True to prophetic fulfilment, the time was at hand for the
restoration of the church to her normal state of unity and holiness.
The scattered condition of God's people in the various sectarian
denominations was not always to continue, for such could not be the
ideal state of the church; it could not be her final state in which
Christ could expect to receive her as his bride. For her there was a
better day at hand. From Romish night to the light of justification
by faith, possessed among Protestant sects generally since the
sixteenth century reformation, had been a great step upward. Also the
Wesleyan reformation, bringing in the light of perfect holiness as a
Christian attainment subsequent to regeneration, marked an advance
for the truth in its progress by stages unto the end of time. There
needed to be yet another step, another reformation, which should
bring the church to her fulness of glory, and visualize her unity and
solidarity.
It would seem that the holiness movement that arose in the sixties
and seventies should have accomplished this, but it served only
as an approach to it. True holiness indeed destroys the elements
of sectarianism, and forbids a continued state of division among
Christians. But the holiness movement, as such, came to have holiness
only nominally for its object. It undertook no antagonism to
sectarian divisions, though it deplored them. It stood for nothing
more than holiness as a subject to be taught and experienced, and
satisfied itself as best it could to remain within the denominations.
It drew back when the real issue came, and in consequence it has long
been dissipated in the sects, having for forty years accomplished
little or nothing toward bringing God's people into unity.
Christian unity can never be brought about within the sects nor in
connection with any recognition of allegiance to them. It absolutely
can be effected only out of and away from the sects, by obedience to
God and a severance of sectarian ties. Since true Christian unity is
incompatible with sects, and since coming out of sects is opposed
by the sect spirit and invites persecution by the sects, the only
course for the people of God to take who have received the light on
the true church is to cut loose from human institutions and abide in
Christ alone, even though it places them in a relation hostile to
the so-called churches. For those first leaving the sects there was
no body of saints already called out to which they could be added.
What could it mean to them but a crisis? And what would it constitute
in the progress of events but a reformation? But the Spirit of the
Lord was thus leading. Since sects are hostile to the movement out of
sects, the Spirit of the Lord becomes necessarily hostile to them;
for he indeed leads his people out of sects. But the time had come.
God's spiritual ones were looking and longing for some development or
other by which they would cease to be divided in sectarian bodies.
No one had put it into their minds; their anticipation of it was
prompted by the Spirit of God, which was in them. There needed some
one to sound the trumpet of the Lord, some one to take the lead and
make a positive declaration against the sin of division, some one
through whom God could voice the call, "Come out of her, my people,
that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues" (Rev. 18:4).
God had in Brother Warner prepared just such an instrument. His was
the spirit of a reformer. He shunned not to declare God's judgments.
His ministry had a definite message, and represented the burden of
God for the purity and unity of his church. Looking back upon Brother
Warner's career it would seem, as the writer has already intimated,
that his connection with the Church of God (Winebrennerian), which
assumed to have no creed but the Bible and to be indeed the true
church of God, had doubtless served to emphasize to him the true
church ideal and to shape his course along right lines. And his
rejection by the Ohio Eldership for the preaching of holiness
awakened him to see that that body was not what it claimed to be,
but was, after all, only a humanly ruled institution, only one sect
among the many. The light he already had on the church was sufficient
to forbid his reuniting with them. Thus the so-called Church of God
had contributed to him the right idea of the church, and the holiness
movement had brought to his understanding the line on which God would
bring out a pure church, namely, the line of holiness; and thus was
the divine Hand leading him and fitting him for the work to which he
was called.
We can only imagine what it meant to step out on God alone and preach
the divine judgments against the apostate religions of the day, to
decry the evils of denominationalism, and to undertake on that same
line the publication of a paper. That his work was despised and that
Satan undertook to crush it in its very beginning can not be wondered
at. Its humbleness and apparent insignificance looked uninviting
to the worldly-minded; but the deep spirituality and divine
manifestations that characterized it were a sufficient vindication
to those who were capable of spiritually discerning the truth. There
was something that said, "This work is of God." There was a sense of
spiritual freedom and of love and Christian fellowship that bore
convincing testimony to those who would but listen to the dictation
of the Spirit that this is indeed the truth.
But Brother Warner was not alone. God had reserved his thousands
who no longer were bowing the knee to Baal. From them he received
encouragement and support, though for a few years it seemed his work
had to go through the crucible of trial. Accordingly we trace his
difficulties and sorrows, as well as his victories, until the cause
becomes fully established in the earth.
From what we learn of Brother Warner's earlier views and attitude,
he never had a party spirit; he never was a sectarian. Even from
his early ministry the love and fellowship that exists among the
people of God he recognized as the paramount bond of Christian union.
After his conversion, when dealing with the question of what church
he should join, he is found casting about to determine which one
represented the real church of God. As the followers of Winebrenner
had the right name, and seemed to him to be correct in doctrine, he
was led into that denomination. With the insufficient light he then
possessed he probably failed to see the man rule that prevailed,
instead of the Holy Spirit rule that characterizes the divine,
theocratic government in the true church of God. He discovered,
of course, the clash of this man rule with the free, independent
inclination of the Holy Spirit, by which he preferred to be led. But
he bore with it patiently, believing that he was in the true church;
and it took years to discover to him that the body to which he
belonged was but a sect.
It was through the attainment of the Bible standard of holiness that
he was gradually led into the truth respecting the church and sects.
Early in 1878 he wrote: "The Lord showed me that holiness could never
prosper upon sectarian soil encumbered by human creeds and party
names, and he gave me a new commission to join holiness and all truth
together and build up the apostolic church of the living God." He
soon began to receive light on the Scriptures, which revealed to him
that the church was to be restored to her primitive glory in the
evening of the dispensation. The chapter on a Spiritual Shaking,
taken from his book, clearly shows that when the chapter was written
(1879) he understood that God was going to bring out a pure church.
He published this in 1880, which became the date from which the
present epoch of the church may be reckoned.
It should be remembered that during this time he was connected with
the Northern Indiana Eldership; but as this was a body already
separated from the old Eldership because of their purpose to keep on
the Scriptural basis, he really believed that this body was the true
church, for that was its claim. Thus he was really out of sectism in
heart and was associated with a body claiming to be the church of
God. During the last year (1880) of the Herald of Gospel Freedom,
when it was fully under his editorial charge, its columns, while
teaching holiness, breathed the principles of the one true church.
One of its stated objects was "the union of all true believers in the
Spirit of God and upon the inspired Word." Because of insufficient
light on the governmental aspect of the true church, he was slow to
discover that even the new Eldership was only a body ruled by men. As
light came on the Holy Spirit government, he looked upon the man rule
elements in the Eldership as inconsistencies that needed removal. It
was human machinery that he thought needed to be dispensed with. We
must concede, therefore, that in the meantime he was, to all intents
and purposes, out of sects.
We speak of this period as the crisis because he took such a bold,
uncompromising stand against sects and taught holiness and the
principles of the church with such thoroughness that it seemed to
awaken every satanic element that had been slumbering under the guise
of false profession. People had either to accept the truth or go into
darkness. To him it meant the break-up of old relations, the drawing
of new lines of fellowship, exposure to persecution, and everything
that might befall the career of a reformer. As the teaching of the
resurrection and the repudiation of circumcision constituted the
offence of the cross in Paul's day, so the preaching of the Bible
standard of holiness and the renouncement of all sects became the
offence of the cross at this time. We shall give several selections
from the earlier issues of the Trumpet that are representative of its
teaching. In the issue of Mar. 1, 1881, we have the following: