If any reason were required for the appearance of this volume, it may be found in the fact that it is the only one, known to the author, claiming to give the crowning achievements of a people whose historic deeds have often been wantonly neglected or willfully ignored. Even Baptist historians, through an overweening sense of modesty, have been reluctant to claim that which those unfriendly to their faith have been forced to concede. It is therefore the purpose of this volume to acquaint our people, and others who may wish to know, with the character and extent of the debt that the world owes to the Baptists.
All too long they have allowed their deeds to go unheralded, contenting themselves with a clear conscience, and what others have accorded them. It is a fact that those who have made history have usually been too busy to write of their own deeds, or what God has done through them, and hence the makers of history have not, as a rule, been the writers of history. We believe, then, that the time has fully come when the Baptist contribution to the welfare of the world should be placed in concrete form, and in easy reach of the reader who would know of the deathless deeds of this persecuted but persevering people.
Be it understood that it is not within the purpose or province of this volume to give a history of the Baptists, either in the first or twentieth century, but rather to tell of their gifts to the well-being of mankind. This, we believe, is due not only to those who can no longer speak for themselves, and to the multitudes who now share the many blessings bought by Baptist brains and blood, but, above all, to Him who hath redeemed us with his own precious blood, and preserved and perpetuated us through the ages as a peculiar people, with a heroic past, and, we trust, a glorious future.
