Amidst the ugliness of war, beautiful things yet happen. Baptist musician William Batchelder Bradbury (1816-1868) inspires Fanny Crosby (1820-1915) to write sacred music. Crosby writes her first hymn today, giving it to Bradbury as a gift. Bradbury has long been a Baptist, having joined the Charles Street Baptist Church in Boston, Massachusetts at age fifteen.…
Following the directives of the delegates to this month’s Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, Southern Baptists this month establish their first Sunday School Board at Greenville, South Carolina. It is a bold move at a time when the war has obliterated Southern Baptist mission efforts apart from work among Confederate soldiers. The production of literature,…
Today’s North Carolina Biblical Recorder reprints an article from the Richmond Dispatch that speaks to the spiritual needs of Confederate soldiers. Our soldiers are, for the most part, reading men. From childhood they have been accustomed to read papers, magazines, and books. Far from home, on the tented field, with so many leisure hours in…