FTER the unquestioned success of November 18 and 25, 1827, Scott rode forth to try the plan among the churches of the Western Reserve for three weeks. It was then that Joseph Gaston was won to the cause.

      Joseph Gaston had met Walter Scott before. He had been present at the August meeting of the Mahoning Association in New Lisbon. Gaston was a member of the Christian reformatory movement of Barton W. Stone. Two of his fellows from the same movement were there also, J. Merritt and John Secrest. There were still other Christian evangelists on the Western Reserve. These were James Hughes, Lewis Hamrick, and Lewis Comer. All of them had come into Ohio from Kentucky on the wave of evangelistic zeal which arose from Stone's leadership. He, like the Campbells, had repudiated the creeds and appealed to the Bible alone. His followers called themselves "Christians." Like the Campbells also, Stone had originally belonged to the Presbyterian church.

      Gaston lived in Columbiana County, near Salem. He was regarded with suspicion by the Baptists there because he opposed closed Communion, one of their most cherished doctrines. Nothing was more natural than that these affronted Baptists should appeal to their Association evangelist to straighten out the heretic in his thinking, so at a Communion service they asked him to see the errant teacher, who was in attendance. [71]

      Scott invited Gaston aside and, smiling, told him, "The brethren have commissioned me to convert you to their opinions."

      "And I have come to convert you to my opinion," rejoined Gaston, with some belligerency, for he was as impatient in advocating open Communion as the Baptists were in opposing it.

      Scott then told him that he had not really come to talk about open Communion or closed Communion, because he thought the whole dispute silly and unprofitable; he had come to talk about the happenings at New Lisbon and his exciting new discovery of the gospel. He laid it before Gaston in a rush of words, all the while appealing to the Scriptures to support him.

      Gaston heard him with delight. "It is all true!" he exclaimed, "and I believe every word of it!"

      "Joseph Gaston was the very first Christian minister who received the gospel after its restoration," said Scott some years later.

      It was a fortunate conversation, for Gaston rode with him throughout the Reserve for a period of three weeks, as long as his tubercular frame could stand the rigor, and the two did much, not only to advance the Reformation, but to cement the bond between the Baptists and the "Christians." They rode together into Salem, East Fairfield, Green, New Garden, Hanover, Minerva, and back to New Lisbon--the Paul and Barnabas of a new missionary crusade.¹

      Some of Stone's evangelists wrote back to him glowing reports and questions. One of them, as reprinted in Stone's magazine, the Christian Messenger, July 26, 1828, wrote: [72]

      With Elder Walter Scott I fell in company a few days ago at Fairfield, Ohio. He has made an unusual number of disciples the past year. His method and manner are somewhat novel to me; but in consequence of his extraordinary success in reforming mankind, I feel no disposition at present to pronounce him heretical. He seems to suppose the Apostolic Gospel consists of the five following particulars, viz., faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life. Thus you see he baptizes the subject previous to the remission of sins, or the receiving of the Holy Spirit. I would like to have your views on the subject.

      To this question, the saintly Stone penned a brief reply, "I have no doubt but that it will become the universal practice, though vehemently opposed."²

      Adamson Bentley, founder of the Mahoning Association, as the leader of the Baptist ministers on the Reserve, and the most beloved and influential of them all, gave much of his time to helping the Association evangelist. Known and loved by the people, he often smoothed the way for the more erratic and unconventional Scott, thus winning him an immediate hearing where the reception might have been cool or hostile.

      Bentley was playing the role of forerunner on December 2, 1827, when he preceded his friend in an address at the Braceville Ridge schoolhouse. Samuel Robbins, a deacon at Windham, was present and reported the happenings in his diary:

      December 2, 1827. Mr. Adamson Bentley and Walter Scott preached in the school-house on Braceville Ridge. Mr. Bentley preached first to a house jammed full--got them most all asleep--do not recollect his subject. Then Mr. Walter Scott preached, after reading the second chapter of Acts. Dwelt particularly on apostle Peter using the keys of the kingdom of heaven, delivered to [73] him by the Savior, Matt. xvi:19. Before he finished his discourse, a good part of the congregation were standing up gazing at the speaker. In his remarks respecting Peter opening the kingdom to the Gentiles, at the house of Cornelius, he said: "Having no more use for the keys, for aught I know, he threw them away."³

      There was in the fiery Scott not a little of the showman; this accounts in no small measure for his singular successes in those first months with an untried idea. One day, in late afternoon, he was riding into a village, when he came upon a troop of children returning home from school. Always fond of children and quickly trusted by them, he soon had the group around him.

      He then said to them: "Children, hold up your left hands." They all did so, in great eagerness.

      "Now," said their charming new friend, "beginning with your thumb repeat what I say to you: Faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, gift of the Holy Spirit--that takes up all your fingers. Now again! Faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, gift of the Holy Spirit. . . . Children, now run home--don't forget what is on your fingers, and tell your parents that a man will preach the gospel to-night at the school-house, as you have it on the five fingers of your hands."

      Away went the children, in great glee, repeating as they went, "Faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, gift of the Holy Spirit"--and soon the story was rehearsed in nearly every house of the village and neighborhood; and long before the hour of meeting the house was thronged, and, of course, not a few of the children were there, all expecting to have great sport with the crazy man.⁴[74]

      What came next was not too much to their liking, nor to that of the adults, and the audience soon grew sleepy. Scott saw his predicament and shifted his tactics. He addressed himself abruptly to the little boys in the front seat, thus arresting their restlessness:

      "Boys, did you ever play toad sky-high?" They all brightened.

      Well, boys, I'll tell you how we used to play it in Scotland. First, we caught a toad, and went out into a clear open place, and got a log or a big stone, and across this we laid a plank or board, one end of which rested on the ground and the other stuck up in the air. We then placed the toad on the lower end, and took a big stick and struck the upper part of the board with all our might. The other end flew up, and away went the toad sky-high.

      At this the boys all laughed, and the sleepers began to awake. Scott continued:

      But, boys, that was not right; that toad was one of God's creatures, and could feel pain as well as any of you. It was a poor, harmless thing, and it was wicked for us boys to send it thus flying through the air, for in most cases, when the toad came down the poor thing would be dead--and, boys, we felt very badly when we saw the blood staining its brown skin and its body bruised and its limbs broken, and lying motionless upon the grass through which it had hopped so merrily a few minutes before.

      He dilated upon the enormity of their cruelty and thoughtlessness until some of the boys were in tears and the audience greatly affected. Then he burst upon the adults with bitter words. They were professed [75] Christians! Their children were weeping over the death of a toad, while they had been sleeping under the story of the death of their Lord! Scott remained for several days in that village, but he never again addressed a sleepy audience.⁵

      Another instance of Scott's resourcefulness happened at a schoolhouse near Warren. This time the meeting had been announced in advance, and he had expected a good audience, but when he arrived he was disappointed to see only a handful. After waiting in vain for more to arrive, he arose and addressed them. Not knowing their views, since he was a stranger to them and they to him, he said that he would like to try a device for getting better acquainted so that he could address them more effectively.

      "Will all present who are on the Lord's side arise?" It did not surprise him that no one stood up.

      "Will all present who are in favor of the devil arise?" No one responded.

      After gazing at them for a few moments, he said that he had never seen such an audience. Had they all stood up for the Lord or for the devil, he would have known how to address them, but since they were obviously for neither, he would have to study their case and see if he could prepare a message suited to their special condition. He would deliver it the following evening. So saying, he took his hat and departed.⁶

      In mid-December Scott returned to New Lisbon to follow up his initial advantage. Seven more were baptized. By December 25, there were thirty more. Almost the entire Baptist church had been swept into the movement. [76]

      Soon the whole Reformation was hearing of the exciting events on the Western Reserve. The February issue of the Christian Baptist took notice as follows:

      Walter Scott, who is now doing the work of an Evangelist in the Mahoning Baptist Association informs me, per letter of the 4th ultimo [January, 1828], that he had made an experiment in preaching the ancient gospel for the ten days preceding the date of his letter--He states the effects as having been immediate and astonishing--no less than thirty having been immersed in that time.

      He says, "After having announced the gospel in the terms of the Apostles, I have awaked the lyre of Israel, and sung forth the high songs of salvation to all who believe and are baptized, declaring a just and a merited damnation to all who disobey God, piping forth the terrors of the Lord, and congregating the rebellious from Cain to Judas, and from him to the resurrection of the dead."⁷

      In New Lisbon, and elsewhere, opposition had mushroomed in his wake. He returned to New Lisbon from East Fairfield in mid-December to learn that the Methodist and Presbyterian ministers had been drawn together by their common hatred of him and that they had attacked him openly from their pulpits. The community was sown with their epithets: "Heresy!" "Water salvation!" "Worse than Romanism!"

      On the first evening of his return, Scott spoke at the meetinghouse to a large audience, which included these two ministers. When he opened his address that evening, it was a head-on attack:

      There are two gentlemen in the house who, in my absence, made a man of straw and called it Scott; this they bitterly assailed; now if they have anything to say the veritable Scott is here, and the opportunity is now theirs [77] to make good what they have said elsewhere. Let us lay our views before the people and they shall decide who is right; for my part, I am willing at any time to exchange two errors for one truth. Come out, gentlemen, like men, and let us discuss the matters at issue.

      His assailants did not budge.

      "Boys, make room there. Now, gentlemen, come forward."

      Somewhat disconcerted, but still silent, the ministers arose and left the assembly, arm in arm.⁸

      Some, infuriated beyond all reason by what Scott was doing to the community, undertook a whispering campaign to besmirch his character. This attack also failed. In fact, it elicited so much sympathy for Scott that it called forth a handsome purse, which was given him as a token of sorrow and good faith.

      Another Methodist minister charged to the attack. Having announced in advance that he would expose the new teaching in their midst, he found himself standing before a large audience, which included Scott himself. The assailant, who undertook to attack the man rather than the principle, revealed his ugly mood by opening the service with the reading of a hymn:

      At the close of the outrage, the victim quietly asked the privilege which he himself always granted in his own audiences. He would like a few minutes to reply. He then addressed himself to principle, scrupulously avoiding personalities, and made such a lucid and courteous presentation that the epithet of "Wolf," so [78] clumsily hurled, turned like a boomerang to flatten his assailant.⁹

      The newly awakened gospel messenger was seeking something deeper than amiability. He wanted to heal the disunity of the church, but he did not expect to do it without surgery. He provoked opposition by assailing old orthodoxies right and left.

      "Wherein lies the boasted difference between baptism and the mourners' bench?" an irritated minister once asked one of Scott's converts.

      "There is this difference," the convert replied, "baptism is to be found in the Bible; the mourners' bench is obtained from the saw-mill!"¹⁰

      In a few brief weeks the tentative character of an unprecedented method of presenting the Christian religion had given way to an assured spiritual offensive. The preacher on horseback came and went with the urgency of a courier. He invaded communities. Disciples arose everywhere that he went, and everywhere enemies opposed him. Ministers of all denominations began to warn their communities against him.

      But Scott was confident of his message and he proclaimed it positively and boldly:

      Take the New Testament in your hand; read it diligently, call upon the Lord for direction faithfully, and follow whithersoever it leads the way. Take nothing upon trust; pin your faith upon no man's sleeve; to the law and the testimony. Believe in Christ, as the word teaches; put your whole trust and confidence in him; obey his precepts; worship God publicly and privately with sincerity and zeal; do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your Maker; and look for his mercy through Christ Jesus unto eternal life; and be assured all shall be well.¹¹[79]

      The campaign was on. It was to last unabated for the next four years.

      The energy and audacity of the Mahoning evangelist were unbounded. Thus he declared:

      The Ancient Gospel had set straight in my mind things which were formerly crooked. I felt my soul enlarged; the Lord had opened my eyes, and filled my mouth with arguments. . . . Accordingly I rushed upon the sinful people like an armed man.¹² [80]

[WSVGO 71-80]