The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-05-23

new w. NJ " -.
The ability to sing and brighten
away ones ills is a pearl of great
price. Carlyle expressed a great
truth when he said, Give us a man
who sings at his work and he will do
more and in the same time he will do
it better and preserve longer"
Words in Hebrew Psalm we're in
the Negro Melodies. We hear the
voices of Caucasianized souls all
singing to brighten away their ills.
Singing that they might not forget
Zion:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we
sat down, yea, we wept, when we re-
membered Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the will
lows in the midst thereof.
For there they that carried us away
captive required OF us a song: And
they that wasted us required of us
mirth, saying, Sing us one of the
songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the Lords song
in a strange land?
Hence they sang the song, If / for
get thee o Jerusalem, let my right
hand forget her cunning.
If l do not remember thee, Let my
tongue cleave to the roof of my
mouth; If l prefer not Jerusalem
above my chief joy.
We speak of the wonderful way in
which Mr.. Sankey composed his ia
nous hymns. l have direct reference
to the ninety-ninth. You are familiar
with the history surrounding that
1 hymn. Hypocricy are people who
talk all cream and leave skinned
milk, who talk about Heaven more
than they live Heaven. They sing
the song Heaven, but everybody talk
ing about Heaven amt going there,
There is a much prettier Negro mel
ody, You may have all the world,
but give me Jesus" Some take this
song to mean that the slave was so
other minded as to be ~neglectful OF
earthly duties and earthly tasks, but
no one who i%nterprets that hymn in
the language of the verse in which
the words occur cannot fail to be i'm
pressed with the true meaning of the
slave. If the song, When l ONE to
die, l lay my weapons by. Oh when
come to die, Give me Jesus, Give me
Jesus. You may have all this world
but give me Jesus and l am sure
this is the language of every human
heart when passing through the darl
valley of the shadow of death. WheI
he must or she must relinguish his
hold on worldly things, by the song
You may have all the world, Dut
give me Jesus
What! The Negro ashamed of Ne
gro melodies? Let Israel be ashamed
of her Psalms, let Greek blush t.
hear Homer, his nliad and Odyssey
Rome ashamed of her s~atires, let Eng
land be ashamed of Chaucer and his
Canterbury Tales, then let the Negro
become ashamed Of the Negro melo
dies. Where did the Negro melodies
have their origin? They came out o
the Negro soul. This by virtue o
his soul that the Negro has done wha
so other race has done. He has beef
able to face the white man, to t',riv'
and to grow where other races pine
away and died. Whatever he learn
and whatever he fails to learn. lie
him not fail to learn to ave his owl
soul, for What will it profit a rae 1
it gain the whole world and lose it
soul?" If the American Negro fol
gets howsto sing and how to pray, h
will soon forget how to live, but
he learns how to pray and how t
sing as his assessors prayed and san
then no force on earth or In Heayel
can keep him down. The America
Negro has many needs, but his greai
est need is a leader who will teac
him how TO save his own soul and I
sing and to keep singing until tn
day breaks asd shadows fee away.
One has the feeling that our slave
failed at the higher education, tha
Z education that saved them from fal
ing victim to the fatal melancholi
= which aus one to say in the LAM
uage of Jobs wife, Curse God an
I die" What is the high education
The high education is that educatio
: which enables one to take high groun
in facing the problems of life. Tn
slave who could face the dificultie
; and trials Of life and sing and thriy
= and grow surely had that high ed
cation and "They sang as II were
new song and no man could sing say
the hundred and forty-four thousand