USA > Kentucky > Golden jubilee of the general association of Colored Baptists in Kentucky : the story of 50 years' work from 1865-1915 including many photos and sketches, compiled from unpublished manuscripts and other sources > Part 2
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We must tell it to our children that God has brought forth from the Baptist denomination a host of princes and that already Ethiopia has stretched. forth her hand and that among her princely leaders we havetour Booker T. Washington, our R. H. Boyd and our L. G. Jordan leading the hosts in giving the Gospel to the regions beyond. As a denomination fifty years ago, we were locally known, today our status is world-wide.
We report membership, 2,500,000; Sunda Schools, 20,000; teachers, officers and pupils, 1,060 000; Church property valuation amounts to $26,000 000. Last year, we had 1,000 Baptist teachers in structing 24,000 students in Baptist schools. Th
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
property valuation of these schools being upward of $4,000,000. Our Home Mission Board is raising and expending $60,000 yearly for the spread of the gospel on the Home field. Our great Publishing Board reports a yearly business of $200,000.
For the past thirty years, we have sent to For- eign fields seventy-seven missionaries and out of our penury have given more than $500,000 for the spread of the truth to the regions beyond.
A hundred years before the Emancipation Proc- lamation in the West Indies, in the Bahamas, there were nine ordained Negro preachers from America doing missionary work, and they had thousands of converts. George Lysle, ten years after he landed on the Bahama shores, baptized alone 500 persons and his church numbered 3,700. This George Lysle was licensed by his white brethren in Savannah two years before he sailed; he had one convert, William Bryant, whom he baptized in the Savannah river. He went off to the mission field and Bryant organ- ized a church which has continued 124 years and now numbers 5,000 members.
In the Bahamas the work of George Lysle con- tinues. I do not know, but I believe that one of the most important characters in the missionary history is that of a Negro slave, Lott Carey, who in 1820 bought his freedom for eight hundred dollars, col- lected the money, and appointed himself a mission- ary to Africa .. He went there and labored for eight years and died in the field, loved, honored and rev- ered by the thousands of his brethren to whom he had brought the Light.
Through the publicity of these facts, in 1880, the Negro Baptists all over the country organized for missions. We have had since that time nineteen
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
missionaries to die on foreign fields. We have mis sions in Africa, West Indies, South America, and Russia. We have fifty missionaries and 50,000 na tive converts.
Our contention is that amid this phenomenal suo cess that we should ever remember the place where God found us and that we have attained these heights by His uplifting hand. He alone could have lifted us out of the pit ; He alone could have brought us forth from lying among the pots to this positio where we are almost as free as the doves and as fine as the brightest silver and the most brilliant gold.
Because of the signal blessings that have come to us, we want here and now to rededicate ourselves to the God of Israel. We want to appear before him with pure hearts and clean hands because God people love to be clean. In our text the Psalmist compares them to the cleanly dove.
While in Egypt we were reminded that ancient! most of the houses were flat on top with a railing around them to keep persons from falling off. Brok en and useless things are thrown on the roof. There are many doves in Egypt. There are no shade tree so these doves fly among the broken pieces of po tery on the house tops and hide among them. When the sun is setting, they come out from among the pots and fly away. They are nearly all of a very light color and when the light falls upon them the look like the brightest silver and the most brilliant gold-these doves come out almost as white am clean as when they went in. It is their nature to keep clean and if soiled by contact with the pots, wash in the first waters, so with God's people the seek to keep clean in all their ways; they are as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. We have
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
fountain in which we can wash away our sins, "There's a fountain filled with blood." May God help us thus to walk in the midst of a wicked world and to keep ourselves unspotted so when the evening of life has come we may fly away into our eternal home.
Jesus Christ told the woman at Jacob's well that "God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth." He thus gave freedom from consecrated places and buildings as essentials to acceptible worship. Jesus Christ pre- sented the truth respecting man that there was one common father and all men are brothers. He looked on man as fallen but magnificent in his ruin-be- neath the vilest outside, he saw a human soul capa- ble of endless growth and treated it with respect, hence freedom from caste and man, made differences among men. He showed Simon in the presence of a penitent woman that his gospel recognized no in- fallible
Jerusalem Standard or "Privileged Class"
that looked down on others. That publicans and sinners were as welcome to the gospel feast as Priests and Scribes; that in the light of the truth there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian bond or free, but all humanity is alike in his sight. Truth then puts every man upon his own resources, it cares not who was his father or mother.
We ask not for his lineage, We ask not for his name, If Christ the Lord be in his heart ; He noble birth may claim.
+
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
Thank God for Dr. Riley of Texas, Mr. Henry Watterson of the Courier Journal, W. D. Weather ford, W. D. Powell, Gen. Bennett H. Young, and others of our white friends who are preaching these gospel truths with great boldness throughout the country. Mr. Watterson wants no more for his own children than what he is willing to grant to the chil dren of the black man. At the first Sociological Con gress in Nashville, Mr. Weatherford said, "We must treat every man as if he were valuable in himself not simply as if he were valuable to us as a tool which we may use for our own aggrandizement.
"The most serious danger of the South today is that we shall on this very negro question lose our valuation of humanity, as such, because we want to use the negro as a tool for our own comfort. We cannot despise any form of humanity without im mediately lowering our ideals of humanity as hu manity, and this is to return to savagery. The great testing of Southern life, therefore, lies in the realm of our attitude toward the man who may seem un attractive. On this terrible Gibraltar many a nation has dashed itself to pieces, and it remains to be seen whether the South can meet this tremendous test.
"The supreme race question, therefore, is not one of efficiency or inefficiency alone, it is one of person- al attitude. The supreme question is whether we, the white South, will so value humanity as human- ity that we will have a kindly sympathetic attitude toward the negro as a part of humanity. An Old South cannot become a New South until every man woman and child in that South has a value as a per- son, and not simply as a thing, as an economic too or piece of animal machinery.
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
"I call on every member of this Sociological Con- gress of the South to begin to think of the negro as a human being, whom God has put here to be de- veloped, ennobled, made worthy and useful, and through you I call on the whole South to see that the Negro has a chance to prove himself a man.
"Thus heaven's solution of the world's problem, of the race problem, is the spread of the truth; the truth known and put into practice will cause all race differences to disappear as mists before the rising glories of the Sun. Go ye therefore, ye chosen men of God, and let all nations know that God in Christ is the hope of the world. The time is short. Fifty years hence we who celebrate today will have closed up our stewardship. We shall be numbered among the people of God, who shall be somewhere around the great white throne. In view of the shortness of the time let us crowd into this brief moment yet remaining as much work as is possible for God's glory and for the uplift of man, ever keeping upper- most that the only service we can render the Lord is that service which we render to our fellowman. For it was Jesus who said 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my little ones, ye have done it unto me.'"
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
SOME THINGS WE MUST DO FOR OURSELVES
I. We must get right with God and make ou religion practical; less noise and feeling and more quiet, wholesome and everyday living. 2. We mus be honest, truthful and reliable. 3. We must keep our bodies clean. 4. We must keep our homes clean 5. We must keep our yards clean, back and front 6. We must stop hanging over the gate and out of the window. 7. We must behave ourselves better on the streets and in public carriers and stop talk ing so much and so loud. 8. We must make the word "Negro" a synonym for honesty, cleanliness intelligence, industry and righteosuness, by doing with our might what our hands find to do. 9. W must be loyal and helpful to our race, by encourag ing all worthy efforts put forth for its uplift. 10. W must respect our women, educate our children, and stay out of the saloon and dives. Where we have the franchise, we must vote for men who are opposed to the saloon. Our Lord by his life and teaching has shown men the only way in which we can teach people who are on a lower plane of life without be ing injured by the contact. It is the way of helpful ness and service. In the South, the whites must touch the negroes. Therefore the whites must help the negroes, or the white race will be injured by the presence of the negroes. This is incontrovertible logic. It is also a fundamental principal of ethics and religion."
Perhaps it is in point here also to quote a secular opinion interpreting the relation which ought te exist between the two races. It is an utterance upon the floor of Congress by a member of that
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
body. "We should do all we can to combat the spirit of persecution and prejudice which confronts the negroes of this country and to assure to them every right, privilege and opportunity to which every citi- zen of the United States is entitled. The negroes ask no favors, no privileges, no special advantages. 'They ask no indulgence of their shortcomings, or any unusual economic and education opportunities. They ask only equal opportunity, equality in the courts of the land. We should bestir ourselves to aid the negroes, not embarrass them or shame them. We should make them feel that they are a useful and desirable part of our people. No other people has ever made greater progress under like condi- tions. They have increased in numbers from 1863 to 1915 from 4,500,000 to 10,000,000. They have advanced from almost total illiteracy since emanci- pation until today seventy per cent can read and write. They have among them musicians, artists, doctors, lawyers, mechanics, artisans, agriculturists, bankers, educators, preachers, merchants and are en- gaged in every useful occupation. They have ac- cumulated property valued at $700,000,000-seventy dollars per capita-a more marvelous showing in- deed, than has ever been made before anywhere dur- ing all civilization. No other emancipated people have ever made so great a progress in so short a time.
"We should remember that the negroes consti- tute one-tenth of our population, that they are God- loving and law-abiding people who should be en- couraged in their efforts to teach a higher moral standard. We should help the negro to help him- self."
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
I am quite sure that the white ministry of our city cannot afford to do less in their efforts to help the colored ministry than is expressed in these quo tations. For we believe as you believe in the efficient cy of that Gospel to solve all our differences. A stark naked Gospel preached and practiced as Bap tists believe it, will settle the race question. Where Christians live up to the Gospel standard, race prej- udice is unknown. Christianity is incompatible with caste. Spiritual kinship transcends all personal and social relations. The solution of the race ques- tion depends upon the simple recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man and the application of the Golden Rule to the affairs of life. "Let the Negro lay stress of emphasis upon the Ten Commandments and the white man upon the Golden Rule, and all will be well."
John E. White, of Atlanta, Ga., closes his intro, duction to "The Upward Path" by Mary Helm, by saying : "Speaking as a Southern man, I have never dared to risk a Christianity or a faith of Christianity as trustworthy as myself or mine which doubted the efficiency of Christ for all the difficulties that have discouraged the philosophers in relation to the Ne- gro." The Christian "not only confronts sin and claims that it can be destroyed and stands before sorrow and claims that it can be transfigured, he stands amid the misunderstandings of men, amid the perversions of the purposed order of life, the ugly twists that have been given to fellowship which was ordained to be beautiful and true, and he proclaims their possible rectification in Christ." The Gospel is already transmuting our tribulation into triumph It's turning the bitter waters into a life-giving foun- tain.
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
In 1904 I was in Jerusalem and witnessed the coming together of nearly every nation under the sun at the sound of the Gospel trumpet for the as- sembling of the "World's Sunday School Conven- tion." Perhaps there were no more striking inci- dent of the adjustment of race differences than when the Samaritan High Priest, Jacob, son of Aaron, spoke to a Christian audience that Sunday evening. Hle quoted Deut. 32 :43. He had come from his home, Shechem, at the foot of Mt. Gerizim, leaving this mountain where his fathers worshipped. He came by invitation to the Jerusalem Convention. At the close of his address, a fine looking man seated near him arose, and said: "I have the honor as a Chris- tian Jew to hold out the hand of fellowship to the Samaritan High Priest and gladly translate his words."
Isaiah portrays the all-sufficiency of the Gospel in the peaceful adjustment of race differences, when he couples each animal with that one which is its natural prey and declares that the Prince of Peace shall bring them together in loving companionship. Isa. 40.
Races and men may be as antagonistic as beasts, but the Gospel will bring them together. It will make the wolfish man lamblike, and the leopard-like not in himself able to change his spot, yet the Gos- pel will change his heart.
It will transform the bloodthirsty man who, lion- like, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Children shall be entrusted to the venomous seed of a serpent because the Gospel will adjust all differ- ences. Set up an ensign for the nation. Assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dis- persed Judah from the four corners of the earth. God
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
grant that this Union Meeting may be one of the avenues through which the fulfillment of this proph- ecy may be realized in our day and generation.
Truth of God shall still endure, And firm his promise stand ; Believing souls may rest secure In his almighty hand.
Should earth and hell their forces join, He would contemn their rage, And render fruitless their design Against his heritage.
The rainbow round about his throne Proclaims his faithfulness ; He will his purposes perform, His promises of grace.
The hills and mountains melt away, But he is still the same; Let saints to him their homage pay, And magnify his name.
WHAT WE WANT
"Summed up in a word, what the black people do want is that with them, just as with the white people, every man shall be rated in estimation of his neighbors on his own individual merits, charac- ter, efficiency, and mental caliber-with no discount taken off for the color of his skin. 'Judge every man by what he is,' is a rule that by rights applies to ev- erybody human. The Negro wants it applied to
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
him. (The custom of judging the entire race by one unworthy colored man is positively un-Baptistic, for Baptists, more than any other denomination, em- phasize the rights of the individual.) He knows the average of his race is low, but when an individual climbs above the average, he ought to be credited for it with an honest measure of respect. Dispar- agement just for being black, that is the iron that sears the soul of the aspiring Negro. And it is a cruel iron which no man applies to the negro with- out burning also the white Christ."-Continent, Jan- uary 15, 1915.
SUGGESTIONS
This book tells of plans for every member can- vassed. We are in touch with four thousand Bap- tists other than pastors.
We hope in the Jubilee Session to consider the organization of a Baptist Choral Union, State-wide, charged with the conservation of the songs of our fathers-the only original music of the South-land- produced under the iron heel of oppression.
We need a statistician to gather yearly the sta- tistics of Baptists, and report yearly, our progress from every nook and corner of the State.
May God put it into the heart of some one to launch a plan for the endowment of our Educational and Missionary work.
We should plan some way by which the long arm of our Association may touch and interest the pas- tors of small churches and poor fields. The strong should bear the infirmities of the weak. Let us have a five or ten year program for Baptists in this State -and let us make an honest effort to carry it out.
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
INTRODUCTORY PLANS OF MODERATOR PARRISH IN AROUSING THE BAPTISTS TO CELEBRATE IN A COMMEND- ABLE WAY THEIR JUBILEE.
Two weeks after being elected Moderator in August, 1914, he sent the following letter, 400 in number, to pastors and ministers in Kentucky :
Louisville, Ky., August, 1914.
Dear Brother :
The General Association just closed a most suc cessful meeting at Winchester. Next year it will meet at Lexington in its Fiftieth Anniversary ses sion. I am deeply interested in our denominational work, especially our State University. Will you please send me twentyfive names or more of per sons in your congregation to whom I can write with the hope of interesting them in our denominational work? I wish to correspond with them personally
Whatever these persons may give, your church will be given credit. Suggest how a Moderator can get better service out of the denomination.
OUR MOTTO :- "More Baptists, and more Bap tists enlisted for service."
Yours in Christ, C. H. PARRISH, Moderator,
Dict. C. H. P.
P. S .- If you delay answering at once you will hinder our progress in the State. The Master's work requires haste.
As the ministers replied to the above letter, we entered their names in the "Moderator's Column" of the American Baptist with the words "Watch this
Wm. Stewart Nelson, Paducah, Ky.
Rev. H. B. Webster, D.D.
Mrs. C. C. Bates.
Chas. Stewart, Graduate State University, News- paper Correspondent.
Rev. T H. Broaddus, D.D. Richmond, Ky.
Rev. J. D. Daniel, . Louisville, Ky.
,39
Rev. R. Quarles, Missionary, Paris, Ky.
Rev. G. F. Watson, D.D. Louisville, Ky.
J. A. Hunt, Louisville, Ky.
Rev. W. L. Turner, Louisville, Ky.
Prof. P. T. Frazier, A.B., A.M. Ph.D., Graduate State University
Mrs. Fannie E. Givens, Artist and Composer, Louisville, Ky.
40
Rev. James L. A'lens" orth, D.D. Hopkinsville, Ky.
Rev. T. D. Carpenter, D.D. Bowling Green, Ky.
Mr. D. P. Rucker, Undertaker
Rev. B. L. Ivory, Paducah, Ky.
Mr. W. C. Edwards Paducah, Ky.
Rev. J. H. Edwards, D.D. Bloomfield, Ky.
41
Mrs. Mary Gillis Teacher in . Sunday School since 1866. Lexington, Ky.
Rev. W. T. Jones, Louisville, Ky.
Rev. W. M. Alexander Lexington, Ky.
Rev. Wm. Taylor, Covington, Ky.
Mrs. Daisy Saffel Shelbyville, Ky.
Rev. A. H. Shumake, Louisville, Ky.
42
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
ist grow," which was kept in the paper from Octo- ber 9, 1914, till June 25, 1915. The following is the list of names who replied up to that date which makes 4,117 names:
MODERATOR'S COLUMN.
To the Baptists of Kentucky :
Dear Brethren :- In the first week of September we mailed a communication to four hundred Bap- tist ministers in this State asking a list of persons to whom we may write personally with the hope of interesting them more deeply in Missions and State University.
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
The replies follow :
Rev. W. L. Brents, Owensboro 25 nam
Rev. J. W. Million, Nicholasville 14
Rev. A. F. Fox, Henderson 25
Rev. W. S. Maupin, Nicholasville 22
Rev. J. H. Jackson, Columbia -32
Rev. J. N. Smothers, Danville 26
Rev. G. R. Redd, Lancaster 25
Rev. T. Timberlake, Mayfield 25
Rev. J. A. Parks, Anchorage
40
Rev. H. D. Colerane, Winchester
39
Rev. S. P. Locke, Owensboro 25
Rev. H. C. Turpin, Middlesboro 27
Rev. W. T. Romes, Pikeville 17
Rev. C. P. M. Bigbee, Russellville 29
Rev. C. W. Hampron, Missionary for Cen- tral Kentucky 40
Rev. J. R. Evans, Earlington
Rev. A. W. Nix, Georgetown 31
Rev. J. H. Frank, Louisville 31
Rev. C. H. Parrish, Louisville 24
Rev. R. Jackson, Maysville 30
25
Rev. O. Durrett, Hickman
36
Rev. W. T. Silvey, Frankfort
44
Rev. J. F. Adams, Atoka
Rev. W. W. Banks, Winchester 19
25
Rev. H. Watson, Livermore 25
Rev. H. Patterson, Pittsburg 14
Rev. J. O. Griffin, Paducah 25
Rev. Wm. Utz -. 25
Rev. A. R. France, Greenville 25
Rev. Sebree 25
Rev. H. C. Carpenter, Bowling Green. 32
Rev. T. J. Smith, Paris 28
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
Rev. J. F. Barlow, Horse Cave. 15
Rev. M. L. Porter, Nicholasville 37
Rev. Jas. H. Gilbert, Marcellus 25
Rev. R. B. Butler, Versailles 100
Rev. V. S. Smith, Paducah 25
Rev. C. A. Hutchinson, Bardstown 24
Rev. W. R. Richardson, Winchester. 51
Rev. W. B. Hall, New Liberty.
32
Rev. W. B. Hall, Ghent 20
Rev. J. B. Smith, Jacksonville 21
Rev. C. D. Blakemore, Smithfield
21
Rev. C. D. Blakemore, Campbellsburg 20
Rev. C. D. Blakemore, New Castle 20
Rev. I. H. Smith, Logantown 40
Rev. E. T. Offutt, Lexington 26
Rev. N. A. Caldwell, Fox Run 30
Rev. T. J. Donan, Cloverport. 29
Rev. H. B. Webster, Paris 56
Rev. R. D. Ware, Keysburg
16
Rev. W. P. Offutt, Lagrange
34
Rev. H. B. Orndorff, McHenry
8
Rev. J. H. Gaddie, Camp Knox 19
Rev. J. W. Hayes, Elizabethtown 3I
Rev. R. A. Straus, Versailles 29
Rev. R. A. Straus, Frankfort. 27
.6
Sparta, Ky.
21
Owenton, Ky. 19
Hodgenville, Ky. 22
Hammonsville, Ky. 26
Rev. A. Webb, Summershade 12
Rev. D. W. Seals, Fort Springs. 31 ...
Rev. D. W. Seals, Zion Hill 15
Rev. A. Williams, Bowling Green
..
15
Rev. M. B. Goggins, Mckinney, Mt. Salem and Clifton 32
-
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
Rev. J. W. Lewis, Centennial
Rev. G. W. Floyd, Sparta 25
Rev. J. J. Brown, Campbellsville. 25
Louisville 26
Rev. J. H. Edmunds, Bloomfield 25
Rev. J. W. Gibson, Portland, Louisville 3ยบ
Mrs. M. E. Scott, Harrodsburg II Rev. E. D. Brown, Lawrenceburg 14
Rev. H. W. Jones, Green Street, Louis- ville 23
Rev. D. A. Rice, Saloma 9
Rev. D. A. Rice, Columbia IO
Rev. D. A. Rice, Campbellsville 4
Rev. W. B. Wood, Somerset 28
Rev. H. C. Baker, Farristown 19
Rev. H. C. Baker, Midway
13
Rev. C. D. Diggs, Hopkinsville
15
Rev. W. M. Johnson, 9th Street 27
Rev. W. W. Wheeler, Hodgenville 25
Rev. W. W. Wheeler, Glendale 25
Rev. W. W. Wheeler, Glasgow
26
Rev. J. F. Childs, Waddy 15
Rev. W. T. Romes, Jenkins 14
Rev. A. H. Shumake, Va. Ave., Louisville ... 23
Rev. J. J. Mccutchen, Main St., Lexington ... 25
Rev. Wm. Brown, Clay St., Shelbyville .. .20 Rev. H. A. Scott, Middletown 27
Rev. L. T. Buckler, Lebanon IO
Rev. L. T. Buckler, Rollingburg II
Rev. L. T. Buckler, Greensburg IO
Rev. J. C. Cross, Becknerville 25
Rev. W. J. Brown, Pembroke 25
Rev. N. G. Galbreath, Utica 57
Rev. N. G. Galbreath, Livia 7
Rev. N. G. Galbreath, Pettit 16
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THE GOLDEN JUBILEE
Rev. G. H. Moorman, Beaver Dam .29
Rev. R. Reynolds, Jeffersontown 27
Rev. A. W. Woodfork, Louisville 9
66
Rev. Chas. Jacobs, Louisville 9
Rev. E. Williams, Hopkinsville 72
Rev. J. W. Jones, Oakville II
Rev. J. W. Jones, Central City I5
Rev. Wm. Morton, Hickman 7
Rev. W. H. Leavell, Priceton 26
Rev. P. D. Dennis, Providence 23
Rev. T. H. Broddus, Richmond 36
Rev. J. S. Marsall, Bagdad
12
Rev. J. E. Wood, Danville 25
Rev. P. D. Dennis, Pleasant Hill 32
66
Rev. James Ray, Sharpsburg 20
Rev. I. Miller, Richmond. 30
Rev. J L. Allenworth, Hopkinsville.
30
Rev. S. P. Browns, Todds Point. 42
Rev. J. T. Elkins, Keene. 26
"
Rev. I. W. Harrington, Sulphur
24
Rev. G. W. Floyd, Lebanon 28 66
Rev. H. L. Robinson, Pewee Valley.
23
Rev. J. W. Calamese, Paris. 28
Rev. W. H. Williams, Owensboro 25
Rev. G. W. Hampton, Anchorage 21
Rev. L. D. Britt, Smiths Grove 27
Rev. T. J. Donan, Irvington
17
Rev. J. W. Stovall, Burgin 26
Rev. N. Caldwell, Shelbyville. 3
Mr. J. C. Clelland, Harrodsburg. 20
Rev. G. W. Canada, Keene 30
Rev. G. W. Carr, Louisville. 6
Rev. R. P. Whiteside, Madisonville
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