Born: Antioch, Ohio, 1830.
Died: Princeton Illinois, 1913.
Mr. Trimble united with the church of Christ in 1842 at the village of Antioch, near his birthplace, under the preaching of Walter Scott. This fact places him among the beginners. He came to Bureau County, Illinois, in the fall of 1843, and was associated with the church in Princeton since 1844, which church he served for more than forty years as an elder.
He was a faithful preacher and evangelist, and was instrumental in bringing into the church about one thousand people, who were instructed in the gospel. His ministry was wholly devoid of a stipulated financial compensatton For a period, he was noted for his controversies in Christian papers upon some things that he thought to be innovations--a going back to Babylon rather than a restoration of the apostolic church. Among these was the popular conception of "the one-man pastorate in our churches." He, with others, held that it was not warranted by the Scriptures; that one minister should not be expected to do the work of the eldership and of the evangelists. This contention was summarized in the Christian Standard by Isaac Errett, its editor, in April, 1885, as follows:
Let it be understood that in the imperfect condition of most of our churches the employment of one man as a teacher and preacher and a co-operator with the elders in ruling, is justifiable as a necessity, but is not accepted as a finality. It should be the aim and ambition of all churches to reach a more complete organization of forces such as the Scriptures contemplate; namely, a plurality of elders or bishops whose business it shall be to teach, preach and rule, dividing the labor among themselves as may best sustain the interest of the church, and compensated for the time given to their duties and also accordingly to their necessities. Such an eldership we have seldom had in any of our churches.
Mr. Trimble was hopeful that the Scriptural ideals might be realized, and was encouraged by the distinct tendency of these later days. "We can never have a most efficient ministry without an efficient officiary."