Daniel Baker, Missionary to the South and Southwest
The Southern Presbyterians Part 7
He was 22 years old when he started the prayer meeting at Princeton. Out of the entire school he only found two students willing to join him.
But out of this small group came revival; fifty students in the school were converted, and from these, twenty of them became ministers of the Gospel.
After graduation, Baker moved from pastorate to pastorate, wherever help was needed. He executed his duties faithfully; preaching on Sundays and helping teach through the week. Though this is a lesser known time about him, things quickly changed.
In 1828, he became the pastor of the historic Independent Presbyterian Church in his native Georgia. Savannah was the city he came to at fourteen, sat upon a bale of cotton in the back of a cart. It was in Savannah that he found work as a store clerk, where he became a Christian, and where he decided to go into the ministry.
Not only was the position one of high esteem by Presbyterians, given its significant past, it was one of great sentiment for Baker.
Missionary to the South
But he was a man made for the fields. In 1831, he left the attractive position in order to be a “home missionary”. He began preaching three times a day, and over the course of two years, more than 2,500 people came to Christ.
He preached with simple, common language, but someone said of Baker as he preached, “There stood the messenger of the Truth; there stood the legate of the skies.”
Baker was invited to preach in surrounding towns, and the Spirit attended his way. It seemed that in every service men were repenting unto life.
Baker’s simple style, like a loving father speaks to his children, was used mightily. Hearers would remark that “never, surely, since the days of the Apostles has more fervid zeal, or ardent piety, or untiring labor, been devoted by a Christian minister to his cause.” Baker’s ceaseless efforts would lead him across the South.
He began preaching in the parts of Virginia, Kentucky, and would for a time take up a pastorate in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to build up the believers there. Tuscaloosa was used by Baker as a launching pad for missions. He would travel to Memphis, Mobile, New Orleans, and deep into the Mississippi Valley.
He never wasted the time he was given. If he was able to, he would preach.
Missionary to the Southwest
His love for the souls in the South was evident, but not to them only. On one occasion, while preaching in New Orleans, he happened to be curious enough to see Galveston, so he took a ferry over to the bustling city. For Baker this quickly became a new venture.
With the help of 3 other ministers and a local elder, they established the Presbytery of Brazos, the first presbytery of Texas.
After this he settled his family down in the Mississippi Valley, taking up a local pastorate and using his home a launching pad for missions, once again. Baker would preach in tours to St. Louis, Nashville, Vicksburg, and the Valley itself.
As a pastor, he never neglected his own people. He had in the past been known to hold prayer meeting, specifically for individuals in his congregation. Surprisingly, he would receive dozens of prayer requests of parents desiring the conversion of their children, husbands desiring it for their wives, and even people themselves desiring to be converted.
As much as Baker was a man for preaching he was a man for prayer, just as he was in his days at Princeton.
While stationed in Mississippi, he frequently traveled to Austin, Texas, on horseback, through the night, sleeping under the stars and amongst the wild animals, in order to spread the Gospel to the new region. Baker would invite people personally to hear him preach, and they were captivated by the Spirit’s power.
His hearers would note that,
“All that is terrible or beautiful; all that is winning or appalling; all that could steal and charm and soothe the heart, or shake its careless security and command its attention to the truths of religion, we have seen pressed upon our community with an earnestness, energy, and affectionate persuasiveness almost irresistible. Politics were forgotten; business stood still; the shops and stores were shut, and the schools closed; one subject only appeared to occupy the minds and engross all hearts.”
In Baker’s typical fashion, he was interested in sowing seeds in good soil. He wasn’t satisfied with preaching from town to town only. He was a true Presbyterian, convinced that believers must be under the leadership and preaching of the local church.
Baker had helped establish the Presbytery of Brazos for that purpose, but he wanted the deep, rich truths of Presbyterianism to be mined in Texas. So the presbytery established Austin College, and they named Daniel Baker as its first president.
Wherever he went and whatever he did, it was all for the glory of God. Daniel Baker took the time he had and spent it wisely. He had faith that God would bless the means of grace, namely preaching and prayer, as well as the establishment of churches, presbyteries, and schools. In these efforts, the Spirit was with Daniel Baker.
Fifty years after the founding of Austin College, there were over 25,000 Presbyterians in Texas, a Presbyterian college for girls, and Daniel Baker College.
And when the news of the death of Daniel Baker had reached Austin, the legislature immediately adjourned out of esteem for this “public benefactor.” But Baker only wanted to be remembered for one simple thing. So his son honored his request by having this phrase on his headstone: “Daniel Baker, Preacher of the Gospel”.
Thank you for this. In a prayer he penned the week before being licensed to preach by the presbytery, he petitioned the Lord: “Lay me out for thy glory.” Amen.