The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-11-11
St. Louis, Mo-, Nov. 4, 1909.

SL. LOUIS, MO-, NOV. 3, 1SVS.
Dear Reporter:-I am going to tell
you something of our trip to Pitts
burg You know, of course, that our
principal motive for going was to
attend the Centennial Convention of
the Christian Churches, or Disciples
Of Christ, and it might not be out OF
place to tell something of the be-
ginning of this organization before
we try to tell about Pittsburg and the
convention itself.
We~who live in this Gay when al
most everyone can see some good in
all people, and especially when the
different religious bodies of the pres
ent time have so many things in COM
mon, in these days of union meetings
and uniform Sunday school lessons
and organized young peoples So
cieties of all the leading religious
denominations working together in
harmony, we can hardly realize what
bitter jealousies existed among re-
ligious neighbors hundred years
ago.. To borrow term from q mod
ern writer, church partyism ran high,
division walls were constantly being
built higher, and men were prone to
magnify their differences rather than
the things which they believed in
common. DR.. J. H. Garrison, in his
STORY of Century" quoting from
DR.. Richardson's Memoirs" tells us
that it was common thing for
church members to withdraw over
so small thing as the clerk giving
out two lines of a psalm at a time
instead of one. One church dis
ciplined a stone mason because he
did some work on building belong
ing to another denomination. There
were not only many different denom-
nations, but each denomination was
divided and subdivided. Unbelief
was, of necessity, quite prevalent.
Men were SO busy building party
walls higher and higher that they
had but little time to practice the
virtues of Christianity or to tell the
sweet and powerful story of the Cos
pei to a dying world.
Of course, there are many good
men and women in the church who
deplored these conditions and who
wished for better things. Among
these there stands out one figure
distinct and clear. Thomas Camp
bell, born in County Down, Ireland,
February L. 1853, educated for the
ministry in Glasgow University, a
member of the Seceder church landed
in Philadelphia in May, 1907, cir
cumstance fraught with greater con-
sequence than he could have dreamed
for here on American soil; he was to
work out under the guiding hand of
Providence a plan eor the unification
of the church in way and to an
extent that he himself did not even
have in mind at that time. In his
native land Thomas Campbell had
taken an active part in trying to
unite the different branches of the
Presbyterian church. In America he
was to find the key to Christian unity
and be the originator of a movement
that should work to bring about the
desire of his heart long after that
heart had ceased to beat. Thomas
Campbell caught the spirit of the
Masters great prayer when he prayed
that they all may be one, that the
world may believe that thou didst
send me-" (John 17:2D. He sowed
the seed of this great thought on
American soil, and men today are
reaping it's fruits in the spirit of toll
erance and broad Christian fellow
ship that animates the church. The
history of the movement which be-
gan with the issuance of Thomas
Campbell's Declaration and Adj
DRESS" sometimes regarded as lone
of the greatest documents ever writ
ten on American SOIL" the story of
the bitter persecution he and his fol-
lowers suffered, the growth of the
movement, all these things would
make volume, and fascinating one
too, but these few lines of history
must suffice for this letter.
We left St. Louis Monday after
noon, October ! 1th, bound for Pitts
burg. A special train load of dele
gates from st. Louis and vicinity had
preceded us the night before, SO we
were much surprised to find our
selves on board another solid train
of sleeping cars loaded with dele
gates. The sleeping cars were oper-
and we are informed that the first
h.led with delegates also This gave
us some idea of the immensely of the
gathering toward which we were
Fastening. The afternoon sped
| quickly in pleasant conversation with
Jul HCW lOuuu lIlcuuS, duu ALMOST
before we were aware we had crossed
the great state of Illinois and found
ourselves at dusk on Indiana soil
Just after our train left Terre Haute
all who could find sitting or standing
room crowded into one of the sleep
ers, and with the thought of the great
Centennial Convention that was even
at that moment beginning in the city
of Pittsburg an informal prayer and
praise service was quickly arranged
for, and as the train sped on in the
gathering darkness the songs of the
worshipers blended with the roar oil
the train. 1t was an unusual service
but frought with significance to us
and we felt that swelling of the heart
which we were to feel again in
greater degree when we should sit in
the convention ITSELF
At early dawn the morning of the
18th we found ourselves crossing the
Ohio river at Wheeling Junction. Nc
more sleep now, at least not for one
who had never before seen the beauti