The Congregationalist who became a Baptist
by Thomas Ray
Daniel Merrill was born March 18, 1765, in Rowley, MA, into a deeply religious family. His father was the head deacon in the Rowley Congregationalist Church, and two of his brothers were Congregationalist ministers. Daniel was converted when he was 13 years old and, before reaching his 16th birthday, he enlisted in the American Revolutionary struggle and served with distinction and honor. At the conclusion of the war, he returned to Rowley and began praying about his future.
Believing God called him into the ministry, he enrolled at Dartmouth College in about 1782. He completed his studies in 1789 with two degrees and finished at the top of his class. After graduation, he studied theology with a neighboring pastor and did some preaching in and about Rowley and some of the adjoining states.
Merrill’s opportunities were unlimited. Some of the largest churches in New England were interested in calling him as their pastor. However, Merrill, like the apostle Paul, refused to build on other men’s foundations. He chose instead to begin an itinerant ministry in the wilderness of Maine. Success followed his efforts and revival broke out in every community where he preached. One of his greatest successes occurred in Sedgwick, ME. In 1793, he returned to Sedgwick and was installed as pastor of the newly established church. The church experienced rapid growth becoming the largest congregation in Maine.
Merrill’s personal knowledge about Baptists was limited. Most of what he knew came from fellow Congregationalist ministers, and it was extremely negative. In about 1800, several itinerant Baptist ministers began holding meetings in the Sedgwick area. Merrill found them to be men of God, sound in the faith except for their beliefs about baptism, he thought. The Baptists caused quite a stir among the Congregationalists resulting in several of Merrill’s members embracing Baptist doctrine. Merrill was not angry at the Baptists, but he saw this as an opportunity to educate his people and convince the Baptists of the error of their doctrine about baptism.
Merrill planned to preach a series of sermons to his people proving from scripture that infant baptism was taught in God’s Word. He also planned to write a book that would convince the Baptists of their errors and the correctness of the Congregationalist’s faith. He began studying day and night searching the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and to his amazement, he soon discovered that infant baptism was not based on the unerring Word of God but was a doctrine invented by fallible men.
He was convinced that infant baptism was unscriptural but the thought of becoming a Baptist was unthinkable. He continued to read, pray, fast, and meditate, but he still could not embrace the Baptist position. Finally, he yielded and submitted unconditionally to the will of God, and the darkness disappeared, and he found peace.
Merrill began a seven-week series of sermons on the subject of baptism. At the conclusion of the series the church voted almost unanimously to become a Baptist church. Dr. Thomas Baldwin, pastor of Second Baptist in Boston, came to Sedgwick, and on May 14, 1805, he baptized Merrill and 66 of his members, and 23 more the next day. A council was called, and the former Congregational church was constituted into a Baptist church and Merrill was ordained a pastor.
He would publish his book, not to expose Baptist errors, but to proclaim the truth of Baptist practices and the error of pedobaptist doctrine. Merrill’s books and his preaching had a great impact, especially upon pedobaptists, with numbers of them embracing Baptist principles. The impact of Merrill’s ministry reached far beyond Sedgwick. He was one of the founders of Colby College, and he served several terms in the Legislature and on the Governor’s Council, but he never neglected his calling. He finally succumbed to a lingering illness on June 2, 1833, in his 68th year.