In 1829, Alexander debated a well-known agnostic of the day named Robert Owen, and they said that on the last day of this debate an estimated 1200 people were present. This debate was conducted in Cincinnati, Ohio. He would also debate an official of the Catholic Church, a Bishop John Baptiste Purcell, also in Cincinnati. This took place in 1837.

In November of 1843, he debated another Presbyterian in Lexington, Kentucky, and interestingly enough, the moderator of this debate was the well-known statesman and politician, Henry Clay. Henry Clay, of course, is known—he was not a member of the church, but he was well-known as a senator of several terms from Kentucky, and also an unsuccessful presidential candidate—he ran for president on more than one occasion.

There was a book that was published from this debate, and the book was over 900 pages! More than 500 of those 900 pages was actually the debate script. What were the other 400 pages? Well, you know, the ancillary things—index, table of contents, bibliography, instructions, comments by the moderator, etc.

And then, Alexander debated with one named Obediah Jennings, also a Presbyterian, in 1832. This debate took place in Nashville, Tennessee.

Just a few more things about Alexander Campbell that I thought would be interesting to you. Of course, he was very, very well-known. He was the friend of statesmen; he was the friend of presidents. He was not only a well-known debater and preacher, but he was the President of a college, Bethany College, which is in Bethany, West Virginia. He was a very, very successful businessman. He never took any remuneration for his preaching; he was self-supporting; not that he had anything against preachers being paid, but he was able to support himself and his family quite well. He was also visited with tragedy. He would end up having two wives die, as well as a couple of children in childbirth. But, the death that affected him most was the death of a son, Wickliff. This would happen while Alexander was on a trip to Scotland in 1847 or so. The boy was swimming in the creek near the home, this Buffalo Creek where the family had been baptized back in 1812, and he would drown in the creek. Alexander, of course, received word of that while he was on this trip to the British Isles. Friends and acquaintances say that he never really recovered from that; that he would grieve for the rest of his life and change visibly in some ways that his friends and his associates could see.

There were a couple of other things that would transpire during that period, as well, that would affect his health. It would be on this trip to the British Isles, when he was in Scotland, that he would actually be imprisoned for a brief period of time. He was accused of slander by someone. It turned out that he would eventually be exonerated, but he was accused of slander; he was imprisoned; and during his brief stay in prison he would become quite ill—he would develop cold and fever. That would begin a decline in his overall health.

But, during that time in Scotland he preached to a gathering of over 7,000 on one occasion in Edinburgh, Scotland. That was in August of 1847. He preached for three hours. Somebody said, “Whew!” [Laughter] Thomas Chalmers, who was a commentator and who wrote some about this trip to Scotland, said that “Campbell was one of the greatest orators to come and speak in the British Isles.”

Well, in addition, Alexander would be faced with some difficult things that would come about in the late 1840’s and early 1850’s. One of the things that came along during that period of time in the middle part of the 1800’s was the question of Missionary Societies. We will be discussing this further. While, in the beginning, Alexander Campbell taught that Societies outside of the church were manmade, therefore were unscriptural, he would eventually be named as the first President of the American Christian Missionary Society in 1849. He was never active; he never really took it, they say, all that seriously, but this would affect his credibility in the eyes of some—the fact that he would be a part of that movement.

By the way, there was another issue that came along during this same period of time of the middle 1800’s, and that was the matter of instrumental music. Alexander never would, never did, support the use of the instrument of music. As a matter of fact, he is quoted as saying that “an instrument of music in the worship would be like having a cow bell at a concert.” In other words, it just didn’t belong there.

Alexander Campbell died on March 4, 1866. I would just mention briefly that the Millennial Harbinger, which was, of course, his paper that he had written and published for those many years, was taken over by his son-in-law, W. K. Pendleton. Oftentimes, you see the name of W. K. Pendleton as being associated with the Restoration Movement. But, Pendleton would be guilty, really, of revising the Declaration and Address of Thomas Campbell. He would write in the Millennial Harbinger that what Thomas had really intended when he made the statement about “speaking where the Bible speaks; and being silent where the Bible is silent,” was that, yes, one should speak where the Bible speaks, but where the Bible is silent there is liberty. This is how Pendleton “interpreted” what Thomas Campbell had said, stating that this is what Thomas really meant by his statement of “being silent where the Bible is silent.” In other words, if the Bible doesn’t condemn it specifically, then it is acceptable…according to Pendleton’s “interpretation” of Thomas Campbell’s statement. Does that sound familiar? You know, there are many in our day who are advocating that same thing. And so, this, of course, would fuel some of the fires that were going on at that time, like the Missionary Society, the question of instrumental music; also “higher criticism.” You know, we spoke a number of weeks ago about what was going on in the 19^th Century, and that one of the things that affected the thinking was “lower criticism” and “higher criticism.” Well, this fueled the fires of those who were involved in “higher criticism.” And, of course, it would begin to open the doors of apostasy for this Restoration Movement.