GROWING INTO MATURITY, 1909-45
Growth in numbers had been very rapid during the first eighty years. It
was not unusual to hear the confident prediction that at this rate they
would soon “take the country,” and it seemed disloyalty to doubt that
the rate of increase would continue. But the population of the country
was also growing very rapidly, though not so rapidly as the Disciples.
So long as there was an open frontier—that is, until about 1890—and even
later, while the heavy westward migration continued, the Disciples
outran the general population increase. But so also did the Methodists
and Baptists. Immigration from Europe brought tremendous reinforcements
to Roman Catholics and Lutherans, none to Disciples; and Disciples
gained by conversion almost none of these immigrants or their children.
The nation was becoming increasingly urban, while the Disciples remained
more rural than other large communions. Inevitably there were
diminishing returns in growth.
There was a high point in 1910. It was higher still in 1914, with an
abrupt drop of nearly 300,000 to 1915, and a fair rate of growth
thereafter. An improvement in statistical methods probably explains the
greater part, though perhaps not all, of the apparent loss in 1915.
Certainly there was no great disastrous event in that year. Perhaps some
of the “Churches of Christ” were included in the count until 1915. Here
are the figures since 1900:
1900 1,120,000
1905 1,238,515
1910 1,363,533
1915 1,142,206
1920 1,178,079
1925 1,450,681
1930 1,554,678
1935 1,618,852
1940 1,669,222
1944 1,681,933
Improving the Machinery
With the recognition of many fields of responsibility besides home and
foreign missions and the consequent multiplication of societies, each
having an annual “special day” to promote its work and raise its funds,
a good deal of rivalry and confusion ensued. There were not enough days
to go around. For example, the Foreign Society bitterly opposed the
claim of the new American Christian Education Society (1903) upon the
third Sunday in January as Education Day, because this interfered with
the exclusive occupancy of January and February in preparation for
Foreign Missions Day, the first Sunday in March; but it could do nothing
about it because the latter was an independent and theoretically
coordinate society. Moreover, the conventions were conventions of the
societies rather than of the churches.
The first step toward remedying this condition was the appointment of a
“calendar committee,” at Buffalo in 1906, to devise a plan for reducing
the number of special days. There was no immediate result. At New
Orleans in 1908, the constitution of the American Christian Missionary
Society was amended to provide for a delegate convention in which every
church, whether contributing or not, should have elected
representatives. So much parliamentary confusion attended this action
that it was not carried into effect. The Centennial Convention of 1909
appointed a standing committee to consider unifying all missionary and
philanthropic work under one or two boards. The committee’s intimation
that it would recommend a strictly delegate convention to which all
societies should report touched off a long and heated discussion.
“Delegate convention” became, for the more conservative element, a
symbol of apostasy, as “higher criticism” and “federation” had been a
few years earlier.
The formal report of the committee was made at Louisville in 1912, and
the vote was almost unanimous in favor of a general convention to be
composed of elected and accredited delegates from the churches. The
convention of the following year, at Toronto—which was supposed to be
composed of delegates but was not, because few churches sent
them—ratified the delegate plan which it failed to exemplify. In
subsequent conventions also there were few delegates. The delegate
system failed not because of opposition but because of indifference to
it. The vast majority of churches did not elect delegates, and habitual
convention-goers continued to go whether they were delegates or not. At
Kansas City, 1917, a new constitution was adopted, which, while
retaining the delegate feature, made it meaningless by giving equal
voting power to all members of churches who were in attendance. (It was
like having an elected Congress with the provision that any citizen who
cares to attend its sessions shall have all the powers of a
congressman.) But with a large and representative “Committee on
Recommendations” serving as an upper house, the plan works surprisingly
well.
A national publication society, to be owned by the brotherhood and
operated for its benefit, seemed desirable to many. A committee was
appointed in 1907 to study the problem. Mr. R. A. Long solved it by
agreeing, in December, 1909, to buy all the stock of the Christian
Publishing Company, publishers of the _Christian-Evangelist_ and of
books and Sunday school materials, and place it in the hands of a
self-perpetuating board of directors, all profits to be appropriated to
the missionary and other enterprises of the Disciples. The fears of a
regimentation of opinion by an “official” journal and publishing house
have proved groundless. The Christian Board of Publication is, in fact,
no more “official” than are the Disciples’ colleges, which have exactly
the same kind of ownership and control. But the brotherhood does get the
profits, which have totaled much more than Mr. Long’s original gift.
Mr. Long was also the prime mover in, and the largest donor to, the Men
and Millions Movement, the aim of which was to enlist a thousand men and
women for religious service and to raise six million dollars for
missions and colleges. The campaign, beginning in 1914, was interrupted
by the war, but its financial goal was finally reached.
The unification of missionary agencies had been suggested at least as
early as 1892 and discussed at intervals thereafter. Before it was
accomplished, the separate societies had already reformed some of the
evils of the old system by establishing a joint budget committee to make
the securing of funds for the various interests cooperative rather than
competitive, and by stressing weekly giving for missions as part of each
congregation’s financial system instead of relying upon spasms of appeal
on special days. Conditions caused by World War I doubtless precipitated
the consolidation of the societies. In 1919 the home and foreign
missionary societies, the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions, the
boards of church extension and ministerial relief, and the National
Benevolent Association were merged to form the United Christian
Missionary Society. F. W. Burnham was its president until 1929.
Some Disciples, without being opposed to societies on principle, had
long been critical of much that the societies did and the way they did
it—their “cold institutionalism” and “bureaucratic methods” and their
concern with so many things other than winning converts by the simple
plea of faith, repentance, and baptism and organizing churches according
to the ancient order. The United Society fell heir to these hostilities
and aroused more. One result was an increase in the number of
“independent agencies.” These have a loose bond among themselves as the
“Associated Free Agencies.” The _Christian Standard_, chief journalistic
critic of the organized work, publicizes these agencies and, together
with the Christian Restoration Association, lends them its support. The
annual North American Christian Convention appeals primarily to those
who stand aloof from the United Society and support the independent
agencies.
Widening Educational Horizons
The remarkable improvement of the Disciples’ colleges has been an
indication of the widening intellectual outlook of the communion and
also one of the causes of it. The increase of endowments was only one
aspect of the improvement, but an essential one. In the first thirty
years of this century, the total of their endowments rose from
$3,300,000 to $33,000,000. There was similar betterment of buildings,
libraries, and equipment. Academic standards were raised, and faculties
were better trained for their specific tasks. The transformation of
Bethany College, beginning with the administration of President T. A.
Cramblet, from the decadent and moribund state into which it had fallen
to its present admirable and flourishing condition, is an example of
what several colleges achieved. Drake, Butler, Phillips, and Texas
Christian University gained honorable prominence in their states and
beyond. These four developed graduate schools for the ministry, or
raised toward full graduate status the departments they already had. The
College of the Bible, at Lexington, entered upon a new epoch.
Transylvania, always prominent in Kentucky, resumed the ancient name
which identified it as “the oldest college west of the Alleghenies.”
There were also casualties among the colleges. As costs increased and
academic requirements stiffened, some were forced to close down. Cotner
was one of these.
Meanwhile, much larger numbers of the younger ministers have been taking
advantage of the resources of other universities and seminaries.
Hundreds have gone to Yale Divinity School, hundreds more to the
Divinity School of the University of Chicago and the Disciples Divinity
House. The pastors of the great majority of the larger churches at the
present time are men who have had such education. Likewise the faculties
of the Disciples’ colleges and of their graduate schools for the
ministry are composed, almost without exception, of university-trained
men. The “cultural isolation” of the Disciples has definitely ended.
The Congresses of the Disciples, which began in 1899 and were held
annually until about 1925, were a valuable means of adult education for
ministers. These were gatherings for the discussion of religious,
theological, and social problems which could not properly come before
the conventions. They were characterized by great freedom of utterance.
At first, all phases of opinion were represented, but as the more
conservative element gradually dropped out, the congresses lost much of
their value.
Liberal Tendencies
Through all these agencies, the liberalizing effects of the newer
learning were widely diffused. One aspect of this was that a great
number of ministers accepted the so-called “modern view” of the Bible,
based upon historical and critical methods of study, in place of the
theory of inerrancy and level inspiration. Proof texts lost something of
their finality. The pattern of the primitive church seemed somewhat less
sharply drawn, and the duty of restoring it in every detail less
axiomatic. Christian truth and duty were seen as far more extensive, and
far less simple, than the conversion formula and the restoration of the
ancient order as these had been conceived. In this atmosphere of
opinion, the stress was upon union, while the concept of restoration
seemed to require reinterpretation to give it continued validity. All
this had begun to happen in the previous period; but now it happened on
a large scale, reaching many important pulpits, the colleges, the
missionary executives, the missionaries themselves.
It was no longer possible to say that only a little coterie of young men
held and taught these disturbing ideas. Their spread could not plausibly
be charged to the Campbell Institute, though this provided a free forum
for its members. The Campbell Institute began in 1896 as a company of
fifteen young men who had done some graduate work, or were still doing
it. It was organized, as its constitution says, “to enable its members
to help each other to a riper scholarship by a free discussion of vital
problems; to promote quiet self-culture and the development of a higher
spirituality both among the members and among the churches with which
they shall come in contact; and to encourage productive work with a view
of making contributions of permanent value to the literature and thought
of the Disciples of Christ.” The young men grew older, and their number
increased to several hundred. The institute’s meetings were all open to
the public, its membership was opened to any college graduate who cared
to enroll, and a wide variety of theological opinions found expression
on its programs and in its organ, the _Scroll_. It never pulled a wire
to get one of its members into a position of honor or leadership. Still,
it was and is of some significance as an incentive to untrammeled
thinking, an organization liberal enough to be equally hospitable to
liberal and conservative opinion.
The _Christian Century_, immediately after C. C. Morrison became its
proprietor and editor in 1908, became the exponent of a more liberal
theology than had ever been voiced by any Disciples’ paper, an equally
liberal social outlook, and the strongest possible emphasis upon the
unity of all Christians. Gradually, and quite definitely from about
1920, it became an undenominational journal with a large constituency
among all communions. The prestige that it gained in the wider field and
its complete editorial independence gave it great influence among
thoughtful Disciples as a stimulus to their own thinking even if they
did not go all the way with it.
The Association for the Promotion of Christian Unity, which grew out of
a meeting called by Peter Ainslie at the 1910 Topeka convention, of
which he was president, stressed the things which the Disciples held in
common with other communions and, through many years, sought ways of
cultivating this fellowship. While the association itself did not
espouse open membership, it did not envision union by the universal
acceptance of the Disciples’ “historic plea” for the immersion of
penitent believers for the remission of sins and the restoration of the
pattern of the New Testament church as they had understood it. But Dr.
Ainslie, who was president of the association for many years, became an
outspoken advocate of open membership, which he called “recognizing the
equality of all Christians before God.”
Missionaries in certain foreign fields, especially China, were reported
to be too little concerned with baptizing converts and too much involved
in activities other than pressing the “distinctive plea” of the
Disciples. Whether or not they actually received Chinese Methodists or
Presbyterians who had no other church home, remained a disputed question
even after a self-appointed investigator had gone to China and reported
that they did.
Conservative Reaction
From all these circumstances there arose a vigorous campaign of
criticism against all the agencies that seemed implicated in this
liberal tendency. The attack upon Transylvania University and the
College of the Bible, long a citadel of orthodoxy but now manned by
younger men of university training, was spearheaded by the Bible College
League in 1916. It failed to accomplish its purpose. The “Medbury
resolution,” passed by the 1918 convention, demanded that the Foreign
Society forbid the reception of unimmersed persons into mission churches
in China. An explanation by Frank Garrett that what looked from a
distance like open membership in China was really not that, because the
mission communities were not fully organized churches, brought the
repeal of the Medbury resolution.
But criticism was only checked, not silenced. The “restorationists”
organized the New Testament Tract Society to spread “sound doctrine.”
The Board of Managers of the new United Society adopted an affirmation
of allegiance to the “historic position” of the Disciples, including
immersion, signed it themselves, and required all missionaries to sign
it. The 1922 convention adopted the “Sweeney resolution,” which approved
this action and put teeth into it. A “peace committee,” in 1924, failed
to agree, and the _Christian Standard_ led in organizing the Christian
Restoration Association and began to publish the _Restoration Herald_.
The Oklahoma City convention of 1925 adopted a resolution by which it
ordered the recall of any missionary who “has committed himself to
belief in the reception of unimmersed persons into church membership,”
and voted to send a commission to the Orient to find the facts. The
commission reported that it found no open membership in China, and the
Board of Managers officially interpreted the Oklahoma City resolution as
“not intended to invade the right of private judgment, but only to apply
to such an open agitation as would prove divisive.” The critics
repudiated both the report and the interpretation and, when defeated in
the 1926 Memphis convention, called the first “North American Christian
Convention” for October, 1927. This convention, repeated annually, has
continued to be the rallying place of the opponents of the United
Society.
While open membership has been thrust into the foreground in the
controversy between the United Society and its critics, the society does
not avow sympathy with that practice and refuses to admit that this is
the real issue. But it cannot be doubted that there are two contrasting
views as to the basis of the Christian unity which Disciples seek and
the nature and scope of the restoration at which they aim. Under this
difference lie two views of the Bible, and from it flow differences of
emphasis upon baptism. The admission of the unimmersed is openly
defended by relatively few, but quietly practiced by a good many. Still
more are restrained from it, not by their own convictions, but by the
feeling that at present it would promote division rather than unity.
An Ecumenical Outlook
All Protestantism has been seeking ways of cooperation and dreaming of
unity during the past forty years. In these efforts the Disciples have
had their full share, and their hope of unity has been more than a
dream. The revived conception of an ecumenical church is congenial to
their best tradition and has stirred them to reconsider the ways in
which they may help in its realization.
The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America has been the
foremost cooperative agency since 1905. A Disciple suggested that name,
and Disciples had a part in its organization and have been well
represented in its leadership. Jesse Bader has been at the head of its
department of evangelism for many years. Herbert L. Willett was in
charge of its Midwestern office for a considerable period. Edgar DeWitt
Jones has served as its president. The Disciples have entered heartily
into cooperative educational work in foreign missions and into comity
arrangements both at home and abroad for the allotment of fields and the
distribution of forces to prevent duplication and competition. A
Disciple missionary, Samuel Guy Inman, has been the leading spirit in
the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America. The Interchurch World
Movement, which aimed at a revival of Christian work and the
strengthening of all Christian institutions immediately after World War
I, was overambitious and became a costly fiasco. Disciples shared in
this, too, and paid their part of the staggering deficit.
What is more explicitly called the Ecumenical Movement began with a
World Conference on Foreign Missions, at New York City in 1900. This led
to a similar conference in Edinburgh in 1910. The Disciples were not
represented in the organization or on the program of either of these. In
the minds of the promoters of these conferences, they were still an
unknown people, or a minor sect. Some Disciples attended, however, as
unofficial observers. Beginning with the problem of unity in missions,
the Ecumenical Movement expanded to become “Life and Work” (Stockholm,
1925, and Oxford, 1937) and “Faith and Order” (Lausanne, 1927, and
Edinburgh, 1937). The problems of Christianity in relation to other
world religions were studied at the Jerusalem Conference, 1930, and
those of the “younger churches” of the mission lands at Madras, 1939. In
all these ecumenical gatherings, the Disciples have had a recognized
place and have taken an active part. They have also recorded their
adherence to the World Council of Churches, which grew out of the Oxford
and Edinburgh conferences of 1937.
Sunday school work had an undenominational aspect at its very beginning,
early in the nineteenth century. Disciples took part in the
International Sunday School Association, organized in 1872, and adopted
its uniform lessons. B. B. Tyler was its president in 1902. Other
organizations arose to develop more modern phases of religious
education. Robert M. Hopkins was prominent in the Sunday School Council
from the start, and he was chairman of the executive committee of the
International Council of Religious Education for eleven years after its
formation by the union of the old International Association and the
Sunday School Council in 1922. Roy G. Ross is now executive secretary of
the International Council. Many other Disciples, experts in various
phases of this work, have borne heavy responsibilities in these
organizations, especially in the latest and most comprehensive one.
In brief, no communion has been more active in all the cooperative
enterprises of the churches in recent years, or more sympathetic with
the ecumenical trend toward thinking less of the churches and more of
the Church.
The bitter experiences of World War II have accentuated the common
responsibilities of all the churches in the face of a resurgent paganism
and world-wide suffering. Disciples have participated in the counsels of
Christians on the problems of war and peace and have not shunned their
special burdens. They raised a million-dollar emergency fund, furnished
their quota of chaplains with the armed forces, made provision for their
conscientious objectors. The Drake Conference on “The Church and the New
World Mind” was part of their contribution to the study of postwar
problems.
Rethinking the Disciples
The central body of opinion among Disciples cherishes the watchwords
“union” and “restoration,” about which the whole movement has developed.
But it recognizes that changed conditions and widened horizons may
require a reconsideration of the program of union and of the meaning of
restoration. It is not the impatience of youth but the voice of
experience that rejects a static and unchangeable system. J. H. Garrison
was editor and editor emeritus of the _Christian-Evangelist_ for sixty
years. In the last contribution written with his own hand, published on
April 11, 1929, being then in his eighty-eighth year, he wrote:
Are we Disciples, who started out a century ago to plead for Christian
unity, losing our zeal for this holy cause, or are we losing
confidence in ourselves as fit instruments of our Lord for promoting
it? I think it would be a good move for the president of our
international convention to appoint at once a committee to study and
report on the question: What changes in the way of addition or
subtraction are demanded among the Disciples to make their plea more
efficient, either in its substance or in the manner of its
presentation to the world?
The religious world today is very different from what it was a century
ago. Science has given us a different conception of nature and of the
universe. Biblical criticism has changed for most of us our view of
the Bible, making it not a less but a more valuable book for the
student of religion. This increase of light is evident in every
department of knowledge. Is it possible that all these changes do not
require any readjustment in the matter and method of a plea for unity
inaugurated more than a century ago?
This suggestion bore fruit, a few years later, in the appointment of a
Commission on Restudy of the Disciples of Christ. Since 1935, this
commission has carried on a study of the past and the present with a
view to finding what readjustments may profitably be made for the
future. This is only one of many groups which are concerned that the
Disciples shall not simply be “a great people,” as they sometimes
proudly and truly claim that they are, but shall go forward to the
fulfillment of their highest purposes. There is yet much light to break
from God’s Word and from the teachings of their own experience.
INDEX
A
“Acceptance with God,” 23
Acheson, Thomas, 69
Adams, John, 19, 29
Africans brought to England, 24
Ahorey, 60
Ainslie, Peter, 150
Alabama, “Christian” churches in, 98
Allen, T., M., 101
Altars, Abraham, 66
Amend, William, 85
America in 19th century: characteristics of, 28-31;
churches in, 31-36
American and Foreign Bible Society, 109
American Christian Bible Society, 108
American Christian Education Society, 143
American Christian Missionary Society, 111, 112, 122-23, 124, 126,
143;
founded, 110;
ceases to function, 123
_American Christian Review_, 113, 122, 124
Ames, E. S., 138
Anabaptists, 18
Anglican Church, separation of Methodists from, 42f.
Anti-Burgher Presbyterians, 60
Antislavery societies, 36
_Apology for renouncing the Jurisdiction of the Synod of Kentucky,
An_, 54
_Apostolic Times_, 124
Arkansas College, 115
Armenians, missions to, 128
Asbury, Francis, 41-43 _passim_
“Associate membership,” 138
Associated Free Agencies, 146
Association for the Promotion of Christian Unity, 150
Augsburg Confession, 19
Aulard, A., 19
B
Bacon College, 106, 114
Bader, Jesse, 153
Baltimore, Haldanean churches in, 84
Baptism, 25, 26, 135-39, 151-52;
Ainslie on, 150;
A. Campbell on, 79, 104-5, 135-36;
A. Campbell debates on, 77-79, 106;
design of, 79, 87;
in Brush Run Church, 74-75;
in China mission, 150;
in Christian Church, Ky., 56-57;
and opinion, 96;
Pinkerton on, 136;
the “one institution,” 104;
Stone on, 95-96.
_See also_ Immersion; Open membership
Baptists, 41;
A. Campbell’s relations with, 76ff., 108-9;
Disciples’ differences from, 87-88;
English, 22;
Free Will, 45;
“General,” 35, 53;
in America in 1800, 34-35;
in Kentucky, 30, 81ff.;
in Rhode Island, 32;
in Virginia, 32;
“Kissing,” 83-84;
“New Testament,” 95, 97;
“Old Scotch,” 22;
“Particular,” 53;
and religious liberty, 37-38;
separation from, 87ff., 90
Barclay, James T., 110-11
Baxter, William, 85
Beardslee, J. O., 111
Bentley, Adamson, 87
Berea College, 115
Bethany College, 76, 107, 114, 147;
and slavery issue, 116-17
Bethany, W. Va., 80
Bethel, Ky., 57
Bible distribution, cooperation in, 36
Bible, modern view of, 148.
_See also_ Higher criticism
“Bible chairs,” 128, 131
Bible College League, 151
Bible Society: American and Foreign, 109;
American Christian, 108
Blythe, James, 50
Boston: “Christian” church at, 46;
in 1800, 29;
Sandemanian churches in, 22
“Brethren,” 26
Brown University, 34
Brush Run Church, 73, 74-75, 81, 135;
joins Redstone Association, 75
Bucer, Martin, 18
Buffaloe, 62, 80
Burgher Presbyterians, 60
Burnet, D. S., 106, 108
Burnham, F. W., 146
Butler University, 114, 147
C
Caldwell, David, 47-49 _passim_
Calendar committee, 143
California, beginnings in, 102
Calvin, 18, 121
Calvinism, 33, 44, 49, 54f., 60, 88
Campbell, Alexander, 10-14 _passim_, 18, 23, 27, 72, 87, 90, 98,
99, 113;
born, 60;
decides for ministry, 66-67;
at Glasgow, 67;
Breaks with Seceders, 68;
reaches America, 66, 68;
reads _Declaration and Address_, 68;
first sermon, 73;
licensed to preach, ordained, 74;
marries, acquires property, 76;
immersed, 74-75;
founds _Christian Baptist_, 80-82;
conducts boarding school, 77;
takes lead in reform, 76ff.;
preaches among Baptists, 76, 77;
first visit to Kentucky, 79;
debates Walker, 77-79;
debates Maccalla, 79;
founds church at Wellsburg, 81;
tours Kentucky in 1824, 82;
meets Scott, 84;
at Virginia Constitutional Convention, 88-89;
debates Owen, 89, 103;
founds _Millennial Harbinger_, 91;
meets Stone, 92;
publishes _The Christian System_, 103;
at his zenith, 102ff.;
debates Purcell, 105;
debates Rice, 105-6;
founds Bethany College, 107;
elected president of missionary society, 110;
tours Indiana in 1850, 112;
death, 122, 123;
early theological views, 67f.;
Ewing’s influence, 67f.;
Locke’s influence, 62;
no effective evangelist, 103;
on baptism, 77-79, 104-5, 106, 119, 135-36;
on church and state, 77;
on cooperation, 108;
on ecclesiastical order, 80;
on education, 107;
on missions, 108-9, 122;
on slavery 88-89, 116-17;
“rules of interpretation,” 134;
“Sermon on the Law,” 76f., 78;
his views vs. Stone’s, 94-98
Campbell, Thomas, 10-14 _passim_, 18, 27, 34, 84, 103;
early life, 60;
migrates to America, 62;
charges against, 62f.;
breaks with Seceders, 63ff.;
_Declaration and Address_, 66, 68;
elder of Brush Run Church, 73;
is immersed, 74-75;
_Declaration and Address_, summary of, 66, 68, 69ff., 135;
differences from Seceders, 64f.;
early views, 61f.;
on baptism, 74-75;
on causes of divisions, 71;
on clergy, 65;
on creeds, 64-65, 71;
on “expedients,” 72;
on faith, 64, 65;
on unity, 70, 72
Campbell Institute, 149
“Campbellites,” 83, 103
Camp meetings: _See_ Revivalism
Cane Ridge, Ky., 50, 51, 55;
meeting at, 50ff.
“Catechetical exhibition,” 72, 80
Cave, Robert L., 136-37
Centennial Convention, 140, 144
Chicago, University of, 132, 134, 147
Children’s Day, 129
Chillingworth, William, 19
China, missions in, 129, 150, 151
Chinese Nestorians, 18
Christmas Conference, 42
“Christian,” name adopted, 56
_Christian_, 126
Christian Association of Washington, 66, 69-70, 73
_Christian Baptist_, 72, 79, 80-82, 90, 101, 120, 122;
compared with _Christian Messenger_, 94-98;
publication ends, 91;
and Scott, 84
Christian Board of Publication, 145
_Christian Century_, 127, 138, 149-150
“Christian” Churches, 13, 41ff.;
in Kentucky and the west, 47-59, 82, 92-99;
in New England, 44-47, 99;
in Virginia and North Carolina, 41-44, 99;
views of Stone’s, 94-98;
union with Disciples, 92, 98-99
Christian College, 115
_Christian-Evangelist_, 126-27, 135, 137, 145, 155
_Christian Messenger_, 58, 59, 92ff., 99;
compared with _Christian Baptist_ and _Millennial Harbinger_,
94-98
_Christian Monitor_, 72
_Christian Oracle_, 127
Christian Publishing Company, 126, 145
_Christian Quarterly_, 124
_Christian Record_, 113
Christian Restoration Association, 146, 151
_Christian Standard_, 123, 124, 127, 133, 135, 139, 140, 146, 151
_Christian System, The_, 103-4
Christian Woman’s Board of Missions, 128, 146
Church, S. H., 139
Church and state, 20;
in America, 28;
separation of, 36, 37, 39-40, 77
Church Extension, Board of, 126, 129, 146
“Church of Christ,” 26
“Churches of Christ,” 12, 25f.;
British, 27
Clarksville, Tex., 102
Clay, Henry, 106
Clergy: _See_ Ministry
Close communion, 26, 119-120.
_See also_ Open membership
Coke, Dr., 42
College of the Bible, 151
Colleges, 114-15;
founded, 106f.;
improvement of, 146f.;
number of, in 1897, 131
Columbia, Mo., 115
_Commentary on Acts_, 137
Commission on Restudy of the Disciples of Christ, 156
Committee on Cooperation in Latin America, 153
Community of goods, 26
Concord, Ky., 50
_Congregationalist_, 46
Congregationalists, 19, 32-33
Congresses of the Disciples, 133, 148
Conservative group (antimissionary society), 12
Conservative reaction, 1909-45, 150ff.
Constitutional Convention, 37
Controversy, period of, 119ff.
Cooperation, 11, 36, 100
Cotner College, 147
Craig, W. B., 138
Craighead, Thomas, 50
Cramblet, T. A., 147
Creath, Jacob, Sr., and Jr., 83
Creeds, 64, 65, 71, 80, 94, 119, 120-21
Crockett, David, 102
Cross, Alexander, 111
Cumberland district, 50
Cumberland Presbyterians, 52, 55
D
Danbury, Conn., 22
Danville, Ky., 50
Davies, Samuel, 49
_Declaration and Address_, 14, 61, 66, 68, 103, 141;
summary of, 69-73;
“brought down to date,” 124
Deer Creek, Ohio, conference of “Christians,” 58
Delegate convention, 144-45
Denominationalism as normal, 17
Denver, 138
Design of baptism: _See under_ Baptism
Disciples: beginnings as separate body, 87, 90;
early growth, 90-91;
growth 1830-44, 99ff. (_see also_ Statistics);
general views, 94-97;
name, 11-12, 95;
organization for cooperation, 100;
periodicals of, 91 (_see also_ Periodicals);
rethinking, 155-56;
separation from Baptists, 87-88;
union with “Christian” Churches, 91, 98-99
Disciples Divinity House, 132, 134, 147
“Dissenters,” 15;
in New England, 32
Divisions, causes of, 71
Drake Conference, 155
Drake University, 115, 147
D’Spain, Lynn, 102
Dunlavy, John, 54, 56
E
Ecumenical Movement, 152, 153ff.
Edinburgh conferences, 153
Edinburgh: Haldanes organize church in, 24;
“primitive” church in, 25
Edinburgh, University of, 10
Education, renaissance in, 1874-1909, 130-32.
_See also_ Colleges
Elizabeth, Queen, 19
England, missions in, 128
Episcopacy, 32
Episcopalians, 19
Errett, Isaac, 13, 113, 116, 119;
issues “Synopsis,” 120;
launches _Christian Standard_, 123-24;
death, 127
Eureka College, 115
Evangelism: A. Campbell’s, 103;
Franklin’s, 113-14;
Scott’s, 97-98;
Smith’s, 97;
Stone’s, 97-98
Evangelical Alliance, 109
_Evangelist_, 126
Ewing, Greville, 24, 67-68
“Exercises,” 51-53 _passim_
“Expedients” vs. commandments, 72
F
“Faith and Order,” 153
Faith: as act of reason, 23, 64, 65, 67-68, 87-88, 94-95;
before repentance, 22
Fall, P. S., 83
Faraday, Michael, 21
Farmer-preachers, 34
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ, 140, 152-53
Federation, 133, 139-41, 144
Federation of Churches and Christian Workers, 139
First Amendment, 36
Florida in 1800, 30-31
Foot washing, 26
Foreign Christian Missionary Society, 128, 136
Foreign Missions Conference of North America, 140
Forrester, Mo., 83, 84
Franklin, Benjamin, 113-14, 116, 122, 123
Franklin College, 114
G
Garfield, James A., 124
Garrett, Frank, 151
Garrison, J. H., 126, 127, 129, 135, 137, 139, 155
Gaston, Joseph, 86
“General Conference” at Windham, Conn., 46-47
Georgetown, Ky., 106
Georgia, Stone visits, 48
Glas, John, 12, 20-21, 22, 61, 67, 84
Glasgow, University of, 10, 60, 67
_Gospel Advocate_, 124
_Gospel Preacher, The_, 114
Graham, Robert, 124
Great Awakening, 35, 49
Great Western Revival, 50ff.
Greensboro, N. C., 47, 48
Growth of Disciples: _See_ Statistics
Guirey, William, 54
H
Haden, Joel, 101
Haggard, Rice, 43, 56
Haldane, J. A., and Robert, 12, 24ff., 61, 84;
influence on A. Campbell, 67-68
Haldanean churches, 25, 26, 83-84, 112
Haley, J. J., 124, 137
Hanover, N. H., 45
Harper, W. R., 134
Harrodsburg, Ky., 106
Hartford (Seminary), 132
Harvard University, 132
Hayden, A. S., 86
Hayden, William, 86, 87
Henry, John, 86
_Herald of Gospel Liberty_, 46, 56, 59
Higher criticism, 133-35, 136, 144
Hill, Rowland, 61
Hiram College, 114
Hiram, Ohio, church at, 81
Hodge, William, 48
Hofmann, Melchior, 18
Holley, Horace, 93
“Holy kiss,” 26
Holy Spirit, Stone’s view, 93
Home Missions Council, 140
Hopkins, Robert M., 154
Hopson, W. H., 124
Hull, Hope, 48, 49
I
Illinois: beginnings in, 101;
“Christians” in, 58
Immersion, 22, 57, 68, 95-96, 119, 133, 135, 151;
adopted by Brush Run Church, 74-75
Independent agencies, 146
_Independent Monthly_, 136
India, missions in, 128, 129;
attempted by Haldanes, 24
Indiana: beginnings in, 100-101;
“Christian” churches in, 98;
Disciple churches in, 112;
first state convention in, 101;
sends messengers to first convention, 109
Indianapolis, church organized in, 101
Inman, Samuel Guy, 153
Instrumental music, 47, 119, 121-122, 124, 132
Interchurch World Movement, 153
International Council of Religious Education, 154
International Sunday School Association, 154
Iowa: “Christians” spread into, 58;
“Christian” churches in, 98
J
Jacksonville, Ill., Stone at, 101
Jamaica, missions to, 111, 128
Jerusalem Conference, 153
Jerusalem mission, 110-11
Johnson, B. W., 126
Jones, Abner, 45-46 _passim_
Jones, Edgar DeWitt, 153
K
Kentucky: “Christian” churches in, 47-49, 82, 92-99;
Baptists in, 81ff.;
A. Campbell’s first visit to, 79;
Disciple churches in, 112;
in 1800, 30
Kentucky Female Orphan School, 114
Kentucky University, 106
“Kissing Baptists,” 83-84
Knoxville, Tenn., Stone at, 50
L
Lard, Moses E., 115, 118, 121, 124
“Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery,” 55
Lausanne Conference, 153
Lexington, Ky., 50, 51, 53, 105, 106;
in 1800, 30;
meeting between “Christians” and Disciples, 98-99
Liberia, missions to, 111, 128
Liberty of opinion, 16-17
“Life and Work,” 153
Locke, John, 16, 23, 61-62, 84
“Log College,” 33-34, 49
Logan County, Ky., 51
Long, R. A., 145
Lord, J. A., 139
Louisiana Territory in 1800, 31
Louisville, Ky., 83
“Louisville Plan,” 123, 128
Loyalty resolution, 118
Luther, Lutheranism, 18, 19
Lunenburg letter, 104, 135
Lyndon, Vt., 45
M
Maccalla, W. L., 78-79, 82
Madison, James, 89
Madras Conference, 154
Mahoning Association, 78, 83, 86, 141;
appoints Scott as evangelist, 85;
dissolution of, 87f., 90;
emphasizes restoration, 81;
separates from Baptists, 86, 87
Marshall, John, 89
Marshall, Robert, 54, 57
Mathes, James M., 113
Matthews, Mansil W., 102
Matthews, R. T., 137
McBride, Thomas, 101
McGarvey, J. W., 117, 121, 124, 133-34, 135, 137
McGee, John, and William, 51
McGready, James, 47-48, 49, 51
McKinney, Collin, 101-2
McLean, A., 129
McLean, Archibald, 22
McNemar, Richard, 52, 53, 56, 65
Medbury resolution, 151
Meldenius, Rupertius, 17
_Memoirs of Alexander Campbell_, 63
Men and Millions Movement, 145
Methodists, 30, 35, 41-44, 49, 53
Michigan, University of, 128, 131
Midway, Ky., 121
Ministerial Relief, Board of, 129
Ministry: and laity, 21;
T. Campbell on, 65;
“Christians’” view, 96-97;
_Christian Baptist_ attacks status of, 80;
Disciples’ view, 97;
education of, 116, 130, 131-32;
no “call” to, 88;
schools for, 147
Mississippi, “Christian” churches in, 98
Missouri, 126;
beginnings in, 101;
“Christians” in, 58, 98
_Millennial Harbinger_, 91, 99, 102, 107, 115, 116, 119, 121, 123;
compared with _Christian Messenger_, 94-98;
quotation from, 104-5
Missionary societies: controversies over, 122-23;
unification of, 145-46
Missionary society: formed, 110;
opposition to, 110, 113
_Missionary Tidings_, 128
Missions: A. Campbell on, 108-9;
controversy over, 122-23, 132;
development of foreign, 128-29;
Franklin on, 122, 123;
in China, 150, 151;
in England, 128, 136;
in Jamaica, 111;
in Jerusalem, 110-11;
in Liberia, 111, 128;
rise of interest in, 128f.
Money making, 114
Monroe, James, 89
Moore, W. T., 136
Mormon Church, 78-79
Morrison, Charles Clayton, 127, 138, 149
Morro, W. C., 134
“Mutual edification,” 21, 120
Muckley, George W., 129
Munnell, Thomas, 137
N
Names of movement, 11-12, 95
Nashville, Tenn., 51;
Stone at, 50
National Benevolent Association, 129
National Convention, first, 109-10
“National Covenant,” 20
Native American party, 105
Nestorians, 18
New Albany, Ind., 106
_New Christian Quarterly_, 137
New England: “Christian” churches in, 44-47, 99;
general conference in, 59;
motives in settlement of, 31, 32ff.;
Sandemanian churches in, 22;
Haldanean churches in, 84
New Light Presbyterians, 47, 48, 49, 51, 55, 56, 60
New Lisbon, Ohio, 1831 meeting at, 100
New Testament Tract Society, 151
New York: episcopacy in, 32;
Haldanean churches in, 84;
in 1800, 29;
“primitive” church in, 25
Non-Sectarian Church, 137
North American Christian Convention, 146, 152
North Carolina: “Christian” churches in, 41-44;
episcopacy in, 32
North District Association, 82-83
Northwest Territory, 29-30
Northwestern Christian University, 114, 116
O
Ohio: admitted, 30;
“Christian” churches in, 98
O’Kane, John, 101
O’Kelly, James, 42, 43, 48, 65
O’Kelly secession, 43
Oklahoma, 126
_Old Faith Restated, The_, 137
Old Light Presbyterians, 60
“One-man system,” 119, 120
Open membership, 135ff., 138, 150, 151-52
Opinion, political and social questions as matter of, 117
Ordinance of 1787, 29
Oregon Territory, beginnings in, 102
Organ controversy: _See_ Instrumental music
Organization: for cooperation, 100;
lack of, an asset in Civil War period, 117f.;
of early movement, 11;
of “Christians,” 57f.;
on national scale, 108;
opposition to, 110;
periodicals as substitute for, 113
Original sin, 22
Oskaloosa College, 115
Otten, B. J., 18
_Our Plea for Union in the Present Crisis_, 138
Owen, Robert, 89, 103
Oxford Conference, 153, 154
P
“Pacifist manifesto” of 1861, 117
Pattillo, Henry, 49
Pearre, Mrs. C. N., 128
Pendleton, W. K., 116
Pension Fund, 129
Periodicals: as substitute for organization, 113;
of Disciples, 91;
in 1849-74, 113-14.
See also _Christian Baptist_, _Christian-Evangelist_, etc.
Persecution, reasons for, 37
Philadelphia: in 1800, 29;
Presbyterians in, 33
Philadelphia Confession, 35, 81, 83, 88
Phillips brothers, 124
Phillips University, 147
Philputt, J. M., 138
Piermont, N. H., “Christian” church at, 45
Pinkerton, L. L., 136
Pittsburgh, 10, 12, 78;
T. Campbell preaches at, 62;
Centennial Convention at, 140;
in 1800, 30;
Scott at, 83;
Synod of, 73, 74
“Plan of Salvation,” 113
Plan of Union, 33
“Plurality of elders,” 21
“Popular churches,” 35
Portsmouth, N. H., “Christian” church at, 46
Powell, E. L., 139
Presbyterians, 19;
and revivalism, 52-53;
anti-Calvinism among, 54f.;
in early America, 33-34;
in Kentucky, 30;
in Virginia, 32
Presbytery of Chartiers, 62, 63, 65
Princeton, 34, 47, 50, 132
Protestant reformers, 14-15, 18f.
Protestantism, types of, 15
Publication society founded, 145
Purcell, Archbishop, 105
Puritans: and religious liberty, 38;
in New England, Virginia, 32
Q
Quakers and religious liberty, 37f.
R
Randolph, John, 89
Redstone Association, 75, 76, 81
_Reformer_, 113
“Reforming Baptists,” 80-83 _passim_, 90, 95
Religious experience, 23
Religious liberty, 37-39 _passim_;
in America, 28;
in Rhode Island, 32, 34.
_See also_ Church and state; Unity of Christians
Religious unity: _See_ Unity of Christians
Republican Methodists, 43-44
_Restoration Herald_, 151
Restoration of primitive Christianity: and division, 24-27;
_Christian Baptist_ emphasizes, 80;
history of idea, 14, 17-20;
in 18th century, 12, 20ff., 27, 67;
in 16th, 17th, centuries, 27;
modern view, 148, 152;
need of reconsidering, 155-56
“Reverend,” 47, 55, 119, 120
Revivalism, 51, 52, 53, 82
Rhode Island, religious liberty in, 32, 34
Rice, N. L., 106
Rich Hill, 60, 61, 66
Richardson, Robert, 63, 67
Rigdon, Sidney, 78-79
Rogers, John, 99
Roman Catholicism, 14f., 18, 37;
A. Campbell’s debate on, 105
Ross, Roy G., 154
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 19
Russian Church, 18
S
St. Louis, 101, 126, 129, 136
Salem, Mass., “Christian” churches at, 46
Salvation, steps in, 84-85
Sandeman, Robert, 12, 21-23, 61, 84;
influence on A. Campbell, 67, 68
Sandemanian churches, 21-23, 25, 26, 112;
Disciples as “off-shoot” of, 23
Sanford, E. B., 139
Scotch-Irish: Immigration of, 34;
in Virginia, 32
Scott, Walter, 10-13 _passim_, 75, 83-87, 95, 99, 106, 139, 141;
joins Haldanean church, 84;
meets A. Campbell, 84;
and _Christian Baptist_, 84;
evangelism of, 85ff.;
on salvation, 84-85, 100
_Scroll_, 149
Seceder Presbyterians, 34, 55;
A. Campbell breaks with, 68;
T. Campbell breaks with, 63ff.;
divisions among, 60-61;
origin of, 60
Sects: imported, 36;
in early America, 28, 31-36
Semple, Robert, 81
“Sermon on the Law,” 76f., 78
Shackleford, John, 136, 137
Shakers, 52, 56
Slavery, 36, 116-18;
A. Campbell on, 88-89, 116-17;
Franklin on, 114
Smith, Elias, 44-46 _passim_, 56
Smith, “Raccoon” John, 82-83, 99;
evangelism of, 97-98
South Carolina, episcopacy in, 32
Springer, John, 48, 49
Springfield Presbytery, 41, 54-56;
dissolution of, 55
Statistics: for “Christians,” 59;
for early movement, 11;
for 1849-74, 112-13;
for 1874-1909, 126;
for 1909-45, 142;
table for 1900-44, 143
Steubenville, Ohio, conference on cooperation, 108
Stillingfleet, Edward, 16
Stockholm Conference, 153
Stone, Barton W., 10-14 _passim_, 41, 47-50, 51-53 _passim_, 54,
56-59 _passim_, 65, 99;
leadership of “Christians,” 58, 92f.;
meets A. Campbell, founds _Christian Messenger_, 92;
at Jacksonville, Ill., 101;
evangelism of, 97-98;
not a Unitarian, 94;
on baptism, 57;
on doctrine, 93f.;
on Trinity, 48, 50, 93;
on unity, 93;
his views vs. Campbell’s, 94-98
Succoth Academy, 48
Sunday School Council, 154
Sunday school work, 36
“Sweeney resolution,” 151
Synod of Kentucky, 53, 54, 55
Synod of North America, Associate, 62f.
Synod of Pittsburgh, 73, 74
“Synopsis,” Errett’s, 120
T
Temperance societies, 36
Tennent, William, 33, 49
Tennessee, “Christians” in, 58
Texas, beginnings in, 101-2
Texas Christian University, 147
Theological school, controversy on, 116.
_See_ Ministry
Thompson, John, 53, 57
Thompson, Thomas, 102
“Thompsonian” system of medicine, 45
Toleration granted to churches, 17.
_See_ Religious liberty
Transylvania Presbytery, 50
Transylvania University, 93, 106, 147, 151
Trinity, Stone on, 48, 50, 93
Trollope, Mrs., 103
Tyler, B. B., 138, 154
U
Union of “Christians” and Disciples, 10-11, 92, 98ff.
Union Theological Seminary, 132
Unitarianism, 33;
Stone charged with, 94
United Christian Missionary Society, 146, 151-52
United States conferences, 47, 59
Unity of Christians: as political necessity, 15f., 37ff.;
Association for the Promotion of Christian Unity, 150;
A. Campbell on, 80, 94;
T. Campbell and, 61, 84;
_Declaration and Address_, 69-72;
different views of, 148, 152, 155-56;
Haldaneans, Sandemanians on, 26;
history of idea, 14-17;
in relation to baptism, 135-39;
new problem in America, 39;
Stone on, 93, 94
University Church of Disciples of Christ, Chicago, 138
V
Vanderbilt University, 132
_View of the Social Worship and Ordinances of the First
Christians, A_, 25
Virginia: Bill of Rights, 38;
“Christians” in, 41-44;
Constitutional Convention, 88-89;
motives in settlement of, 31-32;
University of, 128, 131
W
Wabash, Ind., conference of “Christians,” 59
Walker, John, of Dublin, 61
Walker, John, of Ohio, 77-78
Walnut Grove Academy, 115
Ware, C. C., 48
Washington, D. C., 29;
Haldanean churches in, 84
Washington, Ga., 48
Washington, George, 29
Wayne, Anthony, 30
“We can never divide,” 118
Weekly communion, 21, 24, 88, 98;
A. Campbell on, 67;
at Brush Run Church, 74
Wellsburg, 81, 85
Wesley, John, 19, 35, 41-42 _passim_
West London Tabernacle, 136
Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, 114
Westminster Confession, 35, 50, 54, 55, 63
Wharton, G. L., 129
Wheeling, W. Va., meeting at, 100
“Where the Scriptures speak...,” 66, 71
Whitefield, George, 49
Whitsitt, W. H., 23
Wilkes, L. B., 124
Willett, Herbert L., 127, 134, 135, 138, 153
Williams, Roger, 32
Windham, Conn., “Christian” church at, 47
World Conferences on Foreign Missions, 153
World Council of Churches, 154
Y
Yale Divinity School, 131, 147
Z
Zwingli, 18, 121
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