FIRST CHURCH DURING THE WAR.

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native strength, sound judgment, wit, ingenuity, retentive memory, zeal and godliness furnish in times which try men's souls.

The First Church prospered so largely under Mr. Gano's ministry that the meeting-house was enlarged in 1763; crowds flocked to hear him. The late Dr. Bowen, of the Episcopal Church in New York, says that his father, who was a clergyman in the city in those days, told him that Mr. Gano possessed the best pulpit talents of any man that he ever heard.' In 1763 this Church numbered only forty-one members, and two years before that it was scarcely known at all, although the little meeting-house had been built. Morgan Edwards came from Wales in 1761, and tells this pleasant anecdote:

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When I came to New York I landed in the morning and thought I would try if I could find any Baptists. I wandered up and down, looking at the place and the people, and wondering who of all the people I met might be Baptists. At length I saw an old man, with a red cap on his head, sitting in the porch of a respectable looking house. Ah, thought I, now this is one of the old inhabitants who knows all about the city; this is the man to inquire of. I approached him and said: "Good-morning, sir! Can you tell me where any Baptists live in this city?" Baptists! Baptists!" said the old man, musing as if ransacking all the corners of his memory; "Baptists! I really don't know as I ever heard of any body of that occupation in these parts."

During the Revolutionary War the First Church was dispersed and its records suspended. No baptisms are recorded between that of Hannah Stillwell, April 28th, 1776, and that of Samuel Jones, afterward a deacon, on September 4th, 1784. The British forces occupied New York above seven years, during which time it was nearly ruined. No city in America was so long in the hands of the enemy and suffered so much. Its best inhabitants found shelter in other colonies, and the Tories made it their place of refuge. Pestilence and two great fires swept it, and the soldiery inflicted all the damage that they could. At the opening of the war there were nineteen churches in the city, but when it closed only nine of them could be used for worship. The Baptist meeting-house, having been used for a horse-stable, was almost in ruins. On his return to the city Gano found emptiness, desolation and ashes. The angels of God had not looked upon a more touching procession since that which united Calvary with Joseph's tomb, than that which solemnly moved into the wasted city from Harlem Heights. Washington and Clinton led it on horseback, followed by Knox with the remnant of the patriot army, some mounted and some on foot, with gaunt cheeks, weather-beaten, footsore and ragged, scarred and limping. Men who had left their bloody foot-prints upon the sharp frozen snows of Valley Forge were there, with the man at their head who had shivered with them through the dreariest winter of the war; the man who had carried them to God in prayer, night and morning, when anguish sat heavily on his camp and his own soul was struggling through the darkest days of life. John Gano soon followed and says: "We collected of our Church about

thirty-seven members out of upward of two hundred, some being dead, and others scattered into almost every part of the Union.' But as soon as the sanctuary could be decently cleansed, he rallied his people and preached to them from Hag. ii, 3: Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now?' Under his ministry the days of prosperity soon returned until he baptized his last convert April 5th, 1788, and left for Kentucky. During his pastorate he had baptized into the Church 297, and received 23 by letter. Amongst the first Regents of the University of New York we find the name of this heroic man, with this notice: Rev. John Gano, a clerical scholar of rare culture, pastor of the infant Baptist Church for sixteen years prior to the war; had been a chaplain in the army, and upon returning to the city with the establishment of peace, could find but thirty-seven out of his two hundred Church members.' 17 His family raised a beautiful monument to his memory in Cincinnati. An altar-like pedestal bears an obelisk of four sides, with deep niches on each side. In every one of these there is an allegorical figure, while angels and rich wreaths of flowers adorn the various parts, the whole being crowned by an elaborate capital and a lambent urn. In the basso-relievo a shattered sepulcher is seen, from which a family has risen from the dead. Six years were spent in executing this delicate piece of workmanship.

Time fails to trace the remarkable history of this venerable Church through the striking ministry of Dr. Foster and William Collier to the close of the century. Shortly after Gano left, the question of singing disturbed them. The usage had prevailed of lining the verses of hymns sung, and now many wanted to sing from the books, whereupon fourteen persons, who wanted the hymns deaconed,' left and started the Second Baptist Church. 1790 this new Church got into a contention and divided, both parties claiming this name, but after a time they both dropped it, one taking the name of Bethel and the other of Fayette Street. The Bethel ceased to exist many years ago, but the Fayette Street had an illustrious history, first as the Oliver Street, and is now a noble body, known as the Baptist Church of the Epiphany, with Dr. Elder as pastor. Dr. Foster became pastor of the First Church in 1788, and before long some of the members, who could scent heresy from afar, discovered heterodoxy in his sermons. A serious disturbance followed, which resulted in the exclusion of thirteen persons in 1789. In 1790 twenty others took letters of dismission and the Second Church received the excluded, which fact probably fermented their own contentions and led to their division. The New York Baptist Association was formed in 1791, comprising the Scotch Plains, Oyster Bay, Morristown, Connoe-Brook [Northfield], Staten Island, with the First and Second New York Churches. So rapidly and noiselessly did the leaven of our principles and practices spread that, by the close of the century, Churches were planted in seventeen counties of New York, extending from Sag Harbor to the New Jersey line, and from Staten Island to the Canada line. In 1794, according to Asplund, the churches numbered 84, the ministers 109, and the members 5,263.

CHAPTER X.

THE BAPTISTS OF NORTH CAROLINA, MARYLAND, NEW HAMPSHIRE, VERMONT AND GEORGIA.

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TILL following the chronological order, we note the rise of Baptists in these several colonies. We have seen that individual Baptists from Virginia were found in NORTH CAROLINA in the middle of the seventeenth century; but the Shiloh Church, formed by Paul Palmer in Camden County, on the Chowan River, in 1727, was the first Church founded in that colony. Palmer was from the Welsh Tract, in Delaware, and was a correspondent of John Comer, according to whose Journal this Church numbered thirty-two members in 1729. Joseph Parker, probably one of Palmer's converts, formed the second Church, at Meherrin, in 1729; but it was not until 1740 that the third was formed, at Sandy Run, by members dismissed from the Meherrin Church. Emigrants from Virginia, in company with William Sojourner, formed the fourth Church, in Halifax County, in 1742; and in 1752 these had increased to sixteen Churches, all being General Baptists.

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They were not thoroughly spiritual Churches. They held to the scriptural authority of the ordinances of Baptism and the Supper, but some of them did not demand faith and conversion before receiving these, and they added to them, as of about equal authority, the rites of love-feasts, laying on of hands after baptism, washing of feet, anointing the sick, the right hand of fellowship, the kiss of charity, and the public devoting of children without christening, or what John Leland called dry christening. This state of things existed when that region of country was visited by Robert Williams, of South Carolina; Benjamin Miller, Peter P. Vanhorn, and John Gano, of New Jersey; with Shubael Stearnes, of Virginia. Then God raised up a spiritual people who accepted the whole truth. It is remarkable to see what a missionary spirit pervaded our American Churches from the very first, especially put forth in practical efforts to take the Gospel into the new settlements. This subject is too interesting and vital to pass in silence, for the journey of a Baptist missionary meant the personal visitation of the scattered pioneers, who had gone to make homes for themselves in the wilderness. These men of God gathered the families in the region round about, preached to them, and frequently found members from the older settlements who, far away from the helps and restraints of Christian fellowship, had become careless about their religious life. The godless were led to Christ, the careless were reanimated by the missionary's earnest appeals, those who believed were baptized, frequently the whole community was moved

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religiously, and often a Baptist Church was organized. A second visit commonly resulted in the settlement of a pastor and the establishment of a branch Church in some adjacent neighborhood.

Such men as William The South was particularly favored by such labors. Such men Tristoe, Abraham Marshall, Oliver Hort and Richard Furman caught much of the primitive, apostolic zeal and entered with all their powers into this work. An unknown correspondent of Rippon's Register' gives us a glimpse of such toils, in a letter of August 24th, 1790. He writes:

'In several counties of North Carolina I have preached to very numerous assemblies. At a "big meeting," as they call a convention, or when a stranger of any note visits them, it is seldom that the place of worship will contain half the congregation. If they have timely notice, hundreds think nothing of a distance of ten or twenty miles to meeting. Every one has a horse, yes, even our poorest people have a horse to ride, and hence, when you arrive at the place appointed, you will see more horses tied all about the roads than can be seen at a fair in England, my native country. A stage, also, is erected, which you stand on to preach, and sometimes to two or three thousand hearers. I have preached, as was supposed, to three or four thousand. The meeting continues two or three days. There are frequently ten or a dozen ministers present, most of whom pray, preach, or exhort, as they find freedom. After the public service, those who live near the place of meeting, whether members or not, ask every person who comes from a distance to go home with them; and generally the greater the number who accept the invitation the better are they pleased, especially if a minister can be prevailed upon to be one of the guests. When you come to the house, they entertain you with the very best they have, both horses and men, and as soon as you have all dined, to preaching, praying, exhortation, etc. Near midnight you retire to rest; by sunrise in the morning, to prayers; then breakfast, and to public worship again, but not before your company is requested for the next night, if the meeting continues. This is the common practice in Georgia, South and North Carolina, in what we call the back part of the country. To a great many of these meetings I have been, and sometimes have seen a great deal of religion, and enjoyed the most solemn pleasures and comfortable opportunities I have ever had.'

The West and North-west in those days meant Central and Western New York, but there, many of these inspiring features of large and enthusiastic meetings were lacking. The journeys were often long and perilous, attended with much hardship. Then, sometimes, these godly men were not welcomed, and they found it necessary to shake off the dust of their feet against American settlements as Christ's Apostles Messengers from the South did against the towns of Palestine. The missionaries were generally volunteers, but sometimes the Associations commissioned them. appealed to the Philadelphia Association, in 1754, for the labors of a missionary, and they sent John Gano, who traveled as far as Charleston. Hon. C. S. Todd, formerly the American Representative to Russia, draws this picture of Gano:

.. His pres'He was, in person, below the middle stature, and when young, of a slender form, but of a firm, vigorous constitution, well fitted for performing active services with ease, and for suffering labors and privations with constancy. ence was manly, open, and engaging. His voice strong and commanding, yet agree

able and capable of all those inflections which are suitable to express either the strong or tender emotions of an intelligent, feeling mind. In mental endowments. and acquired abilities he appeared highly respectable; with clear conception and ready discernment, he formed readily a correct judgment of men and things. His acquaintance with the learned languages and sciences did not commence till he arrived at manhood, and was obtained chiefly by private instruction. To the refinement of learning he did not aspire; his chief object was such a competent acquaintance with its principles as would enable him to apply them with advantage to purposes of general usefulness in religion, and to the most important interests of society; and to this he attained.'

Thus endowed and armed, this holy man and his brethren of like spirit went to the Sandy Creek region in North Carolina. An Association was formed there in 1758, a monument to their fruitful labor, and by 1766 the Sandy Creek Church had aided in forming forty-two Churches. The Little River Church was another remarkable body. Formed in 1760, it increased to five hundred persons in three years and built five meeting-houses. These Churches had many contentions and alienations as Regulars and Separates for years; but these passed away when they became a thoroughly working people; they were too busy to quarrel, and now there is not a more efficient body of Baptists in the United States than those of North Carolina. Some of the mightiest names in our history have arisen in that State. Silas and Jesse Mercer, William T. Brantly, Basil Manly and a long line following, as Kerr and Howell, Poindexter and Mims, Brooks and Saunders, Emerson and Solomon, with a host of living men who would honor any Christian community. As far back as 1793, Asplund reports that they had 112 churches, 172 ministers, and 8,017 communicants. But in 1886, they have 2,177 churches, 915 ministers, and 211,984 communicants.

MARYLAND. The question of religious liberty in this colony will be noticed in another place. For the present it is only needful to note that in 1649 the Assembly enacted:

That no persons professing to believe in Jesus Christ shall be molested in respect of their religion, or the free exercise thereof, or be compelled to the belief or practice of any other religion, against their consent, so that they be not unfaithful to the proprietary, or conspire against the civil government. That persons molesting any other in respect of his religious tenets shall pay treble damages to the party aggrieved and twenty shillings to the proprietary. That the reproaching any with opprobrious epithets of religious distinctions shall forfeit ten shillings to the person aggrieved. That any one speaking reproach fully against the Blessed Virgin or the Apostles shall forfeit five pounds, but blasphemy against God shall be punished with death.'1

When the first Baptist Church was founded in Maryland, it was a Roman Catholic colony, but our brethren were not persecuted in the proper sense of the term, although their protest against Rome was very strong. Henry Sator, an English General Baptist, appears to have formed the first Baptist Church in the colony, at Chestnut Ridge, near Baltimore, in 1742. Four years afterward it numbered 181 members,