Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. WarnerByers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Religion
Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner
Byers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) -- History; Warner, D. S. (Daniel Sidney), 1842-1895
God had in Brother Warner prepared just such an instrument. His was
the spirit of a reformer. He shunned not to declare God's judgments.
His ministry had a definite message, and represented the burden of
God for the purity and unity of his church. Looking back upon Brother
Warner's career it would seem, as the writer has already intimated,
that his connection with the Church of God (Winebrennerian), which
assumed to have no creed but the Bible and to be indeed the true
church of God, had doubtless served to emphasize to him the true
church ideal and to shape his course along right lines. And his
rejection by the Ohio Eldership for the preaching of holiness
awakened him to see that that body was not what it claimed to be,
but was, after all, only a humanly ruled institution, only one sect
among the many. The light he already had on the church was sufficient
to forbid his reuniting with them. Thus the so-called Church of God
had contributed to him the right idea of the church, and the holiness
movement had brought to his understanding the line on which God would
bring out a pure church, namely, the line of holiness; and thus was
the divine Hand leading him and fitting him for the work to which he
was called.
We can only imagine what it meant to step out on God alone and preach
the divine judgments against the apostate religions of the day, to
decry the evils of denominationalism, and to undertake on that same
line the publication of a paper. That his work was despised and that
Satan undertook to crush it in its very beginning can not be wondered
at. Its humbleness and apparent insignificance looked uninviting
to the worldly-minded; but the deep spirituality and divine
manifestations that characterized it were a sufficient vindication
to those who were capable of spiritually discerning the truth. There
was something that said, "This work is of God." There was a sense of
spiritual freedom and of love and Christian fellowship that bore
convincing testimony to those who would but listen to the dictation
of the Spirit that this is indeed the truth.
But Brother Warner was not alone. God had reserved his thousands
who no longer were bowing the knee to Baal. From them he received
encouragement and support, though for a few years it seemed his work
had to go through the crucible of trial. Accordingly we trace his
difficulties and sorrows, as well as his victories, until the cause
becomes fully established in the earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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