Walker, Saunders

Walker, Saunders a Baptist minister, was born March 17, 1740, in Prince William County, Va. He was a brother of Rev. Jeremiah Walker. Although he had not the intellectual ability of this brother, unlike him he passed through life with no stain left upon his character. He is spoken of as a remarkable instance of the transforming influence of the grace of God. "Before his conversion he was of a turbulent, unmanageable temper, and was much addicted to the vices naturally attendant on such a disposition. But the Divine Spirit not only changed his heart, but his nature too; so that he was ever after distinguished for the meekness and gravity of his deportment. The meek Saunders Walker was a proverbial expression among all who knew him." In the twenty-seventh year of his age he began to preach the Gospel, and continued in the office of the ministry for thirty-eight years. For some time he had charge of a Church in Bute County, N. C. In 1782 he removed to Georgia, where he remained during the rest of his life. For a time he and Rev. Daniel Marshall were the only ordained ministers in the upper part of the state. It was a period of great political excitement, and party spirit ran very high. Mr. Walker was often called to mediate in cases of political animosities, and to reconcile those who had become alienated. The gentleness of his character, and his freedom from the bitterness which turns friends into enemies, eminently fitted him to be a peacemaker, and he had the blessing which our Lord pronounces on those who are peacemakers. After a life of great usefulness in the cause of his Master, nearly forty years of which were spent in the active duties of the ministry, he died in 1805. See Benedict, History of the Baptists, 2, 329. (J. C. S.)