Evangelizing The South PDF Download

Excerpt from A Tract on the Best Mode of Evangelizing the Slaves of the South, in Accordance With the Polity of the Presbyterian Church For the evangelization of the blacks in this country, three methods have been employed. During the infancy of the American colonies, and when but few slaves existed among them, all denominations received African converts into white churches. At this time, no separate organization of the blacks into churches, nor even any distinct buildings for their accommodation were employed. They met with their masters in the same building and sat down With them at the same table of the Lord. This method of evangelization however, is suited only to a state of things in which the slave popa lation is small. Whenever that class of persons increases into an equality with the whites, or outnumbers them, then, either the white congregation must be divided, or the slave part of it set off to itself. The second mode of evangelization is, to provide separate houses for the blacks, to give them a Preacher to themselves, but to extend over them still the government of the parent church. This method has many and decided advantages over the previous one. Where the slaves are placed in galleries to worship with the whites, they feel themselves addressed by the Preacher in only a secondary sense. The sermon is prepared for the whites, is adapted chiefly to the whites, and sometimes can be understood only by them. Singing too, that part of worship in which negroes seem so much to delight is performed by a White choir, while the lips of the slave are hushed in silence either from his ignorance or want of skill in the tunes sung. These evils are all remedied by providing for the blacks separate houses of worship, and by furnishing them with their own Pastor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.