REMARKABLE BAPTIST GROWTH. 735 we have contributed, each in the line allotted us, our endeavors to render its issues a permanent blessing to our country.' It would be a pleasant task to trace the lives of some of the distinguished servants of God who filled Virginia with Baptist Churches; but their work erects for them an imperishable monument to which it is only needful to refer. We find that while the first Church was planted in the colony in 1714, in 1793 there were in the State 227 churches, 272 ministers, 22,793 communicants, and 14 Associations. Abiel Holmes says, in his American Annals' (ii, 488 p.), that in 1793 the Baptists of the United States numbered 73,471, so that at that time Virginia contained nearly one third of the whole. In order to combine their efforts, a General Association was formed in 1771, which was dissolved in 1783 and, in 1784, a General Committee was organized to take its place, consisting of two delegates from each Association; this again was superseded in 1800 by the General Meeting of Correspondence, which was composed of delegates from all the Associations and acted as a State Board of Baptist co-operation on all subjects of general interest. The statistics of our own times, however, far eclipse the ratio of growth in the most prosperous days of the last century. At the present time, 1886, the Virginia Baptists have 42 Associations, 868 ordained ministers, 1,608 churches, into whose fellowship there were baptized last year 12,182 persons, making a total membership in the State of 238,266; being the largest number of Baptists in any State of the United States. This prosperity is the more remarkable when we take into account that within the present century the largest defection from the regular Baptist ranks that has been known in this country took place in Virginia, under the late Rev. Alexander Campbell. Without a brief sketch of that movement the history of the Baptists there would be very imperfect, hence it is here submitted. Alexander Campbell, a seceding minister from the North of Ireland, came to America in 1807, and became pastor of a Presbyterian Church in West Pennsylvania. Soon his father, Thomas Campbell, came to differ materially in some things with that Church, and set up worship in his own house, avowing this principle: When the Scriptures speak, we speak; where they are silent, we are silent.' A number adopted this doctrine and gathered at the meetings. Andrew Munro, a clearheaded seceder, said at once: If we adopt that as a basis, there is an end of infant baptism.' Soon both Thomas and Alexander, his son, with five others of the family rejected infant baptism, and on June 12th, 1812, were immersed on profession of their faith in Christ, in Buffalo Creek, by Elder Luce, and were received into the fellowship of the Bush Run Baptist Church. After this Alexander began to call in question the scripturalness of certain Baptist views and usages, chiefly in relation to the personal agency of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, the consequent relation of a Christian experience before baptism and the effect of baptism itself. As nearly as the writer could express Mr. Campbell's views, after much conversation with him, he held: That no man can be born of God but by the word of truth as 736 REV. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL. found in the Bible; that the Scriptures, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, the only agency of the Spirit which acts on the soul is exerted through the word of Scripture; that the act of regeneration is not completed until the soul obeys Christ in the act of baptism; and that, as baptism is Christ's appointed method of confessing him, the washing away of sin is connected with that act or evinced thereby. The Baptists from whom he retired also held to the full inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and that God addresses himself to the soul of man through that word, but that the Holy Spirit applies that word to the soul in so powerful a manner, by his direct and personal agency, as to lead it to a perfect trust on Christ for salvation and that then he is born from above, or regenerated. That when the Spirit bears witness with his spirit that he is a child of God, and he can testify of the grace of God in saving him, he has then become a fit subject for baptism; and so the act of baptism publicly attests his love for Christ, his obedience to him and the remission of his sins, as one who is dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God. The point of divergence between him and the Baptists was so vital and radical, that every step which followed widened the distance. Mr. Campbell came to regard what is known as the relation of Christian experience, not only as savoring of mere impulse at the best, but as often running into superstition and even fanaticism; while the Baptists insisted on satisfactory testimony from the Holy Spirit to the convert's heart, and then from his own lips to the Church, that a moral renovation was wrought in his whole moral nature by the Holy Spirit himself, in which work he had used the inspired word as his divine instrument in effecting salvation. Of course, much warm controversy ensued, the convictions of each party deepened with the progress of the contest, divisions took place in Churches and Associations, the rent ran not only through Virginia but through the entire South and South-west, and the two bodies appear to be about as far apart as ever, with this difference, that time and circumstances have softened old asperities and cooled the heat of fierce debate. The leaders in the combat were men of might on both sides. Mr. Campbell possessed a powerful intellect, which largely predominated over the emotional in his nature. He was of French descent on his mother's side, of Irish and Highland Scotch on his father's. He was very positive, unyielding, fearless and capable of wonderful endurance. Without being over-polite or ceremonious, his manners were bland and conciliating. While his mind was entirely self-directing, there was no show of vanity about him; and while not an orator in a high sense, his manner of speaking was prepossessing from the utter absence of cant in expression or whine in tone. There was a warm play of benevolence in his face and a frank open-heartedness in his speech, which was clothed in the dress of logic and armed with pointed artful sarcasm which seldom failed to influence his hearers. Probably the nearest counterpart to himself whom he found amongst all his opponents, and who most counteracted his influence as a strong and cool reasoner, was Dr. Jeremiah B. Jeter, one of the broadest and best men that Virginia ever produced REV. DR. JETER. 737 either in the Baptist ministry or any other. He was a native of that State, born in 1802, and was baptized in 1821, addressing the crowd on the bank of the Otter River as he ascended from the water. He began to preach in Bradford County, and was the first missionary appointed by the General Association of Virginia, in 1823. He filled various pastorates in that State until 1835, when he became pastor of the First Church in Richmond, where he continued for fourteen years. He had baptized more than 1,000 persons before he went to Richmond, and was honored by the baptism of about the same number while in this Church. In 1849 he took charge of the Second Church in St. Louis, but returned to Richmond as the pastor of Grace Street Church in 1852. The last fourteen years of his life were spent as editor of the 'Religious Herald.' As early as 1837 he had shown himself a master of the pen in his Life of Clopton,' and this work was soon followed by the memoirs of Mrs. Schuck and of Andrew Broadus. All this had been but a training for his remarkable polemic work, in which he examined and answered the positions of Mr. Campbell. It is in this work chiefly that the fullness and roundness of his character appear. Clear, vigorous, courteous, unassuming and child-like, devoid of boastfulness, forgetful of himself and apparently unconscious of his own ability, he throws a blending of beautiful virtues into a majestic logic that no other writer has approached on that subject. He far excels Mr. Campbell in the graces of style and in suavity of spirit, while he is fully his equal in self-possession and out-spoken frankness, and more than his match in that manly argumentation which carries conviction to devout men. Dr. Jeter did splendid work in the pulpit and in building up the educational and missionary interests of the South. It is right and meet that a statue of this princely man should adorn the Memorial Hall at Richmond and that his manuscripts should increase its wealth, but his truest likeness is traceable in his writings, and it will be bright and fresh there when the marble has moldered into dust. These two great men of Virginia have gone to give their account to God, and their memory is cherished by thousands of their friends, nor will either of them be soon forgotten as gladiators for the truth as they respectively saw truth. While the name of the one lives, that of the other can never be blotted out. This chapter may properly be closed by a sketch of another nobleman, who, though not a native of Virginia, is perhaps, taking him in all things, its first citizen at this time. Jabez L. M. Curry, D.D., LL.D., was born in Lincoln County, Ga., June 5th, 1825. He was graduated from the University of Georgia in 1843, and from the Dane Law School, at Harvard University, in 1845. In 1847, '53 and '55 he served in Congress from Alabama. He was known there as an active friend of public and higher education and of internal improvements; as chairman of the proper committee he wrote a report and introduced a bill favoring geological survey. In 1856 he was chosen as Presidential Elector for Alabama, and in 1857-59 was again returned to Congress from Alabama. During the Civil War he served in the Confed erate Congress and army, at its close was elected President of Howard College, in signed his professorships he was REV. J. L. M. CURRY, D.D., LL.D. His brethren In September, 1885, President Cleveland appointed him, without application on his own part, Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain. His reception by that court has been most cordial, and his labors there for the protection of American rights and the promotion of American commerce have been successful. repose great confidence in his practical wisdom and integrity. For this reason they commonly place him in responsible places when his presence is available. He is an able debater, perfectly conversant with parliamentary law. For several years he was Clerk, then Moderator of the Coosa River Association, President of the Alabama Baptist State Convention, also of the Virginia General Association, and of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Convention. Dr. Curry is a powerful and enthusiastic preacher of the Gospel. He received the degree of D.D. in 1857 from the Mercer University, and has preached much; but, though often invited, he has uniformly declined to become a pastor. The address which he delivered before the Evangelical Alliance, in New York, in 1873, on the union of Church and State, excited universal attention, and the Liberation Society of Great Britain adopted and stereotyped it as one of their effective documents. The Rochester University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1872. He demands of all, and in himself presents, unsullied integrity in public life and the inseparableness of private and public morality. CHAPTER IX. BAPTISTS OF CONNECTICUT AND NEW YORK. N considering the introduction and spread of Baptist principles into the other colonies, it will be proper to take them up in the chronological order in which their first Churches severally were formed. First of all, then, we have Connecticut, which colony lived under the charter of Charles II., as regards religious privileges, until 1818. As early as A. D. 1674 some Baptists of Rhode Island occasionally crossed the borders and immersed converts in Connecticut, who united with their Churches in Rhode Island. These, however, were regarded as unwarrantable innovations; they attracted the attention of the Standing Order (Presbyterial-Congregational), and the secular power was invoked to suppress them. One of these invasions took place at Waterford, but they were not oft-repeated. The ministers of the State Church were supported by levying and collecting their salaries regularly with other taxes. Trumbull informs us that before 1706 the persons of the ministers were free from all taxation, but their families and estates were taxable; in that year the Legislature exempted these from taxation. The law made the State Church the lawful congregation, and subjected all persons who neglected attendance there on the Lord's Day' to a fine of twenty shillings. It also forbade 'separate companies in private houses,' and inflicted a fine of ten pounds, with corporal punishment by whipping, not exceeding thirty stripes for each offense,' on every 'person, not being a lawful minister,' who 'shall presume to profane the holy sacraments by administering or making a show of administering them to any person or persons whatever, and being thereof convicted.' Connecticut and New Haven were separate governments till the reign of Charles II., when they were united under one charter. But this basis of government did not contain a single clause authorizing the Legislature to enact any religious laws, establish any form of religion or any religious tests, and, properly speaking, the attempt to bind these on the colony was of itself a usurpation. A few scattered Baptists in the south-eastern part of the colony humbly petitioned the General Court in 1704 for liberty to hold meetings and establish a Church in Groton. Their prayer seems not to have been noticed, but, nothing daunted, the same band sent a fraternal request to Valentine Wightman, a gifted young preacher in Rhode Island, to become their leader, and in 1705 he came and organized them into the First Baptist Church of Connecticut. This pioneer body numbered less than a score, but they were firm, united and liberal minded. They pre |