The sermon went on for some time; it described
the happiness felt by God's true children: and how they would cling to
each other in persecution. The preacher encouraged them all in the path
of holiness, and explained the Gospel means of salvation with great
clearness, and really with admirably chosen words; there was a little
action but not too much; and there were no vulgarities. The discourse
was at least equal to the sermons of many of our dissenting ministers,
and appeared to come from the lips of an educated gentleman, although
with a black skin. He finished, and an old negro rose, and gave out the
text:--"And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain," &c. His
voice at first was faint, and I could not hear what were the various
jokes he cut which produced loud laughter, so we advanced a little. He
afterwards became more serious. His address was quite distinct from his
text, being an earnest and very well delivered exhortation to the
converted to grow in grace; at the end of every period he repeated his
text as a _refrain_.
At first, I observed among the dark ladies a few suppressed murmurs of
approbation, but as his discourse proceeded, these were turned into
groans; and when he quoted a text, or said anything more than usually
impressive, there was a regular rocking and swaying of the figure among
them, while one or two repeated aloud the last words of his text.
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