Introduction

Biography

Manly grew up in Charle­ston, South Ca­ro­li­na, where his fa­ther was pas­tor of the First Bap­tist Church. By the time he was 14, his father had be­come pre­si­dent of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ala­ba­ma.

Manly ma­tri­cu­lat­ed there, gra­du­at­ing in 1844. He then brief­ly at­tend­ed the New­ton Theo­lo­gic­al In­sti­tu­tion, New­ton Centre, Mas­sa­chu­setts, then Prince­ton Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry, gra­du­at­ing in 1847.

He was or­dained a Bap­tist min­is­ter in 1848 in Tus­ca­loo­sa, Ala­ba­ma, and be­gan his min­is­try as pas­tor of three coun­try church­es, two in Sum­ter Coun­ty, Ala­ba­ma, and one in Nox­ubee Coun­ty, Mis­sis­sip­pi. Un­der the strains of three wid­ely se­pa­rated pas­tor­ates, his health be­came im­paired, and he even­tu­al­ly withd­rew from ac­tive min­is­try un­til Sep­tem­ber 1850.

In 1850, he helped es­tab­lish the Sun­day School Board of the South­ern Bap­tist Con­ven­tion. That same year, he was called to the First Bap­tist Church in Rich­mond, Vir­gin­ia, where he pas­tored four years. He then helped found and be­came pre­si­dent of the Rich­mond Fe­male In­sti­tute.

In 1859, he wrote the Ab­stract of Prin­ci­ples (ar­ti­cles of faith) for the nas­cent South­ern Bapt­ist Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry, of which he was one of the four found­ing fa­cul­ty mem­bers. He brief­ly taught Old Tes­ta­ment and He­brew at the se­mi­na­ry, un­til it closed dur­ing the Am­eri­can ci­vil war.

In 1871, he a­ccept­ed the po­si­tion of pre­si­dent of George­town Col­lege, George­town, Ken­tu­cky. In 1879, he re­turned to the fa­cul­ty of the South­ern Bap­tist Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry when it re­op­ened in Lou­is­ville, Ken­tuc­ky. He served there as pre­si­dent for a num­ber of years.

Manly wrote near­ly 40 hymns. Some ap­peared in The Ba­ptist Psal­mo­dy (Charles­ton, South Car­ol­ina: 1850), which he ed­it­ed with his fa­ther.

Works

• The Young De­sert­er
• Baptist Chor­als: A Hymn and Tune Book (Rich­mond, Vir­gin­ia: 1859)
• A Call to the Min­is­try, 1867
• The Bi­ble Do­ctrine of In­spi­ra­tion Ex­plained and Vin­di­cat­ed, 1888
• Manly’s Choice, 1891

For some years it has been ap­par­ent that the rage for no­vel­ties in sing­ing…has been driv­ing out the use of the old, pre­cious, stand­ard hymns. They are not me­mo­rized as of old. They are scarce­ly sung at all. They are not con­tained in the non-de­nom­in­ation­al song books, which in ma­ny church­es have usurped the plac­es of our old hymn­books. We can­not af­ford to lose these old hymns…But the young peo­ple to­day are un­fa­mil­iar with them and will sel­dom hear any of them if the pre­sent ten­den­cy goes on un­touched.

Basil Man­ly, Jr., The Choice: A Se­lect­ion of Ap­proved Hymns for Bap­tist Church­es, 1899