Bradford, Rev. Zabdiel, was born in Plympton, Mass., on the 13th of August, 1809

Baptist Church History

Daily Baptist EncyclopediaPost by Jim CurranBradford, Rev. Zabdiel, was born in Plympton, Mass., on the 13th of August, 1809. On the side of both parents he was of genuine Puritan stock, his paternal ancestor being Gov. William Bradford, and his maternai ancestor the renowned Capt. Miles Standish. Of such an ancestry any man might justly be proud. Before he reached his eighteenth year he became a subject of God’s con- verting grace. as to settle the question of his physical inability to enter into active business, it was decided that he should obtain a liberal education. In the: year 1830 he became a member of Waterville College, with the intention of fitting himself for the Chris- tian ministry. After his graduation he prosecuted his theological studies for nearly three years, and then accepted a call to the Baptist church in what is now Yarmouth, Cumberland Co., Me. The min- istry of Mr. Bradford, extending over a period of eight years, was one of great spiritual prosperity. He had the happiness of witnessing more than one powerful revival.. As the result of one of these outpourings of the Spirit he baptized nearly 100 persons. The long winters and uncongenial springs of the sea-coast of Maine were too trying to the constitu- tion of Mr. Bradford, and, with a severe pang, he felt compelled to sever the ties which united him to a most affectionate people. He accepted a call from what was then the Pine Street, now Central Baptist church, in Providence, and was recognized as pastor in November, 1844, and labored with his customary fidelity and success for more than four years. He died May 16, 1849, at the comparatively early age of forty years. Mr. Bradford was a man of much more than or- dinary ability. He possessed a singularly vivid imagination, and sometimes the play of his fancy in his discourses was most striking, and arrested the attention of the most careless and thoughtless. He concentrated all his faculties to the cause of his Master, and in his closing hours was sustained by that grace the riches of which he had proclaimed so earnestly from the sacred desk. . “ That plan,” he said, “that capital plan! I have looked it through and through this winter, and it is all I want.’ Who can doubt that when he came into the presence of his God and Saviour he did find it was all he wanted ? From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart