If, as has been charged by those within and without, the pioneers of the Restoration movement were opposed to missionary work as now prosecuted by us, a celebration such as we are now holding is scarcely appropriate. The history of the Baptists by Dr. Spencer abounds in statements to the effect that the anti-missionary heresy of Alexander Campbell and his followers was causing strife and division among the Baptist churches of Kentucky. Along with the charges that these pioneers were teaching baptismal regeneration, denying the operation of the Spirit, repudiating heartfelt religion and discrediting the authority and work of the ordained

H. W. ELLIOTT.

ministry, they emphasized the charge that they opposed the missionary work of the church.

      Some of our own brethren who oppose the methods now being used claim that the pioneers were utterly antagonistic to such organizations for carrying on missionary work. Such a celebration doubtless appears to them, as relates to the pioneers, wholly out of place and inappropriate.

      It is in order, then, to discuss this subject in the light of the question as to whether they were really missionary.

      I. Their fundamental teaching was missionary.

      Their contention that the Bible, and the Bible alone, must be the only rule of faith and practice; that where the Scriptures speak, we speak, and where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent--was regarded by them as a means for the conversion of men and the salvation of the world. To discard all creeds and confessions of faith of human origin, and take the thus saith the Lord for all things, would remove a great stumbling-block out of the way of men who were at heart rebels against man-made creeds--ironclad declarations of faith. Their plea for Christian union upon a New Testament basis could have no ultimate end save the bringing of all men to Christ. They contended that the conversion of the world waits on the union of God's people.

      Can any man read the "Declaration and Address" and fail to understand that the spirit of missions--and that is the Spirit of Christ--dominated its author and those who indorsed it and united in carrying out the program inseparably connected with it? Let us consider--

      II. The spirit of our pioneers.

      These men, to whom we owe much, gave themselves unremittingly to the great work of preaching the gospel--proclaiming it as God's only power for the salvation of men. Not only the recognized preachers did this, but all who accepted these principles felt that they must tell the good news to all with whom they came in contact. In 1824 Mr. Campbell said: "I do not mean to say that every man and woman who believes the gospel is to commence traveling about as the popular preachers do, or to leave their homes and neighborhoods or employments, to act as public preachers. But the young women are to declare to their coevals and acquaintances, the elder women to theirs, the young men and elder men to theirs, the glad tidings, and to show them the evidence on which their faith rests. This, followed up by a virtuous and godly life, is the most powerful means left on earth to illuminate and reform the world." The influence of this teaching was early felt throughout all who accepted these principles.

      We have only to consider the sacrifices and toils and struggles of these men of God to know that they were thoroughly in earnest about the matter of seeking to save a lost world, and hence were in spirit missionaries-- [136] though in a large measure self-sent.

      That unique and indescribable pioneer of Kentucky, "Raccoon" John Smith, whose labors reached far beyond the borders of that State, may be given as an example of how men suffered for the sake of the truth, and how unceasingly they gave themselves to the age-long task assigned by our Lord.

      After he had seen and heard Mr. Campbell and had learned the more excellent way, he was rejected by his former brethren. He ceased to preach, and, in the language of the author of his life, "he took up his ax and went out to work. Day after day he toiled alone in the woods, with maul and wedge and handspike, from early dawn until the stars came out at night. He thus worked on until the close of the year 1827, when God, who had called and prepared him to preach the gospel of his Son, now by one of those mysterious, but not uncommon, impulses which move like inspiration, took him from his log heaps and brought him to stand before the people once more.

      "His preaching was setting the son against the father, the daughter against the mother; for he sometimes immersed children of parents who looked on him as an enemy to religion, and regarded his doctrine with unaffected abhorrence. 'What shall be done with him?' asked Mr. Jameson one day of a Presbyterian elder and physician. 'He is distracting society, sowing dissensions in families, and overturning churches; yet the law will do nothing with him.' 'You need not give yourself the least uneasiness about John Smith, sir,' replied the doctor. 'I know something of the human constitution; no man on earth can continue to do the amount of work that he is doing without breaking himself down. He will not live six months."'

      His biographer says: "His labors, however, grew daily more and more exhausting. He constantly borrowed time from sleep, never resting during the day, and seldom retiring until after midnight. His hair rapidly turned gray, and his robust form at last began to show the effects of his incessant conflicts and toils."

      John T. Johnson was the embodiment of the same spirit of service and sacrifice. He was a rich man for those times--probably worth a quarter of a million dollars, and used it all for the establishment of the great plea he loved. "He saw in the principles which he had embraced the true basis of the union of Christians and the only means for the conversion of the world; and he resolved to devote all his powers to the work of reforming the church and saving the world."

      That all the pioneer preachers of every State, and all the believers everywhere, were filled with the same spirit will hardly be questioned. Like the disciples of old, who were scattered by the persecution, they went everywhere preaching the Word. The great leader is described in "Western Reserve Reminiscences," a publication by the Christian Leader, in a way that stamps him as being filled with the same spirit, and it is not surprising that the men of humbler talents working with him should have been filled with a consuming desire to tell the story to all men everywhere.

      III. What about their methods?

      All this simply indicates the spirit of these men, and as yet we have discovered no missionary--for one must be sent to be such.

      They went, but, as far as we have discovered, they were not sent.

      IV. A more excellent way.

      It became apparent to these pioneers that the burden was unequally distributed; that the heft of the load was on the shoulders of the preachers and their wives and families. They saw that something must be done to equalize this burden, and so, as early as 1827, when the Mahoning Association was dissolved, a co-operative effort began in Ohio for the support of Walter Scott--probably the first evangelist ever sent out among us by such a plan. Mr. Campbell was present and gave his approval. Such efforts were at first, of necessity, for limited districts, or at most for a State. The first effort at State co-operation belongs to the history of the work in Kentucky. In 1832 those who had been led to accept simple New Testament teachings under the ministry of Burton W. Stone and [137] his colaborers were assembled in company with such as had been led to similar ground by Alexander Campbell and his fellow-workers in the town of Lexington, Ky., having adjourned a meeting held in Georgetown, Ky., with the object of reaching an agreement as to a basis of union upon which these two bodies of believers could become one. They agreed upon such a basis, and to a very large extent the union was effected.

      Who but the pioneers launched the American Christian Missionary Society? Who but the truly great Campbell presided over the destiny of this first general organization during the first sixteen years of its history? Without the sanction of the pioneers, this would never have been undertaken. The words of H. C. Garrison constitute a fitting conclusion to this attempt to show that these men of God laid broad and deep the foundations for our present-day activities on home and foreign fields, and that our fathers have left us a goodly heritage: "Because He said, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel,' they went everywhere evangelizing, regardless of compensation, and also organized these co-operative methods of world-wide evangelization." It is to their evangelistic and missionary zeal that we owe the splendid victories which we are celebrating. Our Centennial stands related to the missionary spirit of the fathers as effect stands related to cause. Had they not been true to Christ's will in the matter of missions, we should have had no Centennial to celebrate. Instead of a great Centennial service attended by tens of thousands, there would have been perhaps a memorial service held by a few students of church history at the tomb of a buried brotherhood.

[CCR 136-138]