“In the New Testament Jesus uses the word ekklesia twenty-two times; in twenty-one of these he clearly uses it in reference to the local, visible, corporeal assembly, and only a manifest violation of all linguistic usage could force a different meaning in the remaining case.”

The churches of which the New Testament speaks were assemblies of baptized believers‐baptized upon a profession of their faith. (Acts 2:41.) With them Scriptural baptism was a prerequisite to church membership; in them were only two ordinances, viz: Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The officers were pastors or elders and deacons. In government these churches were separate and independent congregations, one having not the least authority or power over another. Having pointed out these essential characteristics of the Apostolic churches, we now affirm that Baptist churches of to-day are like unto them in every essential element of faith and practice.

It is not essential, however, to the life and progress of the denomination that Baptists establish a claim to Apostolic succession, but rather that Baptist churches are Apostolic in character. Prof. Vedder is responsible for the following concise statement on this point:

“To Baptists, indeed, of all people, the question of tracing their history to remote antiquity should appear nothing more than an interesting study. Our theory of the church as deduced from the Scriptures requires no outward and visible succession from the apostles. If every church of Christ were to-day to become apostate, it would be possible and right for any true believers to organize to-morrow another church on the apostolic model of faith and practice, and that church would have the only apostolic succession worth having—a succession of faith in the Lord Christ and obedience to him. Baptists have not the slightest interest therefore in wresting the facts of history from their true significance; our reliance is on the New Testament, and not on antiquity; on present conformance to Christ's teachings, not on an ecclesiastical pedigree, or the validity of our church organizations, our ordinances and our ministry. By some writers who have failed to grasp this principle, there has been a distressful effort to show a succession of Baptist churches from the apostolic age until now. It is certain, as impartial historians and critics allow, that the early churches, including the first century after the New Testament period, were organized as Baptist churches are now organized, and professed the faith that Baptist churches now profess.”

It is a matter of history that for several centuries before the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church was kept busy trying to annihilate various bodies of “heretics” that sprang up in different sections at different times. These “heretics” who are known to us as Christians, and called by various names, fought and died for the faith and practices of modern Baptists, some believing and contending for nearly all and others for not so many of these principles. But we must not lose sight of the fact that there was a long period when the Roman church was the only organized visible church, and they had departed from the faith. It therefore appears impossible to trace a succession of Baptist churches during that time.

Dr. J. B. Moody, in his introduction to “Baptists in History,” holds that no one believes that he can prove church succession in the visible congregational sense, and that the Scriptures teach church perpetuity rather than church succession. He further maintains that church and kingdom as spoken of in the Scriptures sustain some sort of a relation, and cites the following passages to prove his contention that the Bible teaches church perpetuity: Dan. 2:44, 45; Psalms 145:10-13; Luke 1:33; Matt. 16:18. In support of this claim it is noted that history confirms this faith in the Bible principle of perpetuity, as it is a fact that the main features of the New Testament church were maintained to the third century when the episcopacy of the large city churches sprang up and got to itself more and greater power until the seventh century the papacy became a fact. It is a cause for great rejoicing on the part of the heralds of the faith, that while persecutions and the tyranny of the papacy swallowed up the Jews and the Emperors, they did not wholly destroy the church. Indeed the true witnesses of the Cross contended for the faith against the civil and ecclesiastical powers of the Popes, and the mountain fastnesses and the wilderness became their hiding and abiding places.

In writing of what Baptists generally believe in regard to their origin Dr. W. P. Harvey says:

“History points to the origin of the various denominations, and in regard to their respective founders there is no controversy, but strange there is no recognized historic account of the origin of Baptists this side of the apostolic age.”

The people now called Baptists have been known by different names in different ages and countries. We trace them not by any particular name, but by their fundamental principles. In more modern times they have been called “the baptized people,” “The dippers,” and Anabaptists.” The latter, Dr. Armitage says, “because they baptized those who came to them from other denominations.” They did their own baptizing, and recognized no other. I quote from Dr. Armitage's History of the Baptists, page 329: “By custom their most friendly historians call them Anabaptists, yet many of their opponents speak of them as Baptists.” It is no surprise to us that there are some modern historians among the detructive critics who question our apostolic origin. There are Protestant writers who exonerate the papacy from responsibility for the massacre of St. Bartholomew. There are so-called scientists who dispute the law of gravitation. According to Dr. Armitage and other writers, Anabaptists were called Baptists, and Baptists were called Anabaptists. That Anabaptists and Baptists are frequently spoken of as the same people is abundantly supported by the greatest authors who have written on the subject. Most of their articles of faith that have come down to us are essentially Baptistic.” Because of their adherence to these principles so dear to the hearts of Modern Baptists the Anabaptists found themselves alone and strenuously opposed by all others. We quote Mosheim in the following: “There were certain sects and doctors against whom the zeal, vigilance and severity of Catholics, Lutherans and Calvanists were united, and in opposing whose settlement and progress, these three communions, forgetting their dissentions, joined their most vigorous councils and endeavors. The object of this common aversions were the ‘Anabaptists.’ The elector of Hesse, Germany, commended in the following language the zeal of King Henry VIII, who had banished Baptists, giving them twelve days to leave his kingdom on pain of death if they disobeyed: “There are no rulers in Germany, whether they be papists or Protestants, that do suffer these men. If they come into their hands all men punish them quickly.’ ”

The persecution of the Baptists in the Netherlands caused many of that sect to flee to England for refuge. We are indebted to Cramp for the information that “At London, on the third of April, 1575, a small congregation of Dutch Baptists convened in a private house outside the city gate, was interrupted while at worship by a constable and twenty-five persons were taken before a magistrate, who committed them to prison. When brought to trial they were urged to recant, and after enduring much torture, five of them consented. Later on fifteen of the rest were sent out of the country; of the remaining five, one died under the rigors of his imprisonment, two were burned at the stake and the other two were finally released. Thus begins the history of Baptists and their persecutions in England. But prior to this time, about 1618, an English Baptist church had been organized in Holland by John Smyth, who died soon after this time. This church was composed of 38 members, and had been scattered before the death of Smyth, but sometime about 1611, Thomas Helwys, who had been a prominent member thereof, returned to England when he established the first Baptist church on English soil. Within the next thirty years forty-four Baptist churches had been formed in England. These churches were solid in principle and polity and were objects of great persecution. In proof of such claim we cite the following from the confession of 1644:

“The Supreme Magistracy of this Kingdom we acknowledge to be King and Parliament and concerning the worship of God, there is but one lawgiver which is Jesus Christ. So it is the magistrate's duty to tender the liberty of men's conscience, (which is the tenderest thing unto all conscientious men, and most dear unto them, and 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. And we cannot do anything contrary to our understandings and consciences, so neither can we forbear the doing of that which our understandings and consciences bind us to do. And if the magistrates should require us to do otherwise, we are to yield our persons in a passive way to their power, as the saints of old have done.”

But these were sentiments and convictions that brought down upon them the heavy hand of Charles I. Indeed Baptists suffered to the greatest degree until the Long Parliament, from which time they had a measure of peace, not that they had their civil rights, but conditions made a semi-toleration the best policy. A better condition prevailed during the Protectorate. We quote from Vedder's Short History: “During the Protectorate a fair measure of religious liberty prevailed. Cromwell himself came nearer than any public man of his time to adopting the Baptist doctrine of equal liberty of conscience for all men. He came, at least, to hold that a toleration of all religious views—such as existed among Protestants, that is to say—was both right and expedient.”

When in the year 1660 Charles Stuart came to the throne of his fathers, and when the Fifth Monarchists made an insurrection Baptists were wrongfully accused of being in the conspiracy, and as a result became again subjects of bitter persecution. Among those to suffer imprisonment was the great Baptist preacher, John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim's Progress and The Holy War.

The passage of the Act of Toleration about 1689, brought with it a measure of pardon which was new to English Baptists, but for many years their growth was by no means commensurable with their opportunity—yea, for fifty years they seemed not to have increased to any appreciable degree. This is partially explained by the general antipathy to religion that prevailed in England during this period. The following from Vedder's short history tells of the revival which followed: “In the year of 1738 at the meeting of a Society in London, John Wesley, felt, as he tells us, for the first time, ‘I'd trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. Soon England was shaken by the preaching of immediate justification by faith, and the second Reformation had begun and Baptists participated in the general awakening. Then began a new era in their history, an era of growth, of zeal, of missionary activity that has continued to the present, and has given them a leading place among the non-conformists of England.” Thus the opportunity for service, and how marvellously did God manifest himself among the people in the work of Wm. Carey, who in his great sermon at the Nothingham Association in 1792. “Expect great things from God; and attempt great things for God,” was the sentiment with which he inspired the English Baptists to the organization of “The English Baptist Missionary Society” which, after much prayer and effort, sent him a missionary to India. Here God used him to the glory of his cause, and he became the “father of modern missions.”

Authorities differ very much as to the beginning of Baptist History in America. By some good authorities it has been maintained that the first Baptist church in America was organized by Roger Williams at Providence, R. I., in the year 1639. Other historians, who are just as reliable, dispute this claim. According to Vedder, “Sometime about March, 1639, therefore, Williams baptized Ezekiel Holliman, who had been a member of his church at Salem; and thereupon Holliman baptized Williams. Eleven others obeyed their Lord in this way, and the first Baptist church on American soil was formed.” Williams had been banished from Salem, Massachusetts Colony, where he was pastor, because of his teachings with regard to the religious liberty and the separation of church and state had come to what is now Providence and founded a settlement based upon the above named ideas, thus giving to the world “its first government” whose corner-stone was “absolute religious liberty.”

But Jarrell maintains, in his Baptist Church Perpetuity, that Hansard Knollys, who had come to America among the Puritan immigrants, was the pastor of Baptist church which had been organized at Newport by John Clark in 1638, the year before Roger Williams organized the Providence Church. Ray supports Jarrell's claim in the following statement: “We consider it a point now fully made out, that the Newport, and not the Providence Church is the oldest Baptist church in America.” On the other hand, Cramp puts the organization of the Newport Church by Dr. John Clark as late as 1644. Thus goes the argument, but we are inclined toward the conclusion that the church at Providence, founded by Roger Williams, has the best of the argument. But soon afterwards, Baptist churches sprang up in all of the colonies with varying degrees of success and persecution attending them. The first Baptist church in Delaware originated in 1770 from an immigrant Baptist church from Wales.

In Massachusetts we find the organization of a Baptist church at Rehoboth in 1662, which moved bodily to Swansea in 1667, the first in the colony and which has had continued existence to this day. This was followed by the organization of a church in Boston in 1665. These Baptists worshipped God under the fearful pressure, but they triumphed. Cramp tells us that “A church was formed at Kittery, Maine, in 1682, but it died in its infancy.” In 1683 a church was formed at Charleston, S. C. There were two churches in Pennsylvania—Cold Springs, founded in 1684; Pennepek, in 1688. In the same year a church was established at Middletown, N. J. In 1688, the Baptist denomination in America comprised thirteen churches only—seven in Rhode Island, two in Massachusetts, one in South Carolina, two in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey.

How the seed has multiplied and brought forth is shown in these statistics taken from “Bulletin 103,” Census of “Religious Bodies 1906,” published by the United States government in 1909: “Communicants” of members, 1906. (Regular white Baptists), Northern Baptist Convention—Number of organizations, 8272; number of members, 1,052,105; church edifices, 7,729; with seating capacity, 2,584,801; value of church property, $74,620,025; number of Sunday-schools, 8,220, with 102,506 officers and teachers and 851,169 scholars.

Southern Baptist Convention—Number of organizations, 21,104; number of members, 2,009,471; church edifices, 18,537, with seating capacity of 6,044,633; value of church property, $34,723,882; number of Sunday-schools, 15,035, with 106,017 officers and teachers and 1,014,690 scholars.

Up to the year 1844 there was no line dividing the white Baptists into Northern and Southern Baptists, but at that time the anti-slavery question became so pronounced that it was impossible for the church to keep a neutral position, and the result was two organizations.

The heart of Christianity in the North, influenced by the growth of the anti-slavery sentiment, began about 1820 to be aroused against the cruel and blasting institution—human slavery. For a decade the fires of opposition to it smouldered, and then fanned by the winds of agitation of the immortal Wm. Lloyd Garrison, with his paper, “The Liberator,” they burst into flames that could not be quenched. Every effort was made by both the Northern and Southern churchmen to prevent division. In the General Convention the following resolution was unanimously adopted:

“Resolved, That in-co-operating together as members in the convention work of foreign missions, we disclaim all sanctions, either expressed or implied, whether of slavery or anti-slavery; but as individuals we are free to express and to promote elsewhere our views on this subject in a Christian manner and spirit.”

But a righteous sentiment is never content with neutral opposition; it contends for utterance and is aggressive.

Questions of policy with reference to missions finally proved to be the rock upon which hopes of unity were wrecked. Notwithstanding the fact that the Convention positively urged the Executive Board to maintain a neutral position at all hazards, very soon afterwards, in the latter part of 1844, the Board felt it their duty to take a firm stand. In reply to a question addressed to it by a Southern organization with reference to the appointment of missionaries, the Board reported in substance that it would not appoint any person as a missionary who owned slaves. That there could no longer be any question as to the Board's attitude this extract from their report shows: “One thing is certain, we can never be a party to an arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery.” The following year (1845) the American Baptist Home Mission Society found itself involved in the anti-slavery crusade, defined its position as follows: “We declare it expedient that members now forming the Society shall hereafter act in separate organizations, at the South and at the North, in promoting the objects which were originally contemplated by the Society.” The next month, May, 1845, several hundred Southern delegates met in Augusta, Ga., and organized the Southern Baptist Convention. Thus is the awfulness of the curse of slavery emphasized. We are indebted to Vedder's Short History of the Baptists for the main facts on this subject of separation.

The most prominent educational institutions conducted by the white Baptists of the United States are here given with location and date when founded: Brown University (the oldest Baptist university in the United States), Providence, R. I., founded 1764; Newton Theological Institute, Newton Center, Mass., founded 1826; Colby University, Waterville, Me., founded 1820; Madison University, now Colgate, Hamilton, N. Y., founded 1814; Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester, N. Y., founded 1850; Chicago University, Chicago, Ill., founded 1890; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., founded 1858; Richmond College, Richmond, Va., founded 1832; Vassar College (for young women) Poughkeepsie, N. Y., founded 1861; Denison University, Granville, Ohio, founded 1832; Baylor University, Waco, Texas, founded 1861.

Among the most influential Baptist papers are The Standard, Chicago, Ill.; The Baptist and Reflector, Nashville, Tenn.; the Western Recorder, Louisville, Ky; The Baptist Argus, Journal and Messenger, Granville, Ohio; The Standard, Dallas, Tex.

In the foregoing we have referred only to the regular Missionary Baptists in America. We shall now call attention to others known as “irregular” and “anti-missionary” Baptists. While they are so designated, they are recognized as Baptists on the ground as given by Vedder, that “Any Christian body that practices believers' baptism—meaning ‘baptism’ immersion, and by ‘believer’ one who gives credible evidence of regeneration—is fundamentally a Baptist, by whatever name he may be called, or whatever may be his oddities of doctrine or practice in other respects.” We give a brief sketch of the most prominent organizations.

The Six Principle Baptists had their origin in the seventeenth century (about 1639. They are a small body represented only in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. Their creed is derived from Heb. 6:1, 2, and contains the six doctrines stated in that passage—hence, their name. They have two yearly conferences, one in Massachusetts and the other in Pennsylvania. The former held in 1670 was the second organization of its kind to be formed.

The Freewill Baptists in North America had their first church organization in 1780, at New Durham, New Hampshire. They differ from Regular Baptists in that they respect the Calvanistic doctrine of predestination, and consequently hold that the regenerate may “fall from grace.” They also practice “open communion.” The fact that they were strongly in favor of the abolition of slavery confined their following almost exclusively to the Northern States.

Primitive Baptists are known as old school and anti-mission Baptists. The principal difference between them and Regular Baptists is that they reject the agencies of Sunday-schools and missionary, educational and Bible societies. They declare themselves as opposed to all of these “contrivances which seem to make the salvation of men depend on human effort.”

The Seventh Day Adventists were known in England as early as the sixteenth century. In the United States they seem to have had an origin independent of the English body of the same name, their first church being founded in Newport, R. I., in 1671. Their distinctive doctrine is the observance of the Sabbath day, and on that account, prior to 1818, were called Sabbatarian Baptists. They are not restricted to any section of the country, but have their largest following in the State of New York.

Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists derive their name from the doctrine that there are two seeds, one of evil, and one of good. They owe their origin to Elder Daniel Parker, a Baptist minister who taught that a part of Eve's offspring were the seed of God and elect to eternal life, and that the other part were the seed of Satan and foreordained to the kingdom of eternal darkness. Many of them reject a paid ministry and agree with Primitive Baptists in their attitude toward missionary, evangelistic and educational agencies.

Baptist Church of Christ, originating in Tennessee in 1808, being confined to the South, it holds to a general atonement and a mild Calvinism. They also hold firmly to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and practice feet-washing.

The government statistics published in 1909, give the following figures of these organizations: Six Principle Baptists, 16 organizations, 685 members, 8 ministers and 14 church edifices; Freewill Baptists, 608 organizations; 40,280 members, 600 ministers, 556 church edifices; Primitive Baptists—2,922 organizations, 102,311 members, 1,500 ministers, 2,003 church edifices; Colored Primitive Baptists—797 organizations, 35,076 members, 1,480 ministers, 501 church edifices; Seventh Day Adventists—77 organizations, 8,381 members, 90 ministers, 71 church edifices; two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists—55 organizations, 781 members, 35 ministers, 38 church edifices; Baptist Church of Christ—93 organizations, 6,416 members, 99 ministers, 86 church edifices.

In both sections of the country Baptists have well-established agencies for doing Christian work to which we call brief attention.

The American Baptist Missionary Union, organized in Philadelphia in 1814 for the purpose of sending the gospel to foreign countries. Its success has been marked.

The American Baptist Publication Society, an outgrowth of the Baptist Tract Society, organized in Washington, D. C., in 1824. For all these years this society has been furnishing Baptist Sunday-school and church literature. It now owns splendid property and a publishing plant in Philadelphia.

The American Baptist Home Mission Society organized in 1802 in Boston as the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, with executive offices located in New York City, has been a great power for good. It is now engaged in missionary work proper, planting and sustaining churches, building chapels and church-houses, and the support of schools among the colored people of the South, Indians, Chinese and Mexicans. The fact that a large per cent of the educated colored Baptist preachers and teachers are the products of academies and colleges organized and conducted by this society is proof of its usefulness.

The Southern Baptist Convention was organized in Augusta, Ga., in 1845. Under its guidance all of the general Baptist work of the South has been carried on. It has a Foreign Mission Board with location in Richmond, Va., a Home Mission Board, with headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., and a Sunday School Board, located in Nashville, Tenn.

The Baptist Young People's Union of America was organized in 1891. Its headquarters were at first located in Chicago. Its work is now operated in connection with the American Baptist Publication Society at Philadelphia and is doing much to develop the young Baptists in religious knowledge and Christian culture.

Interesting and strange appears the record of the rise and progress of Negro Baptists in America. Interesting, because it is a record of the struggles of a people who had their rise amidst fiery trials and afflictions as slaves, and strange because they have made their progress as a separate part of the general Baptist family, and yet believe and practice all that it believes and practices. The American Negroes, with their emotional and religious natures, were brought to these shores as slaves early in the life of the American colonies, from the jungle and devil-bush of Africa. With these characteristics inborn it is easy for us to understand how they soon sought to get a hold of the ideas of their white masters' religion. Highly curious and imitative it is but natural that they were attracted to its ceremonies and worship, and that, in time, the white man's God and theology should become theirs. While we are greatly tempted to do so, we cannot take the space in this brief history to recount their religious experiences through that dark period of American slavery. It is simply our purpose to tell in this connection of the beginning and progress of Negro Baptists in this country.

As a general thing Negro slaves were not permitted to have their own churches, pastors, or preachers. It was the common practice throughout the slave territory to permit them to attend preaching services in the white churches at the time designated under conditions prescribed by their masters. But this custom only whetted the appetites of these simple-minded, religious folk and they consequently stole off to the woods, canebrakes and remote cabins to have preaching and prayer-meetings of their own; and many are the stories they tell of being apprehended by their masters and overseers, and of being unmercifully flogged. From Thompson's “History of Negro Baptists of Mississippi,” we quote the following: “The early sunrise prayer-meeting” was one in which they spent their happiest moments, no white person being present to molest or to make them afraid. It is a queer coincidence that gave rise to these “prayer-meetings” so prevalent even in these times, but few know their origin. The patrols would be on duty all night to see that no Negroes walked or assembled themselves together without written consent from their masters. Early in the mornings the patrols would retire from duty and sleep during the day. On Sunday mornings the colored people would gather at the church and other places of worship and have these early prayer-meetings in their own way while their mistresses and masters and the ever-dreaded patrols were asleep.

That these precautions were fully warranted may be seen from the following extract of the “Revised Code of 1857, (Miss.) page 247, article 51” cited by the same author: “Meetings or assemblies of slaves, or free Negroes, or mulattoes mixing or associating with such slaves, above the number of five, including such free Negroes and mulattoes at any place of public resort, at any meeting-house or houses in the night, or at any school for the purpose of teaching them reading or writing, either in the daytime or at night, under whatever pretext, shall be deemed an unlawful assembly. And any justice of the peace of the county, or mayor or chief magistrate of any incorporated town, whenever such assemblage shall be held either from his own knowledge or on the information of others, may issue his warrant, etc.; ......and all slaves offending herein shall be tried in the manner hereinafter provided for the trial of slaves, and on conviction, shall be punished, not more than 39 lashes on the bare back.” It is but fair to state that this article did not prevent masters or employers from giving slaves permission to gather for religious worship, provided a “regular ordained minister (white) or at least two discreet and respectable white persons, appointed for that purpose by some regular church or religious society,” attended. Another article provided that, “Free Negreos or mulattoes for exercising the functions of a minister of the gospel, on conviction, may be punished by any number of lashes, not exceeding 39, on the bare back, and shall pay the cost.”

With these facts before us it would seem difficult for one to believe that there were churches in Mississippi at the very time these laws and conditions prevailed—with white and black members. But such was a fact, for we are told by those who know the facts that in 1846 the church at Natchez had 442 members, 380 of whom were colored, and in 1845, the church at Columbus had 399 members, about four-fifths of whom were colored. Of course, as we are told, these colored members had no voice in church affairs, except to vote on the reception and disciplining of colored members.

Thus it was that in many sections of the South there was a class of Christians in the white Baptist churches that insisted that the blacks, though slaves they were, should hear the gospel preached somehow, and be converted, baptized and given membership. In other sections it was a custom to hold special revivals for the slaves.

But there were districts in some of the Slaves States where the conditions described did not obtain, but where the colored slaves were given more favorable reins. An instant is given in Floyd's “Life of Chas. T. Walker” as follows: “Richmond County, one of the largest ‘Black Belt’ counties of Georgia, which had then, and which has to this day, a larger black than white population, was in no respect different in its slave customs and regulations from other slave communities, excepting possibly, the religious privileges enjoyed by the slaves. They had their own churches and enjoyed for the most part the ministrations of colored preachers, such as they were. They had their own houses of worship, their own church officials, and held regular and stated religious meetings. This was true in only a very limited number of places in the South during the slave period.”

Writing recently on this phase of our subject Rev. Dr. R. H. Boyd said, “They (the slaves) accepted this condition more than 100 years ago and as opportunities have presented themselves they have continued to cultivate this fellowship and union (among themselves), being isolated from their brethren. Negro Baptists, wherever they were allowed, formed churches of their own. However they were landmark, Simon-pure, regular Baptists.”

At first the separate Negro churches were under white ministers but gradually as certain men among these members developed lives of great piety, and manifested the gift of exhorting and preaching they were allowed to hold meetings, to preach and finally to pastor. A striking example of this kind is found in Whitted's History of Negro Baptists in North Carolina.” It is as follows: “There were but few Negro Baptist preachers before the war. The first we have any knowledge of was ‘Uncle Harry Cowan,‘ as he was known at that time. He was the servant of Thos. L. Cowan. His master being present at a funeral was so struck with his gift to preach God's word that he granted him ‘privilege papers’ to preach anywhere on his four plantations. His papers were fixed up by a lawyer and read thus: ‘This is to certify that whosoever is interested about my man Harry he has the privilege to preach, and may also baptize anyone who makes a profession of faith.’ His success was so wonderful and so much of the confidence of his master was imposed in him his privileges were soon extended, and he was not only allowed to preach on his master's ‘plantation,‘ but wherever he was promised ‘protection.‘......During the struggle in arms between the North and South he was the body-servant of Gen. Joseph Johnston, and preached every night during the struggle except the night when Gen. Stonewall Jackson fell in battle.” Thus it was that God started a race of ignorant, cruelly-oppressed slaves toward a higher Christian civilization.

That this history of the beginning of Negro Baptists is but fragmentary is due to the conditions described in the foregoing. First, the fact that generally gatherings among them for religious purposes were “unlawful,” made it highly essential that everything should be done in secret and that no records be kept. Secondly, where meetings were allowed as a rule, they were under the direction of the whites, and then no records would appear, except when they marked some remarkable incident or character. Thirdly, in the limited number of districts, where Negro churches with Negro pastors were allowed, except in the rarest cases, there was no one prepared to make the records; hence, a history of these churches is almost always tradition.

We come now to tell of the first Negro Baptist churches, and of those who laid the foundations. For the third reason given in closing the preceding chapter, we do not find it possible to write as fully as we desire on this chapter. We are indebted to Dr. W. Bishop Johnson, of Washington, D. C., for authentic information. The following is quoted from “The story of Negro Baptists” written by him for the “National Baptist Union” of January 30, 1909.

“The earliest church organization among them (colored Baptists) was the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Ga., instituted January 20, 1788, at Brampton's barn, three miles west of Savannah, by Abraham Marshall (white) and Jesse Peter (colored). Its first pastor was George Lisle, who was liberated by Mr. Henry Sharp, of Burke County, Ga., and afterwards became pastor at Kingston, Jamaica. The first fruit of this beginning was Andrew and Hannah, Bryan and Hagar. The four constituted the nucleus of colored Baptists in America. The First African Church multiplied until 1802, when on the 26th of December the Second Baptist Church (colored) was organized with two hundred members and January 2, 1803, another church was organized called the Ogeechee Colored Baptist Church, with 250 members. These organizations are still in existence with large and progressive memberships. In 1805 the Joy Baptist Church, Boston, Mass., was constituted; in 1808, the Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City, and in 1809, the First African Baptist Church, of Philadelphia, was organized, making the first churches in the North. The Nineteenth Street Baptist Church organized in 1839, was the first colored Baptist church in the District of Columbia, and it has a large, influential and progressive membership at this time.

The First African Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Penn., was organized in June, 1809, with fifteen members. These being set apart as an independent church by the Old First Baptist Church (white). In an account of its recent centennial anniversary we find the following information: “During these one hundred years she (the First African Church) has had but seven pastors, all of whom have been men of exceptional ability. The first of these was Rev. Cunningham of Eastern Shore, Va., who, though a slave, pastored a band of faithful worshippers. His members asked his master to allow him to go North and raise money to purchase his freedom. This was refused unless he could furnish security. He was unable to do this, but two of his members, who were free-born, bound themselves into servitude in his stead that their pastor might come to the North and raise the necessary money.

“After Rev. Cunningham had succeeded in raising the money he so informed his bondsmen, and expressed his willingness to return; but they said, ‘No! send us the money and we will satisfy the bond.’ The money was sent, the bond satisfied, and the two bondsmen, with their families together with the family of Rev. Cunningham, left Eastern Shore and joined their pastor in Philadelphia. These three families formed the nucleus of the First African Baptist Church.”

In Mississippi, the history of the first organizations is indeed singular. According to Thompson's History, the Rose Hill Baptist Church, Natchez, Miss., is a direct outgrowth from a church of a mixed membership, a majority of the members of which were colored. So numerous became the Negro portion of the congregation that they outnumbered the white membership, according to reliable information. It was necessary, therefore, to give them a more commodious house of worship and place of meeting. A Mr. Helms then gave to them a lot for a church site and they proceeded with the assistance of Mr. Helms and other sympathetic whites to build a church building which, out of their feeling of appreciation, they named Mt. Helm Baptist Church. Rev. Marion Dunbar was the pioneer pastor.

The first Negro Baptist Church in Tennessee was the Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, organized at Columbia, Tenn., Oct. 20, 1843. Seven members were in the organization, among whom were Rev. Richard R. Sanderson, who died recently at the age of 83 years, and Brother Dyer Johnson, the father of Prof. John Johnson, A. M., President of Roger Williams University, Nashville. Rev. Edmund Kelly was the pastor of this pioneer institution, which is to-day a progressive church with property valued at $15,000 and a membership of almost 200. Ten years later, 1853, Spruce Street Baptist Church of Nashville, was organized with Rev. Nelson G. Merry as pastor. Under the guiding hand of Rev. Merry it had a splendid rise and its members speak to-day with pride of its early history. This church has now a membership of 965, and property valued at $60,000.

While we know that any statistics relative to the Negro Baptists at the close of the war are necessarily inaccurate, we have been informed that there were at that time 400,000 Negroes of that faith in the United States. Whatever the number, tradition and history tell us that as soon as the Emancipation Proclamation became effective these zealous Baptists soon formed themselves into crude churches. But what they had assimilated of doctrine and polity when with and under the ministration of the whites before the war, and the assistance they received from sympathetic whites then made rapid progress possible. Relieved of the retrictions which had been thrown around them, they gave God the glory and made the churches their rallying places, and poured out their souls in praise and thanksgiving. Hence, the early churches grew mightily in numbers and power, and no sacrifice was too great for them to make to build houses of worship—which they joyously called “Our own vine and fig-tree.”

Like their white brethren these conscientious and loyal Negro Baptists found it necessary that their churches should affiliate and co-operate for the edification of all and for the spread of the gospel throughout the land. Consequently general organizations were soon organized. On this point we quote the following from an article by Dr. R. H. Boyd on “What are the Negro Baptists?” “When the Civil War gave the Negroes their liberty there was a spirit among a few eastern Baptists to allow them full privileges in missionary and educational organizations, but eventually these too, like their Southern brethren, felt that the Negro by environment, opportunity, association and affiliation was inferior and hence should take a secondary or inferior place. The leading Negro Baptists, imbued with the spirit of freedom and religious liberty, and accepting the situation thrust upon them, began to form district associations, state organizations, and finally felt the need of national organized movements for the purpose of forming acquaintances, better understanding church polity, gathering statistics, doing missionary, educational and publication work.”

We give here a few brief facts concerning the first associations and state conventions in several states to give some idea of the rapid development of the denomination. Dr. W. Bishop Johnson in the article before referred to gives the following information in this connection: “Perhaps the oldest organization among colored Baptists is the Wood River, of Illinois, organized in 1838. The first association in Louisiana was organized in 1865. The first state convention was organized in North Carolina in 1866; the second, in Alabama, and the third in Virginia in 1867; the fourth, in Arkansas in 1868; the fifth in Kentucky in 1869; the sixth was organized in Mississippi in 1869. The Missionary Baptist Convention, of Georgia, was organized May 13, 1870, at Central Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga. Eighty-six delegates were present and Rev. Frank Quarles, of Atlanta, was elected president.

The question that naturally arises in the mind of one not acquainted with racial conditions in America is, “What is the difference between the white and colored Baptists?” Yet, there really is no fundamental difference. Why should there be? The first colored Baptist preachers and laymen were either members of white churches or they were under the ministration of white Baptists. From them they received instructions in doctrine and polity, and they proved apt students. They were “well-grounded in the faith” as Baptists believe it. A large per cent of the leading preachers and teachers among them to-day are graduates from colleges and theological seminaries that are conducted by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. These schools are intensely denominational, the presidents and faculties having been chosen from strong white Baptist churches and colleges. It has been the purpose of the Society to prepare preachers, teachers and other Christian workers for our Baptist churches and schools. If it is still “like priest, like people,” it would be almost miraculous if these schools produced other than Baptists after their own kind. The leaders of the coming generation of Baptists are now being trained in these same institutions and in Negro Baptist colleges and academies the faculties of which are largely the products of the Society's schools. Hence, they are being formed in the same old mold. Therefore the separation between white and colored Baptists and between their organizations is not at all based on differences of doctrine or polity, but upon race discrimination which is peculiar to American institutions.

As to the character of Negro Baptists, Dr. W. Bishop Johnson, who was for many years officially connected with the National Baptist Convention, has written as follows: “Colored Baptists are Calvanistic in doctrine, but they hold the Scriptures as the Supreme Authority on all questions of faith and polity.” The supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and opinions should be tried. They recognize no creed or confession of faith, but insist upon a personal faith in a personal Savior, followed by immersion in water of such believers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as a prerequisite to church membership. They insist that the minister of the Gospel shall be regenerated and called of God to his high and holy office: that he shall be qualified educationally to teach the people and that his piety as well as learning shall be of such a high type as to commend him to his special work. They hold Christian fellowship with those whose religious belief differs from them, but in the exercise of church fellowship they have no relation whatever. Their polity is democratic. The churches are independent bodies, answerable alone to Christ, who is the great Head of the Church.”

“Where difficulties are to be adjusted, ecclesiastical councils are called, consisting of delegates from each church in the community, and the troubles are submitted to them for settlement, but their findings are only advisory—each church being a sovereign body, cannot be forced beyond its own judgment.” To this we add that they recognize only two ordinances—Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and two classes of Scriptural officers—Pastors and Deacons. In nearly all of the states trustees are elected to meet the requirements of the state laws in order that they may legally hold property, etc.”

The progress of Negro Baptists and the development of their religious and educational organizations have been remarkable as the following statistics show: “Bulletin 103, United States Religious Census, 1906,” published in 1909, gives the following statistics of the National Baptist Convention: total number of organizations, 18,534; total number of members, 2,261,607; number of church edifices, 17,832 with seating capacity of 5,610,301, and valued at $24,437,272; number of Sunday-schools, 17,478, with 100,069 officers and teachers and 924,665 scholars.

The National Baptist Year Book for 1909, published by Rev. Samuel W. Bacote, D. D., official statistician of the National Baptist Convention, gives the following: state conventions (several states have more than one convention), 94; associations, 659; number of churches, 18,485; ordained ministers, 17,297; total membership, 2,350,639; value of church property, $19,115,057; number of Sunday-schools, 17,395, with 829,461 scholars; amount expended for state and home missions, $28,745.58; for foreign missions, $4,253.35; Secretary Jordan, of the Foreign Mission Board, reports $10,915.27 paid to missions and missionaries; for education $47,073.92. The total, $582,231.33.

The Year Book also shows 91 religious universities, colleges and secondary schools operated for and by Negro Baptists in the United States with the following figures: instructors, 760; normal students, 12,664; college students, 703; theological students, 544; enrollment in all departments, 21,116; valuation of grounds and buildings, $2,386,413.34.

Negro Baptists have made remarkable progress in the development of educational institutions. In the matter of education they have splendid opportunities. Credit is here given the American Baptist Home Mission Society for the very excellent system of schools it has founded and operated for the Negro Baptists of the United States. The name, location and date of founding of these schools follow: Atlanta Baptist College, Atlanta, Ga., founded 1867 Benedict College, Columbia, S. C.; Bishop College, Marshall, Texas, founded 1881; Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, founded 1865; Spelman Seminary (for girls only), Atlanta, Ga., founded 1881; Virginia Union University, Richmond, Va., founded 1864; Jackson College, Jackson, Miss.; Hartshorn Memorial College (for girls), Richmond, Va., founded 1883; Roger Williams University, Nashville, Tenn., founded 1864, burned Jan. 25, 1905, and reorganized under the control of the Negro Baptists of Tennessee; Leland University, New Orleans, La., founded in 1869 by the philanthropists, Deacon Chamberlain and wife (white).

The following is a list of some of the most prominent Negro Baptist universities, colleges and seminaries (space not permitting all of them): Selma University, Selma, Ala., founded 1878; Arkansas Baptist College Little Rock, Ark., founded 1884; Cadiz Normal and Theological College, Cadiz, Kentucky, founded 1884; Central City College, Macon, Ga., founded 1889; State University. Louisville, Ky., founded 1879; Ekstein Norton University, Cane Springs, Ky., founded 1890; Guadalupe College, Seguin, Texas, founded 1885; Houston Baptist College, Houston, Tex., founded 1885; Virginia Theological Seminary and College, Lynchburg, Virginia, founded 1884; Western College, Macon, Mo., founded 1890; Friendship College, Rock Hill, S. C., founded 1891; Conroe College, Conroe, Texas, founded soon after Gaudalupe College; Central Texas College, Waco, Texas, founded 1901; Woman's National Training School, Washington, D. C., founded 1909.

In connection with these higher institutions, Negro Baptists own and operate about 40 normal schools and academies throughout the United States.

The Negro Baptist Press has done much toward the development of Baptist institutions and enterprises. While all the papers cannot be named we note the following with their editors: The National Baptist Union-Review (organ of National Baptist Convention), Nashville, Tennessee, J. D. Crenshaw; The Mission Herald, Louisville, Ky., L. G. Jordan, D. D., The American Baptist (the oldest), Louisville, Ky., Wm. H. Steward; Baptist Watchman, Mobile, Ala., A. N. McEwen, D. D.;* The Pilot, Winton, N. C., C. S. Brown, D. D.; Christian Banner, Philadelphia, Pa., C. L. Taliaferro, D. D., Georgia Baptist, Augusta, Ga., W. F. White, D. D.; Baptist Vanguard, Little Rock, Ark., Jos. A. Booker, A. M.; Western Sta, Houston, Texas, James Codwell; The Herald, Austin, Tex., L. L. Campbell, D. D.; Western Messenger, Jefferson City, Mo., J. Goins, D. D.; The Clarion, Nashville, Tenn., J. Thos Turner; The Signal-Index, Memphis, Tenn., T. O. Fuller, Ph. D.

The Woman's National Convention, Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention, was organized in September, 1900, at Richmond, Va., with the following officers: Mrs. S. W. Layton, President, Pennsylvania; Mrs. P. J. Bryant, Vice-President, Atlanta, Ga.; Miss N. H. Burroughs, A. M., Corresponding Secretary, Washington, D. C., Mrs. V. W. Broughton, A. B., Memphis, Tenn.; Miss S. C. V. Foster, Treasurer, Montgomery, Ala. With the exception of Miss Foster, the same officers are serving in the several capacities, Mrs. C. H. Parrish, of Louisville, Ky., is now Treasurer, Mrs. M. E. Goins, of Jefferson City, Mo., is Assistant Secretary, and Mrs. E. A. Wilson, Kansas City, Kans., is Statistician.

The Preamble of the Constitution is as follows: “We, the women of the churches connected with the National Baptist Convention, desirous of stimulating and transmitting a missionary spirit and grace of giving among the women and children of the churches and aiding in collecting funds for missions to be disbursed as ordered by the Convention, organize and adopt the following constitution.”

“The object of the Convention is to organize the women and children for the purpose of collecting and raising money for education and missions at home and abroad.” The work of the Convention is directed by an Executive Committee of twelve members. As in the men's Convention, the Corresponding Secretary is the representative of the Executive Committee in carrying out the plans. The woman's Board has its headquarters at Louisville, Ky. Miss Nannie H. Burroughs, A. M. is a woman of splendid ability and an untiring worker. It is due largely to her wisdom, energy and ability as a public speaker, with the splendid support given her by President Layton, that the Convention has had such a great success. In 1901 Miss Burroughs recommended the establishment of the Woman's Training School, which recommendation the Convention adopted. In October, 1909, the school was opened in Washington, D. C., with Miss Burroughs as president. The object of the institution is given as follows:

The World's Baptist Alliance, which convened for the first time in the great city of London, England, July 10-20, 1905, was of great significance to the Negro Baptists of the United States. This great gathering of Baptists from every part of the globe was in the interest of Baptist Home and Foreign Mission agencies in all countries. When this all-important meeting was planned the Old World did not know that the more than two million Negro Baptists in the United States composed a separate and distinct organization. Therefore, they were given no place on the program by the committee. But this mistake was readily rectified when the 35 or more representatives of the National Baptist Convention of America, headed by its distinguished President, Dr. E. C. Morris, appeared with their credentials. Several of these representatives were heard and made a splendid impression, if we are to judge by the comments of the foreign papers. Those who spoke were President Morris, Secretary L. G. Jordan, D. D., Secretary R. H. Boyd, D. D., LL. D., Secretary Nannie H. Burroughs, A. M., Rev. George W. Lee, D. D., LL. D., Rev. J. J. Blackshear, D. D., Rev. C. H. Parrish, A. M., D. D., Rev. C. T. Walker, D. D., LL. D., Dr. W. T. Thompson and Mrs. J. E. Gibbons. Prof. H. B. Britt sang on more than one occasion to the great delight of all.

With reference to these delegates and addresses, we quote the following from “The Baptist Times and Freeman, of London:”

“The presence of the representatives of the Negro Baptists of the United States has certainly added to the picturesqueness of the meetings of the week. But the importance of this delegation cannot be easily exaggerated. In meeting Dr. E. C. Morris, of Helena, Ark., the President of the National Baptist Convention of the colored Baptists of the United States, I was prepared for large figures, but I am free to confess his statement surprised me.”

“There are ten millions of Negroes in the United States,” he said, “and of these the Baptists number 2,110,000. We have 17,000 organized Baptist churches, and 16,000 ordained ministers. Our churches are grouped into 564 associations. Some of our individual churches number 4,000 or 5,000 members.” “Here is one pastor,” said Dr. Morris, pointing to the genial and rotund figure of Dr. Lee, who sat listening to the conversation, “who has charge of 3,500 members. In two states the colored Baptists have more members than the whole united kingdom.”

“What about the training of the colored ministers, Dr. Morris?” I said,

“About a thousand of them have received a really adequate college training, extending sometimes over a period as long as seven years. Many others have been trained in the various theological seminaries of the country. We have, I suspect, about eighty colleges, academies and high schools supported by the white Baptists of America.

“We are what you call close communionists; that we restrict communion to those who are obedient to our church ordinance. In church polity we are strictly congregational, no outside body has any authority whatever over the individual churches.”

Of the speakers the same journal had the following to say: “A colored delegate, Rev. C. H. Parrish, who has worked for twenty years amongst the denominational schools of the South, confessed that he supposed that he was called to the platform to give ‘color to the occasion.‘ (Laughter.) They had a saying in the South: ‘The proof of the pudding is the taste thereof.‘ Forty years ago he was a slave, and since he had become a teacher of Greek.”

“Dr. Boyd, who represented the largest publication department of any colored church in the world, bore his testimony to the value of missionary literature. This he illustrated by the value of a tract which reached him as a boy on the cotton farm. If it had not been for that little tract he would still have been on the cotton farm. (Applause.) They could not tell the value of a little tract, he remarked, as he eulogized the work in that connection of Morehouse, Rowland and Gray. As the result of the circulation of those tracts there was scarcely a member of their churches who did not appreciate the fact of a regenerated membership in the church, and now, he said, at least nine-tenths of their Christians believed in baptism by immersion.” (Applause.)

“Mrs. J. E. Gibbons, a colored lady, spoke strongly in support of higher education among the native Christians. As an example of such teaching, she illustrated Mr. Britt, who had sung so sweetly to the Congress, on Tuesday evening. Through Dr. Morehouse's institution, Mr. Britt had been trained in the manner they had seen, and as a result he was acceptable wherever he went.” (Applause.)

“Dr. J. J. Blackshear, of Texas, a colored brother, made a strong plea on behalf of his own countrymen in Africa. ‘Owe no man anything,‘ he said, and his point was that the white man had benefited by the riches he had obtained from that country, so that it was their duty to send the Gospel to Africa. It was more important to pay a debt than to make new conquests. ‘You owe a great debt to that nation,‘ he urged in a strong voice, ‘Pay your debt.‘ ” (Laughter and applause.)

“As a practical exemplication of the value of missionary work, we next had the glowing speech of Miss Nannie H. Burroughs, a colored lady of Louisville, Kentucky, who simply enthused her audience by her knowledge and zeal for the missionary cause. Her speech was refined, with just a soupcon of twang, and a delightful touch of humor. One especially eloquent passage concerning women's missionary work may here be quoted: “In the galaxy with Livingston, Crowther, Morrison, Hudson, Taylor, McAll, the two Careys, white and black, David George and Judson, I will place the names of Ann Hazeltine Judson, Harriett Attwood Howell, Eliza Agnew and Hannah Catherine Mullens, that matchless, ingenious little soul, who opened the zenanas of India at the point of an embroidery needle, and thus opened a gate to the millions of women who had never seen the faintest ray of the light of God's Gospel.” (Much applause.)

“Dr. Morris followed, and said that in view of Christ's command to go and preach the Gospel among all nations, he believed an indifferent church might be keeping the Lord out of the world by refusing to fulfill those conditions that would permit Him to come back again. The church was weakest in that part which might be called the commissariat department, though Christ's commission had been entrusted to the richest nations in the world. To-day He was looking down upon His church, and realizing her wealth and her power. He was saying to her as Christ said to His disciples, ‘Lovest thou me?‘ ‘Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee,’ was the answer of the disciples. And Christ was saying again now as He said at that time, ‘Then the test is, feed my sheep.‘ ”