German, Italian. About 8 In order to revise my Hebrew I am preparing a primer in that language. or 10 hours a day I devote to these languages. The prime object I have in view is a more perfect knowledge of the Scriptures. The trustees want me to work for the college as I have done in years gone by. To-day have closed my appeals before the churches in behalf of the Woman's College having spoken on a single Sunday to as many as five churches between 9 a. M. and 9 P. M. 133 persons. . Notes to I agree to go to Baltimore October 1st. In addition to my teaching I shall have opportunity of preaching. Received telegram: 'You are invited to accept Bible Chair in Richmond College.' If the Lord will make his servant meet for this service, one of the greatest hopes of his life will be realized. It seems but yesterday I began my Bible work in Richmond College, and now it is done for the session. There remains, however, the examinations. I shall put up six blocks with sixty questions. Since February 8th I have lectured, I believe, 150 times. This has been one of the most delightful duties Richmond, September 25, 1899. with satisfaction of having 1,473 pages of lectures prepared during the vacation at Casco Bay for my college classes this session. September 17, 1900, The Knob, Casco Bay. Alas, how time flies! We have had varied and delightful experiences. The season has been seasoned by a great storm. The only stay to mind and heart is clinging to a personal God. The loftiest wisdom is John's concluding words of Revelation: Come, Lord Jesus.' Afton, Va.. July 11. 1901. . . Another session in my Bible work at Richmond College. duty has been delightful to the teacher. of my life. The This Afton is one of the most picturesque spots on our Continent; has the purest air and dryest climate I know. September 21, 1901. At home again. Happy as the 'outing' of 99 days was, it is good to be at home once more, grateful to God for all of his favors in the past and trusting him to the end for grace.' This is the last entry in the diary and record of his life. On March 27, 1902, the spirit of Henry Allen Tupper passed from earth to be with God. CHARLES FENTON JAMES 1844-1902 In October, 1859, John Brown made his famous attack of Harper's Ferry. Hon. J. Taylor Ellyson writes that in the "John Brown Raid" there was a young man serving in a volunteer cavalry company whose name was Charles Fenton James. He was fifteen years old, having been born in August, 1844. His parents were Robert and Winifred James, and Loudoun County, Virginia, was his birthplace. In 1861 he helped to organize one of the companies that formed the 8th Virginia Regiment. This regiment was commanded by Colonel Eppa Hunton, and young James, starting as one of the noncommissioned officers of his company, before the War was over, after successive promotions, had become the captain of his command. In the winter of 1864, while in the trenches near Petersburg, he made profession of his faith in Christ, and was baptized by Rev. R. W. Cridlin. Before the War he was a student at an academy near Alexandria, and in September, 1865, he entered Columbian College, Washington. The next year he entered Richmond. College, being the first student on the ground after the War. He is said to have been the originator of the "mess-hall" system that has been a blessing so many years to so many. In 1870 he took his Bachelor of Arts degree. He next studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, S. C. Rev. C. A. Woodson, who was a student at Greenville with James, says of him: "I was struck, at our first meeting, with his fine face, manly form, and his quiet dignity. He was distinguished for his painstaking investigation of anything that claimed his attention; had a wonderful power of analysis and a rare faculty of weighing testimony." His first pastorate, which began in 1873, was at Buchanan, Va. While he was their pastor the Buchanan Church built the substantial brick meeting-house in which they are still worshiping. Besides his work in the town of Buchanan, he had, during these ten years, as part of his field, these churches: Jennings Creek, Natural Bridge, North Prospect (Bedford County). In 1883 he left Buchanan to become pastor of the church at Culpeper. The Baptist Church in Culpeper is on the spot where the old jail stood in which James Ireland was imprisoned. So it was not strange that Mr. James, with his capacity for patient investigation, and with the spirit of a general, should have been led into a discussion as to the part of Virginia Baptists in the struggle for religious liberty. The articles which he wrote in this debate led to his writing his "Documentary History of the Struggle for Religious Liberty in Virginia." It is probable that this discussion in the Herald and this book will perpetuate his name longer than anything else he did. This discussion came about on this wise. In March, 1886, he preached to his church three sermons on "The Mission of the Baptists." In one of these sermons he said that "at the date of the Revolution the Baptists were the only denomination of Christians which, as such, held to the idea of religious liberty, and that, of the political leaders of that day, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were chiefly instrumental in establishing that principle in the laws of our land." On May 29, 1886, he repeated this sermon at Flint Hill at a Ministers' and Deacons' Meeting. In the Herald, of June 24, 1886, there appeared a report of an address delivered by the Hon. Wm. Wirt Henry before the American Historical Association. In this address Mr. Henry told of Virginia's leadership in bringing in religious liberty, but made no allusion to the Baptists, and said it was "under the leadership of Patrick Henry that religious liberty has been established as a part of the fundamental law of our land." As no one else took issue with this address, and as its statements were just the opposite of those made in his sermons, Mr. James decided to challenge Mr. Henry's assertions. A lengthy discussion in the columns of the Herald, between Mr. James and Mr. Henry, followed. In the course of this discussion Mr. James searched for and examined for himself "all available sources of information concerning the struggle for religious liberty in Virginia." He went "back of Howell's 'Early Baptists of Virginia' to the sources from which he and others had drawn their information-to the Journal of the Virginia House of Burgesses, or General Assembly, and to the writings of those who participated in the struggle." The discussion in the Herald might have continued longer than it did, but the editors decided that it must close. The investigations begun by Dr. James (he received the degree of D. D. while he was in Culpeper) in this controversy were continued by him during his whole. residence in Culpeper, his proximity to the Congressional Library and the State Library in Richmond making these researches the more easy. He copied all that he could find bearing on the question in hand, setting down the book and the page. After more than ten years the documentary evidence as to this struggle for religious liberty and the share of the Baptists in it was presented to the world by Dr. James in the book already mentioned. In Dr. James' opinion this book was "not a history in the usual sense of the word, but rather a compilation-a grouping together of evidence and authorities, so that the reader may see and judge for himself." The book is intended to furnish "the careful and painstaking student |