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Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives \u2013 Patrick was a Baptist – Druid Priests Threatened with Sorcery – PART THREE <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n At forty years of age, the amazing Patrick began his magnificent work on the Emerald Isle. His mission field was wild and primitive. The people who inhabited its primeval forests were animists and they worshiped such things as trees and stones and wells. They believed that spirits dwelt in these idols and they sacrificed their little children on heathen alters to appease the gods and to secure, so they thought, better harvests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About a year after his arrival in Ireland, Patrick did something that called much attention to his ministry. The Encyclopedia Brittanica tells us that he challenged the “royal authority by lighting the Paschal fire on the hill of Slane on the night of Easter Eve. It chanced to be the occasion of a pagan festival at Tara, during which no fire might be kindled until the royal fire had been lit.” 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ah, this should put iron in our blood! Glorious, audacious Patrick challenged all the forces of hell. Not a little flame did he kindle, but a bonfire! All the people were transfixed and King Loigaire was amazed at his daring and said: “If we do not extinguish this flame it will sweep over all Ireland.” This prophecy proved true for it seemed that a holy fire fell from the altar of heaven and for years there were such tears of repentance as have seldom been witnessed by the angels of glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the flames of the great conflagration on Tara’s hill, ignited by Patrick, illumined the countryside, the king was curious to see what kind of mortal this Patrick could be, and he sent for him. The druid priests were infuriated and declared they would destroy the preacher by sorcery if he dared to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in the dim light of that Easter morn, in the year 428 A.D., the valiant hero of the Cross and his assistant missionaries marched boldly into the presence of the monarch and told him that Christ was the light of the world and preached Jesus crucified and risen from the dead with such persuasive eloquence that the king was born again by the Spirit of the living God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are told that Patrick and his company advanced toward the Irish sovereign arrayed in white and carrying crosses and singing the evangelist’s hymn in all its majestic cadence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the king believed, Patrick won and baptized multiplied thousands of converts and ere his thirty-three years of ministry were finished, all Ireland was evangelized. Innumerable churches dotted its hills and valleys and from their ranks sent forth zealous missionaries to proclaim the message of redemption with incomparable passion to the pagan tribes of Scotland, England, Germany and Gaul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his second lecture on Ireland, John L. Stoddard states: “During the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries, especially, this farthest boundary of the Continent held aloft and kept aflame the torch of Christian faith, and glittered like a star upon the dark horizon of the western world.\u201d 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from: A tract titled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n St. Patrick was a Baptist by John Summerfield Wimbish, D.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4) Encyclopedia Brittanica, p. 383<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6) Stoddard, John L., Stoddard’s Lectures — Ireland, Geo. L. Schuman & Co., Chicago, Copyright 1901, P. 148.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n