Heritage Column for October 20, 2005
By Fred Anderson
Two names stand out in the long list of Virginia Baptist statesmen: Robert Baylor Semple, arguably the leading figure of the early 19th century, and Jeremiah Bell Jeter, certainly the leading personality of the post-Civil War period.
In 1823, Semple was among the founders of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and was elected as its first president. He was in his mid-50s and at the zenith of a stellar ministerial career.
In 1823, Jeter was a young whippersnapper, a 20-something with great promise. He was chosen as one of the first state missionaries of the General Association and sent across Virginia by horseback to determine the religious climate of the state.
The years moved along, and in 1854 Jeter was elected president of the General Association. He remained closely attached to its life and work until his death in 1880. After the Civil War, he co-purchased the Religious Herald, which at the time was a proprietary paper with a wide circulation among Baptists in the United States.
In 1867 Jeter editorialized about Semple. He remembered the first time in which he saw and heard the famed minister. It was at the founding meeting of the General Association, held in Richmond at Second Baptist Church in June 1823. He recalled that although Semple was from eastern Virginia, his reputation had reached even into as “remote” a section as Jeter's Bedford County. The young Jeter was “intensely anxious to see him, to hear him preach.”
Jeter was not entirely pleased. “The sermon was plain, sensible, appropriate and solemn; but it did not reach the lofty standard which our youthful imagination reared for it.” He admitted that his own “uncultivated taste” probably influenced his impression; and in time, he heard Semple on other occasions and pronounced that he “ranked very high as a preacher in his generation.”
Jeter declared that Semple's real calling was as a counselor. “He was a wise man. He possessed eminently that discretion, candor, sound judgment and practical tact which rendered his advice valuable. His opinion on every subject carried weight. In every religious body his views were received with profound respect.”
But there was one great deficiency, according to Jeter. He felt that Semple-ever the denominational diplomat-was “too conservative, too much afraid of giving offense.” He observed that Semple and the other leaders who surrounded him “endeavored to circumscribe their plans of usefulness within the narrow limits dictated by the customs, prejudices and penuriousness of certain brethren, that their feelings might not be wounded.”
“That there might be no apprehension of their doing mischief, these leaders so tied their own hands, with constitutional cords, that they could do very little good. For long years the General Association was hampered in its efforts to evangelize the state by the conservative, conciliating but, to a great extent, unavailing restrictions imposed by its primary constitution.”
Jeter may have been referring to the organization of the General Association, which early in its history was a weak body trying to hold together several strong and independent boards which were organized for specific purposes such as Bible distribution, Sunday school development and missions support.
Jeter also may have been thinking about the overall suspicion which early Baptists had toward any association or convention or organization beyond the local church which smacked of control.
The may have been thinking of the stingy nature of pre-cooperative Baptists who did not want to even pay their preacher, much less support missions and benevolences.
There may have been other reasons for the reluctance of the early generation to take a bold stand. The early Baptists had been badly divided along theological lines and a rather uneasy peace had been secured. The theological divisions had given rise to parties, with all the attendant personalities and politics inherent to parties.
In any event, Jeter was sounding a cry for bold stands. Semple's generation was cautious not to lose a single individual or a single church; and therefore, the leadership was so willing to compromise and conciliate that they actually “hampered [the BGAV's] efforts.”
Jeremiah Bell Jeter was calling for boldness. He would have liked to have seen the General Association take a stand on certain issues of the day and to take its chances in the marketplace of ideas. He wanted the General Association to be a strong advocate on an issue. He realized that by trying to please all the people all of the time in all of the nooks and crannies of Virginia, the General Association was diluting its influence. He wanted the General Association of his day to carve out an identity and be who and what they must be. He issued a call for bold stands.
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be reached at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.