VISITS THE KENTUCKY BAPTISTS

The debate was attended by great crowds of people from far and near. Mr. Campbell’s reputation as one of the first pulpit orators of the day was fully established; and wherever he could be induced to speak he was met by throngs of hearers. His most important reception on this trip was at Lexington, where he spoke in the Baptist meetinghouse, of which Dr. Fishback was minister. At the hour for the meeting the house was crowded to its utmost capacity. When Mr. Campbell rose he was not able to stand erect during the delivery of his discourse. “This was based on the first chapter of Hebrews, and led him to dwell upon the divine glory of the Son of God—a theme on which he was almost surpassingly eloquent. It lasted two hours, during which the audience sat in rapt attention.” He made a very profound impression on the entire audience. They recognized in him the mightiest intellect that had ever visited their city. The freshness of his thoughts, the extent and accuracy of his Biblical knowledge and his grand generalizations of the wonderful fact of redemption opened up trains of reflection wholly new, and presented the subject of Christianity in a form so simple and yet so comprehensive as to fill every one with admiration; so that from this time forward Mr. Campbell was esteemed by the people of Kentucky as great among the greatest of her public men, and without a rival in the department to which he had devoted his powers.

Immediately after the close of the debate with Mr. McCalla, Mr. Campbell made preparations for its publication. This was done from his own notes and those taken by Sydney Rigdon during the debate, and notwithstanding Mr. McCalla’s effort to discredit it before its appearance, its general accuracy was attested by those who heard the discussion. Its publication and circulation proved the severest blow that pedobaptism ever received.

In the fall of 1824 Mr. Campbell made his promised visit to Kentucky, visiting a large portion of the State, addressing everywhere large audiences, and extending his acquaintance and influence with the Baptists. This more intimate acquaintance led him to esteem them very highly, and to regard them as much nearer the apostolic model than any other of the denominations with which he had formed acquaintance, and he felt that it would not be difficult to eliminate from the Baptist churches such erroneous theories and usages as had gained currency among them. With these convictions in mind, he now visited the Baptists in Kentucky, to impart to them, as well as to the community at large, those clearer views of the Gospel to which he had been led by diligent and prayerful study of the Bible. These he had, to some extent, already presented through the pages of The Christian Baptist, which, since the debate, had been read throughout Kentucky with interest and had produced intense excitement among the churches. “Some individuals were favorably impressed with the plea for reform; others remained in perplexity and doubt, while not a few were disposed to cling tenaciously to their cherished opinions.”

CHAPTER VII.
JOHN SMITH

Among the Baptist preachers whom Mr. Campbell met on this visit was John Smith, who, on account of the prominent part he afterwards had in presenting apostolic Christianity to the people, deserves more than a passing notice. He was born October 15, 1784, in a log cabin in East Tennessee, whither his parents had moved a short time before his birth on account of religious persecution. His father and mother had espoused the Baptist faith. But as Virginia, at that time, had an established form of religion, the Episcopal, Baptists were a despised, hunted, persecuted people. They were described by their persecutors as “schismatical persons, so averse to the established religion, and so filled with new-fangled conceits of their heretical inventions, as to refuse to have their children baptized.” To escape from this galling oppression and to secure religious privileges which were so dear to him, George Smith took his little flock into the wilderness, seeking mercy at the hands of the savage tribes of the forest, which was not accorded him by the savage spirit of religious intolerance. In his new home he was at least free to work out the great problem of his own destiny in harmony with “the dictates of conscience” and the leadings of Providence. He was humble-minded and earnestly pious. He held firmly every dogma of the Philadelphia Confession of Faith as it was expounded in his day. “He conscientiously sought, too, to impress his own severe faith on the minds of his children. To labor for their daily bread and to wait, with humbleness of heart, for the Holy Ghost, were the two great commandments on which hung all his precepts and admonitions. He exhorted them to seek after God, if, haply, they might find him; yet to esteem themselves dead and to abide the good time when, unless predestinated to eternal wrath, the mysterious Spirit would give them life and open their eyes to the beauties of the Saviour.”

When John was in his twelfth year the migratory spirit again seized George Smith, who determined to plunge into the wilderness once more, with a view of securing cheap lands and providing for the future of his growing family. Having sold his Tennessee farm, he set out, in the autumn of 1795, accompanied by John and an older brother, on the trail that led across the Cumberland Mountains in the unsettled territory of Kentucky, in search of a “goodly spot where he might build a cabin, plant a patch of corn, and prepare as well as he could for the family” that was to join him in the coming summer.

In the new home the life of the boy continued its developments along such lines as its rude surroundings stimulated. Of work there was plenty, and from his daily tasks he never shrank. Of opportunity for intellectual development there was none, and the thirst of the ambitious youth was unquenched. At this period John Smith’s spiritual nature gave promise of being as untamed as the forest that surrounded his home. Unhallowed sports crept into the backwoods. Sunday horse races and card-playing became the pastime of the young men. For the latter John had a fondness, and would creep away on Sundays to spend the day with idle companions in his favorite game; but the grief and patience of the father at last touched his heart, and he threw away his cards, saying, “It is wrong to distress so good a father as ours; it is a sin and a shame!”

SOUL STRUGGLES

This proved to be the turning point in the young man’s career, and with it came the question of religion demanding his consideration. Indeed the subject had been kept before him in some form from his earliest recollection. But the doctrine taught at that time was not very attractive to young hearts. Calvinism in its severest type was prevalent. It taught a “hell of the most appalling type, into which even little children might be cast; an unalterable destiny for every one, regardless of his conduct or his creed, as God might have chosen him for heaven or doomed him to hell before he was born; a dread uncertainty that rested on his fate; his utter inability to understand the Scriptures, to believe or repent, to love God or to obey him, until endued with power from on high; the necessity of some supernatural sign or sensation, some miraculous voice or vision, as an evidence of pardon and acceptance with God.”