Newspapers / The Star of Zion … / Aug. 16, 1900, edition 1 / Page 2
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Christian Baptism. BIBLE FACTS FOR TRUTH SEEKERS. BY REY. T. H. SLATER. Letter 4. In my third letter, I said that some Egyptians,all of them adults, I believe, were immersed at the same place, but they are never said to have been baptized. Of those baptized at the Red Sea, how many were permitted to enter the promised land? Read Num bers 14: 28-31. Besides Joshua and Caleb, only those who were baptized in infancy or early youth. Were infants baptized then on this occasion? Read 1 Cor. 10:2. The scripture informs us that they were all baptized. Have we any other scripture bearing on infant baptism ? Yes, of John’s baptism we read Matt. 3: 5, “Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Ju dea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan.” Strange if there were no children in all that region. We have other instances in Acts 15: 16-33; 1 Cor. 1: 16; Acts 10: 47. The household of Lydia, the jailer of Philippi,and of Stephanus were all baptized; also the house hould of Cornelius, and those of his near friends were doubtless baptized. Water baptism does not affect the remission of sins. We are not the children of God because we are bjjkptized; but rather we are baptized because we are the chil dren of God. The question may be asked, Is not the duty of the Church the same toward all children whether they are baptized or not?” My answor-is, no more is its duty to wards all men the same whether they are church members or not. The Church has a duty toward all: but a special duty toward those who are its own. Our relations to God, and to his Church, are in part covenant relations. Read Gal. 6: 10. God has always en tered into covenant wi^h parents concerning their children, and he is a covenant-keeping God. Read Gen, 15: 18; Ex. 44: 27; Deut. 29: 10-15; Mai. s: 6; Psalms 106:45. The Christian Church is the continuation of a community in which children were always reck oned as members. Jesus him self declares, “Of such is the king dom of God.” Matt. 10: 4. Children do receive the opirit baptism of which water baptism is only the symbol. Read Joel 11: 28, 29. The promise is “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” Then the prophet goes on to speci fy the various classes upon whom the gift of the Spirit should come, including every age, sex, and con dition. “Your sons, and your daughters, your old men, and your young men, the servants and the handmah literally the slaves, both male and female: all ages and all conditions are all in cluded in this promise. Also Pe ter speaking of the Holy Ghost, declares, “The promise is unto you and your children.” John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth. The scripture proofs of the rela tion between water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost are found in Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33; Acts 1:5; Acts 2:16* Eph. 4:5. The two are constantly associated in thei scriptures. The Greek verb “bap- i tizo” rendered baptize, is used to express the action in either case, and the scriptures plainly declare there is but one baptism. The following; text, and others may be cited, Mark 7: 4; Luke 11: 38. The Greek verb “baptizo,” usually rendered baptize cannot signify to immerse. The expression of Paul in Ro mans 4: 6 that “we are buried with him by baptism unto death” was certainly not intended to ex plain or determine either the mode of baptism or of burial. It cannoj, refer to an ordinary English inter ment, for this mode of burial was almost unknown among the peo ple to whom Paul was writing. Though even with us, on land, the burial of the dead is certainy not by immersion, for when a body is lowered into the grave it must still be buried by pouring or sprinkling earth upon it. And it is a well known fact that the Ro mans, to whose capital this epistle was addressed, held that a little dust thrice sprinkled upon a dead body was ritually considered a complete burial. The End. Carnegie, Pa. Bishop Walters Coming ANNUAL CONFERENCE. Bishop Alexander Walters, prominent colored orator and olergyman from New Jersey, will meet in this city August 23, 24, 25 26 and 27,at an annual conference, the first ever held in this city. At the present time Rev. Muggage is at work preparing the programme. There will be business sessions while the delegates are here, held in the A. M. E. Zion church, and services will be conducted in the* other churches. There are scores of able preachers in the district who will deliver sermons during the conference, and an address will be made by Bishop Walters at a general meeting. The pastors of the various churches have pledged to Mr. Muggage their support in assisting him in caring for the col ored clergymen. Delegates will be present from far-olf Nova Sco tia and other points in the district. Bishop Alstork of Alabama, re cently ordained a bishop, will be in attendance at this conference, and will no doubt give an address. The Rev. Muggage, pastor of the A. M. E. Zion church, who has in hand the arrangements for the conference, is improving the ap pearance of the church.* The edi fice is being painted, both exterior and interior, the work being done by the pastor. Rev. Muggage has been in charge of the local church for three years past and has done much in the way of im proving it. He is untiring in his work and people who have noticed this have tried to assist him, and as a result he has accomplished con siderable. it looks now as though he was about to be rewarded for his labor, as the bishop has indicated that he will, at fthe next conference, ap point him presiding 'elder of the district. This will necessitate more work, but there will be a good salary attached. At a meeting of the members of the colored church Thursday even ing, a vote of thanks was ex tended to the Agapean society of • the Congregational church for the carpet which was recently given to them.— Wisconsin Advocate. Dr. Bowen Lectures, A BRILLIANT AND FORCIBLE DISCUS SION ON THE RACE QUESTION. UTO BE OR NOT TO BE.” Rev. Dr. J. E. W. Bowen, professor of historical theology in" the Colored Theological Seminary, at Atlanta, Ga,, lectured before a large audience in Simpson Chapel on the evening of the 25th ult. Dr. Bowen is the man who came within three votes of being elect ed a bishop at the recent Methodist General Conference in Chicago, Any one who listened to his eloquent and learned address must have been sur prised that he should have failed of se curing an episcopacy. His address at all times commanded close and respectful attention and at times his forcible ut terances were greeted with hearty ap plause. And his address was an out spokemhxposition of the reasons why the colored race does not progress as rapidly as some of its leaders wouldlike to see. The lecturer at no time minced words, but the truth of his statements and the cogency of his arguments for bade any feeling of resentment. Some of Dr. Bowen’s brilliant utterances were as follows: ‘‘Race efficiency is the measure of race existence. Once upon a time men studied the heavens to see the glory of God and the evi dences of His transcendent power. To-day they place their very ears upon the very breast of the com mon hodcarrier or the bosom of the blacksmith and they listen to the mystic thud of the human heart which sends the life current dan cing upon the lips and burning in the cheeks and hear the inarticu late refrain, “The hand that made us was divine.” “The bald fact of the Negro’s intellectual capability has been es tablished beyond doubt. To be capable of education argues little in determining questions of ability and effectiveness. The bare fact that the Negro can read Greek and work in logarithms and calculus— the bare fact that he can work these problems out of books does not settle the question of race ef ficiency. The condition of life is to be changed and we have come to a day in our life when the ques tion of utility and of ability is un der consideration and is respected. “Races like individuals must and do have a supreme purpose and their whole history illustrates that purpose. It requires no great wis dom^to affirm that the purposeless is the worthless. Now, then, is the thought of the Negro race ‘to be or not to be;’ in other words, does the conscience of the race contain a dominating and a consuming pur pose to live and to achieve all the ideals within the purpose, or does the race want to die? It may die; annihilation may come by the de struction of the virtues of life or it may come by inefficiency, lassi tude or laziness. In any case it is annihilation or death. If any race surrenders to death, that race ought to die. It is suicidal on the part of the Negro to expect that he can live without grinding out the essentials of life. •’There are scores of pusillani mous persons within our ranks who insist that the development is to kill him, destroy him, and these men are willing to lose their iden tity and to surrender their person ality because they believe the only way to make anything put of the Negro is to have him swallowed up or destroyed. Such men are made of the stuff that cowards are made of. My friends, expressions of hope on part of friends and the philanthropic will prove abortive if there is not born in the very heart blood of the Negro race the thought, the passion to be—to live. There must be this idea— to rule and control—there must be within his heart the echo of that sentiment of the African Horace: ‘I am a man, and whatever con cerns men concerns me.’” [Ap plause.] “The ultimate critera by which you measure the power of a race are not its bool^ learning or its fi nancial power, but we have turned aside from these considerations as the measurement of a man to day. The man is measured not by his learning or by his property, but by his character.” [Applause.] Dr. Bowen referred to the great learning and military power of the ancient Greeks and Komans, which did not nevertheless prevent their utter destruction. “Ah, history teaches us some very sad lessons,” he said, ‘ ‘namely, that sin and shame are going to dig the grave of the individual and the race, and that righteousness will exalt, ac cording to the statement of the Old Book.” In reinforcing his argu ment that a race which fails to im prove its opportunities must of necessity give way to more pro gressive nations, the speaker re ferred to the North American In dian and the Boers of South Afri ca. If a man cannot stand on his feet, what are you going to do with him ? Are you going to prop him on all sides? Are you going to hold him, carry him all the time? How do you develop men and races? Do you know the po litical creed of the present white men ? The political creed—it is a religious creed, too—it is the first article of his creed, namely, “the survival of the fittest.” The best horse on the race track ought to win and he does win; the best man ought to win and he does win; the best race ought to win, and the best race does win. The weak goes down. The wheels of the cars of progress are more merciless than the wheels of the famed car of Juggernaut. They grind to pieces any people which gets in their way. • Oh, the history of .the white man is dark and bloody history. His feet are wet with blood and his hands, every time he lifts them up, Irop blood, because he hath im brued them in his brother’s blood. I know that the white man has been a heartless man, for there has not been a race that he has met into whose bosom he did not thrust his iron fist and tear the heart string out. I know it, but I want to tell you something else about him. He has pushed civilization forward; he has planted the cross of Christ; he is on the front car of the progress of the world and of mankind, and, despite all of his crimes and shortcomings, there are virtues in him that make me re spect him.” [Applause.] Dr. Bowen paid his respect to the '‘Mim prow car” laws in vogue in some Southern States and said that he intended to make their framers know that a real man is riding in the box car set apart foy his use in traveling—a remark that was loudly applauded. Does the race expect recognition ? If it does, it must put into its racial person ality, into the conscioOsness of that personality all of these elements that have made all races before it great and strong, that have made them the invincible foes of every possible evil, that have made them the uhconquered leaders in the new civilization.—Iridianapo U#{Ind), Journal. Lights and Shadows. THE PASSING OF PROF. NOBLE, ETC. BY WILLIAM MCB. PKOVINDER. The existence of mortal kind is limited—very limited. In count less individual instances, it has ap peared, and appears yet, to be more than limited; for the begin ning and the end were almost si multaneous. Nothing within the range of our vision, comprehen sion or knowledge, seems to be more certain, more absolutely and ruthlessly immutable, than the law if law it is—that all mankind must die. And so we pass on from moment to moment, from hour to hour; from day to day; from month to month; from year to year; from century to century; from ages to ages, living and dying, dying and living. Astounding mystery! Yes, mys tery. Is there aught else that we may rightly call it if We compre hend it not. Our most solemn contemplation of it all, is little more than weak, blind, human im agining and conjecturing. What more? ’Twas in the midst of, and in consonance with al| of this and more," that our good friend, brother and fellow-laborer, Prof. Francis H. Noble, the treasurer of Livingstone College, early in the morning of July 21st, ceased to breathe the breath of life, and passed from the lifeful hosts of the living to the lifeless myriads of the dead. He is gone, and in that going, an exceptional man left us. I met him nine years ago. He was in his familiar place—that place now remembered by so many, and so dear to them all, as Pro fessor of Mathematics and Natural Science. And he was indeed and in very truth professor of those lofty subjects. Thoroughly trained taughted, educated jn New Eng land culture and refinement, right ly endowed with masterful capaci ties and abilities, he was, above all else, an admirable master in the school-room. The many young men and young women, who vividly recall him and his teaching, cannot soon for get the marvelous enthusiasm, clearness, pleasantness and capti vating joyousness which character izes his instructions, and made life so delightful in his classes. His departments knew no dullness, no lethargy. But rather was it al ways overflowing full of buoyant, researchful effort, activity and life1* which the profound master-teacher alone can inspire. Livingstone, Zion and our people have suffered a comprehensive loss in the demise of this learned master, erudite scholar, genial brother, congenial fellow-worker. May others, like him, arise to take his place among the master-educators of the people. Good Bishop I. C. Clinton spent the week, 22nd—29th of July, in the Salisbury district. His com ing and stay were joy and inspira tion to the Zionites and their friends. He preached two splen did sermons in Salisbury on Sun day, and during the week preached in many of the district churches. H e returned to the Memorial church on Friday evening, and was tendered a delightful reception by the Presiding Elder and the pastor, members and friends of the sol dier’s Memorial church. Welcome addressees were made by Dr E. Moore, Rev. Bryant and Presid ing Elder McCorkle. There were solos and choruses and finally an admirable response of appreciation by the venerable churchman, and the joyful consumption of a taste ful repast. Much information is given through the newspapers relative « to the gloomy face that many Ne groes,on August 2nd,did cast their votes for the unconstitutional amendment. What of those Ne groes who deliberately voted for the certain disfranchisement of their own brethren and the more than probable disfranchisement of themselves ? Are they now suita ble subjects for laudatory verse and high commendation? What of them? Salisbury, N. C.
The Star of Zion (Charlotte, N.C.)
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Aug. 16, 1900, edition 1
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