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 Wi)t Relation of papttsits! 
 
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 Jjapstacfe Centennial 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 
 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
Wt jc delation of ^aptistsi 
 
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 Hapgtatfe Centennial 
 
 ® N a grassy lawn, now within the 
 limits of Williamstown, Mass., is a 
 spot which has long been of interest 
 to lovers of missions, for it was here that 
 a company of students from Williams Col¬ 
 lege met one summer afternoon, just one 
 hundred years ago, under the shelter of a 
 haystack, and talked and prayed about 
 sending the gospel to the heathen. The 
 place is marked by a monument surmounted 
 by a globe, and is inscribed on one side with 
 these words, above and below a haystack 
 carved out of the marble: 
 
 The Field is the World 
 The Birthplace of 
 American Foreign Missions 
 1806 
 
 Samuel J. Mills 
 James Richards 
 Francis L. Robbins 
 Harvey Loomis 
 Byran Green 
 
 The one hundredth anniversary of this 
 occasion is being fittingly commemorated 
 bv The American Board of Commissioners 
 
 3 
 
The Relation of Baptists 
 
 for Foreign Missions, the society which 
 was the direct outcome of this early in¬ 
 terest; but the event itself was fraught 
 with such deep significance to the Church 
 as a whole that this centennial occasion is 
 of vital interest to every denomination. 
 
 The Haystack Prayer Meeting 
 
 The circumstances of the little meeting 
 were these. As the result of a deep relig¬ 
 ious awakening which had made itself felt 
 in Williamstown in common with many 
 other localities, it became the custom of 
 a number of students in Williams College 
 to meet every Wednesday afternoon for 
 prayer in the valley south of the college. 
 Sometimes when they had more leisure they 
 would go to a grove in the opposite direc¬ 
 tion. It was in this latter direction that 
 five young men wended their way upon that 
 historic afternoon, but a thunderstorm led 
 them to leave the grove and take refuge 
 under a haystack in a field near by. The 
 subject of conversation turned upon the 
 moral darkness of Asia, and Samuel Mills, 
 the leading spirit in the group, proposed 
 to send the gospel to that dark, heathen 
 land, uttering the words which have since 
 become a missionary classic, “We can do it 
 if we will.” The names of the five young 
 men present are those inscribed upon the 
 monument. Each one offered a prayer, 
 four of the five making foreign missions the 
 
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to the Haystack Centennial 
 
 burden of their petitions. The meetings 
 continued throughout that year and the 
 next, and the subject of missions to the 
 heathen was always kept in the foreground. 
 Thus, as has been said, “the first personal 
 consecrations to the work of effecting 
 missions among foreign heathen nations on 
 the part of American youth” were made 
 at Williamstown on that afternoon one 
 hundred years ago. 
 
 The Brethren 
 
 It was about two years later, on Sep¬ 
 tember 7, 1808, when two of the original 
 five, Samuel J. Mills and James Richards, 
 together with Ezra Fiske, John Seward 
 and Luther Rice, signed the constitution of 
 The Brethren. This was a secret organiza¬ 
 tion, the purpose of which was “to effect 
 in the persons of its members a mission cr 
 missions to the heathen.” Each member 
 pledged himself not only “to keep invio¬ 
 lably secret the existence of this society,” ' 
 but also to “keep absolutely free from any 
 engagement which shall be deemed incom¬ 
 patible with the object of this society” and 
 to “hold himself in readiness to go on a 
 mission when and where duty may call.” 
 Two years later, when the members entered 
 the seminary at Andover, the organization 
 was transferred there, and the names of 
 Adoniram Judson, Jr., Samuel Newell and 
 Samuel Nott, Jr., were added to the roll. 
 
The. Relation of Baptists 
 
 From the time that Judson joined The 
 Brethren he appears to have become the 
 leading spirit among them, but one im¬ 
 pulse moved them all and they were ex¬ 
 ceedingly active in their efforts to kindle 
 missionary enthusiasm among the churches 
 and ministers wherever they went. The 
 secrecy of their organization grew out of 
 a general lack of sympathy on the part of 
 many of the churches of that day with what 
 appeared to be such Utopian plans. The 
 society flourished, however, for many years, 
 and proved to be one of the influential or¬ 
 ganizations of history, its membership 
 from Mills to Neesima having included 
 many noted missionaries. 
 
 Not many years after the organization 
 of The Brethren a similar society came into 
 existence in our Baptist seminary at Ham¬ 
 ilton, N. Y., and many of our early mis¬ 
 sionaries were members of it.* Surely the 
 spirit that actuated the students of those 
 early days is the same that has led in our 
 day to the Student Volunteer Movement. 
 The unity and cooperation which charac¬ 
 terize our times were impossible seventy- 
 five or one hundred years ago, when the 
 difficulties of travel were so great; but the 
 spirit was none the less- earnest. 
 
 *This institution has made a remarkable record for the 
 number of missionaries it has sent forth. A recent me¬ 
 morial published by Colgate University gives the names 
 of one hundred and twenty-six who have been students 
 in its various schools who have entered foreign mission¬ 
 ary service. 
 
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to the Haystack Centennial 
 
 Early Missionary Interest 
 
 It would be erroneous to conclude, how¬ 
 ever, that interest in the cause of missions 
 among American Christians began with the 
 haystack prayer meeting. It is well known 
 that as early as May 28, 1799, an asso¬ 
 ciation was formed in Boston among the 
 Congregationalists under the name of the 
 . Massachusetts Missionary Society, the 
 object of which was “to diffuse the gospel 
 among the people of the newly settled and 
 remote parts of our country, among the 
 Indians, and through more distant regions 
 of the earth as circumstances shall invite.’' 
 Other states organized similar societies. 
 The Presbyterians for some years previous 
 to 1800 had shown a growing interest in 
 missions, and in 1805 the General Assembly 
 began the publication of the Missionary 
 Magazine or Religious Intelligencer. In 
 1806, Rev. Dr. Griffin delivered the an¬ 
 nual missionary sermon before the General 
 Assembly in Philadelphia, and urged the 
 claims of the heathen with an eloquence 
 which has seldom been surpassed. Interest 
 in the work of Dr. Carey in India seems to 
 have been quite general in various denomi¬ 
 nations, and considerable sums of money 
 were sent him from time to time. During 
 the years 1806 and 1807 the receipt of 
 $6,000 from American churches was ac¬ 
 knowledged by him. 
 
The Relation of Baptists 
 
 Interest Among Baptists 
 
 There is considerable evidence that a 
 deep interest in missions prevailed in many 
 of our Baptist churches from an early date. 
 Being widely scattered and having no gen¬ 
 eral organization, the associations were 
 LW chlef exponent of Baptist thought. 
 Ihe minutes of these meetings were for a 
 long time the sole periodical literature of 
 the denomination, but these were widely 
 and carefully read. From many of these 
 early records it is evident that 'prayer for 
 the world-wide extension of the gospel was 
 quite general. Such references as these 
 occur frequently: 
 
 The Warren Association in 1787 “spent 
 some time in prayer for a revival of re¬ 
 ligion in our churches and throughout the 
 world.” 
 
 The Stonington, Conn., Association rec¬ 
 ommends that the members of the churches 
 spend some definite time every Lord’s Day 
 in prayer to God that “he will be graciously 
 pleased to cause a general spread of the 
 gospel among the nations of the earth.” 
 In a letter addressed to other associations 
 it exhorts, may we with one heart unitedly 
 pray that God will make more abundant 
 displays of gospel grace till the whole earth 
 shall be filled with his glory and praise.” 
 
 The monthly concert of prayer, which 
 originated in England in 1784, was soon 
 ndopted by churches in this country also. 
 
to the Haystack Centennial 
 
 and had much to do with quickening the 
 spiritual life which was the necessary ante¬ 
 cedent of a deep interest in missions. 
 Fortunately there were among the ministry 
 quite a number of stalwart personalties 
 who were in close touch with leading Bap¬ 
 tists of England. Among these none was 
 more influential than Rev. William Staugh- 
 ton, D. D., pastor of the Sansom Street 
 Church, Philadelphia, a man of such 
 eminent ability that he received the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity from Princeton Uni¬ 
 versity at the age of twenty-eight. He had 
 come from England, where he had been 
 the friend and associate of the most inti¬ 
 mate friends of missions there. He was in 
 frequent correspondence with several of 
 them, and was perhaps the most direct 
 channel by which their spirit was diffused 
 among our American churches. Many of 
 our early ministers were his students in 
 theology, and they imbibed in a happy de¬ 
 gree his characteristic sentiments. When, 
 in the course of events, the Baptists or¬ 
 ganized a foreign missionary society. Dr. 
 Staughton was elected to the office of cor¬ 
 responding secretary. 
 
 State Missionary Societies 
 
 In common with other denominations 
 state missionary societies began to be 
 formed, primarily for the purpose of send- 
 
 9 
 
The Relation of Baptists 
 
 ing preachers to frontier regions beyond 
 the limits of their own state, and estab¬ 
 lishing missions to the Indians. The New 
 York Missionary Society was an interde¬ 
 nominational society, organized about 1796, 
 which for years conducted a successful 
 mission among the Indians through the 
 work of a Baptist minister, Rev. Elkanah 
 Holmes. An early director of this society 
 was Rev. John Williams, a Welshman, 
 who had settled in New York and was the 
 successful pastor of the Fayette Street 
 Baptist Church. From time to time there 
 came to New York missionaries from Eng¬ 
 land on their way to India. The East 
 India Company refused to carry them in 
 their ships, so they were obliged to seek 
 passage from American ports. Mr. Wil¬ 
 liams became deeply interested in them and 
 in the work in India, and as early as 1800 
 addressed a letter to Dr. Carey himself, in 
 which he told him something of the work 
 of the New York Missionary Society. 
 This opened the way for a long and in¬ 
 tensely interesting correspondence between 
 them, and Dr. Carey took a lively interest 
 in the work of Mr. Holmes. The news con¬ 
 tained in these missionary epistles was 
 widely circulated and was a very real force 
 in the early awakening of missionary in¬ 
 terest among our churches. The English 
 missionaries continued to journey to and 
 from India by way of our shores and their 
 
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to the Haystack Centennial 
 
 ardent zeal was not lost upon American 
 churches. In 1806 the Baptists withdrew 
 from the New York Missionary Society 
 and formed the New York Baptist Mis¬ 
 sionary Society, with Rev. John Williams 
 as its first president. The treasurer was 
 a deacon of his church, John Cauldwell, 
 who became the first treasurer of the 
 General Convention, the society which 
 later came to be known as The American 
 Baptist Missionary Union. 
 
 The Massachusetts Baptist Missionary 
 Society was organized in 1802, and seems 
 to have been the first state society consist¬ 
 ing of Baptist churches alone. The object 
 was stated to be “to furnish occasional 
 preaching and to promote the knowledge of 
 evangelistic truth in the new settlements 
 within these United States, or further, if 
 circumstances should render it proper.’ 7 
 The following year the publication was 
 authorized of the Baptist Missionary 
 Magazine, a periodical which circulated 
 widely throughout the northern states, and 
 contained, besides the news of missionary 
 work and revivals in this country, occa¬ 
 sional letters from Dr. Carey and his as¬ 
 sociates in India. The editor, Thomas 
 Baldwin, D. D., was himself a correspond¬ 
 ent with Dr. Carey and leading men in 
 England, such as Drs. Fuller and Ryland, 
 and delighted to do all in his power to ex¬ 
 tend the interest in missions to pagan lands. 
 
 11 
 
The Relation of Baptists 
 
 He was ably seconded in his influence by 
 Dr. Lucius Bolles, of Salem, Mass., who, 
 in 1826, succeeded Dr. Staughton as sec¬ 
 retary of our Baptist General Convention. 
 At that time, also, the Baptist Missionary 
 Magazine became the official organ of the 
 foreign missionary society. 
 
 We would not assume in all that has been 
 said that the missionary spirit was general 
 in those early days. It is not universal 
 even now. But men of faith and piety 
 and enlarged views, in all denominations, 
 were becoming interested in missions, so 
 that when the young men of Andover actu¬ 
 ally placed their appeal before the General 
 Association at Bradford, Mass., on June 
 28, 1810, a sufficient number of influential 
 members were in sympathy with them to 
 ensure the success of the project. The 
 following day the first board of commis¬ 
 sioners was elected, and thus the first for¬ 
 eign missionary society came into existence 
 in our country. Enough has been said to 
 indicate that although the Baptists were 
 not immediately connected with this ad¬ 
 vance step on the part of their Congrega¬ 
 tional brethren, they had a profound in¬ 
 terest in the undertaking and a real sym¬ 
 pathy with the young men who were the 
 occasion of it. 
 
 An Unexpected Call 
 
 Not long before his departure from 
 America, during a conversation with Dr. 
 
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to the Haystack Centennial 
 
 Bolles, of Salem, Mr. Judson suggested to 
 him the formation of a society among the 
 Baptists of America for the support of 
 foreign missions, in imitation of their Eng¬ 
 lish brethren. Little did he then “expect 
 to be personally concerned in such an at¬ 
 tempt,” least of all to become the first mis¬ 
 sionary of the proposed society. The change 
 of views, which, however, came to him and 
 his wife, together with Luther Rice who 
 had sailed about the same time, both of 
 whom were in the early student movement, 
 are well known. When the knowledge of 
 their change of views reached this coun¬ 
 try it produced a remarkable impression. 
 Although, as we have stated, there was a 
 strong missionary sentiment in many of 
 our churches and in the minds of some of 
 our leading ministers, there was no gen¬ 
 eral organization to unite our widely scat¬ 
 tered forces. With no real knowledge of 
 our strength we were scarcely prepared to 
 attempt any important enterprise. “The 
 change in sentiment in Messrs. Judson and 
 Rice was just the event which was needed 
 to rouse the Baptists to action and con¬ 
 centrate them upon one object, truly Chris¬ 
 tian in its essence and yet denominational 
 in form. It was universally acknowledged 
 that in this matter the providence of God 
 had left us no option. Not to enter at once 
 upon the work of missions would be to 
 belie our profession as Christians and ex- 
 
 13 
 
The Relation of Baptists 
 
 pose us to the scorn of the whole religious 
 world.’ 7 * 
 
 Societies in aid of foreign missions were 
 immediately formed in many leading cities, 
 and liberal contributions were made to 
 their treasuries. A society formed in 
 Boston, named the Society for Propagating 
 the Gospel in India and other Foreign 
 Parts, at once assumed the support of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Judson. But they still clung to 
 the English Baptists, thinking it might be 
 wiser to continue to cooperate with them in 
 the work at Serampore than to engage in 
 an independent enterprise. But providential 
 circumstances and the far-sightedness of 
 our English brethren, who perceived that 
 such a union would not be for the best 
 interests of the cause in America, prevented 
 any such joint action. After careful delib¬ 
 eration, therefore, a meeting was called 
 in Philadelphia, and on May 18, 1814, was 
 organized the General Missionary Conven¬ 
 tion of the Baptist Denomination in the 
 United States of America for Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions. In 1826 the headquarters were re¬ 
 moved to Boston, and in 1846 the name was 
 changed to The American Baptist Mis¬ 
 sionary Union. 
 
 Under the blessing of God this organiza¬ 
 tion has come to hold a leading place among 
 similar societies throughout the world. 
 
 ♦Wayland’s Life of Judson. which has been consulted 
 freely in the preparation of this leaflet. 
 
 14 
 
to the Haystack Centennial 
 
 According to recent statistics it holds the 
 first place in the number of communicants 
 in its churches in pagan lands, while it 
 ranks seventh in the amount of annual in¬ 
 come. There are today (1906) more than 
 550 missionaries engaged in its service, 
 aided by 4,345 native workers. There are 
 1,238 organized churches, having on their 
 rolls 130,902 members. Never in its 
 history have the opportunities for enlarge¬ 
 ment been so numerous as today, nor the 
 resources of the Church so abundant. All 
 the circumstances seem to indicate that the 
 next few years should witness a great ad¬ 
 vance in all lines of activity, both in rela¬ 
 tion to the interest at home and the actual 
 work that is being done abroad. “We can 
 do it if we will” is no less true today than 
 one hundred years ago. God grant us the 
 WILL TO DO. 
 
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