Pentecostal Possibilities or "The Story of My Life"
by Milton Lorenzo (M. L.) Haney
CHAPTER 65
Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-seven
Eighteen hundred and ninety-seven was my twenty-second evangelistic year. This campaign opened with a meeting at Amber, a small town on a circuit which gave its young pastor much trouble. As a true Methodist preacher he advocated holiness, and this little withered society disliked it much as backsliders generally do. He had given me a conception of its desolation and poverty but so needed help that I agreed to go. Sister M. J. Harris had broken down in the work from overtaxing her vocal organs, and to them both it was a time of great discouragement. Physicians had warned her of the danger in the case, and Dr. Collins, who was a graduate in medical science in Boston, told her plainly there was no case on record where any person thus afflicted had ever been restored. Her vocal cords had pressed against the jugular vein, producing an angle in the vein, which endangered her life at any moment. She was suffering much from it and compelled to cease her singing. Much prayer had been offered for her, but there was no answer. Brother Harris wrote me he had planned to go into business, as his wife had failed, but would go with me himself for a few meetings if I could use him, and Amber was my first appointment. I knew that support at all was very doubtful at this point, but if the pastor would take him I should be glad to have him with me, and the pastor agreed to it. He subsequently asked if his wife could not accompany him and I feared to ask this of the pastor lest he would break down, because he did not know where he could get a place for my head in that society.
So we three appeared on the battle ground. The parsonage was not far off and the young pastor and his wife procured a vacant house in Amber, and we all moved in together and took care of ourselves! We were thus prepared for battle, having secured our base of supplies. After breakfast each morning we had a prayer service together which became glorious. The pastor's young wife got sanctified, and was beautiful in holiness and her faith as simple as a child's. One morning Sister Harris was led to pray for her healing, and we all joined as best we could. There was a moment when her faith took hold, and, corresponding with that, I was assured of her healing. She broke forth in a gust of praise, but while shouting she looked at her husband and the pastor, and they seemed to her to be doubting! This led her to partially let go, which I felt at the time, though nothing was said. I prayed much, but was sure her faith was crippled. At the first opening I expressed my fear to her, when she informed me as above. In our next prayer service her faith surmounted every barrier and the work was done. She sang from that time on in the meeting, and has been singing ever since. The faith of the pastor's wife hung like an anchor all the time. Thus an exceedingly useful life has been prolonged, and Sister Harris given to the work of holiness through all these years! Blessed be God! The people of Amber largely rejected the truth, but we came away with shoutings.
A brief service in the army hall at Grinnell was made a blessing to the little flock and a few were saved. It seems strange that a city full of churches can furnish no building for the teaching of holiness by responsible ordained ministers. If Methodists had been true to their doctrine and calling, there would have been no Salvation Army, but God will have holiness preached and His Gospel given to the poor. We gave a few days to Pontiac Illinois, to confirm the saints and give courage to the faint. Most of those previously saved were holding on their way, and some were brought in.
The Des Moines (Iowa) Camp was led this year by Dr. Fowler, assisted by Brother Reid, Dr. Wm. Jones, McLaughlin, Amanda Smith, Sam Jones and Haney, with the rest of our home evangelists. I have rarely, if ever, been so impressed with the wonders of the Gospel as in that meeting. The people were moved mightily with sanctified truth from the lips of sanctified preachers. The encampment was large and each service seemed to be an increased revelation of God. Multitudes were moved by the truth and many were saved.
I think dear Doctor Jones was in a conscious battle with death. His manly frame was evidently yielding to the pressure. He was nervous when dear ones hinted that he was failing, and mentioned it publicly, but never preached so mightily. His last discourse in this camp was wonderful, and will not disappear from the thought of those who heard it. A spotless character, among the sweetest of all saints, a Prince in Israel, a giant among ministers, whose uncomplaining great soul went off to God from a contemptible little town in Missouri, where he had been placed by an unjust ecclesiasticism for the crime of preaching holiness! His saintly wife had preceded him, and together they are with the sons of the morning, while I write! From first to last this was a great camp meeting.
Brother J. W. Martin and the writer conducted a camp for the Wright County Holiness Association, June 18-28, near Clarion, Iowa. Brother Martin is a good preacher, unusually forcible in the pulpit, and a fine leader of camp meetings. We have but few who equal him as a sound teacher, and through his Gospel many thousands have been saved. Sister Epperson, one of our best women evangelists, aided much in the latter part of the meeting.
The National Association was called this year to hold a camp in the Allegheny Valley above Pittsburgh, July 9-14. The ministers present as leaders were Fowler, Joseph Smith, Collins, Pepper, Daniels, Walker and Haney. The service was held on an old broken down Methodist camp ground, and its work had something to do with the resurrection of the dead! The blessed brother who called us there and was financially responsible, must have been severely tried, as a heavy load was left on his righteous soul. He bore it beautifully, and we trust the Lord has blessed him ever since. The location of the camp was beautiful, but past years of failure made success a difficult task. Could there have been a succession of holiness camps the people might have hailed the return of old time religion and hurried there to be saved. But God does recognize His real ministers and bless His own Gospel, so we had a glorious time. I find the following written on the ground after the meeting had closed: "A camp small in its beginnings, gracious in its progress and Christ-honoring in its results. Probably more than one hundred were saved! Personally, there was a great deepening of my own soul. Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost!"
Again the Nationals led the meeting at Des Plaines, July 29th to August 9th. The following workers were present: Fowler, Reid, Wm. Jones, Collins, Walker, McLaughlin, Pepper, Joseph Smith and Haney. The camp was not large, the regular church camp having preceded it. Dr. Jones preached four times, but broke down in his last sermon. His preaching was grand, but his strength not equal to what it was in Des Moines. Running over the record of each service made at the time, I am surprised to find a thread of real victory running through the whole.
A class of laymen who are staunch men of God lie back of this camp. These from the beginning have desired that the true Methodist idea of holiness shall be kept prominent in all their meetings, but have not always succeeded in making it so. Why do not our brothers in the ministry see that throughout the great Central West Methodist camp meetings have dwindled and most of them have disappeared where the Wesleyan view of holiness has been excluded?
The Bloomington, Illinois, Camp was a place of desire this year and much good was accomplished in it. Dr. Wm. Jones was the leader and this was our last meeting with this great and good minister. He preached with much power, but there was a faintness about his failing body which was noticeable and painful to those who love him. Brothers Collins, and Fowler, had much liberty in preaching, the latter coming for the second Sabbath. A note at its close says this: "A meeting of much power from God, of great liberty in preaching, of much prayer and apparent faith, with fifty to one hundred saved--think not more than sixty-five. O what unbelief!"
The Nationals held a camp at Greenville, Illinois, September 6-12, the Harrises leading in song with usual acceptability and power. There were present Fowler, Walker, Collins and Haney. Brother Bradford, a young banker, called the meeting there and largely sustained it financially, and God blessed him in it. The following record was made concerning it: "Large assemblies, good attention, fearful preaching, glorious personal victories, great resistance to truth, and less saved than usual."
Our little camp at Cedar, Iowa, was a time of great refreshing to the saints, of genuine conviction and of much salvation in proportion to the outlay. Many of the County Association camps have been a great benediction to the people. To this one was added at the time: "A camp of glorious import to God's saints, and of power and revelation. Much resistance, but much salvation. Glory!"
After two blessed services in the Pentecostal Missions in Chicago, where Brother Rice and his helpers have wrought a great work and God gave us special victories, we wrote as follows: "The twenty-second year of evangelistic service has been the deepest and richest of all these years. My soul in this period has known much more than common of the glory of the Divine Indweller. Blessed be God forever and ever. Amen!"
I gave more time to my family and enjoyed the society of my wife in the twenty-third evangelistic year than perhaps in any other of the first twenty-five years. Had a meeting in February, 1898, in Seward M. E. Church, Omaha, Neb., with my old friend Robison as pastor--a man of kindly spirit and good talent. It was a pull, for victory, of twenty days, but the leaden weight of dead church members was a fearful thing to counteract. Dead church members generally have life enough to fight holiness if they cannot do anything else. There were some beautiful characters there battling for God against heavy odds. We wrote there at the time: "A service greatly encumbered with dead weights in the church and rebellion to holiness. God was wonderfully with me in all the preaching. Souls converted and sanctified, and much good accomplished." We also had two days service at Walnut Hill Church in that city, but little good was accomplished. On the way to Chicago we gave three days to Wesley Church, Des Moines, which were strikingly blessed of the Lord, and in West Side Mission Chicago, God gave us a gracious time for ten days. That little mission has been the birthplace of many souls. Sister Beezley has been in charge of it for years. A woman of frail body and large family, but in close communion with the King. Dear Brother Rice has put many years of earnest and self-sacrificing mission work in Chicago. The harvest will be gathered by and by.
A little camp this year at Goldfield, Iowa, was greatly hindered by great rains, smallness of camp, uncounted and unaccountable mosquitoes, and human rebellion to God, but I said then, "God was with us, however, souls saved and sanctified and much good done."
Again we were in the battle at Des Moines. Brothers Fowler, Reid, Collins, Joseph Smith, Bunce, Laton, Brother and Sister Harris, and Haney were in the fight, and what they said and did will be read aloud some day when Jesus Christ comes. The following note was appended concerning it at the time: "A meeting of gracious power to God's saints. Not as many saved as in some former camps, but striking in its advocacy of Gospel holiness and building for eternity."
Brother J. W. Martin was with us at Greenwood Wis., Camp, where we had rain much of the time, but victory came from God and we rejoiced. We are always blessed among those Wisconsin saints. How we will shout when we meet them in eternity's morning. We find a note appended: "Much rain from first to last but God was with us in power." This year we got to attend the Springfield, Illinois, Camp, Brother L. B. Kent in charge. Brothers McLaughlin, Hatfield, Dooley, Kent and Haney were the preachers. Taken right along, Brother McLaughlin is among our strongest and most reliable preachers. Brother Hatfield is odd, like himself, and nobody else, but there is much good wheat in him, and he has done a great work for the Lord. If you do not love him, you had better begin now. Brother Kent is a strong preacher and has been a marked self-sacrificing worker for a great while. We have taken many precious lessons at his feet. The camp seemed every way good, and we will meet people in heaven who were saved there.
We said of the National Camp at Silver Heights this year: "A meeting greatly hindered in its attendance, but marked in its power and revelations from God. My own soul taken into wonderful relations to the Holy Trinity." A strong body of ministers were there, who preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven and soul were gathered into the garner of God. Who can estimate the good resulting to the whole country, and the world, coming out of the National Camp Meetings. The work of the National waned somewhat for a few years, but is rapidly advancing now. Blessed be God!
Our camp at Ransom, Kansas, this year from September 2nd to 12th was hindered by four days of rain, but full-salvation people are not easily turned from their purpose. When they cannot reach others they are sure to have a good time among themselves. So the work of character building went on graciously, and the saints mounted above the clouds. Brother Gunckle had accomplished a great work through all this region and was there to help us, but Brother Thomson, was now the pastor. Brother Sedore helped us in the fight and the pastor was faithful and true. We find this note made when meeting close "A meeting of gracious power and character building. Some were saved. Glory!"
Camp at Hoysington, Kansas, opened September 13th and closed October 3rd. A camp meeting without tents! I insisted on living in my tent, so we had a tabernacle and one tent! The tabernacle blew down and I was bombarded for nearly three hours, as it seemed to me, by a storm of rain, and hail, and such a wind as people rarely see. My tent was well fastened with two systems of ropes and held wonderfully. At times I think the water was three inches deep under me, but I mounted my bed and held to the tent for dear life and prayed as best I could! At times it seemed the tent would be rent into ribbons, but it held to the last and with but little injury. I was alone and no one near, but at last as the storm was subsiding, a good brother came with an immense pair of rubber boots, and I got into them and waded to his house! This note was appended before we left the city: "A meeting against the success of which were very remarkable combinations. War of church members, fearful rain storm, wind, mosquitoes, two circus shows, a man murdered in town, spirituality choked out, &c., &c., but God was with us, many were raised from the dead, and a body of live souls left to save the church from perdition!"
The camp on Beloit Circuit, whose pastor and wife were blessed souls, began October 6th and continued till broken up by a persistent cold rain. It was a service of trial, but of triumph as well. Of this we wrote at the time: "A meeting which rescued two churches from great danger of utter loss, restored the Wesleyan doctrine and experience, brought some to pardon, others to holiness, revealed God to many as never before, restored two preachers to holiness, and greatly blessed my soul! Glory to the ever blessed Trinity!"