In 1793 a Congregational church of twenty-two members was constituted in Sedgwick. The same year, Rev. Daniel Merrill, who had been preaching two years as the town's minister, and who was the founder of this church, was ordained its pastor. Under the indefatigable exertions of this zealous working man of God, this church prospered several years, and being blessed of God with several special and wide spreading revivals, its numerical strength, at the beginning of 1805, was greater than of any other community of disciples in the State. It had a total of one hundred and eighty-nine members. A large number of these disciples, with Mr. Merrill their leader, renounced pedo-baptism, and became Baptists, and on the 14th of May, 1805, were regularly constituted into a church of Christ upon the New Testament platform, and Elder Merrill, by the same council, and on the same day, was recognized by ordination as the pastor.
This singular change, as might be expected, awakened excitement and produced a variety of feelings and remarks in the community. The Baptists rejoiced, not as worldly victors, but in this glorious triumph of gospel truth over human tradition; and the Congregationalists mourned the misfortune of their hitherto beloved Merrill, and of his church. As regards the causes of this change, much has been written, and much more has been said. Some supposed that it was owing to a lax discipline; some, to the influence of Baptist preachers who were permitted to visit and peach among the people; and others, to both these circumstances combined. But facts show that such suppositions were but ill-founded conjectures.
There was great caution, wisdom and firmness maintained by Mr. Merrill inn the discipline of that church. The first signs of disease engaged his most prompt endeavors to effect a cure. Nor was he less vigilant to remove any dissatisfaction which he might discover in any mind as regarded that peculiarity of his faith, "pedo-baptism." To illustrate the attachment of Mr. Merrill to his own peculiar views, and the anxiety he felt for any of his flock who might be inquiring in a different direction, we shall here introduce some circumstances which are regarded as among the preliminaries to this change.
Mr. R. Allen, one of the first converts under the ministry of Mr. Merrill, 'never felt satisfied with infant sprinkling.' Mr. Merrill was informed of the dissatisfaction of Mr. Allen; whereupon he had several conversations with him, in which he labored earnestly to convince him of 'its importance and Divine authority.' It however remained still to Mr. Allen an unmeaning and an unscriptural practice. The contagion, as it was viewed, began to send its influence over other minds. Deacon S. Herrick, Mr. Amos Allen and others, soon revealed their dissenting feelings. Mr. Merrill was at this time diligent to arrest the schismatic spirit. yet the number opposed to infant sprinkling rapidly increased, so that a separation in the church was feared. To prevent this, the very singular expedient was adopted, of so altering their Confession of Faith, as to make their dissenting views no valid objection to communion. This expedient prevented a separation, but not inquires and altercations.
How much influence Baptist preachers may have exerted among this people, it is not easy to determine. The members who dissented from pedo-baptism tell us with one voice 'that the Bible first taught them the errors of this doctrine.' Mr. Merrill had no predilection for Baptists. He says in his autobiography, page 2: 'From my earliest childhood to the commencement of my literary course, I had never, to my knowledge, seen more than one Baptist minister, nor heard any commend the peculiar tenets of the Baptists; but had frequently heard them spoken against with visible displeasure. I early conceived and for a considerable time retained an opinion of the Baptists, not favorable to their persons, their sentiments or their practices.' But as we became more acquainted with them he says: 'Their apparent piety, and the manifest honesty with which they adhered to their sentiments, mellowed my asperity.' Being intimate with several of their ministers, and having strong affection for them, he says, 'he desired a union with them, not by turning to them, but by their turning from their errors.' He conversed, he preached, he wrote, to secure what he desired; but, failing, he resolved to write a book, to convince the Baptists of their errors, and to relieve his church from a perplexing uneasiness. These were important objects to be gained, and he determined to gain them by the power of scriptural evidence and argument.
He says: 'I gave myself with a degree of decision to a careful and critical review of the sacred oracles of God. I contemplated day and night, perusing the sacred volume from Genesis to Revelation. I searched and renewed my anxious search for more than two years. My pain became severe. To my great disappointment and extreme regret, I was driven to the then very sorrowful conclusion that the sacred scriptures did not afford clear and direct evidence to support my own practice.'
Now came a peculiar trial. Several children were presented for Baptism. But Mr. Merrill refused to perform the ceremony, alleging for his reasons, 'As God has refused to me the light of evidence in favor of the rite, I refuse to administer it.' This occasioned joy to some of his church, but grief and dissatisfaction to others. The discomfit with which he had met, so distressed him, he was induced to reveal his convictions and trials to his worthy deacon, S. Herrick, who was ready to sympathize with him, being himself also an inquirer after truth. It was resolved to spend a day of fasting and prayer before the Lord, 'that they might not renounce their practice if it was in agreement with his truth; and that they might not reject the sentiments of the Baptists, provided they were in accordance with his will.' The day passed, and says Mr. Merrill, 'I was in extreme darkness -- in darkness sensibly to be felt.' For several months his conflict was severe. At length the Lord removed the cloud, and holy light filled his mind; he saw clearly, and found peace. He was now a Baptist. With zeal, with ability, with firmness, and aided by the light of truth, he entered immediately upon a defence [sic] of Believer's Baptism, as the true and only gospel rite.
Trials did not end here. Opposition from without now lifted her dark visage. Great efforts were made to deprive Mr. Merrill of his salary as the minister of the town, and reject him from the pulpit of the town's meeting house, by a vote of the inhabitants, for the simple reason that he had become a Baptist. But here opposition was by a large majority of votes defeated, and Mr. Merrill was received as the town's minister upon the Baptist platform.
The next important business to be done was to change the name and character of the church. On the 28th of February, 1805, after prayerfully deliberating the duty, it was resolved to invite a council of Baptist ministers and churches, for the purposes of baptizing and embodying them into a Baptist church. This was done by the following council: Elders Pitman, of Providence, Baldwin of Boston, Williams of Beverly, Case of Readfield, Snow of Thomaston, and Cummings of Vinalhaven, besides several lay brethren. The candidates, eighty-five in number, were baptized by Baldwin and Williams, where was 'much water;' sixty-six of them at one time, in forty-two minutes, and nineteen others the next day, when they were organized into a church, and Elder Case gave them the right hand of fellowship.
The church now constituted, with Mr. Merrill their able pastor, began to move forward, and in less than three months sixty more of the remaining disciples were baptized and added to the church; and in about a year twenty-five more. This was a light in the midst of darkness, shedding its spiritual radiance around the path of those who were inquiring for the true way to Zion. Being the first Baptist church in this region, it became a centre of attraction to those who were Baptists in the surrounding country. Many of the original members of the churches, First and Second Bluehill, Deer Isle, Brooksville, Penobscot, Second Sedgwick, and North Sedgwick, were from this church. It has also yielded much ministerial fruit, as Rev. P. Pilsbury, Rev. N. Norton, Rev. Amos Allen, Rev. Michael Carleton, Rev. H. Hale, Rev. Moses Merrill, (son of Rev. D. Merrill) Rev. Thomas Merrill, and Rev. Daniel Dodge.
Rev. Mr. Merrill resigned the pastoral care in 1814. The same year, Mr. Ebenezer Pinkham began to preach among them and in 1815 received by ordination the pastor charge, which he held with eminent usefulness till 1820. In 1816, one hundred and forty were added to the church by baptism, as fruits of a revival. In 1821, Rev. Mr. Merrell, returned from New Hampshire, and again became pastor, to the joy of the church, and in 1822 another wonderful refreshing for the presence of the Lord brought into this fold about one hundred more. Rev. Ebenezer Mirick was pastor from 1829 to 1834, and some prosperity attended his ministry. An interval of about a year and a half was now filled by the able ministry of the late Rev. E. W. Garrison. In 1836, their present pastor, Rev. David Nutter, entered upon his labors with he church. In 1838, more than one hundred souls were added to the church, as the fruitful harvest of the preached gospel, by the Spirit. This is a flourishing, enterprising, and able church, of two hundred and sixty members. =========== [From The Baptist Memorial and Monthly Record, NY: November, 1845, Vol. 4, pp 310-313; this was first published in Millett's History of the Baptists in Maine.]
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