JunS ALEXANDER CAMPBELL. 189,

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A general informal convocation of the lead-
ers of the large sect known as Campbellites or
Disciples of Christ took place last week in
Bethany, West Virginia, the motive being the un-
vailing of a statue of their founder, Alexander
Campbell, and a discourse upon his life and work
by Judge Joremiah Black of Pennsylvania.
The selection of the orator was a wise one,
Judge Black and Bishop Campbell being alike
prominent types of a class of Western men
which unfortunately is fast dying out; men of
exceptional size and endurance in both body
and mind; of shrewd insight and stern in-
tegrity; who made bold grasps at truth and
then forever after defended their opinions
with an obstinate, downright force which be-
longed to their Scotch-Irish blood and Western
training.

Alexander Campbell had all the instincts and
qualities of a military leader; fate made him

Iorced him to thrust aside all mere dogmas
and creeds and lead his followers to the broad
basis of simple belief in Christ as a Savior.
Immersion was, however, urged as a necessary
corollary to this. Upon this foundation each
believer was permitted to erect what doctrines
he pleased. This liberal creed, and perhaps
the personal influence of its teacher, caused the
sect to increase with great rapidity during his
life, especially in the Southern and South-
Western States. At the time of his death it
numbered over 500,000 members in this coun-
try, besides influential churches in Great Britain
and Australia. Probably there is no other sect,
which in proportion to its size, can boast of
a larger number of colleges or of publications
devoted to its interests.

The Church of the Disciples also bears
strongly the impress of the peculiar mind of
its founder. Its members are apt to be log-
ical, argumentative Christians; each indi-
vidual being driven to the Bible for his
a scholar, and a polemical scholar, and the re-doctrines, an exceptional familiarity with Holy
sult may be easily guessed. He became, as
many such men become in the Church, the
founder of a new sect; and not satisfied with
the executive work and contests which this po-
sition entailed upon him, he incessantly sought
occasion to defend orthodox Christianity, or
Protestanism, against all comers. His public
debates with Owen and Bishop Purcell, and his
fierce attacks upon Communism and Catholi-
cism, interested the whole religious world forty
years ago. His Scotch thoroughness made him
a profound scholar in his own lines of re-
search; he was undoubtedly one of the best phi-
lologists the country has produced, while the

same

Writ is the rule among them; and as there is
necessarily a great diversity in these doctrines,
each man stands ready to defend the peculiar
faith that is in him at the shortest notice.
Religious training of this kind is an education
in itself, which fact offers an explanation of
the exceptionally small number of illiterate
members of the sect.

No man of his time, probably, exerted a
more direct or widespread personal influence
than Alexander Campbell; and now that he is
silent forever it seems but fit, even at this
late day, that his disciples and friends should
have assembled at his old home to do him
py, Tribune,

sincerity and and antipathy to sham honor.

AN ADDRESS ON COLLEGES,

Delivered in the City of Wheeling, Va., January, 1854, being one of a series of Lectures in behalf of the erection of a new Church Edifice in that city.

Ladies and GENTLEMEN: We have selected for this occasion, connected, as it is, with the erection of a temple for Christian worship, the subject of Colleges. Colleges and churches go hand in hand in the progress of Christian civilization. Indeed, the number of colleges and churches in any community, is the indication and exponent of its Christian civilization and advancement. There is, it appears, designedly or undesignedly, some sort of a connection or relationship between them. The oldest college found in the annals of the world, is thus associated. Seven hundred years before the Christian era there was a college in Jerusalem, intimately associated with religion. A prophetess made it her abode, in connection with other eminent personages. But we presume not to say what its peculiarities or distinguishing characteristics were. "Schools for the Prophets" there were in the days of the Kings of Israel. Indeed, in the latitude of this word Prophets, nothing is specific, save that they were teachers of the people, and, in some way, connected with the teaching of religion.

But, as we can learn little from these colleges, we shall say little of them, and request your attention to those institutions called colleges amongst ourselves, and in the history, progress and philosophy of

SERIES IV.-VOL. IV.

6

which we and our contemporaries are better informed, and, incomparably, more interested.

Colleges and schools of every rank are, or ought to be, founded on some great principle in human nature and in human society. They are presumed to have been, and of right ought to be, founded on a sound philosophy of man, and of man in all his relations to society and the universe. Hence, the first question to be satisfactorily settled is, What is man? Lord, what is man? Lord, what is man? The greatest mystery to man is often man himself. It is yet, with myriads of our race, a still litigated question. Is he a mere animated particle of this earth-a purely physical and animal being? If he be so, then his education or development should be purely physical, differing little from that of a horse, a dog, or an ox. These are gregarious animals, and, therefore, social in their nature. And having been created for the use of man, they are only susceptible of just such an education as fits them for his use and service. Apart from their relation to man, they need no education for themselves. They, indeed, according to those who deny the inspiration of the Bible, are superior to man in this respect, that they have in themselves an instinctive and infallible law that safely conducts them through life, and in reference to their whole destiny. The gross materialists and sceptics, of all schools, degrade themselves below these animals, in denying the Bible. Man has not instinct sufficient to choose or to refuse food or medicine. But the brute creation have an infallible instinct, adequate to all that is necessary to their whole destiny. They are, moreover, susceptible of receiving such an education and training as amply fits them for the service of man. We have schools and teachers for them. The graduates in the schools of dogs, oxen and horses, are much more valuable than uneducated and untrained dogs, oxen, or horses. A well educated ox, ass, horse, or dog, will command a much greater price, because much more valuable to man. If man, then, were a mere animal, his education, of course, should differ little from that of the dog, the horse, or the ox. And, indeed, with shame be it spoken, we occasionally find some in human form not so well educated as their dogs, oxen and horses.

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But is man himself a mere case of well-assorted instruments, with locomotive power? A mere beast of burthen? A purely carnal machine? If so, in what consists his superiority to the beasts that perish? Is it that he is a biped, and more sagacious than the beasts of the field-more imitative than a monkey or an ape? Then, indeed, his education is a very simple affair, and soon consummated. But who so contemplates man? Shall we admit such a fallen creature into the circles of humanity? We could not argue such a question in the 19th century, and in the presence of American citizens.