xt7cfx73vb11 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7cfx73vb11/data/mets.xml Grafton, Thomas W. (Thomas William), 1857-1940. 1899  books b92-164-30098397 English Christian Pub. Co., : St. Louis : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Disciples of Christ Biography. Men of yesterday  : a series of character sketches of prominent men among the Disciples of Christ / by Thomas W. Grafton ; with an introduced by Benjamin L. Smith. text Men of yesterday  : a series of character sketches of prominent men among the Disciples of Christ / by Thomas W. Grafton ; with an introduced by Benjamin L. Smith. 1899 2002 true xt7cfx73vb11 section xt7cfx73vb11 



MEN OF YESTERDAY






A SERIES OF CHARACTER SKETCHES OF
     PROMINENT MEN AMONG THE
         DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.






         BY THOMAS W. GRAFTON
       Autbor of " Life of Alexander Campbell.,"


                   vrrH


              AN INTRODUCTION
          BY BENJAMIN L. SMITH
    Secretary of the American Christian Missionary Society.







                 ST. LOUIS
        CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
                   1899

 











































      COPYRMUTED, 1899, BlY
CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY

 































                   TO

        ANNA BELLE GRAFTON,

     THE COMPANION AND INSPIRATION
             OF MY BUSY LIVE,
THIS VOLUME OP SKETCHES 1S AFFECTIONATELY
               INSCRIBED.

 This page in the original text is blank.

 

PREFACE.



  THERE is no more interesting or profitable
theme for study than the life of a true man.
When that life combines, with courage and en-
durance, the elements of moral greatness and
spiritual sublimity, it becomes an inspiration to
noblest endeavor.
  The sketches which are here offered to the
public deal with a class of men, who, in making
a great cause triumphant, are deserving of the
gratitude of thousands who have been blessed
by their labors. When we think of the opposi-
tion encountered, the unpopularity incurred, the
sacrifices made, the hardships endured, the
results achieved, it is doubtful if a modern in-
stance can be found that will parallel the brave,
noble, consecrated service of the men who fol-
lowed Alexander Campbell in his search for the
scriptural ideal and in his efforts to reproduce
it amidst the political, social and religious envi-
ronments of the Nineteenth Century.
  The names appearing in this volume by no
means exhaust the list, but they are, I believe,
fairly representative.  The first three, Scott,
Stone and Smith, wrought by the side of the
great leader of the reformation and contributed
in no small measure to the successful establish-
ment of the cause of primitive Christianity.
The latter, Errett, Johnson and Burgess, took
                     (5)

 
PREFACE



up the cause at a critical period, rescued it from
ultra-conservative tendencies, and made possible
these days of enlargement.
  It was the privilege of the author to know
well the latter group, some upon terms of warm-
est friendship, and to hear them often as they
stood before the public in the defense of the
faith delivered once for all to the saints. For his
knowledge of the earlier group, he has been
dependent wholly upon the literature which has
preserved a record of their achievements. In
this connection, he begs leave to acknowledge
his indebtedness to the earlier writers who have
told the story of the lives of those who pioneered
the way: Baxter's "Life of Walter Scott,"
Stone's Autobiography, Williams' "Life of
Elder John Smith," Lamar's "Memoirs of Isaac
Errett," each of which is deserving of the study
of every disciple. He desires further to ac-
knowledge the helpful service rendered by Mrs.
B. W. Johnson and Mrs. 0. A. Burgess, each of
whom has supplemented his own recollection
of their revered husbands, with facts and inci-
dents that are worthy of remembrance.
  In offering this volume to the public, it is the
author's sincere hope that the perusal of these
worthy lives may quicken the devotion of every
reader for the cause which they served with such
heroic zeal.
  Rock Island, Feb. 15, 1899.



6


 



                 CONTENTS.




 INTRODUCTION     .  .   .   .   .  .   .

 I. WALTER SCOTT.

     I.EARLY LIFE     .  .   .   .  .   .
     II. TRAINING IN A NEW RELIGIOUS SCHOOL
   111. FINSDING A FIELD  .
   IV. GOSPEL TRIUMPHIS IN MANY lLACES
   V. PECULIARITIES AND POWER  .
   VI. THE COURSE FINISuED

II. BARTON W. STONE.

     I. EARLY STRUGGLES
     II. CONVERSION AND CALL
   III. THE GREAT REVIVAL AT C(AEXERIIX;E
   IV. A NEW DECLARATION OF INI)EPENDEXCE
   V. THE PROGRESS OF TIHE REFORM MOVEMENT
   VI. A GOLDEN SUNSET

III. JOHN SMITH.

     I. A CHILD OF THE BACKWOODS
     II. SEEKING ASSURANCE OF SALVATION
   III. WRESTLING WITH DOCTRINAL DIFFICULTIES
   IV. THE TRIumPH OF THE REFORMATION
   V. THE CLOSING LABOIR OF TIIE REFORMER

IV. ISAAC ERRETT.



1. EARLY TRAINING FOR NVORK
II. A WORKMAN   THAT NEEDETI N
       ASHAMED
III. FAITHFUL SERVICE IN A NEW FIELD
IV. THE PROGRESSIVE LEADER
V. THE LAST YEARS
                    (7)



153



SOT TO BE



162
174
184
193



PAGE
   I,



19
24
32


47
53



CZ
71


85.
91
96



107
114
124
132
142

 


8                  CONTENTS


V. BARTON W. JOHNSON.

     I. YOUTHFUL LABORS ANI) AMBITIONS        201
     II. FORMATIVE INFLPLUENCES AND EFFORTS   207
   III. FRUITS OF THE EARLY HARVEzsT. .   .   21F
   IV. IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT     .   .  .   227
   V. HOME A-ND HEAVEN..   .   .  .   .  .   228

VI. OTIS A. BURGESS.

     I. YOUTH AND EARLY LABORS  .  .   .   .  251
     II. NEW LIFE AND LABORS.                  258
   III. THE FEARLESS DEFENDER OF THE FAITH   271
   IV. THE CLOSING YEARS OF A BUSY LIFE   .  281

 

             INTRODUCTION.

T nE final analysis of any movement is the men
     that are behind it. Any good plan will
work if you put the right man back of it to
work it; no plan, no movement reaches large
results unless back of it can be found men with
large plans and large ideas.
  The movement for the Restoration of Apos-
tolic Christianity is an exemplification of this
law. It had a glorious plea,-the union of all
God's people; it bad a strong platform,-"the
Bible alone as the rule of faith and practice;"
it had a divine creed,-"Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of the living God;" and under and behind
it all, it had God-gifted men to advocate this
plea and to win for it success.
  No truth has much power if it is only held
abstractly; it must be embodied in a man and he
made flesh and blood and dwell among us; then
it becomes effective, and the larger the man who
embodies the truth, the more effective it is.
  The love of God was a great truth, written by
God's creative fingers in earth and sea and cloud,
manifested in food and shelter, emphasized in
seed-time and harvest, and repeated in provi-
dences innumerable; but it was not a control-
                     (9)

 

MEN OF YESTERDAY



ling truth until it was incarnated. When "God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not
perish, but have everlasting life," then the truth
had power, and is to-day the most potent truth
in the universe.
  So with our movement: it had great truths
and principles, and these principles became
effective through the great men who gave the
cause their adherence and their service.
God's truth flows through human channels,
and as we contemplate these lives we appreciate
the more his love. There is no more interesting
study to us who are satisfied to be simply Chris-
tian, and who take God's word alone as the rule
of faith and practice, than the study of God's
hand in our history, and the manifest leadings of
providence to bring our feet into a "larger
place," and to give us the glorious liberty where-
with Christ hath made us free.
  Wycliffe, Huss, Jerome, Luther, Calvin, Knox
and Wesley did God's work ill their day and
generation. No man has improved upon the
special plea made by Luther for Justification by
Faith; no man has pleaded more strongly for
Divine Sovereignty than did Calvin of Geneva;
no man has manifested more consecration than
Wesley; no man has excelled Knox in courage
in his struggle to save Scotland from a return of
Popery. We should never forget the little monk



10

 
INTRODUCTION



of Wittenburg as he stands alone before the Diet
of WQrms, and is commanded by the representa-
tive of the Pope of Rome to retract his so-called
heresies. He folds his hands across his heart,
an(l after a moment of silent prayer he utters
his immortal sentence, "Here I stand, I cannot
do otherwise; God help me!" We should never
forget Wesley's great heart-cry, "The world is
my parish!" nor Knox's agonized soul-cry, '"O
God! give me Scotland, or I die!"
  While we rejoice in their lives and their work
we should not forget that their work is not yet
complete. They tried to reform the church, but
after a generation the movements they inaugu-
rated toward reform crystallized into creeds and
sects, which in turn need reforming.
  In the early years of this century there was
marked unrest in the life of the people. The
help of the French people in our Revolutionary
struggle was a great help politically and a great
harm morally and religiously, for a flood of
French infidelity swept over the country, and
following it a tidal wave of immorality that
swept God and religion and morals out of the
thought and lives of many, too many, people.
There were some souls that had not soiled
themselves,-earnest souls that cried to God:
then the Spirit of God led men in various parts
of the United States, unknown to each other, to
pray and plan for a new reformation, which



1i

 
MEN OF YESTERDAY



should be not merely a reformation in the
church, but indeed a restoration of the Church
of the New Testament.
  This spirit of reformation manifested itself in
James O'Kelly, Abner Jones and Barton W.
Stone, even before it found adequate expression
in the movement of the Campbells. And no
sooner had the latter come to see the "heavenly
vision,"-the vision of the union of all God's
people on the basis of God's word as the only
rule of faith and practice, than other noble
spirits were enabled, by their leadership, to look
through the fogs raised by theological discus-
sion, through the mists and mysticism of human
creeds and the traditions of men, and to see,
even though at first dimly, the splendid vision of
the Church of God, freed from man-made creeds
and discipline, and standing forth in her primi-
tive simplicity and beauty.
  Of some of these heroic men we are told in
the following pages. T. W. Grafton is espe-
cially fitted to tell us the story of the lives of
these worthies. Most of them he knew person-
ally; of the others, he has had access to the
innermost sources of information concerning
them.
  One matter is worthy of note,-the intense
opposition of the sectarians of early days to the
plea for Christian Union as our fathers made it,
and another,-the change from that time to this.



12

 
INTRODUCTION



Christian Union is now a popular theme; the
brightest minds in all religious communions have
their faces set toward the east upon this great
subject, toward the east whence they expect the
dawning of the better day. But when the fath-
ers wrought, it was a very unpopular theme; it
was declared impracticable, undesirable, and im-
possible; its advocates were regarded as here-
tics, and as such cast out of the synagogue of
the orthodox. Not only was the teaching of
Christian Union counted heresy, but almost every
step of the way toward it was heresy. Did the
fathers plead for a revision of the translation of
the Scriptures, that the mind of the Spirit might
be more plainly made known to the men of this
century, it was accounted heresy, and when Alex-
ander Campbell published a revised version it
was widely heralded that Mr. Campbell had
made a Bible to suit himself.
When the fathers pleaded for a return to the
Scriptures as the rule of life, it was called
heresy of the deepest dye. "I would as soon
depend upon an old almanac for conversion as
upon the Scriptures, unless miraculously accom-
panied by the Holy Ghost," was a common say-
ing in those elder days. In the case "Our Ortho-
doxy in the Civil Courts," a bona flde trial in
Indiana, a minister on the witness-stand
said that while he would not pronounce Peter a



13

 
MEN OF YESTERDAY



heretic, yet his words in Acts 2:38, "were capa-
ble of an heretical interpretation."
  But the heresy of the fathers has become the
guiding light of the children. Revised transla-
tions are everywhere, human creeds have largely
retired from sight and influence; no longer are
they taken into the pulpit and become the text-
book for sermons; no longer are the teachings of
the pulpits measured by the creed rather than
by the Word of God; now not many members of
sectarian churches know the creed under which
their churches are working; the creeds are kept
in reserve and are only used occasionally by
which to try ministers. The Christ is coming to
his own; the personal Savior as the object of
the soul's supreme faith is being realized; the
scene on Transfiguration is being repeated, "And
lifting up their eyes they saw no man save Jesus
only." Thus have we and our religious neigh-
bors entered into the labors of the fathers; thus
are we indebted to them for much that sweetens
and invigorates our religious lives; thus are we
debtors to them for their work and labor of
love.
  As you read these pages note some things
well, and note to imitate: the sublime faith of
these men in the Christ of God, in the Gospel
of the New Testament, and in the promises of
God. By it they wrought wonders, removed
mountains of difficulties, subdued kingdoms,



14

 

INTRODUCTION



wrought righteousness, out of weakness were
made strong, waxed valiant in fight, and turned.
to flight the armies of the aliens.
Note the sacrifices of the fathers: few of them
were men of property, yet they stopped not to
count the cost. It meant poverty, it meant re-
ligious and social ostracism, it meant necessary
absence from home, it meant alienation of
friends; but they went out not knowing whither
they went, save only that the heavenly vision
beckoned them onward.
  They had something they called the "Cause."
When they met they asked, "How is the 'Cause'
prospering where you have been" They planned
and prayed for the advancement of the "'Cause;"
any disgrace was dreaded on account of its in-
jury to the "Cause;"-the Cause of causes to
them was the Restoration of Apostolic Chris-
tianity as the basis and method of the union of
all God's people, and in poverty and in tears
they sowed the seed of the Kingdom; in the
morning they sowed the seed, in the evening
they withheld not the hand, and God prospered
it as it pleased him.
  Note for hopefulness, the fruitfulness of these
lives; they won souls by the hundred. God gave
them abundant harvests and blessed their labors,
and when their sacrificing labors were ended
God kissed them and they rested, and over them
we can repeat the Divine Word, "These all died



15

 

16          MEN OF YESTERDAY

ir faith, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the
earth."
But the Announcer must not longer keep the
bidden guests from the Banquet; enter and feast
yourselves on the rich food the author has so
carefully prepared.   BENJAImN L. SMITH.
  Cincinnati, 0.

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WALTUR SCOTT.


 











WALTER



SCOTT.



1.

 


  TEE greatest man in the world is he who is most like the
Savior of men; who lays all his honors, gifts and attain-
ments at the feet of Jesus, and gives him all the glory. It is
he who abounds ih all goodness, purity and godly fear. It is
he whose soul is moved at the wretchedness of mankind,
and is only concerned to see men redeemed and God glorified
through Jesus Christ. It is he who has the least taste, and
is least attracted by the things admired and pursued by the
giddy, gay, ungodly world of mankind, while he glories in
the Lord.-WaUer Scott.
    18

 

        WALTER SCOTT.


                I. EARLY LIFE.

T HE name of Walter Scott is inseparably link-
   ed with that of Alexander Campbell in the
cause of religious reformation. Near the be-
ginning of the movement which led to the
organization of the Christian Church, these
choice spirits formed a congenial fellowship,
which was only broken by death. Campbell and
Scott bore a somewhat similar relation to the
Nineteenth Century Reformation, that Luther
and Melanchthon did to that of the sixteenth
century. Or, if we may be allowed to liken the
former to Paul in this new school of apostles,
the latter was the counterpart of John, the apos-
tle of love. Like the "disciple whom Jesus
loved," Walter Scott's mind dwelt much upon
the divine glory of the Master and the super-
natural claims of his Messiahship.
  It is a strange coincidence that these two
leaders of the new religious thought in America,
should each have descended from distinguished
Scotch ancestry, and both have stepped out of
the bosom of the Presbyterian Church.
                     (19)

 
MEN OF YESTERDAY



  Walter Scott, the preacher and reformer, was
of the same stock as the illustrious poet and
novelist, Sir Walter Scott. Both could claim
relationship to heroes celebrated in the annals
of Scottish history.  Preacher and poet alike
inherited, besides the sterner qualities of their
countrymen, keen perception, vivid imagination,
deep emotion and great tenderness of heart.
  It was the inestimable privilege of Walter
Scott to be well born. His father, John Scott,
was a man of liberal culture and refinement of
manners, and possessed of rare musical talent,
a gift which he used in the support of a large
family, as an instructor of music. His mother,
Mary Innes Scott, is described as a person of
beautiful life and earnest religious devotion.
She had a gentle nature, keenly sensitive to suf-
fering and sorrow. An illustration of the depth
and delicacy of her affection is presented in her
untimely death. Her husband was taken ill,
while away from home, and suddenly died. So
deeply was she affected by the intelligence of his
demise, that she immediately fell dead of a
broken heart, and both were buried in the same
grave.
  Walter, the sixth child of this devoted couple,
'was born October 31, 1796, in Moffat, Dum-
friesshire, Scotland. As the Scott family were
all strict members of the Kirk of Scotland,
Walter's religious training was not neglected.



20

 
WALTER SCOTT



Under the kindly, sympathetic care of a devoted
mother, his receptive nature unfolded its beau-
tiful traits like the blossoms of springtime under
the warm rays of the sun. His amiable disposi-
tion and warm sympathy soon made him
beloved of all who knew him.
At a very early age he gave evidence of a
decided talent.  Though the resources of the
family were only moderate, his watchful parents
determined to give him every educational ad-
vantage, the mother the while praying that the
kirk might enjoy the service of his rare gift of
heart and mind, a purpose which Walter himself
seems to have cherished from childhood. The
Scotch family of the old school sought no
greater honor than to have a son at the univer-
sity. Though a collegiate education, at that
time, was regarded within the reach of the sons
of the wealthy only, in this devoted family the
slender resources were so husbanded as to enable
Walter, after a preparatory course at the acad-
emy, to enter the University of Edinburgh.
Here he pursued his studies with a zeal and
success that fully justified the labors and sacri-
fices of his parents. Perhaps the consciousness
that every hour of privilege was purchased for
him at a great sacrifice, helped him to avoid the
follies and dissipations then prevalent among
his fellow-students. - Certain it is that his young
life was unblemished, and that a foundation of



21

 

2MEN OF YESTERDAY



character was laid which enabled him to with-
stand all the subsequent storms that swept
across his pathway.
  While a student at the university, an incident
occurred that finely illustrates the unselfish de-
votion of his whole after life. He had a fine
voice, carefully trained, and possessing a sympa-
thetic strain, which few were ever able to hear
unmoved. On a pleasant evening he walked out
in the city, and not returning at the expected
hour, the family became alarmed at his absence.
His brother James was sent out to search for
him, and at midnight found him in the midst of
a crowd, singing popular Scottish airs and stip-
ulating, as the price of each song, that a collec-
tion be taken for a poor blinid beggar, whose af-
fliction bad touched his heart. This was always
characteristic of the man. His whole life was a
song of sympathy for those in suffering about
him.
  After completing his university course, while
casting about for a place to plant his feet and
enter the service of his race, an unexpected
turn of affairs changed the channels of his life.
His mother's brother, George Innes, had some
years before emigrated to America, and by faith-
fulness and integrity advanced himself to a place
of responsibility in the government service in
New York City. Anxious to assist his relatives
still in Scotland, he had written his sister to send



22

 
WALTER SCOTT



one of her boys, promising what assistance he
could render in his advancement. Walter, as
best fitted by education for the opportunities of
a new country, was the one selected to go; and
as the plan was in perfect harmony with his own
wishes, he at once left home, arriving in New
York, on July 7, 1818. He soon obtained etn-
ployment in an aca(lemy as Latin tutor, a posi-
tion for which he was eminently qualified. But
in this position he did not long remain. He was
a young man of adventurous spirit.  A new
world spread out before him, and he determined
to press on toward the West, of which he had
heard glowing reports from his acquaintances in
the city of New York.  Having resolved to see
for himself the country of which he had heard
so much, he set out on foot, with a young man
about his own age, to explore the regions which
were beyond. Over the same route traversed by
the family of Thomas Campbell, some eight or
ten years previous, young Scott now bent his
steps, little dreaming that he was following in
the pathway of one whose fortunes would be so
strangely blended with his own.
After a long journey on foot over the Alle-
ghany Mountains, a journey that to him, with
his keen sympathy with nature and overflowing
mirthfulness, was filled with delightful experi-
ences, he reached Pittsburg in the early sp)riiig
of 1819. As his purse was as light as his heart,



23

 

MEN OF YESTERDAY



his -first concern was to seek some employment.
This was not, then, difficult for a young man of
his attainments. Men of scholarship were rare
among the hardy settlers of Western Pennsyl-
vania and their services were in demand, so he
was not long in securing a position as assistant
in an academy conducted by George Forrester, a
fellow-countryman, and a man of high Christian
principle. This meeting with Mr. Forrester
marked a turning-point in Walter Scott's relig-
ious life, and secured his services to the cause of
primitive Christianity, then just beginning to
claiml attention outside of the obscure church in
which it had been cradled.

    IL. TRAINING IN A NEW RELIGIOUS SCHOOL.

  The young scholar, as we have seen, received
his classical education at Edinburgh. It was un-
derstood that he should enter the Presbyterian
ministry, when the unexpected turn in fortune
landed him in America. Without relinquishing
his purpose, he entered the school-room as a
stepping-stone to his ultimate life-work. The
school at Pittsburg, which he entered as an
assistant, now became his theological seminary,
its text-book the Bible, and its instructor, that
pious man of God with whom he had the good
fortune to be associated, George Forrester.
Under the guidance and inspiration of such a



24

 

WALTER SCOTT



teacher, Walter Scott soon became a proficient
scholar in the Book which was later to become
his effective weapon in the dissemination of new
religious ideas.
  Mr. Forrester had been trained under' the
Haldanes 1 of Scotland before coming to Amer-
ica, and had, in connection with his school
duties, built up a small congregation of believ-
ers who shared his views. Young Scott was not
long in discovering that his employer, though a
deeply religious man, differed widely from the
traditional doctrines in which he had been
reared; and Forrester was not slow in impress-
ing his intelligent assistant with the superiority
of his position over that of the Presbyterian and
kindred schools of religious thought.
  Better soil for the planting was not to be
found than that presented in the heart of Walter
Scott. He was a sincere truth-seeker. He loved
the Bible. He was ready to accept whatever
could be clearly proven by its authority. No
sooner, therefore, did he learn of this new relig-
ious movement than he set about diligently to
test the correctness of his employer's views.
Together they made an earnest, prayerful search
into the teachings of the Scriptures. The hours

  1 Robert and James Haldane had, in 1798, inaugurated a
movement for the reformation of religious society in Scot-
land. somewhat similar to that afterward advocated by Alex-
ander Campbell in America.



25

 
MEN OF YESTERDAY



after school were spent over the Bible. Mid-
night often found Scott turning its sacred pages,
or on his knees seeking for light and guidance.
  The result of this painstaking search was, that
in a few weeks he turned his back upon his past
religious training, convinced that human stand-
ards of belief were without the sanction of
God's Word. This conclusion, we may be sure,
was not reached without much anguish of spirit.
He further discovered that though he had ad-
hered, in all strictness, to the church traditions,
he had neglected obedience to some of the im-
portant commands of the Bible. Like Mr.
Campbell, among his first discoveries, in this
conscientious search for truth, was the absence
of scriptural authority for infant baptism, and
his need of personal obedience to a command so
repeatedly enforced as that of baptism into
Christ. With him to see the way of duty was
to unhesitatingly pursue it. He, therefore, an-
nounced his purpose to reject all authority but
Christ, and in obedience to the Divine command
he was immersed by Mr. Forrester and united
with the small company of believers to whom
he ministered.
  Walter Scott at once proved himself a valu-
able addition to this struggling congregation.
Although he did not at once take a public part
in their services, his genial presence, zealous de-
votion and Christian culture were the inspira-



26

 
WALTER SCOTT



tion of the brotherhood. He humbly accepted
the position of learner, continued his diligent
search of the Scriptures and rejoiced in his new-
found faith.
  In the meantime, Mr. Forrester, desiring to
devote himself exclusively to religious work,
turned over the management of the school to his
talented assistant, a position for which the latter
was well qualified. Mr. Scott's original meth-
ods of instruction, his pleasing manner, his fault-
less character, won for his school a wide patron-
age. Had success in this line been the goal of
his ambition, his situation would have proved
eminently satisfactory. But this was not his
ambition. The more he studied his Bible, the
more he felt drawn toward the ministry of the
Word. A new world of religious truth was
gradually unfolding before him. He soon found
that even his teachers in this new religious
school but partially apprehended the Divine pur-
pose and method in the world's salvation. From
his study of the Bible, especially the Acts of the
Apostles, which Dow enlisted his attention, the
plan of redemption began to take form in his
mind. Conversion had always been a perplex-
ing subject to him, but in the light of this book
all mystery fled. He now discovered that all
who heard, believed and obeyed the glad mes-
sage of salvation, were filled with peace and joy
in believing.

 
MEN OF YESTERDAY



  While pursuing this line of investigation a
small tract, sent out by an obscure congregation
in the City of New York, fell into Mr. Scott's
hands. The views expressed in it so perfectly
coincided with those which he now held, that he
determined to get acquainted with its authors,
feeling that such an association would add
greatly to his Christian knowledge. He, there-
fore, at once severed his connection with the
school and set out in his search for more light
upon the great religious problems that now con-
sumed his thought. The visit proved a keen
disappointment. He found the practice of the
church much different from what he had been
led to expect fromn their publication. So, after a
short sojourn in the city, with a heavy heart he
continued his journey, visiting Baltimore and
Washington, in each of which he had learned of
small congregations of independent believers.
But these visits only added to his disappoint-
ment. These early attempts at religious refor-
mation were not always successful and often re-
sulted in a caricature of the thing attempted.
"I wvent thither," he says, describing his fruit-
less journey, "and having searched them up, I
discovered them to be so sunken in the mire of
Calvinism, that they refused to reform; and so,
finding no pleasure in them, I left them. I then
went to the Capitol, and climbing up to the top
of its lofty dome, I sat myself down, filled with



28

 
WALTER SCOTT



sorrow at the miserable desolation of the church
of God."
  His drooping spirits were cheered by his re-
turn to Pittsburg, after a journey on foot of
three hundred miles. He received a warm wel-
come from those who had learned his true
worth, and, a suitable successor in the school-
room not having been found, a handsome salary
was pledged to secure his services. Broken in
spirit and in purse, he accepted the position and
continued in the management of the school for
several years with remarkable success. But his
chief delight now was to minister to the little
flock, which, robbed of a pastor by the sudden
death of George Forrester, looked to him for
leadership.
  This period marks the growth of Walter Scott
in scriptural things. His reverence for Christ
and his Word led to the constant study of the
Bible. His chief delight after school hours was
the Holy Scriptures. It was in these hours of
communion with the Spirit of truth that he
made his final dedication of himself to God,
promising that if "He would grant him just and
comprehensive views of his religion, his life
should be spent in proclaiming it to the world."
  It was while thus engaged single-handed in
working out the problem of human redemption
that the pathway .of a recognized champion of
reformation crossed his and led him to his final



29

 

MEN OF YESTERDAY



stand in the defense of primitive Christianity.
That man was Alexander Campbell, and his first
meeting with Walter Scott took place in Pittsburg
in 1822, and led to the formation of a friendship
and copartnership in the work of reform which
continued unbroken till death. They possessed
many elements in common, had been reared in
the same school of religious thought, had been
driven by the same burning thirst for truth to
the Bible, and through its message were led to
pursue similar paths in their search for accept-
ance with God. The following, from the pen of
Robert Richardson, beautifully presents the pre-
dominating characteristics in contrast at the
time of their first meeting:
  "The different hues in the characters of these
two eminent men were such as to be, so to
speak, complementary to each other, and to
form, by their harmonious blending, a complete-
ness and a brilliancy which rendered their
society peculiarly delightful to each other.
Thus while Mr. Campbell was fearless, self-
reliant and firm, Mr. Scott was naturally timid,
diffident and yielding; and, while the former
was calm, steady and prudent, the latter was ex-
citable, variable and precipitate. The one, like
the north star, was ever in position, unaffected
by terrestrial influences; the other, like the
magnetic needle, was -often disturbed and trem-
bling on its center, yet ever returning, or seek-



30

 

WAITER SCOTT



ing to return, to its true directi