men, who gave themselves, would give a crumb of their cake to preserve the fought-for Union. On the Church of the living God this work must fall, by the people of God it must be done, if it is done at all. There are people who have given themselves, who are in the forefront of this battle. We do not all recognize that we, who hold the Head and are all members one of another, live under the rule of the Beloved, our New Testament David. “The part of those who go forth to battle and they who tarry by the stuff shall be alike”—alike in the cost, the danger and the glory of triumph. Then, when we restore that which we took not away, the blessing that multiplies falls upon us until we have not room enough to receive it.

We must have our eyes touched with His eye-salve to see clearly the Christ in these helpless ones whose hands are stretched out to touch our hearts. Human nature, even renewed human nature, has some queer inconsistencies. The way in which we fulfill Scripture by turning everyone to his own way is wonderful. One of our own ways is how much readier we are to give charity than to pay debt. One of the best men I ever knew paid the new hands in his establishment less than they could hire their board for, and subscribed liberally to a home where boys could get plain board at half price. Now, God’s way is: “The worker is worthy of his meat.” This dear, good man believed he was doing something religious when he gave the part he kept back from wages in charity. This is an instance of a widely-spreading delusion.

Give, and give liberally, for the conversion of the polished Japanese, the philosophical Brahmin, the filially-trained Chinese, the monotheistic Mohammedan, the heathen of distant Africa and the isles of the sea. You are right. The marching orders of the Grand Army are: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” “All” and “every” cover every inch of ground. Go on and prosper and the Lord magnify thy work.

But, stay, there is here a debt to be paid, restitution to be made. “Leave there thy gift before the altar, go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift.”

Thy brother in black has a controversy with thee. And his Advocate is thy Judge. Listen to the plea: “All the fields cleared and tilled in this broad south land, we cleared and tilled them. The roads that are made we made them, the bridges built we built them. We have been like Joseph in Egypt, whatever has been done here we have been the doers of it. We are American citizens. We have bought our citizenship dear with the sweat of our bodies and the blood of our backs. We have waded the red sea to freedom. The hands that reaped your fields for nought are held out to you for knowledge. We ask for our share of your civilization and your Christianity.” Fellow Christians, the back pay must be made up.

DOES THE HIGHER EDUCATION BEFIT THE NEGRO?

BY PRESIDENT H. S. DE FOREST, D.D.

It was once believed that a little learning was a dangerous thing, but it is now held that much learning is perilous to the negro. His risk is in over-education. Manual training is good for him, of course. He has a natural talent for that which came down from inheritance and has been worked in with both care and pains. He also needs moral training, though this is not an ancient heir-loom in his family. But for his mental development, the fundamental branches, few and simple, are thought to be enough. The higher range of study, even if he be capable of reaching it, would only harm him and unfit him for his place. This opinion, held by not a few, has been stated by Bishop Pierce as follows: “The negroes are entitled to elementary education the same as the whites from the hands of the State. It is the duty of the church to improve the colored ministry, but by theological training rather than by literary education. In my judgment, higher education, so-called, would be a positive calamity to the negroes. It would increase the friction between the races, producing endless strifes, elevate negro aspirations far above the station he was created to fill, and resolve the whole into a political faction, full of strife, mischief and turbulence. Negroes ought to be taught that the respect of the white race can only be obtained by good character and conduct. My conviction is that negroes have no right in juries, legislatures, or in public office. Right involves character and qualification. The appointment of any colored man to office by the Government is an insult to the Southern people, and provokes conflict and dissatisfaction, when if left as they ought to be, in their natural sphere, there would be quiet and good order.”

The argument then is briefly this: The negro is a low order of man, fit only for a low place, and therefore best trained by a low order of studies. The error is two-fold, embracing both a falsehood and a fallacy: a falsehood, for as far as inherent nature is concerned, the negro is no lower than the rest of the human race; and a fallacy, for if he were, or so far as he has become so from the force of circumstances, the more urgent the demand for superior training. The negro is a man, and, like any other man, is profited by choice mental culture. Furthermore, the disabilities of the past make his higher education specially necessary, and as fast as possible the most promising of the black race should attain the best and choicest culture. In bare outline some of the reasons for this opinion may be thus stated:

(1.) The negro has ability for the highest range of studies, and to debar him therefrom is to sin both against the man and his Maker. Many, especially those who cannot spell his name without putting in one “g” too many, doubt the intellectual power of the negro. It is true that heredity holds with him as with other men. A race scarce one and twenty years removed from enforced ignorance does not climb the hill of science as nimbly as those who inherit the brain, will and spiritual forces which generations and centuries have accumulated. But twenty-one years, and of wretched environment too, have sufficed to show that souls clad in the blackest African setting are capable of the highest thought and most difficult studies. The evidence on this point is abundant and conclusive. To deny the negro this ability is only to advertise one’s ignorance or prejudice. And since God has written his truth both in his word and works, and also given to the black man aptitude and thirst for the highest and most hidden, it does not become a race longer out of darkness and further removed from heathenism to say “thus far and no farther” in the culture of immortality. The negro should receive the higher education because God has made him capable of it, and he is profited thereby as much as any other man.

(2.) The higher range of studies is necessary to supplant self-conceit with self-reliance. Measuring themselves by themselves, an ignorant people are always inflated by the merest modicum of knowledge. Broad scholarship gives modesty, but the sciolist everywhere is a braggart. None are so satisfied with their acquisitions as the valedictorians of very poor schools. Where gold is scarce, a little metal, and chiefly alloy, will serve for many a big spangle, and the greater the darkness the brighter it shines. The serene satisfaction with which the African novice will misapply and mispronounce grandiloquent speech can only be cured by the presence of some scholarly men who have climbed far enough to see the heights and to know that the low-land is a bog.

But wise self-reliance is as rare among an ignorant people as conceit and folly are abundant. One part of the problem before us is to develop manly courage. Slavery cut the hamstrings of independence and sapped very manhood. As a rule the negro is not certain of his rights nor is he heroic in maintaining them. He has long been