__NOTOC__ Daniel Sharp, D.D. (December 25, 1783 - June 25, 1853) was pastor of the Charles Street Baptist Church,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, for more than forty years, from 1812 to about 1853. He was one of the founders of the

Newton Theological Institution Newton Theological Institution was a American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist theological seminary founded on November 28, 1825 in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.Hovey, Alvah, Historical Address Delivered at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Newton The ...

. He was born December 25, 1783, in Huddersfield in Yorkshire, England. His father was a Baptist pastor. Daniel was a member of the Congregational Church when, after some success in business, he emigrated to the United States in 1806 and soon joined the Baptists. He studied theology with Dr.

William Staughton William Staughton (January 4, 1770 – December 12, 1829) was a Baptist clergyman, educator, and music composer. He was also a Chaplain of the United States Senate and the first President of Columbian College from 1821-1827, which is th ...

in Philadelphia beginning in March 1807 and was ordained pastor of the First Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, in 1809. He became pastor of Charles Street Baptist Church in Boston in 1812, having previously been invited to preach there in 1809 and 1811. He was secretary of the Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in India and Foreign Parts when it was formed in February 1813 and he prayers for the missions a regular practice for his congregation. Throughout his career he held administrative positions in the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society. He was a fellow of the corporation of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and a member of the Board of Overseers of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. As the head of a congregation and a leader of Baptist organizations, Sharp faced the dilemma of maintaining unity while providing moral guidance on the most contentious issues of his era, war and slavery. Preaching on April 2, 1846, on the subject of war and peace, he described the pastor's duty and used slavery to make his point: Sharp was a member and at times a vice president of the

American Peace Society The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd, in New York City, May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of ...

, which sought non-violent resolution to international conflicts. Though many Baptist pastors thought differently, he opposed the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

and in June 1846, shortly after the US declared war, he published a "Discourse on Peace" that called it "a war for southern territory, waged against justice, against humanity, and against the voice of God". His health declined in 1852 and his service as pastor in Boston ended about 1853 when he traveled south seeking warmer weather. He died on June 23, 1853, in the village of Stoneley outside Baltimore. The ''

Boston Journal ''The Boston Journal'' was a daily newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1833 until October 1917 when it was merged with the '' Boston Herald''. The paper was originally an evening paper called the ''Evening Mercantile Journal''. Whe ...

'' wrote in an obituary that "his views upon public affairs, and upon the great movements of the day ... were sound, practical and conservative, and fraught with benevolence". this obituary appeared originally in the ''Boston Journal'' on June 23, 1853.

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Daniel 1783 births 1853 deaths American Christian clergy 19th century in Boston Clergy from Boston Baptist ministers from the United States