Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Spencer Houghton Cone – Preaching in Washington DC – PART SEVEN –

Thomas E Kresal November 29, 2019

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Spencer Houghton Cone – Preaching in Washington DC – PART SEVEN –

The next day he applied to the First Baptist Church of Baltimore for baptism; and after the relation of his experience to the church, which was heard amid the sobs and tears of its members, he was baptized by the Rev. Lewis Richards on the fourth of February, 1814, the ice in the Petapsco being cut for the purpose. Very soon after he was appointed to an office in the Treasury Department at Washington. He was frequently urged by his brethren to preach, and the secret desires of his own heart led him to wish to proclaim the word of God, but deeming himself wholly unqualified, he shrank from the undertaking and could seldom be induced to speak in prayer-meeting until after his residence in Washington. There a few weeks after his removal thither, he was asked to lead on Sabbath morning, in the little church at the Navy yard, which at that time was destitute of a pastor. These are his own words giving an account of this first attempt to preach, and the consequences resulting:

“In reading I John ii, I was fully impassed with the words, ‘If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;’ and I spoke from them without embarrassment for nearly an hour, to my own utter surprise. This was my first attempt to preach Christ crucified to my fellow men.

“At their earnest request, I agreed to speak for them again on the next Lord’s day morning. It some how leaked out that Mr. Cone, formerly on the stage, was to preach. When I went to fulfill the appointment their little meeting house on the commons near the Navy Yard, was surrounded by an immense crowd, while within it was so full that I reached the pulpit step with difficulty. This was the greatest trial I ever had as a preacher, in view of an audience. When I came in sight of the crowd I was tempted to turn back, and when I rose up to commence public worship, Satan assured me that my mouth should be stopped if I attempted to preach; that the cause of my precious Saviour would be sadly wounded; that I had better say to the people I was not prepared to address so large an assembly, and then go home. The suggestion was so plausible I did not think at the moment that it came from the great deceiver, and I concluded to give out a hymn, read a chapter, pray, and sing again, and then determine how to act. While singing the second hymn, which closed with these words —

‘Be thou my strength and righteousness,

My Jesus and my all.

Thomas E. Kresal from – S. H. Ford, editor, Repository and Review, 1855, pp. 546-558.