Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1884 — Had to Say Amen. [ARTICLE]

Had to Say Amen.

[ The late learned and eloquent Dr. Rice excelled in the fervor and unction of his public prayers. In his congregation was an aged negro, very pious and also very excitable, who would always shout “Amen!” when any petition was put up that touched his feelings. The doctor told him that his shouts disturbed the congregation. The good negro faithfully promised silence in future: but it happened the very next Sunday that the doctor was unusually earnest in his supplications to the throne of grace. In the gallery sat Ctesar, writhing sympathetically with the emotion which he could not suppress and would not utter. More and more feverent waxed the prayer, deeper and deeper grew Caesar’s emotions, more and more violent his struggles to avoid giving vocal utterance to them. Nature could at last hold out on longer. “Amen!” shouted Caesar. “Massa Rice, I had to say it or bust.”— Chicago Advocate.