Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1939-06-01
UNITY EFFORTS AMONG
PLAIN CHRISTIANS

More than a hundred years ago,
at various places in the United
States there arose spontaneous ef'
forts to lead professed Christians
back to New Testament teaching and
practice The evils of divided
Christendom were seen and earnest
hearts yearned for something bet
ter. Conspicuous among these move
ments to arrive at unity by restor-
ing the original faith and practice
of Gods church were the efforts OF
Barton w. Stone, of Kentucky, and
the Campbells of Virginia. These
two main groups ultimately united,
but presently demonstrated that
they had a good deal of human ma
ture, too, for-desirable as Chris
tian ONENESS might be-some OF
them began to practice things which
none of them had regarded as any
part of essential Christianity at the
suit of this was division, which was
entirely too bad, but that is not the
whole story. Each side OF the two
main parts of the Restoration move
mant went on and divided and per-
haps subdivided, trippling the great
work they had unitedly been doing
and exhibiting to the world the dis
graceful situation of a divided
church, sometimes with. two meet
ing houses in close proximity. the
i'll feelings, alterations of brethren,
even family infelicities, loss of prop
erty, etc. constitute a sad story and
nct 10 n "
the infallible standard of Gods
word-and even here there is re-
quired wisdom, love and forbear-
ance if two are long to walk togeth-
er.
About two years ago, Bros. Claud
Witty, minister of large Church
of Christ" in Detroit, and James De
Forest Murch, of the Christian
Standard, Cincinnati, o., began hold
ing small group meetings in differ
ent parts Of the country with the re-
suit that in such gathering with
the Tabernacle church, of Colum-
bus, Indiana, it was proposed to hold
a general, public meeting. This was
we'll consummated at Detroit in
May, 1888, when from 500 to 1000
persons attended the six sessions OF
a two-day gathering with about 70
preachers on hands. Out of that
grew the recent unity meeting held
at Indianapolis on May 2 and 3 with
a good general attendance and about
$50 Zone report says 1860 Preach
ers present. The gathering was in
Englewood Christian church, fifth
II Of ifc kind
the U. S. Out Of respect for those
whose conscientious convictions
keep them from using instrumental
music, the organ and piano were NOT
used. An able man from each side
led the singing which was entered
into with zeal and earnestness.
There were representatives OF all
the larger papers Of both groups
the Standard, Review, Gospel Advo-
cate, Scroll, Evangelist, Christian
Leader, Peoples Bible Advocate and
several other religious papers. Able
papers were presented by Dean
of Butler University, n
Leo Boles, of the Gospel Advocate,
and E. w. Mcmillan, of the new
Leader. Strong addresses were CIV
en- by James De Forest Murch, Dan-
iel Sommer, Frederick D. Kershner,
Claud Witty, A. M. Morris and Ed
win E. Errett. A fine spirit pervad-
ed the meeting, and though some OF
the controverted matters were
brought to the fore, it was clearly
shown that the desire for unity is
now too strong to be destroyed by
any small thing. The local min
lister, whose church uses both organ
and piano, said nothing would grieveI
him more than to know that there
would be no more unity meetings.
Bro. Murch indicated he considered
it was now time to begin group con-
ferences in different places where
the definite causes Of division could
be brought out and dealt with. Bro.
Witty announced that he would
work on such a suggestion and like
ly announcements will be made lat
er. / am sure there are readers in
Morgan county who will be inter-
ested in knowing that there is a.
very definitely different attitute on
the part of many Christian church
preachers now from what was faced
along this line forty years ago.
Many prominent men have express