136                      THE A. M. E. REVIEW.

magnificent painting representing Perry's victory  on  Lake Erie  but  as
remarkable as are the conception and the execution, more  interesting to
me was that 'black spot' in that great picture.  I left Washington and went
to Philadelphia, and in a certain gallery of fine art saw another painting
more remarkable still.  It represented the Christ on  the way  to  Calvary.
He has faltered, fallen under the weight of the Cross, and there is Simon
of Cyrene--that black man bearing on his brawny shoulders  the  Saviour's
cross.  As I stood there with my friend, transfixed, gazing upon  this mar-
velous creation, my friend suddenly raised both hands and exclaimed, 'No
wonder Jesus Christ had power to rise from the dead when God Almighty
had a Negro to bear His cross.' "   God  Almighty and the  Negro--that's
an unconquerable combination.  Douglass used to say that one with  God
makes a majority-it is true.  Proscription. prejudice, hatred, malice, os-
tracism, may separate us from everything else, but we've not lost so much
until we separate from God, who is more than all that may  come against
us.  Amen.
                    Pastor St. Paul's A. M. E. Church, St. Paul, Minn.

                  ----------------

                 "GIVE THANKS, O HEART."
            Give thanks, O heart, for the high souls
           That point us to the deathless goals--
           For all the courage of their cry
           That echoes down from sky to sky,
           Thanksgiving for the armed seers
           And heroes called to mortal years-
           Souls that have built our faith in man
           And lit the ages as they ran.
           Lincoln, Mazzini, Lamennais,
           Living the thing that others pray;
           Cromwell, St. Francis and the rest,
           Bearing the God-fire in the breast-
           These are the sons of sacred flame,
           Their brows marked with the secret name
           The company of souls supreme,
           The conscripts of the mighty Dream.
           Made of unpurchasable stuff,
           They went the way when ways were rough;
           They, when the traitors had deceived,
           Held the long purpose, and believed;
           They, when the face of God grew dim,
           Held thro' the dark and trusted Him-
           Brave souls that fought the mortal way
           And felt that faith could not betray.
           Give thanks for heroes that have stirred
           Earth with the wonder of a word.
           But all thanksgiving for the breed
           Who have bent destiny with deed-
           Souls of the high, heroic birth,
           Souls sent to poise the shaken Earth,
           And then called back to God again
           To make heaven possible for men.
                                         -Edwin Markham.




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 29, Num. 2

Give Thanks, O Heart

Volume:  29
Issue Number:  02
Page Number:  136
Date:  10/1912