275 – Oct. 02 – This Day in Baptist History Past

The Holy Spirit began troubling their spirit for world missions

The Northhamptonshire Baptist Association in England was formally incorporated on October 02, 1792, and the first subscription, made on the spot, amounted to E13. 2s. 6d. This sum, though small, was comparatively large; for it was the contribution of a few poor but enlightened servants of Jesus Christ. Our forefathers were forced for years to worship in clandestine assemblies for fear of persecution. As a result, believers had long forgotten the Great Commission of our Lord.  To be sure there was personal witnessing, but it was nearly impossible to carry the gospel into other nations.  

As Baptists gained religious freedom the Holy Spirit began troubling their spirit for world missions. One group was the Association mentioned above. “At the meeting in Nottingham in 1784, it was resolved to set apart an hour on the first Monday evening of every month, ‘for extraordinary prayer for the revival of religion, and for the extending of Christ’s kingdom in the world.’ The suggestion    proceeded from the venerable (John) Sutcliff”

From 1787 to 1790, William Carey presented the importance of missionary effort. Few were found who sympathized with him. Once in fact John Ryland censured Carey for suggesting a title for a younger minister to bring regarding a missions subject. But Thomas Potts had it published into a tract. At the May meeting Carey preached from Isa. 54:2-3. Expect Great things from God; Attempt great things for God.

The pastors were greatly moved which resulted in the organization of the missions organization and the launching of the modern day missionary movement. Carey himself was the first missionary to leave out for India.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 408-10.

 

 

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202 – July 20 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

Ten years that equaled a century

It is for some to go, and for others to hold the rope for others that go to the heathen world. Such was the lot of the Rev. Samuel Pearce who was ordained in 1789 as pastor of the Cannon Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, England in which he served until his death on Oct. 10, 1799. Though it only lasted ten years, William Cathcart said, “Measured by usefulness instead of years this young pastor preached for at least a century.” Pearce was a dear friend of Wm. Carey before the beginning of the missionary enterprise, and was one of the strongest advocates of the worldwide mission’s cause that the world has ever known. He desired to go with Carey but because of his physical frailties, the Missionary Society convinced him that he was of greater value for the cause of missions in England. His eloquence in the pulpit stirred many throughout England and Ireland to volunteer for and support of the work in India. As a staunch prayer warrior, Pearce carried every matter to the Lord and expected and received answers to his prayers. In 1794 he wrote to the ministers in the U.S. urging the formation of the American Baptist foreign missionary society, and credit must be given to Pastor Pearce, for the seed fell on good soil and bore fruit a hundredfold. Pearce was born in Birmingham, England, in July 20, 1766. As a boy he experienced seasons of great conviction as he considered his sin. When he was fifteen he saw a man die who cried out, “I am damned forever.” He was filled with terror for a year and hearing Rev. Birt of Plymouth, England, he was pointed to the Lamb of God, and found full assurance and peace with God. He was trained in the Bristol College. At 33 years of age he fell victoriously asleep in Jesus, with his dear wife comforting him.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 297-98.

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129 — May 08 – This Day in Baptist History Past

Southern Baptist Convention begins
For many years Baptists throughout America, without sectional distinctions, had cooperated in the work of missions. Gradual differences began to surface which were caused by cultural and geographical locations, but the matter came to a head with the issue of slavery. The period from 1832 to 1845 was a most difficult time of irritation, and finally in 1845, division came as the churches of the South concluded that they could best perform the work of missions by operating separately from the churches of the North.
In response to a call from the Board of the Virginia Foreign Baptist Missionary Society, a convention met in Augusta, Georgia, May 8, 1845.
Dr. William B. Johnson had been a prime mover in the establishment of the Triennial Convention and now championed the Southern Baptist Convention. In the May 8th meeting in Augusta, Johnson’s plan was adopted fully, and he was elected the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He served two terms in that capacity, from 1845 to 1851.

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 188 – 189
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121 — April 30 – This Day in Baptist History Past

IRA M. Allen
Sunday school: “the most successful opponent of the Prince of darkness”
In 1824 the “Latter Day Luminary,” a Baptist magazine for promoting missions, reported, “The Sunday School properly conducted is the greatest and most successful opponent of the Prince of darkness….Let these schools be cherished, let them be increased; soon the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the wilderness shall blossom as the rose.”
In time, Sunday school associations appeared, but these did not meet the need of Baptist churches, for literature had to be supplied that taught the Baptist distinctives. One of the first to see this need was Ira M. Allen, agent of the Baptist General Tract Society. In 1832 Allen wrote, “As it is, a part of the truth of God is excluded from all the Sunday School books published by the American Union, which furnish the principal reading for hundreds of thousands of youth throughout the land. And we, as a denomination, have not a single book for Sunday Schools, containing our distinguishing sentiments.”
“This was finally accomplished on April 30, 1840, in New York City when representations from fifteen states, from New Hampshire to Louisiana, voted to change the complexion and name of the tract society to ‘The American Baptist Publication and Sunday School Society.’”For the first time, it was possible for Baptist Sunday schools to secure biographical, doctrinal, and historical material written from a Baptist perspective.
Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 175-176
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http://the-trumpet-online.com For those interested, here is the place I get Baptist History. I am sure there would be a book available if interested. One would need to question by email to find availability. I do believe the title of the book would be – “This Day in Baptist History”  Authored by Cummins Thompson.

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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99 – April – 09 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

Justus Vinton
A husband and wife team
1834 – On this day Justus and Calista (Holman) Vinton were married.  They met at the Hamilton Bible Institute at Hamilton, NY where they had both gone to prepare themselves for the service of Christ.  Justus had been born on Feb. 17, 1806, in Wilmington, CT.  He received Christ at age ten and called to preach at fourteen, and in 1826 he entered the Bible Institute in Hamilton, NY. Calista was born on April 9, 1807 and at 16 she contracted an illness and was near death.  She requested to be baptized before she died, so they put her on a sleigh and took her to the river on a cold day in March and Pastor Grow baptized her.  From that day on she began to recover.  They sailed for Burma in July arriving in Maulmain in December.  Vinton conducted services on board the ship and led the captain, the steward and a number of the sailors to Christ.  Having studied the Karen language in school, the Vinton’s immediately began to evangelize among the Karens from village to village, which they continued for the next twenty-five years.  They took a furlough in 1848 to allow for Mrs. Vinton’s health and to give Mr. Vinton an opportunity to stimulate the mission cause, which he did.  After they returned to the field, war broke out and a Burmese evangelist in Rangoon asked them to come to assist the work there.  The mission directors back home disagreed so Vinton  resigned.  Through great privations they saw unusual results.  In one 20 month period Vinton baptized 441 converts.  Vinton died in 1858 with jungle fever.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 144.
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88 – March – 29 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

Abraham Marshall
Three generations of pastors
1832 – Jabez Marshall died and ended three generations of the Marshall’s family as the pastors of the Kiokee Baptist Church in Georgia.  His father Abraham and his grandfather Daniel had followed before him.  Jabez died of the complication of measles at the age of thirty-nine along with that of an overworked body.  This ended sixty years of the ministry of this one family.  Jabez was also the pastor of the Sharon Baptist Church and had founded the Salem Baptist Church.  Jabez had performed the marriage of Issachar J. Roberts in 1830 and his bride who pioneered a missions to lepers in China and finally died there of leprosy himself in 1866.  Jabez was a zealous advocate of all mission’s activities at that time.  At his own request he was buried at the church rather than in the family cemetery.  The Marshall family were Separate Baptists who ministered from 1772 to 1832.  Jabez was the oldest son of Abraham and Ann Marshall, but his early life didn’t hold much hope of spiritual fulfillment.  His father sent him off to college but he had little interest in an academic life.  When he returned home he was soon under great conviction of sin and was saved and baptized.  It wasn’t long until he was preaching and exhorting, and after proving the sincerity of his faith was ordained into the gospel ministry.  Abraham passed away in the summer of 1819 and Jabez served as the interim pastor of the church and then was called as full time pastor in Nov. 1821.  It wasn’t long that he proved himself to be the same caliber Shepherd that his father and grandfather had been for the flock.   He was persuasive in his preaching, and is messages never lacked doctrinal undergirding.  What a great reunion day that must have been when all three Marshall’s met again when home at last.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 127.
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50 – February-19 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

The Missions enterprise begins

1814 – BECAUSE OF ADONIRAM AND ANN JUDSON, BAPTISTS IN AMERICA FORM THEIR FIRST MISSIONS ORGANIZATION – On February 19, 1814 Baptists in America organized for the first time to support the cause of world-wide missions.  It all started in 1808 when Adoniram Judson, though unsaved entered Andover Theological Seminary.  He was saved in Sept. and immediately surrendered to the ministry.  During his first year he read a sermon entitled “Star in the East,” and Feb. 1809 he determined to be a missionary.  In June he met Ann Hasseltine who would become his wife.  In Sept. he was commissioned as a missionary; and on Feb. 5, 1812, he and Ann were married. On Feb. 6 he was ordained a Congregational minister; and on the 19th, they sailed on the brig Caravan for Calcutta, India.  Their honeymoon was spent on the long voyage that ended on June 17 with their arrival after a very pleasant journey.  Great changes took place for the Judson’s aboard ship.  Judson, knowing that he would be located in the vicinity of William Carey and other English Baptist missionaries thought that he should be able to defend his position on the subject of baptism and began a complete investigation in the N.T. in the original languages.  He was amazed to find, after a long struggle, that pedobaptism could not be found anywhere in the N.T. and came to adopt the Baptist position.  It was on Sept. 6, 1812 that Adoniram and Ann Judson were immersed in the Baptist chapel in Calcutta.  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.”  Judson wrote to the Third Congregational Church in Plymouth: “I knew that I had been sprinkled in infancy, and that this had been deemed baptism.  But throughout the whole N.T. I could find nothing that looked like sprinkling, in connection with the ordinance of Baptism…” Out of this came the great missions’ effort of Baptists mentioned above that continues to this day.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 69.

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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

361 – Dec. 27 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Results of Baptist missions in Italy

 

 

1832 – Dr. George Boardman Taylor was born, and when the call came for service in Italy he was already forty-one years of age. By then he had been educated at the University of Virginia and had served as pastor of churches in Baltimore, MD, and Staunton, VA. He was a chaplain during the Civil war having served in the Twenty-fifth Virginia Regiment under General Stonewall Jackson and had been wounded in battle. In 1880 Rev. and Mrs. J.H. Eager joined them in the ministry. However the mission suffered a setback in March of 1884 because of the death of Mrs. Taylor, which was deeply felt by all. By 1899 some fourteen churches had been founded on the Island of Sardinia and the cities of Rome, Milan, Venice, Bologna, and Naples. Also the missionaries reported that new stations were constantly being opened, and baptisms were more frequent than ever before, and the people were more eager to listen to the Word. Dr. Taylor’s labors continued thirty-four years until he was called home on Sept. 28, 1907, and then his son-in-law, Dexter G. Whittinghill, who had arrived in 1901 to assist him, was able to continue on with the mission. In 1923 the work had prospered to the point that there were fifty-seven churches with just over 2,300 total members. In 1863, James Wall and Edward Clark, two Baptists from England went to Italy. In 1845 Dr. William N. Cote was the first to go from America. Dr. Cote, with the help of an Italian convert, started the first Baptist church with eighteen members on Jan. 28, 1871. Problems then arose that caused Dr. Cote to resign, and Dr. Taylor was asked to take his place, and stabilize the work. [This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: 2000 A.D. pp. 709-10. George Braxton Taylor, Southern Baptists in Sunny Italy (New York: Walter Neal, Publisher, 1929), p. 30.]   Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

 

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