yesterday's tennessee

BAPTIZING ON SUNDAY

Lexington Reporter

From Brenda Kirk Fiddler, ed., W. V. Barry's Lexington Progress 1884-1946. Brenda and Charles Fiddler, Lexington, Tennessee, 1995.

April 21, 1876:

Baptizing on Sunday: The colored folks had an immersion of Sunday last; sisters Christiana Kyzer and Harriette Love, were the subjects baptized--Rev. Bledsoe, col., conducted the services. A large number of the white population from Lexington and vicinity were in attendance, and the meeting on the bank of the stream passed off with that usual solemnity brought about on such occasions. Some one of the sisters got very happy, and the outlets of feeling caused a reverberation and the woods to echo and re-echo. Rev. Beldsoe's discourse on the occasion was listened to with marked attention by all present, and we hope the result of the evening, far out on the banks of a running stream, in the quiet grove, away from the noise and bustle of the world may be productive of some good. One a few steps distant, would have been carried away with the music; it was melodious. It reminded one of the good old days of "Auld Lang Syne" when so much formality in religious services did not exist--when organs and operatic church music separated from a congregation was a "dead issue,"--when heartfelt religion seemed to be more of a reality than a formality.

Return to Yesterday/The Black Experience (Henderson County, Tennessee History Page)