The American Missionary — Volume 42, No. 03, March 1888 by Various
page 25 of 110 (22%)
page 25 of 110 (22%)
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race to double its numbers, the blacks will do so every twenty years. In
less than twenty-five years from this date, the colored race in the South will outnumber the whites in nearly all the States, and then the world will witness a conflict of races, the aspiration of the negro against the caste-prejudice of the white, the end and result of which no man can foresee. These facts all point to the greatness of the work undertaken by this Association. Christian education is the only education for a race having before it such a future. The illiteracy which we deplore must be overcome, but something more than that; that change must be provided for, when the Negro in large numbers will pass from the quiet and peaceful pursuits of agriculture to be massed together in mine and factory and the work of the mechanic arts, but something more than that; intelligence for the burden of citizenship must be given, but something more than that; incentives to the accumulation of property and the building of homes for themselves and their families must be encouraged, but something more than that must be done. If we were simply patriots, we would educate these people; if we were only philanthropists, or wise statesmen, or political economists, we would still feel bound to educate them. But we are more than these, we are Christians, and so there is one other thing we must do besides these I have mentioned, something which includes all these and so is greater than they all--and that thing is to make them Christian. Education is a part of the means to be used, and not the total end and aim. For what is education? Not the mere accumulation of knowledge, nor the mere training of the powers of the mind, but the building of manhood. You have tempered your Damascus blade, but who is going to hold it--the patriot, or the rebel? You have your educated man with his printing |
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