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Isaac Errett: Unity and Expediency Restoration Quarterly Volume 36 Number 3 Article 1 7-1-1994 Isaac Errett: Unity and Expediency Douglas Foster 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, History of Christianity 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 Foster, Douglas (1994) "Isaac Errett: Unity and Expediency," Restoration Quarterly: Vol. 36 : No. 3 , Article 1. Available at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/restorationquarterly/vol36/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Digital Commons @ ACU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Restoration Quarterly by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ ACU. VOLUME 36/NUMBER 3 THIRD QUARTER 1994 ISSN 0486-5642 ResL01<aLfon ~ ua1<Le1<LcY Isaac Errett: Unity and Expediency DOUGLAS FOSTER Abilene Christian University On 4 March 1866 Alexander Campbell died. He was the last of the original great leaders of the Restoration Movement. All the others-Thomas Campbell, Barton W. Stone and Walter Scott-had preceded him in death. Campbell had in many ways been the symbol of the movement. Although serious tensions had existed for more than a decade and a half over the issue of cooperation through a missionary society, and for almost as long over the use of instrumental music in worship, 1 as long as Campbell lived he exerted a powerful force to hold the movement together. But now Campbell was gone . Even before his death many had speculated about who might fill his shoes to lead the movement forward. Few understood that the movement had become too diverse for such a leader ever again. Yet, particularly in the North, one man was mentioned time and again as being in line to receive Campbell's mantle. He was a relatively young Ohio editor and preacher who had been closely associated with Campbell in his later years, Isaac Errett.2 Isaac Errett was born in New York City, 2 January 1820, to a family of Scotch-Irish descent. His father, Henry, had come to the United States from Ireland sometime before 1810.3 In Ireland Henry had been associated with an extremely strict group of Scottish Christians that followed the ideas of Robert Sandeman and the Haldane brothers. These men had been leaders in restoration movements out of the Church of Scotland in the late l 700s. 4 1Earl Irving West, The Search for the Anci ent Order, 3 vols. (Nashville : Gospel Advocate Company, 1949, 1950, 1979) 1:310-12. 2Charles Richard Dawson, "Elder Isaac Errett: Christian Standard Bearer" (BD thesis, College of the Bible, 1948) i-ii. 3J. S. Lamar, Memoirs of Isaac Errett, 2 vols . (Cincinnati : Standard Publishing Co., 1893) 1:11. 4The theology of these men greatly influenced that of Alexander Campbell. See Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbe/1,2 vols. (Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott, 1868-70; repr., Nashville: Gospel Advocate Co., 1956) 1: 149; Alexander Campbell, "A Restor ation of the Ancient Order of Things," Christian Baptist 3 (3 April 1826) 188; Alexander Campbell, "To an Independent Baptist," Christian 140 RESTORATION QUARTERLY Some in these movements adopted immersion, and Henry Errett was a leader in a New York congregation of these so-called "Scotch Baptists." He wrote several tracts on religious subjects, including church organization and baptism. The group took an extremely literal view of the Bible which caused them to struggle with such matters as foot-washing and the "holy kiss." Yet in most areas of doctrine and practice they were very close to the ideas then developing in Pennsylvania and Kentucky with the Campbells and Barton Stone.5 Like most previous restoration groups, however, these New York Scotch Baptists were very much separatists and "puritans"-they were not particularly interested in Christian unity but in doctrinal correctness. Isaac Errett barely knew his father (Henry died in February 1825 when Isaac was only five). In 1827 Isaac's mother remarried, and the family moved to a farm in New Jersey. But in 1832, the year that the Stone and Campbell churches began coming together all across the country, Isaac's family got western fever and moved to Pittsburgh. There they attended an independent Scottish church similar to the one in New York . It was in Pittsburgh in the Spring of 1833 that Isaac and his brother Russell responded to the gospel and were baptized.6 During the 1830s Errett remained an active member of the Pittsburgh church and frequently had the opportunity to address the group during their "mutual edification" meetings. Soon he was encouraged to prepare short talks for other services, and in April 1839 Errett was asked to be the regular minister for the Pittsburgh church.7 He remained there until 1844 when he accepted the ministry of the New Lisbon, Ohio, church, formerly a Baptist church in the Mahoning Association, which had come into the Restoration Movement in 1827 through the evangelistic efforts of Walter Scott. Later Errett preached for the North Bloomfield and Warren, Ohio, churches. From 1857 to 1860 Errett served as Corresponding Secretary of the American Christian Missionary Society, and in 1861 he was made coeditor with Alexander Campbell of the Millennial Harbinger as well as a fund-raising agent for Campbell's Bethany College.s In October 1861, just after the outbreak of the Civil War, Errett was chosen to preside at the meeting of the American Christian Missionary Baptist 3 (1 May 1826) 204; Lynn A. McMillon , Restoration Roots (Dallas: Gospel Teachers Publications, 1983) 80-84, 86-94. 5Lamar,Memoirs 1:16-19. 6Jbid., 30-40. 7Jbid., 55-60. 8West, Search 2:26. FOSTER/ERRETT: UNITY AND EXPEDIENCY 141 Society in Cincinnati. Because of the war, no delegates from Southern states were able to attend. During the convention Dr. J. P. Robinson of Ohio introduced a resolution asking Christians everywhere "to do all in their power to sustain the proper and constituted authorities of the Union." The resolution was seconded, but David S. Burnet , founder of the American Christian Bible Society, raised a point of order , insisting that the topic was not germane to the business of the convention. Errett ruled that the resolution was in order, but on appeal the group overturned his ruling . In an odd turn of events, the "official" session was recessed for ten minutes, and the group passed the resolution as a "mass meeting" of individual Christians rather than as the American Christian Missionary Society. Two years later as the War raged on, Errett was presiding again when a much stronger resolution was introduced denouncing "the attempts of armed traitors to overthrow our government." When Errett this time declared the resolution out of order, remembering the events of 1861, he was surprised to find his action reversed again. This time the resolution was passed as an official act of the society ,9 Members of the Southern churches and pacifists among Northern Christians never forgot Errett's apparent approval of these so-called war resolutions. In late 1862 Errett was asked to be the minister for the Jefferson Avenue and Beaubien Street Church in Detroit. Two incidents took place there that focussed the ire of many in the brotherhood on Errett . First, in 1863 Errett published a little work entitled "A Synopsis of the Faith and Practice of the Church of Christ," which was designed to be a brief statement of the Restoration Movement's beliefs and directed toward interested outsiders. It consisted of ten doctrinal articles followed by a series of bylaws illustrating how his local congregation was organized. Editors like Benjamin Franklin and Moses Lard attacked the "Synopsis" as a creed. Lard said, "It is a deep offense against the brotherhood-an offense tossed into the teeth of a people who, for forty years, have been working against the divi sive and evil tendency of creeds."10 The other event concerned the gift of an engraved silver doorplate. At Christmas 1863 Errett helped plan a program for the children of his congregation's Sunday School. Everyone received small gifts after the program; and when Errett opened his, it was a doorplate with the inscription "Rev. I. Errett." The news spread that Errett was calling himself Reverend, and several editors denounced him as an example of shameful conformity to 9Winfred Ernest Garrison and Alfred T. DeGroot, The Disciples of Christ, A Histo,y (St. Louis: Christian Board of Publication, 1948) 335-36 . 10 Moses E. Lard , "Remarks on the Foregoing," Lard's Quarterly 1 (September 1863) 100. 142 RESTORATION QUARTERLY the "priestridden sects" under "clerical domination" and a drift "toward Rome and away from Jerusalem."tt Errett was beginning to get the reputation with some of being a dangerous innovator. 12 In 1865 Errett accepted a position at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College) as principal and professor. While there the most significant event of his life occurred-the founding of the Christian Publishing Company and the Christian Standard, with Errett named as editor of the journal. The motivation for this new publishing venture included a mixture of financial, political, and religious factors. According to Errett's biographer, J. S. Lamar, several influential leaders became convinced that the movement needed a popular-level weekly paper that would promote a more progressive spirit than the two major papers then published, the American Christian Review and the Gospel Advocate. On 22 December 1865 an organizational meeting was held at the home of oil millionaire Thomas W. Phillips. Four days later at a second meeting capital stock for the company was fixed at one hundred thousand dollars, and Isaac Errett was unanimously elected editor.13 The stockholders of the company, including future president James A.
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