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Essay 65 (3-14-05)

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL: THE MAN AND HIS MISSION (3)

III. Called To Be A Reformer (1807-1823) Part A

"God made men, the priests make laymen."

Drama in Scotland

Thomas Campbell was in America for some fifteen months before he finally decided that there was a future for him and his family in the New World. He had problems with leaders of the Seceder church in America similar to those he had back home, and he had difficulty locating an appropriate situation for the family. But he had met new friends, some of whom encouraged him in his efforts to effect change in the church, and he saw exciting challenges on a new frontier.

He sent word for the family to join him in time for them to board the Hibernia at Londonderry for Philadelphia on October 1, 1808. Alexander had turned twenty the month before. After two days at sea the ship amidst a storm went aground near an island of the Hebrides. While probably no one was in any real danger, it seemed so at the time. They made it to shore safely, and Alexander was able to save his father's books. More significantly, the trauma of the near-tragedy at sea settled the question of his life's calling. He resolved that stormy night that he would follow in the steps of his father and devote himself to the service of the church as a minister of the gospel.

Since they were not to book passage on another ship until the following summer, the family took lodgings in Glasgow. This enabled Alexander to attend Glasgow University, which even then was ancient, dating back to 1540, and was at that time at the zenith of its fame. It was, moreover, the university his father had attended. He took courses with two professors who had taught his father twenty-five years earlier.

The 300 days he spent in Glasgow appear providential, for he had experiences both in the university and in the area churches that were to substantially influence his life's work. His studies at the university included Greek, literature, French, and philosophy. The latter course exposed him to the Common Sense philosophy that pervaded the Scottish universities at the time, and which was to help shape his interpretation of Scripture.

In the area churches he was exposed to various reformation efforts that were going on within the Church of Scotland, the state church. These included Independents of the John Glas and Robert Sandeman persuasion, and a movement led by James and Robert Haldane. These movements had separated from the state church mainly over issues of freedom - the independence of each congregation and the freedom of private interpretation of Scripture. They had in view the restoration of primitive Christianity.

Alexander especially identified with Greville Ewing, pastor of a large independent church in Glasgow that was reflective of the changes taking place. It was particularly in small gatherings in Ewing's home -- where lively issues were freely discussed -- that he began to take the issues of reformation seriously.

The changes that Ewing called for included weekly Communion, the Bible to the exclusion of human creeds, congregational autonomy, plurality of elders in each church, the rights of lay ministers, the rejection of clerical privilege, and the practice of mutual ministry. Ewing also held the view that faith is based on testimony rather than being supernaturally induced.

These views were to serve as foundation stones for Campbell's efforts in America. But they did not include baptism by immersion only. When the Haldanes finally adopted this view, Ewing disagreed, insisting that infant sprinkling was Scriptural. Campbell's high regard for Ewing may help explain his reluctance to adopt baptism by immersion only.

Nor did the Scottish reformers include unity as part of their reformation. This was the unique feature of what became the Campbell plea. While the Scots called for a restoration of primitive Christianity as if it were the end in view, the Campbells made it a means to an end - the end being the unity of all believers in Christ.

The Scottish influence also helped to turn young Campbell away from a sectarian view of the church. In later years he recalled that he first "imbibed disgust at the popular schemes, chiefly while a student at Glasgow." This "disgust" -- a common trait of reformers -- included his distaste for the sectarian bickering and factionalism that he experienced in his own Seceder church. He was exposed to a more loving and conciliatory spirit in the person of Greville Ewing. He knew that as a faithful Seceder he could not accept Ewing and the other reformers - who were not Seceders - as equals in the church. Even an exemplary Christian like Grevlle Ewing would not be allowed to break bread in the Seceder church.

This is what was bothering him when it came time for his church's semi-annual Communion service. He dutifully went before the elders to be examined as to his worthiness to take part. He obtained the usual leaden token that would allow him a place at the Communion table. On that fateful Lord's Day in the spring of 1809, he waited in line to enter the Communion room, nursing his doubts about it all. He kept dropping back in line, trying to decide what to do. When he was at last seated at the table, he placed his token in the plate, but let the elements pass before him without partaking.

This was a private expression of his repudiation of sectarianism. It was a defining moment in his life -- a quiet but resolute turn in a new direction. He made no defiant speech; he did not walk out in protest. It might have not even have been noticed by those near him that he had refused Communion. But he knew in his heart that it meant he would no longer be a sectarian. He was now a free man in Christ. It could be said that it was in that Communion service that the Movement he would soon launch in America was born. It was his call to be a reformer.

It says something for his maturity that at only twenty he decided for the time being to be a quiet rebel. He did not reveal his feelings to the church authorities. He thought it best to arrive in America with his proper credentials as a member of the Seceder church in good standing.

Migration to America

The family sailed from Greenoch, Scotland on August 3, 1809 aboard the Latonia, and arrived in New York on September 29. By stagecoach and wagon they made their way to Philadelphia. There they hired a wagoner to bear them across hundreds of miles of wilderness toward Washington, Pennsylvania where their new home awaited them. They made some thirty miles a day-sometimes walking, sometimes riding in the wagon. Alexander marveled over the vast reaches of the frontier -- so different from his native Ireland. Thomas Campbell met the family with extra horses some three days from their new home, and the family was at last reunited after a separation of two years.

Since father and son had both undergone substantial change in their thinking, they were at first hesitant to unburden themselves to each other. They soon realized, however, that a kindly providence had brought them to one mind in regard to the reformation of the church. Even before they reached their destination they talked of the need of a plea for Christian unity based on the Bible alone.

Thomas' reformation efforts had led to the creation of a society known as the Christian Association of Washington. It was a society - not a church - with a mission to work within the churches for peace and unity. As a kind of manifesto for the society, Thomas had just written the Declaration and Address, which Alexander read while it was still in proof sheets soon after his arrival.

These entities proved to be rich resources for their upcoming reformation. The society, consisting of thirty members, eventually became their first church-contrary to its original intention. The church, which was nameless-called simply the Brush Run Church-was organized May 4, 1811. The Declaration and Address became their manifesto for Christian unity in that it set forth what Alexander saw as irrefutable principles for the oneness of all believers in Christ.

Ordination and Marriage

Alexander spent his first two years in America continuing his studies, preaching his first sermon, being ordained to the ministry, getting married, and submitting to baptism by immersion - somewhat in that order. Now that he was committed to the Christian ministry, he placed himself under a rigid regimen of studies. He preached his first sermon on July 10, 1810 on Matthew 7:24-27, and went on to give a hundred sermons over the next year. He was never a boy preacher, perhaps not even a novice. He was born full-grown, more or less, as a preacher -- already an expositor of considerable talent. He was ordained to the ministry by the Brush Run Church -- with his father officiating -- on January 1, 1812.

Since he had resolved to preach without pay - which led his father to predict, prematurely, that he would wear many a tattered coat! - it was just as well that he married wealth. John Brown, a farmer and carpenter who owned considerable acreage around what is now Bethany, had a pretty eighteen-year old daughter named Margaret, also born of Presbyterian piety. When Alexander came to their home to deliver some books Mr. Brown had borrowed from Thomas, he and Margaret met and fell in love. They were married on March 12, 1811. This was the beginning of Campbell's fifty-five year residency in Bethany. Mr. Brown deeded the home and farm to the young couple as an incentive to remain in Bethany when there was talk of their migrating to Ohio.

Baptism by Immersion

His first theological crisis came with the birth of his first child. He had to decide if she should be baptized - as he and all good Presbyterians had been in their infancy. He not only searched the Greek New Testament for an answer, but also consulted those scholars who wrote in defense of infant baptism. His study led to more than he was expecting. He not only decided against baptism for his infant daughter, but also resolved that he himself should be baptized - by immersion - which he now had concluded was the only valid baptism. Margaret joined him in his resolution.

He asked a Baptist minister -- Mathias Luce -- to immerse him simply on his confession that Jesus is the Christ. Luce was at first hesitant -- saying it was contrary to Baptist usage -- but he agreed to do so because he saw it as consistent with the New Testament.

He and his father had discussed -- and questioned -- the validity of infant baptism on occasion, but passed it off as a matter of opinion. Besides -- as Thomas put it -- it is hardly appropriate to go out of the church and then come back in again. He also expressed concern that rebaptism would tend to "dechristianize the whole Christian world."

When Alexander revealed his intentions to his father, he was told that he had to do what he saw to be his duty. He assumed that his father would, at best, be tolerant toward his decision. But when it came time for the baptism, Thomas Campbell and his wife not only came along, but had a change of clothing with them! It was June 12, 1812. On that day seven persons were immersed into Christ in Buffalo creek that winds its way through Bethany. Thirteen more were immersed at the next meeting of the Brush Run Church. Alexander would later suggest that it may have been the first time in the new Republic that people were immersed simply upon their profession of faith in Christ.

It was another turning point in the Campbell story when father and son repudiated infant baptism by publicly being baptized by immersion. It was a defining moment in that it both separated them from their Presbyterian heritage once for all and identified them with the Baptists -- where they were "uneasily bosomed," as Walter Scott put it, for the next two decades. It also catapulted Alexander into the leadership of the emerging reformation. Henceforth, the son was the leader -- if yet only twenty-three -- and the father the follower.

This decision on Alexander's part did not mean that he saw himself as a Christian only when he was immersed. He did not believe - as his father feared - that in being immersed after already being baptized by sprinkling as an infant he "dechristianized" himself or others. He had always been a Christian, he believed, but now that he had found more truth, he obeyed it. He was himself an example of the definition of a Christian he was later to give - A Christian is one who believes that Jesus is the Christ, repents of his sins, and obeys him in all things according to his understanding.

Among the Baptists

For the next few years he tended his farm, watched over a growing family, conducted a school in his home, and itinerated among the Baptists. Since his repudiation of infant baptism and submission to baptism by immersion, he was increasingly accepted by the Baptists. Once he began to champion baptism by immersion in public debates, the Baptists deemed him a hero.

While he never in any "official" way personally became a Baptist, he was at last -- for all practical purposes -- a Baptist. The first two Campbell churches - Brush Run and Wellsburg - belonged to Baptist associations, and his people were first known as "Reformed Baptists." His first journal was named The Christian Baptist. And he resolved early on that he would work among the Baptists as long as he could be free in Christ.

This obtained until well into the 1820s - until his people were "forced out" by the Baptists - and even then it was gradual. Until his dying day he regretted that his people and the Baptists ever had to separate. And yet when Baptists in Kentucky were generously embracing him, he cautioned them, "I have almost as much against you as I do the pedobaptists." And when the Brush Run church joined the Redstone Baptist Association, it prepared a document that set forth the conditions under which it would be a member -- which included the freedom to interpret the Scriptures as it understood them, apart from any creed.

"Sermon on the Law"

His reputation among the Baptists nevertheless grew steadily until in 1816 when the Redstone Association had its annual meeting at the Cross Creek Baptist church -- only ten miles from his home -- it was expected that he would be the keynote speaker. But the pastor of the church, who nursed prejudices against Campbell, blocked the move and put in his own man. But when that man became ill - which Campbell later described as "providential" - even the pastor agreed that Campbell should speak.

This presentation - which became known in history as the "Sermon on the Law" - is another turning point in the Campbell epic. Some historians have named this occasion as the beginning of the Movement, and Campbell himself said thirty years later that had it not been for that sermon -- and the opposition it generated -- he might never have launched his reformation.

"The Sermon on the Law" -- which also appeared as a pamphlet -- was a new hermeneutics for its day. Taking his text from Romans 8:3, he argued that the Old Testament and the New Testament reflect different systems and different covenants, and that the Christian is "not under law but under grace." God has dealt with man through a series of covenants, he claimed, and when the Law of Moses fulfilled its purpose as a covenant, it gave way to the new covenant of Christ. The Christian dispensation is not merely a continuation of the Mosaic Law -- as was commonly taught -- but a new system of grace.

This was too much for some of the "law preachers" -- as Campbell had dubbed those who wanted to bind Christians to the demands of the old Mosaic system. The pastor of the Cross Creek church quickly assembled the powers that be, insisting that "This is not Baptist doctrine," and that it should be exposed as heresy. Since wiser heads prevailed, Campbell was spared public repudiation at the time. It was nonetheless -- as he afterwards put it -- the beginning of a "seven year's war" with the Baptists.

Buffalo Seminary

In 1818 he started a school in his own home -- mostly for boys -- called Buffalo Seminary. He used the main floor for classrooms and the upstairs for a dormitory. This forced his growing family into the basement -- a move he was later to regret -- for he feared the dampness of the basement may have hastened the premature death of his wife, Margaret. But this is unlikely since all five of her daughters were also to succumb to the same disease - consumption (tuberculosis) - and at about her same age.

Even though the school soon had more pupils than he could accept, he found himself serving as a caretaker for a lot of boys who did not share his spiritual interests. The school held little prospect of producing co-workers for his budding reformation, so after four years he closed it. Even so, some of his students became doctors and lawyers and were grateful for what he had done for them.

First Two Debates

While yet attending his school, he launched upon a new dimension to his ministry - debating. It was not uncommon for Presbyterians to challenge Baptists to debate their differences on baptism. Since the Presbyterians had a better educated clergy, the challenges usually went unheeded. While the "Sermon on the Law" had established Campbell as controversial - and as a different kind of Baptist - he was nonetheless deemed not only sound on baptism, but also the one person capable of defending the Baptists against the pedobaptists.

In 1820 he debated John Walker -- a Seceder Presbyterian minister -- in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio -- and three years later he debated W. L. Macalla -- also a Presbyterian -- in Washington, Kentucky. He was reluctant to engage in the first debate, but it proved to be such an effective venue for the promulgation of his ideas that he was the challenger in the second debate. While both debates were on the mode of baptism, they allowed him not only to defend the Baptist position on immersion, but also to venture more deeply into the design of baptism.

In the first debate he introduced Acts 2:38 - destined to be a pivotal passage in his reformation - but only in reference to his argument against infant baptism. At that time he did not see even his own immersion in reference to the remission of sins. It was in the second debate that he -- for the first time -- postulated baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. But even here he sought to avoid a legalistic view of baptism by distinguishing between real and formal remission of sins - one is really saved when he believes, formally saved when he is immersed.

"The water of baptism, then, formally washes away our sins. The blood of Christ really washes away our sins," he said in the Macalla debate. Seventeen years later -- in response to some who were giving "an undue eminence" to baptism -- he appealed to the Macalla debate as correctly representing his position -- that baptism is "pardon-certifying" rather than "pardon-procuring."

These first two debates proved so effective in promoting his reformation that he went on record to say, "We are fully persuaded that a week's debating is worth a year's preaching." Both debates were published and thousands of copies were sold. It all served to popularize the name of Alexander Campbell and the cause of reformation that he represented.

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