Chapter IV: Part 4

I was sent to Bridgeton, N. J., and served this charge with cheerfulness and success. At the next Conference I was appointed by Bishop Campbell, pastor over the Millville Circuit. I made my home at Vineland, N. J. I looked after the church in Vineland. This being a very poor charge, my wife raised chickens and the children gardened, and we were able to live. I went back to my old trade at odd times, that of bricklayer. I did not fear to take off my coat, roll up my sleeves and go to work. I made $3.75 a day, paid off the debt on the church, preached to them on Sundays and added quite a number to the church. I went from here to New Brunswick, N. J., and was quite successful. I found the people thoroughly alive to the interests of the Kingdom of Heaven. This church had the honor of entertaining the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the A. M. E. connection at the end of my first year. This Conference showed a deeper interest in the cause of education than any other. The speech that stirred the Conference was made by editor L. J. Coppin. The reports at this Conference showed a total membership of 4352; Probationers, 1200; Accessions, 1036; Preachers, 71; Sunday School Scholars, 3694; Dollar Money, $1538.52; Pastors’ Support, $18,000. I remained at this charge for another year. I determined that I would do the best work of my life this year. In examining myself I found that I was as full of zeal as when I first entered the ministry and that the secret motive was to please the Lord by serving Him to the best of my ability. I was greatly aided in my work by the Rev. J. H. Morgan, the presiding elder. He had the tact and good sense to bring about a most pleasant relationship between pastor and people. The Rev. Mr. Pockman, of the Reformed Church, aided me very much in my work. I always sought the advice and help of my Methodist brethren, as well as the brethren of other denominations. William Stiles, Dorie Davis, Josiah Henson, Thomas March, Alice Thompson, Mrs. March, Samuel Dowdie, Harriet Henson, and others were my valuable co-workers during this year. We paid off the debt, furnished the parsonage, repaired and carpeted the church building, paid the mortgage of 15 years’ standing and were blessed with an addition to the membership of forty-two souls. I was therefore able to take a good report to the next meeting of the Conference. The reports at this Conference showed splendid progress being made by this branch of the Methodist Church. And it requires but a brief examination to prove that this is also true of every denomination represented among my people. I submit a few facts and figures that may be of great encouragement to my friends who have the patience to read this volume. There are 55,784 church organizations; 56,228 church buildings; 2,672,977 members of all denominations; church property is valued at $32,510,448; when I enlisted in the Civil War we had practically no schools, because before the war it was a misdemeanor to teach Colored children in school, now there are upwards of 2,000,000 Colored children attending well taught schools. This is a record of which we are very proud, but by no means satisfied with the achievement. We must press forward along all lines of work and enterprise. There is no time for idling, there is no place for drones, there is no reward for ignorance.

My next assignment was Cape May, N. J. During the pastorate of Rev. J. Height Bean, D.D., this church had bought a lot on which was a house used as a parsonage. We were greatly favored here by a Mr. Ogden, who aided us in procuring lumber. He was a most kind man to the poor and needy and in his kindness he knew no color line. The church building was not plastered or seated, so we decided to borrow money for this purpose. We needed $500 and owed a mortgage of $1200. We had not a cent. Therefore the Board decided on a rally. At this rally we had with us the Rev. Israel Derricks, of the Conference of New York. On that day we raised $168 in cash and $50 in subscriptions. On another Sabbath later we raised $250. Rev. Levi Coppin aided us very materially that day. So that at last we were able to pay in cash $468 of the $500 which we had expected to borrow. The School Board at Cape May applied to me for two teachers to fill vacancies in public school. I recommended Miss Gertie Pierce, of Trenton, N. J., and Miss Fannie Worthington, of Washington, D. C. They were accepted and given positions. Our church at this place supplied two of the school teachers, this year, for the teaching of the Colored children. The Misses Gertie Pierce and Fannie Worthington were the young ladies. Through the spiritual activity of the members we had a splendid revival during the year which resulted in forty members being added to the church, and in all 62 members. We installed a pipe organ also. I am glad to say that the members of this church were in dead earnest. So I had no trouble with mud-slingers and evil doers. How much time of a pastor is frequently taken up in fighting against the Devil who is incarnated in some of the members of the church!

Who appointed me Presiding Elder]

The next Conference met at Morristown, N. J. It was a great delight to return and meet my old friends and co-laborers. The reports of this Conference showed a steady growth and advancement along all lines.

I am often reminded of the courage of Bishop Allen, who, when he and his friends were declared a nuisance in the White church and while on their knees in prayers were taken hold of, and ordered to the back part of the church, went out and organized the A. M. E. Denomination. God went out with him as results have shown. And on account of this most un-Christian treatment which the founder of our church received, I have given my life with redoubled zeal to its establishment in this land. Our church has stood for an independence which has been an uplifting power in the Race. While in some cases this may have been carried too far by unwise persons, yet on the whole no one can gainsay that the A. M. E. Church has been a Divinely appointed agency in the life and labors of the Negro Race of the United States of America.

At this Conference I was made a Presiding Elder of the Trenton District by Bishop H. M. Turner, D.D. I moved my family to Philadelphia, Pa. With the aid of my friends, my family was pleasantly domiciled in Philadelphia and I started on my first rounds as a P. E. This was the most difficult part of my ministerial life. I found that there was no church in the N. J. Conference that wanted to see the presiding elder. They looked upon him as an unnecessary part of church machinery. They considered him as a dependent on their gifts and that every time that he came it meant “more money, more money.” My first quarterly meeting was to have been held at the church at Mt. Holly but I found that the pastor was not ready to hold the meeting, so it was postponed. I went to another place and the pastor told me that “things were very unfavorable there.” The result of my first round was that when I came back to Camden, I had to borrow ten dollars. I attended during this year the General Conference which met in the Mother Bethel Church, Philadelphia. I witnessed the ordination of Revs. B. F. Lee, M. B. Salter and James A. Handy to the Bishopric. The Conference created a great deal of enthusiasm for the connection. I returned to my work with the determination that I would do more for the Lord than I had ever done before. I closed my Conference year with reasonable success. I received as a salary $680 and $57 for traveling expenses. But I believe that I succeeded in convincing the people that the presiding elder may be of great assistance to the local church in doing its work in that the minister is often not able to cope with things as they exist.

My report at the Conference which met at Princeton, N. J., was about as follows: Trenton pastorate, new church built and 59 converts; new church built at Trenton Mission; new church at Jordantown; mortgage burned at Bordentown; church finished at Jamesburgh; the other work was the routine work of the presiding elder. I was again appointed presiding elder of the same district. During this year I had my daughter, Ada, with me, having come North and brought her husband, Albert A. B. Cooper. Bishop Turner gave my son-in-law an appointment at Bethel, South Camden, which pleased us all very much. My wife and children not being well pleased with their residence in Philadelphia, I moved them to our own house in Camden. During this year as presiding elder I took up a campaign against worldliness in the church. I found that our young people were drifting off to places of amusement, such as theatres, parks, etc. This work was carried on by the pastors in my district and I am glad to say that there was a great change for the better. I do not think that our young people are malicious or wilful in such matters, but that it is largely on account of the indifference on the part of their pastors. It is not enough to go into the pulpit and enter into a tirade of denunciation and scolding; this will do more harm than good; but reason must be employed. The world and the church are at enmity, they never have been and never can be friends until the world, as an individual, has been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. As long as this relation of hostility exists between the world and the church, members of the church cannot be friendly to both. They cannot be followers of the world and its ways and at the same time consistent members of the church.

At the Newark Conference, I was quite sick, but able to get through the work. My reports as presiding elder during this year were very satisfactory. I was given an appointment as a pastor at this Conference by Bishop B. T. Tanner, my station was South Woodbury.

Sick as I was, I was determined to attend the General Conference which met at Wilmington, N. C. The trip was not a very pleasant one for me although everything had been done to make it pleasant. We arrived at Richmond, Va., and stopped twenty minutes for a meal. I was carried into the dining room and seated with the brethren. I was impressed there with the fact that the White people are not going to allow anything that has the semblance of social equality. As soon as we were seated a folding screen was placed about our little company so as to cut us off from the White people in the dining room. This was segregation in earnest.

I enjoyed the meeting of the General Conference very much. I was under the care of a physician and able to attend each day’s session of the long meeting. I was delighted to be with Mr. Joseph Sampson, my boyhood friend and associate. He was Registrar of Deeds. I was rejoiced when I learned from him of the mental improvement he had made. There were over six hundred ministers and lay-delegates in attendance. They represented the strong element of the church. There were theologians and scholars, men skilled in the tactics of Christian warfare. I rejoiced that God has such gatherings as this to work and plan for the general uplifting of my people. As long as there are men who have determined that right shall prevail and that the Gospel shall leaven the entire human race, there is no doubt of the final issue. For we know what God’s will is and that this will must be carried out by His loyal children.

After my return home I was sick for about two weeks but was able to take up the work at South Woodbury. The first thing we did as pastor and people was to plan for a new church building, the old one being in a dilapidated condition. It took quite a while to get the people in the notion of building, but we adopted our plans and began to work. I found a great many splendid workers in this church, without whom I would have labored in vain. I was at this place for three years and when I left, the members were worshipping in a fine brick church. I had succeeded in paying off a part of the debt, and had received into the membership of the church about thirty-five members.

At the next meeting of the Conference I was sent to the station of Burlington, N. J. I spent a most pleasant and profitable year with these dear people. They did all in their power to make my life a pleasure to myself and family. I left this work with the best wishes of the members of the church. I left with the conviction too that they were a noble band of the Lord’s workers and that the work would be in the hands of men and women who would not let it lag for the want of untiring, energetic workers.

In 1899 I was assigned by Bishop A. Grant to Hossanah A. M. E. Church, East Camden, N. J. I labored here until 1901, having reorganized the Sunday School and paid something on the church debt and added many members to the membership of the church.

Beverly was my next charge. Here I built a new church. I found that many of the White people of this community were in sympathy with our work. They contributed of their money and did what they could spiritually for the upbuilding of our work. A lady from Edgewater Park gave me six hundred dollars for the building of the church and a nice little sum for the pastor. She was Mrs. Taylor. The Presbyterian minister at this place helped me a great deal in my work. I can surely say that the presence of the Lord was with us and like David, exclaim, “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none in all the earth, my soul would desire, beside Thee.”

Sad, sad, are the recollections of the years from 1899 to 1904. I was taxed to my utmost for the enlargement of the Kingdom of Grace in my attempts to keep the young men and women from the sharks or pirates, who would have dragged them down to hell. Their great sin was that of Sabbath breaking. This led them to licentious living and almost every other crime of immorality. At the same time the hand of affliction was laid heavily upon me. And had it not been for the grace of God I should have sunken beneath the waves of affliction.

My daughter, Ada Augusta Newton Cooper, the wife of Rev. A. B. Cooper, died September 18th, 1899. She was thirty-eight years old. She was a devoted, loving daughter and faithful wife. She passed away at Orange, N. J., where she was engaged in her Christian activities. She was a consecrated worker, a proficient teacher, authoress, and a most valuable assistant to me for many years. She knew as well as I that my education was sadly deficient, that I had come out of the briars of slavery and all its curses, and in a very practical manner, she was my education. For I had spared no means to have her thoroughly educated. And always afterward she was conscious of the advantages that I had given her and was constantly trying to pay off this great debt of gratitude. But the time came when the Lord called her to a higher service. He had need of her in another part of His Kingdom and called her away. It is indeed one of the heavy crosses that we are called upon to bear, when the Lord calls away from us the children whom He has given us. Only those parents who have passed through these said afflictions know anything of the pains and suffering. I cried out, “Oh, Lord. I sink into the deep mire where no solid foundation is found. I have come into the deep waters where the floods overflow me. Save me, O, God, for the waters are overflowing my soul.”

On December 3, 1902, my devoted and loving son passed away. He had lived a consecrated Christian life. He died at the age of twenty-one years. He had taken a thorough course of training at Lincoln University, Pa., and had entered the ministry of the A. M. E. Denomination. He united with the Conference at Atlantic City and had been assigned to the charge at Sea Bright, N. J., by Bishop A. Grant. He was a loving son, fine scholar, strong preacher, and was beginning life with all the prospects of a great usefulness. But the frost of death rested on him and he went to sleep from the labors of the earth. But we are sure that he awakened in that bright and happy land where there is no death and that now he is engaged in a much larger and better service than any that he could have rendered here below. I shall see him again. We will soon meet to part no more. We will soon talk together again and thank God, with the assurance, that father and son will never be parted.

On February 8, 1904, my dear mother was called to the other home. This was the woman who had done more for me than all on the earth besides. She died at the age of ninety-two years. This, added to my other afflictions and to the weight of my labors, seemed more than I could stand. I had never realized what it was to be without a mother. Although at the age of sixty I was still a son. I had never forgotten that the law of my life was that of obedience. That it was my duty to honor my father and my mother. So that my years had nothing to do with the intensity of my filial love and devotion. I shall never forget her looks when dying, with her eyes fixed on me, she said, “Do the work of the ministry as becomes a minister of the Lord Jesus. See to it, that no disgrace is brought on the cause which you represent by your unworthiness.” To my brother Henry she said, “My work is done. Neither of you can do me any good. Be earnest and true to your trust, and meet me in the morning where parting is no more.” Then she sang with us:

“Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak but Thou art mighty,
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven!
Feed me till I want no more.”

“When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside.
Death of death and Hell’s destruction,--
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of Praises,
I will give Thee evermore.”

Then she left us. And from that day until the day when I promised to meet her, I will be lonely without her.

On September 29, 1905, my youngest and last daughter fell asleep in the arms of Jesus. On the morning she left us I came to her bedside. Mrs. Jennie Wise Johnston, wife of the editor, Dr. H. T. Johnson, was sitting by her bedside holding her hand. She was rubbing her hands as if she could rub the warmth of life into them. The poor child cried out, “Papa, Oh, papa!” These were her last words, she could say no more. Oh those words, how they have rung in my ears and how the echoes have come to me out of eternity, “Papa, Oh, papa!” Her mother had stepped into another room to weep. I could not stand to see her die. The cares and toils and sacrifices which I had made for her, the love that had bound her to me, the joys which she had brought into my life,--and now that Grim Death should be choking her--was more than I could bear. I bowed my head and prayed and took the train for my appointment in Jersey City. When I arrived I was handed a telegram announcing that she had left us. I took the next train and came home. This daughter at the early age of twelve years, like my other children, had become a devoted Christian. Her early piety was marked and deep. She lived until she was twenty-seven years of age. She had been a teacher in the public school, Mt. Vernon St., Camden, for seven years, a skilled musician and a competent Sunday School worker.

In passing through all these afflictions, I learned that it was a great deal easier for one to say what he would do under such circumstances than it was to do what one ought to do. I had often said to many under the hand of affliction:

“Cast thy burden on the Lord, for He careth for you.”

I had never learned what that little word, “cast” meant. I found that it was no easy thing to cast my burden on the Lord. It was no easy thing to really say, “Thy will be done, not mine.” I would take these burdens to the Lord, but when I came away I would bring them with me. Ah! There is the point, I would bring them away with me! This I should not have done, but thank God, I am becoming able to leave my burdens with Him. I am too old to carry them now. And my dear reader, if you in early life can learn to leave your burdens with the Lord, you will have won the victory of victories. I know that these dear ones cannot come to me but I can go to them and it will not be long until I go.

At Jersey City I entered upon my work with a fine body of workers associated with me. Bros. A. S. Taper, W. H. Dougherty, J. Stokes, Edward Holmes; sisters, Hannah Stokes, Mamie Taper, Hattie Dougherty, Louisa Holmes, Anna Burk, Annie Dowers, and a host of other workers were standing around me in this great field. They did all that they could to make African Methodism a strong fort of the Lord Jesus Christ and were bent on having a building that would be an honor to the denomination.

A Mr. Beach became very much interested in the work, he was our trusted treasurer and gave of his own money and influenced others to help us. I made my home with Mr. John Smith and his wife. They did a great deal to help the work along. While here we paid $500 on the church debt, and left the lumber and brick for a new church on the lot which belonged to the church and added over one hundred members to the church.

On April 12, 1905, I met the thirty-third session of the New Jersey Conference at the St. James A. M. E. Church, Atlantic City, N. J. Rev. B. W. Arnett, D.D., LL.D., was the presiding bishop.

The report of the presiding elders was indeed very encouraging, showing that great revivals had been in the districts of the several presiding elders, and that the church in all its departments of labor and enterprise had made encouraging advancement. This Conference as a great spiritual revival. There was great rejoicing on every hand. The secretaries brought in fine reports of their departments of work. We were made to feel that the church was getting back on the solid ground of Methodism, the Old Time Religion which our fathers enjoyed. I sometimes think that in our church work we have so much machinery and so many schemes and plans, and are so bent on the money or material side of the church and its life, that we have lost our spiritual power. We need a great change in this respect. We must get back to the thought that God is our all in all and that they labor in vain who would build the house unless the Lord Himself build it.

During this meeting of the Conference some valuable statistics were submitted on the Race which I submit for careful study. Of course these will soon be supplanted by the U. S. Census Report, but many will not have access to this report, so I give them here: The Negro population of the U. S. in 1900 was 9,204,531; seventy per cent. work on 746,000 farms; 21,000 carpenters; 20,000 barbers, and one-fourth as many doctors; 10,000 ordained preachers; 15,000 masons; 12,000 dress makers; 10,000 engineers; 5,000 shoemakers; 1,000 lawyers; 4,000 musicians; 2,000 actors; since 1890 the illiteracy of the race has been reduced from 57 per cent. to 44.5 per cent. These reports mentioned Mr. Roosevelt as standing shoulder to shoulder with the immortal Lincoln as the friend of the Race.

These facts and figures are a great inspiration to my people and I hope that they will be inspired to take fresh courage and go ahead in the great work and battle of life. My only purpose in putting into print the record of my own life is to encourage the young men and women to do something more to help themselves.

The doors of great schools are now open to the young men of the Race and if they do not improve their opportunities, it is their own fault and their own loss. The time has come when the people should not tolerate ignorance and its shames in any of the professions. From a personal acquaintance, I can most heartily recommend three great men who will do all in their power for the young Colored men of this country--Rev. Isaac N. Rendall, D.D., of Lincoln University, Rev. Dr. Scarbourough, of Wilberforce University, Ohio, and Rev. Samuel G. Miller. D.D., of the Bible College, of Philadelphia, Pa. These men have made their reputation and are among the great instructors of the Race and they stand in readiness to do what they can for the young people of my Race. The three men mentioned stand for the higher education of the people. They believe that what is good for the White man is equally good for the Black man. On the other hand, if young men and women are seeking to be educated along practical lines, I recommend them to the great institution at Tuskegee, Ala., Dr. Booker T. Washington’s school. With these great men and the advantages which have been supplied by them, no young person can have an excuse for not rising to a high degree of scholarship and efficiency in any line of work.

At the Conference at Long Branch I was appointed at Bordentown, N. J. I had a pleasant reception here. Rev. J. H. Morgan was the retiring pastor. He called on me and gave me some valuable advice as to the work. I found that the church was divided by factions, but under God’s blessing these were united and all worked together in perfect harmony. We painted and paid for the parsonage and considerable was paid on the church debt. Dr. Roundtree, the Presiding Elder of this district, was of great assistance to me in my work.

Prof. James Gregory, principal of the Industrial School at this place, an institution supported by the State of New Jersey, was also a very valuable aid in the work of the church. He and his students were always present at the Sunday services and helped very materially in all the work of the church.

Former Secretary of the New Jersey Annual Conference]

When I went from Jersey City to this place. I was in poor health and this made the work much more difficult. At last I was taken to the hospital and was there three months. It was a fight between the forces of life and the forces of death, but it was God’s will that I should stay a while longer on the earth to do His work, so I won out in the fight with death. But I am glad to recount this experience; after a close examination of myself, I found that I was ready to die, that I was really relying on the Lord Jesus Christ for my salvation and that His will was indeed my will. This was a great consolation. In health we are sometimes not able to diagnose our spiritual condition, but in extreme sickness, when we are brought near to the valley of the shadow of death, we are able to make note of our real spiritual state or condition and we are able to do so, with the knowledge that we may soon feel the pangs of death.

During my stay in the hospital my friends were exceedingly good to me and my church at Bordentown continued my salary. Surely God has blessed me with tried and true friends.

The best friend I had in all this affliction was my dear wife, Lulu. She was with me constantly. She seemed to suffer with me all my suffering. How often I have seen in her face the sympathy and love that would have robbed me of every pain, but she could not. I cried out within myself, “Glory and honor to such a wife!” The operation was a successful one in the sense that in this case the patient did not die. In three months to the day from the time that I left my pulpit I was again in the pulpit ready to do valiant service for God and my people.

The next Conference met at Orange, N. J., April 25th, 1907. Bishop Wesley J. Gaines, presided. I was sent to the charge at Haddonfield, N. J. I was at this church two years. A good work was done. From this church I was stationed at the church at Mt. Holly, N. J. (The Mt. Moriah A. M. E. Church). We met a most pleasant and active band of workers at this place and did a good work for the Lord.

At the Conference which met at Orange I had the pleasure of hearing the Rev. Samuel G. Miller, D.D., President of the Bible Educational Association, speak on the necessity of an educated ministry. I was deeply impressed with his remarks and when he made it known that he was at the head of an institution in Philadelphia where ministers regardless of their intellectual condition would be received and aided along educational lines, I determined that I would visit the school and see what they were doing.

My Instructor in Hebrew, New Testament Greek, Theology, etc., Bible College, Philadelphia, Pa.]

Not long afterward I went to the school and found Dr. Miller at his post. I told him that I was about seventy years old, that I did not feel that it was worth while for me to undertake any course of study and that if I did I feared that I could not keep pace with the class. He replied to me that age had nothing to do with a man’s ability to study if he would apply himself--that the mind never grew old, that it was immortal, and that the only thing for me to do was to enter the school and get down to hard work. I was both amused and astonished at his advice. But I entered the school and took up those difficult studies. New Testament Greek, Hebrew, Psychology, and put in several hours a day on them. I was astonished at my success. I found that my memory came back to me and that I was really able to perform feats of memory. I found that it became easier for me to acquire knowledge as I went along. I remained in the college three years, and am now able to read the Bible in its original tongues and have taken the Theological course. And now in my seventy-third year, I have done what I would loved to have done fifty years ago. I have educated myself. How strange the Providence of God! The Southern people enslaved my people and caused me a great deal of my suffering, but at the end or almost at the end of my earthly journey, I met this godly Southern man, Dr. Miller, who has made a new man out of me along educational lines. Thank God, He has His own children among the Southern people as well as in the North. And I believe that when the Southern people realize what the Negro is to them as well as what he has been, that they will do wonders for the Race. At this very writing, the white people of the State of South Carolina are vying with the White people of North Carolina, as to which state has the best and most progressive class of Colored people. I thank God that I have gotten out of the briars.

I am greatly surprised that I have been able to fill the posts of duty and honor which have been assigned me in my life. I have done what I could and the best I could. On the battle field, as chaplain in the state legislature, as pastor, as presiding elder, as a high official in Fraternal Orders, as an officer in the Civil War, as son, husband, father and friend. I have tried to be faithful, and I can truly repeat the words of dying King Edward, “I tried to do my duty.”

The Church; What It Is and What It Should Be.

I am aware of the fact that in writing my views of the Church as it is and as it should be, that I may and doubtlessly will, run counter to the views of some of my brethren, but I do not find that this is a valid reason for my not expressing my views on such an important subject. I have served the Church quite a number of years, over forty years, having given her the best part of my life, and now that I am about to conclude my labors for her, I feel that it is my duty to say those things which in my judgment will be for her highest welfare and the glory of her Head, Jesus Christ.

I. The Church as it is. The study of present church life is a most intricate one. We find that the Church is hopelessly divided, that is, it seems hopelessly divided. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Let it be understood that I am not talking or writing about any of these divisions, or denominations. I am speaking of that body of believers of every denomination or sect, who belong to our Christ. They may be Protestants or Roman Catholics; they may be Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians or Quakers. No one denomination can lay any claim to a monopoly of religion or of Christianity, and therefore cannot be considered alone.

1. The Church today is shorn of much of its power by so many divisions. There would be no objection to these myriad divisions if it were not for the fact that these divisions are more or less arrayed against one another. If these divisions were articulated and harmonious like the divisions of a great army, it would be a good thing, but this is not so; we are the Church Militant in a bad sense as well as in a good sense, and alas the bad too often predominates.

We have frequently found one denomination fighting another denomination on doctrinal grounds; we have found them proselyting; we have found them trying to occupy the same territory, and thereby wasting their strength; we have seen them grow into bigotry and sectarianism and live the life of strife. The evils which have followed such a condition have been an impoverished and struggling, yes, dying church; a poorly paid and inefficient ministry; a life largely robbed of its spirituality; an organization which has become the laughing stock of the world.

We have found individual congregations following the example of their denominations. All this is to be greatly deplored, for it is contrary to the teachings and spirit of Jesus Christ.

2. The Church today has become poisoned with politics. Political tricks and schemes, political life and its power, have gotten into the church and have wrought havoc. We cannot reconcile this manner of directing the life and work of the Church with the over ruling of the Holy Spirit. Some of the great meetings of our churches, in their annual business sessions, have become real worldly political gatherings having met in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have turned the House of God into a den of politicians. Men high up in the authority and influence of the Church, have subverted this rank and power to their own selfish purposes. They have sought to make the Church a stepping stone to something better for themselves instead of making themselves a stepping stone for the betterment of the Zion of God. They have forgotten that they came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; not to be served with easy and lucrative positions, but to serve in any sphere however humble. Money has been spent in vast sums for the procuring of high positions; life has been wasted in a selfish attempt to save it; the Church has become corrupted and made sinful, thereby driving the Holy Spirit away from its work and presence. The Church today is more or less disgraced by such political methods. It stands depleted of much of its power. It is following men instead of God, instead of the Holy Spirit. The Church cannot serve two masters.

3. The Church today is largely under the power of the god of Mammon. It has forgotten the poor which it always has with it. It has gone off after the well-to-do and rich classes. It has greater respect for the man that comes into its doors dressed in goodly apparel than for the poor man in his rags.

In our cities the Church is following the rich uptown. Great and grand buildings are standing idle, and posted on their front is the sign, “For Sale.” Whereas the multitudes are living and surging all about these empty houses of God.

The great burden of the Church today is not getting in souls, but getting in dollars. Magnificent buildings are erected costing hundreds, yes millions of dollars. The members are compelled to pay for the costly structures. We forget that the groves were God’s first temples. We forget that He was pleased to live in a tent with His people. The Church has gone money-mad. The struggle of the pastor is to get his salary after the great and increasing expenses of the Church have been met. If he fails to accomplish this herculean task, he must go. By this course the masses of the people are driven away from the Church. Only fifty per cent of the people of the United States attend the Church, and only thirty per cent are members of the Church, and one of the reasons, if not the greatest, is that they cannot afford to be members of the Church. The call on the Sabbath Day is money, money, money. People sicken at the cry, and turn away in utter disgust.

4. There is a growing formality in the Church. This formality is seen in the lives as well as the worship of the members of the Church. Alas, too many love the form of religion, but they deny the power of it. Revivals are gotten up, whereas they always come down. We have never been able to get up a rain, because it is nature that brings it down. We can never get up a revival because the Holy Spirit brings it down, so that there has crept into the Church, times, and seasons and plans of man’s making for revival purposes, simply because the time has come for a revival and for no other purpose, the revival is had. What good can come out of such attempts? Revivals come through the operation of great spiritual laws, and these laws must be obeyed by God’s people, or there can be no revival.

The modern evangelist has done much to bring about a stereotyped condition of the Church. He has his set methods of rousing the people; he arranges for a revival in a certain church because it suits his convenience, not looking to the special need of the church for such a service. He is often inclined to depreciate the work of the pastor by his own methods and mannerism; he sets in to do a certain amount of work; so many souls must be converted; so much money must be raised, and he is on hand to have this work done, and in this manner, the whole work of revivals has been almost entirely discounted. The work of the modern evangelist is unscriptural in that he is not doing it in the right place. The pastorate is not the place for the evangelist. He should go to those waste places where there is no pastor. He belongs on the frontier, and the pastor who is wise will not permit an evangelist to come into his church, and do the work which he himself ought to do, or some other pastor.

The Church must get away from these man-made methods and plans; these man-set times and occasions, and must look to the Holy Spirit for direction in all these matters.

I wish it understood that I am pointing out some of the great weaknesses of the Church to-day. I have not forgotten that the Church in every age has had its struggles; I have not forgotten that the Church is founded on the Rock, Jesus Christ, and the walls of hell cannot prevail against her. I have not forgotten that it is through the Church that this lost world will be redeemed. I have not forgotten that the Church is the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the bride of Christ.

In considering what the Church should be we have but to go back to the Bible in order to determine this question.

1. The Church should be a body of believers in Christ. I mean by believers, men and women who are practicing the teachings of Christ. If the life is not the result of the teachings of Christ there is no faith behind it. If a man says that he believes in Christ, and is not living the teachings of the Master, he is not a believer. That there are many in the Church who are not believers is therefore true, because there are many who are not practicing the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The Church should return to its great mission of preaching the Gospel. Almost everything else but the Gospel is preached. Science, literature, biography, philosophy, mortality, etc., are the burden of the pulpit today. As a consequence of this men and women are starving to death for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The doctrines of great fundamental principles of Christianity should be preached. If a man is not rooted and grounded in the principles of his faith, how can he be strong, how can he be useful?

A cry has gone out for a new religion. We have too much now of the new religion. It is a failure; we must get more of the old religion, or give up the Gospelship to those who will be faithful to their trust. God will make the change Himself if we do not make it. He took the light away from the Jews because they were not faithful to their charge, and He will take it away from us for the same reason. What the world today needs is the Bible, and in order that it may receive the Bible it must be preached in the pulpit and in the pew. The pulpit is very weak today in this respect, and hence the pew is weak. We have a weak religion, and unless we return to God’s way, it will grow weaker still. This requires a thorough Bible training on the part of the preacher. The minister should know his Bible, and then he should preach it. It demands great faith in the Word of God, and great courage to proclaim its saving truth. A preacher is sent out into the world to tell it of sin, Satan, self and hell. He is commissioned to proclaim salvation from these things, and to set before the people an upright, godly life. He is authorized to command that men everywhere shall repent of their sins and turn to God. He must know the truth that he may preach it. He must know the plan of salvation. He must be one with God in knowledge and work. The pulpit must control the pew, and not the pew the pulpit.

3. The Church must look after the poor. This is not being done today. In the Church during the days of the Hebrew nation there were no poor. During the Church in the early days of Christianity, the poor were well cared for. There were not any that lacked. The Church should be going out after the poor instead of running away from them. Christ was constantly serving the poor. He was with them all the time. He shared their sufferings and bore their burdens. The Church to be true to Him and true to itself must do the same thing. Our very judgment test will be found in the manner in which we treat the poor, which are the representatives of Christ on the earth. “I was hungry and ye gave me no meat.” Read the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew and see what this test is. Suppose that the Church today would be judged by this test, where would it stand?

These are some of my views which I gladly put into this book hoping and praying that they will become an inspiration to many to get back to the Bible; back to the old time religion of our fathers; back to the cross of Jesus Christ. They are written in the greatest kindness but with the greatest earnestness. They are written in no fault finding spirit, but with the spirit of love and sympathy, for I love the Church more than my own life.

The Negro Problem

It might be profitable to my readers, after having sketched my life in the army, to give some of my views pertaining to my race, relative to the Civil War and the time since then.

Much is being said and written on the so-called Negro Problem. Why it has taken this name, I have never been able to decide. For when we examine into its intricacies, we find that it is the White Man’s problem also. And certainly it is true, that if this problem is ever settled in this country on a proper basis, it will be settled when the White and the Colored people come together on some practical basis of agreement. There are more than ten millions of Colored people in this country and they are here to stay. They have paid at least a part of the debt which they owe to the nation, on the battlefield. They have never shirked their duty in this respect and they never will. Soldiers during both the Civil and the Spanish-American wars, demonstrated the fact that they are patriotic to the core and that on the battlefield they are not afraid of the belching cannon. They have done their duty in this regard. And when we look into the history of the Colored people since the Civil War we are satisfied that the progress which has been made, is a most satisfactory one. It is acknowledged by some of the leading White men of the nation, that the progress of the Negro Race since the Rebellion has been unparalleled in history.

But that there is much to be done by my own people yet, is evident. We have just begun the work of our race. A race that is not over fifty years old in the arts of civilization, is but an infant in swaddling clothes. We are to wait until he is able to walk and especially to work. The Negro Race in this country has a most trying ordeal before it. It is one of the most difficult of undertakings, to work out our destiny in a land of such high civilization as that of this country. While on the one hand it would seem an easier task in such a civilization, because of the advantages which we have thrown about us; on the other hand, there are probably more disadvantages. And why? For the simple reason that the Colored man comes out of the past without the centuries of training which the White man has. He comes out of the past without any history. He comes out of the past in a crude condition, untrained and with the curse of slavery still resting on him. It will take time for him to prepare himself to compete with the White man and compete he must! The Colored people must wake up to the fact that they have to pay for everything that they get in this country. The mystic “mule and forty acres,” promised by Uncle Sam, has never been forthcoming. And this is but an indication of any other mystic gifts that we might dream of in days to come. It will be by the dint of hard labor, that the Colored man will rise and make his mark. There are many features of this situation which we will be compelled to look into and many conditions which we must face, as men.

I have often asked myself the question, why is it that on our railroads and street car tracks, there is such a lack of our working men? We see thousands upon thousands of white men, chiefly foreigners. There was a time when the larger portion of railroad laborers was Colored men. There are two or three reasons for this which are obvious. One is that the foreigner will work for a cheaper wage and will live on less than the Colored man. He is willing to undergo certain hardships and privations that the Colored man does not undergo. I am not willing to concede that he is a better workman than the Colored man, for the Colored man has proven his ability as a laborer along every line of work. Another reason is that the White man may be more reliable. He can be depended on with more certainty. And at this point let me say that if the Colored race is ever to take its place in the mart of trade, it must become more reliable.

Promises must be kept. When a man agrees to work for six days in the week, for a certain number of weeks, he must stay his time out and do his work. It is not a question of his disliking the work or the employer, but the question of his fidelity to his trust. For this reason, that the Colored man is not faithful to his promises, he has been discounted in the field of manual labor. The more important the job of the employer, the more important the fidelity of the employee. No employer wishes to undertake an extensive and costly piece of work and be dependent on a class of labor that may fail him at the place where he needs steady, persistent work. So he will, in making his choice select that class of labor that will stick to him through thick and thin. Fidelity to a trust is one of the essentials of man and womanhood that must be cultivated among my people. If I am correctly informed, I understand that in our large cities, our girls are not holding their own as house servants. They are being set aside for the White girls and these for the most part are foreigners also. Here is a large and remunerative field that will be ultimately closed to our girls if they do not take hold of the situation and meet all competition. Surely it is due us, if we make good, to receive the labor that is being given out on every hand. We were here before the foreigner and are the native laborers of the country. And the country owes it to us to give our race the labor of the field, of the trades and of the homes, if we merit it. I greatly fear, however, that we do not merit it. We need more sterling worth among us.