We've gathered in the furnace flame.
Nor would we wish again the dross
Here purged in our Redeemer's name.
In the Trumpet of July 1, 1884, a quotation is made from the writings of John Bunyan in which are recalled the persecutions that culminated in his imprisonment. He tells of how Satan, failing in one plan to overthrow his work and make it ineffectual, tries another, which was to stir up the minds of the ignorant and malicious to load him with slanders and reproaches, and finally to have him arraigned and put in jail. With this quotation Brother Warner makes the following comparison:
In all these sufferings Bunyan had, besides the grace of God, the consolations of a true wife to sustain and comfort him. With his great heart glowing with love for the truth, and deep affection for her that had been such a true friend in the past, just suppose for a moment the devil had in the time of his greatest persecution from sectarian idolaters, overthrown his faithful Elizabeth, and so blinded and deceived her as to make it appear her duty to renounce him and the truth he was devoted to, in all the papers of that day. Suppose he had found her all at once fellowshiping his persecutors and slanderers, and receiving the friendship and applause of the popular sects of that time, rather than suffering persecution with her husband for Christ's sake; do you not believe that such a trial would have more cruelly "pulled the flesh from his bones" than twelve years' imprisonment with a good and faithful wife at home sharing his reproach and offering her daily prayers to God on his behalf?
Of course the woman could not have published any sin of the man of God, nor would it have been necessary. All that she would have needed to do would have been to renounce him and the "come-out movement" that he was engaged in under God, and remind them that she "had been connected with the movement from its beginning, as you all know, and at the very head of it," and then throw out a few hints that she had "suffered" a great many things, and that "circumstances and the manifestation of the spirit of this movement have been such for several months past that I fear further delay on my part would be disastrous to the cause of Christ and my own soul." This were sufficient to confirm all the vile slanders that Satan had sent out against her husband, with all who hated the truth he taught. Oh, yes, that would settle the matter. Yes, yes, you know all the terrible things that are reported of this awfully deluded man, and now his wife comes out against him, which proves that these things are true. And if the devil were as smart then as he is now, he would have led the poor apostate guilty woman to put on a very lovely aspect in her public comforters, to the idolaters of those times, in order to have the more influence. Yea, doubtless, while selling her husband to the devil for the friendship of his enemies, and selling Christ, whose truth he dared to speak, she would have hypocritically said, "I love my husband," and "Jesus sweetly abides in my heart." Oh, what a record the day of judgment will unfold! But God be praised that Bunyan was blessed with a true companion; but let him whose lot is otherwise "bind this to him as an ornament," as Bunyan did the vile slanders heaped upon him.
After a few years there appeared in the Trumpet, in the issue of Jan. 7, 1892, the following statement, from a person who knew Mrs. Warner from her youth and who here speaks of her divorce and remarriage:
Nothing has ever been more surprizing to me than the steps she has taken. It may not be generally known that she got a bill through the court at Upper Sandusky, Ohio. The grounds upon which she filed her complaint betray a dreadful absence of conscience and the fear of God, stating that she had "been a faithful wife to him ever since married," and that "he had been wilfuly absent from her for over three years"; when the facts are, she had wilfully abandoned him over six years before, during which time he twice visited her and wrote many letters kindly urging her to return and that without any conditions. And she was so far from being a faithful wife that she did not even answer his letters.
Brother Warner did not feel led to appear against her, but faithfully admonished her for her soul's sake not to put on record in the county court and the high court of heaven statements that she knew to be so directly opposite to the truth. And, worse yet, the woman has recently shown her disregard for the counsel of the Bible by marrying another man.[15] We insisted that these few words of explanation be published to cut off all occasion for unreasonable men to speak against the cause of Christ and against his servant.—E. J. Hill.
In the Trumpet of June 1, 1893, an editorial speaks of her death, as follows: