OW in the full heat of the battle, the "armed man" drove himself mercilessly. He spoke regularly three times a day, often in different places. In the morning it would be at a schoolhouse. Afternoon would find him with a wagon for a pulpit before a great outdoor audience in a grove, followed by an evening service at a church or a private home. If he was at a church, his hearers trailed him to the house where he was staying "to hear him out" until midnight or later. Often baptisms by torchlight in the wee hours of the morning followed these nocturnal sessions. Days and nights went by for months on end with an unbroken line of converts.

      Among these converts in 1828, there were a number of ministers from various denominations. They came bringing whole congregations, and through them the evangelistic force of Scott multiplied itself. Others of the converts proved to be talented lay preachers, and through them the power of the Mahoning messenger was vastly increased.

      Over a road, through a wood, along a forest path, he thrust his galloping horse. The pulsebeat in his throat kept time with the thudding hoofbeat, and the hurrying tempo became the rhythm of a singing "Hallelujah Chorus" within him. Mantled in his cloak, with a small polyglot Bible in minion type, which he had constantly at hand to study on every occasion--even while the horse was walking--he hurried from place to place to tell the news. When [81] someone remonstrated with him for being such a rapid rider, he replied, "The King's business requires haste."

      This urgency crept into his preaching, imparting to it an intensity and an air of breathless expectancy which gave it the pinions of soaring eloquence. In such times his speech became a rushing of wings, a skyward flight. His audience as one man swayed with the preacher, or rose to its feet and stood, all unconscious of itself, leaning forward, gulping down his words. And yet, his preaching was not the emotionalism to which his day was accustomed. It was clear, logical, persuasive reasoning, carefully wrought out and finished. He was not exhorting them to take up a tattered and a rejected duty. He was publishing the news. He was telling them something they had not heard before. If there was emotion in his presentation, it was not sentimentalism or mysticism or religious morbidity; it was the exaltation of discovery, the thrill of expectancy. His emotion was the emotion of an idea.

      A. S. Hayden, one of his converts in this memorable first year on the Western Reserve, lets us glimpse Scott the preacher through his eyes:

      "He seldom came into an assembly unprepared. Though attentive to all that was about him, his theme absorbed him, and it was matured. I have often seen him with his face bowed almost to his knees as he sat waiting the moment for opening, with his hands covering it, evidently lifting his soul like Jacob for a blessing."¹

      Mr. Scott was often eccentric; but he possessed the talent to sustain himself and turn his eccentricity to good account. On one occasion, when the whole country [82] around was almost tremulous with the excited state of feeling, he managed to slip into the assembly unobserved, and seating himself far back with his cloak well about his face, and his broad-brimmed hat well drawn down, he sat listening to the remarks of the assembling multitude. The reader must remember, as an excuse for the darkness of the room, that the candle was the "light of other days." The illuminating oil still lay concealed in God's great cellar.

      One man says, in a low tone: "What do you think of Scott?" without waiting a reply, "I never heard such a preacher; he is hard on the sects, but he has the Bible on his tongue's end."

      Another: "I never read such things in the Bible as he is telling us." His quick ear was catching these "droppings" of the people. The room became packed.

      "Do you think the preacher is coming?"

      "I wonder if he will not disappoint us tonight?"

      Then rising to full position, still sitting on his seat, laying back his cloak and removing his hat, Scott cried out in his magnificent voice, "And what went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? But what went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet."

      Then with a sweep, and brilliancy, and point that astonished and instructed all, he discoursed on the ministry of John the Baptist; the preparation of the gospel; the introduction of Jesus by him to the Jewish nation; and carried his audience up to the crucifixion, the resurrection and coronation of the Lord of glory, and the descent on Pentecost of the Holy Spirit, with the grand events of the "notable day of the Lord." It is needless to pause and describe the wonderful effect of this sudden outburst and powerful rehearsal of the gospel upon his astonished auditors.²

      No witness to the power of Walter Scott when he was at the peak of his eloquence is more convincing [83] than the unemotional Alexander Campbell. R. R. Sloan tells the story:

      Walter Scott, about 1829 or 1830, paid a visit to Western Virginia, and on one occasion preached in the woods between Wellsburg and Wheeling; the audience was large, the preacher more than usually animated by his theme; near him sat Alexander Campbell, usually calm and self-contained, but in this case more fully under the influence of the preacher's eloquence than he had ever been of mortal man before; his eye flashed and his face glowed as he heard him unfold the glories of redemption, the dignity and compassion of its author, and the honors that awaited those who would submit to his reign, until so filled with rapture and an admiration, not of the speaker, but of him who was his theme, that he cried out, "Glory to God in the highest," as the only way to relieve the intensity of his joy.

      Alexander Campbell was never known to have been so demonstrative at any other time.

      January, 1828, found Scott and James Mitchell at Warren. Late in 1827, the frontier evangelist had been riding down Buffalo Creek from Bethany toward Wellsburg when he met John Secrest and James G. Mitchell on their way to visit Alexander Campbell. As they sat on their horses talking casually, Scott said that he had grown tired of hearing people talk about their dreams and visions but uttering not one syllable about their obedience to Jesus Christ. Mitchell, who had been born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1805, and who was therefore only twenty-four years old at this time, was charmed by Scott's brogue and the manner of his conversation. Meantime, Scott had been sizing up Secrest's young companion. [84]

      "Does Brother Mitchell have any gift of exhortation?" he asked.

      "Yes. If he will keep humble, he can do much good."

      "I hope he will," Scott replied. "He is the man I want." Turning to Mitchell, he said: "You meet me at Brother Jacob Campbell's in New Lisbon, and we will away to Warren to besiege the town ten days and nights. I will preach and you will exhort, and we will make their ears tingle with the ancient gospel."³

      It was then the practice to distinguish between preaching and exhorting. Preaching was really teaching; it was laying the facts before the people; it was convincing the mind. Exhorting was persuasion, aiming at gaining confessions and baptisms. The stirring appeals of the exhorter could become quite emotional. Preacher and exhorter were seldom the same person, and it was as an exhorter that Scott had invited young Mitchell to Warren.

      Walter Scott had come to Warren unannounced to find Adamson Bentley on the defensive. He was unprepared to take the plunge into the radical change of Baptist practice which Scott's method involved.

      "I have got the saw by the handle and I expect to saw you all asunder," said Scott playfully, meaning the sundering of creeds and churches. He went on to say that this would upset conventional Baptist usage, but that it would leave the church purer and stronger. Bentley was still hesitant; he intimated that it would be better for Scott to come back at a later season. He was vague and evasive.

      Consulting his own zeal rather than Bentley's doubtful mood, Scott sent word over to Jacob Osborne, the [85] Warren schoolmaster, to have an announcement made that there would be a meeting at the Baptist church that evening. Bentley, hearing of this, countermanded the order, and closed the church against the meeting.⁴

      Scott, nothing daunted, announced the meeting for the courthouse. Only a handful came out, and these were mostly children. Mitchell said that his companion resorted to "anecdote, pathos, wit, eloquence and general remark," and that his address had great entertainment value, but little else. After a few minutes, Scott announced a meeting for the following night and departed. Mitchell had been anticipating the first address of the celebrated evangelist and he was disillusioned and disgruntled.

      "We had not gone far," he later wrote, "before I asked him if that was the way he was going to pursue in besieging the town of Warren!--and if that was his ancient gospel! If so, I have no further business in Warren."

      "Oh! my dear brother," he said, "there was no one there worth preaching to, and I just threw that out for a bait. Hold still, we shall have a hearing yet, and then we will pour the great truths of the gospel red hot into their ears!"

      "I thought possibly he was strategic in his method of gaining a hearing and concluded to wait the issue." They were staying at the home of Richard Brooks. Scott was cheerful and sociable.⁵

      The next day Scott and Osborne, meeting with Bentley, overcame his opposition. The meeting that night was announced for the Baptist church.⁶

      Regarding the incident, Mitchell wrote: [86]

      At the appointed time we started for the meeting. Passing up, we found it [the Baptist church] crowded to its utmost capacity, and a number on the outside. Giving me an elbow touch, "Do you see them nibbling at the bait?" said he.

      "Yes," I told him, "I see plenty of people present." We pressed our way through the dense crowd to the pulpit. We sang his favorite song--

"Come and taste along with me Consolation running free From my Father's wealthy throne, Sweeter than the honey-comb."

      I opened with prayer. After it, he arose and read the third and fourth chapters of Matthew. The baptism of Christ and the temptation, was his theme. He straightened himself to his full height, his great chocolate eyes glistening, his whole face full of animation and earnestness. He brought his siege guns into position, and for an hour and a half the house rang with his eloquence. I shall not attempt to give an outline, for no man could do justice to that sermon. . . . He was powerful, lofty, sublime. I had never heard such a discourse, so touching, so telling, not only on me, for the whole audience was moved.

      This sermon brought three persons forward to make their confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ. "These persons," Scott announced, "will be baptized tomorrow after sermon, for the remission of their sins."

      The siege was now fairly commenced. Up to the next Thursday an incessant fire was kept up day and night. The ancient gospel was poured into their ears. They were astonished, amazed. They got their Bibles, and went to reading and searching for the truth. No word fell on the floor, or hit the wall--all were eagerly caught and tried by the Book. They could do nothing against it; it was the simple gospel of Christ in its facts, and commands, and promises. We baptized every day, and sometimes the same hour of the night.⁷ [87]

      On January 26, 1828, Samuel Robbins wrote in his diary, "All the Baptist [church] went from Braceville Ridge to Warren, to hear Walter Scott preach; for they heard he was turning the world upside down."⁸

      The people soon began following Scott and Mitchell to the home of Richard Brooks after meeting, holding them there until so late at night that the two were exhausted from lack of sleep. One evening, after dismissal at the church, Mitchell said, "Do not let the people know where we are going, and we will slip over to Brother Jacob Harsh's and get a good night's rest."

      Arriving at Harsh's according to tactical plan, Mitchell retired, leaving Scott by the fire drying his clothes, for there had been baptisms that night, as every night. There came a knocking at the door, and the house was soon filled. The eager Galilean crowd would not let him escape.

      "If you follow me to learn of the ancient gospel, I will pour it into your ears as long as I can wag a word off the end of my tongue," Scott told them. And he spoke, moving several deeply. Mitchell had fallen asleep, and Scott went to wake him, asking him to deliver one of his touching exhortations.

      "I would be in a fine mood, Brother Walter, to exhort the people just aroused from sleep," Mitchell protested.

      "The iron is hot; one stroke when hot is worth a dozen when it is cold!" So Mitchell came out. Several more were baptized that night, among them John Tait, who had formerly threatened Scott for baptizing his wife, and the Reformation gained another forceful advocate.⁹ [88]

      The whole Baptist church was won over, and scores from the outside community. Adamson Bentley was completely captivated and from that time on added his powerful influence to the movement.

      February 1, 1828, was the date of the next quarterly meeting. It was held at East Fairfield. Mitchell and Scott stayed at the home of Elder John Ferrall. They commenced at candlelight and continued for ten days. There were thirty-seven additions, all of them new converts. Then Mitchell left to attend to his own previous appointments.¹⁰ The whole church there, with the exception of five or six, voted to take Scott's position as a gospel church.

      Shortly after this, a colony of Methodists from Virginia moved to Fairfield; they had come as a group, preacher and all. Benjamin Patterson presided over this determined little colony, bent at all costs upon maintaining their own solidarity, civil or religious. Benjamin Saunders, a lay preacher of the Reformers, came along and spoke so forcefully that he captured Rev. Mr. Patterson and left the flock so shaken that they, too, were soon gathered into the fold.¹¹

      The nature of Scott's activities within the next few days is shown by further excerpts from the diary of Mr. Robbins:

      Feb. 23, 1828. Went from the Ridge to Windham. In the evening he spoke in the school-room, near Dr. Thomas Wright's. Father Rudolph and his two sons, John and Zeb, were present. Spoke first-rate. Remarked he was like an eight-day clock--he would speak on Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Remission of Sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and wind up! Having a desire to hear him through, David T. Robbins and myself went with Mr. Scott to the hospitable families of the Rudolphs; staid all night. [89]

      Next day, February 24, Lord's day, we all met at the house of Mr. Chapin, who was a Methodist. Mr. Scott spoke on faith to a room crowded full. Dr. Thomas Wright, myself, D. T. Robbins and others came forward, which excited Mr. Chapin so he got up and opposed. In the evening, met at Mr. Rudolph's: a good meeting.

      Feb. 25, 1828. Scott preached in the school-house in Garrettsville--more came forward. Agreed to meet the next Wednesday in the school-house near Dr. Wright's, when Scott would preach and immerse the candidates.

      On Wednesday, the 27th, almost the whole town came out. Bro. Scott spoke feelingly. Then Dr. Thomas Wright, myself, David T. Robbins and others, nine in all, were immersed. Ice a foot thick. Great excitement among the people, it being the first immersion in Windham. Very cold; though our hearts were warm and rejoicing.

      Tuesday, March 4, 1828. Scott again at the same place; immersed three more.

      March 5, 1828. Preached again; baptized Father Abraham Seymour and three others.¹²

      Returning to Canfield, he made the pleasure of being home for a short time with Sarah and the children serve the business of his gospel. He opened his plea at Myron Sackett Is in Canfield. "The interest became an excitement."¹³

      In February, Adamson Bentley went as Scott's forerunner to Austintown. He spoke to a meeting in the schoolhouse, where William Hayden was master. There was one convert. The next night, meeting in a private home, there were nine others, including John Henry and his wife. John Henry later became one of the most effective lay preachers in the Reformation. He was a plain farmer who possessed marked musical talent with the wind and stringed instruments, for which he composed some original pieces. He also had [90] an elephantine memory. Reputedly, he memorized the whole Bible. He was later known far and wide as the "Bible with a Tongue in It," or the "Walking Bible." It was said that he could quote all passages on any subject with chapter and verse. His preaching, delivered in rapid syllables as fast as the ear could catch them, was nearly all in scriptural language. Mixing preaching with farming at the beginning, farming soon became the avocation, and was then crowded out entirely, as this earnest man followed a pattern which was to become common on the Western Reserve.

      On March 19, Scott followed upon the work of Bentley at Austintown. Five more were baptized, including A. S. Hayden and his brother, both of whom became ministers of the Reformation. A. S. Hayden later wrote a competent, comprehensive, and accurate book entitled Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio. On March 20 there were twelve more converts, and so on along the same line for a week. In mid-June Scott and Bentley returned to constitute the church at Austintown. There were 110 members, of whom two-thirds were new converts. The congregation was put under the charge of William Hayden.

      It was also in March of 1828 that Sidney Rigdon, who was later to abscond to the Mormons, met Walter Scott at Warren. Rigdon, who was a brother-in-law of Bentley, and who was possessed of erratic genius, was transported by Scott's sermons and rode in all haste back to Mentor, where he used the Scott formula and won twenty converts.

      All the while these things were happening, Alexander Campbell, from the eminence of his celebrity, looked out from Bethany across the Ohio to the [91] Western Reserve with watchful eye. The reports he had been receiving unsettled him. He wondered whether his friend, Walter, had allowed his well-known impulsiveness to run away with him. Perhaps his zeal had broken loose from knowledge, or had even mangled knowledge all out of recognition. The Western Reserve was at this time the chief stronghold of the Campbellian influence, and he did not wish to lose it. His apprehension finally grew to such a pitch that he prevailed upon his father to visit the Mahoning churches and make a private investigation of what was transpiring there.

      Thomas Campbell arrived in April. He visited New Lisbon, Fairfield, Warren, Braceville, Windham, Mantua, Mentor, and other centers of Scott's activities. Wherever he went, he conducted more than an investigation, for such was the bearing and personality of this saintly author of the Declaration and Address that his presence was like the breathing of a prayer. "Uniting the simplicity of a child with the dignity of a senator," Thomas Campbell addressed and counseled wherever he went, strengthening and reinforcing the churches.

      What Father Campbell saw impressed him as a new and positive contribution to the Reformation, and so on April 9, 1828, he reported to Alexander:

      I perceive that theory and practice in religion, as well as in other things, are matters of distinct consideration. It is one thing to know concerning the art of fishing--for instance, the rod, the line, the hook, and the bait, too; and quite another thing to handle them dextrously when thrown into the water, so as to make it take. We have long known the former (the theory), and have spoken and published many things correctly concerning the ancient gospel, its simplicity and perfect adaptation [92] to the present state of mankind, for the benign and gracious purposes of his immediate relief and complete salvation; but I must confess that, in respect to the direct exhibition and application of it for that blessed purpose, I am at present for the first time upon the ground where the thing has appeared to be practically exhibited to the proper purpose. "Compel them to come in," saith our Lord, "that my house may be filled."

      Mr. Scott had made a bold push to accomplish this object, by simply and boldly stating the ancient gospel, and insisting upon it; and then by putting the question generally and particularly to males and females, old and young. Will you come to Christ and be baptized for the remission of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit? Don't you believe this blessed gospel? Then come away. This elicits a personal conversation; some confess faith in the testimony, beg time to think; others consent, give their hands to be baptized as soon as convenient; others debate the matter friendly; some go straight to the water, be it day or night, and upon the whole none appear offended.¹⁴

      In April, Scott came riding into Salem from Austintown. Prejudice met him. The Rev. Mr. Vallandigham, the humiliated Presbyterian minister of New Lisbon, had been there and had sown the community with the tares of hostility. As soon as Scott began speaking, the mood of Salem began changing to one of mingled delight, wonder, and doubt. People took sides.

      "Why was this not found out before?" some asked.

      "I know not, except that the time is only just now come for these truths, so long hid from our eyes, to be found out."

      "But if it is true," said others, "our preachers would have seen it long ago; it would not have been left for Campbell and Scott to find out at this day." [93]

      "Yes," it was answered, "just so objected all the Catholic clergy to Luther and the old reformers."¹⁵

      In ten days there were forty converts. After receiving these forty into the Salem Baptist church without the orthodox requirements of experiences, Scott was elated.

      "Who will now say there is a Baptist Church in Salem?" was his parting shot as he sped on his way to another engagement.

      When he had gone, his remark began to sink in. Alarm grew into revolution. The old regime prevailed, and the order was issued that all the new converts of the recent revival should relate an experience. The result was "a split." Most of Scott's converts were ultimately drawn together in the "Phillips Church," which met in the home of Robert P. Phillips, about three miles from Salem.¹⁶

      It was at about this time, in the spring of 1828, that Aylette Raines, a Universalist minister at large, came into the Western Reserve from Kentucky. The distinctive doctrine of his sect was that punishment for the wicked after death is a purgative one, so that ultimately all souls are "restored" to God. This teaching of universal restoration caused him and his fellows to be labeled "Restorationists."

      Raines was at this time thirty-one years old, just one year younger than Scott. Among the first crumbs of news that he began picking up as he entered the Reserve were about the raging torrent over Walter Scott and his new gospel.

      Misrepresentations--not to use a harsher term--were as numerous as blackbirds in August. . . . "Just say you believe, and let a preacher dip you, and there could be [94] no scriptural doubt of reaching--no matter what the life might be subsequently--the heavenly inheritance!".  . . After a few weeks I concluded to hear Bro. Scott for myself.

      This was to take place at Windham in the home of our friend of the diary, Mr. Robbins. Raines had previously announced his intention to debate with Scott following the meeting.

      Well, we assembled, a compact congregation. Bro. Scott, after singing and prayer, read first Corinthians, first chapter. He preached it through, not forgetting to state and defend what he styled the six points of the gospel. I was greatly surprised. But when he called for objections, I was confounded. I could see the heads of my brethren moving to the right and left, in the crowd, expecting to see me rise to my feet. But they didn't see me rise! The reason was, I felt certain that if I opposed, Bro. Scott, I would expose myself. His discourse appeared to me, at every point, invulnerable. And so, when we were dismissed and out in the yard, my old brethren gathered around me and asked, "Bro. Raines, what do you think of the discourse?" And let me say here that I think my first answer will be my last; "I can do nothing against the gospel as preached by Bro. Scott; unless I should live to disgrace it; which may our gracious Lord forbid!"

      Raines returned to hear Scott three times. After the third sermon, the two fell to discussing "restoration." Scott described this as a gospel to get people out of hell, whereas the gospel he preached was to prevent them from going there. Raines's gospel was for the next world; his was for this world. He also insisted that restorationism was a speculation, and no part of the gospel, one way or another. As such, it should be laid aside in the interest of preaching Christianity upon Bible models exclusively. In any case, [95] such a speculation, or the lack of it, would not be made a test of fellowship. This was a familiar Lockian position, shared with Alexander Campbell.

      Raines now tore himself away to meet his own appointments.

      "I resolved that I would preach as Bro. Scott had done." This course served to convince him beyond recall, and he wound up at the home of Ebenezer Williams, a fellow minister, also a Universalist, at Ravenna.

      I submitted to him, at his own house, my views of the gospel. He received them, and we were mutually immersed for the remission of sins. After this, I immediately retraced my steps, and within five weeks, I immersed fifty persons, three of them talented Restorationist preachers [Ebenezer William, David Sinclair, and Theophilus Cotton].¹⁷

      Thomas Campbell was now riding with Walter Scott everywhere over the Reserve. The two men became fast friends and proved to be an effective team.

      Several members from the Sharon church, just across the state line in Pennsylvania, on the Shenango River, had visited and communed with the reformed congregations at Warren and Hubbard near them. Among these were an elderly farmer, John McCleary, and his son, Hugh. In the dissension that followed, the Sharon people labeled the McClearys "Campbellites." The labeled ones were able to convince their neighbors, however, that they ought not to condemn a cause unheard. The upshot was that Scott and Adamson Bentley were invited to Sharon to present their own version of the gospel. Hugh McCleary delivered the invitation on horseback. [96]

      The two men came. Bentley preached two nights. Scott followed him and continued for three weeks. Several responded and were immersed in the Shenango River. These were promptly refused admittance to the Sharon church. But there still remained the question, "What is to be done about the heretics who are already in?"

      Thomas Campbell was sent for to end the quarrel. He pleaded, expostulated, reasoned, and prayed with them to receive the new converts upon the word of God alone as the bond of union and not upon their articles of faith. It was all in vain. At the June meeting of the congregation it was decided not to receive the new converts and to exclude those within the membership who had become infected with the poisonous doctrines of Scott. George Bentley, Adamson's brother, and Hugh McCleary were expelled, but elderly John McCleary was deferred to because of his age.

      "Father McCleary," they said, "we regard you as a good Christian man; and though you have in a measure, adopted the views and even broken bread with those who have departed from the Baptist faith, we regard you as having been led away by your son and some younger men; but we want you to stay with us; we have confidence in you yet."

      With great emotion, the old man arose and said, "Brethren, I cannot accept your offer; if you reject my brethren, I must go with them, for they are better men than I am."¹⁸

      The excluded disciples began meeting in Daniel Budd's barn, and soon other converts were added to the original core until there were 100. The Baptist church, suspiciously watchful behind the fortresses of her affronted orthodoxy, snooped for more heresy [97] in her midst. The wives of Benjamin Reno, a deacon, and James Morford, the church clerk, had met with the Reformers at Hubbard. A resolution was offered, excluding all who had communed with the Reformers. At this, James Morford threw down his pen.

      "I refuse to record such an ungodly act!" he said.

      Reno also arose, "I can no longer remain with you after such an un-Christian course."

      So in travail and strife was born the church of Sharon.

      Twelve months raced by, and it was August 29, 1828, time for the annual meeting of the Mahoning Association at Warren.¹⁹ The assembly convened at two o'clock, with Alexander Campbell delivering the opening sermon on Romans, chapter 14. There were no delegates and no reports from four churches, formerly within the Association: Hartford, Youngstown, Sandy, and Achor; but five new churches had been received, which brought the reported membership of the Association in this meeting up to 1,004. The four disaffected churches, had they been represented, would have increased this to a total of 1,200, nearly double the size of the Association in any year of its previous history. In the old churches of the Association there had been 307 baptisms, and the new ones, created wholly by such baptisms, showed a total of 284 more, or 691 within the Association for the year. Stephen Wood of Palmyra, who was moderator for the year, wrote somewhat gleefully in his corresponding letter to sister Baptist associations:

      You will see from the preceding Minutes, that very considerable additions have been made to several churches, besides the additions of several new ones to [98] our body. These, however, are but the half of the actual number which have been by our means, immersed into the Lord Jesus during the last year. But we do not rejoice only in the actual addition of so many new converts, but also in the increased light, harmony, and zeal of the brethren, who have long since professed faith in the Lord Jesus.

      Taking Moderator Wood's remarks at face value it would seem that Walter Scott had been instrumental in baptizing more than one thousand between August of 1827 and August of 1828.

      Brother Wood was not going to leave the sister associations in the dark about the source of their increase:

      We have been taught of God, and by our own experience, to know, that the simple proclamation of the ancient gospel, in the very terms and phrases found in the sacred record, is just the right means, the wisdom and power of God unto salvation, and to the restoration of ancient order of things.

      It was out of the same happiness that the Association voted to send Walter Scott, Adamson Bentley, Marcus Bosworth, and Brother Ferguson as messengers to the Grand River Association that year; Alexander Campbell to the Washington Association; Archibald W. Campbell to the Stillwater Association; and to request correspondence with the Killbuck Association, the Stillwater Association, and the Washington Association. Good news will not be confined.

      Walter Scott reported to the Association:

      To persuade men to act upon the divine testimony, rather than to wait upon uncertain and remote [99] influences; to accept disciples on a simple confession of repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and to baptize them for an immediately personal acquittal from their sins through the blood of Christ, and for the Holy Spirit, are matters which have caused great public excitement. This excitement, however, has only turned out to the furtherance of the gospel; and we bless God, who has taught us by his Apostles, that, as the divine testimony may be received when understood, and understood when honestly listened to; so it may be acted upon the very moment it is received. Therefore, the enjoyment of remission and of the Holy Spirit is not a thing of tomorrow, but of today.

      The Association of 1827 had charged Scott to hold four quarterly meetings to raise money for his own support; but Scott, ever forgetful of self in matters of money, reported, "Beloved brethren, the bustle of conversion has precluded the possibility of holding more than two quarterly meetings."

      It was not surprising, therefore, that the table of contributions in the minutes of 1828 shows only $313.90¾. New Lisbon had given $66.51; Wellsburgh, $58.00; Warren, $58.12; Salem, $40.00, etc. No wonder Scott had to confess:

      "All the monies which I have received have been expended in the payment of a horse, saddle, bridle, portmanteau, rent, and a balance of 25 on a wagon; and even of the amount of these, nearly 30 dollars have been borrowed, which I beg the Association may be careful at this time to refund.

      While I conceive the pecuniary power of this business not to have received that attention from some, which was reasonably anticipated, I have nevertheless to acknowledge the kindness of many individuals, also, of some of the churches, particularly that of Wellsburg, of Warren, of Canfield, Mantua, Salem, and New Lisbon.

      He undertook to acknowledge the hospitality he had received in the various homes of the Association.

      The families of Dr. Wright, brother Harsh, and brother Brookes [sic] of Warren; brother Gaskill, of Salem; and brother Jacob Campbell, of New Lisbon, are of acknowledged hospitality, and have entertained not only me, but the whole church in their respective towns during these revivals; and with them those whose names follow, viz.--The Rudolphs, the Deans, the Sacketts, the Drakes, the Hays's [sic], the Haydens, the Austins, the Smyths, the Turners, etc.

      He also made just allowance for the help he had received from fellow ministers, some of them converts of his own preaching:

      The signal success which has attended the labors of brothers Bentley, Rigdon and Gaston, is known to you all. Father Thomas Campbell has been about five months on the field, both increasing the number of disciples, and building them up in all the wisdom of the Just One. Brother Osborne abandoned all to come up to the help of the Lord; but his first efforts disabled him. Ministers from several sects have embraced the ancient gospel, and preached it with great success. No fewer than six new churches have been formed, one of them with more than a hundred members; and the following brethren are now your preachers. Bosworth, who has already baptized many; Finch, Ferguson, Hayden, Wright, McLeery [sic], Osborne, Jackman, Rudolph, Scott, Campbell, Rigdon and Bentley.

      The unprecedented successes of the Association evangelist led its members to vote the reappointment of Walter Scott for another year, with the same loose and impoverishing financial arrangement. A contribution of $35.50, taken up in a collection on August 31, was paid over to Scott and Hayden for the beginning [101] of their work! The minutes bear witness to the realization that the work had outgrown the strength of one man:

      "Voted, That brother William Hayden be appointed an assistant to brother Scott."

      Thomas Campbell was invited to spend the next winter within the borders of the Association.

      There arose a debate as to whether Walter Scott and William Hayden should confine themselves to the bounds of the Mahoning Association in their future evangelizing. After discussion pro and con had dragged itself out to weariness, Sidney Rigdon rose and said, "You are consuming too much time on this question. One of the old Jerusalem preachers would start out with his hunting shirt and moccasins and convert half the world while you are discussing and settling plans."

      Scott arose. His experience of the previous twelve months had taught him to expect great things, and he said, "Brethren, give me my Bible, my head, and Brother William Hayden, and we will go out and convert the world."²⁰ [102]

[WSVGO 81-102]