But even if ye should suffer for righteousness’ sake, blessed are ye: and fear not their fear, neither be troubled; but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, wherein ye are spoken against, they may be put to shame who revile your good manner of life in Christ.
— 1 Peter 3:14-16 (ASV)

A Review of Rev. J.B. Jeter’s Book Entitled “Campbellism Examined.”

Lard’s Quarterly.

Moses E. Lard was born in Tennessee on October 29, 1818 and experienced a hard­scrabble upbringing. Smallpox killed his father shortly after the family’s emigration to Missouri. His impoverished mother sent Moses out to make his own way in the world when he was just 14 years old.

General Alexander W. Donaphan, a “leading citizen” of Missouri, encouraged Lard to get some education. The young husband and father of two had almost none when he entered Bethany College on March 4, 1845. He graduated with an M.A. on July 4, 1848. His classmates elected him valedictorian, and Lard embarked on a notable preaching ministry in Missouri. When J.B. Jeter, a Southern Baptist, published Campbellism Examined, in 1855, Alexander Campbell assigned the rebuttal to Moses Lard, whose A Review of Rev. J.B. Jeter’s Book Entitled “Campbellism Examined” appeared in 1857.

Moses Lard was a regular contributor to the American Christian Review, which Elder Benjamin Franklin was editing from Cincinnati. The American Christian Review published Lard’s “Prospectus of the Christian Quarterly” in April 1859 and was still promoting creation of this quarterly when in January 1860 Lard announced that the required 2,000 subscribers had not been reached, and without them the Quarterly would not be viable. Moses Lard did not begin publishing Lard’s Quarterly until September 1863, when economic conditions had worsened. The Quarterly always struggled for subscribers, and Lard discontinued it with the April 1868 issue.

Moses Lard, J. W. McGarvey, W. H. Hopson, L. B. Wilkes, and Robert Graham as co-editors began publishing the Apostolic Times at Lexington, Kentucky, April 15, 1869.

In 1875 Lard published a 485 page Commentary on Romans, including its Greek text and his own translation printed in parallel columns.

Restorationists had founded and largely funded Kentucky University and its College of the Bible. When the brother­hood discovered that K.U. was not to support its values and beliefs, the Kentucky Christian Education Society formed in 1877 a rival College of the Bible with the support of Robert Graham, J.W. McGarvey, I.B. Grubbs, ... and Moses Lard. Then Lard accepted the presidency of Kentucky University’s College of the Bible. Many Christians stopped trusting Lard. Behind Lard’s move, however, was a confi­dential promise from John B. Bowman, regent of Kentucky University, to step down in favor of Lard after one year. But brother­hood backing withdrawn, the College of the Bible at K.U. folded. At the end of the year, Lard was out. K.U. did allow the rival College of the Bible to meet in its facilities.

Lard’s lecture “Do the Holy Scriptures Teach the Endlessness of Future Punishment?” published as a pamphlet in 1879, deepened doubts about the aging evangelist’s soundness.

Lard died in Lexington, June 17, 1880.

“Moses Lard,” J.B. Jones, Churches of Christ: A Historical, Biographical, and Pictoral History, John T. Brown, ed. (Louisville: John P. Morton and Co., 1904) 416-418.

Another biographical sketch of Moses Lard by W.T. Moore (ed.) transcribed by James L. McMillan.

See also Earl Irvin West, The Search for the Ancient Order: A History of the Restoration Movement, Vols. I and II (Indianapolis: Religious Book Service, 1950).

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