We read so far and stopped. That language has the marks of the gospel of Jesus Christ all over it. "All ye are brethren." So says the gospel, and this report says the same. But how would it do to take the language above quoted into a Southern white Methodist Conference now! Just let the above report, without comment and without explanation, be introduced to-day into such a Conference, and what an explosion would follow!
It is too bad to quote the rest of the report, because it mars somewhat the beauty of what goes before; but here it is: "That when the galleries or other sittings are insufficient, we consider it the duty of our brethren and friends to provide the necessary accommodations that none may make such a neglect a plea for absenting themselves from public worship." "Galleries or other sittings." There is the fly in the ointment. Of course, at communion, the master class was served first and the slave class afterward.
The Church of Christ is His body. But does Christ allow His followers to decide that distinctions shall be made at His table on account of the hue of the skin? When a Temple is erected in which Christ's disciples are to meet for worship, is there anything in the gospel that warrants a division of seats so that here superiors shall sit and there inferiors? Where is the word that warrants it? and what is the analysis that will find it in the spirit of the gospel? All honor to the slave-holders who furnished the means of the gospel to the slaves. All honor to the men and women who pointed the sin-burdened negroes to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. We have no doubt but that as Dr. Edwards says, "Multiplied thousands upon thousands of the sons of Ham will rise up in judgment to bless the faithful men of the South for their long-continued labors in teaching the benighted negro the way of life." We have no doubt of it; but in the resurrection will the whites put in an appearance first and the blacks second? In the day of judgment will the whites lead and the blacks follow? Will there be galleries with hard seats in Heaven for negroes and ground floors easy of access with soft seats for Caucasians? Will the great chorus of Heaven be divided into two parts, a white division and a black division? And will the Hallelujah Chorus as sung by the white choir be more acceptable to God than that sung by the black choir?
Yes, the slave-holders did a great deal for the religious training and the spiritual welfare of the slaves, and in consequence of what they did, with God's blessing, the colored people of our country are almost immeasurably lifted above their benighted heathen brethren in Africa. Yes, that is all so. Does Dr. Edwards ask us to praise them for it? We do. But, brethren, we must also add, "These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone."
A TEACHER'S APPEAL.
We publish the following from F. A. Chase, Professor of Natural Science in Fisk University. He pleads, of course, for Fisk, yet his plea holds good for all our higher institutions. We commend it to our friends. The American Missionary Association could make good use, say, of a "One Hundred Thousand Dollar Fund" for the scientific departments of its mission schools. It may be that some one whom God has blessed with riches is waiting for just such an opportunity as this particular branch of our great field opens. Special funds for a designated institution, to be used for the promotion of Christian science, as outlined by Prof. Chase, are earnestly solicited:
Are there not some friends of the work among the Freedmen who can appreciate the need of a teacher for a complete scientific outfit?
The race has been kept during slavery from all knowledge of science. Their trades and occupations being of the roughest, and having ignorant parentage, nothing has been learned from the business of life, nor in answer to the questioning of childhood and youth. There is no race now admitted to the privileges of liberal education so barren of scientific ideas and so lacking in scientific spirit. Those who know this people solely from their fine literary and oratorical abilities have no conception of their great deficiency in science. It does not need to be said that, until this is remedied, they cannot be expected to hold their own in a scientific age, and in competition with a scientific race.
Though our course of study is brought down to the very minimum of college work, and the instruction is of a most elementary character, still there are eight sciences to be taught. But this teaching, to be successful, requires the use of illustrative material. With the general introduction of illustrations in our modern schools began the rapid progress in science that distinguishes our age. All true teachers of science affirm with one voice that this aid is indispensable even with the most favored races.