Part 6

Quite a pretty story is told of Jasper at the beginnings of his ministry. It seems that he went down into the eastern part of his town one Sunday to preach and some boisterous ruffians interfered, declaring that a negro had no right to go into the pulpit and that they would not allow Jasper to preach. A sailor who chanced to be present and knew Jasper faced these disorderly men and declared to them that Jasper was the smartest man in Virginia and that if he could take him to the country from whence he had come he would be treated with honour and distinction. There was also a small white boy standing by, and touched by the sincerity and power of Jasper, he pluckily jumped into the scene and exclaimed, “Yes, let him go on; what he says is all right. I have read it all in the Bible, and why shouldn’t he speak?” The incipient mob was dispersed, and his audience was fringed with a multitude of white people who were attracted to the scene.

It is not intended by these things said, concerning Jasper’s favour with the white people, to indicate that Jasper, in the least degree, was not with his own race. Far from that. He loved his own people and was thoroughly identified with them; but he was larger than his race. He loved all men. He had grown up with that pleasing pride that the coloured people who lived in prominent families had about white people. Then, too, he had always been a man who had won favour wherever he went, and the white race had always had a respect and affection for him. Jasper was never ungrateful.

There were sometimes hard passages in the road which Jasper travelled. At the end of the war he was left high and dry, like driftwood on the shore. He had no church; no place to preach; no occupation. His relations with the white race were shattered, and things were grim enough; but ill-fortune could not break him. A large part of Richmond was in ashes, and in some places at least the work of rebuilding commenced at once,--or rather a clearing off of the debris with a view to rebuilding. Jasper walked out and engaged himself to clean bricks. During the Egyptian bondage the Hebrews made bricks and thought they had a hard lot; but Jasper spent the first days of his freedom in the brick business,--a transient expedient for keeping soul and body together until he could get on his feet again. Little thought the eager men who were trying to lay the foundations for their future fortunes that in the tall serious negro who sat whacking hour after hour at the bricks was one of God’s intellectual noblemen. Born in bondage, lowly in his liberty and yet great in the gifts with which God had endowed him, it was Jasper’s nature to be almost as cheerful when squatted on a pile of bricks and tugging at their cleaning as if he had a seat in a palace and was feeding on royal dainties. He carried the contented spirit, and that too while he aspired after the highest. He did not uselessly kick against the inevitable, but he always strove for the best that was in his reach.

One of the most serious jars of Jasper’s life was his conflict with some of his brethren in connection with his notable and regrettable sermon on the motion of the sun. Intelligent people do not need to be told that Jasper knew nothing of natural science, and that his venture into the field of astronomy was a blunder. It was a matter that did not in the least involve his piety or his salvation, nor even his ministerial efficiency. His whole bearing in the matter was so evidently sincere, and his respect for the Bible, as he understood it, was so unmeasured that it set him off rather to an advantage than to a disadvantage. It is told in another place how he was drawn into the preaching of that sermon which gave him an odd, and yet a genuine, celebrity. It was no love for sensation and no attempt to show his learning, but simply an attempt to vindicate the Bible as he understood it. When the sermon was first delivered it created a wide-spread sensation. Some of the coloured ministers of Richmond were shocked out of their equanimity, and they felt that something must be done. It was a case of hysterics. In a fit of freakish courage some of them made an attack on Jasper. A letter was written to a Richmond paper and signed by several prominent negro Baptists, one of them being the pastor of a strong church. In this letter Jasper’s sermons were bitterly denounced, and they were spoken of as “a base fabrication,” out of time and place, and doing more harm than good. It was said further that those sermons had drawn such crowds that it had resulted in the injury of a number of persons, and that a better way for the author of these sermons would be for him to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Some time after this the Ebenezer Baptist Church called a conference to consider the situation and to see if matters could not be adjusted. Jasper was an ardent believer in the independence of the individual Baptist church, and he was summoned to appear before that conference. He refused to go, saying that he did not recognize the authority of the church to interfere with him. Thereupon they sent a committee to him inviting him to come and make any statement that he wished to make concerning the question at issue.

He went. The point in the published letter concerning Jasper that was most offensive to him was the statement as to “base fabrication.” That hit him between the joints of the harness. His soul was stirred with a furious resentment, and when he got before that council and fell afoul of the three men who had charged him with “a base fabrication” it was a day not to be forgotten. When he had got through it would be hard to say how many baskets would have been required to hold the fragments. The man who had really written the letter suddenly discovered that it had no reference on the earth to Brother Jasper. It was intended to answer something that had been said in a paper in New York. Attempts were made to refresh his memory. Quite a respectable minister reminded this letter writer that they had talked together concerning this letter, and that the attention of the writer was called to the “base fabrication” part of it, but the memory of the brother could not be revived. No stimulant could reach the case. Other folks might charge Brother Jasper with base fabrication, but not this man. It was a lamentable and discreditable conclusion. He was crippled in both feet and respected by none. This ended the matter. Jasper strode away from the council with the marks of victory about him; and while bad feeling could not die at once, yet the attacks on Jasper went entirely out of fashion. Let it be added that there were multitudes who shared the prejudice against this old warrior, but little cared he. On he went his fine way, growing in nobleness, and loving the God in whom he believed.

Jasper’s pleasures were of the meditative sort. For a long time his church gave him an ample vacation in the summer. He retired to the country and courted its quiet. His only sport was fishing along the streams, and that suited his task. If the fish didn’t bite, his thoughts always did. Like the fish they ran in schools, but unlike the fish they ran in all weathers and in all seasons. But Jasper never achieved marked success in the art of recreation. Go where he might, his fame was there to confront and to entangle him. Demands for him to preach always came in hot and thick, and there was hardly a Sunday when Jasper was in the country that he was not surrounded by a crowd and preaching with ever-glowing fervour and delight. Indeed, Jasper was sought after to dedicate churches, deliver lectures and to preach special sermons in every part of Virginia, and often beyond it. It was said that he preached in almost every county and city in Virginia. He was the one ever sought Virginia preacher, and in that respect he stood unmatched by any man of his race.

As a rule, Jasper did not preach very long sermons. His Sunday afternoon sermons very rarely exceeded fifty minutes in length, but on extraordinary occasions he took no note of time. Jasper was not a sermon-maker. He did not write them, and homiletics was a thing of which he had never heard. He was fond of pictorial preaching and often selected historical topics, such as “Joseph and His Brethren” or “Daniel in the Lion’s Den,” or “The Raising of Lazarus.” He had quite a large stock of special sermons,--sermons which had grown by special use, and which embodied the choicest creations of his mind. These he preached over and over again and in his own pulpit, and without apology to anybody. But after all the themes which interested him most profoundly and on which he preached with unsurpassed ardour and rapture were the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures. The last sermon he ever preached was on Regeneration; and on many phases of the Christian system he preached with consummate ability. He believed fully in the doctrine of future punishment, and his description of the fate of the lost made the unbelieving quake with terror and consternation. His preaching was of that fervid, startling, and threatening sort, well suited to awaken religious anxieties and to bring the people to a public confession. He was his own evangelist,--did chiefly the work of bringing his congregation to repentance, and the growth of his church consisted almost entirely of the fruit of his own ministry. His church on the island began with nine members, and it was reported that there were over 2,000 at the time of his death. He had uncommon caution about receiving people into his church. He was not willing to take people to count, and he preached searchingly to those who were thinking of applying for membership.

Just two little and yet important things call for a place in this chapter. Jasper was an inexorable debt-payer. The only debt that he could tolerate was a church debt, and he could ill tolerate that. The unsettled account of his great new church building grappled him like a nightmare. It was his burden in the day and his torturing dream at night. Even during his dying days the church debt haunted and depressed him, and loud among his parting exhortations was his insistent plea that the church debt should be speedily paid.

In his early life Jasper contracted the use of tobacco,--as, indeed, almost his entire race did, and he was also quite free with the use of alcoholic drinks,--though never, so far as is known, to the extent of intoxication. No question as to his sobriety has ever ridden the air. But these habits lingered with him long after he entered the ministry, and even until he was winning enviable and far-spreading favour as a preacher. So far as known, these facts did not becloud his reputation nor interfere with his work. Of course, he never entered a barroom, and never drank convivially, but he kept liquor in his house, and took it as his choice dictated. But gradually it worked itself into his conscience that these things were not for the best, and without the least ostentation or even publicity he absolutely abandoned the use both of tobacco and alcoholic drinks. He made no parade about it, and took on no fanatical airs. Just as he thought it was wrong to owe money which he could not pay and therefore hated a debt, so he felt that these habits, useless at best, might really be harmful to him and to others, and therefore he gave them up.

His moral and religious ideals were very lofty, and he lived up to them to a degree not true of many. Not long after his death a really magnificent monument was erected over his grave. It was quite costly, and the money for it was raised by his church people and other lovers of whom he had legions. While he lived, legislators, judges, governors, and many men of eminent distinction, went to hear him preach. Many of the most distinguished white ministers of the country made it a point to go to his church on Sunday afternoon whenever they were in the city, and he was justly ranked as one of the attractions of Richmond.

Now that he has found his grave not far from the site of his church, and this stately shaft has been placed as a sentinel over his dust, multitudes as they come and go will visit the tomb of the most original, masterful, and powerful negro preacher of the old sort that this country has ever produced.

XI

SERMON:--THE STONE CUT OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN

(_Text, Daniel 2:45._)

This rugged specimen of historical eloquence constituted the sermon delivered on Sunday afternoon, July 20, 1884. Jasper mounted the pulpit with the dash of an athlete and tripped around the platform during the preliminaries with the air of a racer. A sense of strength imparted to his face the triumphant glow. A smile parted his lips, and told the secret of an animated and aggressive courage.

“I stan’s befo’ you to-day on legs of iron and nun kin stay me from preachin’ de Gospil uv de Lord Gord. I know well nuff dat de ole devul is mad as a tempest ’bout my bein’ here; he knows dat my call ter preach kums frum Gord, and dat’s wat meks ’im so mad wen he sees Jasper ’scend de pulpit, fur he knows dat de people is gwine ter hear a messige straight frum heaven. I don’t git my sermuns out uv grammars an’ reterricks, but de Sperrit uv de Lord puts ’em in my mind an’ meks ’em burn in my soul.”

His manner was radiant, courageous, defiant, and was prophetic of one of his greatest discourses.

“It hev always bin one uv de ways uv Gord ter set up men as rulers uv de people. Yer know dat Gord ordains kings and rulers an’,--wat kinder bodders sum uv us,--He don’t always mek it a p’int ter put up good men. Yer know dat our Lord giv Judis a place ’mong de twelve, an’ he turn’d out ter be one uv de grandes’ raskils under de sun.

“Jes’ so Nebukidnezzur was pinted uv de Lord ter be king uv Babylon,--dat same robbur dat tuk de vessuls out uv de temple at Jerusalem an’ lugged ’em away ter his own country. Dat man had wun uv de powerfullest kingdums evur known on dis flat earth. He ruled over many countries and many smaller kingdums, an’ even had under his hands de servunts on de plantashun an’ de beasts uv de feil’. He was one uv dese unlimertid monnuks. He axed nobody no odds, an’ did jes’ wat he wanted ter do, an’ I kinnot stop ter tell yer wid wat a strong hand an’ outstretched arm he ruled de people wid an irun rod. It kum ter pass dat one time dis king dat did not fear Gord (tho’ Gord had sot him up), had a dream. Dreams iz awfully curus things. Dey used ter frighten folks out’n dere senses an’ I tell yer dey sometimes frighten folks now. I’ve had many dreams in my day dat got mity close ter me. Dey gravuled inter de very cords uv my soul, an’ made me feel lik de groun’ under my feet wuz libul ter giv way any time, an’ I don’t dout dat hundreds uv yer dat hear me now hev bin frightened an’ cud not eat nor sleep nor wuk wid any peace ’caus’ yer done hev strange dreams. Yer better watch dem dreams. In de anshient days de Lord spoke ter folks in dreams. He warned dem, an’ I don’t dout dat He duz dat way sometimes now.

“Neberkidnezzur’s dream stirred him powerful. He rolled all night an’ did not sleep a wink. So he sent out an’ got de magishuns an’ de strolgurs an’ de sorserers an’ de Kaldeuns, an’ dey wuz brought unter him. He tell ’em dat he had dreamed a dream dat had trubbled his sperrit. An’ de Kaldeuns axed him wat de dream wuz. De king say dat de dream done gone clear out’n him, an’ he can’t cotch de straight uv it ter save his soul. He tell ’em, moreovur, dat dey got ter dig up de dream an’ work up de meanin’ too, an’ dat ef dey don’t dat he gwine ter have ’em cut all ter pieces an’ turn dere houses inter a dunghill, an’ den he tell ’em dat ef dey will git de dream back fur him an’ give de explernashun he gwine ter give ’em nice gifs an’ put gret honurs on ’em. It waz too much fer de Kaldeuns. Dey cudn’t dream de king’s dream fer ’im, an’ dey kum squar out an’ tell Nebukidnezzur dat no man on de earth cud show sich a matter ter de king, an’ dat in dere erpinyun dar is no king on de earth dat wud ax fer sich a thing frum proffit or magishun.

“Den Nebukidnezzur got high. He went on a tare an’ yer know wen a king gits mad yer better git out er his way. He is got de power; an’ so he up an’ sent out a decree through all de regiuns uv de kingdom dat all de wise men everywhar shud be slain. Jes’ see wat a mad man will do wen he git furius mad. Dey got no mo’ sens dan a mad tiger or a roarin’ lion. Jes’ befo’ de slaughter uv de wise men kum on, Daniel hear ’bout it, an’ he axed de king’s captin wat it wuz all ’bout an’ why de king wuz so hasty, an’ de captin tol’ Dan’l all ’bout it. Dan’l brushed hissef up quick and struck out to see de king an’ ax him ter hol’ up de exercushun uv his bloody profesy, an’ he’d promise to splain his dream ter him. Den Dan’l goes off an’ gits all his Godly frien’s togedder an’ ax ’em ter pray ter de Gord uv heaven dat he an’ his frien’s shud not perish in de slaughter uv de tricksters uv dat country. One thing de Lord can’t do;--He can’t refuse ter answer de cries uv His people; an’ wen all dat prayin’ wuz gwine on Gord appeared to Dan’l in de nite an’ revealed ter him de secret uv de king,--an’ wat yer reckin? Wen de Lord giv Dan’l dat dream an’ de hinterpertashun dar of, Dan’l raised a gret shout an’ giv thanks to Gord for wat de Lord had done fer him. But he didn’t shout long, fer he had important bisnis ter attend ter; an’ very soon he went ter de king an’ kerried wid him de secrit dat de king had demandid at de han’s uv de erstrolgers an’ magishuns. He told de king rite ter his face de thing dat he had dreamed, an’ wat Gord meant by it. Truly Dan’l did behave hissef befo’ de king in a very pretty an’ becomin’ manner. He tel de king he did not hav no mo sens dan udder people, an’ dat he wuz not perpar’d to do things dat udder men cud do, but dat it wuz by de power uv Gord dat all dis matter had bin made known ter him. He tol’ de king dat wat he saw wuz a gret imige; dat de imige wuz brite an’ splendid an’ de form uv it wuz terrerbul; dat de hed wuz uv fine gold, his brest and arms uv silvur, his belly an’ thize uv brass, an’ his legs uv irun and his feet part uv irun an’ part uv clay. An’ he tel de king fudder dat he saw er stone dat wuz cut widout han’s out’n de mountin an’ dat de stone smote de imige erpun his feet an’ broke ’em in pieces, an’ dat de stone dat brok de imige became a gret mountin an’ filled all de wurl’. Den Dan’l,--dat brave an’ feerles bruther, dat nevur quailed befo’ de mitiest ruler uv de earth,--faced de king an’ tel ’im an orful an’ a warnin’ troof. He say ter ’im, ‘Yer is a gret king now. Yer hav er mity country an’ all power, an’ thy glory civers de groun’. Man an’ beas’ an’ foul obey yer. Yer iz de hed uv gold, but arter yer will kum anudder kingdum dat shall not be lik yourn, but still it shal be big an’ dar shall kum anudder kingdum and dar shall be a fo’th kingdum strong as irun, an’ dis kingdum shall brooz an’ smash all de udder kingdums.’

“An’ den Dan’l gits ter de big pint. He tels de king dat de Lord is gwine ter set up er kingdum an’ dat in de times ter kum dat kingdum shall crush an’ cornsume all de udder kingdums. Dat shall be de kingdum uv Gord on de earth, an’ dat kingdum shall stan’ fer evur an’ evur. You knows how yer saw de stone dat wuz cut out’n de mountin an’ how dat broke in pieces de irun, de bras, de clay, de silvur, an’ de gold, an’ my Gord hev made known ter you, O king, wat shall tek place in de gret herearter, and dis is de dream an’ de hinterpertashun dar of.

“Dat wuz a mity sermon dat Dan’l preached ter Nebukidnezzur. It ort ter hev saved ’im, but it look lik it med ’im wuss. De debbul got ’im fer dat time an’ he turn rite agin de Lord Gord an’ sot at nort His stashutes an’ countid His ways onholy.

“Yer know ’bout dat imige. It wuz med uv gold, an’ wuz threescore cubits high and six cubits wide, an’ twuz sot up in de plain uv Durer, not fer frum Bablun. Yer know er cubit is about eighteen inchis, an’ ef yer multerply dat by threescore cubits yer git 1080 inches, wich mean dat de imige wuz ninety foot high an’ nine feet broad. So yer see Nebukidnezzur got ter be a Gord-makur, an’ wen he got dis gret imige bilt he sont out ter git all de princis an’ guvnurs an’ all de res’ uv de swell folks ter kum an’ bow down an’ wurshep dat gret imige dat he had sot up. Now dis wuz de gret folly an’ shame uv de king. By dat deed he defied de Lord Gord an’ de raff uv de Lord wuz stirr’d agin ’im.

“An’ now, my brudderin, yer member Dan’l tol’ de king dat de imige dat he saw in his dream wuz ’imsef rulin’ over all de udder kingdums. He tol’ ’im also dat dat stone dat wuz cut out uv de mountin an’ kum rollin’ down de craggy sides an’ broke in pieces de irun, de brass and de clay, dat dat wuz de kingdum uv de Lord Jesus Christ. An’ he tel ’im, fuddermo, dat de kummin’ uv de stone ter be a great mountin means de growth uv de kingdum uv our Lord tel it shall fil dis wurl’ an’ shall triumf over all de udder kingdums. Dan’l tel de king dat his kingdum wuz gwine ter be taken frum him, ’caus’ he had not feared de Gord uv heaven, an’ in his folly an’ crimes he turned away frum dat Gord dat rules in de heaven an’ hols de nashuns uv de earth in de pams uv His han’s. He tol’ ’im dat de kingdum uv Satun, dat arch ennimy uv Gord, wuz gwine ter tumbul flat, ’caus’ dat stone cut out uv de mountin wud roll over Satun’s derminyuns an’ crush it in ter flinders.

“Glory ter Gord in de highis’; dat stone cut out uv de mountin is a mity roller. Nuthin kin stay its terribul progris! Dey dat fite erginst Jerhover had bettur look out,--dat stone is still rollin’ an’ de fust thing dey know it will crush down erpon ’em an’ dey will sink ter rise no mo’. Our Gord is er cornsumin’ fire, an’ He will overturn an’ overturn tel de foundashuns uv sin iz brokin’ up. Yer jes’ wait er little. De time is fas’ rollin’ on. Evun now I hear my Saviour sayin’ ter His Father, ‘Father, I kin stay here no longer; I mus’ git up dis mornin’; I am gwine out ter call My people frum de feil’; dey hav ben abused and laughed at an’ bin med a scoffin’ long nuff fer My name’s sake. I kin stay no longer. My soul cries fer My chillun. Gabrul, git down yer trumpit dis mornin’; I want yer ter do some blowin’. Blow gently an’ easy at fust, but let My people hear your goldin notes. Dey will kum wen I call.’

“Ah, my brutherin, you an’ I wil be dar wen dat trumpit soun’s. I don’ think I shall be erlarm’d, ’caus’ I shall know it iz my king marshallin’ His people home. It won’t frighten you my sisters; it will hev de sweetnis uv Jesus vois ter yer; an’, oh, how it will ring out dat happy mornin’ wen our king shall kum to gather de ransomed uv de Lord ter ’imsef. Den yer shall hev a new an’ holy body, an’ wid it your glorified sperrit shall be united, an’ on dat day we shall go in ter see de Father an’ He shall smile an’ say: ‘Dese iz My chillun; dey hav washed dere robes and made dem white in de blood uv de Lamb; dey hav kum out uv gret tribberlashun an’ dey shall be wid Me for ever an’ ever.’ I speck ter be dar.

“‘Well, Jasper,’ yer say, ‘why yer spec ter be dar. How yer know?’ Yer read de foteenth chapter uv John, will yer? ‘I go ter prepar er place fer yer,’ an’ dat word is ter rule; an’ so yer will see ole John Jasper rite dar, an’ King Jesus shall kum out ter meet us an’ tek us in an’ sho’ us de manshuns dat He hav prepared fer us.

“O Lusifer how thou hav fallin! You proud ones will find den dat your days iz over, an’ ye dat hav despised de chillun uv my Gord wil sink down inter hell, jes’ as low es it is posserbul ter git. Yer needn’t tel ’im dat yer hev preached in His name, an’ in His name done many wonderful works. Yer can’t fool Him! He’ll frown down at yer an’ say: I don’t know yer, an’ I don’t wan’ ter know yer, an’ I don’ wan’ ter see yer. Git out uv My site forever, an’ go ter your place ermong de lost.