The Travel Letters of Alexander Campbell . . .

CAMPBELL GOES TO NEW YORK

“I have wished that the burden which I have borne were lessened,” wrote Alexander Campbell in 1834 a few days after his rigorous 94-day tour to New York, “that I could retire from the contest and the incessant toils of mind and body which I have for many years endured in pleading the Bible claims upon all mankind.”

On the trip to New York he had delivered 80 public addresses, conversed in private for hundreds of hours, and traveled 1700 miles amidst the trying circumstances of an infant nation, He goes on to say: “Experience, observation, faith, hope and love say, ‘Slacken not the reins, be not weary in doing good, combat the good combat of faith, be valiant for the truth, earnestly contend for the faith formerly delivered to the saints.”

His extended journeys would sometime render him so exhausted that he would have to refrain from public discourse for a few days, and occasionally he was forced to take to his bed in some strange city so as to nurse a cold or sore throat. On one such occasion he wrote home to his wife that he was tempted to withdraw from the conflict. using military symbolism again, but that he would await the time that the Captain of his salvation would issue an honorable discharge.

He was accompanied on the New York trip as far as Eastern Virginia by his own father, Thomas Campbell, and four other friends, who shared with him in ministering to the communities visited. After a journey through the Appalachians in the rain the party arrived in Fredericksburg on Oct. 12, eight days after leaving Bethany in the West. On the Lord’s day Alexander addressed the disciples on “the character of the times,” based on Mt. 11, where Jesus likens his generation to children playing in the market places, confused in their games, and calling upon his people to repent. That night he spoke on “the infallible criterion of the original gospel” to a large audience. Father Campbell and Dr. B. F. Hall, a Virginia senator and a member of the travel party, also spoke that day. Discourses lasting as long as they did, you can be sure that disciples were in assembly most of that day. One lady was immersed in the Rappahannock river that day, adding to the growing band of 36 disciples, who had already erected “a very commodious and neat brick meetinghouse,” costing $2,500.00.

On to Bowling Green, Va., he addressed the disciples at Antioch on “the peerless glory of the Head of the Christian Institution,” based on Col. 1 and 2, in which he contended that every defection from Christianity arose from erroneous views of the nature of the Messiah. He was the guest of a Virginia country gentleman, who, Campbell believed, would have long since “bowed to the authority of the Eternal King” were it not for “the broils and animosities of sectarianism.” Here too the disciples had built a commodious house and had already chosen elders as had Fredericksburg.

He traveled 14 miles further the next day to Newton (King and Queen), Va. where he spoke on the two Adam’s, showing what man lost in the first Adam and gained in the second, drawn from Rom. 5. Here he also had meetings in homes, one lesson being drawn from Acts 3.

At Bethesda he spoke on human responsibility, based on Rom. 2, and then moved on to Richmond, where he stayed for some days, that city being the center of considerable restoration activity. Seventeen congregations met together for his meetings, and there were six or seven others in the area not represented, a total of some 1200 members with 14 public ministers of the word, one of which was Peter Ainslie.

Campbell was pleased that these churches were all forced to withdraw from Baptist churches, and that in no instance did the Reformers, as the majority, ever cast out the minority. He was also pleased that they were a people who wonderfully loved each other. His stay in Richmond resulted in 25 additions, 16 being immersed while nine were added from the Baptists, which adds to the evidence that our pioneers did not re-immerse Baptists.

His traveling companions having left him at Richmond, moving on south, Campbell remained in the area, addressing several congregations near the city. He reports at length concerning opposition from a Rev. Eli Ball, who was upset with his presence in the area. He warned against reading Campbell’s Harbinger, that “pernicious and infidel publication,” and urged his people not to hear the man from Bethany. There was a lot of this in Campbell’s travels, which was to be expected, being the controversial man that he was. It may be that Campbell was unduly disturbed by such opposition and paid too much attention to it. He complains of how Mr. Ball conducted an opposition meeting of his own, lest his people hear the truth, and Alexander seemed pleased that he had not a single convert!

He describes the advocates of reform in Eastern Virginia as representing the better class of citizens, people of “sterling integrity and untarnished reputation,” and he believed this an important reason why the movement was successful in those parts. And yet it bothered him that comparatively so few were concerned for the ancient gospel. From the home of Pascoe L. Townes in Amelia county, Virginia, Nov. 6, 1833, he wrote of how bitter opposition hindered the multitudes that would otherwise turn to his cause. But went on to say: “This is, however, the seed time, and it is cold, dry seed time; moreover, the cutworms are busy underground; but, by the patience and perseverance of the husbandmen, a good crop may yet be gathered.”

His themes in these parts always emphasized “the ancient gospel,” and yet his subjects were as far reaching as truth itself. From the latter part of Lk. 24 he would deal with the proper method of reading and examining the scriptures, urging a special acquaintance with the Author of the Christian faith as the surest way of understanding the Bible. He also spoke frequently on how the gospel grants remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In a doctor’s home near Richmond he spoke on the conversion of Cornelius.

Another favorite theme was “the Christian hope and the duty of converting the world,” drawn from 1 Pet. 3, where he saw Christian wives winning their pagan husbands by their good behavior and “without any debate on the word or any controversy upon the articles of their belief.” He also observed that each believer is to be able to give reason for his hope of eternal life (verse 15).

Embarking on the steamship Patrick Henry, he left Richmond and moved up the James river to Jamestown, where the pilgrims first settled in 1697, an historical fact he honors in his narrative. He observes that in leaving Richmond at an early morning hour he witnessed a shower of meteors, “shooting stars,” illumined the city. Meteors rained for hours, he reports, creating a scene indescribably beautiful.

At Jamestown and Williamsburg he was impressed with the history that surrounded him, even in 1833. At Jamestown there stood the remains of the first Christian meetinghouse, and at Williamsburg the walls of the state’s first capitol stood, as well as William and Mary College, where, Campbell observes, three presidents were educated. It was in Williamsburg, “the ancient seat of the colonial nobility,” that Campbell himself touched history, speaking as he did in the old monarchical Episcopal church, the most splendid and ancient in the common-wealth. This Episcopalian hospitality impressed Campbell, and he contrasted their liberality with the closed door policy of the Baptists. On this occasion he spoke on “the word of the Lord which began at Jerusalem.”

At Yorktown, near where, he notes, Cornwallis surrendered his sword into the hands of American officers, thus ending the seven years’ war for American independence, he addressed a filled courthouse of citizens on “the resurrection of Jesus and the end for which John wrote his memoirs.” He dined in the home of a man named Wilson, who inhabited a venerable mansion erected by his great-great grandfather, the walls of which still bore the marks of Cornwallis’ bombs. The man’s grandfather had signed the Declaration of Independence.

In Norfolk, Va. he found the cause of reformation only beginning and faced with such opposition that he decided to move on to Portsmouth after but a few days. The clergy not only closed Norfolk churches to him but almost succeeded in denying him the courthouse, where he spoke over a weekend on the great apostasy (2 Thess. 2 and 2 Tim. 3) and on the great cloud of witnesses in Heb. 11. A large assembly heard him and he succeeded, he thought, in disabusing the disciples of many of the misrepresentations made against them. Campbell was especially provoked by the clergy that would condemn him and his efforts while at the same time espousing and plagiarizing his views.

Crossing the Chesapeake bay on the Columbus, a 450-ton steamer, he encountered a fierce storm, which must have reminded him of the shipwreck of his youth as he attempted to sail to America, especially at midnight when the strong winds and high waves silenced the ship’s motors, leaving him for the moment stranded at the heart of the 30-mile wide bay.

Arriving in Baltimore on Nov. 20, Alexander expected to be received warmly by the pastor of the First Baptist Church, a former acquaintance who had accepted many of his views and was considered to be almost as heretical as Campbell. In the meantime, however, the preacher had received the honor as Clergyman of the Year in the city of Baltimore. So, as Campbell put it, “the parson triumphed over the man,” causing the disciples to use Scotti’s Hall instead of the Baptist Church, where he discoursed for five nights. The first discourse was calculated to correct the misrepresentations promulgated by “the parasites of the people,” meaning of course the local clergy. He went on in other addresses to describe the beginning of the Christian gospel as contrasted with the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Pagan systems.

On Lord’s day he met with the disciples at the Bazaar, since they as yet had no building of their own, and he was invited by the elders to address the congregation. He spoke about the Thessalonian church, showing how they sounded out the word. He observed that holiness and happiness are greatly promoted by making others happy and holy, that to be blessed one must bless others.

In one of the Baltimore addresses he identified what he believed to be the most common error in all the religions of the world, and that is the assumption that God is to be appeased by some work on man’s part, that God is reconciled to man by either physical agony, tears, blood, sacrifice, or something done or thought. And so he compared what the religious systems say, “Man by his works must reconcile God to himself,” with what the Bible says, “God is by Christ reconciling the world to himself.” Salvation is to be received, not purchased; to be enjoyed, not merited, by obeying the gospel.

Alexander was forever critical of the clergy, believing as he did that they were largely responsible for the conditions he sought to correct. One complaint was the pretentious meeting houses with their decorated pulpits, along with “gorgeous cushions for downy Doctors.” Among the neglected items was adequate provision for immersing, even among the Baptists, for in those days there were no baptistries, however elegant the building. Campbell suggested that those who believe in immersion should cooperate in establishing a bathhouse in each major city for the convenience of those who confess Christ. It should be arranged so that the one who is immersing the candidate would not himself have to get into the water. This is reminiscent of the fact that the Campbells, baptizing in the Buffalo at Bethany, would sometime stand on the root of a tree while immersing.

While in Baltimore Campbell attended a Jewish synagogue, having a letter of introduction to one of its prominent members. He was warmly received but found the experience dreary, for it was all heartless formality. To him it was a picture of people forsaken of God, slumber and blindness having fallen upon them.

He arrived in New York on Nov. 30 by steamboat from Baltimore, and found to his dismay that there were three small societies “holding one Lord, one faith, and one immersion” that would not sit down together around the Lord’s table. So he resolved that to associate with anyone of them exclusive to the others would be sectarian. He decided he would spend a Lord’s day with each of the three, and encourage them to cooperate in his effort to communicate the ancient gospel to New Yorkers at both Concert and Tammany halls. He had considerable to say to these small churches about unity, which eventually led to their unification.

Alexander enjoyed attacking skepticism and infidelity, for he not only was well armed with philosophical arguments but also invulnerable to the cavils leveled against sectarian religion by the skeptics, which his faith and practice did not obligate him to defend. The New York skeptics heard him gladly, even as he exposed their premises as untenable, and afterwards read a letter of appreciation for his visit. It read in part: “The friendly sentiments also you have expressed toward skeptics — appealing to them as men — as honest men, instead of treating them with contumely, as is the conduct of the Christian priesthood of New York.

To the disciples in New York he pled for the unity for which Jesus prayed, which can never be founded on opinion. Nor can unity be by the mere force of circumstances and temporary interest. It is not even by kindred feelings and experiences, for this is a unity resting on self-love. The only ground of unity, therefore, is the testimony of the apostles.

Before leaving New York he assisted in the immersion of ten persons at 7 a.m. on Lord’s day in the East river, at which time he delivered a discourse on immersion.

He rested a few days in Philadelphia on his return home due to “extreme exhaustion from our much speaking in the city of New York,” but remained in the city through Christmas, addressing large gatherings in the Universalist church and the Musical Fund Hall, as well as meeting with the small band of disciples of that city, to which 16 were added by baptism during his stay there. While the Yuletide fires burned in his home in Bethany, he was discoursing of faith, based on Heb. 10 and 11, in the city of brotherly love, and listening to solos in honor of Christmas by “a very celebrated ladies’ preacher of the Methodist society.”

At one point in his Philadelphia stay, Alexander went to a fashionable Baptist church to hear a Dr. Brantley, “our warm-hearted and faithful opponent.” Since the doctor knew he was going to be present, Alexander was expecting to be admonished for all his errors. But, alas, the doctor did not show at all, even after the ministers and deacons sang and prayed three times. “By some singular and unexpected turn in the hearts of this Regular Baptist congregation, in their distress they call upon me to preach to them,” he wrote. “Ascending the consecrated steps and entering the sacred desk,” as he put it, he read Peter’s speech in Acts 3 and urged them to repent and be converted that their sins might be blotted out and that seasons of refreshment from the presence of the Lord might be sent to them. After the service Alexander returned to his quarters, musing upon what happened to the doctor! He next appeared in the columns of his journal, inveighing upon Campbell’s heresies.

Before leaving Philadelphia Alexander spoke to an overflow audience in the Musical Fund Hall on the Christian hope for three and a half hours!

Following the Delaware as far as Baltimore, where he found still more disciples immersed since he had been with them, “we turned our face to the great and mighty West.” He spoke to the saints in Hagerstown, Md. along the way where three confessed the Lord and were immersed in a creek, and then took a seat on the stage that carried him across the mountains. After a sleepless and hazardous jaunt he arrived back in Bethany.

We presume that Selina recognized him when he walked in the door, but not likely all the children. — the Editor

This series will continue through ten installments, and will be part of bound volume for 1970-71, which should be ordered in advance.