A Worthy Cause: The Lord's Day in the Baptist Press Amongst Nineteenth-Century Upper Canadian Regular Baptists

Abstract

<p> "A Worthy Cause" brings to life a topic never before researched on the nineteenth-century Regular Baptist position surrounding the preservation of the Lord's Day (also known as Sabbatarianism) in Upper Canada. Within nineteenth-century Evangelicalism in the province the crusade for the protection of the Lord's Day was preeminent among social reform initiatives. Canadian Regular Baptists in Upper Canada viewed the observance and celebration of the Lord's Day as vital and of paramount significance in the quest for social reform and religious piety. Viewing this topic through the lens of various newspapers that made up the Regular Baptist press, this thesis demonstrates why the Lord's Day was considered to be one of the most worthy causes among nineteenth-century Upper Canadian Regular Baptists. The thesis contends that Baptist support for the Lord's Day was rooted in a number of interrelated convictions: its scriptural, doctrinal and confessional significance, its observation strengthened personal holiness and the family unit, its desecration was harmful to society, and lastly, its observance would bring a blessing to the nation. The Baptist approach was especially unique in that Baptists, champions of the separation of Church and State and religious liberty, deviated from their evangelical counterparts when it came to the legal enforcement of the Lord's Day. The thesis is an original contribution to the social and intellectual history of Baptists and the province at large.</p>