Some Review

We previously talked about the combining, the merging, of two movements, the Stone and the Campbell Movements. That occurred in about 1832. We also talked about some of the well-known pioneer preachers of the day, including one named “Raccoon” John Smith. I told you a little bit about “Raccoon” John Smith. I told you a couple of little anecdotal stories about him [Anecdote: a short entertaining account of some event]. I told you the story about when he showed up at an empty meetinghouse at the edge of a town and started preaching to no one. But, as a result of his preaching very long and loud, he would eventually draw a crowd. And then, there was the time that he rode into the outdoor meeting on his horse, held on to a tree limb, and swung back and forth shouting, “Take heed! Take heed!” And he then fell to the ground, shouting out, “Lest ye fall!”

Well, one of our members told me another story about “Raccoon” John Smith, and I’ll relate that to you. He was having a discussion with a denominational preacher, one who practiced infant baptism. They were going at it hot and heavy, apparently, in this discussion about infant baptism. I don’t know the details of the story, but the two of them were apparently somewhere near a body of water—a lake, a pond, a river, whatever. Eventually, to make his point, “Raccoon” John Smith got this denominational preacher in the water and started to dunk him under the water. After several dunkings, the denominational preacher came up, and he said, “Wh…what are you doing?” “Raccoon” John Smith said, “Well, I’m baptizing you!” and he dunked him under again. And the preacher came up again, and he said, “But I don’t want to be baptized!” And “Raccoon” John Smith said, “That’s my point.” [Laughter] (You know, infant baptism?—you need to believe the Truth and want to be baptized?)

Well, “Raccoon” John Smith was good at illustrating a point, wasn’t he?

We also talked previously about some issues that came along after the two Movements—the Campbell and the Stone Movements—had merged together. One of those was the American Christian Missionary Society. We talked about some of the controversy surrounding that. We also talked about problems introducing the instrument of music into the worship service. Well, we’ll talk a little bit more about the Missionary Society as it relates to the problems during the Civil War, and that’s what we want to spend most of our time with in this lesson. We’ll be talking about the impact of the Civil War on the brotherhood, on churches of Christ.

The Years between the Lexington Unity Meeting and the Civil War

The story of the Restoration Movement in the decades between the Lexington unity meeting and the Civil War is one of remarkable optimism, vitality and numerical growth. The geographic center of the Movement was the Ohio Valley—Bethany, Virginia (eventually West Virginia; Lexington, Kentucky; Cincinnati, Ohio and westward—but radiating from this center it spread rapidly in every direction, into the South, through Indiana and Illinois, west of the Mississippi into Missouri and Iowa.

But, be impressed with the fact that there was considerable growth which took place in this period of about 30 years, or so—a little less than 30 years—between the time of the two Movements coming together [1832] and the beginning of the Civil War [1861 – 1865]. The united Movement probably had between 20,000 and 25,000 members in 1832, but less than 30 years later, the estimated membership of the church was nearly 200,000. The geographic spread of the Restoration Movement had been so rapid that by 1860 there were 17 states where at least a thousand Christians could be counted. Two men, Garrison and DeGroot, were religious historians of the day, so the following information is obtained from some historical documents. According to Garrison and DeGroot’s estimate, the 17 states and the number of Christians counted in each in about 1860 are listed as follows:

Kentucky 45,000
Indiana 25,000
Ohio 25,000
Missouri 20,000
Illinois 15,000
Tennessee 12,285
Iowa 10,000
Virginia 8,430
New York 2,500
North Carolina 2,500
Texas 2,500
Alabama 2,458
Mississippi 2,450
Arkansas 2,257
California 1,223
Georgia 1,100
Michigan 1,000

Well, I find that very interesting to see the growth, the very rapid growth that took place, and so I give it to you for that purpose, to be impressed with that. But, moreover, there’s another purpose for me sharing this information with you that will be more visible as we enter into our discussion about the Civil War. As you look at that list of states, you know that many of those states were borders for our border states, or were borderstates [of New Mexico] at that time of the Mason-Dixon Line.