Chapter VII
Faithful Defenders of the Truth
[p. 70]It was the spirit of the times. The ferment of a new wine was at work. The people were enjoying a new freedom. The largest measure of civil liberty was assured even to the humblest and most obscure. Religious liberty likewise was the portion of the people in general. A distinct intellectual stimulus was everywhere felt. The people were trying to find themselves in this new hour of freedom. They were slowly thinking their way out in the midst of problems and novel situations. What could be more natural than that they should engage in innumerable controversies?
The Baptist people during the first half of the nineteenth century were the children of the times. At the beginning of the century they had no general organizations to bind them together, save a few scattering associations. They had no widely-circulated newspapers, and no easy and ready intecommunication. Growing rapidly in numbers and increasing in power, they faced the task of forming a cohering denomination. Practically all questions of polity, all statements of doctrine, all general methods of procedure had to be wrought out in the crucible of discussion. We pass by the great number of minor discussions and lesser controversies which engaged the Baptist people, and consider three which, more than others, had a determining influence upon their development. These three are, the schism wrought by Alexander Campbell and his associates, the anti-mission or "Anti-effort" secession, and the prolonged and bitter controversy over the slavery question. Other questions, some of them of great moment, created wide interest and caused more or less serious, if temporary, divisions. These
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three cut deep into the heart of the Baptist people, and left scars which even now are not wholly healed.
I. The Division Caused by Alexander Campbell Early in the nineteenth century (1815), certain men started discussions and agitations which were to have a vital bearing on the Baptist people. Among these men, Alexander Campbell soon came to hold a place of primacy and to wield a dominant influence. Born in Ireland, educated in the University of Glasgow, highly endowed with the gifts of clear thinking and forcible speech, a natural-born debater, a veritable crusader, Mr. Campbell loomed large in a day when educated men and real leaders were all too scarce.
1. Gradual Development of Views Gradually, very gradually, Mr. Campbell developed his peculiar views. As a Baptist preacher of ripe learning and rare power, he was gladly received and heralded by the Baptist people as he went on his extended itinerating tours, through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and adjoining states. Everywhere vast crowds gathered to wait upon his ministry. The men who dared to meet him in debate were easily vanquished and his journeys grew into processions of triumph. The Baptist people, led hitherto largely by men lacking in education and gifts, naturally acclaimed this great defender of their doctrines. Near Maysville, Kentucky, he met in debate Mr. McCalla, a stalwart Presbyterian preacher, who had long unsuccessfully challenged the Baptist people to produce a man to debate with him. The fame of Mr. Campbell's skill and power in this memorable discussion went far and wide, and did much to hearten the Baptist people in wide circles. In this earlier period of his career, Mr. Campbell adhered to the generally accepted Baptist view of the meaning and purpose of baptism. During the debate with Mr. McCalla, discussing Paul's baptism, he used the following language:
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The blood of Christ, then, really cleanses us who believe from all sin. Behold the goodness of God in giving us a formal proof and token of it, by ordaining a baptism expressly 'for the remission of sins.' The water of baptism, then formally washes away our sins. The blood of Christ really washes away our sins. Paul's sins were really pardoned when he believed, yet he had no formal purgation of his sins, until he washed them away in the waters of baptism. (Campbell and McCalla Debate.)12. Distinctive Teachings With the passing of the years, however, Mr. Campbell developed and boldly advocated teachings which to the Baptist people seemed subversive of the gospel and destructive of its deeper spiritual meaning. The controversy was waged long and sometimes bitterly. As early as 1830, Mr. Campbell and his sympathizers began a vigorous effort to lead their followers under certain circumstances to withdraw from the Baptist churches, while at the same time the Baptist leaders advised separation from the Reformers, as they were generally called. By 1840 the division was practically complete, and the followers of Mr. Campbell, who had set as a goal the destroying of denominationalism and the bringing of all Christians into one fold, had instead added another to the already long list of denominations. Some of Mr. Campbell's distinctive teachings may be summed up as follows:
(1) Baptism is a saving ordinance without which none can be assured of salvation. "Immersion is the converting act." "Immersion and Regeneration are two Bible names for the same act."
(2) Prayer for sinners is not needed and has no efficacy. Seeking and especially emotion on the part of sinners are not to be countenanced. When in his presence a minister spoke of a certain good work which he had seen - sinners weeping and crying for mercy, Mr. Campbell is said to have raised his hand, cracked his
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1 History of the Baptists, J. T. Christian, page 427.
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finger and looked with a scornful countenance, saying, "I would not give that for it; if a sinner weeps when I preach I know that in some way I have deceived him."
(3) Faith is a mere mental assent to certain great historical facts rather than a deep spiritual response of the soul to the call and invitation of Jesus, the Saviour.
While defenders of the faith arose in numbers and strength in all parts of the country, certain Baptist leaders in and around Richmond, Virginia, were especially forward in stemming the movement led by the Reformers. In a report to the Dover Association (1832), Dr. J. B. Jeter along with a group of trusted leaders discussed the new movement at length and with the utmost of candor. The gist of their findings may be fairly seen in the following extracts from the report:2 After having deliberately and prayerfully examined the doctrines held, and propagated by them, and waited long to witness their practical influence on the churches, and upon society in general, we are thoroughly convinced that they are doctrines not according to godliness, but subversive of the true spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ - disorganizing and demoralizing in their tendency; and therefore, ought to be disavowed and resisted, by all the lovers of truth and sound piety.If after more than seven years' investigation, the most pious and intelligent men. in the land are unable to understand what they speak and write, it surely ia an evidence of some radical defect in the things taught, or in the mode of teaching them. Their views of sin, faith, repentance, regeneration, baptism, the agency of the Holy Spirit, church government, the Christian ministry, and the whole scheme of Christian benevolence, are, we believe, contrary to the plain letter of the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour.
Many conditions conspired to make the Baptist people vulnerable to the attacks thus made by earnest and forceful men. In the light of these conditions, perhaps
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2 History of the Baptists (II), Christian, pages 406, 407.
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the real wonder is not that a division resulted, causing the loss of thousands of members and the turning away of whole churches, but rather that the denomination so staunchly withstood the severe ordeal. In spite of their severe losses in Kentucky, for example, the Baptists led by able men increased with such rapidity that they held their usual proportion of population in the state, and in the ten years following the separation doubled their numbers.
II. The Hardshell Secession 1. Questions at Issue Running concurrently with the controversy above mentioned, and in some ways related to it, was the anti-mission, or better and more broadly, the anti-effort movement. Beginning with the organization of The Triennial Convention in 1814, there began to develop a persistent antagonism to all organized missionary effort. The opposition extended likewise to temperance societies, education, Sunday schools, paid preachers, in a word, to every form of progress. For thirty years this battle was waged, most fiercely in the South and West, but with real heat in the Middle and New England states. J. M. Peck, a pioneer missionary leader of the time, speaking of the Primitive Baptists as they wished to be called, said:3 They arrogate to themselves the name of Old School Baptists because they reprobate all these measures (missions, education and Sunday schools, and so forth), and declare non-fellowship with all Baptists who have anything to do with missionary work or any of those forms of active benevolence, and with all who hold correspondence with, or fellowship, missionary Baptists.The Signs of the Times (1838) advised the Primitive churches to draw a clear line against the missionary churches, and its advice met with quick favor, resulting in widespread division.
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3 History of the Baptists (II), Christian, pages 406. 407.
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"We believe that missionary exertions in modern days are carried on to a considerable pitch of extreme, and, therefore, cause considerable disturbance in churches and associations, which is an evil which ought to be guarded against; therefore, we will not correspond with, nor fellowship, any association or church which holds it as a principle of right."Realizing the difficulties and perils which would inevitably arise from an effort to approach and enlist the churches as such in the missionary effort, Luther Rice had merely asked for the formation of missionary societies, composed of such men and women as wished thus to band themselves together. Likewise voluntary societies had been formed to promote education, temperance, and other reforms. It was hoped in this way to avoid opposition from such as might not be in sympathy with these developments. But as the tides of missionary concern arose and the duty to support mission effort was pressed upon the general public, it was inevitable that opposers should seek to justify their failure to fall in with the ongoing progress.
2. Conditions Which Favored The conditions and causes which inspired this almost wholesale opposition may be briefly summed up. The same causes and conditions, of course, operated to give strength to the division and secession led by Mr. Campbell and his followers.
(1) There was a sad lack of trained and efficient leaders. In the South and West, especially, the public school system had not become effective, and popular education had received little attention. The Baptist people had a rather vivid recollection of the educated ministers of the established churches, for whose support they had been taxed, and they had not sufficiently recovered from those trying experiences to favor an educated ministry which should receive stated salaries.
(2) Not yet had steps toward organization and co-operation gone far enough to guide and support the
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general missionary propagandism. The Triennial Convention met only once in three years, and there were not in the early part of this period other general organizations through which information could be spread and comfort be given to the churches in their struggles to move forward. Newspapers were few, and methods of contact were almost wholly wanting.
(3) Mr. Campbell had thrown the weight of his great influence against calls and claims for gifts of money in the churches. He had vigorously opposed the payment of salaries to pastors, and it was easy to carry this further to a refusal to give money in the churches for any purpose.
(4) It must be at once apparent that ignorance, prejudice and covetousness constituted a sufficient basis and cause for the opposition which was so widely encountered.
By 1840, the separation of the Primitive Baptists from their brethren who wished to promote missions and education was practically complete. The Baptist people thus sustained severe losses, but they likewise received discipline, and developed morale for the increasing battles which lay before them.
III. The Slavery Controversy 1. Gradual Growth of Cleavage This controversy cut more deeply and left more terrible wounds than any other division which ever affected the people of the United States. This issue involved was, of course, primarily a civil issue, but in its various bearings it touched the whole cycle of life. It affected not the Baptist people alone, and not alone the Christian people, but all the people of the country. There had been more or less discussion of the problems arising out of slavery through many years, but at the time the Triennial Convention was founded (1814), and for some time after, there was little occasion to fear that the fellowship in
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the religious denominations might be disturbed. In the early forties, feeling was growing constantly more tense, and the subject was forced upon the attention of various religious bodies as they met for business or conference. Thoughtful leaders did their best to maintain peace. In the Triennial Convention of 1844 the following carefully-worded and conciliatory resolution was adopted:4Resolved, That in co-operating together as members in this Convention in the work of foreign missions, we disclaim all sanctions either expressed or implied, whether of slavery or anti-slavery; but as individuals we are free to express and to promote elsewhere our views on these subjects in a Christian manner and spirit.Thus the Convention went on record as wishing to preserve a spirit of neutrality. The rule had been, in the appointing of missionaries, to name "such persons only as are in full communion with some church in our denomination, and who furnish satisfactory evidence of genuine piety, good talents and fervent zeal for the Redeemer's cause." Such a rule was fair to all concerned, and was, of course, the only rule which could be considered, if the churches of the country were to co-operate in mission effort. In the face of the resolution passed by the Convention, the Executive Board shortly after made such reply to the inquiry of a Southern body as virtually laid down a new rule: "If any one who should offer himself for a missionary, having slaves, should insist on retaining them as his property, we could not appoint him. One thing is certain, we can never be a party to an arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery."This action of the Board, which was itself subordinate to the Convention, came in the face of the Convention action only a few months before. The Southern brethren felt that there was nothing left for them but to withdraw.
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4 A Short History of the Baptists, Vedder, page 346.
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A little later, the American Baptist Home Mission Society adopted resolutions to the effect that it is "expedient that the members now forming the Society should here-after act in separate organizations at the South and at the North in promoting the objects which were originally contemplated by the Society."
2. Division in 1845 In the face of these actions the Southern brethren felt compelled to withdraw from the Triennial Convention. This they did, and meeting in Augusta, Georgia, in May, 1845, established a separate convention which they called The Southern Baptist Convention. The new Convention established two Boards, one for domestic or home missions located in Marion, Alabama, and later removed to Atlanta, Georgia, and the other for foreign missions located in Richmond, Virginia. In 1891, the Convention organized The Sunday School Board, located in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 1919, established The Relief and Annuity Board, located in Dallas, Texas.
The conditions which occasioned the separation of the Southern Baptists from their Northern brethren have long since passed, and the sons and grandsons of the men who parted company in 1845 have grown to love and understand each other. The churches in the two sections hold essentially the same doctrines, enjoy blessed fellowship with each other, and constantly receive members on the basis of letters of dismission. The leaders, both North and South, apparently believe that more and better work can be done by separate organizations. The people of the two Conventions constitute one denomination, and they mutually rejoice in the fraternal relations which have long existed, and which promise to continue into the coming years. ____________
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Teaching Suggestions Question-Answer Study
Show how Alexander Campbell gradually developed his distinct views. State the distinctive views of Mr. Campbell. Tell of the Hardshell Secession. Indicate some conditions which put the Baptist people at a disadvantage in the controversy with the anti-effort people and the followers of Mr. Campbell. Show how the slavery question caused the division among American Baptists. Indicate some blessings which came from this division. Blackboard-Outline Discussion
I. The Division Caused by Alexander Campbell 1. Gradual development of views 2. Distinctive teachings (1) Baptism a saving ordinance (2)Prayer for sinners has no efficacy (3)Faith is a mere mental assent
II. The Hardshell Secession Questions at issue Conditions which favored (1) Lack of trained leaders (2) Lack of organization and co-operation (3) Mr. Campbell's influence (4) General ignorance, and so forth
III. The Slavery Controversy 1. Gradual growth of cleavage 2. Division m 1845 ============ [From P. E. Burroughs, The Baptist People, SSB of SBC, 1934. This document provided by Pastor Tom Byrd. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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