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TITLE: "WALTER SCOTT SPEAKS"
"A HANDBOOK OF DOCTRINE"
***** Please see pictures for table of contents *****
Dabney Phillips, in Restoration Principles and Personalities, wrote: "With his analytical mind, Scott was able to simplify a subject that all might understand. He told the people that the gospel was threefold—facts, commands, and promises. The facts were to be believed, the commands were to be obeyed, and the promises were to be enjoyed. He applied the gospel by emphasizing: (1) faith to change the heart, (2) repentance to change the life, (3) baptism to change the state, (4) remission of sins to cleanse from guilt, and (5) the gift of the Holy Spirit to help in the religious life and to make one a partaker of the divine nature . . . He once preached on 'Three Divine Missions'—one hour on the mission of Christ, one hour on the mission of the Holy Spirit, and one hour on the mission of the Church. He was able to hold his audience spell-bound for three hours" (pages 136-137).
AUTHOR: John W. Neth (signed copy)
PUBLISHER: Emmanuel School of Religion
DATE PUBLISHED: 1967
BINDING: Softcover
PAGES: 156
CONDITION: Very Good. Clear/clean text. Previous owners nameplate on inside front cover and inscription by author (see pictures).
NOTES: Please email me with any questions you may have about this books condition or contents before buying.
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Walter
Scott
1796-1861
Biographical Sketch Of
The Life Of Walter Scott
by Charles A. Young
One of the chief promoters of the great religious movement in
modern times was Walter Scott. His ancestry as well as his name was the same as
the renowned novelist of the last century. He was born on the last day of
October, 1796, in Moffat, Scotland. His parents were John Scott and Mary Innes,
who had five sons and five daughters. His father was a music teacher and a man
of culture. The mother was refined and so sensitive that the news of her
husband's death caused her death and she was buried in the same grave with him.
Walter was the sixth of ten children. At the very beginning of this brief
biographical sketch of one of the purest, noblest and truest spirits of the
Restoration, we desire to let one of his pupils, who became the best historian
of the Restoration, give us his estimate of Walter Scott. After telling us that
Scott was a tutor for several years in his father's home, Dr. Richardson says:
"It was about this period also that he wrote his Essays on Teaching
Christianity, in the first volume of the Christian
Baptist, in which he, over the signature of 'Philip,' first presented
and developed the true basis and most important point in the Reformation,
to-wit: The belief in Christ as the Son of God, the Christian faith and bond of
Christian Union. Brother Scott really laid the true and distinctive foundation
of the Reformation."
Baxter, in preparing his life of Walter Scott, found a dearth of
material because this hero of the Cross had "lived so much for others that
he had little thought or care for himself." We can only give a survey of
the life of this great, gifted and God-fearing man. Before the death of his
parents Walter was given good educational advantages. Through great economy he
received training which usually only the children of wealthy parents enjoyed at
the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. After the necessary academic
preparation he entered the University of Edinburgh, where he completed the
collegiate course. It was the prayer of his parents that he should "preach
the Word." A touching incident of his boyhood days throws a flood of light
upon the kindhearted character of this noble man. It is said that Martin Luther
sang and begged for the lazy drones who belonged to a monastic order. Walter
Scott when a boy of sixteen sang late at night for a poor blind beggar. Singing
the sweetest of Scotch airs he poured out the fullness of a sympathetic heart
in the interest of suffering humanity. Soon after he completed his University
training, Walter Scott was influenced to come to America, by the fact that his
uncle on his mother's side, George Innes, had a government position in New York
City. He sailed from Greenock and reached New York July, 1818. His uncle was a
man of integrity and highly esteemed. He secured Walter a position as Latin
tutor in a classical academy on Long Island. Soon, however, he set out on foot
with a light heart and a lighter purse, in company with a young man to go West.
They reached Pittsburg in May, 1819, where Mr. Scott fortunately—we may say,
Providentially, became acquainted with a fellow countryman, who had been
greatly influenced by the Haldanes, Mr. George Forrester. He was the principal
of the best academy in Pittsburg, and quick to recognize the superior talents
and training of Walter Scott he engaged him as his head assistant. Mr. Scott
soon found that Mr. Forrester held views which were then quite peculiar, though
fortunately they are not so peculiar now. "Mr. Forrester's peculiarity
consisted in making the Bible his only authority and guide in matters of religion,
while his young friend had been brought up to regard the Presbyterian,
Standards as true and authoritative exposition and summary of Bible
truth." Being a diligent student of the Word of God, he soon saw the
consistency of Mr. Forrester's position. The Bible had for him a new meaning.
It was no longer a store-house of texts to confirm dogmatic systems, but a
revelation, an unveiling of the will of God. "The gospel was a message and
to believe and obey that message was to become a Christian." Seeing that religion
was personal and not a matter of proxy, he made a careful study of the
conditions of pardon, and being a thorough Greek scholar he was soon convinced
that baptism should symbolize his death to sin and the rising to live a new
life in Christ. He was baptized by Mr. Forrester who soon after gave up his
academy and placed the management of it entirely in the hands of Mr. Scott. The
school became very prosperous, but the principal felt that he ought to be
preaching the glad tidings of salvation. "About this time a pamphlet fell
into his hands, which had been put into circulation by a small congregation in
the city of New York, and which had much to do with deciding the course he
should pursue. The church alluded to was composed mainly of Scotch Baptists,
and held many of the views held by the Haldanes, and were in many respects, far
in advance of the other religious bodies. This pamphlet was published in 1820.
It set forth with admirable clearness and simplicity the teaching of Scripture
with regard to the design of baptism. The careful reader will find in it the
germs of what was years afterwards insisted upon by Scott in his plea for
baptism for the remission of sins and also by Alexander Campbell in his
celebrated "Extra on Remission." We give a few extracts from this
pamphlet:
ON BAPTISM
"It is not intended, in this article, to discuss the import
of the term baptism, as that term is well known to mean, in the New Testament,
when used literally, nothing else than immersion in
water. But the intention is to ascertain what this immersion signifies, and
what are the uses and purposes for which it was appointed. This can only be
done by observing what is said concerning it in Holy Scripture. (Here follows
an induction of quotations familiar to our readers. C. A. Y.) From these
several passages (Mark 1:4, 5; John 3:5; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Rom. 6:2-11;
Gal. 3:26-28; Eph. 5:25, 27; Eph. 4:4, 6; Col. 2:12, 13; Titus 3:3, 6; 1 Peter
3:21), we may learn how baptism was viewed in the beginning by those who were
qualified to understand its meaning best. No one who has been in the habit of
considering it merely as an ordinance can
read these passages with attention without being surprised at the wonderful
powers, qualities, and effects, and uses, which are there apparently ascribed
to it, if the language employed respecting it, in many of the passages, were
taken literally, it would import, that remission
of sins is to be obtained by baptism, and that an escape from the
wrath to come is effected in baptism, that men are born the children of God by
baptism; ** that men wash away their sins by baptism; that men become dead to
sin and alive to God by baptism; that the church of God is sanctified and
cleansed by baptism; that men are regenerated by baptism; and that the answer
of a good conscience is obtained by baptism. All these things, if the passages
were construed literally, would be ascribed to baptism. And it was a literal
construction of these passages, which led professed Christianity in the early
ages, to believe that baptism was necessary to salvation. Hence arose infant baptism, and other customs
equally unauthorized. And from a like literal construction of the words of the
Lord Jesus, at the last supper, arose the awful notion of transubstantiation.
"But, however such men may have erred in fixing a literal
import upon these passages, still the very circumstance of their doing so, and
the fact that the meaning they imputed is the
literal meaning, all go to show that baptism was appointed for ends and
purposes far more important than those who think of it only as an ordinance, yet have seen.
"It is for the churches of God, therefore, to consider
well, whether it does not clearly and forcibly appear from what is said of
baptism in the passages before us, taken each in its proper connection, that
this baptism was appointed as an institution strikingly significant of several
of the most important things relating to the Kingdom of God; whether it was not
in baptism that men professed by deed, as they had already done by word, to
have the remission of sins through the death of Jesus Christ, and to have a
firm persuasion of being raised from the dead through Him, and after his
example; whether it was not in baptism that they put
off the ungodly character and its lusts, and put on the new life of
righteousness in Christ; whether it was not in baptism that they professed to
have their sins washed away, through the blood of the Lord and Savior; ***
whether it was not in baptism that they passed, as it were, out of one state
into another, out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God's Son; ***
whether, in fact, baptism was not a prominent part of the Christian profession,
or, in other words, that by which, the part, the Christian profession was made;
and whether this one baptism was not essential to the keeping of the unity of
the spirit."
This tract made a profound impression on the conscientious mind
of Mr. Scott. He gave up his lucrative and delightful position and went to New
York. But he was sadly disappointed. He found the practice of the church far
below its high ideas. This same experience he had with regard to independent
bands worshiping in Baltimore and Washington. In regard to his Washington City
experience, he said: "I went thither and having searched them up I
discovered them to be so sunken in the mire of Calvinism, that they refused to
reform; and so finding no pleasure in them I left them. I then went to the
Capitol, and climbing up to the top of its lofty dome, I sat myself down,
filled with sorrow at the miserable dissolution of the Church of God."
After this Walter Scott returned to Pittsburg and resumed his
teaching. He met the Campbells--Thomas and Alexander--wrote for the Christian Baptist, was married, and in
1826 moved to Steubenville, Ohio. In 1827 he accompanied Alexander Campbell to
the Mahoning Baptist Association which met in New Lisbon, Ohio. Although he was
only a "teaching brother," he was chosen at this meeting to be the
evangelist for the Association. He had been preparing to publish a new paper to
be called the Millennial Herald, but
he gave up everything and entered with all the enthusiasm of his earnest nature
into this new work. His first meeting, in which he preached the simple gospel,
as in the days of the apostles, was at New Lisbon, Ohio, where only a few
months before he had been appointed evangelist. This remarkable meeting
resulted in a number of conversions. "His first step was to fix upon the divinity
of Christ as the central and controlling thought of the New Testament, and
which he afterwards demonstrated and illustrated with a strength and felicity
that has never been surpassed. Next he arranged the elements of the gospel in
the simple and natural order of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Remission of Sins,
and Gift of the Holy Spirit, then he made baptism the practical acceptance of
the gospel on the part of the penitent believer, as well as the pledge or
assurance of pardon on the part of its author." It was Walter Scott who at
the last meeting of the Mahoning Association freed the disciples from the last
vestige of human authority and placed them under Christ with His Word for their
guide. In incessant labors with Adamson Bentley, John Henry, William Hayden and
others he continued his work and gave the great evangelistic impulse to the
Restoration Movement. The Messiahship of Jesus was the central theme of all his
preaching. Next to Mr. Campbell, his co-laborer, Mr. Scott was one of the most
prolific writers of the Restoration. He opposed the "Word alone"
theory as well as the "Spirit alone" theory regarding conversion, and
he was one of the first writers upon the Biblical view of the Holy Spirit. The
latter part of his life was spent at Mayslick, Kentucky, where he died during
the first year of the Civil War, April 23, 1861. He was a great preacher and
did more than any other man to restore apostolic preaching. He was a learned
man and his greatest work was the Messiahship or Great Demonstration, written
for the Union of Christians on Christian principles.
- From Churches of Christ, by John T. Brown, c.1904,
pages 408-410
Restoration Leaders: Walter Scott
Walter Scott was born October 31, 1796 in Moffat, Dumfrieshire,
Scotland to John Scott (a music teacher) and Mary Innes Scott and graduated
from the University of Edinburgh in the class of 1817. Both parents died in
1821 within the same month. Brought up in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland,
he was deeply religious, but found Calvinism unsatisfying and gave himself to
searching out the ancient Gospel. At the invitation of his uncle, George Innes,
he landed in America July 7, 1818 and became a teacher of Latin in a classical
academy at Jamaica, Long Island, New York.
Catching the fever to "Go West", he and a companion
walked from New York to Pittsburgh where he taught in a religious academy.
George Forrester was principal and also a minister of a fundamental Baptist
church. Forrester rejected all human creeds and accepted the Bible alone as his
religious guide. This appealed to Scott and he sat at the feet of Forrester
hour after hour examining the Scriptures. Having come to grips with immersion,
as opposed to sprinkling or pouring, he was immersed by Forrester. While
bathing in a river Forrester drowned and Scott became principal of the academy.
Walter Scott first met Alexander Campbell in the winter of
1821-22. After discussing their religious views they were surprised that they
occupied similar ground; this meeting formalized the beginning of a cooperative
movement in restoration preaching. In 1827 Alexander Campbell was instrumental
in the selection of Scott as Evangelist for the Mahoning Association. His first
sermon was in a Baptist church at New Lisbon, on the Western Reserve of Ohio-
November 18, 1827. In the opening statement he quoted Acts 2:38; William Amend,
who had just arrived at the meeting house, immediately made his way to the
front and requested to be baptized "for the remission of sins". He
had wrestled with the passage and had vowed that he would obey it the first
time he heard it preached.
As a patriotic, country-loving citizen, Scott was crushed by the
Civil War. For several months he refused to take the Lord's Supper because of
strife among brethren. He was stricken seriously ill on April 16, 1861
(diagnosed as typhoid-pneumonia) and died April 23.
Women In His Life
He was first married to Sarah Whitsett at age 26. She inspired
his ministry, overlooked his lack of money sense, endured his poverty, and of
her he wrote at her death: "Best of wives, tenderest of mothers, the most
faithful of friends, a Christian in faith, works and charity."
Next, he married Nattie B. Allen, beautiful, young and
affectionate. When told she might outlive him she said: "I would rather be
Walter Scott's widow than the wife of any other man." She died in 1854.
Finally, he married Eliza Sandidge. A rich widow who was
intolerant and often drove him from the house. This was an unfortunate
marriage.
Native Ability And Academia
J. J. Haley wrote concerning Walter Scott in Makers and Molders
of the Reformation Movement: "Theology and the religious consciousness run
in the blood north of the Tweed. Brains and reverence and appreciation of
Biblical knowledge appear to be congenital with the typical Scotchman . . . His
deep religious nature, his love of truth and righteousness, his keen
perception, his fine capacity for the acquisition of knowledge, and his
profound reverence for the Bible and the Christian religion, made him a
splendid subject for instruction and inspiration to the Campbells" (page
60-61).
Walter Scott was a diligent Bible student and suggested that a
chapter a day memorized will put the head of a family in possession of the
entire New Testament in much less than a year. For Scott to have baptized 1000
each year of 1828 and 1829, he had to love the Bible and engage in some hard
work.
Contribution To The
Restoration Movement
As Mahoning Association Evangelist Several years earlier Scott
had read a tract written by Henry Errett (father to Isaac Errett), an elder in
a Haldanean "Church of Christ" in New York, on the subject of baptism
for the remission of sins. This tract made a deep impression upon him, and when
he became evangelist for the Mahoning Association he saw opportunity to put it
into practice.
Faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the gift of
the Holy Spirit-this was the "gospel restored" in Scott's preaching.
The result was a great revival among Mahoning churches—but a different kind
from those at Cane Ridge and other places in the West. There was none of the
emotionalism, no exercises, no continuous camp meetings. Hundreds responded.
His work on the Western Reserve mushroomed, but not without opposition. One
young man threatened to shoot him if he baptized his mother. Sects were
aroused, names were called, challenges were issued. Scott was in demand
everywhere—New Lisbon, Deerfield, Austintown, Warren, and scores of other
places. Within two years people were stirred up like never before.
Alexander Campbell heard of the revival sweeping the Mahoning
churches and sent his father to observe. After seeing, Thomas Campbell wrote
that even though they had understood the gospel correctly for a number of
years, it was now being put into practice for the first time. As a result of
the revivals the total membership of the Mahoning churches was more than
doubled within one year. By 1830 the Association had been so transformed that
it dissolved itself out of existence.
As Publisher and Author
Walter Scott began publishing a paper, "The
Evangelist", in 1832. This work was given to Restoration principles. It
was discontinued in 1835 in favor of doing research for his great book,
"The Gospel Restored", which was published in 1836. "The
Evangelist" was resumed in 1836. Among his other writings were: a pamphlet
on "The Holy Spirit," and a "Disciple's Hymnal." His
writing was crisp and direct in style, flavored with beauty of language and
clearness of thought. His one passion in writing was his burning desire to
present the Gospel restored.
His purpose for writing "The Gospel Restored" is
stated in the preface: "The professors of our holy religion having
unhappily strayed from the scriptures and true Christianity, there seemed to be
no remedy in anything but a return to original ground. This suggested itself to
many, in different places, almost simultaneously, about the beginning of the present
century, and numerous churches were formed about that time, both in Europe and
America, resembling, more or less, the churches planted by the Apostles, or the
church of Jerusalem instituted by the Lord Jesus himself. These churches, with
few exceptions, adopted the holy scriptures as their exclusive guide in
religion, and rejected the dangerous creeds and confessions of Christendom,
which have operated so fatally on the unity of the churches. This formed the
first positive step toward that return to original ground, for which the
present century is distinguished."
A systematic view of Christianity beginning with the original
fallen state of man, "The Gospel Restored" is one of the most
comprehensive and convincing works of the Restoration Movement. Moses Lard told
Scott that it was this book that first taught him the Gospel.
As "The Golden Oracle"
Historians of the Restoration Movement give Walter Scott first
place in oratorical expertise. They all seem to be quoting from the same
source-although their writings are not always documented:
M. M. Davis, in The Restoration Movement of the Nineteenth
Century, wrote: "His warm heart, his musical voice, his chaste and
charming language, his tender pathos, his winsome personality, his burning zeal
and his great theme—the MESSIAHSHIP—made him almost irresistible" (page
164).
Dabney Phillips, in Restoration Principles and Personalities,
wrote: "With his analytical mind, Scott was able to simplify a subject
that all might understand. He told the people that the gospel was
threefold—facts, commands, and promises. The facts were to be believed, the
commands were to be obeyed, and the promises were to be enjoyed. He applied the
gospel by emphasizing: (1) faith to change the heart, (2) repentance to change
the life, (3) baptism to change the state, (4) remission of sins to cleanse
from guilt, and (5) the gift of the Holy Spirit to help in the religious life
and to make one a partaker of the divine nature . . . He once preached on
'Three Divine Missions'—one hour on the mission of Christ, one hour on the
mission of the Holy Spirit, and one hour on the mission of the Church. He was
able to hold his audience spell-bound for three hours" (pages 136-137).
J. J . Haley, in Makers and Molders of the Reformation Movement,
wrote: "The big four of the current reformation are Thomas Campbell,
Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone and Walter Scott. The last named is fourth
in enumeration, but by no means fourth in distinctive importance.
In originality of conception, vigor of presentation, enthusiasm,
courage, boldness and eloquence, he comes near heading the list. He was not the
initiator of any original movement within the church like his three illustrious
comrades, but so far as the distinctiveness of his contributions to the new movement
was concerned, he stands first in historical and theological importance.
"This masterful proclaimer of the Word combined the
didactic, the poetic, and the evangelistic to a degree astonishingly unusual.
His mind was as straight and clear in the comprehension and explanation of
facts as his emotional nature was strong and moving in his appeals to men to be
reconciled to God. His powers of analysis and classification were
phenomenal" (pages 59-63).
Isaac Errett once said in referring to a great sermon preached
by Dr. Armitage of New York, "I have not heard such preaching since Walter
Scott."
An attorney in Kentucky said: "At his worst he could beat
them all, and at his best he could beat himself."
CONCLUSION
Those who molded Walter Scott were his parents; his music
teacher; John Scott; George Forrester whose congregation rejected infant
baptism, accepted only the Scriptures as authority, and practiced weekly
communion; and Alexander Campbell who became his companion on the lonely
Reformation road.
Alexander Campbell provided the intellectual direction, while
Walter Scott provided the evangelistic fervor for the Restoration Movement.
Robert Richardson, Campbell's biographer, wrote: "Among the helpers and
fellow laborers of Alexander Campbell, the first place must be awarded to
Walter Scott. Walter made the apostles his model, and went before the world
with the same message, in the same order, with the same conditions and
promises."
The highest tribute to be paid to his life is found engraved in
the headstone of his grave at Mays Lick, Kentucky. "The words which thou
gavest me, I have given unto them" (John 17:8). — John P. Simpson, 1981
Freed-Hardeman University Lectures, pages 324-328
keyword church of christ, christian, christ, christian church, disciples of christ, church history, sermons, church poetry, christian poetry, RESTORATION MOVEMENT