departments of Biddle
University and was licensed to preach in 1883 and ordained
in 1884 by the Presbytery of Catawba and entered upon his
life work by serving as pastor of Westminster Presbyterian
Church at Concord, N. C., for more than three years, among
his early playmates and companions.

In the year 1887 he took charge of a mission church and
school at Gainesville, Fla., serving acceptably in that work
for more than four years and standing faithfully by his
people during that memorable epidemic of yellow fever in
1888. In 1892 he was called to the pastorate of Laura Street
Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, Fla., which position he
occupied for nearly seven years. During two years of that
time he was also principal of one of the city graded
schools. In 1896 he was sent as commissioner from the
Presbytery of East Florida to the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church at Saratoga.

In 1898 he resigned from his work in Jacksonville to take
charge of the First Presbyterian Church of Richmond, Va.
Thus he has been engaged for many years in the active work
of the ministry, always doing earnest and faithful work and
held in high esteem by the people of every community in
which he has labored.

He was married in 1886 to Miss Edith I. Smith, of Lynchburg,
Va., who proved a worthy and efficient helper in his work,
and uncomplainingly shared with him the trials and
vicissitudes which fall to the preacher's lot in life for
fourteen years. Then the Master called her to rest from her
labors.

To form a correct estimate of the Negro as a Christian we must take
into account the "depths from which he came."

Back of his forty years of freedom lie more than two hundred years of
bondage, in which he was forced to obey the will of another absolutely
and kept in ignorance. All real manhood was repressed and every
ambition curbed. Though under the control of the Christian Church and
people of the South, and living on the farms and in the homes and
families of their masters, mingling in their lives and their society,
and subject to their moulding influence, yet, as a rule, the moral
principles and qualities necessary to a religious life were not taught
him, neither was he encouraged to cultivate them.

There was no lawful marriage, no true home, but husband and wife were
the property o