Let us pause a moment over this picture of Southern and Western
Baptist Churches, drawn by themselves. In Arkansas but four churches
had at this time preaching every Lord's day; in Alabama, twelve, and
in Missouri twenty-four out of seven hundred! Well may the writer
ask, "Is it any wonder that the cause does not go forward faster?"
But if this was the order of the Missionary Baptists in the year 1870,
what must have been the order of the Old Baptists seventy years
before, when "Raccoon" John Smith was groping his way out of darkness
into the light of the gospel, all unconscious of his utter blindness,
that the reading of the Scriptures would conduce, either directly or
indirectly, to his regeneration or sanctification.
The people known as "Hardshell" Baptists do not wish to be called by
that name. They wish to be known as Old Baptists, or United Baptists,
for they allege that they are the lineal descendants of the United
Baptists, and that the Missionary Baptists have apostatized, and gone
away after strange gods.
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