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SIDNEY RIGDON
AMONG THE BAPTISTS HIS EARLY YEARS IN AND AROUND PITTSBURGH Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 |
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Redstone Bap. Index: 1804-14 | Redstone Bap. Index: 1815-30 | Beaver Bap. Index: 1810-30
1824 Campbell's book | Greatrake's 1824 pamphlets | Campbell's recollections of 1823
1824 Walter Scott pamphlet | 1824 Alex. Campbell reply | 1825 Alex. Campbell pamphlet
1826 Greatrake tract | 1826 McCalla's tract | 1828 Campbell's reply | 1831 McCalla's book
1868 Memoirs of A. Campbell | 1874 Life of Walter Scott | 1875 Disciples on West. Res.
1904 Relation Baptists/Disciples | 1909 "Disciples in Pittsburgh" | 1919 Origin of Disciples
1931 Religion Follows the Frontier | 1948 Disciples History | 1952 Buckeye Disciples
2000 Knowles Diss. | Rigdon in Ohio | Rigdon Revealed series | Newspapers articles
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Early Relation... of Baptists and Disciples by Errett Gates Chicago: Donnelley & Sons, 1904 |
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Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ by Walter W. Jennings Cincinnati: Standard Pub. Co., 1919 |
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Religion Follows the Frontier by Winfred E. Garrison New York, Harper & Brothers, 1931 |
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Note: Entire contents copyright (c) 1931 by Winfred E. Garrison
Only limited, "fair use" excerpts are reproduced here
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204 RELIGION FOLLOWS THE FRONTIER ... OHIO In Ohio, as already narrated, the beginnings were connected with the spread of Campbell's views among the Baptists. The church at Warren, for example, was founded as a Baptist church in 1803. Adamson Bentley, its minister from 1811 to 1831, was prominent alike in organizing it into a yearly meeting of Disciple churches. After Scott had rediscovered, as he believed, the principles of the ancient order, the church at Windham, Portage County, Ohio, was the first congregation organized de nova "upon the principles of the restored Gospel" -- on May 27, 1828, according to Hayden's Disciples in the Western Reserve (see also Scott's report in The Evangelist, April, 1838).By 1830, as we already know, the Baptist churches of Ohio had been largely permeated with the teaching of the Reformers, and both the Mahoning and the Stillwater associations had been completely taken by them. Almost simultaneously the Mormon church came into existence in the adjacent corner of New York and began its invasion of Ohio. Disciples and Mormons appealed to the same constituency and with some striking similiarities of approach, though also with some notable differences. EMERGING FROM THE PIONEER STAGE 205 Both based their appeal upon a plea for the restoration of a divine plan. The Disciple preachers became prominent leaders in Mormonism -- Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Orson Hyde. Rigdon converted Pratt and Hyde to the Disciples position, and Pratt converted Rigdon to Mormonism. The transition from one camp to the other was abrupt in all three cases, but startling in Pratt's case. He preached one day as a Disciple and the next as a Mormon elder. Naturally they carried over with them many of the forms of thought amd much of the terminology to which they had been trained. The defection -- or conversion, according to point of view -- of these three preachers, carried many Disciples over into Mormonism. It is to be remembered that they had not been Disciples very long, and that among the followers of any new movement there is always a certain percentage of those who are temperamentally disposed to follow any new thing. Rigdon became associated with Joseph Smith in the First Presidency of the Mormon Church and was a claimant for the leadership of the organization when Brigham Younf secured it. Pratt and Hyde became "apostles." The Mormon historian, Roberts, considers the Disciples as forerunners of the Mormon gospel, and that Campbell and Scott were also (like Rigdon) "sent forth to prepare the way before the Lord." The Disciples did not think so. The rivalry between the two groups became intense. That the Mormons found among the Disciples, as Roberts says, "more who would listen to their teachings and a greater proportion who would accept the fulness of the gospel than in any other sect," did not improve their relations. Besides, the Disciples, being themselves rather outside the pale of denominational respectability, could not afford to jeopardize such standing as they had by letting pass unchallenged the assertion that they were in any way akin to this new and disreputable sect -- for both were disreputable and fanatical it was deemed, even before polygamy was introduced to render it altogether contemptible. The conflict 206 RELIGION FOLLOWS THE FRONTIER between Disciples and Mormons included several debates and at least one instance of mob violence with the latter as the victims, at Hiram, Ohio. But the Mormons passed on west, under the stimulus of persecution, and the Disciples recovered from the stigma of contact with them.... (remainder of this text not transcribed, due to copyright restrictions) EMERGING FROM THE PIONEER STAGE 207 (remainder of this text not transcribed, due to copyright restrictions) |
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Disciples of Christ A History by Winfred E. Garrison and Alfred T. DeGroot St. Louis: Christian Board of Pub., 1948 |
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Note: Entire contents copyright (c) 1948 by Christian Board of Publication
Only limited, "fair use" excerpts are reproduced here
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[ 180 ]
Walter Scott was born in Moffatt, Scotland, October 31, 1796. Financial limitations -- his father was a music teacher who had ten children -- did not prevent him from getting a thorough classical education. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, and it is supposed that he took a degree; but his name was so common in Scotland that it is not possible to identify him with certainty in the university's records. In 1818 he came to America at the suggestion of an uncle who had a good position in the New York customs house. After spending nearly a year as an instructor in Latin in an academy on Long Island, he heard the call of the West and journeyed to Pittsburgh, where he arrived on May 7, 1819. There he became an instructor in a school conducted by a fellow countryman, George Forrester, who was also the leader of a small church of "humble, pious people, mostly Scotch and Irish" (Wm. Baxter: Life of Elder Walter Scott, p. 40). This was one of the many scattered "primitive Christianity" congregations which had sprung up under the stimulus of the ideas of Sandeman and the Haldanes. It is impossible to determine, from the existing records, to which of these strains it was most closely akin, and it makes little difference, for the impulse to reproduce the practice of the early church was common to them all, and the details of church procedure varied within each group. This Pittsburgh church practiced immersion and also the ceremonies of foot washing and the SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 181 "holy kiss." The name locally given to it was "kissing Baptists." Scott, who had been reared in the Church of Scotland, was greatly impressed by Mr. Forrester's piety and by his passionate devotion to the direct study of the Bible as the source of religious truth. He became a member of this church. Forrester's withdrawal from the school, followed soon by his accidental death by drowning, left with Scott the responsibility for conducting the, school and shepherding the church. While wrestling with these duties and assimilating the ideas in the books of Glas, Samdeman, Haldane, and John Locke which he found in Forrester's library, Scott came upon a pamphlet that had been written by Henry Errett, father of Isaac Errett, and published by a New York City congregation of "Scotch Baptists" (the name generally given to the immersionist branch of the Sandemanians), who "held many of the views taught by the Haldanes" (Baxter, op. cit., p. 46). This tract was on the purpose and effect of baptism. It connected baptism so definitely with remission of sins and salvation that, in this view, it became highly questionable whether any of the unimmersed, regardless of their apparent possession of the fruits of the Spirit, could be "acknowledged as Disciples, as having made the Christian profession, as having put on Christ, as having passed from death to life." Scott was so stirred by this discovery that he closed his school and went to New York to further instruction from the church which had set forth this statement. He was frank in admitting that the visit was a disappointment, though he never said just why. Certainly he suffered no loss of conviction as to the importance of returning to simple New Testament Christianity. Baxter would give us to understand that he was disheartened to see the "sectarian" churches so indifferent to this program which seemed to him so axiomatic and imperative. One may be permitted to conjecture, in the light of his course thereafter, that Scott was discouraged by the pettiness of the program for carrying out the great principle more than by the reluctance of the whole Christian world to accept it instantly. This New York church was the one which only a little later, was having a discussion by correspondence with a similar church in Edinburgh is to whether the Scriptures commanded that the service of worship should be opened with a hymn or with a prayer. 182 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST While Scott was in this state of depression, there came a pressing invitation to return to Pittsburgh. It came from Mr. Nathaniel Richardson, a substantial citizen and an Episcopalian, who wanted him to be tutor to his son Robert and a few other boys. (This Robert Richardson became a professor in Bethany College and Alexander Campbell's biographer.) Scott accepted this call, but on his way he visited other congregations of restorers of primitive Christianity of the Haldanean persuasion -- at Paterson New Jersey at Baltimore, and at Washington. He was not heartened by what he found in any of them. SCOTT MEETS CAMPBELL Back in Pittsburgh, Scott resumed the care of the church while carrying on the teaching by which lie earned his livelihood. The little tutoring enterprise for fifteen boys grew, as soon as the limit was lifted, to a school with 140 enrolled. This was the golden age of private academies; there were no public high schools. Serious study of the religious questions in which Forrester had aroused his interest was also a part of Scott's daily program. Locke, Glas, Sandeman, and Haldane were still among his favorite authors, but the Bible was his basic material. Brooding upon this, he reached the clear conviction that the central and sufficient fact for Christian faith could be stated in these four words -- "Jesus is the Christ." Scott had advanced so far on the way toward a church with no other creed than this before his first meeting with Alexander Campbell in the winter of 1821-22. This was at a time midway between the Walker and Maccalla debates. The two young men -- Scott, twenty-five; Campbell. thirty-three -- were congenial from the outset. Campbell, with the start that his father had given human in the Declaration and Address, had gone farther on the road to church reformation and was more definitely committed to the goal of union. Scott, getting his impulse from the separatist groups, whose interest was solely in the exact restoration of the primitive church, had given little thought to the union of Christians; however, he was soon to make a contribution of such importance that without it there would probably never have been occasion to write a history of the Disciples.Within less than a year, after his first meeting with Scott, Alexander Campbell began to make plans for the publication of the Christian Baptist. It is said that the name was suggested SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 183 by Scott. Campbell had proposed to call it " The Christian." But Scott, though not himself a Baptist, thought that the addition of "Baptist" to the name would increase its appeal to the denomination to which Campbell belonged and within which his ideas were beginning to gain currency. To the first volume of this magazine Scott contributed a series of four articles entitled, "A Divinely Authorized Plan of Preaching the Christian Religion." This was another step in defining the process by which one becomes a Christian. That matter had really been central in Thomas Campbell's original interest, for the conditions upon which one becomes a Christian must be identical with the terms of fellowship and constitute the basis of union. But attention had been diverted to the development of a complete plan for the restoration of the church on the primitive pattern, which, it was assumed, would be the necessary pattern of the united church; then to the distinction between the dispensations, which was useful in directing attention to the part of the Bible which gives information about Christian institutions and in putting aside misleading analogies with Old Testament practices; then to a more comprehensive study of baptism, including its design as well as its action and subjects. This was all very well, but it did not give an exact answer to the question, How do people get to be Christians? To that question Scott began to give attention in this series of articles, for, of course, a "divinely authorized plan of preaching the Christian religion" would be only a way of stating the divinely authorized plan of accepting it. The complete statement and application of Scott's "plan" had to wait until, four years later, he became evangelist for the Mahoning Association. But an important foundation was laid in these articles. The emphasis here was upon the nature of faith and the way in which it is produced. Scott wrote: Jesus having died for sin and arisen again to introduce the hope of immortality, the great fact to be believed, in order to be saved, is that he is the Son of Cvod; and this being a matter-of-fact question, the belief of it as necessarily depends upon the evidence by which it is accompanied as the belief of any other fact depends upon its particular evidence.... We shall. see by and by that to preach the gospel is just to propose this glorious truth to sinners, and support it by its proper evidence. We shall see that the heavens and the apostles proposed nothing more in order to convert men from the error of their ways 184 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST and to reduce them to the love and obedience of Christ.... In short, the apostles proceeded thus: they first proposed the truth to be believed, and, secondly, they produced the evidences necessary to warrant belief. This view of faith as the result of using ordinary intelligence, an act of which even sinful man is capable, and, as he calls it, a "matter-of-fact question" having to do with evidence, was far from being an original discovery with Scott. Many of the Reformers mentioned in this book had taken the same view. Thomas Campbell had hinted at it during his trial by the synod. It was fundamental in Alexander Campbell's theology. Stone had expressed it in early life, then apparently had forgotten it until he was reminded-indirectly by Scott. Back of these, John Locke had said the same thing, so clearly that perhaps all the others had learned it from him. Robert Sandeman generally (but not always) took this view, and in his Letters on Theron and Aspasio (4th edition, 1803, p. 252) he quotes from Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity: "The faith required was to believe Jesus to be the messiah, the anointed, who had been promised by God to the world." This was Scott's exact position as to both the object and the nature of faith. In his Christian Baptist articles, Scott Is specific purpose was to show that preachers should try to produce belief in the Messiahship of Jesus by presenting the evidence, instead of trying to induce a mystical state variously called an "assurance of pardon," or "assurance that Christ died for me," by emotional techniques, vivid pictures of the fate of the damned, and wrestlings to win the miraculous action of the Holy Spirit to bestow saving faith on a mourner already "convicted of sin." He was thinking his way toward an intelligent, effective, and scriptural method of presenting the gospel. During the next three years, until 1826, Scott remained in Pittsburgh, teaching and caring for the little church of "kissing Baptists" and contributing frequent articles to the Christian Baptist. Then he moved to Steubenville, Ohio, where be was a much nearer neighbor to Mr. Campbell. Describing the situation as it was in 1827, Scott wrote a little later: There were three parties struggling to restore original Christianity: the first of them calling themselves "the Churches of Christ;" the second calling themselves "Christians," and the third laying [sic] at that time chiefly in the bosom of the Regular Baptist churches and originating SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 185 with the writings and labours of Bro. A. Campbell. To the first of these parties, up to 1826, belonged your humble servant, W. S. (Evangelist, April 1, 1832. [sic - 1833]) Scott's first group consisted of those independent churches, in Great Britain and America, which had received their impulse to restore primitive Christianity chiefly from Glas, Sandeman, and the Haldanes. The second was the "Christian" Church as he had seen it in Ohio, knew of it in Kentucky, and perhaps had heard of it in the northeastern and the southern seaboard states. The third was the Campbell movement, lying somewhat uneasily "in the bosom of the Regular Baptist churches." It may be noted that the common characteristic of these three, according to Scott, was their purpose to "restore original Christianity. "Union is not mentioned as an aim, though it may have been implied in the word "original." As a matter of fact, the stress upon union was at this time slight in any of the three. REFORM SPREADS IN OHIO Meanwhile, the spread of Campbell's views among the Baptists of eastern Ohio had made no little progress. This is indicated by some of the questions which, according to the prevalent custom, local churches sent up to the annual meetings of the Mahoning Association for authoritative answers. In 1823 came this question: "May a church which has no ordained elder observe the communion or administer baptism?" The answer was "No." Some church evidently doubted whether ordination conferred powers that a layman did not have, and perhaps resented the tendency of even Baptist ministers to form a clerical caste; but the association still stood by the clergy. In 1824 three questions were submitted which showed the ferment of new ideas: (1) "Is it apostolic practice for churches to have a confession of faith and a constitution besides the Scriptures? No answer. (2) "How were members received into churches which were set in order by the apostles?" The question was held over for a year, and then the answer was, "Those who believed and were baptized were added to the church." Nothing was said about requiring an "experience" and a favorable vote of the congregation, in the usual Baptist fashion. The rational, rather than emotional, conception of faith is certainly not excluded and seems even to be implied. (3) "Can associations in their present modifications find their model in the New186 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST Testament?" "The answer: "Not exactly." In 1825, the association was called upon for an answer to this crucial question: "Was the practice of the primitive church an exact pattern to succeeding ages?" The answer was, "Yes." Before this the church at Hiram had voted to discard its church covenant, constitution, and Confession of Faith and to take "the Bible alone" as its standard. Soon after Scott moved to Steubenville in 1826, he attended the annual meeting of the Mahoning Association, on August 20, as an invited guest and preached. The following year he was there again, somewhat reluctantly, because he was not a regular Baptist and did not want to impose upon the association's "hospitality." But Campbell urged him to come, and Campbell was a "messenger" to the association from the church at Wellsburg, which, though on the wrong side of the river and forty miles south of the nearest of the other churches, had its connection with the Mahoning rather than the Redstone Association. 
Churches of the Mahoning Association The Mahoning Association in 1827 listed seventeen churches. Fourteen of them were represented at this meeting. The reports for the year were not encouraging. There had been a total of thirty-four baptisms and thirteen additions otherwise... Thirteen had been excommunicated. The net gain was sixteen -- and this at a time when the population was SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 187 doubling and redoubling. Wellsburg and Hiram, the two churches that had gone farthest in "reform," had done better than average; between them, they had twenty of the thirty-four baptisms and only one of the thirteen excommunications. The association decided that it needed an evangelist "to labor among the churches." It appointed a committee to find the man. The committee nominated Walter Scott, and the association elected him. He was to work for whatever the churches pleased to contribute for his support. Scott accepted the appointment. He was not a member of the association, not a Baptist, not a member of any church in the town where he lived, not a resident of the district in which the Mahoning churches were located, not an ordained minister. But it was a good appointment. SCOTT'S EVANGELISM IN THE MAHONING ASSOCIATION Scott began his work at New Lisbon, Ohio. The first convert under his new way of presenting the "ancient gospel" was William Amend, of whom Scott's early biographer, Baxter, says that he "was beyond all question, the first person in modern times who received the ordinance of baptism in perfect accordance with apostolic teaching and usage." This was on November 18, 1827. The statement does not exaggerate the conviction that Scott and his colleagues felt as to the importance of his recovery of the original process of conversion. Scott's formula for salvation rested upon the belief that religious knowledge and religious faith are within the reach of sinful man if he will apply his reason to the evidence supplied by revelation. His basic principle was that belief in the Messiahship of Jesus rests on rational proof, while everything else in the Christian system rests on his authority. That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is a truth that must be proved to man's reason. -- That done, "the strongest argument that can possibly be offered for the truth of the doctrine is this: Magister dixit."The formula itself was simple and clear-cut. There were three things for man to do, and they were all things that man could do and, having done them, could be sure that he had done them: he must believe, upon the evidence, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; he must repent of his personal sins with godly sorrow and resolve to sin no more; and he must be baptized. Then there were three things that God would do according to his promises, and man could be sure that God would 188 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST do them if the conditions had been fulfilled. God would: deliver man from the guilt, power, and penalty of his repented sins; bestow the gift of the Holy Spirit; and grant eternal life. Sometimes the second item of these last three was omitted in compact statements of the program, sometimes the third was omitted, sometimes these two were combined into one; so the whole usually appeared as a five-point formula. Taken by itself, the phrase, "gift of the Holy Spirit," had a rather vac, ie meaning. Taken together with "eternal life," it stood for growth in grace, Christian living, and the fulfillment of the Christian hope. Through this door Scott escaped from the seemingly legalistic rigidity of the earlier part of this formula, and the "scheme of redemption" (as Milligan later called it) opened out into a range of spiritual possibilities that were not limited by diagrammatic formulations. His preaching, at its best, had these overtones, this wider perspective. But he did not allow this to obscure the fundamental theme-"Faith, repentance and baptism for the remission of sins." Scott later called his formula "the Gospel Restored" -- a term which Campbell thought too pretentious. The force and. freshness of Scott's evangelistic appeal, the exciting sense of discovery, the thought that an ancient treasure of divine truth was just now being brought to light after having been lost for centuries, the sense of witnessing the dawn of a new epoch in the history of Christianity -- these things gave to the revival an extraordinary character. It was different from other revivals. It was -utterly unlike the Great Western Revival, which had stirred Kentucky and Tennessee a generation earlier and out of which had emerged the western branch of the "Christian" Church. Here was no frenzy of emotion, but a blending of rationality and authority, an appeal to common sense and to Scripture. It assumed the absolute authority of the Bible, which almost no one doubted; and it asserted man's rational ability to understand what he ought to do and why, and his moral ability to do it. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Other preachers in the association caught the new note and began to sound it. Hundreds were converted. New churches were organized. Within one year the total membership of the churches in the Mahoning Association was more than doubled. When the campaign had been in progress a few months, Thomas SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 189 Campbell went over to see this wonderful thing. He saw clearly that Scott had added to the movement for reform a new element which had been lacking in his own work and in that of his brilliant son. He wrote: I perceive that theory and practice in religion, as well as in other things, are matters of distinct consideration.... We have long known the former (the theory), and have spoken and published many things correctly concerning the ancient gospel, its simplicity and perfect adaptation to the present state of mankind, for the benign and gracious purposes of his immediate relief and complete salvation; but I must confess that, in respect to the direct exhibition and application of it for that blessed purpose, I am at present for the first time upon the ground where the thing has appeared to be practically exhibited to the proper purpose. Thomas Campbell here says in substance: We have had the right plans for restoring the church as it ought to be and uniting it on the true and primitive basis, but we have had no effective way of getting anybody to join it; we have known everything about the gospel and its saving power except how to present it so that people would be saved by it. When the Mahoning Association held its next annual meeting, in August, 1828, the churches reported a net increase of 512 for the year. (The previous figure was 492.) The moderator, Stephen Wood, added that "these, however, are but the half of the actual number which have been by our means immersed into the Lord Jesus during the last year." Scott's report, as preserved in the minutes of the Mahoning Association for 1828, deserves to be presented here in full: Brethren, In conformity with your Minutes of 1827, 1 beg leave to report as follows: -- The results of your appointment have been important and peculiar. God has greatly blessed your good work. Many of the saints of the Mahoning churches have been strengthened during last year. Much error has been corrected; backsliders have been reclaimed, and many hundreds of all ranks have actually been converted and baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. While these blessed results are connected with immense personal labors, by night and by day, in every minister concerned; yet we cannot, and would not avoid attributing them ultimately to the grace of God our Father, in turning our attention to the gospel in its original terms. 190 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST The publication of the gospel in the express form given it by the Apostles on Pentecost, and the public ministration of its spirit on their inspired plan, viz. in immersion, are facts which in the developement of reforming principles, are perhaps more intimately connected with the unity of the body of Christ, and the abolition of sects; the destruction of systematic divinity and the conversion of the world, than any other piece of solid knowledge which had been recovered to the church during the progress of three hundred years' reformation. To persuade men to act upon the divine testimony, rather than to wait upon uncertain and remote influences; to accept disciples on a simple confession of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and to baptize them for in immediately personal acquittal from their sins through the blood of Christ, and for the Holy Spirit, are matters which have caused great public excitement. This excitement, however, his only turned out to the furtherance. of the gospel; and we bless God, who has taught us by his Apostles, that, as the divine testimony may be received when understood, and understood when honestly listened to: so it may be acted upon the very moment it is received. Therefore the enjoyment of remission and of the Holy Spirit, is not a thing of tomorrow, but of to-day -- "to-day," says God, "if you will hear my voice" -- "And there were added to them that very day three thousand souls." Beloved brethren, the bustle of conversion has precluded the possibility of holding more than two quarterly meetings, and all the monies which I have received have been expended in the payment of a horse, saddle, bridle, portmanteau, rent, and a balance of 25 dollars on a waggon; and even of the amount of these nearly 30 dollars have been borrowed, which I beg the Association may be careful at this time to refund. While I conceive the pecuniary part of this business not to have received that attention from. some, which was reasonably anticipated. T have nevertheless to acknowledge the kindness of many individuals, also, of some of the churches, particularly that of Wellsburgh, of Warren, of Canfield, Mantua, Salem, and New Lisbon, who will report more especially of what tliey have contributed. The families of Dr. Wright, brother Harsh, and brother Brookes, of Warren; brother Gaskill, of Salem; and brother Jacob Campbell, of New Lisbon, are of acknowledged hospitality, and have entertained not only me, but the whole church in their respective towns during these revivals; and with them those whose names follow, viz. -- The Rudolphs, the Deans, the Sacketts, the Drakes, the Hay's, the Haydens, the Austins, the Smyths, the Turners, &c. I may say of them what Paul said of such men formerly -- "They are the messengers of the churches, and the boast of christianity" SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 191 The signal success which has attended the labors of brothers Bentley, Rigdon, and Gaston, is known to you all. Father Thomas Campbell has been about five months on the field, both increasing the number of disciples, and building them up in all the wisdom of the Just One. Brother Osborne abandoned all to come to the help of the Lord; but his first efforts disabled him. Ministers from several sects have embraced the ancient gospel, and preached it with great success. No fewer than six new churches have been formed, one of them with more than a hundred members; and the following brethren are now your preachers: -- Bosworth, who has already baptized many; Finch, Ferguson, Hayden, Wright, McLeery, Osborne, Jackson, Rudolph, Scott, Campbell., Rigdon and Bentley. The grace of God be with the brethren. Amen.
WALTER SCOTT
Joseph Gaston, mentioned by Scott in the last paragraph of his report as one of his valued colleagues, was a "Christian" preachers of whom Scott wrote, after Gaston's early death, that be was "the very first Christian minister who received the gospel after its restoration, and who argued for the remission of sins by baptism." It was clearly Scott's idea that the position of the Christians was so different from his own that it was a decisive step for a Christian minister to "receive the gospel." Gaston seems to have thought so, too, for (still quoting Scott) "he was immersed for remission at a general. meeting held at Austintown two years later." But even before that he had been a valued assistant in some of Scott's meetings, adding his "tender and pathetic exhortations" to the other's vigorous argument. Between them, they won to the new position many of the "Christians" in Ohio. Scott's biographer says: "Great numbers of them, sometimes nearly entire congregations, at once accepted his views, for which they were already prepared by an abandonment of creeds, the rejection of' all party names, and the adoption of the name Christian as expressive of their allegiance to Christ." (Baxter, op. cit., p. 150.) DISSOLUTION OF THE MAHONING ASSOCIATION At the annual meeting of the association in 1828, when the report of Scott's first year's work was received, William Hayden was added to the evangelistic staff, and the next year Bentley and Bosworth. Within three years after Scott's192 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST appointment, the Mahoning Baptist Association had been radically changed. There remained only one more thing that could be done to remove the last trace of its distinctively Baptist character; that was for the association itself to dissolve. It had come to be generally agreed that the churches should follow the New Testament pattern of government, and that there was no primitive precedent for anything quite like a Baptist association, which, while disclaiming de jure authority, nevertheless exercised a good deal of de facto control over the churches. Moreover, some other associations, notably Redstone and Beaver, were taking stern measures against churches and members that, influenced by Campbell's teaching in the two published debates and in the Christian Baptist, were shaking off their allegiance to the Philadelphia Confession of Faith and otherwise departing from Baptistic practice. It seemed to many that associations were unscriptural and might be dangerous. It was perhaps at Scott's instigation, certainly with his support, that John Henry introduced a resolution "that the Mahoning Association, as an advisory council, or an ecclesiastical tribunal, should cease to exist." Alexander Campbell, who was rising to oppose the motion was dissuaded by Scott. It was adopted unanimously. At that time and place, at Austintown, Ohio, in August, 1830, there came into being a company of Reformers who were not Baptists. "Those Baptists who had embraced the new views," says Baxter, "together with the new converts made, were called Campbellites, and by many Scottites; but after the dissolution of the Association which was really brought about by the efforts of Scott, they were called Disciples." But the actual beginning of the Disciples cannot be dated so precisely, because it consisted, not in the formation of some new organization, but in the separation of various groups of Reformers from their previous denominational connections and the merging of these into a people with some sense of common cause and mutual fellowship. Both the separations and the mergings were gradual processes. The dissolution of the Mahoning Association, with the substitution of an annual meeting of its constituent churches "for praise and worship, and to hear reports from laborers in the field," was only a single event among many, though perhaps the most decisive. SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 193 THE PROCESS OF SEPARATION The separation from the Baptists had begun before 1830, and it was not completed until at least three years later. A few episodes in other places will illustrate the process. The thirteen churches which were excluded by the Redstone Association in 1825 because of their reforming views and which formed the Washington Association were thereafter Baptist in name only. Campbell's views gained wide currency in Kentucky after the Maccalla debate in 1823 and his extensive tour of the state in 1824. "Raccoon" John Smith, a somewhat eccentric but very powerful Baptist preacher, met Campbell in the latter year, read the Christian Baptist, soon learned Scott's method of presenting the gospel, and put it into practice. It was the evangelistic activity of the Reformers that so quickly gave them a preponderance in some associations and a large minority in others. The Baptist churches and associations in regions where the Reformers were active were virtually swamped with new converts, almost all of whom had come into the church on the new presentation of the "ancient gospel." Smith's three churches (Mount Sterling, Spencer's Creek, and Grassy Lick) in the North District Association of Kentucky, had 392 baptisms during the year 1827-28, and he had also evangelized in other communities. The twenty-four churches of the association reported 900 baptisms for that year, mostly by Smith "after the ancient practice. "Besides, he had organized five new churches "on the Bible alone" which had joined the association. No wonder the orthodox Baptists who had filed charges against him the year before did not now care to bring them to a vote. It was for this same year that the Christian Baptist (Vol. V, p. 263) reported: "Bishop (i.e., Elder) Vardeman, of Kentucky, has immersed about 550 persons from Nov. 1 to May 1. Bishop John Smith from Feb. 1 to April 20 immersed 330. Bishops Scott, Rigdon and Bentley in Ohio within the last six months have immersed about 800." To get away from the flood of John Smith's "Campbellite" converts, ten churches of the North District Association withdrew and formed a new purely Baptist association. The remaining majority, now composed wholly of Reformers, met once more and then dissolved, as the Mahoning Association had done.Tate's Creek Association, in Kentucky, followed the example of Redstone, in that an orthodox minority excommunicated a 194 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST reforming majority, when ten churches that remained soundly Baptist excluded sixteen that followed Campbell. The Beaver Association, in western Pennsylvania, adopted a resolution in 1829 disfellowshipping Mahoning and giving a syllabus of the errors charged against the Reformers who dominated it. This statement, which was more accurate than one side usually gives of the other's views when controversy is hot, is sometimes called the "Beaver anathema." According to it, the Reformers teach (and the Baptists, by implication, deny): "that there is no promise of salvation without baptism; that baptism should be administered on belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, without examination on any other point; that there is no direct operation of the Holy Spirit on the mind before baptism; that baptism procures the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit; that man's obedience places it in God's power to elect to salvation; that no creed is necessary for the church; that all baptized persons have a right to administer the ordinance of baptism." To these items, Tate's Creek Association added four more "Campbellite errors": "that there is no special call to the ministry; that the law given to Moses is abolished; that experimental religion is enthusiasm; that there is no mystery in the Scriptures." Since there was no criticism of the Reformers for practicing open communion, they evidently did not practice it at that time. Some other Baptist associations in Kentucky condemned Campbell's doctrines without taking specific action to exclude those who held them. An association in Anderson County (just west of Lexington) adopted the Beaver anathema, after which several churches voluntarily withdrew, and the record shows a sudden drop in the membership both of the association as whole and of every church remaining in it except one very small one. Sulphur Fork Association, in 1829, recorded its approval of the Beaver action and advised its churches to "discountenance the several errors and corruptions for which Mahoning has suffered excision from the fellowship of the neighboring associations." Goshen Association, a hundred miles west of the Bluegrass, resolved, in October, 1830, "that the doctrines of A. Campbell are anti-Christian, and that the churches and members of this association are requested not to countenance or give encouragement to any person or persons holding the opinions of the said A. Campbell by inviting SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 195 them into their pulpits or private houses for the purpose of disseminating their anti-Christian doctrines or opinions." In 1830 Long Run Association, including Louisville, passed firm but courteous resolutions condemning Campbell's position; but it was already permeated with reforming sentiment, and the Louisville Baptist church had peaceably divided, even sharing the property on fair and friendly terms. P. S. Fall, as pastor of that church, had started it on the way to reform before he removed to Nashville in 1825. The work was carried on by his successor, Benjamin Allen, of whom J. H. Spencer's History of the Kentucky Baptists says: "He brought many into the Baptist church, but he took many more out of it. The Campbellites owe him more, and the Baptists less, than any other man in Long Run Association." Allen was to Long Run Association what John Smith was to North District, Jacob Creath to Elkhorn, and Walter Scott to Mahoning. By the end of 1830 there were in Kentucky several thousand persons committed to the program of reform. This following had been won, partly by the direct influence of Campbell's visits and writings, but largely by the evangelistic work of men like John Smith, Jacob Creath, Sr., and Jacob Creath, Jr., from the previously unconverted, as well as from the Baptist churches. These were ready to recognize their common fellowship in a new and separate body when Mr. Campbell himself ceased to classify himself as a Baptist. This he did when the Mahoning Association dissolved and when be brought his Christian Baptist to an end and began the publication of his new magazine, the Millennial Harbinger. These thousands who entered the reformation through what had been Baptist churches were in addition to the other thousands of members of the "Christian" churches who cherished many of the same ideas of reform. In Virginia, the action of the orthodox Baptists against the Reformers was led by Robert Semple and Andrew Broaddus, men of a high type whose personal relations with Mr. Camp bell were those of mutual esteem. This, however, did not prevent decisive action. The Appomattox Association in 1830 adopted the Beaver syllabus and added three resolutions: to discountenance the writings of Alexander Campbell; to discourage the use of his new translation of the new Testament; and not to invite into its pulpits any minister who holds 196 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST Campbell's views. The Dover Association, which included Richmond, condemned a long list of errors (the "Dover anathema") in December, 1830, and two years later withdrew fellowship from six ministers who called themselves Reformers. Alexander Campbell had preached in Richmond and gained a following while he was in that city as a member of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1829. Thomas Campbell went there in 1832 and helped in organizing what became Sycamore Church, "the first full-fledged Church of Christ in Virginia" (Thos. Clemmitt, Jr.: Old Sycamore Church, 1932). From Tennessee came this lament from a Mr. McConnico who wrote (1830): "O Lord, hear the cries and see the tears of the Baptists, for Alexander hath done them much harm. The Lord reward him according to his works!" The process of separation was well advanced by the end of 1830, but it was not complete. Individuals with Disciple sympathies lingered in some Baptist churches, but they were being put out as fast as they were discovered. In 1833 one E. A. Mills was expelled from the Baptist church at Eagleville, Ohio, because, as the clerk's record says, he "will not consent to abandon the reading of Mr. Campbell's 'Millennial Harbinger.'" Eighteen other members who remonstrated were also excommunicated. (A. S. Hayden: Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, pp. 352f.) By 1833 the separation was virtually complete. During these stormy years there were three events which extended the reputation and enhanced the prestige of Alexander Campbell, and thus indirectly affected the history of the Disciples. These were: his publication of a new translation of the New Testament; his debate with Robert Owen; and his service in the Virginia Constitutional Convention. CAMPBELL'S NEW TESTAMENT Mr. Campbell had unbounded reverence for the Bible but no special reverence for the King James Version. He was too familiar with the first century Greek of the New Testament to feel that the English of 1611 was sacrosanct. He may have appreciated the excellence of its literary style -- though he does not speak too respectfully of it -- but the important thing was the meaning of the sacred text, and he was sure that this could be rendered more accurately than it was rendered in the "authorized" version. Borrowing a translation that hadSCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 197 been made half a century earlier by three Scottish divines -- George Campbell, James MacKnight, and Philip Doddridge -- and published in Great Britain, he made "various emendations," added a preface and 100 pages of critical notes and appendices, and published the whole from his own printing office in 1828. In the preface he defends the making of new translations with much the same arguments that are used more than a century later by the makers and promoters of new versions of the Bible. The chief reasons are that modern scholarship has produced a better text and more thorough knowledge of the ancient languages than the seventeenth century possessed, and that "a living language is continually changing." Further, he was resolved that every word of the Greek should be translated into clear English, and that none should be merely transliterated. There had never yet been a complete English translation. Baptizein was, of course, the word he had in mind. So he wrote "immerse" wherever the older versions had "baptize." John the Baptist is "John the Immerser." This naturally gave great offense to all non-immersionists and, strangely enough, to most of the Baptists, too. The substitution of modern diction for the Jacobean, which is still so commonly mistaken for distinctively biblical language -- "you know" for "thou knowest... "goes" for "goeth" -- seemed sacrilege to many. Nevertheless, the new translation had a circulation. Its third edition, revised and enlarged, was published in 1832 at "Bethany, Brooke County, Va.," the name which had taken the place of "Buffaloe" to designate the post office of which Mr. Campbell was the postmaster as well as the principal patron. Other editions followed. THE CAMPBELL-OWEN DEBATE The debate with Robert Owen gave Alexander Campbell an opportunity to exercise his talents in a wide field and perhaps brought him the greatest publicity he bad as yet received. It was held in Cincinnati, April 13-23, 1829. Mr. Owen, known throughout Europe and America as a philanthropist and humanitarian, a radical social reformer, and a militant atheist, had bought the property of the Rappite colony at New Harmony, Indiana, five years before and was engaged in constructing there a Utopia on communistic lines and without religion. The social experiment was interesting, and198 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST ultimately disastrous; but the debate touched it only incidentally. Early in 1828 Mr. Owen, then in New Orleans, had issued a general challenge for any reputable minister to meet him in public debate. Campbell responded. Soon afterward Mr. Owen visited Mr. Campbell at Bethany, and they arranged the time and terms of the debate. Both were busily occupied during the year that was to elapse before they met on the platform -- Campbell with the Christian Baptist, the affairs of the churches which were in the act of separating from the Baptists, and his second marriage; Owen with a trip to Europe, which was followed by an expedition to Mexico, where he became so busy getting a grant of land and planning a new social experiment that he almost forgot about the debate, the Mexican government having to send him across the Gulf in a gunboat so that he could keep his engagement in Cincinnati. Mr. Owen undertook to prove that all religions are founded upon ignorance and fear; that they are in conflict with certain unchanging natural laws, twelve laws which he had worked out with great exactness; that they are the source of vice, strife, and misery for man and are a hindrance to the formation of a society embodying virtue, intelligence, and good will; and that they are maintained only by the tyranny of the unscrupulous few over the ignorant many. It thus became Mr. Campbell's role to stand forth as the champion not only of Christianity but of the basic concepts of a religious view of the world as well. He had already dealt extensively with this topic in his "Six Letters to a Skeptic," in early issues of the Christian Baptist. There, his main argument was that the Bible must be a revelation from God because, according to the accepted principles of Locke's philosophy of sensation and reflection, man cannot even form an idea of God by his own powers. In his famous "twelve-hour speech" against Owen, he dealt with the historical evidence for Christianity, the evidence from prophecy, and the genius and tendency of Christianity, ending with a critical examination of Owen's godless social system. The systems of thought which the two men defended were direct opposites, but their minds never met, much less clashed, on the issues involved because they moved on different tracks. Owen paid no attention either to Campbell's positive arguments or to his rebuttals but devoted SCOTT AND THE NEW EVANGELISM 199 himself persistently to the exposition of his "twelve laws of nature." Campbell, recognizing the futility of arguing from history or philosophy with an opponent who would not listen, addressed the audience with the affirmations that Christianity "changes, regenerates and reforms wicked men;" that, whereas materialists admit that their system cannot make bad men good, Christianity can and does, not by law but by love; and that "the character of Jesus Christ weighs more in the eyes of cultivated reason than all the miracles he ever wrought." Much later, after the last of his debates, Mr. Campbell said that, of all his opponents in debate, "the infidel Robert Owen was the most candid, fair and gentlemanly. "The English author Mrs. Trollope, then living in Cincinnati, described the debate at some length in her Domestic Manners of the Americans. She was impressed by Mr. Owen's suavity, by Mr. Campbell's forensic ability and power over his hearers -- "the universal admiration of his audience" -- and by the fact that the two debaters never seemed to lose their tempers but usually went off to dinner together like cronies when they had finished denouncing each other's doctrines on the platform. Mr. Campbell's brilliant defense against the common foe of all religions enhanced his reputation and brought both publicity and prestige to the movement which, under his leadership, was just emerging into a visible existence. VIRGINIA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION When Mr. Campbell announced his candidacy for election as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1829, which was to rewrite the constitution of Virginia, he was criticized for turning from heavenly things to follow the path of worldly ambition in politics. His defense was that be wanted to do something toward ending slavery in Virginia. He was elected, served in the convention, and took a prominent part in debate. Yet he never raised his voice about slavery. Any who would take this as proof that the reason was not sincere will find, by studying the history of that convention, that this apparent contradiction is easily explained, and to Mr. Campbell's credit. He found that the constitution of Virginia placed all political power in the bands of the slave-owning aristocracy. Representation in the legislature was heavily weighted in favor of the eastern counties, where the great plantations were, as200 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST against the western part of the state, where there were few slaves and where there was much sentiment in favor of emancipation. The political leaders were determined to freeze that arrangement in the new constitution, together with the property qualification for voting, which served as a further bulwark for slavery. There was no use in trying to write into the new constitution a clause empowering the legislature to do anything about slavery if the legislature itself was left in the hands of the slave-owning class. Mr. Campbell led the fight to democratize the government of Virginia. Against him he had the greatest array of political talent and reputation that had been assembled since the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787. James Madison and James Monroe, both former presidents of the United States, were there. John Marshall, chief justice of the United States, took time off from that high office to sit in the Virginia convention. John Randolph of Roanoke was president of the convention. All were on the side of the oligarchy. Mr. Campbell crossed swords with them all. Reading those speeches today in the printed minutes of the convention and ignoring, if one can, the names and reputations of the speakers, one would say that, for argument and eloquence and for understanding of the principles of a democratic society, the victory lay clearly with the young preacher from the far northwestern corner of the state. But the others had the votes. While he was in Richmond in attendance at the convention, Mr. Campbell did not fail to let his light shine in the religious field. He preached every Sunday in one of the churches of the city. Many of his fellow delegates went to hear him. Former President Madison is quoted as saying that he had heard him very often as a preacher and regarded him as "the ablest and most original expounder of the Scriptures" he had ever heard. Others also were impressed, and the seeds of future churches in Richmond were sown.
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BAPTISTS AND DISCIPLES It is not for the historian to say whether this change from the status of an unorganized "movement" to that of a distinct and separate religious body was a good thing or not. The results of the separation are history; what would have been the results of avoiding the separation is only a matter of conjecture. Scarcely more conclusive would be any argument as to whether the separation was inevitable. But since the two bodies, Baptists and Disciples, have continued to recognize their close kinship and have recurrently considered the possibility of reunion, it is worth while to analyze the differences between them at the time of the separation somewhat more202 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST thoroughly than this was done in the Beaver, Tate's Creek, and Dover "anathemas." 1. The Reformers (e.g., Campbell and Scott) denied nothing that was essential to the Baptist position and asserted nothing that was in radical conflict with it. Their two main points, union and the imitation of the New Testament church, did not contradict Baptist doctrine. The latter was Baptist doctrine. Baptists were no less zealous for that, as they understood it, than any Reformer. The advocacy of union did not interest the Baptists at that time, but it did not conflict with anything in their position. They would never have disfellowshiped anyone on a charge of pleading for union on the primitive basis. The rejection of creeds was not repugnant to Baptist principles, though it was contrary to the then current Baptist practice. Baptists spoke much of going directly to the Bible and of individual freedom in its interpretation. Most Baptists were Calvinists in their theology, and most Baptist associations insisted upon adherence to the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, which did not differ materially from the Westminster Confession of the Presbyterians. But they were not inherently or essentially Calvinistic. In so far as they made the Philadelphia Confession a test of fellowship, they were not acting in harmony with their own principles. They have since come to realize this and no longer use it so. Even then, some of them were not Calvinistic at all, and in some places the Calvinistic and non-Calvinistic Baptists worked together in the same associations. 2. Campbell developed what Scott called "a particular ecclesiastical order, "which he felt sure was the one authorized in the New Testament. But it would have been a denial of his own principles and his father's to insist that this ecclesiastical order was the basis of union and that there could be no fellowship with those who did not approve and practice it in every detail. Campbell and his colleagues taught it and put it into operation where they could, but they could not logically make it a test of Christian communion. So far as it stressed the autonomy of the local congregation, it agreed with Baptist polity; but it went further than the Baptists went in applying it, for it ruled out the associations, which -- in Baptist practice but contrary to Baptist principles -- were judging and legislating for the churches. FIRST DECADE OF INDEPENDENCE 203 3. Scott added a conversion formula, upon which he was disposed to insist as the very gospel itself, lost until he had discovered and restored it. Campbell never took it so rigidly. He considered the faith-repentance-baptism-remission sequence as correct, but he did not identify it with the gospel to such an extent that those who did not have it did not have the gospel. He regarded as genuine Christians all who had been converted to Christ by any process, even if they held what be regarded as erroneous notions about the nature of faith, the action of the Holy Spirit in producing it, and the design of baptism. Moreover, conversion theory was not uniform among all Baptists. The two theories and methods of conversion need not be regarded as equally true and good, but in accordance with the basic principles of both Baptists and Reformers this matter could have been recognized as a matter of opinion, within the area of individual liberty and private judgment about the teaching of Scripture. With reasonable tolerance on both sides, there need not have been any breach of fellowship on this ground. 4. There were some actual differences in doctrine and practice. These were the real reason for the separation. The contrasting positions represented the opinions and mores of two groups, but they were also firmly held convictions. The following positions of the Reformers are things that, a hundred years later, any Disciple could question or any Baptist affirm without compromising his standing in his own group; but they are the things which produced the division in 1830. As to doctrine -- The Christian religion represents a new covenant, distinct from the Mosaic; its requirements are to be found in the New Testament only; the church began on the Day of Pentecost. These were matters of general agreement among the Reformers, not articles of faith. They did not contradict any specific article of the Baptist faith, but were contrary to Baptist customs of thought and speech. Faith is the mental act of believing, on evidence, that Jesus is the Christ; it includes trust also, but it begins with the belief of evidence, and this is within the power of sinful man without any direct action of the Holy Spirit; it precedes repentance. Repentance is godly sorrow for one's personal sins, with a determination to turn away from them, seek forgiveness, and 204 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST sin no more; this also is within man's power. Baptists put more emphasis upon man's sinful "state," by reason of Adam's fall, and the need of a directly God-given "experience" to start the sinner on his way to conversion. Baptism is for the remission of sins; together with faith and repentance, it constitutes the condition upon which God, according to his promise, will grant remission (or regeneration), the gift of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. Reformers sometimes invited misunderstanding by saying that "baptism is regeneration." Only a negligible few of them ever thought the unimmersed were necessarily unregenerate. Baptists regarded baptism as the "seal" of a remission and regeneration that bad already occurred. Baptists and Reformers agreed that baptism is the immersion of a penitent believer. Nevertheless, their respective views of the design of baptism -- and, still more, their views of each other's views -- were one of the grounds of separation. In conversion, said the Reformers, "the Spirit of God operates on persons only through the word of truth." As to practice -- Creeds and church covenants were rejected; the only article of faith was that " Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, "and the appeal was directly to the New Testament in all matters of church order and individual duty. Baptists also claimed to be strictly a "Bible people," but most Baptist associations limited their fellowship to those churches and associations which accepted the Philadelphia Confession. Members were received on confession and baptism, without further examination, whereas Baptists required the telling of an "experience " and a vote by the church. Baptism and the Lord's Supper might be administered by any believer, not by an ordained minister only. Baptists permitted lay preaching but not lay administration of the ordinances. The Lord's Supper was observed weekly. No special "call" to the ministry was required or expected. Reformers denied (as Baptists also did) the legitimacy of legislative ecclesiastical bodies' having authority over local churches , but they believed (as the Baptists did not) that Baptist associations exercised such authority. They therefore disbanded those associations in which they gained control. FIRST DECADE OF INDEPENDENCE 205 The Reformers considered "Baptist" a sectarian name unauthorized in the New Testament, and therefore dropped it from those churches in which their influence prevailed. 5. Certain trivial differences of terminology or custom sometimes loomed as large as weightier matters and served as irritants if not as issues. At the meeting of the North District Association, Kentucky, in 1827, a formal charge was made that a preacher sometimes read from Campbell's translation of the New Testament, said "I immerse thee" when administering baptism, and at the Lord's Supper broke the loaf into large pieces, leaving each person to break off a small piece for himself. THE PROCESS OF SEPARATION The dissolution of associations and the discarding of the name "Baptist" were the only methods used by the Reformers for effecting separation from the Baptists. These constituted a withdrawal from the Baptist denomination. Though Alexander Campbell had declared his intention to remain in it, neither he nor his associates could say that they had stayed in it until the Baptists put them out. The separation resulted from actions by both sides. The initiative in that matter, it may be fairly said, was with the Baptists. They began by excluding reforming churches from Baptist associations. In many places individuals were excommunicated from Baptist churches for holding reforming views, but there is no evidence of any general inquisition. One notable case was that of the Third Baptist Church in Philadelphia, which excluded a considerable number of Reformers in 1832. Mr. Campbell visited the city in that year, and a church of Disciples was organized. As the Reformers came to have churches of their own, very many of which had previously been Baptist churches, it does not appear that they ever excluded any individual from a church for adhering to the distinctively Baptist views.Alexander Campbell found himself no longer a free-lance reformer within the Baptist denomination but the most influential figure in an unorganized movement embracing scores of churches with some thousands of members in half a dozen states. From 1830 he was increasingly occupied with wide interests -- an extensive correspondence, many visitors, long tours for preaching, lecturing, and visiting the churches, the editing of a monthly magazine, the management of a printing plant and 206 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST a publishing business, the administration of a post office, and the operation of a large farm. There was no abatement of his zeal for the restoration of the primitive pattern of the church in all its essentials, but he viewed with a more friendly eye the supplementary devices and "expedients" that might be useful under modern conditions. He ceased to denounce the societies and organizations through which the denominations carried on their wider work and he gained a new interest in constructive policies which would bind the reforming churches into a brotherhood and promote their effective operation. THE "MILLENNIAL HARBINGER" The beginning of the Millennial Harbinger, to take the place of the Christian Baptist, was a symbol of this change. The name of the new magazine, which began publication in 1830, does not indicate any special interest in a spectacular second coming of Christ or any immediate expectation of such an event. Undoubtedly Mr. Campbell took quite literally the biblical phrases about a return "in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," but he also took seriously the words, "ye know not what hour." Neither from prophecy nor from "the signs of the times" did he deduce any theory of the imminent end of the age. Millennial expectations were in the air, and Miller was soon to start his campaign of preparation for the grand climax in 1843, but Campbell did not share that view. It has been said (e.g., by Edgar Lee Masters, in his Vachel Lindsay: A Poet in America) that Campbell predicted the end of the world in 1866. This is not true. He did write some articles in which he showed that Miller's arithmetic was wrong even if his presuppositions were right (which he did not admit), and that his theory pointed to 1866 rather than 1843.Campbell was not thinking about this sort of millennium when he named his new magazine, but rather of the triumph of the Kingdom of God on earth. Whenever and however it might come, it could not arrive, he thought, until the church had been purified and unified. As the harbinger of such a millennium , the new periodical's aim was to be: (a) to restore the faith, ordinances, organization, and terms of admission of the apostolic church; (b) to do this by resting directly upon the teachings of Scripture; (c) thus to come to what Thomas Campbell had called "simple evangelical Christianity;" and FIRST DECADE OF INDEPENDENCE 207 (d) to make this the basis of union. To quote the words of the prospectus: This work shall be devoted to the destruction of sectarianism, infidelity and antichristian doctrine and practice. It shall have for its object the development and introduction of that political and religious order of society called The Millennium, which shall be the consummation of that ultimate amelioration of society proposed in the Christian Scriptures. Evidently the millennium with which he was concerned was a happy condition to be approached by gradual ameliorative steps, not one to be created by catastrophic means or by divine fiat. The Millennial Harbinger appeared monthly from 1830 to 1870. Mr. Campbell bad an undefined feeling that there was sacredness in the number seven. He discontinued the Christian Baptist at the end of Volume VII, and after every seventh volume of the Millennial Harbinger he began a "New Series." This magazine forms the backbone of the periodical literature of the Disciples during the generation after the beginning of what Mr. Campbell himself called their separate "denominational existence" and until weekly journalism gained favor and support. REFORMERS AND "CHRISTIANS" WERE ALIKE The most important event in the history of the Disciples within their first decade was the union between the Reformers, who had responded to the call of the Campbells and Scott, and the western " Christians among whom Barton W. Stone had been the most influential figure, especially since he began editing the Christian Messenger in 1826. The rise and development of the "Christian Church" has already been discussed at some length in Chapters IV and V. Alexander Campbell's acquaintance with Kentucky, and Kentucky's acquaintance with his ideas, began with the Maccalla debate and the circulation of the first issues of the Christian Baptist, both in 1823. In 1824, Campbell toured the state and met Stone and other Christian preachers. They saw at once the similarity of their programs for the advancement of "simple evangelical Christianity" and the unity of Christians, though Stone was then much engrossed in his controversy with the Presbyterians about the Trinity, the nature of Christ, and the atonement; and it was in that very208 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST year that he published his most substantial theological work, the Letters to Blythe. Campbell was in Kentucky again in 1826, just after Stone had begun publication of his Christian Messenger. The unity of Christians was the theme of a series of articles which began in the first issue, and the topic frequently recurs. At the same time, Stone was carrying on his argument against the generally accepted doctrines of the Trinity and the atonement, which he considered so erroneous that they must be disproved and eliminated from the minds of Christians in order that union might be possible. Three Christian preachers were present at the meeting of the Mahoning Association in 1827 when Scott was appointed as its evangelist. They were impressed by the novelty of Scott's way of preaching "faith, repentance and baptism for remission," and soon they began preaching it. The general separation of the Reformers from the Baptists brought it about that there were two independent groups with very similar programs, having their separate churches often in the same communities. This duplication was most marked in Kentucky and Ohio, and to a considerable extent in Tennessee and Indiana. Even earlier, in 1828, when a correspondent of his paper asked why the Christians and the "New Testament Baptists" (meaning Campbell's Reformers) should not unite, Stone replied: "If there is a difference between us, we know it -not. We have -nothing in us to prevent a union; and if they have nothing in them in opposition to it, we are in spirit one. May God strengthen the cords of Christian union." But there were some differences, as well as striking agreements. These may be found by examining the files of Campbell's Christian Baptist and Millennial Harbinger and Stone's Christian Messenger for the three or four years during which acquaintance was ripening into union. The likenesses were these: 1. Both held the union of all Christians as one of their definite objectives. 2. Both held that Christ alone was the object of faith, rejected creeds as tests of fellowship, and insisted upon liberty of opinion on all matters of doctrine that were not unmistakably revealed. 3. Rejecting the Calvinistic doctrine of a "limited atonement," they agreed that Christ died for all and that all who would might believe on him and be saved. FIRST DECADE OF INDEPENDENCE 209 4. It can be said, though with some reservations, that they were agreed upon the nature of faith and the ability of sinful man to believe the evidence about Christ without personal assistance from the Holy Spirit. This idea was prominent in Campbell's thought and fundamental in Scott's method. Stone had expressed the same idea earlier than either of them, but be bad not applied it, and the evangelism of the Christians had not been based on this concept. 5. The practice of believers' baptism by immersion and the idea of baptism as related to remission of sins were common to both, but on these matters there were differences which will be mentioned presently. 6. Opposition to unscriptural and sectarian names for the church was a pronounced characteristic of both groups. Stone's party preferred the term "Christian" and argued that Acts 11:26 ("The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch") meant that this name was given by divine appointment. Campbell, Scott, and their associates preferred "Disciples." The difference was no barrier to union. Stone said that "Christian" was more universal; Campbell said "Disciples" was more distinctive. The question was, of course, what is the function of a name? Both terms were used, but for many years the drift was toward "Christian." In 1835 Campbell, Scott, Stone, and J. T. Johnson edited a hymnal. Stone was not consulted as to the title, and it appeared as The Disciples' Hymn Book, but on Stone's protest it was quickly changed to The Christian Hymn Book. Scott afterward became as zealous for "Christian" as Stone had been. -- BUT DIFFERENT But there were also some differences, the most important of which, aside from the name, were these:1. The Christians did not make immersion a condition of admission to membership in the church. Most of them bad been immersed, but they considered baptism a matter of opinion about which there should be liberty. They argued that, since different views of baptism were held by persons who earnestly sought to do the will of Christ as revealed in the New Testament, the question must manifestly be one of human interpretation of the divine commands. Stone repeatedly defended this position. His replies to a correspondent show this view: Question. "Can anyone be saved without baptism?" Answer. 210 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST "Yes." Q. "Should baptism be made a term of Christian Communion?" A. "No more than it should be of salvation. (Christian Messenger, May, 1828.) In 1830 he wrote: These reforming Baptists are engaged in a good work. They proclaim union with all who believe the simple facts of revelation and manifest their faith by their works of holiness and love, without any regard to the opinions they may have formed of truth. Should they make their own peculiar views of immersion a term of fellowship, it will be impossible for them to repel successfully the imputation of being sectarians and of having an authoritative creed (though not written) of one article at least, which is formed of their own opinion of truth; and this short creed would exclude more Christians from union than any creed with which I am acquainted. Yet only a f ew months later, and still in that crucial year 1830, when the Reformers were so rapidly separating from the Baptists, Stone admitted feeling some inconsistency between preaching immersion f or remission of sins and admitting persons to church membership without it. "When asked for our divine authority from the New Testament, we have none that can fully satisfy our own minds." "In this state our minds have labored and are still laboring." (Christian Messenger, Vol. IV, pp. 200, 275.) 2. The Christians, perhaps remembering their orderly Presbyterian background even while repudiating the authority of presbyteries and synods, had at least the beginnings of a method of obtaining a responsible ministry. Reports from the churches carefully distinguished between "elders" (meaning ordained ministers) and "unordained preachers." Stone criticized those who thought that a church could "induct into the ministerial office;" he considered that function as belonging to the "bishops and elders." If a minister is charged with "preaching doctrine contrary to the gospel," he should be examined by a "conference of bishops and elders." The idea was that the ministry as a whole, or by conference groups, should have power to protect the churches from erratic or unworthy ministers. There is no evidence that such control was actually exercised, but even the idea of such control was alien to the Disciples. At the time of the union, the Christians seem to have had a, somewhat "higher" conception of the office of the ministry and less fear of "clerical domination." FIRST DECADE OF INDEPENDENCE 211 3. The Christian and the Reformers differed most of all in their methods of winning converts. The Reformers had not been notably zealous or effective in evangelism during the first fifteen years following the Declaration and Address. The ideas of reform expressed in that document and in the "Sermon on the Law," Campbell's first two debates, and the early volumes of the Christian Baptist had permeated several Baptist associations and led to the reordering of some Baptist churches. Their effective presentation of the gospel to sinners began with the evangelistic campaigns of John Smith and some other "New Testament Baptists" in Kentucky and Walter Scott's formulation and proclamation of "the Gospel Restored" in Ohio in 1827. Its clear and rational character has already been described. Fundamental to it was the idea that sinners actually could believe the evidence about Christ, repent of their sins, be baptized, and thus fulfill the conditions upon which God would grant remission of sins and the blessings that follow it. There was no place in this program for agonies of uncertainty as to whether one was "accepted of God." All this came as a great surprise to the Christians. They had been revivalists from the beginning, but their evangelism was of the Methodist type. The evidence of their "mourners' bench" revivalism is seen in the reports that were sent in to Stone's paper. The preachers tell of meetings where "crowds of mourners came forward weeping and crying for mercy"; or where "crowds of weeping mourners came forward to unite with us in prayer;" or where "the preachers had a good measure of the Holy Ghost and... several [hearers] appeared to be cut to the heart and were crying for mercy." A correspondent, writing from that part of Georgia into which the Christian movement had come from Kentucky, says that the camp meetings are "conducted in the main in the manner of Methodist camp meetings." A Christian preacher who had been up in Ohio and had heard Scott's preaching writes: His method and manner are somewhat novel to me.... He seems to suppose the apostolical gospel to consist of the use of the following particulars: faith, repentance, baptism for remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. Thus, you see, he baptizes the subject previous to the remission of his sins or the receiving of the Holy Spirit. ... (pages 212-293 not yet transcribed) 294 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST OHIO Three types of churches in Ohio grew together in the early 1830's to form the Disciple movement. They were, chronologically, (1) the "Christian" or New Light congregations, (2) Baptist churches that developed Disciple principles, and (3) new congregations founded by Disciple evangelists.David Purviance, the only recruit to the Springfield Presbytery between its organization and its dissolution and the first "Christian" preacher to be immersed (in 1807), moved to Preble County, Ohio, in 1807. He became an important citizen and a member of the Ohio legislature, but his real vocation was preaching and evangelizing. In 1811, or after, Stone went to Meigs County to baptize William Caldwell. An association of Separate Baptists was meeting in the community, and twelve of its preachers adopted Stone's views (C. C. Ware, Barton Warren Stone, p. 190). A series of earthquake shocks disturbed the central Mississippi valley from December, 1811, to February, 1812, and was one of many factors contributing to serious reflections and numerous religious conversions. Stone and Reuben Dooley began an evangelizing tour in Ohio in 1811. They converted "almost the whole town" of Eaton, seat of Preble County. A year previously Stone had made a preacher of Matthew Gardner at Bentonville, Adams County. The Autobiography of Gardner says, "Elder Stone usually visited Ohio once a year, and I would have my matters arranged beforehand and take the tour with him." Other companions in Ohio included William Kinkade, James Hughes, John Mavity, Nathan Worley, and David Kirkpatrick. The Bentonville church had Archibald Alexander as its minister before John Longley arrived to take up the work in 1812. The financial difficulties following the War of 1812 put off the erection of its stone meetinghouse, called "Old Liberty," until 1817. New Antioch, Clinton County, was a Christian church established about 1816. The Minerva congregation was of the same background, established as "The Plains" church in 1821, and moved to Minerva in 1849. Several Baptist churches in Ohio adopted Mr. Campbell's principles of reformation and became the second element making up the Disciple cause. The church at Warren was established in 1803. Adamson Bentley, its minister from 1811 to EXPANSION IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 295 1831, was prominent alike in organizing the Mahoning Baptist Association and in transforming it into a yearly meeting of Disciple churches. "In January, 1828, what is known as the 'Siege of Warren' was held [the "siege" being laid by Walter Scott], when Adamson Bentley, the minister of the Baptist church and his entire congregation" came into the restoration. The Dayton Baptist church, organized 1806, was definitely a part of the reformation by 1829. The Bethesda congregation was founded in 1808, in the nature of a "floating" organization, meeting at various places in Portage County-the first religious society of any kind in that county. Members lived at Nelson, Aurora, Palmyra, Hiram, Deerfield, and Troy. It developed reformation views in 1810, and in 1824 it voted to renounce the Philadelphia Confession "and take the Word of God for our rule of faith and practice." From this group, various churches were organized almost in the manner that new bodies break off from an amoeba. Sidney Rigdon established a congregation on New Testament principles at Mantua Center on January 27, 1827. Its nucleus was a liberal faction of the Bethesda congregation. Two years later the Hiram-Nelson-Garrettsville members coalesced into a congregation, meeting indeterminately at the places named. Another group withdrew to form a congregation at Shalerville in 1828, and still another to create the Aurora church in 1830. The Hiram members created their own organization in 1835. The Wilmington church of Clinton County dates from 1828, but its charter members were part of a Baptist church organized in 1817. The year 1828 also marks the beginning of the Disciple separation from the Baptists in Cincinnati by the establishment of the congregation at Eighth and Walnut streets, with James Challen and David S. Burnet as leaders. The Mentor church, of Baptist origin "prior to 1826" (Lake County History, Western Reserve Historical Society, 1941, p. 53), had Sidney Rigdon as minister from 1826 to 1830. It survived his conversion to Mormonism, and in 1830 obtained as minister M. S. Clapp, who had married Miss Alicia Campbell, sister of Alexander Campbell. "On June 1, 1828, the church at Austintown came into the Restoration almost bodily, and such stalwart men as John Henry, the 'Walking Bible, and Wm. and Sutton Hayden were added to the preaching force of the Restoration" (Brown, op. cit., p. 271). Sutton Hayden is better 296 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST known as A. S. Hayden, prominent author, preacher, and college president. An eyewitness account of Baptist-Reformer tension and separation throughout a Baptist association in Ohio in 1829 is given in a rare volume, previously unused as a sourcebook of Disciple history. John Udell wrote: This year, a great excitement prevailed among the Baptists of this region, respecting a new system of Baptist, or Christian principles, which was reported to have been gotten up by Elder Alexander Campbell, a champion of the Baptist cause, living in Virginia, it was said; that it was being propagated within the bounds of our association, that it was working the dissolution of all the Baptist churches in its way, and exerting a powerful influence on the other denominations; that votaries for it were multiplying by hundreds. We could not learn anything very definite in regard to this new system. As there was to be a meeting of the association of which Mr. Campbell was a member, and which was adjacent to our own association, a number of our brethren were delegated, agreeable to Baptist usages, to meet with them for correspondence. All being anxious to hear what the new theory was, we turned out en masse and went to the association. When we reached the place of meeting, we found a large multitude collected; the majority having probably come from the same motive that brought us. The usual business of the Association was dispensed with, and two or three days were spent in preaching. There were present Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Sidney Rigdon -- all very talented men, and said to be advocates of the new theory; and there were also present a number of gifted Baptist elders, or preachers. We all listened eagerly and attentively during the whole meeting, to hear something new; but we only heard the same old Scriptures presented -- perhaps more forcibly than ever before, in so short a time. Some new ideas were advanced, but they were all so well sustained by the Word of God, that none, though repeated challenges were given, attempted to refute them. (Incidents of Travel to California, pp. 145f.; pp. 167-70, 178-81, give details of the separation, especially at Jefferson.) As a result of Walter Scott's evangelism, the churches in the Mahoning Baptist Association nearly all reformed in the period 1827-30. The same process took place in the Stillwater Association, and the dissolution of these two bodies in 1830 marked a definite separation of Baptists and Disciples. It was the Scott pattern of evangelism, featuring logic and reason to the extent that opponents charged it with legalism, that soon displaced the Stone type of camp-meeting revivalism in Ohio. EXPANSION IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 297 New congregations were begun on Disciple principles to form the third element of the reformation in Ohio. After Scott had rediscovered, as he believed, the principles of the "true Gospel," the church at Windham, Portage County, was the first congregation organized de novo "upon the principles of the restored Gospel" -- on May 27, 1828. John Schaefer was an example of converts made to the Disciple cause. He left Lutheranism in 1834, and served seventy-four years, until he was 102 years of age, as a productive leader in his new enterprise. William Hayden began to work in Cleveland in 1833. The famous Campbell-Purcell debate in Cincinnati, 1837, aided the cause. The merger of the Campbell and Stone forces, projected at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1832, had to be implemented locally. In Ohio its success was greatest in the east and along the Ohio River, least in the center and west. Dayton eventually became the national headquarters of the small percentage of the "Christian" churches that maintained a separate existence and formed the Christian Denomination. A sample of the objections to union voiced by Christian leaders is that of a subscriber to the Christian Messenger who wrote in the December, 1832, issue: "I think The Messenger has forsaken the Christian Church.... It appears to favor the errors of the Reformers who are splitting and destroying our churches and it has left us to contend alone." Stone replied: You may think I have seceded from the Christian Church, because the Reformers and we, being on the same foundation, and agreeing to take the same name Christian, have united as one people. Is not this the very principle we have been pleading from the beginning? Is uniting with any people in this manner seceding from the church? In thus uniting do we agree to unite with all the opinions and errors of each other? Have we not always had in our church, Calvinists, Arminians, Trinitarians and Unitarians? Have we by such union agreed to receive all their errors? No. In the great leading principles, or facts of the New Testament we aoree, and cheerfully let each other have his opinions, as private property. David Purviance held up the main issue for his Christian associates when he wrote in the Christian Messenger, "I know baptism ought to be taught and practiced, but it seems to me an extreme to make it a sine qua non as to forgiveness." Matthew 298 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST Gardner of Brown County was an outstanding opponent of the united church and reported that four of his brother ministers who followed it had gone "the watery way to Campbellism. Yearly meetings among the Disciples began in the place of the Baptist associations that so many of them had abandoned. These annual assemblies grew into organized "cooperations," or units, that worked together to encourage a preacher to evangelize in the vicinity. There are reports of attendance of from 2,000 to 5,000 at these meetings. Alanson Wilcox says: Later there arose some objection to co-operation. In the interest of hoped-for peace, the brethren yielded to the objectors.... More than a score of years were wasted in demonstrating the impractical nature of the theories that had disrupted a vital and conquering work. (A History of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio, 1918, p. 264.) In 1842 the Western Reserve Ministerial Association was formed. The minutes of this organization are extant to the year 1847. The Western Reserve meeting of 1848, embracing nine counties, reported seventy-one churches, with a total of 4,508 members (Millennial Harbinger, 1848, pp. 655f.). The Ohio Christian Missionary Society was organized at Wooster, May 12, 1852, with Alexander Campbell present to deliver the principal address. There were representatives present from fifty-three churches in twenty-four counties, who set up the society on the delegate plan. D. S. Burnet, a notable figure among the Disciples in education, journalism, and general statesmanship (his father was for 12 years mayor of Cincinnati), was the principal organizer of this work, and upon his death left $10,000 for an education fund in the state society. The annual report for 1858 showed 300 churches and 140 ministers, only forty of whom were giving full time to church work. Churches that sent in statistics for 1863 reported 13,777 members. However, Hall's Christian Register of 1848 tabulated 19,408 members in Ohio, so we may feel that the estimate of 25,000 members in 1860 is not far from the truth -- especially since the United States census of that year found accommodation for 124,080 in the church buildings (not distinguishing the Christians"). Education was encouraged early in the Ohio church life. Thomas Campbell had an academy at Cambridge in 1813-14. In EXPANSION IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 299 the earliest days young men learned to be preachers by teaming with veterans. The Newburg (now Cleveland), Ohio, yearly meeting authorized a "School of the Preachers" to hold its first meeting at New Lisbon in 1835. Fifteen were present, and these men practiced on each other, using Campbell's Christianity Restored as a text. This training program, never institutionalized into a college, was continued annually until 1839, when it was joined with a preacher's session at the yearly meetings. (Millennial Harbinger, 1835, pp. 478f.; 1836, p. 192; 1838, p. 572; 1839, p. 467.) Walter Scott had a private home school at his Carthage residence, and some early preachers were trained there, but little else is known about it. In the History of Hamilton County, Ohio (Henry A. Ford and Kate Ford, compilers), it is recorded that "Walter Scott edited and published a paper in the village and, being a notable orator in things divine, classes were formed in theology under his direction, and at least a respectable number of professional writers and speakers of today date the beginnings of scholarship and goodness to the classical and religious instruction received at Carthage fifty years ago" (L. A. Williams & Co., Cleveland, 1881, p. 432). General educational institutions begun by Disciples before 1860 include Hygeia Female Atheneum, opened at Mount Healthy, near Cincinnati, in 1840. At some time between 1840 and 1850, R. R. Sloan started the Mount Vernon Male Academy and Vernon Female Institute, which consolidated into a girls' school in 1852. Hiram College arose out of Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, which opened November 27, 1850, and grew with uninterrupted success to its present strong position. The Bedford Christian Institute was incorporated in 1851 by Dr. Robison and other Cuyahoga County Disciples, purchased some property in Bedford, but failed to open for instruction. Cyrus MeNeeley, a convert of Alexander Campbell, opened MeNeeley Normal School at Hopedale, Ohio, before 1850. When he deeded it to the Ohio Teachers Association in 1854 it became perhaps the first normal school in the nation operated on a public-school basis. The association was unsuccessful in the venture and gave it back to MeNeeley. About $50,000 in gifts by Disciples entered into the life of this pioneer institution. Ohio was notable for its encouragement of early magazines of Christian promotion, with Cincinnati the chief center of publication. Here Walter Scott launched his important little journal, 300 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST the Evangelist, in 1832. Here D. S. Burnet began the Christian Preacher in 1836, the Christian Family Magazine in 1845, the Christian Age the same year, and the Sunday School Journal in 1853. The Western Reformer began at New Paris, Ohio, in 1843. The Protestant Unionist was moved to Cincinnati by Walter Scott in 1848. A peculiar problem of the Disciples in Ohio was the rise of the Mormons. Both appealed to the same constituency and with some striking similarities of approach, though also with some notable differences. Both based their appeal upon a plea for the restoration of a divine plan. Three Disciple preachers became prominent leaders in Mormonism -- Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, and Orson Hyde. Rigdon converted Pratt and Hyde to the Disciple position, and Pratt converted Rigdon to Mormonism. The transition from one camp to the other was abrupt in all three cases, but startlingly sudden in Pratt's case. He preached one day as a Disciple and the next as a Mormon elder. Naturally they carried over with them many of the forms of thought and much of the terminology in which they had been trained.. The defection -- or conversion, according to the point of view -- of these three preachers, carried some other Disciples over into Mormonism; for example, the entire Rigdonite congregation at Kirtland, which was already teaching communism, became Mormon. It is to be remembered that they had not been Disciples very long, and that among the followers of any new movement there is always a certain percentage of those who are temperamentally disposed to follow any new thing. Rigdon persuaded Joseph Smith of the validity of Christian communism, became associated with him in the first presidency of the Mormon Church, and was a claimant for the leadership of the organization when Brigham Young acceded to that position. Pratt and Hyde became "apostles." The Mormon historian, Roberts, considers the Disciples as forerunners of the Mormon gospel, regarding Campbell and Scott (like Rigdon) as being "sent forth to prepare the way before the Lord." The Disciples did not think so. The rivalry between the two groups became intense. That the Mormons found among the Disciples, as Roberts says, "more who would listen to their teachings and a greater proportion who would accept the fulness of the gospel than in anv other sect," did not improve their relations. The conflict between Disciples and Mormons included several debates EXPANSION IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 301 and at least one instance of mob violence, with Smith and Rigdon as the victims, at Hiram, Ohio. But under the stimulus of persecution, the Mormons moved on westward, and bitterness subsided. Actually, however, other than around Kirtland and Hiram, there was not a great deal of contact between them -- certainly not as much as there was involving the Disciples and the Universalists throughout the state... (remainder of this text not transcribed due to copyright restrictions) |
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Buckeye Disciples
by Henry K. Shaw St. Louis: Christian Board of Pub,, 1952 |
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Note: Entire contents Copyright (c) 1952, by the Ohio Christian Missionary Society
Only limited, "fair use" excerpts are reproduced here.
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20 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES usually also indicated that this so-called union gave the total group a quality of emotional fervor along with intellectual content. However true this may have been in Kentucky or Indiana, it was not the Ohio pattern. The union of Stoneites and Campbellites in Kentucky meant but little more than adding a half dozen or so New Light preachers, and about as many churches, to the ranks of the Disciples in Ohio. Ohio Disciples would have probably fared better if there had been no experiment in formal union, for the two movements were flowing together naturally until hampered by the antagonism engendered by what many Christ-ians considered a "forced" union. Evangelism among the Disciples of Christ has never in any sense followed the Stone or "camp meeting" pattern. In fact, it is the very antithesis of this. The evangelistic movement among the Disciples of Christ, beginning on the Western Reserve, was a reaction from Kentucky revivalism; built on the framework and patterns established by Walter Scott. Of all the evangelical communions west of the Alleghenies, the Disciples were first to promote a sane, educational evangelism. The Disciples of Christ followed a teaching evangelism that appealed to reason. An examination of the sermons of the pioneer preachers brings this out. They debated; used elaborate charts; referred over and over to scripture; and they challenged the mind. Conversion was always on a rational, primarily intellectual level. This was, from the beginning, the Campbell influence working through Scott. Neurotic phenomena with wild, incoherent emotionalism, common to revivals of the pioneer times, were never present in their meetings. If any criticism can be offered of their technique, it was that they were too coldly intellectual in their approach to things spiritual. They were Biblical legalists employing the critical apparatus of John Locke's empiricism in the field of religion. BACKWOODS RELIGION 21 Some Ohio leaders felt their evangelists went to the extreme in practicing the intellectual approach. A. S. Hayden often criticized his preaching brethren because of the lack of an inspirational note in their sermons. He declared that the average pioneer Disciple minister, as he spoke to his congregation, talked more like a schoolteacher or theological professor giving a lecture, than a minister preaching the gospel. There was complete absence of the "spread eagle," or "death bed" type of oratory designed to stir the emotions, and an over-emphasis on the appeal to reason. Because of this, Disciples were often thought of by ministers of other communions as preachers lacking in the Spirit, or even of having no religion at all. This is a far cry from camp-meeting revivalism. Alexander Campbell sensed this, for he wrote in the Millennial Harbinger: Let no one hence infer we are opposed to feeling. God forbid! A religion without feeling is a body without a spirit. A religion that does not reach the heart and rouse all our feelings into admiration, gratitude, love, and praise, is a mere phantom. But we make feelings the effect, not the cause of faith and of true religion. We begin not with the feelings, but with the understanding: we call upon men first to believe, then to feel, and then to act. [4] First Congregation of the Disciples The Disciples of Ohio had their origin in the Bethesda congregation in Portage County. This was a Baptist church, -- organized July 30, 1808, by Elder Thomas G. Jones. The Bethesda congregation, like so many in those days, was a floating church that cast anchor at various times in many different sections of the county. In fact, it was the first church of any kind in that county. Members lived at Nelson, Aurora, Palmyra, Hiram, Deerfield, Troy, and places between. Ohio's entire population then did not exceed eighty thousand persons.________ 4 Millennial Harbinger, 1839, p. 12. 22 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES With the people on the frontier so scattered and so few, the church could hardly localize. One Sunday it met at one place, the next Sunday at another, until it actually traveled all over the county. When people began pouring into the Reserve, the Bethesda congregation began to divide and localize; whether it met at John Noah's in Nelson, Samuel Baldwin's at Aurora, Jotham Atwater's at Mantua, or the schoolhouse at Hiram, it was the same church! The congregation was enrolled with the Baptists then, even though at its beginning it demonstrated some very un-Baptistic tendencies. Some members of the congregation held what they called "reforming" views. ln 1810, when William West was called as pastor, the church used the form, "We, the Church of Jesus Christ, called Bethesda." [5] At this early date, John Rudolph, Jr., who was clerk, refused to read certain objectionable features of the Covenant and Articles at the monthly Covenant Meeting. Mrs. Eleanor Garrett insisted on regular Baptist form. This led to the development of two factions, with the reformers in the majority. John Rudolph, Sr., one of these reformers, objected to the laying-on of hands when members were received into the church. By 1823, this congregation was calling itself the Baptist Church of Christ in Nelson. On June 21, 1824, there was a special meeting of the Nelson church which culminated in a formal division between the factions. Eight days later there was another meeting at which this action was reconsidered and reversed. However, when the congregation met again on August 21 at the Hiram school-house, it was voted to "renounce the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, the Constitution, the Articles, and the Covenant of the Church which was formed the 30th day of July, 1808, and ________ 5 B. A. Hinsdale, A Histor'y of the Disciples in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio (Cleveland: Robinson, Savage, & Co., 1876), p. 13. BACKWOODS RELIGION 23 take the Word of God for our rule of faith and practice." [6] The minority group called a meeting for November 27, without apparently notifying the other members of the church. At this meeting, the faction led by Mrs. Garrett excluded the majority faction from membership, and excommunicated ten members. This left two parties, each claiming to be the church. When the Mahoning Association met in 1825, both parties sent delegates and both were received. This happened again in 1826. The "reforming" party proposed some very interesting questions to the Mahoning Association in 1824. They were: 1. Will this Association hold in its connection a church which acknowledges no other rule of faith and practice than the Scriptures? 2. In what manner were members received into the churches that were set in order by the Apostles? 3. How were members excluded from these churches? The answer the following year was satisfactory enough to those who had laid aside Covenant and Articles. In Hinsdale's story of this congregation, he points out significantly, "Brush Run. had previously organized without Articles; but Bethesda, so far as known to me, heads the list of Baptist churches that voted to lay their Articles aside." [7] After the minority group had withdrawn, those left considered themselves Baptists, yet not like other Baptists. Alexander Campbell's new periodical, The Christian Baptist, was by this time circulating freely among the brethren. They liked its crusading spirit. Regular preaching once a month by Sidney Rigdon at Mantua Center led to the formal organization of a church at this place, January 27, 1827, "on the principle of faith in Jesus Christ, the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and the New Testament as the rule of conduct and book of discipline." Charter members were: John Rudolph, Sr., John ________ 6 Ibid., p. 14, 7 Loc. cit. 24 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES Rudolph, Jr., Zeb Rudolph (President Garfield's father-in-law), James Rudolph, Cleona Rudolph, Elizabeth Rudolph, Darwin Atwater, Laura Atwater, and Pata Blair. Within a period of two years, fifty members were added. In April, 1829, the Hiram-Nelson-Garrettsville members petitioned for division on the grounds that Mantua Center was too far away. In 1835, Hiram and Garrettsville members withdrew from Nelson for the same reason, forming separate congregations. To form a congregation at Shalersville, letters were given to members residing there in 1828. The Aurora church was formed the same way in 1830. The Bethesda story is pointed out primarily to answer the question as to which was the first congregation in Ohio to take a stand on the new principles. It would not be quite fair to give Mantua Center alone this distinction. The Bethesda congregation can be likened to an amoeba. In pre-Campbell days, it showed a tendency to reform along lines laid down by the Bethany reformer. The Hiram-Nelson-Garrettsville division of 1829, the Aurora division of 1830, and the Hiram division of 1835 made these congregations, along with Mantua Center, all parts of the whole, which was in reality the Baptist Church of Nelson. As the one-cell amoeba divides and becomes two, yet each division is part of the original cell, so the Bethesda congregation divided several times. If there's any honor in being first, it probably should be shared equally by all these congregations. While all this moving-around was going on, the Bethesda church belonged first to the Beaver Association, and then to the newly formed Mahoning Baptist Association. Because the Mahoning churches were progressing toward an ecumenical form of Christianity, they became an experimental laboratory in which the ideas of Alexander Campbell were first tried with any degree of success.
BACKWOODS RELIGION
25
At that day (1816) we had no particular houses of worship. All lived in log houses, made of rounded logs, as they grew in the forest. The roof was made of long boards split out with wedges and a f row; and fastened with poles or logs. Our manners or customs were equally plain. It was very common in many parts of Ohio, for both sexes to walk to the meeting barefooted. Our clothing was made by the hands of our mother and sisters, in their own houses, and was very clean and neat. [8] There was little interest in ecclesiastical architecture in the days of Campbell, Scott, and Stone. They thought of the church as the baptized believers only; buildings were not important. Meetings were held in schoolhouses, private dwellings, barns, or in pleasant groves. The earliest buildings were constructed of logs. Greased paper across openings in the walls served as windows. There was no altar. The speaker's stand stood on a slightly raised platform. The communion table was on the floor level, with chairs for the elders on each side. Lighting was provided by homemade tallow candles. In 1834, Alexander Campbell carried an article on meeting-houses in his Millennial Harbinger. He wrote: As the Disciples are now engaged in the erection of houses of worship in various portions of the United States, it may not be unseasonable to offer a few remarks on this business. A Christian meeting-house ought to be humble, commodious, and free from all the splendor of this vain and sinful world.... It should be a one story house, without steeple, galleries, or pulpit. The floor should be an inclined plane, descending from the entrance one foot in every eight or ten. The Lord's table and the seats for the elders of the ________ 8 John Udell, Incidents of Travel to California, Across the Great Plains, together with the Return Trip through Central America; to which is added Sketches of the Author's Life (Jefferson, Ohio: Sentinel Office, 1856), p. 131 26 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES congregation should be at the remote end, opposite to the entrance, and consequently on the lowest part of the floor, visible to every eye in the house.... The house should be so divided that both the members [of the church] and the attending public might be equally well accommodated. Around the elders of the congregation, and immediately contiguous to the Lord's table, the disciples should be placed. To prevent confusion, and to afford every facility to the auditors, a door or railing across the aisle, at a proper distance to accommodate the brethren, should mark the seats allowed to the attendants. This should be so arranged as that, without much inconvenience, it can be moved farther towards the door as the church increases. [9] Campbell's pattern of church architecture was followed for many years. When the Hiram church, built in 1844, was destroyed by fire twenty-two years later, some thought the new building should have architectural improvements, at least a level floor. Regarding this, Hinsdale stated, "But conservatism was too strong in Hiram twenty years ago. So the good old pattern shown by Mr. Campbell in the Harbinger was followed." [10] Ohio congregations followed Campbell's plan for no less than a quarter of a century. Campbell's movable railing (or door), to separate members from visitors, so members could be served communion without embarrassing the visitors present, is evidence of his close-communion views and desire to remain sympathetic to much of the Baptist tradition. F. M. Green, in an article written for the Christian Century, claimed when the Church of Christ at Randolph built a meetinghouse in 1830, it was the first building erected by Disciples in Ohio. [11] There was a reason why they were so slow to erect church buildings. They assumed all along that the denominations ________ 9 Millennial Harbinger, 1834, pp. 7-9. 10 B. A. Hinsdale, op. cit., p. 24. 11 Christian Century, December 17, 1903. BACKWOODS RELIGION 27 would soon see the ecumenical point of view and reform along Campbellian principles. If already there was a Baptist, Presbyterian, or Congregational meetinghouse in a given community, why build another? All they had to do, they thought, was to present the "restoration" plea and the denominations would dissolve voluntarily into the church universal. With sectarian barriers (creeds, human names, unscriptural practices) removed, there would remain the Church of Christ. There was reason for this naive assumption. Most of the Baptist congregations in northeastern Ohio had actually done this. The pioneer Disciple preachers had no scruples about going into any meetinghouse of any denomination to present this view. In doing this, they felt they were liberating their friends and neighbors from the bondage of ecclesiastical tyranny, and leading them to practical religious freedom. Like the cow-bird who lays her eggs in nests other birds have built, expecting a foster mother to rear her children, so the pioneer preachers of the Disciples planted their teachings in the nests of denominationalism, expecting their brain-children to be nurtured by others. But the scheme, for the most part, did not work. Actually, many of the brethren learned in pained discomfort they would have to build their own houses of worship. This was difficult for them because they had not been trained in New Testament stewardship. They were ready always, at the drop of a hat, to contend for the faith, but they were not ready, for nearly half a century, to pay for it. Their failure to build their own buildings is primarily responsible for some two hundred congregations having lapsed before the forming of the Ohio Christian Missionary Society in 1852. Ecclesiastical Organization on the Frontier The organization of frontier churches and the techniques of supervision and administration differed widely among the denominations. Each group had its own pattern. The Methodists,26 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES for example, preferred the circuit plan with itinerant preachers making the rounds of the churches on horseback. Some of these circuits were five hundred miles long, taking three months for the circuit-rider to visit all the preaching points. By 1816, the Ohio Conference, which included all of eastern Ohio and the Western Reserve, western Pennsylvania, and western New York, had James B. Finley in charge. While the economy of preacher-scarcity prevailed, the system proved to be excellent. Because of it, the Methodists gained more rapidly than the others. It was hard on the preachers, however, as well as the congregations, but it did provide the most equitable distribution of a scarce commodity. The Baptist plan was entirely different. Baptist preachers were a part of the community in which they preached. They lived among their parishioners the year around. The typical Baptist preacher was simply a preaching-layman who toiled on his farm through the week, and preached on Sunday. The Baptists organized into associations which met annually for business and inspiration. These associations took the names of rivers or other natural landmarks, as: Mahoning, Redstone, Grand River, Stillwater, and Beaver. The churches preferred sentimental Biblical names, i.e., Zoar, Bethel, Valley of Achor, and Ebenezer. In no sense, however, could it be claimed that the Baptists had a professional clergy. Neither Baptists nor Methodists had an academically trained ministry. Congregationalists and Presbyterians on the frontier were the only larger Protestant groups with a professional clergy. They cooperated under a "Plan of Union" that had its origin in 1801. The "Plan" was an agreement between the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the General Association (Congregational) of Connecticut. It governed the relationship of these two denominations in the missionary territory of the West. Under it, these two bodies worked effectively in a common cause. Their missionaries did good work as far BACKWOODS RELIGION 29 as they could go, preaching to Indians and whites on the frontier. Where the "Plan of Union" preachers operated, as on the Reserve, the poorly trained Methodist preachers found them strong competition. The Baptists did a little better because of similarity in theology, and because their preachers lived with the people they served. Only the Disciples seemed to be able to meet them on their own ground, and this was because of the reasonable rather than emotional approach used by the followers of Alexander Campbell. The Disciples found the Congregationalists, whether of Calvinistic or Universalist tendencies, were quite impotent under the barrage of experimental logic. Joseph Badger, one of these "Plan of Union" missionaries, arrived in northeastern Ohio in December 3, 1800. A former soldier of the Revolution and a trained minister, he was better prepared than most to meet frontier conditions. He left a vivid day-by-day diary of his experiences in northern Ohio between the years 1800 to 1808; a journal which has since proved invaluable to students of Americana. The following accounts are typical excerpts from his diary for 1804: March 14th, Wednesday, Rode to Warren, transacted some business, and on Friday made several family visits, attending a meeting of the church. They adopted the "accommodation articles." Preached in the evening. Saturday, rode to Mantua, crossing the Mahoning, the water up to my saddle skirts; got my boots full of water. At the crossing swam my horse and crossed myself on a glade of ice. Led my horse on the ice across the Cuyahoga; agreed as I came through Nelson, to return there on Monday. Sabbath, preached twice to a stupid, unfeeling company; appointed to preach again on Wednesday, and to Aurora on Thursday. Monday, walked back to Nelson; crossed on the ice; got to the settlement about noon; made three visits, and preached in the evening. Tuesday, visited the three other families, and preached in the afternoon. 30 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES Wednesday morning, set out on my return to Mantua, eight miles, in company with two young men; came to the Cuyahoga, the ice was all gone, and no means of crossing but to wade. The stream about eight rods wide, three feet deep, a strong current, and very cold; we got through safe. Preached in the afternoon, and rode to Aurora. Thursday, preached to fifteen souls, -- Alas, stupid as the woods in which they live. [12] Among the first preachers in Ohio was a Swedenborgian by the name of Jonathan Chapman; more familiarly known as Johnny Appleseed. He came to Ohio in the "buckskin" period, along with the traders and trappers. Johnny Appleseed seemed to have a genuine concern for the physical as well as the spiritual welfare of the frontiersmen. At this early date, he gathered apple seeds from the presses of western Pennsylvania and carried them to Ohio. Here he selected appropriate nursery sites, planted his seeds, and cultivated the seedling trees when they appeared. When the permanent settlers arrived, he was on hand to sell them nursery stock, or give it away if they had no money. By the time he died, a hundred thousand square miles of Ohio land were covered with his apple trees. This was a great help to the homesteaders. Johnny Appleseed was an eccentric character. He loved and respected all animal and bird life. This was such an obsession with him that he even refused to kill mosquitoes! He seemed to have no fear whatever of man or beast, often walking or sleeping in the woods without any means of protection. The Indians considered him a great "medicine man" and treated him with respect. He was welcome in both cabin and wigwam. Even in the dangerous times prior to the War of 1812, when the Indians were on the warpath killing all whites with the British paying for scalps, Johnny Appleseed moved unmolested among Indians and whites alike. As he went ________ 12 Joseph Badger, A Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger (Hudson: Sawyer, Ingersoll and Co., 1851), pp. 73, 74. BACKWOODS RELIGION 31 from cabin to cabin, he preached to the settlers, left torn-out sections of the Bible and Swedenborgian books with the people to read, and helped them start their apple orchards. When he returned later on his rounds, he would collect this literature and exchange it for other sections of similar reading material. His mobile library was the first of any kind in the Buckeye State. The pay these early preachers received for their services was very small. For a year's circuit riding in 1804, John Collins received but one hundred dollars. Peter Cartwright reported after three years of riding the circuit, his total assets were his horse, his buckskin clothes, and six and one-fourth cents! John Henry (called the Walking Bible), a Disciple preacher, complained in a letter to the editor of the Millennial Harbinger of the poor remuneration received for his services. What he wrote was an indictment of the manner in which ministers were treated by the churches. There is an evil under the sun of which even Solomon, I believe, has not spoken -- namely, the brethren are always writing to us to come and preach for them, and they forget to pay the postage. Hence my letter tax costs me more every year than my clothing. Will the brethren reform, and not lay a burthen on us that neither our fathers nor we are able to bear. [13] In 1806, Joseph Badger resigned his labors under the direction of the Connecticut Missionary Society because it reduced his salary from seven to six dollars a week. Even, at that, this sum was far above what other ministers were receiving at the time. Years later, when the Disciples of Portage County held a Yearly Meeting at Deerfield in 1849, fourteen churches with a total membership of 614 persons reported. In all these congregations during the previous year, but $421 was raised for ________ 13 Millennial Harbinger, 1841, p. 331. 32 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES preaching, and $105 for circulation of the Scriptures. This would make sermons a cheap commodity, for it averages but $30 a year per church, or an average of 69 cents per member. [14] In observing centennials or historical occasions, many churches of the Disciples of Christ prepare long lists, giving names of ministers who served them from the beginning. They are likely to consider these preachers as resident clergymen. This is a mistake. For many years the churches had no resident ministers. Evangelists would come, stay a few weeks, then go on to another place. Perhaps the next winter they would return for another series of sermons, but they were not resident ministers in the sense such men are considered today. In fact, many of the brethren objected to the settled ministry on what they considered scriptural grounds. In most of the isolated communities on the frontier, the only time a preacher was actually in the neighborhood was when he was conducting an evangelistic meeting, or when he had been summoned to officiate at a wedding or funeral. Alanson Wilcox, in his history of Ohio Disciples, makes the claim that Isaac Errett, when he was called to the pastorate of the New Lisbon church in 1844, was the first settled minister among the Disciples. [15] ________ 14 Ibid., 1849, p. 592. Correspondence from Isaac Errett. 15 Alanson Wilcox, A History of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1918), p. 43,
[33]
The association was the Baptist answer to ecclesiastical co-operation. It was a council of a small number of congregations in a given geographical district. The purpose of the association was in the mutual improvement and inspiration of its members, the sharing of ideas, and protection against heretics and impostors. Associations usually met annually for, two or three days, generally iii the fall of the year. The Miami Association, formed in 1798 with three churches, was the first of the Baptist associations in Ohio. Other early associations were: Scioto, 1805; Muskingum, 1809; Mad River, 1811; Adams, 1812; Clermont, 1816; Columbus, 1818; and Mahoning, 1820. When the Baptist State Convention organized in 1826 at Zanesville, seventeen associations had already been formed in Ohio.
34
BUCKEYE DISCIPLES
The church of Nelson by Messengers presented their Articles of faith, after the reading of which they were by vote received as members of this association, and the right hand of fellowship presented to them, through their messengers. [1] On coming together for stated meetings, a moderator was elected to preside over the association while in session. The clerk of the association kept minutes of the proceedings, later issuing them in printed form for distribution to the affiliated congregations. In addition to the minutes, the printed record contained reports from member congregations, queries and answers to theological questions, together with a Circular Letter to be read in all the churches. These annual association reports provide a fruitful field of historical information on pioneer days, customs, and American religious tradition. The style of the printed minutes of Baptist associations has not varied to any extent in the past century and a quarter, and the printed Proceedings of Disciples' state societies bear a marked resemblance. ________ 1 Minutes of the Twelfth Session, Grand River Baptist Association, Perry, 1828.
MUTINOUS BAPTISTS
35
It is our object to glorify God. This we would endeavor to do by urging the importance of the doctrine and precepts of the Gospel in their moral and evangelical nature, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God; not pretending to have authority over any man's nor over the churches, whose representatives form this association. But we act as an advisory council only, disclaiming all superiority, jurisdiction, coercive right and infallibility; and acknowledging the independence of every church; which has received authority from Christ to perform all duties enjoined respecting the government of his church in this world. [2] Ecclesiastical Authority Actually Vested in the Association Though associations were supposed to be advisory councils only, there was lack of understanding on how binding such________ 2 A. S. Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio (Cincinnati: Chase & Hall, 1876), p. 26. 36 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES advice should be. Some associations held this unit had ultimate ecclesiastical authority. It is plain that they examined candidates for the ministry, ordained them if they met satisfactory standards, and acted as monitor of their theological views. For example, Sidney Rigdon, who later became a Disciple, and still later a Mormon leader, was ordained by the Beaver Association at Conequenesing, Pennsylvania, in 1820. The committee to examine the candidate had been appointed the year before. When it passed him, and recommended his ordination, the association voted approval. [3] Though the association had no actual jurisdiction over member churches, the fact that it did expel churches and persons from fellowship is proof that many Baptists at that time considered ecclesiastical authority fixed in the association rather than the local church. Congregational independence was possible, but more theoretical than practical. The action of the Redstone Association in Alexander Campbell's case [4] showed no more tolerance than the action of the Chartiers Presbytery in the case of his father a few years before. In the so-called "Beaver Anathema" of 1829, this association excluded Baptist brethren of the Mahoning Association. [5] The creed of the Mahoning Association is set forth in its Constitution. It was copied from the Beaver Association and contained fourteen affirmations of faith, backed by scriptural references. A study of this creed shows it to be trinitarian and ________ 3 Minutes of the Beaver Baptist Association, Conequenesing, Pennsylvania, 1820. 4 Cf. post., pp. 39, 40. 5 John Udell, op. cit., pp. 169, 170. Baptist congregations as independent entities also exercised strong jurisdiction over members. Udell cites the following record of the exclusion of E. A. Mills from the Baptist Church at Jefferson, "March 2d, 1833-It was then motioned and seconded that as brother E. A. Mills will not consent to abandon the reading of Mr. Campbell's Millennial Harbinger, which we think is leading him from the gospel and the faith of the regular Baptists, we withdraw from him the hand of fellowship. The vote was then tried, and carried by a considerable majority." Two-thirds of the members of the church were swept out within three months for violating the local church law prohibiting the reading of Campbell's writings. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 37 Calvinistic. If the Mahoning Association adopted this creed, it at least gave it a more liberal interpretation than other associations. The fact that this association was formed at Nelson, and Bethesda was the host church, may be significant. At this time the "reforming" view was manifesting itself in Portage County. [6] The Palmyra Association Meeting The first meeting of the Mahoning Association after its organization was held at Palmyra, September 5-6, 1821. The "messengers" who attended represented thirteen congregations with a total constituency of 513 persons. [7] A resolution was passed requiring each church to raise six and one-fourth cents per member annually to support a fund for the preaching of the gospel. If all members contributed as requested the total amount raised each year would have been thirty-two dollars. [8]The Brethren Begin to Ask Questions The meeting held in 1822 at the Valley of Achor Church produced nothing unusual. The brethren were not very enthusiastic and their vision was limited. The Youngstown meeting the next year indicated the direction the association was turning. A query from the Palmyra church on whether the law of Moses was binding on the unregenerate in modern times was answered, "All the law given by God to Moses is obligatory upon the unregenerate so far as is repromulgated by Christ." The Nelson church had inquired, "Is it apostolic practice for the churches to have confessions of faith, constitutions, or anything of like nature, except the scripture?" The________ 6 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 27, 28. 7 The following is a record of the churches and their membership: Concord, 99; New Lisbon, 54; Bethesda, 37; Zoar, 57; Salem, 53; Randolph, 20; Liberty, 19; Mt. Hope, 31; Bazetta, 35; Braceville, 21 ; Yellow Creek, 10; Valley of Achor, 63; Sandy, 34. 8 Minutes of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Palmyra, 1821. 38 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES association postponed the answer to this question until the following year. The Hubbard church asked, "Is it the opinion of this association that any church has the privilege, according to scripture, of holding communion without an ordained elder, or administer other gospel ordinances?" The brethren answered, "We believe that it would not be proper for any person to administer the ordinance of baptism, or the Lord's Supper, without having been ordained a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Adamson Bentley, who was moderator, wrote the Circular Letter. Ili this document he distinguished between legal and spiritual worship by declaring: But Jesus Christ came, and is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises... We are not to follow Moses, through a dark and dismal wilderness of law, but Jesus Christ in the bright and beautiful plain of the Gospel. [9] Something was happening to the theological thinking of the brethren. Sidney Rigdon and Adamson Bentley had spent two days with Alexander Campbell at Bethany, the first numbers of the Christian Baptist had been read, and the Campbell-Walker debate of 1820 was now printed and being circulated throughout Ohio. Campbell Comes into Official Relationship with the Association The Hubbard church entertained the association in 1824. Messengers of the Bethesda church inquired regarding the status of churches acknowledging the scriptures only as their rule of faith and practice, and as the means by which a church could receive and exclude members. The New Lisbon brethren asked, "Is it scriptural to license a brother to administer the word and not the ordinances?" The query from Randolph was even more pointed, threatening the existence of the association________ 9 Minutes of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Youngstown, 1823. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 39 itself, "Can associations, in their present modification, find their model in the New Testament?" All these queries were laid over until the next year. [10] The most significant event of the Hubbard meeting was the admission of the Wellsburg, Virginia, church into the fellowship. Alexander Campbell was a member of this church, and the action brought him into official relationship with the Mahoning Association. Prior to this, he had been a member of the Redstone Association through his connection with the Brush Run church. His transfer of membership would not have been made necessary if the Redstone Association had been tolerant of his views. The year before, there had been an organized attempt to excommunicate Campbell. The antagonism toward him, on the part of a few Calvinistic brethren, was very bitter. Had he remained a member of the Redstone Association, he would have been compelled to stand trial for heresy when that group met in 1824. As it was, he succeeded in outmaneuvering his Redstone opponents by a clever, yet legitimate ruse. Obtaining letters of dismissal from the Brush Run church for himself and thirty others, he used this group to form a new congregation at Wellsburg. When the Wellsburg church became a member of the Mahoning Association, it was outside the jurisdiction of Redstone. Alexander Campbell attended the Redstone meeting of 1824, but as a spectator only. This action on the part of the Wellsburg church was a great disappointment to the Redstone heresy hunters, and left Campbell free among the Baptists to advocate his principles. "Never," said he, in relating the incident, "did hunters, on seeing the game unexpectedly escape from their toils at the moment when its capture was sure, glare upon each other a more mortifying disappointment than that indicated by my pursuers at that instant, on hearing that ________ 10 Minutes of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Hubbard, 1824. 40 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES I was out of their bailiwick, and consequently out of their jurisdiction. A solemn stillness ensued, and, for a time, all parties seemed to have nothing to do." [11] To become a member church of the Mahoning Association, the Wellsburg church had to submit a statement of its belief. This statement was drawn up by Campbell and contained much of his ecumenical philosophy. The fact that the Mahoning Association accepted this statement is more evidence of its changing attitude. The affair served to prepare the way for moving the Campbell experiment across the river to the Ohio side. More Questions and Answers The association returned to Palmyra for its meeting in 1825. Alexander Campbell was present in an official capacity for the first time. The queries of the year before were discussed, and opinions given. The Bethesda question on whether or not the association would hold a church that acknowledged the scripture only (no creeds, articles, or constitution) was answered, "On satisfactory evidence that they walk according to this rule." The question on how to receive members was answered scripturally, "Those who believed and were baptized were added to the church." When the matter of excluding members was taken up, the brethren decided this should be done "by a vote of the brethren." The New Lisbon question, "Is it scriptural to license a brother to administer the word, and not the ordinances?" was answered, "We have no such custom taught in the scriptures." This final answer was a victory for lay leadership in the church, and raised more questions concerning the prerogatives of the professional clergy. The answer to the Randolph church was evasive. Its messengers had queried,________ 11 Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott and Company, Vol. I, 1868, Vol. II, 1870), Vol. II, p. 70. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 41 "Can associations in their present modifications find their model in the New Testament?" The brethren responded, "Not exactly." [12] Significant Sermons When the association met in David Hays' barn at Canfield in 1826, Adamson Bentley was elected moderator and Joab Gaskill, clerk. Prominent men in attendance were: Alexander Campbell, Thomas Campbell, Sidney Rigdon, and Walter Scott. Alexander Campbell delivered the keynote address, an exposition of the seventh chapter of Romans. The next day being Sunday, several sermons were heard. When Walter Scott preached, it was his first appearance before the association. His message was well received. Sidney Rigdon used the sixteenth chapter of John as the basis of his sermon. The main feature on Sunday, however, was Alexander Campbell's sermon on the "Progress of Revealed Thought." This became known later as his famous "four-ages" sermon based on the conclusion of the prophecies of Malachi. He differentiated between the Starlight, Moonlight, Twilight, and Sunlight ages, and compared them to the Patriarchal and Jewish ages, the times of John the Baptist, and the Modern age. This sermon was an incentive to re-study the Bible. It proved a pace-setter for theological thought on the Reserve. [13]Scott Appointed Evangelist The most significant of all Mahoning Association meetings was held at New Lisbon in 1827. Jacob Osborne was elected moderator, and John Rudolph, Jr., clerk. J. Merrill, John Secrest, and Joseph Gaston, of the Christian Connection (Stoneite) movement were present, and by special resolution were________ 12 Minutes of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Palmyra, 1825. A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 24. 13 Minutes of the Mahoning Baptist Association, Canfield, 1826. A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 34. 42 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES permitted to take seats. The preachers, Walter Scott, Samuel Holmes, William West, and Sidney Rigdon, though not regularly appointed delegates, were also permitted seats in the council. Forty men, representing sixteen congregations, took part in the discussions. The church at Braceville sent in a request which eventually changed the entire status of the association. It was an epoch-making appeal that gave impetus to evangelism of a new type. The request was as follows: We wish that this association may take into serious consideration the peculiar situation of the churches of the association, and if it would be a possible thing for an evangelical preacher to be employed to travel and teach among the churches (of this association), we think that a blessing would follow." [14] There must have been a great deal of discussion on this project, but it met favorable response. A committee was appointed to look into the matter at once. This committee made the recommendation "that Bro. Walter Scott is a suitable person for the task, and that he is willing, provided the association concur in his appointment, to devote his whole energies to the work." [15] Walter Scott, who had received his formal education at the University of Edinburgh, was then reaching in a Steubenville academy. On coming to America a few years before this, he had made the acquaintance of George Forrester, a Haldanean preacher in Pittsburgh. Scott was sympathetic to Forrester's religious views. Alexander Campbell himself had come under the influence of the ideas of Robert and James Haldane when he was a student at the University of Glasgow. When Campbell met Scott on one of his trips to Pittsburgh, where Scott was ________ 14 Minutes of the Mahoning Baptist Association, New Lisbon, 1827. A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 57. See Table I on next page. 15 Minutes of the Mahoning Baptist Association, New Lisbon, 1827. A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 59. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 43 
44 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES teaching at the time, they found they had much in common and soon became close friends. Therefore, it is not strange that when Campbell decided to publish his first periodical, Scott was on hand to assist. Campbell carried out many of Scott's suggestions, and later published articles contributed by his friend under the pen name of "Phillip." In time, Scott became pastor of Forrester's church in Pittsburgh. About the same time, Sidney Rigdon, on the recommendation of Campbell, became pastor of a small Baptist church in the city. These two congregations eventually united, with Rigdon as pastor. It does not seem reasonable that with other more likely candidates, such as Sidney Rigdon, the orator, Adamson Bentley, the respected, John Secrest and Joseph Gaston, the experienced, the committee would recommend an inexperienced non-Baptist schoolteacher for the important appointment of working among Baptists, unless some influential delegate had done some campaigning on his behalf. The fact that Scott was already preparing to place a rival periodical, the Millennial Herald, in the field may have had some bearing on the matter from Campbell's viewpoint. When Scott was chosen evangelist of the Mahoning Association, he was sidetracked temporarily at least, from doing the thing he really wanted to do. This was the first time Campbell showed his hand in blocking Scott's bid for leadership, but not the last. Other incidents occurred in later years. [16] The appointment of Walter Scott as evangelist, whatever the motives, was a providential choice. He had a sound academic background, a brilliant mind, and youthful enthusiasm. Better still, he had a vision of the possibilities within the Baptist fellowship for spreading Campbell's (and Forrester's) views. For the peculiar work of an evangelist, he ________ 16 Henry K. Shaw, "Walter Scott, the Evangelist," Christian-Evangelist, October 23, 1946. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 45 stood head and shoulders above the others. Had it not been for Scott, it is doubtful if the movement would have gained such momentum in a few years. First Year of Scott's Preaching When the association met at Warren in 1828, an amazing transformation had taken place. A. S. Hayden, who attended the meeting, wrote that Scott's victories apparently had been numerous and decisive.Here were Methodists, no longer Methodists, but still Christians; Baptists surrendering the title, yet holding the Head, even Christ; Restorationists, giving up their fruitless and faultv speculations, now obedient to the faith once delivered to the saints; Bible Christians, recovered from their negative gospel to the apostle's method of preaching together with very many from other forms of religious belief-all rejoicing together, "perfectly united in the same mind and the same judgment." [17] Spectacular Conversion It is not easy to trace Scott's itinerary as evangelist of the association. He did not operate on a planned schedule, but seemed to go where he felt the need apparent at the time, preach a few days, go somewhere else; then return to the original field. [18]He opened his work at New Lisbon in November, 1827. On the night of the eighteenth, he had almost completed his sermon when a prominent Presbyterian layman entered the meetinghouse in time to hear Scott's concluding remarks which contained a summary of the evening discourse. Scott closed ________ 17 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 162, 163. 18 William Baxter, Life of Elder Walter Scott (Cincinnati: Bosworth, Chase, and Hall, 1874), pp. 147-48. Scott's first biographer states, "Morning often found the tireless Scott at one point, and evening at another, miles away. It was not uncommon for him to occupy the courthouse or school-house in the morning at the county seat, address a large assembly in some great grove in the afternoon, and have a private dwelling, which gave him shelter, crowded at night, to hear him before he sought his needed rest." 46 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES with an invitation to those present to yield to the gospel terms of salvation. William Amend, the aforementioned Presbyterian layman, surprised everybody by responding to the call and making a public declaration of faith, He was baptized that same night in a near-by stream. Amend, who had been studying his Bible for years, had come independently to Scott's position. Regarding this, he disclosed in a letter to Scott five years later that prior to their first meeting, and once after reading the second chapter of Acts, he had declared to his wife: O this is the gospel -- this is the thing we seek -- the remission of sins! O that I could hear the gospel, in these same words -- as Peter preached it! I hope I shall some day hear it; and the first man I meet, who will preach the gospel thus, with him will I go. [19] Scott published the complete letter, submitting it as a proof of the effectiveness of preaching the scriptural terms of salvation. William Amend is considered by manv Disciples as the first convert to "apostolic" preaching in modern times. Alexander Campbell, in writing a few years later of Scott's efforts, claimed: He (Scott) had not been long in the field before a great excitement commenced under his operations, and some hundreds were immersed, and immersed too under a new formulary, viz. -- "For the remission of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, I immerse you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!" This bold style awakened the whole community: many blasphemed, many believed, and much good and much evil followed in the train. Not a single church house, for more than a year afterwards got so far into the practice of the primitive worship. [20] Scott's use of the formulary, "For the remission of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, I immerse you..." was the feature with which regular Baptists differed with him most. ________ 19 The Evangelist, July, 1833. 20 Millennial Harbinger, 1839, p. 469, MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 47 They declared this was salvation by baptism, and as such the formulary was in error. Scott replied that his position was scriptural, and this too was hard to deny. For half a century this was the traditional formulary used by Disciples at baptismal services. Some of the more conservative brethren in the movement still uphold it, but for the most part, this only real point of difference between Baptists and Disciples has disappeared. After the Amend incident, there were many more conversions at New Lisbon. Scott then made a trip around the Reserve, returning for another meeting at the same place. By this time almost the entire membership of the Baptist church favored the new point of view. Accompanied by Joseph Gaston, Scott then visited East Fairfield. About this time he moved his family to Canfield where he had purchased a home. He intended to make this community his headquarters, but never quite got around to it. "Siege" of Warren As Warren was one of the principal communities on the Reserve, and the seat of political administration in Trumbull County which then embraced many of the present north-eastern Ohio counties, Scott decided to open a campaign there. The Baptists had organized a congregation at Warren in 1803. In 1811, when Adamson Bentley became pastor, the church had twenty-six members, some living at Youngstown and other places. In its early years, like the church at Nelson, it was a floating congregation with no fixed meeting place. By the time Scott came to Warren, a comfortable meetinghouse had been erected.On arriving in the community, Scott called at once on Adamson Bentley. Because Bentley was a reader of the Christian Baptist, and an agent for it, Scott thought he would fall in 48 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES with his evangelistic plans at once. But he was mistaken. Bentley's characteristic conservatism made him cautious. He was skeptical of Scott's unorthodox methods. Therefore, when Scott asked for the use of the newly built meetinghouse, he was refused. Scott disregarded Bentley's order and sent word around that he would open his campaign in the meetinghouse anyway. Bentley immediately declared the house was not to be opened, forcing Scott to preach in the courthouse that evening. The meeting was attended with such success that the next day Bentley permitted him to use the church building. An eight-day meeting followed, with twenty-nine additions. [21] A few months later the entire church, with the exception of six persons representing two families, embraced the new movement. A local Baptist historian describes these persons as: The six staunch and faithful Baptists who adhered to their doctrinal teachings and belief, and to whom we are debtors in no small degree, were John Reeves and wife, Ephraim Quinby, wife and two daughters. These did not renounce their faith, and may well be known as the saviors of the Baptist cause in Warren. [22] A most fortunate "catch" was Adamson Bentley himself. The greatness of this man is shown in his attitude toward Scott, even a-fter Scott's breach of common ministerial courtesy. A lesser man would have washed his hands of the whole affair. Bentley was considered safe, respectable; was of unquestioned integrity and sound judgment. He had been the leading preacher of the Mahoning Association for many years. When Bentley finally endorsed Scott, an erratic stranger, it was a big boost for the cause. Before this, Bentley had been in agreement with Campbell's views and had preached them, but it was ________ 21 Hayden, Baxter, and Mitchell disagree on some of the details of this meeting. For the most part, however, it is very likely the general pattern was as indicated above. 22 William J. Kerr, One Hundred Years of Baptist History in Warren (Warren: Wm. Ritzel & Company, 1903), pp. 10, 11. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 49 Scott who induced him to leave the Baptist fold. Campbell wrote later of Bentley, "To him alone who remembers the time when only brethren P. S. Fall, of Kentucky, and Adamson Bentley, of Ohio, cordially espoused the cause..." a quotation making Adamson Bentley Ohio's pioneer Disciple. [23] Thomas Campbell Investigates In April, Scott held a meeting at Salem. There were many converts at this place, but Scott's indiscreet remark at the close, "Who will now say there is a Baptist Church in Salem?" turned many of the regular Baptists against him. A few weeks later, Scott held a meeting of three weeks at Sharon, Pennsylvania. It was declared a great success. Then he went on to Deerfield where he preached in Jonas Hartzel's barn. A church was formed at this place and Hartzel became identified with the movement, becoming one of the leading evangelists of his time. Hartzel in turn converted W. A. Lillie who was later instrumental in winning James A. Garfield to the plea of the Disciples. Campbell reported, "Bishops Scott, Rigdon, and Bentley, in Ohio, within the last six months have immersed about eight hundred persons." [24]On hearing of Scott's success on the Reserve, and fearing that Scott's victories may have gone to his head, Alexander Campbell sent his father to investigate. This was in the spring of 1828. Thomas Campbell saddled his horse and visited the churches where Scott had been preaching. This took him to such places as New Lisbon, Fairfield, Warren, Braceville, Windham, Mentor, Chardon, Hampden, and Huntsburg. The elder Campbell was so pleased with what he found that he stayed to labor with Scott and Bentley for nearly six months. ________ 23 Millennial Harbinger, 1833, p. 94. For a biographical sketch of Bentley, see A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 102-109. 24 Christian Baptist, June 2, 1928, p. 263.
50
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Early in 1828, Scott made the acquaintance of Aylett Raines. [25] Raines at this time was a Universalist minister, well known in this section. Approving of the principles as taught by Scott, he joined forces with the movement. Raines in turn influenced Ebenezer Williams, another Universalist minister, to accept this position. These two men became able exponents of the restoration plea. Writing of their action, a Universalist historian declared: Rev. Ebenezer Williams and Aylot Raines preached for the Universalists on Sunday and the next morning went to Sandy Lake and immersed each other and entered the Disciple ministry. [26] He further stated, "There was not less than six Universalists who went over to the Disciples' ministry about this time." Considering the members added, the new churches formed, and persons attracted from the ministry of other communions, it is no small wonder that the association meeting in Warren in 1818 was attended with so much enthusiasm. Alexander Campbell was present to deliver the opening sermon. It was an exposition of the text, Romans 14:1. This sermon had three divisions, all relating to the Christian religion: (1) Matters of Knowledge, (2) Matters of Faith, and (3) Matters of Opinion. This classification of knowledge, faith, and opinion, has been closely followed by Disciples, though at the time it was given, it served to widen the breach between the regular Baptists and the reformers. [27] Strangely enough, this position met its first test at the Warren meeting. Aylett Raines was regarded with suspicion ________ 25 M. C. Tiers, The Christian Portrait Gallery (Cincinnati: Edited & Published by M. C. Tiers, 1864), pp. 101, 102. 26 Elmo Arnold Robinson, The Universalist Church in Ohio (Ohio Universalist Convention, 1923), p. 53. 27 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 163-166. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 51 by many of his new brethren who thought of him merely as an immersed Universalist. In a way they were right, for Raines was ready to admit that in his opinion all men would ultimately, in some distant period in eternity, be saved. Campbell's text, "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but without regard to differences of opinion," apparently fell on some deaf ears, for Raines was not accepted wholeheartedly. When the issue came tip, Thomas Campbell arose to Raines' defense. His argument embraced the liberal and more tolerant viewpoint. He said: Bro. Raines and I have been much together for the last several months, and we have mutually unbosomed ourselves to each other. I am a Calvinist, and he a Restorationist; and, although I am a Calvinist, I would put my right arm in the fire and have it burnt off before I would raise my hand against him. And if I were Paul, I would have Bro. Raines in preference to any other young man of my acquaintance to be my Timothy. [28] Alexander Campbell then took the floor. Using the arguments of his sermon the day before, he explained that Raines' speculative philosophy was in the realm of opinion where men have a right to differ. In the realm of faith, he declared, Raines was in perfect agreement with them. Following another speech on Raines' behalf by Scott, Alexander Campbell asked Raines to make his personal testimony before the group. The man responded by saying his Restoration [29] views were a "philosophy" and as such he would never take them into the Pulpit nor contend for them as matters of faith. As this seemed to be in line with the views of the reformers, the vote to receive him was by an overwhelming majority. The issue settled here has been brought up time and again through the passing years. Sabbath observance, blue laws, ________ 28 Ibid., p. 168. 29 "Restoration" faction within the Universalist movement. 52 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES secret societies, and political issues could divide others, but not the Disciples. These were to be regarded as matters of opinion, and not tests of faith and fellowship. During the evil years of the Civil War, Disciples were distributed about equally on both sides, but the issues of the war did not break the fellowship. It was the principle of the difference between faith and opinion that preserved the brotherhood. The slogan, "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity," applied in the war crisis and has always been popular with Disciples. Scott's Report Scott's report to the association was typical of the man. It was a grandiose declamation dealing in such matters as the Millennium, Mahomet, the Pope, the Inquisition, French atheism, and freedom of religion in America. The only factual and statistical material is found in part of one paragraph:The gospel, since last vear, has been preached with great success in Palmyra, Deerfield, Randolph, Shalersville, Nelson, Hiram, etc., etc., by Bros. Finch, Hubbard, Ferguson, Bosworth, Hayden, and others. Several new churches have been formed; and so far as I am enabled to judge, the congregations are in a very flourishing condition . [30] There was no question about a re-appointment for Scott the next year. They did discuss whether his work should be limited to the boundaries of the association, or whether he should be permitted to go where he pleased. Scott made his famous request at this time, "Brethren, give me my Bible, my Head, and Bro. William Hayden, and we will go out and convert the world." [31] ________ 30 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 173. According to Hayden, Scott got his radical millennial views from reading the views of Elias Smith. 31 Ibid., p. 174.
MUTINOUS BAPTISTS
53
The minutes of the Mahoning Association show that in the three years prior to 1828, the churches averaged but one baptism a year per church. After Scott had been in the field a year, there were over a thousand baptisms reported for these same churches, several new congregations organized, and many outstanding persons added to the movement. It is no wonder the brethren talked in terms of a coming millennium! Scott's Methods Probably the most significant contribution made at this time was Scott's new approach to the matter of conversion. Among the religious bodies on the frontier, some advocated the "anxious seat," others the "mourner's bench," and still others, an "experience." Many people wanted to be church members, but could not -- even after trying hard -- get religion by any of these methods. When Scott preached of becoming a Christian by obeying the simple terms of the gospel rather than by depending upon one's feelings, it met instant favor.When he came to a, new community where he was unknown, he first sought out the children. His little after-school talks ________ 32 M. C. Tiers, op. cit., pp. 113-115. (A biography.) 54 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES and games won their confidence. They fitted with Scott's plans by advertising his meetings to their parents. A typical approach was to get a group of children together and ask them to raise their left hands. Then he would say, "Now, beginning with your thumbs repeat what I say to you: 'Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Remission of Sins, Gift of the Holy Spirit.' Now again, repeat! Again, faster!'" When the boys and girls had learned this little game, they were told to inform their parents he would preach the gospel that night as they had learned it on the fingers of their hands. It was a novel idea and it worked. Scott's five-finger exercise is still being used in some quarters. The Sharon Itinerancy The meeting of the association for 1829 was held at Sharon, Pennsylvania. The Baptist church there had divided on the issues between the regular Baptists and the reformers. Scott, Bentley, and even Thomas Campbell had made unsuccessful attempts to reconcile the brethren. An evangelistic meeting was finally held in a barn. Several converts were obtained and a new congregation formed. Many of the Baptists united with the new group. The latter church was the one which entertained the association.The most important decision at this meeting was the proposal to establish a system of itinerancy so that all congregations could have preaching service. William Hayden was given the task of working out the details of the project. Probably no one was better acquainted with the churches, their problems, locations, and highway conditions, than Hayden. His plan was accepted and a circuit established. Scott, Hayden, Bentley, and Bosworth were to be the evangelists. Sixteen preaching points were instituted, each to be served once a month by the visiting ministers. They were to follow one another in a fixed order so that on any given Sunday each would know where MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 55 the others were. It was thought this would provide each church with a variety of talent, and enable the weaker churches to share the popular speakers. [33] It was a good system, but it did not work. A. S. Hayden attributed its failure to the lack of a general manager. The responsibility for the failure of the Sharon itinerancy rests largely with Scott. It was not that he deliberately and intentionally made havoc of the plan, as he was by nature incapable of cooperation. He kept to the circuit for a while, but soon was preaching here and there, wherever the inner urge seemed to call him. This threw the whole scheme out of balance, and ultimately caused its complete failure. The breakdown of the "circuit" plan was a keen disappointment to Alexander Campbell. Two years later, while speaking at New Lisbon, he expressed himself on this point. Brother A. Campbell referred to the Methodist system of operations was one of the most admirable for propagating that was ever devised. Their alternating modus operandi was what he had reference to, and be thought the brethren would do well to inaugurate and carry out some system that would prove more efficient than the present one. [34] Vicious Opposition of the Baptists By this time weighty opposition was getting under way from among the regular Baptists. The loss of so many persons and churches to the new position stirred the orthodox brethren in many associations to pass resolutions and make pronouncements against the new movement. The most comprehensive of these was made by the Beaver Baptist Association. It was. occasioned by the request for admission to that association by four of the Mahoning churches not sympathetic to the reforming movement. These were churches of Youngstown, Salem,________ 33 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 270-272. 34 N. J. Mitchell, Reminiscences and Incidents in the Life and Travels of a Pioneer Preacher of the Ancient Gospel (Cincinnati: Chase & Hall, 1877), p. 99. 56 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES Palmyra, and Valley of Achor. [35] The Beaver pronouncement is as follows: The last four churches on our list have withdrawn from the Mahoning association, from a consciousness that they have become extremely corrupt. We believe it to be our duty to the public, and to our brethren in general, to give some information respecting that association. It rose chiefly out of the Beaver, and progressed regularly until A. Campbell and others came in. They now disbelieve and deny many of the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures, on which they were constituted. They contend there is no promise of salvation without baptism -- that it should be administered to all that say they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God without examination on any other point -- that there is no direct operation of the Holy Spirit on the mind prior to baptism -- that baptism procures the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost -- that the scriptures are the only evidence of interest in Christ -- that obedience places it in God's power to elect to salvation -- that no creed is necessary for the church but the scriptures as they stand -- and that all baptized persons have a right to administer the ordinance. All which sentiments have been publicly taught by the messengers of that association. Conscious this is the case with that association, we deeply deplore their state, and feel constrained to warn our brethren in other parts against them: believing they have departed from the faith and order of the gospel church. We could also notice, that the Grand River and other neighborhood associations have withdrawn their fellowship from them. [36] The so-called "Beaver Anathema" disturbed the reformers and especially Alexander Campbell, a great deal. The fact remains, ________ 35 Alexander Campbell asked Walter Scott to report on the status of these four churches that were supposed to have joined the Beaver Association. In a letter published in the Christian Baptist, July 5, 1830, Scott claimed he had received 150 new members at Youngstown and that sixteen of the regular Baptists originally belonging to the church had joined the Beaver Association. The Salem Baptist church, he said, wouldn't admit the forty-one converts he received there. Twenty-one of these finally went into the Baptist church on Baptist terms, and the rest formed a new church. Scott claimed the Valley of Achor church was dead, and that he had never been there. Regarding the Palmyra church, he claimed it was split when he got there, but that he persuaded a hundred members to come back. About fifteen or twenty who wouldn't return, joined the Beaver Association. 36 Minutes of the Beaver Baptist Association, Providence Church, Beaver City, Pennsylvania, 1829. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 57 however, that it was a good statement of what actually occurred. The brethren of the Mahoning Association held that the attitude of the Beaver pronouncement stigmatized the new movement as a heterodox development within the Baptist fold. The Beaver minutes for that year also contained a long circular letter defending the creed system. The "anathema" was copied and read into the minutes of other associations, and printed later in a special circular. John Udell, member of the Baptist church at Jefferson, wrote an interesting diary in which, among other things, he described the excitement in Baptist circles because of the Campbell influence. He wrote that in 1829 a number of Baptists from the association of which he was a member attended the Mahoning meeting to learn about the new system. Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Sidney Rigdon were present and preached. Udell claimed his Baptist brethren listened eagerly during the meeting, to hear something new or heretical. But we only heard the same old scriptures presented-perhaps more forcibly than ever before, in so short a time. Some new ideas were advanced, but they were all so well sustained by the Word of God, that none, though repeated challenges were given, attempted to refute them. I could see no reason why I should doubt the truth of what was presented. I could see no reason why a reception of the doctrines advanced should cause a separation from the Baptist Church. But I concluded I would search the scriptures more thoroughly, before I came to any decision in regard to the matter; and returned well satisfied with having gone forty miles to listen to such arguments and eloquence. [37] The Mahoning Association Dissolves Itself The teaching and activities of the Mahoning preachers in the years 1827-30 had, in principle, tended to nullify the original theological and ecclesiastical position of this group. A. S. Hayden said that when the association met at Austintown in________ 37 John Udell, op. cit., pp. 145, 146. 58 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES 1830, it was a Baptist association in name only. Members of the newly formed Austintown church were hosts. The throngs of people in attendance, contrasted to the delegations of a few years before, gave the gathering the atmosphere of a convention rather than of a delegate meeting. The first day was spent in evangelistic singing, fellowship, preaching, and reports. The next day something happened that changed the whole course of the movement. John Henry, at the instigation of Walter Scott, offered a resolution that the association, as an advisory council, be dissolved at once. [38] Almost without debate, and with little consideration of the outcome, the resolution passed. Alexander Campbell and a few others realized what was happening and understood its implications, but could not stem the tide. After the vote had been taken, Campbell took the floor and asked, "Brethren, what are you going to do? Are you never going to meet again?" It was probably at this meeting Campbell first realized the magnitude of the movement he had started. Through the columns of his Christian Baptist, he had branded denominational ministers as "hirelings," and "goat milkers." He had opposed missionary societies, made a caricature of many Christian institutions, and in general was responsible for a belligerent attitude toward all religious bodies except the one represented by his own brethren. He had created a Frankenstein monster that was inadvertently turning on its creator. In the dissolution of the Mahoning Association, he saw the destructive possibilities of the "reform" pattern as it had been presented. His final comprehension of this impelled him the same year to cease publication of the Christian Baptist, and turn his efforts toward a new periodical which he named The Millennial Harbinger. The new journal stressed the more constructive features of the movement. In spite of this, he was never quite able to live down his ________ 38 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 295, 296. Benajah Austin, William Hayden, and Alexander Campbell deplored this action, and the first two made unsuccessful attempts at resuscitation. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 59 Christian Baptist years. Today, there are two schools of thought in the tradition of the movement: one following the Campbell of the Christian Baptist; and the other, the Campbell of the Millennial Harbinger. At the Austintown meeting, Campbell proposed the brethren continue to meet at least once a year, even though these were not to be stated meetings. This started something new among the Disciples -- the Yearly Meeting system. Fortunately, it was approved by the brethren. Campbell wrote of the dissolution of the association: This association came to its end as tranquilly as ever did a good old man whose attenuated thread of life, worn to a hair's breadth, dropped asunder by its own imbecility. [39] This was a masterpiece of understatement. The birth of the association was quite natural, but its passing was attended with as much cheering and applause as a victory celebration. It was not a natural death. It was suicide! Hayden summarized the work of the association for the years 1827-30. There was harmony, he said, among the churches and their preachers several congregations had sent their own evangelists into the field, new churches had been formed, and thousands of persons added to the list of converts. After the dissolution of the association, he claimed systematic evangelism perished. From that time on and for many years, no more preachers were sent out, as the yearly meeting had no power to commission evangelists for the work. He wrote, "Therefore, we have been, in this respect, in a state of apostasy from our first principles." [40] In an article on church organization, written by Campbell nineteen years later, he took a more mature view of the whole affair. ________ 39 Millennial Harbinger, 1830, p. 415. 40 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 297. 60 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES I was present on the occasion of the dissolution of the "Mahoning Baptist Association," in 1828 (he was mistaken on the date), on the Western Reserve, State of Ohio. With the exception of one obsolete preacher, the whole association, preachers and people, embraced the current reformation. I confess I was alarmed at the impassioned and hasty manner in which the association was, in a few minutes, dissolved. I then, and since contemplated that scene as a striking proof of the power of enthusiasm and of excitement, and as dangerous, too, even in ecclesiastical as well as in political affairs. Counsel and caution, argument and remonstrance were wholly in vain in such a crisis of affairs. It would have been an imprudent sacrifice of influence to have done more than make a single remonstrance. But that remonstrance was quashed by the previous question, and the Regular Baptist Mahoning Association died of a moral apoplexy, in less than a quarter of an hour. Reformation and annihilation are not with me now, as formerly, convertible or identical terms. We want occasional, if not stated, deliberative meetings on questions of expediency in adaptation to the ever changing fortune and character of society. [41] Rigdon Shows His Hand One more important incident took place at the Austintown meeting. It was a verbal clash between Campbell and Sidney Rigdon. By this time, Rigdon had been in touch with Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet; though this was apparently not known to his brethren. Rigdon proposed that if the Disciples were to follow the apostles in all the New Testament teaching, they should model after the church at Jerusalem and require a community of goods. In other words, he advocated a communistic society. In a thirty-minute address, Campbell opposed him, claiming that New Testament communism was attended by special circumstance, that the matter of Ananias and Sapphira put an end to it, and that it was always understood even then to be on a voluntary basis. He then quoted passages of scripture which called for contributions for benevolence,________ 41 Millennial Harbinger, 1849, p. 272. MUTINOUS BAPTISTS 61 showing that no such communistic system prevailed throughout apostolic times. Rigdon's proposal never came up in open meeting again. [42] Disciples Become a Separate Body The Austintown dissolution meeting is generally regarded as the watershed of Disciples' history, marking a formal separation between Baptists and Disciples. Prior to this, the Mahoning Association was a Baptist body and its members Baptists. After the dissolution action the Disciples became a separate communion. That same year, the Stillwater Association in Ohio dissolved itself under similar circumstances. This also occurred in Wilmington, Dayton, and Cincinnati. About this time the Kentucky reformers separated from the Baptists. As the locale for the new movement was primarily in these two states at the time, it can safely be declared that the year 1830 marks the beginning of the Disciples of Christ as a separate people though they were not as yet a distinct religious communion.________ 42 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 298-300. The communistic features of early Mormonism are generally considered Rigdon's contribution to the movement rather than Smith's.
[62]
Alexander Campbell's first preaching mission was to Ohio. He left his Bethany home on Thursday, May 16, 1811, preaching his first Ohio sermon in the courthouse at Steubenville on the following Sunday. He was twenty-three years old then, and not yet ordained. In his discourses on this mission, he tried to present the cause of Christian unity as advocated by the Christian Association of Washington, and incorporated in the Declaration and Address previously prepared by his father. This first short preaching tour took him from Steubenville to Cadiz; then to St. Clairsville and back home. Along the way, he stayed with friends and acquaintances of his father. The tour lasted about two weeks and Campbell met with much opposition to his views. This did not prevent him from returning and preaching at these places again a few weeks later. [1] This same year, the elder Campbell, who never stayed long at one place, moved to a farm near Mt. Pleasant. Two years later he opened an academy at Cambridge. School was held in a log building on the southwest corner of Wheeling Avenue and Seventh Street. When Campbell closed this school in 1814, Cambridge was without a system of education until ________ 1 Robert Richardson, op. cit., I: pp. 370, 371. REBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 63 1836. Alexander Campbell's younger brothers and sisters were enrolled in the log school, and Alexander Campbell often visited Cambridge while his father was located there. Thomas Campbell frequently preached in the hewed-log meetinghouse on Pultney Ridge, and in the Harmony Baptist Church near Cambridge. Then, the Campbells were out of the Presbyterian fold, but not quite in the Baptist communion. The Zanesville Project An interesting development within the movement took place in 1814. Members of the Brush Run church decided to remove in a body to Zanesville to establish a Christian colony with church, school, and other features. Migrations of this nature were then quite common. Alexander Campbell was especially enthusiastic about the project, and it was he who selected the site in Ohio. It was the sort of a thing that appealed to the adventuresome spirit of the newly married young immigrant.John Brown, his father-in-law, held a different view. He did not relish the idea of his daughter and new son-in-law moving so far away from the home place. So, to induce them to remain in Brooke County, he deeded his farm to Alexander Campbell for the consideration of one dollar. This gift was enough to persuade the young man to change his mind. When the other members of the church learned that their minister had no intention of going along with them, they too gave up the project. Campbell proved to be an excellent farmer, introducing many new methods of agriculture to his community. He remained on the land the rest of his life, adding to the original gift until he became the richest and most prosperous farmer in West Virginia. His financial independence played no small part in his role as a reformer. [2] ________ 2 Robert Richardson, op. cit., I: pp. 459-461. The original deed is now in Possession of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society. 64 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES It is not likely this new project was to have been a communistic society as were some in those days, but probably simply a, religious colony with cooperative features. If circumstances had been favorable to the successful culmination of the Zanesville project, the whole course of the new movement might have been altered. The Campbell-Walker Debate In 1820, the same year the Mahoning Baptist Association was formed, the first public debate on reform principles took place in Ohio. It occurred at Mt. Pleasant and was a public discussion between Alexander Campbell and John Walker. Walker was a Seceder Presbyterian minister and an able man. Up to this time the reformers were few in number and not very aggressive. Both Alexander and Thomas Campbell questioned the value of public discussions to propagate their views. The debate, however, met with such publicity and attention that this technique continued as the outstanding means of introducing the reformation to the most people in the shortest time.The debate with Walker was on the subject of baptism. A year before, a Baptist preacher named John Birch had met with much success around Mt. Pleasant, preaching on immersion and against infant baptism. John Walker, a Presbyterian minister in the vicinity, was forced to come out openly in the defense of infant baptism. In the course of the controversy between Walker and Birch, the former challenged Birch, or any other Baptist preacher in good standing, to debate the subject. Birch wrote to Alexander Campbell, asking him to defend the Baptist position in a public debate with Walker. Campbell refused at first, but when his friends pointed out the importance of meeting the challenge, he finally accepted. The date for the controversy was set for June 19, 20, 1820. The place selected was the village of Mt. Pleasant, strangely REBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 65 enough the Ohio headquarters for the Quakers who had built a large meetinghouse there. Whether the controversy meant anything to the Quakers, who were neutral on the position of the contending parties, is not known. Salanthiel Curtis, who was acting as clerk of the debate, took notes. Campbell used these notes later; edited them, added an appendix, and published the debate in book form. Walker was invited to contribute his views to the volume, but he refused, and the book appeared without them. The first edition was published at Steubenville. This book, therefore, is the forerunner of the literature of the Disciples in Ohio. A second edition of this version was published later at Pittsburgh. In 1824, Walker published his own version of the debate. A few months later, Samuel Ralston, another Presbyterian minister, published his version of the debate'in two subsequent editions. Thus three versions and five different editions of the debate finally appeared, none of them complete, nor thoroughly accurate. [3] The significant feature of the debate was the importance Campbell gave to the subject of the baptism by immersion of the penitent believer. He declared it was a New Testament ordinance having no connection with the Old Testament ceremony of circumcision, and that it was necessary for the gift of the Holy Spirit. As he talked, he enlarged on the views expressed in his famous "Sermon on the Law" given previously before the Redstone Baptist Association. This position was new to the orthodox Baptists as well as to the Presbyterians. It was a contributing factor which caused the Redstone Association to break with him, and paradoxically enough won the Mahoning Association to him. The published debate 'gave Campbell wide publicity and opened an era of religious controversy via the public discussion method. ________ 3 Robert Richardson, op. cit., II: pp. 14-35.
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Publishing the paper was an adventure in faith. It was a periodical, independent in spirit, representing the views of Alexander Campbell only. In spite of this, the magazine was a financial success, and new subscribers were added each month. In 1835, David Staats Burnet of Cincinnati republished the entire seven volumes between the covers of one large book. The Burnet volume appeared in many succeeding editions, and was more widely read than issues of the original magazine. Burnet and Campbell edited the one-volume edition, leaving out some of the more objectionable material, and making corrections in the text. The New Testament Translation The third piece of literature published by Alexander Campbell, influential especially in Ohio, was a new translation ofREBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 67 the New Testament. As a basis for the new translation, Camp- bell used the translation of the Four Gospels, published by Dr. George Campbell in Edinburgh in 1778i Dr. James MacKnight's translation of the Epistles, published first in London in 1795; and the translation of Acts and Revelation by Dr. Phillip Doddridge, first published in London in 1776. These were probably the best translations from the original Greek text available at the time. They came out together in a London publication in 1818. Campbell made some changes in the originals and included annotations of his own. Thus was produced a new and more faithful translation, and one which took advantage of Biblical criticism up to that time. It also provided a version in the vernacular of the nineteenth century. Among the orthodox, the King James text was thought to be the only true word of God. Therefore, they were suspicious of Campbell's new publication. There are cases on record of ministers who had to stand trial before ecclesiastical bodies for reading Campbell's translation or quoting from it in their pulpits. In this connection, the case of John Randolph, the Virginia statesman, is most interesting. Both Campbell and Randolph were elected delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829. Randolph represented the Virginia aristocrats on the Atlantic seaboard, and Campbell represented the common people in the western part of the state. Campbell put up a strong fight for free public schools and libraries -- a position which Randolph opposed. These two men often clashed in verbal combat in the convention hall. Though Campbell did not win his plea for free public schools, he at least presented these views in a day when a great many so-called democrats actually were upholding the ideas of a land-holding aristocracy. Campbell's stubborn opposition to the aristocrats, who were accustomed to having their own way, so provoked the wrath of Randolph that he once stood up in convention and pointing his finger at Campbell, declared, 68 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES "That man is never satisfied. God Almighty could not satisfy him with the Bible which He gave and Mr. Campbell went and wrote a Bible of his own." [4] The first edition of the new translation was published at Buffaloe, Brooke County, Virginia, in 1826. The book was arranged so that chapter headings and verse numbers did not interfere with the continuity of thought. In many respects this version of the New Testament is similar to the Revised Standard Version first published in 1946. A second edition of Campbell's Bible was published in 1828. Several more editions followed, including a pocket-sized volume, and one with the hymnal included. Campbell's chief departure from the English editions was in his refusal to use the anglicized Greek form for the word "immersion." When the word baptism was dropped in favor of the more literal term immersion, even the Baptists objected. They took it as slander toward the historic name of their denomination. When John the Baptist became John the Immerser, it tended to increase the hostility between the regular Baptists and Campbell. Campbell's translation was used enthusiastically by his followers. It became an important factor in the development of the movement. A modern critic writes of this translation, "This was unquestionably the best New Testament in use at that time, and while it was circulated for many years among the Disciples, its use was naturally confined to immersionists. [5] The Christian Hymnal Alexander Campbell thought the hymnals in popular use were not true to New Testament scholarship. He also considered________ 4 Benjamin Lyon Smith, Alexander Campbell (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1930), p. 172. 5 P. Marion Simms, The Bible in America (New York: Wilson-Erickson, Inc., 1936), p. 249. REBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 69 them sectarian in spirit. He argued, and with a great deal of merit, it was not consistent to proclaim an ecumenical Christianity and at the same time sing sectarian hymns in the worship of God. He looked upon hymns for the most part as sectarian creeds set to metre, declaring: 1. They are in toto contrary to the spirit and genius of the Christian religion. 2. They are unfit for any congregation, as but few in any one congregation can with regard to truth, apply them to themselves. 3. They are an essential part of the corrupt systems of this day, and a decisive characteristic of the grand apostasy. [6] Campbell published a hymnal in 1828 in which he endeavored to make certain corrections and alterations. so the hymns would be consistent with his principles. He called the book, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. It became known later as The Christian Hymnal. The original hymnal contained 125 selections, and a treatise on Psalmnody. It sold for 37 1/2 cents. In 1834, the works of Scott, Stone, and Johnson were added. This book turned out to be one of Campbell's most profitable publishing ventures. Several years later he gave publication rights to the American Christian Missionary Society. To the time of the Civil War, the hymnal held a large place in the literature of worship in Ohio congregations. The Stillwater Association Follows the Mahoning The practice of weekly communion is a distinctive characteristic of Disciples. It had its first real test in Ohio. Cyrus McNeeley of Cadiz, while still in his teens, applied for membership in the Beech Creek (Presbyterian) Church near his home. Because he could not honestly relate a Christian "experience”________ 6 Christian Baptist, Vol. 5, No. 5, December 3, 1827, p. 107. 70 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES the session asked him to defer membership. In the meantime, McNeeley, who sincerely wanted to become a Christian, read the first numbers of the Christian Baptist. He was so impressed with Campbell's articles on "Experimental Religion" that he made a trip to Bethany to consult the editor. Campbell no doubt was already acquainted with the McNeeley family, as he had visited them several years before when he was on a preaching mission in Ohio. The outcome of McNeeley's visit with Campbell in 1827 was that he was baptized and then decided to become a member of the Wellsburg Baptist church. When winter came, it was impossible for the young man to attend the bimonthly meetings of the church, so he transferred membership to the Cadiz Baptist Church near his home. The Cadiz church belonged to the Stillwater Baptist Association. Through McNeeley's influence, this church observed the apostolic custom of serving the Lord's Supper weekly. In due time this "heresy" came to the attention of the Stillwater Association. When a vote was taken on the issue, it was discovered the preachers for the most part were against the practice, but the laymen were for it. Inasmuch as the laymen outnumbered the preachers, McNeeley's position was upheld. Article six of the Constitution of the Stillwater Association, organized November 14, 1817, stated, "No body of people called a church, shall be admitted into this association that has not been immersed by a regular ordained minister, upon profession of faith." Cyrus McNeeley, who was not ordained at the time, violated the Constitution and instituted another "heresy" when he baptized Mrs. Nancy Smith contrary to the rules. For this act, McNeeley had to stand trial before his brethren. He was ably defended by Thomas and Alexander Campbell, and James Phillips. When a vote was taken on the issue, it was discovered the majority upheld McNeeley. Not satisfied with the way things were going, the minority group REBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 71 withdrew fellowship and formed the Zoar Baptist Association. This left the whole Stillwater Association in the hands of the reformers. The Cadiz congregation moved east to Green township near the center of its membership. In 1845 a meetinghouse was built at Hopedale. McNeeley lived in the vicinity of Hopedale the rest of his life. He was successful in establishing and maintaining one of Ohio's first normal schools at this place. Hundreds of Ohio teachers received training here in the days before the state established tax-supported teachers' colleges. McNeeley, though little recognized, has had a profound formative influence on the brotherhood of the Disciples. He was instrumental in provoking the Campbells to state their position on slavery. In instituting the weekly observance of communion and proclaiming the efficacy of baptism at the hands of laymen, he broke down the barriers between clergymen and laymen. This action became a practical demonstration of the "Priesthood of all believers." Up to quite recent times, the Disciples' clergy has been considered simply as the preaching brethren in the church. As elders of the congregation they served, they had no more 'ecclesiastical authority than laymen-elders. The Disciples have placed but little importance upon ecclesiastical ordination. Some of the earlier ministers were ordained, but more were not. Ordination has never been a qualification for the ministry, nor a test of ministerial standing. [7] As a result of McNeeley's influence on the Baptists of the Stillwater Association, this association dissolved itself in 1830. The action took place the same month as the dissolution of the Mahoning Baptist Association. ________ 7 Cyrus McNeeley's story is found in the following numbers of the Christian Standard: August 51, 1867; August 16, 1879; and, February 28, March 14, April 4, April 18, 1891. Charles Louis Loos is author of the 1891 series.
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Modern students have rightly pointed out it was Robert Owen rather than Karl Marx who was the real founder of communism. They also show that Owen's popularity and influence began its decline following the debate with Campbell. In a large way, therefore, Campbell tempered the economic as well as the religious thought of early America. Robert Owen was one of the great men of his times. He demonstrated in his father-in-law's mills at New Lanark, Scotland, that in the Industrial Revolution, low wages, long hours, and child-labor were not necessary to business success. Alexander Campbell didn't object to Owen's principles of economic cooperation so much as he did to the Godlessness of Owen's philosophy. Owen held to the sociological concept that any characteristic could be given to any community if the proper means were applied. The culture of any given community, he declared, was under human control. He thought of the community "collectively," and advocated a doctrine of humanistic philosophical determinism. Owen's system looked upon Christianity as a superstition that hampered one in the pursuit of success, truth, and happiness. In 1824, Owen purchased several thousand acres of land at New Harmony, Indiana. He put his communistic theories into practice at this place. Those who were attracted to Owen's New Harmony experiment were for the most part Deists, atheists, or free-thinkers. Though societies (or colonies) of REBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 73 this nature were common then, the New Harmony group was the only organization that was exclusively controlled by economic and social principles, rather than religious ones. [8] The New Harmony colony was designated by Alexander Campbell as, "The forces of enlightened atheism." Campbell was among the few religious thinkers of his day who applied the principles of scientific method to the study of Christianity. Armed with his Lockian empiricism, he was more than a match for his opponents who attempted to use scientific method in the cause of skepticism. An example of Campbell's logic is illustrated in an editorial conflict between himself, as editor of the Christian Baptist, and the editor of the New Harmony Gazette. A Problem for the Editor of the Harmony Gazette and His Doubting Brethren: You think that reason cannot originate the idea of an eternal first cause, or that no man could acquire such an idea by the employment of his senses and reason -- and you think correctly. You think also, that the Bible is not a supernatural revelation-not a revelation from a Deity in any sense. These things premised, gentlemen, I present my problem for ATHEISTS in the form of a query again. The Christian idea of an eternal first cause uncaused, or of a God, is now in the world and has been for ages immemorial. You say it could not enter into the world by reason, and it did not enter by revelation. Now, as you are philosophers and historians, and have all the means of knowing, how did it enter into the world? [9] In meeting Campbell, the Owenites, instead of arguing with another speculative theologian, met a man who talked their own language! A certain Dr. Underhill challenged Campbell to debate on the evidences of Christianity, but Campbell who was after bigger game, turned him down. His opportunity came when ________ 8 George B. Lockwood, The New Harmony Movement (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905), pp. 307, 308. 9 Christian Baptist, Vol. 5, No. 3, October 1, 1827, p. 57. 74 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES Owen challenged the entire clergy of New Orleans to discuss the claims of the Christian religion, and these men refused to meet him. When Campbell heard of the challenge, he took it up immediately. [10] After the two men had met at Bethany for preliminary arrangements, they set the debate for April 13-21, 1829, in the Methodist meetinghouse at Cincinnati. The discussion attracted a great deal of attention. If Campbell was not so well known at the time, at least the name of Robert Owen was a formidable one. When the debate was advertised, people came from hundreds of miles around to hear what was to be said. Owen presented his case in a series of twenty-two lectures lasting over a period of five days. He read from a previously prepared manuscript, and never deviated from his notes regardless of Campbell's attempt to draw him out. His speeches were expositions of the twelve fundamental social laws he had formulated. By April 17, he had exhausted his resources and apparently had no more to say. Campbell then went on, by public request, and gave his famous twelve-hour speech on the evidences of Christianity. In this final attempt, Campbell separated Christianity from sectarianism, presented the gospel as a series of historically related facts, claimed that man had the power of reason and will, denied that gratification of physical desires brought ultimate happiness, showed that faith sustained man in trying times, explained the futility of society without individual responsibility, and pointed out that whatever of good there was on Owen's system of philosophy came from Christianity itself. [11] The debate was conducted on a high plane with both speakers showing regard for one another's sincerity and convictions. ________ 10 Ibid., Vol. 5, No. 10, May 5, 1828, pp. 236-238. Contains Owen's challenge and reply. Campbell debated informally with Dr. Underhill in Cleveland in 1836. 11 Robert Richardson, op. cit., II: pp. 263-284. REBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 75 They became close friends from that time on, and met later on social occasions. The debate was published in book form in the United States and England. It went through several editions in this country. In many respects it was the most outstanding religious controversy ever held in Ohio. [12] The Campbell-Owen debate made Campbell's influence felt in the whole Ohio River Valley. Though the ecumenical movement crystallized first in northeastern and southwestern Ohio, the debate was instrumental in spreading the principles advocated by Campbell to other sections of the state and throughout the country. Centers of Influence Outside the Reserve In the years prior to 1830, certain centers of influence developed in addition to those in northeastern Ohio. These were in the Miami, Scioto, Hocking, and Muskingum Valleys. Though the pattern of reform was slower to assume definite structure in these places, the germ of the reformation was there. The Disciples drew from two primary sources in these regions: Baptist and New Light congregations.The work of the Disciples in Cincinnati is a good example of the reform movement in Baptist circles. The mother congregation for both Baptists and Disciples was the old Enon Baptist Church of Cincinnati. It was organized in 1821. In 1828, a colony from this church organized the Sycamore Street Baptist Church. This new group split a few months later, and. the reforming faction organized a church at Eighth and Walnut Streets. It was from this church the Disciples' fellowship in that city originated. James Challen and David Staats Burnet were the outstanding leaders. In a few years, the Cincinnati group became strong enough to challenge the leadership of Bethany. Cincinnati eventually became headquarters ________ 12 Robert Owen and Alexander Campbell, Debate on the Evidence of Christianity (Bethany: A. Campbell, 1829). 76 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES for the organized work of the Disciples and maintained that distinction for a half century. The church at Wilmington, Clinton County, developed on a similar plan. A group of Baptists started the organization in 1817. Within a few years, a minority within this group became interested in Campbell's reformation and withdrew to form a new congregation at that place in 1828. In the forma- tive years of the church, David Staats Burnet served as minister. The New Light congregation at New Antioch, organized around 1820, is another church that gave way to the Campbell reformation. At Dayton, in Montgomery County, the Baptist church, which had been organized as early as 1806, renounced its Baptist name and principles in 1829, and became a part of the new movement. The eight members who didn't approve of the change formed a new Baptist church in the community. Other churches outside the Reserve embracing the reformation prior to 1830 were: the Bethel church in Clermont County, the Jamestown church in Greene County, the Glenmont church in Holmes County, the Bell church in Knox County, the Eaton church in Preble County, the Canton church in Stark County, and the Dennis church in Knox County. Some of these were independent, rather than regular Baptist congregations. [13] The church at Minerva began under New Light influence. Preachers of the Campbell reformation were equally welcome here, and it appears that the congregation never made any distinction between the two groups. This congregation was originally organized as "The Plains" church in 1821. It started in a revival held by John Secrest. Most of the members of the congregation moved to Minerva around 1850, causing the church to localize at this place. For many years ________ 13 There were probably many more Baptist and New Light congregations that embraced the Campbell movement prior to 1830. Some of the churches mentioned above lapsed, and have no direct connection with existing churches at these places. REBELLION AGAINST ORTHODOXY 77 the Minerva church was an operation base for the Campbell movement in this section of the state. A great many important leaders among the Disciples got their start at Minerva. Among these were: William Schooley, Dr. W. A. Belding, Wesley Lanpheare, Charles L. Loos, A. Wilford Hall, Joseph Gaston, and J. H. Jones. In the early days, John Whitacre was a pillar of the church and an influential layman in the movement, It may be noted, therefore, that before the Disciples became a separate communion in 1830, the movement extended from Bethany north and west where it crystallized first. Then it followed the Ohio River Valley touching several isolated communities all the way to Cincinnati. As migration extended northward, following the rivers that empty into the Ohio, the movement seemed to follow the new frontiers. Central and northwestern Ohio were not reached until many years later. By 1830, the proclaimers of the new movement had developed a distinctive literature of their own. In the libraries of these itinerant lay-preachers were usually copies of the Campbell-Walker and Campbell-Owen debates, Campbell's New Testament and hymnal, and copies of the Christian Baptist. Armed with this literature, and zealous of obtaining converts, they stormed the citadels of the frontier. They preached, they debated, they argued, and they quoted scripture. They made many lasting friends and a host of enemies; and not a few were added to the kingdom.
[78]
Campbell's inquiry at Austintown in 1830 when the Mahoning Association dissolved itself, was indicative of his great concern. He asked at that time, "Brethren, what are you now going to do? Are you never going to meet again?" Then he answered his own query by proposing they have Yearly Meetings for preaching and fellowship. It was an attempt to keep the movement from falling apart. He ceased publication of the Christian Baptist that same year, and began to edit a new magazine called The Millennial Harbinger. Whereas before he had been a destructive critic, LEARNING THE HARD WAY 79 he now became a constructive realist. Time and again, in his new periodical and in speeches, he stressed the need of simple ecclesiastical organization, and cooperation among the churches. History has shown his fears were not unfounded. For years the, movement was torn by dissension and strife. The scars of those early battles still remain with the brotherhood. In spite of overwhelming obstacles, the movement gained momentum through the years, and became one of America's leading Protestant communions. Skirmishes With the Mormons Among the first problems encountered by Ohio Disciples was the apostasy of Sidney Rigdon to the Mormons. The Mormon episode, so far as Disciples are concerned, was peculiar to Ohio. It was never a very serious problem, but it caused more than a little concern on the Western Reserve. Historical information on Disciple-Mormon relationship is not too clear, but some significant events stand out.Had it not been for Sidney Rigdon, Mormonism would probably have never been introduced so directly to the Disciples. Rigdon was a brilliant fellow, an able preacher, but somewhat erratic and given to metaphysical speculation. He was a brother-in-law of Adamson Bentley of Warren. His three cousins, Thomas, John, and Charles Rigdon, were "reformation" preachers. Rigdon has been described as a winning speaker, one who used copious language, fluent, eloquent, enthusiastic, a nd of great personal influence. He was considered the orator of the Mahoning Association, and declared by many to be superior to Campbell as a preacher. Sidney Rigdon first met Campbell at Bethany, Virginia. On a return trip from southern Ohio where he and Adamson Bentley had been preaching, the two were invited to stay one night at the Campbell homestead. The conversation with the 80 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES Bethany reformer lasted until daylight. It centered on matters of the faith. Hayden wrote of the results of this meeting, "On parting the next day, Sidney Rigdon, with all apparent candor, said, if he had within the last year taught and promulgated from the pulpit one error he had a thousand." [1] The visitors henceforth took a different view of the Christian religion. In 1822, Campbell was instrumental in placing Rigdon as pastor of the Baptist church at Pittsburgh. It was not apparent, however, that Rigdon was leaning toward the Mormon position until 1830. When the Mahoning Association met at that time at Austintown, Rigdon showed his hand by proposing members of the various congregations follow the "scriptural" practice of having economic holdings in common. He was vigorously opposed by Campbell. [2] Following Campbell's rebuff, Rigdon is reported to have declared, "I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they get all the honor of it." [3] This may be the key to his apostasy. At any rate, subsequent events indicate Rigdon may have been in touch with Joseph Smith and the Mormons for many months. Some believe this connection went back to 1827. The Mormon episode opened at Mentor. Rigdon was preaching in this vicinity as a Disciple minister. There was a Rigdonite or quasi-Disciple congregation at Kirtland which is now thought to have been a communistic religious colony. One morning Rigdon appeared at the home of judge Clapp of Mentor, seeming to be elated by some mysterious experience, or at least motivated by a sense of mission. He had scarcely been admitted to the house when he exclaimed, "Two men came to my house last night on a curious mission!" [4] Then he explained that his two mysterious visitors had told him a ________ 1 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 19. 2 Cf. ante., pp. 60, 61. 3 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 299. 4 Ibid., p. 210. LEARNING THE HARD WAY 81 peculiar tale of the finding of certain ancient plates long buried in a hillside near Palmyra, New York. Engraved on the plates were signs or symbols in strange hieroglyphics. The judge's son Matthew, who was present, was forthright enough to declare at once, "It's all a lie!” Neither the judge, nor members of his family were influenced by the turn of events; being too well acquainted with the vagaries of Sidney Rigdon. Rigdon's two visitors were Parley P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery. Pratt had originally moved from New York State to somewhere west of Cleveland, probably in the vicinity of Amherst, in Lorain County. Sidney Rigdon, who was holding evangelistic meetings in Lorain County during the years 1827 to 1829, apparently won him over to the Reformed Baptist (later called Disciple) position. He became a preacher. Either at the instigation of Rigdon, or on his own accord, he made a trip back East in 1830 to investigate the claims of Mormonism. Here he met Hyrum Smith, brother of the "prophet," and was presented with a copy of the Book of Mormon. The Mormons declare that Pratt greatly loved and admired Rigdon under whose preaching he had been originally converted. Therefore, on returning to Ohio as a Mormon missionary, he hunted up his old friend Rigdon to present the new gospel first to him. This is supposed to be Rigdon's introduction to Mormonism. Rigdon's other mysterious visitor was Oliver Cowdery, who was reputed to be one of three original witnesses to the validity of the golden plates. It appears that Pratt and Cowdery remained a week with Rigdon, following his announcement at Mentor. He was playing "hard to convince." The following Sunday, Rigdon met an appointment to preach for the congregation at Kirtland. Hayden wrote that though speaking was never difficult f or him, on this occasion he seemed ill at ease and finally had to give up. Cowdery and Pratt then came to the pulpit and did most of the talking. That afternoon, Rigdon and his wife, as 82 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES well as several members of the Kirtland church, were baptized into the new religion. Mormon historians claim it took Rigdon seven weeks to make up his mind, and that he was baptized with others on the night of November 14, 1830. [5] Next, Rigdon made a pilgrimage to New York where he stayed with Joseph Smith about two months. Rigdon's knowledge of the Bible was a big help to Smith in formulating the principles of Mormon theology. Six of the thirteen statements in the Mormon Articles of Faith are identical with the principles taught by Walter Scott in his evangelistic crusade, 1827-1830, among the churches of the Mahoning Baptist Association. Article four, which states, "We believe the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: (I) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, (2) Repentance, (3) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, (4) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost," is a clear indication of direct appropriation of Scott’s formulary. Article six could have been written by Alexander Campbell himself: "We believe in the same organization that existed in the primitive church; viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc." Rigdon's experience as a church organizer and evangelist, together with his wide acquaintanceship on the Western Reserve, was used to advantage. Mormon sermons even to this day retain characteristic "Disciple" marks. Rigdon has often been considered as the real author of the Book of Mormon. In recent years, however, this theory has been discredited. The first critical review of the Mormon claims was written by Alexander Campbell in the Millennial Harbinger. Even at this early date, Campbell scoffed at the idea of the Book of Mormon being a translation from golden ________ 5 According to Scott's Evangelist, June 1, 1841, Mormonism was presented in Euclid before it reached Kirtland. Rigdon, with three "missionaries" from New York, attended a meeting at Euclid early in October and read from a mysterious "book." Rigdon's three friends were Pratt, Whitmar, and Peterson. LEARNING THE HARD WAY 83 plates. He considered Smith, and not Rigdon, to be the real author, a position taken in modern times by many historians. [6] In February, 1831, Smith, Rigdon, and Edward Partridge, with their families, came to Kirtland where the Mormon movement was already getting a good start. The New York Mormons were not communistic at first, but they found the Kirtland church was already a communistic "colony." It was thought that Rigdon influenced Smith to adopt this feature into the movement. It is known at least that Rigdon held these views, for prior to this he tried to present them to his brethren in the Mahoning Baptist Association. Orson Hyde, another young Disciple preacher who had formed Disciple churches in Lorain and Huron Counties, and a "Timothy" of Rigdon and the Kirtland church, embraced Mormonism about this time. Thomas Campbell was a guest in the Clapp home at Mentor in the winter of 1830-31. His daughter Alicia had recently married Matthew Clapp, the judge's son. Thomas Campbell, with the Clapps and others, furnished effective opposition to Mormonism. Campbell tried to draw Rigdon into a public discussion on the issue, but was not successful. Two Disciples, J. J. Moss and Isaac Moore, investigated the Mormons at this time. These two men pretended to be interested so they could enter the inner circle of the movement to expose its weaknesses. Moss wrote in his diary of an incident connected with the so-called angelic visitations at Kirtland which turned out disastrously for the angel. He claimed when the Mormons baptized at night, it was a common sight to see an angel walk out on the water as if to imply ________ 6 Joseph Smith described these plates as being 6" by 8" in size and about the thickness of commercial sheet tin. He said they had the appearance of gold and were bound book style with three rings, making a volume 6" thick. He declared the plates were inscribed in "reformed" Egyptian characters which he deciphered by means of looking through two transparent "peep stone" spectacles found with the plates. 84 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES divine approval. Upon examination of the locale in daylight, the investigators (Moss and Moore) found a two-inch plank fixed like a springboard just beneath the surface of the water. They sawed the plank almost in half; so the next night, when the "angel" walked on the water, the plank gave way, causing a mighty splash and a very un-angelic shriek! [7] Rigdon and Smith, with their families, moved to Hiram in 1831. Mormon historians claim they selected Hiram as a quiet place where they could work on a new translation of the Bible. It appears, however, that Smith and Rigdon planned to change their base from Kirtland to Hiram to escape the infamy connected with the Kirtland post. They were successful in Hiram for several months. Symonds Ryder, pastor of the Hiram church, was so impressed with one of Smith's prophecies and a successful faith-healing incident that he joined the group. Most of his congregation followed his example. Rigdon and Smith did not wear well with the community. Smith's convenient revelations concerning deeding farms over to him did not appeal to land-holding Hiramites. The "prophet" had one of these special revelations for the benefit of Symonds Ryder and his "call" to the Mormon Eldership. This particular incident ultimately caused the break with the Mormons in Hiram. Ryder demanded to see the manuscript on which Smith had taken down God's message. On looking it over, he discovered his name was spelled S-i-m-o-n R-i-d-e-r. He reasoned if the message were divine, God would have spelled his name correctly so he withdrew from the movement with most of his congregation following. One night a group of irate citizens "tarred and feathered" Smith and Rigdon, showing them they were no longer welcome in Hiram. The hierarchy then moved officially to Kirtland. A ________ 7 M. M. Moss (Ed.), "Autobiography of a Pioneer Preacher," Christian Standard, January 15, 1938. LEARNING THE HARD WAY 85 magnificent temple was built at this place, but owing to certain difficulties, not the least of which was a wildcat bank, the Mormons thought it expedient to migrate farther west. If the Hiramites embraced Mormonism quickly, they dropped it just as quickly. As far as is known, only the family of Oliver Snow remained in the Mormon fold. The Snows followed Smith west, and a daughter Eliza became famous as the Mormon poetess and one of the "spiritual" wives of Joseph Smith. [8] The Disciples never had any serious conflicts with the Mormons after these early skirmishes. On the death of Joseph Smith, Rigdon tried to take over leadership, but was outwitted by Brigham Young. Rigdon returned to Pittsburgh where he started his own branch of the faith. How the Disciples Propagated the Movement Because pioneer Disciples relied primarily on their own resources, with little benefit of academic training, they developed many new methods for propagating the movement. Learning to cooperate for the common good became a painful but necessary experience. It was not until 1842 that real steps were taken in this direction in Ohio, and nothing really tangible developed until the organization of the American Christian Bible Society in 1845 in the city of Cincinnati. One of the outstanding means of united work was the Yearly Meetings held in various localities, usually in the fall of the year. Another method of getting together was by protracted evangelistic meetings, or "Meetings of Days" as they were called. Protracted meetings were held in the middle of the winter after the holidays at such time as to avoid corn husking, sugar making, or cheese making. The months of January and February were usually favored. Another ________ 8 B. A. Hinsdale, op. cit., pp. 18-20. A. S. Hayden, op. cit., pp. 209-222; 249-253. F. M. Green, Hiram College and Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (Cleveland. O. S. Hubbell Ptg. Co., 1901), pp. 405-407. 86 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES popular means of getting together was through debates, usually held in the country schoolhouses. The preachers in the movement were generally farmers for the most part, though some schoolteachers, doctors, and businessmen were numbered among them. These self-appointed home missionaries were free-lances who didn't need to depend upon their preaching for a livelihood. Most of them were good, sincere persons, though there were a few rascals among them whom Campbell dared to expose in the columns of the Harbinger. The pioneer preachers did not always have an easy time of it, though they seemed to enjoy opposition. In describing some of these difficulties, Walter Scott wrote: In one place where I was baptizing, just as I raised the baptized person up out of the water, I saw a great stick hanging or rather shaking over my head. On another occasion I was interrupted by a person with a sword cane -- at one place they set loose my mare in the night, and at Noblestown in the midst of six Presbyterian congregations the sectarian population cut off all the hair from her tai... [9] With few exceptions, these early preachers went where they pleased, and generally were welcomed by friend and foe. Frontier society enjoyed the diversion they provided from the humdrum routine of life. In presenting the plea to a new community they generally worked on a standard pattern. An account of their method of approach was given in the Presbyterian of Philadelphia, primarily as a warning to the orthodox. Campbell reprinted the article in the Harbinger. It gives a picture, from the viewpoint of outsiders, of early Disciple missionary work. ________ 9 Christian Baptist, Vol. 7, No. 12, July 5, 1930, p. 271. LEARNING THE HARD WAY 87 no one suspects the contrary. He professes great liberality of sentiment towards other denominations, preaches so as to please all, and appears full of zeal. After a little he announces that on such a day he will preach a sermon on Christian Union. At the appointed time he portrays in glaring colors the evils of sectarianism, and traces them all to creeds and confessions. He then proposes a plan in which all can unite.... [10] Though these missionaries (called evangelists) were not always successful, they usually gained a few followers. If half a dozen or so persons were interested, a church was formed. They didn't worry about the lack of a building or the need of a pastor because they had confidence in themselves and in lay-preaching. In fact, they were inclined to be suspicious of the professional clergy. As the Lord's Supper was observed regularly, this was the focal point of the worship service. Preaching was necessary only as a means of bringing others to their viewpoint. It was available at Yearly Meetings or when an itinerant preacher visited them. They met in homes and schoolhouses, and sometimes in borrowed meetinghouses. Organizations thus formed had a high mortality rate. Most of them lapsed, but some lived on to become substantial congregations. F. M. Green, in writing of these early preachers, made the statement, "It was not an uncommon thing for the preacher to enter the pulpit wearing cowhide shoes or boots, and if the weather was warm to lay aside his coat." He further declared) "These plain men could quote more scripture than any of the educated orthodox preachers of the time." [11] Jasper J. Moss, mentioned in connection with the Mormon discussion, was one of the popular preachers. He was such a hard-hitting speaker he was often called "Rasping Wasp." Moss taught school in the winter and preached in the vacation months. An interesting incident occurred at Minerva when he ________ 10 Millennial Harbinger, 1833, p. 227. 11 Christian Century, December 17, 1903. 88 BUCKEYE DISCIPLES was holding a meeting there. He was young at the time, and had a few chin whiskers trimmed in goatee fashion. Rasping and sarcastic, he bore down on the eldership of the church. He declared, "One half of our elders can't tell a sheep from a goat! " In a shrill voice, the venerable John Whitacre who was sitting near the front called out, "I can!" "How?" inquired Moss. "By the beard, sir," answered Whitacre. It was reported this apt reply brought down the house and for once in his life Moss was beaten. It was impossible for him to recover, and the congregation was dismissed. The Methodists were once holding a camp meeting near Wadsworth. Their evangelist was known far and wide as a "Campbellite Killer." He wrote a song and set it to a popular tune. It was sung with vigor and enthusiasm by his brethren. The lines ran: Here is the gospel of the water. Here's the ancient gospel way, Here's the road to endless day, Here begins the reign of heaven, Here your sins shall be forgiven; Every mother, son and daughter, Here's the gospel of the water. A. B. Green, a Disciple preacher who lived near by, wrote a response by way of another stanza. Here's the gospel of the bench, Here's the modern gospel way, Here's the road to endless day; Here begins the reign of heaven, Here your sins shall be forgiven; Every white man, squaw and wench Here's the gospel of the bench. [12] ________ 12 Alanson Wilcox, op. cit., p. 43. LEARNING THE HARD WAY 89 No doubt both versions were sung on many occasions. This was the sort of thing especially relished on the Ohio frontier. Some interesting local debates were held in the early years of the movement. In 1830, Marshall Wilcox, a Disciple, met Thomas Graham (Methodist) at Middlebury (now east Akron). Wilcox was a common laboring man and Graham a trained minister. Graham tried to impress his audience and add weight to his arguments by quoting scripture in Hebrew and Greek. He even jibed his opponent about his humble scholastic attainments. Wilcox replied, "I am a mechanic. I claim to be nothing above a common laboring man-an honest cooper (barrel maker).... if my opponent s wells much more I may have to hoop him!" This remark captivated the audience and shouts of "Hoop him, Wilcox, hoop him!" came from all over the hall. [13] That same year, James Porter (Disciple) debated James Gilbreath (Methodist) in Eden township, Licking County. The affair took place in a log barn belonging to Jesse Oldacre. The debate provoked interest, and as a result the church grew in numbers. Field Notes In his new periodical, Campbell gave more space to field notes than in the Christian Baptist. These reports constitute much of the reliable source of information on the growth and status of the movement in various Ohio communities. Features that stand out are: large audiences in attendance at Yearly Meetings and Meetings of Days; the numbers of accessions to the churches; the lay-leadership that developed within the movement; reliance on the printed word in periodicals and books as the ultimate in ecclesiastical authority; genuine fear of even a simple democratic form of ecclesiastical organization;________ 13 A. S. Hayden, op. cit., p. 357. |
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