council of the preachers, and proposed to them to have me forthwith condemned before the people by a formal declaration from the stand, repudiating my discourse as 'not Baptist doctrine.' One of the elders said, 'Elder Pritchard, I am not yet prepared to say whether it be or be not Bible doctrine; but one thing I can say, were we to make such an annunciation, we would sacrifice ourselves and not Mr. Campbell." "

And thus originated Alexander Campbell's "Sermon on the Law." The full text of the discourse is in the "Millennial Harbinger" for 1846; the text was Romans viii. 3: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." The following is the outline:

"I. Endeavor to ascertain what ideas we are to attach to the phrase the law, in this and similar portions of the sacred Scriptures.

"II. Point out those things which the law could not accomplish.

"III. Demonstrate the reason why the law failed to accomplish those objects.

“IV. Illustrate how God has remedied those relative defects of the law.

"V. Deduce such conclusions from these premises as must obviously and necessarily present themselves to every unbiased and reflecting mind."

Many years afterward, looking back on the incidents. preceding, accompanying, and following the "Sermon on the Law," Mr. Campbell said:

"I may, I presume, regard its existence as providential; and although long unwilling to believe it, I must now think that envy or jealousy, or some fleshly principle, rather than pure zeal for divine truth, instituted the cru

CIRCULAR LETTER.

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sade which for seven successive years was carried on against my views as superlatively heterodox and dangerous to the whole community."

It is more than probable that Alexander Campbell would have lived and died in the fellowship of the Baptist denomination but for the persecutions to which he was subjected on account of the sermon delivered before the Redstone Association in 1816. ("Millennial Harbinger," 1846, p. 493.)

An effort was made to bring Mr. Campbell to a trial for heresy based on this discourse, but it was not successful.

Thomas Campbell at this meeting of the association presented an application for admission from a small congregation of immersed believers in Pittsburg. The application was rejected because it was not accompanied, as the constitution of the association required, by a formal statement of theological opinions.

At the same meeting Thomas Campbell read the annual circular letter which by appointment he had prepared. The item in the minutes referring to this matter reads as follows: "The circular letter prepared by T. Campbell was read and accepted without amendment." The subject treated in this letter was the doctrine of the Trinity, and a most remarkable feature of the production is the fact that the word Trinity is not used in any part of it. Nevertheless, the "circular letter" on the Trinity, “prepared by Rev. T. Campbell, was read and accepted without amendment"! Mr. Campbell presented the nature of our Lord and the mysterious relations of Father, Son, and Spirit to one another, as near as possible, in the language of the Holy Scripture. He did it in such a spirit and manner as to be, so far as the records furnish evidence, altogether acceptable to the brethren present, notwithstanding their eagerness to discover heretical sentiments

When

in the minds of the Campbells and their friends. the suggestion was made that at the meeting of the association, to be held in 1817, with the church at Peter's Creek, Alexander Campbell should be proceeded against on the ground of entertaining and promulgating heretical opinions, he expressed a readiness to defend, at once, his position, as expressed in the offensive discourse, against any and all attacks from any person or persons whomsoever. The question of proceeding against Mr. Campbell for heresy was dismissed on the ground that the association had no jurisdiction in the case.

It is interesting to look back to the meeting of the Redstone Association of Baptist Churches in 1816, and note its composition as we study its effort to maintain the true and, in that part of the world, orthodox conception of the gospel of the Son of God. Thirty-three churches were represented in the association. The aggregate membership was eleven hundred and thirty-nine, an average of a little more than thirty-four members to a church. No church in the association had a hundred members. Look, too, at the names of some of them: Peter's Creek, George's Creek, Turkey Foot, Forks of Cheat, Little Redstone, Maple Creek, Big Redstone, Indian Creek, Head of Whitely, Ten Mile, Forks of Yough, Horseshoe, Sandy Creek, Plumb Run, King's Creek, Dunkird Creek, Cross Creek, Short Creek, Pigeon Creek, Wells Creek, Flat Run, and Salt Creek!

Comment as to the fitness of such an association to determine the orthodoxy of Alexander Campbell, or any other gentleman of liberal culture, is not needed.

In

The Campbells were never expelled from any Baptist church nor from any association of Baptist churches. the course of time life in the Redstone Association became so unpleasant that they voluntarily entered the Mahoning

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Association. In 1827 this association adjourned, as such, sine dine, the majority believing that there is no warrant in Scripture for such organizations of churches. To this action Alexander Campbell was opposed. He thought that some such organization was needed, and that there was no reason why a specific " thus saith the Lord" should be required in a case of this character.

CHAPTER VII.

THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNION.

ONE of the most natural things in the world was that the people who had been taught and influenced respectively by B. W. Stone and Alexander Campbell, principally in the States of Kentucky and Virginia, should come together on the simple, practical, evangelical platform suggested and advocated by each.

An interesting correspondence between Messrs. Campbell and Stone on the nature of Jesus, on the atonement for sin made by the Christ in his death, on the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion and sanctification, and on the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins, resulted in such an agreement that a union was consummated in Lexington, Ky., in the early part of the year 1832.

A careful and impartial study of this happy event shows that it was not the result of an entire agreement in matters of exegesis, interpretation, theology, nor dogma, but there was an agreement in these things only in such a degree that the parties to the union were able to coöperate heartily in preaching the gospel to the unevangelized. There was no difficulty in coming to an agreement as to the fundamental facts, the great underlying truths, the commands, the promises, and the warnings of the gospel of the Son of God. There was an agreement to present these things to the people, urging them at the same time by an immediate and unconditional surrender of heart and life to the Christ to begin to live with reference to him. Accom