Ancestors

by William Maxwell

  “A very pretty girl, who was kneeling … immediately before us, amongst an immense quantity of jargon, broke out thus: ‘Woe! woe to the backsliders! hear it, hear it, Jesus! when I was fifteen my mother died, and I backslided, Oh Jesus, I backslided! take me home to my mother, Jesus! take me home to her, for I am weary! Oh John Mitchell! John Mitchell!’ and after sobbing piteously behind her raised hands, she lifted her sweet face again, which was pale as death, and said, ‘Shall I sit on the sunny bank of salvation with my mother? my own dear mother? Oh Jesus, take me home, take me home!’

  “Who could refuse a tear to this earnest wish for death in one so young and so lovely? But I saw her, ere I left the ground, with her hand fast locked, and her head supported by a man who looked very much as Don Juan might, when sent back to earth as too bad for the regions below.

  “One woman near us continued to ‘call on the Lord,’ as it is termed, in the loudest possible tone, and without a moment’s interval, for the two hours that we kept our dreadful station. She became frightfully hoarse, and her face so red as to make me expect she would burst a blood-vessel.…

  “The stunning noise was sometimes varied by the preachers beginning to sing; but the convulsive movements of the poor maniacs only became more violent. At length the atrocious wickedness of this horrible scene increased to a degree of grossness, that drove us from our station; we returned to the carriage at about three o’clock in the morning, and passed the remainder of the night in listening to the ever increasing tumult at the pen. To sleep was impossible. At daybreak the horn again sounded, to send them to private devotion; and in about an hour afterwards I saw the whole camp … joyously and eagerly employed in preparing and devouring their most substantial breakfasts.”

  The worship of the Golden Calf in the backwoods of Indiana is what it seems most like, but my Grandmother Maxwell spoke of attending camp meetings as casually as we would speak of going to the movies.

  When Stone went home and reported what he had seen, many of the congregation at Cane Ridge left the church weeping. He hurried over to Concord to preach that night and “two little girls were struck down under the preaching of the word, and in every respect were exercised as those were in the south of Kentucky.” He had an appointment to preach the next day at William Maxwell’s, and as he arrived at the gate, his friend Nathaniel Rogers, “a man of the first respectability and influence in the neighborhood,” saw him and shouted aloud the praises of God and the two men rushed into each other’s arms, Rogers still praising the Lord aloud. In twenty minutes from the time Stone started preaching, scores of people had fallen to the ground. Others tried to flee from the scene and couldn’t. An intelligent deist of the neighborhood went up to Stone and said, “Mr. Stone, I always thought before that you were an honest man; but now I am convinced that you are deceiving the people.” Stone spoke a few words to him mildly, and the deist “fell as a dead man, and rose no more till he confessed the Saviour.”

  McGready and the other revivalists moved north with the spring weather. Every Sunday all through May and June there were meetings at the churches around Lexington, and the attendance got larger and larger. Between five and six thousand people thronged to Stone’s church at Concord. The whole countryside appeared to be in motion.

  In July, Stone was married to Elizabeth Campbell, the daughter of a colonel and the granddaughter of General William Russell of Virginia. She was a pious woman, and much engaged in religion. After the ceremony they hurried up from Muhlenberg County, where her mother lived, to Cane Ridge, to be in readiness for what turned out to be the most famous of all the great camp meetings.

  It began on the seventh of August, and lasted six days and nights. The attendance was estimated at twenty thousand—ten per cent of the entire white population of Kentucky at that time. Stone says, “The numbers converted will be known only in eternity. Many things transpired there, which were so much like miracles, that if they were not, they had the same effects as miracles on infidels and unbelievers; for many of them were by these convinced that Jesus was the Christ, and bowed in submission to him.” Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist ministers preached, sometimes simultaneously, at different stations throughout the woods.

  It was not Stone’s meeting, nor did it take place at his church, but he was not merely an interested spectator. “Since the beginning of the excitement I had been employed day and night in preaching, singing, visiting and praying with the distressed, till my lungs failed, and became inflamed, attended with a violent cough and spitting of blood. It was feared to be the beginning of consumption.”

  His doctor forbade him to preach any more, and he felt himself fast descending to the tomb. “Viewing this event near, and that I should soon cease from my labors, I had a great desire to attend a camp meeting near Paris.”

  At this meeting, in a shady grove a few miles from Cane Ridge, for the first time a Presbyterian preacher spoke out against the work of the revivalists. He also insisted that the assembled multitude leave the camp and continue the meeting in town, in a church that wouldn’t hold half of them. They couldn’t do this without leaving their tents and wagons exposed, which a great many were unwilling to do. The consequence was, the meeting was divided. “Infidels and formalists triumphed at this supposed victory, and extolled the preacher to the skies; but the hearts of the revivalists were filled with sorrow. Being in a feeble state, I went to the meeting in town. A preacher was put forward, who had always been hostile to the work, and seldom mingled with us … I felt a strong desire to pray as soon as he should close. He at length closed, and I arose and said, let us pray. At that very moment another preacher of the same cast with the former, rose in the pulpit to preach another sermon. I proceeded to pray, feeling a tender concern for my fellow creatures, and expecting shortly to appear before my Judge. The people became much affected, and the house was filled with cries of distress. Some of the preachers jumped out of a window back of the pulpit, and left us. Forgetting my weakness, I pushed through the crowd from one to another, pointed them the way of salvation, and administered to them the comforts of the gospel. My good physician was there, came to me in the crowd, and found me wet with sweat. He hurried me to his house, and lectured me severely on the impropriety of my conduct. I immediately put on dry clothes, went to bed, slept comfortably, and rose next morning relieved from the disease which had baffled medicine, and threatened my life.”

  In the eyes of orthodox Presbyterians, it was all ignorant profanation, a parody of Divine Grace. They were just as offended by the fact that preachers of different denominations took part in the same meeting as they were by the men who circulated through the outskirts of the crowd selling whiskey. But the greatest outrage of all, and no doubt what made the formalists jump out of the window, was the doctrine that Jesus died for all and salvation depended only on believing in Him. It was simply not what Calvin said.

  Three months later, at a special session of the Washington (Kentucky) Presbytery, which included churches on both sides of the Ohio River, a lay elder arose and entered a verbal complaint against one of the most conspicuous figures at the Cane Ridge meeting, Richard McNemar, as a propagator of false doctrines. There were so many revivalists ready to come to his defense that his accusers were reluctant to force the question to a vote. The investigation was dragged out for two years, and then, without ever giving McNemar a hearing, the Presbytery concluded that his views amounted to Arminianism and were hostile to the interests of all true religion. A copy of this judgment was sent to every church under the supervision of the Washington Presbytery, and, at the same time, McNemar was appointed to preach among the vacant congregations as usual. It is the sort of logic that Alice in Wonderland is so full of.

  The Synod of Kentucky looked into the matter, and after censuring the Presbytery for various irregularities, it went on to try two of the Cane Ridge evangelists on charges of its own. It was also looking into the opinions and statements of Stone and three other revivalists—Marshall, Thompson, and Du
nlavy. “The four of us well knew what would be our fate,” Stone says, “for it was plainly hinted to us, that we would not be forgotten by the Synod. We waited anxiously for the issue, till we plainly saw it would be adverse to McNemar and consequently to us all. We then withdrew to a private garden where, after prayer for direction … we drew up a protest against the proceedings of the Synod in McNemar’s case, and a declaration of our independence, and of our withdrawal from their jurisdiction, but not from their communion. This protest we immediately presented to the Synod through their Moderator—it was altogether unexpected by them, and produced very unpleasant feelings; and a profound silence for a few minutes ensued. We retired to a friend’s house in town, whither we were quickly followed by a committee from the Synod, sent to reclaim us.” Old father David Rice reminded them “that every departure from Calvinism was an advance to atheism. The grades named by him were, from Calvinism to Arminianism—from Arminianism to Pelagianism—from Pelagianism to deism—from deism to atheism. This was his principal argument, which could have no effect on minds ardent in the search of truth.”

  In Scotland it had happened many times that a group of Presbyterians had withdrawn from the general organization of the church and continued to be Presbyterians. What was unprecedented here was that they were repudiating the church’s right to determine the doctrines set forth in the Bible. After several more tactful attempts to win the evangelists over, the Synod suspended them for departing from the standards of the church, declared their pulpits vacant, and appointed substitutes to take over their churches. The evangelists published a hundred-page pamphlet, in which they stated their objections to the Westminster Confession and all other confessions and creeds.

  The main body of Stone’s two congregations adhered to him, and asked him to continue as their pastor. He informed them that he would continue to preach among them, though not in the relation that had previously existed, and in their presence he tore up the contract by which they had obligated themselves for his support.

  His only means of making a living now was his farm. But he preached every night and frequently in the daytime, and since he had emancipated his two slaves and had no money to pay hired hands, he often found that the weeds were getting ahead of his corn. Though he was fatigued in body, his mind was, he said, as happy and calm as a summer evening. He took pen and ink with him to the cornfield, and as thoughts worthy of note occurred, he stopped plowing and committed them to paper, and so accumulated matter for a pamphlet on the doctrine of Atonement.

  The five evangelists formed a presbytery of their own—or what they called a presbytery; there were no officers, or any lay members, or any churches which the Springfield Presbytery could be said to represent. They were merely an unorganized group of independent Presbyterian ministers with a common purpose of reform. Other ministers, convinced by their arguments, united with them. Though they went about enthusiastically preaching and printing pamphlets against everything the Presbyterian Church stood for, they innocently hoped to remain an independent unit of it, and when they were not allowed to, they dissolved their “presbytery” and thereafter went by the name of the Christian Church. The action was announced in an ironic document of considerable importance—“The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery.” As Stone explains, quoting Scripture, where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of a testator, otherwise it is of no strength at all. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.

  The Testament begins: “The Presbytery of Springfield, sitting at Cane Ridge, in the county of Bourbon, being, through a gracious Providence, in more than ordinary bodily health, growing in size and strength daily; and in perfect soundness and composure of mind; and knowing that it is appointed for all delegated bodies once to die; and considering that the life of every such body is very uncertain, do make and ordain this our last Will and Testament, in manner and form following, viz.:

  “Imprimis. We will, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large; for there is but one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling.

  “Item. We will, that our name … be forgotten …

  “Item. We will, that our power of making laws for government of the church, and executing them by delegated authority, forever cease …

  “Item. We will, that candidates for the Gospel ministry henceforth study the Holy Scriptures with fervent prayer, and obtain license from God to preach the simple Gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven, without any admixture of philosophy, vain deceit, traditions of men, or the rudiments of the world. And let none henceforth take this honor to himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron.

  “Item. We will, that the church of Christ … resume her native right of internal government …

  “Item. We will, that each particular church … choose her own preacher, and support him by a free will offering without a written call or subscription—admit members—remove offenses; and never henceforth delegate her right of government to any man or set of men whatever.

  “Item. We will, that the people henceforth take the Bible as the only sure guide to heaven; and as many as are offended with other books, which stand in competition with it, may cast them into the fire if they choose …

  “Item. We will, that preachers and people, cultivate a spirit of mutual forbearance; pray more and dispute less …

  “Item. We will, that our weak brethren, who may have been wishing to make the Presbytery of Springfield their king, and wot not what is now become of it, betake themselves to the Rock of Ages, and follow Jesus for the future.

  “Item. We will, that the Synod of Kentucky examine every member, who may be suspected of having departed from the Confession of Faith, and suspend every such suspected heretic immediately; in order that the oppressed go free, and taste the sweets of gospel liberty.…”

  This mixture of piety and cheerful impudence acted, Stone says, “like fire in a dry stubble. The sparks lighting in various parts of the field would quickly raise as many blazes all around.”

  Most of the churches for which the revivalists had preached joined them, and new churches were organized. This is what happened when Stone preached to a group of Baptists in southwestern Ohio: “The result was, that they agreed to cast away their formularies and creeds, and take the Bible alone for their rule of faith and practice—to throw away their name Baptist and take the name ‘Christian’—and bury their association and to become one with us in the great work of Christian Union. Then they marched up in a band to the stand where Mr. Stone was preaching, shouting the praises of the Lord, and proclaiming what they had done.”

  In a short while, all but two of the Presbyterian churches in southwestern Ohio had become Christian churches. Soon there were hundreds, all through Kentucky, Tennessee, southern Ohio, and Indiana.

  There was also trouble. In 1805 the Shakers sent missionaries to Kentucky. “They informed us that they had heard of us in the East,” Stone says, “and greatly rejoiced in the work of God among us—that as far as we had gone we were right; but we had not gone far enough into the work—that they were sent by their brethren to teach the way of God more perfectly, by obedience to which we should be led into perfect holiness. They seemed to understand all the springs and avenues of the human heart. They delivered their testimony, and labored to confirm it by the Scriptures—promised the greatest blessings to the obedient, but certain damnation to the disobedient. They urged the people to confess their sins to them, especially the sin of matrimony, and to forsake their wives, wives their husbands. This was the burden of the testimony. They said they could perform miracles, and related many as done among them. But we could never persuade them to try to work any miracles among us.… They had new revelations, superior to the Scriptures, which they called the old record, which were true, but superseded by the new. When they preached to the world, they used the old record, and preac
hed a pure gospel, as a bait to catch the unwary; but in the close of their discourse they artfully introduced their testimony. In this way they captivated hundreds and ensnared them in ruin.”