Lester G. McAllister

In 1809 Thomas Campbell, joined shortly by his son Alexander, began a movement for Christian unity by means of a restoration of the New Testament church. In 1832 the Campbells joined some of the followers of Barton W. Stone to form the Stone-Campbell movement.

By the late eighteenth century, Christianity in northern Ireland was divided between Roman Catholicism and numerous Protest groups. Into this religious environment was born a child who became a Seceder Presbyterian of Scottish background but who as determined to do something about the disunity among the Presbyterians and, hopefully, among all Christians. That person was Thomas Campbell, born near Newry, Ireland, February 1, 1763.

Thomas Campbell is important as a transitional figure a ling between the religious traditionalism of the Old World and the innovative spirit of the New. With deep convictions and humble spirit he devoted himself to advocating the primacy of the Scriptures in the church, believing this could provide a means of restoring unity.

Thomas was the oldest of eight children. His early learning consisted of the curriculum taught in an English classical school. He soon mastered such subjects as English grammar, writing, Latin and Greek, reading and arithmetic.

Campbell’s father, Archibald, was born Roman Catholic but as a young adult joined the Anglican church. After his marriage and the coming of children the entire family became Anglican. As Thomas grew to manhood he developed a deeply religious nature. Finding Anglican worship too formal he found a more congenial fellowship with the Seceder Presbyterians. Seceders had refused to give up the right to select their own ministers when the Church of Scotland removed that right. Putting himself under the religious direction of the Seceders he soon took membership in the Seceder congregation of Newry.

Thomas Campbell began his life’s work as a school teacher. By means of a fellow Seceder he secured a teaching position at Sheepbridge, a village near Newry. Another Seceder in Newry, John Kinley, was so impressed with Thomas’ ability that he offered to finance his further education if Thomas would consider the Christian ministry as a life work. In 1783, at the age of 20, Thomas accepted the offer and entered the University of Glasgow.

It is likely young Campbell enrolled in the faculty of Liberal Arts; the usual studies taken by ministerial students. This course would have brought him under the tutelage of such well-known professors as John Locke and David Hume. Undoubtedly he studied with the renowned teacher Thomas Reid whose “common sense” philosophy, almost alone among British university professors, upheld orthodox Christian beliefs in a time of growing skepticism. In any event Thomas Campbell’s studies at the university strengthened his Christian faith.

Campbell completed his university work with honors about 1786. By 1787 he was enrolled in the theological school maintained by the Anti-Burgher branch of the Seceder church at Whitburn in Scotland. Anti-burghers were those Seceders who did not believe mayors of Scottish towns should swear to support the established church. The school was under the direction of the Reverend Archibald Bruce, a leading minister of the Anti-Burghers. Over a period of five years students attended sessions of eight weeks each leading to licensing and ultimately to ordination.

Between sessions Campbell taught school at Ballymena in County Antrim, Ireland. He probably met Jane Corneigle (1764-1835) there, a descendent of French Hugenots and who soon became his wife. The exact date of their marriage is not known; only that they were married in the year 1787. Alexander, born September 17, 1788, was their first child.

Thomas completed his work at the AntiBurgher theological school about 1794. Sometime before that the family moved to Market Hill, a small town near Newry. There he returned to his teaching at Sheepbridge, preaching occasionally for Seceder congregations of the area. At Market H ill, a daughter, Dorothea, was born July 27, 1793 and a second daughter, Nancy, was born September 18, 1795.

Thomas was ordained in 1798 at the time he accepted a call to become minister of a Seceder congregation recently established at Ahorey, in the open country not far from Armagh near the village of Rich Hill. The family lived on a farm near the village. Over the next several years several more children were added to the family. A third daughter, Jane, as born June 25, 1800; a second son, Thomas , was born May 1, 1802; another son, Archibald, was born April 4, 1804; and finally, Alicia, born in April, 1806. (no day?)

As the family grew, the modest salary of a minister proved to be inadequate and Thomas decided that opening a school would add needed income as well as helping his own children secure an education. To this end he found a house in the nearby village of Rich Hill that could be used as both a home and a school and moved his family there.

The move to Rich Hill permitted a somewhat independent Campbell to come under several influences which tended to break down a strict Calvinism 1) he got to know a congregation of Independents (Congregationalist), 2) he came in contact with the “evangelical” movement by meeting such men as James A. Haldane (1768-1851) ; and 3) his concern over the divisions among the Presbyterians increased.

While leading the Ahorey congregation Campbell emphasized the need to follow the Scriptures. He took the catechism away from the children for fear they would confuse the language of the catechism with that of Scripture. Thomas’ opposition to secret societies was based in large measure on the principle that they were anti-Scriptural. The greatest lesson he learned from the evangelical movement was the importance of the Scriptures in belief and practice.

After attempts at reconciliation between groups of Seceders were rebuffed and with renewed tensions between Roman Catholic and Protestant organizations. Thomas Campbell in 1807 decided to leave Ireland for the United States, leaving nineteen year-old Alexander in charge of the school. Any number of Ulster families had found a new home in western Pennsylvania; perhaps he could find a place for his family there.
Arriving in Philadelphia at the time of the annual meeting of Seceders (called the Associate Synod of North America) Thomas presented letters of introduction from the Seceders in Ireland and, at his request, was assigned by the synod to the Chartiers Presbytery in the western part of the state with congregations centered in the area surrounding the town of Washington.

Campbell was probably one of the best-educated ministers on the frontier. Native-born and less educated men were somewhat suspicious of Thomas and he soon found himself in conflict with several of them. The presbytery censured him on one occasion for his failure to follow orthodox practice in offering the Lord’s Supper only to Seceders. His appeal to the Associate Synod was turned down leading Campbell to resign immediately from the ministry of the Seceder church.

To support himself, Thomas began to preach for and to cooperate with all Christians, of whatever denomination. It was his hope that in a newly settled territory and in a new land the various church quarrels of Ireland could be set aside. Campbell was able to persuade others of the wisdom in this, which led in 1809 to the formation of “The Christian Association of Washington.”

Within a short while the leaders of the new Association turned to Thomas Campbell for guidance in writing a statement of the purposes and objectives of their group. The result was a document titled a Declaration and Address. At a called meeting of the Association on September 7, 1809, Campbell’s statement was read and approved; during the last two weeks of 1809 it was issued to the public in printed form.

The document’s full title is the Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington County, Washington, Pa. It is Thomas Campbell’s major literary work and puts forth a magnificent statement analyzing the state of the church, the conditions of church union and a concrete proposal for carrying out the Association’s purposes. Rouse and Neil, in their History of the Ecumenical Movement (Vol. 1), state that it is “one of the most important documents on the ecumenical movement to come out of North America”. The document presupposes that the church of Christ is by intent to be one but that the church has through history become divided into a number of parties by the introduction of human opinions not authorized in the New Testament.

The Declaration and Address reflects the ideas of John Locke (1632-1794) introduced to Thomas Campbell in his studies at the University of Glasgow. Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his Letter Concerning Toleration were specially influential on Campbell. He reflects Locke’s concept of the church’s purpose and organization as well as the individual’s right for religious freedom. The Declaration and Address is the cornerstone of the Campbell movement. All but ignored by other religious leaders in 1809, it holds great significance for the three bodies of the Stone- Campbell Movement.

In early October, 1809 Campbell received word that his family was on its way to join him. They had arrived in New York, made their way to Philadelphia by stagecoach and would soon be making their way across the Allegheny Mountains. As the family came west Thomas, anxious to see his family after being separated two years, rode out to meet them and to bring them to a home he had prepared for them in Washington.
By the spring of 1810 little progress had been made in the cause of Christian unity as proposed by the Christian Association and Thomas Campbell. The Declaration and Address and its statements on unity had received little discussion or attention. About this time Thomas Campbell’s recently arrived son, Alexander, announced his intention of joining his father in Christian ministry. In many ways this was a natural development. The father had been the chief teacher of his son in Ireland. He guided much of Alexander’s elementary training and it was he who prepared him for the university. The father had continued the son’s instruction after Alexander arrived in the United States. Alexander preached his first sermon in July 1810 at a meeting of the Association just as the Association was looking and acting more and more like a church.

Thomas was greatly concerned that this was happening; distressed that he should be one to create yet another division in the one church. Campbell was encouraged to believe the Christian Association might find a home in the Pittsburgh Synod of the Presbyterian Church but the idea was rejected at a meeting of the Synod on October 1810. By the spring of 1811 the members of the Association decided to constitute themselves a church to be named Brush Run for the area where they met. From their understanding of the New Testament, the congregational form of church government was adopted as well as immersion as the scriptural form of baptism. With their rejection of ecclesiastical authority and acceptance of infant baptism the Brush Run congregation and its leaders became bitterly opposed by their religious neighbors.
The Brush Run church ordained young Alexander on January 1, 1812. From this time on it was he who gave leadership to those who believed as they did. As Alexander assumed leadership of the movement the father, Thomas, was willing to take a lesser role. Over the next decades Thomas Campbell assisted his son in every way he could.
With the adoption of immersion the Campbells soon discovered much in common with the Baptists. Between 1812 and 1 814 both father and son found themselves preaching frequently for Baptist congregations. In turn, this led to the church at Brush Run considering applying for membership in the Redstone Baptist Association. The matter was discussed thoroughly by Brush Run members. In several written statements to the Baptists they made known their desire to join the association with the understanding they would continue to teach and preach only that which they could find in Scripture. In September 1815, the Brush Run congregation as admitted to membership in the Redstone Baptist Association.

Shortly thereafter Thomas Campbell decided his ministry would be more effective if he moved farther west. However, after a short stay in Ohio and hearing of an opportunity to organize both a congregation on New Testament principles and a school he moved his family to Pittsburgh. In the fall of 1817 Thomas became restless one again; still anxious to minister to the frontier, he moved his family to Boone County, Kentucky, just opposite Cincinnati, and opened a school. Between 1817 and 1819 Campbell taught

School and preached in the area, even venturing into Indiana. Things seemed to be going well in their new location until t he summer of 1819. One Sunday he preached to a group of slaves. Told that what he had done was against the law, Campbell decided he could not stay in Kentucky.

Thomas Campbell immediately made plans to return to western Pennsylvania to be near Alexander, refusing to live where the law put restraints on his right to preach to anyone. By the fall of 1819 Thomas and his family moved not far from Bethany, near the village of North Middletown. In 1818 Alexander had opened Buffalo seminary seeking young men for the ministry but also teaching general subjects. From North Middletown Thomas could assist Alexander by teaching at the school and in ministering to the Brush Run congregation.

In 1823 Alexander Campbell began publication of The Christian Baptist. Thomas wrote articles, and occasionally edited the publication. In 1828 Alexander requested his father to check on Walter Scott after Scott’s great success in evangelizing for the Mahoning Baptist Association on the Western Reserve in Ohio. With the start of The Millennial Harbinger in 1830, Thomas continued to assist Alexander in his publishing endeavors.

After his wife died in 1835 the father made his home in Bethany with his son, Alexander. After 1843 Thomas remained in retirement and in fair health at Bethany. In the middle of December 1853 he became ill and after three weeks died on January 4, 1854.

When Alexander Campbell as early as 1815 had become the leader of the movement the son realized he was building on ideas and foundations initiated by his father. Thomas’ dominant hope was that if every Christian could see the necessity of following the guidance of the Scriptures, especially the New Testament, a way could be opened for all Christians to work together.

The genius of Thomas Campbell lay in two basic ideas: that the church ought to be without sectarian divisions and that the church was divided because “human opinions” had been added to the practice of the early church as it was revealed in the New Testament. These two ideas, the reunion of all Christians and the restoration of the essentials of primitive Christianity, have roots that run centuries back into Christian history. Something new came into being, however, when Thomas Campbell conceived of the restoration of simple New Testament Christianity not only as an urgent need, but also as a means of reuniting a divided church.

In the beginning Thomas had no thought of the organization of a new sect or religious party. Such an idea was repugnant to his mind even as he was drawn reluctantly into organization. The Declaration and Address was careful to state that the Christian Association was not to be considered a church. However, when Thomas Campbell’s basic ideas were accepted by an increasing number of people, there arose first an “association” of life-minded believers; then, a “movement” within existing churches; and finally, as a last alternative, several religious bodies which through the years have continued to work, each in its own way, to bring about Christian unity based on the authority and teaching of the New Testament.

After Alexander Campbell assumed leadership of the movement, Thomas Campbell remained active not only in assisting Alexander but also in advising his son and helping to make the basic decisions which confronted the young movement. In organizational matters, in publication, and in institutional developments, the congregations generally followed Alexander but the inner spirit of the movement, together with its emphasis on the Scriptures, was primarily that of Thomas Campbell.
The facts of Thomas Campbell’s life lead to the conclusion that though gifted with considerable intellectual ability, he was not outstandingly brilliant. In style he had few of the attributes of a great preacher, and in his writing used a verbose style ill-suited to the American frontier. At the same time, he was acclaimed a humble, sincere, pious and devout, minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He held steadfastly to whatever he believed was the plain teaching of the New Testament, and consistently preached and taught his honest convictions.

Not having the powers of dynamic leadership possessed by his more gifted son, Thomas Campbell willingly stayed in the background of a movement which his vision and principles brought into being. Over and over again in the Declaration and Address
he disclaimed any desire for a movement, even when it was obvious that this was the only way in which the purposes of the Christian Association could hope to be accomplished. Thomas Campbell’s desire was simply to be left alone to minister to people, with the privilege of preaching and teaching his convictions without interference.

In the 1830s, and later, in the 1840s, his futile attempts to call the movement away from bitterness and controversy, and to get it to return to the fundamental principle and objective of the Declaration and Address, that of Christian unity based on New Testament teaching, were put aside. Thomas Campbell finally realized that a sectarian spirit had developed with the movement.

While the father and son did not always agree on everything or in the advisability of certain actions, they did agree on the great fundamentals, and more importantly still,
Thomas served as a check against his son’s excesses. The father gave crucial assistance to Alexander in keeping t he movement from utter confusion in those early days when ministers from diverse backgrounds were being assimilated into the movement, a number of new congregations were being formed and many new members were being added.

Thomas Campbell’s life, seen as a whole, shows a minister who lived simply as one who based his life and his preaching on the Scriptures. An educated but humble and believing minister, he studies the Bible constantly and opened his mind and heart to receive God’s truth as it was revealed to him. Throughout his long life he had a habit of memorizing some portion of Scripture each day.

Thomas Campbell believed Christians should accept these basic principles and all else will follow. While others gave the movement different emphases, the emphasis of the movement on the importance and authority of the Scriptures in faith and order is the contribution of Thomas Campbell.

Bibliography
Campbell, Alexander, Memoirs of Elder Thomas Campbell (1861, repr. 1954)

Hanna, William Herbert, Thomas Campbell: Seceder and Christian Union Advocate (1935, repr. 1986).

McAllister, Lester G., Thomas Campbell – Man of the Book. St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1954.

Richardson, Robert, Memoirs of A. Campbell (2 vols.). Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Co., 1913.

 

Lester G. McAllister, Professor Emeritus, Modern Church History
Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana
(written c.2005 while living in Claremont, CA)