Backslider

 Baptist leader Andrew Fuller (1754-1815) deals with the issue of backsliding: when genuine Christians lose their passion for Christ and his kingdom. This was not a theoretical issue for Fuller, therefore, and his words, weighty when he first wrote them, are still worthy of being pondered-and acted upon. Included as an appendix is a poetic application of dealing with such a backslidden heart, written by Samuel Pearce (1766-1799) a close friend and co-labourer for Christ with Fuller.

This updated edition is co-published by The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), English Baptist minister and theologian. He is remembered as a founder and first secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society. In 1770 Fuller joined the Soham Baptist Church, Cambridgeshire, and five years later became its pastor. After moving in 1782 to Kettering, Fuller became a leader of the Northampton Baptist Association and a close friend of William Carey, John Ryland, and John Sutcliff. This group of young men was responsible, at the instigation of Carey, for the formation in 1792 of the English Baptist Missionary Society, and Fuller’s main activities, in addition to his Kettering pastorate, were connected with the affairs of this society. He traveled to all parts of the country, pleaded for money, and conducted an extensive correspondence in the interests of enterprises in Sierra Leone, Ceylon, and Jamaica, as well as India.