Chapter D: S. Warner. Allie R. Fisher (2)

In the same issue (June 1) he reviews a position taken by T. K. Doty, the editor of the Christian Harvester. We present this article, and also two others, in order to show his argument on the question of the church and sects.

SQUARE COME-OUTISM

"Probably this means the doctrine of coming out of all
the sects, and giving the church of Christ no visible
organization."--Christian Harvester.

I wish to ask the editor of the Harvester if human sects are
essential to the visible organization of Christ? The above language
so implies.

Then, according to this statement, the church of Christ was without
a visible organization hundreds of years, until the present-day
sects arose. And if the visible organization thus provided is a
necessary adjunct to the church, then the apostle Peter made a
mistake when he said that God had already "given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness."

Again, if the formation of sects gives the church of Christ a
visible organization, will the Harvester please point out the time,
in the history of the church, when that important event occurred?

Was it when the first sect was formed, namely, the Roman Catholic
sect, in the beginning of the apostasy? Did she give the church
of Christ a visible organization? If so, what need of subsequent
efforts at organization?

We presume that the Harvester does not admit that this corrupt
hierarchy is the church of Christ. So there was one sect formed,
and Christ's church still not visibly organized.

Out of her came the Church of England. She claims to be the
identical church of Christ. Does the Harvester admit the
assumption? If not, then he must admit that a second sect failed to
organize and represent the Church of Christ.

Again, from the old mother of sects came forth the Lutheran sect
and her daughters--granddaughters of Rome. Did any of them organize
the visible church of Christ? If so, which one?

Or was it left for John Wesley to organize the church of Christ
in the formation of the Methodist Episcopal sect? If that sect
is really the identical church of Christ, then the editor of the
Harvester is in a hopeless condition, since severed from that body;
but we presume that he still felt that he was in the church of
Christ after dismembered from that great sect, therefore it is not
identical with the church of Christ, and her organization was not
the organization of Christ's church at all.

Having now followed two branches of Rome to the second generation
without finding in any of these sister denominations the identical
church of Christ, we must pass on to the third generation.

Is any of the sects that have branched out from the Methodist
Episcopal sect the church of Christ? If so, will the Harvester
point out the one? Will he assume that the one he represents is the
church of Christ? If so, then he has been without Christ's church
until recently. If not, then the founding of the Wesleyan Methodist
sect was not the organization of the body of Christ. It is a fact
which no man of intelligence will deny, that no one sect on earth
is the identical church of God.

But it may be claimed by some that all the sects taken together
constitute the true church in her visible organization. This is
also a great mistake. How can all these bodies sum up the one
organic visible church of God, when they have no organic relation
to each other? In what a disgraceful light sectism presents the
church! Does that look like a divine and heaven-born family,
that is composed of numerous, rival, jealous, independent, and
conflicting organisms? Oh, I beseech you for Christ's sake, do not
dishonor God by confounding his church with Babylon confusion!

Instead of sects giving the church of Christ a visible organization
they mar and destroy the visible organization and unity of the
church of Christ. A striking want of identity in the membership of
God's church and human sects also proves conclusively that no sect,
nor yet all sects together, constitutes the divine fold. Their
walls are not the walls of God's house at all, neither are "their
thresholds" his threshold. Many are in them who never entered God's
church, and, thank God, many have entered by Christ the door who
have never attached themselves to any of the factions that are not
of God, but the result of sin. If, then, the constituent elements
of sects are not identical with the elements of God's church, sects
themselves are not identical with her, and consequently their
organization is not her organization.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

(Aug. 15, 1881.)

First: "Does the come-out element constitute the true church of
God?"

Answer: All true Christians in heaven and earth constitute the true
church of God. Eph. 3:15.

Second: "In what particular is the separationist, or come-out
church, better than the Wesleyan Methodist Church?"

Answer: This language places antisect Christians in a false light.
They never teach such a thing as a new sect, whose distinguishing
characteristic is simply the coming out of all other sects; such
is the impression made by the question, and it is a false one. The
Christians branded "come-outers" have founded no church or sect,
nor do they intend to; but, on the contrary, they have abandoned
all sects to live in the one church that Christ founded, and into
which we were inducted by regeneration. This fact is known by
hundreds who nevertheless misrepresent them continually: this goes
with them. God's church is composed altogether of "come-outers."
The word "church" (=ecclesia=) means the "called out," they are
called out of the world, out of heathen religions, and all corrupt
and bogus Christianity. But while the come-out element is embodied
in the very word "church," she is not to be called "Come-out"
church. She embodies water baptism, but is not a Baptist church.
She teaches the Sabbath, and the second advent, but is not a
Sabbatarian nor Adventist church. Her members are all brethren, and
united, but she is not the United Brethren church. The sin of all
this is in making one of the subordinate elements of the system
the center, and not God in Christ Jesus. But to the question. The
Wesleyan Methodist sect is an organized party in Christendom, a
schismatic, or cut-off party, all of which is condemned in the
Bible. "There should be no schisms in the body." The origin of all
such disintegrating factions, whether for Paul, Peter, or Wesley,
is carnality, as the Word of God teaches, "the result of sin," says
the Harvester. The Wesleyan Methodist sect is human, fragmentary,
and earthly, and will be utterly annihilated at the coming of
Christ, with every other schismatic party. The church of the living
God, in which "come-outers" inhere, to the exclusion of all human
organisms, was purchased, built, and sanctified by Christ Jesus,
who is its head, door, and foundation. It is the "pillar and ground
of the truth," and will stand through all eternity, that's the
difference.

* * * * *

Fourth: "Wherein does the come-out church excel the Wesleyan, and
manifest its divine origin?"

Answer: This is virtually a repetition of the question above
answered. We have often said, Why do not opposers of holiness go to
the standards of the doctrine and controvert what they say? They
never do. Again, we ask, Why do not sect apologists attack what
"come-outers" teach? They teach the one true and catholic church of
the Bible--this can not be overthrown, therefore sect worshipers
seek to hide their sin in misrepresenting all who abandon sects.
Come out of Babylon, brother, then you can see much clearer.

THE SHAFTING GIVING WAY

(Nov. 1, 1881.)

If it were not such a solemn thing, it were really amusing to
see how many are floundering about on the question of organized
divisions in Christendom. They admit them evil, predict their
downfall, and then, shrinking from the result of their own
admissions, they fly to their protection and raise the hue and
cry against those who bring the gospel of God to bear upon these
ramparts of sin.

L. Hawkins, of the Banner of Holiness, admits the design of
Christ is the spiritual and organic unity of all believers, and
that an advanced degree of holiness would demolish these walls of
separation, and then, as if alarmed at their fall, he pleads for
their toleration at present.

The Harvester adds, "Then let us hail every sign of real unity as
from the Lord, and, as holiness laborers, not be afraid when the
temporary shafting of denominationalism begins to give way."

So it is admitted that denominationalism is bolstered up with
temporary shafting. This reminds us of a pamphlet we read some
years ago, in defense of sect organizations. The writer confessed
that the denominations were not the real "house of God which is the
church of the living God," but that they were necessary scaffolds
for the erection of the house, and that when the house shall have
been completed, the scaffolds will all be taken down. Well, in view
of the prospects of Christ's speedy coming we prefer to keep off of
these old rickety, rotten-timbered scaffolds that are destined so
soon to tumble down and be consumed with all the rubbish of Satan's
invention. For our part we are ready for the sect shafting to give
way any day; for we are builded into the house of God itself, and
have nothing to lose or to fear. But many are not ready for the
catastrophe. While fearing and even predicting the fall of those
Dark-Age structures, they are unwilling to abandon them. They sit
trembling upon their lofty but narrow Methodist, Baptist, United
Brethren, or Presbyterian plank, while with one hand they try to
hold onto the walls of God's church. We can always tell whether
a man is resting upon one of these scaffolds or whether he is
building only on Christ, the sure foundation. If on the latter,
he has nothing to fear; if on the former, he is sure to command a
halt when he sees the true priests of God blowing the trumpets
about these walls. Such always think the time has not yet come
to abolish sects and denominations. "Oh! no! do not push against
our scaffold poles yet; be careful down there! Please don't lean
against that shafting, there is danger of its falling!"

One dear minister took us aside at the Alvan (Ill.) camp-meeting
last summer and inquired of our views. We told him, of course,
that we believed in no church but the body of Christ, etc. He
conceded about all we contended for, but, unwilling to abandon his
elevated plank, he humbly besought us not to be so hard on them.
Poor fellow! We think all had better climb down from these shaky
concerns; for God has announced her fall. "Babylon the great is
fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and
the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come
out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:2,4). "Then let us
hail every sign of real unity as from the Lord, and not be afraid
when the temporary shafting of denominationalism begins to give
way." This is good advice, but does Brother Doty walk in it? Does
he hail as from the Lord those whom the Spirit of God has led out
of those cut-off parties, which divide the people of God, and who
stand in the "one fold" and body of Christ? or has he not done his
best to represent them as teaching "no church," "no organization,"
and as building another sect, etc.? Is it consistent to admit
that sects are without a warrant in God's Word, and that they are
the "result of sin in the body of believers," and express a hope
for the unity of God's people, and then join with all the popular
holiness journals in opposing those who have abandoned all those
unscriptural schisms? Is it consistent to say, "We don't want an
ism gospel," and yet adhere to and stuff the Harvester full of the
gospel of Wesleyan Methodist ism?

An event that had to occur sooner or later was Brother Warner's separation from the Northern Indiana Eldership. At the Eldership meeting which convened at Beaver Dam, Kosciusko County, Ind., in October, 1881, he proposed some measures by which that body might be made to conform more perfectly to the Bible standard with reference to government. In this he would not be heard, and on their rejection of his reform measures he realized, probably for the first time, that the new Eldership, bent on continuing their human organization, was a sect with which he must sever his connection, and he then and there did so. This event does not properly mark his coming out of spiritual Babylon, as some have supposed. In heart he had already been out, and had preached against sects. But he ignorantly supposed that the Northern Indiana Eldership of the Church of God was not a sect and therefore that he was keeping clear of sects. Thus his act at Beaver Dam was a _keeping_ out of Babylon as much as a coming out. It was the latter only in the outward sense, but of course it emphasized and gave more definite character to the anti-sectarian stand he had previously taken.

There were others in attendance at the Eldership meeting who had heard his preaching against spiritual Babylon and who also took the same step with him. They were David Leininger, William Ballenger and wife, and F. Krause and wife. We give their names and also their pictures as being of those originals who declared themselves free from all outward forms of Babylon.

A similar thing occurred in Michigan. About the same time the Northern Indiana Eldership was formed, there originated near Pompeii, Gratiot County, Mich., the Northern Michigan Eldership of the Church of God. This body was formed because its members had been isolated from and generally dissatisfied with the old Eldership, which sanctioned secrecy and was steeped in tobacco. About the fall of 1878 there joined this new Eldership J. C. Fisher and his wife, Allie R. They had never heard of Brother Warner at that time. In the spring of 1880, J. C. Fisher had occasion to visit Indiana on business, and it happened that while there he heard Brother Warner preach, and he accepted the doctrine of holiness and received the experience. The following autumn the Fishers sent for Brother Warner to come up to that part of Michigan and preach holiness. It was then that Allie R. consecrated for and also received the experience of sanctification.[13]

A year later, just before the annual meeting of the Eldership (October, 1881), the Fishers and others, thinking to get the Eldership to accept holiness and thus make good the claim of being the true church, started a holiness meeting at Carson City, where the Fishers lived, and again had Brother Warner present. This was right after the meeting in Indiana where Brother Warner had declared his separation from the Northern Indiana Eldership. The situation was similar to what it had been in Indiana. Brother Warner had been preaching on the true church and setting forth its divine government, and the hope of these Michigan saints was that if they could get the Eldership to accept holiness they might get them to do away with the human machinery and fill the true church requirement. In this they were disappointed. Before the holiness meeting was over the Eldership showed its opposition. Upon this the Fishers and a good number of others, nearly twenty in all, withdrew from the Eldership.

Thus there were two centers where a stand of independence with regard to the Eldership and human ecclesiasticism had been taken. These two congregations of saints--at Beaver Dam, (Ind.), and Carson City, (Mich.),--were the earliest in the United States (so far as the author knows) who had stepped completely out of Babylon and had taken for their basis that of the New Testament church alone. An annual camp-meeting was established at each place.

The Michigan saints in order to express in definite form their position and intentions drew up the following resolutions:

Whereas we recognize ourselves in the perilous times of the last
days, the time in which Michael is standing up for the deliverance
of God's true saints (Dan. 12:1), the troublesome times in which
the true house of God is being built again, therefore,

=Resolved=, That we will endeavor by all the grace of God to live
holy, righteous, and godly in Christ Jesus, "looking for, and
hastening unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ," who we believe
is nigh, even at the door.

=Resolved=, That we adhere to no body or organization but the
church of God, bought by the blood of Christ, organized by the Holy
Spirit, and governed by the Bible. And if the Lord will, we will
hold an annual assembly of all saints who in the providence of God
shall be permitted to come together for the worship of God, the
instruction and edification of one another, and the transaction of
such business as the Holy Spirit may lead us to see and direct in
its performance.

=Resolved=, That we ignore and abandon the practise of preacher's
license as without precept or example in the Word of God, and that
we wish to be "known by our fruits" instead of by papers.

=Resolved=, That we do not recognize or fellowship any who come
unto us assuming the character of a minister whose life is not
godly in Christ Jesus and whose doctrine is not the Word of God.

=Resolved= also, That we recognize and fellowship, as members with
us in the one body of Christ, all truly regenerated and sincere
saints who worship God in all the light they possess, and that we
urge all the dear children of God to forsake the snares and yokes
of human parties and stand alone in the "one fold" of Christ upon
the Bible, and in the unity of the Spirit.

It should be noted that even at this time, while they could see the evils of human machinery in the church, they had not as yet a perfect knowledge of how the divine government would be. They wondered whether they should form a new Eldership or whether they had anything at all to do in the new procedure, cut loose as they were from all human organizations. At this time Sister Fisher was given a vision. It was of a tower which she and others were constructing with stones that were piled about them in heaps. The foundation was already laid and they were engaged on the superstructure, their work being to polish the stones and fit them for the tower. When polished, the stones were clear as crystal. They were asked where they got such beautiful stones. She replied that they were simply such stones as could be found anywhere. Their beauty was brought out through the work that was put upon them. The capstone, or headstone, was also perfectly clear, but it had a blood-red spot in the center which shone and which shed rays of light like streaks of blood down through all the tower.

The vision seemed to her so wonderful. She awoke to a full consciousness and said, "Lord, what is it?" He answered, "This is my church." Immediately the Scriptures in 1 Cor. 3:11-18; Eph. 2:20-22; and 1 Cor. 3:9 came to her mind. She then understood that the church was organized by God, and that it was man's part to work with him, and let him be Leader and Foreman, and that Jesus was the head of the body.[14] They soon learned to be led of the Spirit and that they were complete in Christ in matters of government as well as everything else. Conscious of their freedom from the bondage in which they had been held and that they had taken their stand on God alone, they were blessed with the Spirit of God upon them and their assemblies in a remarkable manner. The joy of the Lord was their portion and they were satisfied. Thus the reformation had taken complete form. The light began to spread and the work became established in various places. A sister Harris, living near Bangor, in the southwestern part of Michigan, was called up to Gratiot County in July, 1882, to attend the funeral of a niece. While there she heard J. C. Fisher preach and she invited him down to her part of the State. He went the following October and held meetings there, which were very successful, resulting in a number getting saved. An annual camp-meeting was started there the next year. This camp-meeting has been continued ever since, though it was taken to Grand Junction, seven miles north, in 1892. Thus this part of the State was one of the first sections where the work of the reformation was established, and Grand Junction became, at a later date, the home of the publishing plant for a number of years.

That God was working on a similar line in other parts of the world may be seen from a letter written from England and quoted in the Gospel Trumpet from the Christian Harvester.

SOUL PROSPERITY WITHOUT THE PENS

We extract the following from a letter in the Christian Harvester
from E. Morgan, Maidstone, England:

"We have a number of people who enjoy holiness, men and women, old
and young, who do not belong to any sect. They have the presence of
the Holy Spirit with them in a much richer and more powerful way
than the friends in the churches. This seems to indicate that the
Lord will raise up an army to do his work, and perfect love will be
the uniting power that will keep them one."

It is not at all to be wondered at that those who have obeyed God
and come out of all human sects should have a superior degree of
God's grace and Spirit with them, who are free from the oppression
and interdiction that we hear so much of in all our holiness
papers. Yes, God is now raising up that holy army who stand free
in Christ, bound only by the truth and the love of God. From the
above, we see, as well as from the testimony of hundreds in this
country, that the assertion that coming out of sectism results in
spiritual death is a groundless falsehood. The result is always
the opposite, unless it be in some instances where souls have been
overwhelmed with the hellish rage and deceitful, persecuting spirit
of the sects, which has induced a superindignation.

Brother Warner's separation from the Northern Indiana Eldership was the subject of comment by his contemporary editors and others. His reply to a letter on the subject of his leaving the church is here given.

A dear brother writes to us as follows: "I think you have erred
in leaving the Church of God, and yet God is blessing you and the
Trumpet."...

To talk about "leaving the church of God and yet receiving the
blessing of God," is Babylon confusion. There is absolutely no way
given under heaven and among men whereby we can leave the church
of God but by ceasing to live by faith in and obedience to Jesus
Christ, or falling into and continuing in sin; in which case God
does not and can not continue his blessings upon that soul as
before. Therefore, when certain preachers in Ohio published that I
had left the church (which was false, for they themselves cast me
out of their synagog for the crime of preaching real experimental
holiness), they declared the fact that what they worship in the
name of the "Church of God" is only a "creature" of men, to which
they invite members and report "accessions" through a different
process than that of regeneration, which is the only means of
accession to God's church. And when people talk of our having left
the church, because we withdrew last fall from a human corporation
called the "Northern Indiana Eldership of the Church of God," they
simply show that the devil's counterfeits still pass current with
them; they call that the church which does not answer the Bible
description of the church. Oh, how hard it is to get rid of the
marks of the beast, and the number of his name!

The Bible speaks of churches of God in Galatia, in Achaia, in Asia,
etc., but we do not read of any northern, southern, eastern or
western Galatian, Achaian, or Asiatic Elderships of the church of
God. You see this thing--Northern Indiana Eldership of the Church
of God--is too long for any use, so we just take the broad-ax of
God's Word and chop it in two between "of" and "the" and throw the
first part to the moles and bats, according to the sayings of the
prophet. Then we have the church of God left, which is the body of
Christ, "the fulness of him that filleth all in all." Glory to God
and the Lamb, "we are complete in him"!

If some more would suffer the excision of this useless appendage,
there would be quite a vacuum made for the reception of this
"fulness." The term "Eldership" as used in this case, is both
contradictory in itself and a perversion of God's Word. Where the
apostle Paul speaks of "laying on of the hands of the presbytery,"
the Bible Union and some other versions render "hands of the
eldership," and I think correctly, too. So I accept the word
"eldership" as a Biblical term. But what is its obvious meaning?
Simply the elders of the church in one locality, or in a district,
or country, as the case may be. To apply it therefore to an
organized corporation is a misapplication, a perversion of one of
the words of God's Holy Book. It is contradictory, and asserts a
falsehood, because the corporate "body" to which it is applied
is not composed of elders, but of brothers and sisters, a few
elders, and without doubt some sinners and backsliders; so this
use of the word changes the truth of God into a lie. Like every
other body that is not identical with the body of Christ, this
"new Eldership," as it is often called, is a rival of the body
of Christ, and is used by the devil to generate party spirit and
sectish bigotry. Nothing is more natural than the disposition of
carnality to want to get up something besides the glorious church
of the Firstborn.

The reason is obvious. Christ built his own church, adds the
members, and spews out the unworthy; 'He is head over all to his
body, the church,' the only real ruling power, except as he chooses
to execute his will through some of the members. Hence this gives
no place to aspirants who wish to work up something that men can
build, so as to receive the glory, and become lords over the work
of their hands. As Sister M'Creery says in her history of the
origin of the Free Methodists--during the six years that they were
contented to work with a single eye, and let God build up his
own church, and receive all the glory, the Spirit was with them
in mighty power to save souls, because they had no craft to look
after; but after they set up the Free Methodist idol, it was all,
"He 'o he, go up Free Methodism!" And ceasing to work exclusively
for God's kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy
Spirit, and founding another sect, that they call "Our Church,"
they necessarily became double-eyed, and lost the real power of
God. So after our meeting last fall we heard the call to rally up
the party spirit; and to apologize for the addition of this sect
corporation to the several hundred already in the mazes of Babylon,
it was called the "Northern Indiana Eldership of the Church of God,
opposed to Secret Societies." Just as though the church that Christ
himself founded did not oppose secret societies, therefore it is
necessary to form another "body" for that purpose. Thus every sect
on earth is an insult to God; even their formation implies that we
are not complete in Christ, hence the "necessity," as B. T. Roberts
said, of our organizing another sect.

The Trumpet's New Year's greeting, at the dawn of its second year, has an interesting tone.

NEW YEAR'S GREETING

To all who may read this Trumpet, and especially to all who love
the truth, we send you our brotherly greeting, a "Happy New Year,"
and a heartfelt "God bless you." Our heart overflows with love and
gratitude to God, and all his loving saints, for all the benefits
and mercies that filled the expiring year. Dearly beloved friends
and patrons of the Trumpet, and lovers of its hated truth, we are
happy to report from this watch-tower of Zion that we see nothing
but success, victory, and glory. A beloved father in Israel in
New York on first seeing the Trumpet recently wrote us of his
inexpressible gratitude, and he remarked that he had tried to
have one established in Chicago, but says he, "There was no one
interested in the truth, that seemed to have sufficient means to
undertake the project." Well, glory to God. He has chosen the weak
things, and the moneyless, to carry on a work which to all human
appearances, in this sect-loving and idolatrous age, could not be
accomplished without considerable capital, and on a free basis--the
wonderful work of God. How has he "surprized the hypocrites,"
and confounded the prophets of Babylon! G. D. Watson but uttered
the predictions and carnal prayers of thousands when he said
through an antichrist sheet in this place, "Brother Warner can not
succeed in that line." What is this but a thrust at Jesus Christ!
It virtually says to the Son of God: "In the prosperity of our
churches, there can be nothing but failure in the attempt to build
up 'God's Church.'" Oh, these devotees of Babylon would blot out
of existence, if they could, the church that Christ founded over
eighteen hundred years ago, to augment the glory of our "great
Methodist Church" founded less than a hundred and fifty years ago!

Well, Brother Warner may have failed in many respects; but no
man that reads the Trumpet can deny the fact that God and truth
have most gloriously triumphed. And the Trumpet, too, through the
God-approved truth it holds forth, has proved a glorious success,
notwithstanding the different measures Satan has devised to hedge
up its way. One poor whited sepulcher had the impudence to say
with a satanic chuckle, "We will crush the Trumpet" and "take all
Brother Warner's subscribers." A gentleman in this city when asked
to take the chaff, and baby-soap, sheet, remarked, "If you succeed
with this paper will it not break down the Trumpet?" and received
the following reply: "That's just what we want to do." He told a
brother this, and said he did not think there was much holiness
in that, and did not want the paper. Yet one, M. L. Haney, who
was canonized at the Jacksonville convention as "the Patriarch of
Holiness in the West" and everywhere else, is so blind that he has
twice presumed to intimate that that enterprise might be of God,
saying "If your paper is of God." Nearly all the professed holiness
periodicals have been hauling barrels of water and pouring on the
altar of God's truth and filling up the trench round about; but God
is all the more glorified in this test between the Trumpet and the
prophets of sects. Praise his name!

The Gospel Trumpet has proved Satan false in more than one way. In
all love, we suggest to all those papers and preachers that have
been in the habit of telling the people that "separation from the
sects invariably results in spiritual death" to read the Trumpet,
then shut their mouths, and cease their lying against the truth.
There is not a sect-endorsing paper in the land that presents as
strong array of testimony to clear definite holiness, Holy Ghost
power, wonder-working faith, and fruitful lives. And we have
abundance of live, glowing reports and experiences that we have
not had space to use, and nearly all have spared us the necessity
of telling you that the writers are without the camp of creed
factions. We have published numerous expressions of appreciation,
because, by their strong relish for the truths of the Trumpet
coupled with their vigorous spiritual health and usefulness in
Christ, they condemn all who reject the food we issue, as perverted
and spiritually diseased. To the former class the Trumpet is
heavenly music; but to the latter, it is an annoying sound, because
their hearts and ears are not sufficiently circumcised to endure
sound doctrine. The Trumpet has demonstrated the fact that God is
able to carry a war against the devil in his strongest, last, and
most desperate fortress.

God has in a remarkable manner heard and answered our prayers;
not always however in the way we expected, but far better than we
imagined. Last spring we prayed the Lord for a more speedy press,
but the furnace of trial through which he brought us was better
for our soul than a hundred presses and ten thousand subscribers.
Glory to the God of Daniel, and the Hebrews! Oh, what lessons we
have learned in the salt and fire school of Christ! We would gladly
pull the lever of the Lord's good old hand-press for forty years
to come, rather than have missed those furnace-wrought visions of
God, of his church, and of the great sect abomination. To all the
patrons of the Trumpet, we would return many thanks for the means
you have furnished the Lord's cause, and the many appreciated
contributions you have sent us by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. You have largely made the paper what it is, and by your
continued labor of love and sacrifice for Christ's sake you will
continue to improve and enlarge the paper and extend its sphere
of usefulness. We regard the real testing-point in the Trumpet as
past; God has established the work of our hands. Our circulation is
steadily increasing; we have been printing sixteen hundred papers
each issue, sixteen fifty this time, and we do not have fifty
papers left when we get through mailing. The demand for canvassing
and sample copies continually increases.

To Babylon and all her concomitants, we promise nothing but fire,
sword and hammer, and confounding blasts from the armory of God's
Word. We have scarcely begun the bombardment of the wicked harlot
city. By the grace of God, we expect to deal with sin and sinners
as we never yet have done. Some have intimated to us that we have
been too personal in rebuking Church sinners: but, before God, we
are ashamed of and repent for our mildness and want of personality
in the past. And now we give fair warning to hypocrites, and all
whose walk has not been upright before God, that if you don't
repent and publish your confession of sin, the Lord has made it our
duty, so far as we know, to expose and rebuke you before all. We
know no man after the flesh, and we seek to please no man. If God
can not carry on the paper by us seeking only to please Him, the
Trumpet will surely be discontinued. But God is our sufficiency. "I
shall not want." "For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I
not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I
know that I shall not be ashamed" (Isa. 50:7).

While it is our duty to reprove all outward sin, we must keep the
fact prominent that all reform must begin at the heart, which God
only can change; inward transformation is only upon the condition
of faith, and, therefore, must be definitely presented in the
Scriptural order of pardon and adoption to the sinner, and entire
sanctification to the believer. We regret that some attempt to
beat down the ice-mountain of sect by the hammer of the Word,
without the melting fire of the Holy Spirit. Getting people out of
the sects any other way than by leading them to Christ for heart
purity and the reception of the Comforter, which leads the soul
from all sects and into all truth, is but enlisting men into carnal
crusade against Babylon, and can result in little good, and has,
in some instances, hedged up the way and turned back the tide of
God's truth more than it will be able to advance it. Because the
Bible experience of entire sanctification is the true objective of
Christ's atonement and shed blood, and because thorough holiness
destroys sects and denominations, as frost would disappear under
the beams of the June sun, and as the promotion of true holiness
is the only remedy for schisms and every other form of sin in the
body of professed Christians, therefore the Gospel Trumpet shall
continue to "praise the beauty of holiness" and proclaim the power
of the blood of Christ on the gospel line of definite holiness and
perfect heart-purity. We ask the cooperation and prayers of all
true saints of God, who love the freedom of Christ Jesus our Savior.

The truths of the reformation were disseminated largely by the Gospel Trumpet, and in many parts of the country there were those with whom its teachings found a hearty welcome. A few bits of correspondence addressed to Brother Warner and taken from the Trumpet of early in 1882 are here presented.

I like the Trumpet very well; hope it may sound out long, loud,
and clear to call the people back to the old paths, the good way.
Yes, truly it is the good way, the strait and narrow way, the new
and living way, and the high and holy way. You may count me a
subscriber as long as the Trumpet sticks to the Bible. Your brother
purified and being tried,
E. B. B.

He keeps them that put their trust in him. I pray God the time may
soon come when Christians shall be united as one in Christ Jesus,
the living Head, and throw away all divisions, taking Christ for
their head and having their names enrolled on God's book in heaven.
May the Lord bless all the saints. May God bless you, Sister
Warner, in giving up part of your house in order that the Gospel
Trumpet may still be printed. Oh, we can't give up the Trumpet! Oh,
that I could do something! I will do what I can to help you. The
Trumpet must go on. Enclosed find the widow's mite.
L. B.

We are strangers, never have seen each other, yet we know each
other by the Spirit that is given us. I am glad you have grace
enough to run the Gospel Trumpet without any visible means. They
that overcome inherit all things. The Lord will not forsake you in
the work. He will help you to carry it through. I gladly send you
one dollar and would gladly send you more if I could at present. I
have no love for sects in my soul.
L. M.

Success crown your labor of love in the kingdom and patience of
Jesus.

May sectarianism totter and fall to its very base, and glory and
unity fill God's kingdom of peace and righteousness.

God grant that the trumpet of salvation may continue to sound its
certain blasts, until Babylon be overthrown by the power of God and
truth.
Mrs. L. L. and Eld. J. M.

God bless you abundantly. Amen. My heart is with you to do the
whole will of God, regardless of great or small men, bigots, or
devils.
T. F. D.

I have received two numbers of the Trumpet; the sentiments therein
taught are mine and have been for fifteen years. My wife stands
with me. Let the Trumpet continue to sound louder and louder, until
the walls of sectarian Jericho fall.
J. C. A.

The more I deepen in Christ, the better I understand the doctrine
Brother Warner advocates; and the more I understand the doctrine
advocated and acquaint myself with the early history of the
Friends, the greater similarity I find between the two. He does not
insist upon entire separation from the world in every form stronger
than they did.
F. W.

God bless you and yours and the great and glorious work in which
you are engaged. Would like to help you scatter pure gospel truth
without isms or man-made walls. The Lord hasten on the day when
they shall all fall to rise no more. Glory to God! Yours saved,
J. L. K.

In the issue of Jan. 16, 1882, Brother Warner answers a number of criticisms by contemporary editors.

TO OUR CONTEMPORARIES

"Modern come-outism, or, better said, no-churchism." We hold that
uniting with the people of God in church fellowship, even of our
own choice, does not necessarily constitute us sectarians.

--Gospel Banner.

In all love we would ask our kind Brother Brenneman to inform us
of those modern "no-church" men of whom he speaks; give us the
address of any man professing godliness who believes in and claims
membership in no church.

Second. Is the body of Christ no church?

Third. If there is any way to get into the church besides Christ
and through the Holy Spirit--if the church is something that men
open the door of and admit members into--please give us "thus saith
the Lord" for it.

Fourth. If uniting with one party or sect of the professed people
of God does not constitute one a sectarian, then why should union
with a Masonic lodge constitute a man a Freemason?

Fifth. If a person is in Christ Jesus, is he not in the church, and
is he not already joined to all others that are joined to the Lord?

Pure Religion very smartly, as she supposes, ranks "come-outers"
with "all other sects," by which she virtually admits that they are
as good as the others, and then says that it takes the following
elements to make a good "come-outer": 1. It is necessary that the
person be "turned out of some church," meaning of course one of
those "other sects," for a little sober, candid reflection upon the
Bible will show any person that such remarks can not apply to the
true church at all; for "the Lord added to the church daily such as
should be [or, were being] saved," and 'no man [or ecclesiastical
court] can pluck them out of his hand.'

If the editress of Pure Religion were half as zealous to know what
the Bible teaches as she is to exhibit her wit, she would doubtless
have learned that the church is not something that men organize and
admit members into, but that it is "a holy temple in the Lord,"
"God's building, God's husbandry."

2. The editress thinks that to be a good "come-outer" the person
should have a small stock of religion and "quite a good stock of
ignorance." We presume that she did not consider that in those
words she condemned as nearly graceless and very ignorant such men
as Luther, Melancthon, Fox, and Wesley, who at the very time when
they stood out of and condemned all sects and did not contemplate
joining or forming any, wielded their greatest power for God.

The Good Way recently informed us that Wesley never contemplated
the forming of a sect. What was he then but a "come-outer"? It
is an undeniable fact upon record that he deplored the unhappy
divisions and parties of Christendom.

It is the uniform testimony of the history of the Reformation
that every reform effort was attended by a much greater power and
demonstration of the Spirit of God before it culminated in a new
sect than ever was manifest in that sect afterward. I think I
can safely challenge a single exception to this fact. During ten
years labor in the denomination that grew out of the labors of J.
Winebrenner and his coworkers, it was the constant admission of
the old fathers and mothers that no such power of God had been
witnessed in that body as was before they assumed and received
the name of another religious denomination. The same is true of
early Methodism, and in a remarkable manner is it true of the Free
Methodists. Let me give you a few extracts from the "History of the
Origin of Free Methodism," by Sister Sidney M'Creery, who with her
husband, Joseph M'Creery, was associated with B. T. Roberts and
William Kendall from the beginning of the great holiness revival
that resulted in their separation from the Methodist Episcopal
sect. Hence she testifies what she knows and declares what she has
seen.

The record is that for six years they worked and prospered
wonderfully under the power of God and freedom from all sect yokes,
and that from the formation of a new sect by B. T. Roberts the
glory departed from the Nazarites, as they had been called. She
says:

"B. T. Roberts in his discipline says the Free Methodist
organization was a necessity. Was it? Let the hundreds testify who
were so wonderfully and lovingly united together in the Holy Ghost.
The truth is this: God's heritage and work were spoiled by the
laying on of man's hands.

"While enjoying this spiritual fellowship all was peace and harmony
and the work of conversion went on, the saints rejoiced, and the
sectarian devil was mad, sinners in Zion were afraid and trembled
as they saw the weakest saint upon his knees.

"B. T. Roberts started out with a trap in hand, making a new test
of fellowship. He visited far and wide among the live pilgrims,
preaching sect fellowship as the one thing needful, and that they
could go no further without it.

"In most cases it took them by surprize. They examined themselves
and reasoned thus: We are already in fellowship with the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, and in holy spiritual fellowship with the
saints, and God has given us the victory again and again while
fighting against the unholy sects. What can the sect yoke do for
us? We are now free to go everywhere preaching and teaching in the
name of Jesus. Thus many stood out for a while. Oh, what robbery,
what treachery, to pervert and use this work of God, which began so
gloriously, to the building up of a carnal and selfish organism! At
every gathering, large or small, the sect yoke was presented and
held forth as 'the cross'.

"My husband was satisfied with God's way of ordering the battle;
yea, more than satisfied; he rejoiced and was exceeding glad to
see the prosperity of Zion in our midst. While B. T. R. said in
action by the formation of his sect, 'I have suffered enough
reproach and shame; I will number Israel and become as other
nations,' then the work of building up 'our church' commenced. How
the enemy triumphed! At all the gatherings the spirit of sectarian
zeal was worked up to the highest pitch, and so fulfiling the
scripture which saith, 'Who changed the truth of God into a lie,
and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who
is blessed for ever.'... "And today he (B. T. R.) has no more
influence than any other sect bishop, whereas he was once a terror
to evil-doers and a praise to them who did well. From this time
the battle of the Lord ceased and the enemies rejoiced. Some who
remember the former days of liberty and power ask B. T. R. why the
same power is not manifested now as formerly. He answers on this
wise: God then gave the people a special blessing for a special
work. Very good; but why not continue under these special blessings
and in this special work? What an absurdity, what inconsistency to
build another sect in order to go through the same variations and
evolutions of its predecessors! Was it pleasing in the sight of God
to manufacture another class of backsliders? Was it a necessity?
Wherever I go I find the burden of Free Methodist preaching is to
backslidden membership, whereas before its formation--while they
remained in God's order, where he placed them--every man, woman,
and child was able to do a full day's work. In visiting many
places I find them (the F. M.'s) nearly, if not quite, extinct. In
missionary fields the work takes well for a season, but when they
begin proselyting and making it a 'necessity' to gather them into
their peck measure, then the Lord leaves them to themselves. As I
am passing through the land I often meet with those with whom I was
acquainted during the war of the Lord, and immediately they refer
to the former days of power and salvation and say, 'We don't have
such meetings nowadays; I would go a long distance to enjoy such
privilege.'"

We might multiply quotations, but these will suffice to show
the fact that the formation of sects is the destruction of
Christianity. Thus it is an undeniable fact, that when men enjoyed
the stigmatized "come-out" "stock of ignorance," they have been
used of God far more than after they suddenly became wise (?) in
building up a wall about themselves or entering a sect pen built by
some one else.

The Vanguard calls coming out of Babylon "a kind of spiritual
rash"; and Pure Religion and Gath Rimmon both think that very
smart, and serve it up to their readers. May the Lord forgive
this lightness. Had we not better look into the Word of God and
see what the Lord saith, than to indulge in mere witticisms? Does
the Word of God teach that it is a "spiritual rash" to belong to
Christ alone and hold only to him, "the head over all things to
the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all
in all"? Was Christ afflicted with a spiritual rash when he said,
"There shall be one fold and one shepherd"? Was that the infirmity
that Paul had when he said 'there should be no schisms in the
body'--no Methodist schism, no Wesleyan schism, no Free Methodist
bond schism, nor United Brethren; yea, =no= schism?

Now, brethren, if you dare drop the scales from your eyes and look
squarely at the Holy Bible, you must admit that every one of those
sect organizations which you call churches are schisms, just what
God condemns and forbids. Unless you are shamefully blind, you know
it to be the truth and nothing but the truth, and your slurs and
sarcasms can not revoke that truth nor enable you to stand when you
are judged by it.

* * * * *

There are other exchanges that have uttered hard things against the
Rock on which I stand. Now, I simply want you to know what you are
doing, then if you wish to continue kicking against the goads, you
may do so. Do you believe that Christ purchased and founded one
church of the living God? Do you believe that the "body of Christ"
is the church? Do you believe that Christ is the only door to the
church, and that "by him if any man enter he shall be saved"? Do
you believe that the Holy Spirit sets the members in the body,
the church? Do you believe there should be "no schisms in the
body"? Do you believe that believers are "made perfect in one" and
that "thorough holiness destroys sects and denominations"? Do you
believe that 'divisions and offences are contrary to the doctrine
we have received' of Christ? Do you believe that Christians should
not be "unequally yoked together with unbelievers"?

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I ask any paper to speak out
and tell me which of these points you dispute. And if you say you
believe them all, as some of you have, then I ask, Why do you
object to my believing the same? for that is just what I believe.
The only difference is, I act consistently with my faith, while you
say and do not.

You admit there is but one church of God, still you think hard of
me for not allowing that all your "churches" are of God. This is
God's truth and you can not deny it. You say that sects are wrong,
but advise God's children to continue in the wrong. I claim that
sects are wrong, and therefore say, Come out from among them, as
saith the Lord. Men professing godliness should act consistently
with their belief.