appealed to the
passions, rather than to the intellect; and yet, under these old
preachers, many of them honest, earnest and Godly men, the Negro has
made gigantic strides in morality. He is yet far, very far below what
we would like to see him, but he is coming. The new gospel of work is
striking a responsive chord in the American Negro's heart, and he is
beginning to see that he must be able to _do_ something if he would
_be_ something.

Happily for him he learned to work, during the dark days of the past,
it only remained for him to learn to put brains in his work. This he
is fast learning under the apostles of industrial training. Since the
fiat went forth, amid the groves of Eden, when man lost his first
estate, "by the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," God has never
reversed his edict. Work must be his salvation, as it has been the
salvation of all other races. To put into poetry the words of an old
friend:

I ain't got no edikashun,
But dis, kno', is true:
Dat raisin' gals too good to wuch
Ain't nebber gwine to do;
Dese boys, dat look good nuf to eat,
But too good to saw de logs,
Am cay'in us, ez, fas' ez smok'
To lan' us at de dogs.

These great achievements have not been accomplished alone. The great
American Home Mission Society, the American Missionary Association the
Freedmen's Bureau, and the various churches and societies of the North
and South have contributed liberally of their time and means to aid us
in an upward struggle. The South itself has contributed its millions
to the aid of their former slaves; they have given for his schools,
they have aided him in building his churches, and there is scarcely a
single home among us, humble or palatial, that has not been erected
largely by the aid of Southern capital. But for the friendly aid of
these people among whom the great bulk of the American Negroes live,
we could never have climbed as far as we have on the ladder of
progress. The Negro is fast learning that, if he would be free he,
himself, must strike the blow, and he is teaching his children the
gospel of self-help.

The heights are still beyond, but he is slowly rising, and day by day
hope grows brighter. May God continue this progress until he shall
stand shoulder to shoulder with the highest civilization and culture
of the world.

TOPIC II.

WILL IT BE POSSIBLE FOR THE NEGRO TO ATTAIN, IN THIS COUNTRY, UNTO THE
AMERICAN TYPE OF CIVI