The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-02
A PENNSYLVANIA DENIES SOULS
TO NEGROES.

The Pittsburg, Penn, Dispatch Of
-25th May, publishes that a Lutheran
minister of tina state, Rev. Gottlieb c.
H. Hasskari, d. d, pastor of the Second
Lutheran church of Chambersburg,
Pa, has stirred up the negro preachers
by a book of his which denies that ne
groes have souls or are descended from
Adam and Eve. This is not a new con-
tention. There nave been nan works
published on that line and some long
ago. Prior to the great war a North
Carolinian, one Hinton Rowan Helper,
a sharp fellow, published Ariel" we
think he called it, taking. about the
same ground. His idea was not origi-
, nal, for scientific men before him had
g we remember to have noticed at
some length a book by a South Caro-
linian, an Episcopal minister, it was
said, living in Charleston. He called
it "Anthropology," as we recall it. We
read it with pleasure. He made a
learned argument to prove that the
three races, the Yellow, the Red and
the Black, were not of the Adamic race,
but were descended altogether from an
other stock. The argument was inter-
,esting and the citations from writers of
distinguished science were surprising
and strange. We were not convinced
as 20 the correctness Of this theory.
Principal Dawson, of the chief univer-
sity in Canada, has published a large
octave advocating the same theory. He
was a very able man and learned.
Many others have held to the same view
and written of it. The Dispatch of
Pittsburg, states that DR.. Hasskari "af-
firms that the negro's main superiority
over the gorilla, ourang-outang and
baboon is that he utters sounds that
could be initiated and understood by
Adam. Hence conversation ensued be-
tween them. He says the negro in the
capacity of a beast entered Noahis Ark
and consequently the negro being a
beast and not being counted with the
20 eight souls that entered the ark, who
were Noah and his wife, his three sons
and their wives is without a soul.
Therefore it is idle and wrong to sac
rifce either life or money to convert
the negro either in Africa or America
TO Christianity, as only the descendants
aof Adam and Eve, in Gods image and
likeness, are meant to be benefciaries
of the gospel"
We do not remember to have seen
the Noah's ark theory urged by any
other writer. The strongest argument
we have seen is the physiological, in
which men of science, anatomists and
others, have discussed the striking diff
ference in the conformation of the ma
tive African and the white a
We do not suppose that any formida-
BILE portion of the white race in the
world over will ever embrace the theory
of the doubters. The Christians in this
country and in Europe and Great Bri-
tain have tried to elevate the negro race
by education and Christian teaching,
and they will continue to do so. st.
Paul teaches that all men are of one
race, and the negroes must be recog-
nized as Adamic, strange as it may
seem, when color and physical peculi-
arities are considered, and they must
be truly Christianized if they are ever
raised in the moral scale and made
heirs of salvation" They are supersti'
-tious and emotional, but there have
been through several generations in the
south many deeply pious negro mer
and women who lived a life Of faith
in the Son of God. DR.. HIS contention
is that the negro is "the missing link
in the Darwinian theory.