Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-07
OLD TINE RELIGIOUS NEGROES.

What a Baptist Preacher Knows of
Ante-BelIum Life in the South.
At the Baptist Minister'S Conference
yesterday morning, says the New York
World of Dec. 5, Rev. W. Eddy, from the
special committee appointed for the pur-
pose, presented resolutions expressive of
the regret of the Conference at the recent
deaths of Rev. Isaac Westcott and Rev.
Jabez Swan. Several of the brethren re-
called incidents in the lives of these de-
parted brethren. Mr.. Swan, whose labors
it was said had resulted in the conversion
of many thousand souls, he having per-
sonally baptized over 10000 persons, was
a very eccentric man and especially fer
vent in prayer. The Moderator, DR.. Morse,
said that he recalled an incident in the
career of Brother Swan where at a meet
ing that he attended two Congregational
ministers prayed. 1t was then Brother
SWANS turn, and, kneeling down, he said;
go Lord God, Thou hast heard these two
prayers, and Thou knowest that they are
cold enough to freeze hell over and send
all the little devils out skating"
Rev. 4. j. Raymond, of the Carmel Bap-
fist Church, East One Hundred and
Twenty-first street, in this city, read
paper on the religious life Of the old-time
nearO. There was, he said, no aspect of
religion less understood; it was like unto
nothing in the heavens above, or the earth
beneath, or in the waters under the earth,
and it was type of American civiliza-
ton that was fast passing away. The ne
gro of the present generation could not be
compared to those of the olden time, and
it might also be said that they belonged to
another race. The religious thought of
the negro of the olden time was largely
tinged with the Voudooism brought with
him from Africa, but there were no people
on the globe more thoroughly imbued with
religious sentiment than those of his race:
all things to him were tinged with a reli-
giOus tone, and the very current of his
life was forced to flow IN the one narrow
channel of religious thought. The Bible
was to him a mysterious book which he
revered without attempting to under
stand. One old negro asked the speaker
once whether Nicodemus was the only
''nigger" that came to Christ. In his
state of slavery he could not imagine that
any white man could have need of the
Saviour, and therefore he thought that
NicOdemus must have been a colOred
man.
''There has never been on the earth"
said DR.. Raymond, ga more powerful at
testation of the power of Christ's gospel
than the picture of the old-time negro in
his state Of slavery, lifting his streaming
eyes towards heaven and pleading with
Jesus for salvation from sin. The one
thing which he believed in was redemp-
ton by Jesus Christ, and in that he was
as orthodox as any of the doctrines we are
wont to teach"
Among the many anecdotes related was
one in which he said a good sister, de-
scribing her feelings of rapture at being
converted, said: 81 feel just like had a
fiddle in my belly" AT one time, he said,
he went to preach for a colored brother,
who, in introducing him, said: 81 believe
in the doctrines of Jefferson; you will find
it in the 10Th chapter of Luke, which says
All men are born free and equal.'" In
conclusion DR.. Raymond gave some
amusing accounts of the peculiarities OF
the old-time negro preachers, initiating
their peculiar idiom very happily and
causing much merriment.