Page:The leopard's spots - a romance of the white man's burden-1865-1900 (IA leopardsspotsrom00dixo).pdf/338

 "Yes, you. And I can't afford to go into the pulpit with you any more. In the old slavery days you were taught the religion of Christ. It didn't mean crime, and lust, and lying, and drinking, whatever it meant. Your religion has come to be a stench. You are getting lower and lower. You will be governed by no one. I can't use force. I leave you alone. You have gone beyond me."

"But de Lawd lub a sinner, en his mercy enduref foreber!" solemnly grumbled Ephraim.

"In the old days," persisted the Preacher, "I used to preach to your people. I saw before me many men of character, carpenters, bricklayers, wheelwrights, farmers, faithful home servants that loved their masters and were faithful unto death. Now I see a cheap lot of thieves and jailbirds and trifling women seated in high places. You have shown no power to stand alone on the solid basis of character."

"Why Brer' Durham," urged Eph in an injured voice, "I baptised inter de kingdom over a hundred precious souls las' year!"

"Yes, but what they needed was not a baptism of water. You negroes need a racial baptism into truth, integrity, virtue, self-restraint, industry, courage, patience, and purity of manhood and womanhood. I used to be hopeful about you, but I'd just as well be frank with you, I've given you up. I've said the grace of God was sufficient for all problems. I don't know now. I'm getting older and it grows darker to me. I have come to believe there are some things God Almighty can not do. Can God make a stone so big He can't lift it? In either event, He is not omnipotent. It looks like He did just that thing when He made the Negro. Leave me out of your calculation, Ephraim."

"Mus' gib de nigger time, Preacher!" Eph muttered as he walked slowly away.