New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-11-30

| with the AltC0OUlbI OuuECu OOuCu. DuL Will
| it's approval and under its auspices an
African Methodist Church has been organ
lied, distinct and independent. yet still
looking to their old spiritual guardians for
| sympathy. counsel and help. This they re-
ceive. All the houses of worship belong
| ing to the Methodist Church South, which
were built for their celored members, are
transferred to them when they organize
churches Of their own, and in every way
they are encouraged and assisted in carry
! ing out their wish to maintain distinctive
ecclesiastical life, with congregations COM
posed exclusively Of their own people. I'm
| der the control of their pastors and officers
of their own race.
The colored bishop of the Methodist
| Church, the Right Rev. w. II. Miles, a man
of eminent prudence and piety, at recent
general conference held at Augusta, Georgia,
| reported fourteen annual conferences. with
more than six hundred travelling preachers
and nearly six hundred local preachers and
a membership of about seventy thousand
| He opposes mixed schools, mixed member
| ship and favors an organization confined to
his own people-not in any spirit of antag-
onism or unkndness, for he exhorts them to
cultivate the most amcable relations with
the whites and to identify themselves with
the interests of the communities in which
! they reside. besides this there are two
other divisions of the Methodist Church in
the South.) Nor are our Baptist churches
less active and efficient in their labors tor
the colored people. They have missionary
societies whose business it is to set the
blacks to doing something for themselves,
and the whites to helping them. They find
the Sunday school to be an fundamentally
admirably adapted for giving them just the
| training they most need, because of the OPP
| portunity it affords of imparting such in
struction as informs the understanding and
| enlightens the conscience. These are
| springing up all over the South, and those
| which are maintained during the winter as
well as the summer months are called by
the significant name of 'evergreens.
WHAT THE FREEDMEN NEED.
| But after all, the paramount necessity OF
| the Southern African churches is s. thor
oughy educated ministry Of their own
| Nothing can be substituted 80 tits, aor
can the complete development % .hei.
ecclesiastical life ever be a.ta..cJ. .,..A.
out it.
Ifignorant enthusiasts and fey fanatics
are their spiritual guides their religion will
be the intoxication of excited amin al sensi-
bilities, full of the chimeras Of distempered
fancy, instead of the calm sObriety Of
rational faith and the salutary convictions
of conscience enlightened by the spirit of
truth. The Church, therefore, which secures
this kind Of instruction for them is their
greatest benefactor. The American Bap-
list Home Missionary Society is doing a
noble work in this direction 1t has estab-
lished seven schools, one in Washington
City and the others in the Southern States
at well selected points, viz: Richmond Ra-
leigh. Columbia, Augusta New Orleans
and Nashville, for the education of young
men OF color for the gospel ministry.
TYPE OF CIVILIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY
AMONG THE NEGROES
Let US hope that these various instru-
mentalities will be blessed by. the great
head of the Church to the highest good of
the African people in this country. Nothing
but the conservative power of Christianity
can secure them against the evil influences
which threaten them. Nothing else can
bring them happy future.
The truest friend Of the African is not
the man who inspects him through the rose
colored lenses of a sentimental pbilan-
thropy, but who looks at him in the light
of truth, recognizing his weaknesses that
he may guard him against that influence,
and approaching his good qualities that he
may encourage him in their development
There is before him the hope of moral
and spiritual progression of greater worth
than any that is merely mental; and though
his type of civilization and Christianity
may be different from that OF the Caucasian.
it need not be necessarily an inferior one:
he may attain to a spiritual development of
the greatest and most attractive character
The very traits SO prominent IN his nature
his freedom from ambition and avarice, his
humble, docile, forgiving, contented, pa
tent, loving, submissive spirit, may, under
the cherishlng and sane ifying influence Of
divine grace, prepare him for type of
Christian civilization, softer, kndlier, fuller
OF the virtues of the Sermon on the Mount
more self-sacrificing, and richer in the sweet
charities OF the Gospel than any yet exhibit
ed by the more aggressive and dominant
white races
These are the teachings of a brave,
wise man. There is no hostility Of race,
no craven abandonment of q patriotic
duty, but counsel which, by making men
better, relieves society Of crime; while,
by making them more intelligent, it adds
to the public resources the production of |
intelligent industry, and relieves it Of the
curse Of the demagogue, and the burdens
OF pauperism. There is always high |
political economy in Christian counsels.
We can not but commend to all persons
dwelling in the South the just and practi-
cal counsels of this Southern man. Such
a system adopted will unity the interests
and sentiments Of the whole popuIa-
ton. Is will utilize the advanced in
struction of the one race, and the
well directed intelligence of the other.
We shall not contrast the strength and
happiness of the Southern system re-
commended by DR.. Hoge with the
destructive spirit inculcated by the order
If the Ku-Klux, or the White Camelia.
The example quoted by DR.. Hoge has
given restored peace and prosperity to the
State which originated it, as well as to
hose which more tardily followed in her
footsteps. The opposite policy has brought
poverty, trouble and violence upon the
States which preferred and have perse-
cred in it. Will the Southern States
ducate, Christianize and command the
confidence of the colored race among
hem, or will they prefer insult, oppres-
ion and determination as means of rem
lering them happy and useful: Will
hey ''let the people go" on the paths
marked out for them by Providence, or
will they incur the plaques which will re-
allate for every blow and burden inflicted
lpon them: Let our Committee 8. Sew.
nty answer.