Step by Step; Or, Tidy's Way to Freedom — John Shaqi
Step by Step; Or, Tidy's Way to FreedomAmerican Tract Society
General
Step by Step; Or, Tidy's Way to Freedom
American Tract Society
Enslaved persons -- United States -- Religious life; Slavery -- United States -- Religious aspects
Tidy's first experience in this wilderness of delights, where was so
much to be seen, learned, and enjoyed, was a striking one, and proved
how the goodness of God followed her all the days of her life. It was
Saturday evening when she landed. The family with whom the captain
placed her were pious people, and were glad enough of the opportunity on
the morrow of taking an emancipated slave, who had never been inside
a church, to the house of God. It was a humble, un-pretending edifice
where the colored people worshiped, but to her it was spacious and
splendid. How neat and orderly every thing appeared. Men, women, and
children, in their Sunday attire, walked quietly through the streets,
and reverently seated themselves in the place of worship. The minister
ascended the pulpit, and the singers took their places in the choir. It
was communion Sunday, and the table within the altar was spread for the
holy feast. All these strange and incomprehensible proceedings filled
the mind of Tidy with solemnity and awe.
The services began. The prayer and reading of the Scripture seemed to
feed her hungry soul as with the bread of life. Then the congregation
arose and sang,--
"Alas, and did my Saviour bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote his sacred head
For such a worm as I?
Oh, the Lamb, the loving Lamb,
The Lamb on Calvary;
The Lamb that was slain,
That liveth again,
To intercede for me."
All through the hymn she was actually trembling with excitement. Her
whole being was thrilled, her eyes overflowed with tears, and she
could scarcely hold herself up, as verse after verse, with the swelling
chorus, convinced her that they sang the praises of Him whom she had
seen in her dream, who stood between her and an offended God, and whom,
though she knew him not, she loved and cherished in her inmost soul. Oh,
if she could know more about him!
Her wish was to be gratified. As Paul said to the people of Athens,
"Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you," so might
the preacher of righteousness have said to this eager listener. He took
for his text these words: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed." Then followed the whole story of
the cross,--the reasons why it was necessary for Jesus to give his life
a ransom for many; the divine love that prompted the sacrifice; the
all-sufficiency of the atonement; and the completeness of Christ's
salvation. He spoke of Jesus as the one accepted Intercessor, Advocate,
and Surety above, and urged his hearers to yield themselves with faith
and love to this faithful and merciful Saviour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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