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I KICKS AGIN IT, SAH

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 10, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 50.

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I KICKS AGIN IT, SAH.

By A. J. Gordon

DR. A. J. GORDON.
Such was the vehement exclamation of Brother Moses. My first acquaintance with Moses began thus:—
Soon after the close of the war a neighbor said to me one day: “I wish you would call in and see my colored man, who has recently come to me from the South. I assure you he is a character.”
I called one morning according to request, and after a pleasant introduction, I said: “Brother Moses, I wish you would tell me your Christian experience, if you can spare time for it.”
“I allers has time enough for dat, sah,” he replied. “It was on the sixth day of October, 1853, at three o’clock in de mornin’, in massa’s cornfield in ole Virginny, dat de Lord spoke peace to my soul.”
“I had been a-mournin’ for weeks, yet all de while more or less confidential in myself, and settin’ store by de heaps of good works and prayers and repentins I’d done. But at last dese deceitful refuges began to gib way, and de foundations of de great deep broke up in my soul, and for three days and nights I could neither eat, drink, nor sleep, a-mournin’ and a-wailin’ for my sins.”
“At last, nigh sunrise, in de third day, out in de cornfield, I says: ‘Lord, you must save dis despairin’ sinner, or he’ll die. I know I’s wicked, and vile, and rebellious, but den you’s all-merciful and forgivin’.’”
“He reached out His hand edgeways toward me; and if dat hand had been a sharp, two-edged sword, it wouldn’t cut me open quicker’n it did, separatin’ de joints and de marrer, and layin’ bare de corruption of my heart. I never dreamed what a heap of blackness dar was in dat heart till dat mornin’. Den, quicker’n I can tell, He reached out His hand agin, so kinder soft and tender, and closed me up, and didn’t leave a rent or a scar or a sore place in my heart, and He says to me, ‘Son, dy sins, which is many, is forgiben dee.’”
“Den I know’d I’d been born agin; dat old things had passed away, and all things had become new. From dat day I’s been surer dat I’s born’d agin than I am dat I was born’d de first time. Dat’s my experience. Some folks don’t believe it, but I knows it, for it’s what I’s tasted and seen.”
“Have you any special religious interest in your church?” I asked Moses.
“No room for any interest,” he replied. “De church is so lumbered up wid fairs, and festivals, and jollifications, dat de Sperit’s got no chance to work among us. Leastwise dats my solemn ’pinion, dough some says I’s heady and setful. But I’s sick of it, sah! I goes to church Sunday, and de fust thing de minister gets up and reads a long program of de worldly doin’s and goin’s for de week—de music and de supper, and de grammatic readings, and what not—twenty-five cents admission, and all must come. I tell ye, I kicks agin it, sah, and will, long’s I hab bref in my body.”
“What do you mean by saying you kick against it?” I asked.
“I rebukes it, sah, in de name of de Lord. Last Sunday I spoke out in meetin’ and said, ‘Breddren, what ye been redeemed for, and brought into de church? Didn’t de Lord tell you dat you’s to be de light of de world and de salt of de earth? Well, when I sees how much time some of you gibs to fairs and festivals, and den you can’t come to de prayer-meeting ’cause you’s so busy,’ I says, ‘if you ever was de Lord’s true salt, you’ve lost your flavor; and if you don’t look out, you’ll be cast out, trodden under foot of men.’”
“But, Brother Moses,” I asked, wishing to draw out further wisdom from this deep fountain, “don’t you think these things are necessary for making the church attractive to the masses, and inviting to the young?”
“No, sah;” he replied, with great warmth. “No, sah; Christians is de salt of de world, and dey is put into de world to preserve it from corruption. But some’s got de idee dat you must bring corruption into de church so’s to preserve de salt, as dough de gospel is goin’ to die out unless it’s sugared and seasoned wid carnal ’musements. Dat’s de poplar notion. But I kicks agin it, sah.”
“Yes; but the people say there is no harm in a social gathering and a plain supper, and a little music and reading for entertaining the people,” I continued.
“Well, dat’s de question,” replied Moses. “I takes de Scriptures for my standpoint of faith and practice, and I have searched in vain to find where de ’postels and elders ever got up suppers of turkey, and chickens, and sandwiches, and cold tongue, and den invited de breddren to come to church and eat ’em at twenty cents a head. No, brudder, ’musements in de church is unsanctifying, howsomever folks may think ’bout it.”
“We had a festival in our meeting-house two weeks back. I looks in a few minutes, and sees de crowd dere and de doin’s. Fust the pianny and de fiddle strikes up, and den all de young folks’ feet begin to shuffle and scrape under de seat, like de unthinkin’ horse rushin’ into battle, and sez I, ‘Take off the ’straint and how long ’fore dis whole company’d be a dancin’ and a waltzin’ in de house of God?’”
“Den dey had de guess cake, and de waffles, and waffled off a calico quilt to de one dat drawed de prize; and sez I, ‘What’s dis but eddicating people to gamblin’ and lotteries?’ Den de grammatic reader comes on, all dressed up wid ribbons an’ furbelows. Sez I again, ‘What’s dis but jus’ nussin’ our young ’uns for de stage and de theater?’ I tell you, I kicks agin it, sah, and allers shall.”
“Well, next night was prayer-meetin’; only twenty out, an’ all as mum as if de Lord had never opened their mouths; and when I warns ’em about it, dey says, ‘Brudder Moses, de Spirit didn’t move us.’ I’s prayin’ ’bout it night and day. It’s ’cause de Lord’s children don’t think, dey does so. You remember how He says, ‘My people do not consider.’”
Reader, Moses is a real character, and not a myth. He was born in slavery, and if he is able to read, it is only a recent acquirement. But his mind is saturated with the Scripture as he has caught its phraseology from the rude preachers of his race. May it not be that he is one of the “babes” to whom the Father has revealed some things which He has hid “from the wise and prudent”?