Work for the Colored People. 355 



brought into full play. He selected his " Leaders " 

 from the most intelligent and reliable of those 

 whom he had carefully instructed some of these 

 were freed men. It was the duty of the leaders to 

 visit the sick and report to the Pastor such cases as 

 needed his special care. They generally performed 

 also the burial services for the dead of their own 

 race. The leaders settled all disputes ; but if their 

 decision was not accepted, the case was brought 

 before the Pastor. On the appointed evening, the 

 Pastor's study was the little Court-room, and he the 

 Judge supreme. His quick apprehension of the 

 points at issue, arid his wise and humane decisions, 

 gave him a singular power over the simple minds 

 and hearts of the negro, and his decisions were 

 reverently received as just and final. Their grateful 

 devotion to him for his unwearied care and kind- 

 ness was almost unbounded. 



In 1816, at his request, the North Gallery of St. 

 John's Church was appropriated to his colored flock. 



Never was there a more orderly congregation. On 

 Communion Sundays the whites received the Sacra- 

 ment first, and then the blacks. The physical labor 

 of administering to such numbers at length became 

 so great and exhausting to his strength, that the 

 Vestry suggested that the Church should be closed 

 for the whites on the afternoons of Communion 

 Sundays, in order that he might devote these after- 

 noons entirely to his colored congregation. 



Some of the whites were present on these occa- 

 sions. At the request of the leaders the services of 



