The United Brethren
The United Brethren in Christ have their headquarters in the Otterbein Press Building at Dayton, Ohio. Bishop A. T. Howard, D. D., and other prominent men in that denomination live in Dayton and vicinity. There are a great many adherents to this denomination thruout Ohio and adjoining states.
The United Brethren is distinctly an American religious sect, which was originated in the latter half of the Eighteenth Century under the leadership of Philip William Otterbein. Altho this man was pastor of the Second Reformed Church in Baltimore and had for his associate Martin Boehm, a noted Pennsylvanian preacher, the movement worked westerly to Ohio and Indiana. Otterbein and Boehm did a great work and their followers and teachings distinctly influenced the early life of Mr. Cox.
The ecclesiastical policy of the church is Wesleyan; but its theology is Arminian. Arminius was a Dutch theologian who was one of the first to oppose the stern teachings of Calvin which had been carried so far as to almost eliminate the freedom of will. Arminius started a new sect in Europe which took a much more liberal position, which insisted that man can have the assistance of God and man, but is of himself free and able to perform right or wrong.
The United Brethren believe in the sovereignty of God, but that it is so exercised as to permit the freedom of man. Thus James M. Cox spent his early years in an atmosphere which was saturated with this spirit of freedom as opposed to the arbitrary use of force or even legislation. Without doubt this early teaching influenced Mr. Cox’s entire life. As one reads his speeches on Internationalism, Industrial Relations, and especially Prohibition, the theology of Otterbein and Boehm is quite apparent. Altho he is now attending with his wife the Episcopal Church, he is still a member of the United Brethren and instinctively a follower of that religion.