Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/110

Rh July 21st.—I have been to-day to a Methodist Church of free negroes. The preacher, also a negro, and whom I had seen in a shop in the city, had a countenance which bore a remarkable resemblance to an ape; he had, however, that talent of improvisation, and of strikingly applying theoretical truths to the occurrences of daily life, which I have often admired among the negroes. This man possesses, in a high degree, the power of electrifying his audience; and as it is the custom in the Methodist Churches to give utterance to the feelings and thoughts, it caused an extraordinary scene on this occasion—so vehement were the cries and expressions of emotion.

The theme of the preacher was a common one—conversion and amendment, or death and damnation. But when he spoke of different failings and sins, his descriptions were as graphic as his gestures. When he spoke about the sins of the tongue, he dragged this “unruly member” out of his mouth, and shook it between his fingers very energetically. On his admonishing his audience to bid farewell to the devil, and turn away from him (after he had vehemently proclaimed the damnation which the Evil One would drag them into), his expressions took such a strong and powerful hold of his hearers, that the whole assembly was like a tempestuous sea. One heard only the cry, “Yes, yes!” “Farewell! for ever!” “Yes, Amen!” “Never mind!” “Go along!” “Oh, God!” “Farewell!” “Amen, amen!” &c. And, besides these, convulsive groans, cries, and howls, the assembly was ready for any extravagance, whatever it might have been, if the preacher had willed it. The swell of excitement, however, soon abated, when the sermon was ended.

After that, a noble instance of social feeling occurred. The preacher announced that a slave, a member of the congregation, was about to be sold “down South,” and thus to be far separated from his wife and child, if