IN THE STEPS OF ALEXANDER CAMPBELL IN SCOTLAND

In our last essay I told you about our trip to England to attend the World Convention of Churches of Christ in Brighton, and that while we were in the United Kingdom we enjoyed a visit to Scotland. I was especially interested in searching out some of the Campbell sites under the tutelage of Ian Davidson, a native Scot and a consummate Campbellite, who is intimately acquainted with the places that interested me. We also had the pleasure of having Curt and Sue Burton, longtime American friends, with us – who are still young enough to help me watch after my aging wife!

  Alexander Campbell, a native Irishman who migrated to America at age 19, had two significant sojourns in Scotland. Following a shipwreck on his first attempt to migrate to the U.S., he spent 300 days in 1808-09 in Scotland attending the University of Glasgow and fraternizing with Scottish reformers -- events that were to help shape his work as a reformer in America. He returned to Scotland thirty-eight years later – in 1847 – on a lecture tour, now as a renowned religious reformer, albeit a controversial one. Again, significant events occurred – not only an exciting lecture tour over much of the country, but also a confrontation over the slavery issue that led to his being incarcerated in the old Bridewell prison in Glasgow.

  Ian took us to the site on Duke Street where the Bridewell prison once stood. Nearby was the site where was once located the Anti-Burgher (Presbyterian) Church that Campbell attended as a student, and where at that fateful Communion service he refused to participate because he deemed it sectarian. According to some historians that occasion marked the beginning of his reformation movement that he was soon to launch in America. We also saw the ancient location of the University of Glasgow (founded 1451) where both Thomas and Alexander Campbell were students, as well as the stately new campus (1870).

  The universities in Scotland, world famous, testify to the youth of the U.S. When our oldest university was founded – Harvard in 1636 – St. Andrews University, Scotland’s oldest (1410) was already 226 years old!

  We followed the reformer’s footsteps all the way to the county of Fife – once known as the kingdom of Fife – in northern Scotland where he lectured in places with strange names: Kirkcaldy, Dumferline, Cupar, Auchermuchty, Dumferline. As for the fourth town, Campbell wrote back home: "I could have wished that some poetic genius would have given it a more musical name." He may have had a problem pronouncing it, as I did. It is a sleepy little village that appears to come out of the past. The hall where he lectured and the house in which he was a guest still stand after 157 years! And they were not new even then.

  You can understand why Ouida’s favorite word for Scotland is antiquity. Even if they did invent the bicycle and penicillin – and TV! At a lovely dinner hosted by a dear sister and brother in Christ, artistic paper napkins were served depicting Scottish inventiveness. In addition to those mentioned, the napkin named other blessings vouchsafed to us by the Scots – the raincoat, the automobile tire (Dunlop), translation of the Bible (King James VI was a Scot), the breech-loading rifle, the best whiskey, the Bank of England, the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell was a native Scot), the U.S. Navy (John Paul Jones was born in Kirkbean, Scotland), adhesive stamps, chloroform, asphalt paving, etc, etc. Even golf! In St. Andrews we visited the oldest golf links (not course!) in the world.

  And a sober Scot will remind a visiting American that his republic – along with its founding documents – were substantially influenced by Scottish political philosophy. It was James Wilson, a native Scot, who teamed up with Thomas Jefferson in creating the U.S. Constitution. Two Scots signed the Declaration of Independence.

  Then there’s James Watt who gave us the steam engine, which he patented in 1769, which helped ignite the industrial revolution. When Ian pointed out a modest memorial to Watt in the Glasgow city park, marking the spot where he intuited the idea of steam and heat transfer that led to his invention, I noticed that it was near the Lord Nelson monument to which young Campbell would often visit for reading and meditation. In my mind’s eye I could see them together in the park – even if they were a few decades apart – pondering ideas that were to change their worlds, each a reformer in his own way.

  We wonder – don’t we? – if God does not inspire such agents of change. Did God plant that particular scientific formula in young Watt’s mind at that particular time and place, so as to further bless his world? And was he at work in young Campbell’s mind at that memorial at the very time he was being exposed to the revolutionary ideas of Scottish reformers – ideas that would make a difference once he migrated to America?

  But I notice that God "inspires’ those who are wet with perspiration. It "came to" Watt when he was hard at work on a primitive engine that he was trying to repair. As for Campbell, he was always busy in the workshop of ideas. If the adage is true – that genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration – we are not to take lightly the 10% that comes from God.

  Watt bequeathed to us still other useful things, such as the copying machine and the idea of horsepower. And you know, of course, that the metric unit of power that we call a "watt" bears the name of the ingenious Scot.

  Scotland has also had its religious reformers. Near an entrance gate at St. Andrews University there are the initials PH – in old English letters -- carved into the ancient brick walkway. It marks the spot where Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake for heresy in1528. A young professor at the University and of royal lineage, Hamilton had a promising future. But life changed for him once he began to read Luther’s writings. When he taught salvation by grace to his students and otherwise sought to reform the Catholic Church, it displeased Archbishop Beaton. Hamilton was tried for heresy and condemned to the stake. Before he died he gave a fervent testimonial of his faith in Christ as Savior.

  Ian told me of a tradition at the University. On examination day at that particular gate students can be seen sidestepping those initials in the brickwork, lest they step on holy ground. I was touched by it all. Imagine being burned to death for your faith in Christ! I was standing where it happened. It may have been 476 years ago but it seemed like yesterday. The dead in Christ do yet speak! But I was disturbed by a question that some of my brethren back in Texas were sure to ask me – was Patrick Hamilton baptized the right way?

  As if that were not enough, Ian showed me another set of initials in the brickwork, only a short distance away – GW this time, standing for George Wishart. It marked the spot where he was burned at the stake in 1546. Also a teacher, he was banished from Scotland for teaching New Testament Greek and for having Protestant proclivities. After studying at Cambridge in England for a time, he dared to return to his native land and join the efforts to reform the church. Barred from churches, he preached in market places and in fields. Large numbers heard him and were persuaded. He was known for his sweet and gentle spirit. Nonetheless, Beaton – now a Cardinal – brought him to trial for heresy and condemned him to be burned at the stake.

  That was all the reforming Scots could take. They stormed the fort where the Cardinal had taken refuge, put him to the sword, and left his body dangling by a rope out one of the upper windows of the fort – a part of the ruined fort that still stands. A historical marker tells the story. I stood there amazed at the scene, for in my imagination I saw it all, including the cruel prelate’s dangling body. Hardly a place for a Cardinal!

  Ian said to me as we viewed the scene – with whispered reverence – "Leroy, this is where it all began – the Protestant reformation in Scotland."

  But the reformers at last lost the battle that day. French Catholics came by sea to put down the rebellion. They arrested another budding reformer named John Knox. He served as a galley slave for nineteen months, and eventually returned to Scotland to take up where Hamilton and Wishart had left off in the work of reformation.

  To make a long story short, at the preaching of "the thundering Scot" the reformers cast off all restraint and turned to violent iconoclasm. They entered churches and destroyed shrines, images, pictures – and sometimes the churches themselves. By 1560 the Protestants had triumphed. In 1567, Parliament declared the Reformed Church "the only true and holy kirk of Jesus Christ within this realm." To this very day the Church of Scotland – Reformed and Presbyterian – is the state church. But it is not supported by taxation and there is freedom of religion. The Roman Catholic Church, still numerous, is among the "free" churches – meaning not a state church. No one is burned at the stake these days!

  And that is where we came in – the Churches of Christ are a free church – and we too emerged in Scotland out of reformation efforts. Two centuries later there were those seeking to reform the Church of Scotland, such as Robert and James Haldane and Greville Ewing. As a student Alexander Campbell came under the influence of these reformers. In time his ideas – fleshed out -- made their way back to Scotland from America – and by way of England – and Churches of Christ became a reality. There are three groups of us: the associated Churches of Christ are more like the Disciples of Christ in the U.S., and are in a union of churches; the "American" group are like our non-instrument churches, having been started by them; the "Old Path" Churches of Christ are the ones that date back to Campbell’s time, and who did not go the way of the associated churches.

  In the past generation or so there has been friction between the American group and the Old Paths in that the former has sought to impose the American way of doing church – such as multiple cups for Communion and the one-man minister system -- upon the older group. The Old Paths group practice mutual ministry, drink from one chalice, and do not have Sunday school. But these have never been "issues" and are not the result of division. They‘ve always been that way. One can see the folly – and the lack of charity – in trying to impose American ways, which are not necessarily biblical, upon native Scots – who, as they see it, function according to "the ancient order of things," the way Campbell taught them!

  On the weekend we were in Scotland I addressed one of these Old Paths congregations, the Motherwell Church of Christ in suburban Glasgow that dates back to 1900. On Saturday night there were those from several other congregations, such as Kirkcaldy in Fife, the oldest of these churches (1842). We met at 4 p.m. for tea. But it was done in the small chapel itself – no fellowship hall. Ladies served guests in the pews, which had narrow shelves attached – just right for a cup of tea and sandwiches, or a Bible and hymnal. After I spoke on "Our Tradition and our traditions" we had a vigorous discussion, Scottish style.

  One brother wanted to know if I made immersion necessary to being a Christian – capital T tradition or small t? I quoted Alexander Campbell on who is a Christian – "one who believes in Jesus as Messiah, repents of his sins, and obeys him in all things according to his understanding." One is on firm ground to quote Campbell in these Scottish churches, much more so than in Texas! The Bible first, of course, then Campbell.

  The Lord’s day assembly was a delight. Curt Burton and I both spoke. We sang from a hymnal with lyrics only, no notes or bars (Campbell again; he published such a hymnal), and of course acappella. Two elders presided -- Ian being one of them. They sat behind a table on the platform during the entire service. The Lord’s supper was as meaningful as I’ve ever experienced. It was made both the center and the object of the assembly, and the Lord was spoken to as if he were present. We all drank from one chalice. The offering was taken in a cloth bag on a stick. One does not as easily see what another gives!

  In a pamphlet for visitors this congregation explains how it does ministry:

     There is no priest, clergyman, or professional minister to preach to you, but those who are able to share their knowledge and experience. When you attend you might hear a banker, a draughtsman or a retired schoolteacher. In the Church of Christ every Christian is a minister, and every child of God is a priest.

  When I’m at church back home these days I think of that simple service in faraway Motherwell, Scotland! Motherwell, by the way, was the late Prof. William Barclay’s hometown. We saw the Dalziel High School where he got such a good education, which he talks about in his autobiography.

  That Sunday afternoon – our visit to Scotland almost at an end -- Ian had one more thing he wanted to show us, but he didn’t tell us what – a kind of surprise. Curt and I left our wives with the rest of the dinner party and took off with Ian for downtown Glasgow, wondering what he was up to this time. At the Glasgow Museum he took us to a prison door – obviously a real prison door, bars and all, massive in size but having a small aperture. "This may be the door to Campbell’s cell in the Duke Street prison," Ian said, "and if not it is one like it." It was salvaged when the old prison was razed. It really brought history to life – recalling as I did so many stories about that jail cell.

  The prison bell – ominous in size – was also salvaged. We learned that it rang out whenever a criminal was executed, reminding the citizenry of Glasgow that the wages of sin is death. We wondered if Campbell might have heard it during his fortnight there. Can’t you hear the old bell tolling?

  The prison door conjured up a retelling of an incredible story – Alexander Campbell in prison in Glasgow!

  Soon after Campbell’s arrival in Scotland, he was interviewed by leaders of the Scottish Anti-Slavery Society, whose mission was to confirm their suspicions of his view of slavery. They had heard that he was a slave owner and defended slavery. Campbell explained that he did in fact once own slaves, but had freed them. He was anti-slavery but not an abolitionist, which meant he favored a gradual emancipation of the slaves. A demand for immediate abolition, he contended, would work havoc for master and slave alike – such as a civil war.

  This did not satisfy those who interviewed him. They posted banners in Edinburgh where Campbell was soon to lecture that read "Citizens of Edinburgh, Beware! The Rev. ALEX. CAMPBELL, Virginia, U.S.A., Has been a SLAVEHOLDER HIMSELF, and is still The DEFENDER OF MANSTEALERS." The notice quoted Campbell to the effect that slavery is not necessarily immoral or unchristian. Still other notices were published, warning all Scotland to beware. This was followed by a challenge to Campbell to defend his position in public debate with one James Robertson of the Anti-Slavery Society.

  Campbell accepted the challenge, provided that the James Robertson named was not the same James Robertson who had recently been expelled from the Baptist Church for violating the 5th Commandment in reference to his own mother – something that he could just as well left unsaid. Mr. Robertson, who apparently was not the offender referred to, was himself not only offended, but filed charges against Campbell for defamation of character. While on his lecture circuit, Campbell was arrested, returned to Glasgow, and jailed, to await trial. His friends offered to make bail for him, but he refused, convinced as he was that the slavery issue was a ruse – that the real reason was "a spirit of sectarian opposition to my views of religious reform and Christian union." So he wrote to the editor of the Edinburgh Journal, making it clear at the same time that he had no sympathy for slavery. It was persecution for his Christian witness, he believed, so he would remain in jail and face his accusers.

  The magistrate apparently agreed with him, for after upwards of two weeks, he dismissed the case and charged the accuser with false arrest. Mr. Robertson fled the country, leaving behind a deposit of money with the court. This was passed on to Mr. Campbell, who in turn left it to be distributed to Scottish charities.

  Campbell did not exactly suffer cruel and unreasonable punishment while imprisoned. He was allowed to make a "schoolroom" of his tiny cell, with as many as eleven "pupils" at a time, when only two visitors at a time were allowed by law. Hundreds of letters poured in from far and wide. Fawning women were permitted to bring in food and to spruce up his cell with every possible amenity. During this time he wrote home that while Elijah was fed by ravens he was fed by doves!

  Well, so much for the prison story and so much for old Scotia. But as I leave Scotland I keep hearing that old bell that rings out from the Bridewell prison – proclaiming that another person has been executed. Don’t you also hear it toll, all around planet earth?

Any man’s death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind;

Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee. – John Donne