They preached a narrow, strait-laced, Old Testament religion, but it went deep.

They believed in the verbal inspiration of the Bible, and so far as they could they interpreted it literally, laying emphasis upon the future, the rewards of the righteous, and the tortures of the damned.

Life upon this earth was regarded as simply a preparation for the life to come.

One is sometimes tempted to believe that these spiritual guides deprecated attempts to improve conditions here on earth lest men should grow to think less of a future abode.

It is easy to understand why such a doctrine of future reward should have appealed to negroes, and it is perhaps not surprising that the poor upon the frontier likewise found comfort and solace in it.
ears ago the social position of the great majority of the Methodists and Baptists was distinctly below that of the Episcopalians and Presbyterians.
In recent years many Methodists and Baptists have grown prosperous.
Instead of being bare barns, their church edifices are often the most ornate and costly in the town or city.