ANNUAL ADDRESSBy Rev.E.K. Love, D.D., at the 29th AnnualSession of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia.

Dear Brethren--I am pleased to meet you today in our twenty-ninth annual session. I hope I meet you well and happy. Many have been our troubles and disappointments since we met together last. We have spent many sleepless nights and have been burdened with any anxious thoughts since we convened in Americus. We have encountered many things that were discouraging, and sometimes we despaired and thought our work in vain; but then the Holy Spirit revived our souls again. We have come up here to Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall us here saving that the Holy Ghost testifies that bonds and afflictions await us in every city.

We met in this great city just six years ago. Many sad recollections crowd in upon us when we retrospect these past six years. At that eventful 00044 session six years ago, life-long friends were separated for life, the foundation for splits in associations, churches and families was laid, and the progress of the Negro Baptists of Georgia was set back quite a quarter of a century. The volcano that then exploded had been thundering beneath our grand old Convention for years. It was touched by a subterraneous current which came from our schools in Atlanta. When we were just beginning to hope that the breach caused by this dreadful catastrophe was rapidly being healed, another mine far more disastrous was exploded from that same subterraneous current. This was more appalling than the first. At this time our hallowed old ship was at Macon where the mines were first laid and her destruction planned. This caused another hopeless split, more awful than the first. It not only prevented a union that was rapidly maturing, but further and more hopelessly divided the suffering Negro Baptists of Georgia, thus splitting our ship in smaller pieces, with the evident hope that it would sink to rise no more. We are here in Atlanta again, the scene of the first awful calamity, where our ship received its first diabolical blow which caused her to spring a leak that has engaged our wisest leaders for these six years,00055bailing out water to prevent her from sinking. Shall we at this time and place be able to mend the hallowed old ship and make her seaworthy again? To this end let us trust God, labor and pray. For those who have wounded us we should have no unkind words nor feeling. The blood and tears they have drawn from our heads and eyes from a glittering crimson viel of sympathetic pity, through which we can look upon them with Christian resignation and say in the spirit of Christ Jesus, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Some of those who were foremost in that trouble have gone to God to answer. Let us all rest our case with Him. case with Him. Ere long and we shall be gone. "Awake, A Lord our drowsy senseTo walk this dangerous road,And if our souls are hurried hence,May they be found with God."That a dreadful crisis is upon the Negro Baptists of Georgia no thoughtful person will deny. We must be up and doing or we will be crushed out. This is the Phillipi that we were told at Macon in 1892 at which we would be met. We met here in 1893 and received a dreadful wound, but not mortal. We come back here in 1899 to meet them to fight the decisive battle. I bid you screw your courage up to the sticking point. We 00066 cannot longer seek favors or dally for compromises. What we would have we must take. There is no discharge in this war. Our battle cry should be "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon." God has promised that the Midianites shall be delivered into our hands.

We must draw sharply and definitely the line of battle. We must take decisive steps at this meeting about our college. We must locate it and put something definite before our people. The people are waiting for something definite to which to rally. As the stars of the morning lose their light in the glorious dawn so will this new era foxfire soon fade away before something definite and only be remembered by what it has done. The Negro Baptists of Georgia are not with the dreadful co-operation scheme, and the votaries of this evil idol god know it. Their only salvation lies in the neglect of this Convention to now and here put something definite before the Negro Baptists of Georgia. Put something definite before the Negro Baptists of Georgia and I promise you that Gabriel's trumpet will not be able to resurrect the miserable motley set of co-operationists from the woeful lonesome graves in which you will bury them. The spirit of manhood,00077self-reliance, the spirit of independence and the desire to own something is growing in the Negroes, and those who cannot see this are blind indeed. Let us locate our college and begin work. We should not wait to erect a magnificent building. No other beginners did this. Let us rent a building, or secure the use of some church, and begin teaching next fall. The present great Atlanta Baptist College was started in a four-room dwelling house in Augusta with two shed rooms and but one class room. From this school came many of our greatest men. The present glorious Spelman Seminary was commenced in the damp, dark and cold basement of Friendship Baptist Church. Why cannot we begin as low? Why should we despise the day of small things? Indeed, brick and mortar don't make great schools. It requires brain. The Baptists of the country are watching us. Their eyes are on this meeting. Let us not disappoint our friends and the people whose leaders we are. We must begin and thus inspire the confidence of our people in our earnestness. We must raise more money than we have been raising. Our ministers must become more self-sacrificing and exhibit more individual liberality, and thus set the example of giving to their people. The ministers have as much right to 00088 give their personal money to the cause of Christ as they have to expect it of their members. Why should they be excused from giving to the cause of Christ which they represent? There is too much stinginess on the part of our preachers. They should put their hands down in their pockets and give to the glorious cause for which they so eloquently beg. The Bible teaches that they must be given to hospitality, as well as apt to teach. The one is as much a divine injunction as the other. It is to be feared that too many brethren feel that they have every necessary qualification when they are apt to teach. This is the trouble with the Negro Baptist ministers of Georgia. They are too largely recipients--expecting all from their congregation and giving nothing, and teaching their people to expect all from the North and do nothing for themselves. We should stop teaching our people that they can do nothing themselves and that because they are weak God has intended that others should carry their burdens. Personal giving will develop personal strength, personal activity, personal responsibility and personal greatness. Eternal recipients will make everlasting parasites. We should launch out into the deep for a draught--launch out into the deep of God's mercy and protection;00099< /printpgno>launch out into the deep of manhood, self reliance and Christian activity; launch out leaning upon the strong arm of the mighty God of Jacob. Only minnows flutter around the shore. The big fish are out in the deep. The water around the shore is more liable to impurity. Weeds are apt to grow, decay and fall in the edge. Snags are found on the shore and the water is more easily muddied on the edge. The water is purer, healthier and clearer out in the deep. Let us launch out, my brethren, in the deep.

It may not be out of place to direct attention to what the Negro Baptists have done in the way of raising money in these twenty-nine years, and something as to how that money went. We have been making history and the record is written; as unenviable as it may be, it is nevertheless ours, and by it we must stand or fall. It may be very reflective on some, and call into question honor, integrity and executive ability. Such the future historians will do when we are gone. So let us see it while we are here and correct what we can of it before we go. We take the following from the file of minutes of the convention, every 001010copy of which we have except for 1872 and 1873:TREASURER'S REPORTS.Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia, W.J. White, Treasurer.1870 (No report in the Minutes).1873 To balance on hand, last report....$ 164 37Received from Finance Committee.... 385 33Received from Rev. Epps, life membership5 00Received from R. R. Watson....15 00Received from interest, January, 1873...13 07Received on notes of life members.. 869 90_______ $1452 67Cr. Expenses...$ 128 85Notes. 869 90_______$998 75 ________$453 92 1874 Received from Finance Committee.... $412 83Received from other sources...423 95________$836 78 ________ $1290 70Cr. By note, N. W. Ashurs20 00By error in counting notes....1 90By other expenses...307 36By amount still due on N. W. Ashurs' note....5 00By amount notes held for life members...864 00________ $1198 26 ________Balances.. $92 441875 to balance on note, N. W. Ashurs...$5 00To cash received from Financial Committee (1874)..410 80To note, R. R. Watson....30 00To note, New Hope Association.60 00To life members, notes and donations....864 00________Carried forward$1462 24 0011111875 To amount brought forward.. $1462 24 Cr. By expenses91 00________May 25, 1874, in Freedman's Savings and Trust1369 80 _______Co., when the bank suspended, July 1, 1874...$1371 24NEW ACCOUNT.W.J. WHITE, Treasurer.

Nov. 5, 1874, Cash for note given for New Hope....Association.... $60 00Paid Rev. Dwelle.... $ 50 00Paid J.P. Harrison..7 15________Balance... $2 85 1876 Received, Finance Committee, May 25, 1875.... $275 75Received balance due note, Ashurs..5 00Received balance due note, Watson..30 00Received dividend Freedman's Savings and TrustCo....250 69To amount life members' notes taken byConvention, 1874864 00________ $1425 44Balance....$1428 29Cr. By expenses 380 32 _______ $1047 97 1877 To amount less life membership notes.... 137 00 _______ $910 97To amount paid over by Finance Committee,May, 1876.. 438 03To amount received various sources. 178 22To amount received of Rev. Watson, lifemembership note.2 00To amount received of Rev. R.R. Watson, theamount of note held by the Convention.... 30 00 _______ $2559 22 1877 Cr. By amount paid out... 334 25 _______Balance, including notes..$2224 97

1878 To amount received at the Convention, May 1877 $ 608 56To amount received from other sources... 124 00To amount dividend received from Freedman'sSavings and Trust Co. 125 34 _______ $3082 87Cr. By amount paid out...$1150 47 _______Balance....$1932 40 1879 To amount received, Finance Committee, May,1878.. 664 18To amount received from other sources... 834 53 _______ $3431 11Cr. By amount paid out... 519 04 _______Balance....$2912 07 1880 To amount received at Convention May, 18 929 55To note of Rev. J. Milner, North GeorgiaAssociation 10 00To amount received otherwise..3 75 _______ $3855 37Cr. To amount by order of Convention.... 135 07 _______ $3720 30 1880 To amount received and divided by direction of theExecutive Board.$2050 77To amount received as per report... 208 94To amount received as per report... 19 75To amount received as per report...1072 02 _______ $7071 78Cr. By expenses paid per report....1492 32Balance....$5579 45 1881 To amount received at Convention, 1880.. 793 03To amount received as per report... 342 61To amount received, Freedman's Savings andTrust Co... 125 34 Trust Co. 125 34 _______ $6840 44Cr. By expenses paid as per report.1221 38 _______ $5619 06 1882 To amount from Convention May, 18811391 22To amount received as per report...1389 99 _______ $8400 27Cr. By expenses paid as per report.1833 19 _______ $6567 08 0013131883 To balance brought forward. $6567 08To amount received from Finance CommitteeMay, 1882.809 38To amount received as per report... 1289 59_______ $8666 05Cr. By expenses as per report.$3424 27 _______ $5241 781884 To amount collected at Convention May, 1883, $351 33To amount collected as per report..380 47_______ $5973 58Cr. By expenses as per report.$1231 00 _______ $4742 58

Referring to the accounts which we have just prepared for publication, we wish to call attention to the following facts:

First. In the year 1870 there was a collection of $88.67 for which there is no record as to what disposition was made of it.

Second. In the minutes of 1876, there is published a tabulated report of churches and Associations which shows that $3229.04 was sent up to the Convention and no record to show what had been done with it.

Third. At the time of the suspension of the Freedman's Bank, our report shows that the treasurer, Mr. White, did not bring into the new account a balance of $89.10 which is not accounted for. In reference to the notes that he held against the life members and others, which he stated that he left out of the account in order to save confusion, said notes are still being carried as per his report made May 20, 1876, and counted along with the cash. There appears to be no definite way of finding out concerning the payment of the notes that were carried along with the cash, so we kept them before us in making our report. The balance of money that we find ought to be on hand, including the notes, is $4742.58. To this amount be added all the moneys that we find unaccounted for, viz., the $88.67, the $3229.04 and the $89.10, which will make a total of $8,149.39 that is unaccounted for. Of the 001414shortage that appears in the other accounts that were handled by the Corresponding Secretaries and others, it is presumed that some of this amount must have passed into the hands of the Treasurer also. Though we are frank to confess that some of the accounts under Rev. C. H. Lyons administration are fictitious.1870 To collections. $ 88 67 1873 To Finance report...437 81 1874 To Finance report...500 80 1875 To Collecting Agent, Rev. Dwelle...456 52To Finance report...275 75 1876 To Finance report...438 03Reported to have been sent in form churches andAssociations, May, 1874 and for whichand no accounting has been given.... 3229 04 1877 To Finance report...620 10 1978 To Finance report...664 18To Jas. Take, Treasurer Trustee Board received..from Treasurer White.700 00 1879 To Finance report...927 70To collection from Sunday School Convention236 52 1880 To Finance report...793 03To Rev. C. H. Lyons collection128 00To Rev. C. H. Lyons collection60 20To Rev. G. B. Mitchell collection..66 60To Rev. E. P. Johnson collection...24 16To Jas. Tate, Trustee Board...603 55To balance in hand from last year..40 15To collection from Sunday School Convention..275 47 1881 To Finance report... 1391 22To Jas. Tate Treasurer Trustee Board....525 95To Jas. Tate, Treasurer Trustee Board...441 45 1882 Finance report.807 74To Jas. Tate, Treasurer Trustee Board, from Rev.Quarles for sale of lots..307 68To Rev. G. B. Mitchell, Missionary.67 06To Rev. J. C. Bryan.178 15To Rev. F. M. Simmons....56 80To Rev. G. H. Washington.50 04To Rev. S. A. McNeal27 75 1883 To Finance report... $ 351 33To Board of Trustees of the Georgia BaptistTheological Institute50 00To W. E. Holmes, Gen. Collecting Agent..459 98 1884 To Rev. R. R. Watson, collection...27 00 0015151884 To collection.... $ 18 00To W. E. Holmes, Corresponding Secretary46 90To Finance report...163 75To life membership..25 00 1885 To Finance report...655 12To donation from Thomasville friends....68 00 1886 To report of collections found distributedthrough the minutes..786 48To report Rev. Dwelle, Corresponding Secretary,collections....182 44To report Rev. J. C. Bryan....44 75 1887 To report Rev. J. C. Bryan Centennial FinancialAgent469 00To Finance report...785 14To Augusta churches for charter fund....23 70To cash from Auditing Committee....109 47To cash from Rev. Tolbert70 00To collection at Friendship Church.5 00To Jas, Tate, Treat. (in his hand).14 05To cash from J. M. Jones.31 32To cash from J. M. Jones.79 10To report Rev. G. B. Mitchell.88 55To report Rev. F. M. Simmons..70 65 1888 To Rev. J. C. Bryan, Collecting Agent CentennialCommittee.. 2995 95To Rev. C. H. Lyons, collection....236 80To report of collections found in the Minutes inthe absence of the finance report...83 70 1889 To Finance report...677 72To Rev. C. H. Lyons, moneys received by himfrom state missionaries... 2670 20To contribution by State Mission Board ofGeorgia and Home Board of Southern BaptistConvention. 1960 00To receipts at Savannah during Conventionfrom various churches and societies, alsoindividuals274 90To moneys raised by Rev. J. C. Bryan....110 12To Rev. C. H. Lyons, Financial Collecting Agt.2727 35To Rev. Dwelle, Treasurer pro tem.. 1448 99To Rev. Dwelle, Treasurer pro tem..387 30 1890 To Finance report...447 14To Woman's Mission, present to the Convention 349 00To various church collections.71 03To moneys collected by Corresponding Secretaryfrom associations, conventions, churches,societies and individuals. 1207 42 0016161890 To ten months report of Rev. J. W. Neal,Missionary. $ 281 39 1891 To Finance report...792 40To moneys raised by Missionaries...551 35To moneys raised by Missionaries...538 69 1892 To Finance work249 39To C. H. Lyons collections.. .492 91To C. H. Lyons collections....239 41To C. H. Lyons collections....121 24To C. H. Lyons collections....309 25To C. H. Lyons collections from Missionaries. 8580 25 1893 To Finance report... $ 645 68To amount received from Dr. Gibson.400 00To amount received from Dr. J. G. Gibson,Corresponding Secretary, White Board 2000 00 1894 Finance report.702 55To J. C. Bryan, Corresponding Secretary,collections893 78 1895 Finance Report.321 92To Rev. J. S. Strong, missionary, collected onthe field..23 14 1896 Finance report.490 00Missionaries collected...155 00 1897 Finance report. 1558 10Missionary report...256 08To Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., President ofMissionary Baptist Convention of Georgia, collected 340 97 1898 Finance report.694 63Rev. F. M. Simmons, collected.128 30Rev. J. C. Bryan, missionary, collected.100 98Received from all sources409 38_______ $5433 1875 Cr. By traveling expenses $ 112 85 1878By expenses Jas. Tate, Trustee.659 85 1880By expenses Jas, Tate, Trustee.436 15 1881By expenses Jas., Tate, Trustee264 40By expenses Jas. Tate, Trustee.180 00 1882By expenses Executive Board....28 20By W. E. Holmes, Agent, expenses.... $ 38 55 1884By W. E. Holmes, Agent, expenses....39 50 1887By Rev. J. C. Bryan, expenses..64 45By traveling expenses Executive Board....102 45By Rev. Dwelle for services....20 00By Rev. W. J. White for minutes50 00 0017171887 Cr. By Rev. Dwelle, Treasurer... $ 12 12 1889By salaries for missionaries... 4530 20By traveling and other expenses20 24By payment for badge.90 00By salaries, printing, etc 2801 00By Geo. Dwelle Treasurer, pro tem, paidexpenses... 1117 94 1891By Missionaries' expenses paid.391 59 1893 By Executive Board, expenses and printing....284 08By amount paid out to missionaries. 1525 46By amount paid out to Rev. W. J. White by orderof the Board....200 00By traveling expenses on railroad..145 28By amount paid Corresponding Secretary onaccount of salary....637 73 1894 J. C. Bryan, traveling expenses....69 35J. C. Bryan, total expenses for the year130 31J. C. Bryan, paid on account of salary..332 80 1895 J. C. Bryan, paid on account of salary..7 50Corresponding Secretary on account of salary.184 01W. H. Styles...25 00Geo. H. Washington..78 7Paid to missionaries on account....143 00 1896 Paid out, Finance Committee...385 00 1897 Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., president, expended..268 96 1898 Paid at Convention as per Treasurer's report. 1395 08_______ $16771 83 RECAPITULATION.Cash collected.$54338 86Expenses..16771 83 _________Not accounted for...$37567 00

The scheme of co-operation came at a very suspicious time. Just at a time when we had just aroused our people to the importance of having a college of our own; just at a time when we had planned to raise the money for this enterprise. 001818Why were not all these rights and privileges offered to us before we decided to build a college of our own? It is a co-operation that does not co-operate. It is a one-sided affair. It is the play of Hamlet without Hamlet. It is, more properly, absorption.

Its Claims.--It is claimed that co-operation is the panacea for all the Negro's ills. It is claimed that it is the remedy for lynching, jim-crow cars and other injustices. It is claimed that it will unite the white and black people in this country. Those who believe this stuff are veritable fools, and those who preach this doctrine are liars. Co-operation will never make the unequal equal. The white people have no such notions; only equals can co-operate. As greater bodies attract lesser ones, so sure will the greater in this so-called co-operation absorb the lesser. Indeed this in the intention and will be the inevitable result. It is evident to the fool of fools that the co-operation now in vogue is no remedy for these evils. It cannot be maintained that the Negroes and whites can be united in these things as long as it is necessary for them to have separate churches and separate religious organizations and separate schools. These distinctions exist, and, mark you, I do not complain of them. I only insist that, 001919since the line is drawn, that each party stay on his side. We should insist upon distinct individuality. This is my contention, and here I propose to live and die, even if alone.

Its Sin.--The white man cannot roundly educate the Negroes, and to this conclusion all rightminded people are rapidly coming daily. However much this idea may be ridiculed, the facts supporting this statement are irrefutable.

That this is an important part of education no sensible person will deny. The white people do not know the Negroes socially, and, hence, cannot teach them what they do not know. If they cannot teach the Negroes this, they cannot make them truly great. In order to roundly educate the Negroes and make them truly great they must have the benefit of the habits, example and customs of their teachers in social life. This the white folks do not give the Negroes, and, hence, cannot teach them. The most that the Negroes can learn from their white teachers on such subjects is theoretical and visionary. They have no living examples of it. In order to know and meet the wants of their scholars, the teachers must associate with them in social life. There is no social 002020relation between the white teachers and their black scholars, except the most strained, stiff and formal, and hence the white people are in absolute ignorance of the social condition and needs of the Negroes. Since no sensible or fair-minded person can deny this, he must, therefore, admit that the white people are not prepared to teach Negroes along social lines. This left out of their education, the major part of their education is neglected.

The white people do not accord the Negroes the rights which they themselves enjoy, notwithstanding they live under the same constitution and laws which guarantee these privileges, rights and immunities; nor do they regard the Negroes as their equals. Their constant effort is keep the Negroes impressed with the idea of their inferiority and to fill with notions of the white man's superiority. They do not hesitate to tell us that it is not time for you to undertake this, that and the other enterprise. No people can be made truly great who are everlastingly reminded that they are inferior to those who are charged with the sacred duty of teaching them. The white teachers and their black scholars go to the depot 002121together; the teachers enter the first-class car, and the scholars the second class. What is the idea most naturally impressed upon the scholars? Can they help thinking of their inferiority and the injustice of paying the same fare and being forced to accept different accommodations? Does not the idea of unjust and unrighteous discrimination in all of its horrors loom up before them? This does not and cannot impress the white teachers as it does the black teachers, and therefore they cannot enter into the fullest sympathy with their black scholars, for the reason that they have not been discriminated against, and can only know in theory what it means. But the black teachers know from actual experience, and, hence, can and will most heartily point out its injustice to their black scholars. The teaching the white people gave the Negroes directly after the war was more genuine and more effectual, because it was more hearty.Those consecrated and self-sacrificing men and women who came down South immediately after the war did not do so for the sake of getting a job and making a living. They were ostracised. They stayed with the Negroes. They went with the Negroes because they had nobody else with whom to go. It was then the Negroes got the benefit of their personal influence and social 002222habits in life. But that day is past. Even in that day Negro teachers of equal ability would have been preferable, because they could and would have done much better work.

If they believe that we are their inferiors and never can be their equals, and if they gladly accept and enjoy what is unjustly denied to us, how can they teach us to be men?

This is not only true of their teaching, but in their position, lives and environments. The Negroes are taught by the white people - taught out of books written by white people; they are taught that all the heroes and heroines were white; every picture that presents honor, culture and greatness is white, and all of the pictures of angels are white. The books and histories show no Negroes that have become great, and no angels that are black. What an idea it must naturally give the Negroes of the impossibility of ever becoming what their white teachers are! How materially it must cripple their thoughts and destroy their enthusiasm for culture and greatness. May not this be the reason that so many Negroes, yea, the majority of them, have left school without finishing the ordinary English branches, discouraged 002323and despondent, and returned home with merely a spattering of an English education, only to forge notes, loaf upon the streets, hunt political jobs, or while away the time in schoolrooms butchering the Negro children? There is much in the idea of impossibility. If you make a man believe that he cannot do a thing, then he will not be apt to be able to do it: as his faith is, so will his actions be.

Nine-tenths of the Negroes who are educated by the white people think themselves above their people, and return to them really incapacitated to render them genuine service. Nine out of every ten imbibe the religious notions of their white teachers, and return home to forsake the religion of their mothers and fathers and to scorn and leave their churches. They are above their people and above the churches of their fathers. They usually give nothing to the churches; they have nothing to do with prayer meetings; everything is wrong; everybody is a fogy; revivals are excitements; dancing is a sinless amusement; going to shows is but to see the manifestation of God in nature; theater-going is instructive and no harm, and no 002424Negro can preach. They are really dangerous elements in our churches. It takes a white man to teach a white man how to live with and best serve white people, and it takes a Negro to teach a Negro how to live with and best serve Negroes. The best way to be a Negro, is to be born a Negro. A man who was not born a Negro can never be a Negro, and, therefore, can never fully and truly sympathize with them. The white teachers give Negroes white ideas, but they are no more respected by the white people than those Negroes who have not these white ideas. They have no more rights and privileges than the most ignorant Negroes. Hence, while the white teachers educate the Negroes from their own people, they bring them no nearer to the white people. This is the unanimous verdict of every thoughtful Negro. Our race battles must be fought by Negroes alone. Negroes must lead and teach Negroes. Nobody else can do it so well as they.

Nobody but a fool will say that the numberless lynchings, cruelties, outrages and injustices perpetrated upon the Negroes by the white people do not and will not to a greater or less degree, prejudice the Negroes against the whole race. 002525Now, then, I submit that a people against whom we have such prejudice cannot be as truly serviceable to us as those against whom we have not this prejudice. The Negroes cannot feel that the white people are as true friends to them as the Negroes, their own people. He is a fool or a liar who says so. Why didn't Almighty God send some of those learned Egyptians to emancipate Israel? Why did he send an Israelite? Why did he not send Gentile prophets to Israel? Why did He send Israelite prophets? Why did not Jesus Christ select Gentile apostles to go to the Jews? Why did he choose Jews as his apostles? It has always been heaven's plan to send members of the race to be redeemed to redeem them. Why should there be an exception in the case of the Negroes?

Its Danger s.--The dangers growing out of the present system of co-operation are many and serious. It shifts the burden of responsibility from the shoulders of those men whom providence has ordained should bear it. It encourages the Negroes to look to others to do for them what they can and should do for themselves. It fosters the spirit of dependence and laziness. It discourages the desperate and heroic struggles that all people have made who have become great. It destroys 002626the spirit of self-sacrifice and prevents the struggle for death and life. It gives the death blow to self-confidence, which is indispensably necessary to true greatness. It makes us feel that there is no need of our suffering when we have some one to do for us. It prevents us from carrying our own burden. It is not the true way to develop a people. We should be taught to make the keenest sacrifice and endure the most trying hardships. No people on earth have been helped as we have been, and I question the wisdom of this eternal parental fostering. Are we ever to strike out in the world for ourselves? If so when must we start? We have never done less for ourselves than when we were helped most. The parents can never learn their children to walk by carrying them in their arms. Put them down and let them go to walking. It will be good for them to let them fall and get bruised. They will profit by their mistakes. It deprives the Negroes of the opportunity of learning how to man their own interests and thus shuts them out of an honorable place in history and passes them down to generations unborn, as consumers, wards and a worthless race and a burden to civilization. I confess that I am greatly concerned as to how future generations shall look at us as they read the 002727writings of the future historians. It hurts in personal and private life. If a people are indulged collectively it weakens them individually and makes them less provident. It destroys their usefulness to spread the Gospel and to build churches and homes. There is a grab for the mighty dollar. The Yankee teachers of to-day are not the Yankee teachers of the past. Like the politician, their services and sacrifices and patriotism mean a job. It makes it hard for us to ever rally our people to the support of any enterprise. It destroys their enthusiasm and ambition to become self-supporting. It makes them less desirable as citizens. It divides our forces and makes it impossible for us to arouse and whirl into line the indolent and indifferent of our people.

It has been stated and published that we oppose co-operation because we were unfriendly to the white people. I brand that statement and publication as a great big pusillanimous, unmitigated, premeditated, consummated lie. We oppose co-operation from no such narrow, selfish and unrighteous motives. Those liars who make this statement do so only to prejudice the white people against us and thereby secure a few bloody 002828dollars as Judas, their predecessor. We oppose this co-operation scheme--

1. Because it is unmanly and saps the life and manhood from the Negroes.

2. Because it absorbs the Negroes' individuality and transfers their honor and glory to others and robs them of a standing among the nations of earth in history.

3. Because it takes away from the Negroes all that for which posterity may rise up and call them blessed. It transmits a terrible legacy of racial weakness, cowardice and subordination. It transmits nothing to our children of which they may be proud. It leaves not our footprint upon the sand of time. It marks no place that our children may know that we have been here. We want something of our own that we may inspire the same race pride, independence and patriotism in our people that it inspires in other people. We think if we are ever to undertake for ourselves, that it is time that we should start. This burden will some day be let down upon us and the best way to learn how to bear it is to commence bearing it. The best way to learn how to walk is by walking. We can never learn how to walk by lying on our backs and having somebody lecturing us upon the science of walking. 002929We must have the privilege and exercise of trying ourselves. These are some of the reasons why we oppose this wretched scheme of co-operation. Not that we love Caesar less, but that we love Rome more. They tell us that we are weak, but when shall we be stronger? Shall we acquire strength by lying supinely upon our backs hugging the delusive phantoms of hopes? We are not weak if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature placed within our reach.

There is a co-operation which we indorse and invite. It is the co-operation that should obtain among Christians, regardless of color, nationalities or racial distinction. When it is stated that we oppose co-operation, it should be borne in mind that it is a certain kind of co-operation which we oppose. We would invite, yea, welcome that co-operation which does not absorb our identity, destroy our manhood and does not deny our right to own and control property and enterprises in common with those with whom we co-operate. We want that co-operation that gives us every right which those enjoy with whom we co-operate. We want our white brethren to co-operate with us as they co-operate with each other. They receive grants and donations 003030to their institutions without surrendering the management of their institutions to the donors. Not a white institution in the land would think of surrendering their control to those who give to them. We want that co-operation which the Negro Baptists of Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky enjoy. Why cannot we have such a co-operation in Georgia? Why cannot this scheme work as well in Georgia as in these states? Why are Georgia Negroes not as noble as the Negroes in the states named? We shall raise no objection to this kind of co-operation. We want a co-operation that makes the Negroes masters of their affairs and all that concerns them. We object to going into co-operation with our white brethren in Christian work on a money basis. It would be like mice co-operating with the cats to keep the rats out of the pantry. We have tried this co-operation on a money basis with these same people just twenty years, and we are worse off to-day than we were when we first begun. I tell you, brethren, we want a co-operation in which we are going to own and control something. They tell us that this is not necessary; that the schools are ours already. If this is true, why do they so strenuously object to our having the deeds to the property? If it is ours, will the 003131deeds to it make it any more ours? If the schools belong to us, why cannot we have a Negro president and faculty? Why would the North withdraw its help if a Negro was made president of a Negro school? Who ever heard of white people withdrawing their help or refusing to help a Negro church because a Negro was pastor? A white college means a white president and faculty; why should this not be true of a Negro college? If the schools belong to us, why is it necessary for them to ask us to co-operate with them? Why, we ought to be asking them to co-operate with us. They say that if we would have equal rights with them, we must put in as much money as they do. We submit that this is not the spirit of the Gospel and is nowhere taught in the blessed book. This was not true with the early Christians when they sold their possessions and laid the money at the apostles' feet and had everything in common. It is not found in the teachings of Jesus Christ nor of His apostles, and it nowhere obtains in the Christian churches to-day. I tell you that this money basis new era co-operation is antagonistic to the dictation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The men who are at the bottom of this co-operation scheme have not the best interest of the Negro in view. It is a matter 003232of strict business with them. They are like political office seekers; they are patriotic for a job. It is not the interest of the people for which they work, speak and vote. It is the office they hope to get. So does this co-operation scheme seek to hold the Negroes in line for the sake of patronage; to give the worthy patriots jobs. This is the kind of co-operation which we oppose.Let those who undertake to state our position do so, honestly, fairly and truthfully, and by it we will stand or fall.

There is no doubt but a more perfect organization of our forces is desirable and imperatively necessary. For this reason we have decided that it would be wise to divide the State into four districts and organize a Convention in each district. One such organization has been perfected at Way-cross, Ga., in March of this year, Rev. G. M. Spratling, of Brunswick, Ga., president. A Women's Convention was organized in connection with it, Mrs. J. K. Rogers, of Waycross, Ga., president. One was organized in Augusta, Ga., in April, Rev. A. Clark, of Munnerlyn, Ga., president, and the nucleus of one at Macon, Ga. This method breaks up our army into smaller companies that they might be more easily and profitably handled, and 003333enables us to put every soldier to work. It will put the leaders in closer and more constant touch with each other and with the masses. If these District Conventions are organized and properly managed, it will do more to unify and arouse to holy activity the Negro Baptists of Georgia than anything we have tried in our history. The Way-cross District Convention was a brilliant success, and I believe all the others will be. These District Conventions must be subordinate to and auxiliaries of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia. While they should have every officer necessary to make them perfect in their organization, they should keep no money in their treasuries; but should turn over all money above current expenses to the Treasurer of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia. They should print no minutes as District Conventions, but their minutes should be brought to the session of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia, read as their reports and turned over to the Recording Secretary of this Convention to be printed in its minutes under the same cover. I recommend that a committee be appointed to divide the State into four districts.

When we shall have organized the four District 003434Conventions in Georgia we should endeavor to put one strong missionary in each district. At present we are doing next to nothing along this line. The first duty of the Gospel Church is the spreading of the glorious Gospel of the Son of God. This is the marching orders which it received from Olivet's brow--to preach the Gospel "to every creature." That command still comes ringing down in divine sweetness from Zion's glorious hills to us, and he who died for us say: "If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments," and that His Father is glorified if we bring forth much fruit. The matter of spreading the Gospel is not left optional with us. It is lifted out of the realms of free sovereignty: it is a positive command coming from the glorious Head of the Church. We ought to be ashamed of our record in the missionary work in Georgia. It is getting so that a missionary is looked upon with contempt, and he is side-tracked when he visits our churches. Our preachers are growing careless, cold and indifferent about this first of all Christian duties. There must be a change in this thing. When the pastors allow their people to slight the mission cause, they will soon learn to neglect their pastors. Every duty neglected makes it easier to neglect the next one. If "each victory 003535will help you some other to win," each defeat will help you some others to lose. Every neglect lays the foundation for another. We ought not to employ men on the field because nobody else wants them, and because they can get nothing else to do. We ought to put good, strong men on the field and pay them a living salary. We ought to honor and magnify the missionary position and make it desirable for strong men. We ought to stop promising these brethren and make no effort to pay them. We ought to regard a debt as being more sacred, and thus inspire confidence in those whom we employ. Our Convention has no credit even with its best friends. We cannot to-day borrow a dollar. This is a burning disgrace upon a Christian organization. It is just awful to think of it that a band of Christian ministers can't get credit that nobody has confidence in preachers of the truth! I wish to say right here with all the power of my soul that it is too shamefully true and too universally believed and said that preachers will not pay their debts. I have had a large and long experience along this line, and I I hang my head in shame when I am forced to confess that nine preachers out of every ten with whom I have had dealings will forget to pay a debt. If this is true of the pastors of the churches,003636what must be the state of the churches which they lead? Truly, this is a lamentable state of things. Let us be better men, more self-denying, braver, truer, and more reliable. I pray for our improvement along all proper lines. If we do not, the cause of Christ will continue to suffer in our hands and we cannot give the world the Gospel.

It is a deplorable fact that nine-tenths of our ministers give no attention whatever to our State Sunday School Convention. There is something radically wrong about our brethren in this matter; they claim to be interested in the salvation of souls. It is their lifework to save souls. They claim that they hold commissions from the King of Glory. Now, is it not good sense to adopt every means of accomplishing the largest results? Of saving most souls? Wouldn't a fisherman adopt the means that gave the assurance of catching the most and best fishes? The Sunday school gives assurance of the richest yield of harvest. It is much easier to save a child than it is to save an old, rough and tough sinner. Then the child is more valuable to the cause when saved. An old person never amounts to much to the church when saved. He may make out to get to heaven, but will never 003737succeed in carrying many others with him. Then, again, you could save a dozen children while you are working on one old tough sinner. Why our brethren will not betake themselves to the work of saving the children, who are to compose the future church, is indeed a mystery to me. They ought to meet in our State Sunday School Convention and help devise plans to further the cause of Christ among the young and to give encouragement to the young people who are engaged in this blessed work. O, brethren, let me appeal to you in the name of the precious children, in the name of the church and in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord, to take an interest in our Sunday school work. Attend our Sunday School State Convention and help us do the mighty work. Loud and long the Master calleth; rich rewards He offers thee.

The National Baptist Publishing House at Nashville, Tenn., has marvelously illustrated what the Negroes can do. This enterprise was started in 1897 without a dollar. To-day we are publishing all of our own literature, Sunday School song books, hymn books and Bibles. We have bought a $10,000 building and have a $15,000 003838printing outfit. We give employment to many Negroes and all of our writers are Negroes of the United States. The thirteen Sunday schools connected with my church take the Negro Baptist literature and they are just delighted with it. Each year your attention has been called to this literature and, yet, I regret to say that some of you do not take it. I was made verily ashamed to hear Dr. Boyd state to the Arkansas Baptist Convention last November that the small State of Arkansas, with only a handful of Baptists, bought more of our Negro literature than the great State of Georgia, with 250,000 Negro Baptists! I was made ashamed for my State and for my Convention in more ways than one while I sat in the Baptist Conventions of Arkansas. One trouble with the Negro Baptist preachers of Georgia is that they have learned to make big speeches, preach great sermons and pass bombastic resolutions, and the whole thing generally ends there. We need more race and denominational pride and get a move on us. We want to go on doing something, Why is it that you do not take this Negro literature? I want you to take it. Give Dr. Boyd your orders to-day, and begin with this third quarter to take the Negro Baptist literature. 003939Stop acting the whitewashed hypocrite and patronize your own people. The other nations of the earth set you this example daily. Why don't you profit by the example they set you? Do you not know that this literature is making a name for you and giving your denomination a standing in the world? Let me respectfully and earnestly urge upon you to take this literature, and begin with the first of June, 1899. I recommend that this Convention make a liberal donation to our publishing house, and thus help on the glorious work.

I would impress upon you that phrase in the great commission, "In all the world." Jesus Christ did not use words without a meaning. He meant just what he said:"Preach the Gospel in all the world." Let us not disgrace the great commission which we hold. We cannot preach the Gospel in Georgia, however faithfully and earnestly we may do it, and claim to fulfill the terms of the commission which we hold. Georgia is not all the world, and our commission says, "Go into all the world." Duty is not performed while aught remains to be done which we can do. We should seek to have an interest in the Gospel preached "in all the world." That is, have an 004040interest by our money and prayers in those who preach the Gospel all over the world. We should spend some money upon the missionaries on every mission field in the world. We may not be able to go in person all over the world, but we can help those who go. I would call special attention to our mission work in Africa. That is the land of our ancestors. We should be profoundly interested in its redemption and the salvation of our brethren. Our Board has been greatly criticised and embarrassed because of want of money to meet its obligations. The criticisms have been unfair and unjust. The Board has done the very best it could have done under the circumstances. The fault is ours. The blame should be laid at the door of the churches. We have been hard taskmasters, demanding that the Board should make bricks without straw. We have not given the Board money with which to pay the missionaries, and yet we have been loud and emphatic in condemning them for not paying the missionaries. The Board is composed of some of the best and ablest statesmen in our denomination. Rev. L. G. Jordan, our Corresponding Secretary, is a matchless man. For zeal, earnestness and activity he has not a superior in the country. He is a consecrated man and perfectly adapted to this work. 004141He is a godsend to our work. I recommend that he be given all the time he wants to represent our Foreign Mission work. We must not think of giving less than $100 to him for Foreign Mission work at this session of our Convention. The great Baptist family of Georgia ought to give ten times more, but we cannot afford to come one cent under $100.

Nothing must get in the way of our giving Africa the Gospel. Divided on whatever subjects we may be, we must be united on this. Let us bury all of our differences in the desire to preach Jesus to the perishing millions in Africa.

It is a singular coincidence that the same two men were pittied against each other in the splitting of both our State Sunday School Convention and the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia--in this Convention in Macon in 1892 and in the Sunday School Convention at Milledgeville in the same year. They were united in office again at Augusta in 1897, and separated again in Macon, the scene of the first battle in February, 1898. Every indication shows this last separation to be final. A thirst for popularity and ambition, for honor and office, made it possible for the Home Mission Society to get in its dreadful work of separation. While I have regretted, and do very 004242much regret this, necessity has laid upon me to heroicly meet the issue as I find it, and God helping me, I will not shirk a plain duty and seek to shun no dangers which lie in duty's path. It is a strange thing to me that some of those who are lying to the Southern white folks on us, saying that we do not want to co-operate with them, when they joined to help remove the venerable Dr. David Shaver, the scholar and theologian, from his position as teacher of theology in Atlanta Baptist Seminary to the sorrow and protest of every student, without a moment's notice. The ground of this removal was that he was a Southern man and the teachers were paid by Northern money. Your humble speaker then entered his protest as an alumni of that institution and has since been in disfavor with the Home Mission Society-accused on the one side of being with the Southern white folks and now accused of being with neither. Strange world this! Dr. Shaver is still alive and the record is not destroyed: let those who doubt this statement call it and its author in question. We believe in fair play in everybody. Why don't they tell the white folks the truth? We do not seek to conceal our position. We are against the present co-operation and we want it known. It has been a 004343mystery to me how our Southern white people were led into this co-operation trap by the Home Mission Society. They claim to know us better than the Northern white people and yet they had to wait for the Home Mission Society to come down here and tell them how and when to co-operate with us. They knew that there were differences between us and that we were divided in our Convention and divided in our educational work. Why didn't they investigate the matter for themselves and come to some intelligent conclusion as to who was wrong and then have acted? If they made any investigation at all, it was all exparte and should form no basis of final action among intelligent, God-fearing men. Why did not they presume that there were some honorable truthful, God-fearing men on our side of the question? We have not been able to understand this one-sided action of our white brethren. We simply claim that our side should have been heard before final action. We do not and would not complain at the decision, but we insist upon it that we should have had a farce of a trail at least or a formal hearing. Since we did not, we feel and always will feel that they have treated us wrong. Doubtless the Home Mission Society led them into this injustice, which ordinarily, they 004444would never have done. The money was never disposed of until the Home Mission Society got into it. Hence we can but conclude that it is their trick.

And now, brethren, I must not keep you longer, I feel that I have greatly taxed your patience in this tedious discourse.

The apology that I offer for keeping you this long is that my soul was burdened with these things which I have said to you and it is a great relief to me to express them. I feel lighter and better now. I thank you very much for the patient hearing you have given me, praying the blessing of the Almighty God upon you, and upon our lives, examples and words in Atlanta, and upon all that we shall do and say in this Convention and wishing you every possible good. I now call this, the twenty-ninth annual session of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia to order. The Convention will please come to order.