Our Work Among the Colored in the South by W. T. Knox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 24, 1914

Our Work Among the Colored in the South

By W. T. Knox

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18, 19.

THIS scripture, taken from Isa. 61: 1, 2, afforded our Saviour the subject for his discourse on the occasion of his first appearance in the synagogue at Nazareth, after his anointing and his temptation in the wilderness. A prophecy of his life work, he used it, as it were, as his inaugural address, and to reveal the nature of his great mission to the suffering, the oppressed, and the lost of earth. He evidently considered this scripture as his commission, his divine credentials to the human family. On another occasion, when the representatives of John the Baptist came to him, inquiring, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” his answer was, “Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Matt. 11: 3-5.

The work of Christ among men was to be of such character that, being in full sympathy with his Father, he would reveal God's disposition toward men. The Lord hates oppression; he longs to relieve suffering; it is his great desire to elevate the downtrodden and to save the lost. The prophecy of Isaiah referred to by Christ, must therefore be descriptive of the work of the remnant people who are commissioned by him to preach the everlasting gospel to a dying world. To that portion of the prophecy read by Jesus of Nazareth, they must, in order to make their work complete, add the succeeding statements of the second and third verses: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

All mankind are the recipients of his mercy, and are in need of the benefits of his grace, for all are lost; but if there are in this work of mercy, any special or favored classes, they are those that in a special sense are oppressed, suffering, and ignorant. We need not wonder, then, that so much has been said to this people by the Spirit of God concerning our obligation to the millions of the colored race in the Southern States, and our duty to preach to them the fullness of the gospel of Christ, and in every way possible to ameliorate their deplorable condition, in which the years of their bondage and the generations of their ignorance have left them.

This the North American Division Conference is seeking to do through its Negro Department, by the preaching of the word, by the efforts of its Bible workers, the establishment of schools, and every other available agency. Of late years, very encouraging results have attended these efforts. In some of the Southern States, these results equal or exceed the accomplishments for the white race. It calls, however, for heavy appropriations from the Division Conference treasury, for the great mass of the colored people of the South are exceedingly poor. Their work is not and perhaps never will be self-supporting. The general administration has always been obliged to appeal to the denomination for financial assistance to carry on this work.

Sabbath, October 3, has been selected this year as a day when special offerings should be made for the benefit of the Negro Department. We hope for liberal gifts from all our churches on that day, especially as those in charge of this work see many needs that will call for additional expenditures. The present condition throughout the world surely should manifest to the Lord's people that the King's business requires haste, and that the greatest zeal and earnestness should now characterize all our work, for “the night cometh, when no man can work.”

W. T. Knox.