408 History of Methodism 



toward the whites than Evans was. Nor would he 

 allow any partiality of his friends to induce him to 

 vary in the least degree the line of conduct or the 

 bearing which he had prescribed to himself in this 

 respect, never speaking to a white man but with his 

 hat under his arm ; never allowing himself to be seated 

 in their houses, and even confining himself to the kind 

 and manner of dress proper for negroes in general, 

 except his plain black coat for the pulpit. 'The 

 whites are kind to me, and come to hear me preach,' 

 he would say, ' but I belong to my own sort, and must 

 not spoil them.' And yet Henry Evans was a Boan- 

 erges, and in his duty feared not the face of man. 



" I have said that he died during my stay in Fay- 

 etteville this year (1810). The death of such a man 

 could not but be triumphant, and his was distinguish- 

 ingly so. I did not witness it, but was with him just 

 before he died, and, as he appeared to me, triumph 

 should express but partially the character of his feel- 

 ings, as the Avord imports exultation at a victory, or 

 at most the victory and exultation together. It seemed 

 to me as if the victory he had won was no longer an 

 object, but rather as if his spirit, past the contempla- 

 tion of triumphs on earth, were already in communion 

 with heaven. Yet his last breath was drawn in the 

 act of pronouncing 1 Cor. xv. 57 : ' Thanks be to God, 

 which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 

 Christ.' It was my practice to hold a meeting with 

 the blacks in the church directly after morning preach- 

 ing every Sunday. And on the Sunday before his 

 .death, during this meeting, the little door between his 

 humble shed and the chancel where I stood was opened, 

 and the dying man entered for a last farewell to his 

 people. He was almost too feeble to stand at all, but 



