USA > Maine > History of the Baptists in Maine > Part 9
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cive to the advancement, power and enlargement of the Redeemer's Kingdom in the world."
The following "Summary of Doctrines" was adopted :1
"1st. We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain the mind and will of God, deliv- ered to us by holy men of old, inspired thereunto by the Holy Ghost; and that they are the perfect and only rule of faith and practice.
"2d. That there is only one living and true God, eter- nally existing and mysteriously manifested to us in three distinct persons, -the Father, the Word (or Son) and the Holy Ghost, who are of the same essence, power and glory.
"3d. That God created man at first in his own moral image, in which man continued not, but sinned, lost his holiness, contracted guilt, became wholly indisposed to good, inclined to evil and justly exposed to temporal and eternal misery, and that such is now the character and condition of all Adam's posterity by nature.
"4th. That the recovery of fallen, sinful man to holi- ness and eternal life is wholly of divine, unmerited grace through the mediation and expiatory sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, which grace is displayed in elec- tion, vocation, remission, justification and glorification, in the following order, viz. : 'Whom God did foreknow (as heirs of salvation), he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Whom he did pre- destinate, them he also called : and whom he called, them he also justified : and whom he justified, them he also glorified.'
"5th. That our Lord Jesus Christ will come again, raise the dead-judge the quick and dead, both just and unjust-will punish with everlasting destruction from the glory of his presence all the finally impenitent, and intro- duce the righteous into the kingdom of glory prepared for them from the foundation of the world.
1 Minutes of Bowdoinham Association for 1857, pp. 17, 18.
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"6th. That baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordi- nances of Christ to be observed by his people until his second coming, and that the former is requisite to the latter, that is to say, that those only are to be admitted into the church and partake of its ordinances who, on pro- fession of faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to him, have been baptized in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
The time of the annual meeting of the association, -the fourth Wednesday in September, -was designated in the "Rules of Procedure" which were adopted by the associa- tion. These rules provided for "a moderator and clerk to be annually chosen after the following manner, viz. : the oldest minister present shall call for a nomination of a moderator, who shall be chosen by a hand vote, by a majority of the ministers present. The moderator thus chosen shall upon his acceptance lead the meeting to the choice of a clerk in the same manner." The rules also provided for an annual session, "calculated to bring into view the expediency of sending the gospel to the desti- tute"; also for a collection for missionary purposes. The churches were required to send with their messengers letters giving an account of the state of the churches, and "particularly of the additions and diminutions in the past year, together with the whole number of members in communion." Provision also was made for a "Circu- lar Letter" addressed to the churches connected with the association, "containing something 'profitable for doc- trine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteous- ness'"; also for a letter addressed to "corresponding associations."
A question being asked at this first meeting, "Whether it is agreeable to truth and the example of Christ to receive unbaptized persons to communion, or allow any members to commune with such occasionally," the asso- ciation "Voted, That baptism is necessary to church com- munion and according to the articles of faith of these churches, not to commune with any unbaptized person,
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neither to allow nor give liberty to any member to com- mune with such."
During this meeting, in the quaint language of the record, "Elder Case preached with much Power, Liberty and Assistance." A Circular Letter by Ebenezer Kins- man was read and approved. The association on the second day adjourned to meet in Thomaston the last Wednesday in September.
The association met at Thomaston as appointed, but no record of the meeting has been preserved. There is no record, also, of the meeting at Harpswell in 1788.1 In the Minutes of the association held in Ballstown (now Jefferson and Whitefield), Sept. 30, 1789, three additional churches are reported, viz., Bowdoin, Vassalborough and Ballstown, making six in all, with 288 members. Accord- ing to the recollection of Rev. Isaac Case in 1820, as recorded in the Minutes of the association in possession of its clerk, these churches did not unite with the association in 1788. The Bowdoin and Ballstown churches, however, were organized in 1788 before the association met, while in the statistical column in the Minutes for 1789 Vassal- borough stands before Ballstown. The church in Bowdoin was organized Aug. 1, 1788,2 with eighteen members and the prominence of its Calvinism is indicated in its designa- tion as "A Regular, Particular Baptist Church." There had been, says Elder Potter, "a great declension among professors of religion, and some gave up their hope and returned to vanity"; but now there were "refreshing times," "backsliders were reclaimed, and some who never were free before were set at liberty. We had happy sessions, crowded meetings and frequent." Having men- tioned the organization of the church in Bowdoin, Mr. Potter adds : "Afterwards we had frequent additions, and I was dismissed from the church in Harpswell and joined Bowdoin church, and covenanted with them to take
1 In the bound volume of Minutes of Bowdoinham Association in the possession of the clerk of the association, no other Minutes of the annual meetings are lacking. Those for 1787 and 1790 are in manuscript, copied by Rev. W. O. Grant in 1820.
2 Potter's Narration, p. 26.
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the pastoral care of them with liberty to travel." In the Minutes for 1789, the Bowdoin church reported a member- ship of fifty-one.
The Vassalborough church was the result of a visit of Rev. Nathaniel Lord of Wells in 1788. A revival fol- lowed his faithful preaching of the gospel. Elders Potter, Case, Snow and Macomber carried on the work, the latter baptizing the first converts. Others were baptized by Elder Case. Among these converts were Nehemiah Gould and Jabez Lewis, both of whom subsequently received ordination and became useful ministers of Christ. The Vassalborough church reported twenty-two members in 1789.
The church in Ballstown was organized Jan. 6, 1788. Mr. Potter visited the town between 1783 and 1785. Rev. Isaac Case, also, was there in his efforts to carry the gos- pel to the destitute regions in the district. "Previous to 1788," he says, "the people of Ballstown were not found with stated preaching of any kind, as there was no church of any order in the settlement." But by his labors, and the labors of other Baptist ministers, the attention of the people was drawn to religious subjects, converts were made and baptized, and a church at length was organized. This was in the western part of the town, which, in 1809, became a separate township bearing the name of White- field, the evangelist, whose death in 1770 made such a profound impression throughout the religious world.
In 1790, the Bowdoinham Association met at Harpswell, Sept. 29 and 30. Elder James Potter was moderator and Bro. Samuel Flagg, clerk. The next year the association met at Ballstown. Four churches were received to mem- bership, 2d Vassalborough, afterward Sidney, 2d Bowdoin, afterward Litchfield, Sheppardsfield, afterward Hebron, and Bucktown, afterward Buckfield. A letter also was received from Number Four, afterward Paris, requesting assistance "in embodying them into a church," and it was "agreed to furnish them assistance by Elder Snow." In all of these places Elder Potter did pioneer work. After
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the organization of the Bowdoin church he purposed to tarry at home, but he could not. "The same exercise of mind" came upon him as before. Receiving an invitation to preach in Buckfield, he went there and "found a num- ber of loving brethren. I had fellowship with them," he says; "but I could not find that my message to sinners was in any of these places. An aged man came into Buck- field, and requested me to appoint a meeting the next day in Hebron." Mr. Potter responded to this call, and the results were such that he adds, "I found this place to be the object of my visit. A divine blessing attended my feeble efforts to the hearts of the people and a reformation began. " 1 About the same time Mr. Potter visited Num- ber Four. "Eleven if not twelve years had passed since the first trees had been felled, and the first opening made in the primeval forest on this hill, where now we see the common, and where the meeting-houses, courthouse, and other county buildings, with the hotels and residences of this part of the village, stand. Ten years had passed since the first harvest had been gathered in; and almost ten years since Mrs. Willis had come to make a home where before there had been only a settler's camp. The first framed house, now standing and occupied in the vil- lage, had been built two and a half years before. The number of inhabitants in the township had become more than three, perhaps nearly four hundred. The plantation had been planted with a goodly seed, as if three king- doms had been sifted to obtain it." 2
When in 1790 Elder Potter visited the place he found some members of Baptist churches. They held meetings, and when the pioneer preacher appeared they gave him a cordial welcome. A revival followed, "the first revival enjoyed in this town"; and it was enjoyed, we may well believe, by earnest, praying souls. The next year Mr. Potter returned and deepened the interest already awak-
1 Narration, pp. 26, 27.
2 The First Baptist Church in Paris, Maine. Centennial Exercises Oct. 1, 1891. His- torical Discourse by Rev. H. C. Estes, D. D., pp. 13, 14.
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ened. "Later in the year they received a visit from Elder Elisha Snow. Thus the way was prepared for the organi- zation of a church. One day in the late autumn of that year, the time had fully come. Then, Elder Snow being present and assisting, twenty persons, ten brethren and ten sisters, banded themselves together in church cove- nant; and the First Baptist church in Paris was formed on Friday, the eighteenth of November, 1791."1 Seven of the twenty had been members of the Third Baptist church in Middleborough, Mass.
In Sidney, in 1791, there was a revival in connection with the labors of Elder Potter. Litchfield, sometimes called Potterstown, was a part of Elder Potter's home field.
At the Bowdoinham Association in 1791, a sermon was preached by William Stinson, a member of the Litchfield church, who in June of the following year was ordained as pastor of the Litchfield church, a position which he retained thirty years. The introductory sermon was preached by Samuel Flagg, also an unordained minister. Mr. Flagg was the clerk of the association, and after hav- ing rendered missionary service for a period of years, he was ordained in 1808 as pastor of the church on Miscongus Island.
At the association at Bowdoin in 1792, five churches were received into membership, namely Number Four, Lewiston, Winthrop (designated next year as Readfield), Sterling (afterward Fayette) and Miscongus Island. The circumstances connected with the organization of the church in Number Four, or Paris, have already been men- tioned. Before the organization of the church in Lew- iston, the Baptists there and in the different settle- ments around-Greene, Wales, New Gloucester, Freeport, Pejepscot (afterward Danville) -were accustomed to hold monthly "conferences" at Lewiston, and in this way enjoyed the occasional labors of Elders Case, Potter and Macomber. The local membership increased so much that
1 Dr. Estes' Historical Discourse, p. 15.
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a church was organized March 31, 1792. In the spring of. this year, Rev. Isaac Case visited Oxford County on a mis- sionary tour, and while on his way thither he stopped in Readfield, where he found a few Baptists who had been converted in connection with the labors of Elder Potter. At their request he spent several weeks in the place, preaching and baptizing. Subsequently he visited Read- field again, and held added religious services. The result was that a church of twenty members was organized, com- posed of residents in Readfield and what is now known as East Winthrop. Mr. Case became very much interested in this little church, and when it was proposed that he should accept the pastorate he felt constrained to assent. He preached his farewell sermon at Thomaston in June, and removed his family to Readfield.1 The religious inter- est continued. Members were added to the church, and when it sought admission to the Bowdoinham Association in October the membership of the church was thirty-five.
The fourth church added to the association in 1792 was that in Sterling, afterward Fayette. Here Rev. Isaac Case labored, after preaching in Readfield in the spring of the year. He had been preceded by Rev. Eliphalet Smith, who in 1770 was a Congregational pastor in Deerfield, N. H. As President Manning of Rhode Island College related the story in a letter to Rev. Dr. S. Stennett of London, Mr. Smith was preaching from the words, "If ye love me, keep my commandments," John 14: 15, "when truth was let into his mind with such vividness as com- pelled him to open the nature of the ordinance of baptism so clearly as to convince the church of which he was pas- tor that believer's baptism by immersion only is a divine institution. In consequence of this, they sent a messen- ger to me to come and administer the ordinance to both
1 One of Elder Case's children, Mrs. Hannah C. Harley, who died at the meeting of the Damariscotta Association at King's Mills, Sept. 6, 1876, writing late in life, said : "I was then in my fifth year, but never have forgotten that before going on shipboard, the man of God kneeled down and prayed. I suppose the prayer had much life in it, for he had a sonorous voice, and was powerful in prayer and exhortation. I have perfect recollection of brethren meeting us when we arrived in Hallowell, and conducting us to our new home."
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minister and people, the most of whom expect immedi- ately to submit thereto."1 Rev. Hezekiah Smith of Haverhill, Mass., at Mr. Manning's request, went to Deer- field, where on Thursday, June 14, 1770, after preaching from Col. 2: 11, 12, he baptized Eliphalet Smith and thirteen others, "who, the same day, were embodied into a Baptist church." When Mr. Case, in his Oxford mis- sionary tour, came to Sterling, he "found it was their con- templation to form a church upon the mixed communion plan, Mr. Smith being an open communionist," and an attempt was made to convince Mr. Case of the scriptural propriety of such a course. But he raised this question : "If a person should come to your house, and you should invite him to walk in, but he should object to coming in at the door, would you take down one side of your house to accommodate him ?" Before Mr. Case left the place, Mr. Oliver Billings (afterward pastor of the church for twenty years, and senior pastor until his death in 1842,) and his wife, with others, requested and received baptism, and in August a church of twenty-three members was formed, with Mr. Smith as pastor. When the church united with the Bowdoinham Association it had thirty members.
The Miscongus Island church consisted of nineteen members when it applied for membership in the associa- tion in 1792. Its organization was doubtless due to the abounding labors of Rev. Isaac Case and Rev. Elisha Snow.
In 1793, the association met at Readfield. Rev. William Hooper of the New Hampshire Association was moderator. The membership of the association had increased during the year from 566 to 695 and the churches from fifteen to nineteen.2 The new churches were Cushing, Noble-
1 Life, Times and Correspondence of James Manning, by R. A. Guild, p. 122.
2 "At this meeting, besides the seven ordained ministers belonging to the association, there was reported the same number of licentiates. Others of the delegates were to enter the ministry soon afterward. Four of the licentiates, according to Backus, were ordained within two months following, viz., Ephraim Hall, at Cushing, now St. George; Andrew Fuller, another helper from Middleborough (Mass.), ordained at Miscongus
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borough, Livermore and Greene. The church in Cushing had shared the labors of Elders Case and Snow, and the church was organized in part by members from the Thom- aston church. Nobleborough, also, had early received help from the same source. Rev. Samuel Woodward, who was ordained at his own house in Brunswick, Oct. 1, 1792, and was now pastor of the Harpswell church, aided Elder Case in organizing the Nobleborough church. The church in Livermore, now known as the church in North Liver- more, was an indirect result of Elder Case's labors. Mr. Z. Delano, while on a visit to Winthrop, heard Elder Case preach in the Congregational meeting-house. Convicted of sin he returned home, "filled with a sense of his own ways," and "remained in a distressed state of mind several months." In the winter of 1793, he yielded to Christ, and commenced the worship of God in his family, but made no public acknowledgment of his faith. An interesting providence of God brought it forth. Elisha Williams, son of a Congregational minister of East Hart- ford, Conn., a graduate of Yale College, was at that time in Livermore, teaching school. One morning he called on Mr. Delano, who was at the time conducting family devotions. An impression was made upon the mind of the young man. He thought of himself, and of his neg- lect of God and religion. "Before he reached school he was so overwhelmed with a sense of his lost condition, that he was constrained to call upon God for mercy. His prayer was answered, and his conversion was the begin- ning of a work of grace in that community. Rev. Isaac Case and Rev. Eliphalet Smith aided in the work, and a church was organized in August, 1793. Mr. Williams was a delegate from the church to the association in that year.
The town of Greene was visited by Elder Potter soon after its settlement was commenced. There were con-
Island ; in a private house in Sidney, and at the same time, Asa Wilbur, from Bridge- water, Mass., and Lemuel Jackson, still another from Middleborough. Both of these had been laboring in the revival at Sidney this year, and were licentiates of that church. Wilbur became the pastor, and Jackson was ordained as a 'traveling minister."" Rev. E. S. Small's Centennial Review of Bowdoinham Association, p. 15.
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versions, and the converts united with the Lewiston church. From this church thirteen were dismissed to form a church in Greene, and at the association the church reported twenty-seven members.
At this association a question as to Paul's meaning in Rom. 9:3, was propounded by the church in Vassal- borough, to which the association returned the following ingenious answer : "That the apostle's meaning is, that if it would be for the glory of God and would forward the salvation of his brethren, the Jews, he could be willing to suffer a crucified death, after the example of Christ. 'For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.' Deut. 21 : 23; Gal. 3 : 13."
But not all the work of evangelization in Maine was done by our own missionaries. From across the border, in the summer of 1794, came Rev. James Murphy of New Brunswick, and with occasional missionary tours to Machias, Steuben and other places, the next ten years of his life were spent for the most part in religious work at Eastport, then called Moose Island. He was assisted at times by Rev. James Manning and Rev. Edward Manning of Nova Scotia. The Baptist church in Eastport was organized in 1802, and Rev. James Murphy was its first pastor.1
In 1794, the Bowdoinham Association met at Ballstown (Whitefield), Aug. 27th and 28th. The association recog- nized the fact that while a church might elect delegates, the association could decline to receive them. Hence this record in the Minutes: "Two were excluded from the association, both of whom belonged to Bowdoin."
1 Historical Sketch of the Washington St. Baptist Church in Eastport, 1802-1896, by Rev. J. A. Ford. "Edward Manning was a born leader. He was cast in royal mould, physically and intellectually. Wherever he went revival influences followed. 'In the absence of roads and in the depth of winter he traveled on snowshoes from place to place. Over mountain and valley he traveled, by day and by night, watching for souls as one who must give an account.' James Manning was a man 'abundant in labor and mighty in prayer,' but lacking his brother's intellectual equipment and powers of leader- ship. These were the men who, under divine Providence, helped to found the Eastport Baptist church."
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New Sandwich (Wayne), 3d Bowdoin, afterward 2d Bowdoin, and Thompsonborough (Lisbon) were received into the association at this meeting. The church in New Sandwich was the result of the labors of Elder Potter in 1793. There were conversions in connection with his preaching, and Jan. 9, 1794,1 a church of ten members was organized. The 3d Bowdoin also had its origin in the missionary labors of Elder Potter. The church was organ- ized Feb. 13, 1794. The additions to the churches this year were 178. Of these Livermore reported 34, Lewis- ton, 24, Cushing, 23 and Greene, 19. The whole member- ship was 887.
A committee was appointed to prepare articles of faith and a covenant and report at the next meeting. To the question, "Is it not agreeable to apostolic order that deacons should be set apart by imposition of hands ?" an affirmative answer was given.
The association, in 1795, met in the "Baptist meeting- house" in Readfield, Aug. 19th and 20th. Elder Samuel Shepard, of the New Hampshire Association, preached the introductory sermon. Two churches were added, Bar- retstown, now Hope, and New Gloucester. A layman, Ebenezer Cox, laid the foundations of the first of these churches. His evangelistic labors were so fruitful that when Rev. E. Hall of Cushing came into the field, in January, 1795, he found converts ready for baptism. Mr. Cox was first a deacon, then a licentiate, and later an ordained evangelist. At different periods in the history of the church for nearly half a century he did excellent service.
The first Baptist ministers who preached in New Glouces- ter were Rev. Hezekiah Smith of Haverhill, Mass., and Rev. Nathaniel Lord of Wells.2 This was as early as 1780. Several converts were baptized in June of that year. In 1781, Rev. James Potter preached in New Gloucester and
1 A Historical Sketch of the Baptist Church in Wayne, by Rev. Judson B. Bryant, p. 3.
2 Rev. John Rounds in a Historical Discourse preached at the opening of the Baptist meeting-house in New Gloucester, Aug. 16, 1857, pp. 7-9.
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several were converted. A church of about twenty mem- bers was organized by Mr. Potter. Some of the mem- bers were Calvinistic and some were Arminian in their doctrinal views, and the result was discussion and aliena- tion. Elder Potter, in his Narration, says: "I visited and preached at times several years in New Gloucester. There had been some previous awakenings amongst them in the Freewill order. I preached there, and the people were attentive to the word; they reasoned with me in a calm and moderate way upon the doctrines of the gospel. They alleged that it was hard that after all their doing and exertions there was no promise of mercy. I answered that God required of us faith and repentance. After our controversy on the doctrines of the gospel, several of them renounced Freewill sentiments and embraced the doctrines of free grace." In the autumn of 1782, Mr. Job Macomber, seeking a field for religious labor, took charge of the services of the church for a short time. In 1784, Mr. N. Merrill was ordained and preached to the people one-half of the time for several years. Differences in the church continuing, however, a separation was at length effected, and "the Baptists held meetings by them- selves." Troubles from without also disturbed them. In the records of a regular meeting of the legal voters of New Gloucester, held Aug. 22, 1782, occurs the following :
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