VI.-METHODIST DOCTRINES.

1. Universal offer of salvation in different dispensations.

2. Witness of the Spirit, or assurance of present acceptance with God. 3. Christian perfection, or perfect sanctification.

F. ORTHODOX PROTESTANTISM AND HETERODOX PROTESTANTISM.

I SOCINIANISM (UNITARIANISM). Denies the following œcumenical doctrines:

1. The Trinity.

2. The Incarnation and eternal Divinity of Christ.

3. Original sin and guilt.

4. The vicarious atonement.

II. UNIVERSALISM departs from the orthodox doctrines of the

1. Nature and extent of sin and its consequences.

2. Endless punishment. (Difference between Restorationism and Universalism proper).

III. SWEDENBORGIANISM asserts:

1. A new revelation and a new Church (the New Jerusalem).

2. Intercourse with the spirit world.

3. It limits the number of the canonical Scriptures.

4. It claims to unlock the deeper inner sense of the Scriptures.

5. It dissents from the evangelical doctrines of the tripersonality of the Godhead, the incarnation, the atonement, justification, the Church, the sacraments, and the resurrection.

§ 116. THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.

Literature.

RICHARDSON: Memoirs of A. Campbell, new ed., Cinti., 1888-A Debate between Rev. A. Campbell and Rev. N. L. Rice on Christian Baptism and Eccles. Creeds as Terms of Communion, Nov. 15-Dec. 2, 1843, Lexington, 1844, pp. 912.-I. ERRETT: Our Position, a tract, Cinti., 1901.-J. H. GARRISON: The Old Faith Restated, St. Louis, 1891.-B. B. TYLER: Hist. of the Disciples of Christ, Am. Ch. Hist. Series, N. Y., 1894.-F. D. POWERS: Art. in SCHAFF-HERZOG Enc., III., 443 sq.-J. S. LAMAR: Life of I. Errett, 2 vols., Cinti., 1894.-W. T. MOORE: Compar. Hist. of the Disciples of Christ, N. Y., 1909, pp. 830.-SUMMERBELL: The Christians and the Disciples, Dayton, 1906.-ERRETT GATES: The Disciples of Christ, in "Story of the Chh.," Chaps. XI-XIV., N. Y., 1905.-P. AINSLIE: The Message of the Disciples for the Union of the Church, N. Y., 1913, pp. 210. Gives the "Declaration and Address" in full. Also The Scandal of Christianity, N. Y., 1929.-J. K. KELLEMS: A. Campbell and the Disciples, N. Y., 1930, pp. 409.

A large and influential Christian body whose historic position has

been antagonism to all Church creeds containing articles formulated by non-biblical writers is the group known as The Disciples of Christ. In the number of its members, the fifth Protestant ecclesiastical body in the United States, it arose early in the nineteenth century in Western Pennsylvania under the leadership of Thomas Campbell, a Seceder minister from North Ireland and his son, Alexander Campbell. Born in Ireland, Sept. 12, 1788, Alexander came to America, 1809, settled in the Western part of Pennsylvania and died March 4, 1866, in Bethany, West Virginia, where he had established a college. Seeking relief from the restraints of ecclesiastical formularies and a return to the so-called implicity and ordinances of "original Christianity," Thomas, then a Presbyterian minister, formed "the Christian Association of Washington," Pennsylvania, and issued, 1809, a "Declaration and Address" to which the Disciples go back as the justification and basis of their existence as a distinct group. In 1811, he and his followers joined themselves in an independent organization at Brush Run, Pa. Two years later, the organization united with the Redstone Baptist Association. A division arising in this body over the principles of the "Church Reformation," as the movement led by the Campbells was called, the followers of the Campbells constituted themselves an independent body, 1827. Four years later, this body was enlarged by the accession of a number of churches which followed Rev. Barton W. Stone, once a member of the Presbytery of Lexington, Kentucky. The members of the Kentucky churches preferred to call themselves by the simple name "Christians" and for this reason the "Disciples" have often gone by that name.

Alexander Campbell, the real founder of the new movement, was ordained 1812 and immersed a few months later. He was a man of intellectual vigor and independence of thought, of positiveness of conviction and statement, and became abundant in labors. His views were set forth not only in the pulpit but through the columns of two periodicals, the Christian Baptist and the Millennial Harbinger, and in public discussions on the platform. These discussions, which aroused wide attention in Southern Ohio and the South West, were carried on with Robert Owen, 1829, and Archbishop Purcell of the Roman Catholic Church, 1837, both in Cincinnati, and with the noted Presbyterian polemic theologian, Dr. Nathan L. Rice, in Lexington, Ky., 1843. The last discussion, which lasted sixteen days, had Henry Clay as its chair

man. Campbell was accused of being "contentious" and "disputatious" while his skill as a debater was generally recognized.

The distinctive tenets of the Disciples, as set forth in the Declaration and Address, are the “alone-sufficiency and all-sufficiency of the Bible" -to use the language of Alexander Campbell-and the unadulterated evil of Christian creeds and the denominational divisions in christendom. With other Christians, they hold to the doctrines of the trinity, original sin, Christ's atonement and resurrection, the necessity of repentance and regeneration, and the two future states. They reject-to follow the Declaration and Address-human opinions and the inventions of men as having any authority in the Church of God and profess "to stand upon the ground on which the Church stood at the beginning ... and to take up things just as the Apostles left them." The Society, so it was affirmed, "was formed for the sole purpose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity and to promote only such measures as reduce to practice the original form of Christianity expressly exhibited in the sacred page. . . . Everything not taught and enjoined in the Bible is of no authority and nothing is to be made a term of communion among Christians which is not as old as the New Testament." Creeds of human composition are a calamity and have been the cause of the historic divisions in the Church and "divisions among Christians is a horrid evil. Although the Church of Christ must necessarily exist in particular and distinctive societies, locally separate one from another, yet ought there to be no schisms, no uncharitable divisions, among them." Further, by the Declaration and Address, the society rejected the application to itself of the name "Church" and its members desired to be regarded "merely as voluntary advocates of Church reformation; and, tired of the jarrings and janglings of a party spirit, to restore unity, peace and purity to the whole Church of God,”—a large, if not ambitious, and certainly most laudable purpose. In accordance with these affirmations, whereby the Scriptures are not only treated as the sole standard of Christian teaching but its language the sole organ through which it is to be conveyed and all human formularies intended to state and summarize those teachings are set aside as evil in their consequences, the Disciples have been inclined to look upon themselves as pioneers in the movement of Christian unity and Church union. For twenty years the body has had within itself an Association for the Promotion

of Christian Unity. In spite of their formal declarations and wishes, the Disciples are a distinct ecclesiastical body, following the congregational scheme of church government and observing usages distinguishing them from many Christian bodies such as the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper and baptism by immersion, though denying baptismal regeneration. Whether such usages, the doctrines explicitly held in common with all Christians and their opposition to creeds, constitute a confessional formulary or not, seems to admit of two answers. The large volume of Kellems, 1930, ascribes to Alexander Campbell a doctrinal system no less positive than are the systems of other ecclesiastical bodies. By their evangelical activity and warm manifestation of union among themselves, the Disciples of Christ have not only reached large bodies of people but won the fellowship of other Christian communions and have shown that a Church's efficiency and solidarity does not necessarily depend upon an explicit formulary of human composition. The most prominent personage among the Disciples since Alexander Campbell has been James A. Garfield, President of the United States.

117. THE UNIVERSALISTS.

The Universalist Churches of the United States, starting in New England, have modified the orthodox Christian system as expressed in the historic creeds but while differing among themselves, they retain reverence for Christ as a divine teacher, the belief in the immortality of the soul and suitable awards after death for conduct in this world. A movement towards the union of Congregational and Universalist churches has had advocates as in California, 1930. The New England Convention of Universalist Churches, meeting in Winchester, New Hampshire, 1803, adopted a Profession of Belief in three articles. Eddy, in his Hist. of Universalism, says that "while the Profession was sufficiently definite to exclude the possibility of mistaking its most prominent thought, the reconciliation of all souls to God, it was sufficiently liberal to be acceptable alike to Trinitarians and to Unitarians, to the believer in future punishment and to the believer that the consequences of sin are confined to this life." In 1899 the General Convention, meeting in Boston, added to the Winchester Profession, clauses giving "The Conditions of Fellowship." At a meeting of the Convention in Winchester, 1903, celebrating the adoption of the Profession, its three

articles were spoken of "as the first explicit statement in a creed of what is known as liberal Christianity."

"THE PROFESSION OF BELIEF AND CONDITIONS OF FELLOWSHIP are as follows".

ART. I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind. ART. II. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness. ART. III. We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.

The Conditions of Fellowship shall be as follows: 1. The acceptance of the essential principles of the Universalist Faith to wit: 1 The Universal Fatherhood of God; 2 The Spiritual authority and leadership of His Son, Jesus Christ; 3 The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a revelation from God; 4 The certainty of just retribution for sin; 5 The final harmony of all souls with God.

The Winchester Profession is commended as containing these principles but neither this nor any other precise form of words is required as a condition of fellowship, provided always that the principles above stated be professed.

2. The acknowledgment of the authority of the General Convention and assent to its laws.

$118. THE UNITARIANS.

The Unitarian Churches are a free association of societies which lay stress upon practical aims and require no subscription to a doctrinal formula. The nearest approach to such a formula is the declaration written by James Freeman Clarke and published by the Unitarian Sunday School Union, affirming "belief in the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by character, the progress of mankind upward and onward forever." Founded in 1825, the American Unitarian Association announced its object to be "to diffuse the knowledge and promote the interest of pure Christianity." The older Unitarians, represented by Channing, while they rejected binding creedal formulas, the doctrines of the Trinity and total depravity and what was called the bleak Calvinism of New England, held to the exaltation of Christ and the immortality of the soul. Twenty of the original congregations of Massachusetts, including the Plymouth church, allied themselves with the movement. Humanistic efforts have been emphasized. In Boston, which became the home of

1 Minutes of the Winchester Convention, Washington, 1929. In 1878 the Universalists of Boston and vicinity put forth a statement of belief in 9 articles which was not adopted by the convention. See R. Eddy: Hist. of Universalism, in Am. Church Hist. series, X; 255-507.-ED.