Elisha Andrews was born on this day in 1768. The place was Middletown, Connecticut. At an early age he was born a second time and soon began to serve the Lord, preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1793 he became the pastor the Baptist church in Fairfax, Vermont, about 25 miles from the Canadian border. Interested in the spiritual condition of the people of Upper Canada (Ontario), he began making missionary and evangelistic trips across the border.
In a report to the Triennial Baptist Mission Committee, the date of which I couldn’t discover, he said that he had been instrumental in starting the first and only Baptist church in Canada – at least of which he was aware. He wrote that beginning at 9 a.m. he spent an entire day examining candidates for baptism, eventually concluding that thirty were truly converted to Christ. They were from the ages of 10 to 50. He stated, “Nearly all they knew had been taught them by the Holy Spirit, and they told a plain, unvarnished tale of the dealings of God with their souls; and I have seldom heard such a number of Christian experiences so highly satisfactory, and decidedly evidential of a real change of heart. The next day we repaired to the Lake, cut a hole in the ice, and fifteen of those happy and devoted disciples were immersed. The baptism of the remaining fifteen was deferred until the next Monday” – probably because Brother Andrews was nearly frozen.