W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest
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came and, to my unutterable surprise; contained sixty dollars. When I opened it and read the bills, I could hardly<br />
believe my eyes.<br />
Gushing tears of gratitude and surprise flooded my eyes till I could not read the bills. I went around and paid my<br />
debts, bidding the people adieu, and mounting the stage, as that was the day before railroads were in that<br />
country, I hastened to Perryville. I went at once to see old Dr. Polk, a very venerable local Methodist preacher,<br />
who was president of the Board of Trustees. I asked him “Why did you send me sixty dollars, when you only me<br />
thirty?” He responded: “When we drew the public money, it amounted to thirty dollars more than we expected,<br />
and I felt that we ought to send it all to you, so I went around and asked the patrons what they thought about it.<br />
They, without a single exception, responded: 'Of course, send it all to him, for he deserves it; that boy taught us<br />
the best school we ever had in town; he labored from sunrise to sunset, as he had so many scholars, in order to<br />
give them all due attention.' “ The explanation of that is easy and simple. Who ever heard of people overpaying<br />
a teacher thirty dollars? God touched the hearts of those stingy Kentuckians to sympathize with the boy, so that<br />
they responded unanimously and sent him all the money.<br />
At that time the “woman's rights” problem was only beginning to receive a little attention. I am glad it has<br />
subsequently reached a glorious victory. Then, as you see in my case abundantly verified, a boy could prosecute<br />
a thorough classical education by simply alternating student and teacher, as he had no trouble to get a place as a<br />
teacher, while it was not at all common for girls to teach the public schools. It is very gratifying now to<br />
recognize facilities quite as available in behalf of girls as boys, and therefore there is no reason whatever why all<br />
the young people who desire a thorough collegiate education may not receive it. The reason why the expenses<br />
had better be defrayed by teaching is because it will facilitate the education about as rapidly as if you were<br />
enjoying all the opportunities of a student in college. I taught Latin and Greek, and everything else which I was<br />
studying in college, whenever I was out in the public schools laboring to defray my educational expenses. I<br />
actually graduated as if I had not stopped to teach, because so assiduously did I study while teaching that I never<br />
fell behind my classes. N. B. I only taught enough while going through to make five hundred dollars of my<br />
expenses, as friends willingly and gladly loaned me the other five hundred, which God enabled me to pay after I<br />
had completed my education. The day of my graduation, I was offered a hundred dollars a month for teaching.<br />
During all of my collegiate life I preached also. The colored people, who constituted about half the population,<br />
were in slavery and consequently had very little preaching. When I went to Georgetown I soon found the<br />
colored Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians all had separate church buildings. This was really necessary, as<br />
they were not encouraged to attend the white churches. As that was a Baptist College, and there was quite a host<br />
of preachers attending, but all members of that denomination except your humble servant, when I went with a<br />
Baptist preacher to preach for the slaves in the Methodist Church, and he introduced me to them as a Methodist<br />
preacher, they were surprised and shouted over it and asked me to preach for them. It soon happened, from the<br />
fortuitous circumstances of my being the only Methodist preacher in college, that I had the complete monopoly<br />
of the Methodist colored church. This I much enjoyed. They always gave me a packed audience; and we had<br />
rousing times. Oh, how the old style shouts invariably roared through the house, when the Spirit fell on the<br />
people toward the winding up of the service, reminding me of Gabriel's trumpet.<br />
I can never forget their singing. Of course they had no books to bother them, as none could read. It is a conceded<br />
fact that the children of Ham excel all of their consanguinity in musical talents. I have never known a Negro<br />
who could not sin. Though none of their race had learning, there were natural poets among them who made their<br />
songs and they all committed them to memory. Oh, how delighted I would be to hear those songs now! In my<br />
humble appreciation, the learning which has come to those people since their emancipation has damaged their<br />
singing. They can now all read. Therefore they use books like white people and have given up their old songs<br />
which were so delectable to my soul. They knew many of these songs and could sing all night. I sometimes was<br />
taken to task by their masters for keeping them out so late in the night. We would have the altar crowded and<br />
piled with mourners seeking the Lord, and they held on till the small hours of the morning were coming and<br />
going, singing and praying and shouting over the mourners to get them through. Of course I could not use<br />
authority any more than to pronounce the benediction in due time, then leave them in the hands of God. I give<br />
you a little specimen of their songs, of which they had an ample supply so that I never knew them to run out. Of<br />
course, in the absence of all learning, they would be characteristic of repetition.