Y THE BAPTIST MINISTERS OF
BOSTON.--A GREAT AND GOOD MAN GONE.

The Baptist Church has always been a purely democratic institution.
With no bishops or head-men, except such as derive their authority
from the consent of the governed, this Church has been truly
independent and self-governing in its spirit. Its only Head is Christ,
and its teachers such as are willing to take "the Word of God as the
Man of their Counsel." From the time of the introduction of the
Baptist Church into North America down to the present time, the
Colored people have formed a considerable part of its membership. The
generous, impartial, and genuine Christian spirit of Roger Williams
had a tendency, at the beginning, to keep out of the Church the spirit
of race prejudice. But the growth of slavery carried with it, as a
logical result, the idea that the slave's presence in the Christian
Church was a rebuke to the system. For conscience' sake the slave was
excluded, and to oblige the feelings of those who transferred the
spirit of social caste from gilded drawing-rooms to cushioned pews,
even the free Negro was conducted to the organ-loft.

The simplicity of the Negro led him to the faith of the Baptist
Church; but being denied fellowship in the white congregations, he was
compelled to provide churches for himself. In Virginia, Georgia,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi the Colored Baptists were
numerous. In the other States the Methodists and Catholics were
numerous. There were few ministers of note at the South; but New
England, the Middle States, and the West produced some very able
Baptist preachers. The Rev. Richard Anderson, of St. Louis, Missouri,
was a man of exalted piety, consummate ability, and of almost
boundless influence in the West. He was the pastor of a large church,
and did much to mould and direct the interests of his people
throughout Missouri. He was deeply revered by his own people, and
highly respected by the whites. When he died, the entire city of St.
Louis was plunged into profound mourning, and over three hundred
carriages--many belonging to the wealthiest families in the
city--followed his body to the place of interment.

In Ohio the Rev. Charles Satchell, the Rev. David Nickens, the Rev. W.
P. Newman, the Rev. James Poindexter, and the Rev. H. L. Simpson were
the leading clergymen in the Colored Baptist churches. Cincinnati has
had for the last half century excellent Baptist churches, and an
intelligent an