USA > Maine > History of the Baptists in Maine > Part 16
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In accordance with a custom of the times with clergy- men, Mr. Chaplin received each year into his family at Danvers promising young men preparing for the Chris- tian ministry. He gave them instruction, and they in turn aided him in his pastoral work. Two of Mr. Chap- lin's students at Danvers, James Colman and Edward W. Wheelock, whose names have long been familiar in Baptist missionary annals, were among the first to respond to Jud- son's appeal for helpers in the great task on which he had entered. During his Danvers pastorate Mr. Chaplin was
1 The south line of this lot was not far from the present site of Memorial Hall. After- wards the college purchased of Prof. Chapin, for $2,500, the Professor Briggs estate, lying immediately south of the original purchase.
2 He was of Puritan stock. His emigrant ancestor, Hugh Chaplin, came with his wife to New England in 1638, with sixty families led thither by Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, who settled about thirty-five miles from Boston at a place to which they gave the name Rowley, after the town in England from which they came. In their church relations Hugh Chaplin and his descendants were of the "Standing Order," until Asa Chaplin, father of Jeremiah, united with the Baptist church established in Rowley, now George- town, in 1781, as a branch of the church in Haverhill.
1
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engaged in the study of the Hebrew language, a task of no little difficulty without an instructor. He purchased the best helps that then could be obtained. This he did also in his study of the New Testament. Indeed, his was about the first serious attempt at biblical exegesis among the Baptists of this country. Butler's Analogy and Edwards on The Will were favorite books with him. He was also a diligent student of the works of Hopkins and other New England divines.
Very naturally, therefore, the trustees of the Maine Lit- erary and Theological Institution at Waterville turned to Mr. Chaplin as the one pre-eminently qualified to take charge of its important interests. Yet at first he was quite decided in his purpose not to accept the appoint- ment. His health, he thought, would not warrant his acceptance of such a task. But those who had selected him for it were unwilling to accept his refusal. A further representation of the importance of the undertaking was made to him, and not long after he yielded to the wishes of the trustees, and entreated the Lord to grant him as a privilege what he had shortly before regarded as a most painful trial.
In the latter part of June, 1818, Mr. Chaplin removed his family to Waterville. Several of his theological stu- dents accompanied him. The party sailed from Salem, Mass., on Saturday, June 20th, and reached Waterville on the following Wednesday.1 Waterville, then, had only a few hundred inhabitants, but situated at the head of navi- gation it already had considerable trade. No church had as yet been organized in the place, and there was no meeting-house in the village except a shabby, unfinished building which was used for town meetings.
1 In her journal, Mrs. Chaplin has left an interesting account of this journey. They entered the Kennebec river Sunday forenoon at ten o'clock. At twelve they were at Bath. "After we left Bath, we set sail for Gardiner, but the wind losing its breath, the anchor was cast and we stopped seven miles this side. The heat was so oppressive, the vessel so small, and the children so uneasy, it was not thought expedient to have public worship until the cool of the day. We drank tea early, then took the boat and went on shore. The right hand side was in the town of Dresden, and the left in Bowdoinham.
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The work of instruction was soon commenced in the Wood house, Mr. Chaplin's temporary home, at the junc- tion of College and Main streets, where now is the Elmwood Hotel. Here the institution remained until the completion, at the close of 1819, or early in 1820, of Mr. Chaplin's residence on the present site of Memorial Hall.
In 1820, the District of Maine became an independent State, and June 19th of that year, at the first meeting of the Legislature, an act was passed enlarging the powers of the new institution at Waterville, authorizing the presi- dent and trustees "to confer such degrees as are usually conferred by universities established for the education of youth," provided that "no degrees other than those of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts should be conferred until after Jan. 1, 1830, and provided also that the corpo- ration should make no rule or by-law requiring that any member of the trustees shall be of any particular religious denomination. June 28, 1820, it was also enacted "That the sum of one thousand dollars annually be, and hereby is granted to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution from and after the fourteenth day of February, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- dred and twenty-one, for the term of seven years, to be paid out of the treasury of this State." It was also pro- vided that this appropriation should be paid "from mon- eys arising from the tax on certain banks not otherwise appropriated." 1
It was on the latter that we landed. The scene was calculated to excite devotional feel- ings, and reminded me of those interesting lines of a celebrated poet,
'The calm retreat, the silent shade, With prayer and praise agree, And seem by thy sweet bounty made For those who follow thee.'
The meeting was opened and closed with prayer. Mr. Chaplin and Mr. Dillaway spoke from Psalms 10 : 7. Our congregation was small. It only consisted of Mr. Chaplin, with those who accompanied us, and the mate of the vessel."
1 This grant was continued seven years. The college had received a township of land from Massachusetts, and many years subsequently it received from Maine two half townships of land. These, with some other annuities, amounted in value to $14,000. Bowdoin College received eight townships of land and $18,000 in money from Massachu- setts, in all about $54,000, besides considerable land from Maine. The trustees in 1818
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Efforts were also made to enlist the aid of the churches in promoting the welfare of the institution. At a meeting of the Bowdoinham Association held in Bowdoin, Sept. 23 and 24, 1818, the association recommended to the churches "the propriety of forming societies for the purpose of aiding the theological school lately established in Water- ville; and our messengers to corresponding associations are instructed to use their influence to engage those asso- ciations to adopt similar measures." A committee also was appointed to assist the churches in forming these societies. Cumberland Association, at its meeting in Paris Sept. 30, 1819, added its endorsement to the proposal for the formation of societies to promote the interest of the institution.1
Feb. 5, 1821, an act was passed by the Legislature of Maine changing the name of the Maine Literary and Theo- logical Institution to that of Waterville College. The rea- sons for thus giving to the institution a broader character than was at first contemplated were not recorded, and can now only be conjectured. In all probability the change was effected by Dr. Chaplin. A college graduate, he knew the value of a collegiate course as a preparation for theo- logical study, and he could not have been long in coming to the conclusion that the work he had been called to do at Waterville could best be performed by giving to the institution a collegiate character. There were those among the trustees who deprecated the change, and in
sought from the Legislature of Massachusetts additional aid, and Hon. William King, one of the trustees, having brought the matter before that body, procured a bill from a com- mittee, providing a very handsome endowment for the institution, and there was a good prospect of its passage. But he was met by the statement of Gen. Alford Richardson, another of the trustees and a member of the First Baptist church in Portland, that cer- tain petitions presented were without the authority and consent of the trustees. The bill was defeated by this statement. Probably, as Dr. Champlin suggests, political rivalry was the occasion of Mr. Richardson's action. See Dr. Champlin's Semi-Centen- nial Discourse, pp. 17-19.
1 The interest taken by the churches in the work at Waterville is indicated by the fol- lowing vote passed at the meeting of the Bowdoinham Association at its meeting in Bloomfield, Sept. 23, 1819: "Understanding that the trustees of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution are about to erect a large building for the use of that seminary, Resolved, That we recommend to the churches composing this association to use their best endeavors to assist the said trustees in this arduous undertaking."
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many parts of the State, among the churches and min- isters, there was not a little disappointment. The late President Champlin regarded the change so early in the history of the institution as a great mistake. "Had the institution," he said, "retained its original and more pop- ular form till the affections of the denomination had crystallized around it, and the denomination itself had withal grown up so as to demand a college, I cannot but think that its history would have been different. In that case the numerous churches which had been established throughout the State would have been strengthened by the supply of pastors adapted to their wants, and would have been ready, when at length it became a college, to rally around it with their affections and aid."1
But the change, wisely or unwisely at the time, had been made, and the Baptists of Maine had a chartered collegiate institution as the result of years of earnest prayer and toil. As yet it possessed only the promise of future good, but with its limited facilities it served to awaken an interest in the higher education and to con- centrate the efforts of Baptists in the various sections of the State in promoting general as well as ministerial education.
1 Dr. Champlin's Semi-Centennial Discourse, r. 17.
CHAPTER XII.
BEGINNINGS OF FOREIGN MISSIONARY WORK.
As stated in its constitution, the object of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society, organized in 1804, was "to furnish occasional preaching, gather churches and to pro- mote the knowledge of evangelical truth in new settle- ments within the limits of the United States, or further if circumstances may render it proper." It is possible, as has already been intimated, that in these last words there may be a reference to a work similar to that upon which Carey, Marshman and Ward had entered in India. Copies of The Baptist Annual Register, edited by John Rippon, D. D., and published in London, covering the years 1790-1802, reached this country and were in the hands of some of our Baptist ministers. The four volumes of the Register in the possession of the writer became the property of Rev. Benjamin Titcomb1 of Brunswick, two of them as early as 1807. On the title page of each of the four volumes are the lines,
"From East to West, from North to South, Now be his name ador'd ! Europe, with all thy millions, shout Hosannahs to thy Lord !
"Asia and Africa, resound From shore to shore his fame ; And thou, America, in songs Redeeming Love proclaim !"
In the spirit of these lines The Baptist Annual Register was conducted. The first volume contains an account of the ordination of William Carey, a notice of his work, "An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means
1 In 1853, Deacon Titcomb of Brunswick gave these four volumes to Rev. Thomas B. Ripley, and after Mr. Ripley's death they were purchased by the writer.
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for the Conversion of the Heathens,"1 and the action of The Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gos- pel among the Heathen in announcing in 1793 "an open door for preaching the gospel to the Hindoos," and the appointment of Mr. Carey as a missionary. In the suc- ceeding volumes are letters from Carey and his associates, and other missionary intelligence. Like intelligence was to be found in the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Mag- azine and the Maine Baptist Missionary Register. That the foreign missionary spirit at that time was abroad is also indicated by the appearance in a hymn book pub- lished in Portland in 1805,2 of B. H. Draper's fine hymn,8 occasioned by the departure of missionaries from Bristol, England, in 1803, commencing
"Ruler of worlds ! display thy pow'r."
This hymn, the source of two4 of the most inspiring of the missionary hymns of the Christian church, thus early made accessible to the lovers of sacred song in Maine, could have had no other effect than to awaken the same enthusiasm for missionary work in the foreign field which had been awakened by Case, Potter, Tripp and others in the home field.
On Thursday, Feb. 6, 1812, at the Tabernacle in Salem, Mass., Adoniram Judson, Samuel Newell, Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall and Luther Rice were ordained to the gos- pel ministry as missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to the heathen in
1 This pamphlet was written by Carey when he was living in poverty and sickness at Moulton, where he preached for a time as a probationer. In 1788, when he moved to Leicester, he read it to the friends assembled on occasion of recognition services. When he told his brethren concerning the statistics he had collected as to the state of the heathen world, they said, "Be not in a hurry to print them ; let us look over them, and see if anything can be omitted, altered, or added." Dr. Ryland says, "We found it needed very little correction." Carey printed his pamphlet in 1792. A facsimile edition was published in 1891, with an introduction entitled, "How William Carey was led to Write his Pamphlet."
2 Hymns Original and Selected for the Use of Christians, compiled by Elias Smith and Abner Jones.
3 Baptist Hymn Writers and their Hymns, pp. 138, 139.
4 The other hymn commences, "Ye Christian heroes, go proclaim." 13
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Asia. Messrs. Nott, Hall and Rice sailed from Philadel- phia for Calcutta, February 18th, and Messrs. Judson and Newell, with their wives, sailed from Salem, February 19th, "amidst the prayers and benedictions of multitudes, whose hearts go with them, and who will not cease to remember them at the throne of grace." These words are from the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine for March, 1812. The Baptists in this country had become deeply interested in the work of the English Baptists among the heathen in India. Here, however, were breth- ren, not of their own denomination, but fellow country- men, who had been set apart for missionary service, and they could not but be deeply interested in the movement. Indeed, so deep was this interest in Salem that a society was organized by Baptists that same year for the purpose of aiding the English Baptist missionaries in Serampore. It was called the Salem Bible Translation and Foreign Mis- sion Society, and its object was "to raise money to aid the translation of the Scriptures into the eastern languages, at present going on at Serampore under the superintendence of Dr. William Carey ; or, if deemed advisable at any time, to assist in sending a missionary or missionaries from this* country to India." Rev. Lucius Bolles, pastor of the Bap- tist church in Salem, was elected president of this society.
But the interest of American Baptists in foreign mis- sion work was greatly stimulated by the tidings which at length were received from India that Adoniram Judson and his wife, who had gone to India as Congregational- ists, had by their study of the Scriptures, both on the voy- age and after their arrival at Calcutta, been led to adopt Baptist views.
August 31, 1812, Mr. Judson announced this denomina- tional change in a letter to Rev. Thomas Baldwin of Bos- ton, and on the following day he wrote to Rev. Lucius Bolles of Salem. It appears from the letter to Mr. Bolles that it was Mr. Judson who suggested the formation of The Salem Bible Translation and Foreign Mission Soci- ety. Mr. Judson writes : "I recollect that, during a short
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interview I had with you in Salem, I suggested the for- mation of a society among the Baptists of America for the support of foreign missions, in imitation of the exer- tions of your English brethren. Little did I then expect to be personally concerned in such an attempt. Within a few months, I have experienced an entire change of senti- ments on the subject of baptism. My doubts concern- ing the correctness of my former system of belief com- menced during my passage from America to this country ; and after many painful trials, which none can know but those who are taught to relinquish a system in which they had been educated, I settled down in the full persuasion that the immersion of a professing believer in Christ is the only Christian baptism. Mrs. Judson is united with me in this persuasion. We have signified our views and wishes to the Baptist missionaries at Serampore, and expect to be baptized in this city next Lord's Day. A sep- aration from my missionary brethren and a dissolution of my connection with the Board of Commissioners seem to be necessary consequences. The missionaries at Serampore are exerted to the utmost of their ability, in managing and supporting their extensive and complicated mission. Under these circumstances, I look to you. Alone, in this foreign, heathen land, I make my appeal to those whom, with their permission, I will call my Baptist brethren in the United States."
The appeal met with a ready response, and in the house of Mr. Baldwin, in Boston, The Baptist Society for Pro- pagating the Gospel in India and other Foreign Parts was organized in the spring of 1813. Of this society Rev. Thomas Baldwin was made president, and Rev. Daniel Sharp, secretary.
The first offering in the District of Maine for foreign mission work, it has been said, was in 1813, when Dea. Aaron Hayden of Eastport gave ten dollars. The first offering from a Baptist church in the district came from the Baptist church in Cornish-twenty-three dollars.
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Another of the early contributions came from the Female Mite Society in Sedgwick in 1816.1
Mr. Judson soon announced that Rev. Luther Rice had also adopted Baptist sentiments on the subject of baptism. Mr. Rice at once returned to this country for the purpose of interesting the Baptists of the United States in foreign mission work, and on his arrival was everywhere received with the utmost cordiality. The Philadelphia Association entered heartily into the plan for Baptist foreign mission work. "This association," says the record, "has heard with pleasure of the change of sentiment in Brother Rice and Brother Judson and wife, relative to the ordinance of Christian baptism, and of their union with this denomina- tion. As these worthy persons are still desirous of pursu- ing their missionary career, this association, feeling the obligations of the American Baptists to give them support, recommend the formation of a society of a similar kind with those already formed in New England, to be denomi- nated The Philadelphia Baptist Society for Foreign Mis- sions." A similar society was organized in New York, Feb. 21, 1814. May 18th, delegates from the different States met in Philadelphia and organized the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America, for Foreign Missions, generally known as the Triennial Convention.
Mr. Rice was not able to visit Maine, but he sent a letter to the associations in the State. The Cumberland Association met in Brunswick Oct. 5 and 6, 1814, and in the Minutes we find the following record: "Received a communication from the Rev. Luther Rice, requesting this association to take into consideration the propriety and expediency of aiding the recently established foreign mission by taking up public contributions in the churches, and by recommending the formation of societies for the above named purpose, and that an answer, together with a copy of our Minutes, be forwarded to the corresponding secretary of that board." Brethren Tripp, Boardman and
1 Rev. W. H. Spencer, D. D., in Zion's Advocate.
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Haynes were appointed a committee in accordance with this request.
The action of the Bowdoinham Association was similar. "It was voted that Elders Low, Francis and Daggett be a committee to make arrangements to promote the laudable designs of the Baptist Board for Foreign Missions." It was also voted "to recommend to the churches of this association that there be a contribution every three months for the purpose of establishing a fund to promote the designs of the Baptist Board for Foreign Missions."
In the Minutes of the Cumberland Association for 1815 occurs the following record : "The trustees of the Maine Baptist Missionary Society feel deeply impressed with the importance of the foreign mission, and earnestly recom- mend to the churches that compose this association to take the matter under serious and prayerful considera- tion; and they most devoutly hope that they will enter into the spirit of the subject, and that they will 'of their abundance lay by in store (against another year) their liberality,' with their brethren who are before them in the work, that the object be not hindered for the lack of pecu- niary aid."
In the Minutes of the Lincoln Association for 1814, there is no reference to the foreign mission work, but in the Minutes for 1816 there is this record : "Voted that thirty dollars of the contribution be appropriated for the foreign mission," and in the Circular Letter there is this allusion to the new movement : "Great exertions are made for a still more extensive spread of the gospel: for this pur- pose numerous Bible and missionary societies are already formed, which seem to promise much assistance in this good work. An extensive Baptist missionary society has been formed in America the last year for the purpose of aiding foreign missions, and a considerable sum has already been raised for that purpose."
Already a Maine Foreign Missionary Society had been organized. In the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Mag-
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azine for March, 1816, there is a letter addressed by Rev. Samuel Baker of Thomaston to Rev. Daniel Sharp of Bos- ton, in which Mr. Baker, as corresponding secretary of the Maine Baptist Auxiliary Society to aid Foreign Mis- sions, says : "In September last some brethren in this town manifested a desire to do something for the mission- ary cause ; but the magnitude of the object, the scantiness of our means, and the strong propensity of men to do nothing but what is for self interest, together with the extreme danger we are all in of corrupt motives, were strong objections to an attempt of the kind. However, the desire of promoting the cause at length prevailed ; and when the matter was made known to the brethren in the vicinity, we were happy to find their minds had been pre- viously occupied on the same subject. An introductory meeting was agreed upon and holden, and the fourth of October following appointed for the organization of the society, when a sermon was to be preached on the occa- sion. On the day appointed the members met, some of whom manifested uncommon liberality. One of the mem- bers of the society declared that five years before he had conceived a design of giving ten dollars a year to the mis- sionary cause, and therefore embraced this first oppor- tunity of subscribing the whole fifty. An hundred and fifteen dollars were immediately subscribed. We hope, by the opening of the spring, to be able to forward an hundred dollars to the treasurer of your society, and to furnish nearly the same sum annually." In a postscript Mr. Baker adds : "The sisters and other females in this town and vicinity, to the number of nearly two hundred, have also agreed to give a cent per week for the mis- sionary cause." In the Minutes for 1818, it was stated that the Foreign Mission Society, to which reference is made above, had in the three years of its existence col- lected and paid into the missionary treasury $523.00.
The Circular Letter of the Bowdoinham Association, in 1816, was by licentiate Otis Briggs of Farmington, and its
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theme was "The Importance of Communicating the Light of the Gospel to the Heathen in the East."
Reports that came from Burma at this time concerning the work of Dr. Judson were exceedingly encouraging. He had written at Rangoon Aug. 26, 1817, to Dr. Baldwin in Boston, "I know not that I shall live to see a single convert, but notwithstanding, I feel that I would not leave my present situation to be made a king." It was not until June 27, 1819, that Dr. Judson baptized his first con- vert, Moung Nau. The tidings awakened deep interest in the churches at home. The Cumberland Association met at Livermore Oct. 4 and 5, 1820, and the Circular Letter referred to the glorious prospect which the foreign mis- sionary enterprise had opened. "The work and knowl- edge of God is spreading in India and Burma, in Africa, among the islands of the sea, and in the cold dreary regions of Siberia."
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