Nothing has such interest for us as the beginning of things. Take the genesis of this planet, the making of an atom, the upheaval of a continent, the origin of life. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Between the initial act and the details may be many revolutions, but "in the beginning God"!

      Patriarchal, Jewish and Christian dispensations are all the unfolding of one general plan: the folded bud, the expanded leaf, the perfect blossom and fruit. But, while commencing with the earliest dawn of time and holding its way through all the revolutions of kingdoms and vicissitudes of the race, it finally expands and embraces in one great brotherhood the whole family of man, and so proves itself a religion from God.

      For the Disciples of Christ also we may claim a divine beginning. "And he dreamed, and, behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and, behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it."

      1. This movement, by the grace of God, had its genesis in the fear and love of God is the hearts of its founders. The men who inaugurated it were thoroughly Christian, devout men, spiritually minded men, Christlike men. All were giants of the closet, mighty in the Scriptures, like Barnabas of old, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. In every line the "Declaration and Address" breathes the Spirit of God. In the spirit of Him who, in the shadow of the cross, prayed that all might be one, that the world might believe, the man of God, Thomas Campbell, who prepared it, set forth the evils of division and all-sufficiency of the divine basis of union. Stone, the Campbells, Scott, Richardson, Pendleton, and their coworkers, were men who walked with God, God-given and God-guided, Christ-fed, Christ-filled, Christ-clothed, as well as Christ-healed, whose whole plea was the Christ, the exaltation of the Christ, the union of Christians in the Christ, for the conversion of the world to the Christ. In the minds and hearts of men thus saturated with the Holy Scriptures and illumined by the Holy Spirit, originated the people whose one hundredth anniversary we commemorate.

      2. The origin of the Disciples of Christ was in a consuming desire to exalt the word of God. Dissatisfaction with human authority in religion, and human departures from the original

F. D. POWER.

Christianity of the New Testament, impelled them. As in the first century, and as in the sixteenth, the voice of Protestantism in the nineteenth century is lifted up: "We ought to obey God rather than men." All such movements before the Campbells were for the reformation of the church. Luther had no thought of separation from Rome. "That the Roman Church is honored by God above others," he declared, "we can not doubt." These men are more daring in their conception. Nothing less is sought than a complete restoration of Christianity according to Christ and the apostles, as in the first century. On the foundation of the apostles and prophets alone can the church of Jesus Christ be founded. The teaching and testimony of inspired men, all-sufficient and alone-sufficient to the union and co-operation of the people of God. The word of God the only rule of faith and life. "O earth! earth! earth! hear the word of the Lord."

      3. The origin of the Disciples of Christ was in the loyal recognition of the supreme authority of the Lord [347] Jesus. "Thou art the Christ," is the creed of Christianity. "This is my beloved Son, hear ye him," is the oracle of the Father. "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," is the declaration of the Son. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ," is the word of the chief apostle. "Jesus is Lord."

      See the hosts marshaled. Hear the moving millions. Angels and archangels from about the throne. Patriarchs, prophets and apostles out of the ages. Monarchs, potentates, kings from the ends of the earth. Fathers, martyrs, confessors, reformers, heroes, defenders of the faith from every race and clime. Seraphs the loftiest, saints the lowliest; every knee bowing, every tongue confessing, every hand bearing the insignia of royalty and placing it upon the head that wore the thorns. All singing, till all the morning stars sing again together and all the sons of God leap for joy:

      4. The origin of the Disciples was in the positive assertion of the gospel liberty of the children of God. Not far away were Lexington and Yorktown; not remote in point of time the immortal Declaration of Independence; not yet silent were the reverberations of the old Liberty bell, proclaiming liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof. This was a new declaration that all men are created equal in the kingdom of Jesus Christ; that all were endued with certain inalienable rights of conscience, of private judgment, among which are spiritual life, spiritual liberty and the pursuit of spiritual happiness. Religious intolerance had become intolerable. Human authority in religion hung like a veil before the Protestant mind. Religious freedom was the need of the hour. The church of Christ, the essential Christian institution, apostolic, simple, unimpeded, united, alone could bring in the kingdom of Christ in all the world. This was their thought. This is our thought.

      Blaine intimated of Garfield he had outgrown his church. Blaine did not understand the church of which Garfield was a member. Garfield belonged to a church with one article in its creed. Garfield was admitted, as every humble disciple is admitted, on the good confession that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God." Garfield never outgrew it; he could not outgrow it. It can never be outgrown by his brethren. Christ the object of faith, obedience to Christ the only bond of Christian fellowship--beyond this, freedom to survey all lengths and breadths of religious thought, to climb all heights, explore all depths of religious knowledge, unbound by the scholastic theology of creeds. And standing for the commonwealth of faith is lifted a banner which symbolized in religion what the Stars and Stripes symbolized in government, liberty and union--liberty in Christ, union under Christ.

      5. The origin of the Disciples of Christ was in the high thought of the restoration of the lost union of the people of God. "The sixteenth century was the epoch of a great separation," said D'Aubigne; "the nineteenth must be that of a great union. "Asia," said Guizot, "is the continent of origination, Europe of differentiation, America of reunions." Every Christian finds himself united to all other Christians by his identical relation with the same Saviour. This is the communion of saints; not a system, a doctrine, but a reality, a fact, as certain as the union of the members of one body; not a condition purely spiritual and invisible, but external and visible, showing itself in words: "That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;" that ye "all speak the same things;" showing itself in action: "Go teach all nations;" a vision of actual united service in the same village, the same city, the same nation, the same regions beyond, the whole earth.

      6. The origin of the Disciples of Christ was in the supreme conviction that with the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus would come the conversion of the world. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also [348] may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Christ prays for us. Christ prays for the whole world, Jew and Gentile. Christ prays for his disciples gathered in this Convention, for all schools and classes of believers in this great city and all cities, in this beloved land and all lands, in this marvelous age and all ages. Christ's prayer for us is our glory, our consolation, our treasure. God in heaven, answer it, answer it now, answer it here, answer it throughout the land, answer it in the whole earth, that it may be filled with his glory! Amen and amen.

[CCR 347-349]