USA > Ohio > A history of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio > Part 9
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"Item: We will that the people henceforth take the Bible as their only sure guide to heaven, and as many as are offended with other books which stand in competition with it, may cast them into the fire if they choose, for it is better to enter into life having one book, than having many books to be cast into hell."
We now quote from a sermon by John A. Gano, delivered at Caneridge, upon the death of Stone. "The first churches planted and organ- ized since the grand apostasy with the Bible as the only creed or church book, and the name 'Christian' as the only family name, were organ- ized in Kentucky, in 1804. Of these, Caneridge was the first. Let us pause here for a moment to contemplate the high, the holy, the exalted stand taken by these pioneers in the cause of gospel truth and liberty. As if breathing the same spirit which animated the primitive saints, we see them rising superior to the traditions of ages, and losing sight of all humanisms in re- ligion; their eyes fixed on God's holy word, they pant for the divine order; under the guidance of heaven-born truth, they are led to original-to primitive, to holy ground. Having tasted of the good word of the Lord and made to drink into his spirit-made free, indeed-they desire to see others blessed." We make these liberal quota- tions because Stone and his coworkers have been
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much misrepresented, and it is but reasonable they should state their own position. Having cut loose from all humanisms, their only standard of appeal the Bible, they, of course, soon became dissatisfied with their baptism, and desired im- mersion. The Baptists would not baptize them, not regarding them as orthodox in the faith. They were compelled to immerse each other; this they did. Of the original persons engaged in this movement, Marshall and Thompson became dis- satisfied and returned to the Presbyterian Church; McNemar and Dunlevy were carried away by the Shaker delusion, leaving Stone and Purviance to be led by the word of God and their honest convictions. They were strength- ened, however, by many other accessions.
Among the earliest preachers were: Samuel and John Rogers, Archibald Alexander, William Kinkade, David Kirkpatrick, James Hughes, Nathan Worley, Reuben Dooley, David Hatha- way, John Longley, John A. Gano, Mathew Gard- ner and many others. After the removal of the Shakers and the coming of Pickerill, in 1810, some of these preachers in their preaching tours visited the vicinity and preached to a people apparently hungering for the bread of life. I gather many interesting incidents from the auto- biography of Elder Gardner. From him we learn that his father's house was also a preaching- place. Gardner had come from New York, with a large family, in the year 1800, and settled on the farm now owned by Wm. Richey, there being then but three cabins in a radius of as many miles. But the settlers came in fast during the first ten years, so that considerable congregations could be gathered to hear the Word preached.
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David Purviance
Father John Longley
Jacob Creath
Daniel Mercer
F. M. Gibbs
J. H. Garvin
T. N. Madden®
J. S. Lowe
James S. Riddle
PIONEER PREACHERS TO WHOM OHIO OWES MUCH
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XVII HISTORIC DEDICATION SERMON-Continued
IN September of 1810, a Christian camp-meeting was held near where Bentonville now stands, Barton W. Stone being the chief speaker. There Gardner and many others went forward and con- fessed their faith in Christ, and about the middle of the following month he and many others were baptized by Archibald Alexander, in Eagle Creek, below where the old road crossed the creek. So far as we now know, this was the first baptism in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ, in this beautiful stream. Shortly after this, a church was organized by Elder Alexander, bear- ing alone the name "Christian," and having the word of God alone as their creed.
I have no means at hand to determine exactly who constituted this first church. If its records have been preserved, I know not who have them. We know that some members of the Gardner, Devore, Pickerill, Ramey, Ristine, Hughes, Fish- er, Reeves, Hatfield and Longley families either were, or soon after became, members of the church. Elder Alexander preached for the newly organized church for a time. In the latter part of the year 1812, John Longley, then of Ken- tucky, began to preach for the church-was chosen its pastor, and soon after removed to Ohio, and settled in Decatur. He continued to preach for the church for about six years. About
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the year 1816 there was held quite a revival meeting in a peach orchard, near the upper end of the present burying-ground. At that meeting Lovel Pickerill and many others were converted. The church became so much strengthened as to determine upon building a house of worship. This was a work of great magnitude, considering the condition of the church and neighborhood; the country was but then settling up; most of the people were poor, having little but their lands, and these but partially cleared. They received no sympathy or encouragement from their relig- ious neighbors. Added to this, a general finan- cial prostration followed the conclusion of the war of 1812, from which the country had not yet recovered. These considerations rendered it almost a matter of wonder that they should undertake, and carry on to conclusion, such a work as the erection of the, to us now, old Liberty Stone meeting-house. That they did it under these circumstances reflects great credit upon our fathers in the church and their neighbors who assisted them. The work was undertaken and carried on to a successful termination in the year 1817. The neighbors, church-members and others turned out with teams and hauled the · stone to build the walls; others contributed money. The building committee consisted of David Devore, Jephtha Beasley and Samuel Pick- erill. The masons who built the walls were Daniel Copple and Joseph Hughes; Mathew Gardner did at least part of the carpenter work. The work was one involving very great and arduous labor. The walls are 44 by 34 feet, 2 feet in thickness ; perhaps 12 feet to the square; gables completed with stone all laid in lime mor-
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tar. Upon the completion of the house, the build- ers, remembering their religious freedom, chris- tened it "Liberty"; and to this day no man giving evidences of honesty of purpose has ever been prevented from here freely expressing what he understood the word of God to teach. Eternity only can disclose the influence for good this building has had upon this community. To stim- ulate others to well-doing, I will state that some who assisted in the building were not then, nor ever did they become, members of the church; yet, their labors were blest to the good of their families. As an instance, Lawrence Ramey never was himself a member of the church; yet, almost all his descendants, even to the third and fourth generations, did become members.
Immediately after the building of the house, the church passed through a fiery ordeal. This trial is curtly referred to by Elder Gardner in his biography. The preacher turned storekeeper; then got his brethren to indorse for him; then got in debt, got in jail, ruined his indorsers, lost his influence, changed his religion, joined the Campbellites and left the country.
It is but just to the memory of Father Long- ley, however, to state that he continued in fellow- ship with the church of his choice, and preached in the State of Indiana till his death, at a very advanced age, but a few years since. After Longley's departure, David Hathaway became the minister of the church.
From this time there were frequent changes in the preachers. Nothing of special moment occurred during the next ten or twelve years. About the year 1832 another event occurred which marks a third era in the religious history
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of the neighborhood. In the year 1807 Thomas Campbell emigrated from the north of Ireland and settled in Washington County, Pa. He was a minister of the branch of the Presbyterian Church known as Seceders, and a man of ac- knowledged piety. After his arrival, he minis- tered to the destitute churches of his order. De- ploring the distracted condition of the Christian world, he resolved to make an effort to restore the original unity of the church. A meeting was called at Buffalo, Pa., Aug. 17, 1809, consisting of persons of different religious denominations. After full conference, it was agreed to form an association, to be called the Christian Associa- tion of Washington, Pa. The sole purpose of this organization was to promote simple evan- gelical Christianity. They resolved to support those teachers only who taught those things alone, as a matter of Christian faith or duty, for which there could be produced a "thus saith the Lord," either in expressed terms or by ap- proved precedents. Just on the eve of the publi- cation of their principles, Alexander Campbell, having spent some months in the University of Glasgow, in Scotland, followed his father to this country and arrived at Washington. He heartily joined in the effort to unite the churches on this simple basis. Several things inevitably followed a simple reliance upon the word of God: 1st. The weekly communion. £ 2nd. An abandonment of
infant baptism and infant church membership. 3rd. That immersion in water upon a profession of faith in Christ alone constituted Christian baptism. On the 12th of June, 1812, father and son, together with several members of the con- gregation, previously organized at Brush Run,
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were immersed in Buffalo Creek by Elder Mathias Luse, of the Baptist Church. The church became a member of a Baptist association. The Campbells were now both preachers in the Bap- tist Church. But the position which they had assumed, to refer all matters of faith or prac- tice to the word of God, and which had led them out of the Presbyterian Church, rendered it im- possible for them to remain in the Baptist Church, and, after much discussion and many gropings after light, they withdrew, and in 1823 constituted, at Wellsburg, W. Va., simply a church of Christ, without a human name or à human constitution. At this date Alexander Campbell commenced the publication of the Chris- tian Baptist, through which he plead for a restora- tion of the "ancient order" of things; viz., the simple teaching and practice of Christ and the apostles, unmixed with human tradition or human philosophy. Alexander Campbell, being a fine scholar, an interesting speaker, an able disputant of untiring energy, and, above all, of unblemished Christian character and earnest piety, succeeded in rapidly disseminating these views. Indeed, the only wonder is that they were not universally re- ceived. Many preachers in Kentucky and other parts of the country (mostly from the Baptists) united with him in his efforts at reformation, and during the period from 1823 to 1832 many churches were organized.
Among the leading preachers in Kentucky were John Smith and John T. Johnson. They saw the inconsistency of two religious parties, occupying substantially the same ground-both pleading for the union of Christians upon the Bible alone-remaining separate; consequently
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they, together with Stone, who recognized the same inconsistency, determined, if possible, to unite the two parties, and thus illustrate the feasibility of the union for which they strove. Stone and Johnson, both residing in Georgetown, Ky., were the leading spirits in this movement. To accomplish this union, Stone associated John- son with him as co-editor of the Christian Mes- senger, a paper which he had been for some time publishing.
They determined, in order to effect the union which both earnestly desired, to hold two union meetings of four days each-the first at George- town, including Christmas Day of 1831; the second at Lexington, including New Year's Day of 1832. The first was preparatory, the second the real union meeting. At that meeting were Stone, Johnson, Smith, Rogers, Elley, Creath and many others. It was arranged that one from each party should deliver an address plainly set- ting forth his conception of the Scriptural ground of union among the people. John Smith was selected by the one party, B. W. Stone by the other. We can make but brief extracts from these addresses. Smith spoke first. He began: "God has but one people upon the earth; he has given them but one book. He therein exhorts and commands them to be one family. An amal- gamation of sects is not such union as Christ prayed for or God enjoins. In regard to specu- lative subjects, speak only in Scriptural lan- guage. We may, by speaking the same things, finally come to think the same things. For several years past I have stood pledged to meet the religious world, or any part of it, on the ancient gospel and order of things as presented
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in the words of the Book. Let us all come to the Bible, and the Bible alone, as the only book in the world which can give us all the light we need." Stone afterwards spoke; we have only room for the concluding sentence: "I have not one objection to the ground laid down by him, as the Scriptural basis of union among the people of God; and I am willing to give him now and here my hand." Of this union it is truly said by the historian, the brethren of Stone did not join Campbell as their leader, nor did the brethren of Campbell join Stone as their leader; but each, having already taken Jesus the Christ as their only leader, in love and liberty became one body -not Stoneites or Campbellites, not Christians or disciples, distinctively as such. But Chris- tians, disciples, saints, brethren and children of the same Father.
To consummate the union begun here, one from each party was chosen to travel among the churches. John Smith and John Rogers were respectively chosen, and carried forward the work to a successful and satisfactory termina- tion. There had existed for some time a Baptist church at Redoak, which had for its pastor, Jesse Holton. As early as 1820 he had preached at Liberty, there being a number of his faith in the neighborhood. Prominent among these were the Edwards, Geeslin and West families. Prior to the year 1832, the church and its preachers had united with Campbell in his reformatory move- ment. I can not give the exact time nor the cir- cumstances under which the union was effected here. We know that Hathaway and Longley of the one party, and Holton of the other, heartily entered into the union; also the great body of
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the church here, with many in the neighborhood who had formerly stood with the Baptists. The union here has verified Smith's expectation that, by speaking the same things, we would eventually come to think the same things. Entertaining almost every opinion from the most ultra-Cal- vinism to the very verge of Unitarianism, by speaking in Scriptural language and forbearing one another in love, perhaps no church in the land has had less doctrinal disputation. And perhaps no church can now be found that more perfectly harmonizes in faith and opinion, than this church. From the time of this union, the church has habitually come together upon the first day of the week to break bread. Few - churches have so deliberately pursued the even tenor of their way as this. There has been no season of uncontrollable religious excitement and none of great religious depression.
John Ramey, Lovel Pickerill and Florence Shoafstall were among the first elders of the congregation. After them came William N. Ramey, Acklas Geeslin, T. J. Pickerill, G. E. Hatfield, D. B. Hatfield, R. P. Pisher and Joseph Still, which brings us to our present organiza- tion. Those who from time to time have minis- tered in word and doctrine were Jesse Holton, David Hathaway, John Ross, John Rogers, J. B. Lucas, John Young, David Thompson, B. F. Sallee, W. D. Moore, and your speaker. We have received the occasional ministrations of many others. Chief among these were Aylette Rains, John Powell, Otho Pearre, Samuel Rogers, Wil- liam and Thomas Pinkerton, J. L. Thornberry and O. A. Bartholomew. The church has existed for sixty-three years; there has been an average
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membership of perhaps seventy-five; perhaps an average increase per year of ten, which will give an entire membership of about 750. The church has been a continual leaven in the community ; which has been evinced by a steady growth in morality, and regard for religious institutions throughout the neighborhood. She has done much in the cause of education. About thirty teachers have grown up under her influence; she has sent out some six preachers. Two churches have sprung up under her influence-that of Russellville, organized about 1843, and that of Bethlehem, soon after. Her influence for good has been much extended by the emigration of her members to other parts of the country. Her representatives are laboring in the Master's cause in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and perhaps other States.
The change in the public road, which formerly ran in front of our old house, rendered it very inconvenient and the location very unsightly. The old house needing repairs, the church determined to build. This conclusion was reached late in May. A finance committee consisting of W. H. H. Edwards, G. Q. Henry and Narval Johnson was appointed. They immediately made a thor- ough canvass, and reported so encouragingly that a building committee consisting of G. W. Brown, J. W. Wilson, R. P. Fisher, S. M. Pickerill and J. S. West was immediately appointed. They, after due deliberation, gave out the work to Joseph Gaily. By the terms of the contract, he was to furnish all the material, build and furnish the house. This very neat structure is the result, which, so far as I know, renders entire satisfac-
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tion to all concerned. This house we have met to devote to the service of God. Shall we now, brethren, in conclusion, attempt an application of our text? Paul teaches that the fact that others are witnesses of our efforts should stimulate us to lay aside all hindrances and run with patience the Christian race. He represents the Christians as upon a race-course, and all the ancient worthies standing around interested spectators of their running. And surely the known presence of those who have achieved renown should much stimulate those who are striving. He refers his brethren to Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Sarah and Rahab, as those who by faith have served God acceptably and entered into their rest. But these are not all; time would fail me, says Paul, to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephtha, David, Samuel and the prophets. These all through faith have obtained a good report. God speaks well of them, and angels and men applaud them. But, brethren, God has provided some better things for us. They enjoyed Christ's glorious kingdom in pros- pect; we enjoy it as a reality. If Paul's brethren should be stimulated by these heavenly witnesses, how much more we, when that heavenly company has been so largely increased. Are there not now with them Jesus, our blessed Saviour, before whom all knees bow, and whom all tongues honor, and Peter the holder of the keys, and Paul our apostle, and Stephen the martyr, and the women with the sweet spices? And may we not hope, too, that all those grand old reformers who gave their lives for the truth are there? But, brethren and sisters, there are others still dearer to us who swell the mighty throng. There are our
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fathers and our mothers in the church and in the flesh. These all have died in faith, and now look down from their celestial heights upon us, desir- ing our success. Oh, brethren, let us imitate the example of these ancient worthies; let us from this blessed moment lay aside every weight that hinders, and run in the Master's service. If we are but faithful, great is our reward in heaven.
Brethren, should I ever get to heaven (which I hope by the grace of God to do), and should I behold the twelve Apostles of the Lord upon twelve thrones, and should I behold near the thrones of Peter and Paul and those noble old re- formers, Luther, Calvin and Wesley, I shall expect to see Alexander Campbell, with august carriage and mien unabashed, stand in the noble throng; and shall I not see near the thrones of the beloved disciples, which will stand next the Master's, those men of love, Philip Melancthon and Barton W. Stone? And should I come to the heavenly gates, wearied with the buffetings of the cold stream of Jordan, I shall expect to meet old Father Pick- erill, who will say: "Come with me; I learned how to entertain the saints in the old world." I shall expect to see Martha, the sister of Lazarus, and old Mother Pickerill busy striving to add to the comfort of the heavenly inhabitants; and shall I not see hard by the feet of Jesus, Sister Shoafstall, with Mary of precious memory; and there in the company of the patriarchs shall I not see John Ramey, and as I "walk about Jeru- salem," and become better acquainted in the glorious land, if there be any part of heaven where the angels sing more loudly and the rap- tures are more intense than others, there I confi- dently expect to see Bro. Geeslin, Thomas Pick-
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erill and W. N. Ramey; and if there should be any quiet corner away from the bustle of bolder spirits, where the angels sing their sweetest songs, there I shall hear the voice of Wm. F. Pickerill, singing with the melody with which he only could sing while here upon earth.
May the God of our fathers help us to imitate their faithfulness so long as he shall permit us to worship here; and when we go hence, may he say to each one of us, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joys of thy Lord."
A. B. Wade
James Williams
J. S. Ross
SOME FAITHFUL MINISTERS
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John Rogers
Walter Scott
John O'Kane
John A. Gano
Alexander Campbell
J. T. Johnson
Raccoon John Smith Henry Russell Pritchard
G. W. Elley PIONEERS IN SOUTHERN OHIO
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XVIII 1798-WALTER SCOTT-1861
E ARLY in 1831 Walter Scott visited Cincinnati for the first time. For four years he had been a successful evangelist, most of the time in northeastern Ohio, and his health was impaired. He preached three months where Elder James Challen had been preaching. The fame of Scott's preaching preceded him. On account of poor health he did not always come up to expecta- tions. He asked Elder Challen to return to Cincinnati. He removed to Carthage, about eight miles north of Cincinnati. Carthage had but few things at that time to make it an inviting place of residence. But Scott lived there thir- teen years and renovated society, planting a good church.
On his first visit to Carthage he went into a Sunday school. A teacher propounded the ques- tion : "What must I do to be saved?" A bright girl aged thirteen years quoted Peter's answer: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." The teacher frowned on her. The girl cried. The superintendent later asked the same question. The girl quoted the same Scripture and the superintendent frowned on her.
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Soon after this Elder Scott preached in the village schoolhouse; the little girl was present, heard Scott preach from the Scripture she had quoted, and saw that he viewed it as she did. In four weeks he preached again in a barn. The truth as it came from his lips was so plain and sweet to the little girl that she confessed her faith in Christ. He promised to baptize her at the close of the meeting. Lifted up by the con- fession of the little girl, he was aroused, gave an exhortation, and six men arose and followed the example of the child. These were the first- fruits of a great harvest. Many of the most influential citizens in the vicinity heard and obeyed the gospel, and Carthage became famous for temperance and right religion.
Among the converts was a poor fellow, the most hopeless of an immoral population. A word-painter pictures him and Elder Scott, in part, as follows: "Parker, the sinner, was sure to be at every cock-fight or man-fight, and, in the absence of any of the pugilists, he was ready to try his hand. He was regarded as an impor- tant personage at a foot-race, donkey-race or quarter-nag, and at the winter dance. He would take a hand in a hen-roost robbery or a joke or tell a story. He was a good-natured, waggish, witty, ignorant, knowing, rampant fellow, a ter- ror to women and children. But he was not without his good points and generous impulses. He helped those in distress and sickness, and assisted in burying the dead.
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