EDITORIALS.                                615

the rich opportunity that is right about them in their own communities for
industrial and business growth. The value of this league consists mainly
in the new spirit that it has put into the race--a spirit that turns the im-
possible to the possible, from that which is artificial and unstable to that
which is natural and enduring."


                     MAN AND HIS APPETITE.
  The history of the world has been called, aptly enough, the martyrdom
of man. Civilization or human progress seems to have risen by slow in-
crements, generation being super-imposed upon generation, like the coral
isles of the sea, one dies to make a foundation for the other's life. Con-
templation of this phase of human life always leads to sadness and some-
times to pessimism.
  "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" asks the Psalmist. "Man
has no pre-eminence over a beast," says the preacher. "Oh why should
the spirit of mortal be proud!" exclaims one poet:
               "This world is but a fleeting show
                 To man's illusion given,"
laments another-and so on and on throughout all literature. There is
not one cheerful word from anyone contemplating this phase of existence.
History is a continuous funeral procession and the earth one vast graveyard.
                            "The hills,
                Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales,
                Stretching in pensive quietness between:
                The venerable woods, rivers that move
                In majesty, and the complaining brooks
                That make the meadows green; and poured round all
               Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste,
                Are but the solemn decorations all
                Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
                The planets, all the infinite hosts of heaven,
               Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
                Through the still lapse of ages.
                              All that tread
                The globe, are but a handful to the tribes
                That slumber in its bosom."
But, thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, there is another phase
of human life.  "It doth not yet appear what we shall be;" but
                "There is a gate that stands ajar;
                And through its portals gleaming;
                A radiance from the Cross afar,
                A Savior's love revealing."
  "There remaineth a rest for the people of God" and the struggles of man-
kind shall find fruition in a life free from pain. Religion and philosophy
unite in looking forward to a golden age. The struggle of man with his
appetite is indicative of this and the approach of the one can be foretold by
the progress of the other. Ancient Israel struggling against the idolatrous
    excesses of the people and modern America fighting "malefactors of great
wealth" are but phases of this evolutionary battle of man for civilization-
for a life guided by reason and actuated by love. This view of life is in-




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 2

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  02
Date:  10/1911