Unique among the religious forces of the world are the ten thousand independent congregations known locally as Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ or Christian Churches, and animated by the one supreme and controlling purpose of giving the Lord Jesus Christ supremacy in all things. The movement began a hundred years ago in several quarters of the United States. Since then many independent beginnings have been made on virtually the same basis; all of which have merged into the general movement on becoming acquainted with its spirit and plea.

      The movement appears under four chief aspects: As a reformation, a restoration, a union and a crusade.

The Current Reformation.

      Foremost of those who began at the first of the nineteenth century to protest against the unscriptural divisions in the family of God and to renounce all human creeds as tests of Christian fellowship, were Barton W. Stone of Kentucky, who took this position in 1803, and Thomas Campbell, a recent immigrant from the north of Ireland, who published "A Declaration and Address" in 1809, Washington, Pa.

      The question was not as to whether the creeds were true or erroneous. The sad experience of the Christian world had demonstrated that they were necessarily divisive. In later years a current statement, attributed to Alexander Procter of Missouri, has had general acceptance: "If the creed contains more than the Bible, it includes too much; if it contains less than the Bible, it contains too little, and if it is just the same as the Bible, it is unnecessary."

      The plea was that every individual should "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free." If he wishes to formulate a creed for himself, based upon the teachings of God's word, that is his privilege; but he has no right to force it upon anyone else. At the same time it is not only his right but his duty to resent and resist any effort to compel him to accept as authoritative anything outside the plain teachings of Christ and his inspired apostles.

      These new reformers accepted gratefully the fruits of the Lutheran Reformation, but protested that it had stopped short of the goal and crystalized into a sect that was scarcely less intolerant than Rome. They honored Calvin and his insistence upon the sovereignty of God, but refused to wear the yoke which he sought to bind upon all believers. They accepted the full, legitimate fruitage of the great Wesleyan Revival, but declined to give themselves into subjection to the Methodist system. So they appreciated the good that had been wrought by Baptists and Independents, but were equally unable to put themselves under the hard and fast restrictions of either of these parties.

      Crying out against both the divisions of the one church of Christ, and the intolerance of all the creeds and sects, they lifted the watchword "Back to Jerusalem," and sought to heal all the divisions in the body of Christ by adopting at once a creed that would forever need no revision, being nothing more nor less than the great confession pronounced by Peter and endorsed by our Lord himself: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." This, they insisted, was by our Lord's own authority, broad enough to include all Christians and narrow enough to exclude all who are not [57] Christians. Not only so, but they soon and generally began to teach that this is not a propositional but a personal creed; that it demands, not faith about Christ, but faith in Christ. In the preaching of a hundred years every sermon has ended with the direct appeal to the hearers for immediate and outspoken decision: "Do you accept Christ?"

      The mainspring of the movement was a rediscovery of the great intercessory prayer of our Lord in the seventeenth chapter of John: "That they may all be one, that the world may believe," and the recovery of the book of Acts as the beginning of the prayer's fulfillment in the ministry and mission of a united and victorious church.

      The reformers said: "Let us renounce all our party names, absolve ourselves from all man-made creeds, forget all our prejudices and all our traditions, all our prides, and all our possessions outside of Christ, and restore the Christianity of Christ and His apostles in its message, its form and its life."

The Restoration of the Christianity of Christ.

      Immediately they began to preach, both publicly and from house to house the gospel of the first century instead of the theology of the eighteenth century. Their textbooks for this proclamation were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They memorized these sacred writings. "Protracted meetings" lasting two and four weeks and longer, were held that were simply straightforward and glowing expositions of one or another of these holy documents. Both logically and experimentally it was found in accordance with Romans 10:17: "Belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." This eliminated at once the dependence upon the direct, miraculous operation of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts of sinners and the arbitrary bestowal of faith as a gift from God to the elect. They recited the facts of the gospel and found that belief of the story led regularly to the acceptance of Christ as both Lord and Saviour.

      The recognition of Christ as King involves implicit obedience to him. The believer, like Saul of Tarsus, cries out, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" First and most fundamental of the Saviour's commands is "Repent." The mission of the Son of God in the world was "to save his people from their sins." Since man is a free moral agent, he must concur in this process by renouncing sin and choosing holiness. It is not sufficient to believe--"The devils also believe and tremble." There must be a change of heart, a right-about face. As the prophets of old had preached, "Cease to do evil, learn to do well." This had been the burden of the preaching of John, the forerunner, and continued without abatement throughout the personal ministry of the Lord himself.

      He commissioned his apostles to establish the church. In compliance with this holy charge, when the condition which he had named had been fulfilled in the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the first gospel sermon was preached and three thousand souls became obedient to the faith, thus inaugurating the Church of Christ in the world, with the same sanction of divine approval that had commended the beginning of the Saviour's personal ministry. More than a coincidence there is manifestly in the facts that Jesus asked baptism of John in the Jordan where he was preaching baptism for the remission of sins, saying "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness," and that the answer of Peter and the rest of the apostles on the day of Pentecost to the three thousand who cried out in faith, "Brethren, what shall we do?" was, "Repent ye, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

      The primary command to be baptized is to be obeyed implicitly. This requires that its subjects must be such as can believe and repent. That it must be immersion in water is clearly indicated by the meaning of the word itself and the context of every reference to baptism. The design is the remission of sins, "not by putting away the filth of the flesh, but by the interrogation of a good conscience toward God. Infant baptism was necessarily excluded, not only by the requirement of faith and repentance, but by the failure to find scriptural reference to baptismal regeneration, the theological dogma on which infant baptism was originally based. Emphasis was placed upon the spiritual significance of the ordinance and its merely ceremonial character set aside. It is the outward expression of faith. It is the sacred symbol of the Lord's death and resurrection. It is typical of the new birth into the Kingdom of Christ. It is the initial step of the penitent believer in a life of [58] obedience. Its whole value is in its relation to the Christ in whose name alone it is valid.

      As the facts of the gospel were accepted and the commands of the gospel obeyed, the promises of the gospel were realized. First, there is the remission of sins; second, the gift of the Holy Spirit as the abiding comforter in the heart of the believer. As he "continues steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers," he shall be "kept by the power of God" and share an incorruptible inheritance with the saints in light.

      Examination of the New Testament records seemed to show conclusively that the church established in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and the local congregations set up in Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome and elsewhere by the inspired apostles, kept every first day of the week as a day of rest and worship, the "Lord's Day," in memory of the Saviour's resurrection, and on that day regularly celebrated the Lord's Supper, which he had instituted, "the same night in which he was betrayed." As baptism was a solemn covenant between the individual believer and his Lord, expressive of faith on the one hand and redemption on the other, so was the Lord's Supper a weekly pledge of love and fellowship between the soul and his Saviour. Therefore, the table is spread in the name of the Lord and the church neither invites to it nor debars from it, but enjoins all who are in Christ to remember him in accordance with his expressed desire.

      As the local New Testament church was presided over by elders or bishops to look after its spiritual interests and served by deacons to minister to its necessities in temporal affairs, this general order of organization has been followed, with an effort to choose for the officers those members who manifest the moral and spiritual qualifications specified in the epistles. Where elders and evangelists give their entire time and strength to the ministry of the word, the prevailing custom, in accordance with apostolic injunction, is to supply them their living.

Christian Union.

      At the outset the reformers refused to establish separate churches. The Christian Association at Washington was made up of members of many different churches and was really a missionary society, its one declared purpose being the preaching of the gospel in needy parts. When they were refused fellowship in all the existing churches, they improved the occasion by establishing congregations as nearly as possible after the normal New Testament pattern. It is generally accounted that the first was that of Brush Run, near West Middletown, Pa., in 1811, though the erection of its building was commenced in the previous year. The membership of these churches, as of the Christian Association of Washington, was drawn from different quarters so that from the first there was not only a plea for Christian union, but the practice of it. In the earnest desire to heal rather than hurt the body of Christ, the Brush Run church in 1813 united with the Redstone Baptist Association, having been refused admission into the presbytery of Pittsburgh.

      The opposition among the Baptists compelled the Campbells and their friends to remove from the Redstone Association to the Mahoning Association in 1823, and this having practically accepted in full the position and principles of the reformers, dropped the Baptist name and the associational organization in 1829. At about the same time Thomas and Alexander Campbell, his son, who had become the real leader of the movement, were powerfully reinforced by union with Walter Scott, a Presbyterian from the University of Edinburgh, who had independently arrived at substantially the same position. In 1831, Mr. Campbell and Barton W. Stone united their forces in a memorable meeting at Lexington, Ky. Some of Stone's followers, however, never consented to the coalition, but continue to this day in a denominational organization as the "Christian Church."

      Not only were these three main currents and many tributary streams of reformers thus united in one mighty movement, but into all of these had come in happy fellowship representatives of all existing denominations, both protestant and Romanist. There was not only a union of believers, but synthesis of excellencies in the continued life of all the churches.

      As the movement has grown for a hundred years, it furnishes a continuous acceptance of the apostolic injunction in First Corinthians, which, paraphrased for America, would read, "All things are yours; whether Luther, or Calvin, or Wesley, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is [59] God's." The church of the future must be the church of Christ, claiming all the mighty leaders whom he has raised up from the beginning, as its servants for Christ's sake. It must be formed, not by a compromise nor by elimination, but by coalition and comprehension and accumulation, until we shall have a body as self-sacrificing as the best Romanist; as pious as the best Presbyterian, as enthusiastic as the best Methodist, as loyal as the best Baptist, as missionary as the best Moravian, as free as the best Congregationalist.

      Since the inception of this movement many other powerful forces have been making for union within the Church of Christ. Chief of all and all pervasive is the mighty missionary revival of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Strongly tributary to the general current are the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, the Student Volunteer Movement and the Laymen's Missionary Movement, and especially the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. The division of God's people has become economically, socially and spiritually intolerable. Whatever and whoever assists in bringing about the speedy answer to the Lord's Prayer "that they may all be one," and the end of which this is the condition, the universal Christianization of the world, is a friend of his race as well as a servant of his Lord.

A Modern Crusade.

      The fourth aspect of the current reformation is its intense evangelistic and missionary spirit and passion. Its pioneers "went everywhere preaching the gospel," without money and without price. Practically they restored the first century conditions and revived the ministry of all members, the priesthood of all believers. Lawyers and doctors, mechanics and farmers, merchants and teachers carried their New Testaments in their pockets and sought wherever they went to lead men to Christ. All the missionary, educational and benevolent activities of the Disciples have grown out of this primary passion. The plea is the gospel.

      Colleges have been established, beginning with Bacon College at Georgetown, Ky., now Transylvania University at Lexington, in 1836, and Bethany College in Western Virginia, in 1840, which, on account of Alexander Campbell being its president, has generally been accounted the mother of all our schools. Today there are over thirty of these institutions of higher learning with an aggregate property valuation of $5,516,214, a total endowment of $3,620,400, aggregate number of instructors 592, and a total student body of 7,054, of whom 1,200 are preparing for the ministry. The churches of the several states and sections are organized into missionary co-operations to the number of forty-six, with an aggregate annual income of $208,507.

      In 1849 the American Christian Missionary Society was organized with Alexander Campbell as its president. It has established 4,046 churches, brought 212,751 new converts into their fellowship, and raised and expended a total of $2,646,263. It is chartered under the laws of Ohio and has its office in Cincinnati. One of its chief functions is the leadership of Sunday-school activities through an American Bible-school superintendent.

      The Christian Woman's Board of Missions has its headquarters in its own College of Missions Bldg., Indianapolis, Ind. It was organized in 1874, and had in 1915, 3,470 auxiliaries and 90,090 members, with an income of $373,582. Its work is about equally divided between the home and foreign fields: United States, Canada, New Zealand, Jamaica, India, China, Mexico, Porto Rico, South America and Africa.

      The Foreign Christian Missionary Society was organized in 1875 and is now preaching the gospel in England, Scandinavia, Cuba, the Philippine Islands, Japan, China, Tibet, India and Africa. Its missionaries number 181 with 805 native evangelists. Their work is evangelistic, educational, medical, literary and benevolent. Its receipts of $464,149, in 1914, came from 3,187 churches, 4,100 Sunday-schools and 1,598 individuals. The total receipts from the first have amounted to $5,738,196.

      The Board of Church Extension, of Kansas City, Mo., has accumulated since its organization in 1888, a fund of over a million of dollars, which is loaned to churches to enable them to build and is repaid with interest in five equal annual installments. The board has aided 1,776 churches; 1,100 of which have paid back their loans in full; thus bringing the total of all loans to $2,841,097.

      Through the zealous interest and generous gifts of A. M. Atkinson, the Board of Ministerial Relief was constituted in 1895. Its new receipts for [60] 1915 were $39,729. Eighty-two aged and disabled preachers and fifty-one widows were helped. The permanent fund is about $80,000.

      The National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church was organized in 1886 in St. Louis. Its institutions are six Orphans' Homes, in St. Louis, Cleveland, Dallas, Texas, Atlanta, Ga., Denver, Colo., and Omaha, Neb.; four Homes for the Aged, in Jacksonville, Ill., East Aurora, N. Y., Walla Walla, Wash., and Dallas, Tex.; the Christian Hospital, Valparaiso, Ind. Under its auspices a great Christian Hospital has been erected in Kansas City. The regular receipts for 1915 were $135,602.

      The Men and Millions Movement is a united effort of these organizations, in a five-year campaign, to enlist 1,000 new missionaries, promote the Every-Member Canvass in all the churches and secure $6,000,000 in direct gifts of $500 or more.

      American Temperance Board of the Churches of Christ centers in Indianapolis, Ind.

      Commission on Christian Union was organized in 1910, with Peter Ainslie of Baltimore, Md., Chairman. It issues {The Christian Union Quarterly.}

      The National Board of Christian Endeavor for the Disciples of Christ is represented by its superintendent, Claude E. Hill, of Valparaiso, Ind.

      Christian Board of Publication grew out of the investigations and report of a committee of twenty-five appointed at the National Convention of 1907, and the gift of $350,000 by one of the members of that committee, part to purchase the Christian Publishing Company, the rest to enlarge its equipment and extend its service. It is administered by thirteen unpaid directors. All profits not needed in the development of the publishing house must be distributed to the missionary, benevolent and educational organizations of the Disciples of Christ. It publishes most of the books of the Restoration movement, including Alexander Campbell's works and innumerable tracts: {The Christian-Evangelist,} a weekly journal of wide influence, and complete series of Bible-School Helps, both uniform and graded. It furnishes, also, all sorts of church and school supplies and the books of all publishers.

      All of the above organizations participate in a great annual convention, which, at the Centennial celebration, Pittsburgh, 1909, recorded an attendance of 40,000 with 30,000 sitting together at the Lord's Supper. They are supported by the voluntary offerings of churches, Sunday-schools and Christian Endeavor Societies, and by individual gifts, both direct and on the annuity plan, and by bequests.

      Some 2,000 churches, with 150,000 members, mostly in the South, refuse to affiliate with any sort of an organization or to use musical instruments in their worship. At the request of their leaders they are listed separately in the United States census and not included in the Year Book, which is published by the American Christian Missionary Society.

      There are two groups of churches in Great Britain, distinguished principally by the more conservative brethren having no salaried ministers, debarring the unimmersed from communion and soliciting no funds outside of their membership.

      In Australia the churches of Christ are especially well organized, devout in their life and earnest in their evangelistic efforts.

      Probably the most devoted and zealous Christians on the globe are the native Africans of the F. C. M. Society's station in the Belgian Congo. In sixteen years the membership has grown to 3,736. Every tenth person is supported by the nine as a missionary to the tribes that are still ignorant of the gospel. In addition to tithing their incomes of eight cents a day, for this purpose, they make large, annual free will offerings.

      Until recently the Disciples have been a rural people. The above figures indicate that healthy progress is now being made in metropolitan centers.

      It is noteworthy that, in spite of their receiving practically no additions by immigration, the Disciples have a higher rate of increase than any other Protestant body in America, and now rank fifth in numerical strength. The ratio of male to female members exceeds that of any other Protestant people except the Lutherans, being 41 ½ to 58½, while the general Protestant ratio is 40 to 60.

      In the Christian Endeavor movement the Disciples early took high rank. Nearly all congregations have societies. Their aggregate membership and their activity rank them as one of the two or three strongest bodies in the international movement.

      The modern Sunday-school revival found early and generous response. In the grading of schools, organization of adult classes, training of teachers and growth of attendance, the Disciples stand among the first. In 1909 a special Front Rank Standard was formulated. At each annual state convention banners are awarded the schools that have attained its six points of excellence. To December 25, 1911, the International Association had issued Certificates of Recognition to 26,767 adult classes, with 641,246 members. The Disciples (Christians) are credited with 6,643 classes and 150,709 members, leading all the other religious bodies. Methodist Episcopal schools come second with 5,782 classes and 146,167 members, and the Presbyterians third, with 2,234 classes and 52,015 members.

      Until long after Mr. Campbell's death it was freely predicted that, having neither creed nor governing body, the movement which he had led would soon disintegrate. On the contrary, it alone came unbroken through the Civil War, passed through the reconstruction period introduced by modern science without a heresy trial and is to-day distinguished by a harmony of teaching and solidarity of life that amazes the student of current religious affairs.

      The fundamental principles of liberty in the truth, loyalty to Christ and unity in service are cherished more fondly with each passing year. Three patent distinctions are found, not strangely, to characterize the Disciples wherever they are met: Enthusiastic support of civic, moral and political reforms, intense and fruitful evangelism and hearty sociability. They are the most American of Americans, the most Protestant of Protestants; and humbly aspire to be the most Christian of Christians. [62]

[DH 57-62.]