848

DRS. BACKUS AND SIMMONS.

other Churches for similar use. Dr. Hill published a plea for the Church Edifice Fund, aiming to raise $100,000 for this purpose. The plan was a wise one, but the movement had scarcely been inaugurated when the financial panic of 1857 fell upon the country, and the responses in money were light. In 1866, when the funds were used only in the form of loans and the gift system had ceased, the receipts ran up to $72,005 13, of which $30,000 was made a permanent fund. Rev. E. E. L. Taylor, D.D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., a man of large ability every way and a most successful pastor, was appointed to raise the permanent fund to $500,000. He labored nobly in his work till 1874, when his Lord called him to his temple above. He had, however, secured $130,000 for the fund.

Dr. Hill declined further service in 1862, and Dr. Jay S. Backus, one of the most vigorous minds and consecrated pastors in the denomination, was chosen as his successor. He served from 1862 to 1867 as the only Secretary, but in 1867 Rev. J. B. Simmons, D.D., of Philadelphia, was appointed an additional Corresponding Secre tary, with special reference to the Freedmen's work, and in 1869 Dr. Taylor was added to his colleagues with special regard to the Church Edifice Fund. Dr. Simmons stood the peer of his two fellow-secretaries in wisdom and goodness. He was a graduate of Brown University and of Newton Theological Seminary, and had done delightful pastoral work in Indianapolis and Philadelphia. Thus equipped, the Society stood ready to follow the lead of these three men of God, and well did each of them stand in his lot. The times were extremely trying, for the country had just passed through its severe Civil War, slavery had ceased to exist, and an unexpected change of circumstances called for various modifications in the work of the Society. The new secretaryship, filled by Dr. Simmons, sprang from these necessary changes. At the close of the war the Annual Meeting of the Society was held at St. Louis, May, 1865, when it resolved to prosecute missionary work amongst the Freedmen. Dr. Edward Lathrop and Mr. J. B. Hoyt were sent to visit the Southern Baptists to invite their co-operation in this work, and in 1867 a delegation was sent to the Southern Baptist Convention, at Baltimore, to further that object. That Convention reciprocated these brotherly interchanges, and appointed a similar delegation to meet the Home Mission Society, a few days later, at its annual meeting, in New York. Drs. Jeter and J. A. Broadus made addresses in which conciliation and brotherly affection abounded. Various methods of practical co-operation were suggested, but the Committee which reported on the subject could do little more than recommend that co-operation should be sought and had in all ways that should be found practicable.

In December, 1864, however, a company of Baptists had, on their personal responsibility, formed 'The National Theological Institute,' at Washington, to provide religious and educational instruction for the Freedmen. At the St. Louis meeting of the Home Mission Society in 1845, it was reported that $4,978 69 had been received by its Treasurer for a Freedmen's Fund, and that the Society had already

NATIONAL THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.

849

68 missionaries laboring amongst them in twelve Southern States. The Board was instructed to continue this work. The Institute conferred with the Home Missionary Society as to the best method of conducting this work, for, in 1867, it had schools under its direction at Washington, Alexandria, Williamsburg and Lynchburg, with $3,000 in books and clothing, and $18,000 in money, for their support. The result of much conference was, a recommendation made by a committee, consisting of Messrs. Mason, Hague, T. D. Anderson, Fulton, Bishop, Peck and Armitage, to the Home Mission Board, to organize a special department for this work. This being done, Dr. Simmons was chosen Secretary by the Society, especially for this department. His work naturally divided itself into missionary and educational branches. All ordained missionaries, of whom there were about 30 each year, were instructed to give religious tuition to classes of colored ministers. Dr. Marston reported, that in two years 1,527 ministers and 696 deacons were present at classes which he held. Before Dr. Simmons's election, amongst others, Prof. J. H. Ripley, at Savannah, Ga.; Dr. Solomon Peck, at Beaufort, N. C.; Rev. H. L. Wayland, at Nashville, Tenn.; and Rev. D. W. Phillips, at Knoxville, Tenn.; were engaged in this important work, so that over 4,000 pupils were gathered into these schools. The Society held that the teacher for the common school was secondary to the education of the colored preacher. Teachers were impressed with the responsibility of winning souls to Christ, and those converted in the schools were sent forth to become teachers, pastors' wives, and missionaries to their own people. Fifteen institutions for the colored people have been established with an enrollment in 1885 of 2,955 pupils, 1,391 of them young men, 1,564 young women and 103 teachers. These institutions are all designed primarily for those who are to be preachers or teachers; two are for the separate instruction of women, and one is distinctively a Theological Institution. Industrial education is given in nearly all of them, and the demand for medical education, so closely connected with the moral and religious education of the race, is one that generous patrons are considering. Dr. Simmons continued in this work till 1874, and it is still prosecuted with vigor and success.

Mrs. Benedict, of Pawtucket, R. I., widow of Deacon Stephen Benedict, gave $30,000 for the establishment of the Benedict Institute, in Columbia, S. C. Deacon Holbrook Chamberlain, of Brooklyn, N. Y., gave fully $150,000 for the Freedmen's work, most of it for the founding and support of the Leland University, at New Orleans, La., and others gave large sums for the same cause. After the Civil War the colored Baptists in the South constituted separate Churches and Associations of their own, though previous to that, as a rule, they had been members of the same Churches with the white Baptists. At its session, Ireld at Charleston, 1875, the Southern Convention said:

In the impoverished condition of the South, and with the need of strengthening the special work which the Southern Baptist Convention is committed to prosecute, there is no probability of an early endowment of schools under our charge for

55

the better education of a colored ministry. The Convention has adopted the policy of sustaining students at the seminaries controlled by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. It is much to be desired that larger contributions for this purpose may be secured from both white and colored Baptists.'

The Georgia Baptist Convention said in the same year :

The Institute for colored ministers, under the care and instruction of our esteemed brother, J. T. Robert, is doing a noble work for our colored population. We trust that many will avail themselves of the excellent course of instruction there, and that the school may prove an incalculable blessing in evangelizing and elevating the race.' In 1878 it added: We recommend our brethren to aid in sending pious and promising young men, who have the ministry in view, to this school, which consideration was urged in view of the fact, among other facts, that Romanists are making strenuous efforts to control our colored people, by giving them cheap or gratuitous instruction.' And in 1879 the same Convention resolved that: The institution deserves our sympathy and most cordial co-operation. It is doing a most important work, and is indispensable as an educator of this most needy class of our population.'

The Baptist Seminary and the Spelman Seminary, located at Atlanta, are doing a truly wonderful work. The latter was largely endowed by the philanthropist, John D. Rockefeller, and bears Mrs. Rockefeller's maiden name. It has 626 pupils, and its income for 1885 was $7,133; Sidney Root, Esq., of Atlanta, has been unwearied in his zeal to build up both these useful institutions.

At the Annual Meeting, held in Washington, in 1874, the Society elected but one Corresponding Secretary to take charge of the mission and educational work, Dr. Nathan Bishop; with Dr. Taylor in charge of the Church Edifice Fund. But as Dr. Taylor died that year, Dr. Bishop was left alone. From 1876 to 1879 Dr. Cutting served as Corresponding Secretary, when he was succeeded by Rev. H. L Morehouse, D.D., the present Secretary, whose very successful administration has brought up the Society to a position commensurate with the times, and to a position of strength worthy of its preceding history.

He was

As Nathan Bishop, LL. D., was a layman, and did so much for the interests of the Baptist denomination generally, this chapter cannot be more fittingly closed than by a brief sketch of his life and labors. He was pre-eminently a scholar, a Christain gentleman, a philanthropist and a man of large religious affairs. born in Oneida County, N. Y., August 12th, 1808. His father was a Justice of the Peace and a farmer, and brought up his son to habits of thorough industry and economy. While yet a youth, Nathan was converted, under the labors of Rev. P. P. Brown, and united with the Baptist Church at Vernon. Early he displayed an uncommon love for knowledge with a highly consistent zeal for Christ, a rareexecutive ability and a mature self-possession. At eighteen, he entered the Acad emy at Hamilton, N. Y., and Brown University in the year 1832. There he became a model student, known by all as full of quiet energy, a Christian of deep convictions, delighting in hard work, manly, self-denying and benevolent, and graduated with high honor. In 1838 he was appointed Superintendent of Common Schools

in Providence, where he re-organized the whole plan of popular education. In 1851 he filled the same office in Boston, and for six years devoted his great ability to elevating its common schools to a very high rank. He married and settled in New York in 1858, and here he identified himself with every line of public beneficence, to the time of his death, August 7th, 1880. He was a leader in the Christian Commission, the Board of State Commissions of Public Charities, the Sabbath Committee, the American Bible Society, the Evangelical Alliance; and, under the administration of General Grant, he served in the Board of the United States Indian Commissioners. No man contributed more invaluable time and

NATHAN BISHOP, LL.D.

toil to the development and upbuilding of Vassar College, or to the New York Orphan Asylum, and, in his denomination, every department of benevolent operation felt his influence. In the City Mission, the Social Union and the Home for the Aged, he put forth a molding and strengthening hand from their organization. But the greatest service, and that which must be ever associated with his honored name, was rendered in association with Baptist Missionary work, in both the Home and Foreign departments. Although never a wealthy man, he was a prodigy of liberality all his life, and when he died he left the most of his property for mission uses. For many years he gave his most precious time to the Home Mission Society, and for two years discharged the duties of its Corresponding Secretaryship without charge, besides increasing his contributions to the treasury. While he was Secretary, he and Mrs. Bishop made a centennial offering to the Society of $30,000, besides large gifts to the Freedmen's fund. Once the Doctor said to Dr. Simmons: I have been blamed for giving so many thousand dollars for the benefit of colored men. But I expect to stand side by side with these men in the day of judgment. Their Lord is my Lord. They and I are brethren, and I am determined to be prepared for that meeting.' No man ever known to the writer was more completely devoted, body, soul and spirit, in labor for man and love for God than Dr. Bishop. He had as robust a body, as broad a mind and as warm a heart as ever fall to the lot of Christian humanity; and not a jot or tittle of either did he withhold from this holy service. Yet, when told that death was near and that he would soon be free from extreme pain and enter into rest, his only reply was the expression of a grateful soul that he should soon begin a life of activity.

IN

CHAPTER XV.

PREACHERS-EDUCATORS-AUTHORS.

N the absence of the connectional principle in the life of Baptist Churches, their history and united efforts are at times largely included in the biography of particular individuals, who have left the impress of their minds and hearts upon their own times and on succeeding generations. Of none is this more true than of

THOMAS BALDWIN, D.D.

.

several individuals who have had much to do with those great movements that must now be mentioned. Few of our American fathers acted a more prominent part in the work of missions, whether on the home or foreign field, than the immortal Thomas Baldwin; and having already spoken of him a some length, it will be but needful here to glance at his Boston ministry and general character.

After serving the Church at Canaan, N. H., for seven years, he became the pastor of the Second Baptist Church, in Boston, in 1790, which responsible office he filled till his death, in 1826. His labors were most abundant,

and his success in the conversion of men to Christ was very great. He was not a graduate of any college, but he fostered all educational projects; nor did he love controversy, but when he found it necessary to defend Baptist principles against the pen of the celebrated Dr. Worcester he did so with faithful vigor. Dr. Stillman and himself were fast friends and true yoke-fellows in every good work. As politicians, Stillman was a firm Federalist, and Baldwin as firm a Jeffersonian Democrat, and generally on Fast Day and Thanksgiving-day they preached on the points in dispute here, because, as patriots, they held them essential to the well-being of the Republic, especially, in the exciting conflicts of 1800-01; yet, there never was