"If ever a people had a noble origin it is the Disciples: one wing at the altar of a great revival meeting, the other wing at the Lord's Table," says Prof. E. E. Snoddy.

      That we should find these two elements still fundamental within the Churches of Christ or Disciples today is a fitting tribute to those who presided at the altars of our origin. Does it not brighten every service of the Lord's Supper, at which we give the invitation to "those who love the Lord" to partake with us, to realise that it was Thomas Campbell's invitation to his fellow Christians that struck the spark to begin one wing of our movement?

      Does it not deepen our sense of mission, as we extend the invitation of the Gospel in every evangelistic service, to realise that it was Barton Warren Stone's participation in a great revival movement that struck the spark to begin the other wing of our movement?

      From the altar of this revival meeting to the plea for restoration is the spiritual pilgrimage of one man--Barton Warren Stone. The years have submerged his contribution beneath the weight of glory accorded to the Campbells; yet study of this man reveals that he anticipated, in proclamation at least, much of that which is commonly attributed to the Campbells. Stone it was who was the true Luther of the Disciples.

      Barton Warren Stone was born on Christmas Eve, 1772, near Port Tobacco, Maryland. His father died when Barton was very young, leaving his wife the burden of the upbringing of a large family. From Maryland the family moved to the backwoods of Virginia, and there the young Barton attended school long enough to gain the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic. He writes of his school days, "Here I wish to leave my testimony in favour of making the Bible a school book. By this means, the young mind receives information and impressions which are not erased through life. The Bible not read in school is seldom read afterwards. To this as a leading cause, may be attributed the present growth of infidelity and scepticism." A cry that has been echoed ever since and which is not without its application today.

      Deciding to become a barrister, Stone entered the Guildford Academy, there determined "to gain an education or die in the attempt." He denied himself strong food, living chiefly on milk and vegetables. At this time, James McGready was the popular preacher, and Stone records his surprise at finding a group of pious students assembling every morning for singing and prayer. This caused him some uneasiness, but seeing religion as a hindrance to learning, he laboured to banish these thoughts. His conscience was not at all happy at this arrangement, and he thought in the interests of conscience it would be better to go to another college to get away from the sight of religion.

      His room-mate had other ideas. He invited Barton to hear a certain preacher--none other than McGready, and Stone writes of that meeting: "Such earnestness--such fire--such powerful persuasion enforced by the joys of heaven and miseries of hell, I had never witnessed before. My mind was chained by him, and followed him closely in his rounds of heaven, earth and hell, with feelings indescribable. Such was my excitement, that had I been standing I should probably have sunk to the floor."

      The preaching of the day indicated a long and painful struggle for the would-be believer before he came to Christ--this was fully realised in Stone--for one year he was tossed on the waves of uncertainty--labouring, praying, and striving to obtain saving faith--sometimes being so despondent as to despair of ever attaining to saving faith. Then he heard William Hodge preach on "God is Love"--he immediately read his Bible and "yielded, and sank at His feet a willing subject. I loved Him--I adored Him--I praised Him--realising that now was the accepted time and the day of salvation."

      Thus it is that Prof. Snoddy calls Stone the Luther of the Disciples, for he was a seeker after salvation and certainty; but only after long study of the Bible did certainty take possession of him. The confines of Calvinism were to Stone as the call of the Roman Catholic church to Luther.

      Barton Warren Stone now became a candidate for the Presbyterian ministry and almost immediately struck difficulty. On the subject of the Trinity, his thinking led him to a position years ahead of his time, but he was fortunate in his examiner on the subject and was passed. After periods of doubt and despair, Stone began to preach at Cane Ridge and Concord, Kentucky. His call to the ministry at these churches meant ordination and the adoption of the Westminster Confession. So many difficulties arose that he asked for postponement and finally accepted the Confession--"as far as I see it consistent with the Word of God." Calvinism continued to trouble him until he rejected it as one of the "heaviest clogs on Christianity--a dark mountain between heaven and earth."

      About this time (1801) the Great Western Revival was reaching its heights. As this revival grew, unexpected exercises began to occur--the "falling exercises," "jerks" and "singing exercises". Later there developed the "barking exercise" and the "dancing exercise"--these manifestations were considered visible signs of the action of the Holy Spirit. Stone was not impressed with these exercises, but in 1801 a mass meeting of some 20,000 people was held at Cane Ridge. As many as five preachers--Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian--spoke at the one time to different sections of the assembly. Stone, while not being prominent, rejoiced in this work of God and saw the rival sects being fused into one body--Christian.

      This revival raised serious alarm among the believers in election and opponents of a general atonement. This alarm was expressed in a charge against Richard McNemar, filed by the Synod of Kentucky. Barton Warren Stone and three others joined with McNemar in his defence. The outcome was that all five were suspended by the Synod and their pulpits declared vacant. Thereupon the five men organised the independent Springfield Presbytery. They won friends and influenced people by the publication of a document which they called the "apology." The Springfield Presbytery was not to last long. Discovering, within a few months, that it savoured of partyism, Stone and the others formally dissolved the Presbytery on June 28, 1804. This dissolution is one of the most significant events in the history of the Restoration Movement. In dissolving the Presbytery, a facetious yet deeply serious document was issued called "The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery." As a basic charter of our movement it is worthy of reproduction.

      "The Presbytery of Springfield . . . being in more than ordinary bodily health, growing in strength and size daily; and in perfect soundness of mind; and knowing that it is appointed for all delegated bodies to die; and considering the life of every such body is very uncertain,

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      do make and ordain this our last Will and Testament in manner and form following, viz.:

      "We will that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large; for there is but one Body and one Spirit even as we are called in one hope of our calling.

      "We will that our name of distinction with its Reverend title be forgotten.

      "We will that our power of making laws for the government of the church and executing them by delegated authority, forever cease; that the people may have free course to the Bible.

      "We will that candidates for the Gospel ministry henceforth study the Holy Scriptures with fervent prayer and obtain licence from God to preach the simple Gospel.

      "We will that each particular church, as a body, activated by the same spirit choose her own preacher and support him by a freewill offering.

      "We will that the people henceforth take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven and as many as are offended with other books may cast them into the fire--for it is better to enter into life having one book, than having many be cast into hell.

      "We will that preachers and people pray more and dispute less.

      "We will that our weak brethren who may have been wishing to make the Presbytery of Springfield their king--follow Jesus for the future.

      "We will that the Synod of Kentucky examine every suspected member and suspend him immediately in order that the oppressed may go free and taste the sweets of gospel liberty.

      "We will that the author of two letters, lately published in Lexington, be encouraged in his goal to destroy partyism.

      "Finally we will that our sister bodies read their Bibles carefully, that they may see their fate there determined and prepare for death before it is too late."

      "The conspicuous features of this document are its stress on the appeal to the Bible as the right and duty of every Christian and its demand for complete independence of each local congregation." (Garrison and De Groot.)

      Whilst there is no clear programme for Christian union, the desire is seen in the first deposition, and there is by implication at least, approval for the plea for restoration of the practices of the primitive church.

      Faced with namelessness, the group eagerly adopted the suggestion of Rice Haggard that they call themselves "Christian."

      Within six years, Barton Stone was the only one of the original five breaking with the Presbyterian church to remain within this "Christian" group. Two were won over to the Shaker revival and two others feeling that there was lack of anchorage in a creedless group returned to the Presbyterian church.

      Stone was immersed in 1807, but baptism was not seen as an important matter at that time. Contact with Alexander Campbell brought full realisation to Stone. The Christians grew rapidly and numbered 13,000 within 20 years.

      It has been said of Barton Warren Stone that he was an "Ambassador of the Love of God," and the remainder of his life is an illustration of this. To read Stone's biography is to be made aware of the spirit of the man--there was a warmth of spirit about him that could not be kept within the confines of Calvinism. He boiled over in a spirit of continuing evangelism, and in taking the step from revival to restoration he lost nothing of his passion for the liberty of the Gospel and the power of the "Whosoever will" invitation.

      In attempting to assess the importance and contribution of

Barton Warren Stone to the Restoration Movement, B. A. Abbott comments that his main contribution was that of a "fiery evangelism." Without a doubt it was the warmth of Stone's spirit of evangelism that took the chill from the intellectual Calvinism of the Campbells. E. E. Snoddy doubts whether "we would ever have had a revival, an evangelistic movement in our history, if it had depended on Thomas and Alexander Campbell. They were not evangelistically minded. Alexander Campbell provided the material for evangelists but was not an evangelist himself. Barton W. Stone was an evangelist and he came into first contact with men in a very sinful age in an attempt to save them from their sins and bring them face to face with God in all their needs."

      To this end he gave his life--editor and writer he was--debater he was not except by pen--but his great interest was to preach the Gospel. He wore himself out in protracted mission travels--he developed a band of itinerant preachers who set the flame of New Testament Christianity ablaze in the heart of America.

      It is not correct to refer to Stone as the founder of our movement in America any more than it is to speak of the Campbells as the founders of the movement. But it is true to say that to Stone belongs the priority in the Restoration Movement history.

      His movement was well started; he had been excommunicated from the Presbyterian church and his movement became independent in 1804--five years before the "Declaration and Address" and Alexander Campbell's arrival in America--it was not until 15 years later that Alexander Campbell became the leader of an independent movement. It was Stone who was well to the front in coming to the "Christians only" position for a name for the movement although he was not the originatory of the name.

      Priority in the ideal of unity must also go to Stone. He believed in Christian unity and pleaded for it. In an address on Christian Union he saw union as the will of God and as the design of God to conquer and save the world; and going on to answer the question "How shall all Christians be united?" Stone pointed out that no creed desired by man could be a basis for union, nor even the Bible itself "while opinions of that Book are made tests of fellowship;" even then, unless they dwell in one Spirit and forgot party names, union for Christians was out of the question. "The Bible," he said, "must be the only rule of faith and practice--the Bible, the Bible alone, is the only religion in which all Christians can unite. Not on opinions formed by man of the truths and facts stated in the Bible, but on the facts themselves." The query then was, "When should all be united?" and his answer: "I answer, NOW; for if it be right, if it be the will of God, if it be the Christians' duty, if it be for the salvation of the world, that all Christians should be one, then NOW is the accepted time. If Christian union be right, disunion is wrong; if it be the will of God that they be one, it is opposition to His will to be divided. If it be their duty to be united, it is their sin to be disunited; if their union be the salvation of the world, their disunion is its ruin."

      We see there his rejection of creeds, his plea for the Bible and the right of private judgment, and above all, his distinction between facts of revelation and opinions about the facts. It has been written of Stone, "with his zeal for evangelism, his warmth of spirit, his breadth of outlook, his proclamation of the gospel of liberty, his allegiance to the Bible and its truth--Bible names for Bible things--he could not but catch the vision splendid of one united triumphant body of Christ owning one hand. There opened before

him this vision of one people of one God and to the furtherance of that end he gave his life. In his own modesty he realised the principle that "except a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die it cannot live." He laboured to the end that his followers dying to themselves might be no longer Arians, Stoneites or New Lights, but that they might find life in being simply Christian.

      "Barton Stone was a pioneer in the ideals of the Restoration Movement--priority belongs to him."

      Two qualities were prominent within this man of the Bible--one was his open mind which led him to receive new truths and to follow his convictions, regardless of cost. This quality guided him through his conversion, and led him into the ministry of the gospel; it posed the questions of his dilemma at his ordination and finally led him to break with Calvinism. Yet far from being blown by every wind of doctrine, Stone was held firm by his convictions and was able to hold the movement on an even keel, keeping it to its original course, yet at the same time receiving fresh truth with gladness. The other quality we have already referred to--his passion for unity. This would have been nothing had it not been for the largeness of the spirit which accompanied it. There is little doubt that it was Stone's personal spirit and tolerance that enabled him and his followers to unite with the Campbell movement in 1832.

      As a thinker and theologian, Stone was, to say the least, provocative. His first great difficulty in doctrine was the doctrine of the Trinity. He found himself unable to accept the then current doctrine and earned himself the labels of Unitarian and Arian. Stone never was Unitarian in our sense of the word today but, at the same time, he was a strong antitrinitarian. His objection was to the talk of three persons in the Godhead--the line of the hymn "God in three persons, blessed trinity" did not suit Stone at all. To Stone the three "Persons" were "no more than three ways in which a single individual God works, as one man (this is not his illustration) may be a father, a carpenter and a deacon. He maintained that the Holy Spirit meant the power or energy of God and never a third person in duty. But he was equally sure that Christ had a separate personality, and therefore Christ is not God if God is one. Hence, "Christ is to be honoured but not worshipped" (Garrison and De Groot).

      At the end of his life he lamented the speculation upon which he had been induced to enter on this subject. He held equally contrary views to those of his day on the atonement. Stone found a flaw in the false dilemma as to whether Christ had died for all men or for the elect alone--he could not see that Christ paid a debt, for if a debt is paid, he argued it is paid and there would be no need of forgiveness from the creditor such legalism makes the grace of God of no effect. The whole doctrine of substitutionary atonement, Stone concluded, is contrary to reason, Scripture and civil law and has no legitimate place in religion. The grace of God was manifested in sending Christ to reconcile men to God--not a few men but all men who would believe. Stone's view of the atonement was the simple Biblical view of reconciliation or at-one-ment.

      He never built a new creed out of his view of these doctrines and never made them tests of fellowship--nor will w so long as we are true to our heritage.

      Yet it is perhaps better to see "this ambassador of the love of God" and his contribution in the light of his discovery as Prof. Snoddy suggests.

      There is no greater day in the life of man than the day he

discovers Christ as Saviour. Stone discovered his Saviour and rediscovered the everlasting gospel of Christ. He could not keep quiet,--he became an ambassador of Christ to those who had never heard the "whosoever will" of the Gospel. Parallel with this was his rediscovery of the Bible. As someone remarked, "The Bible had been in existence before Stone . . . but Barton W. Stone came afresh to the Bible; he threw aside all creeds and ecclesiastical authorities, and like Luther faced immediately and first hand the Word of the Living God." Thereafter nothing stood between him and God. He rediscovered the Bible; a crying need of our day!

      Having rediscovered the Bible and the Gospel of the Saviour, Barton Stone revolted violently from the teaching of total depravity and man's inability to come to God, and suddenly he saw mankind as men--men for whom Christ died. Like Jesus, he saw the multitudes and was "moved with compassion for them because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd"--seeing the multitudes he saw their individual worth and need and took to them his freshly discovered gospel. This was not done with unintelligent emotionalism, for Stone discovered the importance of intelligence in religion--it was this discovery that kept Stone from mistaking the "exercises" of the Cane Ridge meeting for the real truth and eternal message of the Saviourhood of Christ enshrined within that revival. This discovery held him firm too, when others were carried away by the Shaker revival.

      Tribute must be paid to Walter Scott, for he shares with Stone the contribution of the spirit of evangelism to the Restoration Movement. It was Scott who, insisting that conversion could be understood, made the emotion of Stone more intelligent and the intelligence of the Campbells emotional.

      As Wordsworth wrote of Milton:

      So might we write of Stone: "Barton Stone, thou shouldst be living at this hour, thy people hath need of thee. For how we do need men such as this."

      One of the current tragedies of our Movement is that we lack the spirit of this man. Too often we hear opinions of Scriptural facts exalted to the place of those facts. Today in a world of Christian churches moving toward union, we need as never before a clear vision of our position--we today do have something to offer as a programme for union, but we must first know what that programme is ourselves, that we do not confuse the issue with our own man-introduced peculiarities.

      Yet another of the current tragedies of our Movement is the loss of the tolerance and loving spirit that Stone and his followers manifested. How today we need the spirit that enabled him to say, "I have often sat with pleasure and profit under the preaching of both these denominations (Baptist and Methodist) and if they dropped a word of their peculiarities, I left that to such as could receive it and fed on the rest . . . to be sound in faith is highly desirable, but to be pious in practice is much more excellent. Christians may differ in points of faith without sapping foundations or endangering their future happiness, but virtue and holiness are uniformly the same in all ages, nations and professions, and are indispensably necessary for Christian character.

      Would that we might echo a heart-felt "Amen"! to this instead of trembling lest we be led astray by their peculiarities. Barton Stone laid a necessary emphasis on the quality of life expected by our Lord from His followers. Listen to his advice to young preachers:

      "Preach the Word, the Gospel of the Son of God . . . not only preach the Word but also preach it in the spirit. Be as holy out of the pulpit as in it."

      Yet again we stand in perpetual need of Stone's enthusiastic evangelism and straightforward Bible preaching. It would be a tragedy indeed if we were to lose sight of our primary commission of evangelism. Stone came out of revival to restoration, yet never left the spirit of revival behind him--he found them not incompatible, and neither do we when we are true to our Lord's commission and our heritage.

      The old Cane Ridge meeting house--the first preaching place of Barton Warren Stone--still stands; and a sounding board for all these things ever calling us back to Christ, yet even as we turn back to Him we find Him coming forward--this then should be our watchword: "forward with Christ" through the ages to that glorious future which He holds in trust for us all.