Thomas Meredith’s Biblical Recorder, 1834–1850
Meredith’s most important contribution to North Carolina Baptists was the Biblical Recorder, the religious periodical he founded in 1834. State Baptist papers played a crucial role in shaping the life of nineteenth century Baptists.
Thomas Meredith (1795–1850) was arguably the most important leader among North Carolina Baptists during the first half of the nineteenth century. During his almost thirty years in North Carolina, Meredith pastored two churches on the East Coast, assisted in the formation of the state convention in 1830, and helped charter Wake Forest College in 1834. Despite these accomplishments, perhaps Meredith’s most important contribution to North Carolina Baptists was the Biblical Recorder, the religious periodical he founded in 1834 and edited for over fifteen years. The periodical served the Baptists of North Carolina (and for a time South Carolina) as an unofficial denominational organ, shaping Baptist theology, piety, and identity, as well as fostering interchurch cooperation.
State Baptist papers like the Biblical Recorder played a crucial role in shaping the life of nineteenth century Baptists. During the antebellum era, relatively few Baptist pastors in the South benefitted from a college education and virtually none attended a theological seminary. It was not uncommon for a pastor’s personal library to be limited to a Bible, a concordance, John Gill’s commentaries, short tracts and published sermons, maybe a hymnal or two, and perhaps a handful of books by English Baptist pastor-theologians like John Bunyan or Andrew Fuller. In this context, religious periodicals were a principle means pastors used for furthering their own theological education and staying connected to other Baptists in their respective states and the wider denomination.
Before discussing some of the specific contributions of the Biblical Recorder during Meredith’s tenure as editor, it is important to set both paper and editor in their historical context. Although Meredith himself was a native northerner, the Biblical Recorder was published for North Carolina Baptists and reflected the values of antebellum southern evangelical culture. For example, the Biblical Recorder argued from Scripture that chattel slavery was a divinely ordained institution that was to the benefit of both slave and master. As a corollary, the paper strongly criticized northern abolitionists. Meredith’s opinions on slavery and abolition were not unique; the editorial voice of the Biblical Recorder was consistent with that of both the religious and secular press in the South during the period.
Like most southern evangelicals, Meredith’s sectional bias became evident in the denominational divisions of the era. In actions that foreshadowed the Civil War in the 1860s, American Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians separated into separate northern and southern denominations in the 1830s and 1840s. Baptists in the South agitated for their own regional mission boards in the mid-1840s, in large part because of the slavery debate. Meredith initially urged caution and argued for continued unity with the northern brethren, but his southern identity ultimately carried the day. The Biblical Recorder eventually endorsed the Augusta meeting that birthed the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, though because of health reasons Meredith was unable to attend. Because of its particular milieu, Meredith’s Biblical Recorder spoke in a “southern drawl” as it served Tarheel Baptists and other Baptists all over the South.
A study of the articles published in the Biblical Recorder during the years 1834–1850 evidence a number of contributions the periodical made to North Carolina Baptist life during Meredith’s editorship. First, and perhaps most obvious, the Biblical Recorder kept its readers abreast of happenings in the Baptist world. Every issue contained news from various level of Baptist polity. Local churches reported the results of “protracted meetings”—what today we might call revival meetings. Associations often published their minutes, resolutions, and circular letters in the paper. The same was true of the state convention. Beyond North Carolina, the Biblical Recorder reprinted similar material from other Baptist periodicals in other states, especially those in the South. Meredith understood that keeping North Carolina Baptists informed about Baptist advances in their own state and in other parts of the English-speaking world would foster a common sense of ecclesiastical identity among his readers.
The Biblical Recorder also promoted the ministries and emphases of Missionary Baptists. In the generation before the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, North Carolina Baptists could be divided into three camps: the Primitive Baptists, the Missionary Baptists, and the Freewill Baptists. Primitive Baptists rejected all mission work and by midcentury embraced hyper-Calvinism. Freewill Baptists were Arminians who did not cooperate with other types of Baptists. The Missionary Baptists, who were mostly Calvinistic and generally friendly to the religious awakenings of the era, comprised the majority. Nationally, the Missionary Baptists’ priorities were represented in the Baptist General Convention for Missionary Purposes, more often called the Triennial Convention, which was founded in 1814. It was the Missionary Baptists in North Carolina, particularly from Raleigh eastward, who formed the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in 1830.
Missionary Baptists focused on two major ministry priorities: mission and education. Meredith promoted both of these emphases in the Biblical Recorder. Letters from foreign missionaries were frequently published, as were periodical accounts of happenings on the field. Articles frequently updated readers concerning the work of the Triennial Convention and, after 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention. The paper published material promoting foreign mission work and challenging Primitive Baptists and others who opposed such ministries. Meredith highlighted the work of Wake Forest College and smaller regional academies in North Carolina, Columbian College in Washington DC, and regional Baptist colleges in other states. It is only natural that Meredith would devote his paper to promoting these central Missionary Baptist causes; he was himself a former home missionary, a sometime delegate to the Triennial Convention, and one of the most educated Baptists in North Carolina during his lifetime. He knew that the Biblical Recorder could help to establish common priorities among North Carolina Baptists, drawing them together in closer cooperation with each other.
The Biblical Recorder frequently offered devotional articles to its readers. Almost every issue of the paper contained pieces dedicated to practical matters such as prayer, regular Bible reading, personal evangelism, consistent church attendance, temperance, and Sabbath-keeping. Many of the articles originated as sermons preached to local churches or before convention or association meetings. Many of the associational circular letters that were published focused on these types of devotional issues. Like other Baptist state paper editors during this period, Meredith was dedicated to articulating a common spirituality among North Carolina Baptists through the pages of his paper.
Finally, and perhaps most important, the Biblical Recorder instructed and encouraged its readers in sound doctrine. It was not uncommon for Meredith to publish multi-issue expositions of key doctrines or defenses of traditional evangelical theological convictions. The periodical was quick to defend such orthodox doctrines as the supreme authority and truthfulness of Scripture, the Triune nature of the Godhead, the Virgin Birth, the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, the penal substitutionary atonement, Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead, a literal second coming, original sin, justification by faith, the nature of repentance and belief, and the final perseverance of all Christians. The paper also frequently defended universal human depravity, the predestination of the elect before the foundation of the world, and the effectual calling of the elect unto salvation.
In addition to teaching sound theology, the Biblical Recorder regularly defended Christianity from perceived threats. Meredith published material critiquing skeptical or rationalist challenges to the faith like atheism, universalism, and Unitarianism. Many of these articles were not originally written for the Biblical Recorder but were reprinted pieces that could be found in any number of religious periodicals during this era. Articles defending the Baptist vision for the Christian life, many of which were written specifically for the North Carolina paper, were published with even greater frequency. During Meredith’s tenure at the Biblical Recorder, the two biggest threats to Baptist Christianity were pedobaptism and Campbellism. Against pedobaptists, the paper defended regenerate church membership and believer’s baptism by immersion. Against the Campbellites, the periodical rejected all forms of baptismal regeneration and defended the final perseverance of the saints. Meredith recognized that sound doctrine was essential to the health of North Carolina Baptists. A common ecclesiastical identity, common ministry priorities, and a common spirituality are best attained when Baptist share common doctrinal convictions.
During the period when Thomas Meredith edited the Biblical Recorder, the periodical helped define the majority Baptist movement in North Carolina. The paper helped fortify a North Carolina theological identity that was strongly orthodox, warmly evangelical, broadly Reformed, and decidedly baptistic. The paper helped cement a denominational identity that was committed to cooperation for the purpose of foreign mission and other ministries, like theological education, that further mission. This identity was coupled with a proudly southern identity that took root during the years between the Jacksonian era and the War Between the States. For these reasons, the early Biblical Recorder played a central role in establishing strong roots for the Missionary-turned-Southern Baptists as they slowly became the largest and arguably most influential denomination in the Tarheel State.
