From my early childhood days questions of this nature were always coming to me: Is there a God? Where is the being men call God? Where is Jesus, the Son of God? Why does not man receive the help he asks of God in this world of sin, sorrow, and woe? Many such questions were forcing themselves upon my childhood thoughts for a logical, reasonable, and satisfactory answer. I was taught by my parents and in Sunday School that I must believe in God, but my great and longing desire was to know and understand.
The solution to my queries was first sought in the precincts of the M. E. Church. At the age of fourteen, I remember how eagerly I sought for the assurance of God s presence with me; such as I supposed my elders in the church enjoyed. After three years of class discipline under an aged and much beloved deacon, I thought, perhaps if I devoted all my time to religious thought my questions would be answered. I longed to understand and realize something of the Divine being, as well as to be told to believe the bare fact: "There is a God." In this mental condition I decided to study for the Gospel ministry. I at once made known my purpose to one of the fathers of the church, who knew something of my mental condition. He said to me, "Go, my child: and may God make Himself more openly known to you."
Shortly after this interview, the way was made open for me to attend a boarding school, and a few days later found me comfortably situated in the environments of scholastic theology. "Now, said I to myself, I will search the Scriptures." So I began in a systematic way. First, I must know by whom the word of God was given to man, and in what manner. The study I gave to this line of thought led me to disbelieve in the plenary inspiration of the Scripture. Second, I must know by what authority the M. E. Church set aside the ordinance of baptism for the mere form of sprinkling. After pursuing the investigation of this subject for about six months, I came to the conclusion that the Baptist church must be nearer right in following Jesus' example: for I seemed to find some authority for the doctrine of baptism by immersion.
