Norwich bulletin., 1914-03-16
OBSERVED DENOMINATION DAY
Rev. Dr. J. B. Slocum Gives Historical Address Upon Baptist
 Principles - Development From Second Century Sees Big Task and Obligation Upon Present Day Church

| New Testament. the only rule of faith and practice: regeneration preceding church membership; rejection of in- fant baptism; immersion. From the eleventh century on to the Reforma- tion these sects - assumed various names, but maintained a continuity of these cardinal principles.
 The development of our subject re- ouires mention of the Waldenses, that important company of dissenters that in the latter part of the twelfth century arose in Southern France. They have been called the grandpar- ents of the Baptists. Their history is fascinating in the extreme, but 1t irreparable break with Rome prepared the way for the Anabaptist churches of that period. When Peter Waldo, the prosperous merchant was con- verted by the text: "1f thou wilt be perfect, go sell that thou hast and give to the poor" he did not dream Of the conflict that awaited him, nor did he anticipate that his literal accept ance of the instruction of Jesus in that text involved a separation of himself and his followers from the Church of Rome When in the prov dence of God these loyal disciples of Christ had fulfilled their great mis-
 sion and had gone down. many of them before the edge of the sword there sprang forth marvellous har- vest in that fine band of Christian patriots known then and now as the AnabaptiSts.
 Arabaptists.
 All over Europe these Anabap- lists came forth as if they had been waiting some encouragement and as if they were intimately related to one another in their respective units. So spontaneous was their inception that the origin of the Anabaptists is hot nh seems very likely that they were simply the re- crudesence of the earlier Sects. All at once, they sprang forth with Vogor wholly unexpected of so young an organization. The things for which they stood were: Complete separation
 of church and state; liberty of the
 individual conscience; the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice; re-
 lection of infant baptism; regenerate
 church membership; believers bap- tism by immersion.
 The Baptists of the last three or four hundred years are undoubtedly the direct descendants of the Ana baptists of the period of the Reform ation.
 The following quotation, taken from a. history of the Reformed Dutch church prepared by royal request,
 some years ago, by pr. Dermot chap lain to the King of Holland, is intense- ly interesting, coming as it does from a Pedobaptist authority: We have seen that the Baptists, who were for merly called Anabaptists, and, in
 later times, Mennonites, were the original Waldenses, and have long in the history of the church received the honor of that origin. On this ac- count, the Baptist may be considered
 the only Christian community which has stood since the apostles, and as a Christian society which has pre-
 served pure the doctrines of the gos- pei through all ages.'
 It was early in the sixteenth cen tury that Christians holding Baptist
 convictions fled from the continent and took refuge in England. But in
 England, as on the continent, they theld the unenviable distinction of be- ing objects of special hatred.
 Baptists in Wales.
 The Welsh Baptists have an inter-
 esting history. They claim no connec- tho with the continental Anabaptists, bpt boast of their own direct apostolic
 succession. Autin, the Roman monk, visited Wales about the sixth century. He found a community of more than two thousand Christians living in the mountains, having repudiated the Roman church, and practicng Baptist
 doctrines. From that day to this, at
 least, there has been an unbroken line
 of stalwart Welsh Baptists.