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THE CHURCH AND THE NATION By Rev. Lewis Seymour Mudge, D. D. Moderator's Sermon at the General Assembly of the Pres byterian Church, Denver, May 26, 1932. “Take good heed, therefore, unto yourselves, that ye love the ,'IJord yiour God.”—Joshua 23:11. Tnese are tne words of Josh ua, the great cnurchman, states man anu soicuer or israei. it was to Josnua mat me word or the Lora came, saying, "Arise." in response to tms uivihe com mana josnua lea Israel into tne possession or me promised land, .but now nis work is done, and he is delivering his fare weh auuress. me woras or our text may he properly regarded as a summary of its contents: "Take good heed, tnereiore, un to yourselves, mat ye love tne Lord your Uod/' Literally in terpreted, these words may be accurately translated: "Lo to school to yourselves, learn the lessons available from your own experience, read the rec ord of God’s gracious dealings with you as a people, that His will for you may be made clear. As a nation we are in the midst of tne bicentennial cele bration of the birth of George Washington. He occupies much the same relation to our own nation that Joshua held in Is rael. He was a great church man, statesman and soldier. To himself also there came the word of the Lord saying, “Arise,” and in response to this command he led our forefath ers into the possession of what was to them the promised land. The day came when his fare well address must be delivered. Although totally unlike that of : J oshaa-^a-it* language, never theless its central idea is essen tially the same. It is a plea to his fellow-countrymen to go to school to themselves, to learn the lessons available from their recent experiences, to read the record of God’s gracious deal ings with them, that they may learn therefrom His will as to their future course. This is, indeed, an opportune occasion for us, as we assemble as the supreme judicatory of our great Church, to turn over the pages of our national and of our ecclesiastical history, w|ith the purpose of learning how as citizens we may become better churehmen and how as church men we may become better cit izens. If as churchmen and cit izens we turn the pages of our nation’s history we learn that: The Church founded the na tion. More than a century passed after the discovrey of this continent before the terri tory along its Eastern seaboard, which was to be occupied by the original thirteen colonies, was opened to settlement. Thus Ilia l ca, w|iuvu key to the possession of the American continent, was left e waiting the arrival of those great Anglo-Saxon Protestant groups which God was prepar ing as the founders of our na tion. , , When God’s hour struck these men and women came. Scotchmen and Irishmen who knew what it was to face Clav erhouse and his dragoons; Pil grims, Puritans and Quakers who had endured Stuart tyran ny backed by Latin influence; Hollanders who had conquered the hitherto invincible infan try of the Duke of Alva; Huge nots who had passed through the fires of the massacre of Bartholomew. For all these noble men and women the Church was the real morning of the State. The first building of consequence Which they erected in their in fant settlements was the Church, until scores of spires pointed the people to the great Source of civic and religious nerpetuity. This was the meth od of their political building. The churches moldKt'the peo pie, and the people made the mws. Each churcn w£s a local democracy having as its motto: "One is our Master, and all we are bretnren.” Each church was an incarnation of federal ism and tnus was a prophecy of the coming American union. On either side of the church, God s house, these men and women reared the schooihouse and the courthouse. These three stood side by side. Thus beneatn the whole fabric of our civilization there was laid oroad and deep the threefold , foundation of general intelli gence, reverence for God and respect for law. When the sons and daughters of the East marched out into the perma nent settlement of the West, they took with them these ideals. Thus it has come about that beneath the v^tiole fabric of our American civilization, from Plymouth Rock on the East to the Golden Gate on the West; from the snows of Alas ka in the North to the torrid waters of the Gulf in the South, there was laid broad and deep this threefold founda tion of general intelligence, reverence for God and respect for law. It has been said that wherever our flag floats, the Church is safe. This is true, but there is a greater and prior truth—(that wherever thje Church pioneers and fills the land with the right type of churches, there the flag and all that it symbolizes are safe. It is proper that at such a time and place as this, we should refer ooMMre, m the share wjhich our own eccle siastical forbears had in the founding of our nation. George Bancroft, the great American historian, is more than justified in his declaration that “the first voice to be raised in Amer ica to dissolve all connection with great Britain came, not from the Puritans'of New En gland, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Vir ginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.” At the time, of the revolution what was known as Westmore land county embraced all the territory claimed by Pennsyl vania west of the mountains, and was settled predominantly by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. When the news of the opening of the war at Lexington and Concord reached the people of Westmoreland, they came to gether in Hanna’s Town and on the 16th of May, 1775, passed resolutions; con\?eymg_ an ulti matum to the British govern ment and pledging themselves to resist its authority by force of arms until their demands for the repeal of all oppressive measures were granted. In the same month of the same year the Scotch-Irish peo ple of the county of Mecklen burg, North Carolina, adopted the celebrated Mecklenburg declaration, wjhich the royal gov ernor of that colony described as “most traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of its laws and constitution, and set ting up a system of rule and reg ulation subversive to his Maj esty’s government.” That such resolutions as those passed in Westmoreland county and such a declaration as that imade Jby Mecklenburg county were accurate reproductions of the mind and spirit of the whole Presbyterian constituency in America, is made .clear when we turn to the official records of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, which at that time was our highest judicato ry. In 1764 this Synod ad dressed a pastoral letter to the Presbyterian churches of America filled with patriotic and pioiKs senjtimjent. While not specifically advocating sep oration from the mother coun try, the Synod urged self-re straint on its constituency in view of me imposition of unus ual taxes, severe restriction of trade and sanction almost of stagnation of business," in the Slope that [without aggressive action on the part of the colo nists they might “be restored to a peaceful enjoyment of the inestimable privileges of En glish liberty." Succeeding annual sessions repeated in varying terms the££ same injunctions and hopes, but with evidently increasing anxiety and concern. On the seventeenth of May, 1775, the Synod met in Philadelphia. where the second Continental Congress was then in session. These two bodies^ were in con stant touch, througE John Witherspoon and others who held membership in each. The letter issued by this Synod of 1775, as well as the minutes of their respective sessions, gives abundant evidence of this fact. It expresses the horror of the Synod at the possibility of civil War, but at the same time ex horts the young men of the Church to stand ready to serve as “champions of their coun try’s cause.” It appeals, more over, for loyalty as long as pos sible to the British govern ment, for the maintenance of the union then existing among the colonies, of which the Con tinental Congress was the visi ble evidence, for the support of high moral standards through out the colonies, the payment of just debts and the carrying on of war, if war must come, ih a spirit of humanity and mercy. The same Synod in the year 1'783, at the conclusion of the revolutionary war, issued a let tetr to the congregations, de darifcgr "We eajf riot hdpean-^ gratulating'you on the general and almost universal attach ment of the Presbyterian body to the cause of liberty and the rights of mankind. The letter also refers with special empha sis to “the happy selection as eommander-in-chief of the ar my of the United States of one who has given universal satis faction and whose character and influence after so long a service are not only unimpaired but augmented.” On May 17th, 1789, was held the first session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, with John Witherspoon in the chair. As we examine !he minutes of the historic occasion, it thrills us to discov er that the very first action of importance taken up by our first General Assembly w as to prepare and forward an ad dress of congratulation to Gen eral George Waslhington, who had just been elected the first President of the United States of America. Thus it came about that our Church was certainly the first and, so far as we have been able to discover, the only ecclesiastical body with nation al jurisdiction to give prompt and whole-hearted official sup port to the recently organized national government and to its first chief magistrate. The Church has fostered the nation. As the Church ana me nation together turn the pages of our history, as we go to school to ourselves, as we learn from our experience, the sec ond great truth we ascertain is that the Church has far more than any other organization fostered the nation in the ad vancement of its highest and best interests: 1. Through ideals. Out of the centuries that have fled; out of Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, the holy empire, the medieval monarchies; out of the renaissance and the re formation into our declaration of independence, there emerged three great ideals. We crystal lize them in the three words: Liberty, equality and fraternity. But it was left to the Protestant Church to irareal the deeper meaning, the higher signifi cance and real content of these ideals, and to release their di vine power for the blessing of mankind. As interpreted by the Protestant - Church, lioerty means freedom within the lim its of mora!l law; equality— there is One who is Judge of all tne earth, and before His judgment seat we must all ap pear and give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or evil, and with Him there is no re spect of persons; fraternity— there are two great command ments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy 4 God with all thy heart, and| wjlth all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all tljjy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.” Thus the ProtestantgChurch has not only redeemed fthese great ideals from degradation, but has Chris tianized tpm for the service of mankiiffc 2. T. The Ami hear muc; nature c home. I tractors nowhere are the, these wo: band, son, da ter. Now) tinctions s institutions: (a) home. Today we said of a derogatory ning the American esponse to its de ice it to say that on God’s earth ideals embodied in held so high: Hus e, father, mother, ter, brother and sis e else are the dis tween a carnal mar riage, a, Jfeommercial marriage and a lov i match so clearly un 1 ^ Nowhere are the re erences more clear in the relations ea rn the characters m the lines of in in motion. :equently said that rnt day civilization it of the charac American home. Ap parently this statement is made with the conviction that this settles the matter. May we not, however, raise this question: If our present Amer ican civilization be an undesira ble environment for the typical American home, should we not insist upon the modification of that civilization rather than the abandonment of the typical American lipme? (b) The American school. Our public school system is one of the bulwarks of our liberties. It is at once a great leveler and a great uplifter, and also in the best sense a great molder. While we rightly exalt the sig nificance of our common school system, let us remember that ? J. - - - A i- _ Xlt a AT AT derstood-i suiting ly discei tablishc formed fluences It is our does nc it is a gift to the nation not of the statesman, but of the churchman. As Presbyterians we should never forget the ori gin of our common school sys tem. The first person to estab lish a public school was John Calvin, and he founded such a system in tlje city of Geneva, Switzerland. The value of this institution was recognized by the Calvinists of Holland, of England, of Scotland and of Ire land, and through these groups was brought to America. Time fails us to trace in detail the tremendous influence of John Calvin in America in this par ticular. Suffice it to say that practically all our great Eastern universities, as well as our pub lic school system, are the out growth of . Calvin’s public school system. (c) The American babbatn. Our American civilization has foundations. Let us'remember wherein lies the strength of these foundations. Inpartfcular let us not lose sight of the re lationship between these foun dations and rational, Scriptural Sabbath observance. Note the strata which underlie our civil ization* of which Sabbath ob servance is one: The Church, the worship of the sanctuary, the observance of the Sabbath, religion, God, conscience, re gard for life, respect for prop erty and stable civilization. Withdraw Sabbath observance (Continued on page 2) TELLS OF RACIAL DISCRIM INATION IN WASHINGTON Washington, May—.(By 0. Adamson for The Associated Negro Press.) The smog self sufficiency of Washington was knocked into a cocked hat under the scorching castigation delivered by Charles Edward Russell, veteran champion of Negro rights, in a speech deliv ered before the delegates and visitors to the National Associ ation for the Advancement of Colored People at the Friday afternoon session. When the venerable old fighter mounted the platform, his bent, aging frame gave little promise of the fire and force which the pass ing years have not been able to dim or weaken. When he arose to speak, the weight of years seemed to roll away from his drooping shoulders, and he seemed transformed into the erect, undaunted fighter of former years. Mr. Russell, wjho is chairman of the Inter-racial Committee of the District of Columbia, told his audience of the work of his committee and to the surprise of many out-of town delegates, and no doubt to the irritation and discomfort of smug Washingtonians, painted an ugly and disheart ening picture of conditions in the capital. He said that his committee had found condi tions in Washington to be nothing' short of appalling. “If a colored man in Washington escapes for twenty-four hours without being insulted,” he said, “he does so by locking himself up in his room or among his own people.” • IThe Inter-racial Committee has found in this city an ever present effort to make the Ne gro feel that he is inferior. There is, Mr. Russell pointed out, a cominual* effort ~to mark off all facilities to keep any person of dark skin from com ing in contact with white peo ple. Signs are erected in public parks and playgrounds making it known that Negroes are to keep out; and Mr. Russell said that as fast as his comihittee can move these signs from one place they spring up in anoth er, It has been discovered by this committee that there are stores in Washington where Negroes can not purchase goods. It has also been brought to light that there is not a dowta-town theater in the city of Washington to which colored people are admitted. These same people, popularly reputed to be one of the most musical races, are virtually debarred from hearing concerts of the National Symphony Orchestra, a public institution, simply be euase a clause in the charter of a certain hall misnamed Con stitution Hall, owned by an or ganization also misnamed Daughters of the American Revolution, states that no per sons but Caucasians be permit ted upon the platform or to par ticipate in performances in that building. This, Mr. Russell said, was the biggest piece of histo rical irony to be found any where in this country. Not only are these marked disadvantages to be found in cultured Washington, but here the Negro “is denied the indis pensable equal right to earn bis own bread” by reason of a tacit agreement among em ployers in the District of Co lumbia to the effect that Ne groes are to be last to be em ployed and the first to be dis charged. The determination is crystallized in a popular slogan among employers which says, “Jobs for white men.” In speaking of inequality of appropriations for public edu cation in the District of Co lumbia, Mr. Russell pointed out that white Negroes constitute one-third of the school popula tion of the District, only nine teen per cent of the appropria tion for education is expended for the benefit of colored school children. In an effort to equalize the expenditures on paper, Mr. Russell stated, the budget committee has three times inserted in the accounts the amount of $600,000 which is credited to the colored school system for an old building dis carded by whites and turned over to Negroes. This building, formerly known as McKinley High School, was described by Mr. Russell as! being old, iU adapted, unsanitary and a veri table fire trap. There is not an inch of playground around this building, and by reason of traf fic hazzards, it . is perhaps the most dangerous location in the city. However, this building, found to be unfit for white pu pils, instead of being wrecked, was turned over to colored pu pils, the presumption being that “it was not good enough for wjhites but good enough for colored,” JTVU vvuuivtviiQ nuivu have been discovered by the Tnter-riciai Committee are well known to every Negro living in Washington. Such huftiiliating experiences as Mr. Russell de scribed are daily encountered and ty intiimaite circles arfe whispered in confidence, but, like the family skeleton,,, are never dragged out to be viewed by strangers, for the obvious reason that to admit the exist ence of such conditions is to ac cept the challenge to correct them. It is to the shame of Washingtonians , that these conditions have been permitted to exist unchallenged for so long a time. It is natural for one to take pride in the city in which one lives, butwheh this pride is taken to the point of closing one’s eyes to what is evident to every intelligent per son, hamely, that every cultural opportunity is closed to persons of dark skin, even to pretend to’ be happy and content in such ait^@nvironiftettti -IS to"admtt^ - * ^ that one is living in a fool's t-iqvqHiqP The far-famed beauty of Washington and her widely proclaimed culture Mr. Russell sniffed at scornfully. The mag nificence of the Lincoln Memo rial, the grandeur of the Wash ington monument, the beauty of the public parks and the stateliness of the public build ings of this city, Mr. Russell said, are but a hideous mock ery. He invited his audience to go with him to some of the back alleys which “are an ever lasting disgrace to the nation’s capital” and which continue to blight its beauty after years of constant effort to eradicate \ them. [f Mr. Russell wasted no words I in guilding the lily. In fact he painted a picture so black that one could not help wondering if the Inter-racial Committee was not face to face with an almost impossible situation. The hope of the situation i^ests in the ability of that committee to shake the colored population out of its lethargy and to arouse it sufficiently to the disgrace of acquiescing in such a state of affairs that they themselves will assert their rights to the blessings and opportunities which this fair city should hold for every human being. BENEVOLENT NEU TRALITY It is wtell to bear in mind this warning in a writer’s studies in personality: “Theije are some persons who can never support a middle state of mind. If they do not positively like others, they will see some reason for disliking them; they will be en emies if they are not friends.” Love or hate seems to be their motto, and the result is “a kind of enmity towards numbers of persons to whom there is not the slightest real reason for feeling it.” Beware of unpleas ant impressions of persons of whom you know little. There are so many of us who have eyes for nothing but the dark things.—Dr. S. N. Hutch ison.
Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.)
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June 9, 1932, edition 1
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