valley beneath
the cloud of doubt and surmounted with the fog of hopelessness. The
educated Negro pulpit is mainly optimistic and sees beyond its
immediate surroundings. It sees to it that the leaven of sound
doctrine and moral ethics are being put into the meal, and from
personal developments believes that in process of time the whole lump
will be leavened. The Negro pulpit is awake to the gravity of its
responsibility and it is putting forth its best efforts and mightiest
endeavors to uplift the race socially, morally and religiously.
Evidences of this aim and purpose are not difficult to be seen in all
communities.

THIRD PAPER.

TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE NEGRO PULPIT UPLIFTING THE RACE?

BY REV. R. P. WYCHE, D. D.

[Illustration: Rev. R. P. Wyche.]

REV. R. P. WYCHE, D. D.

Robert P. Wyche was born near Oxford, the county seat of
Granville County, N. C. His father was a carpenter by trade
and early taught his son the use of tools. In his humble
home he was taught the dignity of labor, fidelity to duty,
obedience to God and faith in prayer. These simple lessons
shaped the course of his life probably more than any other
influence. For a while he attended night school, as he
worked in the day in order to earn the means to buy his
books and to pay other necessary expenses. Robert was
ambitious to excel. From the night school he went to a
private school at Henderson, N. C. This school was conducted
by the Rev. J. H. Crawford, a Presbyterian minister. Here
Robert prosecuted his studies with eagerness, fitting
himself to enter the preparatory department of Biddle
University. The President of the university, the Rev. S.
Mattoon, D. D., became interested in Robert, whom he
esteemed as a promising student, and assured him that no
worthy student should leave school for the want of means.

After graduating in 1877 his first thought was to enter the
medical profession, but afterward he abandoned this idea and
began seriously to consider the call to the ministry. After
teaching school for a short period he returned to the
seminary and took the full course in theology. He was
licensed and ordained by the Presbytery of Catawba and was
called to the pastorate of Seventh Street Presbyterian
Church, at Charlotte, N. C. The degree of A. M. and the
honorary degree of D. D