172 — June 21 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

An Ambassador for Jesus Christ

 

George Pleasant Bostick was the fifth son of fifteen children, three of whom became missionaries to China. These three gave a total of 110 years to reaching the Chinese with the gospel of Jesus Christ. For many years their mother prayed that God would call at least one of her sons to be a preacher of the gospel. When G. P., as he was affectionately known by his family and friends, answered God’s call to China, she was apprehensive, but later when her youngest son, W. D., and youngest daughter, Addie, also went to China, she exclaimed with joy, “If I could feel as confident and happy about the other children as I do about these three, I would be willing for them to go to China. What a privilege and honor!”

 

G. P. Bostick was converted to Christ at an early age and was shortly afterward baptized into Floyd’s Creek Baptist Church in North Carolina. Soon after, he had a clear and definite call to preach. The church recognized his call and licensed him to exercise his gifts. He was later ordained at the New Hope Baptist Church near Raleigh, North Carolina. He was a joyful ambassador for Christ, yielding to God fifty-two of the sixty-eight years of his life.

 

He experienced deep sorrow in losing the wife of his youth and, later, the fine consecrated missionary whom he met in China and married. In both instances, he was a great distance from home when they died suddenly, and both were buried before he could return home. While on furlough, Bostick met and married Lena Stover. She assumed the responsibility for his family and was his devoted wife for the last fourteen years of his life. He contracted typhus fever and never fully recovered. On the occasion of his death, she testified, “He loved life in all its fullness, for God and family and humanity. He died as he had lived. I have never seen such a passing; a going out, as it seemed to me. He was in a coma…On the borderline he called the names of loved ones who had gone on before.” He joined those loved ones June 21, 1926. George Pleasant Bostick was one of those early pioneer missionaries who opened a great nation to the gospel of Jesus Christ. God grant us leadership in world evangelism with the same devoted, courageous, pioneer spirit.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I. (Thompson/Cummins) pp. 254-255.

 

 

112– April 22 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Prayer and a Biblical Educator

 

 

James Petigru Boyce was a fine scholar and very popular in his ways. He received his college education when it was not unusual for students and faculty to meet for prayer every evening. The spiritual welfare of Boyce became of great concern to some of his fellow students, and he became the object of special prayer that his gifts and graces might all be consecrated to Christ.

 

Shortly after one of these times of special prayer and fasting, Boyce took a ship from New York to Charleston, South Carolina. During this long journey, it was observed that he spent a great deal of time in his stateroom. A friend discovered that he was reading his Bible, and after much discourse together, Boyce came under deep conviction. Upon reaching the city, he found that his sister was also concerned with her spiritual welfare and that a close friend had just made his profession of faith.                                    Dr. Richard Fuller was preaching in the city with great effect, and a spiritual awakening was under way. Boyce’s conviction of sin increased, and he felt himself a ruined sinner and looked to the merits of Jesus Christ alone for his salvation. On April 22, 1846, he was baptized on that profession of faith. Boyce graduated from Brown University in 1847 and studied theology at Princeton from 1848 to 1851.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart from:  This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, p. 1623

 

 

50 – Feb. 19 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY

February 19, 1814 – Baptists organized for world missions in America. This came about primarily because of the influence of Adoniram and Ann Judson who had gone out to India in 1812. In 1808 while still unsaved Judson had entered Andover Theological Seminary but was happily saved in the month of September and consecrated himself to the work of the Christian ministry. Before the end of his first year he had read a sermon entitled “The Star in the East,” and in Feb. of 1809 he resolved to be a missionary. In June of 1809 he met Ann Hasseltine, who was to become his wife. In Sept. 1811 he was commissioned as a missionary; on Feb. 5, 1812, he and Ann were married; on Feb. 6 he was ordained as a Congregational minister and on the 19^th, the couple embarked on the brig Caravan for Calcutta, India. Their honeymoon was spent on the long voyage that ended on June 17 when they arrived after a very pleasant journey. Knowing that he would be working in the vicinity of the Baptist William Carey, Judson began thinking of the answer that he would give if the issue of baptism would be raised. In that he had been sprinkled as a baby he decided to study the issue anew from the scriptures. After a long struggle he became convinced after honest inquiry that the Baptist position of believer’s immersion was correct and that he would have to write to his Congregationalist mission and so inform them, which he did. He and Ann were baptized in the Baptist Chapel in Calcutta on September 6, 1812. Later Ann wrote a friend saying, “Thus, my dear Nancy, we are confirmed Baptists, not because we wished to be, but because truth compelled us to be…We feel that we are alone in the world, with no real friend but each other, no one on whom we can depend but God.”

Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 69-70.