Charles Keyser (1827-1877) is the 7th essay in A Noble Company, volume 11

In 1865 the American Baptist Publication Society, “wishing to secure a superior Catechism, adapted to the comprehension of children,” offered a prize of $300 for the best manuscript presented. Many were sent in, but it was the one submitted by Charles Keyser, then pastor of the First Baptist Church, Binghamton, New York, that was awarded the prize. The significance of his catechism, published in May 1866 (and in Spanish in 1885), lies in the fact that, though long since forgotten, it provides further documentation clearly demonstrating that Northern Baptists and their main publication society still adhered to a firmly Calvinistic faith in the immediate post-Civil War period and beyond. --Terry Wolever