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Soldier On! w/Leroy Garrett — Occasional Essays |
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Essay 67 (4-5-05) V. Realization and Revision (1830-1855) "I am very catholic." Harbinger of the Millennium While Campbell's passion for a coming millennium expressed itself even in the name of his new journal, his position was quite different from the popular millennial views of his day. "Millerism" was the most spectacular, mainly because it dared to name the year that the Lord would come and bring the world to an end - 1843. Campbell responded to this popular theory in a series on "The Coming of the Lord" that ran through twenty-six installments. It began in 1841 and ran through the year that the Lord was due to come. He referred to its promoter -- William Miller, a Baptist minister in New York - as a good and sincere man, even if mistaken. Campbell pointed out that all the theories agreed that there would be a millennium and that the Lord would come. It was a question of whether he came before or after the millennium. Miller claimed the Lord would come before the millennium, which today is known as premillennialism. Campbell held that Jesus would come after the millennium, now referred to as postmillennialism. But he concluded his series with a surprising turn -- the Lord will come "in a way which perchance but few of us either expect or are at all prepared for." Campbell expected "great changes in the world" that would bring about the "amelioration" of society as well as the church. In a series on "Millennium" -- beginning in the first issue of his new journal (January, 1830) -- he identified the changes he anticipated. It included the triumph of Christianity over the world, the end of sectarianism, and the union of Christians. It will be a time of extended prosperity around the world - and not necessarily limited to a literal one thousand years. Wars will cease, and peace and goodwill will generally prevail. The Jews will turn to Jesus Christ as their Messiah. The weather will be mild. Crimes and punishment will cease. Health will be more vigorous, labor less arduous, lands more fertile. The knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. America, his adopted country, would be its epicenter. These were his expectations when -- at age forty-one -- he began The Millennial Harbinger. Not only was a millennium on the horizon, but his journal was its harbinger. He was not only announcing its coming, but was an agent to effect its arrival. Yet it would be gradual in its unfolding. In the "Prospectus" to the new journal he detailed some things he hoped to accomplish. This included disquisitions on the treatment of African slaves as "preparatory to their emancipation, and exaltation from their present degraded condition." There could not, of course, be slavery during the millennium, and yet freedom would come gradually... His chief concern as a harbinger of the millennium was the elimination of sectarianism. The gospel cannot triumph until Christians "bury the tomahawk of party conflicts." He insisted that "No sect can be the basis of the Millennial Church." He cried out like a prophet against sectarian establishments: "All the platforms, all the foundations of the sects are, therefore, too narrow and too weak to sustain the Millennial Church; and therefore must be pulled down." He began his series on "Millennium" by asking, "Will sects ever cease?" His position was that sects have to end before there can be a millennium. And they will end only when religious parties cease making opinions a test of communion, and unite upon the simple facts of the gospel. When told that people cannot give up their opinions, his response was: "We do not ask them to give up their opinions - We ask them not to impose them upon others. Let them hold their opinions; but let them hold them as private property." Essentials of Reformation For over three decades this was his plea as editor of The Millennial Harbinger. The essentials of the gospel - the facts of what God has said or done through Christ - are clearly identifiable. Upon these all Christians can unite. Opinions are to be held as private property and are not to be imposed on others. One may be wrong even in his understanding and still be accepted: "I never did at anytime exclude a man from the kingdom of God for mere imbecility of intellect; or, in other words, because he could not assent to my opinions." Sure of his stand against sectarianism, he boldly asserted: "I will now show how they cannot make a sect of us. We will acknowledge all as Christians who acknowledge the gospel facts, and obey Jesus Christ." He looked for no new sun or no new revelation of the Spirit, but only the ancient gospel, which must be "disinterred from the rubbish of the dark ages, and made to assume its former simplicity, sublimity, and majesty." In the 1836 Harbinger he spelled out what he referred to as "the central attributes of the proposed reformation for which we contend." They reveal a balance between doctrine and ethics.
A year later he drew up "a synopsis of the grand items of the reformation for which we have contended and still contend." While it included most of the same items as before, this time he listed his "essentials" under four chapter headings: (1) For the Healing of Divisions among Christians; (2) Principles and Objects of Church Reform; (3) Principles to the Proper Dispensation of the Gospel; (4) Personal and Family Reformation. Under the first heading - as essential to unity - he added: "The restoration of a pure speech or the calling of Bible things by Bible names." Under the second he identified the church as composed of those who confess Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God and put him on in baptism. Under the third heading he was careful to identify the gospel - not as theory or doctrine - but "the proclamation in the name of God of remission of sins and eternal life through the sacrifice and mediation of Jesus Christ to everyone who obeys him in the instituted way." In the fourth chapter he called for a personal reformation that included intelligence, purity, and happiness. He added: "We want and must have a radical and thorough reformation in family religion and family education." He had reason in the 1830s to hold these as realistic goals. The preaching of the ancient gospel and the restoration of the ancient order of things - which he saw taking place -- would unite the Christians in all the sects in the millennial church, and ameliorate all society. Rude Awakening Time was not on Alexander Campbell's side. His vision of a triumphant future in a glorious new world of plenty gradually gave way to a rude awakening. Conditions in America were deteriorating, not improving. There were financial depressions. Slavery was not dissipating, but growing worse. Sects continued to multiply. They were not burying the tomahawk of party conflicts. While his movement enjoyed impressive growth, it was not measuring up to his millennial expectation. Besides, it had problems of its own, which took much of his time and effort. In the years leading up to the Civil War he wrote less about a coming millennium. They were years of realization and revision. There was no millennium on the horizon, no millennial church, and no church uniting. It is arguable that by the 1850s church and society were worse off -- not better off. If Campbell's millennial views were correct, things would be improving. It was time for a mid-course correction. A telltale sign of a change in his thinking is when he began to refer to what had been "a movement" as a denomination. Such language as "our denomination" and "other denominations" in the Millennial Harbinger would not have appeared in The Christian Baptist. We have seen that he had no intention of starting another denomination. He had launched a "a new reformation" - as he liked to call it - within the church. It was neither a sect nor a denomination. But in time he realized he had added another church - a denomination - to American society. He at last referred with regret to the necessity of starting a new denomination. But he -- and his people -- continued to refer to their efforts as a reformation, and it was still a unity movement. But it was now "a denomination" within the church at large with these distinct goals. While accepting denominational status, Campbell was adamant about not being a sect. A "denomination" meant that they were a distinct religious body with clearly defined marks of identification, such as a particular name or names. A sect claims to be within itself the entirety of the body of Christ, to the exclusion of all other Christians. He, therefore, clearly distinguished between a sect and a denomination. But he was now issuing the denial in broader terms, such as: "You'll never make a sect of us, because we are catholic, very catholic." In these years of revision catholic became a self-defining term. Campbell's new church by 1849 had its own missionary organization, known as the American Christian Missionary Society, and he served as its first president. In Christian Baptist days there was not only no such organization, but he was critical of such innovations. Since a denomination by definition has a name, Campbell and Stone debated about what name they should wear as a church. Stone -- using Acts 11:26 as a proof text --argued that they should call themselves "Christians" since it was a divinely-given name, and that their congregations should be called Christian Churches or Churches of Christ. Campbell saw "Christians" as a nickname, bestowed by unbelievers - a name the apostolic churches did not accept -- but it was nonetheless a name that he could live with. He preferred simply Disciples of Christ. The problem was resolved - more by happenstance than by decree - by their wearing all three names - Christian Churches, Churches of Christ, and Disciples of Christ - a denomination with three names. Encourages Church Organization In his earlier years there was little or no cooperation among the congregations. The polity was a radical congregationalism, with each church going its own way. But by 1841 there were upwards of 2,000 congregations -- representing most every state in the union and several foreign countries. They could no longer function as a small group of radically independent frontier churches. In that same year Campbell began a series of essays on church cooperation that signaled a dramatic change from his Christian Baptist days. "Our organization and discipline are greatly defective, and essentially inadequate to the present condition and wants of society," he wrote. He may have surprised his readers when he went on to say - correcting what he saw as a common fallacy - that a local congregation needs more than a Bible. It needs organization. "A book is not sufficient to govern the church," he dared to write. He pointed out that one cannot simply hand a Bible to a congregation and leave it to its own devices. Laws are not self-enforcing, but are executed through duly-ordained agents. That is why God placed apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors in the church. Likewise, if congregations are to act in concert - if they are to cooperate in any way at all - it must be through some agency. He wrote of the "necessity" of a more adequate organization. After twenty-eight installments on the subject he rested his case by naming five things that they could not effectively accomplish without "a more ample, extensive church organization" - the distribution of the Bible abroad, missionary work, improve Christian ministry, check and remove impostors and fraud in the ministry, church-wide cooperation. When some of his people questioned the creation of agencies - seeing it as contrary to their plea for "a restoration of the ancient order" - Campbell complained that "There is too much squeamishness about the manner of co-operation." One is not to look to the New Testament for a "model" for every detail for the work of the church such as that which Moses gave for the building of the tabernacle. It would be impossible for the New Testament to provide details for every aspect of the church's mission, he insisted. One may as well ask for a precept for translating the Bible from Greek to English or for the building of a meetinghouse, he chided. He lamented that some of his people had rather do nothing - including withholding the gospel from the masses - for fear that they might do something the wrong way. But by and large, his people had no problem in forming agencies and learning to cooperate. They not only had a missionary society by 1849, but by the 1840s they had numerous local, area, and state agencies. By 1845 there was the American Christian Bible Society and a Sunday school and Tract Society. By 1849 there was a national convention. And by 1845 there were three colleges, counting Campbell's own Bethany College. He also softened his views on the clergy - or at least he allowed for a special class of preachers, sent out and supported financially by a congregation or a missionary agency. But they were to be evangelists - preaching to the lost and organizing churches. He still held that elders and deacons were to care for established churches, insisting that it was a "satire" on a church to hire someone to preach for it. He was especially concerned for "wandering stars" - preachers who were unsent and unwanted, and sometimes ill-prepared or morally irresponsible. While he was earlier critical of seminaries, he now looked to the colleges, including his own, as an answer to an uneducated ministry. Mid-Course Correction Equally significant was his mid-course correction in reference to his plea for unity. By the 1840s he was referring less to a unity based on "a restoration of the ancient order" or a restoration of primitive Christianity. In an 1839 essay, he stated that while unity had been his "darling theme" all along, "it was some time before we could see clearly the ground on which all true Christians could form one visible and harmonious union." In an ecumenical gathering in Lexington, Kentucky in 1841, he set forth what that ground was - "the catholic rule of union." It read: "Whatever in faith, in piety, and morality is catholic, or universally admitted by all parties, shall be adopted as the basis of union." He submitted this as a resolution before the large audience, which gave its approval by an overwhelming standing vote. It recognized that while people will differ to the point of disunity on what constitutes a restoration of primitive Christianity, they can unite on the basics of the faith that they hold in common. While this revised approach to unity - what he called "catholic grounds" - was expressed by Campbell for the rest of his life, he is remembered for his earlier emphasis on unity through restoration. He often expressed the catholic rule for unity in terms of "the seven facts" of Ephesians 4:4-6, which he sometimes reduced to three - "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." We unite upon the facts themselves - not theories or opinions about the facts. He would also sometimes express the catholic rule in terms of uniting upon the universal principles of the faith - centered in Jesus Christ - while allowing for differences in particulars. He cultivated a fondness for the term catholic - "We are catholics," he liked to say - not Greek or Roman Catholic - just catholic. They had a catholic rule of faith and practice, the Bible; they wore a catholic name or names; they practiced a catholic baptism; they served a catholic table; they had a catholic plea for unity. More Debates He continued to debate during this period of his life. His debate in 1837 with Bishop Purcell, Roman Catholic, established him as a representative and defender of Protestantism - perhaps even as a religious statesman. Unlike his previous debates, it was above personal infighting. Not only were the disputants charitable toward each other - even brotherly - they became lasting friends. And yet one proposition that Campbell affirmed was that the Roman church was "the 'Babylon' of John, the 'Man of Sin' of Paul, and the Empire of the 'Youngest Horn' of Daniel's Sea Monster." It was a charge made by Protestants since Luther. Campbell esteemed Purcell as the fairest man he had debated, while Purcell described Campbell as "a most lovable character who treated me in every way and on all occasions like a brother." He thought history would be kind to Campbell - giving him a place alongside Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. In 1843 he debated yet another Presbyterian -- N. L. Rice of Paris, Kentucky. Three issues were discussed: baptism, the Holy Spirit, and creeds. In published form it ran 912 pages, with more than half of these given to baptism. The disputants went after each other four hours a day for sixteen days, and it got personal. When Campbell referred to the clergy as "venal," Rice fired back that there was not a single Presbyterian minister that had one-tenth the wealth Campbell had. And when Campbell suggested that the position he had taken was an unpopular cause, Rice assured him that he had gained much more popularity than if he had remained a Presbyterian. The inimitable Henry Clay served as moderator. This debate, like the previous ones, was well attended, and, once in book form, widely read. It opened still more doors for Alexander Campbell. Besides his five major debates -- all of which were published -- there were lesser skirmishes that also played a role in defining his ministry. It was his practice when lecturing to invite local clergy to respond to his presentation. A respondent might talk for an hour while he listened. He would then give a rejoinder, all in good grace. Such sessions would begin at candle lighting or around 4 p.m. and continue for three hours or more. There were often also morning sessions. Conversation - often with the same disputants - would continue on into the evening at a "repast" in a home. Some observers saw Campbell most "in his element" as a conversationalist - and he was always as gracious as he was informed One such disputant was Obadiah Jennings -- both a lawyer and a Presbyterian minister in Nashville. Their 1830 confrontation in that city evolved into a full-blown debate, with moderators and all. Not long after the debate Jennings died. Campbell wrote a conciliatory obituary in his journal. Jennings' nephew -- editor of a religious journal unfriendly to Campbell -- published what he claimed to be an account of the debate, titled Debate on Campbellism, which he sold for seventy-five cents. In a review that ran for three installments, Campbell charged that it was a fraud in that it did not even discuss the debate in Nashville, and was written by one who was not even present. He thought it should be titled Seventy-five cents worth of slander against Alexander Campbell. This was typical of some of Campbell's opposition in those days. There were numerous tracts, pamphlets, and books either examining or exposing "Campbellism." Campbell considered them studied efforts to misrepresent his position. The most notable was Campbellism Examined by J. B. Jeter, an influential Baptist minister, in 1855. Campbell took it seriously enough to ask Moses E. Lard, one of his brighter students at Bethany and a gifted scholar, to respond to it in a volume titled A Review of Campbellism Examined. Some of his debates were not oral or public, but appeared only in written form - in his own journal and in some journal representing the other side. One such debate was with D. Skinner -- a minister of the Universalist Church -- on Universalism. It ran for three years and there were forty exchanges. They did not mince words. Campbell told Skinner that his doctrine "makes Satan a metaphor, hell a fable, and punishment after death a mere bugbear." Skinner told Campbell that in previous debates he had had the advantage in that he was on the side of truth. In this debate, however, he had espoused "the cause of endless malevolence, sin, and misery," and that he would therefore provide him every advantage! They had agreed that one of them would publish the debate in book form. Campbell deferred to Skinner, hoping it might circulate well among Universalists. Since only 1500 copies were issued it soon became a collector's item. The Universalists claimed victory, accusing Campbell of not wanting it published. Thirty years later - a year after Campbell's death -- the Universalists were still claiming victory. W. K. Pendleton -- Campbell's successor as editor of the Harbinger -- felt it necessary to set the record straight by republishing the agreement that Campbell and Skinner had made back in 1837. He explained that anyone who knew Alexander Campbell would know he was never reluctant either to defend his opinions or to publish his defense. Extensive Traveler He was one of the most traveled men of his day. For forty years he traversed virtually every nook and corner of the new republic, especially its heartland. He grew with his adopted country -- traveling first by horseback, gig, and stagecoach; then by steamboat and railway. He claims to have taken the first railroad built in this country. He was impressed that "the cars" could move along on steel rails at forty miles an hour. His travel letters tell of accidents on rivers and rails alike. He took a sleigh ride through the streets of Chicago when it was but a village. Except when the river was too shallow, he would take a steamer at Wellsburg - six miles from Bethany - for his frequent visits to the South - first on the Ohio River, then the Mississippi, all the way to New Orleans. The river was too shallow for travel when he was to be in Ohio for the Macalla debate. He made the 300-mile journey - in company with future Mormon defector Sidney Rigdon - on horseback! It took them ten days. Carriages and stagecoaches were not all that much faster, and hardly less arduous. But there was comfort - sometimes luxury - on the rails and especially the steamers. He did much of his writing on board a steamer - and sometimes preached upon request. As his five daughters - children of his first wife - grew older he would take them, one at a time, on some of his appointments, usually in the South. It was not unusual for an enterprising young man to ask the father for the daughter's hand in marriage - without ever approaching the young lady! His journeys were frequently incredibly extended and demanding - taking him away from home for months at a time, and on a schedule that would overwhelm most men. In 1836 he wrote as follows concerning a trip to the northeast: "After an absence from home of 94 days, in which I delivered 93 discourses, averaging one hour and twenty minutes, and traveled about 2000 miles, I arrived safely at home." He added that some seventy people were immersed into Christ. On such trips there would be - besides his public discourses - hundreds of hours of conversation in homes, which were actually further discourses, only less formal. Those present may have had questions to ask, but they wanted him to do the talking! He would sometimes find himself in a place where he had no appointment, and it would not even be known that he was in town. One such place was Zanesville, Ohio in 1830. After checking in at the local hotel and getting permission from the sheriff to use the courthouse, he hired a boy to go to the homes in town and announce that Alexander Campbell would speak at the courthouse at candle lighting. That is all it took to have a full house for preaching. He often spoke in buildings of other churches. From his travel letters we learn something of what he talked about. Favoring the expository method over what he criticized as "textuary preaching," he had his select portions of the Bible - often entire chapters, such as 1 Samuel 15, Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 1, Hebrews 1, Revelation 20. One young man who heard him discourse on Hebrews 1 in reference to the glory of Christ wrote of it decades later after he had become a distinguished physician: "I never had heard anything that approached the power of that discourse, nor have I ever heard it equaled since. That speech on Hebrews lifted me into a world of thought of which I had previously known nothing. It has been 45 years since I heard that public discourse, and it is as vivid to my memory, I think, as when I first heard it." In Jail in Scotland. In 1847 he made a trip to England, Scotland, and Ireland -- his only visit abroad except for occasional excursions into Canada. He took funds with him - raised by some of his churches - for famine-stricken Ireland. He bore a letter from Henry Clay introducing him to British dignitaries, which he used for visits to both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. He spoke in large halls all across England. In Liverpool 2500 heard him speak on the Holy Spirit. He gave several addresses in a Baptist Church in Bambury. He had audiences of 3,000 in such places as Manchester, Wigan, and Halifax. He was the honored guest at the annual convention of the British Churches of Christ, then made up of twenty-seven congregations. In London he gave fifteen lectures in quick succession, and was afterwards so exhausted that he stole away to Paris for a few days of rest. He returned to London to address a society of skeptics at the "Hall of Debate" on Has God Ever Spoken to Man? The address set off such a stormy and prolonged debate among the skeptics that Campbell finally gave up on them and quietly excused him. By midnight the skeptics had settled down to the extent that they passed a resolution thanking Mr. Campbell for his visit. All went well for him until he got to Scotland, the country from which he had left for the New World thirty-eight years before. While he was engaged in speaking to large crowds in various cities - including an enthusiastic assembly at a Church of Scotland - he was placarded by the Anti-Slavery Society of Scotland wherever he spoke. The signs read, "Beware! The Rev. Alexander Campbell of Virginia, United States of America, has been a slaveholder himself and is still a defender of man stealers." Members of the society had interviewed him on the subject of slavery, and were not satisfied with the distinction he drew between being anti-slavery - which he was - and being an abolitionist - which he was not. And never mind that he had freed his slaves; that he had ever been a slaveholder was indictment enough. They not only launched an attack on him, but they challenged him to debate their man on the subject. He informed the public through an Edinburgh newspaper that he would be pleased to accept the challenge so long as his named opponent was not the man who was excluded from a Baptist Church for "violating the Fifth Commandment in reference to his mother." The man sued for libel. Campbell in turn labeled the attacks as both false and calumnious. The incendiary affair so excited the public that Campbell had even larger audiences wherever he spoke. Not being one to walk away from a fight, he devoted one lecture to the subject of slavery, fully explaining his position. It aroused considerable interest, and became a bit stormy, considering the disturbances cause by his enemies. But he continued his lectures throughout Scotland until a warrant was issued for his arrest in Lanark. He was returned to Glasgow and incarcerated in the renowned Bridewell Prison. His friends offered to make bond for his release, but he refused, explaining, "I thought it might be of great value to the cause of my Master if I should give myself into the hands of my persecutors." He was convinced that the slavery charge was but a ruse, and that the real reason for the persecution was his plea for reformation. His ten days in prison were not all that bad - though he did contract a cold that limited his speaking schedule after his release. Sisters in the church were allowed to dote over him, and to spruce up his cell. And the jailer placed no limitation on the number of visitors - with as many as eleven in his cell at a time when the law allowed but two. It turned out that in Scotland he not only lectured to full halls and full churches, but even to a full prison cell! The judge at last ruled that the warrant against him was illegal, and the perpetrator fled the country, forfeiting his bond. The money was given to Campbell, who passed it along to Scottish charities. However grievous all this may have been to him, it did not compare with the devastation he was to experience once he returned home. It was during this time that his son Wickcliffe drowned. Bethany College When he founded Bethany College on his own farm in 1840, he intended it to be part of his reformation, even if it was late in coming. After a decade as the college's president he wrote of it: "It was in its conception, is now in its existence, and will ever be in its fortunes, identified with the cause of the Reformation, and essential to its prosperity." He lived to see the college produce some of his church's most eminent leaders -- including J. W, McGarvey and Moses E. Lard - and such political figures as Champ Clark (Speaker of the House) and Joseph L. Clark (Supreme Court). A future President -- James A. Garfield - served as a trustee of the college. He believed that education must touch the heart as well as the head, and that it is "the art of living," not simply a preparation for living. Its disciplines are literature, science, and religion. The college may have reflected that philosophy, but it was a constant problem to him. By the time he was in his sixties - now serving as professor and treasurer as well as president - he complained that the college had been "a perpetual incubus and trouble." Since "incubus" means nightmare, we can assume it was a heavy burden in his old age - and that was before the college burned and had to be rebuilt, and before the student uprising over the slavery issue! Publications During these two and half decades he was a prodigious publisher. With his Millennial Harbinger - with its 48 pages in small type each month, plus reams of "Extras" - and his other publications, he turned out what was virtually a book a month. Christianity Restored (408 pages,1835) bore a title that he did not choose (perhaps a mistake of the publisher) and that embarrassed him, for he did not claim that Christianity began only with his reformation. While it was a compilation of principal "Extras" from the Harbinger, he added a revealing preface about his work. He went on record to say that he agreed with some others that he had best expressed his principles of reformation in The Christian Baptist - the very venue that some criticized as expressive of his immaturity. He also expressed a desire for "rectifying some extremes" of some of his followers. This would have included what he referred to as "ultraist" views on baptism. In that preface he also spelled out what he called the "capital principle" of his plea for unity -- drawn from twenty-five years of controversy. He said the principle was "inscribed upon our banners when we withdrew from the ranks of the sects." It read: "Making faith in Jesus as the true Messiah and obedience to him as our Lawgiver and King, the only test of Christian character, and the only bond of Christian union, communion, and cooperation, irrespective of all creeds, opinions, commandments, and traditions of men." He sometimes published - even printed on his presses in Bethany - his own books. This was the case with The Christian System in (313 pages,1839). This was "in Reference to the Union of Christians and a Restoration of Primitive Christianity." This volume had a telling influence on the theology of his people for generations, and it remained in print through the 20th century. He wrote at length on such themes as the kingdom of God and the remission of sins. His translation of the New Testament - known as The Living Oracles - first published in 1827, continued in print during these years and beyond. A fifth edition appeared in 1872 in a large print, artistically-embossed volume of 452 pages of text and 111 pages of helps. His Psalms, Hymns, And Spiritual Psalms, Original and Selected - originally published about 1835 continued to be used by the churches. He issued a fifth edition - with a gilded designed cover - in 1856. It included 511 selections - lyrics only - four of which he himself composed. Three of his co-laborers - Walter Scott, Barton W. Stone, and J. T. Johnson - joined him as editors. All four were described as "Elders of the Christian Church." This handsome volume - with the simple title Christian Hymn Book in gold lettering - was also printed on his presses, as were all forty volumes of his two journals. His presses also produced Christian Baptism: With Its Antecedents and Consequences in 1851. All five of his published major debates stayed in print during most of these years. These publishing ventures not only furthered his cause, but they were financially profitable. And we remember that as the postmaster for the village of Bethany his franking privilege allowed him to post all these items free of charge! And he had an assistant postmaster who did most of the work! At least some of the profit went to his favorite charities, one being the Christian Missionary Society. He continued to write and publish on into his sunset years. [TOP]. |