For those of you who remember what a newspaper is, imagine opening the paper one day to read the following announcement:
“For the promotion of morality and the prosperity of the Redeemer’s Kingdom in this part of the world, I desire to constitute a regular church of Jesus Christ, on the fourth Saturday of July (instant) at the state house in this town; but if any public business should interfere, the constitution will take place at the Mouse of Mr. Isaac Watkins, at 11 o’clock a.m.
Those persons who have been regularly dismissed from regular Baptist churches, are notified to attend, and are invited to engage in the work, if they wish to do so.
The great design of regularly organized churches is to help Christians forward their progress to Zion, and to operate as a check upon vice and immorality, and thus become the salt of the earth, or as a light in the midst of a dark and benighted land, to guide the footsteps of weary travelers to the mansions of eternal glory, and in order to carry into operation the will of heaven, it is necessary to become a regular constituted church of Jesus Christ, in order to carry on the public worship of God, maintain the ordinances of the Gospel, etc., etc., together with a great many other solemn duties imposed on us by the great head of the church, for our comfort and consolation, that we may wait upon God without distraction, and serve Him in the beauty of holiness.”
“Signed: Silas T. Toncray, a minister of the regular Baptist Church, Little Rock, July 5, 1824.”
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History II,” Thompson and Cummins