The Negro’s Part in
World Reconstruction
A colored soldier just returned from France, writing in a
journal for the colored race, exhorts his people to well their part in
reconstructing the world after the great war, not by aspiring to official
position, but by excelling in every task while duty calls them to do. He says
“the way the negro may best promote reconstruction is to make himself the best
bootblack, the best bell boy, the best cook, the best farmer, the best
mechanic.”
That statement is packed full of wisdom and if accepted and
put into practice by men of all races would solve all the problems that humanity
has to meet. It is a sad fact that men, generally, are content to perform their
tasks in half-hearted fashion, to give the work a lick and a promise, to leave
conscience out of it; but all men should strive to excel, to do the best in
order not only that they may earn the more in coin, but also the satisfaction
in mind and conscience which comes into the life that has laid itself out to do
the best. God is never satisfied with anything less than the best from any man,
and the man who fears God will be unsatisfied unless he does his best. The
exhortation of the colored soldier should quicken the conscience of every man
who reads it and lift the standard of service rendered to the high standard of
Christian morality. A converted servant girl once asked how religion had benefitted
her, replied: “It makes me sweep under the mats.” Genuine conversion makes us
so honest that we want to treat our neighbor as we want him to treat us.
--North Carolina
Christian Advocate
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