HIS call of God to Israel is a trumpet blast to God's people in every age to look back to their origin and to the conditions from which they have been delivered. In response to this divine call and in accordance with time-honored custom of religious bodies, the Disciples of Christ in this centennial year are celebrating the epoch-making event which marks the beginning of their mighty movement.

      Martin Luther nailed his famous theses to the door of the cathedral in Wittemburg in 1517 and challenged their discussion by the Roman hierarchy, and out of that challenge came the religious reformation of the sixteenth century.

      Thomas Campbell published his famous Declaration and Address in Washington, Pa., in 1809, and from that came the religious reformation of the nineteenth century. Both were God's men and raised up for the special purpose of working out a deliverance of spiritual Israel from their captivity to apostate Rome, and of leading them into the glorious liberty of a restored gospel.

      Thomas Campbell was born in County Down, Ireland, February 1, 1763.^* His parents were members of the Church of England. In his early youth he became the subject of deep religious impressions and acquired an earnest love of the Scriptures. The cold formality and want of vital piety in the Anglican Church impelled him into the more devotional fellowship of Seceders, where he found peace in a calm trust in the merits of a crucified Christ and enjoyed a sense of divine reconciliation. From that moment he consecrated himself to God, and gave his time and his abilities to His service. He had great reverence for the Bible and studied it diligently with his concordance and a simple outfit of pen, ink and paper, though he had a large and well-assorted library.

      He became a popular preacher in the Secession branch of the Presbyterian Church. His character was of highest excellence. Social in disposition, genial in the warmth of the Scotch-Irish temperament, with a ready flow of ideas and pleasing in conversation, but grave and thoughtful as became his position, courteous and refined in deportment, his peculiar attractiveness and dignity secured the respect and admiration of all who knew him. [3]

      He deeply deplored the divisions of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and vainly sought to heal this hurt of his own Zion.

      Excessive labor imperiled his health and upon the advice of his physician Thomas Campbell sailed for America April 8, 1807, and after a prosperous journey of thirty-five days he arrived in Philadelphia. He reported at once to his synod, was assigned to the Presbytery of Chartiers and began his evangelical labor in Washington, Pa. His catholicity of spirit soon brought him into collision with his church authorities. At a communion season some distance above Pittsburg, on the Allegheny river, Mr. Campbell invited members of other branches of the Presbyterian family who were so disposed to enjoy the benefits of this communion then providentially afforded them. For this departure from the Secession testimony and usage he was arraigned before the Presbytery and censured by Presbytery and Synod, though he clearly proved that "he had violated no precept of the sacred volume."

      Such a spirit of jealousy and hostility was manifested toward him that the conviction was clearly wrought in him that "nothing but the law of the land had kept his head on his shoulders." He had seen and felt the sin of sects.

      He severed all ministerial connection with the Synod and reinforced by these trying experiences, the novelty and force of the plea he made for Christian liberality and Christian union upon the basis of the Bible attracted large numbers to his weekly assemblies.

      The sun-rising of Christian unity was projecting its rays into the darkness of a sect-cursed world. The whole effort was designed to end religious partyism and to unite the denominations upon the Bible as the only accepted rule of faith and practice and end controversies about opinions, methods and expediencies.

      The great principle or rule which was announced as his basis of action is this: "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent." With Thomas Campbell this much-misunderstood motto means this:

      Where the word of God binds men by explicit statement of fact, precept, promise or threatening, we insist upon binding men by divine authority.

      Where the word of God leaves men free by its silence as to incidental, inferential or prudential matters, we concede their fullest liberty under the law of love, and decline to acknowledge any human authority to bind the conscience.

      In order to carry out this purpose more effectively a regular association was formed under the name of "The Christian Association of Washington." At a meeting of this association on August 17, 1809, a committee of twenty-one was appointed to confer together with the assistance of Thomas Campbell to determine how best to effect the important ends of the association. Under this appointment the Declaration and Address was written by Thomas Campbell, minister of the [4] gospel, and it was unanimously agreed to and ordered to be printed September 7, 1809.

      The publication of this document is the event whose centennial we celebrate in this year of our Lord 1909. Why should it, mark the beginning of our movement for the restoration of primitive Christianity?

      The plea for the Bible as the sole authority in religion had been made by others before, as the Haldanes in Scotland, Jones and Smith in New England, James O'Kelly in Virginia, and James McGready in Tennessee. Barton W. Stone and his associates in the Springfield Presbytery published their Last Will and Testament June 28, 1804, dissolved and resolved to accept the Bible as their sole rule of faith and life and the name Christian as the divinely-approved name for the followers of Christ. This was more than five years before the Declaration and Address was published.

      This declaration of liberty and loyalty is as Franklin's kite flown on a summer afternoon into the cloud surcharged with flashing lightning. It held up a point that attracted the subtle force that leaped from positive to negative poles in the clouds and brought the electricity down to the insulated key, to the hand of the philosopher who thus established the identity of the lightning and electricity as he had discovered it. From that fact has come all the modern uses and appliances of this mysterious power of God in our modern life.

      So the Declaration of Thomas Campbell holds up to the nebulous thought of the world on Christian union a sharp point of heaven's own shaping and polishing that attracts to itself the enlightened sentiment of all God's people and presents a clear-cut program by which our Lord's prayer for the oneness of all believers in Christ may be realized. This is done with such evident correctness and maintained with such force and fullness that no man has ever attempted to seriously question it nor to interpose any valid objection to it. It establishes the identity of our Lord's prayer in the shadow of the cross and the sincerest heart desire of sanctified souls that all Christ's people may be one through the apostles' word, that the world may believe that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of all men.

      The author's viewpoint and spirit are necessary to a clear understanding of this historical document. These will appear in brief extracts from the printed page. He says: "We are persuaded that as no man can be judged for his brother, so no man can judge for his brother, but that every man must be allowed to judge for himself, as every man must bear his own judgment; must give an account of himself to God."

      "We are also of opinion that as the divine word is equally binding upon all, so all are under equal obligation to be bound by it and it alone, and not by any human interpretation of it; and that therefore no man has a right to judge his brother except in so far as he manifestly violates the express letter of the law. That every such judgment is an express violation of the law of Christ, a daring usurpation of his [5] throne and a gross intrusion upon the rights and liberties of his subjects."

      "Our desire, therefore, for ourselves and our brethren would be that, rejecting human opinions and the inventions of men, as of any authority, or having any place in the church of God, we might forever cease from further contentions about such things, returning to and holding fast by the original standard, taking the divine word alone for our rule; the Holy Spirit for our teacher and guide to lead us into all truth, and Christ alone, as exhibited in the word, for our salvation, that by so doing we may be at peace among ourselves, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord."

      The Christian Association of Washington was formed "for the sole purpose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity free from all mixture of human opinions and inventions of men."

      "There is not anything that can be justly deemed necessary for this desirable purpose but to conform to the model and adopt the practice of the primitive church, expressly exhibited in the New Testament. Thus the Church of Christ should resume that original unity, peace and purity which belong to its constitution and constitutes its glory."

      "All the churches of Christ which mutually acknowledge each other as such are not only agreed in the great doctrines of faith and holiness, but are also materially agreed as to the positive ordinances of gospel institution; so that our differences at most are about things in which the kingdom of God does not consist, that is about matters of private opinion or human invention. What a pity that the kingdom of God should be divided about such things!"

      The devout Campbell lived in close fellowship with the great Teacher sent from God and was filled with His spirit. He seemed to stand with Him, as in His sole petition for His followers He embraced all them in every land and in all ages that believe on Him through the word of the men He had chosen out of the world and sent into the world to preach the word He had given them.

      With a keen discernment he discriminated between the divine and the human--the things that make for peace and the things that cause strife and division. In his sympathies and pleadings he expressly includes, "our dear brethren of all denominations" as the objects of "our equal love and esteem" and hopefully anticipates their "zealous and faithful efforts to heal the breaches of Zion that God's dear children might dwell together in unity and love."

      This affectionate plea for oneness is divine. It came out of the travail of soul of our Lord that prompted every utterance of His intercession in the hour of His betrayal. This pathetic prayer immediately following the valedictory address to the chosen apostles contains every essential idea and elementary principle of this earnest pleading for peace and oneness of all believers in Christ.

      T. Campbell's mind was filled with the sublime petitions of this midnight supplication and his soul was trembling with deepest anxiety [6] for the salvation of the perishing world. He was distressed by the unholy strifes and contentions among professing Christians, which our Lord saw would prevent the world from believing that the Father had sent him. He set himself to the tremendous task of removing this "horrid evil," and so stood with evidence upon original ground, took up things as the apostles left them and pointed the way to disentanglement "from the accruing embarrassments of intervening ages."

      His controlling idea is the reunion of Christendom which Gladstone said to Pere Hyacinthe is the greatest idea of the nineteenth century. His first proposition declares: "That the church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obey him in all things according to the Scriptures, and manifest the same by their tempers and conduct."

      His conception of the church is as broad as the whole family of God on earth, though it be distributed into many denominations. He affirms the essential oneness of all believers despite denominational peculiarities and calls upon "our dear brethren" to stand together on mutual agreements and subordinate incidental and formal differences, not having in them the essence of salvation. He proclaims liberty to sect-bound captives, and "the acceptable year of the Lord to all them that mourn in Zion, to give them the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." It was the reproclamation of the glad tidings of good things to all people in the darkness and shadow of death that brooded over the divided church.

      In a dozen propositions the way of union is prepared by fixing attention on foundation principles of the oracles of God, by removing stumbling blocks out of the way of God's people and so fencing it in on each side that sincere followers of Christ can harmoniously advance toward unity in the faith of the gospel.

      The distinction between faith and opinion is clear and vital. Faith looks to the divine and responds to its authority. It is limited by a "Thus saith the Lord" in express terms, by approved precedent or explicit statement, and thus brings believers into personal relation to the Son of God.

      Opinion comes from the human and assumes equality among believers and largest liberty under loyalty to Christ and the law of love. Hence each must accord to others what he claims for himself, esteem others better than himself and thus stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the common faith.

      In all "circumstantials" of the observance of divine ordinances, or, in methods of fulfilling common obligations, sameness of judgment must be reached by candid consideration and cheerful submission of "one to another in the fear of the Lord."

      Such is the free rendering of the complete program for the realization of Christian unity. Its general thought was the burden of the heart-throbbing prayer of the world's Redeemer as He was about to [7] go to the agony of Gethsemane and the tragical death on Calvary. It was wrought out in the heart and brain of the devout T. Campbell, sanctified through the truth.

      The proof sheets of this memorable Declaration and Address were coming from the press when the younger Campbell first stepped on American soil, September 29, 1809, two weeks past his majority. All honor to his spiritually-minded father who lived so near the only begotten Son of God as to think his thoughts centuries after him and with illuminating vision of an inspired seer proclaimed a prophetic message stamped with divinity by its thorough scripturalness It is, in fact, "a manifestation of the truth commending itself to every man's conscience in the sight of God."

      In this centennial year the Disciples should praise God for His elect servant, whose epoch-making message marks the beginning of our movement, while we recount the struggles and achievements of the century.

      The publication of this Declaration ranks not only with the nailing of Luther's theses to the door of the cathedral at Wittemburg, in the sixteenth century, but with the publishing of Bacon's Great Instauratio in the early, seventeenth century and the Declaration of American Independence in the latter part of the eighteenth century of our Christian era, all of which were beginnings of wonderful revolutionary changes in the religious, scientific and political history of the world.

      This simple plea for undenominational Christianity is destined to move on to the unifying of the church of the living God and to the conquest of the world for the crowned Prince of Life.

      It has made the Disciples the leaders in these efforts for Christian union during the past century, and they must possess the spirit of these first promoters of "the best of all causes," exhibit the same breadth of Christian fellowship and maintain it in the widest range within the revealed will of Christ, if they are to be true to their mission and reach the ultimate purpose of their existence.

      As we enter upon out, second century it will be helpful to refresh our minds as to what was said by our pioneer fathers on this question of religious fellowship.

      It was raised by A. Campbell, who submitted to his father "the question whether there is Scripture authority for making the observance of social acts of religious worship a term of communion," whether in the family or assembly, "composed in part of unbelievers." It was considered at length in two letters dated 2nd and 12th of March, 1812. He says:

      "That Christianity, in the present profession and practice, is greatly corrupted, is a plain matter of fact. Whoever will seriously consider the present state of things in the professing world and compare it with the spirit and tenor of the apostolic writings and with the state of things there exhibited will plainly perceive a striking difference. * * *"

      Then "religious esteem and intercourse in all religious acts and exercises were precisely and necessarily limited to the subjects of this [8] new religion, and of course must of necessity still be the same, for there is still but one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, and of course but one law of love pervading and uniting all within the manifold limits of this unity and under its manifest influences. * * *"

      "These, and these alone, constitute the one visible professing body of our Lord Jesus Christ upon earth, and are the special subjects of all-saving grace and of fellowship in all gospel ordinances, in and by which that grace is manifested, maintained and promoted."

      "Now all are, in the first instance, manifested and distinguished by the one faith, of which the one baptism or submersion in water into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is the proper, instituted and expressive symbol and also the first formal and comprehensive act of the obedience of faith."

      "But this faith may be manifested without this baptism, and where it is received must always be manifested (I mean by a scriptural and intelligent profession) before it. And now that the world has for a long time been misled about this baptism and in the way of administering it to children, which are utterly incapable and always unqualified subjects, the one faith, manifested by an intelligent and consistent profession, is the immediate proper and formal reason of religious communion in all instituted ordinances of gospel worship, beyond which it cannot be lawfully or profitably extended. * * *"

      "We believe, as we have a right to hope, that there are Christians in all the denominations of professors where the great fundamental truths of the gospel are acknowledged. * * * Therefore, I conclude that where we bear an open faithful testimony against the existing evils of a professing people who acknowledge the great fundamental truths of the gospel, we are warranted to join in all public acts of religious worship with such of them as voluntarily attend upon our ministrations, and thus countenance our instructions both by their voluntary attendance and manifest concurrence with us in those religious acts." Mem. A. C., Vol. I, pp. 449 to 454.

      Such were the sentiments of T. Campbell upon religious fellowship in March, 1812, three months before he was immersed, and in these views his son substantially agreed. Both held this view on this subject during their lives so far as known. After their baptism on June 12, 1812, the father yielded the scepter of leadership to the more aggressive son, assuming the attitude of a counselor when his judgment was solicited, as it was frequently, and when expressed it was considered with becoming deference.

      In 1837 the question as to "Christians among the Sects" was pressed upon A. Campbell. Asked who is a Christian, he answered:

      "Every 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." * * * "I cannot make any one duty the standard of Christian state or character, [9] not even immersion into the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and in my heart regard all that have been sprinkled in infancy without their own knowledge and consent, as aliens from Christ, and the well-grounded hope of heaven. * * *"

      "It is the image of Christ the Christian looks for and loves; and this does not consist in being exact in a few items, but in general devotion to the whole truth as far as known."

      "There is no occasion for making immersion, on a profession of the faith, absolutely essential to a Christian, though it may be greatly essential to his sanctification and comfort."

      "We have, in Paul's style, the inward and outward Jews; and may we not have the inward and outward Christians? As the same apostle reasons on circumcision (Rom. 2:25-29), so we would reason on baptism."

      "We all agree that he who wilfully or negligently perverts the outward, cannot have the inward. But can he who, through a simple mistake, involving no perversity of mind, has misapprehended the outward baptism, yet submitting to it according to his view of it, have the inward baptism which changes his state and has praise of God, though not of all men? To which I answer, in my opinion, it is possible." A. C. in Mill. Har. 1837, pp. 411, 412-414-507.

      With just pride and clothed with humility, T. Campbell saw his talented son "mount up the heights of wisdom" and maintain his exalted position in the limelight of worldwide observation. When he saw him, with iconoclastic hand and Titanic strength break the earthen pitchers of human speculation that hid the truth from men, he greatly rejoiced in its undimmed splendor as it flashed out in all the fullness of a divine revelation for the enlightenment of mankind.

      He was welcomed everywhere among the churches as he went about doing good, filled with the Holy Spirit and its treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He lifted them to higher levels of Christian edification, diffused a spirit of thankfulness and hopefulness wherever he went and left a gracious benediction upon all who waited upon his helpful ministry.

      This father in Israel was a true "son of consolation," a man of prayer, of reading, meditation and prophesying, who spoke "unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort." He loved truth, and to him the revelation of God in His inspired word was the highest expression of the truth concerning the divine nature and will and man's duty and destiny. It was the finality in religion. In his mind it was absolutely certain that God would speak intelligibly to man if He could and that He could so speak if He would, and therefore He did thus speak in the well-authenticated oracles of God, so men are without excuse before the bar of conscience for their ignorance of what God would have them to be or would have them to do wherever there is a fair translation of what God said into the living tongues of the nations. [10]

      The elder Campbell was pre-eminently an expository teacher. His mind was in daily contact with the divine mind by the word of God. He opened that word and closely followed the line of thought contained therein and brought it to the opened understanding of his hearers in the way of teaching that was beautiful in expression and charming in illumination and reasonableness. In all associations in life he exhibited a consistent adjustment of spirit and deportment to the highest ideals, admired in others and fully realized only in Christ. He combined the rare faculty of reproving with authority and at the same time winning the respect of the reproved and instructing all listeners.

      Having declined to enter the church of which his father was a member because of its "cold formality," he could not put undue emphasis upon any "form of godliness," however correct and clearly authorized it might be. Hence he dwelt chiefly upon themes that built up men in the enduring elements of Christian character, for as "out of the heart are the issues of life," the heart must be "kept with all diligence."

      His farewell sermon in his eighty-ninth year, June 1, 1851, based on Matthew 22:36-40, is a fitting conclusion of a more than sixty years' ministry. His final message emphasized his conception of the essential in the Christian religion.

      His precious life was prolonged to the advanced age of about ninety-one years. His sight became dim and then entirely failed, and this world was "pitchy darkness" to him. But he was tenderly loved in the family of his dutiful son, where he was cheerfully cared for. When historical memory had almost failed he would say, "My sentimental memory is as good as it ever was." He was happy to repeat the worshipful hymns familiar by use in the public assembly and the devotional psalms which he had learned in his youth and cherished in his active life. These were the spiritual furniture that brought comfort and joy and good hope as life's day drew near its sun-setting. Peacefully he closed his day in the twilight and opened his eyes upon the dawn of eternity's fadeless brightness. [11]

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