USA > Maine > History of the Baptists in Maine > Part 23
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SEC. 2. The said Society may have a common seal by the name aforesaid; may sue and be sued, and may choose such officers and make such by-laws, not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this State, as may be necessary for the promotion of the objects of the Society.
SEC. 3. The said Society are hereby made capable in law of receiving any grants, or devises of lands, or tenements in fee simple, or for a less estate, and also any donations or bequests of money, or other personal estate, which may have been made, or which may hereafter be made by any person or persons whatever, and to use and improve the same for the purposes and according to the directions herein mentioned ; provided, that the said Society shall at no time take, hold or possess, in real or personal estate, a greater amount than twenty thousand dollars upon a first valuation.
SEC. 4. All grants, donations, devises and bequests, of any real or personal estate, to the said Society, not exceeding in amount the sum of twenty thousand dollars, shall be used and improved to the best advantage, and the annual income thereof, together with the amount and contributions which shall be made to the said Society, shall be applied annually to the assistance of such young men in their education for the ministry as the Society shall determine to be fit subjects therefor.
SEC. 5. The said Society, when they shall deem it most for their advantage, may sell and dispose of, in fee simple or otherwise, all or any of the real estate belonging to them, and invest the same in funds, or may apply their personal estate to the purchase of real estate, and the income of said real or personal estate shall be applied to the objects for which said estate was given.
SEC. 6. All deeds, grants, covenants and agreements, to be made for and in behalf of said Society, shall be executed under the common seal of the same, and signed by the President and Secretary.
[Approved, July 20, 1846.]
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tributions for ministerial education, subject, however, to the direction of the Maine Baptist Education Society, and as long as the members of the latter Society were satisfied with this plan they agreed to vote their surplus funds, "if we have any," to the Northern Baptist Education Society on the condition that if they should be in need of funds they should be allowed to draw on such surplus funds in the hands of the Northern Baptist Education Society.
This arrangement was regarded at the next annual meeting as so satisfactory that the Society voted "That the funds in the treasury be paid to Rev. T. F. Caldicott, secretary of the Northern Baptist Education Society." The report showed that sixteen young men belonging to the State of Maine were receiving aid in the prosecution of their studies, thirteen connected with the Northern Baptist Education Society and three with the Maine Bap- tist Education Society.
The Maine Baptist Education Society continued this auxiliary relation to the Northern Baptist Education Soci- ety several years. At the annual meeting of the Society, June 16, 1857, Rev. S. L. Caldwell and Rev. C. G. Porter were appointed a committee to submit some plan for the future operations of the Society. Certain recommenda- tions were made by this committee, and at the next annual meeting, held at Waterville June 15, 1858, the auxiliary relationship to the Northern Baptist Education Society was discontinued. The report said: "It seems to your board desirable that the Society undertake, at once, the supply of the necessities of students for the ministry within our State. This has been done for years by the Northern Baptist Education Society and our funds have been passed over to them. This removes the pressure of immediate responsibility, changes the form and diminishes the force of the pleas for aid, separates the recipients of the bounty too far from those who bestow it, and, in all respects, seems to work unfavorably. We see no reason why the Baptists of Massachusetts should send funds to the members of our churches while studying at our acad-
REV. C. G. PORTER.
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emies and at our college. If necessity compel and their charity permit, we may allow such of our students as pursue theological study at Newton to receive their aid. But the whole tendency of the present arrangement is, evidently, to debilitate our Society, to foster the spirit of indifference and irresponsibility on the part of our churches, and to loosen the bonds that unite our young men to their homes."
The report closed with the recommendation that the existing relation between the Maine Baptist Education Society and the Northern Baptist Education Society should be terminated, and this recommendation was unanimously adopted.
CHAPTER XVII.
ZION'S ADVOCATE.
The Convention Minutes for 1828 give the number of Baptists in Maine as 13,037. For a number of years a weekly religious paper, The Christian Mirror, had been published in Portland in the interest of the Congregation- alists of Maine. On the part of the Baptists, also, there had been for some time a conviction with reference to the desirability of having such an organ of communication between the members of the churches in different parts of the State. May 23, 1823, the first number of the Water- ville Intelligencer was published at Waterville. Warren Hastings, a bookseller and printer, was its editor and proprietor, and as he was a Baptist, and proposed to devote the columns of his paper in part to religious affairs, it was thought that the Baptists of Maine might find in the Intelligencer such a helper as they needed in their denominational work. In fact the college at Waterville was interested in the enterprise. President Chaplin and his associates had been instrumental in the establishment of Mr. Hastings' Waterville printing office and bookstore, and it was at their suggestion, and with their assistance, that Mr. Hastings engaged in the publication of the Intel- ligencer. The first sheet was struck off by John Burleigh (a trader in the village, who had learned the printer's trade in New Hampshire) and Asa Dalton, who acted as his assistant. In this first issue the proprietor informed his readers that he had obtained more than one thousand subscribers, and had engaged a printer "who, to correct morals and the requisite skill in typography, adds a capital sufficient for all the exigencies of his employment." The relation of the paper to the denomination is indicated in
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the following record in the Minutes of the Bowdoinham Association for 1823 : "The Circular Letter prepared by Brother George D. Boardman was received and read; but it being considered too long for publication in the Minutes, it was voted that Brethren Briggs, Chessman and Francis be a committee to prepare a Circular Letter, and that Brother Briggs take measures to have Brother Board- man's letter printed entire in the Waterville Intelligencer and in the Christian Watchman."1 But there were diffi- culties in connection with the publication of a weekly religious paper then as there are now. Subscribers were not always prompt in the payment of their subscription. Mr. Hastings at one time found it necessary to make an earnest appeal to those in arrears, closing the appeal with these pathetic words : "I am persuaded that all who have any bowels of compassion will attend to the above reason- able request." But the Baptists in Maine were not alto- gether satisfied with the Intelligencer. Millet says that "through this medium they did not always speak what they wished." 2
Another Baptist weekly religious paper soon claimed denominational patronage. This was the Maine Baptist Herald, the first number of which was published at Bruns- wick, July 17, 1824. Its first editor was Benjamin Tit- comb, Jr., a graduate of Bowdoin College, class of 1806, and a son of Rev. Benjamin Titcomb, pastor of the Baptist church in Brunswick. But prosperity did not attend this enterprise. Like the Waterville Intelligencer, the Maine Baptist Herald did not always speak what the Baptists of Maine would have it speak. In the Corresponding Letter of the Bowdoinham Association for 1827, there is a refer- ence to a recent attack upon the missionary enterprise made by a correspondent in the Maine Baptist Herald. Says this Corresponding Letter : "That such mighty move- ments should excite the enmity, and stir up the opposi- tion of the prince of darkness and his subjects, we were
1 The Christian Watchman, published in Boston, was established in 1819.
2 History of the Baptists in Maine, p. 432.
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prepared to expect; but that whole companies of the professed soldiers of the cross should make a retrograde movement-occupy the ground, and make use of the weap- ons of the enemy-and that there should be found within our own missionary district a 'Mephibosheth' who would undertake publicly to apologize their conduct in such a manner as goes to reprobate indiscriminately the mission- ary efforts of the day-to impeach the characters and con- duct of some of the most active, valiant and persevering in our ranks-and by his queries and suspicions encour- age infidels and skeptics to reproach his brethren and the cause of God-these things are to us matters of great sur- prise and deep regret." Evidently there were others who wanted a different Baptist herald.
When the Bowdoinham Association met at Bloomfield, Sept. 24 and 25, 1828, the following resolution was pre- sented and adopted : "Resolved, That it be recommended to the churches to patronize a religious newspaper, which it is expected will be printed in Portland, called Zion's Advocate, the profits of which will be devoted to the cause of domestic missions." The Maine Baptist Convention met at Readfield Oct. 8 and 9, 1828. The following res- olution was printed and adopted October 9th : "Resolved, That Zion's Advocate, a religious newspaper to be printed in Portland, be recommended to the patronage of the churches."
Prominent in this new movement was Rev. Adam Wil- son, a graduate of Bowdoin College, class of 1819, one year before the college at Waterville received its charter. He studied theology with Dr. Staughton of Philadelphia, and was ordained Dec. 13, 1830, at Wiscasset, where he had gathered a church, and where he remained as pastor until 1824. He then spent a few months in the service of the Maine Baptist Convention, after which he accepted the pastorate of the Baptist churches in New Gloucester and Turner, serving these churches jointly as pastor nearly four years. Meanwhile the importance of establishing a weekly religious paper in the interests of the Baptists of
ADAM WILSON, D. D.
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Maine was frequently urged by brethren who were influ- ential in denominational circles. But to whom should an interest so vital to the prosperity of the denomination in Maine be entrusted? They accordingly cast about for the man who, in their judgment, was the best qualified to take the lead in so important an enterprise. As the result of these inquiries and councils Mr. Wilson was asked to undertake this service. The choice could not have been more wisely made. Mr. Wilson possessed not only a well- disciplined mind, but industry, energy, economy, all indis- pensable requisites in bringing things to pass. Having put his hand to the plow, he was not one who could easily be persuaded to turn back. Sacrifices he knew would be demanded, and he was ready to make them.
Mr. Wilson purchased the subscription list of the Water- ville Intelligencer, the last number of which appeared Nov. 6, 1828. The first number of Zion's Advocate appeared November 11th. In it was this announcement : "Subscrib- ers to the Waterville Intelligencer, to whom this paper will be sent, if they do not wish to become our subscrib- ers will be good enough to send it back immediately by mail. To all of them who do not send back the first num- ber we shall continue to send our paper."
The Advocate was a small sheet of four pages, with five columns on a page. It was printed by John F. Fraser, Exchange Street, Portland, who not long after became associated in business with Charles Day, under the firm name of Day & Fraser. The price of the paper was $2.00 a year, payable in six months, or $1.50 if paid within six weeks. In his first editorial Mr. Wilson said: "We hope it is in our heart to benefit our brethren ; and if we fail of accomplishing much in this way, we hope that we may be counted worthy to receive the commendation, which our Lord bestowed upon the woman who poured ointment upon his head- 'She hath done what she could.'"'
Mr. Wilson entered upon his work as editor and pub- lisher with a clear understanding of the difficulties to be met. "The successful publication of a newspaper sixty
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years ago was a very different thing from what it is now. Indeed, the newspaper era had then but lately dawned. The public taste at that date had not been educated up to its present eager demand for such reading. The patrons of weekly papers were comparatively few. Hence the difficulty then experienced in originating and sustaining such an enterprise. The reader who happens to have per- sonal knowledge of Mr. Wilson's struggles to keep the Advocate afloat and under decent headway, in the early years of its history, will bear ready testimony to the severity of those struggles, as well as to the success that crowned them." 1
The late Hon. William Goold, in some reminiscences con- nected with the beginning of the publication of Zion's Advocate, said : "The office of the printers of the paper, Messrs. Day & Fraser, was in the second story of a build- ing that stood next below the Cumberland National Bank, on the south side of Exchange Street. 'Zion's Advocate,' in large letters, was over the upstairs entrance. I was then a boy and employed in a store in the lower story of the same building. I often saw Rev. Adam Wilson, the editor, in his daily visits to the printing office, and have distinct recollection of his appearance. He came down street with a hurried, stooping gait, having his exchanges from the post office under one arm, and his letters and manuscripts in the other hand. He seemed always intent upon his business, and noticed no one unless he was spoken to. His manner indicated a thought that the day was too short to accomplish his work. With Messrs. Day & Fraser I was well acquainted. They, I think, kept the books and attended to the business of the paper. At that time Erastus Brooks, now the veteran editor and proprietor of the New York Express, was an apprentice to Day & Fraser, and boarded with Mr. Day."
The beginnings of the paper were of the humblest kind. Much of the work was performed by Mr. Wilson himself. But his labors were not confined to the office alone. Each
1 Personal Recollections by Joseph Ricker, D. D., p. 150.
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week he was out among the churches soliciting subscrib- ers, and impressing upon the brethren in the churches that their help was needed. At the close of his long con- nection with the paper, Dr. Wilson made the following statement concerning the early struggles through which he passed in the establishment of the paper. "Within a few months after the first number was printed, it was found impossible to collect enough to meet expenses. A contract was made with the printers by which it was agreed that the bills of the paper maker and other similar bills should be first paid, and then the collections should be divided in three equal shares, one to the editor and one to each printer. During the first four years the share to each party was less than $300. From Nov. 11, 1832, to Dec. 31, 1833, the dividend was $500."
As time went on there were many in the Baptist churches in Maine who were not in sympathy with the Advocate and with those who were most active and ear- nest in their support of the paper. There was a feeling on the part of some of the older ministers and laymen that Arminianism was making its way into Baptist churches as it had into the churches of the Standing Order. The reading of sermons, or note preaching, as it was called, was taking the place of extempore preaching or preach- ing without notes. Elder Joseph Bailey of Whitefield1 and his church were so alarmed at these tendencies that in 1830 they went over to the old school Baptists. In 1834-5 a series of articles, published in the Advocate, signed T. B. R., brought on a crisis the results of which no human eye could foresee. In June, 1835, a conference of the disaffected was held in Litchfield. Among those present were such well-known ministers as Rev. David Nutter, Rev. Henry Kendall, Rev. Manasseh Lawrence, Rev. Reu- ben Milner, Rev. Wm. D. Grant, Rev. Wm. Wyman and Rev. Wm. Bowler, all men of advanced years. In their view the Advocate had not given satisfaction to quite a large number of its readers. It was said to be defi-
1 Rev. L. C. Stevens in Zion's Advocate.
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cient in doctrinal teaching, not sufficiently Calvinistic, and excessive in its demands for an educated ministry. It was accordingly decided to establish another paper. A pub- lishing company was organized, with Rev. David Nutter as general agent and acting editor. The first number of this paper, known as the Eastern Baptist, appeared at Brunswick Nov. 15, 1835. In a short time Mr. Nutter was succeeded by Rev. L. C. Stevens, with whom was associated Rev. E. R. Warren.
Mr. Stevens had no sympathy with the objects of the new paper, but Mr. Nutter asked him to take charge of it in his absence for a few weeks. He was a young man, only twenty-four years of age, and when, after Mr. Nutter's return, he was asked to continue his service in connection with the paper, he consented, seizing what he regarded as a good opportunity for making himself useful by so conducting the paper as to restore unity among the Baptists of Maine. Concerning the result of his efforts, Mr. Stevens has left this record : "It was remarkable that the paper was no sooner under way than its projectors and friends all seemed assured that victory in their behalf and in behalf of their ideas was certain. Their very preju- dices at once perceptibly abated, and they now mingled with their brethren of a so-called weak theology and edu- cational biases with calmness and pleasure. While the Baptist was conducted with an earnest purpose for peace, the Advocate was not less anxious to reach the same result. Neither paper said a word about disaffections. Neither published an article which the other would not have published if desired. In less than two years the causes that produced the Baptist existed only in memory or in name."
But the publication of the Eastern Baptist was con- tinued. It went into every city and most of the towns in the States. More than three-fourths of the pastors received its weekly visits. When in 1837, at Alton, Ill., Elijah P. Lovejoy, a son of Maine, was killed by an anti- slavery mob, the Eastern Baptist was more emphatic in
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its opposition to slavery then was the Advocate, which held to its more conservative course. But it was at length seen that the field was not large enough for two papers, and before long financial reasons were forceful in bringing about the union of the two papers. Says Mr. Stevens : "It was plain that two Baptist papers could not be sup- ported, that if the Baptist pushed forward, it must be at a large expense, that the Advocate was entitled by priority of existence and the large sacrifice of its publisher to be, in perpetuum, the Baptist paper of Maine, and that I could not give up the work of a Christian pastor for that of an editor. All was now peace in the denomination in the State. No one connected with the Baptist had any wish that the Advocate should retire, whilst it was believed that the Advocate would henceforward take the high- est ground upon slavery that the good of the oppressed required."
The union of the two papers was effected in May, 1839. The united paper took the name of both papers, and the editorial staff, under the new arrangement, was made up of the editor of the Advocate and two of the editors of the Eastern Baptist. In the first issue of the paper as thus published, Mr. Wilson said : "The two papers do not come together on a compromise principle. Neither could yield or would ask that."
Mr. Wilson, in the previous year had accepted a call to the pastorate of the Baptist church in Bangor. In his announcement now of his retirement from the editorial control of the Advocate, he said : "Mr. Joseph Ricker is to take the principal charge from this time. The former editor will discontinue his relation to the paper for the present. He expects also the aid of two assistant editors. It is proper that we should say Mr. Ricker is a young man, and has yet to learn from experience the toilsome and per- plexing duties of an editor. Our patrons will, as in other cases, judge of his qualifications by the results of his efforts." Mr. Ricker at that time was closing his sen- ior year at Waterville College. His connection with the
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Advocate commenced May 8, 1839, shortly before his grad- uation.
Mr. Ricker retained his connection with the paper until Jan. 1, 1843. It was a period of great unrest and agi- tation. The anti-slavery movement was occupying the serious attention of thoughtful minds. Millerism was developing into excesses common to religious fanati- cism when at a white heat. An educated ministry was regarded by many with a distrust that engendered much discussion and sometimes bitter controversy. So also anti- nomianism was still active enough in some of the churches to occasion unspeakable harm. But Mr. Ricker performed his duties wisely. He was a safe leader for such a troub- lous time, and the paper increased its influence and effi- ciency under his direction. He desired, however, to be engaged in the work of the pastorate, and he withdrew from the editorship at the close of 1842.
Mr. Wilson again took up the burden. The first num- ber for 1843 was issued with Adam Wilson as editor, and Rev. Lewis Colby, pastor of the Free St. Baptist church, Portland, as assistant editor. Mr. Colby retired Aug. 8, 1843. With the first number for 1844, the paper was slightly enlarged. It was again enlarged Jan. 7, 1848. The paper was still gaining in influence and power. But Mr. Wilson deemed it best that it should pass into younger hands and leave him free again to enter upon pastoral ser- vice, which he loved. July 19, 1848, accordingly he sold the paper to Mr. S. K. Smith, a graduate of Waterville College in 1845, and of Newton Theological Institution in 1848. The first number of the paper issued under Mr. Smith's management appeared Sept. 1, 1848. The paper was still further enlarged at that time, the material being arranged in seven columns instead of six as for some time heretofore. With the number bearing date Sept. 8, 1848, there was a change also in the title of the paper receiv- ing the designation, Zion's Advocate and Eastern Watch- man. The union of the Watchman and the Reflector in Boston had just occurred, and it was doubtless thought
PROF. JOHN B. FOSTER.
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that the name Eastern Watchman would be pleasing to the friends of the the Watchman in Maine. But Mr. Smith's connection with the paper was a brief one. In the summer of 1850, he was elected to a professorship in Waterville College, and as its duties were more congenial to his taste than were those of editorship, Mr. Smith in August of that year sold the Advocate to several breth- ren in Portland, and removed to Waterville, where for many years he served the college with great ability in the department of English literature, and where he still resides, retaining his connection with the college as professor-emeritus.
The paper soon passed into the hands of Mr. John B. Foster, a graduate of Waterville College in 1843. Since his graduation he had been principal of the academy in China, and the academy at Lexington, Mass .; he had also taken a course of theological study at Newton Theological Institution, where he was graduated in 1850. Possessing excellent literary qualifications, he found a field for use- ful service open to him in connection with the Advocate. The first number of the paper which appeared under his editorial management was that of Sept. 30, 1850. Mr. Foster remained in charge of the paper until Septem- ber, 1858, when, having been elected to a professorship in Waterville College, he sold the paper to Rev. W. H. Shailer, D. D., pastor of the First Baptist church, Port- land.
Dr. Shailer was not without experience in editorial work. Moreover, he had an extensive acquaintance with minis- ters and churches within and beyond the limits of the State. During his residence in Portland he had been a frequent contributor to the columns of the paper. He saw its value to the denomination, and believed that its useful- ness could be still further increased. But he must have assistance, and Mr. J. W. Colcord became associated with Dr. Shailer in the management of the paper as an assist- ant. The subscription list was enlarged. Even the great fire in Portland, July 4, 1866,-when the office of the
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