Thomas Baldwin died on this day (August 29) in 1825.
Baldwin had been born 72 years earlier in Bozrah, Connecticut. Having a love for books, he decided to prepare for a profession as a lawyer, but the Lord had other plans. When he was seventeen he was brought under conviction of his sins, and he trusted Christ as his Saviour. At that point he severed his ties with the Congregational church, and he lost friends in the process. At the age of thirty he was ordained by the Baptist Church in Canaan, Connecticut, and there he served for six years. When the Second Baptist Church of Boston asked him to fill their pulpit for three months, he stayed for thirty-five years. The Lord blessed the church, causing it to grow by several hundred members, but the pastor’s interests were not confined to that local ministry. He became editor of the “Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Magazine” through which he tried to encourage other churches to support missions and evangelism. Then in February, 1813, Pastor Baldwin received a letter from Adoniram Judson, informing him that he had become a Baptist and had been immersed upon his arrival in India. Immediately Brother Baldwin began to urge the Baptists of New England to support the missionary labors of the Judsons, and Adoniram Judson became America’s first missionary in Burma.
Thomas Baldwin continued to serve the Lord in many ways. In addition to leading his own church, he was a member of the early Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts in 1821. He also served on the boards of Brown University and several Baptist colleges. But eventually, as I said earlier, Thomas Baldwin passed into the presence of his Saviour on this day in 1825.