Time would fail me to tell of all the Sons of Erin who labored in those early days for the success of the Methodist cause, but enough has been said to prove, at least, that Irishmen can claim a large place in the founding of that denomination on these shores.
In the year of 1809 there came to America from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander. They were men of sterling character, marked ability and decided convictions. For several years they were active and successful workers in the Baptist denomination and in 1823 Alexander Campbell established the Christian Baptist and continued as its editor until his break with that denomination on doctrinal grounds, and in 1827 he organized the Church of the Disciple of Christ. So successful became his ministry that a college was demanded for the training of young men for the ministry and in 1840 he established Bethany College at Bethany, West Virginia, which has sent out in the world more than eleven thousand graduates in the past seventy years, and the denomination which he founded ranks fifth in the protestant denominations in America, with a membership of over one million and a half.
He died March 4th, 1866, and his remains rest in Bethany, West Virginia.
I wish I had time to tell you of those of Irish birth who filled prominent positions in the pulpits of these denominations in later years. At one period three of Erin’s sons adorned the pulpits of New York City: Rev. Dr. George S. Rainsford, of St. George’s Protestant Episcopal Church; Rev. Dr. John Hall, of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and Rev. Dr. Henry M. Gallagher, of the Hanson Place Baptist Church of Brooklyn.
I have presented these facts, not to arouse religious strife, but rather to give glory to the land of my birth for what her sons have done on these shores, in peace as well as in war.
I am happy to say we are not here representing any sect but a country; in fact, we are all Irishmen tonight.
We have done much for America and well may we be proud of it, but never forget that America has done much for us.
When it was impossible for us to develop the latent powers born in our race in the land we loved we found the opportunities so badly needed under the folds of that starry banner, to the joy of every true Irish heart in this and the old land.
I hope that we will get to know each other as the years go by and that this organization will grow and flourish to the true glory of “Dear Old Ireland.”
God bless you, I say, however you pray;