Historical Documents Advocating Christian Union DEFINITIVE WRITINGS OF THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT Epoch-Making Statements by Leaders among the Disciples of Christ for the Restoration of the Christianity of the New Testament — its Doctrines, its Ordinances, and its Fruits Historical Introductions by Charles Alexander Young Preface by John Allen Hudson Explanatory footnotes by Bradley S. Cobb Cobb Publishing 2 0 1 7 Historical Documents Advocating Christian Unity (2017 edition) is copyright © 2017, Bradley S. Cobb. All rights reserved. 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(479) 747-8372 [email protected] www.TheCobbSix.com ISBN-13: 978-1541277915 ISBN-10: 1541277910 PREFACE .......................................................................................................... 6 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 9 INTRODUCTION TO THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE SPRINGFIELD PRESBYTERY .................................................................................................. 12 THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE SPRINGFIELD PRESBYTERY ............. 17 THE WITNESSES’ ADDRESS. ........................................................................... 19 INTRODUCTION TO THE DECLARATION AND ADDRESS .................................. 21 AN ANALYSIS OF THE DECLARATION AND ADDRESS ...................................... 24 PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN UNION ................................................................. 25 PLAN OF CHRISTIAN UNION .......................................................................... 32 PRESUPPOSITIONS ........................................................................................ 37 THE DECLARATION AND ADDRESS ................................................................. 43 DECLARATION ............................................................................................... 43 ADDRESS, ETC. ................................................................................................ 47 APPENDIX ...................................................................................................... 71 INTRODUCTION TO THE SERMON ON THE LAW ........................................... 111 SERMON ON THE LAW ................................................................................. 115 THE SUBSTANCE OF A SERMON, .................................................................. 117 PREFACE ...................................................................................................... 117 IDEAS ATTACHED TO ‘THE LAW’ .......................................................................... 119 THOSE THINGS WHICH THE LAW COULD NOT ACCOMPLISH ..................................... 124 THE REASON WHY THE LAW COULD NOT ACCOMPLISH THESE THINGS ....................... 126 THE MEANS BY WHICH GOD HAS REMEDIED THE RELATIVE DEFECTS OF THE LAW ........ 127 NECESSARY CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................. 132 ISAAC ERRETT .............................................................................................. 149 OUR POSITION ............................................................................................. 153 CHAPTER ONE.............................................................................................. 153 CHAPTER TWO ............................................................................................. 156 CHAPTER THREE .......................................................................................... 161 CHAPTER FOUR............................................................................................ 164 CHAPTER FIVE .............................................................................................. 169 JAMES HARVEY GARRISON .......................................................................... 174 THE WORLD’S NEED OF OUR PLEA ............................................................... 177 WHAT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED ............................................................... 183 A PROGRESSIVE REFORMATION. ................................................................. 185 The author of the Analysis of the Declaration and Address ob- serves that “the principle of liberty, the right to grow with the growth of truth, needs perpetual emphasis and incessant utterance.” There should be a clear distinction between what is truth on the one hand and the conception and implementation of it on the other, but truth itself, divine and revealed truth, is not progressive in character, subject to the thinking of uninspired men of a later day. “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus told the apostles that the Holy Spirit should guide them into all truth; that is, all revealed truth. The great body of natural truth apart from reve- lation is subject to the explorations of mankind, but not so revealed truth. The author of the definitive sections of this book, Historical Documents Advocating Christian Union, does represent, in life and in experience, the liberal interpretation of the Restoration move- ment, even sometimes to the point of higher criticism and modern- ism. Such an attempt at union that mitigates the force of divine revelation in seeking for amity among men makes too much con- cession. Yet on the whole, this writer prefers to present this book, whatever the leanings of a later writer may personally have been, as originally designed. Whatever observances he may have will be said later in separate works. There cannot be any doubt of the great writing ability of Isaac Errett and J.H. Garrison. But they were later commentators upon the great principles of the “big four,” Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Barton Warren Stone; and they do not belong in the same category of creative thought as these men. Other writers, closer to that day when the “big four” lived, such as Moses E. Lard and Benjamin Franklin could as well have been quoted. Yet it must be admitted that others made not quite the same point of an historical analysis of the restoring of the gospel plan of salvation by Scott, the Declaration and Address by Thomas Campbell, the Ser- mon on the Law by Alexander Campbell and the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery by Stone. Therefore, the objective of such an historical analysis on the part of Isaac Errett 6 and J.H. Garrison fits itself more admirably into the purpose of the book — not that these latter stand on a par with the others in the creativity of the movement. They have subscribed themselves as servants of the larger purpose of the “big four.” The book itself is too valuable to be confined to the earlier issue. Hence, after a proper search in the Library of Congress to determine the expiration of the original copyright, we present here another edition to a later audience; and to expand, in so far as is possible, the wider influence of the great documents of which it treats. The introduction to the Analysis of the Declaration and Address, to this writer, dealing as it does on supposed new discoveries of truth, confusing opinion and truth in the borderline clashes of hu- man experience, is entirely out of line with the analysis of the document which follows. It is a redundancy and without clarity. Again it is stated: “The practical question today is not whether there was general agreement in those principles in 1809, but whether there is general agreement in them in 1904. It may be con- fidently asserted that they do not precisely represent present-day Christian thought.” This statement practically amounts to a repudi- ation on the part of the later commentator of the principles of the Declaration and Address, which was very specific on the basis of union upon the word of God alone, drawing a distinction between faith and opinion. This writer still believes, as did the Campbells, Scott, and Stone, that unity is possible on the basis which they proposed, and none other. The trouble is that others have sought to modify that basis. Isaac Errett, who lived in the period between the launching of the Restoration movement and the later writing of Charles Alex- ander Young, seems clear enough in his belief of the complete suf- ficiency of divine revelation in his article, Our Position. He did not seem to believe in the growth of truth, but that truth had already been stated. He said: “But we do say, and wish to be emphatic in saying, that from the first day that this plea for a return to Primitive Christianity began, until this day, there has been no doubt and no controversy among its leading advocates, and none among the mass of its intelligent adherents, on the thirteen points we have named.” What J.H. Garrison meant in his article, The World Needs Our Plea, was not the progressive idea of truth so much as the adaptation of living and changing human conditions to be constantly aware of that truth, and not to stultify it in the traditions of an age or the set- ting of a creed. The background discussion of other attempts at reformation shows this to be his thought. On the other