USA > Ohio > A history of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio > Part 3
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Cleveland, and is now the largest religious paper published, has the largest circulation, and is the most influential religious paper in all the world.
This greatest of world movements since the apostolic age could not be confined to the West- ern Reserve. Tradition says that when Christ died his face was turned to the west. This Restoration movement looked westward. Other movements, as in Kentucky, amalgamated with this movement and joined common interests, and the plea went to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Cali- fornia and all the world.
In 1830, Mormonism was rampant on the Re- serve, and a big temple was builded at Kirtland, and stands there to-day as a monument of folly. Sidney Rigdon, an eloquent minister, joined , in with them and is supposed to have had a hand in preparing the Book of Mormon.
In 1843, Millerism prevailed, and the dis- ciples preached on the coming of Christ. Alex- ander Campbell, commencing 1830, published the Millennial Harbinger for forty years. Some of the early elders studied the Greek language in order to read the Scriptures in the original tongue. Alexander Campbell revised and pub- lished a new translation of the New Testament. He entitled it "The Living Oracles." This was used in family worship and often in the pulpit. In 1851, Spiritualism carried off a few disciples. Music was a great power in carrying on the Restoration movement. The Haydens were great singers. John Henry played on many different instruments, and was a martial band-leader, and gave his great musical ability to the churches. So the forefathers read and prayed and sang and worked, and led the greatest movement in
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the history of Christianity since the apostolic age.
The minutes of the Mahoning Association were well kept, and are now in the Hiram Col- lege vaults.
The disciples on the Western Reserve are gathered into 100 congregations, and there are 104 active and retired ministers.
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Darwin Atwater
Benjamin Soule
Thomas J. Clapp
Eleanor Jones Lake
Grandma Garfield
Constant Lake
Samuel Church
Charles D. Hurlbut SOME OHIO PIONEERS
Asa Hudson
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VI EVANGELISM ON THE WESTERN RESERVE
B. S. DEAN, a pioneer, writes : "Down to 1827 the Campbells seem to have planted only two churches-the mother church at Brush Run, and her eldest daughter at Wellsburg. The latter had fifty-six members, the former probably never so many. It is doubt- ful whether they had baptized two hundred peo- ple between 1809 and 1827. Their fundamental plea was for the union of God's people. The nature of that plea determined its direction. It was not addressed primarily to the unsaved, but to those in the kingdom. A restored and re- united church would be the most effective evan- gelizing agency. Here and there an existing church had laid aside its human creed and taken the Scriptures as its only rule of faith and practice.
"The earliest action of the kind in Ohio, so far as I know, was that of the Nelson-Hiram- Mantua Church in Hiram, Aug. 21, 1824. But, down to 1827, we look in vain in the pages of the Christian Baptist for any indication of evan- gelism, either in editorials or reports from the field. There are powerful destructive editorials, and great constructive editorials on 'The Chris- tian Religion,' 'Christian Union,' 'The Work
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of the Holy Spirit in the Salvation of Men,' and 'The Ancient Order of Things.' But there is nothing to indicate that Mr. Campbell had ever thought through the subject of New Testament evangelism. Their work was not primarily evan- gelistic. It is an interesting question what would have been the fortunes of the movement had not other men of a different type arisen.
"WALTER SCOTT SUPPLEMENTS ALEXANDER CAMPBELL.
"Every historical crisis draws to itself or develops men of varied and supplementary gifts. Not otherwise was it with the Restoration of the nineteenth century. Alexander Campbell was easily the master mind, the creative per- sonality of the movement, and it heightens rather than dims the luster of his fame that the cause he set on foot had power to draw to itself men who, in certain respects, surpassed and happily supplemented him. Facile princeps among these was Walter Scott. A Scotchman by birth and education, the Restoration found him at Pittsburgh. From their first meeting in 1821 the two men became a veritable Paul and Timothy. Both were of lofty intellectuality, both gifted with rare eloquence-Campbell with the elo- quence of sublime reasoning; Scott with the eloquence of imagination and human sympathy. Scott was thus fitted to become the Whitfield of the Restoration.
"THE MAHONING ASSOCIATION APPOINTS SCOTT ITS TRAVELING EVANGELIST.
"The association met in 1827 at Lisbon, just off the Reserve. Thirteen of its sixteen churches
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were represented. From Youngstown, Canfield and Salem went my grandfather, Samuel Hay- den, and my uncles, Myron Sackett and Arthur Hayden. My father was appointed a messenger from Canfield, but could not go. From Wells- burg went Alexander Campbell. Sidney Rigdon and Walter Scott were visiting ministers, as were several from the Christian Connection. The epoch-making action of the association was taken in response to a memorial sent up from the Braceville Church asking that a traveling evan- gelist might be appointed. All the ministers present were appointed a committee to select a man and report. The result was the appointment of Scott. The action was unprecedented. Several of the committee were not Baptists. Scott him- self was neither a Baptist, nor known to any save Campbell; yet he was sent forth at the charges of the association. Our history shows that this was a most wise selection.
"THE FIELD.
"Ten of the sixteen churches were in Western Reserve counties, four in Columbiana County, and one in western Pennsylvania and one in western Virginia. It was a region of farms and scattered villages. Cleveland had less than five thousand souls. The Reserve pioneers had in- herited the best New England traditions; they were a reading people. They also inherited New England Calvinism, with its mystical notions of conversions. But, stimulated as the people were to eager inquiry by the Christian Baptist, the Campbell and Walker debate, and by a few per- sonal visits of Mr. Campbell, the field was ripe for the harvest when Scott thrust in his sickle.
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"OUR ANNUS MIRABILIS.
"Scott's study of the New Testament, and of popular methods of 'getting religion,' had led him to certain definite revolutionary convictions and practices. Sweeping aside current revival methods, such as the 'mourners' bench' and 'experience' as a test of conversion, he boldly preached that faith is not a direct gift of God, but comes by hearing the Word; conversion is not a miracle to be wrung from God by agonizing prayer; heaven does not need to be stormed to make God willing. He threw on the sinner the sole responsibility of accepting or rejecting Christ. Men are not to look to their own volatile emotions as the evidence of pardon, but to the sure promise : 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' To bring the gospel to the apprehension of the man behind the plow, he summarized the process of conversion from apos- tolic preaching thus: (1) Faith, (2) repentance, (3) baptism, (4) remission of sins, (5) gift of the Holy Spirit. His five-finger exercise on these items was as famous in its day as G. W. Muck- ley's five-finger formula on Church Extension. To such moderns as have never witnessed or experienced the mysticism of those days, Scott's generalization may seem mechanical. But it was effective. To hundreds of bewildered souls ago- nizing to get their feet on the rock, it broke like the light of heaven on the way of salvation. In the hands of small or unspiritual men it might degenerate into legalism; but with Scott's wealth of Scriptural knowledge and spiritual insight his message was sublime in its very simplicity. Re- sults were marvelous. In the sixteen churches
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Judge Leicester King
Mrs. Julia H. King
Church, Warren, 1852
King Residence
Adamson Bentley
John Ratliff, Elder
Austin Pettit, Elder
SIXTY YEARS AGO IN WARREN
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there had been only thirty-four conversions the previous year, and only 354 in the seven years of associational history. In the first year of Scott's evangelism there were nearly one thou- sand. The like had never been known anywhere on the Reserve. It was truly our annus mirabilis -the beginning of evangelism in the Restoration.
"MOMENTUM OF THE MOVEMENT.
"In 1828 the association met at Warren. The news of the continuous Pentecost spread from fireside to fireside. The meeting was a grand jubilee. Scott was continued as evangelist with William Hayden, a young minister, as assistant. The second year was even more fruitful. Adam- son Bentley, the most influential man of the asso- ciation, and all the younger men fell into line with the new-old evangel. Sowing and reaping continued a third year with like results. It was like the incoming of the ocean tide, sweeping the entire association into the current of restoration. In 1830, Scott left the Reserve, but the good work went on. Humbler men arose of limited education, but fine gifts and utter devotion; men who, following the plow, like Paul his tent-mak- ing, for daily bread, yet preached more sermons than the average minister then or now; men like William Hayden, who toiled to clear and culti- vate his farm, yet averaged 260 sermons per year for thirty-five years, and baptized twelve hundred with his own hands. A host of such men did pioneer service: Adamson Bentley, John Henry (the 'walking Bible'), A. S. Hayden, A. B. Green, Harrison Jones, Aylette Raines, J. J. Moss, Cyrus and Marcus Bosworth, Jonas Hartzel, Isaac Errett, J. P. Robison, W. A. Beld-
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ing, Calvin Smith, John T. Smith, Edwin Wake- field, Wesley Lanphear, Lathrop Cooley, and many others who must be nameless here. There were few protracted meetings. Three nights and over Sunday often resulted in twenty or thirty conversions. These preachers expected conver- sions at every service.
"Then, the great yearly meetings which took the place of the annual associations won hun- dreds to the cause. People came by the thou- sand and long distances to hear the Campbells and other giants of the Restoration. Hospitality was taxed to the utmost. At a yearly meeting in Canfield in 1849 my father lodged 120 in his farmhouse and barns, and lunched double that number the noon the meeting broke up. The his- tory of Christian evangelism furnishes no finer chapters than those which record the beginnings of the Restoration on the Western Reserve. But, in a sense, the strength of the evangelism was its weakness. In the first generation more churches were planted than could be cared for. Deaths, the tide of westward migration, the tremendous drain from country to city-above all, lack of efficient shepherding-were fatal to many con- gregations. Yet the momentum of the movement has never been lost. Of our 528 Ohio churches, with a little over 100,000 members, 53 churches, with 13,483 members, are within the four counties of the old Mahoning Association. The eleven Reserve counties contain 100 churches, with 24,682 members.
"EVANGELISM TO DATE.
"An extended correspondence warrants these conclusions :
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"1. During the past generation new churches have been planted and old ones mightily strength- ened by evangelistic meetings, with fruits up to two hundred.
"2. During the past year (1915) there have been many meetings, with conversions ranging from twenty-five to one hundred.
"3. Often the largest, and always the most permanent, fruits have been garnered by minis- ter-evangelists.
"4. One of our largest city churches reports that, during the present ministry of eleven years, 1,075 of the 1,125 accessions have come at the regular weekly ministrations. Yet
5. There is no marked tendency to abandon special evangelistic meetings. Nearly all the churches continue to employ them effectively. Reports indicate that from 40 to 90 per cent. of conversions thus are gained.
"6. There is dominant sentiment in favor of maintaining the evangelistic note at every ser- vice, supplemented by special meetings by the minister or neighboring ministers. While such meetings are not the exclusive reliance, they are not regarded as outworn agencies. The cause born of evangelism seems little disposed to dis- own its paternity."
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--
Church at Green, O., 1849
Edwin Wakefield
Church at Bloomfield, 1849
Nelson Works
WESTERN RESERVE CHURCHES AND MINISTERS
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Charles Brown
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DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO
VII PIONEER MINISTERS OF THE WESTERN RESERVE
BRO. J. M. VANHORN writes as follows: "Every great religious movement has brought to public notoriety some great and noble men who manifested the highest heroism in their devotion to truth, and in loyalty to their convic- tions. The current Restoration is no exception to this rule. We think of our forefathers as giants in body and mind.
"None of our pioneers were required to seal their testimony with their blood; but those who knew them and have written of them have little doubt but that most of them would have laid down their lives for the truth they preached. It has required as great heroism to live for the gospel as to die for it. It has been said 'that the true martyr spirit has been displayed by many whose blood never was shed as really as those who died at the stake, or whose life-current stained the sands of the arena.' I feel sure that such spirit characterized the pioneers of our movement. They must, therefore, live in history and in the hearts of the people for the good of all who shall follow them.
"There is nothing that can help life like life itself.
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"To study thoughtfully some rare and crystal character, to analyze and understand, if possible, the principles that made and controlled it, is the surest way to have the low and ugly self trans- formed into the likeness of it.
"For this reason the Bible is largely the record of great lives. The life of Jesus is more to the world than his teachings. 'In him was life, and the life was the light of men.' So it is that we do well to perpetuate the lives of our heroes, who are the highest reflection of the light of Christ. "Among the pioneers who preached on the Western Reserve must be named some of the most distinguished ministers known to the broth- erhood of the disciples.
"Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, A. S. Hayden, Isaac Errett, J. H. Jones, Wesley Lan- phear, John Henry, Adamson Bentley, Jonas Hartzel, William Hayden, Calvin Smith, J. J. Moss, Edwin Wakefield, Lathrop Cooley, T. J. Newcomb, M. S. Clapp, W. A. Belding, Leonard Southmayd, J. F. Rowe, W. A. Lillie. These men may be divided into two classes: first, those who were highly educated; second, those who were then called 'self-made men.'
"No one can read our literature, in which we find so many discourses and public discussions, without being impressed with the great treasures of learning and eloquence which those of the first class brought to the Restoration in which they were the great leaders. And as the Western Reserve was, perhaps more than any other region, the theater of the earliest theological con- flicts of the Restoration movement, nearly all the men foremost in scholarship were seen and heard within its borders. The 'yearly meetings' early
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established brought to the ears and hearts of the people such eloquent and able speakers as Alex- ander Campbell, D. S. Burnet, Walter Scott, Isaac Errett, O. A. Burgess, J. A. Garfield, H. W. Everest, and A. S. and Wm. Hayden, who had tremendous power in appealing to the intel- lect and reason, and convincing the judgment. But along with these, on most occasions, were those of the second class, who, while ‘self- made,' were very able, having well mastered the teachings of the scholars, and, with native genius and passion and eloquence, some of them far sur- passing the most learned-these were needed to move to action people who had been convinced, and often great numbers were swept into the kingdom by the persuasive eloquence and touch- ing pathos of such men as Harrison Jones, Wes- ley Lanphear, Jonas Hartzel, and others. I have heard some of the leaders, of a later day, say that sometimes after such men as Campbell and Errett had spoken in their most convincing and powerful appeals, and the song of invitation had been sung, not one responding, that Harrison Jones would be called on to address the multi- tude, and in response to his towering, overmas- tering eloquence and hortatory pathos, scores would press their way to the front to confess Christ.
"Some of these men were strong in contending for 'the faith,' and were constantly in discus- sion with men who were confident that the new doctrine which they preached was heresy. They had to fight for their position, which was con- stantly being challenged, and publicly and pri- vately were often in debate. The pioneers were all fighters. Garfield once said: 'The first chap-
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ter in our history was one of war; the preachers were fighters, and some of them enjoyed it so much that they would fight to get a fight.' I heard him say this in a convention of our people in Cleveland many years ago. None of them were more constantly at it than the men of the second class. They rarely closed a public meet- ing in which distinctive views had been expressed without saying: 'If any one has any objections to what has been presented, let him speak.' And so it was that often a single discourse, or the conversion of some one, led to heated controversy or a public debate.
"Of course it was apparent to men of the schools that the pioneers of the second class were not classical scholars, and sometimes college men, who had more Latin and Greek than good com- mon sense or caution, and not knowing the nat- ural ability and polemic sagacity of these 'self- made' advocates of the Restoration, ventured on dangerous ground when challenging their position.
"Harrison Jones related in my hearing an amusing incident that had occurred somewhere in Ohio in a rural community, where lived a bachelor of arts whose 'smartness' had made him quite unpopular in the community, and it was known that he often quarreled with his sis- ters, with whom he, a bachelor in fact as well as in arts, made his home. At one of the services in which Bro. Jones had preached, this man arose to protest against the doctrine preached, and cautioned the people not to accept it, saying that it was apparent to those who had been to college that the preacher was without education. 'You know,' said he, 'that I have come back to this
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community after years of study of the language in which the New Testament was first written, and I beg to warn you against this dangerous heresy.' Such is, in brief, the substance of his talk as I remember it.
"Bro. Jones, a master in the art of ridicule and withering irony, arose to reply, and as no argu- ment had been presented to answer, he could only admit the truth of the gentleman's statement- that he was not a man of the schools, and that doubtless he had the advantage of him in his knowledge of the Greek, and that in that com- munity it was understood the gentleman was a very smart man-smarter than many of his less fortunate neighbors-but that his surprising smartness was never more manifest than when, a few evenings before, his enraged and fleet- footed sister had run him three times around the house with a pitchfork! This bold statement of fact brought forth roars of laughter and rounds of applause from the audience, the people actual- ly rejoicing to see him once more become the sprinter as he fled from the place.
"On another occasion the conversion of Mrs. Julia A. King, of Warren, O., mother of the late Mrs. W. K. Pendleton, so well known to our brotherhood, a lady of culture and of high moral character, led to a public discussion between a Rev. Mr. Waldo, of the Congregational Church, which body Mrs. King had left to become a Chris- tian, and Jonas Hartzel. Mr. Waldo had the advantage of Mr. Hartzel in education, and was skilled in debate. Besides, Mr. Waldo was the challenging party and proposed the question for debate, named the place, rules and order of dis- cussion, all of which were accepted without
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change by Mr. Hartzel. Though the length of time-three days-was by the request of Mr. Waldo, yet, after half that time was consumed, he was so manifestly without munitions with which to prolong the fight that he asked the privilege of proposing three questions, which Mr. Hartzel should have time to answer, and thus end the discussion. To this Mr. Hartzel made no reply. His opponent appealed to the audience, but the audience refused to vote. Hartzel then arose and said to Mr. Waldo that catechisms are for the edification of children; 'please refer your pro- posal to the board of moderators.' The board refused to change the order, and decided that the discussion must proceed on the conditions agreed upon, when Mr. Waldo immediately threw up the sponge and retired from the battle, saying: 'I have nothing further to offer.' Now, such occur- rences were common in those days, and illustrate that, while most of the men on the field were not so strong in college learning as their opponents, yet they were always mightier than the latter be- cause of the strength of their position and of their ability to handle the 'sword of the Spirit.'
"I can not close this article more fittingly, I think, than by the use of a few words uttered by the Hon. Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, in his Centennial address at Pittsburgh, Pa. Referring to the pioneers and their contemporaries, he said: 'First in the field, they set the compass and fixed the chart by which our ship has sailed, and by which it will sail till Gabriel's trumpet summons the quick and dead to the judgment-bar of God. Their names live forevermore and their works do follow them. If the spirits of just men made perfect on high
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take cognizance of the affairs of this world, as I have no doubt they do, the souls of these master- ful pioneers must be filled with amazement and delight as they contemplate the results of the first hundred years of the movement which they started.' "
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VIII THE DOCTRINE THEN AND NOW
JAMES VERNON, minister of the gospel at Painesville, makes the following record:
"Alexander Campbell first came to Warren (Trumbull County) in 1821. Two years later the Christian Baptist came, and was widely and carefully read. 3 Three years later (1826) he
came again, and at Canfield, in Trumbull County, preached his great sermon on 'The Progress of Religious Light as Shown in the Patriarchal, Jewish and Christian Dispensations.' That sermon put Jesus Christ in his proper place as Prophet, Priest and King. In that sermon Alex- ander Campbell seems to stand like Jacques Balmat on the evening of Aug. 9, 1786, when he stood on the top of Mount Blanc, where the foot of man had never stood before, sixteen thousand feet above the sea. With this difference, how- ever: Balmat stood alone; but Alexander Camp- bell took thousands up with him and let them see the vision which had long lain before his eyes.
"Two years later (1828) he came again, and, in Warren, preached an equally important ser- mon, on 'Knowledge, Faith and Opinion in Religion.' This sermon had special reference to the case of Aylette Raines (who was in the audience) and his Universalist opinions and phi-
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losophy, but the principles laid down in it apply to all questions of religious opinion. The dis- ciples on the Western Reserve have gotten out from under the popes of Rome and England and Germany, and also from under the Presbyterian and Baptist popes. Alexander Campbell's ser- mon logically kills off every pope in the world- all of those fellows who go clinking about with keys with which they open and shut the kingdom of God.
"Those two sermons became the keynote for preaching. That teaching leavened the Western Reserve. I may give a single illustration out of many. In May, 1915, the State Congregational Association met in Painesville, and their two most advertised men were ex-President Taft and Peter Ainslie, of Baltimore. I heard the name of Jesus glorified above every name, and creeds and sectarianism repudiated and denounced in a way which might well have thrilled the ashes of Alexander Campbell in his grave. It is grand to live, to walk the soil which heroes have trodden, to breathe the air of liberty which they created, to be associated with their children and grand- children, to reap the harvest which they sowed and visit the graves in which their honored bodies lie."
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