A young lady of good education and refinement, residing in East Tennessee, told me that she had joined the church about a year previous, and not until she had one shouting spell, did most of her Sisters believe that she had “the Witness.”
“And did you really shout?” I inquired.
“Yes. I did it to stop their mouths, for at nearly every meeting, one or more would say, ‘Sister Smith, I hope to live to see you show that you’ve got the Witness, for where the grace of God is, there will be shouting, and the sooner you comes to that point the better it will be for you in the world to come.’”
To get religion, join a benevolent society that will pay them “sick dues” when they are ill, and to bury them when they die, appears to be the beginning, the aim, and the end of the desires of the colored people of the South. In Petersburg I was informed that there were thirty-two different secret societies in that city, and I met persons who held membership in four at the same time. While such associations are of great benefit to the improvident, they are, upon the whole, very injurious. They take away all stimulus to secure homes and to provide for the future.
As a man observed to me, “I b’longs ter four s’ieties, de ‘Samaritans,’ de ‘Gallalean Fisherman,’ de ‘Sons of Moses,’ an’ de ‘Wise Men of de East.’ All of dees pays me two dollars a week when I is sick, an’ twenty-five dollars ter bury me when I dies. Now ain’t dat good?”
I replied that I thought it would be far better, if he put his money in a home and educated himself.
“Well,” said he, “I is satisfied, kas, ef I put de money in a house, maybe when I got sick some udder man might be hangin’ roun’ wantin’ me ter die, an’ maybe de ole ’oman might want me gone too, an’ not take good kere of me, an’ let me die an’ let de town bury me. But, now, yer see, de s’iety takes kere of me and burries me. So, now, I am all right fer dis worl’ an’ I is got de Witness, an’ dat fixes me fer hebben.”
This was all said in an earnest manner, showing that the brother had an eye to business.
The determination of late years to ape the whites in the erection of costly structures to worship in, is very injurious to our people. In Petersburg, Va., a Baptist society pulled down a noble building, which was of ample size, to give place to a more fashionable and expensive one, simply because a sister Church had surpassed them in putting up a house of worship. It is more consistent with piety and Godly sincerity to say that we don’t believe there is any soul-saving and God-honoring element in such expensive and useless ornaments to houses in which to meet and humbly worship in simplicity and sincerity the true and living God, according to his revealed will. Poor, laboring people who are without homes of their own, and without (in many instances) steady remunerative employment, can ill afford to pay high for useless and showy things that neither instruct nor edify them. The manner, too, in which the money is raised, is none of the best, to say the least of it. For most of the money, both to build the churches and to pay the ministers, is the hard earnings of men in the fields, at service, or by our women over the wash-tub. When our people met and worshipped in less costly and ornamental houses, their piety and sincerity was equally as good as now, if not better. With more polish within and less ornament without, we would be more spiritually and less worldly-minded.
Revival meetings, and the lateness of the hours at which they close, are injurious to both health and morals. Many of the churches begin in October, and continue till the holidays; and commencing again the middle of January, they close in April. They often keep the meetings in till eleven o’clock; sometimes till twelve; and in some country places, they have gone on later. I was informed of a young woman who lost her situation—a very good one—because the family could not sit up till twelve o’clock every night to let her in, and she would not leave her meeting so as to return earlier. Another source of moral degradation lies in the fact that a very large number of men, calling themselves “missionaries,” travel the length and breadth of the country, stopping longest where they are best treated. The “missionary” is usually armed with a recommendation from some minister in charge, or has a forged one, it makes but little difference which. He may be able to read enough to line a hymn, but that is about all.