HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALEX! 

Today, Monday, September 12, 1988, is the 200th birthday anniversary of Alexander Campbell. Ouida went with me over the weekend to the First Christian Church (Disciples) in Lawton, Ok. to celebrate the Campbell Bicentennial in a special way. I gave three addresses on Campbell and the church had something of a birthday party for the old pioneer, to which they invited other congregations of the same heritage. We had folk present from the Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ as well as other Disciples churches.

A banner across the wall of the fellowship hall read "Happy Birthday, Alex." And we sang "Happy Birthday" to him on his 200th! I assured them that the old uncle would delight in our frolic, for he was a great believer in the ongoing fellowship between the community of God in heaven and on earth. After all, if we are indeed compassed about by that "great cloud of witnesses," which the Scriptures testify to, why can't there by some fellowship with those who have gone on? When I am asked if I believe in communicating with the dead, I give a two-part reply. First, the so-called dead are not really dead; second, I believe that we can talk to them but that they can't talk to us. And that is the sorcery or necromancy that the Bible condemns: the presumption of receiving information from the dead and thus predicting future events. We are on safe ground surely if we only talk to or enjoy fellowship with the departed with no expectation that they will communicate with us.

So, if it is in your heart to go right on talking to your loved ones who have gone on, I think you should do so, for "death" does not necessarily end the fellowship that has existed for a life time. If we regret not having said "I love you" or "Forgive me," it may not be too late. Such things are often said over the open casket, and who is to say that such cries from the depth of our souls are not heard in another world? And if you are edified by some great idea while reading C. S. Lewis and you have the urge to thank him, go ahead. He may be closer than you think. And if a church wants to sing "Happy Birthday" to Alexander Campbell, great show!

Early this morning I called Carl Ketcherside so as to celebrate the old hero's birthday with him. I explained that I'd rather call Campbell himself, but that had its problems and that he'd do as next best. He understood, and he remembered that it was Campbell's 2OOth. To celebrate I read Carl part of what I consider Campbell's greatest outburst of sacred eloquence, which was given in his debate with Robert Owen. I thought it would be comforting to a man who had just buried the woman who had been his wife for 60 years. It is as follows: 

     It is not the ordinary affairs of this life, the fleeting and transitory concerns of today or tomorrow; it is not whether we shall live all freemen or die all slaves; it is not the momentary affairs of empire, or the evanescent charms of dominion -- nay, all these things are but the toys of childhood, the sportive excursion of your fancy, contrasted with the question, What is man?, Whence came he?, Where does he go? Is he a mortal or an immortal being? Is he doomed to spring up like the grass, bloom like a flower, drop his seed into the earth, and die forever? Is there no object of future hope? No God --no heaven--no exalted society to be known or enjoyed? Are all the great and illustrious men and women who have lived before we were born, wasted and gone forever? After a few short days are fled, when the enjoyments and toils of life are over; when our relish for social enjoyments, and our desires for returning to the fountain of life are most acute, must we hang our heads and close our eyes in the desolating and appalling prospect of never opening them again, of never tasting the sweets for which a state of discipline and trial has so well fitted us. 

Speaking to a crowd of 1200 in the Methodist Church in Cincinnati in 1829, Campbell moved many to tears by this appeal to eternal verities. He concluded his challenge to infidelity with these words: 

     The real question is not what we shall eat, nor what we shall drink, unless we shall be proved to be mere animals; but it is, shall we live or die forever? Shall spring ever visit the mouldering urn? Shall day ever dawn on the night of the grave? 

While Carl was touched by these eloquent words, I was not quite satisfied that I had done Mr. Campbell justice on his 200th birthday, so I called Cecil and Lea Hook to celebrate further. I told Cecil that he reflected the spirit of Alexander Campbell in our day because he has the guts to speak out boldly about issues troubling the church in this generation. Like Campbell, he doesn't mind getting his nose bloodied if need be, a trait all too rare these days. In memory of the old reformer I read to Cecil and Lea from the last essay Campbell ever wrote. You too will appreciate it, taken as it is from the 1865 issue of the Millennial Harbinger and written only a few weeks before he took to his death bed: 

     The present material universe, yet unrevealed in all its area, in all its tenantries, in all its riches, beauty and grandeur, will be wholly regenerated. Of this fact we have full assurance: since he that now sits upon the Throne of the Universe, has pledged his word for it, saying, "Behold, I will create all things new;" -- consequently, new tenantries, new employments, new pleasures, new joys, new ecstasies. There is a fulness of joy, a fulness of glory, and a fulness of blessedness, of which no living man, however enlightened, however enlarged, however gifted, ever formed or entertained one adequate conception. 

What a faith to live and die by! Cecil and I were impressed that Campbell had such an exalted view of the glory that is yet to be revealed that he could only conclude that no person, however learned and gifted, has ever formed an adequate conception of its wonders.

In my presentations at Lawton I introduced Mr. Campbell as a man who wore many hats, and he wore them all with uncommon effectiveness. Along with his friend and neighbor, Dr. Robert Richardson, he experimented in "scientific" farming, especially in raising Merino sheep. His leadership in a wool grower's association brought him into contact with John Brown, the abolitionist, who was also in the wool business. Research into Brown's life has turned up letters that he wrote to Campbell concerning problems they shared in getting a fair price for their wool. But Campbell would never have gone along with Brown in either his abolitionist views or his revolutionary methods. He was anti-slavery and freed his own slaves, but he was persuaded that abolitionism was a radical solution to a very complex problem.

Mr. Campbell also became an extensive landowner, owning land as far west as Illinois. He donated part of the land that became the campus of the Illinois State University in Normal. And how many Americans, however enterprising, have built a college on their own farm? Campbell once owned most of what is now the town of Bethany.

He had his own publishing enterprise, sending out millions of items over a period of five decades: journals, hymnals, debates, theological works. Through these he disseminated his reformatory views, especially in the pages of the Christian Baptist, which he published for seven years, and its successor, the Millennial Harbinger, which was in its 37th year when Campbell died in 1866.

He also managed to get himself appointed as Bethany's first postmaster, which gave him franking privileges for all the mailing he did. He was obviously not without resources for all the enterprises he undertook. He even played a role in the engineering of the first turnpike through his part of Pennsylvania and Virginia. But no one to this day has succeeded in getting a really good road into Bethany itself.

Mr. Campbell was at his best on the platform, whether as teacher, preacher, lecturer, debater, or politician, and he was all of these. For many years he had a 6 a.m. class at Bethany College where he also served as the first president for a quarter of a century. He preached often at the Bethany Church of Christ and all over the American frontier, and this may have been his most effective work, for in his preaching he opened up the Scriptures in a way that made the Bible an understand-able book. A new hermeneutics he gave the people, as well as a new translation known as The Living Oracles. He lectured to professional organizations all over the country, especially on education and moral philosophy. Oddly enough, he was a favorite lecturer among the skeptics, even when he scored their disbelief. They admired his honesty, originality, and resourcefulness, and he was not their typical clergyman.

The reformer also advanced his cause in the debates he conducted, especially the ones with Bishop Purcell, where he represented the Protestant cause against the Roman Catholic, and Robert Owen, where he championed faith in God against the claims of infidelity, which was rampant on the frontier. He not only became more widely known, but he came to be seen as one who transcended the confines of any sect. In five well-chosen adjectives Mr. Owen described Alexander Campbell as many in that day came to see him. He was, Owen said, manly, learned, fair, honest, industrious. Others were to mention Mr. Campbell's industry. Considering the prodigious amount of work he did it must have been true. He was "manly" in the sense of being a gentleman, but without being handsome, and yet there is evidence that he was more than ordinarily attractive to women. When a woman follows you all the way from Scotland to America in order to join your church and serve your people, you must have an uncommon charisma. That same woman, an exemplary Christian who became a missionary for Campbell's cause in Australia, hailed Alexander Campbell as the most remarkable person she had ever known. And that was after living in his home in Bethany, ministering to his sick, burying his dead, and seeing "the Bishop," as the neighbors called him, in all those untoward trials that test one's mettle.

But Campbell's greatest compliment came from Gen. Robert E. Lee, who was an occasional visitor to the Campbell mansion. Borrowing from a tribute given to John Milton, the general said that Mr. Campbell would make a suitable delegate of the human specie if such a representative were needed in a gathering of creatures of superior worlds. 

While Mr. Campbell was briefly in politics, serving in Virginia's 1829 constitutional convention, it was an uneasy assignment for him, for he was always dubious about a Christian's role in politics. While he futilely fought against slavery and for public schools at the convention, it was his weekend preaching that made his time in Richmond worth the while. At least a former president, James Madison, seemed to think so, for while he spoke highly of Campbell's role in the convention, he saw his greatness lying elsewhere: "But it is as a theologian that Mr. Campbell must be known. It was my pleasure to hear him often as a preacher of the gospel, and I regard him as the ablest and most original expounder of the Scriptures I have ever heard."

He was an engaging conversationalist, and some of his most effective teaching took place in parlors across the land following the preaching service, which was always at candle-lighting. He had a great sense of humor, never took himself too seriously, and was charming with his repartee. While visiting with him at Bethany and walking by the family cemetery, Robert Owen was led to say, "I have an advantage over the Christian in that I have no fear of death." Campbell replied, "But have you any hope in death?" The infidel conceded that he had neither fear nor hope in death. Then Campbell said, pointing to a nearby cow, "Then you're like that brute beast, chewing its cud and perfectly content, with neither fear nor hope in death!"

He was also a deeply pious man. He and his family, along with the guests who were nearly always there, had morning and evening devotionals. Mrs. Campbell would lead the singing, the children would recite memory verses, and Mr. Campbell would teach the Scriptures and converse. It says something about the kind of man Campbell was that he would bring an Indian boy home with him from the West and keep him for seven years in his home, providing him a Christian education.

Above all he was a reformer of the church, seeking to unite the Christians in all the sects through a restoration of the primitive faith. The ancient gospel was his constant theme. He carried his message of renewal all across the frontier of his adopted country, being one of the most travelled men of his time. He grew up with the country, so to speak, first travelling by foot, horseback, gig and buggy, and finally by stagecoach, steamboat, and railroad, "the cars" as he called them.

He did what he did because he was assured of the promise from Him who sat upon the throne, "Behold, saith he, I make all things new." 

Happy Birthday, Alex! -- the Editor 

Is it possible that a time may come when all shall think alike, and have the same opinions--seeing that no two minds are constituted alike; to say nothing of the variety of circumstances by which they are irresistibly influenced? To this question we answer, no. We agree with them that this is not within the range of probability. But let me ask in return, where, in his Word, does God require this of you?

The question is too vague and indefinite....the point to distinguish, viz:--Ordinances are not opinions. All the ordinances and appointments of the Lord Jesus, by himself and his Apostles, are positive and obligatory, and are all tangible to the senses. Therefore his ordinances and appointments do not admit of opinions at all. There is no place for opinion here. He institutes, he appoints, he commands; and what he has instituted, appointed and commanded, you who love will obey.--W. H. Burford, Millennial Harbinger, Vol.32, pp. 599-600.