A
SOURCEBOOK
FOR

BAPTIST HERITAGE

═══════════════════

H. Leon McBeth

BROADMAN PRESS

Nashville, Tennessee

© Copyright 1990 • Broadman Press

All rights reserved

4265-89

ISBN: 0-8054-6589-8

Dewey Decimal Classification: 286.09

Subject Heading: BAPTISTS—HISTORY

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-33091

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McBeth, Leon.

A sourcebook for Baptist heritage / H. Leon McBeth.

p. cm.

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-8054-6589-8

1. Baptists—History. 2. Baptists—History—Sources. I. Title.

BX6231.M38 1990

286′.09—dc20 89-33091

CIP

Preface

In teaching Baptist history over the past thirty years, I have tried to help my students understand something of the sources of history, as well as the major facts and interpretations. Both by precept and, I hope, by example, I have emphasized the need to base one’s interpretations upon primary sources.

Over the years when I would share an unusual anecdote, a choice quotation, or a first-hand account of some event in Baptist history, many of the students showed keen fascination. Countless times I have been asked some version of the following question, “Can you tell me the name of the book where you found all of these stories?” Of course, I had to reply that there is no one book that gathers up these first-hand, primary source materials. They are scattered in hundreds of books, letters, diaries, church minutes, court records, wills, Baptist convention and associational records, magazine and newspaper articles, committee reports, sermons, testimonies, private memoirs, journals scholarly and popular, and other repositories. They are found in various libraries, notebooks, attics, cellars, desk drawers, and file folders on several continents and in different languages.

By the time I finish that recital, most of the students are discouraged. How could they ever possibly find all of this Baptist material, or even a fraction of it? And, for all my careful explanation, I often felt that many of them, despite their respectful nods, never quite grasped the difference between secondary and primary historical sources.

Therefore, in an effort to help my nine o’clock class, and beyond them to assist any interested reader in the field of Baptist history, I began the task of collecting these various source documents. Over the past three decades, I have gathered much more material than could be included here. Hard decisions had to be made in order to keep the book to reasonable length.

The reader is entitled to know the basic principles which guided the final selection of what to include. First, I sought to include data from the major parts of the Baptist family. As to geography, these pages contain documents from Baptists in Britain, the United States, and both Eastern and Western Europe. As to affiliation, most major groups of Baptists are represented, including American, Southern, Free Will, National, Seventh-day, Primitive, Landmark, General, Regular, Duck River, and many others. ...