F£^5gffii'! 
 
 uaiiilgilH'i 
 
Division BX G 2- 3 
 Section .V4i Z 
 
THE BAPTISTS 
 

 ^4h 
 
The Story of the Churches 
 
 The Baptists 
 
 
 v<By 
 HENRY C. VEDDER, D. D. 
 
 Professor of Church History in Crozer Theological 
 Seminary 
 
 HEVf YORK: THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO. 
 33-37 East Seventeenth St., Union Sq. North 
 
Copyright, 1902, 
 
 By 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co. 
 
 Published, February, igoj 
 
The aim of this series is to furnish a uniform 
 set of church histories, brief but complete, 
 and designed to instruct the average church 
 member in the origin, development, and his- 
 tory of the various denominations. Many 
 church histories have been issued for all de- 
 nominations, but they have usually been 
 volumes of such size as to discourage any 
 but students of church history. Each vol- 
 ume of this series, all of which will be 
 written by leading historians of the various 
 denominations, will not only interest the 
 members of the denomination about which 
 it is written, but will prove interesting to 
 members of other denominations as well 
 who wish to learn something of their fellow 
 workers. The volumes will be bound uni- 
 formly, and when the series is complete will 
 make a most valuable history of the Chris- 
 tian church. 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Who and What are the Baptists ? . . 7 
 
 II. The Histoeical Antecedents of the 
 
 Baptists 24 
 
 III. The Beginnings of Baptist Chueches . 66 
 
 IV. Baptists in Great Britain and her 
 
 Dependencies 100 
 
 V. Baptist Beginnings in America . . . 135 
 
 VI. Baptists in the United States .... 162 
 
 VII. Baptist Missions 208 
 
The Baptists 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 WHO AND WHAT ARE THE BAPTISTS? 
 
 Knowledge of the Baptists, even among 
 well-informed people, is often confined to a 
 single fact — they are a religious body that 
 practice immersion. This is, to be sure, ac- 
 curate knowledge as far as it goes, but it 
 goes a very little way. It does not serve to 
 distinguish Baptists from many other de- 
 nominations. Not a few persons will hear 
 with surprise that there are in the United 
 States, besides the Baptists, at least ten re- 
 ligious bodies — some of them quite numer- 
 ous — that uniformly practice immersion, and 
 three others that practice it frequently. 
 While it is true that the administration of 
 7 
 
8 The Baptists 
 
 this rite has been the most striking charac- 
 teristic of Baptists, from the time that they 
 appeared as a separate people, early in the 
 seventeenth century, they have from the 
 first held a distinctive group of doctrines. 
 To understand these is a necessary prelimi- 
 nary to a comprehension of their history. 
 The cardinal, the fundamental principle of 
 
 I Baptists is loyal obedience to Jesus Christ. 
 This they conceive to be the essence of 
 Christianity. To be a Christian is not to 
 have had a certain "experience," not to be- 
 lieve a certain creed, not to perform a pre- 
 scribed round of rites and observances, but 
 to obey Christ, "if ye love me, keep my 
 commandments." Baptists therefore de- 
 cline to recognize the distinctions some- 
 times made between "essentials" and 
 "non-essentials" among Christ's com- 
 mands. They hold every command to be 
 essential, in the place and for the purpose 
 commanded. And they deny the right of 
 
 V any human authority to abrogate or alter 
 
Who the Baptists Are 9 
 
 any command that Christ gave to his dis- 
 ciples to be observed for all time. 
 
 Because of the authority thus recognized 
 in Jesus Christ, Baptists receive the Scrip- 
 tures — the written word of Christ — as the 
 sole and sufficient rule of faith and practice. 
 No special theory of inspiration has accept- 
 ance among them; they are committed to 
 no views of the authorship and dates of the 
 various books, and are free to accept the 
 ultimate conclusions of sound scholarship. 
 Their thought has never been better put than 
 in the Philadelphia Confession — which is 
 practically identical with the confession of 
 the English Baptist Assembly of 1689, which 
 again is the Westminster Confession slightly 
 revised: "The whole counsel of God, con- 
 cerning all things necessary for his own 
 glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either 
 expressly set down or necessarily contained 
 in the holy Scripture; unto which nothing 
 at any time is to be added, whether by a 
 new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of 
 
10 The Baptists 
 
 men." All creeds, all writings of the 
 Fathers, all decisions of councils, are the 
 opinions of fallible men, which must stand 
 or fall as they agree with the Scriptures. 
 The only authority to interpret these 
 writings is the Spirit of God, promised to 
 every believer that asks for his enlightening. 
 It is not merely the privilege, it is the duty, 
 of every Christian to interpret the Scriptures 
 for himself; no one can relieve him from 
 this responsibility, none should be suffered 
 to rob him of this right. 
 
 Because they accept the Scriptures as an 
 authoritative guide, Baptists hold that a 
 church of Christ consists of those, and of 
 those only, who have been baptized upon a 
 credible profession of faith, and walk con- 
 sistently in accord with such profession. 
 They find no warrant, express or implied, 
 in the New Testament for the baptism of 
 infants. There is confessedly no command 
 to baptize infants. Candid scholars, not 
 Baptists, admit that there is no clear case of 
 
Who the Baptists Are u 
 
 infant baptism in apostolic times. But more 
 than this: Baptists hold that the baptism 
 of any but believers is contrary to the whole 
 spirit of Christianity, and that it totally sub- 
 verts the principle on which the Church of 
 Christ was founded. Judaism had been 
 based upon natural descent, upon the law 
 of the flesh, but Jesus came to teach and es- 
 tablish the utterly new law of the spirit. 
 " Except a man be born from above, he can- 
 not see the kingdom of God. . . . That 
 which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which 
 is born of the Spirit is spirit." To be a 
 Christian is to enter into a new and spiritual 
 relation to God, through faith in his 
 Son. 
 
 This is to exalt the spiritual above the 
 fleshly in Christ's Church, to put reality above 
 form. It marks the sharp break between 
 the religion of Christ and all other religions. 
 In every other religion one has certain rights 
 because of natural birth — the Jew, for ex- 
 ample, was a Jew because he was a lineal 
 
12 The Baptists 
 
 descendant of Abraham. But no man is a 
 Christian because his parents were Chris- 
 tians, he can be a Christian only if he has 
 been spiritually born into the kingdom of 
 God. Religion thus becomes, according to 
 Christ's teaching, a matter between each 
 human soul and God. There is no need of 
 priestly mediation, there is no possibility of 
 regeneration by a magical "sacrament." 
 To baptize one who has not believed is, in 
 the eye of a Baptist, an empty form, but as 
 the act of one who sees in it more than that, 
 it is something worse: it is an impertinent 
 interference with the personal rights of 
 another soul, it is to nullify the fundamental 
 principle of the gospel of Christ. 
 
 Because they accept the Scriptures and 
 not tradition as authority. Baptists practice 
 immersion only as baptism. No candid 
 scholarship to-day professes to find any- 
 thing but immersion in the New Testa- 
 ment, or in the practice of the Church for 
 centuries. One great branch of the Catho- 
 
Who the Baptists Are 13 
 
 lie Church — the Greek — to this day recog- 
 nizes no other practice. The old polemic 
 literature of baptism is out of date and use- 
 less, and this is equally true of both sides 
 of the controversy. Those who do not 
 practice immersion have shifted their 
 ground. They no longer deny, they rather 
 frankly admit, that immersion was the 
 apostolic practice and long continued to be 
 the general, if not the universal, rule of the 
 Church. But, they plead, "other times, 
 other manners." Christianity is a spiritual 
 religion, and its followers are not in bond- 
 age to a rite, however ancient and ex- 
 pressive. In the wise exercise of discretion, 
 the Church has seen fit to change the 
 ancient form to one more suited to modern 
 ideas, dress, customs. It is a triumph of 
 good sense over narrow literalism! Bap- 
 tists have found themselves unable to ac- 
 quiesce in such a triumph; they hold fast 
 to the command of Christ and the example 
 of his apostles. 
 
14 The Baptists 
 
 For a like reason, Baptists teach that the 
 second Christian rite, the Lord's supper or 
 eucharist, was instituted for the followers 
 of Christ alone, that is, those who have be- 
 lieved in him and confessed their faith in 
 baptism. The New Testament writings 
 make this mutual relation plain, in regard- 
 ing baptism as the beginning of the new 
 life in Christ, the symbol of regeneration, 
 while the supper is the symbol of the union 
 of the believer with Christ, and the sus- 
 tentation of the new life in him. This 
 teaching of the Scriptures is so plain, so 
 perfectly unmistakable, that for fifteen cen- 
 turies, among all the vagaries of the swarm- 
 ing heretical sects, none ever proposed that 
 the unbaptized should be admitted to the 
 eucharist. It was reserved for Faustus 
 Socinus first to teach that baptism is not 
 necessary to Christian discipleship, that 
 men may enter the church of Christ and 
 enjoy all its privileges without baptism, but 
 are under obligation to observe the eucharist. 
 
Who the Baptists Are 15 
 
 Even at the present day, however, no de- 
 nomination in its official standards author- 
 izes the invitation of the unbaptized to the 
 table of the Lord. What is known as 
 "open " communion is the attempt — some- 
 times deliberate, but more often uncon- 
 scious — to set aside, for considerations of 
 sentiment, the historical consensus of Chris- 
 tendom as to the teaching of the New Tes- 
 tament upon this rite. 
 
 In the matter of church polity. Baptists 
 also attempt to take the New Testament as 
 their guide, and to follow the simplicity of 
 apostolic times. In the apostolic period, 
 the believers of any locality formed an as- 
 sembly or church. There were no officers 
 in these churches, except elders or bishops, 
 and deacons. Each church enjoyed an ab- 
 solute autonomy, and no external authority 
 existed. In cases of need, a church called 
 on others for help, and the other churches 
 recognized their obligation to render aid. 
 In doubt and difficulty a church asked ad- 
 
i6 The Baptists 
 
 vice, and the other churches acknowledged 
 their duty to give counsel. All believers, 
 in every place and in all time, are sometimes 
 spoken of as constituting one assembly or 
 church; but this is an ideal, not an actual 
 body. The idea of one universal visible 
 Church, with local branches here and there, 
 is a conception foreign to the New Testa- 
 ment, the gradual evolution of the second 
 and third centuries. So Baptists understand 
 the Scriptures and history, and they shape 
 their polity accordingly. 
 
 Because the religion of Christ is a strictly 
 personal matter — a transaction between the 
 soul and God, into which no third party can 
 enter — Baptists hold that a State Church is 
 an absurdity, as well as an intolerable 
 wrong. God himself, by giving man free- 
 dom of choice, has put it beyond the scope 
 of omnipotence to coerce men into his king- 
 dom. Why should man attempt what is 
 beyond the power of God? Absurdity 
 could no further go. Nor can any wrong 
 
Who the Baptists Are 17 
 
 be more intolerable than interference with 
 that most sacred of all rights, the right of 
 each man to decide for himself what shall 
 be his relation to God. To worship God 
 according to one's own conscience, rather 
 than according to another's, is the right 
 men are least willing to surrender. But an 
 established religion, a State Church, is a flat 
 denial of that right. It cannot be anything 
 else. True, under a State Church there 
 may be toleration of all sects, but by what 
 principle does one man "tolerate" another 
 in the exercise and enjoyment of that which 
 is the equal right of both ? He who toler- 
 ates, because that is expedient, in so doing 
 silently asserts the right to persecute, if that 
 shall become expedient. For a long time 
 Baptists were the only religious body to 
 recognize these truths, to stand fast for 
 equal religious liberty as the heritage of all 
 men, and therefore to agitate for complete 
 separation between Church and State. All 
 America has come to agree with them, and 
 
l8 The Baptists 
 
 the whole world is moving toward the 
 same goal. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, that Baptists 
 came to hold just these doctrines and no 
 others by no mere accident. These prin- 
 ciples are a logical whole, necessary corol- 
 laries of the fundamental tenet of loyalty to 
 Christ and obedience to his word. Not 
 one of them is superfluous, nor is it easy to 
 suggest an addition. These are the prin- 
 ciples that Baptists came into existence to 
 maintain; it is these principles that justify 
 their continued existence. They are vitally 
 important, and they are held and con- 
 sistently enforced in practice by no other 
 body. 
 
 When Baptists came into existence as a 
 separate people has been a hotly debated 
 question. The answer depends mainly on 
 the definition of the name. If by Baptist is 
 meant a people called by that title, and hold- 
 ing in all important respects just the doc- 
 trines held by Baptist churches to-day, then 
 
Who the Baptists Are 19 
 
 it is vain to seek for such before the seven- 
 teenth century. But if by Baptist were 
 meant any mediaeval sect that agreed with 
 present-day Baptists in the fundamental 
 matter of baptizing believers only, while 
 practicing that form of baptism in common 
 use about them (affusion), it would be pos- 
 sible to carry the history of Baptists back to 
 the twelfth century, perhaps earlier still. 
 No little confusion and dispute has been 
 caused by this looser use of the name, and 
 in this book it has seemed best therefore to 
 confine the name to its well-established his- 
 toric sense, as describing an offshoot of the 
 English Separatists, who first achieved an in- 
 dependent existence early in the seventeenth 
 century, adopted the exclusive practice of 
 immersion, and in consequence received the 
 name Baptists about 1644. 
 
 The earliest historians of the Baptists had 
 learned the facts about the origin of their 
 denomination, and set them forth properly. 
 Later writers, who had made little or no in- 
 
20 The Baptists 
 
 vestigation, and had not even read the 
 earlier historians carefully, inspired by de- 
 nominational pride and anxious to make 
 good a claim of Baptists to antiquity, at- 
 tempted to carry back the history to the 
 earliest Christian times. It is now an article 
 of faith, among the Baptists of a certain large 
 region of the United States, that there have 
 been churches of their order from the days 
 of the apostles until now^, and woe to him 
 who denies a dogma none the less binding 
 because it is unwritten. The holders of 
 this new theory rely less on historic evi- 
 dence than on exegesis for proof — which is 
 wise, for facts are lacking, but exegesis is 
 easily supplied. For example: Christ said 
 that the gates of Hades should not prevail 
 against his Church; but the churches of the 
 New Testament times are such as Baptist 
 churches are to-day, and no others; hence, 
 if there had ever been a time when Baptist 
 churches did not exist, the gates of Hades 
 would have prevailed and Christ's promise 
 
Who the Baptists Are 21 
 
 would have lacked fulfilment. But that is 
 unthinkable by a Christian — heaven and 
 earth shall pass away, but not the word 
 of Christ — hence there must always have 
 been Baptist churches in existence. — 
 Q. E. D. 
 
 This method of treating Baptist history is 
 not only recent and provincial, but is op- 
 posed to the fundamental conception of the 
 older writers. They attached no such im- 
 portance to the proof of antiquity. They 
 appealed for justification of teaching and 
 practice, not to any traceable outward de- 
 scent from the apostles, but to actual cor- 
 respondence with the New Testament — the 
 only kind of apostolic succession they es- 
 teemed worth having. They also recog- 
 nized the fact that if antiquity be made the 
 test of truth, Rome has the judgment in her 
 favor rendered in advance. On every 
 account, therefore, they forebore factitious 
 and ridiculous claims to an ancient origin, 
 and, though often taunted with being a 
 
22 The Baptists 
 
 people of yesterday, they contented them- 
 selves with replying that their principles 
 were the oldest form of the Christian 
 faith. 
 
 All students of history are to-day trained 
 in the rigorous application of the scientific 
 method. And what the ordinary lay reader 
 wishes to know of any religious body is, 
 What are the well ascertained facts ? — facts 
 established by documents of indubitable 
 genuineness, facts witnessed by competent 
 contemporary observers. To answer this 
 question candidly and succinctly, so far as 
 it relates to the Baptists, is the object of the 
 succeeding pages. It will there be shown 
 that a succession of principles, like those 
 held by the Baptist churches of to-day, may 
 be easily traced from the twelfth century 
 onward to our own times. The tracing of 
 these principles is a necessary and legitimate 
 part of the history, for though Baptists are 
 of late origin, they did not spring out of the 
 ground and invent de novo the type of 
 
Who the Baptists Are 23 
 
 doctrine and practice associated with their 
 name. Their roots go back many cen- 
 turies before their definite origin and formal 
 organization. 
 
CHAPTER 11 
 
 THE HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS OF THE BAPTISTS 
 
 The immediate spiritual ancestors of the 
 Baptists were the Mennonites, whose name 
 was derived from a Roman Catholic priest, 
 Menno Simons, who left the Roman 
 Church about the year 1536 and became 
 an independent evangelistic teacher. He 
 had been led to this course, in part by per- 
 sistent doubts concerning the teachings of 
 the Church, but still more by his long and 
 careful study of the Scriptures, in which he 
 finally became well versed. He did not 
 originate the doctrines and practices of the 
 sect that came to bear his name, nor did he 
 found the sect, but as the most prominent 
 of its leaders he came in time to hold 
 a place not less influential than that of 
 
 founder. He at least refounded the body, 
 24 
 
Historical Antecedents 25 
 
 drawing together a scattered and disorgan- 
 ized people, and winning thousands of new 
 converts. 
 
 The fundamental principle of the Mennon- 
 ites was that the Scriptures alone are to be 
 received as authority, and for Christian 
 practice only the New Testament is authori- 
 tative. It was plain to them that the Scrip- 
 tures teach the baptism of believers only, 
 and contain no warrant, whether of precept 
 or example, for the baptism of infants. It 
 did not appear equally plain to them that 
 baptism is immersion only, and for the 
 most part they have always been content 
 with practicing that form of baptism in 
 vogue about them. To this rule there have 
 been a few exceptions. A congregation at 
 Rhynsburg introduced the practice of im- 
 mersion in 1619, and a branch of the Men- 
 nonites that settled in Russia also became 
 immersionists. The great majority, how- 
 ever, are affusionists to this day, 
 
 A curious people, in many ways, were 
 
26 The Baptists 
 
 these followers of Menno. A tendency to 
 over-literal interpretation of the Scriptures 
 early manifested itself among them, and led 
 to the adoption of some practices that later 
 became distinguishing features of the fol- 
 lowers of George Fox. They forbade all 
 oaths, even judicial oaths, and refused to 
 bear arms, even in self-defence. They en- 
 forced plainness of dress and general non- 
 conformity to worldly customs, and in 
 their church discipline they supervised the 
 details of business, family and personal 
 conduct to a degree that most folk would 
 reckon tyrannous as well as inquisitorial. 
 That, notwithstanding these peculiarities, 
 they were a mild, peace-loving, law-abi- 
 ding, industrious, virtuous people, is the re- 
 luctant yet admiring testimony of their 
 bitterest foes and persecutors. 
 
 These virtues, and the simplicity of their 
 teaching, won favor for the Mennonites 
 through a large part of the Continent of 
 Europe. Throughout Holland, Denmark, 
 
Historical Antecedents 27 
 
 Germany and Western Russia, Menno and 
 his fellow-missionaries went, amid con- 
 stant privations and dangers, preaching the 
 gospel and everywhere baptizing converts. 
 Only the most stringent measures of re- 
 pression kept the sect from making rapid 
 growth in every place. In Holland, where 
 alone they enjoyed a fair measure of tolera- 
 tion, they did increase to the number of 
 many thousands. But for the most part, 
 their history is to be traced by the records 
 of bloody martyrdoms, with which the 
 archives of those times abound. Many of 
 these records have been recovered and pub- 
 lished, and the result is a story of patient 
 endurance of wrong, of heroic perseverance 
 in the face of certain anguish and death, 
 such as may indeed be paralleled but can- 
 not be surpassed in all the history of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 From time to time, companies of these 
 Mennonites found their way to England. 
 We find traces of them early in the reign of 
 
28 The Baptists 
 
 Henry VIII, and these continue throughout 
 the Tudor dynasty. The sect may be 
 traced by the royal proclamations in which 
 their errors were denounced, and by the 
 records of their arrest and punishment. It 
 was the policy at times of the Tudor mon- 
 archs to encourage immigration from Hol- 
 land, for the building up of certain English 
 manufactures; and such immigrants, dwell- 
 ing in certain specified towns, were per- 
 mitted to enjoy their own religious cus- 
 toms, with little or no molestation. With 
 these exceptions, Mennonites who came to 
 England were likely to find that they had 
 gone further and fared worse. 
 
 In England, these people were seldom or 
 never called Mennonites, but Anabaptists. 
 They remained, to all appearance, a sepa- 
 rate people, not making any considerable 
 impression on the English. We know from 
 the official records that some men and 
 women of English birth joined the sect, but 
 there is no trustworthy account of Ana- 
 
Historical Antecedents 29 
 
 baptist churches composed of Enghshmen 
 during this period. Of the individual Eng- 
 lish Anabaptists known to us, the most 
 noteworthy is Joan Boucher, or Joan of Kent, 
 who was burned for heresy in 1550, the 
 story of whose martyrdom is known to all 
 readers of Fox's " Book of Martyrs." The 
 last man to suffer at the stake in England, 
 Edward Wightman, who was burned in 
 161 1, was also an Anabaptist. At least, the 
 two chief errors alleged against him were 
 denial of the Trinity, and of the baptism of 
 infants. The first tenet was by no means 
 characteristic of Anabaptists, but was held 
 by a few who had been influenced by the 
 writings of Socinus. Between Joan of Kent 
 and Wightman many witnessed to the truth 
 with their lives, to say nothing of those 
 still larger numbers that suffered the minor 
 penalties of fines and imprisonment, whip- 
 pings and banishment. But even though 
 these Anabaptists, speaking a foreign 
 tongue and dwelling clannishly by them- 
 
30 The Baptists 
 
 selves, did not make converts of English- 
 men on any great scale, and apparently left 
 no English churches of their order, their so- 
 journ in England was not without effect 
 upon that country. They certainly did 
 something toward preparing the soil, and 
 to some extent they sowed the seed, for the 
 later growth of English Baptists. 
 
 It has already been said that Menno did 
 not originate the sect that took his name. 
 There were Mennonites before Menno, but 
 they had been called Anabaptists. He 
 found ready to his hand, though disorgan- 
 ized and scattered, a people already holding 
 and practicing what he had by his studies 
 discovered to be the teaching of the Scrip- 
 tures. Indeed, we are told that it was the 
 constancy of one of their number when 
 persecuted for his faith, even to the death, 
 which had been one of the chief means of 
 opening his own eyes and promoting his 
 complete enlightenment. It was after he 
 had become a preacher of the truth that the 
 
Historical Antecedents 31 
 
 Anabaptists rallied under his leadership, and 
 under the new name renewed their exist- 
 ence, which had been threatened with ex- 
 tinction. For these Anabaptists were the 
 most hated and despised and bitterly per- 
 secuted folk of the Reformation period, 
 with what reason the reader shall judge 
 when he has read their history and teach- 
 ings. 
 
 The Anabaptists appear in the early years 
 of the Reformation, almost simultaneously 
 in both Germany and Switzerland — appear 
 with a suddenness, and in so many places 
 at once, as to compel the conclusion that 
 they too (like the Mennonites) were not 
 then and there originated, but are the reap- 
 pearance of an older party under a new 
 name. One difficulty in studying their his- 
 tory is due to the fact that contemporary 
 writers used the name " Anabaptist " very 
 loosely, it having become a term of con- 
 tumely, and as such was applied to persons 
 to whom it did not properly belong — to 
 
32 The Baptists 
 
 anybody whom the dominant rehgious 
 party esteemed dangerous heretics or pesti- 
 lent fellows. 
 
 The Anabaptists do not appear as a sepa- 
 rate party in the first stages of tiie Refor- 
 mation, but this is sufficiently explained by 
 the fact that the reformers at first professed 
 strictly evangelical and radical ideals and 
 purposes. The refusal of Luther, particu- 
 larly from the Leipzig disputation of the 
 summer of 15 19, to accept anything but the 
 Scriptures as authority in either faith or 
 practice, was all that the most radical 
 evangelical asked or desired. He only de- 
 manded the faithful, the consistent applica- 
 tion of this principle to all questions, as they 
 arose in turn and demanded solution. 
 Zwingli also, from the very beginning of 
 the reform at Zurich — long before the 
 citizens were aware that the reform had 
 begun, in fact — had avowed the same prin- 
 ciple again and again, in the strongest pos- 
 sible words. Both reformers spoke most 
 
Historical Antecedents 33 
 
 explicitly in favor of the rights of the indi- 
 vidual conscience, the universal priesthood 
 of believers, the duty of each Christian to 
 interpret the Scriptures for himself, and 
 Luther at least had denounced the wicked- 
 ness of persecution for the sake of religion. 
 Here v^as doctrine as radical as the Anabap- 
 tists ever proclaimed. How were those 
 who really held these as cardinal beliefs to 
 know that the reformers only half held 
 them — held them only in the strictly modi- 
 fied sense, that nobody else was to go fur- 
 ther and faster than they in the practical 
 application of these principles ? As the real 
 meaning of the reformers became clear, the 
 Anabaptists stood forth as a separate party. 
 This is especially true of the reform in 
 Switzerland. In the first public disputation 
 at Zurich (January 29, 1523), which marks 
 the formal beginning of the reform move- 
 ment, the council ordered that the dis- 
 putants should " use the holy divine word 
 in the German tongue and speech," and 
 
34 The Baptists 
 
 promised that the decision should be "ac- 
 cording to what shall prove itself to be con- 
 sonant with Holy Scripture and truth." 
 Throughout the discussion Zwingli refused, 
 with the approval of the council and his 
 auditors, to listen to any argument not 
 founded on the Scriptures. Although his 
 chief opponent, Faber, was very anxious to 
 quote Fathers and councils against Zwingli's 
 doctrines, he could not oppose them by the 
 text of Scripture; and the council therefore 
 decided that Zwingli had won the victory, 
 and ordered him to go on proclaiming the 
 pure gospel. The people of Zurich gener- 
 ally approved this decision — there were no 
 dissidents save those inclined still to adhere 
 to the Roman Church. 
 
 Already the question had been raised in 
 Zurich whether the Scriptures justified the 
 baptism of infants. Zwingli, Oekolampa- 
 dius, and others prominent among the 
 reformers, recognized that no direct com- 
 mand or clear precedent can be cited from 
 
Historical Antecedents 35 
 
 the New Testament for this traditional 
 practice, and they were much inchned at 
 first to give up a custom so ill supported. 
 But before they had fully decided on their 
 course, difficulties arose. The radical group 
 at Zurich insisted not merely on the sur- 
 render of infant baptism, but on the total 
 reorganization of the church, in accord with 
 the New Testament. There we find, said 
 they, churches consisting only of believers, 
 those who have not only made a sincere 
 and credible profession of faith in Christ, 
 but attest the profession to be true by a 
 godly life. 
 
 This was an altogether different ideal 
 from that cherished by Zwingli, who was a 
 patriot as well as a Christian, not more 
 preacher than he was politician. He did not 
 believe it possible thus to separate the Church 
 from the world, and it appeared to him sui- 
 cidal to enter on a policy that, if successful, 
 would certainly lose the reformers the sup- 
 port of the Zurich council. Reform, not by 
 
36 The Baptists 
 
 the power of the truth alone, but by the 
 authority of the government; a Church, not 
 composed of the regenerate only, but of 
 all the community who were not openly 
 vicious and irreligious; a Church, not de- 
 pending on voluntary gifts for its support, 
 but supported by the State, and in some 
 measure therefore controlled by the State; 
 in short, a reform not purely religious, but 
 in part political — this was the ideal of 
 Zwingli and most of his coworkers. 
 
 Nor should it surprise us that they were 
 not ready to accept the programme of the 
 radicals. That was vague and not a little 
 alarming, theirs was precise, definite and 
 safe. There had been no demonstration as 
 yet of the possibility of a Church dissociated 
 from State support and State control. Vol- 
 untaryism seemed a frightful risk to a clergy 
 accustomed to draw sure stipends from a 
 well-filled treasury; it seemed a frightful 
 certainty of disorder, heresy and trouble to 
 the politician, accustomed to the legal regu- 
 
Historical Antecedents 37 
 
 lation of ecclesiastical affairs. And there- 
 fore, when it became clear to the reformers 
 that there was a close and necessary con- 
 nection between a State Church and infant 
 baptism, Zwingli and the majority of his 
 coworkers reconsidered the question, and 
 without much difficulty found arguments 
 from the Scriptures for the retention of 
 infant baptism. 
 
 The radicals, however, not only held fast 
 to their contention, but followed out the 
 logic of their convictions. If they were 
 right in maintaining that infant baptism 
 was not warranted by the Scriptures, that 
 it was therefore a void and meaningless 
 form, what followed? Why, that they 
 had never been baptized at all, and the 
 command of Christ had not been obeyed 
 by them. Obviously, if the only real bap- 
 tism was a baptism of a believer, on his 
 own confession of faith in Christ, it was 
 their duty to confess him and be baptized 
 at once. Early in 1525 such baptisms on 
 
38 The Baptists 
 
 confession began among them, and in a 
 short time all the radicals had submitted to 
 this new baptism. The method employed 
 in these first cases was affusion — it is dis- 
 tinctly recorded that persons were baptized 
 from a basin or bowl. Later, in some 
 cases, immersion was practiced; but while 
 this method was more and more used, it 
 seems never to have become an exclusive 
 practice, as it did later in England. Nor 
 did it become a cause of division or dispute. 
 It was because this group of radical re- 
 formers thus insisted on administering bap- 
 tism, by whatever method, to adults who 
 had (as all others believed) been baptized in 
 infancy, that their opponents began to call 
 them Anabaptists, or Wiedertauffer, both of 
 which mean r^-baptizers. And it was be- 
 cause this act challenged not only the 
 validity of their opponents' baptism, but 
 the validity of their whole church order — 
 in effect declaring the State Church to be no 
 church — that severe measures of repression 
 
Historical Antecedents 39 
 
 were immediately undertaken. The Ana- 
 baptist hencefortii was held to be not 
 merely a heretic, but a rebel; he not only 
 set up a practice different from that which 
 satisfied others, but he questioned the au- 
 thority of the council, and declared its 
 measures wrong. It is not altogether won- 
 derful that the Zurich authorities found this 
 intolerable. 
 
 The leaders of the Anabaptists in Zurich 
 were a group of men well worthy to be 
 compared with Zwingli himself. They 
 were such men as Conrad Grebel, son of a 
 Zurich councillor, educated at the Univer- 
 sities of Vienna and Paris, greatly esteemed 
 for his ability and learning; Felix Mantz, 
 the natural son of a Zurich canon, also 
 liberally educated and a fine Hebrew 
 scholar, which Zwingli was not; George 
 Blaurock, a former monk, less famed for 
 learning than for eloquence, in which he 
 was unsurpassed; Ludwig Hiitzer, from 
 the canton of St. Gall, educated at Freiburg, 
 
40 The Baptists 
 
 also an eminent Hebrew scholar. These 
 men were fully the equals of Zwingli in 
 learning and eloquence, some of them were 
 his superiors in social position, but the 
 chief preacher of Zurich and the trusted ad- 
 viser of the council was stronger than all of 
 them. Public disputations were appointed 
 by the council for the discussion of the 
 points at issue, and were duly held, but the 
 result was, under the circumstances, a fore- 
 gone conclusion — no matter what the rela- 
 tive skill of the disputants, or the strength 
 of the various arguments adduced, the de- 
 cision of the council was certain to be in 
 Zwingli's favor. And such a decision 
 having been rendered, it was equally cer- 
 tain that the council would, that the council 
 must, proceed to enforce it upon the de- 
 feated party. With the ideas prevalent in 
 that age, religious liberty, toleration even of 
 opponents, was not to be thought of by the 
 powerful or looked for by the weak. Re- 
 pression by heavy penalties, in the last 
 
Historical Antecedents 41 
 
 resort by death itself, was the policy imme- 
 diately pursued by the council. 
 
 These penalties were mainly directed 
 against the men prominent as leaders 
 among the Anabaptists. The greater part 
 of these people, as of the Zwinglians, were 
 plain men and women, of good intentions 
 but of little education. The expectation no 
 doubt was that, when the Anabaptists 
 were once deprived of their able and edu- 
 cated leaders, they would be easily con- 
 trolled. In Zurich, at least, the policy was 
 measurably successful. The leaders soon 
 disappeared. Several — Felix Mantz, Jacob 
 Falk, Henry Riemann — were put to death 
 by drowning; others — as George Blaurock 
 and Ludwig Hatzer — escaped, only to meet 
 a worse fate elsewhere. Perhaps the ablest 
 of all, Conrad Grebel, died of the plague. 
 After 1530, traces of the Anabaptists in 
 Zurich are scant and soon disappear alto- 
 gether. In some of the other cantons, 
 equal success followed similar measures. 
 
42 The Baptists 
 
 In Bern, however, the Anabaptists proved 
 to be made of sterner stuff. The death 
 penalty was not inflicted here, but every- 
 thing short of this was tried, with little or 
 no effect. Persecutions continued for 
 nearly or quite two centuries, and in spite 
 of the fact that large numbers sought more 
 peaceful homes elsewhere, the Anabaptists 
 have survived in this canton until this day. 
 A conference of eight churches, and several 
 unattached congregations besides, testify to 
 their devotion to the truth and constancy 
 in upholding it. One party of them, now 
 known as the New Baptists, separated from 
 the rest about 1830, and practice immersion; 
 the rest are, and seemingly have been from 
 the beginning, affusionists. Otherwise, 
 these churches preserve essentially un- 
 changed their original doctrines and prac- 
 tices. 
 
 What these were we learn from the con- 
 fessions issued from time to time by little 
 groups of Swiss Anabaptists, especially one 
 
Historical Antecedents 43 
 
 adopted at Schleitheim in 1527. This 
 teaches the baptism of believers only, the 
 breaking of bread by those alone who have 
 been so baptized, and a strict discipline; it 
 forbids Christians to be magistrates, or to 
 take oaths of any kind or to bear arms. 
 Not all the Swiss Anabaptists held to these 
 last tenets, but as to the first group they 
 were unanimous. None of the confes- 
 sions or extant writings of this sect de- 
 clare for any special form of administering 
 baptism — while they differed somewhat on 
 the question, it never seems to have been 
 discussed, or to have constituted a point of 
 difference between them and other Chris- 
 tians of their day. 
 
 The Anabaptists of Germany have a his- 
 tory less clear and precise, and are a less 
 homogeneous body. The earliest group to 
 be called by that name — certain so-called 
 prophets, who made a great commotion in 
 the city of Zwickau, in 1520 — were not, 
 properly speaking, Anabaptists at all. They 
 
44 The Baptists 
 
 probably gained this name from their op- 
 position to infant baptism. They chal- 
 lenged Melanchthon and other reformers to 
 prove infant baptism from the Scriptures, 
 thereby putting that excellent scholar to 
 much confusion. But from all we can learn 
 of these "prophets" they rejected external 
 sacraments altogether, and therefore could 
 not be called Anabaptists. They rather 
 agreed with the position taken later by 
 George Fox and the Friends, than with any 
 Anabaptist group of the sixteenth century, 
 Thomas Miinzer, for a time closely con- 
 nected with these "prophets" and often 
 called an Anabaptist, never belonged to 
 that party. He wrote a tract, about 1523, 
 in which he denied that infant baptism is 
 found in the Scriptures, but his opinion re- 
 mained a purely academic and private no- 
 tion. He later issued a liturgy in German, 
 which contains a form for the baptism of 
 children, and he never abandoned the prac- 
 tice. 
 
Historical Antecedents 45 
 
 The true Anabaptists appear in Germany 
 a little later than this, simultaneously in 
 most of the free cities. It has already been 
 explained why they did not appear under 
 this title in the very first stage of the Refor- 
 mation. Great obscurity still hangs over 
 the early development of the sect in Ger- 
 many, but the points at which they appear 
 are so numerous and so little connection is 
 traceable between them, as to indicate a 
 common cause. That is believed to be, the 
 previous existence in the same regions of 
 Waldensian communities, whose life was 
 thus prolonged under the new name. No 
 other hypothesis seems adequate to account 
 for all the facts. But if this theory of a 
 common origin be admitted as probable, it 
 yet remains true that there were several 
 groups of Anabaptists, differing very con- 
 siderably in characteristics and doctrines, 
 and these must be separately studied and 
 estimated. 
 
 The Anabaptists of Southern Germany 
 
46 The Baptists 
 
 and the adjacent region of Moravia were of 
 the Swiss type. Their most prominent 
 leader was Balthazar Hubmaier, who, be- 
 fore the Lutheran Reformation began, was 
 a doctor of theology in the University of 
 Ingolstadt, and later a distinguished preacher 
 at Regensburg. In 1520 he became chief 
 preacher at Waldshut, a town on the border 
 of Switzerland but within the domains of 
 Austria. Here he formed a close connec- 
 tion with the Swiss reformers, and, with 
 the full approval of his tov/nsmen, gradu- 
 ally introduced evangelical doctrine and 
 practice. Further study of the Scriptures 
 carried him beyond the position of the 
 Swiss leaders; he rejected infant baptism, 
 becoming involved in a warm controversy 
 on the subject with both Zwingli and Oeko- 
 lampadius; and in the spring of 1525 he 
 became an Anabaptist, and rebaptized hun- 
 dreds of the Waldshut people. 
 
 The Austrian government intervened, 
 forcibly restored order in the town, and 
 
Historical Antecedents 47 
 
 Hubmaier was compelled to flee. He 
 sought refuge in Zurich, but was arrested, 
 imprisoned with rigor, and finally under 
 torture a recantation was wrung from him 
 — which, however, he repudiated when he 
 was brought into the church to read it. A 
 second recantation procured his release, and 
 he made his way to Nicolsburg, in Moravia, 
 where for a time toleration prevailed. There 
 for two years he taught and wrote indefati- 
 gably. Fifteen tracts appeared from his 
 pen during these two years, some of con- 
 siderable length, and were widely circu- 
 lated. The Anabaptists of Moravia grew 
 to 12,000 or more in number. Even the 
 lords of the region, the Princes Leonard 
 and John Lichtenstein, were converted and 
 baptized. But Austria now succeeded in 
 extending her authority over Moravia, and 
 toleration was at an end. Hubmaier was 
 arrested, condemned for heresy and sedi- 
 tion, and burned at Vienna, March 10, 1528. 
 After his death the Anabaptists of Moravia 
 
48 The Baptists 
 
 were gradually suppressed or scattered by 
 severe persecution. 
 
 Among the Anabaptists of South Ger- 
 many another name was even more potent 
 for a time than Hubmaier's — that of John 
 Denck. Educated at Basel, he was an ex- 
 cellent classical and Hebrew scholar. 
 Though he embraced the evangelical doc- 
 trines early in the Reformation, he soon 
 developed considerable differences from the 
 theology of the reformers, and thus in- 
 volved himself in difficulties. He espe- 
 cially dissented from Luther's teaching on 
 the bondage of the will, and justification by 
 faith alone. In 1525 he became acquainted 
 with Hubmaier and was led to join the 
 Anabaptists, among whom he was speedily 
 recognized as a leading spirit. For some 
 time he was a resident of Augsburg, then a 
 strong Anabaptist centre. When com- 
 pelled to leave here, he became a wanderer 
 and died at Basel in 1527, still a young 
 man. He was of imposing presence, had a 
 
Historical Antecedents 49 
 
 fine voice, and was much esteemed for elo- 
 quence, as well as learning. The strongest 
 tributes to his character and attainments 
 come to us from his opponents. In the- 
 ology he was a mystic, and while he is ac- 
 cused of some heresies, the only proved 
 divergence from orthodoxy is his belief in 
 the final restoration of all men to holiness. 
 It is worthy of record here, perhaps, that 
 the Augsburg Anabaptists practiced immer- 
 sion in the river, as we learn from the testi- 
 mony of a Benedictine monk who lived in 
 Augsburg at the time. But while this was 
 the usual practice, they also accepted affu- 
 sion as a sufficient baptism in times of 
 persecution, when the more public form 
 was imprudent. 
 
 The Anabaptists of central Germany were 
 to a considerable extent drawn into the 
 movement known as the peasant's war. 
 Many of them belonged to, or had sprung 
 from, the ranks of the peasants, and sym- 
 pathized with their grievances. The move- 
 
50 The Baptists 
 
 merit was religio-social, as the well-known 
 Twelve Articles of the peasants testify. 
 Though Miinzer — who became the leader 
 of the peasants, and to whose blind fanati- 
 cism their downfall was largely due — was 
 not himself an Anabaptist, he shared their 
 beliefs to some extent and obtained much 
 influence among them, with disastrous re- 
 sults to the body at large. For the German 
 princes, having put down the insurrection, 
 proceeded to severe persecution of all Ana- 
 baptists in their domains, having the plausi- 
 ble excuse that some of the sect had been 
 engaged in rebellion and rapine. 
 
 There was also the Strasburg group of 
 Anabaptists. This became the centre from 
 which were propagated chiliastic doctrines 
 that culminated in fanaticism and disaster. 
 The most influential teacher of these ideas 
 was Melchior Hofmann, a man of little edu- 
 cation, active mind and restless spirit, who 
 was specially drawn to the study of the 
 prophetic Scriptures. He was at first iden- 
 
Historical Antecedents 51 
 
 tified with tiie Lutheran party, but in 1529 
 he settled at Strasburg and became an 
 Anabaptist, quickly putting himself at the 
 head of the sect in those parts. He had 
 previously predicted the speed}' ending of 
 the age, and he now became more definite 
 in his predictions. The second coming of 
 Christ and the setting up of his kingdom on 
 earth was to occur in the summer of 1533, 
 and Strasburg itself was to be the New 
 Jerusalem, the capital of the new kingdom. 
 In May, shortly before the consummation 
 was due, the authorities of the city arrested 
 Hofmann and threw him into prison, where 
 he remained until his death in 1543; but 
 this persecution, and even the failure of the 
 prediction, did little to lessen the fanaticism 
 of his followers. It merely took a dif- 
 ferent course. 
 
 New leaders had to be found, and they 
 were speedily forthcoming. In one of his 
 missionary tours, Hofmann had gained as 
 an adherent a baker of Haarlem, named 
 
52 The Baptists 
 
 Jan Matthys. After the master's disappear- 
 ance, this disciple came forward as a 
 prophet, the Elijah of the new dispensation. 
 Converts multiplied, and at this juncture 
 something occurred in Germany that 
 seemed to these misguided people a provi- 
 dential indication that the time had come 
 for the setting up of the new kingdom. 
 The city of Miinster, in Westphalia, had 
 rebelled against its prince-bishop, and be- 
 come a Lutheran town. The leaders of 
 this revolution had already shown symp- 
 toms of a most un-Lutheran radicalism, 
 when Jan Matthys appeared in the town 
 and began to proclaim his doctrine. The 
 city was won by his prophetic outgivings, 
 the people acknowledged him as leader, and 
 many Anabaptists flocked in. The prince- 
 bishop now raised an army and laid siege 
 to the town. Matthys was killed in a 
 sortie, whereupon John Bockhold, of Ley- 
 den, announced that he was the prophet of 
 God and the successor of Matthys. He 
 
Historical Antecedents 53 
 
 was accepted at his own valuation, and 
 siiortly afterward proclaimed Munster to be 
 Mount Zion and himself King David. 
 Polygamy, community of goods, and many 
 other absurd and revolting practices were 
 introduced by this new David. At length, 
 on June 25, 1535, the city was taken by as- 
 sault, aided by the treachery of some within 
 the gates; many of the rebels were put to 
 the sword, others were reserved for a more 
 cruel death by torture. 
 
 In these events only a few Anabaptists 
 were concerned. Matthys and Bockhold 
 had indeed confidently expected that the 
 whole body would make common cause 
 with them, but the sect as a whole were as 
 much disgusted by the excesses at Munster 
 as was the rest of Germany. Nevertheless, 
 the fault of a few was made the pretext for 
 unrelenting persecution of all who bore the 
 name. Many thousands of them perished, 
 and finally they disappeared from Germany; 
 for, if any remained, they succeeded in con- 
 
54 The Baptists 
 
 cealing all trace of their existence. The 
 Protestant princes and towns must bear, 
 equally with the Catholic, the infamy of 
 these unjust, inhuman and un-Christian per- 
 secutions of a people who were, with few 
 exceptions, peaceable and law-abiding, ask- 
 ing only the privilege of serving God ac- 
 cording to their convictions of Scripture 
 teaching. 
 
 How baptism was practiced among these 
 Anabaptists we have little evidence. A 
 confession issued during the Munster 
 troubles distinctly prescribes immersion, but 
 eye-witnesses have left record that the form 
 actually used in the city was affusion. 
 Somewhat later than this, from 1575 on- 
 ward, we know that immersion was prac- 
 ticed by Anabaptists in Poland, as well as 
 in the adjoining regions of Silesia, Lithuania, 
 and Pomerania. They may have derived 
 the practice from Swiss Anabaptists who 
 found refuge among them — hitherto the 
 generally accepted hypothesis — or from the 
 
Historical Antecedents 55 
 
 example of the Greek Church found 
 throughout this region, and always prac- 
 ticing immersion exclusively. The proba- 
 bilities are that affusion was extensively 
 practiced among the German Anabaptists. 
 Had the contrary been the case, the fact 
 could hardly have escaped record. 
 
 There is reason to believe, as we have 
 seen, that the Anabaptists of the sixteenth 
 century are in part a continuation of an 
 earlier evangelical party known as the Wal- 
 denses. This name is derived from Peter 
 Waldo, a merchant of Lyons in the middle 
 of the twelfth century. He became 
 troubled about his spiritual state, and sought 
 relief from various priests and theologians, 
 for some time to no effect. Finally one said 
 to him that the way of evangelical perfec- 
 tion was to be found in the words of 
 Christ: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell 
 that thou hast and give to the poor, and 
 thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and 
 come, take up thy cross and follow me." 
 
56 The Baptists 
 
 He understood the command literally, and 
 in literal obedience his soul first found peace. 
 Making provision for his family, he gave 
 away all his remaining wealth to the poor. 
 Waldo then gave himself to the study of 
 the Scriptures, and employed two priests to 
 translate the gospels and some other books 
 from the Vulgate into the language then 
 spoken in Southern France. The gospels 
 especially he studied, until he could repeat 
 almost the whole of them ; and what he had 
 learned he began to recite to others. One 
 circumstance aided him in this work: it 
 was a favorite diversion of his countrymen 
 to listen to the tales recited by strolling 
 minstrels, and they listened no less eagerly 
 to the stories about Christ taken from the 
 gospels. One of the oldest fragments of 
 Provencal literature that has come down to 
 us is the versified story of Christ, "The 
 Noble Lesson," composed to be recited in 
 this way — not by Waldo himself, but by 
 some of his early followers. 
 
Historical Antecedents 57 
 
 By such teaching Waldo made converts, 
 and to the more promising of these he 
 taught the gospel stories, to be told by them 
 to others. They all wore a simple dress, 
 gave their goods to the poor, and followed 
 Christ as well as they knew how. In short, 
 Waldo attempted almost exactly the same 
 thing as Francis of Assisi, some fifty years 
 later. And like Francis he experienced the 
 distrust and hostility of the clergy, who, as 
 soon as they became aware of this work, 
 attempted to stop it. The complaint of all 
 the Catholic writers of the period against 
 Waldo is that, a mere layman, he had 
 usurped the office of the priesthood — with- 
 out authority, without training, he presumed 
 to preach. The Archbishop of Lyons finally 
 inhibited Waldo and his followers, and he 
 saw his work, already very successful, 
 threatened with ruin. He adopted the same 
 expedient that occurred to St. Francis a half 
 century later, an appeal to the Pope. But 
 while Francis, as we know, succeeded, 
 
58 The Baptists 
 
 Waldo failed. Pope Alexander III received 
 him kindly, and the third Vatican council, 
 then in session, gave him and his compan- 
 ions a hearing; but on the whole he was 
 treated with that scorn which those who 
 esteem themselves learned and wise ever 
 bestow on others whom they regard as 
 pious but silly. The plea that he might 
 continue his work, with the approval and 
 blessing of the Church, was denied Waldo, 
 and he was commanded to return home and 
 not to preach without the consent of the 
 bishop. This meant that he and his fol- 
 lowers must give up the work to which 
 they felt that God had called them, or to be 
 treated as schismatics. 
 
 Up to this time Waldo had evidently be- 
 lieved himself to be a good Catholic. If 
 there were any heresy in his teaching, he 
 was totally unaware of it, and his appeal to 
 the Pope shows his consciousness of ortho- 
 doxy as well as his respect for authority. 
 That St. Francis would have ceased his 
 
Historical Antecedents 59 
 
 work if Pope Innocent III had finally with- 
 held his approval, we cannot for a moment 
 believe. Neither did Waldo hesitate; he 
 must obey God rather than man. But from 
 this time onward he and his followers were 
 looked upon as disobedient to the Church, 
 a body of schismatics, soon to be suspected 
 of heresy also, and exposed to the severest 
 censures of the Church so long as they re- 
 mained contumacious. Persecution began 
 at once, became bitter and relentless, and 
 continued long. The Waldenses were scat- 
 tered and driven into hiding, especially in 
 the inaccessible valleys of the Alps, but all 
 efforts to suppress them failed. They were 
 the most dangerous, the most obstinate, 
 the most persistent heretics with whom the 
 Roman Church ever had to deal. On the 
 Italian side of the Alps a remnant of them 
 survived the persecutions of centuries, and 
 the Waldenses of Piedmont are to-day an 
 active and growing body. 
 It is difficult to state with exactness the 
 
6o The Baptists 
 
 doctrine and practice of tlie Waidenses, for 
 they were not a homogeneous party. 
 Under that name, at different times and in 
 various places, considerable divergencies 
 are found. This is probably due, in part at 
 least, to the fact that the name covered not 
 only the immediate followers of Waldo, 
 but survivals of preexisting sects, more or 
 less evangelical, in Southern France and 
 Northern Italy, some of which will be pres- 
 ently considered. A part of the Waidenses 
 held quite evangelical views, rejecting in- 
 fant baptism and sacramental grace, agree- 
 ing almost exactly with the beliefs held by 
 the Anabaptists. Another part retained 
 much more of Catholic doctrine, particu- 
 larly belief in transubstantiation. A part 
 were congregational in polity, a part had an 
 elaborate system of teachers, priests and 
 bishops. Those that penetrated to Switzer- 
 land and Germany seem to have been of 
 the more evangelical type, as we learn from 
 Catholic writers of that region. This fact 
 
Historical Antecedents 61 
 
 lends additional plausibility to the theory 
 that they are the spiritual ancestors of the 
 Anabaptists. 
 
 Among the evangelical sects that pre- 
 ceded the time of Waldo in Southern 
 France, the most important was the Petro- 
 brusians. Little is known of Peter of 
 Bruys, the reputed founder of the sect, ex- 
 cept that he began preaching early in the 
 twelfth century and after some twenty 
 years' labor was burned in 1126. That he 
 obtained a large following — so large as 
 greatly to alarm the Catholic Church — is 
 disclosed by the literature of the period, 
 especially by a treatise of the Abbot of 
 Clugny, Peter the Venerable, the friend of 
 Abelard. We find from this account of 
 their heresies that the Petrobrusians re- 
 jected all tradition and human authority, 
 accepting the Scriptures as the only rule of 
 faith and practice. They said that baptism 
 ought to be given only to such as have be- 
 lieved on Christ, for no one can be saved 
 
62 The Baptists 
 
 by another's faith; they denied transubstan- 
 tiation, the doctrine of purgatory and pray- 
 ers for the dead; they affirmed that 
 churches ought not to be built, and that 
 crosses should be pulled down and des- 
 troyed. These teachings are essentially 
 the same as those of the more evangelical 
 among the Waldenses, and of the Anabap- 
 tists. 
 
 A contemporary of Peter of Bruys, who 
 outlived him and carried on his work, was 
 a former monk of Clugny, Henry of Laus- 
 anne. He was a preacher of fiery elo- 
 quence, and the extent of his following is 
 reluctantly attested by Bernard of Clair- 
 vaux, in one of his letters regarding the re- 
 ligious condition of Southern France, where 
 he made a preaching tour in 1147. The 
 followers of this teacher were known for a 
 time as Henricians, but did not long survive 
 his death (about 11 50), at least, under that 
 title. The very rapid spread, a generation 
 later, of the Waldenses in this same region 
 
Historical Antecedents 63 
 
 is tolerably good evidence tiiat fragments 
 of Petrobrusians and Henricians had sur- 
 vived, and lost their identity in the new 
 party. 
 
 Even earlier than this there were parties 
 that held some, if not all, of those evangeli- 
 cal beliefs whose history we have thus 
 traced back to the twelfth century. Such 
 were possibly the Arnoldists, though we 
 know too little of their origin and teachings 
 to speak with certainty. Even if they were 
 followers of Arnold of Brescia, which is not 
 established, we cannot be sure how far he 
 taught evangelical doctrine. The only clear 
 thing about Arnold is that he taught separa- 
 tion of the Church from the State. There 
 is also a rumor that he was not sound con- 
 cerning the sacrament of the altar and the 
 baptism of infants. If the rumor were 
 better accredited, we might put Arnold 
 alongside of his contemporary, Peter of 
 Bruys, as a teacher of evangelical truth. 
 At present he is claimed by both Catholics 
 
64 The Baptists 
 
 and Protestants, and neither have a clear 
 case. 
 
 Better authenticated is the claim that, 
 along with some theological vagaries, the 
 sect known as Paulicians taught essentially 
 those conceptions of gospel truth that we 
 have found persisting among various parties 
 from the twelfth to the seventeenth cen- 
 turies. The Paulicians originated not later 
 than the seventh century, and under various 
 names are found in Asia Minor and Eastern 
 Europe down to the Reformation period. 
 The Bogomils of Bulgaria and the Albi- 
 genses, of Southern France, appear to be 
 offshoots from this stem. The Paulicians, 
 according to their opponents, held a dualis- 
 tic or Manichaean theology; and they rather 
 denied the value of the outward sacra- 
 ments, with the Friends, than agreed with 
 the teaching and practice of the evangelical 
 party of mediaeval times. 
 
 Attempts to trace the history of these 
 principles even further back, through sects 
 
Historical Antecedents 65 
 
 like the Donatists and Montanists, until we 
 reach the times of the Apostles, are curious 
 rather than valuable. The chain of con- 
 tinuity is, at best, broken at many points; 
 proofs become more and more attenuated, 
 and hypothesis must continually take the 
 place of fact. Such studies have little or 
 no historic value, and as for their polemic 
 use, it is always bad tactics to assert in 
 controversy what cannot be clearly proved. 
 Until research supplies a larger and better 
 authenticated body of fact — if that day 
 shall ever come — it is better not to attempt 
 tracing earlier than the twelfth century a 
 continuous history of the formal principles 
 held by the mediaeval evangelical parties. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BAPTISTS 
 
 In the northwest corner of Lincolnshire, 
 on the river Trent, is the old town of Gains- 
 borough. Its history goes back to the time 
 of Knut, and in the seventeenth century it 
 had a population of about five thousand. 
 Ten or twelve miles to the northwest, where 
 the three counties of Nottingham, York and 
 Lincoln intersect, is the village of Scrooby, 
 then as now a hamlet of some two hundred 
 souls. The eastern counties of England — 
 Kent, Norfolk, Lincoln — were from early 
 times the hotbed of heretical sects, and it 
 was here that the first Separatist congrega- 
 tions were formed. The Separatists were 
 that branch of the Puritan party who had 
 come to the conclusion that the reformation 
 of the Church of England was hopeless, 
 
 66 
 
The Beginnings 67 
 
 and that it was therefore the duty of all 
 who desired a pure Church to come out 
 from this body of corruption and establish 
 Christ's Church on a wholly new founda- 
 tion. The fundamental principle of the 
 Separatist was that a Christian church 
 should consist only of the regenerate. 
 
 The vicar of the church at Gainsborough 
 at the beginning of the seventeenth century 
 was the Rev. John Smyth, M. A., fellow of 
 Christ's College, Cambridge. He distin- 
 guished himself for a time by his opposi- 
 tion to the Separatists, but was at length 
 converted to their views, and about 1602 
 resigned his benefice to become the pastor 
 or "teacher" of the Separatist flock at 
 Gainsborough. People who lived at 
 Scrooby and other neighboring villages 
 also became members of this church, and 
 traveled long distances to attend its meet- 
 ings; but after three or four years Scrooby 
 became a second meeting-place, and the 
 congregation there had its own teachers. 
 
68 The Baptists 
 
 William Bradford and William Brewster 
 were influential members of this group 
 from the first, and after a time John Robin- 
 son joined them as teacher. 
 
 Persecution became more and more 
 sharp, and about 1606 Smyth and most of 
 his Gainsborough people emigrated to Hol- 
 land and settled at Amsterdam, where 
 Smyth continued his ministry and at 
 the same time supported himself by the 
 practice of medicine. A year later the 
 Scrooby group followed this example, but 
 after a brief stay at Amsterdam settled at 
 Leyden. It was this latter group, rein- 
 forced by others who had not left England, 
 that some years later became the Pilgrims 
 of Plymouth. We are at present, however, 
 chiefly interested in the congregation at 
 Amsterdam, under the pastoral care of John 
 Smyth. 
 
 Up to this time it does not appear that 
 Smyth had been familiar with the theology 
 of Arminius. or with the belief and practice 
 
The Beginnings 69 
 
 of the Mennonites. Here at Amsterdam he 
 would most naturally be brought to know 
 both. His was always an eager and inquir- 
 ing mind, and study of these new ideas 
 soon led him to adopt them for his own. 
 A tract called "The Character of the 
 Beast," published in 1609, makes known 
 his new convictions that infant baptism is 
 not taught in the Scriptures, and that a 
 church of Christ should consist not merely 
 of the regenerate, but of such regenerate 
 persons as have been baptized on their own 
 confession of faith. There had been trou- 
 bles among Smyth's followers before this, 
 but the church was now led to withdraw 
 fellowship from him. 
 
 Thirty-six members are said to have ad- 
 hered to their pastor and accepted his 
 views, among whom Thomas Helwys and 
 John Murton or Morton were most promi- 
 nent. Believing their former baptism null, 
 it plainly became their duty to be baptized 
 on confession of faith. Why, having come 
 
70 The Baptists 
 
 to hold the beliefs of the Mennonites, they 
 did not seek membership in the Mennonite 
 churches is a question not easy to answer. 
 There was no one else to baptize them; all, 
 including Smyth himself, were in the same 
 unbaptized condition. This proved to be 
 no serious difficulty, however, for a cardi- 
 nal doctrine of the Separatists was, that 
 any body of faithful believers has the right 
 and power, at any time and anywhere, to 
 originate de novo a church of Christ — and if 
 a church, then a ministry and the sacra- 
 ments. Accordingly, Smyth baptized him- 
 self (whence he is often called in the liter- 
 ature of that time the Se-baptist), then 
 Helwys and the rest, and they constituted 
 themselves a new church. 
 
 Though this is the beginning of the body 
 afterward known in England as the Gen- 
 eral Baptists (because they believed in a 
 general atonement, that is, for all men), 
 this was not a Baptist church, in the full 
 meaning of that term. Smyth and his fol- 
 
The Beginnings 71 
 
 lowers practiced affusion. Of this we 
 have positive evidence from the Mennonites 
 of Amsterdam. For, after a short time, 
 Smyth and some others separated from this 
 new church and sought admission to the 
 Mennonite body. The latter appointed a 
 committee to investigate this application, 
 and the report of this committee says: 
 " We also inquired for the foundation and 
 form of their baptism, and we have not 
 found that there was any difference at all, 
 neither in the one nor in the other thing." 
 The meaning of this declaration is not 
 doubtful, for in the literature of that time 
 "form" of baptism is used as we now 
 often say "mode" of baptism, to denote 
 the character of the act. How the General 
 Baptists afterward became immersionists 
 will be related further on. 
 
 Smyth died in 16 12, but a year before that 
 event Helwys and Murton and some others 
 returned to England and settled in London. 
 Persecution was just then much relaxed, 
 
72 The Baptists 
 
 and they seem to have suffered little or 
 no inconvenience. Churches of the same 
 order rapidly sprang up — in 1626 there were 
 four others, in various counties: at Lincoln, 
 Coventry (Warwick), Sarum (Wilts) and 
 Tiverton (Devon). In 1644 a hostile writer 
 says they had increased to forty-seven. Of 
 these earlier churches, only two now claim 
 an existence, Coventry and Tiverton, and 
 there is no evidence to prove the continuity 
 of the present churches in those towns with 
 those established before 1626. The other 
 English Baptist churches (a dozen or so) 
 that claim an early origin, dating back in 
 some cases as far as 1555, have no evidence 
 whatever to produce, except some vague 
 information that there was a congregation 
 of sectaries, possibly Anabaptists, in the 
 same locality at these early dates. No ex- 
 tant records go back beyond the middle of 
 the sixteenth century, and most of these 
 fanciful dates are of quite recent origin. 
 Such churches might as reasonably claim 
 
The Beginnings 73 
 
 that they were founded by the Apostle Paul, 
 A. D., 65. 
 
 The first congregation of Particular Bap- 
 tists (called Particular because they were 
 Calvinistic, and believed in a particular 
 atonement that is, for the elect only) was 
 formed in London in 1633. It was an off- 
 shoot of a Separatist congregation gathered 
 in 1616, by Henry Jacob, in what was then 
 the village of Southwark, on the opposite 
 side of the Thames from old London, From 
 the beginning some members of this church 
 had scruples about the baptism of infants, 
 and finally they asked for their dismission 
 to form a separate congregation. Most of 
 them at this time received "a new bap- 
 tism," but it does not appear to have been 
 immersion — it was " new " in the sense of 
 a second baptism, this time administered on 
 confession of faith. Soon after their or- 
 ganization, John Spilsbury was chosen to be 
 their pastor. A few years later (1538) a 
 second secession occurred from the original 
 
74 The Baptists 
 
 church, on the same grounds, to join Spils- 
 bury's flock, which by this and other acces- 
 sions became large enough to be divided in 
 1640, William Kiffm heading the new col- 
 ony. Spilsbury's church still survives in 
 London as the Whitechapel, Commercial 
 street, while that of Kiffin is known as the 
 Devonshire square, Stoke-Newington. 
 
 In 1640 the original church became two 
 by mutual consent; one division, remaining 
 with P. Barebone, continued to be of the 
 Independent or Congregational order, while 
 the other, of which Henry Jessey was pas- 
 tor, became the mother of at least two more 
 Baptist churches. Some of this Jessey 
 church not only had scruples about the bap- 
 tism of infants, but had been convinced by 
 the Scriptures that baptism ought to be by 
 dipping the body in water. They were not 
 aware that any Christians in England prac- 
 ticed such baptism of professed believers, 
 though an occasional parson still immersed 
 infants, but hearing that some in the Neth- 
 
The Beginnings 7^ 
 
 eriands so practiced, they sent one of their 
 number, Richard Blount, who was duly im- 
 mersed by John Batten, a teacher of the 
 Collegiates at Leyden. Returning, Mr. 
 Blount baptized Mr. Blacklock, another 
 "teacher" of these people, these two bap- 
 tized the rest, and so the first Baptist church, 
 in the full acceptation of that term, was 
 constituted, in the year 1641. Perhaps two 
 churches were constituted, for these people 
 had been meeting in two companies and 
 purposed so to continue, and they may have 
 counted themselves distinct bodies from 
 that time. In 1645 Henry Jessey himself 
 led another colony out to form still another 
 Baptist church. 
 
 By 1644 there were seven congregations 
 of this order in London, and they united in 
 the publication of a Confession of Faith, in 
 fifty articles. The object was to correct 
 the misrepresentations scattered abroad by 
 their opponents, and particularly the false 
 and scandalous statements contained in 
 
76 The Baptists 
 
 "The Dippers Dipt," by Dr. Daniel Featly, 
 a member of the Westminster Assembly of 
 divines, but not a Presbyterian. This is the 
 first Confession to define baptism as "dip- 
 ping or plunging the body under water." 
 All the Particular Baptist churches had now 
 definitely adopted this practice, not all in 
 direct succession from Blount, but some 
 merely appointed their pastor or one of their 
 own number to administer the ordinance. 
 As John Spilsbury put it, " Where there is 
 a beginning, some must be first." 
 
 Just when and how the change began 
 among the General Baptists is not recorded. 
 Some hint is afforded us in the fact that 
 during the decade from 1640 to 1650 cor- 
 respondence between their churches and 
 the Mennonites of Holland, which had 
 previously been continuous and friendly, 
 entirely ceased. Mennonlte writers allege 
 as the reason for this rupture the change 
 from affusion to immersion by the English 
 churches. No other hypothesis fits the 
 
The Beginnings 77 
 
 facts so well. We know, however, that 
 the change of practice was gradual among 
 the General Baptists, and that for some 
 years there remained among them two 
 parties, the Old Men or Aspersi and the 
 New Men or Immersi. So late as 1653 we 
 find several congregations in Lincolnshire 
 that still affused, but rejected infant bap- 
 tism, which was pronounced by other 
 Baptists "a mere demi-reformation." 
 
 These proceedings were coincident with 
 the greatest political and religious struggle 
 that ever convulsed England. The same 
 twelvemonth in which the first Baptist 
 church was formed saw the meeting of the 
 Long Parliament, the condemnation of Straf- 
 ford and the imprisonment of Archbishop 
 Laud. Had this change begun sooner, it is 
 probable that a violent persecution would 
 have followed ; as it fell out, there was violent 
 opposition but no persecution. The power 
 to punish was gone, but the spirit of intol- 
 erance remained. This restoration of im- 
 
78 The Baptists 
 
 mersion, which, though the ancient practice 
 of the Church of England, had practically 
 lapsed, might have been looked upon with 
 comparative indifference by other Chris- 
 tians, had these new churches been content 
 to practice immersion as one of the ways 
 of administering baptism. But when they 
 contended that immersion was not merely 
 the preferable way of baptizing, but that 
 immersion alone is baptism at all, the case 
 was different. These churches were the 
 first, so far as known, to maintain this as 
 the teaching of Scripture. Other Christians 
 before them had immersed, but none had 
 refused to recognize any alternative act as 
 constituting valid baptism. 
 
 Moreover, the churches gave practical 
 effect to their new doctrine and practice in 
 the most impressive way — they refused to 
 hold communion with other churches, on 
 the ground that Christians who had been 
 affused only had not been baptized. " Bap- 
 tism," says Article XXXIX of their Con- 
 
The Beginnings 79 
 
 fession, "is an ordinance of the New 
 Testament, given by Christ, to be dis- 
 pensed upon persons confessing faith, or 
 that are made disciples, who upon profes- 
 sion of faith ought to be baptized, and after 
 to partake of the Lord's supper." To be 
 sure, this was no more than the common 
 doctrine of Christians of all ages regarding 
 the qualifications of communicants, from 
 which Socinus and his followers alone had 
 dissented; but the logical deduction from 
 this and the new doctrine of baptism 
 seemed to other Christians then, and has 
 always seemed to them, harsh and invidi- 
 ous. It is a matter of sentiment rather than 
 of logic, and whenever such a conflict oc- 
 curs, logic commonly gets the worst of it. 
 
 These things were not done in a corner, 
 but soon became widely known, and pro- 
 voked a storm of protest, ridicule and de- 
 nunciation. A cloud of pamphlets poured 
 from the press, attacking or justifying the 
 doctrine and practice of this new sect. 
 
8o The Baptists 
 
 Two thousand titles of publications sent 
 forth in little more than a generation, still 
 extant and catalogued, testify to the great 
 interest that was aroused about this matter. 
 The name Baptist now first appears in Eng- 
 lish literature, to describe these new churches 
 and the new practice, and after some hesi- 
 tation was accepted by them as their 
 official designation. They protested against 
 the name Anabaptist as false and mislead- 
 ing, but the name Baptist, though not what 
 they would have chosen, was compara- 
 tively unobjectionable. They did not deny 
 that their doctrine and practice were in 
 some sense " new " in England; they main- 
 tained, however, that both were as old as 
 the New Testament and the churches 
 founded by the apostles. And on that con- 
 tention they were willing to rest their case. 
 In this pamphlet literature we find less 
 than we might have reasonably expected 
 about the Baptist practice of "close" com- 
 munion. There are two reasons for this. 
 
The Beginnings 8l 
 
 The first is, that the other sects of the Com- 
 monwealth period realized that the pinch of 
 the argument was not at this point, but at 
 the question of what constituted valid bap- 
 tism; and so almost the whole controversy 
 throughout the seventeenth century, was 
 regarding the act of baptism and its proper 
 subjects. A second reason is, that Baptists 
 themselves were not entirely agreed on this 
 subject of communion. Many of the ear- 
 liest Baptist churches were like those whose 
 history we have already treated, offshoots 
 of Separatist congregations, and maintained 
 the warmest relations with those from 
 whom they had reluctantly and peaceably 
 withdrawn. In this way, some Baptist 
 churches from the first disregarded the 
 strict logic of their position, and practiced 
 intercommunion with any other Christians 
 who desired their fellowship. The earliest 
 controversies on the communion question 
 are, therefore, between Baptists and Bap- 
 tists, not between Baptists and non-Baptists. 
 
82 The Baptists 
 
 In the struggle for liberty in which the 
 English people were now engaged, the 
 Baptists enlisted with all their soul. They 
 had been advocates from the first of com- 
 plete religious liberty — the only party in 
 England during the seventeenth century, 
 save perhaps the Friends, who understood 
 what liberty meant. Others desired liberty 
 for themselves, freedom from persecution 
 for those who agreed with them, but had 
 no notion whatever of granting even tolera- 
 tion to others. The Baptists maintained 
 that it was wrong to persecute any for 
 religious belief and practice, and denied the 
 right of the civil power to interfere in any 
 way with religion. A Confession of faith 
 issued by John Smyth and his followers 
 (1612?) is explicit on this point: "The 
 magistrate, by virtue of his office, is not to 
 meddle with religion, or matters of con- 
 science, nor to compel men to this or that 
 form of religion or doctrine, but to leave 
 the Christian religion to the free conscience 
 
The Beginnings 83 
 
 of every one, and to meddle only with 
 political matters. . . . Christ alone is the 
 king and lawgiver of the church and the 
 conscience." And the Confession of 1644 
 declares: " And concerning the worship of 
 God, there is but one lawgiver . . . which 
 is Jesus Christ. ... So it is the magis- 
 trate's duty to tender the liberty of men's 
 consciences (which is the tenderest thing 
 unto all conscientious men, and most dear 
 unto them, without which all other liberties 
 will not be worth the naming, much less 
 the enjoying), and to protect all under them 
 from all wrong, injury, oppression and 
 molestation." 
 
 Cherishing such views as these, it is not 
 remarkable that the Baptists were unani- 
 mous supporters of the Parliament in its 
 struggle against the tyrannous misgovern- 
 ment of Charles 1. When Cromwell began 
 to raise his "new model," many Baptists 
 took service under him, and some of them 
 rose to be his most trusted officers. To 
 
84 The Baptists 
 
 one of them, Colonel Fleetwood, he gave a 
 daughter in marriage, and another, Thomas 
 Harrison, was his lieutenant-general. 
 Others, though less conspicuous, rendered 
 valuable services to the commonwealth, 
 which were generously recognized. During 
 the Protectorate, it is true, the devotion of 
 these same officers notably cooled. Fleet- 
 wood became the head of army cabals 
 against his chief, and Harrison fell into dis- 
 grace and was at one time committed to 
 prison. The reason of this conduct on 
 their part was that they suspected Crom- 
 well, and with good reason, to be at the 
 point of accepting the crown. The army 
 was opposed to monarchy, and in favor of 
 a republic, and it was this determined oppo- 
 sition that finally caused the rejection of the 
 royal title by the actual head of the State. 
 
 It is the great merit of the Protector that, 
 when he had attained absolute power, he 
 not only shattered the spiritual despotism 
 of the Stuart reigns, but that he steadfastly 
 
The Beginnings 85 
 
 refused to erect another despotism on its 
 ruins. The Presbyterian party would gladly 
 have set up a national Church, as rigidly 
 exclusive and as bitterly persecuting as the 
 old Church of England had been. They 
 had conquered liberty for themselves, and 
 now they were prepared to deny liberty to 
 all others. To this Cromwell and his army 
 would by no means consent. The Iron- 
 sides were not Presbyterians — a majority of 
 these warriors were Independents and Bap- 
 tists—and they had not fought to rid them- 
 selves of one yoke only to have another 
 placed on their necks. The army and Par- 
 liament were therefore brought into sharp 
 conflict over this question, and of the issue 
 there could be no doubt. Parliament was 
 not then forcibly dissolved, but it was 
 "purged"; the rigid Presbyterian element 
 was excluded, and the danger of the new 
 spiritual tyranny was averted. Had their 
 designs succeeded, it would have been a 
 capital offence to profess the Unitarian faith 
 
86 The Baptists 
 
 in England, while every Baptist would have 
 been in danger of perpetual imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 When the supreme power devolved 
 upon Cromwell, he established a system as 
 closely approximating complete religious 
 liberty as the sentiments of Englishmen in 
 his time would permit. England was not 
 ready for absolute liberty, which requires 
 complete separation between the civil 
 power and the Church, but it received for a 
 time a curiously composite ecclesiastical 
 system. A commission of Triers was ap- 
 pointed to visit the parishes of the kingdom 
 and see that they were supplied with quali- 
 fied ministers. Doctrinal tests were pro- 
 hibited, the only qualifications required be- 
 ing piety and competence. The character 
 of the public religious services was left to 
 each incumbent. Several Baptists were 
 among these Triers, and it is known that 
 many Baptist ministers accepted benefices 
 at this time — a course not easy to reconcile 
 
The Beginnings 87 
 
 with their teaching, both before and after- 
 ward. 
 
 Not because of such favors from the 
 State, but because they were for a time 
 given complete liberty to proclaim their 
 faith to all who would hear. Baptists made 
 rapid progress. At the Restoration, in 
 1660, the General Baptists alone claimed a 
 membership of 20,000; and while they may 
 have grown more rapidly than the Particular 
 wing, and also had an earlier start, there 
 must have been several thousands of the 
 latter. But the return of Charles II to the 
 throne of his fathers made a great change 
 in their condition and prospects. True, he 
 had promised in advance his consent to 
 whatever measure of religious toleration his 
 Parliaments should propose, and was well 
 inclined to grant immunities to all Dissent- 
 ers that he might protect some (the Roman 
 Catholics, to whom, at heart, he belonged); 
 but his Parliaments would not hear to any- 
 thing of the kind. By a series of severe 
 
88 The Baptists 
 
 statutes, they attempted to suppress all 
 forms of worship not in accord with the 
 prayer-book of the Church of England, — 
 which was promptly restored, with a few 
 changes, to its former place of honor and 
 authority. 
 
 These statutes entirely failed of their 
 main object, the suppression of Dissent, 
 but they did make the lot of Dissenters 
 hard, and greatly impeded the progress of 
 all the unauthorized sects. The heaviest 
 restrictions were placed upon the preachers 
 of the Dissenting bodies. One act forbade 
 any of these to approach nearer than five 
 miles to any incorporated town or borough 
 in the kingdom. By thus confining these 
 preachers to the country districts, it was 
 doubtless hoped to prevent their access to 
 their people— that they might incidentally 
 perish of starvation or exposure was no 
 concern of Parliament. Another act made 
 all religious gatherings outside of the parish 
 churches illegal, and heavily punished any 
 
The Beginnings 89 
 
 householder who permitted more than three 
 persons not belonging to his own family to 
 attend a religious service under his roof. 
 Dissenters were disqualified for any office 
 of honor, trust or profit under the crown, 
 or in any incorporated town or borough — 
 though it must be confessed that the object 
 of this restriction was the exclusion from 
 office of Roman Catholics rather than of 
 Protestant Nonconformists. This is proved 
 by the fact that scores of the latter occasion- 
 ally communed at the parish churches, and 
 obtained certificates from the clergy, in 
 order to qualify themselves for office, and 
 none objected to the practice save the more 
 scrupulous among the Dissenters them- 
 selves. 
 
 The Baptist preachers suffered severely 
 under these unjust laws, many of them be- 
 ing punished by frequent imprisonments 
 and fines. Many of their preachers, if not 
 most of them, had some secular calling, in 
 which they were successful and prosperous; 
 
9© The Baptists 
 
 a few had made what were for those times 
 considerable fortunes in trade. This, on the 
 one hand, gained for them powerful friends 
 and some immunity, so that they were less 
 liable to imprisonment than others less for- 
 tunate; while on the other hand, their very 
 wealth exposed them the more frequently 
 to prosecutions that could only be settled by 
 the payment of large fines. Rich or poor, 
 therefore, the Baptist preacher must suffer 
 for his faith, if not in person then in estate. 
 One of the best known cases is that of 
 John Bunyan, the author of "The Pilgrim's 
 Progress." He was pastor of a church at 
 Bedford, composed of both Baptists and In- 
 dependents, and for preaching to them he 
 was arrested and thrown into prison three 
 times, his confinement lasting, with brief 
 intervals, nearly thirteen years. He might 
 have obtained his liberty at almost any time 
 by promising to abstain from preaching, 
 and giving surety (easily found) for his 
 good behavior. This pledge he could not 
 
The Beginnings 91 
 
 give. He could suffer for his Lord, but he 
 could not deny him. For the world this 
 imprisonment was a great gain, for it was 
 while in this "den" that Bunyan dreamed 
 his dream of Christian and his pilgrimage 
 from the city of Destruction to the Heavenly 
 City, and wrote it down for the delectation 
 of all generations to follow. It is one of 
 the marvels of literature that this poor 
 tinker, with almost no education beyond 
 mere reading and writing, with no library 
 save his Bible, never having travelled be- 
 yond the limits of England and having lived 
 a very narrow life in his own country, 
 should have been able to produce a book 
 that is marked by so great knowledge of 
 men and so exquisite literary art — a book as 
 much admired by the lovers of pure litera- 
 ture as praised by the seekers after true 
 piety. Less known, but hardly less meri- 
 torious, are his "Grace Abounding," the 
 spiritual autobiography of Bunyan, and the 
 "Holy War," an allegory under which a 
 
92 The Baptists 
 
 typical Puritan "conversion" is described 
 as the losing and recapture of tiie town of 
 Mansoul. The quality of these books testi- 
 fies that Bunyan's success was no accident, 
 but that he was the great prose artist of 
 Puritanism, as Milton was its great artist in 
 verse. 
 
 The reign of James II saw a considerable 
 relaxation in the treatment of Dissenters in 
 England. Charles II had been a Romanist 
 at heart, but his brother and successor was 
 a Romanist in fact. He naturally used his 
 royal power to protect and favor his fellow- 
 religionists, and it was this policy that 
 finally cost him his throne. The immediate 
 result was a general softening of the penal 
 laws, not by their repeal or formal modifica- 
 tion, but in their enforcement. Even Prot- 
 estant judges and prosecutors and con- 
 stables were not insensible to royal favors 
 and royal frowns. Besides, the English 
 people had come to a more tolerant mind 
 and spirit as regarded the Protestant Dis- 
 
The Beginnings 93 
 
 senters, and were not averse to modifica- 
 tion of tlie law in tiieir favor, though they 
 wished the modification to be made law- 
 fully. James took advantage of this feeling, 
 and had he been a man of tact and discre- 
 tion he might have gained substantial privi- 
 leges for the Roman Catholics also. But he 
 chose to pursue his policy by reviving one 
 of the most odious prerogatives claimed by 
 Charles I, and asserting the superiority of 
 the crown over Parliament and the law. 
 He issued a royal proclamation of dispensa- 
 tion, by which the penal laws against the 
 Dissenters were suspended, and the officers 
 of the law were warned to take no further 
 proceedings. 
 
 Thus by one act the king had contrived to 
 arouse against himself the slumbering re- 
 ligious prejudices of Englishmen, always 
 quick to detect anything that smacked of 
 Popery, and at the same time the resent- 
 ment of every patriot. It was a master- 
 stroke of folly, of which only a Stuart 
 
94 The Baptists 
 
 would have been capable. If his proclama- 
 tion remained in force, all that had been 
 won by the people in their great struggle 
 against Charles I had been lost, and their 
 liberties and property were again at the 
 mercy of a despotic monarch. There could 
 be only one ending to such a strife as that 
 upon which James entered so lightly, for 
 he lived too late and was too weak a ruler 
 to enforce a despotic policy. The loss of 
 kingdom and crown was but a little de- 
 layed. The revolution that placed William 
 of Orange on the throne involved the reset- 
 tling of the constitution, and a fresh exten- 
 sion of liberty. And that necessitated 
 recognition of the fact that a religious des- 
 potism could no longer be maintained in 
 England — toleration at least must be granted 
 to those who differed from the majority in 
 matters of religion, but were loyal to king 
 and law. There might still be a religion by 
 law established, a Church protected and 
 fostered by the State; but liberty to with- 
 
The Beginnings 95 
 
 draw from that Church and worship God as 
 their consciences dictated, must now be 
 conceded to all who could not conscien- 
 tiously go with the majority. 
 
 The Act of Toleration of 1689 is rightly 
 regarded as one of the foremost constitu- 
 tional statutes, the third of the great char- 
 ters of English liberty, standing next to the 
 Petition of Right and Magna Charta. It re- 
 lieved Baptists forever from the fear of 
 punishment for fidelity to their religious 
 convictions. If it did not bestow upon 
 them and other Dissenters complete relig- 
 ious liberty — nothing but Disestablishment 
 could do that — it did leave them measurably 
 free to work out their own destiny. It 
 was, at any rate, a guarantee that hence- 
 forth they should not be molested in person 
 and property for the sake of religion. And 
 that the Baptists at once felt the inspiration 
 of this hope is evident. In the same year 
 that the act was passed, an Assembly was 
 held in London representing the Particular 
 
96 The Baptists 
 
 churches, at which a new confession was 
 adopted. With the object of emphasizing 
 as far as possible the things on which they 
 agreed with other Christians, the Assembly 
 took the Westminster Confession almost 
 entire and made it their own, introducing 
 changes in a few chapters only, and these 
 such as were absolutely necessary to state 
 accurately the views of Baptists regarding 
 the church, the sacraments and the function 
 of the civil magistrate. Less than fifty 
 years had passed since the organization of 
 the first Baptist church. Churches of that 
 faith were now scattered throughout Eng- 
 land, and their members were counted by 
 thousands. There was every prospect be- 
 fore them of rapid and continuous growth. 
 What kind of people were these Bap- 
 tists? Mostly plain folk of the middle 
 class, though a few of the gentry were 
 found among them, and not a few of their 
 first ministers were men educated in the 
 universities. In what may be called their 
 
The Beginnings 97 
 
 church life, their religious customs, they 
 differed considerably from Baptists of to- 
 day. Many of the peculiarities that we 
 have come to associate with the Society of 
 Friends were found in these churches; in- 
 deed, a large part of George Fox's first so- 
 cieties were composed of those who had 
 been Baptists, and much of the life and 
 discipline of the Friends was derived from 
 this source. Baptists in the seventeenth 
 century used the "plain language," the 
 "thee" and "thou "also adopted by Fox 
 and his followers; and they repudiated the 
 names of days and months of heathen or- 
 igin, writing in their church books "first 
 month," "second day," and the like. In 
 their "meeting-houses" (they would not 
 call them churches) the men and women 
 sat on opposite sides of the room, and it 
 was common for the men to bring their 
 pipes and smoke them during the sermon. 
 The privilege of women to equal participa- 
 tion in service with men was recognized 
 
98 The Baptists 
 
 among them ; women " prophesied " among 
 them, and as deaconesses aided in the relief 
 of their poor, on which they laid great 
 stress. Singing was discouraged, the 
 major part contending that it should be al- 
 together excluded from public worship. 
 Owing to the abuses connected with church 
 "livings," they were greatly averse to hav- 
 ing any fixed stipend for their ministers, 
 most of whom engaged in secular callings 
 for their support and received little or noth- 
 ing from the churches save their travelling 
 expenses. Still, it was held to be the duty 
 of churches to contribute voluntarily from 
 their means for the support of the ministry. 
 Not only their ministers, commonly called 
 "elders," were set apart by the laying on 
 of hands, but the deacons also, who were 
 often called "helps in government." Fast- 
 ing and the washing of fellow-disciples' 
 feet were general practices, and the anoint- 
 ing of the sick with oil was the rule among 
 them. Church discipline was very strict. 
 
The Beginnings 99 
 
 "Marrying out of meeting" was an of- 
 fence that always involved disfellowship. 
 Amusements were held in great disfavor, 
 and those that might be enjoyed without 
 excommunication were few and not very 
 exciting. Close watch was kept upon 
 manners and morals, and extravagance and 
 luxury were sternly rebuked. All Baptists 
 were expected to wear simple apparel, and 
 their garb was that of the modern Quaker, 
 which was the common dress of the time. 
 They did not, however, confound simplic- 
 ity with peculiarity, and changed their 
 dress from time to time to avoid unneces- 
 sary conspicuousness. So, as they found 
 others of these customs to be no longer edi- 
 fying and helpful, they gradually suffered 
 such to lapse— a course, as they believed, 
 wiser than that adopted by Fox and his fol- 
 lowers. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 BAPTISTS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND HER DEPEND- 
 ENCIES 
 
 The eighteenth century opened with the 
 most flattering prospects of growth before 
 the Baptists of England; when it closed 
 there were still flattering prospects, but 
 there had been surprisingly little growth. 
 It is not easy to make even an approximate 
 estimate of their numbers at any time dur- 
 ing this century, but we are able to esti- 
 mate the rate of their increase. There are 
 now existing in England 123 Baptist 
 churches that are older than the Act of 
 Toleration. During the next half-century 
 sixty-eight such churches were established, 
 and in the second half of the century 165 
 others. A closer analysis shows that more 
 than a hundred of these later additions were 
 
In Great Britain loi 
 
 made in the two closing decades of the cen- 
 tury. The gross numbers would be con- 
 siderably altered, of course, if we had def- 
 inite records of the churches that were 
 formed and afterward dissolved, but the 
 relative proportions would probably not be 
 greatly altered. A century's labors, there- 
 fore, after the Act of Toleration had re- 
 sulted in just about doubhng the number of 
 Baptists. A growth of loo per cent, a cen- 
 tury would, in some cases easily conceiv- 
 able, be little less than marvellous; in the 
 present case it is comparative failure. 
 
 Are we to seek the causes of this failure 
 among the Baptists themselves or in their 
 environment ? Was there some fatal lack 
 in their character, their organization, their 
 policy ? Or did the times and the people 
 constitute such conditions as made rapid 
 progress nearly impossible ? Careful study 
 of the facts shows that there is something 
 to be said under both these heads. 
 
 There were certain conditions among the 
 
102 The Baptists 
 
 Baptists themselves that made rapid growth 
 improbable, not to say impossible. To be- 
 gin with, they had been from the first 
 divided into two opposing theological fac- 
 tions. The strife between Calvinism and 
 Arminianism was still a bitter warfare, in 
 which quarter was neither asked nor given. 
 The jealousy and bitterness thus engendered 
 between these two wings of the Baptists 
 would be incredible to one who had not 
 otherwise learned the lengths to which 
 theological controversy will carry those who 
 profess to be followers of Christ. A single 
 example will afford a measure of this bitter- 
 ness. When Dan Taylor, the founder of 
 the New Connection of General Baptists, 
 having been first a Wesleyan convert, had 
 been led by study of the New Testament to 
 adopt Baptist views, but could not lay aside 
 the Arminian doctrines he had learned from 
 Wesley, none of the Baptist ministers of 
 his neighborhood would baptize him, 
 though they had no doubt whatever that he 
 
In Great Britain 103 
 
 was a Christian and was called by God to 
 the ministry. They had the advantage of 
 Peter, who in similar circumstances said, 
 "What was I that I could hinder God?" 
 They were Particular Baptists! 
 
 In addition to this, each wing contained 
 its peculiar weaknesses and tendencies to 
 disintegration — infirmities that failed to 
 manifest themselves earlier only because the 
 pressure of persecution had temporarily 
 suppressed them. With freedom always 
 comes opportunity of wrong-doing. 
 Among the General Baptists there had been 
 from the first two tendencies, apparently 
 but not really conflicting, the one toward a 
 stricter polity, the other toward a laxer 
 doctrine. The pure independency typical 
 of Baptist churches was gradually modified 
 in the direction of Presbyterianism. Their 
 General Assembly, instead of remaining a 
 purely advisory and executive body, by 
 degrees assumed the functions of a court. 
 First attempting to decide questions arising 
 
104 T^^ Baptists 
 
 between sister churches, or between a 
 church and some recalcitrant members, it 
 then undertook the supervision of minis- 
 terial morals and doctrine, and finally inter- 
 vened in all sorts of ecclesiastical affairs. 
 The issue was continual strife and contro- 
 versy, resulting at length in the complete 
 paralysis of the churches. 
 
 Along with this went the tendency to- 
 ward a laxer doctrine. Socianian ideas 
 spread among the preachers. Matthew 
 Caffyn, a Sussex pastor, was one of the first 
 to be suspected of heresy, and soon the 
 body was divided into adherents and op- 
 ponents of Caffyn. By the middle of the 
 century, a great part, some would say the 
 majority, of the General Baptists had become 
 Unitarians. A similar process was going on 
 at the same time among the Presbyterians. 
 A considerable part of the English Unitar- 
 ians to-day are not such in corporate name, 
 but still retain their ancient names of Bap- 
 tist or Presbyterian — ^just as, in New Eng- 
 
In Great Britain 105 
 
 land, many Unitarian churches still bear the 
 corporate title of Congregational churches. 
 In neither of these bodies was the power of 
 a closer organization able to resist the heret- 
 ical lapse — the theoretical advantages that 
 such a "strong" government has over the 
 weaker independency did not manifest 
 themselves in practice. 
 
 While the Calvinistic wing escaped these 
 dangers, proving especially immune to the 
 Socinian heresy that so greatly affected 
 other bodies, including the Church of Eng- 
 land, a malady not less serious attacked it. 
 There was, among the earliest and ablest of 
 the preachers, a marked tendency toward 
 high Calvinism, and this developed in the 
 eighteenth century into hyper-Calvinism, 
 which as a theology becomes fatalism, and 
 as morals antinomianism. English good 
 sense and the English conscience prevented 
 the latter error from becoming dangerous at 
 any time, but the fatalistic idea obtained no 
 little hold on men's minds. So much was 
 
io6 The Baptists 
 
 this the case that in many Baptist churches 
 it was reckoned an impertinence, if not a 
 sin, for a preacher to invite the impenitent 
 to beheve in Christ — that is the office of the 
 Holy Spirit, who effectually calls in his own 
 time those who are elect of God to salva- 
 tion. It was the duty of the Christian 
 preacher, as they conceived it, to edify, in- 
 struct and comfort the saints, and to warn 
 sinners of the wrath to come, but exhorta- 
 tion and invitation of sinners were useless, 
 if not wicked. The result of such beliefs 
 does not require description. Growth un- 
 der such conditions would be little short of 
 miraculous, so completely would it be at 
 variance with the ordinary workings of hu- 
 man nature. 
 
 But even these things do not adequately 
 explain the failure of the English Baptists 
 to advance more rapidly. There were con- 
 ditions outside of themselves, for which 
 they were in no way responsible, that shut 
 them in as behind iron bars. The eight- 
 
In Great Britain 107 
 
 eenth century was a time of low religious 
 tension everywhere, and particularly in 
 England. In the Established Church, as 
 well as in the Dissenting bodies, it was an 
 era of weakness, declension and demoraliza- 
 tion. Between 1689 and 1750, a period of 
 two generations, there is barely one great 
 name among the clergy of England, that of 
 Joseph Butler. It was an age of feeble 
 mediocrity, of rampant unbelief, of gross 
 immorality, where strength and faith and 
 purity might reasonably have been looked 
 for. The progress of any religious denomi- 
 nation in a time of general spiritual dearth 
 and stagnation, while not an impossibility, 
 is not what we should ordinarily expect; 
 and it is not, therefore, especially discredit- 
 able to the Baptists that they made but slow 
 advances during this time. 
 
 That adverse external conditions had more 
 to do with retarding their growth than in- 
 ternal difficulties and dissensions, seems to 
 be proved by the events of the second half 
 
io8 The Baptists 
 
 of this century. The great spiritual fact of 
 that time is the Wesleyan revival — the sec- 
 ond Reformation in England. It would be 
 difficult to overstate either the intensity or 
 the far-reaching effects of this movement. 
 Beginning as a leaven in the Church of 
 England, the attempt of a few zealous young 
 men to seek the higher spiritual life, it soon 
 burst the bands with which narrow Church- 
 men would fain have confined it, and be- 
 came a mighty evangelizing force, breath- 
 ing a new spiritual life into the English na- 
 tion, which manifested itself in a permanent 
 modification of English character, and by 
 consequence in an extensive reconstruction 
 of moral ideals, of religious institutions, of 
 social customs. Baptists did not, they could 
 not, escape the consequences of so great a 
 spiritual and moral revolution; their the- 
 ology was modified, their spirit changed; 
 yet with them this was not so much the in- 
 troduction of something quite new, as a 
 bringing of them back to their earlier princi- 
 
In Great Britain 109 
 
 pies and practices. But though the change 
 thus produced in them was considerable, 
 the change in surrounding conditions was 
 more profound, complete and lasting; and 
 in this we find, largely, the secret of their 
 relatively rapid advance in the last quarter 
 of the century. 
 
 The General Baptists were the first to re- 
 spond, mainly because of the labors of a 
 single man ; a Yorkshire miner of little learn- 
 ing, but of great natural abilities, and of a 
 piety and zeal unexcelled, Dan Taylor. 
 Soon after his conversion under the preach- 
 ing of John Wesley, his talents for exhorta- 
 tion induced his brethren to encourage him 
 in the preaching of the gospel, and his im- 
 mediate success led him to devote himself 
 to this work. When study of the Scrip- 
 tures made him a Baptist, and he could find 
 no Particular Baptist minister to baptize him 
 (there were no General Baptists near) he 
 made a journey into Lincolnshire and was 
 baptized in a river near Gamston, February 
 
110 The Baptists 
 
 16, 1763. Returning he gathered a church 
 and began to preach in all the surrounding 
 region. He was fervidly evangelical, and 
 as he learned more of the General Baptists 
 he found himself v/holly out of sympathy 
 with most of them; and as his influence 
 grew there gradually took form in his mind 
 the project of a new organization. In 1770, 
 through his agency, was formed the Assem- 
 bly of Free Grace General Baptists, gener- 
 ally known as the New Connection, of which 
 he became the leading spirit, practically its 
 bishop for many years, though both he and 
 they would have indignantly repudiated the 
 name. He was indefatigable in labors, and 
 the General Baptists increased with great 
 rapidity. 
 
 New life was also manifested among the 
 Particular Baptists. Two men were espe- 
 cially prominent as leaders of this advance. 
 William Carey, village cobbler, schoolmas- 
 ter, preacher, missionary, scholar, was one 
 of England's greatest men, doing more to 
 
In Great Britain 1 1 1 
 
 make the India of to-day than CHve or 
 Hastings, and contributing to the making of 
 Christian England hardly less than John 
 Wesley. The great missionary enterprise 
 begun by him, which will be more fully 
 treated in a later chapter, had results so ex- 
 tensive and powerful, not only upon his 
 own people, but upon the whole Christian 
 world, that it is hardly possible to fall into 
 exaggeration or hyperbole in describing 
 their character or diversity. Andrew Fuller 
 (1754-1815) was born to be his comple- 
 ment. A Calvinist in theology, yet re- 
 volted by the extreme and barren doctrine 
 of many who marched under that banner, 
 he was not only a pungent and practical 
 preacher, but a masterful man of aflfairs. 
 The English Baptist Missionary Society was 
 formed in his study at Kettering, October 
 2, 1792, and for many years Fuller was its 
 life and soul. Slowly the Baptist churches 
 rallied to the support of these two men, and 
 in so doing found themselves, and began a 
 
112 The Baptists 
 
 new career of usefulness. That more than 
 a hundred new churches were constituted 
 in the two decades following the organiza- 
 tion of this society is a sufficient testimony 
 to the reflex influence upon the English 
 Baptists of their effort to give the gospel to 
 India. 
 
 The nineteenth century is most remark- 
 able, perhaps, for the increase of solidarity 
 and organization that was the result of this 
 missionary movement begun by Carey. 
 Much earlier than this, to be sure, there had 
 been the beginnings of organization in both 
 wings of the Baptists. The Particular Bap- 
 tist churches took the lead in this. The 
 seven churches of London, as we have 
 seen, united in the publication of a Confes- 
 sion in 1644; but this was union for a 
 specific and temporary purpose, and, hav- 
 ing attained its object, led to nothing 
 further just then. In 1653, the churches of 
 Somersetshire formed an association in- 
 tended to be permanent, though it endured 
 
In Great Britain 113 
 
 but four years or so. In 1655, however, 
 churches in the central counties formed the 
 Midland association, which existed until 
 1892, when it was divided into the East 
 and West Midland; and in 1689 the London 
 churches brought about the organization of 
 a General Assembly of all the churches of 
 their order. All of these, with the possible 
 exception of the Somerset association, were 
 from the first delegated bodies, and all of 
 them disclaimed the right of interference 
 with the concerns of the local churches. 
 Their declared objects were: increase of 
 mutual fraternal knowledge and sympathy, 
 the giving of advice and aid to churches 
 that needed either, and " the joint carrying 
 on of any part of the work of the Lord " — 
 a clear indication of a missionary purpose. 
 
 There are fewer definite facts ascertain- 
 able concerning the origin of local associa- 
 tions among the General Baptists, but it is 
 certain that such were numerous, and may 
 even have had priority over those of the 
 
114 T^^ Baptists 
 
 Particular Baptists. They were meetings 
 of looser organization at first than those in 
 the Particular churches — mass-meetings 
 held annually, semi-annually, often quar- 
 terly — and there is little room for doubt 
 that from these gatherings Fox got his idea 
 of the " yearly meeting " which became an 
 established feature of the Friends' polity. 
 When the first General Assembly of this 
 wing was held is likewise uncertain, but it 
 was some time before 1671, from which 
 year it was a well-established institution. 
 This body, as we have already seen, as- 
 sumed powers not generally recognized 
 among Baptists. The theory, as officially 
 set forth, was: " General Councils and As- 
 semblies, consisting of bishops, elders and 
 brethren of the several churches of Christ, 
 and being legally convened and met to- 
 gether out of all the churches, and the 
 churches appearing by their representatives, 
 make but one church, and have lawful 
 rights and suffrage in this general meeting, 
 
In Great Britain 115 
 
 or assembly, to act in the name of Christ, 
 it being of divine authority, and is the best 
 means under i.eaven to preserve unity, to 
 prevent heresy, and superintendency among 
 or in any congregation whatsoever within 
 its limits, or jurisdiction." No Baptist as- 
 sociation now in existence would claim 
 such powers, and no existing Baptist church 
 would submit to such usurpation. 
 
 But these were, after all, only the begin- 
 nings of organization. The day of larger 
 enterprises had dawned, and means were 
 necessary for executing the new plans. 
 The formation of the Baptist Home Mission 
 Society in 1779 and of the Baptist Union in 
 1832 show the trend of events and the prog- 
 ress of the idea of solidarity. These were 
 both Particular societies. The General Bap- 
 tists also established their Missionary So- 
 ciety in 1816, and various others sprang 
 into existence later, in response to special 
 needs. For half a century, at least, the 
 tendency in both wings was toward the 
 
il6 The Baptists 
 
 multiplication of such agencies, but in the 
 last generation the desire for greater unity 
 led to a gradual consolidation. The nu- 
 cleus for such aggregation was the Baptist 
 Union, the scope of which was widened to 
 include Great Britain and Ireland, and in 
 1890 it became an incorporated body. In 
 the following year the final stage of con- 
 solidation was reached, in the formal union 
 of the General and Particular Baptist 
 churches and societies. Distinction of doc- 
 trine had practically vanished long before, 
 and the disappearance of distinctive names 
 and administration properly and naturally 
 followed. 
 
 This multiplication of societies is not 
 always an infallible indication of corres- 
 ponding growth, yet in this case appear- 
 ances are not deceptive. In the first half of 
 the last century, 700 new churches were 
 constituted by the Baptists of the United 
 Kingdom, and 961 were added during the 
 second half. The largest progress in any 
 
. In Great Britain 117 
 
 decade was in the "seventies," when 216 
 new churches were established. The new 
 century began with over 2,700 Baptist 
 churches and 365,000 members. 
 
 Thus far we have confined our attention 
 exclusively to the history of Baptists in 
 England. This is indeed by far the most 
 important and interesting part of Baptist 
 history, but there is something to be told of 
 the other members of the United Kingdom 
 and of the larger empire. 
 
 There are traditions in Wales as in Eng- 
 land, of ancient Baptist churches, but there 
 is no historic proof that there was an earlier 
 church of that order than one founded at 
 Swansea in 1649. The rapid growth of 
 Baptists in Wales began during the Com- 
 monwealth, and the most active preacher 
 of their doctrines was Vavasour Powell, the 
 descendant of an ancient Welsh family, a 
 minister for a time in the Church of Eng- 
 land, a Puritan, finally a Baptist. Up to 
 the Restoration, he is said to have estab- 
 
li8 The Baptists 
 
 lished twenty churches. After the Act of 
 Toleration growth again began, and since 
 1810 the progress made has been phenome- 
 nal. The century closed with 835 churches 
 and over 100,000 Baptists. The Welsh 
 Baptists are all of the Calvinistic type, and 
 until recent years have been strict com- 
 munionists. Now in the larger towns and 
 in the churches that maintain English serv- 
 ices, the influence of the English Baptists is 
 becoming felt, and churches are adopting 
 the practice of "open" communion. 
 
 In Scotland we find Baptists making no 
 pretensions to great antiquity. Some of 
 that persuasion in Cromwell's army, while 
 stationed at Edinburgh, are said to have 
 founded a church, but on their going away 
 it seemingly disappeared; and the oldest 
 existing church is one formed in Keiss, on 
 the estate of Sir William Sinclair, in 1750. 
 A church was also established in Edinburgh 
 in 1765 and one in Glasgow in 1768. A 
 great impulse was given to the Baptist 
 
In Great Britain 119 
 
 cause in Scotland by the life and labors of 
 Archibald McLean and his contemporaries, 
 the brothers Haldane, Robert and James. 
 Both the Haldanes were educated for the 
 navy, but retired, Robert inheriting a large 
 fortune and devoting himself to a life of 
 good works, James becoming a preacher of 
 the gospel. Both became Baptists in 1808, 
 and were distinguished for their broad 
 sympathies and unwearied labors. The 
 Scotch Baptists have some peculiar prac- 
 tices, but are in general sympathy with 
 their brethren in England. 
 
 The history of Baptists in Ireland also 
 begins in the time of the Commonwealth, 
 not long prior to 1650. More than two 
 centuries and a half of effort have produced 
 slight numerical results in this unfruitful soil 
 — there being but thirty-one churches in the 
 island at the beginning of this century. The 
 famous chapter on "The Snakes of Ire- 
 land " is not quite paralleled, but almost. 
 Two associations, a Northern and a 
 
120 The Baptists 
 
 Southern, were formed in 1897 by these 
 churches. 
 
 Besides the two main wings of the Eng- 
 lish Baptists, whose history has thus far 
 been recounted, there are several smaller 
 parties of which something should be added. 
 
 For a time in the sixteenth century there 
 was a warm controversy among the Eng- 
 lish Baptists regarding the propriety or 
 necessity of the laying on of hands after 
 baptism. Apostolic precedent in Acts 19: 6 
 was pleaded by some, and confirmation 
 was found in the mention of the laying on 
 of hands in Heb. 6: i, 2. The six particu- 
 lars of faith and practice enumerated in the 
 latter passage were taken by some to be a 
 statement of the fundamentals of Christian- 
 ity; and some churches were established to 
 promote this view, which received the 
 name of Six Principle Baptists. In March, 
 1690, five London churches holding these 
 beliefs formed an association. At this time 
 
In Great Britain 121 
 
 both Calvinists and Arminians were united 
 in these churches; some years later, how- 
 ever, the Calvinists withdrew, and the 
 remnants were finally lost among the 
 General Baptists. 
 
 The Seventh-day Baptists, as their name 
 implies, separated from the rest of their 
 brethren on a question of the day of wor- 
 ship. It was a prevalent notion among the 
 English Puritans that the Fourth Command- 
 ment is of perpetual obligation; and certain 
 Baptists drew the inference that the change 
 from the seventh to the first day of the 
 week, as a day of rest and worship, is un- 
 authorized by the Scriptures and therefore 
 wrong. The first church of the order was 
 established in London, in 1676, by the Rev. 
 Francis Bampfield, a graduate of Oxford, a 
 prebend in Exeter Cathedral, who lost his 
 living at Sherborne under the Act of Uni- 
 formity, and became a Dissenting preacher, 
 for which he suffered many persecutions 
 and several imprisonments. Persecution 
 
122 The Baptists 
 
 did not cease with his becoming a Sabba- 
 tarian Baptist, but rather increased, and he 
 died, brol^en down by his hardships in 
 prison, a few years before the Act of Toler- 
 ation would have secured him from further 
 molestation. But one church now survives, 
 the Millyard, in Whitechapel, London, and 
 while this has a valuable property, it has 
 dwindled to eighteen members. 
 
 Besides the men already mentioned, the 
 Baptists of Great Britain produced many 
 preachers and laymen of distinction during 
 the last two centuries. John Gill (1697- 
 1771) was a learned theologian and com- 
 mentator, a rigid supra-lapsarian Calvinist, 
 to whose teachings was due much of the 
 paralysis that came upon the Particular 
 Baptist churches. His writings, though 
 once held in the highest esteem, are now 
 known even by name only to the curious 
 scholar. John Rippon (1751-1836) was 
 pastor of one church in London for sixty- 
 three years, which became under his minis- 
 
In Great Britain 123 
 
 trations the largest church in the metropolis. 
 He is best remembered as the compiler of 
 " Rippon's Collection," a hymnal made for 
 his own people, to which he contributed 
 many of his own verses, and which came 
 into general use; and as the editor of the 
 Baptist Register, a miscellany in which 
 many valuable biographical and historical 
 sketches appeared. The Stennett family 
 was a very notable one. Beginning with 
 Dr. Edward Stennett, a physician of high 
 repute during the time of Charles II, and 
 also a lay preacher, it contained three gene- 
 rations of Seventh-day Baptist preachers, 
 all named Joseph Stennett. The eldest of 
 these was a poet and hymn-writer who 
 won much praise in his day. Samuel 
 Stennett (1727- 1795) a younger brother of 
 Joseph the third, was the most celebrated 
 of the whole family. Though a Sabba- 
 tarian in principle, he was pastor of a Par- 
 ticular church in London during all his ac- 
 tive life. His scholarship won him the de- 
 
124 The Baptists 
 
 gree of Doctor of Divinity from the Univer- 
 sity of Aberdeen, in 1763. Though many 
 of his writings were highly esteemed by his 
 contemporaries, he is best remembered now 
 by his hymns, of which two at least are 
 found in all collections: "Majestic sweet- 
 ness sits enthroned," and "On Jordan's 
 stormy banks I stand." 
 
 A number of other hymnologists among 
 the Baptists may well be mentioned at this 
 point. Miss Anne Steele (1717-1778) was 
 the daughter of a Baptist minister in Hamp- 
 shire. She was an invalid during the 
 greater part of her life, and her hours of 
 pain were solaced by the composition of a 
 number of volumes of verse, from which 
 are taken a large number of hymns that are 
 to be found in nearly all collections. The 
 best known, perhaps, are: "Father of all 
 mercies, in thy word," "The Savior! O 
 what endless charms," and "Father, 
 whate'er of earthly bliss." John Ryland 
 (1753-1825) was the son of a distinguished 
 
In Great Britain il^ 
 
 father and a distinguished man himself, and 
 from his works have been drawn hymns for 
 many books. The hymn that might dispute 
 with any the praise of being the most fre- 
 quently sung of all sacred songs, " Blest be 
 the tie that binds," was written by Rev. John 
 Fawcett (1740-1817), a Baptist preacher for 
 more than fifty years and the author of 
 , many other verses still sung in all Christian 
 congregations. Rev. Benjamin Beddome 
 (17 1 7-1795) wrote a whole volume of 
 hymns, more than 800 in all, of which a 
 dozen or more are familiar to every church- 
 goer. To have written "Come, thou fount 
 of every blessing," would be a sure title to 
 the remembrance of many generations of 
 Christian people, but the Rev. Robert Rob- 
 inson (1735-1790) also wrote many other 
 hymns and a small library of books. To this 
 list might easily be added the names of as 
 many more, hardly less distinguished, and 
 only less gratefully remembered, than the 
 above. 
 
126 The Baptists 
 
 To return now to the Baptist preachers 
 and writers of this period, we find not a 
 few, once highly honored, but strangers or 
 nearly so to the present generation. Abra- 
 ham Booth (1734- 1 806) was at first a 
 preacher of the General Baptists, and so 
 ardent an Arminian that he wrote a violent 
 "Poem on Predestination," in which he 
 confuted Calvinism. The very violence of 
 his opinions and language produced a re- 
 action, and he afterward wrote a prose 
 treatise in defence of the doctrines he had 
 opposed, which he called " The Reign of 
 Grace," It was a greatly esteemed work, 
 as was also a controversial book, " Pedo- 
 baptism Examined," but both have long 
 since gone into oblivion. Rev. John Foster 
 ( 1 770-1 843), once greatly celebrated among 
 essayists, but, like Hazlitt and Jeffery and a 
 score of others, rapidly becoming no more 
 than a name to most readers of English 
 literature, was also a Baptist minister 
 — never so esteemed, however, for his 
 
In Great Britain 127 
 
 power in the pulpit as for his skill with the 
 pen. Dr. Alexander Carson (i 776-1844) is 
 the most distinguished man whom the Bap- 
 tists of Ireland have produced. He was a 
 native of that country, was educated at the 
 University of Glasgow, where he was 
 graduated with high honors, and had before 
 him a promising career as a scholar, could 
 he have remained a Presbyterian. Com- 
 pelled by conscience to become a Baptist, 
 he gathered a church in his native land, 
 which grew to a membership of five hun- 
 dred, while his writings spread his fame 
 abroad. 
 
 Three of the most celebrated preachers of 
 England in the present century were pastors 
 of Baptist churches. Robert Hall (1764- 
 183 1) was educated at Bristol College and 
 the University of Aberdeen, and might have 
 won fame as a scholar had he not developed 
 so great powers as a pulpit orator. At 
 Cambridge, at Leicester, at Bristol, he was 
 greatly successful as a preacher, — theschol- 
 
128 The Baptists 
 
 ars, statesmen and men of letters of his day 
 being unanimous in his praise. His style is 
 polished and ornate, but cumbrous, and the 
 present generation finds it hard to compre- 
 hend the secret of his wide popularity and 
 enduring fame. Charles Haddon Spurgeon 
 (1834- 1 892) was the son of a Congrega- 
 tional preacher, but in early life became a 
 Baptist, and before his beard was grown 
 had become pastor of a London church and 
 acquired a metropolitan fame as a preacher. 
 During the rest of his life he ministered to 
 the same church, which grew to be the 
 largest in the world (5,000 members), and 
 engaged in multifarious labors. To the 
 power of the pulpit was in his case added 
 the power of the press, and his printed 
 sermons were read weekly by hundreds of 
 thousands. Nor did his work perish with 
 him; the church that he built up, the insti- 
 tutions that he founded, have continued, 
 with little or no diminution of energy and 
 usefulness. The third preacher, Alexander 
 
In Great Britain 129 
 
 Maclaren (b. 1825) is a graduate of the 
 London University, and after a pastorate at 
 Southampton became in 1858 pastor of a 
 church at Manchester, where he still re- 
 mains. Not so great a master of assemblies 
 as Spurgeon in England, or Beecher in 
 America, he has had no superior in either 
 country in intellectual grip and spiritual 
 power. 
 
 A long list of men, distinguished in 
 various callings, might be added — such as 
 Joseph Angus, D. D., and Thomas Spencer 
 Baynes, LL, D., eminent as educators and 
 authors; Major-General Havelock, Chief 
 Justice Sir Robert Lush, and the like. In 
 spite of social disabilities of various kinds — 
 and until quite recently, legal disabilities as 
 well — many Baptists have risen to foremost 
 places and won the respect of the whole 
 nation. 
 
 It is not easy to forecast the probable 
 effect upon English Baptists of the recent 
 movement toward the federation of all the 
 
130 The Baptists 
 
 dissenting bodies. In connection with cer- 
 tain other tendencies, it points in tlie direc- 
 tion of a limitation of their growth, if not 
 toward their ultimate extinction. During 
 the last century, the progress of "open" 
 communion sentiment was very rapid, 
 until the great majority of English-speaking 
 churches have adopted this practice. Not 
 only so, many have taken the next logical 
 step, and adopted "open" membership 
 also; that is to say, they receive to member- 
 ship any Christians, without asking 
 whether they have been baptized or not. 
 From this to the dropping of all denomina- 
 tional distinctions would seem no long step. 
 The federation movement may or may not 
 hasten that which seems in any case to be 
 probable, not to say inevitable. 
 
 In the English dependencies Baptists are 
 strongest in the Canadas. Soon after the 
 capture of Quebec by the English, Baptist 
 settlers from the New England colonies 
 began to establish themselves in Nova 
 
In Great Britain 13 1 
 
 Scotia, and from 1763 churches were organ- 
 ized. The first churches in the Province 
 of Quebec were formed by Baptists who 
 crossed the line from Vermont. In Upper 
 Canada or Ontario, settlers from New York 
 planted the first churches. Later there 
 were English and Scotch immigrants of 
 Baptist stock, the latter being fruits of the 
 Haldane work. From these small begin- 
 nings, Canadian Baptists have grown, in 
 little more than a century, to over a thou- 
 sand churches and nearly 100,000 members. 
 The forming of associations began in 
 1800 in Nova Scotia, and kept pace with 
 the progress of the churches. The first 
 missionary society was formed in the same 
 region in 181 5, and others followed, but in 
 1846 all were united in the Baptist Conven- 
 tion of the Maritime Provinces. The other 
 provinces had a similar experience, the first 
 society being organized in 1837, from which 
 time various home, foreign and publication 
 societies were formed, all of which were 
 
132 The Baptists 
 
 merged in 1888 into the Baptist Convention 
 of Ontario and Quebec. A separate Con- 
 vention was established in 1881 for Mani- 
 toba and the Northwest. Various Boards, 
 elected by these Conventions, conduct the 
 work once under the charge of separate 
 societies. 
 
 The Baptists of Great Britain, having 
 ample educational facilities at hand, have 
 found it sufficient for denominational pur- 
 poses to establish a few theological schools, 
 or "colleges," for the training of their min- 
 isters. In a newer country like Canada, the 
 case was different; there everything was to 
 be provided. Canadian Baptists accord- 
 ingly began with the founding of acade- 
 mies, and as they increased in numbers and 
 wealth they also established colleges. 
 These last were colleges in the American, 
 not the English sense, — schools, that is to 
 say, for advanced instruction in the arts 
 and sciences, though in some of them pro- 
 vision was made for theological instruction 
 
In Great Britain 133 
 
 as well, for such students as had the minis- 
 try in view. It was not until 1880 that a 
 theological seminary was founded at To- 
 ronto, to which later an arts department was 
 added, and the institution became known 
 as McMaster University, in honor of its 
 founder. 
 
 The first Baptist church in Australia was 
 constituted at Sidney, N. S. W., in 1834. 
 The following year another church was 
 formed at Melbourne, Victoria. It was not 
 until 1856 that the work began in Queens- 
 land, and in 1861 the first church was gath- 
 ered in South Australia. Since these first 
 beginnings, the work has spread to New 
 Zealand, Tasmania and Western Australia. 
 At the end of little more than a half cen- 
 tury, there are reported from this region 
 2}6 churches, with over 19,000 members. 
 As the total population is about 4,000,000, 
 this is still a very small proportion of Bap- 
 tists and leaves abundant opportunity for 
 growth. 
 
134 The Baptists 
 
 In other British possessions — notably in 
 South Africa and Jamaica — there are Baptist 
 churches in a state more or less flourishing, 
 but their history offers nothing of special 
 interest. It is enough to say, perhaps, by 
 way of summary, that, at the beginning of 
 this century, there were in the British Em- 
 pire over 5,000 churches and 700,000 mem- 
 bers — including some Indian missions not 
 begun or conducted by Englishmen. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 BAPTIST BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 
 
 Among the early Puritan settlers of New 
 England, there were a number who held 
 Baptist principles, some of whom after- 
 ward became Baptists, but there were not 
 enough at any one time or place to form a 
 church. Others there were whose study of 
 the Scriptures was leading them toward 
 Baptist views. Among the latter was 
 Roger Williams, a graduate of Cambridge, 
 in 1627, who became a convert to the prin- 
 ciples of the Separatists and emigrated in 
 search of religious freedom. He imagined 
 that this was to be found in the new colony 
 of Massachusetts Bay, but he landed at 
 Boston, in 1631, only to find that the Puri- 
 tans had established a theocracy, and were 
 no more disposed than Laud himself, their 
 135 
 
136 The Baptists 
 
 arch-enemy and persecutor, to allow any 
 dissent from the religion established by 
 law. 
 
 Almost immediately, therefore, Williams 
 found himself in difficulty, since he was an 
 earnest and conscientious seeker after truth, 
 a zealous lover of liberty, and somewhat 
 contentious withal. He was by no means 
 ready to exchange one form of intolerance 
 for another, and flatter himself that he had 
 gained anything by the change. He was 
 called to be minister at Salem, a more con- 
 genial home, as this colony (like Plymouth) 
 was composed of Separatists like himself, 
 which the Massachusetts Puritans never 
 were. He was not suffered to remain here 
 long, however, but was summoned before 
 the General Court in Boston to answer for 
 certain published opinions. He had given 
 mortal offence to the government in at least 
 two ways: he had denied the validity of 
 the land titles of the colony, and he had 
 questioned the authority of magistrates to 
 
In America 137 
 
 punish "the breach of the first table" of 
 the law, that is, religious offences as dis- 
 tinguished from civil. 
 
 This assertion of the rights of conscience 
 was an unpardonable crime in this Puritan 
 commonwealth. Various efforts have been 
 made in recent times to becloud the issue, 
 and to make it appear that Williams was' 
 punished for civil offences merely. His 
 judges, not foreseeing the exigences to 
 which their later defenders would be re- 
 duced, did not take pains to disguise their 
 real reason, but put it in the very foreground 
 of the decree of banishment, which they 
 pronounced October 8, 1635: "Whereas, 
 Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of 
 the church at Salem, hath broached and di- 
 vulged new and dangerous opinions against 
 the authority of magistrates," etc. He was 
 condemned to be deported to England in 
 the first ship, but he evaded the sentence by 
 departing hastily from the jurisdiction of 
 the court. Making his way through the 
 
138 The Baptists 
 
 wilderness, he was kindly received by the 
 Narragansett Indians, and, purchasing from 
 them the land on which the city of Provi- 
 dence now stands, he founded a new 
 colony there. Settlers from his flock at 
 Salem, and others, quickly joined him, and 
 the daring venture was a success. It was 
 established on the principle of complete re- 
 ligious liberty, the settlers entering into a 
 compact, in 1638, to obey all laws made 
 "for the public good of the body . . . only 
 in civil things." This was the first govern- 
 ment in the world to be built on the corner- 
 stone of absolute liberty, to the point of 
 incompatibility with the preservation of 
 public order and private property; all other 
 governments had maintained, in practice if 
 not in theory, that the majority had the 
 right to restrict and coerce the minority in 
 all that pertains to religion. This was a 
 small state to be sure, but as the colony 
 grew the principle was maintained, and 
 when a royal charter was obtained, in 1633, 
 
In America 139 
 
 this became the fundamental law and such 
 it has ever remained. 
 
 Up to this time Williams had been what 
 we should now call a Congregationalist. 
 His study of the Scriptures, however, was j 
 leading him to the conclusion that infant 
 baptism finds no warrant there, the only 
 baptism of apostolic times being the bap- 
 tism of those who had believed in Christ. 
 Others among the Providence settlers had 
 come to the same conclusion, and about 
 March, 1639, they were ready to act as their 
 belief demanded. There was no minister 
 other than Williams, and he was, according 
 to their new conclusion, unbaptized like 
 the rest of them. The only course that 
 seemed open to them was, therefore, to 
 originate baptism among themselves. Ac- 
 cordingly, Ezekiel Holliman, who had been a 
 member of the Salem church, baptized Wil- 
 liams, and he baptized Holliman and ten 
 others, thus constituting the First Baptist 
 Church of Providence, with twelve members. 
 
140 The Baptists 
 
 There is no definite mention of how this 
 baptism was performed; whence it has 
 been inferred that, as immersion had not 
 yet been introduced among the Baptists of 
 England, it was probably an affusion. But 
 the studies of Williams may as easily have 
 convinced him that immersion was the 
 right baptism as that only believers should 
 be baptized. And, whereas, in the case of 
 the English Baptists, we have a clear and 
 definite record of the introduction of im- 
 mersion among them, confirmed by a mul- 
 titude of other documents, there is not only 
 no such record among American Baptists, 
 but it should seem there must have been, if 
 a change had been subsequently made from 
 affusion to immersion. The strong proba- 
 bility, therefore, amounting under all the 
 circumstances to a moral certainty, is that 
 at Providence and elsewhere, immersion 
 was practiced from the first. 
 
 About a year after the Providence colony 
 was founded, a new settlement was made 
 
In America 141 
 
 at Newport by John Clarke and others. 
 Clarke was of like antecedents with Wil- 
 liams, a Puritan and a Separatist, and before 
 his emigration from London had been a 
 physician of repute. He became the 
 "teacher" of the Newport settlement, 
 where another Baptist church was after- 
 ward formed. The facts about the begin- 
 ning and early history of this church are 
 very obscure, and a more positive statement 
 than the above is unwarranted. Our first 
 certain knowledge is that in 1648 such a 
 church existed, having fifteen members. 
 But how long before this it was established 
 is a matter of conjecture, not of knowledge. 
 We do know, however, that the Newport 
 colony agreed with that of Providence in 
 the matter of religious liberty for all its 
 members. 
 
 The first church in the Massachusetts 
 colony was of Welsh origin, the church at 
 Swansea, Wales, having emigrated in a 
 body with their pastor, John Myles, to 
 
142 The Baptists 
 
 escape persecution. They settled first at 
 Rehoboth, in 1633, and in 1667 removed to 
 a new site, which they named Swansea, in 
 memory of their old home, and this name 
 it still bears. In 1665 a church was or- 
 ganized in Boston, in the house of Thomas 
 Goold, who ten years before had been 
 "admonished" for refusing to present a 
 child for baptism. This church consisted 
 of nine members, two of whom were 
 women. 
 
 Before this, the persecuting tendencies of 
 the Puritan government had clearly mani- 
 fested themselves. John Clarke, of the 
 Newport church, and a fellow-member, 
 Obadiah Holmes, had been arrested for 
 holding a religious service in a private 
 house at Lynn; for which they were sen- 
 tenced to pay heavy fines, in default of 
 which they were to be " well whipped." 
 Clarke's fine was paid by a friend, but the 
 sentence was carried out upon Holmes, in 
 the streets of Boston. This happened Sep- 
 
In America 143 
 
 tember 6, 1661, a date that stands for the 
 most shameful, though not the most cruel, 
 act in the history of Puritan Massachusetts. 
 Henry Dunster, president of Harvard Col- 
 lege, for his denial of infant baptism was 
 compelled to resign his office, and was sub- 
 jected to repeated censures, and possibly 
 only a timely death saved him from worse 
 treatment. 
 
 Now a determined attempt was made to 
 destroy this Boston church. Thomas 
 Goold was repeatedly imprisoned and 
 treated with such rigor that his health was 
 broken, and he died in 1675. Others fared 
 only a little better. When the little band 
 ventured to build a small meeting-house, in 
 1678, the doors were nailed up by order of 
 the council. This was, however, the last 
 violent proceeding against them — public 
 opinion in the colony was decidedly adverse 
 to further measures of the kind. In 1691 a 
 new charter was given to the colony, which 
 assured "liberty of conscience to all Chris- 
 
144 The Baptists 
 
 tians, except Papists." Nevertheless, the 
 progress of Baptists long continued to be 
 very slow; down to the Great Awakening 
 there were but eight churches in Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 Maine was at this time a part of the Mas- 
 sachusetts colony, and Baptists there ex- 
 perienced the same treatment as elsewhere 
 within the jurisdiction of that government. 
 Two settlers at Kittery, having come to 
 hold Baptist sentiments, made their way to 
 Boston and were baptized, and then re- 
 turned to organize a church at their home. 
 The little flock was so harrassed by perse- 
 cutions, however, that the entire number, 
 seventeen in all, emigrated and settled at 
 Charleston, S. C, where in 1684 they 
 formed the first Baptist church in the South. 
 It was more than eighty years later, after 
 the close of the War of Revolution, that 
 a second attempt was made to plant a Bap- 
 tist church in Maine. 
 
 The next region of New England in 
 
In America 145" 
 
 which progress was made was the colony 
 of Connecticut. The first church was or- 
 ganized in 1705, at Groton, probably by 
 Baptists from Rhode Island, and others 
 sprang up thereafter, at the rate of one for 
 each decade. Every Baptist was liable in 
 this colony to a fine of ten shillings for 
 every time he absented himself from public 
 worship or attended a meeting in a private 
 house. It does not appear that the penalty 
 was ever enforced with rigor, or that im- 
 prisonments or whippings were ever em- 
 ployed in Connecticut as means of argu- 
 ment with these obstinate heretics. 
 
 The group of colonies afterward known 
 as the Middle States were very different in 
 their history and characteristics from New 
 England. The latter region was settled 
 almost exclusively by Englishmen, and 
 English ideas were consequently always 
 dominant. New York was originally a 
 Dutch colony, and has never wholly lost 
 the character impressed upon it by its first 
 
146 The Baptists 
 
 settlers. New Jersey was a Swedish col- 
 ony, and then English; while Pennsylvania, 
 though nominally English, was from the 
 first the goal of large numbers of Welsh 
 and Germans. These colonies were, there- 
 fore, of mixed population from their earliest 
 years, and while English ideas predomi- 
 nated in them on the whole, they had no 
 exclusive possession of the field, and were 
 subject to great modifications. 
 
 For these and other reasons a more liberal 
 religious policy governed these colonies, 
 and there was little active persecution in 
 them. The only exception was in New 
 York, and that was a short-lived affair, 
 since its cause was the personal character 
 of one governor of the infant colony, Peter 
 Stuyvesant. All Dissenters from the Re- 
 formed Church felt the weight of his dis- 
 pleasure. The first Baptists were gathered 
 in the colony through the preaching of 
 William Wickenden, one of the elders of 
 the Providence church, in 1656. Whether 
 
In America 147 
 
 he organized a church is not known, prob- 
 ably not, for he was arrested in the midst 
 of his work, thrown into prison and 
 then banished. These and other perse- 
 cutions were promptly disapproved by 
 the Company that then controlled the 
 colony. 
 
 Probably the first church formed, at any 
 rate the oldest now in existence, was at 
 Oyster Bay, L. I. About 1700 William 
 Rhodes, a Baptist from one of the Rhode 
 Island churches, began to preach and make 
 converts there. Just when the church was 
 organized we have no definite information, 
 but it was some time before 1724, for in 
 that year Robert Peeks was ordained to be its 
 pastor, and it has had a continuous history 
 ever since. A church was formed in New 
 York city, possibly earlier than this. Valen- 
 tine Wightman, a pastor at that time of the 
 church at Groton, Conn., began to hold 
 meetings in the house of Nicholas Eyres, a 
 wealthy brewer, about 171 1. Eyres was 
 
148 The Baptists 
 
 himself converted in these meetings, was 
 baptized in 17 14, and not long after became 
 minister to the church that for some years 
 continued to meet in his house. After a 
 time they had a meeting-house, but inter- 
 nal dissensions led to the loss of the prop- 
 erty and the dissolution of the church, 
 about 1730. 
 
 The churches now in existence in New 
 York were of the Calvinistic type from the 
 first, and their origin is traced to private 
 meetings held from 1745 onward in the 
 house of Jeremiah Dodge, a ship-builder. 
 The little congregation gathered here were 
 unable to support a pastor, and from 1753 
 to 1762 they were members of a Baptist 
 church at Scotch Plains, N. J., which was 
 founded in 1747. On being constituted a 
 separate church, they had as pastor Rev. 
 John Gano, who labored with them for 
 twenty-six years, and left them a vigorous 
 and growing body. From this church 
 sprang the others now found in the metrop- 
 
In America 149 
 
 olis, and many others in the surrounding 
 region. 
 
 The first Baptist church of New Jersey 
 was formed at Middletown, in 1688. It 
 was mostly composed of men and women 
 who had sought in this colony the freedom, 
 denied them in New York and New Eng- 
 land, to worship God according to their 
 understanding of the Scriptures. In the 
 following year, a colony that had been first 
 settled at Dover, N. H., emigrated in a 
 body to New Jersey and formed the Piscat- 
 away church. Churches were soon after- 
 ward established at Cohansey (1690), Cape 
 May (1712) and Hopewell (1715). 
 
 At the same time, another group of 
 churches was gathering about Philadelphia. 
 The first, at Cold Spring, (1684) was not 
 long lived, but a more permanent beginning 
 was made in 1688 at Pennepek or Lower 
 Dublin, now incorporated in the city, but 
 then a little village some miles away. A 
 preaching station or branch of this church 
 
1^0 The Baptists 
 
 appears to have been shortly after established 
 in Philadelphia, which was not formally 
 constituted a church until 1746. These 
 churches were at first composed about 
 equally of Welsh, Irish and English Bap- 
 tists. The Welsh Tract church was formed 
 in 1701, in a settlement that is now in the 
 state of Delaware. 
 
 This group of churches in these three 
 colonies, of which Philadelphia became the 
 recognized centre, soon proved to be the 
 most influential, in fact the determining 
 force, in the history of American Baptists. 
 They turned the course of development 
 into a different channel from that which at 
 first seemed likely to be taken. Down to 
 the year 1700, it seemed most probable that 
 American Baptist churches would be mainly 
 of the General or Arminian wing. The 
 majority of the New England churches 
 were of that type; the first two churches 
 formed in New York were of the same 
 order; nearly half the New Jersey churches 
 
In America 151 
 
 were Arminian also. But all the churches 
 in and about Philadelphia held the strongest, 
 though not the most extreme Calvinism. 
 About these the Calvinistic churches of 
 New Jersey rallied, and the result was that 
 they had the enthusiasm and missionary 
 spirit that enabled them to take the lead and 
 fix the type of Baptist theology for the en- 
 suing generations. 
 
 But they did far more than this. Phila- 
 delphia became also the centre of organiza- 
 tion, of expansion, of propaganda. Nearly 
 all the denominational institutions that had 
 their origin later, can either be definitely 
 traced to this centre, or received from it 
 their heartiest and most efficient support. 
 The later history, as it will be told, will be 
 seen to verify in detail a statement that 
 might seem to some rather sweeping. 
 
 The first step taken was the organizing 
 of the Philadelphia association. The 
 churches in New Jersey maintained very 
 close relations from the first with those 
 
152 The Baptists 
 
 about Philadelphia, and " general meetings " 
 were held from time to time for preaching, 
 baptisms and the like. These were ap- 
 pointed with each church in turn, and as 
 many members as possible from the other 
 churches attended. As the churches in- 
 creased in members, the maintenance of 
 this custom became increasingly difficult, 
 so that in 1707 the churches contented 
 themselves with appointing delegates to at- 
 tend the meeting. From this time on, an 
 annual meeting of such a delegated body 
 has always been held, but just when it was 
 generally recognized as having become 
 what Baptist churches call an association, 
 or received such a name, is matter of much 
 uncertainty. As this Philadelphia asso- 
 ciation increased in strength, it attracted 
 to its membership Baptists from quite dis- 
 tant regions; and at one time there were 
 churches on its roll as far North as Dutchess 
 county. New York, and as far South as 
 Charleston, S. C. In time, the New York,. 
 
In America 153 
 
 Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey churches 
 withdrew and formed associations in their 
 own states. The New England churches 
 also organized on a similar plan, and by the 
 close of the eighteenth century there were 
 forty-eight such associations among Ameri- 
 can Baptists. 
 
 These bodies have never quite lost their 
 early devotional and evangelistic character- 
 istics, but they soon took on another trait 
 that became even more distinctive. They 
 became m[ssionary societies, and concerned 
 themselves chiefly with the planting of new 
 churches, and the aiding of such as had 
 been too recently established to have at- 
 tained capacity for self-support. The rapid 
 increase of Baptist churches in later years 
 was due mainly to this feature of associa- 
 tional work. Had they remained mere an- 
 nual gatherings for mutual gratulation and 
 religious services, they would have been a 
 comparatively meaningless feature of 
 American Baptist history. In view of what 
 
154 '^^^ Baptists 
 
 they actually became and accomplished, 
 they must be pronounced the main factor 
 in denominational progress. The adoption, 
 in 1742 or before, of the Philadelphia Con- 
 fession, a reissue with some modifications 
 of the Confession published in 1689 by the 
 English Baptists, marks definitely the vic- 
 tory of the Calvinistic wing over the Ar- 
 minian elements in the churches. 
 
 With the exception of the Charleston 
 church, no Baptist churches were founded 
 : in the Southern colonies in the seventeenth 
 century. There are said to be traces of 
 Baptists in North Carolina, near the Vir- 
 ginia line, as early as 1695, but no church is 
 known to have existed earlier than 1727. 
 In Virginia some General Baptists settled as 
 early as 1714, and churches began to multi- 
 ply rapidly in both these colonies. The 
 oldest church in Maryland was formed in 
 1772, and progress there has never been 
 rapid. 
 The victory of the Calvinistic elements 
 
In America 155 
 
 was, indeed, almost too complete, and there 
 was danger that a paralysis would attack 
 these colonial churches, as complete and 
 disastrous as that experienced by their Eng- 
 lish brethren. From this they were for- 
 tunately saved by the Great Awakening, 
 which began as a local movement in Massa- 
 chusetts about 1734, but after 1740 became 
 a general revival of religion that was felt 
 throughout the colonies. The labors of 
 Whitefield had a great effect on the Baptist 
 churches, and profoundly modified their 
 doctrine and practice, so far as the latter 
 term includes the beneficent activities of a 
 religious body. This is, on the whole, the 
 most important single fact in the history of 
 American Christianity — in all the subsequent 
 history of all the denominations its influence 
 may be traced. No religious body was af- 
 fected more deeply or in more particulars, 
 than the Baptists. 
 
 In New England, where the movement 
 began, the effects were naturally first mani- 
 
156 The Baptists 
 
 fested. In a century previous, only eight 
 Baptist ciiurches had been formed; in thirty- 
 five years after the revival, twenty churches 
 had come into existence, and by 1784 the 
 total number was seventy-three, with over 
 ^,000 members. Extension of the Baptists 
 into the neighboring colonies began at once. 
 Churches were formed in New Hampshire 
 from 1750 onward, and about 1780 three 
 churches were almost simultaneously estab- 
 lished in Vermont. The planting of 
 churches in Maine began once more; while 
 in Rhode Island and Connecticut the prom- 
 ising early beginnings more than fulfilled 
 their promise. In 1784 the New England 
 Baptist churches numbered 151, and their 
 members were returned at 4,783. 
 
 Still more rapid was the progress in the 
 South. Four churches in North Carolina, 
 constituted between 1743 and 1762, formed 
 the Ketockton association in 1766. Some 
 General Baptist churches in Virginia organ- 
 ized an association the previous year, the 
 
In America 157 
 
 Kehukee, which not long afterward 
 changed its theological position and became 
 a Calvinistic body. Indeed, in later years it 
 joined the straitest sect of the Calvinists. 
 Settlers from New England in Virginia 
 brought with them the "New Light" teach- 
 ings and methods of Whitetield. A single 
 church founded by them was the parent of 
 forty-two others in seventeen years, and the 
 churches so formed sent out 125 preachers of 
 the gospel. The "New Lights" or "Sep- 
 arates "and the " Regulars " found a way 
 of composing their differences in 1787, and 
 were thenceforth called United Baptists. 
 Some thousands of them cling to the same 
 name still, and are not counted with the 
 main body of the denomination for that 
 reason. In South Carolina there was simi- 
 lar progress; the Charleston association was 
 formed in 175 1, and the churches multiplied 
 from that time forth with astonishing rapid- 
 ity. 
 It might have been expected that the 
 
158 The Baptists 
 
 Revolution would seriously interfere with 
 the progress of the Baptist churches, and 
 that they would have found themselves at 
 the end of the struggle greatly disintegrated 
 and weakened. Such was notably the case 
 with the Church of England in the colonies, 
 and the Methodist church suffered greatly. 
 But there were reasons why Baptists should 
 be less harmed than others: they had no in- 
 ternal dissensions; almost to a man they 
 were patriots. In the other churches, par- 
 ticularly among their ministers, there were 
 many who sympathized with the mother 
 country, and if they were not known as 
 Tories, they could not be active patriots. 
 Moreover, the war caused the suspension 
 of those persecutions from which Baptists 
 had still suffered, particularly in Virginia; 
 and they were free, so far as their own 
 countrymen were concerned, to preach the 
 gospel as they had opportunity. They 
 suffered inconvenience, and sometimes 
 wrongs, where the British troops were in 
 
In America 159 
 
 actual occupation: the church in New York 
 City was practically disbanded for a time, 
 its house of worship was used as a stable 
 for British cavalry. Some Baptist meeting- 
 houses in New Jersey, which was a con- 
 stant battle-ground for years, were used in 
 a similar manner, and at least one was ma- 
 liciously burned by the enemy. But this 
 was practically the sum total of loss sus- 
 tained, and the fact seems to be that, on the 
 whole, the years of the war were favorable 
 to Baptist progress. There were more 
 churches at the close of the struggle than at 
 the beginning, and save in a few localities, 
 the older churches showed increased 
 strength. 
 
 One result of the Revolution was the im- 
 mediate removal of the disabilities of Bap- 
 tists in several colonies, and their ultimate 
 relief in all. The spirit of liberty that 
 brought about the struggle could not fail, in 
 the end did not fail, to secure religious 
 liberty equally with civil. Hardly had the 
 
i6o The Baptists 
 
 conflict ended when Virginia swept from 
 her statute-book the last vestige of religious 
 inequality. Many of the new state consti- 
 tutions secured the equality of all religious 
 beliefs by forbidding special favors to any. 
 One of the chief criticisms against the 
 Federal Constitution in some of the 
 states was that it was silent on this 
 subject, and the first amendment made 
 to that instrument provided that no relig- 
 ious tests or establishments should ever 
 be set up by Congress. In New England it 
 required another generation to secure the 
 adoption of this principle, but it was 
 already apparent to the most careless ob- 
 server that State Churches were doomed in 
 every state of the Union. 
 
 For nearly a century now, the principle 
 has been unquestioned in America that the 
 interests of both Church and State are best 
 secured when the two institutions are com- 
 pletely separated. Even those who are not 
 greatly concerned to preserve religious 
 
In America 161 
 
 liberty — because they care nothing for re- 
 ligion — are anxious to secularize the State; 
 and so none openly dissent from the prin- 
 ciple. This triumph of religious liberty, on 
 so large a scale — a triumph that has greatly 
 impressed foreign nations, without having, 
 as yet, led them far in the direction of 
 adopting a like policy — is a triumph of the 
 Baptists. For they were the first to advo- 
 cate (during several generations almost the 
 only Christians to advocate) and the first to 
 practice this truth, now become a truism. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 BAPTISTS IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Without question, the most important 
 event in the history of American Baptists in 
 the nineteenth century was the formation 
 of their foreign mission society. It was not 
 until the second decade of the century was 
 well advanced that this great forward step 
 was taken. In explanation of this early 
 apathy, it should be borne in mind that it 
 was not until the closing decade of the 
 eighteenth century that European Christians, 
 with all their wealth and resources, began to 
 awaken to their duty to give the gospel to 
 the heathen. It is not surprising, then, that 
 another decade was required to rouse 
 American Christians, with their smaller re- 
 sources and their more pressing needs at 
 
 home, to realize that the great Commission 
 162 
 
In the United States 163 
 
 was addressed to them. It was a few 
 young men, students at Williams College 
 and later at Andover Theological Seminary, 
 who were the means of stirring the latent 
 foreign mission sentiment to life. In order 
 to send out these young men as mission- 
 aries to the heathen — a work to which they 
 believed themselves to be divinely called — 
 the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions was organized in June, 
 1 8 10. Among the first sent out were 
 Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann Hazel- 
 tine Judson, who were to labor at Calcutta, 
 and Luther Rice, who sailed for the same 
 port on another ship. 
 
 Knowing that they would meet English 
 Baptist missionaries there, and anticipating 
 possible controversy, Mr. and Mrs. Judson 
 made a special study on the voyage of the 
 question of baptism, from the Scriptures 
 and such books as they had with them. 
 The result was to raise grave doubts in their 
 minds regarding the practice in which as 
 
164 The Baptists 
 
 Congregationalists they had been bred. 
 After landing they continued their study, 
 with the aid of other books procured in 
 Calcutta, and finally both came to the firm 
 conclusion that only believers' baptism is 
 warranted by the New Testament. They 
 were too brave and conscientious to hesitate 
 as to their action, when once their minds 
 were decided, and on September 6, 1812, 
 they were immersed at Calcutta by William 
 Ward. Shortly after this Luther Rice 
 landed, and it appeared that he had had a 
 similar experience, so he too was baptized. 
 These missionaries had left home as Con- 
 gregationalists, in the employ of a Board 
 organized and supported by Congregation- 
 alist churches. They had become Baptists, 
 and could not longer expect such relations 
 to continue. But their missionary call had 
 not been revoked — that came from a higher 
 source than their commission as mission- 
 aries. What to do, was the question. 
 The English Baptist missionaries came to 
 
In the United States 165 
 
 Iheir temporary assistance, but it was re- 
 solved that Luther Rice should at once re- 
 turn to America, tell what had happened, 
 and if possible induce the Baptist churches 
 to undertake the support of the Judsons. 
 
 This expedient was triumphantly success- 
 ful. Mr. Rice reached Boston in Septem- 
 ber, 1813, and began to tell his story. None 
 more inspiring could well be conceived, and 
 he was a man in every way fitted to tell it 
 with effect. Wherever he spoke, it was 
 recognized that here was the call of Provi- 
 dence to the Baptists of America to take up 
 this work and carry it on. Almost imme- 
 diately the churches of Boston and vicinity 
 promised to be responsible for the support 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Judson, but they also saw 
 that here was an opportunity to accomplish 
 much more than this, and a duty also — the 
 Baptist churches of the entire land ought to 
 be awakened and interested in this work. 
 At the request of the wisest and most in- 
 fluential Baptists of New England, Luther 
 
i66 The Baptists 
 
 Rice undertook a tour throughout the coun- 
 try; he travelled thousands of miles and 
 visited all the principal cities and towns; 
 and wherever he went the missionary spirit 
 kindled and burned. Local missionary so- 
 cieties sprang up everywhere, and at length, 
 almost by a universal and spontaneous de- 
 sire, delegates from interested churches met 
 at Philadelphia, in May, 1814, and organized 
 the "General Convention of the Baptist 
 Denomination in the United States for For- 
 eign Missions." 
 
 This was the turning-point in the history of 
 American Baptists. Something was needed 
 at just this juncture to unify their forces 
 and overcome the disintegrating tendencies 
 of extreme independency. The enthusiasm 
 for foreign missions, and the united effort 
 necessary to support the General Conven- 
 tion and enlarge its sphere of operations, 
 furnished the required bond of union. The 
 scattered Baptist churches were no longer 
 so many separate units; they became a 
 
In the United States 167 
 
 "denomination." Without parting with 
 the least function of their cherished inde- 
 pendence, these churches now became con- 
 scious of a common life, of common inter- 
 ests; and this new consciousness made 
 practicable, even easy, enterprises that be- 
 fore would have been considered impossi- 
 ble. What Baptists have accomplished for 
 foreign missions has been considerable, as 
 will be told at length in the next chapter, 
 but the reflex influence of the work upon 
 the home churches has been far greater 
 than all that has been done abroad. 
 
 For a time the General Convention under- 
 took to foster home as well as foreign mis- 
 sions, but there were difficulties connected 
 with such a mingling of objects, and it was 
 finally decided on all hands to be better to 
 have a separate society for conducting the 
 home work. This was, however, an un- 
 fortunate decision, the evil consequences of 
 which have been fully appreciated by the 
 churches only within the past few years, 
 
i68 The Baptists 
 
 and indeed are not yet acknowledged by 
 all. Still, this result was reached in a most 
 natural and inevitable way, as the end of a 
 chain of circumstances almost too strong to 
 be broken; and if our fathers made a mis- 
 take, it is not for us to blame them, but to 
 show ourselves wiser, if we may. The 
 formation of this second missionary society 
 came about in this way. 
 
 With the gaining of their independence 
 and the coming of peace, the American 
 people entered upon that era of prosperity 
 and progress which was to astonish the 
 world. They had just awakened to a con- 
 sciousness of their opportunity, the vast- 
 ness of their domain was just coming to be 
 understood. The first decade of peace saw 
 a movement of the population westward 
 that has hardly yet ceased, and the wilder- 
 ness almost literally began to blossom as 
 the rose. This was a movement of the 
 greatest import to Baptists, for they bore a 
 prominent part in the settlement of the new 
 
In the United States 169 
 
 regions, and found their best opening in the 
 new towns that began to dot tiie Central 
 West, and were in great need of the preach- 
 ing of the gospel. 
 
 Even before the Revolution began, there 
 were attempts to plant settlements in the 
 central and western parts of New York and 
 Pennsylvania, and a few hardy hunters and 
 explorers had found their way over the 
 Alleghanies, but as soon as the war ended 
 the westward advance began in earnest. A 
 settlement made in Otsego county. New 
 York, became the vantage-ground whence 
 Baptists extended their influence in all direc- 
 tions. Many New England people sought 
 homes here, mostly "Separates," or follow- 
 ers of Whitefield, and these in large numbers 
 united with the Baptist churches formed in 
 this region. 
 
 Among the first settlers of Tennessee, 
 Kentucky and Ohio were Baptist families, 
 and the organization of churches began at a 
 very early date in the history of these states. 
 
lyo The Baptists 
 
 The first church in Tennessee was formed 
 in 1765, and by 1790 there were eighteen 
 churches, with 889 members. Such rapid- 
 ity of growth was characteristic of the 
 whole West, and was sometimes exceeded. 
 The first Kentucky church, for example, 
 dates from 1782, and in 1790 there were 
 forty-two churches and 3,095 members. 
 In Ohio the first church was formed in 
 1790, and the first association in 1797. 
 Baptists from Virginia were the first people 
 to settle in Illinois, but the first church was 
 constituted in 1796. 
 
 These things did not just happen so. 
 This rapid progress in the new regions was 
 the result of much hard work and well di- 
 rected. The Baptist people of that day 
 were quick to see their opportunity, and as 
 prompt to seize it. To the best of their 
 resources, they provided for the evangeli- 
 zing of these new western settlements. 
 The churches and associations in the older 
 communities gave liberally out of their 
 
In the United States 171 
 
 poverty to sustain travelling preachers — 
 home missionaries, we should call them 
 now — who labored incessantly and amid 
 great privations to carry the gospel to these 
 destitute places. The pioneer people re- 
 ceived these ministrations, for the most 
 part, with touching gratitude and eager- 
 ness; converts were numerous; churches 
 sprang up as by magic everywhere; and in 
 a surprisingly short time these churches 
 called pastors of their own, organized as- 
 sociations, and began in turn to help others 
 more needy than themselves. 
 
 It was the demand for this form of serv- 
 ice that led to the beginnings of organiza- 
 tion for missionary work, antedating by 
 some years the interest taken in foreign 
 missions. The associations were found to 
 be unequal to the exigency; some larger 
 body, that would unite the energies of the 
 churches belonging to several associations, 
 was the first expedient that was tried. 
 The Baptists of Massachusetts organized a 
 
lyi The Baptists 
 
 domestic Missionary Society in 1802, and 
 sent out evangelists who labored in west- 
 ern New York and central Pennsylvania. 
 In 1807 the Lake Baptist Missionary Society 
 was formed in central New York, and con- 
 ducted missionary operations in the rapidly 
 settling western counties of the state. 
 Such societies multiplied, and for a genera- 
 tion seemed to meet the needs of the case; 
 then they gave way to the various state 
 conventions that sprang up in response to 
 the general desire for a larger and more 
 powerful organization for strictly domestic 
 missions. But as these societies were 
 formed within state lines, and began to 
 circumscribe their labors within the same 
 limits, there was greater need than ever for 
 some provision to carry on the work in the 
 great West, and all the resources of all the 
 churches were felt to be not too large for 
 this enterprise. The formation of the 
 American Baptist Home Mission Society, in 
 1832, was the response to this demand. 
 
In the United States 173 
 
 Its constituency was all the Baptist churches 
 of the United States, and its field the whole 
 of North America. 
 
 It would be a mistake to conceive of 
 these organizations among Baptists as iso- 
 lated and exceptional facts; they were only 
 participating in a general forward move- 
 ment of all American Christians. The 
 Methodist Episcopal Church was little be- 
 hind in establishing a foreign missionary 
 society, which it did in 1819; and the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church formed its 
 society in the following year. There was 
 then a pause for some years, but from 1836 
 onward all the evangelical denominations 
 hastened to make permanent provision for 
 the doing of this work. A similar thing 
 was true of the work of home missions. 
 The Congregationalists organized the 
 American Home Mission Society in 1826, 
 and the Presbyterians appointed their sepa- 
 rate Board for this work in 1816, while the 
 Episcopal Church formed a society for 
 
174 The Baptists 
 
 Home Missions in 1821. The missionary 
 movement was not merely general among 
 the Christian Churches of America; it was 
 universal. 
 
 Next to this organization for the work of 
 world-wide missions, the most important 
 feature of American religious history during 
 the early part of the last century was the 
 growth of Sunday-schools. One of the 
 first schools to be established in America 
 for exclusively religious instruction was 
 begun by the First Baptist church of Phila- 
 delphia in 1815. By 1825 Sunday-schools 
 were to be found in all the principal towns 
 of the United States, in connection with 
 the churches of all denominations, and 
 from that time onward the progress of the 
 movement was marvellous. We are es- 
 pecially concerned to note only the effect 
 of this new Christian enterprise upon de- 
 nominational growth. One is in little 
 danger of speaking too strongly on this 
 point, for no other agency has ever secured 
 
In the United States 175 
 
 the formation of so many new churches. 
 Exact statistics are not attainable, but prob- 
 ably quite half the Baptist churches formed 
 within the past eighty years might be 
 traced back to a Sunday-school begun by a 
 few enterprising workers, in some school- 
 house or private dwelling, as a "mission." 
 After a time occasional preaching services 
 were held at the same place, converts were 
 made, and in due time a church was organ- 
 ized. 
 
 The new movement demanded and cre- 
 ated a literature of its own, and this called 
 into existence, or gave new life to already 
 existing, societies of publication. The 
 American Sunday-school Union, founded 
 in 1824, and the American Tract Society, 
 established in 1825, are examples of such 
 agencies, in which Christians of various 
 denominations cooperated. But in a coun- 
 try where denominational spirit is so strong 
 as in the United States, it was inevitable 
 that each of the stronger religious bodies, 
 
176 The Baptists 
 
 at least, should have means of their own for 
 this sort of work. Here again the Baptists 
 probably made a mistake in organizing the 
 work of publication as something wholly 
 separate from missions, for the Christian 
 press is a missionary agency and cannot be 
 anything else without ceasing to be Chris- 
 tian. In 1824 a Tract Society had been 
 formed by a few Baptists at Washington, 
 which was soon transferred to Philadelphia, 
 and in 1840 was renamed the "American 
 Baptist Publication and Sunday-school So- 
 ciety." This did not mean that it then first 
 began the publication of Sunday-school 
 literature, any more than the dropping of 
 the second phrase in the name after 1844 
 signified cessation of such publications. 
 From 1840, however, the issue of Sunday- 
 school books and papers became an in- 
 creasingly important part of the work, 
 though it has never precluded due attention 
 to general denominational literature. 
 Thus fully provided with organization, 
 
In the United States 177 
 
 the Baptist churches began early in the 
 nineteenth century to maite extremely 
 rapid progress. Growth in the last quarter 
 of the preceding century had been very 
 fast, since their members had come by 1800 
 to be quite a hundred thousand; and that 
 rate of increase was nearly maintained for 
 another quarter century or more. In that 
 time the members were about tripled; and 
 since then the numbers have doubled again 
 in every quarter century. All statisticians 
 agree that the increase of the United States 
 in population has been something unex- 
 ampled in history; but the increase of Bap- 
 tists has been twice as rapid as the growth 
 of population. As no considerable part of 
 this increase has been due to immigration, 
 and no large percentage has been at the ex- 
 pense of other denominations, such growth 
 means that the Baptist churches have been 
 very successful in their work of evangeliza- 
 tion. 
 That also is the conclusion to which 
 
178 The Baptists 
 
 closer study of the facts leads one. The 
 first half of the century was a time of fre- 
 quent periodic waves of religious interest, 
 or "revivals." These were peculiar to no 
 one denomination or section, but constitute 
 a general phenomenon in the history of 
 American Christianity, the Baptists sharing 
 in the common awakenings, and using the 
 same methods of work that other churches 
 found both expedient and effective. Quite 
 a number of the celebrated revival preachers, 
 or " evangelists," of the time were Baptists, 
 but it cannot be said that the churches de- 
 rived any special advantages from this fact. 
 The holding of " protracted meetings " was 
 a nearly universal custom, and was long 
 believed to be the most effective means of 
 reaching the unconverted and carrying on 
 religious work. To express even a modest 
 doubt was to incur the imputation of being 
 a scoffer and a foe to true religion. The 
 intervals between these " revivals " were 
 supposed to be devoted to the indoctrination 
 
In the United States 179 
 
 and training of the converts, and to preach- 
 ing that should sow the seed for another 
 like harvest in Jue time. 
 
 The frequency and fervor of such meet- 
 ings have greatly declined within the last 
 quarter-century, and two quite opposite in- 
 terpretations are current, each purporting to 
 account for the fact. By some, apparently 
 still the majority, this is taken as a symptom 
 of general spiritual decline, and such believe 
 the only hope of the churches to lie in a re- 
 version to the former methods. Others 
 hold that the day of "revivals" has gone 
 never to return, and so far from seeing in 
 this an indication of disease they believe it 
 to be a symptom of better spiritual health. 
 They do not see that a life of alternate chills 
 and fever is better for a Christian's soul 
 than for his body. More importance and 
 value, they think, should be attached to 
 what are called, with unconscious dispar- 
 agement, "the ordinary means of grace," 
 than to seasons of extraordinary excitement 
 
i8o The Baptists 
 
 and spasmodic activity, as the saner and 
 more promising method of the two. Time, 
 the great decider of religious disputes, will 
 show which is right. 
 
 This great progress of the Baptists was 
 not accomplished without many difficulties 
 to encounter and overcome. Their poverty 
 was a serious obstacle. They often missed 
 great opportunities from sheer inability to 
 meet the inevitable cost of a further ad- 
 vance. A more serious trouble was the 
 constant opposition they experienced from 
 other denominations. This was in the 
 nature of things, and does not imply any 
 unchristian spirit on the part of opponents. 
 If Baptists really believe and practice what 
 they profess, they necessarily occupy a po- 
 sition of antagonism, not to other Chris- 
 tians, but to the teaching and practice of 
 other Christians. As human nature is con- 
 stituted, theological controversy is practi- 
 cally impossible without the rousing of 
 personal antagonism, and grace only par- 
 
In the United States 181 
 
 tially overcomes this infirmity. We are ail 
 so prone to identify ourselves with our 
 cherished opinions! Accordingly, a Bap- 
 tist church was not unnaturally looked upon 
 in almost every community as a sort of 
 Ishmael— its hand was against every man, 
 and every man's hand was against it. Only 
 those who have read the surviving religious 
 literature of the first half of the nineteenth 
 century know the continuous asperities of 
 this inter-denominational controversy. The 
 echoes of it still linger in a few religious 
 newspapers of the southwest, but else- 
 where they have so completely died away 
 that the present generation is hardly aware 
 that controversy was once common. 
 
 Worse in their retarding effects than these 
 inter-denominational controversies were in- 
 ternal conflicts among the Baptist churches, 
 some of which resulted in serious schisms, 
 while all were distracting and weakening 
 to the churches in the sections where they 
 occurred. 
 
i82 The Baptists 
 
 The earliest of these conflicts was pro- 
 duced by a so-called reformation that began 
 to be preached simultaneously in several 
 parts of the Central West, about the year 
 1815. The leaders in this movement were 
 at first independent, but after a time the 
 separate groups, finding themselves in 
 agreement on essential points, came to- 
 gether. The chief men in this reformation 
 were Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott 
 and Barton Stone. All were of Presby- 
 terian antecedents (Stone perhaps more 
 properly of Congregational), but Campbell 
 had been for a few years identified with 
 the Baptists of western Pennsylvania. 
 Scott had been in the same region for a 
 time, a teacher of a school in Pittsburgh, 
 but his later labors were in southern Ohio, 
 while Stone preached mainly in Kentucky 
 and Tennessee. All these contributed about 
 equally to the success of the movement, 
 but Campbell by his pen made himself the 
 most widely known and became the chief 
 
In the United States 183 
 
 figure in thie popular idea, so that the com- 
 mon name of the new body was " Camp- 
 beliites." They repudiate the name, and 
 deny that they are the followers of any 
 man, preferring to call themselves Disciples 
 of Christ, or simply Christians. This new 
 movement, it may be remarked in passing, 
 began in a desire for the unity of all Chris- 
 tians; by the irony of fate it has ended in 
 the adding of another denomination to the 
 scores already existing. 
 
 All the churches of the Central and South- 
 ern West felt the effects of this attempted 
 reformation, which set as its goal a return- 
 ing to the exact order of things among the 
 apostolic churches, and advocated this idea 
 with an unparalleled acerbity of language. 
 But because of Campbell's brief connection 
 with the Baptists, and because in some re- 
 spects the new reformation agreed with the 
 ancient teaching and practice of Baptists, it 
 had its greatest vogue among Baptist 
 churches. The differences between the 
 
184 The Baptists 
 
 two systems were, however, more signif- 
 icant than the resemblances; and, in par- 
 ticular, the new teaching seemed utterly to 
 deny the fundamental Baptist doctrine that 
 believers only should be baptized, by 
 emptying the word " believers " of all sig- 
 nificance. The idea was adopted from 
 Robert Sandeman, that faith is a purely 
 intellectual process, just belief in the facts 
 recorded in the Scriptures, and that on such 
 " faith " as that one is to be baptized. This 
 was fundamentally new teaching, as Bap- 
 tists maintained, and also fundamentally 
 wrong. 
 There is no doubt that in the Baptist 
 - churches of that day undue stress was laid 
 on an emotional " experience" as a test of 
 regeneration, and that much mischief was 
 done by this exaltation of the emotional 
 side of religion. So far as the reformation 
 was a protest against this, it was justified. 
 But it was no satisfactory remedy to deny 
 regeneration altogether, to scout everything 
 
In the United States 185" 
 
 of the kind as occurring before baptism, to 
 identify it practically with the " faith " al- 
 ready described. Still more objectionable 
 was the teaching that in baptism was re- 
 ceived the remission of sins, and that a 
 Christian has no valid assurance that his 
 sins are forgiven apart from baptism. Bap- 
 tists saw in such teaching a complete nulli- 
 fying of the gospel, a return to the sacra- 
 mentalism against which they had always 
 vigorously protested, a new adoption of the 
 principle against which Paul so strenuously 
 contended — salvation by works. 
 
 It is more than probable that each party 
 to this hot controversy misunderstood, and 
 by consequence misrepresented, the other's 
 position, which greatly intensified the bit- 
 terness of the conflict. They were really 
 less far apart than they seemed, than they 
 both thought. But, cherishing such im- 
 pressions of each other as they did, there 
 was but one result possible, and that of 
 course was — separation. The Baptist 
 
i86 The Baptists 
 
 churches withdrew their fellowship from 
 those who held the doctrines of the refor- 
 mation, and comparative peace ensued. 
 The repairing of the damage so wrought 
 was, however, a slow process, for in some 
 regions the losses had been heavy. Several 
 entire associations went over to the new 
 movement, and churches by the hundreds 
 were lost to the denomination. 
 
 This had been a western affair altogether 
 — the churches east of the Alleghanies were 
 scarcely affected by the reformation, and 
 only heard the distant echoes of the con- 
 troversy. But they were by no means free 
 from troubles, especially in the New Eng- 
 land and Middle States. One of their chief 
 distractions was not of religious or ecclesi- 
 astical origin, but rather political, and grew 
 out of an agitation concerning Free Ma- 
 sonry, which greatly stirred the region. A 
 member of that order, named William 
 Morgan, had published a book in which he 
 professed to disclose the secrets and ritual 
 
In the United States 187 
 
 of Masonry; and, disappearing shortly 
 afterward, under most suspicious circum- 
 stances, was generally believed to have 
 been foully dealt with by members of the 
 order. His abductors and alleged murder- 
 ers were arrested and tried; some were 
 convicted of minor offences and lightly 
 punished, some escaped punishment alto- 
 gether, and the whole affair was felt by a 
 large part of the community to be a dis- 
 graceful miscarriage of justice. 
 
 For this, as well as for the original crime, 
 the order was held responsible, and the 
 opinion was now widely advocated and 
 held that nobody could be a good citizen or 
 a good Christian and be a Mason. The 
 issue thus joined was carried into politics, 
 and an anti-Masonic party was formed, that 
 for a few years was powerful in several of 
 the states, and was the decisive factor in 
 one presidential election. It was taken into 
 the churches, and had deplorable results. 
 In many communities, churches of all de- 
 
l88 The Baptists 
 
 nominations would disfellowship any who 
 persisted in retaining their membership in 
 the distrusted order, and this feeling has 
 not entirely died out to the present day. 
 The loss of members in the Baptist 
 churches was considerable, but much more 
 serious was the loss of spiritual power con- 
 sequent upon the prolonged and excited 
 discussion of the questions involved. 
 
 While the dissensions over this matter 
 were at their height, another trouble began 
 to vex the churches of the same region, 
 William Miller, a self-educated Baptist min- 
 ister of considerable powers, from pro- 
 longed study of the Bible, with no appara- 
 tus but a concordance, reached the con- 
 clusion that the end of the present dispen- 
 sation was close at hand. By repeated 
 calculations he satisfied himself that 1843 
 was the year of doom, and in 1831 he 
 began to make known his conclusions from 
 press and pulpit, and exhort men to prepare 
 for that great and awful day. Converts to 
 
In the United States 189 
 
 his views were rapidly made, meetings 
 were held in churches and camps to pro- 
 mulgate this idea of Christ's speedy com- 
 ing, and powerful revivals of religion 
 occurred in many communities. Indeed, 
 the error in Miller's teaching would never 
 have won so general acceptance, if he had 
 not been first of all a godly man and an 
 effective preacher of the revivalist type. 
 
 The excitement grew and became in- 
 tense. Many became fanatical adherents of 
 the new teaching. The day for the ending 
 of all things came and went, without sign 
 or portent, and the calculations were revised 
 and a second date selected, with precisely 
 the same result. Now came the crisis of 
 the movement. Many lost their faith, not| 
 only in Miller's teaching, but in all religion. 
 He had fully persuaded them that the Bible 
 taught his doctrine, and their whole faith 
 was pinned to his predictions. His doc- 
 trine, his predictions, having been falsified 
 by the event, it followed to them that the 
 
igo The Baptists 
 
 whole Bible was false also — there was no 
 truth anywhere. The most hopeless of all 
 infidels were some of those who had been 
 the victims of this fanaticism. Others, on 
 the contrary, so far from being dismayed 
 by the failure of the predictions, held to 
 Miller's teaching the more firmly. They 
 indeed ceased after a time to set dates, but 
 they continued to teach that the coming of 
 the Son of God in the heavens is close at 
 hand, and is to be continually looked for. 
 Gradually those holding these views drew 
 apart from other churches, and formed the 
 Second Advent body. 
 
 But the most serious, and the most gen- 
 eral, of the controversies that beset the 
 Baptist churches was that which arose over 
 slavery, from the year 183 1, when Garrison 
 began publishing his "Liberator." There 
 had always been discussion of this ques- 
 tion, but it had never been bitter and sec- 
 tional before this. The best men of the 
 South had always looked forward to the 
 
In the United States 191 
 
 gradual extinction of slavery, and some had 
 at much sacrifice manumitted their own 
 slaves. This intemperate demand for im- 
 mediate emancipation, this indictment of 
 slavery as a sin and branding of all slave- 
 holders as wicked, brought about a new 
 state of public opinion, both North and 
 South. The tendency soon was for the 
 people of the North to become the critics 
 and opponents of slavery, and for the 
 Southern people to become its defenders 
 and upholders, even to do all in their power 
 to extend the system. The abolitionists 
 were a minority, but they were an ex- 
 tremely noisy, vexatious and mischievous 
 minority. They were, moreover, a grow- 
 ing minority, and that fact gave the South 
 much uneasiness and solidified its people in 
 the defense of slavery. 
 
 Inasmuch as this whole question was 
 moral and religious even more than politi- 
 cal, it could not be kept out of the pulpits 
 and religious literature, and in a short time 
 
192 The Baptists 
 
 every religious body in the land found itself 
 seriously divided. The Baptist churches 
 had no exceptional problem to solve. They 
 shared with others the practical difficulties 
 that always vex those who try to persuade 
 two to walk together when they are not 
 agreed. When their national societies were 
 formed, the slavery question, though it ex- 
 isted, was causing no disquietude. The 
 constitutions of the various societies there- 
 fore followed the precedent of the Federal 
 Constitution, in simply accepting the exist- 
 ing conditions and postponing to an indefi- 
 nite future the settlement of the difficult 
 question. But now the day was fast ap- 
 proaching when a definite and final settle- 
 ment must be had. Abraham Lincoln was 
 not the only man who could see that the 
 nation could not permanently continue to 
 exist, half slave and half free — the two sys- 
 tems were incompatible, and one or the 
 other must prevail, or the Union must be 
 dissolved. Some saw and announced this 
 
In the United States 193 
 
 principle years before Lincoln made his 
 famous speech, but they did not catch the 
 ear of the people. Some began years be- 
 fore to make preparation for the great 
 struggle impending. The day of compro- 
 mises was fast passing away, in both State 
 and Church; peaceful separation or armed 
 conflict must ere long decide the question. 
 
 With the Churches, of course, peaceful 
 separation was the foregone conclusion. 
 This came about, among the Baptists, in 
 consequence of the announcement by the 
 Foreign Mission Board, in December, 1844, 
 that they could not appoint slaveholders as 
 missionaries. This was a denial of their 
 equal rights in the General Convention to 
 the Southern churches, which, however 
 justifiable on high moral grounds, was a 
 distinct violation of the constitution. They 
 accordingly withdrew and in May, 1845, 
 met at Augusta, Ga., and formed the 
 Southern Baptist Convention. By means 
 of various Boards, the Southern churches 
 
194 The Baptists 
 
 conduct all their general operations through 
 this one society, a delegated body meeting 
 annually. The name of the old General 
 Convention was now changed to the 
 American Baptist Missionary Union, and its 
 headquarters were fixed at Boston. In the 
 same year the Southern churches also with- 
 drew from membership in the Baptist 
 Home Mission Society, and the division of 
 the denomination was complete. This di- 
 vision has never been healed, though the 
 old bitterness has passed away, and there is 
 now a friendly cooperation between North- 
 ern and Southern Baptists. There is no im- 
 mediate prospect of any closer union. The 
 country is so vast, and the local interests so 
 numerous and difficult to understand, that 
 possibly more is accomplished by the two 
 separate organizations than could be done 
 through their union. 
 
 With this division of the denominational 
 forces, a new epoch in the history of 
 American Baptists begins. The great con- 
 
In the United States 195 
 
 test over slavery v^ent on, until it culmi- 
 nated in the civil war, and in the throes of 
 that conflict slavery was destroyed. The 
 thoughts and resources of the people were 
 mainly absorbed, during these years, in 
 this great political and military struggle, 
 and until victory declared itself and peace 
 was won there was a temporary paralysis 
 of religious activities. This was especially 
 true of the South, which in the end was 
 exhausted rather than defeated — less true of 
 the North, whose superior resources kept 
 her people from the same exhaustion. 
 There was considerable numerical growth 
 in both sections, even during these years of 
 strife, and the Northern missionary enter- 
 prises were fairly maintained. But it was 
 no time for launching new ventures, or ex- 
 perimenting with new policies. It was 
 much not to lose ground in those trying 
 years. This was the experience, not of 
 one, but of every denomination. 
 When the cruel war was over, the im- 
 
196 The Baptists 
 
 poverished South was compelled to move 
 slowly in reestablishing its religious work, 
 but it did move. The North, with re- 
 sources little impaired, if impaired at all, 
 was able to give its whole energies to ex- 
 tending and intensifying its operations. 
 The chief characteristic of denominational 
 life in the three decades succeeding, was 
 the wonderful expansion of educational 
 work: the founding of new institutions, 
 the increase of endowments, the general 
 growth of interest as shown by the multi- 
 plication of students in the schools of all 
 grades. 
 
 Baptists had, indeed, before this done 
 something for education; they had, in fact, 
 considering their means, been devising 
 liberal things for more than a century. 
 While among the earlier churches there were 
 many who were indifferent to ministerial 
 education, some even hostile to human 
 learning, there were plenty who were 
 awake to the importance of having a trained 
 
In the United States 197 
 
 ministry, it was thie desire for educated 
 preacliers — educated in surroundings not 
 iiostile to Baptist principles — tiiat led to the 
 founding of the first schools. The earliest 
 of these, Hopewell Academy, perished du- 
 ring the Revolution. Not dismayed, the 
 men of light and leading among the 
 churches of that day set themselves to the 
 work anew. The zeal of some ministers of 
 the old Philadelphia association led to the 
 founding of the two oldest Baptist colleges: 
 Brown University (begun as Rhode Island 
 college in 1764) and Columbian University 
 (1821). This only satisfied in part the de- 
 sire for schools in which Baptist Ministers 
 could be trained; for Brown was prohibited 
 by charter to teach theology, and the theo- 
 logical department of Columbian speedily 
 proved a failure. Separate schools for 
 theological instruction seemed to be the 
 best practicable solution of the difficulty, as 
 other denominations were discovering — 
 schools not chartered by the State, but 
 
198 The Baptists 
 
 maintained directly by the churclies inter- 
 ested. The first strictly theological school 
 of Baptists was established at Hamilton, N. 
 Y., in 1817, and a second at Newton 
 Centre, Mass., in 1825. In connection with 
 the former, provision was made some years 
 later for the instruction of young men who 
 did not have the ministry in view, and out 
 of this grew Colgate University; the latter 
 has remained a theological school ex- 
 clusively. 
 
 We cannot follow the details of this ad- 
 vance in education, which after 1850 be- 
 came much more rapid, and from 1870 
 onward has outstripped the expectations of 
 the most sanguine. In the last ten years 
 the chief progress has been in the better en- 
 dowing and equipping of institutions al- 
 ready existing, rather than in the founding 
 of new schools. The matter of founding, it 
 is now plain, has been fully done, if not 
 overdone. We are coming to have a more 
 adequate sense of what it means to establish 
 
In the United States 199 
 
 a new institution of learning. Men who 
 are anxious to perpetuate their names by 
 the gift of $100,000 to found a college may 
 perhaps be as numerous as ever, but those 
 who are ready to help them gain fame so 
 cheaply are becoming fewer every year — 
 not less than a million is now regarded as 
 the sum necessary for such a beginning. 
 
 At the opening of this century American 
 Baptists had under their control seven theo- 
 logical seminaries, 105 universities and col- 
 leges, and 90 academies, in which they 
 have invested the great sum of 144,000,000, 
 not less than half of which is productive 
 endowment. It should be added that most 
 of this endowment is for the benefit of the 
 first two classes, academies being as yet 
 very indifferently provided for. The great 
 bulk of this property has been accumulated 
 in these last three decades, for in 1870 the 
 total valuation of the property did not ex- 
 ceed $7,000,000. Such an advance can 
 hardly be surpassed in the annals of Chris- 
 
200 The Baptists 
 
 tianity. And during the same period the 
 number of students has increased from 
 about 2,400 in 1870 to 38,000 in 1900. 
 
 But the advance in missions is only less 
 remarkable than this educational expansion, 
 though the full telling of this story belongs 
 to the next chapter. Next to this, the 
 most striking thing in recent denomina- 
 tional work has been the rise and progress 
 of the young people's movement in the last 
 two decades. This is a phenomenon com- 
 mon to all the churches, like the Sunday- 
 school work in the earlier part of the cen- 
 tury. A movement so spontaneous and 
 general could be nothing but the response 
 to an institution that was felt to meet a need 
 universal, though perhaps not before under- 
 stood or acknowledged. In earlier years, 
 those received into Baptist churches, at 
 least, were mainly adults; a generation ago, 
 indeed, many churches would not receive 
 into membership children of nine or ten 
 years, doubting whether they could be 
 
In the United States 201 
 
 genuinely converted at so tender an age. 
 With each decade now the tendency is for 
 the conversion of fewer adults; more and 
 more the converts added to our churches 
 are children in their "teens," from the 
 Sunday-school. What to do with these 
 young people, how to instruct them in the 
 Scriptures, in the history and principles and 
 work of the denomination, how to train 
 them for Christian service — this is the great 
 problem that confronts the average pastor. 
 The young people's movement, among 
 Baptists, at any rate, is nothing else than 
 an attempt to solve this problem. 
 
 There had been half-hearted attempts in 
 this direction — or whole-hearted efforts, 
 perhaps, by a few pastors — before Rev. 
 Francis E. Clark formed his Society of 
 Christian Endeavor at Portland, Me., in 
 1881, but the immediate success of that 
 first society and the rapid multiplication of 
 others of that type, gave a great impetus to 
 this work and roused attention anew to its 
 
202 The Baptists 
 
 importance. Some Baptists, however, de- 
 sired an exclusively denominational society, 
 like that which the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church established under the name of the 
 Epworth League. Such a thing is impossi- 
 ble, in the nature of things, among Baptists, 
 where each church is perfectly free to decide 
 for itself what form of organization its 
 young people shall have, and where differ- 
 ent ideas on the question of organization 
 obtain. As a matter of fact, several differ- 
 ent types of organization have been found, 
 and are still found, in Baptist churches, and 
 probably no one of them will ever succeed 
 in getting complete possession of the field. 
 Federation of all these societies in one gen- 
 eral organization known as the Baptist 
 Young People's Union of America (formed 
 at Chicago in 1891) proved the best possi- 
 ble, as it was also the only possible, solution 
 of all the difficulties. This Union has now 
 adopted the plan of holding biennial con- 
 ventions. 
 
In the United States 203 
 
 The dose of the nineteenth century found 
 the Baptists of the United States numbering 
 4,181,686 members, in a population of 74,- 
 610,523 — exclusive of Alaska and our latest 
 possessions — or one in about eighteen per- 
 sons. This includes only those who are 
 commonly intended when Baptists are 
 mentioned, what are sometimes called 
 "regular" Baptists. If we add the mem- 
 bers of other bodies essentially Baptist in 
 principles and practice, the proportion is one 
 to every sixteen of the population. This 
 takes account of communicants alone. If 
 we reckon members of Baptist families, 
 regular attendants at Baptist churches and 
 Sunday-schools, allowing three such for 
 every communicant, then one person in 
 every seven or eight of the population may 
 be called in some sense a Baptist. It is the 
 largest Protestant denomination but one in 
 the United States. 
 
 If we look below these statistics at the 
 more important things, we shall discover 
 
204 ^^^ Baptists 
 
 advance in these also. If there has not 
 been increase in piety and zeal, these have 
 at least been well maintained. In every- 
 thing else there has been progress — in in- 
 telligence, in wealth, in liberality — until the 
 mere increase in numbers seems on the 
 whole the least striking feature of the cen- 
 tury's history. 
 
 Of those bodies essentially Baptist, yet 
 not included in the regular Baptist organiza- 
 tion, a word should be added. 
 
 A number of these have the name Baptist 
 in their official title. Of such are the Six 
 Principle Baptists, similar to the same de- 
 nomination in England, who originated in 
 Rhode Island, and formed the earliest Bap- 
 tist association in New England. They 
 came to be entirely Arminian in theology, 
 and besides this differed from other Baptists 
 in their insistence upon the ceremony of 
 laying hands on all persons immediately 
 after their baptism. The Seventh-day Bap- 
 
In the United States 205 
 
 lists began in the same colony in 1671, and 
 their chief distinguishing feature is clearly 
 implied in their name. They have been 
 active in proportion to their numbers and 
 means in the work of education. The 
 German Seventh-day Baptists are peculiar 
 to Pennsylvania, and have no connection 
 with the others. Two distinct bodies are 
 known as Freewill Baptists. One arose in 
 North Carolina, in 1729, and call themselves 
 the Original Freewill Baptists. The other 
 began in New Hampshire, in 1780, and have 
 lately changed their official title to Free 
 Baptists. They are strongest in New Eng- 
 land and the Central West. A few of the 
 Separate Baptist churches are still found in 
 the South, and likewise a small contingent 
 of General Baptists. About 1835 some of 
 the Baptist churches of ultra-Calvinistic 
 views separated from the others and called 
 themselves Primitive or Old School Baptists, 
 but are popularly known as " Hard Shells." 
 Another extreme Calvinistic group is known 
 
2o6 The Baptists 
 
 as Two-seed-in-the-Spirit Baptists. They 
 are confined to a few southern states. 
 
 Several other small denominations are es- 
 sentially Baptists, but do not bear that name 
 in any form. Best known, perhaps, are the 
 Dunkards, or Tunkers, sometimes improp- 
 erly called by others German Baptists. 
 They originated in Germany and emigrated 
 to the colony of Pennsylvania, from 17 19 
 onward, where their descendants are still 
 mostly found. While peculiar in certain of 
 their customs — for example, practicing trine 
 instead of single immersion, and the wash- 
 ing of each other's feet as a religious ordi- 
 nance — in all essential matters they agree 
 with the regular Baptist churches. The 
 Winebrennerians or Church of God, begin- 
 ning in Pennsylvania about 1825, are Bap- 
 tist in all but their polity, which more nearly 
 resembles the Wesleyan. The River Breth- 
 ren, probably an offshoot of the Mennon- 
 ites, began in Pennsylvania as a separate 
 body about 1750. They closely resemble 
 
In the United States 207 
 
 the Dunkards, with whom they are some- 
 times confounded. 
 
 Several other denominations — notably the 
 Adventists, Christadelphians and Social 
 Brethren — practice immersion of believers, 
 without any close affinity to Baptists in 
 other respects. All of these bodies are 
 small, and most of them are confined to 
 some limited area. These facts concerning 
 them are given more as a matter of infor- 
 mation, than because of any important bear- 
 ing they are supposed to have on Baptist 
 history, past or to come. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BAPTIST MISSIONS 
 
 How the Providence of God led the Bap- 
 tist churches of England and America to en- 
 gage in the work of missions has already 
 been told, as part of the general history. 
 In the space at command, no further ac- 
 count of home missions is possible; but the 
 work of foreign missions, in its proportions 
 and results, is not only a subject that de- 
 mands separate treatment, but it resulted in 
 established Baptists in other parts of the 
 world than those yet described. 
 
 It was in June, 1793, that William Carey 
 sailed for India, with John Thomas, a sur- 
 geon who had previously been in that coun- 
 try and therefore knew something of the 
 people and their language. They probably 
 
 anticipated opposition and possible perse- 
 208 
 
Baptist Missions 2og 
 
 cution from the heathen; what they could 
 not reasonably have expected was that their 
 bitterest opposition would come from Eng- 
 lishmen who at least called themselves 
 Christians. But so it was. The British 
 East India Company was fully persuaded 
 that the preaching of the gospel would make 
 trouble among the people of India, and 
 cause a revolt against the English power. 
 This fear of a revolt was ever before British 
 officialdom, and not without reason, as the 
 event proved. But when the uprising 
 came, in due time, it was plainly not caused 
 by Christian missions; on the contrary, 
 wherever Christianity had really penetrated 
 and got a foothold, the natives remained 
 quiet. It became plain, even to the British 
 official, as Constantine had seen centuries 
 before, that the Christian religion is the 
 strongest of all conservative forces, the best 
 ally of governments in preserving order, and 
 a thing by all means to be encouraged in- 
 stead of repressed. 
 
210 The Baptists 
 
 But at first Carey and his followers were 
 forbidden to remain and preach in the Eng- 
 lish possessions. They withdrew to the 
 Danish territory, and established themselves 
 at Serampore. Here, after a little, a mis- 
 sionary press was set up, and Carey began 
 his great work of translating and printing 
 the Scriptures in the various languages and 
 dialects of India. Before leaving England, 
 he had shown himself to be possessed of a 
 marvellous faculty for the acquisition of 
 languages. Without instruction, while la- 
 boring ill his cobbler's bench, he had learned 
 Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and Dutch. 
 Doubtless he was not a finished scholar in 
 these languages, according to the standards 
 of our colleges, but he could do what none 
 of our college graduates to-day can do — 
 read easily books in all these languages, and 
 write in them fluently. That was how 
 languages were learned once; now a student 
 spends from seven to ten years in gerund- 
 grinding, and at their close is still tied to his 
 
Baptist Missions 2 1 1 
 
 dictionary and can read nothing, though he 
 can laboriously translate, say, a page an 
 hour into bad English. Carey learned the 
 languages of the Orient as he had learned 
 those of the West— mastered them, that is 
 to say, and became one of the greatest lin- 
 guists of his age, a man recognized by the 
 learned men of Europe as an Oriental scholar 
 of the first rank. Titles and honors were 
 showered upon him, and were worn with a 
 modesty as great as his learning. 
 
 His achievements would be incredible, if 
 they were not so perfectly attested by docu- 
 mentary evidence that cannot be gainsaid. 
 In his work of translation he had some as- 
 sistance, but he supervised the whole, re- 
 vised the contributions of others, and saw 
 the whole through the press. In the thirty 
 years that he thus labored, he and his fellow- 
 workers gave the printed gospel to a third 
 of the people then living in the world. 
 From the Serampore press 212,000 copies 
 of the Scriptures were issued before his 
 
212 The Baptists 
 
 death, in forty different languages and 
 dialects, spoken by 330,000,000 people. 
 There is no parallel to this great work in 
 the history of Christendom. It was more- 
 over, no crude and hasty work, that had 
 soon to be done over. Those versions still 
 hold the field in India, in some cases un- 
 altered, in others with such revisions as 
 have been given to our own English ver- 
 sion, — revisions that have made the text a 
 more accurate rendering, without altering 
 its essential nature. 
 
 For some time these Baptist missionaries 
 were aided in the printing of these versions 
 by the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 This society was formed in 1804 at the in- 
 stance of the Rev. Joseph Hughes, a Baptist 
 minister and its first secretary; and some 
 ten or more different denominations united 
 in organizing and supporting it. In 1835 
 objection was made to a proposed grant 
 for the printing of a revision of Carey's 
 Bengali Bible, unless " the Greek terms re- 
 
Baptist Missions 213 
 
 lating to baptism be rendered, either accord- 
 ing to the principle adopted by the trans- 
 lators of the authorized English version, by 
 a word derived from the original, or by 
 such terms as may be considered unobjec- 
 tionable by other denominations composing 
 the Bible Society." The missionaries found 
 themselves unable to accept this alternative, 
 either not to translate some words, or to 
 mistranslate them in order that some might 
 be better pleased. It was pointed out that 
 this was laying down an entirely new rule 
 by the society, that other versions had been 
 printed by its aid in which bapti^o and its 
 cognates were rendered by vernacular 
 words signifying to dip or immerse. All 
 was to no purpose, and aid for printing this 
 version was finally refused. The English 
 Baptists therefore formed the Bible Transla- 
 tion Society, in 1840, to encourage the pro- 
 duction and circulation of faithful transla- 
 tions of the Scriptures into foreign tongues. 
 This society is still in existence, and in sixty 
 
214 The Baptists 
 
 years it has printed and distributed over six 
 million copies of the Scriptures, at a cost of 
 $1,500,000. It has an annual income of 
 about ^^1,500, 
 
 The mission of Carey, thus begun in 
 Bengal, has been continued to the present 
 time. Even before his death there was a 
 complete cessation of official opposition to 
 the work, and in later years it has been 
 quietly aided in many ways by British civil 
 servants in India. The mission has been 
 extended into Northern India and Orissa. 
 In all, 178 stations are now occupied, and 
 the native churches contain over 7,000 mem- 
 bers. Besides this mission, one has been 
 established in Ceylon, where eighty-one 
 stations are maintained; another with 346 
 stations is now carried on in China, and 
 there is a mission on the Congo in Africa, 
 with fifty-five stations. The society raises 
 and expends about ;;£"ioo,ooo annually. 
 
 With the decision of American Baptists 
 to undertake the support of Mr. and Mrs. 
 
Baptist Missions 215 
 
 Judson, as already related, begins the his- 
 tory of their foreign missions. Before they 
 could learn of this decision, the Judsons were 
 compelled by the hostility of the East India 
 Company to leave Calcutta, and decided to 
 begin a mission in Burma, where they 
 would build on no other man's foundations, 
 and would be without the English sphere 
 of influence. They landed at Rangoon 
 July 13, 1813, and here they spent two lone- 
 some and laborious years, mostly given to 
 acquiring the language, before they learned 
 what the Baptists of the United States had 
 done. Their situation was one of great 
 peril, for from the first they were looked 
 upon with much suspicion as possible em- 
 issaries of the English, who were believed 
 to have designs upon Burma. The progress 
 of the work was slow — it was not until 
 after six years of patient effort that the first 
 convert was baptized — and a large part of 
 Judson's time was given to a translation of 
 the gospels into Burmese. When war 
 
2i6 The Baptists 
 
 finally broke out between Burma and the 
 English, the missionary suffered a prolonged 
 and painful imprisonment — not so much for 
 religion's sake, as on suspicion still of being 
 an English spy. As the country came more 
 under English influence, obstacles to the 
 preaching of the gospel vanished. Judson 
 completed his translation of the Bible, and 
 until very recently this was the sole version 
 of the Scriptures circulated among the Bur- 
 mese. In a few years other missionaries 
 arrived on the field, and the Burman mission 
 began to flourish. 
 
 It was soon discovered that among the 
 Burmese another people were living, of 
 very different language and characteristics, 
 the Karens. A mission to them was begun 
 at Tavoy in 1828, by Rev. George Dana 
 Boardman, and they proved to be more 
 ready to receive the gospel than the Bur- 
 mese — indeed, among them some of the 
 chief missionary triumphs of the century 
 were won. They had a tradition that white 
 
Baptist Missions 217 
 
 men would some day come and bring back 
 their lost sacred books and teach them the 
 true religion, and the coming of the mis- 
 sionaries was taken as a fulfilment of this 
 hope. The conversion of Ko-tha-byu, the 
 "apostle to the Karens " did much to hasten 
 the progress of Christianity among them, 
 and until recent years, the Karen mission 
 was the most fruitful field of all' Asiatic 
 missions. 
 
 There was now a considerable enlarging 
 of operations. The General Convention was 
 well established in the confidence and affec- 
 tion of the churches and the zeal for mis- 
 sions had become general. At the meeting 
 in 1835 the board was instructed to estab- 
 lish missions in every unoccupied place, 
 where there was a reasonable prospect of 
 success. Two years before this a move- 
 ment toward a mission to the Chinese had 
 been begun by the sending of a single mis- 
 sionary to Bankok, Siam. Now this mis- 
 sion was extended to China proper, begin- 
 
2i8 The Baptists 
 
 ning with Hong Kong, in 1842, and going 
 on to other seaport towns, as they were 
 gradually opened by treaty to foreign resi- 
 dents. This was a slow process, however, 
 and it was long before it was considered 
 possible by any to give the gospel to the 
 inland towns. 
 
 In pursuance of the same policy a mission 
 was begun among the Telugus, a people 
 then found exclusively in the southern part 
 of Hindustan. Here there was for a long 
 time seemingly no success nor prospect of 
 success. No mission was ever begun and 
 carried on for a full generation with less 
 outward encouragement, but the mission- 
 aries never lost heart, nor faltered in their 
 belief that a great blessing was yet in store 
 for the Telugus. The people at home came 
 to know this as the " Lone Star " mission, 
 and there were repeated proposals that it be 
 abandoned. In 1853 and again in 1853, at 
 the annual meetings, strenuous efforts were 
 made to procure the withdrawal of the 
 
Baptist Missions 219 
 
 missionaries and the giving up of this field 
 a. hopeless. But efforts equally strenuous 
 were made in behalf of the mission, it was 
 reinforced, and for another twenty years 
 the discouraging struggle went on. 
 
 Then, all at once, the fields were found 
 to be white unto harvest, and nothing re- 
 mained but to put in the sickle. There had 
 been a long and severe famine and the mis- 
 sionaries had been able to provide relief for 
 many who would otherwise have starved, 
 through undertaking government works. 
 It was feared that the conversions were not 
 genuine, and hence unusual care was em- 
 ployed in examining and testing those who 
 professed themselves to be followers of 
 Jesus. In a single day in 1878. the mis- 
 sionaries baptized 2,2^2 converts, and 
 within the year the number swelled to 
 nearly 10,000-a small part of those who 
 had presented themselves. The genuine- 
 ness of their profession of faith was after- 
 ward shown by the great majority of 
 
220 The Baptists 
 
 these, by their consistent Christian walk. 
 Ever since, this has continued to be prob- 
 ably the most fruitful mission field in the 
 world, the churches there now having a 
 membership of over 55,000. 
 
 A mission to Assam was also begun in 
 1836, which was later extended from the 
 Assamese proper to the hill tribes, the 
 Nagas and Garos. The work of this mis- 
 sion has had little of the romantic or sensa- 
 tional, but it has been steady in its progress. 
 Now 300 mission stations are occupied, and 
 the native churches have over 6,000 mem- 
 bers. 
 
 Besides certain European missions, to be 
 mentioned later, these were the chief enter- 
 prises of the General Convention down to 
 the division of the denomination. A mis- 
 sion was begun in Liberia in 1820, to be 
 sure, but it was never vigorously prose- 
 cuted, and after the civil war was trans- 
 ferred to the Southern Convention. Mis- 
 sionary operations of some extent were 
 
Baptist Missions 221 
 
 carried on also among the various Indian 
 tribes of our own country, nearly a score in 
 all, and with considerable success among 
 the Cherokees and Shawanoes, nearly 2,000 
 converts having been baptized in the two 
 tribes. This was, however, home missions 
 rather than foreign, and the work was at 
 length transferred to the Baptist Home 
 Mission Society, whose work among the 
 Indians in recent years has been most suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Before turning to the history of Baptist 
 missions after the great schism of 1845, one 
 episode growing out of the labors of this 
 period should be related. In every new 
 mission, one of the earliest and most im- 
 portant features of the work has been to 
 give the Scriptures to the people in their 
 own tongue. Often this has involved re- 
 ducing a language to writing for the first 
 time, the invention of an alphabet, the cast- 
 ing of types, and the like. Judson was 
 obliged not only to make a translation, but 
 
222 The Baptists 
 
 a grammar of the Burmese language, and 
 then a dictionary; and then to turn from 
 these philological labors to the work of a 
 practical printer. He had to set up a press, 
 and supervise the publication of his Bible. 
 This he did at Moulmein, and in later years 
 the press was transferred to Rangoon, 
 where it has grown from a little hand-press 
 to a large printing establishment, with a 
 plant estimated to be worth 1 100,000, 
 where all the Baptist missionary printing is 
 done. A successful missionary must often 
 be not only a preacher, but a good me- 
 chanic or farmer or man of affairs. It is 
 not the men who have failed in everything 
 at home who can be safely sent to the 
 foreign field. 
 
 In the printing and circulating of these 
 versions the missionaries were for a time 
 aided by the American Bible Society, 
 formed in New York in 1816, by represent- 
 atives of various denominations, including 
 Baptists, for "the dissemination of the 
 
Baptist Missions 223 
 
 Scriptures in the received versions where 
 they exist, and in the most faithful where 
 they are required." In 1835 a question 
 similar to that already noted in the British 
 and Foreign Bible society was raised in this 
 body also: objection was made to Judson's 
 version and others on the ground that they 
 translated bapii'io and its cognates by ver- 
 nacular words signifying to dip or im- 
 merse; and for the future aid was refused 
 to missionary versions, unless they should 
 conform in the principles of their transla- 
 tion to the common English version — that 
 is transfer, instead of translate, words likely 
 to cause controversy. 
 
 With this rule, of course. Baptists could 
 not comply, nor could they with self-re- 
 spect continue to cooperate with a society 
 that subjected them to this exclusive 
 rule. In April, 1837, therefore, a conven- 
 tion held at Philadelphia organized the 
 American and Foreign Bible Society, which 
 proceeded to print and circulate the ver- 
 
224 The Baptists 
 
 sions condemned by the American Bible 
 Society. 
 
 Had this ended the matter, there would 
 have been few or no evil results. But 
 some influential Baptists desired an English 
 version of the Scriptures, in which every 
 word should be faithfully rendered into 
 Enghsh as now spoken, while others were 
 strongly opposed to any revision of the 
 King James' version, by a single denomina- 
 tion at all events. In June 1850, the Ameri- 
 can Bible Union was accordingly formed, 
 "to procure and circulate the most faithful 
 versions of the Scriptures in all languages 
 throughout the world." A number of 
 translations into foreign languages were 
 printed and circulated by this society, but 
 its English version is that by which its 
 labors are chiefly known. Sharp contro- 
 versies ensued and were long continued 
 over the Bible work of the denomination, 
 and they were not settled until a much later 
 time. In May, 1883, a convention repre- 
 
Baptist Missions 225 
 
 senting the whole denomination met at 
 Saratoga, and decided that thenceforth the 
 Bible work for the foreign field should be 
 committed to the Missionary Union, and 
 that for the home field to the Publication 
 Society. This settlement gave general sat- 
 isfaction, and has never since been ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 After the division of the denomination, 
 the Northern Baptists did not for some time 
 undertake any new missions, but devoted 
 themselves to the strengthening and enlarg- 
 ing of work already undertaken. This was 
 especially true of the China mission, which 
 was now greatly extended, though for 
 many years the returns were discouragingly 
 meagre. When new fields were occupied 
 it was in response to unmistakable leadings 
 of Providence. Thus, in 1872, a mission in 
 Japan, begun some years before by the 
 American Baptist Free Mission Society, was 
 offered to the Missionary Union and ac- 
 cepted; and since that time it has been 
 
226 The Baptist 
 
 pushed with great vigor. Later, in 1883, a 
 mission tliat had been carried on for six 
 years on tlie Congo by Mr. and Mrs. Grat- 
 tan Guinness, of London, was also offered 
 to the Missionary Union, and accepted the 
 following year. There were already seven 
 stations, a staff of twenty-six workers, a 
 small steamer and other valuable missionary 
 property. There was nothing to do but 
 vigorously prosecute the work so well be- 
 gun. In 1886 a remarkable work began 
 among the negroes and conversions mul- 
 tiplied, until a thousand or more had been 
 baptized. 
 
 The great advance in all the missions is 
 only faintly indicated by a few figures. In 
 1850, five years after the division, there 
 were sixty-nine churches in the Asiatic 
 missions, with 7,521 members. In 1900 
 there were 844 churches and 125,929 mem- 
 bers. The African mission adds to these 
 twelve churches and 1,925 members. The 
 annual contributions of the churches for 
 
Baptist Missions 227 
 
 foreign missions have advanced from 
 $87037 i" ^850 to $626,844 in 1900. 
 
 The Souther;! Baptists found themselves, 
 after the division, with no missions at all — 
 they had abandoned their common owner- 
 ship in what had hitherto been accomplished. 
 They began in Southern China at once, with 
 the main station at Canton, and as speedily 
 as practicable extended their work to Cen- 
 tral and Northern China. A mission was 
 also begun in Liberia in 1846, and three 
 years later the principal African mission at 
 Yoruba was begun. No farther operations 
 were attempted until after the civil war, 
 which brought all work to a standstill for a 
 decade; but in 1870 a mission was begun in 
 Italy, which has been fairly successful. A 
 Baptist Union was formed in 1883, which 
 now reports fifty churches and over 1,500 
 members. Nearly half these results are 
 due, however, to the aid of the English 
 Baptist Missionary Society. In 1879 the 
 Convention began a mission to Brazil, and 
 
228 The Baptists 
 
 in 1889 a mission was initiated in Japan. 
 The annual expenditures in these various 
 missions are now over $200,000. 
 
 Missions were begun in Europe with the 
 opening of a Baptist chapel in Paris, under 
 the auspices of the General Convention, in 
 1832. In 1836 a mission was begun in 
 Greece, and in 1870 it was attempted to 
 establish one in Spain. Of these the French 
 mission has been the only one to approach 
 success — the work in Greece was long ago 
 abandoned, while that in Spain has for 
 some years been conducted by native pas- 
 tors exclusively, and but seven small 
 churches exist as a result of all that has 
 been done. In France, however, there has 
 been an encouraging growth, particularly 
 during the past twenty years. The fifty- 
 two churches now existing are found in 
 many different departments, though about 
 one-fourth of them are in and about Paris; 
 and there are 2,300 members enrolled in 
 twenty of these, the others not reporting. 
 
Baptist Missions 229 
 
 Since 1856 there have been no American 
 missionaries in France. The greatest lack 
 of the churches is an educated ministry. 
 This need has been in part supplied in past 
 years by American aid, but until it is ade- 
 quately met rapid progress is not to be 
 expected. 
 
 There have been several other exceedingly 
 interesting Baptist movements in Europe, 
 which can be called Baptist missions only in 
 a liberal extension of that term. The first 
 of these began in Germany, through the 
 conversion to Baptist views, by the inde- 
 pendent study of the Scriptures, of Johann 
 Gerhardt Oncken, at that time a colporteur 
 and missionary of the British Continental 
 Society. He was baptized in April, 1834, 
 with six other believers at Hamburg, by 
 Rev. Barnas Sears, an American Baptist then 
 pursuing theological studies in Germany, 
 and so the first German Baptist church was 
 constituted. The General Convention, on 
 learning these facts, appointed Oncken a 
 
230 The Baptists 
 
 missionary, but no Americans were sent to 
 that field. Tiie work made rapid progress, 
 in spite of many persecutions, and in a few 
 years Baptist churches were found in all the 
 principal towns of Germany. Associations 
 were formed, and in 1849 the German Bap- 
 tist Union was organized, with which are 
 now affiliated eight associations, 165 
 churches and nearly 30,000 members in 
 Germany alone. The associations meet 
 annually, but the Union only once in three 
 years. Three Commissions or Boards con- 
 duct the work: Publications, School and 
 Finance. The Publication Board has charge 
 of a business founded by Oncken in 1828, 
 for many years carried on at Hamburg, but 
 now established at Cassel. Many books 
 are published, and several papers, including 
 the Wahrheits:{euge, the organ of the de- 
 nomination. The School Board supervise 
 the Theological Seminary at Hamburg, 
 founded in 1880, in which about thirty stu- 
 dents each year are preparing for the ministry. 
 
Baptist Missions 231 
 
 Very early in their history the German 
 churches began missions to the surrounding 
 countries, and there are now in consequence 
 connected with the German Union Baptist 
 churches in Austria-Hungary, the Nether- 
 lands, Switzerland, Roumania and Bulgaria, 
 that have over 10,000 members. Besides 
 these, missions have been maintained in 
 Russia and Denmark. The Denmark Bap- 
 tists have now a Union of their own, and 
 have grown to twenty-eight churches and 
 nearly 4,000 members. There is also a 
 separate Russian Baptist Union, with five 
 associations; and there are reported from 
 that country 122 churches, with nearly 
 22,000 members. The Baptists of Russia 
 have suffered greatly from the determination 
 of the government to suppress all sects, and 
 many of their pastors have been exiled to 
 Siberia — sometimes, it is said, accompanied 
 by the whole church. Nor is there any 
 sign at present of a more tolerant policy. 
 That there should be any growth under such 
 
232 The Baptists 
 
 circumstances is surely a most remarkable 
 fact. 
 
 The beginning of Baptist churches in 
 Sweden is due to the conversion and bap- 
 tism of two Swedish sailors. One, Gustaf 
 W. Schroeder, was baptized in New York, 
 in November, 1844, and Frederick O. Nils- 
 son was baptized in Hamburg by Oncken 
 in August, 1847. Nilsson gathered a church, 
 but they were so severely persecuted that 
 most of them emigrated to this country and 
 established a Swedish colony in Minnesota. 
 A successor was found in Rev. Andreas 
 Wiberg, who had been a Lutheran minister. 
 In 1 86 1 Captain Schroeder returned to 
 Sweden and built the first Baptist meeting- 
 house at Gothenburg. Persecutions were 
 still experienced for some time, but they 
 gradually ceased. The churches multiplied 
 with exceeding rapidity, until in 1900 there 
 were 566 churches and a total membership 
 of 41,000. The churches are organized in 
 nineteen associations. The Bethel Seminary 
 
Baptist Missions 233 
 
 was founded at Stockholm in 1886 for the 
 instruction of their ministers, and has about 
 forty students annually. The Swedish Bap- 
 tist Mission, formed in 1889, has mission- 
 aries in Spain, China and on the Congo, 
 besides aiding evangelists in Finland and 
 Russia. The Baptist Home Mission, also 
 founded in 1889, aids over fifty workers on 
 the home field. 
 
 From Sweden the Baptists extended into 
 Norway and Finland, the first church being 
 constituted in Norway in i860, while in 
 Finland five churches were formed in 1873 
 as the beginning of the work there. There 
 are now 2,700 members in the former coun- 
 try and 2, 100 in the latter. The missionary 
 spirit of the Swedish churches has been 
 quite as remarkable as that of the German. 
 
 According to the best statistics obtainable, 
 which are by no means complete, there are 
 now in the entire world 58,000 Baptist 
 churches, with 5,454,700 members. Add- 
 ing the numbers of those already mentioned 
 
234 The Baptists 
 
 sects that are essentially Baptist, the grand 
 total is very nearly six millions, of whom 
 four-fifths are found on the American con- 
 tinent. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF EASILY ACCESSIBLE SOURCES 
 
 Armitage, a History of the Baptists. New York, 
 1887. 
 
 Newman, A History of the Baptist Churches in the 
 United States, Vol. II in the American Church His- 
 tory Series. New York, 1894. 
 
 BuRRAGE, A History of the Baptists in New England. 
 Philadelphia, 1894. 
 
 Vedder, a History of the Baptists in the Middle States, 
 Philadelphia, 1898. 
 
 Smith, A History of the Baptists in the Western States. 
 Philadelphia, 1900. 
 
 Riley, A History of the Baptists in the Southern 
 States. Philadelphia, 1899. 
 
 Guild, Chaplain Smith and the Baptists. Philadelphia, 
 1885. 
 
 JUDSON, Life of Adoniram Judson. New York, 1883. 
 
 Smith, Life of William Carey. London, 1887. 
 
 CuLROSS, Hansard Knollys. London, 1895. 
 
 Davies, Vavasour Powell. London, 1896. 
 
 Lofton, English Baptist Reformation. Louisville, 1889. 
 
 Burr AGE, The Anabaptists of Switzerland. Philadel- 
 phia, 1883. 
 
 Heath, The Anabaptists. London, 1893. 
 
 235 
 
236 The Baptists 
 
 Baptist Home Missions in America, Jubilee Volume. 
 New York, 1882. 
 
 Newman, A Century of Baptist Achievement. Phila- 
 delphia, 1 90 1. 
 
 Merriam, a History of American Baptist Missions. 
 Philadelphia, 1902. 
 
 Wright, Missionary Work of the Southern Baptist 
 Convention. Philadelphia, 1902. 
 
 Brown, Life of John Bunyan. London, 1885. 
 
 Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell. St. 
 Louis, 1886. 
 
 Strauss, Life of Roger Williams. New York, 1894. 
 
 Wood, History of the First Baptist Church of Boston. 
 Philadelphia, 1901. 
 
 Keen, History of the First Baptist Church of Philadel- 
 phia. Philadelphia, 1901. 
 
 Ford, New England's Struggles for Religious Liberty. 
 Philadelphia, 1896. 
 
 James, Documentary History of the Struggle for Relig- 
 ious Liberty in Virginia. Lynchburg, Va., 1900. 
 
Index 
 
 Adventists, Second, origin of, 1 88-1 90; practice immer- 
 sion, 207. 
 
 Affusion, among Mennonites, 25 ; among Anabaptists, 
 38, 54, 55 ; among General Baptists, 71. 
 
 Albigenses, 64. 
 
 Alexander III (Pope), 58. 
 
 American Board of Commissioners, 163. 
 
 Bible Society, 222; policy towards Baptists, 
 
 223. 
 Sunday School Union, 175. 
 Tract Society, 175. 
 
 Amsterdam, English Separatists in, 68. 
 
 Anabaptists, in England, 28-30 ; on the Continent, 30- 
 55; origin of, 31 ; become separate party, 33, 37; 
 baptism among, 38 ; how the name arose, ib. ; 
 leaders destroyed, 41 ; in Bern, 42; origin in Ger- 
 many, 44, 45 ; and Thomas Miinzer, 44 ; successors 
 of the Waldenses, 45 ; in Moravia, 46, 47 ; in South 
 Germany, 48, 49 ; in Strasburg, 50. 
 
 Anti-Masonic craze, 187. 
 
 Apostolic succession, 21. 
 
 Arminius and the Baptists, 68 sq., I02 ; Arminian churches, 
 
 151. 154- 
 
 Arnold of Brescia, 63. 
 
 Associations, among English Baptists, 112 sq., 120; the 
 Philadelphia, 151 sq., 197; missionary work of, 
 153 sq. ; the Ketockton, 156; the Charleston, 157. 
 
 Augsburg, Anabaptists in, 48, 49. 
 
238 
 
 Index 
 
 Awakening, the Great, 144, 155. 
 Bampfield, Francis, 121. 
 
 Baptists, origin of, 8, 18, 19; cardinal principle of, 8; 
 founded upon the Scriptures, 9 ; why they immerse, 
 12; why " close " communionists, 14; their polity, 
 15; contest for religious liberty, 17, 82 sq., 138, 
 161 ; origin of the name, 19, 80; antiquity of, 20, 
 21; "New" of Bern, 42; among Cromwell's 
 Triers, 86 ; under the Protectorate, 83 sq., 87 ; effect 
 of Act of Toleration on, 95 ; character and customs, 
 97; comparative progress, 100 ; bitter controversies 
 among, 102; beginning of organization, ri2; in 
 Scotland, 118; in Ireland, 119; in the Cisnadas, 
 130 sq. ; in Australasia, 133; in South Africa and 
 Jamaica, 134; in Massachusetts, 135; growth after 
 the Great Awakening, 156; suffer from the Revolu- 
 tion, 158; in Kentucky and Tennessee, 160, 161; 
 begin missions, 162; increase in nineteenth century, 
 177; relation to Disciples, 184, 185; and the 
 Masons, 187; and Second Adventists, 188 sq. ; and 
 the slavery question, 190 sq. ; effect of civil war on, 
 195 ; advance in missions, 200 ; statistics about, 100, 
 118, 177, 199, 203, 226, 228, 229, 232. See also 
 affusion, communion, immersion. Missions. 
 Freewill, 205. 
 
 General, origin, 70; earliest English churches 
 of, 72; adopt immersion, 77 ; General As- 
 sembly of, 103, 114; Socinian ideas among, 
 104; New Connection of, no; unite with 
 English Particular Baptists, 1 16. 
 Old School or " Hard Shell," 205. 
 Particular, origin of, 73; restore practice of im- 
 mersion, 74-78; hyper-Calvinism among, 
 105, 106; begin foreign missions, no; 
 union with General Baptists, 116. 
 Six Principle (English) 120; (American) 204. 
 Seventh-Day (English) 121 ; (American) 205. 
 Two-seed-in-the-Spirit, 206. 
 United, 157. 
 
Index 239 
 
 Baptist Churches, Swansea, 142; Boston, 142, 143; in 
 Maine, 144, 156; Charleston, 144; New York, 
 146, 147; in Connecticut, 145, 146; in New Jersey, 
 149 ; Plailadelphia and vicinity, 149 sq. ; in New 
 Hampshire and Vermont, 146. 
 
 Basel, 48. 
 
 Batten, John, 75. 
 
 Beddome, Benjamin, 125. 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, 62. 
 
 Blacklock, 75. 
 
 Blaurock, George, 41. 
 
 Blount, Richard, 75, 76. 
 
 Boardman, George Dana, 216. 
 
 Bockhold, John, 52. 
 
 Bogomils, 64. 
 
 Booth, Abraham, 126. 
 
 Boucher, Joan, 29. 
 
 Bradford, William, 68. 
 
 Brewster, William, 68. 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, founded, 212; policy 
 toward Baptists, 213, 223. 
 
 Bunyan, John, 90 sq. 
 
 Butler, Joseph, 107. 
 
 Calvinistic churches in America, 151, 155, 205. 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, 182 sq. 
 
 Carey, William, 1 10 sq., 208 sq. 
 
 Carson, Alexander, 127. 
 
 Charles I, 93, 94. 
 
 Charles II, and the Restoration, 87. 
 
 Christ, supremacy of, 8; teaching regarding religion, 
 12; regarding the church, 20. 
 
 Christadelphians, and immersion, 207. 
 
 Church, a Scriptural, 10, 35 ; subverted by infant bap- 
 tism, II; alters immersion to affusion, 13; in the 
 Apostolic period, 15 ; the " universal," 16 ; and the 
 State, 16, 17, 35-37, 63, 86, 13S, 161 ; teaching of 
 Christ about, 20. 
 
 Clarke, John, 141, 142. 
 
 Clark, Francis E., 20I. 
 
240 Index 
 
 Communion, Scriptural teaching on, 14 ; Faustus Socinus 
 
 on, 14; "open," 15,81; "close," 14,79,81. 
 Confessions, the Philadelphia, 9, 154; of the Assembly, 
 
 9, 96; the Westminster, 9, 96; the Schleitheim, 43; 
 
 of 1644, 75, 78, 83, 112; of Smyth and his follow- 
 ers, 82. 
 Congregationalists, and foreign missions, 163; and 
 
 home missions, 173. 
 Connecticut, colony of, 145. 
 Conscience, liberty of, 16, 17 ; first recognized in Rhode 
 
 Island, 138; assured in Massachusetts, 143; in 
 
 Virginia, 160; generally adopted in America, 160, 
 
 161. 
 Convention, General, organized, 166; disrupted, 193; 
 
 its European missions, 220 ; Southern Baptist, 193, 
 
 227 ; Saratoga Bible, 225. 
 "Councils" among Baptists, 114. 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 83-86. 
 Denck, John, 48, 49. 
 Disciples of Christ, origin of, 183; adopt doctrine of 
 
 Sandeman, 184; opposed by Baptists, 185. 
 Discipline in Baptist churches, 99. 
 Dissenters, see Nonconformists. 
 Dodge, Jeremiah, 148. 
 Donatists, 65. 
 Dunkards, 206. 
 Dunster, Henry, 143. 
 Education, Baptist services to, in England, 132; in 
 
 Canada, 132; Hopewell Academy, 197; Brown 
 
 University and other schools, 198. 
 Epworth League, 203. 
 Eyres, Nicholas, 147. 
 Faber, 34. 
 Falk, Jacob, 41. 
 Fawcett, John, 125. 
 Featly, Daniel, 76. 
 Feeks, Robert, 147, 
 Foster, John, 126, 
 Fox, George, 26, 44, 97, 99. 
 
Index 241 
 
 Fox and the " Book of Martyrs," 29. 
 
 Francis of Assisi, 57. 
 
 Friends, 26, 34, 82, 97, 99. 
 
 Fuller, Andrew, iii. 
 
 Gainsborough, 66-68. 
 
 Gano, John, 148. 
 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 190. 
 
 Gill, John, 122. 
 
 Goold, Thomas, 142, 143. 
 
 Grebel, Conrad, 41. 
 
 Guiness, Grattan, 226. 
 
 Haldane Brothers, 119. 
 
 Harrison, Thomas, 84. 
 
 Hatzer, Ludwig, 41. 
 
 Helwys, Thomas, 69, 71. 
 
 Henry VIII, 28. 
 
 Henricians, 62. 
 
 Henry of Lausanne, 62. 
 
 Holmes, Obadiah, 142. 
 
 Hofmann, Melchoir, 50, 51. 
 
 Holliman, Ezekiel, 139, 141. 
 
 Hiibmaier, Balthazar, 46, 47. 
 
 Immersion, not practiced by Baptists only, 7 ; the only 
 baptism, 12, 19; in the Greek Church, 13; changed 
 at discretion of the Church, 13; among the Ana- 
 baptists, 38; in Bern, 42; in Augsburg, 49; in 
 Poland, 51; restored in England, 74-77; contro- 
 versies regarding, 78 ; always practiced in America, 
 140; practiced by non-Baptists, 207. 
 
 Infant baptism, not Scriptural, 10, 34 ; Zwingli on, 34 ; 
 necessary to a State Church, 37 ; denied by Henry 
 Dunster, 143. 
 
 Ingolstadt, 46. 
 
 Innocent III (Pope), 59. 
 
 Ireland, Baptists of, 119. 
 
 Jacob, Henry, 73. 
 
 James II and his policy, 92, 93. 
 
 Jessey, Henry, 74. 
 
 Judaism, contrasted with Christianity, II. 
 
242 Index 
 
 Judson, Adoniram, 163 sq., 222. 
 
 Karens, missions among, 217, 
 
 Keiss, church of, 118. 
 
 Kiffin, William, 74. 
 
 Laud, Archbishop, 77. 
 
 Leipzig, disputation at, 32. 
 
 Leyden, English Separates at, 68; CoUegiants of, 75. 
 
 Lichtenstein, Princes of, 47. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 192. 
 
 Luther, Martin, 32, 33. 
 
 Maclaren, Alexander, 129. 
 
 McLean, Archibald, 119. 
 
 McMaster University, 133, 
 
 Mantz, Felix, 41. 
 
 Matthys, Jan, 52. 
 
 Menno Simons, 24, 30. 
 
 Mennonites, origin of, 24 ; teaching and practice, 25 ; 
 anticipate the Friends, 26 ; their spread, 27 ; in 
 England, 27 ; called Anabaptists, 28 ; relations to 
 English Baptists, 70, 71, 75, 76. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, suffers from the Revolution, 
 158; missions, 173; Epvi^orth League, 202. 
 
 Miller, William, 188 sq. 
 
 Missions, European, and the General Convention, 220 ; 
 in France, 228; in Germany, 229 sq. ; in Russia, 
 231; in Sweden, 232; in Norway and Finland, 
 
 233- 
 Missions, Home, conducted by General Convention, 167 ; 
 
 effect of Western movement on, 168-170; societies 
 
 organized, 172; Southern Baptists withdraw, 194; 
 
 among Indians, 221. 
 Missions, Foreign, begun in England, no sq., 208 sq. ; 
 
 in India, 163, 209, 214; among Telugus, 218 sq. ; 
 
 in Assam, 220; in Africa, 225; in China, 217; 
 
 statistics, 226. 
 Montanists, 65. 
 Moravia, Anabaptists in, 47. 
 Morgan, William, 186. 
 Morton, John, 69, 71. 
 
Index 243 
 
 Miinster, troubles at, 52-54. 
 
 Miinzer, Thomas, 44, 50. 
 
 New Jersey, colony of, 146. 
 
 " New Lights," 157. 
 
 Newport, colony of, 141. 
 
 New York, colony of, 145 sq. 
 
 Nicolsburg, 47. 
 
 Nilsson, Frederick O., 232. 
 
 Nonconformists, persecuted in England, 87 sq. ; tolerated 
 by James II, 93; Act of Toleration for, 95. 
 
 Nova Scotia, Baptists of, 131. 
 
 Oekolampadius, 34, 46. 
 
 "Open" communion, ilS, 130. 
 
 Oncken, J. G., 229. 
 
 Ontario, Baptists in, 131. 
 
 Paulicians, 64. 
 
 Peasants' war, 50. 
 
 Pennsylvania, colony of, 146. 
 
 Persecutions, of Mennonites, 27; of Anabaptists, 31, 38, 
 41; denounced by Luther, 33; in Bern, 42; in 
 Westphalia, 53; of Waldenses, 59; English Pres- 
 byterians and, 85 ; after Restoration, 88 ; in Mas- 
 sachusetts, 137, 142, 143; in Maine, 144; in Con- 
 necticut, 145; in New York, 146; in Virginia, 158. 
 
 Peter of Bruys, 61, 63. 
 the Venerable, 61. 
 
 Petrobrusians, 61, 62. 
 
 "Pilgrims' Progress," 90, 91. 
 
 of Plymouth, 68. 
 Polygamy, practiced at Miinster, 53. 
 
 Presbyterians (English) persecuting tendencies of, 85 ; 
 Sociuianism among, 104; (American) missions, 
 
 173- 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, missions of, 173. 
 Providence, colony of, 138. 
 Quebec, Baptists in, 131. 
 Quakers, see Friends. 
 Regensburg, 46. 
 Revivals and evangelists, 178, 179. 
 
244 Index 
 
 Revolution, the American, 144, 158, 169, 197. 
 
 Rhodes, William, 147. 
 
 Rice, Luther, 163 sq. 
 
 Riemann, Henry, 41. 
 
 Rippon, John, 122. 
 
 River Brethren, 206. 
 
 Robinson, Robert, 125. 
 
 Roman Catholics, persecuted, 89 ; favored by James II, 
 
 93- 
 
 Ryland, John, 124. 
 
 Salem, colony of, 136. 
 
 Sandeman, Robert, 184. 
 
 Schroeder, Gustaf W., 232. 
 
 Scott, Walter, 182. 
 
 Scotland, Baptists in, 118. 
 
 Scriptures, authority of, 9, 10 ; Luther and Zwingli on, 
 32; translations by Carey, 211 sq. ; controversies 
 about versions of, 213, 223 sq. 
 
 Scrooby, 66, 67. 
 
 Separatists (English), 19, 66, 67, 73, 135, 141. 
 
 "Separates" (American), 157, 169. 
 
 Smyth, John, 67-71, 82. 
 
 Social Brethren, 207. 
 
 Societies, Baptist, American Baptist Missionary Union, 
 194; American Baptist Home Mission, 172; Ameri- 
 can Baptist Publication, 176; American Bible 
 Union, 224; American and Foreign Bible Society, 
 223; Baptist Union (English), 115; (German), 
 230 ; Bible Translation, 213; Southern Baptist Con- 
 vention, 193, 227 ; Baptist Young People's Union of 
 America, 202. See also Associations, Convention. 
 
 Southwark, church in, 73. 
 
 Spilsbury, John, 73, 74, 76. 
 
 Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, 128. 
 
 State, relations to the Church, 17, 35-37, 63, 86, 138, 
 161. 
 
 Steele, Miss Anne, 124. 
 
 Stone, Barton, 182. 
 
 Stennetts, family of, 123. 
 
Index 245 
 
 Strasburg, Anabaptists in, 50, 5 1. 
 
 Stuyvesant, Peter, 146. 
 
 Sunday-schools, origin and growth of, 174, 176. 
 
 Taylor, Dan, 102, 109, no. 
 
 Telugus, mission to, 218 sq. 
 
 Thomas, John, 208. 
 
 Toleration, in Holland, 27 ; idea of, 82 ; under James 
 
 II, 92; Act of 1689, 95, 100, 118. See also Con- 
 science, liberty of. 
 Triers, Cromwell's, 86. 
 Twelve articles of the peasants, 50. 
 Unitarians, English, 85, 104. 
 Vermont, Baptists of, 131. 
 Vienna, 47. 
 Waldshut, 46. 
 Waldo, Peter, 55-59. 
 "Waldenses, origin of, 55; persecutions of, 59; doctrine 
 
 and practice, 60. 
 Wesley, John, and his great revival, 108 sq. 
 Whitefield, George, 155, 169. 
 Wiberg, Andreas, 232. 
 Wickenden, William, 146. 
 Wightman, Edward, burned, 29. 
 
 Valentine, 147. 
 William of Orange, 94. 
 Williams, Roger, 135- 140. 
 Williams College, 163. 
 Winnebrennerians, 206. 
 Young People's movement, 200-202. 
 Zurich, 32, 41,47; first disputation at, 33; disputation 
 
 with Anabaptists at, 40. 
 Zwickau, 43. 
 Zwingli, on Scripture, 32 ; at first Zurich disputation, 34 ; 
 
 on infant baptism, 34; on Church and State, 35-37 ; 
 
 dispute with Anabaptists, 40; controversy with 
 
 Hubmaier, 46. 
 
The Story of the Churches 
 
 THE 
 PRESBYTERIANS 
 
 BY 
 
 Dr. Charles. S. Thompson, D.D. 
 
 Secretary of the Board of Home Missions of the 
 
 Presbyterian Church of the United 
 
 States of Ajiierica 
 
 Small i2mo, with frontispiece, net, $1.00 
 
 The object of this series is to furnish brief his- 
 tories of the several denominations written 
 by the leading historians of each sect. The 
 books will average only about forty thou- 
 sand words and are calculated to interest 
 the average church member as well as the 
 student of church history. 
 
 No position in a denomination brings a man 
 more closely in touch with the present work 
 and history of a church than the secretary- 
 ship of the Board of Home Missions. Dr. 
 Charles L. Thompson has held this position 
 in the Presbyterian Church for several years 
 and has made a careful study of the history 
 of the church. His book is not only 
 authoritative, but written in a style full of 
 life and interest. 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 
 
LEAVENING THE 
 NATION 
 
 THE ST OR V OF AMERICAN HOME MISSIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 Dr. J. B. CLARK 
 
 Secretary 0/ the Congregational Home Missionary Society 
 
 Full i2mo, illustrated, net, $1.25 
 
 For some time there has been felt among all 
 church workers a need of a careful history 
 of American home-missionary work. For- 
 eign Missions have had many historians, 
 but Home Missions have had none. Dr. 
 J. B. Clark, whose work in the home-mis- 
 sionary field is known throughout the coun- 
 try, was granted by his Board a leave of 
 absence in which to prepare a careful non- 
 sectarian history of the work. His book is 
 carefully written with the assistance of the 
 secretaries of the Boards of other denomi- 
 nations and will make a standard history of 
 home-missionary work. At the same time 
 it is so popular in its style as to entirely 
 fulfill the requirements of the sub-title, 
 " The Story of American Home Missions." 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 
 
PRESENT-DAY 
 EVANGELISM 
 
 Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman 
 
 Secretary of the Evangelical Committee o/ the Presbyterian 
 Church 
 
 i2mo, cloth, net, 60 cents 
 
 This book is a presentation of the present-day 
 evangelism which is awakening such interest 
 throughout the world. 
 
 It is at the same time a discussion of the old 
 methods of evangelistic work, which have 
 been used with such signal success for years. 
 
 In a word it is a handbook on the basis of 
 which the work in an individual church, 
 or in a community, may be successfully 
 organized. 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 
 
RECOLLECTIONS 
 OF A LONG LIFE 
 
 AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Crown 8vo, Illustrated, net, $1.50 
 
 Dr. Cuyler is the only one living of the great 
 Brooklya pastors who, in the last half of the 
 nineteenth century, were famous throughout the 
 world. As a preacher, pastor and author his 
 active life has brought him in contact with the 
 most famous personages at home and abroad. 
 His early life, his travels, his association with 
 the great writers, statesmen, temperance work- 
 ers, revivalists and soldiers, his anecdotes of 
 these men, and his account of his home life and 
 church work are told in this fascinating life 
 story. 
 
 Dr. Cuyler's religious books, including "God's 
 Light on Dark Clouds," " The Empty Crib," etc., 
 have long been famous, having been sold widely 
 and translated into several languages. 
 
 His style is full of vigor and life, while his keen 
 wit and thorough appreciation of the humorous 
 side of things make this volume one of the 
 greatest interest. It contains many anecdotes of 
 famous persons which have not been printed 
 before. 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 
 
HELP AND GOOD 
 CHEER 
 
 A GIFT BOOK 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Small izmo, handsomely bound 
 net, ^i.oo 
 
 This is a series of brief messages addressed by 
 the venerable Brooklyn pastor to his old friends 
 and all who are in need of help and strength- 
 ening. The spirit and tone, in spite of Dr. 
 Cuyler's years, are as fresh and vigorous as in 
 his earlier books which have sold so widely and 
 for so many years. 
 
 " God's Light on Dark Clouds " and " The Empty 
 Crib — A Book of Consolation " have been, and 
 still are, among the most popular religious books 
 yet written. For twenty-five years they have 
 been regarded as classics in the Evangelical 
 homes. 
 
 This new volume is doubly interesting because it 
 shows the spirit and cheerfulness which have 
 characterized Dr. Cuyler's life. Dr. Cuyler is 
 now in his 8ist year. 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 
 
THE NEXT GREAT 
 AWAKENING 
 
 By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D. 
 
 i2mo, cloth, 75 cents 
 
 There were great religious awakenings in the six- 
 teenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth 
 centuries. In each instance these great awaken- 
 ings came in connection with the preaching of 
 a neglected scriptural truth or truths, which 
 were peculiarly adapted to the needs of the 
 times. The beginning of the twentieth century 
 naturally suggests to the churches a new forward 
 movement. 
 
 The late Pres. JOHN H. BARROWS, of Oberlin College: 
 
 " ' The Next Great Awakening ' has moved me deeply. It 
 is written in Dr. Strong's best and most vigorous style. The 
 book not only stirs the conscience and gladdens the heart witb 
 hope, but it satisfies the mind. It is eminently wise. Its posi- 
 tions are more than defensible; they are impregnable. The 
 practical acceptance of the teachings of this book by the 
 Christians of America would send the Kingdom of God for- 
 ward more rapidly, perhaps, than it has ever gone in the his- 
 tory of Christianity. Dr. Strong's account of the Kingdom of 
 God is so much more satisfactory than Harnack's in his recent 
 book, ' What Is Christianity ? ' that I have felt in reading both 
 that America does not need to go to Germany for the best 
 enlightenment on some of the most important religious ques- 
 tions." 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 
 
THE TIMES AND 
 YOUNG MEN 
 
 By Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., 
 
 Author of "Our Country" "Religious Movements 
 
 for Social Betterment," 
 
 ** Twentieth-Century City" "Expansion" etc, 
 
 i2mo, cloth, net 75 cents 
 
 Dr. Strong takes up the profound changes which have 
 come about within the memory of living men, both in 
 the physical world and in the world of ideas. He 
 shows what were the causes of these changes, and 
 points out the results which have flowed from them 
 already, together with established tendencies which are 
 prophetic of future changes, thus interpreting the times 
 in which we live. 
 
 He discusses the great social laws which must be obeyed 
 if social ills are to cease, and enables the young man to 
 make a practical application of these laws to the solu- 
 tion of his own personal problems, such as the choice 
 of an occupation, his education, his relation to athletics, 
 personal expenditure and the like. 
 
 In short, the book is a brief and simple philosophy of life, 
 intended to help the young steer a safe and successful 
 course amid the conflicting and perplexing currents of 
 modem change — a work which all persons engaged in 
 any capacity with the guidance of youth would be glad 
 to see in the hands of their charges. 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 E. 17th Street, Union Square North, New York 
 
DR. JOSIAH STRONG'S 
 
 BOOKS 
 
 THE NEXT GREAT AWAKENING. 1 2 mo, 
 
 cloth, 75 cents. 
 THE TIMES AND YOUNG MEN. i2mo, 
 cloth, net, 75 cents. 
 
 OUR COUNTRY : Its Possible Future and its 
 Present Crisis. With an Introduction by 
 Prof. Austin Phelps, D. D. 173d thousand. 
 Revised Edition, based on the Census of 
 1890. Paper, 30 cents; cloth, 60 cents. 
 
 THE NEW ERA ; or, The Coming Kingdom. 
 49th thousand. Library Edition. Crown 
 8vo, cloth, gilt top, $1.50; plain cloth, 
 i2mo, 75 cents; paper, i2mo, 35 cents. 
 
 THE TWENTIETH -CENTURY CITY. 1 5 th 
 thousand. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 EXPANSION, Under New World-conditions. 
 Paper, 50 cents ; cloth, $1.00. 
 
 RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS FOR SOCIAL 
 BETTERMENT. i2mo, cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 The Baker & Taylor Co., Publishers 
 
 33-37 East 17th St., Union Sq. North, New York 
 
Date Due 
 
 H^^sww'w^if 
 
 i^^^W^rmy y 
 
 -^