The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 08, August, 1888

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Speaking of prayer among the colored people, calls to mind a petition offered for myself, when Field Superintendent, soon after my appointment. An old black woman in New Orleans was called upon to pray, after I had spoken to the people. She chanted her words in soft, melodious tones, keeping time with her body swaying back and forth, as she prayed. She prayed for the former superintendent, Dr. Roy. She thanked God for his patient, loving care of the people. She told the Lord how he went as a prophet of Israel, back and forth among them, bringing the bread of Heaven to their hungry souls. She sought Divine blessing, rich, full, free, upon him and all his loved ones. Then she chanted in the liquid accent of the Creole, "And now, O Father, bless our young brother the new superintender. Let him down deep into the treasury of thy word and hide him 'hind de cross of Jesus." And the heart of the "New Superintender" said "Amen and Amen." That experience was what he needed.

How close to the great throbbing heart of God these simple children of cotton-field and cabin come! In gaining intimate acquaintance with them one is reminded of Heinrich Heine's confession in his notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin:

"Astonishing! That after I have whirled about all my life over all the dance floors of philosophy, and yielded myself to all the orgies of the intellect * * * without satisfaction, like Massolina after a licentious night, I now find myself on the same standpoint where poor Uncle Tom stands—on that Bible. I kneel down by my black brother in the same prayer! What humiliation! * * * Tom, perhaps, understands these spiritual things better than I. * * * But a poor negro slave reads with his back and understands better than we do. But I, who used to make citations from Homer, now begin to quote the Bible as Uncle Tom does. Poor Tom, indeed, seems to have seen deeper things in the Holy Book than I."

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The letter quoted at the opening of these "Notes" hints another thing. The A.M.A. teacher must frequently be a doctor, too. One lady teacher in Alabama opened her chest of medicine and showed me a small drug store curtained off from the sitting-room of her home. She had made materia medica, a special study, and was a competent physician in common diseases. Her house was a public dispensary, visited frequently by her afflicted colored neighbors. What cannot these teachers accomplish going out into these dark, diseased and sin-smitten places of our own land, if only they go out in "His Name" as they so often do!

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How all loyal hearts will rejoice in the good news that comes from brave Lawrence's sick room! He is slowly improving, and there is strong hope of his recovery. Thank God!!