THERE can be no doubt that Campbell had designs with reference to the Baptist denomination, and that he had reasons for gratification at the increasing success of his propaganda. There appeared from time to time in the columns of the Christian Baptist reports of the progress of "the reformation" that were characterized by a note of calm assurance and certainty of triumph. He felt that the Baptists were not living up to their principles and that he was conferring a favor upon them by calling their attention to primitive Christian customs in which they were lacking or from which they were going astray. He felt himself to be their best friend, and that "every well-meant effort to bring them up to the primitive state of the church, as far as Scripture [127] and reason approbate, ought to be countenanced, aided and abetted by every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Just here was his advantage and the secret of his success among them, that he stood on their ground and was in agreement with them on essential and distinctive Baptist principles. Spencer Clack wrote to him in 1827, saying: "Observe, between you and your Baptist brethren, there is no difference of opinion as to rule of faith and practice. On this subject we all speak the same language; we all acknowledge the same authority; all profess to be governed by it. What then, is the difference between us? Simply this: we cannot agree as to what the Bible teaches. The Baptists think the Bible teaches the doctrine contained in their creeds; you think it teaches what you have written and published, and what you will hereafter write and publish." Campbell was holding up Baptist faith and practice to a strict conformity to apostolic example, [128] and assumed as an underlying presupposition that the New Testament contained a perfect and complete model of the Christian institution, in faith, life, ordinances, organization and discipline.

      He easily persuaded many ministers and laymen among them that his view of the matter was correct. His reformatory teaching first found acceptance in the minds of a few ministers who became centres of agitation in Baptist churches and associations. One of the earliest, and typical of all the rest, was P. S. Fall, the young pastor of the church at Louisville, Kentucky, who first made the acquaintance of Campbell's views by reading the Christian Baptist and the Sermon on the Law. He began to preach the new doctrines in his Louisville church. Alexander Campbell came to Louisville in 1824 and under the direction of Mr. Fall, made several addresses in the Baptist and Presbyterian churches. So completely was the Baptist church imbued with his ideas [129] that they repudiated their constitution and creed and adopted the Bible as their only rule of faith and practice and introduced the "ancient order of things" into the organization and worship of the church. At the meeting of the Long Run Association, of which the church was a member, September, 1825, Mr. Fall read the "circular letter" in which he maintained that "the word of God was the only sufficient and perfect rule of faith and practice," against the use of creeds, as was then customary in Baptist churches. The church sent the following queries to the Association for answer: "1. Is there any authority in the New Testament for religious bodies to make human creeds and confessions of faith the constitutions or directories of such bodies in matters of faith and practice?" "2. Is there any authority in the New Testament for associations? If so, what is it? If not, why are they held?" Similar queries, showing the leavening influence of [130] Campbell's ideas, were sent by the churches at Elk Creek and Shelbyville. By such queries the ideas of Campbell were forced upon the attention of entire associations representing many ministers and churches. The letter read by Fall was rejected by the casting vote of the moderator, Geo. Waller., so evenly was the Association divided. A strict Baptist element in the church at Louisville resisted the introduction of the "ancient order," and in 1829, at a stormy meeting, the leader seized the books of the church and cried out, "All who are for the old constitution follow me." About thirty persons withdrew and formed a new church. Two Baptist congregations were thus formed, the one called "Campbellites," the other "Wallerites." A lawsuit over the possession of the property took place in which the Reformers were victorious, though both parties continued to meet in the church at different hours. They retained the name of [131] "First Baptist Church of Jesus Christ" and membership in the Long Run Association until 1833, when they assumed the name "Church of Christ." After leaving Louisville, Mr. Fall preached for a time for the Baptist church at Frankfort, where he laid the foundation of a "Reformed Baptist" church, and later became pastor of the Baptist church of Nashville, Tennessee. It was not long before this church introduced the "ancient order," and refused to become a member of the Concord Association of Baptist churches, unless given perfect freedom with respect to the doctrine and government of the church. When the separation of the Reformers from the Baptists took place, this church stood solidly with the new reformation. Campbell came to Nashville in 1826 for the benefit of his wife's health and spent several Weeks, during which he delivered many sermons and addresses.

      John Smith was another Baptist minister [132] of Kentucky who accepted the teachings of Campbell and was instrumental in indoctrinating many Baptist churches and forming new ones upon "the New Testament basis." Though he had heard much of Alexander Campbell, both for and against him, and had read the Christian Baptist and his debates, he first met him in 1824. By private conversation and public discourses Campbell removed many religious difficulties from his mind, and after a year of careful study of the Bible he "commenced the advocacy of the Bible as a sufficient rule of faith and practice." In his preaching he was distinguished by the keenness of his logic, the quaintness of his wit and humor, and the earnestness and fervor of his spirit. He was by all odds the most popular and successful of Baptist preachers with the common people. He had little or no school training, but was gifted by nature with mother wit and human sympathy as few men are. He worked his way up from [133] youth through the bitterest hardships, gave himself to the ministry in the Baptist church, and had thought his way out of the contradictions and blighting spiritual influences of hyper-Calvinism, when he began to read the writings of Campbell. He had felt the practical difficulty of preaching to sinners the doctrine of their utter depravity and moral helplessness without the aid of the Spirit, and then calling upon them to repent and believe the gospel on pain of eternal damnation. It was a moment, of deliverance from bondage when his mind swung free from Calvinistic fatalism under the teaching of the New Testament as unfolded by Campbell in the Christian Baptist. The doctrine that it was in the power of every sinner to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, upon the testimony given in the Scriptures concerning him, and that this was saving faith, became the foundation of a new career of evangelism which he inaugurated in 1825. He went [134] everywhere among Baptist churches in Kentucky calling on sinners to repent at once and believe in Jesus Christ, and be immersed for the remission of sins. The regions of his evangelistic activity were for the most part the boundaries of two or three Baptist associations--the North District, Bracken, and Boone's Creek. The greater part of his preaching had been done in four churches of the North District Association. One of these was the church at Lulbegrud, which at the meeting of the Association in 1827 presented charges against certain preachers who had departed from Baptist usage. They were aimed at Smith, who had been unwearied in preaching and baptizing people after "the ancient order of things." Crowds of people came to hear him and he baptized them by the score, sometimes constituting new churches out of the number, which took their places as members of some Baptist association. He was quite as zealous, however, against the old order as he was in favor of the new [135] order. He said to his wife, as he was summing up the results of a few months' work in 1828: "Nancy, I have baptized seven hundred sinners and capsized fifteen hundred Baptists." He was so successful in the latter activity among the Baptists of the North District Association that out of twenty-six churches composing it, eighteen stood on the side of the reformation when the division came. As an illustration of his dramatic and convincing methods, the following incident is related concerning him: A methodist minister had been seen to baptize a struggling, crying infant in the place where he was holding a meeting. The next day when Smith was baptizing some persons in a stream, he saw the minister in the crowd. He walked up and seized him by the arm and drew him towards the water--"What are you going to do, Mr. Smith?" said the preacher. "I am going to baptize you, sir." "But I do not wish to be baptized. Do you not believe?" said Smith. [136] "Certainly I do." "Then come along, sir, believers must be baptized." "But I am not willing to go," said the Methodist. "It certainly would do me no good to be baptized against my will." "Did you not, but yesterday, baptize a helpless babe, against its will?" Turning to the audience Smith said: "But friends, let me know if he ever again baptizes others without their full consent; for you yourselves have heard him declare that such a baptism cannot possibly do any good."

      In the districts covered by his preaching were many churches of the "New Lights" or "Stoneites," the followers of Barton W. Stone, whose acquaintance and friendship he was zealous in cultivating, much to the scandal of his Baptist brethren. He was later to be one of the most diligent and successful promoters of the union between the "Disciples" and "Christians" or "Stoneites" in Kentucky.

      There were many other able and [137] influential Baptist preachers in Kentucky who gave themselves to the dissemination of Campbell's views, such as Jeremiah Vardeman, who was said to have baptized more persons than any other preacher in Kentucky; Jacob Creath, Sr., who was pronounced by Henry Clay to be "the finest natural orator" he had ever heard; J. T. Johnson, who was educated for a lawyer, but became a preacher, converted hundreds of persons in protracted meetings, in many of the central and southern states, and was active in promoting the union between the followers of Stone and Campbell.

      The most rapid and sweeping success of the new reformation took place in the Baptist churches of the Mahoning Association in eastern Ohio, near Mr. Campbell's home. From the time of the preaching of the Sermon on the Law in 1816 before the Redstone Association, the enemies of Campbell were industriously working against him and planning to oust him as soon as they could [138] command a majority of the messengers of the Association. This did not seem imminent until 1823; and to defeat their plans, Campbell asked for letters for himself and wife and thirty others from the Brush Run church to form a new church in Charlestown or Wellsburg, as it began to be called. He had made the acquaintance of several preachers of the Mahoning Association, who had frequently urged him to be present at its meetings. The members of this Association were more favorably disposed towards him, were less rigidly bound by creeds and Baptist usages, and gladly welcomed the new church at Wellsburg into its fellowship. The preachers of the Association who came under the influence of Campbell, were Adamson Bentley, Sidney Rigdon, Jacob Osborne, Joseph Freeman, Marcus Bosworth, and others. They had carried on the work of reformation among the churches before Alexander Campbell appeared among them as a delegate from [139] the Wellsburg church in 1825. At the meeting of the Association in 1824 the following questions were presented from the church at Nelson: "1. Will this Association hold in its connection a church which acknowledges no other rule of faith and practice than the Scriptures?" "2. In what manner were members received into the churches that were set in order by the apostles?" "3. How were members excluded from those churches?" These questions indicate that the Christian Baptist had been circulating among the churches. Questions presented from other churches bore the same import. The church at Nelson passed a resolution in 1824, "to remove the Philadelphia Confession of Faith and the church articles, and to take the word of God for their rule of faith and practice." A minority objected and organized another church, and both churches sent messengers to the Association the next year.

      At the meeting of the Association in [140] August, 1827, at New Lisbon, Ohio, the following petition was presented from the Braceville church: "We wish that this Association may take into serious consideration the peculiar situation of the churches of the Association, and if it would be a possible thing for an evangelical preacher to be employed to travel and teach among the churches, we think that a blessing would follow." The suggestion met with the approval of the members and Walter Scott of Steubenville, Ohio, was appointed as evangelist. Alexander Campbell had gone by way of Scott's home and had brought him to the meeting. The importance of the career and influence of this man upon the character of the movement is second only to that of Campbell himself. The creators and leaders of the movement are usually listed as follows: Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, and Walter Scott. The latter was born in Scotland in 1796; was educated at the University [141] of Edinburgh; came to America in 1818, and settled in Pittsburg. Through the influence of a Mr. Forrester, a teacher and preacher, who took the Bible as his only authority and guide in matters of faith and practice, Mr. Scott was led to study the Scriptures with reference to the subject of infant baptism. He came to the conclusion that it had no sanction in the word of God, and that the immersion of a believer was the true scriptural practice. He was immersed and became associated with Mr. Forrester in the work of teaching, and in charge of the small company of immersed believers gathered together by Mr. Forrester. Upon the sudden death of Mr. Forrester, he assumed oversight of the church. His study of the New Testament and his reading of the works of John Locke, brought him to the conviction that the central truth of Christianity was the messiahship of Jesus, and that the confession, "Jesus is the Christ," was the sole article of faith in the [142] creed of the primitive church. He had come to his religious position before he met Alexander Campbell, who came to Pittsburg in 1821 on a visit to his father. This led to a mutual acquaintance and a subsequent cooperation between the three men in the work of "reforming the Christian profession." Scott and Campbell were in perfect accord in their religious principles, and formed a personal and intimate friendship which lasted through life. They consulted together in the establishment of the Christian Baptist and in the first number appeared an article by Scott, "On Teaching Christianity," in which he said: "Times out of number we are told in Scripture that the grand saving truth is that Jesus is the Christ. This is the bond of union among Christians--the essence--the spirit of all revelation." This was Scott's contribution, par excellence, to the principles of the new reformation. The two men influenced each other in the clearer grasp of New [143] Testament teaching, each contributing to the other his body of newly discovered truth.

      It was this man who was chosen in 1827 to go among the Baptist churches of the Mahoning Association to preach "the ancient gospel" and to restore "the ancient order of things." By this time he had fully settled in his mind the "authorized plan of teaching the Christian religion," and of bringing men into the church. This may be said to have been a specialty with him, and now he was to have his first great opportunity of putting it into practice. His first step was (1) faith. The sole aim of the preacher should be to awaken faith in the unbeliever towards Jesus as the Son of God. Faith being the result of testimony, the preacher must proclaim the evidences of the messiahship as recorded in the four Gospels. This gave him an opportunity to contrast the prevailing Calvinistic doctrine of saving faith with the new doctrine. Instead of pleading with God to be merciful [144] to the sinner and grant him saving faith, the preacher pleaded with the sinner to accept the testimony God had given of his Son in the Scriptures. In this connection the metaphysical creeds of the churches which were imposed on the faith of men as a condition of peace with God and fellowship with his Son, were held up for ridicule and dissection, and were denounced as causes of division and strife among Christians. This gave him a chance to preach his doctrine of Christian union upon the basis of primitive Christianity. The next step was to call upon sinners to (2) repent. The emphasis was upon immediate and voluntary repentance, in contrast with the repentance of Calvinism which depended upon the disposition and choice of God. The sinner could not repent until God chose to grant it, or to intimate the sinner's election by some sign. The next step was to call upon the sinner to make a (3) confession. That confession was submitted in the [145] words of Peter's confession: "Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God?" No other test or requirement was exacted. They were then told to submit to the ordinance of (4) baptism. He appealed to the example and precept of apostolic conversions. This gave him an opportunity to set forth the New Testament form and doctrine of baptism as he understood it. The form was immersion, the doctrine was, "for the remission of sins." The great text was the instruction of Peter to the multitude on the day of Pentecost. They were then taught to expect (5) the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit did his work upon the sinner through the revealed and accredited testimony, but after baptism he was the personal guest and comforter of the believer. This was the "ancient gospel," the discovery and first preaching of which are accredited to Walter Scott.

      This was the substance of the sermons Walter Scott preached among the Baptists. [146] To say that it thrilled some and shocked others, would be putting it mildly. It had never been heard on that wise before. To the sinner, troubled with fears and doubts of his election, denied all supernatural tokens of his acceptance with God, agonizing in prayer for saving faith and the guiding power of the Holy Spirit, it came as a welcome and peace-bringing evangel. To staid Calvinistic Baptists who had found peace and acceptance with God in the old way, it was shocking. It was only after a great struggle that Scott got himself to the point of putting it in practice. He believed it was done that way in apostolic times, why would it not work to-day? The first place he tried it was in the Baptist church at New Lisbon, Ohio. It worked, for the first person to respond to the appeal was the most eminent and influential member of the Presbyterian church. This man had once said to his wife: "When I find any person preaching as did the apostle Peter in [147] the second chapter of Acts, I shall offer myself for obedience and go with him." He found that person in Walter Scott. Within a few days seventeen persons "believed and were baptized." The church and entire community were aroused. He went from one town to another repeating the same message and meeting with the same results. At the close of the first year of work the Association met at Warren, Ohio. The result of his work was the conversion of nearly one thousand persons. The total membership of the sixteen churches comprising the Association the year before was scarcely five hundred. The success of the "ancient gospel" this first year under Scott completely transformed the Association, and in 1830, at the meeting at Austintown, it was voluntarily dissolved in its Baptist form and met ever after as a "yearly meeting" for fellowship and acquaintance.

      Commingled in the message of these Reformers were a proselytism and an [148] evangelism. To many members of Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist churches it came as a new gospel, and they were unable to tell whether it was the correction and enlightenment of their views of religion, or the stirring of their moral natures, which won them. In the stream which flowed into the rapidly filling ranks of "reforming churches" were both sinners and church members. The success was unprecedented. Through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky the movement spread with rapidity among Baptist churches; while there are not wanting records of the capture of entire Methodist or other Protestant churches, as in the case of the Methodist church at Deerfield, Ohio.

      The secret of such success lay first of all in their appeal to the simple teaching of Scripture. Every one was able to open his Bible and apply the motto, "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where they are silent, we are silent." It was a democratic [149] movement, founded upon the right and the ability of every person to interpret the Scriptures for himself, and upon the desire of every person to have a voice in the management of his religious heritage. It may be said that the movement gave to the people in religion what they had obtained in the state, "a government of the people, for the people, and by the people." They took the government of the church and the interpretation of the Scriptures out of the hands of the clergy and councils, and put them into the hands of the people. The destruction of "the rule of the clergy" was an oft repeated phrase and a fixed ideal of the Reformers. The people were pleased and followed them.

      The message met the religious needs of the time, just as the message of Lyman Beecher and Charles G. Finney, and on the same ground. They all preached the doctrine of "free agency and the sinner's immediate duty to repent." The background [150] of the movement was the dark, benumbing fatalism of Calvinistic theology. But neither Beecher nor Finney had grasped the clear and simple "plan of salvation" as set forth in the sermons of such men as Barton W. Stone, Walter Scott and John Smith. Over against the perplexing supernaturalism and mysticism of the theological preaching of the time, was set the plain instruction of those pentecostal preachers--"repent 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." As illustrating the practical working of their method, the following incident is told of John Whitacre: On one occasion in a meeting, among several at the altar praying for divine power to come down, was a lady of intelligence. "When she ceased, Whitacre spoke to her: 'Madam,' said he, 'what would you give for faith in Mahomet?' 'Nothing,' was her somewhat indignant reply. 'Why not?' he continued. [151] 'Because I believe him to be an impostor.' But why are you so anxious for faith in Jesus Christ?' 'Because I believe he is my only Saviour.' 'Well,' said Whitacre, 'why are you praying for that which you say you have? Why not go forward and obey the gospel and be made free from sin?'" Such intelligible instructions to sinners, perplexed and mystified by Calvinistic teaching, came as lights in the deepest darkness. It is notable that the great leaders and preachers of the movement came up under Presbyterianism and broke with it either on account of its government or its theology.

      Not less appealing was their message of unity and fraternity among warring, competing sects. Their vision of a united church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief corner stone, may have been Utopian, but it was beautiful and alluring, and gave to the people, sickened with the pettiness of sectarian differences, a noble ideal to [152] work for. In spite of the incongruity of its setting many times, and the inconsistency of its advocates, the doctrine of Christian union was felt to be providential. [153]

[TDOC 127-153]