On this day in 1782, the New England Baptist historian, Isaac Backus, was visiting in a home where he was introduced to Richard Lee. There were, at that time, many godly Baptist men preaching Christ, who were encouraged to serve the Lord by their churches, but who were still in training, or who simply loved the Lord and wanted to share the gospel, but they were not yet ordained to start churches or to administer the ordinances. They simply sought to glorify their Saviour by sharing their testimony. Mr. Lee was one such man.
During that meeting, Brother Lee gave Backus an account of a visit he had made to Hingham, Massachusetts, now a suburb of Boston. Just before he got up to speak a mob assembled at the door of the house – led by Captain Theophilus Wilder, who in the name of established church – the Congregational Church – commanded Lee not to preach, but he began anyway. At Wilder’s command a number of armed men came in, grabbing Lee by his arm and collar, wrenching him down to the floor in great violence, knocking his Bible to the ground and clapping their hands over his mouth to keep him from speaking. They then covered his face in fresh cow dung, carrying him out of town – all the while cursing and swearing at him. Captain Wilder then shook a long club over Brother Lee’s head and swore that if he ever returned to Hingham he would tie him up and whip him with thirty stripes. Mr. Lee only replied that thirty was less than Paul endured. Whereupon Wilder swore at him again for comparing himself to the Apostle Paul.
I have shared this kind of story with you many times, because it was common in those early years. But what I’d like to emphasize today is the year that this took place. It was 1782, after the war which was fought for the sake of freedom. It was after the founding of the United States of America.