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[Silence] [Camera noise] [Camera noise] Brothers and sisters, [Camera noise]

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it is a delightful privilege to come [Camera noise] to bring this last message in the series [Camera noise]

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of addresses [Camera noise] for this session of our National Baptist Congress. I'm grateful to Dr. Boaz for having given me this opportunity a number of years ago.

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Each year I have sought to do as lecturers do in schools, since the Congress is a school of methods, to put in form these lectures so that they are available the next year. the lectures that are delivered this year will be in printed form next year and I still have some copies of the messages delivered in the session last year that my wife has in the rear on

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teaching techniques of the master teacher that you may get at the close of this session. We have been concerned with the gospel of liberation, communicating the gospel of liberation. Yesterday we considered teaching positive self-concept in connection with this theme. Today I would like for us to consider this theme, "Jesus, Our Soul Brother."

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Jesus, our soul brother. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." John 1 and 12. "When you did it to these my brothers, you were doing it to me."

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Matthew 25 and 40. Jesus, our soul brother. Some time ago, in the midst of what we call the Civil Rights Revolution of our time, stores were being burned and looted

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in New York City. And in the midst of that particular event, there was a sign seen on some of the store windows. One sign read, "Sold, brother,"

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so that his store wouldn't be looted. He had put that sign there, "Soul Brother." Then there was a Chinese merchant who was in that section, and he saw what the other brother had done, and he put up his sign, "Me Soul Brother Too." [laughter]

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So we want to take a look at this subject of Jesus, our soul brother, in connection with our struggle for liberation. Black people have what we call souls. We have demonstrated a capacity for converting weakness into strength, and this is reflected in our religion.

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this religion that we have, was thrust upon us to make us peaceful and happy in our bondage, and it was focused on life in the hereafter. Our slave forefathers looked at life and they said, "It's tough down here now, but things will be better in the sweet by and by." Some of you may have read a recent book which is written by two

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Black Doctors one I think is a physician and the other is a psychiatrist And the title of this book is the Jesus bag and

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They say William H. Breyer and price in Cobb say that for blacks the misery of life was too much, and they reached into their religious experience to extract a black mystique which is called soul.

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And the definition which they give for soul is that soul is the toughness, born of hard times, and the compassion oppressed people developed after centuries of sharing a loaf that is never enough. It's a special brotherhood of those set apart from their fellows, made visible by physical appearance and different customs.

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So Is Grateful survival under impossible circumstances You know, we speak of soul food

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And you no doubt remember story black man who went into a restaurant and The Waitress brought him the menu after he had to

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read carefully he Looked at her to say Do you have any collard greens? And she said no, sir well, do you have any chitlins and

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She said no sir Do you have any neck bones or back bones? That's no sir well, you have any

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Mustard greens and corn bread. He said no sir, and he said well you folks are not ready for integration This is soul food It's the kind of food that has brought us through tough times and Impossible circumstances

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and We have what we call soul music The kind of music that was born out of tough times out of the struggles of

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our people And And you see, in this struggle of liberation, we have been given what is called the Jesus bag.

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And we're going to look into that bag. I was in college president Rhodes of Bishop College during the football season Asked the coach about the football game when we were going to Play purview. He said

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Coach, how's the game going to come out? And he said mr. President It's in the bag and we lost that game And then little later we played

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a game with Langston University in Oklahoma and before that game The president asked the coach of how the game going to come out and he said Mr. President it's in the bag And we lost that game

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Then we played Texas College and he asked how that game going to come out. He said mr. President is in the bag And so we had another game to play Wiley College and we had A rally for that game and the president in chapel said

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Say coach, you know, I asked you about the game Prayer you said it's in the bag. We lost that I asked you about the game of Langston and he said it's in the bag and we lost that game

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I Asked you about the game Texas College and you said it's in the bag and we lost that and he said now what I want you to do is to Get it out of the bag

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So not only do we need to take a look at this Jesus bag, but how to get it out of the bag Eric Lincoln see Eric Lincoln says that His religion was the organizing center for the black man's pilgrimage in America. His life was structured around his religion.

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His church was his school, his forum, his political arena, his social club, his art gallery, his conservatory of music. His religion was his fellowship with man, his audience with God. It was the peculiar, sustainable force which gave him his strength to endure when endurance gave no promise, and the courage to be creative in the face of his own dehumanization.

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So for black people, it's not an accident that in the black community that the church is the most influential organization. That's not an accident. Because for black people, the church has been the instrument of escape. It has been the weapon of protest against the assault of a hostile world.

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Within the church, he plans his strategies of defiance, harassment, and frontal attacks against racial barriers. It's been the church. When our people were burning down and their souls were scarred from the oppression which

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they suffered in the world, they found refuge in the church. And when they rose up to protest against oppression, they did it in the name of the Lord. they did this through the church. When they planned their strategies of defiance,

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I can remember as a boy, I sat in a little Baptist church in Dallas, and as the preacher preached the fire at them, and there was also the occasion when they had the people to remain, even in an after service

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to teach them how to vote. So the church has brought us this far. But I want us to take a moment and look at what happened when we, how we came in this country to be given what is called the Jesus bag. You know at first, slaveholders in America did not allow their slaves to be baptized.

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Because Christianity supposedly would enfranchise them and to be a Christian was to be free, to be liberated. And so since to be a Christian was to be free, they did not permit their slaves to be baptized. But because the white church was having very few converts among the blacks, it proceeded that the white Christians sought to assure the slaveholders that being baptized had nothing

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to do with civil freedom. In fact, they went on to say, the white ministers went on to assure the slaveholders that Christianity would make better slaves. And so with the assurance that they had been given,

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the masters began to introduce Christianity to the slaves, confident of the fact that it would make them more obedient and make them happy in their slavery. And so they gave them what is called the Jesus bag

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Now Many who Took this Jesus bag

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Which is a bag shaped like a noose by which it was meant to make the slaves satisfied with their lot they took it and fashioned it into a black cornucopia of spiritual victories. They were determined to reform the nation

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if need be to reform the world. So they took it, they permitted the slaves to hear about Jesus with the hope that it would just cause them to be satisfied and to be happy

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and to kiss the chains of their bondage. But as they began to hear the word, you know, there's just, whenever, just the Bible, the word of God,

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whenever it gets into you, it has liberated you first. (audience shouting) So you go back, as you think about the struggle of liberation, and you see Nat Turner.

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Nat Turner was a slave Baptist preacher. But he had heard of Joshua and he had the message of the Old Testament and as this message of liberation

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filled his mind and his soul, he had dreams of being free. And Nat Turner didn't get this outside the Bible. He got it-- he looked for a sign from heaven.

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He didn't have a big band. He just had eight people when he started out. It was a dream of freedom that came to him from the word of God.

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And he started out in 1831. And this is an outstanding rebellion in the struggle for freedom. But you see, it's connected to Jesus because the name Joshua is the Hebrew form of the word Jesus, salvation bringer.

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So his concept of freedom, his concept of liberation was related to the Bible. It was related to Jesus Christ. (audience murmurs) Now the nation will never forget Matt Turner.

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Oh, the Jesus bag that his white slave masters gave him was designed to make him docile and to make him content, but this Jesus bag that was supposed to keep him satisfied was really fashioned into a harvest of liberation.

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Now this Jesus bag is the center of our liberation because Jesus is our soul brother. In spite of the adverse circumstances that we face, it has been the motivating force in our struggle for liberation. You look upon Frederick Douglass as being an outstanding leader, but go back and read

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the life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass tells us in his autobiography that that was this experience. He said that his slave master, Hugh Hall, and his slave master's wife, Mrs. Hall, had certain views regarding his freedom. Mrs. Hall told her husband one evening that she had had remarkable success in teaching Frederick Douglass how to read.

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And he forbade her to do that. He said, "Don't you give that slave boy any more instruction. He said it's an awful thing. It's unsafe." And this is what he said. I'm going to read a portion of it. This is what he said If you give a nigger an inch he will take an L Learning will spoil the best nigger in the world

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If he learns to read the Bible It will forever unfit him to be a slave He should know nothing but the will of his master and learn to obey. As to himself, learning will do him no good but a great deal of harm, making him discomfortable and unhappy. If you teach him how to read, he'll want to know how to write.

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And this accomplished, he'll be running away with himself. You all wanted Frederick Douglass to be a slave, but Frederick Douglass had already voted against that. Frederick Douglass wanted to be free. And Frederick Douglass found in the Jesus bag a harvest of liberation.

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You see, there was a Reverend Charles Lawson on the plantation there where Frederick Douglass was. His name was Reverend Charles. He was an old man. And Frederick Douglass said that Reverend Lawson didn't know how to read, but he was a student. And so Frederick Douglass had learned how to read and they would get off together and Frederick Douglass would teach Reverend Lawson the letter and Reverend Lawson would teach him the spirit.

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And from this experience came the greatest leader in the liberation movement during that period, Frederick Douglass. But you see, it was wrapped up, it was wrapped up in our religion. And so you see, the slaves were given the Jesus bag to make them weak, but they took it and became strong. Because they saw in Jesus, they saw in Jesus their soul brother, because Jesus is our soul brother.

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Despised and rejected, ostracized by society, and yet you read the words of the prophet and the prophet says, He was despised and rejected. He was a man of powers and acquainted with grief. And then as his choir so beautifully sang a moment ago,

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surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrow. Jesus is our soul brother. Well, the slaves saw that. They saw that.

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They saw that in this Jesus bag. This identity crisis that they had to deal with, they saw this and they said, "They have been divided with Jesus."

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And they said, "Now Jesus is our soul brother," because they sang, "Sweet little Jesus, boy, "born long time ago, "born in a manger, Lord,

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"didn't know who you was. "Didn't know you'd come to save us, Lord, "didn't know who you was." Jesus is our soul brother.

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And then in the midst of their struggles, they cried out, "I'm troubled, I'm troubled in mind that if Jesus won't help me, I surely will die." They saw the fact that Jesus is our soul brother. And then in the midst of their struggles, they said, "You can take all of this world,

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but give me Jesus!" Because this gave them comfort in the midst of all of the oppression that they bore. Now, Christian workers, I would suggest to us today that we must hold on to this faith. The militants around us are saying to get rid of this Jesus thing.

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They're saying that we ought to fight hate with hate. But I say to you, hold on. This popular story of Jonathan's living from seagulls is a story of a seagull who decides to depart from the ordinary. He leaves the flock with their traditional ways of doing things and because he really wants to learn more about flying

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He He still goes on higher and on a higher plane of that he meets the elder brother And this elder brother is trying Seagull And trying Seagull recognizes that Jonathan Livingston Seagull is gifted as a teacher

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And Jonathan Livingston Seagull not only learned more about flying But he has the determination of going back and getting others out of that plot that he might share with them the good news of the liberation about fly That's trying to help the brother says to Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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And he says to him Jonathan Keep working on love And I

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Says to us in his life. He says Christian teachers to keep working on love Keep working on love you can't have a positive self concept unless you love yourself You got to love yourself. The Bible says love the Lord with all your heart love your neighbor as yourself

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But you can't love your neighbor unless you love yourself So keep working on love Although we've got all of our methods and we have our materials we have our fine churches We have all of these things we have some wonderful budgets, but I say to you my Christian workers keep working

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on love Keep working on love In other words, if you keep working on life, you'll love your enemies Keep working on love

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If you keep working on life, you'll be able to do what the elder brother says Jesus our soul brother who says not just don't love those that love you but Be able to turn the other cheek Keep working on love

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If you are oppressed to be societal, don't hate, but keep working on love. Keep working on love. Love divine, all love excelling, Joy of heaven to earth come down,

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Safe in us thy humble dwelling, All thy faithful mercies have found. Keep working on love. God will crown our efforts with success if we keep working on love.

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Because you see, love finds a way. Love just finds a way. There is no room in the end, but love finds a place anyhow. In a lowly cattle shed, keep working on love. Carriage soldiers are there, they are arrayed with power, they're determined to destroy love, but love lives on. Keep working on love.

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Love goes down to Egypt and in the liberation struggle, love has to always go to Egypt, so keep working on love. Men's love, love is taken and males are driven through the hands of love. Males are driven through the feet of love and love is pierced in the side. Love is shut up in a tomb and God's the place there and the tomb is filled and they say we've got love now.

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But you see, love broke out. And love is walking the highways of history today. Keep working on love. Because it was that love, it was that love that brought us safe this far.

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I'm sinking deep and thin, far from the people's shore. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry and loved me still. Keep working on love. Keep working on love. And that's why, that's why as we go forward in this liberation struggle,

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we've got to stay close to the Lord. We've got to stay close to the Lord. We've got to trust in the Lord. And we've got to just keep on laughing and we have one that's with us. Who's with us in this struggle. He's our soul brother.

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Don't have to worry about what's going to happen. We have a soul brother who goes with us in this struggle. He's on the boat with us and in the midst of the storm, he walks with us. He stands up on the boat, he's there.

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And he hears our people cry. That's why I love the Lord. I love the Lord. He heard my cry and pitted every groan. Long as I live and troubled rise, I'll hasten to His throne. Keep working on love. Hold on for this, this, this, this, this Jesus bag of gold, brother, that they thought would make us weak,

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It has made us strong. It has made us strong. It brought us safe thus far. That's what James Weldon Johnson is talking about when he looks back across the years. And he says God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, God who has brought us thus far along the way, God who has by thy might led us into the light. Keep us forever in the path, we pray. You know, just trust in God.

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Keep working on love. Have the strength to love us. But no matter what happens, just keep working on love. One man said, you know, said no matter what corner they put me

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in, said they can't put me in a corner so small that I don't have praying room. You just get down there and tell God all about it. And that's all that you need.

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But somehow when we tell God about it, He breaks open prison doors. Dark dungeons are made light. And we are lifted up into His saving grace. Keep working on love.

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That love that will not let you go. And you see, that's the salvation of us as a people. Jesus, how so, brother? Oh, a lot of things may happen to you.

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Father and mother may forsake us, but he'll never forsake us. If we just keep working on love, keep working on love. Well, there's a story. There's a story of a man, George Matheson.

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He was becoming blind. And he went to his physician and he listened to him as he said, "You better see all you want to see because soon the darkness will settle and you'll not be able to see anymore." Mattison had a sweetheart.

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They were engaged to be married and he thought he would suggest to her that they would break off the engagement and he was hoping that she would say no. but when he made that suggestion, she readily agreed when she heard that he was going blind. And this tore his heart. This tore his heart. The darkness seemed to settle in his soul, but in the midst of that darkness he found light, and it came to him in the words of a song,

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"Oh Lord, that will not make me blind." Oh, I know Christian workers that sometimes the wind gets dark. I know that if you're working in the Sunday school, sometimes it seems to indicate that it really doesn't pay, but it does. But you just have that love.

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Oh, that will not let me go. I rest my will and soul in thee. I'll kill thee not till I die. That is We

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Going to do something right here. I I think that it's quite fitting that we should do this after hearing such a dynamic message from Dr. Griffin. We're going to ask that the choir would lead us in a song

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and we're going to open the door of the church. It might be somebody here, we don't know. After hearing this kind of message, won't you worry on love?

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So we're going to ask quiet, leaders and a sound. Has anyone here like you to come? [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Singing] [Music] [Music]

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♪ And he ♪ ♪ The great ♪ ♪ Shepherd ♪ ♪ Came ♪

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♪ Home ♪ ♪ Back ♪ [Singing] [Chanting]

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[Chanting] [Music] (crowd chanting) (crowd chanting)

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[Chanting] [Bagpipes playing] [Cheering] Let every heart say amen.

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[Cheering] We know that Dr. Piper is indeed proud of this very fine group. And the young man, the young man who's playing as organist and pianist and director, let us give him an amen. [applause]

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And to that pastor sitting to my right, I know it. He's proud of me, don't he? Dr. Fink. Now at this time, Dr. Williams has an announcement that he would like to bring to us. Dr. Williams. [Laughter] My friends, I wish you would hear this again. I made it before some of you came in about turning the report in.

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