Benjamin E. Mays - "The Second Two Hundred Years" (January 11, 1976)

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	(organ music)	0:03
	♪ Noel, Noel ♪	3:55
	♪ Noel, Noel ♪	4:00
	♪ Born is the King of Israel! ♪	4:09
	(organ music)	4:25
	(congregation singing hymn)	5:06
-	Jesus has told us that God yearns over us	9:02
	as a hen broods over her chickens,	9:07
	and that it is not God's will that we should live	9:11
	as broken, separated, or destructive people.	9:16
	And we know that the first action we can make	9:21
	in being made whole people is to make a confession	9:25
	of our personal and our corporate sin.	9:30
	Let is pray.	9:35
	Oh merciful God, we have done little	9:38
	to forward your kingdom in this world,	9:41
	to foster a world of understanding,	9:45
	to establish love as the law of life,	9:48
	we have allowed self to blind us,	9:52
	pains to embitter us, we have forgotten	9:56
	that whatsoever is done to one of the least of your children	9:59
	is done unto You.	10:04
	Pardon our shortcomings, forgive our neglect.	10:07
	Give us a pure heart intent on pleasing you.	10:12
	Help us in all our seeking to seek first	10:16
	Your kingdom and Your righteousness.	10:20
	And make us to come as came your Son Jesus Christ,	10:24
	not to be ministered unto, but to minister.	10:29
	All this we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	10:34
	And now, O God, we pray that you will hear us	10:40
	as we make our personal confession.	10:43
	Amen.	11:09
	There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.	11:11
	There is a balm in Gilead that forgives us.	11:17
	We are forgiven people, and for this we give thanks.	11:23
	Amen and amen.	11:28
	(organ music)	11:32
	♪ Why should I be discouraged ♪	12:03
	♪ Why should the shadows fall? ♪	12:11
	♪ Why should my heart be lonely and ♪	12:18
	♪ And long for heaven and home? ♪	12:27
	♪ When Jesus is my portion, ♪	12:34
	♪ My constant Friend is He, ♪	12:42
	♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪	12:52
	♪ And I know He watches me. ♪	13:03
	♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪	13:15
	♪ And I know He watches me. ♪	13:27
	♪ I sing because I'm happy; ♪	13:40
	♪ I sing because I'm free; ♪	13:49
	♪ For His eye is on the sparrow ♪	13:58
	♪ And I know He watches me. ♪	14:09
	♪ Let not your heart be troubled; ♪	14:22
	♪ These tender words I hear; ♪	14:31
	♪ And resting on his goodness ♪	14:39
	♪ I lose my doubts and fears; ♪	14:48
	♪ For by the path He leadeth ♪	14:55
	♪ But one step I may see; ♪	15:04
	♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪	15:12
	♪ and I know He watches me. ♪	15:23
	♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪	15:34
	♪ and I know He watches me. ♪	15:45
	♪ I sing because I'm happy; ♪	15:57
	♪ I sing because I'm free; ♪	16:05
	♪ For His eye is on the sparrow ♪	16:13
	♪ And I know He watches me. ♪	16:24
	♪ Whenever I am tempted; ♪	16:37
	♪ whenever clouds arise; ♪	16:45
	♪ When songs give place to sighing; ♪	16:54
	♪ When hope within me dies; ♪	17:02
	♪ I draw the closer to Him; ♪	17:10
	♪ from care He sets me free; ♪	17:19
	♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪	17:28
	♪ and I know He watches me. ♪	17:38
	♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪	17:49
	♪ and I know He watches me. ♪	18:01
	♪ I sing because I'm happy; ♪	18:13
	♪ I sing because I'm free; ♪	18:22
	♪ For His eye is on the sparrow ♪	18:32
	♪ And I know He watches me. ♪	18:43
	♪ His eye is on the sparrow ♪	18:54
	♪ And I know He watches me. ♪	19:08
-	Our scripture lesson is the first Psalm.	19:41
	Blessed is the man	19:51
	who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,	19:52
	nor stands in the way of sinners,	19:56
	nor sits in the seat of scoffers;	19:59
	but his delight is in the law of the Lord,	20:03
	and on his law he meditates day and night.	20:06
	He is like a tree	20:11
	planted by streams of water,	20:12
	that yields its fruit in season,	20:15
	and its leaf does not wither.	20:19
	In all that he does, he prospers.	20:21
	The wicked are not so,	20:25
	but are like chaff when the wind drives away.	20:28
	Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,	20:32
	nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;	20:36
	for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,	20:41
	but the way of the wicked will perish.	20:44
	May the Lord add a blessing	20:50
	to the reading and hearers of His Word.	20:51
	May it sink deeply into our hearts	20:55
	and bear fruit in our lives.	20:58
	The Gloria Patri.	21:02
	(organ music)	21:05
	(congregation singing hymn)	21:13
	Let us continue in worship by the Affirmation of Faith.	21:53
	We are not alone, we live in God's world.	22:00
	We believe in God: who has created and is creating,	22:04
	who has come in the truly human Jesus,	22:10
	to reconcile and make new,	22:13
	who works in us and others through the Spirit.	22:17
	We trust God, who calls us to be the Church:	22:21
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	22:26
	to love and serve others,	22:29
	to seek justice and resist evil,	22:32
	to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,	22:36
	our judge and our hope.	22:40
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	22:42
	God is with us.	22:47
	We are not alone.	22:50
	Thanks be to God.	22:52
	The Lord be with you.	22:55
-	And also with you.	22:57
-	Let us pray.	22:58
	(congregation shuffling)	23:00
	O Thou, in whose presence	23:09
	my soul takes delight,	23:14
	on Whom in affliction I call,	23:19
	my comfort by day,	23:25
	my song in the night,	23:29
	my hope, my salvation, my all.	23:34
	Eternal God, we come this morning	23:44
	with many a different burden and concern.	23:52
	We come, O God, into this hour of worship	23:59
	the recipient of more blessings than we can list.	24:07
	More blessings, O God, than we are worthy of.	24:16
	But we come, O God, with thanks on our lips	24:24
	and gratitude in our hearts.	24:30
	We come this morning, O God, to be inspired by Thy presence,	24:36
	To be strengthened with hope and new love.	24:43
	We come, O God, we look and we see a world	24:50
	in need of Thee more and more.	24:56
	For, O God, many of the tools that we have fashioned	25:04
	now have the power to turn upon us and to destroy	25:13
	each and every one.	25:21
	We come, O God, with advanced technology, O God,	25:27
	but we realize that still it is difficult for us	25:32
	to get along with the neighbor.	25:40
	We realize that, more and more,	25:47
	the neighbor is closer and closer,	25:49
	that people on the other side of the world now,	25:56
	through our technology, are very close to us.	25:58
	But still we are unable to communicate,	26:03
	unable to appreciate our differences,	26:08
	unable to see and love the neighbor.	26:15
	Inspire and challenge us, O God, with Thy presence	26:23
	that we will be given the carriage and the vision	26:29
	to see the neighbor in our differences	26:32
	but yet acknowledge we are one.	26:39
	Let Thy spirit move, O God, throughout the land	26:46
	into each heart, and where the doors are closed,	26:53
	knock louder, O God, that we might be compelled	26:58
	to come and let Thy spirit enter our hearts	27:03
	and bear fruit in our lives.	27:08
	Teach us, O God,	27:13
	the power and the glory available to us	27:19
	when we learn to pray the prayer	27:26
	that Thy Son taught us to pray when he said,	27:30
	Our Father, who art in heaven,	27:35
	Hallowed be thy Name.	27:39
	Thy Kingdom come.	27:41
	Thy will be done on earth,	27:43
	As it is in heaven.	27:47
	Give us this day our daily bread.	27:49
	And forgive us our trespasses,	27:52
	As we forgive those that trespassed against us.	27:55
	But lead us not into temptation,	27:59
	But deliver us from evil.	28:02
	For thine is the kingdom,	28:05
	and the power, and the glory,	28:07
	Forever, Amen.	28:10
	I would like to announce that this afternoon	28:18
	at four o'clock, there will be a special service	28:22
	here in the chapel.	28:27
	Memorial service for the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.	28:30
	Area choirs and ushers will be singing,	28:37
	and our speaker, Dr. Benjamin Mays, will also	28:45
	give us the Word at that service,	28:50
	and we cordially invite each and every one to attend.	28:53
	It is a great privilege to welcome	29:05
	to the pulpit of Duke Chapel	29:09
	our speaker for this morning, Dr. Benjamin Mays.	29:13
	The awards given to this great spirit	29:20
	are too numerous to be listed on our program,	29:27
	but a few are listed on the back of our program.	29:32
	In addition, I would like to mention	29:40
	that Dr. Mays served for many years as an advisor	29:45
	to the Protestant Fund for Theological Education,	29:52
	a service that has touched the lives of many	29:59
	a would-be theologian, including yours truly.	30:05
	Last year, Duke University awarded Dr. Mays	30:16
	an honorary doctorate, and among his many publications	30:21
	is a book that I believe touches the spirit of all,	30:30
	the publication Disturbed About Man.	30:38
	In a spirit of gratitude and joy, let us pray	30:47
	and welcome Dr. Benjamin Mays to this,	30:53
	the Duke pulpit; Dr. Mays.	30:59
-	I thank you for your	31:23
	all too generous introduction.	31:28
	Madam Cartel,	31:39
	President, acting President Blackburn,	31:44
	Chaplain Young, Mr. and Mrs. Beach,	31:49
	my host and hostess,	31:54
	faculty and students, ladies and gentlemen,	31:58
	I have a long acquaintance with Duke,	32:04
	reaching back to the days of Frank Graham	32:11
	as president	32:17
	of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.	32:17
	I had heard about the mighty works	32:23
	that Duke University was doing in academia.	32:27
	But this is the first time I have spoken here	32:35
	since I became an honorary graduate of Duke.	32:41
	So you see, I am one of you,	32:47
	no stranger.	32:52
	I worked with Frank Graham on many fronts	32:56
	in our effort to improve black-white relations	33:00
	in the United States.	33:04
	While president of Morehouse, I was honored	33:08
	to confer an honorary degree upon	33:12
	a truly great Southerner,	33:16
	who had earned the right to be so honored,	33:19
	so it should be clear that	33:26
	my roots are interlocked,	33:30
	interwoven, and intertwined	33:35
	into the soil	33:41
	of Duke University.	33:44
	I feel at home here.	33:47
	Let me supplement and complement	33:54
	the scripture read to you, hopefully, that the poem	33:59
	by Elizabeth Cheney,	34:04
	will bring meaning	34:08
	to what I shall attempt to say.	34:12
	This is the poem:	34:16
	Whenever there is silence around me	34:21
	By day and by night	34:27
	I am startled by a cry.	34:31
	It came from the cross.	34:37
	The first time I heard it	34:43
	I went out and searched	34:45
	And found a man	34:50
	in the throes of crucifixion,	34:52
	And I said, "I'll take you down,"	34:59
	And I tried to take the nails out of his feet.	35:06
	But he said, "Let them be,	35:13
	For I cannot be taken down	35:20
	Until every man, every woman,	35:25
	and every child	35:31
	Come together to take me down."	35:34
	And I said, "But I cannot hear your cry.	35:42
	What can I do?"	35:49
	And he said, "Go about the world	35:54
	Tell every one that you meet	36:00
	There is a man	36:05
	on the cross."	36:10
	There's a man on the cross.	36:14
	Let me use, as a basis for this talk,	36:23
	the Second Two Hundred Years,	36:28
	the words of the prophet Jeremiah are appropriate.	36:32
	Jeremiah was called of God to prophesy.	36:39
	Jeremiah tried to convince God	36:45
	that He needed a man who could speak well,	36:49
	a person alive and eloquent.	36:55
	He told God that he was a mere child	37:00
	in the art of public speaking.	37:02
	Jeremiah tells this story in the first chapter of Jeremiah.	37:07
	Let me quote him.	37:12
	Before I formed thee in the belly	37:16
	I knew thee;	37:20
	and before thou cameth forth out of the womb	37:24
	I sanctified thee,	37:28
	and I ordained thee a prophet	37:33
	unto the nations.	37:38
	Then said I, Ah, Lord God!	37:41
	I cannot speak: for I am a child.	37:47
	But the Lord said unto me, Say not, that I am a child:	37:55
	for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee,	38:02
	and whatsoever I command thee	38:07
	thou shalt speak.	38:11
	Be not afraid of their faces:	38:16
	for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.	38:19
	Then the Lord put forth his hands, and touched my mouth.	38:26
	And the Lord said unto me, Behold,	38:34
	I have put my words in thy mouth.	38:40
	See, I have this day	38:44
	set thee over the nations	38:50
	and over the kingdoms, to root out,	38:53
	pull down, to build,	38:59
	and to plant.	39:04
	A prophet is a unique person	39:08
	called of God to do His thing	39:13
	in His time.	39:18
	Good speed and a story of the Old Testament	39:22
	defined a prophet.	39:24
	A prophet is one who interprets the will of God to man.	39:28
	God calls a man to prophesy	39:35
	to the people in his time.	39:39
	Such questions as is the time right	39:44
	or right for me to prophesy?	39:48
	Will it be physically safe for me to declare God's Word?	39:53
	Will the people repent, heed my words,	40:00
	and change from their wicked ways?	40:06
	Will government officials repent	40:10
	and call upon their people to do likewise?	40:14
	None of these questions are relevant.	40:21
	The prophet does not debate them.	40:24
	He speaks to the people in his time	40:30
	because he has to, he must.	40:36
	He's under divine orders to prophesy.	40:42
	He has no choice.	40:48
	When God called Jeremiah,	40:52
	he described the experience	40:55
	as being so urgent, so compelling, so demanding	40:58
	that it was like a burning fire shot up in his bones.	41:04
	If you can imagine a roaring fire	41:13
	or a flame of fire burning in your bones,	41:17
	you can understand the urgency of the call.	41:23
	It is similar in Isaiah's call.	41:28
	He declared that when the eternal God speaks,	41:33
	who can but prophesy?	41:38
	Micah declared that God	41:42
	requires three things:	41:46
	He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;	41:51
	and what doth the Lord require of thee,	41:56
	but to do justly, and to love mercy,	41:58
	and to walk humbly with thy God?	42:01
	Micah demonstrated the	42:06
	timelessness of prophecy.	42:09
	These words are relevant for all times.	42:13
	The words of Micah are symbolic of the fact	42:17
	that nothing is bad, is merely	42:22
	bad because it is old.	42:26
	No, that is new; it's not necessarily good.	42:30
	Jesus entered the ministry under divine compulsion,	42:36
	an inner urge that drove Him on.	42:41
	He tells us in the fourth chapter of Luke	42:45
	that He entered the ministry by quoting Isaiah.	42:49
	Jesus said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,	42:54
	because he hath anointed me	42:58
	to preach good tiding to the poor;	43:01
	he hath sent me proclaim release to the captives,	43:05
	and recovering of sight to the blind,	43:10
	to set at liberty them that are bruised,	43:15
	To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."	43:20
	But we do not have to go back 26 centuries to prove	43:28
	the effectiveness of prophecy.	43:32
	There are numerous modern examples	43:36
	in the historical knowledge of many of us here today.	43:39
	We know that Lincoln must have been called of God	43:45
	to save the Union, and incidentally to free the slaves.	43:49
	What we know, from Fred Douglass' own words,	43:57
	that he was called by God to use his feet	44:01
	to run away to freedom.	44:08
	Harriet Beecher Stowe, what inspired	44:12
	to write Uncle Tom's Cabin,	44:17
	believed by many	44:21
	to be the book that precipitated the Civil War,	44:23
	thus freeing four million slaves	44:27
	predicted by many	44:32
	to soon die out because of the biological belief	44:34
	of many at that time that the Negro could not survive	44:38
	in a white man's world, which would result	44:42
	in a solution to the race problem very soon.	44:47
	It was believed that the black man would die out,	44:52
	trying to meet the competition in a white man's world.	44:57
	Disappointingly, the black man did not die out,	45:02
	but instead he multiplied	45:08
	from four million to 25 million.	45:13
	William Lloyd Garrison was a great abolitionist,	45:19
	but Fred Douglass was greater.	45:23
	He came from slavery further down the scale.	45:27
	Garrison never had to suffer the slayings and arrows	45:32
	of outrageous fortune, the stigma of being black.	45:37
	Garrison, being white, was expected to succeed	45:46
	in freedom, but not a black slave.	45:51
	I thank God for Harriet Beecher Stowe,	45:59
	a great civil rights leader, but I adore more	46:04
	Harriet Tubman, who called,	46:09
	whom God called	46:16
	to free 300 slaves	46:19
	by the way of the Underground Railroad to Canada.	46:24
	This brings me to the heart of this sermon today,	46:31
	the challenge to America and to the black man,	46:37
	in this, our centennial year.	46:45
	America includes the black man in all	46:50
	of its historical documents.	46:55
	But it is hardly likely	46:58
	that white America	47:03
	would take the kind of initiative that is needed	47:04
	at this particular time in history.	47:08
	I'm convinced that God meant	47:14
	that the initiative	47:18
	in our bicentennial year should be	47:20
	and must be taken by blacks.	47:24
	I'm not comfortable in saying this,	47:31
	in fact it gives me inward pain to say it,	47:37
	but it is a fact that there has been	47:43
	no voluntary effort taken by white America	47:46
	to make the black man a citizen of the United States	47:53
	with full equity	47:58
	in his quest to achieve	48:02
	full citizenship rights.	48:05
	We know that, as fine a man as Lincoln was,	48:10
	he had no such intention when he issued	48:16
	his Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863.	48:20
	He clearly stated that his sole purpose was	48:26
	to save the Union, with or without slavery.	48:30
	The freedom of the slaves was incidental.	48:37
	In his speech in Peoria, Illinois, Lincoln said,	48:44
	"We cannot make the Negro equal."	48:48
	There is no doubt in my mind	48:54
	Lincoln meant what he said in that debate	48:58
	with Stephen Douglas.	49:01
	He meant what he said because it was under,	49:05
	it was never in Lincoln's mind	49:09
	that the black man would be capable	49:13
	of full citizenship rights.	49:15
	I say this because immediately after	49:20
	the debate with Douglas, Lincoln was making plans	49:23
	to send the black man to Africa,	49:29
	even before the emancipated slaves	49:32
	had never been to Africa,	49:36
	the home of their ancestors.	49:41
	Some black people,	49:44
	sharing Mr. Lincoln's vision,	49:48
	got on Lincoln's African bandwagon.	49:51
	The black man was brainwashed in accepting Lincoln's views,	49:56
	because they, too, did not believe that the black man	50:02
	had the courage and ability to survive	50:05
	in a world that had never planned	50:10
	that the Negro should be a participant in a world	50:14
	that had never accepted him as a free man.	50:18
	Carrying out this conviction,	50:25
	a group of Negroes received plenty help from people	50:28
	who wished them well in Liberia,	50:32
	but not well as a free man in the United States.	50:36
	As long as federal soldiers from emancipation	50:43
	up to the Hayes-Tilden Compromise occupied the south,	50:47
	the Negroes' rights were protected.	50:53
	The election of 1876 was so close	50:57
	that the choice of President had to be chosen by Congress,	51:01
	and the House of Representatives chose Hayes	51:07
	with the provision that the North would leave the black man	51:10
	in the hands of the white South.	51:14
	From that time on, up to around 1910,	51:19
	the South, through various illegal methods,	51:27
	had stripped the black man of all the rights	51:31
	that the Constitution had given him.	51:35
	The ballot was taken away.	51:38
	The Thirteenth Amendment, which freed the Negro,	51:42
	was taken away.	51:45
	Fourteenth Amendment, guaranteeing	51:49
	the equal protection of the law, was nullified.	51:52
	The ballot was denied through illegal means	51:58
	such as the white primary, fear, intimidation,	52:02
	and frequently lynching.	52:07
	Although judges enacted	52:12
	the Voting Rights Act of 1875,	52:16
	the Supreme Court in 1883	52:21
	overthrew Congressional law,	52:26
	thus giving sanction and approval to segregation,	52:29
	denying safety of life, person, and property rights,	52:33
	making what was established in state law	52:39
	through the white primary, poll tax law,	52:43
	fear, and intimidation.	52:46
	These restrictions took away the ballot.	52:49
	The states made the segregation laws,	52:54
	making it possible for all 13 of the original states	52:58
	to have laws approving segregation	53:02
	in every crack and crevice.	53:05
	Throughout the South,	53:11
	segregation soon became law.	53:14
	Segregation became God,	53:19
	and for a black man,	53:24
	to tamper with that sacred law meant jail,	53:25
	beastly whipping, and death.	53:29
	It was as sacred as India's sacred cow.	53:34
	The states encouraged lynching under the hypocritical	53:42
	pretense of protecting white womanhood.	53:45
	Ben Tillman, the arch-enemy of civil rights,	53:50
	was invited to speak in the North and in the South	53:54
	before church groups and civic bodies	53:59
	and in social and civic groups.	54:02
	He took, he told a Boston audience,	54:06
	speaking at Tremont Temple in Boston,	54:08
	that he would encourage lynching.	54:11
	He told them that he would lynch any Negro	54:16
	who raped a white woman.	54:19
	The following statistics in this case,	54:24
	however, proved that Tillman had not done his homework.	54:28
	Out of 46,717	54:34
	lynchings in the country	54:38
	from 1885 to 1946,	54:41
	only 19 percent	54:45
	were ever accused of raping white women.	54:48
	Henry Grady, one of the most widely known	54:55
	and respected Southerners in his day, condoned lynching.	54:58
	Speaking before the New England Society in Boston,	55:02
	Tremont Temple, Grady praised the black man.	55:06
	He referred to the Negro's loyalty	55:11
	to the women and the children of the South	55:14
	during the four years of the Civil War,	55:16
	when the black man's masters were fighting	55:21
	to keep him in slavery.	55:24
	Though a slave, the Negro was loyal.	55:27
	Grady continues, when at last he raised	55:33
	his black humble hands, that the shackles	55:38
	might be cut off those chains,	55:43
	the Negro remained loyal.	55:47
	How ironical, how paradoxical.	55:50
	Grady, speaking a year later in Dallas Texas,	55:56
	he repudiated all that he said in Boston	56:00
	and in the New York Times.	56:04
	On May the 10th, 1900, let me quote Grady verbatim:	56:06
	"Those who would put the Negro back in supremacy	56:13
	would work against infallible decree,	56:16
	for the white race can never submit to the domination,	56:22
	because the white race is the superior race.	56:28
	But the frequency, but the supremacy of the white man	56:33
	in the South must be maintained forever.	56:38
	And the domination of the Negro race resisted	56:45
	at all points and all hazards.	56:49
	Because the white race is the superior race,	56:55
	this is the declaration of no new truth,	57:00
	it has abided forever in the marrows of our bones,	57:06
	and shall run forever with the blood	57:12
	that feeds Anglo-Saxon hearts."	57:15
	Reaching his peroration,	57:22
	Grady said further	57:27
	"Standing in the presence of this multitude,	57:30
	sobered with the responsibility,	57:35
	the message I deliver to the young men of the South,	57:40
	I declare that the truth above all others to be worn	57:45
	unsullied and sacred in your hearts,	57:49
	to be surrendered to no force,	57:53
	sold for no price, compromised in no necessity,	57:55
	but cherished and defended at the covenant	58:02
	of your prosperity, and the pledge of peace	58:05
	to young children is that the white race	58:10
	must dominate forever in the South,	58:14
	because it is the white race and superior	58:18
	to that race by which its supremacy is threatened.	58:20
	It is a black issue that has come	58:25
	to this point and stands here.	58:29
	Here the air is pure and the light is clear.	58:33
	And here honor and peace abide.	58:37
	Juggling an evasion deceives not a man.	58:41
	Compromise and subservience have carried not a point.	58:46
	There is not a white man, North or South,	58:51
	who does not feel it stir in the gray matter	58:54
	of his brain and throb of his heart.	58:57
	Not a Negro who does not feel its power.	59:01
	It is not sectional issue.	59:06
	It speaks in Ohio and in Georgia.	59:08
	It speaks whenever the Anglo-Saxon touches an alien race."	59:14
	Grady, in this speech, encouraged and approved lynching	59:21
	because the white man had to be protected	59:25
	from the scourge and denigration of slavery, of blacks.	59:27
	What he did was to poison the minds of white people	59:32
	and especially children.	59:35
	Those alive and those born sensed with prejudice.	59:38
	No one could ever know how much harm	59:43
	this speech has done to the minds of the South,	59:48
	both Negro and white.	59:51
	The following statistics came	59:54
	from Monroe Work at Tuskegee and his successor,	59:56
	who recorded all lynchings in the nation	1:00:00
	between 1882 and 1946.	1:00:03
	The judges approved of lynching,	1:00:08
	and ministers of Christ, God approved	1:00:11
	by never uttering a mumbling word	1:00:13
	in condemnation of it.	1:00:18
	In a certain Southern city, I know of	1:00:21
	one minister who abandoned his 11 o'clock service	1:00:26
	to participate in the mob.	1:00:30
	I recall cases where people from all around	1:00:35
	came to witness a lynching, and women were given	1:00:39
	souvenirs of parts of the victim's body.	1:00:43
	Some women in the crowd requested a finger,	1:00:46
	an ear, an eye, a toe.	1:00:50
	This made bold a fact that	1:00:57
	lynching was acceptable	1:01:02
	and was ingrained	1:01:07
	in the custom and practice of the time.	1:01:13
	Eliott Abner,	1:01:17
	an address delivered about the South,	1:01:23
	Abram said this: "Where the Negro has thriven,	1:01:29
	it has invariably been under the influence	1:01:34
	and by the assistance of a stronger race.	1:01:39
	These wanting he has inevitably and visibly	1:01:43
	reverted towards an original type.	1:01:49
	Slavery, whatever its demerits, was not in its time	1:01:52
	the unmitigated evil it is fancied to have been.	1:01:59
	The time has past, no power could compel the South	1:02:04
	to have it back.	1:02:08
	But to the Negro it was salvation.	1:02:10
	It found him a savage, and in 200 years,	1:02:15
	given seven million of his race	1:02:20
	a civilization,	1:02:26
	the only civilization it has had since the dawn of history."	1:02:28
	A prophet is a statesman, called of God	1:02:35
	to lead his people.	1:02:39
	No question is irrelevant.	1:02:41
	Questions such as, is it expedient to do this?	1:02:43
	Is it wise that I do this?	1:02:48
	Will it be rejected?	1:02:50
	Will I be re-elected if I proclaim God's Word to them?	1:02:53
	Will I lose my physical life?	1:02:59
	None of these questions are ever raised by the true prophet.	1:03:02
	Jesus, Paul, Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel	1:03:06
	are proof of this assertion.	1:03:11
	These are the reason	1:03:15
	that I feel that the call	1:03:18
	must come to the black man,	1:03:20
	and to many white Americans to join hands	1:03:24
	and unite to proclaim	1:03:29
	God's Word	1:03:34
	in the second two hundred years	1:03:36
	of our national existence.	1:03:39
	As our forefathers laid down the principles	1:03:44
	outlined in the Declaration of Independence	1:03:48
	and other American historical documents	1:03:51
	such as Lincoln's Gettysburg speech	1:03:55
	and the words on the Statue of Liberty,	1:03:57
	the call of God will come to the black man	1:04:02
	since he has known suffering.	1:04:09
	Tredding the wine press alone,	1:04:13
	battered and scarred	1:04:17
	for 243 years as a slave	1:04:21
	and another 100 years of segregation,	1:04:27
	humiliation, and denigration.	1:04:30
	The call to prophesy usually comes to the poor and needy.	1:04:33
	The man farthest down.	1:04:40
	The learned, the wealthy, and mighty,	1:04:44
	those holding much money and power are hardly called.	1:04:47
	If they are called, they foresake family and kin,	1:04:53
	and those who hold power and position	1:04:59
	cast their lot with those most in need.	1:05:05
	What can the black man do?	1:05:12
	He can thank God for the opportunity given him	1:05:15
	to do His work at this crucial hour in world history.	1:05:17
	No, it is not prejudice to do this.	1:05:25
	It can be documented.	1:05:31
	It is inherent in the nature of ethnic groups	1:05:35
	to seek identity in its group.	1:05:38
	It is not prejudice for the Jew	1:05:43
	to stick his chest out	1:05:47
	when he knows that Jesus and Paul paved the way	1:05:50
	for Pentecost and out of these	1:05:54
	experiences the Christian church was born,	1:05:59
	thus giving us hope for the	1:06:04
	good life here on earth	1:06:08
	and hope for immortality beyond this veil of tears.	1:06:10
	The Bible, Old and New Testaments, provide the basis	1:06:17
	for our belief in both the Jewish and Christian faiths.	1:06:23
	Our belief in God is set forth in the Bible,	1:06:28
	it gives Jews and Christians the theological	1:06:31
	foundation for their faith.	1:06:34
	It is the basis for the theological,	1:06:38
	for the theology of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.	1:06:42
	It must not be forgotten that Jesus was the son	1:06:48
	of a carpenter, that Paul, though a citizen of Rome,	1:06:53
	was from an enslaved people and was an ordinary worker,	1:06:59
	a tent maker by trade.	1:07:03
	Moses preferred to suffer with his people	1:07:06
	rather than to be the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter.	1:07:10
	Joseph never denied his Jewish nature,	1:07:16
	even after his brothers had betrayed him	1:07:20
	and sold him into Egypt.	1:07:25
	Buddha, son of carpenter,	1:07:29
	forsook his regal	1:07:34
	and warrior family to do his thing in his time.	1:07:35
	Legend has it that it had been prophesied	1:07:39
	that Buddha would become a great conquering king.	1:07:42
	His father did not want him, his son,	1:07:48
	to be a religious leader, so he provided	1:07:51
	his son with every luxury and kept him away	1:07:54
	from unpleasant things.	1:07:58
	One day, while riding through the royal garden,	1:08:00
	the Prince saw a weary, bent old man.	1:08:04
	This shocked him, and then Buddha saw that all men	1:08:10
	become old, and all men die.	1:08:15
	As a result of this experience, he began to ponder	1:08:22
	what life was all about, observing that all races	1:08:26
	of men grow old, get sick and die.	1:08:31
	This troubled Buddha, and he was depressed.	1:08:36
	He founded an order of monks and nuns.	1:08:41
	He believed God had led him to see that mankind is united.	1:08:44
	He died as the enlightened one, teaching at 80	1:08:51
	that mankind must be united.	1:08:56
	And I might add, in God,	1:09:01
	if he had followed	1:09:07
	the legend of the times, he would have been	1:09:09
	just another Asiatic king.	1:09:13
	But now he is, according to H.G. Wells,	1:09:16
	one of the six great men of history.	1:09:21
	Now, Buddha belongs to history because he	1:09:24
	identified himself with suffering man.	1:09:27
	Today, millions are saved by operation on the human body.	1:09:30
	The poetic Cicero, so impressed with the Roman Empire,	1:09:37
	is reputed to have said that the Roman Empire	1:09:41
	could never fall.	1:09:45
	Given dates to fall as 476 A.D.,	1:09:48
	but that Empire had been falling for centuries.	1:09:53
	Rome did not fall, though she was not defeated	1:09:56
	on the battlefield.	1:10:02

-	There is a time, element in life when we pay	0:05
	for violating god's moral and spiritual laws.	0:10
	It gonna happen to the United States.	0:14
	Mussolini boasted that he would build,	0:16
	rebuild the	0:21
	greatness of the Roman empire,	0:24
	the greatness of the Roman empire,	0:28
	not Mussolini, but a great writer, Cicero.	0:31
	But he did not build it, he lost the second World War	0:36
	and he and his mistress were killed trying to save their	0:42
	lives by escaping to Switzerland.	0:45
	And people who had worshiped him as god killed him,	0:49
	brought their bodies back and hanged them on the streets	0:54
	of the land, I've seen the spot where	0:58
	their bodies were hanged and ridiculed	1:03
	by the people who once worshiped them as gods.	1:08
	Hitler boasted that he would build a German empire	1:11
	that would last 1,000 years, it last 10.	1:15
	Hitler's body and that of his mistress were found	1:21
	dead by the bullets of their own hand.	1:25
	There is a wideness in god's mercy,	1:30
	like the wideness of the sea but there's also a wideness	1:34
	in god's justice, god's wrath.	1:39
	Like the wideness of the sea.	1:45
	Where and when can we begin,	1:50
	we can begin here at Duke today,	1:56
	the challenge of God is to the black man	2:02
	although I know that the black man's	2:07
	hands are not clean either,	2:10
	some blacks in the 1960s and the early 70s	2:16
	were going around telling Negro to tell Whitey	2:22
	while they made a habit of killin' Blacky.	2:26
	No body can be any meaner	2:33
	and brutal to one another than black folks.	2:37
	I've been one a long time,	2:43
	longer than most of you	2:47
	under the sound of my voice.	2:50
	But I do believe that the black man is the remnant,	2:54
	God's chosen remnant, at this point in time,	2:59
	I say this because	3:05
	white man has enslaved, robbed	3:08
	and brutalized black people all across the world.	3:13
	I admire his skill and science	3:20
	and his application	3:24
	when he comes to dealing justly with the black man,	3:27
	I cannot trust the white man to initiate	3:33
	the kind of program I have in mind.	3:37
	So we can begin at Duke	3:40
	and today black and white together,	3:46
	God's white remnant for there has	3:50
	always been a small number	3:53
	among whites urging people to do justly, love mercy	3:56
	and walk humbly with they god.	4:02
	Otherwise the black man would've been liquidated	4:05
	a long time ago,	4:08
	we would not be alive to tell the story.	4:12
	Indian took up arms and where are they?	4:18
	So in the bicentennial year, what can we do,	4:25
	white and black together here at Duke?	4:30
	We can pronounce and challenge all America to do	4:33
	these four things, we should strive harder to lead	4:36
	the world in universities and see if we cannot build trust	4:41
	between the United States and Russia and other nations.	4:47
	Our scientists have met the Russian scientists in space	4:51
	and hooked up together for two days.	4:55
	But officially United States and Russia do not trust each	4:59
	other, with United States and Russia trying to outdo	5:02
	each other, it will lead us downward to the end.	5:07
	Beginning in 1976, we should set a goal to end poverty	5:12
	in the United States and can do it in 10 years.	5:17
	I believe it is cheaper and healthier to give people jobs	5:20
	rather than wealth,	5:26
	crime is rampant in the United States.	5:30
	Federal government and corporation with state government	5:33
	and religious bodies throughout the countries are	5:36
	striving to reduce crime to negligible size in three years.	5:39
	Instead of the federal government turning it's back on	5:45
	the 1954 decision of the United States Supreme Court,	5:47
	1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 voting rights act,	5:51
	we should reassess these programs,	5:56
	make them functional everywhere.	5:59
	These are a few of the priorities the nation should	6:02
	set for itself as we turn our faces to the future.	6:07
	Some such spirited announcement should be made.	6:12
	This is the time for the churches of America,	6:16
	particularly the black church take the leadership	6:20
	in urging the government to step forward	6:24
	and lead in these areas.	6:27
	Finally I really believe that a nation can decay	6:32
	without being beaten on the battlefield.	6:36
	A nation's survival depends in part on its will	6:41
	to justice, a nation that makes human	6:44
	value secondary will eventually fall.	6:48
	Despite his economic and military power.	6:56
	These are intangible and cannot be dramatized	7:00
	on a blackboard but history is proof.	7:04
	Things other than war can bring the nation down.	7:08
	For it is as true now as it was centuries ago.	7:12
	Except a lord buildith the house,	7:18
	they labor in vain that build it.	7:22
	And except the lord keepeth the city,	7:25
	watchmen waketh but in vain,	7:29
	I believe with all my heart, soul and mind,	7:33
	eyes have not seen, ears have not heard	7:40
	and the world had known what god would do for the world.	7:47
	I hear God in the Negro spirit,	7:56
	sinner, sinner, sinner.	8:01
	Give up your heart to God,	8:06
	we shall find a new hiding place.	8:11
	And a leadership for world peace.	8:16
	Judge all men and women who wanna work	8:19
	and are able to work.	8:24
	A concern for diseased bodies whether in the United States,	8:27
	South Africa, South America, the middle east and Asia,	8:31
	that mantle of leadership has fallen to the United States.	8:35
	Hopefully that we will build a foundation	8:40
	that's firm in the one our	8:45
	forefathers built 200 years ago.	8:50
	Let us build for the year 2175.	8:55
	We cannot fail our founders	9:00
	and we cannot fail our god.	9:04
	Pass in retrospect,	9:08
	only we can determine the	9:12
	future for the year 2175.	9:15
	No better place to begin than here at Duke.	9:20
	Black and white together, not at Chicago,	9:25
	not at Harvard, not at Yale and not at Columbia	9:29
	but at Duke, proclaim it from every housetop.	9:34
	Tell it on the mountains,	9:41
	all over the hill and everywhere.	9:43
	God has called Duke students to start a movement	9:49
	that this nation under God will be as strong,	9:56
	stronger in the year 2176	10:01
	than it is in 1976.	10:07
	May we accept the challenge	10:14
	at Duke.	10:19
-	We will be able to accept the challenge	10:33
	and thus continue our worship as we make our offering	10:37
	of our lives and our monies to god.	10:40
	(organ music with inaudible singing)	10:51
	Accept these monies in our lives, oh lord	17:29
	and follow us with your blessing	17:34
	that we may work for a just world.	17:38
	We pray in the spirit of Christ, Amen.	17:42
	(organ music with inaudible singing)	17:49
	The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,	21:01
	the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit	21:05
	go with us now and forever.	21:10
	(inaudible choir singing)	21:15
	(church bells ringing)	22:25
	(organ music)	22:33
	(applause)	28:37

Item Info

Title:

Benjamin E. Mays - "The Second Two Hundred Years" (January 11, 1976)

Description:

The prophet does not ask questions of his or her calling but interprets the will of God to humankind because he or she has to; the prophet is under divine compulsion. In this second 200 years of life in the history of the US, God has called the black community to rise up like prophets and take the lead in creating a better nation. And that work is to start at Duke. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 31:23. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 10:24.
Key quotation: “I’m convinced that God meant that the initiative in our bicentennial year should be and must be taken by blacks.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4d795r0j

Date:

January 11, 1976

Speaker:

Mays, Benjamin E. (Benjamin Elijah), 1894-1984

Chapter and Verse:

Psalm 1:1-6

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0812
ref6824_q25
uachapelsermaud
duke:320377
dcrau001813
ark:/87924/r4d795r0j
761841c4-fd15-4fd6-ad72-cd1a3c209300

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

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Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Benjamin E. Mays - "The Second Two Hundred Years" (January 11, 1976)

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1. Benjamin E. Mays - "Martin Luther King, Jr." MLK Memorial Service" (January 11, 1976)

2. Benjamin E. Mays - "Martin Luther King, Jr." Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Service (January 11, 1976)

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Benjamin E. Mays - "The Second Two Hundred Years" (January 11, 1976)

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