The preacher who led the meeting is saturated with tobacco and addicted to horse-trading and worldly foolish jesting. In his remarks he said we should "exemplify Christ," that is, our lives should be like his. The Lord led us to ask him if he regarded himself an example of Christ's character; whether he could consistently say to boys and men generally, "Follow the example I set before you." Not having 'sanctified the Lord Jesus in his heart,' he was not ready to give an answer. He paced the pulpit, being speechless. We repeated the question, including both him and the president. Neither answered. We then told the latter something about their being of the same spirit the old Jews and pagans were of, who forbade the apostles preaching any more in their towns. We also called their attention to the abominable and wicked traffic we saw on their ground on the Lord's day, which was licensed by them and sanctioned by their filthy habit. They could allow that corrupting bane of society; but of a few little children of God who have obtained pure hearts and desired to "worship God in the beauty of holiness," they said, "Away with them"!...
Well, we are compelled to give the manifestations at that camp the credit of being the filthiest and vilest form of Babylon we have ever met. An unconverted man who was there and witnessed the scene said to them, "God deliver me from such a sect." They are destitute of God's grace. 'For the grace of God that bringeth salvation ... teacheth us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world' (Tit. 2:11,12). But these live in the filth of the world, "walking after their ungodly lusts."
In a report written from this part of Pennsylvania three years later, he refers to his visit to the Winebrennerian camp, as just described, and says, "Well, that was the last camp-meeting held on that ground. Their doleful tents are rotting to the ground, and are the habitation of owls and bats."
THE FLOATING BETHEL, USED FOR SEVERAL YEARS ON THE OHIO RIVER FOR EVANGELISTIC WORK BY G. T. CLAYTON AND COMPANY. BURNED DEC. 16, 1898.
Brother Warner felt that he needed, and that the Lord was going to provide, a company of singers to go with him in the evangelistic field. It was about this time that the company who should travel with him for more than five years began to be formed. It was at the Williamston assembly that summer that Brother Warner said to Nannie Kigar, of Payne, Ohio, and to Frances Miller, of Battle Creek, who attended the meeting, that he felt impressed they would form a part of his company to help in singing and other gospel work. Their voices were soprano and alto respectively. They, with a number of other saints, accompanied Brother Warner to the Beaver Dam assembly. On their way, as they changed cars at Ft. Wayne, they met and were joined by Sarah Smith, of Jerry City, Ohio. While they were at Beaver Dam the Lord added Sister Smith to the company. Her voice furnished a high tenor. She was an elderly lady and she was called the "mother" of the company. Bro. John U. Bryant and Bro. D. Leininger, from the Beaver Dam neighborhood, also traveled in the company for a time.
After the Beaver Dam meeting, Brother Warner made a short visit to Illinois and Iowa, while the rest of the company remained at Beaver Dam and were soon engaged in a protracted meeting at the Hans Schoolhouse, where about fifty souls were saved and a great interest was created.[17] While on this trip he was healed of an affliction of the eyes. He thus speaks of it: