The Baptist Church

THE first Baptist Church in the territory which is now included in the Province of New Brunswick, was founded at Sackville, by the Rev. Nathan Mason. This church was organized in 1763, in Massachusetts, for the purpose of ministering to those of that faith emigrating to Nova Scotia. The names of the members of this church were Benjamin Mason, Charles Seaman, Thomas Lewis, Gilbert Seaman and Oliver Mason, with their wives, and a woman by the name of Experience Baker. The members of this church, and their pastor, the Rev. Nathan Mason, left Sackville and returned to New England in 1771, leaving but little trace of their doctrines behind them. The Baptists of New Brunswick, as well as those of Nova Scotia, trace the origin of their church to Henry Alline, an Evangelist of the most advanced type, who, strange to say, was not a Baptist, and seemed to have cared nothing at all as to the form of baptism. Alline in 1760, when he was ten years old, emigrated with his parents from Connecticut to Falmouth, in Nova Scotia. He was converted when he was 27 years of age, and at once began to preach throughout the Maritime Provinces. There never was an Evangelist consumed with a greater amount of religious zeal than Alline. His ministry lasted for about eight years, from 1776 to to 1784 and then he died, worn out in the 36th year •of his age.

The Rev. D. M. Saunders in his History of the Baptists says: "This perfervid evangelist had not the constitutional strength to endure this great strain on his physical powers. The hectic flush soon appeared on his cheek. His cough, generated by repeated colds and exposure, became more and more alarming ; but his courage, zeal, and self-sacrifice waned not. From the day that he preached his first sermon in Falmouth, until eight years afterwards, when he delivered his last message from his dying bed at the house of Rev. Mr. McClure, at Northampton, New Hampshire, he ceased not to call sinners to repentance. In those eight years, besides preaching continually when at home in Falmouth, Newport, Horton, and Cornwallis, he travelled seven times over Annapolis county, preaching day and night. Then followed a journey through Cumberland and places along the Petitcodiac river. Another visit to Annapolis county was extended, and took in Yarmouth, Barrington, Cape Sable, Ragged Islands, Port LaTour, Liverpool, Milton, Port Medway. Then away he rushed up the St. John river, and on his return visited places in eastern New Brunswick, Cumberland, Prince Edward Island, Truro, Onslow, and Londonderry. Following this was another journey through Annapolis, Yarmouth, Liverpool, Petite Riviere, Lunenburg, and Halifax.

From first to last, Henry Alline's zeal was intense. He seemed utterly indifferent to his surroundings. Before his fiery zeal, mountains of difficulty melted to level plains. Hardships and opposition of men were alike matters of indifference to this ubiquitous Newlight. The holy passion to save souls consumed him, and blinded him to all obstacles. He seemed to fly over the country. Where he found no bridle path he dismounted, and, both in summer and winter, either threaded his way through forests or along sea-shores, or risked the peril of the sea in schooners or open boats."

With regard to Alline's views on the question of baptism, the following extract from one of his his letters is interesting:

"Being requested, I attended a meeting of some Baptists in Horton, to advise about gathering a church there. 0, may the time come when Ephraim shall no more vex Judah, not Judah envy Ephraim, and that there might never more be any dispute about such non-essentials as water-baptism, the sprinkling of infants or baptizing of adults, by immersion; but every one enjoy liberty of conscience. They gathered in church order and made choice of one Mr. Pierson, who was not endowed with a great gift in the Word, for their elder; intending to put him forward, until God gave them some better one, or brought him out more into the liberty of the gospel, after which he was ordained. "

Among the converts of Henry Alline, was Edward Manning, who may be regarded as the Father of the Baptist Church in the Maritime Provinces. Edward Manning seems to have adopted baptism by immersion in 1798 or 1799.

The first Baptist association for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, met in Sackville in 1810. Sackville was represented by Elders Jos. Crandall and Jonathan Cole, and by Messrs. Wm. Lawrence and Jos. Read. There were twenty-two elders and missionaries present, representing fourteen churches. Among the representatives were Fathers Murray and Harding, and Peter Crandall, Nathan Cleveland and Elijah Estabrooks. A letter published in August, 1810, by Rev. David Merrill in the-American Baptist Magazine, reports his visit to the Association, in Sackville, as a member of the Lincoln Association, Maine. He is jubilant with hope for the new work, and exclaims in triumph,. "Babylon appears to be in full retreat."

Joseph Crandall was preaching on the St. John River in the year 1800, and in his journal he gives-the following account of his work:

"I remained on the river above Fredericton preaching and immersing believers, proceeding as far as Woodstock. About the last of May I came down the river to Waterborough. The lowlands were all inundated and I could not see how the Lord's work could be carried on just then, as the-people could not attend the meetings. Then I began to think it was about time for me to return home. We landed at Brother Marster's, and soon the boats came, loaded with anxious enquirers asking about the reformation up the river ; for they had heard about such numbers^ being immersed that many of them had been led to read their Bibles and were purposed to yield obedience to the Lord's commands. In that house, an hour or two after my arrival, the Lord's work commenced and a number rejoiced in. the Lord. It was wonderful to see the aged, the middle-aged and the youths relating in the language of Holy Scripture, what the Lord had done for their souls. Elijah Estabrooks, a holy man of God, their leader, led the way and the whole society followed in the holy ordinance of immersion. At the second Conference many related their experience. An aged man arose from his seat, Esquire Estey, a New England Congregationalist, rooted and grounded in the old Puritan practice of infant sprinkling. He was a man much beloved. He said to me, ' I see you are going to break up our church.' I said to him, ' Sir, if your church is built on Christ, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.' He said, ' Do you not call us a Church of Christ ?' I said to him, ' I consider you are a company of pious Christians, but not walking in the order of the gospel as commanded by Christ.' He arose, took up his hat and went out, saying as he went, ' My parents gave me up to the Lord in infancy, and from that I will not depart.'

"As he was passing out I said to him, 'Squire, I have one word to say to you: The Scribes and< the Pharisees rejected the counsel of the Lord against themselves, not being immersed.'

"Next morning being Lord's Day, we met at the water side at nine o'clock. There was a great host of people assembled to see the effect of the new religion, and, to my great surprise, the old gentleman, who was determined never to depart from his infant sprinkling, was the first to yield obedience to the commands of Christ. Such a day of the Lord's power was rarely witnessed on earth. There were about eighty immersed at that time. This-meeting did not break up till after the sun had gone down."

Edward Manning made his first visit to St John City as early as 1805. At that time there was no Baptist place of worship, or Baptist family in the city. After Mr. Manning, came Mr. Crandall, but it was not until 1810 that the first church was organized, which consisted of seven men and five women. The first minister of this church was Elder Merrill. Three years after the organization of this church Edmund Reis, a native of France, became its pastor. In 1812 there were twenty-seven members in this church, and in 1820 sixty-one members. In 1816 a lot on the corner of Germain and Queen streets was purchased, and on it was erected a church building, sufficient in size to accommodate the congregation. In 1827 there were in New Brunswick twenty-eight Baptist churches, fifteen ordained ministers and 1347 members.

In 1840 there were forty-six churches, twenty-one ordained ministers, and 2944 members.

In 1847 the New Brunswick Association was divided into two bodies, the Eastern and Western.

At the last census of New Brunswick, it was found that the Baptists were more numerous than any other Protestant denomination, the total number including the Free Baptists, being 80,874.

The Free Baptist General Conference of New Brunswick was organized at Wakefield in Carleton County, on October 13th, 1882. The organization embraced six churches and two ordained ministers. The churches were located at Wakefield, Carleton

County; Bear Island, York County; Jacksontown, Carleton County; Little River, Queens County; Lincoln, Sunbury County; and Upper Sussex, King's County. The ministers were Elders Samuel Nutt and Charles McMullin.

Besides the elders named, there were present at the organization, brethren W. E. Pennington, a licensed preacher; Samuel Hayden, Jonathan Shaw, Ziba Shaw, William Mallory, Jacob Craig, Ezekiel Sipprell, Elisha Shaw, Nathaniel Shaw, G. R. Boyer,--Kinney, -Hallet and Elijah Sisson.

The Rev. Joseph McLeod in his sketch of the history of the Baptists in New Brunswick, says:

"The movement which took form in the organization of the denomination, was chiefly a protest against two things — the unspiritual ministry and empty forms of the Church of England, and extreme Calvinism, as held and taught by some of the Baptists of that time. Rev. Edward Weyman, one of the early ministers of the denomination, in his personal records of experiences and happenings, says: ' Had the first Baptist churches in the Province and their ministers stood where they began, free from the antinomian use of the doctrine of grace, we would not have been a distinct people as we are to day; there would have been no necessity for our denominational existence. In their first labours, they — the Baptists — were blessed in raising up churches; but embracing the highest Calvinistic views, their influence was injured. To their teaching about election, predestination, and a limited atonement, large numbers in their own churches were unreconciled^ and the hearts of many people were closed against them.

"'Out of these things grew the necessity for a new religious movement. The instrumentalities used were, in the judgment of men, insignificant, even contemptible. But the movement was of God ; the men to lead in it were of His choosing, and He made them successful.'"

The Rev. Dr. MacLeod says that the returns made in October, 1901, showed that there were in the Province 156 Free Baptist Churches, with a membership of 12,428. There were forty-nine ordained ministers and nine licentiates. He-considers that the census figures which give the Free Baptists of New Brunswick only 12,352, were absurdly wrong, and that a moderate estimate would place the number of Free Baptists in the Province-at 36,000. As the Free Baptists are now united with the Calvinistic Baptists, such a mistake as this will not be likely to occur again in any future census.

The great success of the Baptists in the early history of the Province, must, in part, be attributed to the extreme zeal and the fact that many of their ministers and evangelists did not depend on their congregation for support, but lived on their farms and obtained their living from other employments.

About the year 1820, Mr. Edward Manning wrote as follows about the material support received by the Baptist ministers in the Maritime-Provinces :

"Thomas Handly Chipman, of Wihnot, has a farmr labors hard to support his family, and receives from the people about $ 150.00 a year.

"Thomas Ansley, of Granville, left a valuable property in Sussex, N. B. He receives about $300.00 a year from his Church.

"Peter Crandall, of Digby Neck, receives $200.00 a year from his people.

"Enoch Towner, of Sissiboo, is in low circumstances. He has a small family which is supported mostly by his people.

"Harris Harding of Yarmouth, is in low circumstances.

"John Craig, of Ragged Islands, receives a little from his church, but very little. His people are poor.

"James Manning, of Lower Granville, has a small farm and receives but a small salary.

"Joseph Crandall, of Sussex, N. B., receives but a small support from his people.

"Elijah Estabrook, of Waterborough, N. B., has a good farm, a large family, labors hard, and gets but very little from his people.

"Lathrop Hammond, of Kingsclear, N. B., has a good landed property. He receives but little from his church towards his support.

"Abadiah Newcomb, of Hopewell, N. B., has a handsome property, and receives $160.00 a year from his people.

"T. S. Harding, is in easy circumstances, having received property by his wife. He also has a moderate support from his church."