“Then leaving the text, he delivered some very pathetic and helpful parting words to his congregation. Among other things he urged them to be a united people: he plead with them to stand together and to uphold the hands of the young man who had been called to succeed him; he urged them to be industrious, progressive, self-respecting and self-reliant; with much eloquence he called upon them to be interested in all the affairs of their race—he appealed to them to be law-abiding and to make themselves a credit to the race and to the city of Augusta and not a disgrace.
“Parting words were also spoken to the officers of the church. Parting thanks were expressed to the church, to the sinners, to the citizens, white and colored, who had stood by him and made his success possible.
“In closing he gave a brief summary of his 14 years work in this city. During that time he has baptized at his church over 1,400 people, erected a handsome brick church, bought an ‘Old Folks’ Home,’ the church and home valued at over $20,000, and done many other things of which he did not speak. Many of the congregation were shedding tears at the close of the service. The parting hymn was ‘God be with you till we meet again.’”
THE TABERNACLE OLD FOLKS’ HOME, AUGUSTA, GA., FOUNDED BY DR. CHARLES T. WALKER.
The Mount Olivet Baptist Church was organized March 10, 1878. Rev. Daniel W. Wisher was its first pastor. The church had its place of worship in West 26th St., until 1885. In that year, by the help of generous white Baptist friends and the Baptist City Mission Society, they were enabled to purchase the splendid edifice in W. 53rd St., valued then at $130,000, in which they still worship. During the pastorate of Rev. D. W. Wisher, or from 1878 to 1899, the church paid on its debt, $39,000, of this $18,000 were given by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Mr. W. M. Isaacs, Mr. James Pyle, Mr. W. A. Caldwell, Mr. Samuel S. Constant, Mrs. Nathan Bishop, Mr. J. A. Bostick, Mr. J. F. Comey, Mr. B. F. Judson, Mr. R. Parker and others through the Baptist City Mission Society.
In 1897 during the heated political campaign in New York City, the Rev. D. W. Wisher saw fit to side with Tammany Hall in the city election, and, it is said, went so far as to preach a sermon in which he advocated Tammany’s claims and advised his members to vote the Tammany ticket. As a result of this new departure, great opposition to the Rev. Mr. Wisher sprang up in the church, and for nearly two years there was an unseemly church wrangle by which the church was finally divided into two factions, known as the “Wisherites” and the “Anti-Wisherites.”
It would be offensive to go into details. After a series of court trials the “Anti-Wisherites” triumphed. The Rev. Mr. Wisher was deposed in 1899, and his followers left the church.
It was then that the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church commenced to look for a new leader. The Rev. Chas. S. Morris, D. D., of Boston, Mass., was called to lead the church temporarily. After prayer and deliberation, the church looked to Georgia, its eye fell on the “Black Spurgeon,” and he was invited to become pastor of the church. As already stated, after conference with those in authority, Dr. Walker decided to accept the new charge. At first his friends throughout the nation felt that he was making a mistake, the church already divided, the people who had kept up with the “church war” (so far as they could keep up with it from the newspaper reports) felt that it would be impossible for any human being to reunite the membership. But Dr. Walker undertook the task, trusting in the Lord. He succeeded from the day he took charge, the first Sunday in October, 1899. From that day to this there has not been the slightest friction in the church, and the membership has increased from about 430 to more than 1,800 in the short space of two years and four months. Besides, it is said by those competent to give correct opinions in the matter that from the beginning he has preached to the largest regular congregations of any man in New York City, white or black.
The second Sunday in March, 1900, he baptized 184 converts at one time, which is the record for New York City, and perhaps for the country. It was such an unusual spectacle that all the New York newspapers gave large space to a report of the baptism and the Associated Press sent a long account of it throughout the length and breadth of the country. At the night service the pastor gave the hand of fellowship to 408 members.