Читать книгу Life of Charles T. Walker, D.D. ("The Black Spurgeon") - Silas Xavier Floyd - Страница 12

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The Rev. Charles T. Walker was called to the pastorate of the Central Baptist Church at Augusta, Ga., in 1883, and resigned the First Baptist Church at LaGrange to enter upon the work at Augusta. Central Baptist Church is one of the oldest churches in Augusta, and was the first colored church in the city to erect a brick building. The edifice was very large and was a credit to the city. But for nearly twelve months before the Rev. Mr. Walker was elected pastor, the church had been engaged in a very unfortunate wrangle. The Rev. Henry Jackson was the predecessor of Rev. Walker, and he had been the pastor of the church almost from its organization in 1858. A daughter of Rev. Jackson was the organist of the church, and it seems that the pastor wanted her salary increased. The majority of the deacons and trustees did not agree with the pastor; but the pastor called a business meeting of the church, and, by high-handed methods, so it was claimed, succeeded in having a vote passed favoring the proposed increase in the organist’s pay. From that day the wrangle started in good earnest. There were charges and counter-charges. There were plots and counter-plots. The faction favoring the pastor was called “Jacksonites,” and the opposing faction was called “Ramrackers.” The deacons were divided; the trustees were divided; the membership was divided. There was scarcely a meeting held at the church for any purpose but that there were harsh words passed on both sides, and sometimes there were fisticuffs. Many police trials resulted from these disgraceful occurrences. Once the lights were put out during a meeting. In the darkness, some miscreant sent a pistol ball crashing through one of the windows. Pandemonium reigned within. The church was locked up several times by injunctions sued out before the courts—sometimes by one side, sometimes by the other. Finally, the trouble became so acute that it was positively unsafe for any one to attend the church. There came a temporary lull in the warfare of the saints (?) when the Rev. Henry Jackson resigned and left the city. For a time the factions seemed to have settled their differences. The church came together and extended a unanimous call to the Rev. C. T. Walker to take up the pastorate. After much deliberation and prayer, the Rev. Mr. Walker accepted the call. He was twenty-five years old at the time, but looked to be much younger. From the beginning he made a favorable impression. His first sermon was preached the fourth Sunday in August, 1883, from these words: “For I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Those who were present on the occasion of this introductory sermon remember vividly the preacher’s sermon and his appearance. A youngish looking man of medium height and rather slim, with frank, open features; face very dark; quiet of demeanor and graceful in movement; with a sweet, clear, orotund voice, enunciating every word distinctly. With the man and the sermon, the church and congregation were alike delighted and encouraged; and never did they seem to sing before with such thrilling effect and such depths of meaning, “Blest be the tie that binds.”

FRANKLIN COVENANT BAPTIST CHURCH.

THE FIRST CHURCH PASTORED BY REV. C. T. WALKER. THE PRESENT EDIFICE WAS ERECTED UNDER HIS ADMINISTRATION.

But church wars never end. Whatever may have been the outward appearances, those on the inside knew that, though all said that they had buried the hatchet, some of them at least had left the hatchet’s handle sticking a good way out of the ground. None knew this better than the new young pastor, and none grieved more because of it. “The Jacksonites” wanted to direct the policy of the new minister, and so did the “Ramrackers.” Each side was jealous of the other, and, although siding with neither, the new pastor found himself at every stem of his journey between two fires. Consequently, though earnestly desiring to do the Lord’s work and praying daily to learn God’s will, he was an unhappy man. The troubles continued. By and by the church reached the point where it felt that to discipline a few of the recalcitrant officers might help matters some. The action of the church not suiting the “Jacksonites,” the church was again closed by injunction, and the whole affair was dragged again into the courts. By the advice of lawyers on both sides, since it seemed impossible to harmonize the differences, it was agreed that the church should be sold and the proceeds equally divided between the representatives of the two factions. Accordingly, the church was sold at public outcry. It was bid in by the “Jacksonites.” The “Ramrackers,” so-called, received something over $2,000 for the sale. The “Jacksonites” took charge of the old church, reorganized and called the Rev. Henry Jackson as pastor. The other side, under the leadership of the Rev. Mr. Walker, worshipped temporarily in the hall of the Union Waiters’ Society on Ellis Street, the hall being generously donated by the Society for that purpose. Friday night, August 21st, 1885, this body was formally organized at the Union Baptist Church, under the name of Beulah Baptist Church. The enrolled membership at the time of organization was 310—115 males and 195 females. At a special business meeting at the close of the service Sunday night, August 23, 1885, at the suggestion of the pastor, the name of the church was changed from Beulah Baptist Church to Tabernacle Baptist Church. Plans were at once set on foot for the erection of a house of worship. Proper committees were appointed. A lot was secured on Ellis Street, above 10th Street, and work was commenced on the new building September 1st, 1885. September 10th, the corner stone was laid with appropriate ceremonies, the address being delivered by the late Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., of Savannah, Ga. The building was opened for worship and formally dedicated to the Lord the second Sunday in December, being the 13th day, 1885. The dedicatory sermon was preached at the morning service by the Rev. E. R. Carter, D. D., of Atlanta, Ga., from this text: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1 Kings 8:27.) The afternoon sermon was delivered by the Rev. Lansing Burrows, D. D., the well known Secretary of the Southern (white) Baptist Convention and for a long time editor of the American Baptist Year Book. The sermon at night was delivered by the late Rev. Dr. E. K. Love.

The Tabernacle Baptist Church edifice is built of brick, two stories high. The basement is used for the prayer meetings, the Sunday School, the pastor’s study, and closets. The auditorium upstairs is used for the preaching services and for lectures. It will seat comfortably about 800 persons. It cost (for ground and building) $13,500. Dedicated within three months after it was commenced and paid for within less than two years after it was completed, including a new pipe organ costing $1,500, is a record which has probably not been surpassed by any colored congregation in the South, and speaks well for the ability and zeal of the leader. With a new church building and with a sterling and brilliant young pastor, Tabernacle Baptist Church soon became the leading colored church in Augusta, a city noted for its splendid churches and its able pastors. It was while he was with this church that the Rev. C. T. Walker made his reputation as a pulpit orator, a sound theologian, a soul-winning evangelist, and a resourceful pastor. At the close of fourteen years of hard labor, Oct. 1st, 1899, it was found from the records of the church clerk that more than 2,000 souls had been converted during his ministry, and that more than 1,400 had been baptized by him into the fellowship of the Tabernacle Baptist Church.

It was in connection with the work at Tabernacle Church that the pastor made his first extended tour throughout New York and New England. The members of the church had by their own efforts paid nearly $10,000 of the $13,500, which was the total cost of their ground and building. In the autumn of 1886, the pastor, armed with numerous testimonials and letters of introduction, went North to solicit funds to assist in completing the payments on the church property. He found ready acceptance and willing ears everywhere he went. It was at this time that he preached for the first time in Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, 161 W. 53rd Street, New York city, of which years afterwards he became pastor. Of his visit to the Centennial Baptist Church, Brooklyn, the pastor, the late Rev. Dr. Justin Dewey Fulton, wrote: “My people who heard him pronounce him a preacher of more than ordinary ability. His voice is good, his bearing modest and impressive, his language excellent, and the aim of his preaching is to glorify Christ.” In other churches and in other cities, the Rev. Mr. Walker found similar warm friends, who listened eagerly to his exposition of God’s word or to his appeals for aid in his work at the South. He returned to his work in Georgia, satisfied with the financial results of his trip, but more gratified with the moral support and encouragement he received. In reporting his labors to his members on his return, the Rev. Mr. Walker said, among other things: “The Lord went with me, and opened up for me many places which were considered very hard, and enabled me to approach some persons who were at first apparently not at all friendly toward the colored people. When I got on the grounds and learned the true situation, I was not at all disposed to criticise the people of the North for being cautious about distributing their money to irresponsible persons. I found out that numbers of colored people go up North every year begging for money for churches and schools and orphan homes and the like, which have no existence at all, except in the imaginations of their impostors or on paper. When members of my own race will do such things they make it hard for a worthy person soliciting for a worthy and legitimate enterprise and you cannot blame people for being careful about giving their money when they know that there are many little schemes being worked by colored men to rob them. ‘A burnt child dreads the fire,’ and the good have to suffer on account of the conduct of those who are dishonest and speculative. But God was with me and directed me, and I secured a hearing and received contributions in some places where others were denied. We should all be thankful for this, as much as any thing else. It pays to be honest, sincere and straightforward, and I have no patience with those hypocrites who are systematically robbing the good people of the North, who are very willing to give of their means for the uplift of my downtrodden race.”

REV. CHARLES T. WALKER AT TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF AGE.