The history of the reformation we advocate is, as we need not hesitate for a moment to declare, the most remarkable and interesting chapter in the religious annals of the United States. This will become more evident to men as this extraordinary movement will reach its fuller historical development, and its true character and power thus become better known. A cause like ours, that in a land so full of light, so wonderfully astir with the mighty spirit of the freest inquiry and judgment, has in a single lifetime won more than a million of adherents, representing the best intelligence and the most evangelical Christian faith of the nation, will every day more and more imperatively demand the attention and regard of men.

      The history of its progressive development furnishes the reliable sources from which a correct knowledge of its true motives and character must be learned. The world has long since come to know, that often after the lapse of but a few generations the adherents, and even the public advocates, of a great religious reform lose the accurate knowledge of its true history, and so come to misunderstand its real motives and principles, and are thus led inevitably to misrepresent it to the people of their times. There is always a tendency to this departure from the fundamental ground of a great historic reformatory movement.

      Fortunately for us and other inquirers, the entire progress, excepting its extreme incipient stage, of our work of reform is embodied in an abundant journalistic literature, that in a very masterful spirit and form has noted and expounded, by the hands of the leading men engaged in it, every step of its unfolding. What an interesting and instructive study this progressive historical panorama affords to us, who cherish in our hearts as a precious treasure this noblest effort to bring back the church of God to its primitive condition in faith, form and life!

      The oldest men yet living among us, whose hearts still burn with the hallowed and soul-stirring memories of the heroic days of our early history, should cherish as of inestimable value this precious literature, and refresh in its pages their recollections of the men and the events that made that period so great, and by this means reassure their confidence in the glorious principles for which we have so long, so heroically and so victoriously battled. And the later born among us should here diligently seek a correct understanding of a cause [ix] that deserves the highest appreciation of the enlightened Christian mind and the ardent devotion of the earnest Christian heart.

      Our reformation presents to us a process of constant and very manifest development, both in the minds of the men who were the chief actors in this wonderful drama, and also in its external expression in doctrine and practice. This is one of its most interesting features. The enlightened student of history always gives particular attention to this fact that characterizes, and normally and necessarily so, the course of all great onward movements of men, notably of all real reforms.

      The first stadium of our reformation, beyond its initiatory years, is unfolded historically in the Christian Baptist. This journal recounts the interesting story of those reformers coming gradually but steadily to the consciousness of the real meaning and the wide-reaching logical bearing of the original great motive of their reformatory effort. The forward steps taken in this remarkable period were the strides of giants in strength and in the distance measured by them from year to year. It was an era of heroic purposes and action, reaching through a sabbatical stage of seven years, from 1823 to 1830.

      When this stadium had been passed through, notable advance had already been made by the reformers. The principles that had been proclaimed in the beginning, and had become the motive, the life and inspiring energy of their heroic undertaking, had by this time, by full and earnest discussion and the severe test of practical application, become established as immortal in their truth, justice and power in the conviction and ardent acceptance of myriads of earnest Christian men and women. This pioneer revolutionary stadium had confirmed this reformation as a great permanent fact in the religious history of our land. A new period of riper and more far-reaching thought, aims and action now opened before the reformers, both leaders and people. They were entering upon the second clearly marked and momentous stadium of our history.

      The eminent men who, to use Walter Scott's favorite expression, "stood at the binnacle and at the helm of the ship Restoration," saw with clear vision that the time had fully come for building for permanent strong life, for the actual realization of the aims and hopes that had inspired them thus far. This was a most important hour with them. The name Christian Baptist itself indicated a state of still tentative efforts. The progress that had been made during the life of this valiant journal was owing to the wisdom and the intellectual, well-cultivated power of the leaders, their extraordinary zeal, and the [x] lofty principles which guided them. The name of the journal that inaugurated the new period in the progress of their enterprise, at once reveals a confident, joyful outlook into the future. They had now reached, they thought, the dawn of a millennial day that would see the church in the beautiful garments of its primitive faith and life, and in the glory of its primitive power. The new journal was to them The Millennial Harbinger. This name reveals to us especially the thoughts and hopes that now filled the great leader. Such, we know from personal intercourse with our heroic men of that day, were at that hour the sensations that stirred their hearts, and gave unwonted energy to their life. I would that it were in my power to depict to the reader the joy that pervaded all hearts that were in full fellowship with this effort to restore apostolic Christianity. The particular questions that now filled the minds and hearts of the master spirits among these reformers--Alexander Campbell always in the front--demonstrate to us the eminent qualities in mental power, in clear vision, in supreme devotion to the cause of God, and in ardent desire to see accomplished a complete and not an imperfect work of reform.¹ Let us thank God that our fathers were such men!

      It was the questions of Organization, Co-operation, and Edification that now rose into high prominence. It will be noticed in the first volume of the Millennial Harbinger that the subject of Organization at once became a chief topic of discussion.

      A. Campbell and his wisest fellow reformers said that a proper organization of the individual churches, in all that this implies, and always such an organization as the New Testament justifies--mark this!--was essential to the divine order of the entire church, and alone could give to the particular congregations and to the church in general enduring life and power, and was necessary to justify the high claim to a restoration of the apostolic order of things. The congregations, as can be easily understood, were at this time, as a general fact, yet very defective in this respect.

      The subject of Co-operation also soon began to urge itself with force upon the attention of the enlightened men among us at that time. If was clearly seen that the particular churches could not remain separated from each other; the unity of the church must be real and evident, not only in thought and faith, but also in action. It is this conviction that led first to district co-operation, and in time to State and National associated efforts for Home and Foreign Missions. [xi]

      With these themes of high moment was coupled also at an early hour, and in progressive development, that of Edification in its largest sense; i. e., the vital question of the building up of the church in all its interests and power. This looked primarily to the establishing of a well-qualified ministry, to teach the congregations and to proclaim and advocate the gospel of Christ among men, both at home and abroad. A. Campbell and other leaders saw that, in spite of the many able preachers in our ranks at that time, this reformation was as yet very "imperfectly furnished with such a ministry as it needed and deserved, to educate the congregations and to represent our cause--the cause of God--faithfully, and with dignity and power, among men. It was a firm conviction of A. Campbell, one which he constantly uttered privately and publicly with the force of an axiomatic truth, that our reformatory work would never succeed without a well-educated ministry. This led him to establish Bethany College.

      It was for many reasons not a very easy task to bring the people generally to a proper understanding and appreciation of these things, and above all to proper action in relation to them. The men of to-day, I am confident, have a very imperfect notion of the years of patient and strong teaching it required to bring individuals and the congregations to correct thought in matters that were so vital to the welfare of the reformation, and that are so very clear to most of us now. But there are many still among us, who, after the rich instruction and experience of seventy years, have not yet learned these lessons which our fathers, during the period of which I am speaking, strove so earnestly to teach. Fortunately, there were, during the very first decades of our history, many eminent men who not only understood clearly the reformation in its motives and principles, but who also were united in an accurate discernment of what it needed for its success. This unity of mind and spirit of our leaders prevailed and brought victory.

      The Millennial Harbinger, which appeared in January, 1830, made these subjects of which I am speaking, in their full development and their practical execution, of special prominence during the entire period of its existence, especially while A. Campbell was its master spirit.

      But still other questions of serious moment arose among us. We could not escape the common fate of the church in every age and in every land. At a comparatively early date men "arose among us speaking perverse things, and seeking to draw disciples after them." Dr. J. Thomas's propagandism of "Materialism," "Soul-sleeping" in Virginia and elsewhere in the East, with a certain following in the West; the attempt of Jesse B. Ferguson, at Nashville, to found a "liberal," "broad-gauge" religion among us, the evident fruit, as A. [xii] Campbell once said to me, of his Unitarianism; the proposal to receive into fellowship the Unitarian "Christian" churches in the East, were all promptly and victoriously met by A. Campbell in the Millennial Harbinger.

      The history of these exciting incidents should not be forgotten; the lesson it teaches is urgently needed today. Our fathers never "hunted" heresy--nor do we; but when it obtruded itself upon them, they boldly met it and vanquished it.

      A. Campbell's debates with Bishop Purcell in Cincinnati, and with N. Rice in Lexington; his amicable written discussion with B. W. Stone on the divinity of Christ, with Dr. Lynd on questions lying between us and the Baptist's, and with Mr. Skinner on Universalism, will open to the reader of the Millennial Harbinger an interesting vision of the stirring events that marked our history in our early days when heroic battles had to be fought.

      The literature that embodies this history should not be lost. D. S. Burnet did us a good service by publishing in one volume an excellent compend of the Christian Baptist. A still more valuable treasure to us will be a liberal, wise selection from the riper journalistic literature in the Millennial Harbinger. We must therefore most heartily commend the undertaking to give to this generation the volume to which what I have here written is an introduction.

ORCHARD ISLAND, Mich., July, 1901.      

[MHA1 ix-xiii]