Source: The Kansas Methodist 

Duty of the Church to Our Neighbors

Christ’s explanation of the question, “Who is my neighbor?” should forever settle it in every doubting mind. Not as the multitude interpret, some one of our own race located near us from whom we may have received and returned especial favors, but everyone of the human race of whatever name or color that may be in trouble and whose groans and cries of distress reach our ears, demanding help, is our neighbor, and Christ’s demand is that we regard him as such and do all in our power to alleviate his distress and better his condition. Christ, in his prudence, has placed within our reach a greater number of neighbors than ever before and they are unfortunately among those who have been traveling on the rough road from Jerusalem to Jerico, and have fallen among thieves and been robbed of their manhood and everything else that enobles and elevates, and left bruised and bleeding by the wayside, demanding help. True the quick ear of the church had heard their groanings and “gone to where they were” and been trying to pour in the oil and wine and relieve the distress, and many have been brought to the inn and cared for. Notwithstanding she has been enabled by the help of God to establish in the South 16 colleges and seminaries, 3 theological, and 1 medical school, taught over 200,000 in the Sunday School and nearly that number in the day-school, transformed ignorant children into intelligent youth and demonstrated to the South that the colored people are capable of becoming good scholars and intelligent citizens. Yet after all the church has done she could do but little comparatively. Multitudes of these suffering ones have managed to reach our own state and are all along our waysides, stretching out imploring hands for help, and it is a present help that is most needed. Pride, prejudice and parsimony will all turn aside and be deaf to all pleadings, and unless the church entirely divested of these does her whole duty, terrible will be the consequences. If it were in the power of an humble one to bring this great truth in all its bearings right home to the church, it would be a great comfort.

I know that I will be excused if I give a few extracts from one of our greatest statesmen, who has had good opportunities to know and has given the subject careful and patient thought. President Garfield, when about to take the oath of office to support the constitution and preside over the destinies of this nation, uttered sentiments that have the true ring in regard to freedmen, and places before the church a work which if neglected will not only involve her but the entire community in imminent peril. Truly does he say, “The elevation of the Negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change since the adoption of the constitution in 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effects upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution; added immensely to the moral and industrial force of our people; has liberated the master as well as the slave from the relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness, and the influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit with coming years. These freedmen are already rapidly laying the foundations for self-support, widening the circle of intelligence and beginning to enjoy the blessings which gather around the homes of the industrious poor. They discern the generous encouragement of all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of the constitution and laws.” He goes on to speak of the danger arising from the ignorance of the voter, a danger that lurks and hides in the courses and fountains of power in every state. We have no standard by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in citizens when joined to corruption and fraud in suffrage.

President Garfield

"The elevation of the Negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship...has liberated the master as well as the slave from the relation which wronged and enfeebled both."

The census has already sounded the alarm in appalling figures, which marks how dangerously high the tide of ignorance has arisen among our voters and their children. There is but one remedy, and all the constitutional power of the nation and of the state, with all the volunteer forces of the people through every channel of operation, should be summoned to meet this danger by the saving influence if universal education. This opens at once an effective door of usefulness for the church to enter, and if she proves recreant now, its ill effects cannot be computed.

He further says, “In the great work of educating and fitting them by intelligence_______ virtue, for the inheritance _______ _______ them, sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship unknown. Let the people find a new meaning in the oracle which declares that “a little child shall lead them,” for our little children will soon control the destinies of the republic. Fifty years hence our children will surely bless their fathers and their father’s God that the union was preserved; that slavery was overthrown, and both races made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard but we cannot prevent the final reconciliation. Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material well being invite us and offer ample scope for the employment of our best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues, move forward, and in the strength of liberty and a restored union win the grander victory of peace.” Immortal words spoken by one at a time and under circumstances well calculated to teach that Christian love is not confined to times and places, but finds a neighbor wherever there is a human being needing our help, and encircles the entire world in its efforts to bless and save. It is true that in this great work the church will meet with difficulties, to which we may allude in our next.  --  J. S. GRIFFING.