March 29

Ko Tha Byu was a member of the Karen tribe, native to the mountains of Burma. He died in 1840. The Karens were the lowest class of people in Burma. They were usually considered to be “the wild men of the jungle.” Ko Tha Byu was typical of his people and perhaps even...

March 22

John Gill was born in 1697. His Father, Edward, was a Baptist deacon in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, so John grew up reading the Word of God; he read just about everything else as well. By the time he was 11, he was reading Latin and Greek classics. The local...

March 15

The Baptist church in Hopewell, New Jersey, was organized on April 23, 1715 with fifteen members.   Hopewell was, and still is to some degree, a small rural community in western New Jersey over a few hills from the Delaware River. For its first 32 years the church met...

March 8

Joseph Islands was born a Creek Indian. He grew up in Alabama – a wild and sinful man. One night in 1842 during a drunken brawl a good friend of his was killed. The next day Joseph went to the grave site and found a Christian black man, affectionately named “Old...

March 1

Most American colonies, states and districts did not begin their existence practicing religious liberty. Two exceptions were the colonies of Rhode Island and New Jersey. Later Texas would join that list. Texas was originally a part of Mexico under the 1824 Mexican...

February 23

James Smith Coleman was born on this day (February 23) in 1827. He was saved by grace when he was eleven-years-old, after which he joined the Beaver Dam Baptist Church in Kentucky. When he reached adulthood he was elected county sheriff, but one evening after...

February 16

The first record of what became the first Baptist church in the city of Boston reads: “The 28th of the third month, 1665, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the church of Christ, commonly, though falsely, called Anabaptists, were gathered together, and entered into...

February 9

Henry Havelock was not a pastor or missionary, but in the midst of doing other things he did represent his Saviour. Henry was born in 1795. His mother regularly gathered her six children together to read the Bible and pray, so he grew up with serious considerations...

February 2

Benjamin Stinton is not a well-known name, but this man links together two others who were very well known both in their day and in ours. Benjamin was born in England on this day (Feb. 2) in 1676. Although blessed by the Lord with a sharp mind, he was not afforded the...

January 26

Britain’s “Act of Toleration,” enacted in 1689, ended a period of severe persecution against the Baptists in that country, but it did not provide all that Christ’s churches taught or deserved. While it was no longer compulsory to attend the services of the Church of...

January 19

Our subject this morning was a man with a very unique and interesting name; it is theological and prophetical. His family name was Noel, which you probably know means “Birth of God.” This man was born in England in 1799 and was raised in the Church of England. The...

January 12

Samuel Harriss was born on this day in 1724. He was born again 36 years later. Before his conversion Harriss served his community as sheriff, justice of the peace, colonel in the militia, and Captain of Fort Mayo. In the family’s Episcopal religion he was for a time a...

January 5

On this day (January 5) in 1527 two well-known Anabaptists paid the price for their faith in Christ and their love for the Word of God. George Balurock was stripped to the waist and beaten nearly to death, and Felix Manz was drowned in Lake Zurich. Many historians...

December 29

Phillipp Bliss died on this day in 1876, at the young age of 38. His name was originally spelled with 3 p’s and 2 l‘s – “Phillipp, ” but he didn’t like the spelling so he chopped it down and chopped it apart to Philip P. Bliss. Eventually he was known simply as P.P....

December 22

Andrew Tribble was one of the first Baptists in Virginia. He often declared that he was the fifty-third Baptist on the north side of the James River. Some of the people with whom he fellowshipped were Lewis and Elijah Craig, John Waller and James Childs. Bro. Tribble...