Last week, our subject was Joseph Craig. Joseph was the brother of Lewis and Elijah Craig, Baptist preachers of Virginia and Kentucky. This week our subject is Elijah.
Elijah Craig was brought to Christ in 1764 through the ministry of David Thomas, a Regular Baptist of the Philadelphia Baptist Association. The following year he and others encouraged Samuel Harriss, a Separate Baptist of the Sandy Creek Association to hold meetings in their neighborhood, while Elijah continued to go from house to house preaching God’s Word. I haven’t learned why – it may be that Harriss hadn’t yet been ordained – but Elijah Craig rode his horse into North Carolina where he persuaded James Read to come to Virginia to baptize the group of believers to which Elijah belonged. When that was done, on this day in 1770, Elijah Craig was ordained to the gospel ministry, becoming the pastor of two nearby churches – Blue Run and Rapidan, which I am told are still in existence today. Over time, Brother Craig was imprisoned four times, twice in Culpepper and twice in Orange County, but being kept from his congregations just increased his zeal for the Lord, and the Holy Spirit greatly used him in northern Virginia. In 1786, he too passed through the Cumberland Gap, where he joined his two brothers in Kentucky. Finding a comfortable area, which he first called Lebanon, Elijah bought one thousand acres and laid out a community which eventually became known as Georgetown, and which is now the sixth largest city in Kentucky.
(Taken from “This Day in Baptist History” – Thompson and Cummins)
