THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

"Have we not all one father; hath not one God created us, why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?"Mal.2-10.There are two facts implied in this text which we wish to notice. 1. We have all one father by act of creation. 2. We should not deal treacherously against our brother. Our text sets forth in unmistakable language the Fatherhood of God --and what this necessarily embraces--the Brotherhood of Man. The crystal stream of humanity which is divided into so many different ramifications, took its rise in Eden and may be easily traced to one federal head, Adam. This is clearly demonstrated by the Bible, the most authentic record on the genealogy of man known to the world. The variety seen in the human family does not destroy its identity. We see the same variety manifest in all parts of our Heavenly Father's dominion. Turn, if you, will, to the vegetable kingdom, note the origin and component parts of the giant oak. Remember the woody fiber, the pulpy leaf, and the flaky bark sprang from the same source. They, all alike, slept in the same cradle of the acorn and were tossed by the same summer breeze. Here may be found quite a variety of texture and complexion--the wood differing from the bark, and the bark in turn, different from the the leaves, and 0003510the leaves different indeed from each other. Dame Nature, in the full exercise of her right, adheres to no mathematical exactness in casting the leaves in her moulds--dropping one scallop here and adding another one there, then coloring them with all the delicate tints of the rainbow--she presents a marvel of beauty in variety that art in vain attempts to imitate.

Thus, on the tree of humanity, we see the pale leaf of Japheth, the bronze leaf of Shem and the sable leaf of Ham, all belonging to the same tree. The differences of texture of hair, color of skin, physique, etc., found among the races of the earth, are justly attributed to the influence of climate and habits of living, etc. The fact that all the human family interbred, and their offsprings are prolific and not sterile as the mule, to my mind, offers an unanswerable proof of their sameness. As it is not our purpose to treat this subject in an ethnological sense, we shall assume the Fatherhood of God as a fact, which I believe is readily conceded by every one present, and shall proceed to amplify it.

The appellation, father appeals to our hearts as no other name by which God is known. It not only awakens in us feelings of the most profound respect, but touches the responsive cords of our tenderest affections, and leads us not only to love Him, but adore and worship Him. He is a Father that loves His household, which is evidenced by the provision he has made. We have but to cast our eyes about us and we see written upon earth's wide bosom in letters of gold, God loves us. We have but to open our ears and we hear nature's great orchestra filling all earth, yea, the vaulted skies with the sweet melody.From cribs of pearl grain music,Like smoke from burning censers rise,And all the threshingfloors and fruitage of earth,Join in the mighty chorus.

And His paternal love is shown, not only in providing food for hungry mouths, but clothes for nude bodies, so that His children can dwell with equal comfort under the vertical sun of the tropics or in the Arctic regions amid perpetual ice and snow. He is not a Father, however, who indulges His children in stupid indolence and vagrancy, but has conditioned their supplies 0004511upon their active industry, and has enacted and published the rule, that those who do not work shall not eat. This fact dignifies labor, and converts the instrument worn by the sons of toil from a yoke of reproach to a crown of honor and distinction.

At times, we feel to covet that ease which we imagine wealth brings to its possessor, but alas, how true is it that every heart knows its own bitterness-- poverty and peace are more frequently found together than palaces and pleasures. While night brings hours of refreshing sleep to the laborer, it brings hours of restless anxiety and wakefulness to the idler; the former needs no tonic for taste nor appetizer for food, they come as a reward of industry, but the idler takes food as the furnace takes fuel--just to obey the law of necessity. Every one, therefore, should rejoice in the opportunity of contributing something to the general good of mankind, and not be satisfied in being a mere consumer--a parasite, feeding on his fellowman. I do not feel that the call to activity is any part of the curse which our heavenly Father laid upon His children; for before the fall, Adam was called to " keep the garden," which means employment. But the curse appears only in the multiplied difficulties which surround employment, and not in employment itself, for this indeed is the greatest tonic for mind and muscle, and is essential to true happiness.

He is a Father who chastens the bad and rewards and encourages the good members of his household. History reveals the fact that nations have arisen into prominence, and flourished so long as they were loyal to their heavenly Father, but their downfall marked their disloyalty, and destruction sealed their doom. Our own country might profit by this fact, and be instructed by the words: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."--Ps.33-12.

He is the more capable of meting our rewards and punishments according to the law of justice, because He sees all and knows all. His children are ever in His presence. The darkness and the light are alike to Him. There are many dark blood-curdling deeds known to the animals of our criminal courts on earth, but many darker and more foul still remain a profound secret, covered from the gaze of men to whom they must always 0005512remain unknown; but God unearths the frightful deed that stands with ghastly form before the mind of the self-condemned sinner, and fastens it upon his conscience, that it may ride him as a nightmare to his grave, which is but a beginning of that punishment that is indescribable, and the thoughts of which fill the soul with ten thousand horrors.

The fact that He sees all and knows all eminently fits Him to bestow rewards upon those who have merited then even in a small degree. Men and women of small merit are overlooked in this world of conflict. The lesser lights, like stars, are list in the presence of the greater luminaries, like the sun and moon. But these stars are suns to other systems. Thus, there are many generous deeds performed in an humble way, and many a worthy life lived out among men and women of which the world takes no notice, but they shine before the face of the Father in heaven. There is a humble band in this world called mothers. They have never led an army of daring warriors to battle and gained a glorious victory for their country, yet the potent influence which they yield, though silent, over their cribs and cradles stands as the nation's bulwark. The nations of the earth are what, under God, the mothers have made them. In solitude often, they spend their humble lives in darning and stitching, making and mending. But this does not apply to wearing apparel alone, for this more truly applies to the forming and reparing, while in a formative state, the characters of their children--the future men of the nation.

Let me say to the mothers present: let Hannah's vow be yours--lend your children to God, your Father as long as they live, and your Samuels, in years to come, shall not fail to bring pride to your hearts and honor to your gray hairs.

He is a Father who exercises great love and forbearance towards His rebellious children. When by an act of their own volition they forfeited their right to happiness and heaven, so deep was His interest and so great was His compassion that the best gift of heaven was placed upon the sacrificial altar for their redemption. This marvelous gift is more duly appreciated when it is remembered it was not bestowed because the Father was poor for the services of His children, for in another part of His vast 0006513domain, within that city whose walls are jasper and whose gates are of gold, we are told there are myriads of shining ones who wait to do Him honor. I see them move with matchless grace and grandeur before His lofty throne--and now they pause, hark! there is a wave of music of the sweetest strains rolled out by angelic voices that fills all that world of light. Here reside those whose members may be infinitely increased by a simple act of the Father's will-this gift was the way and price of pardon. In this His children should greatly rejoice, that He pardons in a manner peculiar to Himself. Man forgives you, but seldom forgets you. He pardons you with the understanding that he may ever afterwards watch you. A lost place in man's confidence is seldom, if ever, regained. He can afterwards try you, but can't trust you. With him, your word, like a clothesline, will always need a prop. But our Heavenly Father not only forgives, but fully restores us to His confidence, and assures us that our transgressions are remembered against us no more forever.

The dealing of His Son, our Savior with Peter, who first denied, but afterwards cried, when he recalled his treacherous act, who once score, yet opened the door to the Gentile world, is a striking example of the Father's dealing with all His penitent children. This fact should give rise to feelings of peculiar thankfulness. Our text sets forth the fact that there is only one God or Father--not many--as some would have. And in view of His manifestations of love to us, we can but feel that His command to have no other gods before Him, is just. This command He guards with a feeling of jealousy.

When we remember what a large share or our affections is claimed by the members of our families, our friends in social circles--self and the charms of the world in general, we have cause to fear that our Father's portion is far too small. We should try, therefore, to subordinate every thing to Him, and every cause to His cause. Our best services and gifts should be given to Him, yea, our best selves, without reservation, should be laid on the altar of consecration.

The best evidence of our love is found in obedience. To profess love without a corresponding life of obedience is the 0007514worst of hypocrisy. There are not a few in the world who are willing to admit of the existence and goodness of our Father, and feign would offer some feeling of love in return, but who hold in contempt the whole system of religion, which is the ground of the joy and comfort of the loyal part of His household. And there is still another number who deny His existence, and scout the idea, as being opposed to reason or sound philosophy; and there is still yet another number that admit every thing but do nothing for the glory of God. These several classes stand alike self-convicted and await a fearful retribution. But that this feeling of tenderness, unknown to earthly fathers, and calls them to His own loving arms.

We now turn to notice the Brotherhood of man embraced in the Fatherhood of God: This is axiomatic and needs no demonstration. But permit me to say, the Bible teaches that God made of one blood all nations of men to dwell upon the face of the earth, Act.17-26. This relation in attachment is akin to that of fatherhood; it manifests itself in the noblest deeds of kindness. When duly recognized, no sacrifice is too great to make for its maintenance. The tie of brotherhood has held men together amid the most fierce conflicts of life, and they have still remained bound together in the cold embrace of death. The selfishness of this cold world has greatly weakened that strong bond that belongs to the typical brotherhood. Hence I shall attempt to present to you only an ideal. If the spirit of unselfish brotherhood would appear upon earth, it would be a harbinger of the millennial dawn; then indeed would be carried out the true spirit of the golden rule. Racial lines would no longer be barriers to human progress, and social prejudice would no longer give license to brutal murder, and walk abroad unmasked, waving a defiant flag over a lawless mob, who, in striking down their fellowman, strike down the majesty of the law, to glut themselves on human gore.

Aided by the spirit of brotherhood, man would be able to discern not only a brother in man, but God in man; for man is but a reflection of his Maker, and this spark of divinity found in man 0008515should be recognized wherever found, without regard to race or color.

The spirit of brotherhood is opposed to the ravages of war, and would save the nations of earth from its demoralizing effects, and its waste of life and the accumulated wealth of former years of toil and privation. It would direct that all national disputes be settled by arbitration, thus bringing the civil law into harmony with itself, where it is now at variance with itself, by directing that a man shall be executed for killing one brother in business or social circles, but another is acquitted, yea, applauded, who kills one hundred of his brothers upon a crimson field of battle. While one statute condemns, a second one commends the shedding of a brother's blood.

It is also opposed to all systems of slavery. To barter in the flesh and blood of a brother is an act at which our finer feelings revolt, and the sinfulness of which is denounced by every sense of right found in the human heart. The treacherous act of the sons of Jacob, in selling their brother Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, puts a blot upon their already tainted names, which the deliverance from the other alternative--death--the excuse offered by Judah, could scarcely redeem or justify.

The spirit of brotherhood is a panacea for all the ills of injustice with which the human family is afflicted. It is a sure cure for that mental weakness found in business circles that causes men to forget debts they have contracted, and money they have borrowed from a brother with a promise that is never fulfilled. It is a cure for that moral weakness sometimes found in social circles that leads one to circulate industriously an evil report about his brother, but pays an utter disregard to any and every thing commendable in him. It is good for that sleepy perception that does not wake up in time to preceive a brother's merit while he lives, and therefore offers no words of cheer to the struggling brother in life's fierce battle, but is aroused only by his dying groans and the sobs of weeping friends, to say kind things of one who no longer needs men's presence nor praise, but is now a companion of angels, whose cheering presence chases away every feeling of despondency, and whose rapturous voices bear the soul aloft with feelings of ecstatic delight. It is good 0009516for the weak eyes that prevent our seeing a thing done by our brother to be as good as it would have been, had it been done by ourselves. It enables us to admire, free from envy, purity of character, nobility of soul, and fertility of intellect, wherever found--knowing that the possessor is our brother, and upon that ground we justly claim a share of his wealth.

True brotherhood not only looks upward but downward. It not only sees a brother in a palace but a brother in a hut--not only one in robes but one in rags. It is this spirit that fires up the hearts and stimulates the energies of the earnest christian workers of this convention on their errand of mercy and mission of love. They see all around them in abject poverty, oppressive ignorance, superstition and sin, those whom they regard as flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone. This sight appeals to their responsive hearts so forcibly that the thoughts of losing time, and the difference in social position are lost in the greater thought of saving souls; nor are we called upon to save those alone, who are free to come to our homes and schools, but we must hear that voice which floats over those high walls of massive stones, whitewashed that they might be the more exact copy of the Jewish sepulcher of dead men's bones--a tomb of moral corruption--a felon's cell. That voice is not the voice of a stranger, but a brother whose body is without cleanliness, whose mind is without culture and whose soul is without God.

I took the opportunity a few days ago, to visit the prisons at the capital of our commonwealth where I found indeed a sad picture. At the county jail I found 8 women and 18 men; at the city jail, 15 women and 114 men and boys; at the penitentiary, so women and girls and 1296 men and boys making a total of 1511. I come to render vocal their wants, and pray that the appeal may reach your Christian hearts. These are all human beings, nay more; they are all our sisters and brothers.

That you may be urged to greater personal sacrifice and activity in your laudable work, I beg to remind you of the fact that it is the will of our Father that we take our brother to heaven with us. For when we meet at the great banquet which our Father shall spread for his children in the beautiful home of the soul, we shall be asked by the Father of all, "where is thy brother?"

May heaven re-echo our universal response, here! here!

SHOULD TEACHERS AND PARENTS CONFER, AND IF SO, WHEN AND ABOUT WHAT!The introduction of the International series of Sunday School Lesson helps, has marked a distinct epoch in Sunday School work in nearly all christendom. This epoch is as distinct and marked as the period of Sunday School work introduced by Robert Reiks.

The result is that there has been more systematic Theology taught and chronological arrangements of Bible facts, including Geography and Topography, and all brought within the reach of the boys and girls of reasonable age, than the average preacher learned in a decade, after he entered the ministry sixty or seventy-five years ago.

Indeed the preacher who enters the ministry to-day, unless he is a full graduate of a regular Theological Seminary or has passed through the graduating series of Lesson-helps, is yet ignorant of what the boys and girls, twelve and fifteen years old are supposed to know, and in many cases do. Each Denomination has endeavored to keep pace with, and if possible excel the other, by putting the efforts of the best scholarship it can command in its own series. The consequence is in order to get the real, substantial and systematic help, such as is intended, these series have created a demand for better teachers which demand has not been supplied, and perhaps will not be for some time to come. These Lesson-helps do not as many suppose make the work of teaching so plain and easy, that any and every body can teach, who may perchance be able to read the leaflets and booklets. They actually require superior teachers than we ever had before.

There is therefore a possibility if not a probability of some of our teachers actually getting less of real good from the Lesson helps, than if they did not have any; for the reason that they are led away from a simple trust and dependence upon what the Bible says, to what some one says that it means. But all of this possible disadvantage will disappear as fast as we get a corps of strong, competent and consecrated teachers. There is another great change that is yet to take place, and it must come, with respect to Sunday School work. This change is suggested by the subject of this paper. "Should parents and Teachers confer, and if so, when and about what?"

Such a conference will undoubtedly constitute a condition to the best results: and the time, I believe, is near at hand when a great effort will be made to have it. The very necessity is seen and understood. To my mind that necessity is here now and there is nothing that can meet it but the conference.

1. The Parents and Teachers should confer, because they are partners engaged in the same business, with the same purposes and ends in view, which are the salvation and christian development of the child. And they ought to be as deeply concerned, as to the actual accomplishment as it is possible for them to be according to the relation that each sustains to the business. It is a most endearing relation and the salvation of souls is a most loving work, worthy not only of men and Angels, but God himself takes the highest delight in the salvation of his children. No man engaged in a co-operative business, would assume or undertake the risks and responsibility of running that business without the advice, consent and actual co-operation of the other partners. And why should, and how shall a Teacher engaged in the most important co-operative business in the world, a business which fixes the destiny of man both in time and eternity, viz: character forming and character building, intellectual development and the highest type of christian advancement, expect to be successful in any direction without conferring with his other partner--the parent?

The parent runs the business six days out of seven, and eleven hours out of the twelve that the business is supposed by 0012520many to be run jointly, by the two. In other words in eighty hours the Teacher is supposed to have the child under him, possibly one hour, and the parent eighty-three. But since this is a joint business the work of the parent that is done in the eighty-three hours, should be of the same tender and character of that done by the Teacher during the one hour, and vice versa. And yet such is impossible without an understanding and agreement. It ought not therefore to be expected that very much appreciable and lasting results, would or could be had in shaping and developing character, in so short a time as the Teacher has the child under him, without the assistance of the parent, whose efforts should be in accord with that of the Teacher--

The Sunday school Teacher and parent stand in the same relation to the child in the Sunday-school as the secular school Teacher and parent do to the child in the secular school. They all have a common end in view--the welfare of the child; and in many cases they are one and the same persons with the same child. The work of the Teacher may be called a success, the term "success" being modified according to the conditions under which the Teacher labors, but no one can say that the results are, or can be the best, either in extent or thoroughness. There is no such thing as having a hearty and full co-operation of the parent, without a conference between him and the Teacher. This statement is absolute and does not even admit of modification. "Without counsel purposes are disappointed; but in the multitude of counsellors they are established." "Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety."

2. The Teachers and parent should confer, because it is necessary, and I think indispensably so; that there should be a clear and definite understanding between them, concerning any special, or given line of policy to be pursued to accomplish a common end. They can not have such an understanding without a conference. I believe that two-thirds of the trouble that is had between Teacher, scholar and parent, both in secular and Sunday-school is due to the fact that there is lack of understanding between them, and which could and would be swept away, if parent and Teacher were brought face to face in conference, 0013521or if they had met prior to the occurrence it never would have been. There is something that goes out from one's personal presence to another, and which knits their souls to-gether, in friendship and love, and makes them one in purpose and work that is very difficult to explain or define. We some times call it an influence, character, and living personality, personal magnetism.

It is immaterial and yet it is real; it is an intangible something and yet its potentiality is stronger than anything tangible could be in influencing man toward man.

It is exhibited in, and makes its way to and upon another by a look, by an action, by appearance and by expresison--indeed it is the very window of the soul, through which one looks into the heart of another and discerns the intent of the mind without conference and communion of souls between teacher and parent, there will not only not be hearty co-operation, but an open and positive breach.

Why, my friends, just think it for a moment, the parent knows nothing of the action and attitude of the teacher in a given case or difficulty, except what the child is pleased to tell, and vice versa. And whether the child is young or old, it generally knows how, and as a rule succeeds in telling a story, so that the side he wishes shall appear the best, and especially is this true when he has figured most conspicuously in the thing about which he is relating the story.

3. In order to secure the hearty co-operation of the parent, there must not only be an understanding as to the efforts put forth to accomplish certain purposes, but there must be a reciprocity of sympathy as to those efforts, and an agreement between Teacher and parent that these are the best efforts to be employed to bring to pass the common end that both have in view. And this sympathy can be had only by bringing the two partners face to face to-gether.

IIWhen should they confer?

1. They should confer at a convenient place and opportune time, in order that the conference may be general and effective. I mean that a time and place should be designated when parents 0014522and Teachers should meet to-gether. Such would be a new feature in Sunday-school work, but its benefits can not be questioned.

2. The Teacher should visit the parent at home, with a view of holding a conference upon any special subject or given case of difficulty, that comes under his observation.

3. The parent should visit the Teacher, and thereby seek a conference with him.

IIIAbout what should they confer!

1. They should confer about the general welfare of the school, seeking and hoping thereby to secure united action with the best endeavors to make the school all that it should, or is possible for it to be.

2. The conference should have special aim at securing full attendance of all the children of the parents who belong to the church, and also those who attend services at the same, including all of the neighborhood who do not attend other churches.

3. They should confer about the promptness and regularity of attendance. The failure of so many young men and women both in the capacity of Teachers and scholars to attend the Sunday-school, in my judgment is due largely to the lack of harmony, and united and persistent effort on the part of parent and Teacher.

4. They should confer about special and difficult cased which occur in every school, and sometimes terminate the connection of the pupil not only with that Teacher, but with the School: both of which might have been avoided had the matter been conference over between parent and Teacher. No pupil should be allowed to leave one Teacher and go to another, because of a difficulty, until every effort is made by Teacher, Superintendent and parent to settle it.

You will find in the neighborhood of any church, more children out of school who have been, than there are children out of school who have never been in.

What does this show? Why it shows indifference on the part of both Teacher and parent, a lack of concerted and persistent 0015523action to keep those children in school. It takes more to keep children in, by far, than it does to get them in.

Such a thing as so many children running at large on Sunday, would be unknown, because it would be impossible, if the matter were consulted over between parent and Teacher, and earnest efforts were made to prevent it. And finally let the Teacher and parent not cease to confer about the salvation of the scholar, and the development of christian character; teaching and impressing that all true character must have its orgin in Christ; that the only true moral standard is in the Bible: that the law and the gospel are summed up in the words of Jesus, "As ye would that men should do to you; do ye even so to them;" and that those who would live with the expectation of reaching heaven, must obey his precept, teaching them that the words of the poet are true and always will be.Heaven is not gained at a single bound;But we build the ladder by which we riseFrom the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,And we mount to its summit round by round.I count this to be grandly true,That a noble deed is a step toward heaven--Lifting the soul from the common sodTo purer air and broader view.We rise by things that are 'neath our feet,By what we have mastered of good and gain;By the pride deposed and the passions slain,And the vanquished ills that we hourly meet.Only in a dream is the ladder thrownFrom the weary earth to the Sapphire walls;But the dreams depart, and the vision falls,And the sleeper wakes on his pillow of stones.Heaven is not gained at a single bound;But we build the ladder by which we riseFrom the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,And we mount to its summit round by round.

Shakespeare says"It is held that valor is the chiefest virtue, and most dignifies the haver."

In coming to pay tribute to the memory of a friend to my people, to a lover of humanity, and to a devoted and firm believer in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man, I am attracted by the great virtue which distinguished the Rev. Samuel J. May from the mass of his fellows. He was possessed of courage. Courage in its highest form; the kind of fearlessness that was inspired by Right, the daring that was impelled by deep rooted love of Justice, of Liberty and of Humanity. He was most elevated, most dignified by valor. After all, of what value is mere knowledge of what is right and of what is wrong? There is no dignity in the knowledge divorced from the desire, the willingness, and the courage to do, and labor for the right. Strangely as it may strike us, the right is more often the unpopular principal than the wrong. To antagonize the wrong and to advocate the right is often to call down upon the man of truth and of righteousness, the wrathful violence of the multitude, the arrogance and unjust judgment of time servers and demagogues and to entail upon the good and true undeserved and martyr-like suffering. He who braves this is dignified indeed with the chiefest virtue. Samuel J. May embraced the cause of the downtrodder, oppressed Negro. When he did so, the Nation with its thousands of Christian churches, its multitude of theologians, its press, its political organizations, was the strong ally of the most outrageous and stupendous crime of the century. All the accompaniments of the boasted Christianity and civilization of the nineteenth century in the United States stood in menacing 0024532attitude in the pathway of the abolitionists, deriding and threatening the advocates of justice and frequently violently assailing them with missiles and weapons of the assassin. Statesmanship, so called, palliated evil, excused crime and encouraged slavery. The good citizen was not considered the one who accepted the principles of the Declaration of Independence and who made the Golden Rule the standard of duty to mankind. No, in the trying days of Rev. Samuel J. May's early manhood. He who believed in freedom and justice and that all men were created free and equal, was held to be fanatic engaged in fanning into flames passions which might destroy the Nation. Patriotism was more manifested by professions of devotedness to the buying and selling of human chattels, to the separation of mothers and babies, to the cruel lash on quivering flesh, and to the degradation and imbruting of a race. He who "poured upon unwilling ear the truth oppression hates to hear" was the traiton to be despised, ostracized and brutally treated. Colossal wrong was upheld by the vast multitude armed with all the power of perverted christianity, misdirected learning and bullying, arrogant so called civilization whose aim seemed rather to be destroy than to strengthen the weak or to build up humanity.

Against the deep-grounded popularity of wrong and oppression; against the pronounced and fixed determination of the zealots of the woeful iniquity to uphold and maintain human bondage as a principle binding and to hold the States in a common bond, stood a small band, dignified by true courage, impelled and inspired by powerful and wonderful insight of the right. Of this band, Samuel J. May was not the least. Many abolitionists there were whose opposition to the accursed institution was based on, economic grounds, coldly shutting out questions of humanity and unfeelingly estimating Negro human beings as beyond or beneath the respect or decent consideration of the white man. No such weak and cowardly ideas of man's duty to God and to man, influenced our noble minded humanity, loving and intrepid friend Samuel J. May. His was a "name whom love of God had blessed." He loved his fellow men and made no criticism on the All-wise Creator for making a part of humanity black. Outraged humanity had his sympathy and his effort for relief without consideration 0025533of race color. This fact, if taken alone, and leaving aside his devotion to the cause of Freedom, must be considered evidence of the possession of a most high courage. For today, in many parts of the country the black man is wickedly held to be a menace to civilization and a feeling is encouraged that God's work is being done when he is prescribe, humiliated and oppressed. The more civilized, christianized, refined and cultivated the Negro becomes, the more is he treated as out of place. And today, brave indeed is the white man who earnestly and persistently urges the Nation to stand by its deals of equal and exact justice to all men without regard to race and color previous condition of servitude. Prejudice against race and color is the wicked, cruel wrong of today. A wrong that fails to engage the attention and condemnation of the christianity of the land in any forcible, persistent manner. We look about us in vain for burning arguments against prejudice. Men of Samuel J. May stamp are not easily found. The conscience of the Nation is yet to be awakened to the injustice of denying colored citizens education in trades, equality in courts of justice and fair treatment in our National Academies.

Who are these people of color? Why under the fundamental law of the land, they are citizens of the United States. Citizens who have testified their devotion to this government on the field of battle when the country was in its direst extremity. They are citizens today, who, in contrast with those who sought the Nation's life and who enjoy full restoration to power, are practically denied the rights of citizenship and freedmen. Under an oppression fast becoming as powerful as American slavery, the Negro is struggling for advancement in moral, intellectual and christian civilization. American prejudice confronts him sternly and relentlessly. In courts of justice, where presumably innocence attaches until guilt is proven, the presumption is against the colored citizen at the start. How cruel and wrong this is, let every law-respecting citizen determine. This is a condition to be changed. American philanthropy, American sense of justice, American gratitude to faithful allies, demand that the brave whole-hearted men of the Samuel J. May mould, emulating the example of this hero for the right, take hold of the good work of 0026534extending to all men equality in the exercise of all rights, and as consistently, and persistently as did our faithful friend labor for the desired end. As heartily as our gratitude and love go out to the memory of the sainted May, will the appreciation and thankfulness be with all sincerity, given to our friends in our present extremity.

Rev. Samuel J. May once said while preaching against slavery: "It is our prejudice against the color of these poor people that makes us consent to the tremendous wrongs they are suffering." And our good friend added this question: "But will our prejudice be accepted by the Almighty, the impartial Judge of all, as a valid excuse for our indifference to the wrongs and outrages inflicted upon these millions of our countrymen?"

Thanks to the philanthropic labors of the Samuel J. Mays, who, possessed of courage and unalterable determination, denounced with energy and persistency, the terrible wrongs inflicted upon my people, the depressing prejudice of the days began to crumble and to pass away in a large part of the Nation. There is, however, so much left of the baneful influence of American slavery that is felt in all sections of the country asto cause many of the thoughtful of my people much distress and fear. Other thoughtful ones among us, remembering Samuel J. May and the courageous band of Justice-loving humanitarians with which he identified himself, take courage when we see that his memory is respected and honored and the works which made him great are regarded by such as I see before me as true christian labor. My highest respect is held for you who honor and appreciate Samuel J. May. I know that you do so because he was good. Because he early discovered and acknowledged the grandeur of right. To such as you, appeals for justice come not in vain. To you who feel the majesty of right, the dignity of courage, holding as high virtue, the possession of belief in the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man, the oppressed and down-trodden of the earth look with a confidence encouraged by the lives of such earnest, true and faithful men as Samuel J. May whose memory you and I honor and esteem.

Gratitude is a characteristic of the colored man. I am here to gratefully acknowledge the eminent service rendered humanity 0027535by Samuel J. May in his advocacy of justice for all men. While the colored people of the country are indebted to such noble men as Samuel J. May for labor in a work having for its object the abolition of slavery, all men and all races should contribute their need of praise for his magnificent efforts for liberty in the face of the Satanic raging of the advocates of slavery.

It is, and has always been, the claim of Americans that this is the land of the free. Up to the abolition of slavery, it was wicked falsehood and today, it is only an idle boast. For no Nation is free in which law is over-ridden and man's rights are determined by the color of his skin. In so far as these United States are just to all men, to that extent is the Nation free. We all know that this desired altitude has not yet been reached. An awakening to that fact is needed: Samuel J. Mays are desirable today with courage as of old. The absence at this hour from the arena of right of such noble characters as the earnest and valorous May, is felt by those of us who knew his worth and appreciated the necessities of the times.

Did Samuel J. May live in vain? The Negro says he did not. The colored people of this country who recall the fearful wrongs inflicted on black humanity when human bondage was enthroned, remember taking hope, feeling encouraged and uplifted by the friendly voices of Samuel J. May and his associates in the battle for Freedom. With my people, his memory will be ever cherished, his work fully appreciated and his great courage highly esteemed. So should it be with the white people. For he was true, earnestly true to all the grand principles of right upon which it is claimed is laid the foundation of this Nation. It is noble and grand to die in defense of right principles; it is equally noble and equally grand to live up to the claims of truth and justice.

Samuel J. May lived for truth, for liberty, for justice. His memory is entitled to the unfading respect of all men, and his course should be followed by the really patriotic citizen today.

At one time, this Nation was ruled by slavery, that rule was forced aside by the defeat of treason. Today the mob that over-rides law and order is insidiously trying to make of non-effect the guarantees of Freedom embedded in the fundamental law of the 0028536land. There is grave danger ahead if mob rule is not thwarted--is not forced aside and smothered by the power of a righteous denunciation and an awakened sense of duty to God and man.

In human history and experience, no book in any language or among any nation can be placed in contrast with the Bible. No book has exerted such benign influence for good upon the community in which its ethical teachings have been received as the Bible. The Old Testament came to us with the thought of God, clothed in the language of patriarchs, sages and prophets; the New Testament, with the words of the Master and his inspired Apostles. Both form one complete whole, destined to last till the end of time.

God, in giving his revelation to the world, gave it in human language, and it is the duty of those who receive the Bible and believe in its teaching, "to search the Scriptures whether those things are so."

My present purpose in this article is to write a few thoughts on "Eden and Paradise" and to examine whether the opinion which some theological students hold, that Paradise and heaven are one and the same is true or false. There is no sin in examining the revelations of God, when that examination is made in a reverent spirit. There is no piety in the blind and ridiculous assertion that God did not intend us to know all about the Bible. Think of a King who has made a proclamation to his subjects which he did not want them to understand! This is the God of some believers. I do not so understand the Eternal. In the 2nd chapter of the book of Creation, verse 8th we read, "And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden on the east and there he put Adam whom he had found." It seems then that Eden was no small place but an extensive tract of land noted for its fertility for such is the meaning of the worn in Hebrew. The trees of Eden were noted for their tallness and their luxurient foliage. This is evident from the fact that the prophet Ezekiel in that 0030538sublime alligory of (chapter 32:8 9) speaks of Pharoah King of Egypt in the following words: "The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the fir trees were not like his boughs and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; not any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him." This passage, therefore, proves beyond a contradiction that the trees of Eden transcended all other trees of that region as Pharoah King of Egypt transcended other Kings in power and majesty. The exact spot where Eden was cannot now be ascertained with certainty, but it must have been situated some where in the neighborhood of Asyria and Babylonia. Eden was in the creation of the Cosmos, Paradise was not as we shall see.

The inspired historian tells us that a river proceeded out of Eden to water the garden and was divided into four heads. The name of the river is not mentioned, but the four heads are named Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates. If the Etheopia of verse 13 is Africa, the Gihon in the Nile. Das andere wasser heist Gihon, das fliaeszt um das ganze Mohrenland, says Luther in his German Bible. The Pison, incompass the whole land of Navilah and if we take this for British India, this river would be the Inctus. The Hiddekel is the Tigris, celebrated for the rapidity of its current as we learn from Herodotus. The Euphrates was known to Jeremiah. In chapter 12:4 we read, "Take the girdle that thou hast brought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates and hide it there in a cleft of the rock." Herodotus tells how Darius the son of Histapis boasted about the sweetness of the waters of that river.

In this Eden, this land of delight, was the garden of paradise which the Lord planted as the residence of the first pair, the trunk of the human race. The distinction must be made; it is not the "garden of paradise" but "the garden of Eden." Paradise was not the land in which the garden was placed, but Eden was that land. The Hebrew word gan which is translated garden, seems to convey a wider meaning in this passage than it does in other passages. If the present Hebrew text of Genesis be the one from which the translators of LXX, made their version 0031539it will be evident that they regarded gan as conveying a wider meaning than its ordinary one. Paradise is not a Greek nor Hebrew word, but Persian, and since the Greek word for a garden is kepos, there could have been no reason why the translators should have rejected the Greek equivalent of a Hebrew word and substituted a Persian word of different meaning. So much for Eden.

It is repeatedly asserted by some of our theological students that Paradise and the heaven where God manifests his glory to the angels are one and the same. I deny this popular theological assumption, no matter by whom propounded. Popular assumption may set up itself as judge and dictator; popular assumption may proscribe investigation; popular assumption may gather the multitude on its side; popular assumption may put men who differ from it to death; popular assumption may claim the right to dictate, but when men have seen the truth in a new light, they will leave old tradition and take hold of the truth. Verily, it is clearly stated in Gen. 2:8, that Paradise was planted eastward in Eden. This being true, the things in Paradise were not the same as things in Eden. Hence Paradise had a tree of life and a tree of knowledge but no such trees were in any other part of Eden else Adam would have eaten of the tree of life and lived forever.

God then in planting a garden in Eden did not plant heaven there, but he brought something heaven-like in its nature and condition to bless the surrounding regions of Eden. Dr. Adam Clarke stated that the Arabs have a tradition that God created Paradise out of light and if this Arabic tradition be true, then we may believe that out of Paradise irradiated light and spiritual powers for the environs of Eden. This Paradise is the very one to which Jesus carried the robber from the cross, for it could neither be destroyed nor lost, since the devil was not permitted to touch anything within it. When Adam sinned in Paradise, God came from heaven and called him to account for the commandment which he had broken. Did God come from Paradise to call Adam in Paradise? If Paradise is heaven, as we are told by our theological students, then God's throne was upon earth as Eden was and will our theologians tell us at what time the Eternal 0032540removed it to heaven? Again, if Paradise was not a place distinct from heaven, was Adam in heaven when he sinned! And if this Paradise was destroyed or lost as some seem to think, we ask, why were kerubim and a flaming sword placed at the east of the garden of Eden to the way of the tree of life! Surely no man of ordinary intelligence could suppose that God would place beings of the highest intelligence to keep the way of what has no existence.

It now remains for me to state that Jewish eschatology teaches that after the fall of Adam and the evil consequences of sin which followed death became the wages of sin. The gates of that heaven-like place were closed to the human race. By no possible means could any one enter it. It should remain closed until the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head and until this was accomplished there could have been no entrance into it. Paradise remained upon earth for some time shedding forth its rays of light; for even the murderer Cain, when driven out of Eden went and built Nod on the east of Eden in order to get the light of Paradise. Paradise was the immortal region in Eden. No death could enter there; no sickness there; no beast could tear there; no trees, no flowers could fade there. Adam and Eve did not die in Paradise; Cain did not murder Abel in it; none of Adam's children were born in it; such things were done in Eden. And what became of this deathless region? It is removed from the earth and is now the Intermediate State in the invisible world. But to return. Previous to the incarnation of Jesus Christ our Saviour, Jewish eschatology teaches that all men at death pass into the world of the dead called in the Hebrew tongue sheol and in this Greek tongue hades. Both nations believed that this world of the dead was divided into two divisions. To the Greeks, Tartarus was the place of suffering and the Elysian plains, the place of pleasure and enjoyment. The Hebrews, on the other hand, believe that the righteous dead pass into sheol and enter that part of it called the Bosom of Abraham, while the wicked dead pass into the place of suffering called the pit of pit of corruption.

Up to the time of our Lord Jesus Christ the Jewish nation believed in nothing else and Jesus himself confirmed this belief 0033541when he tells us in Luke 16:22 that Lazarus, the begger was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Of course, there are men in the church who know more than their Master; there are men who are so pious that not even the words of Jesus can be true, because of their piety. Sheol, then, is the intermediate state of the Jewish nation. But if it be said, "there is an intermediate state, but no intermediate place," we reply, that the statement is faulty. God has not created a non-substantial entity in the universe. All things are substances; from the grossest matter to the finest spirits. The soul of man is a substance, though a spirit and must have extension, breadth and density and must, of necessity, rest in some place. An intermediate state therefore, is a place.

It is very painful to see how popular assumption can stultify itself. Lazarus in Abraham's bosom was in nowhere the rich man in hades, was in nowhere. Jesus who told the robber that he should be with him in Paradise, meant nowhere Jesus who preached to the disobedient dead in hades, preached to them in nowhere. So some of our modern students say. If you can believe them, do so I can't. The popular assumption that immediately after death, the soul of a believer goes directly into heaven and looks into the face of the Eternal King has no support in scripture. To behold the face of God always is a state of perfection and a disembodied spirit of a believer is not a perfected spirit until it has received the resurrection-body. There is no such a thing as the soul in the highest heaven and the body in the grave. The redeemed soul and body. This being a fact, the soul and body must be together in heaven or hell to receive complete punishment or complete glorification. I do not believe that any one soul is in Gehenna, the place of eternal reprobation yet, unless I can prove that such a wicked soul has risen from the dead. The scripture shows us three who have received their glorified resurrection-bodies heaven with the angels; there may be others of whom we know nothing, but all the other dead are in the under world, sheol, hades and Paradise till the final judgment.

Where are these places to be found? The Hebrew scriptures 0034542teach that sheol is in the neither parts of the earth. Thus Num. 16:33 va yerdhu hem re cal asher lahem chayim sheolah va tecas alahem ha arets va yoyedhen mittok hakahal. "And they went down and all that belongs to them alive into sheol and the earth covered them and they perished from the midst of the congregation." Again. Ezekiel, 31:17 Gam hem itto yardhu sheolah et hhalle-cherebh wuzrooh yashvn vissillo bethok goyim. "And they with him descend into sheol unto the slain of the sword and his arm, they dwell in his shadow in the midst of the nations."

Again, Psa.89:48, we read, "Mi giber pichyeh ve to yirch enaveth, yemallet naphsho meyed sheol? "What man shall live and shall see death will he deliver his soul from the hand of sheol?" These passages show clearly that sheol is the world of the dead and is not equivalent to hell, the place of eternal reprobation. No man could believe that the innocent children of korah, Dothan and Abiram are gone to hell when they had nothing to do with their fathers" rebellion. The fathers went to the prison of sheol, the children to Abraham's bosom.

The Paradise into which the souls of believers now go at death is the same one in which Adam was placed. Abraham's bosom could by no means be that Paradise since it was closed to the human race and was only to be reopened by the seed of the woman. The Paradise mentioned by the Lord twice in the New Testament, Luke 23:43; Rev. 2:7; and once by St. Paul 2 Cor. 12:4; is not a subterranean one, but a heavenly one; yet it is not identical with heaven. Who would believe that if the Master has come from Paradise to earth, that he would not have said so in some of his public or private discourses with his disciples? To the disciples, Jesus spoke nothing of Paradise; but over and over he spoke to them of "your heavenly Father," "my Father which is in heaven," "I came down from heaven," "the angels which are in heaven," etc. It is therefore, nothing else than a popular assumption of the theologians to say that God's throne is set in Paradise as one of my critics has said. In the Greek fragment of the Revelation of peter, we read that the twelve disciples asked the Saviour as he was taking them to a mountain to pray, to show them one of their righteous brethren who had departed this life, that they might see his form, etc.

The Lord granted the request. "And as we were praying', said the writer, "suddenly there appeared two men standing before the Lord towards the east, whom we could not look upon: for there came from their countenance a ray as of the sun and all their raiment was light, such as never eye of man behold, nor mouth can describe, nor heart conceive the glory wherewith they were clad, and the beauty of their countenance." There are many beautiful passages in the book, but I cannot build any theory upon them. Another vision of Paradise is given the Apocalype of Paul. "Iterum adsumpsit me et tulit me ad aquilonem civitatis et duxit me ubi erat flumen vini et vidi illic Abraham, Hisaac, Jacob, Lot et Jop et alios sanctos, et salutaverient me: et interrogavi et dixi quis est hic locus domain? Respondit angelus et dixit mihi omnes qui susceptores peregrinorum sunt, cum exierint do mundo, adorant primum dominum deum et traduntier Michaelo et per hanc viam inducuntur in civitatem; et omnes justi salutant eum sicut filium et fratrem et dicunt ei quoniam servasti humanitatem et susceptionem peregrinorum, veui, aeraditatem abe in civitatem domini nostri: unus quisque justus secundum proprium hactum accipiet in civitate bona dei."

All patristic literature began after the time of Christ; no patriarchs or prophets of the Old Testament ever thought of going any where at death but to sheol. The common Hebrew expressions "to sleep with the fathers" to be gathered to his people" means to go to the world of the dead, sheol, and nothing else. Why did Job, David, Abraham, Jacob, Hezekiah, Solomon and others dread to die, if they thought that death would carry them directly into heaven? No man could have entered heaven before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If any man could tell me what did Christ come into the world for? If anyone could, sin is not an evil. If any one could, then somebody else has fulfilled the law broken in Paradise and what need had Christ to come and do what someone else has done before him?

The Paradise of the New Testament is the very one which Adam had lost and which was restored to the human race by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is this Paradise which plays so large a part in patristic literature of the centuries after Christ. Adam did not lose heaven for he never was in heaven; heaven was not 0036544planted in Eden, but a heaven-like creation was planted there by God for the happiness of the human race which Adam lost by sin. No kerubim were placed at the gates of heaven to keep man out, for the Bible says the gates of heaven shall not at all be shut by day, Rev.21:25; Isa. 60:11; for man was not created in heaven but on earth. The kerubim were placed at the gate of Paradise which was in this world. When Jesus died on the cross and commended his spirit into the hands of God, his soul passed away to sheol, the world of the dead, Acts 2:27-31; Psa. 16:10; 1 Peter 3:19; 4:6.

Matt. 25:21.Few lives have been so singularly fortunate and complete in success in so short a time as that of Rev. W.W. Browne.

Born in 1849, when the race was held in oppression, he has been awake to every movement for the race since its emancipation.

While the race was yet young, even in its teens, he inaugurated a movement which put the oppressed race on foot as nothing else has done. If any race ever experienced, in the same period, such a miracle of progress, if any ever profited so much by skillful inventors, seeing that others boast of great navigators, projectors of railroads and telegraph lines, etc., this much at least can be said of our brother, that he gave birth to ideas which antedate the existence of every one of the characteristic triumphs of modern civilization, and yet lived to see those ideas promulgated and become familiar, being almost universal in their fruitage in our Southland.

Born and reared in the South, he inherited and cultivated those simple tastes and habits which best fitted him to know the needs of, and to work for the welfare of a poor people. With him, the study of human nature and books took the place of social pleasures and the excitement of towns and cities; his native genius made him, from a tender age, the thoughtful and intimate companion of the lowly and needy.

When we recall that in all his speeches and sayings, whether spoken or written, there was not a thought or feeling that was not pure, uplifting and reverent, we can scarce measure our gratitude to Almighty God for the gift of a benefactor so greatly needed by a race that has been long praying for pure leaders undefiled before God the Father.

He went North in quest of freedom and advantages, but unlike many others, he must return and cast his fortune in early life in that section of the country he most loved, and so, with meagre school advantages, with few books and few earnest friends and adherents, he has started many on the road to fortune becoming himself fairly independent.

Sympathy with a single man or woman was not his strong point-but sympathy with common, oppressed humanity-- this was his religion.

His flight from slavery during those dark days of the late war showed his constitutional love for freedom and his intense sentiment for justice. This love made him a friend of the oppressed and an uncompromising foe to the oppressor. His interest in this great country and humanity, has been the good of his race. His skill, his industry, his humane philanthropy, his sentiments of justice, patriotism, and his love of freedom found here full scope without straining to go off to another race. In him appears the the man of conscience, of humanity, of justice and truth, of purity and honor. Ill-gotten honor is not the characteristic genius of a great man, but character, which in him was staid and earnest, profoundly truthful and pure, lofty and genuine, but never mercurial nor spasmodic.

Like the famous Jordon that leaps into being full, strong, crystal pure, but swells little in its deep bed, along all its course to the sea, receiving few tributaries and putting forth no outlets W. W. Browne's genius as a financier sprang complete into public notice when the race and his entire community most needed him. He sustained his character both and before and since then, and its last products are marked with the essential qualities that gave him his first success. Never had there been such an instance of Negro shrewdness and sterling honesty as that heralded forth to the financial world when in the emergency of financial stringency the True Reformers' Savings Bank with the greatest Negro financier at its head responded to a call for money when all other banks had failed in the capital city of our great commonwealth.

W. W. Browne knew his own powers as a business man. It is not against him that he did know them. Happy that 0039547man who understands himself, that knows his own powers their limits and aptitudes, and who confines himself with self-abnegation within the banks of his own peculiar calling. It is not to be wondered at that his popularity was not attended all along with a blaze of enthusiasm. He was the Negro president of the first Negro bank among an inexperienced and distrustful people.

What great man among any people has escaped calumny and suspicion! None of all. It would be passingly strange if he escaped what others could not. Either he was born too early or was bringing the race up life too rapidly (or early), or his active and practical pursuits kept him in the current of real business life and too near to the universal feeling of the crying demands of humanity and before the eyes of the world, to suit the jealous madness of some. Here was a financier who feared and reverenced his Maker, who loved and honored human nature and his own race, the most of all, one who believed in the supremacy of religion, its ordinances and its ministry. He was no pessimist of the times--indeed if there was anything out of the usual order of viewing the economic conditions of the people, he was on optimist. His disposition was wholesome in its influence, hopeful, young but not inexperienced, ripe without decay. Such elements of popularity bespeak enduring fame the farther removed be its subject from the arena of time. It is a fame of an undyed robe, the fadeless charm for future generations. What an embalming power lies in the purity of character to preserve deeds that would perish if enrobed in a vesture less perishable! The themes of his discourses were just as imperishable being of universal acceptation.

Be it forever remembered that it is to the glory of the fame of Rev. Browne that his character out-shone even his great talent as a financier. Illustrious equally for native talent and consummate honesty, he is honored and beloved to-day much more for his stainless purity of life, his unswerving will power, his devotion to the higher interests in humanity, his unaffected patriotism and open hearted humanity.

It is remarkable that a man at the head of an organization at first so unpopular, so dependent upon others and yet unsupported, 0040548so self-subsistent, with so little appreciation and co-operation from others should have drawn to himself a multitude of 30,000 followers in different parts of the country with the most implicit confidence and highest esteem imposed in himself. It was by the force of his extraordinary merit and priceless worth that he achieved this triumph over the mistrust of his generation. In the language of quotation: The purity of the snow that enveloped him was more observed than its coldness and his co-workers believed that a fire of zeal for truth, justice and humanity burned steadily at the heart of his lofty personality, though at times it flamed and smoked. Reputation he despised not, but character he revered and sought with all his heart.

He had self-reverence to be sure, but this made his own good opinion of his own motives and actions the more serviceable to the good of others.

He was little tempted by covetousness, envy or love of worldiness but doubtless had his own share of conscious difficulties to contend with, a temper not without its raging a mind susceptible to injuries especially when intended, and a contempt for moral weakness in whomever found. But he labored incessantly at self-control and self-knowledge, and it is reasonable to suppose that he attained a marked degree of equanimity and gentleness.

It is natural that a will so persistent in force, and industry so incessant, a character so perfect, so consistent and so coherent and so cogent should be backed by strong passions.

With a less holy purpose, a more feigned love for truth and goodness, he might easily have become more intolerant, yet more autocratic and woefully selfish in his ambitions. Be it to his merit, he kept his body under and his spirit in subjection.

God had endowed him with a wonderful balance of faculties in a harmiously made, as well as a fearfully and wonderfully made frame. His spirit wore a light vesture that seemed never to burden him. His alertness was the admiration of all. He had no vices that I know of, and no approach to any except to train his people to save the dollar after they had honestly earned it. He retained his youth almost to the last. His power to 0041549work seemed astonishing to all, and until but recently, was unabated. This herculean task but proved his physical endurance.

His last ten years of life made him nearer and dearer to his co-laborers as they witnessed the singleness of his purpose in the uplift of the race.

Who so often has been introduced or presented to speak in notable public gatherings over much of this country? Who so often has presided over public gatherings with becoming dignity and introduced other speakers? Who so readily responded to the call of public charity to say nothing of his private charities? The sun of his life has set but the sun of his purity, honor, confidence and charity that warmed and brightened the closing decade of his life has not set, but is yet thawing the freeze of opposition and warming the breeze of universal favor.

Of True Reformer Browne's life-long interest in his race; of his work in the organization of which he was the chief founder, of his timely steps in the establishing of an Industrial Savings Bank, of which he died the honored president, of the ceaseless and almost frantic efforts to establish an Old Folks' Home, the capstone of his works, I could speak at length but these things are the common knowledge of humanity. These are the theme for the pulpit and rostrum. Old men take council of them, young men profit by them and the very children praise these deeds about the streets and halls of learning. Artists and compilers will speak better for themselves concerning this man, in the fullness of time than those of to-day.

Rev. Browne was a devoted lover of religion, and no less a lover of religious liberty in all its broadness--not in any sectarian sense, but in justice, reverence and genuine charity. What his faith was all know. Still he was not a bigot or a dogmatist, but he honored practical piety and works of faith in preference to all moulds of faith.

What was clear about him for ten years or more past, was an increasing charity to religious institutions and a practical quality of faith. This fact is proven by nothing less than that his followers were of all denominations and that his charities extended to all the churches. He was too large a man for one 0042550church--True Reformer Browne belonged to all the churches and all the churches belonged to him. He was a member of the church of humanity, and he drew humanity to him, in that his hand was out to all the needy in so far as practicable.

His last years were the most devout and humane; for he became more beneficent and charitable as he grew older and more able to be so, and his hand and heart were open to all worthy needs. Do any claim he struggled hard for a fortune! I answer, he had acquired a saving habit--a virtue the least cultivated but the most needed among our people when we consider economics.

My conclusion is;-William Washington Browne was a great man, not in letters and academic culture, but in native endowment, in character, in achievements --in something done for humanity.

My effort will have been in vain if I fail to leave in your minds the image of a manhood whose special excellence is an upright, sincere, humane and simple yet complex character--a manhood full of outward deeds and honor with an inner balance of character.

When I think of one whose fame fills this business world while he is by no means unknown to the religious word, I feel how unworthy and vain is the effort of some to withhold honor from whom it is due. Public report and rumor vanish when compared with the honor of God in the heart and practical sympathy in religion which in love of God in the heart proven by good deeds done for humanity. It is the individual character of this unpretended, christian man that I wish most of all to have you remember and consider again and again, and to imitate. II Pet. 1:5. Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge or our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rev. W. W. Browne was truly great as men count greatness but greater as God counts greatness.

He is no more, he is gone and the race is the power in that his venerable form and honored presence no more grace this hall and please our assemblage. But heaven is the richer. The Negro race adds one more name of the manliest of men to its calendar of death, the church an unaffected saint. The patriarch of American Negro financiers is dead. He who has been the financial guide and leader of the first generation of Negro freedom in America he who has been so bold to stand and to go for ward--he who has been such a fortress and strong tower to so many, has by the providence of God been taken away. Let us as a brotherhood of True Reformers take to ourselves grace to lead such godly lives that we may be able to carry out and carry forward such plans and seemed his purpose. And here we may learn a lesson from our brother's life, the lesson of steadfastness of purpose. Be steadfast and work. If you are going to form a great organization, be steadfast and form it in the face of all odds and discouragements. If you are going to establish a bank, be steadfast and establish it and run it according to your purpose; keep steadfast to it to the very last minute of life, and work.

Are you running toward a goal and a prize? Do not leap from your chariot; do not check your horses, as the great spirit of W. W. Browne would say. Hold your reins tightly in your own hands and let your life that is in you descend into your spirited steeds and hold fast the lines and urge and drive, and drive and urge even though your chariot leap over the line at the goal. Let not your business drive you, but it is your business to drive your business; there will be many along the way to stop or check your steeds, but drive ahead.

What gave our beloved friend and brother Browne comfort at the last moment of his life? That he had made himself famous by driving? That he was the first only Negro bank president? That he was Grand Worthy Master of a grand organization? That the lustre of his name and deeds shone like beaming rays of sunlight among his citizens in his great country? What gave him most comfort at the last moment? That he could count thousands to to be left to his widow? No O, no! Was it that of all he had done only that would remain which he had done in the name of the Lord? This is more like the answer. His 0044552thought could have been this: That Jesus Christ tasted death for every man, and that being his Saviour he could lay his head at the feet of his blessed Jesus and being thus minded, he was lifted up into the embrace of love so that he should die, not at his feet, nor in his lap, nor indeed on his arm, but on the bosom of Jesus he breathed his life and sweetly there.

There has always been a demand for something in this world and among all the people generally. And since our people are the weaker people, hence, they feel the force of oppression most, as it is always the tendency of the strong to oppress the weak.

Education has been recognized as a necessity from the earliest times, and, likewise it has been feared by a few of those in power and inclined to do injustice to the ignorant and untutored lest they too should become informed and see the cruelty practiced and attempt to resent it. Look at the number of lynchings taking place monthly among our people and in almost every case it is some poor fellow who is poorly informed, or not informed at all, and I claim, that if those men in the majority of instances were well informed, and were educated in the proper sense of the term, the offence would not be committed, while I also claim that if the perpetrators of the lynchings were properly informed, then they would wait for a due process of the law, for most often it is not the best element of either Race.

But suppose we had those who had the ability and means to ferret out these contemptible wretches, and see that summary justice was meted out to them, there would soon be fewer of them. Solomon has aptly remarked "that wisdom is a defence and money is a defense; but the excellency of knowledge is it giveth life to those who have it." He has also said that wisdom is the principal thing, for by it Kings reign and princes decree justice. It is necessary for us to be informed to insure us justice before the law, and anything like our equal rights, so far as suffrage is concerned.

South Carolina has a clause in her constitutions making ability to read and write a prerequisite to cast a ballot. Conn., has essentially the same in its constitution. All of us, no doubt know, how nearly all the Negroes of Miss. have been prevented from voting on account of the free-suffrage clause in the constitution of that state. And even in our own State, Virginia, it is being asked and urged that constitutional convention be held, for the purpose of making certain amendments, one of which will be to require a certain amount of education to exercise the right of franchise. Look at these things, and see if there is any need why we should make any preparation for such a future contingency, which is almost sure to arise. Nor are these all the things which make it necessary that we should educate to keep apace with the times. I am asked to show the growing demand for educated men and women among our race, and just here I digress sufficiently far, to show the great demand among all races, sexes and creeds.

The world is very old, six thousand years and since its creation it has grown in one may or another of both, and in many ways in all. If our forefathers, and all the people who have been born and died since Adam until now, could have been present in the conceptive state of creation, and then as it was cast into space beheld how its Maker fashioned it, and have seen to what it was fastened, if indeed it is fastened: if we could have seen him as he flung our own little planet into space and set it revolving around others of greater immensity and density and attractive force--if we could have seen him when he started it as a minute ball of fire, and all through the ages have observed the concretions forming themselves into adamantine strata upon it, then we would have no need for the study of geology or the science which pertains to the heavenly bodies.

But because we were not there and present, then we must educate in order to know of these matters, and as they are becoming more and more numerous, it seems that we need to continue to inform ourselves about them. Since the days of Adam, men and women have been dying until the present, and while that is true we have only kept apace with geological and astronomical progress, as we have kept ourselves informed as to the 0047555changes noted in the composition of the earth, and the changes made and observed in the position of the heavenly bodies. Even with the knowledge which we have, there are many things which we do not understand and I want to see a Newton or a Kepler among our men and a Maria Mitchell among our women. In short we need more men who can observe as other great scientists have done and women who can measure and give in proper metes and bounds, the relative size of the heavens and the things therein and until we can do these things as other races do, we need to continue to strive for knowledge.

The world has made progress in the science of law: From the time when Moses found it necessary to make an appellate cause of himself and submit smaller matters to petty justices until now, colleges have sprung up and judges and chief justices are all trying to interpret, construe and apply the law correctly, and in all of that, we are taking appeals and having verdicts set aside, and cases returned de noro to try anew, and writs of errors continually awarded, which things go to show that our knowledge of law is still incomplete that man is still groping in darkness in a measure, even though the progress of this world in this science is great, rapid and withal phenomenal and in order to keep apace with this progress we must educate. And just here let me tell you what I mean by educate. I mean to train one's mind after the true meaning of the word etymologically speaking. To lead one out of ignorance and superstition into intelligence and knowledge. To develop a man physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. Train him for the active duties of life or for some special pursuit.

Bring him to a state of capacity in which his mind and powers are developed and disciplined to that extent so that he can perform appropriate work. Let him be able to stand in the midst of a boundless arsenal and magazine filled with all weapons and engines which man's skill has been able to devise from earliest time and be perfectly familiar with or conversant them. If he cannot do this, he still needs to study to keep pace with the progress of the times, and that he may become at least a well informed man, and that his knowledge may be organized into faculty and thus show himself capable of controlling, commanding 0048556and completing. Take the medical science and in earlier times it practiced as now. Job speaks of his physicians as counsellors of no value. There were surgeons at the seige of Troy 1184 years before Christ, but then, medicine was held to be a secret. Not more than 50 years ago physicians amputated limbs without an anesthetic as they use now, and a physician who treated the eye could not treat the toe and vice versa, nor could a surgeon treat internal troubles, but today, one man is an omnibus, so to speak, and he treats all the diseases to which the flesh is heir and the frailties of man's frame. Such strides, we must study to show ourselves approved of God, workmen who need not to be ashamed. Inasmuch as the devotees of other sciences are strict adherents to their callings, or the science they have selected, even so or more must or should the men of sacred Theological profession be close followers of the examples set by our Lord and Master. Educate yourselves to keep abreast with the growing demand of the age.

Christ's command through Luke--Go, thou, and preach the kingdom of God, means as much for the future as for the present. The gospel is to be regnant over all hearts, all circles, all governments and all lands. The kingdom of God spoken of in that passage is a universal kingdom and just as wide as that will be the realm sermonic. Go thou, and preach the kingdom of God. I've just been discussing to you on the coming man and his need for education. I'll now say the coming woman must also be educated. Some one has aptly remarked that the hand that rocks the cradle moves the world, and I would also add that the being, woman, giving instruction to more children in the day schools and colleges than men, and if they are to shape the destinies of this great nation--if the girl of today will be the woman of tomorrow, and if the woman of tomorrow will be the house--wife of the next day and the school-mamm of the present-if they must wield so great an influence, how necessary that they should be properly trained and educated.

I have shown you the necessity for education in some things viz., coming suffrage, coming man, coming woman and in part coming ministers, but I have not told you as to the coming sermon and how they should preach it. Let me ask or predict somePAGE (S) MISSINGNOTAVAILABLE

1. "Reception of members by the church--general custom.2. Evils of hasty action.3. Relation of their Christian experience or conversion.4. What of visions?5. What are the Scriptural requirements for church membership?"

The subject matter of the lecture will be considered under the above named heads: First, general custom of admission to membership--by baptism, letter and experience. Second, "Evils of hasty action"--from personal experience, and from considerable observation. I fully concur in the sentiment that too many occur from failure in judging of the evidences of conversion; especially after revivals, and the craze for large memberships. There should be a greater call for the exercise of sound prudence than in being hasty in receiving into the church persons who may entertain the belief that they have passed from death unto life. While they may possibly be kept back too long the greater evil lies on the other side, that is, of filling the church with unregenerate persons, as the in the case of the New England Congregationalist in 1662. When such a change of opinion had been wrought, as to vital piety as a condition for admission to the church membership, as to originate that remarkable document which appears in 1704, known as the "half way covenant," which relieved the applicant from furnishing evidence of his piety, and obliged the church after admission, and before his exclusion, to prove he was heretical in his opinion or scandalous in life. Among the churches which had adopted the "half way covenant," the principles and rules of admission were completely reversed. Hence, we as Baptists, should be very cautious as to sound conversion. The newly converted man naturally, desires to join himself to those whom he now considers to be the children of God. He thinks it is his duty to do so, and he may be right. But yet, it is the duty of the church also, through her officials, to see so far as human judgment and spiritual insight, can discriminate, that none but truly regenerate candidates be admitted to membership; such as should be able 0050559to give a clear account of the exercise of their own minds in their awakening, their conviction of sin, their submission to God, and acceptance of Christ as their all-sufficient Saviour. But we must admit that there is a limitation to human insight and judgment as to prudent discrimination--as to characters. Paul says, that Satan may transform himself into an angel of light. (II Cor. 11:14--15.) Simon, the sorcerer, was thought, no doubt, for a time, to be a convert, but when his true character was disclosed, Peter decided, "Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." (Acts 8--21.)

Third, "Relation of their Christian experience or conversion." There is to my mind a vagueness about the term, "Christian experience" used in this connection--as the convert is just being admitted to the Christian church, hence, has not had his repeated trials in the Christian life. But as the term stand, would mean their change of mind, restored attitude, change of spirit, disposition or behavior--in a word--evidences of spiritual renovation--that inward living piety. The essential elements of a new creation or birth: repentance, faith, justification, and as a result, peace with God. (Rom. 5:1.)

Fourth, "What of Visions?" "A supernatural scenery or circumstance presented to the mind." A revelation in dreams and visions which fell within the sphere of the soul-life or psychological state in which the reception of a revelation by man took place. Thus Isaiah in his initiatory vision. (6:3.) He is indeed conscious of the fact, that he is a sinful man; he is also conscious that his iniquity is taken away and his sin purged, hence, ready for his commission and message. The Divine methods of revelation in the Old Testament, were three, viz.: dreams, visions, and immediate sight of Divinity. As in the case of Moses, "If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; with him will I speak mouth to mouth." (Nun. 23:6--8.) In the scale of Divine revelation, dreams stand the lowest. (Jer. 23:28.) Where the dream is compared to "chaff" and the consciously received word of God is designated "wheat." And had God awakened the sleeping conscience of man by dreams as the vehicle 0051560of Divine revelation is shown by Elihu in the book of Job. "In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumbering upon the bed: Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction." (Job. 33:15,16.) Visions presupposes a previous elevation of the life of the soul into an extraordinary state. (See Gen. 15:1,12.) In sleep's deepest stupor, in which the inner vision arises. The revelation advances from the dream to the higher vision. (Daniel 7:1.) Sleep seems especially favorabe for the intercourse of the Divine with the human spirit. Visions in connection with conversion in the New Testament: Cornelius the Centurion, (Acts 10:3.) Saul, the persecutor, (Acts 26:13,19) Visions as a revelation of encouragement to the apostles, (Acts 18:9;27:23, Rev.1:17.) Now, the anticipated question is, have visions, or special slumbering upon the bed: Then he openeth the ears of men and scaleth their instruction." (Job. 33:15,16.) Visions presupposes a previous elevation of the life of the soul into an extraordinary state. (See Gen. 15:1-12.) In sleep's deepest stupor, in which the inner vision arises. (Daniel 7:1.) Sleep seems especially favorable for the intercourse of the Divine with the human spirit. Visions in connection with conversion in the New Testament: Cornelius the Centurion, (Acts 10:3.) Saul, the persecutor, (Acts 26:13,19.) Visions as a revelation of encouragement to the apostles, (Acts 18:9;27:23 and Rev. 1:17.) Now,the anticipated question is, have visions, or special spiritual revelations, ceased? If so, when? John 6:45; I John 2:20,27, which passages would seem to indicate that by intuition by the spirit God makes special revelations yet to the saints. The promise that Divine truth shall be directly testified to by the Holy Spirit in each member of the New Testament Church. (Jer. 31:33,34; also II Cor. 3:3, and Joel 2:28.)

Fifth, "What are the Scriptural requirements for church membership?" I would commence this last thought by saying, first of all, a new heart. The Old Testament experience of salvation was conversion, (I Thess 1:9) which was reached by a moral change, but not regeneration as a new creation. "We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags," (Isa. 64:6.) The prophet includes himself. But since the resurrection and assencion of Christ, there is a fullness of spiritual power unknown to Old Testament Saints. An indwelling of the spirit in the soul by virtue of which a subversion of the old carnal foundation of the life is effected. Hence, a new spiritual personality of a spiritual man. Therefore the New or Gospel Church is spiritual, (Isa. 44:3; 59:21. Ezek. 39:29.) Hence, the unity of universal church is spiritually. The distinct 39:29.) Hence, the unity of universal church is spirituality. The distinctive principle which separates Christians from the world, (John 15:19), and bind them together, is produced in them by the regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit. The ev-PAGE (S) MISSINGNOTAVAILABLE

W.R. PETTIFORD--Alabama.The Providence of God, which brings into use our earthly means for the purpose of establishing the kingdom of his Son, is a blessed opportunity for the development of his children, as well as a channel through which they may "lay up treasures in heaven."

But if either is accomplished, two things, at least, must be observed, namely: The motive of the giving must be to honor God, and the methods pursued must embrace and directions of the Bible. The manner or spirit in which we should approach God with our offerings is very plainly set forth in the Scriptures. A close investigation of these passages well help us to see that stress is put on the manner of spirit of giving, as well as the giving itself. All the doings and sayings our Lord are so freighted with vital issues that none of his directions can be disregarded with impunity. We should study closely the lessons taught us in the punishment of Cain and Annanias. Both of these men gave, and we see by this that the trouble was not that they refused to give, but the manner was lost sight of in which they should have given. The reader will do well to examine both of these passages, Gen. 4: 1--16, and Acts 5:1--12. Here it eninced that Cain's offering was lacking in quality. He "brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord." The fact that his offering was to include a lamb, or an animal whose blood was to atone for sin--typifying the blood of Christ--was ignored. The is the element that is found in Abel's offering, and conspicuously absent from Cain's. In Heb. 11:4, we learn that is was faith that Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. A faith which accepted God's instruction in recognizing the principle that "without the shedding of blood there is no remission." Heb. 9:22, was the element in Abel's offering that commended itself to the favorable consideration of God, while its absence from Cain's brought forth his displeasure. "But unto Cain and his offering he had no respect, 0053570" Gen. 4:5. There is great danger in disregarding God's directions for giving, and many make offerings unto the Lord this way. If we would receive the highest benefits in giving to God, the following restrictions must be observed:

1. Our offerings must be of the "first fruits of all thine increase," Prov. 3:9. You will no doubt admit that God can take our worthless possessions and bless them to great purposes, and yet God, who holds everything in his hands, demands of us the "first fruits." Is not this requirement calculated to teach his greatness? Does it not contain a truth similar to that in the request made to Moses, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground? Ex. 3:5. This injunction was calculated to impress Moses with God's superior holiness, as compared with his own. He was too holy for Moses, the meekest, of men, to stand near, with his shoes, on when his presence was manifested. Moses was so impressed that he "hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God." The demand to give of our first fruits to God leads us to see His greatness. In our ordinary estimation it is only the great and noble who are worthy of our best possessions, and we may safety conclude that this passage contains a lesson for us. Again if furnishes an opportunity for people to see our true estimation of God. We do not lay aside His part out of the first fruits, without having a high idea of the almighty.

2. The amount has a great deal to do with proper Bible giving. It is conceded by the Bible students that the tenth is requested. If quantity has nothing to do in making our offerings acceptable, why not give a penny? Those who hold that God leaves it altogether with us as to the amount we give, must claim to regulate the amount of their offerings by the necessity of the cause presented. If so, then this is prohibited, 2 Cor. 9:7, "Not grudgingly or of necessity," How shall we regulate our giving if we do not consent for God to levy the amount, then we cannot give according to the necessity of the cause? It seemed to be a response to demand when Abraham said to God, "Of all that Thou shall give me, I will surely give the tenth unto Thee," Gen. 28:22. Is not this requirement consistent with a natural order of things? The agents of the 0054571government inform their constituents of the amount needed to accomplish the design of the administration, and why not we be informed of what we should give for the support of His government. In Duet. 16:10-17, we are instructed to give "according as He has blessed" us. Is is not reasonable to suppose or conclude that if God is concerned enough to inform us what portion of our possessions He wishes, that He is concern enough to be displeased if we do not give it? The governor, as well as the parents, often manifest their will, and why not expect the same of God, whose will is good and righteous?

Again, spasmodic giving is not conductive of the greatest results. The direction is, "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give," 2 Cor. 9:7. Not that it is all left to him to decide upon the amount, or whether he shall give it all or not, but that he should deliberate upon the matter, placing in his mind a proper motive as against a pathetic appeal of the church officer or missionary. It is too often the case that we give simply because a certain person asks for it, or the necessity was plainly set forth. But when we consider our duty to assist in making Him known to others as He is known to us, and His absolute worthiness, we "purposeth in our hearts" to honor Him with our substance, whether the deacon asks for it or not. Our giving should not be regulated by a good talk, or a fine sermon, or sweet song. The giver having either of these as the object of his offering can never be so much profited by it as if he "purposeth in his heart" to worship by giving according as He has prospered him. Alas! how many times we make offerings because we are pleased with the service, and refuse when we are not. God may use what we give to great advantage in the advancement of His Kingdom, but if we do not have the right motive we lose the reward, or we are not helped by it. It would be well for those persons who do not regard the Bible method for giving to read carefully the following passages, and then ask themselves, If our being benefitted does not depend upon the directions, why are they given? "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart: not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver," 2 Cor. 9:7. "Of every man that giveth it willingly, with his heart, he shall take my offering," 0055572Ex. 25:2. "Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord who hath given thee," Deut. 16:17. "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not," 2 Cor. 8:12.

The National Baptist Convention, recently in session at Boston, Mass., refused to endorse any movement looking to the creation of District Conventions. First, because this added machinery means a greater consummation, on the home field, of money raised for work in Foreign lands, and secondly, because there are good reasons to believe that the animus which prompts the movement bodes no good to the National Convention, its leaders being disaffected parties, the one wing of them cherishing indignation, because the Foreign Mission Board was removed from Richmond, Va., to Louisville, Ky., and the other because the Publication Board was located at Nashville, Tenn., and not at Philadelphia, Pa.

But it is no new thing for Baptists to divide and sub-divide when the cause of humanity and of the Lord Jesus Christ is suffering for the best service of our united forces.

Our white brethren set us a bad example in the days of the lamented Dr. Rice. In those days they had one National Missionary Convention, which met once in every three years. But Benedict, the historian, tells us that "much of the attention of one wing of the Convention was engaged in examining and setting right the alleged stretches of power in the diversion of funds by the other." He adds with regards to those who were not parties to this convention: " It was about as much as those who had no cause, or other interests at stake could do, to calm the troubled waters in which they found themselves most disagreeably involved." There is always trouble when one set of Christians charges another with "diverting funds."

The Brethren who have, in spite of the National Convention's protest worked up the idea of organizing a District Foreign Mission Convention to do work in Africa, allege that the National Convention has diverted money, which was raised for African missions, to other causes, and that not more than one third of the money, which is sent to the National Convention for the cause of Christ in Africa, ever reaches that country.

The management of the National Convention positively deny that they have transcended their powers in the handling of any moneys or have been guilty of any dishonorable or dishonest act. They do not deny that it costs something to conduct the business of a great National Convention. They insist that this has always been so, and will be so in all coming years, but greatly decreased proportions. The management of the National Convention are aware that wrong may be perpetrated under any and every form of organization, but they insist that when they discover anything amiss in the affairs of the Convention, they have shown a disposition to remove the wrong.

Not only were the methods and mistakes of a former Corresponding Secretary made the subject of an investigation, and kindly, but freely condemned, but also the fact was brought out at Montgomery, Ala., that a former treasurer, who had held Foreign Mission funds had diverted several hundred dollars his solemn trast in meeting, it is alleged, a church debt in Tide Water, Va., and the Convention, as late as 1894, had not received all of the diverted funds. As this diversion of Foreign Mission funds took place in Virginia, when the Foreign Mission Board was located at Richmond, the management of the National Convention think that the Virginia Brethren ought not to be too severe in passing judgment upon the present Board and the Convention's officers. Indeed, it is stated by way of retaliation, that since the Foreign Mission Board was removed to Kentucky, the Virginia Brethren have not only refused to send to the Convention the money which they have raised for the cause of African Missions, but they have also gone further, and diverted a part of these funds to help a struggling Institution of learning in the valley of Virginia. The leaders of the National Baptist Convention, therefore, aver, that it will be time for Virginia to 0058575institute a new organization to correct alleged wrongs in the National Convention, when these unwise things done by Virginians in Virginia have been properly atoned for.

To the charge that the National Baptist Convention, under its present management, costs two dollars to send one dollar to the cause of Christ in Africa, the friends of the present management reply, that the affairs of the Convention are as economically conducted now as at any time in the past.

Let us make a comparison. In 1886, the State of Virginia and the cities of Baltimore and Washington, were considered a district of the vast territory covered by the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention of the United States of America. The only machinery in this field was a Missionary Secretary, who reported to the Virginia Baptist State Convention, and to the Board of the Foreign Mission Convention, then located at Richmond. The amount raised in this limited territory in 1886 was $3,261.62, as follows: From Virginia$2,527.10From Maryland327.45From Washington 307.07$2,089.60 of this sum were sent to the Treasury of the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention of the United States, while the remainder, $1,172.02, was reserved in Virginia's local treasury. It is understood that out of this reserve fund, came the Missionary--Secretary's salary, his traveling expenses, his stationary, his postage, etc. In other words, about one-third of the entire contributions given by the Churches of Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, in 1886, went for home expenses in raising and transmitting Foreign Mission money to the Treasury of the Foreign Mission Convention, then located at Richmond, Va.

The Foreign Mission Convention of the United States, embracing a field many times as large as that of its first district, and all of it, except that of Virginia, comparatively new to Foreign Mission enterprises, could not, as we stated a moment ago, manage its affairs without a considerable investment of money. The receipts of the Convention in 1886, as accounted for by the Treasurer of the Convention, amounted to $3,473.27, while the expenses 0059576reached $3,147.94 not including a hundred dollars collected expended in publishing the African Missions.

But an analysis of these expenses, as set forth in the treasurer's itemized report, shows that only $1,275 of the amount paid out ever reached the continent of Africa, that is, only about one-third of all the money handled by the Convention in 1886.

But these figures, in the form in which they are given, do not present all of the receipts and expenditures of the Foreign Mission Convention in 1886, clearly and forcibly. To know what was actually received and expended, we must tabulate what is given. Thus,--RECEIPTS.Amount received by Treasurer of Convention,$3,473.27 Received and reserved by First District,1,172.02Subscriptions to the "African Mission,"100.00 Total$4,745.29 EXPENDITURES.Expended by the First District,$1,172.02 Expended by orders on Treasurer3,147.94 Expended on the African Missions,100.00 Total expenses of the work of the Baptist, Foreign MissionConvention, United States in 1886,$4,419.96

Recall the fact, that but $1,275 of this money actually reached Africa, and it is plain that the Foreign Mission work in 1886 had to secure nearly five thousand dollars to get a little over one thousand dollars to the heathen in Africa.

Be it remembered, Brethren, that in 1886, the Foreign Mission Board was in Virginia; that we had, at that time, a first district, without the expense of a District Convention, and as you see it cost us far more to sustain the work in Africa then than it does now. Yet I do not think that there was any disposition to waste money either in Virginia, or in the management of the Foreign Mission Convention. The raising of money for Foreign Mission work, is Home Mission work, and like all other Home Mission 0060577work, it must be paid for. The truth is, this hue and cry about waste, waste, is all a piece of spite and folly.

Allow me to observe here, that Virginians have never worked in the mission cause for mere exercise, for, of the $4,419.96 expended in 1886 on the Foreign Mission work of our Convention, $3,144.96 went into purses in the United States, and most of the purses were Virginia purses. Thus, in 1886, there were expended,On African Missions Printed in Virginia$ 100.00 On Rev. Presley of Va., then Agent in this country123.00 On Rev. Wells of Richmond, Va.,100.00 On the First District,1,172.02 On Corresponding Secretary, headquarters Richmond,Va., Salary, traveling expenses, etc.,1,246.00 On Lawyer E.A. Randolph, of Richmond4.52Total$2,745.54

Hence the total amount expended on persons in other parts of the United States was only $399.44. But there was nothing seriously wrong in this, for Virginia was then the soul of the Baptist Foreign Mission Convention, and its Board was in Virginia, its agents and Corresponding Secretary, and what was more, Virginia, single-handed and alone gave more than one half of all the money which was collected for the cause of African Missions that year. We have seen that the Foreign Mission collections, etc., in 1886 amounted to $4,745.20, Virginia raising $2,527.10, and the rest of the states collectively $2,218.19.

In view of these facts I am inclined to entreat the Brethren not to judge severely the management of the Foreign Mission Convention. Whether you know it or not, the man is unborn who can conduct a Foreign Mission work among the colored Baptists of the United States without going to great expense and labor in the Home Field in order to secure necessary funds for the Foreign Field. Our Brethren all over the country have but to stand unitedly together as a Baptist family, and increase their contributions a hundred fold, and the cost of raising and transmitting to our distant stations necessary sums of money for the cause of Christ will not be more than two per cent of the total receipts.

But the Brethren, who are inclined to set up a separate and independent Convention, not only charge the management of the National Baptist Convention with wasting sacred money, but also with cherising toward others than Negro Baptists sentiments of race antipathy. How far these brethren are sincere in making this charge, let others judge. They insist that the National Convention wants Negro Schools, Negro Literature, and in other ways shows a disposition to work along exclusively race lines, while they claim for themselves the virtue of a nobler sentiment that insists upon co-operating with the Brethren in White in all the Lord's work. But, strange to say, one portion of these Brethren has recently organized in Pennsylvania, where every white association and the State Convention are open to them, a Negro Baptist Convention, with a Negro Baptist Missionary, who is supported by Negro Baptist Churches; while another and a larger portion, who live in North Carolina, has issued the call, which brings together so many of you to-day, in this capital city to organize a brand new Negro Baptist District Convention, to do Home and Foreign Mission work, when the American Baptist Home Mission Society at N.Y., the Missionary Union at Boston, and the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, are all anxious to have the colored brethren send their contributions to them for Christian work among the Negro peoples of the world. But no, you brethren like to travel, like to be entertained or pay board, like to have something absolutely your own, and so you are here to create a new money consuming institution which is not only unnecessary but positively wasteful as well as strictly racial in its constituency and conception. But the Virginia brethren especially pride themselves on their devotion to the principle of co-operation, and even thank God that they are not as the management of the National Baptist Convention and their sympathizers. But are they sincere? Do they love their white brethren more than the rest of us? Do they delight more in associating with them in Christian work than other colored Baptists? Out of their own months we shall judge them:

Here is what Rev. A. Binga, Jr., of Manchester, Va., Rev. P.F. Morris, of Lynchburg, Va., Rev. J.A. Tailor, of Richmond, Va., Rev. Wm. Troy, of Richmond, Va., and Rev. J.M. Armstead, 0062579of Portsmouth,Va. with others, had to say on the question of co-operation ten years ago.

"Within the past year much has been said and written as to the colored Baptists of the country co-operating with one or the other of the white organizations in doing mission work in Africa. Your Board has looked at the proposition in many, if not all of its bearings, and has come to the conclusion that under existing circumstances, and from the general outlook, that co-operation is neither feasible nor advisable. The Baptist Foreign Mission Convention grew out of a necessity-the necessity still exists-hence it would be wrong for the Convention to allow itself to become absorbed by any other body.

We feel that the million or more colored Baptists of this country here, under God, a work before them, that no other people can or will do --the work of evangelizing Africa.

"We feel that Africa has been the most neglected continent on the globe and that God has called this Convention into existence to do a work, that has not been done by any other.

"We believe, furthermore, that to continue our work as an organization will develop qualities and powers in us as people that will not be developed if we go into another organization.

"The people connected with our churches are just beginning to see this work in the proper light--in the light of duty. We are endeavoring to train them to give systematically, as regularly as becomes Christians. Now to give up our organization will be to throw a check upon our efforts, and to a large degree to hinder the work of evangelizing Africa.

"There is no reason, to our mind, why we should co-operate, but many why we should not--we need experience, we need self reliance, we need those blessings that come to those who discharge their duty to God and man."

Now, brethren, is it not too bad that these Virginia divines, who taught the Negro Baptists of the country that co-operation with the whites in Christian work, "is neither feasible nor advisable." should now hold up their pupils to the scorn of the world for voicing in 1896 what they themselves taught in the year 1886?

Well, man is a riddle, and Baptist preachers are men, even those of Virginia.

For myself, I believe in co-operation with the white people of this country in Christian work. My church is in a white Association. We collect money for ministerial education annually, and send it to a white society for ministerial education. Our Endeavor Society is in the District Union, which is made up of white people chiefly, while your humble servant is a member of a local, and also National Anti-Saloon League which are composed almost entirely of white persons. Nevertheless, I believe that colored people, especially colored Baptists should organize and do for themselves all they are capable of doing, and not depend upon others to do for them.

Self-reliance, self-respect, self-help, self-forgetfulness in the effort to help others, should mark our conduct, and we should not divide, but work patiently together as a denomination and a people.

But, brethren, if you will divide, and fall to fighting, and others follow suit, remember, that as there is among the colored Methodists of this country, an M. E. and A.M.E. wing, so there will be by and by two denominations of negro Baptists, the one controlled and cared for by white Baptists, the other controlled by themselves and God, but friendly towards God's people everywhere.

I trust that what you are about to do, and what certain brethren contemplate doing in the State of Georgia, is not the beginning of a general disruption of the negro Baptist family all along the line.

Shall we divide as Baptists, simply because a few of our brethren want to try their skill in establishing and managing institutions of learning for the race, or test their ability to create and publish a Sunday-school literature commensurate with the demands of the age

If those who undertake these enterprises fail, they will at least have learned a lesson. If they succeed, nobody will be injured, but your children's children will praise them.

I beg you, brethren, curb your wrath and be loyal to the National Baptist Convention and to yourselves, and our white brethren North and South, and our congregations throughout the country will think more of us.

Rev. A.A. EGERTON.--N.Y."I give unto them eternal life," John 10:28. Eternal life--God's greatest gift to man--is not as many have erroneously supposed, the happy existence of the believer in heaven after death. The word eternal can not be applied to any but God, consequently, to no life but God's life. Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life, and he said I and my Father are one. Then eternal life is the life of God given to believers.

It comprises the promise and its fulfillment. Consider man fallen, condemned, exiled, lost--dead in trespasses and sins. But a voice from Eden is heard and the promise of eternal life is given, Gen. 3:15. And like Ezekiel's stream, very small at the beginning, it has become a great river "that can not be passed over." It was renewed to Abraham and the patriarchs, promulgated by the prophets, heightening and deepening until heaven and earth seemed to mingle as suddenly an angel stood before the dazzled eyes of Bethlehem shepherds, and while they quaked he hushed their fears by the annunciation of the birth of eternal life in our world of devastation and death. And while the outstreaming glory of the Lord seemed to enrap them, as a mantle of light, heaven flashed a chorus of angels down to furnish the music for the inauguration of the Prince of peace--the author of eternal salvation.

Now we have in our midst eternal life. Nothing inspires like His voice which says concerning believers, "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish."

We can not restrict eternal life to future bliss or what we shall receive in heaven. It is that which we receive when we accept Jesus Christ by faith. St. Peter says, "He hath made us partakers of his divine nature." "The gift of God is eternal life." "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." "Blessed are the conditions of all who obey from the heart the Gospel Mandate to accept eternal life upon the simple conditions of repentance and faith in God."

Rev. W. H. C. STOKES, A. B. B. D.--Tenn.God established the old covenant through his servant Moses. He established the new covenant through the blood of his Son Jesus Christ. Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. At best it was imperfect, but it was the best and only type of the anti-type, so that when the anti-type Jesus Christ came all types and symbols were abolished, the law was fulfilled. The God of heaven set up His kindgom which should break in pieces every other kingdom, and whose dominion was to have no end (Daniel). He built his church, the church of the new covenant, against which the gates of hell should not prevail, gave them the New Testament as their guide, instituted the Lord's Supper in memory of his suffering and death, commanded believers to be baptized in memory and as a figure of his burial and resurrection, and all that pertains to any act or rite of his church must and can be found in the New Testament and not in the Old. Hence we turn now to the New Testament and search for authority to sprinkle as Christian Baptism.

The only word translated sprinkle in our version of the Testament and the only word to denote that idea is "rantizo," allied to our word rain. This is used in every case of sprinkling blood, never of sprinkling water. It occurs only in Hebrews ix, 13-19-21, and Hebrews x, 22. In all but the last blood is expressed as the object. This last reads: "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." And even in this the context demands blood to be understood as the object. This is shown by the connection of the Apostles' augument with the Mosaic ritual, and by the distinct mention of the blood of Jesus in chapter ix, 19: "For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of calves, and of goats with water and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people." When the Apostle speaks of having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, his language borrows a figure from the Jewish ceremonies which he had just been describing. Moreover the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus is the 0066583only kind of sprinkling which takes away an evil conscience' not the sprinkling of water.

Rantismos (sprinkling) occurs but twice in the New Testament. Both times refer to the sprinkling of blood--Hebrews xii, 24, 1 Peter 1, 2. Another word "Proskusis" (pouring) translated sprinkling, occurs but once and the time refers to blood--Hebrews xi, 38. The idea of sprinkling clear water upon persons or things is not found within the cover of the Bible.

It is not commanded, not mentioned, not even hinted at. It is unaccountable if God intended sprinkling water upon persons to be an ordinance of his church that such an occurance is never once named in his word. There is a great deal of sprinkling in the Old Testament, but no case of sprinkling clear water. Sprinkling the blood of Christ to take away an evil conscience, is the only sprinkling alluded to in the New Testament, after which the body is to be washed in pure water--Hebrews x, 22.

BISHOP H. M. TURNER, D. D., LL. D."I would not be understood," "as saying that the black man cannot exist here as a mere individual. That he is doing very well, but if he would ever become anything in the way of a power and force in the world, ever reach the condition where his influence and commerce would be courted and turned to his own advantage, he must have a country and a government of his own that is a success.

Why, if we had a negro nation in Africa, though it did not contain over ten millions of people, and if we had active and prosperous cities, had cars and telegraph lines schools and factories, newspapers and ships, and numbered among our populations statesmen, writers and soldiers of recognized ability, and more especially, if we had a substantial currency and commerce of our own--made and carried on by our own race, the condition of the black man would be elevated all over the world. These things I have just mentioned constitute the very nest egg of civilization and only their successful and permanent development out of a people's own resources can ever bring national vigor and strength."

"Go to Africa, by all means, and not only do I advise the young man to do this, but those of middle life, who are physically able to stand the rough and tumble life of a new country. To the young Negro of education and ability Liberis is the most promising country in the world. Its government and social institutions are developing very satisfactorily, and there is nothing whatever in his way. There are, of course some elimatic objections to persons going from the cooler sections of the United States. One must become acclimated just as the Northern man who moves South. Hundreds go there who acclimate without the least trouble and go right to work. There is no sickness in Liberia more than might be expected in any new country, and if there was only a rail-road by which the high lands back fifty miles from the coast could be reached at once by the new citizen, ow ehuld need no acclimatization."