The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-02-10
A BAPTISM ON THE oaEECHsE.
Parson Green Adds Another Soul to
Mount 1ebor's Flock.

Mount Iebor's Flock.
Notwithstanding yesterday was a cold,
| clustering day. it did not tend to weaken
the religious fervor of the little congrega-
! ton Of fifty or sixty souls which worships
at Mount Tabor African Baptist church,
out on the Ogeechee road, short distance
from the city.
Under the eloquent ministration of the
Rev. James Green, yesterday one more was
brought into the fold. The minister is not
an educated man, but his common school
education is much above the average of his
race; and he has that natural gift of
eloquence which is possessed by so many
African preachers, and sways his hearers
like reed shaken by the wind. When tue
services at the church were over yesterday
morning, with his little flock wrought up
70 the highest pitch of religious entnuSiasm
the Jealous preacher said: 'Now, children,
we will march down 70 the Jordan"
With Deacon Byas, the bearer carry
ing the badge of his Office, in the shape of a
| long staff intertwined with ulacx and white
rib on, the minister at the front, and the
| congregation formed in twos, the march
was begun down the Ogeechee road to the
| Musgrove canal, the men with bare heads
| and as they marched with slow and steady
step they sang gospel hymns as oaly band
OF colored people car.
Reaching the canal bridge over the Oges-
chez road they crossed the fence, and
marched westward along the southern
bank Of the canal through the woods, 81 e.
ing as they went, until they came TO deep
| place in the canal where they halted, a d
the congregation gathered about the min
lister.
Deacon Byas stepped forward, and
steadying himself with the staff as he de-
scended the bank, waded out into the canal
up to his waist and planted the staff deep
in the muddy bottom, with the rib
| boned portion above the water to
mark the place where the candidate for bap-
| tism WAS soon to be immersed in the coffee
colored liquid that seeped from the out
| lying swamp. This done the deacon turned
shoreward and halted more than knee
deep in the stream and listened with wrapt
| attention to the minister who preached a
sermon occupying fully ten minutes in its
! delivery
1t was a romantic spot Gin the woods,
where the limbs of the forest trees creaksd
overhead, and the long moss swayed in
every passing breeze. Standing on the
bank, with fervid eloquence, the preacher
pictured to his breathless congreg alton, in
language quaint. but to them picturesquely
| descriptive, the horrors, the torments, the
|
lower regions. A shudder went through
the awed assemblage as their pastor painted
| upon the canvas of their mind the tortures
of the doomed spirits in that lake of fire.
| Turning from this fateful picture, the
| preacher pointed heavenward, and dwelt on
a more pleasing theme, where, after open
| ing to tuem the golden gates, he led them
through charmed places, and where he said
there are not only mansions made without
hands, but forever and eternal in the
heavens" To att lin this habitatlon he told
them they "must believe in the sweet
Saviour, and be buried in baptism"
Turning to the new convert he said:
| Child Of the Lord, let US go down into tue
Jordan" The deacon assisted the minister
in leading the woman into the murky
waters of the canal, and having reached its
deepest point, the minister for fully five
| minutes Continued his exhortatiOn. This
new generated sister whose name is
Jamie johnson in the fesh," said
the minister, sis now about to be buried in
the Jordan, and will rise and take on q new
name. She will then be called a child of
| the Lohd." He then immersed the woman.
| who was next led to the shore by the deacon,
shivering aud weeping as she made her exit
| from the canal, but she stood patiently in
| her watery garments for another five min
utes, during which time the preacher, stand
ing waist deep in the canal, appealed for
| others to come down into the warm
water of the Jordan" but the
appeal, though eloquently made, was not
forceful en- ugh to tempt others TO follow
the example of her who had just left the
stream. A wagon was in waiting at the
canal bridge, in which the pastor, the dea-
C II and the convert we're hur1edly driven
to a friendly cabin near the church, and
their Carmen charged, and after dinner
the unpretentious little church by the road
81 L. al L. ~
Last Supper" which preceded the sacra.
| ment.