commands all men every where to repent. Such were the views of this man of God, such are the Freewill Baptist sentiments now. In the true spirit of a faithful ambassador for Christ, commissioned of God rather than by men, he went forth into the great gospel vineyard, preaching to and praying his fellow-men to be reconciled to God; and the Lord abundantly sealed his ministry. For a while he went on to baptize, adding the converts to the New Durham Church; but soon there were several churches associated with this. It will be proper here to remark, that at the time of the origin of the Freewill Baptists, evangelical piety and the life and power of godliness were at a very low ebb in the two leading denominations in this section of the country. In the Calvin Baptist-we speak generally-there was much of real Antinomianism; much was preached of unconditional election and reprobation, and but little to the impenitent upon immediate repentance and seeking religion;-and in the Congregationalist, experimental religion, in many cases, was scarcely considered a prerequisite to church-membership or to entering the ministry. Churches were in a lax state of discipline, and much of the preaching was little else than dull moral essays, or prosy disquisitions on abstract doctrines. Any reader, at all acquainted with the history of the Church at the period of which mention is here made, will admit the full truth of our statement; while, on the other hand, we take much pleasure in informing the reader that these remarks, in our opinion, have no application whatever, at the present time, to these now truly evangelical and pious denominations. Such then being much of the preaching of the times, it was to have been expected that the preaching of Elder Randall and the other pioneers with him in the cause of free salvation, should occasion much excitement; their sentiments and measures be the subjects of frequent discussion and various opinions; that some would fall in with them, while others would oppose and deride. All these results actually followed. Publishing a full atonement, and gospel salvation free for all to embrace, and exhorting their hearers immediately to turn to God, the Lord working with them: many accepted the glad tidings and embraced religion. Revivals spread. Several ministers and some churches came out from other denominations and united with the new connexion; other ministers were raised up and churches organized, as the reformation extended. One of the first four ministers was liberally and theologically educated. The new sect was every where spoken against; fanaticism, delusion, wildfire, was the cry; and by their enemies they were variously styled, Randallites, General Provisioners, New-Lights, Freewillers, etc. Elder Randall

had already established large churches in Tamworth and in Strafford, in addition to those above named. The little vine soon ran over the wall-and in less than two years several churches were organized in the State of Maine, and their whole number was nine. In the fall of 1781, he made an eastern tour, and preached in several towns west of, and on, the Kennebec river, in most of which places he saw revivals commence, having in thirty-seven days preached forty-seven times, and travelled four hundred miles. Churches and ministers continuing to multiply-for the purposes of preserving unanimity of views and co-operation of efforts, and for mutual edification, a quarterly meeting was organized in four years from the first church organization. The quarterly meeting was held four times a year, in places which would best accommodate the churches, and its sessions continued two or three days. At these meetings the churches all represented themselves both by letters and delegates, all the ministers usually attending and many of the private brethren. In these sessions the state of the churches was ascertained every three months, the business of the denomination was harmoniously transacted, and several sermons preached before full assemblies. They were almost always the means of religious awakenings. In connexion with the quarterly meeting a ministers' conference was held, in which doctrinal views were compared, Scriptures explained, and good instruction imparted to the younger portion of the ministry. Printed circulars were sent out to the churches, stirring them up to gospel holiness and active piety. These associations were found to be a rich blessing to the Freewill Baptist interest, and they have always been continued, until, instead of one, there are now ninetyfive quarterly meetings.

Although the early ministers in the Freewill Baptist denomination had the pastoral care of some church in particular, their services were not wholly given to their particular charge; many effectual doors were opened to receive the gospel, numerous Macedonian cries for help were heard, and many of them travelled much. Elder Randall travelled extensively, and preached continually. At one place in his diary he says, "I have travelled this year more than twelve hundred miles in the service of truth, and attended above three hundred meetings." Stinchfield, Buzzell, and others also, itinerated extensively. In the first twelve years of the connexion, Freewill Baptists had come to be quite numerous in New Hampshire and Maine, had extended into Vermont, and soon after Rhode Island and several other States. Several quarterly meetings were already constituted, distinct, yet acting in concert by messengers and cor

respondence. For the glory of God and the welfare of the increasing denomination, a yearly meeting was agreed on, which should embrace all the quarterly meetings in a general association, and present an opportunity for all parts of the connexion to be directly heard from and represented once a year. The first yearly meeting was held in New Durham on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of June, 1792; "a season of great blessing and long to be remembered." It was next held in Gorham, then in Parsonsfield, and so in turn at different places as would best accommodate the Freewill Baptist community. As the quarterly meetings were composed of churches, and transacted their general and relative business: so the yearly meeting was composed of the several quarterly meetings, through their delegates, and transacted the general business of the denomination. This organization was also found to be of great advantage, and has been continued, there being now twenty such associations. Elder Randall died in 1808; his last written advice to his beloved connexion contains much excellent instruction. At the time when God called from Zion's walls him who was the founder, and who had for so many years been the leading actor in the connexion: its numbers and its ministry had greatly increased, and many of them were able ministers of the gospel of Christ, whose names would often come up, in a full history of the denomination, but need not in our brief article. They have now extended into several other States in the Union, and into Canada. No other Freewill Baptist minister has ever been so successful as an evangelist, or so extensively instrumental in publishing a free gospel in the more distant States, as Elder John Colby. He entered the ministry in 1809; preached a few years with great success in several of the eastern States, in one of which years he baptized three hundred. But the great West seemed constantly to rest on his mind with such impressions to preach the gospel of Christ in that vast field, as he could not well resist. Accordingly he spent much of his precious ministry in several of the western States, and particularly in Ohio. Of the eastern States, Rhode Island richly shared in his successful labours. He died in Norfolk, Virginia, 1817, after an extensively useful ministry; having baptized many hundreds, established and set in order numerous churches, and laid the foundation for several quarterly meetings in States then new ground to the denomination.

It ought to be mentioned, in this connexion, that the Freewill Baptist interest had not arisen and come down to this period without some internal trials. There obtained among them, at one time, some difference of sentiment in reference to the divinity of Christ.

Some few of the churches and several ministers had imbibed Arian or Unitarian views, to the great grief of the general body. Several ministers, who afterward figured considerably in the Christian connexion, though Smith and some of the rest have never belonged to the Freewill Baptists, drew several of our ministers and a few churches into Unitarian views, and, in some instances, into the annihilation doctrine, both of which were not regarded as scriptural or the sentiment of the connexion. A small secession was the result on the one hand, and on the other, unanimity of sentiment was restored. The Freewill Baptists have always been, and are, Trinitarian. The above trial was not long felt, and it is presumed that others do not require to be mentioned in the present article.

The Freewill Baptist denomination having now extended over a large portion of the country, and there being several yearly meetings, and the whole body being represented in no one of them: a General Conference was organized in 1827, in which the whole connexion should be represented. The General Conference was at first an annual, then a biennial, and now a triennial association. It is composed of delegates appointed by the twenty yearly meetings, and to it are referred the general interests of the denomination, at home and abroad. Since 1827, the period last mentioned, the Freewill Baptist interest has been constantly extending, and their numbers augmenting, not so rapidly as in some of the sister denominations, but in a good ratio. Of course for a long time they had to struggle with the numerous obstacles universally common to all new causes. From the first they have not, so much as older denominations, enjoyed the advantages of an extensive and liberal education. The harvest seemed truly great; souls were perishing; and many young men whom God called to preach, felt constrained to enter upon the great work without waiting a long time to acquire a regular education;— they have been eminently pious, the means of turning many to God, yet not so extensively useful as they would have been in the enjoyment of better early advantages. Intelligence, however, has for some years been, and is, increasing, both in the ministry and membership. From their origin the press has, more or less, been brought in to aid them. First, only their minutes and circulars, with occasional sermons, were published. Afterward, for several years, Buzzell's Magazine, a Freewill Baptist Register, and other periodicals, were published; and occasionally such books were printed as the wants of the connexion demanded. For some twenty years last past the "Morning Star," the principal organ of the denomination, has made its weekly visits among them with an extensive circulation,

and has accomplished for the cause a great amount of good. Though they regard the Holy Scriptures as their only rule of faith and practice, they have found it to their great advantage to publish, some years ago, a Treatise of their Faith, which combines, summarily, the doctrines and usages of the connexion. Standard hymnbooks, works on the Freedom of the Will, General Atonement, Divinity of Christ, Free Communion, Baptism, etc., memoirs of Randall, Colby, etc., have been published, and a complete History of the Freewill Baptists is now printing; and there is lately issued from the press a theological volume, by the principal of their Biblical School. Works and authors, though not numerous, are increasing among them. Though the Freewill Baptist ministry generally are not so learned as it were desirable, many of them having to pick up much of their biblical knowledge as they preach, there is now in the ministry quite a number of liberally educated men, and this number is yearly increasing. They have one Biblical School and several flourishing academies; and it may be safely said, that their ministry is becoming better and better educated.

The Freewill Baptists have arisen, essentially, by religious revivals; by conversions and accessions from such as were "without," rather than by secessions from other denominations. Protracted meetings, and their quarterly and yearly associations, have been blessed of God, as well as the ordinary means of grace. Last year about two and a half thousands of Free Baptists in the State of New York united with them. But they have never adopted a policy particularly calculated to increase their numbers. They would have numbered thousands of communicants more than they now do, but for their uncompromising anti-slavery position; having withdrawn connexion some years since from four thousand in North Carolina on account of their being slaveholders; and having refused, on the same principle, to receive into the connexion some twelve thousand from Kentucky and vicinity, who sent a delegation, four years since, to the General Conference for that purpose. As a denomination, they have no connexion whatever with the horrid system of slavery; the General Conference, Yearly, and Quarterly Meetings, having taken a strong and decided anti-slavery ground. Thence the reason why there are no more Freewill Baptists in the slave-holding states. The General Baptists of England are in their sentiments and usages with us, and a correspondence and exchange of publications, have been carried on for many years; and their Foreign Missionaries, and ours, in Orissa, in part, co-operate together. Our connexion have warmly espoused, and are zealously supporting, the various religious enterprises of the age.