115 – April 25 – This Day in Baptist History Past

An Exciting Missionary Adventure

The die was cast on April 25, 1844, when Richard Fuller, prominent pastor from Charleston, South Carolina, presented a resolution at the Triennial Convention to restrict its action to missions and not to become involved in the problem of slavery.  From 1814 until 1845, missionary efforts had been primarily made through the Triennial Convention, but in 1845 the split between North and South occurred.  However, Baptist associations in various states had formed small, independent mission agencies as well.  Richard Henry Stone, born in Culpeper county, Virginia on July 17, 1837, he was sent as a missionary by a Georgia association to serve the Lord in Africa.  He united with the Salem Baptist church in Culpeper County and answered the call of the Baptists in Georgia for a missionary to Africa, he and his wife Susan sailed out of Baltimore on November 4.  They were three months on the journey, and landed at Lagos.  They disciplined themselves to learn the Ijayte language, but with failing health, the couple was forced to return to the States.  Mr. Stone then joined the confederate army, and served as a chaplain with the 49th Georgia, Benning’s Brigade.  In 1867, with the completion of the war, Mr. Stone returned to Africa and Lagos for two years.  The last twenty years of Mr. Stone’s life were spent in Virginia and Kentucky where he supported his family by teaching.  Mr. stone died on October 7, 1894, and he was buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper.

Dr. Dale R. Hart adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History III (David L. Cummins) p.p.  239   –   241

267 – Sept. 24 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Few know the sacrifices of our missionaries

 

1942 – The S.S. West Lashaway, a ship on which the Shaw family, missionaries to French Equatorial Africa (now Central African Republic) was sunk by a German U Boat in the early days of WW II. The shipping lanes of the Atlantic were in constant danger of German subs, and later, for a while, the Japanese Navy ruled the Pacific in those awful days. Harvey and Carol Shaw had volunteered for missionary service in Africa in 1937 and now were forced to return with their three children. As the German torpedo ripped through the ship, Mr. Shaw, his daughter Carol (7) and son Richard (13) were thrown into the sea. Mrs. Shaw and daughter Georgia (11) were trapped in their cabin and went down with the ship. The survivors still had to survive fire from the German sub. When it left they found life jackets and rafts. Mr. Shaw didn’t make it, but the rest did after drifting for twenty-one days, and seeing the Lord wondrously provide food and fresh rain water. Finally they were rescued by a British destroyer after they nearly destroyed them with sixteen volleys of cannon, thinking that they were an enemy submarine. The sailors wept when they realized what they had nearly done. Other missionaries raised the Shaw children, and Richard later entered the ministry, and his sister Carol served the Lord as well. Few know of the sacrifices of our missionaries. [Polly Strong, Burning Wicks (Cleveland, Ohio: Baptist Mid-Missions, 1984), pp. 207-8. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 523-25]. Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

 

266 – Sept. 23 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

FEMA roots started sixty-years ago

 

1961 – David L. Cummins was pastoring in an industrial suburb of Detroit, MI when he was severely tested as to whether he would stand on his Baptist convictions, or compromise over what many would consider an insignificant issue. Those days were the height of the “cold” war between the U.S. and Russia when the media and movies were warning of the fall-out from a nuclear attack. Many citizens were building bomb shelters in their back yards and equipping them in case of an atomic attack. Against that background, Pastor Cummins was asked by the city officials to represent the community in a government sponsored training school, geared to train religious leaders in preparation for a possible nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. He consented and attended such a training session in classes daily, at Sheepshead Bay, NY, with about forty other clergymen for a week. On one occasion, after an attack, a young lady asked the pastors to give the “last rites” to her dying child. The instructor asked for a show of hands those who would be willing to do so. Cummins was the lone dissenter claiming the time honored Baptist doctrine of “soul liberty.” From then on he was ostracized by the others. This is the kind of treatment that preachers can expect, who refuse to go into the world religious system that will include all religions. [This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 521-23]

 

 

263 – Sept. 20 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

A courage that honored God

 

1944 – According to Winston Churchill, was the day that the Nijmegen Bridge  over the Waal-Rhine River in Holland, the longest bridge in Europe, fell into American hands in World War II.  Baptist Chaplain Captain Delbert Kuehl tells of the heroism of Henry, a nineteen year old Baptist paratrooper. Because of his Christian witness Henry had been given the nickname of “chaplain” of “H” company, and some less honorable names as well. The Germans were caught by surprise, but as the Americans reached the water, they opened fire. Many of our soldiers were hit by machine gun and mortar fire including Henry. However Henry, ignoring his wounds ministered to the fallen soldiers. Chaplain Kuehl insisted on Henry leaving in one of the boats which he did but then the Chaplain was surprised to see him back again, head bandaged, to assist others to get across even in the midst of heavy fire. He helped load one more man into the boat, and then collapsed, being weakened by loss of blood. At that time Henry, who was semi-conscious, was loaded into the boat and taken back to the friendly side of the river. Chaplain Kuehl said, “I shall never forget the courage of this young Christian Paratrooper—a courage that caused every fighting man to marvel and a courage that honored God.” [Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy (Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1953), p 198. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 515-17]
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

256 – Sept. 13 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

The Faith of the Lepers

 

1876 – Dr. James M. Haswell died after forty-one years of missionary service in Burma, with his dear wife Jane Mason, who he had married on August 23, 1835, and sailed for their chosen field one month later. He was more fruit from the Hamilton Theological Institute in Bennington, Vermont. Dr.Haswell mastered the Burmese language and then turned to the Pegulan dialect to reach the 80,000 of that tribe. He only took two furloughs, one in 1849 and another in 1867 and those were used to spur interest in missions. He was most diligent that his son James should follow him which he did but tragically died of cholera but a year after his father in 1877. But the Haswell vision lived on through their daughter Susan who founded the Maulmein Leper Colony in which she invested sixty years of her life. The government gave the land and the lepers themselves built the thatched roof buildings with, in some cases, stumps for hands and feet. It stood for years as a memorial to her and the faith of the lepers. Untold thousands were saved. [A.H. Burlingham, The Story of Baptist Missions in Foreign Lands (St. Louis: C.R. Barns Publishing Co., 1892), p. 944. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 501-02.]
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

251 – Sept. – 08 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Out of a Lonely Heart

 

1833 – Eliza G. Jones, wife of Rev. John Taylor Jones, missionaries to Burma and Siam, wrote the following from Bangkok, out of a lonely heart. “We feel that we are exiles from our native land, our beloved friends, the religious privileges we once enjoyed, and even from civilized life. Especially on the return of this day, on which we have been accustomed weekly to worship God in the assembly of his saints…When we look around on those among whom we dwell, and feel what it is to live in the midst of a ‘people of unclean lips,’ we are ready to cry with Israel’s psalmist, ‘My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord.’” Writing to her father, Rev. Henry Grew of Providence, R.I. concerning the death of their little daughter, she again shows us her heart: “I was able to throw myself into the arms of Jesus, and to enjoy the happiness of entire submission to the will of God….Life seemed but a moment, eternity a blessed reality. Heaven with all its glories was opened to the view of faith, and I exulted in the glorious anticipation of soon enjoying, with my dear child, its transporting visions; of seeing face to face that dear Savior Who died for us, and of bowing with her…in humble adoration at his feet…” [Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Memoir of Mrs. Eliza G. Jones (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication society, 1853), p. 22. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 492-93.]  Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

250 – Sept. 07 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Knibb – Center

 

He Helped Defeat the Slave Code

 

1803 – William Knibb was born in Kettering, England, eleven years after the first missionary society in modern history was founded in the same place in 1792. His father gave no indication of salvation, but his mother took the children to Sunday school at the Independent Chapel. William moved to Bristol with his older brother Thomas, and was baptized by Dr. John Ryland in 1822. Thomas went to Jamaica as a schoolmaster and died within four months. William applied to the same mission society to take his place, married on Oct. 1824, and sailed for that other world a month later. His heart broke to see the injustice of slavery. The Society wrote him to have nothing to do with civil or political affairs. He raised the money to set a Black slave free who had been flogged and made to work on a chain gang for two weeks because he attended a prayer meeting. He helped defeat the Slave Code which would have made missionary work among slaves impossible. He also went to England in 1832 to help Wilberforce in his effort to pass the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 through the British Parliament, which abolished slavery throughout most of the British Empire. He died in 1845 at the age of forty-two. [Ernest A. Payne, The Great Succession (London: Carey Press, 1946), p.44. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 490-91.] Prepared by Dr. Greg Dixon

 

249 – Sept. 06 -This Day in Baptist History Past

Toleration v Liberty

1741 – John James, William Fulsher, Francis Ayers, Lemuel Harvey, Nicholas Purefoy, and John Brooks, ‘first day ana-baptists’, were all whipped, were bound over to keep the peace, and required to give bonds for their good behavior, and also to take the test oath. This was according to the New Bern Journal of New Bern, N.C. The dusty records in the Register’s office show that in 1741 the Baptists applied to erect a church building, but instead of granting permission, they were whipped and jailed by the Episcopalian authorities. This was in spite of the fact that Colonial Americans were under the protection of the English Toleration Act of 1689. In Every Colony from Maine to N.C. the Baptists and other non-conformists had suffered persecution except for the Baptist state of Rhode Island. [Geo. Wash. Paschal, History of North Carolina Baptists (Raleigh: General Board N.C. Baptist St. Con., 1930), 1:187-89. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 488-89.]  Prepared by Dr. Greg Dixon

248 – Sept. 05 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Set Free Forever More

 

1651 – John Spur and John Hazel, both elderly men, were hauled into court in Salem, Mass. for the horrible “crime” of offering sympathy to Obadiah Holmes, at the time of his brutal beating by the authorities, for preaching without a license from the Congregational Church. Neither men were convinced Baptists as yet, but Spur had been excommunicated from the Salem Congregational Church for declaring his opposition to infant baptism. Spur was given his choice of a forty shilling fine, or a whipping. Someone paid his fine, which he declined, but the court took it and released him anyway. Hazel, though very Ill, defended himself by saying, “…what law have I broken in taking my friend by the hand when he was free and had satisfied the law?” The sentence was still given: Hazel was to pay a fine or be whipped. Five days went by and when he refused to pay, the jailer released him, but he refused to leave without a discharge. The jailer gave it to him and he left totally free of all charges. Three days later, on Sept. 13, 1651 John Hazel was with the Lord Jesus, set free forever more. [Edwin S. Gaustad, Baptist Piety (Grand Rapids, Mich.: WmB. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1978), p. 30. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 486-487.]  Prepared by Dr. Greg Dixon

 

 

246 – Sept. 03 -This Day in Baptist History Past

 

He Served Longer than the Others

 

1884 – W. Holman Bentley sailed from England to the Congo to begin his second tour of missionary service, married for the first time, and with four other men and their families. Holman was the son of Rev. William Bentley, Baptist minister at Sudsbury, Suffolk, England. Holman was born Oct. 30, 1855. At 17 young Holman was reading from the Hebrew Psalter and Greek New Testament and at 19 was baptized into the Downs Chapel (Baptist) at Clapton. He became actively involved in witnessing. He was appointed as a missionary by the Baptist Mission Society on Jan. 15, 1879. The Congo missionaries had many trials including escapes from wild animals, disease and cannibals. Bentley served longer than any of the others who left with him in 1879. Even though he only lived to be fifty he translated the N.T. into Congolese and gave the people a complete dictionary and grammar. He saw over 1200 baptized and according to historians saw a whole district of wild, barbarous people almost completely evangelized and civilized, if not Christianized. [H.M. Bentley, W. Holman Bentley-The Life and labors of a Congo Pioneer (London: religious Tract Society, 1907), p8. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 481-483.]  Prepared by Dr. Greg Dixon