Page:Annual report of the missionary to the Negroes of Liberty County, (Ga.).djvu/10

 visited the 16th and 17th, having always as much and more than he could do in the 15th.

This District has been divided into neighbourhoods, and a station for Sabbath preaching appointed in each. The stations are six in numberSunbury, Pleasant Grove, Newport, Midway, Fraser's Plantation, and the Sand Hills, or Walthourville, the summer retreat. These stations are advantageously chosen. Each one accommodates a large number of negroes. And it is proper to remark in this place, that there should always be a station in every neighbourhood that can furnish a respectable congregation; and for the plain reason, that the shorter the distance which the negroes have to walk, the better; and in this way, not only the attendance of a larger number of adults is seemed, but also the attendance of a larger number of children, which we consider an object of the first importance. I have uniformly discouraged the negroes from attending stations without their neighbourhoods, if the distance was considerable, for obvious reasons; and in the mean time advised them to attend the nearest house of public worship. The Missionary can, in a general way, manage, a congregation of moderate size, better than he can a large one, and also make the services more profitable.

The labours of your Agent, may be divided into those of the Sabbath, and those of the week.

Of the Sabbath.I have preached in the County forty Sabbaths, to the negroes exclusively. But once, and then but one sermon to the negroes in Sunbury; and my reason for not visiting that station oftener was, that it lay remote from me, and I knew that the Baptist brethren located there, were in, the habit of holding meetings for them. The services at the other stations have been held as nearly in rotation as they possibly could be, without interfering with the white congregations on their regular Sabbaths, with the exception of Walthourville, which never has been occupied as a Sabbath station, nor can it ever well be. Of the Week.I have held, when the season permitted it, sixteen or seventeen plantation meetings. The number of these meetings, is not as large as it should be, owing to the fact, that your Agent was not in a situation to attend more; but hopes, during the present winter, God willing, to enlarge these