The early relation and separation of Baptists and Disciples

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Origin of the Disciples g

II. The Union with the Baptists 19

Chapter I

Every religious movement owes its origin to some leading person or persons ; Protestantism to Luther and Zwingli, Methodism to Wesley. So the Disciples of Christ owe their origin to the joint thought and labors of two men, Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and son. Various phases and tendencies of a religious movement may be traceable to conditions back of its accredited founder, as many phases of Protestantism to the reformers before the reformation, and many tendencies in Methodism to the Moravians and European Pietists. So there are discernible back of the Campbells, tendencies in religious thought which became dominant forces in their movement. No religious movement arises out of the earth or comes down from heaven regardless of past or present conditions. Single lives combine in themselves scattered tendencies, either hidden or apparent, and concentrate them into a historic movement. It takes then a distinct and traceable course and receives a distinguishing name.

Thomas Campbell was born in County Down, Ireland, February i, 1763. His father had been in early life a Roman Catholic, but was won over later to the established church of England. In the atmosphere of that religious system Thomas was brought up. He never quite found satisfaction, however, " in serving God according to act of parliament," and soon sought the fellowship of a neighboring Seceder Presbyterian Church. He is said to have passed through a " deep religious experience," in which he found that inward peace and assurance of forgiveness, which he accepted as evidence of an " effectual calling." The moment of his conversion was the moment of his dedication to the ministry. He had received an excellent English education in a military regimental school and became a school teacher.

After his call to the ministry he was urged by some of his Seceder friends to enter the University of Glasgow. After completing his literary course at the University, he passed into the Anti-Burgher Seceder Theological Seminary for his special ministerial training. 1 " Memoirs of Alexander Campbell." Robert Richardson.

io THE ORIGIN OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

He became pastor of a Seceder church at Ahorey, County Armagh, Ireland. It was while living at Rich Hill in the quiet discharge of his duties as a teacher in an academy, as well as pastor at Ahorey, that his son Alexander grew to young manhood, and shared with his father the management of the academy. Here, during the years between 1798 and 1807, both father and son came into contact with an " Independent " church ministered to from time to time by such men as Rowland Hill, the Haldanes, Alex. Carson and John Walker. The Campbells, in their free mingling with other religious bodies, must have been of more liberal spirit than their brethren in the Seceder Church, who were permitted only an " occasional hearing " or attendance upon the services of other denominations. This was expressly discouraged, and only half-way countenanced when there was no meeting at a Seceder church at the same hour. The biographer of the Campbells, Robert Richardson, concedes to these Independents at Rich Hill a very important influence upon them. They seem to have been characterized by the same breadth of spirit and freedom of communion with other Christians that belonged to this body in contrast to all other religious bodies of that time and country. Especially was this difference striking as between the Seceder Church and the Independents. The Seceders had divided and sub-divided over excessive refinements of differences until they had grown narrow, illiberal and clannish. There were no less than four branches of the Seceder Church. " Schooled amidst such schisms in his own denomination, and harassed by the triviality of the differences by which they were maintained, Thomas Campbell conceived the greatest antipathy to party spirit and all its workings and manifestations," while " his son Alexander fully sympathized with him in these feelings." Thomas Campbell was especially zealous in the promoting of a proposed union between the Burgher and Anti-Burgher synods of Ireland in 1804-5. While his own immediate effort for the union failed, the actual union took place in 1820, after the Campbells had taken up their home in the wilderness of the New World.

The excessive strain of his labors as preacher and teacher began to tell upon his health. He was induced by his family and friends to relinquish his work, and seek rest and recuperation in a journey to America. Leaving his family behind and intrusting the charge and oversight of his academy to his son Alexander, who had grown to be a youth of nineteen years, he set out for America. He selected as his destination the western part of Pennsylvania, whither had gone

THE ORIGIN OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST II

some of his neighborhood acquaintances and some members of his congregation. He was assigned by an Anti-Burgher synod, in session in Philadelphia when he arrived from Ireland, to the Presbytery of Chartiers, Washington County, Pennsylvania. There he found friends who had preceded him from Ireland, and was subsequently joined by other friends who emigrated to the New World. He took up a kind of itinerary among the circle of small Seceder churches. He had brought with him his old world catholicity of spirit. The Seceder Church in western Pennsylvania had preserved unchanged the spirit and tradition of their mother church in Ireland and Scotland. On one of his excursions in an especially destitute part of the ccrntry, his sympathy went out to the homeless members of the various denominations who had settled there. He invited them to come in and share the communion of his Presbyterian flock. This breach of Seceder exclusiveness shocked and embittered his Seceder brethren, who forthwith lodged complaint against him before the next synod. He was tried for his transgression of the church standards and usages. He was mildly censured and admonished to preserve regularity of order in his ministrations thereafter. The situation, however, became so painful, the hostility and jealousy of his brethren so intolerable, that he was obliged to withdraw from the synod.

This severance of his relation with the Seceder body and this renunciation of the authority of the synod did not terminate his work as a preacher. During his brief sojourn in the country he had won the esteem of many persons and endeared himself to many of his Seceder members. Before finally withdrawing from the synod he had frequently urged the excellence and desirability of Christian union ; but now the dominant note of his preaching was a plea for " Christian liberality and Christian union upon the basis of the Bible." He held services at the homes of his friends, the hearers usually crowding the largest places. This continued until it was seen that many had practically severed their relations with the Seceder Church, and many others of the community had become regular attendants at his services. A few of the principal persons met and proposed that a meeting be held with the object of effecting some more permanent organization for their gatherings. What should they do ? What form should their organization take? On what basis should they build ? were the questions which had come up for consideration at a meeting appointed to be held at the home of Abraham Altars. Thomas Campbell spoke. He dwelt upon the inexpediency and unscripturalness of division among Christians, and upon the sufficiency of the Scriptures as a standard of faith and rule of life. This thought had already become familiar to his mind and the minds of his hearers, for he had dwelt upon it in a letter of defense to the synod which was about to meet to try him, in which he affirmed that it was his purpose to teach nothing " but what is already expressly taught and enjoined by divine authority." " And I hope," he continues, " it is no presumption to believe that saying and doing the very same things that are said and done before our eyes in the sacred page is infallibly right, as well as all-sufficient for the edification of the church, whose duty and perfection it is to be in all things conformed to the original standard." But this dominant thought and burning appeal took the form of a motto or rule in the address he delivered at the meeting referred to above, namely, " Where the Scriptures speak we speak ; and where the Scriptures are silent we are silent."

Opportunity was given to others to speak at the close of this address. Among others, Andrew Monroe arose and said : " Mr. Campbell, if we adopt that as a basis, then there is an end of infant baptism." " Of course," Mr. Campbell said, " if infant baptism be not found in Scripture, we can have nothing to do with it." One of the persons present was Thomas Acheson, who seemed to be deeply moved by this unexpected application of the motto, and exclaimed, with some excitement : " I hope I may never see the day when my heart will renounce that blessed saying of Scripture, ' Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.' " James Foster, another person present, ventured to respond : " Mr. Acheson, I would remark that in the portion of Scripture you have quoted there is no reference whatever to infant baptism." The company were by no means favorably disposed to abandon at once the baptism of infants. Mr. Campbell himself, as we shall see, still believed that there was Scripture precept and example for infant baptism. It was agreed to treat the practice as a matter of forbearance. When Mr. Campbell a little later was asked by James Foster, " Father Campbell, how could you in the absence of any authority in the Word of God, baptize a child in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit? " he replied: " Sir, you are the most intractable person I ever met."

It was so far merely a question of Scripture precept and example.

The question of a believing church membership and of the relation of faith to the ordinance of baptism were not raised at this time. With all the differences in this collection of people, for they represented nearly every phase of denominational difference, there was, notwithstanding, a bond of sympathy which drew them together. At a meeting held at the headwaters of the Buffalo, August 17, 1809, it was resolved to form themselves into a regular association under the name of " The Christian Association of Washington." They appointed twenty-one of their number to draw up articles of association, with Mr. Campbell as adviser in chief. He drew up what he called a " Declaration and Address," setting forth the principles upon which they should act, and the reason for the new association. This document was read at a special meeting of the chief members, adopted and ordered printed September 7, 1809. The following quotation from the preamble of the Declaration will best indicate the motive which moved them : " Our desire, therefore, for ourselves and brethren, would be that rejecting human opinions and the inventions of men as of any authority, or as having any place in the church of God, we might forever cease from further contention about such things, returning to and holding fast by the original standard, taking the divine Word alone for our rule, the Holy Spirit for our teacher and guide to lead us into all truth, and Christ alone, as exhibited in the Word, for our salvation ; and that by so doing we may be at peace among ourselves, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." In five brief resolutions they defined the scope and purpose of the Association to be " the promoting of simple, evangelical Christianity, free from all mixture of human opinions and inventions of men " ; " the raising of a fund to support a pure Gospel ministry, that shall reduce to practice that whole form of doctrine, worship, discipline and government expressly revealed and enjoined in the Word of God ; and also for supplying the poor with the Holy Scriptures " ; " to encourage the formation of similar associations " ; " to consider their associations as in nowise a church, but merely as voluntary advocates for church reformation " ; " and to countenance and support only those ministers who exhibit in their lives and teaching conformity to the original standard, and who shall inculcate nothing as a matter of Christian faith or duty but for which there can be expressly produced a ' Thus saith the Lord,' either in express terms or by approved precedent." A standing committee of twenty-

H THE ORIGIN OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST one members was appointed to carry out the purposes of the Association. There were to be semi-annual meetings the first Thursday in May and November.

In the midst of these events and changes the son of Thomas Campbell arrived with the family from Scotland. Alexander had spent a year at the University of Glasgow, where he came into very close touch with the work of the Haldanes and other religious movements of the country. During the two years of separation from his father the son's mind had undergone momentous change on religious subjects. He had grown entirely away from the Seceder Church, and had found it impossible to commune with it in Glasgow. When the son reached America he found himself in entire accord with his father's views and action, and with the principles of the " Declaration and Address," as they were rehearsed to him very soon after his arrival. It was a surprise to both father and son to find themselves sharing each other's views, when each had expected to shock the other upon the disclosure of his sentiments. The son joined heartily in the labors of his father and was soon found to be leading the father in the radical application of the principles. When he examined the proofsheets of the " Declaration and Address," he said to his father that upon such principles they would have to abandon infant baptism. This conviction seems to have been more deeply impressed upon him by a conversation with a Presbyterian minister by the name of Riddle concerning the principles of the " Declaration and Address," in which he said : " Sir, these words, however plausible in appearance, are not sound. For if you follow these out you must become a Baptist." Alexander was thus stimulated to make a thorough examination of the Scriptures on the subject of baptism, infant baptism in particular. He read exhaustively the literature on both sides of the question, but finally cast all authorities aside and shut himself up with his Greek New Testament. Both father and son came finally to admit that there was neither " express terms " nor " approved precedent " for the practice of infant baptism.

The " Christian Association of Washington " began to take on a more definite and fixed form before the community. They had built a log meeting-house in which Thomas Campbell conducted Sunday services regularly. The members for the most part held formal church membership in the various churches of the region. But a process of elimination and crystallization was going on, which gave to the Association the appearance of a new denomination. They were not received cordially by the various denominations or introduced to their congregations. They found one by one the avenues of approach cut off by which they had hoped to carry on an interdenominational propaganda of the principles of the "Declaration and Address." It was a fond dream which they could scarcely hope to realize under the conditions of religious society at that time. For the various denominations to have invited and welcomed the ministers of the " Christian Association " into their churches and given them a hearing would have been suicidal. With the reverence in which the various confessions and testimonies were held in those days by their respective churches, the assault upon " human creeds," " partyism," " man-made bonds of union," " the horrid evil of division," and the appeal to unite upon the Scriptures alone would not be listened to patiently. Avow as sincerely as they would their " perfectly amicable intentions with respect to all churches of Christ," they were nevertheless shut out from the churches and denied a hearing on every occasion.

It began to dawn upon the Campbells that they were in danger of becoming another sect among the sects, and to stand in the ridiculous light of a sect pleading for the destruction of sectarianism. Whether the Campbells first made overtures for reception into a Presbyterian synod or a Presbyterian synod first made overtures to them for ecclesiastical union is not clear. There were, however, sufficient advances on both sides to assure the members of the " Christian Association " that they would be gladly welcomed into the fellowship of the Presbyterian Church. They all professed adherence, for the most part, to the Westminster Confession, with the exception of Thomas Campbell, who took exception to the chapter conferring power upon the clergy. Fearing, therefore, that they were fast becoming a distinct religious body, they were willing to concede many differences and forbear in order to be received into the Presbyterian Church. To this end Thomas Campbell made overtures to the synod of Pittsburg. He seems to have gone in the capacity of a representative of the " Christian Association " and to have stipulated that its propaganda should go on just the same, even under the shelter of the Presbyterian Church. The synod declined to receive Mr. Campbell and the " Christian Association " because they believed the principles of the " Declaration and Address " would be destructive of the peace of the church ; and for expressing his opinion that there were things taught in the Westminster Confession not found in the Bible; that the baptism of infants was not authorized by scriptural precept or example, yet administering that ordinance while holding such an opinion ; for encouraging or countenancing his son to preach the Gospel without any regular authority; for opposing creeds and confessions as injurious to the interests of religion, and because it was not consistent with the regulations of the Presbyterian Church that synod should form a connection with any ministers, churches or associations. This took place in October, 1810. The failure of this wellmeant effort for union was a foregone conclusion and was urged on to the issue by the over-sanguine hopefulness and confidence of the father in the principles he had adopted; for the son seems not to have encouraged the overture, but rather to have anticipated the failure. The action and reply of the synod to the application for admission was looked upon as an affront and accepted as a challenge by the Association. Alexander Campbell was put forward to reply to it, which he did in a publicly announced discourse a few days after the adjournment of the synod. This was the beginning of that long career of public controversy which Alexander Campbell felt called upon to follow. The results of this first public encounter with opposition and criticism was highly gratifying to the Christian Association.

The circuit of their preaching tours was gradually enlarged until it included more than half a dozen school and private houses. On one of these tours Alexander was stopping at the home of one of his newly made friends, when he met a Baptist minister with whom he discussed the question of baptism. At that time Alexander Campbell took the side of the Pedobaptists in the discussion. He seems to have been confused and baffled by the Baptist minister. Denied fellowship on all sides the Christian Association began to take steps towards organizing as a regular church. This was accordingly done at the May meeting of the Association in 181 1. Thomas Campbell was appointed elder; Alexander Campbell was licensed to preach and four deacons were chosen. A test question was proposed to each one who applied for membership, and the answers passed upon by Thomas Campbell. The question asked was, " What is the meritorious cause of the sinner's acceptance with God ? " This form of initiation was not then strictly adhered to, for one man was taken in without answering the question. Two were denied fellowship for insufficient answers. This was the first and last time such a procedure was gone through with as a condition of entrance into the church. Immediately after the organization of this first church Alexander started out on his first preaching tour. A new meeting-house was built in his absence. The Lord's supper was celebrated every Lord's day. Some of the members were observed not to partake of the emblems, and when asked said they did not feel authorized so to do because they had never been baptized. One of these was the daughter of a Baptist. This seems to have brought up the question of the mode of baptism, the matter in dispute before having been the subject of baptism. Joseph Bryant, one of the non-communicants at the Lord's supper, insisted on being immersed as the only proper way of being baptized. Thomas Campbell performed the ceremony July 4, 181 1. Many persons who at first followed the Christian Association withdrew when they saw the direction things were taking. At its organization the first church at Brush Run numbered but thirty members.

The year 181 1 was thus an important year. Alexander Campbell made several extended preaching tours in the neighboring parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Both father and son were carefully working out their teaching along the lines of the " Declaration and Address " upon the basis of the plain Word of God. One question after another came up in succession, covering the whole range of Christian faith and life, church order and government. Among others, ordination, the authority of the local congregation, the apostolic form of church government, were all investigated and settled according to the teaching and example of the Word of God.

On the first day of the year 18 12 Alexander was ordained to the work of the ministry after what he believed to be a New Testament form and example by the laying on of hands. He regarded the ceremony of ordination as merely a " public testimony that the persons ordained possessed the necessary authority " to preach the gospel and administer the ordinances. The whole question of baptism was forced anew upon Alexander by the birth of his first child. His wife and her parents were members of the Presbyterian Church. Hitherto infant baptism and the form of baptism had been treated as matters of forbearance, or, as he said, " let slip " as unimportant. But now he goes over the whole subject again and concludes that only believers may be baptized, and only immersion is properly bapiS THE ORIGIN OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

tism. That being true, then he had never been baptized. " Having formed some acquaintance with a Matthias Luce, a Baptist preacher who lived above Washington, he concluded to make application to him to perform the rite, and on his way to visit him called to see his father and family." He discovered that one of his sisters had made up her mind to be immersed. He presented the matter to his father, who seemed somewhat surprised, but made no objection. June 12, 1812, was the day set apart by Mr. Luce to immerse Alexander Campbell and his wife. Before the day arrived his father with all his family concluded to submit to the rite. Seven persons in all were baptized on that day. One after another the members of the Brush Run church came forward asking to be immersed, until in a short time the church consisted of none but immersed believers. Those who did not ask immersion withdrew from the church, so that in many respects during the year 18 12 it became a Baptist church without the name.

The result of the adoption of Baptist views on baptism was necessarily to separate the church from the sympathies of the Pedobaptist community. The Campbells had always entertained a kind of antipathy towards the Baptists as a comparatively uneducated people. There were but few Baptists in that region, and at this time they had little or no acquaintance with them, much less any leaning toward them as a people. But now that the Campbells and the Brush Run church found themselves upon Baptist ground, they began to make the acquaintance of members of that particular fold.

Chapter II. The Union With The Baptists

When the report went out that the Brush Run church, led by the Campbells, had been converted into a church of immersed believers, the acquaintance of the Campbells with the Baptists of the region extended very rapidly, especially among the members of the Redstone Association. His acquaintance thus far, as has been observed, was very limited, and his opinion of them, especially the ministry, very low. Speaking of this period in 1848 he says : " I had no idea of uniting with the Baptists more than with the Moravians or the mere Independents. I had unfortunately formed a very unfavorable opinion of the Baptist preachers as then introduced to my acquaintance, as narrow, contracted, illiberal and uneducated men

The people, however, called Baptists were much more highly appreciated by me than their ministry. Indeed, the ministry of some sects is generally in the aggregate the worse portion of them. It was certainly so in the Redstone Association thirty years ago. They were little men in a big office. The office did not fit them. They had a wrong idea, too, of what was wanting. They seemed to think that a change of apparel — a black coat instead of a drab — a broad rim on their hat instead of a narrow one — a prolongation of their face and a fictitious gravity — a long and more emphatic pronunciation of certain words rather than scriptural knowledge, humility, spirituality, zeal and Christian affection, with great devotion and great philanthropy, were the grand desiderata I, therefore, could not esteem them nor court their favor by offering any incense at their shrine. I resolved to have nothing especially to do with them more than with other preachers and teachers. The clergy of my acquaintance in other parties of that day were, as they believed, educated men, and called the Baptists illiterate and uncouth men, without either learning or academic accomplishments or polish I confess, however, that I was better pleased with

the Baptist people than with any other community. They read the Bible and seemed to care for little else in religion than " conversion " and " Bible doctrine." They often sent for us and pressed us to preach for them." 1

1 Millennial Harbinger, 1848, 344 ; Memoirs, I. 438.

Mr. Campbell began to visit the churches, and " on acquaintance liked the people more and the preachers less." He determined to visit the meeting- of the Redstone Association at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1812. He went there as an auditor and spectator, but was pressed by the people to speak at the meeting. He yielded so far as to speak to a small company of thirty or forty people in a private house. He discovered at this meeting that the Baptists did not like the preaching or the preachers any more than he. He was urged to visit their churches and preach for them. Mr. Campbell had already developed power as a speaker, and was eagerly sought after by the people of all the churches wherever he was known. He often spoke for Baptist churches in a circuit of sixty miles, and was urged by them to join the Redstone Association. The matter was laid before the Brush Run church in the fall of 1813. The church drew up a statement of their views on religious subjects, apparently in accord with the " Declaration and Address," and closed by expressing a willingness to co-operate or unite with that Association on the condition that they be " allowed to teach and preach whatever they learned from the Holy Scriptures." The document was laid before the Redstone Association, and after much debate, it was voted to receive them. Thus the union was effected. The Brush Run church, meeting at two places, Brush Run and Cross Roads, was received into the fellowship of Baptist churches. From this time Mr. Campbell regarded himself as a member of that denomination.

It ought to be observed that at the time of this union, a small minority of ministers composed of Elder Pritchard, of Cross Creek, Virginia, Elder Brownfield, of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and an Elder Stone and his son, of Ohio, were opposed to it. They seem not to have been reconciled to the action of the majority. Mr. Campbell's spirit of independence and his hostility to creeds and the rule of the clergy, and withal his refusal to subscribe to any confession of faith in uniting with the Association, were not pleasing to a few active ministers. The Redstone Association of churches had adopted the " Philadelphia Confession." To this Mr. Campbell would not subscribe or allow his associates to subscribe.

The merely formal union of the Brush Run church with the Redstone Association of Baptist churches, did not signify or insure a real union in usage and doctrine. There was sufficient resemblance between them to draw them together and into mutual sympathy ; but this resemblance consisted chiefly in church polity and the form and subjects of baptism. This would necessarily identify them in the estimation of the superficial observer. As a matter of fact the Campbells had arrived before that time at views on many primary religious subjects, which separated them from the Baptists.