The Stone Movement 1804-1832 (Part 1)

Restoration Quarterly Volume 7 | Number 3 Article 1 7-1-1963 Like Fire in Dry Stubble - The tS one Movement 1804-1832 (Part 1) J W. Roberts R. L. Roberts Jr. Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/restorationquarterly Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Liturgy and Worship Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, Practical Theology Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Roberts, J W. and Roberts, R. L. Jr. (1963) "Like Fire in Dry Stubble - The tS one Movement 1804-1832 (Part 1)," Restoration Quarterly: Vol. 7 : No. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/restorationquarterly/vol7/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ ACU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Restoration Quarterly by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ ACU. RE TORATION QUARTERLY CONTENTS Ethics for the End -tim e : An Ex eges is of 1 Peter 4:7-11 -Leslie Klin e ........................................................................................ 113 Baptism in Recent German Th eology- Diet er Alt en ........................ 124 Introduction to Septuagint al Stud ies- George Howard ..................132 An Evil Eye-R. L. Roberts .................................................................. 143 / Like Fire in Dr y Stubbl e- The Stone Movement 1804-1832 (P t. I )-J . W. Roberts and R. L. Roberts, Jr . ................................ 148 James and Paul : Critical Review of Commentary on the Genernl Epi stle of James- Roy B. Wa r d .................................... 159 Book Reviews ............................................................................................ 165 1 ,k R0 tuf.s4rT,·cf~ ~fso Jiscuue.s fle. 0 k'~lf11 "1u/ke7 a."'J ;.,.Je e..,de,J clvr<!lesfl.f joi ..eJ +l.e5-ft. ..~ Wt 6 IJ ~ 1M e .,,f, STUDIES IN CHRISTIAN SCHOLARSHIP VOL. 7, NO. 3 , THIRD QUAR T ER , 1963 A Study µi the Restoration Movement Like fire in Dry Stuhhle - The Stone Movement 1804-1832':,(Part D J. W. Roberts and R. L. Roberts, Jr. The r eligious reformation of Barton Warren Stone in the early 19th Century is an integral part of the Restoration Movement to which we belong and of American Church History. It contributed much more to the ongoing of the Restorat ion than either the New England movement of Abne r Jones and Elias Smith or the South Atlantic movement of James O'Kelly. In much of the Mid-continent area where the Movement had its greatest growth, the Stone churches contributed a part equal to, and in many cases larger than, that of the people from the Baptist background led by the Campbells and Walter Scott in numbers, congregations, and preachers. But it has been frequently urged that Stone and his group have never received their share of recognition for the part they played in our history. There are good reasons for this. One is that the historia ns of the Restoration who wrot e its story looking back over the years from aft er the Civil War were largely from the Campbell side. 1 These men liked to dramatize the events of the Campbell Scott group in Pa., Va., and Ohio, especially in 1826-28, as the point at which "for the first time in modern times the primitive Gos pel was preached in its pu rity and simplicity ." Alexander Cam p bell wa s a more dominant figur e than Stone, was younger, and thus after t heir union in the 1830's provided a more pronounced leader ship. Anoth er factor has been that the re remain few records of the cri tical period of 1804-26 in the Stone Movement. Through these year s the Chr istian Churches (as they were called) spread so rap idly Stone publish ed no paper. His journal, Th e Christian Mes senger, was not begun until Dec. 1826. After this, Stone published a serial hist ory of the churches in Ky. and an autobiography. But he was concerned in them more with the initial facts-th e Can e Rid ge Revival, th e Spr ingfield Pre sbyt ery, and the beginnin gs of *Thi s paper, much exp and ed, contains the mat eria l presented in a paper at the Bibli cal For um at th e Abil ene Christ ian Lectur eship for 1964. Cr edit shou ld be given to a numb er of students taking par t in the McGarvey F ellowship program at ACC whose work pro vides the basis of some of th e conclusions set forth , though the writ ers assume responsibility for all th e cont ents . 1 E.g ., Robert Richar dson , The Memoirs of Al exander Camp bell (2 vols., Cinci nnati, 1913); A. S. Hayden, The Early Hi story of the Discipl es of Chris t on the Western Reserve (Cincinnati, 1876); and A. Campb ell' s va rious works, esp . Th e Millenn ial Harbinge r (1830- 1870) . 148 the churches as independent congregations . Thus th ere is little beyond 1807. Later attempts such as Roger's Cane Ridge Meeting House and Levi Pu r viance's Biography of David Purviance helped to fill the gaps, but again there are only scattered references in them to the years betwe en 1804 and the meeting of Stone and Campbell in 1824. It was not until th e publication of C. C. Wa 1·e's Barton Warren Stone in 1932 that any real survey of Ston e's life and work was made . Modern attempts to re-ev alu at e Stone's pa rt in the histor y dese rve praise. Besides Wa re's book one mentions William Ganet t West's Ph.D. dissertation at Yal e, which was published as Ba1·/on Wai ·ren Stone: Early Am erican Advocate of Christian Uni ty (1954) , Dr. Evan Ulrey 's diss e1-tation at LSU, "The P;:eaching of Ba rton Wa rre n Stone" (195 5), and still nea rer to us two cont r ibutions by Dr . Colby Hall of TCU, a study in the life of Ric e Haggard 2 (one of Stone's co-workers) and a short histo ry of the movement entitled The N ew Light Christians. In these the r e is not only a re-assessm ent of Ha g gard's influence, but also that of Stone, and an att empt is ma de to show that Stone's movement had priority to that of Campbell. As praisew orth y as thes e attempts ar e, they fall short in some respects. Some of them (Ulrey excepted) do not seem to this writer to be prnperly motivate d. Pa 1-t of t he desire to give Stone hi s "proper place" seems prompt ed by a desire to bypass th e Cam pbell movement with its "more rigid theology" and insistence on a "patte rn concept" of the church and to find a more ideal prototyp e for the libera l the ology and ecum enical outl ook of the present Disciples of Chr ist de nomination in Stone. This thesis is highly questio nabl e.3 Another point is that the background of the Stone movement in the regions whe1·e it developed, together with the depth and breadth of the growth of the Stone group before the union wit h Campbell, has never been to our knowledge extensively investigated. Thus the extensive labors, the widening borders, the truly zealous missionary and the evangelistic outreach of Stone and his lieutena nts in the three decades from the dissolving of the Springfield P r esbytery to the union of the "Reformers" and the "Christians" at Lexington, Ky., in 1832 are little appreciated. Stone's efforts are simply lumped together with others in "Pre-Campbell" or "Pre-Restoration " studies. Attempts here will be made to point out some of the lin es along which Stone's work could be restudied and to present some facts which show the priority and magnitude of his conhibution to the movement of which we are a pa r t. Before corning directl y to Stone 2Colby D. Hall, Ric e Hag _gard, the Frontier Evangelist Who Re vive d the Nam e Christian (Ft. Worth, 1957). 8 Cf. Evan Ulrey, ":Barton Warren Stone, His Relevance to the Continuing Rest or at ion," Th e R estoration Principle (Abilene, 1962), pp. 331ff. West himself has a hard tim e reconciling his thesis that Stone was committed to Union on non-doctrinal grounds with Stone's " Biblicism." E.g ., ibid., pp . 96ff. 149 tw o fa cets of backg r ound which pr edate the spre ad of his movement will be emphasized. THE O 'KELLY FOR CES I N THE WE ST Th e fi rst of these is the extent to which the wa y was pre pared fo1· the Ston e r efor m by the Westward movement of th e Christians who stood with James O'Kelly in Virginia and the Carol inas and (to a lesser ext ent ) of th e followers of Elias Smith. It is quite likely that th e exte nt of this influenc e has nev er been recognized. O'Kell y's forc es withd r ew from the emerging Meth cdist denomina tion in 1793 and organized the Republican Methodist Church at Mana kintown, Va., on Dec. 25 of that yea r .4 The following August at Old Lebanon in Su rr y Co., Va., the simple pattern of undenominational Christian ity founded upon th e Bibl e alon e was adopt ed. In th e fol lowing years this voice for primitive Christianity was to be heard powerfully across th e Piedmont .

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