There has been much perplexity as to how our laborers in the South shall deal with the “color line.” It has been a question to some how far to concede to the prevailing prejudice against the colored people. The Lord has given us light concerning all such matters. There are principles laid down in his word that should guide us in dealing with these perplexing questions. The Lord Jesus came to our world to save men and women of all nationalities. He died just as much for the colored people as for the white race. Jesus came to shed light over the whole world. At the beginning of his ministry He declared his mission: “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.”
The Redeemer of the world was of humble parentage. He, the majesty of heaven, the King of glory, humbled himself to accept humanity, and then He chose a life of poverty and toil. “For our sakes He became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.”2When one came saying, “I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,” Jesus answered him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” He, the Majesty of heaven, depended upon the generosity of his followers.
Jesus did not seek the admiration or applause of the world. He commanded no army, He ruled no earthly kingdom. He passed by the wealthy and honored of the world. He did not associate with the leaders of the nation. He dwelt among the lowly of the earth. To all appearance He was merely a humble man, with few friends. Thus He sought to correct the world’s false standard of judging the value of men. He showed that they are not to be estimated by their outward appearance. Their moral worth is not determined by their worldly possessions, their real estate or bank stock. It is the humble, contrite heart that God values. With Him there is no respect of persons. The attributes that He prizes most are purity and love, and these are possessed only by the Christian.
Jesus did not choose his disciples from the learned lawyers, the rulers, the scribes and Pharisees. He passed them by because they felt whole, as many feel in this age, and prided themselves3on their learning and position. They were fixed in their traditions and superstitions, “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” He who could read all hearts chose poor fishermen who were willing to be taught. He gave them no promise of large salary or worldly honor, but told them they should be partakers with Him in his sufferings. Jesus while in this world ate with publicans and sinners, and mingled with the common people, not to become low and earthly with them, but in order by precept and example to present to them right principles, to lift them up from their low habits and manners. In all this He set us an example, that we should follow in his steps.
Those who have a religious experience that opens their hearts to Jesus, will not cherish pride, but will feel that they are under obligation to God to be missionaries as was Jesus. They will seek to save that which is lost. They will not, in Pharisaical pride and haughtiness, withdraw themselves from any class of humanity, but will feel with the apostle Paul, “I am debtor both to the Greek and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.”
After my severe illness one year ago, many things which the Lord had presented to me seemed lost to my mind, but they have since been repeated.4I know that that which I now speak will bring me into conflict. This I do not covet, for the conflict has seemed to be continuous of late years; but I do not mean to live a coward, or die a coward, leaving my work undone. I must follow in my Master’s footsteps. It has become fashionable to look down upon the poor, and upon the colored race in particular. But Jesus, the Master, was poor, and He sympathizes with the poor, the discarded, the oppressed, and declares that every insult shown to them is as if shown to himself. I am more and more surprised as I see those who claim to be children of God possessing so little of the sympathy and tenderness and love which actuated Christ. Would that every church, North and South, were imbued with the spirit of our Lord’s teaching.
While at St. Louis a year ago, as I knelt in prayer, these words were presented to me as if written with a pen of fire: “All ye are brethren.” The Spirit of God rested upon me in a wonderful manner, and matters were opened to me in regard to the church at St. Louis and in other places. The spirit and words of some in regard to members of the church were an offense to God. They were closing the door of their hearts to Jesus. Among those in St. Louis who believe the truth there are colored people who are5true and faithful, precious in the sight of the God of heaven, and they should have just as much respect as any of God’s children. Those who have spoken harshly to them, or have despised them, have despised the purchase of the blood of Christ, and they need the transforming grace of Christ in their own hearts, that they may have the pitying tenderness of Jesus toward those who love God with all the fervor of which they themselves are capable.
“If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot: . . . seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” “Ye have put off the old man with his deeds: and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all and in all.6Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.”
“Who,” says Paul, “maketh thee to differ?” The God of the white man is the God of the black man, and the Lord declares that his love for the least of his children exceeds that of a mother for her beloved child. Look at the mother: the sick child, the one afflicted, the one born a cripple, or with some other physical infirmity, — how the mother labors to give him every advantage! The best food, the softest pillow, and the tenderest nursing are for him. The love bestowed upon him is strong and deep, — a love such as is not given to beauty, talent, or any other natural gift. As soon as a mother sees reason for others to regard her child with aversion or contempt, does she not increase her tenderness as if to shield him from the world’s rude touch? “Can a mother forget her sucking child? Yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee.” O, what impartial love the Lord Jesus gives to those who love him! The Lord’s eye is upon all his creatures; He loves them all, and makes no difference between white and black, except that He has a special, tender pity for those that are called to bear a greater burden than others. Those who love God and believe on Christ as their Redeemer,7while they must meet the trials and the difficulties that lie in their path, should yet with a cheerful spirit accept their life as it is, considering that God above regards these things, and for all that the world neglects to bestow, He will himself make up to them in the best of favors.
The parable of Dives, the rich man, and Lazarus, the poor beggar who feared God, is presented before the world as a lesson to all, both rich and poor, as long as time shall last. Dives is represented as lifting up his eyes in hell, being in torments, and seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,—“he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”
When the sinner is converted he receives the Holy Spirit, that makes him a child of God, and fits Him for the society of the redeemed and the angelic host. He is made a joint heir with Christ. Whoever of the human family give themselves to Christ, whoever hear the truth and obey it, become children of one family. The ignorant and the wise, the rich and the poor, the heathen8and the slave, white or black,—Jesus paid the purchase money for their souls. If they believe in Him, his cleansing blood is applied to them. The black man’s name is written in the book of life beside the white man’s. All are one in Christ. Birth, station, nationality, or color cannot elevate or degrade men. The character makes the man. If a red man, a Chinaman, or an African gives his heart to God, in obedience and faith, Jesus loves him none the less for his color. He calls him his well beloved brother. The day is coming when the kings and the lordly men of the earth would be glad to exchange places with the humblest African who has laid hold on the hope of the gospel. To all who are overcomers through the blood of the Lamb, the invitation will be given, “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Arranged on the right and left of the throne of God are the long columns of the heavenly host, who touch the golden harps, and songs of welcome and of praise to God and the Lamb ring through the heavenly courts. “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”
Among what are called the higher classes, there9is a demand for a form of Christianity suited to their fine tastes; but this class will not grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ until they know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The heavenly intelligences rejoice to do the will of God in preaching the gospel to the poor. In the announcement which the Savior made in the synagogue at Nazareth, He put a stern rebuke upon those who attach so much importance to color or caste, and refuse to be satisfied with such a type of Christianity as Christ accepts. The same price was paid for the salvation of the colored man as for that of the white man, and the slights put upon the colored people by many who claim to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and who therefore acknowledge themselves debtors to Christ, misrepresent Jesus, and reveal that selfishness, tradition, and prejudice pollute the soul. They are not sanctified through the truth. Those who slight a brother because of his color are slighting Jesus.
I call upon every church in our land to look well to your own souls. “Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” God makes no distinction between the North and the South. Whatever may be your prejudices,10your wonderful prudence, do not lose sight of this fact, that unless you put on Christ, and his Spirit dwells in you, you are slaves of sin and Satan. Many who claim to be children of God are children of the wicked one, and have his passions, his prejudices, his evil spirit, his unlovely traits of character. But the soul that is indeed transformed will not despise any one whom Christ has purchased with his own blood.
Men may have both hereditary and cultivated prejudices, but when the love of Jesus fills the heart, and they become one with Christ, they will have the same spirit that He had. If a colored brother sits by their side, they will not be offended or despise him. They are journeying to the same heaven, and will be seated at the same table to eat bread in the kingdom of God. If Jesus is abiding in our hearts we cannot despise the colored man who has the same Saviour abiding in his heart. When these unchristian prejudices are broken down, more earnest effort will be put forth to do missionary work among the colored race.
When the Hebrew people were suffering cruel oppression under the hand of their task-masters, the Lord looked upon them, and He called Israel his son. He bade Moses go to Pharaoh with the message, “Israel is my son, even my first born.”11And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me.” The Lord did not wait until his people went forth and stood in triumph on the shores of the Red Sea before he called Israel his son, but while they were under oppression, degraded, down-trodden, suffering all that the power and the invention of the Egyptians could impose to make their lives bitter and to destroy them, then God undertakes their cause and declares to Pharaoh, “Israel is my son, even my first born.”
What thoughts and feelings did the message arouse in Pharaoh?—“This people, my slaves, those whom the lowest of my people despise,—the God of such a people I care not for, neither will I let Israel go.” But the word of God will not return unto Him void; it will accomplish the thing whereunto it is sent. The Lord speaks in no uncertain manner. He says, “Let my son go, that he may serve me, and if thou refuse to let him go, behold I will slay thy son, even thy first born.”
God cares no less for the souls of the African race that may be won to serve Him than He cared for Israel. He requires far more of his people than they have given Him in missionary work among the people of the South of all classes, and especially the colored race. Are we not under even greater obligation to labor for the colored12people than for those who have been more highly favored? Who is it that held these people in servitude? Who kept them in ignorance, and pursued a course to debase and brutalize them, forcing them to disregard the law of marriage, breaking up the family relation, tearing wife from husband, and husband from wife? If the race is degraded, if they are repulsive in habits and manners, who made them so? Is there not much due to them from the white people? After so great a wrong has been done them, should not an earnest effort be made to lift them up? The truth must be carried to them. They have souls to save as well as we.
At the General Conference of 1889, resolutions were presented with reference to the color line. Such action is not called for. Let no man take the place of God, but stand aside in awe, and let God work upon human hearts, both white and black, in his own way. He will adjust all these perplexing questions. We need not prescribe a definite plan of working. Leave an opportunity for God to do something. We should be careful not to strengthen prejudices that ought to have died just as soon as Christ redeemed the soul from the bondage of sin.
Sin rests upon us as a church because we have not made greater effort for the salvation of souls13among the colored people. It will always be a difficult matter to deal with the prejudices of the white people in the South and do missionary work for the colored race. But the way this matter has been treated by some is an offense to God. We need not expect that all will be accomplished in the South that God would do until in our missionary efforts we place this question on the ground of principle, and let those who accept the truth be educated to be Bible Christians, working according to Christ’s order. You have no license from God to exclude the colored people from your places of worship. Treat them as Christ’s property, which they are, just as much as yourselves. They should hold membership in the church with the white brethren. Every effort should be made to wipe out the terrible wrong which has been done them. At the same time we must not carry things to extremes and run into fanaticism on this question. Some would think it right to throw down every partition wall and inter-marry with the colored people, but this is not the right thing to teach or to practice.
Let us do what we can to send to this class laborers who will work in Christ’s name, who will not fail nor be discouraged. We should educate colored men to be missionaries among their own people. We should recognize talent where14it exists among that people, and those who have ability should be placed where they may receive an education.
There are able colored ministers who have embraced the truth. Some of these feel unwilling to devote themselves to work for their own race; they wish to preach to the white people. These men are making a great mistake. They should seek most earnestly to save their own race, and they will not by any means be excluded from the gatherings of the white people.
White men and women should be qualifying themselves to work among the colored people. There a large work to be done in educating this ignorant and downtrodden class. We must do more unselfish missionary work than we have done in the Southern States; not picking out merely the most favorable fields. God has children among the colored people all over our land. They need to be enlightened. There are unpromising ones, it is true, and you will find similar degradation among the white people; but even among the lower classes there are souls who will embrace the truth. Some will not be steadfast. Feelings and habits that have been confirmed by lifelong practice will be hard to correct; it will not be easy to implant ideas of purity and holiness, refinement and elevation. But God regards15the capacity of every man, He marks the surroundings, and sees how these have formed the character, and he pities these souls.
Is it not time for us to live so fully in the light of God’s countenance that we who receive so many favors and blessings from Him, may know how to treat those less favored, not working from the world’s standpoint, but from the Bible standpoint? Is it not right in this line that Christian effort is most needed? Is it not here that our influence should be brought to bear against the customs and practices of the world? Should it not be the work of the white people to elevate the standard of character among the colored race, to teach them how Christians should live, by exemplifying the Spirit of Christ, showing that we are one brotherhood?
Those who have been favored with opportunities of education and culture, who have had every advantage and religious influence, will be expected of God to possess pure and holy characters in accordance with the gifts bestowed. But have they rightly improved their advantages? We know they have not. Let these privileged ones make the most of their blessings, and realize that they are thus placed under greater obligations to labor for the good of others.
God will accept many more workers from the16humble walks of life if they will fully consecrate themselves to his service. Men and women should be coming up to carry the truth into all the highways and byways of life. Not all can go through a long course of education, but if they are consecrated to God, and learn of Him, many can without this do much to bless others. Thousands would be accepted if they would give themselves to God. Not all who labor in this line should depend upon the Conferences for support. Let those who can do so, give their time, and what ability they have; let them be messengers of God’s grace, their hearts throbbing in unison with Christ’s great heart of love, their ears open to hear the Macedonian cry.
The whole church needs to be imbued with the missionary spirit; then there will be many to work unselfishly in various ways as they can, without being salaried. There is altogether too much dependence on machinery, on mechanical working. Machinery is good in its place, but do not allow it to become too complicated. I tell you that in many cases it has retarded the work, and kept out laborers who in their line could have accomplished far more than has been done by the minister who depends on sermonizing more than on ministry. Young men need to catch the missionary spirit, to be thoroughly imbued17with the spirit of the message. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Work in any capacity, work where God leads you, in the line best suited to your talents, and best adapted to reach classes that have hitherto been sadly neglected. This kind of labor will develop intellectual and moral power, and adaptability to the work.
You must have the grace and love of God in order to succeed. The strength and spirituality of the people of God are manifest by the distinctness of the line of demarkation which separates them from the world. The people of the world are characterized by love for earthly things; they act selfishly, regardless of the principles which Christ has set forth in his life. Christians will manifest the self-sacrificing spirit of Christ in their work, in connection with every branch of the cause. They will do this heartily, not by halves. They will not study their own aggrandizement nor manifest respect of persons. They will not, cannot, live in luxury and self-indulgence, while there are suffering ones around them. They cannot by their practice sanction any phase of oppression or injustice to the least child of humanity. They are to be like Christ,18to relinquish all selfish delights, all unholy passions, all that love of applause which is the food of the world. They will be willing to be humble and unknown, and to sacrifice even life itself for Christ’s sake. By a well ordered life and godly conversation they will condemn the folly, the impenitence, the idolatry, the iniquitous practices of the world.
The converting power of God must work a transformation of character in many who claim to believe the present truth, or they cannot fulfill the purpose of God. They are hearers, but not doers of the word. Pure, unworldly benevolence will be developed in all who make Christ their personal Saviour. There needs to be far less of self and more of Jesus. The church of Christ is ordained of God that its members shall be representatives of Christ’s character. He says, “You have given yourselves to Me, and I give you to the world. I am the light of the world; I present you to the world as my representatives.” As Christ in the fullest sense represents the Father, so we are to represent Christ. Let none of those who name the name of Christ be cowards in his cause. For Christ’s sake stand as if looking within the open portals of the city of God.
E. G. White.
Battle Creek, Mich., March 20, 1891.
An Appeal for the Southern Field.
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN AMERICA: I would appeal to you in behalf of the Southern field. If we consulted our own ease and pleasure, we would not desire to enter this field; but we are not to consult our own ease. “Even Christ pleased not himself”; but we are to consider the fact that that field is no more discouraging to those who would be laborers together with God, than was the field of the world as it presented itself before the only begotten Son of God. When He came to earth to seek and to save that which was lost, He did not consult his own ease or pleasure. He left his high command, He laid aside his heavenly honor and glory, He laid off his glorious diadem and royal robe, and left the royal courts, in order that He might come to earth to save fallen man. Though He possessed eternal riches, yet for our sakes He became poor, that He might enrich the human race. By accepting the Son of God as their Redeemer, by exercising faith in Him, the sons and the daughters of Adam may become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. The apostle says: “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became20poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” Christ was willing to come to a world that was all marred and seared with the curse,— the result of Adam’s transgression of the law of God. He was willing to undertake the case of fallen beings who had lost their original holiness, and who were in ignorance of the perfection of God’s character. He was willing to come to bring back to loyalty those who were not subject to God’s moral government. In the grand counsels of Heaven it was found that it was positively necessary that there should be a revelation of God to man in the person of his only begotten Son. He came to earth to be “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
The Southern field is beset with difficulties, and should I present the field to you as it has been presented to me, many of you would draw back, and say, “No, I cannot enter such a field.” But the condition of the colored race is no more disheartening than was the condition of the world when Christ left heaven to work for fallen man. He clothed his divinity with humanity, and came into the world, in order that his humanity might touch humanity, and his divinity lay hold upon the throne of God in man’s behalf. He came to seek the one lost sheep, to bring back21the wandering one from the wilderness of sin to the heavenly fold. He was treated with every indignity by those whom He came to save from eternal ruin, and the missionary to the Southern field will need to arm himself with the mind that was in Christ Jesus.
The record says: “He came unto his own, and his own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”
The Southern race has been neglected. Men have passed by on the other side, as the priest and the Levite passed by the wounded, robbed, bruised, and beaten one. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed that way, not only saw him, but he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. How many have left the colored race to perish by the wayside? Since the slaves gained their freedom at terrible loss of life both to the North and to the South, they have been greatly neglected by those who professed to know God, and as a result thousands of them have failed to gain spiritual freedom. But shall this indifference continue? Shall not decided efforts be made to save them? Sin has degraded and corrupted22the human family, but Christ did not leave men to perish in their degradation. He who was one with the Father, came to our world to bridge the gulf that sin had made, which separated man from God because of transgression. Christ, the brightness of his Father’s glory, beheld humanity in its wretchedness and sinfulness, beheld souls tainted with corruption, depraved and deformed. He knew that the fallen race tended more to evil than to good, and practiced the most hateful vices. The heavenly host looked upon the world as undeserving of the sympathy and love of God. Angels marveled that Christ should undertake to save man in his lost, and as it seemed to them, hopeless condition. They marveled that God could tolerate a race so foul with sin as to be a blot upon his creation. They could see no room for love, but Christ saw that souls must perish unless an arm strong to deliver was reached forth to save.
Satan is the destroyer, but Christ is the restorer. From the first it was Satan’s purpose to cause men to transgress the law of God. He misrepresented the character of the Father, trampled upon his law, and cast contempt upon his precepts. He inspired men with his own spirit, and made them partakers of his own attributes, and caused them to transgress the law23of God. When he had accomplished his work of ruin, he pointed to the degraded, sin-polluted souls whom he had made subject to a thousand vices, and declared that they were too degraded, too wretched, to be redeemed by Heaven. He sought to present mankind in the most discouraging aspect, so that reformation might seem hopeless. Though he could not prevail with his temptations in assailing Christ, or cause Him to fail or be discouraged, yet he often succeeds too well with those who should be laborers together with God. But his plans to cause the work to cease are not wholly successful. Through the grace of God those whom the enemy has oppressed for generations, rise up to the dignity of God-given manhood and womanhood, and present themselves as sons and daughters of the Most High. This result is generally brought about through well-directed, persevering missionary labor.
Why should not Seventh-day Adventists become true laborers together with God in seeking to save the souls of the colored race? Instead of a few, why should not many go forth to labor in this long-neglected field? Where are the families who will become missionaries, and who will engage in labor in this field? Where are the men who have means and experience so that they can24go forth to these people, and work for them just where they are? There are men who can educate them in agricultural lines, who can teach the colored people to sow seed and plant orchards. There are others who can teach them to read, and can give them an object-lesson from their own life and example. Show them what you yourself can do to gain a livelihood, and it will be an education to them. Are we not called upon to do this very work? Are there not many who need to learn to love God supremely and their fellow men as themselves? In the Southern field are many thousands of people who have souls to save or to lose. Are there not many among those who claim to believe the truth who will go forth into this field to do the work for which Christ gave up his ease, his riches, and his life?
Christ gave up all in order that He might bring salvation to every people, nation, and tongue. He bridged the gulf that sin had made, in order that through his merits man might be reconciled to God. Why is there not an army of workers enlisted under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel, ready to go forth to enlighten those who are ignorant and depraved? Why do we not go forth to bring souls out of darkness into light? Why do we not teach the perishing to believe in Christ as their personal Saviour, and25aid them to see Christ by faith, and wash in the fountain that has been opened to cleanse away the sins of the world? We should teach those who are filthy how to cast away their old, sin-stained garments of character, and how to put on Christ’s righteousness. We should plant in their darkened minds the elevating, ennobling thoughts of heavenly things. By faith, by Christlike sympathy and example, we should lead the polluted into pure and holy lives. We should live such a life before them that they will discern the difference between error and vice, and purity, righteousness, and holiness: We should make straight paths for our feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way.
Many who claim to be Christians have accomplished little in the world because they have not kept their eyes upon Jesus, and have permitted iniquity to overcome them. Many who have gone forth as missionaries have fallen into sin, and Satan has exulted because men who claimed to be workers together with God were not daily converted, and were not, by looking unto Jesus, transformed in character. They did not make God their strength, and so made crooked paths for their feet. They could not bring the poor, ignorant souls who were debased by sin into a new life, even into the life of God, because their26own life was not hid with Christ in God. As workers together with God, we must yoke up with Jesus Christ, and put on Christ. When we are planted in Him, we shall grow in likeness to Christ’s character. We are to be living epistles, and men are to read in our lives what it means to be a Christian. We are to represent Christ in character, and self is to be hidden with Christ in God. When this is our experience, we shall find that the angels of God will co-operate with us. Feeling our dependence upon God, we shall realize the force of Christ’s words when he said, “Without Me ye can do nothing.” We shall then know how to have sympathy for the neglected, the oppressed, the despised, and yet at the same time have no sympathy with degradation, but in the midst of sin press closer and closer to the side of Jesus. We shall be grieved and shocked at the sins which are committed, while we wear the yoke with Christ, and are preparing to be temples for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.
Men who have faith, and hope, and love are partakers of the divine nature, and have overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. Such men are successful workers; for they build upon the sure foundation, gold, silver, and precious stones. They build with goodly material which is most valuable. They do not build with27that which is perishable, with that which is compared to wood, hay, and stubble, which will be burned up in the fires of the last days. Their work results in redeeming souls that shall stand before the throne of God.
Christ said to his disciples: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. . . . I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Those who realize their guilt, feel their need of the Saviour. Why, O why, has not more been done to diffuse light into the darkened minds of the colored race? Christ died for the colored people as verily as He died for the white people. Through faith in Christ the colored people may attain unto eternal life as verily as may the white people. Those whom the Lord sees neglected by us have been intrusted with reasoning powers, and yet they have been treated as though they had no souls. They have been wounded by a so-called Christian nation. They have been left by the wayside, and decided efforts will have to be made to counteract the wrong that has been done them. But though they have been despised and neglected of men, God has given special help and enlightenment to many who were in slavery. He has illuminated their darkness when they were in the most unfavorable circumstances, and they have revealed28to the world the elements of the greatness in Christian character. Many of the black race have been rich in faith and trust in God. They have manifested divine compassion for those whom they could help. They have known what it was to hunger for sympathy and help; for they were but neglected by those who saw their wretchedness and could have helped them, but who passed by on the other side, as the priest and the Levite passed by the bruised and wounded one. There are souls among the colored race that can be reached, and the very kind of labor which their circumstances require should be put forth, that they may be saved. When these souls are converted to the truth, they will become partakers of the divine nature, and will go forth to rescue their fellow-men, to lead those who are in darkness into light. They can be helped in their low estate, and in their turn can contribute to the good of others.
But there are many among the colored people whose intellect has been too long darkened to be speedily fitted for fruitfulness in good works. Many are held in bondage to depraved appetite. Many are slaves to debasing passions, and their character is of such an order as will not enable them to be a blessing. Sin and depravity have locked up their senses. They need help as much29as the veriest heathen, and unless they have the right kind of help they will be lost. But they may be taught to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness may shine into the darkened chambers of their mind. They need to catch a glimpse of God. It is their privilege to have eternal life, to be in union with God, and it is the privilege of those who know the truth to repeat the story again and again of God’s wonderful love to man as manifested on Calvary’s cross. The chain that is let down from the throne of God is long enough to reach into the lowest depths of sin. Hold up a sin-pardoning Saviour before the lost and lowly, for Jesus has made a divine interposition in their behalf. He is able to reach to the lowest depths and lift them up from the pit of sin, that they may be acknowledged as children of God, heirs with Christ to an immortal inheritance. They may have the life that measures with the life of God.
E. G. WHITE.