Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 7
September 29, 1955
NUMBER 21, PAGE 5b

Quotations From Lard And Campbell

"But one thing is certain on the hypothesis of several churches, that no two of them were ever ruled or presided over by the same set of officers. Each church in that day, according to the New Testament, had to have its own overseers, and deacons, who ruled at home only, and had no authority or control elsewhere; and what the custom of that day was is the law of this. Popery had its rise in the claim of the same overseer to rule two or more churches at the same time; and it may have it again!"

"When pomp, and power, and ignorance enthrone themselves in the kingdom of God, humility and piety are at an end; and the kingdom rapidly degenerates. Such was the case then; and such will always be the case."

"But alas for it (the church) when it becomes filled with a so-called superior element."

(Introduction to the Commentary on Romans, p. 16 — Moses E. Lard.)

"Another objection I have yet to make. I sincerely wish that it may be the last I may have to make to anything he may ever say of me. I do not think his jests about my having been once opposed, and now no longer opposed to the Bible Society, are worthy either of the gravity due to himself or to the subject on which he wrote. I never was opposed to any Bible Society in Cincinnati, New York, or London; but I am and was opposed, and I presume will always be opposed, to any Bible Society composed of a few individuals in Cincinnati or any other city, who, without any notification, publication, or call upon the brethren outside their own city to participate with them in the affair, shall CONSTITUTE THEMSELVES into a continental association, calling themselves the "American Christian Bible Society," then calling on the whole Christian community to form auxiliaries to them, and TO SEND THEIR FUNDS TO THE MANAGEMENT AND DISPOSAL OF THEIR OFFICERS ELECT. TO ALL SUCH ASSOCIATIONS, FOR WHATEVER PURPOSE, HOWEVER PLAUSIBLE OR EXCELLENT, I AM CONSTITUTIONALLY, MORALLY, AND RELIGIOUSLY OPPOSED; I care not how excellent and well meaning the brethren may be that assume such responsibilities.

"I trust I shall henceforth be understood on this subject. I have not one unkind feeling to a soul connected with this affair, nor to my fellow-laborer, Arthur Critchfield. On the contrary, I sincerely desire that grace, mercy and peace may be upon them all. I think neither the brotherhood nor myself have been treated in this affair as the law of love requires, but I pray the Lord to forgive us all our faults and errors, and to make us perfect to do his will, working in us to will and to do of his benevolence; and to him be all the praise, now and forever! Amen."

(Millennial Harbinger, 1846. p. 295, 296.)