USA > South Carolina > Charleston County > Charleston > Two centuries of the First Baptist Church of South Carolina, 1683-1883. With supplement > Part 6
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REV. OLIVER HART.
This eminently useful man was born in War- minster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, July 5, 1723, the grandson of John Hart, who came with Wil- liam Penn. He must have early learned the trade of a carpenter, for a mortgage is on record from Oliver Hart, carpenter, and Sarah his wife, De- cember 31, 1748, to secure the payment of £100. He had then been one year married, and was doubtless supporting himself by his handicraft.
It had been his happiness to grow up at a period when God was remarkably reviving his work through the ministry of his servants, Whitfield, Edwards, the Tennents ; and we may add also of Abel Morgan and others of the Baptist Church. Several of these Mr. Hart had heard, and was much impressed by their ministry, especially by that of Mr. Whitfield. Before the age of eighteen
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he was baptized into the fellowship of the South- ampton Baptist church, by Rev. Jenkin Jones, April 3, 1741. He seems to have at once taken an active part in church matters. On the 20th of December, 1746, this entry appears on the old church book : "Isaac Eaton and Oliver Hart were called to be on trial for the work of the ministry, to exercise at the meetings of preparation or in private meetings that might for that purpose be appointed." He preached his first public sermon at Southampton February 21, 1748, "and per- formed to satisfaction." One week after, he was married to Sarah Breese. In October of that year, letters having been received by Rev. Jenkin Jones as to the destitution of South Carolina, Mr. Hart was urged to go and visit that field. The matter was brought up in church meeting on the 14th, and it was arranged that he should be or- dained on the 18th. The occasion was observed, as was not unusual in those days, by fasting and prayer, and he was ordained by Revs. Joshua Potts, B. Miller and Peter Peterson Van Horn. He set out for Charleston November 13th, leaving his family for the present, and arrived in Charles- ton December 2, 1749, the day Mr. Chanler was buried. The church felt that this was a providen- tial interposition in their behalf, welcomed him
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cordially, and soon called him to the pastoral care, which he assumed February 16, 1750.
CONSTITUTION OF THE CHARLESTON ASSOCIATION.
One of the first objects which engaged Mr. Hart's attention was the union of the weak Baptist churches of the Province into an Association. The benefits experienced from the organization of the Philadelphia Baptist Association were well known to him, and on the model of that the Charleston Association was founded October 21, 1751, by a union of the four churches at Charleston, Euhaw, Ashley River and the Welsh Tract (afterwards Welsh Neck). Rev. Messrs. Francis Pelot, John Stephens, John Brown and - Edwards were the ministers who co-operated in the matter with Mr. Hart.
Further reference to the Association and its work is debarred because it would trench upon the field assigned to another, more competent to do it justice. For the same reason the zeal and activity of the church in missions and education, though so memorable and influential for good, must be here passed over.
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MR. HART'S PASTORAL LABORS.
Mr. Hart's preaching attracted considerable at- tention in Charleston, and his character universal respect. Had he possessed a less spiritual mind, he would have found enough food for self-gratula- tion in the general approbation with which he was received by all ranks. But this did not satisfy him. While his great end in life was the glory of God, he viewed the salvation of sinners as a prin- cipal means of promoting it. He longed for the souls of men, and was jealous over them and him- self, with a godly jealousy, lest by any means he should run in vain. After four or five years the exercises of his mind became intense, and the holy humiliation and strong desire which are the usual preparations of a great blessing are recorded in extracts from his diary still preserved, dated Au- gust 5, 1784. Soon after this the great work of grace began under his ministry. Very many, es- pecially of the young, were brought to the know- ledge of the truth. Among them was that distin- guished servant of God, the Rev. Samuel Stillman, so long the faithful pastor in Boston. Brought to Charleston by his parents at the early age of eleven, he had early impressions of religion, ex- perienced deep and frequent convictions of sin,
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but did not find the fulness of hope till one day, when Mr. Hart was preaching from the text, Matt. I : 21-"Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." He was baptized, and having views to the ministry, he was placed in a course of study under the patronage of a society formed in Charleston in 1755 called " The Religious Society." He was licensed and preached his first sermon February 17, 1758, was ordained February 26, 1759, and began regular labors on James Island with such acceptance and success that the same year, 1759, a meeting house was erected for him on that Island under the au- thority and care of the Charleston church. In a few months, however, a pulmonary affection made it necessary for him to leave that field; but he was not thereby deterred from prosecuting the work to which he had consecrated his life. First at Bordentown, N. J., and afterwards at Boston from 1763 till his death in 1807, he made full proof of his ministry. His eminent piety, shining talents, fervid eloquence and remarkable pru- dence, gained for him almost unrivalled popu- larity.
At the same time with Mr. Stillman's ordina- tion, Nicholas Bidgegood was ordained, Mr. Pelot preaching the sermon, which was afterwards pub-
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lished. But notwithstanding a fine education and pleasing address gave him great popularity, so that an attempt was made to supplant Mr. Hart and make Mr. Bidgegood pastor; his career was brief and unsatisfactory. He died in 1773 or 1774.
In the year 1766, the church received into its membership Mr. Edmund Matthews. He was a native of Bristol, England : had been converted to God after his emigration to this country, and was . baptized by the Rev. Philip Mulkey. He was licensed to preach November 7, 1767. He mar- ried Martha Hinds, and was ordained an evan- gelist February 7, 1770. He presently removed to Hilton Head, where was a Baptist meeting- house, held by the Euhaw church, in which he preached some time, being regarded as an assist -. ant to Mr. Pelot. He was living as late as 1775, and attended the Association as a delegate from the Charleston church. Of his subsequent course we know nothing definite.
An important accession to the church was re- ceived in 1767, in the person of Mr. Edmund Botsford. He had arrived in Charleston January 28, 1776, in the twenty-first year of his age, and under the ministry of Mr. Hart, he became a subject of grace, and was baptized March 13, 1767. Circumstances soon developing a desire
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for the ministry, and showing that he had the suitable gifts, he was encouraged by Mr. Hart and the church to devote himself to that holy calling. Preparatory to it, he was placed under the in- struction of Mr. David Williams, a member of the church, a learned and excellent man, father of General David R. Williams. Mr. Hart directed his theological studies. He was licensed in Feb- ruary, 1771, and ordained March 14, 1772, by Messrs. Hart and Pelot. The life of Mr. Bots- ford is of sufficient interest in itself to require a volume. His usefulness to this church at a pe- riod of great destitution and need demand for his memory our profound esteem and warmest grati- tude. A memoir of him, prepared by Rev. Charles D. Mallary, who married his granddaughter, gives many interesting facts. It is sufficient here to say that after having labored at Brier Creek, Ga., in Edgefield District, South Carolina, at Society Hill, where he was pastor of the Welch Neck Church till 1796, and after having preached with eminent success in Georgetown, South Carolina, for twenty-three years, he closed his valuable life there in the seventy-fifth year of his age, Decem- ber 25, 1819.
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PATRIOTISM OF THE CHURCH.
When the troubles of the Revolution began, Mr. Hart and the Baptists generally very warmly espoused the cause of independence. He had by this time acquired considerable acquaintance and great influence in the back-country ; so that the "Council of Safety," desirous of exerting a salutary influence on the people of the interior in relation to the measures of Congress and the political interests of the country, appointed him, in 1775, with Rev. William Tennent, pastor of the Independent Church, and the Hon. William H. Drayton, to travel among them for the purpose of conciliating them to the government, engaging them in its support and removing their misappre- hension and prejudice. "It was believed that the influence Mr. Hart created on this occasion was the means of preventing bloodshed when the tories first embodied."
REV. JOSEPH COOK.
Still in prosecution of the same design, dear alike to the church and its pastor, Mr. Hart went, early in 1776, to the High Hills of Santee, where a numerous meeting of dissenting ministers and others had been called to consult on measures for the common welfare. There Joseph Cook, father
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of the well known Rev. Joseph B. Cook, was bap- tized by the pastor, Mr. Furman, and immediately after ordained by Messrs. Hart and Furman, and then united with the church at Charleston, which was nearer to his residence at Dorchester. He had been educated by Lady Huntington at her college of Trevecca in South Wales, came over to this country on a mission at her suggestion, and was a while at Whitefield's Orphan House in Georgia, under Dr. Percy.
In 1778 he was called to the Euhaw church as the successor of Mr. Pelot. His ministry, espe- cially after the Revolution, during which he passed through some trying and humbling scenes, was peculiarly impressive. He was both a "son of thunder " and "a son of consolation," and many remembered him with lively emotions to their latest day. He closed his useful life September . 20, 1790, in the prime of manhood, being only a little more than forty years of age.
INCORPORATION OF THE CHURCH.
Prior to the independence of the United States, all dissenters from the Church of England labored under great disadvantages. They built their own houses and sustained their own ministry, though. not enjoying the rights of regular incorporations,
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and yet were taxed to build Episcopal churches and support Episcopal ministers. Being unknown as corporate bodies, they could not recover lega- cies, or hold property, except through Trustees. The State constitution in 1778 and in 1790 re- moved these inequalities, by withholding public support from all churches alike, and permitted that any society consisting of fifteen or more per- sons should be an established church, and entitled to incorporation by petitioning for it, and subscrib- ing the five following articles :
I. There is one Eternal God, and a future state of rewards and punishments.
2. God is to be publicly worshipped.
3. The Christian religion is the true religion.
4. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are divinely inspired, and are the rule of faith and practice.
5. It is lawful, and the duty of every man, being thereunto lawfully called, to bear witness to the truth.
This church, with the other dissenting bodies, promptly availed themselves of the privilege of incorporation, and now acts under the charter obtained March 19, 1778; though for several years they continued to transact their secular business through the agency of trustees.
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THE PRESSURE OF THE WAR.
South Carolina was now destined to become the sanguinary scene of war, and on the approach of the British, Mr. Hart's friends advised his retreat. Accordingly, in the month of February, 1780. he took his departure, and, as it proved, his final de- parture, from his affectionate people. He was joined on his way by Mr. Botsford, who remained in Virginia, while Mr. Hart kept on to New Jersey, and in December following accepted charge of the church at Hopewell, with whom he remained until he died, December 31, 1795, greatly loved and honored, in the seventy-third year of his age.
Early in 1780, Charleston fell into the hands of the enemy, and probably out of revenge against Mr. Hart and his society, as well as from their general insolent contempt of Dissenters, they seized on both the Baptist meeting-houses, con- verted the principal one into a storehouse for salt beef and other provisions, and made a forage- house of the other. From that time all public worship was suspended in the church, until inde- pendence was gained and peace restored.
At Mr. Hart's departure, the statement made by Colonel Thomas Screven, the acting trustee, and certified by Major Benjamin Smith and Mr.
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Thomas Smith, showed that the church possessed indents, &c., amounting to {14,700 in currency, of which £7 7s. were equal to a guinea. This amount had been accumulating during Mr. Hart's prosperous ministry. The friends of religion then in this and other churches, instead of bequeathing their property to heirs, "they knew not who," or leaving all their substance to their own family, made the church their legatee, or endowed it with ample gifts during their life. The names of many of these donors are preserved, and are well wor- thy of remembrance. The war, however, in one way or another, swallowed it all up except some £300 or £400; and as the government was greatly embarrassed by the expenses of the war, the amount they had in hand, £331 16s., was put into the public treasury. It may have been refunded to them afterwards, but of this we have no account.
THE RETURN OF PEACE.
All their privations and losses during the war might well be borne, in view of the unspeakable blessings, both civil and religious, which the Revo- lution had gained. The price it had cost was im- mense; and this Church seems to have paid its full share. Yet all was forgotten in the grateful sentiments which the dawn of liberty inspired. 8
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Their place of worship, long desecrated by the possession and vile use of the enemy, was dearer and more venerable to them than ever, because it was now closely associated with the triumph of civil and religious liberty, and with the complete establishment of those principles, not only of re- ligious toleration, but of entire religious freedom, which are the glory of this country. Toleration is not enough. The right to tolerate implies the right and the power to suppress or control. Ab- solute freedom of conscience, freedom to worship God, is the right of every human creature. For this the Baptists had been the first to contend. In Old England, they had commenced the strug- gle. In New England, they had been compelled to renew it. And here, in the very land they had rescued from the savages and reclaimed from a wilderness, they had at last succeeded, after a hundred years, and under special favoring cir- cumstances, in gaining, once for all and for ever, the complete establishment of their principle. Had they not a right to be glad ?
With gratitude and alacrity, therefore, the scat- tered Church assembled on the restoration of peace, fitted up their building with temporary seats and pulpit, and agreed April 14, 1783, to invite Mr. Hart's return. He, however, found it
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impracticable to tear himself away from his flock in Hopewell, N. J., and urged that they should pro- cure a younger and more active man. Efforts were made to secure such a one. Rev. Richard Furman, then at the High Hills of Santee, was called March 8, 1784, but declined, and the call to Mr. Hart was renewed, but without success. Meanwhile various ministers supplied them from time to time with occasional services. Mr. Fur- man himself often came and was greatly blessed in building up the church. Joshua Lewis, James Fowler, Joseph Redding and various others en- deared themselves to the church by these labors of love. Mr. Botsford, too, was frequently there, at one time spending as much as two months, concerning which he writes, March 30, 1785: "There is a pretty work begun. We go from house to house; and, bless God, good times we have. Several are under serious impressions ; crowds attend the public meetings, and in the private meetings I have introduced praying for those poor distressed souls who ask." Thus early we find the practice of one of the so-called new measures in revivals.
The Baptist Church received many valuable additions, among which was Colonel Thomas Screven, great-grandson of the first pastor, and
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son-in-law of Mr. Hart, and the active and useful deacon and treasurer of the church for many years. Two young ministers also were now brought into the church (in 1785 or '86), Peter Bainbridge and Charles O. Screven, the latter of whom lived long and usefully in Georgia.
ESTABLISHMENT OF A METHODIST CHURCH.
About this time also the Methodist brethren obtained their first establishment in Charleston. The place of worship they occupied for some time was the old Baptist meeting-house, then left vacant, of which they were allowed the gratuitous use, and which stood nearly on the spot where we are now assembled. Their preaching also ex- cited attention, and a period of unusual serious- ness ensued. Thus this hallowed spot is con- secrated by memories dear to the heart of the two most numerous denominations of Christians in this State, and is associated with their earliest efforts and successes in this ancient city.
ENLARGEMENT OF THE CHURCH EDIFICE.
Notwithstanding the Baptist church was without any regular pastor, the numbers and interest con- tinued to increase, so that in 1785 and 1786 it was felt necessary to secure more room as well as ad-
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ditional conveniences. Accordingly, the building they were then occupying was enlarged by ex- tending the front part of the building towards the street, three galleries were erected, and vestry rooms prepared. A baptistery was constructed in the church, for before that the ordinance was administered in a font situated in the present church-yard. A new pulpit was erected in the opposite end of the house from where it had been. Liberal contributions were made not only by the church, but also by the community, which felt great sympathy with them because of their sufferings during the Revolution. But with all this a debt was incurred, which was not fully discharged till 1790.
REV. RICHARD FURMAN AS PASTOR.
In accordance with the repeated and earnest advice of Mr. Hart, the church renewed its call to Rev. Richard Furman more urgently than before. And finally the clear conviction of duty sur- mounted all difficulty, and he accepted the call October 18, 1787.
A few facts will be all that can now be men- tioned in the almost unbroken career of progress and prosperity that attended the church during his pastorate of thirty-eight years-he and Mr. Hart being the only pastors for three-fourths of a century.
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Almost simultaneously with Mr. Furman's set -. tlement, the church obtained entire possession of the old lot No. 62 for their meeting-house and parsonage, which they had held in common with the General Baptists for forty-two years. That party being now extinct, the title was formally recognized by Act of the Legislature as belonging to the incorporated Baptist church.
The pew system was established as a means of steadily providing an adequate income, and after a time a more systematic arrangement of the tem- poralities of the church by which members of the congregation not communicants in the church took some part in the financial management. The rules under which this was provided for were drawn up by a committee consisting of Rev. Richard Furman, Thomas Screven, William In- glesby, Thomas Rivers, E, North, Isham Williams and John McIver. They were adopted August 21, 1791, and with some important amendments, agreed on by the corporation April 2, 1824, have remained till this day.
To the generous efforts and fidelity of some of the gentlemen thus associated with the church in its financial affairs it owes a large part of its tem- poral prosperity.
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CHURCH IN GEORGETOWN.
Dr. Furman was fond of missionary labors in the regions around. Among other places, he made periodical visits to Georgetown, baptized several, and finally a church was constituted June, 1794, with thirty-six members, who had been pre- viously reckoned as members of the Charleston Church.
EDISTO ISLAND AND OTHER PLACES.
In like manner the conversion and baptism of some white and a large number of colored people on Edisto Island, especially after 1807, was due to his benevolent activity. Also, in a measure, the gathering of the churches of Goose Creek and Mount Olivet, constituted in 1812. At Edisto a neat wooden building was put up and completely furnished with everything desirable for the orderly and decent arrangement of the house of God by the extraordinary energy of one of the sisters of this church, Mrs. Hephzibah Townsend, who is as- sociated in my own mind with some of the pleas- antest recollections of my boyhood. The place was first opened for worship and dedicated to the service of God with a sermon by Dr. Furman, May 23, 1818.
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It belongs to another to trace how the ancient practice of catechizing the children semi-annually and publicly grew into the system of Sunday- school instruction. The ancient exercise was conducted in a manner so edifying, and yet so fatherly and attractive, that it was at once a source of profit and of pleasure to the young.
The organization of the State Convention of Baptists in December, 1821, is also an important result of the labors and influence of Dr. Furman, being, I believe, the earliest of the State organiza- tions now universally established, except that of Massachusetts, which has held this year its eighty- first annual meeting.
But we must not speak further on this head, as the history of the Convention is assigned to another.
NEW HOUSE OF WORSHIP.
As early as 1805, the plan of erecting a new house of worship had been meditated, and Dr. Furman then gave a tract of land valued at $1000 to be applied to this object. Other and important aids towards it were received during the next ten years, amounting in all to about $7000, when, in 1815, the church began to circulate subscriptions, but did not actually commence the work till 1819. The building committee, appointed October 22,
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1817, consisted of Messrs. William Rouse, George Gibbs, Richard B. Furman, Tristram Tupper and James Nolan. The pulpit was of solid mahogany, brought from the West Indies, and cost $1000. The baptistery was directly in front of the pulpit, and below the surface of the floor. A description of this house of worship will be given in another part of this volume.
The last Sabbath which the church spent in the old building they had occupied so long, was deeply solemn. In the evening Dr. Furman, deeply penetrated with the varied reflections which the occasion inspired, and scarcely able to command himself, took leave of the consecrated spot with sobbing and many tears. The feelings of the flock were scarcely less tender than his own, and the place was literally a Bochim-a place of weepers.
On the Thursday morning following, January 17, 1822, the new building was first opened for worship and dedicated to the service of Almighty God, with a sermon by Dr. Furman from 2 Chron. 6: 8-" But the Lord said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart."
A fuller sketch of this great and good man,
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Dr. Richard Furman, Sr., would accord with my own feelings of admiration and reverence. But it would be to anticipate a biography which is to follow from the pen of one peculiarly adapted to delineate the life and character of this man of God, of whom my father, Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., said : "He is the wisest man I ever knew."*
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* It is proper to say that the present writer has used freely throughout not only the facts and ideas of his father's "Historical Sermon," preached at Charleston in September, 1832, and pub- lished in 1837, but also the very language, so as to reproduce all the substance of that valuable document, now out of print and rare. He has made such additions to the history as given in that discourse as his own researches have enabled him to glean in a field already so well reaped by so careful and thorough an in- vestigator.
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BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD FURMAN, SR.
BY A FRIEND.
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