DR. THOMAS’ CRITIQUE ON MR. CAMPBELL’S NOTICE OF THE BANNER.

 

            Mr.Banner, —Dear Sir, —Accept my thanks for the manuscript copy of President Campbell’s recent notice of you and myself, which is now on the desk before me. It is valuable as an illustration of the blind and reckless manner in which he treats those against whom he ‘takes up a reproach.’ It will also illustrate to your readers and others the kind of opposition I have to contend against in America, in advocating what I believe to be the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. I am judged and condemned without a hearing in the pages of those journals, which, like Mr. Campbell, deliver their sentence upon a matter before they have acquainted themselves with it, and upon mere report. I would like the thousands I have addressed in Britain to know, that in ‘Free America’ my views and character have been the subject of the most malevolent detraction in Mr. Campbell’s Millennial Harbinger, and in other papers co-working with him, for fifteen years past, without my being permitted to speak for myself in my own ungarbled words, to show cause why I should not be condemned upon their ex parte mis-representations. All I have asked, and do ask at their hands, is page for page in the same papers with my accusers. But this they have not, and I believe dare not grant me. The truth of what I say may be seen by reference to their journals. Had they done so, things would have presented a very different aspect from what they now assume. But the battle has yet to be fought in America; and I return to open the campaign. I have no misgivings as to the result either there or in Britain. The enemy is too feeble here to do more than to show what he would do if he could. The hope of Israel has got possession of too many hearts in this island to be suppressed by Messrs. Campbell and Wallis. They may make a great noise, but it will all end in smoke. The truth, which is not with them, will assuredly prevail.

 

            I would also remind your readers of the kind of attacks I have been subjected to from Mr. Wallis, Rev. James Henshall, and Mr. Campbell’s party to some extent, since my sojourn here for two years past; also, that all the notice I have taken of them has been provoked by their injustice, and purely defensive. In my public addresses—and I have spoken 250 times in this country—I have taken no notice of them, save on one occasion in Nottingham, and then only to correct a misstatement by Mr. Wallis in his paper, but even then I did not name him, nor did I invite him to the platform, as he reports. They cannot say this. Their assaults have been frequent and malevolent; and withal they have sought not my salvation, but to heap upon me obloquy and contempt. On the contrary, I have replied to their articles with equanimity, testimony, and reason. Let the public, then, judge whose cause produces the better fruits. For my own part I fear not their decision.

 

            The article which may be termed precious, but in what sense I leave your readers to decide, is from “the Supervisor of this Reformation!” * I have been highly amused at it. Some one writing to me styles it “severe,” on the report of a person who had seen the original. But the severity of an article consists in the truth it contains; and as this contains no truth in relation to me it is without severity; though redolent of prejudice, absurdity, and ill will.

 

* (In 1838, Mr. A. Campbell declared before three persons, two of whom are still living, that “God had called him to take the supervision of this reformation. Not with an audible voice, but by his providence, as he had called Martin Luther and John Calvin, and that therefore he had a right to say who should be his co-labourers.” This was reported to me half an hour after they left him. I afterwards published it in my paper; but Mr. C. never ventured to call it in question.)

 

            On analysis, it resolves itself into the following elements: -

1.      Into charges against the Banner;

2.      Into allegations against John Thomas;

3.      Into a declaration of Mr. Campbell’s status, together with that of those who believe with him;

4.      Into a summary of their hope; and—

5.      Into a declaration of what they do not hope for.

 

1.      The charges against the Banner are,

a.       Sailing under a false flag;

b.      Publishing so much of Mr. Campbell’s writings in the Banner as are sufficient to betray him and his co-religionists, with a kiss, into the hands of John Thomas; and,

c.       Of having formed a coalition with said Thomas.

2.      His allegations against me thus orderly arranged, are, that—

a.       John Thomas is “erratic;”

b.      He is a materialist;

c.       He is “a rather plausible sophist;”

d.      He is a man “of no-soul memory;”

e.       He garbles his writings to deceive his readers, and to delude;

f.        He has a flock in Virginia which is dispersed and withered;

g.       He has deserted his flock;

h.       He has never answered Mr. Campbell’s extra on Life and Death;

i.         He has published a book called “Elpis Israel,” or Israel’s Hope, which is “a whimsical” title as applied to a book and theory;

j.        He has proved all the Apostles wrong; and,

k.      He has substituted the hope of a terrestrial paradise for the resurrection of the just to eternal life, as maintained by some worldly Jews of the present day.

 

3.      Mr. Campbell declares his own state and that of his co-religionists by averring, in relation to himself especially, that,

a.       He has never read Elpis Israel, but undertakes to define its contents upon the report of others: and of himself and co-believers says:

b.      We are Christians and have the true hope.

 

4.      He sums up their hope by saying that they look for,

a.       The resurrection of the just; and

b.      A new heavens and a new earth. And,

 

5.      Declares negatively what sort of a new heavens, &c., they expect, by stating that they do not believe in—

a.       A political “Elpis;” nor in—

b.      The literal return of the true Messiah to reign in Palestine, or on earth, or in any portion of the solar system.

 

Such is the analysis of the article before me, which article and analysis I hope you will present entire to your readers. I shall now proceed to make a few comments under the five heads as they may seem to require. It is my hope that you will insert the whole of this communication, or none at all. I, and not you, am alone responsible for its contents. There is no “common cause” between us at present, to be injured or benefited by anything I may say or do. Your position is not mine, nor mine your’s. You occupy one of your own, and are as independent of me as I am of you. If I understand it rightly, you hold your faith and hope in common with Messrs. Campbell and Wallis, but unlike them you are neither a bigot nor an oppressor, but disposed to PRACTICE the precepts they profess, namely, “to call no man master,” and to “prove all things, and hold fast what is good,” judging of that good for yourself, and not taking it second hand as they may determine it, and dole it out for your reception.

(To be concluded in our next.)

 

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