The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-10-15

certain 10. De the greatest religious
gathering ever held within the con-
fines of the United States was com.
menced in tine Smoky City today by
the Disciples of Christ. The great
convention will continue to October 10
and is expected to attract no less than
$4,000 people. Many thousands are al
ready 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
that this convention will mark the be-
ginning of a great union movement
between the Disciples and the Bap-
fists.
Disciples have had big snare in
making the records just shown by gov
eminent reports, viz, that church
membership in America increases
more rapidly than the population.
They disclaim being another religious
body, saying there are enough bodies
already, and claim to be restoration.
Closely related to Baptists because i'm
mersionists, they hold views quite UNI
like 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
nd
post apostolic authority, and the res
tOration of the primitive church of the
apostles.
Started BY Presbyterian.
The Christian church was started
in Kentucky in 1904, when Rev. Barton
w. Stone. minister of the Presby
terrain church. severed his denomina
tional ties and bandoned the West
minister confession of faith as test
of membership and substituted the
for all believers in Christ to bear,
obedience and Christ as the only test
of membership and the Bible as the
tonly rule of authority.
Without any knowledge of this move
ment Thomas Campbell, another mem
Pennsylvania, sent out in 1909 what
he called "A Declaration and Address,"
which has been recognized as one of
the remarkable documents of Christ
ianity. This was looked upon as the
foundation of the Christian church.
(ln,,, l,aIl
did not propose to establish new
church, but ito restore the apostolic
church in all of its primitive simplicity
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 Chris
tians was built at Brush Run by John
Boyd and thus was begun the move
ment, the centennial of which is being
celebrated in Pittsburg today.
The movement which resulted in the
establishment OF the denomination had
its beginning September /, 1909, when
Thomas Campbell published his "dec
laration and address and this was
the cause of the Campbells and others
leaving the old Seceder Presbyterian
church to establish n 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 factional diff
cnlties, a religious quarrel, and with
no member 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 its record of relative growth
during the last decade has outstripped
every other Protestant body. Method
ists,' Baptists, Presbyterians and Luth
Grams alone rank ahead of it among
Protestant, and Roman Catholics are
lowered to sixth place. Even then the
Protestant bodies, separated most of
them in all but name, must be counted
as together, as Disciples are, if they
outrank in membership this wonderful
western religious development.
Growth of the Disciples.
Disciples membership stands at
100000 and a growth that is almost
IA per cent, per year. Its record of
gifts, especially to missions, is phe
nomenal and is growing as are the
gifts of almost no other body. In ed
ucational work, particularly in estab
fishing Bible chairs at State and other
universities, the worward movement is
and has long been important. Sec
tiOnal in its activities because so in
its start, this body has sought of late
years to extend into eastern cities,
and has met with some success. It's
strength lies, however, in the middle
west, where it is Il religious force
always to be reckoned with Intensely
evangelistic, and standing without the
slightest compromise on some peculiar
tenets, it mas entered into federation
movements with other bodies; and it
is not disturbing influence but quite
the opposite in the campaign toward
unity that has been waged during the