RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Baptists
Baptists of Virginia not only led in the struggle for religious liberty but multiplied in numbers during the Revolution and after, while Massachusetts and Connecticut Baptists failed to secure religious liberty and made little progress during the Revolution. In 1812 there were in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee 108,843 Baptist communicants, while those of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut numbered 32,372, and those of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, 26,852. In Virginia alone there were 35,655 Baptist church members.
3. From 1812 to the Present Time: While Baptists had by the beginning of this period attained to a numerical strength of nearly 200,000, they were deficient in culture and had made almost no provision for an educated ministry. Brown University was still the only institution for higher education, and this provided no theological course. In Boston, Providence, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, and in a number of other churches in the Philadelphia, Warren, and Charleston Associations there was considerable culture. The Charleston Association had established (1791) an Education Fund, and by 1813 had aided nineteen young ministers in securing an education, some under private tutorship, some at Brown University, and some in other institutions. In 1812 the Baptist Education Society of the Middle States was constituted and Dr. William Staughton, of Philadelphia, began to instruct students for the
ministry on its behalf. The vast
1. Lack of majorjty 0f American Baptists at this
, ™ " time regarded ministerial education
istrv as an impertinent human effort to
exercise the divine prerogative of calling and equipping ministers, and looked with disfavor upon the paying and receiving of ministerial salaries as introducing a commercial element where the Holy Spirit should work unimpeded. A large proportion of Baptist preachers owned their farms and were self-supporting. Many of them without scholastic advantages acquired considerable education and were men of power. The tendency was to neglect the towns, where the selfsupporting method was impracticable and where enthusiastic but illiterate ministers were less acceptable. Some able ministers who could have afforded to minister in towns and cities resolutely refused to leave their country homes and work. Churches like those of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia found the utmost difficulty in supplying their pulpits when vacancies occurred. The only periodical publication in circulation at the time was the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine, the first number of which was published in 1803 and the twelfth in 1808. Under the editorship of Dr. Thomas Baldwin, of Boston, it exerted a strong but not very wide-spread influence in favor of missions, education, and better methods of denominational work. The Lake Baptist Missionary Society (afterward called the [Hamilton Missionary ; Society) was formed in Central New York (1807) for domestic evangelization. From the beginning of the century (or earlier) Baptists of Boston, New
York, Philadelphia, and Charleston joined with other denominations in contributing toward the support of the missionary work of Carey and his associates in India. In 1812 Philadelphia Baptists began to hold monthly union meetings and larger quarterly meetings " for the spread of the gospel." The conversion to Baptist views of Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice (qq.v.), as they were about to open up missionary work in India under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, marks an era in the history of American Baptists. Judson announced his conversion to American Baptists through Thomas Baldwin, of Boston, and L. Bolles, of Salem, and threw himself and his missionary enterprise upon the liberality and enlightened zeal of the denomination. The more intelligent Baptist communities rejoiced that so glorious a responsi- 2. Mission- bility had been providentially thrust ary an Upon tne denomination and began at Educa- r ..... &
tional once to organize local missionary so- Work, cieties for the diffusion of the missionary spirit and the raising of funds. " The Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel in India and other Foreign Parts " was formed at Boston in 1813 with Baldwin as president and Daniel Sharp as secretary. Rice returned to America (summer of 1813) for the purpose of arousing American Baptists to a sense of their obligation and opportunity. Through his efforts local missionary societies were formed from Maine to Georgia and considerable money was raised. In May, 1814, thirty-three leading brethren from eleven States met in Philadelphia and organized the " General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the U. S. A. for Foreign Missions," to meet triennially. Richard Furman, of Charleston, was chosen president and Thomas Baldwin secretary. The Convention appointed a Board of Commissioners as an executive with Baldwin as president and Philadelphia (from 1826 onward, Boston) as headquarters. William Staughton of Philadelphia was the first corresponding secretary. By 1817 Rice and other leaders had become convinced that provision for the education of ministers was absolutely essential to the progress of denominational work at home and abroad, and the Triennial Convention of 1817 approved of the raising of funds for this purpose. In 1818 a theological institution was opened in Philadelphia, with William Staughton and Irah Chase as instructors. As early as 1815 Rice had reached profound conviction regarding the necessity of missionary work in the newly settled regions of the West, and in 1817 the Triennial Convention decided to enter upon this work. Two zealous and well educated ministers, J. M. Peck and J. E. Welsh, were appointed home missionaries. The work of the former proved apostolic and was of momentous importance. From 1817 onward Rice labored with consuming zeal for the establishment in Washington of a National Baptist University. Columbian College was opened in 1822 and has done a noble work. The theological work inaugurated in Philadelphia was transferred to Washington in 1821. As a means of promoting
Baptists