70 – March – 11 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

He Accepted the Reproach of Christ
1818 – The legislature of New Brunswick, Canada passed an act stating that no avowed preacher of the gospel should have a seat in the legislature.  A Baptist evangelist, Joseph Crandall, who was well known throughout the Maritime Provinces, was a member of the New Brunswick legislature.  It was made clear to him that if he was in the pulpit the next Sunday that he would be dismissed from his legislative seat early in the week.  The next Sunday found him behind the sacred desk, as he had chosen to forsake the legislative desk.  His ministry and influence for Christ increased.  He had chosen the reproach of Christ of greater value than the riches and fame of this world.  Crandall’s mother died when he was only thirteen, and not long after his father followed her in death.  Before departing his mother said, “Joseph, the Lord has a great work for you to do when I am gone.”  These words so impressed him that they never left him.  In New Brunswick he came under the influence of two great preachers, Harris Harding and Joseph Dimock, and Joseph saw himself condemned to endless mercy and saw the mercy of God as the only sure remedy through the Lord Jesus Christ.  They saw in Joseph great potential and helped him get an education which eventually saw him ministering to multitudes and saw great numbers baptized.  He stood against the doctrine of “vested rights” and in the right of the “selected few” to govern the many.  To dissent from the church/state notions of the day was, in the judgment of some, treason against the laws of the land.  Crandall stood as the bold and uncompromising advocate of equal rights.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 100.
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