The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-03

1.-THE slN DO NOV e..
The most widely quoted negro preacher
in the world died in Richmond. Va, the
other ay. lie was the Rev. John Jas
per, made famous by one sermon. in
/ which ne attacked and, to his own salts
faction, overthrow the Copernican theory
Of the relation of the sun to the earth
Together with his insistence that the
sun do move" he held pertins ciously to
the assertion that the earth was four
oornered and fiat. And these astonishing
theories he upheld with an abundance OF
Scriptural quotations. The text of this
sermon was from Exodus xv:s: THE Lord
is a man of war. The Lord is his name"
In Celebrating upon this ne would go on
to demonstrate that the ''sun do move"
otherwise how could Joshua have asked
permission to stay its course? 'Is any
body going to say the sun was standing
still before Joshua told il to stand stiH?''
he would ask. DO you think Joshua
would have asked the privilege of stop
ping the sun If she had not been NOV
ing? This morning when the sun rose
she was over there (pointing to the east,)
How in the name of God could she get
from that side of the house over to this
pointing to the wesD, unless she moved?
1t is nonsense to say the sun do not
move. Every man who ever read the Bible
knows the sun do mover
His contention with respect to the shape
of the earth was similarly based. He had
a dozen cuofa+ions eroY, 1--o1.f.t -
ether books, in which reference was made
to the corners of the earth, or the cor
hers of the land. every one of which he
accepted in the most dogmaticaI manner
TO him there was no such thing as fig
ures of speech in the Bible. unless the
parable were distinctly marked as such
Whatever was written in the Scriptures
jasper accepted as being literal in its
meaning. His faith was boundless; and
he had the courage of his convictions.
An odd thing in connection with Jas
pers sermon was that it was accepted
in some foreign countries as being an
exposition Of serious scientific theories
The foreigners could not, or did not. diff
ferentiate between the comDarativelv H.
hterate negro preacher and an erudite
theologian Of deep scientific learning
The Rev. John Jasper of Virginia" had
attacked the theory of a stationary sun
ana a revolving earth, and that was
enough for them. They wrote exhaustive
papers on the subject, in which they
demonstrated anew that the preacher
must be wrong.
Jasper preached his famous sermon
many times, and always to large coDgre-
cations. Many offers were made to him
to take the lecture platform, but he de-
eHned them all but one, when he lid de-
liver few lectures. But when he found
that his lecture was not listened to in a
religious spirit he withdrew from that
Held and went back to his church in
Richmond. Jasper was born a slave and
educated himself. He was a tvpical ART
can, with all of the races love for bic
words and high sounding sentences. These
he used with good effect upon his own
people, but the whites who heard his
sermons sometimes found them quite
droll. He did not speak in che negro dia-
lect, however. His pronunciation was in
the main correct, but his love for flow
cry language sometimes made him saw
things OF which he did not know the
meaning, If they had any. The old man
welded a powerful influence among his
people, and exerted that influence for
good. His only eceentrieity. as compared
with the average parson of his class, was
his "sun do move" theory