April 29

William Baskett was born in 1741 in Goochland County, Virginia. His parents were poor Episcopalians. When William was twenty he married Miss Mary Pace. They immediately began morning and evening devotions together and with their children as they began to arrive. When...

April 22

Richard Fuller was born on this in 1804 in Beautfort, S.C. When he became of age, he entered Harvard College to study law and eventually became a lawyer. Back in Beaufort, Fuller heard the gospel preaching of Daniel Barker. A revival swept through the community and a...

April 15

John Young was arrested in 1771 for preaching the gospel without a government license. He had license from his church, but as yet he had not been ordained. For six months, he and others were incarcerated in Virginia’s Caroline County jail. It was a great burden on the...

April 8

On this day in 1801, Missionary Joshua Marshman recorded in this journal – “This morning Carey (Missionary William Carey) came to me in great haste, almost before I was awake. He had received a note from our good friend, Rev. David Brown concerning a matter of...

April 1

William Hickman was born in Virginia in 1747. While he was still a child both his parents died, and he went to live with his grandmother. The boy’s educational opportunities were limited, but his grandmother insisted that he learn to read his Bible – which he did....

March 25

William Batchelder was born on this day (March 25) in 1768. His parents were wealthy, devout Congregationalists from Boston. Through them he met another young Congregationalist named, Adoniram Judson. When he was thirteen both his parents died, and the young man was...

March 18

Edward Payson Scott was a pioneer missionary in a head-hunting region of Assam, in northeast India. On the day he first entered the remote area of Nagas, the first twelve men who saw him drew back their spears ready to kill him. But they hesitated just long enough for...

March 11

John Comer was born in 1704 and died just thirty years later. He had every intention of writing a Baptist history, but his early death rendered that impossible. He did however, keep a journal which was published by the Rhode Island Historical Society and called...

March 4

During the early 17th century the Baptists in England were being persecuted for their faith and practices. For example, Samuel Oates was arrested and charged with murder because a woman he baptized unexpectedly died several weeks after he had baptized her. The...

February 25

On this day in 1775 Thomas Scrivner was born. He grew up in North Carolina with little more education than the ability to read and write. When he was 19 he moved to Kentucky where he was saved and baptized, joining the Tates Creek Baptist Church. He returned to North...

February 18

On this day in 1880 Jeremiah Bell Jeter passed into the presence of his Saviour. Having mentioned his death, now we could talk about many important aspects of his life. For example, he was intensely mission-minded. When Adoniram Judson visited the First Baptist Church...

February 11

Over time Northern Europe threw off the yoke of Catholicism, becoming enslaved within Protestantism. The country of Estonia, for example, embraced Lutheranism. But in 1877 three Swedish missionaries began to preach a new doctrine among the Swedish immigrants within...

February 4

The biography of John Dillahunty is almost as strange as his name. His grandfather, David de la Hunte was a French Huguenot who fled to Ireland in his escape from the Catholics. John’s father and mother then immigrated to Maryland, where John was born in 1728. When...

January 28

As far as the United States is concerned, the most important member of the Church of England in this country has been George Whitefield. He was unlike any Anglican to have ever come to this country; he had become a Methodist, and he was a preacher of the gospel. On...

January 21

On this day (January 21) in 1672, John Bunyan was called to the pastorate of the Bedford Church, but Bunyan is not our subject today. In that same meeting, there were seven other men consecrated to the ministry, including Nehemiah Coxe. Coxe was later described as...