Introduction
1. IT BEGAN IN SCOTLAND
   
2. THOMAS CAMPBELL WRITES HIS DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
   
3. THE SPIRIT OF THE "DECLARATION AND ADDRESS"
   
4. PRINCIPLES OF THE DOCUMENT
   
5. HISTORIC NOTES ON OUR FIRST CHURCH
   
6. "LET CHRISTIAN UNITY BE OUR POLAR STAR"
   
7. THE NOBLEST ACT IN BARTON STONE'S LIFE
   
8. LEARNING FROM A BACKWOODS PREACHER
   
9. CHRISTIANS IN BABYLON
   
10. WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?
    
11. THE ESSENCE OF THE CAMPBELL PLEA
    
12. THE DEATH OF A DREAM
    
13. THE SAND CREEK ADDRESS
    
14. A MUDDLED MOVEMENT
    
15. THE AUTHORITY TOTEM
    
16. THE PARTY SPIRIT
    
17. THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
    
18. OUR COSTLIEST SIN: EXCLUSIVISM
    
19. RESTORATION OR REFORMATION
    
20. A BOY LEARNS THE MEANING OF BROTHERHOOD
    
21. THE BUTTING BRETHREN
    
22. ANALYSIS OF LEGALISM
    
23. THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
    
24. THOUGHTS ON FELLOWSHIP
    
25. ON THE ROCKS
    
26. WITHDRAWING FROM THE DISORDERLY
    
27. CAUSING DIVISIONS
    
28. TWO GREAT ERRORS
    
29. UNION IN TRUTH
    
30. ONE BODY IN CHRIST
    
31. UNITY AND IDENTITY
    
32. UNITY IN DIVERSITY
    
33. IS DOCTRINE IMPORTANT?
    
34. THE WEIGHTIER MATTERS
    
35. MUST WE GIVE UP OUR OPINIONS?
    
36. WHAT DIFFERENCES DO DIFFERENCES MAKE?
    
37. THE "ONE BAPTISM" AND FELLOWSHIP
    
38. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE UNIMMERSED?
    
39. OUR FATHERS ON "WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?"
    
40. "OUR BROTHERS IN THE DENOMINATIONS"
    
41. WHAT IS "OUR FELLOWSHIP"?
    
42. ARE WE TO FELLOWSHIP THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH?
    
43. I WOULD ABDICATE
    
44. A BASIC FALLACY TO OVERCOME
    
45. CAN WE BE UNITED AND NOT KNOW IT?
    
46. SEPARATED BUT NOT DIVIDED
    
47. THE ONE CHURCH INDIVISIBLE
    
48. UNITY WILL COME, BUT
    
49. IF NOT BROTHERHOOD, THEN CO-EXISTENCE
    
50. THIS IS OUR GLORY!
    
51. THE UNIFYING POWER OF THE CROSS
    

The verbosity of the Address section, where some paragraphs run for several pages, subjects the document to the risk of not selling for what it is worth. It is therefore helpful to provide some outline to the ideas set forth, such as follows, which faithfully summarizes the thought, as the quotations will indicate.

1. Division is terribly sinful, obstructing the mission of the church.

He refers to divisions within the church as sad, evil, awful, woeful and accursed. The party spirit breaks up churches and neighborhoods alike, and as for unevangelized areas they "remain to this day entirely destitute of a Gospel ministry, many of them in little better than a state of heathenism, the Churches being either so weakened with divisions that they cannot send ministers, or the people so divided among themselves that they will not receive them." At length he scores the evil of partyism, such as: "What awful and distressing effects those sad divisions produced! what aversions, what reproaches, what backbitings, what evil surmisings, what angry contentions, what enmities, what excommunications, and even persecution!!!"

2. It is the responsibility of Christians to be more sensitive to the divisions within the church and do something about them, however insurmountable the task may appear.

"Is it not then your incumbent duty to endeavor, by all scriptural means, to have these evils remedied," he writes, and then adds this special word to the clergy: "And does it not peculiarly belong to you, who occupy the place of Gospel ministers, to be leaders in this laudable undertaking? Much depends upon your hearty concurrence and zealous endeavors." He criticizes those that are complacent in the face of the urgency for unity, those who think the task too difficult, or who argue that the time is not ripe. The prayers of Christ and the church both in heaven and on earth are with those that make the effort to unify the church, and so "We judge it our duty to make the attempt, by using all due means in our power to promote it." And he asks why it should be thought incredible that the Church of Christ cannot resume its original unity, peace, and purity.

3. Divisions, for the most part, are over matters of private opinion, not over the essentials.

The churches are agreed, not only on the great doctrines of faith and holiness, but on the positive ordinances of the Gospel institution, "so that our differences, at most, are about the things in which the kingdom of God does not consist, that is, about matters of private opinion or human invention."

4. Christ is the only source of unity, his word the only terms.

"You are all, dear brethren, equally included as the objects of our love and esteem. With you all we desire to unite in the bonds of an entire Christian unity-Christ alone being the head, the center, his word the rule; an explicit belief of, and manifest conformity to it, in all things-the terms." He points out that for the sake of unity neither can require more than this of the other.

5. The call to unite the church is not unreasonable, the time is not unseasonable.

"We hope, then, what we urge will neither be deemed an unreasonable nor an unseasonable undertaking. Why should it be thought unseasonable? Can any time be assigned, while things continue as they are, that would prove more favorable for such an attempt, or what could be supposed to make it so?" He recognizes that there will always be those in the church that will support its divisions, and that Satan will not be idle in preserving them. He observes that men do not hesitate to act when their secular interests are at stake.

6. Since Jesus prayed for the unity of his church, it must follow that adequate means can be found. We can do it!

"That such a thing, however, will be accomplished, one way or other, will not be questioned by any that allow themselves to believe the commands and prayers of our Lord Jesus will not utterly prove ineffective.... We believe then it is as practicable as it is eligible. Let us attempt it. `Up, and be doing, and the Lord will be with us.' Shall we pray for a thing, and not strive to obtain it?!"

7. Since we will be one in heaven, we must be one on earth.

"There are no divisions in the grave, nor in that world which lies beyond it," he says. "There our divisions must come to an end! We must all unite there! Would to God we could find in our hearts to put an end to our short-lived divisions here; that so we might leave a blessing behind us; even a happy and united Church."

8. We must begin to associate with each other and be less interested in our own party, or unity will never be achieved. United we shall prevail!

The task of uniting the church cannot be done if we "run every man to his own house and consult only the interests of his own party." He lays down a practical rule: "Until you associate, consult, and advise together, and in a friendly and Christian manner explore the subject, nothing can be done," and so he lays on them "the obvious and important duty of association." Again and again he states his willingness to unite with the Christians in all the sects. "United we shall prevail!," he assures them.

9. With nations being ravaged by war, how can we remain a divided church?

Here Campbell looks beyond his own new frontier to a world wracked by the Napoleonic wars, "these awful convulsions and revolutions that have dashed and are dashing to pieces the nations like a potter's vessel." He poses a sober question that could be asked of most generations of Americans: "Have not the remote vibrations of this dreadful shock been felt even by us, whom God has graciously placed at so great a distance?" Then he cries like a prophet to a dispassionate people: "Is it time for us to sit still in our corruptions and divisions when the Lord, by his word and providence, is so loudly and expressly calling us to repentance and reformation?"

10. Our efforts for unity are but a humble beginning, so we solicit the helps of others, for the collective graces of the whole church will assure us success.

He praises "that dear-bought liberty" that has set him free from "subjection to any authority but his own in matters of religion," and because of this the Association is seeking to promote peace and unity, "the mite of our humble endeavors." The propositions he sets forth, he allows, are but preliminary, and he seeks "the collective graces that are conferred upon the Church" so that what is sown in weakness will be raised in power. He sought the counsel and cooperation of all Christians, "however unhappily distinguished by party names," in promoting "the unity, purity, and prosperity of his Church." Again and again there is that urgency to his plea: "Come, then, dear brethren, we most humbly beseech you, cause your light to shine upon our weak beginnings, that we may see to work by it."

He then sets forth, in a more orderly arrangement, thirteen propositions that form the heart of the Declaration, several of which are a repetition of the foregoing principles. The first proposition is probably the most quoted and most influential of any paragraph ever written in the Movement's history:

That the Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures, and that manifest the same by their tempers and conduct, and of none else as none else can be truly and properly called Christians.

This has served as the basis of the Disciples' theology of the church, that the church by its very nature is one, and that it is a contradiction to speak of a divided church. Unity is somehow there, as God's gift, however hidden by partyism. Ronald Osborn, quoting this paragraph from Campbell, writes: "From the outset Disciples have emphasized the insight so often repeated in ecumenical circles today concerning the givenness of unity among all Christians," (1) but Ralph Wilburn may express the thrust of Campbell's proposition even more pointedly when he sees the unity of the church as "real but not adequately realized."(2)

The point is sometimes made that "their" should be emphasized in "those in every place that profess their faith in Christ," so as to recognize Campbell's openness to diversity of doctrine in the united church. But it is not likely that he intended this, for he often italicized words he wanted to stress in the document and did not do so here. His recognition of unity in diversity is sufficiently stated without resorting to this device.

Thirty-five years later Thomas combined this line on the church's unity with his ever consuming theme, love, in a letter written from his son's home in Bethany: "The church of Christ upon earth is constitutionally and essentially one: therefore, the first relative duty of every member of it is to preserve this unity by loving each other as Christ has loved them."(3) Those combined principles, The church is one, therefore love, form the essence of Thomas Campbell's teaching.

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1. Ronald E. Osborn, "The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church," in The Reformation of Tradition, The Renewal of the Church, Vol. 1, Edited by W. B. Blakemore, St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1963, p. 345.

2. Ralph Wilburn, "The Unity We Seek" in The Revival of the Churches, the Renewal of the Church, Vol. 3, Edited by W. B. Blakemore, St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1963, p. 345.

3. Thomas Campbell, "Extract of A Letter," Millennial Harbinger, 1844, p. 104.

(The Stone-Campbell Movement, by Leroy Garrett; College Press, P.O. Box 1132, Joplin, MO 64802. Used by permission.)