Richland.
TEXAS BAPTIST FIRST CONVENTION
September 8, 1848, delegates from twenty churches met at Anderson in
Grimes County to organize a Baptist State Convention. The religious
population was growing. As it grew, the people pushed ever Westward and
carried the gospel with them, building God’s house wherever they stopped
and made a community. "Baptists are a peculiar people and when the
mission spirit leads then forth to occupy destitute fields they certainly
exhibit the principles, both in faith and practice, that link them on to
the early churches planted by the Apostles of the Son of God. Holding the
belief that the kingdom of Christ, established on earth, was not temporal,
but spiritual; accepting the declaration of Jesus, "My kingdom is not
of this world,’ as conclusive of the fact that only the
spiritually-minded are prepared to become members of it, Baptist in all
ages have ever contended for a converted membership in the church.
Baptism is the public profession of an inward change and the
declaration of belief in the burial and resurrection of Christ. It is an
act of positive obedience to the law of Christ. The immersion of a
believer in water, being clearly taught both by precept and example,
Baptist adopt it and submit to it as an ordinance." --
