¬ connected events in the universe of God. The natural and moral worlds are held together, in their operations by an incessant administration. It is the mighty grasp of a controlling