him back to Orange. They soon returned, bringing with them also the Rev. James Read of North Carolina. Arriving in Orange within the bounds of what became afterwards the Blue Run Church, they found a large congregation met together to whom they preached. The next day they preached at Elijah Craig's to a vast crowd.' The 'Regular' preachers, Thomas and Garrard, were present also. The Separates and the Regulars could not unite, and the next day both parties held meetings and both baptized converts. Harriss and Read went on southerly through Spottsylvania into the upper parts of Caroline, Hanover, and Goochland. The next year they returned, accompanied by Dutton Lane. Together they constituted the first Separate Baptist Church north of James River. This took place on the 20th of November, 1767. The church was called Upper Spottsylvania, and consisted of twenty-five members, including all the Separate Baptists north of James River. This was a mother to many other churches." Read and Harriss continued, we are told, their visits to these parts of the country with remarkable results for about three years longer, up to about 1770. They baptized sev

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"The Materials and Form of a Baptist Church.-The Baptist Church consists in a certain number of persons, called by the Gospel out of the world, baptized on profession of their faith, and federally united together, to worship GOD, and rule itself according His Word, independent of any other society whatever.” Thomas, The Virginian Baptist, p. 24.

to

The Constitution of a Baptist Church.-The constitution of a Church is nothing else, but the solemn entrance of a number of persons into Covena.it as observed above and a public declaration of their having done so. And to this end several things are requisite, as: 1. A previous season of fasting and prayer. . . . 2. Calling an orderly minister to their aid. 3. An inquiry into the qualifications of the candidate. 4. A declaration of the persons to be joined in covenant, showing their willing consent to give themselves to the Lord, and to one another as a people separated from the world . . . together with their hearty purpose to reject all error, and avoid every wicked and unholy way." Thomas, The Virginian Baptist, 26-27.

enty-five persons at one time, it is said, and as many as two hundred on one of their journeys. Hundreds of men would camp out all night on the ground in order to hear them the next day. People travelled more than one hundred miles to go to their meetings; to go forty or fifty miles was common. More churches were soon needed. "Accordingly, on the second day of December, 1769, Lower Spottsylvania Church was constituted with 154 members, who chose John Waller for pastor. He was consecrated to this office June 2, 1770. Lewis Craig was consecrated pastor to the mother church, November, 1770. Blue Run Church was constituted December 4, 1769, choosing Elijah Craig for their pastor; he was consecrated May, 1771.""

The work now went rapidly forward. A popular tide began to rise. Each new convert became a zealous missionary. The accepted preachers and leaders went hither and thither incessantly. Jeremiah Moore said he had "travelled and preached distances sufficient to reach twice around the world." " Samuel Harriss "became almost a constant traveller. Not confining himself to narrow limits, but led on from place to place; wherever he could see an opening to do good, there he would hoist the flag of peace. There was scarcely any place in Virginia in which he did not sow the Gospel seed."" To illustrate:

'Arrested in Culpeper and carried into court as a disturber of the peace, he was ordered not to preach in the county again within the twelvemonth on pain of going to jail. From Culpeper he went into Fauquier and preached at Carter's Run. From thence he crossed the Blue Ridge and preached in Shenandoah. On his return from thence, he turned in at Captain Thomas Clanahan's, in the county of Culpeper, where there was a meeting. While certain young ministers were preaching, the Word of God began to burn in Colonel Harriss's heart. When they finished,

he rose and addressed the congregation: I partly promised the devil, a few days past, at the courthouse, that I would not preach in this county again in the term of a year. But the devil is a perfidious wretch, and covenants with him are not to be kept; and, therefore, I will preach.' He preached a lively, animating sermon. The court never meddled with him more." 14

These details concerning Samuel Harriss have been given. for the two-fold purpose of showing the extreme activity of the Baptist missionaries in these years, and of illustrating the way in which the attacks upon these itinerant preachers began. In his own county, where he was known and respected, Harriss seems never to have been molested. The social element was in his favor. Thus, it is related of him that he wished to preach to the officers and soldiers.. “An opportunity offered in Fort Mayo, and Mr. Harriss began. his harangue, urging most vehemently the necessity of the new birth. In the course of his harangue, an officer interrupted him, saying: " Colonel, you have sucked up much eloquence from the rum cask to-day. Pray give us a little, that we may declaim as well when it comes to our turn." Harriss replied: "I am not drunk," and resumed his discourse. He had not gone far before he was accosted by another in a serious manner, who, looking in his face, said: "Sam, you say you are not drunk; pray, are you mad, then? What the devils ails you?" Colonel Harriss replied, in the words of Paul: "I am not mad, most noble gentleman." 15 Away from home, however, Harriss did not. meet with the same courtesy from individuals. Indeed, it is evident that at first the masses of the people were opposed to the Baptists and feared them. The presence of the rabble is shown by the kind of attack made upon them. Some illustrations may make plainer the temper of the times. Speaking of the early work of the Regular Baptists in Northeastern Virginia, Semple says: "Sometimes when the

14

1 Semple, ibid., 282.

15

Semple, ibid., 381.

preachers came to a place for the purpose of preaching, a kind of mob would be raised, and by violent threats they hindered the preacher.' Threats became blows. Colonel Harriss, Rev. John Koones and others were beaten with clubs and cuffed and kicked and hauled about by the hair; mobs ducked some preachers till they were nearly drowned; a live snake and a hornet's nest were, upon different occasions, thrown into the meetings to break them up; and drunken ruffians insulted the preachers." That the preachers were themselves partly responsible for this we learn from what Semple says about them after the close of the revival of 1785-92: "Their preachers were become much more correct in their manner of preaching. A great many odd tones, disgusting whoops, and awkward gestures. were disused; in their matter also they had more of sound sense and strong reasoning. Their zeal was less mixed with enthusiasm, and their piety became more rational."" But in the beginning they "whooped" in "many odd tones." Leland tells us also that "The Separates were the most zealous, and the work among them was very noisy. The people would cry out, fall down, and for a time lose the use of their limbs, which exercise made the bystanders marvel; some thought they were deceitful, others that they were bewitched, and many, being convinced of all, would report that God was with them of a truth."" Some of these people, we are told, would be nervously affected; they had the "jerks,"" muscular contortions; they had the "barks," and yelped like dogs; they rolled on the ground in agonized dread of hell-fire and eternal damnation, or they leaped into the air with ecstatic shouts at the glory of their newfound salvation. We see here a frame of mind like that of Bunyan when he heard voices warning him, or like that of Balfour of Burley, with sharp sword out, lunging against

the

very devil himself." We seem, as we read, to be on the verge of slipping back into the Middle Ages; of seeing again the sailors of Columbus on their knees as they chant the Gospel of John to ward off the oncoming water-spout; of witnessing the dancing mania reproduced, or of hearing again the enthusiastic shouts of the Crusading multitudes: "Noel! Noel! God wills it!" In truth, many of these people were but little removed from the Middle Ages in the intensity of their religious emotion and belief. The miraculous became to them the commonplace of God's chosen ones, and the commonplace became miraculous."

"Cf. Sir Walter Scott, "Old Mortality," ch. 43, and notes.

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Objection XIV. Against making a Noise, etc., under Preaching. You pretend to stick very close to the word of GOD, to be sure! But where, I pray ye, do you read of such noisy meetings! What loud crying! What jumping up! What falling down! What roaring, schreeching, screaming! Does the Holy Scripture countenance such wild disorder? . . . .

Answer. As these horrid vociferations and obstreperous commotions, mentioned in the objection, never were the effect of my preaching, nor are approved of by our churches, as any part of religion; I am no ways obliged to vindicate any or all of them. However, being it is cast upon the poor Baptists as an odium peculiar to us, I shall give a short history of this modern phenomenon, as follows:

The first appearance of it was under the preaching of the Rev. George Whitefield, a noted priest of the Church of England, who died two or three years ago, near Boston in New England. From him certain Presbyterians catched the fire, and zealously fanned the flame for some years. At last it kindled among some Baptists, where it continues burning to this day. Now, whether this fire is celestial or terrestrial, or of what nature it is, as I pretend not to know, I shall not undertake to determine. Those who think it is of GOD, are the fittest to defend it. They are of age, ask them, they shall speak for themselves. I confess I can find no account of it in the word of GOD."

Thomas, The Virginian Baptist, 63.

Evidently Thomas, and we may suppose the Regular Baptists generally, disapproved of the "warm and enthusiastic " meetings of the Separates.

I remember being greatly impressed some years ago by the remark of a young Swedish poet then visiting this country that among the things which seemed most strange to him were the absence of the folk songs and hymns and the presence of the (to