Pentecostal Possibilities or "The Story of My Life"
by Milton Lorenzo (M. L.) Haney
CHAPTER 42
Mustered 0ut
From Atlanta I went home as a recruiting officer, and was to report to Governor Yates. Reaching his office, I found he was in Chicago, attending the great convention where Mr. McClellan was nominated for the presidency. The Governor counselled with the Republican Central Committee, and all agreed that it was dangerous to have any more loyal men taken from the state till after the election, and proposed, if I would not actively work as a recruiting officer till after election, and would make war speeches in two doubtful districts, that the Governor, and Central Committee, would arrange with the Secretary of War to give me two hundred men from the draft. It was also agreed that I might take any men who should voluntarily offer themselves, and send them to the front. So I made war speeches till after Mr. Lincoln was elected, and a large number of recruits were secured, and sent to Springfield to report, and be forwarded to the 55th Ills., but, to my utter dismay, I found afterwards, a large majority of them were sent to other regiments, and the draft in Illinois was an utter failure. After waiting till the time of promise had come, and gone, the Secretary of War addressed me an earnest note, expressing regret that he was utterly unable to fulfill his promise to me, as the draft had failed, and I was persuaded that my recruits, sent to Springfield, had been sold to other parties for money. General Sherman had gone to the sea, and I asked the Secretary of War to muster me out, which he did.
While waiting on military business, in Springfield, I went to the First Methodist Church Friday night, to their prayer meeting. The various orders used up the other nights of the week, and the First Church, like a dutiful servant, accepted what was left; so their night was Friday. On the previous Sabbath they had closed a four weeks' meeting without one conversion, as I understood, but the church had been warmed up, and many were out to prayer meeting. Dr. Crane was the pastor, and a very genial man. That night he had quite a testimony meeting, and I gave in a testimony for holiness. There was an old brother present who enjoyed the experience, and was much moved by my testimony. The moment we were dismissed he hastened to ask me if I would not preach for them some. I answered I would rather preach than eat, and he ran to his pastor and told him I would preach if he wanted me, and Bro. Crane cried out to the people as they were going: "Bro. Haney will preach in this house tomorrow night, and twice on Sunday!" This I did, and souls were at the altar. So Bro. Crane pressed me to stay longer, and when the meetings closed above one hundred had been converted, and a large number sanctified. Uncle Peter Cartwright was there once or twice, and I had him talk to the seekers, which he did with much feeling. He was then feeble with age, and trembled much.
For many years, at times I had been impressed with the evangelistic field, but had not seen my way into it Now the Lord blessed everything I touched in that direction. I was impressed to spend the Sabbath at Bloomington, Ills., and went up on Saturday. Dr. Andres was then the pastor of 700 members there. We were raised in the same county, and he urged me to stop with him, and preach on the Sabbath. Saturday night he told me frankly he had given up having protracted meetings and thought the times demanded a change in that respect. In the morning I touched pretty strongly on holiness, and hungry brethren came around and wanted to know if I could not stay and preach through the week, and I said if the pastor, and church, thought it best I could. The fire began to fall upon us, and before leaving I think above 150 souls professed to be converted and numbers were sanctified. While there Mrs. Leaton, wife of Doctor Leaton, who was Presiding Elder of the Quincy district, came to Bloomington as a member of the Christian Commission, on behalf of the soldiers at the front. She was a holiness woman, and held her membership in the Fifth Street Church, Quincy. She begged me to come to Quincy and help them in that church. Her pastor, she said, was a good preacher, but was a Zinzendorfer and would not send for me; but if I would come and fall in there, he would ask me to preach, and God would open the way. I hardly knew how to do a thing of that kind, but she kept on pressing it till I gave her promise. So one night I was in the midst of a crowd at Fifth Street Church, and intended the preacher should not find me out, but I had on a Chaplain's uniform, and he came down and asked if I was not a preacher, and my name, and pulled me up into the pulpit. As she said, the way opened, and a glorious work went on. I preached largely to sinners at night, and dealt with the church in the day meetings. The preacher was a gentleman, and a shrewd brother beside, and not one word would he say against my holiness preaching to his church, but when he and I were alone, he fought me well! Every day his people were getting sanctified and sinners converted, which he feared to oppose, but as soon as seated in his home he would open the subject and argue till he perspired like a man in hay harvest. I did not argue with him at all, but when he had exhausted himself I would look him in the eyes and say: "But, beloved? I know the blood cleanseth." He did not seem to know how to argue against my experience, and would then cool down.
One evening there were others going with us to tea, and the preacher's wife said as we came out of church: "If you will fall behind with me I want to ask your counsel about some matters which trouble me." And she opened her heart about the preaching. She said she was convinced that I was right, and her husband was wrong, doctrinally, and she wanted the experience, but did not want to oppose her husband. I urged that God was right, and if He called her she ought to obey, but she wanted to keep in such relations to her husband, that he would see she did nothing to oppose or vex him, but that she thus acted to please God; and, with others, she got the experience. Old Sister Shinn was in his church and walked with God in real holiness. Her faith was wonderful. While I was in the church one afternoon, she remained a great while on her knees. When she arose, near the close of a lengthened service, she said: "O, what a struggle I have had for the salvation of my two boys, but God has shown me they will be saved right away." I think those were her exact words about four o'clock P. M. They had recently appeared careless, and had to be pressed to go to church. They both came to meeting that night, and each testified that an awful power had ceased him that afternoon, so that he felt that he must not delay an hour longer to give himself to God. If I remember correctly, one was converted in his father's shop, the other was arrested by the Holy Spirit down town, and sought a place of seclusion in a large lumber yard near the river and gave his heart to God. Her husband was crank about holiness, as many people are now, and made many objections to being holy. In 1865 or 1866, I think it was, she went fifty miles up the Mississippi River to a camp meeting, and had a similar struggle for her husband that she had for those boys, and reported that her husband was sanctified before leaving camp. As she landed at Quincy, on returning from camp, he met her on the plank as she came off the boat and, shaking hands with him, said: "Well, husband, you are sanctified." He answered; "How do you know I am sanctified?" "Oh," she responded, "I knew that before leaving camp!" How greatly that phase of faith is now needed in the church, and how few who exercise it!
While the meeting was going graciously, I felt clearly that the Holy Spirit wanted me to close one night. I told some of those dear souls I was going to, and they wept and begged me to stay longer, but I went. The pastor now had the whole responsibility of the meeting on his soul, and the services went on for a time. I was at the burial of Mr. Lincoln in Springfield, Ills., and marching in the vast crowd who followed his remains when suddenly the Fifth Street, Quincy, pastor touched my arm, and appeared very glad to meet me. We had not gone far when he said to me: "I wonder if we could have a holiness meeting in the city today?" "holiness meeting?" said I, looking him in the face. "What do you want of a holiness meeting?" "Well," he replied, "after you left I believed I could answer all your arguments, but from time to time, when I was pressing my objections to your doctrine, and you would look me in the eye and say: 'But beloved, I know that the blood cleanses,' I could find no argument to meet that, and I now have the experience!" Definite testimony as to what we know God has done for, and in, us is a great power.
I recall another case of salvation in that meeting. There was a little pet girl, an only child, whose parents were not religious, and were opposed to having her come to church. I think she was called Addie, and as probably from 10 to 12 years old. She was very determined to come to the afternoon meeting, and she did, and was powerfully converted to God. Her experience was so triumphant that her parents thought she was going wild. They tried to confine her so she could not come, but she prayed, and cried, and shouted, till they got more comfort by sending her to church, than by keeping her away. One afternoon Addie had a very striking time praying for her father and mother, and with great gladness told us that God had told her they would be converted that night! There was a crowd and I was on the platform watching for Addie's arrival, when she appeared, in front of a lady and gentleman, whom she sought to bring to the front, but they turned aside into a pew quickly, as they were embarrassed at church. She came to the front and asked me if I had noticed the lady and gentleman who came in with her, and I said I had. "Well, that is my papa and mamma, and God is going to save them today." When I made the call for seekers she marched down that aisle, like a veteran, to where they sat, and brought them to the altar, and they were both beautifully converted. The calmness of that child's soul, after she got the assurance that her parents would be saved, was among the finest exhibitions of faith I ever witnessed .
I have no doubt whatever that had I gone right on from that time till this, in the evangelistic work, it would have made a wide difference in my destiny, and that God would have used me much more widely than He has ever been able to do, but my friends in the Conference, with the church authorities, overruled me, and I took the pastorate at Conference. My conscience was somewhat quieted, in that they offered me La Salle and Peru, two cities lying, together, with thousands of unsaved people in them. While in evangelical work, as partly described above, I started a monthly magazine called "The Repository of Holiness," which was greatly blessed of God while it lived, and many declared themselves saved through reading it. But I knew nothing of finances nor how to handle the business department of a magazine. Bro. Fleharty, who was a very blessed man of God, suggested an undercurrent of opposition to the paper in high places, and feared my appointment looked toward hedging up its way. But I was simple-hearted and unsuspecting, although I saw afterwards more than I then believed. Now it seems better to drop the curtain and leave my own failures, with anything which has been wrong in others, in the hands of Jesus, and myself wholly under his precious, all atoning blood. My heart was sick when the "Repository" went to the wall, for want of means, but I have learned much from what I have suffered.