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Circular Letter to the Georgia Baptist Association - 1832
January 5, 2010
As I was preparing for a class in Baptist History that I am taking this month, I came across a letter that was circulated to the Georgia Baptist churches in 1832. The letter has a striking message to the church today. A couple of the highlights of the letter are as follows:
Regarding Family Religion:
-many families neglect prayer
-"We need not expect the blessing of the Lord, - the manifest tokens of his presence, upon our public meetings, if we neglect family and closet religion. No doubt the cold lifelessness, the lamentable apathy apparent in our public assemblies, is to be ascribed to the fact that we have little or no religion at home; that our hearts are not attuned for the services of the sanctuary by the devotions of the closet."
Regarding our Children:
"If God has directed us to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, can we be guiltless in neglecting it? We cannot save their souls by means; nor can we make them rich by means; but because we are not sure that our exertions will accumulate vast wealth for them, do we therefore sit down in indolence or despair. No; if one expedient fail, we try another, and we continue until we descend to the grave. So let us thus act in the means of salvation. Let us bring every means in our power to bear upon their hearts—to arouse their slumbering consciences & win them back to God. We dear the duties to our children are sinfully and shamefully neglected by many of us."
Indifference to Witnessing:
Because we are not the means by which a person is saved, many have felt that they need not attempt anything in order to save sinners.
"Now if the means used by Paul & others were instrumental in producing regeneration and the
exercise of faith; so we may expect that our endeavors will result in the same happy effects,—
And yet how indifferent, how careless are we in regard to means."
God has not confined the use of our means to a particular method, but has told us to be about His work until He comes.
This is the first part of the letter. If these were the issues that were plaguing the church in the 1800s, how do we fare? Perhaps much worse. We should learn from the past so as not to repeat its mistakes. How are you doing with these concerns? Is there any improvement for you to make in your life? Stop and think for a moment. You might be surprised at what you find!
