The Dallas express. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1893-1970, 1919-11-29
By N. W. Harllee

by ~. w. 6arllee
The Negro Race is A Church Build
ing Race. 1t was in the year of 1920
that this mighty God fearing race
first learned the songs of zion. 1t
was then that they heard for the
first time that Christ came to save
and that God had no respect of per-
son, and that the high way to Heaven
and to God lies at every mans door
and that the other end of this same
high way reaches into Heaven. The
Negro took naturally to the whites
Bible, took naturally to his songs,
took naturally to church building.
He was initiative. He loved his mas
ter, he honored him, almost adored
him on account of his religious pro-
clivities.
Being initiative, the Negro not only
sang the whites measured songs
but made others and sang them with
his rich sonorious voice with which
the God of Nature had endowed him.
All primitive races are strong in i'm
agination and poetic expressions, the
harmonic and child-like in the affairs
of life that most interest them, and
thus it was with the Negro who had
come into new country. into a new
cline, among new people, and having
no power of education to express
their new thoughts, they burst forth
in songs such as the world never
heard before; expressing their joy,
expressing their new life and their
new relations, giving vent to their
new feelings in the powerful melody
and harmony of their mighty souls
that seem to blend and mingle in
the things that were divine.
God undoubtedly created man for
His glory, but why He made different
races and people seems strange to
some. But why? Why should He
create different animals, different
plants, different worlds, different
fowls and in fact, make everything
so different? 1t was for His glory.
Every nation must find service in
some way for the Master. so the Ne
gro takes in song and praise in ado
ration of the great gift of his Maker.
So we are not surprised when we
see this people building churches and
affairs to the God of Isaac and Jacob
and of Moses.
Z 1t was but yesterday when a great
concourse of people led by a band
of martial music, marched with meas
ured step not to war, but to a place
dedicated to the cause of the God
/ of our Salvation, to the site where
the new and greater st. James is
being erected, where the foundation
laid in brick and mortar and cement
] n ND ctr hn
was laid under the auspicies of the
Knights of Pythias of this city, led
by the St. Charles lodge, directed
by Chancellor commander of that
lodge, Hon. Mr.. Bradshaw. The
Grand Keeper of Record and Seals,
Hon. NJ NJ. Rodgers, was the master
of ceremony, while Prof w. Sidney
Pittman was the supervising Archi-
tect. It was an imposing sight to
see the hundreds of persons march
ing from the Pythian Temple to the
place where the corner stone was to
| be laid, and when it was laid, there
was new corner stone laid in zion.
1t is token that we are for peace,
that we are God fearing, and are
seeking the things above by living
in the religious things below. Ev-
cry church we build is a monument
of our faith in our God and our firm
devotion in the section in which we
live. Let us build more churches
and more schools for these are they
that must count as the mighty ele-
ments in racial elevation coupled
with right action, right living and as
the basis to higher citizenship.