Introduction
If the truth be told we, even if we are Reformed Baptists, we are a little bit ignorant about Reformed Baptists in the nineteenth century. We may know about pioneers such as Benjamin Keach and John Bunyan or nineteenth century men like Andrew Fuller and William Carey but when it comes to the nineteenth century, Spurgeon is something of a lone figure in our thinking.
The issue of a life of the preacher Archibald Brown by Iain Murray in recent years has perhaps turned the tide a little. There are a host of other interesting characters to consider, however, and not just pastors. In this book we want to give introductions to at least some of them, eleven altogether.
We begin with a Welsh man, Micah Thomas, actually born in the 18th century but very much a nineteenth century man. He was the first principal of the Baptist Academy in South Wales, the one that he set up in Abergavenny and that eventually moved to Cardiff.
Next we come to Samuel Morton Peto an Entrepreneur and MP and the man behind the setting up of Bloomsbury Baptist Church in London.
The first pastor of Bloomsbury was William Brock a fearless preacher and abolitionist who began his ministry in Norwich. Brock became the unlikely biographer of Sir Henry Havelock, a brave soldier and Christian, whose statue can be found in Trafalgar Square.
Again not a pastor, James Harvey was a generous donor and a businessman who, like Peto, Brock and Havelock was connected to the Bloomsbury church but saw out his days in what was then rural Hampstead.
Hugh Stoweel Brown was born on the Isle of Man ...
The long lived Alexander Maclaren was a Scotsman, a very well known preacher and expositor in his day who has left a rich heritage in his voluminous writings.
Following the Bloomsbury line to Hampstead and then on to Childs Hill we come to an unknown tireless evangelist and pastor typical of the day, William Rickard.
With C H Spurgeon the silver tongued preacher and champion of orthodoxy we are on much more familiar ground.
One of the lesser known facts about Spurgeon is his friendship with the African American former slave and missionary Thomas L Johnson. Johnson once spent a week preaching for William Rickard's successor in Childs Hill.
Archibald G Brown the London Church Planter and Pastor has already been mentioned. With him and the better known F B Meyer we are again on more familiar ground, both being pastors. Meyer was more than that being an enterprising activist and a successful author whose writings are still widely available and read.
Twelve men then, a godly dozen. Not Apostles to be sure but disciples to some extent and exemplars to us n our day who, like them, seek to serve the Lord.
