Various

“ It is the duty of the church to improve the colored ministry, but by theological training rather than by literary education. In my judgment, higher education, so-called, would be a positive calamity to the negroes. It would increase the friction between the races, producing endless strifes, elevate negro aspirations far above the station he was created to fill, and resolve the whole into a political faction, full of strife, mischief and turbulence. Negroes ought to be taught that the respect of the white race can only be obtained by good character and conduct. ”

“ In travelling through the southern part of this great commonwealth, along the highways and byways, over long reaches of dark country, the between places, outside and beyond the centres where mission and educational work is being done, we see the vast crowds of people “who have not come to their own;” people who have a triple hunger consuming them, the hunger of poverty, the hunger for knowledge and the hunger after righteousness. ”

“ Probably there is no other man in this country who can be wronged with such impunity and success as the negro. He is outraged in business, in society and in politics. He knows his wrong, but he does not know of his power to repel it. He needs a manly self-reliance, and that he must have or he will always be victimized. ”

“ A young man who recently united with our church on profession of faith, in his first prayer at the Wednesday night prayer meeting, said: [80] “Help us young men to pray a little faster and a little better, for you know how slow and imperfect we are. We cannot help ourselves. You are our only help. Lead us in the way that we should go, and help us to withstand the temptations which come every day.” ”

“ The negro should receive the higher education because God has made him capable of it, and he is profited thereby as much as any other man.
(2.) The higher range of studies is necessary to supplant self-conceit with self-reliance. Measuring themselves by themselves, an ignorant people are always inflated by the merest modicum of knowledge. Broad scholarship gives modesty, but the sciolist everywhere is a braggart. None are so satisfied with their acquisitions as the valedictorians of very poor schools. ”

“ In that hot school-room it seemed almost possible that these Protestant teachers might be unwillingly converted into female Friars, according to the little girl’s definition.
The teachers are reaching out in every direction. In a little tumbled down, or tumbling down, log cabin, Miss Robertson holds mission service every Sabbath. From seventy to ninety, mostly men and boys, gather to sing, hear God’s word read, and gather useful lessons from the wise and loving counsel of this earnest Christian soul. ”

“ The negro has ability for the highest range of studies, and to debar him therefrom is to sin both against the man and his Maker. Many, especially those who cannot spell his name without putting in one “g” too many, doubt the intellectual power of the negro. It is true that heredity holds with him as with other men. A race scarce one and twenty years removed from enforced ignorance does not climb the hill of science as nimbly as those who inherit the brain, will and spiritual forces which generations and centuries have accumulated. ”

“ Where gold is scarce, a little metal, and chiefly alloy, will serve for many a big spangle, and the greater the darkness the brighter it shines. The serene satisfaction with which the African novice will misapply and mispronounce grandiloquent speech can only be cured by the presence of some scholarly men who have climbed far enough to see the heights and to know that the low-land is a bog. ”

“ The particular value of this Government movement in behalf of the Indian is, that it will not only prepare the way for the coming of the Gospel, but will also protect the effects of the Gospel from the evil influences of wicked men. Had the hindrances which have shut out Christianity from the Indians been removed, as they could and ought to have been by the Government, the Gospel long ago would have solved the Indian problem, and the Gospel must solve it now. ”

“ We are compelled to see ignorance, helplessness and consequent shiftlessness, contending hopelessly with the might and meanness of greed. This great need in a professedly Christian land—people perishing [70] for lack of knowledge, where knowledge is a birthright—causes our hearts to burn within us, and we say, how long until the whole body of Christ feels this pain? ”

“ It is true the virtue needed is largely moral. Scholarship alone cannot give it, but scholarship is a prime ingredient. The step of one walking in darkness is of necessity halting and hesitant. The higher education is essential to that higher courage without which right and privilege are insecure.
(3.) The negro needs well-trained leaders and they must come from his own people. Race prejudice is an uncomfortable fact, and there are two sides to the color line. The Moses of the future cannot, in general, be an Egyptian, whether teacher, preacher or politician. ”

“ But wise self-reliance is as rare among an ignorant people as conceit and folly are abundant. One part of the problem before us is to develop manly courage. Slavery cut the hamstrings of independence and sapped very manhood. As a rule the negro is not certain of his rights nor is he heroic in maintaining them. ”

“ The contributions are voluntary. As a generous contributor to our treasury says in a letter just received, “Resolutions of annual meetings are not collectable taxes.” Our work is entirely dependent upon the free-will offerings of our supporters. We appeal to them with this understanding. We invite their thoughtful attention to all the facts in the case. The next few months are the best in the year to collect money. People are all at home and about their business. Pastors are all in their pulpits. All the machinery of church and Sunday-school activities are in operation. ”

“ President Cleveland not only believes that the Indian can be civilized, but that it is the duty of the Government to help. He says the Indians [69] “are a portion of our people, are under the authority of our Government, and have a peculiar claim upon, and are entitled to, the fostering care and protection of the Nation. The Government cannot relieve itself of this responsibility until they are so far trained and civilized as to be able wholly to manage and care for themselves. ”

“ The church here was organized in April, 1882. From the beginning we have held worship in one room of the Knox school building, which is owned by the A. M. A. This room is not large enough to accommodate the people when there is anything like a good interest, as we cannot seat, comfortably, more than one hundred persons. We are, therefore, put to great inconvenience at times. Again, there is not the air of sacredness in worshiping in a school-house as there is in an out-and-out church edifice. At least it is so among the people here. ”

“ The appointment of any colored man to office by the Government is an insult to the Southern people, and provokes conflict and dissatisfaction, when if left as they ought to be, in their natural sphere, there would be quiet and good order. ”

“ Build a house for school and worship which may bless present and future generations. But, from a human standpoint, to erect such a building as was needed seemed extremely difficult, if not impossible, with limited means on every side, no market, no railroad, and 2,000 feet above the sea level. ”

“ How many timid hearts made themselves brave to endure the sight of horrible suffering, that they might minister and so help; but now we have grown careless and secure, as if we had no part in the work which the war left for us to do. ”

“ We sing of the sacred tie that binds our hearts into one, we preach about it, we pray over it, in a theoretic way we believe it; but it seems as if it requires something like the fountains of the great deep to be broken up to make us practically realize all that the singing, preaching, praying and believing involve. ”

“ Human nature, even renewed human nature, has some queer inconsistencies. The way in which we fulfill Scripture by turning everyone to his own way is wonderful. One of our own ways is how much readier we are to give charity than to pay debt. ”

“ On the Church of the living God this work must fall, by the people of God it must be done, if it is done at all. There are people who have given themselves, who are in the forefront of this battle. We do not all recognize that we, who hold the Head and are all members one of another, live under the rule of the Beloved, our New Testament David. ”

“ The Yankee section came to the fight richer and stronger than our Southern section, and beat us into the earth while we did our best. To-day these Yankees are rich in everything, and we are poor in everything but manhood and womanhood, and have less than we began with one hundred years back. ”

“ We are American citizens. We have bought our citizenship dear with the sweat of our bodies and the blood of our backs. We have waded the red sea to freedom. The hands that reaped your fields for nought are held out to you for knowledge. We ask for our share of your civilization and your Christianity.” Fellow Christians, the back pay must be made up.
DOES THE HIGHER EDUCATION BEFIT THE NEGRO? ”

“ It was once believed that a little learning was a dangerous thing, but it is now held that much learning is perilous to the negro. His risk is in over-education. Manual training is good for him, of course. He has a natural talent for that which came down from inheritance and has been worked in with both care and pains. He also needs moral training, though this is not an ancient heir-loom in his family. ”

“ The American Missionary Association is the Hand we have extended toward the seven million of colored people in the South, toward the two hundred and seventy-five thousand Indians in the West, and to the one hundred thousand Chinese on the Pacific Slope, to help lift them to Christian character and citizenship. ”

“ He has awakened in the hearts of Christian men, women, young people, and even little children, an interest in this work, so that, by closest attention and careful application of funds, God has enabled me to engineer the work till I can see that He means the house shall stand complete, without so much as a nickel of debt upon it. ”

“ The negro is a man, and, like any other man, is profited by choice mental culture. Furthermore, the disabilities of the past make his higher education specially necessary, and as fast as possible the most promising of the black race should attain the best and choicest culture. ”

“ But twenty-one years, and of wretched environment too, have sufficed to show that souls clad in the blackest African setting are capable of the highest thought and most difficult studies. The evidence on this point is abundant and conclusive. To deny the negro this ability is only to advertise one’s ignorance or prejudice. ”

“ Now I find that the chapel has been spread out upon the sides and elongated in the rear, with sliding doors to shut off each of the several new parts into additional recitation and Sunday-school rooms, and the whole to be crowded for morning prayers and Sabbath service. There have also come on, the Dakota Home for Young Women, the Bird’s Nest for Little Children and the Cottage for Little Boys, each of the three under a matron, and the Dakota Hall for Young Men, with one of the teachers’ families there in charge. Then come the well-built shops for shoemaking, carpentry and blacksmithing ”

“ In Santa Barbara he purchased a lot for $600, for which land he is personally liable, but which he holds in trust for the mission. On that lot, by the close of this week, a chapel will be erected by a Christian friend, at a cost of $340. For this property a moderate rental is to be paid by the mission, and when the sums thus paid shall amount to the price of the land it, together with the building, (toward which the little Chinese band have already paid $150) , becomes the property of the mission. ”

“ But if the test be the same we apply to ourselves, love more or less enthusiastic, loyalty true, even if troubling, to our Divine Master, and our judgments be according to the law of charity, then we have no more reason to look askant upon a Chinese than upon a Bohemian, or a negro brother. ”

“ By this meager percentage, seven thousand liberally trained men are needed for the nearly seven million Africans in our country. We conclude then, that while all should have the lower education, a great many should receive the higher. Every man may need silver, but the best commerce of the world requires that some should also have gold, and a good deal of it. ”

“ Every regiment certainly needs a competent colonel, and among every one thousand men there surely ought to be one well bred and well read, broad and thoughtful and scholarly, trained to thought, enriched with varied knowledge, and able either to cope with men or to grapple with difficulties. ”

“ Sometimes the people asked us such funny questions. At Boston we had service Sunday evening, and after the close of the meeting one lady came up and said, “Is your teacher Indian?” It seems she would have known the difference between us and our teacher, for she was not Indian at all. ”