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 Clergy
power, or "pontifical utterance of the preacher," is
justly deplored; and the direct relation of the individual to
Christ, via individual conscience and the Scriptures, should be
constantly affirmed. It is also right that each saint express
himself freely, and that we listen to one another with respect.
It is right that efforts be made to train teachers, and brethren
should he patient with the beginner's efforts. But this is no
License for neophyte and crackpots to harangue the church, from
pulpit or paper. The following, from file Memoirs of A.
Campbell, by Richardson, V.2, p. 124-f., indicates the problem
is not peculiar to our generation.
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"As
most of the active members of the church at Pittsburgh were from
Scotland and Ireland, and sympathized largely with the views of
church order adopted by some of the Haldaneans, the practice of
mutual exhortation and teaching on the Lord's day was here fully
carried out, with much the same effect as occurred in
Scotland... Debates and dissension —, arose frequently between
members, while that watchful surveillance, amounting almost to
inquisitorial scrutiny, which each thought it his duty to
exercise over others occasioned numerous cases of discipline, by
which the public religious meetings were disturbed and the cause
discredited.
These
things were warmly disapproved by Mr. Campbell and Walter Scott,
who, although they fully admitted the perfect equality of all
members, and their liberty to speak in the church at proper
times and under proper regulations, insisted that a
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proper direction should be given to the
gifts of all and that none should teach publicly except those
capable of edifying the church.
The
new-born spirit of liberty, however, was for a while not to be
repressed; the less competent proved often the most forward,
and, converting a mere privilege into a duty, felt it incumbent
on them to occupy much of the time allotted to the Lord's day
meeting, to little profit.
At
the Cross Roads.... Mr. Scott was finally called on to say
something ...He at once complied, by boldly taking the ground
that it was unscriptural to have so many teachers, that the
liberty conceded was carried to license, and that each member
should be confined, according to the Scripture analogy of the
human body, to the particular function for which he was best
fitted. At the close of his remarks he inquired with emphasis,
in the broad Scotch he sometimes used, "What, my brethren!
Is the Church to be a' mouth?" (all mouth).
Mr.
Campbell.... fully concurred in the justness of Mr. Scott's
admonitions on this occasion, being exceedingly desirous that
everything should be conducted according to the ultimate or
higher law given by the apostle; "Let all things be done to
edification.".... To discharge this duty properly required,
he thought, careful previous study and preparation. In
overthrowing clerical power, he sought to check the tendency to
an extreme in the direction of individual independency."
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