I used to take my little children on my knee, and look upon them as they played in harmless innocence about me, and wonder which of them was to be finally and forever lost! It cannot be that God has been so good to me as to elect all my children! No, no! I am myself a miracle of mercy, and it cannot be that God has been kinder to me than to all other parents. Some of these must be of the non-elect, and will be finally banished from God and all good. And now, if I only knew which of my children were to dwell in everlasting burnings, oh! how kind and tender would I be to them, knowing that all the comfort they would ever experience would be here in this world! [10]

Rigdon would soon join his brother-in-law in the refutation of predestinationist doctrines, and his refusal to teach them would, within a few years, propel him out of the Regular Baptist orbit.

In 1820 Bentley and Rigdon discovered a pamphlet recording the text of Alexander Campbell's debate with John Walker. Both men were so impressed with Campbell's thoughts that, in the summer of 1821, they traveled eighty-five miles to Buffaloe (Bethany), Virginia, just to talk with him. Fascinated with what Campbell had to say, the men conversed with him from evening until the next morning. As they were leaving the next day, Rigdon candidly confessed to Campbell his realization that, if he had taught one error from the pulpit within the last year, he had taught a thousand! Campbell later observed, "At that time he [Rigdon] was the great orator of the Mahoning Association -- though in authority with the people, second always to Adamson Bentley." [11]

While both Campbells advocated the twin goals of restoration and unity, Sidney Rigdon was probably much more of a restorationist than an ecumenist. His personality tended more toward legalism and rigidity than tolerance and compromise. His energy seemed limitless, his ambition high, his preaching dynamic, and his demeanor sometimes pugilistic. "The restoration of Christ's true religion as revealed in the New Testament," wrote McKiernan, "became a compulsive, consuming passion, which led Rigdon to follow solely the dictates of his own religious understanding and to scorn all other viewpoints." [12]

Nonetheless apparently Campbell was soon impressed with Rigdon. The "Sage of Bethany" had roots and influence in the Pittsburgh area, and in 1822 he induced Sidney to accept a call to a growing Baptist congregation there that was "favorable to reformation." [13] In less than a year Rigdon built the church into the largest congregation in the city and gained a reputation as one of Pittsburgh's most eloquent preachers.14 While Rigdon was ministering to his church, Alexander Campbell introduced him to a man with whom he would eventually become friends and, five years later, set the Western Reserve on fire evangelistically. This man was Walter Scott.

The feelings of admiration between Alexander Campbell and Sidney Rigdon must have been mutual, for in October of 1823 Rigdon accompanied Campbell for three hundred miles on horseback to his debate with William L. MacCalla in Washington, Kentucky. Earlier that summer Campbell had narrowly averted being evicted by the Redstone Association on charges of Baptist heresy by forming the new church in Wellsburg, Virginia, and joining it with the Mahoning Association. Still somewhat frustrated and angry, Campbell's Redstone enemies transferred their hostility toward some of his colleagues in the reformation. Since Rigdon's church at Pittsburgh was still a member of the Redstone Association, they went after him, even though he had built up his church to be "one of the most respectable and popular churches in the city of Pittsburgh." [15]

Sources differ as to how and when Rigdon left the church. According to the Baptist version, Rigdon was excommunicated for "doctrinal heresies" by a council of ministers and messengers held in Pittsburgh on October 11, 1823.16 But according to Rigdon's own personal account, Rigdon resigned in August of 1824. [17] A small opposition group of twelve to twenty people -- led by a man named Winter who apparently later divided some other churches -- had begun as early as 1822 in Rigdon's own church, and it may be that Rigdon's supporters of some seventy or eighty people, and Winter's group, ended up trying to disfellowship each other. [18] Whatever really happened, Rigdon himself painted a rather rosy and sympathetic picture of himself writing in the third person years later:

Truth was his pursuit, and for truth he was prepared to make every sacrifice in his power. After mature deliberation, deep reflection, and solemn prayer to his heavenly Father, the resolve was made, and the important step was taken; and in the month of August, AD 1824 after laboring among the people two years and six months, he made known his determination to withdraw from the church as he could no longer uphold the doctrines taught and maintained by it (Baptist Church). This announcement was like a clap of thunder -- amazement seized the congregation... which at last gave way in a flood of tears. It would be in vain to attempt to describe the feelings of the church on that occasion, who were zealously attached to their beloved pastor, or the feelings of their minister. On his part it was indeed a struggle of principle over affection and kindness. [19]

In February of 1825 Alexander Campbell began a series of thirty-two articles entitled "A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things," which ran from February 7, 1825, through July 20, 1829, in the Christian Baptist. In these articles Campbell further defined the organization and practices of his "Reformed Baptist" Movement. Rigdon, enamored by the restorationist theme, became an enthusiastic herald of these principles. With his lucid and dramatic eloquence, he frequently spoke to gatherings so large that those furthest from him could not hear him. [20]

Late in the fall of 1825 Rigdon was invited to become the minister of a Bainbridge, Ohio, congregation in the Western Reserve area. During his six-month ministry there, Sidney served as a circuit-riding preacher, speaking once a month at Mantua center in Portage county. Then, in June of 1826, Rigdon was invited to preach the funeral service of Reverend Warner Goodall, the minister of the Mentor Baptist Church located thirty miles from Bainbridge. The congregation there was so impressed with him that they extended an invitation for him to become their new minister. While serving at Mentor, Rigdon continued to preach at Mantua once a month.

Rigdon's renown and influence spread rapidly. He came to be regarded as "a brilliant fellow," though "somewhat erratic and given to metaphysical speculation," but nonetheless "fluent, eloquent, enthusiastic, and of great personal influence." Many even came to regard him as the greatest orator of the Mahoning Association, even "superior to Campbell as a preacher." [21]

His fame as an orator and deep reasoner in the scriptures continued to spread far and wide and he soon gained a popularity and an elevation which has fallen to the lot of but few; consequently thousands flocked to hear his eloquent discourses.

When it was known where he was going to preach, there might be seen long before the appointed time, persons of all classes, sects, and denominations, flocking like doves to their windows, from a considerable distance...

The churches in the different places where he preached were now no longer large enough to contain the vast assemblies which congregated from time to time, so that he had to repair to the widespread canopy of heaven, and in the woods and in the groves he addressed the multitudes which flocked to hear him. [22]

RIGDON SEPARATES FROM THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

In 1827 probaby the most significant meeting in the history of the Mahoning Association took place. The subject of most strategic importance was Alexander Campbell's recommendation that a full-time evangelist be employed by the association to evangelize the Western Reserve. Campbell came to the meeting with a nomination for the position already in mind -- Walter Scott! Whether or not Rigdon was surprised or offended by his oversight will be discussed later. But as to why he was not chosen, there may be several considerations. Scott's education certainly exceeded Rigdon's, at least on a formal level. Also, Rigdon was presently involved in some significant ministries already. But another possibility must be considered. Many of Rigdon's colleagues seemed to harbor a degree of mistrust concerning him. Robert
Richardson observed:

Captivating as a public speaker by his fluency and his exuberant fancy, he had depended upon these superficial endowments for popularity and success. In private he had been found petulant, unreliable and ungovernable in his passions, and his wayward temper, his extravagant stories and his habit of self-assertion had prevented him from obtaining influence as a religious teacher among the disciples. [23]

It must be noted, of course, that Richardson wrote this after Rigdon had joined the Mormons. He therefore had motive to denigrate him, though others made similar statements. But whatever may be said of Rigdon, it cannot be seriously doubted that he was completely committed to the cause of restorationism. More than once in his life he would sacrifice a more secure occupational and financial position to follow what he believed to be the path of restoring the "true church" of Jesus Christ.

From 1827 to 1830 Rigdon, now one of the most prominent ministers in Campbell's Restoration Movement, was very successful, but he nonetheless seemed restless. He was a very popular preacher, but emotionally unstable. Both Alexander Campbell and, later on, Joseph Smith made comments acknowledging this to be true, as did others. Fawn Brodie recognized both his successes and his eccentricities when she wrote:

For several years past, Rigdon had been the most successful revivalist on the Western Reserve. He was "gifted with very fine powers of the mind," wrote a fellow preacher, "an imagination at once fertile, glowing and wild to extravagance, with temperament tinged with sadness and bordering on credulity." He was emotional and humorless, and subject to fits of melancholy and "nervous spasms and swoonings" that he attributed to the Holy Ghost. [24]

An entry in the Latter Day Saints periodical entitled Times and Seasons articulately described the polarity of Rigdon's moods as "always either in the bottom of the cellar or up in the garret window." [25] F. Mark McKiernan interpreted this allusion to mean that "he was usually ecstatically enthusiastic about something or totally depressed with the situation in which he found himself." [26] In the now famous Braden-Kelley Debate of 1884 between the Disciples and Reorganized Mormons, Clark Braden also recognized his instabilities:

As [a] Baptist and Disciple preacher he was noted for his spread eagle eloquence and ability to get up revival excitements. He had been hurt in youth and it left him with a tendency to epileptic spells. He would often while preaching, especially in revival excitements, have such spells and see visions and swoon, have trances, etc. This tendency caused his preaching to be wild, visionary and extravagant.... His preaching attracted the visionary and fanatical. [27]

Some have suggested that Rigdon's disillusionment with Campbell's movement began in 1827 when Walter Scott was chosen to be the evangelist of the Mahoning Association. Apparently thwarted in his hopes for recognition and influence, Rigdon, they contend, became somewhat disgruntled and reclusive. Isaac Errett, editor of The Christian Standard, later recalled:

In the year 1827, however, Walter Scott received an appointment from the Mahoning Association, which for the time seemed to bar the way to the gratification of Mr. Rigdon's ambition, and he left, nothing much being heard of him beyond the village of Mentor, and a few other points on the Western Reserve, until the year 1830, when he appeared as the front speaker and ablest defender of Joseph Smith and Mormonism. [28]

While this could have been Rigdon's first cause, there is good reason to be skeptical of this conclusion, or at least the gravity placed upon it. First of all, it must be considered that Errett and other "Campbellites" had motive to denigrate Rigdon as a sort of Benedict Arnold of the Movement. Second, in March of 1828, Rigdon implored and convinced Scott to lead a revival in his own church at Mentor, which would probably not be the act of a jealous or resentful person. Third, one should remember that it was Rigdon himself who, at the next annual meeting of the Mahoning Association in August of 1828, renominated Scott to continue in the same post for the next year. And finally, an examination of Rigdon's itinerary of travels and activities from 1827 to 1830 does not seem to substantiate Errett's charge of a three-year exclusivity. [29]

Whether or not Rigdon struggled with frustrated personal ambitions, the more identifiable reasons for his growing discomfort in, and eventual exodus from, the Disciples movement are rooted in their different perspectives of restorationism. One could easily argue that Campbell and Rigdon clashed on the interpretation and degree of restoration particulars. Campbell, who was still concerned with the unity motive, attempted to maintain a distinction between the basic mandated essentials and nonessential opinions which should not be the cause of division. Rigdon, on the other hand, "wanted to incorporate into Campbell's restoration every belief or practice which was a part of the New Testament church." [30] As Paul Conkin expressed it, Rigdon "thirsted for too much restoration for Alexander Campbell," [31] even to the exclusion of a union motive.

"Clearly the most fanatical and literal-minded of the Disciples of Christ," according to Fawn Brodie, "Rigdon was obsessed with prophecies of Armageddon and was convinced his generation was doomed long before he met the Mormon prophet." [32] Alexander Campbell charged that "He became a flaming literalist of the school of Elias [Smith], a millennarian of the first water." [33]

If Rigdon was primarily concerned with material success or fame, he could have remained in the Baptist or Disciple fellowship and done well for himself. The people at Mentor were even going to provide him a house in which to live. His son Wickliffe mused later on, "The honors of the world was [sic] within his grasp, and had he continued on in the way he was going his name would have gone down to posterity as one of the great Baptists of the age in which he lived." [34] However, Rigdon was wholly committed to the complete restoration of all things connected with the NT church, but he did not agree with Campbell on what should be restored. Their main areas of impasse were three: (1) divine authorization for church leadership, (2) the re-emergence of the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, (3) the communal koinonia in which they "had all things in common" (Acts 2:44).

The concern for divine authority to validate one's ministry as blessed by God was not unique to Rigdon. Others, like Parley Pratt, would be attracted to Mormonism for this same reason. John Rogers, a Disciple minister, often struggled with doubts about his rightful authority to preach. [35] Samuel Rogers, his older brother, also confessed to such misgivings after Barton Stone had convinced him to minister:

I was greatly troubled about my call. I contended that if I was called, as were the apostles, I ought to have their credentials and be able to prove my apostleship. I attempted to draw from dreams and visions and vague impressions, some superhuman aid.... I thought I ought to perform miracles. My mind was often in a wretched state. About this time I got the "Christian Baptist," and found relief.... Stone had given me the book, but Campbell taught me how to read it in its connection. [36]

Rigdon was never blessed with such a cathartic resolution, and he continued to question his own authority until he met Joseph Smith.

In regard to his second area of conflict with Alexander Campbell, Rigdon's personal turmoil involving the restoration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit was enhanced by Campbell's denial of their validity in the modern day. Rigdon had come to believe that a truly "authorized" minister of God should be able to perform some or all of the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12, including such supernatural acts as faith healing, miracles, prophecy, and speaking in tongues. Richardson even implied that Rigdon engaged in some covert subterfuge to promote his cause: "He sought especially in private to convince certain influential persons that, along with the primitive gospel, supernatural gifts and miracles ought to be restored." [37]

In the early part of the nineteenth century much of New England, and especially the "burned-over district" of New York, had been engulfed by "religious enthusiasm." Methodists, Shakers, Quakers, and others had spread this kind of emotional revivalism to the Western Reserve area as well. Some earlier Puritans had warned their contemporaries that "when the emotions are stressed at the expense of reason, 'it can't be but People should run into Disorders.'" [38] Charles Finney lamented a reaction against so much revival excitement that resulted in many people concluding that religion was a delusion. [39]

Campbell, of course, did not consider religion or Christianity to be a "delusion." But he did apply the term to experiential religion, or what he also referred to as "experimental religion." Reflecting his philosophical roots in Enlightenment reason, he affirmed the existence of miracles in "Biblical times," but repudiated current miracles and supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Such beliefs he attributed to the gullibility of ignorance. [40] Instead, he advocated that "Since those gifts [of the Spirit] have ceased, the Holy Spirit now operates upon the minds of men only by the word [i.e. the Bible]." [41] In a diatribe against the growing emphasis upon experientialism, Campbell expressed his regrets about what he considered to be some misguided fanaticism:

We must occasionally notice the fanaticism of this age on the subject of mystic impulses; for, in our humble opinion, the constant proclamation of "the Holy Ghost" of the schoolmen, and all its influences, is the greatest delusion of this our age, and one of the most prolific causes of the infidelity, immorality, and irreligion of our contemporaries. [42]

In The Christian Baptist Campbell printed some essays concerning "Experimental Religion." In a few of them he had to clarify his position, responding to critics who interpreted him to be denying the legitimacy of any Christian experience at all. Both he and his father Thomas had always regarded such experiences as valid evidence of sincerity and commitment. However, they objected to the use of these experiences "as substitutes for that assurance which is derived from the word of God -- that simple trust in Jesus which the Gospel requires," because "feelings in religious experience are deceptive." [43]

Campbell's stance either initiated or exacerbated his theological rift with Rigdon. Years later Rigdon responded to Campbell's views using one of Campbell's own phrases as the title of his article:

The ancient order of things has engrossed the attention of the religious public to some extent in modern times, and has given rise to many parties and sects in the so called christian world; each one in their turn supposing that they had the ancient order of things among them, and had come to the standard of righteousness set up in the scriptures, and representing other religious denominations as having come short of the glory of God, and as not having come to the standard of truth, or else they had departed from it.

Men may invent order after order, and scheme after scheme, but as long as their order or orders of things do not consist in having apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, gifts, healings, miracles, divers kinds of tongues, the interpretation of tongues, etc. their order is adverse to the order of heaven, and is not the ancient order of things as revealed in the scriptures. [44]

In a response to a letter from Olian Barr, who carried on a correspondence with Rigdon in which he politely defended the position of Campbell and questioned Rigdon's stance on numerous issues, Sidney boldly asserted, "I argue that there can be no Church of Christ unless they can prove themselves to be so by miracles, and... that there can be no apostles unless they can prove their mission by miracles." [45]

Yet the straw that broke the camel's back, precipitating the actual breach between Rigdon and Campbell, centered around Rigdon's belief that true "New Testament Pattern" churches should practice communalism. Rigdon had occasional contact with the Shakers [46] and admired their communal societies. He had informally but frequently begun to advocate a "common stock system" to those in his geographical area of influence. Alexander Campbell, as early as 1825, had responded to a proposal for a communitarian society by asserting that, not only was such an idea a biblical "non-essential" but also its practice was confined solely to the New Testament church at Jerusalem. [47] Campbell's debate with communal utopian socialist Robert Owen in 1829 probably brought the issue to the forefront of Rigdon's mind again.

At Austintown, Ohio, in August of 1830, the Mahoning Association met for one last time, the intended purpose of the meeting to be to dissolve itself as a body. It was there that a head-to-head confrontation occurred between Rigdon and Campbell. Rigdon took the opportunity to expound upon the text of Acts 2:45 and openly advocate a communitarian society. Campbell, who was present, took public issue with him, contending that this unique verse was peculiar to one particular situation and was not meant to be a universal practice. Besides, Campbell believed such a system would encourage laziness and freeloading.

Their disagreement may also have been influenced by their own personal economic situations at the time. Alexander Campbell was one of the wealthiest men in western Virginia, [48] having made his farm very productive, whereas Rigdon still struggled financially. Quite naturally Campbell would not be very eager to dissipate his small fortune. Also, Campbell had grown suspicious of Rigdon's reasons for some of his recent proposals. In 1876, Isaac Errett wrote:

Mr. Campbell, however, never fully gave him his confidence, but looked on him as a man of restless ambition who sought to conceal his real motives under an affected zeal for reformation. Mr. C. several times told us that he never could feel that Mr. Rigdon was frank and candid with him, as a co-worker ought to be. [49]

Rigdon was embarrassed and embittered after the meeting, believing that the "Campbellite" group was willing to go only part way in its stated purpose of restoring the ancient order. On his journey back to Mentor, he stopped in Warren to complain to a friend, "I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they get all the honor of it!" [50] A.S. Hayden, one of his coworkers in the Disciples Movement, summarized the situation, saying, "The discomfiture he experienced at the hands of Mr. Campbell at Austintown, when seeking to introduce his common property scheme, turned him away mortified, chagrined, and alienated." [51]

Because the other Disciple churches followed Campbell in his view about communalism, Rigdon supposedly removed his Mentor church from fellowship with them in early 1830. [52] He proceeded to organize a "common stock" community in February of 1830, located on Isaac Morley's large farm near Kirtland just three miles from Mentor. [53] A small minority of the Mentor congregation joined the effort, but most did not participate, fearing a loss of their farms and businesses. [54] Rigdon also convinced Lyman Wight to join eight other families in the collective experiment at Kirtland, and Wight converted five more families to start a second commune at Mayfield, about seven miles up river from Kirtland. [55] By October the group at Kirtland numbered around one hundred, all "looking for some wonderful event to take place" soon that would usher in the Millennium. [56]

RIGDON EMBRACES MORMONISM

In the fall of 1830 Rigdon also was anticipating the onset of the millennium. Fellow minister A.S. Hayden observed that he "was travailing with expectancy of some great event soon to be revealed to the surprise and astonishment of mankind." [57] In April of 1873 a man named Darwin Atwater wrote to Hayden recalling the events of 1830: "Sidney Rigdon preached for us, and notwithstanding his extravagantly wild freaks, he was held in high repute by many. For a few months before his professed conversion to Mormonism, it was noticed that his wild, extravagant propensities had been more marked." [58]

During the previous year in 1829, Rigdon had converted Parley Pratt while on a preaching tour about thirty miles west of Cleveland. [59] Pratt -- a farmer, a teacher, and apparently even a tin peddler -- had been a member of the Regular Baptist Church because he believed it to be the closest to the truth. [60] Yet, he still was dissatisfied. Upon hearing Rigdon's testimony, he exulted, "Here was the ancient gospel in due form. Here were the very principles which I had discovered years before; but could find no one to minister in." [61]

Pratt decided that he would also enter the ministry. By the summer of 1830 he had sold his farm and headed back to his original home in New York state to preach. [62] Yet his mind was still perturbed by the incessant question regarding the modern-day origin of apostolic authority and power:

But still one great link was wanting to complete the chain of the ancient order of things; and that was, the authority to minister in holy things -- the apostleship, the power which should accompany the form. This thought occurred to me as soon as I heard Mr. Rigdon make proclamation of the gospel. Peter proclaimed this gospel, and baptized for remission of sins, and promised the gift of the Holy Ghost, because he was commissioned so to do by a crucified and risen Saviour. But who is Mr. Rigdon? Who is Mr. Campbell? Who commissioned them? [63]

It was at Newark, near Buffalo, that Pratt first encountered The Book of Mormon and the claims of Joseph Smith. Convinced that he finally had come across the "full truth," Pratt was baptized into the Mormon faith and anxiously desired to return to his family and friends to tell his story. [64] Rigdon, naturally, was one of them -- not only because they were friends, but because he was a man of influence and eloquence.

In early October, 1830, Joseph Smith commissioned four men -- Parley Pratt, Ziba Peterson, Oliver Cowdery, and Peter Whitmer -- as missionaries to the Indians ["Lamanites"] west of the Missouri river. Leaving Palmyra around October 15 with copies of The Book of Mormon, these men arrived at the home of Sidney Rigdon sometime in late October. [65]

Presenting themselves as emissaries of a latter-day prophet, a truly restored church, and a companion book to the Bible, "They professed to be special messengers of the Living God, sent to preach the Gospel in its purity, as it was anciently preached by the Apostles." [66] Rigdon's immediate reaction was to doubt their supernatural claims about the youthful Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. When the representatives attempted to debate their assertion, Rigdon stifled their efforts, saying, "No, young gentlemen, you must not argue with me on this subject; but I will read the book, and see what claims it has upon my faith, and will endeavor to ascertain whether it be a revelation from God or not." [67]

When the visitors requested the opportunity to address Rigdon's congregation, however, Sidney either "readily consented," as Joseph Smith claimed, or condescended. Whatever his deportment, once Oliver Cowdery and Parley Pratt had finished, Rigdon arose and cautioned his flock:

that the information they had that evening received was of an extraordinary character, and certainly demanded their most serious consideration; and as the Apostle advised his brethren to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good," so he would exhort his brethren to do likewise, and give the matter a careful investigation, and not turn against it without being fully convinced of its being an imposition, lest they should, possibly, resist the truth. [68]

The following Wednesday the visitors held a meeting at the Methodist meeting house in town. They read excerpts from The Book of Mormon and exhorted those in attendance to be re-baptized for remission of their sins because their first baptism "was of no avail, for there was no legal administrator, neither had there been for fourteen hundred years, until God had called them to the office." [69] That evening seventeen people were reimmersed by Oliver Cowdery. When Rigdon learned of it, he was, at first, incensed, charging "that what they had done was entirely without precedent in the holy scriptures -- for they had immersed those persons that they might work miracles." He then demanded proof for their book and their mission, to which they responded that they prayed for a sign and an angel gave them one. Rigdon concluded the discussion by warning them of Satan's deceptions. [70]

In the meantime, Rigdon had been studying The Book of Mormon on his own for two weeks. His son Wickliffe later described the intensity of his scrutiny by saying, "He got so engaged in it that it was hard for him to quit long enough to eat his meals. He read it both day and night." [71] Two days after his confrontation with the men, Rigdon decided to "tempt" God for a sign, and he received one. This convinced him of the truth of Mormonism and, recognizing the new course that was before him, he asked his wife Phoebe, "My dear, you have followed me once into poverty, [sic] are you willing to do the same again?" She responded "I have counted the cost, and I am perfectly satisfied to follow you; it is my desire to do the will of God, come life or come death." [72] She and Sidney were baptized the following Monday, November 14, 1830, by Oliver Cowdery. [73]

Alexander Campbell was mortified when he heard the news. When informed of Rigdon's vision of an angel, he scoffed, "He who sets out to find signs and omens will soon find enough of them. He that expects visits from angels will find them as abundant as he who in the age of witchcraft found a witch in every unseemly old woman." [74] The Mentor congregation refused to let the Rigdons move into the new house they had built for them and declined to have anything more to do with them. So Sidney moved his family and few belongings to live with some recently baptized Mormons at Hiram, a community about two and a half miles from Kirtland. [75]

Smith, who was then twenty-four, had received a new vision from God for the thirty-seven-year-old pilgrim:

Behold, verily, verily I say unto my servant Sidney, I have looked upon thee and thy works. I have heard thy prayers and prepared thee for a greater work.

Thou art blessed, for thou shalt do great things. Behold, thou wast sent forth even as John, to prepare the way before me, and before Elijah which should come, and thou knew it not.

Thou didst baptize by water unto repentance, but they received not the Holy Ghost; but now I give unto thee a commandment, that thou shalt baptize by water, and they shall receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, even as the apostles of old. [76]

Rigdon remained with Smith through most of January. During his absence, though, the doctrine of restored power to do miracles preached by "the Lamanite missionaries" generated excitement and anticipation among the new converts. In their enthusiasm to witness or perform miracles, young Mormons began engaging in "outrageous behavior." Bizarre and fanatical scenes ensued in the name of the Holy Spirit. Anti-Mormon Eber D. Howe reported that "young men are seen running over the hills in pursuit, they say, of balls of fire which they see flying through the air." [77] John Whitmer, commissioned by God in a revelation to "write and keep a regular history" of the Mormon church, [78] wrote: "Some would fancy to themselves that they had the sword of Laban, and would wield it as expert as a light dragon; some would act like an Indian in the act of scalping; some would slide or scoot on the floor with the rapidity of a serpent, which they termed sailing in the boat of the Lamanites, preaching the gospel." [79] Others claimed they witnessed letters written by angels falling like snowflakes from Heaven. [80] And still others propagated wondrous ideas which included that many of them would never die if they had adequate faith, or that the ten lost tribes of Israel had recently been discovered frozen in the ice at the North Pole, and that they would soon (when the ice melted) come with huge amounts of gold and silver. [81]

It was now time to get to the task of building up the "stake" [82] in Kirtland. Back in January David Whitmer had announced in Kirtland that it was to be the eastern border of "the Promised Land," with the western border being the Pacific Ocean, [83] an idea that foreshadowed the "Manifest Destiny" spirit of America in the next decade. Rigdon, now freed of the restraining hand of Campbell and the Disciples, proceeded on to pursue "the fullness of the Gospel" as he interpreted it. Later he gratefully rejoiced, "One thing has been done by the coming forth of the book of Mormon; it has puked the Campbellites effectually; no emetic could do half so well." [84]

RESTORATION LEADERS RESPOND

Since Rigdon had renounced his former affiliation with the Disciples, he now felt free to unburden himself regarding his doubts and unsettled state of mind while he was with them. Walter Scott, who worked closely with Rigdon since 1827, printed a letter claiming that Rigdon, "like a true wolf in sheep's clothing," had confessed in a schoolhouse meeting "that for two years past his preaching had been of no use to us; it was more to please our fancy and tickle our ears, than to affect our hearts." [85] Alexander Campbell seemed to be at a loss at this renunciation, perhaps recalling almost ten years earlier when Rigdon had so rejoiced at finally discovering "the true Gospel." Campbell repined:

It was with mingled emotions of regret and surprise that we have learned that Sidney Rigdon has renounced the ancient gospel, and declared that he was not sincere in his profession of it.... His instability I was induced to ascribe to a peculiar mental and corporeal malady, to which he has been subject for some years. Fits of melancholy succeeded by fits of enthusiasm accompanied by some kind of nervous spasms and swoonings which he has, since his defection, interpreted into the agency of the Holy Spirit, or the recovery of spiritual gifts, produced a versatility in his genius and deportment which has been increasing for some time. I was willing to have ascribed his apostacy [sic] to this cause... had he not declared that he was hypocritical in his profession of the faith which he has for some time proclaimed. Perhaps this profession of hypocrisy may be attributed to the same cause. This is the only hope I have in his case. [86]

A.S. Hayden agreed that Rigdon had been "an enthusiast and unstable"; but he made an attempt, at least, to be fair, saying, "Whatever may be justly said of him after he had surrendered himself a victim and a leader of the Mormon delusion, it would scarcely be just to deny sincerity and candor to him." [87] Thomas Campbell, not willing to give up so easily -- or perhaps hoping to stunt Rigdon's future influence upon others -- accepted Rigdon's open challenge for anyone to debate him. Mailing Rigdon a lengthy letter previewing the positions he would defend, Thomas was generally courteous in tone. However, when Rigdon arrived at one line that portrayed the verbal combatants as Thomas Campbell saw them -- "You, as a professed disciple and public teacher of the infernal book of Mormon; and I as a professed disciple and public teacher of the supernal book of the Old and New Testaments of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" -- he quit reading and threw the letter into the fire. Campbell tried to explain publicly that by "infernal" he did not mean "from Hell," but rather "dug up from the ground," as were the Golden Tablets. [88]

The disclaimer was of no avail. Rigdon's break with the Campbell Restoration Movement was now complete!

1. Henry Webb, In Search of Christian Unity (Cincinnati: Standard, 1990) 142, erroneously lists his birth date as 1795. Sidney's son, John W. Rigdon, "Lecture on the Early Mormon Church," Sept. 20, 1883 (Provo, UT: Special Collections, Lee Library, Brigham Young University) 2, mistakenly lists the county as Washington County.

2. John W. Rigdon, "Lecture," 2-3.

3. See Harmon Sumner's statement in J.H. Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism (London: Reeves and Turner, 1888) 64; also cited in Richard S. Van Wagoner, Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994) 8.

4. Hans Rollman, "The Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon in Warren, Ohio," Brigham Young University Studies 21 (1981) 43.

5. F. Mark McKiernan, The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness: Sidney Rigdon, Religious Reformer (Lawrence, KS: Coronado, 1971) 15, says that Sidney's mother Nancy sold it, but Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 9, claims that Sidney left it to his brother Carvel's oversight.

6. A distinction was made between "licensed" and "ordained" pastors, with the former being allowed to preach but not administer the sacraments. See William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier: The Baptists 1783–1830 (New York: Henry Holt, 1931) 40. See also Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 10.

7. Most historians of the subject have supported the earlier date (see McKiernan, Voice, 17, for example). But evidence now seems to support the later date. Warren Church records date his letter of dismission from the Providence Church on August 4, 1819. Rollman, "Sydney Rigdon," 39, has suggested that Rigdon may have had a short preaching engagement in Pittsburgh before joining the Warren Congregation.

8. McKiernan, Voice, 17, mistakenly wrote, "They lived together in harmony, regardless of the hardships they endured, until she died in 1886." But Sidney died in 1876.

9. Milton Backman, "The Quest for a Restoration: The Birth of Mormonism in Ohio," Brigham Young University Studies, 12 (Summer, 1972) 352.

10. Quoted in A.S. Hayden, A History of the Disciples of Christ on the Western Reserve (Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1875) 103.

11. Alexander Campbell, "Anecdotes, Incidents and Facts," No. III, The Millennial Harbinger, Series III, 3.9 (September, 1848) 523. See also Hayden, History, 19, and Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (1897; repr., Germantown, TN: Religious Book Service, n.d.) 2:45.

12. McKiernan, Voice, 11.

13. Richardson, Memoirs, 2:47. James North, Union in Truth (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 1994) 190, believes that this same church had been established "some years previously" by Thomas Campbell.

14. John W. Rigdon, "Lecture," 5.

15. A.B. Phillips, The Restoration Movement and the Latter-Day Saints (Independence, MO: Herald, 1929) 312.

16. See The Braden-Kelley Debate, Feb. 12– March 8, 1884 (Rosemead, CA: Old Paths, 1955) 76. See also Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 29.

17. Joseph Smith, History of the Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1978) 1:121. See also Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 28-31.

18. Alexander Campbell, "Beaver Anathema, Mr. Winter, and The Star," Millennial Harbinger, 1.4 (April 5, 1830) 175. See also Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 31.

19. Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 29, quoting the Times and Seasons, Nauvoo, IL, 4 (May 1, 1843) 177-178. See also Daryl Chase, "Sidney Rigdon -- Early Mormon" (Master's Thesis, University of Chicago, 1931) 18, quoting Heman C. Smith, Frederick M. Smith, and D.F. Lambert, The Journal of History 3:1 (Lamoni, IA.: Board of Public Records of the RLDS Church, January, 1910) 7-8.

20. Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 40, quoting the Times and Seasons, Nauvoo, IL, 4 (April 15, 1843) 194.

21. Henry K. Shaw, Buckeye Disciples (St. Louis: Christian Board of Publication, 1952) 79.

22. Phillips, The Restoration Movement, 313-314, quoting Smith, Smith, and Lambert, The Journal of History, 11.

23. Richardson, Memoirs, 2:344.

24. Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, The Mormon Prophet (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960) 94. There is much evidence to this effect, and both major biographies of Rigdon (McKiernan's and Van Wagoner's) attempt to offer reasons for his extravagant behavior. It is known, for instance, that he was thrown from a horse as a youth and dragged with his foot in the stirrup, receiving head injuries which occasionally gave him episodic "spells" ever afterward. See McKiernan, Voice, 15, for example.

25. Times and Seasons, Nauvoo, IL, 5 (October 15, 1844) 686.

26. McKiernan, Voice, 26.

27. Public Discussion of the Issues between the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the Church of Christ [Disciples] Held in Kirtland, Ohio, Beginning February 12 and Closing March 8, 1884 (Rosemead, CA: Old Paths, 1955) 357, col. 2.

28. Isaac Errett, "Pioneer Mormon Dead," The Christian Standard (August 5, 1876) 252.

29. For a detailed listing of Rigdon's travels and activities during this time period see Brodie, No Man Knows, 431-432.

30. McKiernan, Voice, 27.

31. Paul K. Conkin, American Originals: Homemade Varieties of Christianity (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1997) 34.

32. Brodie, No Man Knows, 94; and Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 90.

33. Alexander Campbell, "Extra," Millennial Harbinger, 1.1, n.s. (December, 1837) 578.

34. John Wickliffe Rigdon, "Life Story of Sidney Rigdon," 16-17, quoted in Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 52.

35. Richardson, Memoirs, 2:375. It is my opinion that many early frontier preachers, cognizant of their limited educations, may have also been expressing their psychological insecurities regarding their abilities to preach.

36. Richardson, Memoirs, 2:332-333.

37. Ibid., 2:346.

38. Quoted in Perry Miller, Errand into the Wilderness (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993) 193.

39. See Marvin Hill, "The Role of Christian Primitivism in the Origin and Development of the Mormon Kingdom, 1830-1844" (Ph.D diss., The University of Chicago) 42, esp. n. 3.

40. For a good example of Campbell's position, as well as some fun reading, see Alexander Campbell, "Superstitious Credulity," Millennial Harbinger 4.1 (January, 1834) 43-44.

41. Quoted in C. Leonard Allen and Richard Hughes, Discovering Our Roots (Abilene, TX: ACU Press, 1988) 85. For a more complete exploration of Campbell's beliefs on this matter, see Alexander Campbell, "Address to the Readers of the Christian Baptist, No. IV," Christian Baptist 1.8 (March 1, 1824) 144-150.

42. Alexander Campbell, "The Times -- No. IV," Millennial Harbinger 2.5 (May 4, 1831) 211-215.

43. Richardson, Memoirs 2:112, also 104, 108, and 420. A good analysis of Campbell's views on the place of religious experiences in Christianity may be found in a lecture/essay by D. Newell Williams, "The Gospel as the Power of God to Salvation: Alexander Campbell and Experimental Religion," in Lectures in Honor of the Alexander Campbell Bicentennial, 1788-1988 (Nashville: Disciples of Christ Historical Society, 1988) 127-148.

44. "R" [Sidney Rigdon] "The Ancient Order Of Things," The Messenger and Advocate 1:12 (Kirtland, OH: September, 1835) 182-185.

45. Sidney Rigdon, letter to Olian Barr, The Messenger and Advocate 2.5 (Kirtland, OH: February, 1836), pp. 261-262.

46. The rather affluent community of Shaker Heights near Cleveland, Ohio, was once a thriving Shaker community. See also Francis P. Weisenberger, A History of the State of Ohio -- The Passing of the Frontier (ed. Carl Wittke; Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941) 3:159-160.

47. Alexander Campbell, "Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things -- No. VII," Christian Baptist 3.2 (September 5, 1825) 30.

48. This was well known back then, but Leroy Garrett states that fact in The Stone-Campbell Movement (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1994) 232.

49. Isaac Errett, editorial, "The Death of Sidney Rigdon," Christian Standard (July 29, 1876) 245.

50. Hayden, History, 299.

51. Ibid., 209.

52. This is the opinion of McKiernan, Voice, 11, probably based upon such references as Hayden, History, 209. Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 55, disagrees that such seclusion occurred. It is reasonable to think that, to some extent at least, he probably did recluse, even if for no other reason than to facilitate his communal experiment.

53. See Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 87. Klaus J. Hansen, Mormonism and the American Experience (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981) 127, states that Joseph Smith was "the originator of these [communitarian] ideas," certainly a debatable contention.

54. McKiernan, Voice, 29.

55. See Eva Pancoast, "Mormons at Kirtland" (M.A. Thesis, Western Reserve University, 1929) 65, and Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 50-51.

56. See Pancoast, "Mormons," 20. See also Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 50; McKiernan, Voice, 29. For some reason Alanson Wilcox, A History of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio (Cincinnati: Standard, 1909) 125, lists the number as only being seventeen! Perhaps he has confused the seventeen of their number that were reimmersed into Mormonism by Oliver Cowdery with the total number on the farm. See Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed [sic] (Painesville, OH: Self-published, 1834) 103.

57. Hayden, History, p. 209.

58. Ibid., 239-240.

59. McKiernan, Voice, 29. Clark Braden, at the end of his seventh speech, Braden-Kelly Debate, 77, gives a chronology that shows Pratt's conversion by Rigdon to be in 1828, but the confluence of events following Pratt's conversion suggests that Braden's date is too early.

60. Robert Kent Fielding, "The Growth of the Mormon Church in Kirtland, Ohio" (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1957) 26; Braden-Kelly Debate, 77; and Pancoast, "Mormons," 18.

61. Parley Parker Pratt, Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt (Chicago: Law, King and Law, 1888) 32.

62. Fielding, "Growth," 27.

63. Pratt, Autobiography, 32. See also comments in Nathan O. Hatch, The Democritization of American Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989) 168; and Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984) 180.

64. Fielding, "Growth," 27.

65. Ivan J. Barrett, Joseph Smith and the Restoration: A History of the Church to 1846 (Provo, UT: B.Y.U. Press, 1973) 150-151; Eber D. Howe, "Mormonism," The Telegraph, Painesville, OH (February 15, 1831) 1; and Max Parkin, Conflict at Kirtland: A Study of the Nature and Causes of External and Internal Conflict of the Mormons (M.A. Thesis, Brigham Young University, 1966) 344. Hayden, History, 210, lists their arrival "about the middle of November," which is undoubtedly too late for the timing of subsequent events. On the other hand Walter Scott's Evangelist (Carthage, Ohio) N.S., 9.6 (June 1, 1841) 133, printed an 1831 letter from Josiah Jones remembering their arrival "about the 6th. of October last." Most reliable sources give the late October time, however. Joseph Smith, History, 1:120-125, gives a full accounting of the story with extensive footnotes, including corroboration from Sidney's oldest daughter Athalia, who was present at the occasion and still living when the history was completed.

66. Both McKiernan, Voice, 30, and Van Wagoner, Rigdon, 59, quote this line from John Corrill, A Brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints (St. Louis: N.P., 1839) 7.

67. Joseph Smith, History, 1:124.

68. Ibid.

69. Josiah Jones, "History of the Mormonites," The Evangelist 9 (June 1, 1841) 133. For a Christian, the implications of this belief are staggering -- that no one's sins were forgiven for 1400 years!

70. Howe, "Mormonism," 1.

71. John W. Rigdon, "Lecture," 7.

72. Quoted in Frederic Mather, "The Early Days of Mormonism," Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, Dec. 1880) 206-207.

73. Howe, "Mormonism," 1. See also, Chase, "Sidney Rigdon" (M.A. Thesis, The University of Chicago, 1931) 75.

74. Alexander Campbell, "Sidney Rigdon," Millennial Harbinger 2.2 (February 7, 1831) 101.

75. Ibid.

76. Joseph Smith, The Book of Doctrine and Covenants (Independence, MO: Herald, 1958) Sec. 34: 2a-c.

77. Howe, "Mormonism," 1.

78. Smith, Doctrine and Covenants, Section 47:1.

79. John Whitmer, The Book of John Whitmer Kept by Commandment (Unpublished manuscript kept in the archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, UT: printed and published as John Whitmer's History, Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministries, n.d.) 4.

80. Fielding, "Growth," 35.

81. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, 124, 128.

82. A "stake" was a supportive community facilitating the eventual establishment of the new Zion, where the ultimate "Gathering" would take place.

83. The Telegraph, Painesville, OH (January 18, 1831) 3.

84. Sidney Rigdon, "Persecution," The Messenger and Advocate 3.4 (January, 1837) 438. McKiernan, Voice, 36, quoted William Lynn, The Story of the Mormons (New York: N.P., 1902) 62, probably not realizing where this comment originated (he also slightly misquoted it).

85. Walter Scott, The Evangelist 9.6 (June 1, 1841) 134 and 136.

86. Alexander Campbell, "Sidney Rigdon," Millennial Harbinger 2.2 (February 7, 1831) 100.

87. Hayden, History, 192.

88. Both letters may be found printed in The Telegraph, Painesville, OH (February 15, 1831) 2.