National Baptist world., 1894-10-12
Let America Beware.

| y y
has so decreed it, all is fast passin!
away and so must the lynch law pas
, away, existence is but momentary
days, weeks, months scarce max,
their imprint on the face Of time, ere
they are swept away. swept behind
the shadows Of the past, gone to re-
turn no more. Leaving behind a;
monuments, their marks, but soor
these must fade, must decay and
pass into oblivion. Oh, could the
veil Of the past be lifted, what q
scene were there Of faded glory and
departed power, Of wealth and the
decay of grandeur, of the decline OF
art and the fall of science, and of the
/ decadence of such cities as Rome
and Athens sad ending. This far
pomp and fame, but what could have
wrought this end? 1t is written that
fall must follow the towering
flight. If it were so, it were better
not to soar at all, for the higher the
bird. the harder the fall. Then what
brought this misfortune unto Rome ?
The same that brought the flood Of
old, that made whsh of Nineveh,
and laid in ashes the city of Sodom.
Roman glory is past and gone, other
countries have risen, among them is
our America. Americg the child of
youth, America the last to COM
mence the journey on to fame and on
to glory. She, to whom all eyes are
turning, she at whom all nations
stare on account of the lynching re-
cord. 1t is said that speedy flight
betokens speedy fall. It behooves
America to wonder what will the
end be, shall its end be as the end of
Rome, or will she profit by Rome's
experiences and make strong the
places where Rome was weak? Thus
far America has followed the Rom
ans, she has bowed, not to fame. art
and genius, but has allowed hun
dreds of American citizens to be
murdered by resort to lynch law,
which is 10 law at all. Well may
we wonder, what will be the end of
the Negro?
Some few hundred years ago when
America was all infant, ships often
went from this country to trade with
the natives of africa and from these
several voyages they brought with
them some of the blacks of Africa's
Coast. What could have prompted
SO strange an act, was it to crafty
their idle power or was it as their
friends say to-day, to promote Chris
tianity and civilization? If so, we
will have to send back to Africa and
let them teach the whites in the
South what civilization is. But
this thing they seem to have forgot
ten, that the workings Of God are
He but let them en-
slave the Negro for the furtherance
of His purpose. AS the wine from
the water turned, so to the Negroes |
turned the base schemes |
of the captors.
Now we sing My country it's of
Thee; bitter bitter land of the bound
and free, let the Negroes sing land !
where our fathers died, land of our
mothers pride, by every brothers
side let the sister sing His religious
worship being opposed, the Negro
prayed for the war in secret the |
benefits of school being denied him,
he stole a few grains Of knowledge,
and stolen fruits are sweet. Now,
though he has the mass to Gull from,
it seems not half as sweet as then.
And so the seeds were sown; in Sc
cret; seeds of Christianity and civili-
zation nursed with reverence and
patient care till all at once and
without warning they broke forth
from obscurity and demanded free
dom and recognition. These seeds
the Negro has ever since planted, and
each year the harvest has larger
grown till now we gaze and watch
and wonder what will the end be?
Not only does the Negro Won
der what will the end be. but tits a
universal question, what will the end
of the Negro be?
AS we nave Hamans who have
sought to destroy the Negro in the
United Seates, God has given us a
Queen esther in the person of Miss
Ida B. Wells. Can we as her maid
ems fast and pray for her? She has
nobly said, "if l perish, perish ip
trying to saye my people," How
long! Oh Lord how long will these
things be?
Let the Negro but remember ends
are not controlled by beginnings, and
though he rose from obscurity's bot
tom, he can still soar to fotune's height.