The Stone-Campbell Movement

The Story of the American Restoration Movement

Leroy Garrett

Copyright © 1981

Revised edition, 1994

3rd printing, 1997

Published in paperback, 2002

5th printing, 2006

College Press Publishing Company

All rights reserved

Photograph of Reuel Lemmons courtesy of Office of Marketing Services, Abilene Christian University

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Garrett, Leroy.

The Stone-Campbell movement: the story of the American Restoration movement / Leroy Garrett

p. cm.

Includes biographical references and index.

ISBN 0-89900-415-6

1. Restoration movement (Christianity)—United States—History. 2. United States—Church history. I. Title.

BX7316.G19 2002

286.6′09—dc21

2002031522

PUBLISHER’S PREFACE

College Press is pleased to publish this thoroughly revised edition of Leroy Garrett’s history of the churches whose common roots are in the Restoration Movement. Those who are familiar with previous editions will note significant rearrangement and additions to the older material including some helpful updating. This version of the unique challenge to Christian unity will inspire its readers to keep the Restoration ideal alive until the Lord Jesus returns to claim His church. At one time the fastest-growing and most evangelistic effort in American history, the Stone-Campbell Movement in reality was an appeal for the vitality of the first church. History has recorded the beginning of the American Restoration Movement in the early 1800s, and those members of the movement insist that it all began with Christ in the early years following His resurrection.

Let there be no mistake, Jesus will always have a church and will always work with those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Let this volume on church history be a wake-up call to revitalize the church, to fan the flame of evangelism, and to exercise a relentless effort at uniting all Christians in love. To this bold venture this volume, The Stone-Campbell Movement, is dedicated for the glory of Christ’s church, in heaven and on earth.

Chris DeWelt

President

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction

The Movement and the Church

2 Philosophers and Theologians

European Influences on the Movement

3 James O’Kelly and Rice Haggard

The American Prelude to the Movement

4 Barton W. Stone

The Movement Begins

5 Thomas Campbell and the Declaration and Address

The Movement’s Founding Document

6 Alexander Campbell

The Movement in Design

7 Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott Among the Baptists

The Movement Is Forced Out

8 John T. Johnson, Raccoon John Smith and John Rogers

The Movement Unites

9 Pioneers of the Frontier

The Movement Moves West and South

10 Alexander Campbell in Afteryears

The Movement Matures

11 Heretics and Defectors

The Movement Seeks a Norm

12 David Staats Burnet

The Movement Learns to Cooperate

13 The Editor Bishops

The Movement in Controversy

14 The Editor Bishops: Slavery and the Civil War

The Movement at the Brink of Division

15 Archibald McLean ...