The American Missionary — Volume 43, No. 12, December, 1889 by Various
page 51 of 189 (26%)
page 51 of 189 (26%)
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fields, in the furnaces and mines of the South, aspiring to nothing
higher and not antagonizing the whites in political matters, there would be no race problem. Six months ago we could quote from an editorial column written by an ex-Confederate officer for an influential Democratic paper in the South these words: "The duty of the white people of the South is plain. In the spirit of _noblesse oblige_ we must sympathize with those who are fitting the colored people for the duties of life, remembering what the Negroes were to our forefathers and what our forefathers were to them. No one can doubt that a Negro has a soul to save. That admitted, he is as much entitled to the benefits of salvation as the white man. But", he adds, "what do we see? Nearly all the bodies of Christians even, except the Roman Catholics, shuffling to set the Negro apart and leave him largely to his own ways, shuffling out of their responsibility according to the gospel which they profess as their guide, and putting the Negro apart in spite of the word of God, whom they worship, that he is no respecter of persons. The Negro was brought over here by theft and outrage. He is here to stay, and we must deal with him according to the golden rule, and as we would wish to be done by if we were similarly placed." This is not a quotation from the National Council of Congregational Churches, where such an utterance would both by nature and by grace find expression, but it is from the pen of an officer of the Southern Confederacy, who knows the light when he sees it, who keeps open an honest eye, and who does not hesitate to speak from an honest mind. This sentiment balances somewhat of that which pleads against the black man, and not a few friends of this kind has the American Missionary Association won to itself throughout the South. It never had so many who |
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