Patrick Henry’s Defense of the Baptist Ministers

Copied:

Three Baptist ministers had been indicted at Fredericksburgh for preaching the Gospel contrary to the statute.

Patrick Henry hearing of this rode some fifty miles to volunteer his services in defence of the oppressed. He entered the court, being unknown to all present save the Bench and the Bar, while the indictment was being read by the clerk.

He sat within the bar until the reading was finished, and the king’s attorney had concluded some remarks in defence of the prosecution, when he arose, reached out his hand for the paper, and without more ceremony proceeded with the following speech:

“May it please your Worships, I think I heard read by the prosecutor, as I entered this house, the paper I now hold in my hand. If I have rightly understood the king’s attorney of the colony has framed an indictment for the purpose of arraigning and punishing by imprisonment, three inoffensive persons before the bar of this court, for a crime of great magnitude, as disturbers of the public peace.

May it please the court, what did I hear read? Did I hear it distinctly, or was it a mistake of my own? Did I hear an expression, as if a crime, that these men whom your Worships are about to try for a misdemeanor, are charged with - - - -What?” and continuing in a low, solemn, heavy tone, “Preaching the Gospel of the Son of God?” Pausing amidst the most profound silence and breathless astonishment, he slowing waved the paper three times around his head, when, lifting his hands and eyes to heaven, with peculiar and impressive energy, he exclaimed: “Great God!”

The exclamation, the burst of feeling from the audience were all overpowering. Mr. Henry resumed: “May it please your Worships: In a day like this, when truth is about to burst her fetters, when mankind are about to be aroused to claim their natural and unalienable rights, when the yoke of oppression, that has reached the wilderness of America, and the unnatural alliance of ecclesiastical and civil power are about to be dissevered, at such a period when liberty, liberty of conscience, is about to awake from her slumberings, and to inquire into the reason of such charges as I find exhibited here to day in this indictment!”

Here followed another long pause on the part of the speaker, while he again waved the indictment around his head, and a deeper impression was made on the auditory. Resuming his speech, “May it please your Worships; There are periods in the history of man, when corruption and depravity have so long debased the human character, that man sinks under the oppressor’s hand, becomes his servile, his abject slave; he licks the hand that smites him, he bows in passive obedience to the mandates of the despot, and, in this state of servility, he receives his fetters of perpetual bondage.

“But, may it please your Worships, such a day has passed away! From that period when our fathers left the land of their nativity for settlement in these American wilds, for liberty, for civil and religious liberty, for liberty of conscience to worship their Creator according to their own conceptions of heaven’s revealed will, from the moment that they placed their feet upon the American continent, and in the deeply imbedded forests, sought an asylum from persecution and tyranny, from that moment despotism was crushed, the fetters of darkness were broken, and heaven decreed that man should be free, free to worship according to the Bible.

“Were it not for this in vain were all their sufferings and bloodshed to subjugate this New World , if we their offspring must still be oppressed and persecuted.

“But may it please your Worships,” continued the speaker, “permit me to ask once more, For what are these men about to be tried? This paper says, “for preaching the Gospel of the Saviour to Adam’s fallen race.”

Then in tones of thunder he exclaimed; “What law have they violated?” While the third time, in a low, dignified manner, he lifted his eyes to heaven, and waved the indictment round his head.

The court and audience were now wrought up to the most intense pitch of excitement. The face of the prosecuting attorney was pallid and ghastly, and he seemed unconscious that his whole frame was agitated with alarm; while the judge, in a tremulous voice, put an end to the scene, now becoming excessively painful, by the authoritive declaration: “Sheriff, discharge those men.”
-- From Reminiscences of Baptists Of Virginia by William Smoot

John Waller on Matthew 16:18

"Did God then leave Himself without a witness? Did the gates of Hell prevail against His church? Were the foundations of His kingdom laid in sand, that it yielded to the storms of persecution which befell it during the reign of the Man of Sin? Or did the church exist and stand, as firm as the rock of its foundation? And where was it in the long and dreary night, from the revelation of the Son of the Perdition until until the Reformation of the sixteenth century? There inquiries demand serious consideration and satisfactory answers.

"It will not do, be the way of response, to urge the existence of an 'invisible church.' This is to evade and not to meet the difficulty. The Savior did not build an 'invisible church' upon the 'rock' confessed by Peter. The Church of Christ on earth is visible. The light of the gospel was not given to be put under a bushel. The Church of the Redeemer is as a city set upon a hill, whose light cannot be hid. . . It is certain from the positive testimony of the Scriptures, that the adherents of Popery from the beginning, saw, and hence pursued and persecuted the saints of the Most High -- the people or church of the Redeemer -- those who followed the Lamb whithersoever He went -- who would not worship the beast, neither his image -- and who refused to receive his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands." -- John L. Waller

{John L. Waller (1809-1854) helped to found the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky where he served as clerk, general agent, and moderator of that body. He also founded and edited the "Western Baptist Review" from 1845 – 1851 and later served as the first editor of the "Western Recorder." Notice that Waller denied that Matthew 16:18 referred to the invisible church. He also believed this verse was scriptural proof that true churches existed from the origins of Popery until the start of the Reformation. The above quote is from the Southern Baptist Review, August-September, pp. 560-561.}

---Copied The Landmark Southern Baptist forum

Singing in Dallas

Singers will gather Saturday, November 7 (d.v.) to sing from the 1991 Revision of the Sacred Harp at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church on 9200 Inwood Rd. in Dallas, Texas. The gathering will be in the Wesley Chapel and is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m.

Official Singing Flyer

Let patience have her perfect work

"The only thing worse than not having any patience, is having patience, and being mad about having to have it." -- Copied

Random Sacred Harp quotes 2

"I have seen this music go from a national curiosity to a cool pursuit. Keep it healthy by singing it, loving it, and contributing to its future." -- Martha Beverly

"Nothing is weirder than Sacred Harp. Its favored subject matter--the pilgrim, the grave, Christ's blood--is stark; its style--severe fourths and otherworldly open fifths--has been obsolete for more than a century. Its notation, in which triangles, circles and squares indicate pitch, looks like cuneiform. Yet it exudes power and integrity. Five people sound like a choir; a dozen like a hundred." -- From "Give Me That Old-Time Singing"

"Be sure not to force the Sound thro' your Nose; but warble the Notes in your Throat" -- William Billings

"Shape note singing is one way to recapture the sense of happiness and participation that was common to all Americans long ago during the great age of participatory singing." -- Bruce Hayes

"I’m not trying to write any jawbreakers; I like a good plain tune best." -- Marcus Cagle

"European music is less agreeable to the American ear than her own." -- Abraham Maxim, in The Northern Harmony, 2d ed. (Exeter: Norris and Sawyer, 1808). I think a lot of Americans have flip-flopped on this issue since 1808.

The Portal to Texas History

Here is a helpful site for Texas history and genealogy:
The Portal to Texas History

Searches books, maps, photos, newspapers, etc.

Granny Russell Singing

Lord willing, come sing with us tomorrow at the Granny Russell Singing held at the Little Hope Primitive Baptist Church meeting house on Farm to Market 1669 near Huntington, Texas. Singing starts around 10:00 a.m. and we usually quit around 3:00 p.m. We will be using the 2006 Cooper Revision Sacred Harp book.

The singing is held in memory and honor of Nancy Amelia "Granny" Russell.

Beebe on freedom of religion

Gilbert Beebe: "To protect the people from coercive interference with the sacred rights of conscience in matters of religion, the first Congress of the United States that ever assembled under the Constitution was convened in the city of New York, March 4, 1789, at which time and place the following amendment to the Constitution was proposed and submitted to the several states for their approval and was concurred in by the states and became a part of our Constitution: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof'. What is now sought for is to so change our Constitution as to indicate that the United States 'are a Christian Nation'. The scriptures of truth recognize but one such nation, and that is called, 'A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people'. Into that nation can none enter except they be born of water and of the Spirit, and none can ever see it except they be born again. A Christian nation must be an establishment of religion, and no law concerning it has Congress any power to make, nor have any power to prevent the free exercise of it." -- Originally from The Signs of the Times and reprinted in the Old Faith Contender, October-December, 1980, edited and published by W. J. Berry

To pray or not to pray

I had a brief chuckle this morning when I heard on the radio that the Houston city council is being sued because their prayers are "too religious". I wondered what kind of non-religious prayers there are. To whom do atheists pray?

Seems the radio station botched the wording a bit, and the real claim is that the prayers are "too Christian". Kay Staley has sued the city (and specifically named council member Anne Clutterbuck). Staley says the prayers are too Christian and that they violate the First Amendment. Anne Clutterbuck was singled out because she quoted the Lord's Prayer.

To add to my chuckle, I found Staley is offended by watching this on TV: "I've been aggravated about it for some time watching City Council on access television." Watching city council on TV would probably aggravate me too. But instead of changing channels, she sues! This possibly is a dual purpose suit -- on the one hand to oppose Christianity and on the other (bigger hand) to grab a little publicity for the sewer (uh, I mean, sue-er; how do you spell that?). I mean, pu-leeze; Staley said, "I'm offended. I don't like people telling me when and how to pray." No one is telling her how to pray, or even that she has to pray. Furthermore, this person who doesn't want the council praying to Jesus says she is offended "because the praying goes against the teaching of Jesus. Heavily quoting the Bible, the lawsuit argues Jesus taught praying was not to be flaunted in public but to be done in private." Come on, Kay, why do you want these public officials to follow the teachings of Jesus? Isn't there some kind of hypocrisy there in your own thinking? If you believe prayers at city councils and other government functions are unconstitutional just say that and leave off the other mumbo-jumbo.

I could care less whether the members of the Houston city council have prayer at their meetings. It's not a religious gathering, and I'm not really all that keen on things that politicans may be doing just for show. But they are grown people who can pray if they want to. If they're mostly Christians, then the prayers will be mostly Christian (there have been some prayers of Hindu, Jewish and Muslim faiths). If there is a council member of another faith, Christians should not complain if he or she prays according to his or her faith. The Supreme Court has consistently upheld prayer at government meetings, but also say it must not promote any particular religion. If people simply pray according to their own beliefs, are they then promoting a particular religion? Or are they just praying?

Poor Clutterbuck -- she has "worked hard not to invoke a particular deity". The lawsuit contains transcripts that show she "never invoked a particular deity's name and one time read from Abraham Lincoln". And yet she gets special mention in the lawsuit above all the other council members!

Courthouse Bible plaintiff now targets Houston council prayer by Mary Flood

"Every prayer is an acknowledgement of our weakness and dependence . Who would ask that of another which he thinketh to be in his own power?" -- Thomas Manton