Life of Charles T. Walker, D.D. / ("The Black Spurgeon") Pastor Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, New York City

by Silas Xavier Floyd

“The Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, African, which was but a few months ago torn by the dissensions between the Rev. Daniel W. Wisher, who was then its pastor, and the majority of his congregation, demonstrated yesterday that its troubles have not affected the vigor of the church, but have rather awakened it to new strength. Since the new pastor, the Rev. Dr. Charles T. Walker, was installed there have been revival meetings seven nights a week, and new converts have been made to the number of 110. Of these, the seventy-six who seemed to the pastor and deacons most worthy were baptized at the morning service yesterday.

“The news of so great a baptism had spread about among other Baptist congregations among the colored people of the city, and had been almost enviously commented upon in Methodist circles. At half past ten o’clock yesterday morning half an hour before the service was to begin, every seat was filled and the tact of the ushers had to be exercised to the utmost to dispose properly of the streams of people that came pouring down to the big gray church from the east and west under the shadow of the elevated railroad tracks. At a quarter before 10 o’clock the outside doors of the church were locked and after that only those who were related to the candidates to be baptized were admitted. The candidates themselves had taken the precaution to come very early. For an hour after the church doors were closed a constantly increasing crowd of the disappointed stood on the steps and on the sidewalk and bewailed their lack of foresight in not coming earlier.

“The volume of sound with which the great congregation rolled out the full strains of the opening hymn, ‘Blow, ye, the trumpet blow,’ was enough to have raised a less emotional congregation to a high state of religious exaltation. It was some time after the ‘Amen’ that closed the song before the undertone of joyful exultation quite subsided. The Rev. Dr. Walker preached on ‘Christ, the Living Rock.’ His text was: ‘And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.’

“Fifty women were immersed in just twenty-five minutes. It took twenty-six minutes to baptize the twenty-six men. After the closing hymn, ‘Rock of Ages,’ had been sung in a mighty chorus that made the great church seem to sway with the harmony, the Rev. Dr. Walker, with his wet garments still upon him, dismissed the congregation with a prayer. Few left the church until they had congratulated the newly-baptized members most heartily.”

From the New York World, March 12, 1900:

“What is believed to be the largest number of persons ever baptized at one time within a building were submerged yesterday morning at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, on Fifty-third Street near Seventh Avenue, by the Rev. C. T. Walker, who is known among those of his race as the ‘Black John the Baptist.’

“Five weeks ago a revival was begun. As a result the membership of the church has increased 483. Two hundred and thirty-four of the new members had never been baptized. Yesterday it was arranged that 184 of them should be submerged.

“Long before 11 o’clock, the hour set for the opening of the services, the big church was packed to its utmost capacity, and those who could not get inside the doors were lined along Fifty-third Street. At 10:30 o’clock the street was completely blocked, and a squad of policemen from the West Forty-seventh Street Station had to be called to clear the way.

“The pool, which is of marble, is in the rear of the rostrum, with steps leading to it from either side. The water was between three and four feet deep. The Rev. Mr. Walker and Deacon G. H. Webb stood in the centre of it. Three men stood on the steps on each side to assist the candidates.

“The first person to be led up was Octavia Adams, who had been cook in the family of Robert Ingersoll for ten years. While on the steps of the pool she said that as long as she had known Col. Ingersoll she had been a firm believer in all of his doctrines, but she now realized the power and the goodness of God. She was full of enthusiasm, and after she had been taken out and dressed, she went back to the church and encouraged those who were to follow her.