PRINCETON, N. J.
BX 7315 .W45 1977
Whitsitt, William Heth, 1841
-1911 .
Origin of the Disciples of
Christ ( Camobellites )
ORIGIN
OF THE
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST
(CAMPBELLITES)
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CENTENNIAL
ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF
ALEXANDER CAMPBELL
BY
WILLIAM H.WHITSITT, D.D., LL.D.
PROFESSOR IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
SECOND EDITION.
NEW YORK
A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON
1888
Copyright, 1888,
WILLIAM H. WHITSITT.
Press of J. J. Little & Co.
Astor Place, New York.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
The purpose to deliver an attack against the Dis-
ciples of Christ is expressly disclaimed ; the author's
only aim has been to supply a truthful version of an
important chapter in American Church History.
Numbers of myths have become collected about the
name of Mr. Campbell, and about the origin of the
people with whom he was connected. Certainly it
can be nothing amiss to challenge these myths, to
let in upon them the light of sober criticism, and to
exhibit the facts as they really exist.
In sending forth a second edition, the author wishes
to acknowledge with gratitude the kind favor with
which the first edition was received, both by the press
and by the public. A number of attacks, it is con-
ceded, have been made by the press of the Disciples,
but these have been in no respect formidable. They
have been marked either by helpless misrepresentation,
or by still more helpless denunciation. They require
no attention, because the persons who engaged in
them have displayed no adequate acquaintance with
the subject.
May the favor of the Lord attend this honest effort
to serve the cause of historic truth.
306 E. Chestnut Steeet,
Louisville, May 10, 1888.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2014
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TABLE OP CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Sandemanians 1
II. "The Ancient Order of Things" 6
III. "The Ancient Gospel" 16
IV. "The Ancient Gospel" Improved 23
V. The Haldaneans 33
TI. Mr. Campbell's Perversion to Sandeman-
ianism (First Stage) 51
VII. Mr. Campbell's Earliest Success as a
Propagandist 62
VIII. Mr. Campbell's Perversion to Sandeman-
ianism (Second Stage) 76
IX. Baptism for the Remission of Sins .... 91
X. Other Items 102
iii
ORIGIN OP THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
CHAPTER I.
THE SANDEMANIANS.
The Disciples of Christ — commonly called
Campbellites, from the name of their founder, Mr.
Alexander Campbell of Bethany, West Virginia —
are an offshoot of the Sandemanian sect of Scotland.
This latter sect was established in the early portion
of the eighteenth century by Mr. John Glas, a minis-
ter of the Established Church of Scotland. Mr. Glas
was placed over the parish of Tearing, near Dundee,
Forfarshire, in the year 1719. (Narrative of the Rise
and Progress of the Controversy about the National
Covenants. By Mr. John Glas, late Minister of the
Gospel at Tealing. Second edition, Dundee, 1828,
p. 159.) The region of country in which his resi-
dence was situated seems to have been considerably
infested by Dissenters of the type called Cameronians,
who made a loud noise against the Kirk of Scotland
because she had now departed, in some respects, from
the letter of the National Covenants, asserting that
l
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
by this means she had lost the rigrht to be styled a
Church of Christ.
In order to meet the objections of these adversaries,
Mr. Glas resolved to investigate the whole question
of national covenanting in the light of the Scriptures.
The issue of these researches was different from any
tiling he had anticipated. By means of them he not
only withdrew the foundation of strict biblical pre-
cept from beneath the feet of the Cameronians, but
the supports upon which his own Church was estab-
lished were, in his judgment, likewise destroyed.
These covenants, whether in their ancient or their
modern observance, proceeded all alike upon the sap-
position that a connection between Church and State
is in accordance with the teachings of the Sacred
Word. (Glas's Narrative, pp. 1-25, also p. 139.)
On his attaining to the conviction that a union of this
nature was not provided for in the New Testament,
Mr. Glas became displeased with his own position in
the Established Church, as well as with the represen-
tations of the Cameronians. He was more than ever
confirmed in the resolution 44 to take to himself no
other rule but the word of God/'
His reflections upon that Word now speedily made
him aware that the rite of communion, as it was
observed in his own and other parishes, was not
strictly in accordance with the pattern of the apos-
tolical churches. Many persons of the weakest pre-
tensions to pious living, and many more who made
no claims to any special renewal by the Spirit of
THE SAXDEM ASIANS.
3
holiness, were entitled, in virtue of their birthright,
to the benefits of a position at the table of the Lord.
This posture of circumstances had become unendur-
able to him.
Accordingly, on the 13th of July 1725, he sought
to relieve his conscience by organizing a conventicle
within the boundaries of his parish, composed of those
only who he believed had experienced a complete
change of heart. (Memoranda of John Glas and
Robert Sandeman, collected from MS. notes of the
late James Scott, member of the church in Dundee ;
in Letters and Discourses of Robert Sandeman, Dun-
dee, 1851, p. 118. Compare also Glas's Narrative,
pp. 103 and 113.)
When the literalistic tendency of Mr. Glas had
resulted in this ecclesiola in ecclesia, it became the
means of directing public attention to his proceed-
ings. A communion occasion at Strathmartine, on
the 6th of August, 1726, served to bring him face
to face with the opposition that was gathering head
against him. Echoes of the rising strife were also
heard in the Presbytery of Dundee, at its session on
the 7th of September following. The affair likewise
came to discussion, after an informal fashion, in the
Synod of Angus and Mearns when it convened in
October 1726.
Nothing of consequence was done in the premises
until the 17th of October 1727. at which date the
Synod of Angus and Mearns laid upon the Pres-
bytery of Dundee, to which the parish of Tealing
4
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
belonged, the duty of bringing Mr. Glas to trial at a
special session which they should convene for that
purpose ; and ordered that these in turn should bring
the results of their investigations before the Synod,
at its next session at Brechin in April 1728. This
mandate was observed ; and after due deliberation was
had, the Synod of Angus and Mearns, on the 18th
of April 1728, pronounced a sentence of suspension
from the ministry against Mr. Glas, for promulgating
sentiments hostile to the National Covenants and to
the union of Church and State in any form. An
appeal was taken to the General Assembly, which
convened about a fortnight later, on the 2d of May,
which, however, confirmed the action of the Synod.
Meanwhile, Mr. Glas having laid himself liable to
the charge of contumacy by continuing to preach the
obnoxious doctrine after his suspension from office,
a sentence of deposition was passed against him by
the Synod in October 1728. An appeal being* taken
against this new sentence, it was likewise confirmed
by decision of the Commission of the Assembly, at a
meeting appointed to consider the case, on the 12th
of March 1730. (The above facts are taken from
Glas's Narrative, as cited on a preceding page.)
The brief outlines which have just been given will
avail, in some sort, to bring before the reader a view
of the special occasion that induced Mr. Glas to rebel
against the Kirk of Scotland, and of the main inci-
dents of the process that was thereupon entered
against him. His own reflections concerning the
THE SANBEMANIANS.
5
teachings of the Scriptures had brought him to em-
brace the position of the English Independents in
relation to the question concerning the proper church
order, while the action of the constituted authorities
had already destroyed his sympathy for the National
Establishment.
Though his followers and himself were in the cus-
tom of designating themselves, and the churches they
subsequently organized, by the name of " Independ-
ents " (Glas, Narrative, p. 110 ; also Memoir of Mr.
John Glas, prefixed to the Narrative, p. xvii), or
sometimes Congregationalists (Memoir of Mr. John
Glas, prefixed to Narrative, p. xxvi), yet they made
no effort to form relations with the people who in
England bear those names. On the contrary, they
stood wholly aloof; and, guided by the Scriptures,
they resolved to work out from this source, alone
and without any assistance, the more minute details
of the constitution, life, worship, and discipline of
the churches of the New-Testament period. The
passion they had acquired for contradicting the usages
and the doctrines of the " popular clergy" was so
keen that they were soon driven into excesses ; and
before they progressed very far there had arisen so
large a variety of convictions and usages, that many
of the individual bodies differed from each other in
regard to a number of particulars, while each single
item, though never so insignificant in appearance,
was liable to become an occasion of separation.
6
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
CHAPTER II.
"THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS."
The tithing of mint anise and cummin, it has
been suggested, became the principal concern of Mr.
Glas and his followers. The work was begun only a
few months after the sentence of deposition from the
Kirk of Scotland had been confirmed. Mr. Glas had
an uncommon amount of confidence in the capacity
of the poorest of the brethren to divine the truth of
God from the biblical word, and often boasted that
he got hints from them which served to open and ex-
plain many things which he had not previously under-
stood. During the summer of 1730, while he was
absent in the Highlands for the benefit of his health,
these humble people raised a scruple in the church
over which he now presided in Dundee, regarding the
ruling elders, which, as former Presbyterians, they
had adopted from the constitution of the Established
Church. The pastor was speedily fetched from his
summer retreat for the purpose of adjusting the diffi-
culty. This enterprise was accomplished by abolish-
ing the office of ruling elders, and substituting in
their stead a plurality of elders, whose duty it should
be both to preach and to teach. (Memoranda of John
" THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS." 7
Glas and Robert Sandeman, as found in the Letters
and Discourses of Robert Sandeman, pp. 118, 119.)
The fashion of employing a plurality of elders is
likewise found among the Disciples of America.
To an aged member of the church, also presumably
one of the poorest of the people, is due the innovation
of weekly communion in the Lord's Supper. The
conventicle which Mr. Glas had gathered around him
was at first in the habit of monthly celebrating the
Lord's Supper. The person referred to suggested
the inquiry why they should meet every month for
that purpose, and not once or twice in the year, as
the churches of the Establishment were in the custom
of doing. A debate was held regarding the business,
by means of which it was concluded that both of
these practices were without example in the New
Testament; and thereupon the weekly service was
enjoined. (Memoranda of John Glas and Robert
Sandeman, in the place above cited, p. 119.) The
Disciples also observe this usage.
In the beginning of the movement it was expected
that the elders, of whom there were indispensably two
or three in every church, should sustain themselves,
by their own exertions, in some trade or profession
outside of the ministry. This peculiarity has been
retained, with considerable tenacity, in some of the
Sandemanian churches. (An Account of the Chris-
tian Practices of the Church in Barnsbury Grove,
Barnsbury, London, 1878, p. 10.) The early Dis-
ciples, in their turn, laid much stress upon this point
8
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
(Christian Baptist, edit. 6, p. 91, pp. 28, 29, 43, 37,
46) ; but of late they are becoming less strenuous
regarding it.
Seeing that he was now fairly launched upon a
career of literalism, Mr. Glas would soon perceive
that it was impossible to find in the New-Testament
writings any documents like the Longer and Shorter
Catechisms of the Kirk of Scotland. Accordingly, in
the year 1736, he published a pamphlet under the
title of " The Usefulness of Catechisms Considered,"
and takes the occasion to discourage the employment
of them by his followers. The Confession of Faith,
in its turn, was abolished. Besides the fact that there
was directly no Divine command enjoining its exist-
ence, the Westminster Confession had been, in some
sort, the occasion of his displacement from the parish
at Tealing.
The attention of the party was soon directed to
the love-feast which prevailed in the early Christian
Church ; and, with the courage of their convictions,
this observance was also added as an indispensable
mark of a genuine Church of Christ. Their success-
ors in England are quite as stringent as were the
Sandemanians of the eighteenth century in requiring
the presence of each and every member on these occa-
sions. (Barnsbury Grove, as above, p. 10.) Mr.
Campbell, the founder of the Disciples, seriously con-
sidered this matter ; but, while he allowed that the
custom was of biblical authority, and might be " found
useful when the ancient order of things is restored "
" THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS.1* 9
(Christian Baptist, edit. 6, pp. 283, 284), he yet lacked
a sufficient amount of courage to enjoin the observ-
ance of it. On the other hand, he was fully as clear
as the Sandemanians in his denunciations of church
catechisms, creeds and confessions of faith.
The Sandemanians were easily able to discover that
the kiss of charity was several times enjoined in the
apostolical letters, and hence this observance was fre-
quently found among them. Mr. Campbell's courage
and devotion to the distinct commands of the word
of God failed him entirely at this point. (Christian
Baptist, edit. 6, 224. Compare also Richardson, vol.
ii. p. 129, where Mr. Campbell had an opportunity to
resist this observance in a small church at Pittsburg,
which professed Sandemanian views.)
The conditions were almost the same in the case
of feet-washing. This practice was also regarded by
numbers of the Sandemanians as an important mark
of a true Church of Christ. It is still observed by
them (Barnsbury Grove, p. 8), but they do not now
appear to consider it of the same binding necessity
as formerly. Mr. Campbell rejected it entirely
(Christian Baptist, pp. 222, 223), as a church observ-
ance, though he was not averse that it should be *
performed as an expression of private hospitality.
The Sandemanians early became convinced that it
was an article of capital concern, that their adherents
should abstain from eating blood. In this connec-
tion they insisted upon the letter of the passage at
Acts xv. 20, 28, 29. No distinct allusion, on the part
10
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
of the Disciples, to the binding force of this apostoli-
cal prohibition, can be remembered.
The Sandemanians laid unusual stress upon the
intercessory prayer of our Lord, in the seventeenth
chapter of the Gospel according to John ; holding that
it inculcates the necessity of absolute unanimity, on
the part of the various members, in every transaction
by an individual church. In order to obtain this in-
dispensable unanimity, the parties who may entertain
such objections as they are unable to surrender are
incontinently expelled from the communion. (Barns-
bury Grove, p. 14.) The Disciples likewise insist
with earnestness upon the passage in question ; but
they understand that it refers to the organic union of
all who profess and call themselves Christians, on the
basis of the plea which themselves have a charge to
urge upon the attention of the religious public.
A modified type of communism prevailed, and is
still professed, among the Sandemanians. (Richard-
son, vol. i. p. 71.) The personal estate of a com-
municant could be retained by him after entering the
fraternity, but always with the understanding that it
was subject to the demands of the necessitous, espe-
cially those of them who chanced to be of the house-
hold of faith. Accordingly it was expected that their
brethren should not lay up any further treasures on
earth than such as they were possessed of at the time
of their reception. (Andrew Fuller, Strictures on
Sandemanianism, Letter IX.) In order to prevent
this from taking place, the surplus above their actual
" THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS." 11
necessities in the way of subsistence was to be con-
tributed to the " Fellowship," which is the name they
derived from Acts ii. 42, for the collection for the
poor. (Barnsbury Grove, pp. 6, 7, also pp. 8, 9 ; cf.
Letters and Discourses of R. Sandeman, p. 42.) The
Disciples, on the contrary, have never pressed the
principle of communism to the same extent ; but they
have adopted the nomenclature of the Sandemanians
in the matter of the weekly collection (Christian ^
Baptist, edit. 6, pp. 209, 166, 359) which is ordinarily
designated as " the Fellowship " in their literature.
(See also Christian Baptist, pp. 389, 391, 408, 413,
for other instances of the employment of this term
in the writings of Sandemanian churches.)
The custom of mutual exhortation, as a regular
part of religious worship, was in vogue among many
of the Sandemanian fraternities. They justified this
proceeding by a literal interpretation of 1 Cor. xiv.
31. It was often assigned a place in the observances
of the Sabbath day ; but the church of Barnsbury
Grove, London, has now removed it to the Wednes-
day-evening meeting. (Barnsbury Grove, p. 7.)
The business of exhortation was likewise attendee
to in the first church that was organized by the Dis-
ciples in America, as also in the kindred Sandeman-
ian church under the charge of Walter Scott in
Pittsburgh, Penn. ; but so many evils grew out of
it, that after a series of years Mr. Campbell became v
impatient of it, and succeeded in persuading his fol-
lowers to surrender their liberty in this regard.
12
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
(Richardson, Memoirs of A. Campbell, vol. ii. pp.
125-129.)
A portion of the Sandemanian fraternity were so
strict in their literalism, that, because there is no di-
rect injunction commanding the observance of family
prayer, and because there is a Divine command to
enter into the closet and pray in secret, they would
inveigh against this practice as savoring of a tendency
to proselytism. (Christian Baptist, edit. 2, Buffalo,
Va., 1827, p. 76.) Others of the party discouraged
the habit of family prayer, on the ground that it
is " unlawful, provided any part of the family be
unbelievers, seeing it is holding communion with
them." {Braidwood's Letters, as cited by Andrew
Fuller in his Strictures on Sandemanianism, Letter
IX.)
In his earlier years Mr. Campbell was influenced
by this latter view of the subject, and at one time
seriously proposed to his father the inquiry " whether
family prayer is proper in a family composed in part
of unbelievers." (Richardson, vol. i. p. 449.) Un-
like the Sandemanians, however, who could find " no
precept or precedent for family worship " in the bibli-
cal writings (Fuller, Strictures on Sandemanianism,
Letter IX.), Mr. Campbell was fortunate enough to
discover a justification of the practice in the patri-
archal dispensation, which he denominated "the
family worship institution " (Christian System, Beth-
any, Va., 1840, pp. 128-133) ; and, notwithstanding
the youthful scruples referred to above, he appears
" THE ANCIENT ORDER OF THINGS." 13
to have performed the duty with a commendable
degree of diligence and spirit.
The same people who could not reconcile it to their
views to pray or to enjoy any kind of religious observ-
ance in the family circle with those who were not in
communion with them at the Lord's Supper, yet had
no scruples against accompanying respectable persons
of whatever creed, or of no creed at all, to the theatre,
or against joining with them in the dance or other
social amusements which are commonly condemned
by the more serious portion of the religious com-
munity. (Barnsbury Grove, p. 9 ; compare Fuller's
Strictures on Sandemanianism, Letter II. ; and Letter
of John Glas to Edward Gorril, in Letters and Dis-
courses of R. S., p. 88.)
Mr. Campbell was not guilty of this kind of extrav-
agance ; but the sentiment of the Sandemanians in
the matter of theatres, dancing, and other diversions,
appears to have survived in the Mormon community,
who, as will be suggested later on, are connected, '
through the Disciples, with the Sandemanian stock.
It would be natural to expect that those who were
unwilling to engage in family prayer where unbeliev-
ing members might belong to the household, should
also be forward to propose objections to the presence
of any but communicants at the public services of the
Church. A portion of the Sandemanian Churches
acceded to the demand of their peculiar logic in this
particular, and were solicitous to exclude from their
public worship all who might not belong to their own
14
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
community. (Christian Baptist, edit. 6, p. 389 ; also
a Letter from the Elders of the Church in Dundee to
the Elders of the Church in Edinburgh, as found in
the Letters and Discourses of Robert Sandeman,
Dundee, 1851, pp. 116, 117.)
Mr. Campbell, in his turn, was much taken with
this peculiarity of the Sandemanians. His biographer
is our authority for the statement that the first church
he organized — at Brush Run in Pennsylvania — did
not recognize as duly prepared to partake in religious
services any persons except such as had professed to
put on Christ in baptism ; or, in other words, those
who chanced to be members of that special organi-
zation. Later in life he was persuaded to recede
from this extrem position ; but he appears to haye
always regrette his course in that regard, longing
in vain for th exclusive attitude of his youthful
time. (Richardson, vol. i. p. 454.)
The Sandemanians made a deal of noise over the
point that the first day of the week is not properly
a Sabbath, at least holding that it is not a duty
incumbent upon Christian people to observe it in
the same fashion as the Sabbath was observed by the
Jewish nation under the Old-Testament economy.
They regarded the Christian Sabbath as merely
designed for the celebration of divine ordinances
(Barnsbury Grove, p. 4), and did not conceive that
they were engaged to sanctify the day according to
the strict usage of the Scottish Kirk. When the con-
cerns of public worship had been duly cared for, the
" THE ANCIEXT ORDER OF THINGS." 15
balance of the day might be passed in such pleasures
as would scarcely comport with the claim that it was
anyway more holy than other days. (Andrew Fuller,
Strictures on Sandemanianism, Letter IX.)
The Disciples likewise decline to regard the first
day of the week as a Sabbath, or even to call it by '
that name. The fourth command of the Decalogue,
they hold, is applicable to the seventh day, but it does
not refer to Sunday. On this account they have now
and then been charged with the crime of paying no
respect to the Fourth Commandment. Claims of
that nature, however, are commonly based upon a mis-
conception. The public worship which the Disciples,
like the Sandemanians. consider it their duty to ob-
serve on the Lord's Day, occupies about as many hours
of time and service as customarily are passed in that
way by those who are willing to consider the day as
a Sabbath. The only matter worth}* of attention in
this connection is, that the party are in the habit of
proposing the same distinction regarding this subject
that was urged, before their time, by the Sandeman-
ians. (Richardson, vol. i. pp. 432-435.)
16
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
CHAPTER III.
'; THE ANCIENT GOSPEL."
The: main strength and care of the Sandernanian
parn*. during the first twenty-five years of its exist-
ence, were exerted in the direction of the constitution,
life and worship of the Church. In the development
of these it may be suspected, without any grave lack
of charity, that they were influenced, to some extent,
by a desire to antagonize the usages of the Kirk of
Scotland. The points brought forward in the pre-
ceding section will suggest, in several instances, the
operation of a spirit of contradiction. For example,
the scruple against the propriety of family prayer may
have had some kind of reference to the circumstance
that this was, at the moment, an almost universal
custom of the Scottish country. The tenet against
the sanctification of the Sabbath was likewise very
offensive to the majority of religious people in Scot-
land. Historical records are believed to indicate that
the custom of observing the Lord's Supper every Sun-
day had a degree of reference to the circumstance
that the Kirk folk commonly celebrated the sacra-
ment but once or twice in the year.
In brief, the Sandemanians were almost always and
" THE ANCIENT GOSPEL."
17
everywhere in the opposition. This spirit of oppo-
sition displayed itself when, in due course of time,
they found it desirable to give a portion of their at-
tention to the doctrines which their Church should
maintain. The influence of the Methodist movement
was by that time beginning to be recognized in Scot-
land. While the Calvinistic theologians felt impelled
to resist the views of Mr. Wesley at various points in
the department of soteriology, it is none the less true,
that, through the influence of Whitefield, these had
gained some degree of currency in the land of Knox.
Methodist influences were very much extended in the
party of Seceders, who went away from the Estab-
lished Church in 1732, only a few years after the
expulsion of Mr. Glas.
Mr. James Hervey, a member of Wesley's "godly
club " at Oxford, who subsequently adhered to the
predestinarian views of Whitefield, in the year 1755
had published a work under the title of " Dialogues
between Theron and Aspasio," that were received
with much popularity. The views that were there .
set forth regarding the nature of justifying faith and
the process of salvation were pretty strongly tinctured
with Methodist sentiment, but they were not on that
account any the less welcome to wide circles of his
readers in Scotland.
Two years later a son-in-law of Mr. Glas's — Mr. </
Robert Sandeman, who likewise had a sort of mission
to contend against the "popular preachers" and
" popular doctrines " — came forward with a review
18
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
of the performance of Mr. Hervey, entitled " Letters
on Theron and Aspasio." In this production he
strictly combats the notion advanced by Hervey,
that saving faith embraces in its contents any " real
persuasion that the blessed Jesus has shed his blood
for me, or has fulfilled all righteousness in my stead ; "
and also the position that any " appropriation of Christ
is essential to faith." (Sandeman, Letters on Theron
and Aspasio, New York, 1838, p. 4.) What he sev-
eral times christens as "the ancient gospel" (p. 117,
p. 297, p. 412 ; Epistolary Correspondence, p. 25, p.
83), recognizes as " involved in the contents of justi-
fying faith nothing else than simply believing the
record, or crediting the testimony of God." (Letters,
as above, p. 21.) In order to believe the record, Mr.
Sandeman wholly discredits the notion that there is
a necessity for the operation of the Spirit (pp. 29, 30).
He suggests that the Spirit "who breathes in the
Scriptures never speaks a word to any man beside
what he publicly speaks there ; " and he " will not
bear to hear the living and powerful Word of God,
on any pretence or under color of any distinction
whatsoever, called a dead letter."
In the " Letters on Theron and Aspasio," though
his tone is extremely bitter and arrogant, he is never-
theless more moderate than he exhibits himself in
some of his subsequent productions. The "Episto-
lary Correspondence between S. P(ike) and R. San-
deman) " transcends all the previous limits which he
had assigned to his passion. There he claims that
" THE ANCIENT GOSPEL."
19
faith is " the bare belief of the bare truth," and that it
does not even imply so much as a hearty persuasion.
In this bare belief he was also at pains to specify that
the mind of the subject is not active, but passive ; for,
if the mind were active in the matter of crediting the
testimony of Christ, this would be the same as to
allow that we are justified by an act of the human
mind.
Mr. Sandeman, who invented the phrase " ancient
gospel," is likewise believed to be the inventor of
the very common Disciple phrase, " the good confes-
sion," which several times occurs in the " Letters on
Theron and Aspasio " (p. 487). In another part of
the same work he gives himself the pains to explain
what are the contents of this confession : " There is
but one genuine truth that can save men. To illus-
trate this matter, let it be remembered that the
saving truth which the apostles believed was, TJiat
Jesus is the Christ. The apostles had one uniform
fixed sense to these words ; and the whole New
Testament is writ to ascertain to us in what sense
they understood them." (Letters etc., p. 258.)
Nearly all of these peculiarities come to sight in
the theology of the Disciples. Their gospel is com-
monly denominated "the ancient gospel." In the
"Christian Baptist," of which he was the editor, may
be found a series of ten different essays from the
hand of Mr. Campbell, under that title. The " popu-
lar doctrine" and the "popular preachers" are as
liberally denounced, and commonly with the same
20 THE DISCIPLES OE CHRIST.
cant expressions, in the pages of that periodical, as
in any of the writings of the Sandemanians.
Mr. Campbell is also as clear as his teacher was,
that the root and substance of religion is found
in knowledge, exclusive of approbation : M evidence
alone produces faith, or testimony is all that is ne-
cessary to faith." (Christian Baptist, edit. 6, p. 58.)
In his u Dialogue between Timothy and Austin," he
is believed to come near to the position of Sandeman,
that the Spirit never speaks a word to any man
besides what he publicly speaks in the Scriptures.
"Walter Scott, one of his leading assistants, was also
a diligent disciple of Sandeman's. In that character
he affirms that 44 the body of Christ is increased by
the belief of the bare truth that Jesus is the Son
of God and our Saviour." (Christian Baptist, edit. 6,
p. 21.)
The distinction which Mr. Sandeman acquired by
means of his labors in the department of Christian
doctrine was so great, that in a brief season he began
to outshine Mr. Glas, who was the founder of the
sect. In England and other countries where his
writings were circulated, they produced a somewhat
violent controversy, in which the name of Glas was
but seldom heard. By degrees, therefore, it befell
that the adherents of the fraternity came to be
known as Sandemanians almost everywhere outside
of the limits of Scotland; and even there the cus-
tomary designation has come to be Glasites or San-
demanians, a circumstance which shows that the
" THE ANCIENT GOSPEL:'
21
impression produced by Sandeman was profound
and enduring.
It is not important to the purpose in hand, to lay
before the reader any detailed account of the literary
opponents who entered the lists against the princi-
ples that were advanced by Mr. Sandeman. The
names of a few of the most prominent will be suffi-
cient to show that he was not neglected. Mr. John
"Wesley was among the first to come forward with
a brief essay, which he published anonymously as
44 A Sufficient Answer to the Author of the Letters
on Theron and Aspasio." Mr. W. Cudworth, a
Dissenting minister of prominence in London, first
entered into a private correspondence with Sande-
man (Letters and Discourses of R. Sandeman, p. 37),
and afterwards published a couple of volumes against
him. The earliest of these, printed in the year 1760,
at London, was entitled 44 A Defence of Theron and
Aspasio against the Objections contained in a Late
Treatise, entitled Letters on Theron and Aspasio."
The next year appeared " The Polyglot, or Hope of
Eternal Life according to the Various Sentiments
of the Present Day."
In America, the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, D.D., took
part in the conflict with a work entitled, " Theron,
Paulinus, and Aspasio ; or, Letters and Dialogues on
the Nature of Love to God, Faith in Christ, and
Assurance of a Title to Eternal Life," 1758, 1759 ;
as also in the year 1762, with 44 An Essay on the
Nature and Glory of the Gospel; designed as a
Supplement to the Letters and Dialogues."
22
THE DISCIPLES OF C II It I ST.
Mr. Isaac Backus likewise gave attention to the
issues involved, in a volume published at Boston in
1767, under the title, " True Faith will produce Good
Works. A Discourse wherein are opened the Nature
of Faith, and its Powerful Influence on the Heart and
Life : together with the Contrary Nature and Effects
of Unbelief : and Answers to Various Objection^. To
which are prefixed, A Brief View of the Present State
of the Protestant World, with some Remarks on the
Writings of Mr. Sandeman."
Some years afterwards, Mr. Andrew Fuller of
England was drawn into the controversy by means
of an attack upon his position, in the second edition
of a work by Mr. Archibald M'Lean of Edinburgh,
entitled "The Commission of Christ." In this trea-
tise, Mr. M'Lean having set forth some objections to
the views of Fuller, the latter replied in an appendix
to his book called "The Gospel Worthy of All Accep-
tation." The answer of Mr. M'Lean appeared under
the title of " A Reply to Mr. Fuller's Appendix to
his Book on the Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation."
This performance on the part of M'Lean subsequently
called forth Fuller's " Strictures on Sandemanianism,"
which is, perhaps, the most satisfactory treatment of
the whole subject that has yet been published on
either side of the question.
"THE ANCIENT GOSPEL" IMPROVED. 23
CHAPTER IV.
"THE ANCIENT GOSPEL " IMPROVED.
The churches that were under the direction of
Sandeman and Glas were making slight progress in
different portions of Scotland, when in the year 1761
the faithful were considerably elated by the accession
of the Rev. Robert Cannichael, a Seceder minister of
the Anti-Burgher type, who presided over a church
of that faith at Cupar in Angus. (Letters and Dis-
courses of Robert Sandeman, p. 44, p. 93; cf. also
Memoir of Archibald M'Lean, by William Jones, p.
xxiii. This memoir is printed in front of the first
volume of McLean's collected works, published at
Elgin, Scotland, 1847.)
Cannichael was forthwith assigned to duty in
the ranks of the sect to which he had attached his
fortunes, and placed in charge of a church in
Glasgow. Here it appears that he enjoyed a degree
of success ; at any rate, he is supposed to have been
the means of perverting from his loyalty to the Scot-
tish Kirk, Mr. Archibald M'Lean, who entered the
fraternity of the Sandemanian Independents in
the year 1762. (Memoir of M'Lean, pp. xxii and
xxiii.)
24 THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
The satisfaction of the Sandemanians with their
Anti-Burgher convert was of brief duration. The
hand of Mr. Glas was found to be very heavy.
Upon the occasion of a case of discipline in which
Glas interfered (Letters and Discourses, p. 83),
Carmichael became disgusted with his situation, and
laid down the charge of the Independent Church
in Glasgow. (Letters and Discourses, p. 44, note.)
Archibald M'Lean, apparently a protege of Carmi-
chael's, also retired from the sect on the same occa-
sion. (Memoir, p. xxiii.)
After this pair of friends had fallen into a condi-
tion of separation from the Sandemanians, it was not
singular that they should have qualms of conscience
touching some of the tenets that were maintained
by that fraternity. In this instance criticism was
v levelled against the doctrine of infant-baptism, which
Mr. Glas had retained as a prominent item of the
" ancient order of things." (Memoir, p. xxiii.) As
a natural consequence, both of them in due season
renounced the practice of infant-baptism.
Carmichael speedily removed from Glasgow to
Edinburgh, where he seems to have had charge of
an Independent Church that had likely seceded from
the community over which Mr. Robert Sandeman
was then presiding in that city; it is believed to
have been composed of people who took the part of
Carmichael in the controversy that he had waged
with Glas and Sandeman in Glasgow. They were
only seven in number, but they invited Carmichael
11 THE ANCIENT GOSPEL" IMPROVED. 25
from Glasgow to be their pastor. (Memoirs of
M'Lean, p. xxiii.)
As he was on the point of setting out for Edin-
burgh, Mr. M'Lean promised his old pastor that he
would compose a letter, in which should be laid
down in full his views on the subject of baptism.
When this document was completed, it was dated
on the 2d of July, 1764. Mr. Carmichael obtained
it by due course of mail ; but as he was now comfort-
ably established in Edinburgh, over a church that
was still in doctrinal agreement with Mr. Sandeman,
he was uncertain what might be the result in case
he should suddenly profess his conversion to the
views of those who opposed infant-baptism. It was
more than possible that his adherents would refuse
to give attention to his reasons ; they might even
dismiss him on the spot, and return to the commu-
nity from which they had but recently taken their
leave. Consequently Mr. Carmichael, who is sus-
pected to have been devoid of any thing like stabil-
ity of character, still persisted in the practice of
baptizing infants. (Memoirs of M'Lean, pp. xxiii
and xxiv.)
After the lapse of a twelvemonth, however, Car-
michael had succeeded in convincing five of his seven
parishioners of the unlawfulness of infant-baptism,
and of the propriety of immersion as the act of bap-
tism. Apparently by their vote or consent, he was
despatched to London for the purpose of obtaining
immersion at the hands of some of the Baptist minis-
26
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
tens of England. He was immersed at the baptistery
in the Barbican, by Dr. John Gill, on the 9th of
October 1T65. On his return to Edinburgh, he in
his turn immersed the five persons who had con-
sorted with him, and two pjliprs ; thus laying the
foundations of the Sandemar;^ 1 «irch of the im-
mersion observance, who c u it>p ignated
by the name of 4* Scotch , ourses, p. 44, note.)
xxiv.) The Sandemanians of -the ^:Mge of Carmi-
ance, under the lead of Sandeman ana Ha* onpq-
in the custom of expressing their disgust against this
unwelcome conduct on the part of a portion of their
adherents, by denouncing the same as Anabaptists.
(Letters and Discourses of Robert Sandeman, Dundee,
1851, p. 48, note.)
After a few weeks, M'Lean drew nigh from Glas-
gow, and caused himself to be immersed. In the
month of July 1767, he went to London for the
purpose of trying his fortunes as a printer (Memoirs,
p. xix) : but failing to meet with such a degree of
encouragement as he desired, he accepted a position
in Edinburgh which brought him into immediate
contact with Carmichael and the immersed Sande-
manians of that place. He entered Edinburgh in
December 1767 : in June 1768, he was raised from
his station as a private member, to the dignity of
fellow-elder with Carmichael. (Memoirs, pp. xxiv,
xxi, xxv.) Although there were only nine mem-
bers in the community (Benedict, ed. 2, p. 355),
Sandemanian literalism was very strenuous to re-
"TIIE ANCIENT GOSPEL" IMPROVED. 27
quire that they should maintain a plurality of
elders.
It was only a brief season before Carmichael found
it convenient to quit the immersed Sandemanians,
and to return to th^ Sandemanians of the aspersion
observance; »« ~ ir 1773, he was presiding over
such^ig ciocumen ?gb> (Memoir of Mr. William
on the 2d of Julv 'vas perhaps the same church
it by due cou^ ^andeman left behind when he came
- in the year 1764. (Biography of San-
deman, prefixed to his Discourses, Dundee, 1857,
p. xi.) The founder of the so-called " Scotch Baptists 99
was, therefore, one of the first to leave the church
which he had established; it is suspected that his
convictions were either not very strong or not very
sincere. By the defection of Carmichael, Mr. M'Lean
was immediately recognized as the undisputed leader
of the immersed Sandemanians.
M'Lean had not been long installed in his position
at Edinburgh before his mind was persuaded that it
would be a feasible enterprise to make some improve-
ments upon " the ancient gospel," as invented by the
philosophy of Mr. Sandeman. The latter gentleman
appeared to consider that he was set to oppose every
prominent tenet that had come to be advocated by
the Seceders or by others, who, within the limits of
Scotland or elsewhere, had in any way been influ-
enced by the progress of the Wesleyan revival. While
the Westminster Confession had inculcated the doc-
trine of assurance of faith, it had been studious to
28
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
avoid including that grace in the contents of saving
faith. On the contrary, it expressly provides (chap,
xviii. sec. 3) that " this infallible assurance doth not
so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true be-
liever may wait long, and conflict with many difficul-
ties, before he be partaker of it ; yet, being enabled
by the Spirit to know the things which are freely
given him of God, he may, without extraordinary
revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain
thereunto."
The Seceders and many others, including some of
the more zealous pastors within the Established
Church, had now begun to reckon a fixed assurance
of one's personal acceptance as belonging among the
invariable elements of saving faith. Sandeman nat-
urally took umbrage against this innovation on the
part of the " popular preachers ; " and, in keeping with
his character and position, he was soon found at the
opposite extreme, not only denying that assurance is
of the essence of saving faith, but also affirming that
the Christian could never attain to any better estate
in this world than an assurance of the possibility of
his personal salvation. He understands the " ancient
gospel " to be that " divine truth which affords hope
to the vilest transgressor, that he may be justified,
that he may escape the curse." (Letter on Theron
and Aspasio, N.Y., 1838, p. 290 ; cf. M'Lean's Com-
mission of Jesus Christ, Edinburgh, 1786, p. 96, foot-
note.) Sandeman likewise adds (p. 295) that " the
simple belief of the gospel " (which, according to him,
"THE ANCIENT GOSPEL" IMPROVED. 29
is all that faith implies or embraces) "leaves a man,
even in the full assurance of faith, or when the truth
is most present to his thoughts, entirely at the mercy
of God for salvation, and leads him to the greatest
reverence for, and submission to, the Divine sove-
reignty, without having any claim upon God whatso-
ever, or finding any reason why God should regard
him more than those who perish."
Mr. M'Lean was not well content with this comfort-
less view of his master's. Accordingly, in the work
on the " Commission of Jesus Christ," already men-
tioned, while he continues to accept Sandeman's con-
ceit about the nature of evangelical faith (p. 80), he
demurs to the conclusion that " the bare belief of the
bare truth" will do nothing more than Sandeman
affirmed for the benefit of the individual subject, and
assumes the ground that this bare belief is just as
capable of conveying the immediate assurance of sal-
vation as was the saving faith advocated by the most
ardent Seceder. (Commission, as above, pp. 90-98.)
The hyper-Calvinist opinions of Sandeman were
likewise no longer acceptable to M'Lean, seeing that
they were employed not as ordinarily to confirm the
assurance of the faithful, but on the contrary to pre-
vent them from cherishing any stronger faith than
that which affirms a possibility that the most devout
and correct of them may be justified. That was,
indeed, a distressing prospect which others besides
M'Lean — persons who stood much nearer to the
master — were pained to accept.
30
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
From considerations of this kind the leader of the
immersed wing of the Sandemanian fraternity appears
to have conceived a certain distaste for the extreme
views regarding the Calvinistic system of truth, which
prevailed in the opposing camp. He was, therefore,
able to content himself with a somewhat moderate
position in relation to questions of that nature.
Professing to hold in good esteem the bare belief
by means of which Sandeman had relegated the ori-
gin of personal religion to the sphere of the intellect,
excluding any right operations of the emotions or of
the will, he was nevertheless, as a matter of fact,
unable to obtain a very high degree of confidence in
the efficacy of an agent that was so attenuated. The
assurance which this mere belief might be compe-
tent to bestow was cried up, indeed, as the best arti-
cle in that line which was then offered to the favor
of the "professing world;" but flaming commenda-
tions of this kind had long since become familiar,
and they were generally estimated at their proper
value.
In order, therefore, to improve his emasculated
faith, — " to make assurance double sure, and take a
bond of fate," — M'Lean resolved to provide this
mere intellectual exercise with a buttress that was
designed to support its weakness and secure its
existence. This buttress consisted of an addition to
the design of baptism, which necessarily had escaped
the attention of the party which continued in the
practice of infant-baptism. What mere belief could
"THE ANCIENT GOSPEL" IMPROVED. 31
not do, in that it was weak, it was hoped might be
performed by the immersion of believers in water.
Accordingly Mr. M'Lean advances the peculiar the-
ory of baptism for the remission of sins. (Commis-
sion of Jesus Christ, Edinburgh, 1786, pp. 129-137).
Baptism was clearly asserted to be necessary to sal-
vation (pp. 131, 132) ; not in the way of baptismal
regeneration, however, but in the way of effecting
the remission of sins after the act of mere belief.
Another feature of Mr. M 'Lean's teaching on the
subject of baptism is found in the fact that he
insisted that it should be performed, not "in the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," as is
the custom of the balance of the Christian world, but
on the contrary " into the name, etc." (Commission, *
as above, pp. 110-114). He likewise maintains in
the same connection (p. 113), that "the Holy Spirit
was not given, in a way peculiar to the gospel dis-
pensation, during John's baptism, nor till Christ
was glorified."
Each of the peculiarities above described has been
reproduced by the Disciples (or Campbellites) in
America. They reject infant-baptism ; they practise
immersion exclusively for baptism ; they hold the
necessity of baptism for the remission of sins, urging *
the very same passages of Scripture, and in the same
way, as Archibald M'Lean, in support of that notion ;
they insist upon the propriety of baptizing " into the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; " and they
declare that the kingdom of heaven was not com-
32
THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST.
pletely set up until the Day of Pentecost. If the
above were not matters of common fame, it would be
in order to produce citations from their literature in
each case ; but, as nobody will think or care to call
in question the fact that these things are now cus-
tomary in the ranks of the Disciples, it may not be
necessary to bring forward any such special proofs of
the statements here advanced.
THE UALDANEANS.
33
CHAPTER V.
THE HALDAXEAXS.
The tide of religious revival flowed so strongly in
Scotland, that at length, just before the close of the
eighteenth century, it reached the ranks of the laity
also. These now began to experience an amount of
confidence and zeal which was sufficient to induce
them to go forward in Christian labor, and in some
instances even to assume the functions, and to invade
the prerogatives, of the regular clergy. The most
prominent in this somewhat notable movement were
the brothers Robert and James Alexander Haldane.
They were of gentle birth and breeding. Robert, who
was the elder, had in possession an estate which, ac-
cording to the standard then prevalent in Scotland,
was regarded as highly, respectable.
On the 6th of May 1797, nearly two and twenty
years after the establishment of the first society of
" Scotch Baptists " or immersed Sandemanians, the
tongue of James Alexander Haldane was loosed.
He delivered his maiden discourse to a company of
colliers at the village of Gilmerton, in the vicinity
of Edinburgh. His social position, combined with
his previous experience of life, and his remarkable
34
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
abilities in the line of popular preaching, imparted
a high degree of interest and importance to this
event. (Memoirs of Robert and James Alexander
Haldane, by Alexander Haldane, Esq., New York,
1853, pp. 140, 141.)
James Alexander Haldane followed the sea in his
earlier years, where he had attained the dignity of
captain in the merchant marine, and only a short
while previously had resigned command of the ship
" Melville Castle," that was engaged in the East-India
service. (Memoirs, as above, p. 74.) After his in-
troduction to the work of lay-preaching at Gilmerton,
Mr. Haldane was seized with an unwonted degree of
religious fervor and pious solicitude. A little more
than two months from that date, on the 12th of July,
he set forward on a missionary journey to the High-
lands of Scotland, which was rewarded with so large
a share of encouragement and success, that, before it
was concluded on the 7th of November 1797, his
name and his enterprise were the occasion of general
remark.
Events now fell out with much rapidity in the
progress of the revival. Instead of remaining quietly
in the bosom of the Kirk, where was ample room for
them, and many gave their sympathy, the Haldane
brothers were soon taking steps which looked in the
direction of a secession from that institution. On
the 11th of January, 1798, was formed by them and
such of their friends as would allow their names to be
used in that relation, a " Society for Propagating the
THE HALDANEANS.
35
Gospel at Home." (Memoirs, pp. 178, 179.) A single
year was space enough, after this step had been per-
formed, for the movement to develop into a church
organization. In January 1799, the first Haldanean
society was constituted at Edinburgh, and on the 3d
of February they publicly ordained James A. Haldane
to be their pastor. (Memoirs, p. 217.)
The public are familiar with the marvels that were
accomplished by the promoters of this enterprise in
the period between the years 1797 and 1808, as like-
wise with the lamentable declension which then set
in and almost in a day destroyed its usefulness and
promise.
The causes of that unhappy catastrophe are pretty
clearly suggested in the biography of the Haldanes
already cited ; by the aid of the light which is there
supplied, it is possible to trace the operation of these
causes from stage to stage in the downward course.
At the very beginning of the undertaking, James A.
Haldane chanced to be on an intimate footing with
a certain Dr. Charles Stuart of Dunearn (Memoirs,
p. 140). This gentleman was likewise of noble
blood, of excellent learning, many attractive social
qualities, and of the queerest kind of a head. He
had begun life as a minister in the Established Kirk.
After his accession to the parish of Cramond, near
Edinburgh, he was united in marriage to a daughter
of the venerable John Erskine, the leader of the
evangelical wing in that institution (Memoirs, pp.
125, 126) ; but he was not appointed to pursue his
36
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
career in peace and usefulness. The biographer of
the Halclanes (p. 141) declares that "in his thirst for
general information and the society of good men,
Dr. Stuart had gone from the Divinity Hall in Edin-
burgh, to some of the Dissenting Academies in
London, and there imbibed notions unfavorable to
the union between Church and State." Whatever
may be the fact regarding his visits to London, the
notions which he entertained and propagated on that
topic were to be had much nearer home ; they were
the leading article of the Independents, or Sande-
manians, and might be read any day in the " Testi-
mony of the King of Martyrs," the principal work
of Mr. John Glas. It was published in Edinburgh,
just under the nose of Dr. Stuart, and was kept
on sale in most of the booksellers' shops of the
country.
More than this, Dr. Stuart had acquired convictions
against the propriety of the practice of infant-bap-
tism and against the mode of baptism by aspersion ;
and at the moment when he conceived his perhaps
interested admiration for James A. Haldane, he was
duly numbered in the lists of the " Scotch Baptists,"
or Sandemanians of the immersion observance (Mem-
oirs, p. 141, p. 338, and pp. 511, 512) ; and was a
member of Archibald M'Lean's Church (Memoirs of
William Braidwood, p. 36, note).
When James A. Haldane preached his first ser-
mon in the evening of the 6th of May 1797, this
ardent and excellent " Scotch Baptist " was present to
THE BALD AN E AN S.
37
applaud the effort. He seems almost upon the spot
to have conceived the ambition to make a proselyte *
of his friend. He declared that to see him a Baptist
would be the consummation of his earthly felicity.
He "took much pains to inculcate Baptist views
upon Haldane ; attended his ministry, listened to his
preaching with rapt admiration, and called on him
two or three times in every week to discuss the topics
which were delivered from the pulpit." No art or
blandishment of the determined and skilful prose
lytizer was neglected. It is with justice that the
biographer admits (p. 141), " There is no doubt that
Dr. Stuart's influence on Mr. James Haldane was
considerable, as it was also on several other eminent
men." In sad truth this excellent, wrong-headed
gentleman was the evil genius of the Haldanes and
of their cause. Had they at the outset possessed a
sufficient amount of insight and foresight to have
bestowed upon him a firm and enduring repulse, they
might have escaped the shipwreck which shortly
stranded themselves and their movement on the
shallows of Sandemanian literalism.
We are given to understand that there were " sev-
eral other eminent men " over whom Dr. Stuart ex-
erted a degree of injurious influence. Notable among
these was Mr. Greville Ewing, one of the leading <
co-adjutors of the Haldanes. Already before the
year 1795 there were possibly some relations of inti-
macy between Stuart and Ewing, for in that year we
find the latter advocating the practice of "mutual
38
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
exhortation " from the pulpit of Lady Glenorchy's
chapel in Edinburgh, where he was assistant to the
Rev. Dr. Jones. (Facts and Documents respecting
the Connections which have subsisted between Robert
Haldane, Esq., and Greville Ewing. By Greville
Ewing. Glasgow 1809, pp. 127, 128, note.) Mr.
Ewing likewise declares elsewhere in the same work
(p. 8), that the origin of his dissatisfaction with the
Church of Scotland, of which he was a minister, " was
the exercise of a power by church courts over minis-
ters and congregations, which restrained the former
from preaching wherever they had an opportunity,
and the latter from adopting any plan for mutual
edification and comfort,'' — a kind of scruple which,
in the latter instance, has a decided odor of Dr.
Stuart and the Sandemanians.
In the year 1796, a twelvemonth before the project
of the Haldanes was mooted, the celebrated " Mis-
sionary Magazine " was commenced " under the aus-
pices of Dr. Stuart, with Mr. Ewing as editor."
(Memoirs, p. 141.) A connection of this kind, in
which an active and prominent minister of the Kirk
allowed himself to become, in a certain sort, the
spokesman, if not the creature, of a leading character
among the " Scotch Baptists," could not fail to excite
remark and to give offence. It was, therefore, in no
way singular that Mr. Ewing's position in the Estab-
lishment should every day become more untenable.
(Memoirs, p. 179.) In the progress of time and in-
struction, his conversion to the practices and tenets
THE IIALDANEANS.
39
of the immersed Sandemanians might have become
as complete and extensive as that of the brothers
Haldane subsequently was, if the relation with Stuart
had not been early broken off by changes which will
be mentioned in their place farther on. The " Mis-
sionary Magazine " was not infrequently supplied
with articles which suggested that the editor was
making fair advances in the doctrines of the proprie-
tor. (Memoirs, p. 214.)
When it is brought to mind that this same
"Missionary Magazine," "under the auspices of Dr.
Stuart," and whose editor was, after a fashion, his
disciple, became from the beginning the official
organ of the Haldanean enterprise, it will be ap-
parent how large a hold the immersed wing of the
Sandemanian sect had acquired upon the fortunes
and the future of a promising cause. To some minds
it may seem a fair conclusion that it was never possi-
ble for the new church to have attained permanent
success. Too many elements, which could signify
no other fate than early disaster, were present at its
inception. None of the least of these may be per-
ceived in the circumstance that when, in the month
of December 1798, the project of founding a church
was broached, Mr. Ewing, "as being most familiar
with such matters, was requested to draw up a plan
for its government." (Memoirs, p. 214.)
For a season after the inauguration of the earliest
church, in January 1799, the best wishes of the Hal-
danes were fulfilled ; but it was a sadly brief season.
40
THE DISCIPLES OE CHRIST.
The storms which they had not the wisdom and
experience to forecast speedily began to gather about
their heads. As soon as Mr. Ewing had seceded
from the Church of Scotland, he placed himself at the
service of Robert Haldane to be employed in for-
warding the plans that gentleman had in mind. Mr.
Haldane had made arrangements to send a class of
students to Gosport, England, where they might
remain for a time under the care of the well-known
Dr. Bogue, as a means of preparing them for the
work of the ministry. But it was given to Mr.
Ewing to persuade his friend that it would be wiser
to commit these students to his own care, since there
were somewhat decided objections against Dr. Bogue
in Scotland, and perhaps elsewhere, on the score of
his liberal politics. On the 2d of January 1799,
* Greville Ewing opened his seminary of theology in
Edinburgh. The number of pupils at first was
twenty-four, derived from various denominations,
except the Congregationalists or Sandemanians ; but
before the course was ended, one of their number
affirms that they all found themselves decided and
intelligent Congregationalists. (Memoirs, p. 228.)
This was a marked degree of success. Few men are
✓ to be found who had a surer command of the arts of
proselytizing than Mr. Ewing.
Yet there were reasons why Robert Haldane
should not be highly elated by the triumphs of his
subordinate. Mr. Ewing was much addicted to the
writings of Glas and Sandeman ; but at this particu-
THE HALDANEANS.
41
lar period of his career Mr. Haldane was less favorably
inclined towards those theologians than he sub-
sequently came to be, through the unhappy influence
of Dr. Stuart upon the mind of James A. Haldane.
Accordingly, when Ewing put the books that have
been referred to in the hands of the students (Facts
and Documents, as above, p. 79, cf. p. 82), Mr.
Haldane considered he was entitled to interpose,
which step he took immediately, while Ewing and
the students were still in the city of Edinburgh.
(Facts and Documents, pp. 134, 135.) This must
have been the beginning of the troubles which for
so many years wasted the strength and spirits of
the two men, and ultimately brought calamities on
the cause they had engaged to promote.
When his attention was first directed to the
danger that existed in Edinburgh, Robert Haldane
assumed a wise position. If he had but pressed
forward vigorously in the sentiments which he then
entertained, he might have rescued his interests from
ruin. He was opposed even to the notions of Church
order inculcated by Glas and Sandeman, as well as
to their " ancient gospel " (Facts and Documents,
pp. 134, 135) ; but on this side of the subject his
sentiments later underwent an unhappy modification
(Facts and Documents, p. 81), and he embraced
with decision, and in some cases with passion, a
great many items of the desolating scheme of the
Sandemanians.
There was a curious play of cross purposes in this
42
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
business. After the unpleasantness which occurred
at Edinburgh, Mr. Ewing seemed to consider it the
main concern of his existence to find a place in every
question which should be on the opposite side from
that which Robert Haldane was led to assume.
Therefore, at the moment when Haldane in his turn
began to dabble considerably in the " ancient order
of things," Ewing was beginning to insist on occupy-
ing the old ground. Yet, notwithstanding all the
counsel which he had brought himself to accept from
Glas and Sandeman in the details of Church order,
Robert Haldane could never prevail upon himself to
v receive as true what they had inculcated regarding
the nature of saving faith. Observing this pecul-
iarity, Ewing, always in the opposition, became more
and more attached to the Sandemanian notion that
faith is nothing else than bare belief.
According to the legally formulated terms of an
arrangement that had been fixed upon already before
he was given charge of the students, Ewing removed
to Glasgow at Whitsunday 1799, to take the pastoral
oversight of a church which he was expected to
organize in the Circus, a large building there which
Robert Haldane had recently purchased for three
thousand pounds, and fitted up for the purpose of
religious worship. The seminary was also removed
with him. Confidence between the two men being
now to a large extent destroyed, it was the earnest
desire of Ewing to become entirely independent of
Mr. Haldane (Facts and Documents, p. 24), by
THE HALDANEANS.
43
securing the Circus building for himself and for the
people who should join his society. He hoped to
effect this purpose by inducing Haldane to make
over the house to his people in the way of a gift ;
but the latter was not in the least disposed to accede
to that proposal. Ewing persisted for a number of
years, always becoming more and more imbittered
and unreasonable, until at last both parties appeared
before the public in volumes of abusive charges di-
rected against each other. But the difference is
believed to have started from nothing else than a
contrariety of opinions regarding the merits of the
Sandemanians. Except for this issue the two might
have passed their whole lives without a word of
conflict.
Not in the least willing to respect the wishes of
Haldane, Mr. Ewing, after Iris removal to the West,
still kept the writings of Glas and Sandeman prom-
inently before his students. Robert Haldane was
much chafed by that usage. When James A.
Haldane went to Dumfries in the summer of the
year 1801, being now at a distance from Edinburgh
and from his brother, he wrote Ewing a letter which'
had possibly been suggested before he left home,
warning him against the retention of these books in
the seminary, and complaining of his enthusiastic
manner of speaking of those frigid and bitter theo-
logians. (Memoirs, pp. 321, 322.) This resource,
which was perhaps immediately suspected, did not in
the least avail: Ewing kept on his way. At last,
44
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
in the year 1802, hopeless of his ability to reduce
him to terms by any other means, Robert Haldane
incontinently removed the seminary from Glasgow
back to Edinburgh, and placed it in other hands.
(Memoirs, pp. 299, 300.) When the institution was.
opened in the latter place, Mr. Haldane not only
forbade the books of Glas and Sandeman in the
library, but laid upon the students an express pro-
hibition against reading them anywhere else. (Facts
and Documents, p. 82.)
But the time was far past for such precautions.
Sandeman ian principles were already too deeply es-
tablished in the minds of his people, to admit of their
successful eviction by that or by any other method.
Dr. Stuart, especially, was whispering them into the
ear of James A. Haldane in two or three private
interviews every week ; and Robert Haldane himself
appears after a few years, through the influence of
his brother, to perform the r61e of an exceedingly
tenacious stickler for some of the most fantastic fea-
tures of the " ancient order of things." (Facts and
Documents, pp. 93-95 ; Memoirs, pp. 322-327.) In
this regard he outstripped Mr. Ewing by many de-
grees, and sometimes sorely harassed the consciences
of his adherents; but in regard to the nature of
faith, Ewing was much in the lead of both the
brothers.
When, in the summer of the year 1800, Mr. Ewing
at length, on the occasion of a temporary truce with
Haldane (Facts and Documents, pp. 58-64), got the
THE II A LI) A X EA X 8.
45
consent of his mind to organize a church among the
people who attended upon his ministry at Glasgow,
he issued a handbill for the instruction of his con-
gregation and of the public, entitled " Regulations of
the Church, Jamaica Street," in which were included
two items of the "ancient order;" namely, the mutual
exhortation of the members of the Church, and the
weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper. With re-
gard to the former of these, however, the document
seems to indicate that it was to be held not on Sun-
day, but upon some other day of the week. It is
also strict to insist upon what must have been a
highly necessary provision : " that no personal re-
marks, or injurious reports respecting character,
were to be allowed in the Church." (Facts and
Documents, pp. 64, 65.)
The custom of " mutual exhortation," the absence
of which from the Scottish Kirk had given him an
amount of uneasiness, had likewise been duly intro-
duced by Mr. Ewing into the constitution of the
Edinburgh society in December 1798. (Address by
James A. Haldane to the Church of Christ, Leith
Walk, Edinburgh. Edinburgh 1808, p. 11. This
address is bound up at the back of Mr. Haldane's
volume entitled "A View of the Social Worship
and Ordinances of the First Christians," Edinburgh
1806.) But the Church in Edinburgh gave no prac-
tical heed to that portion of their ecclesiastical chart
until a later period, when the practice was inaugu-
rated with a degree of success that was disgusting
46
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
even to such a stanch advocate of M primitive Chris-
tianity''as Dr. Stuart himself. (Memoirs, p. 840.)
On the other hand, the custom of weekly communion
was not introduced by Mr. Ewing, at the outset, into
the constitution which he had drawn up for the use
of the Edinburgh society, since it was for several
years the habit of that body to celebrate the Lord's
Supper only once in the month. (Facts and Docu-
ments, p. 129.) When, however, the improved ex-
ample of the Glasgow Church became known to the
disciples in Edinburgh, they likewise soon began to
break the loaf every Sunday.
But the Haldanes were not prepared to stop at this
point. James Haldane. being constantly in receipt of
new light from Dr. Stuart and other Sandemanian
sources, could not abide that his brilliancy should
be concealed under a bushel. Accordingly, in the
year 1805, he sent forth the first edition of his
View of the Social Worship and Ordinances," the
second edition of which has just been cited above.
There it is evident that he had made decided prog-
ress in the lore of the Sandemanians. Their dialect
is in very fine flow upon his pen. He stands forth
like a man for the "express precept or approved
precedent,*' about which Thomas Campbell was to
speak with so much pathos a few years later in the
wilds of Pennsylvania. There should be no creed
nor confession of faith but the Scriptures. Here
was the first distinct demand for a presbytery with
a plurality of elders, that had been openly uttered
THE IIALDANEANS.
47
in the Haldanean connection. The collection that
was always customary at the Lord's Supper now
became designated as "the fellowship," after the
best approved Sandemanian fashion.
But what gave Mr. Ewing particular offence was
the circumstance that " mutual exhortation," which he
had confined to Wednesday evening, was raised by
Haldane to the dignity of a divine ordinance, and
assigned to a place among the regular Sunday ob-
servances of the congregation. Thereupon he began
to draw back, and went so far the other way, that, in
the end, he was seriously accused of entirely desert-
ing his darling innovation. (Facts and Documents,
pp. 126-129.) Matters finally got to such a pass
that apparently almost the only principle upon which
the two parties were heartily at one related to the J
rejection of creeds. Though they were daily plead-
ing for a union on the Bible, by some kind of means
they were daily receding farther from each other,
while each faction was accusing the other of a passion
for change.
Unhappily for all concerned, Robert Haldane was
too much impressed by a sense of the correctness and
importance of the Sandemanian notions that had
been propounded in his brother's recent publication.
James had not expected or desired to produce any
immediate results beyond "inciting his brethren in
Christ to study the Scriptures on this and every other
subject, and to appeal only to the law and to the
testimony." (Preface, p. vii.) But shortly after the
48
TUE DISCIPLES OF CUBIST.
book left the press in June 1805, Robert Haldane
and Mr. Ballantyne were on a visit to England; and,
stopping on their way at Newcastle, they remained
for some time practising the views of social worship
that were developed in it. (Memoirs, p. 324.) Their
conduct in this regard gave much offence. (Memoirs,
p. 327.) Ballantyne and Haldane, while not exclud-
ing those who were not of their own party, publicly
exhorted one another in the forenoons, and mutually
dispensed the Lord's Supper, without directing their
remarks in the least to the audience who had as-
sembled for worship, while in the afternoons and
evenings they preached to the multitudes as usual.
(Facts and Documents, p. 248.)
No person was bold enough to express the dissat-
isfaction which many felt against the conduct of the
Haldanes, until the year 1807, when Ballantyne issued
a " Treatise on the Elder's Office," in which the posi-
tion of James Haldane and the Sandemanians was
duly enforced regarding the necessity of a plurality
of these functionaries to the existence of a gospel
Church. There is rarely any thing sadder to witness
than the spectacle of Robert Haldane, unquestionably
a splendid mind and spirit, leading the way in the
puerile figures of the dance which John Glas had in-
structed his own followers. Mr. Haldane became, in
an offensive sense, responsible for the work of Bal-
lantyne (Facts and Documents, pp. 97, 98), doing
every thing that lay in his power to give it counte-
nance and circulation.
THE HALDANEANS.
49
In answer to the challenge which he conceived had
by this means been laid npon his own wing of the
party, Mr. Ewing forthwith prepared and published
an u Attempt towards a Statement of the Doctrine of
Scripture on some disputed points respecting the
Constitution, Government, Worship, and Discipline
of the Church of Christ," Glasgow 1808. The breach
between the factions was now first made public : it had
long been incurable. The party of Ewing, which,
perhaps, was numerically the smaller, became hence-
forth practically isolated ; but their sentiments on the
subjects of faith, infant-baptism, the mode of baptism,
the duty of weekly communion and of mutual exhor-
tation, placed them in closer sympathy and relations
with the Sandemanians of the aspersion observance.
On the other hand, the Haldanes were now be-
come, in a measure, reckless. In order that the
Edinburgh Church might conform to the apostolic
model in the matter of a plurality of elders, Robert
was speedily ordained to occupy a place by the side
of James Alexander in that function. (Memoirs, p.
341.)
Possibly it was not without reference to the cir-
cumstance that Mr. Ewing was leaning far to the
side of the Sandemanian Independents, that James
Haldane now began to turn towards the "Scotch
Baptists." The patient labors of Charles Stuart
were about to be crowned with success. This con-
summation was promoted by the action of Mr. John
Campbell, a beloved associate of the Haldanes, who
50
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
had gone over to the " Scotch Baptist " fraternity as
early as the year 1803, since which time he had been
pastor of a church at Kingsland, near London.
(Memoirs, p. 297.) In a letter to this gentleman
under date of Feb. 19, 1808, Haldane expresses
strong scruples regarding the propriety of infant-
baptism. (Memoirs, p. 325.) The 21st of April,
1808, was the date of another communication which
announced that he had been immersed. (Memoirs,
p. 325.) In a few months Robert also followed his
brother in these changes.
This action did not result in any kind of organic
union between the Haldaneans and the party that
was led by Mr. Archibald McLean, but it was not
many weeks until it had produced a hopeless dis-
ruption of the Edinburgh Church and of the entire
Haldanean body. The enterprise which started
forth with so much promise was brought to hopeless
desolation. There has been scarcely anywhere in
modern Church history a more lame and impotent
conclusion.
The Sandemanians had ruined the cause and
Church of the Haldanes.
MB. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSIOX. 51
CHAPTER VI.
mr. Campbell's perversion to saitoemanianisbl
(First Stage.')
It was not easy to follow in detail the process of
Air. Campbell's perversion to Sandemanian views,
until the publication of his biography by Professor
Robert Richardson, an early disciple and for many
years a bosom friend of the most prominent advo-
cate of Sandemanianism in America. Though we
are indebted to his " Memoirs of Alexander Camp-
bell," Philadelphia 1868, for a considerable amount
and variety of information regarding the early years
of his master, there are still certain points of inquiry
where he unhappily leaves us in the lurch. But the
occasions for complaint are less numerous than the
reasons for gratitude. The account which is here
given is based almost entirely upon the representa-
tions made by Professor Richardson.
Alexander Campbell was born near Ballymena,
County Antrim, Ireland, on the 12th of September,
1788. (Memoirs, as above, vol. i. p. 19.) His father,
Thomas Campbell, was a Seceder minister of the *
Anti-Burgher branch (vol. i. p. 25), and lived in
52
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
quite humble circumstances. After suffering the ills
of a probationer's existence for about ten years, his
patience was at length rewarded by the pastoral
charge of a new church at Ahorey, near Armagh
(vol. i. pp. 29, 30). With the hope of eking out an
insufficient salary, the young pastor took a farm near
the village of Rich Hill, where he fixed his residence
(vol. i. p. 30). The farm proving a failure, he
went back to his early occupation of teaching school
(vol. i. p. 47), removing for this purpose into the
village. As his family increased in number, the
individual advantages of the several children were in
a corresponding degree curtailed. Alexander got
what education he might at hap-hazard (vol. i. pp.
31-35, 48) ; but for several years, owing to the loss
of most of his studious inclinations, his powers went
to waste. At length his attention was directed to
the importance of cultivation, and he set about the
business of self-education (vol. i. p. 76), but with
no unusual amount of success. Most of the time
was passed in the capacity of an assistant in his
father's school at Rich Hill, or in the performance of
similar labors at the school of one of his uncles at
Newry (vol. i. p. 88).
The circumstances of the family became at length
so much straitened that they began to turn their eyes
to the United States for " deliverance " (vol. i. pp.
80, 81, 86). The father preceded the balance of the
household, setting sail from Londonderry on the 8th
of April, 1807 (vol. i. p. 81). In the course of time
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION.
53
he was enabled to provide means for their passage ;
and they took ship to follow him, on the 1st of
October, 1808 (vol. i. p. 95). The funds for this
purpose were likely procured by means of public
contributions obtained from the different Presby-
terian Churches of Western Pennsylvania. (Debate
on Campbellism, between Alexander Campbell and
Obadiah Jennings, Pittsburg 1832, pp. 246, 24T;
compare Richardson, vol. i. pp. 306, 307.)
Six days after their embarkation, the family were
wrecked on the island of Islay on the coast of Scot-
land. Mrs. Campbell, his mother, being unwilling to
intrust herself to the hazards of an ocean voyage in
the winter season of the year, and Alexander being
naturally desirous to repair in some measure the
defects of his early education, it was arranged that
they should pass the time until the approaching
spring should open upon them, at Glasgow, where he
might employ his leisure in attending the university.
Meanwhile Thomas Campbell was actively engaged
at his home in Washington County, Penn., in trying
to relieve their distresses, and, in due time, to procure
their transfer to the country of his adoption.
Already in their home at Rich Hill, Ireland, they
had become familiar with the Scottish Independents.
A somewhat flourishing Church of the Glasites, or
Sandemanians of the aspersion observance, existed
there (vol. i. pp. 60, 82). Professor Richardson
admits (vol. i. p. 59) that " the Independents exerted
a most important influence upon the religious views
54
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
of both Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander ; "
but this influence did not become apparent during
the period of their residence at Rich Hill. The
former, it is true, had much pleasure in attending
the religious services of the Sandemanian Church;
but he was all the while in the full odor of Seceder
orthodoxy, aod it is not likely that he would ever
have forsaken his own people but for the somewhat
extraordinary experiences that he was now called
to encounter. Even the membership he held in the
Haldanean "Society for Propagating the Gospel at
Home " (vol. i. p. 73) does not necessarily signify any
lack of devotion to his lifelong connections in the
Presbyterian body. Many persons in various por-
tions of the country had yielded to the eloquent and
impassioned solicitations of James A. Haldane so far
as to permit themselves to be enrolled in that organi-
zation, who had no thought or wish to be known as
followers of the Haldanes.
The only perceptible influence exerted by the
Sandemanians of Rich Hill upon the Presbyterian
pastor of the place may be observed in the fact that
he is reported to have made an overture either before
the Presbytery of Market Hill or the Synod of Ire-
v land, " in favor of a more frequent celebration of the
Lord's Supper " (vol. i. p. 69) ; but it is not stated
that he was bold enough to advocate a weekly observ-
ance. For the rest, he must have been at this time
almost unaffected by the ordinary Sandemanian con-
siderations in favor of the " mutual exhortation " of
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION. 55
church-members, or of the various other preposterous
imitations of Christ that were peculiar to the people
in question. In brief, Alexander is believed to have
been the leader in the unhappy progress that was
later made by both father and son in the direction of
the Independents.
When they were wrecked on the island of Islay,
one of the most influential persons with whom Alex-
ander became acquainted was Mr. George Fulton,
who, in addition to his duties as pedagogue for the
community, also stood at the head of a Sunday school,
— probably one of those which James A. Haldane
and his co-laborer John Campbell had established
during their famous visit to Greenock and other com-
munities in the West of Scotland for that purpose, in
the year 1797 (vol. i. p. 159). He was at pains
to visit the Sunday school of Mr. Fulton (vol. i. p.
108), — an act which must have won the favorable
regards of that excellent person, for, when Alexander
left the place for his sojourn in Glasgow, he was the
bearer of a letter of introduction from Fulton to Mr.
Greville Ewing (vol. i. p. 114).
His arrival in Glasgow occurred on the afternoon
of the 3d of November 1808. Although he had been
thoughtful enough to procure letters of introduction
to several persons in the city (vol. i. pp. 114, 115), it
somehow befell that the letter to Mr. Ewing was
the first which he was minded to present (vol. i. p.
128). It secured him a night's lodging, and per-
haps a large amount of well-deserved sympathy.
56
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
The next morning, having been informed that he
was of the Seceder persuasion, Mr. Ewing gave him
a note to the Rev. John Mitchel (vol. i. p. 128), who,
it is believed, was one of the two ministers of that
order in Glasgow, Mr. Moutre being the other.
(Memoirs of Elder Thomas Campbell, by Alexander
Campbell, of Bethany, Va., Cincinnati 1861, p. 117.)
Mr. Mitchel was attentive enough to render him
some degree of assistance in finding lodgings, per-
haps in the house of one of his Seceder parishioners.
(Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, vol. i. p. 128.)
But by some means Alexander seems to have al-
ready acquired a kind of distaste for the Seceders.
The lodging which Mr. Mitchel had procured for the
family was speedily concluded to be incommodious,
and must needs be replaced by another of Mr.
E wing's selection, which was likely in the home of one
of the members of his own church (vol. i. p. 130).
This may appear to be a trivial circumstance ; but
when we are reminded what an important effect the
influence of Ewing produced upon the fortunes of
the Campbell family, no transaction that fell out
between them can wisely be overlooked. From this
time Mr. Ewing was the chief counsellor of the
household, and his praises were on the tongue of
every member of it (vol. i. pp. 148, 149).
He was always ready to employ his good offices
in their service. Through his courtesy Alexander
was carried about and introduced to each of the
professors of the university (vol. i. p. 130). It was
MB. CAMPBELL'S PEBVEBSION.
57
likewise, perhaps, by his assistance, that Alexander
was enabled to make up those classes in the rudi-
mentary branches which he taught in private for
the purpose of improving the narrow finances of the
family (vol. i. p. 139), and by means of which it
must have been rendered nearly impossible that he
should make any solid progress in his own studies ;
a serious misfortune in view of the fact, that, by reason
of the sad necessities of the situation, his early edu-
cation had been left incomplete. At every point the
toils of the excellent and plausible Ewing encircled
the ingenuous and inexperienced boy. He was fre-
quently invited to the house of Ewing in order to take
dinner or tea (vol. i. p. 149) ; before the winter was
past, the disciple of Glas found himself on a decid-
edly intimate footing with the son of the Irish Sececler
pastor (vol. i. pp. 148, 149). Alexander had obtained
a great impression of the learning and piety of his
new friend (vol. i. p. 187), and was soon as pliable
under Ewing's manipulations as clay in the hands of
the potter. Professor Richardson truly says (vol. i.
p. 148), that his " stay at Glasgow was destined to
work an entire change in the views and feelings of
Alexander in respect to the existing denominations,
and to disengage his sympathies entirely from the
Seceder denomination, and every other form of Pres-
byterianism." He is likewise correct in the admis-
sion that " the change seems to have been occasioned
chiefly through his intimacy with Greville Ewing."
Moreover, Ewing was esteemed "a very fine lecturer,
58
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
and very popular both as a man and as a preacher,
as was also Mr. Warcllaw, who frequently officiated."
With Mr. Moutre, the pastor of the Seceder Church
where his mother and the family attended worship,
Alexander would naturally have small sympathy;
and before the close of the winter his private note-
books exhibited various evidences of his impatience
(vol. i. p. 187).
It is not necessary to set down in further detail the
features of this old and vulgar story, which has been
enacted a thousand times before and since in many
parts of the earth. It will be sufficient to call atten-
tion to the conclusion of it as recorded by the biogra-
pher of Mr. Campbell. Professor Richardson relates,
that Alexander "became gradually more and more
favorable to the principles of Congregationalism
entertained by Mr. Ewing, which secured an entire
emancipation from the control of domineering Synods
and General Assemblies, and which seemed to him
much more accordant with primitive usage. At the
same time, he did not feel himself at liberty rashly
to abandon the cherished religious sentiments of his
youth, and the Seceder Church to which his father
and the family belonged, and in which he thought it
his duty to be a regular communicant.
He was in this unsettled state of mind as the
semi-annual communion season of the Seceders ap-
proached, and his doubts in regard to the character
of such religious establishments occasioned him no
little anxiety of mind concerning the proper course
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION.
59
for him to pursue. His conscientious misgivings as
to the propriety of sanctioning any longer, by parti-
cipation, a religious system which he disapproved ;
and, on the other hand, his sincere desire to comply
with all his religious obligations, — created a serious
conflict in his mind, from which he found it impossi-
ble to escape. At the time of preparation, however,
he concluded that he would be in the way of his
duty, at least, and that he would go to the elders
and get a metallic token, which every one who
wished to communicate had to obtain, and that he
would use it or not, afterward, as was sometimes
done. The elders asked for his credentials as a
member of the Secession Church ; and he informed
them that his membership was in the Church in
Ireland, and that he had no letter. They replied
that in that case it would be necessary for him to
appear before the Session and to be examined. He
accordingly appeared before them, and, being ex-
amined, received the token. The hour at which the
Lord's Supper was to take place found him still
undecided ; and, as there were about eight hundred
communicants, and some eight or nine tables to be
served in succession, he concluded to wait until the
last table, in hopes of being able to overcome his
scruples. Failing in this, however, and unable any
longer to recognize the Seceder Church as the
Church of Christ, he threw his token upon the plate
handed round, and, when the elements were passed
along the table, declined to partake with the rest.
60
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
It was at this moment that the struggle in his mind
was completed ; and the ring of the token falling
upon the plate, announced the instant at which he
renounced Presbyterianisni forever, — the leaden
voucher becoming thus a token, not of communion,
but of separation." (Richardson, Memoirs of Alex-
ander Campbell, vol. i. pp. 189, 190.)
In brief words, the conquest of Greville Ewing
and of his particular type of Sandemanianism was
then first firmly established. Though he had entered
Scotland comparatively innocent of these vagaries,
Alexander turned away from the country at the end
of three hundred days (vol. i. p. 194), in a state of
more or less abject slavery to them. With this view
his own statement, made some years later in the
pages of the paper which he edited in Virginia, is in
agreement, where in speaking of the confirmed dis-
gust he felt against the " popular schemes " he adds,
" which I confess I principally imbibed when a student
at the University of Glasgow.'" (C.B., edit. 6, p. 72.)
Let the fact be likewise considered, that Alexan-
der entered Glasgow on the 3d of November, 1808,
which left a period of not quite seven full months
since the time when James A. Haldane had given
such dire offence to Ewing and Wardlaw and the
men of that faction, by submitting to the rite of
immersion without waiting for their initiative. The
circles in which he was received were by conse-
v quence very full of opposition to the course of the
Haldanes in drawing near to the immersed wing of
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION.
61
the Sandemanian fraternity. It is likely that Mr.
Ewing and the church over which he presided had
already taken the remarkable step by which they
" refused to have visible communion with those who
adhered to the Haldanes " (vol. i. p. 181). Alex-
ander was, therefore, in no situation to hear the
Haldane side of the controversy, and in no state of
mind to do the Haldanes justice in case he had been
permitted to hear it.
Accordingly it is perfectly natural that he should
be inclined to favor the cause of the Sandemanians
of the aspersion observance ; and there is no good
reason why Professor Richardson should find it
somewhat singular, that during his residence in Glas-
gow none of the questions connected with infant-
baptism and immersion engaged Mr. Campbell's
attention in the least (vol. i. pp. 186, 187). Ewing
and his co-adjutor Wardlaw were both of them at
the moment vehemently exercising themselves in
opposition to immersion and to the baptism of
adults only (vol. i. p. 187). Alexander could have
heard scarcely any thing else than arguments in
favor of infant-baptism and aspersion, at such times
as he was admitted to a place at their tables. These
disquisitions would naturally fall in with his pre-
vious convictions regarding those topics. He had
not yet enjoyed an occasion to become intimately
acquainted with the immersion wing of the Sande-
manian body.
62
THE DISCIPLES OF CUBIST.
CHAPTER VTL
me. Campbell's eaeliest success as a
propagandist.
Peofessoe Richardson has, unhappily, left in a
state of incompleteness that portion of his volumes
which relates to the perversion to Sandemanian views
of Thomas Campbell, the father of Alexander. It is
very natural that he should be inclined to do as much
honor as possible to the father of his hero ; but in
accomplishing this purpose he is suspected to have
been, in some degree, unfaithful to the facts of
history.
His readers must present their acknowledgments
to the excellent author for the care he has often
exhibited in permitting his characters to address the
public in their own persons. Alexander Campbell
seems to have been one of that kind of men who
✓ rarely ever lose a letter, whether the same were re-
ceived or sent by him. Much of his early epistolary
correspondence was strictly copied down in note-
books that he kept for the purpose of preserving
documents that were of any sort of interest. A libe-
ral share of the letters which passed between himself
and his father, Thomas Campbell, have been repro-
MR. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 63
duced in the pages of the biographer ; but, singularly
enough, not one of those is published which belongs
to the time of Alexander's sojourn in Glasgow. This
defect is to be regretted, since, if it were supplied,
some light might fall from that source on the course
of Thomas Campbell's proceedings during the same
season in Pennsylvania.
In the narrative of Professor Richardson it is
represented that Thomas Campbell had reached a
position substantially like that to which Greville
Ewing had brought his son, by means of his own
private reflections and experiences, without any refer-
ence to communications that he might have received
from Alexander while the latter was detained in Glas-
gow (Memoirs, vol. i. p. 220) ; but this conclusion is,
for several reasons, inadmissible. Every thing, for ex-
ample, that is reported of Thomas Campbell, whether
in the volume which contains his own Memoirs
(Memoirs of Elder Thomas Campbell, by Alexander
Campbell of Bethany, Va., Cincinnati, 1861), or
in the biography which Professor Richardson has
supplied of his son Alexander, goes to show that he
was a timid, inefficient person. There are no certain
proofs that he was capable of independent thought or
action, either at this or an}^ other period of his life.
The facts and instances which might serve to estab-
lish the propriety of this judgment regarding him are
too numerous and circumstantial to be repeated here,
but it would not be difficult to supply them on
demand.
64
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
Moreover, it is not to be supposed that Thomas
Campbell, in Pennsylvania, was kept in ignorance of
the experiences of his family in Glasgow, nor of the
kindness of Greville Ewing towards them, especially
as every member of the household was glad to ac-
knowledge the extent of their obligations to him.
(Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, vol. i. p. 149.)
The heart of the good and weak man would naturally
be moved with gratitude towards the distant bene-
factor, and there would be no just bounds to his
admiration for the greatness and power and conde-
scension of the noble Sandemanian. Comparisons
would easily be drawn between the kindness and
attentions of Mr. Ewing, and the relative coldness
and neglect of the Seceder minister, Mr. Moutre ; and
there would be no very careful reflections upon the
circumstance that the distant bearing of his ministe-
rial colleague might be due to the passion which his
own loved ones had conceived for a disagreeable rival.
Again, it is entirely possible that Alexander was
not slow to communicate the points of that inti-
mate knowledge of Mr. Ewing's previous religious
history which he had been enabled to acquire in the
progress of his exceptionally friendly intercourse with
him (vol. i. p. 149). By means of this kind, Thomas
Campbell, who, perhaps, was already in subjection to
the imperious will of his son, would be placed in
possession of several items of news that were highly
acceptable to a husband and father in his own unfor-
tunate situation.
ME. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 65
By degrees, as Alexander found himself "grad-
ually becoming more and more favorable to the
principles of Congregationalism entertained by Mr.
Ewing" (vol. i. p. 189), various considerations in
support of these would be included in his epistolary
communications with his absent parent. These sug-
gestions would each of them fall upon a mind and
heart which had been prepared to receive them with
cordiality. The father, in his rather exceptional
weakness of character, would perceive that himself
also sympathized with Alexander's distaste for the
people among whom he was brought up, and
witli whom his fortunes had been the reverse of
nourishing.
Under circumstances of this kind, it is not a
matter of surprise, — it is only what might be rea-
sonably anticipated, — that Thomas Campbell should
become involved in a controversy with the Seceders
of the vicinity where he kept his residence. In the
spring of the year 1809, while his family were still
in Glasgow, a libel was laid against him in the Pres-
bytery of Chartiers, " containing various formal and
specified charges, the chief of which were, that he
had failed to inculcate strict adherence to the Church
standard and usages, and had even expressed his dis-
approval of some things in said standard, and of the
uses made of them " (vol. i. p. 225). The case was
appealed to the Associate Synod of North America,
which convened in the fall of the year 1809. From
the letter of protest that was addressed by Mr. Camp-
66
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
bell at the time to this body (Memoirs of Thomas
,Campbell, by Alexander Campbell, pp. 12-15), it
may be gathered that the objections urged against
him related to the usual Sandemanian scruples con-
cerning the impropriety of any human standards of
belief, and to his advocacy of the customary Sande-
manian position that the Scriptures are the only
admissible standard, to the exclusion of all kinds of
creeds and confessions of faith. Here was the
earliest, if not the most brilliant, conquest which
Alexander was enabled to make on behalf of San-
demanianism.
It is possible that the troubles which arose in
the Presbytery of Chartiers were duly reported to the
family, who were then abiding in Glasgow. Tidings
of these occurrences may have reached their ears
before the communion season already mentioned, at
which Alexander was successful in making up his
mind no longer to recognize the Seceder Church as
the Church of Christ (vol. i. p. 190). Although
his case was pending before the Synod, Mr. Camp-
bell did not leave off proclaiming the Sandemanian
notions which had just met with decided opposition
in the Presbytery. The churches of his Seceder
brethren, it would appear, were promptly closed
against his access ; but he found accommodation for
the people who were disposed to give heed to him,
in the private houses of various persons who might
be inclined to show him that favor (vol. i. p. 231).
In this labor of making propaganda for his new
MB. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 67
principles, he received especial support from certain
members of the Sandemanian Church in Rich Hill,
Ireland, who had emigrated to America but a fort-
night after he himself had come over (vol. i. pp.
81-83). Regarding one of these, who was the pre-
centor of the Church, Professor Richardson truly
says (vol. i. p. 82), " This James Foster was destined
to take no unimportant part in Thomas Campbell's
future religious movements." In fact, he was the
faithful and efficient ally of Alexander in the
efforts he made to draw his father away from his
former allegiance to Presbyterian doctrines and
polity.
Before the summer of 1809 was half closed, Thomas
Campbell was engaged in meditating a scheme by
which it might be in his power to put his new-found
notions into practice. He proposed to his followers
the propriety of holding a meeting for the purpose
of imparting greater definiteness to the movement
in which they were embarked. Perhaps it was
some time during the month of May or June that
one such was appointed at the house of Abraham
Altars, one of his more subservient adherents (vol. i.
p. 231).
When that meeting had been duly convened and
addressed, Mr. Campbell proposed, as a basis for
all further action, the motto : " Where the Scriptures
speak, we speak ; where they are silent, we are silent."
Here was, beyond dispute, an excellent ideal ; but,
in point of fact, it could hardly ever amount to any
68
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
thing more than an ideal. Neither Thomas Campbell,
nor Alexander, nor any of their supporters has ever
possessed wit enough to give effect to it by mak-
ing out just where the Scriptures do speak. Great
abuses once prevailed among them in that regard,
which Alexander attempted to regulate by composing
and publishing a fourth-rate treatise on the subject
of Biblical Interpretation. Nothing was clearer than
that the Campbells were hopeless failures in the de-
partment of exegesis, as most of their people have
been ; at any rate, they could lay no sort of claim to
infallibility. Consequently it was impossible for them
to apply their watchword to any advantage. What
is the profit of professing to speak where the Scrip-
tures speak, without more power than these gentle-
men had to determine where the Scriptures speak or
where they are silent ?
However, the above motto was a neat and popu-
lar expression of the fundamental principle of Mr.
Greville Ewing. (Facts and Documents, pp. 124,
130.) It is likewise nothing more than is professed
in fact, if not in form, by every sect of religious
worshippers in Christendom. Mr. Ewing and Mr.
Haldane had both adhered to this motto with all the
skill and devotion they could command, but with the
sad result of perceiving, that, instead of the excellent
Christian union which they so ardently desired, they
were daily drifting farther apart. Ewing even felt
himself constrained to deny any visible fellowship
with the sometime friend and associate to whom he
MR. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 69
was under the deepest obligations for kindness be-
stowed. Nevertheless, he had not lost any portion
of his faith in this watchword, believing that there
was virtue in it to charm every discord that might
arise in the Christian world. It is likely, that, in the
mouth of Thomas Campbell, it signified nothing more
important than, " Where Mr. Ewing speaks, we speak ;
and where he is silent, we are silent."
Whether the father or the son should be awarded
the credit of imparting this taking expression to the
leading principle of Ewing, is an inquiry that may
not be easily determined. It is not unlikely that the
first meeting and its incidents were duly and minutely
reported to Alexander beyond the seas ; he may have
had knowledge of the whole business before he set
sail for America on the 3d of August 1809. The
chief result of this preliminary meeting was not
enacted until the 17th of August, when Alexander
was already on the high seas. On that date was
formed " The Christian Association of Washington,"
which appears to have been modelled in several re-
spects after the pattern of the Haldanean " Society
for Propagating the Gospel at Home," of which
Thomas Campbell was a member during his residence
in Ireland.
The first act of this Association was to issue a
" Declaration and Address," the proofs of which were
just coming from the press when Alexander arrived
with the family at Washington, Penn., on the 28th
of October 1809 (vol. i. p. 246). This document
70
THE DISCIPLES OE CHRIST.
embraced a number of considerations in elucidation
and advocacy of the principle that the Scriptures
are in themselves a sufficient guide without the aid
of any confession of faith or other kind of standard.
It confined itself to somewhat narrow limits and
general statements, its author not venturing to step
beyond the boundaries winch had been set for him
in Scotland, through the example of Mr. Ewing, and
possibly through the dictation of Alexander.
In the autumn of the year 1S09. his letter of pro-
test against the censure of the Presbytery of Char-
tiers was brought to the attention of the Associate
Synod of North America, and along with it a copy
of the M Declaration and Address " which in the in-
terval had been published (vol. i. p. 228). The
' Synod were kindly disposed towards him, and, re-
versing the action of the Presbytery, directed that
he should be released from censure. At this point
the narrative of Professor Richardson is confused and
indefinite, but it suffices to indicate (vol. i. p. 229)
that the Presbytery were not content with the ruling
of the Synod ; and at their next session, perhaps in
the spring of 1S10, instead of dismissing the censure
they renewed it, and referred the case back to the
Synod. Thomas Campbell, conscious perhaps that
his course was reprehensible, and for the moment
unwilling to be debarred from religious communion,
submitted to receive this second censure. However,
instead of quitting his schismatical practices as the
Presbytery now had a right to expect he would do,
MR. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 71
he persevered in them. Justly offended by his con-
duct, which they perhaps interpreted as a breach
of faith, the Presbytery placed his movements under
strict surveillance, with a view to their own protec-
tion, and in order to establish by undeniable proofs
the correctness of their judgment against him when
the Synod should again bring forward the case for
review and decision. In this latter respect they were
so far successful that the defendant himself must
have become aware that it would be useless to
continue the litigation. Accordingly, before the
Synod met to consider the questions involved, Mr.
Campbell found it prudent to hand in a formal re-
nunciation of its authority, in which he declared
that he should henceforth hold himself "utterly
unaffected by its decisions " (vol. i. p. 230). These
occurrences are supposed to belong to the autumn
of the year 1810.
About the same time that he was engaged in
declaring his independence of the Seceders, Thomas
Campbell is found presenting an overture to the reg-
ular Presbyterians of the Synod of Pittsburg, pray-
ing for the reception of the " Christian Association
of Washington " into their communion. That body
heard him with respect while he unfolded the beauties
of Mr. Ewing's principle, and then coolly dismissed
him (vol. i. pp. 327, 328). After this rebuff it
was soon decided by the Campbells to organize a
church of their own, a task which was accomplished
at the regular semi-annual meeting of the Associa-
72
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
tion, on the 2d of May, 1811 (vol. i. pp. 366-368).
This church was organized as nearly as might
be after the fashion of the one over which Greville
Ewing presided in Glasgow (vol. i. p. 349). It
had weekly communion (vol. i. p. 373) ; it main-
tained the biblical propriety of the independent form
of church government (vol. i. pp. 345, 346, and p.
349) ; it favored lay preaching in the same way
Ewing did (vol. i. p. 346) ; it did not adopt the
notion of a plurality of elders, which Ewing also
now rejected ; and was content with choosing
Thomas Campbell as elder, although Alexander was
licensed to preach (vol. i. p. 367). Like Mr. Ewing,
both the Campbells were still in favor of infant-
baptism.
Nevertheless, out of regard for James Foster, the
precentor of the Sandemanian Church in Rich Hill,
who had refused even in Ireland to have his children
baptized (vol. i. p. 82), they were prevented from
taking as definite grounds on that subject as their
Scottish master was in the custom of assuming.
Thomas Campbell, it would appear, strove hard to
keep in the steps of Ewing in this quarter ; but it
was, perhaps, impossible for him to manage Foster.
The Sandemanian precentor was highly scrupulous,
and labored much to bring his friend over to his own
way of thinking (vol. i. p. 240). Under these
circumstances there was no other resource than to
make infant-baptism a matter of forbearance (vol.
i. pp. 325 and 345). Considering the altered cir-
JlfR. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 73
cumstances, this was keeping quite well in the track
that had been marked out for them. "Mutual
exhortation " also cut no figure at this moment in the
Brush Run Church ; Mr. Ewing, it will be remem-
bered, had become disgusted with that item of " the
ancient order of things " before Alexander's arrival
in Glasgow, and was even charged by the Haldanes
with turning against it. (Facts and Documents, p.
126ff.) Alexander was always unfavorable to it
(vol. ii. p. 128), and opposed his influence when it
was later introduced at Brush Run. Alexander must
have frequently heard of the theological classes which
Ewing was intrusted to teach during the first two
years of his residence in Glasgow. The suggestion
was not lost upon him. As early as he could after
his arrival in Pennsylvania, steps were taken to
organize a similar class. Its first, and, so far as
reported, its only students, were James Foster and
Abraham Altars (vol. i. pp. 277-279).
There was one single point, however, in which he
had not yet learned to speak with Ewing. Whether
that failure is due to the multitude of cares which
must have beset him as the head of the family in
Glasgow, robbing him of most of the leisure which
otherwise he might have devoted to his studies ; or
whether he had a keener appreciation of matters re-
lating to the " ancient order " than of such as related
to the " ancient gospel ; " or whether, in the third
instance, he experienced a difficulty in the prospect
of surrendering the view which he had always held
74
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
concerning the nature of saving faith, — must remain,
for the present, a theme of conjecture. But, whatever
should be the right explanation of the phenomenon,
Alexander rejected, for a while, the conceit of Ewing
and the Sandemanians, that faith is nothing other
than mere belief, which is produced by testimony
alone, without reference to the regenerating grace
of God. On the 7th of April 1811, about twenty
months after he had left behind him the advantages
of the personal tutelage of his master, he is still
found holding fast to the orthodox Seceder convic-
tions regarding this subject (vol. i. p. 376).
But the period was near at hand when he should
accede to the notion of his master touching this point
also, and, at the same time, go beyond him in other
respects. The 7th of April 1811, is the latest date
on which, according to the representations of his
biographer, he was willing to affirm that faith "is of
the operation of God, and an effect of almighty
power and regenerating grace'''
The Brush Run Church which Alexander had suc-
ceeded in organizing out of the material that com-
posed the " Christian Association of Washington,"
including his own, embraced the names of twenty-
eight persons (vol. i. p. 373). These were the first-
fruits of his labors on behalf of the Sandemanian
cause. He was untiring in his exertions, both in the
neighborhood of his residence and elsewhere. On
the 16th of May, 1811, he undertook his first mission-
ary journey, which carried him into the State of Ohio,
ME. CAMPBELL AS A PROPAGANDIST. 75
and gave him a store of experience, but a very slight
measure of success (vol. i. pp. 370, 371). In August
he again went forth, and was employed most of the
time until the close of the year ; but the people were
nowhere inclined to favor the innovations which he v
had borrowed from Scotland (vol. i. p. 379).
76
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
CHAPTER VIII.
mr. Campbell's perversion to sandemanianism.
(Second Stage.*)
Already in boyhood, during his residence in Ire-
land, Alexander had become aware of the existence
and the tenets of the Sandemanians of the immersion
observance. His biographer is careful to note the
fact that before the family departed from Rich Hill,
he had " been much pleased with the works of Arch-
ibald M'Lean, especially his work on 4 The Commis-
sion,' of which he was wont ever after to speak in
the highest terms " (vol. i. p. 71). This inci-
dent is of importance to the student of his life and
changes.
The Brush Run Church does not appear to have
enjoyed a great degree of harmony of conviction in
its efforts to "unite on the Bible." On the third
day after its organization, a question was raised that
must have given the members an amount of solici-
tude. When the Lord's Supper was celebrated for
the first time on Sunday, the 4th of May 1811, it
was remarked that three of the members — Joseph
Bryant, Margaret Fullerton, and Abraham Altars —
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION.
77
refrained from the elements. Upon inquiry made
for the reasons which might influence them to pursue
this course, it was discovered that neither of them
had ever been baptized after any of the various modes
in which that ordinance is administered among Chris-
tian communities (vol. i. pp. 371, 372).
The difficulty would have been of easy adjustment
if these parties had been willing to accept baptism
by affusion. In that instance there would have been
no kind of obstacle in the way of Thomas Camp-
bell's speaking where Mr. Ewing spoke. But they
were unhappily decided in their conviction that the
" ancient order of things " provided for baptism by
immersion. Joseph Bryant would likewise appear to
have taken the lead in making the demand for this
foim of the ordinance (vol. i. p. 372), and he was a
person whom it was exceedingly desirable to concili-
ate. Besides the fact that he had rendered most
efficient service in erecting the house of worship at
Brush Run (vol. i. p. 322), it may also be mentioned
that he had been an attentive member of "The
Christian Association," and perhaps already was rec-
ognized as an eligible match for Miss Dorothea
Campbell, to whom he was united in marriage about
twenty months later, on the 13th of January 1813
(vol. i. p. 458). It was, therefore, very trying to
resist Mr. Bryant's conscientious scruples and his
earnest solicitations.
On the other hand, Thomas Campbell was loath to
depart from the platform of Greville Ewing A dis-
78
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST,
cussion of two months' duration was carried on, at
the end of which Bryant was successful. Mr.
Campbell immersed him and Iris two friends on the
4th of July 1811 (vol. i. p. 372). But this con-
cession to the wishes of a few did not mend the
condition of affairs ; it only whetted the appetite for
other changes. James Foster, the Sandemanian pre-
centor, who witnessed it, was not edified by the man-
ner in which the ceremony was performed. Instead
of entering the water along with the subjects, the
administrator stood on the root of a tree at the side
of the pool, bending down their heads until they had
been covered by the water. Furthermore, in order
to signify the position which he had now brought
himself to occupy, Foster expressed the opinion that
it was incongruous for one who had not been bap-
tized in his own person, to administer the rite to other
people (vol. i. p. 373). Manifestly it was becom-
ing daily more impracticable for the Campbells to
walk in E wing's way. They must either leave it, or
submit to witness the Church which they had estab-
lished at Brush Run go to pieces. An earnest dis-
cussion had been some time going forward on the
subject of immersion (vol. i. p. 393), and it was not
a great while before " many of those connected with
Thomas Campbell had advanced beyond him."
They were restrained from carrying out their convic-
tions, and submitting to this form of the rite, by
nothing else than " the respect which they felt was
due to his position " (vol. i. pp. 399, 400).
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION.
79
Alexander seems now to have perceived that
speedy action must be had, else their cause was
lost. He therefore resolved to take the step which
it was becoming evident the larger portion of the
Church demanded at the hands of himself and his
father. Accordingly he made preparations to pro-
cure his own immersion (vol. i. p. 395). When
he went to communicate his intention to his father,
an ally was found in the house in the person of his
sister Dorothea (vol. i. p. 395). Naturally con-
cerned to avoid an explosion in the Church, by
means of which she might be required to decide
between the affection she bore her parents, and her
affection for the man to whom she was, perhaps,
already betrothed, she had become, like Mr. Bryant,
a decided advocate of immersion. If Bryant, and
the majority of the little community at Brush Run,
could have been induced to tolerate aspersion, it is
probable that the Campbells would never have found
it convenient to leave the side of the sprinkling
Sandemanians.
But affairs had taken a direction which it was not
in their power to control, and they were compelled
to follow the current. Alexander's previous acquaint-
ance with the treatise of Archibald M'Lean on " The
Commission of Christ " must have now done him a
service, giving him a rudder by which to steer his
course. The father, then as always pliant before
the stronger will of his son, was not disposed to
offer any serious objections, and at the last moment
80
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
decided to be immersed himself (vol. i. p. 376).
The event occurred on the 12th of June 1812 ; the
rite being performed by a Baptist minister of the
Redstone Association, named Matthias Luce. Four
days afterwards, thirteen other members of the
Church were immersed by Thomas Campbell. The
remainder, who would not accede to the new change,
went their way, leaving behind them a Church of
twenty members who were united in approbation
of the course that had been pursued, and whose
clamors perhaps had made it necessary. James
Foster was one of the thirteen (vol. i. p. 403).
A circumstance of personal concern to Alexander
also had a certain share in the business of directing
his attention to these issues. On the 13th of March
1812, his first child was born. The question of in-
fant-baptism, therefore, became to him a topic of
special interest. Doubtless with reference to the
scruples of James Foster, he had formerly urged
that this point should be treated as a matter of for-
bearance (vol. i. p. 392). That was the utmost
limit to which he might safely advance if he desired
to retain the sympathy and support of so important
a personage. It does not appear that he had even
ventured as far as that since the 5th of June 1811,
possibly abstaining through fear of provoking an
♦undesirable conflict. If now he had dared to baptize
his own child, after its birth in March 1812, he must
have done so with the conviction that the act would
cost him the affections and the countenance of most
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION. 81
of the communicants at Brush Run. At any rate,
he could not make up his mind to provoke the
Church in that way; and, contrary to the position
of Greville Ewing, his child was compelled to dis- v
pense with baptism.
The winter of 1811-12 was in other directions
an eventful one for the Brush Run Church. Fore-
seeing that he would be constrained by the force
of circumstances to take final leave of Mr. Ewing,
Alexander began to take further lessons in the " an-
cient order." Before the first day of January 1812,
he had become convinced of the propriety of main- v
taming a plurality of elders in every church (vol. i.
p. 385) ; and on that day he was ordained, possibly
in order that the Church might be provided with a
Presbytery after the Sandemanian model. On the
occasion of Thomas Campbell's removal from the
vicinity, in the year 1813, James Foster was or-
dained in his place, that the Presbytery might not
be destroyed by his absence (vol. i. pp. 458, 459).
Plurality of elders had now, to all appearances,
become the article of a standing or falling Church.
While yet a resident of Rich Hill, Alexander had
been made personally acquainted with one John v
Walker, a learned and unfortunate gentleman whose
literalism had rendered him one of the most fantastic
of all the Sandemanians (vol. i. p. 61). He was so
far gone in the "ancient order" that he "sold his
carriage and travelled on foot through Ireland, and
also through England," proclaming the virtues of an
82
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
exact conformity to the minutest details of it (vol.
i. p. 61). During the season here under review, Alex-
ander seems to have returned to his youthful admira-
tion for this exceedingly queer head. He attentively
perused his writings, and to a degree made him the
man of his counsel (vol. i. p. 466). It was from
Walker, perhaps, that he obtained the singular notion
about religious communion, which on the 26th of
February 1812, caused him to question the propriety
of family prayer wherever the family might be com-
posed in part of unbelievers (vol. i. pp. 447-449 ; cf.
p. 61). As has been already shown, numbers of the
Scottish Sandemanians refused to maintain family
prayer ; but these generally referred their objections
to a literalistic interpretation of the injunction which
ordains that men shall enter into their closets alone,
and there address the heavenly Father in secret.
They likewise made much of the fact that there is
no distinct biblical command enjoining in so many
words the duty of praying in the family. The form
in which Alexander's scruple was indicated, however,
suggests rather the influence of Walker.
The admiration he felt for this impossible character
was never abated. In his last years he condemned
himself because he had not kept closer to Walker's
rigid and exclusive principles (vol. i. p. 454). As a
specimen of that gentleman's extraordinary proceed-
ings, it may not be amiss to mention a visit he made
to Edinburgh, perhaps to confer with the Haldanes,
who went very far in the direction of restoring " the
MB. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION. 83
ancient order." The usual Sandemanian custom pre-
scribes the Lord's Supper on every Lord's Day. But
Walker could find nobody in all the city who was
good enough to enjoy this rite of religious commun-
ion, except the travelling companion who had made
the journey with him, and a single student of medi-
cine in the university. These three ate the elements
alone. (Facts and Documents, p. 247.) Professor
Richardson also records the fact that Walker's spirit-
ual arrogance was cultivated to such an extreme
" that it was a special point with him, strictly to pro-
hibit the performance of any religious act without
removing to a distance (if in the same room) from
every person who refused to obey a precept that
could be generally applied ; insisting that true wor-
ship could be rendered only by those who receive
and obey the same truths in common " (vol. i. p. 61).
The arrogance of the Scottish Sandemanians did
not always carry them quite so far, but it was not
unusual for principles of this kind to be applied in
the public worship of their churches on the Lord's
Day. A Sandemanian Church of the immersion ob-
servance had been established in the city of New
York, in the autumn of the year 1810, under Elders
Henry Erritt and William Ovington, which was quite
as fantastic an institution as one could reasonably
desire. In the customary style of the party, they
rejected all human creeds, rules, covenants, thinking
the Scriptures perfect enough for direction in every
thing. Church edifices were no part of the " ancient
84
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
order of things," neither were pulpits : they hired a
hall, and claimed that it was not possible elsewhere
to witness the sight of a church assembled together.
(Benedict, History of the Baptists. Boston 1813.
vol. ii. p. 409). This body held four public services
in the week, at neither of which were any but com-
municants admitted ; at another public service ap-
pointed for Tuesday evening, they were willing to see
the outside world, and to preach the gospel to them.
(Benedict, as above.) In the year 1818, they had so
far mended their manners as to permit the " world "
to attend on Sunday evenings, after the regular wor-
ship of the Church had been concluded, at which time
the elders, and some others of the brethren approved
by the Church, would be gracious enough to declare
the gospel to them. (Christian Baptist, p. 389.)
By some means Alexander had become aware of
these ridiculous proceedings of the immersed Sande-
manians, and was immediately captivated. He re-
solved to copy them in that as well as in so many
other singularities; and when, after his immersion,
the Brush Run Church was re-organized on the basis
of the "Scotch Baptists," no person "was recognized
as duly prepared to partake in religious services,
except those who had professed to put on Christ in
baptism." (Richardson, vol. i. p. 454.)
The absurd tenor of his sentiments, and the sin-
cerity of his conversion to these idle puerilities, may
be illustrated by the fact that when he attended
the session of the Redstone Association, in August
MR. CAMPBELL' S PERVERSION. 85
1812, he could not be induced to preach before the ^
outside public, as other ministers were in the custom
of doing. Every solicitation of that kind was de-
clined. On the contrary, he was willing to discourse
"one evening in a private family to some dozen
preachers and twice as many laymen " (vol. i. p.
440). This conduct would be inexplicable on any
other supposition, except that Alexander's motto
seems now to have suffered an alteration, by means
of which it should read, " Where the Scotch Baptists w
speak, we speak ; " and not many of these could be
found who went to more wretched extremes.
Thomas Campbell, as usual, was the obedient echo
of his son in the suggestions made by the latter in
favor of this arrogant policy of exclusion (vol. i.
pp. 449-454). If the father and son had but fol-
lowed that policy continuously and consistently, it is
not in the least probable that our country would have
been burdened with the shame and evils of Mormon-
ism, — which grew out of the Disciples' movement,
— since their influence would have been so much
circumscribed that their enterprise could have affected
few persons besides themselves and their immediate
dependents.
A portion of the winter of 1811-12 was also devoted
to the task of acquiring the doctrine and the dialect
of the Sandemanians in relation to faith. In a letter
directed to Mr. Robert B. Semple in April 1826,
Alexander informs him that he had " appropriated one
winter season for examining this subject." (Chris-
80
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
tian Bap., p. 228.) The facts, however, as they are
set down by his biographer, show that this was not
an entirely correct reminiscence ; for, in addition to
his investigations regarding the nature of faith, it is
clear, from what has been said above, that he also
found time to investigate and accept the Sandemanian
doctrine concerning the plurality of elders ; to change
his mind about the action of baptism and about the
propriety of infant-baptism ; to adopt the notions of
the Sandemanians of the straitest sect in favor of ex-
cluding from the worship of the Church all persons
who were not members of the Church ; and to discuss
the absurd proposition to discontinue family prayer
in cases where all the members of the household might
not be fortunate enough to relish the fantastic con-
ceits of the party to which he was now inclined. He
had long previously made the discovery upon which
the average Sandemanian was likely to value himself,
to the effect that Sunday is not the Jewish Sabbath
day (vol. i. p. 347) ; but it was only during the win-
ter in question, that the sentiments of himself and
the community which he led became so much the
topic of public remark as to excite the report that
they " paid no respect to the Sabbath " (vol. i. pp.
432-435).
Returning to the subject of faith, Alexander de-
scribes as follows the method in which he pursued
his investigation : 44 1 assembled all the leading writ-
ers of that day on these subjects. I laid before me
Robert Sandeman, Hervey, Marshall, Bellamy, Glas,
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION. 87
Cudworth, and others of minor fame in this contro-
versy. I not only read, but studied, and wrote off
in miniature, their respective views. I had Paul and
Peter, James and John, on the same table. I took
nothing upon trust. I did not care for the authority,
reputation, or standing of one of the systems, a grain
of sand. I never weighed the consequences of em-
bracing any one of the systems as affecting my stand-
ing or reputation in the world. Truth (not who says
so) was my sole object. I found much entertainment
in the investigation ; and I will not blush, nor do I
fear to say, that, in this controversy, Sandeman was w
like a giant among dwarfs. He was like Samson
with the posts of Gaza on his shoulders." (Christian
Bap., p. 228.)
It would have been nearly impossible for a person
of his present connections and situation, especially
one who was so much lacking in respect to independ-
ence of mind and theological capacity and culture, "
to have reached a different conclusion. Here, as at
so many other points, Alexander was the unquestion-
ing slave of his masters.
In case the representations made by Professor
Richardson are complete, the revolution which took
place in Alexander's mind, by which he became a
subject of Sandeman in the matter of faith, began in
the month of October 1811 (vol. i. p. 413), and was
completed in the month of March 1812 (vol. i. p.
422). In connection with it he carried forward a
correspondence with his father, perhaps chiefly for
88
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
the purpose of showing him deference. The harm-
less old gentleman was incapable of rendering any
considerable assistance in his enterprises, but it was
in his power to offer a deal of resistance in case he
were not duly coddled and conciliated. As on every
other occasion, Thomas Campbell played the r61e of
a convenient echo. It is surprising to witness the
readiness with which he could repeat at first blush
such Sandemanian watchwords as " the bare belief of
the naked truth," and affirm, against the convictions of
a lifetime, that this " involuntary, unavoidable faith "
was sufficient to procure salvation (vol. i. p. 419).
In requesting baptism at the hands of Matthias
Luce, Alexander, in due subjection to the authority
of Archibald M'Lean as laid down in his work styled
" The Commission of Christ Illustrated," says he had
stipulated " that it should be performed into the name
of the Father, etc., and not in the name, as was then
and now is usual among the regular Baptists."
(Memoirs of Thomas Campbell, p. 114.) Moreover,
it was not his object, in seeking immersion, to unite
with the Baptists of America. On the contrary,
he declares, " I had no idea of uniting with the Bap-
tists " (vol. i. p. 439.) Not many months had
psssed by, however, before that purpose entered his
mind ; and in order to accomplish it he was willing,
in the month of August 1813, to violate one of the
leading Sandemanian tenets, and to contradict the
teachings of the famous " Declaration and Address,"
by composing for the purpose a sort of confession of
MR. CAMPBELL'S PERVERSION.
89
his faith, which, if it could now be procured, would
possibly supply an amount of interesting reading
(vol. i. p. 4-10).
But he was never at that or any other moment,
either by sympathy or by conviction, a Baptist. In a
private letter under date of Dec. 28, 1815, more than
two years after his Church had been received into the
fraternity of the Redstone Baptist Association, he
describes his situation in the following terms : " I am
now an Independent " (or Sandemanian) " in Church
government; ... of that faith and view of the
gospel exhibited in John Walker's seven letters to
Alexander Knox ; and a Baptist in so far as respects /•
baptism " (vol. i. p. 466).
During the period between the year 1812 and
1820, Alexander relapsed into a condition of mere
vegetation. In the year 1816, he was able to excite a
small controversy by a discourse on " the law " before
the Redstone Association, where, in keeping with his
Sandemanian principles, he thought the preaching
of the gospel was sufficient to produce the "bare
belief of the bare truth," and therefore maintained
that it was unnecessary and reprehensible to per-
suade men by the terrors of the Lord. He also be-
came to a degree interested in the missionary cause
(Christian Baptist, p. 17 and p. 72), which the Red-
stone Association was then prosecuting with some
kind of vigor. (Benedict, History of the Baptists,
New York 1856, p. 615.)
The year 1820, however, was full of events that
90
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
supplied him fresh incitement, and opened for him a
career. The month of April brought him a news-
paper discussion on the question regarding the Sab-
bath (vol. i. p. 522), in which he embraced an
opportunity of setting forth and maintaining the
customary Sandemanian distinctions with much
length and logomachy. The month of June brought
him an oral discussion about the action and subjects
of baptism, with the Rev. Mr. Walker of the Seceder
Church. These occurrences served to arouse him
from his long-continued lethargy, as well as to call
the attention of circles to his abilities as a rhetori-
cian, which had not previously been aware of his
existence.
BAPTISM FOR REMISSION OF SINS. 91
CHAPTER IX.
BAPTISM FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS.
The most important impulse that the year 1820
had in store for Mr. Campbell was conveyed to him
in a doctrinal pamphlet that was published and sent
forth by the " Scotch Baptist " Church of New- York
City. This body was, perhaps, pleased to regard
itself as, in a certain sort, the leader of sentiment
among the churches of that persuasion in this coun-
try. The pamphlet referred to was largely devoted
to a treatment of the design of baptism. It was for-
warded, we may suppose, to all the Sandemanian
churches of the immersion observance in America,
if not also to those in the British Islands as well.
One of these existed at the moment in Pittsburg,
under the pastoral supervision of Mr. Walter Scott,
one of the principal co-laborers of the Campbells.
A copy was conveyed to him. The work also fell
into the hands of Alexander and his father. (Life of
Elder Walter Scott, by William Baxter, Cincinnati
1874, p. 47.) They all perused it with more or less
of avidity ; it was the subject of a number of eager
conferences between the trio. (Richardson, vol. ii. p.
83.) Alexander had it on his mind at the debate with
92
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
Mr. Walker, and ventured to employ the position
which it maintained in one of his addresses against
the practice of infant-baptism, asserting that "baptism
is connected with the promise of the remission of sin
and the gift of the Holy Spirit " (vol. ii. p. 20).
Here was the beginning of a new departure. The
document of the New-York Church contains the same
view regarding the design of baptism to which the
Campbells later gave in their adhesion (Life of Scott,
by Baxter, pp. 47-53); it was also published by
Scott in one of the numbers of " The Evangelist," a
monthly periodical winch he edited respectively in
Cincinnati and Cambridge, O. The same texts which
the sect of Disciples (or Campbellites) are in the
habit of setting forward are produced in this pam-
phlet, and handled much in the same way, in order
to support the conclusion that baptism was designed
for the remission of sins.
But Alexander was disposed to approach this busi-
ness in a gingerly fashion. It was manifest that the
sentiments advanced by the men of New York were
nothing else than a development of the views ex-
pressed by Archibald M'Lean, the father of the
" Scotch Baptists," in his famous work entitled
"The Commission of Christ," winch had been for
many years in the hands of the Campbells. (See
M*Lean's Commission, edit. 1, p. 133.) At that
place this author declares, M To be baptized for the
remission, or icashing-away, of sins, plainly imports,
that in baptism the remission of sins is represented
BAPTISM FOR REMISSION OF SIXS. 93
as really conferred upon the believer. The gospel
promises in general, 4 That, through Christ's name,
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins.' Baptism applies this promise, and repre-
sents its actual accomplishment to an individual be-
liever, assuring him that all his past sins are now
as really washed away in baptism by the blood of
Christ, as his body is washed in water." He also
says (pp. 131, 132, note), " As to the necessity of
baptism to salvation, it is no stronger expressed in
these passages " (John iii. 5, and Tit. iii. 5), " than
in some others concerning which there is no dispute,
such as, ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved ' (Mark xvi. 16) ; 4 The like figure whereunto
baptism doth also now save us,' etc. (1 Pet. iii. 21) ;
'Be baptized, and wash away thy sins' (Acts xxii.
16)." (A Disciple firm of publishers in Cincinnati,
O., have republished this work from the third Edin-
burgh edition. In the year 1871 there had been five
editions of the American reprint.)
But from the manner in which M'Lean, in this
work, guards some of his utterances, it might be in
the power of an opponent to affirm that it was not
entirely warrantable to represent that author as a
thorough-paced advocate of the theory of baptismal
remission. His New-York followers, on the other
hand, had fully, and without much hesitation, taken
their stand upon this dogma. Alexander, however,
is considered to have felt some misgiving as to
whether these gentlemen were of canonical author-
94
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
ity. It is not, perhaps, entirely accidental, therefore,
that, in his published version of the debate with Mr.
"Walker, he appears on both sides of the issue touch-
ing the design of baptism. (Compare Richardson
vol. ii. p. 20, with vol. ii. pp. 36, 37.) Nevertheless,
the question was not of small concern to him. The
topic of the New-York pamphlet was often the theme
of remark. (Richardson, vol. ii. p. 83.) When the
" Christian Baptist " was sent forth in the year 1823,
it was among the first matters that were put forward
for treatment. In the second number of the periodi-
cal, under date of Sept. 1, 1823, an article that bears
the marks of careful preparation is published, in
which the writer confidently takes his stand on the
side of the New-Yorkers, and pleads the propriety
of the sentiments which were enunciated in their
pamphlet of the year 1820. Thomas Campbell, who
was not responsible, and whose opinions could easily
be disclaimed in case any strong objections were
heard against them, was put forward in this way to
feel the public pulse. (Christian Baptist, pp. 11-13.)
In the month of October 1823, Alexander was
engaged in a public debate with the Rev. Mr. Mc-
Calla, a Presbyterian divine, at Washington in Mason
County, Kentucky, in which the action and the sub-
jects of baptism were again treated. Here he like-
wise found courage enough to indorse the New-York
authorities in his own proper person, by setting forth
the position and the arguments which they had
employed in their publication. (Richardson, ii. pp.
BAPTISM FOR REMISSION OF SINS.
95
80-83.) But he was still so much disposed to hesi-
tate regarding their canonicity, that his scruples at
a later date more than once took him over to the
other side of the issue. (Christian Baptist, pp. 58,
67, TO, p. 6-4.)
In October 1824, a second advance was made
towards the principles which the New-York Sande-
manians had laid down ; and Thomas Campbell was
in this instance likewise employed to perform the
delicate task, Alexander being still in a state of
incertitude regarding the question whether it would
be prudent and popular for him to espouse their
cause. The article which his father was now
employed to write was of twice the length of that
which he had previously produced, and in some
respects more decided. (Christian Baptist, pp. 99-
101.) In December 1824, the father again engages
to enlighten the " professing world " upon the signifi-
cance and importance of what the Xew-York theo-
logians had laid so heavily upon his own mind.
(Christian Baptist, p. 115.) Various other expedients
were devised to keep the point before the public. In
the month of May 1826, a writer who appears under
the nom de plume of " Independent Baptist," who is
suspected to be no other than Alexander, asserts in
round terms 4i that the baptismal water washes away
sin, and is the only Divinely appointed pledge that
the blood of Christ has cleansed the conscience of
the obedient disciple." (Christ. Bap., p. 236.) That
his mind was strongly engaged in that direction, may
96
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
also be perceived from occasional references to the
topic which are elsewhere scattered up and down in
the pages of his periodical. Among these, attention
may be directed to the more or less covert allusions
on p. 94, p. 118, and p. 351, respectively.
In October 1827, he contrives to throw off a por-
tion of his constitutional timidity, and to employ in
his own person language that, with considerable
definiteness, signifies that he had now made up his
mind to become an avowed convert to the New York
theory. He says (Christian Baptist, p. 381), " Elder
John Secrest told me, at the meeting of the Mahon-
ing Association, Ohio, on the 27th ult., that he had
immersed three hundred persons within the last three
months. I asked him, 4 Into what did he immerse
them ? ' He replied, he 4 immersed them into the
faith of Christ for the remission of their sins.'
Many of them were the descendants of Quakers, and
those who had formerly waited for the baptism of the
Holy Spirit in the Quaker sense of those words. But
brother Secrest had succeeded in convincing them
that the one baptism was not that of Pentecost, nor
that repeated in Ceesarea, but an immersion into the
faith of Jesus for the remission of their sins. . . .
Thus while my friend Common Sense, and his two
Baptist doctors, are speculating on what regeneration
is, brother Secrest has by the proclamation of repent-
ance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and immersion for the remission of sins, been
the means of regenerating three hundred in three
months, in the proper import of the term."
BAPTISM FOR REMISSION OF SINS. 97
These statements have the appearance of being
uttered by a person who had finally made up his
mind to assume a definite position, and to maintain
it against all who might come forward to oppose him.
Moreover, the seed that, since the year 1820, he had
been sowing with so much care and covert art, had
already taken root in some quarters. In more than
one section of the country persons who chanced to
be under his influence were proclaiming the conceit
of the New-York Church. During the year 1826,
Jeremiah Vardeman had been advocating it in Ken- ^
tucky, and professed to entertain a degree of satisfac-
tion in administering the ceremony of baptism that
was superior to any thing he had known before
he was rightly instructed in the New- York theory.
(Richardson, vol. ii. pp. 287, 288.) B. F. Hall was
also on the same ground, with the same message, in
the same year of grace (vol. ii. pp. 388, 389).
Adamson Bentley and Jacob Osborne were declaring
it to the people of Ohio in 1827, as well as John
Secrest already mentioned above (vol. ii. pp. 207,
208). It was indeed high time for Alexander, if he
desired to remain at the head of the movement, to
declare in public his adhesion to the notion of bap-
tismal remission.
But a number of trials were still to meet him
before he should finally gain his consent to formally
announce his acceptance of what seemed long since
to have become his favorite tenet. Walter Scott,
who in other years had been his co-laborer in Pitts-
98
TEE DISCIPLES OF CEEIST.
burg, was appointed, at its session in September
1827, as the missionary of the Mahoning Association
in Ohio. This arrangement had been effected under
the oversight and largely through the influence of
Alexander, and he hoped that many advantages
might accrue from it in the way of perverting the
Baptists of that body to Sandemanian opinions and
customs (vol. ii. pp. 173, 174; cf. p. 206).
Notwithstanding the circumstances that Elder
Scott had been often admitted to conferences that
were held touching the New- York notion (vol. ii. p.
83), and though, as Campbell declares, he had been
definitely advised by Scott to introduce that opinion
into the debate with McCalla in October 1823, yet
this person, if one may judge from his writings in the
" Christian Baptist," prior to November 1827, had
never contrived to get any practical hold or under-
standing of that tenet. Nay, when he heard it pro-
mulgated by Jacob Osborne in the early autumn of
1827, it is said to have struck him with surprise
(vol. ii. p. 208). Not long afterwards, however, he
was, by some agency of which no distinct account
has been given, made sensible of the meaning and
importance of the new departure which Alexander
had been pushing ever since the reception of the cir-
cular about baptismal remission, in the year 1820 ;
and he took hold of the idea with his customary en-
thusiasm and precipitation. The first discourse that
he delivered in favor of it was not rewarded by
any visible results (vol. ii. p. 209). It served the
BAPTISM FOR BEMISSIOX OF SINS. 99
purpose, however, of rendering him broad awake to
the excellency of an opinion which a number of his
brethren in the vicinity where he was laboring had
been some length of time proclaiming. The only
apparent obstacle in the way of his action in thus
going forward lay in the fact that he was occupying
an official relation to the Mahoning Baptist Associa-
tion, and it was wholly uncertain how that body
would be disposed to regard this flagrant departure
from the principles of the Baptist community.
Alexander was justly uneasy regarding the issue,
especially since, in case the churches which had em-
ployed Scott should repudiate him, the most of the
blame would attach to himself, who had perhaps
suggested this expedient, and selected his long-time
associate and disciple for the position.
Notwithstanding the manifest perils of the situa-
tion for his principal, Scott, in the enthusiasm of a
new convert, was resolved to press forward. On the
18th of November 1827, he appointed a meeting at
New Lisbon, O., in which he announced that he would
fully discuss u the ancient gospel " (vol. ii. p. 210
and p. 212). Here at his first discourse he secured
his earliest convert ; and this may be set down as in
some sort the natal day of the modern Disciple move-
ment. Before the series of meetings at New Lisbon
were concluded, Scott had succeeded in persuading
seventeen persons to be immersed for the remission
of sins.
This conduct on his part rendered it necessary that
100
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
he should make a speedy visit to the leader of the
movement at his residence in Virginia. (Hayden,
History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve,
p. 93.) The two friends must have discussed the haz-
ards to which the precipitancy of Scott had exposed
their cause in Ohio, and the probabilities that he had
effected the destruction of Alexander's hope to per-
vert the entire Association from the doctrines which
they had hitherto maintained. The situation was in-
deed critical, and the slightest mishap would have
brought upon them extreme disaster. Scott's energies
were therefore excited to their fullest tension ; it was
necessary to accomplish the work of perversion as
far as possible before the date appointed for the next
session of the Mahoning Association, in order that
objections which might be confidently anticipated
should be silenced, or that the party of opponents
might be defied. In this enterprise he was successful
to a high degree ; and from the 18th of November
✓ 1827, the notion of baptism for the remission of sins
was officially recognized as a part of the faith of the
Disciples.
In January 1828, Alexander got courage enough
to lend a helping hand by commencing a series of
articles in the " Christian Baptist," on the " ancient
gospel," where he comes out boldly on behalf of the
opinion which hitherto he was in doubt whether he
should publicly and irrevocably avow. By a very
adroit contrivance he is skilful enough in the first of
these to represent John Secrest, a Kentucky preacher
BAPTISM FOR REMISSION OF SIXS. 101
of the Stoneite or Christian party, as proclaiming this
opinion with distinguished success on the Western
Reserve. "Elder John Secrest," he reports, "told
me on the 23d of November, in my own house, that,
since the Mahoning Association last met, he had im-
mersed with his own hands one hundred and ninety,
thus lacking only ten of five hundred in about five
months — for it is not more than five months since he
began to proclaim the gospel and Christian immer-
sion in its primitive simplicity and import.'' (Chris-
tian Baptist, edit. 6, p. 402.)
This second allusion to the labors of Secrest would
be, at that moment, a desirable diversion in favor of
Scott, by assuring the people of the region where they
were both employed that the latter was not alone in
the innovation that he was practising. But at a later
time, when Scott manifested a disposition to claim
the most of the credit for the prosperity and success
of the Disciples' enterprise, the above extract was
the occasion of an amount of ill feeling. Scott ap-
pears to have conceived the idea that Campbell was
jealous of him, and had inserted the statement that
has been cited with the purpose to deprive him of his
just honors.
102
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
CHAPTER X.
OTHER ITEMS.
The founder of the Disciples was highly reticent
regarding the nature and extent of his obligations to
the Sandeinanians, whether of the aspersion or of the
immersion observance. The occasions were compara-
tively rare when he could be induced to reveal his
counsels in that direction. At the head of the " Chris-
tian Baptist " he had placed as a motto the passage,
" Style no man on earth your father, for He alone is
your Father who is in heaven, and all ye are breth-
ren ; " and it was considered important, that, in ac-
cordance with this injunction, little should be reported
concerning the Sandemanians, who were his own
masters on earth. It was likewise an element of
strength in that class of the community whom he had
access to, that he should make a large parade of his
intellectual independence, and sometimes of his " eru-
dition " (McCalla, Debate on Baptism, Buffalo 1824,
p. 124), a quality with which he was also but moder-
ately provided.
William Jones, who, after the death of Archibald
M'Lean, became the leader of the " Scotch Baptists,"
or Sandemanians of the immersion observance, em-
OTHER ITEMS.
103
braces the opportunity to disburthen his mind regard-
ing this clear instance of ingratitude, which was pro- *
vided by a letter he addressed to Mr. Campbell on
the 16th of March 1835. (Millennial Harbinger,
1835, pp. 298-300.) From the representations there
set forth, this kind of " childish vanity " must have
been the common failing of a number of those churches
which, in Ireland and America, had descended from
the " Scotch Baptists." John Walker, the fellow of
Trinity College, Dublin, for whom, even down to his
latest days, Mr. Campbell felt an extravagant admi-
ration, is sorely chastised for his crimes of omission
at this point. Mr. Jones professes to be able to prove
that Walker owed his earliest impulse in favor of
Sandemanianism to the writings of Archibald M'Lean,
and pities " those individuals who, through the pride
and envy of their hearts, have scorned to acknowl- ✓
edge their obligations to the servants of God whose
labors have been so useful to them." (Mill. Harb.,
as above, p. 299.)
In America he is particularly severe upon the con-
duct of the New-York Church, for their neglect to
feel any gratitude towards those Churches in the
Fatherland to whom they owed much thanks. Speak-
ing of the circular which had been sent forth by
that organization, in the year 1818, to many of the
prominent "Scotch Baptist" Churches in England
and America, regarding the "ancient order of things,"
and afterwards published under the title of "The
First Part of an Epistolary Correspondence between
104
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
the Churches in America and Europe,"' Mr. Jones
complains, that, u though it is well known that those
individuals had gone out from this country, and
carried their principles with them, there is not the
smallest reference, in all their narratives, to the source
whence they derived them." (Mill. Harb., 1835, p.
298.) Xor does he quite spare the Disciples, remind-
ing Mr. Campbell that he would not deny that his
own churches took their origin from the "Scotch
Baptists." (Mill. Harb., 1835. p. 300.)
In reply to these just complaints, Alexander allows
his personal obligations, but is content to express
these in terms of such shadowy generality as in
effect almost to deny them. At the close of the
letter in which these concessions are made, he adds,
u But now, Brother Jones, after all these acknowl-
edgments for myself and my brethren, I have no
hesitation in saying that there will be found views
of the Christian institution icholly new, as far as the
works of all the schools to which I have alluded are
concerned. This I say not from vanity, nor from
pretensions to originality; but from a conviction,
before God, that it is due to all the citizens of
Christ's kingdom, in Europe and America, to state
that the cause we plead is at least something in
advance of even the Scotch, or English, or American
Baptists, as I have no doubt will appear to yourself
from a careful examination of the books forwarded
you." (Mill. Harb., 1835, pp. 306, 307.)
It must be conceded that he has embraced some
OTHER ITEMS.
105
items in his creed which may not be found in the
works of his masters, the " Scotch Baptists." These
were immediately insisted upon by Mr. Jones with
so much emphasis as to defeat the hopes which at
one time Alexander would seem to have entertained
to the effect that it might be in his power to swallow
up the "Scotch Baptists," and celebrate another
triumph of that Christian union which he professed
to believe would in the end destroy all "sects and
sectism " by comprehending every one of the various v
Churches of the Christian world in his own Church.
This would have been a splendid ambition if it had
not been supremely ridiculous.
The most important particular in which he de-
parted from the theology of the "Scotch Baptist"
writers consists in the fact that he surrendered the
Calvinism in which he had been educated, in favor v
of Arminian sentiments. In the present state of
research, it is not possible to suggest the precise time
and circumstances in which Alexander accomplished
this change. His biographer is entirely at fault here,
and leaves the reader wholly without information.
Indeed, both himself and his hero appear to have
been fresh enough to believe that they were not
really Arminians as long as they omitted to desig-
nate themselves by that title, no matter how firmly
and consistently they might profess and support
Arminian principles. This policy, which after the
fashion of the ostrich leads them to imagine that
they are sufficiently concealed by covering their head
106
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
in the sand, is one of the most amusing foibles of the
Disciples.
However, it would appear that as late as the year
1811, Alexander had not yet turned away from his
Calvinistic convictions; since in his notes on the
writings of John Walker, made at that season, he has
set down, apparently with approval, the substance
of one of his author's chapters against Arminianism.
(Richardson, vol. i. p. 446.) He was likely still in
favor of Calvinistic views as late as the 28th of
December 1815, on which date he informed his uncle
Archibald, in a letter addressed to him in Ireland,
that he was " of that faith and view of the gospel
exhibited in John Walker's seven letters to Alex-
ander Knox " (vol. i. p. 466).
There have been few more absurd hyper-Calvinists
than was John Walker, and it would be difficult to
embrace his " faith and view of the gospel " without
in some degree partaking of that sentiment. But in
the absence of more definite information regarding
the portion of Mr. Campbell's life that lies between
1811 and 1820, it would be in vain to speculate about
the date and circumstances of his perversion to
Arminian opinions. We must content ourselves with
the simple fact that when he began to set forth a
printed record of his position, in the " Christian Bap-
tist," he was already a confirmed opponent of the
system of the Calvinists. Thomas Campbell was
permitted to retain his Calvinism, but only as a sort
of philosophy, or other attenuated appendage. In
OTHER ITEMS.
107
this sublimated capacity it would do no great amount
of harm, while it might serve to remind them of the
source whence they had sprung, and upon occasion to
furnish a bond of sympathy with the " Scotch Bap-
tists," in case it were deemed prudent at any time
to attempt the project of effecting a union with them.
It must be allowed that Mr. Campbell's adhesion
to Arminian views suited much better with his theory
of baptismal remission, than the Calvinism in which
he had been reared and trained. To discard the sys-
tem of Calvin for the behoof of the New- York theory,
and to embrace Arminianism in its stead, would at
least indicate that he had an eye for symmetry.
A very considerable result of this abandonment of
Calvinism appears in the fact that Mr. Campbell was
thereby enabled to deny the doctrine which he had
preached in his early time, that spiritual influences
of some sort must co-operate with the word before
the sinner will exercise faith. According to the
scheme of the " ancient gospel " which Walter Scott
elaborated, the operations of the Holy Spirit must
be confined entirely to those who are already in a
saved estate. His much-boasted ordo salutis was : (1) j
Faith, (2) Repentance, (3) Immersion, (4) Remission
of sins, and (5) The Holy Spirit. To the Third Per-
son of the Trinity was conceded unchecked access to
the hearts of believers ; but it was not allowed him to
influence the hearts of unbelievers, and it was some-
times even attempted to show that the act of faith
was such an easy matter that there was no need of
108
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
his assistance in order that it might be effected.
Nevertheless, the leaders of the movement had a deal
of trouble to explain the circumstance, that, since
faith is wholly the result of testimony, some of those
who attended their own ministry should accept the
testimony they were in the custom of imparting,
while others of equal or superior capacity for sifting
and weighing testimony would turn unaffected away
from it. (Richardson, vol. i. p. 427, and vol. ii. pp.
150-163.) '
This same arbitrary method of dictating to the Holy
Spirit what might be the sphere and limits of his oper-
ations may be found in the writings that the Congre-
< gational minister, Mr. W. Cudworth, sent forth in his
controversy against Robert Sandeman, which have
already been mentioned on a previous page. (Wil-
liam Jones of England, in the Mill. Harbinger, 1835,
p. 443.) Cudworth also advanced, in the same works,
the singular hypothesis that the word of Scripture is
the Spirit ; a fancy that was approved and elaborated
in the well-known Dialogue between Timothy and
Austin, which Mr. Campbell sent forth in the pages
of the " Harbinger." (Jones in Mill. Harbinger, as
above.)
In the winter of 1811-12, which Mr. Campbell
appropriated to the examination of these issues, the
work of Cudworth was one of the books that he
studied. Writing to his father on the 28th of March,
1812, Alexander says, "I have read about one-half of
Cudworth this week. Will give you my sentiments
OTHER ITEMS.
109
respecting his performance in my next." (Richardson,
vol. i. p. 425.) Unhappily Professor Richardson has
failed to insert the letter in which his cogitations
about the production of Cudworth are recorded.
If that were supplied, it is possible that a degree of
assistance might accrue to the labors of students in
this department. As the writings of Cudworth can-
not be consulted at the present moment, it is not
possible to form a conclusion with any degree of
detail as to how far the positions assumed by Mr.
Campbell may correspond to the opinions which that
singular author has enunciated. It is just to state,
however, that Mr. Campbell assures his English critic
that he reprobates the notion of Cudworth. (Mill.
Harb., 1835, p. 463.) It is equally just to add that
this same notion is distinctly advocated in the Dia-
logue between Timothy and Austin.
Mr. Jones likewise informs us that those persons
in England who took up with the opinion of Cud-
worth " have, in process of time, verged into Socini-
anism or Deism, among whom were some of the
elders of our (Scotch Baptist) Churches." Accord-
ing to this account, therefore, the immersed Sande-
manians of the mother country were affected by these
extraordinary conceits touching the Holy Spirit, as
well as their brethren under the lead of Mr. Camp-
bell in America. And it is, further, no secret at all
that Mr. Campbell and a portion of his adherents
were much suspected of a leaning towards the tenets
of Socinianism or Arianism. This suspicion was
110
THE DISCIPLES OF CHBIST.
aroused at an early period, — even before the Disci-
ples had entered upon any official church relations
j with the Unitarian followers of Barton W. Stone in
Kentucky, — as may be seen in the pages of the
" Christian Baptist," pp. 50 and 216. For a number
of years he was at great pains to clear himself and
his people of imputations of this nature that were
laid against them. After the comprehension of the
Stoneite party in Kentucky, these suspicions became
more numerous than ever ; and it was a tedious task
to meet the objections that were excited by that
action.
It is hardly necessary to ransack the literature of
the Sandemanians of Europe for traces of the dis-
tinction that was so much approved and employed
by Mr. Campbell, between faith and opinion, and is
the chief prop of the Plea for Christian Union. Noth-
ing could be more easy than to fall upon this expe-
dient without the aid of a special counsellor. The
appearance of arrogance which induces him to assert
that the confessions of faith, set forth by various
Christian churches, are merely confessions of opin-
ion (Christian Baptist, p. 216), is not an unusual
display in the ranks of the smaller sects. In general,
the opinion of Mr. Campbell, touching the meaning
of a given passage of Scripture, was too likely to be
regarded as a point of faith, while the equally careful
and honest conclusions of others who, to say the
least, were not less competent than himself, were
somewhat haughtily denounced as unworthy of that
OTHER ITEMS.
Ill
high distinction. In the debate that occurred be-
tween himself and the Rev. N. L. Rice, at Lexington,
Ky. (Nov. 15 to Dec. 2, 1843), he was sorely pressed
to declare the point where faith begins and opinion
ends (Debate, p. 813), but was not able to bring
forward any satisfactory reply. (Debate, pp. 835,
836.)
Nevertheless, the distinction proved to be practi-
cally serviceable in enabling his people to compre-
hend within their communion a number of persons
believing in Unitarian and Universalist tenets, who
were willing to promise that they would hold this
item of their faith as a mere opinion. It was not
long, however, until he was constrained to deplore
an unfortunate condition of affairs, and to complain
that " all sorts of doctrines, by almost all sorts of
men," were proclaimed among his adherents.
The different sects and systems which we have
been considering are extreme, and in several re-
spects fantastic, developments of the principles of
Protestantism, and especially of that principle which
asserts the necessity of returning to the Bible as the
standard of faith and action. The literalism which
is an abuse of Protestantism was pretty well dis-
played in each of them, and in several instances it
became absurd and injurious.
In conclusion, it is believed that the statement
with which the present treatise was begun has been
shown to be true. The Disciples of Christ are the]
direct descendants of the Sandemanians ; it is possible
112
THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
to point out in the literature of Sandemanianism
the source whence Mr. Campbell derived almost every
one of his religious opinions. If he ever had an ori-
ginal idea, he took pains to avoid giving expression
to it in such of his writings as have been submitted
to the inspection of the public.
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