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8411. [Christian Connexion – Elias Smith] "Songs of the Redeemed, | for the followers of the | LAMB". | By Elias Smith. | Portsmouth: | Sold at No. 2, Ladd Street: John Makinze & Richard | Ransom, Woodstock, Vt.; and the Christian preach- | ers in the United States. | 1816. | C. Norris & Co., printers.
Small pamphlet, 4" x 2 1/2", string-bound, 32 pages, words only. 3 leaves with tears in the upper margin or upper corner, with only the loss of a “3” before the third stanza of a song.
Rare. No holdings on WorldCat. Unknown to the collecting community generally, but in the list of Books appended to Smith’s 1816 autobiography: “A small volume of Hymns, just published, entitled “Songs of the Redeemed, for the followers of the Lamb.” My thanks to McGarvey Ice of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville for his help in researching this piece.
Elias Smith (1769-1846), b. at Lyme, Connecticut, a minister associated with the movement that led to the establishment of the Christian Connection, author, and editor of the first religious newspaper in the United States. He had joined the Baptist Church in 1789. He devoted himself to the study of the Bible and theology, and began to preach in 1790. His success was marked and he was ordained by the Baptists as an evangelist at Lee, N. H., in August 1792. In 1798 he was installed pastor of the Baptist church in Woburn, Mass., but was unhappy in the relations of the settled pastorate, largely because he found no precedent for the installation in the New Testament. His theological opinions underwent a radical change. He rejected the Calvinistic system held by the Baptists, repudiated the doctrine of the Trinity, and disowned all systems of church order and all denominational names not found in the New Testament. After a brief business venture that failed, he moved to Portsmouth and founded a church acknowledging no creed but the Bible and having no denominational name but “Christian”. He was unsparing in his criticism of other churches with their settled and tax-supported clergy and their theological systems, which he regarded as having no Biblical foundation. His denunciations coupled with his strong anti-Federalist political views, created for him a host of enemies who pursued him for many years, and often he narrowly escaped mob violence. In order to reply more effectively to his opponents, he began to write, and his History of Anti-Christ (1803), The Clergyman's Looking-Glass (1803), The Whole World Governed by a Jew (1805), A Short Sermon to the Calvinist Baptists of Massachusetts (1806), only added fuel to the flames. In 1805 he began a quarterly, The Christian's Magazine, Reviewer and Religious Intelligencer, which continued for two years. On Sept. 1, 1808, he issued the initial number of the Herald of Gospel Liberty, the first weekly religious newspaper in the United States. In 1818 Smith sold the paper, and became a Universalist. In 1823 he renounced Universalism, but his restoration to the Christian fellowship was only partial. – adapted from DAB. Smith is recognized today as one of the originators of what became known as The Restoration Movement.
$1200.00 SOLD August, 2008
© Stephen P. Wurth, 2008. All rights reserved.
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