Remembering the “Elijah of East Ontario”: The life and evangelistic ministry of Daniel McPhail, Part I[1]

It was in the depths of a Canadian winter—on February 17, 1836—that various delegates from six Baptist churches met in Montreal to form the Ottawa Baptist Association. While two of the churches were based in Montreal (an Anglophone work and a French-speaking congregation), the others came from what was a considerable distance to travel in those days: Breadalbane, Dalesville, Hull, and Clarence. Among the stated aims of this Association were the deepening of the ties of fellowship between those “Baptist churches as agree in holding the sentiments commonly called Evangelical” as well as “the advance [of] the cause of Christ.”[2] For the latter, it was stressed, a certain type of man was needed: