HEN Walter and Sarah Scott returned to Pittsburgh in the spring of 1844 it was with a family almost grown. John and Emily, who had been born there, were now twenty-one and nineteen. William was eighteen, Samuel fourteen. Walter Harden must have been about ten. The father of this family was himself forty-eight, and, as he nowhere tells us Sarah's birth date, we can merely assume that she was only a little younger.

      Pittsburgh at this time was rapidly progressing toward metropolitan status. Between 1840 and 1850 the city increased from 36,478 to 47,871 inhabitants. With its Western University, its Globe Cotton Factory, the Bank of Pittsburgh, Monongahela House, Market House, and the Third Presbyterian Church, it presented an air of prosperity. Mr. Naser's street hacks, each carrying twelve passengers and presided over by a driver who collected fares and blew his bugle at every intersection, furnished the arterial traffic system of this cultural and business center.¹

      While cities had been growing, the nation itself was expanding. The frontier was rolling farther westward every year. Whereas only a dozen years before, no more than 3 per cent of the total population of the United States lived west of the Mississippi River, now thousands upon thousands were penetrating beyond this river barrier. Sam Houston's "empire" of Texas was added to the Union in 1845; Arkansas had come in nine years earlier, and Michigan in 1837. Iowa was [188] to follow in 1846, and Wisconsin in 1848. At the same time, New Mexico and California were being carved from Mexico by fire and sword. Fremont was exploring the West.

      Scott was to live in Pittsburgh for the next five years, years which, but for one heartbreaking sorrow, were among the happiest of his life. His itching editorial pen was soon busy again, he continued his instruction of young ministers, preached for two Pittsburgh congregations, served as colporteur, carrying Bibles and Testaments from house to house, and spasmodically dashed off to many states to conduct revivals.

      Among those with whom Scott renewed acquaintances in Pittsburgh was the Forrester family, which had been the first to befriend him twenty-five years before. Robert H. Forrester, bearing his father's name, also continued in his father's path; and he and his father's old pupil soon outlined the plan of a new publication. It was to be a family newspaper, appearing every week, with "choice articles on Biblical Literature, Science, History, Biography, Missions, the Religious, Political, and Social condition of Foreign Countries." The ladies were to receive special attention in a column devoted exclusively to them and written by one of their number. There was to be, too, "an abstract of Foreign News, and also of Domestic News of striking importance." This newspaper, to "be printed on a double medium sheet, and issued every week," was to be called the Protestant Unionist. The terms, fashioned out of Scott's bitter experience with arrearages, were "two dollars per annum, invariably in advance." An office was set up, at the [189] corner of Third and Market, and the editors began their work.

      The major purpose of the Protestant Unionist was the same as that of the Evangelist:

      This paper will be devoted to the development and advocacy of original Christianity, as exhibited on the pages of the New Testament scriptures, unmixed with human tradition or institutions. The Editors will labor to effect that "consummation so devoutly to be wished for," the union of all Christians upon the foundation of the Bible alone.²

      This was one of sixteen living periodicals of the Disciples. Many others had come and gone, after their brief day. Among them all, only the Millennial Harbinger, after several years and several thousands of dollars of subsidy from the Campbell farm, paid its own way for any considerable time. Scott was speaking for all his fellow editors when he wrote, "The fact [is] that the editorial business in this reformation, with perhaps a single exception, has been done for fifteen years almost gratis."³

      On Thursday, April 10, 1845, the editorial offices of the Protestant Unionist were ravaged by the flames that consumed the city in the disastrous "Fire of 1845." It all began from an open fire on a back lot at Second Avenue and Ferry Street, where a washer-woman had left some water heating. At first, supposing that it would be put out, thousands of spectators gathered to watch; and then, as they realized that the blaze was out of all control, they scattered to save their belongings. Furnishings were piled into the streets for draymen who never came, and so waited only for the flames or the looters or both.⁴ By seven [190] o'clock in the evening, as Scott observed in an extra of his paper:

      Almost sixty broad acres of our dear city have become a Wilderness, in which nothing is beheld but stacks of chimneys, shattered colonnades, pillars of blackened stone, unshapely fragments of ruined workshops and overthrown factories, the leaning relies of ruined temples, edifices, and public buildings, now, alas! no more!

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      The broad acres, as they were convulsed by the fiery deluge and swept by the whirlwind of flame, presented a scene so vast and awful, and in some points so inconceivably grand and terrific, as to defy all our feeble powers of description. The ocean of tumult and fire would have supplied matters and marvels for the faculties of Dante or Milton.⁵

      Scott, who had known poverty so well all his days, was to become intimate with it yet again. There was nothing to do but pick up the charred, blackened pieces and start over.

      In the midst of his numerous activities, the Pittsburgh editor found time to write a few pieces for the Millennial Harbinger. Were they by way of peace offerings to Brother Alexander? Through the years of 1845, 1846, and 1847 he contributed six articles on "The Evidences of Christianity." Under date of September 11, 1846, from Jacksonville, Illinois, he mailed an article to Bethany on "Two Resurrections."⁶

      Alexander Campbell, in turn, quoted at various times from the Protestant Unionist, boosted the paper with his subscribers,⁷ and on one occasion angrily remonstrated with Alexander Hall for having purloined the Unionist and Harbinger lists of [191] subscribers from John Scott and Campbell's secretary, Mr. Arny.⁸ Gradually the rift which was opened in 1838 was healed.

      As indicated by the article from Jacksonville, Illinois, Scott the evangelist was also frequently in the field. Excerpts from a few letters written home during 1847 show the extent of this nervous energy:

      In company with our worthy brother, L. H. Jameson, we visited Highland County, Ohio, and labored at two or three points there during two weeks and a day. Seventy-seven persons in that period were added to the assemblies of Christ, and many hundreds of people heard the word.⁹

      From Kentucky, Sarah had this news: "We lately labored seventeen days and nights in succession at Minerva, Mason County, Kentucky. . . . Fifty persons, first and last, believed and were immersed."

      Still later she read this:

      I am just now at Versailles. The excitement is very great. After filling an appointment at Dover, and another at Beasley's Creek, where I had a very great audience, and where the church embraces many well-tutored saints, and has an eldership of great value in Christ Jesus, I proceeded to Paris, toward Lexington; but hearing, at the former place, that a meeting was in progress at Union, I turned aside and spent the night under the hospitable roof of the beloved in Christ, Elder J. Gano. . . . I visited Midway. . . . I returned to Lexington. . . .

      I also filled an appointment at Union. . . .

      I have preached and spoken three times a day for one week. And, thanks to our God in Christ Jesus, thirty have already made the good confession. . . . Even the eloquent orator, Thomas Marshall, has felt the excitement, and found out the power of the Lord. He was present last evening, and lent his devout attention to [192] my discourse. He even came up from the remotest corner of the house, where he had ensconced himself during the preachment, and stood boldly by the side of the pulpit.¹⁰

      In these years, as in former ones, he still spoke stridently and untiringly. The evangelistic passion was a burning fire in his bones.

      One of the joys of returning to Pittsburgh was the companionship of Samuel Church, one of Scott's earliest converts and finest friends. Church was still pastor of the congregation which he himself had gathered in Allegheny City following his baptism. Walter Scott had returned to the ministry of his old church, formerly Forrester's. Until the end of 1848 he served that congregation alone, but in December of that year he also became a teaching and preaching elder of the Allegheny church.

      The families of Church and Scott were thrown together upon terms as amicable as those of the two fathers. Walter and Sarah had the immense happiness of witnessing their two oldest children, John and Emily, married to Mary and William Church; and the bonds of friendship between Walter and Samuel were molded thereafter in flesh and blood.

      William Baxter, Scott's early biographer, preserved for us one month out of a now lost diary, showing Scott's multiple activities in this period.¹¹ They carry their own story:

FRIDAY, Dec. 1, 1848.

      The first day of my eldership. Studied, wrote, and walked to the top of the hill north. This is a great exercise for the lungs and limbs, yet a small price for the rest and fresh air with which it is rewarded at the [193] summit of the hill. It is like ascending to paradise. We breathe a more vigorous atmosphere and see all around the innumerable hills that form the main features of the country.

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      Sought to reclaim an erring brother. Visited another in reference to a family Bible. Spent the night in study.

LORD'S DAY, Dec. 3, 1848.

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      The Disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The day closed with a sermon by Dr. Slosson, during which I slept as sound as a top, and was awakened, to my shame be it spoken, only by the doctor himself, whom I found, to my astonishment on awaking, sitting by my side. But this came of my restless and fitful sleep of the preceding night.

MONDAY, Dec. 4, 1848.

      Studied Bell's Anatomy. What a marvel of mechanism is the human skeleton! . . .

      With firm, elastic tread I marched to the mountain, and felt that I had reached the summit without requiring, either for limb or lung, a single halt. Then again, I enjoyed the feast of a hundred hills, all lying in the quietude of the Infinite, who had formed them a feature of his own power. . . .

      I descended running; the entire length of the hill did not exhaust me. My mouth and muscles, my limbs and lungs stood it admirably. Made twenty or thirty calls. Had some talk both with Irish Catholics and Scotch Presbyterians.

DECEMBER 5, 1848.

      Called on a few families; promised a Bible and Testament to a poor black woman. Saw a young wife, who, with her husband, said they were Baptists, and from [194] England; six months only in this country and as yet had joined no religious community. Spoke with a family touching a family Bible, and with an acquaintance, an alien, of giving us a hearing.

DECEMBER 6th.

      Called on the black woman with the Bible and Testament I had promised yesterday. For the former I was to receive twenty-five cents; but on asking the woman of the welfare of her husband, she told me he was sick; that he was a Baptist, and a preacher. I could not think of taking the price of the book from her, and so gave the Bible to her, and the Testament to her little daughter. May God bless them both. . . . Spent almost the entire day hunting up the flock. Had several opportunities of fireside preaching. May God water what I planted! . . . A pastoral visit discovers the sore and enables the shepherd to put his finger on it on the spot. Publicly, a minister can say more, but do less. Privately, his field is narrowed down to the smallest possible dimensions, and, with the power brought thus near to the machinery, he acts with the greatest possible effect.

DECEMBER 8, 1848.

      Made a number of calls. Saw Sister C------, who informed me that her husband had died the last month, and left her with seven children. It was a sore case. Gave her ------, for which she seemed exceedingly thankful.

LORD'S DAY, Dec. 10, 1848.

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      In the afternoon; we had heaven upon earth; that is, we had the Lord's Supper.

LORD'S DAY, Dec. 17, 1848.

      In the afternoon, partook of the Lord's Supper with the brotherhood. It is usual for me or my colleague Bro. [195] Church to call on one of the brethren, to address the church at this solemn moment, but I do not approve of it; experience is against the custom, for I never can perceive that one of all who are invited to speak on the occasion sympathize with it, or are equal to it. They preach about every thing and any thing that is uppermost in their mind, and that is never the Supper. . . .

      The last and latest hours of this blessed evening were spent with my wife in reading, and in weeping over the piety, genius, and sufferings of the second Mrs. Judson, of Tavoy, India, as portrayed by her who has succeeded to the arms and affections of her eminent husband, Adoniram Judson, of Maulmain.

DECEMBER 19, 1848.

      In my descent from the mountain this morning, was saluted by Mother Thompson, who informed me both of Mrs. S------'s residence and her own. She is a widow. I have already obtained the names of twenty-four widows, all members of the congregation. What a field for the Christian philanthropist is this!

DECEMBER 25, 1848.

      Attended my theological class; greatly surprised by the students, who acquitted themselves beyond all expectations. In the four gospels, we see our religion founded; in the Acts, we see it organized; in the epistles, we see the church's pastoral superintendence; and in the Revelations [sic], we see her apostatized.

      These were years crammed full of activity, but they were happy years. Among other things he was again on a friendly footing with Alexander Campbell. He had seen his two oldest children married to a son and daughter of one of his dearest friends. Sarah had been happy near her relations in Westmoreland County, and he had done the work he loved. [196]

      Then, with the suddenness of an earthquake, the ground of his happiness dropped from beneath him. Illness came to Sarah, and scarcely had he adjusted himself to that, when on April 28, 1849, she slipped away from him into the Silent Land.

      In Bethany, word reached Campbell, and he wrote for his readers:

      I have heard, with profound sympathy, this, to me, unexpected event. But a few days ago I was at the house of brother Scott, and although neither he, nor his beloved consort, were in full health, yet I presumed that there were yet many years in store for them.¹²

      Scott was desolate. He had loved Sarah with all the tenderness of his affectionate nature. She had possessed that rare quality of saintliness necessary to one who should live with a man so generous, so impetuous, and so given to mountain peaks and valleys of mood. How he had depended on her! How she had encouraged him in the hours of doubt and through times of opposition!

      "The difficulties to which the infantile state of the connection subjected our laborers during the last twenty-two years, were known to her perhaps more than any other woman," he wrote in the Protestant Unionist, "but she still hoped on, and greatly animated her husband to persevere when these difficulties had well-nigh overcome his faith."

      Her husband, the best earthly witness--who feels that in her death the center of feeling and affection, and of moral and religious influence, is smitten down in the family--testifies that she was the best of wives, the tenderest of mothers, and the most faithful of friends--a Christian in faith, and works, and charity.¹³ [197]

      Pittsburgh having no more lure for him, he returned at once to Cincinnati, where he merged the Protestant Unionist with T. J. Mellish's Christian Age, and helped to edit the joint publication under the new name of the Christian Age and Unionist.¹⁴

      The brotherhood had now grown to more than 115,000 members,¹⁵ and the editors joined their voices to the swelling chorus calling for something more than district and state conventions, namely, a united national convention to be held at Cincinnati in October, 1849.¹⁶ The most insistent voices promoting this plan were those of D. S. Burnett and J. T. Johnson, of Kentucky. In 1845 Burnett had formed and been elected president of the American Christian Bible Society. Campbell had quarreled with him over its organization because it was not truly representative and later regarded its publication ambitions as a threat to his own monopoly. In August he had expressed his fears that the proposed convention might become a meeting of "Bookmakers or of Editors, to concoct a great book concern."¹⁷ When a national convention, to include the Bible Society, was called for October 24-28, 1849, in Cincinnati, Alexander Campbell did not attend himself but sent W. K. Pendleton to keep the Bible Society out of the publications field and to convey his determination not to accept the presidency unless his prescribed bounds were honored." Mr. Pendleton was successful in his mission, and the next year Mr. Campbell took the chair, to which he was re-elected each year until his death.

      Walter Scott, however, was at the convention. He had favored it and had worked to bring it to pass. Disciples from eleven states and one hundred churches were represented by 156 delegates. Twenty [198] vice-presidents were elected, of whom D. S. Burnett was first and Walter Scott was third. He continued among the rank of vice-presidents throughout the rest of his life and sometimes, in the absence of the president, became executive head of the Society. Never a year went by that he did not hold the delegates under the spell of his oratory with one of the principal addresses of the meeting.

      Walter Scott, aged fifty-three, could now look out upon the fruit of twenty-two years since the memorable day at New Lisbon. Here was a great and growing people, acquiring a sense of its own unity; and, though Walter was desolate in the loss of his bosom companion, his sorrow was tempered and mellowed by the sober joy of standing in the midst of so many who were his spiritual children and Christian companions. [199]

[WSVGO 188-199]