ORGAN OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH IN AMERICA.
Volume XXII.
Charlotte, N. C., Thursday, December 8, 1898.
Number 49.
WITNESSES CALLING
For Vengeance Against a Cruel
and Lawless. King.
I , BY BISHOP J. W. HOOD, D.D., LL.D.
4fFor the stone, shall cry out of
the wall, and the beam out of the
Umber shall answer)' it.”—Habak
kuk 2:11.
While passing th rough the Vir
ginia Conference mj attention was
federal times called to this text.
There seems to be some doubt as
to its meaning.
To understand a passage of
Scripture, it is generally neces
»ary to consult the context. This
is especially necessary, respecting
the passage we are considering,
which, taken out of its connection,
means nothing. The preposition
‘‘For” with which the text begins,
indicates that we must look back
to something which precedes it, in
order to understand it. The sub
ject begins at the fourth verse.
The prelude at the first verse.
The Prophet, sta nding upon his
watch-tower awaiting divine ? di
rection, is commanded to write the
vision and make it so plain that he
who readeth it may run. He is
assured that the prophecy shall be
fulfilled. Though the vision may
seem to tarry, the judgment is
sure.
Then at the fourth verse, he be
gins to declare the pride, vanity,
iniquity, intemperance, unholy
ambition, transgression and un
righteousness of Nebuchadnezzar
and Belshazzar. He declares of
Nebuchadnezzar that his desire
(for gain) is enlarged, as hell, as
death? which can cot be satisfied.
“He gothereth all nations to him
self” That is, he attempted to
extend his conquests to the ends
of the earth. Not by any right,
but simply to extend his dominion,
and to satisfy his thirst for power.
In the 7th and 8th verses, the
Pjrophet declares, that as he had
spoiled others, so his dominion
and posterity should be spoiled.
There should be a sudden rising
up against him, to bite and vex
him; and the blood and violence
•which he had cans 3d others to suf
fer, should come to his own house.
At the 9th verse, the prophet
begins the denunciation of woe
upon Nebuchadnezzar’s house and
kingdom. u Woe unto him that
ebveteth an evil covetousness to his
J t&use, that he may set his nest on
high,. that he may he delivered from,
the power of evil!” God had em
ployed Nebuchadnezzar as an
agent to punish o her nations. He
imagined that his own arm had
gotten him the victory, and there
fore grew proud, cruel and op
pressive. He built up, enlarged,
embellished and fortified Babylon,
by spoiling and ruming many oth
er cities, and by destroying or en
slaving their inhabitants. In do
ing this, he thought to bring sta
bility to his own bouse. As birds,,
by their instinct, build the Jr nests
in the top of walls and other high
places, that their young ones may
f
i
be in safety, so he. thought hii
high towers and strong fortifica
tions would secure him from evil
But since his conquests wen
the result of covetousness, and his
towers built by the blood and un
requited toil of his captives, the
Prophet declares, * (verse 10,'
“Thou hast consulted shame t<.
thy house, by cutting off many peo
ple, and hast sinned against thy
soid.” Then follows the text:
“For the stone shall cry out of the
wall, and the beam out of the tim
ber shall answer it.”
Thy wickedness, and the dis
tress, which thou hast brought up
on many shall neither go unno
ticed nor unpunished. It shall be
proclaimed) upon the house top.
The very stones and timbers
which thou hast built, shall cry
out against thee. It requires two
witnesses to condemn, and here
they are. The stone of the wall
shall make the complaint, and the
beam of the timber shall sustain
tne ctiarqe.
The idea of stone testifying for
Jehovah, is not peculiar to this
te^xt. When the proud Pharisees
and. Sadducees qame to John’s
baptism, filled with thoughts of
their excellences, as tlje descend
ants of Abraham, he said unto
them: uThink not to say within
yourselves, we have Abraham to our
father/ Fc/r I say unto you, that
God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham. ” Also,
when Jesus made His triumphal
entrance into Jerusalem, amid the
loud hosannas, the chief priests
asked if He heard what the people
were saying. That is, they wanted
to know, if He really understood
that they were giving Him honors
due to Zion’s King and Lord. He
said yes, He understood them, and
if these held their peace, the stones
would cry out.
God can cause inanimate nature
to testify for Him. It may also
bear testimony against the wicked.
Or testimony may come from a
source as unexpected as if the
stone should cry out of the wall,
and the beam of the timber echo
the cry. Let not thy heart with
pride be lifted up, nor build thy
house by pulling others down, for
stones of walls built up by shed
ding blood, with groaning tim
bers, lifting their voices to God,
shall meet thee at the bar, when
thou art called to stand before the
Judge of all the earth, and cry for
vengeance there.
Fayetteville, N. C.
Sister Mary Jane Stevenson,
the oldest and most faithful work
er of our church, died November
16th, in her 70th year. Though
suffering with an afflicted limb she
dragged the old body out to our
second quarterly meeting and
there told us in the love-feast that
that may be her last time to meet
with us; if so, somewhere around
God’s eternal throne we can meet
heiv She is now in glory. She
was well thought of by thefnemr
bers and the community at large.
—Rev. D. P. Witten, Lock Haven.
5 THAT “AD” CONTRACT.
I Heartily Agree With Elder
Chambers' Criticisms.
1 BY BISHOP GEO. W. CLINTON, D. D.
i Mr. Editor - For reasons which
need no explanation, I have adopted
a rule to avoid newspaper contro
versies and discussiont|tonles8 some
occasion should ariap which I
thought demanded attention such
as I could safely give.>
I have been waitiqtf for a little
spare time to write ai article on
“Zion and Lay Rec<|gnition.” I
shall discuss) this subject in the
near future, Providence permit
ting. Just now I want to do what
I have not been able to do hith
erto—commend one of Rev. S. A.
Chambers’ “Cannon Balls,” and at
the same time correct an impres
sion which your editorial comment
seems to majce concerning the
Star of Zion advertisements.
I heartily agree with the criti
cisms which Elder Chambers
makes concerning, a certain class
of ads which the Star is now
carrying. I also agree with what
he suggests relative, to certain
ads which should be carried.
But I beg to most respectfully
demur when the Editor indicates
that an agreement has obtained
since the Star was first moved to
Charlotte wtych has compelled the
present management to carry objec
tionable ads against its will. Dur
ing the management which had
charge of the Star prior to J une
1896, the Southern Newspaper
Union controlled about three col
umns as part'payment for printing
the Star on its press. There was
no time when this contract could
flot have beeh annulled by giving
a week’s notice; and at no time
were more than two of the objec
tionable ads. condemned by Elder
Chambers carried in the Star of
Zion by the) Southern Newspaper
Union prior Jto June 1896.
The Editot very well knows that
there has been no compulsion upon
the present management of the
Star to carry any ads for the
Southern Newspaper Union since
the Star has used its own press.
He also knows that I made a mo
tion at the Asbury Park meeting
of the Board of Publication requir
ing the presenl Star Managers to
keep a standing directory of our
General Officers, heads of our
educational institutions, Confer
ence stewards, annual Conferences
and a display ad of Livingstone
College. I have more than once
called the Editor’s attention to
some of these omissions, especially
the entire omission of the list of
Conference; stewards, the occa
sional omission of Livingstone
College ad and the small type used
when it is published. I have won
dered why other institutions can
get their *.d§ carried in display
type, and the Livingstone College
ad is carried in small type, and
very often !n some obscure place;
while other institutions are not
advertised at all. The Editor
/ :: S'
should tell when the present ad
contract was made and by whom.
The blame should be placed where
it belongs. Thou shalt not say I
did it. Shake not thy inky pen at
me, even though I was pressed as
thou hast not been and 1 hope
never shall be, for means to keep
the Star shining for all.
Memphis, Tenn.
GOOD NEWS.
BY MRS. M. A. CREWS.
Our most beloved pastor is Rev.
M. S. Cost. Last January Bishop
J. B. Small sent him to Mt, Tabor
circuit. He is a model Christian
gentleman, a good gospel preacher,
and acknowledged by hundreds of
our ministers and people tb be the
sweet singer of Zion in Alabama.
Our presiding elder says he is the
Sankey of Alabama.
Rev. Edward Hunter is our pre
siding elder. He is a God-fearing
man and is always at his place and
knows what to do when he is there.
He is a forceful gospel preacher.
The stewardesses and many friends
tendered a grand reception to our
presiding elder and pastor. The
Sabbath-school donated to the pre^
siding elder 80 cents; friends do
nated 60 cents, stewardess board
number one donated $1.00.
Our church is a little mission
with o4 members. We paid our
pastor this year, $22.05; general
fund raised this year, $9.26. \
We pray that God will move
upon the heart of the Bishop to
send our beloved pastor back
to us.
lrorville, Ala.
AFRICA.
BY REV. J. F. MILLER, S. T. D.
God will ultimately give to the
Negrc the work of evangelizing
Africa. We lack in way of prop
er preparation and experience, nor
are we ready to begin I hold ^e
are not prepared for the work of
evangelizing Africa, and that God
has reserved the work for us. He
has a long time in which to do it.
He hs.s no need to make haste.
Peter, the apostle, in his day,
met the question when in reply to
the scoffers who said: “Where is
the sign of his coming, for since
the fathers fell asleep, behold all
*thing3 remain as they were unto
this day?” His answer was: “Ye
do not remember that a thousand
years are as one day with the
Lord, and one day as a thousand
years.” All eternity is in His
hands, and therefore He need not
haste with His purposes concern
ing Africa. We are beginning to
divine what is to be the rehabilita
tion, what is to be the moral, social,
industrial rehabilitation of Africa,
when she shall have been clothed
in the glory of new life and her
sons and daughters shall be exalted
in that land, just as He held this
coun try in reserve, concealed from
the eyes of the world for centuries,
until the time had come for its
discovery and development.
Louisville, Term.
\
RACIAL PREJUDICE.
Its Cause and Remedy—A Very
Excellent Sermon.
BY REV. J. R. DAN6ERFIELD.
Why do the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing?
—Psalms 2:1-3.
The human heart is never so
clearly set before the world as it
is pow in the text. Its very prin
ciples are defined. It bows to the
will of the most devilish and in
human schemes. There cannot be
any more commendable part of
the devil’s action than when our
minds are led to the 4th chapter of
Acts and the 27tb and 28th verses.
This is not to be wondered at
r
when you, £nd .the human heart
void, stultified and corrupted with
a disease of vile and painful pas
sion. You notice the weak child
of God, yet a babe, but God’s
eternal Son, was turned against
with the strong arm of Herod,
Pontius Pilate and with other re
bellious spirits, who gathered to
gether with a murderous mob to
do violence and to overthrow the
great plari» of salvation. We see
the heathens raging and wavy like
the sea, tossed to and fro like the*
restless waves in a storm, lathing
the innocent ship to pieces. These
kings of the earth array them^*
selves against the God of creation
by destroying human lives.
Mob violence is now apparent,
and the grand principles of the
moral law of God is but the foot
stool, subject to their evil author
ity. Race prejudice excites the
ignorant and the vile; color is its
cause. Who is responsible for his
being? God, our common father,
is the Lord ovef u» ill. * Our fair
land and its history are now
stained with human blood. It
shall break forth with utterance
with its blood, crying from the
ground against their brothers in
white.
Since the sainted soul of Abra
ham Lincoln signed the emancipa
tion proclamation, over 5,000 hu
man souls of black men and women
have suffered death by the lynch
law on our American soil. I
claim that the white man must be
educated along special lines, and
the white pulpits and the press
with these powerful agents will
effect good results along that
line. Let our leading people con
sider the fair wolds of Dr. Abbott
and Dr. Parkhurst: “Give the
colored man of this country his
rights and let the government of
this republic be respected.”
Religion is one of the greatest
elements left out of the question.
Men and pulpits are discussing
higher criticism, higher science,
and religion seems apparently left
aside. When religion is in the
heart and education in the head,
prejudice and color line will en
tirely be ostracised and eliminated
from the face of this nation. And
the only thing that will bring
about this civilization is true
religion and pure education. God
help the race.— JJtica (JV.-. Y.)
Daily Press.