By special favor I was permitted to enter before the throng came rushing in. Members of the Legislature were assigned the best seats, indeed, the entire centre of the house was occupied by whites, who, I was informed, were from amongst the F. F. Vs. The church seats one thousand, but it is safe to say that twelve hundred were present at that time.
Rev. John Jasper is a deep black, tall, and slim, with long arms and somewhat round-shouldered, and sixty-five years old. He has preached in Richmond for the last forty-five years, and is considered a very good man. He is a fluent speaker, well versed in Scriptures, and possesses a large amount of wit. The members of Jasper’s church are mainly freedmen, a large number of whom are from the country, commonly called “corn-field niggers.”
The more educated class of the colored people, I found, did not patronize Jasper. They consider him behind the times, and called him “old fogy.” Jasper looked proudly upon his audience, and well he might, for he had before him some of the first men and women of Virginia’s capital. But these people had not come to be instructed, they had really come for a good laugh and were not disappointed.
Jasper had prepared for the occasion, and in his opening service saved himself by calling on “Brother Scogin” to offer prayer. This venerable Brother evidently felt the weight of responsibility laid upon him, and discharged the duty, at least to the entire satisfaction of those who were there to be amused. After making a very sensible prayer, Scogin concluded as follows:—“O Lord, we’s a mighty abused people, we’s had a hard time in slavery, we’s been all broken to pieces, we’s bow-legged, knock-kneed, bandy-shanked, cross-eyed, and a great many of us is hump-backed. Now, Lord, we wants to be mendid up, an’ we wants you to come an’ do it. Don’t send an angel, for dis is too big a job for an angel. You made us, O Lord, an’ you know our wants, an’ you can fix us up as nobody else can. Come right down yourself, and come quickly.” At this sentence Jasper gave a loud groan, and Scogin ceased. After service was over I was informed that when Jasper finds any of his members a little too long-winded in prayer, singing, or speaking, he gives that significant groan, which they all well understand. It means “enough.”
The church was now completely jammed, and it was said that two thousand people sought admission in vain. Jasper’s text was “God is a God of War.” The preacher, though wrong in his conclusions, was happy in his quotations, fresh in his memory, and eloquently impressed his views upon his hearers.
He said, “If the sun does not move, why did Joshua command it to ‘stand still?’ Was Joshua wrong? If so, I had rather be wrong with Joshua than to be right with the modern philosophers. If this earth moves, the chimneys would be falling, tumbling in upon the roofs of the houses, the mountains and hills would be changing and levelling down, the rivers would be emptying out. You and I would be standing on our heads. Look at that mountain standing out yonder; it stood there fifty years ago when I was a boy. Would it be standing there if the earth was running round as they tell us?”
“No, blessed God,” cried a Sister. Then the laugh came, and Jasper stood a moment with his arms folded. He continued: “The sun rises in the east and sets in the west; do you think any one can make me believe that the earth can run around the world in a single day so as to give the sun a chance to set in the west?”
“No, siree, that doctrine don’t go down with Jasper.”
At this point the preacher paused for breath, and I heard an elderly white in an adjoining pew, say, in a somewhat solemn tone—“Jasper is right, the sun moves.”
Taking up his bandanna, and wiping away the copious perspiration that flowed down his dusky cheeks, the preacher opened a note which had just been laid upon the desk, read it, and continued,—“A question is here asked me, and one that I am glad to answer, because a large number of my people, as well as others, can’t see how the children of Israel were able to cross the Red Sea in safety, while Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned. I have told you again and again that everything was possible with God. But that don’t seem to satisfy you.