The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-10-12
BIGGEST RELIGIOUS CONVENTION
SMOKY CITY HAS EVER
KNOWN.
Disciples of Christ Begin Sessions To.
day and Will Continue Until o.
tober 18th.

PITTSBURG, Pa, Oct 11-What
seems certain to be the greatest re-
ligious gathering ever held within the
confines of the United States was be-
gun in the Smoky City today by the
Disciples of Christ. The great CON-
vention will continue to October 10
and is expected to attract no less than
$4,000 people. Many thousands are
already in the city and on every train
the Christian hosts continue to arrive
This occasion celebrates the one
hundredth anniversary of the estab-
lishment of a strictly American move
ment, the object of which was ''the
restoration of the faith and practices
of the New Testament" 1t is expected
beginning of a great union movement
between the Disciples and the Bap-
fists.
Disciples have had a big share in
making the record just shown by
government reports, viz that church
membership in America increases more
rapidly than the population. They dis
claim being another religious body
saying there are enough bodies already
and claim to be a restoration. Closely
related to Baptists because INNER
sionists, they hold views quite unlike
Baptists of the sacrament of baptism.
To put it as briefly and simply as
it may be, their religion stands for
Christian union, for the abolition of
creeds, UNCONVENTIONAL names and
post-apostolic authority, and the res
toration of the primitive church of
the apostles.
The Christian church was started
in Kentucky in 1904, when Rev. Bar
ton w Stone, a minister of the Pres
byterian church, severed his denom-
national ties and abandoned the
Westminster confession of faith as a
test of membership and substituted
the name Christian as the proper name
for all believers in Christ to bear,
obedience and Christ as the only test
of membership and the Bible as the
only rule of authority.
movement Thomas Campbell, another
member of the Presbyterian church
in PENNSYLVANIA sent out in 1909 what
he called "A Declaration and Ad-
dress" which has been recognized as
one of the remarkable documents of.
Christianity This was looked upon
as the foundation of the Christian
church
Thomas and Alexander Campbell
did not propose to establish It new
church but Ito restore the apostolic
church in all of it's primitive simpli-
city in customs and belief; to restore
the church of the New Testament"
On July 4, 1911, took place the first
baptisms On that day Thomas Camp
bell led down into a deep pool of the
Buffalo creek three persons, Joseph
Bryant, Margaret Fullerton and
Abram Affairs. and there immersed
them in the name of Jesus Christ.
Shortly afterward the first church of
the Christians was built at Brush Run
by John Boyd, and thus was begun the
movement, the centennial of which is
being celebrated in Pittsburg today.
The movement which resulted in the
esta blishment of the denomination had
it's beginning September Z, 1909, when
Thomas Campbell published his "dec-
'aration and address and this was the
cause of the Campbells and others
leaving the old Seceder Presbyterian
church to establish a church where
they might worship God according to
the dictates of conscience with none
to modest them or make them afraid"
Starting just one hundred years ago
in that bitterest of all fractional diff
culties. religious quarrel, and with
no members at all, this restoration
movement, as it calls itself, has grown
to be sixth in membership among the
religious bodies of America. Not only
so, but it's record of relative growth
during the last decade has outstripped
every other Protestant body. Method
lists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Luz
therans alone rank ahead of it among
protestants Even then the protestant
bodies, separated most of them in all
but name, must be counted as together,
as Diciples are, if they outrank IN
membership this wonderful western
religious development.
Disciples membership stants at
$50, 900 and a growth that is almost
IA per cent per year. Its record of
gifts, especially to missions, is phe-
nomenaI and is growing as are the