AN EDUCATED MINISTRY.
It is quite remarkable that the uneducated ministers among the colored people of the South should be in such earnest sympathy with the work of educating their people. Occasionally, we hear one intimate that he is a trumpet for the Lord to “toot” through, and express fear that the tone of the instrument might be injured by the application of science; but the expression of such sentiments is rare.
In the dark days, when States did not allow people of a certain color to read, or any one to teach them, preachers were born, not made. The wether of the flock put a bell around his own neck, and led off. As the Indian who could bring home from the war-path the most scalps, or from the hunt the greatest amount of venison or furs, was the man for chief; so the exhorter who could pick up the most texts of Scripture, and evolve from his own understanding the greatest amount of rhetoric, and with arrows of his own manufacture pierce the largest number of souls, was the minister by universal consent.
Schools do not make brains; they only develop and bring out what Nature implanted in a man. Leaders by the voice of God need not fear those made leaders by the voice of a theological seminary. They who, by their quickness of perception, tact and experience, control men, need not fear that those who depend chiefly upon ability gained from books will steal the hearts of their people.
Now, in saying all this, as the expression of my own thoughts, as well as the felt sentiments of the uneducated ministers among the colored people, I have no intention of placing a low estimate upon the schools. These uncultured giants might have attained to a larger growth, if they had been supplied with good mental nourishment, and no one feels this more than they. The BEST minister combines natural ability of a high order with liberal culture. The tendency of the times is toward an educated ministry; and although the present pastors of the flocks may be secure in their places without learning, the next generation will insist upon education in their ministers.
Prof. T. N. Chase, in the Christian Recorder.
ATLANTA AND FISK UNIVERSITIES.
A recent visit to these institutions has resulted in some observations, which may be worthy of record. The location of both is unsurpassed. In these cities Atlanta and Fisk Universities occupy, respectively, two of the most commanding and beautiful sites. They are seen from afar, a perpetual reminder of the importance of the work they represent. The buildings of both institutions are good; Jubilee Hall surpassingly so. Our party approached it late in the evening, when it was lighted from top to bottom, as the students were studying in their rooms. “Hallelujah!” cried one of our number, enthusiastically, “God be praised for this great lighthouse in the South.” And not one of us looked upon it without emotion.
The teachers in both institutions are among the choicest of educated Christian people. A more intelligent, cultivated and consecrated body of instructors it would be hard to find. They are doing their work at much personal sacrifice. Their social privileges in both cities are few or none at all, and some of them, for the sake of the work they are in, have refused tempting offers from Northern schools. They are teaching the colored race from a high sense of duty, and are filled with a missionary enthusiasm in their work. Often did the eye flash and the face glow, as they spoke of the trials and advancement of their pupils.