New-York tribune., 1900-12-09

pitch and volume of voice throughout two-thirds
Of a sentence only intensified the deafening. in
articulate effect of his climaxes. There was all
the obvious straining for big words, at the
pense Of logical consistency, which chiefly char
acterized the plantation preacher of the past,
and placed a visit to "darky camp meetings
among the principal amusements of white Wis
itors to the South. And all this was evidently
to the taste of the congregation, for chorus Of
voices punctuated the discourse with loud ex-
pressiOns of approval 1t all genuinely
Southern, and representative of the adherence to
tradition which is even stronger in the Southern
negro than in the Southern white.
The academic degrees indicated in connection
with the name of this preacher and others like
him are referable partly to colleges of which
few white people have ever heard, and partly
to the custom of his Church, which rewards TWO
or three years of satisfactory pastorate with a
degree in divinity The foil to this old fashioned
congregation is another in the same section Of
Brooklyn that of St. Augustine This is a
moderately high Episcopal congregation,
which has existed on it's present regular footing
for about ten years. The Church of St Au-
gustine gratefully acknowledges itself under
obligations to famous Trinity Parish but aspires
to raise a fund sufficient to migrate and rebuild
on a site more desirable than it's present One in
the vicinity of the Navy Yard Its pastor, the
Rev. G. +. Miller, trained for ordination at
the General Theological Seminary, in this city,
in the company of scores of white fellow candi-
dates for holy orders. Though a native of South
Carolina. the effect of his training is shown
plainly in his language and manner which are
such to leave nothing to differentiate him
from white members of his profession. except
the color of his skin. As he himself says. If
could not have had the training my
white brethren 1 wouldn't have taken orders
at all
a PROGRESSIVE CONGREGATION.
| 1t is hardly necessary to say that the Anglican
services and the refined pulpit methods OF
st. Augustine's have little attraction for those
cOlored wOrshippers in whom the devotional
traditions and tastes of the plantation still
potent. The congregation, though not wealthy, is
made up mostly of the better educated and more
progressive members of the race, and large
number of them immigrants from the Brit
ish West Indes-negroes and mulattoes who, as
a rule, are better educated than those born in
this country. but who can find here more
promising field for the exercise of their acquire
ments than at home.
The theological views most in favor in the
Protestant Episcopal Church decidedly Op-
posed TO the maintenance of any middle wall
| Of partition" between the races. and favorable
to the community Of worship among persons OF
all coloTS but the social heritage OF slave hold
ing ideas makes it expedient in modern cOndi-
tions TO tolerate the establishment of certain
churches specially for the cOlOred brethren. In
this way the congregation Of st. Philips. st.
David and st. Augustine. of which the first men,
toned has existed at least half a century came
to be recognized by the diocesan authorities Of
New-YOrk and Long Island one effect of
Increase Of membership Of the Episcopal Church
among the cOlored population must necessarily
be to extingush the elder idea of two sets OF
moral and devotional needs. one FOR the white
man and another for the black. and this change
is powerfully assisted by the inyariable rule OF
supplying colored congregations with pastors
trained in the schools Of the white clergy. 1t is
said that the cOlored membership Of the Church
| Is steadily increasing being recruited not only
| by the addition of immigrants. but also from
| among the younger and more enlightened Of
native Afro ro-Amercans The spectacle of
socked and surr!ced priests with negro or mu-
latto compilations serving at altars furnished in
the recognized Anglican fashion may be strange
to the conventional ideas OF "daTky' religion.
but II is far to seek in New-York to-day, and
it is of the signs of the waning nineteenth
century