Omaha daily bee., 1896-02-10
AMERICAN CHURCH HISTORY.
Rev. r. w. Williams begins n serie,
OF Lectures on the Subject,

the pastor Rev. T. W. williams deliver th,
first Of series OF eight Sunday evening his
torical lectures on American Church His
tory and particularly the part taken in II
by Alexander Campbell. the founder of the
christian church. and his work as a church
restorer. Mr.. Williams said:
early In the present century, there was
a general revival Of religion, and most OF
the then organized churches. during the frs.
| thirty years. increased from two to seven
fold. In August, 1901, 10000 people came
together at Old Cane Ridge, Bourbon county
| KY, and creeds and church organizations
were; for the time, largely forgotten. Bar
| ton w. Stone was foremost in the movement
lie was Presbyterian minister, and shortly
atterWard organized the Springfield presby-
| terry This was soon dissolved, and in the
month OF June, 1904, Mr.. Stone organized an
| 'Undenominational church. taking the bible
alone as rule of faith. 1t adopted the
name Christian In 1909 Thomas Campbell
ana son, Alexander, came from Ireland
| where the father had oflcated as a minister
IN the Seceder branch of the Presbyterian
chufch. Father and son began to actively
! appeal for return to primitive Christianity.
In snort time they organized an Independ-
ent Union church. yet became members of
| the Baptist association. Alexander Camp
bell and family, feeling that immersion was
| the true mode OF baptism, were baptized by
did not believe in baptism for the remission
OF sins Mr.. Campbell afterward contended
that having been baptized Ii must have been
Tor that purpose, whether the minister or
candidate so understood it at the time. Early
| in the 30's correspondence spranp nm he
tween the Campbels and Barton w. Stone
in Kentucky, and their object being the
same, formal union followed, and a new
distinctive church was formed
Alexander Campbell soon became the
nl ntt,otv t, H.,
recognized now. Elder w. T. Moore, pastor
or the Christian church at Cincinnati ana
now editor of the Christian Commonwealth
said to him. But so far as human instru-
mentality is concerned it cannot be deniei
that Campbell was the man who conceived
organized. and made successful the present
reformation. He, nor none of his colleagues
telt to assert a new dispensaton of grace or
lay claims to divine call, contending rathe:
that the Bible was all sufficient. AS regards
authority they did not, neither do they now
believe in cali such as others claim l. e.,
divine or personal manifestation to them
by Gods spirit that they should work for
Him.
QUESTION OF AUTHORITY.
'The question of authority troubled them
at one of their early sessions, being me,
with the perplexing query, Who shall baptiz,
us?' the majority not having been baptized
and none, according to what they termed
scriptural baptism-baptism by immersion for
d
Can an unbaptized person baptize another?'
After considerable discussion, Mr.. Stone tenn
porarily solved the problem by asserting, If
we have authority to preach we have au-
thority to baptize.' The work then CON-
menced, the preachers baptizing each other
One point that has been deemed weak in
this act is that all the authority these men
had they got from the Presbyterans to repre-
sent the Presbyterian church, and when they
renounced Presbyterianism their authority
W fnr
as they claimed Presbyteransm was wrong,
the authority conferred was worth nothing,
consequently they could not farther preach
unless properly delegated by God but they
have replied to this asserting that the COM
mission given by Christ, Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every cres
ture,' while only spoken to the apostles in
cluded men in every age and upon that COM
mission they act. With this your speaker
differs. The question of their authority IL
yet strongly controverted, and often brings
them into discussion AS to church organi-
zation they have no form Of general church
polity. Each separate congregation is COM
plete in itself, and virtually independent of
every other church Their officers are
elders and deacons. They discard
all ether officers, asserting that God never
intended these offices to be perpetuated. Tho
wise man has said, What God doeth He
doeth it forever;' SO many of us kindly differ
here, believing that whatever officers God
placed in the church he intended them to re-
main. The minister's OF the Christian church
are not called but are formally set apart
by the laying on of hands. They do not
claim that this act glves-them any greater |
divine recognition or supernatural power, but !
is a recognition of their worth by the body |
and consequently acceptable to God.
"They deny apostolic or church succession,
contendng that the only succession posi-
BILE is a band Of believers, seeking to fol-
low the bible; that though a lapse of a |
thousand years without succession or bible
believers, yet should any of them believe
in the bible it would be true succession.
They accept the bible as the word of God,
md teach that the church was not organ
zed until Pentecost We differ here, ani
believe that Christ commenced to build
mis- church while in the flesh, and, as the
apostle said, And God hath set in the
church first apostles etc. That when the
apostles were chosen they were placed in
he church.
GOING BACK ON IMMERSION.
"Their distinctive doctrine is immersion
or the remission of sins. While claiming
lat baptism is for the remission of sins,
hey receive as members into the church
hose who may have been baptized in any
organization, whether it has been for the
emission of sins or not. OF late some
Innovations have occurred in localities where
MEMBERS have been sprinkled are accepted
nto membership. whole church In Cleve-
and has accepted this and G. w. Elliot,
he state evangelist for South Dakota re-
emily at Pocahontas, Ia, accepted as mem
ers into the church those who had been
pr!nkled without immersing them. 1t re-
lains for the future to determine whether
shall become general not 1t would
Q humiiating to them, after an advocacy
I immersion alone for sixty years to de-
'act and accept sprinkling. At an early
ay Campbell and Stone permitted sprin-
ling, but finally rejected 1t. They deny
Il spirit baptism understood by other
hurches today. Repudiating experiencing
ellgion,' they contend that all the spirit {
man gets is through the word, there
eing no other manifestation. Any claim
supernatural manifestation is held as a
lgary. They urge that the manifestations
the spirit was given to establish Chris
aDity and then ceased that all the spirit
e get today is through reading the word
God. This the majority OF the Christian
orld believes to be assumptive with no
riptural confirmation. They reject infant
.ptism. If church union is brought about, 8
GLIDING this church, and taking the bible @
the standard and pattern, the Christian II
lurch will triumph in several respects, 8
It some things it must eventually give up :
modify, and as the various divisions are 4
rgely due to mans misapplication of bible
nth, they must yield some with the rest
recognizing Christ as the head, they
ust realize that this leadership only con-
SITS In the influence he has over those
leads, and, being the head. he must