This is the day that … Charles Albert Tindley died in 1933. And hereby hangs quite a tale.
He had been born into slavery – in Maryland, USA – 7 July 1851. By the age of five he was an orphan. As the years passed he taught himself to read and write. In Philadelphia in his late teens he worked as a hod carrier, and then janitor of a small Methodist church.
He attended night school – and did a correspondence course with the Boston School of Theology.
In 1885, at the age of 34, he was ordained to the Methodist ministry, and pastored seven churches between then and 1902, when he was inducted into Calvary Methodist Church, Philadelphia, where he had once worked as a janitor! By 1924 a new church building was opened to contain the crowds … membership had passed the 12,000 mark!
In spite of his protests, the building was named the “Tindley Temple Methodist Church”.
He also found time to write many well-known gospel songs, including …
Leave it there, leave it there –
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there…
and
Bye and bye,
When the morning comes …
This dedicated black pastor died at the age of 82.
This post is based on the work of my late friend Donald Prout whose love for books and Christian history led him to collate a daily Christian calendar. I continue to work with Don’s wife, Barbara, to share his life work with the world. I have updated some of these historical posts and will hopefully draw from Don’s huge files of clippings to continue this series beyond Don’s original work. More of Don’s work can be found at www.donaldprout.com.
Tags: calvary methodist church, charles albert tindley, gospel songs, philadelphia
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