Chapter D: S. Warner. Allie R. Fisher (3)

If you believe that Christ is divided and there are many folds,
many bodies, many Lords, many faiths, instead of "one fold," "one
body," "one Lord," and "one faith," then you may consistently
with your faith antagonize the Gospel Trumpet; but you must abide
the consequences of fighting against God's Word. And remember
this, that in the day of judgment it will do you no good to have
put false colors on the truth you are opposing. You will not
plead before the bar of God that I taught "no-churchism," "no
organization," etc.

If you are ignorant of the Trumpet's teaching, you will be
condemned before God for opposing and speaking evil of the things
you do not understand. You should hold your peace until you know
what you are talking about.

If you do know what we--myself and contributors--teach, you know
that every paper insists on organization, the very organization set
forth in the New Testament, and you do know that we all advocate
the church, and never have encouraged anybody to leave her; but we
chose to learn from the simple Word of God what the church is, and
not from your Dark Age creeds and confused tongues. Now, all you
who have lifted up your heel against Christ and his body, the only
true church in heaven and earth, have done so because you have some
sect idol in your heart and can not receive the truth or endure
sound doctrine, or else you have not the moral courage to assault
the devil in his stronghold of divisions. What does Satan care for
your clamor against the "sin in the sects" so long as you give him
the best means of bringing God's house or kingdom to naught--the
sin of sects? I pity your sad confusion. May God give you all
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

An editorial in the July 25 number answers an objection by the editor of the Sword.

THAT'S RIGHT

Brother Dolan makes a sweeping cut with his Sword like this:
"Sectism is of the devil, and no-sectism is of the devil."

Amen. That's true. An ism spirit may attach itself to any
principle, false or true.

As many sects have been developed by making a center of some
subordinate point of the Christian system as by rallying upon some
mere human tradition.

Whether men worship the moon or an idol of their own make, it is an
equal insult to God; and whether men worship a gospel principle, or
a doctrine of devils, is of little if any difference in the sight
of God. Either case is idolatry; because Christ is supplanted as
the center by something else either subordinate or foreign. When
men get a chronic lopsidedness, so that they will scan greedily
over a paper and drop it as soon as they see nothing on their
hobby, whether it be sect or antisect, Sabbath or antisabbath,
or anything else, notwithstanding it may contain much good, pure
food, many blessed thoughts about Jesus, they have put something
else in the place of Christ, and their religion runs about like a
grindstone with its axis near the outer circumference and passing
diagonally through the stone.

We once heard a Disciple preacher say that every sect that holds
some truth that no other sect holds, has a right to its existence.
This provides for as many sects as there are truths in the religion
of Christ; but God allows no "schism in the body." Nothing but the
exclusive 'holding the Head,' 'seeing Jesus only,' and the full
enjoyment and constant "praising of the beauty of holiness," can
keep us from all isms.

A selection from the Vanguard, copied in the Trumpet shows the spiritual state into which a number of leading holiness editors had by this time drifted because of a failure to follow as God was leading.

BACKSLIDDEN

Brother Brooks in the last number of the Banner (and his authority
as the oldest holiness editor in the country can not be doubted)
says that the aggressiveness has gone out of the holiness movement,
and ceasing to be aggressive it is a dying thing. In most places
its numbers are decreasing, only a few accessions.

Well, he tells the truth. The holiness people as a general thing
through the country are backslidden from God. A large per cent of
them never had anything but a reclaimed backslidden experience
to leave. They got back to God and called it by the new name of
holiness, taught to do so by superficial teachers that wanted to
swell the Banner reports.

* * * * *

The chief cause of this awful declension that has rolled back the
tide of the salvation of the world a decade is that the editors and
evangelists, failing to become more and more aggressive at every
point against sin in the church and out, especially among holiness
people, have backslidden as a class....

Brother Brooks told me he could not put radical truth into the
Banner without Brother Haney and Brother Kent and other such
temporizers writing and denouncing him; so Brother Brooks would
yield and backslide from Holy Ghost power.

Bro. Isaiah Reid told Brother Sherman he did not want anything in
his paper that would indicate that the holiness people were not all
right; he was planning to have the Highway as a support for his old
age. A year ago he called for a thousand "firemen" in the holiness
work as the only thing needed. He has spent his energies this
year in regulating the fiery come-outers from wrecking the train,
and evidently wants the oaks of Bashan slashed down with a little
hatchet, and not with a broadax. Rams' horns, goad sticks, and the
unsectarian "jaw-bone of an ass" Philistine-killer, he evidently
does not take much stock in. Brothers Inskip and Macdonald are not
square on the Freemason question and are churchy. While the shell
remains in part of radical holiness, that only is the real thing,
much of the spirit is gone. You may call it fault-finding, sour
godliness, or whatever you please, these are God's facts about your
case. You know the whole batch of you are afraid to throw red-hot
truth uncompromisingly everywhere. We except from this catalog
Baker and Arnold of the Free Methodist, Warner of the Trumpet,
Johnson of the Stumbling Stone (if he had the Holy Ghost), and the
Sword, and some others.

Now Brother editors and evangelists, suffer the word of exhortation
from a "jaw-bone," break up your fallow ground, do your first
works, burn up Haney's chapter on dress, not resolve against it;
pay your debts, or go and acknowledge them at least; cease to print
such dawdle as Brother Bryant's church holiness writings; seek for
and get the Holy Ghost again; and lead the people up into the land.
--Vanguard.

Satanic forces were arrayed against the reformation work in every conceivable way, not only by mobs and undisguised, professional evil (though this form of attack was usually instigated by the sectarian element), but also by deception--by teachers and editors who were apparently right on some main question in order to deceive, but wrong on some other vital points. A writer in the Trumpet points out one of these destructive agencies.

A DESTRUCTIVE HERESY

By D. W. M'Laughlin

There is an eternal antagonism between true holiness and fanaticism
in all its phases, and the individual possessed of the fulness of
the Holy Ghost will be able to detect fanaticism in others whether
it be in outward act or deportment or in the more subtle form of
heretical teaching. The Spirit and the Word agree, and the Holy
Spirit moves and works in harmony with the written Word and never
contrary thereto.

* * * * *

The writer has been receiving from time to time during the last
four years copies of the Stumbling Stone, and while much truth
is found in its columns as to the evils of sect divisions, the
destructive heresy of Count Zinzendorf (that sanctification is not
subsequent to regeneration) is held with inveterate opposition to
the gospel order. Consequently, from this standpoint, the holiness
movement is of the devil, and the second-grace Christians are
in need of the first grace. The Stumbling Stone seems to attack
every movement extant, even to the Salvation Army, as well as
all holiness associations and bands for the promotion of entire
sanctification. Even the position of the Gospel Trumpet he calls
a holiness schism, because the editor makes a distinction between
justified and sanctified believers. And he proposes to "kick
Brother Warner's justification cobhouse into pi," by which he
exhibits his ignorance of the real plan of salvation. He might as
well talk of kicking God's Word into pi as to overthrow the two
distinct works of grace, justification and sanctification....

By the above and similar remarks the Stumbling Stone editor
reveals the antagonism in his heart to the "second grace" in
the Bible economy of salvation. Now, my honest conviction is
that a come-outism that sets itself squarely against holiness
as a definite experience subsequent to pardon, is surely of the
devil. It is a fact that wholly saved souls who are spiritual and
discerning men detect at once the carnality in such persons, and,
quite naturally, are led to conclude that "if such spirits are the
fruits of come-outism I will have nothing to do with it." Thus,
this spurious antiholiness come-outism is a snare of Satan to deter
honest souls from separating from sectism, leaving them under the
pressure of unholy corporations, which often results in compromise
and the loss of the Spirit of God. A come-outism that sets itself
to fighting the sects in a vindictive spirit, condemning and
unchristianizing all who do not at once come out, can not be of
God. Let us lead the children of God to the true apostolic unity,
but never attempt to drive them out of Babylon; and, above all
things, let us keep sweet and deal kindly with persons who, under
the blinding influence of sectarian education, can not yet see the
sin of sects, and the true church of God.

Sound teaching, in connection with the come-out movement, is of the
utmost importance. False doctrinal theories and extravagant notions
cause untold disaster to the cause we represent....

In the issue of May 1, 1883, when the Trumpet was yet printed at Cardington, Ohio, Brother Warner speaks of how the cause was sifted at that place.

SALT IN CARDINGTON

God's cause has passed through a terrible sifting in this place.
All the powers of darkness and of Satan's hellish rage have been
let loose upon the few loyal, holy little ones here. Wicked sect
members have boasted that this cause was crushed out. One Methodist
son of Belial, steeped in tobacco and the poison smoke of his
torment, has even boasted through the secular press that he had
succeeded in putting down holiness. A Quaker preacher and family
have let their tongues run with the base, vulgar, and profane of
the place in speaking against this way. But bless God, the devil
is sadly mistaken. Several souls have recently become established,
unblameable in holiness. The Lord is with us in power, the hidden
ones have four meetings every week, and God is wonderfully blessing
us.

In the chapter on the Gospel Trumpet we have already referred to the trying ordeal through which Brother Warner had to pass while the Publishing Office was in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1883. A general assembly of the saints in Ohio was announced to be held on Friday, November 9. The place was Annapolis (now called Sulphur Springs), seven miles northeast of Bucyrus. In Brother Warner's call to this first general assembly in Ohio he wrote as follows:

We expect to see a large turnout of the saints of the living God
from Van Wert, Paulding, and Wood Counties, and some from eastern
Ohio; and come ye, dear ones, from Pennsylvania. Come, O ye
sanctified hosts of the Lord! Let us eat together in the name of
our Chief Shepherd and only Head and Leader. Come in the power
of the Spirit; come to have the spiritual gifts stirred up and
strengthened; come to sharpen each other as iron sharpeneth iron
and to have the faith once delivered to the saints developed in us
up to the Bible standard; come to make a more perfect consecration.
Come, O ye lame and halt and blind and deaf, for the power of the
Lord will be present to heal all who believe on him. Come, O ye
sufferers, and give yourselves up to the mighty God and be made
whole. Come, poor sinners, and be saved in the day of his power.
Come, O ye poor and wayward Christians, and have your hearts
established unblameable in holiness. Come, ye who are in bondage
of sect captivity, and learn your way out of the wilderness unto
the city that is set upon a hill, which hath foundations, and whose
builder and maker is God. Come from far and near, whoever seeks the
old paths and the peace of Jerusalem. Come, for the little ones
will make you welcome; yea, the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and
whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.

Little did he realize, when giving this invitation and bold promise of such benefit to all who should have any need of the divine favor, that Satan would come also with various forms of deception and attempt to divert the reformation movement into false channels and to so confuse the truth with clouds of error and fanaticism that men may not see it.

The meeting began on Friday evening at Conlay Bethel, some distance in the country from Bucyrus. Saturday, the second day, was appointed a fast day. The first conflict came with some elements of fanaticism manifested by three men from Van Wert and Paulding Counties, who believed it wrong to wear collars, collar buttons, lace, eye-glasses, etc., and confessed that they came to the meeting purposely to make Brother Warner and the other saints take off these things. They were a great interruption of the meeting until Brother Warner finally rebuked them. After this they feigned great humility. They prostrated themselves on three sides of the table behind which Brother Warner was preaching, and would moan and groan during his discourse.

On Saturday evening the meeting was moved to the hall at Annapolis. Here another element was met. L. H. Johnson, who published in Toledo a paper called the Stumbling Stone, had arrived and even before the evening service began had mounted a wagon and begun to teach his false doctrine. He rejected the New Testament ordinances and also opposed sanctification as a second work of grace, though he was also on the anti-sectarian line. He was very bold to break in on the meeting with his harangue against the true way, which he did particularly on Sunday. On Sunday evening the saints, wishing to get away from the confusing and delusive elements, withdrew to a private house where they felt they had escaped from the atmosphere impregnated with devils, and where the meeting continued victoriously all night--until 5 A.M. On the next day, Monday, at 1 P.M. the meeting was held at another private house. This time the deceiving elements appeared and undertook to get the upper hand. The saints, being forbidden in the Scriptures to have any fellowship with devils, withdrew to another room, where the meeting progressed peacefully. One sister ventured to stay in the room occupied by the false teachers. She was suddenly seized by the awful powers of darkness and she felt she was lost. To a sister who came to her she said, "Oh, I feel so bad; take me to the altar!" She was led to the saints' apartment, where she bowed at the altar and soon began to manifest a frightful appearance. She jerked and cried, "I have a devil; stay away from me!" Her face blackened and twitched with frightful contortions, her eyes glared, her tongue darted out like a serpent's, and when any one approached her, she would spit and claw furiously. Hands were laid on her and she was instantly delivered and clothed in her right mind.

This was but one of the many remarkable manifestations. The meeting ended on Tuesday evening, and on the whole with victory on God's side, but it had been a trying time indeed. Brother Warner devoted a whole page of the Trumpet to the report of this Assembly. We quote the beginning of the report:

We have never been called upon to portray any meeting that so
transcends our powers of description. We can now better understand
the language of John when he said that "if all the works of Christ
had been written, I suppose the world could not contain the books."
A full account of the meeting would make quite a volume. For some
time we felt that the meeting would be one of unusual interest. As
we received intelligence of the saints' coming from time to time,
the Spirit of God was poured upon our soul, insomuch that we could
not restrain the praises of God as we walked the streets. And their
coming was as the heavens bowed to earth. Our little habitation
was thronged most of the day on Friday, and in the evening we all
went to the Conlay Bethel, where the meeting began. Since the first
assembly in Michigan, where Satan was also loosed and a terrible
conflict ensued, resulting in his being cast out, all the meetings
of the sanctified and free saints of God that we have attended
have been blessed with great unity and peace; and as there were
such a host coming to this assembly, all of which we knew were of
one mind and one heart in the truth and Spirit of Christ, and most
of whom had never met before, we looked for a meeting that would
be a sample of the reign of heaven. How apt we are to forget that
we are still in the field of battle, and that Satan is now loosed
for a little season, having great wrath because he knows his time
is short! In the very first meeting we felt that Satan had also
gathered his angels together where the sons of God came to worship
the God of the Bible (Job. 1:6).

Certain of the brethren and sisters had been previously shown by visions some of the things that occurred at this meeting. The Lord was on the side of his saints and vindicated the righteousness of his cause by manifesting himself in their meetings as well as to their spiritual consciousness. Outwardly, of course, the meeting bore an aspect of confusion; but Brother Warner learned to see the good in everything. Referring, at a later date, to this assembly, he said:

This providential bringing together of the children of light and
the powers of darkness has proved a great blessing to the saints in
that it has clearly brought to light which side men occupy.

The Bucyrus assembly was but one engagement with the forces that at this time had gathered to oppose and overthrow the reformation work which Brother Warner and the Trumpet had begun. Other instruments were to figure in the struggle, and another terrific battle was soon to follow. There were two prominent holiness teachers who were not in sympathy with Brother Warner's position regarding sects. They opposed the coming out from denominationalism. R. S. Stockwell was a young minister who had helped in the meetings and who had been loved and respected by both Brother Warner and Sister Warner, but had become exalted in himself and deceived, and had sprung a very pernicious doctrine, the doctrine of marital celibacy. He held that the sex relation was carnal; that when a person was fully cleansed, the love for a husband or wife was no more than the love for any one else; especially, that if a husband and wife were not in harmony it would be wrong for them to maintain the conjugal relation or be to each other anything more than to any one else; and that they would have more love for others with whom they were in harmony than for their own companion, etc. The attainment along this line was an advanced experience, a sort of third work of grace.

Sister Warner was a splendid woman and had been a faithful companion to her husband. She had borne her part well in the arduous duties of their evangelical career. But there had come in some disorder that had begun to affect their fellowship. Brother Warner mentions it thus in his "Meditations."

First there appeared mysteriously withal,
Some leprous spots on our domestic wall.
The plague soon marred our holy fellowship,
Then ate like moth the threads of love that knit
Our hearts and souls in sweet connubial bliss,
And made us one in sympathetic flesh.

It is probable that this would have been but temporary had not deceiving forces combined to turn her mind and estrange her from her husband. She came from a well-to-do family, and it is possible that the contrast of a life more or less destitute of physical comfort had some weight with her at this time and made her susceptible to the suggestion that perhaps the Trumpet could be more successfully managed in the hands of some one else. There were those who were desirous of taking it over and had the means to invest in it. Under Stockwell's instruction she endeavored to consecrate for the "third work," and under his enamoring influence the enemy took advantage of her state of mind, and she came into affinity with spirits that antagonized the work that the Lord had been accomplishing through her and her husband. Once in the hands of these enemies, the "flying roll," which had begun to carry messages of salvation to thousands, would of course have to cease its mission. A league of babel spirits, though dissimilar in character, comprising free-love, antiordinance, anti-second-work, and anti-come-out elements, had united against Brother Warner.

In a meeting at a private house in Bucyrus, Stockwell, who had begun to assume a papal-like authority, gave those assembled about an hour's harangue, which was like a gathering storm about to break on Brother Warner. There were peculiar manifestations at this meeting. On a lounge lay a woman of frightful appearance, her face drawn, her eyes sunken, and she was uttering moans. Another, a man with distorted limbs and scowling countenance, also gave evidence of an attack upon his body by some supernatural power. It was claimed by Stockwell that these were divine evidences that some one needed to be set right; just who, the Lord would make known. Each began to say, "Lord, is it I?" Brother Warner had been asking the Lord for wisdom and had been shown that after some trial of suffering he would be able to take God himself for his wisdom. Now, since his wife had taken sides with others who held that he was not right, and since he was ready to suspect himself as being in error rather than his wife, he felt that possibly they were right in their contention that the error lay with him. In his intense eagerness to be right with God and have the blessing of fellowship restored in his family, he became a victim. He bowed before them

A suppliant, in that infernal maze,
To evil spirits' much elated gaze.

His critics gathered around him and waited with agonizing groans while Stockwell pried into his consecration and asked whether he was willing to sell the Gospel Trumpet. They said they felt that such was God's will and that if he was not able to see it he should be wise and act upon their judgment, and that his soul would be blessed in so doing. Brother Warner consented, but reserved one condition--that should God, ere the transfer be made, interdict the order and show him differently, he of course would obey God. They said, "No, but that 'if' you must leave out." Finally he was persuaded to drop the if. Then the agonies of those who, it was claimed, were groaning for him, ceased and gave place to fiendish laughter, as they supposed God's "flying roll" was taken. This was the crisis that had come upon his soul; this the price he had to pay for a decision to preach uncompromisingly the truth that should create a shudder in the ranks of hell and work a reformation in the world. Opposing forces had succeeded in getting him to consent to give up the Trumpet and yield to the suggestion that he was not right.

But the promised blessings did not come to his soul; on the contrary he was plunged into spiritual darkness. He had weakened and given over his sacred trust. What a night of suffering followed! Only with the morning that swept away the horrors of night came a spiritual illumination and consequent victory. His very disappointment had brought reason to its throne and changed the aspect of the situation. And the Lord broke the satanic spell, filled his soul with peace, and enlightened his understanding as to the devilish powers that had been seeking to crush his soul. He went to the little publishing office, bowed in thankfulness, renewed his covenant, and was swallowed up completely in God once more. He then felt that he could henceforth take the Lord for his wisdom against all the suggestions of men or devils transformed as angels of light.

But now he began to realize that his trueness to God would mean the sacrifice of his own bosom companion. This, then, should be the lingering phase of his sorrow. For about one week the battle alternated between victory and the attacks of hell. Morning would bring apparent release, and Satan's hosts would flee, only to renew the conflict when the shadows of evening gathered around him. His strength wore away. He prayed that he might be comforted by some friend, if one were left. There was a brother, a John N. Slagle, whom God had reserved and who had expressed to Brother Warner a forewarning of some trouble. This brother came to him and took him to his home, seven miles in the country, where was enjoyed a sweet sleep and a respite from the storm's rage. The poem Meditations on the Prairie, is very touching in its description of these experiences. What this humble servant of God had to pass through in this trying ordeal only One can know. In one long sleepless night of parching fever and inward pain a portion of his hair suddenly turned grey. What wonder that the Trumpet during this period was sometimes late in reaching its readers or that for four months it failed to appear at all!

With repeated endeavor Brother Warner tried to win back his alien wife. They had one child, a boy of three years. He had fears that he should have to be separated from the child also; but it seemed the mother's affection for both husband and child had forever flown. She wrote her husband that he could come and get the child for aught she cared.

The train that bore us onward to that son
Seemed slow that day, so very slow to run.
We met, and lo, upon his little face
A famine of parental love we trace.
Three days we tarried there in strong appeal
That God would make that woman's heart to feel
One touch of love, yea, but one precious beam
Of fond affection where a living stream
Once issued forth to bless our happy home,
But now, alas, congealed in icy zone.
In vain was wished one moment's private talk;
At last 'twas begged that we together walk
Outside the city, where repose the dead,
In silence slumb'ring in their narrow bed,
And where, between two virgal evergreens,
A little mound more dear than any seems:
The grave of our Levilla Modest child,
On whose sweet brow but three bright summers smiled.
She was her mother's idol and firstborn,
Her childish virtues memory still adorn.
But this request she coolly yet declined,
As if no love to living or dead remained.
Then, taking that one warm and little hand,
We slowly walked to where cold marbles stand.
Dear Sidney chatted merrily on the way
Not knowing what within our bosom lay:
'Twas hard to answer to his prattling words
With but the tearful tribute grief affords.
Poor child! God bless him! We devoutly pray
He ne'er may feel what father felt that day.
We came to where there had been laid to rest
The form, now cold, that we had known was blessed
To hold a pure and lovely spirit-bud
That went to blossom in the home of God.
And there beside the foot of that small mound
We knelt in prayer upon the turfy ground.
Dear Sidney--bless the child--rememb'ring how
In family worship he was wont to bow
Close to our side in sweet becoming grace,
He gently came and now resumed his place.
His tender heart beat with devotion there
As soft his name was breathed in fervent prayer.
But oh, that hour! what deep emotions rose!
No earthly language could our heart disclose.
For our child's dear sake some feeble words were used,
But they failed to carry what was inward mused.
Oh! how our heart longed for the poet's flight
To sing relief to deep affection's blight.
When touched emotions ripe like a swelling flood
And merge the soul, oh! it is then we would
That some kind angel could but lend his harp
To start the flowing of a surcharged heart.
But mundane language gave no wings to thought;
Our feelings could in tears alone flow out.

Brother Warner endeavored to regard this alienation of his wife as Providential. He took it all for good and felt that by it he would experience all the more of Heaven's riches in his soul.

Through the kindness of a brother who happened to have a copy of the Christian Harvester of May 1, 1884, we are able to give to the readers the article by Mrs. Warner in which she renounced the movement which she brands Come-outism.

COME-OUTISM RENOUNCED

The following communication pretty fully explains itself. It was
written by Sister Warner, the wife of D. S. Warner, the Come-out
leader, and editor of the Gospel Trumpet. Those who know Sister
W. generally, among the straight holiness people, have confidence
in her integrity. God bless her, and may she save her husband from
his strong delusions. She desires the holiness papers to copy her
article:

Dear Brother Doty: My soul praises God today for a perfect
salvation in Jesus. He sweetly abides in my heart, and I do know
that his Word is true. His promises to save from all sin and keep
in perfect peace are most wonderfully verified in my case; praise
his name! Salvation is sweeter to my soul every day I live.

"And how sweetly Jesus whispers,
Take the cross, thou needst not fear;
For I've trod this way before thee,
And the glory lingers near."

Yea, praise God for the cross, and the glory that always follows.

I feel it my duty to say to all God's children, that he has opened
my eyes to see the evils of come-outism. I am free from it, and
forever renounce it and praise God that he has so completely
delivered me from the spirit of it. I am thoroughly convinced
that this effort to unite God's people by calling them out of
the churches is not God's plan of unity. It simply cuts off a
few members by themselves, who get an idea that none are clearly
sanctified unless they see as "we" do; and, then, they have a
harsh grating that is the very opposite of love. I have found
that the predominant spirit of the come-out movement is the same
self-righteous, pharisaical spirit that Christ rebuked when he was
here on earth. They hold and teach that no one can be entirely
sanctified and belong to a "sect."

It is not necessary for me to speak of the fanaticism and
absurdities connected with this movement; but I am not at all
surprized to hear of men losing their minds after passing through
such a meeting as the assembly at Sulphur Springs last November. I
have seen more Babylon confusion outside the churches than in. I
know whereof I speak, for I have been connected with the movement
from its beginning, and, as you all know, at the very head of it.
And while I believe it my duty before God to renounce it, and stand
aloof from it, I have all charity for those connected with it. I am
confident that I have nothing in my heart but love toward them all,
and love to my husband; nor do I reject him, but I can not endorse
either the movement or its organ, the Gospel Trumpet. I must obey
God, and walk in the light he has given me, or forfeit salvation,
which I can not afford to do. I have suffered the loss of all
things, but rejoice to know that I am counted worthy to suffer for
Jesus' sake.

In taking this step for God I have not been hasty. I have been
convicted of this duty for some time. Circumstances and the
manifestations of the spirit of this movement have been such for
several months past that I fear further delay on my part would be
disastrous to the cause of Christ and my own soul. I humbly ask the
prayers of all God's children that he will keep me firm and sweet
while passing through the furnace.

Mrs. S. A. Warner.

Upper Sandusky, Ohio, Apr. 22, 1884.

Brother Warner deplored his wife's going into print with their trouble. A number of the so-called holiness papers made remarks that were reflective on Brother Warner and the cause of truth. On account of this, he felt it necessary to make some reply in the Trumpet and set forth the facts concerning his wife. In the issue of July 15, 1884, he made a very clear delineation of the whole affair. He showed the sad deception into which his wife had fallen, how it had affected her conduct, and hardened her conscience to do things she was never known to do before, even to being untruthful, and yet publish her testimony abroad that she was more sweetly saved than ever. Near the close he says:

And this is the kind of holiness the sectarian sheets have such a
jubilee over. This work of the devil which has at present broken up
a family, brought a reproach upon the cause of holiness, robbed us
of our sweet child for over three months past, and which has filled
all hell with a jubilee, the Highway of Holiness says "should be
received with thankfulness." Yes, it is received in hell with
thankfulness, and just to the extent that Babylon glories in the
same she proves that she is in league with hell.

While our heart is sad for the sake of our dear companion, we have
great reason to give everlasting thanks to God for the glorious
fruits of these furnace flames. Oh, how our weaknesses have been
searched out and our patience perfected!

We would not cast away the gold
We've gathered in the furnace flame.
Nor would we wish again the dross
Here purged in our Redeemer's name.

In the Trumpet of July 1, 1884, a quotation is made from the writings of John Bunyan in which are recalled the persecutions that culminated in his imprisonment. He tells of how Satan, failing in one plan to overthrow his work and make it ineffectual, tries another, which was to stir up the minds of the ignorant and malicious to load him with slanders and reproaches, and finally to have him arraigned and put in jail. With this quotation Brother Warner makes the following comparison:

In all these sufferings Bunyan had, besides the grace of God, the
consolations of a true wife to sustain and comfort him. With his
great heart glowing with love for the truth, and deep affection
for her that had been such a true friend in the past, just suppose
for a moment the devil had in the time of his greatest persecution
from sectarian idolaters, overthrown his faithful Elizabeth, and so
blinded and deceived her as to make it appear her duty to renounce
him and the truth he was devoted to, in all the papers of that day.
Suppose he had found her all at once fellowshiping his persecutors
and slanderers, and receiving the friendship and applause of the
popular sects of that time, rather than suffering persecution with
her husband for Christ's sake; do you not believe that such a trial
would have more cruelly "pulled the flesh from his bones" than
twelve years' imprisonment with a good and faithful wife at home
sharing his reproach and offering her daily prayers to God on his
behalf?

Of course the woman could not have published any sin of the man
of God, nor would it have been necessary. All that she would have
needed to do would have been to renounce him and the "come-out
movement" that he was engaged in under God, and remind them that
she "had been connected with the movement from its beginning, as
you all know, and at the very head of it," and then throw out a
few hints that she had "suffered" a great many things, and that
"circumstances and the manifestation of the spirit of this movement
have been such for several months past that I fear further delay
on my part would be disastrous to the cause of Christ and my own
soul." This were sufficient to confirm all the vile slanders that
Satan had sent out against her husband, with all who hated the
truth he taught. Oh, yes, that would settle the matter. Yes, yes,
you know all the terrible things that are reported of this awfully
deluded man, and now his wife comes out against him, which proves
that these things are true. And if the devil were as smart then
as he is now, he would have led the poor apostate guilty woman
to put on a very lovely aspect in her public comforters, to the
idolaters of those times, in order to have the more influence.
Yea, doubtless, while selling her husband to the devil for the
friendship of his enemies, and selling Christ, whose truth he dared
to speak, she would have hypocritically said, "I love my husband,"
and "Jesus sweetly abides in my heart." Oh, what a record the day
of judgment will unfold! But God be praised that Bunyan was blessed
with a true companion; but let him whose lot is otherwise "bind
this to him as an ornament," as Bunyan did the vile slanders heaped
upon him.

After a few years there appeared in the Trumpet, in the issue of Jan. 7, 1892, the following statement, from a person who knew Mrs. Warner from her youth and who here speaks of her divorce and remarriage:

Nothing has ever been more surprizing to me than the steps she has
taken. It may not be generally known that she got a bill through
the court at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. The grounds upon which she filed
her complaint betray a dreadful absence of conscience and the fear
of God, stating that she had "been a faithful wife to him ever
since married," and that "he had been wilfuly absent from her for
over three years"; when the facts are, she had wilfully abandoned
him over six years before, during which time he twice visited her
and wrote many letters kindly urging her to return and that without
any conditions. And she was so far from being a faithful wife that
she did not even answer his letters.

Brother Warner did not feel led to appear against her, but
faithfully admonished her for her soul's sake not to put on record
in the county court and the high court of heaven statements that
she knew to be so directly opposite to the truth. And, worse yet,
the woman has recently shown her disregard for the counsel of
the Bible by marrying another man.[15] We insisted that these few
words of explanation be published to cut off all occasion for
unreasonable men to speak against the cause of Christ and against
his servant.
--E. J. Hill.

In the Trumpet of June 1, 1893, an editorial speaks of her death, as follows:

While holding meetings in Portland, Ind. on Wednesday, May 24, we
were informed that there was a telegram at the office for us. On
going there we were startled with this brief dispatch: "Sarah died
this morning in Cincinnati. Signed, L. F. Keller."

He is a brother of the one we ought to be able to call our wife,
and this fact rendered the familiar name "Sarah" all sufficient in
the dispatch. O my Lord, is it possible that she is cut off in the
midst of her days! She who seemed so fresh and well is suddenly
called to be the first to break the circle of six children, all of
whom were early instructed in the fear of the Lord. Ah, we can not
help the conviction that had the dear woman never been alienated
by the adversary to break her solemn vows, and held by a blind and
erring influence from returning to the obligations of a mother and
wife, yea, and had she not been by that influence led to obtain a
bill, and that on absolutely false grounds, she would be alive,
well, and happy today. But alas, all is past now....

We wrote immediately to our friend who had kindly informed us of
the departure of the one who once so filled the vision of our
heart, for the particulars of her death, and received a prompt
reply that she died with acute typhoid fever, to which was added
peritonitis, and that she did not express herself about the
future. Out of a full heart we would love to say much, but we
have space only for these thoughts. May God comfort the sorrowing
mother, brothers, and sisters.

The unhappy woman, having forsaken her God, her husband, and child,
became married over a year ago to another man. But alas, how often
the path that leads from God is cut short!

As to what became of Stockwell, the author has found no trace. When Brother Warner recovered his spiritual poise, after the terrible conflict at Bucyrus, he renounced Stockwell, and the latter at once dropped all profession.

An incident that occurred at Medina, Ohio, before Stockwell's defection, gave Brother Warner some trouble. A Mrs. Booth had had a vision in which she saw herself caught up with a thousand-dollar note. Stockwell, who was at that time apparently in sympathy with the Trumpet, interpreted her vision to her as meaning that she should give the one thousand dollars to the Trumpet. She then decided to do so and threw the money into the lap of Sister Warner, who refused to accept it. Stockwell then said _he_ would take it, which he did, and with it paid off the debt against the Trumpet office. After this was done, Mrs. Booth came to Brother Warner one day in company with an attorney for the purpose of recovering the money, whereupon Brother Warner adjusted the matter by mortgaging the Trumpet equipment for one half the amount and giving a note for the balance. The report got out in some manner that he had fraudulently taken the money from Mrs. Booth. In explanation he speaks of the matter as follows:

We feel rather like treating with silent contempt the wicked
aspersions that have gone through many papers, secular and
religious, against our character; but as friends demand it of
us we will just say that the report that we fraudulently took
from a Mrs. Booth a thousand dollars by mesmeric influences is
wholly and basely false. If we have been correctly informed, it
was fabricated by a lying infidel in Bucyrus and furnished to a
Cincinnati Enquirer reporter by him. That paper, after consulting
more reliable parties in Bucyrus, on the 15th of last February
published an article refuting all the reflections that had been
cast upon us. The Church Advocate, having published the Enquirer's
slanders, also took back the charges against us. The fact is, we
never had any hand in obtaining that money. We were at our home
and knew not that the woman had a thousand dollars or any money at
all, until a letter was sent me stating she had given the same.
We also have letters from her stating that she had cheerfully and
deliberately given the money; that God had called her to do so and
that she did not regret the step she had taken. But subsequently
she fell through the opposition of her husband and Satan, and we
gave security for the money because it was demanded, though we were
under no legal or moral obligation to do so.

One can imagine that during his severe trial at Bucyrus Brother Warner felt very much forsaken. But God had many others who were ready to stand with him. There were those who were solicitous with reference to his welfare. In one of the issues of the Trumpet we find this little note:

A brother writes thus, inquiring of us, "O Daniel! is thy God
continually able to deliver thee?" Through the amazing grace
of God we are able to answer from the lion's den and from the
seven-times-heated furnace, Yes. Glory to the God of our salvation,
he keeps our soul above the world, the flesh, and the devil, and
from all sin. He keeps us from these two opposite regions of
death, namely, the cold, hard-hearted, grating, fruitless spirit
of carnal sect-hatred on one side; and from the soft, spurious,
self-soothing, carnality-pleasing, and sect-compromising, all-bogus
love delusion on the other. God helping us we shall never move out
of Mic. 3:8 and Psa. 149:6-9.

He received many letters from those who were sympathetic and who were thankful for the Trumpet. The following are a few:

I am so glad to get the Gospel Trumpet. I think it is the best
paper I ever read. It speaks the Bible truth.

May the Lord bless you in the good work, and give you grace and
strength to withstand all the fiery darts that Satan and his hosts
can hurl at you. God and Christ shall be for walls of salvation
about you. Whom shall we fear when God is our friend? I am trusting
in Jesus for a full and free salvation. 'Without holiness no man
shall see God.' It does my soul good to read the testimonies of
how God is healing both soul and body, I believe he is willing to
manifest as much power on earth today as he did when Christ was
here in the flesh. Your sister, saved through the blood,
L. B.

We are continually praising God for the way he is keeping you
through every severe trial. When we understood the reality of your
trials we all wept as if we had been at a funeral. How our hearts
go out in sympathy for you! O dear brother, hold on to God; he
will not forsake those that trust in him. You must come to our
camp-meeting without fail, for we know God wants you here; but the
sect people are hoping you will not come. Your sister,
M. J. F.

May God reward you in your great work. Some good friend is sending
me the Trumpet, and I do love to read it, because it has the right
ring. It sounds as if it had been baptized in the Holy Ghost and
with fire. I never saw until I was baptized with the Holy Ghost the
corruption of sectism. I am so glad that there are a few that do
stand for Christ and him alone. Your brother,
H. B. C.

My prayer is that you may continue blowing the Trumpet, and that
it may always give a clear and certain sound. I had a pretty sharp
discussion with a minister today on the subject of sanctification.
By the grace of God I was under the necessity of telling him
that he was not a competent witness on the subject, having never
received the experience. Oh, why will men attempt to explain and
preach that of which they know nothing! May the God of all grace be
continually your refuge and your exceeding great reward.
M. M.

That the Trumpet had the right ring was a fact recognized wherever there were spiritual Christians who had felt the oppression and seen the evils of human control in the so-called churches, and of course that meant in all parts of the country. There were many ready to fall in line with its teachings. Besides Beaver Dam, in Kosciusko County, Ind., and Carson City, in Michigan, as original centers, there had come to be congregations in other parts of the States named, and in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and others. The reformation was in all places marked with spiritual vigor, enthusiasm, joy, love, fellowship, confidence, and activity. People who came in contact with it and who were not already prejudiced by sectarianism, were made to feel, by a spiritual discernment, that "this is the way" and "these people have the truth." A spirit of victory pervaded the work everywhere. God manifested himself by the outpouring of his Spirit and by miraculous healings and answers to prayer.

A remarkable instance of healing occurred at the first camp-meeting held near Bangor, in southwestern Michigan, in June, 1883. Emma Miller, who lived in Battle Creek, had been an invalid for nearly three years. Her eyes had become affected and she had to be led about. For nearly the whole period of three years (or, lacking one month) she had not read a line of print. After her conversion, which occurred nine months previously to her healing, she was plainly shown by the Lord that she would be healed. On being invited to the camp-meeting she was again shown, in answer to her prayer, that she would be healed. She requested her friends to provide her with paper and envelopes, promising to write to them. In this confidence she went to the meeting.

On the fourth morning of the meeting, after continued prayer had been offered, she was impressed she would be healed that day. Brother Warner had been called away from the meeting, but J. C. Fisher and others were present. Here was a case of blindness. Her eyes were covered with a film and the lids were closed through paralysis and she could not open them. But nothing daunted the little body of spiritual workers here assembled. Fasting and importunity characterized the earnest prayer. About 5 P. M. of the day mentioned, while Sister Miller was seated on the rostrum, where she had been requested to sit that all might see, suddenly her eyes were opened and she gazed upon the audience and praised the Lord. The people were amazed. Some fell to shouting, which was heard two miles away. Others trembled and cried. After praising God for an hour or more Sister Miller went out into the bright sunlight without any unpleasant sensation, the first time for nearly three years, and wrote two postal cards. Her eyes became bright and strong. Sister Miller (now Mrs. A. B. Palmer) is still living and has had her sight ever since.

Marvelous healings were common, but as this one was a healing of complete blindness and was one of the earliest cases, it is here mentioned. Another divine manifestation was the power given to the ministry over devils. Since the early centuries it has not been characteristic of any spiritual movement prior to this one, so far as the author has learned, that devils were in such subjection and had to come out of those possessed.

By this time quite a force of ministers had been raised up in various portions of the country. Over in Missouri was a man named Jeremiah Cole, who had been led into the light independent of any human instrumentality. He had suffered from dyspepsia for twelve years; he had been so bad he could eat only specially prepared articles of food. He was instantaneously and wonderfully healed in answer to his own importuning prayer, so that he could eat all ordinary foods without discomfort. His own healing led to the healing of his sister, Mary, who had been an invalid all her life. She began to have spasms at two years of age, and later dyspepsia and other ailments, until her life was one of continual suffering. Through her own prayer and that of her brother, she also was led to claim her healing, and the work was done. Both of these persons became effective ministers in the reformation.