There is no such thing in this country as Campbellism, nor is there
any such body of people as Campbellites. There is a people in this
country that have gone back to our Lord to learn what he gave to the
apostles and authorized them to preach, and to the apostles and learned
what they preached to the world, and what they taught the church; who
receive what the apostles preached and taught, and believe it in full;
no more, no less. In this they claim to receive the religion of Christ
itself, as he and his authorized ambassadors set it forth. They receive
and believe it on the authority of its divine founder, the Lord, from
heaven, and enforce it on all who hear them, as the only complete,
perfect and divine system in the world; the only true religion; the
religion of Christ itself. They claim to be Christians, followers of
Christ, children of God. The body to which they belong is simply the
body of Christ, the kingdom of God, the church. Christ is their head;
their infallibility. They believe on him. They obey him. They hope for
all he has promised, and fear all he has threatened. To be in him is
to be in his body, in the kingdom, in the church, to be a Christian, a
follower of Christ. They receive him and all he has said, but reject
all that did not come from him. This is no Campbellism, nor Methodism;
but the religion of Christ itself. That is what we are for, and we are
for it because it is from God, and has the authority of God in it.