CHAPTER XVIII.
The Centennial Celebration of the Church--The Sermons, Papers, &c.
AFTER A CENTURY.
One hundred years have passed since the organization of the first negro Baptist church in Georgia, and, so far as history relates, the first in the United States.
In October, 1884, in the city of Milledgeville, Rev. E. K. Love called the attention of the Executive Board of the Missionary Baptist State Convention to the fact that we were nearing our centennial, and offered a set of resolutions looking forward to the celebration of the happy event. (He was then missionary of the State of Georgia, and not pastor of the First African Baptist Church.) This fact, together with the resolutions, were reported to the Missionary Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia in its session at Cartersville, Ga., May, 1885. This was heartily endorsed, and a State Centennial Committee appointed, consisting of Revs. W. J. White, J. C. Bryan, E. K. Love, G. H. Dwelle, C. T. Walker, C. H. Lyons, E. R. Carter, T. M. Robinson, and Deacon J. H. Brown. At this session of the convention the name of Rev. S. A. McNeal was added to the Centennial Committee. These were appointed to raise means and to plan generally for the celebration. Rev. W. J. White was elected chairman; Rev. C. H. Lyons, treasurer, and Deacon J. H. Brown, secretary.
The committee employed Rev. J. C. Bryan as traveling financial agent. A better selection could not have been made. It was also determined to get out a book containing the history of the negro Baptists for the past one hundred years, of which Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., was appointed editor-in-chief; Rev. W. J. White compiler, and Rev. E. R. Carter and Deacon J. H. Brown appointed to gather historical data. This committee was composed of the ablest men of our denomination in Georgia, and notwithstanding they worked most assiduously they failed to get out the book. This was no fault of theirs. The undertaking was quite a great one and attended with much expense. It is still the determined resolution of the committee to get out the book, but this will require hard work, much money, time and patience.
At the session of the convention in Brunswick, May, 1887, the committee was enlarged by the addition of the chairman from each associational centennial committee. This was an increase of about fifty members. The congratulations of the denomination are due to this committee for the able, faithful and arduous labors which brought a pleasing success to our centennial celebration. The interest these brethren manifested in the work was simply wonderful. They have inscribed their names upon the pages of history as legibly as the stars upon the brow of the evening. Their names shall be enrolled upon the sacred scroll of history among those few immortal names which were born never to die. When they shall stand upon the interlacing margin of eternity and bear the shouts of their welcome borne to them by angelic harpers from the other golden shores, they may rejoice in the consoling fact that their brethren upon this terrestrial globe are not less silent in their praise while they sing in human tongue in concert with the angels, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence forth; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."
At the session of the convention in Brunswick, May, 1887, the following special programme committee was appointed: Brethren A. Harris, W. J. White, E. K. Love, J. M. Simms, J. H. Brown, D. Waters, J. C. Bryan, U. L. Houston, C. T. Walker, E. R. Carter, S. A. McNeal. This Committee, led by Rev. Alexander Harris, chairman, did its work in an able manner, and reflects great credit on the denomination. They prepared the following programme:
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE NEGRO BAPTISTS OF GEORGIA, TO BE HELD IN SAVANNAH, GA., COMMENCING WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, AND CLOSING MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1888.
Committee--Rev. Alexander Harris, Chairman, Savannah, Ga.; Rev. U. L. Houston, Savannah, Ga.; Rev. J. M. Simms, Savannah, Ga.; Rev. David Waters, Savannah, Ga.;, Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., Savannah, Ga.; Rev. C. T. Walker, Augusta, Ga.; Rev. E. R. Carter, Atlanta, Ga.; Rev. J. C. Bryan, Americus, Ga.; Deacon J. H. Brown, Secretary.
PROGRAMME.
Wednesday, June 6th--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. Henry Way, Hawkinsville, Ga.
I.--10 A. M.--Welcome Address, by Rev. E. K. Love, Savannah, Ga.
II.--11 A. M.--Opening Sermon, by Rev. C. T. Walker, Augusta, Ga.
III.--12 M.--History of the Church, by C. A. Clark, Brunswick, Ga.
IV.--3 P. M.--Baptist Doctrine, Rev. C. H. Lyons, Atlanta, Ga.; Rev. S. A. McNeal, Augusta, Ga., and Rev. J. M. Pendleton, D. D., Pa.
V.--4:30 P. M.--New Testament Policy, Rev. E. M. Brawley, D. D., Greenville, S. C.; Rev. W. E. Holmes, A. M., Atlanta, Ga.; Rev. A. F. Owens, Mobile, Ala.
Night Session, 8 o'clock--VI.--Peculiarities of Baptists that distinguish them from all other people, Rev. W. J. Simmons, D. D., Rev. C. H. Parish, A. B., Louisville, Ky., and Rev. C. S. Wilkins, West Point, Ga.
Thursday, June 7th--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. E. W. Walker, Dawson, Ga.
VII.--10 A. M.--Baptist Church History, by Revs. W. J. White, G. H. Dwelle, Augusta, Ga., and Rev. W. H. Tillman, Atlanta.
VIII.--11:30 A. M.--Reminiscences of the Baptist Fathers and the Church during one hundred years, Revs. Levi Thornton, Greensboro, Ga.; J. M. Simms, Savannah, Ga., and Alexander Harris, Savannah, Ga.
IX.--3 P. M.--The Wants of the Colored Ministry, Rev. W. H. McIntosh, D. D., Macon, Ga.; Rev. Alexander Ellis, Savannah, Ga., and Rev. W. G. Johnson, Augusta, Ga.
X.--4:30 P. M.--The Relation of the White and Colored Baptists in the Past, Now, and as it should be in the Future, Rev. T. J. Hornsby, Augusta; Rev. G. S. Johnson, Thomson, Ga., and Rev. J. B. Hawthorne, D. D., Atlanta, Ga.
Night Session, 8 o'clock--Sermon by Rev. E. R. Carter, Atlanta, Ga.
9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. C. A. Johnson, Americus, Ga.
XI.--10 A. M.--The Home Mission Society and its Work for the Colored People, Dr. A. E. Williams, Crawfordville, Ga.; Prof. S. Y. Pope, Waynesboro, Ga.; Rev. G. A. Goodwin, Gainesville, Fla., and Rev. S. Graves, D. D., Atlanta, Ga.
XII.--12:30 P. M.--Woman, Her Work and Influence, Misses S. B. Packard, Atlanta, Ga.; J. P. Moore, New Orleans, La., and Rev. L. Burrows, D. D., Augusta, Ga.
XIII.--3 P. M.--The American Baptist Publication Society and its Work for the Colored People, Rev. E. K. Love, Savannah, Ga.; Rev. N. W. Waterman, Thomasville, Ga.; Rev. G. B.
Mitchell, Forsyth, Ga., and Rev. B. Griffith, D. D., Philadelphia, Pa.
Night Session, 8 o'clock--XIV.--Education, Dr. J. H. Bugg, Lynchburg, Va.; Rev. J. A. Metts, Hightown, N. J., and Rev. J. A. Battle, D. D, Macon, Ga.
Saturday, June 9th.--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. John Williams, Brunswick, Ga.
XV.--10 A. M.--The Bible as Believed by Baptists, Revs. J. C. Bryan, Americus, Ga.; H. N. Bouey, Columbia, S. C.; G. M. Sprattling, Brunswick, Ga., and P. S. Henson, D. D., Chicago, Ill.
XVI.--12 M.--The Authenticity of the Bible, Rev. David Shaver, D. D., Atlanta, Ga., and Rev. H. H. Tucker, D. D., Atlanta, Ga.
XVII.--3 P. M.--The Dignity of the Ministry and the Necessary Qualification to Fit Them for Their Work, Revs. E. R. Carter, Atlanta, Ga.; C. H. Brightharp, Milledgeville, Ga.; E. V. White, Thomson, Ga., and Dr. J. B. Broadus, Louisville, Ky.
Sunday, June 10th.--Divine Services.
Monday, June 11th.--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. Floyd Hill, Athens, Ga
XVIII--10 A. M.--The Duty of Baptists to Home Missions, Revs. W. H. McAlpin, Montgomery, Ala; J. M. Jones, C. O. Jones, Atlanta, Ga., and E. J. Fisher, La Grange, Ga.
XIX--12 M.--Temperance, Hon. W. Lyons, Augusta, Ga., and Rev. S. D. Rosier, Midville, Ga
XX--3 P. M --The Duty of Baptists to Foreign Missions, Revs. J. E. Jones, W. W. Colley, and J. H. Pressly, Virginia.
XXI--4.30 P. M.--Baptist Newspapers and their Influence, Revs. S. T. Clanton, D. D., New Orleans, La.; J. T. White, Helena, Ark., and Deacon W. H. Stewart, Esq., Louisville, Ky.
Night Session, 8 o'clock.--XXII.--Scriptural Divorce, Revs. A. S. Jackson, New Orleans, La., and C. O. Booth, Selma, Ala.
Tuesday, June 12th.--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. Henry Morgan, Augusta, Ga.
XXIII.--10 A. M.--Are We Advancing as a Denomination? Deacon J. H. Brown, Savannah, Ga.; Prof. M. J. Maddox, Gainesville, Fla.; Prof. M. P. McCrary, Valdosta, Ga., and Rev. T. Nightingale, Memphis, Tenn.
XXIV--12 M.--The Bible as Suited to the Elevation of Mankind, Revs. J. E. L. Holmes, D. D., Savannah, Ga., and W. W. Landrum, D. D., Richmond, Va.
XXV.--3 P. M.--The Duty of the Pastor to the Church, Revs. J. W. Dungee, Augusta, Ga.; J. G. Phillips, Aiken, S. C., and E. W. Warren, D. D., Macon, Ga.
XXVI.--4.30 P. M.--The Duty of the Church to the Pastor, Prof. Isaiah Blocker, Augusta, Ga., Deacon R. H. Thomas, Savannah, Ga., and Rev. J. L. Underwood, Camilla, Ga.
Night Session, 8 o'clock.--XXVII.--Sermon by Rev. T. M. Robinson, Macon, Ga.
Wednesday, June 13th.--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Louis Williams, Washington, Ga.
XXVIII.--10 A. M.--What is Our Duty to the Baptist Institutions of the Country? Rev. A. Bings, Jr., Col. A. R. Johnson, Prof. H. L. Walker, Prof. T. M. Dent, Augusta, Ga.
XXIX.--12 M.--The Importance of Pure Baptist Literature, Revs. E. P. Johnson, Madison, Ga.; J. G. Ross, Jacksonville, Fla.
XXX.--3 P. M.--The Purity and Work of the Church, Rev. C. G. Holmes, Rome Ga.; Henry Jackson, Augusta, Ga., and J. B. Davis, Atlanta, Ga.
XXXI.--4.30 P. M.--The Deacons and their Duty, Revs. J. H. DeVotie, D. D., G. R. McCall, D. D., Griffin, Ga.
Night Session, 8 o'clock--XXXII.--Money as a Factor in Christianizing the World, Revs. W. R. Pettiford, Birmingham, Ala.; R. N. Counter, Memphis, Tenn., and Prof. J. G. Mitchell, Malvern, Ark.
Thursday, June 14th--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. U. L Houston.
XXXIII.--10 A. M.--Baptist Church Government, Revs. J. L. Dart, Charleston, S. C.; H. J. Europe, Mobile, Ala.; H. A. D. Braxton, Baltimore, Md.
XXXIV.--12:30 P. M.--God as Revealed in Nature, Rev. H. H Tucker, D. D., Atlanta, Ga.
XXXV.--3 P. M.--Christian Baptism, Rev. J. H. Kilpatrick, D. D., White Plains, Ga.
XXXVI.--4 P. M.--Independence of a Baptist Church, by Rev. W. L. Kilpatrick, D. D., Hepzibah, Ga.
Night Session, 8 o'clock.--Preaching.
Friday, June 15th.--9 to 10 A. M.--Praise Service, led by Rev. C. T. James, Baconton, Ga.
XXXVII.--10 A. M.--The Duty of Baptists to give the World the Gospel, Rev. W. L. Jones, Atlanta, Ga.; John Marks, New Orleans, La; E. R. Reid, Valdosta, Ga., and Rev. A. S. Jackson, New Orleans, La.
XXXVIII.--12 M.--The Final Perseverance of Saints, by Rev. E. Lathrop, D. D., Stamford, Ct.
XXXIX.--3 P. M.--Our Duty as Citizens. Unassigned.
Night Session, 8 o'clock--Preaching.
Saturday, June 16th.--Devoted to Sunday school.
Sunday Morning, June 17th--Devoted to Sunday school.
Afternoon--Sunday, 3 P. M.--Dedication First Bryan Baptist Church.
Monday and Tuesday devoted to miscellaneous subjects.
The persons to whom this is sent, whose names appear on the programme for an address or sermon, will please signify their acceptance by addressing
REV. A. HARRIS,
William Street, Savannah, Ga.
All these brethren did not come, and some of those who did come spoke extemporaneously. Those who spoke from manuscript their productions are given in this work. At the session of the Missionary Baptist Convention, May, 1888, just preceding the centennial celebration, Rev. W. S. Ramsey, of Columbus, Ga., stated that since the centennial celebration must be in honor of some church as the oldest, and that since both the First African Baptist Church, Franklin Square, Savannah, Ga, and the First Bryan Baptist Church on Bryan street, in Yamacraw, claim to be the original First African Baptist Church, it seemed befitting to him that a committee of judicious brethren should be appointed before whom the claimants should go in person and with papers. The convention then appointed the following brethren as that committee: Rev. F. M. Simmons, Stone Mountain, Ga.; E. J. Fisher, La Grange, Ga.; Rev. W. S. Ramsey, Columbus, Ga.; Rev N. B. Williamson, Quitman, Ga; Rev. H. B. Hamilton, Walthourville, Ga., Rev. S. A. McNeal, Augusta, Ga., and Rev. C. H. Brightharp, Milledgeville, Ga.
Rev. James M. Simms, representing the First Bryan Baptist Church, gave notice that the representatives from said church would not appear before the committee. The committee, however, having the book he had just published purporting to be the history of the oldest Negro Baptist Church in North America, which book set forth his claims as cogently as he possibly could have done. Putting this book in evidence the committee proceeded to make the following report, which was unanimously adopted:
REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE.
We, your committee, to whom were referred the matter of priority of the First Bryan Baptist Church on Bryan street, in Yamacraw, or the First African Baptist Church at Franklin Square, beg to submit the following report: Having the facts in the case, which we think are conclusive, we earnestly state that the conclusion to which your committee has arrived was caused solely from the facts at their command. We regret to state that one of the parties refused to appear before your committee, notwithstanding being urged upon, namely, Rev. J. M. Simms, for the First Bryan Church in Yamacraw. It does strike us that men feeling that they had a good case would not refuse to be examined. These brethren have openly and defiantly refused in the presence of this convention, to lay their case before you or the committee, declaring that you have nothing to do with it, and they had nothing for you to decide. Your committee proceeded to perform their work. Having seen the book written by Rev. J. M. Simms purporting to be the true history of the oldest colored Baptist church in North America, your committee feels that the book makes their case as strong as they could possibly make it. We find that the church organized at Brampton's Barn, three miles southwest of Savannah, January 20th, 1788, is the same First African Baptist Church to-day. This fact is admitted by the book which Rev. Simms has written. Until 1832 there was no dispute about the first A. B. Church, but in the year 1832 a great trouble occurred which continued for several months. Many councils were called, who advised again and again a course, which, if pursued, would restore peace to the grand old army, then numbering 2,795 members and divided into two parties, the one led by Rev. Andrew Cox Marshall and the other by Deacon Adam Arguile Johnson. Two thousand six hundred and forty following Rev. Marshall and one hundred and fifty-five following Deacon Johnson. It appears to your committee, from the evidence found, that before this trouble the church had contracted to buy the white Baptist church located at Franklin Square, hence, when the trouble occurred, Rev. Mr. Marshall and his 2,640 members went to Franklin Square, still owning the site on Bryan street, in Yamacraw. The white Baptist church of this city took a lively interest in the church, and tried to spare it of all this bitter pain and heartache, an accurate account of which has been carefully preserved in their church records, which has been in the hands of your committee and carefully read, which we now offer in testimony. We read from the minute book of the white Baptist church:
"In the conference of the white Baptist church, Dec. 24, 1832.
"An application was made that the minority of the First African Church be received as a branch of this church, when it was decided that it was proper that they first be formed into a church and afterward could come under the supervision of a committee."
They being refused admittance under the supervision of the white Baptist church, it appears quite clear that the white brethren began to labor with both parties, hence the following petition of the First African Baptist Church, January 4th, 1833. The First African Baptist Church addressed the following letter to the Savannah Baptist Church, white:
"We, the subscribers, of the First African Baptist Church, do solicit the aid and protection of our brethren, the Baptist church of Savannah. We propose to come under the supervision of a committee of your body, provided you will receive us on the terms and conditions following:
"1st. That we be independent in our meetings; that is, that we receive and dismiss our own members, and elect and dismiss our own officers, and finally manage our own concerns, independently; however, with this restriction: In case any measure is taken by us which shall seem to militate against our good standing as a church of Christ, we shall submit it to a committee of five members, whom we shall choose out of the Baptist church of Savannah, whose counsel we bind ourselves to follow, provided it be not contrary to the precepts of the gospel.
"2d. We agree to hold no meetings for discipline or other purposes until we have duly notified by writing, one member of the Baptist church, selected by said church, to be present and agreeing not to pursue any measure such delegated member shall deem improper until we shall have had council of the above named committee.
"3d. We agree to relinquish to the minority of this body all our rights and title to the old church so soon as they shall agree to give up and do relinquish to us all right and title to the newly purchased one, and when we are put in full and free possession of it and our trustees, viz.: William H. Stiles, Peter Mitchell and John Williamson, shall satisfy us that they have good and sufficient titles.
"4th. We agree to dismiss all members, and such as have been members of our church, that they may either join another, or form a new Baptist church, and as soon as such church shall be satisfied with and receive them, then they shall be dismissed from us."
This being accepted by both parties, the minority of the First African Baptist Church was organized into the Third African Baptist Church, for in the minutes of the white Baptist church January 28th, 1833, appears the following resolution:
"Resolved, That, inasmuch as the minority of the First African (now the Third) Church have conformed to the requirements of this church in constituting themselves into a church, be received under the supervision of this body upon the same terms as the First African Church."
The 155 was always after the trouble of 1832 called the minority of the First African church until they were organized into a church, when they became the Third African Baptist Church. To this name they offered no objection, nor for thirty years was the slightest protest offered of their being known and called the "Third African Baptist Church." In 1833 they entered the Sunbury Baptist Association as such, and their church was always recorded in their minutes as the Third African Baptist Church. The Sunbury Association expelled the First African Baptist Church in November, 1832, as the First African Baptist Church. Every reference to this church in public or in the minutes of the Savannah Baptist Church book is as First African Baptist Church. The Third church themselves complained against the First African Baptist Church as the First African Baptist Church. Rev. Simms, in his book, admits that the 155 above mentioned were organized as the Third church; that is, he admits a reorganization. Your committee has seen a sketch of the First African Baptist Church from its organization in 1788 till toward the close of the administration of Rev. W. J. Campbell about 1877, in Rev. Simms' own handwriting, without any reference to the First Bryan Baptist Church. It appears passing strange to your committee that if the First Bryan Church is the First African Baptist Church that they do not and have not called themselves by that name. The pastor of the First African Baptist Church has shown your committee the deed of the First African Baptist Church to the spot of ground which the First Bryan Baptist Church now occupies. With all of these facts and as many more which have come before your committee as candid, God-fearing men, we feel in honor bound to decide that the First African Baptist Church at Franklin Square is the original First African Baptist Church, organized at Brampton barn January 20th, 1788, by Rev. Abraham Marshall and Rev. Jesse Peter, whose centennial anniversary we have gathered to celebrate. We decide, therefore, that the claim of priority of the First Bryan Baptist Church, which has given itself this name since the emancipation and the claim of the book written by Rev. J. M. Simms, of being the oldest church (colored) in North America is without foundation.
Signed, your committee.
REV. F. M. SIMMONS,
Chairman.
The centennial celebration of the Baptists of Georgia, in honor of the First African Baptist Church, opened most solemnly on Wednesday, June 6th, 1888. The members of the First African Baptist Church met at their spacious church edifice at 9 o'clock in the morning and marched out to the Centennial Tabernacle. Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., and officers marched in front. Deacon March Haynes and Brother John E. Grant alternately bore the banner of the church. The procession was over a mile long. The Church entered the Tabernacle singing, "All hail the power of Jesus' name." When Rev. Alexander Harris, chairman of the programme committee, called the vast multitude to order, he introduced Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., pastor of the First African Baptist Church, who had been selected to deliver the welcome address. Rev. Dr. Love delivered the following appropriate welcome address, which was well received:
Dear Brethren: It falls to my happy lot to bid you welcome to Savannah, to our homes and to our churches on this auspicious occasion--the centennial anniversary of our church. From our church the Negro Baptists of Georgia commenced. After battling with sin and Satan for 100 years, scattered all over Georgia, we have returned as one family again around a common family altar to recount the labors of an hundred years, to rejoice over the victories achieved and lament our failures. As one army of the Lord we welcome you. The Baptist star which arose in the eastern part of this State an hundred years ago has been often covered by intense darkness, but which has been as often kissed away by the sun of righteousness assuring us that all was not lost, but that "behind a frowning Providence he hides a smiling face."
We invite you here as fellow-citizens of the household of faith. Our faith is your faith, we love the God you love, we were redeemed by the Saviour who died for you, we are journeying to the same celestial city to which you are going, we are traveling home to God with you in the way our fathers trod, and our home and glorious inheritance is the same.
It is very befitting, therefore, that we should welcome you. Our church was planted in blood. Rev. Andrew Bryan, its founder and first pastor, was whipped until his flesh was terribly torn. His blood ran freely and puddled by his lacerated body on the ground for no other crime than that he preached Jesus to Africa's sable sons and daughters enslaved in this country.
When he was commanded not to preach the gospel he raised his dusky hand, stained in his own blood drawn by his vile persecutors, and said with a trembling voice, with that manly heroism and christian courage that the grace of God alone can fan into burning eloquence, "If you would stop me from preaching, cut off my head." This humble statement from our father in Israel amazed and ashamed his ungodly persecutors. This humble slave, using the weapon of warfare which is not carnal, but mighty through God, conquered these human brutes and through Christ won a signal victory for the church. Our fathers planted the banner of the Lord here in sweat, tears and blood, around which their children have rallied for one hundred years.
Our troubles have been great, our trials many, but we have not yielded an inch of ground to the enemy. We have not compromised any part of the grand old principles that distinguish us as Baptists, and though missiles most terrible from the enemy's camp have been and are being hurled at us, we have not nor will we ever quit the field.
Our fathers suffered nor do we expect to shun the hallowed road which they have gone. The Baptists of Savannah, an hundred years ago numbered only four souls, now they number something over ten thousand.
We all make you welcome to our city. We make you welcome because you come to rejoice with us. We make you welcome because you come to speak words of peace and comfort to us, and we bid you a hearty welcome because you are our brethren. In retrospecting the ground over which we have come during the last century, we felt it becoming to invite you to rejoice with us for the train of mercies which has followed us for one hundred years.
THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF OUR EXISTENCE.
The nineteenth century has been a most wonderful century. It begun upon an enslaved people, without liberty, without churches and without a knowledge of Christ. In this awful century our church was organized. The nineteenth century is characterized by wonderful inventions. Locomotives, telegraphs, telephones and many other inventions came into use in this century. In this busy and exciting century the Baptists of Georgia were born.
This century has witnessed a most remarkable change in this country. The slaves have been all set free and public opinion has been entirely revolutionized. Those who were once slaves now worship God under their own vine and fig tree, and no one dares molest or make us afraid. So wonderfully has God blessed us through these weary years, that we have felt it a great privilege as well as a pleasing duty to invite you here to celebrate our centennial anniversary. We could do naught else but welcome you. From the depth of our souls we welcome you. We want that you should feel at home for you are at home with your brethren around the old family hearth-stone.
From this time-hallowed shrine you begun. You have been spread over Georgia for an hundred years fighting for the right with heavenly weapons. You have not gone alone. A covenant-keeping God has gone with you and has prospered you in the land whither you have journeyed, and has added very largely to your number many happy recruits. After you have been gone for an hundred years, most of which time you have spent in the most cursed and disgraceful system of slavery that has ever spread sorrow, gloom, heartaches and wounds over a civilized country, you have returned to the old parental home to rejoice with the mother. The mother at times has had it hard; she has had untold sorrows and innumerable difficulties. Your countenance give signs of careworn and inexplicable anxiety and suffering which tell me that you have encountered Appolyon on your respective fields of labor in the vineyard of the Lord, but beneath it all I see blooming up in your countenances evidences of that joy and peace which only the grace of God can give.
From four, the Baptist family of Georgia has increased to 166,429. This is an average of 1664 29--100 a year. While we rejoice over these that the Lord has given us in the land wherein we sojourned as strangers we would humbly cry unworthy and ascribe our conquest to the Lamb, our victory to His blood and our life to His death. From one church, 1,500 have sprung up, an average of 15 a year. The joy belongs to us all. All the glory belongs to God.
We welcome you from our hearts. We feel that we have great need to rejoice that God has so wonderfully blessed us in letting our old fathers remain with us so long to give us their wise counsel. We should be thankful that the school doors have been thrown open and so many of our young men have been favored with educational advantages and are so much better prepared to preach the gospel than our fathers were. We invite you here after the close of an hundred years to rejoice over the advancement our people have made in the sciences, literary pursuits, in theology and in morality. The Baptists have been great gainers in all these virtues and attainments. More than two-thirds of the educated young preachers in Georgia are Baptists. In welcoming you, we rejoice that among you are some of the best scholars in our race. We welcome you as able expounders of the sacred scriptures and eloquent preachers of the New Testament. We are glad to welcome many of you as professors of colleges and accurate teachers and newspaper editors. In welcoming you, we are glad to note that many of you are comfortably situated in your own homes and are moderately rich, and are raising dignified, interesting and happy families.
We are glad that while other denominations have made progress that the Baptists have not stood still. This denomination is more largely responsible to give the world the whole truth as it is in Jesus than any other. To the Baptist denomination the great commission was given to preach the gospel to every creature. No denomination can stand so flat footed upon the Bible as the Baptists. No denomination meets as few passages in the Bible which war with its practice as the Baptist denomination. As Baptists we have nothing to fear. We are gaining ground. We are proud to welcome you as Baptists.
Our ministry of to-day is of such that we can look upon with pleasing pride, both as men of letters, good morals, temperate, full of zeal and piety. We have not retrograded. Our young men have become learned and our old men have made very commendable progress.
Dear Brethren, let us pray and humbly trust that our meeting at the close of this century may so inspire, bless and lift up our people that we may be living afresh for the next hundred years. If we are not here in person, it may be our happy lot to be angel visitors to the next centennial celebration of the Negro Baptist of Georgia. Then, the Lord grant that it may be a thousand times more glorious than this one, and may the fruits be infinitely more plenteous, the victories be far more signal and God more glorified in his servants.
May heaven more gently and lovingly smile over our great denomination and its wonderful accomplishments at the next centennial celebration. God grant that there may be fewer if any destitute places in Georgia at that time. Then when our work on earth is done, God grant that we shall be gathered in peace to the saint's rest with our fathers, where congregations shall never break up and Sabbath never end. And with the redeemed and sanctified and the countless number of happy harpers, we shall have a never ending eternity in our Father's house,
"The far away home of the soul,
Where no storms ever beat on the glittering strand,
While the years of eternity roll."
to ascribe ceaseless praise to the triune, God through Christ the Captain of our Salvation.
We welcome you here, but on your entrance into that glorious inheritance, uncorruptible and undefiled, you shall receive a more glorious welcome by the celestial choir which will voice in jarring hosannas the sentiments of heaven, and added to this will be the benignant smiles of God the Father and the plaudit of Christ the Son, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joys of thy Lord." Then will your welcome, borne to you upon the melodious songs of seraphs, be more pleasing, charming, inspiring and infinitely more lovely and rapturous. While we watch, wait, work, pray and hope for this, let me bid you thrice welcome to all of the joys and comfort in our power to give you now. In Jesus' name we make you welcome ye servants of the Lord.
Rev. C. T. Walker was next introduced to preach the introductory sermon.
The Rev. Mr. Walker opened the service by singing a hymn which he had prepared for the occasion. This hymn was sung by the vast multitude in such a way that the scene beggars description. The bosom of the air never bore off sweeter strains and the golden rays of the sun never kissed more pleasing faces.
The following is the hymn:
CENTENNIAL HYMN.
By C. T. WALKER.
Oh God, who hast Thy people led
For these one hundred years,
A gospel table thou hast spread
Amidst our flowing tears.
We've come through deserts dark and drear,
Through sorrows and through fears,
Of mercies past we've come to talk
And still renew our walk.
Our church was planted in this State
A hundred years ago,
And at Thy feet we've learned to wait
Until we've seen her grow.
Our fathers trusted in Thy name
And built upon Thy truth,
Grant us Thy aid to do the same,
And teach it to our youth.
Thy kingdom, Lord, is spreading wide
From mountain to the sea,
Still let us in Thy truth abide
Till all the world be free.
Oh God, we thank Thee for this day
That celebrates our birth,
May it inspire us on our way
Until we leave the earth.
Oh Thou, who hast Thy people led
Through these one hundred years,
Inspire our souls, dispel our fears,
Feed us on heavenly bread.
Rev. C. T. Walker then preached the following sermon:
Numbers xxiii, 23: "According to this time it shall be said, 'What hath God wrought?' " We stand to-day upon an eminence from which we may take a retrospective view of one hundred years' journey of our grand old denomination in Georgia. A glorious day. We have come to celebrate the progress and triumphs of a century. The cause we represent is a blessed one. We are here to speak of the vicissitudes through which we have passed, the conflicts we have encountered, the obstacles we have surmounted, the success attained, and the victories already achieved. We are here to pass up and down the line of march from 1788 to 1888.
Old fathers, worn and weary with the burden and care of a long and useful life, their heads whitened by the frost of many winters, infirm and superannuated, they have come up to shake hands with the century, to bid God-speed to their brethren, and, as Simeon of old, to exclaim: "Behold now, Lord, I have seen Thy salvation, now let thy servant depart in peace!" Young men have come to get inspiration from a review of the work of the fathers and to return to their various fields of labor stimulated, electrified and encouraged to make the second century far more eventful in the propagation of the gospel and subjugation of the world to Christ than the first.
The colored Baptist family of Georgia, representing 166,429 communicants have met in the Forest City of Georgia, at the close of one hundred years, to give thanks to God for what he hath wrought. The great leaders of the Israelites, Moses and Joshua, were very solicitous to implant in the minds of the people a perpetual remembrance of God's kindness. They, therefore, marked the stations and stages in their progress with monumental circumstances and objects. They erected monuments, built altars and anointed pillars to be memorials of some remarkable transaction. It is our duty to use every possible means of turning the past into lessons of solemn admonitions. A reflective, conscientious, serious spirit will exhibit the intense illuminations of divine truth that kept the old ship together all these years; we will have illustrations of divine guidance, and receive strong manifestations and enforcements of future duties and increased responsibilities incident thereto.
I. We shall discuss what God hath wrought in the permanent establishment of this church. The illustrious kingdoms of the world were founded by the world's renowned men. The Babylonian empire, the Grecian, the Medo-Persian and Roman empires owed their foundations to their kings and emperors. There is a prophetic description in Daniel of a stone being cut out of the mountains without hands--that is, without human agency, and that that stone smote the feet of the image, shattered it into fragments, and the stone became a great mountain, filling the whole earth. This stone rolled forth from Mount Zion and raised a dust, which darkened the very heavens. It has rolled and demolished its most powerful antagonist, and has become a great mountain that shall fill the whole earth forever. The founder of the true church is Christ. He is the Son of Abraham, according to the flesh, and He is also the true God and eternal life. Two natures and three offices mysteriously meet in His person. He is the blessed, bleeding sacrifice, the sanctifying altar, the officiating priest, the prophet of Israel, the prince of peace and the author of eternal life. He is the foundation of His church, the chief corner-stone, the law-giver in Zion. He hath given us a kingdom that cannot be moved. He is the king of Zion who liveth forever. He himself is the father of eternity. He began in Asia to ride in the gospel chariot, sent out twelve small boats, and on the day of Pentecost added 3,000 to the number, and in 1630 sent Roger Williams over to America. He, in the spirit of his master, planted churches in New England, and the stone continued to roll until it reached the sunny South. There the oppressed, rejected and enslaved brother in black, in A. D. 1788, for the first time in Georgia, lifted the Baptist flag under the leadership of Andrew Bryan; here the handful of corn was sown, not on the high, wild, rocky, uncultivated mountain, but on the seaboard, and the wind carried the seed to every part of Georgia, and the barren rocks and sandy deserts became as Jordans of the Lord. From the handful of corn have sprung more than 1500 churches, 500 ordained preachers, and 166,429 communicants. The little one has become a thousand to-day. She is the mother of thousands of children born in a century. While Satan has tried to destroy the true church of God because he sees in her the artillery of heaven playing upon his fortresses of idolatry, skepticism, atheism and infidelity, the captain of our salvation, in the formation of His church, laid the foundation deep and well. Having routed the powers of darkness, on Calvary captured the captain of the opposing host, he mounted the white horse of the gospel and will ride from conquer to conquer until he has put the last enemy under his feet: too wise to err, too powerful to be overcome. The cause he has espoused must triumph. Let the Baptist family of Georgia, on this auspicious day, break forth in the soul-inspiring song: "Arise, shine, for the light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Gentiles shall come to her light and kings to the brightness of her rising. Her sons shall come from far, and her daughters shall be nursed at her side. The glory of the Lord shall be displayed and all flesh shall see it together." The progress of the Baptists in this country is due to the earnest, faithful and simple preaching of Christ crucified by the fathers. They did not preach philosophy, nor did they strive to reach the people with rhetorical strains of eloquence, but by preaching the truth. The gospel declared in its simplicity and truthfulness will make Baptists.
There is about one and a quarter million colored Baptists in the United States. In the "Story of Baptist Missions in Foreign Lands," by Rev. G. M. Hervey, and in "Jamaica, Past and Present," by Rev. W. M. Brown, M. D., all give an account of a noble colored preacher, by the name of George Leile, who was brought from Virginia to Savannah, Ga., where he remained until the close of the Revolutionary war. His master was a British officer, and when the British evacuated Savannah his master fled to a more congenial clime and took with him his servant George to the West Indies. They settled in Jamaica and George Leile began to preach in Kingston and vicinity, and founded the first African Baptist church ever established in the West Indies with five Afro-Americans, George Leile himself being one. No Protestant mission, except that of Monrovians, which had been formed in 1754 in Jamaica, but had made slow progress. Leile baptized 400 converts in eight years, and in ten years there were 500 members. It has been claimed that the first Baptist church in the West Indies was established by the first missionary of the Baptist Missionary Society of London; but George Leile was preaching in the West Indies, assisted by Moses Baker, George Gibbs and others, as far back as 1793, and when the missionary of the Society of London reached the island in 1814 there were not less than 3,000 Baptists on the Island. Bryant Edwards, the historian, gave him a contribution amounting to £900, which was spent in erecting a chapel. He was thrown into prison for preaching, loaded with irons and tried for his life. We find the following in "Jamaica, Past and Present."
"Owing to the fearful state of Jamaica at that time they baptized and administered the Lord's Supper at night in unfrequented places sought the swamps and grounds covered with trees and bushes to evade arrest; but they were found, and called to undue punishment, the bitter effects of the same spirit that kindled the fires of Smithfield and originated the cruelties of the inquisition. Jamaica has furnished as noble a band of martyrs to the truth as any part of the world of similar extent and within the same period of time since the sixteenth century."
These were colored martyrs, and among the first of the moral heroes of the pioneers was George Leile, a negro Baptist preacher from Georgia. George Leile lived until 1822, and went to his grave full of years and good works, like a shock of corn fully ripe in its season. Historians, blinded by prejudice, have tried to rob the brother in black of the honor conferred upon Leile. The honor can not belong to the Missionary Society of London, for it did not exist until 1792, and the Baptist membership in Kingston then was over 400. It can not be given unto the American Baptist Missionary Union, for it began in 1814. It can not be given to the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, for that began in 1845. It can not be given to the African Baptist Missionary Society, of Richmond, Va., for it began in 1815. But the planting of the first Baptist church in the West Indies, so far as human agency is concerned, was inaugurated by George Leile, the black apostle of Georgia, who planted the standard of christianity in the far-off West Indies, and despite opposition, oppression and persecution, he saw the church strengthened, prosperous and flourishing. So Georgia numbers thousands of sons and daughters in the West Indies who are bound to us by the triple declaration of one Lord, one faith and one baptism. Well might the church sing to-day, "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, oh thou most mighty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously because of righteousness, truth and meekness." Our fathers had in mind the fact, as is beautifully expressed by the poet:
"A sacred burden is this life ye bear:
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly;
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly.
Fail not, for sorrow falters not for sin,
But onward, upward, till the good we win."
II. God hath wrought wonderfully in the foreign fields. God put the magnificent and stupendous enterprise of modern missions
in the heart of William Cary a hundred years ago. Dr. Somerville says:
"In the case of William Cary we have the example of what a single laborer in Christ's field may effect. Poor in worldly circumstances, without academic culture, with nothing to prompt or guide him but the inspired word of God, without sympathy from churches, in the face of doubt, incredulity and disheartening apathy on the part of christian ministers and people, but with a courage that never blanched, a resolution that nothing could withstand, a faith that never faltered, and with a humility that made him the lowliest and loveliest of men, he set his face towards British India, which then, and long after, scowled all missionary enterprise. Thirty-four translations of the Holy Scripture fell from his pen, twenty-seven mission stations and hundreds of schools were established. He aroused the entire christian world to its duty to the heathen, and he has given an impulse to mission work that will never die. The Bible is being issued by the million in more than 340 languages. The ordained missionaries in the fields of heathenism and Mohammedanism exceed 3,100. More than 2,300 women have consecrated their lives to the work with woman's tenderness and affection, with woman's unswerving fidelity, and with woman's measureless love. So that the number of missionaries, British, American and Continental, exceed 5,000 with the 30,000 native helpers. All in a century. The Baptists of Georgia are helping by contributions to give the gospel to the heathen, and especially has the grand old First Baptist Church of Savannah acted nobly her part in disseminating the gospel. Behold what God hath wrought in this century. Nations will still fall down. before him and empire upon empire will be conquered, and christianity will spread from clime to clime, and from pole to pole, until the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters doth the mighty deep, when there shall be one people and one God. The trump of jubilee shall sound and countless numbers of the redeemed shall sing aloud, Hallelujah, God omnipotent reigneth. This gospel, which is God's lever, whose fulcrum is the Rock of Ages, will lift up our degraded, sin-cursed earth and produce God's glory over the creation."
2.--WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT PROVIDENTIALLY?
The history of my people.--This century was one of hardship, oppression, persecution and sore trial. We were slaves, enslaved bodies and enslaved minds. No moral training, no intellectual advantage. It was a crime to read a book, patrolled, Spanish-bucked, run by blood-hounds, whipped to death, put on the auction block, sold from parents like cattle, husbands and wives separated, must get a ticket to go to church, get permission to join the church, and in many instances not allowed to use your own choice about what church you should join.
Slavery was wrong. God was against it, and He who presides over the destinies of nations in His own good time removed the foul blot from the national escutcheon. Some attribute their freedom to Abraham Lincoln and the Union armies, but we received our liberty, like Israel of old, from the great God of heaven and earth. God's operations may be slow in the incipiency, but the triumph is sure and not distant.
After four years of the saddest, severest civil war, slavery fell, like Dagon before the Ark, and we were free. Emancipated without a dollar, without experience, without education, without friends and without competent leaders. Like Ishmael and Hagar turned out to die, driven into the wilderness. When Prussia emancipated her slaves they were given a start in life, and when the Queen Regent of Spain emancipated the Cuban slaves they were given something as a reward of their past faithfulness. We were turned loose, unaided as we were, were vested with the right of citizenship at a time when we were unprepared for it; but despite all obstacles the negro in Georgia has ten millions dollars' worth of property and has proven himself worthy of citizenship. Take our intellectual advancement. There are in the public schools of Georgia thousands of children, and two-thirds of them are Baptists. We have a number of high schools owned and controlled by our associations, besides the Atlanta Baptist Seminary and Spellman Baptist Seminary under the auspices of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. Our men will be found in the legal fraternity, the medical professions, professors in our colleges, in the legislative hall, or the list of authors, skilled musicians, polished scholars, journalists and theologians.
The Baptists of Georgia are placed under lasting obligations to the American Baptist Home Mission Society for their support and to the Baptist Publication Society for Baptist literature. The name and memory of the venerable Dr. Joseph T. Robert should be cherished by every Baptist in Georgia for the work he accomplished in preparing the leaders for the next century. God hath wrought wonderfully among us. God is still opening up a way for the spread and propagation of the gospel. The way has been opened for a great outpouring of the spirit on the Congo valley. We have come to a period of culmination. The cry is loud and long for consecrated workers. The harvest is truly great and the laborers are few. Take a retrospective view of the work accomplished in one hundred years under such adverse circumstances. This meeting should inspire every disciple to go to his field of labor with renewed energy and courage to extend this kingdom, disseminate the gospel until every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ, to the glory of God the Father. I have three propositions to make:
1. Systematic work and giving.
2. Prayerfulness for the success of the work.
3. Earnestness in the proclamation of the truth.
1st. Systematic work and giving.--We are living in an age of mental activity; an age of invention and wonderful development; a busy, progressive age; a wonderful century. No century of the past has been so remarkable with results as the nineteenth. The church is the advance guard of civilization and must disseminate the word of life which is like a purifying bath and the gently distilling rain. The church has sufficient material resources but they are locked up, and system and order are necessary.
Christ in order to feed the hungry multitude with five barley loaves and two small fishes required order and system. He commanded them to be seated in groups or companies, and when there had been an orderly and systematic division of the multitude[.] He said to His disciples, "Give ye them to eat." We are in the midst of a hungry multitude. The marvellous resources of the church are locked up within the domains of the church. The command of the Saviour is ringing out loud and clear, all along the line, "Give ye them to eat." The dark continent of Africa, with 192,000,000 of people, and only 2,000,000 have ever heard of Jesus. Stanley has traced the Congo from its source in Eastern Africa to the Atlantic, a distance of 2,800 miles, with 1,000,000 square miles of territory and a population of millions. What is this but a great door-way for christianity? Let the progress and success of the past give us fresh inspiration for the future. Let Christ's love for us, and our love for Him in return, and by our obedience to his commands, devotion to His cause, advance His kingdom by devising systematic plans to feed the hungry in multitude and make ready a people for the coming of the Master. Hasten, Lord, the glorious time.
2d. Prayerfulness for the success of the work.--While the Council of Nuremburg was signing the edict that gave the Protestants their freedom, Martin Luther was away off in a room by himself praying for its accomplishment. Though there was no line of communication between the place where the council was assembled and the room where Luther was praying, yet Martin Luther suddenly arose from prayer and said: "It is accomplished. The Protestants are free. Victory! victory!" He received what he asked for. Like Daniel, we are to pray with our face towards Jerusalem. Like Stephen, looking up into heaven. Like the Publican, with our hands on our heart. I heard Mr. Andy Comstock, of New York, say last fall while speaking before the New York Baptist Ministers' Conference, that the night the Comstock bill was passed by Congress he was in his room at the hotel praying for its passage the very hour it passed, and though he was not informed of its passage until the next morning, he was conscious something would be done. Our own blessed Saviour, who entered fully into humanity, entered into our sorrows, our woes and agonies, prayed earnestly, tenderly, affectionately, and yet argumentatively, for the preservation of his people, for their unity and sanctification. Cold mountain and the midnight air witnessed the fervor of His prayer. If it became Him who was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners to spend whole nights in the mountain praying, how much more important is it that His followers spend much time in earnest prayer to God for divine guidance in discharging the weighty and responsible duties devolving upon them as representatives of their Master whose glory they must exhibit, and who must overcome the world by the blood of the Lamb through the word of God, and by the word of their testimony. Mr. Spurgeon says prayer is the rustling of the wings of angels that are on their way bringing us the boons of heaven. Even as the cloud foreshadoweth rain, so prayer foreshadoweth the blessing, even as the green blade is the beginning of the harvest, so is prayer the prophecy of the blessing that is about to come. So pray, brethren, pray.
3d. We need earnestness and simplicity in proclaiming the word.--Daniel Webster said he did not go to church to hear studied oratory but to hear the gospel. Our fathers were men of one book; they received power by prayerfulness, and proclaimed earnestly and plainly what they understood. Like Paul they said: "Though I preach the gospel I have nothing to glory of, necessity is laid upon me, yea woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." The gospel is an intervention of Jesus Christ to save lost men and must be given to every creature. It is heaven's appointed remedy for man's malady, and the directions for taking the medicine must be so plain that the fool may take it assured of the fact that he will be healed. The gospel is a ship loaded with bread of life, and must be brought so near the landing that the hungry can reach forth and take the bread of life. The gospel is the announcement of reconciliation between God and the sinner, a message of mercy, the history of the advent of Christ, His life, miracles, death, burial, resurrection, ascension. and intercession. The gospel is the Messiah's conquering, triumphal car. There is power and magnetism about. It is to be preached in its purity and its truthfulness. It is the gospel of which Christ and heaven are interested.
"In heaven the rapturous song began,
And sweet seraphic fires
Through all the shining legions ran,
And strung and tuned the harp.
Swift through the vast expanse it flew,
And loud the echo rolled,
The theme, the song, the joy was new,
'Twas more than heaven could hold.
Down through the portals of the sky
The impetuous torrent ran,
And angels flew with eager Joy
To bear the news to man."
Man has been honored in being chosen of God to carry this holy message. Beginning a new century in the history of our denomination, let us carry this message with the same earnestness as did our fathers. Discourage inactivity, coldness, indifference, formalism, and this kind of spasmodic religion. Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. Contend for those principles that have been the very life of the Baptists. This gospel must go, like the sun shining in his strength, scattering all clouds from the face of the world until the moon and stars shall be lost in its effulgence. It must fly until, in the language of Christmas Evans, living waters flow through the channels of mercy in summer and winter, not frozen by the cold nor evaporated by the heat. It must go until the cause of Christ shall be preėminent in the estimation of mankind. It must fly until the instrument of war be turned into scythes and ploughshares, and nations learn war was no more. It must go until the ferocious wolf dwells with the innocent lamb, the furious leopard lay down with the kid, the cow and the bear feed in the same pasture, and the little child leads the lion by the mane. Onward, christian soldiers, on, on to victory. The struggles of a hundred years have ended in a victorious triumph. Hannibal and Hamilcar lead the armies of the Carthaginians; Victor Emmanuel led the armies of the Italians; Tamerlane led the armies of Asia; Gustavus Adolphus, Xerxes, Alexander and Washington led battalion after battalion. It is estimated that in all the wars from scriptural times more than thirty-five billions of men have fallen in battle. Soldiers and commanders have received honors from the world. Sky-towering monuments have been erected to their memory. But the men who have been engaged in a holy war, leading a crusade of virtue against vice, an army of righteousness against sin, the harbinger of peace, the bearer of good tidings, the watchman on Zion's holy mount, they were instruments in saving instead of destroying life. And yet their graves are unmarked, no tombstone marks the place where many of them rest. But "God, my Redeemer, lives, and often from the skies looks down and watches all their dust till He shall bid it rise."
Georgia owes it as a sign of recognition and appreciation of their services to erect a monument in this city to the memory of the Baptist leaders who fell during these one hundred years. Our captain is now riding on his white horse giving orders to the armies to move forward. He said to Andrew Bryan one hundred years ago, "Go forward." He speaks to all of you brethren as you move off in the second century. Go forward, let the universal moving of the footsteps of the army of Zion be heard in the camp of the enemy. In the language of Daniel Webster at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill monument: "Let it rise. Let it rise. Let it rise till it meets the sun in his coming. Let the early light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play upon the summit." So let the gospel star-spangled banner rise. Let it rise. Let it rise until its magnetic influence shall draw all men to Christ. Let it soar till the attention of the African shall be called from his devil-bush, the Arab from his tent and the Jew from his wandering. Let it rise until the shouts of our triumphs be borne aloft to the ear of the redeemed as they shout from their high citadel of triumph. We want angelic messengers who come as the representatives of heaven to this centennial celebration to report to the heavenly hosts we are moving forward; to tell Andrew Bryan, Marshall, Campbell, Kernel, Glen, McCrady, Golphin, Jacob Walker, Kelly, Lowe, Peter Johnson, Henry Johnson, John Cox, Joseph Walker, Rucker, Quarles, Frank Beale, George Gibbons, Henry Watts, Arrington, Allen Clark, John A. James, Arthur Johnson, Alfred Young, I. C. Houston, F. D. Williams, J. M. Jones, Henry Williams that we are holding the fort, and that they are still joined to us by all the glorious recollections of the past and the still more glorious anticipation of the future, and ere long we will take our places by their side, and we shall review the grand procession of the Baptists from the chancels of glory, at the close of another century, as our departed heroes reviews us to-day. Let the gospel banner rise. Let it rise! Let it rise!
A CENTENARIAN AT THE CELEBRATION--117 YEARS OLD.
Mrs. Mary Jackson, who was baptized by Rev. Andrew Bryan nearly an hundred years ago, was presented to the centennial celebration by Rev. E. K. Love, D. D., as a living witness of the organization of the First African Baptist Church. When she was asked did she know anything about when the First African Baptist Church started, she replied, "Yes; I was there the very Sunday evening it first started." "Well, mother, who baptized you?" asked Rev. Alexander Harris. "Daddy Bryan," was the prompt reply. "Where did he baptize you?" "In the river. If you will carry me there I will show you the place." "Who baptized old Daddy Bryan?" "A young man who was his friend, but things are so tangled up now I can't get 'em. straight"--meaning that she could not remember his name. Mr. George Liele is the young man referred to, who was then about 37 years old. This is not at all strange, when it is remembered that he was not located permanently in Savannah. He was at work down the river, and very soon left for Kingston, Jamaica, in the West Indies. This old lady, has a vivid recollection of the organization of the church, being 17 years old at the time. She is well preserved for one of her age. She can remember and tell of every pastor the church has ever had. She was born on Bull Island, in South Carolina, in 1771, and belonged to Mr. John McQueen. Some of the old members were called, that it might be learned if they knew anything about her. They testified that they knew her over forty years ago, and thought she was dead forty years ago, as she then looked old enough to them to have been dead from old age. Many things tended to corroborate the old lady's statement. When she was asked where did Father Bryan live, she replied: "Right on the way as you go to the baptizing ground." She could tell of many old people who lived in that day. She could tell of Father Bryan's wife and his brother Sampson.
There are several persons still living who remember the old man. Among them are Mother Bryan and Mother Delia Telfair. The latter was 15 years old when Father Bryan died. Rev. Andrew Neyle was eight years old when the old man died, and remembers him quite distinctly.
But to Mrs. Mary Jackson, the subject of this sketch. She is living about fourteen miles from the city, a member of the First African Baptist Church, but she is unknown to the majority of the members. Even the old members thought she was dead over forty years ago. This, perhaps, is due to the fact that she lives in the country. It is possible that in a church of 5,000 members that many would not be known. So far as can be known she has lived a consistent, Christian life for 100 years. Having never been disciplined by the church she, however, would never have become distinguished but for her age. Her life has been of the humble, retired order. Having been a slave, she cannot be noted for great intellect, her greatest blessing being that God has spared her life for 117 years.
No wonderful event in her long life leads us to suppose any reason for its preservation. The only reason that can be given is it pleased God to do so. Her faith is strong in the Saviour. He has kept her for some reason best known to Himself. It was a source of great joy to the church to have a living witness of its organization and an eye-witness to its eventful career for one hundred years. She spoke of Rev. Father Marshall as "Young Marshall, who took old Dady Bryan's place when he died." She knew nothing of dates, when certain events transpired, but had a clear knowledge of certain things which prove conclusively that she is a centenarian. She remembers the trouble of 1832, and when "Young Marshall," as she calls him, carried the church from Yamacraw.
In connection with this living relic, Mr. Love showed the congregation the chair in which Rev. Bryan used to sit while presiding over his church conferences, the dish out of which he used to eat, and the table at which he ate, and a large oil painting of the venerable hero.
The occasion can never be described. The centennial celebration of our church can never be forgotten. The sermons, addresses and papers from the different brethren tended to incalculably indoctrinate and strengthen us in the faith. It was a feast of good things; it was a theological school to our preachers. There were five States represented--Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Alabama and South Carolina. There were services three times daily--morning, afternoon and night. Each of these services were pretty largely attended, the members of the First African Baptist Church forming the largest quota from the churches of the city. People for ages to come will point back to the great Baptist centennial. Children will date their birth from the centennial; lovers will date their acquaintance from the centennial; old men will date their marriage from the centennial year, and other great events will be spoken of as having occurred in the great centennial year.
So as a snow-ball the great Baptist Centennial will continue to increase in interest and magnitude as the years roll by, and what to us may seem but a trifling affair will be wonderful in the next centennial celebration. Again, this centennial celebration laid the foundation for the next one. Those who will be living at the next centennial will have what we have written of our church and the fathers, and it will then be dim with having been transmitted to them from the fathers. Orators will then move their vast audience as they speak of us as the fathers. The youngest of us will then be called fathers. If any one who could remember this centennial should be there he or she would claim the profoundest consideration and receive the attention of an angel visitor. Indeed, we have done more than we are apt to think of at first. But as the ages pass by more learned men will write of it, and could we be here to the next centennial celebration we would be surprised to know how this centennial celebration had increased in every way. We would feel then that we had only been looking through a glass darkly.
In closing this part of our work upon the centennial celebration, the writer feels that he has not been able to remove the curtain just enough for those of us of to-day to get a peep into the future to even divine what the greatness of this celebration will be in coming ages. But having used the light that is given us, we shall feel content. It is not duty to do what one can not do--and since we can do no more, then we have done, our duty is performed. We feel that it was our duty to do what we could to guide those who are coming after us.
BAPTIST DOCTRINE.
BY REV. S. A. McNEAL, OF AUGUSTA, GA.
To the President and Members of the Centennial Committee of the Negro Baptists of Georgia, and of this Grand Mother Church Of Negro Baptists:
We are assembled here to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the negro Baptists of Georgia. All grand institutions that have ever accomplished great and grand results have had to pass through many fiery ordeals and encounter many conflicts upon life's tempestuous sea, which have put to the severest test their strength and durability. If their make-up had not been genuine, they would have gone to wreck. So it has been with this old gospel ship, which has been sailing on the ocean of time for an hundred years, and has weathered many storms. But to-day she stands safe and sound, and a thousand times more glorious than ever, though she has been buffeted. She is sailing still heavenward, whose colors are floating freely and grandly, praised and admired the world round, and her power for good is known and felt even where her colors are not seen. Her moral, religious and financial condition to-day surpasses any church among the negroes of this country, and is ahead of many churches of that race whose advantages have been superior to ours.
But, coming to the subject, let us ask why is all of this? How came she so safely through the perils and dangers of the past? I answer because it was first founded right. Its foundation was right, and hence its success. We are here to-day to speak on this particular line, "Baptist Doctrine." What other foundation could have given rise to this success but Baptist doctrine, or Baptist belief, or the doctrine as believed and practiced by the Baptists? Every grand and laudable institution has had at some time its grand days or great epoch, and so the church of Christ.
We are assembled as a great people to do Him honor who has safely led this grand church along through the past century. It is the grand doctrine of the Baptist church that has given rise to this grand church and great Baptist denomination of Georgia, whose churches are known by the hundreds, and whose communicants are numbered by the thousands. Her sons are now in the various parts of the known world, publishing the glad tidings of the blood-spattered cross--even Calvary. We speak of the doctrine of the church as its foundation, and greater foundation can no man lay than that which is already laid. We speak of the doctrine or principles of the church as the foundation, for it is the foundation that gives power and durability to the superstructure.
What the bones, sinews, nervous system and the blood are to the physical man, so are the doctrines to the church. What the roots of the tree are to the trunk, to the boughs and to all of its branches, so the doctrines are to the church. And as it is impossible for the building to stand the wreck and hardships. of time, etc., without its foundation, so it is with the church. As the tree cannot bear fruit without its roots, so it is with the church. Had not the church been founded upon the foundation of God's word, which is the true principle of the divine Architect of the church, its grand achievement would not have been. But all of these grand results have come to the church because it was founded upon the foundation of Christ and His apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.
We wish to speak in particular of the Baptist doctrine as being identical with the word of God, for there is no creed nor even shadow of a creed of this church but that of the word of God. It is the main doctrine of the Baptists to proclaim nothing but the Bible and that pure and simple. Upon this every one who has risen against it has had this accusation, that we stick too uncompromisingly to the scriptures, and will admit of no modification or even shadow of turning.
The doctrine of the Baptists is the doctrine of the Bible. Upon it all of our fathers stood, fought, conquered and died. Upon it we are standing to-day. The stand which the Baptists have taken for the leading doctrines of the Bible has been as a beacon through all ages in giving and preserving the truth in the world and of keeping a pure faith and church. Though they have not always been known to bear the name of Baptists, there have always been those who have believed and practiced what the Baptists do.
It is quite encouraging to know these two things about God and His people, Christ and His word. The first is God's word has always stood since He first spoke it. The second is since the days of Jesus Christ. His people have always been loyal to the truth as is believed and practiced by Baptists. Hence He has always had a church to worship Him on the earth and a people to believe His word just as He has given it to them.
Sir Isaac Newton says: "The Baptists are the only body of Christians that have not symbolized with the Church of Rome." Jesus is the Son of God, hear ye Him. Christ is the head over the church and its law-giver. The New Testament contains his law which is our infallable guide and supreme standard by which all church doctrines and rites are to be tried. Those are Christian churches strictly speaking that correspond with the New Testament pattern, and Baptists have always appealed to the New Testament as furnishing the only true authority for the faith and practice of the churches. The great Erasmus says: "It is not from human reservoirs pregnant with stagnant waters that we should draw the doctrine of salvation but from the pure and abundant stream that flows from the word of God." And since Christ is our law-giver whom shall we obey? Who is supreme, Christ or the church? Where did the church get the authority to substitute something else in the place of that which Christ has ordained? There we are to learn our duty in all things of faith, etc., that which He teaches is all-sufficient for all times and places. What He commands we are to do. From his decision there is no appeal. Apostles, ministers nor churches can not alter or amend, but must submit, and grace suggests that our submission be heartily and cheerfully. Since we have the law-giver and the law let us acquaint ourselves with that law of Christ, and say, in all things, "Oh God, Thy will be done."
Our principles of obedience to Christ make us first Baptists ourselves, and immediately set us to making Baptists of others. We become Baptists, and we become propagandists of Baptist views by one and the same almighty, creative acts through all ages. The Baptists have adhered most strictly to the doctrines that are taught in God's word. So that obedience has been ever the leading idea with Baptists. They hold that obedience is better than sacrifice. And upon that fact they have ever stood contending, and to-day they are conquering the world upon that ground. For the world is asking every day, "What says the Bible?" and when told, they are saying "It is better to obey God rather than man." And behold, many are coming into the grand army of the Lord every day. When you ask me why is this, I tell you it is because of that longing in the converted heart to obey God. So, to obey, the Baptists have always held to be a sacred duty. So very jealous are they of the obedience which they are disposed to render to their Lord and Master, should they find in their book one page, one chapter, one sentence, or even one word that did not in every way comply with the sacred word of God, they would cast it out and leave that space vacant. If asked about it, they would with great delight give their reason for its abstraction. Then they would even go beyond that. They would brand the writer as ignorant or a heretic. What Baptists mean, so far as in them lies, is to go to heaven through obedience to God and faith in His word. Our fathers did it in all of their ignorance. And what else can we, as their children, do? Our fathers had masters who were Episcopalians, Methodists, and even Catholics, but they turned their backs on their masters' religion and profession, even when it was more convenient for them to follow their masters, and have spiritual liberty to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They have even been rejected from meeting with the church, because they would not join the church of their masters. But what did they do in that instance? Why, they suffered, prayed and waited until God opened the way for them. But obey God they would, must and did under all circumstances do, and so it has always been, and even more so must it continue to be, for obedience has been the pride of Baptists of all ages. The negro Baptists have preferred to be in fellowship with God rather than man.
It is strange how Baptists, even in their ignorance, have withstood all of the eloquence of learning and strength of science and of logic and stuck to the plain Bible and its doctrines. While they have had all of the polished scholars and preachers to contend with, they, in their ignorance, have stood alone with the Bible in their hands and whipped the world thus far. They had even the Church of England and the Church of Rome to withstand, and in defiance of all the pomp and splendor of these powers they have stood the test of time and to-day their colors are lifted to the breeze, and heaven hears the sound, and angels lend influence and glory to this occasion as we stand under this hallowed roof, made so by the grace of God and sanctified and made most holy to us by the prayers, tears, sweat and blood of Bryan, Marshall, Campbell and Gibbons, and now being honored by his reverence, the worthy Emanuel K. Love, D. D.
You ask me, how was it that though slavery raged in all of its horrors, destroying and debauching the moral character of every being that came within its reach, why, you ask, did they allow these negroes to have a church, make rules, and discipline members, etc., and from whence came all of these glorious things seen among negroes who came out of that cursed and damnable institution, slavery? My answer is that, first of all, their foundation was laid deep in the doctrine of God's book. Like Peter, they had learned obedience to their Lord and Master, who said, when faith had been tried and found sincere, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Who said again, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you."
Their legal privilege was granted them by the Constitution of the United States as the result of an application made to Congress to grant religious liberty to all men to worship God after the dictates of their own conscience, and not be molested or made afraid.
Baptists believe that the Bible is the only rule of faith, and should be practiced by all men. That it is the right of every man to interpret that book for himself, and in doing so he should be allowed to worship his God in his own quiet way. The supreme legislature of the country, nor the lowest officer in the community, nor any one else, should do the least thing to disturb him in doing this.
Baptists believe in a separation of church and state. They also believe in a democratic form of government, or a government by the people, for the people, and with the people--that is, a congregational government, or a majority rule, governed by the Bible.
The Baptists in all things hold that obedience to the law and testimony is supreme in conscience.
Therefore we appear here to-day, having rested upon this immovable foundation, which is stronger than the hills of old, and will abide when the rocks of Gibraltar shall fail, which have been standing the raging billows for centuries in the past, and yet they are the same.
Had it not been for the all-abiding principles of Baptists we would have been driven to climes unknown. Every denomination has its peculiar pride or religious forte. The Catholics have stood because they had the power over man and coerced them into their pale; hence all that they have done. The Church of England had the money; hence all men gladly bowed to her footstool. It is said of the Presbyterians that because of their education and high doctrine that none could comprehend but the learned. Of the Methodists it is said that they have sung their way around the world. But Baptists have gone into many parts of the world, and all the places where they have not gone they will go upon the word of God. Baptists have come through fire and water and sailed through blood by faith and obedience. When tried, their faith would not yield. On being asked concerning the things of God, even if they believed something that they did not fully understand, they have taken great pleasure in replying: Great is the mystery of godliness. God manifested in the flesh the secret things belonging to God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children.
Baptists believe that repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the first duty of man. The second is like unto that. Baptism is the second duty of every man. He who believes in the name of the only begotten Son of God believes and knows that immersion in water, when performed upon a proper subject and by a proper administrator, is the only thing that constitutes christian baptism. These few but sublime doctrines constitute the great foundation of the Baptist church. Upon these principles all of the apostles, martyrs and ancient worthies lived, fought, died and went to heaven. There their happy souls wait and rest until their fellow-servants, slain as they were, shall come.
Our church has come through trials and persecution in all ages, from the days of Christ till now. For there never was a time since our blessed Lord said to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," but that there were men and women practicing and believing just what Baptists are practicing and believing to-day. Though it cost them their lives, yet they have in all ages contended for the faith once delivered to the saints.
Our fathers believed in the Baptist form of government and they stuck to it, though their masters were members of another church. When they would feel a change of heart and wish to unite with the church they would have to get a pass from their masters. When asked to what church they wished to connect themselves, and the Baptist church was named as the church of their choice, they were then asked, "Why can't you join Mr. A.'s or Mr. B.'s church." When better reasons and privileges were given to join the church named by their masters, they could only say, "I want Mr. D. or E. to baptize me." After being denied for no good reason at all, and made to suffer the awful consequences of laying off from the church for months, and sometimes for years, they nevertheless, like the impassionate widow, continued to seek until, for some reason, they were granted the privilege of joining the church of their choice by undergoing some hard treatment. They chose to take punishment rather than join any other than the church of their faith, the Baptist church. The suffering of God's children has often brought others to be His disciples, for God has often seen fit to cast us in the furnace of affliction.
Baptists believe in giving to God that obedience that takes in all his word. Faith and obedience are inseparably connected. The Baptists also believe that he who truly believes God's word will obey Him. And he that believes is made a new man in Christ Jesus, born again, or made after the new man created in righteousness. So he that is created in righteousness will yield implicit obedience to God. Our blessed Lord and Master said: "To whom ye yield yourselves to obey, to him ye are servants." Jesus said: "If ye do whatsoever I have commanded, ye are my friends." So friendship with God depends upon our obedience to Him. When Abraham obeyed, it was accounted to him for righteousness. Hence he was called the friend of God. "If ye believe in me, ye shall know of the doctrine." Christ says, belief and obedience make, first, children of God; secondly, and as children of God we are Baptists, or those who side with Baptist doctrine.
I have been puzzled to know how any man can claim to be a child of God, and live in actual disregard of God's law, and worse still, set up a system of doctrines or opinions contrary to those set up by the God of the church, or to adopt those set up by men. I ask, can such men plead ignorance? Can a man who takes the opposite side of a question, ever get to the place where he can plead his ignorance? Can any man who is wise enough to build up doctrines contrary to those established of God, ever plead his ignorance and thereby be pardoned? I trow not. The name, "Baptist," originated not with them, but with their opponents. The main difference between Baptists and other denominations centers in the ordinance of baptism. Not that Baptists are erroneous in their views, but that others are not willing to follow the divine rule on this fundamental doctrine. In this they are willing to substitute this ordinance for the tradition of men. Yet they profess to be the children of God. They delight to live in open rebellion to the government of God. Let us obey God, that good may come to us. Then we can say, as another:
"Now liberty is all the plan,
The chief pursuit of every man whose heart is right.
One word into your ears I'll drop,
No longer spend your needless pains
To mend and Polish o'er your chains,
But break them off before you rise,
Nor disappoint your watchful eyes.
What says great Washington and Lee?
Our country is and must be free.
What says great Henry Pendleton
And Liberty's minutest son?
'Tis all one voice--they all agree,
God made us and we must be free.
Freedom we crave, neither envy's breath,
An equal freedom or a death,
If needs there be--yea, tax the knight,
But let our brave, heroic minds
Move freely as celestial winds;
Make vice and folly feel your rod,
But leave our conscience free to God.
Leave each man free to choose
His form of piety, nor at him storm;
And he who minds the civil law,
And keeps it whole without a flaw,
Let him just as he pleases pray,
And seek for heaven in his own way.
And if he miss, we all must own,
No man is wrong but him alone."
HISTORY OF THE COLORED BAPTISTS OF GEORGIA.
BY REV. G. H. DWELLE, AUGUSTA, GA.
Dear Chairman and Brethren of the Centennial:
I have been appointed by your committee to deliver an address before this christian body, which has assembled here to celebrate the one hundredth year of our existence in this State. Who is able, who is adequate, who can know the history of the colored Baptists of Georgia? Where are their records kept? Who has been their recorder, writing the true history of the pioneer fathers who have passed on before? No one, and a full and true history can never be known on earth! Some parts may be gathered, but the full and complete history has passed away with those faithful heralds for Jesus into the spirit world. Here and there we have caught a faint glimmering of the greatness of those faithful pioneers of our denomination in Georgia, and of their labors.
We will say a word touching our history, which begins with Rev. Andrew Bryan, who organized the First African Baptist Church in this city one hundred years ago, and was its first pastor. In the early morn, before it was yet light, he came to this field with seeds from the granary of heaven, given him from the Master's own hands, to sow. "They were sown in weakness; they were raised in power." They took root downward and sprung upward and brought forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold, to the honor and glory of God.
Soon after the Lord sent another into the field, Rev. Andrew Marshall, a strong man for God and his cause, who worked faithfully in this part of Georgia.
The work began spreading toward the interior, borne along by Revs. Robert McGee, Cęsar McGrady, Jesse Peter, (sometimes called Golplin), Kennard, Ghan, Jacob Walker, Henry Johnson, Joseph Walker, Henry Watts, Ephriam Rucker, Frank Quarles, Frank F. Beal, William J. Campbell, Tellinghast, Pope, Romulus Moore, John A. James, Henry Williams, Allen Clark, David Hill, Prince Williams, Thomas Hardwick, Joe McGrady, George Gibbons, Abraham Burk, Louis Barber, Jerry M. Jones, P. B. Borders, Jerry Freeman, George Jones, George Bull, and hundreds of others that I cannot now remember. They all labored faithfully in their Master's cause, and to-day are rejoicing in heaven with their Master, whom they served on earth even till called away by their Lord. Who can tell the sufferings, privations and hardships which these men of God endured during the early days of our church.
In those dark days when the servants of God had been laboring hard and speaking for Jesus, they would sometimes receive, some fifty and others an hundred lashes or more for speaking for God. To say all were whipped for preaching would be untrue; but to say that none were whipped for preaching would be a lie. It is said that some white Baptists have been whipped for preaching; then think you the negro could escape? Nay, he had his share doubled; but our God saved them all. Those were hard times in Georgia; but the seed were good, right from the Master's hands, handed down to his faithful servants to be sown on the seacoast, swamps, mountains and valleys broad-cast--scattered all over the land. It must have been good seed to yield 166,429 living souls, to say nothing of those already gathered from the field, and that through the storms of adversity, the floods of affliction and the draughts of persecution. Surely God was with the sower and in the seed. Yes, the faithful men toiled on at great disadvantage, illiterate, fettered, deprived at times of food and clothing. Still, through the darkness and gloom they toiled on, singing:
"Through floods and flames, if Jesus leads,
I'll follow where he goes;
Hinder me not, shall be my cry,
Though earth and hell oppose."
They went on, but not alone; one was with them who said: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee: lo, I am with thee to the end of the world. Amen." And to-day in every valley and plain, on every hill and mountain you may traverse in Georgia, lo, the Baptists are there. Thus the kind hand of God has led us along and here are we to-day, with gratitude giving praise to our God, "from whom all blessings flow," and we would shout and say,
"Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost."
We now stand at the cradle of the Baptists of Georgia. We have come from all parts of the land to lift high and throw to the breeze the Baptist banner that was borne aloft so faithfully in the darker days by those veterans, and has never been allowed to trail in the dust for one hundred years in this grand old Empire State of the South. That banner will ever stand, all stained with hallowed blood, marked, "Salvation's free to all the world through the blessed Son of God." We would not forget our brothers of the white race, who kindly assisted us and cheered us on to greater efforts of success, helping us to organize and set up churches, and in prosecuting the work. They rendered much valuable help in the establishing and building of the 1500 churches, with 500 ordained ministers and 2,000 licensed preachers, presiding over the 166,429 members, all springing up from the little seed planted one hundred years ago.
As to culture and refinement, these can be found in large numbers in our ranks. For thrift and wealth, there are many with us. We have towering churches and fine seminaries, and school buildings as good as are found in the land. As to intellect, morals and spirituality, we have some second to none in this country, especially our young men and women coming out of our schools and seminaries. Of them we are truly proud, and will ever thank God for them. Our press is making rapid progress, and now ranks with the best in all the South. Able men are the editors, and they are a power for good to the denomination and our people. Yes, dear brethren, for nearly seventy-six years the colored Baptists of this State toiled and labored under many disadvantages; but when it pleased the "Supreme Ruler" of heaven and earth to blot out human slavery, the curse of this American land, the negro Baptists of Georgia came at once together as one man to prepare for the new order of things pertaining to our denomination. They had the interest of the race and the cause of Christ at heart. The education and moral training of the young men and old ones--the spiritual good of all was before them. These were thoroughly and minutely considered and discreetly prepared for by our leading brethren. A number of them met at Hilton Head, S. C., and organized the Zion Baptist Association, and then there was a move all along the line. The brethren met at Augusta, at the Springfield Baptist Church, to consult about forming the Ebenezer Baptist Association, which was formed after this meeting. Then followed the Shiloh Association, Mount Olive, and in all, to-day we have some fifty or sixty more associations, all prospering and doing much good. They are dotting every nook and corner of our State, and our work is advancing.
In 1870 there was a call made by the brethren of Atlanta and Augusta for brethren of the State to meet at Augusta, with the Central Baptist Church, for the purpose of organizing a State Baptist convention. Accordingly, a large number of brethren met, and on May 17, 1870, organized the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia. Its object was to establish a normal and theological school, and to support missionaries in the State. At the meeting we enrolled eighty-four delegates, and their names are recorded as the founders of our State convention. Before this, however, our associations were sending out missionaries in the field. Especially do I remember Rev. J. C. Bryan, Henry Morgan and A. De Lamotta, who were sent by the Ebenezer Association to the upper part of the State, while I believe brethren in this part of the State were equally as active.
In 1874 the convention sent out Rev. W. H. Tilman. Soon we could hear of missionaries all over our State. As time rolled on, the American Baptist Home Mission Board, the Georgia Baptist Convention (white), the American Baptist Publication Society, all took hold to help us, and there was much good done by these faithful missionaries in our State.
Early we began to invite help in our educational work, and the American Baptist Home Mission Society heard our petition, learning through Rev. W. J. White our needs, and came to our relief. They gave us the Augusta Institute, which was moved to the city of Atlanta about 1879, and is now the Atlanta Baptist Seminary for young men.
This did well for our young men, but where, oh where, were our young women? To what place were they to be gathered for training? The brethren decided there must be provision made for them, and in answer to prayer to God from those christian hearts help came. While Rev. Quarles was on his knees praying, God, through the Home Mission Society, sent Misses S. B. Packard and H. E. Giles to our aid. They opened school in the basement of Friendship Baptist Church, in the city of Atlanta, and began work April 11, 1881. They began gathering our old and young women for training, and little by little they grew till what was a school of fifty, or a little more, can now call a roll of 600. Thus beginning lowly, God has raised our Spellman Seminary and made it a school second to none in all the South. Our different associations are building high schools in their bounds which can and will become good feeders to our two seminaries, meeting the needs of our people, and thus God is with us in our work.
Passing through the last twenty-four years we come to our centennial. Not that we entered this work one hundred years ago as our fathers (then the slaves of the State), but as free, twice made free, free from sin and death and American slavery. If the Son makes you free, ye shall be free indeed. What negro Baptist here to-day is not proud of the little record that can be gathered of our fathers, who, with heavenly weapons, fought so bravely the battle of our Lord, finished their course, kept the faith and now have the sure reward. I know, dear brethren, you do rejoice in your hearts. If this little history which we have be so grand, what must their true history have been. Where is there a people afflicted under like circumstances who can produce a record more rich with fruit for Jesus? Ah! the full and complete history is kept by the Judge who will do right, and to-day we should move with new impulse to achieve greater victories, and move on the Baptist chariot, conquering and to conquer, until we shall plant the Baptist church upon every mountain, hill-top and valley, from shore to shore, from pole to pole, until we can truly say Satan's power and his kingdom on earth are demolished, and all the world shall belong to Jesus. And when our next centennial comes, and the colored Baptists of Georgia are assembled, we that are here to-day to speak of those who sleep the long sleep of death, with no towering monuments, no shaft lifting its head to the skies, to mark the place or to speak of their deeds. Some of their graves are not known. But God, their Redeemer, lives and ever from the skies looks down and watches all their dust till He shall bid it rise. We who attend the meeting to-day, if our eyes were not holden, I imagine might see bending over the battlements of glory our beloved fathers, who, we imagine, are saying with their heavenly voices, be faithful unto death and come, we await your coming. We who meet here to-day in friendship and brotherly kindness shall be able to read without error our true history at home in our Father's house above, where there shall be no more parting, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. They sowed the seed on earth, and the harvest has been great. Surely
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
&nb