Disciples of Christ.* 
 
 J. H. GARRISON. 
 
 The religions body most generally desig¬ 
 nated by this name, though olten in the South 
 and West called also the “Christian Church” 
 or “Church of Christ,” had its origin in the 
 western part of Pennsylvania, in the early 
 part of the present century, under the labors 
 of Thomas and Alexander Campbell. Hence 
 they have sometimes been called Campbell- 
 ites—a name, however, which they repudiate, 
 being opposed to all party or sectarian names. 
 
 Origin.— In September, 1809, Thomas Camp¬ 
 bell, a minister in the Seceders’ branch of the 
 Presbyterian Church, who migrated from 
 North Ireland in 1807, being grieved by the 
 bitterness of party spirit among Christians of 
 different denominations, issued a “Declara¬ 
 tion and Address,” deploring the divided state 
 of the Church and the evils resulting there¬ 
 from, and urging as the only remedy for this 
 state of things a complete restoration of 
 primitive, Apostolic Christianity—its faith, 
 its doctrine, its ordinances and its life—and 
 the consequent rejection of all creeds or con¬ 
 fessions of faith which stood in the way of 
 such return to the ancient order of things. 
 An association was formed, called “The Chris¬ 
 tian Association of Washington” (Pa.), for 
 the purpose of promoting the principles set 
 forth in this new Declaration of Independ¬ 
 ence. About this time Alexander Campbell, 
 son of Thomas Campbell, arrived on the scene, 
 fresh from his studies at Glasgow University, 
 Scotland, being then in his twenty-first year, 
 and having but recently dedicated his life to 
 the ministry. He threw himself heartily into 
 the new movement, and by his ability, learn¬ 
 ing and force of character soon became its 
 recognized leader. It was not the intention 
 of the Campbells at first to form a distinct 
 religious body, but to so leaven the churches 
 with the principles they advocated as to grad¬ 
 ually effect the needed reforms. Failing, 
 however, to find hospitality or even tolerance 
 
for their plea within the fellowship of any of 
 the denominations, they found themselves 
 compelled, by the necessities of the case, to 
 assume an independent position. Accord¬ 
 ingly the Brush Bun Church was organized 
 on the 4th day of May, 1811, being the first 
 congregation formed by the new movement. 
 
 Basis of Union. —In assuming an independ¬ 
 ent position the Reformers, as they were then 
 called, did not cease their plea for Christian 
 union, which they believed it their special 
 mission to promote. Hence, in forming the 
 first church they were careful not to include 
 anything in the terms of fellowship which the 
 Scriptures did not expressly warrant. A fa¬ 
 vorite motto at this time was, “Where the 
 Scriptures speak, we speak ; where the Scrip¬ 
 tures are silent we are silent.” Under this 
 rule, first enunciated in the Declaration and 
 Address of Thomas Campbell, they felt com¬ 
 pelled to surrender some tenets and practices 
 which they had hitherto held as binding, and 
 to adopt others which they had heretofore 
 disregarded. Having, however, repudiated 
 the authority of human creeds, they felt free 
 to make such changes as would bring them 
 into strictest harmony with the Word of God 
 and enable them the more effectively to plead 
 for union on a divine basis. In yielding the 
 practice of infant baptism because they could 
 find no Scriptural authority for it, and in 
 adopting immersion as the proper form of 
 baptism, because the New Testament seemed 
 to clearly teach that such was the original 
 practice, they found themselves so nearly in 
 accord with the Baptists as to be received 
 into one of their associations, and, for a time, 
 co-operated with them. But it soon devel¬ 
 oped that the principles of restoration held 
 by the Campbells and their coadjutors were 
 too sweeping for a majority of the Baptists, 
 and the relation was discontinued, though 
 many Baptists embraced the principles of the 
 Disciples and went with them. Thus the im¬ 
 practicability of putting new wine into old 
 bottles was once more demonstrated. Hence¬ 
 forth new congregations were formed on the 
 simple New Testament basis. All who gave 
 
credible evidence of faith in Jesus Christ were, 
 upon confessing Him, baptized and received 
 into the fellowship of the church, being asked 
 only to take Christ as their leader and the 
 New Testament as their guide. 
 
 Cardinal Principles. — Aside from the 
 great fundamental truths which the Disci¬ 
 ples of Christ hold in common with all evan¬ 
 gelical Christians, the following are some of 
 their characteristic principles: 
 
 1. The Church of Christ is intentionally 
 and constitutionally one; and all divisions 
 w T hich mar this unity are contrary to the will 
 of God and should be healed. 
 
 2. As these divisions resulted from a de¬ 
 parture from the New Testament Christianity, 
 the remedy for them is the restoration of the 
 Gospel in its purity. 
 
 3. This restoration involves the surrender 
 of all human formulations of doctrine, as au¬ 
 thoritative bases of church fellowship,and the 
 acceptance of the Bible alone as the rule of 
 faith and practice, and the confession of Jesus 
 as the Christ, the Son of the living God, by 
 Simon Peter (Matt. 16: 16) as the creed of 
 the Church; the exchange of all party names 
 for Scriptural names, and the restoration of 
 the ordinances to their original meaning and 
 place—baptism being the burial in water of a 
 penitent believer who has died to sin, and the 
 Lord’s Supper being a memorial feast to be 
 observed each first day of the week, as the 
 central act of worship. 
 
 4. The faith which justifies and saves has 
 Christ, not dogma, for its object, and is a 
 vitalizing force which issues in practical right¬ 
 eousness and leads to a life of obedience; and 
 not an orthodox set of notions about God. 
 
 The polity of the Disciples is congregational, 
 the local officers consisting of elders and dea¬ 
 cons, besides a minister or pastor, who may 
 be one of the elders. They combine in Dis¬ 
 trict, State and National organizations for 
 missionary work, but have no general ecclesi¬ 
 astical body for legislative purposes. 
 
 Numerical Strength. —The growth of the 
 Disciples has been phenomenal. Beginning 
 with a single congregation of about 30 mem¬ 
 bers in 1811, they numbered at the death of 
 
Mr. Campbell, in 1866, over 300,000. The latest 
 statistics show the number of churches in the 
 United States to be 9,823, with a membership 
 of 1,019,967; number of Sunday-schools 7,129, 
 and the whole number of scholars and teach¬ 
 ers, 651,110; the number of ministers, 5,256. 
 Besides these we have churches in British 
 America, Australia, Great Britain, and a con¬ 
 siderable membership in the foreign mission 
 field, making the total number of churches in 
 all lands, 10,397, with a membership of 1,060- 
 307. The total number of Sunday-schools in 
 all lands is 7,554, and the total number of 
 scholars and teachers, 681,100, and 5,594 minis¬ 
 ters^ 
 
 The total valuation of church property is 
 placed at $17,368,442. During the last mis¬ 
 sionary year (ending October 1st, 1896) the 
 churches gave for self-support, $4,284,000; for 
 general benevolence, $170,000; for foreign 
 missions through our various agencies, $125,- 
 117; for home missions, State, District and 
 National, $300,846; total amount for missions, 
 home and foreign, $425,963. These missionary 
 moneys are raised under the auspices of our 
 three national organizations, The American 
 Christian Missionary Society, The Foreign 
 Christian Missionary Society and the Chris¬ 
 tian Woman’s Board of Missions. 
 
 Institutions of Learning. —Among their 
 principal schools are Bethany College, Beth¬ 
 any, West Virginia; Kentucky University, 
 Lexington, Ky.; Butler University, Irvington, 
 Ind.; Drake University, Des Moines, la.; Hi¬ 
 ram College, Hiram, O.; Eureka College, Eu¬ 
 reka, Ill.; Christian University, Canton, Mo. 
 There are, besides, many small colleges. All 
 these make the Bible a text-book. 
 
 The principal publishing houses are, Chris¬ 
 tian Publishing Co., St. Louis, Mo., and the 
 Standard Publishing Co., Cincinnati, O. The 
 Disciples publish about a dozen religious 
 weeklies, and one quarterly. 
 
 •[Article in Johnson’s Universal Encyclopedia, 
 'New Edition, Vol. II. 
 
 Published by the Christian Woman’s Board of 
 Missions, 160 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis, Ind., 
 April, 1897. 1 cent each, 10 cents per dozen.