The American Missionary — Volume 32, No. 07, July 1878Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 32, No. 07, July 1878
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
White folks do not understand, and certainly cannot but be amused
at seeing an old black woman, whose gray wool is bound up in a
brilliant turban, moving in slow, undulating waves of a mystic
dance up and down the church aisles, and round its altar, as
she chants forth her testimony to “de leadin’s of de Lord all
dese eighty years”; but they can quite appreciate the reverence
which sends every one to his knees at the words, “Let us pray,”
and sometimes wish that the custom might prove possible of
transplantation. Quaint and racy words sometimes come from these
colored preachers. “Ta’n’t no use dodgin’,” said one the other day;
“yer may poke yer head dis way and stick yer feet dat way, but yer
can’t go round yer grave; yer may shut yer eyes and make b’lieve
yer don’t see it, but ye’s got to tumble inter it, after all. Dere
it is, right in yer path. Is yer all ready?”
“I can’t read much,” said a preacher; “I can’t say all dem long,
hard names. I couldn’t read a word when the good Lord Jesus found
me, in the South Caroliny cane-brake; but I taught myself to spell
out de name ob Jesus, and now I can read all ’bout how He carries
sinners to heaven; dat’s ’nough.”
We were present at a communion service in which there was nothing
calculated to draw a smile. Tears of apparently genuine earnestness
stood in many eyes, and suppressed sobs mingled with the rich,
quaint hymns in many parts of the room. The preacher was a young
man, who drew a moving picture of the crucifixion, which, in its
pathos, simplicity, and correct diction, would have done honor
to any white preacher in the land. But one point, that of the
substitution of _w_ for _r_, marked the speaker as one of that
subject race, which, in thus slowly rising from barbarism, while
it loses much that is amusing to the merely curious observer, is
steadily gaining in what pertains to the dignity of manhood, and
the well-being of immortal souls.—_Illustrated Christian Weekly._
* * * * *
RECEIPTS
FOR MAY, 1878.
* * * * *
MAINE, $111.42.
Augusta. John Dorr 15.00
Bangor. First Cong. Ch. 31.42
Brewer. First Cong. Ch. $6.40, and Sab. Sch.
$2.50; Dea. J. Holyoke $5.10 14.00
Hallowell. Miss Mary Flagg $10; Hon. H. K.
Baker $2, _for Printing Press, Talladega
C._; “A Friend” $1, _for Student, Tougaloo,
Miss._ 13.00
Houlton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 2.00
Oak Hill. —— 30.00
Wells. “A Friend” 5.00
Wild. Rev. D. D. T. 1.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $254.02.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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