The “Haystack Prayer Meeting”

1783 – Luther Rice was born into a pedobaptist (Congregational) home on this memorable day.  He along with Adoniram and Ann Judson became Baptists when they were baptized in India, after studying the subject of baptism on the voyage, although on different ships.  Because of this they were compelled to sever relationship with their denomination which left them penniless and identify with the Baptists in America.  In our opinion, this was the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy found at Mat 24:14 – And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.   Prior to this there had been only scant missionary activity among the churches of North America and that was to the Indians and the settlers who had migrated westward.  But from this effort of Rice and the Judson’s a great flood of missionaries began to go forth to many parts of the world.  It all started with a group called the “Brethren” who had formed a missionary fellowship interested in world evangelism at Williams College (Congregational) in Massachusetts.  One day during a rain storm some of the “Brethren” took refuge under a haystack, and while there prayed for those in the world who lived in spiritual darkness.  It would forever be called the “Haystack Prayer Meeting.”  Even though Rice wasn’t at the haystack, he was a part of the “Brethren” and was the first with the Judsons to go forth.  Rice eventually returned to America to stir up the Baptists for world evangelism.  He became the rope holder while Judson was tied to the rope.  World missions needed them both.  In the North there were mission societies, in the South the Baptist method was conventions.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 121..

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313 – Nov. 09 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

We need submission to His commission

 

1844 – Dr. Jonathan Going went home to be with the Lord. Dr. Going, along with Rev. John Mason Peck founded the American Baptist Home Mission Society in 1832, whose goal was to promote the preaching of the gospel in North America. Going served as the corresponding secretary of the mission from 1832 to 1837. In 1838 he assumed the position of President of Granville College in Ohio. Jonathan was born to Jonathan and Sarah Going of Reading, Vermont, on March 7, 1786. He entered Brown University in 1805. As a student there he fell under deep conviction over his sins and received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and was licensed to preach by the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, while Stephen Gano was the pastor. This was during the time that the missionary fires were first beginning to burn hot in America. William Carey had gone to India in 1793. The Judsons and Luther Rice along with other Congregational missionaries had left our shores in 1812. The Judsons and Rice were converted to Baptist views on the ship as they sailed for Burma, and then Rice returned to create the first Baptist mission agency in 1814. Going had returned to Vermont to pastor and then to Worcester, Mass. where he had great success before his health broke. He took a leave of absence and with Peck went on a buggy trip through Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri before returning with the burning desire to evangelize the west. Someone has said concerning the Lord’s command that “There is no such thing as foreign missions or home missions. The real concern is submission to His Great Commission. [William Cathcart, The Baptist Encyclopedia (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 1:457. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 612-13.]   Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

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