Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner

by A. L. Byers

We had been unwell some days in the city, and felt half sick on the train; but as soon as we breathed the God-pervaded atmosphere of that beautiful pine-grove, all our infirmities fled away and we could shout the praises of God in a sound body. How hallowed and sweet the recollections of God's blessings upon that ground one year ago! How dear to our heart the precious chambers in Brother and Sister Carmichael's tent, where we often spent much of the brief interval between the three daily services, in nearly all of which the Lord used us to read and teach his Holy Word to the dear saints. In that precious retreat he daily filled our soul and recuperated the wasted energies of our body and mind so that we could stand and feed the Lord's sheep. Praise God, we found the same little sanctum prepared for us again. Thank God, there were plenty to share the work of the gospel ministry this year.

The blessed Holy Spirit wrought in the hearts of the people from the first service to the close of the meeting. On Tuesday we went to the stream a mile from the camp and immersed fourteen of the dear, happy saints of God. It was a glorious and wonderful time. The Spirit of the living God was poured out in mighty power. Some went down into the water shouting the high praises of God, and nearly all leaped and shouted as they came forth from the symbolic grave. What glory shone in the faces of those blood-washed ones! The place was one of beautiful scenery. On either side the stream stood the dense and lofty pines. As this blood-washed company faced the stream, with their eyes lifted toward God and their faces all lit up with heaven's glow, and sang the sweet songs of redemption, we were reminded of Bunyan's company of pilgrims that stood in white robes awaiting their invitation to cross to the celestial paradise....

Do we astonish you when we say that while sinners were melted to tears by the power of God during the baptism, and said, "This is the right way. This is the right way," an apostate and hypocrite preacher by the name of —— stood back and spake against "this way" of the Lord? Woe unto such empty clouds, wandering stars, wells without water!...

Brother Fisher was quite sick when we reached the grove, and after having been strengthened several times to preach the word he was finally and instantaneously healed by faith and the laying on of hands. The next evening the healing power was mightily upon him, and four of the dear saints were healed of various diseases and old complaints. In the early part of the meeting Brother and Sister Frost's little girl was healed of a very bad case of catarrh. The morning Brother and Sister Fisher left, the Lord woke us between three and four o'clock in the morning and led us forth into the woods to commune with him. Our mind was led to ask for a more perfect faith. Praise God, he gave it. Early we walked to Brother Farrah's house, where we found Sister Clayton very sick with sick-headache. In the name of the Lord we laid hands on her head, and she was immediately healed by faith in Jesus. Several others of the saints were healed that day....

One evening in company with Brother and Sister Fisher we went home with Brother and Sister Frost. Sister Owen lives a close neighbor to them. Her daughter had two days before been taken sick. That night she was taken very bad, and she suffered extremely. Mr. Owen wished to go for the doctor, but Lula begged her pa to send for us. Though he had been extremely prejudiced against us by some ungodly sectarian neighbors, he could not refuse the wish of his suffering child. He gave his consent, and at two o'clock we were called up, and went to the house in the name of the Lord. Lula had been praying the Lord to forgive her sins, and seemed to have found pardon, but she was in great suffering. Brother Fisher and I laid hands upon her, and in less than a minute her intense suffering ceased, and she rested until morning. Her body gradually recovered strength, and two days later she was out to the meeting. Praise the Lord, O my soul! The power of God since then so softened the heart of Brother Owen that he has turned to serve the Lord. His heart is so changed that he not only loves God but us also. May God bless the dear brother.

Praise the Lord for the wonderful bond of love that binds our hearts together in the Son of God! Blind sectarians ask us, "What have you got to bind you together?" We reply by asking them, "What have you got to part us asunder?" Oh, bless God for the balm in this union! We never know the strength of the divine bonds of love until all the sect bonds of the devil are cast away and we are led to suffer together for the gospel of God and the name of Jesus. Oh, happy bond of perfect love, which binds all the pure in heart to God and to each other!

After the close of the Sandy Lake meeting he went by invitation to Greenville, in the same county. He first held an evening service on the streets, in which he spoke to a large audience. This was on Friday evening, September 5. The rest of the services at Greenville were in a grove in the country. In his report he tells of his being mercilessly beaten by a drunken man and of his wonderful escape from injury because of divine protection.

We praise God for having sent us here. We are confident that much good was done. One brother, who had been wonderfully converted and blessed, had actually made an appointment at a schoolhouse and talked to the people by the Holy Spirit. People were moved, and asked the man to speak again. But he consulted his Methodist priest, who told him it would never do in the world for him to attempt to speak and exhort without license, and that if he did so he would be brought up and tried. The poor man was scared down and was on back ground; but he promised us to rededicate himself to God and go straight forward in God's will. May God bless and help him. Such is the pernicious work of the devil under the mask of what he calls "our church." We hope in the providence of God to return to Greenville again. A sister told us that we would receive persecution for pay. Well, praise God, we were well remunerated in that kind of currency for Christ's sake. It has brought the "leap and rejoice" with "the spirit of glory and of God" in our soul. After the grove-meeting we spoke again on the streets of Greenville to a very large crowd of attentive hearers....

After preaching in the grove Saturday night, we walked a mile and a half to find rest for the night. The mother and two of the family are fully saved. But the husband is intemperate and desperately wicked. He does not often stop with the family, as the little home belongs to one of the sons, who, with his brothers, affords protection to their mother against the father's abuse. The wretched man had been drinking liquor through the day, and was also well filled with the wine of Babylon's wrath received from his sectarian neighbors, who hate any child of God that lives godly in Christ Jesus outside of her pales. He seems to have come liquored up on purpose for a row. After entering the house, the frenzied man assaulted us with shocking oaths and threats. He was desperate, just in that state of intoxication in which he had more than his usual strength, and maddened beyond all reason. He soon struck me with all force in the forehead, but through God his blow was not more than a ball of cotton. We praised the Lord. Feeling a deep concern for the wicked man's soul, we dropped upon our knees in the middle of the room, raised our bands, and began to pray for him. But this enraged Satan more than ever. He seized a large rocking-chair and slammed it down on us with all vengeance, but through the Lord Jesus Christ our uplifted hands turned it off with ease. The storms of oaths and slamming of furniture was terrific. It looked as though there would not be a whole piece left in the room. The infuriated man grabbed a common wood-bottom chair by the back and struck down twice or three times at our head, which was safely shielded by the hand of the Lord. Glory to God in the highest! Our soul was filled with great peace in the midst of the storm; we had not the slightest fear of suffering harm.

The kind wife and a daughter, who were gloriously sanctified at the Sandy Lake meeting, tried to protect us, when the latter received a heavy blow on the shoulder from the chair, the legs having been threshed off by previous blows, making it all the better to maul with. Seeing that they were in danger of being hurt in our protection, we arose and began to retreat. The savage monster followed us out of the yard and some rods on the road with awful curses and open threats that he would kill us. Glory to the God of our salvation! There was not a hair of our head hurt, not a scratch or mark upon our body. The next morning we felt our right wrist was slightly sprained by stopping the terrible blows, but it soon disappeared. The man soon left, shortly after which his large son came, whose delay furnished the intoxicated man his opportunity for an onslaught.