e into contact. It
will always take men of the strongest moral fibre in any race to elevate
those who live either in the slums of cities or in the cabin life of
plantations, otherwise the gain to Christian missions will be in
quantity rather than quality. Hence the need of specific training of the
best kind in schools where students of the race will find healthy
environments to inspire them to higher and nobler living. Hence the need
of higher education for the race because it subjects the recipient to an
atmosphere of healthy environments long enough to saturate his life. For
his own interest the Negro preacher should do his utmost to improve the
social condition of his people in city or farm, since that condition
reflects for good or evil upon his own character.

3. One of the best results of the Protestant reformation is the
diffusion of God's word among the people. Through the reformation the
Bible ceased to be tongue-tied. Its history, poetry of war and love, its
tragedy, its simple gospel stories of the Christ comprise a literature
that is unsurpassed, and a revelation of God that is unique. But the
Bible can only be intelligently understood by the people when the mind
of the people is prepared to receive it. One of the worst results
growing indirectly out of the Protestant reformation, is the creation of
an ignorant priesthood and the reducing of the Bible to a fetich. It
follows as a matter of course that where the ministry is uncultured, the
interpretation of the word of God suffers. The spirit of God can not do
what man is intended to do. He can only illumine where the mind is
prepared to pass through the process. Revelation requires a medium,
otherwise it is powerless. To understand the mind of God in the Bible
presupposes a mind to comprehend His mind. With the Negro's deficient
ministry, religion becomes irreligion. He believes too much in the
non-essentials of religion, his heaven and hell are too much in the
distant future, he prays that after death he may go to heaven but sees
no heaven on earth. The new heaven and the new earth which John saw and
the new Jerusalem coming down from God to man are antipodal to his
conceptions. His God is seen going up to some cloudless region instead
of coming down to tabernacle with men. His sermons feed the feelings but
neglect the intellect and will, they tickle the ear and subordinate
truth to eloquence. The greater emphasis he puts on churchianity is a
loss to Christ