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Was born Sept. 12, 1788, in the County of Antrim, Ireland. He
was descended from Scotch and Huguenot ancestors. Both his
physical and mental constitution was vigorous and well balanced.
From his earliest years he was trained by his learned and
accomplished father in habits of severe application. He was a
graduate of the University of Glasgow.
Reared in the strictest school of Presbyterianism, he early
formed and cultivated habits of piety and a taste for
theological studies. From his youth he had a profound reverence
for the word of God.
He came to America in 1809 and joined his father, Thomas
Campbell, in western Pennsylvania. From that time father and son
were one in their aims, spirit and work. Both were deeply
impressed with the conviction of the evils and inherent
sinfulness of sectarianism.
Their first advocacy was the repudiation of human creeds as
tests of fellowship, and the union of all our Lord's people upon
the catholic truth of the Bible as the only authoritative
standard of faith and practice. Taking their stand upon the
principles set forth in the "Declaration and Address," neither
foresaw the conclusions to which he would be led. They and those
associated with them searched the Scriptures as free as possible
from party bias.
From these investigations they concluded that sprinkling for
baptism and infant membership in the church were unauthorized of
God. They were therefore accordingly immersed and united with
the Regular Baptists. It was stipulated, however, that they
should not be required to subscribe to any creed or articles of
faith other than the Bible. After a few years in this fellowship
they found it prudent to withdraw. There were prejudiced and
intolerant men who held a leading influence in the Redstone
Association who were unwilling to break from the Baptist name,
creed and traditions. They stirred up fierce opposition against
those who stood for the catholic truth of the New Testament.
Hence the Campbells, and others who held to the principles of
the "Declaration and Address," cut loose from their religious
connections and entered untrammeled upon the advocacy and the
defense of the plea for the return to primitive Christianity.
Alexander Campbell died in 1866.
Biographical Sketch of Alexander Campbell Text from James
Challen, (editor), Ladies' Christian Annual, March, 1857 (Volume
VI, No. 3), Philadelphia: James Challen, Publisher. Pages 81-90.
This online edition © 1998, James L. McMillan.
Born: Antrim County, Ireland, September 12, 1788,
Died: Bethany, West Virginia, March 4, 1866
"The materials for a biographical sketch of the person whose
name is at the head of this article, and whose portrait we have
introduced in this number of the Ladies' Christian Annual, are
ample, but we aim only to seize upon the more salient points of
his character, as the limits prescribed in our periodical will
not allow us to amplify or to enter into details; and being
still among us, many things which belong to his character we are
compelled to omit, and must leave to the future biographer, when
death shall have left us all which belongs to his past history,
and has given us the privilege of speaking of him without
reserve or diffidence.
Alexander Campbell, the son of Thomas and Jane C. Campbell, was
born in Ireland, in the county of Antrim, near Shares Castle,
September, 1788; and is now in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
His ancestry lived to a remarkable old age. His father, Thomas
Campbell, died at Bethany, Virginia, a short time since at the
age of ninety-two. His grandfather lived to the age of
ninety-five. His great grandfather lived to the advanced age of
one hundred and five years. His mother died at the age of
seventy-two. She was a descendant of one of the last persecuted
families of the French Huguenots, who fled from their country on
account of their religion, and settled in Ireland. Mr.
Campbell's ancestry on his father's side were Scotch; so that
there was a happy commingling of the sturdy, plodding, thinking
Scotchman, with the vivacious, cheerful, and impressible
Frenchman. His mother was a woman of unbounded sympathy and
liberality, of great powers of discrimination, and of a nature
truly amiable and lovely, and possessed of all womanly grace,
with a mind highly cultivated, and possessed of an undoubting
faith and ardent piety. His father was a man of powerful
intellect and sterling worth, simple in his habits, of elegant
and courtly manners, grave, sober, and thoughtful, uniformly
cheerful, with a vein of fine humor and wit. He was an original
thinker, a bold advocate and defender of what he believed to be
true; a reformer in spirit, in principle, and practice, and in
all respects, body, Soul, and spirit, a noble specimen of
humanity.
So far as the ancestry of Alexander Campbell was concerned, no
one could boast a better; and it most be confessed that the
finest traits of all these he combines in his own person. None
of them seem to have possessed the characteristic marks of
greatness which so happily unite in him.
He was raised and strictly educated in the Presbyterian faith,
and belonged to that party known as Seceders, and brought to
this country credentials, certifying that he had been, both in
Ireland, in the Presbytery of Market Hill, and in Scotland, in
the Presbytery of Glasgow, a member of the Secession Church, in
good standing. He sailed from Londonderry on the 3rd day of
October, 1808, destined for the city of Philadelphia; but being
shipwrecked on the coast
of the Island of Ila on the 9th of the same month, he was
detained until the 3rd day of August, 1809, on which day he
sailed from the city of Greenock for New York. After many perils
on the deep, he landed safely in New York, the 29th of
September, 1809. On the 28th of the next month he arrived in
Washington, Pennsylvania, and in that vicinity and in Western
Virginia he has remained ever since.
In his own words he remarks, that his "faith in creeds and
confessions of human device was considerably shaken while in
Scotland, and I commenced my career in this country (America)
under the conviction that nothing that was not as old as the New
Testament, should he made an article of faith, a rule of
practice, or a term of communion among Christians. In a word,
that the whole of the Christian religion, exhibited in prophecy
and type in the Old Testament, was presented in the fullest,
clearest, and most perfect manner in the New Testament, by the
spirit of wisdom and revelation. This," he adds, "has been his
pole-star ever since." He further states, that "in conformity to
the grand principle which I have called the pole-star of my
course of religious inquiry, I was led to question the claims of
infant sprinkling to divine authority, and was, after a long,
serious, and prayerful examination of all means of information
led to solicit immersion, on a profession of my faith, when as
yet I scarce knew a Baptist from Washington to the Ohio, in the
immediate region of my labors, and when I did not know that any
friend or relation on earth would concur with me." He was
accordingly immersed by Elder Mathias Luse, on the 12th day of
June, 1812. We have been thus minute and particular in the
statement of the facts concerning his previous life and history,
to account for his future course as the advocate of what he
deems to be original and apostolic Christianity. They serve also
to show the high appreciation he had in the change he made from
the religion of his fathers of what he deemed to be "a more
excellent way" of the teachings of Christ and his Apostles. They
serve also to show, that no selfish ends or side motives could
have operated on his mind in taking the important step he did.
Ecclesiastic favors, time and again, were offered him, and no
considerations but those of conscience and duty forbade their
acceptance. Indeed, it could not have been otherwise, among a
people who knew how to appreciate talent and learning of so high
a character as the young seceding minister possessed and
exhibited. Whatever may be the difference of opinion between
others and him, all must admire the sincerity and boldness with
which he announced "the faith that was then everywhere spoken
against." No consideration of fame or honor, of influence and
position, or worldly emoluments, could have had any effect on
his mind, in the change thus referred to.
We shall pass over the interim between the day of his baptism
and the commencement of his religions life in the character of a
Reformer: suffice it to say, that he united with the Baptist
Church, and devoted much of his time in public labors; in
lecturing, preaching, and teaching, at home and abroad.
In the month of August, 1823, he issued the first number of the
"Christian Baptist," a monthly periodical, in (Bethany), Brooke
County, Virginia. The first words of this number are strikingly
significant and ring like a trumpet-peal upon the listening ear.
"Christianity is the perfection of that divine philanthropy,
which was gradually developing itself for four thousand years.
It is the bright effulgence of every divine attribute, mingling
and harmonizing all the different colors in the rainbow, in the
bright shining after the rain, into one complete system of
perfections,--the perfection of glory to God in the highest
heavens, the perfection of peace on earth, and the perfection of
good-will among men." The whole essay in the introduction of his
work, as well as the entire number, is remarkable for the
elevation of its thoughts, to strength and beauty of its
language, and the boldness with which he announces his objects.
We well remember in our youthful days the excitement it
produced, the eagerness with which each number was read and the
constant demand among all parties, and men of no party, to look
into its pages. No work, in all our knowledge, made so deep and
so abiding an impression on the public mind. Its outer form was
uncomely. It was a small, unpromising-looking monthly; but like
the earthen pitchers of Gideon, it was full of light. We know
not of any better evidence of the power of the periodical press,
than that which the seven years of the "Christian Baptist" has
furnished; and we cannot but admire the ability and skill, the
patience and courage which its editor exhibited, and the
progressive and steady development of the grand objects which
lay before him--seen first, dimly, by him, but gradually opening
to his large and admiring eye, until he could exclaim:
"'Tis HESPERUS--there he stands with glittering crown,
First admonition that the sun is down,
For yet it is broad daylight. Clouds pass by:
A few are near him still--and now the sky--
He hath it to himself--'tis all his own.
O, most ambitious star! thy presence brought
A startling recollection to my mind,
Of the distinguished few among mankind,
Who dare to step beyond their natural race,
As thou seem'st now to do."
The Christian Baptist closed its mission after seven years'
labor--each month of which furnished by his pen a large amount
of rare and original matter for the public mind. This was
followed by a larger monthly called the "Millennial Harbinger,"
which has continued to this day, and is still edited and
published by him. Not a moon has passed, from 1823 until the
present one in 1857, in which he has not furnished food for the
mind. The time would fail us to speak of his numerous tours at
home and in other lands, and his unexampled efforts in
propagating the Gospel of Christ by his tongue and pen, "sown
beside all waters." His lectures and addresses, his debates with
Pedobaptists and Baptists, with Infidels and Papists, with
Unitarians and Universalists, both with the pen and the voice,
are before the public, and have left their impression. Indeed,
we doubt if any mind in the present century has been to so great
an extent felt, on the best portions of the English world, as
the mind of Alexander Campbell; and we think that the effects
will be permanent. He lives and will live, in the great thoughts
which he has generated and given permanency to, not only in his
numerous writings, but in the universal mind with which they
stand incorporated. Should he cease his labors now, and sleep
with his parents and his children, in the beautiful cemetery in
sight of his homestead, where the lovely and the loved ones
slumber, his "works will remain" as long as the hills over which
he has roamed, and the treasured dust that has been hidden from
his eyes, to await the resurrection of the just. He will find
his apotheosis in the garnered thoughts of nearly half a
century; and of this we are glad. His influence is but beginning
to be felt; and death, when it comes (may it long delay), will
leave only to us--the imperishable and the eternal.
In regard to his social habits, they are worthy of all praise.
Uniformly cheerful and benevolent, he can play with the innocent
child, enter into all his little world of enjoyments, laugh at
his conceits and strange fantasies, or bow his head meekly at
the mention of God and his Son, and in a moment dive into the
sublimest depths of the ocean of divine truth, as though his
spirit was kindred to the everlasting gems that it contains.
Every little incident in the home-circle, every mischance that
may occasion a smile or a laugh, a tear or a sigh, he is
instantly impressed with. His eye wells up with tears at the
sight of an orphan, or remains dry when he commits to the dust
"the loved--not the lost." He will spend five hours at a stretch
in his study, over the most abstruse and difficult subjects,
with his pen in constant motion, and enter into his dining-room
with an anecdote that will set the table in a roar. This strange
power of concentration--this universality of mind and emotion,
he possesses to a remarkable degree; and to this is owing the
healthy state both of his mind and body.
He is truly domestic, loving home, and finding his sweetest
enjoyments with his family and friends, in Christian, social
intercourse around his ample hearth and well- spread table. No
one can see him in his humble retreat, and spend a night in his
hospitable house, without the highest conception of what
constitutes a Christian family. His morning and evening
devotions, so rich and varied, so devout and heavenly, so humble
and spiritual, lift the soul to heaven, and lead it thitherward.
We have heard from various sources, that no day has been spent
with a stranger, so remembered with delight as one with him. His
cottage home--for in all respects it is an humble dwelling--is
situated in a beautiful valley, near the waters of the Buffalo,
surrounded by hills of surpassing loveliness, some of which
still have on them the native forests, and others are highly
cultivated; and in the spring and summer shining with the
approaching harvests, or slumbering in their green carpets of
waving grass-- the home of numerous flocks of sheep, of which he
is particularly fond. His home is surrounded by trees, some of
which are evergreens, and the air of repose and stillness which
rests upon the spot, make it one that we would choose, of all
others to live and die in.
The simplicity and benignity of his life and manners, dispel, at
once, all feelings of awe, which we naturally realize in
approaching one possessed of such elements of greatness and
power. He is extremely regular in all his habits, and if he
violates any of the natural laws, it is in the labor he imposes
upon himself, in behalf of others, and the hours he devotes, at
the close of the day, to the happiness and pleasure of his
family and friends. He rises early in the morning, refreshed and
always cheerful; whilst the assiduous care and excellent
management of Mrs. Campbell render his abode one of peace and
comfort, winning the esteem and gratitude of all who share the
hospitalities of his house.
The promotion of his Master's cause is his ruling purpose and
object, at home and abroad. Humble and patient under the
dealings of Providence and the waywardness of men, humane and
sympathizing, generous and forgiving, you have but to confess
your faults, and he is ready to forgive, and fails not to
receive the erring at once into the affection and confidence of
his Christian heart.
Since the time that he landed in America he has not been known
to keep his bed for one entire day, from illness, and with a
robust constitution and daily toil, he has been enabled to
accomplish far more than the most plodding of our race, with
uninterrupted labor, have done. The productions of his pen are
now as fresh and vigorous as any in the best portions of his
early life: having kept his mind in constant motion and in
healthy excitement, it retains its singular power of handling
the most difficult themes of the divine institution. His pen and
his tongue, indeed, are seldom idle, and these never fail to
keep the mind free from all stagnant and pestiferous influences,
especially if employed on the noble subjects to which he has
devoted his life. He still has a "flesh and blood" reality among
us, and long may we enjoy the privilege of his presence and his
influence. In our midst he possesses a cotemporary freshness and
nearness--not an outline, dim, shadowy, and unreal. Long may he
fill a place in the land of the living, if this, indeed, may so
be called, which contains so many mementoes and memories of the
dead.
It is to be hoped that some pen may be found worthy to give a
permanent memorial of one who has held and still holds so large
and responsible a place among the profound thinkers of the age.
We would have wished that some modern Boswell could have been
always near him, for the last thirty years, to have dotted down
the memorabilia of his lips and life, in the family and in the
circle, among friends and foes, in the wayside and pulpit. Those
who see him merely on the arena of debate, on the platform or in
the pulpit, or presiding in the editorial chair, know but little
of him, and would form but a faint and feeble estimate of his
character and worth. His inner life can only be known by those
who daily have intercourse with him, and this, by far, would be
in him, as it is in all, the most interesting portion of
biography. The material thus furnished would contribute a rich
and inexhaustible fund of knowledge and thought, on all subjects
affecting the best interests of humanity.
No one in modern times brings so vividly to our mind the
wonderful powers of conversation possessed by Johnson, as
portrayed by his incomparable biographer Boswell, unless it is
Coleridge. An hour in his company will impress you with his
extraordinary resources at command, and the felicitous manner in
which he is ever ready to employ them. He is not only a good
talker, but (what is quite rare) a good listener. He never fails
to hear what the humblest may say, will weigh candidly their
objections, answer their questions, and meet their difficulties.
In this, we have never known any one to surpass and none to
equal him. It is this that renders his social life so attractive
and beautiful, and invests his character with such dignity and
grace. No one has a greater reverence for humanity than he, and
evinces a profounder love for truth, however humble may be its
form, and obscure the messenger which brings it. Never impatient
under contradiction--never outraged by "obstinate questionings,"
from friend or foe. He is as much indebted to his opponents as
to his brethren, in eliciting the truth; and the conflict with
the world and the church, has led him insensibly into a wider
region of thought and a clearer horizon, than he otherwise would
have had in a more peaceful life.
No one must suppose that the whole theory of the ancient Gospel
and order of things was present to his mind in the commencement
of his public career as a Reformer. With certain fixed and
unalterable principles to guide him, he has obtained that
elevation which he now holds, and it has been only by patient
toil and fixedness of purpose, that he has won his way to the
"Mount Zion which he loves." We venture to say that he has
learned as much since the day when the Christian Baptist was
projected, as any of his readers.
Some have thought that the sphere of his influence would have
been wider had he chosen one of the large cities as the centre
of his operations. This might have been the case, but Providence
ordained otherwise. We are reminded of the Monk of Erfurth, the
fishermen of Galilee, and the humble abode of the Nazarene.
Great cities do not uniformly produce great men; and the prison
of Bedford has furnished more enduring specimens of literature,
than the princely homes of Tillotson and South, and the more
graceful, of Lord Clarendon, the cotemporaries of Bunyan.
In the rural retreat of Bethany, in the depth of its silent
valleys and among its green and umbrageous hills, far removed
from the haunts of the proud and the ambitious, the scenes ever
present to his eye reminded him of the everlasting truth, that
God and nature, like revelation, always speak the same things to
the thoughtful heart; and they cheered him in his work, and were
to him the silent and eloquent preachers, against the fashions
of the world; which pass away, and the witnesses for that order
of things, which only is divine. "God made the country, man, the
town." Enjoying a competency in this life, he needed no aid from
abroad, and had no temptation to cater to the prejudices of the
age; he sought neither place nor patronage, and occupying a
stand-point which enabled him to look from a proper angle on the
corruptions of the church, and the wants of the world, and
sallying forth as he frequently did and still does, into the
midst of the actual world, he brought home with him the fruits
of his large experience, and laid it up, in contributions for
the benefit of his readers. How far he has succeeded in the
development of original Christianity, the future will determine;
that he has accomplished much, none can deny. Too soon we pass
judgment on the principles and doings of our cotemporaries, and
the fewest of men, who have proved benefactors to the race,
receive what is due them in the age in which they live. The
executors of thought are not like the executors of an estate;
they cannot devise or give their treasures to whom they will;
they more successfully bequeath their riches to posterity than
in bestowing their largesses, with their overt hands, to the
living. Death only stamps the seal of immortality upon what, in
itself is imperishable.
"A thing of beauty is a joy forever."
Few men are so justly entitled to praise for his labors in
behalf of Christianity as Alexander Campbell. The subjects on
which he has dwelt, and the principles he has developed--the
very animus which they breathe is a signal triumph of native
talent and genuine greatness over the dull and even platitudes
of a worn-out and common place ecclesiasticism. The path in a
dense forest, through mist fog, which he has cut, and on which
now streams the light of day, is no ordinary work. The treasures
of centuries he has exhumed. The shallow and exhausted surfaces
he has entered, like another Elisha, with a yoke of twelve oxen,
and torn up with so bold and steady a hand, and over which he
has scattered the seed of the ever-living word, for a harvest of
apostolic Christianity, is a noble triumph. And the success
which has attended his labors, within the last thirty years, is
certainly very great. Upwards of three hundred thousand actual
converts already have embraced what he claims to be apostolic
Christianity, and are united together in a common faith. Many of
these hitherto belonged to all the leading parties of the day;
indeed, chiefly was it so, embracing many of their prominent
preachers and people--some from the less distinguished sects,
and numbers from the world, and without any written articles of
faith or human creeds. They have found a closer, firmer bond of
union, and a greater uniformity of faith and opinion, on all the
leading items of Christianity, than any body of people of the
same number known. There is much in this that is suggestive to
the pious and thoughtful, in view of the divided and distracted
condition of Protestant Christianity; and not a little that is
cheering and hopeful in regard to the ultimate prospects of the
apostolic Gospel.
In this movement he has encountered many difficulties, from the
prejudices of those who were thought to be implicated as the
supporters of a divided Christianity, and from the use of terms
purely scriptural, according to their philological meaning,
which, in popular use, were, without any doubt or hesitation,
applied to the support of the accredited systems of the day. In
every step of his progress he has been, by snob persons,
misunderstood, and without the exercise of much candor and
becoming patience, we know not how it could have been otherwise.
Every writer should be measured by the standard and rules which
he himself has adopted, and not by the application of others,
which he has not used. If this natural and reasonable law had
been applied to his works, it would have silenced a thousand
objections, and rendered his writings far more acceptable, and
the system he advocated less free from suspicion and distrust.
He believes that a new and unknown nomenclature has been
introduced into the teachings and creeds of modern Christianity,
which have introduced corresponding ideas, unlike those found in
the words of the Spirit; and a return to apostolic Christianity
demands and implies a return to the words and ideas of the
spirit of wisdom and revelation. More is comprehended in this
than at first may appear.
Every system of philosophy, natural, mental, and moral, must
have a nomenclature adapted to it, and, without this, its
principles cannot be known or developed. The teachings of the
sages and learned of the different schools in Greece, found, in
the copious and flexible language in which they spoke and wrote,
a fit and ample medium of communication with their own people,
but so soon as it was attempted to introduce their philosophy
into Rome, the Latin language was found too barren and rugged to
give a full and perfect expression of it. Now, it is evident
that Plato and Aristotle, and the teachers of any of the schools
among the Greeks, would be utterly at fault, and their most
simple teachings misunderstood, by the Romans, through the rude
and inexpressive language in which that system should seek for
an utterance. The only hope of success would be either to
introduce into the language a new vocabulary, sufficiently
copious and exact to develope the new philosophy, or to acquire
a knowledge of the Greek tongue, and enter into Grecian schools
to seek an intimate acquaintance with it. This, indeed, was
done; and some process of a similar kind is indispensable to
understand fully the teachings of Christ and his apostles; they
must be understood either by a thorough acquaintance with the
language and idiom in which they spoke, or else by a translation
of what they said and wrote, in words which exactly delineate
and express their full and entire meaning.
The Christian religion is purely divine. Its thoughts, its very
animus, were utterly unknown to the sages and the learned of all
antiquity. Neither patriarchs nor prophets, John the Baptist nor
the Apostles, previous to the gift of the Spirit, after the
coronation of Christ, understood or could understand it. It was
as really hidden from them as the highest and most abstruse
problems of mathematics to the most ignorant of our species. It
dwelt alone in the sublime depths of the infinite Jehovah. No
angel, no cherub, no created mind, knew anything about it.
Forever would it have remained hidden, like gems in the deepest
depths of the ocean, unless it had been brought up to the
surface and exposed to the light of day.
Such was Christianity in its conception, as begotten in the mind
of God. Such the incorruptible Word which abides forever, as it
lay in the awful abysses of the Eternal Mind. But see and admire
the process by which it has been developed! Christ as the
WORD--the uncreated Word, which was God, lay in the bosom of the
Father, before the world was. The inception of Christianity in
the mind of God was to have form and assume a veritable
existence, through Christ; and therefore with the greatest
propriety is He, in his preexistent nature, called "THE WORD."
Not that he is simply--WORD--a symbol of thought--but a divine
person, called "THE WORD;" and called so, because, he was to be
the medium and the only medium, through which the deep thoughts
in the mind of God, in the Christian institution, should find
their complete and perfect utterance. He is "the Alpha and the
Omega" of the whole alphabet of Christianity--the Being through
whom it was to take shape and form as an entity, possessed of a
positive existence; therefore does he say, "that all things
which the Father hath are mine." He "speaks only what the Father
has shown him!" "He lay in the bosom of the Father, before the
world was." His exact image and representation--the "true and
the faithful witness"--the only revealer, as a medium, of the
mind of God. "No one knows the Father but the Son, and he to
whom he shall reveal him."
With great significancy and decorum, then, is Christ in his
pre-existent state called "THE WORD." But another agent is
needed--the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. He it is that
searches the deep things of God--the thoughts and purposes of
the divine mind, and reveals them to the holy apostles and
prophets of the new institution. This he did on the day of
Pentecost, and subsequently during the entire mission of the
Apostles on the earth, to the AMEN of the Apocalypse. The
thoughts and purposes thus revealed by the Spirit to these
chosen witnesses and light-bearers, in words taken from men and
chosen with the nicest care and caution--sometimes forming a
word not hitherto known--again combining two or more, or heaping
up one upon another of colossal strength to fully represent his
meaning, and by this means, placing in their minds what first
dwelt hidden in the mind of God, and was socially and with the
utmost freedom communicated to "The WORD" lying in the bosom of
the Father, assumes thereby the truest and the most exact form,
for expression, and all ready to find a full and complete
utterance by the great "Searcher"-- "the Spirit of WISDOM and
REVELATION." Thus revealed, not in words, by which man's wisdom
teacheth, but in words which the Holy Spirit teacheth, the whole
of Christianity was brought to the remembrance of the Apostles,
as taught by the Saviour in person, and the entire system, in
all of its original fulness, was deposited in the minds of the
Apostles, watched over, guarded, and forever held there in due
form by his mighty power. And now another process is needed to
give Christianity a substantive existence in the world; and
without this it would not have been known. This was for the
Apostles to speak it, and this they did; "which things also we
speak," said Paul. But to give permanency to it, what they spoke
with the living voice they finally wrote, and placed on record;
and thus it has become in the original records they have
furnished us, the religion--the only divine religion of the
world.
To sum up what we have thus said. First, Christianity is of God.
It originated in his own eternal mind, and lay in its hidden
depths.
Secondly, it was communicated to Him who is, in consequence of
his prospective mission, significantly called "THE WORD," and
assumed due form in its original conception.
Thirdly, in process of time the Word is made flesh, and dwells
among us, and becomes the medium of its development to the
Jewish nation--chiefly to the Apostles, his chosen ambassadors.
Fourthly, when the whole process was completed, and the Saviour
was crowned as the Lord of the new institution--the Holy Spirit
was sent by the Son--received from the Father, to call all
things accurately to the mind of the Apostles, whatever Jesus
had taught them--to tell them things to come; and having
searched into the depths of the Divine mind, he deposited in the
minds of the Apostles, all the things which made up the sum or
substance of Christianity, demonstrated and proved by signs and
wonders and powers of the Holy Spirit.
Fifthly, the Apostles having thus become the depository of this
"treasure," they have in words given it to man-- "which things,"
says the Apostle, "we speak."
We have been thus particular and minute, in order to show the
necessity of receiving Christianity alone from the Apostles, who
were competent to give it to the world; and the danger and
folly, the guilt and wickedness of corrupting, deforming,
changing, altering, modifying, in any respect whatever, an
institution of such sublime and awful import--for which the
world had waited four thousand years, and which has been
communicated to the race by agencies and processes so divine and
glorious.
Now, if we mistake not, and we think we are safe in affirming,
there were considerations like these which have controlled the
mind, and directed the labors, and inspired the courage of the
distinguished person whose brief life we have endeavored to
sketch; and no one who does not place himself in apposition to
him, and sympathizes with the grand and sublime objects to which
he has consecrated his life, can either understand or appreciate
him.
In this difficult undertaking he has met with all sorts of
opposition--encountered objections at every step. In the field
of his labors he found thorns and thistles in abundance, and
stumps, old and deeply rooted, to be removed; shallows and
slashes of putrid waters to be dried up and ditched; huge spots
of blasted barrenness to be enriched; forests, dark and tangled,
to cut down and clear away. But in the work before him he has
been cheered by the sight of a new and beautiful harvesting, of
Eden growth, to reward his toil; and found many men, of like
mind, to assist him in his task--here and there spots of
surpassing richness, like a garden enclosed; fountains, cool and
refreshing, opening to the eye, long since sealed; deep valleys
of surpassing luxuriance, like the garden of God, and streams
like Siloas watering their verdure; and hills, as of Zion and
Tabor, covered with flocks, and shining in the light of a better
sun than the Orient knows; and here and there cataracts, in
unfrequented spots, and awful abysses, tempting the unwary and
the incautious. These have cheered him, and they are enough.
From the strife of evil tongues, he has found sanctuary in the
tabernacles of the Most High; and, in the midst of reproach and
persecution, he has been calmed and comforted by the voice of
the Prophets and the Apostles, and the example of the heroic men
of faith. His noble brow, now covered with whitened locks, has
been protected by the helmet of hope; and, with something of a
prophet's eye, he has anticipated the triumphs of the cause
which lies so near to his heart. With not a little of abatement
of that zeal which bore him onwards in the commencement of this
contest, he still wields the sword of the Spirit--the word of
God--with deadly effect. And with a larger measure of prayer and
supplication in the Spirit, he seeks fresh supplies of grace in
time of need.
It is truly refreshing, in these times of general apathy on the
subject of Christianity, and of worldly contests for fame and
glory, to see a man of his measure and stature, bending the
weight of his powerful intellect, and the energies of his life,
to one sole object--the disenthralling the Christian religion
from the bonds and withes which age and ambition have thrown
around it. Talents which might have disturbed nations and
changed dynasties, or scattered them to the winds, he has
employed in the more peaceful work of liberating the mind from
the dogmatism of the past, and of reinstating original
Christianity in the faith and hope of myriads of our race.
His life is one of thoughts and deeds; and so completely has he
identified his name with our age, that the world will not let it
die. Thoughts and deeds are the only permanent memorials that
can survive the life of any one. The impressions they leave are
like the leaves and fossils of the pre-adamite earth, engraver
in stone, still existing after all the changes of untold
centuries. Had Alexander Campbell not have been a theologian, he
might have gained rank as a philosopher--certainly as a
statesman, or the projector and chief of some stirring
revolution or adventure. With his clear vision and austere
devotion to truth, his oneness of purpose, courage, and
persistence, his self-reliance and coolness, his powers of
conversation and debate, his readiness to enter into conflict
where great issues are at stake, would have made him not only a
formidable opponent, but a reliable leader and champion in
political life.
Truth he loves for its own sake, and he loves it the more, for
his unconquerable hatred of error. It has become to him a
passion, an appetite, not only because it is right in itself and
infinitely lovely, but because he finds in it the sanction and
approval of God and his own conscience.
In our own times the influence of his writings and public
addresses is daily widening, and, like the branches of some
lofty tree, still spreading and expanding themselves, as the
roots of his earthly renown are striking deeper and deeper. His
writings are not the metaphysical hash of other men's minds, or
his observations taken from the dried collections and withered
leaves of the dead past. He has gone to the primeval forests and
drawn inspiration from them. He has entered "the garden of the
Lord," and has regaled his senses with its living flowers and
fruits, with the dew and the bloom upon them.
With a style clear and vigorous, at times lofty and eloquent;
with a copious vocabulary, with great powers of generalization
and analysis--now cold and as full of irony as Macaulay--then
bold and menacing as Luther, and courteous as Melancthon--with
the spirit of his ancestry, the Huguenot and the Covenanter, he
has written, in thirty-three years past, more original matter,
for the public eye, than any of his contemporaries, since the
day which inaugurated his first periodical "The Christian
Baptist," 1823, a monthly, running through seven consecutive
years--a seven years' war--and since followed by "The Millennial
Harbinger," just having entered into the fourth series of seven
consecutive volumes, in the year 1857; besides numerous essays
and tracts, lectures and books; his public debates with Walker
in 1820, and McCalla in 1823; his masterly debate on Christian
Evidence and the Social System with Owen, followed by his debate
with Purcell on the Papacy; and his more recent and still more
elaborate and triumphant debate with Rice, all of which have
been written and published. In addition to which, Infidelity
refuted by Infidels, the Christian System; his numerous editions
of the new version from Campbell, McKnight, and Doddridge, with
prefaces, emendations, notes critical, &c., &c. The whole
constituting an ordinary library of the choicest reading, on
subjects of the deepest interest. We venture to say, that in no
works extant is there to be found more original and robust
thought, larger and more comprehensive views of the Divine
government, and of all the Divine institutions, Patriarchal,
Jewish, and Christian, than can be found in these works; and we
only regret that more efficient methods have not been adopted to
place them, or parts of them, within the reach of the popular
mind, believing that what they have done for those who already
have had access to them, they would accomplish for the million.
We have known of no one apparently less ambitious of public
fame; or who has availed himself less of all the channels of
public notoriety, with the means and resources at his command,
than Alexander Campbell. His works should go free of the world,
and should, as they doubtless will, receive their due place
among the permanent records of human industry and thought. He is
now, and has been for years past, engaged, night and day, in
addition to his other labors, on the revision of certain parts
of the New Testament, in the employ and under the direction of
the American Bible Union, a work which he regards of the first
importance, and which, as we already have seen in the version
which he has edited and published, he not only is fully
competent to accomplish, but would justly consider as a happy
finale, if Providence should so order, to his active and
eventful life.
He still holds his place, with patriarchal dignity and
veneration, as President of Bethany College, Brooke County,
Virginia; and delivers a daily lecture to his devoted students,
on the great themes of Bible History, the Law, the Prophets, the
Psalms of David, and the books of the New Testament. The
graduates of this flourishing institution are now quite numerous
and influential; and they bear the unmistakable impress of his
bold and powerful mind. Many of them have devoted themselves to
the ministry of the Word; and others are presiding over
academies and colleges, or filling the chairs of Professors in
the public institutions of our land, with credit to themselves
and benefit to others. And thus will he leave behind him, in the
minds of hundreds and thousands, the imperishable thoughts to
which he has given birth, and the ability to maintain and
propagate them, with more than their original force and
efficiency. We are not concerned to know, on what Elisha, by the
Jordan, his mantle shall fall. We trust that it may be
sufficiently large, like the tent of Prince Ahmed, to cover an
army. And we cannot but smile at the simplicity of those who
imagine that his death will destroy the monuments of colossal
greatness and strength which his genius has raised.
James Challen
"We know that this William Rogers of "The Castle" wrote the
inscription on the monument to Barton W. Stone in the Cane Ridge
Church Grave Yard. To quote his Journal again of the date July
13th, 1860: "Alexander Campbell, W. K. Pendleton; and one
Walter Scott, a great admirer of Elder Campbell's visited Cane
Ridge and inspected the monument of Barton W. Stone. After the
sermon which was delivered by Elder Campbell (and without a word
of allusion to Stone) the three Elders dined with my son Warren
B. Rogers at "Glenwood." During their stay the great Scott
remarked to W. B. Rogers that the inscription on Stone's
monument would not do for it made him "the"
distinguished.Reformer of the 19th century. I requested, my
son, when next he saw Elder Scott, to tell him that I was the
writer of that inscription, and that "What I had written, I had
written." See John; Chapter 19, Verse 22." (Cane Ridge Meeting
House)"
Minister of Mount Gilboa Church, Louisa County, Virginia,
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_(RESEARCH QUERY) COX of VA_|
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|--Archer COX
| (1750 - 1794)
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Mother: Elizabeth HILL |
_Edward HASKINS Sr.__+
| (1660 - 1727) m 1689
_Aaron HASKINS ______|
| (1694 - ....) |
| |_Martha TANNER ______+
| (1663 - 1729) m 1689
_Robert HASKINS _____|
| (1732 - 1804) |
| | _Joseph GOODE _______+
| | | (1680 - 1761)
| |_Mary GOODE _________|
| (1715 - ....) |
| |_____________________
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|--L. Martha "Mattie" Or "Patsy " HASKINS
| (1764 - 1794)
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|_Elizabeth HILL _____|
(1733 - 1817) |
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Elias Lewis (b. 1816 - 34 - in NC - Occ: Carpenter - Property
Value $500) married to Sidney D. (b. 1821 - 29 - in GA).
Children listed (born in AL) are:
Ann (dau b. 1843 - 7);
John (son b. 1845 - 5); and
James (son b. 1843).
ALSO LISTED are: Nancy Lewis (mother 1785 - 65 - in NC); and
Joseph W. Vickers (brother-in-law b. 1821 - 29 - in GA)
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Mother: UNNAMED |
_James MCCONNELL ____+
| (1756 - 1816)
_George MCCONNELL ___|
| (1779 - 1832) m 1806|
| |_UNNAMED_____________
| (1760 - ....)
_Thomas "Young Tom" MCCONNELL _|
| (1816 - 1885) |
| | _William SCOTT ______+
| | | (1760 - 1806) m 1778
| |_Sarah SCOTT ________|
| (1786 - 1829) m 1806|
| |_Mary BAXTER ________+
| (1762 - 1823) m 1778
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|--John MCCONNELL
| (1840 - 1885)
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|_UNNAMED_______________________|
(1820 - 1885) |
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Mother: Ann Maria OSBORN |
_William MONROE I____+
| (1665 - 1737) m 1689
_Andrew MONROE ______|
| (1692 - 1735) m 1726|
| |_Margaret BOWCOCK ___+
| (1670 - 1737) m 1689
_George MONROE ______|
| (1719 - 1789) m 1738|
| | _Charles TYLER I_____+
| | | (1660 - 1722) m 1687
| |_Christian TYLER ____|
| (1707 - 1754) m 1726|
| |_Jane________________
| (1670 - ....) m 1687
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|--William MONROE
| (1741 - 1810)
| _____________________
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| _Arthur OSBORN ______|
| | (1698 - 1752) |
| | |_____________________
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|_Ann Maria OSBORN ___|
(1720 - 1792) m 1738|
| _____________________
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|_Ann JONES __________|
(1700 - ....) |
|_____________________
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Mother: Elizabeth GARRETT |
_Nicholas WARE I_____+
| (1627 - 1662) m 1654
_Nicholas WARE II________________|
| (1655 - 1704) |
| |_Anna VASSALL _______+
| (1628 - ....) m 1654
_Nicholas WARE III___|
| (1670 - 1744) |
| | _____________________
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| |_Elizabeth GRESHAM ______________|
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| |_____________________
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|--Mary WARE
| (1710 - ....)
| _____________________
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| _John GARRETT II "the Immigrant"_|
| | (1634 - 1706) |
| | |_____________________
| |
|_Elizabeth GARRETT __|
(1655 - ....) |
| _Peter WARE _________+
| | (1600 - 1650)
|_Elizabeth WARE _________________|
(1634 - 1676) |
|_____________________
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_John ZACHARY _______|
| (1674 - ....) |
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|--John ZACHARY
| (1704 - ....)
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