XVTHE CRISIS[12]

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 dissipatedin 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 shunnednot 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 Christianfellowship 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 prosperupon 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:

BRANCHESWhere in the Bible do we find the idea of sects being branches, as people talk about? "What branch of the church do you belong to?" is a common expression in these times of antiscriptural language and practise. Why do not people read their Bibles better and learn that every individual believer is a branch in Christ—John 15?If a whole sect is a branch, then the individual must be a sub-branch; but this would make each one dependent upon the sect for his union with, and life from, Christ. This would be second-hand salvation. We should not like to risk the coupling—I prefer a direct union with Christ.Taking Christ's parable of the Vine and Branches, there is but one way to represent branch sects; that is, imagine the branches adhering directly to the vine but pressed together and tightly bound into several bunches. Thus drawn together each bundle would have the appearance of a branch; but upon closer examination it would be found to consist of many branches each adhering to the vine, except a good many dead sticks, that had been killed by the unnatural confinement, and had rotted loose from the trunk.We think it is the great business of the pure gospel sword of holiness to cut those soul-killing chords, that the Father may purge the several branches, and that they may all straighten out in natural position—live, grow, and bear fruit unto holiness.

Where in the Bible do we find the idea of sects being branches, as people talk about? "What branch of the church do you belong to?" is a common expression in these times of antiscriptural language and practise. Why do not people read their Bibles better and learn that every individual believer is a branch in Christ—John 15?

If a whole sect is a branch, then the individual must be a sub-branch; but this would make each one dependent upon the sect for his union with, and life from, Christ. This would be second-hand salvation. We should not like to risk the coupling—I prefer a direct union with Christ.

Taking Christ's parable of the Vine and Branches, there is but one way to represent branch sects; that is, imagine the branches adhering directly to the vine but pressed together and tightly bound into several bunches. Thus drawn together each bundle would have the appearance of a branch; but upon closer examination it would be found to consist of many branches each adhering to the vine, except a good many dead sticks, that had been killed by the unnatural confinement, and had rotted loose from the trunk.

We think it is the great business of the pure gospel sword of holiness to cut those soul-killing chords, that the Father may purge the several branches, and that they may all straighten out in natural position—live, grow, and bear fruit unto holiness.

His account of how he was led to sever his connection with the holiness association, which he began to see was but a milder form of sectism, is given in an editorial for June 1, 1881.

THAT YE BREAK EVERY YOKESaturday, April 22, the hand of the Lord was heavily upon our soul, had no relish to converse with any one but God. Finally in company with two brethren we went into the house of God at Hardinsburg, Ind., and placed ourselves under the searching eye of God, when the Spirit of the Lord showed me the inconsistency of repudiating sects and yet belonging to an association that is based upon sect recognition. We promised God to withdraw from all such compacts. But being dearly attached to the holiness work, we attended the Association at Terre Haute, and tried to have the sect-endorsing clause removed from the constitution. Its substance is as follows, speaking of local associations:"It shall consist of members of various Christian organizations and seek to work in harmony with all these societies."We offered the following substitute: "It shall consist of, and seek to cooperate with, all true Christians everywhere."We had supposed that fellowship and cooperation should not exclude any person or truth that is in Christ Jesus, and that we should not be compelled to bow down to anything not in, nor of, Christ Jesus.We were positively denied membership on the ground of not adhering to any sect. And now we wish to announce to all that we wish to cooperate with all Christians, as such, in saving souls—butforever withdrawfrom all organisms that uphold and endorse sects and denominations in the body of Christ.

Saturday, April 22, the hand of the Lord was heavily upon our soul, had no relish to converse with any one but God. Finally in company with two brethren we went into the house of God at Hardinsburg, Ind., and placed ourselves under the searching eye of God, when the Spirit of the Lord showed me the inconsistency of repudiating sects and yet belonging to an association that is based upon sect recognition. We promised God to withdraw from all such compacts. But being dearly attached to the holiness work, we attended the Association at Terre Haute, and tried to have the sect-endorsing clause removed from the constitution. Its substance is as follows, speaking of local associations:

"It shall consist of members of various Christian organizations and seek to work in harmony with all these societies."

We offered the following substitute: "It shall consist of, and seek to cooperate with, all true Christians everywhere."

We had supposed that fellowship and cooperation should not exclude any person or truth that is in Christ Jesus, and that we should not be compelled to bow down to anything not in, nor of, Christ Jesus.

We were positively denied membership on the ground of not adhering to any sect. And now we wish to announce to all that we wish to cooperate with all Christians, as such, in saving souls—butforever withdrawfrom all organisms that uphold and endorse sects and denominations in the body of Christ.

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 abovelanguageso 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 hopelesscondition, 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 misrepresentingall 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 haltwhen 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?

"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 abovelanguageso 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 hopelesscondition, 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.

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 misrepresentingall who abandon sects. Come out of Babylon, brother, then you can see much clearer.

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 haltwhen 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?

Church building in which D. S. Warner and five others severed their relation with the Northern Indiana Eldership in 1881. It is located at Beaver Dam, three miles north of Akron, Ind.

Group of Individuals, former members of the Northern Indiana Eldership, who with Brother Warner severed their connection with the Northern Indiana Eldership in 1881. At top, Mr. and Mrs. F. Krause; center, D. Leininger; bottom, Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Ballenger

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 beheard, 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 akeepingout 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 BrotherWarner 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.

Joseph C. and Allie R. Fisher

Group of Michigan saints, some of the first to declare their freedom from sectarian relations. Above, Mr. and Mrs. Frank B. Reeves; center, Mrs. C. E. Reeves; below, Mr. and Mrs. John T. Lyon

Thus there were two centers where a stand of independence with regard to the Eldership and human ecclesiasticismhad 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.

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 PENSWe 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. Thisseems 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.

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. Thisseems 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 thechurch 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 historyof 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.

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 thechurch 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 historyof 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 GREETINGTo 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 workof 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, HolyGhost 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.

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 workof 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, HolyGhost 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 heartywelcome. A few bits of correspondence addressed to Brother Warner and taken from the Trumpet of early in 1882 are here presented.

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