I am simply to call the roll of some of the pioneers who labored in the Northern States. Others are to speak of the Campbells, Stone, Scott and Errett, giving voice to the honor in which we all hold them. And yet, when I mention the character and work of the men who looked to Alexander Campbell for leadership, I am unavoidably paying the highest tribute to the sage of Bethany. For in the final analysis of earthly judgment a man is measured by his disciples. One's splendid body may impress the passer-by, his mind may command recognition from his contemporaries, his winsome personality may

JOHN E. POUNDS.

take hold upon his fellows, but he lives on in his children. Alexander, Cæsar, Napoleon were world conquerors, but in all the conquered world no true son of any one of them was found to keep what had been gained. Socrates left a son of his mind in Plato; Plato in Aristotle; but Aristotle died childless! I need not remind you of Him who gave the world a Peter, a John, a Paul.

      That our pioneers, whose torches were lighted at Bethany, were good men and strong is again proven by their disciples. It is much to say of an evangelist that his converts are many, but how much is added when it is said that they are permanent, especially when there is no local church to which they can be added, and no under-shepherd to care for them. Such conditions try one's work as by fire. A little company from the woods is gathered in a hospitable log cabin, or perchance a neighbor's barn. A stranger in humble and travel-stained dress, and with homely speech, tells them the way of salvation. He makes the Book so plain that it is new, so simple that it wins their hearts. But with the sunrise the stranger--now a friend--departs to return in a year, in five years, perhaps never. But, instead of being scattered, the little group of disciples are true. And to-day, on that same spot, stands a great church.

      No one who ever saw a real woodsman can withhold admiration for the tall frame, the supple shoulders and the graceful action with which he swings his ax so deeply into the sturdy tree. His dress is simple, but suited to his task, and so in good taste. So these pioneers were suited to their work and equipped for it. Nor can the young preachers of our time achieve their success by imitating the outward form of their speech and manners, any more than the nerveless youth can swing the ax strongly by dressing in deerskin garments!

      Each was so strongly individualized that he can be classed with no other one. They were trained in no school of homiletics, hence no two had the same method of preaching. They studied no books of human theology, hence they had to really make their own sermons. And the ruggedness and individuality developed in them by these things was one great source of their power. But it makes classification of them impossible. How, for instance, could Dr. Richardson, scholar and author, be in any way [370] compared with the unlettered Harrison Jones, who made the rudest woodsmen laugh--the laugh always ending in a sob? Or how class the learned President Pendleton, who was, to all who knew him, the model Christian gentleman, with the fighters on the frontier, who wielded sharp, but unpolished swords, with strong but untrained hand?

      The Reformation had its birthplace near here. Pennsylvania has many noted places, some of which will be finally forgotten. But there shall abide these three--the Old Liberty Hall, Gettysburg and Brush Run. And the greatest of these is Brush Run! The pioneers of this section--the Erretts, the Churches, the Forwards, the Blacks, the Vogels, the Kings, the Darsies--are the pioneers of us all. And from here N. G. Mitchell, Silas E. Shepherd and others carried the new story across the mountains eastward, and left their monument in the churches there.

      For a time, in the beginning, the center of the movement was the Mahoning Association of northeastern Ohio. And the center of the Mahoning Association was Adamson Bently. I am paying a double debt of gratitude in mentioning his name, because he baptized my mother. She is still living, having been a disciple seventy-two years.

      Associated with Bently were the Haydens, William and Sutton, who preached and taught and sang--and did it all to the glory of God. Of the others in that circle, Wesley Lamphear was perhaps most inspired upon occasion, Dr. Belding traveled farthest upon evangelistic tours, and A. B. Green was the master sermon-builder. There was another whose sun went down while it was yet day, John Henry, whom every one referred to as the "Walking Bible." Southern Ohio shared largely with Kentucky the work of its pioneers, as did Indiana and Illinois. Others are to speak of these, who were companions in service with D. S. Burnett, James Challen and those of like apostolic spirit.

      The most widely known of Indiana's distinguished pioneers was probably Benjamin Franklin--author, debater, preacher. At making sermons he had what may be fairly called a touch of genius. So strongly did they take hold upon our people that they have become a real part of our thinking. And we, of this third generation, are preaching his sermons to-day--even those who, like myself, have never read them.

      Henry R. Pritchard was called the Lincoln of the Disciples, because he resembled the best-beloved American in stature, in face, in the ability to say things and in his simple-hearted humanity. Pritchard was the only one of the pioneers that I have ever known personally. But when I knew him I felt I had touched a mighty past. Such logic, married to such love as his, will found an enduring Christian family anywhere. No wonder great things were done, since he was only one of several.

      These had great fellowship, for they labored side by side with such men as the sturdy John J. Thompson; the eloquent John O'Kane; Love J. Jameson, whose spirit was as sweet as the poems he set to music and the voice with which he sang them into our hearts; Dr. Ryland T. Brown, who was as fearless in temperance work as in preaching the gospel; the scholarly and witty S. K. Hoshour, and the mighty O. A. Burgess, whose voice was heard in all the States and never heard in vain.

      The first real movement forward in Illinois was under the leadership of Barton W. Stone. Himself aflame, he lighted fires in many places, and they still burn with growing brightness. From Kentucky also came John W. Tyler; Wm. M. Brown, the first president of Eureka College; Hughes Bowles, who established many churches, at least one of which was known as the "Mother of Churches;" James A. Lindsey, and others. The record of all these is written in the great churches of the central part of the State. Associated with them were such godly men as John T. Jones, D. P. Henderson, Henry A. Palmer, M. R. Trimble, John W. Carl, Dr. W. Walton, W. W. Happy, Josephus Hewitt, Harrison W. Osborne, Andrew J. Kane, Bushrod W. Henry, and others of like zeal and ministry.

      Nowhere is the plea better loved or more ably defended than in Canada, the goodly land that lies just north of the line that is invisible--at least, in this Convention. Such godly men as [371] James Black, Dugald Sinclair, James Kilgour, Alexander Anderson, Edmund Shepherd, Charles J. Lister, Hugh McDiarmid and Mr. and Mrs. Knowles first taught the principles of this Reformation to these loyal people, and so taught it that it will never be forgotten.

      Nor can we forbear to mention to-day the sacred names of Dr. Barclay and G. T. Wharton, our pioneers in the foreign field, and that of Robert Moffett, to whom, more than to any other, our home missionary work owes its life and success.

      I have mentioned a score of names, not that these were more brilliant, more devoted or more useful than a score of scores that I have not named, but because they happened to come to me, and because they were in some sense types of the rest. Had I followed my heart I would have dwelt most upon the humbler ones, who were never known except by the people in their own counties and heaven. The faithful elder preachers, who were made by the Word, lived for the Word, and whose earthly glory and reward is that that Word is still faithfully preached in the places they loved, and begged of God for the Christ.

      In an earthly army, the time of roll-call, after the battle, is the saddest hour of all. The silence that follows the name of a comrade has a cry that pierces the heart like an arrow. But the battle of this army of pioneers is over, and the roll has been called in the presence of their great Captain; and our cup of joy is running over to know that every one has answered "Here."

[CCR 370-372]