I will not try to add to facts or multiply incidents. Here we have before us this great problem: ten millions of our people, one-sixth of our whole body politic, sunk in the depths of superstition, ignorance and sin. We may shut our eyes to this problem; we may ignore it; we may say it has been exaggerated; we may even say it does not exist. You and I in our quiet homes may not hear the mutterings or the moanings of these ten million souls in bondage; but their cry goes up to Him who in mankind's first morning uttered those two burning questions which have ever since determined the standard of the Christ spirit in humanity: "Where art thou?" "Where is thy brother?"
We are to make of these ten million people God-fearing, intelligent citizens. We are to leaven this mass of humanity with the leaven of the school and of the church, and, so doing, make of these two million whites, these stanch, stalwart Anglo-Saxon men, and of these eight million loyal, affectionate, docile negroes, all American-born citizens--we are to make of them a bulwark which shall resist the oncoming tide of socialism, anarchism and of atheism, which is trying to overwhelm our American institutions, rob us of our public-school system, profane our Sabbath and snatch the scepter from our fathers' God.
And how is this to be done? How is this problem to be solved? By just such work as this of the American Missionary Association, which has abundant facilities, plenty of energy, wisdom and experience, and even the consecration necessary for the great work before it--everything but the money. And where is the money coming from? The money is coming from the churches. How do we know? Because the American Missionary Association was born in the churches, is the child of the churches, was sent forth from the churches with the benediction and prayers and blessings of the churches to carry out the policy adopted by the churches. The Church will not forsake its own.
And this is our work. It is not the abolition of races, but the recognition of brotherhood. This is the work which Christ has given us to do; and if we would solve this negro problem, and all the thousand and one problems which are ever vexing the life of our free Republic, we must solve them by the principles of the Golden Rule and the democracy of the Lord's Prayer. It is not sufficient for us to stand with Thomas and say in rapt admiration, "My Lord and my God." Side by side with our black brother and with our white brother, with our yellow brother and with our red brother, we are to kneel and say, not "My Lord and my God," but "Our Father," and the spirit of common prayer to a common Father whom we have not seen will bind our hearts in closer brotherhood to those whom we have seen, and we will rise from our knees to carry out the principles of the Golden Rule.