There were many wounds caused by the Civil War to the Restoration Movement. There was a great deal of upheaval that was caused by the Civil War, and that is going to actually continue for several decades after the war. These are wounds that will not soon heal. The division—the problems—were primarily along the North – South lines. Churches in the North were supportive of the war; churches in the South were not.

I want to continue and talk about, for lack of a better title, The Power of the Pen. At first, I was not going to share this with you, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought that it was important in helping to, first of all, continue some of the debate that was ongoing just prior to and during the war; but then also, in dealing with some of the other issues that had already come along, such as the American Christian Missionary Society, instruments of music, and that sort of thing.

We want to just take this time and look at the influence of several editors, those who edited several publications—periodicals—during this period of time. Again, this would be something on the order of the power of the pen, I guess we would call it. As one writer termed it, the Restoration Movement did not have “bishops,” bishops like the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church, and that sort of thing—men who were leaders, and what not. But, rather, the Restoration Movement had editors. In some ways, these editors actually provided a type of leadership. Now, of course, with the congregations, they were part of the Restoration Movement, and they were all autonomous. We know and understand that; there was no hierarchy, but there was the commonality of these several journals that were written, and the power and the influence of those who edited these journals.

We begin, of course, with Alexander Campbell. We’ve talked before about the fact that he wrote and edited first The Christian Baptist, and then the name was changed to The Millennial Harbinger. Barton W. Stone was the editor of a paper in the early days, and so on.

And so, we see, then, that prior to the days of radio, television, the Internet, all of these kinds of mass media that we enjoy today—also prior to the time of not only rapid communication, but also travel, and what not—that these journals, these publications, wielded a good bit of power and influence. And we want to mention about four or five of them.

Benjamin Franklin (1812 – 1878) – “The American Christian Review”

Benjamin Franklin was the editor of a publication, The American Christian Review. This publication really was the most influential of the publications in the North after the war. Benjamin Franklin began preaching in the 1830’s. He was born in 1812; he died in 1878. He was something of a self-made man, a little bit like “Raccoon” John Smith. He was not quite as flamboyant, perhaps, as John Smith. He had little formal education, but he would become the most popular preacher in all the brotherhood in the 1860’s and the 1870’s. They say that part of what his appeal was that he “spoke the language of the masses;” he spoke in a way that people could understand, and thus, he enjoyed the confidence, if you will, of many people. Benjamin Franklin was probably the most successful and the most popular debater in the church, second only to Alexander Campbell. Many of the debates that he undertook assisted his popularity as a preacher.

He began his career as an editor in 1845. As we said, he began preaching about 1830; he began as an editor in 1845. His first publication was called The Reformer, and he published that from 1845 to 1847. That was followed by what he called The Western Reformer, and that was published between 1847 and 1850. And then, he changed the name and called the publication The Proclamation and Reformer, and that was published between 1850 and 1853. But, his greatest influence as an editor was exerted through his publication that we mentioned, The American Christian Review, which he founded in 1856, and he would continue, then, publishing that and editing that publication until his death in 1878.

The American Christian Review was a monthly publication during its first two years, but The Review became a weekly newspaper-sized journal in 1858 and was soon the most influential paper in the brotherhood. You know, I paused when I was reading this material to think about what would have to go into preparing, in the late 19^th Century, a journal, a publication—even a monthly publication. I know that Brother Dub McClish, when he was here last year for the Gospel Meeting that he held for us, made a few mentions about The Gospel Journal,which he edits. Privately, he had told me a couple of different times; he said, “That is the most demanding thing that I do.” He said, “It’s like having a baby, you know? It makes certain demands; you’ve got to do certain things and they’ve got to be done on a repetitive basis. You can’t put it off, you know, ‘I don’t feel like doing it; I’ll put it off until next….’ Oh, no! You’ve got all of these deadlines, all of these gates that you’ve got to go through to get that done.” Well, that journal, and if you’ve read the most recent edition, he has in his “Editor’s Clippings” there a description about how that particular journal is put together: it is Emailed around the country, you know. It’s edited over here and it’s put together over there, and articles come from up here, and of course, all of that comes together through the magic of the Internet. But still, it is a very demanding task! What would it have taken in the late 19^th Century to do this on a weekly basis?! You know, all of the tedious writing and preparation and the type-setting. Oh, these men were dedicated men. And then, after two years as a monthly publication he increases it to a weekly publication the size of a newspaper! Oh, man! What a work that was!

Well, Franklin described the paper this way; he said, “The Review is intended for and adapted to the masses. It is a plain Gospel paper.” He says, “It aims to imitate the style of Jesus and the apostles and stand firmly for their teaching in all things.”

This paper, The Review, was thoroughly conservative in its approach to the New Testament and to New Testament Christianity. Franklin strongly opposed such things as instrumental music and other “innovations” that were coming along in those days. The editorial policy of The Review toward the American Christian Missionary Society—we talked about the Missionary Society—became a very important factor after the Civil War. You’ll recall that we mentioned last time when we were talking about the Civil War that the American Christian Missionary Society would eventually, in 1863, come out in favor of the war and basically denigrate Christians, the church, in the South. This tended to drive that wedge that was already there quite a bit deeper.

But, interestingly enough, Benjamin Franklin had been one of the early supporters of the Missionary Society. He had attended the organization meeting which was held first in 1849; he was elected to a high position in the Missionary Society. As a matter of fact, he was the Manager of the Society and held that position for some 17 years. However, because of the controversy of the Civil War and, then, because of what the Society did by supporting the war, Franklin’s support turned to opposition. He opposed Christians serving in the army, and he believed that the Missionary Society should stay with what he referred to “its legitimate work” and avoid “political pronouncements.”

Well, as we already mentioned, in 1863, the Society adopted that resolution supporting the Union, and in Franklin’s words, he said that the Society “brought strife and contention to the church, and it, therefore, should be abandoned.” In 1866, Franklin announced in his paper, in The Review, that he could no longer defend the Missionary Society, but instead, he had come to believe that it was “an unscriptural organization.” Because of the power, because of the influence, of Benjamin Franklin’s paper, The Review, because of its wide circulation in the North, as well as in the South, this really was a staggering blow to the Missionary Society. Then, of course, the controversy would continue for the next couple of decades.

Isaac Errett [1820 – 1888] – “The Christian Standard”

Well, let me mention another paper. This is not nearly as well-known, but it was sort of a counter to Benjamin Franklin’s Review, and that paper was called The Christian Standard. Following the war, there were an increasing number of brethren in the North who began to have a problem with Benjamin Franklin and his conservative approach. There were men who believed that his point of view was too narrow, that he was too dogmatic. What was needed in their mind was a “more progressive religion,” as they would express it. And so, in answer to his very conservative paper there was a paper which began to be printed in April of 1866 called The Standard. And one named Isaac Errett [1820 – 1888] was chosen to edit this particular paper.

Well The Standard was a weekly journal, and it, of course, would support the Missionary Society. They would also get into editorial debates in the paper, not only with Benjamin Franklin and The Review, but also with David Lipscomb in The Gospel Advocate. Of course, The Gospel Advocate resumed publication following the war in 1866. And so, there was a lot of banter that was going back and forth on Scriptural matters such as instrumental music, the American Christian Missionary Society, and the like, but also many political things were being debated and discussed, like serving in the military, like the relationship of a Christian to the government, and that sort of thing.

And so, this kind of banter and debate going back and forth really did not serve to advance the cause of the Restoration Movement during that period. It actually served to be something of a detractor, but again, here we have a group of individuals wanting to counter a conservative publication, The Review, feeling as though that there needs to be a “more progressive direction” taken. And so, they published this other journal, The Christian Standard.