The visitor to the Heritage Gallery of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society was ready to leave. He rather intently had examined each of the panels in the religious liberty mural. We knew that he was a professor of law and we surmised that he was not a Baptist. As he opened the door to depart, he turned and said, “You Baptists have a charming history.” The dictionary defines charming as “exercising magical power, fascinating, highly pleasing or delightful.”
Fred Anderson
One of the charming, even endearing, stories out of Virginia Baptist history is the tale of a table. But before we can tell about the furniture, we need to know about the man and the times.
At age 21 in 1769, James Ireland was new to the Baptist persuasion. He had been reared a Presbyterian in Edinburgh, Scotland; but while teaching school in Northern Virginia, he became drawn to the Baptists through the powerful preaching of John Picket. At last, he yielded except on one point. He later explained: “I was still tenacious of the old mode of sprinkling, according to the Presbyterian plan. I was led to search the Scriptures impartially, and in a short time it pleased God to remove the scales from my eyes …. I determined at once to obey Christ by following him into the water.”
Ireland pondered the division among the Virginia Baptists of the times. There were two great parties — the Separates and the Regulars. “We wished to know which of the two bodies had the warmest preachers and the most fire among them. We determined in favor of [the Separates], although the ministers of both were zealous men.”
Ireland made the long trip to a stronghold of the Separate Baptists — Sandy Creek Church in North Carolina (near the present-day city of Burlington). There he attended a meeting of the Separate Baptist Association. Samuel Harris, one of the most powerful of the “sons of thunder” of his generation, was ordained at the meeting. It also was proposed at the meeting that Harris should be the minister to perform the baptism of the young Presbyterian.
Ireland traveled into Virginia and stopped at Samuel Harris' home in Pittsylvania County. A religious meeting was held in Pittsylvania for three days and great crowds gathered, with many coming from a considerable distance. On the third day the congregation heard the conversion experiences of the candidates for baptism. “I endeavored to make them acquainted with what the Lord had done for my soul,” remembered Ireland.
“After short interrogations, only for the satisfaction and edification of the church, they gave me the right hand of fellowship, and declared me to be a proper subject for baptism.” The next day was a Sunday; and following an early morning time of preaching, Ireland was baptized by Samuel Harris “in the presence of a large and solemn audience.” He also was expected to preach spontaneously. Four of “their ablest ministers” went to the pulpit before Ireland. “Being but a young soldier, [they] concluded I had not as many rounds as they to fire.”
As the fourth notable preacher began his message, Ireland noticed that the seasoned preacher “got confused and entangled.” “I beheld it in an instant,” he recalled, “[and] this passage of scripture dropped into my mind, ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,' 2nd Corinthians, 5th chap. and 17th verse.” Ireland reached for the preacher's coattail, gave it a pull and convinced the preacher to let him finish the sermon. “I was greatly enlarged on the subject and gave universal satisfaction to the ministers and society.”
Before the Pittsylvania meeting concluded, Ireland obtained his ordination to the gospel ministry. “My credentials were signed by eleven ministers, that I might go forward, as an itinerant preacher, without any hesitation.”
In one fell swoop, James Ireland had left the religious society of his rearing, had confessed his desire for a new life in Christ, had rubbed elbows with some of the choicest Baptist saints of the times, had been baptized, had preached without much notice or preparation, and had been set aside for a lifetime of ministry. He immediately set his face towards Culpeper, Va., with notice that he would preach.
Already the civil authorities in Culpeper were annoyed by the Baptist preachers. For days Ireland had felt a premonition that he would be jailed for preaching. And he was warned that he would be arrested. Baptists were beginning to experience open hostilities. Some of the persecution came from over zealous authorities who felt that the established order was threatened by the Baptists. Some came from the lower element of society which enjoyed harassing the preachers. Ireland recognized the risks. “I sat down and counted the cost, freedom or confinement, liberty or prison; it admitted of no dispute. Having ventured all upon Christ, I determined to suffer all for him.”
Baptists of the times were accustomed to meeting outdoors in brush arbors, in open fields, beneath spreading oaks and in barns and private homes. James Ireland was to preach at the home of a man named Manifa. When he arrived, the owner informed him that the word had come that anyone who listened to the preaching would be fined, and that a larger fine would be imposed upon him “for granting my house to preach in.”
Ireland later wrote: “Mr. Manifa, being a man under awakening impressions, told me not to flinch from my duty. I requested him to show me the line of his land, ordered a table to be taken out and placed with its feet on each side of the line. When I stood on the table I would not preach on his land no more than on another.” Ireland was concerned with others more than self.
The talk that day atop the table — talk about “the gospel of Christ” — resulted in Ireland's arrest. His imprisonment story was replete with danger and laced with acts of sacrifice and compassion on his part. The table went back inside its owner's house and was used for many a family meal. But it never had as charming a purpose as it did that day when it was a preaching platform.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.