Travel Letters of Alexander Campbell . . .

CAMPBELL TAKES HIS DYING WIFE TO NASHVILLE

If it takes a woman to describe the virtues of a wife and mother, then we will allow Selina Campbell, Alexander’s second wife, to tell us about Margaret Campbell, the wife of Alexander’s younger years. He had married Margaret Brown when he was 23 and she but 18. She bore him eight children in 13 years, most of whom died before reaching maturity. She herself died in 1827, having been wife to Alexander for 16 years.

Mutual love and respect bound Selina and Margaret together while the latter was mistress of the Campbell mansion. Selina was a frequent visitor, helping Margaret with her babies and caring for her in her many illnesses. When it became apparent that she would not recover, she asked her husband to take her dear friend, Selina Bakewell, as his wife, if indeed he decided to marry again. Alexander first ignored this kind of talk, grieved that she would even speak of death; and he continued to offer her hope, almost to the very end. At last, when it was evident that she would not live, he promised Margaret that it would be Selina who would take her place, for she was so eager that her five daughters continue to receive tender loving care.

Grass had been growing on Margaret’s grave for more than half a century when Selina took in hand one 4th of July (almost a holy day in the Campbell family) to begin her Home Life and Reminiscences of Alexander Campbell. In the opening pages of this exciting biography she pays tribute to her predecessor, a woman more beautiful and more charming than herself and one with whom she was forced by circumstances to compare herself. Selina tells of her cherished love for Margaret, who had a place in the warmest recesses of her heart. She has only praise for her “personal worth and loveliness of Christian character.” She tells us that Margaret was taller than most women and that she had a fine expressive and open countenance. She was blessed with “an eye beaming with benignity and love. She loved people. Selina even quotes Milton in describing Margaret: “Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye, in all her gestures dignity and love.” Selina also tells us that Margaret was the only daughter of John Brown, who had come from Maryland to homestead in Virginia, and that her mother had died when she was but a child. The wedding between Alexander and Margaret, she tells us, was the biggest event folk in those parts had ever witnessed.

So Selina stepped into a ready made family, with five daughters to care for, the youngest being only 5, an assignment she gladly accepted since she had already given so much of her energies to their care during Margaret’s illnesses. She gives a brief account of what happened to each of the girls, all of whom married and had children of their own, but all of whom died in young womanhood, as did their mother, inheriting her weakness of consumption. She describes their grace, beauty, and intelligence, assuring us that each one lived an exemplary Christian life. Selina tells of how Campbell would take the girls on his tours, one at a time as each grew older, and that there were always gentlemen on hand to ask Alexander for their hand in marriage, even before approaching the girls on the subject!

Margaret’s health turned from poor to bad following the birth of her eighth child, a little girl named Margaretta, who died seventeen months later, the third child to die in infancy. At this time (1826) Alexander was busy publishing The Living Oracles, his translation of the New Testament, editing the growing Christian Baptist, and disbanding the Brush Run congregation in favor of better locations in Wellsburg and Bethany. He was also courting the Baptists of Eastern Virginia, doing his best to get along with them, and vowing that he would’ not leave them unless he had to. It was now that he began saying what remained a lifetime proposition with him: No man can be saved by the belief of any theory, true or false; no man will be damned for the disbelief of any theory. He insisted that new theories make for new divisions. We might ride coattail on that kind of thinking in reference to our study of fellowship: no theory brings one into fellowship with Jesus and no theory can place him outside that fellowship. And what are most of our tests of fellowship but theories?

It was Margaret’s health that gave occasion for Campbell’s next major sojourn. Determined to get her into better climate for the winter of 1826-27, he set out on a long journey that took him all the way to Nashville, accompanied also by Jane, his eldest daughter, who was as sweet and beautiful as she was 16.

The journey was a virtual crawl, with Alexander preaching at most stops along the way. They were nearly three months reaching Louisville. Some of his subjects were the restoration under Nehemiah, the development of revelation as outlined in Malachi 3, the salvation of man, means of union among God’s people, and the ancient order of things.

Campbell rested Margaret for several weeks in Nashville, hoping that the southern climate would restore her health. In the meantime he busied himself in the congregation where P. S. Fall ministered, one that was then fully immersed in the spirit of reformation. It was having some of the same experiences that Brush Run had had, trying to find peace and liberty in Jesus and at the same time be affiliated with a Baptist association. P. S. Fall was destined to be an influential leader in the Restoration Movement in the south.

It was while in Nashville that Margaret became convinced that she would not recover, and it was here that she began to talk about Selina being her successor. Returning to Bethany after an absence of four months, she began making her plans for that last journey that summons us all one by one. Dr. Richardson, her physician as well as Campbell’s biographer, says that Margaret actually looked forward to the time of her release and that with utmost composure. Her one last desire was to see her youngest daughter Clarinda, who would later marry W. K. Pendleton, successor to Campbell as president of Bethany College, who was then only 6, reading the New Testament. A friend later reported that when she visited Margaret she saw little Clarinda beside her mother in bed reading the scriptures, and that Margaret told her that her last desire had been granted and that she was ready to go.

But there was one more thing on Margaret’s mind. Shortly before her death she talked with Alexander once more about Selina, who even then was probably in an adjoining room taking care of her babies. This time Alexander consented, realizing full well that he had to face the fact that his wife was dying. Dr. Richardson tells us that her husband’s acquiescence in this regard made Margaret delightfully happy. Shortly after this Selina, unconscious of what the Campbells had planned for her, came in to sit with Margaret while Alexander was gone to perform a wedding. She spent most of the day singing hymns to her friend. “We sing the Savior’s wondrous death,” Selina sang, “He conquered where he fell.” Margaret soon closed her eyes in death. One year later Alexander and Selina were married.

Before her death Margaret gathered her five daughters around her and read to them words that she had especially prepared for them.. She told them that the happiest thing In her life was her love for the Bible, and it was this that she bequeathed to them. She reminded them that they had often seen her reading the scriptures, and she urged upon them faithfulness to that same Book. She pointed them to Jesus who so loved little children, and insisted that they obey their father next to God himself, and to consider him their best earthly friend.

She pled with her daughters to avoid the light and foolish things of life, especially vain conversation about dress and fashion so common among women. Don’t let the subject of apparel fill your hearts nor dwell upon your tongues, she urged them, reminding them that they had never heard such talk from her. She directed them to the apparel that is sober, clean and modest.

Margaret bequeathed to her daughters a principle for living that is valid for us all. Pointing to the words of Hagar, “Thou God seest me,” she encouraged them to live always as before the very eyes of God. She told them that such words, rooted deeply in their hearts, would guard them against a thousand follies.

Her last prayer for her daughters, she told them, was that they might all meet together in the heavenly kingdom, which would be theirs if they would honor Him who is the way, the truth and the life. — the Editor

Next installment: Great Themes in Campbell’s Teaching.