THE VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND.
Tabernacle Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga., was the first colored church
in this country to send its pastor on a trip to Europe and the Holy
Land. This it did in the Spring of 1891. The church voted Dr. Walker
a vacation of three months, with full pay, and the church and friends
in Augusta, white and colored, furnished money with which to enable
him to take the memorable journey. His church was supplied during his
absence by the Rev. L. B. Goodall, at that time of Augusta, Ga., now of
Charlottesville, Va.
He left Augusta Thursday afternoon, April 9th, 1891, and sailed from
New York City on Wednesday, April 15th, at 11 o’clock, a. m., on the
steamship _City of New York_, bound for Liverpool. He was accompanied
as far as London by the Rev. E. R. Carter, D. D., of Atlanta, Ga.,
and Prof. M. J. Maddox, at that time, of Gainesville, Fla., now of
Savannah, Ga. He visited Liverpool, London, Paris, Turin, Genoa,
Pisa, Rome, Pompeii, Alexandria, Cairo, Ismailia, Port Said, Joppa,
Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Bethany, Mount of Olives,
Gethsemane, Calvary, Beirut, Cyprus, Smyrna, Ephesus, Pierus, Athens,
Corinth, Venice, Patras, Corfu, Brindisi, Basle, Heidelberg, Mayence,
Cologne, Coblenz, Brussels, Antwerp, and some few other places. Dr.
Carter accompanied him during the entire journey. He returned to New
York on Saturday, June 27th, 1891, and reached Augusta on the fourth
day of July.
Before leaving New York on his way to the Holy Land, he preached twice
on the Sabbath at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, and, at the request of
the pastor and officers, he preached again on Monday night, April 13th.
The church gave him a liberal contribution to help him on his way, and
he departed with their best wishes and with many prayers for a safe
journey and a safe return.
The following account taken from the Augusta Evening News, of July 6th,
1891, will give some idea of Dr. Walker’s reception on his return to
Augusta:
[Illustration: “BETHEL.”]
“The impressions of an intelligent, zealous and popular colored
minister about the Holy Land are well worth hearing and recording.
“The Evening News has already announced the return of the Rev. Chas.
T. Walker from his three months’ trip abroad, and, indeed, has kept up
with him pretty well in his great journey in Europe, Asia and Africa.
The paper was glad to commend him on his departure, and welcomed his
return, and these courtesies are both deserved and appreciated. A
man who is so highly regarded by his congregation and friends that
he is given such a trip, and whose influence is all for good among
his people in this community, certainly deserves consideration and
courtesy. Hence, more space than ordinary is given to this prominent
and popular leader among his people.
[Illustration: FORD OF THE RIVER JORDAN.]
“A genuine and hearty welcome was given Mr. Walker by his
congregation, and yesterday he preached to his church for the first
time in three months. Last night he gave an outline of his trip
through the Holy Land, and promised half hour talks about places,
scenes and customs for every Sunday evening.
[Illustration: SHEEPFOLD.]
“After reading of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon, he took
his text from the famous words, ‘the half has not been told,’ and
declared that those words expressed his ideas about the Holy Land.
He did not go into details about his journey, but with a wonderful
power of seizing upon leading scenes and incidents and putting them
before his audience, with their vivid illustrations and comforting
lessons, the preacher held his vast congregation spellbound for about
an hour. It was in itself a scene well worth witnessing, to behold
this earnest and really eloquent man, with his deep and resonant
voice, and genuinely magnetic manner, telling his story to breathless
and sympathetic listeners, who crowded every inch of sitting and
standing room in the church. This ovation was a great compliment to
the humble man of God, who spoke in grateful terms of those who had
sent him on his memorable journey; and every one of his people must
have felt fully repaid when, in summing up the results of his trip
and the analysis of his observations, he declared that, after seeing
and investigating the Holy Land for himself, he felt more than ever
that God’s word was true. If any one is sceptical about the Bible, its
history and its sacred truths and traditions, said this preacher, let
him go to Palestine, and he will be sceptical no longer.
[Illustration: BABYLON.]
“He also went to Egypt, which is scriptural land, where Moses, the
greatest law-maker of the earth, was born, and where Joseph and
Abraham, and even Jesus went, and he followed their footsteps back
into Palestine, through Joppa, the gateway to Jerusalem, as it also
became, through Peter’s vision, the doorway of the Gentiles to God’s
kingdom. The preacher then described the great astronomical miracle
performed by Joshua on the plain of Ajalon, when he commanded the sun
and moon to stand still; he made graphic references to his journey
along the famous highway over which the Roman Emperors and the
Christian Crusaders traveled to the Holy City, Jerusalem, with its
four mountains, its old walls, its eight gates, its well-remembered
streets, was particularly dwelt upon, and the speaker declared that
it was hard for him to realize that he was actually in the great city
where the prophets walked, which was blessed by the Saviour’s presence
and consecrated by his crucifixion. He went straight to Calvary, he
said, and his description of Calvary, as the greatest battle field
the world ever saw, was very interesting, and was one of the most
eloquent and vividly touching portions of his discourse. The effect on
the audience was realistic and remarkable. The people leaned forward,
and as the preacher alluded to Calvary as the greatest battlefield
the world ever saw and said that the cross was its eternal monument,
murmurs and shouts of approval went up all over the house.
[Illustration: THE POOL OF SILOAM.]
[Illustration: AN EASTERN HARVEST SCENE.]
“The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Tomb of the Saviour,
Gethsemane, the Brook Kedron, and the Mount of Olives, were in turn
dwelt upon; and the minister said that as he bowed and wept at the
Saviour’s Tomb, he arose refreshed and wrote in his note-book: ‘Thank
God, he is a resurrected Jesus.’
“In describing the River Jordan, in which he bathed while he was
there, and which he visited at the points where Joshua passed over,
where Elijah ascended in the chariot, where Naaman was healed, and
where Christ was baptized by John, the preacher was again inspired, as
he described what he said was the most glorious convocation that ever
took place on earth--when the Trinity met at the Saviour’s baptism.
[Illustration: BAPTIZING IN THE RIVER JORDAN.]
“In impressing the truth of the Scriptures, Mr. Walker used several
striking illustrations. He said that the old prophecies were coming
true, and that even the Turks, in their ignorance, were fulfilling
prophecy. They keep the Golden Gate--the Gate Beautiful--always
closed, the only one entering Jerusalem which is never opened, because
the superstitious believe that if the Christians ever enter by it,
they will retake the city; but the minister declared that the real
reason was that it was a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy found
in the forty-fourth chapter of his writings. Again, Jeremiah said,
twenty-five hundred years ago, that ‘Zion shall be ploughed like a
field.’ The people of a then rich and powerful city came near stoning
him for his madness, and yet the speaker declared, with his own eyes
he had seen the fulfillment of this prophecy. Jeremiah also declared
that Zion should be rebuilt, and on the unearthed ruins of the very
towers indicated by Jeremiah, the rebuilding of Jerusalem had been
begun. To-day, they are rebuilding, as the prophet said. In Jerusalem
and all through Palestine, the record speaks in solemn, sacred and
rock-ribbed confirmation of the blessed and everlasting truth of God’s
word.
[Illustration: ARAB ENCAMPMENT.]
“The preacher concluded with a strong invocation, and declared that
after all his journeyings over oceans and seas, there was no sailing
like sailing with Jesus, and he had come back home with sevenfold more
of the spirit of the Saviour to stir up the people of the city with
the truth of the Gospel. We all need more power and less form; more of
the power of Charles Spurgeon, whose power and influence and magnetism
come from communing with God.
“He paid a telling tribute to this country when he said that he would
not exchange it for any he had seen. He contrasted the terrors and
persecutions of heathen lands with the glorious liberty of America,
where Christian churches raised their spires to heaven, and all men
may worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences,
and under their own vine and fig tree. Where there is no church there
is no civilization, and he wanted his people to appreciate their
advantages, and aid him by doing their duty to God and their fellow
men.”
Besides his talks and lectures to the people of Augusta, Dr. Walker
spent much time during the summer and winter of 1891 lecturing
throughout the United States on “The Holy Land: What I Saw and Heard.”
Everywhere the lecture and the lecturer were well received and highly
spoken of--in New York, in Boston, in Philadelphia, in Indianapolis,
in Charleston, S. C., in St. Louis, in Dallas and Galveston, Tex., in
Kansas City, and in other places. Dr. Walker’s success on the lecture
platform was immediate, and, since 1891, he has managed each year to go
on a little lecture tour through different parts of America.
[Illustration: REV. CHARLES T. WALKER, ON HIS RETURN FROM HIS TRIP TO
THE HOLY LAND, AGE THIRTY THREE YEARS.]