This Day in Baptist History
September 24 Baptist Education: Training for Spiritual Leadership Scripture: I Samuel 2:1-15 The idea that the Baptists were not at all interested in or concerned with an educated ministry in America is an absolutely false concept. Though many outstanding men were deprived of an early formal, classical education because their frontier upbringing did not provide such, many of them overcame this obstacle through the diligence of a godly mother and /or father, who provided means for the hungry heart and thirsty soul to receive enough education...
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September 23 James Hickey, the Apostle of Mexico Scripture: Matthew 13:34-43 James Hickey, like so many of the outstanding early missionaries, did not become a Baptist because he was reared in a Baptist family or because he sat under the ministry of a faithful Baptist pastor. His birthplace was Sligo, Cork County, Ireland, and his birth date was September 23, 1800. He was born of devout Roman Catholic parents who were dedicated to the upbringing of their son as a priest committed to the church. This goal seemingly was being...
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September 22 The One-Legged Preacher Who Walked on Ice Scripture: Philippians 4:12-13 Fredrick Ludwig Rymker, the man who became known as the pioneer of the Baptist work in Norway, was born in Stige, Denmark, on September 22, 1819. Having been born to poor parents, the young man’s education was meager, and he learned the trade of a shoemaker. However, at age twenty he went to sea. Rymker sailed to New York and resided in a sailor’s lodging house. While there he was invited by a believer to visit the Mariner’s Temple, and he soon...
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September 21 Should Baptists Support All Faiths? Scripture: Psalm 37:16 The ecclesiastical tax that Baptists were forced to pay for the support of the state church was ever a thorn to men of the Baptist persuasion. The town of Ashfield, Mass. was settled by Baptists. In 1770, a few Congregationalists built a meeting house, called a minister, and taxed the Baptists for his support. The greater part of his salary…came from Baptists. Because they refused to pay this burdensome tax, 398 acres of their land were seized, together with their homes,...
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September 20 Were They Baptist Dissenters or Sowers of Sedition? Scripture: I Kings 22:1-40 The citizens of the plantations and settlements of Virginia were not always the most genteel kind of people. Most of them attended the established Church of England because it was mandated by law. Among the tax-supported clergy, there were those who had lost the respect of the people because of their licentious conduct, and the citizenry itself had fallen into spiritual malaise. When men like Nathaniel Saunders began to preach the necessity of the new...
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