giveth, give I," must the church and all uplifting souls take that motto which the heroic Scottish minister, Dr. Chalmers, kept above his desk: "For the cause that needs assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, And the good that I can do." X BORROWERS AND LENDERS "I am debtor both to the Greek and also to the Barbarian." ROMANS I: 14. TH THE world is keenly aware of varying races today. Racial characteristics, racial traits, racial heritages are much dwelt upon. Every race of men seems to feel itself infinitely superior to every other race. The Germans have been obsessed with their own superiority, only in their madness to exhibit the greatest moral inferiority the world has known. Race fear has played a large part in German deterioration. Race fear has been almost universal. For generations we have known of the race peril in the South from the presence of the one-time African slaves, then came the yellow peril from across the China Sea, then followed the Japanese peril, then the Mexican peril. England, with later justification, has shivered at the presence of what she called the Teutonic peril, while the Germans have been equally concerned about the faroff approach of a Slav peril, which like a mighty glacier was pushing slowly but surely from far-off Siberia and Russia for the ultimate crushing of Western Civilization. The hosts of the world are making night hideous today with nightmares which have become a reality because of constant nervousness over these threatening race perils. Race pride is universal; nor is it barren of noble achievements. It serves to put a people on their mettle; the knowledge of a great past will frequently stir to the using of the present for the sake of a surpassing future. It will compel to the costliest acts of self-sacrifice; it warms the heart with the deepest sentiment. The good old air sings itself on and never dies: 66 Show me the Scotchman who doesn't love the thistle. the spot Where the Shamrock grows?" A sentimental public answers antiphonally, "Show me the Frenchman whose heart doesn't bound at the sound of the Marseillaise'? Show me the American for whom the Star-Spangled Banner,' 'Dixie,' and 'My Country 'Tis of Thee' will not give a quiver of devotion?" So full of sentiment is race pride, yet also it is the fountain source of bigotry, selfishness, and intolerance. It makes heart burnings; it stirs envy and jealousy. Race prejudice is the ill-gotten child of race pride. It is conceived in envy and brought forth in dishonour. Perennially tonic is the adventurous journey after the Golden Fleece undertaken by Hercules and Orpheus and Nestor, and two score other youthful heroes of Greece, who were after ward to attain large renown. With high hopes they set sail from Colchis in the gigantic little ship that held just fifty men. Arrived at the longed-for haven Jason was told that he could have the Golden Fleece provided he could yoke to the plough two firebreathing bulls with brazen feet, and sow the teeth of the dragon which Cadmus had slain, and from which it was well known that a crop of armed men would spring up who would turn their weapons against their producer. By means of a certain magic stone furnished by Medea, Jason was able to subdue these monsters. But not so with the modern Argonauts who have sought the Golden Fleece in the craft Race Pride. They have landed in the coveted country, they have yoked the firebreathing bulls, they have sown the dragon's teeth of race prejudice, but when they essay to assail the armed host which has sprung from these venomous seed they lack the magic charm and go down to death smitten by the results of their own folly. Race prejudice is the direct product of ignorance. To speak slightingly and scoffingly of the achievement of any race is to show one's own ignorance of history, to confess his own lack of knowledge of the things that have made the world great. If race prejudice is the direct product of ignorance, it feeds on envy and jealousy, and when it is full grown it turns loose into the world more thistles and thorns, more plagues and diseases than ever were borne by ill winds from Pandora's box to prey upon an unfortunate humanity. There are but two cures for the dread malady of race prejudice with all its deadly evils: knowledge and a cultivation of the spirit of brotherhood. While race prejudice is so keenly exalted today it is well for the world to remember that no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself, so also no nation liveth or dieth unto itself. In the midst of the proud boasting of race pride one realizes that after all there are but two races among men, and these two races are divided not by blood, nor by clime, nor by history, nor yet by geography. These two races have much in common. They live in the same little world, they have the same biological ancestry, they have common blood, common physical endowment, common spiritual heritage. Of course not all are alike, but the differences are individual and not racial, and all have the same three score and ten years for making the most of themselves and their environments, and then they go to the same mysterious common destiny, according as each hath builded. Confessing the unescapable solidarity of the human race, the oneness of its existence on earth at any coincident time, we yet recognize that there are two races among men and only two. It shall be of infinite value in the solution of the great race problem today to study these two races. What are these two races of men? Charles Lamb in one of his essays of Elia remarks, "The human species according to the best theory I can form of it is composed of two distinct races, the men who bor |