Pentecostal Possibilities or "The Story of My Life"
by Milton Lorenzo (M. L.) Haney
CHAPTER 56
Our Work in Illinois and Texas
From October, 1878, to January a gracious series of meetings was given us in Southern Illinois. In the meetings at Fairview, Dudleyville, Pleasant Prairie, New Douglas, Edwards Chapel and Mulberry Grove, there was wonderful gospel liberty and souls were saved in large numbers. A central attraction at Mulberry Grove, was dear old Father Woollard. He was an old-time Methodist preacher of Virginia stock. He was genial, loving and a lovely character. Now in extreme age he was a superannuate, but a benediction to his town and Conference. He was a strong friend and defender of the Methodist doctrine of Sanctification, though not an abiding possessor of heart purity. At times he seemed to have the experience, but again, a seeker of this grace. From early life he had contracted the habit of smoking tobacco! This habit he despised but failed to shake it off, though many times he had made he effort. When approaching eternity he wrote me a letter which has not been forgotten. He said it was plain to him the end was nigh and there was darkness over the horizon. There was but one ground of fear, and that was the tobacco habit ruled him, despite tears and prayers and agonies of soul. He begged of me to pray for him, and write something which would bring courage to put this evil away. I prayed, but cannot cease to regret the failure to write, till his spirit had gone upon high. The blood availed at last and that chain of appetite was forever sundered by Almighty power. His triumph was now very great, and he shouted as he left for the palace of the King. Dear, beautiful, old man, what comforts we have had under his hospitable roof, and with what joy shall I greet him in the morning! But if Father Woollard could speak from heaven, he would warn ten thousand times ten thousand young men and boys, against this filthy, soul destroying habit!
While at Mulberry Grove the last time, the M. E. Pastor at St. Elmo, Ills., came to request us to help him in his charge. He was a holy man and wished his people to have teaching on the subject of holiness, but said their prejudices against sanctification were so great that he would not be surprised if the whole church would vacate the building the first time I mentioned the subject. "Beside this, for two years, two leading men had been at variance, and the church had taken sides, till the whole body was nearly ruined." It will be found where God's professed people are greatly prejudiced against holiness, there is always an underlying cause which is deeper than prejudice. We said we would pray over it till morning and if the Lord ordered, we would gladly go. So, in the morning both my wife and self were clear, and promised to go. On alighting from the cars at St. Elmo the town was stirred as though a wild beast were let loose, and the church was filled that night. We held up Jesus as a wonderful Saviour a few nights, without referring to their quarrels, or seeming to know of their prejudices, till they appeared glad that we had come. On the seventh night, I think it was, I took a Bible reading into the pulpit on the word sanctification, showing what God said about it, and fearlessly bringing out its nature and obligation. At the close of the reading a great power was present, and when I invited sinners to the altar for pardon, and believers to be sanctified, the altar was more than twice filled! When these people saw themselves in the light of holiness, their wrongs became apparent and they confessed to both God and man. One of the two parties, who had been at variance, was a rich man and now had been absent from church about one year. The next day I went to see him and he wept like a child. I probed him closely, and found he had read the scriptures and prayed in his family each day since he left he church. He said he saw "that he could not remain in the church without added strife and hoped if he would retire the strife would cease!" He and his family accompanied me to church that night, and until 12 o'clock, there was a scene that is rarely equaled. These dear souls found themselves in the real spirit of confession, and each insisted that he, himself, were the party to blame. Each begged the other's pardon and found it a luxury to forgive, and be forgiven, and more souls were saved through that church, in ten days, after God had restored and sanctified her, than she could have brought to Christ in twenty years in her former condition. The failure to reach sinners by this generation, grows out of unceasing efforts to save them through unsaved agencies. When the blind lead the blind, Jesus says, they both fall into the ditch!
From January to June of this evangelistic year, Mrs. Haney and I were in Northern Texas, laboring day and night for the salvation of souls. Meetings were held in Denison, Sherman, Gainsville, Dallas, Denton, Marysville, Fort Worth, Ennis and other places. Our living was of a very simple character and our work largely among the poor; hence there was financial sacrifice; but hundreds were saved and we had great rejoicings. The people were not in want of heart, but of money. In that respect great changes have since taken place for the better. We found a reverence for religion in Texas which was truly charming, and saw but one instance of disorderly conduct in months of Divine service, and that resulted from my asking some colored people, who were weeping, to kneel on a vacant seat behind were the white people knelt, as seekers of pardon. A dear woman seeing them kneel with broken hearts, angrily rushed out, slamming the door behind her with great force!!!
I preached to cowboys with pockets full of revolvers, but they always were gentlemen in the services, and in the presence of the minister. Had I needed defense against intruders, I would not have hesitated to call them to my aid.
The soldiers of the Confederate Army, five thousand of whom I had helped to capture at the Post of Arkansas, were at once my friends wherever I met them, though I everywhere published that I was in the Union Army, and in no case attempted to appear under false colors. At Ennis we stopped with a son of Peter Cartwright, who went South after the war and joined the Southern Methodist Church. The wife of Dr. S. was a superior lady and strong friend of Sister Cartwright. This led to her meeting us, but we were very distasteful to her, as we were a couple of old "Yanks!" and her prejudices were immense. Had we struck an iceberg in August it would hardly have been more apparent. I resolved to conquer her prejudiced soul, for I saw she was a woman of strong character and capable of much for Christ, and received in a kind spirit her utterances against the North. Among other things she heard and believed was, that in the time when Memphis people were dying by the thousand with the fever, Chicago people combined and sent them a barrel of arsenic to destroy them by poison! I patiently showed her the love offerings which Chicago poured out to save Memphis in her time of calamity, and she stood filled with astonishment. In the return of love for enmity from day to day, Mrs. S. was won over. One day as she sat down in Sister Cartwright's parlor, she said with a forcible voice: "I do wonder what it is, that compels me to come to see you two old Yanks every day!" Ennis was about as dead a place as we ever labored in, but God raised it from the dead in this meeting There was a Southern M. E. Church there, but such death prevailed that the pastor only had a handful of people to preach to when he came. We remained to rest a few days after our meeting closed and while there the pastor came to fill his appointment and his house was crowded! The whole community had been aroused and I had urged them to hear him preach. We were there, but he gave no attention to us whatever, which was great offense to Mrs. S. When he dismissed, Mrs. S. came through the crowd to where we were and with a well twisted voice said, "If the Methodist Episcopal Church South were like the church at Ennis I would not remain in it one hour!" We had no trouble whatever in being ignored, but she was wrought up to a fearful pitch! The next morning I looked out and there came Mrs. S. bringing her pastor, and if she had had him by the ear, it would hardly have been more apparent that she was leading him! The dear man did his best to be genial and we made him as comfortable as we could. Exceeding high walls of prejudice, and enmity, can be melted away with love.
When at Gainesville a brother, whose name has gone from me, came from Marsville, as he had heard that two old Methodist cranks were there preaching holiness. He had been a Texas soldier, and was among the captives at Arkansas Post, during the war. Having been converted, he was a great student of the Bible and had joined the Presbyterian Church. He was seated on a back seat in a small afternoon service and those who had been saved were testifying to sanctification, as an experience. Being much moved he sprang up, saying, "If this is what you Methodists call sanctification, I have got it!" He afterwards related to me the way he was led into it. Reading his daily lesson in the Bible, he came to First Thes. 4: 3, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification," &c. The Holy Spirit at once applied that truth to him personally, and he felt it was now God's requirement of him. He could read no further, but took his book down a deep ravine where he usually prayed and knelt before God. Opening the Bible he placed his finger on that verse and said: "Now, Father, you say it is your will that I should be sanctified, and I don't know what that means, but You do. Whatever it is, I want it now;" and God sanctified him instantly. He arose, filled with the Holy Ghost, to return to his house, but was so overwhelmed with the glory of God that it was difficult to get there. He was a Presbyterian and had no thought of reaching this place before death, and told the Lord he did not know what it was, but he got it at once, because he willed to have God's will done in him now. No child of God will be without this wonderful grace whose whole soul wills to let God have His way. How beautiful the pathway of hear obedience! O that millions in like manner would listen and obey. This brother was so anxious to have his neighbors taught about holiness that he insisted on our coming and giving them a convention, which we did, and the hills of Red River were made glorious by the down pouring of the Holy Ghost. His wife had difficulty in "seeing into sanctification," but one day as I was going down that ravine to her husband's place of prayer, I saw a beautifully painted tin box in the pathway and tossing it with my shoe, a large quantity of snuff rolled out! In a few steps I came to another and sent it whirling, but it had not been opened, and I found the reason of our sister's kindness. After that snuff went down the hill she could, and did, see her way into holiness! A very large proportion of that community was saved when we left and that blessed Texan soldier had grounds for singing for a great while! It is usually true when the Lord's people are blind on the subject of holiness that some sinful indulgence lies back of the blindness.
While here a dear old Cumberland Presbyterian minister came from Denton, where he was pastor to get us to preach holiness to his people. He was a heavy man and painfully crippled with rheumatism, so it was dangerous for him to ride about, but the old saint wanted his people instructed in holiness. We helped him in and out of his buggy while he stayed, and helped shout on the battle, and joyfully went to his parish at the first opening. The meeting in his church was blessed and many came into glorious light. The minister's wife was one of John's elect ladies and a superior woman. She was also an exceedingly neat housekeeper, and such are usually strong willed and have a high temper, which her children had found out. The battle in her case was a fearful one, but at last she let go and plunged into the fountain when her face beamed with Godlight. Near the close of the convention she rose one day to bring glory to her Christ at her own expense, saying she wished to repeat an occurrence from her home. In preparing for the service that morning she had overheard a talk between her children in another room, when little Sue said to Johnny in a jubilant spirit, "Johnny, I am glad mamma has got sanctified!" Johnny inquired why, and she answered, "Because she don't scold any more!" This beautiful woman gladly made this recital against herself to magnify the grace which had delivered her from this curse of the family. O, if pure, Divine love could take the place of scolding in every Christian family, how soon it would revolutionize the world! What a multitude of young men and women are without God as the result of carnal outbreaks in family government!
It afterwards required two years of labor in the home field to make us good financially, but witnessing the salvation of more than five hundred precious souls in Texas will bless us to our dying day.
Taking in the National Camp at Bismark, Kansas, the same year, we met Drs. Inskip and McDonald, with their helpers, and shared in the glorious gospel that the preached. The business side of that camp was painfully managed, and through certain prejudices the attendance was small and the results meagre for a National meeting. We there witnessed the most fearful outbursts of thunder and lightning of our whole life, and have not forgotten the eloquence of Inskip in his description of this electric storm. It was in this year I received a notice from Rev. Alex. McLean that the National Committee had unanimously elected me to membership in that Association. This was a glad surprise, and how much I am owing to the union thus formed with this body will be seen in that day.