HEN the Scott family moved from Cincinnati in 1833 to the little village along the canal, John was ten, Emily eight, William seven, and Samuel nearly three. A fourth son was born in Carthage; he was named Walter Harden Scott, after Harden House of the Scott Clan.¹ To this family of seven, guests and young ministers in training were liberally added, swelling the circle to the full capacity of the little house and to the limit of the host's small purse.

      For Walter Scott was no better as a manager here than on the Western Reserve; and he had no Daniel Hayden to protect him from his own generosity. Sarah often sent him out with the market basket and money to buy the groceries, only to see him returning later with basket as empty as his purse. He had found someone, friend or stranger, whose need he could not resist. Emptying his pockets to relieve distress became a compulsion with him. Once, when Alexander Campbell had given him a five-dollar gold piece, the prosperous Virginian was struck with amazement to see him give it away a few hours later to a bootblack. Walter had not troubled to look at it and thought it was a penny! For a while he owned two cows, but he could not bear the want of his neighbor who had none, so he made an equal division with him, each thereafter possessing one! At this the children complained a little. [137]

      "He gave away the cow with the bell!" they said to their mother. As best she could she soothed their hurt feelings for she knew and understood the visionary genius whom she had married.

      A house drab from poverty was made home by no outward decoration but only by the love and hospitality of those who dwelt within. Guests found a charm there that they could never forget. One of them told a friend of it long afterward:

      Reaching Carthage on a summer afternoon, I left my horse at the village inn, and directed my steps to the residence of Walter Scott. I found him on the porch reading, handed him my letter of introduction, after reading which he gave me a most cordial greeting and invited me into the house. After conversing a few minutes, he left the room and in a short time returned with a basin of water and a towel, and, in the kindest tones, said, "My young brother, permit me, in the name of the Lord, to wash your feet," and he immediately proceeded to do so; and while kneeling at his task kept me engaged in conversation until it was accomplished. Never did I realize till then what a lesson of humility such an act could convey, and the impression made upon my mind has never been effaced.²

      Foot washing was to Scott a sacrament of Christian friendship, to be practiced in the home, as he showed in a letter written to John S. Howard, under date of March 23, 1834:

      Beloved Brother: My views of the "washing of feet" are, that it is a good and charitable deed enjoined upon us by both the precept and example of the Lord Jesus. . . . It is one of the benevolent manners and customs of our kingdom, and to be attended to, unquestionably, on all suitable occasions. It is practiced in the families of those who have been chiefly instrumental in introducing the present reformation.³ [138]

      A religious atmosphere prevailed in this home. "Parents may be divided into three sorts," averred the host: "animal parents, rational parents, and religious parents."⁴ The Scotts were decidedly of the latter sort.

      Family worship was held following breakfast. While this meal was in preparation, all members of the household, including guests, and excepting only Mrs. Scott and Emily, who were cooking the food and setting the table, were busy committing Scripture to memory. After all had eaten, little Samuel led the way into the parlor, where all soon gathered. The father gave a signal glance to John, who began singing the Song of Moses. Then followed William with his verse: "And Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it; and the women, her neighbors, gave it a name, saying, a child is born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of David."

      Emily, her fancy arrested by William's verse, asked, "Father, where do you find the story of little Obed!"

      "In the book of Ruth; and a very pretty story it is," he said. "In the book of Ruth the simplicity of the early ages is very strikingly exhibited. It supplies the origin and pedigree of the royal family of David, of which it was promised that the Messiah, according to the flesh, should be born."

      Emily then repeated the whole genealogy of Jesus from Adam through Abraham and David, and ended up by reciting the second half of the first chapter of Matthew. She and her brothers were then committing the whole of this Gospel to memory.

      The exercises continued with a responsive reading, from memory, of a large portion of the Book of [139] Hebrews. This was done by Scott and B. U. Watkins, who was a young man then living with the family in order to receive private tutoring for the ministry. Alternate verses, and then alternate chapters, were recited, impressive attention being given to accuracy, pronunciation, and proper inflection.

      A second young minister recited the fifth chapter of 1 Timothy. Mrs. Scott added a passage from Matthew. The father sang the Song of the Lamb; the whole family joined in singing a hymn. Prayers were said, and the family separated for the duties of the day.

      Scott's taste for memorizing Scripture, acquired from Robert Forrester in 1819, had never dulled: "A chapter per day, will put the head of a family in possession of the entire New Testament in much less than one year, for there are only 260 chapters in the volume."⁵

      As soon as family worship was dismissed, Scott and his ministerial students would strike out across the fields for a walk and a lesson. Recitations of Scripture from memory were continued on these walks.

      Sometimes we repeated verse about, sometimes one recited till his memory failed, then the other began where he left off, and, thus the exercise was continued indefinitely, and on our return to the house, we again referred to the book if we were conscious of any defect of memory. . . . Over and above this memorizing, we studied together exegesis and criticism.⁶

      This emphasis was placed on the Bible, to the exclusion of theological systems, because in Scott's view the facts of religion were given by revelation and recorded in Scripture; speculation about these facts [140] produced theology. Faith came by accepting the facts, not by following the speculations, and the true church would appear and Christian union would come when such a faith was made central.

      But Scott did more than drill his students in Scripture. He taught them homiletics--the theory of preaching and church government. He taught them how to collect materials, organize their thinking.

      Nothing is more conducive to our advancement in real knowledge than a note book; and if it be accompanied with a Diary, by the aid of the two together, a man may, at all times of his life, pretty correctly ascertain where he is in knowledge and practice, and so shape his future conduct accordingly.⁷

      He taught them how to shape a sermon:

      To meet all the conditions of a fortunate address is exceedingly difficult. The speaker must think correctly and extensively; he must employ words that precisely sift out the sense; he must reason, for a speech without reasoning is like a song without a theme; he must illustrate, and, withal, adorn; but he must not be uncharitable, nor severe, nor sophistical, nor profuse, nor gaudy in the use of the graces and charms of his rhetoric.⁸

      From a letter addressed to a fellow minister in Kentucky come these points on homiletics:

      I fix on a verse for a text as we say. Then beginning at the beginning of the connection of which it is an element I give a pleasing and rapid current exposition of the context down to my verse.

      Having done this, I make a prayer, which is generally for myself. I then begin my discourse. In the first part of this whole business scripture dominates. In the last my reflection on the text predominates. In the first there is most of God, in the last there is more of man.⁹ [141]

      Not only did he tell them how to gather material and how to organize it; he also told them what to preach. His ideal preacher was one who made Christ the center of his discourse--Christ being the head of Christianity, when one received him one received his religion. Holding that the creed of Christianity, the matter to be believed, is a Person and not a doctrine, Scott insisted that the chief business of the preacher "was to point sinners to the Lamb of God."

      Where should a minister look for the greater part of his inspiration in his study of the Scriptures? Scott had a ready answer: Go to Christ rather than the apostles, to the Evangelists rather than the Epistles. "They are the pillars and gate-way of the holy temple. . . . If any man would work faith in his audience, let him give his days and nights, and weeks and years, to the study of the Evangelists." "I am not ashamed to acknowledge that twice a week for twenty-two months at a stretch I have discoursed on the Evangelist Matthew alone."¹⁰

      In delivering their sermons, preachers need not be afraid of wit and humor:

      What some people call fun in a preacher, is nothing more than tact oft times necessary, indispensably necessary to keep alive congregations, which have been accustomed to sleep under more sober, or, what oft times means the same thing, more senseless preachers.¹¹

      It was the opinion of the Carthage peripatetic that the preacher should first appeal to the judgment of his hearers. Religion should be made reasonable; but after that was done, the motives, promises, and threatenings of the gospel should be used to produce action. One need not be afraid to stir up emotions, or even to cry a little!¹² [142]

      This practice of tutoring young men in one's own home was in keeping with much of the educational usage of the day. Young men "read law" under a practicing attorney, or learned medicine firsthand, reading and working with a physician; and numerous ministers were groomed for their calling in the homes of older ministers whose reputation and influence commended them to this office.

      All through the years Walter Scott rendered such a service to the neophyte preachers of the Disciples. After they left his roof, he visited them on their fields or answered their questions by mail. Thus he became a kind of American Apostle Paul, training his Timothys and wrestling with "the care of all the churches."

      In a letter to one of these Timothys, we find the following:

      In relation to my notes, you shall have anything you desire. I am afraid I have not the time to copy them now, but I will do it, and send you the two you mention. Touching law-suits among brethren, they are shameful and not to be endured. Let them be done away and the cases arbitrated. As for brethren not speaking to each other, it is out of the question and unsufferable. Correct this. I am happy to have such good news of my own children in the common faith. They are also your children. I am happy they enjoy the benefit and keeping of your super vision. My love to Sister Cordin, Sister Smith and her family, Brother and Sister Shouse, Brother and Sister Smith, Brother Isaac, Sister Long, Father Douglas and his lamb, and the Doctor and his lady, Sister Jepee, and all the rest. . . . The Lord be with your spirit.

	Ever in Christ,
WALTER SCOTT. [143]

[WSVGO 137-143]