The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-13
CHILD PREACHER
Still Creating Enthusiasm in
the East.
Inspired to Teach the Gospe l
at the Age of Three.
is A. CHILD WONDER
Soon Secures a Spell Over His
Audience.
He Prays With His COngrega-
tion Who Often Weep.


New York, Jan. 13.-Lawrence Den
mis-, the 5-year-old negro boy who stir
red up colored congregation by hold
ing divine service in New Brunswick,
N. J., is creating sensation.
The boys appearance in New Bruins
wick was announced from the pulpit or
the Ebenezer church, and was also adj
vertised in the local newspapers. About
one hundred persons. mostly colored.
paid Is cents each to enter the little
brick church. In the pulpit they found
a diminutive figure in a white dress
with black shoes and stockings. His
face was fair-nearer white than many
white boys faces in Summer-and MS
long dark hair showed scarcely klnk
in the soft curls that hung about his
neck. His face was sweet in expression
and not at all Ethiopian in contour
The eyes were deep and soft, and had
an almost Oriental slant.
The boy seemed to be waiting, Ior
something and at length he stood up
and asked to be introduced. The Rev:
E. W. Roberts of this city, who has had
charge of the Ebenezer church for some
time, stepped up and formally intro
duced the little fellow, who then asked
that the hymn Come to Jesus" besung-
He led the singing himself in clear,
After he had given out another song
he said he was ready to be questioned
The congregation did not know just
what that meant, and there was mo-
ment of shutting feet and indecision.
ASK me some questions, some brief
questions" repeated the boy, ana ms
mother stood up and explained that ne
wished some one in the congregation TO
question him about anything to do with
religion.
Gil on
and asked after the manner of a cate
chist: why did Christ Gomez"
He came to save sinners, answered
the boy.
How do you know that?' was the
next question.
TT was His mission" was the reply.
HE went about calling little children
to come unto Him, and He chose twelve
apostles and He called on the people to
follow Him, and to believe In the Lord
He was crucified for sinners, and then
there was the resurrection. ne SaVeO
the whole world"
How did he save the whole world 2"
was asked next, and the boy said II
would take some time to tell 1t all, but
that he knew it. Then he told of the
life of Christ in more detail. His voice
was childish and there were occasional
Slips in pronunciation, but the congreg-
alton, after his first few sentences, was
able to follow his meaning. After
time of awed silence, the negroes began
to cry out as the boy made point after
y,
and praise the Lord" were repeated
again and again. The boy talked on
and on, started afresh occasionally by a
new question, until he came to the last
prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.
TT would take too long to tell you
about that he said, but I will show
you Wait here and watch, while 1
pray.
Then he walked to far corner of the
pulpit, knelt down and prayed aloud for
all sinners.
Are you sleeping?" he asked, when
he had finished, and the congregation.
in a frenzy of enthusiasm shouted"No!"
mol" and called out and wept and ex-
horted one another.
| The boy then stepped down from the
pulpit and walked from pew to. pew.
Are you a Christian Are you
| sinner?'' Have you been converted ?'
/ he asked person after person, and if
| caught that one by the hand to drag
| him to the front seats in the church.
| Grown persons and children he asked
| alike and said that no child was too
| small to have sinned. He had sinned
and repented, he said. before he was 3
! years old.
When he had gone through the whole
| churchshe stamped his foot and held up
/ his hand for silence, and then he count
| ed his sinners at the altar, eleven in all.
| Then he prayed for them and the con-
| gregation prayed with him, and wept.
| The meeting closed with another
| hymn, but it will be many days before
| the ferVOr the boy aroused dies away.
He is to hold two services in New
| Brunswick a week from Sunday, and
! an unusually large attendance is ex-
pected.
The boys father is c. G.. Dennis of
| Atlanta, Ga, mulatto, tall, spare and
| looking much more like a Caucasian
! than a negro. His mother is much
darker skinned. The boy was born, it
is said, on Christmas day 1893, twelve
| years after his parents marriage, and
| is an only child Mrs. Dennis says he
! first exhibited his precocious knowledge
of things religious when but little more
| than two years old. She says he has
| not been taught any of the things he
| says, and that he himself told her, al
! most as soon as he was able to talk.
| that the Holy Ghost had told him to
| save sinners.
| He has exhOrted visitors at his home,
she says, since he was years old, and
| made his first public appearance in No
| vember, 1897. Since then she has taken
| him about Georgia, Tennessee and Ala
| bama. The family came to New York
| three weeks ago and the boy spoke in
| a Harlem church on December q and at
| the Zion Baptist church last Sunday.
! The charging of admission to his SER
| vices is made optional with the churches
| in which they are held, and his parents
/ only ask that they be REIN bursed for
( their travelling expenses. They also sell
| photographs of the boy.
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