Chapter VI

Reforms

THE Abolitionists, though in general Christians of one name or another, who had been nurtured and brought up in the humane spirit of the New Testament, became soured, and some of them rejected the faith of their earlier years because their brethren moved too slowly to the relief of the slave.

In some of the Churches there were, doubtless, some men who deserved the censure that was bestowed upon religious bodies in general. It should, however, be remembered that in Abolitionism, as in other attempted reforms, the severe words were spoken by radical reformers. The radical has apparently always felt himself at liberty to handle the reputation of the conservative without gloves.

When Mr. Lincoln was waiting and watching for the right time to promulgate the

Emancipation Proclamation, one who was noted for good taste as well as forceful utterance, in his haste descended to the words "senile lickspittle;" inelegant words which an American citizen of this generation does not wish to apply to Mr. Lincoln. During Mr. McKinley's first candidacy radical temperance reformers attacked his reputation with words which developments seem not to sustain.

It is said that though slavery was, and had at one time been declared to be, "a breach of every precept in the Decalogue," it was later held to be a Divine institution. If this is an entirely correct statement of the case, it is a bad showing for the Church; but not so bad, after all, for the Decalogue. And that is the matter of greatest moment. The question important to us is not whether men in a certain case faithfully followed the precepts of the Bible, but whether the precepts were worthy to be followed. When a Church has ceased to teach the morality of the Bible, the advocate of Christianity has no reason to defend or uphold it. Let one more worthy take its place.

Without either condemning or defending

the course taken by Churches previous to the war, I think we may discern something of true sympathy towards the Negroes of the South in the conduct of both Churches and individuals at the North since the war. These later acts come more directly under our observation, and have less of political complication about them.

Nearly every denomination at the North has its "Freedmen's Aid Society," or an organization bearing some like suggestive name. Through these, many thousands of dollars have annually been sent to educate, elevate, and assist the Negroes. Individual Christians have purchased property in the South on which they have established and endowed schools, at which Negroes are receiving both literary education, and development in domestic and useful industry. Besides these conspicuous streams there are rivulets less noticeable, but along whose banks grasses grow green and flowers bloom.

When in Florida a few winters ago I attended a small entertainment given for the benefit of a struggling Negro Church. The pastor, a Negro, entertained me by reciting

his experience when in charge of another small Church. A lady from the North had, on arriving at that town, asked an opportunity to work in his Sunday-school, and had become its superintendent as well as teacher during her stay in the South. After her return to the North, she had continued to assist the work she had personally superintended when at the South by sending money and clothing in what appeared to him generous amounts, to be used as needed. The pastor, at the close of this account, added, "People at the North have poured out their money like water."

If I heard the name and Northern home of this lady I have forgotten; but He who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many," knew where his sister was "walking in his steps." (Matt. xii, 50): "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." But touching the man who joined the Church to gain social position, or to increase the sale of goods in which he is interested, or especially one who disregards our Lord's pro

hibition of oppression and overreaching in every form, we are constrained to say he is no relation. "For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

It is wiser to say that the individual who is self-seeking rather than willing to spend and be spent when circumstances require it, is no Christian, when charity suggests no other explanation, than to say that Christ and Christianity have been of no value to the world. The critic and the Christian reformer who feels that he is not suitably sustained by his brethren, needs, however, to distinguish between matters of personal conduct and matters of public policy. The elder brother of one who now "pours out his money like water" may not have been without sympathy with the slave, but the feeling was mingled with doubt as to what movement might be made which would be both helpful to the slave and safe for the country. The Christian who sees the saloon to be an evil greatly to be condemned, may still be uncertain how it may best be resisted; and he who deplores strikes and lockouts may not at present see how, by any change in public policy, the