Delivered at the Memorial Exercises of the Sunday School Lyceum, held December 7, 1890.

Mr. President: There was a period in Grecian history denominated the heroic age. The mystic spirit of that classic race had invested men with the dignity of gods. So wonderful had been their achievements, so exalted their career, that the mere attributes of ordinary humanity were not sufficient to account for the virtues they possessed. Their names were inscribed upon the warrior's shield, lifted up as the silent guardians of the public weal, adorned the temples dedicated to justice; for in all places and on all occasions where patriotism sought an example, the heroes of classic Greece claimed the reverence and affection of the people.

We come to-day as intelligent inhabitants of a hemisphere unknown to the ancient kingdoms of the world when truth was veiled in fiction and before the revelation of that superior wisdom to mankind, to give higher witness to human character, and learn anew the lessons of the value, attaching itself to the self-sacrificing spirit; the consecrated service and the immortal reward of the public benefactor. It is right that we should pause in our avocations, and while laying our garlands upon his tomb, give fitting expression to the thoughts which instinctively well up in our hearts. We can not repress our grief when a good man dies. Society feels the vacuum when an educated mind is withdrawn forever from its service and a ray of broadest light expires, furnished by that inward and immortal lamp, which, when its mission upon earth has ended is trimmed anew by angel hands to shine for ever in the land beyond. The mind of man in its sphere and destiny is essentially immortal. It is true it has its periods of youth and old age, its rise, its progress, its 00034decline. Yet, like the oak whose withered branches have withstood the storms and gales of centuries, when its leaves are strewn by wailing winds and angry blasts, from the small but gradual unfolding of that vital substance spring forth into life and beauty as a new creation the buds and blossoms of another year.

Death's hurricane has swept through the forest of humanity and a stately tree has fallen, rich in the foliage and fruits of its gathered years, at once an ornament, a beauty and a blessing. A stricken family bewails its loved one lost; a sovereign state mourns an illustrious son; a great race, in the infancy of its powers, but in the midst of mighty development, when it could ill afford to release its hold, stands with uncovered head at his opened grave; while the largest evangelical denomination on this continent, with its wealth of piety, intelligence, scholarship and material worth bows, with tearful eyes and sorrowing hearts, and mourns the loss of its greatest leader.

*Wm.J. Simmons, D.D., L L.D., of Louisville, Ky., departed this life October 30th, 1890, at Cane Springs, Ky., at mid-day, in the midst of a life of usefulness and in the fullness of his powers. He was born of slave parents June the 29th, 1849, in Charleston S.C. At an early period in his life, interested parties hurried the mother and three children northward, without the protection of a husband and father, to begin a long siege of poverty.

They landed in Philadelphia and were met by an uncle, Alex. Tardiff, who generously cared for the mother, William, Emeline and Anna, as well as he could. While in Philadelphia, they were harassed by slave traders who seemed to burrow them out of their hiding place. Disease laid its hand upon them. Disasters come not singly,But as if they watched and waited,Scanning one another's motions,When the first descends, the othersFollow, follow gathering flock-wise,Round their victim, sick and wounded,First a shadow, then a sorrow,Till the air is dark with anguish.

In the garret of a three story brick house they lived, huddled together, stricken with small-pox, almost destitute of food, fearing to call for medical attendance lest they should be carried back into slavery. While death stared them in the face, fugitive slave hunters rapped at the door of the front room. These inhuman beasts were misled, and shortly after the family was left at Roxbury, Pa. (the uncle having gone to sea) where the faithful mother toiled night and day at washing, to support her 00045children. They returned to Philadelphia, and from there moved to Bordentown, Pa., where in 1862, the son, William, was apprenticed to a dentist. The doctor was kind to him and William soon learned so thoroughly the profession that he often operated upon some of the best families in the city. But the spirit of the doctor changed and William was treated unkindly; becoming disgusted he ran away and enlisted in the 41st U. S. Colored troops. His army life was not uneventful; he took part in battles around Petersburg, Hatches Run and Appomattox Court-house, and was present at the surrender of Lee, the crisis out of which our own happier cycle of years has been evolved. He was discharged September 13, 1865 and 1866-'67 worked as journeyman at his trade for Dr. W. H. Longfellow, a colored dentist of Philadelphia.

He was converted in 1867 and joined the white Baptist Church in Bordentown. Although a colored man in the church, he was treated kindly and when his call to the ministry was made known, they rallied to his assistance and supported him in school for three years. The N.J. State Educational Society aided him at Madison University, where he graduated in 1868, taking the Academic course. September 1868 found him matriculated at Rochester University, and in that city, he labored with Baptist Church as pastor. In 1870, he entered Howard University, graduating in 1873.

While a student he showed much aptness to teach, in conducting a school at a place called Bunker's Hill, rebuilding almost from nothing, and the school-board promoted him to the principalship of a much larger building, with several hundred scholars. This was the Hillsdale public school, D. C. Immediately after graduating, he took Horace Greely's advice and went West to Arkansas. There he was examined and secured a State certificate from the Hon. Superintendent of Education, J.C. Corbin, but soon returned to Washington.

He married Josephine A., daughter of John and Caroline Silence, in Washington, D. C., August 25th 1874, and then went South. He went to Florida in 1874 and invested in lands and oranges. While in Ocala, (1879) he was ordained a deacon and was licensed to preach.

He was principal Howard Academy, deputy county clerk and city commissioner, a member of the district congressional committee, and stumped the state for Hayes and Wheeler. After this, he returned to Washington, and taught in the public schools, till 1879, when he left to accept the pastorate of the First Baptist Church, Lexington, Ky. In September 1880, he was called to the Presidency of the Normal and Theological Institute of 00056Louisville Ky., a school under the control of the General Baptist Association of Ky. At that time the school had thirteen pupils, two teachers and an empty treasury. Says the Bowling Green Watchman, a state paper edited by Rev. Eugene Evans: "Few men of Prof. Simmons ability and standing would have been willing to risk their future in an enterprise like the Normal and Theological Institution, and enterprise without capital and but few friends.

When he was elected president, every cloud vanished and the sunshine of success could be seen on every side."

As an educator, he had no superiors. Discarding specialism in education, he claimed that the ideal manhood and womanhood cannot be narrowed down to any one sphere of action, but that the whole being must receive proper development. No boy or girl came within his influence without feeling a desire to become useful and great. He infused new life and inspiration into the least ambitious. No flower within his reach wasted "its sweetness on the desert air. If there were elements of usefulness in those around him, he trained and utilized them.

As college president, his ability was excellent. He always had the admiration and respect of his students and his fellow teachers were proud of him, trusting to his judgement and abiding by his decisions. He extended the tenderest sympathy to poor and deserving students, rewarding the faithful in discharge of duty and encouraging those who did something. September 29, 1882, he was elected editor of the American Baptist. As an editor, Bishop H.M. Turner says to him "He brings before the public every live issue of the day. His editorials are racy, versatile and logical. He contends for rights and cries down wrongs. He is extensively copied and has the personal respect of every editor and prominent man in the country." A man of forcible character and deep convictions must reveal himself in his writings. His pen pictures are characterized by a ragged strength which takes hold of the reader and fixes the thought in memory, more than elaboration and flourishes which soothe and please, but pass through the mind as water through the sieve.

Dr. H. L. Morehouse, Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society and Editor of Home Mission Monthly, writes:

"Among the colored Baptist of the United States, one man by general consent has stood pre-eminent. He was Dr. Wm. J. Simmons, of Louisville, Ky., whose death in the midst of his usefulness and the fullness of his powers, took place, as by a striking coincidence, at mid-day of October 30th, at Cane Springs, 00067Ky. The tidings of this sad event produced profound sorrow among hundreds of thousands who had rightly regarded him as one of the foremost men of his race and of his generation. Multitudes of white Baptists at the North, who have known him and his work, who have been mightily moved by his marvellous oratorical ability, mourn with their colored brethren or the whole country the great loss sustained by his death. In him, geniality, humor, and wit, were blended with tremendous earnestness, deep seriousness, and consecration of every power to the noblest purposes. He was a fervent Christian, and a staunch Baptist. He had a great versatility, was fertile in expedients to accomplish his ends, had ready command of his resources in an emergency; was a successful preacher and educator; possessed unusual organizing ability and leadership; and was a marvel of energy and industry in carrying forward the many enterprises in which he was engaged. There was a contagiousness in his enthusiasm. His soul was ever aglow with high ideals. With a strong and vehement nature, yet under great provocation and in circumstances calculated to evoke invective utterances, his Christian self-control and patience and magnanimity, as many can testify, were most admirable.

Now what were the antecedents of all this? Was he a favored child of fortune that at forty years of age he should have attained so commanding a position among his own people and for years should have been so widely and favorably known throughout the land? By no means. Rather, his career is a bright illustration of the heroic, indomitable spirit which almost single-handed, with limited resources, and encountering bitter blasts of race prejudice, hewed its way through and over Alpine difficulties. In him we have ample evidence that here, on American soil, a new type of negro character is being evolved, corresponding in many respects to the typical character of the white American.

In 1881, he received the degree of A.M. from his alma mater and the degree of D. D. from Wilberforce University, Ohio, in 1833. In 1882, he was elected Commissioner of the New Orleans Exposition for the exhibits of the colored people and was the organizer of the National Baptist Convention which numbers in its membership one million and a quarter colored Baptists, with 8,637 ordained ministers and church property valued at $7,000,000 including the piety, brain, industry and scholarship of the colored Baptists of the United States.

An organization which has done more than any other to unify the denomination and give permanent character to all its activities, gathering historical data for the instruction and edification 00078not only of unborn generations, but for contemporaneous organizations that labor for the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Until his death, he was the honored president. He was in constant demand for addresses on public occasions. A large volume of biographical sketches of eminent colored men, entitled "Men of Mark," was prepared by him in 1887 and remains a lasting monument to his literary ability. In July, 1887, the American Baptist Home Mission Society appointed him District Secretary for the Southern States--the first colored man appointed to such a position by any Baptist organization. He traveled extensively, wrought effectively and exerted powerful and widespread influence in favor of the society and its work.

For a year or more before his death, he had become conspicuously interested in the establishment of a large industrial and manual labor school, known as Eckstein Norton University and before it realized his most sanguine hopes, he went from labor to reward. During the year he received from Selma University, Selma, Ala., the degree of LL. D.

His activities were prominently identified with the most important affairs of the race. For several years he was chairman of the Executive Committee of the State Convention of Colored Men of Kentucky. He was chairman of the Committee appointed to lay before the Legislature of Kentucky the grievances of 271,481 colored citizens. His speech on this occasion was a masterpiece. Said he, "Only the history of the two races in our beautiful country could give birth to such a scene as this. That we, born Americans, finding distinctions in law should be driven to appeal to a portion of the same body politic for rights and equalities, and though sovereigns ourselves, because too weak, bend the suppliant knee, craving that we might be given that which appears rightly ours without contest. We feel some pride and are consequently jealous of the good name of the State and the United States. We also feel humiliated that a foreigner, who has never felled a tree, built a cabin or laid a line of railway, seems more welcome to this shore, and is accorded every facility for himself and children to make the most of themselves, even before naturalization; while we, seeing them happy in a new found asylum and knowing you from our youth up, are compelled to beg, in the zenith hour of '86, your favours. Two generations are before you. The one born in the cradle of slavery, the other mingled their infant voice with the retreating sound of the cannon."

At the meeting of the Colored Press Convention in St. Louis, Mo., July 13, '83, he was nominated for its presidency and was defeated by one vote by Hon. W. A. Pledger, of Ga. 00089In '85, he was made chairman of the Executive Committee at Richmond, Va., and the next year was elected president over Hon. T.T. Fortune, Editor of the N.Y. Freeman, a position which he held until his death.

Dr. Simmons was greatly interested in the education of the hand. In his pamplet on "Industrial Education," he says, "If the industrial craze be not watched, our literary institutions will be turned into workshops and our scholars into servants and journeyman. Keep the literary and industrial apart. Let the former be stamped deeply so it will not be mistaken. We need scholars. Attempt not the task of grinding scholars out of industrial nor finished workmen from literary schools. Industrial work as a sentiment must be crystalized into a profitable reality."

In '83, he organized the Baptist women of Kentucky into the Woman's Baptist Educational Convention, an organization which was more largely instrumental, than any other force, in paying the debt of the State University. This convention with that of the National Baptist Convention remains a monument to his ability as an organizer.

As an orator, Dr. Simmons was eloquent, a quick thinker, possessing great fluency of language. As a debater, his logic was irresistible; at times the whole grandeur of his soul, sat enthroned upon his countenance and his hearers were entranced at his matchless eloquence.

He was invited to deliver the addresses before three different colleges in one year, so largely was his oratorical ability recognized.

His intellect, naturally acute, was expanded by culture and discipline by study both in Northern and Southern schools, until it attained a breadth and comprehensive scope which was fatal alike to the narrow dogmatism of the sectionalist and the destructive frenzy of the fanatic. He was no one ideal man. In politics he knew no higher law than the constitution of his country. He was ambitious of no distinction except that incident to a faithful discharge of his trust. His devotion to duty was so absolute and unquestioning; his abnegation of self so utter and complete, that they overshadowed that prudence which prompts men, ordinarily, to lay up a few earthly treasures for the proverbial "rainy day."

All his money was spent in the interest of the race and Baptist denomination. Bishop Turner says on this point, "Dr. Simmons regards money as a trust from God, to be invested in every good cause relative to bettering the condition of his fellowmen and advancing the cause of Christ. His hand is shut when 000910those who do not want, come to him; but when the really needy and friendless come to him, it is like a strainer full of holes letting all he possesses pass through. To friends he is faithful; to enemies he shows a steady resistance, but no aggressiveness.

But it was in the domestic circle, amid the sweet endearments of home, that the most lovable and lovely traits of his character found the fullest development. His appreciation of home joys and domestic pleasures were unusually acute, and however appreciated and honored might be his public service, he ever turned with unfailing zest and been enjoyment to the delights of that home whose elegant hospitalities he so much delighted to dispense and to that family in whose affectionate ministrations he found his highest happiness. In the sacred penetralia of that home, there is "an aching void the world can never fill." To "time, the comforter," and to Him who doeth all things well," they can look alone for the healing of their yet green wounds, assured that when that time shall come, they will feel a just appreciation of his reputation as a public servant and will forever cherish as their dearest heritage the memory of his sweet domestic virtues. His work is finished. He has no part or lot in all that is done beneath the sun. No more for him the voice of love, the song of gladness, the load of care, the cup of sorrow, Not for him the beauty of spring, the splendor of summer, the glory of autumn, the uncrowned majesty of winter. Flowers will spring up upon his grave; storms will spend their fury upon it, morning will greet it with her earliest light, night crown it with her stars and the earth, rolling in her great orb in infinite space, will bear his dust with hers, till the mighty arch-angel of the skies shall blast the last expiring breath of time and the infant cry of eternity.

The immortal Garfield once said: "A noble life, crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives the pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empires of the earth." Such a life was that Wm. J. Simmons,for when the history of the world's greatest benefactors shall have been written, the volume will be incomplete, without the name of this honored servant of God, whose whole life was one of sacrifice and service for God and his fellowman. He has raised monument more lasting than brazen statues more enduring than marble shafts and higher than the royal pyramids, which can not be destroyed 001011by wasting rains, or sweeping hurricanes, the series of the countless ages, or the eternal years. A servant of the living god is dead,His errand hath been well and early done,And early hath he gone to his rewardHe shall come no more forth, but to his sleepHath silently lain down, and so shall rest.Would ye bewail our brother? He hath goneTo Abraham's bosom He shall no more thirstNor hunger, but forever in the eye,Holy and meek, of Jesus, he may look,Unchided, and untempted and unstained.Would ye bewail our brother? He hath goneTo sit down with the prophets by the clear,And crystal waters, he hath gone to listIsaiah's harp and David's and to walk,With Enoch, and Ellijah and the hostOf the just men made perfect.He shall bow at Gabriel's hallelujah and unfold,The scroll of the apocalypse with johnAnd talk of Christ, with Mary, and go backTo the last supper, and the Garden prayerWith the beloved disciple. He shall hear,The story of the incarnation toldBy Simeon, and the Triune mystery,Burning upon the fervent lips of Paul,He shall have wings of glory and shall soarTo the remoter firnaments, and readThe order and harmony of the stars;And, in the might of knowledge, he shall bowIn the deep pauses of arch-angel harps,And, humble as the seraphim, shall cry.Who, by his searching, finds thee out oh, God!0011

The Press is a general term, including all literature. It is the art from which much of the history and thought of the world has been transmitted from generation to generation. As we stand in the great libraries of the world, all history passes before us in magnificent panorama. We are confronted by all the centuries. We commune with the wise and good of every period, school and country. They are the theatres; the stage is time; and the play, the drama of the world.

In the modern history of Christendom, nothing is more remarkable than the growth of the Press. Cowper was right when he said,"How shall I speak thee or thy powers address,Thou God of our idolatry, the press?By thee religion, liberty and lawsExert their influence and advance their cause;By thee worse plagues than Pharoah's land befellDiffuse, make earth the vestibule of hell;Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wiseThou ever bubbling spring of endless laws:Like Eden's dread probationary tree, lies,Knowledge of good and evil spring from thee."It is a fixed institution and like all of its kind, has its own world, its own traditions, its standard of opinion, its prejudices, its limitations--all the idols of the cave where it dwells and toils. We boast of the freedom of the Press, but our forefathers had no dream that it would be carried to such an alarming extent, filling the markets of our cities and villages with polluting and crime-breeding productions. The greater part of our current literature is shockingly impure. Its mischief-breeding suggestions are invested with a rhetorical drapery that is fascinating and bewitching. It is just as degrading and disgraceful to commune with books of such a character as it is to keep company with the most unclean and disreputable person in the community. The man who walks the streets with a plumed and painted 002930harlot is not more impure than he who is accustomed to bend over the pages of an unclean book. They stand upon the same moral level and one is just as decent and respectable as the other. Thousands of young men and hundreds even of maturer years, hang around our news-stands and book-stores in search of moral filth. They are moral vultures that scent vileness and rottenness and look for it till they find it. Their minds are poisoned through and through with the venom of bad books. In determining what standing in society a man deserves, we should not only consider the company he keeps but the character of the books he reads; if he is unclean in his reading, he is unclean everywhere.

The power of journalism is immense and almost irresistible. Upon this subject, James Russell Lowell wrote the following: "I know of no position so responsible as that of the public journalist. The editor of our day bears the same relation to his time that the clerk bore to the age before the invention of printing. The position which he holds is that which the clergyman should hold even now. Meanwhile, what a pulpit the editor mounts daily! Sometimes with a congregation of fifty thousand within reach of his voice and never so much as a nodder among them. And from what a Bible can he choose his text! A Bible which needs no translation, and which no priest-craft can shut and clasp from the laity--the open volume of the world upon which, with a pen of sunshine or destroying fire, expiring Present is even now writing the annals of God. Methinks the editor who should understand his calling and be equal thereto would truly deserve the title which Homer bestows upon princes. He would be the Moses of our 19th century, and whereas the old Sinai, silent now, is but a common mountain, stared at by the geologists, he must find his tables of new law here, among factories and cities in this wilderness of sins called progress of civilization, and be the captain of our exodus into the Canaan of a truer social order."

Magnificent is the power of the newspaper press. It is a theme worthy of the orator and poet and cannot fail to inspire them to lofty flight. but no man can be loyal to truth and deny that its abuse is rapidly poisoning the very fountains of society, and if not counteracted, will produce the most corrupt and Godless civilization the world has ever known. I have no disposition to depreciate the secular newspaper. It is a factor in our civilization that could not be eliminated without inflicting irreparable injury upon the community. But while this is true, it will not be denied that many of the evils traceable to the bad 003031features of modern journalism more than counterbalance the good with which it is to be credited.

What is an honest newspaper? It is not one that invades the sanctity of the home for the gratification of the scandalmonger or the satisfaction of petty spite. It is not willing to sell its powerful columns to trusts and corporations, or men who defy the law, oppress the people, corrupt legislatures and build great fortunes on the fallen rights of citizens. It is one that within its proper sphere as a public instrument, tells the truth without fear or favor. It has as its guide the best and truest interests of the community. It is faithful to its constituents and uses every legitimate means to guard and foster the welfare of the people; aiding in their social and political elevation and upholding the just law of the land.

But what shall we say of the religious press? It would be liberal in spirit, but loyal to Christian truth, having some clear message to deliver, some definite views on all the great burning questions of the day. No hazy sentimentalism or vague declamation or glittering generalities or cunning subterfuge can satisfy the souls that have been drifted about by the winds and waves of doubt and distrust. They want some solid foundation on which their faith and hope may rest. In times of moral degeneracy, when the public conscience is paralyzed by low, selfish views of duty, the religious press should fearlessly rebuke prevailing sins, weather it brings popularity or unpopularity. In times of lukewarmness and worldliness, when the fires of Christian zeal are dying out, the Christian press, like the old Hebrew prophet, should call back the recent church to the old paths and fan the smolding embers of religious life into a living flame. It must more earnestly defend the sanctity of domestic life. We have all seen the fruits of a vile philosophy; heard the potentous mutterings of marriage as a failure and the increase of population; discovered the pernicious influences of the secret literature that poisons our young life; and the impure novelettes which, like demons, poison and corrupt thousands. We must expose these would be friends of the people, who license liberty, unrein passions and rupture the most delightful relationships of life. These are the enemies of God and man and no soft words should greet their ears, but sentences whose lightning and thunder are made by the intense hatred of evil and the passionate love for the people for whom Christ died.

It should be in sympathy with the struggling poor, should set forth the moral relationship between capital and labor, advocate temperance and a sound morality. Should rise above mere denominational doctrines and aim to teach and mold religious 003132sentiment in all the people, for it is a leader of the Lord's hosts and must earnestly be found about the King's business.

"The religious newspaper, in brief, must be devout, but not sanctimonious; courageous but not pugnacious; enterprising but not sensational; alert but not pert; literary but not pedantic--so bright and sweet, brave, strong and pure, that the question of its circulation will require the smallest thought."

What is a comparison between these great literary forces? The one is general, the other special; the one is a propagator and defence of Christian doctrines and practice; the other may or may not be the peculiar instrument of any school of political thought and scientific research. The one is merely a strong news medium and advertising agent; the other, a vehicle of virtue, truth and love. In their field of work, they are both closely allied as educational forces, as public benefactors, and as defenders of morality.

But the limited time given for the discussion of this subject admonishes that I must close. In the language of Dr. Hawthorne, "Give us a secular as well as a religious press in sympathy with the purposes of the living ministry, and the day of deliverance will soon dawn upon our country. Such an alliance would smite with paralysis and death every enemy of God and home and land. Politics would be cleansed of manifold abominations. Government, Municipal, State and National, would be honestly administered. That accursed traffic in strong drink, which has been justly called "the dynamite of modern civilization,"would disappear. Gambling, prize-fighting, harlotry and mob violence, would be stamped out of existence. Such a transformation would bring faternity, tranquillity, prosperity, complete and perpetual." "Oh, who would not a hero beIn this, the noblest chivalry?If there be those who long to seeA day-dawn of our victory.Work, brothers, work; work hand and brain,Let's win a better day again.We will, we will true heroes be,In this, the grandest chivalry."0032

Standing near the banks of the historic Potomac at the nation's Capital, is a marble shaft that lifts its head far up above the city's housetops and silently portrays the eminent services to humanity, of George Washington, as well as the high type of patriotism in the American people, who, in mute-tongued eloquence, say: "Tread lightly here; this spot is holy ground,And every foot-fall wakes the voice of ages."It stands alone. Looking southward upon its outlines, it seems to have been chiseled from the vaulted sky, by the Hand that placed the eternal hills and established the waters and the floods. It stands as a swift witness for great principles that no monument of bronze or granite has ever in the history of the Republic sought to perpetuate. It calls from the deathless past, characters who left an ineffaceable personality upon all that contributed to the early history of America and brought into existence our institutions, language and laws. The winds have sighed about it, the storms have burst their fury, the seasons with remorseless hands, have tried it, and outliving all, it remains unchanged and unchangeable, unhurt amidst the wreck of matter and the passing of strange events, the well filled record unfolding its pages to unborn generations, the eloquent orator speaking ever and anon of the time when "Truth was forever on the scaffold and wrong forever on the throne."

So the Baptist denomination stands in its relation to the American Government. It occupies a position peculiarly its own. It has contributed more to the spirit and genius of American institutions; more towards the molding of that sentiment 003334which has crystallized itself in the political, civil and religious liberty guaranteed to our citizens by constitutional law and confirmed by each each State in securing the right of all its people to worship God without molestation. It is the father of the amendment to the constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievance."

The very idea of sovereignty in the State is but a reproduction of Baptist church policy and practice. It left its impress upon the immortal Washington, who acknowledged the same in answer to the following petition sent by a committee of the United Baptist churches of Virginia assembled in Richmond, August 8, 1789, which read as follows: "When the Constitution first made its appearance in Virginia, we, as a society, feared that the liberty of conscience, dearer to us than property or life, was not sufficiently secured. Perhaps our jealousies were heightened by the usage we received in Virginia under the regal Government, when mobs, fines, bonds bonds, and prisons were our frequent repast. Convinced on the hand that without an effective National Government, the States would fall into disunion and all the subsequent evils, and on the other hand, fearing that we should be accessories to some religious oppression, should any one society in the Union predominate over the rest, yet amidst all these inquietudes of mind, our consolation arose from this consideration--the plan must be good, for it has the signature of a tried and trusted friend, and if religious liberty is rather insecure in Constitution, the administration will certainly prevent all oppression if a Washington will preside." To which Gen. Washington replied: "If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Convention, where I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly, I would never have placed my signature to it; and if I could conceive that the general Government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution. While I recollect with satisfaction that the religious societies of which you are members have been throughout America uniformly and almost unanimously the firm friends of civil liberty and the persevering promoters of our glorious Revolution, I cannot hesitate to believe that they will be the faithful supporters of the free, yet efficient general Government.

Under this pleasing expectation, I rejoice to assure them that they may rely upon my best wishes and endeavors to advance their prosperity."

Hence, American Baptists, by persistent effort as the friends and advocates of soul liberty, used their best endeavors in all the colonies, before the adoption of the Constitution, to have that feature of fundamental law made so permanent, that no time, with all its changes, could ever eliminate it. They called to their assistance the brain and character if their times, and placed these strong men upon record as heartily endorsing their contention. Thomas Jefferson, possibly an advanced Unitarian, Patrick Henry, a devout Presbyterian, and James Madison, thought to be a liberal Episcopalian, felt the throb of the public heart, saw that its patriotism was founded upon religious conviction and like wise men, instead of stemming the stronger tide, they gave it their leadership, under which it swept on notwithstanding the opposition of English rectors. I repeat, they had a great advantage in securing the co-operation of these immortal there, Jefferson, Henry and Madison, who were the most prominently identified, with the Revolutionary cause. Their immense breadth of mind, logical adherence to conclusions drawn from those premises which justified the Revolution, brought these mighty men into active sympathy with the Baptists several years before the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was a regular attendant of a small Baptist church, which held it monthly meetings a short distance from his home. The pastor, on one occasion asked him how he was pleased with the church government. Mr. Jefferson replied that it struck him with great force and had interested him much; that he considered it the only form of true democracy then existing in the world, and had concluded that it would be the best plan for the American colonies:

Semple says of the immortal patriot and orator, Patrick Henry, and of his efforts to obtain full liberty of conscience: "It was in making these attempts that they, the Baptists were so fortunate as to interest in their behalf, the celebrated Patrick Henry. Being always the friend of liberty, he only needed to be informed of their oppression. Without hesitation, he stepped forward to their relief. From that time to the day of their complete emancipation from the shackles of tyranny, the Baptists found in Patrick Henry an unwavering friend." June 4, 1768, at Fredericksburg, Va., three men were arraigned as disturbers of the peace, with the following charge against them: "These men are great disturbers of the peace. They cannot meet a man on the road, but they must ram a text of Scripture down his throat." It was just before the Dec;aration of Independence. The King's 003536judges were upon the bench, the King's attorney present and aiding in dealing justice to all offenders. The spectators were numerous, for three ministers were to be tried for no other offense than preaching the Gospel of the Son of God, contrary to the statute in that case provided. While the preparations for the trial were going on, Patrick Henry entered the court room unknown to many. The clerk was reading the indictment in a slow formal manner, pronouncing the crime with emphasis: "For preaching the Gospel of the Son of God." The prosecuting attorney submitted a few words, all he supposed necessary to convict; the judges were about to pronounce the ordinary verdict of condemnation, when Henry arose, stretched out his hand, received the paper, and commenced a memorable speech. "May it please your worships, I think I heard read as I entered this house, the paper I now hold in my hand. If I have rightly understood, the King's attorney of this county has framed an indictment for the purpose of arraigning and punishing by imprisonment, three inoffensive persons. May it please the court. What did I hear read? Did I hear an expression, as if a crime, that these men are charged with what?" And continuing in a low, solemn; heavy tone, "For preaching the Gospel of the son of God." Pausing amidst the most pronounced silence, and breathless astonishment of his hearers, he slowly waved the paper three times around his head, then lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven, with extraordinary and impressive energy, he exclaimed, "Great God!" The exclamation--the action--the burst of feeling from the audience were all overpowering. "May it please your worships, in a day like this, when truth is about to burst her fetters--when mankind are about to be raised to clam their natural and inalienable rights--when the yoke of oppression which has reached the wilderness of America and the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and civil power is about to be deserved--at such a period, when liberty--liberty of conscience--is about to awake from her slumberings and inquire into the reason of such charges as I find exhibited here to day in this indictment!" Another fearful pause while the speaker alternately cast his sharp, piercing eyes on the court and prisoners, he resumed, "If I am not deceived, according to the content of the paper which I hold in my hand these men are accused of preaching the Gospel of the Son of God!" Great God! May it please your worships, there are periods in the history of man when corruption and depravity have so long debased the human character that man sinks under the weight of the oppressor's hand and becomes his servile, his abject slave; he licks the hand that smites him and bows in passive obedience to the mandates of the despot, and in this state of servility, 003637he receives his fetters of perpetual bondage. Such a time has passed away. From the period when our fathers left the land of their nativity for settlement in these American wilds, for liberty--for civil and religious liberty; of conscience, to worship their Creator according to their conceptious of heaven's revealed will; from the moment they placed their feet on the American continent and in the deeply imbedded forest, sought an asylum from persecution and tyranny--from that moment despotism was crushed; her fetters of darkness were broken and Heaven decreed that man should be free--free to worship God according to the Bible. Were it not for this, in vain have been the efforts and sacrifices of the colonists; in vain were all their suffering and bloodshed to subjugate this new world, if we, their offspring, must still be oppressed and persecuted. But may it please your worships, let me inquire once more, for what are these men about to be tried? For preaching the Saviour to Adam's fallen race!" After another pause, in tones of thunder, he inquired: "What law have they violated?" The court and the audience were now wrought to the most intense pitch of excitement. The prosecuting attorney was pale and ghastly, his whole frame being agitated with alarm. The judge, in a tremulous voice, put an end to the scene, by the authoritative command, "Sherrif, discharge those men."

James Madison, the other hero in the strife, offered the following to the Bill of Rights:

"That the religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity toward each other."

You have the record of the magnificent services the Baptists rendered in the formation of our Government. They suffered untold persecutions because they saw in the organic law of the struggling colonies those principles which, in unborn generations, should receive the unanimous approval of an intelligent, unprejudiced commonwealth. We would not draw. to a close this argument without at least referring to "Roger Williams' True Place in the History of Religious Liberty." Roger Williams is neither the father of the Baptists, nor of religious liberty. He belongs to the chain--to the true apostolic succession-a foremost man of his age, but himself the child of like-minded apostles and martyrs of earlier times. He was a stern Puritan, opposed to the liturgy and hierarchy, and thus bitterly fought both the established 003738church and the crown, for which he was banished under the following sentence:

"Whereas, Mr Roger Williams, one of the elders of the Church of Salem, hath broached and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates and also written letters of defamation, both of the magistrates and the churches here and that before any conviction, and yet maintaineth the same without retraction, it is therefore ordered, that the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction within six weeks now ensuing, which, if he neglect to perform, it shall be lawful for the governor and two of the magistrates to send him to some place out of this jurisdiction, not to return any more without the license of the court."

A clear view of the case may be gathered from the specifications as summed up before the court by the governor, who said, "Mr. Williams holds forth these four particulars; 1st. That we have not our land by patent from the King, but that the natives are the true owners of it, and that we ought to repent of such a receiving of it by patent. 2nd. That it is not lawful to call a wicked person to swear, to pray, as being actions of God's worship. 3rd. That it is not lawful to hear any of the ministers of the parish assemblies in England. 4th. That the civil magistrate's power extends only to the bodies and goods, and outward state of men, etc."In his letter to Endicott, Williams explains the bearings of the 4th point in the Governor's summing in these words: "The point is that of the civil magistrate's dealing in matters of conscience and religion, and also of persecuting and hunting any for any matter merely spiritual and religious."

Dr. Armitage, in his Baptist History, pays such an eloquent tribute to his services, that I shall be content to adopt his language as mine: "Since Jesus was sentenced to death in Asia, on the cool verdict that he was a 'just man' in whom no fault was found, a sublimer sight has not appeared to man than that revealed in America on that crisp October morning in 1635. This master in Israel looms up head and shoulders above his Puritan judges. Without a stammer or a blush, he reaches the full height of manhood; whereupon the Bay sentences him to a new leadership. In Salem, God threw the mantle of William the Silent upon the shoulders of the brave Welshman. What if Massachusetts did lay her political sins upon his head, and send her scape--goat to bear them into the desert? He was strong enough to carry the burden of her congregation and elders.He remembered Pilate, and quietly held the bowl for this ancient Court of the Bay to sink its sins in the shallows of a basin. He watched the experiment in the simplicity of a child's faith, in the firmness of a martyr's 003839will in the resignation of a cavalier, in the calmness of a hero; for God was with him.

For that hour, God brought him into the world. The persecution of two worlds inspired him to discover a third, where the wicked should cease from troubling. A veteran before his sun had reached noon, nerved with judicial love of liberty, fired with a hallowed zeal to liberate all the conscience bound, he is now ready to give life a new age. Roger, get thee gone into the woods to thy work! And when alone with God, may He work His will in thee.

"Speak, History. Who are life's victors? Unroll thy long annals and say, Are they those whom the world called victors who won success of a day?

The martyrs of Nero? The Spartans who fell at Thermopylae's tryst, of the Persians and Xeixes? His Judges or Socrates? Pilate or Christ?"

American Baptists builded better than they knew. The Government owes more to the patriotism in these people than to any other religious denomination.

The sentiment of patriotism is not merely associated with the clods of the valley which gave us birth. It is composed of the recollections of the great men our country has produced; of their heroic and beneficent actions; of affection for its institutions, its manners, its fame in art and in arms. This sentiment must be cherished and invigorated by associating with it an enlightened love of liberty, a taste for knowledge, and an ardent enthusiasm for those arts which lend to human existence its most refined enjoyments."--Henry Wheaton.

The immortal Clay once said, "Every act of noble sacrifice to the country, every instance of patriotic devotion to her cause, has its beneficial influence. A nation's character is the sum of its splended deeds; they constitute one common patrimony, the nation's inheritance. They are foreign powers, they arouse and animate our own people. I love true glory. It is this sentiment which ought to be cherished; and in spite of cavils, and sneers and attempts to put it down, it will finally conduct this nation to the height to which God and nature have destined it."

The greatest nation on earth is America; great in its wide and varied natural resources; its sweeping rivers creeping majestically and silently to their outlet; in its broad lakes, bearing upon their restless bosoms the white-winged messengers of commerce; in its towering mountains, whose rugged peaks bathe their hoary heads in the clouds; its fertile valleys, in whose productive soil wave the golden wheat, the white-capped cotton, or the nutritious rice; great in its extensive, plains, inviting the pasture 00394of rich blooded stock and extending its freedom to prancing and fiery steed; in its multitudinous grades of minerals whose veins traverse circuitous routes in subterranean chambers.

Great in intellectual giants; producing scholars, scientists, artists, philosophers--who in their ramblings have discovered the secrets of the most distant stars, vanquished time and space, taught the vapors to toil the lightning to speak, and the winds to worship, stolen the witchery of earth and sky and gathered them into her enchanted chambers, and by books have echoed the crash of revolutions and the silent thunders of thought. Breathes there a man with soul dead,Who never to himself hath said,"This is my own, my native land!"Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned.As home his footsteps he hath turned,From wandering on a foreign strand?If such there breathe, go, mark him well.For him no ministrel raptures swell,High though his titles, proud his name-Boundless his wealth as wish can claim:Despite those titles, powder, and pelf,The wretch, concentrated all in self,Living, shall forfeit fair renown,And, doubly dying shall go downTo the vile dust, from whence he sprung.Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.WALTER SCOTT,

So the early fathers of our beloved denomination evinced this remarkable type of patriotism in the interest taken in such legislation as would forever protect the citizens in the freedom of conscience, from the king clothed in the imperial robes of majesty to the shivering beggar at our gates. Amidst all the changes which time has produced in the tenets of others, it may well be the glory of our denomination that Baptists have continued steadily true to their mission as witnesses for soul liberty, as opposed to the union of church and state; as in favor of Christian education purity of life, and demanding for all church existence and action the authority of the Scriptures. Their members have never varied, but alike in adversity and prosperity; in evil report and good report; in the beginning of the 17th century as in the latter part of the 19th; in Old World as well as the New, they have persevered as the firm, unflinching, undeviating advocates of all those principles and doctrines which tend to fill this world with a glorious humanity.

The limited time allowed for this paper will not permit me to show how closely they have been allied with our public school system, from its beginning to the present; nor how much of philanthrophy they have directed towards the establishment and 004041perpetuity, of some of the best educational institutions in the country; or what splendid types of manhood thee given to public service, both in the executive chair, upon the judicial throne and in halls of legislation. Let history speak for itself.

Does the world owe nothing to Baptists for all this? What, but for them, speaking humanly, would have become of the truth? What if they had yielded the world-wise policy of multitudes then and now, for themselves and families, and made no resistance to the encroachment of error; or having contended for a time, had shrewdly decided that they had made their share of sacrifice for the world, and would henceforth look to their own interest? What if they had abandoned the world to "Pagans" first first; then to "Papists;" then to "Reformers," just emerging from total night; and then to the "Pilgrim fathers," whose eyes still were but partly opened to the sunshine of perfect liberty? What had been the consequence? How would the progress of the world have been retarded? Where now had been the boasted nineteenth century, with the bright tints of millennial day, marking its horizon, precursors of the glorious rising sun?

"What, then, are the duties especially incumbent on us under such circumstances? To this question it may be briefly replied that, if we would maintain our position, we must, in the first place, cultivate with growing earnestness, intelligent and warm-hearted piety; we must adopt measures for the exposition and diffusion of our sentiments, on those points on which we differ from other religious denominations; we must extend our Christian influence by home missionary efforts, conducted on a liberal scale; we must foster rising talent, and give to all the Lord's servants, opportunities of being employed in His cause, according to their respective gifts; we must cherish an enthusiastic zeal for education; we must effectually engage the sympathies of the young; we must be ever ready to promote social improvements and forward philanthropic designs; and we must exemplify, in the whole, unbroken union, devotedness to the Saviour and believing reliance on divine aid."

The Church, is the whole body of believers, of every age and clime; it is based upon the great principle that Christianity is a social religion it is in purpose and effort, the outward exhibition of Christ's kingdom in the world. It is exponential of all the doctrines He taught and a reflex of His immaculate and exalted life. Its ideal character is to be sought in the person and work of Christ himself. He is, its central figure; its inspiration; its criterion for moral excellence.

All the current of truth and goodness, which has been flowing as a living stream, through the history of the world, has been given origin and force through the influence of the church. It is the author of every great moral reform, both in individual and national life, nor can it fulfill its mission until humanity shall be regenerated and sanctified and presented to God's throne, "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing."

While we do not believe in a union of church and state, we regard it as the primary duty of the church to make its influence felt, in the entire community, moulding a healthy sentiment, shaping legislation, developing high ideals for character, and taking the initiatory in all things that help to make the world better.

The church stands for the oldest as well as the most invincible system of truth in the world, hence it comes to men with the voice authority--an authority that all the skepticism and infidelity of all ages has never been able to set aside, nor can it, for heaven and earth may pass away, but divine truth never.

Now, since it holds such positional eminence among men; since it is the only authority for the settlement of difference between man and man, the breaking of the middle wall of prejudice; since by teaching the world the best and highest and purest lessons of love, it is softening and mellowing men's selfish dispositions and hastening the period when "the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and a little child shall lead them;" its mission shall not be accomplished until, by its teachings, it shall develop a new humanity, a new citizenship, free from race 004243hatred and proscription--reproduction of the humble Nazarene.

That there is in this country a Race Problem is painfully apparent. It is confined to no particular locality, taking upon itself one form in the South, another in the North; the formation of sterling character; the acquisition of wealth; the educational and religious contact with the whites of all sections only seem to aggravate our condition and make the problem more complicated. By some unwritten law, white men of all sections of this country have decided to permit the Negro to advance just so far; and then by depriving him of every guaranteed political as well as civil right; by murder and outlawry calculated to make demons quake with fear lest Christian men cheat them out of their demoniac records; by a wicked and senseless prejudice that is transmitted from sire to son and thus kept always alive; by an oppression worse than that from which we were lately delivered, they fettered and burden and wither our manhood and woman-hood, blind to all we have contributed toward the wealth and power of the American people, in every war they have ever waged. I say, when in the midst of this country there are two civilizations, the one weak and left at the mercy of the cold indifference and mean ingratitude of its stronger ally, there is a problem, and one which will never solved until both races are influenced and swayed by teachings of Him who came, "to proclaim deliverance to the captive and to set at liberty them that are bruised."

The immortal Frederick Douglass, in recognition of the deplorable conditions of this problem, in an eloquent outburst in 1883, said: "It is the Negro's lot to live in a land where every presumption is against him, unless we except the presumption of worthlessness and inferiority. It his course is downward, he meets very little resistance, but if upward his way is disputed at every turn of the road. If he offers himself to a builder as a mechanic, to a client as a lawyer, to a patient as a physician, to a university as a professor, or to a department as a clerk, no matter what may be his ability or his attainments, there is a presumption based on his color or his previous condition, of incompetency, and if he succeeds at all, he has to do so against these discouraging odds.

Now how far can the church affect conditions how far-reaching shall be her doctrines! She can shirk no responsibilities; 004344nor wink at sin and wickedness and excuse herself upon the plea that they are outside of her jurisdiction. While her work is spiritual, it is also moral and therefore effects the social condition of men. She cannot condone wrong. Her founder, thundered from Sinai, " Thou shalt not kill," and the apostle to the Gentiles gave us an epitome of the gospel in these words: "Finally brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things."The church must stand upon the side of the weak and oppressed. Her arms must be extended wide, to support those who need sympathy.

The most effective human agency she must use is a God-called and God -fearing ministry. If the gentlemen of the cloth, that occupy the pulpits of the white churches, would preach less of science and more of the religion of Christ-the religion that teaches the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man; if they would throw off fear of the people and preach a pure, unadulterated gospel, denouncing sin and wickedness and urging the people to observe the golden rule; if they would rise above race prejudice themselves and like true men of God, tell the people the truth, the church would be a mighty factor in solving the problem.

We have heard of only one white gospel minister that is brave enough to denounce mob law and murder, and he (God bless him) is Dr. Hawthorne, of Georgia. Now, if the pulpit were not muzzled and gagged, it would cry aloud against the sin of murder, especially in the South. The church is dying for the need of a strong, brave, conscientious ministry. A ministry that will lift up its voice like a trumpet. A John the Baptist crying, "O generation of vipers," or a Paul before Agrippa; a ministry that exclaims, with Seneca's pilot to Neptune: "You may sink me or you may save me,But I will hold my rudder true."A bold, aggressive ministry; unmoved by the frowns of men, unmoved by a public sentiment that is as godless as it is senseless. A Luther and Calvin, a Crammer and Lattimer, a Savonarola and John Wesley-their preaching was sharper than two-edged swords or pointed arrows fresh from the quiver, for it lifted the gates of empires from their hinges, made kings tremble upon their throne at day and toss upon their beds at night; broke down the meanness of the human heart, and gave place for the entrance of light and life and truth.

In Holywood, Mary Queen of Scots wept at the sincere words of John Knox. O! for a modern John Knox, who would point out to the American people, in the flush of national glory, the national sin of race hatred, race murder, race oppression.

The clergy of the other race can never make me feel that they are friends to the Negro, until they thunder against lynch-law, against the inhumanity, the barbarism of roasting God's handiwork alive. It was a sad commentary on the Anglo-Saxon's Christianity, when, during the Wilmington riots, the ministry left the sacred place and bedragged their robes in the filth and dirt and blood of politics; a sad picture for the church to present to the world, Christian ministers aiding and abetting murder to gain political and racial power. The pulpit must teach higher and nobler and better things, if Christ's kingdom is to come and his will be done. How shall they ever preach from the text, " Thou shalt not kill." Christianity and the Church comprehends the utter destruction of this spirit of retaliation and revenge; its mission is to make men Christ-like. Christ instituted the ministry that they might be his ambassadors, suing for peace and love; the very gospel they should preach, is opposed to bloodshed and murder. If the doctrines of Christ are honestly and faithfully taught, every problem which is the result of the depravity of the human heart will find a happy solution. No other force can so quickly and effectually accomplish this, like the pure gospel.

Nor is the white church alone to contribute to the solution of this problem. There is a dreadful responsibility upon the Negro ministry. We must insist upon it that there be a reform in the morality of our people. That Christianity and immorality are enemies; that he best honors Christ who reproduces him in his whole life. We must attempt to reach that class of our people, who are moral lepers, spreading their deadly disease far and wide and offering an excuse for much of the injustice that is heaped upon us. The Christian Church is upon record. The eyes of the civilized world are upon it. The skeptic, infidel, scoffers ask, "Is the Christianity of the Church equal to the task." Unborn generations will see us as we are-- black and white alike. They will marvel that the Church did not rise above its prejudice, and will make our sins impediments in their way to God and us as we are-black and white alike. They will marvel that the Church did not rise above its prejudice, and will make our sins impediments in their way to God and heaven.

We must not lose faith in God and the Church. If the prayers of our mothers and fathers emancipated the enshackled hosts in the dark, dark days of human bondage, the enlightened faith of a mighty army of God-fearing people today will yet find their way out of this wilderness of sin and death.