The Choctaw Freedmen Part 4

Hayden and Handel, two of the world's most famous musical composers, were inspired to write their great choral masterpieces, the "Creation"

and the "Messiah" as a result of their careful study of the sacred scriptures.

The best the world has produced in law, literature, poetry, music, art and architecture has been the embodiment of ideals, that have received their inspiration from reading G.o.d's Holy Word, and experiencing saving knowledge of the redeeming work of His blessed Son.

Abraham continues to be the "father of the faithful;" Moses, author of the Pentateuch, continues to be the world's greatest lawgiver and leader of men; Joshua effecting the conquest of Canaan on the principle, "Divide and Conquer," continues to be the inspirer of successful military strategists; David author of Psalms, continues to be the world's greatest poet; Joseph, Daniel and Isaiah, continue to be the best ideals for rulers and their counselors; Nehemiah, the best representative of a progressive and successful man of affairs; Peter and John, the most noted examples of loyalty to truth; Paul, the most zealous advocate of a great cause; and our Lord Jesus continues to be the ideal of the world's greatest teachers and benefactors.

THE BASIS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

"The Bible, the basis of moral instruction in the public school," was the interesting theme of an address it was the privilege of the author to deliver at a teachers' inst.i.tute forty years ago, when engaged in teaching in central Pennsylvania. The conviction then became indelibly impressed, that the Bible is really the basis of the American public school system. The fact is now noted with a good deal of interest, that the legislature of Pennsylvania in 1913, enacted a law, distinctly recognizing this fact, and providing that at least ten verses from the Bible shall be read every school day, in the presence of the scholars in every public school within the bounds of the state. Every teacher refusing to comply with this law is subject to dismissal.

Every state in the Union should have a law of this kind. The Bible is not merely the book of books, it is the only one that has correct ideals for young people. It awakens the desire for more knowledge and inspires the courage to do right.

THE VALLEY OF DIAMONDS

Ruskin, in "The Ethics of Dust", referring to the valley of diamonds, remarks that "many people go to real places and never see them; and many people pa.s.s through this valley of diamonds and never see it."

One great object to be attained in the education of the mind is to awaken an earnest desire for truth. All real life, whether it be in the school, shop or field, consists in using aright the true principles of life, that are found in the Word of G.o.d. Every human heart, that has been illuminated by this Word of Truth, finds that along the pathway that leads to G.o.d, there are hidden the gems and jewels of eternal truth, that prevail in every department of life. These gems are hidden only from the careless and indifferent. Those that make a diligent search are sure to find them. This longing desire for truth is not only the mark of a good student, but the a.s.surance also that such a one, if circ.u.mstances are favorable will continue to make progress after school days have ended.

Many pupils, during their youthful school days, fail to perceive the real mission of their education. They do not then fully appreciate the real gold of truth, that cultivates in them "those general charities of heart, sincerities of thought, and graces of habit, which are likely to lead them, throughout life to prefer frankness to affectation, reality to shadows, and beauty to corruption." This enlightenment is pretty sure to come to them later, if the Bible has been their daily text book.

THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER

The acceptance of the Bible as the Word of G.o.d should be regarded as essential, on the part of all teachers of children and youth.

If the Bible is the great fountain of saving truth and the highest authority on human conduct, and it is to be used as a daily text book, then, it naturally follows, the teacher should be "a workman approved unto G.o.d, apt to teach and rightly dividing the word of truth." Persons who do not believe in the Bible do not care to teach it, and when they are required to do so, they are pretty sure to vaunt their unbelief. The influence of such teachers tends to establish unbelief instead of awakening a longing desire for more truth.

Emerson in one of his essays, after pressing the fact that the soul is the receiver and revealer of truth, states an undeniable fact, when he says:

"That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily but involuntarily. Thoughts go out of our minds through avenues, which we never voluntarily opened. Character teaches over our head. The infallible index of true progress is found in the tone the man takes. Neither his age, nor his breeding, nor his company, nor books, nor actions, nor talents, nor all together can hinder him from being deferential to a higher spirit than his own. If he has not found his home in G.o.d, his manners, his form of speech, the turn of his sentences, the build, shall I say of all his opinions, will involuntarily confess it, let him brave it out how he will."

The longings of the human heart are unsatisfied, until the soul finds its home in G.o.d, its creator and preserver. Teachers that ignore this fact, lack one thing that is vitally important. Our Lord Jesus, the great teacher, expressed its relative importance when he said: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of G.o.d, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you."

A RAILROAD PRESIDENT

James J. Hill, a prominent railroad president recently made this important statement:

"We are making a mistake to train our young people in various lines of knowledge for undertaking the big tasks of life, without making sure also that those fundamental principles of right and wrong as taught in the Bible, have become a part of their equipment. There is a control of forces and motives, that is essential to the management of the vast affairs of our nation, which comes only through an educated conscience; and to fail to equip young men, who are to manage the great affairs of the future, with this control and direction, is a serious mistake of the age and bears with it a certain menace for the future."

In a recent issue of the a.s.sembly Herald there appeared the following very pertinent paragraphs on this subject, credited to the Synod of Tennessee:

"In common with all good citizens, we rejoice in the progress of the cause of popular education in our land. The intelligence of our citizens.h.i.+p is a bulwark to the country. But unless the education of the future citizen is complete and symmetrical, the body politic becomes a body partly of iron and partly of potter's clay. The education of the head and the hand without the heart is not enough.

"The popular education has no place for the heart in all of its splendid equipment. This is not a reflection on the fine system. It is merely the statement of a melancholy fact. The average state school, high or low, is absolutely colorless as to religion. Even the morality that is taught is not the morality of the Christian religion, but of philosophical ethics that differ but little from the ethics of the pagan.

"Our state schools have no place for the G.o.d of the Bible, nor for the Bible of the only living and true G.o.d. The poetry of Homer and Horace are sufficiently honored, but the finer poetry of Moses, Job and David are unknown in the courses of study of our schools, except now and then as specimens of Oriental song. The wise sayings of Plato and Socrates are reckoned worthy of profound study, while the vastly greater sayings of our Lord Jesus and Paul are unknown.

Cicero and Demosthenes are commended as great models of public address, while Isaiah and Ezekiel are seldom mentioned in the four years of college life, or in the longer years of the secondary schools.

"That education is incomplete and inadequate for life's best, which does not include the whole man, and put first things first. If the heart be not educated and the conscience be not enlightened, the best trained hand may strike in a wrong manner, and the best trained mind p.r.o.nounce wrong judgments.... Our citizens.h.i.+p must be Christian if it is to promote a Christian civilization."

IV

THE AMERICAN NEGRO

RELIGIOUS INSTINCT.--LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC.--THE FREEDMAN.--HOMELESS AND ILLITERATE WHEN EMANc.i.p.aTED.--FIRST SCHOOLS DURING THE CIVIL WAR.--FREE NEGROES AND COLLEGE GRADUATES.--50th ANNIVERSARY.

"All nations whom thou hast made shall come and wors.h.i.+p before thee and glorify thy name." David.

RELIGIOUS INSTINCT

In commendation of woman's loyalty and sense of obligation to our Lord Jesus, it has been said of her, "She was last at his cross and first at his grave, she staid longest there and was soonest here." In recognition of this fact when he rose from the dead he appeared first to one of them, Mary Magdalene.

To the credit of men of African descent, it may be said, that one of them performed the last act of kindness to our Lord Jesus, and the first individual conversion, of which we have an account in the book of Acts, relates to another one.

Simon, who a.s.sisted Jesus to bear his cross to the place of crucifixion, was a native of Cyrene in North Africa. The eastern church canonized him as Simon, the Black one, because his was the high and holy honor of bearing for the weary Christ, his cross of shame and pain. Our Lord Jesus was not long in the black man's debt. A few hours later, he paid it back by bearing for him all his weary burdens, on the very cross the African had borne for him. That was a good start for the Black man.

Philip, directed by an angel of the Lord to go south and join himself to the chariot occupied by the Eunuch, a man of great authority under the Queen of Ethiopia, found him reading the prophet Isaiah. Explaining the scriptures to him the eunuch confessed his faith in Jesus, was baptized with water found at the roadside and resumed his journey, homeward from Jerusalem, rejoicing. The record of this Black man's conversion is the first one of an individual in the book of Acts.

The religious trait of the American Negro has often been the subject of favorable comment. He has never, in all his history, been swayed by the false teachings of infidels, atheists or anarchists.

Dan Crawford, a Scotch missionary, the successor of Livingstone in the central part of the dark continent, recently stated he had discovered the fact, that the most ignorant and degraded natives of central Africa, have a religious instinct, that includes a belief in one G.o.d and the immortality of the soul.

Penetrating the jungles of the interior beyond the reach of a previous explorer, he found a tribe of nearly nude cannibals. He saw one of them eating human flesh. Meeting Ka la ma ta, their chief, the next day in the presence of several hundred of his tribe, he made special inquiry in regard to their knowledge of G.o.d. The result was an astounding surprise.

Kalamata, gave their name of G.o.d as Vi de Mu ku lu the Great King. When further questioned he said:

"We know there is a G.o.d for the same reason we know where the goats went on a wet night, when we see their deep foot-prints in the mud.

We see the sun and the sun sees us. We see the wonderful mountains and the flowing streams, and both tell us there is a G.o.d. He is the one who sends the rain. No rain, nothing to eat; no G.o.d, no anything."

Concerning a future life he expressed the thought, the body is the cottage of the soul. The dead do not really die. When one dies they do not say, "he departed", but "he has arrived."

The American Negro, like his native ancestor, has always manifested this religious instinct.

Under the influence of a natural instinct the bee invariably builds its cell in the same form for the next brood and the storage of honey for it; the b.u.t.terfly prepares the cradle and food for offspring it never sees, and the migratory birds follow the sun northward in the spring and southward on the approach of winter. All this is natural instinct.

Religious instinct is something very different from the natural instinct of any creature. It is a natural power possessed by man alone, and has its sphere in the human conscience. Paul, writing to the Romans in regard to the barbarians of his day, observed, "G.o.d is manifest in them, for the invisible things of G.o.d, even his eternal power and G.o.d-head, are clearly seen by the things that are made."

LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC

The Negro in America has always been loyal and patriotic. He has rendered a voluntary service in the army and navy of the United States that is worthy of special commendation. The records of the war department show that the number of colored soldiers, partic.i.p.ating in the several wars of this country was as follows: