FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   >>  
eople all over the State. Fisk was the first college to declare in favor of the proposed Amendment, and one hundred young men and women went from her walls and fought valiantly for the cause. It is due the profound Christian spirit that characterizes the work of the Association to say, that every student and alumnus of Fisk in the State of Tennessee was an ardent supporter of the cause, save two. During the campaign the most cordial feelings existed between the better elements of both races. Heretofore these things were almost unheard of. There was a time when policy or political expediency had no effect upon the prejudices of the Southern whites, but the educational process inaugurated by the North is elevating a class of colored people to a plane where they are respected as never before. No State or Federal aid can do for us what the A.M.A. is doing. Such aid as the Blair Bill proposed would meet a certain need, and enable the men that are educated by the A.M.A. to get at the masses; but the peculiar work of preparing honest and devout Christian leaders must be otherwise provided for. The complete regeneration of the South is a thing of the future. The A.M.A. must remain among us to hasten on "the harvest of the golden year." That the Christianization of the Negro must come from without his own institutions, will be clearly seen by looking at his present religious condition. The new life that is developing cannot be crowded into the narrow limits of his church. The moral element is almost entirely wanting in his creed and doctrine. Such is the condition of the church that moral and spiritual growth are impossible. He must be educated away from the institutions that attended his enslavement; as far from them as Canaan is from Egypt. Again, the pulpit, with comparatively few honorable exceptions, {132} is filled with adventurers and impure ministers. To a great extent this is true. But signs of a spiritual and moral exodus are everywhere manifest. The judgment of God rests heavily upon the Negro's temple-worship and the structure tumbles to the ground. Within the last two years I have seen six of the largest colored churches in Tennessee split on moral grounds, and the discontent with what is bad, grows among them. The old associations are losing their power over the rising generation. Intelligent men are seeking to supply their spiritual and moral wants. The A.M.A. has but to persist in the establishment of its s
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44  
45   46   47   48   49   50   51   >>  



Top keywords:

spiritual

 

church

 
Tennessee
 
educated
 
colored
 

institutions

 

proposed

 

condition

 

Christian

 

Canaan


impossible

 

growth

 

Christianization

 

enslavement

 

attended

 
narrow
 

limits

 
crowded
 

developing

 
religious

present

 

wanting

 
element
 

doctrine

 

ministers

 

churches

 

grounds

 

discontent

 

largest

 

Within


associations

 
persist
 

establishment

 

supply

 

seeking

 

losing

 

rising

 

generation

 

Intelligent

 

ground


tumbles

 

impure

 

adventurers

 

extent

 

filled

 

comparatively

 
pulpit
 
honorable
 
exceptions
 

heavily