Philadelphia.[53]

Cary's farewell sermon, preached in the meeting house of the First
Baptist Church, Richmond, was well ordered, without the rant common to
some preachers of that day, dignified and pathetic, and left a lasting
impression on the audience.[54] Teague had often remarked to William
Crane, "Sir, I don't hear any of your white ministers that can preach
like Lott Cary." Crane was anxious to hear him and after listening to
his farewell message from Romans 8:32--"He that spared not his own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things?"--he did not hesitate to declare: "I have a
most vivid recollection of the manner in which, towards the close, he
dwelt upon the word 'freely.' With thrilling emphasis he exclaimed
over and over, 'He gave them freely!' He rang a succession of perhaps
a dozen changes upon the word, in a manner that would not have
dishonored Whitfield."[55]

Lott Gary closed his sermon with this thought:

I am about to leave you and expect to see your faces no more. I
long to preach to the poor Africans the way of life and
salvation. I don't know what may befall me, whether I may find a
grave in the ocean, or among the savage men, or more savage wild
beasts on the Coast of Africa; nor am I anxious what may become
of me. I feel it my duty to go; and I very much fear that many of
those who preach the Gospel in this country, will blush when the
Saviour calls them to give an account of their labors in His
cause and tell them, "I commanded you to go into all the world,
and preach the Gospel to every creature;" (very emphatically he
exclaimed) the Saviour may ask where have you been? What have you
been doing? Have you endeavored to the utmost of your ability to
fulfill the commands I gave you, or have you sought your own
gratification, and your own ease, regardless of My commands?[56]

A distinguished Presbyterian minister said to Gurley, "A sermon which
I heard from Lott Gary, shortly before he sailed for Africa, was the
best extemporaneous sermon I ever heard. It contained more original
and impressive thoughts, some of which are distinct in my memory, and
never can be forgotten."[57] Elder John Bryce, assistant pastor of the
First Baptist Church, afterwards confessed that he had never been so
deeply interested in a sermon.[58]

READJUSTMENT ON AFRICAN SOIL

By the twenty-third