Pentecostal Possibilities or "The Story of My Life"
by Milton Lorenzo (M. L.) Haney
CHAPTER 57
Some Reminiscences
In my fifth evangelistic year, 1879 and 1880, I was in thirty-seven distinct meetings. Seven of these were camp meetings. At one place I labored twenty-eight days, my wife also working with all her might, and our salary was two dollars and fifty cents! In the whole year I was out of service only thirty-three days, including the days put in in travel, and my gross income was six hundred and twenty-seven dollars and twenty-two cents, I paying out of this house rent and traveling expenses. I think at least fifteen hundred souls were converted, or sanctified, during this period.
In Weston, a very small town where I was a few days with victory, a fiery old brother seemed to be filled with great gladness, and gave a very triumphant testimony. Being much impressed with the victory of his soul, I wondered whether he carried that sort of life through life's daily conflicts. He was evidently a bundle of nerves, naturally a very restless man, not strong physically, and about sixty years old. I asked my host the question, "Is the Lord able to keep that old Brother Smith from jumping out of the pasture every now and then?" My host was a good solid man, but had not been sanctified. He answered, "Brother Haney, that is the best man I ever knew." I responded, "But don't so nervous a man as he get angry and fretted, when he is tried severely?" He answered, "I have never seen him out of sorts. He is a very hard working man, and poor, but some way he is always about as you saw him tonight. Not long since I went into his field to see him, and he was plowing with a sober horse and a nervous colt. I was coming up behind him and he could not have known I was there; but his plough struck a root and sprang out of the ground, and brought the whippletrees against the heels of the colt. It being badly frightened, gave a fearful spring and wanted to run. The old man was badly handled but did not speak an excited word, but by his calmness quieted the fears of the colt, and as soon as he stopped went to shouting!" There is not a man, or woman, on earth who has moral power left sufficient to rightly get hold of Jesus Christ, who cannot, and will not be kept from all sin under the most trying circumstances.
This same year I was holding a meeting in a country church which was greatly blessed of God. A brother S. (we will call him) was the leading man, and a prince in Israel. He was spoken of as the most holy and exemplary man in that locality. He seemed to me a most beautiful character. One night Brother S. was in his old seat but looked as though in trouble. I marked the change in his face and was surprised. The next morning a brother said to me, "Brother S. has gone seven miles to make confession to an old thief!" I was shocked at the statement, and could not think of such a man as S. who was so much like Jesus you could not think closely of the one without thinking of the other, going to humble himself before so vile a character. I said strongly, "If I had known he was going I would have prevented it," but afterwards found I was not so wise as I thought. At night Brother S. was in his old seat in the sanctuary, with Divine light beaming in his face. The case was this: He was a man of landed possessions, and had been clearing a timer lot. One day he was passing through it, and, to his surprise, missed nine cords of wood! He carefully followed the wagon tracks to a great pile of wood in the old man's lot, and on his way home said to a friend, "That old man has stolen nine cords of my wood." Of course that friend told it to others, and the old man heard it, and essayed to be very angry, saying dreadful things about S., as an old liar, &c., &c.: "There was your infernal old Methodist hypocrite, lying about his neighbors; he said I stole nine cords of his wood and I only stole five cords!" S. was a very quiet man, and had, so far as I heard, made no complaints nor published farther, but knew the old man had thus charged him. He could have sent him to prison, but did not. As the meeting was going forward the Holy Spirit brought the whole case before S. and asked him if he would go and confess that he might have been mistaken about the quantity of wood stolen, and ask the thief to forgive his rashness in statement! This he delayed not to do, and came back so free, and blessed, that he looked like an angel! I preached that night as best I could, and gave an invitation to lost sinners to come to the altar. As they rose Brother S. turned into the aisle and started back toward the door, and the old thief arose near the back seat and met S., who took him by the hand and led him to the altar. Up the other aisle came his poor old wife with her eldest daughter, and both knelt together crying for mercy. All of them were converted, and the rest of large family followed them! O, if all the people of God were like S. how soon these weary lost millions could be brought to Christ.
Where a wrong condition exists between two men, it is very rare that both parties have not erred somewhere The man who is the least to blame can bend much easier than the greater sinner, and if he does not bend, often both parties will perish. Brother, instead of waiting for your enemy to come and get on his knees and ask your forgiveness, dip deep into your own soul and find where you have erred in the case, and go and tell him, in humility, that you want things right between you and him, that you are determined to hold no grudge against him, and ask him to forgive you. Get your side right, and allow him to look after what he has done. If you are the Lord's man, this will take all that is questionable out of your heart and give you a spirit of compassion, and pity, and love, for him. In so doing you will save his wretched soul from death, and open the way to save many others.
In my sixth evangelistic year I had twenty-nine distinct meetings, including seven camp meetings in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas. Meetings of extraordinary import were held at La Clede, Mo., Albany Mo., Stuart, Ia., Camargo, Ills., Terre Haute, Ind., and Burnside, Ills. The first meeting at Camargo was the most triumphant camp meeting I ever saw in Illinois, and was reached through the faith of three individuals, Brother and Sister Welch and Anna Romack. They lived at an adjoining town and on another circuit, but some way the Lord laid Camargo on their hearts. The Methodist Church was not very strong there, but had built a brick meeting house, which left them heavily in debt. The brethren had had light sufficient on holiness to rebel against it, and were in a bad fix. Their pastor was a good man and believed in holiness as a distinct experience, but he was timid and his mouth largely closed on the subject. He had entered the experience before, but was holding by a thread. Brother Welch persuaded him to allow me to hold a meeting in his church, and wrote me that I should go there about such a time. I answered that my slate was full and I could not come at all, but he replied that they had been praying about it and God assured them I would be there at that time! I was in Missouri, and his time was covered by an engagement to another party, and again I wrote him so, but he still insisted I was coming. Just then I received a letter from the preacher to whom I was engaged, stating that changes had occurred and he would greatly prefer to have me at a later period. Then the great Holiness Assembly at Jacksonville, Ills., was to meet the 15th of December, and I was shut off from that by the above engagement. Now, being released, I could attend it, and Jacksonville was on my way to Camargo.
So I wrote Brother Welch I was coming. There was wrath in Camargo because I had come, and some of the leading brethren thought the church was ruined! Nothing was said to me, but the poor pastor was environed by anathemas. One very active brother led in the open opposition, but a quiet and able old superannuated preacher was back of it all. Threats failing to stop the meeting, they now resorted to planning. Christmas was near, and they must and would have a festival Christmas eve. The pastor came to me pale as a cloth, saying, "What shall I do?" I said do nothing, but hang on to the Lord. So Christmas had come and gone before they were aware of it, and God was going through with awful power. They then suddenly awoke to the fact that they had owed their janitor forty-two dollars for a whole year. He had a large family and was poor, and a supper they would have New Year's eve to meet this claim. The pastor came to me trembling with emotion, asking again: "What shall I do?" I answered, "Do nothing, but just hold on to God." Sabbath, between the two days, I preached on consecration of body and soul time and substance, and all to God, and waked like a man coming out of a dream, saying: "I have heard you have owed this dear man of God, your janitor, forty-two dollars for a year. Here he is a poor man, and this great family on his hands. For Jesus' sake, don't go out of this house till this is paid! Who will be one of so many to give five dollars to wipe this blot off the church?" And Brother Welch sprang up, saying, "I will be one," and Brother Helm rose, saying, "I another." "My!" I said, "Here are brethren from another circuit paying your sexton's bills!" and when the flow of money stopped we had about fifty-eight dollars; so our New Year's supper was disposed of.
Brother Welch and wife, with Anna Romack, through all this meeting kept themselves in a hotel in town, and at first were all the human force I could look to, save the pastor. When the battle was at the hottest, I saw them each day and their faith never wavered. On the Sabbath following New Year's I preached on the distinction between the new birth and sanctification, and our leading man broke down. He insisted he could not yield just now, and I learned afterwards he went to the old superannuate above referred to, who said to him, "Jones, there is no use in talking, Haney has got the truth," and Jones threw up his hands and surrendered.
There was an enclosed camp ground, owned by an unconverted man, nearby, with a spring said to be the best water in Illinois, and these brethren had rented that ground at five hundred dollars per year, as with it the expected to pay their church debt! The previous year they had one to three tent holders, twenty odd huckster stands, forty policemen, and three heavy railroad trains on Sunday, they getting a certain amount on each ticket sold! With the income of that day they paid the sinner $500 rent, met all their expenses and paid $500 on their church debt. But when these men got saved, they were horrified with their past and alarmed about their camp arrangements for the future. Brother Jones came asking what they should do. I said, "If you will turn the whole matter over to me, I will do my best to persuade that sinner to let you off," which he gladly did. The sinner's wife was a Methodist, and had been sanctified in the meeting. I visited him, saying, "These fellows are awful sick of their camp ground agreement with you, and I wish you would let them off, and let me have the ground for the next year." "Well," he said, "What would you be willing to give me for it next year?" I answered, "Fifty dollars." "On those conditions," he said, "I will release them." During that year those brethren paid that church debt without any further foolishness, and the camp meeting can never be forgotten.
The meeting in Albany, Mo., Jan. 15th to Feb. 3rd was among the best in my ministry. Hundreds were converted, and many sanctified. The front seats were farther than usual from the pulpit and after a throng had been converted, I had the converts fill that empty space as soon as the altar was full of seekers. So the seekers were encircled by a ring of fire both front and rear. I do not now remember one seeker who did not come out into clear and glorious light. The pastor and his wife were in the clear light of holiness, and greatly helped in every department of the work. We often had the altar filled twice, or more, on a single evening.
One night the Presiding Elder, Brother Powell, was there. He was sanctified, and in the fullest sympathy with the meeting. There was a fearful power present and while the second body of seekers were being saved the Elder and I stood together quietly talking of God's presence and work, when a young lady, who had now been converted for days, and all aglow with her new born love, and had labored with seekers each day and night, came to me, saying, "Brother Haney, can you tell me how to be sanctified?" I answered, "Why certainly I can." She seemed surprised at my positive answer and said with much feeling, "Then I wish you would!" In as few words as possible I told her there were only two steps into this glorious fountain, 1st, entire consecration, and 2nd, simple faith in Jesus. Having described each, I said, "Now the Elder will tell you the rest," but he said he thought the way was now clear, when the girl, looking into my eyes, said, "Brother Haney, I wish you would get right down here and pray that God would sanctify me now!" So we three knelt together, and the Lord most wonderfully sanctified her. She stood straight upon her knees in unspeakable rapture, but with a calmness which was surprising. "Oh! why did not some one tell me of this before? O this is wonderful! O, Jesus, how can I ever praise thee enough!" Much she said was addressed to God, as she seemed looking Him in the face, keeping up a series of like statements, calmly, yet accompanied by an unspeakable unction and glory. The Elder was like a little child before God, as in tears he whispered again and again, "I never saw such a human face before!" She was facing the congregation, but perfectly oblivious to fear, remaining on her knees. It struck me that the ungodly in the rear ought to see that face, but a massed body of converts stood between her and them.
With much effort, I pushed them right and left till an opening was made, and in a few minutes an old Methodist backslider, and hotel keeper, who had a saloon in the corner of his immense hotel, came up the aisle like an arrow, and fell like a dead man at the altar. A moment later, and the Mayor of the city, who had lost an arm in the rebel army, came running from the back seat and went through that solid column of converts and fell before God at His altar! No one had spoken to either, nor any invitation given, but they had seen that face and were filled with horror at their lost condition. Dear Brother Canada, the pastor, had a glorious ingathering at Albany.
The meeting at Stuart, Iowa, April 9th to 27th, 1881, was among the marked services of that sixth year. One of its remembered results was the settlement of a long standing war between two parties in the church. It was very plain that no mere human power could bring it about. It had stood as a wall of adamant in the way of God's work and the prosperity of the church. When that wall melted how God's salvation broke forth like pent-up waters!
The camp at Burnside, Ills., was blessed that year. The holiness movement was unmixed with any adverse element, and love tides from eternity swept over the people. God's children, of thirteen denominations, were there, but the one hundred and twenty at Pentecost could hardly have been more united than they. Brother and Sister Patterson, two blood-washed Cumberland Presbyterians, to whom reference has previously been made, did wonders in that section of Illinois. I think he was the most persistent man in soul-hunting I ever knew. When people would not come to is meetings, he would procure a wagon and with his band would go after them at their homes, and often got them converted when it seemed well nigh impossible. We had some stalwart laymen of both sexes in those days of power.
The Terre Haute Camp Meeting was a glorious service that year. Brethren had devised to meet the expenses of the camp with a gate fee, and some of the saints were badly disturbed about it. We were hindered by it the first day, but a holy woman from the city came in one morning in tears. Her husband was unsaved and mad about the gate fee, and had declared he would not attend at all. She seemed wonderfully inspired, and when she had finished her speech the people began to pull out their pocket-books, and, coming nearly on a run, they piled up more money on the table than would have been collected through the gate to the end of the meeting, crying, "Let the gates be opened!" With this transaction the Holy Spirit fell, and many people were made glad to get to the altar of prayer. O why will not God's people remove the barriers and let Him work? Brother, sister, what is there in you which hinders the salvation of men?