Dr. Carl Sweat, the featured speaker at Monday afternoon’s King Day service in Gloucester, urged those present to focus on the spirit of the slain civil rights leader and emulate his good example.

Sweat, an adjunct professor at Regent University who has served on the faculty of Paul D. Camp Community College and is pastor of Laurel Hill United Church of Christ in his native Suffolk, addressed the gathering at the First United Baptist Church, White Marsh.

What set Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. apart, like abolitionist Sojourner Truth before him, or the Biblical figures of Abraham and Moses, was “they walked by faith,” Sweat said. Referring specifically to King, Sweat said that he had “a spirit, a great faith” and that he worked for justice for all people.

King saw “a world without balance,” Sweat said, and worked for all to be “free at last.” That message is especially important for future generations, he said, as it is the youth of ...