Theology on the Web helps over 2.5 million people every year to find high quality theological resources that will help to equip them to serve God and to know Him better (2 Timothy 2:15). Like other websites that provide free services, it is dependent on donations to enable it to grow and develop and only 0.004% of visitors currently do so. If you would like to support this site, please use one of the options to the right of this message.
This article is in the public domain. A pdf version can be found here. Bold text added.
English Baptists have perhaps made less use of the press than any other great communion. The only publishers who showed much enterprise were Button, the minister of Dean Street in Southward, Winks of Loughborough, and Wilkins of Derby. From the literary side, as distinct from the commercial, Baptists were long content to be allowed a very minor place in the Monthly Review 1749-1845, the Evangelical Magazine till a quarrel in 1812, and the Protestant Dissenters' Magazine; the Eclectic Review profited largely by Foster and Hall, but was not managed by a Baptist; the Monthly; Repository found only Unitarian Baptists to write for it. The Christian Reformer of 1815-1863 had a slight tinge. A list of the more important Baptist periodicals may be useful, though no attempt is made to enumerate those with a purely local circulation, the circular letters of associations, or the annual reports of societies.
The General Baptist Year-book came out for more than a century, 1787 to 1891. Rippon soon followed suit for the Particular Baptists, but his Register though it widened its scope till there was very little Baptist in it, lasted only; from 1790 to' 1802. The Baptist Missionary Society began its Periodical Accounts with 1792; and with 1819 converted these into a monthly Missionary Herald, and a yearly; Report; these are the oldest we have, a fine testimony to the spirit which energizes and vitalizes even the home churches. The General Baptist Magazine started in 1798 as a speculation of Dan Taylor; when he could not afford to carry it on, the New Connexion in 1802 asked his brother
[p. 194]
Adam to edit the G.B. Repository; with 1822 the title was enlarged to say that it was also the Missionary Observer. With minor changes of title, and variations of frequency, this continued till 1891. The amalgamation of that year merged it then into the Baptist Union Magazine, which in 1896 was re-named the Church and Household, anid soon flickered out.
The Particular Baptists really felt their feet only in 1809, when a west-country association planned and started the Baptist Magazine, printed .and published at first in Tiverton, and soon transferred to London. It just failed to celebrate a centenary. The attainment of peace in 1815 probably influenced the start of the Irish Chronicle, four years later. This and the Herald were usually bound up with the Baptist Magazine, though a separate edition was apparently available. A quarterly ran from 1822 to 1844, News from Afar. In 1825 a New Baptist Magazine and Evangelical Repository appeared, which soon changed its name, anid in 1832 amalgamated with the B.M. The Baptist Reporter and Tract Magazine was published and edited by Winks from 1825 for forty years; though he was of the New: Connexion, he gave ample space to the doings of all evangelical Baptists. On the other hand, the General Baptist Advocate of 1830 appealed only to the Unitarian section, and struggled only for a few years. But Winks also issued a G.B. Home Missionary Register, whose fortunes are obscure.
The growing liberality of the P.B. led' to fresh efforts from the opponents of Fullerism. Zion's Trumpet, or the Penny Spiritual Magazine ran from 1833 to 1868; The Gospel Herald or Poor Man's Magazine. started at the same time and' may still be obtained. Also The Gospel Standard or Feeble Christian's Support from 1835. Three years later the Primitive Communionist began,. and under the title
[p.195]
Primitive Church. Magazine was the organ of the society which founded Manchester College; it died soon afterwards, in 1869. The Earthen Vessel and Christian Record and Review started in 1845 and is still published. The Baptist Examiner of 1844 was a flash in the pan; the Baptist Record and Biblical Repository held out only 1844 to 1849.
The Baptist Union enlarged its reports with 1841 into the Baptist Manual, which with 1859 changed title into Baptist Handbook, and is a hardy annual. The Church followed in 1844, amalgamating in 1891. The Christian Pioneer appeared from 1846 to 1883. The Juvenile Missionary Herald of 1845 delights young readers still with adventures in Wonderlands. Evidently the lustrum 1842-1846 was most stirring in denominational annals.
With 1854 the Baptist Messenger and Chronicle of the Churches made its bow, the Freeman following next year, known now as the Baptist Times. The Voice of Truth of 1860 lived only eight years. And the period 1865-1869 saw the. death of three other Baptist periodicals besides the Eclectic.
Against this mortality is to be set the Baptist Sunday School Magazine and Family Instructor: but its Career was apparently as short as its title was long, just as a platform labelled "Hurdlow, station for Longuor and Monyash" is probably miles away from any population. The Sword and the Trowel has however fought its way. along since 1865. But a second Baptist Record promoted by Evans of Scarborough, appeared. only twice in 1871.
With 1873 the Baptist came into being, and its absorption by the Baptist Times is quite recent. The Baptist Visitor and the Bond of Union are also in living memory. In other quarters of the United Kingdom there have been Seren Gomer, the Scottish Baptist Maga-
[p.196]
zine of 1874 and the Irish Baptist Magazine of 1877. The Oriental Baptist of Calcutta revived from 1848 till 1861 the glories of the days of Carey. But to deal with periodicals within the empire would be a far more intricate study. The above list my help a student to know sources for the story of the last century and a quarter.
