SEPTEMBER 2ND, 1926
[p. 219] SEPTEMBER 2ND, 1926
Mr. C. M. Menzies.
My Dear Brother, — In answer to your enquiry I would say that governmental limitations are not to intrude into the liberties and privileges of the house of God to which all Christians belong, whatever their race or colour. In the government of God the Negro races labour under certain limitations, but I do not see any evidence of a curse in this fact. As you say, the curse was pronounced on Canaan; but this was in view of his position in the promised land, and there is no indication in Scripture or history that the Canaanites were black. It may be further remarked that the rulers of the ancient world from Babel were Hamites, including the Egyptians, and these were not black. The limitations governing the Negro races also govern the Asiatic races in a more limited degree. The so-called white races maintain rigid separation generally in regard to these Asiatic peoples.
In view of these facts we have to conclude that what marks off the Africans and Asiatics from the Europeans is due to moral and climatic conditions, and while the government of God enters into this fact the restrictions involved are not the outcome of a curse directly or indirectly.
In our public relations it is not right to disregard the governmental limitations that exist, but grace in the Christian would go a long way toward minimising this; certainly we should be free to visit our coloured brethren and should recognise them as of the family of God.
As gathered together in the assembly, the colour line should be wholly ignored; if a coloured man has the Holy Spirit his position the assembly is exactly the same as that of a white man who has the Spirit. If we are to go by names one would gather that there was a coloured man in the assembly at Antioch — Niger. If the Ethiopian eunuch had returned to Jerusalem after he was converted can there be a doubt that he would be accorded the full place of a brother among the saints?
As regards inter-marriage between white and coloured persons, this, to say the least, is not seemly, and “love does not behave in an unseemly manner”. It is wise for Christians to leave governmental conditions until God alters them. Our relations in the assembly are, as I said, another matter.
With love in the Lord, I am Yours affectionately,
James Taylor.