Alexander Campbell’s “Synopsis of Reform” . . .

ESSENTIAL ATTRIBUTES OF RESTORATION

This series will be a study of Alexander Campbell’s own summaries of what he considered essential to a restoration of the ancient order. We say summaries because there is more than one such listing. In 1837, with some 15 years behind him as an editor, he set forth a careful listing in outline form of the principles he considered most important. In 1836 he had given a less formal statement, a sort of off the cuff summary, of what he thought was involved. There are other references, of course, here and there throughout his writings, but none so well serve as “a gist of the Restoration Movement” as do these two. So they shall be the object of our study.

Both of these summaries were wrought out amidst controversy, as was the case with so much of what Campbell produced. In both instances he was answering antagonists of the Reformation who were accusing the Movement of being what Campbell contended it was not. So he set forth these principles in a context in which he was saying: This is what we are trying to do.

The 1836 statement, included in an article directed to Andrew Broaddus, longtime a friend in controversy with Campbell, is given in an effort to rally Campbell’s enemies to the side of Reformation. Campbell contends here that what he seeks to do is what all sincere Christians desire to see accomplished. He therefore should have their help rather than their hindrance. It seems that he always believed, that if he could get folks to realize what he was getting at, that they would flock to his support rather than oppose him. Many of them of course did come to his aid.

It is our belief in presenting this series, based on Campbell’s own synopsis of reform, that many of us will be encouraged to renew our efforts to accomplish these worthy ends, especially as they relate to our personal lives. He named seven points, extended in some instances to include others, but we shall give them as he stated them, making some observations of our own as we proceed.

1. A more intimate, general, and special acquaintance with the holy oracles of both Testaments, to which we regard the text and textuary mode of preaching, as essentially, directly, and positively opposed,’ as also the present mode of receiving members into the church upon experience, rather than upon faith and knowledge,’ the daily reading of these oracles in all christian families, and the daily teaching them to children and domestics, as well as a more copious reading of them in all worshipping assemblies upon the Lord’s day, are indispensable to better times in the church and in society at large.

It is proper that the Bible should come first in his list of essentials. What is noteworthy is his conviction that once the Bible is elevated to its proper place in the life of the church certain harmful practices will thereby be overcome. If saints of God have an intimate acquaintance with the word of God, he is saying, then textuary preaching will have no place. He passes on to his opposition to creeds, which base church membership upon experience. Knowledge of the Bible will also correct this.

Notice that he calls for “a copious reading” of the Bible in the assemblies of saints. Reading of the scriptures but no textuary preaching! Campbell did of course believe in expository teaching in the assembly, for he realized that the scriptures are to be explained, but “preaching” drawn from some isolated text, which usually carried one away into theological speculation, had long been in his view the ruin of the church.

He also places the Bible in the center of family life. He practiced this in his own home, and he often stressed family piety as basic to the restoration of true religion.

As we study this first point we may wonder if the church of our time is any closer in realizing this objective than the church of Campbell’s time.

2. The weekly meeting of all christian churches on the Lord’s day in honor of the resurrection of the Lord, to keep all the ordinances of christian worship instituted in the primitive church by the authority of Jesus Christ amongst which the Lord’s supper is the most cardinal and essential part; together with all the other acts and ordinances of social worship, instead of the monthly meeting to hear a sermon, as was at our commencement the common custom amongst the Baptists in Virginia, Kentucky, and very generally throughout the United States.

Notice how “meeting to hear a sermon” was such a serious error in Campbell’s view. He has referred to it in both of these first two statements. In the first it was caused by an ignorance of the Bible. Here it is due to a misunderstanding of the proper meaning of the Lord’s day assembly. Saints are to meet to honor the Lord’s resurrection, and to celebrate the Lord’s supper, the cardinal institution of the Christian religion, and not to hear a sermon.

Included in his call for “social worship” would be, besides the Lord’s Supper which is central, the prayers of the congregation (with various ones praying voluntarily), teaching, exhortation, hymns and spiritual songs, and at least occasionally contributions for the poor. But the task of restoring the ordinance of the Lord’s table to every Christian assembly for weekly celebration was basic to his reformation efforts. Notice the implication that already there had come a change over the Baptists, who, when Campbell first began his efforts, were meeting but monthly.

The Lord’s day and the Lord’s supper thus were made inseparable, and both were viewed as ordinances to be restored to the church. With baptism as the ordinance that brought one into the church, one has the broad view of Campbell’s insistence that the ancient order centered in ordinances. Baptism, the Lord’s day, the Lord’s supper. When Campbell began his work all three of these were in disarray in the churches, as he saw it.

From this view we can also better understand what he meant by restoration. It was not the church he sought to restore, for he was well aware of its existence from the time of the apostles. He sought to restore ordinances to the church. Campbell never doubted but what the Baptists were the church, or at least part of it, but they were meeting only once a month and only then to hear sermons. Seeing primitive Christianity as a religion of ordinances, he sought to restore these to the church which he acknowledged as existing in his time. He intended to start no church, nor to restore one. He wanted to renew what already existed by recovering its God-ordained institutions.

3. A more strict and scriptural discipline in the church, a greater vigilance on the part of overseers, and a greater attention to good order and good behaviour amongst all its members.

Campbell often expresses concern about the carnality of professed Christians. It grieved him that as often as not the lives of the outsiders were more exemplary than those who wore Christ’s name. This condition prevailed widely, among all the churches. Campbell believed it was a time for repentance. The churches must be cleaned up.

Yet it is here in the area of discipline that the church has so consistently failed. There is a discipline in the scriptures, but we have been remiss in heeding it. Campbell wanted a clean church, and you will notice his recognition that this necessarily falls to the hands of the elders. “Good order and good behaviour amongst all members” is not likely to come unless we have a renewed concept of membership. In our day, as well as Campbell’s, it is made too easy.

4. A more christian morality in keeping covenants, fulfilling promises, in doing justly to all men, in loving mercy, in visiting and relieving the poor, the afflicted, and in being always ready for every good word and work.

It is a mistake to see our Movement primarily as an effort to restore certain doctrines to the church. These statements that we are presenting from Campbell reveal that he considered restoration as beginning in the heart, in one’s own personal life. There is no point that he emphasized more than personal piety. Like his fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, his morality was that of the frontier. He believed a man’s word should be as good as his bond. A man ought to keep his promises. And when the church had members whose word could not be trusted, this called for reform.

It is enough to say that Campbell wanted the professed Christian to be a good man. He should be tender and merciful. His life should be filled with good works. This is the simple, down-to-earth kind of Christianity that we all believe in. It is significant that Campbell gave such simplicities a place in the list of grand essentials.

5. More gravity, temperance, and moderation, even in the use of things lawful; more self-denial, and strict self-government on the part of all who profess to follow the New Testament.

He continues to stress personal virtues rather than doctrine and order. This is characteristic in his voluminous writings about restoration or reformation, terms he used interchangeably. The exemplary life impressed Campbell greatly, and he was equally appalled by a life that cheapened the Christian profession. This helps to explain his attitude in the controversial Lunenburg Letter, where he equivocated on the idea that one must be immersed to be a Christian. It was at about this time that he wrote that letter. It voiced his conviction that immersion means little if one’s life is not truly Christian. And if one’s life is exemplary of the Christian virtues, perhaps he is indeed a Christian, even if he has mistaken the true import of immersion.

In any event we need to recover this emphasis in our own thinking about restoration. It is after all the whole man that we seek to restore to God, not just that part that believes certain doctrines. Gravity, temperance and moderation are still noble virtues. And how much do we hear of self-denial? Campbell believed that a fruitful Christian life begins with strict self-government. We would do well to believe likewise.

6. More piety and devotion—more prayer and praise—more private meditation and communion with God, than appear to obtain amongst the great mass of those called christians.

This touches the heart of what it means to be a Christian. It has to do with what a man loves most, what he most desires, and what he considers most important in terms of his time and money. God, give us the wisdom of Campbell to realize that what we most need is private communion with Thee!

For some reason Campbell’s Movement never became known for what he wanted most—more piety and devotion, more prayer and praise. This is why I have hope that the emergence of concern for the Holy Spirit in our time will infuse us with a dynamic that our people have never had to any significant degree.

Maybe we are too self staid—and too self-conscious along with it. How often have we opened our souls and cried Out from the depth of our being PRAISE GOD! Do we do it even in private?

Let these crucial truths grip our souls, causing us to realize that our renewal can come only from within. Is his life full of devotion and praise to God? is a more important question than whether he is right in “name, doctrine and practice.”

7. More enterprise, concern, and cooperation amongst all christians and christian churches in the work of converting the world, according to the means and opportunities which God has vouchsafed to us; and for this purpose especially, much, very much more love among all the brethren.

The reference to Christians and Christian churches (he did not use the capital C) is not limited to his own Movement, but to all of Christendom. He believed that Christians are scattered among all the sects and that all the denominations could be called Christian churches. He surely believed that these churches had grievous shortcomings, and here he names some of them. His Movement was an effort to put the churches to work converting the world to Christ, to cooperate more in their labors, and to love each other more—much, much more, as he put it.

Thus we have the list of essentials as Campbell gave them for Elder Broaddus’ benefit. Broaddus had accused him of believing only in a head religion, one that neglects the heart. This offended Campbell, so in giving this list he assures his readers that all of this is what he has always believed and taught, and anyone who rejects what he taught would have to reject these seven points also, a thing he knew Broaddus would not do.

“We regard all true piety and morality as beginning in the heart,” he said to Broaddus, “but not as continuing there.” Broaddus might have taken issue with that distinction. Campbell meant of course that morality must be a matter of reason and not emotion alone.

And so we have the first list from Campbell, different perhaps than what most of those in his own Movement would have supposed him to include.

In succeeding issues we shall give his more extended, detailed statement of what he intended the Restoration Movement to accomplish.—the Editor