xt78gt5fbt36 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt78gt5fbt36/data/mets.xml Tyler, B. B. (Benjamin Bushrod), 1840- 18951894  books b92-78-27212117 English Christian Literature Co. ; Louisville, Ky. : Guide Printing & Publishing Co., : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Disciples of Christ History. Restoration movement (Christianity) History. History of the Disciples of Christ  / by B.B. Tyler. text History of the Disciples of Christ  / by B.B. Tyler. 1895 2002 true xt78gt5fbt36 section xt78gt5fbt36 




AMERICAN CHURCH HISTORY



         A HISTORY

              OF THE


DISCIPLES OF CHRIST



         BY

B. B. TYLER,



D.D.



          NEW-YORK
  THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE CO.
          MDCCCXCIV

          LOUISVILLE, Ky.
GUIDE PRINTING  PUBLISHING COMPANY.
             1895.


 






































         Copyright, i894,
BY THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE COMPANY.




 















                    CONTENTS.





                  THE DISCIPLES.

                                                           PAGE
CHAP. I.-INTRODUCTION: THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDI-
    TION OF THE PEOPLE.-Testimony of General Assembly.-Effect
    of Revolutionary War.-Testimony of Dr. Armitage.-Material
    Condition of the  People  ......... ............................  I
CHAP. II.-THE GREAT REVIVAL.-Origin of Revival.-Cane Ridge.
    -Immediate Results. - Evangelizing Agencies. - Increase in
    Church-membership ........................................ To
CHAP. III.-CONTENTION AND DIVISION.-Doctrinal Controversy.-
    Organization of the Springfield Presbytery.-The Last Will and
    Testament.-Similar Movements.-Success of Stone's Work.-Im-
    mersion Introduced ......................................... 22
CHAP. IV.-PREPARATORY EVENTS IN EUROPE.-Conversion of
   Thomas Campbell.-John Wesley's Work.-Burghers and Anti-
   Burghers.-Alexander Campbell as a Reformer.-The Haldanes. .  34
CHAP. V.-THE CAMPBELLS IN AMERICA.-The Heresy Trial.-
   Thomas Campbell's Defense.-Propositions of the Christian Asso-
   ciation.-The Practical Question ............................... 44
CHAP. VI.-CONNECTION WITH THE BAPTISTS.-Peace Desired.-
   The Question of Baptism.-The Nature of Faith.-Position of the
   Brush Run Church.-Sermon on the Law.-Circular Letter.-Dis-
   solution of Mahoning Association ............................. 57
CHAP. VII.-THE PROBLEM OF CHRISTIAN UNION.-Reformers
   and Christians.-The Language of Inspiration.-An Agreement
   Reached.-The Problem of Union.-Proposition of the Bishops.-
   Reply to the Proposition.-The Proposition Hailed with Gladness.
   -The Basis of Union.-Christian Fellowship.-Practical Ques-
   tions.-Willing to Confer.-Desire for Union.-Plans Proposed.-
   The True Basis ..............  ..............................  72
CHAP. VIII.-THE CREED QUESTION.-Articles of Belief.-Statement
   of Faith.-The Bible Only.-Divine Test of Orthodoxy.-The
   Authority of Christ. -Creeds and Spiritual Development.-Heretics
                              iii


 





IV                          N TrFRANTS.
                                                            PAG9
    in the Apostolic Church.-Denominationalism Temporary.-Some
    Peculiarities.-The Work of the Holy Spirit.-The Church.-Bap-
    tism and Forgiveness .io
CHAP. IX.-LITERATURE AND EDUCATION.-Polemic Period.-Con.
   troversy Defended.-The Belligerent Era.-Change of Style.-
   Robert Owen's Challenge.-Campbell and Purcell.-The New
   Testament Translated.-Books of Sermons.-Periodicals.-The
   Higher Education.-Colleges.-Universities.-Negro Education.. 127
CHAP. X.-MIssIoNs.-Missionary Organizations.-Work in Europe
   and Asia.-Woman's Board of Missions .155




 











                     BIBLIOGRAPHY.





Dorchester, Daniel, Christianity in the United States.  New York,
    Phillips  Hunt, i888.
Mcaster, John Bach, History of the People of the United States from
    the Revolution to the Civil War.  New York, Appleton  Co., vol. i.,
    1883; vol. ii., z885; vol. iii., 1892.

XcDonnold, B. W., History of the Cumberland- Presbyterian Church.
    Nashville, Cumberland Presbyterian Publication House, I888.

Baxter, William, Life of Elder Walter Scott.  Cincinnati, Chase  Hall,
    1874.
Campbell, Alexander, " The Christian Baptist" (newspaper, 1823-29,
    Burnet edition), " Millenial Harbinger" (newspaper, i830-70); Debate
    with N. L. Rice. Cincinnati, E. Morgan  Co., 1844; Memoirs of
    Elder Thomas Campbell. Cincinnati, H. S. Bosworth, i86i.
Crisman, E. B., Origin and Doctrines of the Cumberland Presbyterian
    Church. Nashville, Cumberland Presbyterian Publication House, 1875.
Errett, Isaac, Our Position (a tract). Cincinnati, Standard Publishing Co.,
    i885.
Garrison, J. H., The Old Faith Restated. St. Louis, Christian Publishing
    Co., 1891.
Green, F. M., Christian Missions Among the Discizles of Christ.  St.
    Louis, John Burns Publishing Co., 1884.
Hayden, A. S., History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio.
    Cincinnati, Chase  Hall, i875.
Lamar, J. S., Memoirs of Isaac Erret. Cincinnati, Standard Publishing
    Co., 1894, 2 vols.
Longan, G. W., The Origin of the Disciples of Christ. St. Louis, Chris-
    tian Publishing Co., 1889.
Richardson, Robert, Afemoirs of Alexander Campbell. Philadelphia,
    J. B. Lippincott  Co., 1868-70, 2 vols.; new edition, Cincinnati,
    Standard Publishing Co., i888.
Rogers, John, Biography of Barton Warren Stone. Cincinnati, J. A. and
    U. J. Janies, 1847.
Williams, John Augustus, Life of John Smith. Cincinnati, R. W.
    Carroll  Co., 1870.
                                V


 












            THE DISCIPLES.





                   CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION: THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDI-
                TION OF THE PEOPLE.

  THE following pages will be devoted to an account of
the origin, principles, aims, and progress of the Disciples
of Christ.
  That the evolution of this communion may be under-
stood in its genesis, purpose, and rapid growth, it is im-
portant to consider the moral and spiritual condition of
the people of the United States at the beginning of the
nineteenth century.
  The moral and religious life of our fathers at the close
of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centu-
ries was very low. Unbelief in Jesus as the Son of God,
and in the Bible as a book of supernatural origin and divine
character, and in what are esteemed by evangelical believ-
ers generally as the fundamental facts and truths of the
Christian religion, abounded. The greatest immoralities
were permitted to exist almost without rebuke.  The
Lord's-house was neglected. The Lord's day was habit-
ually profaned. The gospel was disregarded. The mes-
                          I


 





sage of divine love was scorned. The Bible was treated
with contempt.
  When Theodore Dwight became president of Yale Col-
lege, in I 795, only four or five students were members of
the church. The predominant thought was skeptical. In
respect to the Christian faith, the students of the College
of New Jersey (Princeton) were not superior to the young
men in Yale. The College of William and Mary was a
hot-bed of unbelief. Transylvania University, now Ken-
tucky University, founded by Presbyterians, was in the
hands of men who repudiated the evangelical faith. At
Bowdoin College at one time in the early part of the nine-
teenth century only one student was willing to be known
as a Christian. Bishop Meade has said that so late as the
year i8io, in Virginia, he expected to find every educated
young man whom he met a skeptic, if not an avowed
unbeliever. Chancellor Kent, who died in I847, said that
in his younger days there were but few professional men
who were not unbelievers. Lyman Beecher, in his auto-
biography, says, speaking of the early years of this cent-
ury and the closing years of the last, that it was " the day
of the Tom Paine school, when boys who dressed flax in
the barn read Tom Paine and believed him." Mr. Beecher
graduated from Yale in I 797, and he tells us that the
members of the class of I 796 were known to one another
as Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert, etc. About this time
also wild and undefined expectations were, in many places
and by many persons, entertained of a new order of things
and better, about to be ushered in. The Christian religion,
it was thought, would soon be thrown to one side as
obsolete. Illustrations of the bitter feeling which existed
against the orthodox conception of the religion of Jesus
are abundant.
  It is said that in the year i 8oo only one Congregational



THEN 01SCIPLES.



(CHAP. L



2


 




TESTIMO0NY OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY.



church in Boston remained loyal to the old faith. When
the Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin became pastor of the Park Street
Church, in i8I I, the current of thought and feeling against
orthodoxy was so decided and intense that men went to
hear him in disguise. They could not endure the ridi-
cule that they would certainly receive from their acquaint-
ances if the fact became known that they had given atten-
tion to a sermon delivered by an evangelical minister.
  The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in
I 798 issued a general letter in which the following language
was employed:
  " Formidable innovations and convulsions in Europe
threaten destruction to morals and religion. Scenes of
devastation and bloodshed unexampled in the history of
modern nations have convulsed the world, and our coun-
try is threatened with similar concomitants. We perceive
with pain and fearful apprehension a general dereliction of
religious principles and practice among our fellow-citizens;
a visible and prevailing impiety and contempt for the laws
and institutions of religion, and an abounding infidelity,
which in many instances tends to atheism itself. The
profligacy and corruption of the public morals have ad-
vanced with a progress proportionate to our declension in
religion. Profaneness, pride, luxury, injustice, intemper-
ance, lewdness, and every species of debauchery and loose
indulgence greatly abound."
  Unbelief and immoral living were joined hand to hand.
Intemperance prevailed to an alarming extent. To be-
come stupidly drunk did not seriously injure a man's rep-
utation. The decanter was in every home. Total absti-
nence had hardly been thought of. Temperance sermons
were not preached; the pulpit was dumb on this evil.
Members of Christian churches in regular standing drank
to intoxication. The highest church officials often in-



3


 






dulged immoderately in drink. When the physician visited
a patient he was offered a stimulant. At marriages, at
births, and at the burial of the dead, drinking was indulged
in. A pastor in New York City, as late as i820, has left
on record the statement that it was difficult to make pas-
toral visits for a day without becoming, in a measure, in-
toxicated. Lyman Beecher has given an account of an
ordination in which the participating ministers drank until
they were in a state bordering on intoxication. The Rev.
Daniel Dorchester, D.D., quotes a minister of this period
as saying that he could reckon up among his acquaintances
forty ministers who were either drunkards or so far ad-
dicted to the use of strong drink that their usefulness was
impaired. This man says that he was present at an ordi-
nation at which two aged ministers of the gospel were
literally drunk.
  The Rev. Peter Cartwright, in his autobiography, gives
a dark picture of the moral condition of the portion of
Kentucky in which his youth was spent. He was born in
I 785. He testifies that the state of society in southern
Kentucky was desperate. Lawlessness prevailed. Such
was the disregard for religion in this commonwealth at
one time that the services of a chaplain in the State legis-
lature were dispensed with.
  As the movement of which I am in the following pages
to give an account began in Kentucky and Tennessee, it
may not be improper to say, in perfect harmony with well-
attested facts, that in that portion of our country the moral
tone of the people generally was exceptionally low.
There was a general disregard of religion, and a contempt
for religious institutions. In many places having a con-
siderable population there was not a place of public wor-
ship. The Lord's day was distinguished from other days
only by greater noise, more amusement, more profanity,



7WYE DISCIPLES.



LCIIAP. 1.



4


 





EFFECT OF RE'VOLU7ZONARY WAR.



and a more shameless dissipation. The predominating
influence in Lexington, the capital of the far-famed Blue
Grass region, was infidel.
   How are we to account for this moral and spiritual deso-
lation 
  The people had but recently passed through a war of
seven years' duration. Moral and spiritual deterioration
is almost unavoidably the accompaniment and conse-
quence of great wars. The Revolution in North America
does not furnish an exception to the usual tendencies of
war. The year I 783 marked the conclusion, in a sense,
of this long and bloody conflict. The people had secured
the liberty for which they had struggled with a heroism
unsurpassed in the annals of the race. They were free
from the rule of Great Britain, but were in a condition
bordering on lawlessness. It is recorded in our Bible,
in the Book of Judges, that at a certain period "there
was no king in Israel, but every man did that which
was right in his own eyes." This is a pretty accurate
description of the disorderly life of our people during the
period intervening between the close of the Revolutionary
War, the adoption of the present Constitution, and the
formal inauguration of the system of government under
which we so happily live. This time has been felicitously
described by Mr. John Fiske as "the critical period in
American history." So much had been spoken and writ-
ten on the subject of liberty that multitudes were unwilling
to be directed in their dealings with their fellow-men by
the reasonable requirements of law.
  The people, also, during this period of time were com-
pelled to give much attention to political questions. A
government of some kind must be established. The lib-
erty which had been secured by an appeal to arms must be
organized and transmitted. This required much anxious



5


 





thought on the part of men who were leaders. Intense
political thought and discussion are, as we all well know,
not favorable to a high degree of moral and spiritual life.
  Almost as soon as the new form of government had,
with almost incredible difficulty, been settled, questions
between the infant republic and the British monarchy
came to the front, resulting in the War of i812.
  But most to be lamented, there was a famine of the
Word of God.    Before the War of Independence the
mother-country would not permit the publication of the
Bible within the limits of her dependencies on this side of
the Atlantic. One of the first acts of Congress after the
war was an act ordering the purchase of a quantity of
Bibles to be distributed freely among the people.
  Dr. Dorchester, in " Christianity in the United States,"
says that " the most pious people in the beginning of the
present century, in the United States, entertained a faith
so unlike the present belief of evangelical Christians as to
almost create the impression on our minds that their relig-
ion was not the same as the religion which we now have,
and in which we believe."
  President Wayland, in " Notes on the Principles and
Practices of the Baptists," says that in the early part of
his ministry he was settled in an intelligent community in
the goodly commonwealth of Massachusetts. In his church
was a gentleman reputed to be intelligent in the doctrines
of the denomination, the son of a Baptist minister, who had
an interesting family, but devoted to worldliness. Dr. Way-
land expressed to the father a desire to speak to the
young people on the subject of personal religion. To this
the father objected! He assured his pastor that he wished
no one to speak to his sons and daughters on the subject
of personal piety: if they were of the elect, God would
convert them in his own good time; and if they were of



6



rHYE DISCIPLES.



[CHAP. 1.


 



TESTIMONY OF DR. ARMITA GE.



the non-elect, such conversation as Dr. Wayland suggested
would probably make them hypocrites!
  Regeneration, as usually presented, from the pulpit and
in current theological literature, by the accredited teachers
in the orthodox denominations, was regarded as a miracle.
Every case of moral quickening was as much a miracle as
was the resurrection of Lazarus. As the ministers taught,
so the people believed.
  The word of God in the Bible was popularly regarded
as a dead letter. There was supposed to be no power in
the preached gospel to produce saving faith. The faith
by which men are saved was understood to be a direct gift
from God. It was assumed that the gospel was impo-
tent to produce spiritual life. The seed was thought to be
dead.
  The Rev. Dr. Thomas Armitage, in his " History of the
Baptists," gives an illustration of the condition of affairs
among the Baptists.
  The Baltimore Association met at a place called Black
Rock, in the State of Maryland. Those who opposed
missions, Sunday-schools, and Bible societies under the
pretense that they conflicted with the sovereignty of God
in the kingdom of Christ were in a majority. They de-
nounced these institutions as corruptions which were
flowing in like a flood. It was accordingly resolved that
the Baltimore Association would not hold fellowship with
such churches as united with these and other societies of
a benevolent, religious, and philanthropic character. The
names of congregations cooperating in mission work, in
Sunday-school work, and in the distribution of the Word
of God through the agency of Bible societies, etc., were
erased from the minutes of this association. This was as
late as I836. What must have been the attitude of these
churches before the new light began to spread !



7


 




7 ZIE DISCIPLES.



   Dr. Armitage says that the Sator church started with a
keen zest against the Roman Catholic communion in what
she called her "Solemn League and Covenant."  The
members of this church bound themselves to abhor and
oppose Rome, the pope, and popery, with all their anti-
christian ways.  This, adds the historian, was all well
enough, but it would have been much better to have set
up a strong defense against the antinomian and anti-mis-
sion pope who crippled so seriously the early Baptists in
Maryland.
  An excellent way in which to obtain a reasonably ac-
curate and full view of the condition of the Church of God
and of the community at large in the United States when
the present century came in, is to eliminate from the
church and society, as we now know them, the spiritual
organizations and forces known to be at work in this pres-
ent time.
  The Sunday-school was not. More than a decade of
the nineteenth century had passed when the American
Bible Society began its beneficent career.  Antislavery
societies had not been organized. The crusade in behalf
of total abstinence from the use of intoxicating beverages
had not been inaugurated.  The great missionary and
other benevolent agencies, so full of blessing to the people,
came into existence subsequent to the period of time here
described. Eliminate these factors of human progress and
blessing, and behold the moral and spiritual desert.
  The material and spiritual in man are intimately asso-
ciated. Extreme poverty is not favorable to a high degree
of spiritual development-nor is extreme wealth. Man's
physical surroundings and condition determine, to a de-
gree, his moral and spiritual state. A description of the
religious-or, more correctly, irreligious-lives of our an-
cestors is incomplete without a statement of their financial,



8



[CIIAP. 1.


 




AIA TERIAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.



social, and physical condition; but in this place there is no
room for the proper presentation of this subject.
  It is a fact that at the conclusion of our War of Inde-
pendence the houses of the people were meaner, their
food was coarser, their clothing was scantier, and their
wages were lower than at the present time. The man
who did unskilled labor was peculiarly fortunate if at the
close of a week he could carry to his home four dollars.
In this home there were no carpets; there was no glass
on the table, no china in the cupboard, no pictures, not
even cheap chromos, on the walls. His clothing was a
pair of leather breeches, a flannel jacket, a. rusty felt hat,
shoes of neat's-skin, and a leather apron. The treatment
of debtors shows beyond reasonable doubt that the gener-
ation that witnessed the War of the Revolution was less
merciful than the generation that witnessed the War of
I86I-65.
  But from the revolting scenes in the prisons in which
men and women were incarcerated for no other crime
than debt it is a relief to turn.
  The theme treated so briefly and so very imperfectly is
capable of indefinite expansion.  But a better day ap-
proaches. Let us behold its dawning.



9




 










CHAPTER II.



                 THE GREAT REVIVAL.

  IT must not be thought, from the statement of facts on
the preceding pages, that the people of the United States
were, without exception, destitute alike of saving faith and
genuine piety during the period described. Some there
were who had successfully resisted the tide of unbelief
and immorality. In some of the institutions of learning
where infidelity had reigned it is encouraging that there
were indications of a practical interest in the spiritual veri-
ties of the Christian religion.
  Dartmouth College, as an illustration, enjoyed a season
of spiritual refreshing in 178I and in I 788. There was a
revival in Yale in I 783. The membership of the college
church, as a result, became larger than at any previous
period. A season, however, of spiritual declension fol-
lowed.  In I 795, as has already been related, twelve
years after this revival, not more than four or five students
in Yale College professed to be Christians.  For three
years during the Revolutionary War Princeton College
was closed. For a period of forty years, or from 1770 to
i8io, there was no such interest in the gospel as could
properly be called a revival. There were but two pro-
fessors of religion among the students in I782. As the
eighteenth century came to a close there were a few relig-
ious revivals in different parts of the country. There are
in existence accounts of spiritual awakenings in portions
of the State of New Jersey, in parts of Pennsylvania, in
                           I0


 



ORIGIN OF REVIVAL.



western New York, in Georgia, in the Carolinas, and in
portions of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
  During these seasons of special interest in these widely
separated localities, some young men who were destined
to exert a great influence for good in coming years turned
to the Lord.
  Barton Warren Stone (born in I772, died in i844) was
such a person. In 1790 he entered an academy in Guil-
ford, N. C., then in the midst of a revival. Here he found
the peace that passeth understanding.
  But almost the whole of New England was exempt from
special religious interest from the year I 745, the close of
the revival under Jonathan Edwards and George White-
field, which began in I 743, until long after the beginning
of the present century. The same conditions, in general,
existed in the churches located in eastern New York and
in the Middle States.
  It becomes now my pleasant task to give some account
of the radical moral and spiritual change which came over
many thousands of our people.
  The Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey, in a volume written
by himself, entitled " Revival Sketches," expresses the
opinion that " the revival period at the close of the last
century and the beginning of the present furnishes ample
material for a long and glorious chapter in the history of
redemption. "
  This revival had its origin in the northern part of Ten-
nessee and the southern portion of Kentucky.
  The first indications of a quickened spiritual interest were
manifested in settlements on what was then the frontier,
where the greatest hardships were experienced, and where
the people of God realized more fully the spiritual deso-
lation, and where also they called on him with the most
intense faith and fervor.



I I


 



72 TE DISCIPLES.



   As a beginning, Christians entered into a solemn cove-
nant with one another and the Lord to spend specified
portions of time in prayer for a revival. In some places
the time designated was a half-hour at sunset every Satur-
day and a half-hour at sunrise every Lord's day.
  The Christian population in this spiritually desolate
frontier region belonged generally to the Presbyterian,
Methodist, and Baptist churches. The people had been
attracted from Virginia and the Carolinas to what was then
familiarly known as "the Cumberland country," by the
great beauty of the scenery and the extraordinary fertility
of the soil.
  In the latter part of I 799 two brothers named McGee-
brothers in the flesh and in the Lord-William, a Presby-
terian minister, and John, a minister of the Methodist
Church, preached in special meetings in parts of Tennes-
see and Kentucky-in some communities with remarkable
results. As they proceeded on their evangelizing tour,
their reputation spread, and the great good that the Lord
was doing through them was told. They so preached the
Word that many believed and turned to the Lord. Many
families came to their meetings from great distances, and
encamped in the woods for days. These meetings were
conducted in the open air. This seems to have been
the origin of camp-meetings. It is probable that the first
meeting of the kind was held in July, i8oo, in Logan
County, Ky. The Rev. James McGready of the Presby-
terian Church was the preacher.
  People came to this meeting from a radius of sixty
miles. Young men, young women, aged persons of both
sexes, white and black, dissolute and moral, were alike
stirred by the preaching of the gospel. The Rev. E. B.
Crisman, in his " History of the Cumberland Church,"
says that, as to the character of the preaching, " the minis-



(CHAP. 11.



12


 



CANE RIDGE.



ters dwelt, with great power, continually on the necessity
of repentance and faith, the fullness of the gospel for all,
and the necessity of the new birth. They eloquently and
earnestly presented the purity and justice of God's law,
the odious and destructive consequences of sin, and the
freeness and sufficiency of pardon for all."
  A work of grace was thus inaugurated, the extent and
blessings of which the cycles of eternity alone will be able
fully to reveal.
  Let us note, with some degree of leisure and care, the
extension of this special interest in the things relating to
the spiritual welfare and eternal destiny of men gener-
ated in " the Cumberland country," and see how, from the
southern portion of Kentucky and the adjoining districts
of the State of Tennessee, it was carried to the central part
of the first-named State, and thence to every part of the
land.
  Barton Warren Stone, whose conversion to Christ is
mentioned above, became an accredited minister in the
Presbyterian Church. In the year i8oo he lived in Bour-
bon County, Ky., where he served, in the pastoral office,
two churches-the congregations at Concord and Cane
Ridge. When he was more than seventy years of age he
gave a full and minute account of the kindling of this great
revival fire among his people. The story in full is of sur-
passing interest. Only a part of it can be given in this
place. The following is Mr. Stone's account of the revival
at Cane Ridge in August, I8oi.
  " Things moved on quietly in my congregations," says
Mr. Stone, " and in the country generally. Apathy in re-
ligious society appeared everywhere to an alarming degree.
Not only the power of religion had disappeared, but also
the very form of it was waning fast away, and continued
so to the beginning of the present century. Having heard



1 3


 





of the remarkable religious excitement in the south of Ken-
tucky and Tennessee, under the labors of James McGready
and other Presbyterian ministers, I was very anxious to
be among them, and early in the spring of i8oi went to
the scene of this remarkable religious excitement to attend
a camp-meeting. There, on the edge of a prairie in Logan
County, Ky., the multitudes came together and continued
a number of days and nights, encamped on the ground,
during which time worship was carried on in some part of
the encampment. The scene was new to me, and passing
strange. It baffled description. Many, very many, fell
down as men slain in battle, and continued for hours to-
gether in an apparently breathless and motionless state,
sometimes for a few moments reviving and exhibiting
symptoms of life by a deep groan, or piercing shriek, or by
a prayer for mercy fervently uttered. After lying there
for hours they obtained deliverance. The gloomy cloud
which had covered their faces seemed gradually and visi-
bly to disappear, and hope, in smiles, brightened into joy.
They would rise, shouting deliverance, and then would
address the surrounding multitude in language truly elo-
quent and impressive. With astonishment did I hear men,
women, and children declaring the wonderful works of God
and the glorious mysteries of the gospel. Their appeals
were solemn, heart-penetrating, bold, and free. Under
such circumstances many others would fall down into
the same state from which the speakers had just been
delivered.
  " Two or three of my particular acquaintances from a
distance were struck down. I sat patiently by one of
them, whom I knew to be a careless sinner, for hours, and
observed with critical attention everything that passed
from the beginning to the end. I noticed the momentary
revivings, as from death, the humble confession of sins,



THE DISCIPLERS.



[CHAP. II1.



14


 



CANE RIDGE.



the fervent prayer, and the ultimate deliverance; then the
solemn thanks and praise to God, and affectionate exhor-
tation to companions and to the people around to repent
and come to Jesus. I was astonished at the knowledge of
gospel truth displayed in the address. The effect was
that several sank down into the same appearance of death.
After attending to many such cases my conviction was
complete that it was a good work-the work of God; nor
has my mind wavered since on the subject. Much did I
see then, and much have I seen since, that I consider to
be fanaticism, but this should not condemn the work. The
devil has always tried to ape the works of God, to bring
them into disrepute, but that cannot be a satanic work
which brings men to humble confession, to forsaking of
sin, to prayer, fervent praise and thanksgiving, and a sin-
cere and affectionate exhortation to sinners to repent and
come to Jesus the Saviour.
  " The meeting being closed, I returned with ardent
spirits to my congregations. I reached my appointment
at Cane Ridge on the Lord's day. Multitudes had col-
lected, anxious to hear the religious news of the meeting I
had attended in Logan. I ascended the pulpit, and gave
a relation of what I had seen and heard; then opened my
Bible, and preached from these words: 'Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that
believeth not shall be damned.' On the universality of the
gospel and faith as the condition of salvation I particularly
dwelt, and urged the sinner to believe in it and be saved.
I labored -to remove their pleas and obligations; nor was it
labor in vain. The congregation was affected with awful
solemnity, and many returned home weeping. Having
left appointments to preach in the congregation within a
few days, I hurried over to Concord to preach at night.



15


 



THE DISCIPLES.



  " At our night meeting at Concord two little girls were
struck down under the preaching of the Word, and in
every respect were exercised as those were in the south
of Kentucky, as already described. Their addresses made
deep impressions on the congregations. . . . On the next
day I returned to Cane Ridge. . . . I soon heard of the
good effects of the meeting on Sunday. Many were sol-
emnly engaged in seeking salvation, and some had found
the Lord and were rejoicing in Him. ...
  "A memorable meeting was held at Cane Ridge in
August, i8oi. The roads were crowded with wagons,
carriages, horses, and footmen, moving to the solemn camp.
It was judged by military men on the ground