THE Disciples of Christ will complete the first hundred years of their history as a distinct religious movement in 1909. Their rise in 1809 is marked by the withdrawal of Thomas Campbell from the Seceder Presbyterian church in Western Pennsylvania and the publication of the so-called Declaration and Address.

      Thomas Campbell was born in County Down, Ireland, February 1, 1763. His ancestors were the Campbells of Argyleshire, Scotland, a clan famous in the political and military history of the country. He was the eldest of a family of four sons, all of whom showed marked religious [7] dispositions and took leading parts later in life in local religious affairs. The father belonged to the Church of England, and always preferred to worship after the Episcopal ritual, but his sons turned with greater sympathy and pleasure to the simpler worship of the Covenanters and Seceder Presbyterians. Very early in life Thomas passed through a deep religious experience, which set at rest his fears of the divine displeasure and gave him assurance of salvation and acceptance with God. His religious experience conformed to the theological teaching which he met and accepted in attendance at Presbyterian churches. It was of that serious Calvinistic sort which laid particular emphasis upon the divine activity in conversion. The spiritual monitions attending his conversion were such as not only to give him assurances of salvation, but to lay upon him the duty of consecrating himself to the ministry of the gospel. The moment of his conversion was also the [8] moment of his dedication to the ministry.

      He naturally turned to the Seceder church as a sphere for the exercise of his ministry, but the proposal met with the disfavor of his father; and being under age he yielded for the time to the wishes of his father and continued his work as a teacher in an English academy which he had established in the less enlightened regions of Ireland. Hitherto his education had not passed beyond a good English schooling, at a military regimental school near Newry, County Down, and what by his native genius and aptitude for study, he had acquired by self-education and in the practice of teaching; but upon his return from teaching in the central parts of Ireland, he was taken under the patronage of a Mr. Kinley, who encouraged him in his desire to enter the ministry and gave him financial assistance to continue his education in the University of Glasgow. After completing his literary [9] studies in the University, he entered the theological school of the Seceders at Whithburn, then in charge of Dr. Archibald Bruce. He completed his theological studies in five sessions of eight weeks each and was licensed to preach among the Anti-Burgher Seceders, as a probationer, under the supervision of the Synod.

      Very little is recorded of his early life as a preacher. He was always obliged to carry on his teaching to eke out his meagre salary as a preacher and provide for an increasing family. He was married to Jane Corneigle, of French Huguenot descent, in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1787. Their first child, born in 1788, was a son, whom they named Alexander. The two men, father and son, were destined to be, the one the inaugurator, the other the promoter of the religious movement whose history is the theme of this work. As the son of Thomas Campbell and Jane Corneigle, Alexander Campbell had the best blood of Scotland and of [10] France flowing in his veins. He is said to have had a striking resemblance to his mother, both in character and physical appearance, while she possessed all that we have come to associate as best with the French Huguenot character.

      The father accepted the pastorate of the Seceder church at Ahorey, County Armagh, and moved his family to a place called Rich Hill. The son was about ten years of age when this took place, and so far had given no evidence of anything unusual in his intellectual powers. He had received the rudiments of his early education under his father and in the academy of his uncles, but no scholastic regimen could subdue the native physical strength and buoyant spirits of the boy. He was well on towards sixteen years of age before he was distinguished by anything but his irrepressible love of sport and out-of-doors exercise. He was simply a normal, healthy boy, with a good mind and a well disposed moral [11] nature. Of early piety and precocious religious experience we hear nothing. His restless physical spirit must have fretted more than once under the long religious exercises of his Seceder home and church, for it was the rule of the church prescribed by the synod that "the minister should worship God in his family by singing, reading and prayer, morning and evening; that he should catechise and instruct them at least once a week in religion; endeavoring to cause every member to pray in secret morning and evening." Besides this it was the rule in the home that "every member should memorize, during each day, some portion of the Bible, to be recited at evening worship, and each again rehearsed on the evening of the Lord's day; that every one should go to meeting, and on returning home give an account of the text and of the discourse preached."

      Such discipline had its effect upon the boy. His intellectual and religious [12] awakening finally came when he was about eighteen years of age. They seem to have been coincident. He entered with zeal and efficiency into the work of assisting his father in the academy. He began to experience "great concern in regard to his own salvation." In a later account of this period he says: "From the time that I could read the Scriptures, I became convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. I was also fully persuaded that I was a sinner, and must obtain pardon through the merits of Christ or be lost forever. This caused me great distress of soul and I had much exercise of mind under the awakenings of a guilty conscience. Finally, after many strugglings, I was enabled to put my trust in the Saviour, and to feel my reliance on him as the only Saviour of sinners. From the moment I was able to feel this reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, I obtained and enjoyed peace of mind." He was received as a member of his father's church at Ahorey and under the solicitation of his [13] father began to devote time to theological studies. It was not until later, however, that the son dedicated himself to the ministry of the gospel, though it was the father's wish that he do so from the beginning of his life.

      The labors of the father were divided between his duties as pastor of the church at Ahorey and superintendent of his academy at Rich Hill, where he lived. His first interest was always the religious interest. He was a careful observer of and interested actor in all the religious affairs of his country and time. He was possessed by nature of a broad Christian spirit which transcended the sectarian boundaries of his own denomination. The "occasional hearing" of ministers of other religious bodies, reluctantly granted by his own denomination, and then only when there was no meeting at the same hour and in the same place in one of their own churches, was eagerly seized upon by Thomas Campbell [14] and improved. He was a frequent attendant at the evening meetings of the congregation of Independents at Rich Hill, and was on the most cordial terms with them as neighbors. He was found entering into cooperation with all religious movements whenever opportunity was offered. He became a member of the "Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home," organized by the Haldanes and composed for the most part of members of the Church of England, whose object was the arousing of a deeper religious spirit throughout the British Isles to counteract the deadening influence of French infidelity and liberalism.

      He felt that the religious need of the times was a union of all the people of God. It must have pained his soul to witness the divisions going on in the two branches of the Seceder church of which he was a member. The story of the division and subdivision of this church, the resulting narrowness and bitterness of spirit [15] manifested towards each other, is a fitting background against which to understand the spirit and motives of Thomas Campbell. [16]

[TDOC 7-16]