The proposition was discussed at the association, and, after much debate, was decided by a good majority in favor of their being received. Thus a union was formed. But the party opposed, though small, began early to work, and continued with a perseverance worthy of a better cause. But for three years they could do nothing. The situation in which Mr. Campbell found himself, soon after his connection with the Redstone Association of the Baptist churches, was not at all inviting. The originality of his method in dealing with the Scriptures, and his utter disregard for customs, however time-honored, which were not sanctioned by primitive precept or example, awakened the suspicion of the more narrow-minded of the Baptist preachers, who were not slow in manifesting their disapproval. His popularity among the churches of the association no doubt added to their displeasure, and at every opportunity he was made to feel the sting of their resentment. This hostility, which at first manifested itself in slights and little annoyances, at last led to an open attack upon his teachings. When the association met at Cross Creek in August, 1816, in spite of the intrigues of his enemies he was appointed as one of the speakers, on which occasion he preached his great “Sermon on the Law.” In that discourse he sharply discriminated between the law of Moses and the Gospel, showing that the former had served its purpose, and that its authority had passed away when the kingdom of the Messiah was established. This marked another important advance in the progress of the efforts to return to apostolic Christianity. The distinction between the law and the Gospel, the old covenant and the new, the letter and the spirit, the Jewish commonwealth and the kingdom, had been greatly obscured in popular thought. It was claimed that the law was still alive, and that Christians come under its provisions as such, with the exception of its strictly ceremonial parts, and that the church under the Christian dispensation is the same that existed under the Jewish dispensation. The sermon, though containing but plain Scripture teaching, was such a bold assault upon the theology and style of preaching current among the Baptists that it created a great sensation in the association, and raised a storm of persecution. The common people were, for the most part, pleased with his simple, natural presentation of the truth, but this only added fuel to the flame of bitterness which some of the preachers cherished against him. “This will never do,” they said, “this is not our doctrine.”