America – the Great Experiment in Self Governance

American Minute with Bill Federer

He sat next to George Washington in the pew at St. Paul’s Chapel in New York during the religious service following Washington’s Presidential Inauguration.

He helped ratify the U.S. Constitution.

His name was Fisher Ames.

Fisher Ames was a Congressman from Massachusetts where, on August 20, 1789, he proposed as the wording of the First Amendment (Annals of Congress, 1:766):

“Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or to prevent the free exercise thereof, or to infringe the rights of conscience.”

Fisher Ames compared monarchy to a republic, as recorded by Ralph Waldo Emerson in Essays, Second Series, (chapter 7, “Politics,” p. 97, 1844; Library of America, 1983):

“Monarchy is a merchantman, which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; whilst a republic is a raft, which would never sink, but then your feet are always in water.”

Of America’s Republic, Fisher Ames wrote in an article titled “Monitor,” published in The New England Palladium of Boston, 1804, (Works of Fisher Ames, compiled by a number of his friends, Boston: T.B. Wait & Co., 1809, p. 272):

“We now set out with our experimental project, exactly where Rome failed with hers. We now begin, where she ended.”

Warning against the temptation to increase government, Fisher Ames stated in “Speeches on Mr. Madison’s Resolutions” (Works of Fisher Ames, compiled by a number of his friends, Boston: T.B. Wait & Co., 1809, p. 48):

“To control trade by law, instead of leaving it to the better management of the merchants…(is) to play the tyrant in the counting house, and in directing the private expenses of our citizens, are employments equally unworthy of discussion.”

At the Massachusetts Convention, January 15, 1788, Fisher Ames warned that democracy without morals would eventually reduce the nation to the basest of human passions, swallowing freedom:

“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction.”

Fisher Ames commented in “The Dangers of American Liberty,” 1805 (published in Works of Fisher Ames: with a selection from his speeches and correspondence, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1854, pp. 349):

“The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness, which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be, liberty.”

Russell Kirk described Fisher Ames in The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (Washington D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2001, chapter 3, p. 81-85):

“As time runs on, Ames grows more intense. Democracy cannot last…When property is snatched from hand to hand…then society submits cravenly to the immorality of rule by the sword…

Of all the terrors of democracy, the worst is its destruction of moral habits. ‘A democratic society will soon find its morals…the surly companion of its licentious joys’…

Is there no check upon these excesses?…The press supplies an endless stimulus to popular imagination and passion; the press lives upon heat and coarse drama and incessant restlessness. ‘It has inspired ignorance with presumption’…

‘Constitutions,’ says Ames, ‘are but paper; society is the substratum of government’…

Like Samuel Johnson, (Ames) finds the key to political decency in private morality.”

Aaron McLeod wrote in “Great Conservative Minds: A Condensation of Russell Kirk’s The Conservative Mind” (October 2005, Alabama Policy Institute, Birmingham, AL, chp. 3, p. 9-10}:

“Ames was pessimistic about the American experiment because he doubted there were sufficient numbers of men with the moral courage and charisma to preserve the country from the passions of the multitudes and the demagogues who master them.

He was convinced that the people as a body cannot reason and are easily swayed by clever speakers and political agents. In his words, ‘few can reason, all can feel’…

Democracy could not last, Ames thundered, ‘for despotism lies at the door; when the tyranny of the majority leads to chaos, society will submit to rule by the sword.’”

Aaron McLeod continued:

“To Ames, what doomed the American experiment was the democratic destruction of morals…

Ames believed that justice and morality in America would fail, and popular rule cannot support justice, without which moral habits fall away.

Neither the free press nor paper constitutions could safe-guard order from these excesses, for the first is merely a stimulus to popular passion and imagination, while the other is a thin bulwark against corruption.

When old prescription and tradition are dismissed, only naked force matters.”

George Washington died December 14, 1799.

Fisher Ames delivered a eulogy “An Oration on the Sublime Virtues of General George Washington,” February 8, 1800, at Boston’s Old South Meeting-House, before the Lieutenant Governor, the Council, and both branches of the Massachusetts Legislature (Boston: Young & Minns, 1800, p. 23):

“Our liberty depends on our education, our laws, and habits…

It is founded on morals and religion, whose authority reigns in the heart, and on the influence all these produce on public opinion before that opinion governs rulers.”

Fisher Ames wrote in The Mercury and New-England Palladium of Boston (Vol. XVII, No. 2,8, Tuesday, January 27, 1801, p. 1; John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames, 1809, p. 134-35; The Works of Fisher Ames, compiled by a number of his friends, T.B. Wait & Co., Boston, 1809, p. 134-135; Seth Ames, ed., Works of Fisher Ames, Vol. II, New York: Birt Franklin, 1971, pp. 405-406; Frederick C. Kubicek, Evolution-Guilty As Charged, Shippensburg, PA; Treasure House, 1993, p. 125):

“It has been the custom of late years to put a number of little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons…

Many books for children are…injudiciously compiled…the moral is drawn from the fable they know not why…

Some of the most admired works of this kind abound with a frothy sort of sentiment…the chief merit of which consists in shedding tears and giving away money…

Why then, if these books for children must be retained…should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble.

The reverence for the Sacred Book, that is thus early impressed, lasts long – and probably, if not impressed in infancy never takes firm hold of the mind.

One consideration more is important: In no book is there so good English, so pure and so elegant – and by teaching all the same book they will speak alike, and the Bible will justly remain the standard of language as well as of faith.”

D. James Kennedy summarized Fisher Ames words in “The Great Deception” (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Coral Ridge Ministries, 1989; 1993, p. 3; The Great Deception-a speech delivered December 1, 1992, Ottawa, IL):

“We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We’re starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. We’ve become accustomed of late of putting little books into the hands of children, containing fables and moral lessons.

We’re spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principal text in our schools. The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other man-made book.”

At age 46, Fisher Ames was elected Harvard’s president, but he declined due to an illness which eventually led to his death.

On July 4, 1808, exactly 32 years to the day after America declared its Independence, Fisher Ames died at the age of 50.

One of the most famous orators in Congress, Fisher Ames was quoted in the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (Bela Bates Edward, editor of Quarterly Observer, Brattleboro, VT: Joseph Steen & Co.; Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co.; New York: Lewis Colby, 1851, p. 78):

“No man ever did or ever will become truly eloquent without being a constant reader of the Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its language.”

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The Moral Liberal contributing editor, William J. Federer, is the bestselling author of “Backfired: A Nation Born for Religious Tolerance no Longer Tolerates Religion,” and numerous other books. A frequent radio and television guest, his daily American Minute is broadcast nationally via radio, television, and Internet. Check out all of Bill’s books here.

230 – August, 18 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

First Baptist Meeting House

in Boston

Founded the First Baptist Church of Boston

On August 18, 1666  the Assistants’ Court of Massachusetts decided that Thomas Gould could be freed after him and Osborne, a fellow Anabaptist, paid a fine and costs, but if they refused, they were to be banished. On march 3, 1668 , Gould was brought before the court in Boston, and he was recommitted to prison. These godly men, along with other Anabaptists, Drinker, Turner and George had been “disenfranchised” and threatened with imprisonment for worshiping outside of the Congregational State Church. On April 17, 1666, Gould, Osborne and George were presented before the Grand Jury at Cambridge for absence from the Congregational church “for one whole year.” In spite of giving evi-dence that they attended a gospel church regularly, “they were convicted of ‘high presumption against the Lord and his holy appointments,’ and were fined £4 each, and put under bonds of £20 each; as they would not pay their fines, they were thrown into prison.” The name of Thomas Gould was revered by early Baptists in Mass. because of his adamant but gracious refusal in 1655 to have his infant sprinkled in the church of the standing order. During a period of five years Gould was put in “seven or eight courts.” His answer was, “I did not see any rule of Christ for it, for that ordinance belongs to such as can make profession of their faith, as the scripture doth plainly hold forth.” On March 3, 1668, Gould was brought before the Court of Assistants in Boston, and he was re-committed to prison. From the trials of Gould and these men the First Baptist Church of Boston came into existence. The members suffered fines and jail but they prevailed.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 340-41.

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120 — April 29 – This Day in Baptist History Past

A Call for the Ongoing of the Gospel
The mission’s magazine that was used to stir Judson

Pastors Samuel Stillman of Boston’s First Baptist Church and Thomas Baldwin of Boston’s Second Baptist Church were the prime movers behind the establishing of the mission, and the two churches issued a call to the other Baptist churches in the state to unite for the purpose of the ongoing of the gospel. The appeal was dated April 29, 1802, and the meeting was held in the First Baptist Church.  “The object of this Society shall be to furnish occasional preaching, and to promote the knowledge of evangelistic truth in the new settlements within these United States; or further if circumstance should render it proper.”  “At once they sent out their first missionaries: John Tripp, Isaac Case and Joseph Cornell. . . . The three were to find their own horses, but they were to have a weekly salary of five dollars plus expenses.  They were to keep clear of politics, to keep an exact journal, and primarily to evangelize and encourage those people so sadly deprived, by distance and isolation, of church ministries.
In 1803 the society established The Massachusetts Missionary Magazine. It was the September of 1809 issue of this magazine that Adoniram Judson was stirred so as to offer himself for missionary service to India.
Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 174
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109 — April 19 – This Day in Baptist History Past

He opposed all infidelity
1836 – Dr. A. J. Gordon, named for Adoniram Judson,was born in New Hampshire on this day in 1836 to godly parents.  At the age of 15 he came to a vital knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Upon completing his education including his theological training, he was ordained and became the pastor at Jamaica Plain, MA.  From 1867 until 1869, he was sought as the pastor of the Clarendon Street Baptist Church of Boston, but did not accept it until they agreed to eliminate the paid choir and replace it with congregational singing.  He was a composer of hymns and hymn tunes himself.  His most influential work was related to world evangelism and missions in which he served for over twenty years as a member of the board, or as executive chairman of the American Baptist Missionary Union.  He strongly emphasized the faith element in missions.  He believed that the new birth by the Holy Spirit was essential for the believer.  He participated in Dwight L. Moody’s evangelistic meetings and was a consistent soul winner and evangelistic preacher himself.  He knew that all preaching and ministering of the Word was futile apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.  He was an apologist for biblical Christianity against Darwinism, agnosticism, Unitarianism, transcendentalism, Christian Science, baptismal regeneration, and the influence of materialism in the evangelical churches of his day. Dr. Gordon was a fundamentalist before fundamentalism.  He held that the Bible was inerrant and infallible.  He died in 1895 and on his gravestone reflects that Blessed Hope – Pastor A.J. Gordon “Until He Come.”
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, p. 159.
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102– April 12, 1682 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Wm. Screven
They Sought a Place of Refuge
Jailed for refusing to pay a bond

William Screven emigrated to Boston from Somerton, England, about the year 1668. He moved to Kittery in the Province of Maine.  After Massachusetts acquired the area of Main, the authorities began to watch Screven closely because of his Baptist views.
Ultimately, Screven was charged first with not attending meetings on the Lord’s Day. Later he was charged with making blasphemous speeches against the “holy order of pedobaptism,” after spending some time in jail for refusing to pay a bond of £100.
On April 12, 1682, he was brought before the Court at York, and the examination resulted as follows:
“This Court having considered the offensive speeches of William Screven, viz., his rash, inconsiderate words tending to blasphemy, do adjudge the delinquent for his offence to pay ten pounds into the treasury of the county or province. And further, the Court doth further discharge the said Screven under any pretence to keep any private exercise at his own house or elsewhere, upon the Lord’s days, either in Kittery or any other place within the limits of this province, and is for the future enjoined to observe the public worship of God in our public assemblies upon the Lord’s days according to the laws here established in this Province, upon such penalties as the law requires upon his neglect of the premises.”
Screven and his associates had now come to the conclusion that if at Kittery they could not have freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences, they must seek that freedom elsewhere.

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted  from: Baptist History Homepage , ( Rev. William Screven and the Baptists at Kittery , By Henry S. Burrage,
1904 ) pp. 18-19

71 – March – 12 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

He preached politics from the pulpit

1807 – Samuel Stillman, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Boston during the Revolutionary War died on this day at seventy years of age.  He was converted to Christ and baptized under the ministry of Oliver Hart when his parents moved to S.C.  He later founded a Baptist Education Society in Charleston.  Always weak in health he moved back to N.J. to improve his physical condition.  He was called as the assistant pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Boston.  After one year, he became the pastor of the historic First Baptist Church of that city on Jan. 9, 1765 where he stayed until his death.  The Baptists, with only two or three exceptions stood solidly behind the Revolution.  Stillman was one of the strongest proponents.  His heart blazed for liberty.  He despised the Stamp Act and preached against it from his pulpit.  He was outraged over the inflicted Baptists of Ashfield, Mass., and authored a petition to the general court against it.  The issue had to do with a general assessment for the support of the state church (Congregational).  He was a powerful preacher who drew crowds from great distances including dignitaries such as, Washington, Adams, John Hancock, and Gen. Knox.  He lifted high the cross, preached sin black, and hell hot and saw great revivals.  His flock was scattered during the war but he returned, gathered them together again, and First Baptist was the only church in Boston that stayed open for the duration.  The forty-two years he spent in Boston covered the great debates of the Revolution, the war itself, the birth of the nation, the Federal Constitution, and the presidencies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson.  Samuel Stillman was a remarkable man for remarkable times.  But history shows that God always has His man for the times.

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67 – March – 08 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY

 

King George II
WHO OPENED THE NAILED DOORS OF THE CHURCH?
1680 –The Baptists in Boston quietly and cautiously built a new meetinghouse and began to assemble there on February 15, 1679. But the authorities soon found out and issued a law in May, 1679 to take the property from them if they continued to meet there. Under the threat of law, the Baptists ceased to occupy their own building.  However, King Charles II issued an edict to all authorities to allow freedom and liberty of conscience to all non-Catholics. He further stated they were not to be subjected to fines or forfeitures, or other hardships for the same. He stated, “…which is it a severity the more to be wondered at, whereas liberty of conscience was made one principle motive for your transportation into those parts.” Some friends of the Baptists in London notified the Baptists in Boston about the King’s decree, and the Baptists happily returned to meeting in their building. Shortly, the spiritual leadership was summoned before the Court of Assistants where is was demanded that they promise not to meet there again. They refused to promise and on March 8, 1680, an officer of the court nailed the doors to their building shut and posted the order thereon. The Baptists held their services in the yard, until one Sunday when they arrived, much to their surprise the doors were open. They did not know whether man or angel opened those doors, but they entered and held services and said, “The Court had done this illegally, we were denied a copy of the constable’s order and Marshall’s warrant, and we concluded to go into our house, it being our own, having a civil right to it.” Dr. Increase Mather published a pamphlet in London speaking against the Baptists’ character. John Russell wrote an answer to what Mather wrote. It was published in London and prefaced by some Baptist Ministers in England. They said, “It seems most strange that our Congregational brethren in New England, who with liberal estates, chose rather to depart from their native soil into a wilderness, than to be under the lash of those who upon religious pretenses took delight to smite their fellow servants, should exercise towards others the like severity that themselves at so great hazard and hardship sought to avoid; especially considering that it is against their brethren, who profess and appeal to the same rule with themselves for guidance in the worship of God, and the ordering of their whole conversation.”
Barbara Ketay from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 95-96.
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46 – February 15 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

 

First Baptist Meeting House Boston

46 – February 15 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

Unregistered churches illegal

1679 – BAPTISTS MOVE INTO THEIR BUILDING IN BOSTON QUIETLY BECAUSE IT WAS ILLEGAL 17TH CENTURY – RELIGIOUS MISSION SOCIETIES   INCORPORATED IN 1646 – LAW TO BANISH BAPTISTS REPRINTED IN 1672 – On February 15, 1679, the Baptists moved into their building in Boston that they began a year earlier. This activity was carried out very quietly and cautiously because they didn’t want to alert the authorities because this activity was deemed illegal by the state church which was Congregational. Great numbers were coming out of it and going over to the Baptists because of the compromise of the Half-way Covenant doctrine and other things. In the mid-17th century the Massachusetts Bay Colony was facing the problem of children born to Congregational parents, who had been baptized (christened) as infants but had not confirmed their faith since becoming adults.  The compromise was that the church accepted their baptism but not the right to the Lord’s Supper or voting privileges. By 1677 many ministers were advocating the extension of full church privileges to the Half-Way members. This filled the church with unconverted people, deadened preaching, and lost church members.  Baptist activity increased. John Eliot, a godly man from Roxbury, had begun evangelizing Indians around 1646 and incorporated a society to promote the work. He formed 12 praying societies among the Indians. These were scattered during the King Philip’s War with the Indians. In spite of this the Baptists fought valiantly against the Indians to protect their settlements. One company, mostly of Baptists was led by William Turner and distinguished itself in combat. But the increase in Baptists alarmed the ministers of the state church. They had their law to banish Baptists reprinted in 1672 and often fined and imprisoned Baptist violators. One of the Baptist ministers, William Hubbard, in a sermon said, “It is made, by learned and judicious writers that one of the undoubted rights of sovereignty is to determine what religion shall be publicly professed and exercised within their dominions.” He also said it was morally impossible to rivet the Christian religion into the body of a nation without infant baptism. By proportion, he proclaimed, it will necessarily follow that the neglect or disuse thereof will directly tend to root it out.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 63.

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338 – Nov. 04 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

His son followed him to China

 

1838 – Josiah and Eliza Ann Goddard, after Josiah had completed his training and had been ordained, were commissioned in the Charles Street Baptist Church of Boston for the ministry that took them to Bangkok, Siam, and Ningpo, China. In 1840 they worked closely with pioneer missionary William Dean. Josiah was most adept in languages and in just two years he was able to pastor the Chinese church in Bangkok. Going from the twenty-six letters in the English alphabet to the Chinese system of 40,000 characters was no easy task. The next few years saw it all, translating, printing, evangelizing, teaching, and even doctoring. The heavy schedule affected Josiah physically and he began hemorrhaging from the lungs which almost took his life. The aftermath made it almost impossible to speak publicly, so they moved to Ningpo to see if the cooler climate might help. There he spent most of his time in translation work. A strict discipline allowed him to complete the New Testament by 1853, and the O.T. up to Leviticus. He also produced many tracts, pamphlets, and study books for young men called to preach. His translation of the scriptures was still considered a classic up until late in the 19th century. After a short trip up the Ningpo River, Josiah contracted malaria, and shortly after returning home, died on Sept. 4, 1854. Eliza Ann returned to America with their three daughters, joining her son, Josiah Ripley, whom they had sent to the states in 1853. Eliza died in Providence, R.I., on Nov. 28, 1857. But the story does not end here.  Josiah Ripley Goddard picked up his father’s mantle, and also took the gospel to Ningpo, China.
[This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 663-64. Francis Wayland Goddard, Called to Cathay (New York: Baptist Literature Bureau, 1948), p. 48.
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

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307 – Nov. 03 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Christ the True Refuge

 

1847 – Rev. and Mrs. I.J. Stoddard, appointed by the American Baptist Missionary Union, sailed from Boston on the Cato to serve the Lord in Assam. Rev. Stoddard’s expertise was in the field of education, however, he preached extensively, until nine years later when ill health forced them back to the states in 1856. After returning to America, their hearts were so burdened for Assam, that they returned to that heathen darkness in 1866. The sacrifice that they made was nearly unbearable, as they made arrangements for their children to be left in the states. After arriving in Assam they were assigned to Gauhati, and then removed to Goalpara where they reaped a great harvest of souls. It is reported that no work excelled his, up to that time, on any mission field of the ABFMU. Then another great sacrifice was made as the Stoddards had to separate, that they might serve in two different areas. In 1871 when her health failed again, his wife had to sail alone for America, leaving I.J. to continue without her. Following is one of the examples of “So Great a Salvation.” An English evangelist had gone to a bazaar and gave a tract True Refuge to an old man who had been a village bard. He learned the tract by memory, and he and his wife traveled many miles, often through waste deep water and mud to Gauhati to find the teacher. All the way he would cry out, “Life, life, eternal life! Who will tell us about it? People would laugh and mock. At Gauhati he found the missionaries and they told him about Jesus, the Way of Life. He was discipled and baptized. From then on he would go throughout the land singing the praises of God. [Helen Barrett Montgomery, Following the Sunrise Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 2:1112. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. 600-02.]   Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

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