—Pres. Bartlett claimed to represent an institution that from the very first has rejected the color line; a century ago it was educating the Indians, a half a century the Negro shared its privileges. Speaking of the Negro’s unquestioned piety he said: “He sees hell impending, heaven before him and the chariot swings low.”
—Dr. Gladden: No man has a right to engage in the work of governing who does not know what just government is. I protest against that kind of government.
From 1870 to 1880 the colored voters at the South increased 30 per cent.; their illiteracy increased only 20 per cent. The whites at the South are gaining in intelligence but little, the blacks splendidly. Most of the gain South is due to the education of the Negro.
How do you account for this gain? Did you ever hear of Fisk and Berea and Atlanta? The census tables have heard of them if you have not.
Any society that is as really and thoroughly Christian as this one will meet the same objection as this one.
—Dr. Taylor: “Bring an offering and come unto my courts.” In Scotland, where I was brought up, the first act of worship was to lay a piece of money on the table.
Sometimes a man assigns a debt so that what is due him is paid to another. So the Lord Jesus has assigned the debt, and we are to pay a large part of what we owe to him to the poor and needy; to the benighted and degraded; to the Indian, the Negro and the heathen that need the light.
—Dr. Dennen: Speaking of denominational antipathies, he was reminded of the brass oxen under the brazen laver standing with their rumps toward each other and their eyes directed away to their own selfish interests.