Cape May is a community at the most southerly point in New Jersey – on the north side of the mouth of Delaware Bay. Ships headed toward Philadelphia, which for a time was a more important port than New York, all passed by Cape May. Today that county is about half the size in population as Kootenai County. As I say, nearly every ship sailed past Cape May. Anyway, a Baptist church was established there in 1712, after some Baptist whalers settled in the region and began holding services in their homes decades earlier.
Historian Morgan Edwards reported that on this day in 1790 the church had 63 members. Some may think that a church with 63 members and only 90 in regular attendance would be considered “small.” Perhaps so, but let us never forget the value of a single soul, and even a small candle sheds a bit of light. In the years since Cape May Baptist’s inception there have been several periods of God’s blessings. For example, in 1838, during one extended meeting, 51 were saved, baptized, and joined the membership. A year later there were another 68 saved and baptized. And then ten years after that there were another 29 converts. Whether or not there is a sound Baptist church in Cape May today, the fact is: souls have left that community for Heaven, and the same will be said of many other small, gospel preaching churches.
Source – “This Day in Baptist History III” by David Cummins