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BIRTH OF A REFORMATION
Life And Labors Of
D. S. WARNER
By
Andrew L. Byers
1920
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Author's Preface
A quarter century has elapsed since the passing
of D. S. Warner from the scenes of his earthly activity, and full forty
years have gone since the beginning of the great reform of which his
labors constituted so large a part. While there are many still living
whose personal knowledge of him and his ministry will suffice to them for
an encouraging testimony of Christian attainment and of God's marvelous
use of human instrumentality when permitted to have his way, the time has
come when the absence of any published account of this remarkable man begins
to be felt. The rising generation and the generations that follow should
have access to a study of such an example of Christian devotion and
usefulness, as well as of God's faithfulness to one who will fully trust
him. When it was announced that a biography was contemplated, the
proposition at once met with hearty approval and encouragement.
That due to the lapse of years there should be some
difficulty in securing the necessary data with reference to his early
life is of course consequential. His brothers and sisters are all
deceased. A nephew and a niece and some of his earlier acquaintances were
interviewed, and correspondence was had with other relatives and
acquaintances. The most valuable acquisition, however, was the use of his
diaries, kindly granted by his son, D. Sidney Warner, now living in
Canton, Ohio. These diaries do not cover all of his early ministerial
career, but the quotations from them will reveal the Christian character
of the man as well as show considerable of his itinerancy and of the
facts of his life.
As to the source of information respecting the latter
period of his ministry, when his work took the character of a reform,
recourse has been had to the files of the periodicals he edited and also
to the personal recollections of some who were pioneers with him in the
movement. Of these may be mentioned as giving particular information Mrs.
Allie R. (Fisher) Allen, Lansing, Michigan; William N. Smith, North Star,
Michigan; David Leininger, Akron, Indiana; Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Howard,
Nappanee, Indiana; Mrs. Anna J. Slagle, Bucyrus, Ohio; Mr. and Mrs. B. E.
Warren, Springfield, Ohio; and Mrs. Frankie Warner, Anderson,
Indiana.
It was my privilege to have a personal acquaintance
with D. S. Warner and to be more or less closely associated with him
during the last five years of his life. To one who never knew him
personally no printed account can afford an adequate conception of what
it was to come in contact with this wonderful ambassador of God, whose
presence wrought conviction in the unregenerate, and inspired confidence
and courage in the hearts of believers. The divine manifestations in his
preaching, his prayers, and his ministrations cannot be told. Many very
striking instances of physical healing which we have not space to speak
of attended his ministry; but that these pages may reveal, if in no other
light than the historical, that here is an example of true consecration,
devotion, courage, diligence, humility, faith, patience, kindness,
self-denial, and the Christian graces generally, that is worthy of being
followed, is the earnest hope of
THE AUTHOR.
ANDREW L. BYERS, 1921
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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
The life and labors of D. S. Warner are so closely
associated with a religious movement that any attempt at his biography
becomes in part necessarily a history of that movement. I have therefore
chosen the term, Birth of a Reformation, as a part of the title of this
book. Brother Warner (to use an appellation in keeping with the idea of
universal Christian brotherhood) was doubtless chosen of God as an
instrument for accomplishing a particular work. What that work was, why
it may be called a reformation, and why, in particular, it may be
considered the last reformation, a few words of explanation by way of
introduction are offered the inquiring reader.
It will be necessary to take a brief glance over the
Christian era and review some of the important events and conditions. We
note the characteristics of the church in the days of the apostles,
which, by reason of its recent founding and organization by the Holy
Spirit, is naturally regarded as exemplary and ideal. It had no creed but
the Scriptures and no governance but that administered by the Holy
Spirit, who 'set the members in the body as it pleased him'- apostles,
prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, etc. Thus subject to the
Spirit, the early church was flexible, capable of expansion and of
walking in all the truth and of adjusting itself to all conditions. It
was in very essence the church, the whole, and not a section or part. The
apostles and early believers did not restrict themselves and become a
Jewish Christian sect or any other kind of sect. Peter's way of thinking
would have thus limited him, for as a Jew he declined any particular
interest in Gentile converts; but the Lord through a vision changed his
mind and advanced his understanding to include the universality of the
Christian kingdom. The Holy Spirit in the heart was necessary, of course,
to the successful government of the church by the Spirit, otherwise he
could not have been understood. There were no dividing lines, for it was
the will of the Lord particularly that there be "one fold and one
shepherd." Jesus had prayed in behalf of the disciples "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" (John 17:21). These conditions of being subject to the Word and
Spirit, of leaving an open door through which greater light and truth
might enter as was necessary, and of possessing the love and unity of
spirit that cemented the believers together and carried them through all
their persecution, constituted the ideal and normal status of God's
church on earth as he gave it beginning, of which it was ordained that
there should be but one, only one, as long as the world should endure.
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one
hope of your calling" (Ephesians 4:4).
SPIRITUAL DECLINE
It was possible, of course, for the church to decline
from her state of purity and thereby to forfeit her standing as the
church. So long as her conflict with paganism lasted and the various
forms of persecution tended to bring into exercise those principles and
qualities which distinguished her from the world, she practically kept
her first estate. When, however, the tide turned, persecutions ceased and
Christianity came into favor and to be made the state religion of the
Roman Empire, there were presented conditions favorable to every form of
spiritual decline. Christians, instead of being longer persecuted, were
protected, and to profess Christianity became popular and easy. The
divine features of the church, by which she had been known for more than
two hundred years, were lost. Every form of corruption came in. Human
rule supplanted the divine, Holy Spirit rule almost universally, both in
the East and the West. The bishop of Rome, in particular, rose in
prominence until he was made supreme head-pope--of the Holy Roman church.
The reader of church history knows of the long eclipse of Christianity
that followed, of the darkness and ignorance that reigned and gave to
that period the name, Dark Ages. The true church, impossible of
representation by such a colossal counterfeit as then appeared in her
place and became in turn a persecuting power, could continue only in
fragmentary form, in obscure places in the wilderness of the Roman
Empire. She could not be manifest in her evangelizing capacity, but was
persecuted. Millions of God's people, who refused allegiance to this
false system of Christianity, were slain as heretics during this period.
Thus, in the historical foreground we see, not the pure woman
representing the church of God, but we see an apostate woman seated “upon
a scarlet-colored beast,” the Roman state.
"And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet
color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a
golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon
the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. And I saw
the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus" (Revelation 17:4-6).
The Word and the Spirit, the two divine authorities,
were set aside. In the place of the former were the traditions of the
Roman Church, and for the latter was substituted human rule and
authority. These two divine witnesses prophesied in sackcloth during
those long centuries, until such time as they should again function in
their proper sphere in the church--I say until such time: for we are not
to assume that in the design of God this state of affairs should always
continue. True Christianity was not to perish from the earth. The book of
Daniel prophesies of the papacy. "And he shall speak great words
against the Most High, and shall 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" (Daniel 7:25). (See
the time-periods of the various epochs of the Christian era in our
chapter A Prophetic Time.) For this vast agency of unrighteousness the
time should come when the cup of iniquity should be full and the
judgments of God should be executed and his people delivered. When Christ
comes, his bride will have made herself ready, which implies that God's
people will have been gathered out of spiritual captivity and brought
again to Zion. Light and truth and the Holy Spirit rule will have been
restored as at the beginning.
REFORMATIONS
Now the rise out of apostasy was expressed by a series
of reformations, not by gradual ascent corresponding to the decline. The
"mystery of iniquity," which crystallized in the blasphemous
"man of sin," had already begun to work in Paul's day, and the
drift into spiritual darkness on the part of the professing church was
without specific opposition. But, on the other hand, to break away from
conditions apostate always means war with infernal powers. The wrong is
endured until a rising sentiment of protest breaks out with stern
denunciation. God raises up instruments for this purpose. John Wyclif, in
the fourteenth century, denounced the errors of the so-called church and
the conduct of the monks and also had sufficient light to see the papacy
as the "man of sin" foretold by the apostle Paul. His reform
efforts, however, centered mostly in the translation of the Bible into
English, which work, in spite of the attempt by Rome to destroy it, God
graciously caused to be preserved.
John Huss, a little later, took Wyclif's attitude
against the corruptions of the church and was burned at the stake as a
heretic. His martyrdom furnished the occasion for him to utter this
prophecy: "You are now going to burn a goose (Huss meaning goose in
the Bohemian language), but in one hundred years there will arise a swan
whom you can neither roast nor boil." True to this prophecy, in one
hundred years came the intrepid Luther, under whose leadership history
records the great reformation of the sixteenth century. Church and state
were at this time united, which gave this reformation a political
prominence, as it resulted in the change to Protestantism of two strong
nations, Germany and England. What the sixteenth century reformation
accomplished spiritually was, among other things, the bringing to light
of the Scriptural doctrine of justification by faith in Christ instead of
by priestly absolution.
It could not have been expected that all the
Scriptural truths and principles should at any time or by any one
reformer be recovered from the rubbish under which they had been buried
for a thousand years. There have been numerous reforms, bringing out
various truths that had been obscured by the apostasy. Thus Truth in her
progress upward to the Scriptural level has arisen only by successive
steps, God having to use human instrumentalities that were limited by the
prevailing tendencies and beliefs of the times. Each reformer naturally
dealt with conditions that were most conspicuous from his viewpoint and
was exercised in questions of truth that applied only to such conditions.
His reform work was not final in character, inasmuch as it left some
errors still uncorrected. Hence the progress upward was by a succession
of reforms, each, as a general thing, springing from a higher level of
truth and spiritual attainment than those preceding. With the great
decline into apostasy now in the past, the church of God was disposed to
rise out of confusion, her destiny being the attainment of her original
standing, when it could be said that her sun should no more go
down."
HUMAN RULE INSTEAD OF
DIVINE
The apostasy of the church, as one writer has
expressed it, came by "ecclesiastical ambition and degeneracy."
The human element got in the way where there should have been only the
divine. There is necessarily the human element in the work of God, for
Christian work is God and man working together; but in the true relation
man is God's instrumentality and is altogether in subjection to the
divine Head, who rules over all. When the human element supplants, gets
in the way of, or acts in the place of, the divine, we have a fundamental
error that always results in apostasy. This human ecclesiasticism, always
more or less intolerant, reached its autocratic perfection in the hierarchy
of the Roman Catholic Church and constituted the "man of sin"
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that
is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing
himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
The spirit of human government in church affairs has
shown itself in, or has followed in the wake of, every reform movement of
the past. The Spirit of God worked in the movement to accomplish good,
but was always checked by this baleful element. Luther meant well but was
himself dogmatic and intolerant. He held to many doctrines of Catholicism
whose wrongs he could not see. He did not make proper allowance that
others besides himself might be right, or at least have some truth.
Neither did he or his associates or followers leave the way open for God
to lead into more truth, much less the whole truth. Thus the reformation
of the Sixteenth Century, while it recovered from the debris of apostasy
the doctrine of justification by faith, became the occasion for
Protestant sects, human-ruled institutions, and these were succeeded by
other sects. Some of these have been as intolerant, inflexible, and as
unlike primitive Christianity as the Roman Catholic Church itself.
Church government, as humanized in the sects, has
taken forms other than the hierarchic. We have the episcopal, or rule by
bishops; the presbyterian, or rule by presbyters; the congregational, or
rule by the local brotherhood. Our object here is, not to discuss which
of these forms most nearly resembles or is most different from the
Scriptural, but merely to show that man rule has manifested itself in
various ways.
CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE
CHURCH
The true church of God, comprising all Christians, has
in her normal state under her divine head certain essential
characteristics which make her exclusively the church, the whole and not
a part. These might be expressed as follows:
1. Possession of divine spiritual life. If the church
does not possess this she is not Christ's body and therefore not the
church. She must know the Spirit of God.
2. Disposition to obey all Scripture and to let the
Spirit have his way and rule. This constitutes her safety in matters of
doctrine and government.
3. An attitude receptive to any further truth and
light. This safeguards against dogmatism and a spirit of infallibility
and intolerance, against interpreting Christianity in the light of
traditions and old ideas.
4. Acknowledgment of good wherever found and the
placing of no barrier that would exclude any who might be Christians.
This makes salvation, a holy life, and a Christian spirit the only test
of fellowship, and disapproves all human standards of church membership
and fellowship.
We repeat that these constitute the Scriptural
standard of the church and characterize her in her unity and integrity.
It is by lacking in one or more of these essentials that a sect is a
sect. In the rise of the church out of apostasy any reformation that does
not develop to the full the essentials that characterize the church in
her wholeness and completeness must necessarily fall short of being the
final reformation and must leave a cause for further reformation. This is
the explanation of the existence of the so-called Christian sects,
viewing them in the most charitable light. The Wesleys and their early
associates sought for deeper personal spirituality as well as better
spiritual association than was afforded in the state church of England.
They brought to light and gave particular prominence to the doctrine of
sanctification by faith and the witness of the Holy Spirit. Their work
was a reform; but as in that day the question of division among
Christians was not prominent, nor was the question of the one true church
understood or appreciated, their work took definite form in a body
humanly organized and called Methodist. The Campbells had considerable
light on the unity of the church, and proposed the Scriptures alone as a
basis on which all Christians could unite. But they blindly shut
themselves in on a point of doctrine by associating entrance into the
kingdom or church with the act of immersion in such manner as to make a
wall between them and other Christians who should give evidence of having
received salvation and therefore church membership, otherwise than
through baptism. Thus they made themselves a sect. John Winebrenner had
the correct idea of the church as comprising all the saved, and his work
was on an un-sectarian basis. Lacking, however, in the quality of letting
the Spirit of God rule, eldership organizations were soon set up, a man
rule came in, and they also became a sect. Inflexible as to doctrine,
they closed the door of progress on themselves, rejected the truth on
holiness, and became one of the most narrow of sects, though bearing the
Scriptural name, Church of God.
A FINAL REFORMATION
It must follow, and the assumption is already
established, that a reformation which takes in full the characteristics
defining the church in her wholeness must thereby reach the New Testament
standard and therefore be the last, or final, reformation. No reformation
can make good such claim if it does not proceed on whole-church lines or
principles. If a reform does progress on those universal principles, we
need look no farther for, nor await future years to reveal, the final
reformation resulting in the restoration of all things to the Scriptural
ideal.
The errors of the religious world are, and have been,
the failure to so preach salvation truth that people may obtain and enjoy
full deliverance from sin; failure to conform to the divine standard on
all lines; the human ecclesiastical system, which hinders Holy Spirit
organization and government; and separation of God's people into parties,
thus making true church relation impossible. A movement that comprehends
a correction of all these, and meets the Scriptural standard, must
therefore fill the measure of reform.
Reader, it is claimed for the movement represented in
the teaching and labors of D. S. Warner, that it possesses these elements
of finality, that by it God is bringing his people "out of all
places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day" of
Protestant sectism, and is restoring Zion as at first. It is not assumed
that Brother Warner was right on every point of doctrine or in every
application of a Scriptural text, but that the movement, in addition to
being based on correct Scriptural principles otherwise, possesses that
flexibility and spirit of progress by which it adjusts itself as God
gives light.
1. It teaches the Scriptural process of salvation, by
which people may obtain a real deliverance from sin and have the Holy
Spirit as a witness to their salvation.
2. The truth only, and obedience thereto, is its
motto; and it recognizes the rule of the Holy Spirit in the organization
and government of the church.
3. It does not assume to possess all the truth, but
stands committed thereto, holding an open door to the entrance of any
further light and truth.
4. The spirit of the movement is to acknowledge good
wherever found and to regard no door into the church other than salvation
and no test of fellowship other than true Christianity possessed within
the heart.
Thus its basis is as narrow as the New Testament on
the one hand, and as broad as the New Testament on the other. May it ever
go forward on this line in the spread of the truth to all the
world.
ANOTHER VIEW OF SECTS
In order to a clearer understanding of the reformation
which took definite form in the work of D. S. Warner, as well as why he
denounced the sectarian spirit in such scathing terms, let us take
further notice of the evil of sect institutions.
In the first place, sects are confusing in that, while
necessarily bad as factions, they are associated more or less with good.
Many of them in their origin followed reform movements which apparently
had divine sanction and were progressive in Christianity, and many of
them have upheld truth which when preached was productive of good and
brought salvation results. But here it should be noted, that whatever of
salvation work has been accomplished has been directly by the Spirit of
God in individuals, quite apart from any sectarian agency. It must be
said, too, that whatever has resulted from Christian endeavor or
influence and expenditure of means, whether in home or foreign lands,
would have been in greater degree had the church back of these efforts
been one spiritual whole instead of many sectarian divisions. So, when we
come to apply analysis to this question of sects, we find that they are
in no sense good. That they are called churches is but the part of
confusion, for in the popular mind and in actual practice it tends to
identify sects with the divine church, whereas in Scripture church always
means something other than sects. Bodies that are differentiated by the
isms of men are not, and never can be, Scripturally churches, for except
in the local geographical sense the church takes no plural form. There is
a distinction between the true people of God as constituting the divine
church and the human institutions called churches that have divided them
and placed them in unnatural and unscriptural relations. The true church
of God, by virtue of comprising all the saved and therefore being a unit,
places sects in comparison only as false churches. A commentator
truthfully remarks, "False Christendom divided into very many sects
is truly Babylon, that is, confusion." (Jamieson, Fausset, and
Brown's Commentary.) Thus sects, because they are a hindrance to proper
Christian activity and because they present a spectacle of religious
confusion, professing to be churches when they can only be false, are
bad.
This is no disparagement of the many noble men and
women of God who have been connected with sects and have gone on to their
heavenly reward, whose accomplished good was from the divine source and
not from the sectarian. They may have honestly loved their sect, but in
this they were honestly misplacing their love. It was the religious
association with their fellow Christians that they loved, and this, had
they only known it, was not enhanced but rather hindered by the sectarian
distinction. They will not find these distinctions in heaven. If they
really loved the sect, they had to leave that love behind, for it could
not be included with such Christian excellence as entitled them to
heaven. Thus our good parents and grandparents and the long line of
reformers and Christian worthies receive their heavenly reward quite
independent of the sectarian institutions that divided them here.
EVIL OF SECTS IN POSITIVE
LIGHT
We have shown why sects are bad in rather a negative
light, as being confusion and therefore a hindrance to proper Christian
representation in the world. They are evil in a more positive sense, and
it was because of this that God prompted Brother Warner and others in the
reform to utter such sharp judgment against them. Any body of Christian
people that arises and fails to qualify on all principles that mark the
church of God as a whole, that proceeds to human organization and rule
instead of recognizing only Holy Spirit organization and government, at
once limits itself and becomes thereby a sect, a false representation of
the church. As a false church it is soon a corrupt institution in which
human pride and every element contrary to God may exist and become
active. The human will, intended for the rule of our bodies and things
terrestrial, things which belong to man's province, becomes sadly out of
place when exercised in any sphere or capacity that belongs to God. In
such sphere it becomes a rival of God, a monster evil of great
proportions, a distinctive satanic spirit, always opposing the true work
of God.
BEASTLY CHARACTER IN
PROPHECY
This man rule in a province to which God alone has
rightful claim (for indeed it exercises the prerogative of God when it
presumes to direct God's work and people) has characterized all
Protestant sectism just as it did Roman Catholicism, only in milder
aspect. Man rule is represented in prophetic symbols by beastly
character, whether it applies to political or ecclesiastical government.
Thus in the 7th chapter of Daniel we have the symbols of four great
beasts, representing in their respective order four universal kingdoms,
as follows: Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. These were temporal
powers that ruled the world. When a mere temporal power is indicated the
prophetic symbol used is a dumb beast. If a beast or any part of such
symbol is represented as speaking or exercising human propensities, then
the thing indicated is also an ecclesiastical power. Thus the fourth
beast in Daniel 7, which represents the Roman Empire, exercises first as
a dumb animal; but directly a particular horn appears among the horns of
this beast, and is given eyes to see and a mouth to speak great things,
which indicates ecclesiastical exercise, so that we have here Rome first
as a heathen power, and then as a so-called Christian power speaking
great things, making war against the saints, etc.
In Revelation 13 we find this same Roman Catholic
power represented by a beast to whom was given "a mouth speaking
great things and blasphemies" and power "to make war with the
saints and to overcome them." These anthropomorphic qualities given
to a beast indicate man rule in ecclesiastical matters, a thing which is
at once blasphemy in God's sight, utterly obnoxious and foreign to
him.
PROTESTANTISM IN REVELATION
13
Beginning with the 11th verse of Revelations 13,
directly after the prophecy of the Roman Catholic hierarchic power, we
have the spectacle of a second beast, having two horns like a lamb but
speaking as a dragon. The fact that he speaks gives him the quality of
ecclesiastical rule. In this beast we have man rule in the form of
Protestantism. He has a lamb-like aspect instead of the vicious,
threatening character of Rome in the days of her power; but he has the
voice of a dragon, which betrays his diabolical spirit. He exercises as
much power in the world as Roman Catholicism did before him. He deceives
by doing great wonders," displaying spiritual manifestations. He
causes people to worship the first beast (Catholicism) by copying its
standards and doing reverence to a human ecclesiastical system; and an
image to the first beast is made whenever a sect is organized. He causes
the image to "speak" (exercise man rule) and to persecute those
who, instead of bowing to the sect image, are disposed to exercise in
their spiritual freedom and give allegiance alone to God.
Thus we see so-called Protestantism as a particular
form of beast religion, a distinctive spirit that animates and dominates
the sectarian system. The beast element is the man rule. We are not
speaking merely of human instrumentality, which God certainly uses in his
church when the will is wholly submitted to him and susceptible to his
Spirit, but of that exercise and dominance in ecclesiastical matters
which, as apart from God, is distinctly human. Such prevails more or less
as a system in all sects, gives occasion for jealousy, pride, and
emulation, wants to be let alone, and opposes any reform that threatens
it. This is the element which naturally becomes disturbed at the
preaching of the truth that exposes it, and which became a persecuting
power against Brother Warner and all who executed the divine judgment
against false religion. In this deceptive form of evil covering almost
four hundred years Satan has had his seat. When the present reformation
shall have resulted in bringing God's people out of sectarian divisions
and placing them on the whole-church basis, Satan, driven to some new
project, will muster the Gog and Magog forces in a last conflict against
the saints, which shall end with the utter destruction of those forces by
the judgment fires.
We have, then, Protestantism represented in two
aspects: 1. As a period during which truth by a succession of reform
movements has to a considerable extent been recovered from apostasy and
restored to God's people. 2. As a system of false religion, a form of
spiritual Babylon that is pervaded by a satanic spirit that deceives the
world and opposes any effort to restore the church of God to her
Scriptural unity, since such effort naturally threatens the
ecclesiastical element lying at the base of organized sectarianism.
A DISPENSATION OF GOD
We apprehend, then, that wondrous times have come upon
us. Great ecclesiastical systems are crumbling and are being left
destitute as God's people make their escape. This movement proceeds with
no show of prominence in the world. It causes no political disturbance,
but works only in the province of genuine Christianity, silently,
effectively, as the leaven in the meal. It is altogether a spiritual
movement and its discernment can therefore only be spiritual. It may
appear outwardly as only one religious body among many; for it is only
when judged by the spiritual standard of God's word that its character is
seen. It is a call to those who are willing to be led of God.
The dispensations of God are in their beginning often
insignificant and despised in man's eyes. God chooses things that are
not, to bring to naught things that are. The fact that Brother Warner S
work was done in comparative obscurity counts for nothing against its
being the work of God. It is quality that counts. Brother Warner had the
right spiritual quality, the secret of which was letting God have his
way. His entire abandonment to God in a complete consecration, together
with his adaptable temperament and gifts, made him suitable for God's use
in this great work, and God chose him. The time was at hand. Others,
contemporary with him and leaders in the holiness movement, saw the evils
of sects and deplored them, but when it came to renouncing their
sectarian affiliations and coming out of the spiritual Babylon in
obedience to God's call, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues," they
drew back. This point of leaving the sects, abiding in Christ alone and
allowing God to reestablish his church on the primitive basis, was the
real test. They longed for the time when God's people should all be one,
but chose to believe that the time was not yet. And so they have been
believing for forty years, and are today in the greater confusion. They
lacked the spiritual equipment. One of Brother Warner's special
endowments was that of considerable light on the prophecies. He saw that
the sectarian denominations were of the true spiritual Babylon in which
God's people were being held captive. He also had in the Spirit the
prospective vision of the pure church un-ruled by man. His contemporary
leaders who opposed him were too blind spiritually to have such a vision;
or, if they had it, were disobedient to it.
But there were those, the humble ones, who were
willing to let God have his way. At the sound of the trumpet, which God
was giving through Brother Warner thousands have rallied to the standard
of truth, and through them the truth has been and is being vindicated. If
God has his way all Christians will be led out of sects, all justified
believers will be led into sanctification, the church will be perfectly
organized and governed by the Holy Spirit, the whole truth will be
preached uncompromisingly, full salvation will be held out to the world,
and all will be led to cooperate and do their part. This is the full
measure of Christianity today, and is God's design with his people. Here
is true Christian unity. Such unity can come only by absolute abandonment
to God, for he must be the one-making agent. Men may attempt a unity
through some Interchurch World Movement or other plan, but no plan can
represent the true Scriptural unity unless God does the work himself. He
must have the full right of way in human hearts.
Brother Warner's mission was strictly that of a
reformer. It was his part to venture boldly with the truth God had given
him, with a willingness to run the gauntlet of persecutions that were
sure to greet him on the right and left. His severe denunciation of all
things sectarian was consistent with his pioneer position. There first
had to be an awakening, a breaking up of old conditions, particularly of
the recognition (into which the minds of people generally had settled) of
the sects as being the church of God. His work was the initial, or birth,
stage of the reform.
Following the initial stage has come the constructive,
which comprehends the reformation in the local sense, the sense in which
the Christian life and true ideal of the church must be exemplified in
the community as something more than theory, something that will appeal
as being better than what is represented in the sects. The constructive
stage calls not so much for continual denunciation of sects as for
manifesting those essential principles that characterize the church in
her unity and entirety. The responsibility is to make good the claim, and
this means much. Any tendency to establish traditions, or to regard a past
course as giving direction in all respects for the future, or to become
self-centered and manifest a we are it" spirit and bar the door of
progress against the entrance of further light and truth, or in any way
to refuse fellowship with any others who may be Christians, would itself
be sectarian, altogether unlike the true reformation, which, if it be
final, must necessarily be a restoration and possess universal
characteristics.
For proper representation everything depends upon the
understanding of, and the attitude toward, this great movement. For any
body of people to hold that the reformation is entrusted to them, or that
they have become the standard for the world, is a self-centered attitude,
vastly different from that which regards the reformation as something
prophetically due, as having come independent of man, and as being
greater than the people who have been favored with its light, and that it
is their part to conform to if in principle, doctrine, and everything.
The great movement is in the world, and any attempt to "corner"
it or to limit it to a particular body of people could only result in
making that body a sect, or faction, while the movement itself would
proceed independently.
The true spirit of the reformation will be, however,
with those who measure to its standard, whether they be few or many, and
God will manifest himself accordingly. Satan has tried to becloud and
defeat the movement by counterfeit factions--bodies of people who profess
to be on the reformation line, but who misrepresent the truth by denying
some part of it, as, for instance, the doctrine of entire sanctification
in this life, or of the Christian ordinances, or who misrepresent it by
advancing erroneous doctrine, such as the continuation of the Old
Testament law and Sabbath, or the speaking in tongues as a necessary
evidence of having received the Holy Ghost. Many are the counterfeit
movements today. One must ignore every influence of man and then rely on
the witness of both the Word and the Spirit in order to be guided
aright.
Brother Warner was a remarkable example of a man
possessing the Christian spirit and the Christian graces wonderfully
developed. While he could rebuke evil and deceptive influences in the
strongest terms, he was one of the meekest and kindest of men.
Christ-like, he loved all men, even his persecutors. As a husband,
father, Christian brother and friend his love and respect were genuine
and reached to the very soul. And yet the responsibility of his calling
as a Christian and as a minister of God's truth as it applied to his
time, he held more dear than all else, and to it he was wholly devoted.
Not with any object of exalting the man, but to illustrate what God can
accomplish in and through one who is so devoted, we introduce him to our
readers.
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Chapter 2
ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE
Among those who fought in the second war against Great
Britain was one Adam Warner, who was born in Virginia, and whose father
was Christofel Warner. In this period of our national history a great
tide of emigration from the Atlantic States was spreading itself over
what is now the Middle West. Adam Warner seemed to catch the spirit of
the times, and accordingly, in 1815, he set out with his family for the
new country beyond the Alleghanies. He settled in Stark County, Ohio,
where, about the year 1845, he died, at ninety-three years of age (a
history of Williams County, Ohio, says ninety-eight, and that he had a
sister who lived to the advanced age of one hundred and three). It is
probable that before moving west Adam Warner lived for a while in
Frederick County, Maryland., for there is where his son David was born,
June 6, 1803.
David Warner, after moving to Stark County, was
married, in 1823, to Leah Dierdorf, who was born in York County,
Pennsylvania., February 6, 1805. In 1830 he moved to Wayne County, Ohio,
and a little later to Portage County, then back to Wayne County in 1836,
to a place then called Bristol, where he kept a tavern for eight years.
Of the parentage of David and Leah Warner, at their humble abode at
Bristol, on June 25, 1842, amid the environment of tavern life, was born
Daniel S. Warner, destined to be one of the principal instruments in
God's hands to produce a shaking in the ranks of spiritual Israel, and to
lead the hosts of the Lord back to Zion from their wanderings in the
wilderness of denominationalism.
The children of David and Leah, in order, were as
follows: Adam, Lewis, Joseph, John, Daniel, and Samantha. John died at
the age of twenty, leaving but the five children. All are now deceased. A
granddaughter says that the family was Pennsylvania German. Evidently the
mother was. The father, as already noted, was a Virginian.
It was the misfortune of Daniel S. to be frail,
sickly, and to a great extent unappreciated, from his very birth. His
lungs were weak and he was denied that stock of vitality with which every
child has the right to begin life. Intoxicants were freely used in those
days, and David Warner had fallen an easy prey to intemperance. If the
affliction of this infant may not be ascribed to paternal indiscreetness,
possibly inebriety, it is not because such instances were uncommon. Into
how many homes has the demon of strong drink entered to bring sorrow to
the wife and mother and to curse the unborn with the blight of its
baneful effects! In this case, at any rate, the father was rough, and
inconsiderate of his offspring. While he exercised toward his family a
degree of temporal care, it seemed that the very frailty of this child,
which should have awakened compassion, met only his frown and disfavor.
In later years Daniel, in reflecting on the circumstances attending his
birth and childhood, wrote the following lines, which are a part of his
poem on Innocence:
Conceived in sin, to sorrow
born,
Unwelcome here on earth,
The shadows of a life
forlorn
Filing gloomy o'er my
birth.
A mother's heart oppressed
with grief,
A father 's wicked
spleen,
Who cursed my faint and
gasping breath,
Combine to paint the
scene.
But life held on its tender
thread,
Days unexpected grew
To weeks, and still he
lived--
Why, Heaven only knew.
He lived, though life was
bitter gain,
His youth a flood of
tears,
His body doomed to cruel
pain,
His mind to nervous
fears.
In contrast with this paternal attitude, however, was
the constancy of a truehearted mother. Blessed with this and endowed with
indelible memories of a mother's devotion, what child growing up to cope
with life's obstacles may not, after all, hold a chance of succeeding,
however handicapped otherwise? If ever any planting bears fruit in the
human breast, or becomes a latent force tending to guide one steadily
through life's dangerous rapids, it is that of a mother's love.
Especially is this true of the love of a Christian mother, coupled with
her prayers.
Mrs. Warner was an excellent woman. Her patient and
gentle bearing under disturbing conditions, her disposition to make the
best of disappointment and discouragement, left an impress, not only upon
the family, but upon the neighborhood. Her kindness is referred to in two
other stanzas of the poem Innocence:
If angels blessed his thorny
path,
It may be said in truth,
But two e'er showed their
smiling face
In all his suffering
youth.
One was his mother, ever
kind,
A blessed providence;
The other, pure and lovely
friend,
Was angel Innocence.
It has been true generally that great men have first
had great mothers. But what is a mother's greatness, after all, but
simple, unalloyed, Christian motherliness?
"I should have become an atheist but for one
recollection, and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother
used to take my little hand in hers and cause me on my knees to say, 'Our
Father, who art in heaven.'"--John Randolph.
"All I am, all I hope to be, I owe to my angel
mother--blessings on her memory! I remember my mother's prayers. They
have always followed me. They clung to me all my
life."--Lincoln.
"If my mother could rise in the dead of the night
and pray for my recovery from sickness, my life must be worth something.
I then and there resolved to prove myself worthy of my mother's
prayers."--Garfield.
"It is to my mother that I owe everything. If I
am thy child, O my God, it is because thou gavest me such a mother. If I
prefer the truth to all things, it is the fruit of my mother's teachings.
If I did not perish long ago in sin and misery, it is because of the long
and faithful years which she pleaded for me. What comparison is there
between the honor I paid her and her slavery for me?"--St.
Augustine.
One more tribute. In his book “Bible Proofs of the
Second Work of Grace,” published in 1880, Daniel S. Warner places the
following dedicatory note: "To the sacred memory of my sainted
mother, whose tender affections were the only solace in my suffering
childhood, and whose never-failing love, and whose pure and innocent life
were the only stars that shone in the darkness of my youth, this volume
is respectfully dedicated by the author."
From Wayne County, David Warner brought his family, in
1843, to a farm of 140 acres near New Washington, Crawford County, Ohio.
The house, built partly of logs, stood three fourths of a mile southwest
of the village. It was here that Daniel spent his childhood. Of this
period he writes:
It seemed the special pleasure
of
Another certain one
To quite demolish
everything
He set his heart upon;
To chafe his spirit and
extort
The flow of bitter tears
Out of a soft and pensive
heart;
Through all his tender
years.
He never knew that
"Father" was
A sweet, endearing name;
Its very mention was a dread,
His life's most deadly
bane.
The demon of intemp'rance
there
Infused the wrath of
hell,
And most upon this sickly
head
The storm of fury fell.
Like chickens when the mother
bird
Gives signal of a foe,
The little peeps are quickly
hushed,
All chicks are lying
low,
So, when returning from the
town,
The dreaded steps we
heard,
All ran and quickly settled
down,
And not a lip was
stirred.
O horrors of the liquor
fiend!
We've seen thy hell on
earth.
Thy serpent coils around us
twined,
The moment of our birth.
O Rum! thy red infernal
flame--
I witness to the truth--
Filled all my mother's cup
with pain,
And swallowed up my
youth.
The Warner family, though clever, straightforward, and
strictly honest, were but a simple rural folk and not inclined to
religion. That such a bright spiritual light as was afterward exhibited
in Daniel could come from such a family is one of the puzzling questions
of blood relation. Was it that in the family blood there was latent
quality which in his case only was near enough to the surface to he
called into action and developed by higher influence? or should it be
said that he represents a variation in the strain, such as is sometimes
seen in biological observation? If the latter, the mystery remains; for
why do such things occur? Aside from natural phenomena, we believe that
Brother Warner was a "chosen vessel" unto the Lord. He
possessed such a combination of qualities as made him capable of high
development in the divine graces. He was a Christian whom perhaps none
other ever lived who was more reverent, spiritual, and devoted; and God
had a special work for him.
BOYHOOD CHARACTERISTICS
In his boyhood Daniel early displayed a gift of
entertainment and of public speaking. The school in his district was
ungraded. On occasions of entertainment, such as the last day of school,
after the younger children had spoken their "pieces" and the
program began to grow monotonous, a call would be made for Dan Warner.
Then he would take the floor and soon would have them convulsing with
merriment. Mischievousness and clownishness were traits. The trouble he
sometimes caused the teacher was frequently such that the latter could
not locate it nor determine just who was to blame. When he would be stood
on the floor he would soon have others with him. On one occasion he did
something for which he was sentenced to a scourging. When he appeared at
school the next morning he was prepared for this contingency by having on
two or three coats. He was, however, bright in his studies and in a
general way sociable and well liked.
The community in which he lived was strongly
democratic in politics. His father, a staunch democrat, actually had a
degree of pride in his boy when the latter would make stump speeches
during a campaign. It was natural for Dan to mount a store box on the
street or anywhere and address a crowd on the issues of the day. In later
years, however, when he became a minister and his oratorical abilities
were directed in the channel of preaching the gospel, his father was not
pleased.
Among the sports in which he indulged was coon
hunting. On finding a coon tree at night he and his companion would cover
themselves with a coon robe and lie under the tree until morning. He got
to be rather wild, and took particular delight in the dance, but never
indulged in the lowest forms of sin.
These are but brevities of his boyhood career. It is
difficult to prepare an account of this part of his life that would be to
any considerable degree full. One accident, by which he was maimed for
life, should here be noted. He attempted to remove a bunch of grass that
had clogged the sickle of a mowing-machine. As he was in this act the
team started and the ends of two of his fingers, the middle ones of the
left hand, were suddenly clipped off. Fortunately the loss of these
members did not hinder him in writing nor was it a disfigurement usually
noticed in his preaching.
There was one more move for the David Warner family,
and this was to Williams County, Ohio, the northwest corner of the State,
where, in Bridgewater Township, about four miles north of the town of
Montpelier, farm life was resumed. Here the parents spent the rest of
their lives. The removal to this place was made in 1863, during the Civil
War. Joseph Warner was drafted for the army. Being a man of a family, he
desired to arrange for a substitute. For this Daniel offered himself, and
accordingly became a private in Company C, 195th Regiment, Ohio Infantry.
Little is known of his army experience. It is said that he found favor
with the Captain and was made his clerk, or secretary. At the close of
his term he was honorably discharged.
While living in Williams County, the occupation of
teaching school appealed to him, and for several terms he was an
instructor of the young in matters of common-school education. He was now
in his early twenties. But here we shall close this chapter, and
introduce him in our next in a different aspect.
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Chapter 3
CONVERSION, COLLEGE, AND
CALLING
It is natural that the question of religion should
present itself to a young man or woman when approaching maturity. It is
then that life is full of prospects, when one plans and builds for the
future. It is then that opinions are formed, and there is an inclination
to reach some kind of decision, for the time being at least, regarding
every issue. One reaches this parting of the ways and the question comes,
"Which road shall I take?" The answer, so far as religion is
concerned, depends to some extent on what one has observed in those who make
a profession, though it is true that the influence of the Holy Spirit
alone--that monitor who makes his appeal to the inner
consciousness--sometimes decides the question.
The community at New Washington, where the Warner
family lived, was strongly Catholic and Lutheran. There was too much
whisky and tobacco and too little of genuine Christianity for a
convincing testimony in favor of the latter. As for Dan Warner, he
thought to decide the question of religion by trying to be an infidel.
But of course he had not considered that God might speak to him and
convince him against his will. He naturally possessed a tender
conscience, a capacity to exalt righteousness and a susceptibility to
right spiritual influence.
And so we find him on reaching the age of maturity
trying to believe there was nothing in Christianity; but at this his
success was poor. There were certain persons within his field of
acquaintance whose Christian piety made its impression. Then again, there
was the influence of song. He had a good voice and found enjoyment in
engaging in song with the young people. On a Sunday afternoon, at a
neighbor's, where a number were gathered and were singing gospel hymns,
he became greatly affected. God spoke to his conscience. His conviction
was so strong as to cause him for several months to lose his love for the
dance and to reflect seriously on his course of life. It was his turning
point so far as infidelity was concerned.
But after a few months, when the conviction had worn
away somewhat, he began to renew his attendance at dances and apparently
to be more reckless than ever regarding his spiritual well being. His
heart, however, was yet tender from the wound made by the spirit of
conviction. One night during a severe illness of his sister he attended a
dance. After he had returned home at two o'clock in the morning, his
mother went to his room and expostulated with her boy regarding his
sinful career. Here again is where a mother's part played effectively. As
she reasoned with him on his wrong conduct, his going to a dance while
his sister--his only sister--lay at the point of death, and his offence
against a just God, before whom he must one day stand in judgment, the
depths of his heart were broken up and he fell on his knees and called
for mercy.
From that time he was deeply convicted though to his
companions he gave no evidence of a changed life, as he had not received
the new birth. With some young friends he began to attend a protracted
meeting in a schoolhouse not far from his home. The meeting was one of
power, and sinners were made to reflect on the question of their souls'
salvation. On their way home one night his companions were expressing
their opinions as to religion, what it was, etc. One of them, addressing
Dan, said, "What do you think it is?" He replied, "I am
going to find out." Knowing him to be prankish the others supposed
he meant to play some trick, and as they separated wondered to themselves
what Dan could have up his sleeve. Not until he had gone forward to the
altar the next evening and they had seen him rise a changed young man
with the peace of God in his countenance did they take his words and
actions seriously.
The date of this, his conversion, was February 1865.
He refers to the event some years later as follows: "Passed once
more the old schoolhouse where I gave my heart to God (February, 1865).
Thank God for that step! Oh, how glad I am it was ever my lot to become a
Christian!"
Another item of interest relating to this time was his
engagement to Frances Stocking, reference to which in his diary for June
11, 1874, the reader will find on another page.
One quality that was manifest in Brother Warner's
early religious life as well as throughout his entire career was
earnestness. He was sincere and intense in his devotion and his Christian
work. We shall find as we read the notes from his diary that his words
breathe a spirit of love and devotion, evincing a deep spirituality. When
he yielded to God, he meant it as the decision of his very soul, and his
conversion was for him an actual change for time and eternity. Old things
were passed away. New propositions and prospects arose to occupy his
thoughts.
ATTENDS OBERLIN COLLEGE
What ideals and plans were his immediately after his
conversion we do not know. It was not long, however, until he decided
that a more advanced education was needful. Nothing will give a young
person nobler ambitions and greater desire to rise to all that is good
and associated with usefulness than Christianity. On the 5th of September
of the same year of his conversion he started to school at Oberlin
College and enrolled for an English preparatory course. The details of
his study at Oberlin and just how long he remained have not been learned.
An old memorandum of his accounts indicates that he attended there only
two months at first, and then taught school through the winter at
Corunna, Indiana, returning to Oberlin in the spring, and that he started
again with the new school year in September, 1866. It is known, however,
that his excellency of character shone while he was at school and was the
subject of remark.
He did not attend college as long as he had expected
to; for it was while he was there that he began to feel God's hand upon
him for the ministry. When he saw how long it would take to complete his
college work and the need of laboring in the Lord's harvest while it was
day, he felt impressed that God wanted him to cut short his college
course and to prepare at once for the ministry. He accordingly went home,
arranged for a room in his father's house, and spent one season there in
applying himself to prayer. Bible study, and those other things which he
believed were directly necessary to his ministerial preparation.
Preparation for the ministry is more successful when,
along with it, there can be more or less of actual practice. We can
believe that Brother Warner was spiritual enough to keep in touch with
God and to discern the divine leading in the important matter to which he
had committed himself. At any rate, in connection with his work of
preparation he began to engage in ministering the gospel. He preached his
first sermon on Easter night, 1867, in a Methodist Episcopal protracted
meeting in the Cogswell Schoolhouse, not far from where he lived. Text,
Acts 3:18--"But those things, which God before had showed by the
mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so
fulfilled."
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Chapter 4
CHURCH OF GOD
(WINEBRENNERIAN)
At the time of his first effort in the ministry, which
occurred more than two years after his conversion, Brother Warner had not
as yet given his name to any religious society. To join a sectarian
denomination is never by divine prompting, but is urged from human
source. A young convert possessing the spirit of Christ is naturally at
home in the Lord and with Christians anywhere. It is foreign to that
spirit for one to limit oneself by subscribing to any particular creed of
men. Accordingly, our young brother was only "acting natural"
when he manifested no particular anxiety to "join the church."
Representatives of the denominations in his neighborhood proposed to him
and presented their articles of faith. The fact that he referred the
great question to the Scriptures and could see no authority for joining
anything not recognized in the Scriptures shows that he was already poor
material for sectarian construction, at least so far as the common
arguments for sects go.
There was one society, however, by which he was
persuaded. The followers of John Winebrenner called themselves the Church
of God. As they professed to hold to no creed but the Bible, repudiated
sectarianism, baptized by immersion, and observed as an ordinance the
washing of feet in conjunction with the Lord's Supper, all of which
seemed good to him, and especially as they had the exact New Testament
name for the true church, he was constrained to unite with that body. The
mark of fellowship which differentiated them from other Christians and
constituted them a sect was not apparent to him, and so, even during the
many years of his earlier ministerial career, he identified this body
with the true church. He said in later years that he had more liberty as
a minister before he took that step than he had during the years he
belonged to the denomination, which after all was but a sect.
The Church of God, spelled with a capital C, and more
fully denominated General Eldership of the Churches of God in North
America, was founded by John Winebrenner in 1830. Winebrenner had been
baptized and confirmed in the German Reformed Church (now the Reformed
Church in the United States), and was given the pastorate at Harrisburg.
He was a good man and the work of the ministry became the uppermost
desire of his heart. He sought to raise the standard of true piety. His
earnest preaching resulted in a revival in which he opposed theaters,
dancing, gambling, lotteries, and racing. Revivals of religion were new
experiences in the churches of that region, so that his ministry awakened
strong opposition, which resulted in official charges against him. He
severed his relations with the Reformed Church but continued his
ministry, extensive revivals following.
Dr. C. H. Forney, in his History of the Churches of
God, says, Winebrenner did not entertain the purpose of founding a
new denomination. These bodies he stigmatized as sects. Professor Nevin
called the United Brethren and like bodies "rolling balls," and
accused Winebrenner with "putting in motion a similar ball, which
continues rolling to this hour (1842), not without abundance of noise."
Winebrenner denounced this as gross misrepresentation. "But, sir, I
did not retire for the ignoble purpose, as you have intimated, of putting
another sectarian ball in motion. No, not at all. I had seen, through
mercy, the great evil of these rolling balls, put in motion and kept in
motion by the cunning craftiness of men and devils, and how by their
repeated and unhappy collusions they hindered and marred the work of God
in the earth; and, therefore, I resolved to fall back upon original
grounds--to stand aloof from all these sectarian balls, and to do the
work of an evangelist and minister of Christ by building up the church of
God (the only true church) according to the plan and pattern as shown us
in the New Testament. This is the high and firm ground we take. Our ball,
therefore, is not like your ball, nor similar to other human balls. Ours
is the Lord's ball. It was not cut out of the Romish Church by the hands
of Calvin and others as was yours. But it was 'cut out of the mountain
without hands.' The ball commenced rolling upwards of eighteen hundred
years ago, and it continues rolling to this hour; yea, and it will never
cease rolling till every other man-made ball shall he either crushed or
rolled up by it, and until the sound of it shall be 'like the sound of
many waters, and as the voice of great thunder.'
On the subject of organization the same writer
continues, Winebrenner was indisposed to begin the organization of
churches. The uniform testimony of his contemporaries is that he
"had not at the beginning the remotest idea of organizing a distinct
or separate body of people." But driven out of the pulpit by the
Reformed Church, ostracized and persecuted, he was led to a closer
personal investigation of church polity. He went to the highest source
for light. He applied himself with singleness of purpose to the study of
the Word of God. The result was a material modification of his former
views on ecclesiology. As he himself testified later: "As the
writer's views had by this time materially changed as to the true nature
of a Scriptural organization of churches, he adopted the apostolic plan,
as taught in the New Testament, and established spiritual, free, and
independent churches, consisting of believers or Christians only, without
any human name or creed or ordinances or laws." The local church was
the unit. It possessed perfect autonomy. It was wholly independent of
every other unit. Each such unit "possesses in its organized
state," as Winebrenner expressed it in 1829, "sufficient power
to perform all acts of religious worship and everything relating to
ecclesiastic government and discipline. Every individual church is
strictly independent of all others as it respects religious worship and
the general government of its own affairs." Fellowship between these
"free and independent" units there would be, but no higher
organization was then recognized by Winebrenner which could limit the
powers of the local church. Each of these local organizations would
accept no human name, creed, nor ordinances; but would adopt the divine
name and creed and ordinances. In his broad platform he saw a basis of
the union of all Christians and churches. And so the imperative duty of
cultivating union between all believers was strongly urged. These views
prepared the way for Winebrenner to fall in with the growing demand for
local church organization. For the multitudes of converts had
"conceived the idea of, and began to talk about, organizing
themselves into churches founded on Bible doctrines and principles even
before Winebrenner had determined in his own mind to do so."
Thus there were independent local churches organized
in and around Harrisburg, which Winebrenner denominated simply Churches
of God. Each assumed the name of "Church of God at ______." The
members of these churches had equal rights, and elected and licensed men
to preach.
ORGANIZATION OF
ELDERSHIPS
There was as yet no common bonds, no general
organization or directing authority. In order to effect this and adopt a
regular system of cooperation, a meeting was held at Harrisburg in
October 1830, attended by six of the licensed ministers. Of this meeting
Winebrenner writes, "Thus originated the Church of God, properly so
called, in the United States of America, and thus also originated the
first Eldership." This organized body assumed no other name than
Eldership, though later the term General Eldership was used to
distinguish this body from the eldership of the local church. The term
General Eldership was, however, applied at first only to the presbyteries
or Elderships of sections or States, which held their sessions annually.
In October 1844, Winebrenner proposed a General Eldership for the
transaction of all business of a general nature affecting the various
annual Elderships. It was provided that this General Eldership should
hold its meetings triennially for the first twenty years and after that
every five years. Thus we see that by this time Winebrenner's views of
church government were still further modified.
The work continued to grow and spread to adjoining
counties and to Maryland, western Pennsylvania, and Ohio, where
Elderships were organized.
Each local church elects its own elders and deacons,
who with the pastor constitute the church council and are the governing
power, having charge of the admission of members and the general care of
the church work. The churches within a given district are associated
together for cooperation in general work. The pastors and other ordained
ministers within a district, together with an equal number of lay
members, constitute the Annual Eldership, which appoints the ministers of
the various charges. Each local church votes for a pastor, but the Annual
Eldership makes the appointments within its own boundaries. These Annual
Elderships elect an equal number of ministerial and lay delegates, who
constitute the General Eldership.
The Churches of God, as already stated, have no
written creed but assume to accept the Word of God as their only rule of
faith and practice. They hold the doctrine of the Trinity, believe in
human depravity, the atonement of Christ, justification by faith, the
resurrection, future punishment, and are, in general, orthodox. Through
these articles of their faith, and the fact that they took the Scriptural
name, Church of God, the followers of Winebrenner made their appeal to D.
S. Warner. But they were lacking in some very important particulars,
without which they could not possibly be, as was claimed, identical with
the New Testament church. Winebrenner started out well, but on the
subject of Holy Spirit organization and government he was not
sufficiently illumined to avoid more or less of the human ecclesiastical
authority which crept into the body of his followers and constituted them
a sect. When holiness came they repudiated it, thereby revealing their position
as outside the Holy Spirit control of believers. However, their teaching
on the church question was correct as far as it went, and it took years
of actual practice of obeying the lead of the Spirit to discover to
Brother Warner and others the clash between the Holy Spirit rule and the
rule of human authority.
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Chapter 5
FIRST YEARS IN MINISTRY
Brother Warner had the right view of ministerial
qualification. He realized that in order to succeed he must have the
spiritual anointing, and that since it was God's work it was needful that
he be in that divine relation by which it would be God in him
accomplishing the result. He held education to be very useful and it was
his endeavor throughout his life to add to his knowledge; but he regarded
the spiritual qualification as paramount. He soon proved to be gifted as
an evangelist and engaged much in evangelistic work.
Before proceeding far in active ministerial work he
was married, on the 5th of September 1867, to Tamzen Ann Kerr. It is
probable that he became acquainted with this young woman while he was
teaching school in the vicinity of her home, which was near West Unity,
Williams County. She lived to enjoy his companionship and to share his
labors only about four and one half years. Early in 1872 she gave birth
to triplets, which lived only a few hours. Nor did the mother long
survive the ordeal, as she died on May 26, after a succession of spasms.
A family record in an old Bible shows also the birth of a son, on
December 29, 1868, but fails to record his death. Brother Warner refers
to this son once in his diary.
He was granted a license by the West Ohio Eldership,
which met in its eleventh annual session at Findlay in October 1867. His
reference to this event in his diary is given in another part of this
book. In this chapter as well as in some of the succeeding chapters, the
copious extracts from Brother Warner's diary will give the reader a
better understanding of his character, his temperament, his spirituality
and devotion, and his work, than would description by another.
Unfortunately these journal records for the first five years of his
ministry (for it is assumed that he kept such records), which no doubt
would be very interesting, are not available. All the information to be
obtained covering this period is from those still living who had personal
knowledge of the events, and from references to this period in his later
records. In one of these he says he began traveling in 1868. In another
he refers to having labored the first year in Hancock County, at
Blanchard Bethel, in connection with Findlay.
During the first six years of his ministry his
activities covered practically all of northwestern Ohio and a small
portion of Indiana. Persons now living who were present in some of his revivals
during this period state that they were remarkable for manifestations of
God's power. Hard-hearted sinners, some of whom had not attended a
meeting for years, would get under conviction and cry audibly for mercy.
He ranked high as an evangelist--above the average of his day. In
physical appearance he was slightly above average in height, rather
slender and frail in build. His temperament was sanguine--nervous, eyes
blue, hair brown--a fine sensitive organization. He wore a full beard,
which in later years he kept shortly trimmed. He had the perfect bearing
of a minister of the gospel, and his speech and conduct were fully
consistent. His mentality was keen. His lungs were weak, but he wore well
as a speaker. His voice was musical and possessed good carrying quality.
One of his earliest revivals was held at New Washington, Crawford County,
the home of his boyhood. He refers to it under date of November 24, 1872,
as follows:
This town had ever been abandoned to the mercies of
Catholics, Old Lutherans, and saloons, all of which were equally
destructive of all moral good. No protracted effort had ever been made in
the place. No conversions had ever been heard of. In the fall of 1870 I
was put upon the Seneca circuit, of which New Washington was nearly in
the center, and knowing the debauchery and ignorance of the people in
general, I determined to lift up the standard of King Immanuel in that
place. Accordingly I settled in the place and rented a vacant building
that used to contain a drug store and saloon. The owner had speculative
motives, having asked quite a dear rent for the room. But during the
winter I and companion made special prayer to God for his
conversion.
The meeting was begun on the 17th of February 1871.
The night before the owner slept not for deep conviction. As soon as I
arose in the morning he came to me in tears and confessed his sins and
asked my prayers. I directed him to look to Christ for immediate pardon
and deliverance. I gave him some of the great promises of Christ. And there,
standing in his own stable, he looked to Christ and experienced a full
pardon of all his sins. This settled the rent for the house. The third
night six came to the altar. The meeting was attended with great power
and produced a great stir among the people, many of whom had never seen
the like. Fifty-six were converted, forty-six baptized, and forty-six
fellowshipped into the organization.
Among these converts were a number of his schoolmates,
old acquaintances, and neighbors. George Pratt, of Nappanee, Indiana, an
old schoolmate and a former resident of New Washington, makes this
statement concerning this meeting: "The meeting was held in my
father's drug-store building. Brother Warner held the meeting unaided. He
stood there alone and preached while others threatened. There were bad
elements that rose in opposition, the Lutheran being the worst and the
Catholic next. My father protected him. It was a wonderful meeting and
many were saved."
The earliest of his diary records so far available
begin in November 1872, as follows, when he was on the Seneca circuit and
had his home with a Brother Wright, in Crawford County, Ohio:
8. Brother P. Wright brought me to Bucyrus. Staid all
night with Bro. J. G. Wirt. The Methodists had a festival. I and a few
members of the same church (who repudiated these follies and
inconsistencies) met for prayer and the Lord was with us. These brethren
were much dissatisfied with their church relation.
9. Left Bucyrus at 7 A. M. Reached Lima at nine.
Stopped at the Burnet House till 1:20 P. M. Wrote a letter to my brother
and one to brother-in-law, L. W. Guiss.
10. Sabbath. A. M., prayer meeting at Brother Dague's,
P. M., heard a Lutheran minister in Milton. Evening, preached from Isaiah
28:16-17. I occupied the Presbyterian house. I preached here some in the
schoolhouse in 1868. the first year I traveled.
11. Took the train at 7: 30 A. M. for Tontogany, with
the design of finding where God wishes me to labor as a missionary. O
Lord, guide thy servant to the place thou canst best use him! Walked from
Tontogany to Brother Hardee's. Evening, went to Evangelical meeting.
Brother W- preached. Heard a great noise, but to the congregation it
appeared as a tinkling cymbal and sounding brass, evidently having no
effect. Nearly all blew loudly the horn of sanctification but manifested
little of its fruits, such as travail of soul for the sinner and sympathy
for the one soul at the altar, to whom none gave a word of encouragement,
but each in turn arose and boasted of his holiness. Oh the delusions of
Satan! How manifold they are!
In the entry just quoted the reader will notice his
prejudice, existing at that time, against the doctrine of holiness, or
sanctification. How strange it seems to those who knew him afterward to
be a whole-souled advocate of the doctrine of holiness that he should
thus speak! It was altogether a matter of light and understanding. His
heart was consecrated and he certainly was not unacquainted with the Holy
Spirit during his early ministry. But as a definite experience to be
believed for and testified to, he knew nothing about sanctification as
yet. Also, it is possible that in its advocates whom he had met thus far,
the doctrine and experience had not been rightly represented.
It will be observed also from these quotations from
his journal that he meant to stand, and believed he was standing, free
from sectarianism. He had considerable light on the church question and
spiritual Babylon. The place referred to in the following entry was near
Holland. Lucas County.
13. Visited Father and Brother John McNut and Brother
Irvin. Eve, preached in the brick schoolhouse, on James 1:27. Here the
Church of God had long been slandered and persecuted, principally by the
United Brethren Church. One of the epithets they had for years called us
is. "Johnny Cake Church." Bro. Henry S. McNut lives here nearly
alone. He and his wife and their ancestors for generations past belonged
to the United Brethren, but in the fall of 1870, after a hard spell of
sickness in which he feared that he should die and be lost for not
obeying the truth, he came to the West Ohio Eldership and received a
license and began to preach amidst a storm of persecution from the United
Brethren Church. Even his own companion, though an amiable woman, had been
so poisoned against the Church of God that she joined in to oppose him.
But he was firm and now commands the position. Every foe had fled and all
that truly fear God join in to encourage the truth. Some will doubtless
soon cut loose from sectarian bondage. Those that were the bitterest
enemies now confess that we are right and they are wrong.
The Church of God, as we have seen, repudiated
sectarianism, and the assumption by that church that it was the
Scriptural one was a strong underlying principle. In some respects it
held the correct idea of the Scriptural church. To some extent,
therefore, Brother Warner's membership in that denomination afforded him
light that naturally led to the full Scriptural standard, which he
afterward taught. His affiliation with that denomination in the first
place was, as we have seen, because of a disposition to be Scripturally
right on this point.
14. Brother McNut and I went to Toledo to look for a
place in which to open a mission in that city.
15. Walked nearly all day in search of a place to open
a mission. No success. May God soon open the way for the establishment of
his church in this place.
In his diary Brother Warner recorded something for
each day. Every time he preached it was noted and numbered and the text
was given. The Eldership required each minister to give a report of his
work. It is not necessary to quote all the shorter entries and items from
his diary, which are much the same and generally speak of his visiting
some one, making some trip, reading, writing, preaching, praying,
fasting, baptizing, etc. Only the more interesting items, or such as are
the most representative, will be given.
22. Returned to Auburn. Meeting at Basswood still in
progress. The young men who made a start the last night I was there have
all found Jesus their Savior. Preached from Malachi 3:8. A deep
seriousness pervaded the minds of all. The feeling of that night shall
not soon be forgotten. It was as solemn as the grave. A sensation of dark
and fearful forebodings of some approaching calamity ran through every
mind. Brother H. Caldwell arose and said he had a matter revealed to him
that he felt impressed to relate, and that was that before tomorrow's sun
should set some one in this community would suddenly be killed. At his request
we arose and pledged ourselves to offer one more fervent prayer that
night in behalf of poor sinners.
23. Spent the day at home in reading, meditation and
prayer. Brother Jenner preached in the evening. I labored hard to bring
penitents to the altar. Three came out, two of whom were old
acquaintances of mine, for whom I had felt a deep interest. One found
peace.
After meeting was dismissed we heard that Ezekiel R--,
an old man eighty-two or eighty-three years of age, who lived one mile
and a quarter east of the schoolhouse, had that day been killed by the
cars in crossing the track at Shelby. I knew the man from my boyhood; he
bought out my father in that country in 1853. He was very wealthy. God
had blessed him with long life, prosperity, and good health. But he had
no thanks to offer to his divine Benefactor, having set his whole heart
upon the god of this world. There was no place for Christ in his heart.
He leaned toward Universalism, because congenial to the carnal mind. He
was filled with skepticism and was always in the habit of speaking
lightly of preachers and professors of religion. I visited him twice
during the meeting at. Auburn last winter and conversed with him on the
subject of religion. He acknowledged that there is one thing in the Bible
that caused him to study a good deal, and that is the new birth, which he
said, was perfectly dark to him. He told of having once gone to hear one
of the greatest champions of Universalism preach on the subject.
"But," said he, "I received no light whatever." His
case was a clear fulfillment of 1 John 2:11, "Darkness hath blinded
his eyes," and 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not." He had a very large
development of brain, of which firmness was the largest developed organ.
What a pity that the devil perverted these faculties!
I was informed that he was going that day to close a
mortgage and take a widow's farm from her. His last words to his wife,
who cautioned him to beware of the cars at the crossing, were, "I
was not made to be killed by the cars." This is like one who said to
his soul, "Thou hast much laid up for many days; eat, drink, and be
merry." But God said, "Thou fool! This night shall thy soul be
required of thee." He said, "I was not made to be killed by the
cars." But God said, "Thou fool! This day shalt thou be killed
by the cars." His brains were dashed out and strewn along the road.
His body was much mangled. But his poor soul has gone with all its guilt
to where another rich man opened his eyes in torment.
The entry for the 24th, which was Sunday, records his
preaching a farewell sermon to the congregation at New Washington, and
also his reference to the revival held there in February 1871. He had had
the care of the congregation there.
25. I and Brother S. Kline came to Conlay's, near
Annapolis, Crawford County, Ohio, and began my first protracted effort in
the name of Christ. Preached from Psalm 85:6-7. A good interest was
manifested. Oh that God would visit the place in power, save many
precious souls, and raise up a people for his name!
27. Started early for Bucyrus on our way to the
Standing Committee at Rock Run. Took train at 10 A. M., arrived there at
noon. I was chosen to fill a vacancy on the committee. Upon us devolved
the solemn and responsible duty of trying and disfellowshipping Elder L.
E-- for immoral conduct. Oh, what a pity! May the Lord have mercy upon
him and help him to repent and be restored to the confidence of the
people. May he be saved in the day of wrath. Oh, how careful the man of
God, especially the minister of the gospel, should conduct himself in
this wicked world! Lord, deliver us from temptation.
The meetings referred to in the next few entries were
a protracted effort at the Conlay Bethel, near Annapolis, now called
Sulphur Springs, Crawford County, Ohio.
December 4, 1872. Visited a sick saint, J. McEntire,
who has been afflicted for many years. He was near his last. Oh, what a
happy soul. The night before he was almost gone. Said he, "I saw a
convoy of angels around my bed waiting to carry my spirit home. I thought
I was going home. Here I am yet lingering on the shores of time."
Then a brother came in, to whom he remarked, "Sister Polly has gone
home. I thought I would beat her, but I am left behind. All summer I and
Cousin Patrick and Aunt Polly have had a hard race, but they have both
crossed over and I am left to struggle on; but every gale wafts my little
ship nearer the shining shore." "Oh!" said he, "It is
all bright ahead, not a cloud do I see." After a little rest he
remarked, "Oh! Brother, I know that my spirit will not go down into
forgetfulness until the resurrection; but I am going to Jesus, which is
far better. Oh, how sweet the name of Jesus!" I spent the day with
this brother, sang and prayed with him. Eve, preached from Acts
3:19.
9. Spent the day in fasting and in much wrestling and
prayer for poor souls under the guilt of sin. Preached from Luke 13:6-9.
One young lady came to the altar.
10. Under much discouragement during the day. Evening
while singing the opening hymn I was greatly refreshed at the coming in
of Bro. William Burchard, from Auburn, who was converted under my labors
and baptized by me last winter. He was a very wild, wicked man, but has
become a model of piety and earnest devotion. He has a brilliant
intellect and has already made great proficiency in preaching. Thank God
for such men of holy zeal. He being tired with the walk of eleven miles,
I preached, from Ezekiel 33:11. The penitent of the previous night came
out and soon the good news went to heaven that another soul was saved by
grace. It was a glorious meeting. One sister shouted. I got a great
victory and was very happy. Likewise testified the convert and all the
rest who spoke.
17. Good day meeting. Rebuked a boy for trying to
pollute the house of God by spitting tobacco juice and quids on the
floor. I said nothing to him, knowing that I should be insulted in
return. But being filled with the Spirit I tried to encourage the three
little mourners (girls who had come to the altar) and then addressed the
brethren upon the importance of laboring for the early conversion of
children, stating that it is enough to make the angels in heaven weep to
see how the devil is leading even the children to wallow in sin and
"glory in their shame." "Now, look at that poor boy,"
said I, pointing to him. "Ever since he came in here he has been
doing his best to defile the house of Cod with his filthy tobacco. It was
once said that 'He that doeth evil cometh not to the light lest his deeds
be reproved,' but the devil has so polluted poor souls that even children
in broad day-light do not blush to do such evil and dirty work for the
devil as that. Christ said, 'That which cometh out of the mouth defileth
the heart.' How defiled that heart must be, all that stench having come
out of his mouth! A few nights ago a dog was accidentally shut in here
and remained until the next evening, but did not pollute the house one
half as much as that boy has done in half an hour." At this he
grabbed his hat and, "being convicted in his own conscience, went
out." God pity that boy and help older people to take a hint.
18. A. M., wrote most of the time. P. M., visited
Brother McEntire. Found him much cast down and depressed, being overanxious
to be absent from the body, in which 'tabernacle we groan, being
burdened.' I told him that he ought to wait patiently till his
"change cometh," knowing when he got home once he would have
long time to stay there, even through all eternity and the longer he
should be tossed about upon the dark and tempestuous sea of this
troublesome life the greater would be his joy when at last he should land
in the peaceful harbor of the great city of God. After reading and
singing and praying with him, he had great peace and perfect resignation
to God.
25. Another Christmas is here. O thou Child of
Bethlehem, may we this day bring the offering of a grateful heart! May
every tongue on earth and all the angels in heaven join together to
spread the glory of Jesus' name! Dear Lord, we thank thee for the
unspeakable gift of thy Son to man. Oh, may every heart prepare him room!
Dear Savior, draw poor sinners to thee. Show them thy bleeding hands,
temples, and side. Oh that the star of hope would this day guide many poor
wandering souls to thee!
28. Came to the place of meeting. Distance thirteen
miles. Schoolhouse was full. Good attention. Went to Solomon B--'s, an
infidel. Talked till twelve at night.
29. Sabbath. Talked with Mr. B. until 10:30 A. M. He
is a very smart man. Has his excellent memory stored with the writings of
almost every wretch that ever dared to attack God and his holy religion.
He is one of the best readers I ever met. What a pity that this noble
intellect should be so basely employed! His horrid utterances are enough
to chill the blood and heart of man and cause the angels of heaven to
weep. He claims to be "a smarter man than Christ." "The
devil is a gentleman compared with God." "Your God is not fit
to be worshiped by a dog." "All professors are either
hypocrites or fools." Oh, that God would pity that poor wretch who
in the blindness of his depraved heart dares to rush with violence upon
the Almighty!
30. Spent the day in reading, writing, and prayer, at
Brother Conlay's. Eve, preached from Romans 2:4. Good congregation. Saw
some omens of good.
31. This is the last day of another year. How swift
the years roll around and each brings us nearer eternity! Lord, help us
to redeem the time and so "number our days, that we may apply our
hearts unto wisdom," that at last it may not be said of us that
"we spend our years as a tale that is told." Oh that each hour
of my short life may bring some good account at last, when life's
conflict is o'er! Great and many have been the changes of the last year.
Yea,
What countless millions of
mankind
Have left this fleeting
world!
They're gone, but where? oh,
pause and see,
Gone to a long eternity!
One there was, the dearest of my earthly friends, who
a year ago stood by my side, the joy of my life, the sweet, innocent
object of my fervent love. But she is gone, that dear companion upon
whose rosy cheek and harmless lips I used to impress the kiss of burning,
never dying love. O Tamzen! Thy heart and life, as pure as the white and
fleecy snow that this morning covers thy peaceful resting-place, has
reared an everlasting monument in the hearts of all that knew thee on
earth.
I have now seen thirty years pass into eternity. Not
quite eight years have been devoted to God. The year has been one of
God's goodness to me, notwithstanding the loss of my blessed wife, which
is her gain and God's glory, and therefore I am willing to travel on a
lone pilgrim in search of souls for Jesus' sake.
'Twas very stormy. Wrote and read. Preached from Psalm
90:9, "We spend our years as a tale that is told." Tried to
show the folly of living in sin.
January 1, 1873. This is the first day of the year. O
my soul, set out afresh for heaven! Lord help me to spend the year all to
thy glory if we live to the end. But if it is said of me, "This year
thou shalt die," may I be ready to enter into rest.
7. Preached from Romans 6:1. Told my dream, the
subject of which I thought was in the way of a score of souls.
8. Fasted today. Very solemn meeting at Brother
Crim's. All wept for poor sinners. O Lord, hear the prayers and groans
and bottle up the tears of thy children and bring thy salvation nigh!
Preached from Hebrews 2:3. The meeting has received a great backset. I
fear the whole work is killed. Before I came here I had a peculiar dream
in which I saw a face that was strange to me. There was much confusion in
those features, as in the midst of a council it stood out conspicuous,
and there was something in the position of the person that pierced my
heart. Last night I announced that I had recognized these features since
I came here. Mr. B., the infidel, arose and asked whether he were the
man. I said no. Tonight Esq. K., a poor blind Lutheran, came to meeting,
and before I closed he arose and enquired if he were the man. While I was
talking, I was powerfully baptized by the Spirit of God and replied,
"Thou art the man." He was daunted, but stammered out a denial;
but before I had time to ask a question he confessed that he had
forbidden his family to come out to the altar. They are five young men
and one daughter, three of them were under deep conviction and others
serious. One of the boys is married and his wife and all their associates
were serious and some anxious to come out, but all were prevented from
coming to Christ by this poor wretch, whose form of religion fitted him
to do this work for the devil.
In this attack I realized the fulfillment of the
promise of Christ. 'In that same hour it shall be given you what ye shall
answer, for it shall not be you but the Spirit that speaketh.' I warned
him of the fearful account he would have to give at the judgment-bar of
God.
9. Meeting at Samuel Shell's. We were all cast down
and felt the Spirit of God had been grieved out of the community. Eve,
preached from Jeremiah 28:16. Gave a farewell address and closed the
meeting because, first, the work was so stagnated that nothing could be
expected to be accomplished without a longer effort than I could devote
to the place and, second, because it was highly probable that as soon as
the work should break out again Satan would stir up trouble again from
some source. I gained many warm friends and sowed seed which I trust will
bring fruit to God. Some of the young men that desired religion I think
will not give up the struggle. They sent me some money and word that if I
would hold a meeting somewhere in reach that they would attend and seek
religion, but there they had not the heart to come out.
25. Visited Brother and Sister Chapman. She is an
excellent saint. Found her much afflicted. Brother C. had for many years
been a skeptic and Universalist, but a year ago he came out at a meeting
held by Bro. T. James and me. He is a faithful brother. A neighbor of his
by name of L--, who was the means of breaking up the fore-mentioned
meeting, dropped dead in his tracks a few months ago.
February 28, 1873. Good day meeting at Brother
McClintock's. [near Larue, Marion County]. Eve, preached from Ephesians
2:2. Four came to the altar and were blessed, one of whom had been an
avowed Universalist. Others doubtless would have come out but the house
was so densely filled that we could not crowd the people back to get more
room for penitents.
March 1, 1873. Spent the day at Mother Melvin's. Wrote
an article for the Advocate. Brother Burchard preached. Four at the
altar. All were blessed, I think. House crowded and many outside.
2. Sabbath. Speaking at ten. Preached on Church of
God, Acts 20:28. Eve, the house was packed and all the windows were
crowded on the outside. Preached, Jeremiah 13:16. By hard work we got a
little space at the altar and four presented themselves for prayer.
5. Meeting at Brother Deen's. Fellowshipped twelve. P.
M., because of the immense crowd that thronged the schoolhouse we divided
the meeting. I preached at Windfall, from Job 22:15-17. Several rose for
prayers. Brother Burchard preached at the Ellen Schoolhouse, one and one
half miles north.
9. Sabbath. Brother Small and I went to the Shertzer
Schoolhouse, where he preached at 1l A. M. on church matters, after which
we received in fellowship eleven members, most by letter from the
Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches. After taking a hasty
dinner we mounted our steeds and rode four miles, partly through a woods,
in the midst of a rain and severe storm. Reached Windfall at 2:30 P. M.
Eve, preached on Acts 26:18. One at the altar.
10. Prepared a dam to baptize. Eve, Numbers
10:28.
11. A. M., preached on sisters' right to speak and
pray in meeting, after which we had a speaking-meeting. Fellowshipped
fourteen members. House crowded and many on the outside. One brother who
was always opposed to women's speaking arose and confessed his error. We
then proceeded to the water, where I baptized twenty-two converts in
eleven minutes. It was a glorious and beautiful baptismal service. All
came out shouting and praising God. Eve, preached on Luke 13:6-9. Several
rose for prayers, some of whom were old in sin. We had a
speaking-meeting. All that had been immersed said that it had been a
happy day for them and that they had turned a new and brighter page in
the history of their pilgrimage. Oh how good it is to obey God! A good
part of the number had been sprinkled, some after making a profession of
religion in adult years. Great God, what a pity that the world is cursed
by an unholy sectarian ministry 'who teach for doctrine the commandments
of men!"
12. Eve, preached on barren fig tree, Matthew
21:18-22. Four came to the altar, one blessed. Went home with Mr. William
Riser, who brought a horse for me to ride. It was a beautiful light
night, and a ride of some two miles winding through the woods was
somewhat pleasant. Did not retire until twelve o'clock.
13. This morning I spent an hour rambling far out in
the dense, rolling forest to breath the pure air and to hold communion with
my God. At ten William Riser's house was filled with brethren and
sisters. We had a glorious meeting. All were happy, many shouted. It was
something very strange to have a meeting in this house. All remarked that
it was something they had never expected to see. Mr. R. is a man of
nearly fifty years and a great sinner. His wife has been converted and I
think the Lord is striving with his heart and his brother's, who is still
older. Oh that God would raise them up as monuments of his mercy! Eve,
Luke 19:10. Two at the altar.
14. A. M., meeting at schoolhouse. P. M., just before
preaching I met with a few brethren who had been at variance, and helped
to form a reconciliation, which was a perfect success. Preached on
Matthew 22:21.
16. Sabbath. Preached one and three fourths hours on
Ezekiel 43:10-11, after which we fellowshipped and then baptized three.
Eve, Brother Crawford, Baptist minister preached. Closed the meeting.
Result, thirty-five converted, twenty-five immersed, church formed of
thirty-three members. Expect more additions soon.
20. Eve, met the church at Windfall. Decided to build
a meetinghouse. Preached on church officers. Elders and deacons
elected.
April 3, 1873. Came to New Haven [Huron County]. Eve,
met a number of my dear spiritual children in prayer meeting. Had a good
time and they exhorted me to meet them in heaven.
4. Beautiful day. How bright the sun shines! How the
heart is gladdened at the return of warm and sunny days after such a long
and hard winter as we have passed through! Oh, how I appreciate the
Savior's beautiful metaphor in the Song of Solomon, where the present
state of the church is represented by the winter with its dark clouds and
howling winds, fierce with cold and hunger and hardship! But glory to
God, the spring will come; already the fig-tree is putting forth her
leaves, the turtle dove is heard in the land, and soon we shall hear the
voice of the bridegroom calling, "Rise up, my beloved, my fair one,
and come away; for the winter is past, and behold, thy beloved has come
for thee." What a happy time that will be when, rising from
the grave, we shall meet our dear friends and our Savior!
I am writing these lines in the beautiful cemetery
near New Haven, Ohio. Before me is the little mound which shows the resting-place
of my three little infants who a little over a year ago passed in a few
hours through this vale of tears, and their little spirits are forever at
rest with Jesus; and in one little box their bodies await the Savior's
coming. What a glorious morning when all these graves shall burst open
and the bodies shall come forth! they that have done good to the
resurrection of life and glory, and they that have done evil to the
resurrection of shame. Oh, may I be among the former class! Lord, make me
a good man and keep me pure in heart. Farewell, sacred spot. Farewell,
little tomb, with thy three-fold treasure.
16. Went to Bryan [Williams County] and ordered a
tombstone for my wife's grave. The one selected cost fifty dollars, has a
Bible lying on it, and I gave the following epitaph:
How sweet and pure in social
life,
As daughter, sister, friend,
and wife!
Now done with cares below the
sun,
She shines before the
snow-white throne.
18. Came home. Found Father and Mother and Brother
well.
23. Commenced an editorial on Islamism.
24. Wrote and studied phrenology alternately.
26. Sent my article on Islamism. Brother Cassel and
other preachers in Illinois send an urgent invitation for me to come to
that State.
27. Sabbath. Preached today from 2 Peter 1:10 in the
Cogswell Schoolhouse [near his father's home], where I made my first
effort to preach the gospel, on Easter night, 1867. 'Twas in a Methodist
Episcopal protracted meeting. The text was Acts 3:18. Never preached
there since. In those six years I have preached all over northwest Ohio
and some in two counties in Indiana, in all 1241 sermons. The number of
converts 508, about the same number fellowshipped, some less baptized.
Thanks be to God for his blessings and his presence! Though always of
weak lungs, thought oft to be consumptive, yet my health has been better
since in the ministry than ever before. Bless God for his goodness! I
have never missed but one appointment on account of health. The years
have swiftly passed, but, thank the Lord, I have enjoyed great peace and
many rich blessings from the Lord.
May 13, 1873. Visited Tamzen's grave. Disappointed in
not finding the monument up. Visited D. W. Dustin, one of my scholars.
Exhorted him to give his heart to Christ.
15. Prepared a sermon on the evidence of the divine
origin of the Bible.
16. Argument with Mr. Butler on the soul.
He attended, from the 21st to the 23d, the meeting of
the Board of Missions. He does not indicate where this meeting was held,
but says in connection that he "preached in the Smithville
Bethel" and "had very poor liberty, owing perhaps to the
presence of many eastern ministers." It was at this meeting of the
Board of Missions that he received his appointment to the mission in
Nebraska, of which he thus speaks:
23. Beautiful day. Business finished up at 5 P. M.
Brother Small was appointed to Chicago, I to Seward mission, Nebraska.
Again I lay all upon the altar of God. It is very hard for me to leave my
dearly beloved brethren of West Ohio. Thank God, for the great Head of
the church is with them and his cause is greatly prospering here, and I
must go help the cause in the far West. We parted with tears and many
farewells.
24. Brother Small and I took train at 7:14 A. M., he
for Marion, I for Larue, which I reached at 12 M. Received a letter from
my beloved brother Sol. Kline. All our dear spiritual children are yet
doing well on Seneca circuit. Wrote two letters. Preached at Windfall, 2
Peter 1:13. Great row after meeting.
28. These days I have been low spirited and much cast
down. It is the first anniversary of the death and burial of my blessed
companion. How lonely I feel! My bereavement comes with all its weight
upon me. Lord, be thou my comforter in all my loneliness. In eve,
preached in Larue on the Church of God. Text, Ephesians 1:10. I treated
it as follows:
1. Notice the purpose of God.
2. "One" church.
3. Extent-heaven and earth.
4. Provisions for oneness:
(a) One
church typified.
(b)
One, bought, sanctified, made, built.
(c) One
faith,
(d) One
spirit to animate it.
(e) One
head, Christ.
(f) One
name, Church of God.
(g) One
law to govern it.
5. Standard of oneness--As I and the Father are
one.
6. Time of this oneness.
7. To be visible, "That the world may
believe," etc.
8. Object of oneness.
9. Apostasy and restoration of the church.
10. Illustrations:
(a)
Paths, Jeremiah 6:16.
(b)
River.
(c)
House.
(d)
Corner stone.
The Lord gave me great liberty and boldness. Thank his
holy name!
29. Staid last night with Brother L. Orr. Sister O. is
afflicted; prayed to the Lord for her recovery. Preached in Larue, eve,
Ezekiel 43:10,11.
30. It had been announced in the Larue Citizen that I
would speak on the Church of God. This brought out quite a large
congregation. Both nights I spoke plainly and boldly against the evil of
sectarianism and other abominations. Many were ill at ease. Some
preachers were present. The Lord gave me good liberty. Last night I
diagramed my subject with chalk upon the blackboard. 2 P. M., took train
for Pentecost meeting at Pleasant Hill.
Brother Warner became a strong exponent of the
prophecies. Note his reference to some reform near at hand. This meeting
was held at West Auburn, Crawford County, after his return from Pleasant
Hill.
June 8, 1873. Sabbath. Thank God for life and health
and this beautiful day! Behold the throngs pressing toward the house of
God! Speaking-meeting was to begin at half past nine. Ere the time the
house was filled. Others kept coming in continually, much to the detriment
of the interest of the meeting. After all were seated that could be and
the aisles were filled, there were numbers yet without. The house had
been purchased by the Church of God from the Methodist Episcopal Church
and repaired in good style. At eleven, preaching began. Text, Haggai 2:9,
"The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former,
saith the Lord of hosts."
I then took up the text used in the forenoon and
showed that the destruction of the Temple and the Babylon captivity typified
the dark age. The different attempts to rebuild typified the different
reformations. Its final completion, i.e., all the so-called churches
arising in and growing out of the Dark Age, including the sects, in which
are many of God's people, who are, however, commanded of God to
"come out of her." Further showed that according to the type
and other Scriptures the church of God must arise to a glory excelling
that of the first age, and that, owing to the fact that the world is near
its end (of which we gave some Scripture evidence), some great revolution
must be near at hand to bring about this prophesied glory of the
church.
Some remarks were made on the ordinances, after which
we engaged in the ordinances. Had a glorious time. A great many brethren
and sisters were present to engage in following the Lord. Oh how I love
those dear people! What a host of true hearts! God bless them.
14. Traveled by buggy to the grove meeting at
Windfall, four miles south of Larue. Brother Burchard preached an excellent
sermon.
17. Received letters from Brother Bolton requesting me
to come soon to my mission [in Nebraska] and one from Brother Shoemaker
requesting me to stop and preach over Sabbath in Chicago.
19. Wrote out the record of the Church of God at New
Washington. Eve, preached at Union. Here the church have a peculiar
attachment to me. All wept much at my departure. A more true and faithful
band is hard to find. God bless them. They are very dear to me. About
half of the church are my converts.
20. Visited Brother E-- and Sister P--. They embraced
religion under my labors, and I joined them in marriage. Came home and
packed for my journey.
21. Finished matters up to start. Received a letter
from a kind friend. Went to New Haven in the evening. Farewell meeting at
New Haven.
22. Sabbath. Thank God for a beautiful day. Many
brethren came in from Union, New Washington, Auburn, and Liberty, and
Brother Mitchell and others from east Ohio. We had a glorious meeting. I
preached on Luke 13:29, "They shall come from the east, and from the
west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the
kingdom of God."
After preaching. Brother Jenner baptized four souls,
two of whom had been converted here at New Haven, the other two were from
elsewhere. Thus out of eight souls converted only two were baptized. This
is the result of deferring to baptize for six months. Evening, preached
on John 6:66-68. Had a good time in observing the ordinances. With many
tears and farewell greetings, we gave each other the parting hand. Oh
what friends are these! It tries the heartstrings to leave them. What a
glorious thing that there is a meeting that knows no parting! What must
it be to be there! May we all meet at last when the storms of life are
over.
Before leaving for the West, a correspondence was
arranged with Sarah A. Keller, of Upper Sandusky. She is doubtless the
"kind friend" just referred to with emphasis. Out of this
correspondence there soon sprang a glowing flame of love, the beginning
of a companionship that meant for him so much of both weal and woe.
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Chapter 6
A NEBRASKA MISSION
The denomination known as the Church of God, founded
by John Winebrenner in Pennsylvania in 1830, soon spread over western
Pennsylvania and Ohio and gradually extended its missionary effort into
the States farther west. Brother Warner's field of labor in Nebraska
covered more or less the counties of Seward, York, Polk, Hamilton, and
Fillmore. We shall again let him speak for himself.
June 25, 1873. This is my birthday. Thirty-one years
of my hasty life have passed away. They have gone to eternity. Their
record has all been entered upon the book by the Scribe of heaven. O
Lord, whatever has not been set down to thy glory, for Jesus' sake blot
out in the blood of Christ! Only eight years have been devoted to God and
they crowded with many imperfections. Great God, I thank thee that we
have an advocate to plead our cause and secure our pardon. Wash me, Lord,
and make me clean. Oh, keep me pure in heart, that the remainder of life
may all be given to God!
Took train at Upper Sandusky for Chicago. Ate dinner
in Fort Wayne. Stopped off at Warsaw and went to New Paris to visit my
brother-in-law. Found him and family well, thank the Lord. Eve, heard Dr.
Everitt lecture on phrenology.
26. Was examined by Everitt and received a chart of
character and instruction. I heard him deliver a course of lectures in my
schoolroom in Corunna, Indiana. the fall of 1865. He lectured in the
evening on temperaments. Took notes.
28. Put in the day viewing the great city of Chicago.
Nearly all the burnt district is built again with enormous buildings. It
is wonderful to think that for miles we can walk streets built up on
either side with magnificent buildings of brick, stone, and marble, from
three to nine stories high, iron fronts, etc., all built since the fire.
It inspires the heart with wonder and admiration to behold externally and
internally the enormous hotels Sherman, Palmer, Tremont, and Pacific, of
which the latter is the largest. It covers one half block and is nine
stories high. Passed through under Chicago River. Chicago is one of the
wonders of the world, a great city. Visited one of the parks. I was much
interested with all we saw.
29. Sabbath. I preached in the evening from these
words: "What do ye more than others?" Matthew 5:47. The day was
pleasantly spent. Brother Shoemaker has spent nine years in trying to
build up a Church of God here. Though the membership is yet small, we
have a good church property and some good brethren here. I had the
pleasure of seeing the wife, two sons, and one daughter of Elder John
Winebrenner, who are members of the church here.
30. Took train at 10 A.M. on Chicago, Burlington, and
Quincy Railroad to Nebraska City. Crossed the Mississippi River.
July 1, 1873. In A.M. took train for Danville,
distance thirteen miles. Stopped at Bro. R. H. Bolton's. Found all
well.
2. Enjoyed my visit very much with this lovely family.
Received many useful hints from Brother B. concerning the West and the
great missionary work.
3. Daylight found us at Creston. From there to Red Oak
the country is a beautiful rolling prairie. Very little is cultivated,
all grass. At Red Oak took branch road southwest to Nebraska City through
a beautiful prairie valley. Beautiful corn. At Hamburg, eleven miles from
Nebraska City, we came to a peculiarly formed bluff, high and sharp, from
which we can see the city. Crossed the Missouri River at Nebraska City on
the steamer Lizzie Campbell. The river was high and ran swiftly.
4. This is a proud day for Americans, the anniversary
of American independence. There was quite an interesting celebration in
Nebraska City. Free dinner, band, thirty-seven young ladies dressed in
white with badges bearing the names of the thirty-seven states, also the
goddess of liberty. Judge Kinney delivered a good speech on the occasion.
A great crowd of people were in attendance. The whole matter displayed
skill and ingenuity in its design and execution. Arrived at Seward at
9:30 P.M. Walked out through the prairie two miles to Bro. William
Anderson's.
5. Visited Brother James Anderson. Walked across the
country. How sublime and beautiful the rolling prairie! There is a strong
breeze here nearly all the time, which makes the summer pleasant and
agreeable. The wind is from the east; a good part of the time it is from
the southeast.
6. Sabbath. At 4 P.M. I preached my first sermon in
Nebraska, in the Anderson Schoolhouse. Text, Isaiah 62:6.
Here we have to pass over a period of eight months. It
is unfortunate that we do not have all of the books, forming a continuous
diary account. His notes written during his first winter on the Western
plain would have been interesting. As it is, we have to pass over the
fall and winter of 1873 and begin again in March 1874. By this time it
seems that he had taken up a claim at Wayland, Polk County. The Advocate
he refers to was the church paper, published at Harrisburg, of which he
was a correspondent. This chapter includes a temporary absence from the
State, occasioned by his marriage and visit in Ohio, after which he
returns with his helpmeet to his Western field. His references to Sarah,
his bride-to-be, are, of course, full of tenderness. We shall give but
brevities from the diary, omitting many of the details of sermons and
texts, number converted, etc. The meetings first mentioned were held near
Seward.
March 14, 1874. This is a rainy day, the first of any
account since the 22nd of November. Wrote two articles for The Advocate
and some letters.
15. Sabbath. Preached at eleven on the second advent
of Christ, two hours. Eve, Brother Robotham preached. 'Twas dry and dead
enough to take all the life out of a meeting. I tried to exhort the
people. Jesse Horton found peace to his soul. Thank God for the salvation
of the old gray-headed sinner. Sister Anderson left her husband who sat
by her side, and came to the altar in much earnest, seeking the Lord.
This is a noble example. God bless the woman. I think her husband will
follow.
16. The air was damp today. Read Nelson on Infidelity.
Prayed and meditated. Eve, had some headache, but thank God it did not
grow worse and prevent my preaching, as it sometimes does. The night was
dark and damp. The congregation was much smaller than usual. Had good
liberty. A number of young people were present, about all of whom were
serious.
17. Had prayer meeting at schoolhouse. Came home and
wrote a letter to my darling Sarah, then went to Seward. Received a
letter from Brother Shuler, treasurer, with post office order for fifty
dollars.
19. Day meeting at half past ten. P.M., mounted a
horse and rode in company with Brother Figard to Mr. Pense's, two miles.
Talked to them on the important subject of their souls' salvation.
Returned with some headache. Was disappointed in not having some one else
there to preach, as Brother Combs, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, had
promised to be there for the last two nights. Thank God, my headache
abated and I spake with liberty on the text, "My Spirit shall not
always strive with man."
21. Started for Fillmore County. Stopped a few minutes
at a store at Nickleville. Heard some poor sinners swearing horrible
oaths. Oh, how my heart was pained to hear them thus insult the Author
and Giver of all their blessings! Came to Brother Witter's. Found all
well and faithful to their Savior. They were much joyed at my coming. The
church has grown in grace and influence.
22. Sabbath. Beautiful morn; Met at 10:30 A. M., heard
a number of the brethren and sisters speak. Went to Indian Creek, where I
had the pleasure of immersing the following [names nine persons]. It was
a glorious time. All were happy. We felt that we were near heaven. At 3
P.M. started over to Brother Moffit's. Passed a pond of some ten acres on
which were all of a thousand brants, a species of wild goose; they are
white, except a black streak across their wings. Reached destination.
Here are good prospects for gathering a church.
23. Quite cold this morn; I have to drive about
thirty-five miles against the wind. It was a hard day's ride. Came on to
the meeting and found that the work had not progressed in my absence. I
could not have remained, but now I have only two nights and we must if
possible see some poor sinners saved before I leave. O God! in mercy hear
us and bless our efforts.
27. Had to go forty miles today to an appointment.
Called on some of the brethren at Wayland. The day was cold.
30. Last night I had a precious dream of meeting my
angel love, Sarah. Oh, how happy I was to return to that kind family I
have been so long separated, and with whom my soul longs to be! Now are
only seven Sabbaths until I start. Oh, how our hearts yearn to be
together! Lord, speed the time. Never did woman have purer and stronger
love for man than that of my dearest Sarah for me--yes, even me. O Lord,
what a blessing thou hast here bestowed on thy unworthy servant! What a
bliss to me, that I should thus be loved, and that, too, by the very
creature that I would rather have love me than any fair female in all the
world! O Lord! this is thy doing and it is wonderful in our eyes. How
happy I would be this morning were my beautiful, virtuous, and loving
companion by my side! How hard it is to stay apart so long! God give
grace and strength of mind to endure this torture of separation.
April 3, 1874. What a bright and beautiful morn! I am
surrounded by beautiful scenery. The family live right on the bank of a
stream, tributary to the Blue. The house sits on the edge of a bank about
twenty feet on the north; on the south the stream making a loop comes
around just far enough from the south side to make a nice little yard. To
the east is a beautiful large yard. To the west is quite a picturesque
scene; the stream, running very crooked, doubles around with but narrow,
high banks between, and all covered with timber, some of the largest
trees I have seen in the State, some oaks four feet across, yet not one
of them enough to make a rail cut, branching out a few feet from the
ground. The whole presents a romantic scene, Brother Querry settled here
five years ago, when there were only a few families in the country. The
settling up of the country has far surpassed in rapidity the wildest
imagination. Bro. George Fellows and I went out on a hunt for prairie
chickens and wild geese. We went in the buggy, by which we can approach
nearer to the chickens than otherwise. Had a few shots at wild geese but
killed nothing.
5. Sabbath. Easter. Bright, warm, and beautiful
morning. Preached at eleven on the Church of God, diagramed on
blackboard. The truth was well received. There is a fine prospect for the
Church of God. Dr. Stone who is no professor of religion but a thorough
student of the Bible, and one whom I think will soon give himself to the
Lord, is one with us in sentiment. Another good old Methodist Episcopal
brother who preaches some sanctioned my sermon all through, even my
strongest denunciation of creeds, sects, etc. Brother Stoner, a Disciple,
was well pleased with the church but took exceptions to feet-washing,
reception of the Spirit by faith before baptism, and the divine call to
the ministry. He invited me home with him and we talked over the matter
and he conceded my position on all these points. His companion before
held with us on all these points.
7. Came to Brother Hoffer's. Selected a place for my
house and staked off a yard, etc.
10. Wrote some letters. This was a warm and beautiful
day. Oh, how lovely the spring after the long, cold winter; emblem of the
time of the Lord's coming, the time of singing of birds! The turtle-dove
is heard in the land, all to remind us of the Lord's coming.
The approach of summer also gladdens my heart because
it is bringing us near the happy time when I shall be joined in holy
matrimony with the pure and warm-hearted Sarah, whose constant and ardent
love is worth more to me than all the treasures and honor of earth. Could
I hold converse with that bright luminary whose beams and gentle rays
fall so graciously upon the earth today, I would ask if the revolving
earth brought another creature under his shining light so pure, fair, and
lovely as my own blessed Sarah.
13. This morn is rainy. Drove to Wayland, fifteen
miles, and then worked all day at my house. Brothers H. and M. Hoffer and
Brother Berry had just got the lumber [hauled from Seward] on the ground
and begun the work. We worked through the damp weather and got it
finished, a stove up, and a bed by 10 P.M., when the brethren left, and I
retired to sleep, the first night in my life in my own house and on my
own land. Thank God for these blessings! May God help me to use it as not
abusing it.
14. Returned to my house and made a stand. P.M., went
to Barber's, where I preached at night on the signs of the coming of
Christ. Had a house full of very attentive hearers. Spoke two hours. All
seemed highly interested.
15. In the eve drove about seven miles over into York
County and preached to a crowded house in the Parker Schoolhouse.
16. Went to Mr. Mahaffey's and had a good visit. He is
a lawyer, a smart man, well informed in the Bible. Agrees with me on
doctrine. He promised that he would give his heart to Jesus. Wishes to
borrow some of my books to inform himself for the service of God. I pray
God that he may be soundly converted and become useful. I had left no
appointment, but several came together and begged me to leave another
appointment before going east. I never saw people more eager for the
gospel than here. Many have fallen in love with the Church of God and
desire me to form a church here. P.M., went home and worked some at my
house.
28. Drove to Brother J. A. Mark's. The day passed off
very pleasantly. Spent the time in meditation and singing praise to God.
Drove about forty-five miles and reached destination about 6 P.M. There
seemed to be no fatigue to me nor to my steed, Mattie Blaze. The roads
were beautiful and the day delightful. How balmy the air! There perhaps
never was another such delightful country to travel in. Found no one at
home at Brother Mark's. Put up Mattie Blaze, compromised with the big
dog, Watch, and took possession of the house. Ere long the family came
home, having been at a neighbor's. They were well and glad to see
me.
May 1, 1874. Came to Grand Island, in Hall County,
about fifteen miles northwest of Brother Mark's. Found Brother John
Kramer and family well. They are a very fine people, firm in the
principles of the Church of God. They have a beautiful place one and one
fourth miles from the city. All that is wanting is a Church of God here.
I feel sorry that they cannot be supplied. But this is a hard place to do
anything unless we have a house of worship. Brother K. could find no
place in the city to have an appointment, so he has an appointment in his
own house for Lord's day. Sectarian bigotry abounds here in the West;
each sect, fearing the rottenness of its own foundation, is not willing
to have it tried by the gospel.
2. Wrote, read, meditated, and prayed in a pleasant
room at Brother K's. How pleasant it is to have a place of solitary
retirement, so seldom enjoyed in the small sod houses of this frontier
country! This afternoon there was a good deal of excitement in Grand
Island on the occasion of breaking ground for a new railroad, the St.
Joseph and Grand Island Railroad. It is now in operation from St. Joseph
to Hastings. Grand Island is beautifully situated on the Union Pacific
Railroad and on the north side of Platte River. It has a bright prospect
for a large city and important railroad center.
3. Sabbath. Rainy in A.M., hence no preaching. Spent
the day pleasantly with the kind Kramer family singing and talking on
Scripture.
5. Started this beautiful morn to Fillmore County.
Took my dinner and fed Mattie Blaze on Sec. 12, Twp. 9. Range 6 W. Two
miles east is the nicest railroad section I ever saw. I crossed the South
Blue River in a beautiful grove, which was quite green. The place was so
beautiful that I could not resist the temptation to stop in the shade by
the cool stream. I wondered if I should ever have the pleasure of
crossing through this beautiful grove with my lovely Sadie, who of course
is always brought to my mind when I meet anything that is lovely and
beautiful, for she is the fairest and most lovely piece of God's
creation.
Two graceful ducks were swimming in the water. This as
well as the cooing dove near by brought forcibly to my mind my beloved,
who is far away. The dove's cooing was an index to my heart, that longed
to be with her, so dear to me. Even the beautiful stream suggested to me
our two beings that were soon to blend fully into one to follow on in
everlasting love, like two streams of water that mingle together and flow
on in the same channel.
These lines are being penned in this beautiful grove
while many feathered songsters are singing their sweet songs over my
head. Thank God for the beauties of nature and all that they have brought
to my mind.
6. Received a letter from Brother J. A. Shuler,
treasurer, with an order in my favor for fifty dollars, Thank the kind
Lord and all who gave to this fund.
8. Came to Indian Creek. Found all well and anxious
for my coming. All seemed faithful.
10. Sabbath. Sabbath-school at ten. Preached on
Genesis 28:12-13. A strange brother arose and said he would like to speak
a few words. He remarked that for some time he had been searching for the
truth and the old paths and that he precisely agreed with me that there
is but one church, i.e., the church of God, so named by the mouth of the
Lord, governed alone by the Word of God, including all who have the
Spirit of Christ, by which they are baptized into the body, the church. The
brother talks some to the people and accepted an invitation to preach in
two weeks. Thank God for more laborers to contend for the truth.
After this went to Indian Creek, where I had the great
pleasure of immersing [names seven persons]. At last baptizing Brother
Winters told me that he had been baptized by his parents when a child,
and now they were dead and gone, and out of respect for them he would
never be baptized again. I told him to read his Bible and see whether
that satisfied the demands of God upon him. I further reminded him that
religion was a personal matter. He acted upon these suggestions and the
result was he was anxious to obey God. Oh how the commands of God are
made void by the traditions of men! The baptizing was one of great interest.
All were happy. Eve, had a good speaking-meeting. Some said it was the
happiest day of their lives. Preached on the ordinances and had a
heavenly time in observing them. Bade the brethren and sisters
farewell.
13. Was to have a breaking bee, but it rained all
forenoon. P.M., worked on my claim. Eve, preached from Acts 20:32. We got
lost going home with Brother Hoffer. Got home by eleven. It was raining
and very dark.
18. Went to Seward in the morning. Spent the day
preparing for my journey. Eve, preached in Seward and returned
home.
19. The happy time has come at last that I start back
to my beloved Sarah. May God's kind care be over me by the way. Took
train at half-past nine at Seward. This is the morning I have been
thinking about so long. The hard labor of another year is over. Since
last July 4 preached one hundred and fifty-five sermons.
20. Nebraska City. Visited a beautiful orchard of
eighty acres. Am enjoying my visit much with Brother John F. Kimmel and
family. Took a pleasant ride.
21. Today the Board of Missions meets in Chicago. Wish
I could he there to report in person; but I sent out my report yesterday.
At 7:20 P.M. started on my journey. Came via Hamburg, St. Joseph, and
Kansas City where I arrived at early daylight.
22. Took the Missouri Pacific through the State of
Missouri. Train stopped for dinner at Jefferson City. Ran through
tunnels, under rocks. Many places the rocks stood a perpendicular wall
one hundred feet on one side of the cars and on the other the Missouri River.
Missouri in some parts seems to be a beautiful State; but taking it
altogether it falls far short of Nebraska as an agricultural state. It is
rather rough. Had three fourths of an hour in St. Louis. Purchased a suit
for thirty-five dollars, also a small present for my beloved Sarah, a
collar, $1.50, and cravat, $1.50. Took train on Toledo, Wabash, and
Western at 7 P.M. Crossed the Mississippi on a transfer boat near the
great iron bridge, which is a, wonderful structure. Took sleeping car and
lay down with a heart full of gratitude to God for his protection through
the dangers of the day and humbly entreating his care through the
night.
23. Reached Fort Wayne at 7 A.M. Staid over till 12:30
P.M. Then came on with a light heart. Arrived at Upper Sandusky at 4:50
P.M. Rode out to Brother Keller's with Brother Hoffman. And now the long
contemplated time of meeting my beloved Sarah has come at last. Thank the
kind Lord for his care and protection over us through these eleven long
months that we have been so far, far apart.
This eve went to see Father Shriner, who is nearing
the other shore to dwell with the spirits made perfect. Had a season of
prayer. Returned with Brother Keller.
25. Father Shriner died at 4 A.M. yesterday, and at 11
A. M. today Brother Small preached the funeral, followed by Brother
Updike and me. It was a very large funeral. Father S. was an upright and
godly man, firmly devoted to truth and right. Well do I remember words
that fell from his lips some four years ago when, during his report, he
remarked: "Brethren, I have always tried to maintain a ministerial
character." These words, backed up by his exemplary life, had a
great meaning and made a deep impression on my mind. They inspired me
with new determination to live out the same character by the gace of
God.
26. Spent the day pleasantly at Brother Keller's. Oh,
how happy I am to have the blessed company of my dearly beloved Sadie!
Surely I should be a happy and grateful man, having such a rich
treasure.
28. Took train for Crestline, where I am now writing
these lines, waiting for the train to Shelby. But here it comes! Twelve
o'clock, aboard the train. Oh, how convenient to the great cause of God
is the railroad! Reached Daniel Baker's, at Shelby, at 1 P.M. We were
happy to meet again.
Nearly one year has passed since my last visit here in
company with Bro. J. L. Jenner, who is now in eternity. Poor fellow, he
became insane last April and on the 25th cut his throat and abdomen, from
the effects of which he died some days later. From the best information I
could get his mind was overcome by an unwillingness to preach the whole
gospel of God, through a desire to gain the applause of man. As ministers
of God we should take warning and fill our high calling in the fear of
God.
29. Came to W. Auburn, where I met many of the dear
brethren beloved as children. Preached from Psalm 144:15. How happy and
grateful I am to meet with these beloved people!
30. This morn I went up into my old room at Brother
Peter Wright's and looked over all my mementos of my dear departed
companion and sonny.
31. Sabbath. Had a good speaking-meeting. Preached on
the signs of the coming of Christ. The house was crowded. Eve, Brother
Awkerman preached on the ordinances, after which we had a happy time in
obeying them. Human language cannot express my joy.
June 3, 1874. Yesterday and today the women were
busily engaged in preparations for our wedding.
4. This is the happy day to which my mind has so often
soared ahead of time to embrace in sweet anticipation. Thank God that the
onward flight of time has brought the day in which my angel Sarah and I
shall be joined in holy wedlock. I was out early to breathe the balmy
air. At the rising of the sun there was a heavy fog which all disappeared
in a very short time, leaving the morning bright and lovely. All nature
seemed cheerful. Never have I heard the birds sing so sweet and melodious
as this morn in the woods over the way from Father Keller's brick
farmer's home. It seemed that the dear little feathered songsters were
congratulating me for the rich fortune the day brings to me. Went to
Upper Sandusky in the morning. Weather hot. [Here he mentions a list of
the guests from Auburn, Tiffin, and elsewhere.] At four the ceremony was
performed, Brother Burchard officiating. Brother and Sister Tomlinson
groomsman and groomsmaid. All passed off pleasantly. Received many warm
congratulations, after which we proceeded to partake of the rich
preparations in the dining room.
The evening was pleasantly spent sitting in the cool
shade on the east of the house. Now a new leaf is turned, a new era
begun, in the history of my life. O Lord, how can I thank thee enough for
the great gift of my own pure, amiable, fair, and lovely Sarah! May God
assist me to make her life happy as far as it is in the power of man to
do so. God bless our union and make us together happy and useful.
5. This morning still bright and clear. We started for
Brother Wright's. Stopped at noon at Bucyrus. Reached my old home at
W--'s about four. Our arrival was greeted with ringing and cheers from
the boys. A rich in fare supper was prepared. The evening was pleasantly
spent singing and with music from two violins by Brothers Alvin Burch and
Burchard.
7. Sabbath. Good speaking-meeting in the grove [near
New Washington]. Preached on baptism. After speaking one hour a small
storm arose, which threw the congregation into confusion. We dismissed
the people to meet at three by the side of the Maumee River. There being
a grove there I proceeded to finish my discourse and spake about an hour,
after which I baptized the following ten [names omitted]. Eve, I spoke on
the washing of the saints' feet, after which observed the same. This was
a good meeting. About a thousand people were present.
8. Took train for Bryan, where we were met by my
brother, who conveyed us to my parents, in Bridgewater Township, Williams
Co. Thank God for a safe return to my parents once more.
11. Visited Brother Joseph. Eve, we took a walk to a
beautiful cemetery on my brother's place. A new grave was there that
awoke a train of interesting thoughts to my mind. It was the
resting-place of Frances Stocking. She was the object of my affections
and attentions at the time I gave my heart to God (February 1865). She
was handsome and accomplished, having a very strong mind and good
education. Her father was skeptical, and the dire disease was transmitted
to Frank and I think the whole family. Having talked matrimony together
and supposing she and I had the proper affections, I supposed it my duty
to marry her notwithstanding her infidelity and her rapidly failing
health. Out of sympathy for her suffering, which she claimed would be
removed by marriage, I pledged her my heart and hand. But I asked to
defer our marriage until I pursued my studies a few years. Ere many
months had passed I began to doubt the existence of the proper elements
of union in our case. I took the matter to the Lord and was soon
confirmed in the belief that our marriage was not ordained of God. Our
attachments grew weaker and soon correspondence ceased and she became
married to a rough young man by the name of Baker. They moved to the
West, ere long parted, and she came back a year ago. When at home I
learned that she was a spiritualist and by spells was crazy, in which
condition she was hurried to the grave, a poor wreck, morally, mentally,
and physically.
17. Passed once more the old schoolhouse where I gave
my heart to God (February 1865). Thank God for that step. Oh how glad I
am that it was ever my lot to become a Christian! A beautiful house of
worship stands near the place, belonging to the Church of God.
25. This is my birthday. Thirty-two years have passed
over my head. How the time has flown! Oh God! blot out of my past years
all that is wrong and help me give all that remain to thee and thy
cause.
July 8, 1874. This is my dear Sarah's birthday. She is
nineteen years of age.
24. Brother Lewis Williams took us and our goods to
New Washington. Had a good talk at the depot with Brother A--. He seemed
very much dissatisfied with my having organized a church in Upper
Sandusky. Intimated that it would make me trouble. Oh that God would save
his preachers from envy and vindictive cruelty in biting and devouring
each other! Whatever the Eldership may do in my case, I am certain that I
did what I have done through pure motives to the glory' of God, for the
good of his cause, and I believe with his approbation.
30. This morn went to West Unity, thence to Father
John Kerr's in Fulton County. Eve, went to prayer meeting. Heard a good
number of my scholars testify for Jesus, thank God. Meeting was led by
Brother G. W. Dustin, who is a noble young man. Since he attended my
school, I have felt impressed that God desired to make a minister out of
him. I pray that God may lead him into all truth.
August 11, 1874. Father, Mother and Brother Joseph
brought us to Bryan. Bade farewell to the friends once again. Reached
Goshen about four. Found Mr. Guiss, my brother-in-law. Reached his home
in New Paris about dusk. My sister's health is poor.
15. Preached in New Paris from Matthew 24:3. Four
young brethren and two sisters were there from Syracuse.
16. Brother Keller came after us early this morning to
convey us out to Syracuse, where I preached at 10:30 A.M.; Psalm 144:15.
Went home with Charles Strombeck, whose companion is sick. Prayed for
her. She seemed strengthened. Four brethren each put a dollar into my
hand. Returned to town. Eve, preached on Ezekiel 43:10-11. Diagramed on
the board. House full. A collection was taken up for me. Never did I find
such overabundant kind and benevolent people. They seem as near to me as
though I had preached for years in their midst. God will surely bless
them and greatly reward their kind liberality.
17. Took train at 10:20 A.M., reached Elkhart at
eleven, laid over until 4:13 P.M. Reached Chicago 8 P.M.; Brother
Shoemaker met us at the train and conducted us to his house.
18. In company with Brother S., visited the scene of
the late fire. Visited the great water-works, also the exposition
building, the largest building I was ever in. Walked through the tunnel
and visited the Union, Michigan, and Jefferson Parks, where was much of
interest. Traveled by streetcar and on foot about ten miles. Took train
on the Burlington at 10 P.M.
19. Reached Red Oak, Iowa, 7 P.M. Put up at the
Tremont House. A lady was shot in the place tonight by one whom she had
opposed as a suitor for her daughter. Four balls were fired, some of
which took effect in the neck. She may possibly recover. The assassin was
arrested and confined.
20. Took train for Nebraska City. Western Iowa is
beautiful; Sarah much admires it. Reached the Missouri River at ten, and
Brother Kimmel's in Nebraska City at eleven. Took train for Seward. The
country looks beautiful. One thing strikes the mind as different from
Iowa and Illinois, and that is the great abundance of wheat on this side
of the Missouri River. Corn is raised in abundance in those States; but
little proportionately is raised here, and will be almost an entire
failure this year owing to the drought and grasshoppers. As soon as we
crossed the Missouri we landed among swarms of those insects. Landed
safely at Seward at 10 P.M. Thank God for his kind care over us,
permitting us safely to return to my field of labor.
21. This morning Sarah and I walked over the prairie
two miles to Brother William Anderson's.
22. P.M., we went out to visit a colony of prairie
dogs. Eve, preached from 2 Peter 1:3.
24. Went to Seward, Wife and I and Brother J. W. K--.
He leaves on the train this morn for Ohio to take a wife, a dear sister,
Eliza T--, who was converted under my labors and is a special friend of
mine. About a year ago I introduced them to each other, since which time
they have corresponded and now have pledged themselves to live in unison
for life. I pray God that their union may result in unbroken happiness
and usefulness.
26. Wife and I came to Polk County. Wife is pleased
with the home, but fears we shall not be able to build. I pray God he may
send help from some source.
29. Drove about twenty-three miles, to Fillmore.
Preached in the old sod schoolhouse. The brethren and sisters were glad
to see me, as I also was to see them. Brother Grigg has been preaching
for them during my absence. He does well and is sound in the Scriptures.
I am glad that I found him out before I left.
31. At 3 P.M. started for Seward County, thirty-eight
miles. At sunset stopped and ate our supper by the way. Turned out Mattie
Blaze to pick grass. Then came on. The curtains of night were soon thrown
about us. It was cloudy. and not being able to see my guiding stars we
lost our way. When I discovered the North Star we traveled some distance
by it with no road at all. We went several miles out of our way and
landed at Bro. J. Anderson's after twelve.
September 4, 1874. Drove twenty-six miles to Polk
County.
5. Went over to our house and found our goods; Brother
Fox had brought them from Seward. Found everything all right. Read in the
Testament. Finished it today. Had finished and recommenced it last
Thanksgiving Day. Oh, that I had more time, and would better improve in
the future what I have, to read the precious Bible!
10. Started to York Center. Rained. Turned in to
Brother Samuel Marble's. No one at home. Soon he came. Left us in search
of his wife. Did not find her till between three and four. We spent the
time pleasantly in his old dugout. Instead of being lonesome it was
pleasant to be found alone even in an old wet dugout and on a dreary day.
It appeared like a small taste of the bliss that a home of our own would
yield us. The greatest difficulty was something to eat. Plums were
plentiful, else we could find nothing. When they returned they felt very
bad that they happened to be away from home. They spared no pains to make
us welcome and comfortable. Supper was served, after which the rain and
darkening shades of night prevented our return.
12. Sabbath. Started early for Polk County. Received
some letters, one from Father and Mother Keller. All are well but seem to
have no sympathy for us here on the frontier, not even a disposition to
do justice by us. Lord, forgive them. We will suffer all things for thy
sake. O God, my heart is bruised and crushed! We seem to meet with no
sympathy from friends or brethren. Many have grown cold. Brothers H-- and
O-- would not go to meeting. Went on to the Bense Schoolhouse. Preaching
time, but no one there. Two neighbors came, no member of the Church of
God. O Lord, the waves are rolling over me! All things against us. Some
are offended because we will not recognize the devil's secret gods with
which they have been polluted. Others are backslidden. Lord, the troubles
of my heart are enlarged! It is more than I can bear. I cannot restrain
my grief for the desolation of Zion. The people are now gathering, but my
tears prevent the reading of a hymn. Companion and a few brothers and
sisters shed their tears with me.
14. Wrote for Advocate.
15. Sister Berry, Sarah, and I went to Lincoln Creek.
Got tub of plums.
18. Tried to get lumber on time, but could not. Felt
very much cast down. No money yet from the Board. Friends in the East
have no sympathy for us. Brethren here have no means. Winter is coming on
soon and no home for my dear Sarah and me! With a heavy heart we started
out to Brother J. H. Anderson's. Heard he was not at home. Went on to
Brother Green's. As soon as he found I could not build they kindly
invited us to move into their north room, which is a pleasant room with
bedroom above and cellar privileges. Thanks be unto God! Behind a
frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.
19. Sabbath. Eve, preached at the Osborne Schoolhouse,
up Lincoln Creek, a new point. Stayed at Mr. O--'s, who is a Campbellite.
Had some talk, but a few Scriptures silenced his doctrine.
20. Gathered some grapes for Sarah. Came home to
Brother Green's.
21. Sarah and I went to Polk County.
22. Spent in our house preparing to take things back
to Brother Green's, Seward County. Sarah and I slept in our house all
night.
23. Staid all day again at house. Brother J. W. Figard
came to take our things.
27. Came to Seward County, Brother Green's. Stopped at
noon in the timber of the Blue River.
October 1, 1874. Eldership meets in West Ohio. May God
bless their deliberations. Worked till loon. At 3:15 P.M. started for
York County, twenty-six miles. Could not reach it. Stopped at Brother
Everett's.
3. About this time the West Ohio Eldership has passed
through another session. I now begin another year's work.
5. Drove home. Found my dear companion well. How happy
we are to be alone this eve in our little home! How sweet the home where
love reigns! Oh the love that unites our hearts! How pure and strong, and
still increasing! How happy I am! How blessed and favored!
6. Worked at cupboard and helped my dear wash.
7. Provided and arranged things for wife. Dear
creature wept this morn that I had to be away again so soon and
long.
9. Came to Brother Berry's [Polk County]. P.M., in my
house. Wrote some letters. Preached in the Bense Schoolhouse, 2 Peter
2:11-14. Staid in my house tonight.
10. Visited and talked with nearly all the members of
the church. Many are cold and indifferent. Many have strife and
bickerings. Oh shame! Great God, save this church, of whose piety and
devotion I have so often boasted. Some are spiteful at me because I
touched the god of this world. Brother Mc-- raved and foamed over at me.
God pity and forgive the poor graceless man. Thank God for grace to
endure unruffled his abuse. Staid all night in my house.
12. Started for home, anxious to see my blessed wife.
This is the longest we have been apart since our marriage-five days. How
long the time seems to me, notwithstanding I have been very busy! How
lonely she must he! God bless her. Came by way of Seward. Dear Sarah had
been way out on the prairie waiting for me.
20. Started for the Oliver Schoolhouse, about twelve
and one half miles to the northwest. Dear wife felt so bad to see me
leave. The dear creature wept bitterly. Oh, how it pained my heart to
leave her feeling so sad! Green's folks were absent, which made it more
lonely. O God, must I tear myself away from the dear wife bathed in
tears? But 'tis the cause of Christ and I must go. O Lord, comfort her
loving heart.
24. Started for Fillmore County. Drove against a very
heavy wind.
25. Sabbath. At 11 A.M. preached, Psalm 48:14. The old
sod was full of hearers.
26. Drove to Brothers . . . and gathered quite a good
load of vegetables and feed that these good brethren gave us. Came to
Brother Weeter's, where the donation was increased and Brother W. having
business at Seward hauled it over for us. God bless these kind people. I
fed and ate my dinner on the Blue River. Reached home 3 P.M., found dear
wife well.
31. Spent the day at Brothers M-- and B--'s. Busy
studying sermon. Eve, preached on Isaiah 9:6-7. Studied till twelve at
night on sermon for Sabbath eve.
Nov. 1, 1874. Sabbath. This morn arose early and
prepared a sermon on the subject of the Sabbath.
2. At three started home. Arrived at dark. Dear wife
was very lonesome and almost despaired of my coming home that day. Thank
God, we are blessed with a home and a thousand domestic comforts. Oh what
a blessing is home when illuminated with the pure love of an affectionate
companion!
3. Went to Seward, where were two barrels of apples
sent to me by a kind friend in Ohio. May the Lord bless his soul and
reward him. He not only donated the apples but paid one dollar for the
barrels and $1.25 freight to Chicago. The cost here was $4.20. Not having
the money to lift them we let Brother Anderson have one barrel to lift
them for us.
6. At 11 A.M., started for Crete. Stopped in a deep
draw at 1 P.M. to feed Mattie Blaze and eat our dinner. Sarah and I ate a
whole chicken, some bread and butter, and finished off with an apple
apiece. Went via Milford and Camden. Passed through a very large colony
of prairie dogs. Enjoyed a leisure visit among this brisk and numerous
little folk.
7. Was glad to meet our dear and esteemed old Brother
Moore, of whom I had heard so much. He is a very intelligent old pilgrim,
greatly in love with the doctrines of the Church of God. It was through
his earnest appeals that missionaries were sent to this part of Nebraska.
At 4 P.M. we met in the Bethel to take the preliminary steps to the formation
of an Eldership in Nebraska. Organized by the election of Brother K. A.
Moore speaker and Brother McElwee and myself clerks.
9. Met at 9 A.M. for business. The day was passed off
very pleasantly. Love seasoned all our deliberations. According to committee
on program. I delivered a discourse on church polity. Missionaries
reported, and other business transacted. Closed by a touching speech from
Brother Moore and prayer by me. The meeting was very edifying to us all
and greatly strengthened the brotherly ties.
10. Met early this morning in the Bethel for a social
meeting. Good time. Brother Moore left us for home. God bless the old
pilgrim and spare his life yet many years to bless his cause. Brother
McE. and I spent the day in transcribing the minutes of the
Eldership.
I preached in the Bethel, 1 Chronicles 29:5. God
blessed my soul. This afternoon I had a special season of secret prayer
and communion with my God. Oh how near he came to his poor servant! This
eve I was unusually blessed in presenting the thoughts he had given me on
the text, "And who then is willing to consecrate his service this
day to the Lord?" A deep interest prevailed. A Mr. B-- living six
miles from town went home with an arrow in his heart. I expect to hear of
his early conversion.
13. Made out program for Ministerial Association to be
held next spring in Seward.
14. Came home. Pretty cold. Captured a wild duck which
had its wing broken that day by some hunter. Reached home at nearly
dusk.
15. . . . This was an earnest day's work. I pray God
that it may bring forth fruit to his glory.
December 25, 1874. This is Christmas. At eleven
preached on the incarnation of Christ. Returned to Brother M. Hoffer's,
where the kindred, companion, and I partook of a good feast. Roasted
fowls. All passed off pleasantly and in a Christian manner. I was solemn
and meditative. We sang some. Eve, spoke on John 14:23. With solemn and
feeling hearts and minds performed the ordinances of feet washing and the
Lord's Supper.
27. Sabbath. I preached about two hours on the
immortality of man. Read twenty-three Scriptures speaking of the Spirit
and twelve of the soul, all positively declaring the spirituality of
man's nature. Also several places proving that the soul came forth from
the body at death and is as much more important than the body as the man
is than the tent in which he lives. Proved also the conscious existence
of a soul in an intermediate state. When through, Mr. K--, a poor silly
Adventist, harangued some moments. How confused the wretched Adventist
doctrine!
January 1, 1875. Another year has rolled into
eternity. God is still favoring us with his kind care and preservation.
Oh, how many souls are in eternity today who with light hearts enjoyed
friendly greetings and sumptuous festivities a year ago today! Some,
alas, we fear, have been "cut down out of time," who had no
Christ in the soul. Oh, what a mockery are all the pleasures of the
wicked! True and warm hearts wished them a happy New Year one year ago
today; but alas, their sins have made it the year of their doom to
eternal misery. O God! Give us grace to enable us to spend our years to
thy glory. Companion and I spent the day very pleasantly in Seward with .
. . The two ladies are sisters, and old friends and acquaintances of
Ohio. They had a sumptuous feast. We sang a few hymns, read a chapter,
and knelt in prayer to our Father in heaven. Then came home.
2. Took Sarah to Brother Anderson's and started to
visit the church in Fillmore County, a distance of about thirty miles.
Stopped in Nickleville and fed Mattie Blaze. Warmed and ate my dinner in
a store. Reached Brother Weeter's a little after dark. The brother was
gone and I was so cold I could hardly put my pony away. Sister W. soon
got me some supper, and after eating hastily I set out afoot one and one
half miles to the schoolhouse. Found three brethren there. No light. Gave
them a short discourse from Hebrews 10:35.
3. Sabbath. Some brethren tried for two hours to get
the old sod schoolhouse warm, but the stove was so poor they failed. They
then came up to Brother Horton's, where I spoke to a little band of
brethren and sisters from Hebrews 9:16-17. Started for Brother Moffitt's.
Quite cold and stormy. Stopped at Brother P. H. Griggs. Talked till a
late hour on Scripture. The brother is troubled with the no-organization
doctrine advocated by Johnson, editor of the Stumbling Stone. The brother
confessed that elders and deacons are authorized in the New Testament as
the completion of the local organizations, and in short the polity of the
Church of God is Bible.
5. Went to Seward. Got coal and a box sent by Father
and Mother Keller.
7. Helped Wife wash. Read Moral Philosophy.
8. Made apple butter of the frozen apples in the box
sent by father-in-law.
9. Very stormy and cold. Improved the time in mental
and religious improvement.
10. Sabbath. Strange to find myself at home with no
appointment. Meditated what to do. Having appointments here a week from
today, I concluded not to go this week to York County, but hoping we
would be favored with good weather I dispatched Brother Green to
circulate appointments for tonight and during the week at Occidental.
Eve, pretty good turnout.
18. Helped Wife wash. Read and wrote. Devotion was
sweet and precious this morn.
19. At 12:45 P.M. started for York County, about
twenty-six miles. Reached destination at 6 P.M. Small turnout.
21. This morn realized a precious nearness of Christ
in family worship. Spent two hours in private room reading Testament and
in prayer and meditation. It was a precious season.
25. Praise God for the great triumphs in his cause! I
am spending many hours on my knees praising God and imploring mercy for
sinners. What a glorious work!
27. Started for home. Dear Wife was much cast down
owing to my stay being longer than I had intended. Dear affectionate
creature! My absence seems to rob her of all the happiness of life. It
would be nonetheless the case with me were it not for the absorbing cause
of God during my absence.
29. Strong wind from the west, and not feeling well I
did not go to York County. Read and wrote
30. Quite stormy. Cannot go to the meeting today.
Spent the day in reading and writing, prayer and meditation.
February 12, 1875. Wife, I and [names several others]
went to visit about two hundred Omahas, camped on the Blue two miles from
Seward. They were on their return from their winter's hunt. Were well
laden with robes and furs. It was an interesting visit. The squaws were
busily engaged in dressing and tanning buffalo robes; the men stood and
looked on. Poor creatures! They seemed to be but servants for the men.
How wrong and cruel such a custom! We went into their wigwams; but few
could, or at least would, speak English. The little papooses were amusing
themselves by loading each other down with bundles of weeds, etc., in
imitation of their pack-ponies. They also had a tent constructed out of
blankets. One girl about twelve had a little papoose but a few weeks old
tied on a board and hung on her back. Sometimes she would lay it down
face up in the sun, other times she had it on her back engaged in play
with other children. I could see a marked improvement in the rising
generation in the moral and intellectual organs. Their more frequent
contact with white people and a general tendency to improvement in the
tribe renders the children far superior to their parents. Some I noticed
were as well constituted as many white children. One boy of about
thirteen could spell quite well. May the kind providence of God yet
elevate this poor distressed people to a higher plane of intellectual,
moral, and religious enjoyment. The Omahas are among our most honorable
and refined tribes. Bought a fine robe for ten dollars. Cost in Ohio
about nineteen.
16. Brother Mc. and I came to the Oliver Schoolhouse.
It was nearly enough to break my blessed wife's heart to have me leave
her. Oh Lord, comfort her heart! Were it not that "necessity is laid
upon me." I could not leave her. House nearly full. Psalm 85:6-8.
Came home with friend Mitchel. Turned cold.
17. The house being a small shell, I suffered much
last night with cold. Arose and got overcoat. Fared some better but ached
much and slept little. Spent the day till 4 P M. at Mr. M's. Talked much
on religion. He acknowledged that he always read the Bible to condemn
religion till I preached here last fall. He is not convicted. Hope he
will soon yield to God.
18. I find that I have taken a severe cold from my
cold night's lodging. After dinner examined Brother Hibbard's head. A
meeting two and one half miles south has been in progress some over two
weeks and for a few nights there has been some interest, hence I must go
there.
21. Sabbath. Had good speaking-meeting. Preached on
Jeremiah 6:16. Was sent for to visit a sin-sick soul one and one half miles
south. Brother Oliver and I went, found him, Brother John Cowan, scarcely
able to be up, in great distress of mind. We read the Word, talked, sang,
and prayed until God blessed his soul, and we all rejoiced. His mother
shouted and anon praised God for "Winebrennerian religion,"
declaring it was the old kind and as good as Methodist Episcopal or any
other. It was amusing to see them all come down from deep-rooted
prejudices. The brother’s feet and anklebones having received strength,
and he having eaten some, came with us to meeting.
22. Had family prayer meeting at 11 A.M. Examined
Brother Mitchell and gave him a phrenological chart.
23. Stormy. A few of us met for prayer. Staid all day
at Brother Hibbard's. No meeting. Oh how I longed to be with blessed
companion this dreary day and night! Through the night I spent hours
listening to the muttering storm. Recalled all the draws between there
and home, wondered if any were filled so as to be impassable. Determined
to go home the next day if the driving snow would allow me to see three
rods.
24. Morning came and the storm nearly subsided.
Started for home. Mattie Blaze got into a snowdrift in which she could
not reach the ground. Could not go through. Had to get out and get her
loose from the buggy. Took her to Brother Hafer's, nearby. Warmed myself,
then drew the buggy back, hitched up, and drove out another way. Got home
all right. Saw Sarah's smiling face. Thank God, the dear creature is
well.
March 2, 1875. We had a glorious day meeting. How my heart
leaped with joy to see my beloved Brother Anderson reclaimed again! He
has been a special object of my prayers. He is a brother I dearly
love.
5. Good day meeting. Brother Briggs related how his
little stepdaughter was blessed here yesterday. "She told her mother
that she felt the Spirit of God knocking at her heart. Then Brother
Warner came and took her by the hand and said, 'Give your heart to
Jesus,' and she said to Jesus, 'Take my heart.' Then she felt so happy.
She got up and spoke like a little soldier." Sister Anderson also
told of her little girl's singing "Good News Gone to Canaan"
last eve and she got happy and clapped her hands for joy.
9. Went home with Brother James A--. Tried to show the
domestic duties of religion. It is a delicate task, but the shepherd
often finds families that need plain talk on duties to each other and to
God, in the family. Religion should find its most sacred altar in the
family circle. There should its holy affections glow with the greatest
warmth. If religion in all its tender affections and holy fruits does not
burn on the family altar, the world will fail to see its light. God bless
this family.
10. Last night and today a terrible cloud rested on us
all. We felt as though the devil had triumphed somewhere.
11. Staid at home. Read and prayed. Felt much
depressed. Something is wrong. Satan has a victory somewhere.
12. The dark cloud, thank God, is passing. Find what
the difficulty has been. Some of the young men who have been at the altar
have been loafing and visiting saloons. Last night after meeting Sister
Rebecca Anderson told them of their inconsistency, which I think has
broken the devil's chain; hence we had a good meeting today.
14. Sabbath. Preaching at 11:30 A.M. Ephesians
3:14-15. Proved the oneness of Christians; the fact that this oneness is
not manifest to the world; that it should be; and how. After preaching
Brother S. got up and harangued in favor of sects. He said I had doubt of
my sincerity. He believed I was a true Christian if there was one in the
world, but what I had preached got him down in the heels. He made no
attempt to prove nor even assert that I had preached anything false. In
fact, he never called up the question whether I had preached truth or
not, only that my preaching made him and others feel bad. I told him that
I had no doubt of it, for Paul had told us long ago that the time would
come when men would not endure sound doctrine. Told him that I
sympathized very much with him, that I had been in the same dread dilemma
when I was not willing to accept the whole truth; it always hurt me to
hear it. In answer to questions I made him acknowledge to the truth of
all that I had preached before the congregation. After meeting, Brother
B--, another poor sectarianized soul, pitched into me. The people crowded
around. I made him confess that Paul forbade Christians at Corinth to
divide into sects. Brother Riley, a fine man recently converted, seemed
highly elated to hear the glorious doctrine of the Word defended. He will
soon come into fellowship with the church.
Bro. Lewis Anderson, who has enjoyed the meeting very
much, staid away today and tonight. How fearful is a disturbed
conscience! Brother Hafer, who is a good man filled with the Spirit,
remarked a few days ago to Brother Houck that we were having a good
meeting but he feared Brother Warner would spoil the good feeling by
preaching on the church. Brother H. told him that he need have no fears.
If Brother W. preached the truth, it should not hurt a Christian; if
error, it is too weak to hurt anything. He advised him to come and hear
for himself. He did so, sat with his head down, doubtless felt the force
of truth but was too honest to trifle with it; confessed that I had
preached nothing but Bible. Oh that the world were freed from the curse
of human creeds, that men could be at liberty to obey God! We had a good
and pleasant meeting. My heart flowed with peace.
18. Dear Sarah very sick most of the afternoon.
[Confinement]. I too felt nearly overcome at her suffering. Had a season
of prayer and was much comforted. Had the assurance that she would get
along well from this time. She was no more so sick. At 6 P.M. the Lord
delivered her of a large daughter, 8 pounds. Thank God for his
goodness!
And now, O Lord! another sacred charge is committed to
our trust. This day we acknowledge new responsibilities laid upon us.
Thou hast committed to our care a pure and spotless soul. Give us grace
and wisdom that we may bring up this dear child sound in body and mind,
pure and innocent in heart and life, that thou, O God. its Maker, may be
honored and glorified by its life and career on earth. O God! thou author
of its being, this night I bow before thy throne and consecrate this
precious household gem to thee. Thou hast given it to us, and we wait not
for one sun to pass over its head until we lay it upon altar of
consecration to God, that all its days may be thine. O God! we solemnly
vow to rear this child for thee. Shouldst thou see fit to leave it to
grow up under our care, we shall bless thee for its angelic society; and
shouldst thou rather choose to take it to thyself in the dewy time of
youth, O Lord! we cannot murmur; for thine it is and only entrusted to
our care till it seemeth good for thee to commit it to wiser and more
worthy care in a more congenial abode than this dreary, sinful earth. God
bless the dear little creature!
19. Took care of dear Wife.
20. After taking care of Wife and child, went to
Seward. When starting home Mattie Blaze stumbled, fell, and broke one of
the shafts. Took buggy back to shop, left it, and rode home. Eve,
preached at Occidental, returned at eleven greatly exhausted. Great
weakness of back from stooping continually over the bed taking care of
dear Wife and babe.
23. Sarah feeling rather worse. P.M., went to Seward.
Have taken a bad cold, being up so much of nights.
25. Am constantly taking care of dear Wife and child.
They are getting along fine, thank God. Quite warm. Birds are singing.
Summer appears; nature is awakening from her long winter slumbers.
27. For some days I have had a severe conflict in my
mind concerning my leaving to fill appointments in Fillmore County. 'Twas
hard to think of leaving dear Wife yet confined to her bed, as our girl
has made no attempts to take care of her or child because I preferred to
do it and she had no experience. Hard as it seemed for dear Wife, duty
seemed all along to say I should go. I determined to do so. Preparations
were made to go, but when the moment was at hand Wife wept, and fearing a
want of care and too much anxiety might bring on a relapse I felt it my
solemn duty to stay and take care of her. P.M., went to Seward and tried
to get a place to preach Sabbath eve, feeling that I dare not spend the
Lord's day without doing something for Christ; but I failed to get a
place to preach.
28. This is Easter Day. Spent the day in solitude with
dear Wife and daughter. Wife feeling pretty well; sat up much of the day
for the first except a short time yesterday. Think this is the second
Sabbath in eight years that I have not preached the Word of God. The day
was mostly spent in reading and meditation. Felt ill at ease that I could
not be preaching somewhere.
31. Terrible storm all day. About five inches of snow
fell. Drifted much.
April 2.1875. Sister Sarah Anderson, our girl, became
homesick and would stay no longer. Could not leave to fill appointments
in York and Polk Counties. Deeply regretted that I could not be with the
dear brethren, but could get no one to take care of Wife and child;
besides, the roads were almost impassable.
3. Pitched into housework as usual. Did the cooking
and washed dishes. Sarah quite sick this A.M.
4. Sabbath. Did up the work this morn, and though late
I started for prayer-meeting, thinking I could get there in time to have
at least one prayer with the dear brethren. Found they had just closed
their prayer meeting. I read a chapter, talked some, and sang and prayed
with them. My heart was full. Having been kept at home from public
worship for some weeks, I felt as a bird set at liberty. Bless God for
the privilege of appearing in his courts to offer our sacrifice of
praise! Returned home. Found dear Wife and child asleep, both feeling
very well. The little creature slept right on till night. Sarah and I
spent the time pleasantly reading and talking of our blessed hope of
glory. My heart was light and happy. Bro. David Figard today kindly
invited me to move into his house. Thank God for this kindness. The
brethren know that we have not a very pleasant place to live, yet I have
no room for complaints, but much occasion for thanks.
7. P.M., heavy rains. About a mile to the southeast of
Seward there was a great waterspout extending from a black cloud to the
earth. It was a grand and sublime sight. As it followed a high ridge on
the opposite side of the Blue River valley from us we had a beautiful
view of it. We could see the water strike the ground and a dense spray
arise around it resembling smoke. I have learned that it tore one house
and a wagon to pieces.
9. Drove to Brother Figard's via Seward. Our ride of
about seven miles was the first for our dear little Levilla Modest.
12. About one last night I took quite sick with, I
suppose, cholera morbus. Sick all day. Sorry I could not go to Polk
County, but it is necessary that blessings disguised in affliction come
at times as well as the almost constant blessing of health. Tonight, I
think, is the third appointment in eight years that I have missed through
my physical disability.
13. Drove to York County. Called at Father Fenton's, a
United Brethren preacher, who is poorly. Found also another aged pilgrim
in the family, who desired me to bring him some good books to read. Being
anxious to bestow some kindness on this good old Methodist father, I left
a book with him that I was taking home, having had it lent for some time.
Had a season of prayer and then some conversation on the hope of the
saints.
14. Found that my appointment which I had failed to
reach had proved a blessing after all, for they had a good prayer meeting.
Appointed another for the following Sabbath eve, which was a success also
and resulted in the organization of a Sabbath-school, which is under the
officership of those who hold with the church of God. Prospects are good
here. A railroad-station is expected close by. P.M., drove to Fillmore
County. How beautiful and pleasing, yea, charming, even to making happy,
the day and the landscape!
17. Brothers Figard and J. H. Anderson moved us today
to Brother F's.
20. Drove to Polk County. Distance, twenty-eight
miles. Found the brotherhood well and hungry for the gospel.
23. Wife and I drove to Indian Creek, Fillmore County,
distance, thirty-four miles.
26. Wife and I went to Seward. Asked for the
Presbyterian meetinghouse for Ministerial Association in case we are
refused the Methodist Episcopal house. Found the latter wished to reserve
some of the time hence accepted the Presbyterian house. Had programs
printed.
27. Drove to Polk County and planted fruit
trees.
28. Planted trees, potatoes, and garden seeds until
after 4 P.M. At five minutes past five started for Wilson schoolhouse,
about fifteen and one half miles. Reached in time. 1 Peter 1:13. This is
a new point, with good prospects. 'Tis only a half mile from where it is
said there will be a station on the Midland Pacific, which is now being
extended to York Center.
May 2, 1875. Sabbath. Stormy. Went home with Brother
Price, it being handy and the weather bad. Several came there to spend
the afternoon. The time passed off very pleasantly singing, and I
lectured some on moral and mental culture. Examined some heads.
4. A.M., wrote letters. P.M., went to Seward.
Completed arrangements for Ministerial Association.
5. Sarah and I drove over to the Blue. Had a pleasant
time fishing. Caught a mess.
8. Visited Brother Mitchell's. Left Wife there and
drove over to visit Brother Lichty. He was one of our seekers when I
closed the meeting last winter. I was anxious to see him; but he being
from home, I was disappointed. Found them quite poor. Large family of
children. Live in dugout. Mrs. Lichty quite unwell, which added to the
distressful appearance of things. Talked to the woman and children about
Jesus and heaven. Read, prayed, and sang with them. Distributed fifty
cents among the children.
13. Studied for Ministerial Association.
14. Ministerial Association began. Went early to town.
Glad to meet . . ., but was very much disappointed to learn that . . .
could not be with us.
15. I discoursed on the polity of the Church of God in
lieu of Brother Howard.
16. Sabbath. This is Pentecost day. Thank God for the
beautiful weather. All nature seems to be waking from its long winter
slumber to praise God. The beautiful prairie is green with grain and
pastures. The valleys are dotted with herds of cattle, which, as well as
they on a thousand hills, are the Lord's. The beautiful streams are lined
with plum bushes all in bloom. The groves are preparing to cheer the
heart of the prairie inhabitants with their pleasant shady foliage.
At eleven Brother Aller preached in the Methodist
Episcopal house and I preached the Pentecostal sermon in the Presbyterian
house. Acts 2:1-4. At 3 P.M. Brother Aller preached a glorious and lovely
sermon on the brotherhood of the saints. Deep and lasting impressions were
made. How powerfully this dear brother preached for the unity of the
saints of God, with the eloquence of tears and overflowing love! We
parted with brotherly greetings at a quite late hour to meet at Crete
second Tuesday in September.
17. Went to Brother Green's. While there Brother S--
came in. We were just ready to engage in prayer. The Lord wonderfully
blessed me in prayer. I prayed fervently for him, though he has been
acting the part of an open enemy to me and the cause I represent. Went to
Seward. Received fifty dollars from the Board. Called on Brother J. W.
Figard, who is applying himself vigorously to the pursuit of an
education. Hope the Lord will raise him up for an effectual minister of
the gospel.
21. Made out report to the General Eldership.
23. Sabbath. This was a glorious and happy day's work
in the vineyard of the Lord. The Master was very near me all day. Oh what
liberty in speaking! what peace in my soul!
26. Up at daylight. Brothers Figard and Anderson moved
our things to homestead. We arrived about 1 P.M., they in the eve.
Unloaded, took supper, and staid all night in our house.
Here the record of Brother Warner's labors in the
Western field must end abruptly, as the succeeding portion was in a
separate book that has not been found. We leave him with his little
family just moved into their own house in Polk County, having spent the
winter near Seward. Our next of the diary accounts begins in the
following December and finds him back in Ohio fields, whither, probably
by decision of the Board of Missions or Eldership he was called to labor
again. The daily accounts which have been omitted for want of space show
him always active--traveling, preaching, visiting, praying, etc. The
selections that are given from his diary are chosen in order to display
the various sides and aspects of his life and character. We have noticed
his great zeal for the work of preaching the gospel and caring for those
under his charge. The widely separated flocks meant much traveling and
exposure in that new country.
We note his attitude and teaching on the church
question. In a large measure he had light on the true Bible church, and
he supposed he was not a member of any sect when, as a matter of fact, he
was. The benefits of his knowledge and teachings of the one church were
directed in the interest of the so-called church of God, which he was
ignorantly laboring to build up. It was not until he received the
experience of perfect holiness and began to teach the truth on the
subject that he was made to feel his limitations to human ecclesiasticism
and thus discover the pen he was in. His teachings and applications of
the Scriptural church (there is but one) was possible only among the
followers of John Winebrenner or in some similar body supposing themselves
to be that one true church. It is an interesting fact that upon the
fullness of time for God's people to throw off all human ecclesiastical
bondage and sever themselves from spiritual Babylon, the lead was taken
principally by those who had belonged to the Winebrennerian following.
Thus this denominational body may be regarded as a sort of preparatory
medium, or halfway step, for the reformation, which is now an established
thing. At any rate God had in Brother Warner raised up a man particularly
disposed to emphasize the church question, and the denomination mentioned
seemed to be the only one he could affiliate with till more advanced
light and truth forbade his remaining longer with them.
Dr. Forney, in his History of the Churches of God,
says of D. S. Warner's mission work in Nebraska, that in February 1874,
he organized a church at Fairmount, Fillmore County, of twenty-four
members. Also one at Cropsey, one at Evergreen, one in the Anderson
community, Seward County, of sixteen members, and one other. He had
fourteen preaching places.
Dr. Forney says that in June 1875, Brother Warner
organized a church in York County of thirty-one members, and further says
of his work in Nebraska that "to such an extent were the ministers
and churches encouraged that they conferred together on the advisability
of organizing an Eldership in Nebraska." Brother Warner notes in his
diary account for November 7, 1874, that a Preliminary Eldership was
organized at Crete, in Saline County. Application was made to the General
Eldership, which assembled in Ohio in May 1875, and an Eldership of the
Church of God in Nebraska was chartered. The first meeting of the
Nebraska Eldership was held at Cropsey. October 1, 1875. Among the
fifteen names enrolled Brother Warner's does not appear, hence we
conclude that by that time he had left Nebraska.
That his disposition to be freely led of God made him
poor material for a human ecclesiastical machine is evinced in the
account by Dr. Forney of the Eighteenth West Ohio Eldership, for the year
ending September 30, 1874. He says: "The beginning of trouble
between D. S. Warner and the Eldership is foreshadowed in an action on
the adoption of his report, which stated that he had 'organized a church
in Upper Sandusky contrary to the Rules of Cooperation' and regarding
this as a 'schismatic movement,' highly disapproved of his course in
organizing said church."
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Chapter 6 (part 2)
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Chapter 7
BACK IN OHIO FIELDS
In his resumption of the work in Ohio we find Brother
Warner in charge, it seems, of the Ashland circuit, with his home at
Hayesville, Ashland County. Here, as was characteristic of him
everywhere, he was wholly absorbed in spiritual labor, the salvation of
sinners and the general spiritual welfare of people everywhere within his
reach. In his diary for December 21, 1875, he says:
Went out visiting and talking to the people. 'My soul
was so happy all day that I could hardly refrain from shouting. Oh, how
sweet it was to talk to sinners about Jesus and his love! Found in shops
and houses a number of precious souls that were serious. I admonished
them to repent. Some gave much hope of a start.
The closing moments of the year 1875 were devoted to a
renewal of consecration of himself and others.
A few minutes before twelve we all bowed down and to
the service of God consecrated ourselves and vowed fidelity. God accepted
the offering and sealed our vows to him by the gift of his Spirit. After
affectionate New Year greetings and congratulations, we went to our homes
to rest.
Into his congregation at Shenandoah an Elder L-- had
come and was poisoning the minds of the converts by teaching the
Campbellite doctrine of baptism as an essential condition to the pardon
of sin. He afterward held a public discussion with this preacher.
February 19, 1876. Drove to Shenandoah. Found Elder
L-- having a good time deluding and baptizing sinners. Found the converts
greatly strengthened by the wind 'of doctrine that had been assailing
them. However, a few had been corrupted by the false doctrine and were
inclined to go from the Church of God, being carried by the wind of
doctrine. With a mean, sneaking look they applied for letters. I told
them that I had not taken them into the Church of God and could Dot
dismiss them from it, and there was only one way to get out and that was
through sin. This they could not deny, nor could they give a reason for
their course.
About this time he gradually came into the knowledge
of the truth respecting divine healing, and we find in his accounts an
occasional reference to his praying for the sick and of their recovery.
He was sent for by his father-in-law to come to Upper
Sandusky, where sectarians were making inroads among the converts.
April 2, 1876. The sectarians are making a stampede
this morning. They have been after about every convert to go to their
church and now this morning they have their conclave outside and every
convert is stopped and asked to join the Methodists. An excitement is
raised and the people's minds are bewildered, and some who had said they
would stick to the Church of God are now standing back. Before closing,
an old bigot, belonging to the Methodists, took the liberty to get up and
call for all to raise their hands who wanted to go to Methodism. Some
responded. O Sectarianism! thou abomination of the earth, thou bane of
the cause of God, when will thy corrupt and wicked walls fall to earth
and cease to curse men to hell?
June 4, 1876. This is the second anniversary of our
marriage. Thank God for connubial and domestic happiness. May God
continue to bless us with love, peace, and sacred union.
July 18, 1876. Received the sad and startling news of
the death of my dear mother. She died July 13. The days of her pilgrimage
were seventy-one years, five months, and seven days. Hers was a life of
trouble and care. But, thank God, she has gone to her sweet rest in
heaven. Oh, how sacred the memory of thy pure and virtuous life!
"patient in tribulation," constant and untiring in thy kindness
and care for all under thy roof. Oh, what love like a mother's! What
mother like my own dear, sainted mother? In all the ordeal of life thy
calm and peaceful spirit has never known a ruffle. Thy love has never
once failed. Thy sorely tried patience never was exhausted.
Dearest mother, in childhood and youth thou wast my
all. And when maturer years had launched my bark in the midst of awful
breakers, dark clouds, and tempestuous seas of corrupt society, thy pure
life was my only star of hope. Thank God, thou shalt be honored in heaven
with the salvation of one poor, wayward son by thy holy influence. Praise
the Lord for a good and holy mother!
She was always strongly inclined to piety, the fear
and reverence of God. In October 1870, she was fellowshipped by the
Church of God at South Bridgewater and the same day immersed by me in the
St Joseph River. Though she was feeble and the weather cold and the
distance over three miles from home, she chose to go home before changing
clothes. She was a happy soul, and the next day seemed quite improved in
health. Now she is gone. One of the dearest ties that bound me to earth
now attracts me to heaven. I cannot lament her departure. I only grieve
that I was not informed of her affliction that I could have been there to
cheer her while approaching the river. Or, had I only been apprized of
her death that I could have seen once more the face of my own dear mother
before she was laid in the tomb! But I shall see her not again until the
heavens are no more and the Son of God shall come to call the saints from
the dust of the earth. Farewell, dear mother. We soon shall meet
again.
July 29. We visited the penitentiary [in Columbus].
Over 1,300 prisoners. All at work manufacturing nearly everything in use.
The extensive work was interesting, but the study of the heads and faces
of the workmen was much more so. One striking characteristic was, almost
invariably, great firmness. This being perverted enabled them to execute
their dark crimes. Conscientiousness was low in every head. This left
them without moral restraint. Some I observed were very deficient in the
social group, especially was inhabitiveness almost entirely deficient.
This gave a rambling disposition, hence irresponsible and exposed to bad
society. A large majority exhibited a very good intellect, many even
above mediocrity. These intellectual powers, which had they been
sanctified to God would have been very useful, being perverted were used
only to devise crime.
October 1, 1876. Eldership meeting at Findlay. I was
much overcome with emotion as I tried to speak of my meeting with the
Eldership for the first time in that house nine years ago. Never shall I
forget the solemn feelings I experienced at that time. I had not expected
a license; but how I trembled with fear and dread when I learned that a
license and a field of labor were given me! I thought it all a mistake of
the Eldership. I repaired to the stable of Brother F--, where I poured
out my heart to God in prayer. Bless God, he heard me and comforted my
agonizing heart. I then received the assurance that he was directing my
way. My soul was unburdened and my peace flowed like a river. And now my
laboring soul and inmost heart would give thanks to God who has upheld me
in the arduous labors of the past nine years. Having begun an invalid,
supposed by many to be a consumptive, my strength has gradually increased
through God's blessings and mercies.
30. Gathered some chestnuts this morning. Had a season
of prayer in the woods.
November 30, 1876. This is Thanksgiving Day. Oh, that
the whole nation would indeed thank God for his goodness and mercy!
Brother Oliver and I each made a short discourse on the occasion. P. M.,
read O. S. Fowler's Physiology, Animal and Mental. O God, forgive me of
the sin this book has convicted me of. By the grace of God, from this day
forth I will reform in quantity, etc., of food as much as my irregular
mode of life will allow. How much I can improve the vigor of the mind and
the fervor of devotion! Thank God for this volume! Oh, that every one had
it who is suffering for want of its instruction!
December 31, 1876. Sabbath. Arose early to go to my
appointments. Levilla ill. Mother Keller very sick with headache, unable
to be up. Was compelled to stay at home. Oh, what distress of mind I was
in this day through the fearful conflict of duty to family and duty to
the cause! How wretched I felt all day! The day was pleasant and I know
there were crowded houses to hear the gospel. How I longed to preach to
them!
January 7, 1877. Went to visit Mr. S--, who is
suffering awful distress. Was met by a young man who was coming after us.
We went with the hope that the poor, dying man was eager to hear of
Christ and his salvation; but oh, horror of horrors! When we approached
the house we heard the poor soul hollowing out in wild strains: "I
can't die; I can't die." I asked him if we should pray for him. He
hollowed out "No!" But I thought he was delirious and concluded
to sing and pray with him, which I did with all my heart. After prayer I
talked with the family and learned that he had said he was a lost sinner,
that he could not be saved. I asked him if we should pray. He shook his
head. I talked to him of how Christ died for sinners and how he loved and
desired to save him; but there was a hideous look in his eyes. He looked
frightful, yet he was conscious, answered every question we could ask
him. I called for oil and said I would do as the New Testament directed.
So I bowed down, anointed his forehead, and was about to anoint his
breast when he seized his shirt and drew it together. I laid one hand on
his head, the other on his body, and began to pray. He drew his head
forward and tried to get it under the cover. He shoved my hand from under
his head. I could pray but little. He told every one present that he did
not want us to come back. He said he would die; was not prepared to die;
did not believe that Christ died for him; did not love Christ and did not
want to. He showed every appearance of being possessed by the devil. When
we kept our distance he would turn and look at us with fiendish
vengeance. When we approached he would turn his face to the wall. Poor
soul! soon he will be in eternity, I presume, and yet raging mad against
Christ and his people. I shall never forget the horrors of this day. When
we entered the first room we met several women weeping. The old mother
fainted away. He was crying loudly in the other room.
In 1877, while on the Ashland circuit Brother Warner
arranged, in connection with ministerial duties, to take some selective
studies at Vermillion College, located at Hayesville. This was a
Presbyterian school of some note at the time, enrolling three hundred to
four hundred students. It was founded in 1845. Dr. Sanders Diefendorf
became its head in 1849. Brother Warner and his wife were invited to
occupy rooms in the building, and they did so, as they found they could
live much cheaper there than in Mansfield and would enjoy better
privileges of study. They engaged five rooms for the summer of 1877,
which cost them six dollars a month. Among Brother Warner's studies at
this place were English Analysis, Greek, German, and studies in the New
Testament. He took an active part in the literary society.
The year 1877 was a notable one in Brother Warner's
life. Already accomplished as he was in deep spirituality and devotion,
it would seem that these graces were multiplied or intensified tenfold by
an attainment that from this year became his permanent possession. That
attainment was the experience of entire sanctification as received
definitely by faith and subsequent to regeneration. He embraced the cause
of holiness.
He had been for some years honestly prejudiced against
the doctrine; but he heard some truth by the holiness advocates that set
him to thinking. It was doubtless largely through the influence of his father-in-law's
family that he began to be won to the doctrine. They had become friends
of the holiness cause and had received the experience. His wife also was
sanctified, and the change in her was a test that he had no words to
gainsay. A holiness band had been formed at Upper Sandusky, where his
wife's people lived.
The one minister who perhaps more than any other led
him into the experience of holiness, was C. R. Dunbar, a Baptist who was
laboring in connection with the Holiness Alliance. Brother Warner says of
him, "He is a very able man intellectually, but still more potent in
faith and gospel, Holy Ghost power." He was the musical author of
the song, now so common:
I'll live for him who died for
me,
How happy then my life shall
be!
I'll live for him who died for
me,
My Savior and my God.
The great holiness movement was sweeping over the
country at this time. Brother Warner was too loyal to God and to the
teaching of the Bible ever to be classed among those who should reject
holiness when brought face to face with the issue. He and his wife gave
their names to the holiness band at Upper Sandusky, and he quoted the
words of the Psalmist: "I am a companion of all them that fear thee,
and of them that keep thy precepts." At this time his impulsiveness
led him to claim the blessing at once, but he soon found that it could
not be picked up so readily; that for him, as well as for others, there
was a consecration to make and self to be crucified.
A little anecdote in this connection is told by a brother
who heard Brother Warner relate it of himself. He (Brother Warner) had
been attending some meetings of the holiness people and had received some
light. On returning to his charge he preached a sermon on holiness
without having obtained the experience. Two sisters who had received the
experience knew that he did not yet have it and urged that he get it
before attempting to preach it. At the altar service that followed he got
down as if to pray for others, but first prayed privately for his own
sanctification. Then audibly he began, "Lord, sanctify us,"
whereupon one of the sisters said, "Brother Warner, do not pray,
'Lord, sanctify us'; but say, 'Lord, sanctify me.' " At this he
wilted and came right out with "Lord, sanctify me."
We shall quote freely from his diary, as his
experience at this time is best expressed by his own words.
April 13, 1877. Had much talk with Brother Dunbar on
sanctification. I have always believed in a full salvation, and agree
that it is usually obtained after the justified state. This was my
experience as well as that of all advocates of holiness; but I was
inclined to attribute the deficiency of the justified state to infantile
weakness, which through outward sinful influence, was not able to carry
out the pure nature fully in practice. But he and all sanctificationists
attribute it to the remaining depravity of nature.
16. Since I arose this morning my constant prayer to
God has been that he will lead me in all things. I pray God to take me
like an old sack and shake me until entirely empty, and then me with the
fullness of himself. O God! turn out every nook and corner of my heart
and purge me, soul, body, spirit, and mind. I received a blessing about
the time I entered the ministry that seemed to correspond with the experience
of sanctified ones; but I have not always kept that state of perfect
love, and my God knows that I need a fresh blessing of sanctification
power. . . Though I experienced sanctification ten years ago, when
entering upon the work of the ministry, yet I want and need a renewal of
God's power, that my testimony for God may be more effectual. Also, I
know that I have not always lived in this glorious liberty. I have this
day examined my heart carefully and feel assured that I accept the whole
will of God and now stand by faith upon the promise of God. I leave
myself and all my concerns in his hands. By faith I say, "I am the
Lord's, and he is mine.
Here Brother Warner quotes the poem, "Farther
On." How appropriate this was to his life at this point! How much of
his activity and accomplishment were enveloped in the "farther
on"!
A soft, sweet voice from Eden
stealing,
Such as but the angels
sing;
Hope's cheering song is ever
thrilling,
It is better farther on.
I hear Hope singing, sweetly
singing
Softly in an undertone,
And singing as if God had
taught her,
It is better farther on.
By night and day she sings the
same song,
Sings it while I sit
alone;
And sings it so the heart may
hear it,
It is better farther on.
She sits upon the grave and
sings it,
Sings it when the heart would
groan;
And sings it when the shadows
darken,
It is better farther on.
Still farther on, oh, how much
farther?
Count the milestones one by
one;
No, no! no counting, only
trusting--
It is better farther on.
April 25, 1877. I was dull today. Study was a drag. I
prayed to God that if I am pursuing these studies for his glory he should
quicken my mind. I was, as oft before, convinced that I ate too much,
which stupefied my mind; hence resolved, as oft before, to quit
gormandizing to gratify appetite. I resolved in God's name and in his
strength to do this thing. I ate but a few spoonfuls of graham mush for
supper. Felt cheered by God's presence in evening worship.
26. My mind was active today. Lessons were easily
learned, spirits cheerful, recitations more successful. O Lord, keep me
in the possession of a clear, active, and retentive mind, a pure heart,
and a consecrated life, devoted to God's service.
May 19, 1877. Had a very interesting meeting in the Excelsior
Society. M. J. Boyd and I conducted the main discussion on the following
question: Do We Suffer More from Real Than Imaginary Evils? I
affirmed.
27. Sabbath. Beautiful day. Arose early and, taking a
testament with me, I took a long walk, enjoying the precious pure air,
the beauties of nature, and communion with God through his Word and
Spirit. Read and meditated upon several chapters. Precious season in
family worship. Just when we were through with breakfast the boy raised
the cry that the house was on fire. We ran to the bedroom and found the
curtains and clothing around the wall in a blaze. Great excitement
prevailed. But soon by means of a few pails of water and by throwing some
of the burning fabrics out, the fire was extinguished with the loss only
of some clothing. The fire was started by a small child, who finding a
match on the candlestick, struck it and then dropped it on the end of the
curtain that reached to the floor.
June 1, 1877. Prepared and delivered a lecture before
the Excelsior Society on the Interrelation between Mind and Body, and
their Mutual Dependence.
7. Built steps over the fence to avoid having the gate
left open, as much of my cabbage has already been destroyed. As a
consideration, Professor agreed to give me more ground to garden.
8. Worked on an essay for the Society tonight, also on
a composition for the Board, to be criticized. Eve, met with the
Excelsior Society and entered upon the duties of secretary. There being
few present, all other exercises were dispensed with but a general
discussion on the subject, Is Force More Effectual in Government than
Persuasion. I took the negative. Mr. W. Diefendorf also spoke on the
negative. The vote was almost unanimous for the negative.
15. A.M., recitations as usual. P.M., prepared for
Society. Rained all afternoon and evening. No Excelsior meeting. Visited
the Philo Society. Participated in general discussion on the following
question: Is the Fear of Punishment a Greater Incentive to Exertion than
the Hope of Reward? Spoke on the negative. Large majority in our favor on
the final vote.
July 5, 1877. Met at half-past nine in the Bethel.
After a profitable season of prayer, reading the Word, testifying, etc.,
I presented myself at the altar to seek entire sanctification. I enjoyed
that blessing ten years ago, but I had all this time repudiated the
second work and accounted for the wonderful change that God had wrought
in me at that time to my yielding to the call to preach the blessed
gospel of Jesus, after being disobedient. I had often been disgusted,
too, with the fanaticism I saw mixed with the professors of the second
work; it had steeped me with prejudice through and through.
Though I could not deny that the experience of these
people was in perfect harmony with my own, yet I strongly opposed their
views, claiming that God does not do his work by piecemeal, but that he
makes a full and complete finish of it at once. I attributed the second
experience to the fact that after conversion we are weak infants and not
able to carry into action the pure nature that God has given us until we
grow to that degree of strength that we can successfully cope with outer
temptation, and that holy nature given to us in regeneration reaches a
degree of development in strength that it will no more be under
subjection to sin in the world around us.
Thus, while I did not doubt the truthfulness of their
testimony, I thought I comprehended the whole matter and saw the slight
mistake, as I supposed, in the basis of their experience.
But God having let Father and Mother Keller and the
whole family into this glorious experience, with my dear companion, I
began to search the Scriptures anew to see if I might not be mistaken
myself. I carefully reviewed my conversion and recollected that I sought
and asked of God only pardon of my past sins and relief from my past
guilt. That in ten years labor, in which some seven hundred souls came to
Christ, I never knew one to seek for anything else hut pardon for actual
transgression and it is a fact that we do not ask of God that which we
have not apprehended the need of, and God does not give until we ask or a
thing.
Moreover, it is claimed that justification is not a
partial but complete work of itself, and sanctification, i.e.,
purification, another. Since seeing every day the change in my dear wife
I thought I was beyond doubt of this second work. But, ah, the devil is
rallying his forces against me. Am I making a fool of myself coming out
here where I have invited and labored with sinners? My old arguments
would come up and I had powerful temptations to settle back upon them and
forever repudiate the second work. I obtained no light.
P.M. We met at half-past two and held meeting till
nearly five. I labored at the altar. At night after Brother Burlison read
a Scripture lesson and talked for some time on holiness, we all bowed
around the altar; but I could do nothing, all was dark. I came here fully
believing in a second work of God in the soul: but now, as I attempt to
seek it, how thick the temptations of Satan come up before me! how all my
old arguments and objections gather like rubbish, obstructing the light!
Sometimes I was about to conclude that this was all foolishness. I was
ashamed to bow at the altar and seek sanctification of "soul, body,
and spirit" after I had invited sinners to and labored with them at
the same altar.
6. Arose early this morning and searched the
Scriptures and asked God for light. I noticed whenever I felt resigned to
God and was willing to make any sacrifice to know the truth I was
strongly impressed to seek sanctification.
This morn I was directed to 1 Peter 5:10 and Ephesians
3:14-20. Light is becoming brighter in the Word. Thank God. Met at
half-past nine. The foundation of faith was now becoming strong in me. I
arose and read some portions of the Word and boldly declared my faith in
the second work, and that I was resting in the promises of God to my
entire sanctification. Met again, at 2:30 p.m., having spent most of the
interval in searching my heart, and truly I found that it has not been as
good as I before supposed. Oh how much self there has been in all my past
labors! God of power, kill and cast out all of self. I reviewed my
observations of the past ten years' labor. About seven hundred souls I
have observed seeking salvation, and I cannot recall any who did not
definitely seek for justification from past sins. It appears that the
condemned sinner can think of nothing else and does not possess a
capacity to grasp the idea that God is able to destroy all evil in depraved
humanity. "God, forgive my past sins and help me in the future to
keep from sin," is about as great a blessing as the mind beclouded
by guilt can conceive and ask for. With a still more deep and fervent
consecration I again sought the blessing of perfect holiness. Glory to
God, I was able to claim the blessing by faith, though yet without the
anointing of power. After meeting I spent most of the time talking
holiness to several brethren, which I felt was pleasing to God.
Eve, Brother Burlison read 1 Corinthians 3, and talked
a little; then, an invitation being given, a good many surrounded the
altar, several of whom were seeking the blessing. Thank God, some
professed to receive the blessing I am still standing, yea, resting
sweetly in the promise of God for entire and constant salvation through
the blood of Jesus.
7. Today we fasted all day. Met in the Bethel at 9
A.M. and held meeting until after 4 P.M. without intermission. This day I
was the least conscious of a physical nature and my relations with a
corporeal world of any day in all my life. I seemed to be entirely
unconscious of passing time. Only the spirit seemed to live, stir, feel,
and take cognizance. Glory to the God of wonders! Is this really but the
footstool of God?
Mother Keller, Sarah, and I went to Brother L--'s for
supper. She (Mrs. L.) very soon began to pour out her bitter railing
against holiness and holy ones; but praise God, he kept our souls in
perfect peace. After my communing with God in secret for some time, the
Lord told me to go immediately to see a poor sick girl near by. Mother
accompanied me. Found her barely able to sit up, having been suffering
for nearly one year. She had exhausted in vain all available medical aid.
We spoke of the Great Physician. She said she believed that he was able
to heal her. We called for oil, anointed her in the name of the Lord and
laid hands on, and prayed for her present restoration to health. We
entreated God with all the faith and earnestness of our inmost soul and
then left her in the hands of God, with a comfortable degree of faith
that God would raise her up again.
Eve, met at a quarter to eight. Mighty power filled
the house. The altar was filled from one side to the other. Several were
seeking sanctification. Glory to God, this night he began to give me some
of the evidences (besides my hitherto naked faith) that I had got out of
the wilderness into Canaan. Jesus, my blessed Savior, just cut me off one
bunch of the sweet grapes of this "land." Oh, glory to God,
once more I was a little child! I felt the blood of Jesus flowing through
my entire "soul, body, and spirit." Heaven on earth!
Halleluiah, it is done!
8. Sabbath. At five this morning a goodly number met
in the Bethel for prayers. The Spirit was with us. Returned to Brother
Bell's; ate a piece for breakfast, as we all felt that bodily wants were
simple and few while the soul was so dearly fed with the bread of heaven.
Met at half-past nine, and after many clear testimonies were given in for
Jesus Brother Dunbar preached the word of life with great power and
sweetness. Text, "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but
unto holiness." He read much of the First Epistle to the
Thessalonians, where this glorious second work is brought out so clear
and forcibly. My soul was never before so wonderfully fed by the gospel
in any sermon I ever heard. Oh, how sweet and glorious the word of life
came to my renovated heart!
Mother, Sarah, and I went to Brother Furman's for
dinner. Returned to the two o'clock meeting. Among many clear witnesses I
testified today to the blood that cleanses from all sin and also
uncleanness of nature. The long altar was again crowded and several found
sanctification in the blood. Some backsliders were restored. God is
wonderfully at work. All glory to his name!
At six we met again in the Bethel, after spending a
long time in the closet with God. The Spirit impressed me to talk to the
people on the commands of Jesus, and in simplicity I did so, using John
14:15 as a text. I read the word of the lord concerning the duty of
washing the saints' feet. Then we proceeded to obey the Lord. God
wonderfully blessed me in talking, but my soul leaped for joy as I saw
the dear sanctified ones come promptly to the bench and joyfully obey Him
whom they love. God wonderfully blessed them, as they all testified the
next day. Many of them had never seen the holy ordinance of feet washing
observed before. The Church of God brethren had said that if these
holiness people would obey these lowly commands then they would have
confidence in them. Thank God, true holiness needs but to be tested to be
proved genuine.
10. This morn had to miss prayer meeting in order to
take Mother Keller and our dear Levilla to the train, as they go to Upper
Sandusky this morn. We will go by buggy at the close of meeting. Sister
Bell and Sarah went to the country today to get berries. I wrote and
prayed most of the forenoon. Then, feeling very empty and destitute of
the stirrings of the Spirit, I sought God earnestly in secret and then started
out to work for him. Visited and prayed with two families, but still felt
destitute of the Comforter. Met at 2:30 P.M. at the house of God. Several
observed that I was being much tried. But I was eager to defeat the enemy
of my soul by testifying to the sanctifying power of the blood of Jesus.
I did so, declaring that the blood of Jesus had washed from all sin.
While I was talking, the Lord showed me that I had now entered upon the
path of perfect trust in Jesus, and that as faith was eternal and unchangeable,
I had forever abandoned the up-and-down road of feeling. I also (in an
absent-minded manner) made the remark that had been cheated out of the
morning prayer meeting. But quick as thought I saw that it was wrong, for
it was either complaining of or speaking lightly of God's providence.
This remark furnished a subject of meditation through the afternoon. I
see how entirely loyal to God's providence I now was. I felt that the
above remark and all similar ones, so common and admissible in my past state,
were not only wrong, but could not be true, as I have given myself, all I
have, to God, surrendered all my ways, time, talents, means, influence,
name, reputation, and everything with which I am connected--wife, child,
friends, my destiny--all into the hands of God. I glorify in the blessed
truth that no being in the whole universe can cheat me out of anything or
do me the least harm. Glory to God forever! How happy I am in accepting
all the will and providence of God! From the time of my testimony I realized
the glorious river of life flowing through my entire being. What a sweet
sense of perfect purity filled my mind and heart! Holiness was written
everywhere. My very body seemed sacred and pure, a temple for the holy
God. Glory to the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus!
Precious Jesus, thou hast
saved me,
Thine and only thine I
am.
Oh, the precious blood has
reached me!
Glory, glory to the
Lamb!
Long my yearning heart was
trying
To enjoy this perfect
rest;
But I gave all trying
over,
Simply trusting I was
blessed.
Glory to the blood that bought
me,
Glory to its cleansing
power,
Glory to the blood that keeps
me,
Glory, glory evermore!
Yes, I will stand up for
Jesus;
He has sweetly saved my
soul,
Cleansed me from inbred
corruption,
Sanctified and made me
whole.
Oh, I can no longer doubt
it,
Halleluiah, I am free!
Jesus saves me, soul and
body,
And he sweetly dwells in me.
Brother Warner was one of the principal debaters of
the Church of God. Dr. Forney mentions his debates as follows: In August,
1871 with the Reverend Mr. Baker, of the Disciple Church, the proposition
being, "The Church of God of which I am a member is the only church
of divine origin." In June 1872, with Leonard Parker, Methodist
Episcopal Church, on the old subject of baptism. On May 15 1874, near
Orton, Nebraska, he defended the perpetuity and public observance of feet
washing as an ordinance against E. Evans, of the Disciple Church. At the
Osborne Schoolhouse, near Seward, Nebraska, with C. L. Boyd, Adventist.
The proposition discussed was, "The first day of the week has been
set apart by divine authority as Sabbath or Lord's day." The
discussion was the outcome of a series of addresses by Boyd on the
seventh day Sabbath. So well did Warner defend the proposition, says
Forney, that at the close of the debate the congregation present voted
thirty-six to sixteen that he had established it. The debate continued
three evenings.
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Chapter 8
THE HOLINESS AWAKENING
The decades of the sixties, seventies, and eighties of
the last century witnessed a special revival of the doctrine of holiness,
or sanctification. Sanctification was held as being a work of God's grace
wrought in the heart subsequent to pardon, and accomplishing for the
individual, through consecration and faith in Christ, (1) restoration of
the soul from innate depravity and uncleanness, the destruction of that
carnal element which antagonizes the godly purpose of the soul, and (2)
the infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In short, it was the
doctrine of Christian perfection, the state of loving God supremely and
of living victorious over every form of sin.
This doctrine was nothing more nor less than one of
the great Scriptural truths that had been obscured by the apostasy. It
had been taught by the Wesleys, but through the denomination-building
zeal of their followers it had become to a great extent a dead letter in
their articles of faith. The bright spiritual lights of the world
throughout the gospel dispensation were generally individual men and
women who believed in and possessed the experience of sanctification; but
now the time came, in the unfolding of God's plan, for holiness to be
given specific attention on a scale amounting to a general awakening in
religious circles. The various Protestant sects had about reached the
heyday of their deplorable rivalry, and it was but natural that the
unifying influence of holiness, appearing in striking contrast to such
rivalry, should appeal to all true Christians. The movement did indeed, as
a rule, enlist the most spiritual members of the so-called churches.
This holiness awakening was a movement that should
introduce a prophetic day. It was of God. It was not planned by human
agency. Individuals here and there of the more earnest and spiritual
class of Christians were led into the deeper experience altogether
independent of each other. For some reason they felt impelled to give
special emphasis to the doctrine of holiness. These tiny flames were by
some unseen hand fanned into a great conflagration destined to sweep the
country.
A few paragraphs from M. L. Haney's Inheritance
Restored, published in 1880, are on this point.
A number of Christian farmers feel strangely moved to
aid in the salvation of the perishing, and they plan a laymen's
campmeeting, in which the fires of holiness break out. This leads to the
organization of a Laymen's Holiness Association, and results in bringing
many hundreds to the joys of pardoned sin and the experience of holiness.
Three or four ministers are mutually impressed with the necessity of
holding a holiness camp meeting. The seal of God's approval of the
service is so manifest that they are compelled to go farther. An
association is formed for the purpose of holding a number of camp
meetings for the promotion of holiness. The work enlarges till many
earnest inquirers look to them for specific instruction on the subject of
holiness. To meet this demand, and remain true to God, they are compelled
to furnish these thirsting thousands with specific holiness literature.
Thus the unexpected springing up of a monthly magazine, with hooks and
tracts, all teaching the way of Christ's cleansing blood.
One minister, comparatively illiterate, stands alone
for years. He preaches, and prays, and testifies, and sings, and shouts,
as here and there a soul is blood washed through his ministry. He mourns
the downward tendency, as the sympathy of his brethren seems ofttimes
withdrawn; but at last God brings one of them to stand by his side.
Another, and yet another is added, till God has bound three or four souls
in bonds of perfect love. The obligation to disseminate the gospel of
holiness among the people of God in all the churches leads them, after
much prayer on the subject, to publish a paper which shall be the medium
of instruction on the special doctrine of holiness. Without a dollar, or
a subscription list, with nothing at the base but unshrinking faith in
the God who leads, they launch a weekly paper. But God touches the heart
of a wealthy layman, and gives him no peace till he pledges three
thousand dollars for the support of that paper.
"God works in a mysterious way, his wonders to
perform." When God determined to break the chains of slavery he
revealed to no man the time or methods of its accomplishment. In like manner,
in the holiness movement, his faithful servants have gone "out, not
knowing whither they went." The way has been so rugged at times that
many have turned aside; but God has put two in the place of each
faltering one, and the ranks of the holiness army are steadily
increasing.
We call attention to the remarkable fact that the
holiness work has sprung up simultaneously in different parts of the
earth; in the east, in the west, in the north, and the south; in the old
world, and in the new; among Arminians, and among Calvinists; in cities,
in towns, and in country places; indicating an unseen hand and guiding
power.
A mechanic, in Pennsylvania, receives a call from the
chaplain of King William's court to come to Germany and teach the church
of Martin Luther the way of holiness, and four hundred learned ministers
sit at the feet of a Presbyterian layman to learn of holiness in the city
of Berlin. A young minister, whom God hath baptized with the Holy Ghost
and with fire, completely girds the earth with holy song, as he travels
to regain his failing health.
One of Wesley's mightiest sons is sent to the other
side of the globe to receive this blessed experience, under the
instruction of a Presbyterian minister. Suddenly an organized army
springs up in Europe to spread holiness, and the power of Satan is broken
by its advancing legions.
A number of holy men and women are compelled by their
convictions to make the circuit of the earth, and are invited to preach,
and sing, and testify to holiness in the shadow of the Vatican. Reader,
who do you think has planned, and whose hand is guiding, this
movement?
The truth is, the holiness movement was a movement
prophetically due at this time as the introduction to the great
reformation (restoration) that now succeeds it, in which God's people are
not only embracing holiness, but are taking their stand free and complete
in Christ, distinct from all humanly organized bodies called churches.
The reader of church history will observe that the progress of Christianity
has not been by gradual, steady increase of light and truth, but by
reformation after reformation in which some special truth is emphasized
and men's hearts are stirred.
Among the early leaders of the movement in this
country were Dr. W. C. and Phoebe Palmer, of New York. Mrs. Palmer,
especially, was prominent in this respect. She wrote a number of books on
holiness and with her husband held meetings in various openings in the
East and was otherwise very active in the cause. William Macdonald, John
S. Inskip, Daniel Steele, and J. A. Wood were others who, both by
preaching and the press, gave prominence to the doctrine of entire
sanctification as a second, distinct work of grace. Holiness societies
sprung up, books were written on the subject, periodicals were started,
and holiness bands began to canvass the country. Well does the writer
remember of seeing when a boy these holiness bands travel about the
country in covered wagons. They carried a spiritual fire that caught in
the hearts of the more fervent ones who, on the barren plains of sect
religion, were seeking for a higher and better Christian experience. The
activity on this line was not on the part of the various denominations,
as such, but on the part of earnest Christians within the denominations.
Holiness, it must be remembered, is Scriptural, a part
of God's will to his children, and the movement must not be regarded as
being something new, but as a revival of truth intended for man. Since
the attainment of this distinct higher experience requires a perfect
consecration, an entire abandonment, to God, it was but natural that the
doctrine should be opposed by the pleasure-loving church members, those
who were Christians only in name and did not care for any advancement or
improvement of their spiritual status. These, of course, were greatly in
the majority. The holiness advocates were at once opposed and often
persecuted; but silently and surely, as leaven works in the meal, the
holiness agitation increased and spread throughout the country. It was a
very unwelcome and disturbing element among the cold professors. They
said that sinlessness was not to be attained in this life; that we could
not be sanctified till death; etc. But when shown by the Scriptures that
it is indeed God's will for Christians in this life, they would declare
that it is attained by growth, or perhaps would say they had received it
in conversion. They were opposed to having any further spiritual
obligation placed upon them.
But it was not alone the advocacy of an advanced Christian
attainment that might well make the holiness movement distasteful to sect
devotees. Holiness is unifying. It makes Christians one, in accordance
with our Savior's prayer: "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" (John 17:21). True
holiness is destructive of divisional elements. That is why the advocates
of holiness in the different denominations lost to a great extent their
sectarian bigotry and could join together in holiness associations
independent of their denominations. As a general thing the holiness
editors and teachers spoke against sectarian divisions.
This brings us to the critical point. Would those
espousing holiness dissolve their sect relations? Here is where many in
the holiness movement compromised and would not follow in the onward
march of truth out of all denominational confusion and into complete
oneness in Christ. Instead, holiness associations urged and even required
their members to maintain also a sect membership. They seemed to believe
sects were a necessary evil and they opposed the idea of coming out of
sects. This is as far as the majority in the holiness movement would go.
They deplored sects, but seemed to think that to be outside of all sects
would be to have no church relation at all. Had they walked in the light
they would have comprehended the true body of Christ and been led out of
sectarian entanglements; but failing to follow the true leading of God, they
receded, and their holiness degenerated into what was mere sect holiness.
To this day they have their holiness associations and their conventions,
but fellowshipping as they do the sects and factions of almost every
description, they are left to grope in their own darkness and confusion,
still making an effort but accomplishing nothing toward Christian
unity.
Their confusion on the church question is illustrated
by the following quotation from the salutary address adopted by the
General Holiness Assembly held in Chicago in May 1901:
In respect to the matter of church fellowship we
observe that the church is the institution of Christ, having many members
in one body, himself being the living Head. He has redeemed it with his
blood, and engraven it upon the palms of his hands. Membership therein is
a precious privilege, and always to be highly esteemed. Wherever
practical, every saved man and woman should be connected with some
church.
The first two statements are clear in their reference
to the true Christian church as the one body of saved people everywhere,
redeemed by Christ's blood. But when in the next breath they urge that
"every saved man and woman should be connected with some
church," as if such were not already in the church through redemption
by Christ's blood, they are talking about something else, not the body of
Christ. They perhaps do not realize their own blindness; but to the one
who spiritually discerns the true church and its sufficiency for all the
people of God, their confusion is very apparent.
The writer had an interview not long since with one of
the holiness leaders who used to know D. S. Warner and who still labors
to bring about the unity of Christians through a holiness that respects
sectarian divisions. This man was asked about the prospects for unity
after so many years of effort. His reply, in which he complained of the
bigotry existing among the denominations, was anything but encouraging.
He seemed to have no knowledge of a way out of the trouble, and regarded
the present true church movement as only a sect, or faction, saying that
a sect is any body of Christians joined together in the same
belief," etc. "But suppose a number of persons come out from
and leave the sects with which they have been connected, and stand only
on the Bible, independent of sects-suppose they assemble together in a
body; would they be a sect?" he was asked. "Yes," was his
reply. "Then what about the body of Christ itself, the whole, of
which sects are regarded as cut-off factions--is that a sect?"
"Yes," was his answer. And then, as if he could know nothing
but sects, he referred to Paul as calling the Christians in his day a
sect, and assumed to quote him thus: "For as concerning this sect,
we know that everywhere it is spoken against" (Acts 28:22) He was
told that these words were not spoken by Paul, but by his opposers.
"Well," said he, "I will look that up.
Thus his conception of the subject makes the true
church impossible. When men have been forty years in the ministry and in
the holiness movement, and are just as far from discerning the church as
when they started, and even suppose that Paul called the Christians a
sect, how blinding and confusing must be the darkness in which they
grope! Having failed to follow in God's way when came the call,
"Come out of her, my people," they have been building with
wood, hay, and stubble a structure that only awaits the consumption at
the last day.
But not so all who were engaged in the holiness
movement. God had a remnant whom he was leading entirely out of spiritual
Babylon, who were returning to Zion over the highway of holiness, with
singing and everlasting joy in their hearts. Holiness led them to the
threshold of a brighter day, and they did not stop, but passed over.
Keeping in the light they retained true holiness and all that God had
given them. Thus, coming out of the holiness movement and embodying its
true elements, is a movement that not only upholds holiness, but
repudiates sectarianism and represents the true Christian unity that
Christ prayed for. It holds and knows Christ as the only head of the
body, and as complete, in all things, to the church.
It was through the workers in the holiness movement
that Brother D. S. Warner was made to face squarely the issue of
holiness. His rejection of holiness in his earlier ministry may have been
because of its poor representation on the part of professors; or, in
other words, because his introduction to it was not such as would cause
him to think seriously of its claims. When he comprehended that it was
the line on which God was particularly working, he was not slow in being
led into the light and experience and becoming an ardent advocate of the
doctrine. Meeting with opposition from the so-called church of God, to
which he belonged, and finally being expelled from the West Ohio
Eldership, his associations were to a great extent with the holiness
bands and Societies. Among these he stood prominent.
Of the holiness editors who were contemporary with
Brother Warner were John P. Brooks, of the Banner of Holiness,
Bloomington, Illinois; George Hughes, of the Guide to Holiness, New York;
Isaiah Reid, of the Highway, Nevada, Iowa; and T. K. Doty, of the
Christian Harvester, Cleveland. There were also a number of others.
Brother Warner himself came to be an editor and to have an acquaintance
with nearly all the editors and prominent workers of his day.
As a delegate from Rome City, Indiana he attended the
Western Union Holiness Convention held at Jacksonville, Illinois December
5-19, 1880. George D. Watson, who was a prominent holiness leader and
author, was president of the convention. Brother Warner Was appointed to
the committee on program, serving with four others. He was slated for and
delivered an address on the subject The Kind of Power Needed to Carry the
Holiness Work.
At the Close of the convention he was placed on a
committee of seven to confer and decide relative to the calling of a
future convention of holiness Workers in the West, with authority to
issue a call for such a meeting, if they deemed it necessary. Thus he
stood prominent in the holiness movement.
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