Part 18

=26.= Bade these beloved brethren farewell, feeling that our hearts are wonderfully knit together in love. They appointed a delegate to our Eldership.

=27.= Met beloved companion this eve at our Eldership at Yellow Lake Bethel, she having come directly from Ohio.

=29.= Sessions very pleasant, even spiritual. After leaving the house, very strange feelings came over me. I felt sure that the powers of darkness were about to make a desperate rally. We stayed up at Brother Bear's and prayed until one o'clock. I then lay down and took a short sleep, when the Spirit bade me arise and go out in the woods. Oh, what wrestling and agony of soul! What burden of heart and cries unto God for the salvation of his cause in that lone place from about 4:30 till 6 A. M.! Received some relief and victory. An evil spirit seemed to be upon the session from the opening this morning. The foreseen darkness was there. Business did not pass off so pleasantly. At noon I spent all the time shut up with God, and received great relief from the mountain that seemed to crush my heart. This was a new and strange experience to my soul. Closed business at a late hour at night. The Eldership purchased the office from Brother Lowman and me.

=Oct. 1, 1879.= Sarah started home this morning. I felt led to go to see the brethren in the Cook neighborhood and Warsaw concerning the formation of a State Holiness Alliance.

=14.= Received an urgent call to go to Wakarusa. Was led to go. Asked God for the means, and in less than one hour a gentleman came and summoned me to affirm a small matter before the court, which any of my neighbors could have done as well.

=21.= [At Palestine.] Quite a good turn-out. Two quite zealous Christians who disbelieved the second work of grace--a father and son--both spoke. The first believed in sanctification as a gradual work after pardon and consummated at death. The latter testified that he received it in conversion. What incongruity in the two, but harmony in all who have the fulness!

Eve, read prophecies of the present holiness movement. Exhorted the many holy ones present to fill the Bible description of God's holy army, moving out in every direction, setting the wilderness on fire, invading every city, casting down every wall, staying and burying Gog, beating the mountains fine, and blowing the mass of chaff from the Lord's threshing-floor (Ezek. 38, 39).

=23.= Came home. Among the mail awaiting me was a card stating that obligations to the amount of $45 must be paid at once in Wolcottville. Blessed be the Lord, another letter contained the precise amount of $45, that had been due me nearly a year from Nebraska. Glory to God, he supplies all our needs. How perfectly he meets all our wants!

=Nov. 16, 1879.= Sabbath. A glorious meeting was in progress at Churubusko. Brother Wood, the leader, had taken sick and the little ones were praying to the Lord to send some one to proclaim the word of the Lord. We heard of the meeting and at once were moved to go. We found the Methodist Episcopal house crowded. A good band of holiness witnesses and singers all had their eyes on the Lord to send a man to lead the host. Praise his name, he anointed me for the work and a glorious meeting ensued. Four or five fully saved.

=17.= This morning we found Brother Wood still quite sick. The doctor anticipated a severe attack of bilious pneumonia fever. We anointed him with oil and the Lord heard prayer in his behalf and raised him up at once.

=18.= Brother Wood quite well and able to work in the meetings. Held a special faith-meeting today. Prayed for the restoration of the boy who is perfectly deaf. We were not at all discouraged, but felt it our duty to continue in prayer from day to day just as we often have to do with those seeking pardon and purification.

=19.= After our day meeting a brother and sister and I formed one of the visiting committees. When nearly sundown we found a poor suffering "woman who was a sinner," and blind for some time, and afflicted with much pain. We told her that Jesus could wash away her sins and heal and open her eyes. The Spirit soon brought on conviction and new-birth labors. She was gloriously converted, and giving a shout she sat down, and after a few seconds composure said, "Glory to God, I can see! My eyes are healed!" She then embraced her child and husband, whom she had not seen for about two weeks. She had lost all power to move her eyes, and they were both turned upward in her head. She was very weak, having eaten but little for days, and she sat with her hands over her eyes to exclude the light. Now she had the lamp lit and proceeded at once to get supper. All glory to the Great Physician! Twenty-seven sanctified souls arose to join into a holiness band. Hallelujah! God is mustering his host to the battle.

The accounts immediately following, in which he speaks of consolidating the Eldership with the Mennonites, show that he had not as yet gotten away from the idea of an external union in addition to that which the bonds of salvation alone can afford. He had already made a trip to Goshen, and had met Brother Lambert and others of the Mennonite faith.

=Dec. 5, 1879.= Am pushing my book to completion. Today Sarah and I started for the joint meeting of our Standing Committee and the Mennonite Quarterly Conference at Hawpatch.

=6.= Drove eight miles this morning to the place of meeting. Was happy to meet with those beloved brethren once more. Had a joint convention. The subject of consolidation was warmly advocated from both sides, while our hearts glowed with the unifying glory of Jesus Christ. The following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

Whereas, the God of all grace has most emphatically taught us in his Word that his church is one as the Father and Son are one, and that a manifestation of this unity is to be the world-saving salt of the church.

Therefore, we, as the professed sons of God and members of the United Mennonite Church and the Church of God assembled in the name of Jesus Christ in a joint meeting, do confess it our duty to put away from us every accursed thing that might in the least distract, divide, and alienate us in heart, or cause divergency in practise; and for the sake of securing an answer to the prayer of the adorable Savior, we do solemnly agree to abandon anything not warranted by the Word of God and accept any and everything it teaches. Therefore--

I. Resolved, That we joyfully consent to the will of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and agree to unite in one body as soon as in the providence of God the consolidation can be consummated, and

II. Resolved, That we recognize the Word of God as the only true basis of Christian union. Furthermore,

III. Resolved, That we believe that the truth as it is in Christ Jesus is within our reach, hence, can be ascertained on all points of difference, and that we are therefore morally bound to learn and abide its decision.

=14.= [At home.] Preached at the Wesleyan house at 1 P. M. on faith in relation to gifts of the Spirit. In the evening at the United Brethren house on the philosophy of faith.

=16.= Though very stormy, quite a company of dear brethren and young men turned out to chop and haul me wood. Oh, the goodness of God!

=Jan. 1, 1880.= Last night after a very successful and powerful meeting at Chambers' Schoolhouse we came to the watch-meeting at Albion. The Spirit greatly moved us to come. On reaching the house I dropped on my knees, when the Spirit gave me a searching message for the people. We kept up until after twelve. The old year passed away while we were on our knees in solemn consecration to God.

This is the last quotation which we make from his diary. By the first of the year he was given full charge of the Herald, and any further record of his life-events must be found in the papers which he was editing. Unfortunately, from Jan. 4, 1880, the date of the last entry in his diary, until the issue of the Herald for Nov. 7, 1880, is a gap over which we must bridge with silence, as I have no access to any copy of the Herald for that year other than the one mentioned, nor have I been supplied with information from any other source covering that period. In it is also announced that the following resolution was passed. "Resolved, That we are willing to consolidate the Herald with any other paper that advocates the same gospel principles."

In the number of the Herald referred to is printed the decision of the Board of Publication to make the following announcement: "Edited in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by D. S. Warner, Rome City, Ind. Dedicated to the God of the Bible and to the service of all saints who desire to love God with a pure heart fervently, and the holy Church he has established over eighteen hundred years ago."

From his book Bible Proofs we have drawn material for our next chapter.

XII

A SPIRITUAL SHAKING

In his book Bible Proofs of the Second Work of Grace, Brother Warner devotes three chapters to the prophetic description of the great work of restoration in the latter times, when, through the preaching of holiness and the upholding of the full Scriptural standard of truth, God should bring his people into unity again. This chapter is intended as an abridgement of the three chapters referred to.

I wish to say by way of introduction that many of the events in the history of ancient Israel are figures of and have their counterpart in things occurring in the Christian dispensation. And many of the utterances of the prophets, associated primarily with the events of those times, have their fulfilment as well in connection with the things foreshadowed. To regard these prophetic writings as referring only and finally to the literal affairs of the people of the Old Testament is to stop far short of their intention and use. The old dispensation was preparatory of the new. It was full of types and figures of things to be realized in the latter. Everything pointed forward in anticipation of the fulness of times when God should establish his new and better covenant with his people. Shall we say then that the prophecies did not share this anticipation; that they had to do only with the literal figures? Nay, it was the spirit of prophesy more than anything else that foretold of the times of the gospel dispensation, not only by direct reference, but also in many of those passages which touched first those immediate affairs in Israel's career and through them those greater things farther on. We note how the New Testament writers picked up the Old Testament prophecies and applied them, with such reference as "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet," or, "as it is written," etc.

But let us not suppose that the applications of prophecy were to be confined to the days of Christ and the apostles. Many things were said of David and other Old Testament objects that had their extended and more important fulfilment in Christ or in the establishment of the church, but there were other utterances that had their final import in the later affairs of the New Testament kingdom. Those that cluster about the captivity of Israel in Babylon and their reestablishment in their own land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem are especially rich in secondary application to the corresponding crises in the history of the church.

It is thus that many of the prophecies have a two-fold application, not that they mean two different things, but that they apply to both the literal and spiritual phases of the same thing. A sufficient proof of this lies in the fact that in the Revelation, where their spiritual meaning is assumed, we find the same Old Testament figures. There is unity of purpose in God's system of types and figures and in his plan throughout, and hence many of the prophecies that pertained in the first place to events in the history of Israel are used by the Spirit today in connection with the antitypes of those events.

Great epochal events or changes in which God by some particular institution unfolds his plan, or in which there is involved the divine approach to man, whether for approval or for judgment, are attended more or less by violent manifestations in the earth or the elements. Thus on the occasion of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai the mountain shook and smoked and there were thunders and lightnings, and the people trembled. At the crucifixion of Christ, the central event in all history, the sun hid his face and the earth shook, the rocks were rent and graves were opened. The Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit was with the sound of "a rushing mighty wind." When the apostolic church prayed for the special endowment of divine power, "the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost." When the imprisoned Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, the divine response came with a great earthquake which shook the foundations of the prison, opened all doors, and loosed every one's bands. On the day of final judgment the very earth will be moved out of her place and the elements will manifest the awful day of God.

The shaking of things, as accompanying the divine visitation, is also taken in the spiritual, or figurative, phase, and it is this application of the idea of shaking as used in the Scripture that Brother Warner employs in reference to the great spiritual movement of these latter times. As a key to the prophecies on this subject he uses Heb. 12:25-29, which reads as follows:

"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which can not be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which can not be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire."

We have here two distinct shakings. The first one, according to the apostle's words beginning with verse 18, plainly refers to the manifestation at Sinai when the first covenant was given to Israel (Exod. 19). The second shaking attends the voice which in this dispensation speaks from heaven. The former was a literal shaking, while the latter is of course spiritual, and attends the establishment of the new covenant. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh" is in the present tense to this dispensation and is an injunction for _us_.

Now, the new covenant involves the very highest standard of relation between God and his people, a standard much superior to that of the old Sinaitic covenant. It is distinguished by the laws of God being written in our hearts and comprehends our perfect obedience to them. In this relation we become his people and he our God in the very closest sense (see Heb. 8:10, and 10:16). This relation is none other than entire sanctification, which to attain requires the complete crucifixion of the self-life, the destruction of every idol, and entire abandonment to God. It is a close-girding covenant and admits of no sin either in practise or in the heart. The words "yet once more" refer to the shaking as final and to the standard of truth as being perfect, _ne plus ultra_, and as therefore consisting only of things unshakable.

It is the voice calling to this holiness standard of the new covenant that produces the mighty shaking, causing both earth and heaven to tremble. Whenever this voice is heard, whether in the beginning of Christianity or in a movement that effects the reestablishment of the new covenant in the hearts of God's people today, the shaking occurs. Both sinners and professors are made to tremble at God's mighty truth and he who would obey the divine appeal must suffer the shaking loose and consequent loss of all things contrary to the divine will, however dear they may be in the selfish affections. God has through grace made it possible for one and all to measure to this standard, so that for him who refuses the voice that speaks thus from high heaven there is positively no escape.

Our quotation from Hebrews leads us back to the prophet Haggai, whose words in chapter 2, verse 6, are what the apostle doubtless refers to. This introduces us to that field of prophecies relating to the captivity and the return, so typical of the apostasy and of the final restoration of the true church in these last days. It should not be a thing incredible that the great spiritual events of these epoch-making times should be in accordance with prophetic utterance, nor that the Holy Spirit should lead Brother Warner, as he testifies to having been led, into these things as prophetic truth. Indeed the reader, if he be a seeker after truth, should not be surprized to find the Holy Spirit confirming to his own mind that these things have a prophetic illumination. Brother Warner's reference to these prophecies, and his comments, are here given. Of Heb. 12:25-29 he thus speaks:

On the 30th of August, 1879, the Holy Spirit in a special manner gave me the foregoing scripture. I had never clearly comprehended its meaning and I felt impressed that the Lord was about to lead me into a new vein of truth. I shut myself up with God and the Bible, when "the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost," took most of the things that are contained in what follows and showed them to me. Being fully assured that my mind had been led into the pure light of truth, we published it from the pulpit, much to the edification of the holy brethren. We feel confident that the following chain of Scriptures, correlative with our text, will conduct every meek and candid reader into the same light it has your humble servant. We shall find the foregoing words of the inspired apostle a key to the prophetic description of the great work of holiness....

Let us examine the same declaration elsewhere in the Holy Book. Haggai 2:5-7: "According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." The rebuilding of the temple is the subject under consideration. This ancient abode of the great Shekinah was such a marked figure of the church of God that it is seldom spoken of by the holy seers but what the spirit of prophecy flashes forth in interspersed references to the "spiritual house." Says the prophet, "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts" (v. 9). Is it not in the midst of his church where God speaks peace to thousands who seek his face? Let us also thank God for the gracious intimation that the glory of the restored, latter-day church shall exceed that which preceded the dark-age captivity.

It is quite evident that the words in verses 5-7 were in the mind of the apostle when he wrote the words of our text. And we find here additional evidence that the "once more shaking" relates to the triumphs of the gospel, because it is associated with the coming of Christ, not as Judge, but the "Desire [or Savior] of all nations."...

God never designed that we should

"Roam through weary years Of inbred sin and doubts and fears, A bleak and toilsome wilderness."

If you have not passed through the Jordan, the death-convulsions of the "old man" of sin, to the Canaan rest, it is because you have either ignorantly or wilfully "refused him that speaketh," and "entered not in because of unbelief."...

"I will fill this house with glory." Here is the glory that Christ gives: "The Spirit of glory and of God," that fills and rests upon the church when inbred sin and all weights are shaken out. What is here associated with the "once more" shaking corresponds with entire sanctification.

The prophet Ezekiel gives us a very interesting chain of concurring prophesy. Who with his spiritual eyes open can fail to see the application of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel to the ministry, in general, of this age? They "eat up the good pasture"--fare sumptuously on fat salaries. 'Ye tread down the residue of your pastures' and 'foul the waters with your feet.' They are the real cause of spiritual famine instead of the means of refreshing the flock. "Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool." Make a lucrative merchandise of your Christless sermons, instead of administering the free gospel of salvation. "Ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock." When any find their way to the true Shepherd and receive food, life, and holy fire in their souls, they annoy the dead and sleeping, who proceed at once to kill them. This is no idle fancy. It is an undeniable fact that in most of our present-day churches a real convert can scarcely maintain spiritual life. The few that are not killed are usually driven or thrown out. O ye shepherds, a crisis from the Almighty is coming upon you. As the Lord liveth, the fires from heaven shall sweep away your craft. "Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished" (Jer. 25:34). Their time of feasting upon and dispersing the Lord's flock will come to an end.

"I will deliver my flock from their mouth," and "they shall no more be a prey" (Ezek. 34:10,22). "I will seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places [sectarian divisions] where they have been scattered [into several hundred parties] in the cloudy and dark day" (v. 12). We talk of the dark age as in the past; but the seer of God declares that we are yet under its lingering fogs, and shall be until holy fire from heaven shall sweep away every partition-wall, human creed, and party name, and purge out that infamous god, the sectarian spirit; the vile "image of jealousy" which sits in all the thresholds of Babylon.

"And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them" (v. 13). Yea, "I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be" (v. 14). "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David [Christ--David was already dead four hundred years]; he shall feed them, and shall be their shepherd" (v. 23).

The perfect reign of the Messiah, and his love in the soul, is to succeed the dark day of party confusion. The two are not compatible with each other. "And I will make with them a covenant of peace" (v. 25). Their own land, and this covenant-union with God, is simply entire sanctification. See Jer. 23....

In Ezekiel 35 we have the judgment of mount Seir. Seir--=rough=, =shaggy=--we presume is used [in the typical sense] to denote the Catholic power.