Life And Labors OF D. S. WARNER PT2

Chapter 9  A PREACHER OF HOLINESS  The attainment of the experience of perfect holiness led Brother Warner into a new and enlarged field of ministerial activity. Since the time had come for a reformation along the line of holiness, when it was the divine plan that the subject be made prominent, we should expect Brother Warner, as one of God's ministers, to make sanctification his principal theme and at once to begin preaching it. He began writing articles on sanctification for the Church Advocate, the denominational organ. Also he began writing with a view of publishing a tract or booklet on the subject of sanctification. He was thus placed in a new field, with a new issue to defend. New lines were drawn in his ministerial relations, as there was opposition from many along a line that had not existed before. As his diary covers the events of his life at this point we will let him again speak for himself. The reader will remember, of course, that these are but selections, as he wrote something for every day and the accounts are too full to quote in their entirety. He was at this time on the Ashland circuit, with his home in the Vermillion College building, near Hayesville. He had been taking a special course of study at the College, but as he beheld the need of the evangelistic field in greater proportion than ever, he felt it his duty thereafter to give less attention to study and more to his ministerial calling.  July 14, 1877. Wrote, meditated, and prayed most all day with only the Lord present. Commenced article for the Advocate on sanctification.  15. Quite sick this morn. As the holiness meeting       [near Upper Sandusky] was interrupted by an appointment by a Dunker preacher this A.M., we all went to Rock Run to hear Brother Smith, but he absolutely required of me that I preach for him. I was very weak; but thinking it was of the Lord I committed all to God and expected his aid.       Text: "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 65). The Lord helped me to show the dear people some of the Scripture and reasons for the second work of grace, and that as soon as we merged up into the holy mountain, love, union, and peace prevailed without alloy. May God bless the truth. There was great attention. Some questions were asked at the close of discourse, all pleasantly, however. Oh, that God would lead the dear people on to perfection!  20. The Ohio State Holiness Convention met last night in Marion on the fair ground. Will continue several days. I should be happy to attend, but the Spirit seems to direct us to return and lift up the banner of holiness on our field of labor. Hence we started this morn for home, the weather pleasant. Having brought feed and dinner we stopped under a shade tree and ate our dinner and enjoyed a pleasant rest and communion with God.  25. [At Hayesville] School begins today. Busy at domestic duties.  26. Wrote, read, and communed with the Lord.  27. Still writing on sanctification. The Lord is giving me much light. Praise his name! Met with the Excelsior Society. Read a lecture on pneumatics.  28. Finished my second article on sanctification.  29. Sabbath. Arose as soon as daylight. Spent some time with the Lord. Started about seven for Mansfield. Met a few hungry souls. The Lord wonderfully baptized my soul from the time I entered his house. Glory! glory! glory! Oceans of love flow through my soul. Oh, how inexpressibly sweet and joyful! Read part of Acts 21. After giving myself anew into the hands of God I proceeded to talk from Acts 21:14. The Lord so greatly led me out on his work in us that I did not get to the last two points, namely, his will done with us, and his will done by us. Praise the Lord, he so abundantly fills my mouth with holiness that I cannot get to anything else to say.  Had a long talk with a sister of the Church of God who was mortified over my going to the altar to seek sanctification. She thought I must have been backslidden or something. I told her that something was wanting, but I knew very well what ailed me. I had been in need of the sanctifying power of God and, glory to Jesus, I have found it. She thought that she was fully sanctified when she was converted. I replied that if that were so her experience differed from that of the first converts to Christ, as well as that of the Corinthians, the Ephesians, the Thessalonians, etc. To this she could make no reply but that it was to be attained by growth, but I reminded her that God was to do the work.  August 3, 1877. This morn went into the Lord's camp. Dr. Steele, from New York, was reading his interesting Bible lessons, giving the benefit of the Greek and Dean Alford. Very instructive. Was       happy to meet several brethren of my acquaintance from Crawford County and elsewhere. Thank God, they are on the holiness line.  4. Went out to camp at 5:30 A.M. Prayer meeting in the tabernacle. Stayed all day on the ground, or until afternoon preaching by Brother Rice, who (probably unknown to the Methodist Episcopal ministers) had his license taken from him two days before by the Northwest Ohio Conference for preaching holiness. He gave us a straight, close-hewing sermon on sanctification. He did not preach holiness for the glory of Methodism, as some others seemed somewhat inclined to do. Some were much displeased at his exposure of the opposition to holiness in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Came home this eve. Found dear Wife and child well.  8. Sister Ella Snyder called on us. She was visiting at Brother McKey's, who, by the way, is a strong opposer of entire sanctification. Ella soon began talking on the subject and talking somewhat differently from what she did on last Sabbath. We think it probable that she had just been receiving the teaching of some one outside of the second work, She treated the subject with much lightness. Before she left we bowed in prayer, at the close of which she fell powerless on the floor. I raised her head, asked her if she was sick. She said not. Looked strange and confounded. Prayed some and confessed that the hand of God was upon her. Wife asked her if she was now sanctified. She replied that she knew not where she was. She grasped my hand very firmly. I raised her up, asked Sarah to support her; but she would not loosen her hold. As I endeavored to give her over to Wife, she gripped my hand the harder. We raised her up but she could not stand. We dropped her into a rocking chair and soon kneeled again in prayer. She prayed constantly to God for a "clean heart," "sanctification," etc. Her full consciousness had hardly recovered when she said she had to go, as her party were waiting on her. Sarah accompanied her a piece and left her looking very solemn. I pray God to lead her to the cleansing fountain.  12. Sabbath. Beautiful morn. Was up early and in       counsel with the Lord. Soon received my text, 1 Thessalonians 5:24. Observed that this text forever took away all excuse of inability; that it laid down a principle which converted all the commands of God into promises; that every thing unto which the Lord called us he would work in us. Applying the subject, as the apostle did, to entire sanctification, I defended the distinct work by experience, reason, and "thus saith the Lord." The Lord powerfully blessed the testimony of my dear wife before preaching, and I believe that seed of truth has been sown in the hearts of the people. Went home with Bro. Jacob Freed, Brother and Sister Long, and others. We talked some on holiness. Brother Long opposed it by denying inherited depravity, which he did after my discourse today in the pulpit. Much of the afternoon was spent in the closet and private walks with the Lord. Oh, how much I prefer the company of the Lord to any other!  16. [At Eldership convention. Place not stated.] Met at half-past eight. Half hour devotion. Topic: Proper Home Influence; Duty of Parents to Their Children. The Spirit of the Lord deeply impressed this subject upon the minds of all. Hearts were melted. Tears flowed for unsaved children of ministers and members. Unconverted souls and backsliders were deeply affected. The Lord converted the convention wholly into an effort to save souls. Fervent prayers were offered, exhortations and tears, invitation hymns were sung (the organ was forgotten), and all the congregation was deeply stirred. A few souls arose and asked prayers. The unconverted children of Brothers . . . were especially prayed for. Oh, how I praised God that the dear brethren were willing to let the Spirit lead the meeting! The whole forenoon was given to devotion.  18. Spent the day in writing, reading, and prayer.       P.M., long talk with Brother Mitchell and Sister Shriner on sanctification. Brother M. talks reasonably; Sister S. is hostile to the blessed truth, but of course it is through ignorance. She thought I should leave the Church of God at once and not destroy it by my doctrine of holiness, having actual fears of holiness. Oh, I hope and pray to God to lead my dear brethren on to this heart perfection. Would to God they understood this blessed full salvation! Nothing but wrong notions of perfect holiness or an evil spirit can oppose entire sanctification, as it does not in the least disturb or conflict with any doctrine of the church. It allows all that the Bible or any man attributes to regeneration. Instead of depreciating, it has greatly magnified justification.  19. Sabbath. At ten a funeral procession arrived from Rome, bringing a sweet little angel form, Bertha Estella Curtis, the only child of Z. H. Curtis, of Van Wert County. As their parents reside at Rome, they brought the child back there for burial. Brother Wilson preached an impressive discourse from Job: "Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble." We laid the little form away and tried to comfort the young parents and friends.  Came to Shenandoah. Brother Burchard preached from: "Christ has left us an example that we should follow his steps." With his usual earnestness he urged all to live a whole-hearted Christian life. I wish the dear brother would learn to bring dear souls to the blood that cleanses from all sin, instead of infusing strength and zeal to fight inbred corruption. Recently I talked with this brother on the subject of sanctification. I had a conviction of mind that he knew something about it. He confessed that after seeking for mercy for three days the load of guilt and condemnation fell from his heart and he testified to the pardon of his sins. (This I remember myself.) But soon he found himself wanting before God. Then began another struggle for deliverance from something (he knew not what as he felt no more guilt) that greatly disturbed his peace and shut out the smiles of God's face. After one week's prayer, and dedication of self and all he had to God he "sank down in all the depth of humility and nothingness that was possible for him to conceive of." God wonderfully blessed him with perfect light peace and love. What was this but entire sanctification? But for want of being better taught he calls this his conversion. Strange confused theology. The idea of pardon one week before conversion! I pray God to show this brother his mistake and renew him in the blessing of perfect holiness,  21. Sent out about twenty-five cards of invitation in the mail. People began to come in to the reunion here at the College.  22. College yard filled. Some good speakers, but about all chaff and vainglory, ministers and lawyers alike using their brains to evolve some trashy nonsense to tickle the ears of the foolish. I was quite unwell. Eve, much reduced, but went out to Vermillion, where I met a few precious souls and preached that men should "trust in the       Lord," and in trying to do so myself I was blessed with strength to preach about forty minutes. 26. Sabbath. The Lord helped me to set forth his great power to save from all sin in this life. Went home with Brother David Donelson. Conversed on holiness, spent much time in secret prayer. Was impressed to preach on holiness, yet felt sure that the church did not want to hear it; but I knew there was some hungry soul there that did want it. . . . The church here is quite strong numerically and there is much good material. Oh, that all these vessels of the Lord would be purged, sanctified, made fit for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work! Drove home, arriving at nearly one o'clock.  27. Arose in good time, feeling greatly refreshed in the Lord. Helped to get ready to go to Shenandoah.  28. Sister Shriner is, boiling over with railing toward God's pure little ones. Glory to God! he has "saved me from the strife of tongues. Christ kept me, in imitation of his own example, from answering a word. It were folly indeed to try to talk holiness where there is no appetite but for carnal contention. Thank the Lord for this wisdom.  29. Fasted and prayed today. Father N-- seems very cold and unsociable toward us. Probably the enemy has put something in his heart. I sank very deep down in the great ocean of God's love and goodness this morning. Had inexpressible conception of the wonders of salvation. Visited at Brother Kline's. I spent about all the time on my knees in prayer, which I love most to do.  30. Sold my mare and colt to Mother Wolf for $130.  September 1, 1877. Elmer Wolf took me part of the way to Mansfield. I gave up the faithful Mattie and little Billy to him. Walked a few miles and was overtaken by a kind man who took me in his       buggy to town. Called at a few places. Spent much of the time in prayer. Eve, preached the gospel of perfect salvation.  2. Met in a holiness prayer meeting at 5:30 A.M. Took some breakfast. Stayed much on my knees before God. At 10:30 A.M. met, and tried to talk to the people from Ephesians 3:20. Then we went to a small stream at the west side of the city and had the happy privilege of immersing . . . They all enjoy entire sanctification. Never before did I feel the solemnity of the ordinance as now. How unworthy I regarded myself to imitate my blessed Master, especially in immersing those whom he had led far out into the ocean of his perfect love! We sang a hymn, then knelt down upon the green sod and called upon the Lord, who was so very sensibly near to us. The day had been very dark and dreary, the sun not having shone through the clouds since early morn. But now the gentle hand of God brushed the clouds aside and sent down upon us the most glorious and brilliant streams of light that I ever witnessed. Sister F-was the last of the three. She has been walking with God upon the strait highway, of holiness for some years and her whole life is swallowed up in God alone. Though the sun was shining brilliantly, yet as she arose from the water I was impressed that a light shone upon us "above the brightness of the sun." She stood calmly gazing upward for a moment, with the light of God beaming from her face. I gave way to the impression that the occasion and circumstances had made on my mind and spoke of the heavenly light, which I still supposed was natural; but she afterward informed me that it was more than sunshine--rays of glory. The whole assembly was awed into reverence, and a strange feeling of sacredness pervaded all our minds. How applicable the words of the prophet: "Arise, shine, for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee"!  3. Took train for Perryville to begin a holiness meeting the Brubaker Bethel. A pretty good crowd assembled. I tried to teach them their rights in the gospel, taking special pains to admonish the brethren and sisters not to allow the enemy of their souls to stir up bitterness and hatred in their hearts against the way of perfect holiness, assuring them that this way was so hated by the devil that if possible he would overthrow the best of Christians and set them foaming and raging mad against the pure in heart and true holiness. I was surprised to learn that since my last visit here the enemy had already begun to work, fearing the destruction of his kingdom.  6. Meeting nearly all day. Satan still angry. Small       stones were thrown into the house from the door and windows. Two brethren ventured to speak. The first took occasion to unload his mind of many grievous objections and charges against the holiness work, and sat down much humiliated when he saw that his harsh speeches only elicited pleasant smiles and kind words from the sanctified. The second said he did not endorse what his brother had said hut still could not see this second work. Both asked for "thus saith the Lord."  7. Fasted and worshiped God all day. Met at 10 A.M. and continued until 4 P.M. Just before closing we engaged in prayer to God for my perfect healing. I was wonderfully strengthened both in body and faith. Walked about one mile over hills to find places for God's little ones, then drove to Loudonville and Brother L-- and I ate some refreshment, about 5 P.M., at the baker's, I not having eaten anything since the day before at noon. Glory to God, I felt no weakness.  8. Drove back to the Ridge. Found God's little ones there at noon and no food, and no encouragement to go anywhere for dinner. We sent to Perryville and got some provisions, but before it came we had begun afternoon meeting, and cared but little for the bread that perisheth.  9. Sabbath. In the saving strength of the Lord, Wife, child, and I walked to Vermillion. Went the two and one half miles with scarcely any fatigue. Now began the eruption of: a volcano in the form of a preacher, even my beloved colleague [W. H. Oliver]. The red-hot lava of scorn, scoff, and persecution, yea, words of slang fit only for the worldly rabble, poured forth about two hours, all against those whom the blood had washed whiter than snow. Glory to God, I only added that I thanked my holy Savior I was counted worthy to suffer persecution and reproach for his name's sake. Praise God, he keeps me in a storm as well       as in the calm. We came to Brother Ford's. Sister Ella Snyder came along, and after she and Sarah had a good talk, we had prayer together, and, praise the Lord, he sanctified her soul and body.  I came to Hayesville, where an appointment had been announced for me at 3 P.M. By the help of the Lord I talked from 1 Thessalonians 5:24. Glory to God, the truth went home to the heart. Rode most of the way back with Father McQ--. Poor old man tried to pick a quarrel with me on baptism. I finally calmed his nerves by singing The Precious Blood Has Reached Me. Shut myself up with God until meeting. Found the church mostly displeased with the harangue of the forenoon. Good speaking-meeting. Wife testified boldly to the second work and admonished the church. Sister Snyder, whom the Lord smote down in my room some time ago, and who entered into rest this day, also testified to her entire sanctification. I talked to the people about twenty minutes from Acts 5:28-39. Oh, how sweetly the Spirit led me and talked through me! Some shouting.  10. My soul was very happy today. It appears that I only begin to realize the glorious work that God has done for me. I do thank God for the test of yesterday. O Lord, try me in every way and see if there is any evil way in me! I do praise the Lord that I cannot feel the slightest ill will in my heart against the persecutor. May the Lord enlighten, humble, and save him. I suppose he really thinks like Paul, the persecutor, did, that he is doing God service.  13. I walked over to Sister Smith's and called to invite her to the meeting. Had a season of prayer with her and family. As I was about to start she asked if I did not wish to sell my buggy. I told her I did. So she gave me a beast to ride to Shenandoah and bring the buggy back on my return. Thank the Lord, this is his kind dealing with me. Eve, abstained from supper, as I commonly do when I have services. Good full house. Delivered my farewell discourse to the people of Shenandoah. Acts 20. Brother Oliver was present, and was so much annoyed when I addressed the few little ones whom the Lord has perfected in love that he could not compose himself and sit in one position three seconds. God pity any one thus mad against the work of God.  14. Met a Brother and Sister Daily, from Morrow County. I enquired of that country as a missionary field and heard of some destitute localities, where the Lord may send me to win souls for Jesus. Came to Shenandoah, thence to Brother M. Bell's, south of town. Visited until 5 P.M. Poor man thinks it impossible to get rid of the Adamic nature while we live. So "because of unbelief they entered not in." Had a season prayer with the family and twice interviewed the Lord in the pleasant woods near by. Glory to Jesus, he is near, yea, reigning in me most preciously today. Came over to Paul's. Found that they had been in expectation of me all day. Prayed with and encouraged them to stedfastness.  15. Ate some breakfast this morn with the design of fasting the rest of the day. Desired much to visit some, but felt the importance of shutting myself up with the Lord, so I did, and was greatly       blessed. At 2 P.M. we met in the grove and had a profitable little meeting. Brother Oliver, by my request, again preached.  16. Sabbath. Early this morn I went to the beautiful grove prepared for services. Spent a long time upon my knees there in prayer and reading His Word. At ten people convened. Had a good speaking-meeting. Then Brother Oliver preached on Ephesians 3:14-15. Preached over an hour on Christian union. I am sick of hearing union thrown at the people with the sling of depravity. Might as well go into a drove of sheep and expect to get them all into a solid mass by pounding them around with a club. It can but scatter more.  I took dinner with Brother and Sister Ferguson on the ground, then went off into the woods nearly a half mile and stayed with the Lord alone until 2:30 P.M., the time for preaching. The Spirit directed me to read and talk upon 1 Corinthians 13. Though I said scarcely anything but what every true Christian can endorse, yet Brother Oliver took occasion to put in about a half hour opposing holiness as a distinct work of God. Poor soul, he is greatly disturbed with the subject       of perfect love. Went home with Brother and Sister Tomlinson and Brother and Sister Crum. They were anxious to learn of the way of holiness. Had prayer together and some supper. I walked to the Bethel, found it full and Brother Oliver preaching.  Brother O. took me in hand on holiness; asked me many questions, made grievous charges, and wanted me to leave what he termed "my theory." Asked me if I was going to continue preaching as I have for the past months. I told him that I would continue to teach all the light I had received and as much more as the Lord would give. I patiently heard his long heckling and thanked him. As he finished he drew from his pocket a paper and handed it to me. My first impression was that it was a note that someone had sent to me, but as soon as I took it I felt the Spirit of God go through my whole being and I knew that it was something from which God would bring great good to my soul and his cause. I thanked him and put it in my pocket. Came to Brother Stoner's and got my beast and buggy and drove to Brother Wolfe's. Stopping for some things there I took a moment to read the portentous paper I had received. I read as follows:  September 15, 1877.  The following charges are preferred against Elder D. S. Warner:  First. For inviting a sect of fanatics calling themselves the Holy Alliance Band to hold meetings in the local Churches of God without consulting the elders or trustees or myself.  Second. For joining in with these said band and bidding them God speed and thereby bringing schism and division among those churches.  Third. For the accommodation of this professed holy band that he invited to hold a meeting of ten days in the Church of God chapel in Mansfield. Elder D. S. Warner did on the evening of the 8th of July in less than one hour hold the ordinances of washing the saints' feet and the Lord's Supper attended to.  Fourth. For stating publicly in Shenandoah, about the 26th of August, that he had been preaching his own doctrine prior to seeking his so called holiness.  W. H. Oliver.  I thanked God and put the paper away without saying a word. Bid all farewell, including Della Oliver, whom I invited to come and visit us. I drove to Sister Smith's, twelve miles. The night was beautiful and light, and my soul was happy. I praised God all the way and was too happy to sleep when I retired about 12 o'clock. Of these charges I feel as Joseph told his brethren: "Ye thought evil in your hearts, but God meant it all for good, for you see how much people he hath saved from death by the famine."  To the first charge I say: Thank God that calling people hard names does not make them such, but only shows the depravity of the accuser. No band was invited, but simply persons from different localities who enjoyed holiness.  Second. The charge of schism is without the least shadow of foundation. Through the mercy of God a few souls have been sanctified from their pride, etc., and qualified to be useful in the church.  [The answer to the third charge is omitted from the journal. Perhaps an oversight.]  Fourth. This is a mistake. I simply said that on sanctification I used to preach what I believed, but now I am able to testify that I know.  21. [At Canton camp-meeting.] A.M., Brother Oliver tried to preach, being very hoarse. After preaching a brother presented a call for money for Brother Oliver's horse. I joyfully took a paper and solicited for him with his paper of charges in my pocket. Thank God for entire sanctification. P.M., I addressed the people from 1 Thessalonians 4:1. By the help of God a portion of the discourse was given to testifying and teaching entire sanctification. Brother Petra followed in German with a crossfire. Brother James followed him with his mixed talk, part of the time seeming to endorse me and the other Brother P. Oh, how much waste of time for the want of seeking a definite experience and then being able to "give the trumpet a certain sound!" Brother James announced that in the evening he would preach from, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." I prayed God to keep him from opposing the truth and, thank His name, he talked only to sinners and said little on the text.  24. [Canton camp-meeting.] I thank God that I came to this meeting. I have never in all my life met so much good, old-fashioned, plain, humble, Holy Ghost religion. What a kind-hearted people! God bless them. After long time was spent in sobs and farewell greetings around a large assembly of people who were solemnly touched by the deepness of the feeling, we marched around in single file again singing, "We are traveling to the New Jerusalem." Then we gathered in front of the stand, and as we stood singing, the Holy Spirit came upon us and there was wonderful shouting in the camp by sisters, about all young, single ones, who were carried entirely off in the Spirit. We did not get away from the sacred altar until about 2 o'clock at night, so greatly did the Spirit rest on the camp of the dear saints.  25. Arose greatly refreshed. Went to the camp for       breakfast once more, after we all bowed in the tent to worship God. Had a precious stroll and season of prayer out on the campground. Returning, met Bro. Milton S--, a very faithful young man. I read in his face some very unfortunate misgivings, and told him the same, to his surprise. I gave him nearly an hour's lecture on the evils of violating and perverting physical laws, also on self-culture and mental improvement. The dear brother was lost for language to thank me for the favor. He was wonderfully teachable, and urged me never to miss an opportunity to instruct and admonish persons in his condition.  Brother James and I started for Middle Branch, where I had an appointment. We stopped with Sister Lucy, ate a dish of peaches and cream, and had a season of prayer. Rather small congregation, and they rather sleepy from having been up so late last night at camp meeting.  On the 27th Brother Warner went to attend the Eldership meeting at Smithville. He says that on account of insufficient pure air in the house he did not remain in much of the time. He also says, on the 28th, that "Brother James was taken into the ecclesiastical mill today." On the third day of the session Brother Warner was called upon for his report of the year's work. He reported 203 sermons, 68 converts, 66 accessions, 40 immersed. There were 164 members in good standing, whereas there were 75 when he took charge two years previous. Proceeding in his journal, for the 29th he says:  Reported that God had fully saved and sanctified me, and that I was under the necessity to preach that precious truth to the glory of Jesus; that I desired to cooperate with the Church of God; could not exchange truth for truth but must walk in all the light of God. The Holy Spirit rested on me in power, and tears flowed freely all over the congregation. Praise God for his power and presence! Brother Oliver then arose and made known to the body that he had charges against me. The speaker appointed . . . a committee to investigate my case. Brother O. subpoenaed a large number of witnesses, many of whom knew absolutely nothing about the case. I told the body that I had never informed but three persons about the charges against me, had asked no witnesses but had committed my whole case to God; however, if anyone felt directed by the Spirit to appear in defense of the cause of God and holiness they should meet with us. We went at once to Brother Z--'s office and began the investigation.  I felt greatly impressed with the need of prayer and hoped these dear old saints would not begin such a solemn work without invoking the Holy Spirit's guidance. But I was disappointed, as they       opened the business at once. Even after investigation began I felt that I must go to God on my knees; but I did not, as I had no control of business. Yet I did wrong in not demanding the right of prayer. I also lost power to conduct myself with that calmness and sweetness that I had been so ardently wishing from the Lord, though I felt no such thing as a roiled temper for one second for all the hard aspersions and carnal accusations thrown at me. Yet I did sometimes speak when I should have kept silent, as my blessed Master did.  What was my astonishment when Elder O. read letters from Vermillion and Brubaker's signed by about all the church, charging me with insanity whenever I touched on sanctification, also with causing division and schism in the churches and every evil work imaginable! As I heard the names of the dear brethren read over that were appended to those letters I had strange feelings. I truly felt myself in a queer world. Never in my life did my reasoning powers receive such a dreadful       shock. I felt myself sinking, then looked to Jesus and all was calm and peaceful again. I asked Brother O. who had got up those letters. "They are headed respectively from the Vermillion and Brubaker churches to the Eldership. Please tell the Committee whether the elders have written them or who." Brother O. looked very much confused and refused to answer. I demanded an answer. The Committee sustained me. Then with shame he confessed that they were both written by him. I told him that it was all right and thanked him for his trouble.  Brother Roller, elder from Vermillion, who confessed to me that at the ordinance-meeting he was ashamed of Elder O's two-hour harangue of abuse against the work of "perfecting the saints," being present, was then called to the witness-stand. After he stated in direct examination that I was insane on sanctification, I asked him to inform the Committee what the manifestations of my insanity were. He gave the following three points, which I record to his shame:  First. "You hesitated to proceed to preach once at Vermillion, stating that you wished to be led by the Spirit in the selection of a subject and that if the Spirit wished you not to preach you would read the Word, talk experience, or be silent, as the Spirit directed."  Second. "You do not act as you used to. At our ordinance-meeting you sat back, and I believe Brother Oliver had to invite you forward." Brother O. concurred in this remark. But I then appealed to them if it was not a fact that I came down from the pulpit immediately after closing my remarks and led in the preparation and observance of feet-washing. Then he remarked that it was at the Brick, on Brother Lynn's charge, and Brother O. was not there at all, and that it was after feet-washing Brother Lynn stepped to me and asked me to assist in the Lord's Supper (which was perfectly proper for me--to wait for an invitation).  Third. "You do not preach as loud on sanctification as you used to preach, but you are more low and calm."  These were his only reasons for the assertion of my insanity.  Brother Mitchell only stated that some young people asked him "what ails Brother Warner, he does not preach as heretofore," hence concluded that I was partly insane. Brother O. said all he could to taint the character of the holiness workers. Many of his aspersions were never answered. It is of no use to give particulars, only this, that I was grateful to God for these fiery ordeals, and though the Lord kept me from an evil thought, yet I was conscious of great weakness and must say to my shame that I did not keep that perfect calmness and sweetness in the midst of the storm of unexpected accusation.       However, I came out with another perfect evidence that 'the very God of peace had sanctified me wholly.' I was entirely free from the least hard feelings against any of my brethren. Glory to God, I felt good toward them all. Looked upon their efforts to condemn me and the holiness cause as springing entirely from ignorance, sin within, and a blind zeal to protect the church. I went to my room a happy soul. Related a few points of the many wonderful things developed before the committee and then we concluded that it did not minister grace to talk about them, hence we had a sweet season of worship and lay down and slept sweetly until morn.  30. Sabbath. Arose early and sought the Lord. Spent about all my time with God and my Bible until 10 A.M., then went up to the Bethel to speaking-meeting, and heard Elder T. Hickernel make a long speech of caution to brethren who seemed to have been flinging at sanctified ones. He made this sensible remark: "You who claim to       have been fully sanctified at conversion, be careful that you do not prove your claims false by picking and persecuting those who have the second experience." At half-past ten went to the Methodist Episcopal house of worship, where a large congregation had assembled to hear me speak on perfect holiness. I felt more like keeping quiet in some small corner. A number of the brethren were present, some to sit back and try to criticize. Yea, these were preachers, and about all of them left before the sermon closed. But there were several others who came to learn and who gave close attention and were compelled to sanction the truth. The Lord wonderfully baptized my soul and all the lovers of truth and holiness. I believe I never before spoke with such power and liberty. Glory to God, he so freely poured his Spirit upon us that it filled the whole house. After services, Brother Oliver's daughter came forward and told us that she enjoyed the blessing of entire sanctification. She said she was wonderfully strengthened and wished that her father were fully saved.  We went to Brother Baker's for dinner. Brother Torbet, the Methodist minister, was also with us. We enjoyed a good season in reading some good holiness works, such as Dr. Steele's Love Enthroned, and prayer, then came to meet at the Bethel at 2:30 P.M. Went to the home of Brother Oliver's daughter. Her father was to come also, but seeing us go there, or for some other cause, went elsewhere. The poor woman is very unfortunately married, but Christ is her only true companion. Eve, Brother Updike preached with all his might (his usual style) on Christ a teacher. We then observed the ordinances.  October 1, 1877. Committee on my case reported       "charges sustained," but recommended me favorably to the body for license with this restriction only, that I do not bring holiness workers or any outside elements to hold a meeting anywhere in the Churches of God without their consent. This I readily consented to, as a meeting thus appointed could do no good, or but little. I also, unsolicited, apologized for the appointment of some meetings in the past which to my surprise proved offensive to the churches.  The report was adopted and my license renewed. Thank the Lord! However, I had perfect peace on the whole matter, and had my license been withheld I would equally have given God thanks. Glory to Jesus!  Was out much of the day talking with brethren on       perfect love, etc. The brethren from Stark circuit again called me out and consulted me about taking their circuit. I told them if they could stand perfect holiness and all the counsel of God preached, they might apply for me, and I would leave it all with the Lord and the Eldership. This eve I gave a concise account of my experience of justification and sanctification. At a late hour the Eldership closed with a report of the Stationing Committee. I was assigned to the Stark circuit, consisting of Canton, New Berlin, Middle Creek, and Stump's Bethel. Thank the Lord! His ways are not our ways. I had built much on free missionary work, but he knows best. I committed it all to him, besought him to prevent my appointment to a circuit if he did not wish me to take one, even by cutting off my license if no other way; and now I receive this appointment of the Lord, and by his blessing and power I hope he will make his Word to run and be glorified in the salvation of hundreds of souls.  Following this decision of the Stationing Committee, Brother and Sister Warner had the task of changing their place of abode, which in their work they had so many times to do. Their belongings were certainly not many; nevertheless the work of packing and the obtaining of some means of conveying their goods to the station was left generally for them to attend to. His literary society about this time gave an entertainment at the College, but he with Sister Warner preferred to attend a holiness meeting about four miles distant. Of this meeting he thus speaks:  3. Met Brother Ackers, from Bucyrus, whom I had not met before. He is a wonderful specimen of God's great salvation, raised from the delirium tremens to perfect holiness and mighty faith.  7. Brother Ackers testified for God that the happiest moment he ever saw was when he found he had lost all his property and had not a dollar left, though he had been a wealthy merchant in Bucyrus. I was led to testify how the Lord had taken me through some storms in great       calmness. Eve, the church and the large schoolhouse on the same corners were both filled. I delivered a short sermon in the former on perfection, then went over to the other house and gave an exhortation to sinners.  Before leaving for Canton, Brother and Sister Warner decided to visit the latter's former home near Upper Sandusky. From that place he went to visit his father, at Bridgewater, Williams County.  11. This morning arose before daylight, started quite early to Loudonville. Brother Eyer came to the station and brought a quilt for us and a small one for Levilla, which the sisters of the Brubaker Church had got up for us. I spent some hours in packing things more securely to ship. Took train at 2:16 P.M. for Upper Sandusky. Reached there after seven. Walked out to Father Keller's. They had about given me up and were engaged in family worship. With reverence and admiration I stood at the window and looked in at that dear, affectionate family, all "made perfect through the blood of the everlasting covenant," while bowed together in evening devotion. Father was praying with a beaming face toward me. It appeared that the whole house was illuminated with the presence of God. My heart was made to burn with love and the Holy Ghost. When through with prayer, I entered, and then we had a moment of joyful greeting in the name of the Lord Jesus. My full heart then suggested that we bow again in praise and thanksgiving to God, which we all did. Oh how my poor heart tried to find utterance for its weight of gratitude to our God of wondrous love and salvation! Until quite late we talked of the kind dealings of God to our souls. I praise thee, O my God and Father, that thou hast ever connected me with this family. Through thy blessings, we have been wonderful helps to each other.  13. I took train at about half-past five for my father's in Williams County. Lay over about an hour at Toledo. Reached Bryan about half-past one. Went up in the town and soon found a man by the name of Faith, who could take me within one and three fourths miles from Father's. Talked with the poor man about his soul; but he had taken an oath to stick to the Lutheran Church as long as he lived, and that oath must be kept if he violates every obligation to Christ and loses his soul. Called at Brother Dean's. Found the poor man much cast down over the death of his dear wife. He wept as I alluded to her. Came on home. Found Father pretty well and happy to see me.  As I came from Brother Dean's, I passed the old schoolhouse where I surrendered to Jesus. It is no more used. I revered the sacred spot. Approached the door and found that it was not locked. I entered and kneeled as near as I could where I bowed at the altar a penitent sinner twelve years ago last February. I poured out my full heart of gratitude to the Father of mercies that he ever sent his Spirit to convict me of my sins and show me my awful doom if I continued in sin.       I truly thanked God that he had there prevailed upon me to repent of all my sin. I praised the great Shepherd of my soul that his grace had kept me those years from the power of an enraged foe. My thanks ascended to God for all the good he had done through this lump of unworthy clay. There I reconsecrated to God, after a careful examination of myself before him.  After some talk with Father, we bowed down together and I earnestly prayed God to save my poor father from the dreadful end of the wicked. For some time I have been unusually burdened in heart for my poor old father. I trust God in his infinite mercy will yet save him ere he goes to his long home. Before retiring, in my bedchamber I continued long in prayer with my blessed Savior.  14. Sabbath. Brother Joseph Neil and I went to Madison Bethel, where Brother Coblen (recently from the German Baptists) had an appointment to preach. Brother C. spoke about thirty minutes on Hebrews 2:2. Did well. I then talked over thirty minutes, mostly on the perfect escape from sin.  The church here are living in a high state of justification and spirituality. They all sanctioned entire sanctification. We then had a good speaking-meeting, when some of them acknowledged their need of full salvation. Oh, what a pity this church could not be led into the blessed land of perfect rest! But perhaps the next preacher that comes along will try to turn them against the truth. What a dreadful thing is an unsanctified minister! O Lord! make haste to "purge the sons of Levi." Took dinner with Brother Troxel. As soon as we arrived, Brother Neil began to entertain some young people on the porch with stories, while the disgraceful pipe protruded from his unsanctified lips. I withdrew at once to the room, read a few chapters, then to the bedroom and communed with my God until dinner was about ready. After eating, the pipe presented itself again. The Lord led me to rebuke such filthiness of the flesh. I told them that the use of tobacco was positively a sin: First, because it was the gratification of an unnatural and unholy appetite; second, it was offensive to all who were not therewith corrupted; third, it was a sinful appropriation of the Lord's means; fourth, it disqualified for refined and pure society by its extreme filthiness. Brother Neil then hitched up his beast, drove to the front, and called for me. I told him to come in. I read a portion of God's Word and then engaged in prayer. The Spirit led me into some very solemn requests for my brethren, and I trust they will hereafter have a more sacred conception of what it is to be holy in life, heart, and "all manner of conversation." Came to Father's. Had a long season of prayer in the chamber where I dwelt so much with God at the beginning of my ministration of the Word. Then for exercise and meditation I chose to walk to the meetinghouse, about one and one half miles. The house was densely crowded. I was astonished that the word had spread so rapidly to such a great distance in every direction. The Lord gave me glorious liberty and power. 1 Thessalonians 4:1. Touched on sanctification, and I saw in a moment that I had some hearers who were in the land and others seeking the crossing, all members of the Church of God. The Lord gave me a very solemn appeal to the sinner. Many wept. My father was greatly melted down.  15. Father and I drove to Brother Joseph's. I walked to the cemetery and communed with God beside the grave of my beloved and revered mother. I knelt down there and thanked God for having been brought into the world by such a pure and beloved mother; for her tender and never-failing care for me when in sickly childhood and youth; for the hallowed influence of her constant life of love and patience and humble trust in God in the midst of constant wickedness in this world; for her triumphant death and the hope of meeting her in heaven. Though I began in secret I soon forgot my surroundings and called loudly upon my blessed Jesus, not only in thanksgiving, but for the salvation of Father, Brother and friends.  16. Arose early. Communed with the Lord. Bathed, as my custom is each alternate morning. Read a little tract on Joshua's stopping the sun and moon, written by D. M. Bennett. While reading the little bit of corruption the Lord gave me wonderful light to expose it to my father. These facts flashed across my mind: 1. The world was lost in ignorance of God and debased in sin. 2. The first thing necessary in human salvation was for God to make man sensible of His existence and power. 3. He had to take mankind in the condition sin had placed him. 4. Man, possessing very little mental and less moral elevation and energy, would not have been impressed with awe and reverence before God had he manifested his perfections of wisdom and holiness, any more than a base society would entertain peculiar respect for a man who appeared among them with superior intellect and morals. 5. As man's chief ideal of greatness consisted in valor, heroism, and physical achievements, it is a fact that on this low plane only could man be led to recognize the true greatness and actual existence of God, by the manifestations of his power in the manner he used in destroying those idolatrous nations.  P.M., Father and I drove to Montpelier on a little business. Father gave me five dollars, and one dollar in silver for Levilla. He also gave me a small package of some of my revered mother's clothes. How blessed her memory! Eve, Mr. Frisby (married to my niece), my brother, and a large wagon-load accompanied me to Madison, where I spoke to a full house. About the whole church received the light of holiness.  On the 19th he took train on his journey toward Canton. He stopped at Loudonville and visited the church. Arrived at Canton on the 20th and proceeded immediately to visit congregations on the circuit. Sister Warner and child arrived on the 23rd. The search for a house in which to live extended over a period of several days. There were good, faithful brethren who assisted them with provisions, but yet to a considerable extent they were left to provide the necessaries of life themselves. Of his effort to procure wood and hay we observe, for November 6:  Cold. Snowed some last night for the first. Went to hunt wood and hay. Found no wood or hay to 'spare. It seems hard that a poor messenger of God must expose himself to drive about sixteen miles through mud and very raw air to hunt those necessaries. It seems a light thing nowadays to sow to the people spiritual things, but a heavy thing to reap a few temporal things, even when we try to live more simple and cheap than our poor. Oh, how good it would have been for me to have had this day in the warm with the Lord in my library! But glory to Jesus, we still joy in sustaining sacrifice for his sake and feel content with our lot. Only, dear Lord, give us a good supply of the spirit of love, zeal, wisdom, and power.  Meetings in town were held from house to house until a permanent place of worship could be opened. It was not long, however, until they both felt the Lord leading them to resign the circuit. Brother Warner had accepted with submission and good grace the charge given him (which, after all, was of man's appointment), but as a preacher of holiness with an ever increasing interest in a wider field, he doubtless felt that God' wanted him to be free to go and do as the Spirit directed. The following is his entry for November 23:  This morn before daylight, when having morning devotion, the Spirit of God spoke to both Sarah and me to fast today. Thank God for such a precious Leader. Who would not obey such a wise Counselor? Spent most of the day in reading the Word, singing, and prayer. At ten A.M. we were both before the Lord in silent prayer when we were both directed by the Spirit to resign this circuit. Still on our knees, we made known the orders received. We could but say amen, and the refreshings from the presence of the Lord came upon our hungry souls. We engaged in prayer and praise, when I was directed to proceed at once to write my resignation.  This tried me, as I had never before been thrown among such very kind brethren and sisters. It seemed hard that I must throw up the circuit without as much as consulting them. But we dared not disobey God, as some hesitancy to obey in the past had cost me much power and sweet rest in God. Praise God, our hearts were much lightened and we felt that we had now got back at the beginning of the highway of holiness,       which we had to some extent missed. We could now sing, "He leadeth us." Eve, went up to the office and received a card earnestly calling for our services at Columbiana. Of this call I had an impression before I went to the office, and believe it of the Lord. Glory to God! My way has been hedged up ever since we came on the circuit.  At Columbiana he found a number whose hearts were open to sanctification. His work there resulted in ten persons receiving the experience and one sinner being converted. Returning to his house in Canton on December 6, he became impressed with the idea of writing out in somewhat itemized form the solemn covenant that constituted his consecration to God.  8. I fasted today. Remained up with the Lord until       after 11 o'clock at night. I was led by the Spirit to a deep self-examination. I found myself utterly nothing in the sight of God. I read with great interest the experience of Brother R. Yeakel, in the Living Epistles of 1873. As I read over the solemn written covenant that this holy man entered into with God. I was much impressed to do likewise, but feared that my impressions came from a wish to imitate one of God's holy men rather than to follow the Spirit.  Went to the office this eve and received a letter from Brother Chambers, chairman of the Ohio Holiness Alliance. As soon as I saw his name on the envelope the conviction of last Sabbath that I should give myself up to be a holiness evangelist came strongly to my mind, and as I walked home I promised God that I would not lie down until I had reported myself to Brother Chambers for this work. The Lord helped me to do so, and as I wrote down my convictions and surrendered to the Lord, the Holy Ghost graciously fell upon my soul.  13. The day was mild and fair. Took a walk in the       woods to commune with God. Thought much of the words of God, "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel" (Jeremiah 31:31). In Hebrews 8 and 10 I read that this covenant related to the new dispensation, and the apostle, in Hebrews 10, actually connects it with sanctification. I felt like entering more personally and formally into this covenant with the Almighty. But I thought, Can such a worm enter into an everlasting covenant with the Holy God of the universe? God makes the proposition, and with solemn reverence I venture to step out upon it. And this I do in the name of the Lord Jesus, my only righteousness.  A covenant is an agreement of two parties in which both voluntarily bind themselves to fill certain conditions and receive certain benefits. God is the party of the first part of the contract and has bound himself.  1. "I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts."  2. "And I will be their God."  3. They "shall know me from the least to the greatest."  4. "I will be merciful to their unrighteousness."  5. "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.  O thou Most High God, thou hast left this covenant in thy Holy Book, saying, "If any man will take hold of my covenant."  Now, therefore, in holy fear and reverence I present myself as the party of the second part and subscribe my name to the holy article of agreement, and following thy example will here and now write down the conditions on my part.  "They shall be my people." Jeremiah 31:33. Amen, Lord, I am forever thine.  The vow is passed beyond repeal,  Now will I set the solemn seal.  Lord, thou hast been true to thy covenant, though I have been most unfaithful and am now altogether unworthy to take hold of thy most gracious covenant. But knowing that thou hast bound thyself in thy own free offer to "be merciful to their unrighteousness," I take courage to approach thee and would most earnestly beseech thee to fulfill thy wonderful offer to BE MY GOD; and I do most joyfully yield myself entirely TO BE THINE.  Therefore this soul which thou hast made in thine own image is placed wholly in thy hands to do with it as seemeth good.  This mind shall think only for thy glory and the promotion of thy cause.  This will is thy will, O God!  The spirit within this body is now thine; do with it       as thou wilt, in life and death.  This body is thy temple forevermore.  These hands shall work only for thee.  These eyes to see thy adorable works and thy holy law.  This tongue and these lips to speak only holiness unto the Lord.  These ears to hear thy voice alone.  These feet to walk only in thy ways.  And all my being is now and forever thine.  In signing my name to this solemn covenant I am aware that I bind myself to live, act, speak, think, move, sit, stand up, lie down, eat, drink, hear, see, feel, and whatsoever I do all the days and nights of my life to do all continually and exclusively to the glory of God. I must henceforth wear nothing but what honors God. I must have nothing in my possession or under my control but such as I can consistently write upon, "Holiness unto the Lord." The place where I live must be wholly dedicated to God. Every item of goods or property that is under my control is hereby conveyed fully over into the hands of God to be used by him as he will and to be taken from my stewardship whenever the great Owner wishes, and it is not my business at all.  She whom I call my wife belongs forevermore to God. Use her as thou wilt and where thou wilt, and leave her with me, or take her from me, just as seemeth good to thee and to thy glory. Amen.  Levilla Modest, whom we love as a dear child bestowed upon us by thy infinite goodness, is hereby returned to thee. If thou wilt leave us to care for her and teach her of her true Father and Owner, we will do the best we can by thy aid to make her profitable unto thee. But if thou deemest us unfit to properly rear her or wouldst have her in thy more immediate presence, behold, she is thine, take her. Amen and amen.  And now, great and merciful Father, thou to whom I belong, with all that pertains to me, and thou who art mine with all that pertains to thy fullness and richness, all this offering which I have made would be but foolishness and waste of time were it not for what I have in thee obtained to confirm the solemn contract. For were it not that thou art my God, my promises would be but idle words. I could fulfill nothing which my mouth has uttered and my pen has written. But since thou, Almighty, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Eternal God, art mine, I have a thousand fold assurance that all shall be fulfilled through thy fullness.  My ignorance is fully supplied by thy own infinite wisdom. My utter weakness and inability to preserve myself from sin is abundantly supplied by thy omnipotence, to thy everlasting praise.  Glory to thy holy name! Though I have solemnly pledged all things to thee, yet, as thou art my "all and in all," I have nothing to fear. Now, O Father! my God and Savior, I humbly pray thee so to keep me that all my powers of soul, body, and spirit, my time, talents, will, influence, words, and works, shall continually, exclusively, and eternally glorify thy holy name through Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen and amen.  In covenant with the God of all grace and mercy, who has become my salvation, my all, and whose I am forever, to the praise of his glory. Amen.  Entered into by the direction of the Holy Spirit and signed this Thirteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Seven.  DANIEL SIDNEY WARNER.  I realized much strength by obeying the impressions of the Spirit in writing out the foregoing covenant. God seemed present as though I was making an agreement with a person whom I could see by my side.  Eve, Romans 12. The Lord was there to make truth effectual, and after preaching succeeded in getting about all the members in the altar, and we had a solemn, heart-searching time. Then we had speaking meeting. I urged the brethren and sisters to confess what they felt to be their true condition and their wants. About all confessed: "I have an evil nature within me which I would like to get rid of if that can be." "I confess I have sin in me." "Have carnality yet in me." Glory to Cod, this brought the Lord very near. My soul seemed in heaven. Everything seemed melting down before God and yielding to his constraining love and sinners were serious.  16. Sabbath. Preached on Hebrews. Had a talk with Brother William Fuller on sanctification. He was critical and talked for argument. The Spirit bade me leave him, but I did not obey for some time, wishing to show my regards for the young brother. I have learned, however, never again to disobey God out of deference to man. When God       says cease an argument, the cause of holiness can only suffer by disobedience. I finally withdrew to the closet and confessed my disobedience to the Spirit. After coming out, Mr. W--, a poor sinner, attacked me, using some insulting language. I read a little Scripture and left him.  Eve, read 1 Thessalonians and 1 John on perfect love. The Lord's Spirit was there to melt hearts. Opposition began to give way. Brother Fuller, after meeting, confessed that his eyes were being opened to the truth; hoped I would return. Brother Abraham Whitmire confessed his convictions that unless this community accepted holiness the cause of religion would greatly suffer here. Others with tears asked our prayers. Glory to God, good seed is sown here which will bring forth in the future.  On the 19th Brother and Sister Warner began packing their goods to move to Upper Sandusky, the home of the latter's parents. They had received word that a holiness revival was desired in Findlay, where the seed had already been sown. On arriving at Upper Sandusky they found that they were already engaged for Findlay and were to go there the following Monday. Of their work in Findlay, in which they were assisted by Father and Mother Keller, a few selected notes from the diary will give a sufficient account.  24. Reached the Bethel in Findlay before preaching. Found that God was wondrously at work here. Twenty-three sanctified. Some of the old members fighting the work. The Lord blessed me in preaching full salvation. His power rested on the people and some came to the altar. Father and I went home with Father Sherick. He had been opposed to holiness but, thank God, he is now yielding and begins to confess his need of full salvation. He is eighty years old and probably fifty years a Christian--but has never grown out of depravity.  25. Today we celebrate the birth of Christ. Arose       before daylight, as usual, and after my daily bath Father and I had a precious season of prayer and praises. Met at ten at the Bethel. Had a prayer and general experience meeting. The "little ones"       testified straight and strong. Eve, house full. Was asked to preach again. Felt much straightened. The elders were to let us know about our having the Bethel for a holiness meeting, and it was expected that tonight the meeting should be conducted for sinners; but last night God showed me after preaching that this must be a holiness meeting. So I was hedged up by the church on one side and God on the other. Tried to preach some time to sinners, but was absolutely abandoned to myself. Oh, how empty and hollow all I said! I saw that this would not do, so I proceeded to full salvation for believers. Glory to God, I had some unction then, but felt the displeasure of some of the church. Two mourners and three believers presented themselves at the altar. One soul sanctified. After       meeting a very intelligent and pleasant sister came forward and said, "God gave me the wonderful Christmas gift of entire sanctification while you were preaching." Glory to God forever! We announced meetings in the future on the holiness line.  26. Up before the family, bathed and prayed. A.M., wrote, occasionally talked holiness to persons coming in seeking light. All the city is in an uproar on holiness. Halleluiah! At half-past two met at the Bethel. Brother Linsey led the meeting. Satan made a dreadful rally today. All the old cold members got in the back part of the house. Bro. Samuel Ferguson acted as spokesman for the devil. He set out in a raging storm. Called this work the judgment of the whore, the abomination that maketh desolate. Called God to rebuke it, to smite it in the mouth until the blood should fly out. He hollowed and stamped and foamed like a madman. Glory to God, who kept his little ones in perfect peace. God gave me great peace, and I could but say thank God for the trial of his holy cause. I proceeded in a calm spirit to show the people some of God's sacred truth that they were rejecting. Brother Wilson arose on the opposition side and asked some questions, threatening a call of the Standing Committee. May the Lord help him to seek the cleansing blood.  A young man, member of the church, by the name of Teams stepped out in the aisle and began to yell and stamp and walk to-and-fro. He consumed about fifteen minutes in silly harangue against perfect holiness by the blood of Christ. There was no reason, sense, Bible, or even apparent civilization in his aspersions. All the little       ones were kept in perfect peace. Eve, Brother Updike preached his farewell sermon to the church. He felt so directed because of the recent abuses of his wife by some of the church and because of the wicked opposition of the leaders of the church to holiness. He declared his withdrawal from this charge. The old and formal part of the church were aroused most furiously. I followed by some remarks. A few came out to seek purity.  27. Had meeting at 2 P.M. in the courthouse, whither we have moved because of the constant disturbance in the Bethel. Eve, tried to preach to a good congregation at the courthouse. The Lord was with us in sweet peace and power. We felt we were in a purer spiritual atmosphere.  30. Sabbath. Met at ten. Hebrews 13:20-21. The Lord helped me to show the people that perfection is commanded and attained now; what it is and is not; that it is not attained in conversion, but by a second work. At 2:30 P.M. met in the courthouse in a temperance meeting. Brothers Linsey and Ackers both glorified God by testifying to their wonderful salvation from drink and tobacco, both having had delirium tremens several times. Brother A. called the tobacco habit a twin sister to strong drink and claimed that it was the cause of his becoming a drunkard. After they spoke, a Lutheran minister arose and deprecated the springing of tobacco in the meeting and palliated this abomination as consistent with perfect consecration to God and piety. Shame! Shame!  A brother asked concerning our holiness. So we bowed together and had a season of prayer, and as we afterward began to talk be constantly interrupted me, would not let me finish a point or connect the Scripture proofs of the two works. We bowed again in prayer and he led. He asked God to purify his heart and take all the evil nature out of him. After arising I remarked that as he would interrupt all my efforts to give him instruction I would now ask him some questions and learn. I asked him what things we were allowed of God. Answer, "Such things as he promises." Do you always pray for such only? "Yes." Do you receive them?' "Yes." Then you have just now been sanctified, made pure, is it not so? "Yes." Then you should hereafter not ask God to do what he has done! But he contended that he should keep on making the same prayer. Brother Larcomb suggested the equal propriety of continuing to pray to God to convert him. Oh what confusion and ignorance! Still they thought we had gone astray.  31. A.M., wrote. Eve, met at seven and continued the meeting until after twelve. The house was crowded, the isles standing full of people to the close of the meeting. Pretty good order for the throng. Brother Updike preached. After some altar work, we had good testimony-meeting. I then preached a short discourse on Ephesians 4:22-24. A few minutes before twelve the altar was again filled with seekers and little ones. I read the Christian consecration, and all said amen. The power of God came upon us. Many shouts. A Mother Goodwin, of the M. E. Church, was the subject of a wonderful work of grace tonight. For eighteen years she had sought for this experience. She had a dreadful death, turned perfectly white and shook like a leaf. She hesitated to believe through the temptation of unworthiness. I asked her if Christ was not worthy. Told her to believe for the glory of his name. Then she took hold. She soon fully overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of her testimony. It was a wonderful work wrought by the power of God in one of the most intelligent and pious ladies of Findlay, of about fifty years of age. She was filled with wonder at the great change and testified with a halo of glory beaming from her countenance. How can such a marked work be doubted? What a reproach upon the ministry that this dear saint should be kept eighteen years in the wilderness longing for some Joshua to lead her over to the land of perfect rest of soul from all sin!  January 1, 1878. Praise God for the mercies of the past year. I am so thankful that the old year witnessed the final death of the old man in me, and now for the first time I enter upon the New Year all renewed in the image of God. Glory to his name in the highest! I am redeemed and washed in the blood of the Lamb. O Canaan, sweet Canaan, surely here flows milk and honey! God is my everlasting all, my satisfying portion. Oh, wonders of redeeming love! Can it be that through the precious blood of Christ I have "entered into the holiest" and am forever shut in with God, and dead to the world! O God, I feel that I can stand in thy holy presence! I tremble with awe and reverence. O my God and Redeemer! keep me on thine altar and in spotless purity lest I offend thy Holiness and die. I shall forever dwell with thee, and through the riches of thy boundless grace my whole being, every thought, word, feeling, emotion, appetite, desire, wish, purpose, and action, yea my whole life, shall be a continual offering to God, in the flames of his love. Amen. Almighty, All-wise, and ever present God, fulfill this thy pleasure in me. I am in thy hands. Amen and amen.  A.M., wrote some. Met at 10 A.M. and held meetings until 4 P.M.; the power of God rested upon us. Four, I believe, were sanctified. The Lord gave me much light on the sanctuary as setting forth the different degrees of grace (Hebrews 10:19, 22). In chapter 8 the apostle compares the sanctuary and the temple service with the present spiritual house or church. 9:9 shows that the former temple service was typical of the church, also 10:11. Now, as the temple all through the Bible typifies the church, so also the tabernacle. We must make some application of its departments. This the apostle does for us. The court represents penitence or approach to the church, the sanctuary or "holy." From this we have access into the "holiest." In the sanctuary they are "brethren" and (v.22) have "their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience." Were justified when they came into the holy, and now are invited into the holiest, not into heaven but into a state of purity through the blood of Christ.  2. Wrote some. Brother Doty came today. Thank the Lord. Eve. Brother Doty preached on the difference between justification and entire sanctification. (1) Inbred sin is not cognizable to our consciousness when actual sin and guilt crowd the conscience. (2) We need not lack wisdom, for such is Christ to us; but may greatly lack knowledge. (3) Entire sanctification takes away all vain curiosity. (4) Makes us simple in giving, etc. (5) Leaves natural appetites the same, but removes unnatural.  Two were most gloriously sanctified, one an old mother over eighty years of age. Oh, how wonderfully God blessed her! She ran around as spritely as a young girl. The house, as usual, was greatly crowded, the space on the floor about all occupied bystanders. The whole city is stirred. All the protracted efforts in the place are without interest. All the elements are attracted here. Sinners want this kind of religion that saves from all sin. Glory to God forever! Some of the county officials, I presume, are getting uneasy, hence concluded that we could no longer have the courthouse. Received the promise of the Reform house, at least for the next evening.  3. God's power was with us. Three souls were sweetly sanctified, one of whom, a sister Miller, was converted to God from Catholicism last winter. They say her conversion was among the most bright of the 150 converts and her life has been true. Oh how calm and clearly she came out! Her testimony was sublime and more than human. It was spoken by the Spirit. Praise God! Another meeting was held in East Findlay. The lord was also there in power. A brother in the Church of God who had rashly denounced holiness was sanctified at this meeting.  Eve, the promised house was not opened. The little ones were scattered each not knowing where to meet the rest, and yet we felt a great desire to be together. One company gathered and we went to a United Brethren Church. As we passed along, crowds gathered after us and asked where we were going to have meeting. The people were much disappointed. Brother Engle, the pastor, preached an earnest sermon to sinners from, "The way of the transgressor is hard." I felt that the church was an iceberg between this sanctified preacher and the sinners. We all prayed fervently for the efficacy of the word. Some twelve arose for prayer, among the number was Sister Wert's son, a very intelligent young man with whom I called today. When I asked him concerning his soul's interests, he said that he did not "go much on religion." I calmly replied that I presumed he had none to go on. I added that I did not go on religion either before I had any to go on. This was God-sent, and he knew not how to express himself again. I waited a few seconds then proposed prayer. We all kneeled and I presented him to the mercy of God. After holding his hand and giving him a few words I left him, praying to God to bring him down to the cross. Praise God, I saw him rise in the congregation.  Brother Linsey and I stayed up all night in prayer to God for Findlay. God rolled upon our hearts a dreadful agony for souls and gave us an awful sight of the wicked apostasy of the churches. Like the old prophets, we groaned and cried to God for salvation to come out of Zion.  27. Sabbath. Met at the United Brethren Church. Good testimony meeting. One sister said, "I do not believe in a second work; would as leave you would hit me in the face as to speak of it; it is like a dart to my heart to hear it." Just so the "pure testimony put forth in the Spirit cuts," etc. Brother Engle read a very interesting chapter of United Brethren history showing the holiness revival in that church. Otterbein, Bishop Edwards, Wilson, and many others of the most eminent ministers professed and taught holiness as a distinct work.  At this point in his diary Brother Warner tells of his expulsion from the West. Ohio Eldership, and gives the subject a special heading.  TRIAL AND EXPULSION FROM THE WEST OHIO ELDERSHIP OF THE CHURCH OF GOD FOR PREACHING FULL SALVATION; FOR FOLLOWING THE HOLY SPIRIT; FOR HELPING TO SAVE OVER 150 SOULS IN THIS PLACE  30. Standing Committee met in Findlay today. Principal business to attend to was charges preferred by Bro. G. W. Wilson against Bro. J. V. Updike and me-against him for maladministration of the church here, deserting it, and turning church interests over to the Holiness Alliance, etc.; against me for (1) transcending the restrictions of the Eldership, (2) violating rules of cooperation, (3) participating in dividing the church.  As to the first, it relates to an action of the body last Eldership in which I was prohibited from springing the holiness meeting on any church where they did not wish it. This charge was not sustained by a single proof. The facts are as follows: Father Keller was led by the Spirit to go to Findlay to procure a place for a holiness meeting. He found a meeting in progress in the Church of God, tried to get the house to begin as soon as they were through, but they refused. He       then engaged the Reformed house, but left an offer still with the Church of God to occupy their house if they concluded to let us have it. When we received word that the meeting was about to close we went up and found it still in progress, and as the holiness workers were there, we wished to begin a meeting on the holiness line. We gave the church the first offer to use their house, and they consented to our using the house. However, this I think they did because they knew that if we went to another house we would carry all the interests from their house. And when the whole counsel of God was presented they could not stand it, but gathered in the back end of the house with wicked men and fought the work of God, so that we soon saw that nothing could be done there, hence we removed to the courthouse. I had nothing at all to do with the appointment of the meeting there and only did some of the preaching after Father Keller and Brothers Ackers and Linsey had got the use of the house from the elders and trustees, or a majority of them.  Second charge, "Violation of rules of cooperation." The rule cited was like this: No person shall go upon another's field of labor to hold meetings, etc, without the consent of preacher and church. When we announced meeting at the courthouse, one of the elders announced preaching there at the Bethel the next night. Brother Wilson filled the pulpit and continued some four or five nights with no success and small congregations. Now, because I assisted in the meeting at the courthouse while these church services were continued in the same town, I am thus charged, when these meetings were really appointed after and in opposition to the real work of the Lord, where souls were daily being saved.  Third charge, "Dividing the church." I showed that the only results of the holiness meeting were fifty-three sinners converted and 118 believers sanctified, and that all the division and confusion was caused by the carnal and wicked opposition on the part of the rest of the church, just like the envious Jews stirred up the people at Thessalonica and Berea (Acts 17) and interrupted the apostles in their peaceable work of leading souls to Jesus, as well as disturbed the peace of the city. The apostles, of course, had to bear the blame, and like everywhere else they went, bonds and prisons awaited them; and       I, too, was ready to suffer affliction with the people of God for the sake of Christ. All Adam became aroused, so that I was stopped from reading other Scriptures. [He had been reading and speaking from Isaiah 32:15.] When for the sake of the dear people calling themselves the Church of God I was studying how to compromise the two elements in the church here, the Lord gave me this text, and the Spirit led me to preach it straight, although it conflicted with what I had cherished, that is, a hope of fraternizing the sanctified and the unsanctified.  Eve, Brother Updike's case was adjusted by the Committee, the elders, and himself. They tried hard to bind him down to abandon holiness as a definite work and to have no communion with holiness workers. He agreed to some restrictions about preaching holiness where it was not wanted. Received his license and was placed on McComb circuit. Evidently they have some hopes of leading him to a recantation. May the mercy and grace of God keep him from coming down from the highway! Brother Chambers was at our meeting in North Findlay this eve.  31. Was brought to the depot this morn in sled. Heavy snow falling. After I had been riding some time in the train with him in conversation, Brother Cassel, one of the Committee, seeing that I was not enough concerned to ask him what disposition they had made of my case, informed me that the Committee had decided that the charges were sustained, and that they had withheld my license.[2] I thanked him for their decision and assured him, that if I were to look upon the matter from the mere human standpoint and consider my attachment to the Church of God and her principles, I should regard their action a dreadful calamity and intolerable to bear; but that I had now that charity which "believeth all things" and endureth all things," and therefore I calmly rested in the promise of God that "all things work together for good" to me, and the sweet assurance that my dear Father, to whom I belonged, would turn this and everything else (as long as I stay on the altar) to my good and his glory. Praise his holy name! Reached home about 2 P.M.  Up to the time of leaving Findlay there were 53 converted, 118 believers sanctified, including about all the 53 converts. Many of them were sanctified at the next meeting after converted, and a few the same meeting. Glory to God for full salvation!  Following the effort at Findlay, a series of holiness meetings was held at Upper Sandusky in the early part of February. Brother Dunbar and others assisted. On the 9th, Brother Warner was called to spend Sunday at Dunkirk, and was kept there for several days. While at Dunkirk he was impressed by the Spirit to announce that if any sick in the town would send for him he would go in faith to pray for them to recover. A sister who had been afflicted for years with catarrh in the head, which had spread to the throat and lungs so that she was consumptive, thought much about being healed. She had strong faith and came to meeting the next day, and in answer to prayer was gloriously healed, perfectly sound. Another, a blacksmith in Dunkirk, was impressed       to go and pray for the healing of a young colored sister on the verge of death from consumption. She was wonderfully benefited, as for six weeks she had to be lifted from her bed but now was able to arise and, assisted by the hand of a sister, walk across the floor. She had been able only to whisper, but now could sing praises to God.  Brother Warner felt that he should return to Upper Sandusky to assist in the meetings that were being held there. In a day or two after returning he was called back to Dunkirk to preach the funeral of the young colored sister. The brother who had prayed for her and a sister who had strong faith believed that God would raise the departed sister from the dead in answer to their prayers. Brother Warner announced the funeral for 10 A.M., if the Lord did not direct matters otherwise. He prayed and examined the scriptures relative to miracles and found that (1) Christ aroused and inspired faith and admiration in the people by miracles, (2) the final commission teaches miracles, (3) they were the means of the success of the apostles, (4) the gift is set in the church. Hence, he concluded that miracles were to be a permanent factor in the system of salvation. He does not say that he was particularly impressed that God was going to work a miracle in this case. He rather fell in with the idea as urged by the sister who felt so impressed. At her home she and her husband and Brother Warner waited in prayer for some time, then went to the house where the corpse lay. The two brethren kneeled in prayer while the sister uncovered the body and commanded the departed to arise in the name of Jesus. Their faith for some time was wonderfully strong and they confidently expected to see her arise. They held on with unwavering faith for half an hour, when they all felt relieved and that the will of the Lord had been done. Brother Warner preached the funeral the next day. He writes that this incident seemed only to increase their faith and that he believed that God was well pleased with the effort to exert this faith; that if not through them, God would through some one else revive this element of apostolic power.  There was a report, intended to ridicule, and published by some who opposed Brother Warner, that he with others tried to bring a dead body to life by standing it on its feet and commanding it to walk, etc. This of course was untrue.  Remaining in Dunkirk for a few days, he held meetings which resulted in about twenty conversions. He found himself much attached to the brethren and sisters here. They had come out of the United Brethren and Methodist Episcopal denominations and had formed themselves into a Wesleyan body. Many of them, however, were not satisfied with a human church and creed and there was a strong tendency to come to the apostolic faith. Returning to Upper Sandusky he assisted in the meetings there. In company with Father and Mother Keller he visited the jail and prayed with the convicts. One of those, by name, John Bristol, was gloriously converted. Bristol said he did not care a cent to get out of jail so long as Jesus stayed with him. He had been badly abandoned and had followed shows, drinking, balloon ascensions, etc. He once fell sixty feet from a balloon, breaking an arm, a leg, splitting a hip socket, etc. The sparing of his life was only by the mercy of God. For the 7th of March 1878 we quote the following: Fellowshipped some fourteen souls in the Church of God formed on a congregational basis, with holiness the principal foundation-stone. On the 31st of last January the Lord showed me that holiness could never prosper upon sectarian soil encumbered by human creeds and party names, and he gave me a new commission to join holiness and all truth together       and build up the apostolic church of the living God. Praise his name! I will obey him.  In March an evangelistic effort was made in Tiffin, but with difficulty. The denominational houses seemed to be closed to holiness. A few meetings were held in a private house and in a rented room. He states that at this place Sister Warner was called to go to Mansfield to assist in a holiness meeting. This was a peculiar test and he thus speaks of it:  23. Sarah left today. The Lord tested our loyalty by requiring us to labor apart. At first I disbelieved that it was the order of God and was decidedly opposed to her going. So were Father and Mother Keller. I thought it would give place to the devil and hurt the sacred cause and endanger our domestic happiness. But this morn I arose early and consulted the Lord. I laid down all my understanding and the many seemingly plain reasons for her not going and besought God to direct the matter, and to my astonishment the Holy Spirit confirmed Sarah's call by reminding me of my solemn covenant with God, that there I had laid her on the altar and given her back to God to use her where and as he saw fit. At the same time all unwillingness vanished from my mind. In fact, a desire was at once created within me for her to go.  O God, thy ways are not our ways, but we will walk in thy ways all the days of our life. Season sad. Here she is greatly needed; there is a strong old hand. How would it look for me to work for God here and she whom the Lord had joined to me go elsewhere? Were I at home, not at all in a meeting, then there could be no appearance of evil in her going. But ah! I now see there would then be no test, which is just the thing God intended. Abraham's faith would not have been half so much tried and proved had not Isaac been the heir of the promise. Father and Mother still strongly opposed her going, so that doubtless she would have shrunk with a burdened heart from the call had not God raised help in me.  On the 4th of April he received a letter from her stating that the meeting at Mansfield was excellent for the establishing and strengthening of God's little ones, and that she had gone home.  During this time Brother Warner was getting much light on the Scriptures concerning holiness and was writing with the view of publishing a tract on the subject. The matter he was accumulating,       however, proved to be enough for a book, which, as we shall see, was published two years later. Also, he speaks of an effort at this time to obtain more of the manifestation of God in his soul.  25. I set out this day to seek a more full and conscious manifestation of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost in my heart. Spent much time in the closet. Visited and prayed with a few families.  30. Prayed much for a more perfect, full, constant, and conscious manifestation of God in my soul. Had a glorious victory. Yesterday Brother Lee was about to start to walk home to Nevada, twenty-two miles. I thought it was too hard a task with such muddy roads. How I wished for the means to send him home by railroad! Recently, being without means to send a letter, I took it to the Lord, and before I had the letter written a kind sister gave me fifty cents. I had a quarter left and I thought of giving it to Brother Lee if others would make up the remainder. But then the tempter said, "You are dependent yourself and should not give to others that which the Lord has sent to meet your wants." I took it to the Lord and the Spirit said, "Give and it shall be given." I gave the quarter to Brother Lee. The dollar needed by him was soon made, and he was able to stay until this morn. Praise God, this morn a kind sister called and said the Lord had sent her to give me a dollar. The Spirit kept his promise and gave four-fold.  April 3, 1878. God is daily giving me more of his great fullness and conforming me more and more to his glorious Image. This is because I am earnestly endeavoring to consecrate more perfectly every moment of my time to him and because I spend more time with God alone in the closet. I have on several occasions besought God to conform me more perfectly to his nature, and without any particular emotions that might indicate the answer I claimed the desire of my heart and by faith thanked Father that he had granted my petitions. To the glory of God I can say that as I went on my way I found from hour to hour that as my faith was so was it meted out to me. Oh, how sweet it is to go to our heavenly Father for all our heart's and soul's need, and in the name of Jesus ask for it rejoicing that we know we have the desire of our heart! Surely "happy are the people that are in such a case; yea, happy are the people whose God is the Lord."  On his return to Upper Sandusky on April 9 he found some urgent calls to go to Indiana, and he felt that the Lord was in it. On Sunday the 14th, he conducted the services in Upper Sandusky. The theme in the evening was, Salvation from Church, using 1 Peter 1:18-19 and 2 Peter 1:3-4--deliverance from all that is human and the reception of all that is of divine origin.  The Lord blessed me and greatly awakened my own mind and I think opened the eyes of others to the importance of abandoning all human and party creeds, party names, party spirit, and party interests in order to maintain a life of perfect holiness, as well as to the duty of returning to the "faith once delivered to the saints" in its entirety.  It is interesting to note that at this time, coincident to his receiving the call to Indiana, there came to his mind the idea of using the printing press as a means of publishing the gospel truth he was so burdened to promulgate.  Recently I asked my heavenly Father to send means to meet our wants, pay debts, and as soon as I was ready to print my work on holiness, to furnish the means. I received gracious answers by the Spirit, and the following night while lying in meditation how I could better honor God in publishing full salvation, the Lord opened a new field for me. The Spirit suggested that my heavenly Father would provide me with a small hand printing press by means of which I could print my book myself and scatter many holiness tracts as leaves of salvation.  Praise God, today I received a most cheering letter from Elder W. W. Roberts, of Missouri. He is in the land of Canaan, and having seen my articles and the Standing Committee's action in the Advocate he writes to encourage me in the good work; and though he knows nothing of my circumstances he offers to furnish me some money if I need it. Praise God, who is faithful and always heareth his poor and needy little ones that cry unto him.  Returning to Tiffin with his father-in-law, Keller, he found the little ones in good spirits. All testified definitely and boldly. He held three services there on the following Sunday. He found there had come to be a wonderful awakening in Tiffin among the denominational churches on the subject of perfect holiness.  On the 22nd he took train for New Washington, the place of his childhood home. Here seven years previous he labored alone in a revival that resulted in the salvation of about fifty souls. For one year they did well. A good house of worship was built and twice a week it was filled at prayer meetings that were very lively and interesting. But adversity came and there now remained but a small force of faithful ones to tell the story of salvation. Elder Oliver, who had preferred charges against him for the preaching of holiness, was in charge of the work here and of course had greatly prejudiced the people against holiness. Two of the flock, however, had received the experience. At this place, through his brother Lewis, who lived in the vicinity, he learned that his father was very poorly and he at once became much burdened for his father's soul.  May 5, 1878. Sabbath. Met about 10 A.M. All the little ones testified boldly in the Spirit to sanctification. Brother Oliver and wife were much annoyed at the same. Brother O. preached from Revelation 21:27. A good text to enforce holiness, but alas, the time and opportunity were wasted in attacks upon the Lord's work of full salvation. How my heart was grieved that the dear brother was not led by the Spirit of God! What a favorable opportunity and text to set forth the necessity of holiness and the all cleansing blood! But alas, how few unsanctified preachers know what spirit they are of! Oh, how little they value the worth of souls! How indifferent to the solemn responsibilities of the ministry!  16. [At Upper Sandusky.] Preached the funeral of a poor sinner who was accidentally shot dead with a revolver. He died in fifteen minutes, calling upon God for mercy. He was married one week ago today. Life is but a vapor.  On the 16th he left for Indiana. He reached Silver       Lake, Kosciusko County, the next day and was met by Bro. F. Krause and conveyed seven miles through a heavy rain to Beaver Dam. In spite of bad weather a fair congregation assembled that evening to hear him preach. About all manifested their desire for sanctification by rising to their feet. In his sermon on Sunday he identified the inheritance in sanctification with the promise made to Abraham. At the afternoon service about fifteen were at the altar seeking full salvation. In this section of the country Brother Warner found many warm hearts. They had read his articles on holiness in the Church Advocate, and had doubtless heard of his rejection by the Ohio Eldership. He held meetings at Beaver Dam, Yellow Lake, and Silver Lake. His diary gives the following account for Sunday, May 26, at Yellow Lake.  Sabbath. This day was put in for God. From my waking moments this morn I began to plead with God for the salvation of the people. Had gracious answers to prayer. Was sure God would save a number of souls. We had announced a fast all day, and meeting to begin at 10 A.M. and continue until 4 P.M. The house was filled. Had a lively testimony meeting. Preached on the tabernacle (Hebrews). Several at the altar. But there seemed to be a dullness. None grasped the blessings. We had speaking-meeting, but the interest seemed to be moderate. I was impressed that the dear little ones were hungry, and Satan said we had better close. But, glory to God, I knew that God would yet come and save souls, as he impressed me in morning, hence I held on to him. Preached a short discourse on faith and gave another invitation. Several came to the altar       for sanctification and soon the holy fire fell on us from heaven, and all were sanctified. Some that were not at the altar received the blessing. The Holy Ghost filled the house, and there was great rejoicing. A fellowship meeting resulted from following the Spirit; and as the dear ones went about shaking hands many, yea, about all in the house, were melted to tears. I gave another invitation and then friend Yocum came out, also Brother Bear's daughter, and another young lady for sanctification. She soon received a glorious baptism, and Sister Bear was converted. Came home with Brother Bear. We did not get to close until nearly five o'clock. Spent much of the time until eve on my knees.  Eve, house crowded. People were there from a distance of six and eight miles. I preached mainly to sinners. I had announced a few nights ago that I had an impression to preach to the unconverted, but I now see my mistake. I should have made no such announcement. The Spirit seemed to be baffled in giving me a subject. I did more preaching myself tonight than I have for a long time, was conscious that Christ Jesus was not preaching as much as usual. Thank the Lord for the lesson learned. Three at the altar. Brother Yocum was greatly smitten down by the Spirit; all physical strength was gone. About 9:30 P.M. we dismissed the congregation, but Brother Y. would not leave the altar. Several of us stayed until after eleven. He was measurably blessed. He has been a very good moral, benevolent, and honorable man, and thought heretofore that he had but little sin and could easily get salvation when he once came for it; but he found himself a great sinner under the searching light of the Spirit.  Glory to God for this day's work! It was a high day for my soul. Among the fourteen sanctified were two very fine young men by the name of Smith. They are brothers, both schoolteachers, and I pray that God will make them both very useful.  He found a widespread awakening for holiness in this part of Indiana. The time for the annual Eldership Meeting of the Church was at hand, and he asked the Lord whether he might not stay and attend the meetings instead of going to the Eldership. As there were others who could continue the meetings the Spirit seemed to relieve his mind of all burden for that place, and he felt it his duty to attend the Eldership.  June 1, 1878. Came home today. Found family well. At the General Eldership I found that the leaven of full salvation was working. Had many private talks. Found some in the experience, hut rather mute. Strengthened them. Many spoke of my articles in the Advocate and said they were seeking light. But the Eldership possesses little of the power of godliness. The first night it made me mourn for Jerusalem. Here were assembled the best elements of the whole church, and yet I could feel no God in her. There was no spirit of devotion, no communion with God. Pride and nearly every other manifestation of carnality were       manifest. God save the Church. Thank God for the blessing of home and family. Dear Wife met me at the train.  9. Sabbath [at Findlay]. Awoke before day. Was much pressed in spirit for Brother Burchard. Arose early and had a gracious season of prayer. Was led out much for Brother B. At 10:30 A.M. heard him preach. A dreadful death reigned over the congregation. He spoke with a good deal of energy, according to his pathetic temperament, but he surely had not help by the Spirit. But I think he is honest, and if he had the cloud of prejudice removed from his mind he would want full salvation and would be useful. Oh, that God would lead him into the light!  Feeling that he should visit his father, in Williams       County, he took train for Bryan, Ohio, on the 10th, arriving there late in the evening. The account of the death of his father and of the events that followed are here given.  June 11. Arose early. After devotion and my usual morning bath, I paid for lodging, went to the baker's and got a loaf of graham bread, and started on my way. Got to ride about, five miles and footed the rest. Reached Father's about half-past ten. Found him very weak, and failing. He was overcome by emotion when I came in. His breathing is difficult. I soon sought a private room and poured out my heart for his salvation. Brother Joseph is staying with him all the time. Father cannot last long. Oh that God would be pleased to have mercy upon his poor soul!  14. Father still failing.  15. Brother Lewis reached here about 5 P.M. Eve, went to the Cogswell Schoolhouse to hear Bro. Henry Barckley, but he having gone from home did not appear. I was asked to improve the time. After prayer I began to look to the Lord for a message, but nothing came to hand. Soon young Brother Wallace came in. He came by request to fill the appointment. He had only once before tried to preach. He was indisposed to go ahead; but I told him that I thought it was the order of the Lord. He consented. Did well enough, but needs the special unction of the Holy Ghost. I talked some.  16. Sabbath. L. W. Guiss came at four o'clock this morning. Father failing very fast this morning. At 10:30 A.M. met a congregation at the Cogswell Schoolhouse. Hebrews 7:25. God blessed his precious word. Mr. Guiss. my brother-in-law, who has become a bold infidel, was much affected by God's truth. Some wept for clean hearts. I asked all who knew they were children of God to hold up their hands. A good number responded. I then asked all who could testify to perfect salvation from all sin to hold up their hands, but there was no response. But when I asked all who wished to be wholly the Lord's to hold up their hands, a number responded, some with tears. Time would not permit altar exercise.  Took dinner at Brother Joseph's and came back. Found Father declining very fast. Poor man, he is near his end, yet unsaved. O my God, must my poor father go into eternity bearing all the sins of his past life! Oh the death of an immortal soul! Since God has converted my soul and called me into the ministry, I have often seen Father's heart       touched by divine truth and the Holy Spirit. Tears flowed freely, but he would not yield. When I began to preach, twelve years ago, I spent a summer at home, and he afterward told Mrs. Rang that my constant praying gave him much trouble and that he was glad I was gone. I marked the deep convictions that followed him all that summer and hoped he would soon be brought to God, but he wore them away. Two years ago this coming July my beloved mother passed away gloriously saved. She held his hand and exhorted him until he trembled. Not long after, I came home and spoke in the Dean Church, when he was greatly melted down. I gave an invitation to come to God, but again he refused Christ. Since his last illness, I have daily implored the mercy of God upon his poor soul. Since I have been with him I have talked to him about his soul, but do not see that he was awakened to his condition. I felt that all depended upon the blessed Holy Ghost to discover to him his sin and awful danger. He asked my prayers and songs of salvation. Me shed tears over the wicked infidelity of G., my brother-in-law; but when he made any reference to his hope he based it all upon his principles of honesty and doing right and that he had favored a good many persons in his life, etc. He confessed some misgivings of conscience for not having been confirmed in the Lutheran Church as he had promised his parents he would when married; but said he, "I always felt some way that I could not get religion." When conscious of much distress he would wish he might die. Once he feared that he might have to lie a long time, and when on a certain occasion his throat seemed to be closed against food, he said, "I just believe that it is my doom to lie here and waste away; that there is nothing grown for me to eat any more." Frequently he expressed a strong desire to get well; but I never heard him say that if he did he would live a different life.  I went alone into the woods where so often I sought God and his grace when a young convert. I had a long and precious communion with God. Returned. Father is very rapidly approaching his end. He cannot live through another night. Once while I was wetting his lips he looked very pitifully at me and said. "If you could only give me something that would make me well!"  O my God, how hard it is to close a life that was not given to thee! But it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. Joseph feels this stroke very much. I thought it best not to go to the schoolhouse this eve.  9:30 P.M. Father is gone. Me passed off with no struggles or convulsions. His spirit has left the body. Probation is ended, and a lifeless corpse only remains. I sensibly feel the cords of love that bind my heart to my last earthly parent, but the gentle breathings of the Spirit of God seemed so graciously to sustain me that all was calm within. I felt a perfect loyalty to God and all his providence that so sweetly over all prevailed and gave me such perfect peace that I could not even weep. Oh, how tranquilizing to my soul was the deep assurance that God doeth all things well!  17. Brother Joseph is almost down sick with sorrow and loss of rest. Poor father lies a corpse. Two brothers, L. W. Guiss, and I wore away the long melancholy day as best we could.  18. Last night at twelve o'clock Mr. Double awoke me and said there were some gentlemen without that had a telegram for me. I arose and dressed, feeling a very calm peace keeping me. The Holy Spirit brought these words to me: "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings." The following was the dispatch: "Come home, your child is very sick. L. W. Keller." I came in, examined the papers and my railroad guide. Found that a train left Bryan at 8 A.M. that made connection at Toledo, bringing me to Upper Sandusky at 1 P.M., but if I waited for a later train I should not reach home until late at night. What shall I do? Here lay my father cold in death, to be buried this A.M., and should I stay or not? I had a season of communion with the Lord, and the Spirit seemed to say go. I took my usual morning bath, packed my valise, and started to my brother Joseph's, bidding adieu to my brother Lewis and my lifeless father, the latter of course to see no more until the heavens cease to be and the earth shall flee away before the approach of the great Judge of the human family.  I was conveyed to Bryan by David Warner, my nephew. Improved the time in meditation and prayer. I recalled the feeling that had rested upon me for some days, a deep solicitude for my family. Both on Sabbath and yesterday I went out into the woods where I used to seek the Lord when a convert and besought God to preserve my dear family. I also felt led to ask God to try us in any way he wished to. I felt the need of some trial of our faith and loyalty to God.  In my deep meditation and fervent prayer to God the time passed off swiftly with the fast gliding train, and at 1 P.M. we reached Upper Sandusky. Leaving my valise, I walked out at once and found the dear child very sick, having first taken down with a sick stomach and then with the affliction developing in the brain. The precious creature recognized me and made an effort to embrace me with her loving little arms. Her sweet little lips could responsively receive a father's kiss, but they were silent for want of sufficient strength to articulate. A good number of kind neighbors were in attendance, and I at once saw what was threatening the very life of the poor little sufferer. She was exquisitely fine in the texture of brain and her head measured nineteen       inches in circumference around her forehead, and she had a very sensitive nervous temperament. Hence it was extremely important that the most perfect silence should be maintained in her presence, and with this strong nervous action, with any sickness or weakness, much talk and noise would necessarily draw the disease to the brain. I had her removed from the room where the family mostly stayed and everybody came in, to a more retired room; demanded silence and forbade more than two at a time to be in the room. Sarah had seen the necessity of such regulations, but many dear good old sisters, not knowing their importance, were much inclined to sit around the lounge and talk, and not being in her own house she had not been able to enforce them.  19. Dear Levilla still low, but I had good hopes of       her recovery. Spent as much time as I could with the Lord. Left all with him.  20. Dear child still dangerous, but we trust some better.  21. The doctor could see no improvement.  22. Wife and I thought Levilla better and still clung to the Lord for her life if it be his will to restore her; but all others had given up hope. We thought it impossible that we should do without the company of this sweet little creature.  23. Sabbath. The doctor did not come as usual this morning. I presume from the report last eve he supposed she was dead; but all day she seemed better. P.M., sent for doctor. He thought she had some symptoms for the better, which raised our hopes. Eve, a number came in and despite our efforts to keep them away they would crowd around the dear child. She grew worse. She had had very light spasms all day but they did not seem to hurt her; but now she began to fail fast. Phlegm began to accumulate in her little throat, making it difficult to breathe.  24. Toward morning the poor little sufferer was compelled to struggle hard to get her breath, and it became apparent that unless God miraculously interposed, her suffering must soon end in death.       While we sorrowed for her suffering, we felt a calm and sweet resignation to the will of God, to whom the dear child belonged. We could say in truth, "Thy will be done." At five o'clock in the morning her redeemed spirit was freed from its earthly abode and taken away to be with Jesus and holy angels.  Now remained only the poor little emaciated body. As we recalled the large, active, plump, and rosy-checked Levilla, we could scarcely help but exclaim as we looked upon the reduced and colorless form, "Is this Levilla? Can it be that this is our child?" Since my return I had anxiously cherished a hope that ere long I should hear those sweet lips utter words again; but they are now silent in death, or rather the sweet and dreamless sleep that shall pass off when the Lord comes to call us forth from our earthly repose.  25. . . Brother Leay conducted services. We looked for the last time upon our beloved child, whose sweet and innocent little form was robed in its little white dress and skirts, with a beautiful little bouquet of flowers protruding from her little hands folded upon her heart. As my dear wife was deeply afflicted with her departure, her sweet little face seemed to speak forth from its little white coffin and say, "Weep not, dear mother, for though your loss seems to be great, my gain is infinitely greater. I have gone to the better land, where sickness, sorrow, pain, and death never, never come.  We laid the dear and only child in the Mission Cemetery at Upper Sandusky, near the road at the west side, between two evergreens. There with sad, yet resigned, hearts we left her to sleep       beneath the angels' care until called forth at the last day.  Levilla Modest was born March 18, 1875, near Seward, Nebraska. She passed from suffering to the society of angels June 24,1878, and was therefore three years, three months, and six days of age. She was a child of more than ordinary mental ability. Her organic quality was the very finest. Her temperaments were sanguine and mental. Her brain measured nineteen inches. Though of such great nervous activity, we had by careful diet imparted to her a good, large physical       structure. She measured three feet five inches. She was very knowing about all kinds of work, and ever eager to assist. For some months past she would stand upon a chair beside her mother and wipe knives, forks, spoons, saucers, etc., with the utmost care and perfection. She would do the most of her dressing and undressing, and never failed to hang up or put away every garment and everything she handled. She seemed to have very fine taste and perfect order. Her causality was wonderfully developed for a child. . . She daily astonished us with questions concerning everything she saw, and her remarkable ability to anticipate what next was wanted, and with what eagerness those little feet ran errands for mother and father, and grandmother and grandfather. Since eighteen months old she would sing parts of familiar tunes and hymns. I believe her first was Happy Day. For some time past she would tread the organ with one foot, place her little fingers upon the keys, and sing loudly, "Halleluiah, 'tis done," "I am washed in the blood of the Lamb," etc. She had a remarkable tendency to imitate all that was pure and religious. She often had her little prayer meetings by herself, and would teach older children to engage with her in her childish prayers and songs. After attending an ordinance where she paid marked attention to the saints' washing feet, the next day she called for a washbowl of water and washed her feet, then took off her mother's shoes and stockings and washed and wiped her feet and gave her a kiss. Every evening she kneeled at her mother's knee and said her little prayer. At the sight of the picture with raised hands she was sure to say. "Man lift up hands and praise the Lord." In her sickness she would sometimes sigh out, "O, praise the Lord!" . . . She excelled all other peculiarities in the wonderful depth and fervency of her affections. Her love seemed to possess the purity and strength of one fully renewed in the image of God and yet the innocence and simplicity of a child. As she placed those precious little arms around our necks and gave the warm kiss, we could not help but feel that this was real and not mere child's play and those embraces were free for all who sought them. This is my birthday; a sad one: but still in the midst of all the Lord supports me and comforts. Though we cannot understand this bereavement, yet God knows all about it and will doubtless bring our highest good and his own glory out of it. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed is the name of the Lord.  26, 27. Spent the time largely in communing with God. Wrote some letters.  29. Wife and I drove to Tiffin. When about one mile from the city our beast, that we thought very safe and quiet, began to make efforts to' run off. I held her, when she began to kick desperately. I turned her to the side of the way and got her stopped. Before this I was out. I told Sarah to get out behind if she could. We had a top-buggy. The curtain was rolled up, but she could not get out. The beast was loose from the buggy all but the holdbacks. Sarah got out and stood a moment, when she found that she was hurt. Some friends came up just then. I gave the mare to one to hold and I helped Sarah to the fence, where she sat upon a stone. We found that she had been hit upon both limbs. On one the mare's hoof (she had no shoes) cut through linen duster, dress, skirt, and stocking, and cut a small wound to the bone. She had much pain. Three or four men kindly tendered all the help they could. They took us in a one-horse wagon to Tiffin, having fastened our buggy behind, and one led the mare. We came to Sister Lewis'. A small congregation gathered and I preached a short discourse, of course on holiness.  July 2, 1878. Got a crutch for Sarah. She concluded that she could go home by railroad. Took her to the train and committed her to the care of the Lord. I drove the mare and buggy, trusting in Cod for his protection from all harm by the way. The Lord preserved me from harm. Found dear Wife had safely made the trip.  4. Spent much of the day picking berries all alone       with the Lord. Meditated upon the goodness of God in continuing our national blessings.  6. Spent the day in prayer, meditation, and reading. Impressed with the duty of preaching against the enormous sin and galling yoke of sectarianism.  7. Sabbath. God helped me and blessed me in exposing the yokes of Satan by which God's children are brought under bondage.  On the 12th of July 1878, Brother Warner, accompanied by his wife, made a second trip to Indiana. He stopped in Goshen with Mr. Guiss, his brother-in-law, on the 18th. As the latter was a bold and reckless infidel, he did not enjoy his visit there. He felt that he was staying where the Savior was excluded and that he could be admitted only apart from him. He reached Yellow Lake on the 20th, and found that the meetings had been carried on for a few evenings after he left in May. Several had been saved. On the 23rd his wife returned home to Ohio, while he went on to Auburn, to Brother Lowman's, whom he found firmly established in holiness. When he and Brother Lowman began to open their minds to each other he found that both had been impressed with the idea of together printing a holiness and church paper, Brother Warner to edit the former and Brother Lowman the latter department.  After discussing the publishing project with Lowman he returned to Ohio, to Wood County, where he held a number of meetings and assisted in a camp meeting near Rising Sun, and also attended a United Brethren camp meeting at Portage. He speaks thus of a manifestation in his meetings at Rising Sun:  August 22, 1878. Mr. Gay, a spiritualist, or rather a mesmerist who possesses a superior mind and is believed to be possessed by evil spirits, was present. He has attended for some time and has at different times attempted to mesmerize me while preaching. At a few of the last meetings his wife has been seeking sanctification, and he has       made some good speeches in favor of the gospel. Today from the beginning of the meeting he began to maneuver his spiritism. He made many strange motions; walked the floor once and tried to dance. It is probable that this was all involuntary on his part. But we all kept our minds on Jesus and God through the Holy Spirit to take care of him. He began to show signs of distress, got upon the floor, wept and cried out. A stronger       power than the indwelling one had taken hold of him. His suffering became more intense. His wife brought him water and he drank some. She fanned him for a long time, and he became speechless and seemed nearly suffocated.  In September, Brother Warner attended the Ohio       Holiness Camp Meeting held on the fairground at Marion. Of his experience there he records the following: September 8, 1878. Sabbath. I began to fast on Friday. Ate but little yesterday and nothing this forenoon. The Lord came very near to me. Oh, how he let me down to nothingness! I saw and felt ashamed of the trouble the Lord has had with me. I sank down into the dust before him, and instead of wondering why God did not give the greater measure of power that the Spirit impressed me I should have I was led to wonder that he had entrusted me as much as he had. Oh, what shameful weakness and many errors were disclosed by the more perfect light that God has flashed into my soul! O God, let me be buried deeper and more perfectly hid away with thee.  12. Came home. An incident in this camp meeting should be recorded to the glory of God. Brother Rudic took sick not long after he came here. After lying in camp a few days he was taken to Brother       Kennedy's. Prayers were being offered for him, still he grew worse. Last Saturday night he sent word to camp that after meeting a few believers should get together and ask God in faith for his recovery. They did so, and great power and strong assurance came upon them. They claimed the answer to their prayer, and some of the number were able to praise God for the brother's restoration just as if he had been raised up before their eyes. Sister Lea, who had taken violently sick that eve, was also taken to the Lord with much assurance. The next morn both were in camp perfectly healed. Brother R. suffered so much during the night and was so reduced that he thought he surely must die, and made some arrangements for his departure. But early in the morning he began to look to God once more, when his faith joined that of the party in the camp at eleven in the night, and he arose, instantly made whole. All glory to God!  Following the part just quoted there is a gap in his diary until October 2, the entry for which will explain. In this, one observes his humility, his deep self-examination and his desire to exalt God alone. October 2, 1878. Today I resume my pen again, with an earnest endeavor to record some of the mercies and blessings of God upon my poor soul. After I returned from camp meeting, the Lord saw fit in his tender love to suffer affliction to befall me. Yea, "I was brought very low, but he helped me." I had bilious remittent fever and an attack of hemorrhage of the lungs. Friends and even a physician were much alarmed and felt my work was done. As soon as taken down, I ordered cards sent to the "little ones" at different places to pray for me. I put my case in the hands of the Lord and wished only his will. Dear Wife was kept in great tranquility of mind through an unwavering faith in God that he would raise me up again. My rest in God was so deep and perfect that I hardly knew anything of my physical condition. I thought myself but slightly ill, when others despaired of my life. For a few days I talked only in a whisper, and when I began to recover I was astonished to find myself reduced to a mere frame and unable to stand.  During my afflictions, the Lord not only kept my mind in perfect peace, but also taught me many precious lessons of my littleness and his exalted greatness. Oh! let us praise and magnify the name of the Lord. I saw myself but a speck of dust resting upon an invisible grain of sand. Oh, how the eye of God scrutinized my past life and showed me yet more than at the camp meeting my weakness and unworthiness! Oh, how vile I had been in the sight of God! How many times Satan had succeeded in resurrecting some self in me! The Spirit has plainly shown me that I should never speak of having prayed for certain persons       in connection with their conversion, etc. Oh! I am so ashamed of my folly and weakness in often relating such things. I thought I was doing it all to the glory of God, but now I can see that there was some self in it. O Lord! save me in the future from such presumption and sin. I thank thee for this affliction, for I know it is all for the good of my soul. Thou hast also shown me that I have boasted too much of my health and ascribed it too generally to my knowledge of and prudence in observing natural laws. O God forgive me of this offense. I thank thee that thou hast such a constant supervision over all thy works that every good must be ascribed to thee and thanks be given to thee just the same as if no means were used at all to convey them to us. Blessed God, let me sink down forever out of self. I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me. Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness!  3. I have had a desire to attend the Northern Indiana Eldership, which convenes tomorrow eve. But Wife and friends all entreated that I should not venture from home in my present weak condition, so this morning I went to my study to write a letter to that body; but before doing so I consulted the Lord, when he gave me a strong baptism of the Spirit to go and a strong assurance that he would abundantly support me and strengthen me. I said: Lord, I will go in thy name. I firmly declared my intentions. Wife began to take the matter to the Lord and soon felt resigned. Oft through the day as I thought of going the Spirit would come upon me, and I increased in strength with wonderful rapidity.  On the morning of the 4th he was conveyed to town to take the train. The weather was unfavorable and there was some rain, but he felt he was carrying out the Lord's purpose and the Lord sustained him. From Ada, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, Indiana, he had the company of Brothers S. Rice and C. E. Rowley, two prominent holiness evangelists. He reached Silver Lake in the evening and was conveyed to Beaver Dam, the place of the Eldership meeting. His profession of holiness soon brought him to conflict with the leaders in the church. Speaking of the period of 1875-1880, Dr. Forney says in his History of the Church of God: "During several of these years the Eldership was contending against inroads of heresies advocated by D. S. Warner. It had finally to resort to the old remedy of excision in order to prevent the spread of the disease and restore the body to good health."  This trouble came up at the Eldership meeting the following September. "The Warner case was indirectly revived when the Committee on Resolutions adopted the following: 'That any minister of this body that may presume to preach the dogma of a second work for sanctification shall be deemed unsound in the theology of the Church of God, and should not hold an ecclesiastical relation as a minister in this Eldership.'" From Dr. Forney's History of the Church of God.

Chapter 9 (part 2)

Chapter 9 (part 3)

Chapter 10 NORTHERN INDIANA ELDERSHIP  The pagan system of Freemasonry began to make inroads in the body of Christians known as the Indiana Eldership of the Church of God. A storm of opposition arose from some who were of the more spiritual element of the Church when a number of the members became affiliated with the Masonic Lodge. It appears that the main body of the Eldership did not object to secret societies, and the result of the agitation was that a number of ministers who stood for the opposition and refused to fellowship Freemasons were expelled from the Eldership and were denied a renewal of their licenses. Others left the body of their own accord. In consequence a new Eldership was formed called the Northern Indiana Eldership.  Among those who constituted the original members of the new Eldership were Elders J. Martin, J. S. Shock, C. Clem, E. B. Bell, B. F. Bear, I. W. Lowman, and J. W. Ray. The new body came into possession of most of the church property and the best churches. They appointed a Board of Publication, which took steps to begin publishing a paper devoted to the interests of the cause for which they stood. Accordingly there appeared in January 1878, the first number of the       Herald of Gospel Freedom, a monthly periodical published from Wolcottville, Indiana, at fifty cents a year. It stood for the promotion of gospel truth and freedom, opposition to all oath-bound secret       societies, Freemasonry in particular, and loyalty to God and conformity to his Word. I. W. Lowman was editor.  At the Eldership meeting which convened at Beaver Dam on October 5, 1878, and which was the third annual session, Brother Warner was voted a member. In his diary for October 5 appears this account of the proceedings:  5. A good deal of time was given to prayer during the day. Much unnecessary business usually gone through with in the various Elderships was dispensed with. All went off smoothly and with love. Not a grating word or discordant note in all that was said and done. No one was called to order; no one was materially out of order. The manner in which business was done and the good degree of devotional spirit with which it was pervaded was a great stride from the carnal and formal wranglings of Elderships of the present to the simplicity and spirituality of an apostolic Eldership. Praise God, he is leading his children out into the glorious freedom of the gospel.  The most of the time was devoted to the publishing interests, A very important measure was enacted--that of enlarging the Herald, issuing it semi-monthly and devoting a part of it to the promotion of Bible holiness. Praise God for this glorious movement. It is wonderful how he is controlling things for his glory. Probably a large majority of the Eldership are not in the experience of full salvation, and of course some are disbelievers in it, among whom are some of the preachers. Brother Shock, one of the number, the present speaker, is probably our most talented man. But all glory to the name of God, he controlled all these elements so that Satan could not move one to open his mouth against this work of God, and this Eldership voted to support holiness as a second experience. Trusting in God, I can see glorious results from this project. It is bringing about what the Lord showed me last winter; that is, a people straight before God in holiness and truth. By this blessed little organ God is going to bring the true church foundation and Bible truth into the hands of holiness people, and holiness doctrine into the hands of Church of God members, which must result in a divine union of truth and holiness. And this is just what is wanted to save the world. Holiness, the great lever of power, has since the Reformation been weakened and encumbered by party names and creeds and human traditions; whereas the Church of God, though established upon eternal truth, has nevertheless been without strength to accomplish her mission for the want of perfect holiness, the divinely appointed power to bring the world to God.  At this session of the Eldership, as Brother Warner says, special attention was given to the Eldership's paper, the Herald of Gospel Freedom. During its first year it had been a 10 by 15 four-column folio. It was now increased in size to a five-column 13 by 20. It was made a semi-monthly and its subscription price advanced to seventy-five cents. Lowman was reelected editor and publisher and Brother Warner was elected associate editor to conduct a new holiness department. A number of special contributors were chosen. A music department, already established and conducted by Professor J. F. Kinsey, of Cincinnati, was to be continued. The best exchanges were secured, and with this prospect the paper started on its second year, 1879. A portion of the prospectus for that year is here given.  PROSPECTUS OF THE HERALD FOR 1879  This paper was started one year ago as the organ of the Northern Indiana Eldership of the Church of God, a body of Christian workers who were raised up through the following circumstances:  Several ministers of the Church of God in Indiana       through a scrupulous regard for truth and righteousness refused to fellowship men who were yoked together in the dark leagues of secrecy. For thus reproving the works of darkness their licenses were withheld. Accordingly through the providence of God and the force of circumstances they formed themselves together as an independent body, recognizing God as the founder of his own Church and all true Christians as her real membership.  The Bible is their only creed, and Christian character their only test of fellowship.  The labors of this little band have been signally blessed of God, and their members increased.  The Herald, all things considered, has been a decided success. At the recent session of the Eldership Elder I. W. Lowman was reelected Editor and Elder Warner was elected Associate Editor.  As heretofore, it shall be the aim of the Herald to       "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," not a part, but the whole faith of the gospel, ignoring the traditions of men, reproving the works of darkness and enforcing all the will of       God.  It believes in raising men to the Bible standard of       holy living by leading them into the Bible measure of grace.  It advocates a salvation that lifts men above the regions of mere duty and places them in such sweet and perfect harmony with God that they delight to do his will; a salvation that constrains to every good work by the infinite power of perfect love, and not by the lash of the law.  Viewed from a human standpoint the Herald may appear to possess two separate features; namely, that of an organ of the Church of God and an advocate of holiness. But viewed from a pure Bible standpoint these distinct features naturally blend into one effort to restore and propagate the pure religion of the Bible.  Church signifies "called out" The divinely given title, Church of God, therefore denotes the called out of God or separated unto God. Holiness means the same thing; that is, to be separated from all sin and wholly given up to God.  The editors of the Herald firmly believe that apostolic truths and Bible holiness can not be separated.  The work of holiness has been too long encumbered by human creeds and disintegrated parties among its friends.  Though holiness as a distinct experience is the most precious and important truth of the gospel, its wonderful triumphs have been much limited and rendered comparatively unstable for the want of being identified with all other Bible truths and divested of human systems.  Upon the other hand, the Church, ever accepting the only infallible and divinely authorized standard of discipline and wearing the only church title that was "given by the mouth of the Lord," is utterly disqualified to perform her appointed mission in bringing the world to God unless she be girded with the invincible power of perfect holiness and the full and distinct baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Truth is mighty; but holiness, being the fullness of God in man, is almighty. The union of these divine forces, we believe, will make a complete conquest of this world for God.  To restore the divine plan in the harmonious action and the spread of these elements of salvation is the primary object of the Herald.  A part of the paper will therefore be devoted especially to that doctrine and experience of entire sanctification, to be conducted by the Associate Editor, the Editor-in-Chief being also fully in line with holiness definitely through the blood.  With an unshaken trust in God. and confiding in the integrity of our cause and the support of all lovers of truth and Christian purity, we begin Volume II of the Herald in the name of the Lord Jesus.  I. W. Lowman,  Editor and Publisher.  D. S. Warner,  Associate Editor.  An entry from the dairy dated October 7 contains an interesting item and will close this chapter.  As I arose this morning and approached the Lord I was led to ask my heavenly Father for some means, as I was entirely destitute, having been just able to pay my ticket fare here by the addition of a postage stamp which through the kind providence of God I happened to have and the agent was kind enough to take. I came down,       washed, and took my little morning walk for exercise and meditation, returned, and as soon as seated Father M. said, "I feel impressed that I should give this brother some money and I believe we all ought." He handed me a half dollar and the several brethren all followed with half dollars and quarters. Glory, honor, thanks, and praises be unto God our Savior forever and ever Oh, bless the Lord, my soul, who supplieth all my needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus!

Chapter 11  EDITOR AND AUTHOR  The difficulties and privations incident to Brother       Warner's years of faithfulness in the ministry, his persecutions on account of holiness culminating in his expulsion from the Ohio Eldership, his bereavements of some of his nearest relatives--all were serving to draw him only closer to the Divine and thereby fitting him for greater responsibilities and usefulness. As we become acquainted with his career and the mission to which God had chosen him, we discern the hand of Providence leading him to his appointed field.  On his return to Upper Sandusky from Tiffin on April 9, 1878, he found some urgent calls to go to Indiana, and he said, "I think the Lord is in it; expect to go next week." At this time he became more fully awakened to the importance of abandoning all party names and creeds and returning to the "faith once delivered to the saints" in its entirety. At this time, also, he began to have some conception of the printing-press as an aid in publishing the truth. The manuscript for a tract on the subject of holiness, which he was writing, was growing to the proportions of a book, and he began to pray for means to have it published. He "received gracious answers by the       Spirit," as he says, and the following night while he was lying awake in meditation, the Lord opened up to him the new field of publishing holiness by means of the printing press.  Over the State line, in Wolcottville, Indiana, the Lord had prepared the opportunity. The little paper Herald of Gospel Freedom, was in its first year, and its editor, I. W. Lowman, was favorable to holiness and had been impressed that Brother Warner should conduct a holiness department in the paper. The appointment was made at the Eldership meeting, as stated in our previous chapter. As usual when undertaking any responsibility, Brother Warner placed himself in entire dependence upon God. He thus speaks of the project:  Oh, that God may endue us both with grace and wisdom to discharge this solemn and important calling! O my God, I cry unto thee for help! I am sure thou hast put me under this solemn and responsible charge. Now thou must qualify thy poor tool for the work. Be pleased, O Lord, to touch my heart and all my intellect and religious powers afresh with the Holy Ghost. Be thou thyself my qualification. I am so glad thou hast promised to be my wisdom. Oh, give me also thy mind. Be thou the fountain of all knowledge and goodness in me. lord, I accept thee for my ALL.  His holiness articles contributed to the Church Advocate, the regular Church paper, had been effective and had won for him openings and warm hearts in various places. He possessed excellent gifts for writing as well as for speaking. His discourse was entertaining and instructive. He began his editorial duties in much physical weakness, as, it will be remembered, he was just recovering from a severe illness that laid low his naturally weak frame.  October 16, 1878. Feeling bad. Much fever. Called upon the Lord. Fasted most of the day. Applied water frequently to my head and back of my neck. Was compelled to do some writing in order to be in time with my continued article. This greatly increased my fever and pain in the head.  17. Gathered some apples for myself. Feeling better. Praise the Lord!  18. At twelve Brother Lowman and I started to Wolcottville. Undertook to me the enormous task of walking to Waterloo, a distance of three and one half miles. The roads were muddy. I soon felt       that it was impossible for me to go through on my strength and began to look to God. I took him for my strength. All glory to God and the Lamb, when we reached the station I felt stronger than when we started. Lay over some time in Kendallville. Visited printing offices, as we are contemplating the purchase of press and type to run the Herald.  19. The Lord is opening the way for us to buy a whole printing office here very cheap. Praise his name!  On the 24th he visited Rome City in view of finding a suitable place to reside. He felt directed to locate here, and wrote his wife to come. On the 26th of November they moved to their new location. He bought the south half of lots 103 and 104 for $213.  The entry for the new year, January 1, 1879, is of       interest. Since the last account my time has been closely devoted to writing for the Herald and on my little book. This seems to have been the order of the Lord, and he has most wonderfully blessed me in the work. The Spirit is continually taking the things of Christ and showing them to me. Glory to God for the new beauties and blessed unfoldings of divine truth under the clear light of the "anointing that abideth and teacheth of all things." The luminous heavens of revelation seen through the all-searching telescope of the Holy Ghost raise many texts that were but dim and of doubtful application to the definite purifying grace, to their true magnitude of absolute authority; while one beautiful, blazing constellation of Bible truth after another is brought to view until the adoring soul sees no end to the divine evidences of the "second grace" save the end of revelation itself; and even there the Spirit takes up the eternal theme and writes it all over the soul, on the tablet of the heart and upon every fiber of our conscious being; yea, writes it upon the "merchandise" of the saints all over the entire universe of God's creation, on every surrounding object. Even "upon the bells of the horses shall there be HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD."  We can begin to see the effects under God of "praising the beauty of holiness" in this place in our prayer and class meetings. Many express a hunger for full salvation, and as we frequently present our dear neighbors to God in prayer, the Spirit seems to indicate a glorious harvest of souls in this place in the near future. All glory to God!  And now, my soul, another year of thy earthly career and time to work has passed away. Thank God, it was the first whole year of my life that I have dwelt in the Canaan of perfect love and sinless glory. All its events through God have indeed worked together for good to my soul.  11. Since last writing we have constantly shared the goodness of God. The time has been closely devoted to writing on my book and for the Herald. The Holy Spirit has greatly assisted. The weather has been very cold, as much as twenty-four degrees below zero. The first week of the new year was observed as a week of prayer. The weather being severe, but few attended our union prayer meeting. Last night in the name of Jesus we began a meeting here in the Methodist church-house on the line of holiness.  The book he speaks of was the “Bible Proofs of the Second Work of Grace.” It was printed and bound the next year, 1880, at the E. U. Mennonite publishing house in Goshen. Two thousand copies were printed. It contained 493 pages and was, it would seem, an almost exhaustive treatise on sanctification as a second work of grace as shown by the Scriptures. It was counted an excellent book by the holiness people and leaders, and doubtless accomplished much good. Copies of the book may yet be found in individual libraries. This was the first book of which Brother Warner was the author. He became the author of a number of publications afterward.  27. Closed meeting tonight. A few souls have found Christ a perfect Savior. The leading elements in the M. E. Church did not come near during the meeting. Some did all they could against it. The preacher in charge a week ago made a very brave defense of sin in the flesh, justifying rather than condemning it. Oh, the shameful clamor for sin! the dead and godless condition of the Church! Surely her glory has departed. Some who were longing for full salvation, when they saw the united influence of an apostate church arrayed against this very fundamental doctrine of their creed, were scared away from the good purposes of their heart and away from the meeting. Poor souls! Having lost a good conscience they can not look me in the face; and vainly they talk of growing the remaining sin out of the heart. Oh, that God would appoint salvation for this people!  February 2, 1879. Have been very busy writing during the past week. Brother Lowman moved the press here last Thursday. Praise the Lord He showed me by the Spirit that I should locate here, and that the press would be located in this place, when nothing had been thought or said about it. Oh, I am so glad the Lord does lead his little ones! I can do much more for the paper now. Oh. that God would keep Brother Lowman and me straight on the line of holiness and continue to make the Herald a real herald of gospel freedom! Our circulation is increasing, thank the Lord!  10. It is wonderful how God takes care of his dependent little ones. When we came here, kind friends bade us farewell with some sadness, fearing that the holiness evangelistic work would not support us here, where we had no friends and acquaintances. But what a lesson our heavenly Father has taught us! He has abundantly provided for us, even at home. I must record some of his kindness.  Fuel is rather scarce here, wood quite high, and the weather being quite severe I could not well see from whence we should be supplied. But as we do not walk by sight I trusted all in the hands of the Lord. We have a neighbor who is a very wicked man, but no loving children of God could be more kind and benevolent to us than the whole family are. They tell us by word and action that we shall not want for any good thing while they have it. Another very wicked young man had       bought twelve acres of timber about three miles from town. The best timber and most of the nicest cordwood timber had been taken off. My kind neighbor asked him how much he would take for all that remained, and to his utter astonishment he said, "I will give it to you for five dollars." Neighbor and I had talked the matter over before and he agreed to take me in partnership if we could get the wood reasonable. He was true to this agreement, and we both have wood enough to do us for two or three years. This is nothing else than the dealing of God. Oh, who would not trust thee, blessed Father of mercies! Thou art all love and boundless goodness. But thou art also perfect wisdom, therefore will we trust thee when thy providence seems to be against our wishes and inimical to our happiness; for we know that such can only be in appearance, because of our ignorance. Oh, we thank thee that we can rejoice in all thy righteous will; for as thou art thyself love, nothing but love can proceed from thee.  11. Brother L. Spencer and Brother Kimmel brought me home, each bringing me a load of wood from my place of procuring fuel. When arriving home, I found wife well as usual. Arrived at one o'clock, and at two I was to preach the funeral of Miss Sigler. Poor girl, I visited and prayed with her last Saturday before leaving home. The family are not religious, the father is quite wicked and intemperate; but Mary gave me satisfactory evidence that God had forgiven her sins. However, when about to die she was left in great distress of mind. Brother Newton, residing near by, was sent for; he prayed for her. She obtained the victory and closed life in peace.  The temperance meeting that was in progress when I left continued with success until tonight. Over three hundred signed the pledge, and a permanent organization was effected.  23. Sabbath. A.M., preached in Albion on faith. P.M., led the holiness meeting and organized a holiness band of sixty-six members. Praise the Lord, they expect to work for the Master in spreading holiness.  On the 11th of March he and Elder Lowman drew up articles of agreement by which they were to be joint editors and publishers of the Herald and all other papers, books, etc., issued from their office. Brother Warner was to pay Lowman $250 for a half interest in the paper and office. Both were to bear half the expense of publishing the Herald and any other publications. Both were to share equally in all the income of the office except the job work, which Lowman was to do with his own press and stock, and receive the proceeds. Brother Warner, however, was to realize fifteen per cent from all the job work he should procure. All manuscripts written by or donated to either party after the date of their agreement were to be jointly published and owned, and all manuscripts written by or donated to either party before the date of agreement were to yield to the owner ten per cent more than one half the proceeds.  From this time the diary entries are rather scattered, until finally they cease altogether. This is owing to the fact, doubtless, that the events of his life were associated with evangelistic and editorial effort and went largely into the paper as news items.  May 4, 1879. Sabbath. Went to hear Brother Allison, United Brethren minister. He requested me to talk. I did so, with great liberty and power of the Spirit. Brother A., who had hitherto been an opposer of distinct holiness, was overwhelmed by the power of God and truth, and confessed that it was Bible doctrine. Another man, whose carnality was greatly stirred, turned pale, grew nervous, and finally interrupted me with questions and contradictions. Just then God sent an increased volume of sweet love to my heart. Glory to God! Burning coals freely heaped upon his head, and soft words soon turned wrath away, and after meeting be humbly apologized.  17. Brother and Sister Shock brought me to Syracuse. Being late, Brothers Martin and Bell had left just a few moments before. Brother and Sister S. began to lament their disappointment. I began to praise God, for the Spirit seemed to say, "I want thee with me alone today." I said I expected a glorious time by the way. They looked       astonished that I was so free from complaint and regrets. They suggested that I should go by the cars. I remarked that the conductor would probably put me off, as I had no money. I praised the Lord that he would be my strength to walk. They looked the more strangely as I started off with praises to the Lord. I hope that God may convince them of the blessedness of the rest of faith. Walked about sixteen miles to Warsaw, and God did most wonderfully bless my soul by the way. Reached Warsaw about 3 P.M., without fatigue or hunger. Called at Brother Barber's a few moments. Looked for a team that was going out south, but had to take the train, the Lord having told Brother Barber to give me fifty cents to pay fare. Brother Lowman was on the train. After reaching Silver Lake we had three miles more to walk to Gospel Hill, Praise God, he was my strength this day, even without food from early morning till late in the eve.  18. Sabbath. Brother Bear and many dear holy ones came from Yellow Lake and elsewhere. Glorious time in the Lord. P.M., met at half-past two. I was urged again to lead the meeting. The Spirit of the Lord was wonderfully upon me; anointed me to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Hallelujah! The deep prejudices began to give way; opposition ceased; God was triumphing.  Eve, Brother Lowman having the sore throat, Brother Martin not being well, and Brother Bear having left, I was much humbled before God in talking again to the people. I was brought low in the dust at the thought of being too prominent among the brethren in thus leading the meeting so much.  June 4, 1879. This is the fifth anniversary of our marriage. Took early train for home. Found dear Sarah quite ill; may the Lord bless the precious object of my strongest earthly love.  July 4, 1879. Sarah and I got a horse and buggy and went out three miles and picked a fine lot of raspberries, and thus escaped the throng and rabble that filled our little picturesque city. Oh, how much more sweet and comfortable to get away with the Lord alone!  6. Sabbath. At home. Unwell. The Lord sent a young man here today, that I might have something to do for Him. Some weeks ago I found the poor wayfarer at the lake, fishing. Having learned that he was a stranger and without money I brought him home for the night. He seems very teachable. I tried hard to get him to call upon the Lord and be saved. This is the second time he has been to see us, not having found us at home the former time. He is a very intelligent Swede. Has had some practice in type-setting, and has corresponded some for papers.  August 6, 1879. Came to Warsaw camp meeting. The Lord was at work, many being saved. About forty tents occupied. Bishops Weaver, William Taylor and a host of preachers present. Rejoiced to form the acquaintance of Brothers Lambert, Krupp, and Low, of the New Mennonite Church. They are gloriously saved and definite for Jesus. We found a wonderful affinity in our hearts. If the Lord will, I shall attend their conference. I pray God we may become one fold.  The Lord did not have his way fully in this meeting. Too much looking to men.  September 3, 1879. Took train for Upper Sandusky. Found Wife and friends and many of the holiness workers already on the camp ground.  10. Meeting closed tonight. A mob of two or three hundred of the baser sort were let loose by Satan upon us. They threatened everything to Brother W. T. Ellis, against whom they were incensed by       what appears to have been imprudent conduct of his own. We finally succeeded in escorting him through the surging, raging rabble to our quarters. Some eggs were fired upon us. This Brother E. is indeed to me a mystery. His conduct is very rough. He is truly a "new sharp threshing-instrument having teeth." Notwithstanding he provokes malice from the world and forfeits confidence of believers, he brings souls to God.  On Tuesday we had a faith meeting Special faith and gifts of healing were considered. All who had infirmities which they believed the Lord desired them to be healed from presented themselves before the Lord, and several remarkable healings were performed. Sister Monnett, from Bucyrus, who walked upon crutches, was made whole, and used them no more. Another sister was healed by the Great Physician of a spinal affliction which she had had from her youth. The next day she was surprised to find that even the deformity had disappeared. Praise God!  22. Came home via the Baltimore and Ohio.  24. Went out to the Mennonite conference in the       Hawpatch, about nine miles from here.  26. Bade these beloved brethren farewell, feeling that our hearts are wonderfully knit together in love. They appointed a delegate to our Eldership.  27. Met beloved companion this eve at our Eldership at Yellow Lake Bethel, she having come directly from Ohio.  29. Sessions very pleasant, even spiritual. After leaving the house, very strange feelings came over me. I felt sure that the powers of darkness were about to make a desperate rally. We stayed up at Brother Bear's and prayed until one o'clock. I then lay down and took a short sleep, when the Spirit bade me arise and go out in the woods. Oh, what wrestling and agony of soul! What burden of heart and cries unto God for the salvation of his cause in that lone place from about 4:30 till 6 A.M.! Received some relief and victory. An evil spirit seemed to be upon the session from the opening this morning. The foreseen darkness was there. Business did not pass off so pleasantly. At noon I spent all the time shut up with God, and received great relief from the mountain that seemed to crush my heart. This was a new and strange experience to my soul. Closed business at a late hour at night. The Eldership purchased the office from Brother Lowman and me.  October 1, 1879. Sarah started home this morning. I felt led to go to see the brethren in the Cook neighborhood and Warsaw concerning the formation of a State Holiness Alliance.  14. Received an urgent call to go to Wakarusa. Was led to go. Asked God for the means, and in less than one hour a gentleman came and summoned me to affirm a small matter before the court, which any of my neighbors could have done as well.  21. [At Palestine.] Quite a good turn out. Two quite zealous Christians who disbelieved the second work of grace--a father and son--both spoke. The first believed in sanctification as a gradual work after pardon and consummated at death. The latter testified that he received it in conversion. What incongruity in the two, but harmony in all who have the fullness!  Eve, read prophecies of the present holiness movement. Exhorted the many holy ones present to fill the Bible description of God's holy army, moving out in every direction, setting the wilderness on fire, invading every city, casting down every wall, staying and burying Gog, beating the mountains fine, and blowing the mass of chaff from the Lord's threshing-floor (Ezekiel 38, 39).  23. Came home. Among the mail awaiting me was a card stating that obligations to the amount of $45 must be paid at once in Wolcottville. Blessed be the Lord, another letter contained the precise amount of $45, that had been due me nearly a year from Nebraska. Glory to God, he supplies all our needs. How perfectly he meets all our wants!  November 16, 1879. Sabbath. A glorious meeting was in progress at Churubusko. Brother Wood, the leader, had taken sick and the little ones were praying to the Lord to send some one to proclaim the word of the Lord. We heard of the meeting and at once were moved to go. We found the Methodist Episcopal house crowded. A good band of holiness witnesses and singers all had their eyes on the Lord to send a man to lead the host. Praise his name, he anointed me for the work and a glorious meeting ensued. Four or five fully saved.  17. This morning we found Brother Wood still quite sick. The doctor anticipated a severe attack of bilious pneumonia fever. We anointed him with oil and the Lord heard prayer in his behalf and raised him up at once.  18. Brother Wood quite well and able to work in the meetings. Held a special faith meeting today. Prayed for the restoration of the boy who is perfectly deaf. We were not at all discouraged, but felt it our duty to continue in prayer from day to day just as we often have to do with those seeking pardon and purification.  19. After our day meeting a brother and sister and I formed one of the visiting committees. When nearly sundown we found a poor suffering "woman who was a sinner," and blind for some time, and afflicted with much pain. We told her that Jesus could wash away her sins and heal and open her eyes. The Spirit soon brought on conviction and new-birth labors. She was gloriously converted, and giving a shout she sat down, and after a few seconds composure said, "Glory to God, I can see! My eyes are healed!" She then embraced her child and husband, whom she had not seen for about two weeks. She had lost all power to move her eyes, and they were both turned upward in her head. She was very weak, having eaten but little for days, and she sat with her hands over her eyes to exclude the light. Now she had the lamp lit and proceeded at once to get supper. All glory to the Great Physician! Twenty-seven sanctified arose to join into a holiness band. Hallelujah! God is mustering his host to the battle.  The accounts immediately following, in which he speaks of consolidating the Eldership with the Mennonites, show that he had not as yet gotten away from the idea of an external union in addition to that which the bonds of salvation alone can afford. He had already made a trip to Goshen, and had met Brother Lambert and others of the Mennonite faith.  December 5, 1879. Am pushing my book to completion. Today Sarah and I started for the joint meeting of our Standing Committee and the Mennonite Quarterly Conference at Hawpatch.  6. Drove eight miles this morning to the place of meeting. Was happy to meet with those beloved brethren once more. Had a joint convention. The subject of consolidation was warmly advocated from both sides, while our hearts glowed with the unifying glory of Jesus Christ. The following preamble and resolutions were adopted:  Whereas, the God of all grace has most emphatically taught us in his Word that his church is one as the Father and Son are one, and that a manifestation of this unity is to be the world-saving salt of the church.  Therefore, we, as the professed sons of God and       members of the United Mennonite Church and the Church of God assembled in the name of Jesus Christ in a joint meeting, do confess it our duty to put away from us every accursed thing that might in the least distract, divide, and alienate us in heart, or cause divergency in practice; and for the sake of securing an answer to the prayer of the adorable Savior, we do solemnly agree to abandon anything not warranted by the Word of God and accept any and everything it teaches. Therefore--  I. Resolved, That we joyfully consent to the will of       our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and agree to unite in one body as soon as in the providence of God the consolidation can be consummated, and  II. Resolved, That we recognize the Word of God as the only true basis of Christian union. Furthermore,  III. Resolved, That we believe that the truth as it is in Christ Jesus is within our reach, hence, can be ascertained on all points of difference, and that we are therefore morally bound to learn and abide its decision.  14. [At home.] Preached at the Wesleyan house at 1 P.M. on faith in relation to gifts of the Spirit. In the evening at the United Brethren house on the philosophy of faith.  16. Though very stormy, quite a company of dear       brethren and young men turned out to chop and haul me wood. Oh, the goodness of God!  January 1, 1880. Last night after a very successful and powerful meeting at Chambers' Schoolhouse we came to the watch meeting at Albion. The Spirit greatly moved us to come. On reaching the house I dropped on my knees, when the Spirit gave me a searching message for the people. We kept up until after twelve. The old year passed away while we were on our knees in solemn consecration to God.  This is the last quotation which we make from his       diary. By the first of the year he was given full charge of the Herald, and any further record of his life-events must be found in the papers which he was editing. Unfortunately, from January 4, 1880, the date of the last entry in his diary, until the issue of the Herald for November 7, 1880, is a gap over which we must bridge with silence, as I have no access to any copy of the Herald for that year other than the one mentioned, nor have I been supplied with information from any other source covering that period. In it is also announced that the following resolution was passed. "Resolved, That we are willing to consolidate the Herald with any other paper that advocates the same gospel principles."  In the number of the Herald referred to is printed the decision of the Board of Publication to make the following announcement: "Edited in the name of the lord Jesus Christ, by D. S. Warner, Rome City, Indiana. Dedicated to the God of the Bible and to the service of all saints who desire to love God with a pure heart fervently, and the holy Church he has established over eighteen hundred years ago."  From his book “Bible Proofs” we have drawn material for our next chapter.

Chapter 12 A SPIRITUAL SHAKING  In his book “Bible Proofs of the Second Work of Grace,” Brother Warner devotes three chapters to the prophetic description of the great work of restoration in the latter times, when, through the preaching of holiness and the upholding of the full Scriptural standard of truth, God should bring his people into unity again. This chapter is intended as an abridgement of the three chapters       referred to.  I wish to say by way of introduction that many of the events in the history of ancient Israel are figures of and have their counterpart in things occurring in the Christian dispensation. And many of the utterances of the prophets, associated primarily with the events of those times, have their fulfillment as well in connection with the things foreshadowed. To regard these prophetic writings as referring only and finally to the literal affairs of the people of the Old Testament is to stop far short of their intention and use. The old dispensation was preparatory of the new. It was full of types and figures of things to be realized in the latter. Everything pointed forward in anticipation of the fullness of times when God should establish his new and better covenant with his people. Shall we say then that the prophecies did not share this anticipation; that they had to do only with the literal figures? Nay, it was the spirit of prophesy more than anything else that foretold of the times of the gospel dispensation, not only by direct reference, but also in many of those passages which touched first those immediate affairs in Israel's career and through them those greater things farther on. We note how the New Testament writers picked up the Old Testament prophecies and applied them, with such reference as "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet," or, "as it is written," etc.  But let us not suppose that the applications of prophecy were to be confined to the days of Christ and the apostles. Many things were said of David and other Old Testament objects that had their extended and more important fulfillment in Christ or in the establishment of the church, but there were other utterances that had their final import in the later affairs of the New Testament kingdom. Those that cluster about the captivity of Israel in Babylon and their reestablishment in their own land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem are especially rich in secondary application to the corresponding crises in the history of the church.  It is thus that many of the prophecies have a twofold application, not that they mean two different things, but that they apply to both the literal and spiritual phases of the same thing. A sufficient proof of this lies in the fact that in the Revelation, where their spiritual meaning is assumed, we find the same Old Testament figures. There is unity of purpose in God's system of types and figures and in his plan throughout, and hence many of the prophecies that pertained in the' first place to events in the history of Israel are used by the Spirit today in connection with the antitypes of those events.  Great epochal events or changes in which God by some particular institution unfolds his plan, or in which there is involved the divine approach to man, whether for approval or for judgment, are attended more or less by violent manifestations in the earth or the elements. Thus on the occasion of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai the mountain shook and smoked and there were thunders and lightnings, and the people trembled. At the crucifixion of Christ, the central event in all history, the sun hid his face and the earth shook, the rocks were rent and graves were opened. The Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit was with the sound of "a rushing mighty wind." When the apostolic church prayed for the special endowment of divine power, "the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." When the imprisoned Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, the divine response came with a great earthquake which shook the foundations of the prison, opened all doors, and loosed every one's bands. On the day of final judgment the very earth will be moved out of her place and the elements will manifest the awful day of God.  The shaking of things, as accompanying the divine visitation, is also taken in the spiritual, or figurative, phase, and it is this application of the idea of shaking as used in the Scripture that Brother Warner employs in reference to the great spiritual movement of these latter times. As a key to the prophecies on this subject he uses Hebrews 12:25-29, which reads as follows: See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which can not be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which can not be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.  We have here two distinct shakings. The first one, according to the apostle's words beginning with verse 18, plainly refers to the manifestation at Sinai when the first covenant was given to Israel (Exodus 19). The second shaking attends the voice which in this dispensation speaks from heaven. The former was a literal shaking, while the latter is of course spiritual, and attends the establishment of the new covenant. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh" is in the present tense to this dispensation and is an injunction for us. Now, the new covenant involves the very highest       standard of relation between God and his people, a standard much superior to that of the old Sinaitic covenant. It is distinguished by the laws of God being written in our hearts and comprehends our perfect obedience to them. In this relation we become his people and he our God in the very closest sense (see Hebrews 8:10, and 10:16). This relation is none other than       entire sanctification, which to attain requires the complete crucifixion of the self-life, the destruction of every idol, and entire abandonment to God. It is a close-girding covenant and admits of no sin either in practice or in the heart. The words "yet once more refer to the shaking as final and to the standard of truth as being perfect, ne plus ultra, and as therefore consisting only of things unshakable.  It is the voice calling to this holiness standard of the new covenant that produces the mighty shaking, causing both earth and heaven to tremble. Whenever this voice is heard, whether in the beginning of Christianity or in a movement that effects the reestablishment of the new covenant in the hearts of God's people today, the shaking occurs. Both sinners and professors are made to tremble at God's mighty truth and he who would obey the divine appeal must suffer the shaking loose and consequent loss of all things contrary to the divine will, however dear they may be in the selfish affections. God has through grace made it possible for one and all to measure to this standard, so that for him who refuses the voice that speaks thus from high heaven there is positively no escape.  Our quotation from Hebrews leads us back to the       prophet Haggai, whose words in chapter 2, verse 6, are what the apostle doubtless refers to. This introduces us to that field of prophecies relating to the captivity and the return, so typical of the apostasy and of the final restoration of the true church in these last days. It should not be a thing incredible that the great spiritual events of these epoch-making times should be in accordance with prophetic utterance, nor that the Holy Spirit should lead Brother Warner, as he testifies to having been led, into these things as prophetic truth. Indeed the reader, if he be a seeker after truth, should not be surprised to find the Holy Spirit confirming to his own mind that these things have a prophetic illumination. Brother Warner's reference to these prophesies, and his comments, are here given. Of Hebrews 12:25-29 he thus speaks:  On the 30th of August 1879, the Holy Spirit in a special manner gave me the foregoing scripture. I had never clearly comprehended its meaning and I felt impressed that the Lord was about to lead me into a new vein of truth. I shut myself up with God and the Bible, when "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost." took most of the things that are contained in what follows and showed them to me. Being fully assured that my mind had been led into the pure light of truth, we published it from the pulpit, much to the edification of the holy brethren. We feel confident that the following chain of Scriptures, correlative with our text, will conduct every meek and candid reader into the same light it has your humble servant. We shall find the foregoing words of the inspired apostle a key to the prophetic description of the great work of holiness . . .  Let us examine the same declaration elsewhere in the Holy Book. Haggai 2:5-7: "According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." The rebuilding of the temple is the subject under consideration. This ancient abode of the great Shekinah was such a marked figure of the church of God that it is seldom spoken of by the holy seers but what the spirit of prophecy flashes forth in interspersed references to the "spiritual house." Says the prophet, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts" (verse 9). Is it not in the midst of his church where God speaks peace to thousands who seek his face? Let us also thank God for the gracious intimation that the glory of the restored, latter-day church shall exceed that which preceded the dark-age captivity.  It is quite evident that the words in verses 5-7 were in the mind of the apostle when he wrote the words of our text. And we find here additional evidence that the "once more shaking" relates to the triumphs of the gospel, because it is associated with the coming of Christ, not as Judge, but the "Desire [or Savior] of all nations."  God never designed that we should  “Roam through weary years  Of inbred sin and doubts and fears,  A bleak and toilsome wilderness.”  If you have not passed through the Jordan, the death convulsions of the "old man" of sin, to the Canaan rest, it is because you have either ignorantly or willfully "refused him that speaketh," and "entered not in because of unbelief." . . .  "I will fill this house with glory." Here is the glory that Christ gives: "The Spirit of glory and of God,"       that fills and rests upon the church when inbred sin and all weights are shaken out. What is here associated with the "once more" shaking corresponds with entire sanctification.  The prophet Ezekiel gives us a very interesting chain of concurring prophecy. Who with his spiritual eyes open can fail to see the application of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel to the ministry, in general, of this age? They "eat up the good pasture"--fare sumptuously on fat salaries. 'Ye tread down the residue of your pastures' and 'foul the waters with your feet.' They are the real cause of spiritual famine instead of the means of refreshing the flock. "Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool." Make a lucrative merchandise of your Christless sermons, instead of administering the free gospel of salvation. "Ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock." When any find their way to the true Shepherd and receive food, life, and holy fire in their souls, they annoy the dead and sleeping, who proceed at once to kill them. This is no idle fancy. It is an undeniable fact that in most of our present-day churches a real convert can scarcely maintain spiritual life. The few that are not killed are usually driven or thrown out. O ye shepherds, a crisis from the Almighty is coming upon you. As the Lord liveth, the fires from heaven shall sweep away your craft. "Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished" (Jeremiah 25:34). Their time of feasting upon and dispersing the Lord's flock will come to an end.  "I will deliver my flock from their mouth," and "they shall no more be a prey" (Ezekiel 34:10, 22). "I will seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places [sectarian divisions] where they have been scattered [into several hundred parties] in the cloudy and dark day" (verse 12). We talk of the dark age as in the past; but the seer of God declares that we are yet under its lingering fogs, and shall be until holy fire from heaven shall sweep away every partition-wall, human creed, and party name, and purge out that infamous god, the sectarian spirit; the vile "image of jealousy" which sits in all the thresholds of Babylon.  "And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them" (verse 13). Yea, "I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be" (verse 14). "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David [Christ--David was already dead four hundred years]; he shall feed them, and shall be their shepherd" (verse 23).  The perfect reign of the Messiah, and his love in the soul, is to succeed the dark day of party confusion. The two are not compatible with each other. "And I will make with them a covenant of peace" (verse 25). Their own land, and this covenant-union with God, is simply entire sanctification. See Jeremiah 23 . . .  In Ezekiel 35 we have the judgment of mount Seir. Seir--rough, shaggy--we presume is used [in the typical sense] to denote the Catholic power.  It was inhabited by the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who were therefore brothers with Israel, the descendants of Jacob; but the Edomites had a deep-rooted and perpetual enmity against Israel, they harassed and distressed them by all possible means. (See Adam Clark.) "Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate . . . because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end" (verses 3-5). Does not this look like the record of the "beast that sits upon the seven hills"? Martyrdom, it appears, is confined to such times when God's people have reached an "end of sin."  As the spirit of prophecy uses mount Seir to represent Catholicism in chapter 35, and the Caucasian mountains [Gog and Magog, see Bible dictionary] to represent sectism in chapters 38 and 39, so in chapter 36:1 the "mountains of Israel" are used to represent the true conscientious Christians. The Lord says, "Set thy face against mount Seir, against Gog," and "prophesy against him;" but in reference to the mountains of Israel, the order is changed to "prophesy unto," showing that the former were rejected, but the latter accepted of the Lord; to these very precious promises are made. In the latter part of the chapter we have associated together salvation "from all uncleanness," the gift of the Holy Spirit, and "bringing into the land," i.e., the land of perfect holiness.  The spirit of prophecy now takes up another figure to set forth the holiness crisis and the glorious effect in those "that abide the day" of the Refiner s coming. "Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel, his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: and join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand" (Ezekiel 37:16-19).  Who does not know that this never was really fulfilled in the alienated sects of Jacob's literal seed? While it may apply to the formation of the church in the beginning of the reign of Christ, it was specially designed to typify the return of the church to God and the mount of holy union after the "falling away" or "cloudy and dark day." The figure does not properly suggest the formation of       a new church state, hut the gathering again of a divided and starved-out church under the pastorate of corrupt and self-aggrandizing shepherds. "I . . . will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land . . . I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them, so shall they be my people and I will be their God. And David [Christ, "the root and offspring of David"] my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd" (verses 21-24). Nothing but entire sanctification can unite the saints under the direct control and headship of Christ, through       the Comforter.  "And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers [in the day of the church's purity] have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever: and my servant David shall be their prince [even Christ, for him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Savior] forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; . . . and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore" (verses 25-28). Here is the solution of the whole matter. The reception of the Spirit, uniting into one, placing in the land, cleansing, and the "covenant of peace" under the glorious reign of the "Prince of peace," is all summed up and consummated in the sanctification of the church through the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.  Instead of exterminating the idols and "Canaanites in the house of the Lord of hosts," the "shepherds of Israel" have catered to their unholy lusts. They have so long truckled to the world in the church, so long fawned and pampered sin under the cloak of religion, that a terrible conflict ensues whenever it is attacked by the sword of the Spirit. This crisis is described in the two following chapters, namely, Ezekiel 38, 39.  "Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O       Gog" (38:2-3). The Bible dictionary applies Gog and Magog to the Caucasian mountains, a chain that extends from the Black Sea to the Caspian. The Scythians of those regions were a fierce and warlike people. For many years they had made their name a terror to the whole Eastern world. They were finally conquered and driven out, B.C. 596, a few years before the time of Ezekiel's prophesy. These events being fresh in the mind of the ancient seer, the prophetic spirit employs Gog and Magog to represent the acrid and intolerable spirit of sectarianism and its final overthrow.  Meshech and Tubal, allies of Gog, are noticed in       history as "the remotest and rudest nations of the world." David, it is probable, spoke prophetically of the same contentious, unsanctified zeal: "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech. . . . My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war" (Psalm 120:5-7).  In applying the army of Gog and Magog to the false, deceived, and sectarian forces, the enemies of the Lord's true and holy church, I am clearly sustained in Revelation 20:8-10, where they are declared to have been deceived by the devil, therefore have a spurious religion-are professors. "They compass the saints on the breadth of the earth;" hence are diffused throughout all nations and everywhere arrayed against the holy; hut shall be finally destroyed by fire from heaven. This vast army Ezekiel represents as 'coming from their place out of the north parts' (38:6,15; 39:2), indicative of a cold and heartless religion. The attack upon the "land" by Gog, shall be in the "latter years, "the latter days," (38:8,11). This language all through the prophets points to the last, or present, dispensation.  "In the latter years thou shalt come into the land [the sanctified] that is brought back from the sword [saved from the carnal, sectarian "strife of tongues"], and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste;" i.e., more or less destitute of the apostolic faith and power.  God sets the testimony of his anointed against the worldly churches. Gog in return makes war upon them. But being dead to sin, and having a resurrected life, they are an invulnerable army. "They shall dwell safely all of them" (verse 8).  "And it shall come to pass at the same time when       Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel" (verses 18 and 19). When the sword of the Almighty is unsheathed against self-righteous orthodox sinners, there is soon war in the camp, and a general commotion in the heavens and the       earth. The two-edged sword of definite testimony is now wielded in every church, which has never been the case in any of the past holiness reforms. Amen! Let the battle rage, though the heavens and the earth be moved. Send down the fire, O Lord, send fire from heaven, and burn every Gog-schism out of the church! Yea, saith the Lord, "I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the Lord."  The burning of the weapons and burying of Gog is described as the cleansing of the land--the church. Therefore it is the special work of sanctification, and the heavens and the earth are now shaken by the tread of God's holy army, who are 'severed out to continual employment, passing through the land to cleanse it.'  Let us now begin with 1 Peter 4:17-18. "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Here is a trying ordeal, a judgmental shaking of the church parallel with that described in Hebrews. It is the execution of Christ's verdict of death to sin in the flesh. "The time is come." Scriptures thus introduced almost invariably refer to some previous prediction. In the prophecies of Isaiah we find what is doubtless the antecedent of Peter's words: "I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: . . . afterwards thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness" (Isaiah 1:25-27).  The judgment of Zion, the house of God, is her full redemption. It is the hand of the Almighty 'purely purging away the dross and all the tin' from his church, that it might be called the "city of righteousness." This experience is not for the sinner, nor is it confined to the aged and dying; but the "converts" in Zion, saith the Lord, shall be redeemed from sin, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. This purging is parallel with the removing of those things that are shaken.  "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious [i.e., 'sanctified and cleansed, a glorious church' (Ephesians 5:26-27)], and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel [have 'escaped the corruption that is in the world']. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning" (Isaiah 4:2-4). This explains the words of Peter very clearly; the judgment of the house of God is a divine washing and purging. The church, having passed through the spirit of judgment and of burning, all that are left therein "shall be called holy." Therefore, we understand the words of Peter as having reference to the sin-consuming flames of the Sanctifier, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which corresponds with the shaking of the       church, of which Paul speaks in Hebrews; for he concludes by saying, "Our God is a consuming fire."  If ever there was a time when Peter's words were       pertinent, it is now. The hand of the Almighty is upon his church, and he will smite and humble it with his judgments; shake it with his voice from heaven, and consume it with the flames of his Spirit until every foul spirit is driven out and all the "works of the devil" destroyed; that nothing may remain but the pure, unalloyed elements of the divine "kingdom, which can not be shaken." No wonder the churches so often fear and dread the coming of God's holy bands; yea, "a fire burns before them," which quite frequently closes all meeting-houses and every other place where the sects can defeat their access. It is because they know that they are but a collection of ecclesiastical stubble, which cannot abide the fire which accompanies the Lord's army of definite witnesses. Here we also see that the charge that       insisting upon the definite experience of entire sanctification destroys the churches is true only so far as they are composed of "wood, hay, and stubble." Fire never destroys gold and silver. . .  In Joel we have the declaration: "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem [the holy church]; and the heavens and the earth shall shake" (3:16). A church that has no voice to shake sinners and professors, no voice that "turns the world upside down," that makes not the wicked flee, the devil howl, and persecution rage--that church may have "gods many," but has not the true God dwelling in her; for, following the foregoing the prophet says: "So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more" (verse 17). The Lord wants his church so holy that no stranger to God will pass through her, much less dwell and carry on business in her.  Let us now trace the heaven- and earth-shaking hosts of the Almighty in the prophet Isaiah. "Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee" (Isaiah 12:6). Here is the power that does the shaking. A       church that has the great and Holy One in her midst always produces a commotion in the world.  But who are required to do these things? Thus saith the Lord, "I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness" (Isaiah 13:3). The sanctified soul rejoices only in the exaltation and glory of God; there is no principle left in the heart that seeks self-aggrandizement. They even glory in being abased, if God is thereby honored. Glory to his name!  Now observe the effect of lifting high the banner of holiness: "The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of Hosts mustereth the host of the battle" (verse 4). A commotion soon follows the definite testimony and "lifting up       of holy hands in the sanctuary" of the Lord: an army springs into existence; God himself mustereth the host. Halleluiah!  "Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt . . . Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it" (verses 6, 7, 9). This conflagration from the Almighty sweeps, with a besom of destruction, all sinners from the land--out of the church. If, therefore, the holiness movement lays waste some churches in its course, it is simply because they are composed, in general, of sinners, This fact also proves that it is the very crisis we are here tracing in the Bible.       It does not destroy true Christians nor spiritual churches; but, saith the Lord, "I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible" (verse 11).  SEPARATION OF THE WHEAT AND CHAFF  The great war for the extermination of sin out of the heart, or sinners out of the church is destined to sweep over all the nations of the earth. "The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came" (Isaiah 41:5).  Thus saith the Lord: "Fear not, thou worm Jacob,       and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 41:14). When sin and self are all destroyed there is barely enough left of Jacob to constitute a small worm. But by thus reducing her to "naught," God has prepared the church to exhibit his power in shaking the heavens and the earth and bringing "to naught the things that are"--the great things of the world.  "Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 41:15, 16). The characteristic of God's church here portrayed is nearly lost sight of at present. People think it is the business of the church to stand like a beggar at the door of the devil's kingdom and politely coax his subjects over; saying much about the duty and advantage of belonging to church and little about their sin and the duty of repentance, as though God were dependent, and the devil proprietor of the universe. Satan, having thus stolen the spikes out of the church-- her power of execution--has distinguished himself in helping to run the empty machinery. But he that sitteth in the heavens will arise and bring to naught Satan's devices.  The time is seen coming, by the prophets foretold,  When Zion in purity the world shall behold;  When Jesus' pure testimony will gain the day--  Denomination selfishness vanish away.  Already the Lord has begun to make Jacob new again; a sharp instrument, reset with the spikes of its primitive power, the "weapons of his indignation."  A church or ministry that is destitute of these teeth will hurt no flesh, awake no persecution, thresh out no wheat, please the devil, and give no glory to God. But spikes are not the only essential to a first-class thresher. Anciently grain was threshed with flails or trodden out by cattle and horses. Then a great improvement was secured by the invention of what is called the "old open machine." But, oh, the heaps of chaff that piled up, and filled the entire floor! Then came the dreadful task of cleaning up--of separating and removing the worthless heap.  Such have been the crafty open machines that have for years imposed heaps of trash upon the Lord's threshing-floor. They have not taken "forth the precious from the vile" (Jeremiah 15:19). "Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean" (Ezekiel 22:26). "Ye have wearied the Lord with your words . . . when ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them" (Malachi 2:17).  Is not this perfectly fulfilled at present by preachers who invite sinners into their folds without requiring a particle of saving grace, and who even flatter them that they are already pretty good and need but to come and join the church? And how many of their poor, deluded victims remain in the church for years and never hear the gospel preached straight enough to convict them of their unregenerated hearts! The policy of these teachers has been to "gather of all kinds," but the next thing in order--to separate and "cast the bad away"--has been wholly omitted. But as the Lord liveth, he is going to clear away this ecclesiastical rubbish.  "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly       purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12). Who would accept as a gift a few bushels of wheat scattered through a great heap of chaff and dirt? And think you that God will accept the church in her present condition? No, indeed; the gold must first be separated from the dross. The bride must dissolve her unholy friendship with the world, in which she is guilty of spiritual adultery in the sight of God (James 4:4). She must put away all her rival gods, and adorn herself in robes of spotless white, before prepared as a bride for her husband. The Bible most assuredly teaches that God will separate the chaff from the wheat before he comes to garner home his church. To accomplish this he is converting Jacob from an open machine to a separator . .When the "rushing mighty wind" from heaven strikes the gathered heaps of stubble and chaff and begins to "scatter them," people think the church is being ruined; but this fan is in the hand of the Lord Jesus. and it will not carry a grain of wheat off his floor, and why fret about that which is not meet for the Master's use? "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." Let the wind from heaven drive it, and the fire consume it, "and thou [even in this scatterment] shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel."  In the prophet Micah, chapter 4, and verses 1 and 2, we have the mountain of the house of the Lord (the church) established, and the law going "forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." In the 10th verse we have recorded the captivity, or "falling away" of the church--"Thou shalt go even to Babylon." And, in order to restore her purity, the Lord commands the following severe measures in verse thirteen: "Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth."  Threshing and separating, purging and consuming is the order of God, in the day of the Refiner. Many think we must so temper the gospel as to preserve peace in the church, notwithstanding her sin and idols. But, "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth [peace with sin]? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." So answers the Lord. His "fan is in his hand," and he would rather blow the church to atoms and secure a little clean wheat by itself than see it prosper in peace and multitudes and under mortgage to Satan, and bearing his brand mark, i.e., spots of sin. For this purpose, says Jesus, "I       am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straightened till it be accomplished!" (Luke 12:49-50). Jesus intimates that the work of refining the church with the Holy Ghost fire could not begin until he himself had passed through the ordeal of suffering and death.  "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many" (Isaiah 66:15-16). Here is the fire, sword, and division that Christ came to send on earth. Its shaking and purifying power was first manifest on the day of Pentecost. This light makes Israel see her condition and cry out, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" "Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even, the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea." "When thus it shall be' in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as a shaking of an olive-tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done" (Isaiah 24:15,13). "And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit" (verse 18). There is no escape from the sweeping fire of holiness but into the pit of sin; and all that can not "abide his coming" are "like chaff, which the wind driveth away."  But nowhere in the Bible is the line more clearly drawn between the wheat and the chaff, the gold and the dross, than in our key-note text to this entire subject. What shall remain after the "once more" shaking? Nothing but the divine elements of the "kingdom, which can not be moved," and which Paul represents as "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17). These only remain in the heart that has passed through the crisis. Halleluiah! But what is thereby removed? Answer: All "things that are shaken" and that "are made." By the first class we understand everything that flinches and shakes before the searching light and sin-exterminating gospel of Christ; every vein of our nature, every motion of "flesh and spirit," every temper of the mind and habit in life that does not perfectly harmonize with the "righteousness of God revealed" in the Bible, will naturally shake beneath the voice of the Holy One, and must, therefore, be removed. The second class--all "things that are made"--denotes every thing that is not original: every phase of our moral being that is not implanted by the hand of God. Or, in other words, everything adhering to us that was produced by Satan, sin, or the perversion of our moral being. As the Lord says, "Every plant that my Father has not planted, shall be rooted up." This includes inbred sin. We have all along assumed the existence of this besetting foe. Yet we are aware that a very few deny the fact. But we think David settles this matter in the 51st Psalm, where he declares that, as fallen creatures, our very being is "conceived" and "shapen" in the mold of sin and iniquity. Paul also avers that we are "by nature the children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:3); and that we are "cut out of the olive-tree [Adamic root] which is wild by nature" (Romans 11:24).  But why multiply texts? Observation must necessarily teach everybody that children are possessed with a perverse nature long before the knowledge of right and wrong is developed. Justified Christians almost uniformly confess this same inward trouble. The remaining question is, Can we get rid of it in this life? To decide this, we have but to ascertain whether it is original, or the result of the fall. That it formed no part of the likeness of God in the soul is very certain. It is therefore the "works of the devil," and just what Christ "came to destroy." It shakes, flashes out and roils up when pierced by the sword of the Lord, and must, therefore, be removed from the soul.  But the words of Paul apply to the church, as well as to the individual. It is designed to assay and remove the dross of the whole body of Christ. Before the great holiness reform had shed its benign influence upon the Christian world, and to some extent raised the church out of the narrow rut of churchism into a deeper and broader loyalty to God and unselfish love for humanity, the idea of getting saved from "your church" would have been regarded as blasphemy. But, thanks to the Lord! a purer light and higher standard of truth now compel the trumpeters of God all along the line of holiness to insist on salvation from all "our churches." But it may be asked, "What is it that we must be saved from in "our churches"? Surely there must be some way to discriminate between that which is pernicious and that which is of God. Now, I know of no corner from which to run off this line but the one that Paul points out: "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid," and, "This word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made." God has founded one body--one church, fold, or kingdom. In it he has placed every element that is essential to its work, its prosperity, and its perpetuity. His wisdom has adapted it to all ages of time and conditions of men. Its faith was delivered to the saints once for all. Its principles and precepts are the last testament, the final and immutable will of the eternal God. This divine organization is invested with such absolute symmetry and perfection that to attempt the slightest modification of its divine unity or polity is wicked presumption in the sight of its divine Founder, and incurs the curses and forfeits all the blessings of God's Holy Book. Now, since the work of entire sanctification is designed to elevate the church to her normal and       perfect condition in the sight of God, it must shake out and purge away every existing element that was not originally implanted by the hand of the Lord. This test, I think, is one in which all true Christians agree. Indeed, if we were to untie from this moorage we should soon he driven to sea without compass or chart we should virtually open the door for every tradition of Rome and invention of error.  Starting, then, from this corner-stone of divine truth, established at Jerusalem nearly nineteen hundred years ago, and with the Bible as our compass and field notes, let us run off a line.  1. Between the true and false spirits in the church--let us "try the spirits whether they are of God." "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." But the party spirit, so prevalent in the churches, is not of Christ, hence must be removed, purged out of the heart. A zeal that springs from anything but pure, unmixed love for God and humanity, a spirit that would even promote holiness, or the conversion of sinners, partly to build up "our church," is badly mixed, is soon shaken and can not survive the Refiner's fire. It is only when the "eye is single" that the "whole body is full of light"--wholly sanctified.  A spirit which, out of deference to its own creed, willfully disobeys the divine word, is not of God, and can not coexist with a pure heart. All these secondary motives, these mixed and unclean spirits, "shake" at the voice of the "mighty God," and are "removed" in the thorough work of entire       sanctification.  2. The next thing I am compelled in the fear of God to speak of, as included in the catalog of the devil's shaky works, the foul smut and chaff of error, is the evil of sectarianism. This is the most       destructive bane that God has ever suffered the devil to sow in his kingdom. It is the very mildew of hell, that spreads its blasting curse over nearly all the precious fruit of the Lord's vineyard. Here the words of Paul are an all-sweeping besom.  Oft the enlightened Christian's conscience inquires whether it is right for the church to be divided thus into a plurality of sects or denominations, with their respective human creeds and party names. In the light of truth we are compelled to answer, No. And for the simple reason that these parties are not of divine origin. Christ is the source of all true union among his disciples, and all divisions between them and the world; while the devil is the instigation of divisions in the church, and of all union between it and the world.  I quote the following from an editorial in the Christian Harvester.  "1. God has a church on earth. It is one and indivisible. It is made up of all and singular who are born of the Spirit.  "2. Individual (local) churches, or congregations, are as Scriptural as they are necessary.  "3. There is not one word in the Bible favorable to denominations or sects. The only sect among Christians that is spoken of in terms--the Nicolaitan--is severely condemned. There are indications of sectish belief, against which John is supposed to labor in the first chapter of his Gospel, and Paul withstood in the Judaizing tendencies, even in a brother apostle. Denominations are directly or indirectly the result of sin remaining in the great body of professors. Thorough and wide-spread holiness would soon destroy denominations.  "4. But the evangelical denominations of today contain the mass of true Christians, with a multitude of mere professors. Because of differences sects cannot yet be abolished; and an effort at abolition would result in a new one. Therefore sects are a present necessity, until holiness more generally prevails.  "5. The possessor of perfect love of necessity overleaps denominations in spirit, and so regards all the sanctified as perfectly his brethren."  We are personally acquainted with the editor of the Harvester, and believe him a holy man of God. We admire the frankness with which he acknowledges that "there is not one word in the Bible favorable to denominations or sects," and that "denominations are directly or indirectly the result of sin remaining in the great body of professors."  Such must be the honest verdict of every intelligent, God-fearing man. It is no pleasant thing, we know, to look upon and admit this monster evil, this fell destroyer of the purity, love, and power of the Lord's Zion. Says William Starr, "My heart has groaned as, pen in hand, I have looked at this subject, arranged my thoughts to present them to you." But for the love of truth I am constrained to differ with the position that sects are a present necessity. They originated from sin in the church; and shall we admit that the fruit of sin is a necessity under any circumstances? "Shall we do evil that good may come? God forbid." Where the cause--sin in the church--is removed by full salvation, should not its effects also disappear? But it is thought that "because of differences sects can not yet be abolished." We might say, with equal propriety, because of sects differences cannot be removed. They coexist and mutually support each other. These divergent views, and party shibboleths, may have had their root in carnality, but they are stereotyped and perpetuated by sectarian parties and their man-made creeds. Therefore we have no more right to palliate the sin of sects because of differences, than to excuse the latter because of the former. One of the great evils of sectarian divisions is, they prevent the return of the church to the "faith once delivered to the saints" and shall we let the baneful tree stand until it ceases to bear its legitimate fruit?  Again, it is thought that "sects are a necessity until holiness more generally prevails." "Thorough and wide-spread holiness would soon destroy denominations." Sects and holiness are antagonistic to each other. This truth is clearly implied in the above remarks. The fire of true holiness burns up all the fences that Satan has placed between the saints. And shall we defeat this its real mission, by not lifting up the sword of the Lord against sects, and attempt to abolish the evil, until holiness prevails more extensively? That is the same as saying that we should make no attack on unholiness until holiness gains a certain degree of ascendancy. Yea, it provides that we should give place to the devil in the church to destroy holiness, until the church becomes more holy. These are no trifling words. It is a solemn fact that adherence in different denominations is the devil's wedge, whereby the unity of the Spirit, so perfectly procured in the grace of perfect love, is again destroyed. Party names, party creeds, and party spirits almost of necessity go together; and the natural return of this spirit, because of membership in a fragmentary church, takes more souls off of God's altar than do everything else together.  Let sects alone until holiness prevails! What a device of the enemy! How can we expect to bring forth permanent fruits into holiness, if we allow the plowshare of God's truth to slip over this fallow ground of sin? Sects are the devil's "high places" in the land, the groves of his own planting, and gods that he has set up to corrupt Israel, and "provoke God." How many of the kings Jehovah complains of because they did not, like Josiah, "purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves" (2 Chronicles 34:3)! Beware that we partake not of their sins. Of Azariah it is said that "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord . . . save that the high places were not removed . . . And the Lord smote the king [Azariah] so that he was a leper unto the day of his death" (2 Kings 15:3-5).  Says W. H. Starr (a conscientious Presbyterian minister) after quoting 1 Corinthians 1:10-13 in his Discourses on Sectarianism: “It would seem as if no man could read these words of the great apostle without vividly seeing that party divisions among the people of Christ were, in his view, a most astounding evil. 'Is Christ divided,' he says, that ye who are all his, and who have been 'baptized by one Spirit' should be sundered one from the other by party names?  And he adjures them in the most solemn manner, he beseeches them by an appeal the most sacred that words could utter, even by the name of Christ, as it were for his sake, and for his bleeding cause, to forsake these pernicious ways, and to be perfectly joined together in the same mind.  Hear what this author thinks of promoting holiness over these "high places," or sect walls.  The divisions of the Christian church, as they now exist, are a prominent cause of the low state of piety among believers; the greatest single obstacle which now exists to the spread and triumph of our religion in the world." "The moment you separate the church of Christ into distinct divisions, you set up the idol of party. Success or adversity will no longer affect the mind simply as they touch the cause of Christ, but they will be felt, also, as affecting 'our side' or 'our church.' It is not Christ and his cause to which their whole thoughts and desires are now turned; the idol of party has now been set up, and it claims, and receives, part of their regard. The man, I think, is almost more than human that can wholly avoid this influence, at least after he has been long identified with any branch of the church. It is an influence which is all the time at work. The idol has been set up to divide the heart from the blessed Savior and his holy service; and its influence is as ceaseless as the existence of the cause. And this party feeling is, as we have seen, the essence of all sin, so that sinful desire is blended continually in the heart with its love to Christ, and pollutes the worship which it offers him.  This is an honest and faithful description of this monster evil. The party feeling is very sin. Yea, says this God-fearing man. "It casts a millstone round the neck of those who are struggling upwards to the image of their Redeemer. It mingles poison with the streams of salvation that flow to the soul through the church, and casts a blight upon its budding fruit."  Again, "Sectarianism is the greatest foe to the exhibition of love which God has ever suffered Satan to beget. It hinders brotherly love among Christians, and regard for the souls of men. It is vain for brethren in Christ to talk about the duty of loving one another, and to try to feel love for one another, while they refuse to act as love dictates [by separating into parties]. Their actions will control their hearts, as men's acts always do in the end. The fences which they set up between them in fact will become fences in feeling. And that is now even so, every Christian knows . . . The divisions of Christ's people beget       and stimulate continually that opposite spirit of rivalry and contention, which is the spirit of the world . . . Yes, I charge all this mischief, the existence of which you all know, upon the sectarian divisions of the people of Christ; and let him deny it who can. It is in fact their legitimate fruit."  The division of the church into parties not only destroys the power and holiness thereof, but is the greatest impediment to the conversion of the world to God. Again we will hear Brother Starr, and the blessed Redeemer himself.  Would that the church of Christ might pause long       enough from its sectarian strife to hear the voice of its Redeemer and Lord pleading with God in prayer on that sorrowful night ere the traitor came--'Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are . . . Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that       they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.' The prayers of Christ were not offered for a light matter, least of all that memorable petition which the pen of inspiration has recorded for the church in all ages to wonder and weep over, the prayer of its dying Lord. The desirableness of that visible union of his people for which Christ prayed as the means of impressing his truth on the world, and the evils of those divisions against which the apostle so earnestly exhorts, need to be better understood by the church . . . May God grant you a disposition to look the evil fairly in the face.  Oh, the thousands of souls that are being lost to all eternity through the selfish, wicked, and carnal spirit of our churchism! God is dishonored, yea, robbed of the purchase of his Son's death, and infidelity stalks abroad; the result of a divided house.  It is said that "the possessor of perfect love of necessity over-leaps denominations in spirit." Does not this love prove that they are in the way of the Spirit of Christ? And shall we compel the Lord to drag his children together over these cursed walls, only to have walls rise up again, and grieve away the Holy Spirit?  If it be true that "thorough holiness destroys denominations," then it follows that where they yet exist this genuine degree of holiness, has not been attained by the people. But I have not quoted correctly: it is "thorough and wide-spread       holiness." Ah! here is the sticking-point--a condition put in by the enemy of souls. It implies the following: "Though entire sanctification removes all sectarianism out of my heart, I will still adhere to my sect until people generally abandon their schismatic parties and creeds." The devil is perfectly easy over these principles. Now, if this evil is to be done away by popular sentiment, then it is not through holiness; but if by the latter it does not depend upon any foreign influence. The condition of the church in one State does not rob the Word and Spirit of God of their virtue in another. The power of holiness to destroy denominations in one community does not depend in the least upon another. Judah can burn down his groves and destroy his idols, whether Samaria and Ephraim do it or not. Therefore, we repeat, where the professed followers of Christ are divided into a plurality of sects, they have not yet become thoroughly sanctified to God.  Can it be said of professors of holiness that they       have "one heart" and "one mind," while some have a mind to be Presbyterian, others Baptists, others United Brethren, and others have a mind to adhere to the several different sects of Methodism? Have they "one heart and one way" when they rise from the solemn altar in the holiness meeting and go, each one in his own way, to the synagogue of his own sect?  Now, I must confess that I cannot see the necessity of this, unless it be to please the devil, break the unity of the Spirit and grieve away the heavenly Dove, bring to naught the divided house of the Lord, and destroy the work of holiness as fast as it can be built up; to this end alone it is necessary.  But let us come still closer home. I would lay the responsibility of this enormous evil just where God places it and all other sin. We shall not be judged by sects, States, nor even by neighborhoods and towns, but "every one of us shall give account of himself to God."  A revival of holiness in a community is the result of personal consecration and faith; and its relapse will be in proportion to the number of individuals that remove the sacrifice from the sanctifying altar. There is no such thing as thorough holiness, except as wrought by the Sanctifier in individual hearts; and if, as has been said, and as I verily believe, thorough and widespread holiness destroys denominations--burns up sectarian distinctions--it must do it in your heart as an individual. And if this work is done, the fruits must exhibit the fact; you will be 'saved by the precious blood of Christ from all vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers' such as "Your church," "Our church," "Our preacher opened the doors of the church," "What branch of the church do you belong to?" "You ought to join some branch," "and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine"--that grew out of a "perversion of the right ways of the Lord" and the gospel of Christ (Acts 13:10; Galatians 1:7). If the bitter root of sectism is entirely destroyed out of your heart, you will ignore all sectional lines and party fences, the dreadful curse of which Brother Starr has so honestly pointed out. If you are a true, intelligent Bible Christian, a holy, God-fearing man, you must cast off every human yoke, withdraw fellowship from and renounce every schismatic and humanly constituted party in the professed body of Christ. Instead of belonging to some branch you will simply belong to Christ and be a branch yourself in him, the true vine. Instead of remaining identified with any sect, i.e., cut-off party, "directly or indirectly the result of sin," you will claim membership in and fellowship with the "one and indivisible church that God has on earth, and that is made up of all and singular who are born of the Spirit." On this broad and divinely       established platform, and here only, can you stand clear of the sin of sectarianism and the blood of immortal souls that perish through its pernicious influence. Are you strictly loyal to God while you persist in adhering to a sect, notwithstanding he says "there should be no schism [sects] in the body" (1 Corinthians 12:25)?  I am not advocating the no-church theory that we hear of in the West, but the one, holy church of the Bible, not bound together by rigid articles of faith, but perfectly united in love under the primitive glory of the Sanctifier, "continuing stedfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship," and taking captive the world for Jesus.  But it is thought that we should not fight against sects nor attempt to abolish the evil at present, lest we thereby form another sect. This is virtually saying we should go on sinning, "lest a worse thing come upon us!"  An attempt to rally Israel under any of the many party names and creeds might indeed result in a new sect. But this is not what we contend for. Nay, hut let us rather burn to ashes these high places of Israel's corruption and, returning to Jerusalem, let us build "upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Let us abandon the nonsense of ecclesiastical succession; cease to inflate our pride and vanity by parading the good and long-since departed, who innocently wore our party badges--the piety of our fathers will not atone for the worldliness of the church at present. Let us also quit flourishing our church creeds as though their excellency were an essential supplement to the wisdom of inspiration. Let us, we pray you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the sake of our holy and divine religion and a world that is lost in sin--oh, let us put away these childish things, and return to Jerusalem, not to form a new sect, but as the 'servants of the God of heaven and earth let us build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great King of Israel [Jesus Christ] builded and set up' (see Ezra 5:11).  Many say we need more union of hearts, but think a visible organic union unnecessary; but remember that it was a visible union that Jesus prayed for, such as the world could see and be thereby convinced and saved. We quote once more from W. H. Starr.  They will say to me: Can not we have union of feeling without external union [that is, with external disunion]? I answer No, you cannot, except in rare instances, and in an imperfect degree. It is vain to be beating off the leaves of the tree while you continually nourish its roots. And sectarianism is the "root of bitterness." whose acrid and legitimate fruit of divided hearts, and jealousy, and strife, doth continually grieve away the Spirit of our God and Savior, and leave our churches in a comparative poverty of grace and growth that methinks must make the very heavens groan with sorrow as they look down upon our dying world. Up, up! my brother, my sister in Christ, inquire of the Lord concerning this thing! Why slumber ye here while Satan has entered the fold of Christ, a wolf in sheep's clothing, and is rending the flock? Oh, cry to God that he will direct you and all the children of his grace, till the church of his holy Son shall be purified and saved. Alas! it is now 'a house divided against itself.' Oh, pray that the Lord would unite and build it up in the truth; and that he would show you your duty in the matter. The wants of the world require a holy and united Church.  From what has been said, and the uniform teaching of the Bible, the following facts are very evident:  1. The division of the church into sects is one of Satan's most effectual, if not the very greatest, means of destroying human souls.  2. Its enormous sin must be answered for by individual adherents to, and supporters of, sects.  3. The only remedy for this dreadful plague is thorough sanctification, and this is wrought only by a personal, individual contact with the blood of Christ through faith.  4. The union required by the Word of God is both a spiritual and visible union.  5. The divisions of the church are caused by elements that are foreign to it as a divinely constituted body, by deposits of the enemy, which exist in the hearts and practices of individual members, involving their responsibility and requiring their personal purgation.  These facts make your duty plain. What you and I want, dear reader, is "thorough and widespread holiness" in our individual souls to destroy denominationalism there. Holiness, ever so thorough and widespread around you, will not cleanse your heart; neither can the sin of division in the hearts and lives of others attach to you, unless you drink in their spirit and also become a partisan. You need not waste time in planning general union movements, or praying the Lord to       restore the unity of his church, until you go down under the blood and have every bone of contention and cause of division purged out of your own heart; then you may do something to influence others to do the same.  You are praying and longing for the happy time when God's children shall all be one, but are you willing that the "once more" shaking shall have its designed effect in your own case? Do you, indeed, suffer the Holy Ghost fire to consume out of your own life, heart, religion, and conversation, all the shaky chaff and stubble the devil has made to divide the children of God? Do you, indeed, withdraw from and' ignore all churches, so called, but the one Christ purchased "with his own blood" and founded nearly nineteen hundred years ago, and to which the "Lord added" you by regeneration (Acts 2:47)? Do you discard every church title but that "which the mouth of the Lord hath named" (Isaiah 62:2), even the name of the Father, in which Christ and the apostles kept the church (John 1 7:6, 11, 12; Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Timothy 3:15)? Do you honor the divine head of the church by rejecting every creed but the one that "is given by inspiration of God;" every door that is opened and shut by men; and every spirit but the Sanctifier; and every motive but the love of God and humanity? If you, by the grace of God, die to all these prime       causes of sectism and their concomitant sins, then, and not until then, will the Lord have "thoroughly purged" so much of "his threshing floor" as you will have to answer for in the day of       judgment. Where this is not accomplished, the grace of God is frustrated; holiness is not permitted to reach the Bible standard of thoroughness, nor spread its healing virtue to every part of the soul.  It may look foolish to many thus to blow the trumpet of the Lord around the high and massy walls of sectarian glory and selfishness, but the power of God with the faith and shouts of the "holy people" will surely bring them down. Though the heaps of sectarian chaff have reached the magnitude of mountains, God has some wheat scattered through them, and he will have it separated for his garner.  Therefore he says to Jacob, "Fear not . . . thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and thou shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them."  The pure elements of God's church possess a wonderful inherent attraction and cohesion; but the devil neutralizes the divine cement by mixing in his chaffy and sloughy trash, thereby effecting       divisions; therefore, the Lord restores union by the "removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made" by the enemy, thus removing discord and schism. Glory to God! Little Jacob has barely commenced threshing and separating. Soon we shall see clouds of chaff driven by the "mighty rushing wind from heaven."  Says Brother I. Reed, in his paper, The Highway: “The great holiness movement is shaking harder than ever. It is to be a real moral earthquake yet. We have nothing to fear in that direction. We have allied ourselves to the Power that does the shaking, and feel a kind of holy joy at the falling walls, reeling Babels and ecclesiastical fortifications that cannot stand the grand holiness shock. In anticipation we enjoy the grand smash-up of things semi-religious--this half and half, linsey-woolsey type of "Good God, Dear Mammon," kind of fashionable moral froth, too often called 'religion'--that is coming some of these days. It is coming. We hear the tread of the mighty army.  Amen. Let the conflict come. God will have a pure       church. He will shake the chaffy works of the devil out of his kingdom, though all hell be moved in rage; though Gog and Magog surround the camp of the saints on the breadth of the whole earth.  Dear reader, I am aware that I have here written things that will be unwelcome to many, truths that will assail and stir up many prejudices; but in doing so I have determined to cast from me the fear of man, and clear my conscience in the sight of God.  It is, indeed, my honest conviction that the great holiness reform can not go forward with the sweeping power and permanent triumph that God designs it should until the gospel be so preached and consecration become so thorough that the blood of Christ may reach and wash away every vestige of denominational distinction, and "perfect into one"--yea, one indeed and in truth--all the sanctified.  I am aware that this will elicit storms of persecution, but in the name of the Lord it must come. God will be glorified in the escape of his holy children from all human enclosures into the "one" and identical "fold of Jesus Christ." Oh! let us be honest before God in this matter.

Chapter 12 (part 2)

Chapter 13  A PROPHETIC TIME  That many events of the world are foreshadowed in the prophecies of the Bible is something which perhaps the average reader does not pause much to reflect upon. He rather inclines to regard the prophecies as a difficult portion of the Sacred Writings, and in consequence of their being passed by, ignorance generally prevails concerning them. There is nothing inconsistent in the idea that events in the world occur in accordance with prophetic utterance. It does not necessarily give credence to the doctrine of fatalism--that everything which happens must happen. The affairs in man's life are largely subject to his control. He has a scope of freedom all his own. He can make his own choices and govern his own career. He may do an act or he may not do it. An accident occurs which may have been avoided had more care been exercised. Nevertheless, from this free volitionary scope which belongs to man we may not exclude God's design; for he does exercise a controlling hand in the affairs of man.  It may be said, however, of the greater things that       occur in the world, the trend of public thought, the drift of conditions, the great political upheavals, things which are rather beyond man's       individual control, and which involve mankind as a body and their destiny as a race--these more particularly belong to God and are made the subject of prophetic forecast. God did not create the world and then abandon its processes. He created all things according to design, and we may be assured that he has design in the progress of things as well as in their first creation. Nor will the grand play of the world's events reach its conclusion without the decree of him whose prerogative it is to say, "It Is enough; time shall no longer be."  Christ's coming into the world was freely prophesied hundreds of years in advance of that event. This is so plain that no student of the Bible, unless he means purposely to be infidelic, will dispute the fact. Likewise, the fulfillment of prophecies that went before concerning the Jews and their city Jerusalem is much in evidence.  The events of the world naturally group themselves into periods, or epochs. They are like panoramic scenes that unfold in the theater of the universe. Thus we have the two dispensations separated by the incarnation of Christ, the grandest event in all history. And thus       we have, as divisions of the latter dispensation, the event of paganism giving place to the papacy and ushering in a dark day of apostasy, known in history as the Dark Ages; and the Renaissance and the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, ushering in a period of Protestantism, which is also an age of letters and invention.  In the interests of his church and the progress of his truth God has shown in advance in prophetic vision the periods and epochal events covering not only the Christian dispensation, but also a considerable time previous to it. These are for the Bible-student, the minister of God, and for all Christians, to know and understand.  There is a prophecy in the 7th chapter of Daniel foreshadowing the four successive world empires--the Babylonian, Medo Persian, Grecian, and Roman--and the papal power, that grew out of the Roman. The book of Revelation is but a series of panoramic displays of the events of the entire Christian dispensation and the end of the world.  And so we may expect that, inasmuch as the prophecies served primarily the interests of the church, or the New Testament kingdom, any marked advance for the church, such as the deliverance of the saints from spiritual Babylon, should have its fore gleam in the utterance of the       seer. In our preceding chapter, Brother Warner has already given quotations from the prophets relating to bringing out a pure church through the preaching of holiness. We wish to show by several other lines of prophecy that this state of the church, as being free from the bondage of human ecclesiasticism and enjoying her primitive glory, marks a distinct prophetic time or period in this evening of the dispensation.  Referring again to the 7th chapter of Daniel, where four successive world kingdoms are represented by the four beasts, we note that special attention is given to the description of the fourth beast, which is the Roman power in its pagan phase. It was a beast "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great       iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things" (verses 7 and 8)  Daniel wished to know the truth respecting the little horn that had eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. He beheld that the "same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom" (verses 21 and 22). Now this horn that came up from among the other ten horns was nothing other than the elements of Roman Catholicism, developing into popery. It was the "man of sin," the product of the substitution of man rule for the Holy Spirit rule, the date for which change historians have fixed at about the year 270 A.D. This horn was to "speak great words against the Most High," and to "wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him" (verses 25-27).  The "time and times and the dividing of time," marking the period during which the elements of the papacy should have full sway and should wear out the saints of the Most High, etc., are interpreted as three and one half years; a time in prophetic reckoning being one year, times two years, and the dividing of time one half year. Three and one half years would be forty-two months, or, if reduced to days according to the Jewish reckoning of thirty days to the month, twelve hundred and sixty days. Taking each day for a year, which is proper prophetic counting, we have twelve hundred and sixty years, and this added to the year 270 brings us to the year 1530, the date of the beginning of organized Protestantism, and the end of the universal sway       of the papacy. Following this, "the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (verse 26). Since her universal spiritual supremacy ended, the judgment against Roman Catholicism has gradually proceeded and her political power has waned. "And the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom" (verse 22). The saints' possessing the kingdom is the culminating point in this line of prophecy, and means nothing other than the victory over human ecclesiasticism which the saints now possess.  In the 11th chapter of Revelation we have the wearing out of the saints expressed as treading under foot the holy city, and the time-period of "a time and times and the dividing of time" expressed as forty-two months (verse 2). In verse 3 the same time-period is expressed as twelve hundred and sixty days. During this time the two witnesses the Word and the Spirit prophesy in sackcloth, which represents the low estate to which they were relegated during the dark age of       popery. It will be remembered that the twelve hundred and sixty days (years) end with the year 1530. Following this comes three days and a half       (three centuries and a half) of Protestantism during which the two witnesses (Word and Spirit) are, in the governmental sense, operatively dead, the organized systems of man rule having usurped the place of divine government and authority which these witnesses originally held. At the end of the three days and a half, three hundred and fifty years (which, added to 1530, brings us to the year 1880) "the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet" (verse 11). They ascended to their place in the ecclesiastical heaven, to the true church, and were thus victorious. This brings us to the present reformation. This is soon followed by the sounding of the seventh angel, which represents the end of time when the 'kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever' (verse 15). The curtain drops.  Another scene is presented in the 13th chapter, where the rise of the papacy, or Roman Catholic power, is represented by a leopard beast having the same "mouth speaking great things" that appeared in the "little horn" of Daniel seven. "And       power was given unto him to continue forty and two months" (verse 5), which is the same time-period, again, of twelve hundred and sixty years. Following this the period of Protestantism is represented by a beast "coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" (verse 11). The length of the time-period of this second beast is here omitted, but the sphere of its activity is succeeded (in chapter 14) by a victorious church, the fall of Babylon, and the present reformation work in which the everlasting gospel, the gospel that really saves, is once more preached "unto them that dwell on the earth." In connection with this also is the judgment which Daniel says is "given to the saints of the Most High;" that is, the judgment against the false religions of spiritual Babylon.  In the 18th chapter, in connection with Babylon's       fall, we have God's people called out of her. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double" (verses 4-6). Thus the time is come that 'judgment is given to the saints' and the 'saints possess the kingdom.'  Spiritual Babylon represents Rome first, and Protestantism second. In the Critical Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, in the comments on Revelation 18:4, we have the following quoted from Hahn in Auberlen: "The harlot is not Rome alone (though she is preeminently so), but every Church that has not Christ's mind and spirit. False Christendom, divided into very many sects, is truly Babylon, i.e., confusion." The literal Babylon was an ancient city situated on the Euphrates River. In it God's people Israel were held captive for seventy years, or until liberated by the Persian king Cyrus. This is used as a figure of the captivity of God's spiritual Israel in spiritual Babylon. The word Babylon means confusion, and it is fittingly applied to the confused religion as represented by the whole picture of Roman Catholicism and the Protestant sects.  In the 34th chapter of Ezekiel the gathering of God's people and their deliverance from false relations is represented by a shepherd seeking out his flock and delivering them. "As a shepherd       seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel" (verses 12-14).  The cloudy and dark day of Protestantism, when the light of truth shines, not in its entire brightness, nor yet as entirely obscured, is also referred to in the 14th chapter of Zechariah. "And       it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light" (verses 6 and 7). Thank God, the day of mingled light is past, and we are in the full light of the evening, when the whole truth is once more preached in its fullness, without hypocrisy and without reserve.  Thus we see that the present movement among God's people toward holiness and unity, out of denominationalism, is prophetically represented as a new epoch for the church.

Chapter 14  THE GOSPEL TRUMPET  After the Board of Publication of the Northern Indiana Eldership had passed the resolution in November 1880, that they were willing to consolidate the Herald of Gospel Freedom with any other paper that advocated the same gospel principles, a consolidation was effected with a small paper called The Pilgrim, published in Indianapolis, by G. Haines. The Pilgrim was a monthly and had been issued but about eight times. The Herald equipment, it should be remarked, had been donated to Brothers Warner and Haines by the Churches of God in Indiana for the new paper. The decision to effect this consolidation was made in a joint meeting of the Board of Publication and the Standing Committee held in Yellow Lake Bethel, Kosciusko County, Indiana, December 23, 1880. In an old memorandum tablet of Brother Warner's is recorded what is apparently a report of this meeting, in his own handwriting. One paragraph, which reads as follows, is of special interest:  On motion it was agreed to consolidate The Herald of Gospel Freedom with The Pilgrim, at Indianapolis, Indiana, and call the new The Gospel Trumpet.  Though he modestly does not say so, it was Brother Warner himself who suggested the name Gospel Trumpet. He felt impressed that the new paper should be called by that name, the idea being associated with such scriptures as the following: "The great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall       come. . . and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount" (from Isaiah 27:13). "The Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds" (from Zechariah 9:14).  A scripture containing the word "trumpet" always appeared in the heading of the paper. After a few years the heading contained the design of a flying angel blowing a trumpet from which was suspended a scroll containing this inscription, taken from Zechariah 5:2-4: "He said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll . . . Then said he unto me . . . Every one that       stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and everyone that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts."  At a later date the design was changed, the angel was reversed, and the following was substituted as an inscription on the scroll: "All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye" (Isaiah 18:3). For many years the heading design contained one or more angels blowing the trumpet.  Brother Warner was a man wonderfully anointed of God for a special work. Since he had received the experience of sanctification in 1877 the Lord had been gradually revealing to him that the true and divinely intended state of the people of God was not that of being scattered in a multiplicity of sectarian divisions but of being perfectly one in Christ, not only in spirit, but in name and invisible aspect. He felt that the teaching of genuine holiness would, in connection with the light of the prophecies bearing on the subject, bring the church out into her pure, undivided state. For such a reformation he was indeed a chosen instrument of the Lord. It was God's truth he was preaching. It led, of course, to a crisis in which he received much persecution and was deserted by many. The Trumpet, he realized, was a very effectual instrument God had placed in his hands for accomplishing the great reformation-work in this evening time of the Christian era. The time was ripe. True saints of God in various places, in whom was the Spirit of the Lord, were desiring and anticipating a oneness for God's people, and when The Trumpet appeared it was just what they were wanting. The fact that it was considered insignificant and ignored in popular religious circles proved its mission none the less divine. God's work is frequently accomplished by insignificant instruments. The Trumpet shared Brother Warner's difficulties and deprivations. The description of these in the spiritual phase will be reserved for the next chapter. What we shall note here are some of the mere facts of its history.  The oldest copy of The Gospel Trumpet now in the files of the Publishing Office is of the issue of March 1, 1881. The paper began with January 1 of that year, at Rome City, Indiana. Two issues were printed there, then the equipment was moved to Indianapolis. The removal occasioned some delay, so that there was no paper printed during the month of February. The new location was over N. 70 North Illinois Street. The paper started as a semimonthly, at a subscription price of seventy-five cents a year. Agents were allowed a commission of fifteen cents on each subscription in clubs of five or upwards. Its object was stated as being, "The glory of God in the salvation of men from all sin, and the union of all saints upon the Bible." It was a four-page, five-column paper of about 13 by 19 inches in size. It at first contained considerable matter on prohibition; but the thing that brought it persecution and isolated it from the fellowship and sympathy of nominal professors was its teaching against sectarian divisions.  Financial privation was one of the handicaps that had to be contended with from the start. On the moving of the equipment to Indianapolis, new type to the amount of $147 had to be purchased. At this time also a new Prouty power-press costing $590 was contemplated, the old press being a Washington hand-press. It was some years, however, until a power-press was installed. In the issue of May 15, 1881, appears the following editorial:  We are experiencing that it takes a man wonderfully burned out for God to publish a paper that is simply true to Jesus and up to the Bible standard of salvation from all sin. A thousand points of expediency and policy must he disregarded, and the eye fixed on God alone. O reader, you that love God and the truth, do not forget to pray for us. We are here in the city with a family to support, and publishing expenses to meet, and many are withdrawing from us because we will not sanction their idols: but God is always present, and we fear no evil. Thus far, since the paper is all on God's altar, he has supplied our needs. Glory to his name!  Another difficulty that had to be contended with almost from the start was the unfaithfulness of some of those associated with him. He was scarcely settled in Indianapolis when the partnership with Haines had to be dissolved, and the latter then started an opposition paper. The following editorial from the June 1 number will explain: THE OPPOSITION PAPER  No person that has the real cause of God at heart can fail to deplore the fact that in this city two papers are now being published, both claiming to be holiness papers, having of course conflicting interests.  That this state of affairs must weaken and wound this sacred cause, and hedge up its way by destroying the confidence of the people in the great truth of holiness, is very apparent to all thinking minds. This being true, fearful responsibilities rest somewhere, and the people have a right to know where.  It is a painful task to refer to the reproach that is brought upon the pure cause of holiness; but it is largely known, and can be remedied only by a statement of the causes and terms of the dissolution of The Trumpet firm. Two papers in the same place with rival interests cannot both be of God--there is no use trying to smuggle the fact.  The blame must be located, and though its location exposes personal character, it must be done. Paul wrote even with tears of some whom he pronounced enemies of the cross of Christ. Alas, how often the blessed Son of God is sacrificed at the shrine of selfishness, and sold for a few pieces of money!  The office having been donated by the Church of God in northern Indiana, for the use of The Trumpet, we entered into a consolidation and partnership, agreeing that "each should do one half of the labor, pay one half of the expenses, and receive one half of the income."  We went to work in good earnest, published two papers at Rome City, and then shipped the office to this city.  But before it arrived we found our self bound to a       chilling iceberg, an austere, worldly, complaining, and mere money policy. Though rather uncongenial to our feelings, we thought it probably all for the better and were willing to go ahead; but ere long the Spirit of God clearly indicated to us that we should not work with this man. We gave the matter all into the hands of God, and told the Lord that if he wished a dissolution, he should bring it about in his own time and his own way.  We had made no note of labors at Rome City, but       thought when we set up here we should be under the necessity of doing so; but wishing to avoid every shadow of blame for the separation that we       knew was coming, we continued to waive our right in the agreement, and went on working for the Lord, while partner gave his time to the Cincinnati Times-Star, with the exception of an occasional call of a few minutes at the office.  It pleased God to withhold a competent income from the paper. This soon wrought a divine purpose, and partner proposed to dissolve--offered to give or take one hundred dollars, and the party taking the office pay all the debts on the firm. Having the will of God clearly revealed to us, we could not, without disloyalty to God and infidelity to the brethren who donated the office, abandon it. We also had one hundred and seventy dollars in the office that partner did not, having released notes to that amount against those churches when they kindly donated the office.  We remarked, however, that as the office had been given for the use of The Trumpet, it was not right that, withdrawing from the paper, he should ask that amount of money. But the answer was that The Pilgrim field which had been merged into The Trumpet was worth that to him. We therefore consented to pay the one hundred dollars to satisfy him for the field. But when we remarked that he of course would feel himself under obligations not to start another paper here, both because of the amount received for the field, and for shame's sake, as it could only expose the cause to reproach, we were surprised that he would not make a fair promise. We insisted upon it as our right, and he remarked finally that he did not think he would start another. Just then the Spirit said, "Trust it in the hands of the Lord, God will himself manage the matter." From that time we said no more about it.  We feel that our skirts are clear from the harm that holiness must suffer from this bad example to the world. And if God can bless the little opposition sheet (for such is the spirit of its first issue) we shall be thankful.  Bless the Lord! We have nothing to fear, because we have nothing to lose. The Trumpet is indeed all burned up for God: but out of its ashes shall continue to rise honest, holy, God-fearing pilgrims, instead of "happy pilgrims" who rejoice in unrighteous gain. God is now on trial. He is our only resource. On the other hand, a crafty policy slyly gets up a little paper, changes the association meeting from home to Terre Haute, presents it to the congregation, gets four votes in its favor, then himself pronounces it adopted; is elated that he was "sharp" enough to get the one hundred dollars and the field also, and now boasts that he will take away The Trumpet subscribers. O Lord, pity and save such a one for Christ's sake!  Just now we feel a deeper concern for his salvation than for all we may suffer through his competition. Though doubtless we shall lose some readers through this assumed organ of the State association, a thing that lives only in name, and whose head, professing to be called to labor in the vineyard of the Lord as a gospel minister, prefers the vineyard of the worldly paper as more lucrative, we are thankful that The Gospel Trumpet rests only upon God and its own merits.  Our Father in heaven still owns the universe. Truth has not lost its power; neither have the four votes cast at Terre Haute dethroned the Almighty. Halleluiah! Jesus reigns.  After dissolution of partnership with Haines, Brother Warner was supplied with a co-laborer in J. C. Fisher, who took a half interest, and was very effectual in starting the work in Michigan, where he resided. Illustrative of the poverty of The Trumpet in its infancy as well as the construction of the first publishing offices another editorial from the June 1 number here given. The location of this new office was on Brother Warner's lot at 625 West Vermont Street adjoining his residence.  AN OFFICE FOR THE TRUMPET As we have over a mile to walk to our office and have to pay $5 a month for rent, we felt led of the Lord to build an office on our lot. We had a small stable that would afford some material, and, trusting that God would send help, we began to tear it down in the name of the Lord. So the other day a dear old saint who is a carpenter came to inquire what we had to build with. We told him, when he said he had some lumber to add, also door and plenty of windows, which he would give very cheap, and give work also.  We are now looking to God for some means, perhaps thirty dollars, to buy shingles and some other material. Now, dearly beloved reader, as both our family duties and the necessity of curtailing expenses, as well as saving time, require us to build this office, it may be that on account thereof we shall not be able to issue a paper for the 15th of June. Please remember this and do not be disappointed if no paper reaches you. There are two other reasons why it will be somewhat difficult to issue the next number. First, we have a tabernacle in operation and we desire to work all we can in these direct efforts to save souls.  And, second, we think of taking charge of the office and doing most of the work on the paper ourself hereafter; and having but a slight experience in compositorv work, we shall need to have more time on the first paper. But withal we shall issue a paper if possible. If the Lord has given you a few dollars for the office, send it on. Amen.  In explanation of why he was not able to issue the paper regularly he writes as follows for August 15 of that same year:  The announcement that the paper would be on time would have been carried out so far as the work on the paper is concerned, but it did not please the Lord to send us the means to purchase the paper, hence the delay. Well, we are willing that God should stop the Trumpet altogether if he will. It belongs wholly to him, and so do we, and, bless God, we have nothing to say about it. Oh, how perfectly dead to all self in the matter! We will say to our readers that The Trumpet shall only be issued as the Lord furnishes the means every two weeks if possible, if not, let all know that it was not in our power to do so, and that all our subscribers shall have the worth of the money paid. Owing to the past delays and the fact that we are led to attend some camp meetings, we skip one number with the present issue.  In the November 1 number we notice more privation.  We did not move, neither were we able to plaster our office. How then do you think we managed to get out this paper? We will tell you. Dear Wife tendered her kitchen to the Lord for the use of publishing salvation. Praise the Lord! By thus crowding in a sufficient amount of the office to get along for the winter we shall save fuel, and the expense of finishing the office until next fall. Thank God, we are willing to get along any way for Christ's sake, so that we may fulfill our mission and publish truth and righteousness. We are not at all mortified at these humble facilities from which The Trumpet goes forth to its readers. Christ started his earthly mission from a manger. Oh no, we are not ashamed to let all men know that the Trumpet is published in the rear of a small cottage. God's presence makes the whole domicile sacred. Oh, how wonderfully he pours out his glory on our souls in this work!  On the other hand, there were others in whom God had planted a love for the truth. Among these was Brother Warner's faithful printer. God had preserved a few who should contribute sufficient to the paper to keep it going.  HOW IT LOOKS TO OTHERS  We know that many think it big to be an editor, hence before and ever since we entered upon this work we have feared and dreaded being actuated by such motives. When we go out to work in the field and we just tell God to let The Trumpet stop if it is his will and we will keep right on evangelizing, the Spirit's voice soon compels us to return to this sacred charge.  Once when we had the office up in the city, God tried us thoroughly. We had no money to pay the printer, and he was out of meal tickets, which must be paid in advance. We were sent for to come to a meeting in Terre Haute. A brother wrote that he would pay our fare, so we borrowed the money and went down on Saturday morning. We told the Lord that if he did not want the paper to continue, to let the printer leave and get work somewhere else. As we walked from the depot to the office on our return, Monday eve, we said, If that young man is in the office it is the wonderful dealing of God. We entered and found him cheerfully working away. On Saturday he ran the press all day without a bite to eat. As he told us this our heart was melted. We entered our little sanctum and poured out our soul to God, and he sent the Spirit as the dews of heaven upon our heart.  When we started for the Camargo camp meeting, we had a few dimes. Having been provided with a free pass, through the kindness of Brother--, who wrote that for months he had not thought of the camp-meeting without seeing us on the program and that we must be there without fail, we left with Wife all our change but two nickels. Told our printer that as we had no money to give him he might quit if he saw fit and hunt a position where he could get his pay. We remarked that as The Trumpet was not ours we had no choice whether it lived or died. Well, it cost us five cents to reach the depot by streetcar, and the other nickel to carry us and baggage from the train to campground, so we just had enough. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Though we were brought there by the direction of God's Spirit through Brother--, the high priest in charge, probably out of self-interest, gave us no place in the pulpit. But God gave us a field to work in, and the hearts of the "people who do know their God," and, blessed be his name, in that meeting he gave us over sixty-one dollars. So The Trumpet still sends out the certain sound. Here is a sample of many letters received the last few months. It will show how others see The Trumpet in relation to God's will and Satan's dread:  "Ah yes, Brother Warner, it is The Trumpet the devil wants stopped. You may evangelize all you please, so The Trumpet goes under, and the devil doesn't care. Do stand by The Trumpet at all hazards."  Of course we know that all such expressions relate to the awful and offensive truth of God that we give place to in The Trumpet, and not to any ability we possess to write or conduct a paper. We are too sorely and constantly pinched by a sense of our own ignorance to think anything else.  In the November 15 number, under the heading, The Trumpet Will Go On, we have the following:  God has blessed us with excellent health and strength. Praise his holy name! We can work without apparent fatigue from 5 A.M. to 11 P.M., and we propose doing so, by the continued help of God. We feel that the gates of hell cannot stop the truth. And if we cannot issue the paper regularly every two weeks, we will issue as often as we can, and give everybody his or her full number of papers.  The Lord holds us to this work, and he can not forsake us in the work whereunto he has called us. Let all the readers of The Trumpet obey the voice of the Spirit of God, and there will be means both to enlarge and carry on the paper for the glory of God. Oh, if the God of salvation could but reach some who are blessed with means and draw out about two hundred dollars it would pay all The Trumpet debts, get the necessities to enlarge the paper and provide a good little stock of paper to start with, We will work, and pray, and trust, and God and the dear people will provide the means.  At the beginning of the second year the price of The Trumpet was raised to one dollar.  For some time before The Trumpet raised to one dollar, nearly everybody sent us one dollar instead of seventy-five cents. Thus the Lord has fixed the price, and he will provide for its enlargement.  The enlargement came with the first issue in February. It was made a six-column, four pages--15 by 22. In the first issue of the new size we find the following editorial:  We printed two thousand papers this issue. It is quite a task on our hand-press; but, praise God, he gives us blessed health and strength, and we are perfectly satisfied to work on with the means the Lord has furnished, until he sees proper to give us others.  Early in the autumn of 1882 the publishing office was moved to Cardington, Ohio. Here was a congregation of saints among whom the publishing work could be better supported. A very pleasant office, warm and well lighted, was rented for thirty dollars a year. Brother Warner acknowledges his enjoyment of the great kindness, love, and cooperation of the true saints there. It seems, however, that even there the work did not make much progress. The old press had by this time become very unsatisfactory. Brother Warner sought to hire his printing work done elsewhere, but his effort resulted in his having to print the first issue of 1883 on a job-press, with the paper reduced in size to a four-column 11 by 15. The price was dropped to seventy-five cents, then to fifty cents. The following editorial will give an insight to his situation:  THIS LITTLE TRUMPET  Having had our last issue printed on our neighbor's steam-press, we concluded it would pay us to trade our old press on a jobber and have them print the paper regularly.  Our chief reason for so doing was this: in the time that it would take us to print them on the slow old press, we could make more on job-work than would pay the printing. But, behold, when our neighbors learned that we were getting a job-press, they seemed to think we were intruding on their territory, and not having the utmost confidence in their typographical ability they thought to make us pay a sort of royalty for the privilege of doing job-work here, by raising the price of printing The Trumpet from four dollars to eight dollars an issue; and while we conceded the perfect right to charge that price, we were happy for the privilege of saving that amount and printing on our job-press.  Of course, we can print but one page at a time, which makes four impressions for a folio; and if we print as large as The Trumpet has been, it will take eight times running through the press, which, after all, can he done in about the same time it took to print it in two impressions on the old press, and takes one to run instead of three.  When the paper comes to you only half the old size we will call it but a half number, so we will not defraud our subscribers in the least. But we desire to send you eight pages every two weeks if we possibly can. When we cannot, please bear with us until the kind providence of God and the liberality of the saints help us to get a paper-press.  The eight-page proposition did not then materialize. About this time was adopted the motto, which was carried for many years: "First pure, then valiant for the truth." The home of The       Gospel Trumpet was not long at Cardington. Brother Warner was desirous of having a permanent home for the Trumpet, where he would not have to pay rent. When he moved to Cardington, he did not feel that that would be the       permanent place for the paper. Kind brethren in Michigan made very liberal offers and asked him to come there; but a place was opening at Bucyrus, twenty miles distant, in Crawford County. While he was in prayer pleading earnestly for God's direction, three teams drove up. It was the brethren from Bucyrus, who had come to move the office to that place and also help it out of financial difficulties. There was great joy in Brother Warner's heart as he realized that God had answered prayer and sent help. One of these brethren, D. D. Johnston, assisted in the matter of finances. He purchased a lot and furnished material with which to erect a building. His name appeared as publisher in August 1883.  Brother Warner proceeded to build a small office on the lot at Bucyrus. In the last number printed at Cardington he writes as follows: While you read this paper, the editor will be personally at work erecting a house in which to carry on the work of the Lord. If we were building a house for ourself we should want to count the cost before commencing; but we are building this house unto the Lord, and the earth and the fullness thereof are his, hence, we need not stop to count since he says go forward. The undertaking is wholly by faith. While at work with our hands we shall pray without ceasing to our heavenly Father to send us the means.  We have had experience enough in our business to know that we never can carry on the paper and pay rent. It is claimed that a paper is not self-supporting with most any number of subscribers without receiving advertisements. Just yesterday in the office of a temperance paper we were told by an editor and publisher that we ought to take in one thousand dollars every year for advertisements, and he could not see how the paper could be carried otherwise. But, beloved, it must be carried otherwise or not at all. Neither do we wish to do any secular job-work if we can help it. We shall dispose of our job-press and material as soon as possible. Now, beloved, when we shall have obtained a good paper-press (and it is already bought, thank God) and a place free of rent, with much self-denial and care we shall be able to send you a paper 22 by 32 every two weeks.  Some of our dear brethren have in love censured us occasionally. We find generally these two points, sometimes in the same letter, namely, "Why do you not send your paper out more frequently and more regularly?" the other, "I think you have not been on your guard enough to keep out of debt." Well, there it is. We could have kept entirely out of debt if we had issued fewer papers, and we might have issued every two weeks had we gone more in debt. But no one of our experience could possibly have issued more frequently, with our income and slow facilities. Our dear brethren are without a knowledge of what they are talking about. But now, beloved, as we are in this desperate effort to get entirely out of debt and to get situated so as to cut off much of our past expense, we hope that all will send us the help they can.  The move to Bucyrus was made in May 1883. About that time the first good press was purchased. It was a rebuilt Country Campbell, allowing either belt or hand power to be used, and costing perhaps six hundred dollars.  The trying times through which The Trumpet had to pass in its early years are known only to God. It was perhaps his design that it should be tried as gold is tried. There were always a few consecrated hearts who contributed of their means. Some put everything they had into the work. Thus the work was kept alive. Little did Brother Warner realize, when he was located at Bucyrus and the prospects looked good, that there he should go through the bitterest trial of his life. The light of The Trumpet came very near being snuffed out entirely. Bucyrus was the narrows in The Trumpet's voyage, through which it barely passed. This will be described in our next chapter.  The office of The Trumpet remained at Bucyrus nearly a year. Some brethren in Michigan were desirous of having it moved to their locality. Progress had been made at Bucyrus, but it was through the furnace of trial rather than any extension of influence. But doubtless all this experience was necessary as an equipment for greater usefulness.  The move to Williamston, Ingham County, Michigan, was made in April 1884. A Mr. Horton, a businessman of Williamston, in whom the Lord had planted a love for the truth, went to Bucyrus and had the office equipment shipped. The saints in Michigan had in the meantime obtained possession of a two-story building 28 x 84 feet, and they had it partitioned, or remodeled, to suit the need, the upper story to he used for a hall or assembly-room, the rear of the lower floor to be used for living rooms and the front for an office. Brother Warner rejoiced with tears when the work got started in its new and enlarged quarters in Williamston. The first number of the paper published there was dated April 15. From its columns we quote the following greetings:  We are happy to greet your ears once more, beloved, with the sound of the trump of God. The devil has spent all his infernal powers in vain to crush this work of God. We have thoroughly learned his attitude toward us. In his hellish clamor about us for many days, saying, 'You must give up The Trumpet,' he has clearly committed himself against this cause, and all who are against this dissemination of the light of God we know are on the devil's side, either willfully or ignorantly. Oh, how hell has poured forth upon us! Night after night we had to leave our bed at two, three, and four o'clock, and go to the office and cry unto God to drive away the hosts of hell that had encamped against us. And every time the power of God dispersed these infernal spirits of darkness, the Lord re-commissioned us to blow the Trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on his holy mountain, and we were made joyfully conscious of his approving smile for not having backed down before the legions of hell. But the devil having drawn to his side the best agents he could ever expect to use against us, was fierce and determined to hush the Trumpet sound of freedom from all sin and Babylon yokes. Oh, halleluiah!  During this terrible combat with the powers of darkness, we had to do more fighting than working, hence the work went on slowly. We were ready to print about the first of February, then the Lord called us by telegram to Kalamazoo, Michigan. The next day our printer accidentally spoiled the rollers, so that he could not print. So the work lay until our return. After looking to the Lord until he assured us that the office would be cleared from the mortgage, we ordered new rollers, and went to work again in the name of the Lord. About the time we were ready to print, God sent Bro. Thomas Horton, from Williamston, Michigan, who paid off the five hundred-dollar mortgage, some other debts, chartered a car, loaded us up, and moved office, household goods, Master Willie, and ourself to this place, Wife and child having remained behind to visit with friends. Moving just at the time caused a few days delay in this issue, but now we expect to greet you regularly. Praise the Lord! "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord!" So said Job. If it was the devil that took it away, he had to get a permit from God before he could do it, therefore it was of the Lord, and "blessed be the name of the Lord"; for when he permits the devil to take anything away he has given to his children, he always returns fourfold. We have understood this principle long ago, and have thrown it in the face of the devil every time he has shown his teeth at us. Blessed be God forever and ever! And thus hath God done unto us again. We left an office where we were hampered up in 14 x 26 feet, and here has God furnished a building two stories high, 28 x 84 feet, all of which is dedicated to the Lord. It contains a large meeting hall, and plenty of room for office and all families connected with it. It is, however, under repairs, and we have taken temporary quarters for a few weeks.  Every change that was made gave occasion for new hopes for the advancement of the publishing work. Accordingly we read in the first issue at Williamston: "After one more issue we expect steam-power, and there is no telling what God will yet do for The Trumpet if the devil doesn't quit his hellish opposition." An engine was purchased during the first year at Williamston. It was of three horsepower and cost two hundred dollars. Thus, after the trying times of the first four years of its life, The Trumpet work began to make substantial progress and the reformation cause to expand and become permanent.  The next move for The Gospel Trumpet was in the summer of 1886. Near Bangor, in VanBuren County, was a yearly camp meeting. There were many saints in the vicinity and near Grand Junction, seven miles north. At the Bangor camp meeting in June 1886, the subject of moving The Trumpet Office to that part of the State was considered. It seemed to be the mind of the Spirit and of all the saints that the removal should be made. A commodious and substantial building in the town of Grand Junction was offered for eight hundred dollars, or about half its worth. The saints agreed to purchase the property, and money was raised to pay moving-expenses. An encumbrance of five hundred dollars on the machinery was also paid off. Accordingly it was decided to move. One freight car held the entire outfit of office material, machinery, and household goods.  Grand Junction, "where two lightning tracks lay crossing," was a small town of a few hundred inhabitants, the junction of the Chicago and West Michigan (now the Pere Marquette) and a branch of the Michigan Central Railways, ten miles from South Haven on the lake and thirty miles west of Kalamazoo. This became the permanent home of The Gospel Trumpet during twelve years of its history.  Before the move to Grand Junction, Brother S. Michels, of South Haven, assumed with his means a portion of the financial responsibility. Being thus directly connected with the publishing work, his name appeared as publisher, which position he held till relieved by N. H. Byrum, in 1895.  About a year after the publishing office was located at Grand Junction, the publishing work, and the church as well, suffered the defection of J. C. Fisher, who had been on the editorial staff and had been useful in the ministry. He was succeeded as assistant editor by E. E. Byrum, who remained on the staff for many years, and after Brother Warner's death became editor.  The Gospel Trumpet was a mighty factor in the reformation work, a very effectual means of spreading the truth. At Grand Junction the Office grew to a substantial printing-plant, sending out tons of literature. Books were printed, a children's paper was started, and The Trumpet became a weekly. It was here that Brother Warner's death occurred in 1895. We close this chapter with the publishing work located at Grand Junction. Brief reference to its present status will be made in another chapter.