A Welsh Baptist in Ontario

The 19th century was an era of great emigration from Britain and Ireland. Of the four major people groups from this collection of islands – the English, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh – the last-named were the least represented among these emigrants.

For example, the population sizes of Wales and Ireland during this era were not too different, but the Irish emigrated in their millions while the Welsh left Wales only in tens of thousands. One key reason for this difference in numbers of emigrants was the mid-19th-century development of South Wales into one of the world’s leading industrial centres. One Welshman who did leave his native land, though, was Benjamin Daniel Thomas (1843–1917), who left Wales in the autumn of 1868.

Thomas in Toronto

The son of a Baptist minister, Thomas and his family initially moved to Pittston, Pennsylvania – Pennsylvania being a favourite locale for many Welsh emigrants. There he pastored the Baptist Church for three years, from 1868 to 1871. He then moved to the Fifth Baptist Church, Philadelphia, one of the largest Baptist works in that part of the state, where he served for 11 years.

It was in 1882, though, that he accepted the call of Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, an impressive building on the corner of Jarvis and Gerrard Streets – indeed, the current one still being used for worship.

This church building had been designed by Henry Langley (d.1907), the leading church architect in late 19th-century Ontario. Langley – with his partners, his brother Edward, who was a builder and Edmund Burke, who was his nephew – designed the Jarvis Street church in the Neo-Gothic style that was then all the rage for church structures and that outwardly combined elements inspired by medieval cathedrals. Up to 1,300 or so could easily meet for worship seated in the pews in the main auditorium of the church and its gallery. If extra chairs were added another 700 could be accommodated.

During Thomas’ pastorate, the average Sunday morning worship attendance was around 900 with 1,200 to 1,500 filling the auditorium for the evening service. And when Thomas resigned the pastoral charge of the church in the summer of 1903, the membership stood at 896. What is noteworthy is that during his pastorate the numbers attending the mid-week prayer-meeting averaged between 400 and 500, something that was considered remarkable even in that day of large congregations.

All of this growth came at a time when people were beginning to move out of the inner city where the church was located for what were then the suburbs. And although Thomas himself distrusted statistics – the ‘summing up of the results of spiritual activity by an imposing array of figures has always appeared to me’, he said on one occasion, ‘a vain-glorious exhibition’ – these figures do indicate that his ministry was powerfully owned by God for the conversion and blessing of many in Toronto during the final two decades of the 19th century.

Thomas the preacher

By the time Thomas came to Toronto he was at the height of his powers as a preacher. One of those who heard him at this time likened him to a prophet, a man ‘with a message’, and noted that ‘to listen to Dr Thomas is to be reminded of the orthodoxy of 30 or 40 years ago’, that is, the 1840s, before the rise of liberal theology among English-speaking congregations that brought many to doubt the veracity of God’s word. Another called him a ‘most powerful and eloquent preacher’.

In contrast to other popular preachers of the Victorian era, though, Thomas was not considered an orator by those who heard him, for his preaching style tended to be free from the sort of verbal ornamentation favoured by many in his day. After Thomas’ death, it was also noted that he was not fond of controversy. And yet there is good evidence that Thomas was not hesitant in proclaiming all of God’s truth as found in His word. In Thomas’ opinion, it was vital for Christians to be deeply committed to the Scriptures and the whole of their truth, for they were living in ‘a day when nothing appears to be established, when transitions and transformations, the most rapid and amazing, are taking place around us. The swirling waters of intellectual speculation are casting up the deposits of centuries. The very foundations of belief are undermined … There are those who assure us that we have been deluded; that the citadel of our faith is a poor, tawdry fabric, reared by superstition and ignorance; that the highest truths in which we have sought comfort and inspiration are without foundation; that nothing is absolutely certain that is not open to scientific or mathematical demonstration.’

For Thomas, there was only one resting place for him and those to whom he preached: ‘the bulwark of our strength is the word of God.’ It is noteworthy that in this regard, nothing has changed between Thomas’ day and ours!