CHAPTER XXXIV
New Associations
[p. 114]
From 1829 onward, for twenty-five years, an average of two Baptist Associations were organized in Illinois each year. Forty of them were new, the others being unions of divisions, meaning no more than a change of name. The year 1830 was especially a growing year. Three new Associations were formed that year, and in four other churches were dismissed that they might organize differently in 1831. One of the three was Edwardsville Association, made up of three unassociated churches. The churches composing the Morgan counry Associationwere dismissed for that purpose from Sangamon Association, and have always carried the intolerant spirit of antimissionism. In all the churches there was a minority of a different character; and if there was a pastor of a better sentiment, as Jonathan Sweet at Diamond Grove and Jacob Bower at Manchester, usually a different result was seen. Unfortunately the antimission leaders were very bitter. They were for the time as in-tolerant of "missionaries" as even the Inquisition was of heretics.
This was on the east side of the illinois river. Spoon River Association was gathered by the indefatigable John Logan on the west side of the Illinois, where the antiinission sentiment was less powerful and was in the minority. Yet this minority by its very violence carried the day. Elder Logan was pastor of the Crane's Creek church near Rushville, and it is recorded as a fact that a minority of the church, in 1833, excluded himself and wife and thirty others in one lot! The clerk lined up with the active minority, taking the records of the church with him.
The four Associations organized in 1831 were Clear Creek, Apple Creek, Okaw and Vermillion. The six churches forming the Clear Creek Association were in Clinton, Jackson, Alexander and Pulaski counties, and were dismissed from Cape Girardeau Association for that purpose. Clear creek flows through Union county, and empties into the Mississippi river at Clear Creek Landing, now McClure. Apple Creek Association was formed of nine churches, part of them dismissed from Sangamon ang taking from Sangamon a considerable infusion of the antimission spirit; but this they have long ago left behind. The Okaw and Vermillion Associations organized with seven churches, each, all
[p. 115]
dismissed from the Wabash. The Vermillion is in Vermillion county. The Okaw is in Coles county and vicinity, on the same ground as the Mattoon Association. These two small bodies were the result of the cleavage in the Wabash Association on account of Parker's "Two Seed" doctrine, and they are the only representatives of that teaching left in Illinois. They are not in fellowship with the other Predestinarian Baptists in the state, and correspond only with each other and two smaIl Associations of similar faith in Indiana. Their going out left the Wabash with but ten churches, part of them in Indiana. Their going out left no Two Seed churches in Crawford county, Eld. Parker's home, and this rejection of his teachings had such an effect upon him that in the summer of 1833 he gathered a dozen families into a colony and a church and emigrated to Anderson county, Texas. The result is that the antimission churches of Texas are divided over this thing about as they are in this state.
The Two Seed theory, that the elect and the lost are different races and eternally separate, is a fascinating one for many no-effort preachers. It makes so clear the conclusion that it is useless and wrong to labor for the Seed that are outside the gospel. It resembles the slaveholding theory that slaves are not of the human race. It is to Old School theology what rationalism is to the biblical critic, his constant dread and yet his constant tendency.
In 1832 the Manchester church was excluded from the Morgan county Association because their pastor was aided by a mission society. The following year this church united with two others as the Blue River -- now Quincy -- Association. In a similar manner John Logan and his associates, having been excluded from the Spoon River Association, organized the "Salem Association of United Baptists," in 1834. These going out from the Crane's Creek church formed the Concord church, now Rushville. There is a tradition in the Rushville church that the Concord church was formed, and the Association with five churches was organized, in the house of deacon Swan. But the Association seems to have been organized at Blandinsville, McDonough county; and Eld. Logan reported at the Whitehall convention the following month that the new Association consisted of ten churches. Perhaps a preliminary meeting was held at Rushville, but as only half of the churches expected were represented, an adjournment was taken to Blandinsville and there the organization was affected. One of the churches was Canton. then called Duck Creek; composed of four members excluded from
[p. 116]
Bethel Church, Fulton county, for this missionary sentiments. Bethel church is now extinct, but Duck Creek was for a time the largest Baptist church in the state.
In 1834, also, six churches were dismissed from the South District Association, Friends tp Humanity, and organized the Saline Association.
John Antle, a faithful preacher among the Separate Baptists of Kentucky, in 1829 emigrated to Sangamon county, Illinois, and the same year he organized the Bethel church near Springfield. He was an evangelist of unusual ability and worthiness, and this church would seem to have been the fruit of his labor. In 1830 he organized Unioh church, near Springfield, and in 1833 a second church in Sangamon coupty. These all united with the South Kentucky Association of Separate Baptists by correspondence, and were the first Separate Baptist churches in Illinois. By 1835 another church had been formed in Morgan county, and still another in Macon county, and that year the five associated themselves as the "Illinois Association of Separate Baptists." Eight years afterwards five other Separate Baptist churches in Menard and Mason counties organized as the Clary's Grove Association, and in 1854 the two bodies united. They took the name of.the "Central Illinois Association of Separate Baptists." This title of "Separate" has a thrilling history, for it takes us back to the days of Whitefield and the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit. in North Carolina. Yet if John Antle was living today he would undoubtedly praise his churches for dropping the term "Separate," as other churches have dropped the term "United," and all be brethren. These words have done excellent service, but we hardly need them now to remind us that we should be "separate" from the world, and "United" with God's people. John Antle was a Baptist preacher of the best type, holding everything he possessed subservient to his calling as a servant of Jesus Christ. =================== [Edward P. Brand, Illinois Baptists -- A History, 1930, pp. 114-116. -- jrd]
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