support of the Episcopal ministry. In 1643, the Grand Assembly enacted that none should preach but the clergy of the Establishment, and enjoined the governor to see to it that all nonconformists depart the colony.' The year 1661 brought an enactment of greater stringency; namely, that every nonconformist should pay a fine of twenty pounds sterling for every month that he should absent himself from the Episcopal Church; and, if absent for a year, he should be arrested, and required to give security for his good behavior, or be imprisoned. Besides, the Grand Assembly decreed that all persons who refused to have their children christened' by a lawful minister shall be amerced two thousand pounds of tobacco.' The result was, that no Baptist church was publicly organized till 1714; and the organization then effected was due principally to the Act of Toleration, passed under William and Mary. But, for a hundred years after that, the magistrates and clergy resorted to every possible subterfuge to evade the Toleration Act. Obsolete laws were hunted up, and no form of violence left untried to crush them out. Dr. Hawks says, in his 'History of the Protestant-Episcopal Church in Virginia,' that no dissenters in Virginia experienced, for a time, harsher treatment than did the Baptists. They were beaten and impris oned; and cruelty taxed its ingenuity to devise new modes of punishment and annoyance.' In 1775, messengers from sixty Baptist churches met to consider their duty to God and their country. They memorialized the State Convention, that convention which instructed the Virginia delegates to Congress to declare independence. Of that memorial, which covered the whole question of civil and religious freedom, 'The Journal' says, 'An address from the Baptists of this colony was presented to the convention, and read, setting forth, that, . alarmed at the oppression which hangs over America, they had considered what part it would be proper for them to take in the unhappy contest; and had determined, that, in some cases, it is lawful to go to war; and that we

ought to make military resistance to Great Britain in her unjust invasion, tyrannical oppression, and repeated hostilities.' The deputation which waited upon the convention consisted of Rev. Messrs. Walker, Williams, and Roberts. They succeeded in enlisting three of its members in their cause of full religious freedom; namely, Jefferson, Madison, and Henry, who submitted the document to the body. Its effect was powerful upon the whole country. Dr. Hawks says, in reference to this effect, 'The Baptists were not slow in discovering the advantageous position in which the political troubles of the country had placed them. Their numerical strength was such as to make it important to both sides to secure their influence: they knew this, and therefore determined to turn the circumstances to their profit as a sect. Persecution had taught them not to love the Establishment, and now they saw before them a reasonable prospect of overturning it entirely. In their association, they had calmly discussed the matter, and resolved on their course: in this course they were consistent to the end.'

"In 1779, all things being now ready for a final vote, the question was settled, and the Establishment was finally put down. The Baptists were the principal promoters of this work, and, in truth, aided more than any other denomination in its accomplishment. After their final success in this matter, their next efforts were to procure the sale of the church. property. Inch by inch was gained, and point by point taken up. For fifteen years, the Baptist General Committee continued its labors. In 1785, the Baptist General Convention pressed the legislature for the passage of the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, which was accomplished through the efforts of Mr. Madison. Two years after this, the Act for incorporating the Episcopal Church was repealed; and, in the same year, the Baptists commenced an agitation, through their General Committee, upon the repeal. of the glebe laws, which resulted in the sale of those enormous estates which had been appropriated to the Established

Church by order of the legislature. Says Dr. Hawks, ‘That vote decided the fate of the glebes. The war which they (the Baptists) had waged against the church was a war of extermination. They seemed to have known no relentings, and their hostility never ceased for seven and twenty years. They avenged themselves for their sufferings by the almost total ruin of the church.' Thus after a most stubborn resistance, hair's-breadth after hair's-breadth, the last vestige of religious oppression was swept away in Virginia. Still, it was not till the year 1832 that Massachusetts fully took her place side by side with Virginia on the subject of religious liberty; and Connecticut did so but a few years

sooner.

6

"A few words upon the influence of the Baptists in forming the General Government must close this paper. The Constitution of the United States was adopted in 1787. Immediately thereafter (March, 1788), the Virginia Baptist General Committee took up this question for discussion,' Whether the new Federal Constitution, which had now lately made its appearance in public, made sufficient provision for the secure enjoyment of religious liberty. After full investigation, it was unanimously agreed that it did not.' The committee then consulted with Mr. Madison as to what could be done in the case, who recommended them to address Gen. Washington upon the subject. They also sought the co-operation of the Baptists in other States of the Union; and sent out Elder John Leland as their representative, who secured their cordial co-operation. The sixth article in the new Constitution read, No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.' In August, 1789, the Baptists sent a well-digested and formal address to Washington on the subject by a delegation from their body. He pronounced their position right, and the next month he carried through Congress this amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'

6

This is a part of our present Constitution. The correspondence on that occasion is worthy of the men whom it immortalizes on both sides. The Baptists said to Washington, When the Constitution first made its appearance in Virginia, we, as a society, had unusual strugglings of mind, fearing that the liberty of conscience, dearer to us than property or life, was not sufficiently secured. Perhaps our jealousies were heightened by the usage we received in Virginia under the royal government, when mobs, fines, bonds, and prisons were our frequent repast.' To which the President replied, If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the Convention, when I had the honor to preside, might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature to it; and, if I could now conceive that the General Government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution.' Since that time, no body of American Christians has been more faithful to the government, or has done more to perpetuate our liberties, than this denomination during the early periods of its history. They supported the war of 1812 as unanimously and as earnestly as that of 1776.

"With reference to the late Rebellion, the facts are too recent in the public mind to need repetition here. The Baptists of the South went with the South, and those of the West and East and North stood by the National Government with most remarkable unanimity."

Baptist statistics for 1866 show in the United States 609 associations, 12,955 churches, 8,346 ordained ministers, 92,957 baptized, and 1,094,806 members;* colleges, 30; theological schools, 14; periodicals, 36, of which 24 are weekly, * American Baptist Almanac, 1868.

10 monthly or semi-monthly, and 2 quarterly; expended for foreign missions, for the year, $220,000; home missions, about $240,000; money for the Publication Society, $90,000; Bible Society, $44,000.*

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.†

"The Presbyterian Church has contributed its due proportion to the moral and civil development of the United States. We do not propose to contrast its influence with that of other churches, but, by simple and direct statements of the part which it took in our early history, to connect its official and individual acts with the growth of our free institutions.

"There are five principal sources from which the Presbyterian Church of this country has drawn its members, — the English Puritans, the Dutch Calvinists, the French Huguenots, the German Calvinists, and, more largely than from any other, the Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.

"The history of American colonization is the history of the crimes of Europe.' The same remark might be made of the sources of American Presbyterianism. The English religious persecutions drove out the Puritans, and, in still larger numbers, the Scotch and Scotch-Irish. The Germans came to this country under similar pressure. The infamous Revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove out the French Huguenots; and Holland had long been the gathering-place of the unfortunate.' With a common love of liberty, and deep religious principle, these made the broad foundation of the present Presbyterian Church. It has been estimated, that, by the year 1750, their number, outside of New England, amounted to between one and two hundred thousand.

"The first beginnings of the Presbyterian Church proper date back to about 1680. In 1716, there were four presbyteries, associating the churches in Long Island, the Jerseys,

*Letter of Rev. O. B. STONE.

† From an admirable paper by Rev. ROBERT STRONG, A.M.