Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-04-25
Tho Religious Condition of the
BIackS.

n Letter from DIR. -. -. stephens
the negroes throng the churches, which are devot.
ell principally TO white people, and while the Civil
Rights bill Is on the t0p{S for discussion in the
Federal Congress. it is a notorious fact that the
black people of their own vo!ltion, infinitely pre-
fer to herd together in their conventices and sit
under the religious dispensation Of preachers of
their own complexion. Very recently however,
Rev. Dr. y. 5. Stephens, editor OF TIE NetAod,st,
a powerful sectarian journal published In New
York, concluded to travel through the South aud
| inform himself, ty personal observations of the
| truo religious cunuition OF tho blacks. We Judge
from the letters he has written to his paper that
his intellectual eye-tc"th have been cut and his
| senl thoroughly disguised. Here - n sample:
| "rhe country is full Of colorcd preachers, many
| OF whom can hardly read. These seem TO suppose
that the prevalent extraNagances are chlracters-
tic of true worship. Their ann in the pulpit seems,
therefore, 10 be to kinde the phrensy their
| greg gatiuns. Their discourses make havoc OF their
texts. They reyel among the licvelator's symbols
OF 'beasIs, angels and dragons'--sud they become
thoroughly cutangcd among Ezekels wheels
| within wheels. Most OF tho sermons wu have
| heard have been OF the aheerest rapsoairs, inco-
herent an language audsdisconnecled in tnough 1t,
| with IN almost uniform effect TO raise the fervor
OF their hearers up to white heat. 4 meeting
without soma such effect wonld be considered a
failure. We have admitted exceptions, There
are here and there found among them notable
than their neghboring white fellow -laboIers bu,
these are anomalies among the innumbei able hc 5
| OF cOlSred preachers
ANY impartial observer will agree with ui
that the attempt TO mingle the races in public
religious worship is utterly vain except in sligh
. local cases, where the Episcopalians or Presby
terians retain few of their old colored members
and these disparaged hy sitting apart in the gal
lery or some other allotted place in the church
| I,af VI ANY hon Of hn ri ali Il
a oC the whites in the house OF Gud, the chief dIi
{. ticulty we repeat, is with the blacks themselves
. They receive our white missionaries, but mest
M a Temporary expedient, till men of their ow
= color can he obtained.
: "Some OF our high authorities propose an in
| ten blending of whites and blacks in public wol
ahip-thc doing way OF all distinctions whatst
ever in the congregation. AbStractedly III
would seem right and accor,lani with the yer
genius OF Christianity. liut it il found TO b
g. impTaotirablc in the actual relative condition
OF lbe two races in the South. Fcryently as III
experiment has been advocated in some of OF
= Northern journals, we have vet 10 meet the fir
!. Of our missionaries, on the ground, who docs N
consider it hopeless and preposterori4.'
A wise and philosophical conclusion, Rev. 81
a and We thank you for the candor with which
d is expressed, well knowing how it goes again
: the grain Of an old disciple Of Garrison nj
o Sumner to disgorge such an accumulation Of d
Ii luslons. What Is dvulged by Dr. Stephens 7
q latiye 10 the instructive desire Of negroes To hui
} die together in their own churches is equal
true Of them. with regard to hotels, theatre
r. schools, etc. The Radical members Of Congre
- know this rs well as anybody; but their game
purely political. They are dragging the po
negroes hither aud thither contrary 10 nalur
n laws merely 10 serve their own base purposes
a aggrandzement, perfectly compreheuding tn
IL the ultmue result is the delriment and final e
'e- tinction of that much abused race. II mo-
could be made voters by au act of Congress, th
= too would be lugged from their beloved hdi
N places and compelled to face the sun and liz
which are abhorent TO them
Georgia Constitutional. !