Thinking black; 22 years without a break in the long grass of Central ...

EPILOGUE 483
people," are, literally and not exaggeratingly, " the folks
who enter into all the highest places, plus the highest
times, jplus the very highest manners, plus the only first-
class methods of service." Far from this long definition
sucking all the juice out of such a luscious fruit as the
word " heaven," a negro at my elbow claims that I have
omitted two links in the chain of meaning : the link of
cause, and the link of design. So that while the entering
into all the highest times, highest places, highest manners,
highest methods is ours, we must not omit this entering
into life's highest causes and highest designs also ! No
chance example this, as dozens of instances prove. Take
another. If you quote the Psalm to him, " Our times are
in Thy hand," he will be forced to translate it in the
gorgeous words— *' All my life's why's and when's and
Where's and wherefore's are in God's hand !
" The sane
grammar of this is that particles of space are all necessarily
units of time, place, manner, and degree (just as in
English we say "the space between the table and the
door," and " the space of half an hour").
Simple in strength and strong in simplicity, the best
sort of young black Christian deHghts to push out into
the adjacent hamlets with the Gospel. Far from being
professional preachers, they " talk" the Gospel—a straight
talk in his own town being more tantalising to a raw
negro than a hundred sermons. For in a sermon he
knows where he is (or rather, you do, for he often nods),
but these terribly personal talks jag him into contrition.
After all, there is no need for shooting at sparrows with