SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS
By C. V. ROMAN
^Warlesy.Roman I
■ The country lost an able physician, teach--
er and writer in Dr. Charles Victor Roman,
professor in Meharry Medical College and
director of the health department - of Fisk
University and A. and I. State College, Nash¬
ville, Tenn. '
Dr. Roman had just passed his 70th "birth¬
day, but he left behind him a busy life in
which he had carried out Carlyle's injunction
to "produce, for God's sake, produce." ,!
The excellence of the National Medical
'Journal was in a large measure due to Dr.
Roman, who wrote on a variety of topics front
"Ear/Eye, Nose and Throat" to "Christian
Ethics" and a "History of Meharry Medical
College."
Like Kelly Miller at Howard University,
Dr. Roman was the grand old man of Me¬
harry. He gave the medical college long
and unselfish service and the college regard-
v ed him as its foremost alumus arid teacher.
Science and Christian Ethics
PART I
Statement of Principles
PART II
Religion a Necessity to Man; Defense
of a Creed
PART III
Racial Self-Respect and Racial Antagonism;
Principles Applied to the Solution
of a Socio-Ethico-Economic
Condition
By C. V. ROMAN, A.M., M. D., LL.D.
INTRODUCTION
"Know thyself," wrote the Grecian philosopher of old.
"The proper study of mankind is man," echoed the English
poet a thousand years later. The human mind finds itself
limited to five general concepts; God, Nature, Man, Time,
and Eternity.
Man's attempts to find God have grown out of the logi¬
cal necessity of Man's reason. The thoughtful mind must
find a gnosis. The pious lucubrations of the saints are
just about as illuminating as the learned disquisitions of
the philosophers. The Scriptural declaration that "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth," is no
more insubstantial than the Scientific acceptance of a
"Supreme power, in and through which the primitive spe¬
cies of natural evolution must be postulated to have had
their genesis." The "Unknown God" of Paul is just as
intelligible as the "Unknowable Noumenon" of Spencer.
Passing over the concept, God, as indefinable in the
terms of Science, we turn to the consideration of Nature,
which may be defined as (the totality of existence excluding
God and Man.^ While not entirely satisfactory, this def¬
inition will meet the purposes of this discussion.
Man is a self-conscious, self-centered being with limited
powers and I unlimited aspirations. He seeks to enlarge
his powers by studying Nature, and realizes his aspirations
by learning God.
v
vi
Introduction
TIME is but a figment of man's imagination, by which
he seeks to measure the perpetual flux of created things.
ETERNITY is that distant Aiden of the Soul where
TIME shall be no more and aspirations shall cease, never-
ending duration where
"Everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flowers."
Man is so auto-centric in his thinking that he studies
everything in relation to himself. Nature, he studies that
he may dominate; God, he ponders that he may anticipate;
Time is his instrument, and Eternity his hope. It is this
Auto-centric view which has crystalized the conclusions of
human experience into the sentiment that "the proper study
of mankind is man;" especially is this true in Man's relation
:o Man.
SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN
ETHICS
(A Lecture Before The General Conference of The A. M. E
Church, Kansas City, Mo., May, 1912.)
What we are physically, morally, and intellectually is
the result of heredity and environment. These forces
complement and overlap each other, but at times are quite
antagonistic.
HEREDITY is that biological law by means of which
livings beings tend to repeat themselves in their descen¬
dants.
ENVIRONMENT means literally, that which environs
or surrounds. I have used it to mean the totality of forces
and conditions that surround us, and with which we inter¬
act.
For the purposes of this discourse we will regard as hered¬
itary those forces that operate upon us through our
parents,—immediate or remote,—and as environmental,
those forces that act directly upon us as individuals.
Heredity beginning before birth, continues with varying
intensity during life. Environment also acts continuously
throughout our lives; mediately before birth and immediate¬
ly thereafter.
(7)
8
Science and Christian Ethics.
While education may be regarded as a result of environ¬
ment, it is not entirely so. Heredity plays a part. Cumu¬
lative or tribal education, i. e., knowledge common to the
species, is hereditary. (Illus.—The beaver reared in
captivity away from water dammed a stream of water
running across a floor from a leaking bucket.)
Education is a drawing-out, rather than a putting-in
process, as the Irish woman said, "I never yet sawr a hen
that could hatch out of an egg anything different from what
was in it when it was laid."
No amount of training will make a race horse out of a
donkey;—trained and brushed and rubbed, he is still a
donkey; but, (and here is the gist of the whole matter), a
donkey is worth more to society than a race horse; and a
man's natural talents properly developed are worth more
to his community than any artificialities that education
may superinduce.
Heredity is conservative—"Every tree bears fruit after
its kind." "Like produces like." "The thing that hath
been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is
that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under
the sun."
"Is there anything whereof it ma}^ be said, See, this is
new?—it hath been already of old time, which was before."
(Eccl. 1:9-10.)
If heredity were unopposed, progress would be impossible.
Environment is educative, evolutionary, and progressive.
The story of human development is repeated in the life of
every individual adult, who has evolved from a single
protoplasmic cell (monad) to the myriad-celled microcosm
MAN. 'Tis a wonderful story, the creation of man.
Science and Christian Ethics. 9
"Since God collected and resumed in man
The firmaments, the strata, and the lights,
Fish, fowl, and beast, and insect,—all their trains
Of varied life caught back upon his arm,
Reorganized and constituted man,
The microcosm,—the adding up of works."
"Tis not less wonderful because repeated in every child that
is born. (Illus.—There are animals representing all the
phases of human evolution from cell to man. A hog, a fish,
a man are scarcely distinguishable when but a few days
evolved from the egg.)
But environment unopposed would destroy all stability
of form. As the union of the centripetal and centrifugal
forces of gravity keeps the stars in their courses, so heredity
and environment combine to keep humanity in the orb of
progress. We are the playthings of FATE and the children
of CIRCUMSTANCE- From the warp of heredity and
the woof of environment the web of our lives is woven. In
this sense the words of the preacher are true:
"For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth
beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so
dieth the other, yea, they have all one breath; so that man
hath no pre-eminence over a beast." (Eccl. 3: 19.)
From a wide philosophical viewpoint then, it is nonsense
to speak of a self-made man. How can a man select his
race, his parents or his country, where and when he would
be born? And upon what stage he would play his life's
piece? Yet, notwithstanding the conditions are rigidly
fixed, we are permitted within these conditions to fashion
to out- liking the play of life.
"Our lives are songs; God writes the words,
And we set them to music at pleasure;
The song grows glad or sweet or sad,
As we choose to fashion the measure."
10
Science and Christian-Ethics.
It is this individual flavoring of life that gives us that in
tangible thing we call personality that indescribable
something that makes me, ME, and you, YOU.
It is an harmonious cooperative blending of individual
personalities fostered by heredity and favored by environ¬
ment, that constitutes a race. It is this individual flavor
that makes conversation worth while, and lectures en¬
tertaining and instructive.
By the power of thinking and communicating with his
kind, man HAS pre-eminence over a beast, and only by
this power. As a man thinks, so is he. Not his looks, nor
his stature, but his thoughts, make the man. This is as
true phyletically as individually. Ontogeny is phytogeny in
miniature, and there is a phyletic or tribal mincf"as truly
as there is a personal or individual mind. Moreover, this
tribal mind is as determinative in marking the destiny of
nations as the personal mind is in the career of individuals^
The distinctiveness of personality is a distinctiveness of
thought, rather than of appearance, of mind, rather than
of matter; and racial distinctions are psychical rather than
physical. Psycho-phylology will yet become one of the-
important sciences.
Common beliefs and experiences bind men more closely
than blood. It's a well-known fact that the ties that bind
comrades in arms, or through long and perilous asso¬
ciation of any kind, are stronger than ties of blood.
"I think all investigations that have been made,
up to the present time, compel us to assume that the
characteristics of the osseous, muscular, visceral, or cir¬
culatory system have practically no direct relation to the:
mental ability of man." (Manouvrier and Boas.)
Science and Christian Ethics.
11
Thought, as we know it, is a function of the brain; and
the brain will not function unless stimulated from without;—-
i. e., a person that cannot see, hear, smell, taste or feel
cannot think. Since, then, our thought comes primarily
from external impressions, to think exactly as the other
fellow thinks, we must in a very literal sense be in his
boots,—but this is impossible; hence the infinite variety in
humanity.
Nature seldom, if ever, duplicates; though she rarely
fails to repeat. All is variety and repetition; yet, the per¬
mutation is infinite. Every one at times thinks with the
poet that "Nature hath framed some strange fellows in
her time." It never occurs to the observer that he may be
one of the "strange fellows."
Here is the seed of controversy.—Ignorance rather than
meanness is the cause of strife. Suspicion thrives in the
absence of knowledge; and enmity is the child of darkness.
Disagreement is characteristic of misunderstanding. Lim¬
ited knowledge begets inharmony. In a murky atmosphere
objects are indistinct. Ignorance is the source of bigotry,
and prejudice the fruit of inexperience. Personal exper¬
ience is the measure of all things, and by this standard we
try the conduct and preachments of others.
Faith in the accuracy of these judgments by personal
experience stands in inverse ratio to the extent of that
experience. The less a man knows, the surer he is that
he is right—Individual beliefs become orthodoxy, and ego¬
tism builds a wall against progress. Men resent new ideas
as either false or dangerous or both. New teachers are
pitied as fanatics, or persecuted as enemies. The learned
but listless few say with Pilate, contemptuously and con¬
descendingly, "Art thou a king, then?" the ignorant many
12 Science and Christian Ethics.
declare, "We have no king but Caesar," while the interested
leaders cry, "Away with him, he blasphemes." But the
tide eventually turns, the new is accepted and the historian,
whether sacred or profane, may say with Matthew—
"The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and
to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light
is sprung up." (Matt. 4: 16.)
The persecuted criminals of one generation become the
saints and martyrs of another. Man learns but slowly
from experience, and new phases of truth are seldom hos¬
pitably received. Our prejudices cloud our judgments and
we try to define the possible by what we personally know
or believe. Thus the ancients wrote ne^lus ultra upon the
Pillars of Hercules, and Modern Science has done the same
thing upon the outer rim of the Milky Way, a distance
400,000,000 times as great as from here to the sun, and
through which it would take light 6,000 years to travel.
So the disciples and immediate followers of Christ set the
bounds of his kingdom within the purlieus of the region
David swayed; but modern Christianity is looking forward
to the time "when every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess" the reign of the King of Righteousness, and the
boundaries of his kingdom are beyond the conception of
man. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be."
The greatest acquisition of a cultivated man is a liberal
frame of mind, or way of thinking, a mind that can say
"Truth! how sacred is the treasure;
Teach us, Lord, its worth to know.
Vain the hope and short the pleasure,
Which from other sources flow."
The truly cultivated mind will not regard disagreement
as- sufficient cause for enmity. Only two classes of people
Science and Christian Ethics.
13
can agree on all points—the densely ignorant and the pro¬
foundly wise. People that can see nothing can always
agree on what they see, and people who see everything
clearly and accurately can do the same thing. We that
belong to neither of these classes must be charitable, which
is the goal of ethics; and try to understand and help each
other, which is the hoped-for fruition of all science. In
other words, among cultivated individuals, differences of
opinion become subjects of converse; as a diversity of prod¬
ucts promotes commerce among nations.
"A certain resemblance is found in any two opposite
regions of the sky, no matter where we may choose them."
So with human conduct, "Learn what is true," says Science.
"Do what is right," says Ethics. Either road leads to the
desired goal; for when men seek the TRUE they will also
find the RIGHT; and when they seek the RIGHT they will
also find the TRUE-
All truth is harmonious, and all knowledge inter-related.
The human tympanum may contain within its minute
crevices the mysteries of acoustics, and the graceful curves
of the semi-circular canals may hide the arcana of the rolling
ship. The complete mastery of any one subject would
read the riddle of life. The poet's apostrophe to the weed
is literally true.—
' Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you cut of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
'I.ittle flower,—but IF I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is."
In our search after these relationships to find "what God
and man is" we must give fixed meanings to words and es:
14
Science and christian Ethics.
tablished methods to arguments. "Define all your terms
and prove all your propositions, thus becomes an axiom
of clear discussion.
What then, is SCIENCE? What is ETHICS? Is there
a connection between the two? Is the teaching of Christ
and his followers sufficiently distinctive to warrant the
phrase, "Christian Ethics?" These are some of the ques¬
tions suggested by our subject—
SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
SCIENCE is knowledge systematized. It is worldly
wisdom at its best. "The work of a true man of SCIENCE
is a perpetual striving after a better and closer knowledge
of the planet on which his lot is cast, and of the universe
in the vastness of which that planet is lost."
ETHICS is that branch of Science which has for its
object the investigation of Human Conduct. "Ethics
taken in its proper signification, includes two things. On
the one hand, it consists of an investigation into the nature
and constitution of human character; and, on the other
hand, it is concerned with the formulating and enunciating
of rules for human conduct."
There is then, a connection between Science and Ethics,
between knowledge and conduct. That is, conduct is a
legitimate subject for the investigation of Science. But
Creeds are of no value except as they control conduct;
therefore the lives of believers become a legitimate standard
by which to measure the value of the faith they profess.
In the Court of Reason, then, the conduct of Christians is
an index to the value of Christianity in the lives of men
and Christian Ethics is a reality and a proper subject for
Scientific investigation.
Science and Christian Ethics.
15
In the physical sciences it is conceded that the quantity
of force which can be brought into action in the whole of
nature is unchangeable. This is known as the Conserva¬
tion of Energy, or the Persistence of Force, and holds as
good in Metaphysics as in Physics—in the Moral world as
well as in the Physical world. Why should Personality
be less enduring than Electricity? Or Mind less permanent
than Matter?
Who can draw the line? The discovery of a day may
revolutionize the thought of a century. The metaphysical
of to-day may be the physical of tomorrow. Witness the
Xrays and the emanations from Radium. A lie is as much
a reality as a louse, and the power of metamorphosis is as
great in the moral world as in the physical world.
Astronomers calculate that there are a thousand million
stars in the measurable universe, all harmoniously obedient
to physical laws. I believe that the power that controls
this universal concord is the God of Heaven and Earth,
who in His own good time will permit man to see
"The day in whose clear-shining light
All wrong shall stand revealed,
When justice shall be throned in might
And every hurt be healed.—
When knowledge, hand-in-hand with truth
Shall walk the earth abroad,
The glorious day of righteousness
The promised day of GOD."
Science teaches the law of causation or sequence. In
Nature's economy there are no accidents. "The lightest
fancy that ever fluttered its painted wings in the horizon of
Hope was as necessarily produced as the planet that in its
orb wheels about the sun." The theory that a "fortuitous
16
Science and Christian Ethics.
concatenation of accidental circumstances could explain
phenomenal nature was only an ideal dream of some who
thought themselves
"Deep scienced in the mazy lore
Of mad philosophy."
"Science," says Hamilton, "is a complement of cognitions,
having in point of form, the character of logical perfection
and in point of matter, the character of real truth."
This logical perfection and fidelity to truth have demon¬
strated the inadequacy of Science to explain life. In fact.
Science is descriptive and not explanatory. Science can¬
not explain the simplest thing
Final effects and first causes are beyond the cognitions of
Science—but every cradle asks the question, WHENCE?
and every coffin raises the interrogation, WHITHER?
"Science," says Spencer, "necessarily ends in the mystery
with which religion begins." Aye! and he might have added
"Science necessarily begins in the FAITH it has so often
ridiculed in Religion." (Illus. The postulates of Arithmetic
and Geometry. The concessions that any number may be
increased or diminished—the fundamental postulate of
arithmetic—that a straight line may be drawn from any one
point to any other point, that it may be extended to any
length in a straight line, that a circle may be described
about any center and at any distance from that center, are
as certainly appeals to faith as they are the basis of science
of mathematics.) Faith is as necessary to science as to re¬
ligion.
There is then, no conflict between true Science and true
Religion. Science seeks to know and describe the con¬
ditions of life, while Religion seeks to know the source of
I/ife and to explain the purposes of existence. Omnium
Science and Christian Ethics.
17
vivum ex vivo. Spontaneous generation is a myth. Science
cannot account for life on earth except by hypothesis, and
Christian faith is as reasonable as scientific guess.
The logical perfection and the truthful intent of Science
are not only fully preserved but amplified and strengthened
by the Biblical "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap!"
The logical perfection of Science is a vindication of the
reasonableness of Christian Faith.
"O! Sometimes gleams upon my sight,
Through present Wrong the eternal Right!
And step by step, since time began,
I see the steady gain of man."
The impassable barrier between man and beast is the
power of reason; and the scientific ideal of life is, that men'a
lives shall be governed by reason.
"The end of morality," says Bacon, "is to procure the
affections, to obey the reason, and not to invade it."
When the affections invade reason, appetite leads the
will; the foundations.of right living are shaken—and it only
takes the floods of temptation to wreck our morals.
"A straight line is the shortest distance between two
points," says Reason.
"Right living is the surest road to happiness," says
Bthics. (Reason applied to conduct.) In fact, the word
"right," in its etymological sense, means straight. Right¬
eousness and straightforwardness are synonymous terms.
The man that does right is taking the shortest road to
happiness. This accords not only with reason but with all
human experience. "Some moral and philosophical truths
are so evident in themselves that it would be easier to imag¬
ine half mankind run mad, and joined precisely in the same
18
Science and Christian Ethics.
species of folly, than to admit anything as truth which
should be advanced against such natural knowledge, funda¬
mental reason and common sense." (Shaftsbury.)
That right conduct is the sure road to happiness and
success in life, is one of the evident truths sanctioned alike
by "natural knowledge, fundamental reason and common
sense." Righteousness, then, is wisdom translated into
conduct—but "where shall wisdom be found, and where is
the place of understanding?"
The life and teachings of Christ is our answer to that
question. His conduct and moral precepts form the sub¬
stance of Christian Ethics.
Do they tend to promote the reign of reason in the lives
of men? Has Christian Ethics a cause that will stand
adjudication in the Court of Reason? Let us see!
^jfhe history of the founding of the Church and a state¬
ment of its doctrines by the Founder and his immediate
followers are recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke, the Acts of
the Apostles, and the Epistles to the Corinthians. To
this may be added the Ethical Creed recorded by St.
Matthew and known as the Sermon on the Mount; also
Paul's ethical defense of the Church recorded in the closing
chapters of his letters to the Romans.
I shall conclude by submitting Christian Ethics to the
Supreme test; namely, its influence on the lives of man.
A tree is known by its fruit and a doctrine by its devotees.
We must, however, in applying this test, draw a sharp dis¬
tinction between lives that are influenced by Christian
teachings and those that pervert Christian teachings to
gratify selfish ambitions. A tree is known by the fruit it
BEARS, not by the fruit that may be surreptitiously hidden
under its branches. To illustrate, Christian Ethics teaches
Science and Christian Ethics.
19
kindness to women and children: "Suffer little children to
come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the king¬
dom of Heaven." Yet men have in the name of Christ;
denied children admission to the Church. Paul sent his
letter to the Church at Rome by Phoebe, a woman; yet,
our conferences refuse to admit women and give our Sun¬
day Schools and young people's societies only half-hearted
support. Similarly, Paul's doctrine of non-resistance to
temporal power, has been perverted into a defense of human
slavery.
The average mind does not appreciate sufficiently, order¬
ly sequence,—does not observe accurately cause and effect.
Hence, belief in luck, accident and miracle has had an un¬
healthy influence in human affairs.
The Church has not escaped this taint. Many troubles
have arisen from unwise placing of responsibilities, expect¬
ing grapes of thorns and figs of thistles. The tenets of a
faith should find tangible objectivity in the lives of its de¬
votees. The Church should live in its disciples. Too many
people are by their religion like the old man by his signature,
"Uncle do you write your name?" asked the lawyer. "I
dictates dat," answered the old man.
The sincerity of a devotee is measured by his willingness
to apply to his daily life the doctrines he professes. Christ
and his disciples gave their lives to establish Christian
Ethics among men.
"How careful then ought we to live,
With what religious fear,
Who such a strict account must give
Of our behavior here."
Not only our own temporal and spiritual welfare but that of
our brethren depends upon our conduct. Obedience to the
20
Science and christian Ethics.
Ethical tenets of our faith will make our conduct exemplary,
and our lives endurable here, and happy hereafter.
"In Africa some Englishmen who went out to shoot
lions and elephants spoke to Dr. Livingstone about his
self-sacrifice. Livingstone turned to them and said, "Don't
you fellows think I can find as much pleasure in doing good
to men and women as you do in killing lions and elephants?"
In the spiritual world we grow more upon what we give
than upon what we receive.
"When Telemachus threw himself between the gladiators
and cried 'Forbear, in the name of Him who died for men,
Christ Jesus, my Lord, I say forbear!' that act cost him his
life, but it saved the gladiators. This spirit of self-sacri¬
fice has done much and is doing much for the world. It
freed the slaves, it protected the captive, it nursed the sick,
it sheltered the orphan, and elevated women; where its
tidings were believed, it cleaned the life and elevated the
soul of each individual man." (Mr. Richard Lee before
Ecumenical Conference, Oct. 1912.)
To understand the power of Christian Ethics to influence
the lives of men, the mind must be entirely free from the
dros^- of selfishness, and keyed to answer the question that
has come down through the ages—"Where is thy brother?"
The subject must be approached in the proper spirit.
A little boy's mother sent him to the corner grocery with
a pitcher to get some molasses. He stopped on the way
to play and got the pitcher dirty. When he went to the
store the grocer refused to put molasses in a dirty pitcher.
So with those seeking the blessings of Christianity: God
will not give the blessings to those who seek them with im¬
pure motives. People with dirty motives may seek in
vain the moral beatitudfes.
Science and Christian Ethics.
21
"Bodily rest may be obtained at any time by ceasing
from our labors, and weary systems may find nerve rest at
any summer resort: but I know of no way in which complete
rest can be obtained for the weary soul, in which the mind
can be so entirely relieved of the burden of all human anxiety,
as by the contemplation of the spectacle presented by the
starry heavens." Grand as that sentence is, I think the
astronomer, Newcomb, would not have written it had he
been familiar with the supernal heights to which moral
themes may raise the minds of men.
"Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,
Our hearts in glad surprise,
To higher levels rise:
Until—
"The soul hath lifted moments
Above the drift of days,
When life's great meaning breaketh
In sunrise on our ways."
Christ did not come into the world to bring morality or
Christian Ethics. They were already here. "In the be¬
ginning was the Word." He came to exemplify them to
men. To reduce them to practicality. "The Word became
flesh."
Moses reached the heights of Christian Ethics when he
prayed, "So teach us to number our days, that we may ap¬
ply our hearts unto wisdom." (90th Psalm, verse 12.)
The bud, and blossom, and fruit of wisdom is to do right.
Many great and glorious spirits of the olden world reached
the white light of purity and righteousness before the
"Sermon on the Mount," or the Cross on Calvary.
22
Science and Christian Ethics.
But the ethics of the heathen world was for the consola¬
tion of the philsosophic few. It was only when Ethics
became CHRISTIAN, i. e., interpreted by Christ, that all
mankind were included in its teachings. The glory of the
GOSPEL is its universality. "Whosoever will may come"
to the moral beatitudes of Christian Ethics. No saint or
martyr ever showed a profounder faith in the Golden Rule,
the high-water mark of Christian Ethics, than did that
British Admiral who, having caused the ship to founder
by an error in navigation, refused to leave the bridge of
the sinking ship because the men below could not get out.
"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye
even so unto them."
I shall not attempt to elucidate the subtleties, nor
straighten the tangles of the various recent phioploshies that
have essayed to explain or absorb Christianity. But Chris¬
tian Ethics meets the test of Pragmatism which holds that
"the truth of an idea is determined by its workability."
Christian Ethics also justifies the conclusion of Activism
that the personality of Christ "is the high-water mark of
a movement which embraces the whole of humanity."
Christian Ethics teaches personal responsibility, human
brotherhood, and gives to the poorest and meanest of man
kind the assurance that all will yet be well.
Christian Ethics teaches the final supremacy of the moral
over the material in human life. "What shall we eat?
What shall we drink? Wherewith shall we be clothed?
are important but secondary problem,s. "Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto you."
Science and Christian Ethics.
23
" 'Tis the set of the soul that determines the goal."
* * * * *
"Right is right as God is God,
And right the day shall win."
* * * * * * *
"Out of the dark the circling sphere
Is rounding onward to the light;
We see not yet the full day here,
But we do see the paling night;
"And Hope, that lights her fadeless fires,
And Faith, that shines a heavenly will,
And Love, that courage reinspires,—
These stars have been above us still.
"Look backward, how much has been won!
Look round, how much is yet to win!
The watches of the night are done;
The watches of the day begin.
"O Thou, whose mighty patience holds
The night and day alike in view,
Thy will our dearest hope enfolds;
O keep us steadfast, patient, true!"—Sam'lLongfellow.
PART II
Religion a Necessity to Man; Defense
of a Creed
RELIGION A NECESSITY TO MAN
(Delivered before the Dallas Free Thinkers' Association,
Dallas, Texas, 1897.)
The universe presents five great subjects for human in¬
vestigation: viz., GOD, NATURE, MAN, TIME and
ETERNITY. All human knowledge must in some way
relate to one or more of these subjects. Let us glance briefly
at each one in the order named.
I. GOD.—"Who is God, and what profit is it to a man to
serve him?" asks one of Job's comforters; and the ques¬
tion is being asked with much vehemence to-day. Who is
God? "God is great and we know him not, neither can
the number of his years be searched out," declare the
Scriptures. "Who is God?" "God is what had no beginning
and will have no end," says Thales. "God is a circle
whose center is everywhere and its circumference is no¬
where," says St. Augustine. "God is a shower to the heart
burnt up with grief, a sun to the face deluged with tears,"
says Joseph Roux. In one place St. John says, "God is
love," in another "God is Light." "God is the number,
the weight and the measure which makes the world har¬
monious and eternal," declares the great French critic,
Renan. "God is the unknowable," declares Spencer, in
substance.
The belief in a supreme power is universal—from the
most hysterical and imaginative poet to the most critical
(27)
28
Science and Christian Kthics.
and unimpassioned philosopher—from the most ignorant
savage to the most learned scientist; all admit some power
above man. But what is that power? And a Babel of
voices reply, each with a different answer. Here is where
the trouble begins; for up to this point all are agreed. Even
the hylo-idealist will admit that man does not make his
own brain, even if he does his own universe. A belief so uni¬
versal cannot be accidental or injurious. Belief in God is
at once a necessity and a blessing; a necessity, because of
the overwhelming preponderance of evidence of universal
law and harmonious sequence in things material; a bles¬
sing, because it incites men to do good.
It is impossible for man to accurately and fully describe
God. For this reason some men have denied the existence
of a supreme intelligence, declaring that it was impossible
to prove there is a God. Laying aside the Bible, I submit
it as a scientific proposition if it is not more reasonable to
suppose this wonderful and immeasurable universe is guided
by intelligence than to suppose that this world resulted
from a fortuitous concatenation of accidental circumstances,
that blind force guides the celestial orbs and chance rules
the universe. There is not a nation in the world to-day,
whether civilized or savage, but believes there is a God.
"The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens,' a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.
"The unwearied sun from day to day
Does his Creator's power display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty hand.
Religion a necessity.
29
'Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth.
"While all the stars that round her burn,
And all the planets in their turn
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the. truth from pole to pole.
"What though in solemn silence all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radient orbs be found?—
"In Reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice;
Forever singing as they shine,—
'The hand that made us is Divine.' "
The existence of a supreme intelligence is the only rational
hypothesis upon which to predicate any explanation of
the universe. All wise men of every age and country have
finally come to the acceptance of this proposition,
II. NATURE may be defined as that portion of the
universe external to man. "Nature is but a name for an
effect whose cause is God," says Cowper. "Nature is
rich," says Carlyle, "the two eggs you ate for breakfast
this morning, if hatched, might have peopled the world
with poultry."
"Nature understands no jesting; she is always true, al¬
ways severe; she is always right and the errors and faults
are those of man. Him, who is incapable of appreciating
her, she despises, and only to the apt, the pure and the
true, does she resign herself and reveal her secrets."
30
Science and Christian Ethics.
"Nature is the only book that teems with meaning on
every page," and all our physical sciences are but clippings
from its various chapters. Man has never yet been able
to read a full chapter from the book of Nature, all our
sciences are incomplete. The ultimate problems of Nature
are entirely beyond the scope of modern scientific investi¬
gation. "Science boldly heralds her descriptive discoveries,
and as carefully ignores her explanatory failures. She
dares not attempt to explain the 'why' of the simplest
things. Why does the robin hop and the snipe walk? Do
not tell me this is beneath the notice of men of science, for
science claims that no subject is outside her realm. How
does the tree-frog change its color? Why does the maple
tree secrete a sweet and wholesome sap, and deadly night¬
shade growing in the same soil and feeding upon the same
elements secrete a deadly poison? Why does the nerve
of the tongue respond to a sensation and produce on the
mind the sense of taste? Silver is sonorous and lead is
not; why these intrinsic differences? Aluminum is light,
gold is heavy, why? Mercury is a liquid. Why is it not a
solid? Why is common salt white and charcoal black?
Why does the dog lap and the calf drink? One child has
black hair, another red, and a third brown,—Why? Search
your physiology and see if your learned authority can tell
why the life current makes these distinctions. Why do
the cells of the liver secrete bile and those of the mouth,
saliva? Why does any cell secrete anything? A" parrot
can talk, why can't a turkey do likewise?
"That word, why, to man dominates the universe. It
covers all phenomena and thrusts inquiry back from every
depth. Science may trace a line of thought into the in¬
finitely little, down, down, beyond that which is tangible
Religion a Necessity.
31
and at last into that far distant inter-microscopical infinity,
monstrous by reason of its very minuteness, must rest its
labors against the word, 'WHY.'
"Man may carry his superficial investigation into the
immeasurably great, beyond the sun and his satellites,
into the outer depths of the solar system, of which our
sun is a part, past his sister stars and out again into the
depths of the cold space channels beyond; into other systems
and out again, until at last the nebulae shrink and disap¬
pear in the gloom of thought conjecture, and as the strag¬
gling ray from those farthermost outreaches, too feeble to
tell of its origin or carry a story of its nativity, enters the
eye, he covers his face and rests his intellect against the
word, 'WHY.' From the remote space caverns of the hu¬
man intellect, beyond the fields of perception, whether we
appeal to the conceptions of the unknowable in the in¬
finitely little or the immeasurably great, we meet a circle of
adamant, as impenetrable as the frozen cliffs of the Antarc¬
tic, that incomprehensible word 'WHY.'"
"The chemist cannot explain the ultimate nature of
matter, nor the physicist the ultimate nature of motion,
nor the physiologist the ultimate nature of mind," says
Spencer. "Science must necessarily end in mystery, with
which Religion begins."
That which persists unchanging in quantity, but ever
changing in form, under the sensible appearances which the
universe presents to us, is an unknown and unknowable
power, which we are obliged to recognize as without limit
in space and without beginning or end in time, and this
noumenal power of philosophy of which all phenomena
arTbut manifestations is the God of religion, the infinite
and eternal energy from which all things proceed.
32
Science and Christian Ethics.
"Proud Nature stands with outstretched hands,
Her Maker's praise to spread abroad,
And all the workings of his hands,
Show something worthy of a God."
Philosopher and poet, sage and savage, learned and igno¬
rant, all finally reach the same place, though by very differ¬
ent routes. There is no other explanation of the phenome¬
non, Nature, than the noumenon, GOD.
III. MAN—What a piece of work is man! How noble in
reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how
express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In
apprehension how like a god!" (Hamlet.)
"Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and a tear."
(Byron.)
"Man's history is little else than a narrative of designs
that have failed and hopes that have been disappointed."
(Johnson.)
What is man ? is a question that has been asked by every
thoughtful man that has ever lived.
"Man is the soul of the world," says Graham, "the moral
and intellectual sensorium of Nature."
"Man is the epitome of the universe," says one.
"Man is the noblest work of God," says another.
Here as everywhere else Science is unable to answer any
fundamental question, or solve any ultimate problem. All
our knowledge of man is relative and descriptive, nothing
absolute or explanatory. We can describe the uses and
interdependencies of the various parts of the body, but
Science has no information as to the use of the entire man.
The existence of a supreme and all-powerful intelligence
with the corollary, life beyond the grave, again comes up
as the only reasonable explanation. The idea of God
Religion a Necessity.
33
connotes that of immortality. There is no other explana¬
tion of the evil and suffering in the world, but that it is
transitory and necessary to progress .towards a higher life.
Why does not God destroy evil? is a question hurled at
believers in religion. The answer is two-fold.
ist If we could comprehend all creation there might
not be any evil. What we call evil might, with fullei
knowledge, prove to be good.
"All Nature is but art unknown to thee,
All chance, direction thou canst not see,
All discord, harmony misunderstood,
All partial evil, universal good."
2nd'. We do not know.
"Behold we know not anything,
I can but trust that good shall fall,
At last—far off—at last to all;
And every winter change to spring."
The bitterness of the bud may be the precursor of the
flower's sweetness.
IV. TIME.—"Time is the most undefinable, yet para¬
doxical, of things: the past is gone, the future is yet to
come, and the present becomes the past even while we
attempt to define it. Like the flash of the lightning, it at
once exists and expires." (Colton.)
But time, "that black and narrow isthmus between two
eternities," is the stuff of which life is made.
We get our ideas of time, or duration, from the passage
of different thoughts in the mind; so that a person that
thinks one thought all of the time, or who does net think at
all, has-no idea of time, or duration. :
34
Science and Christian Ethics.
"As we live more brief appears
Our life's succeeding pages,
A day tp childhood seems as years,
And years like passing ages."
When we sleep soundly we have no idea, on waking, how
long we have slept. If you are absorbed with one thought,
(reading a book, listening to an entertaining speaker, etc.)
how rapidly time flies! In fact, it passes unnoticed. But
wait on a messenger-boy or a street-car when you are in a
hurry and momentous consequences hang on your haste;
fifteen minutes seem like a day. We have no conception
whatever of the absolute nature of time, and can only meas¬
ure its flight and wonder at its passage. Again we are
forced to acknowedge the limitations of human science.
Hope for a life not thus limited fills the heart, and specula¬
tion concerning the author of all fills the mind.
V. ETERNITY.—"By repeating the idea of any length
of duration with all the endless additions of number, we
come by the idea of eternity." (Eocke.) This is perhaps
the most abstract and difficult of metaphysical problems,
one in which the limitations of science becomes speedily
apparent. Eternity is never ending duration; but when
we behold the instability of things mundane, philsosophy
unites with religion in prognosticating an end to earthly
existence. "The totality of existence is in perpetual flux,
and their permanency is a delusion." And we are again
forced to the belief in the existence of some power behind
all present phenomena, some power that has always been
and always will be. And this we are led by another route
"through all science to the cause of science," through all
philosophy to the cause of philosophy, through all causes to
the causa causarum, through all Nature up to Nature's
GOD."
Religion a Necessity.
35
Whether we enter upon ontological speculation and at¬
tempt to find the ultimate nature of pure being, or psy¬
chological investigation of our fundamental ideas of the
cognate motions of time and eternity, whether we study the
universe objectively in nature or subjectively in man, we
reach the same conclusion: viz., there is an omniscient and
omnipotent power incomprehensible and eternal that con¬
trols the universe.
This idea connotes several others. Man finds himself
placed here in this world by that power. He sees good
and evil here. He has the knowledge to discriminate be¬
tween them He naturally and rationally concludes that
he will be held accountable for the way in which he exer¬
cises this knowledge. Here is born the idea of personal
responsibility; but justice is not always done here, and as
God is just there must be something beyond this life, for
things are incomplete in this world. Life beyond the
grave is the only reasonable deduction. If God is just and
loving, and mankind are interdependent it naturally and
logically follows that it is in accordance with God's will and
Man's interest for men to love one another.
These are the cardinal and essential points of religion;
duty for the present, hope for the future, love to man and
reverence to God. All creeds have grown out of an effort
to formulate a plan for life in harmony with the above prop¬
ositions. This is religion and is based on fact and logic.
I do not mean by this that religion is of human origin, for
it is not, though theology is. Religion is no more of human
origin than are air and water. Alan modifies them all,
but can neither create nor destroy them. They are of prim¬
eval necessities. Ths Ganges river has spread cholera and
has been the cause of millions of deaths and untold suffering;
36
Science and Christian Ethics.
but shall we say that rivers are dangerous to humanity and
there is no such thing as pure and healthy water? The
foul air of sewers, cess pools and badly ventilated buildings
has caused want, woe and weakness among the inhabitants
of earth, but shall we blame the atmosphere therefor?
"But," say the carping critics, "that is not the religion of a
thousand years agone, you folks change. How is that?"
It is certainly pitiable to hear that question from an individ¬
ual who professes to understand and believe in evolution.
Shall all things whatsoever sweep on in one grand progres¬
sive march and the noblest instincts and aspirations of
humanity stand still? A digger Indian, or wild man from
Borneo hardly enjoys the same menu at his mid-day repast
as the aristocratic denizens of purse-proud Gotham. Bach
thrives best on what best meets his necessities. A man who
would sell his wife, burn his father and eat his children would
very naturally believe in a hell for all who differed from him.
Well may we exclaim with Goethe:
"What a road had human nature to travel before it
reached the point of being mild to the guilty, merciful to
the injurious, and human to the inhuman! Doubtless they
were men of godlike souls who first taught this, who spent
their lives in making the practice of this possible, and rec¬
ommending it to others."
I defy any unbeliever to point to a single noble sentiment
uttered by a man denying all religion, which sentiment
had not been uttered by some one believing in God and
religion.
But, we are told that religion burned witches, etc., etc.
ad nauseam. It is not true. Theology is not religion anv
more than Chemistry is atoms, or Physics is molecules;
What mind is able to compute the amount of human agony
Religion a necessity.
37
caused by disputes concerning the nature, use. and distri¬
bution of money? Yet no one thinks it is not a good and
necessary thing. Theological controversies have been a
fruitful source of continual woe to all the children of men.
But how unreasonable to rail against religion on that ac¬
count, and deny its universal and consolatory tenets, con¬
cerning which there is perfect concord among all believers
of every cult.
Shall we blame the land because men fight over it? or
the bone because dogs growl over it? Shall food be blamed
because we have cannibals and vegetarians, and everything
else between these extremes?
Religion has been truly likened to an ocean, upon whose
placid bosom float majestically the ship of Hope with Faith
at the helm and Love crying out to all mankind:
"Come ye disconsolate where'er ye languish,
Come to the mercy seat fervently kneel;
Here bring your wounded hearts,
Here tell your anguish,
Earth hath no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal."
"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest! Come!"
But in this ocean are many vile things. With the hook
of Cynicism man may catch the shark of Despair, with the
net "of selfishness' he may catch the devil-fish of Hatred,
and the sunfish of Strife. They that despise the Ocean of
Religion have never sailed in the Ship of Hope. The hope
of immortality has lightened more sorrow and brightened
more joys than all the scientists since man first learned to
think. Belief in another life is the only unfailing consola¬
tion to humanity.
38 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
"A home in heaven, what a joyful thought,
As the poor man toils in his weary lot;
His heart's oppressed and by anguish he's driven
From his home below to his home in heaven."
If we must wholly perish with the body, what mean the
sacred words father, mother, sister, friend? What are the
last words of the dying any more than a cord that is snapped
or an instrument that is broken ? If we must wholly perish
with the body, why reverence or honor our heroes? What
foolishness to reverence or honor that which'hath no exis¬
tence! Would we have a care for posterity? How absurd
to care for that whose end like our own was annihilation!
Would we love each other? How can nothing be bound to
nothing? If we must wTholly perish with the body, why
should the victorious of earth care for the vanquished; or
men not follow the good old rule which ran,—
"Let those take who have the power,
Let those keep who can."
Why should men be just or women virtuous if no respon¬
sibility attaches to their deeds? If we must wholly perish
with the body, there can be no right but man's desire, no
good but its gratification. To what absurdity does such
a doctrine lead! If we must wholly perish with the body,
man can no more be guilty of crime than a dog can. And
the felonies, murder, rape, incest, theft, ma^yhejn, libel, etc.,
what are they but meaningless bugaboos conjured up by the
ingenuity of legislators to frighten mankind?
Should the belief in immortality ever die out and the
doctrine of irresponsibility be accepted in its stead, this
world will run red with blood, anarchy reign supreme, the
light of civilization would go out and a night of ignorance,
despair, and death would be the winding sheet of the human
race.
Religion a necessity.
39
The fundamental tenet of religion is an absolute necessity
to man. I speak of religion, pure and undefiled, practiced
and taught by the wise and good of every age. Theology
is a very different thing. Like every other science it is
uncertain and is often used to darken counsel by words
without wisdom. Religion is a very simple thing, and needs
but few words to explain it. "Let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter," says Solomon, "fear God and depart
from evil, for this is the whole duty of man."
"Love the Lord, thy God, with all thy mind, with all thy
soul, and with all thy strength," says the New Testament,
"for this is the law and the prophets." The "depart from
evil" and "love thy neighbor" clauses are always left out by
unbelievers, in their efforts to demolish religion. Indeed
they do not seem to be aware that it is a part (and may be
the most important) of the Christian creed. That is why
it is so difficult for Christians and infidels to understand
each other. One can see no good in the other, and each is
astonished at the other's ignorance and intolerance. One
is too apt to trust all to faith and to doubt reason; the
other is apt to trust all to reason and to deny faith. Both
are extremists. The true way is between, with faith and
reason on either side to keep us straight in the path of
truth.
"Truth! How sacred is the treasure,
Teach us, Lord its worth to know!
Vain the hope and short the pleasure
Which from other sources flow."
Let us learn what is true that we may do what is right.
If the majority of evil have been done by believers in re¬
ligion j the majority and the vast majority of good deeds
has also been done by believers. If Christians burned
40
Science and Christian Ethics.
witches in New England, they also founded colleges in the
same place. If infidelity took no part in the one, neither
did it in the other. It is astonishing to hear the long list
of ills that some people can remember against religion.
"The evil men do, lives after them. The good is often
interred with their bones." But in spite of all, religion
continues to prosper. It is "an everlasting lodestar that
beams the brighter in the heavens, the darker here grows
the night. It will never die. Its dwelling and birthplace
are in the soul of man, and there is an infinitude above and
beneath him, and an eternity encompasses him on this hand
and that, and tones of sphere music and tidings from loftier
worlds will flit around him (if he can but listen,) and visit
him with holy influences, even in the thickest of trivialities
or the din of busiest life."
"Religion is the basis of civil society." (Carlyle.)
"Religion reveals the meaning of life, and science only
applies the meaning to course of circumstances." (Burke.)
"Religion is the spice that is meant to keep life from
corruption." (Tolstoi.)
IN CONCLUSION, religion is of divine origin and
grounded deeply in human reason and human need. Re¬
ligion and theology are not identical.
Says Lillienthal, "Religion is universal, theology is ex¬
clusive; religion is humanitarian, theology is sectarian; re¬
ligion unites mankind, theology divides it; religion is love,
all comprising as God's love. Theology preaches love and
practices bigotry. C Religion looks to the moral worth of
a man, theology to his creed and denomination^
The fundamental tenets of true religion are four: duty
for the present, hope for the future, love to humanity, and
reverence to God.
Religion a necessity.
41
"For whoso hateth his brother whom he hath seen and
-saith he loveth God whom he hath not seen, is a liar and
the truth is not in him," saith the Scriptures.
"Let us do all the good we can to all the people we can,
in all the ways we can and with all the reverence we can,
loving our neighbors as ourselves."
For:
"I hold this true whate'er befall,
I feel it when I sorrow most,
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all."
He liveth and doeth all things well.
"The God that ever lives and loves,
One God, one law, one element,
And one far off divine event,
To which the whole creation moves."
PART III
Racial Self-Respect and Racial Antagonism;
Principles Applied to the Solution of a
Socio-Ethico-Economic Condition
RACIAL SELF-RESPECT AND RACIAL
ANTAGONISM
Principles Applied to the Solution of a
Socio-Ethico-Economic Condition
[Before the Race Problem Section of the Southern Socio-
\ logical Congress at Atlanta, Ga„ April, 1913.]
What we need in the South is Racial Self-respect without
Racial Antagonism.
Some knowledge of the messenger often illuminates the
message. I was born and reared among white people. The
playmates and associates of my childhood were white. My
moral and religious instructions came from the same source.
I have received upon a sick bed the kindly ministrations of
sympathetic white companions I have sunk into the
death-like sleep of surgical narcosis amid the earnest prayers
of Christian white women mingled with those of my mother.
I have felt the blessed benediction from the soothing words
of a pious minister in the presence of death. I have seen
him cheer the last hours of the dying and bind up the wounds
of the broken-hearted. So, I know that some white people
have the true religion of Jesus Christ who "was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world; received up into Glory (I Tim.
3:16.)
46 Science and Christian Ethics.
From such experiences I came forth nearly thirty years
ago to dwell among my own people. Among the farewells
was the benediction of a pious old 'Scotchman, who had
been for two years my "philosopher, guide and friend," and
who gregciently assured me that I would prosper in the
land if I would but trust God and do right.
"Remember," said he, as the train pulled out of the
station, "He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely."
In less than a week I was a school teacher in the back
woods of Kentucky. Within five years I was a practicing
physician. I have mingled with my people in church and
society. I have had the advantage of travel and observa¬
tion, and I know something of mankind in general, as well
as my own people in particular; their virtues and their vices,
their joys and their sorrows, their hopes and their fears.
I love my people and prefer to live among them. I am not
ashamed of being a Negro.
But this is not all, during my life in the South I have
known white men in all the walks of life; and I firmly be¬
lieve that kindness is very widely distributed, and that the
love of justice and fair-play is more prevalent than either
class prejudice or racial antagonism Moreover, profes¬
sional and personal friendships have brought confidences
that have revealed skeletons and heart-hurts which only
the most intimate ever know of each other. I have, there
fore, come to believe that no human heart is so hard as to
feel no pain, and none so strong as to need no sympathy.
Misunderstanding, rather than meanness, makes men un¬
just. Ignorance and prejudice feed upon each other. The
ignorant are always prejudiced, and the prejudiced are
always ignorant.
Racial Self-respect
47
If the white people and the black people in this glorious
Southland of ours ever understand each other. Racial
Self-respect will safe-guard the purlieus of racial integrity;
and in matters of common welfare, CO-OPERATION will
displace ANTAGONISM.
In the sincere hope of contributing to a mutual under¬
standing between the races, was this paper written.
BASIC GENERAL TRUTHS.
I. MAN'S SOLE RIGHT TO PRE-EMINENCE OVER
HIS ANIMAL KINSMEN IS HIS INTELLECTUALITY.
The mind makes the man. "As a man thinketh in his
heart, so is he." Not his looks, nor his stature, but his
thoughts make the man. It is not the shape of his head,
whether it be dolichocephalic or brachiocephalic; it is not
the texture of his hair, whether it be ulotrichous or liotrir
chous; it is not the facial contour, whether it be angula-
and sharp and European, or broad and flat and African;
it is not the color of the skin, whether it have the achro¬
matic pallor of the Norwegian, or the midnight hue of the
sun-kissed Senegambian; no, neither facial angles nor brain
weight nor set of teeth, nor length of arm, nor arch of
foot, nor any other outward physical characteristic is the
determining factor in Life's complicated equation. As a
man thinks not as a man looks., finally fixes his status.
Thoughts and not bites, win the battles of life. This is as
true phyletically as individually Racial distinctions are
psychical rather than physical. Slav, Saxon and Latin are
far more dissimilar in mental habit than in physical con¬
tour. Mental habit rather than physical form differentiated
Greece and Rome. Many attempts have been made to
classify mankind, but the intellectual division into sensor-
motor and ideo- motor is the most far-reaching.
48 Science and Christian Ethics.
II HUMANITY IS GREATER THAN RACE. It is
said that Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo because he-
misunderstood the topography of the region over which,
his cavalry had to pass in their charge against the allied-
armies under Wellington. Ignoring a sunken road pre¬
cipitated a series of reverses that ended ignominiously the
martial career of the First Napoleon and eclipsed forever
his star of world-wide conquest.
The careers of nations are typified in the careers of in¬
dividuals. The Saxon is the conquering war-lord among
nations, and seems destined to rule the world. There is,
however, a chasm in his path, whose depths and dangers
he seems unable to appreciate. It is Color Prejudice—the
effort to substitute race for merit in measuring men.
Modern civilization will go the way of Sodom and Go¬
morrah unless justice and fraternity can gain a firmer hold
on the hearts and brains of men. No civilization can be¬
come world-wide and enduring if a white skin is the indis¬
pensable passport to justice and distinction. This would
exclude from the fruits of civilization the majority of man¬
kind.
III. THE HIGHEST WISDOM IS TO KNOW THE
TRUTH, THE HIGHEST VIRTUE IS TO DO THE
RIGHT.
One should have either the brains to lead or the faith to
follow. To be willing to live the truth is a greater virtue
than to be willing to die for one's opinion. Martyrdom is
at best only a test of fidelity to opinion and not an argument
for the truth. In the last analysis it may be sheer stub¬
bornness. Man's attitude towards new and unpleasant
truth is the greatest tragedy of human life. He not only
does not know the truth, and does not want to" know it,.
Racial Self-respect.
49
"but will resent to the bitter end anybody else's knowing it,
or talking about it. 'This is the condemnation, that light
is come into the world and men love darkness rather than
light." (Jno. 3:19.)
IV. JUSTICE AND LIBERTY ARE FOR ALL OR
FOR NONE. INJUSTICE CANNOT LINGER IN A
LAND THAT IS REALLY "BRIGHT WITH FREE¬
DOM'S HOLY LIGHT."
No tyrant was ever free. No man is secure in his rights
so long as any man is deprived of his rights. It is easier
to be generous than it is to be just. Man's hope of jus¬
tice has ever been an idle dream., and his quest for liberty
a fool's errand; because he is not willing to be just, nor to
meet the conditions of freedom.
V. SELFISHNESS (MUTUAL BENEFITS) IS THE
ONLY SANE BASIS FROM WHICH TO PREDICATE
SUCCESSFUL CO-OPERATION.
No man is ever going to think more of you than he does
of himself. The highest ethical ideal ever lived or preached
enjoined that you love your neighbor as yourself. Sane
AUruism is the highest and truest Egoism.
VI. CONDUCT MUST BE CONSISTENT OR CHAR¬
ACTER WILL NOT BE SOUND.
An individual or people cannot long remain both Jekyl
and Hyde, one character or the other will eventually triumph.
No one can successfully change his character with his
company. A race cannot be persistently unjust and dis¬
honest to another race and be permanently either honest
or just to itself. Kindness never degraded any one, nor
did rudeness ever vindicate anybody's claim to superiority.
A virtuous man is an asset to his community, and a vicious
man is a deficit, regardless of racial identity
50 SCIENCE AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
VII. ENMITY FEEDS ON INJUSTICE. WE LOVE
THOSE WHOM WE HELP AND DISLIKE THOSE
WHOM WE HINDER.
A parent that dislikes children is a parent that has mis¬
treated children.
No misanthrope was ever a benefactor of humanity., and
no benefactor of humanity was ever a misanthrope. Dis¬
crimination is the parent of antagonism, as supersition be¬
gets ghosts. Races become intolerably antagonistic by
being systematically unjust.
PRESENT CONDITIONS.
With these basic general truths in mind let us note some
specific facts of racial contact in the South to-day.
I. THERE HAS ARISEN IN THE SOUTH A TYPE
OF POLITICIAN THAT PROPOSES TO MAKE THE
WHITE PEOPLE HAPPY BY MAKING THE NE¬
GROES UNHAPPY. They propose to BETTER the
poor white man's condition relatively and negatively by
WORSING the Negro's condition. They would burke the
welfare of their country for power of pelf. Instead of
striving to move forward themselves, they are striving to
force the Negro back. It is a strange and weird delusion
that seems to have completely obsessed the majority of
some Southern States, and opened the door to political
preferment. They expect to reach heaven for themselves by
raising—for the Negroes. They hope by some political
alchemy to put more rights in the Constitution for them¬
selves by taking out any rights the Negro may have, or
think he has therein.
Racial Self-respect.
51
h- the races know and believe in the
VICES OF EACH OTHER BUT DO NOT KNOW OR
BELIEVE IN THE VIRTUES OF EACH OTHER. The
average white Christian believes that the Negro neither
understands nor practices the true principles of Christianity
and the Negro knows that the white man so believes. But
the Negro believes identically the same thing of the white
man, and this the white man does not know. Yet neither
doubts the other's vices. Further, the average Negro feels ^
it is impolitic to be manly, and dangerous to be frank with
white people. May it not be possible that each race has
given the other more evidence of its vices than it has of
its virtues ? Each has demonstrated to the full satisfaction
of the other its guilt of falsehood, theft, and immorality;
but each has failed to impress upon the other its love of
truth, honesty and virtue.
III. A BELIEF THAT THE NEGRO IS UNABLE
TO DEFEND HIMSELF OFTEN MAKES WHITE
PEOPLE TYRANNICAL. A belief that the courts are
unfair frequently makes the Negro desperate.—By magni¬
fying petty offenses, petty criminals are made grave and
incorrigible offenders. Thus the seed of race antagonism
and anarchy are sown. The records of the inferior courts
of our country will prove painful reading to those who love
justice and fair-play. Fred Douglass said that as a boy he
discovered that the slaves oftenest whipped were not the
ones most deserving punishment, but those most easily
whipped. This is largely true of our administration of
justice. This fact, rather than race prejudice or Negro
criminality, explains the frequency with which Negro crap
games are raided, and Negro vagrants incarcerated.
52 Science and Christian Ethics.
IV. RACIAL CONTACT IS NOW AT THE MOST
DISADVANTAGEOUS AND DANGEROUS POINTS.
a. The vicious and criminal of both races in the saloons,
brothels and gambling dens.
b. The ignorance and poverty of the Negro with the
wealth and intelligence of the whites. The servant-race
gets an exaggerated idea of the wealth and influence of the
master-race; and the master-race gets an exaggerated idea
of the vice and ignorance of the servant-race. Both con¬
fuse RACE and CLASS. The Negro is the greater loser;
for a lack of racial ideals is his greatest misfortune. Imi¬
tation may be sincere flattery but it is also an irritating
annoyance that will bring down upon the hapless head of
the imitator the contempt of the imitated. The attitude
of the white man himself is responsible for the Negro's
lack of race pride.
V. ANY ACCUSATION OF CRIME IS MADE WITH
BIG HEADLINES IN THE NEWSPAPERS. Correc¬
tions or retractions are never thus made. The immense
power of language is thus used to promote strife. Mobs
originate in epithets as often as in crime. The intellectual
forces of associated ideas are used to generate race antagon¬
ism. This works one of the greatest hardships the Negro
has to bear, and is the most potent force for evil in the race-
situation.
VI. THE DOCTRINAIRE EBULLITIONS OF THE
STUDENT OFTEN BECOME SLOGANS OF - WAR
AMONG THE IGNORANT. Newspaper and platform
arguments about "white supremacy" often take the form
of cruelty and oppression when interpreted by a street car
conductor, a ward policeman or a work-house guard. The
Racial Self-Respect.
53
extent of this oppression, I am sure, is entirely unknown to
the majority of white citizens. It is ah interesting, if pa¬
thetic study to see an artificial self-consciousness of racial
superiority strangle the natural impulses of civilization.
The other day I saw a good-looking, modest appearing,
well-dressed but frail Negro woman with a child in her
arms attempt to board a street car. She was about to fail.
The conductor started to help her, then looked at the other
passengers and desisted. His face was a study. Prejudice
won; but it was a Pyrrhic victory. To prove a doctrine
he damned a man. My friends, there is something wrong
with a code of ethics that makes its votaries feel it is a
humiliation to be kind to any sentient creature, much less
a human being, however humble. C IJ^OMAT.Q P SIA
YET MAY WRECK THE 20TH CENTURY CIVILIZA¬
TION.
The persistent effort to treat all Negroes alike retards the
healthful gro^-th of class distinction among us and lessens
the influence of the intelligent and virtuous over the ig¬
norant and vicious.
VII. BUSINESS INTERCOURSE IS HAMPERED
AND FRICTION NEEDLESSLY ENGENDERED BY
A RACIAL CHAUVINISM THAT LEADS MANY
WHITE PEOPLE TO DISREGARD THE ORDINARY
AMENITIES OF CIVILIZATION IN THEIR DEAL¬
INGS WITH NEGROES.
This is not in accordance with the ideals of ethics, nor
the traditions and conduct of the great men of the South.
The sun is not injured by shining upon the lowly, neither
is politeness degraded when extended to the humble. No
man was ever lowered by kindness. Washington, Jeffer-
54
Science and Christian Ethics.
son and Hayne might be summoned to testify, did time
permit.
White clerks object to Negro customers and white pro¬
prietors object to Negro stores.
Inter-state travel is a veritable nightmare for a Negro,
nothing to eat, nowhere to sleep, imperfect toilet accom¬
modations and a change of cars every few hours.
THE REMEDY.
I. LET US ACCEPT IT AS A FAC1&ES ADJUDICA-
TA)THAT THE NEGRO AND THE WHITE MAN
MtfST SURVIVE OR PERISH TOGETHER IN THE
SOUTH. "God, who is the great Choragus and Master
of the scenes of life and death," has placed us on the stage
together, let us play our parts like men, neither crying
like children nor fighting like dogs.
II. LET US ENCOURAGE INTER-RACIAL CO¬
OPERATION ON MATTERS APPERTAINING TO
THE COMMON GOOD. May not the intelligent and
conservative members of both races form a kind of clear¬
ing-house for the debits and credits of racial contact?
A knowledge of a friend's virtues may give us patience with
his vices. Mutual respect is a prerequisite to mutual f air¬
play, The problem can be solved better in detail.
III. Let us find the facts. This is no easy task. The
races know so much about each other that IS NOT SO.
The average individual "reasons but to err." Bacon de¬
scribes four kinds of errors or false notions that seduce men's
minds from the truth. Race adjustment in the South is
hindered by all four forms; but what he calls idols of the
market-place and idols of the theater are the most trouble¬
some. The first are the loose inaccuracies of ordinary
Racial Self-Respect.
55
gossip—erroneous opinions that men communicate to each
other in social and business intercourse. The second are
the systematically taught tenets of false philosophies and
unsound political creeds.
IV. IF I COULD GET THE EAR OF THE GENIUS
OF AMERICAN PRESS I WOULD ASK THE FOLLOW¬
ING BOON FOR AMERICA AND THE NEGRO—
a- Drop from the vocabulary all such words as nigger,
darkey, coon, Sambo, etc.
b—Never mention the race of a criminal in connection
with criminal news.
c—Never report the speeches or sayings of race agitators,
especially those seeking political preferment, or personal
prominence.
d—Publish with full racial credit items creditable to the
Negro.
Five years of such conduct would see the end of the Negro
Problem in America.
V. THE AMERICAN NEGRO NEEDS SANE, CON¬
SERVATIVE, UNSELFISH, PATIENT NEGRO LEAD¬
ERSHIP. The greatest help that can be given the race
is to assist in the development of these leaders. Whole¬
some Negro ideals must be created by men of Negro blood.
These ideals may be assisted from without, but cannot be
super-imposed. Masters may be aliens, but LEADERS
must be patriots. Leaders must know the people they lead.
A race without leaders of its own blood is lost. No master¬
piece was ever written in any language but the mother
tongue of the writer; and great leaders are always kindred
of the led. Moses was a Jew, Cromwell was an English¬
man, Lincoln was an American, and Toussaint was a Ne¬
gro.
56
Science and Christian Ethics.
In the "Lady of the Lake" Scott describes a character,
Brian, the priest, whose unnamed father met his mother at
midnight upon an ancient battlefield, and whose mother
"Locked her secret in her breast,
And died in travail, unconfessed."
Popular superstition gave the unlucky orphan a ghost
for a sire. His unhappy fate is thus described:
"Alone among his young compeers,
Was Brian from his infant years;
A moody and heart-broken boy,
Estranged from sympathy and joy,
Bearing each taunt which careless tongue
On his mysterious lineage flung.
Whose nights he spent by moonlight pale,
To wood and stream his hap to wail,
Till, frantic he as truth received
What of his birth the crowd believed.
And sought in mist or meteor fire,
To meet and know his phantom sire!
In vain to soothe his wayward fate,
The cloister oped her pitying gate;
In vain the learning of the age
Unclasped the sable-lettered page;
Even in its treasures he could find
Food for the fever of his mind.
Eager he read whate'er tells
Of magic, cabala, and spells,
And every dark pursuit allied
To curious and presumptuous pride;
Till with fired brain and nerves o'erstrung,
And heat with mystic horrors wrung,
Desperate he sought Benharrow's den,
And hid him from the haunts of men."
Racial Self-Respect.
57
He became a superstitious fanatic because of the pres¬
sure of outside opinion.
This is the Negro's position exactly. He has accepted
to his own detriment, the white man's opinion or estimate
of him. Wholesome public opinion must arise from within,
not be super-imposed from without. Enthusiastic aboli¬
tionists overestimated his IMMEDIATE capabilities as a
citizen, and the antagonistic standpatters under-estimated
his rights as a man. Neither was willing to let him evolve
naturally. As a consequence he has frequently disappointed
friends by inefficiency, and irritated enemies by imitation.
WHAT IS THE REMEDY? Let all the friends of humanity,
white and black, bend every energy to increase the Negro's
self-respect and patience. This will do more to stop the
copying of your secret orders than all the injunctions and
statutes you can invent. Encourage Negroes in the pro¬
fessions and business. It will help everybody. Public
opinion is all powerful in this country,—white people
make that opinion. Let that opinion back the construc¬
tive, conservative workers among the Negroes, instead of
exploiting "white hopes." Encourage the liberal and sane
action of Nashville, Tenn., in employing Negro district
nurses; of Clarksville, Tenn., and Ft. Worth, Texas,
ihaving Negro Assistant Health Officers to work among
their own people and cooperate with the whites for the
•general good. See that separate laws are fairly enforced
and equal accommodations given.
FINALLY.
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF OPPOSTION TO ONE'S
PROGRESS IS IN INVERSE RATIO TO ONE'S SPEED.
A stone thrown at less than a mile a minute shatters a
58
Science and Christian Ethics.
window pane against which it strikes, a pistol bullet at 40*
or 50 miles a minute goes through with little disturbance,
while light at a rate of twelve million miles a minute passes
through with no perceptible disturbance whatever. A
candle hurled with sufficient speed will pass uninjured
through an oak plank.
APPARENTLY INSURMOUNTABLE OPPOSITION
OFTEN INDICATES THAT WE HAVE TOO LITTLE
MOMENTUM; ARE, IN FACT, MOVING TOO SLOW¬
LY. That is what is the matter with the country to-day.
It has slackened its pace towards that ideal government
which "derives its just powers from the consent of the
governed," "A government of people, by the people and
for the people" under which, any individual, whatsoever
may have "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" un¬
hindered and unhindering.
"The lust of other things entering in, has choked the
word;" "For the love of money, we have denied the faith
and pierced ourselyes through with many sorrows," and
"Man's inhumanity to man,"
has again postponed the day
"When truth and worth o'er a' the earth
Shall bear the gree and a' that."
"The real solution of the trust question, the race question-
and all the great problems of our government to-day is a
re-dedication of the thought of the country to the ideals
of JUSTICE and FAIR PLAY."
If we set our eyes on JUSTICE FOR ALL MEN, the
momentum of righteousness will overcome all obstacles*
even the RACE QUESTION.