Charleston

Sat Jul 31 1736: We came to Charleston. The church is of brick but plastered over like stone. I believe it would contain three or four thousand persons. About three hundred were present at the morning service the next day (when Mr. Garden desired me to preach); about fifty at the Holy Communion. I was glad to see several Negroes at church; one of whom told me she was there constantly, and that her old mistress (now dead) had many times instructed her in the Christian religion. I asked her what religion was. She said she could not tell. I asked if she knew what a soul was. She answered, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Don’t you know there is something in you different from your body? Something you can’t see or feel?’ She replied, ‘I never heard so much before.’ I added, ‘Do you think, then, a man dies altogether as a horse dies?’ She said, ‘Yes, to be sure.’ O God, where are thy tender mercies? Are they not over all thy works? When shall the Sun of righteousness arise on these outcasts of men, with healing in his wings!