The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-10-28
THE "BLACK SPURGEON."
"Texas Sin Killer" Stirring Up Ne
groes in Kansas City.

SEOcS III NHnSuS Nltys
In raggedy old tent Mt Fourteenth
street aud Baltimore avenue, in the pres
. snse Of 3 thousand eager listeners, the
about The Judgment of the Dry Bones
The Rev. j. l.: Griffin, the sin killer, is
tall, heavy negro from Louisiana and
Texas. He breaches the old-time, heart
felt, Southern plantation religion and it
makes the negroes i'll his audience shout
and scream aud leap into the air and
over seats in acrobatic spasms Of 1.-The
power"
The meeting began with singing of old
''canc brake songs:
Gimme this Old time religion,
This old time religion,
This old time religion,
It's good enough for me.
Thus sang the negro audience in weird
time. The preacher asked for expert
enceS. An old negro woman got IN and
said:
Il begun servin' de Lawd fifty years
ago down on massa's plantation in ole
mississippi, an ! hain't got tired of it
yit." -
The preacher struck in:
It's good In a time of trouble,
It's good In time Of trouble.
It's good in Il time of trouble,
It's good enough for me.
Another old negro woman sprahg up.
Use dressed up in JESUS" she said
II feels like 1sc only Is years ole when
l Use dressed ., ~, " in Jesus. But Use long
The negroes all around were beginning
to groan and shout. The preacher walked
up and down the stage with jerky mo-
tions and clapping hands as he started:
A wheel, wheel, d rollin' in my heart
A wheel. wheel. rollin in my heart,
wheel, a wheel. a rollin' in my heart.
Shorely my Jesus must be true!
Eve colored people don't understand
this Union Western telegraph business,
where you go an give a man % cents to
talk to your sister down liz Shreveport.
But we knows the message goes to her
wires to heaven. We gets message
right back from God" said the preacher
'.Talk about the race problem an all
that stuff. You can't keep the Niger
down. white folks. There's u thousand
gers the old-time religion. Let them get
God in their hearts and you've solved the
race problem, That's what Use ttyin to
do: Use irwin, to help my fate. =,
like %e pf Sn ra u! my Let eE le sDGt rear %ou
on their hind legs. don believe in the
way some Of theh breaches: 1 dbn''t be-
lieve in getting iib in the pulpit an drink
in water di' spittih' all over the Bible
breaches that without Il Christ you die
and to hell YOU g0!'
Griffin began then on his sermon about
the 'G,OOO,OOO dry bones coming to-
gether.' He told about Cain killing Abel
he came down to the food and told in
picturesque language about the waters
that arose and drowned the people and of
the subsiding waters and the dry bones
bleaching everywhere. He came next to
the bones of Pharaoh's army drowned in
the Red sea. the bones of the Philistines
slain by Sampson and "a whole lot of
other bones" He got down finally to the
bones of the old negroes that had died in
began to squirm. He touched them
closer by talking about the bones of
fathers, mothers. brothers and sisters out
in the graveyard. Then the negroes be-
gan to feel the power.
But the climax came which he told how
all those bohes ,wohl' cohie together on
throne Ht eser bel i heave my It's oG js rer
walls. its streets Of gnlj; cali sh ini4 like
iicicles,', the seven, lanil,s Of brass,
.";angcls'. wings g.; Auttcrih' rotin' the
throne like humnih' birds in de magnolia,
All the time he was talking he was
walking up and down. jiimping, weaving
back and forth, kheeling, down and leap
ing up again: waving his hands and arms.
the perSpiratibh shining On his black face.
his eyes patkliig with the Intense ex-
element he had wrought himself into.
Occasionally he would pause and shout:
ooh. glory
And the negroes in the audience simply
went wild with enthusiasm and some of
the "white folks, too, felt a little stirred
ny the strange imagery and eloquence of
this negro from the Louisiana swamps.-
Kansas City Star.