Rarely do we get to follow the chain of faith which has led to our salvation. We may know the person who led us to the Lord, but rarely do we know who was instrumental in that person’s salvation, and beyond that we know even less. Ultimately, this is to the Lord’s glory; not any man’s. Here is an exception to that lack of information in one man’s life.
Hezekiah Smith, a powerful preacher among the early American Baptists was led to personal faith in Christ by John Gano of New York City, in the early 1740’s. After he became a minister, Smith was asked to baptize a Presbyterian pastor, named Eliaphalet Smith, who then led many of his congregation to form a Baptist church. Later Smith was invited to visit Livermore, Maine, where he preached in a home belonging to Otis Robinson. Robinson was not present at the time, but his wife told him that the preacher’s text was “Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.” That simple scripture brought back to Robinson’s heart the burden of sin which earlier in his life had plagued him. When the Lord gave him repentance and faith to trust Christ, he sought out Smith for baptism, which took place on this day in 1793. Five years later, Robinson, then a minister of the gospel, started a church in Sanford, Maine. God greatly blessed that church and more than 165 people joined through faith and baptism. Then in Salisbury, New Hampshire, another church was started and in a few short years the membership there numbered more than 130.
What a blessing it would be to learn what those hundreds of converts did with their lives, and who were saved through their testimonies. Who knows what effect your salvation may have on others years from now.
– Source: “This Day in Baptist History,” David Cummins and Wayne Thompson