Restoration Leaders--James O'Kelley

          The Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin Rivers, along with other tributaries, combine to form the "mighty Mississippi" which passes by Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Before this it snakes its way through northern Minnesota as a gentle stream. In the American Restoration Movement, these are the "waters" of James O'Kelley.

          Before the Campbells, the Stones, the Smiths and the Jones there was James O'Kelley cutting a path on the American frontier in the clear direction of New Testament Christianity. Very much a product of his times, O'Kelley fought to carry the newly acquired torch of political freedom to those trapped under what he saw as a dictatorial religious system. This quest led him into unfamiliar territory. Others continued even beyond, deep into the cause of restoring New Testament Christianity.

The year of James O'Kelley's birth is variously reported. He must have been born around 1734 since he died in 1826 at the age of 92 (W. E. MacClenny, The Life of Rev. James O'Kelly and The Early History of the Christian Church in the South, Religious Book Service, Indianapolis, 1950; p. 11) although his grave marker indicates an age of 88 years. Information is scarce about his birth and early life. He married Elizabeth Meeks around 1760 and they had two sons, John and William (ibid.; p. 17-18). After the conversion of his wife and youngest son O'Kelley also embraced the Episcopal faith. In 1778, while in his 40's, he became an unordained circuit preacher in Virginia and North Carolina renowned as "a most forceful and convincing speaker, widely reputed for integrity and piety" (Emory Stevens Bucke, ed., The History of American Methodism, Vol. 1, Abingdon Press, New York, 1964; p. 442). O'Kelley's popularity is evidenced in that he was appointed to supervise 28 preachers while serving as presiding elder between 1785 and 1792 (Charles Franklin Kilgore, The James O'Kelly Schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Casa Unida De Publ., Mexico, 1963; p. 5). An avid admirer of John Wesley, O'Kelley was especially captivated by Wesley's plea for his followers to be simply "downright Christians" (Earl Irvin West, The Search for the Ancient Order, Vol. 1, Gospel Advocate Company, Nashville, 1974; p. 7), a phrase later adapted by O'Kelley as "we are Christians simply" (Leroy Garrett, The Stone-Campbell Movement, College Press Publishing House, Joplin, MO, 1981; p. 73) or "we will be downright Bible Christians" (West; p. 8).

          The Methodist Episcopal Church was formed on December 25, 1784 in Baltimore, MD (Garrett; p. 71). This represented a break from the dominance of Wesley over the Methodist Societies only to be replaced with the iron-fist rule of Francis Asbury, described by Methodist historians as a "dictator" (Halford Luccock and Paul Hutchinson, The Story of Methodism, The Methodist Book Concern, New York, 1927; p. 244). O'Kelley's early associate, William McEndree, would later describe the situation in these words, "Bishop Asbury was a pope; the General Conference was a revolutionizing body; the Bishop and his creatures were working the ruin of the Church to gratify their pride and ambition" (Bucke; p. 444). O'Kelley himself stated that "instead of counsellors, we were his tools; and that I disliked to be the tool for any man" (MacClenny; p. 65). His concerns regarding the Episcopal form of church government were already taking shape. He would later complain that they knew only one law: "The will of Mr. Francis Asbury" (ibid.; p. 80).

          Eight years later the powerful Asbury and the respected O'Kelley would take the young denomination through its first major upheaval. To the Methodists the issue was simply the personal power struggle between O'Kelley and Asbury. To O'Kelley it seemed to be more a response to the admonition of John Wesley himself who advised that they "simply follow the Scriptures and the primitive church" (ibid.; p. 48). O'Kelley wanted to find a "fixed pattern" of church government in the pages of the New Testament (Kilgore; p. 55). While his Methodist peers denied such a pattern existed (ibid.; p. 59), O'Kelley insisted that for the church to be pure it must conform to that pattern he termed "the Royal Standard" (ibid.; p. 57).

          O'Kelley's main objection was the unrestricted authority demanded by Asbury. At the November 1, 1792 meeting of the General Conference of Methodist preachers, the first of its kind, O'Kelley submitted the following proposal:

After the bishop appoints the preachers at Conference to their several circuits, if anyone think himself injured by the appointment, he shall have liberty to appeal to the Conference and state his objections; and if the Conference approve his objections, the bishop shall appoint him to another circuit (MacClenny; p. 87-88).

A fiery debate followed with early support for the proposal soon fading. O'Kelley would later write, "I then arose, and stood before the assembly with the New Testament of our Lord Jesus in my hand, and spake after this manner: Brethren, hearken unto me, put away all other books, and forms, and let this be the only criterion, and that shall satisfy me" (ibid.; p. 91).

          In the end the vote went against O'Kelley who led a departure from the Methodist Episcopal Church. One report places the number of prominent preachers who walked out with him at 36 (Bucke; p. 434) including William McKendree, who was soon to return and eventually succeed Asbury, and Rice Haggard, who would later play an important role in the work of Barton W. Stone. It was clear this move posed serious problems for the young Methodist denomination, eventually resulting in a loss of a fifth of their membership, sometimes with entire congregations departing (ibid.; p. 444). Jesse Lee, an eyewitness and contemporary Methodist historian, described what happened: "James O'Kelly wrote a letter to the conference, that he should leave the travelling connexion, on account of the vote that was taken the night before. When the letter was read many of the preachers wept heartily" (Minton Thrift, Memoir of the Rev. Jesse Lee with Extracts From His Journals, Arno Press & the New York Times, New York, 1969; p. 182). Asbury would himself note in his journal regarding O'Kelley's withdrawal, "The mischief has begun" (Charles Ferguson, Organizing to Beat the Devil, Methodists and the Making of America, Doubleday & Co., Inc., New York, 1971; p. 181).

          From those departing a new group was formed at Manakintown, Virginia in 1793 under the name Republican Methodists declaring themselves free from "all the evils of misgovernment" (MacClenny; p. 4). But soon that name would prove unsatisfactory as they moved toward a greater respect for biblical authority. On August 4, 1794 at the Old Lebanon Church in Surry County, VA, at the urging of Rice Haggard and A. M. Hafferty, the group decided to call themselves simply Christians, discarding the name Republican Methodists, and accepted the Bible as their only creed (ibid.; p. 121). O'Kelley would later reflect his enthusiasm that the "true hierarchy, or primitive church government, which came down from heaven, was a republic" (ibid.; p. 117-18). Their "Five Cardinal Principles of the Christian Church" stressed these convictions (the name Christian and the Bible) while recognizing Christ as the only head of the church, Christian character as a test of fellowship and the right of private judgment (ibid.; p. 5).

          O'Kelley's message was unity, "I desire union with you--think and let think" adding "how cruel for us to be separated by the voice of tyranny" (Bucke; p. 449). This appealed to the people but the Methodist leadership could not understand the rationale of abandoning their established organization for what they saw as the impractical guidance of the scriptures alone. To them O'Kelley's contention for "Bible government, Christian equality and the Christian name" was "irrelevant, for each man interprets the Bible as he pleases" (ibid.; p. 450). They rejected his plea: "let their Episcopal dignity submit to Christ, who is the head and only head of his Church; and then we as brethren will walk together, and follow God as dear children" (ibid.; p. 452).

          Until 1809 the Christian Church enjoyed growth apparently without knowing of the work begun to their north by Abner Jones and Elias Smith in 1801 (Winfred Ernest Garrison, Religion Follows the Frontier: A History of the Disciples of Christ, Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York, 1931; p. 62). Despite differences a union was made by 1811 (MacClenny, p. 157) with Smith and Jones to the east and Barton W. Stone to the west (Kilgore; p. 86). In this latter union Stone was tolerant of O'Kelley's doctrine which remained very much Methodist. When Stone united with Campbell in 1832, the followers of O'Kelley objected, recognizing a departure from Stone's more tolerant attitude towards baptism (ibid.; p. 87-8).

          O'Kelley held to his death the belief that pouring was baptism (West; p. 8) and in any form it was not deemed essential to salvation (Kilgore; p. 84-5). In 1810 a split occurred between O'Kelley and a colleague named William Guiery who argued for immersion (MacClenny; p. 149). The work also suffered from a lack of educated preachers. O'Kelley, who saw the excesses of Cokesbury College, resisted the idea of Christian education (ibid.; p. 180).

          James O'Kelley lived a long and respected life. His friend Thomas Jefferson called him "one of the greatest preachers living" (Garrett; p. 83-4). Following a "painful and lingering illness" he died on October 16, 1826 (MacClenny; p. 228). He was buried in Chatham County, North Carolina near the site of "the first new Christian church in the South" named O'Kelly's Chapel (ibid.; p. 169). A monument erected in 1854 bears the inscription:

Erected

by his

Christian friends

to the memory of

James O'Kelley

of N. C.

The southern champion

of

Christian freedom

[Note: When MacClenny wrote his biography there was no date inscribed on this marker. The pictures below indicate either the present marker is not original or, more likely, that the dates (obviously inaccurate) were added later.]

          Of his life's work one record reads: "although numbering at one time several thousand, it so declined that at the time of O'Kelley's death only a remnant remained" (Samuel Macauley Jackson, ed., The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. VIII, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1956; p. 230). He is remembered by Methodist historians for his rebellious, divisive spirit and as an inept leader (Bucke; p. 429, 452, 448). Even with O'Kelley gone the Methodist Church continued a long struggle with the issues he raised while characterizing the work of O'Kelley as a failure. They failed to realize the trail he began to blaze. Two years before his death O'Kelley wrote: "The little Christian Church moves gradually out of the wilderness. She has rubbed through several hard shocks, with some loss, but her true friends are getting more established; the farther we go, the more we see, and the good old primitive path appears" (MacClenny; p. 225). His work was not in vain. Even today the plea to restore New Testament Christianity thrives. James O'Kelley must not be forgotten for his role in the American Restoration Movement. His biographer observed, "Although the permanent effects of O'Kelly's work may be open to question, the value of his efforts lies chiefly in the direction he was moving--toward the restoration of the primitive order" (ibid.; p. 3). The mighty river could never be without the stream that gave it birth.

David Bragg

February, 1999

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"Five Cardinal Principles of The Christian Church."

1. The Lord Jesus Christ as the only head of the church.

2. The name Christian to the exclusion of all party and sectarian names.

3. The Holy Bible, or the scriptures of the Old and New Testament our only creed, and a sufficient rule of faith and practice.

4. Christian character, or vital piety, the only test of church fellowship and membership.

5. The right of private judgment, and the liberty of conscience, the privilege and duty of all!