The following is the continuation of an article written by J. R. Howard and originally published in the American Christian Review, edited then by elder Benjamin Franklin (not the statesman). I will present more of this article at a later time. Please review the previous posts to get the complete context. To summarize, Mr. Howard, using the illustration of plotting a piece of property, makes the point that we must find the original corner of the Lord’s church in order to have the true design and extent of the Lord’s church. Some, however, have plotted new pieces of property, distorting the original ground the Lord had plotted. He now continues that…

__ __ __ __ __ __

Some, taking advantage of this state of things, and others having made fruitless searches for the old corner, began, each one, to make a new corner for himself, and to run out a corresponding tract on the old survey to suit their own notions and opinions. In process of time other tracts were run out, in accordance with new corners, or in correspondence with preceding ones, until, tract added to tract, they had almost entirely covered the old survey.

The Roman Catholics were the first trespassers on it and made the first new corner, and run out a very large tract. This trespass on the old grant opened the way for others; and the corner they made became a key corner for a chain or connection of chains.

The Episcopalians then made a corner, from the Roman Catholics, and run out a tract. The Presbyterians made one in connection, and run out at first one tract, and then this became a key corner, from which they ran out several other tracts, and then divided their first tract between the Old School and the New School. The Methodists made a corner from the Episcopalians, and at first run out one tract, and then from this as a key corner ran out several other tracts, and then divided the old tract between the Church North and the Church South. The Baptists made one, but “ran past Jerusalem,” not to Jericho, but to John the Baptist in the river Jordan, and thought they had made their corner there, but were mistaken, as they made it in modern times and somewhere else, and then ran out one and afterward several tracts. And thus on with all the other sects or denominations. But none of these began at the right corner.

The beginning corner of Roman Catholicism was made at Rome. The beginning corner of Episcopalianism was made at London, that of Presbyterianism in Scotland, that of Methodism at Oxford in England, of Baptistism in Germany, of Lutheranism there at Wittemburg, of Calvinism at Geneva, And so on through the long catalogue of sects or denominations and religious parties. None began at the right place. But the beginning corner of the Gospel—of pure, Apostolic, primitive Christianity—was made at JERUSALEM—”beginning at Jerusalem.”

Justinian made the beginning corner of Romanism, Henry VIII of England made that of Episcopalianism, John Wes-ley that of Methodism, Menno of Baptistism, John Knox of Presbyterianism, Martin Luther of Lutherism, John Calvin of Calvinism; and thus on to the end of the long catalogue of religious sects or parties in Christendom. But the Apostle Peter made the beginning corner of the Christian dispensation, of pure, uncorrupted Christianity, and, as we have shown, by special commission of the Lord Jesus Christ himself (See Matt 16:19 and Acts 2:14, 38; 10; 15:7).

The Apostle Peter, and not Alexander Campbell, made the beginning corner of the Christian Church. Alexander Campbell only acted the part of the man who shewed the beginning corner of the survey. He exposed and tore away the human additions and appendages, the traditions, mysticism and error with which the marks on the Jerusalem trunk—the corner of primitive Christianity—had been covered over, obscured and hidden from the view of men, and identified it, by the original marks, to be the same one made by Peter. And this is the reason why there is such an outcry against Alexander Campbell, and why he is so much opposed and abused by the various religious parties, who have made their new corners and run out their tracts on the old survey. They know that the identification of the old corner, for which he is contending, will be fatal to all their old claims; that if that stand (and it will stand), they will have to give them all up and “abandon the ground” which they have taken—the man-made systems they have espoused. Hence the great excitement and contention throughout the length and breadth of the land, the opposition to this identifier of the old corner and those associated with him, the debating and declamation every where.

Had Alexander Campbell made a new corner, and run out a new tract on this old survey, according to the chart and compass of “orthodoxy,” (as so self-styled), so as not to have interfered with the claims of others, he would have been hailed as a good orthodox neighbor, and welcomed into the sectarian community. But he identified the old corner; and in this consists the great head and front of his offense.

And as finding and identifying the original corner of the old survey did not constitute the man who found it the locator or owner of the land, so the identification of the old Gospel, of the Church of Christ, does not make Alexander Campbell the inventer of a new system or the founder of a new party. This he has always disavowed or disclaimed in the strongest terms. He has been only the humble instrument in the hands of God in the restoration to the world of apostolic and primitive Christianity, as it was left uncorrupted by the Apostles, and as it came completed and perfected from their hands.

The sectarian occupants of the new tracts, made and run out on the old Gospel survey, have tried in various ways to show that these marks made by Peter are not the true marks of the old corner. Some have endeavored to prove that faith alone is the only mark, and they accordingly made but one chop on their tree. But this would not do—would not constitute a legal corner. Others contended that there were but two marks necessary—faith and repentance—and they accordingly put two marks only on their tree. But neither of these will do, as the law requires three chops in all cases, all the country over, to constitute a genuine and legal corner; and to be a lawful and acceptable one it must have these three. Hence one chop will not do, and two are no better than one. These three marks were necessary; and accordingly the Apostle made three on the old Jerusalem trunk— 1. Faith; 2. Repentance; 3. Baptism “for the remission of sins.” And as every corner must have its “pointers” to point to it and show where it stands and is to be found, and that it is the true corner, so this has its pointers. It has thirteen pointers, the thirteen Apostles, who always point to it as the genuine corner—to this alone, and never to any other. The genuine corner must have these three marks; and every corner that lacks them is not the right corner. To begin at such a one is to begin wrong; and there is great danger, in such a case, of running wrong and ending wrong! “Take heed.” “Be not deceived.” “So run that ye may obtain.”

Eric L. Padgett