There were some who early on supported the Society and would then later oppose it as being unscriptural. I’ll mention just a few of those:

1. Jesse B. Ferguson, Nashville, editor of the Christian Magazine recorded at the close of 1849 a number of write-in comments against the Society.

2. James M. Mathis, editor of The Christian Record, in Indiana said, “A missionary society was formed for the spread of the gospel in our own and foreign lands. This is quite an important measure. We have always been in favor of sending the gospel to the destitute at home and abroad; but our own plan was to do all this through the church, as such.”

3. Benjamin Franklin, editor of the American Christian Review, originally supported it, but in later years opposed it.

4. Jacob Creath, Jr. opposed it from almost the beginning.

5. J.T. Johnson supported it to just before his death.

6. Tolbert Fanning and Granville Lipscomb began the Gospel Advocate in 1855 coming out strongly against the Society.

Well, here is something that I thought was very interesting. Maybe you have run across this information before, but speaking about the Society and the problems that it caused, it never really got off the ground to do very much. It was formed; a president was appointed; 23 vice-presidents were appointed, and so on. It ended up being a terrible issue, but it never really accomplished very much. The first foreign mission point was in Jerusalem. A James Turner Barkley was selected as the first missionary. He was sent to Jerusalem in 1850. He arrived there February 10, 1851, and he left to return during the summer of 1854. And the comment is, “Not much was accomplished while there.”

And then, there was an African Work that was begun in 1853. A man named Alexander Cross, a black slave-preacher from Kentucky was selected. He departed from Baltimore November 5, 1853. He arrived in January, 1854, in Monrovia. He spent two months in preparation to preach. He was warned before his departure to be careful about the hot sun in Africa. He didn’t take heed to the warning, and he would die within a few months of fever and heat-stroke, never having preached a sermon.

Other works developed over the next few years leading up to the Civil War in 1861. A J.O. Beardslee went to Jamaica in January 20, 1858. W.W. Eaton went to Nova Scotia in 1858. And, John O'Kane went to Kansas in 1859.

Also, there were already hard feelings and division between North and South, but the American Christian Missionary Society would eventually come out and not be in support of the North and not be in support of the South. The Civil War separated brethren, disallowing involvement by southern brethren. This was probably the chief reason southern churches moved away from supporting the Society.

There was also the introduction of instruments of music. And, while this is sad, there are also a couple of sort of cute accounts in this reference that I was reading. Scattered reports of the introduction of the instrument were reported as early as 1851. Aylette Raines recorded in his diary that a Brother Saunders wanted to introduce the instrument of music at Millersburg, Kentucky, but he (Aylette Raines) vigorously opposed it, and that was April, 1851. In the early 1850’s, there were many discussions in some of the brotherhood journals of that day. Many wrote in, requesting studies on the instrument of music. There was one brother named J.B. Henshall who wrote against its introduction by saying that those wanting to introduce it were “worldly minded.” And then, here’s something I think I mentioned last time. Alexander Campbell, in an article in the Millennial Harbinger, in October, 1851, said, “. . . I presume, to all spiritually-minded Christians such aids would be as a cow bell in a concert.” Well, there were others. Ben Franklin wrote against it in 1860 by saying that it would be only permissible if a church or preacher had lost the Spirit of Christ and were trying to become a fashionable society rather than the church of the Bible.

There was an L.L. Pinkerton of Midway, Kentucky. He responded that as far as he was aware the church at Midway where he preached [Midway Christian Church] was the only one of his knowledge where the instrument had been successfully introduced. Here was the rational: It was added because of the deplorable singing. He said that the singing would “scare even the rats from worship.” They first met in the home of some brethren on Saturday night for practice, to get the right pitch. And in the home, there was a melodeon. And so, they began to sing with the accompaniment of the melodeon on Saturday nights, and they thought it sounded so good that they began to use it on Sunday at worship.

Well, here’s what I thought was very funny. There was a brother, who was one of the elders there at the Midway Christian Church, named Adam Hibler. After they moved the melodeon into the building and began to use it, late one night, helped his slave—his slave was named Reuben—he sent Reuben through a window to remove the melodeon from the building. With an axe they chopped it up in a thousand pieces on the church’s front lawn. But, not to be dissuaded, another was purchased. Adam Hibler again, sneaking over to the building late at night with his slave, Reuben, took the melodeon out of the building, passing it through the window, and he put it in his wagon, took it home and hid it in his barn. Well, another one was purchased, but it was later destroyed as the building burned to the ground. [Laughter] And by the way, if you’re interested in antiques and historical things, that melodeon that Brother Hibler hid in his barn was found some years ago and is now on display at the Midway College Library.