Restoration Footnotes
"Chapter Preaching." One of the most striking characteristics of the early preachers of the Restoration movement was the emphasis in their preaching upon the Scriptures. Many of the early pioneers would simply take a chapter in the Bible and expound upon it. After Jeremiah Vardeman defected from the Restoration ranks, he told the Creaths, who were visiting in the great preacher's home, that "He intended to pursue his old course of text-preaching. He was too old to begin this chapter-preaching." (Memoir of Jacob Creath, Jr., p. 87.)
The Gentiles and the Sabbath. "It is worthy of note in this place, that of all the sins in the long black catalogue of sins specified against the Gentiles, in all the New Testament, THE SIN OF SABBATH BREAKING IS NEVER ONCE PREFERRED AGAINST THEM! We conclude, then, that the Sabbath day was as exclusively the property of the Jews as circumcision." (Christian Baptist, Feb., 1824, p. 130.)
The Spirit of John T. Johnson. These words regarding the attitude of that noble pioneer preacher, John T. Johnson, made by one of his contemporaries, describe an attitude any preacher would do well to develop in his own heart. "He did not strive to shine, but to stand out of the light of the Redeemer, that he might shine upon the people. There was no place in his large soul for envy — that gall and wormwood of selfish, ambitious spirit. Nothing annoyed him more than to see a preacher of the gospel aiming to carry some little dogma, by which to make himself great, instead of laboring to save souls, and to honor the great Redeemer." (Life of Elder John T. Johnson, pp. 404, 405.)
"Believe the Church." Alexander Campbell gave the following poem to illustrate the Roman Catholic Church's regard for the voice of the Church. He said: "The proper business of a true son of the mother church is —
Not to seek, but to believe;
Not to think, but to receive.
Believe the church and all is well;
Disbelieve, and go to hell."
To which he added:
"True, indeed, this is short metre; but so decrees our late St. Peter." (Millennial Harbinger, Jan., 1852, p. 57.)
The current controversy over birth control shows that "the mother church" still insists on being heard, but some of her children, we are happy to see, are not as submissive as they used to be.
— P.O. Box 83, Tuckerman, Ark. 72473