History: The Heritage of Our Baptist Faith

to Baptist convictions and refused to baptize his infant daughter, and refused to remain silent about the subject. His employers refused to let him stay in the house he had built as the president's home, even though all he asked was permission to remain there for six months. Apparently, the university has not completely forgotten him because one of their newest buildings is located on Punster Street! These few paragraphs do not in any sense tell the complete story of Bap­ tist persecution. They do serve, however, to illustrate that the principles which Baptists hold have not been obtained without great costs to those who have believed them so firmly in days gone by. Gratitude should well up in the heart of any Baptist who recognizes that his freedom today has been purchased by the blood and the suffering of others who have gone before, III. A SEPARATIST PEOPLE There is scriptural warrant for this truth which has also been recorded in history as a Baptist doctrine. Paul urged, the Corinthians to "Come out from among them and be ye separate.1' (II Corinthians 6:17) Christians are referred to as a "peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:14) Peter describes believers as a "chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." (I Peter 2:19) Down through the years, because of their belief in the Bible, Baptists, as far as the world is concerned, have been nonconformists. They have not gone along with fads, fancies, and fashions of the world, but have stood for what they believed the Bible to teach. Emerson said, "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." Many of our Baptist heroes have been nonconformists, and they were so because they were men of strong convictions. Baptists have believed that believers in Christ should 1ive 1ives of separation from the world system. They have been opposed, ridiculed, and hated because of this position. Through the years Baptists have also taken their stand in separation from false doctrine. The experience of William Kiffin (1616 - 1701 ) is one illustration of this principle. When he was nine years old his parents died. At thirteen he