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
The writer had an interview not long since with one of the holiness
leaders who used to know D. S. Warner and who still labors to bring
about the unity of Christians through a holiness that respects
sectarian divisions. This man was asked about the prospects for unity
after so many years of effort. His reply, in which he complained
of the bigotry existing among the denominations, was anything but
encouraging. He seemed to have no knowledge of a way out of the
trouble, and regarded the present true church movement as only a
sect, or faction, saying that "a sect is any body of Christians
joined together in the same belief," etc. "But suppose a number
of persons come out from and leave the sects with which they
have been connected, and stand only on the Bible, independent of
sects--suppose they assemble together in a body; would they be a
sect?" he was asked. "Yes," was his reply. "Then what about the body
of Christ itself, the whole, of which sects are regarded as cut-off
factions--is that a sect?" "Yes," was his answer. And then, as if
he could know nothing but sects, he referred to Paul as calling the
Christians in his day a sect, and assumed to quote him thus: "For as
concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against"
(Acts 28:22). He was told that these words were not spoken by Paul,
but by his opposers. "Well," said he, "I will look that up."
Thus his conception of the subject makes the true church impossible.
When men have been forty years in the ministry and in the holiness
movement, and are just as far from discerning the church as when they
started, and even suppose that Paul called the Christians a sect,
how blinding and confusing must be the darkness in which they grope!
Having failed to follow in God's way when came the call, "Come out of
her, my people," they have been building with wood, hay, and stubble
a structure that only awaits the consumption at the last day.
But not so all who were engaged in the holiness movement. God had a
remnant whom he was leading entirely out of spiritual Babylon, who
were returning to Zion over the highway of holiness, with singing and
everlasting joy in their hearts. Holiness led them to the threshold
of a brighter day, and they did not stop, but passed over. Keeping
in the light they retained true holiness and all that God had given
them. Thus, coming out of the holiness movement and embodying its
true elements, is a movement that not only upholds holiness, but
repudiates sectarianism and represents the true Christian unity that
Christ prayed for. It holds and knows Christ as the only head of the
body, and as complete, in all things, to the church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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