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!
[Illustration: John N. Slagle, befriender of D. S. Warner]
[Illustration: Sidney, only living child of D. S. Warner]
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.