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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

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plished men were employed to do the work of evangelists, going through the country in pairs, one a representative of those who had been taught by Stone, the other representing such as had received instruction from Campbell. The divine blessing attended the efforts of these men to such an extent that great numbers were turned to the Lord Jesus.

The friends of Campbell were currently known as Reformers, while those who were more especially under the influence of Stone were popularly designated as Christians. To increase and make more perfect and permanent the union, a joint editorial supervision was taken of the "Christian Messenger," a paper which had been established by and conducted in the interests of the Reformers.

There were many little differences to adjust between these communities, of which it is not necessary to speak further than to say that the devotion of all to the Lord Jesus was so sincere and hearty that these matters, as time passed, gradually settled themselves in a satisfactory

manner.

The name may, however, be mentioned as one of these topics. Mr. Stone favored the name Christian; Mr. Campbell preferred the name Disciple. Stone and his friends. maintained that the name Christian was given, in the beginning, by divine authority. This Mr. Campbell and his friends denied. They also preferred, as less offensive to good people, and quite as Scriptural, to say the least, as the name Christian, the name Disciple. But these opinions were not permitted to disturb the fellowship of these children of God. And so it has come to pass that the people the story of whose genesis and growth is here given, are known sometimes as Christians, sometimes as Disciples of Christ, while their local organizations are known in some places as the Christian Church, and in