The Plea and the Pioneers in Virginia.
Frederick Arthur Hodge.
Richmond: Everett Waddey Co., 1905.
pp. 9-26.

      We Americans owe our national privileges, our civil liberties and our world influence to the Bible. Youngest of religious bodies that have sought America's good, and distinctively American in its origin, is the body of believers known as the Disciples of Christ. The various schools of Christians, according to the figures of Dr. H. K. Carroll, rank numerically as follows: Roman Catholic, Methodist Episcopal, Baptist South, Baptist South (colored), Methodist Episcopal South, Disciples of Christ; that is, the Disciples are sixth in rank, while in 1890 they had the eighth place; and the increase of the Disciples in the decade from 1890 to 1900 was 84 per cent., or over 8 per cent. per annum. These are the census figures. In any showing, then, of our American religious forces this people must have consideration. "That this religious reformation has very seriously influenced the theological and ecclesiastical developments of the last half century, and won for itself a significant place in the religious [9] movements of the age, and affected all churches, no one can deny," says a writer in the New York Independent.

      The origin of the Disciples as a distinct body dates back to the early part of the last century. In different parts of the United States simultaneously arose teachers among the religious denominations who pleaded for the Bible alone, without human addition in the form of creeds or formulas of faith, and for the union of Christians of every name upon the basis of the Apostles' teaching. This movement assumed most notable proportions in Western Virginia and Pennsylvania, and in Kentucky. In 1823 Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, W. Va., began to set forth with great vigor and learning, in a periodical entitled the Christian Baptist, the plea for the restoration of the simple Gospel, the order of things as under the Apostles. It was not a reformation that was sought, but a restoration; not the organization of a new sect, or the reformation of an old one, but a return to Jerusalem, a renewal of the ancient landmarks of the Christian religion, a restoration to men of Apostolic Christianity in doctrine, ordinances and fruits.

      Alexander Campbell was a native of Ireland, and educated in the University of Glasgow. In 1807 Thomas Campbell, his father, came to America, and the son followed him two years later. Thomas Campbell was a regular minister among the Seceders, and, as such, assigned to the Presbytery of Chartiers, in Washington County, Pa. His view of union, however, and of the sufficiency of the Bible as a religious guide, [10] caused his withdrawal from that connection. In August, 1809, he formed "The Christian Association of Washington," and in September of the same year issued his celebrated "Declaration and Address." This paper deplored the tendencies of party spirit among Christians and the enforcement of human interpretations of God's Word in place of the pure doctrine of Christ, and pleaded for the restoration of simple, original, evangelical Christianity as exhibited upon the sacred page, without attempting to inculcate anything of human authority, of private opinion, or invention of men, as having any place in the constitution, faith or worship of the Christian Church; or anything as a matter of Christian faith or duty for which there cannot be expressly produced a "Thus saith the Lord," either in express terms or approved precedent. Commencing with the admitted truth that the Gospel was designed to reconcile and unite men to God and each other, the address proceeded to consider the sad divisions that existed, and their baleful effects in the angry contentions, enmities, excommunications and persecutions which they engendered, and set forth the object of the association "to come firmly and fairly to original ground, and take up things just as the Apostles left them," that, "disentangled from the accruing embarrassments of intervening ages," they might "stand upon the same ground on which the church stood at the beginning."

      The proposition was, to begin anew--to begin at the beginning, to ascend at once to the pure fountain of truth, disregarding all decrees of popes, councils, [11] synods and assemblies, traditions, perversions and corruptions; to work not a reformation of the church, as sought by Luther, Calvin and Wesley, but its complete restoration at once to its original purity and perfectness. The conclusion was that Christian union could result from nothing short of the destruction of human creeds and confessions of faith, inasmuch as human creeds and confessions of faith had destroyed Christian union.

      The principles of this address were cordially endorsed by Alexander Campbell, and in the following year, 1810, he began publicly to urge them. May 4, 1811, the first organization was made at Brush Run, Pa., with thirty members. In June of the following year, Alexander Campbell, in examining the question of infant baptism, and abandoning all uninspired authorities, and appealing to the Scriptures with critical search for the significance of words rendered from the original Greek, "baptize" and "baptism," became satisfied that they could mean only immerse and immersion, and accordingly he and his father were immersed. From that hour Thomas Campbell gave way to his son, and Alexander Campbell became the master spirit of the movement. In 1813 the Brush Run Church united with the Redstone Baptist Association, and ten years after with the Mahoning Association. At this time, 1823, Mr. Campbell began the publication of the Christian Baptist, in which his teaching was set forth, and began to attract universal attention. Opposition was aroused, and his views denounced as heterodox, but great numbers accepted [12] them. Many new churches were organized under his preaching and that of Walter Scott, an evangelist of the Mahoning Association, until the Baptists became alarmed, and began to declare non-fellowship with those who pleaded for the Bible alone, thus forcing these brethren to organize themselves into separate communities.

      This was in 1827. From this time we may date the rise of the people known as Disciples of Christ as a distinct organization.

      To understand this movement we must know something of the religious conditions of the time. The Church was sorely divided. Human creeds were authoritative and binding. Sectarianism was rife everywhere. Party lines were rigidly drawn. Christian union was ridiculed. Sects were pronounced essential to the purity, health and vigor of the body of Christ. True religion was lost sight of in contentions over rival dogmas, and human opinions and speculations were preached rather than the Gospel. Total hereditary depravity and unconditional election and reprobation were commonly taught. The regeneration of the sinner was therefore a miracle, and could come only through special and direct operation of the Holy Spirit. Every case of conversion was a distinct act of direct and irresistible grace, and supernatural voices, dreams, visions or trances were to attest the fact of acceptance with God. So the Word of God was a dead letter. The Bible with the multitude was a sealed book, its teachings confused, its dispensations not [13] understood, its word not rightly divided, its commandments made of none effect by human tradition. The privilege of private interpretation was withheld from the people, and the clergy alone were supposed to hold the key of Divine knowledge. Sunday-schools and missionary societies were regarded by many as heretical. Unbelief was widespread. "The Age of Reason" had not long been published, lotteries were chartered to build churches, men and women were bought and sold, the stocks, the pillory, the whipping-post and the branding-iron, and the imprisonment of the poor debtor, were still known in America; the moral tone of the people was low, intemperance was general, and amid the feuds and bickerings of sects and schisms the Church was as barren as she was belligerent.

      In such a state of religious society the Campbells and their helpers began the advocacy of a return to the ancient order of things as revealed in the New Testament. The principle they inscribed upon their banners was "Faith in Jesus as the true Messiah, and obedience to Him as our Law-giver and King the only test of Christian character, and the only bond of Christian union, communion and co-operation, irrespective of all creeds, opinions, commandments and traditions of men." The spirit of liberty was the spirit of the movement. American in origin and genius, born when the clang of the old Liberty Bell, "proclaiming liberty throughout the land to all inhabitants thereof," and the thunder of the guns at, Lexington and Yorktown still reverberated in the ears of the nations, and standing for the commonwealth [14] of faith, it lifted a banner which symbolized in religion what the stars and stripes symbolized in government--liberty and union--liberty in Christ, union under Christ.

      This was but one of a great number of movements on the part of godly men, deploring the evils that existed, and anxious for a restoration of Christianity on its original basis--the Haldanes in Scotland, O'Kelly and others in Virginia and North Carolina, B. W. Stone and his coadjutors in Kentucky, Walter Scott and others in Ohio, Bullard in the mountains of Western Virginia--ministers of different denominations, unknown to each other, pleading for the Bible alone, without any addition in the form of creeds or confessions of faith. When Campbell, in 1823, began to plead for the original gospel and primitive order, and the union upon the Apostles of all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, these workers began to touch hands and blend together in one great common purpose and service. The most notable of these movements, that of Alexander Campbell in Western Virginia and Pennsylvania, and that of Barton W. Stone in Kentucky, were united in 1831. For the next thirty-five years Campbell was the foremost figure in this movement. Of his published writings there are sixty volumes. His great debates with Owen on "The Evidences of Christianity," with Archbishop Purcell on "The Infallibility of the Church of Rome," with Rice on "Baptism, Conversion and Creeds as Terms of Communion;" and his "Christian System," set forth his principles. [15]

      In substantial agreement with all evangelical Christians, the Disciples of Christ accept the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; the all-sufficiency of the Bible as a revelation of God's will and a rule of faith and life; the revelation of God in threefold personality of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as set forth by the Apostles; the divine glory of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, His incarnation, doctrine, miracles, death as a sin offering, resurrection, ascension and coronation; the personality of the Holy Spirit and His divine mission to convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment to come, and to comfort and sanctify the people of God; the alienation of man from his Maker, and the necessity of faith, repentance and obedience in order to salvation; the obligation of the Divine ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper; the duty of observing the Lord's day in memory of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; the necessity of holiness on the part of believers; the divine appointment of the Church of Christ, composed of all who by faith and obedience confess His name, with its ministers and services for the edification of the body of Christ and the conversion of the world; the fullness and freeness of the salvation that is in Christ to all who will accept it on the New Testament conditions; the final judgment, with the reward of the righteous and punishment of the wicked. If these things constitute orthodoxy, then the Disciples are orthodox.

      The Disciples of, Christ, however, have their distinctive position. While in these cardinal and fundamental matters they are in harmony with all evangelical [16] Christians, and therein rejoice, in other respects they are a peculiar people.

      1. In their plea for restoration. Others have sought to reform the Church. The Campbells and their co-workers aimed to restore in faith and spirit and practice the Christianity of Christ and his Apostles as found on the pages of the New Testament. It was not to recast any existing creed, or reform any existing religious body, but to go back of all creeds and councils, all sects and schools since the days of the Apostles, and to take up the work as left by inspired men. For existing evils they claimed the remedy is to return to the beginning and build anew upon the Divine foundation. To believe and to do none other things than those enjoined by our Lord and His Apostles, they felt must be infallibly safe. Whether practical or not, this was their purpose, and for this to-day the Disciples continue to stand. The word of Christ and the body of Christ as in the beginning.

      2. In the rejection of human creeds. They claim to stand strictly upon the original Protestant principle--the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, the religion of Protestants. They affirm that the sacred Scriptures as given of God answer all purposes of a rule of faith and practice, and a law for the government of the Church, and that human creeds and confessions of faith spring out of controversy, and instead of being bonds of union, tend to division and strife. Bible names for Bible things. Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent. [17]

      3. In their emphasis upon the Divine Sonship of Jesus. In place of all human confessions they would exalt that of Peter: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." As the fundamental fact of Holy Scripture, as the central truth of the Christian system, as the essential creed of Christianity, as the one article of faith in order to baptism and Church membership, as the rock truth upon which the Church is founded, and the ultimate creed of the universal Church, they place this statement of the Divinity and Christhood of Jesus. "What think ye of Christ?" the great question. "Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God," the great answer. "On this rock I will build my church," the great oracle.

      4. In their division of the Word. They believe, that of old, "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," yet do not regard the Old and New Testaments as of equally binding authority upon Christians. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." A clear distinction is made between the law and the gospel, the old covenant and the new, and the New Testament, it is claimed, is as perfect a constitution for the worship, government and discipline of the New Testament Church as the Old was for the Old Testament Church. We are not under Moses, but under Christ.

      5. In the plea for New Testament names for the Church and the followers of Christ. "The Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." As the bride [18] of Christ the Church should wear the name of the bridegroom, Party names perpetuate party strife. Disciples of Christ have been charged with presumption in calling themselves Christians and their churches Christian churches, or churches of Christ. They do not deny that others, are Christians, or that other churches are churches of Christ. They do not claim to be the Church of Christ, or even a Church of Christ. They simply desire to be Christians only, and their churches to be only churches of Christ. Hence they repudiate the name "Campbellite." The Church will be one only under the name of Christ. In all the world it is enough to be a Christian. When that which is perfect is come, from turret to foundation stone the work of sectarianism shall pass away, and the spotless bride of Christ shall wear only the name that is above every name.

      6. As to the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion. Accepting the Divine personality of the Holy Spirit, and holding that in every case regeneration is begun, carried on and perfected through His gracious agency, the Disciples claim the Divine Word is his instrument, the sinner is in no sense passive, regeneration is not a miracle, the gospel is God's power unto salvation to every one that believeth, and men must hear, believe, repent, and obey the gospel to be saved.

      7. As to Christian baptism. The Disciples have been charged with making a hobby of this institution--preaching nothing but baptism by immersion, baptism for the remission of sins. This was only incidental to their plea. Recognizing Christ alone as King, His [19] Word alone as authoritative and binding upon the conscience, and finding, in returning to the order instituted by Him through the Apostles, baptism commanded in order to the remission of sins, and administered by a burial with Christ, a planting in the likeness of His death, they take it up as one of the items of the original, divine system over against all human systems. They never taught such a doctrine as baptismal regeneration. "I have said a thousand times," declared Mr. Campbell in debate with Rice, "that if a person were to be immersed twice seven times in the Jordan for the remission of sins, and for the reception of the Holy Spirit, it would avail nothing more than wetting the face of a babe, unless his heart is changed by the Word and spirit of God." The Disciples simply insist upon the purpose of baptism as set forth in the divine testimonies: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit," "Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." They would give the inspired answers to the question, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" They would demand no other prerequisite to baptism than the confession of the faith of the whole heart in the personal, living Christ. They would teach the believing penitent to seek through obedience the Divine assurance of forgiveness, and in scriptural surrender to the authority of Christ, and not in sensation or vision or special revelations, to find evidence of acceptance with God. [20]

      8. As to the Lord's Supper. The Disciples of Christ hold first to the weekly observance of this holy ordinance in all their assemblies. Of the Church at Troas we read: "On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them," and following this Apostolic model, the Disciples teach that the Lord's Supper should be celebrated by the Lord's people on every Lord's day; and secondly, they emphasize and exalt this institution, not as a sacrament, but as a memorial feast--an act of worship in which all Christians may unite, and from which we have no right to exclude any sincere follower of our common Lord.

      9. As to the Lord's day. This with the Disciples is not the Sabbath, but a New Testament institution; not the day set apart in the Decalogue, but the Lord's day--the pearl of days, consecrated by apostolic example, and to be observed in joyous and loving remembrance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

      10. As to the Church. The Disciples believe that the institution built by Christ, set forth by the Apostles on Pentecost under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, established upon the foundation of Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner-stone--the Church of Christ is a Divine institution; that sects as branches of the Church are unscriptural and unapostolic; and that the sect name and sect spirit and sect life should in every case give place to the unity of the Spirit, and the union and co-operation that distinguished the Church of the New Testament. [21]

      The union of Christians, then, upon the original foundation is the plea of this people. They believe that as in the primitive days there was one spiritual brotherhood, one body, with one Lord, one faith and one baptism, there should be but one to-day; and that as nothing was the basis of that primitive union but the common teaching of Christ and the Apostles, so nothing is essential to the union of Christians to-day but the Apostles' teaching, and nothing essential to the conversion of the world but such a union and cooperation of the people of God.

      In making this plea before the world, however, the Disciples contend, not for unity of opinion, but unity of faith. They recognize that this question is to be approached in the spirit of Jesus Christ, not in the spirit of dogmatism or strife; that no process of compulsion ran ever bring unity; that no party can ever effect it by lifting up its standard and saying, "We are the people;" that no union will ever stand that is not Christian; that no plan of union can ever succeed that does not respect every man's liberty in Christ Jesus; that no spirit can, ever commend itself as the spirit of unity that does not take in all believers, and is not as broadly catholic as the Spirit of the Master on His knees, serving as the High Priest of all the race. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me and I in Thee, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me." [22]

      Alexander Campbell died March 4, 1866. Since then the Disciples of Christ have made their greatest progress. It was predicted when he passed away the movement would disintegrate, and be numbered among the things of the past, seeing that no church could live without a formulated human creed. More rapid and stable than ever before, however, the work has been. The first churches were those of Brush Run and Wellsburg, with less than sixty members, and men are living to-day who joined this movement when there were but a few thousand identified with it. According to statistical tables, in 1903 there were 10,983 churches and 1,220,000 members, with a church property of over twenty millions, and the increase in numbers is over 8 per cent. a year for the last ten years.

      The Disciples take large interest in the cause of education. They are a strong temperance people. In Christian Endeavor they rank third among the Protestant churches. Most hopeful, however, is the outlook among them in the work of missions and benevolence. Their Home Missionary Society was organized in 1849, and employs workers in thirty-seven States and Territories. At its Jubilee in Cincinnati, October, 1899, over 15,000 delegates were in attendance, and its great communion service was most memorable. Their Foreign Missionary Society, organized in 1875, is doing work in twelve different foreign lands, among them our new insular possessions. The Christian Woman's Board of Missions, organized and conducted exclusively by the women of the Church, has accomplished a notable service in both the home and [23] foreign fields in its quarter of a century. The Church Extension Fund of the Disciples in fifteen years has accumulated half a million and aided over 800 churches. Their gifts to missions the past year will aggregate $700,000. They also have a Board of Ministerial Relief and a General Benevolent Association, and are multiplying their gifts to purposes of charity and educational work. They have missionary societies in almost every State, publish fifty-five journals of various kinds in the interests of the Church, have a growing literature, and an increasing spirit of benevolence and appreciation of the great obligations of stewardship that promises much for the work of future years.

      These are some of the direct results of this nineteenth century American religious movement. We would not speak of them boastingly. We might have done far more. We are just beginning to rise to the great height of our responsibility before the world. We are humbled at the thought of our unworthiness. We are hushed at the vision of what is yet to be done.

      Great changes have been wrought in the religious world since this plea was introduced. Old doctrines have shifted. Strongholds of error have surrendered to the onward sweep of Christian thought. Creed authority is no longer paramount. Assent to a human system of opinion is not essential as once to admittance to the churches. Men and women who believe on Jesus Christ and obey him are received on their faith, repentance and submission to his authority. Sinners, in many churches, are invited to come forward and [24] confess Christ simply. The Bible is the great book. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Dreams, visions, sensations, are not relied upon, but the Divine testimony. Vices of sectarianism are deplored; the union sentiment has grown, and union movements like the Young Men's Christian Association, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, International Sunday-school Lessons, Alliances, Federation and Missionary Conferences have cultivated the spirit of mutual forbearance and co-operation among God's people. The creed of Christianity--the great central truth of the Messiahship and Sonship of Jesus--faith in Him as a Divine person over against faith in the decrees of councils, obedience to Him as King and Lord instead of obedience to human authority, trust in Him and love toward Him, and loyalty to Him as the great bond of fellowship among all the people of God, we see recognized more and more in all lands. There has been a mighty advance. To say that the Campbells and their co-laborers have contributed toward these ends is simple justice to the truth of history. It is the Lord's work. If the Disciples have helped in it, they are glad. So the work is done, it matters not who does it. God speed the day when all who love Jesus Christ will stand together, confessing one Lord, proclaiming one faith, practicing one baptism, united in one body, filled with one Spirit, inspired with one hope, serving one God and Father over all.

      To a united Church was the grace of Pentecost given. By a united Church was the Roman Empire [25] in three centuries brought to the foot of the cross. Through the united service of his people, Christ means to make the kingdoms of this world his kingdom. A single drop of water is a weak and powerless thing, but an infinite number of drops, united by the force of attraction, form a stream, and many streams combined form a river, and many rivers pour their water into the mighty ocean, whole proud waves, defying the power of man, none can stay save the Almighty. So resist-less would be the power of God's people thus consolidated and hurled against sin. Patience! There is a legend that when Adam and Eve were turned out of Eden, an angel smashed the gates, and the fragments, flying all over the earth, are the precious stones. Patience! In God's good time we shall fit our fragments together, and reconstruct the gates of Paradise.

      ^* Address delivered in Festival Hall, World's Fair Grounds, St. Louis, on "Disciples of Christ Day" at the World's Fair, October 30, 1904, following the great international convention of the Disciples. [9]