The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-08

Nearly Six Thousand Campbellites 1
This State.

Nearly Six Thousand Campbellites In
This State.
The census Office has issued . bulletin
dealing with eight religious bodies, the
Disciples OF Christ, b Christians, or
Christian Connection, the Evangelical As
ISOLATION, the Primitive Methodist church,
the Union American Methodist Episcopal
church, the Seventh-Day Adventists. the
Church of God (Seventh-Day A~dventistsl
and the Society for Ethical Culture.
The Disciples of Christ, often called also
Christians, were one of the results Of the
great revival movement which began in
Tennessee and Kentucky in the early part
of the present century. Rev. Barton
W. Stone. a Presbyterian minister, who
was prominent III the revival movement.
withdrew from the Presbyterian church.
and in 1904 organized a church with
no other creed than the bible and with
no name but that of Christian. One
of his objects was to find a basis for the
union of all church believers. A little
later Thomas and Alexander Campbell,
father and son, who came from Ire
land. where the former had been a
Presbyterian minister. organized union
societies in Pennsylvania. Changing their
views as to baptism, they joined the Red
otoh~ ASSoA1oLloh VA D0PtAoGSs III
after, when Alexander Campbell was
charged with not being in harmony with
the creed. he followed the Burch Run
church. of which he was pastor, into the
Mahoning Baptist Association, which,
leavened with his teachings. soon ceased
to be known as a Baptist association. In
1927. after some correspondence with Rev.
3. ". Stone and his followers of the
Christian Connection, there was q union
with a large number of congregations in
Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, and the
organization v~ariously known as "Disci-
pies of Christ" and christians" is the re-
suit.
The leading principles of the Disciples
of Christ are, to quote from one of their
tracts: Q) "to restore the lost unity of
believers and SO of the church of Christ
by a return in doctrine, ordinance. and
life to the religion definitely outlined" in
the New Testament; (2) no human
creed, but the Bible is the only rule of
faith and practice; 81 baptism by INNER
sion of believers only. in which ''comes a
divine assurance of remission of sins and
acceptance with God" (4) the celebration
of the Lords Supper as a ''feast of love"
every Sunday. The central doctrine of
their teaching is that "Jesus is the Christ,
the Son OF God" They hold that 'per-
sonal trust in a personal Redeemer'' is the
faith that is necessary to salvation.
In polity they are congregational. Their
ministers are ordained, but are not, in de-
norinational usage, addressed with the
title Rev" They have as church officers
elders, also called bishops. pastors, or
p~resbyters, deacons and e~vangelists. The
latter are itinerant missionaries. The
churches are united in state and district
associations for missionary work, and there
is also a national convention for home and
another organization for foreign missions,
and a woman's board of missions for both
home n foreign missions.
The Disciples of Christ are represented
in all the states but New Hampshire and
Nevada, and in all the territories except
Alaska. In number of members Missouri
leads the states with 97,773; Indianais Sec
ond. with 1902; Kentucky third. with
1884; Illinois fourth, with 6O.s67, and
Ohio fifth, with 54,425. They have an az
gregate of 1916 organizations. 1924 1874
church edifices, valued at $12, 2O6, OBS, and
Gal ,o5l members or The
average seating capacity of the churches is
302. and the average value 50, 292.
Following are statistics of the DISCIPLES
in Washington: