This daily devotional is the first of a three volume set written by the late Dr. David Cummins, longtime Baptist historian and deputation director for Baptist World Mission.
03.14 Living with Eternity in View
Scripture: Job 14:14On March 14, 1773, Edmund Botsford was ordained into the gospel ministry by his old mentor, the Reverend Oliver Hart, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina. The ordination took place in Savannah, Georgia, and in the ordination sermon, taken from I Timothy 4:16, Pastor Hart said, “A plain and simple stile, seems best to […]
03.13 A Courthouse Converted to a Church House
Scripture: Isaiah 61 This day was very significant in 1774 for several reasons. The Piscataway Baptist Church, located seven miles southwest of Tappahannock, Virginia, was constituted, and on the same day a warrant was issued to apprehend all the Baptist preachers at the meeting.John Waller, John Shackleford, Robert Ware, and Ivison Lewis were taken before a magistrate. Ivison Lewis was […]
03.12 Holy of Life, Eloquent of Speech, Patriotic of Spirit
Scripture: Acts 18:18-28Samuel Stillman was born in Philadelphia February 27, 1737. At the age of eleven he, along with his parents, moved to South Carolina. Under the preaching of Oliver Hart, he was converted to Jesus Christ. Stillman was baptized by Hart and studied theology under his tutelage. In later years Hart founded a Baptist Education Society in Charleston, South […]
03.10 From a Close Friend to a Bitter Persecutor
Scripture: Galatians 2:11-21Balthazar Hubmaer (Hubmeyer) was born at Friedburg, Bavaria, in 1480. Even though he studied philosophy and theology under Eck, the great antagonist of Martin Luther, he embraced Luther’s views in 1522. He was in full communication with Zwingli and assisted him in the great debate at Zurich with the Catholics in 1523, after which they became the closest […]
03.11 The Testament of a Godly Mother
A godly woman named Soetgen van den Houte fell into the hands of the same persecutors that her husband had fallen into previously. She was left a widow with three children. After experiencing the assaults and imprisonments described before in this volume by others who shared like sufferings and martyrdom, she witnessed to the Saviour she professed and sealed it […]