THE FAMILY ALTAR

July 1.

"For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which

was lost." Luke 19:10.

The same compassionate Jesus that came to seek and to save

the white man came to seek and to save also the black man. As the

Lamb of God He took away the sin of the world and also the sin

of the Negro race. His command to His Church is clear and

emphatic: "Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching

them to observe .all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

His Church has obeyed that command and carried His saving

Gospel also to the Negro since the day that Philip preached the

glad tidings of the crucified Savior to the man of Ethiopia, the

treasurer of Queen Can'-da-ce. (Acts 8, 27.) Ever since, there

have been believing children of God with a black skin in the

Christian Church, and among them faithful pastors and bishops

of great learning and piety. We have about 12 million Negroes

in our country whose fathers were slaves; and we know what

it cost our nation to free them from their bondage. But far

more cruel is the spiritual bondage of ignorance and superstition

and vice in which so many of the sons of Ham still live among us.

Men may differ about the political and social rights the Negro

ought to possess among us, but no man dare question the Negro's

right to the saving and uplifting Gospel of Christ. Whoever

opposes Negro Missions opposes not only the clear will of his God

and Savior, but opposes also the best interests of his country; for

it is alone the converting and sanctifying Gospel of Christ that

has divine power to lift the unconverted, vicious Negro out of the

slough of his moral degradation, even as it does with the vicious

white man or with the depraved heathen in foreign lands. The

Negro Mission carried on by our Church for years is being signally

blessed of late. Let us gladly support it with our prayers and

contributions.