Pages

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Advice to Negroes Applies to All Races, From Front Page of Watauga Democrat, Boone, N.C., June 26, 1919

From the North Carolina Christian Advocate, as reprinted on the front page of the Watauga Democrat, Boone, N.C., June 26, 1919

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

No comments:

Post a Comment