The Baptist Board

Abstract

"THE Records of the Baptist Board carry us back to other men, ways, times, and places. The Minutes date back to January 20, 1723. Dr. Whitley reminds us that "many Elders and Ministers of the Baptist Churches met weekly at the Hanover Coffee-house in Finch Lane, London, forming what we sho.uld call a fraternal," formed on 17th September, 1714. The Baptist Board, however, limited its membership from the beginning to Particular Baptist ministers only. The earliest Minutes are headed, "The Minutes of the Society of Ministers of the Baptist Particular persuasion meeting at the Gloucestershire Coffee House on Mondays at 3 o'clock, whose names are as follows." John Gill's name appears in the list, with S. Wilson as first secretary. Churches still existing, like Devonshire Square, Maze Pond, and Metropolitan Tabemacle, are thus linked up through their pastors with the earliest meeting of the Board. As Dr. Ewing wrote, "It is interesting to realize that the life of the Board links us with the days of Isaac \Vatts and Bishop Butler; and that when the Board was founded, John Wesley was an undergraduate at Oxford, and George Whitfield a little boy in the Bell Inn at Gloucester""