WITH the separation of the Reformers from the Baptists, and their coalescence with the followers of Barton W. Stone, a new religious party assumed form among American denominations under the name, Disciples of Christ or Christians. They were charged with a message of reformation to their religious neighbors and a gospel of immediate repentance to the unconverted. Every preacher of the new communion was a propagandist and travelling evangelist. Their one purpose now was to plant churches of the primitive order wherever they could get a large enough company together.

      The movement spread principally from two centres, Ohio and Kentucky. From Ohio it was carried eastward into New York and Pennsylvania; and westward into [212] Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, and Wisconsin. From Kentucky it was carried eastward and southward into Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Alabama; and westward into Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. The movement spread chiefly in a westward direction from Kentucky along the lines of emigration. Very often a sufficient number of emigrants to establish the nucleus of a society found themselves settled together in the same neighborhood and sent for a preacher to hold meetings and constitute them into a church. The movement was essentially a westward movement. It never made any notable progress east of the place of its origin, and remains comparatively weak and unknown to the present time east of the Alleghenies. Churches sprang up in this early period in all of the principal cities of the East, as Philadelphia, Buffalo, New York and Baltimore, by a sifting process from the Baptists and other churches, [213] and by the occasional removal of members from the West; but they have remained small and have survived only through a critical struggle for existence. The reading of the Christian Baptist and the Millennial Harbinger and numerous tracts and books did much to propagate the movement beyond the circuit of the travelling evangelist, so that before 1850 there were churches in the British Provinces and in all of the British Isles, as well as in most of the states of the Union.

      The movement spread westward by leaps and bounds, first among Baptist churches and in regions touched by the Stone movement, and then independently through emigration and evangelization. The beginnings of the movement in Ohio were among the Baptists of the Mahoning and Stillwater associations. Both associations, with few exceptions among either preachers or churches, were brought over to the views of Campbell and composed the first [214] churches of the Disciples. In these churches was also a large ingredient of the followers of Stone. The churches multiplied rapidly under the labors of such men as Walter Scott, William Hayden, J. H. Jones, Isaac Errett, Jonas Hartzel, J. J. Moss, A. B. Green, W. A. Belding and others. The early history of the Disciples in eastern Ohio is incidentally connected with the rise of Mormonism, on account of the conversion to that faith of Sidney Rigdon, the early associate of Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott. His conversion occurred in 1830, through the influence of two missionaries who came to his home at Mentor, Ohio. He is said to have obtained more influence over Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, than any other living man; and to him was due the transfer of the seat of Mormonism from New York to Kirtland, Ohio, and its transformation into a communistic society. Alexander Campbell was one of the earliest antagonists of the system. [215] The Disciples were greatly disturbed by its progress and suffered the loss of several churches. There were very few churches in the northwestern and central sections of the state in this early period. There were a few churches in the southwestern section in and around Cincinnati. The first church in Cincinnati was an offshoot from the Enon Baptist Church, under the leadership of James Challen, its pastor, who adopted the teachings of Campbell, and became the pastor of the first church of Reformers. This city received frequent visits from Campbell, and was the scene of two of his debates, one with the skeptic Robert Owen, in 1829, on the "Evidences of Christianity," and the other with Bishop J. B. Purcell of the Roman Catholic Church, in 1837, on the "Roman Catholic Religion." Both debates widened the fame and influence of Campbell, while the one with Owen put the entire Christian world under obligation to him. The movement in this region [216] of the state was principally promoted by Walter Scott, James Challen, D. S. Burnet, L. L. Pinkerton, L. H. Jameson, Dr. R. Richardson and J. J. Moss. The first form of association among the Disciples in Ohio was the "yearly meeting"; but this was felt to be useless for missionary purposes, and in 1852 they organized a state missionary society for "the proclamation of the original gospel within the bounds of the state of Ohio." At this time there were about 300 churches and 18,000 members in the state. With the multiplication and growth of the churches arose the need of an educational institution to provide a properly equipped ministry. To meet this need and to provide a school for the sons and daughters of Disciples in the state, the Western Eclectic Institute was established in 1850 at Hiram, Ohio, about thirty miles from Cleveland. The name was later changed to Hiram College.

      The beginnings of the movement in [217] Kentucky, as in Ohio, were among Baptist churches. The writings of Campbell preceded his visit to Kentucky in 1823, on the occasion of his debate with Maccalla. This visit greatly extended his influence, and, through the publication of the Christian Baptist, he became a regular monthly visitor to an ever increasing number of subscribers in Baptist churches. One Baptist preacher after another adopted his views and taught them to the churches. In this state the movement made more extensive conquests in the early period than in any other state. The city of Lexington became the centre from which it radiated in every direction. It was propagated under the preaching of P. S. Fall, John Smith, J. T. Johnson, John Rogers, B. W. Stone, Alexander Campbell, Aylett Raines, and many other great preachers under their leadership. As soon as the Reformers were separated from the Baptists they began to hold "yearly meetings" for [218] edification and mutual acquaintance. It was not long before a more profitable form of association for missionary work was adopted. The effective work done by John Smith and John Rogers, in establishing new churches and uniting the Christians and Disciples after the formal union at Lexington in 1832, demonstrated the value of supporting evangelists by cooperation. The two men were kept in the field in 1833 and 1834, and in 1835 four evangelists with limited fields were appointed. These evangelists were sent out and supported by groups of neighboring churches, by special voluntary agreement to provide their salary for a year; and such arrangements were renewed from year to year. This was the customary form of cooperation in the early period, and was characteristic of Kentucky; but we meet it in Ohio, Indiana and Missouri. State meetings began to be held as early as 1844, and [219] missionary work by the state as a whole began in 1850. A school under the management of Disciples was established at Georgetown in 1836, through the initiative of T. F. Johnson and J. T. Johnson. It was called Bacon College, after the philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon. It was removed to Harrodsburg in 1839, where its work was suspended in 1850. Through the efforts of J. B. Bowman, a graduate of the college, its charter was renewed and enlarged and became the basis of a new institution in 1858 called Kentucky University. It was moved to Lexington in 1865. A Bible College was established in connection with it, which has probably educated more men for the ministry than any other single school among the Disciples.

      The movement in Indiana had its sources chiefly among the Christians and Baptists, though the Dunkards contributed somewhat to the early period. The pioneers in the [220] work were Beverly Vawter, J. P. Thompson, John Wright, John O'Kane, Elijah Goodwin, J. M. Mathes, L. H. Jameson, S. R. Hoshour, B. K. Smith, and Benjamin Franklin. Cooperative missionary work was begun in 1833 by the churches of Rush and Fayette Counties in uniting to send out and support John O'Kane as a missionary through the state. In 1839 a state meeting was held at Indianapolis, and in 1844 at a similar meeting at Connersville the state was divided into four districts and an evangelist put in each. The scheme fell through before the end of the first year, and no further cooperative work was done until 1849. Under the leadership of Ovid Butler, Northwestern Christian University was established in 1850 at Indianapolis. The name was later changed to Butler College.

      Illinois received the reformation from Kentucky in the early period through the evangelistic labors of Christian preachers. [221] When B. W. Stone removed from Kentucky to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1834, he found in the place a church of Christians and one of Disciples that had not united as they had in other places. He refused to become a member of either church until they united. The preachers under whom the body was extended and organized throughout the central and southern parts were B. W. Stone, D. P. Henderson, W. W. Happy, Josephus Hewet, and John T. Jones. The Disciples began to hold annual state meetings in 1832 but there was no organization for missionary work until 1856 when the Illinois Christian Missionary Society was organized. At the annual state meeting at Abingdon in 1852 a resolution was brought before the convention by an educational committee appointed the previous year, recommending to the churches the recognition of Walnut Grove Academy as the institution of learning of the Disciples in the state of Illinois. The Disciples were urged to foster it by sending [222] to it their sons and daughters, and donating to its library and apparatus, and raising such means as would enable the trustees to place it upon a sure and permanent basis. This school was started A a private enterprise by A. S. Fisher, a student from Bethany College, in 1848, under the patronage of several members of the Church of the Disciples in the community. It was chosen as the school of the church because it was the only institution of learning in the state controlled by Disciples, and because it proposed to educate men for the ministry without charging them tuition. The churches organized a board of education in 1852 to promote primitive Christianity by establishing schools exclusively under church control. Walnut Grove Academy was chartered as Eureka College in 1855. Abingdon College, organized and conducted by Disciples in the interest of religious education since 1853, was consolidated with Eureka College in 1884. From the beginning the college [223] has been an important factor in supplying men for the ministry and developing the work of the body in the state.

      The state of Missouri lay in the path of emigration to the west and was among the first to receive visits from Christian preachers from Kentucky. Thomas McBride came under the teaching of B. W. Stone in Kentucky, moved to Missouri in 1816, and was the first Christian preacher who crossed the Mississippi River to preach the Bible alone as the basis of Christian union. He preached and established churches in Howard, Boone, Franklin and other adjacent counties lying along the Missouri River. Samuel Rogers was the second Christian preacher to go to Missouri. He made his first journey in 1819 and found many churches already established by McBride. These early Christian churches, together with many Baptist churches, provided congenial soil for the teachings of Alexander Campbell and out of them came the first churches of the Disciples in the [224] state. The reformation was developed in the early period under the preaching of such men as J. H. Haden, T. M. Allen, M. P. Wills, F. R. Palmer, Absalom Rice, James Love, Jacob Creath, Allen Wright, Jacob and Joseph Coons, Henry Thomas, and Duke Young. The churches began to hold state meetings very early and by 1837 had begun to cooperate in missionary work. By 1850 there were estimated to be 16,000 members in the state.

      The first church of the Disciples in Iowa was organized by David R. Chance in 1836 at Lost Creek, and the first regular ministers to devote all their time to preaching were Aaron Chatterton and Nelson A. McConnell. In addition to the preaching by these two men the cause was represented in the pioneer period by John Rigdon, S. H. Bonham, Jonas Hartzel, John Martindale, Pardee Butler, David Bates, D. P. Henderson, Allen Hickey, S. B. Downing and J. K. Cornell. The first cooperative missionary work was [225] done in 1845, and the first state meeting was held at Marion in 1850. At that time there were thirty-nine churches and 2,000 members. The state missionary society was organized in 1855, and N. A. McConnell was the first evangelist sent out. The churches took steps in 1856 to establish a college at Oskaloosa. The establishment of Drake University in 1881 by Gen. F. M. Drake, at Des Moines, came to overshadow Oskaloosa College, and withdrew the support and patronage of the churches from it to such a degree that it was obliged finally to abandon its work.

      The first converts to the teaching of Alexander Campbell in England were from among the Scotch Baptist churches founded by Archibald McLean. In 1833 P. C. Wyeth, of Virginia, a disciple of Campbell, went to Europe to study art, and while in London wandered into a Scotch Baptist church presided over by Wm. Jones. He found himself among Christians of like [226] faith and order and told Mr. Jones of the "restoration movement" in America. Correspondence arose between Mr. Jones and Mr. Campbell upon the teachings of the Disciples and by 1835 the writings of Campbell began to be published in England under the title, British Millennial Harbinger. To James Wallace, who started a periodical called the Christian Messenger, belongs the principal credit for the early development of the movement in England. By 1842 the churches of the Disciples in the United Kingdom numbered forty-two, with a membership of 1,300.

      The first centre of the movement was Bethany, West Virginia, the home of Alexander Campbell, from which issued the Christian Baptist and Millennial Harbinger. While it was not long before each state had its own centre and leaders, its own religious papers and schools, yet Campbell continued to be the most authoritative person and his paper the most [227] representative and influential, and his college the most popular among the Disciples to the time of his death in 1866. His writings were read in every state in the Union, and before 1840 nearly every state had churches established upon the principles he advocated.

      The rapid growth of the body as an independent movement and its continued successes after separation from the Baptists, confirmed the belief of its leaders in the correctness of their principles and teachings. They approached other religious bodies, confident of their advantage over them, and accepted the frequent secessions of members from them to their own ranks as evidence of it. As a consequence they became and were reputed to be inveterate proselytizers. With such an attitude, all cordiality departed from their relationships with other denominations, and the frequent public debates engaged in did not promote fraternity, much less unity, between them. [228] Scores of debates were held between representatives of the Disciples and Baptists and other bodies upon the subject of baptism and other differences. The most notable of these discussions was that between Alexander Campbell and Rev. N. L. Rice, a Presbyterian minister, at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1842, upon the subjects of baptism, the Holy Spirit, and creeds. The presence of Henry Clay as president of the board of five moderators, contributed much to the dignity and notoriety of the occasion. After the example of Campbell it was considered good form and a valiant enterprise to get into a debate, and there were very few of the leading preachers who did not bring about such an engagement on some subject. While it was not always possible to avoid a public debate, yet it is highly probable that many preachers coveted the fame and courted occasion of debate. They justified the custom on the ground that it was a condition of self-preservation as well [229] as a means of publishing the truth to the world. In the midst of such religious warfare one is surprised on the one hand at the proposals for union, but on the other hand not surprised at the poor success of such proposals.

      A meeting between the Disciples and all other religious bodies for the discussion of a basis of union was suggested and arranged by J. T. Johnson, to be held at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1841. All religious parties were invited and were promised "equal privileges." Alexander Campbell and the Disciples were present in full force, but only one representative of other religious bodies came in the person of Dr. Fishback, and he was a Baptist in partial sympathy. After a three days' discussion of the practicability of union on the basis of the things held in common by the denominations, the following resolution was adopted: "That the Bible, and the Bible alone, is a sufficient foundation on which [230] all Christians may unite and build together." To the surprise of the promoters of it, the meeting was not merely ignored but bitterly opposed by other bodies, the Baptists in particular. The reason for this is not far to seek. The Disciples proposed the meeting and went to it with a ready-made plan of union to submit and defend. They themselves were already building according to the plan, and to other bodies it was equivalent to an invitation to discuss the position of the Disciples. Their plan had failed to work in the case of the Baptists, with whom they were in closest agreement on most doctrinal points, and there was less likelihood that it would succeed in the case of Presbyterians or Methodists. They were simply inviting other parties to come to them, and union was equivalent to absorption. In the discussion of the question of union they were conscious of having everything to teach and nothing to learn. There could be but one [231] plan of union, that of the New Testament, and it was one they had received and were not at liberty to change. The problem of union was not an open one to them. Naturally, other denominationalists were not willing to put themselves in the attitude of learners, and not having plans of their own to submit, the meeting would be reduced to a discussion on the Disciples' own ground.

      The body very early developed a consciousness of scriptural correctness and infallibility which placed them in the light of a very narrow and exclusive sect. There was an element among them that contracted the spirit of a sect, though all the time professing hatred of sectarianism. They reprobated the state of other Christians and declined to acknowledge the Christian status of those not in fellowship with them. This element was aroused by the admission of Alexander Campbell in an article in the Millennial Harbinger of 1837 [232] that there were Christians among all Protestant sects. He had always held that view, but had not so plainly expressed it as in reply to a letter asking his view of the matter. His definition of a Christian as "one that believes in his heart that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God; repents of his sins, and obeys him in all things according to his measure of knowledge of his will," aroused the bitter criticism of many who held, that, since baptism is for the remission of sins, and only immersion is baptism, those who have not been immersed are still in their sins and unsaved. Campbell repudiated this view with indignation. This discussion developed the presence among the Disciples of two divergent parties, a narrow, literal party, and a broad, spiritual party. The former party went on to identify the true church of Christ by certain external marks--its creed, worship, organization, and discipline--and identified the true Christian as one in [233] fellowship with this order of things. They practically went so far as to affirm that no one could be saved outside of a church of the Disciples, or a church organized according to the primitive model in its external features. Campbell and other leaders never gave this conception any sympathy, and arrayed themselves on the side of a broader, more spiritual conception. [234]

[TDOC 212-234]