228 



EADS, JAMES BUCHANAN. 



prises, had been $25,772. Under its direct 

 agency 86 new and unorganized places had 

 been visited, 153 churches had been visited 

 and assisted, 25 churches had been organized, 

 and 673 persons had been received by baptism. 

 Several State organizations co-operate with the 

 work of the society through their own agents. 

 They returned in all 179 missionaries, who had 

 visited and assisted 1,204 churches and 311 

 new and unorganized places, had organized 78 

 churches, and had received 5,915 members by 

 baptism. The amount of $79,823 was re- 

 turned as raised by State boards, and about 

 $40,000 as raised by missionaries for local 

 work. The receipts for the church extension 

 fund had been, regular, $937 ; special, $2,236. 

 Two loans had been made. A favorable re- 

 port was made of the condition of the South- 

 ern Christian Institute, and of the school at 

 New Castle, Ky. Two ministers had been 

 aided from the Ministerial Belief Fund. A re- 

 ply was adopted to a communication from the 

 Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church 

 on Christian Unity, inviting a conference on 

 that subject. It expressed gratification that 

 such an invitation had been sent out. The 

 " Churches of Christ," it represented, had been 

 organized in the beginning in 1809, in an ef- 

 fort to restore the faith and discipline of apos- 

 tolic times, in protest against the sectarian 

 spirit, and were still, with about 800,000 com- 

 municants, seeking the same objects. A speci- 

 fication followed of what these churches re- 

 garded as essential to Christian unity. First, 

 was the recognition of the Holy Scriptures of 

 the Old and New Testaments as the revealed 

 Word of God and the only authoritative 

 rule of faith the only one " beyond the reach 

 of compromise or surrender." Second, the res- 

 toration of unity demanded a return to New 

 Testament teaching; and this involved the 

 points that the original, inspired creed had but 

 one article, viz. : "Jesus is the Christ, the Son 

 of the living God"; that all who confessed 

 this faith in the Lord Jesus were admitted to 



Christian fellowship by an immersion in water 

 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 

 and of the Holy Spirit, and only such were 

 admitted ; and that those who were thus added 

 to the Church were continued in fellowship 

 so long as they walked in the commandments 

 of Jesus. Outside of that which is essential to 

 Christian unity, the answer continued, 



There are many things pertaining to growth in 

 knowledge, to methods of working, etc., in reference 

 to which, for the sake of peace and for the preserva- 

 tion of unity, there should be a common agreement. 

 There should, -we think, be the largest liberty of 

 opinion, of investigation, and of utterance, on all 

 questions arising out of the study of the Scriptures, 

 and no one who holds to Jesus " as God maniifc-t in 

 the flesh," and who keeps his commandments, 

 should be distuibed in his church relations on account 

 of his opinions, provided he does not attempt to force 

 his opinions on others; or to make an acceptance of 

 them a test of fellowship. Should he attempt this, 

 he becomes a factionist, to be rejected after the first 

 and second admonition. Many questions unprofita- 

 ble for discussion in the pulpit, may be profitably, or 

 at least harnilessly, discussed in the schools, to which 

 all speculative questions should be remanded. Then 

 there are practical questions questions of method in 

 carrying out the work of the Church which, being 

 left to the discretion of Christians, to be answered ac- 

 cording to times and circumstances, should never be 

 made tests of fellowship or occasions of strife. 



Finally, the " reply " commended the dec- 

 laration of the commission that the church 

 which it represented did not seek to absorb 

 other communions, but rather, co-operating 

 with them on the basis of a common faith and 

 order, to discountenance schism, heal tlie 

 wounds of the Body of Christ, and promote 

 Christian charity; and added, "not what will 

 promote the interests of any denomination, 

 but what will serve the purposes and promote 

 the welfare of the ' one Body ' of Christ, is to 

 be sought. All other communions should adopt 

 this sentiment as their own, as a necessary 

 preliminary to all successful efforts to heal 

 divisions and make manifest that unity which 

 is so prominent a characteristic of the Church 

 of God." 



E 



EADS, JAMES BUCHANAN, an American engi- 

 neer, born in Lawrenceburg, Ind., May 23, 1820 ; 

 died in Nassau, N. P., Bahama Islands, March 

 8, 1887. He attended school until he was thir- 

 teen years of age, and from his earliest youth 

 showed great fondness for machinery, spend- 

 ing his spare moments in visiting places where 

 he could watch the movements of mechanical 

 appliances. In 1833 he accompanied his pa- 

 rents to St. Louis, and, as they reached that 

 place, the steamer took fire, destroying all of 

 their household goods. The boy then obtained 

 a clerkship in the dry-goods house of Williams 

 and Durings, and his evenings during this time 

 were spent in the library of his employer, 

 studying mechanical and civil engineering. In 



1838 he became a purser on a Mississippi steam- 

 boat. This occupation afforded him the op- 

 portunity of studying the details of the con- 

 struction of steamboats, and while so employed 

 he acquired the title of captain, which clung 

 to him through life. His experience led him 

 to devise means for the saving of wrecks that 

 were found along the river, and in 1842 he 

 built a diving-bell boat for recovering cargoes. 

 This proving successful, he constructed a much 

 larger boat, with novel and powerful ma- 

 chinery for pumping out the sand and water, 

 and lifting the entire hull and cargo. Forming 

 a copartnership with Case and Nelson, he be- 

 gan the business of raising vessels, and soon 

 extended his operations from Balize, La., to 



