HILST Thomas Campbell was thus, amidst civil commotions, devoting himself to the care of his congregation and to the education of his children, his family continued to increase. Soon after his removal to Ahorey, a daughter, Nancy, was born; and about twenty months afterward, June 25, 1800, another, named Jane. To these were added subsequently a son, who was called Thomas, and in process of time another son, named Archibald. Finding his expenses greatly augmented, and the farm he had leased unprofitable, as he had but little knowledge of farming, and his attention was almost entirely engrossed by higher matters, it became necessary for him to adopt some other method of improving his circumstances and making up the deficiencies of his ministerial salary.¹

      It was his earnest wish that his son Alexander should [46] be well educated, and his sincere hope that he would be led to devote himself to the ministry of the Gospel. Finding that, with all his sportiveness, he possessed a marked conscientiousness and a sincere reverence for Divine things, he was the more encouraged in this fond hope, especially when he observed in him, as he grew older, evidences of increasing seriousness. His own time being already considerably occupied in teaching his family, he concluded it would be most advantageous to open a public academy, in which his own children might be pupils; and as Alexander, now in his seventeenth year, had by this time become quite proficient in the ordinary branches, he thought he would be competent to act as assistant. These matters being consequently arranged, and a suitable house procured, the whole family removed to the town of Rich-Hill, two miles distant.

      This town is situated upon a very high but fertile hill, and commands on all sides charming and extensive prospects. Upon the broad summit there is a neat public square, around which, upon three sides, the houses of the village are built. Upon the remaining or north-eastern side of the square, appears, surrounded by beautiful shrubbery, an ancient and capacious mansion, at that time the residence of the Hon. William Richardson, M. P., and lord of the manor. These beautiful grounds are separated from the public square by an elegant iron railing, before which at a little distance stand some magnificent trees. On the opposite side of the square, at the corner, Mr. Campbell had found a plain two-story house, which served as a residence for his family, and also afforded room for the academy. His character and his ability as a teacher being well known, he soon had a flourishing school, [47] which brought him an income approaching two hundred pounds per annum, and was regarded as an important benefit to the town and its neighborhood. To carry on such a school, in connection with his usual pastoral labors, was, indeed, an undertaking of no small magnitude; but his son Alexander entered into the work with so much spirit and success that he proved a most valuable assistant, while with unflagging energy he contrived to pursue, as usual, his own special course of studies under his father's guidance.

      While thus engaged, his growing years and the circumstances of his position as a teacher gave to him a more manly character; and, though still full of sportiveness when with his youthful friends, he was observed to be much more thoughtful upon religious subjects and to have a deeper religious feeling. These indications were extremely gratifying to his father, who did not fail to urge upon him, with affectionate solicitude, the importance of his becoming a communicant and member of the church. As he had an excellent knowledge of the Scriptures, and as the chief points in the divine plan of salvation had been long familiar to him, he, in the course of his meditations, became awakened to a livelier consciousness of their importance, and began to feel an unwonted personal and individual interest in them. As his convictions deepened, he underwent much conflict of mind, and experienced great concern in regard to his own salvation, so that he lost for a time his usual vivacity, and sought, in lonely walks in fields and by prayer in secluded spots, to obtain such evidences of Divine acceptance as his pious acquaintances were accustomed to consider requisite; it being universally held by the Seceders that "an assured persuasion of the truth of God's promise in the Gospel, with [48] respect to one's self in particular, is implied in the very nature of saving faith." Of this particular period in his religious history he himself gave, many years afterward, the following account: "From the time that I could read the Scriptures, I became convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. I was also fully persuaded that I was a sinner, and must obtain pardon through the merits of Christ or be lost for ever. This caused me great distress of soul, and I had much exercise of mind under the awakenings of a guilty conscience. Finally, after many strugglings, I was enabled to put my trust in the Saviour, and to feel my reliance on him as the only Saviour of sinners. From the moment I was able to feel this reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, I obtained and enjoyed peace of mind. It never entered into my head to investigate the subject of baptism or the doctrines of the creed."

      Shortly after this he was received as a regular communicant in the church at Ahorey, and being aware of his father's wish that he should devote himself to the ministry, though he had not as yet fully made up his own mind upon this subject, he began to bestow a considerable portion of his attention upon theological studies, and particularly ecclesiastical history. While thus engaged, he was filled with wonder at the strange fortunes of Christianity, and at the numerous divisions of parties in religious society. He found the Catholics, numerous in his own country, for the most part an ignorant, priest-ridden, superstitious people, crushed, as it were, to the earth, as well by their own voluntary submission to an unrestricted spiritual despotism, as by the pressure of the social and political burdens resting upon them, and which were esteemed by the Protestant and Anglo-Saxon part of the population as necessary [49] safeguards against the repetition of such abuses of power as had occurred during the rule of James the Second and his deputy, Tyrconnel. The young student, in contemplating the whole system of Romanism in its superstitions, its ceremonies, its spirit and its practical effects, conceived for it the utmost abhorrence--a feeling which remained with him through life. On the other hand, the lordly and aristocratic Episcopalians, who looked down upon the dissenters, and seemed, with some exceptions, to have but little piety, and to be fond of enjoying the pleasures, fashions and follies of the world, were, notwithstanding their Protestantism, scarcely less disliked as a religious party. It was, however, when he came to consider the history of the Presbyterian Church, with its numerous divisions, in one of which he was himself a member, that he was enabled to form a clearer conception of the power and prevalence of that party spirit which it became afterward the labor of his life to oppose and overthrow. As his relations to some of these divisions were important, it seems necessary here to take a brief glance at certain points in their history.

      The martyrdom at St. Andrew's on 29th of February, 1528, of the youthful friend of Luther and Melancthon, the devoted Patrick Hamilton, who first introduced the Lutheran Reformation into Scotland, followed, in 1545, by that of Wishart, and, in the following year, the assassination of Cardinal Beatoun, were among the earliest of those scenes of violence which marked the progress of the Reformed doctrine, until it was at length, about the year 1560, firmly established through the influence and labors of the intrepid Knox. No sooner, however, had this triumph been attained, than a protracted and almost equally fierce struggle commenced [50] between the two forms of Protestantism itself--the Presbyterian and the Episcopal. James the First and his successors, the first and second Charles, disregarding the fact that the Scottish people were strongly attached to that form of the Reformation which had been first set up among them, and that the nation had, as was pleaded in their public memorials, "reformed from Popery by presbyters," endeavored repeatedly to impose upon them, in whole or in part, the system of English Episcopacy or Prelacy. For a brief period, during the civil wars with Charles the First, Presbyterianism was predominant; but it was not until the accession of William the Third that the Scottish Estates or Parliament, in 1690, secured the permanent abolition of Prelacy, by placing a clause to this effect in the "Claim of Right" submitted to that monarch as the terms of Scottish allegiance.

      When Presbyterianism had thus attained the supremacy it so long had sought, it began, in a short time, to furnish a fresh illustration of the fact that all established national religions, whether Greek or Mohammedan, Papal or Protestant, have in them the essence of Popery--the principle of absolutism. Conscious of power, and confident in the possession of glebe and manse, the Parliament as well as the General Assembly managed affairs in so arbitrary a spirit that many, even of their own party, became disaffected, and the minds of a large portion of the community were alienated from the ecclesiastical establishment. Oaths of office and of abjuration were required, which were thought to abridge Christian liberty, and acts were passed which seemed to many to set aside the national covenant² which they [51] regarded as the true constitution of the empire, and for which the forefathers of many of those now connected with the National Church had formerly bravely fought under the name of Covenanters, and for adhering to which they had undergone the most cruel persecutions. A considerable number, indeed, of those stern, uncompromising Presbyterians, who strenuously adhered to the covenant, had refused to consent to the settlement made by King William, or to admit in anywise the right of civil rulers to meddle in religious matters. These were termed Society-men, as, being without a ministry for some time, they formed themselves into societies. They were also termed Cameronians, Mountain-men, Covenanters, &c. After some years a Mr. John McMillan, a minister in the National Church, united with them, for which act he was deposed by the General Assembly. He continued afterward, however, to labor among the Covenanters, who increased in number, and formed congregations in various parts of Scotland, as well as in the north of Ireland. From the worthy pastor who had thus, first after the revolution, gathered the scattered flock into the fold of Churchdom, they were sometimes called McMillanites, but the title they themselves adopt [52] is that of" Reformed Presbyterians." They have, however, become nearly extinct, having in 1819 only sixteen small congregations in Scotland, six in Ireland, and nine in the United States, according to Blackwood.

      The National Church, meanwhile continuing its unpopular proceedings, attempted at length, in 1712 and subsequently, to enforce the existing law of patronage, so as to deprive congregations of the privilege of choosing their pastors. It having been settled by the early Reformers, and inserted in the first Book of Discipline, that "no minister should be intruded upon any particular kirk without their consent," this course, and the violent scenes to which it gave rise, naturally occasioned great dissatisfaction amongst pious and conscientious members. Remonstrances and arguments, on the part of several eminent ministers, having been repeatedly presented, with no other effect than to provoke new acts of oppression, four of the ministers, with Alexander Erskine at their head, formally seceded from the prevailing party in the Establishment in the year 1733, and, forming themselves into a Presbytery under the designation of the Associate Presbytery, became the nucleus of a new party called Seceders. They were soon joined by two other ministers, Ralph Erskine and Thomas Mair, and rapidly increased, chiefly by defections from the National Church, until in a short time they numbered more than forty congregations. As there were many Presbyterians in the north of Ireland, and the division extended to them likewise, an application from Lisburn for ministerial aid was sent over to Scotland as early as 1736. It was not, however, until 1742 that the Synod was able to comply with the request, when Mr. Gavin Beugo was sent as a [53] missionary, through whose labors, and those of others, a number of churches were formed in Ireland.

      This secession was the first great schism in the Church of Scotland. Soon after its occurrence, however, and for similar reasons, Thomas Boston, author of "The Fourfold State," separated from the National Church, and, uniting with Messrs. Gillespie and Collier, constituted a distinct party and Presbytery, called the "Presbytery of Relief," professedly organized "for the relief of Christians oppressed in their Christian privileges," especially in reference to the violent induction of ministers into parishes. This party differed scarcely at all from the Seceders, except in being more liberal in their views in regard to communion. They increased rapidly, and have since constituted a very respectable body of dissenters.

      The "Associate" or Secession Church, previously mentioned, continued in a prosperous condition until 1747, when it became divided into two parties, upon the question whether certain oaths required by the burgesses of towns, binding them to support "the religion presently professed within the realm," did not sanction the very abuses in the National Church against which the seceders had constantly protested. Both divisions of the Synod claimed to be the true Church, but those who considered the oath unlawful came to be called Anti-Burghers, the other party being termed Burghers. This division spread at once through the churches in Scotland and Ireland, and the controversy was maintained with considerable bitterness for many years.

      These two parties of seceders continued for more than half a century to maintain each its separate "testimony" and its distinct organization. They were [54] distinguished for the tenacity and zeal with which they maintained the ground they had respectively assumed, for the strictness of their religious life, and for the rigidity of their discipline. That hatred of prelacy which prevailed amongst them in common with all Presbyterian parties was at first intense, and gave rise to some singular decisions;³ but it became gradually softened down, and after the lapse of thirty or forty years gave place to the milder spirit of toleration. But the disposition to confound matters of opinion and questions of expediency with the things of faith and conscience still continued to display its power; and in 1795 a question arose among the Burghers as to the power of civil magistrates in religion, as asserted in the twenty-third chapter of the Westminster Confession, [55] and also in regard to the perpetual obligation of the "Solemn League and Covenant." This controversy had the usual effect to subdivide them into two parties, distinguished from each other as the "Original" or "Old Light Burghers" and the "New Light Burghers." About the same period this controversy prevailed also among the Anti-Burghers, the "Old Light" party being headed by Archibald Bruce, Thomas Campbell's former teacher of theology, who, with some other ministers, organized in August, 1806, a new Presbytery, called the Constitutional Associate Presbytery. There were thus at this time no less than four different bodies of Seceders, each adhering to its own "testimony," but all professing to adopt the Westminster Confession. In addition, there were not wanting various minor defections of those who, during the heated discussions of Synods and Assemblies, flew off like sparks from the iron heated in the forge, but, as these were transient and of little moment, it is unnecessary to detail them.

      Schooled amidst such schisms in his own denomination, and harassed by the triviality of the differences by which they were maintained, it is natural to suppose that one of so catholic a spirit as Thomas Campbell conceived the greatest antipathy to party spirit in all its workings and manifestations, and that his son Alexander fully sympathized with him in these feelings. The existing division between the Burgher and Anti-Burgher Seceders had, indeed, been to him a source of so much regret that he had often urged, as opportunity offered, upon these parties, the duty of attempting a reunion.

      Moved by his representations, and those of others favorable to such a measure, an effort was at length made to accomplish this desirable object, and a [56] committee of consultation having met at Rich-Hill, in October, 1804, a report with propositions of union was prepared by Mr. Campbell, and presented to the Synod at Belfast,⁴ by which it was very favorably received. In March, 1805, a conjoint meeting was held at Lurgan, and there seemed to be a unanimous desire, on both sides, for a coalescence, based particularly on the ground that as the Burgher oath was never required in Ireland, there was therefore nothing in the state of things existing there to warrant any division. The General Associate Synod in Scotland, however, hearing of the incipient movements in reference to union, took occasion to express their dissent in advance of any application, and the measure consequently failed for the time being.

      In the following year an application was made to the Scottish Synod, by members of the Provincial Synod of Ireland, requesting them to consider whether it would not be expedient to allow the brethren in Ireland to transact their own business without being in immediate subordination to that court. It appears that Thomas Campbell was deputed to visit Scotland and lay this matter before the General Synod. When he set out on this journey, Alexander seems to have accompanied him as far as Belfast, which he then visited for the first [57] time. His father, proceeding to Glasgow, fulfilled the duty assigned him, and presented the case to the Synod with great earnestness and force.⁵ The Synod, however, decided that it was inexpedient to entertain the proposal, and matters were accordingly left as before. These movements, nevertheless, were not without some effect. The question, having been thus brought up, was generally discussed, and the propriety of union gradually became more and more evident, while a greater amount of fraternal intercourse took place between the two parties. Finally, some of the town councils abolished the religious clause of the Burgher oath; and it may be added that on the 5th of September, 1820, long after the Campbells had abandoned all sectarian establishments, and were diligently engaged in the New World in promoting the cause of a universal Christian union, the two Synods, Burgher and Anti-Burgher, formed a cordial reunion amidst general rejoicings and impressive exercises. This event was consummated in Bristo-street church in Edinburgh, in the very house where the division had occurred seventy-three years before. [58]

[MAC1 46-58]