“One of the characteristics of ‘the Black Spurgeon’s’ style is his fund of illustrative anecdotes. He used one of these to show that man cannot read the Bible without feeling instinctively that Christ was divine, relating a conversation supposed to have taken place between Napoleon and Gen. Bertrand on the Island of St. Helena. When the latter expressed his opinion that Christ was only a man, Napoleon stopped him, and said: ‘No, General Bertrand, I know men. But I never knew one like Christ. He had that in Him that no man ever had. He was divine. His army—soldiers of the cross—are now marching on through ages to victory. But who, general, think you, is marshalling any forces for me? In a year or two I shall die and be no more, and my name will be forgotten. But his name will live forever.’
“‘Col. Ingersoll and Gen. Lew Wallace were once taking a ride together,’ the speaker said, ‘when Wallace informed his companion that he intended to write a book tearing the mask from the face of Christ and showing Him to have been but human. Ingersoll told him that he was the very man to write such a book and commended the idea.’ ‘When Gen. Wallace prepared to write the book,’ said the preacher, ‘he first set about reading the New Testament carefully as a prerequisite. Before he had finished it, he convinced himself of his own error and wrote Ben Hur instead.’
“‘Over and over again,’ continued the speaker, ‘I have read of the Pharisee who, after recounting his virtues, thanked God that he was not like other men. And I have often wondered who this Pharisee was like. He was not like God, and he was not like the publican—he must have been like the devil.’
“Dr. Walker dealt sanctification a blow in declaring that such a thing as perfection was impossible to man. Man was intended to grow unceasingly into Christian strength.
“‘The Lord’s our judge,’ he said, ‘the Lord is our King; the Lord is our law-giver—the judicial, the executive and legislative combined in one.’
“But it is his pictures of the hereafter, of the hosts of saints marching up to glory, that the Black Spurgeon excels. Then it is that his voice is raised and his body sways back and forth as he adds stroke after stroke to the grand scene, and marshals phalanx after phalanx of moral heroes in Miltonic array, moving on with steady tread, glittering, triumphant, to the gates of heaven. In the course of a bit of description of this kind, near the close of his sermon, shouts went up from every quarter of the church and the audience was worked up to a high pitch of religious frenzy and exaltation.
“‘I hear the tread of the feet of the great host,’ he said, ‘tramp, tramp, tramp, they come. Like the angel whose wings John, in his vision saw released, they are not retarded by polar snows nor equatorial heat.’
“‘On they come—tramp, tramp, tramp, shoulder to shoulder, wheel to wheel, charger to charger; onward they march—company after company, cavalcade after cavalcade, thousands upon thousands and millions upon millions, marching, marching, marching, on through the ages and forever. The church of God is going home to Zion. Ah! friends many are waiting there for you! That mother that lies buried beneath the sod, that little son or daughter, that sister, that brother—they are waiting and calling for you. Be of good courage, they say. They are not far away; they see your struggles; they know your temptations.’
“Then when the emotion of the audience began to find vent in shouts, the speaker lowered his voice and shifted to another line of attack, gradually working upon the feelings of his hearers again until he was again compelled to let up.”
It is not necessary to prolong this chapter. The record of service done in the Master’s Vineyard by Dr. Walker is one to be proud of. He has led more than 8,000 persons to Christ, has baptized and received into the membership of the church more than 3,500, and has not missed preaching the glorious Gospel of the blessed Christ but four Sundays in twenty-four years—twice on account of sickness, and twice on account of being at sea.