Newspapers / The Star of Zion … / Oct. 13, 1921, edition 1 / Page 1
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NTJMEBR FORTY CHARLOTTR WORTH OCTOBER 13, 1521. c VOLUME FORTY-FIVE Aspects of Unification. By James R. Joy, LL. D. Editor “The Christian Advocate,” New York City. (Road at the Ecumenical Confer ence, Sept. 9th, London, England ) Methodists are accused with hav ing a gift for boasting. Our denomina tional expansion has been so amazing that it makes us happy to talk about it, not only when we meet in family gatherings like this (when perhaps it is a proper topic of conversation), but in interdenominational councils, where it seldom starts spontaneous applause. My own Church, the Meth odist Episcopal, has this bump of brag so well developed that a wag has dubbed os "Methodist Statisti cal,*’ a name which will be hard to live down, for, like the precocious poet, we, too, have “Lisped in num bers ere the numbers came.” But there te one form of numerical in crease of .which no American Metho dist is proud. He likes to brag that there are so many million communi cants, and so many tens of millions of adherents, but he relegates to the parenthesis and the agate footnote, the fact that there are no less than seventeen classified sorts and ‘ kinds of Methodist Churches in America, I should like to have you feomdder_ body. UNION DESIRABLE. 1. Because the necessity is upon all Christian people to compose their non-essential differences .and join heart and hand in the crusade for a Christian America and a Christian ne rising tide of materialism was already threatening to drown the spiritual ideals of our nation long before the Great War burst all the dikes and flooded our national life with waves of extravagance, self-in dulgence and godlessness. The pur suit wealth and pleasure goes madly on to the indifference or scorn ful neglect of those ideas which— w aether called Puritan or Method ist—have given the American Com saanwealth its moral influence. To regain the lost ground and fight a winning battle against the demoral ising forces which are now at large requires the consolidation of every element of effective power. Method ism, with its firm faith in God, and its warm sympathy with men, is des tined to hold the centre of the at tacking ^column, but it cannot ad vance with divided forces and under rival commands. United we stand and drive the enemy. Divided we fall back, and the day is lost. lenity, therefore, should be our first and strongest desire. 2. Again, Methodist Union is de sirable because without it we are spending men and money in waste ful rivalry. We are aggressive folk, we Methodists, and difficult people to keep within metes and hounds. Ev ery page of our history shows this. Wesley’s defiant, “I look upon all the world as my parish,” is not only written on the tablet on yonder state ly abbey. You may read it on every Methodist heart. It has led us into every land, preaching our message in every tongue. “No trespassing” signs are hard reading for Methodist eyes. Our manifest destiny is to ex pand. "It’s better farther on,” Is one ©f our watchwords. But there should never be two Methodist preachers working at a one-man job, so long as there are countless tasks in Amer ica and the world with no man to send to them. We desire such a union ®f Methodism as shall release every man and every dollar from competi tive activity for service in new ,an4 undermanned fields. There is not enough Methodist gunpowder to al low a grain of it to be firfed at fellow Methodists. 3. And why should I hesitate to say what is in the minds of all of you who perceive the trend of the times? Protestantism was never in such need of shock troops as now. No discerner of the signs of the times —not to say reader of the Roman Catholic press—can doubt that the Vatican has summoned all its re sources in these post-war years 7>f confusion and dismay to seize every advantage and push through every door that stands ajar. In America, as here and in France and Italy, that hierarchy which has everywhere re vealed itself as a conspiracy against human freedom is grasping eagerly at power. The signal has been flashed out from Rome that the tide of Prbt eetantis'm is/ receding; that the Ref ormation Churches have lost faith in the Bible; that they even question the divinity of their Christ; and that the time has come to recover all that Luther took away. The hope is arous ed that one supreme effort at this crisis will turn the wavering world from the doubts and questionings of Protestantism back to the old Roman to its •s which is more sathfryidg than the “authority” of the Peti^ne Church. We have num bers, we have morale, we have access to people of every class, we have incomparable organization, we have a record of service to humanity. Yet we, who should be the solid founda-i tion of Protestantism, are content to remain in fragments. May God, by some speedy miracle of Grace, transmute us into a monolith which nothing shall disintegrate or over throw and which shall be to others like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 4. Finally, Methodist Union is de- j sirable as an example and incentive to others. It is sad to confess that Protestantism has drawn so many lines of separation. In America this tendency to comminuted fracture has run wild. Our religious census lists hundreds of denominations, not only seventeen kinds of Method ists, but sixteen species of Baptists. Even such close-knit stuff as Ptes byterians are made of has ravelled into eleven recognised Church bo dies. All these are full fledged, with more or less denominational machin ery, conventions, assemblies, mod erators, presidents, and boards at the top, and at the bottom a multi plication of feeble congregations often competing for support in the same locality, living at a dying rate and wasting their denominational substance on doctor’s bills in the form of home mission grants. It is true that union movements have been proposed in several of these groups. Certain Lutheran bodies have recent ly come together with results which should encourage all others to take the same steps. But American Prot estantism will not make the plunge until some" great and typically Amer ican group like the Methodists leads the way. The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist 'Protestant Churches are the proper ones to demonstrate its practicabili ty. If they are successful, it. takes no unusual prophetic faculty to fore cast that within another decade the 12 million Methodists will be allied with a blue army of 10 million Pres byterians and a sea-going fleet of 10 million Baptists, and that these three evangelical jbod%e| loyal to Christ and friendly to each other, (Continued to page 8) - THE DYER FOR LYNCH ssociation for the olored People, TO f York, today an as its slogan in anti-lynch into law by the The Jtf^tiona] Advancement < Fifth Avenue?’' nounced the-ai the fight ing bill' enact United States A 'statiiSpa^, ........ ciation today and signed by James Weldon Johnson, calls upoif colored people throughout the country to watch their representatives and sen ators. Mr. Johnsott’s statement reads as follows: “The Department of Justice has gone on record in an opinion deliver ed by Judge Ooff; saying that the Dy er anti-lynching bill was constitu tional. 'There is no longer any excuse why any representative of the Amer ican people should oppose a meas ure designed to end such a mon strous evil as mio "Every vote*ag in the House of in the Senate, id’ i “Every reprefee senator who /d|t| bill ought to be §| ers throughout # •placed-:'on • record the Dyer bill esentatives or > for lynching. ie and every » oppose this »y colored vet tovitlhat the Dyer hHl is passed aftd that the name of every man in Con gress who opposes that bill is put on record. <rA constant fire of telegrams and letters should be directed' at your Congressmen so that they know without any shadow of doubt that their constituents want the bill passed.” NATIONAL MEETING OF COLOR ED CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES IN WASHINGTON LIN COLN’S BIRTHDAY. Washington, D. C. Announcement is made through the President, Rev. B. D. W. Jones, of the Committee of Seven, that a national meeting of Colored citizens will be called here in this city Febru ary 12th, 1922 for the purpose of de ciding on some definite programme of racial activity. At a meeting held in the rooms of the Y. M. C. A. Monj day afternoon to which the Editors of our Negro papers were called to endorse the movement, Mr. Finley Wilson of the Eagle, as president of the Press Association as sured the Committee that the j Colored Press of the Country would give such u meeting litoty support and that he would seek to have every Colored newspaper repre sented. Mr. LuValle of r.he Tribune and Rev. Williams representing the Bee both spoke in highest terms of the proposed assembly and the Tri bune will aid in the publicity. It is the intention of the Committee of Seven to call the Presidents of ev ery organization of racial uplift and citizens, from every state in the Un ion. Plans are already on the way and invitations have been sent to a number of those who are at the head of such organizations and to every state calling them to come and pro test against wrongs, slights and in justices and to work for a united ra cial action. Drs. Waldron, Pinn, Jarvis, Tanner, Hendersop and Mr. Geo. Robinson will have the affair well on the way by Armistice day when the Committee will-publicly announce its plans in connection with the celebration to be held at John Wesley Church ^the evening of November 11. The slogan adopted is a United Nirth Caralina's Nc§r# Program. Education, Health, Agriculture, 'and Public Welfare Receive Attention. —Ignorance Cures Nothng. ; . By Wm. Anthony Aery, Hampton, Va., Oct.—- The pres ent Nortji Carolina program of Ne gro education and health—State and local—provides* for spending $4,000, 000 in the near future Some fifteen years ago North Carolina was spend ing about $4,000,000 annually for the education: ot al! its citizens- -white and colored^ j>r Ji .C. Brooks, State Superin tendent of public instruction and Prof. N. C. Newbold, director of the State division of Negro education, held a conference recently at Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C., and pre sented to the leading Negroes of North Carolina—representative edu cators, ministers, business men, doc tors,, lawyers, lodge and club officers, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. work ers, and editors—the State’s unified programs of education, health, agri culture, and public welfare. This conference was held with a view to securing the active cooperation of tbe Negro leaders in spreading the good news of North Carolina’s con ry,. normal/ technical,* ana ewiegwwr —is shown by the General Assembly appropriations which amount to $235,000 and which include the fol lowing important items: Buildings and equipment, three State normal schools, $500,006; main tenance, three State normal schools (annual), $75,000; Division of Negro education (annual), $15,0C0; Teach er-training and private schools (an nual), $15,000; Teacher-training and summer schools (estimated, annual) $20,000; Right school and vocational eiueation (estimated, annual) $30, 000: Building and improvement, Agricultural and Technical College, Greensboro, N. C., $115,000; main tenance, A. and T. College, (annual $30,000; Building reformatory for Negro boys, $25,000; Mainte: nsrcc of reformatory (annual) $10, 000; Sanatorium for Negro Tubercu lar patients, $100,000; tcxtal State appropriations, $935,000. Square-deal Program. Several hundred “missionaries of peace and good-will” received, in the spirit of real thanksgiving, the glad tidings of North Carolina’s program for her Negro citizens’ advancement. Governor Morrison, like his prede cessor (the beloved Thomas W. Bickett,) stands Solidly behind, this liberal State program for Negroes* He has expressed his desirq tb give all the citizens of* the State a square deal. He has the moral and financial support of the white citizens in this State-wide policy. Appeal for Co-operation. “We have not reached the mille nium in North Carolina,” said Direc tor Newbold. “We ace, however, go ing in the right direction. Will you go back into your communities and oil the machinery of progress or will you throw rocks in the way? North Carolina is sincere in this work for its colored people. The State wants to make conditions better than they have ever been. Will you tell the leaders and the people about North Carolina’s hopes and plans? We must all work together to make North Carolina what it should be. Our State cannot be what it should be •unless she does what she should do for all classes.” Ignorance Cures Nothing. "Let us remember that ignorance is"a cure for nothing. Let us pledge ourselves to carry Out the .Preamble ..... ■■■> to the Urifteif Smtes0onstftuftfc»~ to form a more perfect union, to in jure justice, to provide for the com* niton defense, to promote the general welfare, and to insure the blmsings 5f liberty to ourselves and m our posterity.” Progress in Race Relatione. Dr. JamCa Hardy Dillard, president >f the Jeanes and Slater Boards, - laid, “North Carolina to the most progressive and forward-looking State of the South. Its program rests up the earth. The best way to im prove race relations is to &way the underpinning of Education and the religion of Jesus Christ win do this work. “Great forward movements are always slow. We must lPve here in friendship. We have no time to hate. We must do things. A righteous God rules the universe. We are beaded right; Let us band together, thoep who try to love justice, courage and faith; There has been a steady pro gross-. ■ tofifird better' 9£6e> ^toitlons during the last fifty years.*1 UNIVERSAL NEGRO »M hi ENT ASSOCtATION ITS PRESIDENT PLEADS HEARING. Presfdefitfbf General of the Universal provement Association, made the following appeal to the Negro Press and preachers of America to-day: “Wh^ not be fair and constructive in your criticisms of good and new movements? Why not support a thing for the good that is in it, rather than condemn it because you are not at the head of it? Individuals like water, find their level. Thus the question of race development is nqt with the individual, it is with the measure; yet so many journalists' and preachers of our race have con demned, written and, spoken against th^ Universal Negro Improvement Association from personal feelings without knowing really what it Stands for. This organization is striv ing for the complete emancipation of Negroes everywhere and for the freedom of Africa for all Negroes. “No sensible Negro should oppose such a program, yet through jeal ousy and petty spite, a large number of our newspapers and preachers at tack , the movement, thereby doing harm to the biggest moving force among Negroes for the liberation of all. Let us throw away narrow mindedness ifl public matters an* support movements for the good in them, and not try to destroy them because we as individuals do not lead. I hope in time all the Negro newspaper men and preachers of America will come into the Universal Negro Improvement Association, for us to place the ablest men in the lead of the greatest ‘Movement of Destiny, ever started within the last 500 years.” QUARTERLY MEETING AT TROUTMAN. At the Troutman, N. C., church where Rev. G. R. Glenn Is the pas tor, on October 9, 1921, was one of the best ^Quarterly meetings ever held there. The sum of $120.15 was raised. The pastor was paid for the year and $10.50 as a surprise gift was donated to the Presiding Elder, Rev. Hawkins on a conference suit. Rev. Glenn has raised all claims and is now ready for the conference. at Troutman
The Star of Zion (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 13, 1921, edition 1
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