{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_68205/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_68205","id":"gutenberg_68205","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68205","summary":null,"tags":["African American clergy -- Biography","African Americans -- Biography","Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Jasper, John, 1812-1901","Richmond (Va.) -- Biography"],"text":"+-------------------------------------------------+\n|Transcriber\u2019s note:                              |\n|                                                 |\n|Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.  |\n|                                                 |\n+-------------------------------------------------+\n\n\nJOHN JASPER\n\nThe Unmatched Negro\nPhilosopher and Preacher\n\nBy\nWILLIAM E. HATCHER, LL. D.\n\n[Illustration: logo]\n\nNEW YORK     CHICAGO     TORONTO\nFleming H. Revell Company\nLONDON AND EDINBURGH\n\n\n\n\nCopyright, 1908, by\nFLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY\n\nNew York: 158 Fifth Avenue\nChicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.\nLondon: 21 Paternoster Square\nEdinburgh: 75 Princes Street\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n      INTRODUCTION                                     7\n\nI.    JASPER PRESENTED                                15\n\nII.   JASPER HAS A THRILLING CONVERSION               23\n\nIII.  HOW JASPER GOT HIS SCHOOLING                    30\n\nIV.   THE SLAVE PREACHER                              36\n\nV.    \u201cWHAR SIN KUM FRUM?\u201d                            47\n\nVI.   JASPER SET FREE                                 58\n\nVII.  THE PICTURE-MAKER                               65\n\nVIII. JASPER\u2019S STAR WITNESS                           72\n\nIX.   JASPER\u2019S SERMON ON \u201cDEM SEBUN WIMMIN\u201d           89\n\nX.    JASPER GLIMPSED UNDER VARIOUS LIGHTS            94\n\nXI.   SERMON:--THE STONE CUT OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN     108\n\nXII.  FACTS CONCERNING THE SERMON ON THE SUN         121\n\nXIII. THE SUN DO MOVE                                133\n\nXIV.  ONE JASPER DAY IN THE SPRING TIME OF 1878      150\n\nXV.   JASPER\u2019S PICTURE OF HEAVEN                     174\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nReader; stay a moment. A word with you before you begin to sample this\nbook. We will tell you some things in advance, which may help you to\ndecide whether it is worth while to read any further. These pages\ndeal with a negro, and are not designed either to help or to hurt\nthe negro race. They have only to do with one man. He was one of a\nclass,--without pedigree, and really without successors, except that he\nwas so dominant and infectious that numbers of people affected his ways\nand dreamed that they were one of his sort. As a fact, they were simply\nof another and of a baser sort.\n\nThe man in question was a negro, and if you cannot appreciate greatness\nin a black skin you would do well to turn your thoughts into some other\nchannel. Moreover, he was a negro covered over with ante bellum habits\nand ways of doing. He lived forty years before the war and for about\nforty years after it. He grew wonderfully as a freeman; but he never\ngrew away from the tastes, dialects, and manners of the bondage times.\nHe was a man left over from the old r\u00e9gime and never got infected with\nthe new order. The air of the educated negro preacher didn\u2019t set well\nupon him. The raw scholarship of the new \u201cish,\u201d as he called it, was\nsounding brass to him. As a fact, the new generation of negro preachers\nsent out by the schools drew back from this man. They branded him as\nan anachronism, and felt that his presence in the pulpit was a shock\nto religion and an offense to the ministry; and yet not one of them\never attained the celebrity or achieved the results which came to this\nunlettered and grievously ungrammatical son of Africa.\n\nBut do not be afraid that you are to be fooled into the fanatical camp.\nThis story comes from the pen of a Virginian who claims no exemption\nfrom Southern prejudices and feels no call to sound the praises of the\nnegro race. Indeed, he never intended to write what is contained within\nthe covers of this book. It grew up spontaneously and most of the\ncontents were written before the book was thought of.\n\nIt is, perhaps, too much to expect that the meddlers with books will\ntake the _ipse dixit_ of an unaccredited stranger. They ought not to do\nit: they are not asked to do it. They can go on about their business,\nif they prefer; but if they do, they will miss the story of the\nincomparable negro of the South. This is said with sobriety and after a\nhalf century spent in close observation of the negro race.\n\nMore than that, the writer of this never had any intention of\nbothering with this man when he first loomed up into notoriety. He got\ndrawn in unexpectedly. He heard that there was a marvel of a man \u201cover\nin Africa,\u201d a not too savoury portion of Richmond, Virginia,--and one\nSunday afternoon in company with a Scot-Irishman, who was a scholar\nand a critic, with a strong leaning towards ridicule, he went to hear\nhim preach. Shades of our Anglo-Saxon fathers! Did mortal lips ever\ngush with such torrents of horrible English! Hardly a word came out\nclothed and in its right mind. And gestures! He circled around the\npulpit with his ankle in his hand; and laughed and sang and shouted\nand acted about a dozen characters within the space of three minutes.\nMeanwhile, in spite of these things, he was pouring out a gospel\nsermon, red hot, full of love, full of invective, full of tenderness,\nfull of bitterness, full of tears, full of every passion that ever\nflamed in the human breast. He was a theatre within himself, with the\nstage crowded with actors. He was a battle-field;--himself the general,\nthe staff, the officers, the common soldiery, the thundering artillery\nand the rattling musketry. He was the preacher; likewise the church\nand the choir and the deacons and the congregation. The Scot-Irishman\nsurrendered in fifteen minutes after the affair commenced, but the\nother man was hard-hearted and stubborn and refused to commit himself.\nHe preferred to wait until he got out of doors and let the wind blow\non him and see what was left. He determined to go again; and he went\nand kept going, off and on, for twenty years. That was before the negro\nbecame a national figure. It was before he startled his race with his\nphilosophy as to the rotation of the sun. It was before he became a\nlecturer and a sensation, sought after from all parts of the country.\nThen it was that he captured the Scot-Irish and the other man also.\nWhat is written here constitutes the gatherings of nearly a quarter\nof a century, and, frankly speaking, is a tribute to the brother in\nblack,--the one unmatched, unapproachable, and wonderful brother.\n\nBut possibly the reader is of the practical sort. He would like to\nget the worldly view of this African genius and to find out of what\nstuff he was made. Very well; he will be gratified! Newspapers are\nheartlessly practical. They are grudging of editorial commendation, and\nin Richmond, at the period, they were sparing of references of any kind\nto negroes. You could hardly expect them to say anything commendatory\nof a negro, if he was a negro, with odd and impossible notions. Now\nthis man was of that very sort. He got it into his big skull that the\nearth was flat, and that the sun rotated;--a scientific absurdity! But\nyou see he proved it by the Bible. He ransacked the whole book and got\nup ever so many passages. He took them just as he found them. It never\noccurred to him that the Bible was not dealing with natural science,\nand that it was written in an age and country when astronomy was\nunknown and therefore written in the language of the time. Intelligent\npeople understand this very well, but this miracle of his race was\nbehind his era. He took the Bible literally, and, with it in hand, he\nfought his battles about the sun. Literally, but not scientifically, he\nproved his position, and he gave some of his devout antagonists a world\nof botheration by the tenacity with which he held to his views and the\npower with which he stated his case. Scientifically, he was one of the\nancients, but that did not interfere with his piety and did not at all\neclipse his views. His perfect honesty was most apparent in all of his\ncontentions; and, while some laughed at what they called his vagaries,\nthose who knew him best respected him none the less, but rather the\nmore, for his astronomical combat. There was something in his love of\nthe Bible, his faith in every letter of it, and his courage, that drew\nto him the good will and lofty respect of uncounted thousands and,\nprobably, it might be said, of uncounted millions.\n\nNow when this man died it was as the fall of a tower. It was a crash,\nheard and felt farther than was the collapse of the famous tower at\nVenice. If the dubious, undecided reader has not broken down on the\nroad but has come this far, he is invited to look at the subjoined\neditorial from _The Richmond Dispatch_, the leading morning paper of\nRichmond, Va., which published at the time an article on this lofty\nfigure, now national in its proportions and imperishable in its fame,\nwhen it bowed to the solemn edict of death.\n\n\n     (From _The Richmond Dispatch_)\n\n     \u201cIt is a sad coincidence that the destruction of the Jefferson\n     Hotel and the death of the Rev. John Jasper should have fallen\n     upon the same day. John Jasper was a Richmond Institution, as\n     surely so as was Major Ginter\u2019s fine hotel. He was a national\n     character, and he and his philosophy were known from one end\n     of the land to the other. Some people have the impression that\n     John Jasper was famous simply because he flew in the face of the\n     scientists and declared that the sun moved. In one sense, that is\n     true, but it is also true that his fame was due, in great measure,\n     to a strong personality, to a deep, earnest conviction, as well as\n     to a devout Christian character. Some preachers might have made\n     this assertion about the sun\u2019s motion without having attracted\n     any special attention. The people would have laughed over it,\n     and the incident would have passed by as a summer breeze. But\n     John Jasper made an impression upon his generation, because he\n     was sincerely and deeply in earnest in all that he said. No man\n     could talk with him in private, or listen to him from the pulpit,\n     without being thoroughly convinced of that fact. His implicit\n     trust in the Bible and everything in it, was beautiful and\n     impressive. He had no other lamp by which his feet were guided.\n     He had no other science, no other philosophy. He took the Bible\n     in its literal significance; he accepted it as the inspired word\n     of God; he trusted it with all his heart and soul and mind; he\n     believed nothing that was in conflict with the teachings of the\n     Bible--scientists and philosophers and theologians to the contrary\n     notwithstanding.\n\n     \u201c\u2018They tried to make it appear,\u2019 said he, in the last talk we\n     had with him on the subject, \u2018that John Jasper was a fool and a\n     liar when he said that the sun moved. I paid no attention to it\n     at first, because I did not believe that the so-called scientists\n     were in earnest. I did not think that there was any man in the\n     world fool enough to believe that the sun did _not_ move, for\n     everybody had seen it move. But when I found that these so-called\n     scientists were in earnest I took down my old Bible and proved\n     that they, and not John Jasper, were the fools and the liars.\u2019 And\n     there was no more doubt in his mind on that subject than there\n     was of his existence. John Jasper had the faith that removed\n     mountains. He knew the literal Bible as well as Bible scholars\n     did. He did not understand it from the scientific point of view,\n     but he knew its teachings and understood its spirit, and he\n     believed in it. He accepted it as the true word of God, and he\n     preached it with unction and with power.\n\n     \u201cJohn Jasper became famous by accident, but he was a most\n     interesting man apart from his solar theory. He was a man of deep\n     convictions, a man with a purpose in life, a man who earnestly\n     desired to save souls for heaven. He followed his divine calling\n     with faithfulness, with a determination, as far as he could, to\n     make the ways of his God known unto men, His saving health among\n     all nations. And the Lord poured upon His servant, Jasper, \u2018the\n     continual dew of His blessing.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nJASPER PRESENTED\n\n\nJohn Jasper, the negro preacher of Richmond, Virginia, stands\npre\u00ebminent among the preachers of the negro race in the South. He was\nfor fifty years a slave, and a preacher during twenty-five years of\nhis slavery, and distinctly of the old plantation type. Freedom came\nfull-handed to him, but it did not in any notable degree change him in\nhis style, language, or manner of preaching. He was the ante bellum\npreacher until eighty-nine years of age, when he preached his last\nsermon on \u201cRegeneration,\u201d and with quiet dignity laid off his mortal\ncoil and entered the world invisible. He was the last of his type, and\nwe shall not look upon his like again. It has been my cherished purpose\nfor some time to embalm the memory of this extraordinary genius in some\nform that would preserve it from oblivion. I would give to the American\npeople a picture of the God-made preacher who was great in his bondage\nand became immortal in his freedom.\n\nThis is not to be done in biographic form, but rather in vagrant\narticles which find their kinship only in the fact that they present\nsome distinct view of a man, hampered by early limitations, denied the\ngraces of culture, and cut off even from the advantages of a common\neducation, but who was munificently endowed by nature, filled with\nvigour and self-reliance, and who achieved greatness in spite of almost\nlimitless adversities. I account him genuinely great among the sons of\nmen, but I am quite sure that the public can never apprehend the force\nand gist of his rare manhood without first being made acquainted with\ncertain facts appertaining to his early life.\n\nJasper was born a slave. He grew up on a plantation and was a toiler in\nthe fields up to his manhood. When he came to Richmond, now grown to\na man, he was untutored, full of dangerous energies, almost gigantic\nin his muscle, set on pleasure, and without the fear of God before his\neyes. From his own account of himself, he was fond of display, a gay\ncoxcomb among the women of his race, a fun-maker by nature, with a\nself-assertion that made him a leader within the circles of his freedom.\n\nWe meet him first as one of the \u201chands\u201d in the tobacco factory of\nMr. Samuel Hargrove, an enterprising and prosperous manufacturer in\nthe city of Richmond. Jasper occupied the obscure position of \u201ca\nstemmer,\u201d--which means that his part was to take the well-cured tobacco\nleaf and eliminate the stem, with a view to preparing what was left to\nbe worked into \u201cthe plug\u201d which is the glory of the tobacco-chewer.\nThis position had one advantage for this quick-witted and alert young\nslave. It threw him into contact with a multitude of his own race, and\nas nature had made him a lover of his kind his social qualities found\nample scope for exercise. In his early days he went at a perilous pace\nand found in the path of the sinful many fountains of common joy.\nIndeed, he made evil things fearfully fascinating by the zestful and\nremorseless way in which he indulged them.\n\nIt was always a joy renewed for him to tell the story of his\nconversion. As described by him, his initial religious experiences,\nwhile awfully mystical and solemn to him, were grotesque and ludicrous\nenough. They partook of the extravagances of the times, yet were so\nhonest in their nature, and so soundly Scriptural in their doctrines,\nand so reverential in their tone, that not even the most captious\nsceptic could hear him tell of them, in his moments of exalted\ninspiration, without feeling profoundly moved by them.\n\nIt ought to be borne in mind that this odd and forcible man was a\npreacher in Richmond for a half century, and that during all that\ntime, whether in slavery or in freedom, he lived up to his religion,\nmaintaining his integrity, defying the unscrupulous efforts of jealous\nfoes to destroy him, and walking the high path of spotless and\nincorruptible honour. Not that he was always popular among his race. He\nwas too decided, too aggressive, too intolerant towards meanness, and\ntoo unpitying in his castigation of vice, to be popular. His life, in\nthe nature of the case, had to be a warfare, and it may be truly said\nthat he slept with his sword buckled on.\n\nEmancipation did not turn his head. He was the same high-minded,\nisolated, thoughtful Jasper. His way of preaching became an offense to\nthe \u201cedicated\u201d preachers of the new order, and with their new sense\nof power these double-breasted, Prince-Albert-coated, high hat and\nkid-gloved clergymen needed telescopes to look as far down as Jasper\nwas, to get a sight of him. They verily thought that it would be a\nsimple process to transfix him with their sneers, and flaunt their\nnew grandeurs before him, in order to annihilate him. Many of these\nnew-fledged preachers, who came from the schools to be pastors in\nRichmond, resented Jasper\u2019s prominence and fame. They felt that he was\na reproach to the race, and they did not fail to fling at him their\nflippant sneers.\n\nBut Jasper\u2019s mountain stood strong. He looked this new tribe of his\nadversaries over and marked them as a calcimined and fictitious type\nof culture. To him they were shop-made and unworthy of respect. They\ncalled forth the storm of his indignant wrath. He opened his batteries\nupon them, and, for quite a while, the thunder of his guns fairly\nshook the steeples on the other negro churches of Richmond. And yet it\nwill never do to think of him as the incarnation of a vindictive and\nmalevolent spirit. He dealt terrific blows, and it is hardly too much\nto say that many of his adversaries found it necessary to get out of\nthe range of his guns. But, after all, there was a predominant good\nnature about him. His humour was inexhaustible, and irresistible as\nwell. If by his fiery denunciations he made his people ready to \u201cfight\nPhilip,\u201d he was quite apt before he finished to let fly some of his odd\ncomparisons, his laughable stories, or his humorous mimicries. He could\nlaugh off his own grievances, and could make his own people \u201ctake the\nsame medicine.\u201d\n\nJasper was something of a hermit, given to seclusion, imperturbably\ncalm in his manner, quite ascetic in his tastes, and a cormorant in\nhis devouring study of the Bible. Naturally, Jasper was as proud as\nLucifer,--too proud to be egotistic and too candid and self-assertive\nto affect a humility which he did not feel. He walked heights where\ncompany was scarce, and seemed to love his solitude. Jasper was as\nbrave as a lion and possibly not a little proud of his bravery. He\nfought in the open and set no traps for his adversaries. He believed in\nhimself,--felt the dignity of his position, and never let himself down\nto what was little or unseemly.\n\nThe most remarkable fact in Jasper\u2019s history is connected with his\nextraordinary performances in connection with his tersely expressed\ntheory,--THE SUN DO MOVE! We would think in advance that any man who\nwould come forward to champion that view would be hooted out of court.\nIt was not so with Jasper. His bearing through all that excitement was\nso dignified, so sincere, so consistent and heroic, that he actually\ndid win the rank of a true philosopher. This result, so surprising,\nis possibly the most handsome tribute to his inherent excellence and\nnobility of character. One could not fail to see that his fight on\na technical question was so manifestly devout, so filled with zeal\nfor the honour of religion, and so courageous in the presence of\noverwhelming odds, that those who did not agree with him learned to\nlove and honour him.\n\nThe sensation which he awakened fairly flew around the country. It is\nsaid that he preached the sermon 250 times, and it would be hard to\nestimate how many thousands of people heard him. The papers, religious\nand secular, had much to say about him. Many of them published his\nsermons, some of them at first plying him with derision, but about\nall of them rounding up with the admission of a good deal of faith in\nJasper. So vast was his popularity that a mercenary syndicate once\nundertook to traffic on his popularity by sending him forth as a public\nlecturer. The movement proved weak on its feet, and after a little\ntravel he hobbled back richer in experience than in purse.\n\nAs seen in the pulpit or in the street Jasper was an odd picture to\nlook upon. His figure was uncouth; he was rather loosely put together;\nhis limbs were fearfully long and his body strikingly short,--a sort\nof nexus to hold his head and limbs in place. He was black, but his\nface saved him. It was open, luminous, thoughtful, and in moments\nof animation it glowed with a radiance and exultation that was most\nattractive.\n\nJasper\u2019s career as a preacher after the war was a poem. The story is\nfound later on and marks him as a man of rare originality, and of\npatience born of a better world. He left a church almost entirely\nthe creation of his own productive life, that holds a high rank in\nRichmond and that time will find it hard to estrange from his spirit\nand influence. For quite a while he was hardly on co\u00f6perative terms\nwith the neighbouring churches, and it is possible that he ought to\nshare somewhat in the responsibility for the estrangement which so\nlong existed;--though it might be safely said that if they had left\nJasper alone he would not have bothered them. Let it be said that the\nanimosities of those days gradually gave away to the gracious and\nsoftening influence of time, and, when his end came, all the churches\nand ministers of the city most cordially and lovingly united in\nhonouring his memory.\n\nIt may betoken the regard in which Jasper was held by the white people\nif I should be frank enough to say that I was the pastor of the Grace\nStreet Baptist Church, one of the largest ecclesiastical bodies in the\ncity at the time of Jasper\u2019s death, and the simple announcement in\nthe morning papers that I would deliver an address in honour of this\nnegro preacher who had been carried to his grave during the previous\nweek brought together a representative and deeply sympathetic audience\nwhich overflowed the largest church auditorium in the city. With the\nutmost affection and warmth I put forth my lofty appreciation of this\nwonderful prince of his tribe, and so far as known there was never an\nadverse criticism offered as to the propriety or justice of the tribute\nwhich was paid him.\n\nIt is of this unusual man, this prodigy of his race, and this eminent\ntype of the Christian negro, that the somewhat random articles of this\nvolume are to treat. His life jumped the common grooves and ran on\nheights not often trod. His life went by bounds and gave surprises with\neach succeeding leap.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nJASPER HAS A THRILLING CONVERSION\n\n\nLet us bear in mind that at the time of his conversion John Jasper\nwas a slave, illiterate and working in a tobacco factory in Richmond.\nIt need hardly be said that he shared the superstitions and indulged\nin the extravagances of his race, and these in many cases have been\nso blatant and unreasonable that they have caused some to doubt the\nnegro\u2019s capacity for true religion. But from the beginning Jasper\u2019s\nreligious experiences showed forth the Lord Jesus as their source and\ncentre. His thoughts went to the Cross. His hope was founded on the\nsacrificial blood, and his noisy and rhapsodic demonstrations sounded a\ndistinct note in honour of his Redeemer.\n\nJasper\u2019s conviction as to his call to the ministry was clear-cut\nand intense. He believed that his call came straight from God. His\nboast and glory was that he was a God-made preacher. In his fierce\nwarfares with the educated preachers of his race--\u201cthe new issue,\u201d\nas he contemptuously called them--he rested his claim on the ground\nthat God had put him into the ministry; and so reverential, so full of\nnoble assertion and so irresistibly eloquent was he in setting forth\nhis ministerial authority that even his most sceptical critics were\nconstrained to admit that, like John the Baptist, he was \u201ca man sent\nfrom God.\u201d\n\nAnd yet Jasper knew the human side of his call. It was a part of his\ngreatness that he could see truth in its relations and completeness,\nand while often he presented one side of a truth, as if it were all\nof it, he also saw the other side. With him a paradox was not a\ncontradiction. He gratefully recognized the human influences which\nhelped him to enter the ministry. While preaching one Sunday afternoon\nJasper suddenly stopped, his face lighted as with a vision, a rich\nlaugh rippled from his lips while his eyes flashed with soulful fire.\nHe then said, in a manner never to be reported: \u201cMars Sam Hargrove\ncalled me to preach de Gospel--he was my old marster, and he started\nme out wid my message.\u201d Instantly the audience quivered with quickened\nattention, for they knew at once that the man in the pulpit had\nsomething great to tell.\n\n\u201cI was seekin\u2019 God six long weeks--jes\u2019 \u2019cause I was sich a fool I\ncouldn\u2019t see de way. De Lord struck me fus\u2019 on Cap\u2019tal Squar\u2019, an\u2019 I\nleft thar badly crippled. One July mornin\u2019 somethin\u2019 happen\u2019d. I was a\ntobarker-stemmer--dat is, I took de tobarker leaf, an\u2019 tor\u2019d de stem\nout, an\u2019 dey won\u2019t no one in dat fac\u2019ry could beat me at dat work.\nBut dat mornin\u2019 de stems wouldn\u2019t come out to save me, an\u2019 I tor\u2019d up\ntobarker by de poun\u2019 an\u2019 flung it under de table. Fac\u2019 is, bruthr\u2019n,\nde darkness of death was in my soul dat mornin\u2019. My sins was piled on\nme like mount\u2019ns; my feet was sinkin\u2019 down to de reguns of despar, an\u2019\nI felt dat of all sinners I was de wust. I tho\u2019t dat I would die right\nden, an\u2019 wid what I supposed was my lars breath I flung up to heav\u2019n\na cry for mercy. \u2019Fore I kno\u2019d it, de light broke; I was light as a\nfeather; my feet was on de mount\u2019n; salvation rol\u2019d like a flood thru\nmy soul, an\u2019 I felt as if I could \u2019nock off de fact\u2019ry roof wid my\nshouts.\n\n\u201cBut I sez to mysef, I gwine to hol\u2019 still till dinner, an\u2019 so I cried,\nan\u2019 laffed, an\u2019 tore up de tobarker. Pres\u2019ntly I looked up de table,\nan\u2019 dar was a old man--he luv me, an\u2019 tried hard to lead me out de\ndarkness, an\u2019 I slip roun\u2019 to whar he was, an\u2019 I sez in his ear as low\nas I could: \u2018Hallelujah; my soul is redeemed!\u2019 Den I jump back quick\nto my work, but after I once open my mouf it was hard to keep it shet\nany mo\u2019. \u2019Twan\u2019 long \u2019fore I looked up de line agin, an\u2019 dar was a good\nol\u2019 woman dar dat knew all my sorrers, an\u2019 had been prayin\u2019 fur me all\nde time. Der was no use er talkin\u2019; I had to tell her, an\u2019 so I skip\nalong up quiet as a breeze, an\u2019 start\u2019d to whisper in her ear, but just\nden de holin-back straps of Jasper\u2019s breachin\u2019 broke, an\u2019 what I tho\u2019t\nwould be a whisper was loud enuf to be hearn clean \u2019cross Jeems River\nto Manchester. One man sed he tho\u2019t de factory was fallin\u2019 down; all I\nknow\u2019d I had raise my fust shout to de glory of my Redeemer.\n\n\u201cBut for one thing thar would er been a jin\u2019ral revival in de fact\u2019ry\ndat mornin\u2019. Dat one thing was de overseer. He bulg\u2019d into de room, an\u2019\nwid a voice dat sounded like he had his breakfus dat mornin\u2019 on rasps\nan\u2019 files, bellowed out: \u2018What\u2019s all dis row \u2019bout?\u2019 Somebody shouted\nout dat John Jasper dun got religun, but dat didn\u2019t wurk \u2019tall wid\nde boss. He tell me to git back to my table, an\u2019 as he had sumpthin\u2019\nin his hand dat looked ugly, it was no time fur makin\u2019 fine pints,\nso I sed: \u2018Yes, sir, I will; I ain\u2019t meant no harm; de fus taste of\nsalvation got de better un me, but I\u2019ll git back to my work.\u2019 An\u2019 I\ntell you I got back quick.\n\n\u201cBout dat time Mars Sam he come out\u2019n his orfis, an\u2019 he say: \u2018What\u2019s de\nmatter out here?\u2019 An\u2019 I hear de overseer tellin\u2019 him: \u2018John Jasper kick\nup a fuss, an\u2019 say he dun got religun, but I dun fix him, an\u2019 he got\nback to his table.\u2019 De devil tol\u2019 me to hate de overseer dat mornin\u2019,\nbut de luv of God was rollin\u2019 thru my soul, an\u2019 somehow I didn\u2019t mind\nwhat he sed.\n\n\u201cLittle aft\u2019r I hear Mars Sam tell de overseer he want to see Jasper.\nMars Sam was a good man; he was a Baptis\u2019, an\u2019 one of de hed men of\nde old Fust Church down here, an\u2019 I was glad when I hear Mars Sam say\nhe want to see me. When I git in his orfis, he say: \u2018John, what was de\nmatter out dar jes\u2019 now?\u2019--and his voice was sof\u2019 like, an\u2019 it seem\u2019d\nto have a little song in it which play\u2019d into my soul like an angel\u2019s\nharp. I sez to him: \u2018Mars Sam, ever sence de fourth of July I ben\ncryin\u2019 after de Lord, six long weeks, an\u2019 jes\u2019 now out dar at de table\nGod tuk my sins away, an\u2019 set my feet on a rock. I didn\u2019t mean to make\nno noise, Mars Sam, but \u2019fore I know\u2019d it de fires broke out in my\nsoul, an\u2019 I jes\u2019 let go one shout to de glory of my Saviour.\u2019\n\n\u201cMars Sam was settin\u2019 wid his eyes a little down to de flo\u2019, an\u2019 wid a\npritty quiv\u2019r in his voice he say very slo\u2019: \u2018John, I b\u2019leve dat way\nmyself. I luv de Saviour dat you have jes\u2019 foun\u2019, an\u2019 I wan\u2019 to tell\nyou dat I do\u2019n complain \u2019cause you made de noise jes\u2019 now as you did.\u2019\nDen Mars Sam did er thing dat nearly made me drop to de flo\u2019. He git\nout of his chair, an\u2019 walk over to me and giv\u2019 me his han\u2019, and he\nsay: \u2018John, I wish you mighty well. Your Saviour is mine, an\u2019 we are\nbruthers in de Lord.\u2019 When he say dat, I turn \u2019round an\u2019 put my arm\nagin de wall, an\u2019 held my mouf to keep from shoutin\u2019. Mars Sam well\nknow de good he dun me.\n\n\u201cArt\u2019r awhile he say: \u2018John, did you tell eny of \u2019em in thar \u2019bout your\nconversion?\u2019 And I say: \u2018Yes, Mars Sam, I tell \u2019em fore I kno\u2019d it,\nan\u2019 I feel like tellin\u2019 eberybody in de worl\u2019 about it.\u2019 Den he say:\n\u2018John, you may tell it. Go back in dar an\u2019 go up an\u2019 down de tables,\nan\u2019 tell all of \u2019em. An\u2019 den if you wan\u2019 to, go up-stars an\u2019 tell \u2019em\nall \u2019bout it, an\u2019 den down-stars an\u2019 tell de hogshed men an\u2019 de drivers\nan\u2019 everybody what de Lord has dun for yor.\u2019\n\n\u201cBy dis time Mars Sam\u2019s face was rainin\u2019 tears, an\u2019 he say: \u2018John,\nyou needn\u2019 work no mo\u2019 to-day. I giv\u2019 you holiday. Aft\u2019r you git thru\ntellin\u2019 it here at de fact\u2019ry, go up to de house, an\u2019 tell your folks;\ngo roun\u2019 to your neighbours, an\u2019 tell dem; go enywhere you wan\u2019 to, an\u2019\ntell de good news. It\u2019ll do you good, do dem good, an\u2019 help to hon\u2019r\nyour Lord an\u2019 Saviour.\u2019\n\n\u201cOh, dat happy day! Can I ever forgit it? Dat was my conversion\nmornin\u2019, an\u2019 dat day de Lord sent me out wid de good news of de\nkingdom. For mo\u2019 den forty years I\u2019ve ben tellin\u2019 de story. My step is\ngittin\u2019 ruther slo\u2019, my voice breaks down, an\u2019 sometimes I am awful\ntired, but still I\u2019m tellin\u2019 it. My lips shall proclaim de dyin\u2019 luv of\nde Lam\u2019 wid my las\u2019 expirin\u2019 breath.\n\n\u201cAh, my dear ol\u2019 marster! He sleeps out yonder in de ol\u2019 cemetery, an\u2019\nin dis worl\u2019 I shall see his face no mo\u2019, but I don\u2019t forgit him. He\ngive me a holiday, an\u2019 sent me out to tell my friends what great things\nGod had dun for my soul. Oft\u2019n as I preach I feel that I\u2019m doin\u2019 what\nmy ol\u2019 marster tol\u2019 me to do. If he was here now, I think he would\nlif\u2019 up dem kin\u2019 black eyes of his, an\u2019 say: \u2018Dat\u2019s right, John; still\ntellin\u2019 it; fly like de angel, an\u2019 wherever you go carry de Gospel to\nde people.\u2019 Farewell, my ol\u2019 marster, when I lan\u2019 in de heav\u2019nly city,\nI\u2019ll call at your mansion dat de Lord had ready for you when you got\ndar, an\u2019 I shall say: \u2018Mars Sam, I did what you tol\u2019 me, an\u2019 many of\n\u2019em is comin\u2019 up here wid da\u2019 robes wash\u2019d in de blood of de Lam\u2019 dat\nwas led into de way by my preachin\u2019, an\u2019 as you started me I want you\nto shar\u2019 in de glory of da\u2019 salvation.\u2019 An\u2019 I tell you what I reck\u2019n,\ndat when Mars Sam sees me, he\u2019ll say: \u2018John, call me marster no mo\u2019:\nwe\u2019re bruthers now, an\u2019 we\u2019ll live forever roun\u2019 de throne of God.\u2019\u201d\n\nThis is Jasper\u2019s story, but largely in his own broken words. When he\ntold it, it swept over the great crowd like a celestial gale. The\npeople seemed fascinated and transfigured. His homely way of putting\nthe Gospel came home to them. Let me add that his allusions to his old\nmaster were in keeping with his kindly and conciliatory tone in all\nthat he had to say about the white people after the emancipation of\nthe slaves. He loved the white people, and among them his friends and\nlovers were counted by the thousand.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nHOW JASPER GOT HIS SCHOOLING\n\n\nThese chapters disclaim outright any pretension to biography. They\ndeal with a weird, indescribable and mysterious genius, standing out\nin gloomy grandeur, and not needing the setting forth of ordinary\nincidents. At the same time, when an extraordinary man comes along and\ndoes masterful things, there be some who are ready to ask questions.\nWas he educated? Well, yes, he was. He had rare educational advantages,\nnot in the schools; but what of that? A genius has no use for a school,\nexcept so far as it teaches him the art of thinking. If we run back to\nthe boyhood of Jasper and look him over we find that he had, after all,\ndistinct educational advantages.\n\nIt is another case of a good mother. We know that her name was Nina,\nand that she was the wife of Philip Jasper, and if tradition tells the\ntruth she was the mother of twenty-four children--a premature applicant\nfor the Rooseveltian prize. John was the last, and was not born until\ntwo months after his father\u2019s death. Truly grace as well as genius was\nneeded in his case, or he would have struck the wrong road.\n\nThat mother was the head of the working women on the Fluvanna farm and\nlearned to govern by reason of the position she held. Her appointment\nbespoke her character, and her work improved it. Later on, she became\nin another home the chief of the servant force in a rich family. It was\nquite a good place. It brought her in contact with cultivated people\nand the imitative quality in the negro helped her to learn the manners\nand to imbibe the spirit of the lady. Later on still, she became a\nnurse to look after the sick at the Negro Quarters. There she had to do\nwith doctors, medicines and counsellors and helpers. Add to all this,\nshe was a sober, thoughtful, godly woman, and you will quite soon reach\nthe conclusion that she was a very excellent teacher for John; and John\ncoming latest in the domestic procession found her rich in experience,\nmatured in motherliness, and enlarged in her outlook of life.\n\nJohn\u2019s father was a preacher. Harsh things, and some of them needlessly\nfalse, are said of the fact that there were no negro preachers in the\ntimes of the slaveholding. It is true, that the laws of the country did\nnot allow independent organizations of negroes, and negro preachers\nwere not allowed, except by the consent of their masters, to go abroad\npreaching the Gospel. They could not accept pastoral charges, and were\nhampered, as all must admit, by grievous restrictions, but there were\nnegro preachers in that day just the same,--scores of them, and in one\nway and another they had many privileges and did good and effective\nservice. One thing about the negro preacher of the ante bellum era was\nhis high character. It is true that the owner of slaves was not in\nall cases adapted to determine the moral character of the slave who\nwanted to preach, and too often, it may be admitted, his prejudices\nand self-interest may have ruled out some men who ought to have been\nallowed to preach. It is a pity if this were true. But this strictness\nhad one advantage. When the master of a negro man allowed him to preach\nit was an endorsement, acceptable and satisfactory, wherever the man\nwent. If they thought he was all right at home, he could pass muster\nelsewhere.\n\nNow, concerning John\u2019s father, tradition has proved exceedingly\npartial. It has glorified Tina the mother with fine extravagance,\nbut it has cut Philip unmercifully. John could get little out of his\nfather, for they were not contemporaries, and as his brothers and\nsisters seemed to have been born for oblivion, we can trace little of\nhis distinction to the old household in Fluvanna.\n\nBut we dare say that Philip, the preacher, remembered chiefly because\nhe was a preacher, had something to do in a subtle way with John\u2019s\ntraining. Nor must we fail to remember that Jasper himself grew up\nin contact with a fine old Virginia family. Fools there be many who\nlove to talk of the shattering of the old aristocracy of Virginia. The\n\u201cF.F.V.\u2019s\u201d[1] have been the sport of the vulgar, and their downfall\nhas been a tragedy which the envious greedily turned into a comedy.\nBut people ought to have some sense. They ought to see things in\ntheir proper relation. They ought to know that in the atmosphere of\nthe old Virginia home the negroes, and especially those who served in\nperson the heads of the family, caught the cue of the gentleman and\nthe lady. I can stand on the streets of Richmond to-day and pick out\nthe coloured men and women who grew up in homes of refinement, and who\nstill bear about them the signs of it. Bent by age, and many of them\ntortured by infirmity, they still bear the marks of their old masters.\nThey constitute a class quite apart from those of later times and\nare unequalled by them. I rejoice in all the comforts and advantages\nwhich have come to the negroes,--most heartily I thank heaven for\ntheir freedom and for all that freedom has brought them; but I do not\nhesitate to say that one of the losses was that contact with courtly,\ndignified, and royal people which many of them had before the Civil\nWar. And even those on the plantations, while removed farther from the\nlights of the great castles in which their masters lived, walked not in\ndarkness entirely, but unconsciously felt the transforming power of\nthose times.\n\nJohn Jasper was himself an aristocrat. His mode of dress, his manner\nof walking, his lofty dignity, all told the story. He received an\naristocratic education, and he never lost it. Besides this, he had a\nmost varied experience as a slave. He grew up on the farm, and knew\nwhat it was to be a plantation hand. He learned to work in the tobacco\nfactory. He worked also in the foundries, and also served around the\nhouses of the families with whom he lived; for it must be understood\nthat after the breaking up of the Peachy family he changed owners and\nlived in different places. These things enlarged his scope, and with\nthat keen desire to know things he learned at every turn of life.\n\nAfter his conversion he became a passionate student. He acknowledges\none who sought to teach him to read, and after he became a preacher\nhe spelled out the Bible for himself. He was eager to hear other men\npreach and to talk with those who were wiser than he. And so he kept on\nlearning as long as he lived, though of course he missed the help of\nthe schools, and never crossed the threshold of worldly science in his\npursuit of knowledge.\n\nIt may be well to say here that Jasper never lost his pride in white\npeople. He delighted to be with them. Thousands upon thousands went\nto hear him, and while there was a strain of curiosity in many of them\nthere was an under-note of respect and kindliness which always thrilled\nhis heart and did him good. Time and again he spoke to me personally\nof white people, and always with a beautiful appreciation. It is\nnoteworthy that the old man rode his high horse when his house was\npartly filled with white people, and it would be no exaggeration to say\nthat not since the end of the war has any negro been so much loved or\nso thoroughly believed in as John Jasper.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[1] First Families of Virginia.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nTHE SLAVE PREACHER\n\n\nIt is as a preacher that John Jasper is most interesting. His\npersonality was notable and full of force anywhere, but the pulpit\nwas the stage of his chief performance. It is worth while to bear in\nmind that he began to preach in 1839 and that was twenty-five years\nbefore the coming of freedom. For a quarter of a century, therefore,\nhe was a preacher while yet a slave. His time, of course, under the\nlaw belonged to his master, and under the laws of the period, he could\npreach only under very serious limitations. He could go only when his\nmaster said he might, and he could preach only when some white minister\nor committee was present to see that things were conducted in an\norderly way. This is the hard way of stating the case, but there are\nmany ways of getting around such regulations. The man who could preach,\nthough a negro, rarely failed of an opportunity to preach. The man who\nwas fit for the work had friends who enabled him to \u201cshy around\u201d his\nlimitations.\n\nThere was one thing which the negro greatly insisted upon, and which\nnot even the most hard-hearted masters were ever quite willing to\ndeny them. They could never bear that their dead should be put away\nwithout a funeral. Not that they expected, at the time of the burial,\nto have the funeral service. Indeed, they did not desire it, and it\nwas never according to their notions. A funeral to them was a pageant.\nIt was a thing to be arranged for a long time ahead. It was to be\nmarked by the gathering of the kindred and friends from far and wide.\nIt was not satisfactory unless there was a vast and excitable crowd.\nIt usually meant an all-day meeting, and often a meeting in a grove,\nand it drew white and black alike, sometimes almost in equal numbers.\nAnother demand in the case,--for the slaves knew how to make their\ndemands,--was that the negro preacher \u201cshould preach the funeral,\u201d as\nthey called it. In things like this, the wishes of the slaves generally\nprevailed. \u201cThe funeral\u201d loomed up weeks in advance, and although\nmarked by sable garments, mournful manners and sorrowful outcries,\nit had about it hints of an elaborate social function with festive\naccompaniments. There was much staked on the fame of the officiating\nbrother. He must be one of their own colour, and a man of reputation.\nThey must have a man to plough up their emotional depths, and they must\nhave freedom to indulge in the extravagancies of their sorrow. These\ndemonstrations were their tribute to their dead and were expected to\nbe fully adequate to do honour to the family.\n\nIt was in this way that Jasper\u2019s fame began. At first, his tempestuous,\nungrammatical eloquence was restricted to Richmond, and there it was\nhedged in with many humbling limitations. But gradually the news\nconcerning this fiery and thrilling orator sifted itself into the\ncountry, and many invitations came for him to officiate at country\nfunerals.\n\nHe was pre\u00ebminently a funeral preacher. A negro funeral without an\nuproar, without shouts and groans, without fainting women and shouting\nmen, without pictures of triumphant deathbeds and the judgment day, and\nwithout the gates of heaven wide open and the subjects of the funeral\ndressed in white and rejoicing around the throne of the Lamb, was no\nfuneral at all. Jasper was a master from the outset at this work.\nOne of his favourite texts, as a young preacher, was that which was\nrecorded in Revelations, sixth chapter, and second verse: \u201cAnd I saw\nand beheld a white horse; and he that sat upon him had a bow, and a\ncrown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer.\u201d\nBefore the torrent of his florid and spectacular eloquence the people\nwere swept down to the ground, and sometimes for hours many seemed to\nbe in trances, not a few lying as if they were dead.\n\nJasper\u2019s first visit to the country as a preacher of which we have any\naccount was to Hanover County. A prominent and wealthy slaveholder\nhad the custom of allowing his servants to have imposing funerals,\nwhen their kindred and friends died; but those services were always\nconducted by a white minister. In some way the fame of Jasper had\npenetrated that community, and one of the slaves asked his master to\nlet Jasper come and attend the funeral. But to this the master made\nan objection. He knew nothing about Jasper, and did not believe that\nany negro was capable of preaching the Gospel with good effect. This\nnegro was not discouraged by the refusal of the proprietor of the great\nplantation to grant his request. He went out and collected a number\nof most trustworthy and influential negro men and they came in a body\nto his master and renewed the plea. They told him in their way about\nwhat a great man Jasper was, how anxious they were to hear him, what a\ncomfort his presence would be to the afflicted family, and how thankful\nthey would be to have their request honoured. They won their point in\npart. He said to them, as if yielding reluctantly, \u201cvery well, let him\ncome.\u201d They however had something more to say. They knew Jasper would\nneed to have a good reason in order to get his master\u2019s consent for\nhim to come, and they knew that Jasper would not come unless he came\nunder the invitation and protection of the white people, and therefore\nthey asked the gentleman if he would not write a letter inviting him to\ncome. Accordingly, in a spirit of compromise and courtesy very pleasing\nto the coloured people, the letter was written and Jasper came.\n\nThe news of his expected coming spread like a flame. Not only the\ncountry people in large numbers, but quite a few of the Richmond\npeople, made ready to attend the great occasion. Jasper went out in\na private conveyance, the distance not being great, and, in his kind\nwish to take along as many friends as possible, he overloaded the\nwagon and had a breakdown. The delay in his arrival was very long and\nunexplained; but still the people lingered and beguiled the time with\ninformal religious services.\n\nAt length the Richmond celebrity appeared on the scene late in the\nday. The desire to hear him was imperative, and John Jasper was equal\nto the occasion. Late as the hour was, and wearied as were the people,\nhe spoke with overmastering power. The owner of the great company of\nslaves on that plantation was among his hearers, and he could not\nresist the spell of devout eloquence which poured from the lips of the\nunscholared Jasper. It was a sermon from the heart, full of personal\npassion and hot with gospel fervour, and the heart of the lord of\nthe plantation was powerfully moved. He undertook to engage Jasper to\npreach on the succeeding Sunday and handed the blushing preacher quite\na substantial monetary token of his appreciation.\n\nThe day was accounted memorable by reason of the impression which\nJasper made. Indeed, Jasper was a master of assemblies. No politician\ncould handle a crowd with more consummate tact than he. He was the king\nof hearts and could sway throngs as the wind shakes the trees.\n\nThere is a facetious story abroad among the negroes that in those days\nJasper went to Farmville to officiate on a funeral occasion where\nquite a number of the dead were to have their virtues commemorated\nand where their \u201cmourning friends,\u201d as Jasper in time came to call\nthem, were to be comforted. The news that Jasper was to be there went\nout on the wings of the wind and vast throngs attended. Of course, a\nwhite minister was present and understood that he was the master of\nceremonies. The story is, that he felt that it would not be safe to\nentrust an occasion so vastly interesting to the hands of Jasper, and\nhe decided that he would quiet Jasper and satisfy the public demands\nby calling on Jasper to pray. As a fact, Jasper was about as much of\nan orator in speaking to heaven as he was in speaking to mortal men.\nHis prayer had such contagious and irresistible eloquence that whatever\nthe Lord did about it, it surely brought quite a resistless response\nfrom the crowd. When the white preacher ended his tame and sapless\naddress, the multitude cried out for Jasper. Inspired by the occasion\nand emboldened by the evident disposition to shut him out, Jasper took\nfire and on eagle wings he mounted into the heavens and gave such a\nbrilliant and captivating address that the vast crowd went wild with\njoy and enthusiasm.\n\nThere is yet another story of a time when Jasper was called into the\ncountry where he and a white minister were to take part in one of the\ncombined funerals so common at that time. Upon arriving at the church\nthe white minister was unutterably shocked to find that his associate\nin the services was a negro. That was too much for him, and he decided\non the spot that if he went in, Jasper would have to stay out, and he\ndecided that he would go in and would stay in until the time was over\nand leave Jasper to his reflections on the outside. For two hours the\nwhite brother beat the air, killed time, and quite wearied the crowd\nby his lumbering and tiresome discourse. After he had arrived at the\npoint where it seemed that no more could be said, the exhausted and\nexhausting brother closed his sermon and was arranging to end the\nservice. But the people would not have it so. Tumultuously they cried\nout for Jasper,--a cry in which the whites outdid the blacks. It was\nnot in Jasper to ignore such appreciation. Of all men, he had the least\ndesire or idea of being snubbed or side-tracked. With that mischievous\nsmile which was born of the jubilant courage of his soul, Jasper\ncame forth. He knew well the boundaries of his rights, and needed no\ndanger signals to warn him off hostile ground. For fifteen or twenty\nminutes he poured forth a torrent of passionate oratory,--not empty and\nfrivolous words, but a message rich with comfort and help, and uttered\nonly as he could utter it. The effect was electrical. The white people\ncrowded around him to congratulate and thank him, and went away telling\nthe story of his greatness.\n\nTradition has failed to give us the name of the ill-fated brother who\nin seeking to kill time, seemed to have got knocked into oblivion. It\nis worth while to say that the white ministers were within the law in\nattending occasions like those described above and felt the necessity\nof care and discretion in managing the exercises, lest the hostilities\nof irreligious people should be excited against the negroes. It is due\nto the white people, and especially to that denomination to which John\nJasper was associated, to say that under their influence the negroes,\nwho were practically barbarians when they were brought into the South,\nwere civilized and Christianized. A large proportion of them were\nwell-mannered and nobly-behaved Christians at the time their slavery\nended. The church buildings were always constructed so that the white\npeople and the negroes could worship in the same house. They were\nbaptized by the same minister, they sat down together at the communion\ntable, they heard the same sermons, sang the same songs, were converted\nat the same meetings, and were baptized at the same time. Ofttimes, and\nin almost all places, they were allowed to have services to themselves.\nIn this, of course, they enjoyed a larger freedom than when they met in\nthe same house with the white people.\n\nThey know little of the facts who imagine that there was estrangement\nand alienation between the negroes and the whites in the matter of\nreligion. Far from it. There was much of good fellowship between\nthe whites and negroes in the churches, and the white ministers\ntook notable interest in the religious welfare of the slaves. They\noften visited them pastorally and gladly talked with them about\ntheir salvation. These chapters are not intended either to defend or\nto condemn slavery; but in picturing the condition of things which\nencompassed Jasper during the days of slavery, it is worth while to\nlet it be understood that it was during their bondage and under the\nChristian influence of Southern people, that the negroes of the South\nwere made a Christian people. It was the best piece of missionary work\never yet done upon the face of the earth.\n\nAnother fact should be referred to here. Jasper was a pastor in the\nCity of Petersburg even before the breaking out of the Civil War. He\nhad charge of one of the less prominent negro churches and went over\nfrom Richmond for two Sundays in each month. This, of course, showed\nthe enlargement of his liberty, that he could take the time to leave\nthe city so often in pursuance of his ministerial work.\n\nIt need hardly be mentioned that his presence in Petersburg brought\nunusual agitation. He fairly depopulated the other negro churches and\ndrew crowds that could not be accommodated. When it was rumoured that\nJasper was to preach for the first time on Sunday afternoon, the Rev.\nDr. Keene, of the First Baptist Church, and many other white people\nattended. They were much concerned lest his coming should produce\na disturbance, and they went with the idea of preventing any undue\nexcitement. Jasper, flaming with fervid zeal and exhilarated with\nthe freedom of the truth, carried everything before him. He had not\npreached long before the critical white people were stirred to the\ndepths of their souls and their emotion showed in their weeping. They\nbeheld and felt the wonderful power of the man. It is said that Dr.\nKeene was completely captivated, and recognized in Jasper a man whom\nGod had called.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\n\u201cWHAR SIN KUM FRUM?\u201d\n\n\nMy first sight of Jasper must always remain in the chapter of\nunforgotten things. The occasion was Sunday afternoon, and the crowd\nwas overflowing. Let me add that it was one of his days of spiritual\nintoxication, and he played on every key in the gamut of the human soul.\n\nTwo questions had been shot at him, and they both took effect. The\nfirst had to do with creation. For a half hour he pounded away on the\ncreatorship of God. His address was very strong and had in it both\nargument and eloquence. He marshalled the Scriptures with consummate\nskill, and built an argument easily understood by the rudest of his\nhearers; and yet so compact and tactful was he, that his most cultured\nhearers bent beneath his force.\n\nBut the second question brought on the pyrotechnics. It had to do with\nthe origin of sin,--\u201cWhar sin kum frum?\u201d--as he cogently put it. It was\nhere that a riotous liberty possessed him, and he preached with every\nfaculty of his mind, with every passion and sentiment of his soul, with\nevery nerve, every muscle, and every feature of his body. For nearly\nan hour the air cracked with excitement and the crowd melted beneath\nhis spell. It was my first experience of that unusual power of his to\nmove people in all possible ways by a single effort.\n\nJasper knew the fundamental doctrines of the Bible admirably, and\nalways lived in vital contact with their essence. There was a kinship\nbetween the Bible and himself, and, untaught of the schools, he studied\nhimself in the light of the Bible and studied the Bible in the darkness\nof himself. This kept him in contact with people and whenever he\npreached he invaded their experience and made conscious their wants to\nthemselves. And so it came to pass that questions which perplexed them\nthey had the habit of bringing to him. This question as to the origin\nof sin had been spurring and nagging some of his speculative hearers.\nThey had wrangled over it, and they unloaded their perplexity upon him.\nSo it was with this burden heavy upon him that he came to the pulpit on\nthis occasion.\n\nIt may have been a touch of his dramatic art, but at any rate he showed\nan amiable irritation, in view of his being under constant fire from\nhis controversial church-members, and so he started in as if he had a\ngrievance. It gave pith and excitement to his bearing, as he faced the\nissue thus thrust upon him. As a fact, he knew that many inquirers\nsought to entangle him by their questions and this opened the way for\nhis saying, with cutting effect, that they would do better to inquire,\n\u201cwhar sin wuz gwine ter kerry \u2019em, instid uv whar it kum frum.\u201d\n\n\u201cAn\u2019 yer wants ter know whar sin kum frum, yer say. Why shud yer be\nbroozin\u2019 eroun\u2019 wid sich a questun as dat? Dar ain\u2019 but wun place in\nde univus uv Gord whar yer kin git any infermashun on dis pint, and\ndar, I am free ter tel yer, yer kin git all dat yer wish ter know, an\u2019\nmaybe a good deal mo\u2019. De place whar de nollidge yer need kin be got\niz in de Word uv Gord. I knows wat sum dat hav\u2019 bin talkin\u2019 \u2019bout dis\nthing iz arter. I know de side uv de questun dey iz struttin\u2019 up on.\nDey say, or dey kinder hint, dat de Lord Gord iz de orthur uv sin.\nDat\u2019s wat dey iz wispurrin\u2019 roun\u2019 dis town. Dey can\u2019t fool Jasper; but\nI tell you de debbul iz playin\u2019 pranks on um an\u2019 will drag um down ter\nde pit uv hell, ef dey doan luk out mity quick. De Lord Gord know\u2019d\nfrum de beginnin\u2019 dat sum uv dese debbullish people wud bring up dis\nvery charge an\u2019 say dat He had tendid dat dar shud be sin frum de\nbeginnin\u2019. He done speak His mind \u2019bout dat thing, an\u2019 ef yer luk in\nde fust chaptur uv Jeems yer\u2019ll find de solum uttrunce on dis subjik\nan\u2019 it kleers Gord furevur frum dis base slandur. \u2018Let no man say,\u2019\nsays de Lord, \u2018wen he is temptid dat he is temptid uv Gord, fur Gord\nkin not be temptid uv any man, an\u2019 neethur tempts He any man.\u2019 Did yer\nhear dat? Dat\u2019s de Lord\u2019s own wurds. It spressly says dat people will\nbe temptid,--everybody is temptid; I bin havin\u2019 my temptashuns all my\nlife, an\u2019 I haz um yit, a heap uv um, an\u2019 sum uv um awful bad, but yer\nain\u2019 ketchin\u2019 Jasper er sayin\u2019 dat Gord is at de bottum uv um. Ef I\nshud say it, it wud be a lie, an\u2019 all iz liars wen dey say dat Gord\ntempts um? De sinnur is gettin\u2019 towurds de wust wen he iz willin\u2019 ter\nlay de blame uv hiz sins on de Lord. Do it ef yer will, but de cuss uv\nGord will be erpun yez wen yer try ter mek de Lord Gord sich es you iz;\nan\u2019 ter mek b\u2019liev dat de Lord gits orf His throne an\u2019 kums down in ter\nmire an\u2019 clay uv your wicked life an\u2019 tries ter jog an\u2019 ter fool yer\ninter sin. I trimbul ter think uv sich a thing! I wonder dat de Lord\nduzn\u2019t forge new thunderbolts uv Hiz rath an\u2019 crush de heds uv dem dat\ncharge \u2019im wid de folly uv human sin.\n\n\u201cSum uv yer wud be mity glad ter git Gord mix\u2019d up in yer sins an\u2019 ter\nfeel dat He iz es bad es you iz. It jes\u2019 shows how base, how lost, how\nded, you\u2019se bekum. Wudn\u2019t we hev a pritty Gord ef He wuz willin\u2019 ter\ngit out in de nite an\u2019 go plungin\u2019 down inter de horribul an\u2019 ruinus\ntransgresshuns in wich sum men indulg\u2019. Let me kleer dis thing up befo\u2019\nI quit it. Bar in mine, dat Gord kin not be temptid uv any man. Try it\nef yer chuze, an\u2019 He will fling yer in ter de lowes\u2019 hell, an\u2019 don\u2019t\nyer dar evur ter say, or ter think, or ter hope, dat de temtashun ter\ndu rong things kum ter yer from Gord. It do not kum frum erbuv, but it\nkum out uv your foul an\u2019 sinful hart. Dey iz born dar, born uv your\nbad thoughts, born uv your hell-born lusts, an\u2019 dey gits strong in yer\n\u2019caus\u2019 yer don\u2019t strangul um at de start.\n\n\u201cBut why shud dar be trubble \u2019bout dis subjic? Wat duz de Bibul say on\ndis here mattur \u2019bout whar sin kum frum? We kin git de troof out uv dat\nbuk, fur it kuntains de Wurd uv Gord. Our Gord kin not lie; He nevur\nhav\u2019 lied frum de foundashun uv de wurl\u2019. He iz de troof an\u2019 de life\nan\u2019 He nevur lies.\n\n\u201cNow, wat do He say kunsarnin\u2019 dis serus questun dat is plowin\u2019 de\nsouls uv sum uv my brudderin. Ter de Bibul, ter de Bibul, we\u2019ll go an\u2019\nwat do we git wen we git dar? De Bibul say dat Eve wuz obur dar in de\ngardin uv Edun one day an\u2019 dat she wuz dar by hersef. De Lord med Eve,\n\u2019caus\u2019 it worn\u2019t gud fer Adum ter be erloan, an\u2019 it luks frum dis kase\ndat it wuz not quite safe fer Eve ter be lef at home by hersef. But\nAdum worn\u2019t wid her; doan know whar he wuz,--gorn bogin\u2019 orf sumwhars.\nHe better bin at home tendin\u2019 ter his fambly. Dat ain\u2019 de only time, by\na long shot, dat dar haz bin de debbul ter pay at home wen de man hev\ngorn gaddin\u2019 eroun\u2019, instid uv stayin\u2019 at home an\u2019 lookin\u2019 arter hiz\nfambly.\n\n\u201cWhile Eve wuz sauntrin\u2019 an\u2019 roamin\u2019 eroun\u2019 in de buterful gardin, de\nole sarpint, dyked up ter kill, kum gallervantin\u2019 down de road an\u2019 he\nkotch\u2019d site uv Eve an\u2019 luk lik he surpriz\u2019d very much but not sorry\nin de leas\u2019. Now yer mus\u2019 kno\u2019 dat ole sarpint wuz de trickies\u2019 an\u2019\nde arties\u2019 uv all de beas\u2019 uv de feil\u2019,--de ole debbul, dat\u2019s wat he\nwuz. An\u2019 wat he do but go struttin\u2019 up ter Eve in a mity frien\u2019ly way,\nscrapin\u2019 an\u2019 bowin\u2019 lik a fool ded in luv.\n\n\u201c\u2018How yer do?\u2019 He tries ter be perlite, an\u2019 puts on hiz sweetes\u2019 airs.\nOh, dat wuz an orful momint in de life uv Eve an\u2019 in de histurry uv dis\npo\u2019 los\u2019 wurl uv ours. In dat momint de pizun eat thru her flesh, struk\nin her blud, an\u2019 went ter her hart. At fust she wuz kinder shame\u2019; but\nshe wuz kinder loansum, an\u2019 she wuz pleas\u2019d an\u2019 tickl\u2019d ter git notic\u2019d\nin dat way an\u2019 so she stay\u2019d dar instid uv runnin\u2019 fer her life.\n\n\u201c\u2018Ve\u2019y wel, I thanks yer,\u2019 she say ertremblin\u2019, \u2018how iz you dis\nmornin\u2019?\u2019 De sarpint farly shouts wid joy. He dun got her tenshun an\u2019\nshe lek ter hear \u2019im, an\u2019 he feel he got hiz chanz an\u2019 so goes on:\n\n\u201c\u2018Nice gardin yer got dar,\u2019 he say in er admirin\u2019 way. \u2018Yer got heap uv\nnice appuls obur dar.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, yes, indeed,\u2019 Eve replies. \u2018We got lots uv um.\u2019\n\n\u201cEve spoke dese wurds lik she wuz proud ter deth \u2019caus\u2019 de sarpint lik\nde gardin. Dar stood de sarpint ve\u2019y quiut tel, suddin lek, he juk\neroun\u2019 an\u2019 he says ter Eve:--\n\n\u201c\u2018Kin yer eat all de appuls yer got obur dar?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No, hindeed,\u2019 says Eve, \u2018we can\u2019t eat um all. We got moar\u2019n we kin\n\u2019stroy save our lives. Dey gittin\u2019 ripe all de time; we hev jus\u2019\nhogshids uv um.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t mean dat,\u2019 spoke de sarpint, es ef shock\u2019d by not bein\u2019\nunderstud. \u2018My p\u2019int iz, iz yer \u2019low\u2019d ter eat um all? Dat\u2019s wat I want\nter know. As ter yer laws an\u2019 rites in de gardin, duz dey all sute yer?\u2019\n\n\u201cFer a minnit de \u2019oman jump\u2019d same es if sumbudy struk her a blow.\nDe col\u2019 chils run down her bak, an\u2019 she luk lik she wan ter run, but\nsumhow de eye uv de sarpint dun got a charm on her. Dar wuz a struggul,\ner reglur Bull Run battul, gwine on in her soul at dat momint.\n\n\u201c\u2018Wat yer ax me dat questun fur?\u2019 Eve axed, gaspin\u2019 w\u2019ile she spoke.\nDen de debbul luk off. He tri ter be kam an\u2019 ter speak lo an\u2019 kine, but\ndar wuz a glar\u2019 in hiz eyes. \u2018I begs many parduns,\u2019 he says, \u2019skuse\nme, I did not mean ter meddul wid yer privit buzniz. I\u2019d bettur skuse\nmysef, I reckin, and try an\u2019 git erlong.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No; doan go,\u2019 Eve sed. \u2018Yer havn\u2019t hurt my feelin\u2019s. Wat yer say\njes\u2019 put new thoughts in my min\u2019 an\u2019 kinder shuk me up at fust. But I\ndoan min\u2019 talkin\u2019.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Ef dat be de kase,\u2019 speaks up de debbul, quite brave-lek, \u2018begs you\nskuse me ter ask agin ef de rules uv de gardin \u2019lows yer ter eat any uv\ndem appuls yer got in de gardin? I haz my reasuns fer axin\u2019 dis.\u2019\n\n\u201cEve stud dar shivurrin\u2019 lik she freezin\u2019 an\u2019 pale es de marbul\ntoomstoan. But arter a gud wile she pint her han obur to er tree, on de\nhill on de rite, an\u2019 she tel \u2019im, es ef she wuz mity \u2019fraid, dat dar\nwuz a tree obur dar uv de Nollidge an\u2019 uv de Deestinxshun, an\u2019 she say,\n\u2018De Lord Gord He tel us we mus\u2019 not eat dem appuls; dey pisun us, an\u2019\nde day we eat um we got to die.\u2019\n\n\u201cOh, my brudderin, worn\u2019t times mity serus den? \u2019Twuz de hour wen de\npowurs uv darknis wuz gittin\u2019 in an\u2019 de foundashuns uv human hopes wuz\ngivin\u2019 way. Den it wuz he git up close ter Eve an\u2019 wispur in her ear:--\n\n\u201c\u2018Did de Lord Gord tel yer dat? Doan tel nobody, but I wan\u2019 ter tel yer\ndat it ain\u2019t so. Doan yer b\u2019liev it. Doan let \u2019im fool yer! He know\ndat\u2019s de bes\u2019 fruit in all de gardin,--de fruit uv de Nollidge an\u2019 de\nDeestinxshun, an\u2019 dat wen yer eats it yer will know es much es He do.\nYer reckin He wants yer ter know es much es He do? Na-a-w; an\u2019 dat\u2019s\nwhy He say wat He do say. You go git um. Dey\u2019s de choysis\u2019 fruit in de\ngardin, an\u2019 wen yer eats um yer will be equ\u2019ul ter Gord.\u2019\n\n\u201cErlas, erlas! po\u2019 deluded an\u2019 foolish Eve! It wuz de momint uv her\nevurlastin\u2019 downfall. Clouds uv darknis shrouds her min\u2019 an\u2019 de ebul\nsperrit leap inter her soul an\u2019 locks de do\u2019 behin\u2019 him. Dat dedly day\nshe bruk \u2019way frum de Gord dat made her, Eve did, an\u2019 purtuk uv de\nfruit dat brought sin an\u2019 ruin an\u2019 hell inter de wurl\u2019.\n\n\u201cPo\u2019 foolish Eve! In dat momunt darknis fils her min\u2019, evul leaps in\nter er heart, an\u2019 she pluck de appul, bruk de kumman uv Gord, and ate\nde fatul fruit wat brought death ter all our race.\n\n\u201cArtur er wile, Adum kum walkin\u2019 up de gardin and Eve she runs out ter\nmeet \u2019im. Wen he kum near she hol\u2019 up er appul in her han\u2019 and tell him\nit iz gud ter eat. Oh, blin\u2019 and silly womun! First deceived herself,\nshe turn roun\u2019 and deceives Adum. Dat\u2019s de way; we gits wrong, an\u2019 den\nwe pulls udder folks down wid us. We rarly goes down by oursefs.\n\n\u201cBut whar wuz de rong? Whar, indeed? It wuz in Eve\u2019s believin\u2019 de\ndebbul and not believin\u2019 Gord. It wuz doin\u2019 wat de debbul sed an\u2019 not\ndoin\u2019 wat Gord sed. An\u2019 yer kum here and ax me whar sin kum frum! Yer\nsee now, doan\u2019 sher? It kum out uv de pit uv hell whar it wuz hatched\n\u2019mong de ainjuls dat wuz flung out uv heav\u2019n \u2019caus dey disurbeyd Gord.\nIt kum from dat land whar de name uv our Gord is hated. It wuz brought\nby dat ole sarpint, de fathur uv lies, and he brung it dat he mite fool\nde woman, an\u2019 in dat way sot up on de urth de wurks uv de debbul. Sin\niz de black chile uv de pit, it is. It kum frum de ole sarpint at fust,\nbut it\u2019s here now, rite in po\u2019 Jasper\u2019s hart and in your hart; wharevur\ndar iz a man or a woman in dis dark wurl\u2019 in tears dar iz sin,--sin dat\ninsults Gord, tars down His law, and brings woes ter evrybody.\n\n\u201cAn\u2019 you, stung by de sarpint, wid Gord\u2019s rath on yer and yer feet in\nde paf uv deth, axin\u2019 whar sin kum frum? Yer bettur fly de rath uv de\njudgmint day.\n\n\u201cBut dis iz ernuff. I jes\u2019 tuk time ter tell whar sin kum frum. But my\ntong carnt refuse ter stop ter tel yer dat de blud uv de Lam\u2019 slain\nfrum de foundashun uv de wurl\u2019 is grettur dan sin and mitier dan hell.\nIt kin wash erway our sins, mek us whitur dan de drivin snow, dress us\nin redemshun robes, bring us wid shouts and allerluejurs bak ter dat\nfellership wid our Fathur, dat kin nevur be brokin long ez \u2019ternity\nrolls.\u201d\n\nThis outbreak of fiery eloquence was not the event of the afternoon,\nbut simply an incident. It came towards the end of the service, and\nits delivery took not much more time than is required to read this\nrecord of it. His language was perhaps never more broken; but what he\nsaid flamed with terrific light. While there were touches of humour\nin his description of the scene in the Garden, his message gathered a\nseriousness and solemnity which became simply overpowering. No words\ncan describe the crushing and alarming effect which his weird story of\nthe entrance of sin into the world had upon his audience. Men sobbed\nand fell to the floor in abject shame, and frightened cries for mercy\nrang wild through the church. Possibly never a sweeter gospel note\nsounded than that closing reference which he made to the cleansing\npower of the blood shed from the foundation of the world.\n\nThere were many white persons present, and they went away filled with a\nsense of the greatness and power of the Gospel.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nJASPER SET FREE\n\n\nJasper came to the verge of his greatness after he had passed the\nhalf century line. Freedom had come and to him brought nothing except\nthe opportunity to carve out his own fortune. His ministry had been\nmigratory, restricted and chiefly of ungathered fruit. He found himself\nin Richmond without money and without a home. By daily toil he was\npicking up his bread. He was dead set on doing something in the way he\nwanted to do it. He was of the constructive sort, and never had done\nwell when building on another man\u2019s foundation.\n\nHis ambition was to build a church. Down on the James River, where the\nbig furnaces were run, there was a little island, and on the island a\nlittle house, and scattered along the canal and river were many of the\nnewly liberated and uncared for people of his race.\n\n[Illustration: THE SIXTH MOUNT ZION CHURCH]\n\nHe began to hold religious services on the island,--said by some to\nhave been held in a private house, and by others in a deserted stable,\nwhich was fitted up to accommodate the increasing crowds. Things went\nwell with him. The joy of building flamed his soul, and beneath the\ntide of the river he baptized many converts. Happy days they were! The\npeople were wild with enthusiasm, and the shouts of his congregation\nmingled with the noise of the James River Falls. It was to Jasper as\nthe gate of heaven, and he walked as the King\u2019s ambassador among his\nadmiring flock.\n\nBut it could not be that way long. There was not room enough to contain\nthe people, and yet the church was poverty itself, and what could\nthey do? Happily they found a deserted building beyond the canal and\naccessible to the growing company of his lovers in the city. There\nthings went with a snap and a roar. From every quarter the people came\nto hear this African Boanerges. The crowds and songs and riotous shouts\nof his young church filled the neighbourhood. Constant processions,\nwith Jasper at the head, visited the river or canal, to give baptism to\nthe multiplying converts.\n\nMeanwhile, however, the northern part of the city was fast becoming\nthe Africa of Richmond. Into its meaner outskirts at first the tide\nbegan to roll, but in a little while the white people began to retreat,\nstreet after street, until a vast area was given up to the coloured\npeople. Jasper\u2019s people, also, as they prospered, began to settle in\nthis new Africa, and Jasper found once more that he was simply dwelling\nin tents, when the time was coming for the building of the temple.\n\nJasper was on the outlook for a new location. Finally he hit upon an\nold brick church building, at the corner of Duval and St. John Streets.\nThe Presbyterians, who had started this mission years before, had\ndespaired of success under the changed conditions and they offered\nthe house for sale, the price being $2,025. The sense of growth and\nprogress fairly maddened this unique and fascinating preacher with\nenthusiasm. He had found a home for his people at last, and yet, in\npoint of fact, he had not. The house was a magnificent gain on their\nold quarters, and yet every Sunday afternoon found most of his crowd\non the outside. Quite soon his people had to enlarge and remodel\nthe house, and this they did at a cost of $6,000. By that time the\nmembership was well on towards 2,000. There they dwelt for a number\nof years until the church became the centre of the religious life in\nthat part of the town. \u201cJohn Jasper,\u201d as he was universally called,\nhad easily become the most attractive and popular minister of his\nrace in the city. By this time he was over sixty years of age, and it\nwould have taken much to have quenched the yet unwasted buoyancy and\nvitality of his ministry. Necessity demanded another building, and in\nthe later prime of his kingly manhood, and very largely by his personal\nforcefulness and intrepid leadership, he led a movement for a house of\nworship that would be respectable in almost any part of Richmond. What\nwas more to his purpose, it was very capacious, wisely adapted to the\nwants of his people and a fitting monument to his constructive resource\nand enthusiasm. It is said that he, out of his own slender resources,\ngave $3,000 to the building fund, and this was probably in addition\nto great sums of money given him by white people who went to hear him\npreach and who delighted to honour and cheer the old man. I suppose\nthat thousands of dollars were given him from no motive save that of\nkindness towards him, and the donours would just as soon have given\nthe money directly to him and for his own use. They helped to build\nthe church simply to please the old man whose eloquence and honesty\nhad won their hearts. His love for his church amounted to devotion. He\nhad seen it grow from the most insignificant beginning, had watched\nthe tottering steps of its childhood, and with pride natural and\naffectionate had gloried in its prosperity.\n\nBut be it said to the old man\u2019s honour that he was too great to be\nconceited. He had no sense of boastfulness or self-glorification about\nthe church. He had the frankness to tell the truth about things when it\nwas necessary, but he had too much manly modesty to claim distinction\nfor the part he had borne in the building up of the church. Indeed,\nhe was strangely silent about his relations with the church, and his\ndominant feeling was one of affectionate solicitude for the future of\nthe church rather than of self-satisfaction on account of its history.\n\nThere was a strain of severity in Jasper. He had some of the temper of\nthe reformer. He was quick,--often too quick--in condemning those who\ncriticised him. The fact is, he was so unfeignedly honest that he could\nnot be patient towards those whose sincerity or honesty he doubted.\nFor those who plotted against the church or gave trouble in other ways\nhe had little charity. Those that would not work in harness, and help\nto move things along, he was quite willing to show to the church door.\nFor his part, he could not love those very warmly who did not love the\n\u201cSixth Mount Zion.\u201d\n\nThis may be the right place to say a word or two as to Jasper\u2019s\nenemies. He was a man of war, and it may be that his prejudices\nsometimes got in the saddle. But not very often. Possibly, his most\nstriking characteristic was his bottom sense of justice. He told the\ntruth by instinct, and it never occurred to him to take an undue\nadvantage. If, however, a man wronged him, he was simply terrible in\nbringing the fellow to book. There was a case, in which it is better\nnot to mention names, in which an insidious and grievous accusation was\nbrought against this sturdy old friend of the faith. The charge sought\nto fasten falsehood upon Jasper. That was enough for him,--it amounted\nto a declaration of war, and at once he entered upon the conflict.\nNever did he cease the strife until the charge was unsaid. Nothing, in\nshort, could terrify him.\n\nIt must not be inferred that those who assailed him with questions and\narguments were put into the category of personal enemies. Controversy\nwas exactly to his taste. All he asked of the other man was to state\nhis proposition, and he was ready for the contest. Not that he went\ninto it pell-mell. By no means; he took time for preparation, and when\nhe spoke it was hard to answer him. This, of course, applies when the\nquestions were theological and Scriptural, and not scientific. His\nknowledge of the Scriptures was remarkable, and his spiritual insight\ninto the doctrines of the Bible was extraordinary. When he preached, he\nsupported every point with Scriptural quotations, invariably giving the\nchapter and verse, and often adding, \u201cEf yer don\u2019 find it jes\u2019 ezackly\nez I tells yer, yer kin meet me on de street nex\u2019 week an\u2019 say ter me:\n\u2018John Jasper, you ar er lier,\u2019 an\u2019 I won\u2019 say er wurd.\u201d\n\nWhat gave to Jasper an exalted and impressive presence was his\ninsistent claim that he was a God-sent man. This he asserted in\nalmost every sermon, and with such evident conviction that he forced\nother people to believe it. Even those who differed with him were\nconstrained to own his sincerity and Godliness. It was impossible to\nbe with him much without being impressed that he was anointed of God\nfor his work. It was in this that his people gloried. Their faith in\nhim was pre\u00ebminent,--far above every question--and he was also full of\ninspiration. You may talk with his disciples now, wherever you meet\nthem, and they are quick to tell you that \u201cBrer Jasper was certinly\naninted uv God,\u201d and even the more intelligent of the people ascribed\nhis greatness to the fact that he was under the power of the Holy\nGhost. Many wicked people heard him preach, and some of them still went\ntheir wicked way, but they felt that the power of God was with Jasper,\nand they were always ready to say so. In many points, John Jasper was\nstrikingly like John the Baptist,--a just man and holy, and the people\nrevered him in a way I never met with in any other man.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE PICTURE-MAKER\n\n\nIn the circle of Jasper\u2019s gifts his imagination was pre\u00ebminent. It\nwas the mammoth lamp in the tower of his being. A matchless painter\nwas he. He could flash out a scene, colouring every feature, defining\nevery incident and unveiling every detail. Time played no part in the\nperformance,--it was done before you knew it. Language itself was of\nsecond moment. His vocabulary was poverty itself, his grammar a riot\nof errors, his pronunciation a dialectic wreck, his gestures wild\nand unmeaning, his grunts and heavings terrible to hear. At times he\nhardly talked but simply emitted; his pictures were simply himself in\nflame. His entire frame seemed to glow with living light, and almost\nwordlessly he wrought his miracles. But do not misunderstand. Some\ninsisted on saying that education would have stripped John of his\ngenius by subduing the riot of his power and chastening the fierceness\nof his imagination. I think not, for John in a good sense was educated.\nHe was a reverential and laborious student for half-a-century. He\nworked on his sermons with a marked assiduity and acquired the skill\nand mastership of faithful struggle. Even his imagination had to work,\nand its products were the fruit of toil. There was no mark of the\nabnormal or disproportionate in his sky, but all the stars were big\nand bright. He was well ballasted in his mental make-up, and in his\nmost radiant pictures there was an ethical regard for facts, and an\ninstinctive respect for the truth. Moreover, his ministrations fairly\ncovered the theological field, were strongly doctrinal, and he grappled\nwith honest vigour the deepest principles of the Gospel. He was also\nintensely practical, scourging sin, lashing neglect, and with lofty\nauthority demanding high and faithful living.\n\nThink not of Jasper merely as a pictorial preacher. There were wrought\ninto his pictures great principles and rich lessons. But now and then\nhe would present a sermon which was largely a series of pictures from\nbeginning to end. His imagination would be on duty all the time and\nyet never flag. I cannot forget his sermon on Joseph and his Brethren.\nIt was a stirring presentation of the varied scenes in that memorable\npiece of history. He opened on the favouritism of Jacob, and was\nexceedingly strong in condemning partiality, as unhappily expressed\nin the coat of many colours. That brief part was a sermon itself for\nparents. From that he passed quickly to the envy of his brothers,\njealousy was a demon creeping in among them, inflicting poisonous\nstings, and spreading his malignant power, until murder rankled in\nevery heart. Then came Joseph, innocent and ignorant of offending, to\nfall a victim to their conspiracy, with the casting of him into the\npit, the selling of him to the travelling tradesmen, the showing to\nJacob of the blood-stained coat, with scene after scene until the happy\nmeeting at last between Jacob and his long lost son.\n\nOne almost lived a lifetime under the spell of that sermon. It was\neloquent, pathetic, terrific in its denunciations, rich in homely\npiety, and with strains of sweetness that was as balm to sorrowing\nsouls. The effects were as varied as human thoughts and sentiments. The\naudience went through all moods. Now they were bent down as if crushed\nwith burdens; now they were laughing in tumults at the surprises and\ncharms of heavenly truth; anon they were sobbing as if all hearts were\nbroken, and in a moment hundreds were on their feet shaking hands,\nshouting, and giving forth snatches of jubilant song. This all seems\nextravagant, without sobriety entirely, but those that were there,\nperhaps without an exception, felt that it was the veritable house of\nGod and the gate of heaven.\n\nAt other times, Jasper\u2019s sermons were sober and deliberate, sometimes\neven dull; but rarely did the end come without a burst of eloquence\nor an attractive, entertaining picture. But, remember, that his\npictures were never foreign to his theme. They were not lugged in\nto fill up. They had in them the might of destiny and fitted their\nplaces, and fitted them well. Often they came unheralded, but they were\nevidently born for their part. On one occasion his sermon was on Enoch.\nIt started out at a plodding gait and seemed for a time doomed to\ndullness, for Jasper could be dull sometimes. At one time he brought a\nsmile to the faces of the audience, in speaking of Enoch\u2019s age, by the\nremark: \u201cDem ole folks back dar cud beat de presunt ginerashun livin\u2019\nall ter pieces.\u201d\n\nAs he approached the end of his sermon, his face lighted up and took on\na new grace and passion, and he went out with Enoch on his last walk.\nThat walk bore him away to the border of things visible; earthly scenes\nwere lost to view; light from the higher hills gilded the plains. Enoch\ncaught sight of the face of God, heard the music and the shouting of a\ngreat host, and saw the Lamb of God seated on the throne. The scene was\ntoo fair to lose, and Enoch\u2019s walk quickened into a run which landed\nhim in his father\u2019s house. It was a quick, short story, told in soft\nand mellow tones, and lifted the audience up so far that the people\nshouted and sang as if they were themselves entering the gates of\nheaven.\n\nOne of his more elaborate descriptions, far too rich to be reproduced,\ncelebrated the ascension of Elijah. There was the oppressive\nunworldliness of the old prophet, his efforts to shake off Elisha,\nand Elisha\u2019s wise persistence in clamouring for a blessing from his\nspiritual father. But it was when the old prophet began to ascend that\nJasper, standing off like one apart from the scene, described it so\nthrillingly that everything was as plain as open day. To the people,\nthe prophet was actually and visibly going away. They saw him quit the\nearth, saw him rise above the mountain tops, sweeping grandly over the\nvast fields of space, and finally saw him as he passed the moon and\nstars. Then something happened. In the fraction of a second Jasper was\ntransmuted into Elijah and was actually in the chariot and singing with\nextraordinary power the old chorus: \u201cGoing up to heaven in a chariot of\nfire.\u201d The scene was overmastering! For a time I thought that Jasper\nwas the real Elijah, and my distinct feeling was that the song which\nhe sang could be heard around the world. Of course, it was not so; but\nthere was something in the experience of the moment that has abided\nwith me ever since.\n\nAt a funeral one Sunday I saw Jasper attempt a dialogue with death,\nhimself speaking for both. The line of thought brought him face to face\nwith death and the grave. The scene was solemnized by a dead body in a\ncoffin. He put his hands over his mouth and stooped down and addressed\ndeath. Oh, death--death, speak to me. Where is thy sting? And then with\nthe effect of a clairvoyant he made reply: \u201cOnce my sting was keen and\nbitter, but now it is gone. Christ Jesus has plucked it out, and I\nhave no more power to hurt His children. I am only the gatekeeper to\nopen the gateway to let His children pass.\u201d In closing this chapter an\nincident will largely justify my seemingly extraordinary statements as\nto the platform power of this unschooled negro preacher in Virginia.\n\nIn company with a friend I went very often Sunday afternoons to hear\nJasper and the fact was bruited about quite extensively, and somewhat\nto the chagrin of some of my church-members. Two of them, a professor\nin Richmond College and a lawyer well-known in the city, took me to\ntask about it. They told me in somewhat decided tones that my action\nwas advertising a man to his injury, and other things of a similar\nsort. I cared but little for their criticism, but told them that if\nthey would go to hear him when he was at his best, and if afterwards\nthey felt about him as they then felt, I would consider their\ncomplaints. They went the next Sunday. The house was overflowing, and\nJasper walked the mountain tops that day. His theme was \u201cThe raising\nof Lazarus\u201d and by steps majestic he took us along until he began to\ndescribe the act of raising Lazarus from the dead. It happened that\nthe good professor was accompanied by his son, a sprightly lad of\nabout ten, who was sitting between his father and myself. Suddenly the\nboy, evidently agitated, turned to me and begged that we go home at\nonce. I sought to soothe him, but all in vain, for as he proceeded the\nboy urgently renewed his request to go home. His father observed his\ndisquietude and putting an arm around him restored him to calmness.\nAfter the service ended and we had reached the street, I said to him:\n\u201cLook here, boy, what put you into such a fidget to quit the church\nbefore the end of the service?\u201d \u201cOh, doctor, I thought he had a dead\nman under the pulpit and was going to take him out,\u201d he said. My lawyer\nbrother heard the sermon and with profound feeling said, \u201cHear that,\nand let me say to you that in a lifetime I have heard nothing like it,\nand you ought to hear that man whenever you can.\u201d\n\nI heard no later criticisms from any man concerning my conduct in\nevincing such cordial interest in this eloquent son of Fluvanna.\n\nIt was only necessary to persuade Jasper\u2019s critics to hear him, to\nremove all question as to his genuine character and effective spiritual\nministry.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nJASPER\u2019S STAR WITNESS\n\n\nThe domestic history of this rare and gifted man was not without\nits tragical incidents. One of the worst features of slavery, as an\ninstitution in the South, was the inevitable legislation which it\nnecessitated, and under which many grievous wrongs were perpetrated.\nThe right of the slave owner to the person of the slave carried with it\nthe authority to separate man and wife at the dictate of self-interest,\nand that was often done, though it ought to be said that thousands of\nkind-hearted men and women did their utmost to mitigate the wrongs\nwhich such legislation legalized. In the sale of the negroes regard was\noften had for the marriage relation, and it was arranged so that the\nman and wife might not be torn asunder. But it was not always this way.\nToo often the sanctity of marriage and the laws of God concerning it\nwere sacrificed to the greed of the slaveholder.\n\nIf the tradition of Mr. Jasper\u2019s first marriage is to be accepted as\nhistory, then he was the victim of the cruel laws under which the\ninstitution of slavery was governed. In the changes which came to\nhim in the breaking up of the family to which he belonged his lot was\ncast for a while in the city of Williamsburg. The story is that he\nbecame enamoured of a maiden bearing the name of Elvy Weaden, and he\nwas successful in his suit. It chanced, however, that on the very day\nset for his marriage, he was required to go to Richmond to live. The\nmarriage was duly solemnized and he was compelled to leave his bride\nabruptly, but was buoyed with the hope that fairer days would come\nwhen their lot would be cast together. The fleeting days quenched the\nhope and chilled the ardour of the bride, and in course of time the\nimpatient woman notified Jasper that unless he would come to see her\nand they could live together, she would account herself free to seek\nanother husband. He was not a man to brook mistreatment, and he made\nshort work of the matter. He wrote her that he saw no hope of returning\nto Williamsburg, and that she must go ahead and work out her own fate.\nNaturally enough, the difficulties under which the married life had to\nbe maintained served to weaken seriously the marital tie and to imperil\nthe virtue of the slaves. But this remark ought not to be made without\nrecalling the fact that there were thousands and tens of thousands of\nhappy and well-governed families among the slaves of the South.\n\nJasper felt seriously the blight of this untimely marriage and he\nseems to have remained unmarried until after he united with the church\nand became a preacher. In time, his thoughts turned again to marriage.\nHe was then a member of the First African Baptist Church of Richmond.\nHe took the letter which his wife had written him some time before\nand presented it to the church and asked what was his duty under the\ncircumstances. It was a complex and vexing question, but his brethren,\nafter soberly weighing the matter, passed a resolution expressing the\nconviction that it would be entirely proper for him to marry again.\nAccordingly, about five years after his conversion, he married a woman\nbearing the unusual name of Candus Jordan. According to all reports,\nthis marriage was far more fruitful in children than in the matter of\nconnubial peace and bliss for the high-strung and ambitious Jasper. It\nseems that the case must have had some revolting features, as in due\ntime Jasper secured a divorce and was fully justified by his brethren\nand friends in taking this action. Evidently this separation from\nhis wife, which was purely voluntary, in no way weakened him in the\nconfidence and good-will of the people.\n\nYears after his divorce, Jasper married Mrs. Mary Anne Cole. There were\nno children by this marriage, but his wife had a daughter by her former\nmarriage who took the name of Jasper, and was adopted in fact and in\nheart as the daughter of this now eminent and beloved minister. This\nwife died in 1874, and Jasper married once more. His widow survived him\nand still lives, a worthy and honoured woman whose highest earthly joy\nis the recollection of having been the wife of Elder John Jasper, and\nalso the solace and cheer of his old age. This is a checkered story of\na matrimonial career, but justice loudly demands the statement that\nthrough it all John Jasper walked the lofty path of virtue and honour.\nIt was impossible, however, for a man like Jasper to escape the arrows\nof the archer. Jealousy, envy, and slander were often busy with his\nname, and if foul charges could have befouled him none could have\nbeen fouler than he. But his daily life was a clean and unanswerable\nstory. Reproaches would not stick to him, and the deadliest darts fell\nharmless at his feet. His noble seriousness, his absorption in the\nstudy of the Bible, his enthusiasm in the ministry, and, most of all,\nhis quiet walk with God, saved him from the grosser temptations of life.\n\nPerhaps the finest incident in all the story of his life was the\nperfect faith of the people in Jasper. This was true everywhere\nthat he was known, but it was most powerfully true among those who\nstood nearest to him and knew him best. Jasper, to them, was the\nincarnation of goodness. They felt his goodness, revelled in it, and\nlived on it. Their best earthly inspirations sprang out of the fair\nand incorruptible character of their pastor. If his enemies sought\nto undermine and defame him, they rallied around him and fought his\nbattles. Little cared he for the ill things said about him personally.\nConscious of his rectitude, and, embosomed in the love of his great\nchurch, he walked serenely and triumphantly in the way of the Lord. He\nbelieved in the sanctity of his home, and he hallowed it by the purity,\nhonesty, and charity of his brethren.\n\nAnxious to get some living testimony in regard to the personal\ncharacter of Jasper, I determined to get in contact with a few\npersons who stood very close to him, and that, for many years. In\nwhat follows is found the testimony of a truly excellent woman, to\nwhom I was directed, with the assurance that what she said might be\ntaken as thoroughly trustworthy. She gave her name as Virginia Adams,\nand, judging from her appearance and manner, one would probably write\nher down as not far from threescore and ten. She was for many years\na member of his church. The following story from her lips is not\nconnected, but it is simply the unmethodical testimony of a sensible\nwoman, bearing about it the marks of sincerity, intelligence, and\nreverential affection.\n\n\u201cBrer\u2019 Jasper was as straightfor\u2019d a man es you cud see, and yer cud\nrely \u2019pon ev\u2019ry word he told yer. He made it so plain dat watuver he\ntol\u2019 yer in his sermon yer cud read it right thar in yer heart, jes\u2019\nlike he had planted and stamped it in yer. I can\u2019t read myse\u2019f, but I\nkno\u2019 well when anybody mek any mistake \u2019bout de passages which Brer\nJasper used to preach \u2019bout. I\u2019ve got \u2019em jes\u2019 de same es if I had \u2019em\nprinted on my mem\u2019ry. His mi\u2019ty sermon on Elijer is in me jes\u2019 es he\npreached it. I kin see Elijer es Elisha is runnin\u2019 arter him,--kin see\nde cheryot es it kum down, see Brer Jasper es he wuz pintin\u2019 ter de\ncheryot es it riz in its grand flight up de skies,--see Elijer es he\nflung his mantul out es he went up, and I tell yer when Brer Jasper\nbegan ter sing \u2019bout goin\u2019 up ter heaven in a cheryot uv fire I cud see\neverything jes\u2019 es bright es day, and de people riz such a shout dat I\nthought all de wurl\u2019 wuz shoutin\u2019. Yes, Brer Jasper wuz de kindes\u2019 man\nI reckon on de urth. Yer cudn\u2019t finish tellin\u2019 him \u2019bout folks dat wuz\nin trouble and want, befo\u2019 he\u2019d be gittin\u2019 out his money. He didn\u2019t\nlook lik he keer much \u2019bout money,--he warn\u2019t no money-seeker, and yit\nhe look lik he allus hev money, and he wuz allus de fust ter give. Jes\u2019\ntell him wat wuz needed, and he begun fer to scratch in his pocket.\n\n\u201cBrer Jasper kep\u2019 things lively. People wuz talkin\u2019 all de time \u2019bout\nhis sermons, and yer cud hear their argiments while yer wuz gwine \u2019long\nde streets. Often his members an\u2019 udder folks too wud git tangled up\n\u2019bout his doctrines and dey wud git up texs an\u2019 subjiks an\u2019 git him\nter preach \u2019bout \u2019em. Ef any uv his brutherin had trubbul wid passiges\nuv de scripshur and went ter him \u2019bout \u2019em, you\u2019d sure hear frum him\nnex Sunday. He luv ter splain things fer his brutherin.\n\n\u201cIt wuz Bruther Woodson, de sexton uv de church, and anudder man dat\ngot Brer Jasper in ter dat gret \u2019citemint \u2019bout de sun. Dey got inter\na spute es to wheddur de sun went \u2019roun\u2019 de wurl\u2019 ur not, and dey took\nit ter our pastor, and really I thought I nevur wud hear de end of dat\nthing. Folks got arter Brer Jasper in de papurs and everywhar; but I\ntell yer dey nevur skeered him. He wuz es brave es a lion, an\u2019 I don\u2019\nkno\u2019 how often he preached dat sermon. It look lik all de people in de\nwurl\u2019 want to kum.\n\n\u201cNo, Brer Jasper wuz no money-grabbur. When de church wuz weak and\ncudn\u2019t raze much money, he nevur sot no salary. Yer cudn\u2019t git him ter\ndo it. He tell \u2019em not ter trubble \u2019emselves, but jes\u2019 giv him wat\ndey chuze ter put in de baskit and he nevur made no kumplaint. Wen de\nchurch got richer dey crowd \u2019im hard ter kno\u2019 how much he wantid, and\nhe at las\u2019 tell \u2019em dat he wud take $62.50 a month, and dat he didn\u2019t\nwant no more dan dat. Wen de gret crowds got ter kummin\u2019 and de white\nfolks too, and de money po\u2019ed in so fas\u2019 de brutherin farly quarl\u2019d wid\nhim ter git his sal\u2019ry raz\u2019d, but he say No! I git nuff now, and I\nwant no more. I\u2019m not here to gouge my people out of es much money es I\nkin. He say he got nuff money to pay his taxes and buy wat he needed,\nand if dey got more dan dey wantid let \u2019em take it and help de Lord\u2019s\npore. Sometimes we used ter \u2019poun\u2019\u2019 de ole man, kerryin\u2019 \u2019im all kinds\nuv good things ter eat. He didn\u2019t lik it at all, but tuk de things and\nsont \u2019em \u2019roun\u2019 ter de pore people.\n\n\u201cBrer Jasper wuz nun uv yer parshul preachers. His church wuz his\nfamily, and he had no favrites. He did not bow down ter de high nor\nhol\u2019 \u2019imsef \u2019bove de low. Enny uv his people cud kum ter him \u2019bout all\ndere struggles and sorrers. He hated erroneyus doctrines. His faith in\nde Bibul wuz powerful, and he luved it \u2019bove everything. He had awful\ndreds \u2019bout wat mite kum ter de church wen he wuz gone. He sometimes\nsaid in a mity solem way, \u2018Wen I am daid and gone, yer will look out\nter whar my ashes lay and wish I wuz back here ter \u2019part ter yer de\npure wurd uv Gord agin. I got a fear dat dose dat kum arter me will try\nter pull down wat I built up. I pray Gord, my children will stand by de\nship uv Zion wen I\u2019s gone.\u2019\n\n\u201cBrer Jasper got troubles \u2019bout de way young childun wuz got inter\nde church. He say \u2018all yer got ter do is to pitty-pat em (making the\nmotion in the pulpit with his hands) on dere haids and dey are in de\nkingdom. Sum uv yer duz the convertin\u2019 of dese little uns instid er\nleavin\u2019 it ter God ter do de work.\u2019 He believed in regenerashum of\nfolks. He preach\u2019d ter de very last on being born agin, and he didn\u2019t\nwant nobody ter kum inter his church wat ain\u2019t felt de power uv de\nsperrit in dere souls.\n\n\u201cBut Brer Jasper wuz a mity luver uv de childun. He had a great way\nof stoppin\u2019 and talkin\u2019 ter dem on de street. He wuz a beautiful\nstory-teller, and de childrun often flocked ter his house ter hear\n\u2019im tell nice stories and all kine uv good tales. He kept pennies in\nhis pockets and often dropped \u2019em along for de chilrun--he had great\nways,--til de chilrun ud think he wuz de greatest man dat ever put foot\non de yearth.\n\n\u201cBrer Jasper wuz sosherbul wid everybody, and nobody cud beat him as a\ntalker. He knew lots \u2019bout Richmond, and de ole times, and he had de\ngrandest stories and jokes dat he luved ter tell and dat de folks went\nwild ter hear. He wuz great on jokes and cracked \u2019em in sech a funny\nway dat folks most killed de \u2019sefs laughin\u2019. But yer mus\u2019 kno\u2019 dat he\nwuz mity keerful \u2019bout how he talked. Yer neer hear no bad words frum\nhis mouth. His stories he could tell ennywhar, and wuz jes\u2019 as nice ter\nde ladies as ter der men. He didn\u2019t b\u2019leve in no Sercities. Dey tried\nter git \u2019im in de Masons, and I don\u2019t kno\u2019 wat all, but he ain\u2019t tech\nnone uv\u2019em. He sez dar ain\u2019t but one Grand Past Master and dat is King\nJesus.\n\n\u201cDey orf\u2019n wanted \u2019im at de big public suppers war dey et an\u2019 drank\nan\u2019 made speeches, but he wouldn\u2019t go near; and den our high people\nhad der big suppers in dere houses and wanted de \u2019onur uv entertainin\u2019\nBrer Jasper, but he didn\u2019t hanker arter dose kind uv things. He wanted\nhis meals simple and reglur and uv de plain sort, and as fer dese high\nferlootin\u2019 feasts dey didn\u2019t suit his taste.\n\n\u201cIt look lik Brer Jasper couldn\u2019t stop preachin\u2019. It wuz his food and\ndrink, an\u2019 enny time he\u2019d git way beyond his strength. I\u2019ve seen \u2019im\nwen it looked lik de las\u2019 bref hed gone out\u2019en his body, and sometimes\nsome uv de brutherin say he did not look like a natchul man. He seemed\nmore in hevun dan on urth. I most reckun some uv de brutherin thought\nhe wuz gone up in ter heavun like Lijer. Dey go in de pulpit and tek\nhol\u2019 uv \u2019im and say Brer Jasper yer dun preached nuff. Don\u2019t wear\nyerself down. Tek yer seat and res\u2019 yersef. He knew dey did it fer luv,\nand he took it kind, but he didn\u2019t always stop at once.\n\n\u201cBrer Jasper had a walk mity remarkbul. Wen he went in de streets he\nwuz so stately and grave lik dat he walk diffrunt from all de people.\nFolks wud run out uv all de stores, or out on der porches, or turn back\nter look wen Jasper kum \u2019long. Oh, it made us proud ter look at him.\nNo other preacher could walk like him. Yer felt de ground got holy war\nhe went \u2019long. Sum uv \u2019em say it wuz ekul ter a revival ter see John\nJasper moving lik a king \u2019long de street. Often he seemed ter be wrappd\nup in his thoughts and hardly to know whar he wuz. De people feared \u2019im\nso much,--wid sech a luvin\u2019 kind uv fear, dat dey hardly dared to speak\nter him.\n\n\u201cBrer Jasper wuz mity fond uv walkin\u2019 in de pulpit. It wuz a great\nlarge place, and he frisked round most lik he wuz a boy. Wen he filled\nup wid de rousement of the Gospel on him, it was just glor\u2019us to see\nhim as he whirled about the stand; the faces of his folks shone wid de\nbrightness of de sun, and they ofen made the house ring with laughter\nand with their shouts.\n\n\u201cOne thing he did dat always made his congregasons rock wid joy, an\u2019\ndat wuz ter sing wile he wuz preachin\u2019. He wuz mos\u2019 ninety years old,\nbut he never lost his power ter sing, an\u2019 wen he struck er tune de\nnote uv it shot in de people lik arrurs from anguls quivur. Yer cudn\u2019t\nhol\u2019 still wen Jasper sung. Soon as he started, de people would \u2019gin\nto swing an\u2019 jine in tel de music filled de house. He cud sing a heap\nuv songs, but he had a few great songs. Yer orter to hear him sing by\nhiself his favrite piece.\u201d Here it is:\n\n\n       EV\u2019BUDY GOT TER RISE TER MEET KING JESUS IN DE MORNIN\u2019\n\n     \u201c\u2018Ev\u2019budy got ter rise ter meet King Jesus in de mornin\u2019;\n     De high and de lo\u2019;\n     De rich and de po\u2019,\n     De bond and de free,\n     As well as me.\n\n     \u201c\u2018Yer got ter rise ter meet King Jesus in de mornin\u2019,\n     Weddur yer iz purparred er no,\n     Ter Gord\u2019s trirbewnul\n     Yer got ter go,\n     Yer got ter rise ter meet King Jesus in de mornin\u2019.\n\n     \u201c\u2018De lurnid and de unlurnid,\n     Barbareun, Jentile and de Jew,\n     Hev yer red hit in Hiz wurd,\n     Dat de peepul wuz drondid in de flud,\n     Ev\u2019budy got ter rise ter meet King Jesus in de mornin\u2019.\u2019\n\n\n\u201cDar wuz a song dat Jasper made hisself. Some called it a ballard, and\nudders said it wuz a poem; but wat evur twuz, it wuz glory ter hear him\nsing it. It went dis way:--\n\n\n     \u201c\u2018I beheld and lo\n     A grate multertude dat no man kin number,\n     Thousuns and thousuns, an\u2019 ten thousun times ten thousun,\n     Standin\u2019 befo\u2019 de Lam\u2019,\n     And dey had pams in dere hans.\n\n     \u201c\u2018Dey nevur restid day nur night,\n     Cryin\u2019 Holy, Holy, Holy, iz de Lord, Gord uv Sabbuth\n     Dat wuz, an\u2019 iz, and iz ter kum,\n     I saw a mi\u2019ty ainjel flyin\u2019 through de midst uv heaven,\n     Cryin\u2019 wid a loud voice,\n     Sayin\u2019 Woe! Woe! Woe! be unto de earth by reazun uv de trumpit,\n     Dat which is yet ter soun\u2019.\n     And when de las\u2019 trumpit shall soun\u2019,\n     See de great men and noble,\n     De rich, and de po\u2019, de bond and de free,\n     Gueddur \u2019emselves terguedder, cryin\u2019 ter de rocks, an\u2019 ter de mountins,\n     Ter fall \u2019pon \u2019em an\u2019 hide \u2019em,\n     From de face uv Him dat sitteth on de throne,\n     De great day uv His rath hav kum an\u2019 who shall be able ter stan\u2019?\u2019\n\n\n\u201cAnd den, too, he had his shoutin\u2019 song. He never sung it \u2019cept wen\nde heavenly fires wuz burnin\u2019 all over his soul. He kept tune wid his\nwalkin\u2019 and wid de clappin\u2019 uv his hands. Dis song never got in \u2019cept\nat de close uv sermons dat had heaven in \u2019em, and somehow he jumped\nfrom de sermon all at once in ter de song an\u2019 it would hev fairly kilt\nyer wid joy ter hear it. Here is de way he put it:--\n\n\n     \u201c\u2018My soul will mount higher in a chariot of fire,\n     And de wurl\u2019 is put under my feet.\u2019\n\n\n\u201cDis wuz the start uv it, but dere wuz heaps more.\n\n\u201cIt wuz an awful time ter us wen we begun ter see dat our ole pastor\nwuz near ter de end uv his race. We had been a-dreddin\u2019 it by degrees\nand it broke on us more and more. I think de dere man tried ter git us\nreddy fer it. He kep sayin\u2019 to us: \u2018My chilrun, my work on de earth\nis dun. I doan ask death no more odds dan a horse-fly.\u2019 But den he\u2019d\npreach so powerful dat we\u2019d hope dat he\u2019d hol\u2019 out a good deal longer.\nHe said ter me one day: \u2018Compartivly speakin\u2019, my time in dis wurl\u2019 is\nskin deep,\u2019 and I look at my hand and think how thin de skin is, and I\nfeel dat sho\u2019 nuff he mus\u2019 soon be goin\u2019.\n\n\u201cOne night at de church he turned hissef loos. He said dat as fer\n\u2019imself it mattered nuthin\u2019. He had paid all his debts, dat he did not\nkeer whar or when he dropped; but he wanted everybody ter know dat he\nwud be wid Jesus. Dat wuz one uv de things dat he luved ter say. Den he\ntold de church dat dar wuz nuthin\u2019 lef\u2019 uv him,--dat he wanted \u2019em to\ngit tergedder and pay off der church debt and live tergedder lik little\nchil\u2019run. He wuz mity gret dat night, an\u2019 it looked lik de powers uv de\nwurl\u2019 ter kum wuz dar.\n\n\u201cDe people went out silent lik an\u2019 dey said dat de gud ole pastor\npreached his own funeral dat night. He allus thought uv hissef es de\nservant uv King Jesus. Dat wuz a slavery dat he liked and nevur wished\nto git free from it. Towards de las\u2019 he wuz all de time sayin\u2019: \u2018I am\nnow at de river\u2019s brink and waitin\u2019 fer furder orders. It\u2019s de same ter\nme ter go or stay, jes\u2019 es Gord commands.\u2019\n\n\u201cSome folks said dat he wuz conceited. Dey did not know him. He wuz too\nfull uv de fear uv Gord to think he wuz sum great body, an\u2019 he know\u2019d\nhis own sins an\u2019 troubles too well ter boast. He must hev known dat\nGord made him more uv a man dan de gen\u2019ral run. He had ter kno\u2019 dat,\n\u2019caus\u2019 it wuz proved ter him every day, an\u2019 in a heap uv ways. Besides\ndat, he hilt hisself up high. He had good respec\u2019 for hisself and felt\ndat a man lik he wuz had got ter behave hisself \u2019cordin\u2019 ter wat he\nwuz. But dat wuz very different from bein\u2019 one uv dese giddy little\nfops dat is always trancin\u2019 aroun\u2019 showin\u2019 hisself off, and braggin\u2019\n\u2019bout everything. I often wondered how Jasper could be so umble lik,\nwen so many cacklin\u2019 fools wuz bodderin\u2019 \u2019im.\n\n\u201cBrer Jasper could git up big things wen he tried. Wen dey got in a\ntight place \u2019bout de church an\u2019 had to have money, he got up a skurshun\nter Washington. He sent out de members ter sell tickets, an\u2019 dey sold\nso many dat dey had ter have two trains ter carry \u2019em, and jes\u2019 think,\nsir, he cleared $1,500 fer his church by dat skurshun, and he got up\nanudder to Staunton dat wuz mos\u2019 as good as de udder one. Ah, he wuz a\nleader, I tell you he wuz. We never could have had our fine church if\nit had not bin fer him.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s mity easy fer folks ter forget things. Some folks are teerin\u2019\n\u2019roun\u2019 as if the church b\u2019longed ter \u2019em now, and dey are ready ter\ntell you dat Jasper made mistakes and all dat, but sum uv us knows well\ndat Jasper built dat church. You need nevur spect ter hear any more\nsech preachin\u2019 in dat pulpit as dat grand ole man uv God used ter give\nus.\n\n\u201cYou know Brer Jasper got convicted uv his sins fer de first time on\nde 4th of July in Capitol Squar\u2019, Richmond. He use ter tell us \u2019bout\nit many a time. While de folks wuz swarmin\u2019 \u2019roun\u2019 and laffin\u2019 and\nhurrahin\u2019, an arrer uv convicshun went in ter his proud heart an\u2019\nbrought \u2019im low. He never forgot dat place, and when he got ter be an\nole man he wuz kinder drawn ter Capitol Squar. He luv ter go down dar.\nHe like de cool shade uv de trees and \u2019joyed de res\u2019, dozin\u2019 sometimes\nwen he wuz tired. De people, and speshully de chilrun, used ter git\n\u2019roun\u2019 him an\u2019 ask him questions an\u2019 make him talk. He lik things lik\ndat. Some uv de Jews used ter kum ter hear Brer Jasper preach. They\ncalled him Father Abraham and showed gret gud feelin\u2019 fur \u2019im. Some uv\n\u2019em used ter meet him in de Cap\u2019tol Squar\u2019 an\u2019 dey would have great ole\ntalks tergudder, an\u2019 he didn\u2019t mind tellin\u2019 \u2019em de truth an\u2019 he told\n\u2019em dat dey wuz de chilrun uv Abraham, but dat dey had gone all to\npieces.\n\n\u201cDey tell me he never went ter skule \u2019cep\u2019 six months, an\u2019 I hear dat\nhe jes\u2019 studied wid a man dat taught him in a New York Speller book;\nbut when he spoke at de Y. M. C. A. and many uv de white gemmen went\nter hear \u2019im, they say he certainly used ellergunt language. I know he\ncould handle great words when he wanted to, an\u2019 he could talk in de old\nway, an\u2019 he often loved to do dat.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nJASPER\u2019S SERMON ON \u201cDEM SEBUN WIMMIN\u201d\n\n\n\u201cDid yer ebur git yer mine on wat Iz\u2019er say in chapter fo\u2019 an\u2019 vurs\nwun? Listen ter hiz wurds: \u2018An\u2019 sebun wimmin shall tek hol\u2019 uv wun man\nin dat day, sayin\u2019 we will eat our own bread an\u2019 wear our own \u2019parrel;\nonly let us be called by Thy name; tek Thou erway our reproach.\u2019 De\nProfit iz furloserfizin\u2019 \u2019bout de mattur uv wimmin,--speshully wen dar\nis sebun in de lan\u2019, wen wars dun thin out de men and de wimmins feels\nde stings an\u2019 bites uv reproach. I tell yer, yer bettur not fling yer\ngibes an\u2019 sneers at er \u2019omun. She wuzn\u2019t made ter stan\u2019 it, an\u2019 wats\nmo\u2019, she ain\u2019t gwine ter stan\u2019 it. Shure ez yer iz settin\u2019 on dat bench\nshe will fly erway an\u2019 hide hersef, or she will fly at yer, an\u2019 den,\nole fellur, yer had bettur be pullin\u2019 out fer de tall timbur fast. Gord\ndun settled it dat wun \u2019omun iz nuff fer a man, an\u2019 two iz er war on\nyer hans,--bles yer, it is.\n\n\u201cBut dar kums times wen it goze hard wid wimmin. Dey iz lef out uv de\nlottry uv heavun,--dey draws blanks an\u2019 dey gits ter be a laughin\u2019\nstock uv de ungodly. Not dat dey iz crazy ter marry an\u2019 not dat dey iz\nuv dat flautin\u2019, slatturn lot dat\u2019s allus gallantin\u2019 eroun\u2019 ertryin\u2019\nter git a man ter \u2019sport um. Dese wuz squar, alrite wimmin. Wurk wud\nnot skeer um. Dey wuz willin\u2019 ter mek dere bread an\u2019 cloes, ter pay\ndere own way, purvidid dey cud be Mrs. Sumbody, an\u2019 in dat way \u2019skape\nde dev\u2019lish jeers an\u2019 slites uv base men. Fur my part, I feels quite\nsorry fur dat class uv ladiz, an\u2019 I kinder feels my blud gittin\u2019 up wen\nI finds folks castin\u2019 reproachiz on dere fair names.\n\n\u201cBut my mastur in de skies! Dis pikshur here uv de Profit iz too much\nfer me. It mek me feel lik tekin\u2019 ter de woods, in quick ordur. Lord,\nwat wud I do ef I wuz pursued by er army uv seben wimmin axin me ter\n\u2019low each wun uv um ter be call\u2019d Mrs. Jasper? It may be dat each wun\nwuz fer hersef ter de limit, an\u2019 hoped ter shet out de udder six an\u2019\nhev de man ter hersef;--an\u2019 ef she wuz ter hev \u2019im ertall she ort ter\nhav all uv im. Dar iz not nuff ter d\u2019vide; I tel yer, dar ain\u2019t, an\u2019\nwen yer git er haf intrest in er man yer iz po\u2019 indeed, an\u2019 ef only wun\nsevunth iz yourn, yer had es wel start on ter de po\u2019house \u2019fo yer git\nyer dinner.\n\n\u201cA gud \u2019omun can\u2019t byar ter be oberluked. It ain\u2019t her nature, an\u2019 it\niz a site fer de anguls ter see wat sort uv men sum wimmin wil tek\nsooner dan be lef\u2019 out inti\u2019ly.\n\n\u201cBut wat gits me arter all iz a man. I see \u2019im in de quiet uv de\nday,--de Sabbuth day. He teks a strole fer de koolin\u2019 uv hiz mine,\nerwearin\u2019 uv hiz nice cloes, an\u2019 feelin\u2019 lik a new man in de City\nKounsil; de fust thing he know\u2019d a lady glide up ter \u2019im an\u2019 put her\nhan\u2019 lite on hiz arm. He jump \u2019roun\u2019 an\u2019 she say, mity flush\u2019d up,\n\u2018\u2019skuse me!\u2019\n\n\u201cHe see at wunst she er lady, but he wuz kinder lo\u2019 in hiz sperrit, an\u2019\nyit he wish in hiz hart dat she had gon ter de udder en uv de rode, but\nhe want ter hear her out.\n\n\u201cShe tel \u2019im de site uv a man wuz medsin fer bad eyes, dat nurly all uv\n\u2019em wuz cut down in de war an\u2019 dat in konsquens it wuz er lonesum time\nfer wimmin; dey hev nobody now ringin\u2019 de do\u2019 bells in de eebnin; no\nboys sendin\u2019 \u2019em flowers an\u2019 \u2019fekshuns; no sweetarts tekin\u2019 \u2019em walkin\u2019\non Sunday arternoons, an\u2019 weddins gwine out er fashun. An\u2019 dis ain\u2019t de\nwust uv it. It mek us shamed. De wives,--dey purrades roun\u2019 an\u2019 brags\n\u2019bout dere \u2019ole mans\u2019 an\u2019 cuts der eye at us skornful; an\u2019 de husban\u2019s\niz mity nigh es bad, erpokin\u2019 fun at us an\u2019 axin erbout de chillun.\n\n\u201cShe say yer needn\u2019 think we\u2019re crazy ter marry; tain\u2019t dat, an\u2019 tain\u2019t\ndat we want yer ter \u2019sport us,--no, no! We hev money an\u2019 kin funnish\nour own vittuls an\u2019 cloes, an\u2019 we kin wuk; but it iz dat reproach dey\nkas\u2019 on us, de wear an\u2019 tear uv bein\u2019 laff\u2019d at dat cuts us so deep.\nEf I cud be Mrs. Sumbody,--had sum proof dat I had de name uv sum\nun,--sumthin\u2019 ter rub off de reproach. Dat\u2019s it,--dis ding-dongin\u2019 uv\nde fokes at me.\n\n\u201cDe man wuz pale es linnin, an\u2019 wuz hopin\u2019 ter ansur, but fo\u2019 de wud\nfloo frum his lips ernudder \u2019omun hooked \u2019im on de ter side. Mursy uv\nde Lord! two uv \u2019em had \u2019im an\u2019 it luk lik dey wuz gwine ter rip \u2019im\nin tew an\u2019 each tek a haf. De las\u2019 wun tel her tale jes\u2019 lik de fust\nwun an\u2019 wuss. She brung in tears es part uv her argurmint, an\u2019 de ter\nwun got fretted an\u2019 used wuds dat wud hev konkurred \u2019im ef jes\u2019 den two\nmo\u2019,--two mo\u2019, mine yer, mekin\u2019 fo\u2019 in all, hed not kum up an\u2019 gits er\ngrip on de gemmun, an\u2019 hiz eyes luk lik dey\u2019d pop out his hed;--wun on\neach side an\u2019 two ter hiz face, an\u2019 it seems he gwine ter faint.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yer ladiz,\u2019 he says, \u2018may be rite in yer \u2019thuzasm, but yer iz too\nmenny. Up ter dis time I hev bin shy uv wun, but ef I cud be erlowed\nter choose jes\u2019 wun I mite try it.\u2019\n\n\u201cDen de fo\u2019 wimmins begun ter git shaky wen a nur wun sailed in,--dat\u2019s\nfive, den ernudder; dat\u2019s six, and den wun mo\u2019--SEBUN!\n\n\u201cLuk, will yer! Sevun got wun man. It izn\u2019t sed wedder de wimmin wuz\nfer a partnurship wid de man es de kapertul, or wedder each uv \u2019em\nhoped ter beat out de udder six; but wun thing we know an\u2019 dat iz dat\nde po\u2019 man iz in de low grounds uv sorrur. Ter my min\u2019, de pikshur iz\nmity seerus, ebun do it mek us smile. Fur my po\u2019 part, I iz glad we\nlives in fairer times. In our day mens iz awful plen\u2019ful wid us, tho\u2019\nI kin not say dat de qualty iz fust class in ve\u2019y menny. But I thanks\nde Lord dat mos\u2019 enny nice leddy kin git merrid in dese times ef dey\nchoose, an\u2019 dat wid out gwine out sparkin\u2019 fur de man. I notis dat ef\nshe stay ter home, ten her buznis, min\u2019 her mudder, an\u2019 not sweep de\nstreets too off\u2019n wid her skirts, in de long run her modes\u2019 sperrit\nwill win de day. I ubsurv ernudder thing; de unmerrid lady, de ole\nmaid es sum calls her,--need not hang her haid. Jes\u2019 let her be quiet\nan\u2019 surv de Lord; jes\u2019 not fret \u2019bout wat fools says,--dey duz er heep\nuv talkin\u2019, but it iz lik de cracklin\u2019 uv de burnin\u2019 sticks under de\npot, a big fuss an\u2019 a littul heat. Fer my part, I honners de \u2019oman dat\nb\u2019haves hersef, briduls her tongue, duz her wuk, an\u2019 sings es she goes\nerlong. Her contentid sperrit beats a lazy husbun\u2019 ebry time, an\u2019 mity\noff\u2019n it brings er gud husbun\u2019 erlong.\n\n\u201cEs fer dese fokes dat flurts an\u2019 skouts at ole maids dey ain\u2019 fitten\nter live, an\u2019 ort ter be in de bottum uv Jeems Rivur, \u2019cept\u2019n\u2019 dey\u2019d\nspile de watur. No gemmun nur no lady wud do it.\n\n\u201cNow dis iz my wud \u2019bout de wimmin, an\u2019 I hope yer lik it, but if yer\ndoant, jes\u2019 \u2019member dat Jasper sed it, an\u2019 will stan\u2019 by it, til de\ncows in de lo\u2019er feil\u2019 kums home.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nJASPER GLIMPSED UNDER VARIOUS LIGHTS\n\n\nJasper\u2019s mother was near the century line when she died, and he\nattained unto the extraordinary age of eighty-nine. Truly there must\nhave been rare endurance in the texture of the stock. Jasper\u2019s thoughts\ndid not turn to religion until he was twenty-seven and yet by reason\nof his longevity he was a preacher for sixty years. During twenty-five\nyears of that time he was a slave, and he had about thirty-five years\nof personal civil freedom, during which he won the distinctions that\nwill make him a figure slow to pass out of history.\n\nJasper can have no successor. Freedom did not change him. It came too\nlate for him to be seriously affected by its transforming hand. It\nnever dazzled him by its festive charms nor crooked him with prejudice\nagainst the white people. There was far more for him in the traditions,\nsentiments, and habits of his bondage-days than in the new things\nwhich emancipation offered. He never took up with gaudy displays which\nmarked his race in the morning of their freedom. This was especially\ntrue as to his ministry. He clung without apology to the old ways. In\npreaching, he spurned the new pulpit manners, the new style of dress,\nand all new-fangled tricks, which so fascinated his race. He intoned\nhis sermons,--at least, in their more tender passages--sang the old\nrevival songs of the plantations and factories, and felt it a part of\nhis religion to smash, with giant hand, the innovations which the new\norder was bringing in. Of all the men whom I have known this weird,\nindescribable man cared the least for opposition;--unless he believed\nit touched his personal honour or was likely to injure the cause of\nreligion. Indeed, he liked it. He was a born fighter and a stranger to\nfear. There was a charm in his resentments: they were of a high order,\nand inevitably commanded manly sympathy. He instinctively identified\nhimself with the Lord and felt that when he fought he was fighting\nthe Lord\u2019s battles. Satire and sarcasm were like Toledo blades in his\nhands. He often softened his attacks upon his enemies by such ludicrous\nhits and provoking jests that you felt that, after all, his hostility\nlacked the roots of hatred. He was far more prone to despise than to\nhate his enemies.\n\nThere is a curious fact in connection with Jasper\u2019s language. Evidently\nin his early days his speech was atrociously ungrammatical. His\ndialect, while possessing an element of fascination, was almost\nunspellable. During his long ministerial life his reading and contact\nwith educated people rooted out many of his linguistic excrescences.\nThere were times when he spoke with approximate accuracy, and even with\nelegance; and yet he delighted, if indeed he was conscious of it, in\nreturning to his dialect and in pouring it forth unblushingly in its\nworst shape, and yet always with telling effect. But the wonder of his\nspeaking was his practical independence of language. When he became\nthoroughly impassioned and his face lit with the orator\u2019s glory, he\nseemed to mount above the bondage of words: his feet, his eyes, indeed\nevery feature of his outer being became to him a new language. If he\nused words, you did not notice it You were simply entranced and borne\nalong on the mountain-tide of his passion. You saw nothing but him. You\nheard _him_; you felt him, and the glow of his soul was language enough\nto bring to you his message. It ought to be added that no man ever used\nthe pause more eloquently or effectively than Jasper, and his smile was\nlogic; it was rhetoric; it was blissful conviction.\n\nThose who thought that Jasper was a mere raver did not know. Logic was\nhis tower of strength. He never heard of a syllogism, but he had a way\nof marshalling his facts and texts which set forth his view as clear\nas the beaming sun. The Bible was to him the source of all authority,\nwhile his belief in the justice and truth of God was something\nunworldly. He understood well enough his frailties, his fallibility,\nand the tendency of the human soul towards unfairness and deceit. I\nheard him say once with irresistible effect: \u201cBrutherin, Gord never\nlies; He can\u2019t lie. Men lie. I lie sometimes, I am very sorry to say\nit. I oughtn\u2019t to lie, and it hurts me when I do. I am tryin\u2019 ter git\nober it, and I think I will by Gord\u2019s grace, but de Lord nevur lies.\u201d\nHis tone in saying this was so humble and candid that I am sure the\npeople loved him and believed in him more for what he said. A hypocrite\ncould never have said it. Jasper could never be put into words. As he\ncould speak without words so it is true that words could never contain\nhim,--never tell his matchless story, never make those who did not hear\nhim and see him fully understand the man that he was.\n\nA notable and pathetic episode in Jasper\u2019s history was the fact\nthat during the bitter days of the Confederacy when Richmond was\ncrowded with hospitals,--hospitals themselves crowded with the\nsuffering,--Jasper used to go in and preach to them. It was no idle\nentertainment provided by a grotesque player. He always had a message\nfor the sorrowful. There is no extended record of his labours in the\nhospitals, but the simple fact is that he, a negro labourer with\nrude speech, was welcomed by these sufferers and heard with undying\ninterest; no wonder they liked him. His songs were so mellow, so\ntender, so reminiscent of the southern plantation and of the homes\nfrom which these men came. His sermons had the ring of the old\ngospel preaching so common in the South. He had caught his manner of\npreaching from the white preachers and they too had been his only\ntheological teachers. We can easily understand how his genius, seasoned\nwith religious reverence, made him a winsome figure to the men who\nlanguished through the weary days on the cots. It cannot be said too\noften that Jasper was the white man\u2019s preacher. Wherever he went, the\nAnglo-Saxon waived all racial prejudices and drank the truth in as it\npoured in crystal streams from his lips.\n\nQuite a pretty story is told of Jasper at the beginnings of his\nministry. It seems that he went down into the eastern part of his town\none Sunday to preach and some boisterous ruffians interfered, declaring\nthat a negro had no right to go into the pulpit and that they would not\nallow Jasper to preach. A sailor who chanced to be present and knew\nJasper faced these disorderly men and declared to them that Jasper\nwas the smartest man in Virginia and that if he could take him to the\ncountry from whence he had come he would be treated with honour and\ndistinction. There was also a small white boy standing by, and touched\nby the sincerity and power of Jasper, he pluckily jumped into the scene\nand exclaimed, \u201cYes, let him go on; what he says is all right. I have\nread it all in the Bible, and why shouldn\u2019t he speak?\u201d The incipient\nmob was dispersed, and his audience was fringed with a multitude of\nwhite people who were attracted to the scene.\n\nIt is not intended by these things said, concerning Jasper\u2019s favour\nwith the white people, to indicate that Jasper, in the least degree,\nwas not with his own race. Far from that. He loved his own people and\nwas thoroughly identified with them; but he was larger than his race.\nHe loved all men. He had grown up with that pleasing pride that the\ncoloured people who lived in prominent families had about white people.\nThen, too, he had always been a man who had won favour wherever he\nwent, and the white race had always had a respect and affection for\nhim. Jasper was never ungrateful.\n\nThere were sometimes hard passages in the road which Jasper travelled.\nAt the end of the war he was left high and dry, like driftwood on\nthe shore. He had no church; no place to preach; no occupation. His\nrelations with the white race were shattered, and things were grim\nenough; but ill-fortune could not break him. A large part of Richmond\nwas in ashes, and in some places at least the work of rebuilding\ncommenced at once,--or rather a clearing off of the debris with a view\nto rebuilding. Jasper walked out and engaged himself to clean bricks.\nDuring the Egyptian bondage the Hebrews made bricks and thought they\nhad a hard lot; but Jasper spent the first days of his freedom in\nthe brick business,--a transient expedient for keeping soul and body\ntogether until he could get on his feet again. Little thought the eager\nmen who were trying to lay the foundations for their future fortunes\nthat in the tall serious negro who sat whacking hour after hour at the\nbricks was one of God\u2019s intellectual noblemen. Born in bondage, lowly\nin his liberty and yet great in the gifts with which God had endowed\nhim, it was Jasper\u2019s nature to be almost as cheerful when squatted on\na pile of bricks and tugging at their cleaning as if he had a seat in\na palace and was feeding on royal dainties. He carried the contented\nspirit, and that too while he aspired after the highest. He did not\nuselessly kick against the inevitable, but he always strove for the\nbest that was in his reach.\n\nOne of the most serious jars of Jasper\u2019s life was his conflict with\nsome of his brethren in connection with his notable and regrettable\nsermon on the motion of the sun. Intelligent people do not need to\nbe told that Jasper knew nothing of natural science, and that his\nventure into the field of astronomy was a blunder. It was a matter\nthat did not in the least involve his piety or his salvation, nor\neven his ministerial efficiency. His whole bearing in the matter was\nso evidently sincere, and his respect for the Bible, as he understood\nit, was so unmeasured that it set him off rather to an advantage than\nto a disadvantage. It is told in another place how he was drawn into\nthe preaching of that sermon which gave him an odd, and yet a genuine,\ncelebrity. It was no love for sensation and no attempt to show his\nlearning, but simply an attempt to vindicate the Bible as he understood\nit. When the sermon was first delivered it created a wide-spread\nsensation. Some of the coloured ministers of Richmond were shocked out\nof their equanimity, and they felt that something must be done. It was\na case of hysterics. In a fit of freakish courage some of them made an\nattack on Jasper. A letter was written to a Richmond paper and signed\nby several prominent negro Baptists, one of them being the pastor of a\nstrong church. In this letter Jasper\u2019s sermons were bitterly denounced,\nand they were spoken of as \u201ca base fabrication,\u201d out of time and place,\nand doing more harm than good. It was said further that those sermons\nhad drawn such crowds that it had resulted in the injury of a number of\npersons, and that a better way for the author of these sermons would\nbe for him to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.\n\nSome time after this the Ebenezer Baptist Church called a conference\nto consider the situation and to see if matters could not be adjusted.\nJasper was an ardent believer in the independence of the individual\nBaptist church, and he was summoned to appear before that conference.\nHe refused to go, saying that he did not recognize the authority of\nthe church to interfere with him. Thereupon they sent a committee to\nhim inviting him to come and make any statement that he wished to make\nconcerning the question at issue.\n\nHe went. The point in the published letter concerning Jasper that was\nmost offensive to him was the statement as to \u201cbase fabrication.\u201d That\nhit him between the joints of the harness. His soul was stirred with a\nfurious resentment, and when he got before that council and fell afoul\nof the three men who had charged him with \u201ca base fabrication\u201d it was\na day not to be forgotten. When he had got through it would be hard to\nsay how many baskets would have been required to hold the fragments.\nThe man who had really written the letter suddenly discovered that it\nhad no reference on the earth to Brother Jasper. It was intended to\nanswer something that had been said in a paper in New York. Attempts\nwere made to refresh his memory. Quite a respectable minister reminded\nthis letter writer that they had talked together concerning this\nletter, and that the attention of the writer was called to the \u201cbase\nfabrication\u201d part of it, but the memory of the brother could not be\nrevived. No stimulant could reach the case. Other folks might charge\nBrother Jasper with base fabrication, but not this man. It was a\nlamentable and discreditable conclusion. He was crippled in both feet\nand respected by none. This ended the matter. Jasper strode away from\nthe council with the marks of victory about him; and while bad feeling\ncould not die at once, yet the attacks on Jasper went entirely out of\nfashion. Let it be added that there were multitudes who shared the\nprejudice against this old warrior, but little cared he. On he went his\nfine way, growing in nobleness, and loving the God in whom he believed.\n\nJasper\u2019s pleasures were of the meditative sort. For a long time his\nchurch gave him an ample vacation in the summer. He retired to the\ncountry and courted its quiet. His only sport was fishing along the\nstreams, and that suited his task. If the fish didn\u2019t bite, his\nthoughts always did. Like the fish they ran in schools, but unlike the\nfish they ran in all weathers and in all seasons. But Jasper never\nachieved marked success in the art of recreation. Go where he might,\nhis fame was there to confront and to entangle him. Demands for him\nto preach always came in hot and thick, and there was hardly a Sunday\nwhen Jasper was in the country that he was not surrounded by a crowd\nand preaching with ever-glowing fervour and delight. Indeed, Jasper\nwas sought after to dedicate churches, deliver lectures and to preach\nspecial sermons in every part of Virginia, and often beyond it. It was\nsaid that he preached in almost every county and city in Virginia. He\nwas the one ever sought Virginia preacher, and in that respect he stood\nunmatched by any man of his race.\n\nAs a rule, Jasper did not preach very long sermons. His Sunday\nafternoon sermons very rarely exceeded fifty minutes in length, but\non extraordinary occasions he took no note of time. Jasper was not\na sermon-maker. He did not write them, and homiletics was a thing\nof which he had never heard. He was fond of pictorial preaching and\noften selected historical topics, such as \u201cJoseph and His Brethren\u201d or\n\u201cDaniel in the Lion\u2019s Den,\u201d or \u201cThe Raising of Lazarus.\u201d He had quite\na large stock of special sermons,--sermons which had grown by special\nuse, and which embodied the choicest creations of his mind. These\nhe preached over and over again and in his own pulpit, and without\napology to anybody. But after all the themes which interested him most\nprofoundly and on which he preached with unsurpassed ardour and rapture\nwere the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures. The last sermon he\never preached was on Regeneration; and on many phases of the Christian\nsystem he preached with consummate ability. He believed fully in the\ndoctrine of future punishment, and his description of the fate of the\nlost made the unbelieving quake with terror and consternation. His\npreaching was of that fervid, startling, and threatening sort, well\nsuited to awaken religious anxieties and to bring the people to a\npublic confession. He was his own evangelist,--did chiefly the work of\nbringing his congregation to repentance, and the growth of his church\nconsisted almost entirely of the fruit of his own ministry. His church\non the island began with nine members, and it was reported that there\nwere over 2,000 at the time of his death. He had uncommon caution about\nreceiving people into his church. He was not willing to take people\nto count, and he preached searchingly to those who were thinking of\napplying for membership.\n\nJust two little and yet important things call for a place in this\nchapter. Jasper was an inexorable debt-payer. The only debt that he\ncould tolerate was a church debt, and he could ill tolerate that. The\nunsettled account of his great new church building grappled him like\na nightmare. It was his burden in the day and his torturing dream at\nnight. Even during his dying days the church debt haunted and depressed\nhim, and loud among his parting exhortations was his insistent plea\nthat the church debt should be speedily paid.\n\nIn his early life Jasper contracted the use of tobacco,--as, indeed,\nalmost his entire race did, and he was also quite free with the use of\nalcoholic drinks,--though never, so far as is known, to the extent of\nintoxication. No question as to his sobriety has ever ridden the air.\nBut these habits lingered with him long after he entered the ministry,\nand even until he was winning enviable and far-spreading favour as a\npreacher. So far as known, these facts did not becloud his reputation\nnor interfere with his work. Of course, he never entered a barroom,\nand never drank convivially, but he kept liquor in his house, and took\nit as his choice dictated. But gradually it worked itself into his\nconscience that these things were not for the best, and without the\nleast ostentation or even publicity he absolutely abandoned the use\nboth of tobacco and alcoholic drinks. He made no parade about it, and\ntook on no fanatical airs. Just as he thought it was wrong to owe money\nwhich he could not pay and therefore hated a debt, so he felt that\nthese habits, useless at best, might really be harmful to him and to\nothers, and therefore he gave them up.\n\n[Illustration: MONUMENT OVER JOHN JASPER\u2019S GRAVE]\n\nHis moral and religious ideals were very lofty, and he lived up to\nthem to a degree not true of many. Not long after his death a really\nmagnificent monument was erected over his grave. It was quite costly,\nand the money for it was raised by his church people and other lovers\nof whom he had legions. While he lived, legislators, judges, governors,\nand many men of eminent distinction, went to hear him preach. Many of\nthe most distinguished white ministers of the country made it a point\nto go to his church on Sunday afternoon whenever they were in the city,\nand he was justly ranked as one of the attractions of Richmond.\n\nNow that he has found his grave not far from the site of his church,\nand this stately shaft has been placed as a sentinel over his dust,\nmultitudes as they come and go will visit the tomb of the most\noriginal, masterful, and powerful negro preacher of the old sort that\nthis country has ever produced.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nSERMON:--THE STONE CUT OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN\n\n(_Text, Daniel 2:45._)\n\n\nThis rugged specimen of historical eloquence constituted the sermon\ndelivered on Sunday afternoon, July 20, 1884. Jasper mounted the pulpit\nwith the dash of an athlete and tripped around the platform during the\npreliminaries with the air of a racer. A sense of strength imparted to\nhis face the triumphant glow. A smile parted his lips, and told the\nsecret of an animated and aggressive courage.\n\n\u201cI stan\u2019s befo\u2019 you to-day on legs of iron and nun kin stay me from\npreachin\u2019 de Gospil uv de Lord Gord. I know well nuff dat de ole\ndevul is mad as a tempest \u2019bout my bein\u2019 here; he knows dat my call\nter preach kums frum Gord, and dat\u2019s wat meks \u2019im so mad wen he sees\nJasper \u2019scend de pulpit, fur he knows dat de people is gwine ter hear\na messige straight frum heaven. I don\u2019t git my sermuns out uv grammars\nan\u2019 reterricks, but de Sperrit uv de Lord puts \u2019em in my mind an\u2019 meks\n\u2019em burn in my soul.\u201d\n\nHis manner was radiant, courageous, defiant, and was prophetic of one\nof his greatest discourses.\n\n\u201cIt hev always bin one uv de ways uv Gord ter set up men as rulers uv\nde people. Yer know dat Gord ordains kings and rulers an\u2019,--wat kinder\nbodders sum uv us,--He don\u2019t always mek it a p\u2019int ter put up good men.\nYer know dat our Lord giv Judis a place \u2019mong de twelve, an\u2019 he turn\u2019d\nout ter be one uv de grandes\u2019 raskils under de sun.\n\n\u201cJes\u2019 so Nebukidnezzur was pinted uv de Lord ter be king uv\nBabylon,--dat same robbur dat tuk de vessuls out uv de temple at\nJerusalem an\u2019 lugged \u2019em away ter his own country. Dat man had wun uv\nde powerfullest kingdums evur known on dis flat earth. He ruled over\nmany countries and many smaller kingdums, an\u2019 even had under his hands\nde servunts on de plantashun an\u2019 de beasts uv de feil\u2019. He was one uv\ndese unlimertid monnuks. He axed nobody no odds, an\u2019 did jes\u2019 wat he\nwanted ter do, an\u2019 I kinnot stop ter tell yer wid wat a strong hand\nan\u2019 outstretched arm he ruled de people wid an irun rod. It kum ter\npass dat one time dis king dat did not fear Gord (tho\u2019 Gord had sot\nhim up), had a dream. Dreams iz awfully curus things. Dey used ter\nfrighten folks out\u2019n dere senses an\u2019 I tell yer dey sometimes frighten\nfolks now. I\u2019ve had many dreams in my day dat got mity close ter me.\nDey gravuled inter de very cords uv my soul, an\u2019 made me feel lik de\ngroun\u2019 under my feet wuz libul ter giv way any time, an\u2019 I don\u2019t dout\ndat hundreds uv yer dat hear me now hev bin frightened an\u2019 cud not eat\nnor sleep nor wuk wid any peace \u2019caus\u2019 yer done hev strange dreams. Yer\nbetter watch dem dreams. In de anshient days de Lord spoke ter folks in\ndreams. He warned dem, an\u2019 I don\u2019t dout dat He duz dat way sometimes\nnow.\n\n\u201cNeberkidnezzur\u2019s dream stirred him powerful. He rolled all night\nan\u2019 did not sleep a wink. So he sent out an\u2019 got de magishuns an\u2019 de\nstrolgurs an\u2019 de sorserers an\u2019 de Kaldeuns, an\u2019 dey wuz brought unter\nhim. He tell \u2019em dat he had dreamed a dream dat had trubbled his\nsperrit. An\u2019 de Kaldeuns axed him wat de dream wuz. De king say dat de\ndream done gone clear out\u2019n him, an\u2019 he can\u2019t cotch de straight uv it\nter save his soul. He tell \u2019em, moreovur, dat dey got ter dig up de\ndream an\u2019 work up de meanin\u2019 too, an\u2019 dat ef dey don\u2019t dat he gwine\nter have \u2019em cut all ter pieces an\u2019 turn dere houses inter a dunghill,\nan\u2019 den he tell \u2019em dat ef dey will git de dream back fur him an\u2019 give\nde explernashun he gwine ter give \u2019em nice gifs an\u2019 put gret honurs on\n\u2019em. It waz too much fer de Kaldeuns. Dey cudn\u2019t dream de king\u2019s dream\nfer \u2019im, an\u2019 dey kum squar out an\u2019 tell Nebukidnezzur dat no man on de\nearth cud show sich a matter ter de king, an\u2019 dat in dere erpinyun dar\nis no king on de earth dat wud ax fer sich a thing frum proffit or\nmagishun.\n\n\u201cDen Nebukidnezzur got high. He went on a tare an\u2019 yer know wen a king\ngits mad yer better git out er his way. He is got de power; an\u2019 so he\nup an\u2019 sent out a decree through all de regiuns uv de kingdom dat all\nde wise men everywhar shud be slain. Jes\u2019 see wat a mad man will do wen\nhe git furius mad. Dey got no mo\u2019 sens dan a mad tiger or a roarin\u2019\nlion. Jes\u2019 befo\u2019 de slaughter uv de wise men kum on, Daniel hear \u2019bout\nit, an\u2019 he axed de king\u2019s captin wat it wuz all \u2019bout an\u2019 why de king\nwuz so hasty, an\u2019 de captin tol\u2019 Dan\u2019l all \u2019bout it. Dan\u2019l brushed\nhissef up quick and struck out to see de king an\u2019 ax him ter hol\u2019 up de\nexercushun uv his bloody profesy, an\u2019 he\u2019d promise to splain his dream\nter him. Den Dan\u2019l goes off an\u2019 gits all his Godly frien\u2019s togedder\nan\u2019 ax \u2019em ter pray ter de Gord uv heaven dat he an\u2019 his frien\u2019s shud\nnot perish in de slaughter uv de tricksters uv dat country. One thing\nde Lord can\u2019t do;--He can\u2019t refuse ter answer de cries uv His people;\nan\u2019 wen all dat prayin\u2019 wuz gwine on Gord appeared to Dan\u2019l in de nite\nan\u2019 revealed ter him de secret uv de king,--an\u2019 wat yer reckin? Wen de\nLord giv Dan\u2019l dat dream an\u2019 de hinterpertashun dar of, Dan\u2019l raised a\ngret shout an\u2019 giv thanks to Gord for wat de Lord had done fer him. But\nhe didn\u2019t shout long, fer he had important bisnis ter attend ter; an\u2019\nvery soon he went ter de king an\u2019 kerried wid him de secrit dat de king\nhad demandid at de han\u2019s uv de erstrolgers an\u2019 magishuns. He told de\nking rite ter his face de thing dat he had dreamed, an\u2019 wat Gord meant\nby it. Truly Dan\u2019l did behave hissef befo\u2019 de king in a very pretty an\u2019\nbecomin\u2019 manner. He tel de king he did not hav no mo sens dan udder\npeople, an\u2019 dat he wuz not perpar\u2019d to do things dat udder men cud do,\nbut dat it wuz by de power uv Gord dat all dis matter had bin made\nknown ter him. He tol\u2019 de king dat wat he saw wuz a gret imige; dat de\nimige wuz brite an\u2019 splendid an\u2019 de form uv it wuz terrerbul; dat de\nhed wuz uv fine gold, his brest and arms uv silvur, his belly an\u2019 thize\nuv brass, an\u2019 his legs uv irun and his feet part uv irun an\u2019 part uv\nclay. An\u2019 he tel de king fudder dat he saw er stone dat wuz cut widout\nhan\u2019s out\u2019n de mountin an\u2019 dat de stone smote de imige erpun his feet\nan\u2019 broke \u2019em in pieces, an\u2019 dat de stone dat brok de imige became a\ngret mountin an\u2019 filled all de wurl\u2019. Den Dan\u2019l,--dat brave an\u2019 feerles\nbruther, dat nevur quailed befo\u2019 de mitiest ruler uv de earth,--faced\nde king an\u2019 tel \u2019im an orful an\u2019 a warnin\u2019 troof. He say ter \u2019im, \u2018Yer\nis a gret king now. Yer hav er mity country an\u2019 all power, an\u2019 thy\nglory civers de groun\u2019. Man an\u2019 beas\u2019 an\u2019 foul obey yer. Yer iz de hed\nuv gold, but arter yer will kum anudder kingdum dat shall not be lik\nyourn, but still it shal be big an\u2019 dar shall kum anudder kingdum and\ndar shall be a fo\u2019th kingdum strong as irun, an\u2019 dis kingdum shall\nbrooz an\u2019 smash all de udder kingdums.\u2019\n\n\u201cAn\u2019 den Dan\u2019l gits ter de big pint. He tels de king dat de Lord is\ngwine ter set up er kingdum an\u2019 dat in de times ter kum dat kingdum\nshall crush an\u2019 cornsume all de udder kingdums. Dat shall be de kingdum\nuv Gord on de earth, an\u2019 dat kingdum shall stan\u2019 fer evur an\u2019 evur. You\nknows how yer saw de stone dat wuz cut out\u2019n de mountin an\u2019 how dat\nbroke in pieces de irun, de bras, de clay, de silvur, an\u2019 de gold, an\u2019\nmy Gord hev made known ter you, O king, wat shall tek place in de gret\nherearter, and dis is de dream an\u2019 de hinterpertashun dar of.\n\n\u201cDat wuz a mity sermon dat Dan\u2019l preached ter Nebukidnezzur. It ort\nter hev saved \u2019im, but it look lik it med \u2019im wuss. De debbul got \u2019im\nfer dat time an\u2019 he turn rite agin de Lord Gord an\u2019 sot at nort His\nstashutes an\u2019 countid His ways onholy.\n\n\u201cYer know \u2019bout dat imige. It wuz med uv gold, an\u2019 wuz threescore\ncubits high and six cubits wide, an\u2019 twuz sot up in de plain uv Durer,\nnot fer frum Bablun. Yer know er cubit is about eighteen inchis, an\u2019\nef yer multerply dat by threescore cubits yer git 1080 inches, wich\nmean dat de imige wuz ninety foot high an\u2019 nine feet broad. So yer see\nNebukidnezzur got ter be a Gord-makur, an\u2019 wen he got dis gret imige\nbilt he sont out ter git all de princis an\u2019 guvnurs an\u2019 all de res\u2019 uv\nde swell folks ter kum an\u2019 bow down an\u2019 wurshep dat gret imige dat he\nhad sot up. Now dis wuz de gret folly an\u2019 shame uv de king. By dat deed\nhe defied de Lord Gord an\u2019 de raff uv de Lord wuz stirr\u2019d agin \u2019im.\n\n\u201cAn\u2019 now, my brudderin, yer member Dan\u2019l tol\u2019 de king dat de imige\ndat he saw in his dream wuz \u2019imsef rulin\u2019 over all de udder kingdums.\nHe tol\u2019 \u2019im also dat dat stone dat wuz cut out uv de mountin an\u2019 kum\nrollin\u2019 down de craggy sides an\u2019 broke in pieces de irun, de brass\nand de clay, dat dat wuz de kingdum uv de Lord Jesus Christ. An\u2019 he\ntel \u2019im, fuddermo, dat de kummin\u2019 uv de stone ter be a great mountin\nmeans de growth uv de kingdum uv our Lord tel it shall fil dis wurl\u2019\nan\u2019 shall triumf over all de udder kingdums. Dan\u2019l tel de king dat his\nkingdum wuz gwine ter be taken frum him, \u2019caus\u2019 he had not feared de\nGord uv heaven, an\u2019 in his folly an\u2019 crimes he turned away frum dat\nGord dat rules in de heaven an\u2019 hols de nashuns uv de earth in de pams\nuv His han\u2019s. He tol\u2019 \u2019im dat de kingdum uv Satun, dat arch ennimy uv\nGord, wuz gwine ter tumbul flat, \u2019caus\u2019 dat stone cut out uv de mountin\nwud roll over Satun\u2019s derminyuns an\u2019 crush it in ter flinders.\n\n\u201cGlory ter Gord in de highis\u2019; dat stone cut out uv de mountin is a\nmity roller. Nuthin kin stay its terribul progris! Dey dat fite erginst\nJerhover had bettur look out,--dat stone is still rollin\u2019 an\u2019 de fust\nthing dey know it will crush down erpon \u2019em an\u2019 dey will sink ter\nrise no mo\u2019. Our Gord is er cornsumin\u2019 fire, an\u2019 He will overturn an\u2019\noverturn tel de foundashuns uv sin iz brokin\u2019 up. Yer jes\u2019 wait er\nlittle. De time is fas\u2019 rollin\u2019 on. Evun now I hear my Saviour sayin\u2019\nter His Father, \u2018Father, I kin stay here no longer; I mus\u2019 git up dis\nmornin\u2019; I am gwine out ter call My people frum de feil\u2019; dey hav ben\nabused and laughed at an\u2019 bin med a scoffin\u2019 long nuff fer My name\u2019s\nsake. I kin stay no longer. My soul cries fer My chillun. Gabrul, git\ndown yer trumpit dis mornin\u2019; I want yer ter do some blowin\u2019. Blow\ngently an\u2019 easy at fust, but let My people hear your goldin notes. Dey\nwill kum wen I call.\u2019\n\n\u201cAh, my brutherin, you an\u2019 I wil be dar wen dat trumpit soun\u2019s. I\ndon\u2019 think I shall be erlarm\u2019d, \u2019caus\u2019 I shall know it iz my king\nmarshallin\u2019 His people home. It won\u2019t frighten you my sisters; it will\nhev de sweetnis uv Jesus vois ter yer; an\u2019, oh, how it will ring out\ndat happy mornin\u2019 wen our king shall kum to gather de ransomed uv de\nLord ter \u2019imsef. Den yer shall hev a new an\u2019 holy body, an\u2019 wid it\nyour glorified sperrit shall be united, an\u2019 on dat day we shall go in\nter see de Father an\u2019 He shall smile an\u2019 say: \u2018Dese iz My chillun; dey\nhav washed dere robes and made dem white in de blood uv de Lamb; dey\nhav kum out uv gret tribberlashun an\u2019 dey shall be wid Me for ever an\u2019\never.\u2019 I speck ter be dar.\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, Jasper,\u2019 yer say, \u2018why yer spec ter be dar. How yer know?\u2019 Yer\nread de foteenth chapter uv John, will yer? \u2018I go ter prepar er place\nfer yer,\u2019 an\u2019 dat word is ter rule; an\u2019 so yer will see ole John Jasper\nrite dar, an\u2019 King Jesus shall kum out ter meet us an\u2019 tek us in an\u2019\nsho\u2019 us de manshuns dat He hav prepared fer us.\n\n\u201cO Lusifer how thou hav fallin! You proud ones will find den dat your\ndays iz over, an\u2019 ye dat hav despised de chillun uv my Gord wil sink\ndown inter hell, jes\u2019 as low es it is posserbul ter git. Yer needn\u2019t\ntel \u2019im dat yer hev preached in His name, an\u2019 in His name done many\nwonderful works. Yer can\u2019t fool Him! He\u2019ll frown down at yer an\u2019 say: I\ndon\u2019t know yer, an\u2019 I don\u2019t wan\u2019 ter know yer, an\u2019 I don\u2019 wan\u2019 ter see\nyer. Git out uv My site forever, an\u2019 go ter your place ermong de lost.\n\n\u201cAh, truly, it is a mity stone, bin rollin\u2019 all dese senshuriz, rollin\u2019\nto-day. May it roll through the kingdum uv darknis and crush de enemis\nuv Gord. Dat stone done got so big dat it is higher dan heav\u2019n, broader\ndan de earth, and deeper dan hell hitsef. But don\u2019t be deceived. Don\u2019t\nthink dat I don\u2019 let yer off. I got somethin\u2019 more fer yer yit.\n\n\u201cYer member Dan\u2019l and Shadrick, Meeshick an\u2019 Erbedniggo. Dey all\nstubbonly fused to bow down ter Nebukidnezzur\u2019s golden imige. Dey stood\nstraight up. Dey wudn\u2019t bend a knee nor cruk a toe, an\u2019 dem Kaldeeuns\nwuz waatchin\u2019 um. Dat\u2019s de way hit always iz; de debbul\u2019s folks iz\nalways er watchin\u2019 us an\u2019 tryin\u2019 ter git sumthin\u2019 on us an\u2019 ter git us\ninter trubbul an\u2019 wid too many uv us dey succeed. Dey saw dat Dan\u2019l an\u2019\nhis friens wud not git down lik dey dun, an\u2019 up dey jumped an\u2019 away dey\ncut an\u2019 kum ter de king.\n\n\u201cOh, king, liv ferevur,\u2019 dey say. \u2018Yer know, O king, wat yer sed,--dat\ndercree dat yer made, dat at de soun\u2019 uv de kornit, de flute, de harp,\nde sackbut, de saltry an\u2019 de dulsermur an\u2019 orl kines uv musik, dat\nev\u2019ry body shud fall down an\u2019 wurshep de goldin imige, an\u2019 dat dose dat\nduz not fall down an\u2019 worshep shud be put in de furnis; an\u2019 now, oh,\nking, dey say dat a lot uv dose men dun refews. Dey doan regard yer.\nDey hate yer Gods an\u2019 spize de imige dat yer sot up.\u2019\n\n\u201cCoarse de ole king got mad agin an\u2019 in his fury dey brought dese three\nbefo\u2019 him. He axed um ef wat he had heerd \u2019bout um wuz so,--\u2019bout dere\nnot worsheppin\u2019 de goldin imige. \u2018Mayby yer med a mistake,\u2019 de king\nsay, \u2018but we gwine ter hev it ovur agin, an\u2019 ef wen de ban\u2019 strikes up\nnex\u2019 time yer will git down an\u2019 worshep it\u2019ll go eezy wid yer, an\u2019 ef\nyer doant de fires in de furnis will be startid quick es litenin\u2019 an\u2019\ninter it ev\u2019ry one uv yer shall go.\u2019\n\n\u201cDese wuz yung men, but, ah, I tel yer, dey wuz uv de loyul stock.\nDey wuz jes\u2019 es kam es sunrise in de mornin\u2019. Dey sed: \u2018Oh, king, we\nain\u2019 keerful ter anser \u2019bout dis mattur. Ef yer lik ter cas\u2019 us inter\nde furnis, our Gord dat we surv iz abul ter git us out. We ain\u2019 gwine\nter bow, an\u2019 we nevur will bow ter your Gord, an\u2019 yer jes\u2019 es well\nunderstan\u2019.\u2019\n\n\u201cRite den de men went ter heet up de furnis. Dey wuz tol\u2019 ter heet it\nup sevun times hottur dan wuz de ginrul rule an\u2019 dey hed sum jiunts\nter tie Shedrak, Meeshik, an\u2019 Erbedniggo, an\u2019 dey tuk de yung men away\ninter de furnis. De heet wuz so terribul dat de flames shot out an\u2019 sot\nfire ter de men dat had put de Hebru chillun in an\u2019 de po\u2019 retchiz wuz\nburn\u2019d up, but not a hair uv de three yung men wuz sing\u2019d, an\u2019 dey kum\nout er smilin\u2019 an\u2019 not a blistur on um frum hed ter fut. Dey did not\nevun hev any smell uv fire \u2019bout dere pussuns, an\u2019 dey luk jes\u2019 lik dey\njes\u2019 kum out uv dressin\u2019 rums.\n\n\u201cNeberkidnezzur wuz dar, an\u2019 he say: \u2018Luk in dat furnis dar. We didn\u2019t\nput but three pussons in dar, did we?\u2019 an\u2019 dey tol\u2019 \u2019im dat wuz so. Den\nhe tun pale an\u2019 luk skeered lik he gwine ter die an\u2019 he say:\n\n\u201c\u2018Luk dar; I see fo\u2019 men inside an\u2019 walkin\u2019 through de fire, an\u2019 de\nform uv de fourth is lik de Son uv Gord,\u2019 an\u2019 it luk lik de king got\nkunvurtid dat day, fur he lif\u2019 up his vois an\u2019 shout de praiz uv de\nGord uv Shedrak, Meeshik an\u2019 Erbedniggo.\n\n\u201cAh, gret iz dis story; dey dat trus\u2019 in Gord shall nevur be put\nter kornfushun. De righteous alwaz kums out konkerurs an\u2019 more dan\nkonkerurs. Kings may hate yer, frien\u2019s spize yer, an\u2019 cowurds bakbite\nyer, but Gord iz yer durlivrur.\n\n\u201cBut I dun forgit. Dis ole time rerlijun iz not gud nuff fer sum folks\nin dese las\u2019 days. Sum call dis kine uv talk foolishnis, but hif dat be\ntroo den de Bibul, an\u2019 hevun, an\u2019 dese Christun\u2019s hearts, iz ful uv dat\nkine uv foolishnis. Ef dis be ole fogy rerlijun, den I want my church\ncrowdid wid ole fogiz.\n\n\u201cWat did John see ober dar in Patmos? He say he saw de fo\u2019 an\u2019 twenty\neldurs seatid roun\u2019 de throne uv Gord an\u2019 castin\u2019 dere glittrin\u2019 crowns\nuv gold at de feet uv King Jesus, an\u2019 he say dat out uv de throne kum\nlightnin\u2019 an\u2019 thundurs an\u2019 voicis an\u2019 de sevun lamps burnin\u2019 befo\u2019\nde throne uv Gord. An\u2019 dar befo\u2019 de throne wuz de sea uv glass, an\u2019\nroun\u2019 \u2019bout de throne wuz de fo\u2019 livin\u2019 creaturs ful uv eyes befo\u2019 an\u2019\nbehine, an\u2019 dey nevur ceas cryin\u2019: \u2018Holy, Holy, Holy, iz de Lord Gord\nalmity dat died ter tek away de sins uv de wurl\u2019!\u2019\n\n\u201cYer call dat ole fogy. Jes\u2019 luk away ober yondur in de future. Duz\nyer see dat sea uv glass an\u2019 de saints uv Gord dat wuz all bruised an\u2019\nmangul\u2019d by de fi\u2019ry darts uv de wickid. I hear um singin\u2019! Wat iz dere\nsong? Oh, how it rolls! an\u2019 de korus iz: \u2018Redeemed, redeemed, wash\u2019d in\nde blud uv de Lam\u2019. Call dem ole fogiz, do yer? Wel yer may, fer dey iz\nbin doin\u2019 dat way frum de time dat Abel, de fust man, a saved soul told\nde news uv salvashun ter de anjuls.\n\n\u201c\u2018Wel, Jasper, hev yer got any rerlijun ter giv way?\u2019\n\n\u201cI\u2019se free ter say dat I ain\u2019t got es much es I want. Fur forty-five\nyears I bin beggin\u2019 fur mo\u2019, an\u2019 I ax fur mo\u2019 in dis tryin\u2019 hour. But,\nbless Gord, I\u2019s got rerlijun ter giv way. De Lord hev fil\u2019d my hands\nwid de Gorspil, an\u2019 I stan\u2019 here ter offur free salvashun ter any dat\nwil kum. Ef in dis big crowd dar iz one lost sinnur dat hev not felt de\nklinsin\u2019 tech uv my Saviur\u2019s blud, I ax \u2019im ter kum terday an\u2019 he shall\nnevur die.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\nFACTS CONCERNING THE SERMON ON THE SUN\n\n\nLet me say in frankness that when I originally began this appreciation\nof John Jasper it was my full purpose to omit from it all reference to\nhis very notorious sermon on \u201cThe Sun Do Move.\u201d That was the one thing\nin his life I most regretted--an episode that I was quite willing to\ncommit to oblivion. I felt that it was a distinct discredit to him.\nBut upon further reflection I have concluded that the omission might\nhurt him far more than the facts in the case possibly could. Inasmuch\nalso as it was that very sermon which drew to him such wide-spread\nattention, and since there are those who never heard him, nor heard of\nhim except in connection with that sermon, I have decided to give the\npublic the facts in the case and the sermon itself. In this chapter\nI will give a history of the sermon, and in the next I will give the\nsubstance of the sermon. It is due to my old friend and brother,\nJasper, to say that he really never intended to create a sensation\nby preaching on an exciting or unusual topic. This he most solemnly\ndeclared, and while he was several sensations himself in a single\nbunch, and while almost every sermon that he preached produced wild\nand thrilling sensations, he did not work for that. He started his\nchief sensations by preaching the Gospel in such a hot, pungent, and\novermastering way that his people could not contain themselves. Jasper\ntells us how it all came about. Two of his brethren, members of his\nflock, fell into a friendly dispute as to whether the sun did revolve\naround the earth or not. As they could not decide the question, and\nneither would yield, they finally agreed to submit the question to\ntheir old pastor, solemnly believing, I dare say, that there was no\nmystery in earth, sea, or sky that he could not fathom.\n\nWhen Jasper\u2019s theme went abroad it called forth some very scornful\ncriticisms from one of his Baptist neighbours--one of the \u201ceddicatid\npreachers,\u201d as Jasper delighted to call them, though in certain moods\nhe often finished his sentence by branding them as eddicatid fools.\nWhen he heard of the strictures mentioned above, he let fly some shot\nat white heat as a response to the attacks on him. When he got a\nthing in his blood the amenities of controversy sometimes lost their\nplace in his memory. He would let fly flings of satire that would be\ntoothsome topics for street gossip for many summer Sundays. Things\nfor zestful chat rarely ran short when Jasper was about. He expressed\nmuch regret that he had come in conflict with the \u201cfurlosofurs\u201d of the\nday, freely confessing his ignorance in the matter of \u201cbook-larnin\u2019.\u201d\nHis knowledge, he said, was limited to the Bible, and much of that he\ndid not feel that he could explain. But on the question about the sun\nhe was sure that he possessed the true light. \u201cI knows de way uv de\nsun, as de Wurd of Gord tells me,\u201d he declared in his warlike manner,\n\u201can\u2019 ef I don\u2019 pruv\u2019 dat de sun moves den yer may pos\u2019 me as er lier\non ev\u2019ry street in Richmun\u2019.\u201d By this time his war paint was plainly\nvisible, and his noble defiance rang out like a battle call.\n\nThe occasion on which I heard his \u201castronomical sermon,\u201d as one of his\nopponents deridingly dubbed it, was not at its first presentation. He\nhad delivered it repeatedly before and knew his ground. The gleam of\nconfidence and victory shone clear and strong on his face.\n\nThe audience looked like a small nation. Long before the solemn\njanitor, proud of his place, strict to the minute, swung open the front\ndoors, the adjacent streets swarmed with the eager throngs. Instantly\nthere was a rush, and in surged the people, each anxious to get a seat.\nThe spacious house was utterly inadequate to the exigencies of the\nhour. Many crowded the aisles, disposed themselves around the pulpit,\nsat on pew-arms, or in friendly laps.\n\nJasper\u2019s entrance was quite picturesque. He appeared in the long aisle\nwearing a cape overcoat, with a beaver in one hand, and his cane in the\nother, and with a dignity not entirely unconscious. His officers rose\nto welcome him, one removing his great coat, another his head piece,\nand yet another his cane. As he ascended the pulpit he turned and\nwaved a happy greeting to his charge and it fairly set his emotional\nconstituents to shouting. Many loving words were said out in a rattling\nchorus in token of their happiness at seeing him.\n\nIt is more than probable that some of Jasper\u2019s young people had notions\nof their own as to his views of the sun; but never a word would they\nlet slip that could mortify their beloved old pastor, or give a whisper\nof comfort to his critics. They were for Jasper, and the sun might go\nits way. They believed in their pastor, believed in his goodness, his\nhonesty, and his greatness.\n\nIn the opening exercises there occurred several characteristic\nincidents. He requested his choir to open by singing, \u201cThe Heavens\nDeclare the Glory of God.\u201d This was at once a proof of his seriousness\nand of his sense of the fitting.\n\nWhen he arose to read the Scriptures, he glanced around at his\naudience, and bowing in pleased recognition of the many white people\npresent, he said with unaffected modesty that he hoped that the \u201ckin\u2019\nfrens who\u2019d come ter hur me would \u2019scuse my urrors in readin\u2019. My eyes\nis gitting weak an\u2019 dim, and I\u2019se slow in making out de hard wurds.\u201d\nThen he proceeded with utmost reverence to read the passage selected\nfor the service. He was not a good reader, but there was a sobriety and\nhumility in his manner of reading the Scriptures that made one always\nfeel a peculiar respect for him.\n\nThere may be place here for a passing word about this most original\nand picturesque representative of his race. Jasper had a respect for\nhimself that was simply tremendous. Unconsciously he carried a lofty\ncrest, and yet you knew there was no silly conceit in it. His walk\nalong the street was not that of a little man who thought all eyes were\nupon him, but of a giant who would hide from himself and from others\nthe evidences of his power. His conversation carried an assertion of\nseriousness--his tones were full of dignity--his bearing seemed to\nforbid any unseemly freedom--and in public you saw at once that he\nwas holding himself up to a high standard. Of course, when he was in\nthe high frenzy of public speech and towering to his finest heights\nhe lost the sense of himself, but he was then riding the wind and\ncleaving the sky and no rules made by men could apply to him. But along\nwith self-appreciation,--always one of his attractions to me,--was a\nnoble and delicate respect for others. He loved his own people, and\nthey lived in the pride of it, but he had a peculiarly hospitable and\nwinsome attitude towards strangers. He was quite free in his cordiality\ntowards men, and I delighted to see how my coming to hear him pleased\nhim. In his off-hand way, he said to me one Sunday afternoon as he\nwelcomed me to the pulpit: \u201cGlad to see you; it does me good to have\nfolks around whar got sense; it heps me ter preach better. Mighty tough\nto talk to folks whar ain\u2019 got no brains in de head.\u201d\n\nHe had a double consciousness that was always interesting to me. He was\nalways full of solicitude about his sermon. It lay a burden on him, and\nit required no expert to discover it. He had so much sincerity that\nhis heart told its secrets through his face. But think not that this\nmade him oblivious to his surroundings. His heart was up towards the\nthrone, and his soul was crying for strength, but his eye was open to\nthe scene before him. The sight of the audience intoxicated him; the\npresence of notable people caught his gaze and gladdened him; tokens of\nappreciation cheered him, and he paid good price in the way of smiles\nand glances to those who showed that he was doing them good. It made a\nrare combination--his concern for his message, and his happy pride in\nhis constituents. It gave a depth to his feeling and a height to his\nexultation. He swung between two great emotions and felt the enrichment\nof both.\n\nThe text for his sermon was a long cry from his topic. It was: \u201cThe\nLord God is a man of war; The Lord is His name.\u201d He was too good a\nsermon-maker to announce a text and abandon it entirely, and so he\nroamed the Old Testament to gather illustrations of the all-conquering\npower of God. This took him over a half hour to develop, and as it took\neven much longer to formulate his argument as to the rotation of the\nsun it made his sermon not only incongruous, but intolerably long--far\nlonger than any other sermon that I ever knew him to preach. The two\nparts of the discourse had no special kinship, while the first part\ntired the people before he reached the thing they came for. It was an\nerror in judgment, but his power to entertain an audience went far to\nsave him from the consequences of his mistake.\n\nThe intelligent reader will readily understand the drift of his\ncontention about the sun. What he said, of course, was based on the\nliteral statements of the Old Testament, written many centuries ago,\nnot as a treatise on astronomy, but in language fitted to express ideas\nfrom the standpoint of the times in which it was used. Jasper knew\nof no later discoveries in the natural world, and, therefore, very\nsincerely believed with religious sincerity, and all the dogmatism of\nignorance, that the declarations of the old Scriptures were true in\nvery jot and tittle. It is apparent enough that to the enlightened\npeople who went to hear the address merely for amusement there was\nrare fun in the whole performance. To them, Jasper was an ignorant old\nsimpleton, a buffoon of the pulpit, a weakling to be laughed at. And\nyet hardly that. He was so dead in earnest, and withal so shrewd in\nstating his case, so quick in turning a point, and brimming with such\nchoice humour and sometimes flashing out such keen, telling strokes of\nsarcasm, that he compelled the admiration of his coldest critics. To\nthe untutored people before him Jasper was the apostle of light. They\nbelieved every syllable that fell from his lips--he was the truth to\nthem--they stood where other honest and godly people stood for ages and\nsaw things just as they saw them. Their opinion as to the sun did not\nin the least affect their piety, for, as a fact, they believed just\nexactly as the grandfathers of Jasper\u2019s critics believed sixty years\nbefore.\n\nIt was worth while being there. Jasper was in his most flexible,\nmasterful mood, and he stormed the heights with his forces in full\narray. At times, the negroes would be sending forth peals of laughter\nand shouting in wildest response, \u201cYas, Lord; dat\u2019s so, Brer Jasper;\nhit \u2019em ergin, bless God! Glory, glory, tell us more, ole man!\u201d Then he\nwould fly beyond the sun and give them a glimpse of the New Jerusalem,\nand they would be crying and bursting forth with snatches of song until\nyou would think the end had come. But not so by ever so much. A word\nfrom Jasper would bring the stillness of death, and he would be the\nmaster again and ready for new flights.\n\nWhen the excitement about the sermon was at its full blow, human greed,\never keen-scented, sensed money in Jasper and his sermon, and laid a\nscheme to trade on the old man and his message. A syndicate was formed\nto send him out as a lecturer, hoping that the Northern love for the\nnegro, and the catchiness of the subject, would fill vast halls with\ncrowds to hear the old man, and turn in rich revenues, of which they\nwould reap the larger part.\n\nJasper, for reasons by no means mercenary, was tickled by this new turn\nin fortune. He was not wanting in the pride of successful ambition, and\nthis new proof of his growing distinction naturally pleased him. Fame\nwas pinning her medals fast upon him, and he liked it. Not that he was\ninfatuated with the notion of filling his private pocket. As a fact, he\nnever uttered in my hearing one sentence that showed his love of money,\nor his eagerness to get it. But he was much wedded to the idea of a new\nhouse of worship for his people, and any proper method that would aid\nin bringing this happy consummation was joy to his generous old soul.\nHis heart dwelt with his flock, and to honour and cheer them was life\nto him.\n\nOf course, his church fell in with the idea. Anything to please\n\u201cBrother Jasper\u201d was the song of their lives. It looked wonderfully\ngrand to them to see glory crowning their pastor and gold pouring in to\nbuild them a temple. It was with pomp and glee they sent him away. The\nday of his departure was celebrated with general excitement and with\ncheering groups at the train.\n\nBut in some way providence did not get identified with the new\nenterprise. The first half of his sermon was a trial to people set\non sensation. The Lord in his military character did not appeal.\nSome actually retired after the first part, and an eclipse to hopes\nuncounted fell over the scene. Jasper, as a show, proved a failure, for\nwhich the devout may well give thanks. He got as far as Philadelphia,\nand even that historically languid city found life too brief and\nbrisk to spend in listening for ninety-odd minutes to two uncongenial\ndiscourses loosely bundled into one. The old man had left the sweet\ninspiration of his demonstrative church in Richmond, and felt a chill\nof desolation when he set foot on alien soil. The tides of invisible\nseas fought against him, empty benches grinned at him, and he got\nhomesick. The caravan collapsed, the outfit tumbled into anarchy, the\nsyndicate picked up the stage clothes and stole out in the night-gloom,\nthe undaunted but chagrined Jasper made a straight shoot for Richmond;\never after the Jasper Lecture Bureau was a myth, without ancestry or\nposterity.\n\nThink not that there was chill in the air when Jasper struck Richmond\non his return. No word of censure awaited him. His steadfast adherents\nhailed him as a conqueror and his work went on. His enemies--an envious\ncrop ever being on hand--tossed a few stones over the back fence, but\nJasper had a keen relish for battle, and was finest when his foes were\nthe fiercest. Antagonism gave zest to his dramatic career.\n\nPermit the writer to slip in here a word as to Jasper\u2019s devotion to\nhis old master, Mr. Samuel Hargrove. I knew Mr. Hargrove well. He\nwas a man with a heart. I knew him as an old man while I was young.\nHe had a suburban home near Manchester, his business and church were\nin Richmond. I often saw him in my congregation at the Bainbridge\nStreet Baptist church, Manchester, and thus often met him. Shrinking,\nwithout public gifts, full of kindliness, and high in his life, he\ncommanded the heart of his servant who to the last delighted to honour\nhis memory. Their relations did not prevent their mutual respect and\naffection. The hideous dogma of social equality never thrust itself\ninto their life. They had good-will and esteem one for the other,\nand lived together in peace. Jasper was a lover and admirer of white\npeople, and delighted to serve and honour them, and in return the\nwhite people were fond of him and glad to help him.\n\nI rejoice that this old minister, the quaint and stern veteran, came\nin God\u2019s time to a righteous fame. Public opinion is an eccentric and\nmysterious judge. It has an unarticulated code for fixing the rank and\nfate of mortals. It is a large and ill-sorted jury, and its decisions\noften bring surprise at the time, but they never get reversed. The\njurymen may wrangle during the trial, but when it emerges from the\ncouncil room and renders the verdict, no higher court ever reverses its\nfinal word.\n\nHard and adverse was the life of Jasper! For years many hostile forces\nsought to unhorse and cripple him. It would require books to hold the\nslanders and scandals laid to his charge. The archers used poisoned\narrows, and often tore his flesh and fancied that they had him, but\nhis bow abode in strength. Meanwhile, the public, that jury of the\nmany, sat still and watched, weighing the evidence, listening to the\nprosecutors, unravelling conflicting testimony, and feeling the way to\njustice. In the midst of it all, the brave old chieftain died, while\nthe trial was yet going on. The jury was long silent, but it has spoken\nat last, and the verdict is, that the name of this veteran of the cross\nshall be enrolled among the fearless, the faithful, and the immortal.\nHe endured as seeing the invisible and now he sees.\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\nTHE SUN DO MOVE\n\n\nIn presenting John Jasper\u2019s celebrated sermon on \u201cDe Sun Do Move,\u201d I\nbeg to introduce it with several explanatory words. As intimated in\na former chapter it is of a dual character. It includes an extended\ndiscussion, after his peculiar fashion, of the text, \u201cThe Lord God is\na man of war; the Lord is His name.\u201d Much that he said in that part of\nhis sermon is omitted, only so much being retained as indicates his\nview of the rotation of the sun. It was really when he came into this\npart of his sermon that he showed to such great advantage, even though\nso manifestly in error as to the position which he tried so manfully to\nantagonize. It was of that combative type of public speech which always\nput him before the people at his best. I never heard this sermon but\nonce, but I have been amply aided in reproducing it by an elaborate\nand altogether friendly report of the sermon published at the time by\n_The Richmond Dispatch_. Jasper opened his discourse with a tender\nreminiscence and quite an ingenious exordium.\n\n\u201cLow me ter say,\u201d he spoke with an outward composure which revealed an\ninward but mastered swell of emotion, \u201cdat when I wuz a young man and\na slave, I knowed nuthin\u2019 wuth talkin\u2019 \u2019bout consarnin\u2019 books. Dey wuz\nsealed mysteries ter me, but I tell yer I longed ter break de seal. I\nthusted fer de bread uv learnin\u2019. When I seen books I ached ter git\nin ter um, fur I knowed dat dey had de stuff fer me, an\u2019 I wanted ter\ntaste dere contents, but most of de time dey wuz bar\u2019d aginst me.\n\n\u201cBy de mursy of de Lord a thing happened. I got er room-feller--he wuz\na slave, too, an\u2019 he had learn\u2019d ter read. In de dead uv de night he\ngiv me lessons outen de New York Spellin\u2019 book. It wuz hard pullin\u2019, I\ntell yer; harder on him, fur he know\u2019d jes\u2019 a leetle, an\u2019 it made him\nsweat ter try ter beat sumthin\u2019 inter my hard haid. It wuz wuss wid me.\nUp de hill ev\u2019ry step, but when I got de light uv de less\u2019n into my\nnoodle I farly shouted, but I kno\u2019d I wuz not a scholur. De consequens\nwuz I crep \u2019long mighty tejus, gittin\u2019 a crum here an\u2019 dar untel I cud\nread de Bible by skippin\u2019 de long words, tolerable well. Dat wuz de\nstart uv my eddicashun--dat is, wat little I got. I mek menshun uv dat\nyoung man. De years hev fled erway sense den, but I ain\u2019t furgot my\nteachur, an\u2019 nevur shall. I thank mer Lord fur him, an\u2019 I carries his\nmem\u2019ry in my heart.\n\n\u201c\u2019Bout seben months after my gittin\u2019 ter readin\u2019, Gord cunverted my\nsoul, an\u2019 I reckin \u2019bout de fust an\u2019 main thing dat I begged de Lord\nter give me wuz de power ter und\u2019stan\u2019 His Word. I ain\u2019 braggin\u2019, an\u2019 I\nhates self-praise, but I boun\u2019 ter speak de thankful word. I b\u2019lieves\nin mer heart dat mer pra\u2019r ter und\u2019stand de Scripshur wuz heard. Sence\ndat time I ain\u2019t keer\u2019d \u2019bout nuthin\u2019 \u2019cept ter study an\u2019 preach de\nWord uv God.\n\n\u201cNot, my bruthrin, dat I\u2019z de fool ter think I knows it all. Oh, mer\nFather, no! Fur frum it. I don\u2019 hardly und\u2019stan myse\u2019f, nor ha\u2019f uv de\nthings roun\u2019 me, an\u2019 dar is milyuns uv things in de Bible too deep fur\nJasper, an\u2019 sum uv \u2019em too deep fur ev\u2019rybody. I doan\u2019t cerry de keys\nter de Lord\u2019s closet, an\u2019 He ain\u2019 tell me ter peep in, an\u2019 ef I did I\u2019m\nso stupid I wouldn\u2019t know it when I see it. No, frens, I knows my place\nat de feet uv my Marster, an\u2019 dar I stays.\n\n\u201cBut I kin read de Bible and git de things whar lay on de top uv de\nsoil. Out\u2019n de Bible I knows nuthin\u2019 extry \u2019bout de sun. I sees \u2019is\ncourses as he rides up dar so gran\u2019 an\u2019 mighty in de sky, but dar is\nheaps \u2019bout dat flamin\u2019 orb dat is too much fer me. I know dat de sun\nshines powerfly an\u2019 po\u2019s down its light in floods, an\u2019 yet dat is\nnuthin\u2019 compared wid de light dat flashes in my min\u2019 frum de pages of\nGord\u2019s book. But you knows all dat. I knows dat de sun burns--oh, how\nit did burn in dem July days. I tell yer he cooked de skin on my back\nmany er day when I wuz hoein\u2019 in de corn feil\u2019. But you knows all dat,\nan\u2019 yet dat is nuthin\u2019 der to de divine fire dat burns in der souls uv\nGord\u2019s chil\u2019n. Can\u2019t yer feel it, bruthrin?\n\n\u201cBut \u2019bout de courses uv de sun, I have got dat. I hev dun rang\u2019d thru\nde whole blessed book an\u2019 scode down de las\u2019 thing de Bible has ter say\n\u2019bout de movements uv de sun. I got all dat pat an\u2019 safe. An\u2019 lemme say\ndat if I doan\u2019t giv it ter you straight, if I gits one word crooked or\nwrong, you jes\u2019 holler out, \u2018Hol\u2019 on dar, Jasper, yer ain\u2019t got dat\nstraight,\u2019 an\u2019 I\u2019ll beg pardon. If I doan\u2019t tell de truf, march up on\ndese steps here an\u2019 tell me I\u2019z a liar, an\u2019 I\u2019ll take it. I fears I do\nlie sometimes--I\u2019m so sinful, I find it hard ter do right; but my Gord\ndoan\u2019t lie an\u2019 He ain\u2019 put no lie in de Book uv eternal truf, an\u2019 if I\ngiv you wat de Bible say, den I boun\u2019 ter tell de truf.\n\n\u201cI got ter take yer all dis arternoon on er skershun ter a great bat\u2019l\nfeil\u2019. Mos\u2019 folks like ter see fights--some is mighty fon\u2019 er gittin\u2019\ninter fights, an\u2019 some is mighty quick ter run down de back alley when\ndar is a bat\u2019l goin\u2019 on, fer de right. Dis time I\u2019ll \u2019scort yer ter a\nscene whar you shall witness a curus bat\u2019l. It tuk place soon arter\nIsrel got in de Promus Lan\u2019. Yer \u2019member de people uv Gibyun mak frens\nwid Gord\u2019s people when dey fust entered Canum an\u2019 dey wuz monsus smart\nter do it. But, jes\u2019 de same, it got \u2019em in ter an orful fuss. De\ncities roun\u2019 \u2019bout dar flar\u2019d up at dat, an\u2019 dey all jined dere forces\nand say dey gwine ter mop de Gibyun people orf uv de groun\u2019, an\u2019 dey\nbunched all dar armies tergedder an\u2019 went up fer ter do it. Wen dey\nkum up so bol\u2019 an\u2019 brave de Giby\u2019nites wuz skeer\u2019d out\u2019n dere senses,\nan\u2019 dey saunt word ter Joshwer dat dey wuz in troubl\u2019 an\u2019 he mus\u2019 run\nup dar an\u2019 git \u2019em out. Joshwer had de heart uv a lion an\u2019 he wuz up\ndar d\u2019reckly. Dey had an orful fight, sharp an\u2019 bitter, but yer might\nknow dat Ginr\u2019l Joshwer wuz not up dar ter git whip\u2019t. He prayed an\u2019 he\nfought, an\u2019 de hours got erway too peart fer him, an\u2019 so he ask\u2019d de\nLord ter issure a speshul ordur dat de sun hol\u2019 up erwhile an\u2019 dat de\nmoon furnish plenty uv moonshine down on de lowes\u2019 part uv de fightin\u2019\ngroun\u2019s. As a fac\u2019, Joshwer wuz so drunk wid de bat\u2019l, so thursty fer\nde blood uv de en\u2019mies uv de Lord, an\u2019 so wild wid de vict\u2019ry dat he\ntell de sun ter stan\u2019 still tel he cud finish his job. Wat did de sun\ndo? Did he glar down in fi\u2019ry wrath an\u2019 say, \u2019 What you talkin\u2019 \u2019bout\nmy stoppin\u2019 for, Joshwer; I ain\u2019t navur startid yit. Bin here all de\ntime, an\u2019 it wud smash up ev\u2019rything if I wuz ter start\u2019? Naw, he ain\u2019\nsay dat. But wat de Bible say? Dat\u2019s wat I ax ter know. It say dat\nit wuz at de voice uv Joshwer dat it stopped. I don\u2019 say it stopt;\ntain\u2019t fer Jasper ter say dat, but de Bible, de Book uv Gord, say so.\nBut I say dis; nuthin\u2019 kin stop untel it hez fust startid. So I knows\nwat I\u2019m talkin\u2019 \u2019bout. De sun wuz travlin\u2019 long dar thru de sky wen\nde order come. He hitched his red ponies and made quite a call on de\nlan\u2019 uv Gibyun. He purch up dar in de skies jes\u2019 as frenly as a naibur\nwhar comes ter borrer sumthin\u2019, an\u2019 he stan\u2019 up dar an\u2019 he look lak he\nenjoyed de way Joshwer waxes dem wicked armies. An\u2019 de moon, she wait\ndown in de low groun\u2019s dar, an\u2019 pours out her light and look jes\u2019 as\nca\u2019m an\u2019 happy as if she wuz waitin\u2019 fer her \u2019scort. Dey nevur budg\u2019d,\nneither uv \u2019em, long as de Lord\u2019s army needed er light to kerry on de\nbat\u2019l.\n\n\u201cI doan\u2019t read when it wuz dat Joshwer hitch up an\u2019 drove on, but I\n\u2019spose it wuz when de Lord tol\u2019 him ter go. Ennybody knows dat de sun\ndidn\u2019 stay dar all de time. It stopt fur bizniz, an\u2019 went on when it\ngot thru. Dis is \u2019bout all dat I has ter do wid dis perticl\u2019r case.\nI dun show\u2019d yer dat dis part uv de Lord\u2019s word teaches yer dat de\nsun stopt, which show dat he wuz movin\u2019 befo\u2019 dat, an\u2019 dat he went on\nart\u2019rwuds. I toll yer dat I wud prove dis an\u2019 I\u2019s dun it, an\u2019 I derfies\nennybody to say dat my p\u2019int ain\u2019t made.\n\n\u201cI tol\u2019 yer in de fust part uv dis discose dat de Lord Gord is a man uv\nwar. I \u2019spec by now yer begin ter see it is so. Doan\u2019t yer admit it?\nWhen de Lord cum ter see Joshwer in de day uv his feers an\u2019 warfar,\nan\u2019 actu\u2019ly mek de sun stop stone still in de heavuns, so de fight kin\nrage on tel all de foes is slain, yer bleeged ter und\u2019rstan\u2019 dat de\nGord uv peace is also de man uv war. He kin use bofe peace an\u2019 war ter\nhep de reichus, an\u2019 ter scattur de host uv de ailyuns. A man talked ter\nme las\u2019 week \u2019bout de laws uv nature, an\u2019 he say dey carn\u2019t poss\u2019bly\nbe upsot, an\u2019 I had ter laugh right in his face. As if de laws uv\nennythin\u2019 wuz greater dan my Gord who is de lawgiver fer ev\u2019rything. My\nLord is great; He rules in de heavuns, in de earth, an\u2019 doun und\u2019r de\ngroun\u2019. He is great, an\u2019 greatly ter be praised. Let all de people bow\ndoun an\u2019 wurship befo\u2019 Him!\n\n\u201cBut let us git erlong, for dar is quite a big lot mo\u2019 comin\u2019 on. Let\nus take nex\u2019 de case of Hezekier. He wuz one of dem kings of Juder--er\nmighty sorry lot I mus\u2019 say dem kings wuz, fur de mos\u2019 part. I inclines\nter think Hezekier wuz \u2019bout de highes\u2019 in de gin\u2019ral avrig, an\u2019 he\nwar no mighty man hisse\u2019f. Well, Hezekier he got sick. I dar say dat a\nking when he gits his crown an\u2019 fin\u2019ry off, an\u2019 when he is posterated\nwid mortal sickness, he gits \u2019bout es commun lookin\u2019 an\u2019 grunts an\u2019\nrolls, an\u2019 is \u2019bout es skeery as de res\u2019 of us po\u2019 mortals. We know dat\nHezekier wuz in er low state uv min\u2019; full uv fears, an\u2019 in a tur\u2019ble\ntrub\u2019le. De fac\u2019 is, de Lord strip him uv all his glory an\u2019 landed him\nin de dust. He tol\u2019 him dat his hour had come, an\u2019 dat he had bettur\nsquar up his affaars, fur death wuz at de do\u2019. Den it wuz dat de king\nfell low befo\u2019 Gord; he turn his face ter de wall; he cry, he moan, he\nbeg\u2019d de Lord not ter take him out\u2019n de worl\u2019 yit. Oh, how good is our\nGord! De cry uv de king moved his heart, an\u2019 he tell him he gwine ter\ngive him anudder show. Tain\u2019t only de kings dat de Lord hears. De cry\nuv de pris\u2019nur, de wail uv de bondsman, de tears uv de dyin\u2019 robber, de\nprars uv de backslider, de sobs uv de womun dat wuz a sinner, mighty\napt to tech de heart uv de Lord. It look lik it\u2019s hard fer de sinner\nter git so fur orf or so fur down in de pit dat his cry can\u2019t reach de\nyere uv de mussiful Saviour.\n\n\u201cBut de Lord do evun better den dis fur Hezekier--He tell him He gwine\nter give him a sign by which he\u2019d know dat what He sed wuz cummin\u2019 ter\npars. I ain\u2019t erquainted wid dem sun diuls dat de Lord toll Hezekier\n\u2019bout, but ennybody dat hes got a grain uv sense knows dat dey wuz de\nclocks uv dem ole times an\u2019 dey marked de travuls uv de sun by dem\ndiuls. When, darfo\u2019 Gord tol\u2019 de king dat He wud mek de shadder go\nbackwud, it mus\u2019 hev bin jes\u2019 lak puttin\u2019 de han\u2019s uv de clock back,\nbut, mark yer, Izaer \u2019spressly say dat de sun return\u2019d ten dergrees.\nThar yer are! Ain\u2019t dat de movement uv de sun? Bless my soul.\nHezekier\u2019s case beat Joshwer. Joshwer stop de sun, but heer de Lord mek\nde sun walk back ten dergrees; an\u2019 yet dey say dat de sun stan\u2019 stone\nstill an\u2019 nevur move er peg. It look ter me he move roun\u2019 mighty brisk\nan\u2019 is ready ter go ennyway dat de Lord ordurs him ter go. I wonder if\nenny uv dem furloserfers is roun\u2019 here dis arternoon. I\u2019d lik ter take\na squar\u2019 look at one uv dem an\u2019 ax him to \u2019splain dis mattur. He carn\u2019t\ndo it, my bruthr\u2019n. He knows a heap \u2019bout books, maps, figgers an\u2019 long\ndistunces, but I derfy him ter take up Hezekier\u2019s case an\u2019 \u2019splain it\norf. He carn\u2019t do it. De Word uv de Lord is my defense an\u2019 bulwurk, an\u2019\nI fears not what men can say nor do; my Gord gives me de vict\u2019ry.\n\n\u201c\u2019Low me, my frens, ter put mysef squar\u2019bout dis movement uv de sun. It\nain\u2019t no bizniss uv mine wedder de sun move or stan\u2019 still, or wedder\nit stop or go back or rise or set. All dat is out er my han\u2019s \u2019tirely,\nan\u2019 I got nuthin\u2019 ter say. I got no the-o-ry on de subjik. All I ax is\ndat we will take wat de Lord say \u2019bout it an\u2019 let His will be dun \u2019bout\nev\u2019rything. Wat dat will is I karn\u2019t know \u2019cept He whisper inter my\nsoul or write it in a book. Here\u2019s de Book. Dis is \u2019nough fer me, and\nwid it ter pilut me, I karn\u2019t git fur erstray.\n\n\u201cBut I ain\u2019t dun wid yer yit. As de song says, dere\u2019s mo\u2019 ter foller.\nI envite yer ter heer de fust vers in de sev\u2019nth chaptur uv de book\nuv Reverlashuns. What do John, und\u2019r de pow\u2019r uv de Spirit, say? He\nsay he saw fo\u2019 anguls standin\u2019 on de fo\u2019 corners uv de earth, holdin\u2019\nde fo\u2019 win\u2019s uv de earth, an\u2019 so fo\u2019th. \u2019Low me ter ax ef de earth is\nroun\u2019, whar do it keep its corners? Er flat, squar thing has corners,\nbut tell me where is de cornur uv er appul, ur a marbul, ur a cannun\nball, ur a silver dollar. Ef dar is enny one uv dem furloserfurs whar\u2019s\nbeen takin\u2019 so many cracks at my ole haid \u2019bout here, he is korjully\nenvited ter step for\u2019d an\u2019 squar up dis vexin\u2019 bizniss. I here tell\nyou dat yer karn\u2019t squar a circul, but it looks lak dese great scolurs\ndun learn how ter circul de squar. Ef dey kin do it, let \u2019em step ter\nde front an\u2019 do de trick. But, mer brutherin, in my po\u2019 judgmint, dey\nkarn\u2019t do it; tain\u2019t in \u2019em ter do it. Dey is on der wrong side of de\nBible; dat\u2019s on de outside uv de Bible, an\u2019 dar\u2019s whar de trubbul comes\nin wid \u2019em. Dey dun got out uv de bres\u2019wuks uv de truf, an\u2019 ez long ez\ndey stay dar de light uv de Lord will not shine on der path. I ain\u2019t\nkeer\u2019n so much \u2019bout de sun, tho\u2019 it\u2019s mighty kunveenyunt ter hav it,\nbut my trus\u2019 is in de Word uv de Lord. Long ez my feet is flat on de\nsolid rock, no man kin move me. I\u2019se gittin\u2019 my orders f\u2019um de Gord of\nmy salvashun.\n\n\u201cTother day er man wid er hi coler and side whisk\u2019rs cum ter my house.\nHe was one nice North\u2019rn gemman wat think a heap of us col\u2019rd people\nin de Souf. Da ar luvly folks and I honours \u2019em very much. He seem\nfrom de start kinder strictly an\u2019 cross wid me, and arter while, he\nbrake out furi\u2019us and frettid, an\u2019 he say: \u2018Erlow me Mister Jasper ter\ngib you sum plain advise. Dis nonsans \u2019bout de sun movin\u2019 whar you ar\ngettin\u2019 is disgracin\u2019 yer race all ober de kuntry, an\u2019 as a fren of\nyer peopul, I cum ter say it\u2019s got ter stop.\u2019 Ha! Ha! Ha! Mars\u2019 Sam\nHargrove nuvur hardly smash me dat way. It was equl to one ov dem ole\noverseurs way bac yondur. I tel him dat ef he\u2019ll sho me I\u2019se wrong, I\ngiv it all up.\n\n\u201cMy! My! Ha! Ha! He sail in on me an\u2019 such er storm about science, nu\n\u2019scuv\u2019ries, an\u2019 de Lord only knos wat all, I ner hur befo\u2019, an\u2019 den he\ntel me my race is ergin me an\u2019 po ole Jasper mus shet up \u2019is fule mouf.\n\n\u201cWen he got thru--it look lak he nuvur wud, I tel him John Jasper ain\u2019\nset up to be no scholur, an\u2019 doant kno de ferlosophiz, an\u2019 ain\u2019 tryin\u2019\nter hurt his peopul, but is wurkin\u2019 day an\u2019 night ter lif \u2019em up, but\nhis foot is on de rock uv eternal truff. Dar he stan\u2019 and dar he is\ngoin\u2019 ter stan\u2019 til Gabrul soun\u2019s de judgment note. So er say to de\ngemman wat scol\u2019d me up so dat I hur him mek his remarks, but I ain\u2019\nhur whar he get his Scriptu\u2019 from, an\u2019 dat \u2019tween him an\u2019 de wurd of de\nLord I tek my stan\u2019 by de Word of Gord ebery time. Jasper ain\u2019 mad:\nhe ain\u2019 fightin\u2019 nobody; he ain\u2019 bin \u2019pinted janitur to run de sun: he\nnothin\u2019 but de servunt of Gord and a luver of de Everlasting Word. What\nI keer about de sun? De day comes on wen de sun will be called frum his\nrace-trac, and his light squincked out foruvur; de moon shall turn ter\nblood, and this yearth be konsoomed wid fier. Let um go; dat wont skeer\nme nor trubble Gord\u2019s erlect\u2019d peopul, for de word uv de Lord shell\naindu furivur, an\u2019 on dat Solid Rock we stan\u2019 an\u2019 shall not be muved.\n\n\u201cIs I got yer satisfied yit? Has I prooven my p\u2019int? Oh, ye whose\nhearts is full uv unberlief! Is yer still hol\u2019in\u2019 out? I reckun de\nreason yer say de sun don\u2019 move is \u2019cause yer are so hard ter move\nyerse\u2019f. You is a reel triul ter me, but, nevur min\u2019; I ain\u2019t gi\u2019n yer\nup yit, an\u2019 nevur will. Truf is mighty; it kin break de heart uv stone,\nan\u2019 I mus\u2019 fire anudder arrur uv truf out\u2019n de quivur uv de Lord. If\nyer haz er copy uv God\u2019s Word \u2019bout yer pussun, please tu\u2019n ter dat\nminer profit, Malerki, wat writ der las\u2019 book in der ole Bible, an\u2019\nlook at chaptur de fust, vurs \u2019leben; what do it say? I bet\u2019r read it,\nfur I got er noshun yer critics doan\u2019t kerry enny Bible in thar pockits\nev\u2019ry day in de week. Here is wat it says: \u2018Fur from de risin\u2019 uv de\nsun evun unter de goin\u2019 doun uv de same My name shall be great \u2019mong\nde Gentiles.... My name shall be great \u2019mong de heathun, sez de Lord\nuv hosts.\u2019 How do dat suit yer? It look lak dat ort ter fix it. Dis\ntime it is de Lord uv hosts Hisse\u2019f dat is doin\u2019 de talkin\u2019, an\u2019 He\nis talkin\u2019 on er wonderful an\u2019 glorious subjik. He is tellin\u2019 uv de\nspredin\u2019 uv His Gorspel, uv de kummin\u2019 uv His larst vict\u2019ry ovur de\nGentiles, an\u2019 de wurldwide glories dat at de las\u2019 He is ter git. Oh, my\nbruddrin, wat er time dat will be. My soul teks wing es I erticipate\nwid joy dat merlenium day! De glories as dey shine befo\u2019 my eyes blin\u2019s\nme, an\u2019 I furgits de sun an\u2019 moon an\u2019 stars. I jes\u2019 \u2019members dat \u2019long\n\u2019bout dose las\u2019 days dat de sun an\u2019 moon will go out uv bizniss, fur\ndey won\u2019 be needed no mo\u2019. Den will King Jesus come back ter see His\npeople, an\u2019 He will be de suffishunt light uv de wurl\u2019. Joshwer\u2019s\nbat\u2019ls will be ovur. Hezekier woan\u2019t need no sun diul, an\u2019 de sun an\u2019\nmoon will fade out befo\u2019 de glorius splendurs uv de New Jerruslem.\n\n\u201cBut wat der mattur wid Jasper. I mos\u2019 furgit my bizniss, an\u2019 mos\u2019 gon\u2019\nter shoutin\u2019 ovur de far away glories uv de secun\u2019 cummin\u2019 uv my Lord.\nI beg pardun, an\u2019 will try ter git back ter my subjik. I hev ter do\nas de sun in Hezekier\u2019s case--fall back er few dergrees. In dat part\nuv de Word dat I gin yer frum Malerki--dat de Lord Hisse\u2019f spoke--He\nklars dat His glory is gwine ter spred. Spred? Whar? Frum de risin\u2019\nuv de sun ter de goin\u2019 down uv de same. Wat? Doan\u2019t say dat, duz it?\nDat\u2019s edzakly wat it sez. Ain\u2019t dat cleer \u2019nuff fer yer? De Lord pity\ndese doubtin\u2019 Tommusses. Here is \u2019nuff ter settul it all an\u2019 kure de\nwuss cases. Walk up yere, wise folks, an\u2019 git yer med\u2019sin. Whar is dem\nhigh collar\u2019d furloserfurs now? Wat dey skulkin\u2019 roun\u2019 in de brush fer?\nWhy doan\u2019t yer git out in der broad arternoon light an\u2019 fight fer yer\ncullurs? Ah, I un\u2019stans it; yer got no answer. De Bible is agin yer,\nan\u2019 in yer konshunses yer are convictid.\n\n\u201cBut I hears yer back dar. Wat yer wisprin\u2019 \u2019bout? I know; yer say yer\nsont me sum papurs an\u2019 I nevur answer dem. Ha, ha, ha! I got \u2019em. De\ndifferkulty \u2019bout dem papurs yer sont me is dat dey did not answer me.\nDey nevur menshun de Bible one time. Yer think so much uv yoursef\u2019s\nan\u2019 so little uv de Lord Gord an\u2019 thinks wat yer say is so smart dat\nyer karn\u2019t even speak uv de Word uv de Lord. When yer ax me ter stop\nbelievin\u2019 in de Lord\u2019s Word an\u2019 ter pin my faith ter yo words, I ain\u2019t\ner gwine ter do it. I take my stan\u2019 by de Bible an\u2019 res\u2019 my case on wat\nit says. I take wat de Lord says \u2019bout my sins, \u2019bout my Saviour, \u2019bout\nlife, \u2019bout death, \u2019bout de wurl\u2019 ter come, an\u2019 I take wat de Lord say\n\u2019bout de sun an\u2019 moon, an\u2019 I cares little wat de haters of mer Gord\nchooses ter say. Think dat I will fursake de Bible? It is my only Book,\nmy hope, de arsnel uv my soul\u2019s surplies, an\u2019 I wants nuthin\u2019 else.\n\n\u201cBut I got ernudder wurd fur yer yit. I done wuk ovur dem papurs dat\nyer sont me widout date an\u2019 widout yer name. Yer deals in figgurs an\u2019\nthinks yer are biggur dan de arkanjuls. Lemme see wat yer dun say.\nYer set yerse\u2019f up ter tell me how fur it is frum here ter de sun.\nYer think yer got it down ter er nice p\u2019int. Yer say it is 3,339,002\nmiles frum de earth ter de sun. Dat\u2019s wat yer say. Nudder one say\ndat de distuns is 12,000,000; nudder got it ter 27,000,000. I hers\ndat de great Isuk Nutun wuk\u2019t it up ter 28,000,000, an\u2019 later on de\nfurloserfurs gin ernudder rippin\u2019 raze to 50,000,000. De las\u2019 one\ngits it bigger dan all de yuthers, up to 90,000,000. Doan\u2019t enny uv\n\u2019em ergree edzakly an\u2019 so dey runs a guess game, an\u2019 de las\u2019 guess\nis always de bigges\u2019. Now, wen dese guessers kin hav a kunvenshun in\nRichmun\u2019 an\u2019 all ergree \u2019pun de same thing, I\u2019d be glad ter hear frum\nyer ag\u2019in, an\u2019 I duz hope dat by dat time yer won\u2019t be ershamed uv yer\nname.\n\n\u201cHeeps uv railroads hes bin built sense I saw de fust one wen I wuz\nfifteen yeers ole, but I ain\u2019t hear tell uv er railroad built yit ter\nde sun. I doan\u2019 see why ef dey kin meshur de distuns ter de sun, dey\nmight not git up er railroad er a telurgraf an\u2019 enabul us ter fin\u2019\nsumthin\u2019 else \u2019bout it den merely how fur orf de sun is. Dey tell\nme dat a kannun ball cu\u2019d mek de trep ter de sun in twelve years.\nWhy doan\u2019 dey send it? It might be rig\u2019d up wid quarturs fur a few\nfurloserfers on de inside an\u2019 fixed up fur er kumfurterble ride. Dey\nwud need twelve years\u2019 rashuns an\u2019 a heep uv changes uv ramint--mighty\nthick clo\u2019es wen dey start and mighty thin uns wen dey git dar.\n\n\u201cOh, mer bruthrin, dese things mek yer laugh, an\u2019 I doan\u2019 blem yer fer\nlaughin\u2019, \u2019cept it\u2019s always sad ter laugh at der follies uv fools. If\nwe cu\u2019d laugh \u2019em out\u2019n kount\u2019nens, we might well laugh day an\u2019 night.\nWat cuts inter my soul is, dat all dese men seem ter me dat dey is\nhittin\u2019 at de Bible. Dat\u2019s wat sturs my soul an\u2019 fills me wid reichus\nwrath. Leetle keers I wat dey says \u2019bout de sun, purvided dey let de\nWord uv de Lord erlone. But nevur min\u2019. Let de heethun rage an\u2019 de\npeople \u2019madgin er vain thing. Our King shall break \u2019em in pieces an\u2019\ndash \u2019em down. But blessed be de name uv our Gord, de Word uv de Lord\nindurith furivur. Stars may fall, moons may turn ter blood, an\u2019 de sun\nset ter rise no mo\u2019, but Thy kingdom, oh, Lord, is frum evurlastin\u2019 ter\nevurlastin\u2019.\n\n\u201cBut I has er word dis arternoon fer my own brutherin. Dey is de people\nfer whose souls I got ter watch--fur dem I got ter stan\u2019 an\u2019 report at\nde last--dey is my sheep an\u2019 I\u2019se der shepherd, an\u2019 my soul is knit\nter dem forever. \u2019Tain fer me ter be troublin\u2019 yer wid dese questions\nerbout dem heb\u2019nly bodies. Our eyes goes far beyon\u2019 de smaller stars;\nour home is clean outer sight uv dem twinklin\u2019 orbs; de chariot dat\nwill cum ter take us to our Father\u2019s mansion will sweep out by dem\nflickerin\u2019 lights an\u2019 never halt till it brings us in clar view uv de\nthrone uv de Lamb. Doan\u2019t hitch yer hopes to no sun nor stars; yer\nhome is got Jesus fer its light, an\u2019 yer hopes mus\u2019 trabel up dat way.\nI preach dis sermon jest fer ter settle de min\u2019s uv my few brutherin,\nan\u2019 repeats it \u2019cause kin\u2019 frens wish ter hear it, an\u2019 I hopes it will\ndo honour ter de Lord\u2019s Word. But nuthin\u2019 short of de purly gates can\nsatisfy me, an\u2019 I charge, my people, fix yer feet on de solid Rock, yer\nhearts on Calv\u2019ry, an\u2019 yer eyes on de throne uv de Lamb. Dese strifes\nan\u2019 griefs \u2019ll soon git ober; we shall see de King in His glory an\u2019\nbe at ease. Go on, go on, ye ransom uv de Lord; shout His praises as\nyer go, an\u2019 I shall meet yer in de city uv de New Jeruserlum, whar we\nshan\u2019t need the light uv de sun, fer de Lam\u2019 uv de Lord is de light uv\nde saints.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\nONE JASPER DAY IN THE SPRING TIME OF 1878\n\n_The Story of a Spectator_\n\n\nThe paper which follows is a composite, embodying many incidents and\nfacts connected with the Jasper sensation, and designed to reflect, so\nfar as possible, the impression made by the fiery old philosopher upon\nthose who though out of sympathy with his astronomical notions fell as\nhelpless victims beneath the spell of his eloquence and honesty.\n\nFor quite a while the Jasper sensation had grown acute in Richmond.\nBeginning as a freak, it bloomed into a fad, got in the air, and\nactually invaded private homes. It was a pentecost for the curious, a\njuicy apple for the hard-driven reporter, a festival for the scoffer,\nand a roaring financial bonanza for the saints of Sixth Mount Zion.\n\nI confess that, for my part, it struck me as a ridiculous business\nat best, the big bubble of an hour, and that if not caught at the\nexact moment it would speedily disappear, and while I was a sprig of\na reporter it was the sort of thing which did not come my way. Being,\nhowever, of a prying and curious turn of mind I determined to take\none glimpse at the black elephant. It took time, however, to get my\npurpose into working order, but my day came in due course. I awoke one\nmorning to find the Saturday papers \u201cfestering\u201d with Jasper. He was in\nthe advertisements, in the communications, and in the local columns,\nand the show was to come off the next day. They told once more of his\nastronomical absurdities, as I believed them to be, and informed me\nthat the exhibition would come off at 3 P. M. on the next afternoon.\nAt noon, I dropped into Reugers\u2019 for my lunch, and a table of hayseed\nlegislators were filling the room, with noisy gabble about Jasper and\nhis planetary crochets. I found that some of them had signed a paper\nasking for the approaching Jasperian exhibition, and others of them\nwere twitting and punching them for their folly; but I found that both\nsides of them were going.\n\nLater in the day, I got into a West Main Street car and found a seat\nnext to three ladies who evidently had a serious attack of Jasper,\nand they, too, were bargaining to go. At the supper table in my\nboarding-house that evening I found a sickly old Yankee minister\nloafing in Richmond for his health, in a swivet of excitement about\nJasper and his coming oration. My landlady\u2019s fourteen year old boy told\nme that his mother had promised that he should go to hear Jasper, on\nthe hampering condition that he could get some gentleman to go with\nhim, and his appeal for my company would have beaten Jasper in the\npoint of passionate eloquence. To me, it all seemed a stew of folly,\nand yet I found myself gratified to have this earnest lad as an excuse\nin favour of my going.\n\nI finally bargained with the eager youngster that I would waylay him\nthe next morning on his early escape from the Sunday-school, and we\nwould stroll out into the vicinity of the Sixth Mount Zion Church, and\nmake a preliminary reconnaissance of the general situation. We did not\nfind it quite a well-odoured stroll at all points, particularly as we\ngot in the neighbourhood of the church, for we encountered a tangle of\nstreets and alleys some of which were not in the best condition.\n\nNot long after crossing Broad Street we began to run afoul of squads\nand groups of coloured people, and the total strain of their chat was\nJasper and what was coming later on. The nearer we came to the church,\nthe combat, as the poet said, deepened, that is, the groups multiplied\nand the Jasperian element grew. A huge negro woman hanging on a\nside-gate on Clay Street was shouting in a piping voice about Jasper\nand the sun, and telling to several dumb listeners that \u201cshe wuz gwine\nter be dar ef de Lord \u2018sparred\u2019 her an\u2019 it wuz de las\u2019 thing she done\non de yerth.\u201d\n\nI observed also several of those Virginia solons already\nmentioned,--those big footed, badly shaven, and consequential\nlegislators,--prowling in the neighbourhood of the church, as if they\nwere studying and planning for burglaries. As we meandered the crooked\nstreets which admitted us to a sight of the great Sixth Mount Zion,\nwe saw in every direction the sign of a prodigious expectancy. Front\nyards, streets, and alleys had their contingents, and you could not get\nwithin ear-shot without getting some novel and surprising hints as to\nJohn Jasper and the Solar System. We could hear singing in the church,\nand we assumed that something in the way of worship was in process.\nThat, however, was not IT. That was a tame and pithless performance,\nand if Jasper was in it at all he was evidently resting his better\nforces for the bigger battle at three o\u2019clock in the impending\nafternoon.\n\nThe attraction on the inside was out of gear and didn\u2019t draw. My young\ncompanion, who was vastly my superior as to the Jasper situation,\ninformed me with marked conviction that the thing for us to do, and\nto do at once and with a rush, was to go back to the house, swallow\nour dinner, and get back with the utmost speed. We did not get away,\nhowever, before we noted that all avenues in the vicinity of the church\nseemed to be filling. Some were coming and going; some were knotted\ninto groups looking very solemn and apparently awestruck, and some\nwere crowding in like late comers at a circus; but whenever you caught\na word it had to do with Jasper. As we walked away, the son of my\nlandlady, full of the fidgets and outraged by my slow motion remarked\nsagely: \u201cAin\u2019t he got \u2019em?\u201d I had to admit it; he had \u2019em,--by a grip\ntighter than if he had \u2019em by the nape of the neck. Evidently enough,\nhe had them, and in a bunch as big as the town.\n\nBut I didn\u2019t know it fully then. Being untutored in Jasper\u2019s holding\npower, I was fresh enough to suppose that all that buzzing, swarming\ngang of negroes would scatter away to their frugal Sunday meal, and\nthat the alleys and streets would empty into their usual vacancy,\nthough the boy\u2019s mien of hurry and eagerness was warning me to the\ncontrary. He mentioned several times that from what other boys had told\nhim we must go very early, and in order to gratify him we got out of\nthe boarding-house at a quarter after one, and we needed only fifteen\nminutes of quiet walking to get a front seat.\n\nShades of the Pharaohs and shadows of the Pyramids! As we headed\ntowards the seat of planetary conflict the streets looked like black\nrivers. Great lines of blacks, relieved here and there by companies of\nwhites, thronged the sidewalks. Were Hannibal\u2019s Carthagenian legions\nbeing turned loose in Richmond? Or had some mighty earthquake ripped\nopen the foundations of Richmond, and were the people, caked with the\nsoot, fleeing for life? It was more tranquil than that, thank heaven!\nIt was however the town, upheaved and agitated, striving fiercely for\nSixth Mount Zion, to hear the supreme sensation of all his race,--as\nI now began to realize he was. Squares before we got to the church we\ncollided with the returning tide. \u201cNo use of going,\u201d they said,--\u201chouse\nalready packed; streets full, men fighting and women fainting,\u201d and a\ndeal more of the same sort.\n\nBut these appalling things only urged me on. If there was to be a\ncongestion or a catastrophe, it was just to my taste as well as to\nmy profession to attend. Besides, I had in me a desperate purpose to\nget into that house, and I promised the boy that we\u2019d sink or swim\ntogether. I understood it was perfectly scriptural to rip off the roof\nas the last resort. The occasion had jumped the common road, and it\nwas folly to falter now before any obstacle. The fight through that\nmob has left me some marks to be noticed when I am dressed for my\nburial. My toes were tramped into jelly. At one time I was lifted by a\nrush, and one of my knees aches yet in bad weather as a consequence.\nSeveral times I thought the landlady\u2019s boy was doomed to become an\nunrecognizable mangle. It began to sift into me that Jasper was more\nthan a man, and nothing short of an entire situation and a public\nmenace. My business was more and more to see him.\n\nThe church, when first seen, looked like a tall boat borne on the heads\nof thousands, and yet I pushed along. Now, right here, I have to drop\nmy honesty and become a hypocrite. How I got into that house must not\nbe told. There is a muscular, ginger-bread fellow who stays in the\noffice down town, and he broke all rules and I know not how many bones,\nand, miraculous as it was, landed me and the boy into the pulpit with\nblood on the boy\u2019s nose.\n\nNow, excuse me from describing the music and the praying, though I\nwould like to mention that the song that the old darkey in the Amen\ncorner with the white nape and the quivering voice started up, and\nwhich it looked to me like all the people in the world were singing,\nrather jerked me out of myself and took me off on its waves, and when I\ngot back I had to use my handkerchief in an unusual way.\n\nJasper made a prayer also, and the way he talked to the Lord about his\nown meanness and his ignorance, knocked out of me about half of my\nnotion that he was a dribbling old egotist and numbskull. He caused\ncold chills to pass up my back by several surprising things which he\nsaid to the Lord in a most serious way, and I have to own that by the\ntime he said \u201cAmen,\u201d I was a little prejudiced in his favour.\n\nFurther, allow me to say right here that I know positively that I\nnever saw so many people in a house of that size at one time as was in\nthe church that afternoon. Women sat in each other\u2019s laps, the pulpit\nwas piled up, and all the spaces chinked, packed, and doubled up. I\nought to add that the look of eagerness, expectation, and attention\nwas oppressive. No whispering, no looking around; only silence, except\nwhen Jasper started them. Then you felt the mastery and the subduing\nsovereignty of the man. I saw that the white people had been favoured\nin getting seats, and there were hordes of them. The legislators\nabounded, and there were preachers, lawyers, notable men, fashionable\nwomen, and not a few strangers in Richmond, all herding together and\nvery serious. It wasn\u2019t, I confess, what I expected. I looked for a\ncircus, and had hooked a funeral,--no, not a funeral; it wasn\u2019t dismal\nenough for that, but far more thoughtful and wakeful than a funeral can\nbe.\n\nI looked Jasper over with a critical eye, and before he began to\npreach I had his age down for sixty-two, but when he began to career\nover the pulpit I knocked off ten years. He had an unattractive bulge\non his face around his cheekbone, but his head looked like an alpine\ncliff. His eye, I noted, was an all sufficient redeemer, and its flash\nand laugh would cover acres of ugliness. His whiskers were decidedly\nundistinguished, except in their cut, and I marked his blood as\nunmixed. He dressed in a manner best suited to prevent people from\nnoticing how he dressed, and his tall form and alert action made him\nattractive in the pulpit.\n\nDuring the sermon he had something to say about himself. \u201cI\u2019ll be\nsixty-six years old on de fo\u2019th day uv dis coming July. I set out ter\nseek de salvation uv my Gord in 1839. I have never been in any school,\nbut I spent some months trying ter learn ter spell. I wuz converted in\nMarse Sam Hargrove\u2019s terbakur fac\u2019try in dis city, on de 25th day uv\nJuly, 1839, and frum dat day I have know\u2019d dat Gord had anintid me wid\nde Holy Ghost ter preach de Gorspil uv His Son.\u201d\n\nYou couldn\u2019t hear Jasper say that and doubt. He seemed to assert a\nmastery over me from the start as to his sincerity. It was impossible,\nmoreover, to question the honesty of anything he said. He made another\nremark at the outset which made everybody smile, but it was not a\nfrivolous smile by a long shot. He said he was so ignorant when he\nfirst felt he must preach that he thought maybe God wouldn\u2019t want a man\nto preach who could not read, and that maybe the devil had put that\nnotion into him. Then he stopped, and with a decided smile he said, \u201cI\ngot a notion dat ef de debbul put dis thing in me, den he wuz a bigger\nfool dan I ever thought he cud be. I don\u2019t think he hav made much by\nsettin\u2019 me out ter preach ef he did fer I done knocked his kingdom hard\nblows many a day, but arter more dan forty years servin\u2019 my Gord I know\nwho I hev b\u2019lieved. I feel dat wenever I stan\u2019 up in His name, de Lord\nis wid me.\u201d\n\nAfter these remarks he gave out his text and started in.\n\n\u201cEf I don\u2019t prove ter you by de word uv my Gord ter day dat de sun do\nmove, den I ergree never ter preach agin es long es my head is \u2019bove\nde clods. I spek ebbry lady an\u2019 gentl\u2019man presunt dis evenin\u2019 ter say\nwedder wat I say is so or not, arter dey hear wat I hav ter say. I\u2019ll\nspeak out\u2019n de Bibul, an\u2019 I want evrybody ter mark de words dat I giv\n\u2019em.\u201d\n\nI found that Jasper had a keen eye for business. He did things\naccording to the book. He had ferreted out of the Bible every passage\nthat bore upon the motions of the sun, and he had them all printed in a\nsort of tract. A copy of these passages he placed in the hands of every\none who could read and wished to follow him. He stumbled considerably\nover the big words, but he skipped none, and kept along, and when he\nwould read a passage he would ask to be corrected if, in any small\ndegree, he had not read it as it ought to be. He was greatly set on\ndoing clean work, and not seeming to be willing to fool anybody.\n\nAfter reading a passage, then \u201cthe fun\u201d would begin. He would pluck out\nof it the part that helped his argument, and it was a sight to see him\nwith this passage as if it were a broad sword. He would charge upon his\nantagonists, shouting and laughing, and whacking them as he went until\nhe would close that part of his work in a storm of eloquence. How he\ndid move the people! He moved with the stride of the conqueror.\n\nI am not skilled in religious reporting and cannot undertake to follow\nJasper in that fusillade of comment and criticism with which, for a\nfull hour and a half, he bore down upon his adversaries, crashing and\nscattering them as he went. A few of his sayings, however, stuck. He\ndrove them into my flesh like fangs, and possibly a concrete show of\nthem may help outsiders towards a conclusion as to what Jasper is after.\n\nHis text, so far as I could see, was not within ninety-five millions\nof miles of the question as to the movement of the sun. It did however\nsuit exactly for that part of his sermon which had to do with the Lord\nas the defender of His ancient people. He grew vivid in picturing\nancient Israel travelling through the great wilderness, and in showing\nhow God delivered them from all their foes.\n\nHis wonder as an orator broke out in unmeasured splendour as he\nportrayed the power of God at the crossing of the Red Sea. A pathetic\nspectacle were the Hebrew slaves, as they fled out of Egypt pursued by\nthe embattled legions of Pharaoh. As the Lord\u2019s people, as he called\nthem, got hemmed up with the sea in front of them and the great armies\ncharging in the rear, he actually made the people cry in dread and\nterror lest these refugees should be totally extinguished. The scene\nwas so lifelike and overmastering that shudders swept through the\ncrowd, and women were wild with actual fright. Then when Moses came;\nwhen the rod was stretched over the sea and the waters, as if appalled\nby the presence of the Lord God, began to part and roll back until they\nleft a clear passage between;--why everybody could see it. It was as\nplain as a great road in the broad daylight, and as the Hebrews, with\nrevived hope, in solid columns, moved across, his people took fire;\nthey literally shouted the children of Israel over. Jasper himself was\nleading the host, cheering, shouting to them not to be afraid, and\ntelling them that God would bring them safely through. It looked to me\nas if half of the women were clapping their hands or dancing, and the\nother half were rolling off the benches in the excess of their rapture,\nas the last of the children of Israel came trudging out upon the banks.\n\nBut instantaneously Jasper brought a revulsion of feeling. He\ndiscovered the vast host of Pharaoh marching with music and with\nbanners through the parted walls of the Red Sea. _They_ were coming\ntoo! After all, the people had shouted too soon. The triumphant\nEgyptians would soon be upon them, and the chosen of the Lord, after\nall, must be destroyed.\n\nWhy, look! The host is half-across; three-fourths now, getting nearer\nand nearer. \u201cOh, my God,\u201d Jasper cried, with a shriek of despair.\n\u201cHelp! help! or Thy people will be blotted out.\u201d\n\nAll over the house there were sobs and groans and cries of fright. Once\nmore the hand of the master was upon them, and he swayed them as he\nwould. Then with a shout he cried: \u201cDe walls of de Red Sea are fallin\u2019!\nDe partid waturs rush inter each udder\u2019s imbrace. Oh, ye heavens, shout\nan\u2019 let de earth be glad. Let hell ter its mos\u2019 remotes\u2019 dep\u2019s quake\nand cry: \u2018De Lord Gord is a man uv war. De Lord is His name!\u2019 Tell de\ntidin\u2019s. Shout it everywhar dat Gord hav\u2019 delivured His people.\u201d\n\nI have always liked fine speaking. Oratory has a resistless charm\nfor me. I bow to the man who thrills me. If Jasper wasn\u2019t the soul\nof eloquence that day, then I know not what eloquence is. He painted\nscene after scene. He lifted the people to the sun and sank them down\nto despair. He plucked them out of hard places and filled them with\nshouting. As long as I live all that Red Sea business, with Egypt and\nthe fleeing Hebrews and Pharaoh and his great legions and the sea and\nthe ruin and the great deliverance, are mine to keep as long as my\nmental powers can act. True, Jasper made me ridiculous three or four\ntimes by so convulsing me with laughter that I wanted to roll on the\nfloor, but it didn\u2019t make me frivolous a bit. I never knew that wit was\nsuch a deep and serious thing before.\n\nThe old orator had to stop \u201cto blow\u201d awhile, and it was a strictly\noriginal noise he made, as he refilled his exhausted lungs with a\nfresh supply of oxygen. The rush of air fairly shook the glass in the\nwindows and could have been heard perhaps for a square off. All at once\nhis face began to brighten with a smile, which almost amounted to an\nillumination. He said it \u201ckinder \u2019mused him ter ubsurv Gord\u2019s keen way\nuv wurryin\u2019 Pharo\u2019 inter lettin\u2019 His people go.\u201d\n\nI am a failure on dialect, but this part of the afternoon\u2019s\nentertainment came with such surprise that it was photographed on my\nmemory in a way it can never be blotted out. Jasper took up the several\nplagues which he asserted that God sent upon the Egyptian monarch,\ndeclaring that as Pharo\u2019 was too much of a brute to hear reason, or to\nfeel afraid, the Lord decided to tease and torment him with reptiles\nand insects, and then he added: \u201cI tell yer, my brudderin, dis skeme\ndid de buzniss fer Pharo\u2019. He kum frum ridin\u2019 one day an\u2019 wen he git in\nde pallis de hole hall is full uv frogs. Dey iz scamperrin\u2019 and hoppin\u2019\nroun\u2019 tel dey farly kivur de groun\u2019 an\u2019 Pharo\u2019 put his big foot an\u2019\nsquash\u2019d \u2019em on de marbul flo\u2019. He run inter his parler tryin\u2019 ter git\naway frum \u2019em. Dey wuz all erroun\u2019; on de fine chars, on de lounges,\nin de pianner. It shocked de king til\u2019 he git sick. Jes\u2019 den de dinner\nbell ring, an\u2019 in he go ter git his dinner. Ha, ha, ha! It\u2019s frogs,\nfrogs, frogs all erroun\u2019! Wen he sot down he felt de frogs squirmin\u2019\nin de char; de frogs on de plates, squattin\u2019 up on de meat, playin\u2019\novur de bred, an\u2019 wen he pick up his glas ter drink de watur de little\nfrogs iz swimmin\u2019 in de tum\u2019ler. Wen he tried ter stick up a pickul\nhis fork stuck in a frog; he felt him runnin\u2019 down his back. De queen\nshe cried, and mos\u2019 faintid an\u2019 tol\u2019 Pharo\u2019 dat she wud quit de pallis\nbefo\u2019 sundown ef he didn\u2019t do somthin\u2019 ter cler dem frogs out\u2019n de\nhouse. She say she know wat iz de mattur; twuz de Gord uv dem low-down\nHebrews, an\u2019 she wantid him ter git \u2019em out uv de country. Pharo\u2019 say\nhe wud, but he wuz an awful liar; jes\u2019 es dey tel me dat mos\u2019 uv de\npollitishuns iz.\u201d\n\nJust then my vagrant eye caught the string of legislators who had high\nseats in the synagogue and it looked to me as if every Senegambian in\nthat seething herd was sampling those rustic statesmen while they took\non an awfully silly look; or rather I think it was on most of them\nbefore. \u201cI can\u2019t pikshur up all dem plagues, but I mus\u2019 giv you more\n\u2019sperunce uv dem brutish people in de pallis dat wuz so cruel ter de\nHebrew folk. One mornin\u2019 de king wake up an\u2019 he wuz ackin\u2019 from bed\nter foot. He farly scratch\u2019d his skin off his body, an\u2019 out he jumps,\nan\u2019 as I liv\u2019 he finds hisse\u2019f farly civured ovur wid vermin. \u2019Bout\ndat time de queen, she springs up, an\u2019 sich scratchin\u2019 an\u2019 hollerrin\u2019\nPharo\u2019 nevur herd frum her befo\u2019, an\u2019 when he look at her dey is\ncrawlin\u2019 all over her an\u2019 she, fergitten her queenship, iz dashin\u2019\nerroun\u2019 de room shakin\u2019 her rappurs an\u2019 scratchin\u2019 and screamin\u2019 tel\npresn\u2019tly she brek loose on de king agin. \u2019Bout dat time dar wuz a yell\nin de nussery, an\u2019 in kums de little Pharoes an\u2019 dey runs scratchin\u2019\nand hollerin\u2019 an\u2019 kickin\u2019 ter der mudder. Der heds wuz full wid \u2019em;\ndere hands wuz all bit an\u2019 swell\u2019d, an\u2019 wen der mudder jerk\u2019d off der\nnite gowns jes\u2019 thousans uv \u2019em iz runnin\u2019 over \u2019em frum hed ter foot.\nPharo\u2019 wuz rich, but riches don\u2019t kill fleas. Pharo\u2019 had big armis,\nbut soljeers can\u2019t conquer an army of lice. Pharo\u2019 had servunts by\nde thousans, but all uv \u2019em put togedder cudn\u2019t pertek\u2019 dem little\nPharoes an\u2019 princesses frum dat plague dat an angry Gord sent ter\nskurge Pharo\u2019 an\u2019 mek \u2019im willin\u2019 ter let His chil\u2019n go.\u201d\n\nThis is a sample. Jasper\u2019s imagination was like a prairie on fire. The\nexcitement in the congregation was of a new order; he was tickling\nthem in a new spot, or rather in forty spots at once, and the noise\nin the house was almost like the roar of a tempest. I never was in\nsuch a conglomerate mood. His picture of the plagues convulsed me with\nlaughter,--would have killed me dead, I verily believe, but for the\ncounteracting effect of the horror excited in me. And more than that,\nthe trials of the Hebrew slaves loomed up before me all the time. I\nwas subconsciously pitying them, and anxious to get my fingers on the\ndamnable throat of the tyrant. I never knew what it was, until that\nday, to have all sorts of feelings at the same time. It seemed to me\nthat the strain would have to be ended without going further.\n\nBut Jasper wasn\u2019t done, and things were coming on which it was\nimpossible to foresee. Suddenly I found Jasper on a new trail. This\ntime it was what he called the assassination of Isaac. I discovered\nthat Jasper could talk quite grammatically when he was on his dignity;\nbut, when he struck the abandon and lawlessness of his imagination, he\ndropped back into his dialect and then he was at his greatest. I found\nalso that he delighted in ponderous and sesquipedalian words. He rolled\nthem under his tongue,--save when the words themselves sometimes rolled\nhis tongue up,--and when he hit assassination, the pronunciation would\nhave made a thoughtful mule smile. But the word was simply a bit of\ndynamite to blow up his crowd and to kindle new flames in his fancy.\n\nJasper\u2019s picture of Abraham had the flavour of a poem. He stood him up\non a lofty pedestal, painted him as a man without a vice;--the pink of\na gentleman, the prince of his tribe, the companion of the Lord God,\nthe faithful father and the Father of the Faithful. Since that day,\nwhenever I get tired or feel that I have done something mean, and want\nto give my moral nature a set up, I recall Jasper\u2019s poem on Abraham.\n\nThe incident upon which he fastened was the tragical story of the\nsacrifice of Isaac. He told how the Lord waked Abraham up at night and\ntickled the old gentleman with the thought that there were some new\nhonours coming on for Isaac, and then in a flash, commanded him to take\nthe boy and go on a three days\u2019 run to a mountain and kill and burn him\nup. The way he portrayed the mental and emotional conflicts of Abraham\nduring those days was like a steel pointed plow in the soil of the\nsoul. Then when they got in sight of the mountain and Abraham halted\nthe cavalcade, and he and the boy, parting from the rest, set out to\nclimb the mountain alone I got mad and felt like ripping the whole\nschedule into fragments. There was a deadly hush on the crowd. The air\nwas tense, and all who were capable of it turned pale. Just then Jasper\ngave a slight jerk to the turn of things and came to my relief.\n\n\u201cWhy yer reckin Gord try dis thing on Abraham?\u201d Jasper asked in a\nsingularly cool manner. \u201cI tell yer why. Gord not only wants ter know\nHis people iz all rite, but He wants de wurl\u2019 ter know dat dey iz all\nrite, an\u2019 more dan dat, He wants His people ter hev de comfut dat dey\nis all rite too. Over in de Hebrews, most near de en\u2019 uv de Bibul, we\niz inform\u2019d dat by faith Aberham, wen he wuz tried, offur\u2019d up Isuk.\nGod know\u2019d dat Aberham lov\u2019 Isuk better dan anything on de earth, an\u2019\ndat he got mity big hopes \u2019bout his son\u2019s futur. So de Lord broke on\n\u2019im onexpectid an\u2019 order\u2019d \u2019im ter git out ter Mount Morier an\u2019 put\nhis son ter death. It look mity hard an\u2019 strange ter Aberham, but he\nwuk\u2019d it out. He say ef Gord es gwine ter carry out de plan \u2019bout Isuk\nraisin\u2019 a gret nashun an\u2019 he kill Isuk, den de Lord hay ter rais\u2019 \u2019im\nup agin, an\u2019 so he say I\u2019ll do wat de Lord tel me an\u2019 ax no questions.\n\n\u201cBy de way, yonder dey iz, on de top uv de mountin. Aberham put up thar\na big altur an\u2019 he done tuk dat wood dat Isuk kerried an\u2019 put it under\nde altur to start de fire. He also got de knife laid out dar shinin\u2019\nin de sun, sharp es a razer. He call Isuk an\u2019 Isuk walk up pert an\u2019\nwillin\u2019 an\u2019 mity intristid in wat\u2019s gwine on, an\u2019 wonderrin\u2019 whar his\nfather gwine to git an offrin\u2019, whar de lam\u2019 fer de slaughter wuz. Den\nAberham ondress Aisuk an\u2019 tie his feet an\u2019 han\u2019s an\u2019 lay \u2019im up on dat\naltur. Solem time, I tell yer. Den he turn roun\u2019 an\u2019 pick up dat blade\nan\u2019 he turn roun\u2019 ter de altur an\u2019 up he lif\u2019 his gret arm high over\nhis hed wid de knife in his han\u2019. It stay up dar a sekkun\u2019, an\u2019 den wid\na suddin flash down it starts.\n\n\u201cOh, my Gord! Aberham\u2019s han\u2019 \u2019s parrerlized; fer de earth farly shuk\nwid de mity vois uv de Lord Gord: \u2018Aberham, Aberham, hol\u2019 on! Lay not\nthy han\u2019 erpon de chile uv de Promis\u2019. I jes\u2019 wan\u2019 ter try yer!\u2019 Wat\ndat out dar in de brush erblatin\u2019 and erscramblin\u2019? Gord had prepar\u2019d\nde sacrerfice, an\u2019 Aberham, undoin\u2019 de boy\u2019s han\u2019s an\u2019 feet, hugs \u2019im\nter his hart and cries and shouts tell it look lik de pillers uv de\nheavens trimbul\u2019d wid de joy.\u201d\n\nNow this is the way I remember it, but Jasper was never put on paper.\nIf you were not there, you don\u2019t understand. Of course, it was foolish\nin me, but that great crowd was in such a tumult, and John Jasper\nseemed in some way so transfigured, and, without knowing why, I was\ngreatly tempted to let out one tremendous yell. There was something in\nme that needed to be let off, and I cannot tell what I really did, and\nno matter any way. The strain was so pitiless that I wanted fresh air\nand would probably have gone out, except that it was the one thing that\nwas physically impossible.\n\nYet another scene comes back to me. Jasper had paraded his Scriptures\nin long array in support of his view, that the sun do move, and he\nhad such a tempestuous sense of victory that he turned loose all\nof his legions upon his scientific antagonists. He called them his\n\u201cFerloserfers\u201d and talked hotly about the books which they were all the\ntime sending him. He said that he would like to \u201chuddle all dese books\nin a pile an\u2019 cornsine \u2019em ter de flames. Dat\u2019s wat ought ter be done.\nDey ar weppuns wid wich Satun wud \u2019stroy de Word uv Gord.\u201d\n\nThe approval of this radical proceeding was accentuated with groans,\nand shouts, and scornful laughter, which surged through the house\nlike a maddened river. As a fact, I am not much ahead of Jasper in\nscientific knowledge, but I am not one of those flabby sort who jumped\nup to say that Jasper was simply voicing what they had believed all the\ntime. Through it all, I kept on believing in the rotation of the earth,\njust as I had before, and I really thought before I got there that I\nwould get enough fun out of the occasion to supply me for scores of\nSundays. The curious result of it all was that Jasper didn\u2019t convert\nme to his theory, nor did he convert me to his religion, but he did\nconvert me to himself. I found myself turning to him with a respect and\nkindliness of feeling that greatly surprised me. I felt his greatness.\nI believed in his sincerity, and to me he was a philosopher, sound in\nhis logic, mighty in his convictions, though he might be wrong in his\npremises.\n\nNow in plain contradiction of what I have said I must make an\nadmission. In the triumph of his ending Jasper polled his crowd to see\nhow his theory was prospering. He bade everybody who really endorsed\nhis theory that the sun moved to show the hand. I stretched up my arm\nabout four feet, and would have punched the ceiling with my fingers if\nit could have been done. Yes, I voted that the earth was flat and had\nfour corners, and that the sun drove his steeds from the gates of the\nmorning over to the barns in the West, and I never asked the question\nfor a moment as to how the team was got back during the night. Call me\na hypocrite, if it will comfort you to do it; that\u2019s a very gentle way\nto speak to a reporter, but I was dead sincere. My vote was in favour\nof Jasper\u2019s logic, his genuineness, his originality, his philosophic\nhonesty, and his religion. If it was hypocrisy to hold up the hand on\nthat occasion, then there was a mammoth pile of hypocrites; for it\nseemed to me that there were forty hundred of the Brirareus family\npresent and that the last one of them tried to hold up each one of his\nhands higher than all of his other hands and higher than anybody else\u2019s\nhands.\n\nI got full wages for my vote. To look at old Jasper with his parted\nlips, his smile, which belied every sign of his oratorical ferocity and\nvengefulness, and his unspeakable aspect of conquest and glory as the\npeople wrung his hand and poured their happy benedictions upon him.\n\nAfter the sermon the old brother, with the snow-capped head and the\nshaking voice, struck up one of the prayer-meeting choral songs. He\nspun it out rather thin, but reinforcements came in, and by the time\nthey struck the chorus the tramp of the feet all in unison seemed to\nme strong enough to crash down the bridge over Niagara, and as for the\nsinging, its appeal was to the imagination,--at least to mine,--and I\nactually fancied that I could hear the invisible choirs in which armies\nof angels and nations of the ransomed were joining with full voice.\n\nI had Jasper for breakfast, dinner, and supper that week. Down at\nthe office they called me \u201cJasper,\u201d and up at the boarding-house the\nlandlady\u2019s boy, who stayed in bed next day from his bruises, was\nconstantly singing, and making me help him, the choral song with which\nthe meeting broke up and the old Yankee preacher and the inevitable\nboy had me telling all the time of the multitudinous things that\nhappened at Jasper\u2019s church.\n\nMonths and months have since gone. The Jasperian uproar has ebbed, and\nI am still the bad reporter, and latterly have changed my desk and work\non Sunday, but often and often I dream about Jasper, and every time I\ndream I fancy that I have joined his church and that he and I shouted\nwhen he baptized me. No, I have never been back. I do not wish to build\non to my experience, and I do not want it marred by finding Jasper less\ncommanding and kinglike than he was on that spring time Sabbath that\nafternoon of \u201978.\n\n\n\n\nXV\n\nJASPER\u2019S PICTURE OF HEAVEN\n\n\nI never heard Jasper preach a sermon on heaven, nor did I ever hear\nof his doing so. So far as my observation goes, sermons on heaven\nhave failed to edify the thoughtful--sometimes proving distinctly\ndisappointing. It was not to Jasper\u2019s taste to argue on heaven as a\ndoctrine. With him it was as if he were camping outside of a beautiful\ncity, knowing much of its history and inhabitants, and in joyous\nexpectation of soon moving into it. The immediate things of the kingdom\nchiefly occupied his attention; but when his sermons took him into the\nneighbourhood of heaven, he took fire at once and the glory of the\ncelestial city lit his face and cheered his soul. This chapter deals\nonly with one of his sermons which, while not on heaven, reveals his\nheart-belief in it, and its vital effect upon his character.\n\nImagine a Sunday afternoon at his church--a fair, inspiring day.\nHis house was thronged to overflowing. It was the funeral of two\npersons--William Ellyson and Mary Barnes. The text is forgotten,\nbut the sermon is vividly recalled. From the start Jasper showed a\nburden and a boldness that promised rich things for his people. At the\nbeginning he betrayed some hesitation--unusual for him. \u201cLemme say,\u201d he\nsaid, \u201ca word about dis William Ellersin. I say it de fust an\u2019 git it\norf mer min\u2019. William Ellersin was no good man--he didn\u2019t say he wus;\nhe didn\u2019t try to be good, an\u2019 de tell me he die as he live, \u2019out Gord\nan\u2019 \u2019out hope in de worl\u2019. It\u2019s a bad tale to tell on \u2019im, but he fix\nde story hissef. As de tree falls dar mus it lay. Ef you wants folks\nwho live wrong to be preached and sung to glory, don\u2019 bring \u2019em to\nJasper. Gord comfut de monur and warn de onruly.\n\n\u201cBut, my bruthrin,\u201d he brightened as he spoke, \u201cMary Barnes wus\ndifrunt. She wer wash\u2019d in de blood of de Lam\u2019 and walk\u2019d in white; her\nr\u2019ligion was of Gord. Yer could trust Mary anywhar; nuv\u2019r cotch \u2019er in\ndem playhouses ner friskin\u2019 in dem dances; she wan\u2019 no street-walk\u2019r\ntrapsin\u2019 roun\u2019 at night. She love de house of de Lord; her feet\nclung to de straight and narrer path; I know\u2019d her. I seen her at de\nprarmeetin\u2019--seed her at de supper--seed her at de preachin\u2019, an\u2019 seed\nher tendin\u2019 de sick an\u2019 helpin\u2019 de mounin\u2019 sinn\u2019rs. Our Sister Mary,\ngood-bye. Yer race is run, but yer crown is shure.\u201d\n\nFrom this Jasper shot quite apart. He was full of fire, humour gleamed\nin his eye, and freedom was the bread of his soul. By degrees he\napproached the realm of death, and he went as an invader. A note of\ndefiant challenge rang in his voice and almost blazed on his lips.\nHe escorted the Christian to the court of death, and demanded of the\nmonster king to exhibit his power to hurt. It was wonderful to see how\nhe pictured the high courage of the child of God, marching up to the\nvery face of the king of terrors and demanding that he come forth and\ndo his worst. Death, on the other hand, was subdued, slow of speech,\nadmitted his defeat, and proclaimed his readiness to serve the children\nof Immanuel. Then he affected to put his mouth to the grave and cried\naloud: \u201cGrave! Grave! Er Grave!\u201d he cried as if addressing a real\nperson, \u201cWhar\u2019s yer vict\u2019ry? I hur you got a mighty banner down dar,\nan\u2019 you turrurizes ev\u2019rybody wat comes long dis way. Bring out your\narmies an\u2019 furl fo\u2019th your bann\u2019rs of vict\u2019ry. Show your han\u2019 an\u2019 let\n\u2019em see wat you kin do.\u201d Then he made the grave reply: \u201cAin\u2019t got no\nvict\u2019ry now; had vict\u2019ry, but King Jesus pars\u2019d through dis country\nan\u2019 tord my banners down. He says His peopl\u2019 shan\u2019t be troubled no mo\u2019\nforev\u2019r; an\u2019 He tell me ter op\u2019n de gates an\u2019 let \u2019um pass on dar way\nto glory.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, my Gord,\u201d Jasper exclaimed in thrilling voice, \u201cdid yer hur dat?\nMy Master Jesus done jerk\u2019d de sting of death, done broke de scept\u2019r of\nde king of tur\u2019rs, an\u2019 He dun gone inter de grave an\u2019 rob it uv its\nvictorous banners, an\u2019 fix\u2019d nice an\u2019 smooth for His people ter pass\nthrough. Mo\u2019 en dat, He has writ a song, a shoutin\u2019 anthim for us to\nsing when we go thur, passin\u2019 suns an\u2019 stars, an\u2019 singin\u2019 dat song,\n\u2018Thanks be onter Gord--be onter Gord who give us de vict\u2019ry thru de\nLord Jesus Christ.\u2019\u201d Too well I know that I do scant justice to the\ngreatness of Jasper by this outline of his transcendent eloquence. The\nwhole scene, distinct in every detail, was before the audience, and his\nresponsive hearers were stirred into uncontrollable excitement.\n\n\u201cMy bruthrin,\u201d Jasper resumed very soberly, \u201cI oft\u2019n ax myself how I\u2019d\nbehave merself ef I was ter git to heav\u2019n. I tell you I would tremble\nfo\u2019 de consequinces. Eben now when I gits er glimpse--jist a peep into\nde palis of de King, it farly runs me ravin\u2019 \u2019stracted. What will I do\nef I gits thar? I \u2019spec I\u2019ll make er fool of myself, \u2019cause I ain\u2019t\ngot de pritty ways an\u2019 nice manners my ole Mars\u2019 Sam Hargrove used to\nhave, but ef I git thar they ain\u2019t goin\u2019 to put me out. Mars\u2019 Sam\u2019ll\nspeak fur me an\u2019 tell \u2019em to teach me how to do. I sometimes thinks if\nI\u2019s \u2019lowed to go free--I \u2019specs to be free dar, I tell you, b\u2019leve I\u2019ll\njest do de town--walkin\u2019 an\u2019 runnin\u2019 all roun\u2019 to see de home which\nJesus dun built for His people.\n\n\u201cFust of all, I\u2019d go down an\u2019 see de river of life. I lov\u2019s to go down\nto de ole muddy Jemes--mighty red an\u2019 muddy, but it goes \u2019long so\ngran\u2019 an\u2019 quiet like \u2019twas \u2019tendin\u2019 to business--but dat ain\u2019t nothin\u2019\nto the river which flows by de throne. I longs fer its chrystal waves,\nan\u2019 de trees on de banks, an\u2019 de all mann\u2019rs of fruits. Dis old head of\nmine oft\u2019n gits hot with fever, aches all night an\u2019 rolls on de piller,\nan\u2019 I has many times desired to cool it in that blessed stream as it\nkisses de banks of dat upper Canaan. Bl\u2019ssed be de Lord! De thought of\nseein\u2019 dat river, drinkin\u2019 its water an\u2019 restin\u2019 un\u2019r dose trees----\u201d\nThen suddenly Jasper began to intone a chorus in a most affecting way,\nno part of which I can recall except the last line: \u201cOh, what mus\u2019 it\nbe to be thar?\u201d \u201cAft\u2019r dat,\u201d Jasper continued with quickened note,\n\u201cI\u2019d turn out an\u2019 view de beauties of de city--de home of my Father.\nI\u2019d stroll up dem abenuse whar de children of Gord dwell an\u2019 view dar\nmansions. Father Abraham, I\u2019m sure he got a grate pallis, an\u2019 Moses,\nwhat \u2019scorted de children of Israel out of bondige thru\u2019 de wilderness\nan\u2019 to de aidge of de promised lan\u2019, he must be pow\u2019rful set up being\nsich er man as he is; an\u2019 David, de king dat made pritty songs, I\u2019d\nlike to see \u2019is home, an\u2019 Paul, de mighty scholar who got struck down\nout in de \u2019Mascus road, I want to see his mansion, an\u2019 all of \u2019em. Den\nI would cut roun\u2019 to de back streets an\u2019 look for de little home whar\nmy Saviour set my mother up to housekeepin\u2019 when she got thar. I \u2019spec\nto know de house by de roses in de yard an\u2019 de vine on de poch.\u201d As\nJasper was moving at feeling pace along the path of his thoughts, he\nstopped and cried: \u201cLook dar; mighty sweet house, ain\u2019t it lovely?\u201d\nSuddenly he sprang back and began to shout with joyous clapping of\nhands. \u201cLook dar; see dat on de do; hallelujah, it\u2019s John Jasper.\nSaid He was gwine to prepar a place for me; dar it is. Too good for a\npo\u2019 sinner like me, but He built it for me, a turn-key job, an\u2019 mine\nforev\u2019r.\u201d Instantly he was singing his mellow chorus ending as before\nwith: \u201cOh, what mus\u2019 it be to be thar!\u201d\n\nFrom that scene he moved off to see the angelic host. There were the\nwhite plains of the heavenly Canaan--a vast army of angels with their\nbands of music, their different ranks and grades, their worship before\nthe throne and their pealing shouts as they broke around the throne of\nGod. The charm of the scene was irresistible; it lifted everybody to a\nsight of heaven, and it was all real to Jasper. He seemed entranced.\nAs the picture began to fade up rose his inimitable chorus, closing as\nalways: \u201cOh, what mus\u2019 it be to be thar!\u201d\n\nThen there was a long wait. But for the subdued and unworldly air of\nthe old preacher--full seventy years old then--the delay would have\ndissolved the spell. \u201cAn\u2019 now, frenz,\u201d he said, still panting and\nseeking to be calm, \u201cef yer\u2019ll \u2019scuse me, I\u2019ll take er trip to de\nthrone an\u2019 see de King in \u2019is roy\u2019l garmints.\u201d It was an event to\nstudy him at this point. His earnestness and reverence passed all\nspeech, and grew as he went. The light from the throne dazzled him\nfrom afar. There was the great white throne--there, the elders bowing\nin adoring wonder--there, the archangels waiting in silence for the\ncommands of the King--there the King in His resplendent glory--there\nin hosts innumerable were the ransomed. In point of vivid description\nit surpassed all I had heard or read. By this time the old negro\norator seemed glorified. Earth could hardly hold him. He sprang about\nthe platform with a boy\u2019s alertness; he was unconsciously waving his\nhandkerchief as if greeting a conqueror; his face was streaming with\ntears; he was bowing before the Redeemer; he was clapping his hands,\nlaughing, shouting and wiping the blinding tears out of his eyes. It\nwas a moment of transport and unmatched wonder to every one, and I felt\nas if it could never cease, when suddenly in a new note he broke into\nhis chorus, ending with the soul-melting words: \u201cOh, what mus\u2019 it be to\nbe thar!\u201d\n\nIt was a climax of climaxes. I supposed nothing else could follow. We\nhad been up so often and so high we could not be carried up again.\nBut there stood Jasper, fully seeing the situation. He had seen it\nin advance and was ready. \u201cMy bruthrin,\u201d said he as if in apology, \u201cI\ndun fergot somethin\u2019. I got ter tek anuth\u2019r trip. I ain\u2019t visit\u2019d de\nransum of de Lord. I can\u2019t slight dem. I knows heap ov \u2019em, an\u2019 I\u2019m\nboun\u2019 to see \u2019em.\u201d In a moment he had us out on the celestial plains\nwith the saints in line. There they were--countless and glorious! We\nwalked the whole line and had a sort of universal handshake in which no\nnote of time was taken. \u201cHere\u2019s Brer Abul, de fust man whar got here;\nhere\u2019s Brer Enoch whar took er stroll and straggled inter glory; here\u2019s\nole Ligie, whar had er carriage sent fur \u2019im an\u2019 comed a nigher way\nto de city.\u201d Thus he went on greeting patriarchs, prophets, apostles,\nmartyrs, his brethren and loved ones gone before until suddenly he\nsprang back and raised a shout that fairly shook the roof. \u201cHere she\nis; I know\u2019d sh\u2019d git here; why, Mary Barnes, you got home, did yer?\u201d\nA great handshake he gave her and for a moment it looked as if the\nnewly-glorified Mary Barnes was the centre of Jasper\u2019s thoughts; but,\nas if by magic, things again changed and he was singing at the top of\nhis voice the chorus which died away amid the shrieks and shouts of his\ncrowd with his plaintive note: \u201cOh, what mus\u2019 it be to be thar!\u201d\n\nJasper dropped exhausted into a chair and some chief singer of the\nold-time sort, in noble scorn of all choirs, struck that wondrous\nold song, \u201cWhen Death Shall Shake My Frame,\u201d and in a moment the\ngreat building throbbed and trembled with the mighty old melody.\nIt was sung only as Jasper\u2019s race can sing, and especially as only\nJasper\u2019s emotional and impassioned church could sing it. This was\nJasper\u2019s greatest sermon. In length it was not short of an hour and a\nhalf--maybe it was longer than that. He lifted things far above all\nthought of time, and not one sign of impatience was seen. The above\nsketch is all unworthy of the man or the sermon. As for the venerable\nold orator himself he was in his loftiest mood--free in soul, alert\nas a boy, his imagination rioting, his action far outwent his words,\nand his pictures of celestial scenes glowed with unworldly lustre. He\nwas in heaven that day, and took us around in his excursion wagon, and\nturning on the lights showed us the City of the Glorified.\n\nWhat is reported here very dimly hints at what he made us see. Not a\nfew of Richmond\u2019s most thoughtful people, though some of them laid no\nclaim to piety, were present and not one of them escaped the profound\nspiritual eloquence of this simple-hearted old soldier of the cross.\n\nValiant, heroic old man! He stood in his place and was not afraid. He\ngave his message in no uncertain words--scourged error wherever it\nexposed its front stood sentinel over the word of God and was never\ncaught sleeping at his post.\n\nWhen his work ended, he was ready to go up and see his Master face to\nface.\n\nThe stern old orator, brave as a lion, rich in humour, grim, and a\ndreamer whose dreams were full of heaven, has uttered his last message\nand gone within the veil to see the wonders of the unseen. If the\ngrapes of Eschol were so luscious to him here, \u201cOh, what must it be for\nhim to be there.\u201d\n\n\nPrinted in the United States of America","title":"John Jasper: The unmatched Negro philosopher and preacher","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":43777}