[A footnote to Pennington’s 7th point above – his point about prejudice as sacrilege – gives a first-hand portrait of prejudice in a Hartford church:]
I have been in the habit of thinking very reserved and indifferently on this whole subject. I do not mean to say, that I have ever been reconciled to the negro pew. But I have managed so as to accommodate myself without much difficulty. I have, for a number of years, on going into a white church, followed the practice of standing in some one of the aisles, rather than take the negro pew, or to contend for one to which I am unwelcome. But I find that I have, as a minister of the gospel, a responsibility in the matter. I must think of it, and feel more directly than I have. And the more I do think of it the more my soul sickens.
I have turned aside several times into the South Baptist church in this city, to hear Mr. Knapp, since he has been here. The first time I went the church was only moderately full, and as usual I stood in the aisle. The second time the church was overflowing. A Mr. S. met me at the door and gave me a polite introduction to a seat, said by him to be “one of the best.” As the house was so full I took the seat, but saw the design. It is “one of the best seats,” but the particular design was that it should be the first inside the door, and consequently, the farthest off from the preacher. Hence for the sake of the seat itself it was good, even “one of the best.” But for the design it was bad.
I went again on Friday evening last, Jan. 8th. A Mr. F. met me and seated me in the second seat from the door. All this passed on. The preacher took his text, Romans ii. 4. “The riches of his goodness.” A part of the first clause of the verse. His object was to prove and illustrate the goodness of God.
He began by saying that “the goodness of God is too much overlooked by us all,” &c. The preacher produced a number of considerations to prove his subject, as the fact that God created the human soul; has constituted man for exquisite enjoyment, and has made ample provision for his enjoyment; has given a law to guard his rights; He has interposed the strongest barriers to sin; He has given His Son, &c. I do not attempt to give the exact number of his proofs, nor his own order and wording. I admired Mr. Knapp more on account of his strong positions and stout eloquence, than for his arrangement of matter. I enjoyed the sermon much, and the reason I did not fully enjoy it, was on account of the scene which I shall now relate. When I took my seat there was but one other person in the slip, which left room for three other persons. There were, I believe, two persons in the slip behind me, which left room in the two slips for six persons. Presently there were some three or four persons who wanted seats. Instead of following the same plan that had been followed from the pulpit down to us, that is, of first filling up the seats in the slips, and then put a loose bench in the aisle, the loose bench was brought before these seats were full, and we were blocked up when there were six vacant seats in the two slips. This would not have cut so deep, but presently again in came two colored men, on the opposite side of the house. These were handed across the house and had to climb over the shoulders of those who sat on the loose bench, over the bench, over the top of slip doors! Now some one will ask “what of all that? The house was crowded. I sat on a loose seat in the aisle.” I answer again, the whole thing is worth just nothing. But the design. If a man designs to murder me, he is a murderer though I may come off with my life. In view of this case I say:
- There is no hope of getting right in the church so long as protracted meetings and revivals are managed strictly on the man-hating principle. Those who get religion under such management, will get prejudice as a part of their religion.
- I have serious scruples whether I do not sin in fellowshiping ministers and churches who tolerate these measures in the solemn season of a revival.
- I do not expect any one but myself to be responsible for what I say.
- If people wish to expose their own want of sense, we are not willing to have them; we have no eyes to see it.
[End of footnote]
1841
Public domain. Source: Internet Archive.