{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_65081/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_65081","id":"gutenberg_65081","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65081","summary":null,"tags":["African American Baptists -- Biography","African American clergy -- Biography","African Americans -- Biography","African Americans -- Religion","Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Enslaved persons -- Georgia -- Biography","Mount Olivet Baptist Church (New York, N.Y.)","Slavery -- Georgia -- History -- 19th century","Walker, Charles T. (Charles Thomas), 1858-1921","Young Men's Christian Association of the City of New York. Colored Men\u2019s Branch"],"text":"LIFE\n  OF\n  CHARLES T. WALKER, D. D.,\n  (\u201cTHE BLACK SPURGEON.\u201d)\n  PASTOR MT. OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY.\n\n\n  BY\n  SILAS XAVIER FLOYD, A. M.\n\n  WITH AN\n  INTRODUCTION\n  BY\n  ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR, D. D.\n\n  NASHVILLE, TENN.:\n  NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD.\n  1902.\n\n  Copyrighted 1902,\n  By Silas Xavier Floyd, A. M.\n\n[Illustration: DR. CHARLES T. WALKER, 44 YEARS OF AGE.]\n\n\n\n\n  INTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThere is no species of literary composition more difficult than the\nwriting of a good biography. Biographers are under a great temptation\nat times to create, or at least to magnify, the virtues of their\nsubjects; and the temptation is not less on other occasions to deny, or\ngreatly to minify, their vices. The biographies of Holy Scripture are\nmodels of biographical literary production. Inspired writers neither\nextenuate the defects nor magnify the excellencies of their subjects;\nextenuating nothing on the one hand, they do not, on the other, set\ndown aught in malice. The excellence of the inspired writings in this\nregard differentiates them from the uninspired writings of any country\nor century.\n\nBut while to biographize is a confessedly difficult task, it is at\nthe same time universally admitted to be a form of literary production\nof great value, when properly executed. A biography is generally\nunderstood to be the history of the life, actions and character of a\nparticular person; it is that form of history proper whose subject\nis described in the facts and events of his individual experience.\nCarlyle, in his \u201cSartor Resartus,\u201d says: \u201cBiography is by nature the\nmost universally profitable, universally pleasant of all things.\u201d He\nalso elsewhere says: \u201cThere is no heroic poem in the world but is at\nbottom a biography, the life of a man.\u201d He has frequently expressed the\nidea that history is biography; that the history of any nation is the\nstory of the lives of its great men. In a profound sense this statement\nis literally true. We thus see that peculiar ability is required\naccurately to write the life of any representative man. His forbears\nfor many generations ought to be accurately known; his environment, in\nall its essential characteristics, ought to be thoroughly mastered.\nThe times partly make men, and men partly make their time; each acts\nand reacts upon the other. Neither can be exhaustively described\nindependent of the other.\n\nThe difficulty of writing good biographies is so great that\ncomparatively few great biographies have been written. All the world\nis familiar with the unique biography of Johnson by Boswell. It has\nexcited hearty laughter, while it has imparted valuable information.\nLockhart\u2019s Life of Scott and Lady Holland\u2019s Life of Sydney Smith, fill\nalmost a unique place in biographical literature. G. Otto Trevelyan\u2019s\nLife of Lord Macaulay and Hallam Tennyson\u2019s Life of his father are\namong the more recent and valuable illustrations of the biographical\nliterature of modern times.\n\nThe word biography comes from two Greek words, _bios_, life, and\n_graphein_, to write. In order that there should be a good biography,\nit is necessary, therefore, that there should be a life nobly lived,\nand a writer competent to describe it in fitting terms. In the\nbiography of Rev. Charles T. Walker, D. D., by Rev. Silas X. Floyd, D.\nD., both these conditions are excellently met. By his careful literary\ntraining, his wide experience as a writer, and his intimate knowledge\nof the history of Dr. Walker, Dr. Floyd is eminently fitted to write a\nreadable account of Dr. Walker\u2019s life and work. He has been associated\nin newspaper, pastoral and evangelistic work with Dr. Walker for the\npast twenty years. When Dr. Walker was business manager of the Augusta\nSentinel, Dr. Floyd was its editor; and when Dr. Walker resigned the\npastorate of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., Dr. Floyd\nbecame his successor. He thus has had unusual opportunities to study\nDr. Walker\u2019s public and private life day by day for nearly a quarter of\na century. Dr. Floyd is a graduate of Atlanta University, Georgia, from\nwhich institution he received the degree of A. M., three years after\nhis graduation. For three years he was employed by the International\nSunday School Convention as one of its Field Workers in the South. He\nis at present in the employ of the American Baptist Publication Society\nas a Missionary for Georgia and Alabama. The degree of \u201cDoctor of\nDivinity\u201d was conferred upon him by Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga.,\nJune 4, 1902.\n\nThere is probably no other Negro in the United States, and perhaps\nno other in the world, who is a better subject for a biography than\nCharles T. Walker. Many will affirm that Booker T. Washington is the\nmost prominent representative of his race in America; doubtless, in his\nspecial department of effort for his people, he is the representative\nNegro. But all intelligent men, black or white, familiar with the\nfacts, will say that Dr. Walker is the ablest Negro preacher and pastor\nin the United States. His racial characteristics are so strongly\nemphasized that the most bitter opponent of his race cannot attribute\nhis acknowledged ability as thinker, writer and preacher to any\ninterfusion of white blood in his veins. He is a Negro in every drop\nof his blood. Dr. Walker had careful training as a preparation for\nthe work of the gospel ministry. Too many men, both white and black,\nrush into the ministry with quite inadequate preparation. The time has\ncome when the apostolic injunction, \u201cLay hands suddenly on no man,\u201d\nmust be literally obeyed. This injunction is especially important in\nits relation to preachers and pastors of Negro churches. They are the\nnatural and powerful leaders of their people. This is a transition\nperiod for the millions of the Negro race in America. Tremendously\nimportant racial problems are now demanding solution. Whites and\nblacks, both North and South, must have great patience with one another\nin the presence of these pulsing problems. Right solutions will\neventually come; and all men must remember that no question is settled\ntruly until it is settled rightly.\n\nDr. Walker has been an earnest student ever since his school days. He\nhas traveled widely, read extensively and thought profoundly. In all\nthese respects he has set a good example to all preachers and pastors.\nThere is no standing still in professional life. If a man does not\nadvance, he must retrograde; if he does not grow up, he must grow down.\nEvery preacher is like a man on a bicycle--he must go on constantly or\ngo off speedily.\n\nDr. Walker\u2019s ministry in New York has been remarkable for pulpit power\nand for practical results. His ministry in this city is a distinct\naccession to the pulpit force of the entire church, irrespective of\ndenominational divisions and creedal distinctions. Perhaps in the\nentire history of the city no pastor of any church ever had so many\naccessions to the membership of his church in the same length of time\nas Dr. Walker has had.\n\nA great future still awaits his ministerial labors. Marvellous\npossibilities are before his race in America. Booker Washington, Dr.\nWalker, and a few great Negroes, are wisely training their people\nfor a noble future; they are teaching their people that the time for\npitying them, and coddling them, as well as for abusing, not to say\nlynching, them has passed, never to return. They must take their place\nas men and women among the men and women of the hour. They are to be\nneither babied nor bullied; neither petted nor pampered; they ought\nonly to expect and demand simple justice; on their behalf these great\nleaders demand nothing more, and they will be satisfied with nothing\nless. To deny them simple justice would be an unspeakable reproach to\nthe dominant race in America. Dr. Walker\u2019s greatest days as preacher\nand pastor are still in the future. That he and his race may worthily\nperform their whole duty, and grandly attain their high destiny is the\nsincere desire of every true man, earnest patriot, and devout Christian.\n\nThis volume ought to be widely circulated and generally studied. It\nwill give genuine inspiration to all men, white or black, who are\nstruggling for higher and better things for time and eternity. Its\ngeneral circulation will greatly help the Negro toward the realization\nof his laudable ambitions as a man, a citizen and a churchman.\n\n                           Robert Stuart MacArthur.\n\n  Study, Cavalry Baptist Church, New York.\n\n\n\n\n  DEDICATION.\n\n\n  To\n  THE YOUNG MEN OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA\n  This Volume Is Respectfully Dedicated by\n  THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\n  PREFACE.\n\n\nFor the combination of shrewd common sense, fine executive ability,\nready speech, genial acceptance of conditions, optimistic faith in the\nfuture of his race and self-sacrificing zeal in their behalf, Booker\nT. Washington stands easily first among the nine million Negroes of\nAmerica. The greatest claim that has yet been made by the Negro in\nEnglish Literature, according to the most competent critics, has been\nmade by Paul Laurence Dunbar, who, for the first time in our language,\nhas given literary interpretation of a very artistic completeness to\nwhat passes in the hearts and minds of a lowly people. The greatest\nclaim that has been made by the Negro in the field of scholarship has\nbeen made by W. E. Burghardt DuBois, Ph. D., the eminent sociologist.\nBut not more certain is it that Washington stands first in the list\nof Negro educators, and Dunbar first in the list of Negro poets and\nliterary men, and DuBois first among scholars, than that the Rev.\nCharles T. Walker, D. D., who is popularly called \u201cThe Black Spurgeon,\u201d\nstands first among eminent and successful Negro preachers.\n\nDr. Walker\u2019s father died the day before Dr. Walker was born. His\nmother died when he was only eight years old. The first seven years\nof his life he was a slave. Becoming an orphan one year after\nemancipation, the years of his youth and young manhood were years of\ngreat hardship and privation. In this respect, his early life resembled\nthat of other distinguished men of humble origin who have been a power\nin the world, and whose names have an honorable place on the pages of\nhistory. The prophetic reference to Christ, \u201cThough thou be little\namong the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto\nme that is to be ruler in Israel,\u201d has been paralleled in human lives\nby a host of men whose names and deeds are recorded in history, sacred\nand profane. From the anointing of the Bethlehemite shepherd boy as\nKing of Israel to the present time, history has furnished innumerable\nillustrations of the providential selection of men from obscure\nlocalities and unpretentious surroundings for great responsibilities\nand important fields of influence. Again and again, in the history of\nour own country, we have had memorable examples of men who have left\nan undying influence, whose early life was without friends, and whose\nheritage was void of patrimony. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield,\nBenjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, George W. Childs, Henry Wilson,\nStephen Girard, Horace Greeley, and a host of others were such men.\n\nOne of the most profitable uses of history is the narrative of such\nlives. Having this in mind, it is safe to say that there is no species\nof writing of more value than biography. It inspires the young to\nnobler purposes, develops higher resolves, and proves an incentive to\nthe laudable imitation of men who in prominent positions have proved\ntrue to principle and duty. It is in this spirit and with this thought\nin mind, that I undertake to write the story of the life of Dr. Walker.\nI confess to a great degree of admiration for the man; I glory in\nhis career; I thought that the story of his life ought to be told; I\nbelieve that the telling of his life story will do much to encourage,\ninspire and incite to new endeavor thousands of young colored men all\nover the land, who need to be encouraged and inspired, and who, because\nof the peculiar environments of American civilization, find so little\nto incite them to high resolves, honest endeavors and upright lives.\nIf, therefore, the story of Dr. Walker\u2019s life as told by me shall\nencourage, inspire or incite one single human being, I shall have my\nreward.\n\n                                         Silas Xavier Floyd.\n  Augusta, Ga., February 1, 1902.\n\n[Illustration: THE HOUSE IN WHICH CHARLES T. WALKER WAS BORN. STILL\nSTANDING NEAR HEPHZIBAH, GA.]\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n\n  PARENTAGE AND BIRTH                                                19\n\n  Ancestry--Character of Dr. Walker\u2019s Father--Dr. Walker\u2019s\n  Uncles--Dr. Walker\u2019s Birth--Character of Dr. Walker\u2019s\n  Mother--W. A. Clark\u2019s Tribute--A Generation of\n  Preachers--Dr. Walker the Greatest of Them All.\n\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n\n  EARLY CHILDHOOD                                                    25\n\n  Richmond County During the Slave Period--The Hardships of\n  Slavery--The Evils of Slavery--Dr. Walker Becomes an\n  Orphan--His Strange Conversion--Joins Franklin Covenant Baptist\n  Church.\n\n\n  CHAPTER III.\n\n  THE STUDENT PERIOD                                                 29\n\n  First Taught by His Mother--Yankee Teachers--Enters the Augusta\n  Institute--Dr. Joseph T. Robert--Dr. Walker\u2019s Struggles--Ready\n  to Leave School--Students Come to Rescue--Others Interested--Mr.\n  Bierce\u2019s Narrative--Dr. Walker\u2019s Failure to Graduate--His\n  Ordination.\n\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\n\n  EARLY PASTORATES                                                   35\n\n  The Call to Franklin Covenant Baptist Church--Other\n  Calls--Strange Custom of Negro Preachers--Dr. Walker Teaches\n  School--Some of His Early Pupils--His Marriage--The Work at\n  LaGrange.\n\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n\n  THE WORK AT AUGUSTA                                                39\n\n  The Call to Central Baptist Church--The Unholy Wrangle Prior to\n  His Call--His First Sermon--New Life for a Time--The\n  Troubles Renewed--Central Baptist Church Sold--Tabernacle\n  Baptist Church Organized--New Church Dedicated--Wonderful\n  Record--The Pastor Goes North--Justin Dewey Fulton\u2019s\n  Commendation--Dr. Walker\u2019s Report on His Return.\n\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\n\n  OTHER WORK AT AUGUSTA                                              47\n\n  Business Manager of the Augusta Sentinel--Founder of the Walker\n  Baptist Institute--A Dream for the Future--Director-General\n  of the Negro Exposition--The Exposition--Lends a Helping Hand\n  to Many.\n\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\n\n  INFLUENCE IN GEORGIA                                               55\n\n  Offices Held--Public Addresses--Interest in Public\n  Affairs--As an Evangelist--Securing Competent Leaders for\n  Churches and Schools--Dr. Walker\u2019s Unselfishness.\n\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\n\n  THE VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND                                         59\n\n  Provision for the Trip--Traveling Companions--Itinerary--Preaches\n  at Mount Olivet Baptist Church on His Way--His Return--His\n  Account of the Journey--On the Lecture Platform.\n\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\n\n  A COLORED MAN ABROAD                                               69\n\n  Extracts From Dr. Walker\u2019s Writings--Tribute to the Sea--First\n  Sabbath at Sea--Spurgeon\u2019s Tabernacle--A Storm on the\n  Mediterranean--Manners and Customs of the East--The Testimony\n  of the Mountain--Drifting on Life\u2019s Ocean--Anarchy--Warning.\n\n\n  CHAPTER X.\n\n  AS A NATIONAL FIGURE                                               77\n\n  First National Baptist Convention--Dr. Walker one of the\n  Founders--His Reply to Rev. H. C. Bailey--Resolutions\n  Adopted--A National Leader--At Indianapolis--\u201cA Strong Man in a\n  Crisis\u201d--Receives His Degree--Offices Held in National Baptist\n  Convention--Chaplain U. S. V.--Vice President International\n  Sunday School Convention--Calls to Other Churches.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\n\n  CHAPLAIN U. S. V.                                                  83\n\n  At San Luis, Cuba--Great Crowds Hear Account of\n  Experiences--Resolutions Passed.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XII.\n\n  AS AN EVANGELIST                                                   88\n\n  Sphere Limited--Powers as an Evangelist--The New York\n  Campaign--At Atlanta--In Kansas City.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIII.\n\n  LEAVES AUGUSTA--GOES TO NEW YORK                                   98\n\n  Resignation of Augusta Church--Efforts to Retain Him--Last\n  Sunday Night in Augusta--Mt. Olivet Church--His\n  Success--Officers of Mt. Olivet Church.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIV.\n\n  COLORED MEN\u2019S BRANCH Y. M. C. A.                                  108\n\n  Movement Started--Adopted by City Association--Secretary\n  Coles--Obituary--Board of Management--Mr. Dugas--Miss\n  Connelly--A Perpetual Monument to the Founder.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XV.\n\n  CALLED TO AUGUSTA AGAIN                                           115\n\n  The Recall--Mass Meeting in New York--Letter of Dr.\n  Bitting--Speech of Col. Powell--Mass Meeting at\n  Augusta--Dr. Walker\u2019s Decision.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVI.\n\n  EXTRACTS FROM SERMONS                                             125\n\n  What Hath God Wrought--Go Forward--Infallible\n  Proofs of the Resurrection.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVII.\n\n  EXTRACTS FROM ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES                              138\n\n  Eulogy on President McKinley--Reply to Hannibal Thomas--The\n  Golden Rule as an Individual Motto--An Appeal to C\u00e6sar--Colored\n  Men for the Twentieth Century.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n  EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS                                          155\n\n  The Examiner--Sun--World--Journal--Tribune--Times--Augusta\n  (Ga.) Chronicle--Fall River (Mass.) Evening News--Georgia\n  Baptist--Augusta Chronicle--Georgia Baptist.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIX.\n\n  ANECDOTES                                                         171\n\n  \u201cThe Black Sturgeon\u201d--Reading and Counting for Negroes--Praying\n  for Money--Praying for Converts--About Jay Birds--Early\n  Religious Impressions--Electing a Church Treasurer--Dr.\n  Walker\u2019s Complexion--The Negro a Novelty.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XX.\n\n  APPEARANCE, MANNERS, HABITS                                       178\n\n  Description--Still a Rustic--Democratic--Remarkable\n  Memory--Shy--His Sermons--The Bible and the Newspaper--Hunting\n  and Fishing--Love for Little Children.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXI.\n\n  TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS                                        184\n\n  Patience--Motto of Dr. Walker\u2019s Life--The Faithful Minister and\n  His Trials--Humility--Gratitude--Other Characteristics--Not\n  a Perfect Man.\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXII.\n\n  CONCLUSION                                                        191\n\n  God\u2019s Best Gift to Man--The Magnetism of Goodness--Scope of\n  Influence--Goodness is Communicable--The Real Forces of Life.\n\n\n\n\n  LIFE OF\n  CHARLES T. WALKER, D. D.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER I.\n\n  PARENTAGE AND BIRTH.\n\nIt has long been a mooted question as to which State in the Union\nproduces the best class of Negroes. Though there are no scientific\ndata from which to draw definite conclusions, it is very generally\nagreed that the best Negroes--the most intellectual, most industrious,\nwealthiest, and the best behaved Negroes--come either from Virginia\nor Georgia. If that be true, then, if one is so fortunate as to be a\nnative Georgian with Virginia ancestors, or _vice versa_, he ought to\nbe considered a Negro of superior birth, to say the least. Viewed in\nthis light, Charles Thomas Walker was born to superiority. In 1773, a\nfamily of Negroes was brought from Virginia to Burke County, Georgia,\nby the grandfather of the late Col. A. C. Walker, who was a prominent\nGeorgia planter and politician and who for many years was a member of\nthe Georgia legislature. In 1880, Col. Walker, writing of the Negro\nWalkers who had descended from the family brought to Georgia by his\ngrandfather, said: \u201cAs slaves, they were noted for their admirable\nqualities, and as freedmen they have sustained their reputation.\u201d\n\nCharles Thomas Walker was the fourth in descent from this family. His\nfather was a man of the name of Thomas Walker, and was one of three\nbrothers. Thomas Walker was his master\u2019s coachman--a position which\nonly the best and most trustworthy slaves were allowed to hold, and\na position which the slaves themselves always considered as a place\nof honor. The fact, also, that he was a deacon in the church of which\nhe was a member attests the esteem in which he was held by the other\nslaves. Two of Charles T. Walker\u2019s uncles, Joseph T. Walker and Nathan\nWalker, were both Baptist ministers. The Franklin Covenant Baptist\nChurch, about five miles from Hephzibah, Ga., and only a short distance\nfrom the Burke County line, was organized for the colored people in\n1848. In 1852 or 1853, this church, though its membership was made up\nof slaves, raised the necessary amount and purchased the freedom of\nthe Rev. Joseph T. Walker, at that time their pastor, in order that he\nmight devote himself entirely to his church work and to the preaching\nof the gospel in the counties of Richmond, Jefferson and Burke. In this\nwork, Rev. Joseph T. Walker continued until the close of the war. The\nRev. Nathan Walker, though a licensed preacher before the war, was not\nordained to the ministry until 1866, when he succeeded his brother as\npastor of the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church.\n\nIn 1848, Thomas Walker was married to a young woman of the name of\nHannah Walker. To them eleven children were born--six females and five\nmales. On the 5th day of February, 1858, near Hephzibah, Richmond\nCounty, Ga., about sixteen miles southwest of Augusta, their youngest\nchild--Charles Thomas Walker--was born. Thomas Walker, the father, was\nburied the day before Charles was born, having died of pneumonia. Mrs.\nHannah Walker survived her husband eight years, dying in Augusta, Ga.,\nin 1866. It is related of her that she was a woman of unusual piety and\nstrength of character, being a devout member of the Franklin Covenant\nBaptist Church, of which her husband was a deacon. She had high hopes\nand fond expectations for her youngest child, and longed to live to see\nhim make a great and good man of himself, and especially so, because\nof the sad death of his father which occurred only two days before the\nchild was born. God willed otherwise, and took her home to be with him\nand to watch from the \u201chigh and uplifted\u201d battlements of glory the\ncareer of her son.\n\nThe following tribute to Mrs. Hannah Walker is taken from \u201cUnder the\nStars and Bars; or Memories of Four Years\u2019 Service with the Confederate\nArmy.\u201d This book was written by Mr. Walter A. Clark, Treasurer\nof Richmond County, Ga. Mr. Clark was a prominent officer in the\nConfederate Army; he is a graduate of Emory College (Georgia), and a\nliterary man of great merit; he is a nephew of the late Col. Walker,\nalready quoted in this book, was reared along with the black Walkers\nand knows whereof he speaks. His tribute to Mrs. Walker is no less a\ncredit to the memory of the deceased than it is a testimony of the\ngoodness of heart and magnificent manhood of the writer.\n\n \u201cMy heart prompts me to pay its earnest tribute to one whose memory\n the sketch above recalls--dear old Aunt Hannah. How her name brings\n back to my heart and life to-day the glamour of the old, old days that\n will never come again--days when to me a barefoot boy, life seemed\n a long and happy holiday! I can see her now, her head crowned with a\n checkered handkerchief, her arms bare to the elbows, her spectacles\n set primly on her nose, while from her kindly eyes there shone the\n light of a pure white soul within! She was only an humble slave, and\n yet her love for me was scarcely less than that my father and mother\n bore me; and when, on a summer\u2019s day in 1861, my brother and myself\n left the old homestead to take our humble places under a new born\n flag, there was not a dry eye on the whole plantation, old Aunt Hannah\n wept in grief as pure and deep as if the clods were falling on an own\n child.\n\n \u201cLong years have come and gone since she was laid away in the narrow\n house appointed for all the living. No marble headstone marks the\n spot, yet I am sure the humble mound that lies above her sleeping dust\n covers a heart as honest and as faithful, as patient and as gentle, as\n kindly and as true, as any that rests beneath the proudest monument\n that art could fashion or affection buy. She reared a large family\n of children, the Rev. Charles T. Walker, \u2018The Black Spurgeon,\u2019 among\n them, and transmitted to them all a character for honesty and virtue\n marked even in those, the better days of the Republic.\n\n \u201cWisely or otherwisely, in the order of Providence, or in the order of\n Napoleon\u2019s \u2018heavier battalions,\u2019 we have in this good year of our Lord\n (1900) not only a New South, but a new type of Aunt Hannah. The old\n is, I fear, a lost Pleiad, whose light will shine no more on land or\n sea or sky.\u201d\n\nThe Walker family produced a number of able and successful\npreachers--some say more, some say less. As already shown, two of Dr.\nWalker\u2019s uncles--Joseph T. Walker and Nathan Walker--were ministers.\nThe latter is still living, venerated and honored, at the good old age\nof 85. He was one of the founders of the Walker Baptist Association,\nand was for more than twenty years its moderator, retiring about ten\nyears ago on account of the infirmities of old age. The Association\nwas named in honor of the Rev. Joseph T. Walker. The Walker Baptist\nInstitute at Augusta, named also for the Rev. Joseph T. Walker, was\nfounded by this Association and has been for many years supported\nby it. In all respects the Walker Baptist Association is to-day the\nleading Association in Georgia. An older brother of Dr. Walker, the\nRev. Peter Walker, now retired on account of age, was, in his day, a\nman of great force and power in the pulpit. A nephew of Dr. Walker, the\nRev. Prof. Joseph A. Walker, son of Rev. Peter Walker, was up to the\ntime of his death, about eight years ago, the honored and successful\nPrincipal of Walker Baptist Institute. Besides these, there are two\nfirst cousins of Dr. Walker who are among Georgia\u2019s most distinguished\nclergymen--the Rev. W. G. Johnson, D. D., Pastor of the First Baptist\nChurch, Macon, Ga., who is Secretary of the Walker Baptist Association,\nChairman of the Board of Trustees of the Walker Baptist Institute, and\na member of the Board of Trustees of the Atlanta Baptist College; and\nthe Rev. R. J. Johnson, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Millen,\nGa., and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Walker Baptist\nInstitute. Other cousins in the ministry are the Rev. Samuel C. Walker,\nAugusta, Ga., Rev. A. J. Walker, Millen, Ga., Rev. T. W. Walker,\nWrightsville, Ga., Rev. Solomon Walker, Savannah, Ga., Rev. Matthew\nWalker, Savannah, Ga., an elder in the C. M. E. Church, and Rev.\nNathan Wilkerson, Waynesboro, Ga. In addition to these, there are many\nof this family who were once in the ministry of earth, but who have\nlong since gone to join the ministry on high.\n\nDescended from a generation of preachers, Dr. Walker towers above\nthem all like Saul among his brethren. So great is his fame and so\ncelebrated has he made the name of Walker that the other members of the\nfamily find it a passport in many places for them to make it known that\nthey belong to the generation of Walkers.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER II.\n\n  EARLY CHILDHOOD.\n\n\nThe first seven years of young Walker\u2019s life were spent under the hard\ntuition of slavery, though, of course, he cannot have any very vivid\nrecollections of the hardships of those days. It is fair, nevertheless\nto assume that his lot was not different from that of thousands and\nthousands of other black children in different parts Of the South.\nRichmond County, one of the large \u201cBlack Belt\u201d counties of Georgia,\nwhich had then, and which has to this day, a larger black than white\npopulation, was in no respect different in its slave customs and\nregulations from other slave communities, excepting possibly the\nreligious privileges enjoyed by the slaves. They had their own churches\nand enjoyed for the most part the ministrations of colored preachers,\nsuch as they were. They had their own houses of worship, their own\nchurch officials, and held regular and stated religious meetings.\nThis was true in only a very limited number of places in the South\nduring the slave period. In this respect, Richmond County was somewhat\nin advance of other localities. But only in this respect. In other\nmatters, it was the same in Richmond County as elsewhere. The slaves\nreceived regular rations or allowances. The monthly ration consisted\nof eight pounds of pickled pork or its equivalent in fish. The pork\nwas often tainted and the fish of the poorest quality. With this,\nthey had one bushel of unbolted Indian meal, of which quite fifteen\nper cent. was fit only for pigs, and one pint of salt. This was the\nentire monthly allowance for a full grown slave. The children had no\nregular allowance, and often were compelled to dispute with dogs and\ncats and pigs over the scraps thrown into the yard or into the swill\ntub. Children not large enough to work in the field had neither shoes,\nstockings, jackets nor trousers given them. Their clothing consisted\nof two coarse tow linen shirts per year, and when these were worn out,\nthey were literally naked until the next allowance day. Flocks of\nchildren from five to ten years old might be seen on the plantations as\ndestitute of clothing as any little heathen in Africa, and this even\nin the cold and dreary months of winter. These children had no school\nadvantages--certainly not. It was made a misdemeanor by law to teach\na colored person to read or write. These children had no home life.\nThe night for the slave--male and female--was shortened at both ends.\nThe slaves worked as long as they could see, and were usually up late\ncooking and mending for the coming day, and at the first gray streak\nof the morning were summoned to the fields by the driver\u2019s horn. Young\nmothers working in the field were allowed to go home about ten o\u2019clock\nin the morning to nurse their children. Sometimes they were compelled\nto take their children with them and leave them in the corners of the\nfences in order to prevent loss of time. John Wesley, the founder of\nMethodism, who got his knowledge of slavery while sojourning in the\ncolony of Georgia, did not err when he denounced slavery as \u201cthe sum of\nall villainies.\u201d\n\nIn such a school as this, Charles Thomas Walker received his early\ntraining. How different from the early training of such men as Henry\nWilson, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, James A. Garfield, Daniel\nWebster, Henry Clay, and other white men who were born to poverty.\nThough these men were born in humble circumstances, yet they were\nborn to freedom. Charles Thomas Walker was born poor, and--what was\nworse--he was born a slave. These men owned at least themselves;\nthey were free to go wherever they desired or to pursue any course of\nstudy or line of work that they wished. Charles Thomas Walker owned\nnothing--not even himself--and was compelled to go wherever his\nmaster ordered and do whatever his master commanded.\n\nAs to this slave system, the ancient question might well be asked, \u201cCan\nany good thing come out of Nazareth?\u201d And the reply is,\n\n    \u201cFull many a gem of purest ray serene,\n    The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;\n    Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,\n    And waste its sweetness on the desert air.\u201d\n\nAnd how we thank God that we can write of this dreadful system of\niniquity in the past tense. It did crush and cower so much of genius\nand intellectual strength and moral grandeur, and did send to their\ngraves without opportunity and without chance thousands and thousands\nwho, under any just and equitable scheme of civilization, might have\nproved God\u2019s noblest friends and humanity\u2019s strongest helpers!\n\nBy the exigency of war and the interposition of Jehovah, slavery in\nAmerica was brought to an end in 1865. One year later young Walker\u2019s\nmother died. From this time on young Charles was left to his own\nresources. Moving about as best he could from one relative to another,\nfinally, in 1873, he went to work as a farm hand for his uncle, the\nRev. Nathan Walker. This uncle had by this time come to be a large\nplanter in his own right, and was renting hundreds of acres of land\nfrom his former masters.\n\nWednesday before the first Sunday in June, 1873, while young Walker\nwas hoeing cotton, he decided to seek the Lord. When he reached the\nend of the row, without saying a word to anybody, he jumped over the\nfence and went into the woods. Without eating or drinking, and without\nseeing any one, he remained in the woods until the following Saturday\nafternoon, when he was happily converted. He had remained in the woods\nthree days and three nights. How like the blessed Christ, who laid in\nthe grave three days and three nights and then rose triumphant over\ndeath, hell and the grave! This strange way of seeking the Lord, this\nstrange conversion, as it might be called, was all the more remarkable\nwhen it is understood that there was no great wave of religious revival\nsweeping over Richmond County. A short time before this there had been\nspecial prayer services in which there had been numbers of conversions;\nbut young Walker\u2019s conversion was the result of quiet and serious\nmeditation on his own part and an earnest desire to be a meek and lowly\nfollower of the Lamb.\n\nYoung Walker joined the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church, near\nHephzibah, and was baptized into the fellowship of that church the\nfirst Sunday in July, 1873. The ceremony was performed by his uncle,\nthe Rev. Nathan Walker, the pastor of the church and the man by whom he\nwas at that time employed. This was the same church of which another\nuncle, the Rev. Joseph T. Walker, had been pastor during the days of\nslavery, and of which young Walker\u2019s father was once a deacon. At the\ntime of his baptism, young Walker was fifteen years old.\n\n[Illustration: HOME OF PETER WALKER, NEAR HEPHZIBAH, GA., WHERE\nCHARLES T. WALKER LIVED DURING THE FIRST EIGHT YEARS OF HIS LIFE.]\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER III.\n\n  THE STUDENT PERIOD.\n\n\nFrom the time of his conversion, young Walker was an active and\nzealous Christian, and at once became prominently identified with every\nbranch of church work--the prayer meeting, the Sunday school and the\npreaching service. He had not been long converted before he was deeply\nimpressed with the thought that he was called of God to preach the\ngospel. He felt, nevertheless, that he must restrain this desire until\nhe had acquired some education. He had been taught his A, B, C\u2019s by his\nmother. She had also taught him to read the fourteenth chapter of John.\nHe has preserved to this day the old Bible from which his mother taught\nhim to read. It is needless to say that his mother\u2019s Bible is to him a\npriceless treasure. Subsequently his entire schooling had been confined\nto two terms of five months each in the schools conducted in Augusta,\nGa., by the Freedman\u2019s Bureau. His first teachers were two Northern\nyoung ladies, Miss Hattie Dow and Miss Hattie Foote. In order to secure\nbetter school advantages, and in order to fit himself for his life\nwork, he came to Augusta in 1874 and entered the Augusta Institute,\na school which was specially designed for colored preachers. This\nschool was presided over by the late Rev. Joseph T. Robert, LL. D. Dr.\nRobert was a native of South Carolina and had been a slaveholder. After\nemancipation, he felt moved of God to take up the work of training\nNegro young men for the Christian ministry. He wrought well in his day\nand generation; he made the Augusta Institute a great school; no man,\nbefore or since his time, has left a deeper impress upon the history\nof the Negro Baptists of Georgia; and there is no man whose name is\nmore honored and revered among them. He was a polished and scholarly\ngentleman of the old school; he possessed a great degree of what is\ncalled personal magnetism; and, by his upright living and Christian\nfervor, he had the power of inspiring his pupils to higher and nobler\nthings. In the autumn of 1879, Augusta Institute was moved to Atlanta,\nand the name was changed to Atlanta Baptist Seminary. More recently\nthe name has been changed to Atlanta Baptist College. It is still the\nlargest and most influential school for young men in Georgia, and is\nregarded as the headquarters of the Negro Baptist ministers in the\nState.\n\nIn school young Walker was soon celebrated for his thoroughness,\nhis exemplary deportment, and for his native talent. He had only six\ndollars in money when he entered school. With this he rented a room in\na private family, for which he paid two dollars per month. In this room\nhe lived during his first year in the Augusta Institute. He did his\nown washing and cooking--cooking only twice a week, on Wednesdays and\nSaturdays. He did this in order to save time for study and to keep down\nexpenses. He had only one suit of clothes, which he used on Sundays as\nwell as on week days. When he had exhausted his six dollars, he picked\nup his little bundle, and was on the verge of leaving school, having\ndecided to walk back to the country and find work to enable him to\nre-enter school at the opening of the next school year. Some of his\nfriends among the students, finding out the reason for his proposed\ndeparture, remonstrated with him and, presenting him a small sum of\nmoney, urged him to be patient a day or two longer. One of his fellow\nstudents, the late Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., of Savannah, Ga., went so\nfar as to agree to provide for Mr. Walker until other arrangements\ncould be made. In the course of time this same Dr. Love came to\nbe, all things considered, one of the brainiest and most brilliant\nNegro preachers in America, and as an organizer of men in religion,\neducation, politics or business, he was probably unequaled by any of\nhis contemporaries. For fourteen years he pastored the largest Negro\nchurch in the world--the First African Baptist Church, Savannah, Ga. At\nthe time of his death in 1900, Dr. Walker, who came all the way from\nNew York to Georgia to speak at his funeral, referred with much feeling\nand tenderness to the strong ties of personal friendship which had so\nclosely bound them for years, and spoke with gratitude of Dr. Love\u2019s\nready assistance to him during his student days.\n\nThrough some of the students, Dr. Robert, the President of the\nAugusta Institute, was informed of young Walker\u2019s sad plight, and,\nthrough Dr. Robert, three gentlemen in Dayton, Ohio--Mr. G. N. Bierce,\nMr. A. B. Solomon, and Mr. E. B. Crawford--became interested in him,\nand, through the kindness of these three men, he was enabled to\nprosecute his studies at the Augusta Institute for five years. Two of\nthese three gentlemen--Mr. Bierce and Mr. Solomon--are still living.\nBoth are still very wealthy, and are among Ohio\u2019s most successful\nbusiness men. In November, 1901, Mr. Bierce went to New York to attend\nthe Jubilee Dinner of the International Y. M. C. A. While in New York,\nhe visited Dr. Walker at his home, went with him to the church which\nhe serves as pastor, and also to the Colored Branch of the Y. M. C. A.,\n132 W. 53rd St., which was founded by Dr. Walker. In his speech at\nthe Colored Men\u2019s Branch, Mr. Bierce, among other things, said that he\nhad made many investments in his life, but he believed that the money\nhe had invested in Dr. Walker\u2019s education had yielded the largest and\nbest returns of any investment that he had ever made. He also told\nhow he came to be interested in the elevation of the colored race.\nHe said that during the late Civil War he was a soldier in the Union\nArmy, and had drifted with his regiment into Kentucky. While there he\nwas seriously wounded and left for dead on the battlefield. After many\nhours he managed to make his way to the house of a white Southerner,\nand asked for shelter and food. Seeing that Mr. Bierce was a Union\nsoldier, the white Southerner denied him both, but called one of his\ncolored servants and told him that he might take charge of the man and\ncare for him, if he desired to do so. The colored man took charge of\nMr. Bierce, and, in their lonely cabin, the colored man and his wife\ncarefully watched and nursed the wounded soldier, and in a few weeks\nbrought him back to health and strength. After the war, Mr. Bierce made\nmany efforts to find these faithful Good Samaritans and reward them\nfor their kindness. Failing in this, he decided that, as he owed his\nlife to the attention and care of two members of the Negro race, he\nwould let no opportunity pass to help any of the race who might need\nassistance. And true to his pledge, Mr. Bierce has been the steady\nand consistent friend of the colored people from that day to this.\nDr. Walker is only one of many beneficiaries of his kindness, and Dr.\nWalker is a conspicuous example of what a little money, wisely placed\nin the education of one colored man, can do toward the elevation of an\nentire race.\n\nThough Dr. Walker finished the prescribed course at the Augusta\nInstitute, he was not graduated from that institution. No graduates\nwere sent out from that school until long after it had been moved\nto Atlanta, the first class being regularly graduated in 1884.\nSubsequently, by vote of the trustees, it was decided that the names of\nnearly fifty young men who had finished the prescribed course prior to\n1884, should be placed in the catalogue and marked \u201centitled to rank as\ngraduates.\u201d Dr. Walker\u2019s name is in this number. But whether graduated\nor not, Dr. Walker easily excels any man who was graduated there, and\nno man, living or dead, has ever heard him express any regret that he\ndoes not hold a diploma.\n\nIn September, 1876, after two years in the Augusta Institute, and in\nthe eighteenth year of his age, young Walker was licensed to preach.\nThe first Sunday in May, 1877, he was ordained to the sacred office of\nthe Gospel ministry.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER IV.\n\n  EARLY PASTORATES.\n\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Walker soon became noted as a preacher in and around\nAugusta. Possessing a fair knowledge of the Bible, and at all times\nan earnest and enthusiastic speaker, the people literally crowded to\nhear the \u201cboy preacher,\u201d as the Rev. C. T. Walker, on account of his\nage and youthful appearance, was called for a good many years after he\nentered the ministry. October 1st, 1877, he was called to the pastorate\nof the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church, near Hephzibah, and assumed\nthe duties of the office on the first day of January, 1878. This was\nthe church of which he was a member, of which his father had been a\ndeacon, and of which, before him, two of his uncles had been pastors.\nCalls to other churches followed in rapid succession, and by the time\nhe reached his twenty-first birthday, February, 1879, he was pastor of\nthe four following churches: Franklin Covenant Baptist Church, near\nHephzibah, Ga.; Thankful Baptist Church, Waynesboro, Ga.; McKinnie\u2019s\nBranch Baptist Church, Burke County, Ga., and Mount Olive Baptist\nChurch, in the suburbs of Augusta, Ga. If it seem strange that one man\nshould be the pastor of so many churches, it may be stated that it is\ncustomary in the country districts of the South for one preacher to be\nin charge of several churches. He will give about one Sunday in every\nmonth to each church. Sometimes the churches served by one pastor are\nall in the same county. Sometimes they are separated by many miles. Of\ncourse, no real pastoral work can be done in this way. Of necessity the\npeople suffer; no continuous, well-organized spiritual training can be\nkept up. But, as a rule, the country churches are unable to properly\npay their pastors, and but for this system which allows one minister to\npastor several churches, there are many churches which would be without\nany pastor. Even under the present system it is very difficult for the\nmajority of pastors to secure anything like proper remuneration.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Walker, nevertheless, was not to be doomed to the drudgery\nof pastoring several churches at one and the same time. After a little\nmore than one year\u2019s service, he resigned all of his other churches\nto become pastor of the First Baptist Church at LaGrange, Ga., in the\nearly part of 1880.\n\nIt was with very great regret that the churches which he had been\nserving consented to his withdrawal. Two of them voted to increase his\nsalary if he would decide to continue to serve them. He had done good\nservice, and these struggling churches felt that it would be difficult\nto find any one who would be able to serve as well, as faithfully, and\nas acceptably as he had done. Hence, they objected to his removal.\nEspecially was it hard for him to withstand the entreaties of his\nhome church. The members of the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church held\na mass meeting protesting against the withdrawal of their pastor and\nurging him to remain with his own people. When he announced to them his\nfinal decision, to the effect that he felt that the Lord was calling\nhim to the new field of labor and that he would obey what he believed\nto be the call of the Holy Spirit, the whole congregation broke down\nin tears. It was a sad and trying experience in the life of the young\npreacher.\n\nDuring the summer months of 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879, the Rev. Mr.\nWalker taught school in the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church building.\nThat is another thing that is peculiar to the rural districts of the\nSouth. In many places, perhaps in the majority of places, the public\nschools are conducted in church edifices, the States having no funds\nfor buildings for schools and the people, as a rule, the white people\nas well as the colored people, being too poor to erect separate\nschool buildings, find it convenient to use the church building for\nschool purposes. As a school-teacher he was successful, so far as the\nconditions of the time and his own attainments warranted. It must be\nconfessed, none the less, that he taught school as a means of support\nand to help him in paying his own expenses while attending the Augusta\nInstitute.\n\nJune 19th, 1879, Rev. Mr. Walker was married to Miss Violet Q.\nFranklin, of Hephzibah, Ga. To them four children were born. Three\nchildren are dead. One son is still living--Master Jonathan Walker, a\nlad yet in his teens. One daughter, Mrs. Alberta Walker Hughes, left\na daughter at her death, and this grandchild is pet of Dr. Walker and\nwife.\n\nDr. Walker remained in LaGrange for nearly three years. While there\nhe was a busy, active, energetic, influential and successful pastor.\nIt was while there that he gave promise of his future eminence as a\nsoul-stirring, soul-saving evangelist. He conducted two of the most\neventful revivals ever held in Western Georgia. More than four hundred\nsouls were savingly converted, and more than three hundred were added\nto the church which he pastored. After these meetings, he received\nmany invitations to conduct series of meetings in the leading Georgia\ncities, and accepted as many as he could well afford to accept without\ninjury to his own work at LaGrange. At LaGrange he also established\na school for Baptists, and was instrumental in having a large frame\nbuilding erected for this purpose. The school finally grew into the\nLaGrange Academy, a large and influential Baptist High School. It was\nat LaGrange, also, that he read law for nearly two years under Judge\nWalker, one of the ablest members of the Georgia bar, and, though he\nwas never admitted to the bar, it is evident that his legal learning\nhas stood him in good stead in the exposition of many a Scripture\npassage, and, though the law may have lost a brilliant expounder, it\nis certain that a great leader and teacher was saved to the church and\nreligion.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER V.\n\n  THE WORK AT AUGUSTA.\n\n\nThe Rev. Charles T. Walker was called to the pastorate of the Central\nBaptist Church at Augusta, Ga., in 1883, and resigned the First Baptist\nChurch at LaGrange to enter upon the work at Augusta. Central Baptist\nChurch is one of the oldest churches in Augusta, and was the first\ncolored church in the city to erect a brick building. The edifice was\nvery large and was a credit to the city. But for nearly twelve months\nbefore the Rev. Mr. Walker was elected pastor, the church had been\nengaged in a very unfortunate wrangle. The Rev. Henry Jackson was the\npredecessor of Rev. Walker, and he had been the pastor of the church\nalmost from its organization in 1858. A daughter of Rev. Jackson was\nthe organist of the church, and it seems that the pastor wanted her\nsalary increased. The majority of the deacons and trustees did not\nagree with the pastor; but the pastor called a business meeting of the\nchurch, and, by high-handed methods, so it was claimed, succeeded in\nhaving a vote passed favoring the proposed increase in the organist\u2019s\npay. From that day the wrangle started in good earnest. There were\ncharges and counter-charges. There were plots and counter-plots.\nThe faction favoring the pastor was called \u201cJacksonites,\u201d and the\nopposing faction was called \u201cRamrackers.\u201d The deacons were divided; the\ntrustees were divided; the membership was divided. There was scarcely\na meeting held at the church for any purpose but that there were harsh\nwords passed on both sides, and sometimes there were fisticuffs. Many\npolice trials resulted from these disgraceful occurrences. Once the\nlights were put out during a meeting. In the darkness, some miscreant\nsent a pistol ball crashing through one of the windows. Pandemonium\nreigned within. The church was locked up several times by injunctions\nsued out before the courts--sometimes by one side, sometimes by the\nother. Finally, the trouble became so acute that it was positively\nunsafe for any one to attend the church. There came a temporary lull\nin the warfare of the saints (?) when the Rev. Henry Jackson resigned\nand left the city. For a time the factions seemed to have settled\ntheir differences. The church came together and extended a unanimous\ncall to the Rev. C. T. Walker to take up the pastorate. After much\ndeliberation and prayer, the Rev. Mr. Walker accepted the call. He was\ntwenty-five years old at the time, but looked to be much younger. From\nthe beginning he made a favorable impression. His first sermon was\npreached the fourth Sunday in August, 1883, from these words: \u201cFor I\nam determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and\nhim crucified\u201d (1 Cor. 2:2). Those who were present on the occasion of\nthis introductory sermon remember vividly the preacher\u2019s sermon and\nhis appearance. A youngish looking man of medium height and rather\nslim, with frank, open features; face very dark; quiet of demeanor and\ngraceful in movement; with a sweet, clear, orotund voice, enunciating\nevery word distinctly. With the man and the sermon, the church and\ncongregation were alike delighted and encouraged; and never did they\nseem to sing before with such thrilling effect and such depths of\nmeaning, \u201cBlest be the tie that binds.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: FRANKLIN COVENANT BAPTIST CHURCH.\n\nTHE FIRST CHURCH PASTORED BY REV. C. T. WALKER. THE PRESENT EDIFICE WAS\nERECTED UNDER HIS ADMINISTRATION.]\n\nBut church wars never end. Whatever may have been the outward\nappearances, those on the inside knew that, though all said that they\nhad buried the hatchet, some of them at least had left the hatchet\u2019s\nhandle sticking a good way out of the ground. None knew this better\nthan the new young pastor, and none grieved more because of it. \u201cThe\nJacksonites\u201d wanted to direct the policy of the new minister, and so\ndid the \u201cRamrackers.\u201d Each side was jealous of the other, and, although\nsiding with neither, the new pastor found himself at every stem of his\njourney between two fires. Consequently, though earnestly desiring\nto do the Lord\u2019s work and praying daily to learn God\u2019s will, he was\nan unhappy man. The troubles continued. By and by the church reached\nthe point where it felt that to discipline a few of the recalcitrant\nofficers might help matters some. The action of the church not suiting\nthe \u201cJacksonites,\u201d the church was again closed by injunction, and\nthe whole affair was dragged again into the courts. By the advice\nof lawyers on both sides, since it seemed impossible to harmonize\nthe differences, it was agreed that the church should be sold and\nthe proceeds equally divided between the representatives of the two\nfactions. Accordingly, the church was sold at public outcry. It was\nbid in by the \u201cJacksonites.\u201d The \u201cRamrackers,\u201d so-called, received\nsomething over $2,000 for the sale. The \u201cJacksonites\u201d took charge\nof the old church, reorganized and called the Rev. Henry Jackson as\npastor. The other side, under the leadership of the Rev. Mr. Walker,\nworshipped temporarily in the hall of the Union Waiters\u2019 Society on\nEllis Street, the hall being generously donated by the Society for\nthat purpose. Friday night, August 21st, 1885, this body was formally\norganized at the Union Baptist Church, under the name of Beulah Baptist\nChurch. The enrolled membership at the time of organization was\n310--115 males and 195 females. At a special business meeting at the\nclose of the service Sunday night, August 23, 1885, at the suggestion\nof the pastor, the name of the church was changed from Beulah Baptist\nChurch to Tabernacle Baptist Church. Plans were at once set on foot for\nthe erection of a house of worship. Proper committees were appointed.\nA lot was secured on Ellis Street, above 10th Street, and work was\ncommenced on the new building September 1st, 1885. September 10th, the\ncorner stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies, the address being\ndelivered by the late Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., of Savannah, Ga. The\nbuilding was opened for worship and formally dedicated to the Lord the\nsecond Sunday in December, being the 13th day, 1885. The dedicatory\nsermon was preached at the morning service by the Rev. E. R. Carter, D.\nD., of Atlanta, Ga., from this text: \u201cBut will God indeed dwell on the\nearth? Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how\nmuch less this house that I have builded?\u201d (1 Kings 8:27.) The afternoon\nsermon was delivered by the Rev. Lansing Burrows, D. D., the well known\nSecretary of the Southern (white) Baptist Convention and for a long\ntime editor of the American Baptist Year Book. The sermon at night was\ndelivered by the late Rev. Dr. E. K. Love.\n\nThe Tabernacle Baptist Church edifice is built of brick, two stories\nhigh. The basement is used for the prayer meetings, the Sunday School,\nthe pastor\u2019s study, and closets. The auditorium upstairs is used for\nthe preaching services and for lectures. It will seat comfortably about\n800 persons. It cost (for ground and building) $13,500. Dedicated\nwithin three months after it was commenced and paid for within less\nthan two years after it was completed, including a new pipe organ\ncosting $1,500, is a record which has probably not been surpassed by\nany colored congregation in the South, and speaks well for the ability\nand zeal of the leader. With a new church building and with a sterling\nand brilliant young pastor, Tabernacle Baptist Church soon became\nthe leading colored church in Augusta, a city noted for its splendid\nchurches and its able pastors. It was while he was with this church\nthat the Rev. C. T. Walker made his reputation as a pulpit orator, a\nsound theologian, a soul-winning evangelist, and a resourceful pastor.\nAt the close of fourteen years of hard labor, Oct. 1st, 1899, it was\nfound from the records of the church clerk that more than 2,000 souls\nhad been converted during his ministry, and that more than 1,400 had\nbeen baptized by him into the fellowship of the Tabernacle Baptist\nChurch.\n\nIt was in connection with the work at Tabernacle Church that the\npastor made his first extended tour throughout New York and New\nEngland. The members of the church had by their own efforts paid nearly\n$10,000 of the $13,500, which was the total cost of their ground and\nbuilding. In the autumn of 1886, the pastor, armed with numerous\ntestimonials and letters of introduction, went North to solicit funds\nto assist in completing the payments on the church property. He found\nready acceptance and willing ears everywhere he went. It was at this\ntime that he preached for the first time in Mt. Olivet Baptist Church,\n161 W. 53rd Street, New York city, of which years afterwards he became\npastor. Of his visit to the Centennial Baptist Church, Brooklyn, the\npastor, the late Rev. Dr. Justin Dewey Fulton, wrote: \u201cMy people who\nheard him pronounce him a preacher of more than ordinary ability.\nHis voice is good, his bearing modest and impressive, his language\nexcellent, and the aim of his preaching is to glorify Christ.\u201d In\nother churches and in other cities, the Rev. Mr. Walker found similar\nwarm friends, who listened eagerly to his exposition of God\u2019s word or\nto his appeals for aid in his work at the South. He returned to his\nwork in Georgia, satisfied with the financial results of his trip, but\nmore gratified with the moral support and encouragement he received.\nIn reporting his labors to his members on his return, the Rev. Mr.\nWalker said, among other things: \u201cThe Lord went with me, and opened\nup for me many places which were considered very hard, and enabled\nme to approach some persons who were at first apparently not at all\nfriendly toward the colored people. When I got on the grounds and\nlearned the true situation, I was not at all disposed to criticise the\npeople of the North for being cautious about distributing their money\nto irresponsible persons. I found out that numbers of colored people\ngo up North every year begging for money for churches and schools and\norphan homes and the like, which have no existence at all, except in\nthe imaginations of their impostors or on paper. When members of my\nown race will do such things they make it hard for a worthy person\nsoliciting for a worthy and legitimate enterprise and you cannot blame\npeople for being careful about giving their money when they know that\nthere are many little schemes being worked by colored men to rob\nthem. \u2018A burnt child dreads the fire,\u2019 and the good have to suffer on\naccount of the conduct of those who are dishonest and speculative.\nBut God was with me and directed me, and I secured a hearing and\nreceived contributions in some places where others were denied. We\nshould all be thankful for this, as much as any thing else. It pays to\nbe honest, sincere and straightforward, and I have no patience with\nthose hypocrites who are systematically robbing the good people of the\nNorth, who are very willing to give of their means for the uplift of my\ndowntrodden race.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: REV. CHARLES T. WALKER AT TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF AGE.]\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER VI.\n\n  OTHER WORK AT AUGUSTA.\n\n\nNot only was the Rev. Mr. Walker notably successful as a pastor while\nhe lived in Augusta, but he was also a very active citizen, taking a\nprominent part in all enterprises looking to the betterment of the\npeople along educational, religious and business lines. It may be said\nwith truth that his public spirit, his generous concern for the welfare\nof all the people, was one of the things that gave point and power to\nhis preaching and caused \u201cthe common people\u201d to hear him gladly.\n\nIn 1884, the Augusta Sentinel, a weekly paper, was established by\nProf. R. R. Wright, A. M. (afterwards Major R. R. Wright, LL. D.), who\nwas at that time Principal of the Ware High School. The Rev. Mr. Walker\nwas one of its largest stockholders and was elected Business Manager.\nIn 1891, Prof. Wright left the editorship of the paper to become the\nfirst President of the Georgia State Industrial College, near Savannah,\nGa., a position which he still holds. Major Wright was and is one\nof Georgia\u2019s leading educators and most representative citizens. He\nhas represented his State four or five times in Republican National\nConventions, and was appointed a \u201cMajor and Additional Paymaster\u201d in\nthe U. S. V. by the late President McKinley during the Spanish-American\nwar. When Prof. Wright left the editorial chair, he was succeeded by\nthe late Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., of Savannah, Ga. Dr. Love retired\nin 1892, and was succeeded by Prof. Silas X. Floyd. But, through all\nthese changes, the Rev. Dr. Walker remained in charge of the business\ndepartment of the paper until it died a natural death in 1896. In 1891,\nwhile Dr. Walker was traveling in Europe and the Holy Land, he sent a\nweekly letter to the Sentinel, and these letters did much in adding to\nthe popularity of the paper. On his return, these letters were compiled\nand published in a volume of 148 pp. 16mo. under the name and title of\n\u201cA Colored Man Abroad.\u201d The book had a wide sale and found many readers.\n\nThe Walker Baptist Association in 1880 passed a resolution to\nestablish a high and normal school for colored children. Dr. Walker\nwas the author of that resolution. The school was at first located at\nWaynesboro, Ga., where it remained for about three years. Dr. Walker\nbecame convinced that the school would thrive better if it was moved\nto Augusta, and he was specially anxious to have the school removed\nto that place, because he desired to see a good school conducted by\nBaptists in Augusta, a city of Baptists, and in which the Methodists\nand Presbyterians were already conducting creditable normal schools.\nIt was mainly through Dr. Walker\u2019s efforts that the school was finally\nmoved to Augusta in 1891, and even the most doubtful have been led\nby subsequent events to appreciate the wisdom of his suggestion.\nThe school is now a large and flourishing institution, occupying a\ncommanding site, the chapel, class rooms, dormitory and grounds being\nvalued at something over $5,000. The school is unencumbered, owned and\ncontrolled by the colored Baptists, assisted to a very limited extent\nby the American Baptist Home Mission Society. From the beginning, Dr.\nWalker has been the Financial Agent of the school, which position he\nstill holds. He has succeeded in bringing to its support a large number\nof friends, both white and black, North and South. It is one of his\nfond dreams for the future to establish in connection with this school\na large Industrial School and Business College. His friends believe\nthat it will not be difficult for him to accomplish this, because the\nwork already done by the colored people themselves in connection with\nthis school, the excellent showing they have made in the direction of\nself-help, will commend itself to a generous public wherever it is told.\n\n[Illustration: THE WALKER BAPTIST INSTITUTE, AUGUSTA, GA., FOUNDED BY\nDR. CHARLES T. WALKER.]\n\nIn 1893, the colored people of Augusta organized an exposition\ncompany. This company held an exposition that year, commencing\nDecember 18 and running through one week. The officers of the company\nwere Bishop R. S. Williams, of the C. M. E. Church, President; Prof.\nSilas X. Floyd, Editor Augusta Sentinel, Secretary; Mr. Charles J.\nFloyd, Assistant Secretary; Mr. George J. Scott, a grocer, Treasurer,\nand Dr. C. T. Walker, Director-General. Exhibits were on hand from\ncolored undertakers, colored cabinet makers, colored harness makers,\nshoemakers, contractors, carpenters and brick masons, printers,\nwheelwrights, carriage and wagon makers, farmers, who exhibited farm\nproducts, cattle, swine, poultry and the like, dressmakers, needle\nand fancy work by colored girls and young women, colored artists, who\nexhibited oil paintings, landscape paintings and sketches in charcoal\nand crayon, colored bakers, tailors, electricians, school-teachers,\nand the like. In his address to the public, Director-General Walker\nsaid: \u201cPrimarily, the basic principle upon which the Negro Exposition\nis founded is a desire to show to the world the advancement and\nprogress made by the American Negro, especially the Southern Negro,\nand most especially the Georgia Negro, within the past thirty years.\nBut no such exposition can be held in Augusta without also resulting\nin a general advantage to the interests of the city.\u201d Evidently, the\ncity council of Augusta, composed entirely of white Southern men,\ntook the view held by the Director-General, for, upon request for aid\nfrom the Directors of the Negro Exposition Company, the city council\nappropriated $200 from the city treasury for the promotion of the\nenterprise, and gave six policemen and all fire protection free. The\nexposition was a creditable display of the Negro\u2019s progress, and\ndid much to illustrate the purposes for which it was organized. The\nDirector-General was present every day and had charge of the program.\nThe welcome address was delivered by the mayor of the city, Major J. H.\nAlexander, to nearly 5,000 colored people and many hundreds of white\npeople on the opening day, Monday, December 18, 1893. At the conclusion\nof the address of welcome, the formal opening address was delivered by\nthe Rev. E. R. Carter, D. D., of Atlanta, Ga., one of the most popular\nSouthern Negro orators. Tuesday, December 19, was Educational Day. All\nthe public and private schools of the city had a general holiday in\nhonor of the event. More than 2,000 school children marched early in\nthe morning of that day behind brass bands to the Exposition Grounds,\nwhere appropriate exercises were held. Speeches were delivered by\nProf. Lawton B. Evans, Superintendent of Schools, Augusta, Ga., and\nProf. R. R. Wright, A. M. Music was furnished by a trained choir of\n500 voices of public school children under the direction of Prof. A.\nR. Johnson. Wednesday, December 20, was Military Day. The address\nof the day was delivered by Congressman George W. Murray, of South\nCarolina, after which there was a spirited prize drill by the various\ncompanies. Thursday, December 21, was Firemen\u2019s Day. A mammoth street\nparade of twelve fire companies took place in the forenoon, and, in the\nafternoon, there were reel races, foot races, bicycle races, and a base\nball game. Friday was Vaudeville Day. Mason and Johnson\u2019s Ethiopian\nMinstrels gave performances afternoon and evening. Saturday afternoon\nthe exhibition closed with a grand industrial parade on the Exposition\nGrounds. The like had never been seen before in this country, and\nprobably has not been seen since. To no one was more credit due\nfor the success of the entire affair than to the indefatigable\nDirector-General, the Rev. Dr. Walker. He gave himself to the work both\nnight and day without receiving one cent of pay.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn these public ways and in others, Dr. Walker made his presence in\nAugusta known and felt. But not alone for his public spirit is he\nknown, honored and loved by the people of Augusta, as is no other man\nwho has labored there, but also for the rendering of many private acts\nof sympathy and help and encouragement, which the world does not know\nabout, and which the world cannot know about. The number of those\nwhom he has been instrumental in saving from the jails, chain gangs\nand penitentiary; those he has had released from imprisonment, whose\nfines he has paid out of his own pocket; the number whose house rent\nhe has paid, and furnished food, and clothing, and fuel; the number of\nunhappy husbands he has reconciled to unhappy wives, thereby making\nboth happy again; the young people he has sent to school and has helped\nto educate; the men and women for whom he has secured employment; those\nhe has brought to Christ by private ministrations; the number he has\nencouraged and cheered by a kind act or a \u201cword fitly spoken;\u201d the\nnumber he has helped and inspired in one way and another, will reach\nfar into the thousands. The number cannot be known\n\n    \u201cUntil the sun grows cold,\n    And the stars are old,\n    And the leaves of the Judgment Book unfold.\u201d\n\nDr. Walker did these things as if by second nature, and, though now\nand then friends remonstrated with him and told him that he ought not\nto allow others to impose upon him, he went straight ahead, quietly\nand unostentatiously, spending and being spent for the Master, and his\nheart filled with the milk of human kindness, he lent a listening ear\nand an outstretched arm to every cry for pity and every appeal for help.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER VII.\n\n  INFLUENCE IN GEORGIA.\n\n\nIn spite of his arduous labors and duties at Augusta, Dr. Walker yet\nfound time to be interested in all matters which concerned the welfare\nof all the people throughout the State of Georgia, and was an active\nparticipant in many State gatherings of various kinds, aside from the\nlarge number of evangelistic meetings he found time to conduct in many\nGeorgia cities. For several years he was Moderator of the Western\nUnion Baptist Association; for four or five years he was Chairman of\nthe Executive Board of the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia;\nfor two years he was Vice President, and for eight years Secretary of\nthe same body; he was Treasurer for several years of the Sunday School\nWorkers\u2019 Convention of Georgia; he was at one time Vice President of\nthe Georgia Interdenominational Sunday School Convention; he was for a\nnumber of years a member of the Republican State Executive Committee;\nhe has been, from the beginning, a member of the Board of Trustees of\nthe Walker Baptist Institute, and was also a member of the Board of\nTrustees of the Atlanta Baptist College. The filling of these various\noffices of trust and responsibility indicate in a small way the immense\nactivity which he has displayed in the general welfare of the State,\nand particularly the welfare of the Baptist denomination.\n\nIn addition to these things, there has not been a convention of any\nkind called by the colored citizens of Georgia, as has frequently been\nthe case during the past twenty years, which he has not attended,\nanxious always to do something to advance the Negro in the scale\nof civilization. He has many times visited the annual meetings of\nthe State Teachers\u2019 Association of Georgia and, by invitation, has\naddressed them, trying to show what part the teachers ought to take\nin solving the so-called \u201cRace Problem.\u201d He has been a favorite\ncommencement orator at many of Georgia\u2019s schools and colleges, and\nhas never been able in any one year to accept all the numerous\ninvitations which have come to him to deliver baccalaureate sermons.\nOn the first day of January each year, it is customary for the colored\npeople throughout the South to hold public meetings, where addresses\nare delivered by distinguished men, in commemoration of the issuing\nof the Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, Jan. 1st, 1863.\nDr. Walker\u2019s addresses, delivered at different places in the State\non Emancipation Day, would alone make a very large and interesting\nvolume. Nor has he felt that his duties as a preacher have of necessity\nabsolved him from active participation in public affairs, or what\nis more generally called politics. He was for years a member of the\nRichmond County Executive Committee of the Republican Party, and also\na member of the Republican State Committee. He has believed and has\ntaught that it is the duty of every citizen to be interested in the\npolitical welfare of his city, State and country, and, in his judgment,\nno man is entitled to be called a good citizen who allows the vicious\nand corrupt to do all the voting and all the dictating, and then sits\ndown and sighs for what is called \u201cthe better and purer days of the\nRepublic.\u201d Of his work as an evangelist, mention will be made in a\nlater chapter. But let it be said now that no one man in Georgia has\nheld a larger number of special meetings throughout the State, nor has\nhad a larger number of conversions to be attributed to his preaching,\nthan has Dr. Walker. It is not exaggeration to say that he is the best\nknown Negro minister of the State of Georgia, and that more people will\ngo to hear him preach than will go to hear any other colored man. Not\nthe celebrated, plain-spoken, claw and hammer preaching of Sam Jones,\nnor the Holy Ghost preaching of the pious Dwight L. Moody, of sainted\nmemory, drew larger crowds to the auditorium at Exposition Park,\nAtlanta, Ga., than did the thunderous proclamation of the gospel by\nCharles T. Walker.\n\nPerhaps in no way has his influence been felt in Georgia more than\nin the selection of competent men for Baptist pastorates and in the\nappointment of competent men and women as teachers at many places\nin the State. Dr. Walker\u2019s reputation as a safe leader and wise\ncounsellor, his extensive travels and consequent wide acquaintance\nwith men and women throughout the State and nation have proved to be\nvery helpful to all concerned in the recommendations he has been asked\nto make. No one in Georgia who knows of these things can recall a\nsingle instance in which the recommendation of Dr. Walker, in the case\nof a church or school, has been turned down. So interested has Dr.\nWalker been in the welfare of others, and so eager has he been to see\ncompetent leaders set over the people, that he has been known time and\nagain to go 500, 600, and sometimes 1,000 miles at his own expense to\nassist those who needed and asked his opinion and advice, or to help\nsome person to secure a position. Not all of those whom he has helped\nhave been grateful; not all of them will admit their obligation; only\na few of them remember the bridge that carried them over. When told of\nthe ungratefulness of different ones, Dr. Walker only laughs and says:\n\u201cI do not help anybody with the expectation of being thanked. It is my\nduty to do my duty toward my fellow men, whether they thank me or not.\u201d\nThus he dismisses the subject, and goes to talking about something\nelse. Several times larger churches in Georgia, that could pay him more\nmoney than Tabernacle Baptist Church, extended calls to him to occupy\ntheir pulpits, but he always replied that Tabernacle Church was good\nenough for him, and then would assist the churches in securing good\nmen. Such unselfishness is rare, and has helped very much to perpetuate\nthe hold which Dr. Walker has had on the people of Georgia for so many\nyears.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER VIII.\n\n  THE VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND.\n\n\nTabernacle Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga., was the first colored church\nin this country to send its pastor on a trip to Europe and the Holy\nLand. This it did in the Spring of 1891. The church voted Dr. Walker\na vacation of three months, with full pay, and the church and friends\nin Augusta, white and colored, furnished money with which to enable\nhim to take the memorable journey. His church was supplied during his\nabsence by the Rev. L. B. Goodall, at that time of Augusta, Ga., now of\nCharlottesville, Va.\n\nHe left Augusta Thursday afternoon, April 9th, 1891, and sailed from\nNew York City on Wednesday, April 15th, at 11 o\u2019clock, a. m., on the\nsteamship _City of New York_, bound for Liverpool. He was accompanied\nas far as London by the Rev. E. R. Carter, D. D., of Atlanta, Ga.,\nand Prof. M. J. Maddox, at that time, of Gainesville, Fla., now of\nSavannah, Ga. He visited Liverpool, London, Paris, Turin, Genoa,\nPisa, Rome, Pompeii, Alexandria, Cairo, Ismailia, Port Said, Joppa,\nJerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Bethany, Mount of Olives,\nGethsemane, Calvary, Beirut, Cyprus, Smyrna, Ephesus, Pierus, Athens,\nCorinth, Venice, Patras, Corfu, Brindisi, Basle, Heidelberg, Mayence,\nCologne, Coblenz, Brussels, Antwerp, and some few other places. Dr.\nCarter accompanied him during the entire journey. He returned to New\nYork on Saturday, June 27th, 1891, and reached Augusta on the fourth\nday of July.\n\nBefore leaving New York on his way to the Holy Land, he preached twice\non the Sabbath at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, and, at the request of\nthe pastor and officers, he preached again on Monday night, April 13th.\nThe church gave him a liberal contribution to help him on his way, and\nhe departed with their best wishes and with many prayers for a safe\njourney and a safe return.\n\nThe following account taken from the Augusta Evening News, of July 6th,\n1891, will give some idea of Dr. Walker\u2019s reception on his return to\nAugusta:\n\n [Illustration: \u201cBETHEL.\u201d]\n\n \u201cThe impressions of an intelligent, zealous and popular colored\n minister about the Holy Land are well worth hearing and recording.\n\n \u201cThe Evening News has already announced the return of the Rev. Chas.\n T. Walker from his three months\u2019 trip abroad, and, indeed, has kept up\n with him pretty well in his great journey in Europe, Asia and Africa.\n The paper was glad to commend him on his departure, and welcomed his\n return, and these courtesies are both deserved and appreciated. A\n man who is so highly regarded by his congregation and friends that\n he is given such a trip, and whose influence is all for good among\n his people in this community, certainly deserves consideration and\n courtesy. Hence, more space than ordinary is given to this prominent\n and popular leader among his people.\n\n [Illustration: FORD OF THE RIVER JORDAN.]\n\n \u201cA genuine and hearty welcome was given Mr. Walker by his\n congregation, and yesterday he preached to his church for the first\n time in three months. Last night he gave an outline of his trip\n through the Holy Land, and promised half hour talks about places,\n scenes and customs for every Sunday evening.\n\n [Illustration: SHEEPFOLD.]\n\n \u201cAfter reading of the Queen of Sheba\u2019s visit to Solomon, he took\n his text from the famous words, \u2018the half has not been told,\u2019 and\n declared that those words expressed his ideas about the Holy Land.\n He did not go into details about his journey, but with a wonderful\n power of seizing upon leading scenes and incidents and putting them\n before his audience, with their vivid illustrations and comforting\n lessons, the preacher held his vast congregation spellbound for about\n an hour. It was in itself a scene well worth witnessing, to behold\n this earnest and really eloquent man, with his deep and resonant\n voice, and genuinely magnetic manner, telling his story to breathless\n and sympathetic listeners, who crowded every inch of sitting and\n standing room in the church. This ovation was a great compliment to\n the humble man of God, who spoke in grateful terms of those who had\n sent him on his memorable journey; and every one of his people must\n have felt fully repaid when, in summing up the results of his trip\n and the analysis of his observations, he declared that, after seeing\n and investigating the Holy Land for himself, he felt more than ever\n that God\u2019s word was true. If any one is sceptical about the Bible, its\n history and its sacred truths and traditions, said this preacher, let\n him go to Palestine, and he will be sceptical no longer.\n\n [Illustration: BABYLON.]\n\n \u201cHe also went to Egypt, which is scriptural land, where Moses, the\n greatest law-maker of the earth, was born, and where Joseph and\n Abraham, and even Jesus went, and he followed their footsteps back\n into Palestine, through Joppa, the gateway to Jerusalem, as it also\n became, through Peter\u2019s vision, the doorway of the Gentiles to God\u2019s\n kingdom. The preacher then described the great astronomical miracle\n performed by Joshua on the plain of Ajalon, when he commanded the sun\n and moon to stand still; he made graphic references to his journey\n along the famous highway over which the Roman Emperors and the\n Christian Crusaders traveled to the Holy City, Jerusalem, with its\n four mountains, its old walls, its eight gates, its well-remembered\n streets, was particularly dwelt upon, and the speaker declared that\n it was hard for him to realize that he was actually in the great city\n where the prophets walked, which was blessed by the Saviour\u2019s presence\n and consecrated by his crucifixion. He went straight to Calvary, he\n said, and his description of Calvary, as the greatest battle field\n the world ever saw, was very interesting, and was one of the most\n eloquent and vividly touching portions of his discourse. The effect on\n the audience was realistic and remarkable. The people leaned forward,\n and as the preacher alluded to Calvary as the greatest battlefield\n the world ever saw and said that the cross was its eternal monument,\n murmurs and shouts of approval went up all over the house.\n\n [Illustration: THE POOL OF SILOAM.]\n\n [Illustration: AN EASTERN HARVEST SCENE.]\n\n \u201cThe Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Tomb of the Saviour,\n Gethsemane, the Brook Kedron, and the Mount of Olives, were in turn\n dwelt upon; and the minister said that as he bowed and wept at the\n Saviour\u2019s Tomb, he arose refreshed and wrote in his note-book: \u2018Thank\n God, he is a resurrected Jesus.\u2019\n\n \u201cIn describing the River Jordan, in which he bathed while he was\n there, and which he visited at the points where Joshua passed over,\n where Elijah ascended in the chariot, where Naaman was healed, and\n where Christ was baptized by John, the preacher was again inspired, as\n he described what he said was the most glorious convocation that ever\n took place on earth--when the Trinity met at the Saviour\u2019s baptism.\n\n [Illustration: BAPTIZING IN THE RIVER JORDAN.]\n\n \u201cIn impressing the truth of the Scriptures, Mr. Walker used several\n striking illustrations. He said that the old prophecies were coming\n true, and that even the Turks, in their ignorance, were fulfilling\n prophecy. They keep the Golden Gate--the Gate Beautiful--always\n closed, the only one entering Jerusalem which is never opened, because\n the superstitious believe that if the Christians ever enter by it,\n they will retake the city; but the minister declared that the real\n reason was that it was a fulfillment of Ezekiel\u2019s prophecy found\n in the forty-fourth chapter of his writings. Again, Jeremiah said,\n twenty-five hundred years ago, that \u2018Zion shall be ploughed like a\n field.\u2019 The people of a then rich and powerful city came near stoning\n him for his madness, and yet the speaker declared, with his own eyes\n he had seen the fulfillment of this prophecy. Jeremiah also declared\n that Zion should be rebuilt, and on the unearthed ruins of the very\n towers indicated by Jeremiah, the rebuilding of Jerusalem had been\n begun. To-day, they are rebuilding, as the prophet said. In Jerusalem\n and all through Palestine, the record speaks in solemn, sacred and\n rock-ribbed confirmation of the blessed and everlasting truth of God\u2019s\n word.\n\n [Illustration: ARAB ENCAMPMENT.]\n\n \u201cThe preacher concluded with a strong invocation, and declared that\n after all his journeyings over oceans and seas, there was no sailing\n like sailing with Jesus, and he had come back home with sevenfold more\n of the spirit of the Saviour to stir up the people of the city with\n the truth of the Gospel. We all need more power and less form; more of\n the power of Charles Spurgeon, whose power and influence and magnetism\n come from communing with God.\n\n \u201cHe paid a telling tribute to this country when he said that he would\n not exchange it for any he had seen. He contrasted the terrors and\n persecutions of heathen lands with the glorious liberty of America,\n where Christian churches raised their spires to heaven, and all men\n may worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences,\n and under their own vine and fig tree. Where there is no church there\n is no civilization, and he wanted his people to appreciate their\n advantages, and aid him by doing their duty to God and their fellow\n men.\u201d\n\nBesides his talks and lectures to the people of Augusta, Dr. Walker\nspent much time during the summer and winter of 1891 lecturing\nthroughout the United States on \u201cThe Holy Land: What I Saw and Heard.\u201d\nEverywhere the lecture and the lecturer were well received and highly\nspoken of--in New York, in Boston, in Philadelphia, in Indianapolis,\nin Charleston, S. C., in St. Louis, in Dallas and Galveston, Tex., in\nKansas City, and in other places. Dr. Walker\u2019s success on the lecture\nplatform was immediate, and, since 1891, he has managed each year to go\non a little lecture tour through different parts of America.\n\n[Illustration: REV. CHARLES T. WALKER, ON HIS RETURN FROM HIS TRIP TO\nTHE HOLY LAND, AGE THIRTY THREE YEARS.]\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER IX.\n\n  A COLORED MAN ABROAD.\n\n\nMention has already been made of the fact that while Dr. Walker was\ntraveling abroad he wrote weekly letters to the Augusta Sentinel, which\nwere compiled on his return and published in book form, under the name\nand style of \u201cA Colored Man Abroad.\u201d Extracts from that publication\nwill serve not only to show Dr. Walker\u2019s literary style, but will also\nbe of interest, instruction and entertainment to the reader.\n\nDr. Walker\u2019s letters from the Holy Land were written for the most part\nfrom notes taken on the ground, somewhat as one would keep a diary or a\nsailor\u2019s log. The second day out from New York, he paid the following\n\n TRIBUTE TO THE SEA.\n\n \u201cThe sea is a revelation of the omnipotence of the Almighty! It\n carries with perfect ease upon its bosom the greatest ships that\n circumnavigate the globe. It is the home of numerous animals, small\n and great, as well as the pathway of Jehovah. It is also the tomb\n of hundreds of thousands of human beings; for the sea has wrecked\n hundreds of vessels and sailing craft, and holds entombed the bodies\n of countless shipwrecked people. As we look at the sea, we are\n reminded of the grand old words of Byron:\n\n    \u2018Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll,\n    Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;\n    Man marks the earth with ruin,--his control\n    Stops with the shore,--upon the watery plain\n    The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain\n    A shadow of man\u2019s ravage, save his own,\n    When for a moment, like a drop of rain,\n    He sinks into thy depth with bubbling groan,\n    Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined and unknown.\u2019\u201d\n\nIn the following words, Dr. Walker describes his\n\nFIRST SABBATH AT SEA.\n\n \u201cIt is Sunday morning. The day is calm, and the sun is shining\n brightly. Divine services were held in the chapel at 10:30 a. m.,\n conducted by the captain, who read the Episcopal service. A Sabbath at\n sea is a sad day to those who love the house of God. No church bell\n is heard calling the people to their respective places of worship.\n No soul-inspiring anthems are sung. No heartfelt prayers are heard\n ascending like sweet incense from the altar of praise. We miss the\n pulpit ministration and the Christian greeting that come from the\n gentle throbbing of loving and affectionate hearts. We miss the Sunday\n school, where the little folks are singing their many beautiful songs,\n expressive of our dear Saviour\u2019s life and love. In place of all this,\n we observe men drinking and carousing and engaged in all kinds of\n frivolity; we see many women and girls reading novels, but not one\n perusing the Bible. Give me no more Sabbaths in mid-ocean.\u201d\n\nThe first Sunday in London, Dr. Walker visited Spurgeon\u2019s church.\nFollowing is his description of\n\n SPURGEON\u2019S TABERNACLE.\n\n \u201cSpurgeon\u2019s Tabernacle is the greatest church on earth, and its\n pastor is undoubtedly the grandest preacher in the universe. Eternity\n alone can tell the good this man of God is doing. Seven thousand\n people hear him twice on each Lord\u2019s Day. He has a Baptist College,\n perfect in its every appointment, a missionary society, a tract\n society, a place for the poor, an orphan home, a mission station\n conducted by the young men of his congregation, a printing press,\n and everything else in the line of an active, live and progressive\n church. Here the \u2018rich and the poor meet together; and the Lord is\n the maker of them all.\u2019 The doctrine of the fatherhood of God and\n the universal brotherhood of man is taught with all the earnestness\n of which this good man is capable. In this Tabernacle, you will find\n men and women who are worth thousands and ten thousands of pounds\n sterling out in the streets and alleys of London, bringing the poor,\n the wayward, the blasphemer, the halt and the blind to hear Spurgeon\n preach. We heard him on the Sabbath, occupying a seat near him. What\n a privilege! Two rows of galleries extend all round the edifice. Just\n below the pastor\u2019s stand, there is a gallery for orphan children from\n the home and those who manage the home. The people are rushing for\n seats--thousands are already seated, having been admitted because\n they held quarterly tickets. At five minutes before eleven o\u2019clock,\n the signal bell is tapped, announcing to all persons who have not\n secured seats to get them anywhere they can find them, as the holders\n of tickets have no claim on seats after the tap of the bell. Mr.\n Spurgeon comes in, followed by his assistant pastor and deacons who\n take seats near him. He then opens the service with a short, earnest,\n eloquent prayer that moves many to tears. No organ is used; the\n chorister stands near the pastor, and the multitude rises and sings\n a soul-inspiring hymn. The pastor then reads, with exposition, the\n Scripture lesson. He announces this morning that he will preach the\n annual missionary sermon. When he begins preaching, seven thousand\n pairs of eyes are looking steadfastly upon him. He leads the vast\n audience step by step as he unfolds to them the word of God. Every\n hearer\u2019s heart burns within him. It is a grand sight. I wept as I\n looked on such a vast throng of people seated in breathless silence,\n catching the words as they fell from the mouth of God\u2019s prophet.\u201d\n\nIn the month of May, 1891, Dr. Walker spent five days on the\nMediterranean Sea en route to Alexandria. While on this sea, famous for\nits storms, he encountered a storm which he said must have been similar\nto the one that Paul wrote about in the 27th chapter of the Acts.\nFollowing is Dr. Walker\u2019s picture of\n\n A STORM ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA.\n\n \u201cThe sea had been turbulent all night. The fury of the sea continued\n until noon to-day, when it reached its climax. For nearly an hour\n the waves united and lashed the steamer in a fearful manner, as if\n chastening it for disobeying some sea law. We closely watched the\n treacherous water during the contest. The ship at first seemed to\n think itself invincible, and had a perfect right to move in its own\n chosen route, despite the ocean\u2019s objection. It was then that the\n hottest part of the contest took place. The ocean gave one command,\n and, at that summons, dashing, foaming, giant waves came from every\n direction to reinforce those already at the scene of battle. When\n they had combined their forces, they struck the steamer a few times;\n she cracked, reeled, bowed, tossed herself to and fro, shook up the\n passengers, made them sick, and put some to bed. Each time the vessel\n attempted to move out of her tracks she only lifted herself up and\n came back in the same place. The man on the bridge turned the wheel,\n but the steamer shook her head. The wind blew, the tempest raged,\n the captain came from his room, ascended the bridge, took charge of\n affairs, called up the sailors, gave orders to turn the wheel and\n let her drive, but she could not go. The sea continued to assert its\n rights, and when the crew confessed that they were defeated and at the\n mercy of the waves, they cast anchor, stood still, and waited on the\n sea to obtain a permit to move forward. The Mediterranean seemed to\n recognize that the whole crew were baffled, confused and beseeching\n mercy; so she called in her waves, sent them back to their several\n stations, each bearing a spray of snowy whiteness as an emblem of the\n victory they had won. And now all is serene on the water.\u201d\n\nSpeaking of the people of Syria and other Eastern countries, Dr. Walker\nwrote the following about the present\n\n MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE EAST.\n\n \u201cThe manners and customs of these people are about the same as in the\n days of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Men work for years to pay for\n their wives; lead their flocks as David did; dwell in tents; plow oxen\n as did Elijah; water their fields; sow grain among thorns and rocks;\n wear the same kind of costumes with the old-time sandals on their\n feet; use donkeys and camels as beasts of burden--all as in the days\n of yore. The majority of the Mohammedans and Arabs have no chairs,\n tables, knives and forks, with no bedsteads in their houses. They eat\n with their fingers, stretch out on the floor or ground, sleep by the\n roadside, just as Jacob did when he had his vision. The Mohammedans\n believe that a person who goes crazy becomes holy. The Turkish\n government does not allow its subjects to embrace Christianity. To ask\n a Mohammedan to change his religion is to endanger one\u2019s life.\u201d\n\nFollowing is Dr. Walker\u2019s notion of\n\n THE TESTIMONY OF THE MOUNTAINS.\n\n \u201cHaving made a study of the mountains in this country, they seem to\n me to wear an air of dignity at once charming and attractive. Lofty,\n stately, queenly, they look like silent but impressive heralds,\n standing as reminiscences of the far away past and as landmarks,\n preserving and perpetuating the history of notable events. Immovable\n and unchangeable, like their Creator, they have stood while the mighty\n have fallen; they have witnessed the enthronement and dethronement of\n kings; the captivity and extermination of nations, and to-day they\n are almost the only places in Palestine that the searcher after truth\n may feel safe in pointing out the identical location of Scriptural\n occurrences. Too lofty and unchangeable for tradition, they are the\n true historians of past centuries and for ages to come Sinai, Moriah,\n Carmel, Ebal, Gerizim, Tabor, Beatitudes, Zion and the Mount of Olives\n will bear witness to the Scriptures in a manner that will be obvious\n and convincing to the most sceptical mind. Well may Jehovah liken his\n church to the mountains. And why should not the snow decorate the\n mountains; the clouds circle about them; the sun linger and play upon\n their summits; the moon and the stars gaze smilingly upon them, while\n the lightnings race and prance up and down like electricity from a\n galvanic battery? Why not the sea crowd the mountain\u2019s base, bathe its\n feet, and perpetually sing sweet anthems to its praise? \u2018How beautiful\n upon the mountains are the feet of them that publisheth peace, that\n say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.\u2019\n\nHere is Dr. Walker\u2019s idea of how some people are heedlessly\n\n DRIFTING ON LIFE\u2019S OCEAN.\n\n \u201cI have been thinking how humanity is drifting on life\u2019s ocean. For\n seven days on the Atlantic, our steamer never stopped. The passengers\n ate, slept, walked, talked, got sick, some died--but we sailed on. The\n ship passed other vessels; it was often cloudy; the winds blew; the\n rains fell; storms and gales were often encountered; the ship caught\n on fire--but we sailed on. Men gambled, drank whiskey and champagne,\n cursed and spent their hours in frivolity--and so they sailed on,\n apparently little dreaming that they were rapidly sailing to that\n eternal shore from whence no traveler returns.\u201d\n\nIn view of the recent sad assassination of President McKinley, how\nlike prophecy and solemn warning will the following words, which were\nwritten ten years ago, seem. At last, the American congress, at the\ndictation of President Roosevelt, is turning its attention to this\ngreat question which ten years ago Dr. Walker declared must be given\nsome attention. Following is the extract:\n\n ANARCHY--A WARNING.\n\n \u201cIn the first-class saloon, there are seventy-six passengers;\n in the second, sixty; and in the steerage there are about eight\n hundred--nearly all emigrants. Some are Jews from Russia, fleeing from\n persecution; others are Belgians, Swedes, Germans, Italians, Irishmen,\n Welshmen and Scotchmen, all going to our home of freedom--America.\n Many of them are very immoral, and utterly oblivious of modesty. As\n a rule, they are a dirty lot, some actually nauseating; and hundreds\n of them have not washed either their hands or faces on this voyage,\n so far. Yet these very people come to America to supercede the\n Negro, and to boss him! These immigrants have extended to them the\n rights of citizenship in every particular, and yet these inalienable\n rights are denied the colored man who has helped to make America\n what it is. Many of these foreigners are of the very worst element\n in their own country. They are ignorant, treacherous, uncivilized,\n and many of them heathen. They have no respect for the Sabbath; they\n have no respect for the law; they have no regard for Christianity;\n they are antagonistic to the principles of liberty as laid down in\n the Declaration of Independence of the United States. Mark this\n prediction: So sure as we live, America is fast getting a Jumbo on\n her hands. She is nestling a Vesuvius in her bosom that may remain\n dormant for a long period; but when the volcanic eruption breaks\n forth, seventy times seven streams of lava will be shot out at one\n time, and the main pillars that support and uphold the whole fabric\n of our American institutions will be undermined, uprooted, and\n partially, if not wholly destroyed. Chicago and New Orleans should\n be held in remembrance by our whole people, East, West, North and\n South. The outrages perpetrated by these villains in those cities were\n comparable to the firing of the first gun on Fort Sumter. Let the\n American congress spend some time in legislating against these holy\n terrors, instead of needlessly discussing schemes to deport the poor\n unfortunate Negro.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER X.\n\n  AS A NATIONAL FIGURE.\n\n\nThe first National Baptist Convention of Negro Baptists ever held in\nthe United States convened at the Second Baptist Church, St. Louis,\nMo., August 25, 1886, at 10 a. m. It was called to order by the late\nlamented Rev. William J. Simmons, D. D., President of the State\nUniversity of Kentucky, who had been chiefly instrumental in having the\nConvention called. There were large delegations present from nearly\nall of the Southern States and a few from the East and West. Georgia\nsent only three delegates to this first meeting, while now she sends\nannually about one hundred. The three delegates from Georgia who\nattended the St. Louis meeting were the late Rev. E. K. Love, D. D.,\nof Savannah, and the Revs. G. H. Dwelle and C. T. Walker, of Augusta.\nThe Rev. Mr. Walker took a prominent part in the deliberations of the\nConvention, and served on the Committee on Permanent Organization. It\nwas because of a wise, conservative and, considering the make-up of the\nConvention, bold stand that he took at this meeting, that he leaped,\nso to say, at one bound into national prominence as a fearless leader.\nIt happened this way. On the second day of the meeting, one Rev. H.\nC. Bailey, of Florida, spoke on \u201cSouthern Ostracism.\u201d After abusing\nSouthern white people for their treatment of the colored people, the\nRev. Mr. Bailey said, among other things, that the Southern white\nBaptists were figureheads. Biding his time, the next day the Rev.\nMr. Walker arose and addressing the chairman, said that he thought\nthe statement made by the Rev. Mr. Bailey concerning the Southern\nwhite Baptists did them great injustice and ought not to be allowed\nto go unchallenged. Immediately every eye was turned toward the young\nchampion from Georgia and there followed from him the most impassioned\naddress of the entire meeting. He concluded by offering the following\nresolution, which, though vigorously opposed by many members of the\nConvention, was adopted by a good majority:\n\n \u201cWhereas, In the speech of H. C. Bailey, of Florida, yesterday, before\n this body, the statement was made that, as a whole, the Southern white\n Baptists were figureheads who do not follow Baptist teachings and who\n believe that there are separate heavens for white and colored people;\n and\n\n \u201cWhereas, Such an assertion does great injustice to the white Baptists\n of the South from the fact that they have many colored missionaries in\n the South paid by them to labor among our people; and\n\n \u201cWhereas, The Southern Baptist Convention at its meeting in January,\n 1886, in the city of Montgomery, Ala., passed a resolution to raise\n $10,000 to expend in mission work among the colored Baptists of the\n South; and\n\n \u201cWhereas, Such a statement as that referred to is likely to prove\n detrimental to the 800,000 colored Baptists of the South; therefore,\n be it\n\n \u201c_Resolved_, _First_, That this Convention does not endorse the\n statement of the brother referred to.\n\n \u201c_Resolved_, _Second_, That this Convention hears with the greatest\n gratification of the efforts now being made by the Southern Baptist\n Convention to expend $10,000 for missionary work among the colored\n people.\u201d\n\nThis resolution was published in many of the Southern newspapers and in\nall denominational organs; there was nothing but praise for the author.\nThe Rev. Mr. Walker left home practically unknown outside of his own\nState; he returned one of the acknowledged leaders of the Baptist\nbrotherhood of the country. The advertising he received from this\nincident doubtless in no small measure paved the way for his success in\nthe East, whither he went a month later to solicit funds to assist him\nin his church work at Augusta.\n\nAgain, in 1889, at Indianapolis, while attending the National Baptist\nConvention, he added to his already growing reputation. Then, as in\n1886, the Southern question was up for discussion. Many speakers\nindulged in wholesale abuse of the South: the white people of the South\nwere pictured as heathen; they were vilified and maligned; race feeling\nran high; there was great excitement. The Rev. Mr. Walker gained the\nfloor and made an able speech counselling wisdom and moderation, and\nstating that he believed that the best element of white people in\nthe South was trying to create such a public sentiment as would make\nlynching impossible. At any rate, he stated that the best thing for\nthe colored people to do was to make the friendship of and seek the\nprotection of the people among whom they lived. His speech acted like\nmagic. Oil was poured on the troubled waters. Reason returned, and the\nresolutions under consideration were defeated. Again his name got into\nthe newspapers; his speech was published North and South; his name was\non every tongue; some of the papers referred to him as \u201ca strong man in\na crisis.\u201d\n\nIt was at this meeting that he preached the Conventional sermon. It\naroused and stirred all who heard it. At its conclusion, the late\nRev. Dr. Simmons, the President of the Convention, walked over to the\npreacher, shook his hand, and said: \u201cYou have won your \u2018D. D.,\u2019 and\nI\u2019ll see that you get it.\u201d The following summer, true to his word, he\nhad the trustees of the State University of Kentucky, of which he was\nPresident, to confer upon the Rev. Mr. Walker the honorary degree of\n\u201cDoctor of Divinity,\u201d which he has worthily worn ever since.\n\nFrom the beginning, Dr. Walker was one of the leading figures of the\nNational Baptist Convention, and he is such to-day. For three years\nhe was its Treasurer, and for many years was Vice President for\nGeorgia. He is now Vice President for New York. He has attended every\nannual meeting since the beginning, without missing a single one. Not\na partisan, not a factionist, not a stirrer up of strife among the\nbrethren, not a division-maker, a man of peace, probably no man has a\nlarger and more loyal following among the Negro Baptists of America\nthan he has.\n\nIn June, 1898, he was appointed a Chaplain with the rank of Captain\nin the U. S. V., and assigned to duty with the Ninth Immunes. The\nappointment was made by the late President McKinley out of a list\nof more than 500 applicants. He secured a leave of absence from his\nAugusta church, and joined his regiment at San Luis, Cuba, about\nthirty miles inland from Santiago, in November, 1898. The regiment\nwas only doing garrison duty at the time, the leading events in the\nSpanish-American War having already been long since concluded. During\nhis absence, his church at Augusta was supplied by the Rev. Silas X.\nFloyd, at that time one of the Field Workers of the International\nSunday School Convention.\n\nThe International Sunday School Convention is the largest and most\nimportant Sunday School organization in the world. It embraces in its\nmembership the United States, the Dominion of Canada and South America,\nwith corresponding representatives from Europe. It has a constituency\nof more than 23,000,000. It is sponsor for the International Lesson\nSeries, which was inaugurated in 1872 by Mr. B. F. Jacobs, of Chicago,\nfor many years past the able and honorable and venerable Chairman of\nthe Executive Committee of the International Sunday School Convention.\nClosely associated with Mr. Jacobs in this great work have been, for\nmany years, Dr. Geo. W. Bailey, of Philadelphia, the Treasurer and\nChairman of the Finance Committee; Mr. John R. Pepper, of Memphis,\nChairman of the Committee on Work Among the Colored People; Mr. John\nWanamaker, of Philadelphia, and Mr. W. K. Crosby, of Wilmington, Del.\nThe International Convention meets once every three years. At its last\nmeeting, in 1899, in Atlanta, Ga., the Hon. Hoke Smith, Secretary of\nthe Interior under Cleveland\u2019s second administration, was elected\nPresident, and Dr. Walker was elected one of the five Vice Presidents.\nHe was unanimously presented for this place by the colored delegates\npresent at the meeting, and these delegates represented many different\ndenominations. It is an honor not lightly to be esteemed for a Negro to\nhold an office in such an important religious body.\n\nDuring the past fifteen years, Dr. Walker has received calls from the\nfollowing churches: First Baptist Church, Nashville, Tenn.; the First\nBaptist Church, St. Louis; and the Second Baptist Church, Indianapolis.\nNo one of these calls was accepted by the distinguished pastor. He\npreferred to remain with the people of Augusta.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XI.\n\n  CHAPLAIN U. S. V.\n\n\nDr. Walker joined his regiment, the Ninth Immunes, at San Luis, Cuba,\nthe middle of November, 1898, and remained in the service for nearly\ntwo months. He did not find the service with the army very congenial,\nand resigned his commission to return to civil life. He remained with\nthe army long enough, however, to get some notion of what army life\nmeans. He also learned much of Cuba, its climate and its peoples, and\nwas able on his return to give a very interesting account of his trip.\nThe following report is taken from the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, Jan. 5,\n1899:\n\n \u201cNotwithstanding the rainy weather and the overcast night, it is\n probable that never before in its history was Tabernacle Baptist\n Church so overcrowded with people as on last night. It had been\n announced the day before that the pastor, Rev. C. T. Walker, D. D.,\n recently with the Ninth Immune Infantry in Cuba, was to lecture on\n last night of his experience in that island.\n\n \u201cThis notice was sufficient to pack the edifice up to the point of\n almost complete suffocation. Standing room was at a premium. Several\n hundred were turned away, and more than a hundred lingered in the yard\n on the stairways until the lecture closed. Possibly more than 1,200\n persons heard the speaker.\n\n \u201cDr. Walker, as is his custom, caught the audience from the\n beginning. He referred to the pleasure it gave him to be greeted by\n such a large gathering; he said it reminded him of the throng which\n welcomed him on his return from the Holy Land seven years ago. He\n said that there was great interest being manifested all over this\n country in Cuba and its people, especially because the Spanish yoke\n of oppression had been lifted from Cuba\u2019s neck, and the American flag\n now floated over that land, and the Cubans, so long oppressed, so long\n cruelly treated, were now free. He said he was glad it was so, because\n wherever the Stars and Stripes waved there the Gospel flag could not\n long be kept furled.\n\n \u201cHe gave a brief account of his appointment last June by President\n McKinley, and, also, a short narrative of his journey to Santiago.\n His description of his entrance into the harbor of Santiago, passing\n Morro Castle, the sunken Mercedes, and the sunken Merrimac, was truly\n eloquent and brought down the house.\n\n \u201c\u2018Santiago,\u2019 he said, \u2018is one of the oldest cities in North\n America--older even than St. Augustine, Fla., having been founded in\n 1542. The streets are very narrow; the sidewalks are so narrow that\n two people cannot walk abreast; the city is extremely dirty; the water\n is unfit to drink, unless it is boiled; there are about 50,000 people\n in the city--15,000 of them white Cubans, and 35,000 of them black\n Cubans. Some of the people are intelligent, and some few engaged in\n business; but the vast majority of them are woefully ignorant and\n shiftless. Most of them at present are completely on the charity of\n the United States government. There are about 7,000 white soldiers\n in and around Santiago under General Leonard Wood, and about 3,000\n colored soldiers out at San Luis, about 35 miles away--the Eighth\n Illinois, the Twenty-third Kansas and the Ninth Immune Infantry. The\n first two of these regiments have all colored officers from colonel\n down; my own regiment had all white officers excepting the lieutenants.\u2019\n\n \u201cHe was particularly interested in San Juan Hill where, as he\n said, the battle was fought which decided the fate of Spain. He\n was particularly interested in it, because in that battle, the\n Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Infantries, and the Ninth and Tenth\n Cavalries, all colored soldiers, led the charge, cut the barbed wire\n fence, captured the block-house, saved the Rough Riders, and added\n glory to the American nation and Negro race. He said he had stood\n on Bunker Hill, he had walked over the famous field of Waterloo,\n had crossed the valley of Ajalon where Joshua whipped five kings of\n the Amorites, and the Valley of Rephaim, where David conquered the\n Philistines, but he never was so inspired as he was when he stood on\n San Juan Hill, because there his own race was gallantly represented.\n At this the house thundered with applause.\n\n \u201cHe said Cuba was a most beautiful country--more beautiful than even\n Germany or Switzerland. The soil is rich and fertile. Potatoes grow\n there as long as walking canes, and vegetation flourishes throughout\n the entire year. The weather he found to be extremely warm. December\n was like our June or July. No overcoats needed there. He thought the\n country was very unhealthy. The fever there is worse than Spanish\n bullets, and no one is \u2018immune\u2019 from it, not even the natives. The\n people are in a very low state of civilization, considered as a whole.\n In the rural districts, they do not live in houses, but \u2018shacks.\u2019\n He had seen living in one little room, a husband and wife and five\n children, and a sow and six pigs. It is common for the people to live\n in the same room with horses, cows and hogs.\n\n \u201cHe positively affirmed that, in his judgment, the Cubans were\n incapable of self-government. He found them to be very treacherous.\n They hate American soldiers, white and black. They thought America\n ought to have freed them and immediately given them their island to\n run to suit themselves. It was dangerous for any American to go alone\n at night; he would be killed by the Cuban machete.\n\n \u201cHe mentioned the following as imperative needs of Cuba: churches,\n good schools, improved farming methods, and business enterprises. He\n thought that one thing that would greatly retard progress in Cuba\n was American prejudice, many examples of which he had observed while\n there. He said the American carried his prejudice wherever he went,\n and if American proscription along race lines was carried to Cuba,\n where such a thing had never been known, it would be an unhappy day\n for the island.\n\n \u201cIn closing, he spoke of his success as chaplain. He had more than\n 100 converts, and had a baptism for three successive Sundays. His\n concluding words were a pathetic description of a scene which took\n place at one of his baptisms when one of the soldiers marched down to\n the water, singing:\n\n    \u2018Ho, my comrades, don\u2019t you want to go?\n    Let\u2019s go down to Jordan, hallelu.\u2019\n\n \u201cAt the close he showed many interesting relics, which he brought\n home with him. He had four Spanish rifles, a large supply of Mauser\n bullets, one machete, some cocoa, some coffee, some walking sticks\n made of iron wood, a Cuban pitcher, etc.\u201d\n\nThe same night the above address was delivered, resolutions were\nunanimously adopted thanking the speaker for his interesting address\nand expressing the pleasure of the people at his safe return. Thanks\nwere also tendered the late President McKinley for appointing Dr.\nWalker as chaplain with the rank of captain in the U. S. V.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XII.\n\n  AS AN EVANGELIST.\n\n\nMention has been made in a preceding chapter of the fact that Dr.\nWalker has been very successful in the field of evangelistic work. In\nspeaking of his work as an evangelist, let it be understood at the\noutset that the only limitation that has been put upon his efforts\nin evangelism has been due to the fact that all along he has been a\nstated pastor and has only given such time to evangelistic campaigns\nas he could spare from an unusually busy pastorate. Yet even with this\nlimitation he has been very successful in evangelistic work, though\nhe has not been able, for the reason stated, to accept scores of\ninvitations from great cities to serve the Lord by conducting revival\nservices.\n\nHe has the calling, the spirit, the gift, the courage, the directness,\nthe sympathy, the faith, the fervor, and the flexibility of the\ntrue evangelist. What gives him his greatest preaching power is the\nenthusiastic warmth and impulsiveness of his speech both in matter and\nmanner. Another thing that adds to the attractiveness of his meetings\nis the singing. Unlike most of the world\u2019s greatest preachers, he is\na great singer. It has been often said of him that he can out-preach\nany man, and then, without stopping, put in and out-sing any man. It\nis beyond the power of man to describe an audience of four or five\nthousand colored people engaged in a service of song. In addition to\nthe Gospel Hymns and Revival Songs, the colored people always use the\nold time Negro Spirituals, sometimes called Plantation Songs, and in\nthe rendition of these last the colored people are inimitable. With\nDr. Walker leading the singing in stentorian notes and the multitude\njoining in, its worth a day\u2019s journey of any man\u2019s life to witness the\nsight. To be understood, to be appreciated, it must be seen and heard.\n\nAt sometime or other, during the past twenty years, revival services\nhave been held by Dr. Walker in every important city in Georgia without\nexception. It will be unnecessary to speak of each meeting. The first\n\u201cbig meetings\u201d that gave him anything like a national standing as a\nrecognized leading revivalist were held in Kansas City, Mo. The papers\ngave large space daily to the accounts of his meetings. This was in\n1892, soon after his return from the Holy Land. During the progress\nof these meetings, invitations came to him to go to St. Louis, San\nFrancisco, and Chicago to continue the good work. As much as he desired\nto do so, he was compelled to return to his church at Augusta, after\nfive weeks of hard work, in which many hundreds were saved. In 1894,\nDr. Walker was invited to New York City to take part in the great\nreligious campaign inaugurated there during that year. The meetings\nwere held during March and April. He remained for three weeks. He\nspoke at the Antioch Baptist Church, 352 W. 35th Street; St. Mark\u2019s M.\nE. Church, 139 W. 48th Street; Niblo\u2019s Garden, Broadway, near Prince\nStreet; the Academy of Music, Metropolitan Hall, near Macy\u2019s, and at\nother points under assignment of the Metropolitan Association. He was\nassociated with such men as the Rev. A. C. Dixon, the Rev. Ernest Lyon,\nthe Rev. Granville Hunt, Mr. Arthur Crane, Leonard Weaver, Mr. Theodore\nBjorksten, Mr. and Mrs. George C. Stebbins, the Rev. D. J. Burrell, and\nothers. The following is taken from the New York Tribune concerning\nthose meetings:\n\n \u201cThe most unique figure in the present evangelistic campaign is,\n without a doubt, the Rev. Dr. Walker, of Georgia, who is better known\n as the \u2018Black Spurgeon.\u2019 This preacher has been working principally\n among the members of his own race in the course of his stay in New\n York, and has made many converts of the attendants at the meetings in\n Antioch Baptist Church and in St. Mark\u2019s M. E. Church. Dr. Walker is a\n man who would attract attention anywhere. He has strong features and\n his voice, although deep, has a remarkably winning intonation. His\n manner is eloquent, and in preaching Christ he follows closely the\n life of the Master, and illustrates his remarks by vivid descriptive\n phrases.\u201d\n\nThe column from which this is taken is headed \u201cThe Black Spurgeon\u2019s\nWork--Many Negroes Uplifted by His Eloquent Words--Part Which\nDr. Walker is Taking in the Evangelical Services--His Attractive\nPersonality.\u201d\n\nThe New York Sun said:\n\n \u201c\u2018The Black Spurgeon\u2019 met with great success in his work in this city.\n He is a large and powerful man, with a deep voice, but what gives him\n his greatest preaching power is the earnestness he displays in matter\n and manner. Dr. Walker aroused a religious feeling which is finding\n expression in daily meetings. In St. Mark\u2019s, three meetings are held\n each day. The special aim of the revival has been to bring the young\n into the church, and to reclaim backsliders.\u201d\n\nThe New York Times, the New York Press, the New York Independent and\nother papers spoke of the \u201cBlack Spurgeon\u201d and his work in New York at\nthis time.\n\nThe following account of one of the Metropolitan noon-day meetings is\ntaken from Sabbath Reading, a religious paper:\n\n \u201c\u2018Showers of Blessing,\u2019 was the opening hymn at a Metropolitan meeting\n a few days ago; and the reports of this and other meetings indicate\n that showers of blessing have indeed been falling. After several\n hymns had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Hunt led in prayer; Mr. Spencer\n sang touchingly the hymn, \u2018My Son, Give Me Thine Heart.\u2019 Mr. Arthur\n Crane then spoke a short while. Miss Anna Parks rendered a solo on\n a cornet, \u2018When the Sea Gives up its Dead.\u2019 Dr. Walker, of Augusta,\n Ga., who is called the \u2018Black Spurgeon,\u2019 was introduced. He spoke in\n a voice tremulous with emotion and enthusiasm, and the audience gave\n him their close attention, that not a word might be lost. Opening the\n Bible, he read the first seven verses from Luke 5. \u2018There are four\n things to learn from this lesson,\u2019 he said; \u2018first, failure; second,\n faith; third, fullness; fourth, fellowship. These disciples had had a\n night of fruitless toil. Jesus was not with them. They were fishermen\n and were plying their usual vocation on the lake, but they hadn\u2019t met\n with success. That was failure. In the morning, Jesus came along with\n a great crowd of people, and he asked Peter to lend him his ship for\n a pulpit, so that he might preach to the people. Peter did so, and to\n reward him for his courtesy, Jesus told him to launch out. Now, that\n seemed a foolish thing to do, because Peter and the others had been\n fishing all night, and hadn\u2019t caught one fish, and Jesus knew it; but\n he wanted to teach them a lesson of faith and obedience, as well as\n to reward them. It\u2019s just like Jesus. He always does reward us right\n away, and he is continually paying us for what we do. The disciples\n took Jesus at his word. That was faith. And you know the story, how\n they let down the nets and drew in so many that the nets broke. That\n was fullness. Jesus always honors faith, even when it is mixed with\n ignorance and superstition. Seeing their companions at a distance with\n their empty boat, the disciples called them to come and share the fish\n with them. That was fellowship. The Lord intends that each of us shall\n share our joys with others. While this mighty tidal wave of religion\n is sweeping over the country, this is a good time for you to come to\n God and bring your friends with you. Jesus blesses us so that we might\n bless others. As he is exemplified in our conduct, so shall we win\n souls. Are there none here to-day who wish this Christ to come into\n their souls to be their own, their personal Saviour?\u2019 Several raised\n their hands for prayer, and the speaker said, \u2018Thank God.\u2019\u201d\n\nSince 1894, Dr. Walker has held successful meetings in Galveston,\nTexas; Houston, Texas; Kansas City, St. Louis, Boston, Philadelphia,\nNashville, Louisville and Atlanta. The last great meeting in Atlanta\nwas held in April, 1897. The meetings commenced in Friendship Baptist\nChurch, W. Mitchell St., of which the Rev. E. R. Carter, D. D., is the\npastor. The interest increased so rapidly, and the number that came\nwas so large that the meetings had to be transferred to the auditorium\nin Exposition Park, which before that had been made famous by meetings\nheld by Sam Jones, and later by D. L. Moody. He crowded the great hall,\nwith a seating capacity of nearly 8,000 souls, from the start. There\nprobably has never been just such a meeting on the American continent\nas the one held in Atlanta at that time. It was attended by the white\npeople as well as by the black people. At more than one service there\nwere more than a thousand whites present--some of them representing\nthe wealth and culture and refinement of Atlanta. Ministers, lawyers,\nmembers of the city council, the mayor and his wife, the merchants\nand bankers--all came out to hear the \u201cBlack Spurgeon.\u201d And the white\npeople were just as eager, and some of them just as emotional in their\nworship as were the colored people. Many whites stood for prayer along\nwith colored people; many were bathed in tears during the preaching;\nmany of them testified for Jesus in the testimonial meetings; many\nwere helped; some were saved. At the close of each meeting, the most\nprominent people would not think of leaving the building before shaking\nhands with the great preacher. Speaking of this meeting, the Atlanta\nConstitution said:\n\n \u201cThe Negroes of Atlanta are stirred up over the wonderful religious\n revival that has been going on in the Friendship Baptist Church for\n the past two weeks. The success of the meeting has been unparalleled,\n and more religious enthusiasm has been aroused in the two weeks\n that the meetings have been running than has been felt in this city\n in years. The meetings are being conducted by the Rev. Charles T.\n Walker, \u2018the colored Spurgeon.\u2019 He is assisted by Rev. E. R. Carter,\n the regular pastor. Every night, thousands are turned away from the\n church on W. Mitchell St., and the building is always crowded with\n people long before the hour of service. Rev. Walker is proving as\n great a drawing card among the colored people as Sam Jones did among\n the whites. He attracts fully as large crowds and his preaching is\n drawing fully as many people into the church as Sam Jones\u2019 meeting--if\n not more. Dr. Walker is pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church at\n Augusta, and is regarded as one of the leading colored preachers in\n the country. He attracts large crowds by his preaching wherever he\n goes, and his meetings are always attended by wonderful outbursts of\n religious enthusiasm.\u201d\n\nIn 1899, Dr. Walker again held meetings in Kansas City. The following\nis taken from the Kansas City Star, April, 1899:\n\n \u201cMany a white man would be glad to have the eloquence, the command\n of language and the power of thought that Rev. Dr. C. T. Walker, the\n \u2018Black Spurgeon,\u2019 displayed in his sermon to a great crowd of colored\n people in the Second Baptist Church, Tenth and Campbell Sts., last\n night. He is one of the best colored speakers ever heard in Kansas\n City.\n\n \u201cThe Rev. Walker\u2019s home is in Augusta, Ga. He is so well thought of by\n the prominent people of his city that when the mayor died yesterday,\n he received several telegrams asking him to come and attend the\n funeral. He may return home to-day, but may decide to remain longer.\n\n \u201cEvery seat in the large auditorium of the new colored church was\n occupied when he ascended the pulpit steps last night, and long rows\n of black faces looked down at him from the balcony.\n\n \u201cDr. Walker is a man of perhaps forty or more. He is of medium size;\n although his face is as black as a stove pipe, he says he never drinks\n coffee because it is deleterious to the complexion. His features are\n prominent, he has a sharp mustache and a short head. His voice is not\n exceedingly strong, but clear and well modulated.\n\n \u201cHis sermons are sententious and epigrammatic. They abound in original\n and striking observations, and his gestures, though not graceful, are\n spontaneous.\n\n \u201c\u2018Men talk a great deal of the perplexing problems that confront\n humanity to-day,\u2019 he said. \u2018But if men would put the Bible into\n practice, there will be no problems. That book is statesmanship as\n well as religion, and it not only teaches the fatherhood of God, but\n the universal brotherhood of man.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe subject of his sermon was \u2018Christ the supreme object of worship.\u2019\n In referring to God\u2019s plan of salvation, he said: \u2018So many say they\n failed to understand the plan and sometimes wondered why the Almighty\n did not take man into his confidence just a little bit in arranging\n it. But it wouldn\u2019t have done. In this day, when there are so many\n trusts and combines, salvation would have been bought up and cornered\n and monopolized until only the rich could get at it, if man had had\n anything to do with it. As some rhymester has said:\n\n    \u201c\u2018If religion was a thing that money could buy,\n    The rich would live and the poor would die.\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cOne of the characteristics of \u2018the Black Spurgeon\u2019s\u2019 style is his\n fund of illustrative anecdotes. He used one of these to show that man\n cannot read the Bible without feeling instinctively that Christ was\n divine, relating a conversation supposed to have taken place between\n Napoleon and Gen. Bertrand on the Island of St. Helena. When the\n latter expressed his opinion that Christ was only a man, Napoleon\n stopped him, and said: \u2018No, General Bertrand, I know men. But I never\n knew one like Christ. He had that in Him that no man ever had. He was\n divine. His army--soldiers of the cross--are now marching on through\n ages to victory. But who, general, think you, is marshalling any\n forces for me? In a year or two I shall die and be no more, and my\n name will be forgotten. But his name will live forever.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018Col. Ingersoll and Gen. Lew Wallace were once taking a ride\n together,\u2019 the speaker said, \u2018when Wallace informed his companion that\n he intended to write a book tearing the mask from the face of Christ\n and showing Him to have been but human. Ingersoll told him that he was\n the very man to write such a book and commended the idea.\u2019 \u2018When Gen.\n Wallace prepared to write the book,\u2019 said the preacher, \u2018he first set\n about reading the New Testament carefully as a prerequisite. Before he\n had finished it, he convinced himself of his own error and wrote Ben\n Hur instead.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018Over and over again,\u2019 continued the speaker, \u2018I have read of the\n Pharisee who, after recounting his virtues, thanked God that he was\n not like other men. And I have often wondered who this Pharisee was\n like. He was not like God, and he was not like the publican--he must\n have been like the devil.\u2019\n\n \u201cDr. Walker dealt sanctification a blow in declaring that such a\n thing as perfection was impossible to man. Man was intended to grow\n unceasingly into Christian strength.\n\n \u201c\u2018The Lord\u2019s our judge,\u2019 he said, \u2018the Lord is our King; the Lord is\n our law-giver--the judicial, the executive and legislative combined in\n one.\u2019\n\n \u201cBut it is his pictures of the hereafter, of the hosts of saints\n marching up to glory, that the Black Spurgeon excels. Then it is that\n his voice is raised and his body sways back and forth as he adds\n stroke after stroke to the grand scene, and marshals phalanx after\n phalanx of moral heroes in Miltonic array, moving on with steady\n tread, glittering, triumphant, to the gates of heaven. In the course\n of a bit of description of this kind, near the close of his sermon,\n shouts went up from every quarter of the church and the audience was\n worked up to a high pitch of religious frenzy and exaltation.\n\n \u201c\u2018I hear the tread of the feet of the great host,\u2019 he said, \u2018tramp,\n tramp, tramp, they come. Like the angel whose wings John, in his\n vision saw released, they are not retarded by polar snows nor\n equatorial heat.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018On they come--tramp, tramp, tramp, shoulder to shoulder, wheel to\n wheel, charger to charger; onward they march--company after company,\n cavalcade after cavalcade, thousands upon thousands and millions\n upon millions, marching, marching, marching, on through the ages and\n forever. The church of God is going home to Zion. Ah! friends many\n are waiting there for you! That mother that lies buried beneath the\n sod, that little son or daughter, that sister, that brother--they are\n waiting and calling for you. Be of good courage, they say. They are\n not far away; they see your struggles; they know your temptations.\u2019\n\n \u201cThen when the emotion of the audience began to find vent in shouts,\n the speaker lowered his voice and shifted to another line of attack,\n gradually working upon the feelings of his hearers again until he was\n again compelled to let up.\u201d\n\nIt is not necessary to prolong this chapter. The record of service\ndone in the Master\u2019s Vineyard by Dr. Walker is one to be proud of. He\nhas led more than 8,000 persons to Christ, has baptized and received\ninto the membership of the church more than 3,500, and has not missed\npreaching the glorious Gospel of the blessed Christ but four Sundays in\ntwenty-four years--twice on account of sickness, and twice on account\nof being at sea.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIII.\n\n  LEAVES AUGUSTA--GOES TO NEW YORK.\n\n\nIn the month of June, 1899, a unanimous call was extended to Dr.\nWalker to become Pastor of the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, 161 W. 53d\nSt., New York City. Soon after, by invitation, he visited New York to\nconfer with the officers of the church with regard to the work. The\nmeeting between the pastor-elect and the officers was satisfactory in\nevery way, and the former signified his intention of accepting the\ncall. Returning to Augusta, he presented his resignation as pastor of\nTabernacle Baptist Church, to take effect on the 1st day of October,\n1899, on which date he proposed to enter upon work in New York City.\n\nIt is putting the matter mildly to say that the members of the\nTabernacle Church and the people of Augusta were in a frenzy. Mass\nmeetings were held, protest after protest was filed by various civic\nand benevolent organizations, the newspapers rebelled, the Tabernacle\nBaptist Church voted to add $50.00 per month to his salary, the whole\ncity was literally stirred in an effort to get him to reconsider his\nacceptance of the New York invitation and withdraw the resignation\nhe had tendered as Pastor of Tabernacle Church. These efforts were\nunavailing, because Dr. Walker said that he felt moved of the Spirit to\ngo to New York. As a compliment to the pastor, the Tabernacle Baptist\nChurch refused to accept his resignation, and passed resolutions to\nthe effect that he be left free to go to New York if he desired, but\nstipulating expressly that he could return at any date to the pastorate\nof the Tabernacle Church, which he had founded, and of which he had\nbeen the able, successful and beloved leader for 14 years. With this\nunderstanding, the Rev. Silas X. Floyd was unanimously elected as\nPastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, and installed as Pastor on\nTuesday night, Sept. 26, 1899.\n\n[Illustration: TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH, AUGUSTA, FOUNDED BY DR.\nCHARLES T. WALKER.]\n\nThe following account of Dr. Walker\u2019s last Sunday night with his\nAugusta church is taken from the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle of Sept. 25,\n1899:\n\n \u201cLast night Dr. C. T. Walker preached his farewell sermon at\n Tabernacle Baptist Church. The church was packed to overflowing. A\n Chronicle reporter called soon after the service commenced, and found\n great crowds going away, unable to gain admission.\n\n \u201cThe service commenced by singing, \u2018Come, ye disconsolate,\u2019 the\n hymn being read by the Rev. Silas X. Floyd, A. M., pastor-elect of\n Tabernacle Church. Prayer was offered by Bishop R. S. Williams, of\n the C. M. E. Church.\n\n \u201cDr. Walker used for a text Acts 20:32, \u2018And now, brethren, I commend\n you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build\n you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are\n sanctified.\u201d\n\n \u201cIn his opening remarks, the speaker referred to the fact that\n in the 20th chapter of Acts the apostle Paul was delivering his\n farewell message to the elders of Ephesus. Concerning himself, the\n apostle had been desirous all along of two things. One was that he\n might be faithful, and the other was that he might finish well. The\n apostle commended the Ephesians to God--to God\u2019s providence, to God\u2019s\n protection, to God\u2019s word. He commended them in this way for their\n edification and for their glorification.\n\n \u201cThen leaving the text, he delivered some very pathetic and helpful\n parting words to his congregation. Among other things he urged them\n to be a united people: he plead with them to stand together and to\n uphold the hands of the young man who had been called to succeed\n him; he urged them to be industrious, progressive, self-respecting\n and self-reliant; with much eloquence he called upon them to be\n interested in all the affairs of their race--he appealed to them to\n be law-abiding and to make themselves a credit to the race and to the\n city of Augusta and not a disgrace.\n\n \u201cParting words were also spoken to the officers of the church.\n Parting thanks were expressed to the church, to the sinners, to\n the citizens, white and colored, who had stood by him and made his\n success possible.\n\n \u201cIn closing he gave a brief summary of his 14 years work in this\n city. During that time he has baptized at his church over 1,400\n people, erected a handsome brick church, bought an \u2018Old Folks\u2019 Home,\u2019\n the church and home valued at over $20,000, and done many other\n things of which he did not speak. Many of the congregation were\n shedding tears at the close of the service. The parting hymn was \u2018God\n be with you till we meet again.\u2019\u201d\n\n[Illustration: THE TABERNACLE OLD FOLKS\u2019 HOME, AUGUSTA, GA., FOUNDED\nBY DR. CHARLES T. WALKER.]\n\nThe Mount Olivet Baptist Church was organized March 10, 1878. Rev.\nDaniel W. Wisher was its first pastor. The church had its place of\nworship in West 26th St., until 1885. In that year, by the help of\ngenerous white Baptist friends and the Baptist City Mission Society,\nthey were enabled to purchase the splendid edifice in W. 53rd St.,\nvalued then at $130,000, in which they still worship. During the\npastorate of Rev. D. W. Wisher, or from 1878 to 1899, the church\npaid on its debt, $39,000, of this $18,000 were given by Mr. John D.\nRockefeller, Mr. W. M. Isaacs, Mr. James Pyle, Mr. W. A. Caldwell, Mr.\nSamuel S. Constant, Mrs. Nathan Bishop, Mr. J. A. Bostick, Mr. J. F.\nComey, Mr. B. F. Judson, Mr. R. Parker and others through the Baptist\nCity Mission Society.\n\nIn 1897 during the heated political campaign in New York City, the Rev.\nD. W. Wisher saw fit to side with Tammany Hall in the city election,\nand, it is said, went so far as to preach a sermon in which he\nadvocated Tammany\u2019s claims and advised his members to vote the Tammany\nticket. As a result of this new departure, great opposition to the Rev.\nMr. Wisher sprang up in the church, and for nearly two years there was\nan unseemly church wrangle by which the church was finally divided into\ntwo factions, known as the \u201cWisherites\u201d and the \u201cAnti-Wisherites.\u201d\n\nIt would be offensive to go into details. After a series of court\ntrials the \u201cAnti-Wisherites\u201d triumphed. The Rev. Mr. Wisher was deposed\nin 1899, and his followers left the church.\n\nIt was then that the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church commenced to look for\na new leader. The Rev. Chas. S. Morris, D. D., of Boston, Mass., was\ncalled to lead the church temporarily. After prayer and deliberation,\nthe church looked to Georgia, its eye fell on the \u201cBlack Spurgeon,\u201d and\nhe was invited to become pastor of the church. As already stated, after\nconference with those in authority, Dr. Walker decided to accept the\nnew charge. At first his friends throughout the nation felt that he was\nmaking a mistake, the church already divided, the people who had kept\nup with the \u201cchurch war\u201d (so far as they could keep up with it from the\nnewspaper reports) felt that it would be impossible for any human being\nto reunite the membership. But Dr. Walker undertook the task, trusting\nin the Lord. He succeeded from the day he took charge, the first\nSunday in October, 1899. From that day to this there has not been the\nslightest friction in the church, and the membership has increased from\nabout 430 to more than 1,800 in the short space of two years and four\nmonths. Besides, it is said by those competent to give correct opinions\nin the matter that from the beginning he has preached to the largest\nregular congregations of any man in New York City, white or black.\n\nThe second Sunday in March, 1900, he baptized 184 converts at one\ntime, which is the record for New York City, and perhaps for the\ncountry. It was such an unusual spectacle that all the New York\nnewspapers gave large space to a report of the baptism and the\nAssociated Press sent a long account of it throughout the length and\nbreadth of the country. At the night service the pastor gave the hand\nof fellowship to 408 members.\n\nThe second Sunday in March, 1901, he had another large baptism, in\nwhich 95 were baptized, and the second Sunday in February, 1902, more\nthan 100 were baptized into the fellowship of the Mt. Olivet Baptist\nChurch. In all there have been more than 1,400 added to the church\nunder his administration, 700 by baptism and about 700 by letters and\nChristian experiences. These last are usually called backsliders. They\nare persons who were at one time members of Baptist churches in other\nplaces, but who have been in New York, some ten, some fifteen and some\ntwenty years, without connecting themselves with any churches, while\nat the same time they lost their identity with the churches where they\nformerly were members. Dr. Walker has reclaimed hundreds of these, and\nthey are making good church members.\n\nFinancially his success with the church has been remarkable. In round\nnumbers, he has raised for all purposes, $25,000. He has kept up the\ninterest on the church debt and paid $2,500 on the principal. He has\nraised $3,000 for the Colored Men\u2019s Branch Y. M. C. A.; $2,500 for Home\nand Foreign Missions, and more than $2,000 for various charities. Among\nthe regular contributors to the church at the present time are Mrs.\nGeo. Lewis, Mr. W. R. A. Martin, and Mr. James W. Talcott.\n\nThe Mt. Olivet Baptist Church is a commodious structure, three stories\nhigh with a beautiful granite front. The first floor contains the\ntrustees\u2019 room, library room, the deacons\u2019 room, one large dressing\nroom, kitchen and Sunday School room and the lecture room--the library\nroom and trustees\u2019 room, by means of folding doors, can be thrown into\nthe lecture room. The second floor contains the main auditorium and\nthe choir gallery with two large swinging galleries. The third floor\ncontains the pastor\u2019s study and room for committees, choir practice,\netc. Following is the list of present officers of Mt. Olivet Baptist\nChurch:\n\n[Illustration: MT. OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH, WEST FIFTY THIRD STREET, NEW\nYORK CITY, N. Y.]\n\nDEACONS OF MT. OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH.\n\nWm. Moore, Chairman. Born in Hertford County, N. C., in 1855. Joined\nMt. Olivet Baptist Church in 1881. Made deacon in 1882. Served for\nseveral years on the Advisory Board.\n\nFleming W. Jackson, Vice Chairman. Born in New Kent County, Va., in\n1836. Joined Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in 1879 by letter from Second\nBaptist Church, Richmond, Va. Licensed to preach by Joy Street Baptist\nChurch, Boston, Mass., and also by the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church.\nServed for five years on the Advisory Board of the Mt. Olivet Baptist\nChurch and for the past four years has been a deacon.\n\nJ. A. Gardener, born in Shirley, near Richmond, Va., in 1846. Joined\nMt. Olivet Baptist Church when it was organized in 1878. Has been a\nmember of the board of deacons 22 years.\n\nG. P. Webb. Born in Orange County, Va., Oct. 7, 1850. Joined Mt. Olivet\nBaptist Church in 1878. Been a member of the Board of deacons since\n1885. Deacon Webb is also Vice President Board of Trustees.\n\nRobert H. Jones. Born in 1850 in Petersburg, Va. Joined Mt. Olivet\nBaptist Church in 1885. Became deacon in 1898.\n\nHerbert S. Royal. Born in Nottoway County, Va., Oct. 31, 1858. Joined\nMt. Olivet Baptist Church in 1884. Served as an usher for three years;\nmember of the Advisory Board for two years, and made a deacon in 1894.\n\nDavid Grant. Born in 1848, in Marengo County, Ala. Joined Mt. Olivet\nBaptist Church in 1882; made a deacon in 1900.\n\nJohn L. Walters. Born April 3, 1862, in Accomac County, Va. Joined Mt.\nOlivet Baptist Church in 1885. Served on Advisory Board for several\nyears. Made a deacon in 1898. Deacon Walters is, also, Assistant\nSuperintendent of the Sunday School.\n\nGeneral Grant Stephens. Born in Newbern, N. C., March 15, 1870. Joined\nMt. Olivet Baptist Church in 1895. Made a deacon in 1900.\n\nA. J. Campbell, Born in Nottoway County, Va., April 20. 1857. Joined\nMt. Olivet Baptist Church in 1887. Made a deacon in 1900.\n\nW. H. Holloway.\n\nSamuel Swann.\n\nTRUSTEE BOARD.\n\nW. H. Jones, President; Henry Darnell, Treasurer; Cyrus Henry Trent,\nSecretary; James Wells, Assistant Secretary; Deacon G. P. Webb,\nVice President; J. E. Taylor; Frank Youngblood; P. F. Comey (white);\nW. H. J. Innis (white).\n\nOTHER OFFICERS.\n\nJ. E. Decker, Church Clerk; Prof. J. S. Brown, Assistant Clerk;\nJ. F. Comey (white), Treasurer; Wesley Norman, Superintendent\nof Sunday School; Deacon J. L. Walters, Assistant Superintendent\nof Sunday School; B. H. Green, President B. Y. P. U.; Samuel Tabb,\nPresident Young People\u2019s Literary Society; Mrs. Charity Jones,\nPresident of the C. T. Walker Volunteer Club; Mrs. Clarence Robinson,\nPresident of the United Tribes (auxiliary to the Y. M. C. A.);\nDeacon F. W. Jackson, President of the Co-workers; Prof. A. C. Fletcher,\nChorister; Madam V. E. Hunt Scott, Organist; John Collie, Sexton;\nRobert Washington, Assistant Sexton.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIV.\n\n  COLORED MEN\u2019S BRANCH Y. M. C. A.\n\n\nDr. Walker had not been a resident of New York six months before he\nturned his attention to the organization of a Young Men\u2019s Christian\nAssociation for colored young men. He had looked around and had found\nno place for hundreds and hundreds of colored young men to spend\ntheir evenings and Sundays, except in saloons, dives and brothels.\nWithout consulting anybody, though he was at the headquarters of the\nInternational Y. M. C. A., he called a public meeting at Mt. Olivet\nBaptist Church, and organized a Y. M. C. A. Nearly every colored\npastor in the city, regardless of denomination, became interested in\nthe movement, and gave Dr. Walker almost undivided support. Money was\nraised, a building at 132 West 53rd Street was leased for one year,\ntemporary officers were elected, and Dec. 18, 1900, application was\nmade to the Y. M. C. A. of New York City for membership as one of the\nregular branches. The application was received and acted on favorably,\nand since then the Colored Men\u2019s Branch has been one of the regular\nbranches of the City Association. In January, 1901, Mr. Walter C.\nColes, of Aiken, S. C., was appointed Secretary of the Colored Men\u2019s\nBranch and immediately took charge of the work. He served only one\nyear, having been summoned to report to God, Saturday, Jan. 4th, 1902.\nThe following obituary notice is taken from the Presbyterian Herald, of\nNew York City:\n\n[Illustration: REV. WALTER C. COLES, DECEASED EX-SECRETARY OF COLORED\nY. M. C A., NEW YORK CITY, N. Y.]\n\n \u201cRev. Walter C. Coles died suddenly of typhoid fever, at his home,\n 331 West 59th Street, Saturday, January 4th, 1902. Mr. Coles was the\n oldest son of the Rev. William R. and Mrs. Coles, of Aiken, S. C. He\n was a graduate both of the College and Theological Departments of\n Biddle University, N. C.\n\n \u201cIt was in the Biddle University where Mr. Coles developed his great\n power as a \u2018Fisher of Men.\u2019 He organized the University men, whom he\n held together by his shrewd method of dealing and his heart of love.\n\n \u201cHe engaged in regular pastoral work at Nimrod, N. C. and Aiken, S. C.\n\n \u201cThe Rev. Chas. T. Walker, D. D., came to New York as pastor of the\n Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in 1899.\n\n \u201cHe at once began work among the men, organized a Colored Men\u2019s Branch\n of the Y. M. C. A. Within a year this organization had grown to be a\n great power for good. A secretary was needed. Walter Coles was the\n man. He was appointed Secretary of the Colored Men\u2019s Branch of the Y.\n M. C. A., 132 West 53rd Street, January 1901. He therefore served only\n one year.\n\n \u201cIn September, 1901, he was ordained by the Presbytery of McClelland,\n in South Carolina, and was married to Miss Mattie Belk, of Greenville,\n in the same month, and the happy couple came to New York to engage in\n their life work. But alas! How soon was he cut down. He had lived a\n full life. His work was done. His task ended.\n\n \u201cA memorial service was held in Mount Olivet Baptist Church, Sunday\n afternoon. The Colored Branch and the Ladies\u2019 Auxiliary were present\n in a body. Among the speakers were Chairman Walker, the Rev. Dr.\n William H. Brooks, Pastor of St. Mark\u2019s Methodist Episcopal Church;\n the Rev. Hutchins C. Bishop, Pastor of St. Philip\u2019s Protestant\n Episcopal Church; Vice Chairman G. W. Allen, Messrs. A. S. Newman,\n representing the Board of Directors; E. W. Booth, General Secretary;\n B. M. Lewis, of the East Side Branch, and Mr. Bannister of the Harlem\n Branch. The chancel was filled with a large number of handsome floral\n pieces. Sunday evening the remains were carried to Aiken, accompanied\n by Mr. Coles\u2019s wife, mother and H. C. Dugas.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe death of Mr. Coles was a serious blow to the work, but the work\nis still being carried on in the name of the Lord. Rev. Thomas J.\nBell, of Altamaha, Ga., a graduate of Atlanta University and Hartford\nTheological Seminary, has been appointed to succeed the late Mr. Coles,\nand will enter upon his duties April 1, 1902. The Association has now\n$2,000 on hand for a building fund and more than $500 in the treasury\nfor current expenses. Too much cannot be said in praise of the efforts\nof the United Tribes in raising money for the Y. M. C. A. The Tribes\nare a company of women of the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, which serves\nas an auxiliary to the Y. M. C. A. Deacon Fleming Jackson is President\nof the United Tribes. By means of fairs, the tribes have raised for the\nwork of the Colored Men\u2019s Branch more than $3,000. Dr. Walker has found\nthem an invaluable auxiliary.\n\n[Illustration: REV. T. J. BELL,\n\nSECRETARY COLORED Y. M C. A., NEW YORK CITY.]\n\nThe present officers are the following Board of Managers:\n\nRev. C. T. Walker, D. D., Chairman; Geo. W. Allen, Vice Chairman;\nJohn A. Robinson, Secretary; J. F. Comey, Treasurer; Rev. P. Butler\nThompkins, Rev. W. H. Brooks, Rev. W. D. Cook, Rev. H. C. Bishop,\nMr. Henry Darnell, John S. Brown, Jr., E. P. Roberts, Walter Handy,\nAnderson Ferrall, Jr., A. S. Newman, Edmund W. Booth, A. B. Cooper,\nRev. W. L. Hubbard.\n\nSpecial mention should be made of a life-size oil painting of Dr.\nWalker, the founder and Chairman of the Branch, given to the Colored\nMen\u2019s Branch by the Ladies\u2019 Auxiliary Society of Mt. Olivet Baptist\nChurch. This painting adorns the walls of the Colored Men\u2019s Branch.\n\nSpecial mention, also, should be made of the invaluable services\nrendered Dr. Walker by his private Secretary, Mr. Henry C. Dugas, of\nAugusta, Ga. Mr. Dugas went to New York with Dr. Walker, in 1899, and\ncontinued his right-hand man until October, 1901. At that time, Dr.\nWalker was thinking about going South again to live, and, with his\ncharacteristic large-heartedness, he looked about to place Mr. Dugas in\nsome good position. Through friends he was able to place Mr. Dugas as\none of the Secretaries of Mr. George Foster Peabody, the millionaire\nbanker, philanthropist and publicist. Mr. Dugas has given prefect\nsatisfaction in his new station. He is a graduate of the Oberlin\nBusiness College, is an accomplished stenographer and typewriter,\nsteady in his habits, modest and unassuming in his general deportment,\nand indefatigable in the performance of his duties. Since Mr. Dugas\nleft Dr. Walker, the duties of private Secretary have been ably and\nsuccessfully performed by Miss Annie L. Connelly, of New York City.\n\n[Illustration: HENRY C. DUGAS,\n\nFORMER SECRETARY OF DR. WALKER, NOW PERSONAL SECRETARY FOR GEORGE\nFOSTER PEABODY.]\n\nThe most significant fact in connection with the Colored Y. M. C. A.\nis that all efforts to organize an association among the colored men of\nNew York failed until Dr. Walker came to the city and applied his heart\nand mind and energy to the task. The instant success of the movement\nattracted wide-spread attention, and long after he is dead, Dr. Walker\nwill be known in history as the founder of the first Colored Y. M. C. A.\nin New York City. The work is bound to grow and increase with the\nyears that are to come. It is confidently predicted that within a year,\nthe Colored Men\u2019s Branch will have a finely located building that will\ncost upwards of $50,000.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XV.\n\n  CALLED TO AUGUSTA AGAIN.\n\n\nRev. Silas X. Floyd resigned the pastorate of Tabernacle Church,\nAugusta, Ga., Nov. 15, 1900. The resignation was not accepted by the\nchurch, but Rev. Mr. Floyd decided to leave the pastorate and took his\ndeparture Jan. 1, 1901. The Tabernacle Church, being now without a\nleader, looked to its founder and first pastor for aid and comfort. In\nJune, 1901, a unanimous call was tendered to Dr. Walker to return to\nhis old work. Dr. Walker greatly loved the people of his old church,\nand felt grateful toward them for standing by him so loyally in his\nearlier years when he was not so prominent, and felt it to be his duty\nto return to them. He notified the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church of his\nintention to leave New York, Oct. 1, 1901, and take up again his old\nwork at Augusta. There was a spontaneous protest from the whole church\nand from the entire city, as may be easily seen from the files of the\nnewspapers of the metropolis. The city was up in arms; the church\npassed resolutions, imploring Dr. Walker to remain in New York, and\nmany other organizations did likewise.\n\nThe strong protest against his leaving New York culminated in a mass\nmeeting, held in Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, New York City, Wednesday\nnight, Nov. 6, 1901. The following circular, sent out by the church and\ncitizens, will illustrate the vigorous effort made to keep Dr. Walker\nin New York City:\n\n \u201cMass meeting of the officers, members and the congregation of Mt.\n Olivet Baptist Church, Rev. Dr. Charles T. Walker, Pastor, to be held\n in the church, West 53rd St., on Wednesday evening, Nov. 6, 1901, at 8\n o\u2019clock.\n\n \u201cThe purpose of this meeting is to give expression to our great love,\n respect, affection and regard for Rev. Dr. Charles T. Walker, and to\n show him how strong our desire is to have him remain among us as our\n spiritual comforter, friend and adviser.\n\n \u201cWe not only desire him to remain with us, but we also desire to show\n him the sincerity and strength of this desire.\n\n \u201cWe desire to show him how much we appreciate his Christian character,\n his polished sermons, his matchless eloquence, his bright and\n versatile intelligence, his noble manhood, his genial and kindly\n spirit, his undying loyalty to his people, and all those good\n qualities which have so endeared him to our hearts, and which go to\n make the very highest and best of the Christian ministry.\n\n \u201cWe want his people in Augusta, Ga., to learn from us how dear he is\n to us, and that we cannot and will not allow him to depart from among\n us, and to persuade them to give up all thoughts of inducing him to\n leave a field of usefulness to us as a race, which cannot well be\n filled by others (let them be who they may).\n\n \u201cRev. Dr. Robert S. MacArthur, pastor Calvary Baptist Church, West\n 57th Street, will preside. Addresses will be made by Right Rev.\n William B. Derrick, Bishop of the A. M. E. Church; Dr. Cook, pastor\n Bethel A. M. E. Church; Dr. William H. Brooks, pastor of St. Mark\u2019s M.\n E. Church, F. R. Morse, assistant pastor Calvary Baptist Church, West\n 57th Street; Pierce B. Thompkins, pastor of St. James Church, West\n 32nd Street; Hutchins Bishop, pastor of St. Philip\u2019s Church: Dr. W. T.\n Dixon, Pastor Concord Baptist Church, Brooklyn; John D. Rockefeller,\n Jr., James Alex. Williams, Consulting Physician and Inspector\n Department of Health, N. Y. City; E. V. C. Cato, Superintendent of\n the A. M. E. Church Sabbath School, and W. G. M. F., and A. M. S.\n of New York; W. R. Davis, Alexander Powell, Assistant Inspector\n Department of New York, G. A. R., and Past Commander Post 234; R.\n H. Hutchless, P. E. G. C. K. of T.; Winfield Jackson, President of\n Saloon Men\u2019s Protective Association, No. 1, of New York City; Alfred\n Christian, President of Bronx Republican Club, New York City; T. T.\n Fortune, Editor of New York Age; Wm. H. Randolph, Commander Post\n 234, Department of N. Y., G. A. R.; David Prime, James Mann, John\n R. Bradford, A. L. Askew, John H. Chase, Robert Franklin, Jeremiah\n Stewart, Robert P. Gilmore, Theodore Warren.\n\n \u201cMusic under the direction of Albert C. Fletcher, Choirmaster of the\n church; Mme. V. E. Hunt Scott, Organist.\u201d\n\nThe meeting referred to in the above circular was carried out almost to\nthe letter, and was said to have been the largest church meeting ever\nheld in New York City. The following letter sent to the meeting by Rev.\nW. C. Bitting, pastor of one of the largest white churches in New York,\nis so very full and explicit that we give it space in this book.\n\n \u201cI would be sorry to see Mr. Walker leave our city. Our colored\n brethren have suffered horribly from incompetent and uneducated\n leaders in this city, and are suffering in the same way now, in many\n churches. What a well prepared man can do has been demonstrated by\n the pastorate of Mr. Walker. I wish that he could see his way to\n remain with us, and that the example of Mt. Olivet Church in calling\n and keeping an educated pastor would be followed by all the other\n churches. We would have a different story to tell about our work if\n our colored brethren would not take up with pious and illiterate\n tramps. This will show you my feeling about Mr. Walker\u2019s work and\n continuance among us.\n\n \u201cIt is a matter which I suppose he will settle between the Lord and\n himself, and I also honor him enough to believe that he does not need\n begging to keep him here if he sees it to be his duty to stay, and I\n also honor him enough to believe that he will go if he believes it\n to be his duty to go. I have not much heart to meddle with what must\n by nature be a matter between God and Mr. Walker. Nevertheless, I\n earnestly hope he may see it to be his duty to stay and help not only\n Mt. Olivet, but all the other churches, and his race and the city\n by the continuance of what has been in many respects a remarkable\n ministry. Such a man ought to be allowed to have his own way.\n\n                           \u201cYours sincerely,\n                                          \u201cW. C. Bitting.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Robert Stuart MacArthur, D. D.,\n\nPASTOR CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH, NEW YORK.]\n\nOne speech made at the mass meeting is deserving of more than passing\nnotice; it was delivered by Col. Alexander Powell, Past Commander Post\n234, G. A. R. It reflected the opinion of all present. Extracts follow:\n\n \u201cI state my conviction to you and to my comrades of the Grand Army\n of the Republic, who are members of this church, by saying that\n Dr. Walker owes a duty to the members of this church which has so\n wonderfully prospered under him, that should be as sacred as the one\n he seeks to discharge in that far distant city of Augusta, Georgia.\n He has instilled into the hearts of all who have been so fortunate as\n to hear him preach, a clearer understanding of Christ crucified and\n the forgiveness of those who trespass against us; the work he bravely\n and uncomplainingly has done in the building up of the Young Men\u2019s\n Christian Association, together with his undying loyalty to us as a\n race, has not only touched the hearts of those who know him best, but\n has been felt far and wide. I know, too, something of the injustice he\n has suffered while doing the bidding of our Heavenly Father, but with\n a Christian spirit he has forgiven those who would spitefully use him,\n and prayed for those who wronged him.\n\n \u201cThe gathering memories of olden days always gather about me as I\n cross the threshold of this church, and to-night more so than ever.\n The traveler standing in the beautiful Valley of Chamonix, at the\n base of Mont Blanc, fails to realize the stupendous height of that\n snow-capped peak, but when miles distant he turns back and beholds it\n towering far above its compeers, he recognizes its claim to be called\n the Monarch of Mountains.\n\n \u201cIt is so with Dr. Walker. Now that his resignation has been placed\n in your hands, your judgments have matured and you realize the\n difficulties he has overcome, the Christian works he has accomplished,\n and the blessings he has brought to the people, his retention becomes\n precious and priceless to you.\n\n \u201cHe is the beau ideal of a minister. His Christianity is the natural\n growth of his life. His fame as a preacher has come to him unsought,\n his administration of the finances of your church has been successful\n because it has been based on honesty. His achievements since he has\n been a resident of this imperial city compel admiration; they touch\n the finer chords of our nature. They inspire feelings akin to those\n we experience in listening to the grand strains of an oratorio. His\n success is not the success that makes fools admired and villains\n honest. It is not the success of accident, which bursts forth like\n a meteor and as suddenly disappears; it is not that acquired by\n selfishness, that is tinctured with envy, jealousy, hypocrisy, or\n refuses to lend a helping hand, but it has been a success that was\n established upon morals, worth, courage, justice and honor.\n\n \u201cRev. Dr. Walker, I give you my hand, and I want you to understand,\n Sir, that when I give you my hand as Assistant Inspector of the\n Department of New York, Grand Army of the Republic, 78,599 of the boys\n who wore the blue in that memorable crisis are taking you by the hand\n and urging you to remain among us.\n\n \u201cThe G. A. R. bids you remain. We wish that your life may be spared\n many years; that abundance, prosperity, and happiness may attend you\n and this church. This, I am sure, is not only the hearty wish of every\n one present, but also that of every colored man, woman and child from\n the Battery to the Spuyten Duyvil.\u201d\n\nIt is not to be doubted that the great interest shown by all classes in\nhaving Dr. Walker remain in New York had much to do with his subsequent\ndecision.\n\nMeanwhile the people of Augusta were not sleeping; they had a mass\nmeeting, also, as the following circular will show:\n\n \u201cA mass meeting of the officers, members, friends and well-wishers\n of Tabernacle Baptist Church will be held in the church on Monday\n evening, November 18, 1901, at 8 o\u2019clock. Ministers of all the\n denominations (white and colored), professional and business men,\n the presidents and prominent men of the fraternal and benevolent\n organizations, together with the political and prominent educational\n leaders of the city of Augusta, will be present to join in the urgent\n request to Dr. Charles Thomas Walker not to alter his determination to\n resume his pastorate at Augusta, Ga.\n\n \u201cAll citizens of Augusta and vicinity are invited to attend a mass\n meeting to be held at Tabernacle Baptist Church on Monday night,\n November 18, 1901.\n\n \u201cThe object of this meeting is to give expression to our feelings\n regarding the return of Dr. C. T. Walker to the pastorate in this\n city, and to demonstrate the regard in which we hold him and the real\n need we feel for his presence.\n\n \u201cWe desire to show the country the supreme regard in which we hold\n this man whose labors for the betterment of no race or clan, but of\n all humanity have made him a worthy servant of his Master and an able\n leader of the people.\n\n \u201cWe want our brethren in New York City to feel that we desire not to\n take from them that which is theirs, but merely to claim our own.\n Under sufferance we have remained silent until this time, when we are\n forced by absolute necessity to call upon our metropolitan friends to\n return our Joseph to his brethren and our Moses to his people.\n\n \u201cBishop R. S. Williams, of the C. M. E. Church, will preside.\n\n \u201cAddresses will be made by Rev. W. J. White, D. D., pastor Harmony\n Baptist Church; Rev. H. Seb. Doyle, M. A., pastor of Trinity C.\n M. E. Church; Rev. C. S. Wilkins, D. D., pastor Thankful Baptist\n Church; Rev. W. C. Gaines, pastor Bethel A. M. E. Church; Rev. D.\n S. Klugh, pastor Union Baptist Church; Rev. F. M. Hyder, pastor\n Christ Presbyterian Church; Rev. D. J. Flynn, pastor Congregational\n Church; Rev. S. X. Floyd, A. M., District Missionary American Baptist\n Publication Society; Rev. J. W. Whitehead, pastor of Mt. Moriah\n Baptist Church; Rev G. W. Harrison, pastor Macedonia Baptist Church;\n Rev. R. J. Johnson; Rev. A. W. Wilson, pastor Hosanna Baptist Church;\n Rev. F. M. Hauser, pastor Woodlawn Baptist Church: Rev. Thomas Walker,\n Dr. George N. Stoney, Dr. W. T. Prichett, Dr. G. S. Burruss, Dr. N.\n A. Mixson, Dr. A. N. Gordon, Dr. R. C. Williams, P. H. Craig, Esq.,\n Principal Nellieville School; A. W. Wimberly, Esq., Collector Internal\n Revenue; G. J. Scott, Esq., President Union Relief Association;\n Prof. N. W. Curtright, Principal Walker Baptist Institute; Rev. G.\n H. Dwelle, pastor Springfield Baptist Church; Prof. A. R. Johnson,\n Principal Mauge Street School; Prof. I. Blocker, Principal Second Ward\n School; Dr. Geo. W. Walker, President Paine College; W. J. White, Jr.,\n Associate Editor Georgia Baptist; L. E. Moseley, President Morning\n Stars of Benevolence; H. B. Sweet, President Brothers and Sisters of\n Love; John G. Williams, merchant; H. C. Young, merchant; F. M. Dugas,\n undertaker; A. J. Winter, President Painters\u2019 Union; R. R. Battey,\n wheelwright; H. D. Paschal, shoemaker; T. B. Newsome, tailor, and\n other citizens, white and colored. Music under the direction of Wesley\n Warren, Choirmaster, and Prof. W. H. E. Carter, Organist.\n\nThus, two churches, separated by more than 800 miles, were claiming\nand clamoring for the same man to serve them as pastor. The battle\nwaged for many weeks, or until Dec. 1, 1901, when Dr. Walker decided to\ncontinue the pastorate of Mt. Olivet Church with an assistant pastor,\nkeeping his headquarters in New York City, but, in obedience to the\nwishes of the Augusta church, he agreed to become the nominal pastor of\nTabernacle Baptist Church. Under this arrangement, he is to visit the\nSouthern church two or three times a year, and, in his absence, he is\nto supply the pulpit. This arrangement pleased all concerned, and, for\nthe present, seems to be working well.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVI.\n\n  EXTRACTS FROM SERMONS.\n\n\nWednesday, June 6, 1888, by appointment of the Missionary Baptist State\nConvention of Georgia, the Rev. Mr. Walker preached the opening sermon\nin honor of the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Negro\nBaptist Church in Georgia. The centennial exercises were conducted\non a grand scale, running through ten days, and the fact that he was\nselected to preach the opening sermon shows the esteem in which he\nwas held by his brethren. Following are some extracts from the sermon\npreached by the great leader and preacher at that time:\n\n WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.\n\n \u201c\u2018According to this time it shall be said, What hath God\n wrought.\u2019--Numbers 23:23.\n\n \u201cWe stand to-day upon an eminence from which we may take a\n retrospective view of a one hundred years\u2019 journey. This is a glorious\n day. We have come to celebrate the progress and triumphs of a century.\n We are here to speak of the vicissitudes through which we have passed,\n the conflicts we have encountered, the obstacles we have overcome,\n the success already attained, and the victories yet to be achieved.\n We are here to pass up and down the line of march from 1788 to 1888.\n Old fathers, worn and weary with burdens and cares of long and useful\n lives, their heads whitened by the frosts of many winters, infirm and\n superannuated, have come up to shake hands with the century, to bid\n God-speed to their brethren, and, like Simeon of old, to exclaim,\n \u2018Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes\n have seen thy salvation.\u2019 Young men have come to get inspiration from\n a review of the work of the fathers and to return to their various\n fields stimulated, electrified and encouraged.\n\n \u201cWe shall discuss, first, what God has wrought in the permanent\n establishment of His church. The founder of the true church is Jesus\n Christ. He is the Son of Abraham, according to the flesh, and He is\n also the Son of God. Two natures and three offices mysteriously meet\n his person. He is the foundation of the true church, the chief corner\n stone, the law-giver in Zion. He has given us a kingdom which cannot\n be moved. He began in Asia to ride in the gospel chariot. He sent\n out twelve small boats at first. On the day of Pentecost, 3,000 were\n added to the number. In 1630, He sent Roger Williams to America. In\n the spirit of his Master, he planted churches in New England, and the\n stone continued to roll until it reached the sunny South. In 1788, the\n oppressed, rejected and enslaved brother in black, for the first time\n in Georgia, lifted the Baptist flag under the leadership of Andrew\n Bryan. The handful of corn was sown not on the high, wild and rocky\n mountains, but on the seaboard; but the wind carried the seed to every\n part of Georgia and the barren rocks and sandy deserts became gardens\n of the Lord. From that handful of corn have sprung more than 1,500\n churches, 500 ordained preachers, and 166,429 communicants. The little\n one has become a thousand. In the entire United States there are\n to-day more than 1,250,000 colored Baptists. I make bold to say here\n and now that the progress of the Baptists in this country has been due\n to the earnest, faithful and simple preaching of Christ crucified. The\n fathers in their preaching did not preach philosophy, nor did they\n strive to reach the people with rhetorical strains of eloquence, but\n they strove to reach the people by preaching the plain, old-fashioned,\n simple truths of the gospel. The gospel declared in its truth and\n simplicity will make Baptists.\n\n \u201cThird, we shall discuss what God has wrought for our race during\n this century. For our race, this century was one of hardship,\n oppression, persecution and sore trial. We were slaves; we had no\n moral training; no intellectual advantages during the greater part\n of this century and the two preceding; we were run by bloodhounds;\n sometimes whipped to death; we were sold from the auction block,\n husbands and fathers being separated from wives and children at the\n behest of some white man; we had to get a ticket to go to church;\n we had to get permission from some white man before we could join\n the church; we were outcasts. But all that has been changed. God was\n against slavery, and in his own time and way He removed the foul blot\n from the national escutcheon. Emancipated without a dollar, without\n education, without friends and without competent leaders, like Hagar\n and Ishmael, we were turned out to die. But despite all obstacles,\n the Negro in Georgia has to-day $10,000,000 worth of property and has\n proven himself worthy of citizenship. We have thousands of children in\n our public schools. Our men will be found in the law, in the practice\n of medicine, in legislative halls, among teachers and professors,\n on the list of authors, skilled musicians, journalists, theologians\n and business men. God has wrought wonderfully among us. God is still\n opening the way for greater progress. The cry is loud and long all\n along the line for consecrated workers. The harvest truly is white but\n the laborers are few.\n\n \u201cA last thing, we would urge upon you by way of application. We\n need more earnestness and simplicity in proclaiming the gospel. Our\n fathers were men of one book. They received power from on high by\n constant prayerfulness, and proclaimed earnestly and plainly what they\n understood. They felt like Paul, \u2018Though I preach the gospel, I have\n nothing to glory of; necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is me if I\n preach not the gospel.\u2019 The gospel is the intervention of Jesus Christ\n to save lost men. It is heaven\u2019s appointed remedy for man\u2019s malady;\n and the directions for taking the medicine must be so plain that the\n fool may take it assured of the fact that he will be healed. The\n gospel is a ship loaded with the bread of life, and must be brought so\n near the landing that the hungry can reach forth and take the bread\n of life. The gospel is the announcement of reconciliation between\n God and the sinner, a message of mercy, the history of the advent of\n Christ, His life, miracles, death, burial, resurrection, ascension\n and intercession. The gospel is the Messiah\u2019s conquering, triumphal\n car. There is power and magnetism about it. It is the power of God\n unto salvation to every one that believeth. It must be preached in its\n purity, in its simplicity, and with blood-earnestness. Man has been\n honored of God in being chosen to carry this holy message. Beginning\n a new century in the history of our denomination, let us carry this\n message with the same earnestness as did our fathers. Discourage\n inactivity, coldness, indifference, formalism in our preaching, and\n denounce spasmodic religion among our hearers. Contend earnestly for\n those principles which have been the very life of Baptists. The gospel\n must go, like the sun shining in his strength, scattering all clouds\n from the face of the world, until the moon and the stars shall be lost\n in its effulgence.\u201d\n\nGO FORWARD.\n\nThe following extract is from a sermon preached by Dr. Walker before\nthe Walker Baptist Association at Summerville, near Augusta, Ga., in\nSeptember, 1899. Following the sermon, he raised a cash collection of\n$342.00 for the Walker Baptist Institute from poor country farmers.\n\n[Illustration: DR. CHARLES T. WALKER AT THIRTY YEARS OF AGE.]\n\n \u201c\u2018And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak\n unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.\u2019--Exodus 14:15.\n\n \u201cFor more than 400 years the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt.\n God\u2019s time for deliverance had come. Moses, his servant, is sent as\n ambassador to the court of Egypt with divine credentials to represent\n the court of heaven. Pharaoh refuses to obey the mandates of the\n mighty God, and ten or more plagues are sent upon the land. The cruel\n ruler decides to let Israel go. The mighty host, about three million\n strong, began their march. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar\n of fire by night led them; they start out on the wilderness route, a\n distance of over four hundred miles. They rallied at Rameses, and\n marched out in wide columns.\n\n \u201cThe Israelites were on foot. They were pursued by Pharaoh with 600\n chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over\n each of them. The very flower of the Egyptian army hotly pursued the\n people of God; and, as Israel came to the Red Sea, at a point where it\n was probably ten miles wide, they saw mountains on either side, the\n sea in front of them, and the Egyptian army behind them. Many of the\n Israelites became faint-hearted and murmured against Moses. He said\n unto them: \u2018Stand still, see the salvation of God, for the Egyptians\n you have seen to-day you will see no more forever.\u2019 Moses seemed to\n have been praying to God secretly, for there is no record of his\n public prayer. Yet the Lord said unto him, \u2018Wherefore criest thou unto\n me? Speak unto the children that they go forward.\u2019 Man\u2019s extremity\n is God\u2019s opportunity. The last of man is the first of God--God takes\n up where man leaves off. Prayer, diligence and effort go together.\n There is a time to pray, and then a time to act, to move. God seemed\n to say, \u2018You have prayed--now obey orders. Go forward.\u2019 The leaders\n moved off to the edge of the sea; the mighty waters divided--the\n Eternal God cut a pathway for the moving caravan. It was in the\n morning watch, or between 2 o\u2019clock in the morning and sunrise. The\n king of day soon dispelled the darkness, and all day long the tramp,\n tramp of the footsteps of the Israelites was heard passing between\n the giant mountains of water. The angel, who had guarded them and\n led them, changed his position from front to rear, and got between\n the Israelites and the Egyptians. The Eternal God fully protects his\n people. As the last column of Israel passed, the Egyptian host came\n in. They traveled for a while as safely as did the Israelites, until\n the last chariot had left the bank, and when they were all out in\n the sea, and all Israel on the other side, Moses stretched out his\n rod over the sea, the waters came together and deluged the Egyptian\n army, while the Israelites saw the dead bodies of the Egyptians washed\n against the banks.\n\n \u201cI would have you notice that\n\n \u201c(1) Diligence and action must accompany prayer. Jesus taught\n his disciples to watch and pray. We are to pray for guidance, for\n direction, for strength, for conformity to God\u2019s will, for clean\n hearts, for the renewal of the Spirit, for the coming and extension\n of God\u2019s kingdom, and then watch and seize the opportunities for work\n under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Joshua prayed, and then rallied\n his men while the sun stood still on Gibeon and the moon stood in\n the valley of Ajalon. God stopped the sun and moon; Israel did the\n fighting. A Quaker going along the Valley Forge road, heard some one\n in the thick brush praying. He turned aside to see who it was; he\n found a man in deep supplication, face suffused with tears, calling\n upon God for help. It was General Washington, praying for the success\n of the American army. He prayed for it, and then rose up and fought\n for it, and was victorious.\n\n \u201c(2) In order to go there must be reconciliation with God. The Lord\n is pledged to those who have become reconciled to him through Christ.\n Elijah built an altar, filled up the trenches, put the sacrifice\n upon the altar, got everything ready, and then prayed for fire. He\n was heard, for he was reconciled to God. Abraham was called from\n Mesopotamia to wander along the banks of the Euphrates; he left all\n he possessed for what was promised. He was reconciled to God. The\n language of the Christian is:\n\n    \u2018My God is reconciled;\n    I hear his pardoning voice;\n    I can no longer fear;\n    With confidence I now draw near,\n    And Abba, Father, Abba, cry.\u2019\n\n \u201c(3) They were not ordered to the right hand nor to the left, but to\n go forward. The road to victory is often through seas, through the\n fire, over mountains, through floods and through flames. We must go\n through the world\u2019s wild forest of tribulation, through the den of\n lions, over the mountains of leopards, through the fiery furnace, but\n we must go.\n\n \u201c(4) The guarding angel went from front to rear and stood between\n Israel and the Egyptian army--so did the cloud. They passed over\n and saw their enemies destroyed. When you obey God, he secures and\n protects you. The angels encamp around to deliver. C\u00e6sar said to his\n boatmen: \u2018You can\u2019t sink, for you carry great C\u00e6sar.\u2019 But the child of\n God can sing with boldness and assurance:\n\n    \u2018How can I die while Jesus lives\n    As my Eternal God?\n    Who holds the earth\u2019s huge pillars up\n    And spreads the heavens abroad.\n\n    \u2018How can I sink with such a prop\n    Who rose and left the dead?\n    Pardon and peace my soul receives\n    From my exalted head.\u2019\u201d\n\n\nTHE RESURRECTION.\n\nThe following is an extract from an Easter Sermon delivered by Dr.\nWalker at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, April 7, 1901. The sermon was\npublished in pamphlet form at the request of the church:\n\n \u201c\u2018To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many\n infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the\n things pertaining to the kingdom of God.\u2019--Acts 1:3.\n\n \u201cThe presence of the two angels in shining white from the glory\n world, and the empty grave were evidences of Christ\u2019s resurrection,\n but not infallible proofs. Technically speaking, they would be\n considered circumstantial evidence, but our text declares there were\n many infallible proofs of his resurrection.\n\n \u201cThe infallible proofs of his resurrection are to be found in his\n appearances at different times in various places, to different people.\n\n \u201cFirst he appeared to Mary Magdalene. She recognized his voice, and\n said, \u2018Rabboni,\u2019 which means, \u2018My Master, my Teacher.\u2019 She recognized\n his loving voice and turned to grasp his hands, but he said, \u2018Touch me\n not, for I have not yet ascended to my God, and to your God; but tell\n Peter and my disciples I have gone before them into Galilee; there\n shall they see me.\u2019 Then he appeared to two disciples on the way to\n Emmaus, 7\u00bd miles from Jerusalem, talking sadly, as they journeyed,\n on the crucifixion, and of their disappointment. Then Jesus, as he\n journeyed with them, began to speak of the fulfilment of the prophecy,\n and to rebuke them for their unbelief of the Scriptures; when their\n eyes became open, they found it was their Lord. The same evening he\n appeared to ten of them shut up in a room for fear of the Jews. Thomas\n being absent. Eight days after that time he appeared to eleven, Thomas\n being present. Paul states that he was seen of Peter. He met the\n disciples at the Sea of Tiberius. And then he was seen of the twelve,\n as he gave the marching order from Olivet\u2019s brow. He was seen of five\n hundred of the brethren at once. He was seen of James. Then Paul says,\n last of all, \u2018He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.\u2019\n\n \u201cChrist\u2019s resurrection occurred at the time of year when nature was\n being revived from the effects of bleak winter; spring had burst\n forth in greenness and beauty, the birds were singing their cheerful\n lays--nature was vocal with His praise; earth was putting on her\n spring costume, representing a resurrection of all nature from the\n death and grave of the winter. So our Lord chose that season of the\n year to come out from the tomb when all nature was teaching the lesson\n of the resurrection.\n\n \u201cChrist\u2019s resurrection proved several things. It proved that he was\n the real Christ, the Holy One. They had said he was a deceiver. He\n had said that he would lay down his life and take it up again. Real\n divinity, which had never died, resurrected humanity. Here the Godhead\n sustained manhood and revived humanity. They killed his manhood,\n but divinity was untouched; and on the third day Divinity restored\n humanity to life.\n\n \u201cIt settled the atonement, made it efficacious and gave power to the\n gospel. If Christ had remained in the grave the claims of justice\n would have been unsatisfied; reconciliation between God and the sinner\n would not have been effected; heaven and earth could not have been\n united. Paul says: \u2018If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain; we are\n yet in our sins, and we are found false witnesses.\u2019 God sealed him as\n the world\u2019s Redeemer in his resurrection.\n\n \u201cIt is a greater attestation of heaven\u2019s approval than the voice at\n his baptism, transfiguration, and prayer for special glorification.\n He proved his right to leadership. He dignified and exalted humanity.\n He reinstated man to favor with God. He founded his kingdom on the\n impregnable rock of truth, and the kingdoms of this world must become\n the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ.\n\n \u201cHis resurrection was necessary for our justification. For if he had\n not risen, man could not be justified with God, for our faith must\n rest upon a crucified, buried and risen Redeemer.\n\n \u201cHis resurrection was necessary for the payment of the price of our\n redemption. It was to be a victory over sin, for he was to put away\n sin in the flesh and establish the reign of righteousness. It was\n to be a victory over the world; he was to have power in heaven and\n in earth, and hence must conquer the earth and subdue it; and his\n resurrection proved his power over nature, over disease, over death\n and over the grave.\n\n \u201cIt was also a victory over Satan, for Satan was styled the prince of\n this world. The earth he claimed as his territory. He said to Jesus on\n the Mount of Temptation, that the world with all of its glory belonged\n to him, and he promised it to Christ if Christ would fall down and\n worship him. Christ chose to win the world by entering into conflict\n with Satan and overcoming him by his divine power.\n\n \u201cTen years ago I stood on holy ground at the sepulchre where it is\n believed that our Lord was laid. And it seemed on that morning that\n I could hear again the message of the angels, \u2018He is not here, he is\n risen as he said; come, see the place where the Lord lay.\u2019 I bowed\n down on my knees and said, \u2018Thank God this is an empty tomb; the Lord\n is risen indeed.\u2019\n\n \u201cHis resurrection was not only the stupendous manifestation of his\n power, but it was the exceeding greatness of his power. The Scripture\n gives us many exhibitions of the greatness of Christ\u2019s power. We\n have an exhibition of it in his first miracle, wrought at Cana of\n Galilee, when he turned the water into wine; there was a wonderful\n demonstration of power in stilling the tempest on the Sea of Galilee,\n when nature heard him and obeyed--the raging, surging billows calmed\n down at the voice of him who said, \u2018Peace, be still.\u2019 His giving sight\n to the blind, casting out devils, healing diseases, raising Lazarus,\n the widow\u2019s son of Nain, and the ruler\u2019s daughter, all were wonderful\n demonstrations of the power of the incarnate Christ. But the exceeding\n greatness of his power was not even seen in his causing darkness at\n high noon, while on Calvary, but it was the resurrecting of himself\n from the grave. O, thou living Christ, thou resurrected Jesus, live on\n to die no more! The exceeding greatness of thy power was seen in the\n resurrection of thyself from the dead!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVII.\n\n  EXTRACTS FROM ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES.\n\n\nIn this chapter will be found some extracts from orations and addresses\ndelivered at different times and in different places by Dr. Walker.\nIt has not been thought advisable to publish these addresses in full\nin this volume. For one thing, it would make the book too large for\npresent purposes, and for another thing, it is proposed to issue later\non a separate volume of his speeches and addresses, and also a volume\nof his sermons. These extracts will, nevertheless, serve to illustrate\nthe lucid style of Dr. Walker and give some idea of the scope of the\nsubjects treated by him from time to time.\n\nTuesday evening, Oct. 8, 1901, public memorial services were held in\nMt. Olivet Baptist Church, New York City, by the Saloonmen\u2019s Protective\nUnion No. 1, a benevolent association, in honor of the late President\nMcKinley. Dr. Walker accepted the invitation to deliver the principal\naddress. More than 2,000 people were present at the exercises. He\ndelivered the following:\n\nEULOGY ON PRESIDENT MCKINLEY.\n\n \u201cIt was said of Franklin when he died that the genius that had freed\n America and poured a flood of light over Europe had returned to the\n bosom of divinity. We are here this evening to honor the memory of\n our late President, who reunited the American nation, was the advance\n agent of protection and prosperity, universally beloved and deservedly\n popular. It is highly appropriate that the colored citizens of the\n metropolis of America should, in common with all other American\n citizens, pay honor to the noble-hearted, high-minded, Christian chief\n executive of the nation, who so recently passed to the great beyond.\n\n \u201cPresident McKinley came from the common people, and was always in\n sympathy with the masses. It was often said that he kept his ear close\n to the ground, listening for the voice of the people. It may be as\n truly said that he kept his ear open to hear the command of his Maker,\n for he had triumphant Christian faith.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cMr. McKinley came to the executive chair at a crucial period of the\n nation\u2019s existence. Hard times, strikes, unrest, scarcity of money,\n were problems with which he was confronted. The war with Spain was\n soon waged; grave problems had to be faced and solved, and all these\n he disposed of in a statesmanlike manner.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cIt has been claimed by many colored people that Mr. McKinley was\n not specially friendly to the Negro, and that colored men did not\n receive much recognition under his administration. Such a statement is\n made either because of ignorance of the truth or from misconception.\n I am one of those who believe the colored man should not stop to\n worry about position and office under any administration. That is a\n secondary consideration. Equal rights before the law, protection to\n life and property, the right to exist, the right to vote, the right to\n earn a living, the right to be a man, the right to be a _freedman_ and\n a _freeman_, the right to expect equal and exact justice irrespective\n of creed, color or condition, is a greater privilege than being an\n officeholder. And yet, Mr. McKinley was the representative of a party\n which had enacted every piece of constructive legislation that we\n know anything about for the advancement of the colored people. Under\n his administration practical recognition was given to more colored\n citizens than under any other president. He appointed twelve men in\n the diplomatic and consular service. A colored man was appointed as\n Register of the Treasury, a colored man was appointed as Recorder\n of Deeds for the District of Columbia, a colored man was appointed\n United States Stamp Agent; colored men were appointed collectors of\n internal revenue in several States; collectors of ports, postmasters,\n collectors of census returns, land office registers, receivers of\n public moneys, and scores of minor Federal appointments throughout\n the country were given to colored men. Two distinguished colored men\n were appointed paymasters in the U. S. V. during the Spanish-American\n War. In that same war, there were 260 colored commissioned officers\n and 15,000 enlisted men. In the 48th and 49th regiments, the President\n appointed 24 Negro captains, 50 Negro first lieutenants, 48 second\n lieutenants, with 2,688 enlisted men. It is estimated that, under Mr.\n McKinley\u2019s administration, colored men drew $8,477,000.\n\n \u201cNot only did the President show his interest in the race by these\n and other appointments, but by his visits to several of our Southern\n schools, such as Tuskegee, the Georgia State Industrial College, and\n the Prairie View Normal School in Texas. At each of these schools he\n made excellent speeches, in which he spoke handsomely of the military\n prowess and patriotism of \u2018the brave black boys,\u2019 as well as of the\n industrial and educational progress of the Negro.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cThere is uneasiness in some sections concerning the attitude of\n Mr. McKinley\u2019s successor toward our race. We have no cause to fear\n President Roosevelt. His past record entitles him to the confidence,\n love and respect of this American nation. He has a public record in\n times of peace and war of which this American nation should be proud.\n I have but to refer to him as Police Commissioner of New York City, as\n Assistant Secretary of the Navy, as Civil Service Commissioner, where\n he made it possible for a larger number of intelligent and worthy\n colored men to hold permanent positions than has been made possible\n by any other man in the nation. His administration as Governor of the\n Empire State was one of fairness and impartiality. He will always be\n remembered as leading the Rough Riders up San Juan Heights, through\n the high grass, cutting the barb-wire fences, repulsing the Spanish\n soldiers, capturing the block house, planting Old Glory on the\n ramparts of Santiago, hastening the surrender of General Toral to\n General Shafter, and thereby freeing oppressed, suffering, bleeding\n Cuba.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cWhile Mr. McKinley made a great record as a soldier, statesman and\n president, he stands out conspicuously in the galaxy of presidents for\n his triumphant Christian faith. He said on one occasion, \u2018A religious\n spirit helps every man. It is at once a comfort and an inspiration,\n and makes one stronger, wiser and better in every relation of life.\n There is no substitute for it. It may be assailed by its enemies, as\n it has been, but they offer nothing in its place. It has stood the\n test of centuries, and has never failed to bless mankind.\u2019 He was shot\n by a ruthless assassin, Sept. 6, 1901. The conduct of the president\n at that tragic moment was like that of the Lord. In the shadow of\n death, as he had done in the executive mansion, he protested against\n mob violence, and said, referring to the murderer, \u2018Let no harm be\n done him.\u2019 Our dear dead President was again like our Christ when he\n said, just before yielding up the ghost. \u2018Good bye; all, good bye; it\n is God\u2019s way; let his will be done, not ours.\u2019 His last prayer was one\n of submission and resignation to the will of the great God in whom\n he had so long trusted. And then, while standing on the interlacing\n margin of eternity, he repeated the Lord\u2019s prayer and chanted \u2018Nearer,\n my God, to thee, nearer to thee.\u2019 And lifting up his eyes on the land\n afar off, he beheld the King in his beauty, and fell on that long and\n tranquil sleep, hanging up his garments in the wardrobe of nations to\n rest until the archangel\u2019s trump shall disturb the long disordered\n creation, and soul and body shall be reunited.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cThe race of which we are members feels proud of the part played by\n James B. Parker in preventing the assassin from firing the third shot,\n though prejudice has prevented his receiving his due meed of praise.\n But let us not despair. Mr. McKinley is not dead to this American\n nation. He is still joined to us by the past, and by the still more\n glorious anticipations of the future. Heaven has discussed the sins of\n America as Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, our martyred Presidents,\n have walked the golden streets, arm in arm. Too long have we winked at\n crime, lawlessness and anarchy. And we must yet learn that the highest\n citizen is not safe so long as the life of the lowest citizen is not\n protected.\u201d\n\nFrom Dr. Walker\u2019s celebrated \u201cReply to Hannibal Thomas,\u201d which he has\ndelivered in many American cities, next will be given two or three\nshort extracts. The lecture, lengthened somewhat by additional facts\nand tables, has been published in pamphlet form. The pamphlet contains\nabout 31 pages, and is well worth reading.\n\nREPLY TO HANNIBAL THOMAS.\n\n \u201cAllow me to state that the author of \u2018The American Negro\u2019 has given\n us a book that will pass as a well-written, and in some respects,\n scholarly production. He has given important and interesting\n historical information and some advice that no sensible Negro will\n object to. On the other hand, he has made such sweeping charges\n against his own race--false charges, slanderous charges, malicious\n charges--as to entitle him to pass alongside of Judas Iscariot,\n Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr, the trinity of traitors.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cIn his chapter on \u2018Characteristic Traits,\u2019 Mr. Thomas charges that\n the Negro represents an illiterate race, in which cowardice, ignorance\n and idleness are rife. In reply, I ask that Mr. Thomas read the\n history of the wars of this country from colonial times to the present\n days. Let him acquaint himself with the 54th Massachusetts regiment in\n the late Civil War; let him inform himself of the deportment of Negro\n soldiers at Cold Harbor, Fort Pillow, Fort Donelson, Fort Wagner,\n Port Royal, Port Hudson, Petersburg and Palmetto Ranch. Let him\n learn something about San Juan Hill and El Caney. Then ask him about\n this charge. It will fall of its own weight. As to ignorance among\n the colored race, it may be stated that they have decreased their\n illiteracy by nearly one-half since emancipation; they have given\n $13,000,000 towards their own education; they have 17,000 graduates;\n 500 doctors; 400 lawyers; 1,000 authors; 5 banks; 6 magazines, and\n 500 newspapers. At the close of the war, there were not more than 75\n Negro teachers in the United States. To-day, we have more than 30,000\n men and women of the race engaged in teaching school. There are yet\n many ignorant Negroes, just as there are still many ignorant whites,\n and the whites had a start on us of 250 years. As to idleness, there\n is a great deal of idleness among colored people--that is true; but\n you will find a smaller number of idlers, loafers, beggars and tramps\n among colored people in proportion to their numbers than among any\n other race. His criticism on Northern teachers who entered the South\n immediately after the war to lift up the recently emancipated Negro\n is unwarranted, as well as is the slap at Northern philanthropists\n for making contributions out of their princely munificence toward\n removing illiteracy among Southern Negroes. Their money was wisely\n spent, as can be clearly seen in the thousands of men and women who\n have been trained at these mission schools. The great men and women\n who went from the North to teach the despised Negro did the best work\n of their lives. Hampton Institute would have done good for the race\n if it had not educated any other man except Booker T. Washington; for\n he has inspired his entire race, and is to-day doing for the race\n what a thousand Hannibal Thomases could not do. Hannibal Thomas is\n pessimistic; Booker T. Washington is optimistic. Hannibal Thomas is\n grumbling; Booker Washington is working.\n\n \u201cWith regard to Negro men seeking to marry white women, it is untrue\n of the masses. Nearly all of our men are satisfied to marry the women\n of the race to which they belong. We have women as good and as pure\n and as beautiful as any other race; and, as to variety, we excel them.\n\n \u201cI state it as my opinion that the solution of the so-called\n Negro Problem does not depend upon emigration, amalgamation nor\n colonization. The Negro must learn that character, industry, education\n and money are the essential prerequisites for intelligent citizenship.\n Let the American white man decide to lend a helping hand to his\n struggling black brother on life\u2019s highway; give him justice, equal\n and exact justice, North and South, East and West.\u201d\n\nAt the famous Golden Rule Meeting held at Calvary Baptist Church,\nWest 57th Street, New York City, March 26, 1901, Dr. Walker represented\nthe Negro race. The object of the Golden Rule Society is to do away\nwith race prejudice and religious intolerance as far as possible. Jews,\nthe followers of Confucius, and Protestants took part in the meeting.\nRabbi Schulman and Rabbi Silverman represented the Jews, Wu Ting-fang,\nthe Chinese minister to this country, represented Confucianism, and\nDr. R. S. MacArthur, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, and one\nof the very ablest pulpit orators and lecturers in the world, Gen.\nT. L. James, Dr. R. Heber Newton, Edwin Markham, the poet, and Dr.\nWalker were among the prominent Protestants on the program. Dr. Walker\nwas the only colored speaker and was next to the last on the list\nof participants. More than three thousand people were packed into\nCalvary\u2019s great auditorium. The audience had already been kept for\nnearly two hours when it came his time to speak, many hundreds having\nbeen compelled to stand during that long time. There was some interest,\nat least the interest of curiosity, to see and hear the colored man,\nand it was thought by a few that there was some misgiving on the part\nof the promoters of the meeting, because no one knew just what he\nwould say or just what course he would take. An ill-timed word, an\nill-considered expression on his part, might have cast a dampness over\nthe meeting--might, in fact, have destroyed the very purpose for which\nthe meeting was called. But he discussed his subject, \u201cThe Golden\nRule as an Individual Motto,\u201d without one single mention of the Race\nQuestion in an offensive and undignified way. He made his mark, and won\na great place for Negro leaders on that memorable night. Of the ten\nor twelve speeches made that night, the metropolitan press the next\nmorning united in saying that the honors of the evening were carried\noff by Mr. Wu Ting-fang and Dr. Walker. As Wu Ting-fang was the honored\nguest of the occasion, it seemed courteous to couple his name with that\nof the man who made the best speech of the evening and won the greatest\napplause. Dr. Walker caught the crowd at the outset by announcing that\nif any one doubted the sincerity of the promoters of the Golden Rule\nMeeting, their doubts would be dispelled so soon as they saw him on the\nplatform to make an address; for, said he, so far as he knew, his race\nidentity had never been questioned. This sally provoked great laughter\nand applause, because Mr. Walker is a very dark-skinned Negro, and the\naudience saw at once the wit and humor of his statement and appreciated\nit.\n\n\nTHE GOLDEN RULE AS AN INDIVIDUAL MOTTO.\n\n \u201cAll men are the workmanship of the same Almighty Father. God made\n of one blood all nations to dwell on the face of the earth. All are\n alike subjected to sin and infirmity; all are responsible beings, and\n all alike are hastening to an eternity of righteous retribution. All\n men are members of the same social family. No man, therefore, can\n injure his fellowman without injuring himself. We build up ourselves\n and increase our happiness in proportion as we labor for the welfare\n of others. With the Golden Rule as an individual motto, will come the\n recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of\n man; and when this doctrine of the unity of the human family shall be\n believed and accepted by each individual, then man\u2019s inhumanity to\n man will cease; there will no longer be that monstrous indifference,\n when the question is asked, \u2018Where is Abel thy brother?\u2019 that replies,\n \u2018Am I my brother\u2019s keeper?\u2019 Yes, we are our brother\u2019s keeper, and\n this motto will not only connect man with his Creator, but will also\n connect man with man.\n\n \u201cThis motto will include justice and fair play. Many of the courts\n of our land known as temples of justice are misnamed; they are but\n temples of injustice. Justice should hold an even balance. Justice\n should make no inquiry as to racial identity. Justice should have no\n kin people. With this motto adopted by every individual, each man will\n have an equal chance in the race of life; equal and exact justice will\n be given to all; a healthy public sentiment will be created in favor\n of law and order; law itself is weak and helpless unless upheld and\n supported by public sentiment.\n\n \u201cWe should adopt the Golden Rule as an individual motto, for it will\n produce an era of peace and good-will among men; it will become the\n prophetic music of the ages. The Golden Rule will cause us to see\n humanity not only as it is, but humanity as it shall be. Not Lazarus,\n the beggar at the rich man\u2019s gate, full of sores--a mass of corruption\n and putrifying sores; but Lazarus in Abraham\u2019s bosom; humanity\n redeemed; humanity regenerated, reorganized, reanimated, reconstructed\n and relighted with heavenly glory. This motto will prepare us for the\n grand reunion of the human family in the last day. The sons of Noah\n who separated in the Plain of Shinar will one day hold a reunion. I\n believe in the theory of the unity of the human family, and that it\n is the order of divine Providence that these long separated brethren\n must meet again. Shem went into Asia, Japhet into Europe, and Ham into\n Africa. At the reunion, Shem will be represented in the person of the\n despised Chinaman and Japanese; Japhet in the person of the proud and\n cultured Caucasian, and Ham in the person of the despised, rejected\n and oppressed Negro. And I promise you that the sons of Ham will make\n a creditable showing when the reunion takes place.\u201d\n\nAt Carnegie Hall, New York City, on Sunday evening, May 27th, 1900,\nDr. Walker shook the country by an able and patriotic address on the\nso-called Race Question. The hall was packed from pit to dome by an\naudience of fully 8,000 souls, white and black. The speech, which he\ncalled \u201cAn Appeal to C\u00e6sar,\u201d was a review of the Conference on the\nRace Question held a short time before that at Montgomery, Ala., and\nin which such men as Bourke Cochran, John Temple Graves, Dr. H. B.\nFrissell, Governor MacCorkel and others participated, and was also a\nreply to some strictures heaped upon the race in Carnegie Lyceum the\nSunday before by A. Rev. Henry Frank. The newspapers in the metropolis\nand throughout the country published extracts from Dr. Walker\u2019s\naddress, and the speech won the orator much fame, as well as the title,\n\u201cthe defender of his race.\u201d Following are extracts from\n\n\nAN APPEAL TO C\u00c6SAR.\n\n \u201cIt is my desire to speak to you on this occasion concerning a race\n of people greatly misrepresented, despised, oppressed and hated; a\n race peculiarly situated and everywhere spoken against. I appear in\n behalf of a people born in tribulation and disciplined in the hard\n school of slavery; opposed and persecuted, as it has been, by some of\n the brightest minds that ever spoke or wielded a pen, and yet defended\n by some of the ablest, purest and noblest men and women the earth has\n ever known; among the latter may be mentioned Charles Sumner, Horace\n Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward Beecher,\n Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dr. Nathan Bishop, Mrs. Benedict and a\n host of others.\n\n \u201cFrom this great hall on last Sunday the news went out to the world\n that one Henry Frank, in preaching the gospel of the Lowly Nazarene,\n stated in the prelude to his discourse that the Negro should again be\n reduced to the slavery of ante-bellum days.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cI have now given you a hasty survey of Mr. Frank\u2019s utterances\n and also some of the unfavorable criticisms of the gentlemen who\n were among the participants at the recent Montgomery Conference.\n Now let me give you the colored man\u2019s side. First, the Negro is an\n American citizen; he is a member of the body politic; he has been in\n this country almost as long as anybody else. The amendment to the\n constitution did not make us men. God made us men before man made\n us citizens. The amendment was only a recognition of the God-given\n rights of the colored man. Second, the emancipation of the colored\n race was the overruling providence of God. Slavery was wrong, and the\n time had come in the Providence of the mighty God that the battalions\n of the righteous army of God should march against the giant walls of\n slavery, and slavery fell like Dagon before the ark. Although Mr.\n Lincoln wrote the immortal proclamation liberating 4,000,000 human\n beings, which was the central act of his administration and the most\n glorious event of the nineteenth century, yet the hand that wrote\n the proclamation was guided by the bruised and pierced hand of the\n incarnate Christ. The 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United\n States, under which the colored man acquired the right to vote, was\n placed there after the nation had been baptized in blood, and it will\n require a second baptism of blood to remove it. Third, the colored\n man\u2019s right to citizenship cannot be denied on any ground--human or\n divine. Citizenship is due the Negro as a reward for his meritorious\n service on the battlefield. As early as 1770, Crispus Attucks,\n during the Boston massacre, led in the bloody drama which opened up\n a new and thrilling chapter in American history. He attacked the\n main guard of the ministerial army and went down in his own blood\n before the terrible fire, the first man to give his life for American\n independence. He is known in history as a soldier, patriot and martyr.\n And from that day down to the records of yesterday, the Negro has\n fought, bled and died for this country, and his bones have been left\n to bleach on a thousand battlefields. What has the Negro done to be\n maligned, maliciously assailed and inhumanly persecuted as he is?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n \u201cThe Negro only asks for simple justice--that is all. He would have an\n equal chance in the race of life. He wants better opportunities. He\n wants to be admitted to the industrial and mechanical trades. He wants\n a chance to earn a living. He is striving to be honest, industrious,\n intelligent, economical and self-reliant. He wants his manhood\n recognized and encouraged rather than choked and stifled. He wants his\n white brother to dethrone prejudice and enthrone reason; remove hatred\n and place love in its stead.\u201d\n\nThe following extract is from a lecture by Dr. Walker delivered in many\ncities during the past year. The subject of the lecture was:\n\n\nTHE COLORED MEN FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.\n\n \u201cTrue education is the development of power; its mission is to\n prepare men and women for the duties of life. There should be round,\n full, symmetrical development. A cultured brain and a corrupt heart\n frequently produces a demon, while a good heart without an enlightened\n brain may produce a sentimentalist. That education which isolates and\n walls off from the masses is a curse. We are blessed to be a blessing;\n nature receives to impart.\n\n \u201cWe must be mechanics, skilled in industrial arts, a noble band of\n professional men, of business men. Men must prepare for the pulpit.\n We demand skill and ability in our professional men, and our churches\n must demand moral and intellectual strength on the part of those who\n fill the pulpit. An ignorant man in the pulpit is more dangerous than\n a quack doctor in a family. The man who preaches the gospel deals with\n immortal souls, and it is highly important that he be \u2018a workman that\n needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.\u2019\n\n \u201cI do not believe in special education for the colored man. He\n needs the same kind of education as other people. He has proven his\n susceptibility to the highest intellectual attainment, and, while he\n needs industrial training, he should strive to secure the highest\n possible development along all lines. Every mind was made for growth\n and development and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to\n ignorance. It is better to have a dead body hung to one than a dead\n mind.\n\n \u201cOur spiritual development must be commensurate with our intellectual\n advancement. There will be a series of conflicts between wickedness\n and righteousness, between virtue and vice, between truth and error;\n if we would join the crusade of virtue against vice, the army of\n righteousness against wickedness, there must be spiritual progress.\n\n \u201cThe colored man is a bona fide American citizen; he is no\n Afro-American; he is a full-fledged American citizen; this country\n is his home, and the American flag is his flag. He is a part of\n the history of this great nation; a part of the body politic--bone\n of her bone, flesh of her flesh--her near kinsman, the brother of\n Shem and Japheth. Our forefathers felled the timbers, cleared the\n forests, bedewed the soil with their sweat, tears and blood, built\n up the country and perpetuated its history. They fought in all the\n wars from the Revolutionary struggle until this time, and even now\n are represented in the Philippines by our brave soldier boys. It is\n high time that we were claiming this as our home. Most that has been\n said and written concerning emigration has been written by foreigners\n who came to this country to find a home, and now, guilty of base\n ingratitude, they are talking of emigration or colonization for others.\n\n \u201cThe twentieth century will demand that class of young men who will\n support the dignity of their nature. Men who will use aright their\n powers and capacities; men who will respect the women of their race,\n who will feel proud of them and their accomplishments.\n\n \u201cThe new century is coming laden with treasuries, new gifts of\n heaven, hopes, aspirations, golden purposes, rings and bracelets\n for the adornment of personal character. The twentieth century is\n coming with new trials, new joys, new opportunities and increased\n responsibilities. The new century is coming as the bearer of glad\n tidings, ambassador of peace--herald of the great king.\n\n \u201cLet the men of the twentieth century arise, prepare to face the\n problems of life, to play the men for their people and for the cities\n of our God.\n\n    \u2018We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;\n    In feelings, not figures on a dial;\n    We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives\n    Who thinks most, feels noblest, acts the best.\u2019\u201d\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n  EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS.\n\n\nFollowing extracts from various newspapers will indicate how extensive\nDr. Walker\u2019s work has been, and how highly it has been appreciated by\nthe people, white and black, North and South:\n\nFrom the Examiner, New York City\u2019s Baptist newspaper, Feb. 22nd, 1900:\n\n \u201cPresident A. B. Sears was in the chair at the meeting of the City\n Ministers\u2019 Conference. Rev. C. N. Mitchell, of Toronto, who was on his\n way to his new mission field in Bolivia, and Rev. James T. McGovern,\n who has been preaching at the Emmanuel Church, and was recently\n appointed missionary to Spain, were introduced. Mr. W. Henry Grant,\n Assistant General Secretary of the Ecumenical Conference on Foreign\n Missions, presented the financial needs of the Conference, and spoke\n of the great good which will result in missionary stimulus from the\n meetings to be held in Carnegie Hall, April 21 to May 1. The paper of\n the morning was presented by Rev. Dr. Charles T. Walker, Pastor of\n the Mount Olivet Church. He discussed his topic, \u2018Truth from Another\n Angle on the Negro Problem,\u2019 with so much freshness and power that the\n conference requested it for publication and voted money to cover the\n cost. The distinguishing feature of the paper was the fact that Dr.\n Walker ascribed the prejudice against the Negro race to racial rather\n than sectional antipathies. He gave an outline of Negro advancement\n along religious, educational and financial lines, pleaded for simple\n justice for the Negro, and urged that all avenues of progress should\n be open to him on the simple qualification of manhood and character.\u201d\n\nFrom the New York Sun, Nov. 1899:\n\n \u201cThe Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, African, which was but a few months\n ago torn by the dissensions between the Rev. Daniel W. Wisher, who was\n then its pastor, and the majority of his congregation, demonstrated\n yesterday that its troubles have not affected the vigor of the church,\n but have rather awakened it to new strength. Since the new pastor,\n the Rev. Dr. Charles T. Walker, was installed there have been revival\n meetings seven nights a week, and new converts have been made to the\n number of 110. Of these, the seventy-six who seemed to the pastor and\n deacons most worthy were baptized at the morning service yesterday.\n\n \u201cThe news of so great a baptism had spread about among other Baptist\n congregations among the colored people of the city, and had been\n almost enviously commented upon in Methodist circles. At half past\n ten o\u2019clock yesterday morning half an hour before the service was to\n begin, every seat was filled and the tact of the ushers had to be\n exercised to the utmost to dispose properly of the streams of people\n that came pouring down to the big gray church from the east and west\n under the shadow of the elevated railroad tracks. At a quarter before\n 10 o\u2019clock the outside doors of the church were locked and after\n that only those who were related to the candidates to be baptized\n were admitted. The candidates themselves had taken the precaution to\n come very early. For an hour after the church doors were closed a\n constantly increasing crowd of the disappointed stood on the steps and\n on the sidewalk and bewailed their lack of foresight in not coming\n earlier.\n\n \u201cThe volume of sound with which the great congregation rolled out the\n full strains of the opening hymn, \u2018Blow, ye, the trumpet blow,\u2019 was\n enough to have raised a less emotional congregation to a high state of\n religious exaltation. It was some time after the \u2018Amen\u2019 that closed\n the song before the undertone of joyful exultation quite subsided. The\n Rev. Dr. Walker preached on \u2018Christ, the Living Rock.\u2019 His text was:\n \u2018And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that\n spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.\u2019\n\n \u201cFifty women were immersed in just twenty-five minutes. It took\n twenty-six minutes to baptize the twenty-six men. After the closing\n hymn, \u2018Rock of Ages,\u2019 had been sung in a mighty chorus that made the\n great church seem to sway with the harmony, the Rev. Dr. Walker,\n with his wet garments still upon him, dismissed the congregation\n with a prayer. Few left the church until they had congratulated the\n newly-baptized members most heartily.\u201d\n\nFrom the New York World, March 12, 1900:\n\n \u201cWhat is believed to be the largest number of persons ever baptized\n at one time within a building were submerged yesterday morning at the\n Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, on Fifty-third Street near Seventh Avenue,\n by the Rev. C. T. Walker, who is known among those of his race as the\n \u2018Black John the Baptist.\u2019\n\n \u201cFive weeks ago a revival was begun. As a result the membership of\n the church has increased 483. Two hundred and thirty-four of the new\n members had never been baptized. Yesterday it was arranged that 184 of\n them should be submerged.\n\n \u201cLong before 11 o\u2019clock, the hour set for the opening of the services,\n the big church was packed to its utmost capacity, and those who could\n not get inside the doors were lined along Fifty-third Street. At 10:30\n o\u2019clock the street was completely blocked, and a squad of policemen\n from the West Forty-seventh Street Station had to be called to clear\n the way.\n\n \u201cThe pool, which is of marble, is in the rear of the rostrum, with\n steps leading to it from either side. The water was between three and\n four feet deep. The Rev. Mr. Walker and Deacon G. H. Webb stood in the\n centre of it. Three men stood on the steps on each side to assist the\n candidates.\n\n \u201cThe first person to be led up was Octavia Adams, who had been cook in\n the family of Robert Ingersoll for ten years. While on the steps of\n the pool she said that as long as she had known Col. Ingersoll she had\n been a firm believer in all of his doctrines, but she now realized the\n power and the goodness of God. She was full of enthusiasm, and after\n she had been taken out and dressed, she went back to the church and\n encouraged those who were to follow her.\n\n \u201cFirst of the men to be led up was the old blind man who is such a\n familiar sight at the Fifty-ninth Street Park entrance. He is nearly\n eighty years old and had to be carried to the edge of the pool.\n\n \u201cThe congregation was greatly excited. Women in all parts of the\n church tore their hats from their heads and shouted wildly. During the\n last half hour of the service six of them fainted.\u201d\n\nFrom the New York Journal, March 12, 1900:\n\n \u201cYesterday was a day of jubilee and joy in the Mt. Olivet Baptist\n Church. The fruits of the five weeks of the soul-stirring revival were\n gathered. Converts to the number of 184 men, women, children, boys\n and girls, were baptized by immersion amid such scenes of praises as\n are not likely to be forgotten by the hundreds present. To take the\n figures of the happy elders, it was a record breaking event in New\n York for 408 recent converts to gather in fellowship in a meeting last\n night; this result was especially gratifying because of the recent\n dissensions in Mt. Olivet Church. For a time there was the trouble\n and then came a rallying cry and with it a new leader--the Rev. C.\n T. Walker, of the Tabernacle Baptist Church of Augusta, a preacher\n of forcible ability and intense religious zeal, sometimes called the\n colored \u2018John the Baptist.\u2019 Under the pastorate of Mr. Walker, Mt.\n Olivet has thrived. The baptismal services yesterday morning attracted\n a tremendous congregation. Long before the doors opened the crowd was\n pressing at the doors of the pretty church, 53rd Street and Broadway.\n The morning sermon was preached by Rev. Silas X. Floyd, the successor\n of Mr. Walker in Augusta. The subject was, \u2018Pleasing God.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe baptismal services followed. The marble baptismal tank sunk\n in the pulpit platform was opened. The candidates for baptism, 144\n women in white flannel baptismal robes, and 40 men in black, met in\n the Sunday school rooms in the basement which was divided into two\n sections.\n\n \u201cFor three hours, Mr. Walker and his assistant, Deacon Webb, stood\n waist deep in the tank and conducted the baptismal services.\n\n \u201cThe religious enthusiasm of the congregation was intense. Three\n women and two men fainted after leaving the tank. Converts and\n members became hoarse, with their cries for blessing and approval; an\n hysterical cry from a newly baptized convert dripping with water on\n leaving the tank was followed by choruses of glad cries. The baptism\n of a little blind girl was followed by a tumult of enthusiasm.\n\n \u201c\u2018Indeed, this reminds me of a day in the old South,\u2019 said Mr. Floyd,\n his eyes glowing with religious emotion.\n\n \u201cWith but brief intervals, hymns were sung with striking fervor.\n A brother who sat on the platform led a series of old-fashioned,\n Southern camp-meeting hymns. One was:\n\n    I have a little book I carry with me,\n    It tells me all about heaven and Galilee,\n      Bye and bye.\n    When the storm of life is over.\n    We\u2019ll anchor in the harbor,\n    We will praise God forever,\n      Bye and bye.\u2019\n\n \u201cSuch hymns were sung with the intonation peculiar to the singing of\n colored congregations in the South. Men and women arose, and as the\n singing progressed, their bodies rocked and their feel kept time to\n the swing of the melodies.\n\n \u201cThe greatest single victory over sin in the minds of those present\n was the conversion and baptism of Mrs. Octavia Adams, of No. 117 E.\n 21st St., the city home of the late Col. Robert G. Ingersoll. Mrs.\n Adams had been a cook in the family for years.\u201d\n\nFrom New York Tribune, March 12, 1900:\n\n \u201cOne hundred and eighty-four persons were baptized by immersion at Mt.\n Olivet Baptist Church, Fifty Third Street, near Broadway yesterday\n morning. Of this number 89 were women. In all 408 persons were\n received into the church. It was originally intended that 233 persons\n should be received in the church by baptism, but of that number 49 did\n not present themselves. The remainder were received into the church on\n profession of faith. The baptismal ceremonies were conducted by Rev.\n C. T. Walker, the pastor of the church, and Deacon Webb.\n\n \u201cDuring the baptism ceremonies religious fervor was worked up to such\n a state that several women and two men fainted. Three women fainted\n while being immersed. All, however, were revived.\n\n \u201cFor five weeks, the Rev. Mr. Walker has been conducting revival\n services in the church, and yesterday\u2019s ceremonies were the result of\n the work of conversion.\n\n \u201cAnticipating the crush that would be at the church, and fearful that\n there might be trouble in handling it, Capt. Donohue, of the West\n 47th Street Station, detailed five patrolmen from his command to\n remain at the church during the services. Several times the patrolmen\n were forced to resort to rather rough tactics in order to keep the\n big crowd in check. Finally at the request of the church officials,\n the police cleared the big corridors of the church and drove several\n hundred persons who were late in arriving into the street.\n\n \u201cThe jam about the church was terrific. Every conceivable vantage\n point was taken inside the big auditorium long before the services\n were begun.\n\n \u201cPeople were jammed in the church like sardines. They filled the\n aisles and stood about three or four deep about the pulpit. Some time\n before the service began, the church was filled and the police were\n instructed not to allow more to enter. Then began a wild scramble.\n In a few minutes there were fully 1,000 persons struggling in the\n vestibule and on the pavement outside the church.\n\n \u201cThe candidates for baptism were seated in the center of the church,\n the women on one side of the aisles, while the men, black-robed and in\n their stocking feet, were on the other side.\n\n \u201cThe women were all clad in loose fitting white flannel gowns. The\n majority of them had white ribbons in their hair. The regular sermon\n was preached by Rev. S. X. Floyd of Augusta, Ga.\n\n \u201cThe women were baptized first, the children and men last. The first\n to be immersed was a little blind girl; as she was brought up dripping\n from the big tank she cried, \u2018Thank God, I am saved.\u2019 The child\u2019s cry\n was taken up by the big congregation.\n\n \u201cWhile the men were being baptized somebody in the congregation began\n singing, \u2018Bye-and-bye\u2019; the song was quickly taken up by the entire\n congregation and the religious enthusiasm was increased. Men and\n women arose in their seats, and while they sang they waved books and\n handkerchiefs.\n\n \u201cIt was announced by the Rev. Mr. Walker that on the list of converts\n were men and women from every clime. There were several blind, deaf\n and dumb. Mr. Walker said that among those who received baptism was a\n colored woman who for many years had been employed in the household of\n the late Robert G. Ingersoll, the agnostic.\u201d\n\nFrom the New York Times, May 7, 1900:\n\n \u201cMount Olivet Baptist Church celebrated yesterday its 22nd anniversary\n with afternoon and evening meetings. The exercises were held in\n Carnegie Hall which was crowded not only with the members of the\n congregation, but with colored Odd Fellows and other societies and\n colored residents of the different boroughs.\n\n \u201cThe meeting was more or less a congratulatory one to the Rev. Dr.\n C. T. Walker, whose pastorate began seven months ago, when he came\n here from Augusta Ga. The Trustees\u2019 report showed that the church had\n had the most prosperous year in its existence, and although covert\n references were made by the speakers to the troubles of the Rev. Mr.\n Wisher, the old sores have been healed and everybody was in harmony.\n\n \u201cIn April of last year the church was in debt exclusive of a mortgage\n of $19,500, in the sum of $1,400 with $100.80 in the treasury. Since\n then there have been paid for running expenses $6,168.88, and there is\n now a balance on hand of $899.71. Within Dr. Walker\u2019s pastorate, over\n 800 members have been added.\n\n \u201cThe collection yesterday morning brought in $1,269.16. At the evening\n services this sum was swelled to $1,634.46. To this will be added\n $1,000 taken in at recent collections. The announcement was made that\n John D. and William Rockefeller were among the contributors in the\n past and that the City Mission had borne the \u2018white man\u2019s burden\u2019 in\n helping to raise the big church debt to the amount of $9,000.\n\n \u201cThe Rev. Dr. R. S. MacArthur, of Calvary Baptist Church, spoke in\n complimentary terms of the work of Dr. Walker.\n\n \u201c\u2018I consider him the most valuable acquisition to the ministry of\n this great city,\u2019 he said. \u2018If you can spare him for some service I\n want him to come and speak in Calvary. My people want good preaching,\n and he is a good preacher. And if you will put up with me, I\u2019ll come\n to you for one service.\u2019 (Laughter and applause followed this remark.)\n\n \u201cDr. MacArthur then made a plea for general education among the\n colored people, and said: \u2018It has made me boil with indignation when I\n have seen the door shut in the face of black men and opened to white\n men with black hearts.\u2019\u201d\n\nFrom the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, March 20, 1900:\n\n \u201cRev. C. T. Walker, the \u2018Black Spurgeon,\u2019 who has lately acquired the\n sub-name of the \u2018Black John the Baptist\u2019 by the big results of the\n recently held revival in New York, delivered a strong lecture at his\n former church, Tabernacle Baptist, on Ellis Street, last night to a\n crowded house.\n\n \u201cThe subject used by Rev. Walker was \u2018The Negro for the Twentieth\n Century.\u2019\u201d He took as a special theme the necessity of the Negro race\n patronizing their own enterprises and learning to have confidence in\n themselves that the white race has in itself. He bore heavily upon the\n importance to his race of an industrial education.\n\n \u201cHe said that the Negro must put aside the ante-bellum belief of\n their absolute dependence upon the whites and stand solely upon\n their own efforts. He said that prejudice was very general against\n the colored man and it rested entirely with him whether in the days\n to come the race will attain that place which it should attain.\n He especially advised his hearers to spread the necessity of\n character-building among their people that this end might be reached.\n They should all think more of upholding themselves individually and\n collectively; they must all have more respect for their women, since\n in them, to a great degree, lives what the leaders of the race are\n working for. The parents should be especially particular to see that\n their boys and girls were educated in the trades, that they may be\n taught the hurtfulness of idleness and the profit of being always\n employed at something which would be beneficial.\n\n \u201cAt the conclusion of his address, to make this point more forceful,\n he asked all of the professional and business men present to stand up.\n A large number responded, and he pointed them out as an example for\n the idle to follow.\u201d\n\nFrom the Fall River, Mass., Evening News:\n\n \u201cThe people who turned out to hear Rev. C. T. Walker, D. D., speak\n at the Royal Arcanum Hall, on Bank Street, on Thursday night, were\n abundantly rewarded for ignoring the rain. Dr. Walker is one of\n the best known colored men in this country. He ranks with Booker\n T. Washington in prominence, and has won this prominence through\n intelligence and ability. He is now Pastor of Mount Olivet Baptist\n Church in New York City, one of the largest and strongest churches\n among the colored people of the North. His reputation as a more than\n local man of note was won while he was pastor of the Tabernacle\n Baptist Church of Augusta, Ga. He secured the funds to erect the\n building, and made the church one of the biggest among his people in\n the South.\n\n \u201cDr. Walker is a remarkable man, one whom it would repay anybody to\n meet. He was born a slave in 1858. Left an orphan when only eight\n years of age, he worked as a field hand until he was fifteen years\n old, when he began to study for the ministry. Largely through his own\n efforts he has become a man of notably large and broad education. He\n has traveled extensively, and has a great fund of material for use\n both in the pulpit and in talks and lectures. When one has heard him\n talk the main element of his notable success in life becomes apparent.\n He is a born orator. His gift has been cultivated to fine advantage.\n He has that quality of voice which makes speaking to large assemblies\n of people no difficult task. There is no suggestion of the shouting\n preacher in his method, but his voice carries naturally and easily. It\n was apparent that he was accustomed to speaking in much larger halls\n than the one in which he was heard last night. His voice was rather\n crowded there when he was specially earnest. He is very eloquent and\n may well be called \u2018The Black Spurgeon of America.\u2019 His fund of humor\n is inexhaustible. This humor took well with his audience. Many of\n those present were old acquaintances.\u201d\n\nFrom the Georgia Baptist (Augusta, Ga.), July 20, 1899:\n\n \u201cIt has been known for some weeks that the Mount Olivet Baptist\n Church, of New York City, with fifteen hundred present, had extended\n a unanimous call to Dr. C. T. Walker, of our city, to accept its\n pastorate.\n\n \u201cThe universal hope of our community has been that Dr. Walker would\n decline this call as flattering as it is and remain in Augusta. No man\n in Augusta has a deeper hold upon the whole community than Dr. Walker.\n His success as a pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in this city\n for the past fourteen years has been phenomenal and humanly speaking\n it does not appear that a man can be found to take his place at this\n church. Aside from Tabernacle Church, all the people of Augusta, white\n and colored, are anxious that Dr. Walker remain in Augusta. Should he\n decide to accept the call to New York, Dr. Walker will leave behind\n him thousands of loving hearts whose prayers will follow him wherever\n his lot may be cast.\u201d\n\nFrom the Augusta (Ga.), Chronicle, March 27, 1901:\n\n \u201cWill D. Upshaw, of Mercer University, who spent Sunday and part of\n yesterday in Augusta, left for Macon at 4 o\u2019clock yesterday afternoon.\n He is returning from a stay of several months in New York, where he\n has been in the interest of a loan fund at Mercer, and where, as press\n reports and his subscription list indicate, he did some excellent and\n successful work for the great Georgia College.\n\n \u201cSpeaking of preachers in New York, Mr. Upshaw said, \u2018Many people\n in Augusta will be gratified to learn that your city recently sent\n to the metropolis a man who is preaching to the largest crowds of\n any man in New York, either white or colored. I refer to none other\n than Charles T. Walker, \u2018The Black Spurgeon,\u2019 so long and favorably\n known in Augusta. I confess that as a Georgian, I felt a great deal\n of pride and congratulation for my own State, to see with my own eyes\n the remarkable work he is doing and hear on all sides many expressions\n of commendation concerning him. I had the pleasure of speaking in\n his church several times. On the Sunday night on which I spoke,\n 1,500 people packed the house, and on another occasion, in company\n with Dr. Frank Rogers Morse, the accomplished associate pastor of\n Calvary Church, I attended the services and heard the pastor preach\n to an overflowing audience that crowded floor and galleries, and it\n is no disparagement to the white brethren to say that his sermon was\n one of the most forceful I heard in the metropolis. Dr. Walker\u2019s\n congregations are growing until he has to hold overflow meetings in\n the lecture room. You will find many Negroes of fine education and\n genuine culture while there is a refreshing sprinkling--I use the word\n \u2018refreshing\u2019 advisedly--of the old-fashioned \u2018Georgia darkey,\u2019 whom\n Alex Bealer describes so strikingly, who keeps the speaker in good\n spirits by the occasional lusty \u2018Amen.\u2019\n\n \u201cWhen Dr. Walker took hold of the church, it had been somewhat divided\n by the political sermons of his predecessor; but the present pastor\n has had the good sense to steer clear of such breakers. Now the large\n church is united and harmonious, and much genuine good is being done.\n Dr. Morse, who often acts as an advisory friend of the colored church,\n in speaking to me of the new pastor, said, \u2018Mr. Walker is a true man,\n really a remarkable man, and the work he is doing is marvelous.\u2019\n\n \u201cIn speaking of the contribution which Rev. Charles T. Walker is\n making to the solution of the race problem by his presence and work in\n the North, Mr. Upshaw said:\n\n \u201c\u2018I have heard Rev. Walker deliver an address by special request of\n the New York Baptist ministers\u2019 conference, which, while true to his\n race, as all honest men wanted him to be, was so fair and sensible\n that he deserves the commendation of all white men, and especially all\n Southern men. In that Northern atmosphere, where many of his hearers\n not only expected but possibly wished this distinguished Southern\n Negro to flay his former neighbors, Charlie Walker had the common\n sense not to make one single sectional allusion. He never used the\n words \u201cNorth\u201d or \u201cSouth,\u201d throughout his entire address. He discussed\n the sad fact of undue race prejudice, not from a sectional but a\n racial standpoint, and plead with an eloquence that was as touching as\n it was thrilling, that his race be admitted to progress everywhere on\n the credentials of worth and justice.\n\n \u201c\u2018Dr. C. O. Pope, so well known in Augusta, and now President of\n Simmons\u2019 College, in Texas, was in the audience, and when Dr. Walker\n sat down amid many cheers, and maybe, some tears, Dr. Pope arose and\n told the people that he was raised in the community with Charles\n Walker\u2019s father, and having known from boyhood the man who had\n addressed them, he wished to bear testimony to the worth of the man,\n and the truth and fairness of what he had said.\n\n \u201c\u2018It was my own pleasure to supplement Dr. Pope\u2019s words along the same\n line and by an emphasis of what I had told the ministers\u2019 conference\n in a speech before Dr. Walker\u2019s coming--that if there were more\n Charles T. Walkers and Booker T. Washingtons, there would be less race\n problems in the South.\u2019\n\n \u201cWhen the Chronicle reporter smiled and suggested that he was giving\n the former Augusta pastor very high praise, Mr. Upshaw smiled\n pleasantly in turn and said:\n\n \u201c\u2018Yes, I know I am, but I am doing it deliberately and unreservedly.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018I believe that when a worthy Negro like Charles T. Walker, with\n faith in God and love for man, a humanity that cannot be spoiled by\n praise, breaks through conditions and tendencies that keep so many of\n his race below honor and progress, it is only just and right that his\n more fortunate white neighbor should give him the credit due, take him\n by the hand and say: \u201cGod bless you. If you are honestly trying to\n lift up yourself and your people, I will honestly help you to be true\n to yourself, to your people and to God.\u201d\n\nFrom the Georgia Baptist, Nov. 15, 1901:\n\n \u201cNo man, white or colored, has gone from the South to New York, the\n great commercial metropolis of this country, and made for himself in\n so short a time a reputation and friends that our Dr. Walker has.\n\n \u201cAs highly regarded as he has been for years in Augusta, his real\n worth to the denomination, the country and the race has not been fully\n understood until he entered the pastorate in New York City. Mt. Olivet\n Baptist Church, of which he is pastor in New York, is no more anxious\n that he continue his labors with them than are the thousands of his\n friends outside of his church. The mass meeting, called at Mt. Olivet\n Church, Nov. 6, at which hundreds gathered to give expression to the\n great desire that Dr. Walker continue his work in that city, was\n presided over by the distinguished Dr. MacArthur, one of the leading\n white ministers of the country. Bishop W. B. Derrick led the speakers\n in eulogizing the work of Dr. Walker, and urging him to withdraw his\n resignation tendered to Mt. Olivet Church. The speakers on the program\n were men of note of all denominations and leading politicians who, as\n a rule, take no interest in religion.\n\n \u201cDr. Walker\u2019s friends in Augusta, white and colored, can but feel\n gratified at his success in the North and the high regard which he has\n won from all classes. The Baptists of Georgia are ardently attached to\n Dr. Walker, and if he decides to return to his old charge, they will\n receive him back with open arms.\u201d\n\nTestimonials similar to the above could be multiplied by the score.\nNorth, South, East and West, Dr. Walker is a man well spoken of by\nwhite and black, publican and sinner.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XIX.\n\n  ANECDOTES.\n\n\nIt is one of the unwritten laws of American civilization that the\npublic has a right to get off jokes on leading public servants, whether\nthey are clergymen, statesmen, business men or what not. Very often\nthis habit of caricaturing our ablest men by cartoons and jokes is\ncarried to extremes; but within proper limits, if it is possible to\ndefine what is proper in such a matter, there seems to be no objection\nto it among those who may be the victims. It is true that sometimes a\njoke, if founded on facts, will go further in illustrating a man\u2019s real\ndisposition than perhaps anything else. At any rate, it is customary to\ninclude in every biography a chapter giving the anecdotal side of the\nsubject\u2019s life. That rule will not be departed from in this case.\n\n\n\u201cTHE BLACK STURGEON.\u201d\n\nOn one occasion Dr. Walker was preaching before the Walker Baptist\nAssociation down in Georgia. In the middle of his discourse, and at the\nclose of one of his most thrilling flights of eloquence, an old colored\nman, in a frenzy of excitement, rose to his feet and exclaimed: \u201cMy\nGawd! No wonder dey call him de Black Sturgeon!\u201d\n\nThe old man evidently had mistaken the word \u201cSpurgeon\u201d for the word\n\u201cSturgeon.\u201d In speaking of the matter afterwards, Dr. Walker said, with\na good-natured laugh, \u201cWell, I\u2019m glad he did not class me with the\nsmall fish.\u201d\n\n\nREADING AND COUNTING FOR NEGROES.\n\nOnce a Georgia Negro carried a letter to Dr. Walker and asked him to\nread it for him. Dr. Walker complied with his request. Two or three\ndays later, the same man came back and said:\n\n \u201cDoc, you sho did read my letter all right. I took it to two white men\n since, and dey read the same things dat you did.\u201d\n\nSomewhat later, another colored man came to Dr. Walker and asked him\nhow much was 9 x 70. Dr. Walker told him 630. A few days later the\ncolored man returned and said:\n\n \u201cDoc, you know de uddah day, I axt you how much was 9 x 70, an\u2019 you\n told me 630. Well, I axt Capt. Jones (a white man) about it and he\n told me de same thing. I tell you, Doc, you sho knows how to count.\u201d\n\nIn telling these stories, Dr. Walker always makes the point that it is\nvery difficult to get the average Negro to believe another Negro unless\nsome white man will endorse what the colored man says. It seems to be\nan old and foolish way Negroes were taught during slavery.\n\n\nPRAYING FOR MONEY.\n\nDr. Walker believes in praying for everything. In 1886, when in Boston\ntrying to raise money to assist him with his church work at Augusta,\nhe was rooming with Mr. Charles A. Dryscoll, who was at that time a\nstudent in the New England Conservatory of Music. One Saturday night\nMr. Dryscoll noticed that several times during the night Dr. Walker got\nout of the bed. He asked him if he was sick. Dr. Walker replied, \u201cNo.\u201d\nOnce, while Mr. Dryscoll watched to see what called him from the bed\nso often, he found him kneeling by a chair in prayer. He spent nearly\nthe whole night in prayer. The next morning (Sunday morning) he went to\nthe First Baptist Church, of which Dr. P. S. Moxom was then pastor, and\nmade an appeal to the congregation for help. He secured $109.00 in cash\nand many pledges. Dr. Walker always referred to that contribution as\nprayer money.\n\n\nPRAYING FOR CONVERTS.\n\nOnce at Augusta he commenced his revival services by making a request\nof the people that they would pray that the Lord would give them 200\nconverts during the meeting. At the close of six weeks\u2019 work the number\nof converts was found to be 325. But in a short while a large number of\nthese converts proved such miserable failures as Christians, Dr. Walker\nsaid, if God would forgive him, he never would pray again for 200\nconverts, and he said that he did not want anybody else to pray that\nprayer in Tabernacle Church. He thought that the best thing to do was\nto pray for souls, and leave the number with God.\n\n\nABOUT JAY BIRDS.\n\nDr. Walker relates with great pleasure that, when he was a boy, he\nmade it his business to kill every jay bird he saw. He said that the\nold folks had told him that he would never see any jay birds around on\nFridays, because on Fridays all the jay birds went to carry sand to\nhell. So he made up his mind to kill every one he could, in order that\nthe number of jay birds engaged in the sand-carrying business would be\ndecreased. He was a man nearly grown before he found out that his ardor\nin attempting to kill off all the jay birds was prompted by an \u201cold\nwife\u2019s fable,\u201d a myth, one of the many hundred superstitious notions\nthat prevailed among the old-time colored people.\n\n[Illustration: REV. CHARLES T. WALKER AT FORTY YEARS OF AGE.]\n\n\nEARLY RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS.\n\nDr. Walker\u2019s first recollection of any religious emotions run back to\nthe period of his early childhood. He remembers how every Sunday night\nall the servants would gather in the hall of the \u201cBig House,\u201d and hold\na prayer-meeting with the \u201cold master,\u201d a Dr. Samuel Clark, leading the\nservice. He used to go with his mother to these meetings. The first\nhymn he ever heard \u201clined\u201d and sung, _i. e._, the first hymn that he\nremembers, was the good, old-fashioned hymn beginning,\n\n  \u201cWhen I can read my title clear.\u201d\n\nHe remembers well the edition then used had these words:\n\n  \u201cAnd hellish darts be hurled,\u201d\n\nInstead of the present rendition, which has these words:\n\n  \u201cAnd fiery darts be hurled.\u201d\n\n\nELECTING A CHURCH TREASURER.\n\nDr. Walker and the late Rev. T. J. Hornsby were once invited by\na country church in Burke County, Ga., to conduct an election of\nofficers. Bro. Hornsby acted as moderator. The custom of the church,\nas was true of many others, had been to elect two members to see after\nthe money. One man carried the key, and the other man kept the box.\nAs a rule, the money was counted and the box locked in the presence\nof the deacons. As a further precaution, the man with the box was not\nallowed to carry the key. When the time came to elect the treasurer,\nDr. Walker explained to the church that it would be best to elect one\nman as treasurer and make him responsible for both box and key. He told\nthem that the time had passed for them to continue the old custom of\nelecting two men. Some at first were not inclined to favor this new\ndeparture. One or two members made speeches against it and said that it\nwould never do, but the majority of those present voted to adopt the\nsuggestion, and accordingly one man was elected treasurer.\n\nRev. Hornsby, when he declared the election, thinking to add a humorous\ntouch to the situation, said:\n\n \u201cNow, Brother Jenkins is your treasurer. He will have both the box and\n the key. He can open the box whenever he wants to, and take out what\n he pleases.\u201d\n\nQuick as a flash, an old brother, one of the opposers, rose to his feet\nand exclaimed: \u201cDar now; you hear dat! I knowed when we sont fer Brer\nHornsby and Dr. Walker dat dere was gwineter be de devil to play here\nto-day! Dog my cat, I tol\u2019 you so, and you wouldn\u2019t listen at me, and\nnow hit\u2019s too late!\u201d\n\n\nDR. WALKER\u2019S COMPLEXION.\n\nWhile in London, on his way to the Holy Land, Dr. Walker, in company\nwith Prof. M. J. Maddox, one of his traveling companions, went to a\nbarber shop to get a shave. Evidently the barber had never seen Negroes\nbefore, and was very much astonished. He noticed that Mr. Maddox was\nseveral shades lighter as to his color than Dr. Walker. Speaking to the\nlatter about this, the barber asked, \u201cWhy is it that you\u2019ve got so much\nmore complexion than your friend?\u201d He wanted to know, of course, why\nDr. Walker was so much darker than Mr. Maddox, and that is the way he\nput it.\n\nWhen the barber had nearly finished his work, he said to Dr. Walker,\n\u201cI\u2019d like to shave you all the time, your hair is so curly.\u201d Americans\nwould speak of Dr. Walker\u2019s hair as woolly.\n\n\nTHE NEGRO A NOVELTY.\n\nIn Heidelberg, Mayence, Cologne and other places, Dr. Walker and Dr.\nCarter were the observed of all observers. Hundreds of people would\ngather about them and inspect their clothing and feel their skin.\n\nIn Brussels, in a few minutes after they left the station and reached\nthe streets, a crowd of nearly 500 people gathered around and plied\nthem with all sorts of questions. They were asked what was the cause\nof their blackness; they were asked whether the devil made them black;\none man wanted to know if everybody where they came from was black;\nsome wanted to know if their color would wash off; another asked why\nthe palms of their hands were so much lighter than the backs of their\nhands; and so on almost without limit. When they started down the\nstreet, hundreds of children followed them the same as if they were\nfollowing a circus. The children gladly carried the traveling bags,\nbundles, and walking canes, umbrellas, etc.--anything to keep up with\nthe strange men. Writing about this to his newspaper at Augusta, Ga.,\nDr. Walker said:\n\n \u201cIn America the Negro is a problem; in Europe he is a novelty.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XX.\n\n  APPEARANCE, MANNERS, HABITS.\n\n\nThe Rev. Dr. Walker stands five feet seven inches in his stockings.\nHe weighs 160 pounds. He has a peculiar stoop in his shoulders, not\nfrom age, but from a constitutional pliancy of his back-bone, aided by\nhis early habit of incessant reading. In walking, he has a peculiar\nswaying or swinging gait. Seen from behind, he looks, as he walks with\nhead depressed, bended back, and swaying gait, like an old man. But\nthe expression of his face is singularly and engagingly youthful. A\nsmile plays ever on his countenance. The pleasant, youngish looking\nface is in marked contrast with his head, which is prematurely gray.\nSometimes in referring to his gray hairs, Dr. Walker says that they\ncannot be signs of hard work or trouble, because he was told by his\nmother that he had a number of gray hairs in his head in his infancy.\nHis skin is very dark, but there are many very much darker men among\nthe colored people. He never would be taken for a great man, judging\nfrom his appearance. Not a large man in stature, without a commanding\nappearance, he never would be looked at for the second time when\none passes him on the street and never would be taken for one of\nthe world\u2019s most famous preachers in any large gathering with other\ndistinguished men. It is when he begins to speak that the latent powers\nof the man are at once apparent to the close student of human nature\nand the practiced observer of men. When seated, he is like a sea at\nrest, calm and undisturbed; when on his feet, he is like the sea in\naction, or like some dictator suddenly sent from another world to\ncorrect the faults and foibles of this world.\n\nIn manner he is still, to some extent, a rustic. His world-wide\ntravel, his acquaintance with some of the greatest and best of earth\nand his life in the metropolis of America, have not been able to make\nmuch impression upon him. He is an unassimilated man. Great, indeed,\nare the assimilating powers of the large cities. A youth will go to New\nYork or Boston, awkward, ill-dressed, bashful, and capable of being\nsurprised. After only a few years\u2019 absence, he returns to his country\nhome a changed being; his clothes, his accent, his affectations, and\nhis manners are \u201cCity-made.\u201d His friends do not recognize him at first\nsight. They do not quite understand his language when he speaks. All\nhis ways are changed. He is another man. It is so with most, but\nnot with all. Some men there are--very few, yet some--who resist\neffectually or, one might say, unconsciously, and to the last, the\nassimilating influence of the large cities. They are the oddities, the\nstared-at, the men of whom anecdotes are told. There is one thing,\nthough, which can be said of them which cannot be said of the other\nclass; there is no affection about them--they do not put on. Everywhere\nand all the time, Dr. Walker keeps to his Southern training and his\nSouthern style. \u201cI am not a society man,\u201d he often says, \u201cand you\ncannot expect me to be up on etiquette and decorum, and all those fool\nthings.\u201d When asked to do the honors at some wedding feast, or sit down\nand enjoy a sumptuous repast in courses, he has been heard to say, \u201cI\nam not used to that kind of thing, and I cannot get above my raising.\u201d\nBut it must not be thought that because it is admitted that he is\nstill a rustic in some things that he is at all boorish, unmannered or\nimpolite. No man enjoys the society of people, the intercourse of men,\nthe mutual exchange and interchange of ideas and opinions more than he\ndoes, and he would not be likely to mistake finger-bowl for drinking\npurposes. But his politeness is the politeness of tact and good common\nsense rather than the politeness of the books and of so-called high\nsociety.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn some respects he is exceedingly frank: in others, no man is more\nreserved. He likes company and likes to talk about the things which\ninterest him most, and there are thousands of living mortals who will\ntestify that they have never found any man in general conversation more\ninteresting or more entertaining than he. In Georgia, where people\nare always very democratic in their ways, for hours and hours great\ncrowds of men, old and young, have considered it a privilege and an\nhonor to be permitted to stand in some barber shop or drug store or\ngrocery store and listen to Dr. Walker talk. It is very difficult for\nhim to go one square in his home town without being stopped by somebody\nwho really has no other motive than just to hear him talk. When one\nsucceeds in detaining him for a little while, that is usually the\nsignal for others to join the number, and by this process it is not\nlong before Dr. Walker has been intercepted and made to talk. Such a\nthing would disturb and annoy an ordinary man. But when he is asked if\nit does not tire him to be worried out by people who merely want to\ntake up his time in talking, he says: \u201cIt pleases them, and it doesn\u2019t\nhurt me.\u201d He loves a joke--not likes, but loves--and tells a comic\nstory with great glee. His cheerfulness is habitual, and probably he\nnever knew two consecutive hours of melancholy in his life.\n\nHe possesses one of the most remarkable memories for names and faces\nthat God has ever given to any man. At one time his membership in\nAugusta consisted of more than 1,200 persons, and he knew them all by\nname, and could call their names as soon as he saw them anywhere and at\nanytime. In Augusta, with a population of 15,000 colored people, more\nor less, he knows more than half of them by name. The same is true of\nthe people in the country districts in and around Augusta where he has\nbeen. He knows the leading men and women in religious, political, and\neducational circles throughout the state and nation, and can call their\nnames without a moment\u2019s hesitation, tell where they are, and what\nthey are doing; in many instances, he knows about their past, about\ntheir family connections, about any difficulties they may have had. Of\ncourse, this wonderful power of memory must of necessity stand him in\ngood stead in his sermon preparation, in his delivery of sermons, and\nin his literary work; but it is little short of wonderful how one man\ncould, in the first place, know so much about so many people, and, in\nthe second place, how, if he did know, he could remember it all, even\nto the smallest detail.\n\nThough humble, meek, modest almost to the point of shyness, there\nis nothing of obsequiousness about him. It is not his way to bow and\nscrape and cater to any man, while at the same time he has a becoming\nrespect for the deeds of men and never fails to praise a fellow-mortal\nfor the good that he does. But he hates hypocrisy, he hates cringing.\nHe has never found it necessary to go out of the way to speak with\nany of the great men of the world with whom he has come in contact or\nwho have attended his meetings in various places from time to time.\nSometimes, when he has been told that Mr. So-and-So (a person of some\ninfluence) is in the audience, he has replied, \u201cGive him my number,\nplease: if he desires to call, I shall be glad to see him.\u201d\n\nHe is not what may be called a bookish preacher--that is to say, his\nsermons do not smell of the lamb. His sermons are, nevertheless, always\ncarefully prepared beforehand, but it is a preparation of prayer, Bible\nreading and meditation. He goes to the pulpit from his knees, and has\noften been heard to say, \u201cI know what I am going to say before I come\ninto the pulpit; I know the hymns I am going to sing, the chapter\nthat I am going to read, and I know where the text is to be found.\u201d\nHis favorite source of information outside of the Bible is the daily\nnewspaper. He always reads with an eye single to the use he can make\nof the news in his preaching or in his public addresses. In this\nway, he keeps abreast of the times, and frequently has well-matured\nopinions on important matters, and many times has spoken of them in\npublic before some other ministers have heard of them. When he enters\nthe pulpit, free from the narrowness that must come to the man who\nuses only his Bible commentary, he seems to feel himself under divine\ncompulsion to deliver a message of transcendent importance to dying\nmen; there is an air about him of a soldier who has a divine commission\nto fight a great battle for humanity. He speaks directly to the heart,\nin language all hearts can understand. Humor and pathos, pleading and\nscorn, impassioned exhortation and cutting sarcasm, all are used in his\ndiscourses with tremendous effect.\n\nThat he is a man of unpretentious habits and winning manners is\nevidenced by the great love manifested toward him by the children in\nthe city of Augusta, where he lived so long. Even the children know him\nand call him by name, and it is an honor without dissimulation, and a\ntribute without sinister motives that the little children pay when they\nrun in great crowds at sight of the affable preacher, crying as they\nrun, \u201cHowdy, Brer Walker?\u201d \u201cHowdy, Brer Walker?\u201d Many times Dr. Walker\nwill stop and talk with them, ask after their mothers and fathers, and\nalso about their schooling; often he will tell them a little story, and\nthen invite them to church and Sunday school the following Sunday.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXI.\n\n  TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS.\n\n\nOne of the leading characteristics that may be mentioned in speaking\nof Dr. Walker\u2019s traits is this: He is accustomed to bear injuries and\ninsults with great patience and forbearance. All the great men of\nearth from the time of Christ to the present day have been subjected\nto calumny, abuse, contumely, and misrepresentation in some form or\nother. George Washington, during his second administration, was called\na traitor, because he would not go to war with England. Epithets were\napplied to him which would hardly have been applied to a Nero, a\nnotorious defaulter, or a common pickpocket. Abraham Lincoln was called\na poltroon, a hypocrite, because he was deliberate, painstaking and\ncautious about issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Horace Greeley,\nwho, with his paper, the New York Tribune, did more than any other\nindividual in America to bring about the abolition of slavery, was\nmost bitterly denounced by the American people, because he dared to go\non the bond of Jefferson Davis, the animosity and vituperation having\nreached their climax in his campaign against Grant for the presidency.\nHenry Ward Beecher, who was without a peer in the American pulpit, was\nhounded down by the venomous tongue of slander and dragged into court\non an infamous charge. Dwight L. Moody had his bitter with his sweet.\nOn his first evangelistic campaign in Europe the papers boldly asserted\nthat he was in the employ of P. T. Barnum, the great show man, and that\nhe was making thousands for his own use out of a credulous public. His\nissuing of the \u201cMoody and Sankey Hymn Book\u201d was declared to be a huge\nmoney-making venture, and people were advised not to purchase it. The\ngreat and good William McKinley, the patient, praying President, was\nmost bitterly assailed, his motives most bitterly impugned, and he was\ncalled \u201cthe puppet president,\u201d \u201cthe tool,\u201d \u201cthe manakin.\u201d President\nRoosevelt has said that the man who has not made mistakes is the man\nwho has not done anything. It might be said with equal truth that\nthe man who has not been assailed and opposed is the man who has not\ndone anything. How could Dr. Walker escape? A man\u2019s character is not\nevinced by the manner in which he is slandered and abused and traduced,\nnevertheless; but a man\u2019s character is shown by the manner in which he\naccepts misrepresentation and abuse and slander. Dr. Walker has the\ncourage which faces difficulties, braves rebuke and contumely, is not\nafraid of harsh names and ugly epithets; the courage that can look\ndanger and persecution in the face and not shrink before them, brave\nbefore ridicule not less than before threatening; the rare courage\nwhich in the discharge of duty is not afraid of what men shall say.\nThough he likes popularity--and who does not?--yet no consideration\nof public favor can frighten him from speaking his mind, from saying\nwhat he believes to be true, from saying what he believes that the\npeople ought to hear. Such courage is of a higher order than an animal\ninstinct, more difficult to maintain, and more trying to a sensitive\nsoul. The bravery that bears misunderstanding is more radical than\nthe bravery that returns blows or fights battles. He has repeatedly\nsaid that he has tried to make these words the motto of his life: \u201cI\nam determined never to be guilty of ingratitude; never to desert a\nfriend; never to strike back at an enemy.\u201d I have known Dr. Walker\nintimately for more than twenty years. I have eaten with him, slept\nwith him, traveled with him, prayed with him, worked with him, played\nwith him; I have known some of the indignities, which have been heaped\nupon him, and some of the hard things, which he has been called upon\nto bear; and I truly believe that, in his dealings with those who have\nwronged him, as well as in his dealings with humanity in general, he\nis the most Christlike man I ever knew. He comes nearer fulfilling in\nhis own life and person the divine injunction, \u201cLove your enemies; do\ngood to them that despitefully use you,\u201d than any man of my extended\nacquaintance. Perhaps the following admonition and advice sent to me by\nhim in a letter at a time of great trial in my own life, will better\nshow his character on this point than anything I could say. Here is\nwhat he said: \u201cYou must expect that some will misrepresent both your\nconduct and your motives. You must expect that your best efforts will\nbe thwarted by the folly or wickedness of those whom you propose to\nserve. Be it so. Spend no time or strength in unavailing regrets. Spend\nno time or strength in repelling the attempted injury. Go forward in\nthe way of duty. Let your uniform good conduct be your defence. Time\nis the great corrector. Your conduct will one day be seen in its true\nlight. If not, God always sees it in its true light, and will reward\nevery man according to his works.\u201d These were noble words from a noble\nsoul. God does not call his ministers to seats of ease, nor yet to the\nenjoyment of undisturbed comforts. Their duties are of such a nature\nand their environment is so peculiar that such a call in this life is\nimpossible. Indeed, it often happens that the more faithful a minister\nis to his divine vocation, the more bitter will be the cup he is called\nupon to drain. Had it been otherwise, the name of many a noble man of\nGod, enshrined in the hearts of millions of the race, would never have\nbeen heard beyond his parish boundaries. In every church, even those\nconducted on sound principles, there are a few polyphagous members whom\nno gospel preacher can supply. They are ever restive, ever seeking\nafter novelties, ever grumbling, ever finding fault. Dr. Walker has met\npeople of this class in his pastoral work, and he has won them by love\nand kindness. He has proved in this way that the word of the Master\nis true, \u201cLove your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to\nthem that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and\npersecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in\nheaven.\u201d\n\nHumility is also a distinguishing trait in the character of Dr.\nWalker. The beauty of humility is delightfully displayed in him, and\nits influence is extensively felt and acknowledged. Hence, arise the\nlove and respect so generally entertained for him. It has been remarked\nthat scarcely any person could be in his presence for an hour without\nloving him. There has always been about him a beautiful unmindfulness\nof himself while engaged in his life-work. In this respect he is\ndifferent from many, for self-consciousness and solicitous guardianship\nover their own rights and honors characterize mankind in general.\nAt the recent meeting in Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, held to protest\nagainst his returning to labor with his old church at Augusta, one\nof the most prominent young men of the church spoke in substance as\nfollows: \u201cI want to confess something here that I have never before\ntold anybody, not even Dr. Walker. Dr. Walker has done more to take\nfalse pride out of me than any man living. The other day I was going\ndown Broadway, and I passed Dr. Walker. I stopped and shook his hand,\nand being somewhat in a hurry, kept on down the street. Shortly after\nI had passed him I met a young man whom I knew well, but he wasn\u2019t\nwell dressed--in fact, he was dressed very shabbily--and I didn\u2019t\nwant to speak to him. I turned my head away from him, so as to keep\nfrom speaking. I looked back to see if Dr. Walker would speak to him.\nDr. Walker stopped and shook that young man\u2019s hand and stood up in\nBroadway, with all the people going by, to talk with him, and Dr.\nWalker seemed just as glad to see him as he had been to see me. I\nlearned a lesson from that scene that I will never forget.\u201d\n\nDr. Walker, also, has a responsive feeling of gratitude for mercies\nand favors received. This spirit is always associated with true\nhumility; for in proportion to the Christian\u2019s sense of his own\nunworthiness, is his thankfulness for those supplies which he forfeited\nby his rebellion. Dr. Walker views every blessing, both temporal and\nspiritual, as coming to him immediately from the hand of God through\nthe mediation of Jesus Christ.\n\nChristian charity pre-eminently adorns the character of Dr. Walker.\nThe love which glows in Dr. Walker\u2019s heart was evidently enkindled by\nthe Holy Ghost and has produced a cordial feeling of good-will toward\nall men, of whatever grade or country, of whatever party or sect. While\nhe is an ardent and uncompromising Baptist, his treatment of other\nChristian denominations is fraternal and appreciative; his spirit is\nbroad and catholic; there is nothing ultra-sectarian in his make-up.\nThose who love him because of this are found in the Methodist church,\nthe Congregational church, the Presbyterian church, the Episcopalian\nchurch, the Baptist church, and in all churches and in no churches.\nHe has a tender fellow-feeling for the poor and afflicted, and has\nmany times denied himself lawful gratifications for their sake. He has\ncheerfully submitted to any service, and thought nothing too low or too\nmean, in which to engage, if thereby he could benefit either the souls\nor bodies of men.\n\nThere are other features which ought to be mentioned. Clearness of\nvision, capacity for hard work and quick decisions, executive force,\nthe ability to guide the thoughts and energies of other men into the\nsame channel as his own, and thus unite their force with his, and his\nmastery of details, are conspicuous elements in his character.\n\nCharles T. Walker has his faults, like other men. These are not to be\noverlooked, and I mention this fact, in closing this chapter, in order\nto say that Charles T. Walker is not a perfect man. A perfect man has\nnot trod this planet since Christ left it. It is said of Charles Lamb,\nthat he liked his friends, not in spite of their faults, but faults\nand all. And Charles Lamb was no less right than kind. The errors of\na true man are not discreditable to him, for his errors spring from\nthe same source as his excellencies. Moreover, it is very difficult to\njudge character. Generally speaking, those who are familiar with a man\nare blind to his faults, and those who are not intimate are blind to\nhis virtues. Still, in summing up the traits and characteristics of Dr.\nWalker, it may be truthfully said that he is no ordinary man, and that\none would be compelled to search among sinful mortals many and many a\nday before he would find one man who, in all respects, possesses more\nof the traits of genuine honor, manhood and sterling worth than does\nthe present pastor of the Mount Olivet Baptist Church, New York City.\n\n\n\n\n  CHAPTER XXII.\n\n  CONCLUSION.\n\nOf the countless gifts which God bestows upon man, the rarest, the most\ndivine, is an ability to take supreme interest in human welfare. If\nany pious soul will accurately ascertain what it is in the character\nof the Man Christ Jesus, the contemplation of which fills his heart\nwith rapture and his eyes with tears, that pious soul will know what\nis here meant by the expression \u201csupreme interest in human welfare.\u201d\nMost of us, alarmed at the dangers which beset our lives, distracted\nwith cares, blinded with desires to secure our own safety, are absorbed\nin schemes of personal advantage. Only a few men go apart, ascend\nthe heights, survey the scene with serene, unselfish eye, and make\ndiscoveries which those engaged in their own selfish pursuits could\nnever arrive at. But for such, the race of mankind would long ago have\nextirpated itself in its mad, blind strife. But for such, it never\nwould have been discovered that no individual can be safe in welfare\nwhile any other individual is not.\n\nIn summing up the life story of Dr. Walker, I ask myself what it is\nthat has given this man of God such a place in the affection, regard\nand sincere esteem of those who know and love and honor him. Is it\nmere intellectual ability? Great as is his intellectual strength,\nthere are many men in his same calling of greater intellect but they\nare not known and loved as he is. Is it official station? He holds no\noffice except that of an humble minister of the gospel. Is it wealth?\nDr. Walker is a poor man. In his case, I believe that the secret lies\nin active Christian charity, or what might be called the magnetism of\nsimple goodness. I need not say that Dr. Walker\u2019s heart is as large\nas his brain--that love for humanity is an inwrought element of his\nnature. It is manifested in a kindness and regard that keep a silent\nrecord in many hearts; in a hand ever open and ready to help; in one of\nthe kindest faces ever worn by man, the expression of which is\n\n \u201cA meeting of gentle lights without a name.\u201d\n\nHow wide, how manifold is the circle of interests which he has touched!\nHow many, many minds has he instructed with practical wisdom! How\nmany lives has he stimulated to wholesome energy! How many young men\ngratefully acknowledge him as their teacher and guide! How many aged\npeople, how many orphans have looked up to him for succor! How many\nprecious souls have been saved for truth, for righteousness, for\nGod! His pen never idle, his lips never still, his feet never weary,\nwhat a blessing he has been to his day and generation! In his eyes,\nthe noblest career is that which is given up to others\u2019 wants. The\nsuccessful life is that which is worn out in conflict with wrong and\nwoe. The only ambition worth following is the ambition to alleviate\nhuman misery and leave the world better--a little better for one\u2019s\nhaving lived in it.\n\nAnd this, verily, is the greatness which the world at last\nacknowledges, confesses, honors--the greatness of goodness. Those\nwho read this story of Dr. Walker\u2019s life ought, therefore, to be\nencouraged, not discouraged, because the greatness of goodness is a\ncommunicable power for the goodness of mankind and, unlike intellectual\npower, unlike official station, unlike wealth, may be attained by all.\nLet the reader, then, drink from this story inspiration for his best\nendeavors, while he thanks God that the achievement in Dr. Walker\u2019s\ncase has been so large and so effective. The real forces of the world\nare not those which science chiefly delights to celebrate, but those\nother inward spiritual forces, such as righteousness, justice and\ntruth, which lie behind the more visible energies, giving them all\nthe real power that they possess, and guiding them, not blindly, but\nintelligently, to rational and beneficent ends.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n\nArchaic spellings have been retained.\n\nMismatched ending quotes for nested quotes have not been changed.\n\nA number of typographical errors have been corrected silently.\n\nLa Grange and LaGrange were normalized to LaGrange.\n\nNormalize old fashioned to old-fashioned.\n\nA notable change involving two characters was made:\n\n  Before: \u201cthe judicial. The executive\u201d.\n\n  After: \u201cthe judicial, the executive\u201d.","title":"Life of Charles T. Walker, D.D.: (\"The Black Spurgeon\") Pastor Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, New York City","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":46034}