Evening star., 1900-10-01
DR.. STAKELYS FAREWELL
us CLOSING SERMON AT THE FIRST
BAPTIST CHURCH.
Retires From the Ministry Here After
Thirteen Years of Service
His Future Work.

The ministry in Washington of Rev. DIR.
C. A. Stakely, who for more than thirteen
years was pastor of the First Baptist
Church. closed yesterday, and in a few
days he and his family will remove to Mont
gomery, Ala, where Sunday next he will
assume the pastorate of one of the largest
Baptist churches in the south.
His last service in the Washington church
was marked by a pathetic and, to DR..
Stakey. evidently an unlooked-for incident.
In taking his text DR.. Stakely remarked
that he would preach his last sermon here
from the same passage of Scripture that
he used when he entered upon his minister
ial work in the national capital in 1887
"Ye Are the Salt of the Earth" 1t was not
until he was about to close the Bible at the
end of his discourse that he referred to his
approaching departure from Washington
Utteriug the words my ministerial work
in Washington is over, he was about to
announce a hymn. when Dr. Pollard of the
board of deacons advanced to the open
space in front of the pulpit, and. addressing
the retiring minister, said he desired to ex-
press the regret felt by the entire member
ship of the church and congregation that
Dr. Stakely was about to leave them. Dr.
Pollard said that during the past thirteen
years the church had been more prosperous
than ever before in it's history, and he
thought, az did all the others, that much OF
efforts In closing his remarks he requested
that when a hymn was sung it should be
that composed by Rev. DR.. j. h. RANKIN,
president of Howard University. and which
commences with the line, God be with you
till we meet again.
Pastors Response.
DR.. Stakely said he hardly knew how TO
reply to the kind words spoken by Dr.
Pollard He had always felt that he mad a
safe place in the affections of the members
of the First Baptist Church, and would
never forget the pleasures he had enjoyed
during his years of residence in Washing
ten, and he was especially gratfied at the
amount of good that had been accom-
plished; but the results could never nave
been attained except through the hearty
co-opera ton of the members of the chuGn.
He was confident, he went on to say, that
the First Baptist Church has great future
before it, and the membership owed the
duty to the nation in the nations capital
and to the great Baptist denomination to
put the ablest man they could secure from
among the ministry of the church in their
pulpit. 1t would require good, strong
man to discharge duties which Will be i'm
posed upon the next pastor by the trend of
events. He cautioned his hearers that If
it was expected that their pastor should
visit the members at their homes they
would have to provide him with an assist
ant, and this he thought they should do in
any event.
DR.. Stakely referred touchingly to the
absence of the faces which he saw in the
congregation of thirteen years ago, and
paraphrasing the words of Stonewall Jack
son, when dying of his wound received at
charlottesville said. "They have crossed
over the river and are resting under the
shade of the trees
DIR. Stakely made a feeling allusion to
the aged members of the church, who he
said added dignity to the body; also to the
middle-aged and the young He advised
the latter to do all that was possible to
prepare themselves for the more responsible
duties which, sooner or later, they would
have to take up.
In concluding he extended his thanks to
DR.. Pollard for what he had said, and then
announced the hymn requested. This was
sung by the congregation, with Professor
Percy S. Foster. organst, accompanying
While the singing was in progress many
persons We're visibly affected with emotion.
At the close the members of the congrega-
ton grasped the retiring pastor by the
hand and bade him goodbye.