CHAPTER V.
Experience in Baltimore--Education--Purchase of a Wife and two Children--Great Distress of Mind--Generous Assistance--Church Matters.
When I came among the colored people of Baltimore, I found, to my surprise, that they were advanced in education, quite beyond what I had conceived of.

Of course, as I never had such advantages, I was far behind the people; and as this did not appear well in a preacher, I felt very small, when comparing my abilities with others of a superior stamp.
I found that the great mass of colored professors of religion were Methodists, whose piety and zeal seemed to carry all before them.

There were, at that time, some ten or eleven colored Methodist churches, one Episcopalian, one Presbyterian; and one little Baptist church, located upon the outskirts of the city.

The most of the Methodist churches were large and influential; and the Presbyterian church had one of the best Sabbath schools for colored children in the city.
But the Baptist colored membership was looked upon as the smallest; and under these circumstances, I was surrounded with discouragements; although the ministers and brethren of other denominations have always treated me with marked christian kindness.
I had never had a day's schooling; and coming to one of the first cities in the Union, where the colored people had the advantages of schools, and where their pulpits were occupied, Sabbath after Sabbath, by comparatively intelligent colored ministers--what could I expect, but that the people would turn away from one who was trying to preach in the room of a private house, some fifteen by twenty feet?
Yet, there was no turning back: God had called me to the work, and it was His cause I was advocating.
I found, that to preach, like other preachers, I must improve my mind, by reading the Bible and other good books, and by studying my own language.

I started afresh--I got a small stock of books, and the white brethren loaned and gave me other useful volumes, to which they added a word of instruction and encouragement, whenever an opportunity offered; and the ministers cordially invited me to attend their Monday ministerial conference meeting, which was very useful to me.
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