We note his attitude and teaching on the church question. In a large measure he had light on the true Bible church, and he supposed he was not a member of any sect when, as a matter of fact, he was. The benefits of his knowledge and teachings of the one church were directed in the interest of the so-called church of God, which he was ignorantly laboring to build up. It was not until he received the experience of perfect holiness and began to teach the truth on the subject that he was made to feel his limitations to human ecclesiasticism and thus discover the pen he was in.[5] His teachings and applications of the Scriptural church (there is but one) was possible only among the followers of John Winebrenner or in some similar body supposing themselves to be that one true church. It is an interesting fact that upon the fulness of time for God's people to throw off all human ecclesiastical bondage and sever themselves from spiritual Babylon, the lead was taken principally by those who had belonged to the Winebrennerian following. Thus this denominational body may be regarded as a sort of preparatory medium, or half-way step, for the reformation which is now an established thing. At any rate God had in Brother Warner raised up a man particularly disposed to emphasize the church question, and the denomination mentioned seemed to be the only one he could affiliate with till more advanced light and truth forbade his remaining longer with them.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Dr. Forney, in his History of the Churches of God, says of D. S. Warner's mission work in Nebraska, that in February, 1874, he organized a church at Fairmount, Fillmore County, of twenty-four members. Also one at Cropsey, one at Evergreen, one in the Anderson community, Seward County, of sixteen members, and one other. He had fourteen preaching places.
[4] Dr. Forney says that in June, 1875, Brother Warner organized a church in York County of thirty-one members, and further says of his work in Nebraska that "to such an extent were the ministers and churches encouraged that, they conferred together on the advisability of organizing an Eldership in Nebraska." Brother Warner notes in his diary account for Nov. 7, 1874, that a Preliminary Eldership was organized at Crete, in Saline County. Application was made to the General Eldership, which assembled in Ohio in May, 1875, and an Eldership of the Church of God in Nebraska was chartered. The first meeting of the Nebraska Eldership was held at Cropsey, Oct. 1, 1875. Among the fifteen names enrolled Brother Warner's does not appear, hence we conclude that by that time he had left Nebraska.
[5] That his disposition to be freely led of God made him poor material for a human ecclesiastical machine is evinced in the account by Dr. Forney of the Eighteenth West Ohio Eldership, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1874. He says: "The beginning of trouble between D. S. Warner and the Eldership is foreshadowed in an action on the adoption of his report, which stated that he had 'organized a church in Upper Sandusky contrary to the Rules of Cooperation,' and regarding this as a 'schismatic movement,' highly disapproved of his course in organizing said church."
[VII]
BACK IN OHIO FIELDS
In his resumption of the work in Ohio we find Brother Warner in charge, it seems, of the Ashland circuit, with his home at Hayesville, Ashland County. Here, as was characteristic of him everywhere, he was wholly absorbed in spiritual labor, the salvation of sinners and the general spiritual welfare of people everywhere within his reach. In his diary for Dec. 21, 1875, he says: