midnight
He sat there with the mystery of the medieval ages about him , with a great and silent authority behind him . `` Have you gentlemen ever considered the religious condition of the negro ? Have you not made his religion a joke ? Is it not a popular belief that he will shout at his mourners ' bench until midnight and steal a chicken before the dawn ? He has been taught that religion is purely an emotion and not a matter of duty . He does not know that it means a life of inward humanity and outward obedience . I have come to teach him this , to save him ; for in our church lies his only salvation , not alone of his soul , but of his body and of his rights as well as of his soul .