LIBRARY ANNEX 2 AiilNSON ■■ill 111 III illlliii \h !( f I^^l 637/^/ Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924052729518 HIEAM COLLEGE, HIEAM, OHIO A History of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio BY ALANSON WILCOX CINCINNATI THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright, 1918 The Standard Publishing Company CONTENTS PAQE iNTBODtrCTIOIir 11 I The Chtjeoh op Cttbtst 13 n FaiiLtng Away 21 in Eefobmebs 28 IV Ebstobation Movement 35 V The EESTOBATioiir Movement and the West- EBN Eesebve 40 VI EVANGEUSM ON THE WbSTBEN EbSEBVE 48 vn PlONBEB MiNISTBES OP THE WbSTBBN EeSBEVB 57 vin The Dootbine Then and Now 64 IX Great Leadebs 67 s CONTENTS X HiEAM CoUliEGE 84 XI A Seemon and a Life 103 xn In the Civil Wae 114 xni The Fiest Ebstoeation Chueoh est Ohio... 121 XIV In Southeen Ohio 132 XV Music 147 XVI HisTOEic Dedication Seemon Delivbebd by J. S. West at Libeety Chapel, Beown Co., O., in 1874 158 xvn HiSTOEic Dedication Seemon — Con tin u e d. . . 169 xvni 1798— Waltee ScoTG^1861 182 xrx The Bbstoeation in Cinoinnati 191 XX The "Chbistian Standaed" 205 CONTENTS XXI 1820— Isaac Eeeett— 1888 209 xxn The Standaed PuBUSHUfTG Company 215 xxm MoKiHGBB, Davis and Eowe 224 XXIV The Field of LiTEEATtrEB 231 XXV Our Oegahizbd Wobk 237 XXVI Maet AutoE Lyons 244 xxvn The Church at Hillsboeo 252 xxvm Centeal Ohio 255 XXTX The Ohio Cheistian Missionaey Society. . . 263 ANNAIiS OF THE 0. C. M. S 275 XXXI Sunday Schools in Ohio 291 5 CONTENTS xxxn The StJndat Sohool Chisis 299 yyiTTTT Cantos- ajstd Colitmbtjs 305 XXXIV PlONEEBS nST NOBTHWESTEEN OhIO 316 XXXV MiscET.T.AirEouB Items of Inteeest. . . , 342 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio Frontispiece Pioneer Preachers of Northern Ohio 34 Pioneer Preachers, Western Reserve 39 Some Ohio Pioneers 47 Sixty Years Ago in Warren 52 Western Reserve Churches and Ministers . . 56 Old Meeting-honse, Fredericktown, Ohio .... 66 Garfield Monument, Cleveland, Ohio 77 Western Reserve Eclectic Institute and Prin- cipals of the Institute 83 Hiram College Presidents 86 Miss ALmeda Booth of Early Days and Faculty of 1900 88 Members of Faculty of Hiram CoUege, 1900 and Later 90 M. L. Bates, President, and Trustees of Hiram College 94 Trustees of Hiram CoUege — Continued 96 Telescope, Hiram CoUiege, Presented by Lathrop Cooley 98 Library and Observatory, Hiram College, . . 100 Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. Bmlding at Hiram College 104 Euclid Avenue Meeting-house, Cleveland, Ohio 112 7 mLUSTRATIONS Some Ohio Preachers 113 Sons of Veterans Who Have Kept the Faith 120 Some Pioneers of the Restoration 131 Parsonage Built for Samuel Rogers 133 Meeting-house, New Antioch, Ohio 133 Ministers of Southern Ohio 138 Some Present-day Ohio Ministers 142 Southern Ohio Pioneers 146 Central Christian Church, Ninth Street, Cin- cinnati, Ohio 148 Ministers of Cincinnati 151 More Restoration Ministers 157 Pioneer Preachers to Whom Ohio Owes Much 168 Some Faithful Ministers 180 Pioneers in Southern Ohio 181 Cincinnati Pioneers, Prominent in City and Church 190 Stockholders of the Christian Publishing As- sociation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1866 204 OflScers of The Standard Publishing Com- pany, Organized 1872, ia Cincinnati, Ohio 214 The Standard Publishing Company and Its Executive Committee, 1918 217 Editors and Contributors, Christian Stand- ard 219 Some Standard Contributors 221 Contributors of To-day to Christian Stand- ard 223 8 ILLUSTRATIONS Bible-scliool Worker,s Past and Present, Standard Series Quarterlies and Peri- odicals 226 Cincinnati Preachers of Recent Years 233 Leaders in Organized Work 236 Ohio Women Who Helped to Organize the C. W. B. M. and Gave Aid to Make It a Success 240 Leaders and Helpers, Ohio C. W. B. M., 1917 243 More Restoration Leaders 259 Secretary and Board of Managers, O. C. M. S., 1917 262 Other Leaders in 0. C. M. S. Work 265 Ohio's Good and Faithful Daughters Whose Works FoUow Them 271 Prominent Secretaries, O. 0. M. S., and Noted Preachers of Ohio 274 Mt. Vernon Female Seminaiy, Conducted by E. E. Sloan and Mrs. Sloan ..;... 277 Map of Ohio Counties — Number of Churches in Each 282 Ohio Eestoration Workers 290 A Group of Eestoration Leaders 315 Some Ohio Ministers 327 Prominent Ohio Disciples 341 Benefactors of the Ohio Work 346 Tom L. Johnson Monument, Cleveland, Ohio 349 INTRODUCTION IJISTORT enriches the Tnind, gratifies a worthy- desire to be informed on past events, enables ns to avail ourselves of the experience of our predecessors, informs and regulates our judg- ment, and is profitable for reproof and correc- tion. The earliest records of humanity are found in the sacred Scripture, and for that reason they have a strong claim on our diligent study. Next to inspired history, the deeds of our forefathers should receive' our attention. To disciples of Christ a knowledge of our disciple history is desirable. Do the deeds and teaching of the fore- fathers correspond with the Scriptural require- ments? A third generation is now enjoying the results of the faith, practice and trials of the forefathers. Time, culture and science have wrought transformation, but human nature is the same and God's cure for sin is unchanged. Look- ing over the deeds of the forefathers, we can correct our mistakes and hand on to coming generations all they did which was Scriptural. Many eminent disciples of Ohio have not been noticed in this book for lack of space. Per- haps at our centennial in 1927 some one wiU write a complete history of disciples in Ohio. n THE CHURCH OF CHRIST HTHE cliiirch of Christ began at nine o'clock in the morning on the day of Pentecost succeed- ing the crucifixion of Christ. When it is spoken of as a church, Christ is the foundation, and the high priest to officiate for its members. When it is presented as a body, Christ is the head and gives forth its guid- ing principles. When it is represented as a king- dom, Christ is the king to rule in and reign over the subjects. These are not three different institutions, but are identified as varying views of the same insti- tution. (Col. 1:18-24; Eph. 1:22; 4:15; Matt. 16:15-19; 1 Cor. 3:11.) The church was built on Christ, not on the person of Christ, but on the truth that represents Him, "that he is the Christ, the Son of God." When Peter uttered this truth (Matt. 16: 16), Christ said, "Thou art Peter [Petros], and upon this rock [petra] I will build my church." So the church was to be built on the petra, or confession, or truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, and not on Petros. Paul, speaking of the passage of the Israelites through the Eed Sea, says: "They were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and did aU drink the same spir- itual drink : for they drank of that spiritual rock [petra] that follow'ed them: and that rock 13 A HISTORY OF THE [petra] was Christ." This passage expressly states that the petra is Christ. Prospectively Christ says of this divine truth anntiiiciated by Peter, that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Accordingly Christ died, and on the third day rose from the dead. The gates of hell did not prevail against Him. So He is declared to be "the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." This great truth standing for Christ is forever established. It is a tried stone. The prophet says: "Be- hold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious comer stone, a sure foun- dation; he that believeth shall not make haste." Peter applies this prophecy to Christ as follows : "If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect and precious, ye also, as Hving .stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Because it is contained in Scripture: "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief comer stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on bim shall not be put to shame" (1 Pet. 2:3-6). In the same chapter Peter refers to Christ as a stone of stumbling, and a rock (petra) of offense. So it is affirmed that Christ is the rock (petra) on which the church is buUt. When and how was this stone tried? He came in fulfillment of the prophets and types, and so was tried. He was tried by Satan in three of the strongest temptations: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 14 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO life; and Christ was victorious; He was tried by death and the grave, and prevailed over them. After these trials He oould be laid as a comer stone. So Peter, on the memorable day of Pentecost, an account of which is found in the second chap- ter of Acts of Apostles, declares that God raised Him from the dead — ^took Him into heaven, gave Him all power in heaven and earth and made Him both Lord and Christ. The angels declared that, as He went, so He should come again. The disciples who gazed heavenward lost track of Him. What was done with Him they did not know until the Holy Spirit removed their ignorance by declaring HJm Lord and Christ. So no one can believe in Him as Lord but in or by the Holy Spirit. He came as a spiritual presence as He prom- ised (Matt. 28:20), and has ever been with His true disciples. The coronation and lordship of Jesus were declared by Peter on the memorable Pentecost. The foundation of His church hav- ing been laid, three thousand persons were im- mediately built into the church as living stones. The church, the body of Christ, on that day re- ceived the Holy Spirit and He has dwelt in the body ever since. AH who become members of the body have their spirits in some way touched by the Holy Spirit and are made partakers of the divine nature and can never die. They take Christ at His word, and He so declared. As a kingdom, Christ's reign began in Jeru- salem, and the earthly part of the kingdom is identical with His church, which is His body on earth. The conditions of membership in the church are found in Acts of Apostles as preached 2 15 A HISTORY OF THE by the inspired apostles Peter and Paul and Spirit-directed evangelists. There are nine successful cases of conversion recorded in Acts of Apostles. On the Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2), Peter preached the resurrection and coronation of Christ and declared the infallible proofs of His lordship, and commanded the three thousand be- lievers to repent and be baptized for remission of their sins. The heathen jailor, who knew nothing of Christ, was commanded to believe, and then, to produce faith, Paul spake unto him the word of the Lord. This word of the Lord included the command to be baptized; and so straightway, the same hour of the night, he was baptized (Acts 16:33). Paul, on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians, met the Lord and became a be- liever. And after three days of praying, Ananias told him to be baptized and wash away his sins. Immediately he obeyed. No person in the apos- tolic age who heard and believed the gospel, ever waited one hour before he was baptized. Paul waited three days before he knew he ought to be baptized (Acts 9). The Samaritans, when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, were bap- tized, both men and women (Acts 8:12). Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian treasurer of Queen Candace, and the treasurer, when they came to a certain water, said: "What hinders me to be baptized?" The answer is: "If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest," He said: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." On this confession Philip baptized 16 DISCaPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Mm, and the celebrated convert went on Ms way rejoicing (Acts 8:35-39). Cornelius was tlie first Gentile convert. Mir- acles were wronght to satisfy Peter and tlie Jews that it was rigM to baptize Mm. He was a devout, benevolent man and in a place of authority in military affairs, but he was unsaved, according to the new dispensation of God's mercy under Jesus Christ. So he was told words whereby he should be saved. The Holy. Spirit baptism was given to him as to the apostles at the beginning of the church, and Jesus was the baptizer. The law of pardon and induction into the kingdom demanded that he should be bap- tized in water. Peter had it revealed to him that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted. He was bap- tized and saved from the condemned world (Acts 10 and 11). Lydia, the seller of purple at Thyatira, at a devotional meeting by the river-side, heard Paul preach, and the Lord opened her heart and she was baptized (Acts 16). The Ephesians, having only been baptized unto John's baptism, corrected their mistake and "were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19). Many of the CorintMans, hearing, believed and were baptized. AU the conditions of church membersMp are not mentioned in each case of conversion, but all must have heard the gospel, believed, confessed Christ, been baptized, received the remission of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The creed of the church was Christ, and not a se- lected set of dogmas. Only believers in Christ were baptized. The authority in the church or 17 A HISTORY OF THE body or kingdom was the authority of Christ. It was transferred to the apostles by Christ under the figure of keys or a throne or in specific instruction (Matt. 16:19; Matt. 19:28; John 20: 21-23; Luke 10:16). The apostolic authority is in the New Testament Scriptures. During the personal ministry of Christ he gave out the gen- eral principles of his kingdom and the great com- mission to his apostles (Matt. 5, 6 and 7; Matt. 28:18-20). The apostles, as guided by the Holy Spirit, gave the specific instruction in harmony with Christ's commission as to how to come into the kingdom and how to live as loyal subjects. The disciples "continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers" (Acts 2:42). The disciples met on the first day of the week to break bread and remember Christ in his sufferings and death and resurrection (Acts 20:7). They made of- ferings on the first day of the week for benevo- lences and for carrying on their work. They did this voluntarily, as the Lord prospered them, and with a ebeerful heart (1 Cor. 16:1, 2). They settled their differences by confer- ences under apostolic authority (Acts 15). The law of expediency was used where there was no direct revelation. The Mosaic law ruled before Christ's law began.. Christ honored the law of Moses by living under it, and set it aside when his church began (Epk 2:15; Col. 2:14; Eom. 10 : 4) . The moral precepts of the Mosaic law are reinforced by apostolic teaching. The law of the Sabbath began after the exodus from Egypt (Deut. 5:15; Ex. 20:10), and was never reinforced by apostolic command. 18 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO The disciples met on the first day of the week, called the Lord's day, to break bread (Acts 20: 7; 1 Cor. 11). The word of Christ was to dwell in them richly in aU wisdom, and they were to teach and admonish one another in psahns and hymns and spiritual songs. Not only did they set aside the law of Moses, which was to perish, but also the commandments and doctrines of men. They were to draw out of their faith all the Christian graces and virtues, and then an abundant entrance was promised to them into the everlasting kingdom of heaven (2 Pet. 1: 5-11). When the first church at Jerusalem was dis- persed they went everyvs^here preaching the Word, making believers, planting churches and doing the wUl of God. That is what Christ came for, to do the will of God (Heb. 10). The early Christians took God, in Christ, at His word, and were g^uided by His will. As to good works, they were careful to maintain them, and the apostles gave the superintendency of this over to deacons (Acts 6). Paul made collections for the Jerusalem poor. The early disciples cared for exposed children, and widows over seventy years old (1 Tim. 5). Here is warrant for orphanages and homes for the aged. AH the primitive disciples were missionary in spirit and practice. Paul was the most abundant in labors. He went forth from Anti- och, the first church where Jews and Gen- tUes were associated together. He planted churches in many of the principal cities of west- em Asia and eastern Europe. He wrote many letters to churches and individuals. His labors and influence have had more to do in the shap- 19 A HISTORY OF THE ing of the history of Christian nations than those of any man that ever fignxed in the affairs of the world. The leaders in the original church were apos- tles, prophets, evangelists, elders, deacons and various classes of helpers. Apostles must have seen the Christ before and after his resurrec- tion. There were twelve of them (Matt. 10 : 2- 4). Judas Iscariot fell away by betraying the Lord. Paul took his place by the call of Christ (Acts 9). Matthias was selected by eleven apos- tles to fill the vacancy, without Christ's authority and before the Holy Spirit came to them. Prophets assisted the apostles in starting and establishiiiig the kingdom. Evangelists continue as preachers so long as Jthe whole world has not been reached. Bishops, elders or overseers pre- sided over the spiritual interests of congregsu- tions. Deacons attended to the finances and be- nevolences of the church. Any Christian may help carry out the wiU and purpose of Christ, as the circumstances may demand, but, that order may be maintained in the Lord's work, evangelists, elders and deacons are authorized leaders. Individually, the disciples are called Christians, saints, brethren; and, in a collective capacity, church of Christ or church of Q-od. 20 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO II FALLING AWAY "yHERE came a falling amay from apostolic teacMng and practice. It commenced in the time of the apostles. The letters to the Grala- tians and Hebrews give such indications. In the second letter to the Thessalonians this falling away is positively mentioned, and it is stated that the mystery had already begun (2 Thess. 2:3-10). Judaizing teachers, as in the time of Christ, had made void the law of God by their traditions. Specially was this true after Con- stantine, ia A. D. 311-327, adopted Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. Persecu- tions against Christians had largely ceased. But when emperor and political leaders began to inject heathen customs and legislate for the church, the beautiful simplicity of original Chris- tianity was perverted. In the original churches there were elders, or bishops and deacons, connected with each con- gregation. At the close of the second century a change had commenced. The jurisdiction of bishops had begun to extend over dependent churches in the neighborhood of the towns and cities. They began to place themselves above the "laity" and grew into a distinct order. The bishop, in a large city, acquired a precedence over other churches ia the same district and 21 A HISTORY OF THE thus the metropolitan system grew up. A higher grade of eminence was accorded to the bishops and churches of the principal cities. Then the bishops of principal cities began to claim pre- eminence; and when the seat of empire was transferred from Rome to Constantinople, there came up a controversy as to pre-eminence that divided the church, and so we have the eastern Greek Catholic Church and the western Eoman Catholic Church. These churches alternately excluded each other from time to time, till the division was permanent. The western church continued to observe the Lord's Supper every first day of the week for about three hundred years. The Greeks kept up this custom for about seven hundred years. Chnical baptisms (so called) and sprinkling water on babies for baptism were gradually introduced till popes and councils in 1311 usurped the authority of Christ and legalized sprinkling as baptism in the western or Eoman Catholic Church. The eastern church adhered to immersion, but fell away from believers' baptism to baptizing in- fants and from Christ's command to trine im- mersion. Following, now, the western church, all kinds of innovations were rapidly introduced tiU there is in the so-called Roman Catholic Chiirch little semblance to the New Testament church. It is a religion made up of Jewish rites, heathen superstitions, traditions and political intrigues. In the so-called church they have holy water, the fast of Lent, monastic vows, priestly vest- ments and the sign of the cross, praying for the dead, purgatory and paschal candles, invocation of saints, images and extreme unction, sacrifices 22 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO for the dead, weix candles, the real presence, eomptilsory celibacy, assumption of temporal power, canonization of saints, redemption of penances, monasticism, auricular confessions, elevation of the host, Bible forbidden to laity, indulgences, rosary of the Virgin Mary, sale of indulgences. Papal usurpation, priest drinJdng the wine instead of the people, infant baptism, sprinkling water instead of immersion. Papal primacy, tradition superior to the Scriptures. Bishop Newton observes: "The foundation of papacy was laid, indeed, in the Apostles' days, but the superstructure was raised by degrees, and several ages passed before the building was completed, and the mansion was revealed in full perfection." Costerus, a popular writer of his day, says: "The excellency of the unwritten word doth far surpass the Scripture, which the apostles left us in parchments: the one is written by the finger of God, the other by the pen of apostles. The Scripture is a dead letter, written on paper or parchment, which may be razed or wrested at pleasure, but tradition is written in men's hearts, which can liot be altered. "The Scripture is like a scabbard that will receive any sword, either leaden or wooden or brazen, and suJffereth itself to be drawn by any interpretation. Tradition retains the true sword in the scabbard; that is, the true sense of the Scripture in the sheath of the letter. The Scrip- tures do not contain, clearly all the mysteries of religion, for they were not given to that end to prescribe an actual form of faith; but tradition contains in it all truth, it comprehends aU the mysteries of faith, and aU the estate of the 23 A HISTORY OF THE Christian religion, and resolves aU doubts which may arise concerning faith; and from hence it will follow that tradition is the interpreter of all Scriptures, the judge of aU controversies, the removal of all errors, and from whose judgment we ought not to appeal to any other judge; yes, rather, all judges are bound to regard and fol- low this judgment." These tradition teachers are constantly advocating their theory. "The barriers of the ancient simplicity and truth," says Mosheim, "being once violated, the state of theology waxed worse and worse; and the amount of the impure and superstitious ad- ditions to the religion of Christ is almost in- credible. The controversial theologians of the East continued to darken the great doctrines of revelation by the most subtle distinctions, and I know not what philosophical jargon. Those who instructed the people at large made it their sole care to imbue them more and more with ig- norance, superstition, reverence for the clergy, and admiration of empty ceremonies; and to divest them of all sense and knowledge of true piety. Nor is this strange, for the blind — ^that is, for the most part grossly ignorant and thoughtless — ^were the leaders of the blind. The summary, it may be stated, led to pray to saints and worship their images ; which trusted to relics to remove defects of body and soul; which relied upon the fires of purgatory to remove sin, and on purchased prayers to remove purgatory. Which found cleansing efficacy everywhere but in the despised blood of Christ, and even em- ployed oU taken from sepulchral lamps of mar- tyrs for the purpose — ^which subverted all thirds with tradition," DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO The falling away is also covered in tlie Scrip- tures by the expression going "into the wilder- ness." They started in the apostolic age and reached the mldemess in A. D. 666. From that date the Papacy was in fnll swing. Some of the things listed as against them in this chapter were concocted and introduced later than A. D. 666. "When will they all cease? That the church fell away from apostolic teaching and practice, and went into the wilder- ness, is evident. It will be remembered that, when the Israelites were rescued from Egyptian bondage, they came to Mt. Sinai in. fifty days, and Moses, as mediator, received for them the law of the Lord. They pledged themselves to obey the law. They were soon instructed to send spies into the proposed promised land. All of the spies, except Caleb and Joshua, reported that it would be impossible to take the land. The people, also murmured, and distrusted the leader- ship of the Almighty, and were compelled to wander in the wilderness forty years. All the men of Israel who were over twenty years of age when they left Egypt, perished, except Caleb and Joshua (Num. 14:30). The Lord predicted this forty years' wandering in the wilderness. This suggests to the minds of some that he had predicted the duration of the church wandering in its wilderness. P. T. Pendleton, in his book "The Great Demonstration," declares that "the Lord tells us several times that the wandering wiU last 1,260 prophetic days or years. The count for these years begins at the appointed time (Dan. 11:29), which is A. D. 666, and they end in A. D. 1926. The first time these years are given is in Daniel, and the words are about 25 A HISTORY OF THE the little or western or Catholic horse, which is 'Hades,' and which drives the fourth and last division of the church into the wilderness just as the eagle gives his call, and the words are: 'And he shaU speak words agaiast the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High: and he shall think to change the times and the law: and they shall be given into his hands until a time and times and a half time' (Dan. 7:25), or 1,260 years. 'And the woman [the church] fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that there they may nourish her a thousand, two hundred and threescore days' (Bev. 12:6), or 1,260 years." During the period of 1,260 years there were individual saints and communities that tried to walk in the light of Grod's truth. There were Albigenses, Nestorians, Waldenses and others that tried to serve the Lord acceptably. The light of Grod's truth, however, was darkened — the Scriptures were taken from the comtnon peo- pie — and so we have the Dark Ages. "Where there is no vision, the people perish." In the days when Samuel ministered unto the Lord be- fore Eli, the word of the Lord was -precious: there was no open vision (1 Sam. 3:1). So, in the dark days of the apostasy, the vision of faith was obscured, and, like the blind man in the time of Christ, they saw men as trees waMng. Fisher, in the history of the Christian church, makes this record: "In the devotional system of the Middle Ages the celestial hierarchy of angels had an important place. Apparitions of angels were believed to be not infrequent.. They were protectors against the demoniacal spirits with which the air was peopled. The swarming, busy, 26 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO indefatigable, malignant spirits claimed the world of men as their own. They assumed grotesque and repulsive forms. Satan was fig- ured as having horns, a tail and the cloven foot; Connected with this ever-present superstition, the torment of the yonng and the old, was the belief in magic spells and the efficacy of talis- mans. The patent reliance of the timid, tempted, persecuted soul was in the help and intercession of the saints. These multiplied in number as time advanced. Every church, every village had its tutelary spirits. The miracles which they were believed to have wrought were number- less. . . . Far above all the saints in the popular veneration was the Virgin Mary. In the numer- ous hymns to Mary she was described in most glowing terms of praise, and was exalted to a position of almost controlling influence over the divine Son. With the growing worship of mar- tyrs and saints, the interest in their relics in- creased. They were required in every new church that was to be consecrated. They were usually placed upon the altar Or beneath it. They were worn upon the person. Of their ef- ficiency in working miracles there was no doubt. An oath taken upon the relics of saints was clothed with awful sanctity. Its violation was a terrible sin. The Crusades afforded the means of gratifying the desire for relics, which became proportionately more intense. The sale of them grew to be a branch of trade. Vast sums of money were expended in purchasing reHcs, pieces of apparel or bones of the saints. The homage paid to saints and relics amoimted to a Mnd of polytheism." 27 A HISTORY OF THE III REFORMERS IT took centuries for the church to fall away and go into the wilderness. It wiU not be thought strange if it takes centuries to return to apostolic teaching and simplicity. Some good things were, developed during the Dark Ages. Music was invented, art was developed, archi- tecture was fascinating, but Christian faith and living waned. The Nestorians and others pre- served a remnant of the primitive order of things. The day, however, began to dawn in due time. From the twelfth century there were found here and there antisacerdotals who indulged in invectives against the immoralities of the priest- hood and their usurpation of power. Radical and influential persons began to move to the front, as Huss, Jerome of Prague and John Wyclif. One hundred and fifty years before the days of Luther, "Wyclif antagonized the preten- sions of the Papacy. He set aside Papal decrees by a direct appeal to the Holy Scriptures. He denied transubstantiation ; condemned auricular confession; held that the power to bind and loose is of no effect unless it conforms to the doctrine of Christ; opposed the multiplied ranks of the clergy — ^popes, cardinals, patriarchs, monks and canons; repudiated the doctrine of iadulgences, 28 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO the doctrine of the excellency of poverty as it lay at the foundation of the men<£cant orders; set himself against pictures in worship and the celibacy of the clergy. He predicted there would arise from monks themselves men who would abandon their false interpretations of Scrip- tures and would try to reconstruct the church in the spirit of Paul. He translated the Scriptures into the English language in 1384. Though this translation was only in manuscript, it had a powerful influence iu England. Huss, on the Continent, sympathized with Wyclif and, in 1415, was burned as a heretic. One year later Jerome of Prague was martyred. Wyclif is called the morning star of the Reformation. Fifty years after his death his enemies took up his bones, burned them and scattered the ashes on near-by waters. Savonarola, an Italian priest, cried out against Eomanism, and was burned to death and his ashes were thrown into the river Arno in 1498. Tyndale, a century and a half after Wyclif, and after printing had been discovered, put a printed Bible into the hands of the people. He had to go to the Continent to do his work. His enemies applied the extreme argument and strangled bim at the stake. So the heroic spirit of the father of the open Bible passed from earth. The Reformation began in Germany in 1517. Luther had been a mori, but his insight caused him to become doubtful of the doctrines of the church. He adopted as the watchword of the Reformation, "The just shall live by faith." To defray the expense of buUding the great Cathedral of St. Peter's at Rome, Leo X. pushed 29 A fflSTORY OF THE the sale of indulgences. So great had this abuse become that it was even farmed out to bankers and others for private gain. The Primate of Germany, a young and very immoral archbishop, had bought his ecclesiastical dignities at such an enormous sum that the Pope was moved to aid bim by a special dispensation of indulgences. The archbishop employed Tetzel, a Dominican monk of questionable character, as agent for these — a sort of sales manager — ^throughout Ger- many. Tetzel traveled over the coxmtry crying: "Pour iu your money, and whatever crimes you have committed, or may commit, are for^ven! Pour in your coin, and the souls of your friends and relatives will fly from purgatory the mo- ment they hear the clink of your money at the bottom of the box." Luther preached vigorously in Wittenberg against the traffic in indulgences. In October, 1517, Luther nailed to his church door the celebrated theses, boldly denying the Pope's right to sell indulgences, and declaring the remission of sins is from God alone. Tetzel made reply to this, but the Pope gave little at- tention to it at first, saying: "It is a qiiarrel of the mouks." But Dr. Eck, chancellor of the University of Ingolstat, published a book show- ing that Luther was guilty of the same heresy alleged against John Huss. In controversy with Dr. Eck, Luther maintained that the Papacy was a development some centuries after the rise of Christianity, by human arrangement. At this, Leo X. became aroused to the significance of the movement started by Luther in Germany. Luther was excommunicated after having been summoned to the Diet of Augsburg in 1518, and his books were condemned to be publicly 30 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO burned. But Luther burned tlie Papal bull of excommunication in the public square of Witten- berg. Summoned to the Diet of Worms in 1521, the emperor, Charles V., offered him safe con- duct. Luther's friends warned him not to go, but the intrepid reformer said: "I will go to Worms if there be as many devils there as tiles upon the roofs of the houses." Melancthon drew up articles of faith, which were sanctioned by Luther, and so we have the Augsburg Confession of Faith, which is adopted by the Lutherans. In Switzerland, ZwingU, born in 1484, became the leader of the Reformation, and is regarded as the founder of the German Reformed Church. John Calvin fled from persecution in France to Switzerland. He followed St. Augustine rather than the Scriptures, and so we have the doctrine of predestination. In Scotland the fol- lowers of Calvin were called Presbyterians. In England, Henry VIII. quarreled with the Pope and started the Church of England. Two hun- dred years later Wesley tried to inject more spirituality into the church, and, as the result, we have Methodism. Now, in our United States, there are scores of denominational, sectarian churches, all of them better than the medieval Roman Catholic or Greek Catholic churches. Are we not in a wilderness of creeds? What about the church of God? ,No historian, aside from God, can write that history. For 1,260 years it is wandering in the wilderness. The true church is not in Catholicism. Is it in Protestantism? In 1870 a committee of disciples from the Ohio Christian Missionary Society bore fraternal 8 31 A HISTORY OF THE greetings to the Baptists of OMo. That com- mittee was composed of eminent men: Isaac Er- rett, E. E. Sloan, E. M. Bishop, Thomas Mtmnell, B. A. Hinsdale and W. T. Moore. In their greet- ing they stated: "As a people, we are seeking the restoration of the Christianity of the New Testament, _ in letter and in spirit, in principle and in practice. We clearly see to be involved in this the over- throw of denominationalism, the repudiation of human creeds as authoritative expressions of faith or bonds of fellowship, the annihilation of party names, and the reunion of God's scattered people in one body, under the leadership of Jesus the Christ, that they may be bound together simply by a common faith in the Lord Jesus and a common loyalty to him as their only sovereign, and with one mind and one heart strive together for the faith of the gospel. In view of the ter- rible apostasy which aU find embodied in the Church of Eome, we look with lively sympathy on every Protestant movement tending away from Babylon and toward Jerusalem. From the time of Wyclif down, we pause to praise God for every glorious revolutionary movement that tends to break the speU of priestly authority and guide captive souls out into the light of God's word. ""We rejoice to-day in every indication of restlessness and disquiet among Protestant sects which renews the protest against human authority and sighs for a purer and completer loyalty to Jesus than Protestantism has yet reached; and we are confident that God has, among these great Protestant parties, a people yet to be called out from remaining errors and 32 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO corruptions and enrolled under the glorious old banner wMcli th.e apostles unfurled in Jerusalem. But we are compelled to regard all these Prot- estant movements as xmsatisf actory ; and, while gratefully recognizing the obligations we are under to the men and the parties that urged on the work of reformation, alike among the Lutherans, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, inde- pendents and Methodists, we are still constrained to regard their best performances as falling short of the desired object, if the restoration of primitive Christianity is had in view as the great object to be attained. "As movements tending onward toward the grand object sought, we have pleasure in. them; but as furnishing the consummation so devoutly wished for, we are compelled to repudiate them. The church of Christ and the Christianity of the New Testament, pure and simple, are not found in any of these sects to-day, nor can they be found in any possible combination of sects." Has not the time come when the church of Christ shall be called out of Babylon — and the wilderness of creeds? S3 A HISTORY OF THE Alexander Campbell Thomas Campbell Walter Scott Jasper J. Moss Wm. Hayden Jonas Hartzell Almond B. Green Sidney Rigdon J. W. L.anphear PIONEER PEEACHEES OF NOETHERN OHIO 31 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO IV RESTORATION MOVEMENT ■yHE chnroli of Christ, -wMcli began by his au- thority on the day of Pentecost succeeding his crucifixion, an account of which is found in the second chapter of Acts of Apostles, after a series of years wandered or fell away from apostolic teaching and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and went into the wilderness. After a long, dark period in the wilderness of apostasy, individuals and communities began to feel after a better order of things. The light began to dawn. Reformers and reformations multiplied. But they divided among themselves and' each community crystallized around the teaching of its respective leader. They all said: "Thus far shalt thou go in reformation, and no farther.. Our formula of doctrine, our creed, contains what is in the Bible, and you must come to us or you do not come to God." In the early part of the nineteenth century, individuals in various localities deplored the con- dition in which our country was found relig- iously. Infidelity and sectarianism were rampant. The colleges had few professed Christians in them. Dueling, slavery, intemperance and in- fidelity were prevalent. Church-members were throwing theological brickbats at one another. Ministers did not exchange pulpits. The pre- ss A HISTORY OF THE vailing religioTis thoxight of the people was Cal- vinistic. Bro. J. Harrison. Jones used to de- scribe it abont as follows: "If you haven't got religion, you can't get it. If you get it, you don't know it. If you know it, you haven't got it. If you have got it, you can't lose it. If you lose it, you never had it." There was the mourners' bench system of getting religion among the Meth- odists, the anxious-seat among the Presbyterians, and the religious experience among the Baptists, and all these theories unknown to the Holy Scrip- tures, The word of God was regarded as a dead letter. Faith did not come as a result of testi- mony, but was a direct gift from God. At this critical time, in 1807-1809, there came to this country from Scotland some God-fearing, God - rfeverencing, Scripture - believing men — Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander Camp- bell. They were Seceder Presbyterians. They tried to bring about a different order of things in religion. Thomas Campbell got out a religious declaration of independence in 1809. Alexander Campbell sanctioned it. They adopted, in mat- ters of faith, the motto: "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent." This position led them to be baptized, and they went to the Baptist Red Stone Association in Pennsylvania. Scriptural investi- gation led Alexander Campbell to make a distinc- tion between the law (of Moses) and the gospel under Christ. The Eed Stone Association op- posed him, and he joined the Baptist Mahoning Association in Ohio. He had planted a church at Wellsburg, Va., and it was admitted to the Ohio Association. The Campbells claimed that infidelity is wrong, sectarianism is wrong, divi- 36 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OfflO sions among believers are wrong, and th.e tMng to do is to restore original New Testament Christianity. Seek imity in th.e honsehold of be- lievers, and, through this unity, go forth to the evangelization and salvation of the world. Alexander Campbell's teaching, personally and through his periodical, the Christian Baptist, permeated the Mahoning Association, and in 1827 the association employed Walter Scott as an evangelist; and he preached the New Testa- ment doctrine that baptism is for the remission of sins, and he and the Campbells and the as- sociated churches abandoned their human creeds and joiried together to restore original Chris- tianity. They used the text of Jeremiah (chap. 6:16): "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shaU find rest for your souls." They declared that we should hearken to God and not to men. The stupendous task of calling the religious world back to the original teaching of the Word in precept and principle, in doctrine and practice, in faith hoping for apostolic results, is now upon us. This position is so broad that all men can stand upon it, and as narrow as Christ him- self made it. Christ prayed for everything em- braced in our plea. The future church must be the one established by Christ and his apostles on the day of Pentecost. If it was right then, it is right now. Paul tells us there are seven gospel unities (Eph. 4:1-6). In order to restore the New Testament church, there must be unity of wor- ship, because there is one God; there must be unity of authority, because there is one Lord and 37 A HISTORY OF THE Christ; there must be ■unity of practice, because there is one baptism; there must be unity of preaching, because there is one faith; there must be unity of organization, because there is one body; there must be unity of life, because there is one Spirit ; there must be unity of purpose, be- cause there is one hope. The Great Commission contains every essential and omits every non- essential in God's ritual. It tells clearly what a man must do to become a Christian. "We must preach it just as it is — all of it and nothing else. 38 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Matthew S. Clapp Wm. M. Roe Calvin Smith Lathrop Cooley Dr. W. A. Belding Edwin H. Hawley Philander Green J. Harrison Jones Orange Higgins PIONIiEE PKEACHERS, WESTKKN EESEEVE 89 A HISTORY OF THE THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT AND THE WESTERN RESERVE 'T'HE Western Reserve mcltides eleven cotm- ties in northeastern Ohio. Before the Revo- lutionary War, Connecticut claiflied lands reach- ing far -west. After the formation of the United States Government, she ceded all her lands to the United States except three million acres, in what is now northeastern Ohio. Originally this tract was called "The Connecticut Western Re- serve." Later the word " Coimecticut " was dropped off, and it is now known as "The West- ern Reserve." It was settled mostly by people from New England. The original lands were surveyed into townships five miles square. At the center of each township a village grew up. Schools and churches were planted, and business establishments were started. .Our Pilgrim fore- fathers came from England via Holland, and were home missionaries. They were planters of churches, the founders of schools and foreign missionary societies. The settlers of the West- ern Reserve brought their religion with them, so that in nearly every township of the Reserve was planted a Congregationalist church. In the early part of the nineteenth century Baptist and Methodist churches sprang up^ and' later aU kinds of religious and infidel fads. 40 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO In 1820 the Mahoning Baptist Association was formed. The constitution declares: "It is our object to glorify God." After stating items in their creed, it closes by saying: "Finally, we be- lieve the Holy Scriptures to be the only certain rule of faith and practice." Each church was left, also, to form its own creed. Calvinism pre- vailed. The human creeds would not stay fixed. The association had sixteen churches. In 1826. Wellsburg (Va.) Church was received into the association. Alexander Campbell was one of the messengers from Wellsburg Church to the Ma- honing Baptist Association. The letter of intro- duction discriminated between the Jewish and Christian portions of the Bible, and repudiated all human authority over the churches, and really contained the germs of our Eestoration move- ment. Bro. Campbell frequently visited the min- isterial meetings of the association. In 1823 the Christian Baptist was started and circulated in the association churches. The discussion be- tween Walker and Campbell was read. Also the McCalla and Campbell debate. And so a leaven- ing influence was going on. The Scripture motto of the Christian Baptist was: "Style no man on earth your Father; for he alone is your Father who is in heaven; and aU ye are brethren. As- sume not the title of Rabbi; for ye have only one teacher; neither assume the title of leader, for ye have only one leader, the Messiah" (Matt. 23:8,9). The association met in New Lisbon in 1827. At this meeting Walter Scott was chosen as evangelist. A sentiment had been growing in the association that they should repudiate human creeds as authoritative and f oUow the Scriptures. 41 A HISTORY OF THE In the fall of that year he held a successful meet- ing at New Lisbon, and, for the first time in mod- ern times, presented the Scriptural plan of the forgiveness of sin. Nearly all of the churches of the association repudiated their human creeds and accepted Christ as their creed and the Scrip- tures to guide them in all matters of faith and worship. The Mantua Church was the first to completely take apostolic grounds, as their dec- laration was made in the fore part of 1827, and the New Lisbon movement was in the latter part of 1827. The restoration of the primitive gospel move- ment spread rapidly. They pleaded for a return to apostolic teaching and practice. They bap- tized believers on profession of their faith in Christ for remission of sins. They met the first day of every week to attend to the Lord's Sup- per. They made offerings every first day for self-support and for a relief fund. This relief fund offering for the poor is kept up in some of the oldest churches to this time. They caUed themselves individually disciples' of Christ, or Christians. Li a collective capacity they desired to be known as "churches of Christ." They thought they had the only ground of Christian unity for which Christ prayed. They called on aU believers to come out of Babylon and to restore original Christianity. They adopted aU that Luther and other Protestants advocated which was Scriptural, but protested that they had not gone far enough. It was not so much reformation that was needed as restoration of original apostolic teaching. They tried to break away from all human religious shackles. They repudiated the title of "Eeverend" for their 42 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OfflO ministers. Instead of Sabbath or Sunday, they used the "first day of the week" or "Lord's day." They tried to speak of Scriptural things in Scriptural language. They discriminated be- tween opinions and faith, and held that faith and the obedience of faith brought the joy of salvation. They held that opinions would neither save nor damn a person. They were to receive one another without reference to opinions, and opinions must not be bound on others as tests of fellowship. The old association meetings were continued as evangelistic meetings till they grew so large that they were unwieldy and were most- ly abandoned. Isaac Errett was the first settled minister in this new order of things, first at New Lisbon and later at Warren. Men, women and young people did as in apostolic times — they went everywhere preach- ing the "Word. They carried the New Testament with them in forest, field and family. They were compelled to hold many discussions. Alexander Campbell debated in Cleveland with the infidel Irad KeUy. Isaac Errett debated- with the Spiritualist Tiffany, at Warren. James A. Gar- field discussed with the infidel Denton, at Cha- grin Falls; Marshall Wilcox with the Universal- ist at Medina; A. B. Green with Methodists in several places, and one disputant, to ridicule him, got off the couplet: "Ho, every son and daughter, Here is the gospel in the water." To which Bro. Green aptly replied: "Ho, every son and wench. Here is the gospel on the bench." Jasper Moss met all kinds of opponents, and they called him the "Easping Wasp" instead 43 A HISTORY OF THE of "Jasper Moss." Opposition has largely- ceased, and denominationalism is loving and lull- ing the disciples into quietude. Perhaps some have lost their aggressive spirit. Their attention is called to the disciples' claim that they hold the only possible ground of Christian unity for which Jesus prayed, and this was originally one of the chief features of the Restoration move- ment. They asted believers in Christ to come out of Babylon and sectarianism. While many joined in with the disciples ia the Restoration movement, they were only », asked to lay aside their human appendages and give full obedience to Jesus Christ in baptism, and all other things, and we would all be one, as Jesus prayed. They taught that the people were not to come to them, but to lay aside aU humanisms in coming to Christ, and then we would all be one people, as Jesus prayed. For their own good and edification, and the progress of restoration, the early churches be- came Bible schools for old and young. The elders of the churches became preachers of the gospel. After twenty years of experience and enthusiasm for original Christianity, aids to the movement were adopted. In 1844 Bible schools were started, and the D. S. Burnet Library of fifty volumes was produced. In 1850, Hiram College was planted. In order to strengthen existing churches and plant new ones, the Ohio Christian Missionary Society was started in 1852. At first the churches were in rural dis- tricts, and they builded small meeting-houses. Now larger houses are built, with Bible-school- appliances. City churches are now flourishing. In 1866 the Christian Standard was started at 44 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Cleveland, and is now the largest religions paper published, has the largest circulation, and is the most influential religious paper in all the world. This greatest of world movements since the apostolic age could not be confined to the West- ern Reserve. Tradition says that when Christ died his face was turned to the west. This Restoration movement looked westward. Other movements, as in Kentucky, amalgamated with this movement and joined common interests, and the plea went to Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Cali- fornia and aU the world. In 1830, Mormonism was rampant on the Re- serve, and a big temple was builded at Kirtland, and stands there to-day as a monument of folly. Sidney Rigdon, an eloquent minister, joiried ,in with them and is supposed to have had a hand in preparing the Book of Mormion. In 1843, Millerism prevailed, and the dis- ciples preached on the coming of Christ. Alex- ander Campbell, commencing 1830, published the Millennial Harbinger for forty years. Some of the early elders studied the Greek language in order to read the Scriptures in the original tongue. Alexander Campbell revised and pub- lished a new translation of the New Testament. He entitled it "The Living Oracles." This was used in family worship and often in the pulpit. In 1851, Spiritualism carried off a few disciples. Music was a great power in carrying on the Restoration movement. The Haydens were great singers. John Henry played on many different instruments, and was a martial band-leader, and gave his great musical ability to the churches. So the forefathers read and prayed and sang and worked, and led the greatest movement in 45 A HISTORY OF THE the history of Christianity since the apostolic age. The minntes of the Mahoning Association were well kept, and are now in the Hiram Col- lege vaults. The disciples on the Western Eeserve are gathered into 100 congregations, and there are 104 active and retired ministers. 46 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Darwin At^s^ater Benjamin Soule Thomas J. Clapp Eleanor Jones Lake Grandma Garfield Constant Lake Samuel Church Charles D. Hurlbut Asa Hudson SO]VEE OHIO PIONEEES 47 A HISTORY OF THE VI EVANGELISM ON THE WESTERN RESERVE D S. DEAN, a pioneer, writes : "Down to 1827 the Campbells seem to have planted only two churches — ^the mother church at Brush Eun, and her eldest daughter at Wellsburg. The latter had fifty-six members, the former probably never so many. It is doubt- ful whether they had baptized two hundred peo- ple between 1809 and 1827. Their fundamental plea was for the union of Grod's people. The nature of that plea determined its direction. It was not addressed primarily to the unsaved, but to those in the kingdom. A restored and re- united church would be the most effective evan- gelizing agency. Here and there an existing church had laid aside its hums-n creed and taken the Scriptures as its only rule of faith and practice. "The earliest action of the kind in Ohio, so far as I know, was that of the Nelson-Hiram- Mantua Church in Hiram, Aug. 21, 1824. But, down to 1827, we look in vain in the pages of the Christian Baptist for any indication of evan- gelism, either in editorials or reports from the field. There are powerful destructive editorials, and great constructive editorials on 'The Chris- tian EeligLon,' 'Christian Union,' 'The "Work 48 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO of the Holy Spirit in the Salvation of Men,' and 'The Ancient Order of Things.' Bnt there is nothing to indicate that Mr. Campbell had ever thotig;ht throngh the subject of New Testament evangelism. Their work was not primarily evan- gelistic. It is an interesting question what would have been the fortunes of the movement had not other men of a different type arisen. "Waltee Scott SxTPPtEMENTS Ausxajsdbe CAMPBBUIi. "Every historical crisis draws to itself or develops men of varied and supplementary gifts. Not otherwise was it with the Restoration of the nineteenth century. Alexander Campbell was easily the master mind, the creative per- sonality of the movement, and it heightens rather than dims the luster of his fame that the cause he set on foot had power to draw to itseK men who, in certain respects, surpassed and happily supplemented him. Facile princeps among these was Walter Scott. A Scotchman by birth and education, the Restoration found him at Pittsburgh. From their first meeting in 1821 the two men became a veritable Paul and Timothy. Both were of lofty intellectuality, both gifted with rare eloquence — Campbell with the elo- quence of sublime reasoning; Scott with the eloquence of imagination and human sympathy. Scott was thus fitted to become the Whitfield of the Restoration. "The Mahoistng Assooiatiok Appoints Scott Its TBAVELDSfG Evangelist. "The association met in 1827 at Lisbon, just off the Reserve. Thirteen of its sixteen churches 49 A HISTORY OF THE were represented. From Toxmgstown, Canfield and Salem went my grandfather, Samuel Hay- den, and my uncles, Myron Sackett and Arthur Hayden. My father was appointed a messenger from Canfield, but could not go. From WeUs- burg went Alexander Campbell. Sidney Rigdon and Walter Scott were visiting ministers, as were several from the Christian Connection. The epoch-making action of the association was taken in response to a memorial sent up from the BraceviUe Church asking that a traveling evan- gelist might be: appointed. All the ministers present were appointed a committee to select a man and report. The result was the appointment of Scott. The action was unprecedented. Several of the committee were not Baptists. Scott him- self was neither a Baptist, nor known to any save Campbell; yet he was sent forth at the charges of the association. Our history shows that this was a most wise selection. "The Fieu). "Ten of the sixteen churches were in "Western Eeserve counties, four iu Columbiana County, and one in western Pennsylvania and one in western Virginia. It was a region of farms and scattered villages. Cleveland had less than five thousand souls. The Reserve pioneers had in- herited the best New England traditions; they were a reading people. They also inherited New England Calvinism, with its mystical notions of conversions. But, stimulated as the people were to eager inquiry by the Christian Baptist, the Campbell and Walker debate, and by a few per- sonal visits of Mr. Campbell, the field was ripe for the harvest when Scott thrust iu his sickle. 50 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO "OuE Aiirircrs Mtbabilis. "Scott's study of the New Testament, and of popular methods of 'getting religion,' had led him to certain definite revolutionary convictions and practices. Sweeping aside current revival methods, such as the 'mourners' bench' and 'experience' as a test of conversion, he boldly preached that faith is not a direct gift of God, but comes by hearing the "Word; conversion is not a miracle to be wrung from God by agonizing prayer; heaven does not need to be stormed to make God willing. - He threw on the sinner the sole responsibility of accepting or rejecting Christ. Men are not to look to their own volatile emotions as the evidence of pardon, but to the sure promise: 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' To bring the gospel to the apprehension of the man behind the plow, he summarized the process of conversion from apos- tolic preaching thus: (1) Faith, (2) repentances, (3) baptism, (4) remission of sins, (5) gift of the Holy Spirit. His five-finger exercise on these items was as famous in its day as G. W. Muck- ley's five-finger formula on Church Extension. To such moderns as have never witnessed or experienced the mysticism of those days, Scott's generalization may seem mechanical. But it was effective. To hundreds of bewildered souls ago- nizing to get their feet on the rock, it broke like the light of heaven on the way of salvation. In the hands of small or unspiritual men it might degenerate into legalism; but with Scott's wealth of Scriptural knowledge and spiritual insight his message was sublime in its very simplicity. Re- sults were marvelous. In the sixteen churches 51 A HISTORY OF THE John Ratliff, Elder Au.tin PetUt, Eldw SrXTT YEAES A— 1900 H. W. Everest was born in North Hudson, N. Y. At sixteen he was teacher in the common schools of his native town. Coming to Ohio, he took membership with the church at Rome, Ash- tabula County, then at Russell, Geauga County, then came to Hiram in 1852. He graduated at Oberlin College in 1861. In 1862 he became principal of the Eclectic Institute. Then, later, he became president and professor in several Western colleges. When he departed this life in 1900, he was dean of the Bible Department of Drake University, He was the author of "The Divine Demonstration," and "Science and Peda- gogy of Ethics." These books show him as the clear, critical scholar. One can judge of his character and ability from an article he wrote on "Spurious Liberality," which contains whole- some admonitions. "In our hatred of sectarian- ism and narrowness there is a strong temptation to be disloyal to the truth. We love the approval of good and learned men; it is impleasant to find ourselves in conflict with them, and it is vastly easier and more popular to admit and approve. Then we are accounted good fellows and all is peaceful. One who is always hunting out errors, and always antagonizing something or somebody, is not an agreeable associate. Such a person often makes religion seem very tmcertain and 75 A HISTORY OF THE irreligious: in avoiding this extreme we are liable to f aU into tlie opposite one. "But any degree of liberality whieli leads ns to be disloyal to tbe truth is spnriotis. We may well admit that tho'se who entertain other religions views are as honest, as learned and as pions as we are; that they have the same access to the Bible and to the means of correct interpretation that we have; and that they shotdd foUow their honest convictions as to its teachings jnst as we shonld, no matter how mnch we may differ from them. Bnt nothing can justify ns in being dis- loyal to the truth and disloyal to our Master, who is the way, the truth and the life. "In perusing our religions periodicals — and more frequently now than in former years — ^I find what seems to me a kind of spnrions liber- ality. It is often like what we find among the broad-gange religionists, who seem willing to give up, or hold in doubt, nearly every vital doc- trine of Christianity — the validity of prophecy, the fact of miracles, the real divinity of our Lord, the inspiration and reliability of the Scrip- tures, the possibility of a place formerly called hell, the reality of regeneration, the necessity of church membership and the decisions of a final judgment-day. Not that any of our 'scribes' or 'Pharisees' would go so far, but they seem to be traveling in this direction; undoubtedly there is danger on the other side. We may stand so perpendicular as to lean backward. We may magnify differences, and widen the chasms which separate the churches. An extreme and indefensible position is a source of weakness. Of course, editors, and other writers of influence, need to be cautious. But the best and the safest 76 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO GAEFIEIiD MONXTMENT, CLEVEI^AND, OHIO 77 A HISTORY OF THE way is this : That we look neither to the right nor to the left, but try to be right; try to 'speak the truth in love.' This is not only th.e honest course, but also the best policy, for a half-way position is partly in the enemies' country, and is easily assailed. If a few writers are representa- tive of our brotherhood, we seem to be weakening on several subjects once thought to be firmly established. "Of late there seems to be a desire to find Scriptural reasons for the reception of the im- baptized to membership in our churches. Now, much as we love many of these people, we must not swerve from the terms of the gospel. "What the apostles bound on earth is bound in heaven. By what authority can we modify these conditions? Who has authority from the King to do so? If tempted to receive such per- sons, this would be my trouble. He himself said, 'AH authority in heaven and in earth is given unto me ; ' and he has not delegated such authority to any man. Besides, what good would be accom- plished by so doing? Not to the church receiving such, since it would break down the argument for their complete submission to Christ. Not to them, since it would be a partial mitigation of their disobedience, and would not in the least add to their enjoyment of our religious services : they now join us in everything, even in 'the Lord's Supper: only this, we could not number them as members and could not expect them to pay as others do I" 1831 — Jambs Abbam Gabtibud-^ISSI James Abram Garfield, twentieth President of the United States, was bom in Orainge, Cuyahoga 78 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Co., 0., Nov. 19, 1831. He was the youngest cMld of Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballon, Ms wife, both, of excellent New England stock, but, lite their pioneer compeers, of humble circumstances. In 1833, Abram Garfield died, leaving his young widow, with four small children, in a rude log house on a small farm in the forest. The battle with fortune was a hard one; but Mrs. Garfield, by dint of courage, faith and hard labor, kept her children together, and trained them for honorable manhood and womanhood. James was early inured to severe toU and close economy. His education began at the usual age in the dis- trict school, where he early gave evidence of unusual abilities. Later he attended a neighbor- ing academy, and also engaged in teaching in the district schools. In 1851 he became a student at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, now Hiram College, Hiram, O., and soon became a tutor in that school. In 1854 he -entered Williams College, and graduated from that institution with high honors two years later. He now returned to Hiram as a teacher, and in 1857 became prin- cipal of the Institute, which office he held until 1861. As a teacher and school administrator he was very successful, awakening great enthusiasm in his scholars for study, attaching them thor- oughly to himself, and inspiring them with noble purposes. In these years he also combined preaching with his work as an educator. Mr. Garfield's interest in politics dated from 1856. The aims of the Republican party com- manded his hearty assent, and he identified him- self with that organization on his graduation from coUege. In 1859 he was elected to the Senate of Ohio, where he took a very prominent 6 79 A fflSTORY OF THE part in legislation. On the breaking ont of the Civil War, his whole nature was enlisted in the Union cause ; and in September, 1861, he entered the army as colonel of the Forty-second Eegi- ment of Ohio Volunteers. In the winter of 1861-2, he commanded an army in the Sandy Valley, Kentucky; afterwards, he served in the Army of the Ohio, imder General Buell, and was present at the battle of Shiloh ; and later he was appointed chief of staff to General Eosencrans, commanding the Army of the Cumberland, and took part in the battle of Chickamauga. Having served as a soldier with great credit for more than two years, he entered the lower House of Congress, as the representative of the Nineteenth Ohio Congressional District, in De- cember, 1863. To this body he was elected nine times by the same constituency. From the first he took high rank in the House, and finally be- came its best known member. His name will ever be associated with the most prominent meas- ures of legislation in the period of 1863-80 ; such as the army, civil service, reconstruction, the currency, the tariff, and the resumption of specie payments. In January, 1880, he was elected to the National Senate, to take his seat in the Forty- seventh Congress. Honors now multiplied upon him. On June 8, 1880, the National Republican Convention, at Chicago, nominated him as the party candidate for President; and after an exceedingly active campaign ie was elected to that high office, re- ceiving 214 electoral votes to 135 votes cast for General Hancock, the Democratic candidate. On March 4, 1881, he was duly inaugurated President of the United States. 80 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Few men have ascended to the national Chief Magistrate's chair attended by larger popidar expectations. President Garfield's career had inspired the cotintry with unusual hopes. But hardly had he organized his administration, when, July 2, as he was leaving Washington for a visit to New England, he was shot by the assassin Gnitean. ^ter undergoing the greatest sufferings, he died, - September 19, at Elberon, N. J., and was buried the 26th of the same month in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, 0. The eighty days that elapsed between the fatal shot and his death were marked by world-wide tokens of respect, affection and sorrow. For weeks the civUized world waited anxiously for the latest word from his bedside ; multitudes of his country- m.en stood with uncovered heads as his fui^eral car passed from Washington to Cleveland; while whole nations followed him, iu sympathy, to the grave. The monxmient to his memory cost $150,000. Eeligiously, he was baptized by W. A. Lilly before he went to Hiram. He retained his mem- bership ia the Hiram Church to the close of his life. He adorned his profession. As a minister of the gospel he was an able and Scriptural preacher. In all his travels as a public man he was sure to find a place to worship with the Lord's disciples on the Lord's Day. What an inspiration it was to see bim in the great wor- shiping assembly, with face lifted heavenward and to hear him sing: "Ho, reapers of life's harvest, Why stand with rusted blade, TTntil the night draws round tboe, And day begins to fadef 81 A mSTORY OF THE Why stand ye idle, Wditmg For reapers more to come? The golden mom is passing; Why sit ye idle, dumb?" Garfield's statement as to tlie religious prin- ciples of the disciples : "1. We call ourselves Christians, or disciples of Christ. "2. We beHeve in God the Father. "3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Kving God, and our Saviour. We regard the divinity of Christ as the fundamental truth of the Christian system. "4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to His agency iu conversion and as an indwelling ia the heart of the Christian. "5. We accept both the ,01d and New Testa- ment Scriptures as the inspired word of God. "6. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and the future reward of the right- eous. "7. We believe that the Deity is a prayer- hearing and a prayer-answering God. "8. We observe the institution of the Lord's Supper on the Lord's Day. To this table we neither invite nor debar; we say it is the Lord's Supper for all the Lord's children. "9. We plead for the union of God's people on the Bible, and the Bible alone. "10. The Christ is our only creed. "11. We maintain that all the ordinances should be observed as they were in the days of the apostles." 82 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Jas. A. Garfield A. S. Hayden Harvey W. Everest C. W. Heyrwood A. J. Thomson J. M. Atwater WESTERN RESERVE ECLECTIC INSTITUTE AND PRINCIPALS OF THE INSTITUTE A HISTORY OF THE HIRAM COLLEGE P M. Gf^EEEN has -written a comprehensive and * correct history of Hiram College. In a work like this only a few historic facts can be pre- sented. The Eclectic Institnte^ ont of which the college grew, was founded in 1850, and the col- lege began in 1867. The college has been served ably by men of high ideals, both educational and personal, and of powerful personalities. This has given to Hiram an individuality among Ohio colleges that is well merited for altruistic motives and for genuineness in moral standards. Her effort has been directed toward the development of sterling manhood and womanhood, together with well-trained scholarship. This twofold em- phasis upon character and upon scholarship con- stitutes her mission . as a Mgh-grade Christian college. Hiram has granted degrees to 970 persons: 717 men, 253 women. Forty-two are deceased. Seventy per cent, of the living alumni on gradua- tion gave themselves to altruistic service : preach- ing, teaching, nursing, and social settlement and various religious vocations. Hiram people, in the world of letters, are worthy of honorable mention. Erom the earlier period may be mentioned James A. Garfield and B. A. Hinsdale. A partial list of those well 84 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO known at present includes Jessie Brown Ponnds, whose hymns are sung the world around; Harold BeU Wright, anthor of a number of ''best sellers"; Wm. AUen Knight, author of "Song of Our Syrian Guest"; and Nicholas Vachel Lind- say, coming into recognition as one of the first- rank poets of to-day. Counting alumni and former students, Hiram has given eighty workers to the foreign-mission field. The Christian Woman's Board of Missions has headquarters at Indianapolis, Ind. All the workers there were Hiram students. Two of the professors in the college were former professors in Hiram College. In Cleveland in a single year Hiram men filled the following responsible posi- tions: President of the Chamber of Commerce; vice-president of the same body; superintendent of schools; head of the Department of Public Welfare; city engineer; head of the Civic Em- ployment Bureau ; founder and head of the Hiram House, a social settlement of nation-wide reputa- tion. Besides these, Hiram men occupied other leading positions in law, banking and other busi- ness concerns of importance. Many pastors, doctors, attorneys and other business and profes- sional men of the city received their early training in Hiram. These facts show the value of the small col- lege in our American system of education, and the worth of Hiram College as a training-school for professional and business men. It costs about $45,000 a year to carry on the college teaching staff, general administration and plant maintenance. The income from students, endowment fund and personal annual gifts is 85 A HISTORY OF THE E. V. ZoIIara G. H. Laushlin J. M. Atwater Dr. S. E. Shepherd B. A. Hliuidale HIRAM COLLEGE PRESIDENTS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO depended on to meet the expense. Efforts are being made to increase the endowment and attendance. F. A. Henry is president of the Board of Trustees, and M. L. Bates is president of the college Faculty. Attendance at the college costs the average man from $300 to $400 a year, and the woman's expenditure is from $250 to $350. Many work their way with mnch less cash outlay. There are about thirteen thousand volumes in the library. Hiram maintains good ath- letics in football, basket-ball, baseball and track teams, with a competent coach in charge. The students have four strong literary societies: the Delphic and the Hesperian for men, and the OUve Branch and the Alethean for women. The athletic and literary activities lend enthusiasm to ■ the student life. Valuable religious influences are found in the work of the T. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. organizations. The students publish a biweekly paper, the Hiram College Advance, and the college annual known as "The Spider- web." Hiram College was distinctly Christian in its origin. It was a chUd of the churches, at a time when the churches were composed of plain farmer folk and pioneer preachers. The purpose of its founders is seen in the motto on the college seal: "Let there be light." A clause in the char- ter, providing for instruction in moral science as based on the facts and precepts of the Holy Scriptures, points to the supreme source of that light as they conceived it. Hiram has, through strong teachers, developed a great company of workers for human betterment and imbued them with a spirit of servitude for men. 87 A HISTORY OF THE B. S. Dean MUs Almeda Booth E. B. Wakefield Edwin L. Hall Geo. A. Peckham Harlan M. Page MISS ALMEDA BOOTH OF EARLY DAYS AND rACULTY OF 1900 88 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Hiram was peculiarly fortunate in its early- teachers. A. S. Hayden, Thomas Muunell, Nor- man Dunsbee, Miss Almeda Booth, James A. Garfield, H. "W. Everest, J. M. Atwater and B. A. Hinsdale were truly great teachers. They drew around them pupils of kindred mind and ■ stiU further imbued them with a like spirit. That heritage has never been lost from the school. It iias rather deepened with the passing years, both in the Faculty and in the student body. That spirit may be defined as a spirit of sound scholar- ship, a spirit of democracy, a spirit of seK- reHance, and a spirit of service. Hiram College has more than fulfilled the purpose of its founders. It has a real and abid- ing worth for the state no less than for the church. Its good work continues. 1837— B. A. HmsDALE— 1900 B. A. Hinsdale was born in Wadsworth, O., March 31, 1837, and passed from earth in Atlan- ta, Ga., Nov. 29, 1900. He was of New England parentage. He had an irresistible desire for scholarship. At the age of sixteen he entered the school at Hiram, and for thirty years was with the school as student and professor. He was a close and accurate scholar. He became a man of extensive information. He was elected president of Hiram College in 1870. In early manhood he made a profession of faith in Christ, and became a minister of the gospel and preached at Hiram, Painesville, Cleveland, and often spoke at the great annual meetings in northern Ohio. He lectured, preached, edited, talked and wrote books. In 1882 he was made superintendent of the schools in Cleveland. In 1888 he was called A fnSTORY OF THE Marcia Henry, A.B. George H. Colton Charles T. Patil C. O. Reynard Vernon Stauffer MEMBERS or FACXJI.TT OP HIEAM COLIiEGE, 1900 AND LATEE 90 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO to the chair of the Science and Art of Teaching at Michigan University. Some of his published "works are "The Genuineness and Authenticity of the Gospels," "The Jewish Christian Church," "Ecclesiastical Traditions," "Schools and Studies," "President Garfield and Education," "Garfield's Life and Works," "Civic Govern- ment of Ohio," "Life of Horace Mann." A monograph on "The Training of Teachers," which he wrote, was awarded a medal at the Paris Exposition. He was a kind of encyclopedia on the events of the early history of Ohio. He received academic honors from Williams College, Bethany College, Hiram College and Ohio State University. He was in sympathy with young men, their struggles, difficulties, aims and triumphs. There are few whose lives are so rounded out and so fruitful. 1847— E. Y. ZotLABs— 1915 Ely Vaughn ZoUars was born Sept. 19, 1847, and well bom. His parents were healthy in body and soul, and the modest home — ^best of all places — taught the fundamental facts of life.- And the hills of Washington County, in our own beautiful Ohio, were a good place for quiet growth, and for looking through nature up to nature's God. He showed an early ability to learn; and, while his immediate surroundings were rural, he foimd good teachers and made a path to good schools. When he was fairly in his teens he was a fair scholar and well able to teach. In 1865 he found one who met the desires of his heart, and one upon whom he always leaned, and never in vain; and they were married. For three or four years he settled on a farm. Per- 91 A HISTORY OF THE haps at first he intended to stay. It did him no harm. There was that within him which pushed on to other work. So, in 1871, he entered Bethany College; and in 1876 he graduated, sharing the honors of his class. Those were good days at Bethany, when Pendleton and Loos and Dolbear and Harding . were in their prime, and when many of our later strong men were students. He had now begun to find his place, and had grasped a work which he never could lay down. For two years he lin- gered at Bethany, tutoring and helping in finan- cial work; and then for eight years he exercised himself, doing independent teaching in Kentucky. He did good work, but did not prosper financially. A call of Providence in 1885 took him to Spring- field, Ills., as minister of the church. And it was here, where he was doing a good work, that Hiram found him in 1888, and made him presi- dent of the college. Hiram was a good place for Zollars to go. It had good foundations in a remarkably good his- tory, and old students clung to their memories. Results proved that the choice of Zollars for president was a good one. The college soon began to feel the energizing influence of the new president. He taught with vigor. He visited churches, soliciting temporary endowment, and awakening a real interest in the college. He planned for new buildings, so that students might be well housed. All this took work, hard work; to many it would have been impossible work. The college has always grad- uated students of ability, but many classes were painfuUy small. But from the advent of Presi- dent Zollars, even to the present, the classes in 92 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO number and ability have done bonor to tbe college. In 1902 a call from Texas Christian Univer- sity took bim to Waco. He felt that be would find a larger field in Texas. As time bas proved, ■conditions were not favorable to building up at Waco ; but be did earnest work. His most marked work, and tbe one tbat will probably tell longest to bis memory, was tbe founding of Pbillips Uni- versity at Enid, Okla. From tbe inception almost to tbe day of bis deatb be may be said to bave guided tbe institution. Any one wbo knows any- tbing of tbe building of great schools, especially when one must largely gather the material for building, wiU understand the seriousness of this effort. The task was herculean. But he left a well-equipped institution in good running order, and already turning out young men and women who are doing most valuable work for tbe world. His was a remarkably steadfast life. He did not vary in bis great purpose; his heart was set to build up tbe kingdom of God. The world has felt, and long will feel, the momentum of his life. I doubt if he could anywhere have found happier fellowship than be found in Hiram. When he came back to rest with his daughter in Warren, we hoped tbat be would come to Hiram again, and we could renew, in a measure, tbe fellowship of other years. Tbat was not to be. But what a world of blessed associations we shall have to renew, and enlarge, and never complete, in the land tbat lies beyond! 1817— Abeam Teachottt— 1912 At tbe veterans' camp-fire in the Centennial of disciples of Christ at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1909, 93 A HISTORY OF THE W. S. Hayden Duane H. Tilden Jtidge F. A. Henry Minor Lee Bates Alanson Wilcox Andrew Squires Wm. G. Dietz M. L. BATES, PRES., AND TRUSTEES OF HXRAM OOLLEaE 94 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Charles Louis Loos spoke highly of the public teachers of the gospel, but said, "We must not forget the men of the rank and file." Abram Teachout, a veteran, aged ninety-three, then spoke in a clear, distinct voice: "I have heard for the last eighty-five years, 'Once a man and twice a child.' Now, if this is the second child- hood of man that my eyes are fixed upon here to-day, it is the most intelligent and the grandest and the best lot of children I ever saw together. You are here, my friends, to testify to your faith in the cause of the Christian warfare, in the cause of Christ. This world would be in dark- ness if Christianity were stricken out of it. I lived for nearly forty years in that kind of dark- ness. My mind was taken up with some of the pleasures that young people have; but since I made the confession of faith and obeyed the gos- pel and came into the life of Christianity, I have enjoyed more in this life than I ever did before. So I say to you, my friends, let us do all we can for the cause of Christianity, for it is truly the light of the world, and the blessings of life are drawn from real, genuine, true and faithful Christianity. That is my testimony. "But we must consider that I speak as a business man; I am not a preacher. We must consider that to carry on Christianity, as a part of our life and a part of our business, takes money, just as it does to pay your grocer for the food you enjoy. Now, my friends, I frequently hear it said, and I presume you do, that it is a sacrifice — ^they call it a sacrifice — ^to contribute one hundred dollars, or five hundred dollars, or a thousand dollars, to the missionary cause. It is no sacrifice, my friends, if we can do it, if we 7 95 A HISTORY OF THE C. M. Rodefer L. G. B^ttman TRUSTEES OF HIEAM COLLEGE— Continued 96 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO have the means; it should not be considered a sacrifice ; it shotdd be considered as doing a great work for the canse of Christianity. ^ " 'We should live For the good that we can do, For the wrongs we ean right, For the blessings we can bestow, For the evils we can fight, For the needs we can relieve. For the joy we may receive. " 'We should Uve For brave and noble deeds, With a name and purpose high Work the work which to heaven leads, And rest when we come to die; Live to sweeten sorrow's cup And to lift the fallen up. " 'We should live And learn to be ourselves. If we may scatter what we know. Live to help the fallen to arise. To lift them above the sadness of their way. Give strength unto the weak, And be a help to those that seek.' "Finally, my friends: " 'We should live for one another; We should bear that sacred love. Through life's journey, for each other. That kind the spirits feel above. It is the Saviour's requirement; It is the gospel's great command; We should seek its fulfillment, If we would win the better land. Where our loved ones are gone before us, Waiting for us over the dark and troubled deep.' " Added to this list of veteran private workers may be mentioned David Ayers, of Tedrow ; Har- man Austin, of Warren; Wm. WiUiams, of Colnmbns; "W. S. Dickinson, of Cincirmati; Asa Shnler, of Hamilton; Albert AUen, of Akron; Daniel Mercer, of Bowling Green; A. C. Fenner, 97 A HISTORY OF THE TELESCOPE, HIRAM COLLEGE, PRESENTED BY LATHEOP COOLEY 98 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO of Dayton ; Robert W. Nelson, of Bellaire ; Daniel Kennedy, of Ukriclisville ; J. B. Parker, of New Holland. Latheop Coolet Abram Teachout builded and presented to Hiram College a library and observatory build-' ing. Latbrop Cooley furnisbed for tbe building a magnificent telescope, and, on presenting it, ■spoke in part as follows : "I once stood in tbe most bistoric place in England, Westminster Abbey, wbere were deposited tbe asbes of tbe most distinguisbed men of tbe present and past generations — distinguisbed statesmen, orators, reformers and monarcbs. Tbe building erected bere by Mr. Teacbout is more tban Westminster Abbey. Tbat building contains tbe dust and asbes of great men. Into tbis building tbe young of the present and coming generations will enter and be introduced to tbe great historians of the age and past ages. Here men will meet for the first time a Newton and a Locke; will meet the grand men who have written in tbe English tongue, and the writings of tbe most celebrated authors of other nations translated into our own "language. "This instrument is erected bere so that you may climb the steep of heaven and walk among the stars; that you may have a Jacob's ladder upon which thought, like angels bright and pure, may ascend and descend. The work which you are to enjoy has been done for one purpose : and that purpose is to make better, men and better women. There is great demand to-day for manly men and womanly women. Tbe dangers of the times are many, the possibilities are great. There A HISTORY OF THE o o > P4 O hi 100 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OfflO is Bomethiag more needed tlian mere learning. Learning must have a tone — it must have an odor, it must be fragrant -witli moral principles or it is dangerous. In tlie development of char- acter there is something more than mathematics and multiplication tables to attain the highest end and accomplish the greatest good. There is a divine element in the human heart which longs to get nearer the divine, and when this is en- larged and beautified it makes the finest type of a human being. While you may look through into the upper deep, and discover new worlds, and reach out — as the constructor of this tele- scope said to me — ^it will reveal stars that Herschel never saw; you may weigh planets as in the balance, you may measure their magnitude, you may discover new comets ; but, after all, the greatest and most valuable of all will be at the small end of the telescope. A human being puri- fied and adorned by the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the grandest work under the sun. The possibilities within a human being are grander than any star which burns in the upper deep. What is grander than a man! And what is grander than a man whose spirit is developed, purified and softened by the gospel of Christ? "There are two great volumes to study: Nature and the Bible. In nature the character of the Divine is impressed everywhere. 'The undevout astronomer is mad.' But this is not the highest revelation. The second volume, the Bible, reveals God's love and mercy and in the person of a lowly Nazarene. Here is a new development of the Divine in order to make a character. These principles are vitalized in a human life by one who took on our nature and , 101 A HISTORY OF THE who said, 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' These principles of love, mercy and obedience wiU save the present and coming generations if received and practiced. "I once stood by the tomb of Wesley in Lon- don, and I said, 'Here is the son of a woman meek and lowly, who, when she rocked the cradle containing John and Charles Wesley, rocked two continents.' Soon after the reign of the Com- mune I also stood by the tomb of Voltaire in Paris, and went out on the streets of Paris and saw the ruins of the finest palaces in the world — the fruit of the teachings of Voltaire. These men lived in the same age, were bom about the same time. It is said by their fruits ye shall know them. One was mellowed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the other was void of it. No other lesson ever came to me with such force as that I learned at the tomb of Voltaire in Paris and Wesley in London. And now, my young friends, I say to you what I want you to write down and remember, that a greater object than any you can see in the upper deep is at the small end of the telescope." 102 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO XI A SERMON AND A LIFE ""THIS article sliows the strength, of the pioneer teaching on the Eeserve, and was produced by 8. E. Shepherd, the first president of Hiram College : Acts 11:26: "The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." It is evident that none were then called Christians except "the disciples." The persons who believed John's preaching and were baptized were called John's disciples: and those who believed Jesns and his apostles, and were baptized, were called his dis- ciples. All his disciples were "baptized into Christ." These, and these only, "were called Christians." If a person can be a Christian and not put on Christ, then he can be a Christian and not be baptized. The disciples were baptized "into Christ." If a person can be a Christian without being baptized, then he can be a Chris- tian without being in Christ. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed, away, and all things are become new." If any man can be a Christian and not be in Christ, then he can be a new creature and not be in Christ. Then, old things can pass away and an things can become new to a man who is not in Christ; and the statement of the apostle that "if 103 A HISTORY OF THE o Hi Hi o u TiRS AUD HEIiPEES, OHIO C. W. B. M., 1917 243 A HISTORY OF THE XXVI MARY ALICE LYONS TN the National Capitol at WasMngton is a room devoted to statuary of eminent citizens of our country. The statue of only one woman ap- pears — Frances Willard. The founder of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is rightly entitled to a marble statue. She helped to start in motion a movement for temperance that is triumphing. School-teacher that she was, she has become the teacher of temperance to the world. Mary Alice Lyons, for twenty-five years the leader in the Christian "Woman's Board of Mis- sions in Ohio, is a marvelous teacher of good things. She teaches lessons of frugality by her early life; she teaches persons who have made mistakes in religion to correct those mistakes by conforming to New Testament instruction; through her faithfulness, perseverance and self- sacrifice, she teaches what one consecrated person can do, and what an army of such women can do when organized in Christian Woman's Board of Missions work. Bartholomew Lyons, her father, was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood, and had a good knowledge of Latin, which he used during a long life assisting at mass. Her mother was En- glishborn and a Protestant. She united with her 244 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO lover and husband in the Catholic Church. Bar- tholomew Lyons was an example of devotion, never omitting to give thanks at his table, and also trained his . large family of five boys and three daughters in the doctrine of the church. For ten years after marriage the Lyons family lived in Cleveland, and then moved on a farm in Medina County. The young people had not the best opportunity for an education, and learned to be self -helpful. Mary did sewing and other things leading to self-independence. She taught school. A Bible fell into her hands and she became interested in reading it. She com- pared it with the Douay Bible, and could not reconcile the teaching of the Catholics with what she read. A "History of All Religions" fell into her hands, and she decided that the "Disciples of Christ ' ' were in the right. On Christmas Day, 1881, she confessed her faith in Christ, and on New Year's day, 1882, was baptized by H. E. Cooley, in Cleveland. Mary says "this nearly broke her father's heart." After twenty years, he became reconciled to his daughter's course. She had dignified womanhood and her faith, and he became reconciled and loved his daughter. She attended high school, taught by W. H. C. Newington, and says she owes much to him for what education she has. For three years New- ington and his wife were her teachers, friends and counselors. She then taught school and secured funds to begin college work at Hiram. She spent five years at Hiram, graduating m 1893. She was a student volunteer and desired, to go as a missionary, but failed to pass medical examination. Li her college Junior year she was appointed secretary of th« Ohio C. W. B. M., 245 A fflSTORY OF THE and at the Ohio State Convention at Belief ontaine, in 1917, she gave a resume of her twenty-five years' work. That summary is published in this history. Has any woman among the disciples of Christ, in Ohio or any other State, done a greater or more far-reaching work than Mary A. Lyons? At the Bellefontaine 0. C. M. S. and C. W. B. M. Convention, May 21-25, 1917, Mary Alice Lyons gave a survey of twenty-five years of C. W. B. M. service (1892-1917). She said: Twenty-five years ago, from my window in Bowler Hall at Hiram College, I watched a hack- load of happy delegates starting at four o'clock in the morning for the Bellaire State Convention. Up to the last mail on Saturday, I was counted as one of the number, but, alas! the money did not come, so, saying not a word, but sorely disap- pointed, I had to give up the last ray of hope to attend the wonderful^ convention of our dreams. Monday, breakfast over, the girls gathered in the parlor when they saw me coming in, all with one accord demanding why I was not on my way to BeUaire. Alma McMillin took things in hand, and, within fifteen minutes, dressed, packed, cash in hand and hack at the door, away I went to the first convention, by way of the Pennsylvania Rail- road. There I made my maiden speech. The secretary who was elected refused to accept. Weeks later, the Board elected me to serve out her term, and I am still at it. Mrs. A. C. Pierson, retiring secretary, gave the following report at Bellaire in 1892: Number of auxiliaries in the State 143 Numbers of members. 3,188 Amount raised for the National Board $4,145.31 246 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Amount raised for State work 122.46 Baloace in the State treasury . 1.44 Report for the year ending March 31, 1917, is as foUows: Nxunber of societies 270 Membership of the State 8,563 Missionary Tidings ciiciilated 4,194 Ohio Counselors published by the State Society 7,200 Number of societies on honor roll for perfect work 119 Number of societies observing 0. W. B. M. Day 194 Amount raised in specials and on 0. W. B. M. Day. $10,185.10 Contributing churches 85 .Amount contributed by churches $5,213.84 Total amount sent to the national treasury 41,575.90 Amount Jor State Deveiopmeut Fund 4,478.57 Amount received at district convention and subscrip- tions to Counselor 284.09 Grand total raised $48,338.56 Curiosity led me to search the records of the C. W. B. M. in Ohio from its beginning, to see how much the State has really contributed. The records show that from 1875 to 1892 there was raised, $36,817.27, and during the twenty-five' years since then there has been raised $529,806.67, making a grand total for all purposes of $566,- 623.94. It is interesting to know the cost of service in the past twenty-five years. The average salary of the secretary was $854 per annum, and the average wage of office help was $103.70 per annum, or an average of $957.70 for salaries per year. I have attended 945 district conventions in this time, thirty State conventions and twenty- five national conventions, making 995, and made 1,990 convention addresses. Have averaged ninety-seven places visited in the interest of the work each year, occupied pulpits about thirty 247 A HISTORY OF THE Sundays in each year, often speaking three and four times each Lord's Day when out, and had a hand in all the wort of the chxirch, teaching in Sunday school, reviewing the schools, meeting the Junior C. E. or Circles in the afternoon and organizing societies, as weU as speaking every evening somewhere. The office work has been largely done by myself, having help only nine out of the twenty- five years. We have published for many years a monthly paper of sixteen pages, with 7,200 copies per issue, now bimonthly, owing to high cost of paper. We have a well-equipped office, and the Board is quite willing to provide aU the office help necessary to carry on the work. As we look back over the years, some things seem very Uke dreams. In 1894-96, the one great thing was to introduce the State dues of five cents per month. It took more time, patience and grace to have this small coin adopted as a part of our regular work than it would now to raise as many thousand doUars. So the story of the nickel, from the day it was launched in Chi- cago in 1893, when W. T. Moore, on a visit from England, ridiculed us for talking such small things. He said that when he left America the women were talking ten-cent pop-guns, and now, after nearly twenty years, they are considering a smaller gun. Mrs. Burgess rose and said that we women had killed much opposition to missions with the ten-cent gxm and expected to enlist a great army with the five-cent ones, and her say- ing has come true. Ohio has from this fund paid the first thousand dollars for the union coUege in Grinlin CoUege for girls at Nanking, China; has sent three organs to India to sing the gospel 248 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO into the hearts of the natives and to cheer the homes of the missionaries; has helped negro churches to build, and contributed many a hun- dred to the national treasury. Ohio has in the twenty-five years paid for the Maudha (India) mission station building, the South American Christian Institute, a native church in Mexico, built a sewing cabin at Lxim, Ala., and equipped it with material and machines. Ohio has tiow fifteen living links supported under the 0. W. B. M., organized within the last ten years, and we trust it will be one hundred before another ten years passes. Consider some of the great things the National Board has done in the past. We have seen, in the twenty-five years, the beguming of the Bible Chair work, and this has done one thing for the church; namely, made us known among the educated peoples as nothing before had done. Men and women are in every land who have studied under these teachers. We have seen work opened in Africa, China, Canada and Ori- ental work on the Pacific coast. The mountain work has been handed over to us by the breth- ren. We were present at Kansas City when the Smith brothers (C. C. and B. L.) came and of- fered us a $70,000 gift from the American Chris- tian Missionary Society, and aU the responsibil- ity of training the negroes of the Southland, and we accepted it and proved our ability to teach school. We have, with pride in the churches, seen the leaders show such willingness to help those women, too, and have cause to believe it is only a begiiming of what shall be. We have also seen the day now'when the work of the C. W. B. 249 A fflSTORY OF THE M. shall be taught in Sunday school and doubt not that the time is near at hand when the chil- dren shall make an offering through the school to this Board that has for so many years trained the children for leadership in missions. In looking over my parish, I can see no cause of complaint, but, on the other hand, much in which to rejoice. The ministry of Ohio has been most helpful and cordial in assisting the women in the work. We see an educated constituency in missions because of mission-study classes and libraries. We have four thousand homes read- ing the Missionary Tidings, and seven thousand reading the Ohio Cownselor. We distribute thou- sands of leaflets each year among the societies. We urge the women to attend interdenomina- tional summer schools of missions. We have organized the young ladies into Mis- sion Circles where they are receiving the very best of training for larger service. We stUl guide the children in the knowledge of the world need of the Sa,viour, and last, but greatest of all, the prayer life of the members of these mission- ary organizations permeates the whole church, so that every interest receives a kindly hearing in a church where an active group of C. W. B. M. women live, teach, give and pray, and they are ready to serve at home as well as in the wide world. I can not close this survey without acknowl- edging the debt I owe to Bro. Alanson Wilcox, as he was secretary of the 0. C. M. S. during the first several years of my work and greatly aided me and was always making a place for my work. Then, Robert Moffett served for seven more years. I learned very much from him of 250 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO the spirit of tlie early work of the C. "W. B. M. It was he who helped establish it in Ohio, and we who now live and work owe much to Eobert Moffett, Isaac Errett and others, as well as to Mesdaines Sloan, Geronld, Powers and Weeden. The five-year campaign, in which societies, members and funds are to be doubled, is a goal worthy of the daughters of such fathers and mothers lq the faith. Ohio is to have 500 soci- eties, 10,000 members and $70,000 in 1921. Help us make Ohio a missionary brotherhood; plant this spirit in every congregation and they will prosper. 251 A HISTORY OF THE XXVII THE CHURCH AT HILLSBORO ■yHE chttrch. at Hillsboro was planted in 1888. W. D. Moore and Alanson Wilcox, of the O. 0. M. S., had done preliminary preaching in the conrt-honse. The 0. C. M. 8. secretary paved the way for the great meeting held by Evangelist J. V. Updike. He wrote as f oUows for the connty paper : "The religions people known as disciples of Christ have had a remarkable growth. They started in Ohio about sixty years ago, and have 450 churches in Ohio. In the whole country they number a million communicants. They sustain thirty institutions of learning and thirty periodi- cals. They have missionaries in fore-ign lands. One of their home societies has expended $1,500,- 000, and added to the churches fully one hundred thousand members. "In doctrine the disciples claim to take ad- vanced ground. Instead of trying to reform the modern churches, which have more or less, as they claim, departed from the teaching and prac- tice of the apostolic church, they aim at a resto- ration of the teaching, faith and practice of the original church planted by Christ, through his apostles, and wMch commenced fifty days after the death of the Saviour. They claim to recog- nize aU that is Scriptural and divine in all the 252 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO ohurclies, and to object only to that wMch. is merely hnman in origin. There is only one arti- cle in their formula of faith, which declares Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God. BnUding on this truth, they claim that believers will be bap- tized and follow the teaching of the New Testa- ment as the rule of life, and will build up Chris- tian character which will hereafter admit per- sons into the presence of the Lord. "In pleading for original Christianity, they advocate the unity of the household of faith, and to this end all human opinions must be discarded as tests of fellowship, and only the divine will can be made the standard of faith and practice. "The disciples have thirteen churches ia Highland County, and the people of HUlsboro will have an opportunity to learn more of this remarkable people. "A tent has been secured, and the successful evangelist of northern Ohio, J. V. Updike, as- sisted by Singing Evangelist J. E. Hawes, will commence the meeting the last of May." Tn the meeting Hawes sang the following hymn: THE DAT OF PENTECOST. The day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came, He sat upon apostles and looked Uke lambent flame; He taught what Christ had told them, they wrote it in a book, And in that book — ^the Bible — he tells us where to look. Ohoeus. Kow the Spirit holy, he will guide us safely. If we read the Bible, there he guides aright; Now the Spirit holy, iato life and glory, He will guide us safely, if we trust his light. The day of Pentecost, the church of God began, And Peter said to sinners: "Kepent now wMe you can; Tou must obey the Saviour, he will your sins forgive, And thus the Holy Spirit with you wiE always Kve." — Cho. 253 A HISTORY OF THE The day of Pentecost, the law of God went out; Three thousand siimers then obeyed, the name of Christ to shont. So, now let aU receive him, his word haa not been changed; It is the only safe way, from earth to heaven arrange£ — Oho. This hyitm has in it the poetry of truth. The tune was well adapted to the words, and the hymn became popular. Some negroes attended the tent meeting, and one afternoon an old negro, sitting a few seats from the front, gradually raised up as Updike began to warm up, and then, raising his hand,, bringing it down with two blows, cried out, "He's gettin' dar, he's gettia' dar." And he did get there with eighty baptispis and forty-six other additions — ia all, 126— and the church was organized. This is only a sample of the work done by the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. 254 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO XXVIII CENTRAL OHIO p lONEEE ministers of central Ohio were : E. E. Sloan, E. Moffett, John EnceU, Gyms Mc- Neeley, Alexander Hall, J. G. Mitchell, Nathan Mitchell, Israel Belton, D. A. Hanniim, A. Gard- ner, John Hick, L. M. ,Harvey, John Sinclair, E. Worther, Nathan Moody, J. M. Dicky, W. Michem, J. Kenderson, Mahlon Martin, Benjamin Lock- hart, D. Shrapless, C. B. Van Vorhis, Wm. Hayes, Andrew Bums, Henry Dixon, John Eead, S. E. WiUard, 0. Higgins, T. D. Garvin, J. H. Garvin, T. N. Madden, A. Lemert, J. B.. Millison, A. Skid- more, S. P. Moody, Q. A. Eandall, N. A. Walker, Adam Moore, M. Eiddle, J. W. Lowe, Isaiah Jones, W. S. Lowe, W. L. Neal, A. B. Williams, James Williams, S. B. Teagarden, E. Winbigler, Hiram Wood, J. A. Barr, A. B. Way, Timothy J. Newcomb, Wm. Dowling, Hiram. Wood, S. McBride, L. E. Norton and others. DooTOE Wm. Hates. Back in the thirties and forties and fifties, the Eestoration movement depended very largely upon an itinerant ministry. And even in the six- ties and seventies and eighties the "stalwarts" made long journeys on horseback and in buggy — proclaiming, as they went, the catholic plea for 17 255 A fflSTORY OF THE union which fired comnranities and restdted in our present influential churches. "There were giants in those days" — ^not only in the pulpit, but by the roadside. It was a day of free entertainment for the heralds of the cross, and many houses were known as "preach- ers' homes." One of these hospitable houses stood about eight miles from Mt. Vernon, O. It was the home of Dr. Wm. Hayes, a "veritable preachers' hotel." Such men as Isaac Errett, Robert Mof- f ett, Norton, Huffman and Gardner held meetings at the Simmons Church, and they always "put up" with Dr. Hayes. Here the neighbors gathered with the family on the veranda in sxtm- mer, in the "sitting-room" in winter, and listened to the preacher explain the Scriptures or teU of the progress the cause was making in other places. Here the "big dinners" were served — after the distinguished guest had "said grace." It was a religious home, a hospitable home, a happy home, a great home. Dr. Hayes was not only the preachers' friend, but himself a preacher of power. He practiced his profession during the week, and on Sunday, when no "regular preacher" was present, he delivered the sermon and dispensed the emblems. He wielded a mighty influence for good in his community, which means that he was a great man. John EkoeiOj Knox County gave some good Bestoration preachers to the cause. James EnceU was an able expounder of the Word. He gave illustrated lectures, especially on the Revelation as found at 250 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO the close of the New Testament. John Encell was a good singer and evangelist. Wellington was one of the churches he planted. He gave a new version of "The Old Parson's Story," and lovingly dedicated it to the "old preachers": I'm an old-faahioned kind of a preacher, Tlie Jerusalem story I tell; How often, tow often I've told it; Dear story, I love it so well. For many bright years I've been preaching The story that came from above, While earnestly lost ones beseeching To hear the glad message of love. 'Tis stiU my delight and my glory To tell of a Saviour once Sain, That the dying may hear the glad story Of life through Immamiel's name. Thro' all of my years yet remaining. May strength unto me still be given, This message of mercy proclaiming To help many hearts' hope for heaven. Many noble and true ones ha+^e left me; Their pure lives have come to a close; They sleep in the silent old churchyard, .And there, too, I soon will repose. Dear battle-worn vet'rans of Zion, Our stay in this world won't be long: Let us try to be faithful and cheerful, And £nish it up with a song. There's a bright crown the faithful awaiting, A scepter, a robe and a palm, And glories forever unfading In the presence of God and the Lamb. We shall soon meet the loved gone before us, In the mansions eternally fair: We shall soon sing the heavenly chorus. And we'll never grow old over there; No, we'U never grow old over there. AliBXAJSTDEB WlLPOED HaTJ. Alexander Wilford Hall was a remarkable man, and possessed a great memory, and was ex- ceedingly shrewd. He was an antagonist of Uni- 257 A HISTORY OF THE versalism. He soon learned all the argtunenta of 1 Universalists and passages of Scripture used by them in support lof their doctrine — ^how they construed and supplied them — and framed a reply. He usually contrived to turn their argu- ments and the Scripture quoted agaiust them. He wrote a book entitled "Universalism Against Itself." It created a profound sensation. Twenty-five thousand copies were sold in two years. It has been issued again in these days and is meeting with sales. A favorite argument of Universalists of those early days was as foUows: "God is infinitely 'good, so that he would save everybody if he could. But he is infinitely powerful, so that he can save everybody if he wiU. Therefore, he win save everybody." To this Hall replied — first quoting the Scripture, "Vengeance belongs to ine: I wiU repay, saith the Lord" — "God is infinite in vengeance, so that he would damn everybody if he could. But he is infinite in power, so that he can damn everybody if he will Therefore, he will danm everybody." It is said he was to debate with a Universal- ist, who came with many books; and his first speech was on "The whole human family wiU finally be made holy and happy." Mr. Hall ia five minutes gave his reply, gave a statement of aU the arguments the man could produce and replied to them, and sat down before his time was out. The Universalist was so overcome that he refused to go any further, declaring that he "did not come there to debate with a man who knew everything at once and who could talk like lightning." And so the debate ended. The tre- mendous sale of Hall's book gave hi-m popularity, 258 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Mahlon Martin Adeun Moore Andrew Bums Orang^e Higg^ins S. Bottenfield Teagarden William Dowling W. L. Neal J. W. Lowe Alonzo Skidmore MORE RESTORATION LEADERS 259 A HISTORY OF THE and he started at Loydsville, O., the Gospel Proc- lamation, and published it there for two years. Hall, in time, settled in New York City, and was the author of "The Microcosm," "The Sci- entific Arena," " Inunortality of the Sonl," and "Problems of Life, Here and Hereafter." 1841 — AijOnzo Skidmoee — 1912 Alonzo Skidmore was bom in Union County, 0., June 7, 1841; died May 20, 1912, at East Liberty, Logan County. Bro. Skidmore 's liJfe was an especially active one from his youth to the close of life. He began teaching in the public schools at the age of eighteen, and followed this profession nearly all his life. In 1860 he identified himself with the disciples of Christ worshiping at Mill Creek, Logan Coxmty. He gave to this congre- gation much service as elder and minister. In 1862 he enlisted in the 121st Eegiment O. V. I., and served to the close of the war. In 1865 he was united in marriage to Sarah J. Morse. Having a deep iuterest in educational and religious questions, he decided to secure a college training. In 1874 he, with his family, went to Bethany, W, Va., where he spent four years as a student, graduating with the honors of his class in 1878. The following year he was engaged as a profes- sor in his aima mater and as pastor of the church at Bethany. In both of these .positions he achieved marked success. From Bethany he* went to South Butler, N. Y., where he held a pastorate. The next place to call him was a coUege at North Middleton, in 260 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Kentucky, witli E. V. ZoUars as coworker. Leav- ing Kentucky, he came back to Ms old liome and, in 1882, organized, at East Liberty, "Tbe Central Obio College," and conducted it, with fine re- sults, until 1890. During these years of college work in East Liberty he, in co-operation with the Ohio Christian Missionary Society (Alanson Wil- cox, secretary), organized the church and min- istered to it in many helpful ways. Li 1890 he, with his family, went to Texas, where he accepted a professorship in Texas Christian Univers.ity. A few years later he re- turned to Ohio and taught in Hiram College. In 1894 he accepted a call to the church at Marion and remained with this church six years. At the close of this pastorate he again came to East Liberty, where he lived and wrought a good work. During the years of his teaching and preach- ing he managed his farm by mail, with much suc- cess to himself and tenants. He continued to carry on the business of farming, with the idea that he wished to minister, preach and teach as much as possible at his own expense or with as little remuneration as possible. To him the farm was the same as Paul's tent-making, to enable him to Kve by the work of his own hand and to give to him that needeth. 261 A HISTORY OF THE E. P. WisB T. L. Lowe Robert Place H. E. McMullins C. R. Stauffer SECBETAET AND BOARD OF JVIAJNTAGEKS, O. C. M. S., 1917 262 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO XXIX THE OHIO CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY ■yHE OMo Cliristiaii Missionary Society is a voluntary association of disciples of Christ for propagating the gospel and helping weak churches. The society is incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio. The trustees are es- pecially incorporated to hold and manage moneys in the interests of the society. It was organized at Wooster, 0., May 12, 1852. Alexander Campbell was present on the occasion and delivered an address. Isaac Errett was a prominent factor in the meeting. The or- ganization of the society marked the beginning of an epoch in the history of the disciples of Christ. Some years later, while the brethren were still struggling with the vexed problem of co-operative missionary work, Alexander Camp-, bell earnestly exhorted the brethren to be stead- fast in this enterprise, "for," said he, "the whole future of organized missionary work among the disciples of Christ depends on the Ohio Society." Before the organization of the society, co- operative work had been done in northeastern Ohio. From 1827-30, "Walter Scott, as the evan- gelist of this co-operation, worked within the territory of the Mahoning Association. This early co-operation accounts for the strength of the disciples in the Western Reserve. Its con- 263 A HISTORY OF THE tinuance and extension at that time would have covered the whole State. Later there arose some objection to co-operation. In the interest of hoped-for peace, the brethren yielded to the ob- jectors, and the co-operative work ceased in 1830. More than a score of years were wasted in demonstrating the unpractical nature of the theories that had disrupted a vital and conquer- ing work. Then wise brethren were impelled to return to the old and eminently Christian way of fraternal co-operation for aggressive work of enlargement. From 1852 this co-operative work has had the untiring devotion of wise and good men. Many leading brethren served freely in unofficial capac- ity. Men held in honor in all the churches of the State served as officers and employees. The presidents of the society have been: David S. Burnet, J. P. Eobison, R. M. Bishop, Isaac Errett, E. E. Sloan, B. A. Hinsdale, T. D. Garvin, E. Moffett, W. M. Bowling, E. B. "Wake- field, J. Z. Tyler, A. J. Marvin, E. V. ZoUars, Eussell Errett, J. M. VanHorn, C. J. Tannar, G.^ P. Color, S. L. Darsie, J. W. Allen, J. A. Lord, H. McDiarmid, Benj. L. Smith, C. W. Huffer, Justin N. Green, J. G. Slayter, M. L. Bates, A. M. Harvuot, A. E. Webber, H. Newton Miller, J, E. Lynn, T. W. Pinkerton, I. J. CahiU, Geo. Dar- sie, John P. Sala, W. F. Eothenburger, P. H. Welshimer, W. D. Ward, T. L. Lowe, C. B. Rey- nolds. The corresponding secretaries have been : Lee Lord, Isaac Errett, A. S. Hayden, J. H. Jones, W. A. Belding, E. E. Sloan, Robert Moffett, Alanson WOcox, S. H. Bartlett, H. Newton Mil- ler, I. J. CahiU. 264 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO C R. Sii C. B. Reynolds c. M. Rodefer Noyes P. Gallup C. A. Hanna OTHIUK LEADERS IN 0. C. M. S. WOEK 265 A HISTORY OF THE Tlie financial plan of the earlier period pro- vided that offerings shotild be sent to the district secretaries. Half the amonnt was retained and expended -within the borders of the district, under the direction of the district officers. The remainder was forwarded to the State secretary and expended under the direction of the State Board of Managers. This order was later changed, and aU offer- ings are sent to the State Board of Managers. This concentrates the work and makes it more effective. Under this plan the results have been grati- fying. In seventeen years — 1900 to 1917 — exactly one hundred churches received assistance, includ- ing twenty that were yet mission churches at the end of the period named. These hundred churches have a membership of eighteen thou- sand, hold church property valued at $750,000, and are now themselves contributing to missions $12,000 per year. The new plan has met the changed conditions successfully. The secret of success in planting the cause in the cities that have become so numerous in Ohio, is to give such strong support that the work may be pushed vigorously from the first. This course inspires confidence in the public mind and gives the new work a great advantage. The plan of placing all funds in the hands of the State Board of Managers has made such a course possible. Evangelistic Wokk The preaching of the gospel is the prime pur- pose of the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. In addition to supporting the preaching of the gospel by ministers stationed in mission DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO churches, the society has always laid stress on evangelism. Walter Scott, under the employ of the Mahoning Association, did a wonderful work at the psychological moment before the present society was organized. In the earlier days, among men who served in that capacity, were Benjamin Franklin, Har- rison Jones, Knowles Shaw, O. A. Burgess, L. L. Carpenter, W. A. Belding, Wm. Dowling, A. Burns, J. W. Lanphear, Lathrop Cooley, J. J. Moss, A. B. Grreen, Wm. Hayden and many others. The number of able workmen, good and true, sent out through the district boards of the State Society are too many to name, and the sys- tem of records under that plan did not provide for preserving the names. Since 1900 the men who have served as evan- gelists for more than a single meeting are : Allan Wilson, Robert Moffett, 0. L. Cook, D. W. Besaw, John E. Pounds, G. F. Crites, Bowman Hostetler, C. A. Kleeberger, G. A. Ragan, Percy H. Wilson, J. 0. Shelburne, J. G. Slayter, M. B. Eyan, S. H. Bartlett, H. Newton Miller, I. J. Cahill, T. J. White, L. I. Mercer, C. N. Williams, Traverce Harrison, C. A. MacDohald, W. H. Boden. Other men held each a single meeting, and many pastors of the State held "volunteer" meetings under direction of the State Society. In pioneer days a single evangelistic meeting sufficed to establish a self-supporting church. In these days of higher standards it requires more to constitute a self-supporting church. Besides, the fixed conditions of an old community do not allow as speedy results as when communities were new. The evangelistic work continues to be fruitful. 267 A HISTORY OF THE In 1902 the Marietta church-liouse was wrecked by a cyclone. Throngh, the influence of the 0. C. M. S., the chnrch received generous and timely help from the churches of the State. In March, 1913, the State was visited by an unprecedented calamity. A great storm swept over the whole State, bringing a devastating flood that wrought tremendous destruction in the valleys of the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miami and the Ohio. Official returns showed a loss of 460 lives in the State; 4,200 homes were de- stroyed and 40,500 people rendered homeless. In the awful devastation and loss disciples were heavy sufferers. Three churches were totally destroyed. Scores suffered heavily. The 0. 0. M. S. received over $7,000 for the relief of the flooded churches. This amount was dis- tributed among seventeen of those most heavily afflicted. Every year churches are guided through serious problems of indebtedness or strife or scandal. The very existence of such an agency as the State Society is a source of strength to the work everywhere in the State. When the flood came there was an agency ready to hand to call for help and convey it to the place of need. The calamity wrought far less injury to the churches because there was a tried and trusted means to carry the needed help. Peemanent Funds An important feature of the work of the mis- sionary society is the accumulation of funds, the income of which is devoted to the work. Such funds are a bulwark of strength. The society now has in trust: 268 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Buniet Educational Fund $ 25,385.03 Trust funds for individual churches 7,000.00 Funds for use in special fields- 6,000.00 Evangelistic funds 28,708.60 General funds 24,367.97 Annuities . 20,325.00 Emergency Building Fund ; 4,047.05 A total of - $115,733.65 The Ohio Society has fostered the work of the American Christian Missionary Society, the Foreign Christian Missionary Society, the Chris- tian Woman's Board of Missions, and the Snn- day-school work of the society stimulates the life of ail the schools. They receive strength from this ministry and, in turn, they minister through all the missionary and benevolent agencies. The society statistics aggregate 214,610 days of service; 126,720 sermons; accessions, 56,427; churches organized, 353; money disbursed, $725,- 949.09; cost of each accession, $12. Objections Objections have been made by individuals and churches to co-operative work in evangelizing, or society work. The answer was, "Let there be light." Newspaper opposition to co-operation does not always reflect the feelings of the masses. When the opposition of this character appeared, articles were written furnishing Scriptural argu- ments for co-operation and bristling with the facts of the present times and missions and evan- gelistic work. This has done much toward over- coming the objection. Then, it was constantly declared that no society or co-operation has any ecclesiastical authority. It was afSrmed that such associations are voluntary and have but one object, and that 269 A HISTORY OF THE is to give wings to the gospel in harmony with the commission in which Christ says: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every crea- ture." The objectors who hang back and stay at home are not in line with Christ's spirit and teaching, and are in the unscriptural way and shotdd change their attitude. Sister Lhamon said: "The way that hangs back and says *I won't go this way,' and 'I won't go that way,' and does not go at all, is the most nnscriptural thing under heaven." One way to silence objectors to society work was to ask them to systematically, conscientiously and perseveringly prosecute some way they have that will do the work. We will not oppose you, but bid you Godspeed. The world is perishing, and by all Scriptural and expedient means we must go and save them from suming and thus save ourselves. Objections have mostly disappeared. The Ohio Papes For at least thirty years the 0. C. M. S. has published a monthly paper, a kind of necessity for communicating with the churches. For ten years, it was called the Ohio Standard, then the' Harbinger; now it is called Ohio Work. This paper emphasizes the home missionary and Sun- day-school work. Churches planted in Ohio mean more contributions for other lands. Each nimiber of the Ohio paper contains church news, facts as to the progress of the cause and incen- tives to faithfulness and diligence iu serving the Lord. Many people in Ohio are practically as unreached by the gospel as are the pagans of Africa. They do not come to the churches and 270 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Mrs. R. R. Sloan Mrs. A. M. Atkinson Mrs. C. N. Pearre Mrs. M. M. B. Goodwin l.ois White MacL.ead Mi's. Ida Sloan Weedon LUlie A. Faris Miss M. M. Boteler Florence Mitchell OHIO'S GOOD AND FAITHFCTL DATJGHTEKS WHOSE WOEKS FOLLOW THEM 18 271 A HISTORY OF THE the chiirch.es do not go to them. There is close contiguity, but no real contact. These people are perishing at our door. Shall Christian people stand rigid, frigid statues and onlookers, caring nothing for the unsaved? . So wrote the Ohio paper, and a noble Christian woman emphasized this home work as follows: THE WOEK AT THE DOOB. Mattie M. Boteler. Far back from the ages departed, There cometh a message anew, And these are the words, O my brother, That Jesus is saying to you : "While workers are fainting around you, Stand careless and idle no more; lift up your eyes to the harvest That lieth in front of your door. " Though small seems our strength for the labor. Though little of worth is our mite, The least that we do for His service Can never be lost in His sight; For the Father above, on his children. Unmeasured his blessings will pour. Who take up the work uncomplaining. That Ueth in front of the door. We may send out the news of salvation To the nations in darkness and sin; ^ We may go to the uttermost places And gather the straying ones in; But God is not pleased with our labors. Though bravely the burden we bore, While the field that is ripened to harvest Lies neglected in front of our door. Though we know not the scope of our labors. We may snatch from the burning some brand By faithfully, earnestly doing The duty that lieth at hand; And the gospel we love may be carried By him to some far-distant shore, Because we've been true to the duty That Ueth in front of our door. 272 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO To the cliuTch the commission was given That all nations be bidden to come, But those who will carry the message Must be given the gospel at home: And the sooner His glory will reach them, Who sat in the darkness before, If we faithfully gather the harvest That lieth in front of our door. Another wrote: "As patriots, disciples of Christ in Ohio should do more evangelistic work. Paul had a dispensation of the gospel of Christ, but he did not forget Israel. The love of drink, the love of money, the love of worldly pleasure, should not be the dominating ideas in our Ohio civ- ilization. The people must be educated and Chris- tianized. Philanthropy needs to rise above self- gratification, and plan for purity and intelligence in our homes. Christ lived and died for others. When the disciple acts Christlike there wiU come exhilaration of joy, and activities becoming the patriot and philanthropist and Christian. 273 A HISTORY OF THE Knowles Shaw M. B. Ryaa O. A. Burgess H. D. Carlton A. Chatterton W. H. Hopson PROMINENT SECKETAEIES, O. 0. M. S., AND NOTED PREACHERS OF OHIO 274 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO XXX ANNALS OF THE O. C. M. S. 1815— E. E. Sloan— 1877 ■yHE Ohio Christian Missionary Society was organized ia 1852. E. E. Sloan was present from Mt. Vernon, O. He came to Mt. Vernon ia 1844. For six years after his advent there was no chiirch of disciples at Mt. Vernon. He had been reared in the New Testament order of teaching in western Pennsylvania, where was his place of birth. During the six years he was a member of the church at Jelloway. Through his influence, J. H. Jones was secured as evangelist, and on the 31st day of January, 1850, the church at Mt. Vernon was organized with E. E. Sloan as over- seer. He lived in Mt. Vernon twenty-two years and moved to Cleveland ia 1866. He was one of the forty-one delegates of churches that, in Wooster, in 1852, organized the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. He was on the committee of five to propose a constitution. He was also made one of the Board of Managers. From that time to his death he held an official position in the organization. He was elected corresponding secretary ia 1861. Previous to this time no one had been found who could give his entire time and talents to the work of the society. "For eight years," says Isaac Errett, "this faithfid pilot stood at the wheel in all weathers, at all seasons, holding the vessel 275 A HISTORY OF THE steadily against adverse winds, beating tip against -wind and tides and steering through difficulties and perUons places with sleepless vigilance and excellent skill. When he conld be spared from the hehn, he was founds tugging at the oars. He was captain, mate, steward, cabin- boy and sailor all the time — drilling the crew, laying in provisions, keeping the log-book, in- specting the stores, and maHng the reckonings. Under God, this society owes more to his un- yielding patience, unconquerable pxirpose and untiring industry, for its success, than to any other man." At the time he took the work some of the churches had preaching twice, some once a month; some had a "meeting of days" once a year. Some so-called churches were but names, answering no useful purpose known to God or man. Perhaps there were only three in the State that had constant pastoral labor. The hour had come for an organizing mind that could devise methods, direct large operations, and educe order and system out of the reigning chaos. In giving counsel to the brethren, in looking up preachers for churches and churches for preachers, in stim- ulating home enterprise, in arranging meetings, his services were valuable. His distinctive work was to extend the district noissionary organiza- tions, and in all ways to give unity, continuity and universality to our work. He had the courage and patience to labor for organization needed for the future as well as for immediate results. He met with opposition, but he ably defended his work. He was a living epistle to all Ohio disciples. He had the physical and mental capac- ity for an immense amoxmt of work. He pushed 276 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO •X' o o Hi EC i*. m a N EH O t3 P I? O D «2 %<^ !z| o !zi > 277 A HISTORY OF THE his work with unyielding faithfulness, sometimes patiently plodding, sometimes energetically driv- ing, but always busy, always cheerful. He worked so noiselessly that he almost seemed to be a man of leisure! He seemed never to grow discouraged or to lose hope. His longsuffering was the salvation of many an enterprise which he had in hand. Some one has said that hi s most serious faults and troubles originated in his goodness. During the time of Bro. Sloan's residence in Mt. Vernon he was intimately identified with the educational, moral and religious interests of the town. He taught a boys' school and Mrs. Sloan taught girls in her own home. In 1852 the male academy disappeared and the Female Institute stands alone. Later the institute changed into the Mt. Vernon Female Seminary. This was Bro. Sloan's greatest service, with the exception of his missionary work. The seminary, as a place of Christian education, paid back many- fold the capital put into it. The wives and daughters of many disciples in Ohio called the school a success. Faithful work done for our fellow-men, like love from which it springs, is never lost. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Those who give, at least get the bless- ing. "Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted. If it enriches not the heart of another, its waters returning back to their springs, like the rain, shall fiU them full of re- freshment: that which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain." When Bro. Sloan was called away to meet the heavenlies he was president of the Ohio Chris- tian Missionary Society. 278 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO EOBEET MOFFETT Robert Moffett was the second great corre- sponding secretary of the Ohio Christian Mis- sionary Society, commencing at the close of R. R. Sloan's term of office. His first term of ser- vice began in 1867 and continued to 1884 (fifteen years). The following statement of his work, in the main, was made when he voluntarily gave the work into other hands: "These years have been years of sacrifice in ways ~ which a preacher who wishes to keep abreast of the times, and increase his pulpit abil- ity, well understands. It has been a sacrifice to his family, who have needed so much of his pres- ence and counsel. He has served under the promptings of duty to the church at large and to the cause of missions, which has ever been dear to his heart. His services for the society have intensified his love for it. During his ser- vice in Ohio, work has touched on every side of Christian enterprise. Through all the drudgery of clerical work, at his desk and in the field; through all the responsible exercises of conven- tions and public assemblies ; through the delicate and harassing investigations of church troubles ; and through the anxieties which drive sleep into the wee hours of the night — through fifteen years of such a multitude of cares he has passed in much feebleness, but he trusts with recognized faithfulness. His reward is in whatever good may have been accomplished. Year by year he has put into lists and tables the churches visited, organized and fostered, the meetings held, the number of converts gained, the amount of money raised and disbursed as the visible fruitage of 279 A HISTORY OF THE the society's work. But how many churches have been saved from wreck; how many new converts became, in time, pillars in the church; how many Christians saved from ruin; how many hearts comforted; how many feeble knees strengthened; how many holy aspirations enkindled; how many little fountains opened, which have become, in time, the wide and beautiful rivers of blessing and peace — these are chronicled only in heaven, and will be reported at the jSnal convention of all the saints." Perhaps no person among the disciples of Christ did more for organized missionary work than Robert Moffett. He co-operated with the American Christian Missionary Society and helped fight its battles. He was corresponding secretary of that society for several years. He sympathized with the Foreign Christian Mission- ary Society and helped it to the right of way ia the Ohio churches and Sunday schools. He was a helping friend to the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, and all the enterprises of the churches of Christ. As an eloquent speaker he was surpassed by few, if equaled by any. After eleven years' interim, he was again elected sec- retary of the O. C. M. S. and served four years. HisTORiOAi, Table Showing the Place and Pees- IDENT OF THE ApTNIVEBSAEIES OP THE OhIO Cheistian Missionaet Societt PLACE PEESIDENT 1852— Wooster D. S. Burnet 1853— Mt. Vernon D. S. Bxirnet 1854— Bedford D. S. Burnet 1855 — Akron D. S. Burnet 280 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO 1856— Mt. Vernon J. P. Eobison 18,57— Wooster J. P. Eobison 1858 — Massillon J. P. Eobison 1859— Wooster J. P. Eobison I860— Belief ontaine E. M. Bisbop 1861— Mt. Vernon E. M. Bisbop 1862— Wooster E. M. Bisbop 1863— Sbelby E. M. Bisbop 1864— Belief ontaine E. M. Bisbop 1865— Asbland E. M. Bisbop 1866— Akron E. M. Bisbop 1867— Dayton E. M. Bisbop 1868— Mt. Vernon E. M. Bisbop 1869— Alliance E. M. Bisbop 1870 — Mansfield Isaac Errett 1871 — ^Dayton Isaac Errett 1872 — Painesville Isaac Errett 1873 — ^Wooster Isaac Errett 1874U-Toledo Isaac Errett 1875 — Steubenville Isaac Errett 1876— Akron E. E. Sloan 1877— East Cleveland ..... .E. E. Sloan 1878— Mt. Vernon E. E. Sloan 1879— Lima B. A. Hinsdale 1880— Warren B. A. Hinsdale 1881— Dayton B. A. Hinsdale 1882— Coltunbus. T. D. Garvin 1883— Cleveland L. E. Ganlt 1884— Akron E. Moffett 1885— Wilmington E. Moffett 1886— New Lisbon E. Moffett 1887— Kenton Wm. Dowling 1888— Columbus J. Z. Tyler 1889 — ^Youngstown A, J. Marvin 1890— Dayton B. V. Zollars 1891 — ^Asbland EusseU Errett 281 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO MAB 07 OHIO COnmTES JtrUMBEB or CHUBCHBS IN EACH 282 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO 1892— BeUaire J. M. Van Horn 1893— Canton C. J. Tannar 1894^Ffiidlay G. P. Coler 1895— Columbus G. T. Smith 1896— Toledo S. L. Darsie 4897— Hiram J. W. Allen 1898— Salem J. A. Lord 1899— Wilmington H. McDiarmid 1900— Mansfield B. L. Smith 1901— Atron C. W. Huffer 1902 — Columbus Justin N. Green 1903— Lima J. G. Slayter 1904— Cleveland M. L. Bates 1905 — Newark A. M. Harvnot 1906— Ubriclisville A. E. Webber 1907— Dayton H. Newton MiUer 1908— Columbus J. B. Lynn 1909— Elyria T. W. Pinkerton 1910— Toledo I. J. CaMU 1911 — Portsmouth Geo. Darsie 1912— Canton John P. Sala 1913— Lima W. F. Eothenburger 1914 — ^BowUng Green P. H. Welshimer 1915— NelsonviUe W. D. Ward 1916— Mt. Vernon T. L. Lowe 1917— BeUef ontaiae C. B. Eeynolds LIST OF CHURCHES BY COUNTIES Adams Counttf. — Bethlehem, May Hill, Moore's Chapel, Newport, Peebles. Allen County. — ^Auglaize Chapel, Beaver Dam, Bluffton, Garfield Chapel, Garfield Memo- rial, Lima (South), Lima (Central), Eousculp. Ashland County. — Ashland, Clear Creek, Jeromesville, Nankm, LoudonviUe, Polk, Sulli- van. 283 A HISTORY OF THE Ashtabula County. — ^Ashtabula, G-eneva, East TrambuU, Hartsgrove, Orwell, Penix Line, Bock Creek, Trumbull, Trumbtill Center. Athens Coimty. — ^Athens, Beech Grove, Channcey, Glonster, Green's Exm, Hooper's Ridge, JerseyviUe, Liihrig, New Marskfield, MlQ- field, Nelsonville, Taylor's Bidge, Trimble. Auglaize County. — St. Mary's, UniopoUs. Belmont County. — ^Barnesville, BeUaire, Bel- mont, Belmont Ridge, Bend Fork, Bethesda, Bos- ton, Captina, CenterviUe, Chestnut Level, Dover, East Richland, Paynes Comers, Egypt, Flushing, Glencoe, Grand View, Hendrysburg, Hunter, Martins Ferry, Morristown, Rehoboth, Somerton, Shadyside, Washington, Uniontown, St. Joe. Brown County. — Georgetown, HamersviUe, Liberty Chapel, Macon, Mt. Orals, Ripley, Sar- dinia, Russellville. Butler County. — Hamilton (First), Hamilton ( Lindenwald ) , Macedonia. Carroll County. — ^Augusta, Berea, Malvern, Mt. Olivet, New Harrisburg. Clark County. — Springfield, Springfield (Col- ored). Clermont Covmty. — ^Bethel, Chilo, Felicity, Lerado, Monterey, Modest, Mulberry, Moscow, New Richmond, Rural, Withamsville. Clinton County. — ^Blanchester, Macedonia, Martinsville, New Antioch, New Vienna, Sabina, Wihnington (First), Wilmington (Walnut St). Columbiana County. — Columbiana, East Fair- field, East Liverpool (First), East Liverpool (Second), East Palestine, Hanoverton, Kensing- ton, Lisbon, New Alexander, New Garden, Rogers, St. Clair, Salem, Salineville, WellsviUe (First). 284 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Coshocton Gownty. — Coshocton, Spring Moxm- tain, Tiverton, Walhonding. Gra/wford County. — ^Bucyrus, Gallon. Cuyahoga County. — ^Bedford, Chagrin Falls; Cleveland: Broadway, Crawford Road, Dnnham Avenue, Euclid Avenue, Franklin Circle, Glen- vUle, Highland Avenue, West Boulevard, Miles Avenue, Collinwood, Lakewood; North Eoyalton, Solon, Glen Willow. Darke County. — Burkettsville, Carnahan, Greenville, Palestine, Yorkshire. Defiance County. — Farmer Center, HicksviUe, Sherwood, West Milford. Delaware County. — Center Yillage. Erie County. — Sandusky. Fairfield County. — Lancaster, Violet Chapel. Fayette County. — Pleasant View, Washing- ton C. H. Franklin County. — Columbus: Broad Street, West Fourth Avenue, Chicago Avenue, Wilson Avenue, South, Linden Heights, East, Hill Top, Indianola. Fulton County. — ^Delta, East Chesterfield, Fayette, Franklin, Lilet, Lyons, Tedrow, Wau- seon, Winameg. Geauga Cou/nty. — Auburn, Chardon, Chester- land, Fowlers Mills, Montville, Thompson. Green County. — ^Bowersville, Grape Grove, Ferry, Gladstone, Jamestown, Xenia. Guernsey County. — ^Bates Hill, Byesville, Cambridge, Creighton, Harmony, Quaker City. Hamilton County. — Carthage ; Cincinnati : Central, Eastern, Camp Washington, Fairmount Central, Evanston, Columbia, Eichmond, North Side, Walnut Hills; Harrison, Madisonville, Miami, Mt. Healthy, Norwood, White Oak; Cin- 285 A HISTORY OF THE cinnati (Colored) : College Hill, Clark Street, Walnut Hills, Lockland, Kenyon Avenue, Oxford. Hancock County. — Bethel, Fiudlay (First), Findlay (Second), McComb. Hardin County. — A-da, Blanchard River, Dun- kirk, Mt. Victory, Kenton, McGuffey, Eeeds, Eidgeway. Harrison (7ow*^t/.^Hopedale, Tippecanoe, Nottingham, Tappan. Henry County. — Malinta. Highland County. — Buford, DanviUe, Fair- view, Greenfield, Hillsboro, Lynchburg, Mt. Olive, Mt. Zion, Mt. "Washington, Mowrystown, Pricetown, Sugartree Eidge, South Liberty, Union. Holmes County. — Glenmont, Hohnesville, Killbuck, Millersburg, Nashville, Eipley, Union Grove, Welcome. Hoching County. — Carbon Hill. Huron County. — Greenwich, North Fairfield, Norwalk, Boughtonville. Jackson CouMty. — Byer, Four Mile, Jackson, Ray. Jefferson County. — Bergholz, Brilliant, Ham- mondsville, Irondale, New Somerset, Phillips, Pluni Eun, Smithfield, Steubenville (First), Steu- benville (Second), Toronto, Unionport. Knvx County. — ^Bell, Bladensburg, Center- burg, DanviUe, Dennis, Howard, Grove, Martins- burg, Messiah, Millwood, Milwood (First), Mt. Vernon, Palmyra, Waterford, Brink Haven. Lake County. — Mentor, Mentor Plains, Paines- ville. Perry, Willoughby. Lawrence Cou/nty. — Athalia, Bend Fork, Iron- ton, Jep, Chesapeake. 286 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Licking County. — Croton, Eden, Fallsburg, Hebron; Newark, North Side, West Side; Perry- ton, Eocky Fork, Utica, York Street. Logon County. — Belle Center, BeUefontaine, Big Springs, Bast Liberty, Middlebnrg, Rnsh- sylvania, Rush Creek, West Mansfield. Larcdn Covmty. — Elyria, Fields, Kipton, La Porte, Lorain, North Eaton, Wellington. Lucas County. — Toledo: Central, Norwood, East, South; Wbite House. Mahoning County. — Austintown, Canfield, Greenford, North Jackson, Lowellville, Sebring; Youngstown: Central, First, Hi! 1m an Street. Marion County. — Kirkpatrick, Martel, Marion (First), Marion, Caledonia. Medina County. — Brunswick, East Granger, Hinckley, Medina, Wadsworth, Remsen Comers. Meigs County. — Adams MOs, Bear Wallow, Bedford (First), Bedford (Second), Bradford, Danville, Dexter, Midway, Long Bottom, Middle- port, Orange, Reedsville, Rockville, Tuppers Plains, Zion, Rutland. Miami County. — Fidelity, Piqua. Mercer County. — Ft. Recovery, Montezuma. Morgan County. — ^Antioch, Bishopville, Dea- vertown, East Branch, Fairview, Malta, McCon- nelsville, Meigs, Mountville, Pennsville, Stock- port, Triadelphia, Tabor, Wolf Creek. Monroe County. — ^Antioch, Beallsville, Calais, Cameron, Clarington, Fair Pleasant, Garysville, Goudy, Jackson Ridge, Malaga, Rich Fork, Salem, Stafford, Woodsfield. Montgomery County. — Dayton: Central, West Side, Santa Clara, East. Morrow County. — Pleasant Grove, Perry. 19 287 A fflSTORY OF THE Mushingum Gownty. — Frazeysburg, Roseville, Zanesville. Nolle County. — Caldwell, High Hill, Mt. Ephraim, Olive Green, Palestine, Point Pleasant, Salt Enn, Sununerfield. Ottawa County. — Elmore, Genoa, Oak Har- bor. Paulding Covmty. — ^Bronghton, Grover Hill, Melrose, Payne, Paulding. Perry County. — Corning, Crooksville, Hem- lock, Mt. Perry, New Lexington, New Straits- ville, Shawnee. Pickaway County. — Derby, New Holland. Pike County. — ^Victor. Portage County. — ^Aurora, Deerfield, Diamond, Edinburg, GarrettsvUle, Hiram, Kent, Mantna Station, Mantua Center, Eandolph, Eavenna, Shalersville, Souls Corners. Preble County. — CampbeUstown, Eaton, New Paris. Putnam County. — ^Forest Grove, Leipsic, Pan- dora, Pleasant Grove, West Belmore. Richland County. — ^Adario, BeUviUe, Bethany -Chapel, Csesarea, Lexington, Lucas, Mansfield, Shenandoah, Shelby. Ross County. — Chillicothe, Sugar Eun. Sandusky County. — Clyde, Gibsonburg, San- dusky. Scioto County. — ^New Boston, Portsmouth (First), Portsmouth (Grandview), Sciotoville. Seneca County. — Fostoria, Tiffin. Shelby County. — Jackson Center, Port Jeffer- son, Sidney. Stark County. — Alliance, Canton, Indian Eun, Marlboro, Massillon, Minerva, New Baltimore, New Berlin, Sparta, Union Hill. 288 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Summit County. — Atron: High, East Market, Nortli Hill, South, "Wabash Avemie; Barberton, Clinton, Cuyahoga Falls, Everett, Inland, Man- chester, Mogadore, Steeles Comers, Ghent, Stow, West Richfield. Trv/mhull County. — Braceville, Brookfleld, Champion, Cortland, East Farmington, Fowler, Girard, Greensbnrg, Hartford, Howland, Hub- bard, Hubbard (North), Lordstown, Mecca, Min- eral Ridge, Newton Falls, Niles, North Bloom- field, North Bristol, Southington, West Bazetta, Warren (Central), Warren (Second). Tuscarawas County. — Dundee, New Philadel- phia, Uhrichsville, Dennison. Union County. — Mill Creek, Richwood, Union. Van Wert County. — ^Van Wert. Vinton County. — ^Allenville, Air Line, Bethel, Eagle Chapel, McArthur, Radcliff, Union. Warren County. — ^Lebanon, WaynesvUle. Washington County. — Beverly, Coal Run, Dal- zeU, Fairfield, Lowell, Marietta, Mile Run, Reno, FuUerton (Union Chapel), Warner, West Mari- etta, Winget Run. Wayne County. — Blachleyville, Fredericks- burg, Orrville, Shreve, Wooster. Williams County. — Bryan, Edgerton, Edon, 'Lick. Creek, Montpelier, West Unity. Wood County. — Bowling Green, Cygnet, Cus- tar, Eagleville, Jerry City, Milton Center, Mun- gen. North Baltimore, Prairie Depot, Rudolph, Weston, North Weston, West Belmore. 289 A HISTORY OF THE Hugh Wayt E. A. Wray F. L. Bustor O. G. Hertzog S. E. Brewster Homer T. Messick OHIO EESTOEATION WOEKKES 290 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO XXXI SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN OHIO ■yHE Sunday school is only modern in form. The principle is recognized in the Old Testa- ment. The record in Deuteronomy (chap. 6) says: "These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, a'Jid when thou walkest by the way, and when tshou liest down, and when thou risest up." During the first centuries of the church, catechetical schools were instituted for the young. Luther and Knox and Wesley, and all the reformers, called atten- tion to educating the children. Ludwig Hecker, in Pennsylvania, fifty years before the time of Robert Kaikes, started some Sunday schools. The modern school, however, grew out of the efforts of Eaikes to teach the young how to read, that they might become ac- quainted with the Scriptures. At first they had paid teachers for instructing poor children; then volunteer teachers ; then other than poor children joined in the work; then older persons became interested, and now the school is the church at work systematically studying and teaching the Scriptures. 291 A HISTORY OF THE Jesus says, "Teach all nations," and, as chil- dren are a part of the nations, it is the best time to teach them when they are young and in the formative period. "As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined." History shows that the major- ity of people come to Christ in their young years. The disciples of Christ in Ohio name New Lis- bon, Columbiana County, as the second church listed in their world-wide movement for the restoration of the New Testament Christianity. That church was enrolled in 1827 by Walter Scott. Soon the churches began to multiply. At first they did not take kindly to Sunday schools. At that time the schools were used by the sects in teaching their peculiar tenets, and the dis- ciples were prejudiced against them. The new churches had to maintain their own existence, and their Lord's Day meetings partly took on the form of Scripture teaching, and special schools for the young had to come in later in their history. Li that early period, old and young disciples each carried a copy of the Scriptures and studied the word of God. The pioneer Lathrop Cooley is authority for the statement that the school now known as the Bible school of the Franklin Circle Church of Christ of Cleveland was the first school among the disciples in Ohio. It was started soon after 1844. Some of the leaders of the Restoration movement called a convention to meet at Brace- ville, Trumbull County, in 1846, to consider the ad- visability of starting schools in. all the churches. The convention was well attended and decided to encourage the churches to start schoolsi. As there was much criticism on the literature circulated in the denominational schools of that day, the 292 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO convention recommended the preparation of snit- able library books for tbe proposed Snnday scbools. D. S. Bxirnet -was selected to write and edit books for an appropriate library. In har- mony with this arrangement, in 1856 a library of fifty volumes was published, and known as the Burnet Library. The preface of the first volume of the library has this statement: "This book is the first of a series we design preparing for a Sunday-school library. We have looked over the various libraries extant with much care and in- terest, and the result of our research is a solemn conviction that out of the multitude of books that have been prepared for Sunday schools, ^here is perhaps not one that a Christian parent can put into the hands of a child with approbation." The Burnet Library was adopted and used by many of the schools that maintained libraries in that early day. The books are a great im- provement over the goody-goody books on the life and death of some boy or girl of saintly at- tainments, that circulated in sectarian schools. The Burnet books treat of Bible characters and the child-life of Jesus, the boyhood of King David, Americans ia Jerusalem (or the Barclay Mission), plants and trees of Scripture, the goodness of God, searching the Scriptures, and subjects that ennoble character, all adapted to- interest the young in history, science and Scrip- ture subjects. The churches, however, did not all proceed to start Sunday schools, or, as we now call them, "Bible schools." The young people sometimes started and maintained schools. Often this was done independent of the older members and ofl&cers of the church. For years the schools 293 A HISTORY OF THE ■went on without any special relation to the churches. The churches made no provision for them in officers or teachers, or special places for meetings, or equipments. Gradually the schools worked their way into the graces of the churches, and they not only tolerated them, but gave them encouragement. They allowed the houses to be divided by curtains to aid in school management. Then they began to bxiild, taking the interests of the school into consideration, tiJl finally some of the meeting-houses have four, ten, or even twenty, rooms for classes and departments of the school. In 1852 the Ohio Christian Missionary Soci- ety was formed. It was made up of volunteer disciples of Christ. Their purpose was to co- operate with one another to enlarge the kingdom of heaven. They did not propose to lord it over the churches, but to lead them into larger co- operative missionary work in the State. In 1862, the churches having been somewhat united in mission work, in planting new churches and strengthening the weak ones, in the annual eonvention at Wooster attention was called to Sunday schools as a means of propagating the gospel. The Committee on Order of Business reported the following resolution: "Resolved, That the church having a well- regulated and efficient Sunday school is furnished with the means of perpetuating the gospel," The record of the convention says: "Perti- nent and impressive remarks were made by Hurl- but, Burnet, Begg, Errett, Henry, Wm. Hayden, Brown, Way, France and others." The record then declares that "the discussion of this highly important subject can not be recorded, as would 294 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO be well, for a wider benefit. NotMng could be more instructive and edifying or more in season, in prompting and guiding tbe energies of all the members of the church of Christ in their mis- sionary character. In the midst of this profitable investigation Bro. Burnet moved that the subject of this resolution be referred to a select com- mittee of three brethren, with instruction to re- port as early as possible in this meeting. The Chair appointed D. S. Burnet, J. M. Henry and A. S. Hayden." The next day D. S. Burnet presented the fol- lowing report, which was adopted: "Your committee to whom you have been pleased to commit the resolution of the Commit- tee on Order of Business on the subject of Sunday schools beg to report as a substitute the following resolution: "Resolved, That the marked success awarded to our Sunday schools encourages us to foster this agency for recruiting the churches of Christ with intelligent and disciplined young Christians, and that we earnestly commend the establishment of such schools in every available neighborhood as a valuable means of benefiting both the church and the world." In 1863 there were about twenty-five thousand members in the church of Christ in Ohio. No statistics, are given as to Sunday schools. At that time the Bedford Church was one of the largest and strongest churches in the State. The Sunday school of that church was the first to make systematic offerings for missionary work. R. R. Sloan, secretary of the Ohio Chris- tion Missionary Society, in reporting the Bed- ford school, says: "Blank notes are furnished, 295 A fflSTORY OF THE which the pupils fill in and sign at option, oblig- ing them to pay small sums monthly for mis- sionary uses. This is well. It inculcates a mis- sionary spirit. It inures to system, and trains the child to give ere habits of penury have steeled his soul." The Bedford school offering that year was $7.50. The school at CoUamer gave $3.00, and the school at Eighth and Walnut, CiQoinnati, gave $10.00 to make Elder R. Graham a life member of the 0. C. M. S. The Cincinnati school at that time was the largest in the State. The next year fourteen schools made offerings for Ohio missions. In 1865 the Ohio Christian Missionary Soci- ety authorized the employing of a Sunday-school evangelist. The Board of Managers made per- sistent effort to employ one, without success. The managers in the convention of 1866 mention the difficulties in the appointment of such an agent. "His labors would be first and chiefly devoted to the organization of new schools. They could not compensate his labors. The very work, if successful, would, in an outlay for library and necessary expenses, impose upon them all the burden they could bear. This would be true of schools already organized." R. M. Bishop, the president of the society offered to make up every deficiency in the evangelist's salary. It was evi- dent that the entire burden would fall upon him, and the managers were not willing thus to tax his generosity. The society ' authorized President Bishop to furnish or procure a tract upon the proper organization and management of the Sun- day school, for general distribution among the churches of Ohio. The corresponding secretary 296 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO of the O. C. M. S. was authorized to collect the statistics of the schools and also to raise means to employ a Stmday-school evangelist. That year only sixty schools reported, and they had only 3,150 pnpils in regular attendance. These schools were usually suspended during the -winter. After that period the schools gradually became "ever- green" or all-the-year schools. Before tracing the history of the Ohio schools further it may be well to state something of the character of the early schools. The buildings — consisting of one room — ^were poorly fitted for grading the schools. The pupils, if classified at all, were arranged by age or mutual friendships rather than by attainments. Some teachers of natural ability kept their classes well filled. Many teachers were irregular in attendance, and this led to irregular attendance of scholars. The singing was by rote, following a leader. Instru- mental music was gradually introduced to aid the singing, and in. this way instruments were ultimately used in the church worship. Uniform lessons were not used, but scholars recited or read the Scriptures. Sometimes a bright pupil would take nearly all the time in reciting 150 verses, and the other scholars were neglected. No teachers' meetings were held, and no general reviews, and no maps or blackboard or other helps were used. Sometimes talking men happened along and would be asked to say something, and a case is mentioned where such a talker came before the school and said: "Children, what shall I say to you?" Of course the children knew that such a man had nothing of importance to offer, and a little girl raised her hand and said. "Thay 297 A HISTORY OF THE amen and thit down." On another occasion the superintendent asked the school what the talker said last Sunday. A girl rose and, folding her hands right and left, declared: "He talked and he talked, but didn't say much of anything." In another instance a burly, big-voiced man grufEly asked the little ones, "Who made the world?" No response came ; again in a louder and harsher manner he emphasized the question, "I say, chil- dren, who made the world?" A little boy, fear- fully frightened, said: "I did, but I will never do it again." The day of crude methods has passed away. Soon there came a crisis and new era to the Bible school in Ohio. Another chapter will set forth the progressive nature of ;t^ new era. 298 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO XXXII THE SUNDAY SCHOOL CRISIS A CRISIS in tlie Sxmday scliool in Ohio came in 1868. Schools had been multiplying. Prejudice against evangelizing the young had subsided. R. M. Bishop, D. S. Burnet, A. S. Hayden and others had championed the plea in behalf of instructing the young. At Mt. Vernon was the first ■ anniversary of the Ohio Christian Sunday School Association. The second article of the constitution read as follows : "The object of this Association shall be to enlist the entire Christian brotherhood of the State in earnest effort to promote the cause of Sunday schools; and for this purpose, to secure, as far as possible, the formation of auxiliary associations throughout the State, to co-operate with the Association in this great work." Of- ficers and a board of managers were chosen. L. L. Carpenter was elected president, and H. Grer- ould, secretary. R. Moffett, Isaac Errett, F. E. UdaU, R. M. Bishop, J. F. Wright and others took part in this Association, as managers. The Association organized auxiliary societies in the auxiliary districts of the Ohio Christian Mission- ary Society. The missionary districts had been organized under the laborious work of Secretary R. R. Sloan; effort had been made to attach the Sunday-school work to the operation of the Mis- 299 A HISTORY OF THE sionary Society. In 1869 Robert Moffett was elected corresponding secretary of the O. C. M. S. The missionary districts kad been formed, and as tbe Sunday School Association adapted their work to these divisions of the State, in time it was considered wise and practicable to merge the two associations into one large move- ment. So in 1874, after six years of successful super- vision of the school work, it was merged into the Ohio Christian Misisionary Society. During these six years much progress was made in the number and effi ciency_of the_s^ gols. F. M. Green ha,d increased. ConvenTions V ere he ld to magnify ) prepared a book on school nianagiment. Teach- ^rs' meetings were multiplied. School supplies and improve the schools. After this union of the two societies a missionary convention was held annually, and a semi-annual convention in each district was devoted to the interests of the Sun- day school. During the six years of the Sunday School Association the schools began to co-operate with the general Sunday School Association in Ohio, which co-operated with a national association. The last report of the Sxmday-school Board of Managers says: "We have learned that we ought to take hold of hands in this great business of God. We have learned that the Sunday school is for all, and not simply for little children. We , have learned that the true Sunday-school idea con- flicts with no good thing; that it does not lessen in the slightest degree parental responsibility, and, as far as the church is cpncerned, it is not, neither can it be, across the path of its true 800 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO progress. If we do find, at times, the school and the church exhibiting the characteristics of rivals, may we not find the explanation in this sentence: 'The chnrch neglected to do its duty and has forced individual men and women to a life of inactivity or else to an independent action'? Where the church does its whole duty in the premises, there never can be a conflict between them, for the whole church will be in the Bible school and therefore will not contest its own work: ' ' It also stated that "the field is the widest, whitest, noblest and most remunerative field ever opened, in the providence of God, for sanctified Christian effort. When this is realized, the slowness of the snail will give way to the swift- ness of the eagle, and the weakness of the worm to the lion's strength." At that time (1872) there were in our 215 Ohio Sunday schools reporting 17,680 pupils ; in the Ebraries, 10,601 volumes, and the annual cost of the schools was $7,296. They gave for mis- sionary purposes $243. There were estimated to be 125 schools that made no report. In 1882 the schools gave $600 for Foreign Missions. In- creased attention was given to the Sunday-school work in the District and State Conventions. In 1879 an interstate Sunday-school conven- tion with Indiana was held at Lima, O. L. L. Carpenter, having moved to Indiana, was presi- dent pro tern, for Indiana. Before this time (in 1877) a similar convention had been held in Union City, Ind. In 1884, Ohio Sunday schools contributed to the Foreign Society. $6,014. At that time there were 28,924 pupils and teachers in the schools. 301 A HISTORY OF THE During tlie next ten years, np to 1894, Tinder the direction of Alanson Wilcox, as corresponding secretary of the Ohio Christian Missionary Soci- ety, the schools increased to 49,652 scholars and 6,043 teachers and officers, or a total of 55,695, an increase of mnety-two per cent, in ten years. In 1872 the International Uniform Sunday- school Lessons were introduced. This was a great advance on the haphazard lesson then used in the schools. They were gradually introduced into our Ohio schools. On the general committee to arrange the International course of study was Isaac Errett, till his death. And then B. B. Tyler served for many years. The course was so ar- ranged that in seven years a mountain-top series of lessons would go through the Bible. The schools have gone through seven of these series of lessons. The Standard Publishing Company prepared lesson helps in leaflets, quarterlies and annuals unexcelled by any publishing-house. This company also published a variety of papers adapted to old and young, and this class of liter- ature has superseded the old system of libraries. This company took advanced positions on teacher-training and graded schools. It prepared and sent out literature and specially qualified lec- turers on Sunday-school work. This company called and helped school Herbert Moninger for the greatest work any one man has done for Teacher Training and Bible Study. He went away at the zenith of his usefulness, in 1911, at the age of thirty-five years. Under wise management, and the publicity given the schools, they increased in numbers and efficiency. Up to 1911 the schools increased to nearly six hundred and a number of schools have 302 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO over five hundred in attendance each Lord's Day. The Canton school enrolls three thousand, and is unexcelled in this country. In Canton, by the co-operation of The Standard Publishing Com- pany, a School of Methods has been introduced which bids fair to be far-reaching in usefulness. The Nelsonville school has received a compli- mentary letter from the President of the United States and has been visited by the Grovemor of Ohio. So the Ohio schools are leading in repu- tation and influence. The schools give annually thousands of dol- lars to the Foreign Christian Missionary Society, to Home Missions and benevolences. Many of the schools are graded and maintain Cradle EoU and Home Class Departments. It is well for the present and future generations to know about the aims of the schools in 1911. Feoitt Bank Standard fob 1911 1. Graded. Six departments, with a superin- tendent of each: Cradle Roll, Primary, Junior, Intermediate, Adult, Home. A superintendent or secretary of classification. An annual promotion day. Supplemental or graded" lessons in the Primary, Junior and Intermediate departments. 2. Teacher Training. A class studying either the first or advanced course. 3. Organized Classes. The International Cer- tificate of Recognition for all classes whose mem- bers are over sixteen years of age. 4. Bibles. At least fifty per cent, of the en- rollment owning Bibles or New Testaments. At least fifty per cent, of the average attendance using the Bible or New Testament in the school. 5. Workers' Conference. A regular workers' 20 303 A HISTORY OF THE conference of the officers and teachers, meeting either weekly or monthly. 6. Missions. A Missionary Committee, or secretary of missions, promoting missionary edu- cation and the use of missionary prayer topics. Offering from the school to our State Bible-school work, the American Christian Missionary Soci- ety, Foreign Missions and benevolences. This program is a scientific and marvelous advance on the crude schools of olden times. Many of the schools are not up to these high ideals in their organization and management and attainments. If one shoots at the sun, his arrow wiU go higher than when he only aims at a sun- flower. The schools are marching on to greater efficiency. Under the management in late years of S. H. Bartlett, H. Newton Miller and I. J. Cahill as secretaries of the 0. C. M. S. ; the evan- gelist, L. I. Mercer, and L. L. Faris, M. C. Settle and Wilford H. McLain as State superintendents, impetus has been given to the school work, and when the teachers and older students are fully instructed as to the importance of Lord's Day worship and forsake not to assemble with the saints and fail not to remember the Lord's death on the first day of the week, then indeed will the school and church truly rejoice together. Leaders in the church and school can bring round such glorious results.- Our Bible schools, in Ohio report in 1916, show: Forty-three schools, with enrollment of 500 or over each. Of these, 21 have enroUment of 500 to 700 ; 10 have an enrollment of from 700 to 1,000, and 12 have enrollment of 1,000 or over. 804 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO XXXIII CANTON AND COLUMBUS The Woeiid's Laegbst Sxtmdat School, Oanton, 0. YEARS ago people went to Canton to see the President, says a correspondent of the Cleve- land Leader. Now they go to see P. H. Wel- shiniier, the organizer of the world's largest Sun- day school. It was a great sight to see McKinley conduct the Presidential campaign from the front porch of his simple cottage home, but it is no less a sight to see "Welshimer's Sunday school," so called, in action. One noted churchman visited the school re- cently and attempted to describe it to his congre- gation when he returned home. "No one knew I was coming," he said, "but there was the Bible school just the same, about twenty-eight hundred on a hot Sunday morning when the thermometer was soariag and the vacation bug boring and the Sunday sleeper snoring; there they were, on the job; every department going at full pressure; main school and Intermediate, Prinaary and kin- dergarten; classes in the doorway, on the stairs, outside under the trees, up under the eaves, down in the cellar, hanging out the windows, clinging to the roofs, and coming down the chimneys, in the office and on the rostrum, in the organ loft and in the tonneau of a big red touring-car hitched at the curb." 305 A HISTORY OF THE And lie was nearly right. The First Christian Church is a square-shaped building out of all proportion to the average church one sees, and has accommodations for a Sunday school of forty-five hundred, yet the overflow frequently sends classes into the doorways and out under the trees. When the school is in action, classes appear to be everywhere, yet there is no confusion. Every class has its allotted space and its corps of teachers. Every class is perfectly organized, and each of the five separate departments operates independently of every other, each having its orchestra or piano, choirmaster, superintendent, teachers and such. The whole assemblage suggests a well-trained army studying the Bible. While the classes are ia session, messengers, officials and aides-de-camp fly about on orderly errands. No one appears to beat the air uncertainly. Every department seems to be connected with a central force. It takes little more than a cursory glance to show that Mr. Welshimer is that central force. Pearl was the name given him by his mother, but it illy fits his rugged masculinity and general show of strength. He is a gem, though, at direct- ing a church organization. TaU, broad-shouldered and blonde instead of the usual deliberateness found in physically big men, he overflows with nervous energy. He occupies the pulpit during the school session and supervises over all. Under his direct charge is a mixed class of eighteen hundred men and women, a huge Bible school in itself if comparison were to be made with other schools. Hundreds go to Canton to get pointers on 306 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Sunday-school organization. Mr. Welshimer gives a simple, direct iostmction: "Practice business methods ia yotir school," he says. Business methods are practiced at the First Christian Church. On a gUt sign nailed on the door to the anteroom of Mr. Welshimer 's suite in the church are two words, "Church Office." These words are the key to the secret of the growth of the Sunday school and church. The anteroom is an office, reaUy and truly. Inside, typewriters rattle incessantly; there are young women clerks at neat desks; steel-letter and card-index file-cases; telephones on every desk; automatic telegraph call-boxes. Mr. Wel- shimer has his study up a flight of stairs in a comer of the church balcony, but he calls that room an office too. "I consider myself a business man rather than a professional man," this remarkable church leader says. "Preachers have long been saying to the people, 'Put religion in your busi- ness, ' but the people have answered back, saying, 'Put business in your religion.' I have tried my best to abide by this answer. I sat down and studied the matter of operating a church just as I believed a business man would study the prob- lems of operating a department store or an in- surance agency. I now have what I think a busi- ness man would call a 'good orgainization. ' I am stiU constantly on the lookout for new ideas, new members and new workers, however. Some day a larger Sunday school than ours may be developed, but I believe it wiU be far in the future. W(B have never failed to make healthy gains each year. Canton is growing rapidly and we wiU not lag behind. ' ' 307 A HISTORY OF THE The First Christian Church twelve years ago was one of the smallest of the smaU. Mr. Wel- shimer went there at that time at the age of twenty-eight, with only four years' experience in a church at Millersbnrg, C, after he had left Hiram College. The church enrollment was less than two hundred and the Sunday school was nothing at all. By gradual steps the growth was effected. Now the church has an enrollment of thirty-j5.ve hundred and the Sunday school an enrollment of six thousand. In the first six months of 1914 the average weekly attendance at the Sunday school was 2,898. No comparison can be made between this school and the average Sunday school. The two schools coming nearest to this Can- ton school, organized and operated in a city of sixty thousand people, are the famous school in a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, over which John Wanamaker, the noted merchant, has been superintendent for the last fifteen years, and the Frank L. Brown school of the Bushwick Avenue Methodist Church of Brooklyn. Mr. "Welshimer says his school has grown rapidly because most of the energy of the church is .concentrated on the Sunday school. His theory is that the Sunday school is the greatest evangelistic force in existence. Statistics have been compiled by him showing that 85 per cent, of church-members were recruited from the ranks of the Sunday school. He says people can be led to a Sunday school much more easily than they can be to a church. In a church the pastor does all the talking. The church-members have no "comeback." In the Sunday school there is open discussion. Questions can be asked and 308 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO argued. Bible questions can be discussed free of denominational theories. In the Firsf Christian Church the pastor is the leader of the school. He says one big mis- take being made is where pastors permit their Sunday schools to slip away from them into the hands of a superintendent. "There was a time," he says, "when the min- ister felt that his chief duties were to preach on Lord's Days, call on the sick, attend prayer- meetings, and be entertained in the homes of his people. That was when Bible-school work was in its infancy. Many a minister has con- sidered the work of the Bible school beneath his notice. It has been the place for a few pious old men and the women and children. Occasionally a minister is found whose entire relationship to the school consists in dropping in ten minutes before dismissal and 'smiling upon the school.' But the preacher who does the greatest work, and whose influence will count in the teaching of the Word and the building of character — ^who will have a great school to be used as a field to be reaped, then a force to be worked — ^wUl need to give something else besides smiles." The entire city is considered the field of endeavor for the First Christian Church Bible school. Babies are enrolled in the school as soon as bom; new families moving iato the city are recruited or at least sought as recruits, and "landed" nine times out of ten unless already aflBliated with some other church or Sxmday school. The babies are put on a "Cradle EoU," and watched closely until old enough to commence Bible studies. A "Hopeful List" is also kept. 309 A HISTORY OF THE Names are added to this list by a corps of one thousand workers well trained and organized, and from the list new members are constantly being added to the school. "We have a record for bringing new families of the city into our Bible school within an aver- age of two weeks," says Mr. Welshimer. "Our system is like this : "As soon as any one moves into our city we are notified, because we have a committee that keeps tab on all grocery stores and places of business where new families are certain to put in an appearance early after their arrival. "I immediately set my stenographers to work. The new family is given space on a card that goes into our index files at once. Then a stenographer calls up twelve members of the church living near the-new family, and instructs them to make calls. Those twelve church-members call separately and extend invitations to our Sun- day school. If the invitation is accepted, the new family is brought to the school and a tip is given the reception committee that is always on duty at the church. The new people are introduced all round and made to feel at home. If the first twelve callers should fail to get the new family into the school, we send around another twelve. Those failing, I send my assistant pastor, who is a very tactful and energetic young woman. I keep her busy in that sort of work. She is a kind of a 'walking delegate' of the church. Many times I make new calls on new families myself. Personal contact with the people is always advantageous." In the handling of the Cradle EoU is another instance of the enterprise of this church. 310 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OfflO "I never fail to get a report on the birth of a child in the families of any of onr church or Sunday-school members," Mr. "Welshimer says. "I immediately notify the superintendent of the Cradle RoU. "There are twelve workers under that super- intendent, and each of them makes from four to six calls per year on parents of every child on the RoU. A new baby receives a call from the entire corps, one at a time, as soon after birth as possible. Literature on how to care for babies is tendered, as well as a few simple presents. The 'child is immediately registered on our files with all sorts of information about it and its parents. Thereafter we keep track of the child, sending presents and making calls on its birthdays and such. When it grows old enough it naturally becomes a member of our Sunday school. On June 1, 1914, we had 587 names on our Cradle RoU." Special days, or red-letter days, are con- stantly being held La the school to keep interest awake. Printed invitations to these meetings are usuaUy sent through the maUs. Regular advertisements appear in the daUy newspapers for the church and Sunday school. Every time a member of the school misses a Sunday a score of school workers are on his or her heels at once. Why the absence? Sick? Out of town? Any of the family sick? A report on a printed form is made of the case and passed along to the proper committees for adjustment. Lessons and liter- ature are carried to absent ones so they wiU not get behind in their work. The church and the school has each its own charity organization, its own library, its own 311 A HISTORY OF THE clubs. The Sunday school has broken practically all the Sunday-school records ever kept. Its mixed class of eighteen hundred taught by Mr. Welshimer is the largest class of its kind in the world. There is a man's Bible class in the school, with an enrollment of six hundred and an average attendance of about five hundred, which is perhaps the most remarkable feature of the whole school. Many business men are in this class, but 95 per cent, are men from the factories and the shops. Charles Sala, a manu- facturer, is its teacher. The school has set new records for attend- ance at three different times. In 1913 it held the world's record for a single day's attendance, with 4,814. June 21, 1914, this figure was moved up to 5,433. June 28, 1914, the latest world's record of 7,716 was established, and on that Sun- day the thermometer ia Canton reached 90 de- grees before noon. The above record was from the Cleveland Leader on Sunday, July 12, 1914. The reports of the Bible schools in Ohio in 1916 show: Forty-three schools with an enroll- ment, each, of 500 or over. Of these, 21 have an enrollment of from 500 to 700 ; 10 have an enroll- ment of from 700 to 1,000 ; 12 have an enrollment of 1,000 or over. CoiiTJMBtrS On the 18th day of June, 1871, T. D. Garvin organized the church in Colimabus. Twenty-nine members were received by cormnendation, and seven by confession and baptism, making thirty- six in all. They raised, during the year, $8,700, an average of $87 to the member. 312 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO In Jantiary, 1872, they purcliased a lot on the corner of Jay and TMrd Streets. On this they erected a small frame building, Wm. Williams doing nearly all the work with his own hands. In 1880 a commodious brick structure was At "the Ohio C. M. S. Convention in 1872, Isaac Errett, the president, urged reasons for the society to co-operate in. building up the cause at Columbus. "It is the capital of the State, and as such we aU have an interest in being rep- resented there. As a geographical, political and social center, it has facihties for reaching out over the State with moral and religious influ- ences such as belong to no other city in the State." The O. C. M. S. encouraged the brethren in the State to aid Bro. T. D. Garvin in his solici- tation for Columbus, and in aU they gave several thousand dollars to aid the work in the capital city. In 1903, W. S. Priest was minister for the church, and in 1904 they sold the Third Street property and purchased a lot at Twenty-first and Broad Streets, and buUt a model structure cost- ing $55,000, and this was dedicated in April, 1907. The growth has been commendable. There are now ten churches of Christ in the city: 1. Broad Street. — ^Maxwell HaU, minister. 2. Chicago Avenue. — ^W. W. Carter. 3. East Columbus. — J. H. Garvin. 4. Ftimace Street (S. S.). 5. HiUtop.— T. N. Plunkett. 6. Indianola. — ^Witlard A. Guy. 7. Linden Heights.— W. A. Eoush. 313 A HISTORY OF THE 8. South. ColnmbTis.— E. F. Strickler. 9. West Fourth Avemie. — T. L. Lowe. 10. Wilson Avenue. — Frank M. Moore. Tlie Columbus brethren co-operate with one another in extending the kingdom. In no city in Ohio have the disciples planned with greater wisdom and carried their plans to success. The churches now (1917) have a membership of nearly four thousand members and about the same number in the Bible schools. In nearly aU these enterprises the Ohio Christian Missionary Society has taken a humble but needful part. 314 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO L. L. Carpenter F. M. Green James DaVsie S. M. Cook J. H. O. Smith James G. Encell Cyrus Alton George Darsie David Ayres A GROUP OF RESTOKATION LEADEES 315 A HISTORY OF THE XXXIV PIONEERS IN NORTHWESTERN OHIO L. L. Carpenter, George Lucy, Benjamin Al- ton, Dana Caul, Solomon Metzler, A. C. Bart- lett, J. V. Updike, Moses Bonham, Z. "W. Shep- herd, S. M. Cook, S. T. Fairbanks, David Ayers, F. M. Green and G. M. Kemp are among the pioneers in northwestern Ohio. In 1839, George Lucy preached in the private house of John Mercer, in Wood County. He bap- tized three persons. In 1840, Benjamin Alton preached in the same place. After that time John and William Mercer called the people to- gether weekly for Scriptural reading, prayer and social meetings. They attended to the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day for four years. Moses Bonham then organized a church at Sugar Grove. In 1858, Nelson Piper reorganized the church at Bethel, now Rudolph. He set apart the officers by the laying on of hands. Moses Bonham alternated in preaching at Bethel and Sugar Grove. Out of Bethel largely grew the churches at Mungen, Bowling Green, Fostoria, Tiffin, Weston and New Olivet. North Weston was organized about 1856; Sugar Grove about 1844. Some time in the fifties, Prairie Depot, McComb and Elmore were organized. Calvin Smith, of Trumbull County, under the auspices of the Ohio Christian Missionary Soci- 316 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO ety, planted tlie cliurch at Elmore. Samnel Chnrcli, of Pittsburgh., Pa., started a church in Toledo in those early days. When h.e moved away, the church in Toledo failed. Again a church was started in 1872, under the auspices of the 0. C. M. S., and F. M. Green was the first minister. L. L. Carpenter planted churches at Wauseon, Tedrow, and at other places. J. V. Updike planted the churches at Oak Harbor, Delta and Paulding. The church at Lima was planted by W. T. Moore in 1869. The Kenton Church was organized in 1852 by Calvin Smith. In Miami, Darke, Shelby and Mercer Counties, the first church was planted at Monroe or Fred- erick (Fidelity P. 0., Miami County), in 1847. Among the first preachers there were Benjamin Wharton and Jasper Swallow. The church at Carnahan, Darke County, was organized about 1847 by Benjamin FranMin. J. C. Irvine and William Stone preached in those counties. J. M. Smith, the great pioneer of those counties, was sent out by the volunteer organization of several communities and he sowed the seed, and organized fourteen churches. In 1875 this dis- trict co-operation was joined to the Ohio Chris- tian Missionary Society and constituted the Twenty-fifth District. The substance of this chapter was read at a State convention in Colum- bus some years ago and is a fair record of the pioneers. B. P. EWBES Edwin Patterson Ewers was a native of Bel- mont County, 0., born in 1840 of sturdy English- Quaker stock. When a mere lad his family moved to Defiance Coxmty, 0., where a ficne farm 317 A HISTORY OF THE was by father and son carved out of the primitive forest. Edwin was both iadustrious and stndi- ons. By the light of hickory bark, bnming in the fireplace, he read and worked over his les- sons. His amljition was always boundless. He never knew disconragement. He was soon teach- ing school, outstripping all the other workers in the harvest-fields, as a cradler, lifting the heaviest loads, throwing stones the farthest and proudly riding his horse as marshal of the day at the rural celebrations. He courted and won Miss Harriet Bostater, a favorite schoolteacher of the conununity, and, settling in a log house, he farmed and also taught school in winter. Continuing his studies at home and seeking out as private tutors the best men about, he wag soon called to become superintendent of the Pioneer (0.) schools and, later, of thfe West "Unity (O.) schools. During these years he had graduated from the State Normal at Columbus, had secured a life certificate and had been made chairman of the school examiners. His ambition now led him to found a school of his own. Coming from Fayette, 0., and gathering about him a fine group of men, he established the Fayette Normal, Music and Business College, of which he was president for many years. A high grade of work was done, and many teachers, ministers, attorneys and business men and women received their first real inspiration in this school, many of them finishing later in more advanced schools. Pres. Minor Lee Bates, of Hiram College, was a student here. Mr. Ewers had always declared that if he ever found a church which taught the plain and simple New Testament truths, he would enter 318 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO STicli a cominxmioii. Hearing Eobert Moffett, he immediately and whole-heartedly became a dis- ciple, and a Christian Church was founded in Fayette, Mr. Ewers and the father of President Bates being elders in it as long as they lived. Needless to say, the church and the school be- came closely united and many students became members of the Christian Church. Mr. Ewers was a natural teacher. His pupils loved him and studied hard to please him. Mathe- matics, usually a dry study, became under his touch entrancing. He loved his students and in- spired them to noble living. Having been poor himself, he never forgot the poor young man or young woman who was ambitious to get on in the world. To such he opened his home, his purse and his heart. Hundreds now caU him blessed. He lives in the hearts of those whom he lovingly taught. He was the inspiration of hundreds of young people. In the county teach- ers' institute he was a great favorite. He lived for his church, his school and his family. One daughter, Alice Adelia, a sweet and briUiant girl, died at the age of eighteen— a de- voted Christian. His son, John Ray, is now minister at the East End Christian Church, Pittsburgh, Pa., and has already given years of his life to the ministry. While the school above described was not strictly a church school, yet it was intimately associated with our cause in northwestern Ohio. In a hundred prominent places to-day, strong men and women are exercising large influence in our communion, the source of whose inspira- tion was the Fayette school or the Fayette Church. 21 319 A HISTORY OF THE S. T. Faiebanks S. T. Fairbanks was born in Massaclmsetts, and came to Ohio when he was six years old. He was baptized on the profession of his faith in Christ, in Medina County, in 1836, and soon after commenced preaching. He was a cripple from the time he was twelve years of age. He was in his eighty-eighth year when the Lord called him to his eternal home. His body was buried at Weston, Wood Co., 0. He served in the ministry of the Word sixty-five years. He had a good library composed of the authors promulgating the Christian faith. He had a marvelous mepaory, and could quote verse and chapter of any point of interest found between Genesis and Revelation. He was truly a pioneer. It was with profound interest and pleasure that he watched the growth of the Restoration move- ment. His labors were in northern and north- western Ohio. He was a preacher of the "Old School." He declared the gospel rather than interpreted it. He knew the Bible, and not things about it. He had hid the Word of the Lord in his heart. He encountered dark clouds of adversity in his early ministry. Persecution ran high. In one locality, where he did much preaching, a young woman schoolteacher confessed Christ and obeyed him in baptism. Her father and mother, though members of a sectarian church, disowned her and drove her from their home. She sus- tained herself for some time till the white plague ruined her health. The brethren in the little country church took turns and cared for her in their own homes. When she was buried, the 320 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO whole church went as mourners, but the father and mother, living only two miles from the church, would n6t attend the funeral. Such prejudice as that the pioneers endured, but the schoolteacher, forsaken by father and mother, the Lord took up, and she received a hundred- fold in this life, arid in the world to come eternal life. Bro. Fairbanks, like Paul, with a thorn in the flesh, persevered to the end. He went up through the persecutions and trials of this life to the land of delight, where his love for flowers will be greeted with flowers of endless variety; where his ambition for knowledge will find mil- lions of paths along which to play ; and where his simple, unaffected love will bask in the sunshine of heaven forever. 1832 — ^Leewbul, Lee Carpenter — 1910 L. L. Carpenter was born in Norton Town- ship, Summit Co., 0., Dec. 10, 1832; departed this life at Kansas City, Mo., in February, 1910. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812. His parents were poor, but highly respected, people. They endured the privations of the pioneer set- tlers of eastern Ohio. L. L. was the seventh son. He was raised on the farm. He attended the common district school three months in the year, and worked nine months at the hardest kind of work. All his spare time he read and studied at home and prepared himself to teach district school. He also later attended local academies. He sawed wood and did local jobs of work as he could find them. Then he spent two years at Bethany CoUege under the training of Alex- ander Campbell. This was one of the fortunate 321 A HISTORY OF THE privileges of Ms life. In 1853 he accepted the gospel of the Christ. His life was an open book, and upon his life-pages have been recorded scores of acts which have made the lives of others brighter: cares have been made less bur- densome; clonds of discouragement have been cast from the sky by encouraging words, and many have fou,nd their lives worth harder strug- gle by attempting to live more as he did, for his life was in accordance with his Christian teach- ing. No other minister in the United States, and probably in the world, has dedicated so many meeting-houses as L. L. Carpenter. He dedi- cated 752 churches. He commenced preaching in 1857, in Fulton County, 0. He went all over the county, preaching in schoolhouses, bams, private houses, groves, and wherever he could get the people together. During the first four years of his ministry in that county he baptized more than a thousand converts, and organized seven churches which have maintained an honorable position and are still strong and influential churches. For four years, commencing in 1862, he was treasurer of Fulton County, but continued preaching every Lord's Day and held several protracted meet- ings. He helped organize the State Sunday School Association, and was its first president. In Indiana he was one of the organizers of the Bethany Assembly Association. This is now one of the leading Chautauquas of the country. In 1906 he made a trip through the Orient, Pales- tine and Egjrpt. He spent two weeks in Jerusa- lem. He visited Jericho, the Red Sea, the river Jordan, the city of Nain, Nazareth, Cana of Gali- lee, and the Sea of Gralilee. He saw many of the 322 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO sacred mountams — Mount Carmel, mountains of Lebanon, Mount Tabor, Mount Hermon, Mount Moriab and tbe Mount of Olives. He went to Bethlehem, where Christ was bom; to Jerusalem, where he was crucified, buried and rose from the dead." He visited the Jordan, where Christ was baptized; the Sea of Galilee, where He walked the waters and where He cahned the winds and the waves, and the Mount of Olives, where He ascended. Ohio loaned this great, good man to Indiana for awhile, but he belonged to the whole world and to the world to come. It wiU be a long time before we see his like again. J. V. Updike J. Y. Updike was bom in Celina, 0. He passed from earthly life at Bloomington, Ills. His mother was Maria Lincoln and a relative of Abraham Lincoln. He was a marvelous man of God and a most successful Scriptural evangel- ist. After his great meeting in Des Moines, when 563 were obedient to Christ, H. 0. Breeden and others pronounced him the greatest living evan- gelist, and said: "He is of medium stature, has good health and fine spirits. His face, smooth shaven, usually wears a smile. The eye twinkles with good humor. He is buoyant, cheerful, hope- ful and sympathetic. He at once gets on good terms with his hearers by frequent recognition of all the good there is in them, especially those who differ from him and may be prejudiced against his doctrine. His elocution is assisted by a clear, ringing voice. Its tones produce a pleasant sensation. The graces of oratory are' immolated on the altar of truth. 323 A HISTORY OF THE "His sermons are gospel serraons. His sole aim in preaching is to exalt Christ, make plain the way of salvation, to expose and dissipate the errors of sectarianism and turn the people from their sins. "He has oddities, eccentricities, is full of quirks and witticisms and anecdotes and quaint sayings, and knows how to use invectives; but those are used and made tributary to the main issue, that of turning men and women to Christ. "He is a man earnest, fearless, methodical and confident, rallying an army of weU-trained workers. He inspires them with hope, sets them tasks which turn to pleasure, and gives them an example of success from the first. He knows men, watches for opportunities, uses theqa, defies prejudice, talks to the common people, sets the brain cells aquiver with a wild jest, and then directs them into new and original thinking. The listener himself becomes a bold thinker. One night, a resolute actor, and obedient subject the next. Not always absolutely correct in exegesis, rhetoric or grammar; yet his theology is sound as a dollar. "He has no time for the subtleties of the higher criticism. The ground of his earnestness and zeal is a sublime faith. It is clouded with no doubts. There is no 'if or 'perhaps' in his state- ments of truth. He believes the Bible from 'back to back.' Sin, redemption, judgment, heaven and heU are not simple possibilities, but profound realities. "In his method of preaching he takes his text and keeps it in the exegetical currents of the context. He makes haste leisurely in the devel- opment of his subject. Advancing apace, he 324 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO steps one side and puts up a sidelight from some fact of psycliological or praotioal principle in the context. Then by and by another. In this way he strikes off some palpable hit with humor, ridicnle or pathos. Reaching the appeal, these sidelights are all aglow with rays falling upon the main path of the sermon. Everybody says: 'How simple! how plain!' "Or, to change the figure, these frequent side thrusts at the follies, prejudices or sins of the people, mingled with commendations of the good that is in them, form a series of electric explo- sions, each preparing the way and expectancy for another. "Where will he strike next? Thus he keeps up an unflagging interest during an hour-long sermon on a hackneyed subject. The appeal comes, and so ido sinners to confess Christ." The record of some of his Ohio meetings is here given: Findlay, 35 additions; Eknore, 19; Edgerton, 71; Payne, 66; Hedges, 71; Paulding, 196; Lick Creek, 60; Fayette, 47; Lyons, 106; Chesterfield, 51; "Wauseon, 33; Beaverdam, 3; Lima, 97; Cleveland (Glenville), 18; Cleveland (Miles Avenue), 135; Cleveland (Franklin Cir- cle), 125; Cleveland (Madison Avenue), 98; Ed- gerton, 13; Hillsboro, 128; Bryan, 8; Delta, 128; Edon, 28; Mansfield, 126; Springfield, 226; Day- ton, 97 ; Hamilton, 122 ; Harrison, 25 ; Marion, 34 ; Delta, 15; Bryan, 27; East Liverpool, 143; Cin- cinnati (Central Church), 51; Cincinnati (Fer- gus Street), 62; Bluff ton, 15; Cincinnati (Madi- sonviUe), 10; Bucyrus, 71; Akron, 72; Toledo, 121; Mungen, 10; Toledo (a secoiyi meeting), 183 ; Ashtabula, 43 ; Massillon, 255 ; Mentor, 128 ; Leipsic, 32 additions. Many other meetings he 325 A HISTORY OF THE held in Ohio. In all fields he won over thirty thousand to the Lord. Many invitations came to him to visit England, Australia and various other lands. Following is a brief synopsis of one of his sermons upon the theme, "Remember Lot's Wife": Lot's wife is a warning to all persons not to hesitate to do God's will. You remember the circumstances surrounding Lot and his wife. When Lot chose to settle in Sodom, his wife did not say: "What about the society? Is it a fit place to take our daughters ? " A wife may make or unmake a man. Your surroundings have just as much to do with you as they did with Lot and his family. When you begin to play cards, pro- gressive euchre or high five, you are pitching your first tent towards Sodom. Parlor dancing and ballroom frequenting is the second move to- wards Sodom. Lot settled in Sodom; his daugh- ters grew up and were married. That is another trick of the devil, to pay off the church by marry- ing rakes and ungodly men to your daughters. Lot plead with his sons-in-law, but they mocked him. Too late; he should have begun with his children earlier. Where are you leading your children? You must get right with Grod yourseK and lead your family that way. Lot 's wife began to speculate and wonder if it really would rain fire and brimstone. People are being lost, specu- lating, asking; "Can I not get to heaven if I don't do this or that?" Stop seeing how little you can do and just squeeze into heaven, but see how much you can do for the Lord. Escape with thy life! Obey God's commands in fuUl Updike 's book of sermons has had a large sale. 326 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO J. O. Shelburne F. D. Butchart W. H. Boden Charles E. Garst George Darsie, Jr. Otho H. Williams Traverce Harrison L. R. Gault SOME OHIO MINISTERS 327 A HISTORY OF THE A Staetucng Disoovbet Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott and Bar- ton W. Stone discovered that the Bible was silent on the subject of infant baptism. They had adopted the slogan, "Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent." They were then baptized. Many of the pioneers in Ohio made the same discovery and adopted the same slogan, and, with the eminent restorers of original New Testament teaching, studied the sin of Adam once more. This resulted in some startling discoveries. These discoveries are put into form by one who wields a facile pen, about as follows: (1) Final and eternal perdition is never the fruit or outcome or penalty of the Adamic sin! (2) It never comes to any except those who sin against the Holy Spirit. (3) Other personal sin- ning brings dire punishment, but never eternal perdition. (4) It follows, therefore, that infants, and all who are morally irresponsible, are not, and never have been, in danger of final and eternal perdition. (5) Jesus coiild, therefore, take an unbaptized little child^ — one who had never committed any personal sin — and say, "Except ye repent and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). The purest thing on earth is a child before it sins personally. It should touch your heart deeply and profoundly to know that no infant in all the ages has ever died and gone to perdition. No mother — Catholic or Protestant, Jewish or Mohammedan, pagan or heathen — ^will ever find her dead baby in per- dition. The reason is plain: no baby can sin 328 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO against the Holy Spirit, and no other sin brings final perdition. We may approach the question another way. What is the penalty of the Adam sin and how does God save from it? The penalty is stated fully in Gen. 3:14-19: (1) Penalty for the ser- pent (vs. 14, 15) ; (2) penalty for the woman (v. 16) ; (3) penalty for mankind in addition (vs. 17-19). The severest part of the penalty for human beings is the death of our bodies — dust to dust. If Adam had not sinned, there would have been no graveyards in this world — our bodies would never die. Adam paid the penalty for his sin; so must all men. In all the ages no one ever escaped that penalty except Enoch and Elijah. The only escape from this penalty is through miracle. In other words, there is no salvation from the Adam sin. Every child must pay the penalty, either in infancy or later in life. Neither baptism nor anything except a miracle can save from this sin. While we are not saved from the Adam sin, we are saved after that sin has done its worst! How are we saved? By a miracle. — ^by the gift of new bodies — ^by the resurrection from the dead. Both infants and adults are saved in the same way. Both good and bad receive this new body (1 Cor. 15: 22). What we want is the first resurrection (Eev. 20: 6). For a new body with a lost soul in it is eternal perdition. Since both the baptized and the unbaptiSied receive new bodies, baptism has no place here. For another reason it has no place. Baptism is for the remis- sion, or forgiveness, of sin. In this case we all suffer the penalty, and there is no remission of the penalty — ^no pardon. 329 A HISTORY OF THE The sin against tlie Holy Spirit is radically different from the Adam sin. After the Adam sin has seized one and made him pay the penalty, Christ comes in and, by a miracle, saves. When the sin against the Holy Spirit has seized one, there is no hope, no pardon, no redeemer, no sal- vation for the baptized or the nnbaptized. He who is saved from his other personal sins and from the polluting fountain within, from which they 'issued, is not in danger from the sin against the Holy Spirit. How does Grod save such as these? (1) Not by pardon alone. If I should live ten thousand years and get pardon every day, the fountain of sin would not yet be dried up within me. I would not yet be perfect and in the moral likeness of Christ. According to the New Testa- ment, God must sometimes, somewhere, bring us into such perfection that we will no longer need pardon; no longer need all of the prayer Jesus taught us all to use ; no longer need the reproofs of conscience. Pardon alone will nbt bring us into this blessed state. (2) Christianity has a power which neither Judaism nor any other religion ever had. This power will dry up the fountain within from which all our personal sins come forth. Given time and co-operation on our part, and this power will crowd out and build in till we no longer need pardon. This power is sometimes called in the New Testament the gift of the Eoly Spirit, and sometimes "the life," or life eternal. It is a power which no priest or pope has ever given or been able to take away. To finally reject it is the sin against the Holy Spirit. 330 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO The new birth has back of it two processes: (1) A preparation of the heart, like that of a field ready for the sowing of the seed, and (2) the depositing of that new life-power in the heart — the sowing of living seed that it may grow into all that God has given it to become. Pardon of sins, or forgiveness, is a part of the prepara- tion of the heart which brings us to baptism for the remission, or pardon, of sins — ^not pardon of the sin against the Holy Spirit, for that has no pardon and no help or hope; not pardon of the sin of Adam, for there is no pardon from it — all pay the penalty and after that are saved by a miracle. Baptism is for the remission of onr other sins — sins such as infants never commit; from which they are as pure as the driven snow. In this case, baptism is not worth anything with- out preceding heart preparation; without (1) confession of Christ Jesus with the mouth (Eom. 10:9, 10; Acts 8:37; Luke 12:8; Matt. 10:32). Can an infant do this? (2) It is worthless when not preceded by repentance (Luke 13 : 3 ; Acts 2 : 38). No infant can repent. (3) It is worthless without faith in Christ, as the good confession will show, and without faith in God (Heb. 11: 6; Acts 16: 30, 31, 33). In fact, it is called baptism because it shows faith — shows repentance — shows burial in water — shows aU these in the name of Christ, who is confessed. What gives baptism its worth? The repentance and the faith which it contains and shows. Where do this repentance and this faith come from? From the hearts of men. So this one word, "water baptism," stands for the whole process of heart preparation made by the Father, the Son a.nd the Holy Spirit — made through the Bible, the home and the 331 A HISTORY OF THE church. Not until they become responsible can this heart preparation begin with infants. If we do not undergo this heart preparation, do not become as little children, we can not enter the kingdom of heaven. Without it the new birth is impossible. De. S. M. Cook It may be that the disciples of Christ some day will find a place for a cabinet of elder states- men, after the fashion of the renowned body of that name in Japan. In such a case, Ohio would surely rise as one man and name for charter membership in the body Stephen MarceUus Cook, M.D. This wise and discreet "Elder Statesman" first met his Baptist parents in Morrow County, 0., Oct. 1, 1845. He was the sixth of their ten chil- dren. These parents were two of the "twelve" who formed themselves into the church of Christ at North Branch, now Waterford, in Knox County. Three generations of Baptist ministers were in the family, but the doctor solemnly avers that "the strain of ministerial blood over- balanced this strain of ( total hereditary de- pravity." He was baptized iato the life worth living in his fourteenth year. Saying nothing of his early desire to preach, he took college work in the district school near the Cook home, and later pursued literature in Ohio Wesleyan University and at Hiram College. Then, turning his attention to the healing art, he so studiously pursued medicine in the University of Michigan and in the Medical College of Ohio, at Cinciimati, that he graduated as first-honor man in the latter institution at the age of twenty- 332 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO five. Meanwhile, he had turned his attention to domestic art also, and persuaded Margaret Hard- grove to join him in the practice of this art. In the fall of 1870 they established the home which has been a benediction and a blessing, not only to the children of the family, but to all others who have ever enjoyed its fellowship. Returning from medical college, the young doctor quickly gained a large practice in his home community. He became superintendent of the Sunday school and was called upon with increas- ing frequency for supply work in the pulpit, for fuieral discourses, and much other work directly within the church. Speaking of this busy period, the doctor said, reminiscently : "I always aimed to attend church at least once on Sunday, for I felt the need of religious worship and work to help me retain my interest and faith in the Chris- tian life. In the busiest days of my professional life I found time to meet with my brethren and be refreshed by their fellowship and companion- ship. I believe that thus I was made stronger, and able, both physically and mentally as well as morally, to do more and better work for my patients. ' ' Toward the close of the seven years, it became necessary to choose between the practice of medi- cine, which paid a good income, and the practice of the gospel ministry, which, at that time, paid scant reward in money for devoted service. Friends of the young practitioner urged almost unanimously that he remain in the practice for which, by nature, education and experience, he seemed so eminently fitted. One human voice alone was left to fortify the voice that called from within — ^the wife, on whom the heaviest burden 333 A HISTORY OF THE of sacrifice and change must fall, added her urgent counsel that the medical profession be abandoned and that his life be devoted to the gospel ministry. It was only after much search- ing of heart that at length the medical practice, with what was left of the good will of the patients, was sold. This was the work of faith, and thus was it undertaken. Six children, small and very much alive, were in the home; the wife and mother, not robust physically; a small home, with an incumbrance upon it; the first year of preaching rewarded with about $20 a month for the year; labor abundant; inexperience and a lack of skill in meeting the vicissitudes of a pioneer preach- er's life; the depressions which human circum- stances pressed and crowded upon the faithful hearts who constituted the home. Only an in- domitable and an abiding faith in an unconquer- able Christ kept Dr. Cook unfalteringly in the line of his decision. The old BeU Church, near North Branch, was the scene of the first two weeks ' meeting. There were thirty-two baptisms and many friendships gained there. For eight years this evangelistic ministry in Knox, Morrow and adjacent counties continued. The Lord added more than a hun- dred annually. Calls multiplied. Then came the settled pastorate for two years at North Eaton, 0. Most of this ministry was in the transition period from the stern legalism advocated by the old American Christian Review into the larger liberty and service of Christ and the develop- ment of missionary spirit. So far as his influ- ence could reach. Dr. Cook was a worthy factor 334 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO in the better adjustment of this transition. One reason for this, perhaps, lay in the fact that Dr. and Mrs. Cook yearned ceaselessly in heart to go as foreign missionaries to any alien land. But God seemed to will it otherwise. Finally, with as prayerful purpose as ever prompted any mis- sionary to go to foreign fields, the Cooks went to Wood County and located on a farm near Mun- gen. Here for some years evangelistic work throughout the district, at Martinsburg and at Fayette, filled the time fuU until Dr. Cook was called to the pastorate of the churches at Mungen and Eudolph. Meanwhile, a most important result of his years of ministry was becoming apparent, for, from the first. Dr. Cook had sought out young men and encouraged them to enter the ministry. S. M. Cooper, S. W. Traum, D. E. Bebout, Frank L. Simpson, John Ray Ewers, Minor Lee Bates, J. H. Miller, D. P. Shaffer, Nicholas Zulch, and others, are among those whom Dr. Cook enthusiastically declares to be "new editions, revised and greatly enlarged." With the three older children of the household ready for college, the possible income from preaching was so clearly inadequate that the doctor now resimies the practice of the medical profession, the study of which he has never ceased. In a very literal way Dr. Cook became the medical and spiritual pastor of a large part of Wood Cotmty. Much of his practice was "on the Jericho road." It was a rare treat to a stranger to accompany the doctor on any one of his daily trips — ^from the 'time he loaded up his carriage in the morning with dental iustrxunents, surgical instrumentsi, obstetrical instruments, Bible, hymn-book — everything in readiness for 22 i 335 A HISTORY OF THE any sort of a call which a pioneer settlement might unexpectedly produce — ^until evening-time, when the family were once more gathered for family worship before they separated for study and for sleep. On the one side lay the shifting, serio-comic tragedy punctuated by droll humor and whimsical comment, a genial soul who always saw both the pathetic and the ludicrous in normal proportions. On. the other side were the calm serenity and unbroken gladness toward God which are the triumph of Christian faith. The stranger would not be so fortunate if he were invited to accompany, day after day, the * doctor in his widely extended trips, Carriage succeeded buggy, and phaeton succeeded carriage in rapid succession as the little sorrels wore out one after another on the Wood County roads, which were, in themselves, a triumph of the road- maker's art. During a full half of the year there was splendid bottom to the roads, when the hoofs of the horses or the tires'^of the wheels could reach down to it — at times hubs and axles pre- vented the wheels from reaching anywhere deep enough. During the remaining haK of the year the roadways seemed to try, by a sort of dimib (worse than that) retribution, to get even with those who had the temerity to use them. The incessant heavy hauling of oil-field equipment and products kept the roads in a really frightful condition. But day in and day ' out, for seven years, like an angel of God, Dr. Cook spread his influence throughout this whole territory, even though the physical exaction and nervous ex- haustion left him utterly broken in health. The windows of heaven were being opened up throughout the soil, and crude oil was pour- 336 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO ing wealth into the pocketbooks of both the just and unjust. To teach by precept and example the Christian stewardship of wealth was the con- scious obligation and opportunity which the Cooks faced. The Mungen Bible school was one of the very first to break down the blasphemous barriers of penny contributions and to give gen- erously and joyously more than $500 as a mis- sionary offering to the Lord. The lifelong habit of studying humanity with the same care he has studied divinity ; of keeping in touch, through wide reading, with the world of the past and of the present; of keeping in close touch with progressive and conservative, insur- gent and standpatter, critic, mystic and orthodox, choice fiction, poetry and selected nonsense; of theorizing prayerfully and practicing faithfully the human application of God's gospel of salva- tion — this composite fact makes Dr. S. M. Cook a counselor of rare discretion; an adviser whose insight and foresight are fortified by a deep and wide experience; a Christian gentleman whose friendship is a thing to be prized, and whose counsel is invaluable. Once and again has the angel of death entered the home. Affliction has laid her cold hand close upon the heart. Adversity has camped within the doorway, but, through all and above all, quietude of faith in the living Christ has been conspicuous in the life of the Cook household, and no earth-born cloud can rob it of its light and power. In words which might be his own: "The realities of joy and great sorrow have done for me, by the help of the Master, what nothing else could do in giving me a charity and sym- pathy for others. The world of suffering and 23 337 A HISTORY OF THE sorrow can be entered only through the doorway of affliction, temptation and pain. Even the Son of man could not be made perfect, except through suffering. ' ' Asked to enumerate some of his chief mis- takes, the "Elder Statesman" says they are : " (1) The lack of thorough preparation. The best and most work can be done only after having a thorough educational equipment for the tasks. (2) The failure to complete thoroughly whatever was begun. Too much work has always been left half done. This is a source of grief. (3) Failure of proper control of temper and tongue. (A voice in the household rises up to say, 'That sounds like a joke to me.') To eliminate from my life -every impatient, cross and impure word would be one of the greatest of triumphs, were it possible. (4) Lack of a systematic and orderly student habit at all times and everywhere. The constant study of nature, events, books, human- ity, and the adjustment of life's labors to others and in their behalf, is the ideal life. The student habit makes the old man young and the young man wise. It gives tolerance toward all. " Many men have been guilty of making these mistakes. At a time when men are old, and many preachers are forlomj Dr. S. M. Cook is younger in mind, in heart, in sympathetic human touch, and in preaching power, than many men of half his years. Visitors of high ideals, pure hearts, and Godward tastes and tendencies, find a welcome as eager as is the hospitality which greets the humblest and most forlorn of God's creatures who come to the door. In a very Christian way, as one of God's true saints alive. Dr. S. M. Cook embodies the sentiment of Foss's words: 338 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO "Let me live in a house by the side of the road, Where the race of men go by — The men who are good and the men who are bad, As good and as bad as I. I wotild not sit in the scomer's seat, Or hurl the cynic's ban. Let me live in a house by the aide of the road. And be a friend to man." 1839— F. M, Gebbn— 1911 F. M. Green engaged in all kinds of intellee- tnal work. He was a teacher in the common schools, a preacher, and successful as a pastor, an evangelist of marked ability, a secretary of the Eastern Ohio Ministerial Association for twenty years, a successful corresponding secre- tary of the American Christian Missionary So- ciety, traveling night and day through the United States. He was a student at Hiram and later a trustee of the college. He was a writer of ability for the American Christian Review, the Christian Standard and other periodicals. He was the writer of good books, preparing the work for training teachers for the Bible school, and a Christian ministers' manual. He wrote "The Life of James A. Garfield," "The Life and Times of John F. Kowe," and "The History of Hiram College." He was elected to the Ohio Legislature from Summit County, and gave dis- tinguished service for two years. He made a trip to the Eastern States, and the British Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and was cordially re- ceived by the churches. In Ohio he will be remembered as co-operat- ing with the Ohio Christian Missionary Society in organizing and preaching for the church in Toledo. A preliminary work began in 1872. 339 A HISTORY OF THE During 1873, F. M. Green was employed to work as pastor and agent of the O. C. M. S. to go among the churches and raise money to build a house of worship. He moved to the city in August, and soon afterward organized a church, beginning with twenty names. On the 24th of November the house was dedicated. A lot was given by a friend. The house cost $5,500. The most of the money was given by the friends in Toledo. Bro. Green remained in charge of this work about two years. From this central church other congregations have sprung up and the Toledo work is growing. George Darsie, in pre- senting a sketch of Bro. Green's life, says: "He beUeved in prayer, but net a parade of it. He rejoiced and was happy with God's peo- ple around the Lord's table in his house on the Lord's Day. God was his Father — good, kind, tender, loving, forgiving, merciful — and not a theological abstraction. His promises were sure and lasting. To his mind Jesus the Christ was the perfection of beauty and the perfection of goodness, abundant in mercy, plenteous in re- demption, after whom he should pattern his life, and to whom he looked for salvation both here and hereafter. To him the Bible was the sum of all wisdom and philosophy, the Book of books, the book of God, by which h,e should square his conduct. Like Enoch, 'he y^lked with God.' Like Barnabas, 'he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. ' To him death came as a friend and not an enemy; a servant and not a master; a blessing and not a curse; though gone from earth, he still lives in our midst and ever shall. 340 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Frederick Truedley M. C. Tiers Judgre A. R. Webber Dr. W. H. Harper Prof. A. R. Benton Prof. C. W. Hemry Pres. H. S. Lehr M. P. Hayden Prof. J. G. Parka PROMINENT OHIO DISCIPLES 341 A HISTORY OF THE XXXV MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS OF INTEREST Schools. "T" HE leaders in tlie Restoration movement were educated men. Schools of every grade have been founded by disciples. The principles of our movement tend to make every one a patron of education. Protestant sects, calling theinselves "Evangelical," held to the direct or mystic influence of the Holy Spirit in the soul, and that the knowledge of the forgiveness of sin is an experience in the soul, just as hunger and thirst or headache and toothache are experiences in the body. Persons were taught to expect such a divine power, and that they must pray for it. Such views did not stir one in the cause of edu- cation. Their religion did not move them to plant and patronize schools. Restorationists, on the other hand, held that the truths of religion are revealed in the word of God, and that he who would know them must apply himself to under- stand the Bible. Disciples held that the Holy Spirit was more than an impulse from God, working mystically on man's nature. To them the Holy Spirit was a divine, intelligent person who communicates his knowledge of the things of God in the words he has spoken. This intelli- gence is to be understood and believed through the exercise of man's natural faculties. The disciples in their preaching appealed to the 842 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO understanding of man, and they trusted in tlie power of trutli believed to move the heart and conscience and will. So, they held that men of cultivated minds would more readily grasp relig- ious truth, and specially such would be more successful in communicating the knowledge of the truth to others. Their zeal in religion, there- fore, made them zealous in the cause of educa- tion. When they start in a community the best educated move first. The learned and not the ignorant become disciples of Christ. The disciples in Ohio have always been in- terested in schools. Before the State high- school system was put into practice, and even SLQce, schools of a high order have been started. About 1842, D. S. Burnet was principal and proprietor of Hygeia Female Athenium, situ- ated on the heights seven mUes back of Cincin- nati. This Athenium proposed, for moderate extra charges, to teach ''Piano, Guitar, French, Painting,^ Wax Fruit, Wax Flowers, Shellwork, Flowers as Taught in Paris, and Embroideries," and prescribed for summer uniform, "Pink and Blue Lawns, and for Common Wear, Dark Plaid Ginghams. ' ' T. D. Garvin built up a college at WUming- ton, Clinton County, and it is now in the hands of the Friends. Alonzo Skidmore started the Ohio Central College at Bast Liberty, Logan County. It is now the Central High School of that place. It started into the wide field of usefulness such men as I. J. Cahill and C. A. Freer. E. P. Ewers founded the Fayette Normal, Music and Business College, of which he was president. Later it was removed to Wauseon. 343 A HISTORY OF THE This school, though not strictly a church school, was intimately associated with our cause in northwestern Ohio. It was a source of inspira- tion to many men and women now in active life. The Ohio Normal University at Ada, 0., was a marvelous school started by H. S. Lehr. J. Gt. Parks and other eminent teachers were connected with ^is school. It claimed to give classical, scientmc, business, legal, military, pharmaceu- tical and musical education. It had university powers and conferred degrees. In 1892 there was an enrollment of 2,810 students. Twenty- seven States and several foreign countries were represented. The great institution of learning at Valpa- raiso, Ind., is a child and outgrowth of Ada. At Ada were started in useful career such men as Austin Hunter, S. J. White, W. F. Kothenburger, P. H. Welshimer,J. P. Myers and many others. As the school was owned by private individuals, they had a right to pass it over to others. It is now in the hands of the Methodists, and stiU popular and influential. The Cyrus McNeely Normal School at Hope- dale, Harrison County, in 1869 had about two hundred students in attendance. Its object was to train teachers for the public schools. The in- fluence of this school was felt in all central- eastern Ohio. It was equipped with a gymnasium and trained the body as well as the mind. The Mount Vernon Ladies' Seminary was located at Mt. Vernon in Knox County. E. E. Sloan and wife were principals. It was well graded, and had a fair attendance for nearly thirty years. Mrs. A. M. Atkinson was for a time a member of its Faculty. It was a private 344 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO institution at first, but was given into the hands of a Board of Trustees later, but could not com- pete with the high-school system of the State of Ohio, and is now closed. Its career was long and useful. Many homes have been made intelligent, sweet and happy as the result of this once pop- ular seminary. Miss Caroline Neville and Miss Wolatt succeeded the Garvin family as managers of the school. A. B. Way started a college at Alliance. Per- haps the love of Christ and a higher education prompted to this enterprise. Some think its pro- moters desired to speculate in city lots. After a short career the college failed. It could not com- pete with Hiram and Bethany. Some zealous sectarian ministers who were uneducated have been heard to say that all they had to do was to open their mouths and the Lord would fill them. "Yes," some one replied, "the Lord will fill them with wind." Some of our pioneer preachers were not scholastically edu- cated, but they had a native ability, and read and understood the Scriptures and became able ad- vocates of the gospel. Some of these men read history, and even studied foreign languages, to be better able to understand and preach the gospel. Pabsonages A goodly number of churches in Ohio have parsonages. They are a source of strength to a church. A parsonage is not so necessary as a meeting-house, but it gives a congregation the ap- pearance of stability to its members and to those who are not in the church. It furnishes a home for the minister and his family, by reason of 345 A HISTORY OF THE •] .^ ^ %i ••^ m !i William Bow)er Abram Teachout A. R. Teachout Peter Butts Lathrop Cooley W. H. Cowdery J. F- Davis Sidney Smith Clark Asa Schuler BENErACTORS OP THE OTTTO WORK 346 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO which he should be a better preacher. The con- tentment of a congregation and minister, that comes from a parsonage, makes each a greater power for good in a community. Many churches would do well to go about get- ting a parsonage. The effort would give them something to do and keep them from stagnation. Churches are weakened by doing so little for the cause of Christ. The building of a chapel, a meeting-house, a parsonage, and paying liberally to support a minister, and for missions, will make a church strong and insure its success. A parsonage usually means a working church and a cheerful, strong minister. History gives this testimony. Forty-six of our churches in Ohio have par- sonages. Nancy Fbost Nancy Frost lived to be 108 years old. She was a member of the first Sunday school in the northwest Territory, at Marietta, O. She tended the children while her mother made bullets for the men to fight off the Indians, using the block- houses for forts. She was a member of the church at Lowell, on the MuskingoDa River, for sixty years. She retained her faculties to the last. She read the Bible through forty times. She used to say the Lord had forgotten to come for her. He did come for her, however, at the good, ripe age of 108 years. Perhaps she lived in this world longer than any other disciple of Christ m Ohio. Laegb GrvEES Many disciples give tim,e, talent and such money gifts as they are able, to carry on the 347 A HISTORY OF THE Lord's work. All can not be large financial givers. A few may be mentioned as large givers of money: D. S. Bnrnet, Asa Shnler, J. K. McDonald, Robert Kerr, Peter Butts, H. R. New- comb, James Robison, "Wm. Tonsley, A. Teach- ont, Wm. Bowler, Albert Allen, Lathrop Cooley, A. R. Teachout, Thomas Davis, Sidney S. Clark, J. F. Davis, T. N. Easton, W. H. Cowdery, W. S. Streator, J. N. O. Lynn, Simeon Hart, Mrs. Sarah B. McLean (wife of Justice McLeaji), T. W. Phillips, The Standard Publishing Company. Oephah-agb The Cleveland Orphanage is under the gen- eral management of the National Benevolent Association, with headquarters at St. Louis, Mo. The local management is very e£&cient. It is fiUed to capacity (about seventy-four) all the time. The boys and girls are wisely directed and started in a happy way to useful marJiood and womanhood. The institution is chartered, and can legally bind children to persons desiring to adopt them. This is a Christian work of far- reaching influence. MiNiSTEEs' Associations Ministers' meetings or associations are main- tained in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, north- western Ohio and Youngstown. For twenty years or more the Eastern Ohio Ministerial Associa- tion was maintained. At one time 125 ministers had membership in it. F. M. Green was jihe active and efficient secretary of this association. Some of the strongest ministers of the brother- hood had fellowship in the Eastern Ohio Assor elation. 348 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO < hi W > o o iz; o 02 W o 1^ o 349 A HISTORY OF THE Endowed Chxteches If persons want to be remembered after leav- ing this world, like Mary of old, they must do something for Christ. A good way to be remem- bered is to leave money enough to the church to make an annual subscription for expenses. A few churches have small endowments of this character: Chester land, Hopedale, Millwood, Kent, Randolph, North Eoyalton, Wauseon, Bell- viUe, Willoughby, and perhaps others. The time is coming when it will be wise for "down-town churches" to seek good-sized endowments, that the gospel may be preached in centers of popu- lation. Tom L. Johnson Tom L. Johnson, the one-time popular mayor of Cleveland, came to Cleveland from Louisville, Ky. He secured an interest in a street raUway line, then added others to it, and, after a long and hard fight, got aU the lines in the city con- solidated and the fare for a ride reduced to three cents. The system is not second to that of any city in the country. He had an interest in the great Johnstown (Pa.) steel mills, and was the principal promoter of the "Lorain Steel MiUs" in Ohio. He, joined with others, projected the grouping of the city and county buildijags which are the admiration of the world. He helped in projecting the WarrensviUe farm and city where prisoners, poor and consimiptives are cared for. He was a single-tax advocate. He was a great friend of the poor. In his church relations he was a member at Cedar Avenue Church and gave liberally for the cause. His friends and ad- mirers have erected a beautiful bronze statue to 350 DISCIPLES OF CHRIST IN OHIO Ms memory in the Public Square in Cleveland. On the sides of the rostrums are plaques in- scribed : 1. "Beyond Ms party and beyond Ms class TMs man forsook the few to serve the mass." 2. "He found us groping, leaderless and blind; He left the eity with a ciTio mind." 3. "He found us striving, each his selfish part; He left a city with a civic heart." 4. "And ever with Ms eye set on the goal, The vision of a eity with a soul." As to churches' in Ohio, the Tear Book for 1917 reports 528. This is perhaps an under- estimate of thirty or forty which did not report. There are reported 102,806 members. In the Bible schools, 105,488. Preachers, 425. The largest offerings for all missions. Cleve- land (EucKd Avenue), $6,654.79; Akron (First), $6,481.85; Cleveland (FrankHn Circle), $5,689.61; Youngstown (Central), $2,661.00, and Cincumafi (Walnut HiUs), $2,516.76. Of the churches in Ohio, 70 per cent, are rural, and there are reported 517 Bible schools. SpEciAii Mission Fttitds Sidney Smith Clark was born near Lexington, Ky., in 1805. He moved to Cincinnati when a young man. He and his wife were members of the &"st congregation organized in Cincinnati by D. S. Burnet. Later he was a member of the Richmond Street Church. He was a personal friend of D. S. Burnet, James Challen, Benjamin Franklin, George Rice and many other pioneers. He died in 1871. A fund of about $50,000 came from his estate for special missions. The will declares that the elders of the Richmond Street 351 HISTORY OF OHIO DISCIPLES Church of Cinciimati shall select the mission- aries. H. T. Atkins is trustee of the fund. The interest is used to promote the cause in the places selected. Eeport is made annually to the probate court. The places aided are in Virginia, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The better way is to place such funds in the care of the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. That society is responsible, and the directors can place the aid at the best places for doing the greatest good. The Welsh Mission of Mahoning and Trum- bull Counties was organized by Isaac Errett. The society is chartered by the State of Ohio. Thomas Davis, a Welshman of Youngstown, left $25,000, the interest of which is used to promote the cause of original Christianity in those two counties. B. F. Wirts, of Youngstown, is the secretary of the society. The work is directed by ' a board of managers. The trustees care for the funds. Aid has been extended to new and weak churches in said counties. Thomas Davis, the giver of this fund, lived to a good old age. He was a thorough believer in the New Testament church, and made provision to extend it after his departure from this earthly life. ' The Ohio Christian Missionary Society is co-operating with the Welsh Mission in carrying on work at Hill- man Street, Youngstown. 352 CORN LL UNIVERSnY LIBRARY 3 1924 052 729 518