The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-03-13
PREACHER FOR
PRESENT SOUTH.
DR.. S. c. Mitchell Handles Very
Interesting Subject Before
Ministerial Association.
PECULIAR WORK OF TODAY
Special Conditions and Emer-
gcncics to Be Broadly Met By
Southern Preachers.

~ n Ieaturc OIL INC monthly meeting OF
the Richmond Ministerial Union, com
posed OF ministers OF all Protestant de-
nominations of the city. held yesterday,
was an address of DR.. S. c. Mitchell on
the Preacher for the Present South"
DIR. Mitchell said:
Asked to describe the preacher for the
present South, have only to point TO tho
men before me, who uptly illustrate the
type Of minister suggested by tho theme
know not what spite some one had
against me in wishing to make mo ap-
pear to instruct those at whose feet IL
mas long been my delight to sit and learn
Richmond has profound reason to be
grateful for her ministry, capable, coz
scientious and quick In the discernment
of the moral signs of the times 1t would
De sheer presumption In me to attempt 10
erect . an ideal for you, since you are in
signing this topic, your purpose was for
me to venture to interpret some clements
In the environment in which you work.
then the task is comprehensive, no mat
ter how indincrent my abilities may be
for doing It.
Taking for granted that special
adaptation to the place and people is one
of the marks OF a strong ministry, may
we inquire whether anything in the
Southern situation is distinctive. Exami-
nation will show that your work is bcset
BY difficulties that are peculiar and mo-
mentious. Without attempting even to
ennmerate them all, 1t may not be aniss
to dwell for a while upon certain fac
tors--the racial Industrial. political edu-
cational and fntellectual-which affect the
conditions OF the preachers work in the
present South.
The Racial Factor.
Foremost stands tho racial factor.
The history of the South is surprisingly
tragic. It includes single crises Of great
ptth and moment. But these have been
only. bubbles upon the surface Indicating
the disturbed conditions In the depths of
IT'S HE. Its sorrow has been chronic. The
KIND or heroism, which Providence has
demanded OF 1t. is not like that of a man
who nerves himself once for the quick
stroke Of the surgeons knife, but rather
ike the fortitude of man smitten with
some battling and seemingly incurable dis
ease, who exercises faith without
hope who continues to work without re-
ward. and who knows sorrow without
sympathy. Often has the passer-by been
heard by this sufferer to make the heart
less inquiry: Master who did sin, this
man. or his parents, that he was born
blind? believe that IL We are open
minded to learn from the Divine Inter
prefer of human history VIC shall to-day
hear the answer: Neither hath this man
sinned not his parents. but that the
works OF God should be made manifest
in him. The grandest sociological exper-
smeiit' in history is taking place in the
of the largest facts In the future of
humanity depend. Can two alien races
dwell together upon the same soil In the
spirit OF mutual heipfulness? Or must
two differing peoples sbo kept apart like
Work annihilation to the weaker folk?
This. let us note clearly, isia novel
experiment. For millenniums the highly
cultured Europeans lived in isolation, like
1ofo tIar. I.,x
been dispersion of these advanced peo-
pies. They have coma into vital contact
with backward races In all quarters of
the earth. whether Islands or continents.
Hence we now for the first time begin
to, divide the world into fourteen edu-
eating nations. such as England. France.
America, japan. Germany set over
against countless nndeveloped races. 1t
is distinction similar to that In our
statistics between the literate and illite-
rate in our own population. Many are
the races Of mankind that have not gone
to school. Their capacities. therefore. are
the more point. II we remember that the
racial curriculum is of necessity long
one. The South is placed at the bloody
angle OF this far-fl,lng battle limo OF racial
adjustment
Ten Million Africans.
Here are ten million Africans. recently
risen from savagery through slavery to
civilization, separated socially from the
SaXons by a great gulf fixed, but other
Wise interlaced inextricably in all our
life. The negro problem. to be sure, has
its economic and political aspects but 1t
is primarily sociological or moral. And
hence II comes largely within the domain
of the preachers duty. To insist upon
Justice. to bcget the spirit OF mutual help
fitness. TO uphold tho majesty of law, to
nllay prejudice, to strengthen faith in
man and in the inherent capacity of tho
least developed among mankind to
broaden sympathy so as to embrace
humanity. to make known the potency of
love. which never faileth. these are the
penetrative influences which the preacher
of the present South can exert helpfully
toward solution of this stressful stua-
ton. He aud he almost alone, occupies
the moral vantage ground from which n
sane. just and total view ofRthe complex
forces in this strife is to be obtained 1t
Is critical juncture. demanding, not tho
priest but the prophet. clear in vision
thetic that the burden of His message
ever is, Comfort yc, comfort ye My peo-
pie in the unprecedented task set for
them by heaven
Industrial Factor.
1--WE are living in the midst of n revo
luton mightier far in, its effects than that
OF France in 1850. The industrial revolu-
ton, which began In England toward the
close Of the eighteenth century. on the
continent after the Napoleonic wars, and
in the North about the same time has
of late begun to sweep through the South.
The Reconsideration of the South is as
desirable as it Is inevitable. 1t is unle-
niably causing social changes OF a radical
sort: In recent visit to the great
impressed anew with, the number of
social problems growing out OF this
1cconomlc transition. Here were hundreds
or families, torn from the ancestral farm.
grouped in an exclusive community.