Making many glad - Baker - XXI - Chapter 12 (Founding of Austin College - Labours as an evangelist, and as an agent of the college) commenced

Required reading
Making many glad: The life and labours of Daniel Baker by William M. Baker (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Chapter 12 (Founding of Austin College - Labours as an evangelist, and as an agent of the college) by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'With a heart pained at the destitution he had witnessed in his journeying through Texas, he addressed a letter to the students of Princeton Seminary, dated Galveston, March 2d, 1849, which was published in the New Orleans Presbyterian.'

My summary
This week we hear more about Baker's work in Texas, in particular his founding of Austin College.

Baker sums up in a letter most of what happened in today's reading: 'The month of August has been a busy one to me. I rode two hundred miles; preached fifty times; baptized two adults; ordained three elders; received several to the communion; paved the way for organizing one church, and wrote some dozen letters or more. This, I think, will do for 'a venerable father going down the steeps of old age,' especially in the month of August! And another thing — during the same month I broached the idea of locating a Presbyterian College at Huntsville, and had a subscription to the amount of seven thousand eight hundred dollars placed in my hand, and the assurance of another subscription of one hundred thousand acres of land! If every month in the year I can do as much as this in the wilds of Texas, neither I, nor anybody else can regret that I exchanged the pleasant life of a pastor for the laborious one of a missionary.'

What grabbed me
Interesting to read about the founding of the college, particularly the determination of Baker in the face of some opposition to moving quickly.

I liked this counsel to his son: 'O, procrastination ! thou art not only ' the thief of time,' but the conqueror of all good purposes ! My son, receive your father's counsel — Never put off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day.'

Amen!

Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 12 (Founding of Austin College - Labours as an evangelist, and as an agent of the college) by reading up to the paragraph beginning 'During this, as during all his absences, Dr. Baker seized every opportunity to write to his family, extracts from which letters are inserted in their order.'

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.