The life and labors of D. S. Warner are so closely associated with a
religious movement that any attempt at his biography becomes in part
necessarily a history of that movement. I have therefore chosen the
term, Birth of a Reformation, as a part of the title of this book.
Brother Warner (to use an appellation in keeping with the idea of
universal Christian brotherhood) was doubtless chosen of God as an
instrument for accomplishing a particular work. What that work was,
why it may be called a reformation, and why, in particular, it may be
considered the last reformation, a few words of explanation by way of
introduction are offered the inquiring reader.
It will be necessary to take a brief glance over the Christian era
and review some of the important events and conditions. We note
the characteristics of the church in the days of the apostles,
which, by reason of its recent founding and organization by the
Holy Spirit, is naturally regarded as exemplary and ideal. It had
no creed but the Scriptures and no government but that administered
by the Holy Spirit, who 'set the members in the body as it pleased
him'--apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, etc. Thus
subject to the Spirit, the early church was flexible, capable of
expansion and of walking in all the truth and of adjusting itself
to all conditions. It was in very essence _the_ church, the whole,
and not a section or part. The apostles and early believers did
not restrict themselves and become a Jewish Christian sect or any
other kind of sect. Peter's way of thinking would have thus limited
him, for as a Jew he declined any particular interest in Gentile
converts; but the Lord through a vision changed his mind and advanced
his understanding to include the universality of the Christian
kingdom. The Holy Spirit in the heart was necessary, of course, to
the successful government of the church by the Spirit, otherwise he
could not have been understood. There were no dividing lines, for it
was the will of the Lord particularly that there be "one fold and
one shepherd." Jesus had prayed in behalf of the disciples "that
they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me" (John 17:21). These conditions of being subject to the
word and Spirit, of leaving an open door through which greater light
and truth might enter as was necessary, and of possessing the love
and unity of spirit that cemented the believers together and carried
them through all their persecution, constituted the ideal and normal
status of God's church on earth as he gave it beginning, of which it
was ordained that there should be but one, only one, as long as the
world should endure. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye
are called in one hope of your calling" (Eph. 4:4).