1832 - The Handshake
When Barton Stone and Raccoon John Smith met in Lexington seeking "the unification of all Christians” in a single New Testament body - They joined their respective movements - with a handshake that would shake the frontier. Throughout the 1800s, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) congregations expanded in Kentucky.
This from the Mercy Street Church of Christ:
The passion for union [had been] growing [between the Campbell and Stone movements] until there was a kind of pre-union gathering in Georgetown over the Christmas holidays, 1831. It was decided to send out a call for a union meeting the next weekend, New Year’s Day, 1832, a Saturday, at the Hill Street Christian Church in Lexington, Ky. It was estimated that some 300 were in attendance.
It was decided that Barton Stone and Raccoon John Smith should be the speakers, Stone representing his own people and Raccoon the Campbell side. Stone insisted that Raccoon should speak first. While it would have been ideal for the key players to have been Stone and Campbell, it turned out, perhaps by Providence, that Raccoon was the right person at the right place at the right time. With a background of poverty, hardship and tragedy while a Baptist minister, and brought into the reformation by reading Campbell, he was uniquely prepared in heart and mind to be the catalyst and key-noter for such a gathering.
Raccoon was well aware of the responsibility he bore in such a sensitive setting, that the least uncharitable gesture or the slightest sectarian remark could arouse suspicion and prejudice and blast the hope of union at the very hour it was budding into reality. He drew his remarks from Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17, that it is both desirable and practical, and that if our Lord prayed such a prayer it can be realized. In distinguishing between faith and opinion, which alluded to differences between them, he said there are a thousand opinions but one faith, ad that we can never unite on opinions but only upon the one faith which centers in Christ. He noted that when opinions and speculations are made tests of fellowship it always causes division. He said he personally avoided speculative theories by simply letting the Scriptures speak for themselves. We unite upon one faith, not one opinion, he insisted.
He at last made that great plea that is reflective of one of the Movement’s greatest hours, “Let us then, my brethren, be no longer Stoneites or Campbellites, or New Lights or Old Lights, but let us all come to the Bible, and to the Bible alone, as the only book in the world which can give us all the light we need.” Stone spoke next, and it was mostly a hearty endorsement of what Raccoon had just said. Referencing what had been said about speculation, he admitted he had sometime been speculative in his sermons, and he vowed to do better. He took Raccoon’s hand in his, endorsing the plea he had made, and called for the union of their people. It has been referred to in our history as “the handshake that shook the frontier,” for the Movement, now united, was to grow and prosper. It would number 300,000 by the time of the Civil War, and reach to Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. And while other major denominations divided during the Civil War, the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches remained one church, one people, which led some leaders to conclude that it would never divide.
On that New Year’s Day, 1832, when their two leaders joined hands and declared the union of their two churches, the first such union in American history, the people rejoiced, praising God and embracing each other, and a hymn of praise broke out among them. What Stone would later describe as “the noblest act of my life” was now a reality. The next day was Lord’s day, and the united church assembled to break bread together.
This from the Mercy Street Church of Christ:
The passion for union [had been] growing [between the Campbell and Stone movements] until there was a kind of pre-union gathering in Georgetown over the Christmas holidays, 1831. It was decided to send out a call for a union meeting the next weekend, New Year’s Day, 1832, a Saturday, at the Hill Street Christian Church in Lexington, Ky. It was estimated that some 300 were in attendance.
It was decided that Barton Stone and Raccoon John Smith should be the speakers, Stone representing his own people and Raccoon the Campbell side. Stone insisted that Raccoon should speak first. While it would have been ideal for the key players to have been Stone and Campbell, it turned out, perhaps by Providence, that Raccoon was the right person at the right place at the right time. With a background of poverty, hardship and tragedy while a Baptist minister, and brought into the reformation by reading Campbell, he was uniquely prepared in heart and mind to be the catalyst and key-noter for such a gathering.
Raccoon was well aware of the responsibility he bore in such a sensitive setting, that the least uncharitable gesture or the slightest sectarian remark could arouse suspicion and prejudice and blast the hope of union at the very hour it was budding into reality. He drew his remarks from Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17, that it is both desirable and practical, and that if our Lord prayed such a prayer it can be realized. In distinguishing between faith and opinion, which alluded to differences between them, he said there are a thousand opinions but one faith, ad that we can never unite on opinions but only upon the one faith which centers in Christ. He noted that when opinions and speculations are made tests of fellowship it always causes division. He said he personally avoided speculative theories by simply letting the Scriptures speak for themselves. We unite upon one faith, not one opinion, he insisted.
He at last made that great plea that is reflective of one of the Movement’s greatest hours, “Let us then, my brethren, be no longer Stoneites or Campbellites, or New Lights or Old Lights, but let us all come to the Bible, and to the Bible alone, as the only book in the world which can give us all the light we need.” Stone spoke next, and it was mostly a hearty endorsement of what Raccoon had just said. Referencing what had been said about speculation, he admitted he had sometime been speculative in his sermons, and he vowed to do better. He took Raccoon’s hand in his, endorsing the plea he had made, and called for the union of their people. It has been referred to in our history as “the handshake that shook the frontier,” for the Movement, now united, was to grow and prosper. It would number 300,000 by the time of the Civil War, and reach to Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. And while other major denominations divided during the Civil War, the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches remained one church, one people, which led some leaders to conclude that it would never divide.
On that New Year’s Day, 1832, when their two leaders joined hands and declared the union of their two churches, the first such union in American history, the people rejoiced, praising God and embracing each other, and a hymn of praise broke out among them. What Stone would later describe as “the noblest act of my life” was now a reality. The next day was Lord’s day, and the united church assembled to break bread together.