Bicentennial Notes on Restoration History . . .

THE GOLDEN ORACLE OF THE MOVEMENT

On August 22 or 23, 1827 Alexander Campbell left his home in Bethany, Virginia to attend the annual meeting of the Mahoning Baptist Association in New Lisbon, Ohio, where he would serve as a messenger of the Wellsburg (Virginia) Church of Christ, along with his father-in-law John Brown, and where he would be one of the speakers for the occasion.

On his way he stopped off in Steubenville, Ohio to invite Walter Scott to go along with him. Scott was reluctant to do so since he was not a member of the Association, but agreed to it upon Mr. Campbell’s insistence. It proved to be an event that turned his life in an entirely different direction, and in retrospect it can be viewed as one of the most significant occasions in the history of our Movement.

Scott was at this time teaching an academy in Steubenville and ministering to a small Baptist church, as he had done previously in Pittsburgh where he first met Alexander Campbell. Born in Scotland, Oct. 31, 1796, he had arrived alone in New York on July 7, 1818, while James Monroe was President, at the age of 22. Met by the uncle who was responsible for his coming to the New World, he first served as a Latin teacher on Long Island. An acquaintance in New York, a man his own age, convinced him that he should seek his fortune in the West. They set out together for Pittsburgh, and to save money they walked all the way! That wasn’t a problem to Scott, for, being a great lover of natural beauty he relished this close communion with the frontier wilderness. Having basked somewhat in the cultural glory of Edinburgh, he found a new world in the rude cabins and inns along the way, where he met hardy teamsters transporting goods across the frontier and rugged pioneers blazing trails for a new nation.

He had been orphaned while yet a boy. His father, a music teacher, died suddenly away from home. When his very sensitive mother heard the news, she too died suddenly. They were buried at the same time in the same grave. They had ambitious plans for their son, hoping that he might be trained as a minister in their native Presbyterian Church. Money that they had saved made it possible for him to graduate from Edinburgh University, a rare privilege in those days for a youth of modest means, if not still.

In Pittsburgh he met another native Scot, George Forrester, in whose school he taught. This man, part of the budding Restoration Movement, convinced him that immersion rather than sprinkling was the apostolic order, and, after a bout with his pride, Scott was immersed. He also met Nathaniel Richardson, who placed under his tutorage his 13-year old son, Richard, who was destined to fulfill a noble role in our history. He was previously tutored by Thomas Campbell, who conducted one of his several schools in Pittsburgh. Scott was a frequent and appreciated visitor in the highly-cultured, Episcopalian home of the Richardsons.

An interruption came into his life in Pittsburgh by way of a tract on baptism, issued by a Haldane “Scotch Baptist” church in New York, that he thought he had to visit. The tract also reached the hands of Alexander Campbell, and one would suppose that it would have done for Campbell and Scott in 1821 what it took the MacCalla debate to do several years later — awaken their minds to the idea of baptism for remission of sins. The tract focused upon Mk. 16:16, Acts 2:38, Act 22:16 and Rom. 6:3-4 as clearly as any of our people ever have, unmistakably relating baptism to the remission of sins. Campbell and Scott saw this as true, but, like the man Jesus healed of his blindness who could at first see men only as trees walking, they saw it only dimly. Greater comprehension would come later.

Thinking that this New York church would provide him a happy ministry, Scott closed his school and went there. It was an unfortunate period for him, for he found the church to be like some of our own these days, long on profession but short on practice. He wandered through New Jersey and then to Baltimore and Washington, visiting churches that were suppose to be turned on to renewal, but each time he was disappointed. While in Washington he climbed to the dome of the capitol and there sat down, making it his juniper tree, bemoaning the sad plight of God’s church on earth.

In the meantime he had received a letter from Nathaniel Richardson, inviting him back to Pittsburgh to resume his school, at a much better salary. He set out on foot and again walked the 300 miles from Washington to Pittsburgh. If John Knox were called “the thundering Scot,” Walter Scott could well be called “the walking Scot.” This oddity of his was prompted more by his love for nature and the out-of-doors than by poverty.

His excellence as a teacher was soon recognized. His students were limited to 15, still including Robert Richardson, but as the people saw the results of his painstaking efforts, the demand for his services soared. Once the limit was removed, his school rapidly increased to 140 students. Along with the usual study of history and the classics, he taught his students moral principles, supported by his own exemplary life. He was deeply devoted to the scriptures, especially to the life of Jesus, and shared with his students the gospel records in the original language. He often walked with young Robert and talked about the glory of Christ on the family farm located on the outskirts of the city, but what is now downtown Pittsburgh.

It was at this time that he first met Alexander Campbell, in the year 182 I. Alexander visited Pittsburgh frequently to be with his father, with his friend Sidney Rigdon, minister of the (Reformed) Baptist Church there, and the Richardsons. Robert Richardson, then only 15, was present at the Campbell-Scott meeting and was a longtime friend to both men. When he wrote the Memoirs of Alexander Campbell 46 years later, he included a detailed comparison of the two men. He described Campbell, who was nearly ten years older, as fearless, self-reliant and firm, while Scott was naturally timid, diffident and yielding. The older man was calm, steady, and prudent; the younger was excitable, variable, and precipitate. While both were endowed with powers of higher reason, it was the intellect that predominated with Campbell, while feelings excelled in Scott. Campbell tended to generalization, while Scott was given to an analysis of details. Campbell was the logician and philosopher, Scott the poet and musician. Campbell was “the sage of Bethany,” while Scott was “the golden oracle.”

Neither did they look anything alike. Campbell was tall, vigorous, athletic; Scott was of medium height, slender, and not strong. Campbell was lively and cheerful, Scott was meditative and had an air of sadness. The older man had light hair and eyes, an arched nose and rugged countenance, the younger had straight features delicately chiseled, with dark and lustrous eyes, bearing a softness lacking in the eagle-glance so striking in Campbell, and his hair was as black as the raven’s wing.

Despite these contrasts, or perhaps because of them, these two eminent advocates of reform were destined to share each other’s labors and trials and to complement each other in their common search for truth. They loved each other deeply and had a mutual respect for the wisdom and ability of the other. A few years later when Campbell was ready to launch his first publication, it was Scott who advised him to call it The Christian Baptist. because of the advantage this would give it among the Baptists with whom they mostly were working. When Campbell prepared for the MacCalla debate, it was Scott who was his trusted adviser, along with his father. And Scott was Campbell’s first assistant editor, writing for him in the Christian Baptist under the name of Phillip.

Twenty years after they first met Campbell wrote to Scott: “We were associated in the days of weakness, infancy, and imbecility, and tried in the vale of adversity, while as yet there was but a handful. My father, yourself, and myself were the only three spirits that could (and providentially we were the only persons thrown together that were capable of forming any general or comprehensive views of things spiritual and ecclesiastical) cooperate in a great work or enterprise. The Lord greatly blessed our very imperfect and feeble beginnings; and this is one reason worth a million that we ought always to cherish the kindest feelings, esteem, admiration, love.”

Providence works in amazing ways to bring people and events together. Gathered there in Pittsburgh were men with whom God could launch a movement: Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Robert Richardson. It was an unlikely mixture of Presbyterians and Episcopalians, three of whom God had gathered from the Old World. They were all highly cultured, well-educated men, far superior to their clerical associates, and they had in common one precious ingredient, a love for Christ.

Providence was surely at work when it had Scott at that meeting of the Mahoning Association. There is no indication that Campbell had any idea of what was to happen when he dropped by Steubenville to take Scott along with him. A new day was dawning, not as much for the Association but for the cause of reform.

The Mahoning Association was made up of only 12 Baptist churches scattered over the Western Reserve, what is now northeastern Ohio. In 1827 these churches reported a membership of only 492. They had baptized only 34 the year before, 11 of these coming from Campbell’s congregation. They obviously had little evangelistic zeal and they were still somewhat creed bound even though they had begun to accept reformation ideas. They were inept in communicating the gospel, for most of the preachers still talked more about Calvinistic theology than the plain teaching of the scriptures. But they had grown enough to realize that something special needed to be done in reaching out to the lost, so at this annual meeting they resolved to send an evangelist out into the field, and their choice was Walter Scott.

Scott immersed upwards of 1,000 souls that first year, even after getting off to a slow start. By the time the Association met the next time the number of churches had more than doubled and their ranks had swollen. Due to his biblical emphasis they became less and less creedal and sectarian, so that by 1830 they not only cared no more to designate themselves Baptists or even Christian Baptists but they dissolved their Association and evolved as Christian Churches, Disciples of Christ, or Churches of Christ.

Scott lifted the Movement off dead center and gave it a new impetus through Christ-centered preaching and by explaining the plan of salvation in simple terms that a child could not only understand it but he too could preach it. Many “farmer preachers” answered the call or reform throughout the Western Reserve, several of whom, such as Amos Allerton who preached in Ohio for 50 years, became crucial additions to the cause. It was Scott who converted Aylette Raines, a Universalist preacher who in turn persuaded a fellow Universalist, Ebenezer Williams (they immersed each other after a careful study of Scott’s teaching), both of whom served the Lord hard and long.

He gave the Baptist preachers a more workable approach to the gospel, moving them away from their isms to the Bible itself, and he got higher mileage out of them by taking them as fellow workers. The second year out he told the Mahoning people: “Give me my Bible and William Hayden and we’ll convert the world.” Hayden went on to serve the cause for 35 years, riding horseback for 60,000 miles over the Reserve, planting many congregations.

Adamson Bentley is another honored name in our history, a Baptist preacher brought into the Movement more fully by Scott. Bentley was one of the founders of the Mahoning Association and he had favored Scott as an evangelist, but he had grown suspicious of him since his style and message were so contrary to Baptist practice. When Scott arrived at Bentley’s church in Warren Ohio, he told the pastor: “I have the saw by the handle, and I expect to saw you all asunder,” referring to the Baptist tendency to hold on to their creed. Bentley’s prejudices broke down as he listened to “the golden oracle” through eight days, glorifying Jesus and laying out the gospel in such an eloquent and precise way. Scott immersed 29 in that meeting and the entire church, save two, accepted “the new order of things,” including the minister. Bentley himself became a great power. Once he was freed from the shackles of a gloomy and depressing system, he witnessed for the liberty that is in Jesus in schools, barns, homes, courthouses, and wagon beds.

Up to the time of Scott the Movement had had little outreach. It was mostly Baptist, and even they were hardly with it. There had been but few baptisms. Scott was the catalyst around which the Movement began to move. He surprised the Campbells and alarmed the Baptists with his success. Alexander sent his father over into Ohio to see what was going on. Thomas wrote back that Scott was putting into practice what they were holding only in theory. A new day had dawned. The evangelist must have been something else. He would go into a town and encounter the kids on the way home from school. “Hold up your left hand,” he would say to them, and with the right hand he’d have them count off the five steps of salvation: faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. He would have them memorize these and count them off in unison, and then send them home to teach it to their parents, telling the kids to bring their parents to the schoolhouse that night to hear him preach the gospel.

His success was phenomenal, though it was slow catching on, due to its strangeness. His first meeting was in New Lisbon, Ohio. Despite large crowds or however much he zeroed in on Act 2:38 and the five-finger exercise, only one person finally stepped forward to be immersed. He was William Amend and his is an interesting story. Studying the scriptures on his own, being a devout Presbyterian, he became disenchanted with religious systems and unsure of his own obedience. Deciding he would be immersed, he asked his pastor to do this for him. When the pastor would do this only with reservation, disclaiming any importance to it, Mr. Amend told him to forget it, that he would wait for someone who believed as he did.

When Scott came to town, Amend supposed that he would be like all other preachers and would speak only of total depravity, predestination, the mourner’s bench, or whatever. Once he decided to hear him, he found that he could not get into the building, so he listened from the outside, hearing the voice but seeing no man. Scott went over the five steps, showing that man’s part in salvation is to believe, repent and be baptized, while God’s part is remission of sins and the gift of the Spirit. Amend had to see the oracle, the golden oracle, that had brought to him the message that he himself had found in the Book. He wormed his way through the crowd and on down front when the evangelist issued the invitation.

Scott in after years, recalling his beginnings, not only names Amend as his first convert, but probably the first convert since apostolic times that had been immersed with a view to remission of sins. He had not; the Campbells had not; Barton Stone had not; the Baptists generally had not. It is noteworthy that none of these, though they finally accepted Scott’s approach, ever supposed that they should be rebaptized. The Movement would be 60 years older, after these men were all gone, that any of our people began to reimmerse those who did not understand the full import of baptism, and even then it was strongly opposed by the old leaders.

In later years Campbell gave Scott credit for doing something for the church that he had not done: “Brother Walter Scott, who in the fall of 1827, arranged the several items of faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the Holy Spirit and eternal life, restored them in this order to the Church under the title of Ancient Gospel, and successfully preached it for the conversion of the world.”

He went on to dwell on Scott’s special contribution on the last point, the Holy Spirit, recommending that Scott’s essay on “Discourse on the Holy Spirit” be studied as representative of what Disciples believe about the Spirit. Scott clearly taught that the Spirit dwells in each believer, comforting and helping him. He also wrote a definitive work on the glory of Christ in a work entitled The Messiahship, one of the most brilliant books published in our history. These were his constant themes, Christ and the Spirit.

In Nashville a few years back I was talking with that great Campbell scholar, Eva Jean Wrather, who was complaining to me that our folk in the “Church of Christ” wing of the Movement were not Campbellites at all but Scottites, which she did not intend as a compliment. She apparently has interpreted Scott as a legalist. But she missed it on both counts. Scott was anything but a legalist — and we are not Scottites! If we were after the order of Scott, we would believe in the gift of the Spirit for every believer like he did.

To the contrary, we have betrayed the five-step exercise that Scott bequeathed to the Movement. We have inserted confession, which according to the scriptures is not an act to be performed by the sinner leading up to baptism (where was the confession on Pentecost?), and we have left out the Holy Spirit. We have also added hearing, which of course is understood and need not be included. And so we too come up with five steps — hearing, faith, repentance, confession, and baptism — all of them pointing to what man does. Scott’s preaching laid great stress on the last two points — remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit — which God does.

Walter Scott labored on for Jesus’ sake until the beginning of the Civil War. He was preaching still, in Mayslick, Ky., when Fort Sumter was fired upon on April 12, 1861. He returned home terribly grieved that his adopted country was torn by war, and he feared the end would be total ruin. Typhoid pneumonia proved his undoing. He had suffered much through life from persecution, privations and sorrows. He had buried a four-year old daughter and two dear wives on a frontier that was agony for women. On April 23 he departed, not leaving home but going home. In those last days he expressed gratitude for the work God had given him to do, and he called out some of the names of brothers that it had been his honor to work with. Besides the Campbells, he names Barton W. Stone, John T. Johnson, and Raccoon John Smith. But most of all he was thankful that he had been called to build up the kingdom of God on earth. Those who stood by his bed supposed they were hearing one who stood at the very gate of glory, for he spoke eloquently once more of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and the myriad hosts washed in till’ blood of the Lamb, of the great white throne and Him who sat upon it. The rapturous voice of “the Golden Oracle” was at last stilled. He was 65.

On that fateful day when General Beauregard turned his guns on Fort Sumter Alexander Campbell was on a speaking tour through eastern Virginia. He cancelled all his engagements and hurried his gig back to Bethany. Before he got back home Lincoln had called for 75,000 volunteers and there was preparation for war in every town of a once peaceful state. His heart was broken, for he too adored his adopted land, especially Virginia. Then came word of the death of Walter Scott. The old patriarch, now 74, sat down in his writing chair under the old grandfather clock that graced a corner of his parlor and wrote:

“No death in my horizon, outside of my own family, came more unexpectedly or more ungratefully to my ears. Next to my father, he was my most cordial and indefatigable fellow-laborer in the origin and progress of this present Reformation. We often took counsel together in our efforts to plead and advocate the paramount claims of original and apostolic Christianity. His whole heart was in the work. He was, indeed, truly eloquent, in the whole import of that word …”

His closest friend was gone and his country was on the brink of disaster. Alexander Campbell must have wept. Then he added:

“I knew him well. I knew him long. I loved him much … By the eye of faith and the eye of hope, methinks I see him in Abraham’s bosom.”

If old Uncle Alex saw Walter Scott, he must have been walking, exploring the expanses of glory, not only cavorting with the angels but pointing out things to them that they had not yet noticed! — the Editor.