enjoy a
tasteless leisure or with inane self-deception hide his head under the
shadows of his wings, like the foolish bird, which thereby hopes to
escape the wrath to come. The white race, through philanthropy, has done
much; but its vicarious task culminated when it developed the first
generation of educated men and women. They must do the rest.

These philanthropists spoke for us when our tongues were tied. They
pleaded our cause when we were speechless; but now our faculties have
been unloosed. We must stand upon our own footing. In buffeting the
tempestuous torrents of the world we must either swim on the surface or
sink out of sight. The greatest gratitude that the beneficiary can show
to the benefactor is, as soon as possible, to do without his
benefaction. The task of race statesmanship and reclamation devolves
upon the educated Negro of this day and generation. Moral energy must be
brought to bear upon the task, whether the Negro be engaged in the
production of wealth or in the more recondite pursuits which minister to
the higher needs of man.

The white race is fast losing faith in the Negro as an efficient and
suitable factor in the equation of our civilization. Curtailment of
political, civil, and religious privilege and opportunity is but the
outward expression of this apostasy. As the white man's faith decreases,
our belief in ourselves must increase. Every Negro in America should
utter this prayer, with his face turned toward the light: "Lord, I
believe in my own inherent manhood; help Thou my unbelief." The educated
Negro must express his manhood in terms of courage, in the active as
well as in the passive voice: courage to do, as well as to endure;
courage to contend for the right while suffering wrong; the courage of
self-belief that is always commensurate with the imposed task. The world
believes in a race that believes in itself; but justly despises the
self-bemeaned. Such is the mark and the high calling to which the
educated Negro of to-day is called. May he rise to the high level of it.
Never was there a field whiter unto harvest; never was there louder cry
for laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.

A FEW REMARKS ON MAKING A LIFE[49]

BY ROBERT E. JONES, LL. D.

_Editor Southwestern Christian Advocate, New Orleans, La._

[Note 49: Extracts from Commencement address delivered at Tuskegee
Institute, May 29, 1913.]

I have a story to relate, and at once I want to present to you my
her