Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant Part 36

The final result was a revolutionary measure headed by Samuel McAdoo, Finis Ewing and Samuel King, men taken into the ministry and ordained under the expedience policy. They met and formed their own presbytery, calling it the c.u.mberland Presbytery after the one recently dissolved by the Kentucky Synod.

A short while after this schism, the Synod of Kentucky met to devise ways and means of adjusting the differences pending between the church organization and the churches of the c.u.mberland country.

Every Presbyterian church of the state was represented by either a presiding or ruling elder. The feeling from the first was intense. Three distinct groups of partisans were in attendance.

The conservatives, led by the Reverend Thomas Small, were in the majority. They insisted that all ministers who did not believe in predestination and who had been ordained without possessing the educational qualifications set forth under the rules of the church should be suspended, and that all physical manifestations or exhibitions of an exuberant Christian spirit by the congregation should be forbidden.

The radicals, led by Samuel McAdoo, who, though he admitted he was not up to the Presbyterian educational standard, insisted he was called, possibly predestined to preach, and declared that the Synod to close the breach, must take the c.u.mberland Presbytery with its uneducated preachers and its schism denying predestination into the organization else they would be forced to establish a distinct organization.

A third party, not exceeding a half dozen, led by Rev. Calvin Campbell, looked upon their differences as not so divergent as to justify a split in the church, rather demanding the exercise of a Christian spirit, as all yet believed in the Trinity and in the Bible.

After the organization of the Synod, Rev. Calvin Campbell rose and offered a resolution that: "No stationed or local preacher shall retail spirituous or malt liquors without forfeiting his ministerial character among us."

Speaking upon the resolution he told of the good work Dr. Benjamin Rush had been doing in Kentucky by his prohibition movement; what a curse Bourbon whiskey had proved to be since its manufacture began in 1789; and deeply regretted that so many preachers in Kentucky found an easy way of supplementing their meager salary by vending it almost under the shadow of their churches. He said: "I call your attention to this resolution because no preacher should profit by the weakness of his brother, and as indicating how dense is the wilderness in which Dr. Rush has raised his voice, crying for prohibition. I admit that a preacher must engage in some other business to live, but like Paul we may make tents, or shoes or grow corn; follow any occupation which does not tend to bring misfortune to a weak brother."

Upon a vote by secret ballot, the resolution was lost. (In 1813, this identical resolution was offered at a Methodist Conference in Kentucky and voted down.)

Rev. Small, though Rev. Campbell did not know it, was a part owner in a distillery and looked upon the resolution as directed at him. Therefore, when he rose as the advocate of conservatism, the champion of predestination, and of an educated ministry fully alive and thoroughly grounded in all doctrinal tenets of the church, he was in no mood for compromises.

He dwelt at length upon the ludicrousness of the "jerks" or physical manifestations, and called attention to the fact, which many had forgotten, that they were first indulged in at the Gasper River Meeting, conducted by the Rev. Calvin Campbell in 1799, and therefore should be called the "Campbell Jerks."

He then spoke upon the theme of the necessity for a thorough theological education, else a man could never be an able polemic, a well read theologian, capable at all times and with all comers of holding his own in a denominational controversy between learned men, so essential for the spread of Presbyterianism; nor could he by logic convince all hearers that all were predestined from the beginning of eternity, which in itself established the creation of all souls when the soul of the first man was created; nor that a man once converted could never fall from grace-beliefs essential to a Christ-like faith.

He closed by saying: "My mind is set like flint upon the proposition that when a man doubts either doctrine there is no room for him as a member, much less a minister, in the Presbyterian church. I shall therefore vote to suspend all newly ordained ministers until they are properly qualified to preach this doctrinal gospel and can use 1 Corinthians 9:27, or the book of the prophet Jonah, as their text to establish the doctrine of predestination. I shall therefore vote to expel all who do not believe in every declaration in the confession of faith and particularly in predestination."

When he had finished, the Reverend Samuel McAdoo presented the cause of the c.u.mberland Presbytery. He expressed regret that the "split" had occurred and willingness on the part of the churches of their presbytery to continue in the Kentucky Synod, if permitted to retain the preachers already ordained and serving them, all of whom were holy men selected from their congregations to meet urgent needs, when highly educated and regularly trained ministers were not available, stating: "It seems this is not a great or unreasonable concession, nor the further request that we be given a greater liberty of interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and more freedom in preaching the gospel and supplying our churches with ministers, provided that what they teach is in accord with the teachings of Christ."

When McAdoo sat down, the a.s.semblage, feeling that only one man had sufficient influence to close the breach, expectantly turned towards Calvin Campbell. He rose and spoke from beside his chair, until many of the a.s.semblage insisted that he occupy the pulpit.

"Twenty years ago, when I was ordained, this state had a population of less than 74,000 and this denomination but five preachers and less than a dozen churches. The state has grown rapidly, now it is seventh in importance, with a population of 406,000, and our organization has maintained a proportionate growth, doing its part ably and faithfully to spread the gospel of Christ and make of this a Christian Commonwealth.

It is a record of which this Synod, representing several hundred churches, is justly proud.

"Occasionally doctrinal controversies have arisen, but they have always been taken up and considered in a spirit of love and prayer, and adjusted by following the precepts of and in the footsteps of the Master.

"We are met today by questions not more difficult of solution, but we seem in their consideration to be guided by a different spirit. There is more of contention and feeling and less of the old spirit of love and prayer. May G.o.d soften our hearts and so solve the trouble. I ask that the words I speak may picture the thoughts of a purged soul, and that what I say shall be acceptable to and in the service of G.o.d.

"I must confess that within my heart there is no disapproval of physical manifestations on the part of any one feeling himself emanc.i.p.ated from the shackles of sin. Let him, like David, sing his songs of thanksgiving or dance before the altar of G.o.d. G.o.d's grace to some of you is not a new thing; may it never become trite to our souls. How can you judge of your neighbor's spirit of praise for his salvation? He may have a clearer perception than you or be lifted from a deeper darkness into a brighter light. Do you think that the meeting on the great day of Pentecost was without shouts of praise and physical manifestations? Do you think that Christ's entry into Jerusalem when the mult.i.tude sang 'Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!' was devoid of physical manifestation, or the less pleasing because it was not? We are told that when the chief priests and scribes saw these things 'they were sore afraid' and questioned Jesus, saying: 'Hearest thou what they say?' and He answered: '* * * have ye never read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?' I beseech, you, that you do not as high priests, as clammy conventionalists, criticise the gambols of a new born lamb into the shelter of the fold.

"Again I must confess that to me there is nothing inconsistent with true Christianity, if one of the brethren asks a freer interpretation of and more liberty in preaching the Bible. The essentials of true Christianity, taught by the Bible, are so simple that a child may understand, and so complex as to be beyond the grasp of a mind lost in a wilderness of doctrinal phrase worship, or of conventionality or in the regulation of the width of their phylacteries.

"A preacher whose soul is filled with the power and the zeal of the Holy Ghost, though he is a mender and caster of nets, has a greater message and is better fitted to interpret the Bible than the scribe lost in a theological hair-splitting discussion upon some phase of non-essential doctrine. A man's own conscience is the best interpreter of his theology, especially if quickened by prayer, when he talks with G.o.d, and by the Scriptures, when G.o.d talks with him. Thus there becomes fixed in his soul the essential doctrine which nothing can shake.

"Again I have never been thoroughly convinced that predestination as taught in our creed is not tinctured with fatalism. To accept predestination, without a belief in fatalism, is to believe that man is a free moral agent; and this, as the years go by, I am inclined less and less to believe. I have a friend, a physician, full of theories, who contends that a child born with a misshapen head or diseased brain cells is frequently a born criminal; and that a surgeon's knife may in rare instances transform such a criminal into a saint.

"Nor do I believe that a man once truly converted cannot fall from grace. While Calvin insists this is true, it is denied by Luther and Augustine. Man can only remain within the grace of G.o.d by constant struggle and endeavor and by insistent and persistent prayer. His spiritual life like his temporal has its days of sunshine and of shadow.

The doctrine that once converted, you can never fall from grace, tends to a careless spiritual life and leads to discarding the teaching that all are sinners and life a succession of falls, a never ending struggle and prayer to live like the Master. Many a sinner has been saved who never had one thought about predestination. Belief in it is unessential for salvation. No soul who does not believe in it will be d.a.m.ned, if that soul believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, loves the Lord his G.o.d with all his heart and his neighbor as himself.

"The danger of educated religious organizations is that these non-essential doctrines are apt to suppress the growth of the real faith. There is a tendency to formalism, to doctrinal subtleties, to measuring the relative importance of each commandment, to spending time in fixing the character and location of h.e.l.l, rather than striving to avoid it, to fixing the form of baptism, to word weaving, hair-splitting, letter worship; thus becoming blind leaders of the blind; eyes set upon unessential and exaggerated regalia, while the spirit loses sight of the light of the world.

"Think you a penitent sinner cannot be baptized, because there is not water at hand? Baptize him with sand. Think you that the ordinance of the Lord's supper cannot be observed because the wine is spilled? Fill the vessel with water and the spirit of observance will symbolically transform water into wine, as the wine stands for the blood of Christ.

Must the gospel of Christ remain unpreached because there are no theologically educated ministers to expound it? Do you propose to create a sort of purgatory in which these immature preachers may have an opportunity to ripen until you say they are fit harvesters for the grain, over-ripe and wasting?

"A seminary education is a good, but not the great thing. Shall you or the Master say who is fit to serve as his messenger? Would you have picked his twelve? Would you have chosen from the fishing village or from the school of Gamaliel or the Sanhedrin? Any of you would have considered himself more fitted to preach the Pentecostal sermon than Peter. Had you done so, it is probable there would have been no physical demonstrations and at most half a dozen conversions. Yet Peter was but a fisherman, filled with the power of the Holy Ghost and telling in his own heart to heart way what the Master had taught him in that itinerant seminary of one teacher and twelve students on the sh.o.r.es of Galilee.

Who among you would have chosen Saul as disciple for the Gentiles, as he traveled the road to Damascus, anxious to continue his persecutions.

"I cannot claim because I am the graduate of a seminary and a cla.s.sical college that G.o.d has given to me a greater perception and measure of the power of the Holy Ghost to lead sinners to repentance than to Samuel McAdoo; nor for the same reason that I and not he, am G.o.d's minister. A preacher not fired with the Holy Ghost soon delivers his message.

"Brother Small, what has the Master taught these preachers of the c.u.mberland Presbytery that you and I may not know?

"So often when I look back over the days that are gone, recalling my follies, my mistakes, my presumptions and my prayer, my way, Lord, not yours-I drop upon my knees and pray-G.o.d be merciful to me a fool.

"Do not think that I condemn the faith of our fathers, or advocate an uneducated ministry. G.o.d can use the deformed, the broken vessel; He can make the crooked straight and the blind to see; His the greater glory, the more feeble the minister. G.o.d, Gideon, the three hundred, defeated the host of Midian. When it comes to the sacrifice, G.o.d will provide himself a lamb, but we should give as best we may for his service.

"And the Presbyterian Church, praise G.o.d for its glorious history. It has always waged a never ending, uncompromising war against wrong and oppression. The organization is a body of conservatives until aroused, which must be by a cataclysm. Then we never sleep until right prevails, though the road we travel grows wet with blood and tears. Presbyterians came to America for conscience's sake. They claimed the right to worship G.o.d as their conscience dictated. The first settlement was at New Amsterdam in 1628. The church grows as the community is raised to a higher educational standard. With them, religion and education go hand in hand and the catechism used to be found in their school primers. The history of the Presbyterian Church is interwoven with America's struggle for freedom. In England the revolution was attributed to the Presbyterians. Walpole addressing Parliament said, 'Cousin America has run away with a Presbyterian parson'."

After a discussion by others, lasting for hours, a vote was had upon a resolution, the adoption of which would recognize the c.u.mberland Presbytery, license their lapses and confirm the ordination of Samuel McAdoo and others advanced to the ministry by that Presbytery. The resolution was lost.

Whereupon all the representatives from their churches withdrew from the synod and on February 4th perfected a tentative organization, members of which took to themselves the name of c.u.mberland Presbyterians. Its growth was rapid. In three years there were three presbyteries and sixty churches. They held their first synod on October 5, 1813, when they proclaimed and published a summary of their faith. As this church came into birth with a great revival movement, so always it has advocated revivals.

On the night of Wednesday, November 10, 1813, several Shauanese Indians came to the home of Rev. Calvin Campbell. They were runners who had been sent by the nation to notify him that he had been made their chief in place of Tec.u.mseh, who had been killed in the battle of the Thames on October 5th.

The next morning before day he left with them and was gone from home nearly three months. Upon his return he had little to say about his trip, never mentioning its purpose except to his wife.

He told her that a great remnant of the Mingo confederacy including many Shauanese had moved several hundred miles west of the Mississippi, two hundred miles from the nearest white settlement, and had there built new villages upon the banks of the great river, near which were plains on which grazed vast herds of buffalo. That John Mason, who was still a missionary, had gone with them and he had a.s.sisted him in reorganizing the nation and in building a church, much like the old Jackson River Meeting House, except it was of logs instead of stone.

In the early days of Kentucky, when churches were few and far between, the people found it impossible to follow the custom of their ancestors, of burying their dead in the kirkyard. This resulted in each family of prominence having its own burial plot about sixty feet square hedged about by a wall of cut stone and overgrown with ivy or Virginia creeper.

Several cedar trees planted within the inclosure kept pace of growth with the family death rate and their branches sheltered the slowly widening circle of graves. The family graveyard was hallowed or consecrated ground which could not be bought. Plantations changed owners, but all conveyances exempted this plot, which descended from father to son, from generation to generation. Laws were made to protect it from incursion or desecration; it was a misdemeanor to tear down the wall or a tombstone, or to plow over the grave of a white person. A statute gave to relatives the right of ingress to such a place, "situate within the lands of another-to visit and to repair the graves or inclosure protecting same."

These desolate and usually neglected grave yards of half forgotten stranger dead became to the superst.i.tious, "hanted places" to be shunned by night, and the favorite site of many a ghost story told by the "black mammy" to the children of her master.

There is reserved to the memory of Rev. Calvin Campbell but small s.p.a.ce in the history of his state. He was buried at Campbell Station in the family grave yard, beside his father and mother, as later was his wife and years after her death their son.

Campbell Station is now the site of a thriving mining and manufacturing town, Middlesboro, which, financed by English capital, sprang over-night into being and prosperity. As a boom town, its founders claimed it would rival Birmingham, possibly Pittsburgh, saying: "Just across the mountain from us, easily reached through the Gap, are inexhaustible beds of iron ore, and on this side, less than a dozen miles from the ore are great veins of the finest c.o.king and smelting coal, and our city lies between."

In building Middlesboro, Yellow Creek was made straight. The redeemed curves, filled by moving a mountain, were laid off into building lots, which sold for a price that paid expenses and rewarded the promoter.

Streets were laid off and graded through the old family grave yard. The tombstone which marked the grave of Colonel Archibald Campbell and briefly reviewed his record as a colonel in the Continental Army, was placed on exhibition in the city hall. The markers of the other graves, as the earth that held the remains of the dead, was carted and dumped into the old creek bed, to redeem and transform a bend into a building lot.

The Town Company was a progressive corporation, and corporations are soulless inst.i.tutions, yet the recitation upon the tombstone of Calvin Campbell might have saved for it a place of honor in the city hall. But what matter, he is risen, he is present with his Lord who gives every man according as his work shall be.

The inscription, after giving his name, date of birth and death read:

"This monument is erected to the father of this Presbytery by shilling contributions from those persons who were brought to Christ by him.

After 1,800 had contributed, the fund being sufficient, further contributions were refused."