I blogged on this once before, about a year ago, but it seems like an opportune moment to point readers to this particular resource. In 1859, Charles Mallary preached a sermon before the Georgia Baptist Convention titled “Denominational Idolatry Reproved.” It was considered a significant enough sermon that the Southern Baptist Publication Society published the address in 1859. A copy of Mallary’s sermon is available online. Please take eight or ten minutes and read it. I think many of you will agree that the sermon would be just as relevent were it to be preached 150 years later before the 2009 SBC annual meeting in Louisville.

If you were wondering, Mallary was one of the leading Baptist pastors in the Deep South during the mid-19th century. I reprinted a brief biography of him on my blog a couple years ago. Besides his extensive preaching ministry, Mallary was a relatively prolific author. He wrote biographies of fellow Baptist pastors Jesse Mercer and Edmund Botsford, both of which have been reprinted in recent years by Baptist Standard Bearer and Particular Baptist Press, respectively. Mallary also wrote a work of what might be called devotional or practical theology titled Soul Prosperity: Its Nature, Its Fruits, and Its Culture (Southern Baptist Publication Society, 1859), which has been reprinted by Sprinkle Publications. Mallary even authored several short books and pamphlets directed toward catechizing children in the faith (if you are interested, copies of these particular works are available at my one-time employer, the Boyce Centennial Library at Southern Seminary in Louisville).

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