A History of the Baptists: From John the Baptist through The American Baptists(1 Baptist History)

The author devoted years to the examination of the subject of Baptists history, Truth only is changeless, and only as any people have held to the truth in its purity and primitive simplicity has the world had an unchanging religion. The truth has been held by individual men and scattered companies but never in an unbroken continuity by any sect as such. Sect after sect has appeared and held it for a time, then has destroyed itself by mixing error with the truth; again, the truth has evinced its divinity by rising afresh in the hands of a newly organized people, to perpetuate its diffusion in the earth. It is enough to show that what Christ's churches were in the days of the Apostles, that the Baptist churches of today find themselves. The truths held by them have never died since Christ gave them, and in the exact proportion that any people have maintained these truths they have been the true Baptists of the world. The writer therefore, refused to be bound in his investigations by an iron obligation to show a succession of people who have held all the principles, great and small, of any sect now existing--no more and no less. A lamentable lack of intelligence exists amongst us in regard to our origin and principles as Baptists. This book is written for the purpose of putting within the reach of all such facts as shall inform them of their religions history and what it cost the fathers of our faith to defend the same.

About the Author :
"Thomas Armitage was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1819. He is descended from the old and honored family of the Armitages of that section of Yorkshire, one of whom, Sir John Armitage of Barnsley, was created a baronet by Charles I in 1640. He lost his father at a tender age, and his mother when he was five years old. The last prayer of his mother was that he might be converted and become a good minister of the Saviour. The religious influence of his godly mother never forsook him. While listening to a sermon on the text, "Is it well with thee?" his sins and danger filled him with grief and alarm, and before he left the sanctuary his heart was filled with the love of Christ. In his sixteenth year he preached his first sermon. His text was, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The truth was blessed to the conversion of three persons. He declined pressing calls to enter the regular ministry of the English Methodist Church, but used his gifts as a local preacher for several years. He filled many important appointments in the M. E. Church in New York, and when he united with the Baptists he was pastor of the Washington Street church in Albany, one of its most important churches, where the Lord had given him a precious revival and eighty converts. Dr. Armitage is a scholarly man, full of information, with a powerful intellect; one of the greatest preachers in the United States; regarded by many as the foremost man in the American pulpit. We do not wonder that he is so frequently invited to deliver sermons at ordinations, dedications, installations, missionary anniversaries, and to college students. As a great teacher in Israel, the people love to hear him, and their teachers are delighted with the themes and with the herald. When very young, he was licensed to preach. At the age of twenty he left his native land and came to the United States. Since then he has not neglected the gift that is in him. The voice that so long ago said to him, on the other side of the sea, "Is it well with thee?" has ever been gladly recognized, and he has "followed Jesus all the way." It led him to Long Island; it led him to Albany; it led him down the Hudson again--and very many whom his words first taught the heavenly lesson now know "It is well" with them. Today few stand higher among the American ministry or more honored of the Great Master, than Tommy, the Yorkshire boy--now Dr. Thomas Armitage of New York." [From: Baptist Encyclopedia, edited by William Cathcart, 1883, Louis H. Everts, Philadelphia"]

Review :
A very thorough and complete book about Baptists and their distinctives. H. D. Williams, M.D., Ph.D.