There is only one thing necessary to get this money and more. It is a pretty comprehensive thing. If upon the members of our churches in this land as clear a sense of the need of what ought to be done and can be done could be brought as comes to those in contact with the work, the money would be forthcoming. How to make our people realize the facts in this matter is the problem. Money will come when our people know how much it is needed, how profitably it is spent, and how grandly it pays dividends.
ADDRESS OF REV. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D.
Last Wednesday evening at the Prayer and Conference Meeting of the Broadway Tabernacle, one of the office-bearers of the church put this question to me: "Can we hope to be instrumental in the conversion of the Jews, so long as the present prejudice against God's ancient people exists among us?" And that inquiry, taken in connection with the fact that the Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association was to be held here this week, led me to examine the Word of God, that I might discover what incidental light is thrown on the subject of pride of race by its histories and other contents, and I mean to-night to put the result of my examination before you.
The first and most striking instance of its manifestation which we come upon in Scripture is the treatment given by the Egyptians to the Israelites. "Every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians," so they counted themselves superior to the Hebrews, and subjected them to the greatest indignities, grinding them under the harshest oppression, and exacting from them, by the lash of the task-master, the most arduous labor. But mark how their pride was rebuked and their cruelty punished, under the moral and retributive government of God. Their land was desolated by a series of plagues culminating in the death of the first-born, and the people whom they had oppressed made their escape from the most powerful empire then existing in the world, without themselves striking a single blow. The Lord fought for them. Each of these ten plagues was a Divine protest against that national pride which arrogated to itself the exclusive right to power, privilege, immunity and possession, and which met its merited punishment that day, when "the Lord saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore."
But the mention of the Hebrews in this connection may seem to some to be most inappropriate. Were not they, it may be asked, virtually created into a separate and exclusive nation, and taught to look upon themselves as God's peculiar people? Did not they become proverbial for their pride of race, and for saying on every occasion, "We have Abraham to our father," and were they not especially the Pharisees among the nations? Now it must be confessed that all these questions must be answered in the affirmative, but when we widen our view and take into consideration the great purpose of God in the formation and conservation of the Hebrew commonwealth, we may see reason somewhat to modify our opinion. For the settlement of the Jews in Canaan and their restriction within its limits were not ends in themselves, but only means for the attainment of higher ends which were to affect the moral and spiritual condition of "all people that on earth do dwell." The promise made to Abraham was in this wise: "In thee and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed;" and it was for the purpose of securing the fulfilment of the latter part of that promise that a special and peculiar hedge was planted around the vine which God had brought out of Egypt. It was not meant to be a permanent arrangement, but was designed merely for a temporary emergency, until, as Paul has said, "the Seed should come" to bless the world with his great salvation. It cannot, therefore, be quoted as furnishing a universal example, or as giving any divine approval to that pride of race of which we have been speaking. Moreover, even when the Hebrews were selected by God for this purpose, they were told over and over again that they were not chosen for anything in themselves, and that they had no reason to plume themselves on the fact that they were chosen. And when they degenerated into self-conceit on the ground of their having been so highly privileged, they were finally cast out of the land of promise. Nor is this all. In the system under which they were placed by Moses, they were taught to look with kindliness on those who came to sojourn among them, of whatever race they might be. They were not, indeed, to be a missionary people, or to seek to induce others to settle among them, but if others came to dwell beside them, hear how they were to treat them: "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in the land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Love ye therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." (Exodus xxii. 21; Levit. xix. 33; xxv. 35; Deut. x. 19). Lay these commands alongside of recent legislation among ourselves with reference to the Chinese, and then see what God must think of that blot upon our statute book in this age of our boasted enlightenment.
Take, again, the account of the singular retribution that came upon the people in the days of David because of Saul's treatment of the Gibeonites. These aborigines belonged to the ancient Canaanitish tribes, and were so astute as to impose even upon Joshua, and to obtain from him a treaty on false pretenses. Still an agreement was made with them on the terms that they should be permitted to live in the land, but that they should be "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of the Lord." This contract was faithfully observed on both sides until the days of Saul, who sought to slay them "in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah." And what was the result? A famine lasting for three years, which was only removed at last by the giving up, according to the ancient practices of the Gibeonites, of seven of Saul's sons for execution. Now there is much in that old history that is difficult for us at this distance of time, and ignorant as we are of the customs that prevailed among these tribes, to understand. But no one of us can read it without being reminded of our treatment of the Indian tribes that linger among us still. Have we not broken almost every treaty that we ever made with them? Have we not said, unpityingly regarding them, that their destruction before the advance of civilization is inevitable? And have we not forgotten that the God of the Gibeonites lives to be the avenger of the Indians? If the hewers of wood and drawers of water were not beneath his notice long ago, think you he does not see and chronicle the wrongs of the Indians to-day, and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
Before passing from the Old Testament to the New, I merely mention the fact that among the ancestors of the Lord Jesus Christ we find two belonging to alien races, namely, Rahab of Jericho, and Ruth the Moabitess, whose very presence in that noble line is a prophecy of the glorious truth that the Son of David was to be also the Son of man, the Saviour of sinners of every name and nation, the kinsman of all races, the brother of humanity, and that as he represents them all in his priestly intercession yonder, so in each of them we may see a representative of him here and now upon the earth.
But now what may we learn from Christ himself in the New Testament? It is true that his personal ministry in the world was almost entirely confined to the Jews. It had to be so limited at first, if his gospel was to gather force for its triumphant march over the world at a later day; but even during his life in the world he came repeatedly in contact with men and women of races other than that of the Jews, and always in such a way as to show his sympathy with them and love toward them. I remind you of his long and earnest conversation with the woman of Samaria, at the well of Sychar, and of the fact that she was a descendant of that mixed nationality which sprung from the amalgam of those heathen colonists that were sent by the King of Assyria to take the places left vacant by the ten tribes whom he had carried away captive. I recall to your recollection, too, his eulogy on the Roman centurion, and his constant exposure of the contemptuousness of the Pharisees in their attitude not only toward the publicans and sinners of their own nation, but also toward Gentiles of every description. Think of his dealing with the Syrophœnician woman. She was a Canaanite of the old race, and, though at first he seemed to turn her away, yet ultimately he gave her all she asked and more: and even his apparently abrupt treatment of her in the beginning, if I read the history aright, was meant to be an exposure and condemnation of the feelings commonly cherished toward those of her nation by the Jews of his day. No doubt it tested and strengthened her own faith. But we must not forget that the whole conversation with her was meant to teach a lesson to his disciples also. It was part of their training for their future life work. It was a portion of their preparation for carrying his gospel to all nations. And so he spoke out their own thoughts about the women, holding up a mirror before them in which they might see themselves, when he said, "It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs;" and he ultimately showed them that she was better far than many who would have spurned her from their presence. So from the kindness showed to aliens by the Lord himself, we may learn not only to beware of this leaven of the Pharisees, but also to deal kindly and truly with men of every race, and make them sharers with us in the blessings of the gospel.
But thus far we have not come upon any case where the difference was one not only of race but of color. Even here, however, we are not without scriptural instances to guide us. You remember that of Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian. Jeremiah was, by the cruelty of his enemies, imprisoned in a dungeon or water tank, and was sunk in the mire at the bottom. Ebed-melech, learning his condition, went and informed King Zedekiah of the real state of the case, and obtained a command to take an escort of thirty men with him and deliver him from the dungeon lest he should die. So with great tenderness the Ethiopian threw down rags to put under the ropes which he let down, and by which he was to soften the pressures of the cords under his arms as they drew him up therewith from his filthy prison; and after they had thus delivered him there came to the prophet this message of God concerning him; "Go and speak to Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee. But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord; and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee; because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord." Here we have a kindness done by a colored man to Jeremiah, and a message sent from God to the colored man acknowledging and rewarding that kindness; but O! how many debts of that sort owed by men among ourselves to the colored people have been forgotten or repudiated! In the agony of the war, colored people fought in the ranks of the Northern armies; and I have heard those who have belonged to the Confederate side declare with tears in their eyes that the faithful watch kept by their colored servants over their wives and families while they were absent with the troops was beyond all praise. And yet in these days we read every now and then of colored people shot down like dogs on the slightest provocation, and prevented on the merest pretext from exercising the rights of citizens of this free Republic, and men look on and do nothing. But God may say something by and by, and when he speaks men's ears shall tingle! We have another illustration of God's treatment of a colored man in the case of the Ethiopian treasurer. He was returning from Jerusalem, where he had been at one of the great annual Jewish feasts, and as he was riding in his chariot he was reading aloud to himself the book of the prophet Isaiah, when the evangelist Philip, specially sent thither for the purpose by God's Spirit, addressed him, and on being asked to come into the carriage with him expounded to him the meaning of the passage which he was reading, and preached the gospel from it unto him with such good effect that he was forthwith baptized on the confession of his faith, and afterward went on his way rejoicing to found that Ethiopian church which claims to this day to be one of the most ancient Christian churches in the world. He was a man, for he was moved by the truth as you and I have been, and he became a Christian—"the highest style of man"—to show us that, as Peter said, "In every nation they that fear God and work righteousness are accepted of him." That which is highest in any man is his appreciation and acceptance of the gospel! of Christ, and wherever we see that appreciation we have not only a fellow man but a brother Christian, to be treated by us as Paul requested Philemon to treat Onesimus—as "a brother beloved." Nor let any one suppose that there is a single race upon the earth that can not be so transformed and gladdened as this Ethiopian was. Even Charles Darwin declared that after the Patagonians it could not be said that any race is too degraded for the gospel to elevate, and so he gave new emphasis, unwittingly, perhaps, but, if so, all the more strongly, to the words addressed to Peter on the housetop: "What God hath cleansed that call not thou common;" or those of Paul in one of his epistles: "For there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."