of its froth over Protestant, too often, that duties toward
God and toward man are not blended, or even dove-tailed together. But
they are weights in opposite scales. Be only devout in your penances or
your hallelujahs, and your life among men is of little account. Now,
that notion can not be corrected in such a people as that one with which
we have to do in the South by an occasional Sunday sermon. In the
day-school it must be reiterated morning, noon, and night in various
applications, line upon line and precept upon precept. And so, on the
other hand, teachers, as well as scholars, must be reminded by pastors,
with a little Puritan iron in their blood, of their Christian, as well
as educational obligations. One member of your committee who has had
practical experience in the Southern work reports that some teachers,
occasionally even now, need to be reminded of the Christian service that
the Association, as well as the Master, expects from them. But divide
these different functions, put the churches and Sunday-schools under
other auspices, and, self-evidently, that temptation would be so much
the worse. We must have groped out of the morning twilight toward the
millennial day much further than we have before any such plan can be
reduced to fact.
Dr. Strieby speaks in the paper of his clerical friend of twenty-five
years ago, who thought the work of the Association would be transient.
It reminds us of Mr. Seward's remark that three months would end the
civil war. We are in for a long campaign. The sad fact is not to be
blinked that, with the enormous increase of the colored population, the
illiteracy among them is greater to-day than at the close of the
rebellion. We have need to sing at times:
O, learn to scorn the praise of men:
O, learn to lose with God.
As Dr. Goodwin grandly told us yesterday, our work is under the Master's
order. Success is no concern of ours. But success, because it is His
concern, is sure. Every losing battle in His service turns in time to
victory. We remember in Count Agenor de Gasparin's "Uprising of a Great
People," how spell-bound, awe-struck, he appeared to be before that
magnificent ground swell of the loyal nation, rolling on, as a traveling
mountain range, to sweep the rebellion as drift-wood before it. The
eight millions of the freedmen and their children are rising. If, for
the present, there are refluent waves that sadden us it is God who
brings in the tide. "And w
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