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The Cane Ridge Meeting
In the late 1790s a Revival began in the frontier area of Kentucky. Kentucky was considered to be the Western Frontier of the United States and had become a state only nine years earlier. The Revival began in different churches of several denominations, usually on Sundays when Communion was offered. In one such meeting the Spirit of the Lord came upon the congregation with the effect of weeping and praying and praising God. When the minister, a Mr. Hodge, had concluded the service no one wanted to leave. They remained at the church praying and praising God.
This spiritual Revival continued and grew. Hundreds and even thousands of people would come for the Communion services. Many would load their wagons with family, provisions and mattresses and travel for up to fifty miles to attend one of these services. If you consider that twenty miles a day was a reasonable distance to travel by wagon on the trails of that time, this is the equivalent of driving by Interstate, towing a camper, for two and a half days. This is how important these Revival meetings were. The travelers would camp in the woods around the churches and the services would continue for days. This was the beginning of “camp meetings.” At the Cane Ridge Meeting House, just outside of Paris, Kentucky, a young Presbyterian minister named Barton W. Stone held a Communion meeting on the first Lord’s Day in August 1801. Thousands came to the meeting at the log cabin church, built ten years earlier. Estimates range from 12,000 to 30,000 souls that attended this meeting. At this time the population of the entire state of Kentucky was 221,000. Imagine ten percent of the population of your state going to one revival meeting! Remember, there were no loudspeakers, so several preachers stood in wagons and on tree stumps exhorting the people and praising God. The services continued day and night. There were many signs and evidences of the Holy Spirit. The meeting continued for days and ended only when food for the people and their horses ran out. Then they reluctantly went home. Barton W. Stone was a Presbyterian minister. However, through study of the Bible he reached the conclusion that he could no longer follow the creed of the Presbyterian church. He and several other “Revivalist” Presbyterian ministers formed the Springfield Presbytery. Not long thereafter they issued The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery. The preamble of the will stated that “this body should die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large.” They determined that they wanted to be “Christians only” and in 1804 began calling themselves and their churches Christian. It is thought that David Purviance was the first to preach against infant baptism. A controversy arose in Barton Stone’s church regarding the subject of baptism. Many thought that one should be immersed. Stone studied the Word and concluded that immersion was “divinely ordained” and the proper form of baptism. As a result, Stone was himself immersed. The focus should not be entirely on Barton W. Stone. Coincidentally, many other Christians were coming to similar conclusions. The List of Honor may not be completely known until we can view it in Heaven. Thomas Campbell was also a Presbyterian who immigrated from Scotland who came to America with certain ideas of the independence of the church. He was later joined by his son, Alexander who became a powerful leader in the Restoration Movement. Although Barton W. Stone preferred the name “Christian”, Alexander Campbell preferred “Disciples of Christ.” Campbell’s logic was that many groups used the name Christian in one way or another, but no one used the term Disciples of Christ. The result of the Cane Ridge Meeting and the Great Revival was that many began to question certain man-made doctrines and sought to return to basic Bible principals. The best efforts of many Believers was to try to emulate the Early Church and its practices as closely as possible. Baptism by immersion and the weekly gathering around the Lord’s Table for Communion are some of the outcome of the study of the Bible by these pioneer Believers. From this came a movement of independent churches whose mottos were “No book but the Bible” and “No creed but Christ.” This movement, initially called the “New Lights” became the Christian Churches, Churches of Christ and Disciples of Christ that exist today. This Great Revival was part of what was known as the Great Awakening. It was obviously the result of the Will of God and not the efforts of men. Let us all pray for such a Great Revival today in America. (Standard Publishing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio) for a more complete history of the Restoration Movement
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