Having given the preceding sketch of churches, our author concludes this part of his subject with the following:]
Short Review
In looking over the foregoing pages, the reader will be forcibly struck with the delinquency and falling off of so many churches once united with us. The question will be asked, For what reason have they left? One of the apostles will answer the question in a few qords: "They
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went out from us that it might be made manifest they were not all of us: for had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us."
It will be seen by turning to the constitution, that this Association formed itself into a Missionary Society, without confining itself to any definite object, until the formation of the Baptist State Convention, to which it became auxiliary at the first session after that event. How, then, could any church, after consenting to and uniting with us on this ground -- how could they afterward, with any degree of consistency, make this, with other benevolent objects, a pretext for withholding from, or refusing to associate with us? However strange it may appear, this was made the ostensible reason; but a partial acquaintance with human nature will furnish us with other and stronger reasons for the course adopted by these churches.
At the commencement, and for a number of years, the ministers connected with the Association were all on a level as to literary qualifications -- at least there were none of us who had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; consequently there was little or no excitement to competition, or ground for envy and jealousy. But no sooner did some who had enjoyed superior advantages take part with us in the churches, than we felt ourselves in the back ground.
These brethren, as some said, must do all the preaching, the writing, introduce resolutions, make speeches, etc., etc., while older ones, and those who had been longer on the ground, were permitted to look on in silence, not feeling competent to make objections, if they had any, or to state their views so logically, correctly, and grammatically as those "Students of Divinity" -- "men-made ministers," as they were called, of whom we have heard and known nothing until recently. No wonder, in such company, we were embarrassed, and the churches which we professed to represent, seeing we had little or no influence in the councils, began to lose confidence in being fairly represented. The ministers who had toiled in the wilderness, who had borne the burden and heat of the day, saw these "Theological Students," of whom they entertained no very exalted opinions, entering into their own labors, and reaping where they had not strewn; hence the course some of these ministers and churches have taken is not only natural but easily understood.
Do you ask why these unfavorable impressions against learning? Theological studies were unknown in our denomination till very recently. We had known that other denominations educated their ministers, and the inference now was that Baptists were falling into the same error;
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that learning made the preachers to the exclusion of piety. It was found altogether impracticable to reason against these prejudices -- time and grace will effectually eradicate them.
There was still another cause that operated to strengthen these prejudices. This was, that these "Theological Students" were, in the estimation of our strong Calvinistic brethren, all Armenians [Arminians]. Every thing, therefore, said by them was seen and heard thorugh this medium. That the most of uneducated preachers were, with few exceptions, orthodox in regard to the primary doctrines of the Gospel, must be admitted. On the other hand, it is equally true, that in the hands of some of them, Bible Theology, like its Divine Author, was most wretchedly tortured and crucified. The light now shedding its benign and correcting influence, it is hoped, will soon place the denomination in a more commanding position, and give us that standing in society which the correctness of our theology and discipline justly demand. When we few of the leaders in the ranks of the opposition shall have been removed, the churches will very soon take up the line or march with the great body of the sacramental host of God's elect, now so successfully laboring to evangelize the world.
It is to be lamented that, while the Columbus Association has, from the beginning, voted in the affirmitive in all benevolent operations, yet she has been to remiss and deficient in effort, in action. Let us, my brethren, take higher ground -- set a higher mark as the maximum of our religion and our endeavors.
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Chapter IV
Sketch of Early Ministers
[From Columbus Baptist Association Minutes, 1859. These original records are in a bound volume at the Denison University Library, Special Collections and Archives, Granville, OH. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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