History of the Waco Baptist Association of Texas

By J.L. Walker and C.P. Lumpkin





Introduction



The Baptists have been negligent concerning their history. This is true not only with reference to important associational history, but of historical events in the wider fields of denominational activity. In view of this widespread delinquency concerning this most important matter, it is supremely gratifying to note the compilation of so valuable a work as brethren Walker and Lumpkin have given to the Baptists of Waco Association and the state at large. There are several points about the history of Waco Association worthy of special note. Great labor has been expended in gathering materials, and most diligent research has been made to secure correct data of every church, preacher, or leading worker within our bounds. The life sketches have been carefully prepared and are true records of the lives of the brethren whom we know and love so well. The work is a veritable picture album, and the cuts presented would do credit to a book of much larger pretensions than the one before us. The organization of Waco Association was foundation work. The men who laid this foundation were among the greatest and wisest men our state has ever known. The constitution of the Association was at that day unique and struck boldly into new thoughts and plans for the great world-wide work of apostolic evangelization. It was just such a constitution as was needed for the foundation of a great Association, and that those who laid this Association builded well, is evidenced in the fact that Waco Association is to-day the leading Association of Texas in its contributions to missions, in the compactness of its organization, and in its supreme loyalty to the general organized work of the denomination. The Articles of Faith are the most widely accepted compendium of Baptist principles known to me. They were adopted by Waco Association before Pendleton's "Manual" was published and only one year after the publication of the first edition of Hiscox's" Directory." In some respects it is a more carefully worded document than is found in either Hiscox or Pendleton. If I were asked to suggest a model declaration of Baptist principles, I would not go further than the Articles of Faith of Waco Association. Of course these Articles are popularly known as the New Hampshire confession.



Not only do I most heartily commend the work to all the churches of the Waco Association, but bespeak for it state wide circulation. It seems to me that it is rendering good service to our people to place such a history within their reach. It will not only be useful to Waco Association, but may be made very helpful to others, and I indulge the hope that it may lead to the...



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