Life, Ministry, and Journals of Hezekiah Smith

Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Haverhill, Massachusetts 1765 to 1805 and Chaplain in the American Revolution 1775 to 1780. By John David Broome It is unfortunate that a man who helped to found a notable American university, who possessed two earned and three honorary degrees from reputable institutions, who served his country well in the American Revolution as a chaplain, who traveled and preached in each of the original states, and who labored to establish his denomination as a religious force in new England is scarcely mentioned in the standard histories of the Revolutionary era.

This intrepid Baptist minister was a potent factor on the American religious scene for over forty years. While most men would have been content with the successful pastorate which he held in Haverhill, Massachusetts, from 1764 to 1805, Smith's wide itinerations carried his influence far beyond the little town by the Merrimack River. Chronicled in a series of journals which he kept, his life and work strike an unusual portrait of a man whose story deserves the attention of the American historian. -from the author's introduction to the Journals.

Now published for the first time, and as the first volume issued in our Warren Association Series, this work will prove to be an invaluable sourcebook for any research into colonial Baptist history, and especially the growth of Baptist principles in New England. Hezekiah Smith "by the eloquence of his preaching, and the weight of his character, bore down the strong prejudice against the Baptists, and was the means of abundantly extending their cause." -David Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America (1813), Vol. I, pp. 318-319. 717 pages, with an extensive Index of Persons, Churches, and Subjects, all making the information contained in this new work easily accessible to interested readers. Includes Illustrations, facsimile of sermons, and one map.