Immediately on obtaining my claim, brethren had sought me out and made
my acquaintance, and soon it appeared that there were enough Disciples
in the settlement to constitute a church. But the times were stormy, and
we delayed making any movement in that direction. It had now come to be
the month of June. There had been refreshing showers. The singing birds
had come, and the bright sunshine. The prairie had put on its royal
robes, the forest its richest garments, and the people had become
impatient with their long isolation from religious meetings. The Lord's
day was almost ceasing to be the Lord's day to them, and they demanded a
sermon. We, therefore, came together in the timbered bottoms of Caleb
May's claim, on the banks of the Stranger Creek. The gathering was
primitive and peculiar, like the gathering at a Western
camp-meeting--footmen, and men and women on horseback, and whole
families in two-horse lumber wagons. Some were dressed in
Kentucky-jeans, and some in broadcloth; there were smooth-shaven men and
bearded men; there were hats and bonnets of every form and fashion; all
were dressed in such ways as best suited their convenience or
necessities. In this crowd were those that, as the years should go by,
were destined to grow in wealth, in understanding, in popularity and
high position, and they should be known as the first in the land.
The singing was not in the highest style of the musical art, but it
was hearty and sincere.
Looking up at the thick branches of the spreading elms above our heads
I said:
MY FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS:--I have never seen trees
clothed with leaves of so rich a green as the trees above
our heads, I have never seen prairies robed in richer
verdure than the prairies around us.
Since the year of 1832, it has been known that what is
called the "Platte Purchase," in Missouri, is the garden
spot of the West; and now it is apparent that we have here
on the west side of the Missouri River what is the exact
counterpart of the Platte Purchase on the east side. It is
the same in genial suns, refreshing rains, and unequalled
fertility of soil. It is, moreover, true that, owing to
the peculiar circumstances under which this Territory will
be settled we shall have a population inferior to no
population on the face of the earth.
After the deluge was past, God promised enlargement to the
sons of Japheth. "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall
dwell in the tents of Shem;" and more than 3,000 years the
sons of Japheth have been fulfilling their destiny. They
came originally from the mountain regions around Mount
Ararat, and moving westward, they have filled all Europe;
and these tribes coming from the east have created the
modern European nations. The last and westernmost
settlement was made on the island of Great Britain, and
here they were stopped from further progress by the
Atlantic Ocean; and here, after many generations of war,
they coalesced and mingled their blood together, and thus
became the British nation; and thus out of the commingling
of the blood of the most enterprising races that came out
of the loins of Japheth has grown that nation, that in all
lands has vindicated its right to be known as the foremost
nation of the world.
Christopher Columbus discovered America, and now new
causes began to operate that called for the planting of
new colonies here in America. Martin Luther asserted the
right of a man to stand immediately in the presence of the
Lord, to be answerable directly to the Lord, and to
confess his sins to the Lord alone, and from the Lord to
receive pardon, without the intervention of any pope,
priest, or ghostly mediator. This was counted by the
Catholic Church a horrible blasphemy, and the Diet of
Worms was called, and Luther was commanded to appear
before it and recant. Presiding over this Diet was Charles
V., Emperor of Germany; here were Electors, Princes and
crowned heads, popish priests, bishops and cardinals,
together with the principal nobility of Catholic
Europe--these all came together to compel the recantation
of Friar Martin Luther. But Luther said; "Unless I be
convinced by Scripture and reason, I neither can nor dare
retract anything for my conscience is a captive to God's
Word, and it is neither safe nor right to go against
conscience," and a great multitude of men in Germany,
France, Switzerland, and Great Britain stood beside Luther
and protested that they were amenable to the Lord alone,
and that they could do nothing against conscience. But
these Protestant governments stopped midway between popery
and Protestantism; for each of these nations, while
renouncing the Pope of Rome, assumed that it was the
business of the king to instruct the people what to
believe; and so instead of having one pope they had many
popes, consequently many Protestant sects; and these took
the place of that one apostolic church originally
established by the apostles. Notwithstanding, there were
some, in all lands that remained steadfast to the
principle enunciated by Martin Luther: "Unless I be
convinced by Scripture and reason, I neither can nor dare
retract"; and so it came to pass that there were
Protestant persecutions as well as Catholic persecutions;
and so also it came to pass that men became wearied with
this intolerance, and determined to seek beyond the
Atlantic Ocean a place where they could worship God
according to the dictates of their own consciences, with
none to molest them or make them afraid. It was for such
cause that the Puritans settled in New England, the
Quakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Scotch and
Irish Presbyterians in North Carolina; and it was for this
cause that the French Huguenots, driven out of France by
the French king, came to South Carolina. The most notable
cause that induced the planting of the thirteen original
colonies here in North America was religious persecution
in the Old World. And as the oak grows out of the acorn,
so out of these colonies has grown this nation of which we
are so proud.
Great Britain became more Lutheran than Germany, the
native land of Luther, and God lifted the British nation
up to become the chiefest nation of the world; the United
States of North America became more Lutheran than Great
Britain, and the eyes of the world are fixed on us in
admiration and astonishment. God blessed the house of
Obededom, and all that he had, because the ark of God was
in it.
But there are spots on the sun, and there are exceeding
blemishes in our Protestantism, notwithstanding the fact
that the glory of the American people has grown out of it.
The image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream had feet
and toes, part of iron and part of potter's clay, partly
strong and partly broken. So it is with our Protestant
sectarianism, and because of it we are partly strong and
partly broken. Compare the Protestant United States with
Catholic Mexico, or compare Protestant Great Britain with
Catholic Spain, and compared with these nations we have
the strength of iron, but judged by our sectarianism we
have the weakness of miry clay.
My friends and fellow citizens, I have the honor to
represent to you a people that have said we will go back
to that order of things originally established by Jesus
and the apostles--we will make no vow of loyalty to any
but Jesus, and we will have no bond of union save the
testimonies and commandments of the Lord as given to us by
the Lord himself and the holy apostles. Out of this we
hope may grow such a union of God's people as Jesus prayed
for when he prayed that all Christians might be one. We
are striving for such an order of things that Protestants
may present a united front against the world, the flesh
and the devil, and against all disloyalty to Jesus.
To this appeal men often make reply: "We can not break
loose from our religious surroundings, dear to us through
life-long and most tender associations." But, my friends,
this objection can have no weight with this audience,
assembled here on this glorious Lord's day, and on this
our first religious meeting. Here we have already broken
loose from these associations. These ties, how dear so
ever to us, we have already sundered. The people with whom
we once met, and with whom we once took sweet counsel, the
churches in which we once worshiped, shall know us no more
forever. Here we are free to act, and to correct the
mistakes that have been unwittingly made by the churches
with which we have formerly been connected, just as our
American fathers were free to frame a better government
than the government of the nations out of which they came.
May I not appeal to you, my friends, and say you owe it to
yourselves, you owe it to Christians in every land, you
owe it to your Lord, you owe it to the future State of
Kansas, to so act as to free the Christian profession from
the trammels that have hindered its progress and glory
ever since the days when our divisions began. If
Protestantism seas done so much in spite of all its
divisions, what will it not do if these hindrances are
taken out of the way?
Kansas is certainly predestinated to be a great State. The
fertility of its soil, the healthfulness of its
atmosphere, and the fact that its population is to be made
up from the bravest, most daring and most enterprising men
in the nation, all look in this direction; you ought,
then, my friends, to see to it that as far as your
influence may go its religion shall be nothing less than
primitive and apostolic Christianity.
In ascertaining what is primitive and apostolic
Christianity, we shall pay supreme respect to the time
when the old or Jewish dispensation came to an end, and
when the new or Christian dispensation began. The first,
or Jewish dispensation, Jesus took out of the way, nailing
it to the cross. The second, or Christian dispensation,
began after Jesus arose from the dead and ascended up on
high, far above the thrones, dominions, principalities and
powers of the world of light, and became the Head over all
things to the church. This was the proposition with which
Peter closed his sermon on the day of Pentecost:
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,
that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ." To this agree the words
of Jesus after his resurrection, as recorded in the close
of Matthew's gospel: "All authority is given to me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and disciple all
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
Luke records some things which Matthew does not record:
"Thus it is written, and thus it behooved the Messiah to
suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that
repentance and remission of sins might be preached in his
name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem; and ye are
witnesses of these things." But Mark records some things
that neither Matthew nor Luke have recorded: "Go ye into
all the, world and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned." In carrying out this
commission, thus recorded by these three evangelists, if
we find an ignorant pagan that knows nothing of Jesus we
shall say to him, as Paul said to the Philippian jailer,
ignorant pagan that he was: "Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house."
But if we find men who already believe, as did the three
thousand who were pierced in the heart on the day of
Pentecost, we shall say to them, as Peter did: "Repent and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit." If, however, we find a man that not only
believes, but is a penitent believer, such as Saul of
Tarsus was when Ananias found him, we shall say, as
Ananias said: "And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of
the Lord."
In all this there is nothing human, nothing schismatical.
All can accept it who are willing to accept the Word of
the Lord. In the baptism we administer, we will give no
cause for schism: it shall be a burial, and this, so far
as the action of baptism is concerned, will meet the
conscience of the Greek Church, the Roman Catholic Church,
and of all Protestant churches.
Do not, my friends, attempt to turn aside this appeal
which I now make to you with a laugh or a sneer. This is
the Lord's word, and the word of the Lord is not to be put
aside with a sneer. Do not scoff at this as a water of
salvation. You certainly will not scoff at the word of the
Lord.
And now, my friends, will you not demean yourselves worthy
of the high place that God has given you? Adam and Eve
carried in their hands the weal or woe of the unnumbered
millions of their children that should come after them.
Abraham, because of his great faith and because of his
high integrity, sent down a blessing upon his fleshly seed
for fifty generations; and for the same cause was
constituted the spiritual father of a spiritual seed as
numerous as the stars of heaven or as the sand upon the
seashore. A few Galileean fishermen have filled the world
with the glory of the Lord. Luther drove back the darkness
of the dark ages and has filled the world with the light
of God's Word. And now, my friends, you are laying the
foundations of many generations, and will you not take
heed how these foundations are laid? Can you repent if you
take God at his word and do as did the apostles and the
primitive Christians?