SW 33.1
(The Southern Work 33.1)
Are there not those who can go from house to house, from family to family, and who can repeat the A B C of true Christian experience? Let Christ be your text. In all your labor let it be apparent that you know Jesus. Present His purity and saving grace, that by beholding, these people may become changed into the divine image. Among most of the colored people we find unseemly practices in their worship of God. They become much excited, and put forth physical exertions that are uncalled for in the solemn worship of God. Their superstitious ideas and uncomely practices cannot at once be dispelled. We must not combat their ideas and treat them with contempt. But let the worker give them an example of what constitutes true heart-service in religious worship. Let not the colored people be excluded from the religious assemblies of the white people. They have no chance to exchange their superstitious exercises for a worship that is more sacred and elevating if they are shut out from association with intelligent white people who should give them an example of what they should be and do. Let the white people practice the self-denial necessary, and let them remember that nothing is to be regarded as unimportant which affects the religious life of so vast a number of people as that which composes the colored race. They conduct their worship according to the instruction they have received, and they think that a religion which has no excitement, no noise, no bodily exercises, is not worth the name of religion. These ignorant worshipers need instruction and guidance. They can be won by kindness, and can be confirmed in well-doing. Both old and young will need to be instructed as one would instruct a family of children. (SW 33.1) MC VC