The Choctaw Freedmen Part 8

This Bible instruction does not result in the organization of a church at that place, but opportunity is given for the manifestation and development of the religious instinct of a number of persons, amongst whom there are two young men, who were destined later to become influential leaders among the enslaved people whom they represented.

After their emanc.i.p.ation, one locates on the west bank of the Kiamichi river and later becomes known as Parson Stewart, the organizer and circuit rider of a sufficient number of churches, at the time of his decease in 1896, to form the Presbytery of Ki a mich i.

The other, accompanied by several personal friends, migrates fifteen miles eastward and founds a home in the Oak Hill neighborhood. In the course of a short time he is visited by the parson and his home becomes a house of worship, where a church is organized and Henry Crittenden is ordained as its ruling elder.

A Sunday school for Bible instruction follows the establishment of public worship, and two years later it is followed by the establishment of a week-day school, for the benefit of all the children and youth in the neighborhood. Eight years later, when the trained missionary teacher arrives, the inspiration of a new life is infused into the church and Sunday school, and the week-day school becomes an important industrial academy, where the Bible is the basis of the moral and religious instruction. In 1905 they receive an allotment of lands that they may become independent owners of their own homes. In 1908 statehood brings the rural public school and in 1912, an intelligent Freedman is entrusted with the management of the Industrial Academy, church and farm.

This sequence of events includes the dark period of slavery and illiteracy followed by instruction in the Bible, the light of the world; the development of the native preacher of the gospel as a leader, the organization of the church, followed by the Sunday school, the week-day school, the academy, normal, public school and finally a native superintendent of the academy and independent ownership of land.

II. THE EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS

THE DARK AGES

The period from the 8th to the 12th centuries of the christian era has been cla.s.sed by historians as the "Dark Ages" of the world, because of the general prevalence in Europe of ignorance, superst.i.tion and barbarism. Some of the leading events that occurred during this gloomy period, immediately following the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, tended almost wholly to check the spread of intelligence and the prosperity of the people, rather than to promote their welfare. The Scriptures were neglected and the clergy as well as the people became worldly, ignorant, selfish and superst.i.tious.

THE SARACENS AND NORMANS

These unfavorable events included, at the beginning of this period, the invasion of Palestine and southern Europe including Spain, its most western state, by the Mohammedans of Arabia, often called Saracens and Infidels, who were fanatically inflamed with a pa.s.sion to destroy with the sword all the people of the world, who would not obey Mohammed, their prophet. During the next century Germany, Britain, Holland and France, then called Gaul, were ruthlessly invaded by conquering hordes of the adventurous and barbarous Normans, who came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, countries north of the Baltic Sea.

THE CRUSADERS OR CROSS-BEARERS

These invasions were followed by the period of the Crusaders, 1096 to 1271, when as many as seven great armies or mult.i.tudes of people were a.s.sembled at the call of the popes, and wearing crosses on their shoulders, marched through the intervening countries to Palestine. Their object was to rescue the city of Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre from the infidels. The first crusade was organized in France, and it enlisted an army of 800,000. G.o.dfrey, duke of Lorraine, was placed in command, and the mult.i.tude was arranged for the march in three divisions. Peter, the hermit, a wrong-headed monk, was appointed leader of the first division and experienced an inglorious and irreparable defeat on the way. G.o.dfrey, after the siege and conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, was chosen King to rule over Palestine and the holy city, as his kingdom. At the time of his coronation he made the n.o.ble remark, that,

"He could not bear the thought of wearing a crown of gold in that city, where the King of Kings had been crowned with thorns."

The brave soldier and manly man, who gave expression to this n.o.ble sentiment, died the next year.

Under weak and unskilful chiefs the crusaders while on the way wandered about like undisciplined bands of robbers, plundering cities, committing the most abominable enormities, and spreading misery and desolation where-ever they pa.s.sed. There was no kind of insolence, injustice and barbarity of which they were not guilty. The seven successive crusades drained the wealth of the fairest provinces and caused the loss of a prodigious number of people.

Those of the first crusade, that remained in Palestine, were divided by sordid ambition and avarice, and in 1187 Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, the most valiant chief of the Mohammedan warriors, recaptured Jerusalem and subsequent crusaders were not able to regain it.

FIRST RAYS OF LIGHT

The first rays of light, that serve to dispel the darkness of prevailing night, may be briefly summarized in the following leading events.

In 901 =Alfred the Great=, king of England, founds a seminary at Oxford to promote the study of sacred literature. Later it becomes a university, the first one in Europe, and it is still distinguished as one of the greatest inst.i.tutions in the world for publishing the Scriptures in a form suited for the use of preachers and christian teachers. Two centuries later the second university is founded at Cambridge, England.

About 1170 =Peter Waldo= of Lyons, France, committing to memory such portions of the Scriptures as he could obtain, and taking for his favorite saying, the command of our Lord to the rich youth, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me," commences to preach the gospel, as the Apostles had done, in the homes of the people and in their market places. As he attracts followers, who also commit portions of the Scriptures, he sends them out like the seventy, two and two, to preach the Word of G.o.d. They are called Waldenses, after the name of their leader, and oppose corrupt doctrines and practices with the plain truths of the Word of G.o.d. They oppose the crusades, as fanatical expeditions on the part of those who were not Jews, and therefore were unjust and unlawful. They insist the church consists not merely of the clergy or priests, but includes the whole family of believers.

The advocacy of these principles and by laymen, causes them to be excommunicated, then anathematized and finally to be condemned by a council at Rome in 1179. Peter Waldo, their leader, flees from land to land, preaching as he goes and dies in Bohemia in 1197.

In 1215, King John of England, yielding to the insistent demand of the barons, issued the Magna Charta, (Great Charter) the first grant of English const.i.tutional liberty, pledging the right of trial by jury and protection of life, liberty and property from unlawful deprivation. It is immediately denounced by the pope, Innocent III, who absolves the king from all obligation to keep the pledges therein expressed and solemnized by the royal oath.

In 1366 =John Wiclif=, a graduate of Oxford and member of the English Parliament, presents to that body indisputable reasons, why, without the approval of the Parliament, not even the king of England could make their lands subject to a tax claimed by a foreign sovereign, representing the papacy. As a religious leader, he instructs his followers, called "poor priests," to pa.s.s from village to village and city to city, and to preach, admonish and instruct the people in "G.o.d's Law." He accomplishes the translation of the Latin Vulgate into the English of his day, that his countrymen might have the Scriptures in their own language.

=Charles V=, king of France, has the scriptures translated into the French language, for the enlightenment of his people.

During this 14th century seventeen universities are founded and they include the one at Geneva in Switzerland, Heidelberg in Germany and Prague in Bohemia.

THE MORNING STAR

In 1401 John Huss of Bohemia, the Morning Star or John Baptist of the Reformation, appears as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." His mother, left a widow in early life, gave him to the service of the Lord as he lay in the cradle, and later, like Hannah of old, took him to the school at Prague.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BIDDLE UNIVERSITY, CHARLOTTE, N. C.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BETHESDA MISSION, WYNNEWOOD, OKLA.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAMPUS FROM NORTH]

[Ill.u.s.tration: UNIVERSITY HOUSTON LIBRARY CHAPEL]

When he became a preacher he found the Lord's vineyard a desert, the ministers of religion, the priests, ignorant, worldly and dissolute, and the popes of that period no better than the priests. The people, designedly chained to the basest superst.i.tions and following the example of their leaders, have cast aside the restraints of chast.i.ty and morality. His heart touched with pity at the sight of the religious dest.i.tution of the people, his anger, like that of Moses "waxed hot"

against those, who should have given them the gospel of their salvation.

Encouraged by the example of Wiclif to make known the truth, he affirms the supreme authority of the scriptures, proclaims against the abuse of the clergy and endeavors to regenerate the religious life of both priests and people. His glowing zeal for the honor of G.o.d and the church move the people in a way until then unknown; but the priests, unwilling to reform or longer endure his piercing protests, falsely accuse him of heresy. In 1416, after fifteen years of self denying and heroic service, he is condemned at Constance and suffers martyrdom at the stake. A century later Luther, who imbibed his heroic spirit, said of him, "The gospel we now have was born out of the blood of John Huss."

THE FIRST PRINTED BIBLE

The art of printing is invented and the Vulgate, a Latin Bible, is the first book printed. It is issued in 1450 and is printed on a hand press at Mentz, Germany. Previous to this event and date all books were in the form of costly ma.n.u.scripts and their number could be increased, only one copy at a time, by penmen called copyists.

The mariners compa.s.s is invented and in 1492 Columbus discovers America, and thirty years later Magellan sails around the world.

During this 15th century the universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews are founded in Scotland, Mentz and eighteen others, on the continent.

III. THE REFORMATION

MARTIN LUTHER

"Arise, shine, for thy Light is Come."

In 1517, Martin Luther, the apostle of the German nation, a man of learning and undaunted courage, whose equal had not been known since the days of Paul, appears as the valiant and steadfast leader of the Reformation in Germany. In 1530 he becomes the founder of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and aided by Melancthon, succeeds in translating and giving to the German people the Bible in their own language, and in preparing the Augsburg confession that has since served as a standard of faith and bond of union for the Lutheran churches in Europe and America.

Emotion and imaginative piety have become the hand-maids of superst.i.tion; and patriotism, lacking courage, has covered its face. He writes hymns and patriotic songs, that inspire the German heart with loyalty to the truth and devotion to their Fatherland.

JOHN CALVIN

In 1527, John Calvin, a man of great learning and glowing eloquence with burning zeal for the honor of his Master, appears as the leader of the Reformation in France, but nine years later, joins Farrel, the successor of the zealous but fallen Zwingli, in Switzerland, and becomes head of the university at Geneva. He secures the adoption of a const.i.tution, that gave and also limited the authority of the church to spiritual, and of the state to temporal matters; and thus prepares the way for the separation anew of church and state, and the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty.

Educated for the priesthood, he is a.s.signed a parish and there obtained a copy of the Scriptures. When he discovered the erroneous teaching and practices of the church of Rome, he resigns his charge and completes a course in law and another in theology in the University of Paris. He becomes a man void of fear and is borne onward on the wings of a living faith. Following the example of Paul in his letters to the churches, and of Augustine, bishop of Hippo (391-446) in North Africa, he undertakes to state in a systematic form the great facts and doctrines of the Bible, as one of the best means of opposing and overcoming prevailing errors and corrupt practices in church and state.

He feels the Spirit of G.o.d moving him to blazon triumphantly, the thought of G.o.d's sovereignty and man's utter dependency, in order to dash in pieces the prevalent self righteousness. His writings, by emphasizing the supreme authority of the Divine Word, have tended to raise the moral standard of individuals and communities, and by emphasizing the moral law, to lessen the distinction between the "sins"