What Is Campbellism?
This has been a puzzling question. It is hard to find out precisely what it is. Not a man yet, of all who have been engaged in fighting this monster, has defined it, explained it, or told what it is. It has been called a dangerous heresy, and so many hideous warnings have been given against it, that the hair would almost stand upon a man’s head to hear about it, and yet no one has told what it is. The reason no one has defined Campbellism, is, simply, that there is no such thing in existence, except in the imaginations of some misguided doctors. As near as any man can now come, at what they mean by Campbellism, it is Christianity itself, unmixed, unadulterated, and without any other name. This is evident, for, when they hear a man preach, who preaches nothing but Christianity, nothing but Christ, simply aiming to convert men to him, and induce them to receive him as their only Leader, they call it Campbellism. It is nothing but a nick-name they have given the gospel, to keep men from hearing it. In the same way, they call the preacher a Campbellite, who will preach nothing but the gospel, nothing but Christianity, to raise prejudice against him and prevent people from hearing him. In precisely the same spirit, here comes Rev. N. L. Rice, of heresy-hunting memory, in a tract of forty pages against Campbellism, which the reader may think as he pleases about, but which is as much against the religion of Christ, and those trying to receive it, practice it, and maintain it, and it alone, as was in the power of Dr. Rice to make it, without, in so many words, saying so. No man in this country, at this time, can preach simply the gospel of Christ in the name of the Lord, under any other name, and maintain the law of God, as the only rule of faith, without being called a Campbellite, and branded with preaching Campbellism.