The southern enterprise. [volume] (Greenville, S.C.) 1854-1870, 1869-02-17
From the Presbyterian and Index.
The Colored People.


"We have the Greeks at home.n
The colored people are Of great
Importance. We do not duly ap.
preciate their Importance, in the
family, State, and Church. Our
tempers often blind our judgments
upon this subject.
The relation between them and
ourselves has been cruelty, unjust.
iy, ,sinfully rupturcd. What should
have been tho work Of years, has
been done in an instant--they
were unprepared for It, and so
were we. 1t has worked wrath,
evil in every respect. 1t has in
jured them and ourselves. They
have been deluded and estranged
from as; and we, sinarting under
our wrongs, have cast them, to a
great extent, ont of our confidence
and regards. But we cannot do
withou: them, and they cannot do
without us. They are in our fam.
lilies, and they cannot be there as
hedthe1. The malaria of the hea.
then world would breed pestilence
the most deadly ; it would be
insupportable. Theft, falsehood,
nnchastity, every blight of super
stition, would fasten on MS. We
nust have them in our families,
and we cannot have them but as
Christians. We have no choice {;
necessity is laid on us, and woe to
ns If We neglect thcir religious
culture. ...
Our families will catch the con-
tagion of their ignorance, vicious.
uess, and fanaticism, and be burnt
mp in one general coadagrstiou, as
the beautiful and magnificent city
of Columbia was by the ruffian
hand Of cruel warrior ..
They are in the State, and will,
to a great extent, remain and
they have now greet power to do
evil and If disregarded and left
to hostile influences, will, like
Samson, bury US and themselves
in one common ruin.
The 5est police, the best iudici-
airy, the best legislature the State
, can have, is q pure gospel preach
cd everywhere to it's people, white
and colored. Chancellor johnson
often said to the writer of this
-' The best police we have is the
ministers of the gospel" The Ju-
dietary, the Legislature, the Exec
ntive, could do nothing in regula-
ting and restraining heathen
Poptlation--G pagan people.
There must be moral element,
and that one of power and purity,
or free governments perish and q
worse than, military despotism
takes their place. We must, as
good citizens, be up and doing, or
soon we win pass from our present
very bad to a still worse civil con-
dition. .....
But the eolored people, like the
rest Of the world, have been bought
by the blood of Christ, and to
them the gospel must be preach
sd; and we who have been born
and raised with ti,esn are the per.
sons especially and providentially
called to this work. Their present
arrangement, their preiudices,
their decentralization, their delu>
sions as to their trne friends; our
own notifications and wrongs,
and the ingratitude we have been
treated with by many--all consti-
tute barriers in our way. H..
Bat no barrier is insurmount.
able where God goes before us.-
il the white Christians OF every
,iarne and denomination---if all onr
white churches would look after
them. be kind 10. them, teach them
OF Christ, soon God would lift our
heavy burdens, illuminate our
darkness, and we shonld be hap
Py and prosperous people; for
Gods snile wOald be cur light
and life. Z. T. B.
--&s-~s-...---E Is. .. -..-,