Then come, O Music, re-resolve the lines,
These color-lines, and let the sun's pure ray
Beam forth in unobstructed light and love,
Transmuting, by his touch, these human hearts,
Till they shall mirror forth the Golden Rule.
ITEMS.
Everywhere the colored contestants in Civil Service examinations succeed admirably in their work. In March just past, there was a competitive examination held in the Custom House at Newark, N.J., for clerkships. Out of forty-three contestants, Mr. J.N. Vandewall, a well known young colored man, [pg 178]stood No. 1, 96 per cent. There was only one other colored contestant, Mr. G.W. Harris. He stood fifth, with an average of 86 per cent.
Mr. A.C. Garner, our colored representative in the Chicago Theological Seminary, passed an excellent examination last week, and received praise not only from his Professors but from his student friends as well. Out of a class of forty, he was one of seven chosen by the Professor of Elocution to represent the class in oratory at the closing exercises held last week.
During the recent illness of one of our teachers in the South, the pastor of the Church called every Sunday for volunteers as watchers during the week. There was always a ready response from the church members. The teacher relates that before leaving him in the morning, these watchers would almost invariably kneel down by his bedside and offer up earnest, fervent prayers for his recovery. He was impressed with the simple faith and trust in God of these colored Christians, their belief in prayer and the contrast between them and an equal number of white brethren under the same circumstances.