HIS semi-decade witnessed certain events of a religious and political character closely connected with ecclesiastical affairs which were of tremendous import. The Churches became more apprehensive of the political power of the Catholic Church than in earlier years. The foreign immigration had been slowly advancing, and said Church was thus receiving large accessions. They retained for years the ideas, prejudices and customs of the Old World. This growing strength of the Church, so un-American in its genius, emboldened its priesthood and led to certain aggressive movements upon some American institutions. The leaders ventured upon a fuller development of the peculiarities of their system than had ever been made in this country. In its "festivals," its relies of apocryphal saints, the official advertising of "indulgences," the chastisement of offenders for the purpose of keeping others in subjection, and its resort to the whip and to excommunication with their terrific accompaniments, a great advance was made toward that type of Roman Catholicism then prevalent in Europe. The Churches became apprehensive of the permanent establishment of European Romanism in the United States. And it was equally feared that with it would come fundamental changes in our political institutions. The first Plenary or National Council convened May 10, 1852. Among its most offensive acts was the condemnation of the system of public schools which had been generally established. The activity of the Jesuits in bringing forth their peculiarities more conspicuously intensified popular apprehensions. Hence arose the Know-Nothing party, which flourished from 1853 to 1855, and was somewhat of a politico-religious character. Its purpose was to prevent the election or appointment of any alien to office under Federal, State or municipal governments. They had their great strength in the anti-Catholic portion of the people, and were largely recruited among the Protestant Churches. Mackey as one of the Editors of "The Advocate," in 1854, endorsed the movement, for "there is, we trust, virtue and integrity enough among us to preserve the nation." The public announcement of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, 1854, as a part of the Roman Catholic Creed, and the Provincial Council at Baltimore, Md., adopting the "Blessed Virgin, conceived without sin, as the special patroness of the United States" came as great surprises to the Christian public of the United States. The Church of God was intensely anti-Catholic, and its members were in fullest sympathy with the movement to restrict the power of the Catholic Church. What proportion of the 23,191,074 population at the census of 1850 was Catholic does not appear; but as three-fifths of the foreign immigration during the decade was Catholic, the ratio of Catholics was steadily increasing.

      During this period the first general battle for Statutory Prohibition was fought. Hitherto, except in the State of Maine where a limited Prohibitory Law was enacted in 1846, and made more stringent in 1848, moral suasion was employed by the advocates of temperance. License laws with certain prohibitory features were placed on the statute books of all the States, but the temperance people depended on moral means to overcome the evils of the excessive use of intoxicants. But on June 2, 1851, the Legislature of the State of Maine adopted the Prohibitory Law which was the type and example of all such laws which were passed in other States, and were "Maine laws." This was the first battle and the first signal victory in the celebrated campaign of 1851-4 for legal Prohibition. The ministers and churches of God gave no double-tongued utterances and assumed no equivocal attitude on this great issue. Not only for themselves did they boldly enter the open door of casuistry and perplexity of Paul's fine statement of the law of consideration for others by adopting total abstinence; but they were ready by all proper means to help to crush out the evil which was ruining so many lives, and which has ever been the most fruitful source of corruption, poverty and crime. "'The Church Advocate" was freely used by Winebrenner, Weishampel, Mackey, Flake, Harn, Thomas and others in advocacy of a Prohibition bill before [79] the Pennsylvania Legislature in the Winter of 185.1-2. Some misunderstood the terms of the bill, as it was "erroneously stated by the press generally over the State that the liquor bill was the same as the Maine Law." Winebrenner corrected this, by stating that the bill which originated in the Senate did "prohibit the liquor traffic altogether, in a manner similar to the Maine Law," but that "it was so entirely changed and modified" before it passed the Senate "as to defeat the object of the numerous petitions sent to the Legislature." But the bill was defeated in the House. Christian people at once renewed their efforts, beginning this time with a purpose to elect a majority of the next Legislature "composed of men pledged to legislation in the shape of a Prohibitory Law." At the session of the Legislature of 1853 a resolution was introduced "referring to a vote of the people . . . . . the subject of a Prohibitory Liquor Law." Winebrenner and others freely used the columns of "The Advocate" in behalf of this measure. Voters were urged to pledge themselves "to make the question of Prohibition the main issue

Joseph Ross.

in the next election for members of the Legislature." And as the Legislature failed to pass the Prohibitory resolution, the work of organizing the voters was at once begun. The slogan was, "The Maine Law." Winebrenner published on the editorial page an unsigned "Temperance Address. To the Voters of Dauphin County," saying, "The sum total is to work and battle for the Maine Law." Editorially he stated that "the ministers of Harrisburg, and throughout the Commonwealth, have all taken their stand in favor of the Maine Law." He answered the question, "Whom shall we vote for?" by saying, "3rd, Vote for such only as are from principle avowed, well-known and openly pledged Prohibitory Law men." Joseph Ross, Middletown, Dauphin county, merchant, lay preacher and Treasurer of the East Pennsylvania Eldership, was one of the candidates on the Prohibition ticket in October, 1853.

      Winebrenner was "on the stump" during the campaign at many of the "Maine Liquor Law Township Meetings." But the Democratic party carried the election. [80] Yet on Jan. 14, 1854, Winebrenner wrote: "The prospects for the enactment of a Prohibitory Law are decidedly encouraging." A bill was carefully prepared and introduced, but it failed of passage. The work of reorganizing the temperance forces began at once, and the "marshalling of the Temperance Hosts of the Old Keystone" was pushed "with promptness and vigor." To secure a majority in the Legislature in favor of Prohibition at the session of 1855 was the avowed purpose.

      In other States the temperance people were more successful. In Michigan the Maine Law was "approved by the people by a majority of ten thousand." In New York the Maine Law was submitted to popular vote by the Legislature," and it resulted "in a glorious triumph." Vermont in 1853 enacted the Maine Law. A popular election in Wisconsin resulted in favor of the Maine Law. In Connecticut "a stringent and well-guarded Act of Liquor Prohibition passed both Houses in 1854 by a very decided majority," Retailing of liquor to be drunk on the premises was prohibited in 1851-3 in Illinois. Ohio in 1851 adopted Section 18 of the schedule, which prohibited the granting of any license in the State to traffic in intoxicating liquors. The Maine Law was enacted in 1852 by the Legislature of Rhode Island.

      On Sept. 6, 1853, the World's Temperance Convention met in New York. It was an occasion of great interest, and Winebrenner urged brethren to attend it, as it was held immediately preceding the World's Fair in the same city. There were two thousand delegates in attendance, among whom was Winebrenner. An incident in this connection reveals the spirit of the times on the slavery question. Winebrenner had permitted "Jr." to publish a note on the editorial page on the Convention in which he stated that "admission was gained by Wendell Phillips, the noted Abolition and Disunion agitator.  . . . . with others of the fanatic species so common in the North," and that the Convention the second day "rejected these turbulent spirits, and proceeded to business." This called out several pungent replies in which slave-holders were denounced as "ungodly, heaven-daring, God-provoking, hypocritical." Colored people had also been "excluded from that august combination of pro-slaveryism, calling itself the World's Temperance Convention." Winebrenner was silent during this controversy, and in his report of the Convention made no reference to Wendell Phillips' presence.

      The public conscience in the North had been outraged by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, and the efforts to enforce its provisions made it each year increasingly odious to the people of the Northern States. The thought that the black man was included in the brotherhood of man developed slowly, but it gained ground rapidly under the teachings of Phillips, Garrison and men of that type. In these great-hearted men one gets at the heart of the abolition crusade, the undefiled spring of brotherly regard, out of which all their gracious conduct flowed, not as an exaction, but as free token of fundamental sympathy. Men were made also to see the moral principle involved, and multitudes seeing it did not lack courage to maintain it. Yet the friends of the slave were greatly in the minority. Winebrenner was conservative. He called slavery "a great moral wrong, but there are mitigating circumstances which forbid a wholesale unchristianizing of all who are guilty of the wrong." Two years earlier, in 1851, he published an editorial, "Our Position on Slavery Re-defined," in which similar views are expressed, and declares that the resolutions on slavery adopted by the General Eldership in 1845 "do not bear the construction that they are intended to disallow any one, under any circumstances, who bore the relation of master to slave to be received or retained in the Church, or to be at all entitled to the exercise of Christian forbearance and toleration."

      Hence, when the time came to send missionaries of the Church of God to Texas, a slave State, Winebrenner was foremost to favor the movement. Opposition early developed against the project, but Winebrenner persistently favored it. Wertz wrote to Winebrenner in 1854, "I think your proposal for two missionaries for Texas is extravagant, and out of place. Why go to that slave State, while there is so much needed in our free and prosperous States?" The genesis of mission work in Texas was similar to that in the Western States. Cheap land and most fertile soil invited emigrants. Among the first from Church of God families was Elias W. Hollar, from near Shippensburg, Pa., who wrote a letter for publication in March, 1852, urging the sending of missionaries to Texas. The suggestion was at once approved by Winebrenner, who continued to urge the movement until missionaries were appointed. He at once called for a missionary, when A. X. [81] Shoemaker responded, offering to go if his support were guaranteed. Thomas, Swartz and Hinney were the Board of Missions of the East Pennsylvania Eldership, and on April 23, 1852, they proposed to "appoint a missionary to Texas, provided we can get a suitable person to go, and sufficient means." Meanwhile additional Church families removed to Texas, among them Joseph and Sarah Cunningham, John Cunningham and Eliza Wagoner, of Broad Top, Pa., and Conrad Seabough. Hollar located in Dallas county, the third county south of Oklahoma, and the fifth west of Louisiana. The others located 9 miles west of Paris, Lamar county, bordering on Oklahoma, and the third county west of the southwestern county in Arkansas. J. A.. Rupley and Mr. and Mrs. Eberly, of the Cumberland Valley, emigrated to Texas in the Winter of 1853. By this time the colony was so enthusiastic over the missionary question that on Jan. 31, 1853, Cunningham wrote, "Send us an able preacher. We will support him." The General Eldership in 1854 adopted a resolution, recommending that the Board of Missions appoint two missionaries to Texas immediately. Through some misunderstanding the brethren in Texas got the impression as early as the Winter of 1853 that two missionaries had been appointed to that State, for on April 24, 1854, Joseph Cunningham wrote, "We are under many obligations to you and the Church for the preachers you sent us out here in Texas. We have been looking daily for them ever since the first

B. Ober at the Age of 32.

B. Ober at the Age of 87.

of January." The East Pennsylvania Eldership did not carry out the recommendation of the General Eldership, as it did nothing relating to the Texas Mission that Fall. But at the session in 1855 it had before it the names of B. Ober and E. Marple, of the West Pennsylvania Eldership, as candidates for the Texas Mission, and it referred their names "to the Board of Missions, to meet in Middletown on Tuesday, Nov. 13th." At this meeting the Board, consisting of Winebrenner, Thomas and Colder, appointed "B. Ober as a missionary to Texas."

      He was then in his thirty-second year. He was converted on Sunday night, Jan. 2, 1844, at a prayer-meeting held in a private house near Woodbury, Bedford Co., Pa. Shortly after he was baptized by the pastor, J. Lininger, "in the old Woodbury Furnace Dam, where the ice was eighteen inches thick." He united with the church at Martinsburg, Blair Co., Pa. Thence he moved to Indiana county and united with the church at Garman's Mills, where he preached his first sermon, after he was licensed by the West Pennsylvania Eldership at its session at what is now Barkeyville, Venango Co., Pa., in 1847. He traveled with J. Hickernell on the Westmoreland and Cambria circuit, Pa.; then on the Marshall county circuit, W. Va., and the Wheeling Mission. He died suddenly at Butler, Okla., Sept. 26, 1911, in his eighty-eighth year. [82]

      At a later Meeting (March 27, 1856) the Board of Missions appointed E. Marple missionary to Texas to accompany Ober.

E. Marple.

      Marple was a native of West Virginia, and was of a Protestant Methodist family, but declined to become a member, as "they don't preach and practice all the gospel; but then there will be a Church somewhere that will preach all the requirements of the gospel, including feet-washing, and when that Church comes around I will certainly join it." He heard D. Wertz preach a doctrinal sermon sometime later, and when he was through Marple said, "There is my Church, and I will join it." In the Summer of 1852, under the labors of B. Ober, he joined the Church of God and was baptized. That Fall, being twenty years old, he was licensed by the West Pennsylvania Eldership. He was appointed pastor with A. C. Marple in 1853 on the Marshall county circuit, W. Va. In the Fall of 1854 he "went to Iowa, looking for a home and a new field of labor," returning in the Spring of 1855 with the intention of going back to Iowa. "But being appointed to the Texas Mission, all my bright prospects in Iowa went to the tomb."

      Following up Church of God families as much as possible was the rule, and proved the right method of Church extension. This was T. Hickernell's method. Preparatory to undertaking mission work in Illinois he traveled through Whiteside, Adams, Clark, Morgan, Sangamon, Crawford, Jasper and Cumberland counties. This was characteristic work in those days, though it involved privations and hardships. Through emigration from eastern churches nuclei of churches were formed, and calls for preachers came from many distant points. "Come in God's name. This is too good a country for anybody to wait for food or raiment." "We desire to have one or more of the preachers to come and labor in this part of Illinois." "Send us a preacher, and we will help to support him. It is a pity to see such a field open, and no laborers in it." Such were the Macedonian voices from Iowa and Illinois in 1850, 1851, 1852 and 1853. Men and money were the great needs of the hour. Churches in the eastern sections were being decimated by emigration, and the law of self-preservation demanded heroic efforts to gather these emigrants into churches in their new homes. Where ministers were located with their newly formed churches revivals were promoted, as at North Bend, Ia., in 1851, and other points. A colony from Westmoreland county, Pa., in the Spring of 1850 located 13 miles west of Burlington, Ia., and began church work. Among them were Elder William Vance, Christian Landes, C. M. Dillinger, C. F. Stoner, Henry Rosenberger and William Spear and their families. In 1851 another colony from Ohio located near Grandview, Louisa county, among them Elder A. Megrew and the Huff families. A party of eighty-three left Harrisburg, Pa., in the Spring of 1850 for the vicinity of Muscatine, Iowa. From Trenton, Iowa, Joseph B. Nickel wrote in April, [83] 1851, "And behold the tide of emigration! Thousands are flocking to Iowa." From Johnson county, Iowa, Snavely wrote in the Fall of the same year, "Emigrants are flocking into the State in great numbers." This was also true of Illinois. Had colonizing been the rule, and not the exception, mission work would have been much simpler and less expensive and laborious. Another serious embarrassment to mission enterprises was the tendency on the part of ministers going West and missionaries sent out to locate. Lack of support sometimes made this necessary. With conditions more favorable hundreds of churches could have been built up in place of tens. When in 1850 the establishment of a mission in Iowa was being considered, Winebrenner wrote: "We now have the offer of a good and able missionary to the State of Iowa, provided he can be sustained. In order that the Board may be able to make effective and timely arrangements for the support of those large and promising missionary fields in Iowa and Illinois it is desirable that

George Sandoe.

our general missionary agents should proceed with their work as speedily as possible." The scheme was a large one for the East Pennsylvania Eldership to undertake alone. Subscriptions and donations were solicited to sustain five missionaries in the West--two in Iowa and three in Illinois--during the next Eldership year, commencing with April, 1851, and ending with March, 1852." Vance had gone to Parish, Des Moines Co., Iowa, in 1850, and Megrew followed in 1851. They were the advance guard in a movement which "will ever be memorable in the history of the Church of God, as 1851 was the year in which successful missionary work was inaugurated in the States of Illinois and Iowa. It is true that some work had been done in these States prior to the above date, but nothing like organized effort had been attempted in Illinois, and but little in Iowa" (Sandoe). It was at the Eldership held at Churchtown, Cumberland Co., Pa., October, 1850, that "arrangements were set on foot" to begin this great work. It was committed to the Board of Missions--E. H. Thomas, A. Swartz and Wm. Hinney. At their meeting held at [84] Mechanicsburg, May 1, 1851, they officially ratified previous arrangements, and appointed "A. Megrew to Iowa; Jacob M. Klein, to Central Illinois; Daniel Wertz to the Rock River Country, Ill.; George Sandoe to Southern Illinois and Indiana, and Thomas Hickernell, general missionary for Indiana and Illinois."

      The amount of $1,200.00 was appropriated toward the support of these five men for one year. They were reappointed the following year.

      Daniel Wertz was a native of York county, Pa., born Oct. 21, 1816. He was raised in the faith of the German Lutheran Church, and to carry out his own religious

Daniel Wertz.

convictions as he approached his majority he was compelled to forsake houses and lands, father and mother and kinsfolks. For he was converted at the age of nineteen, and at once identified himself with the Church of God, and became an active worker in his Master's cause. For a while he preached exclusively in the German language, but gradually acquired the English, and therefore did not much preaching in German. When in his twenty-third year, having removed to Ohio, he was licensed to preach by the Ohio Eldership in October, 1839. The Ohio Eldership a few years later sent him into western Pennsylvania, where he was preaching when the West Pennsylvania Eldership was organized in 1844. He spent the closing years of his life in Iowa. He had the true missionary spirit. He had the reputation of being "an efficient and successful minister, a devoted and zealous Christian and an excellent man."

      Archibald Megrew was a native of Allegheny county, Pa., born in 1810; but was converted at Churchtown, Cumberland Co., Pa., in the Spring of 1833, and united with the Churchtown church at its first organization. He emigrated to Ohio when a young man, where he received his first license, in 1841. His principal ministerial work was done in Ohio and Iowa, to which State he emigrated in 1851. As a member of the Iowa Eldership he was held in high esteem, having been elected Speaker in 1852, the second session he attended, re-elected in 1853 and 1854, and at later sessions. He was elected by the Iowa Eldership a delegate to the General Eldership of 1854, 1857, 1866, 1869, 1872 and 1875. He was regarded as a man of strong and clear convictions, and was never afraid to express them. He was always solicitous for the purity and continued prosperity of the Church. His was a spirit of contentment, and he lacked those qualifications which the insinuating preacher of discontent usually has. Greater usefulness could have attended the labors of his life if he had been kept steadily in the field, instead of devoting so large a portion of his time to the farm. He died at Letts, Iowa, July 6, 1894, aged 84 years, 7 months and 10 days.

      Other ministers entered the active work in both Illinois and Iowa. Jacob Lininger, residing at North Bend, Johnson Co., Iowa, in 1853, "extended his labors over seven counties--Johnson, Washington, Des Moines, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine and Cedar. M. F. Snavely also did effective work in Iowa, as did W. Vance. All the regular missionaries traveled over extensive fields, and reported most encouraging results. On Feb. 9, 1851, Vance reported the organization of a church at Danville, Ia., which worshiped in a school-house. At North Bend, Johnson Co., Iowa, they worshiped "in a humble school-house" until the Summer of 1853, when they built a "meeting-house 30 by 35 feet, frame," which was dedicated on Dec. 11th. David Gill, who removed to Buchanan county, Iowa, from Wayne county, Ohio, labored some in the ministry, seeking to "establish the Church of God." A. Megrew preached in said county in 1852. Megrew had reached his Iowa field in June, 1851, and found "the Church of God hardly known here." He began his work in Louisa county, and gradually extended the field into [85] Des Moines, Buchanan, Henry, Johnson and Muscatine counties during his first year, these being the southeastern group of counties, except Buchanan, which is the third county south of the Minnesota State line and the third west of the Mississippi.

      Elder Thomas, Indiana, was the first minister of the Church to preach near Glendon, Guthrie Co., Iowa, the fourth county east of the Nebraska State line. The first church was organized in the county in 1853, with eleven members. A prosperous church was organized at Dodgeville, Des Moines county, which, in 1854, began to arrange to build a house of worship, having been "shut out of the school-house." In 1854 Megrew made "a preaching tour up North about 120 miles," into Cedar, Linn and Buchanan counties, preaching in school-houses and holding protracted meetings. In some places other ministers ignored him because "they could not understand what kind of a Church the Church of God is." At North Bend the

A. Megrew.

church lost some converts because it "has taken a stand not to receive any into fellowship except they be first baptized." But the church prospered and grew strong. In 1854 J. Hawk labored in Scott county, Ia., his "field of labor," on the Mississippi.

      The three missionaries in Illinois opened a large territory. Wertz located in Jo Daviess county, the extreme northwestern corner of the State. His work extended over Jo Daviess, Carroll, Ogle, Stephenson, Winnebago and Boon counties, a circuit of 200 miles, with twelve regular appointments the first year, and about one hundred conversions. He found twelve Church families when he entered on the mission in a distance of 80 miles; no organized church, and no prayer-meeting. In September, 185 1, he baptized fifty-eight at Pleasant Valley, and had baptized twenty-six before. A church was organized at that meeting, and measures were [86] started to build a bethel. By March, 1852, this church numbered eighty members He reports, March 6, 1852, having "organized a church of about fifteen members in Mt. Carroll." The church and German Baptists "are about making an effort to build a meeting-house in Mt. Carroll."

      Klein located in Homer, La Salle Co., Ill. He left Venango county, Pa., where he was pastor, April 26, 1851, by private conveyance, and reached his destination

J. M. Klein.

June 25th. His field, while called the Central (Ill.) Mission, was in the northern-central section, south-west from Chicago, with Homer (Troy Grove), La Salle county, as the headquarters. In addition to his home county he traveled over Livingston, Woodford, Peoria, Fulton, Henry, Putnam and Bureau counties, lying south and west of La Salle. He established the first year twelve regular appointments, giving them preaching every three weeks. He found Church families very much scattered. Part of the time he had the assistance of D. L. Byers. A church was organized at Troy Grove, a Pennsylvania settlement, of twenty-six members, in 1851. Also one at Hollowa, one at West Bureau and one at Moory's school-house, Bureau county, and one at Eden's Point, LaSalle county.

      Sandoe was a native of Lancaster county, Pa., and, with Klein, had been licensed by the East Pennsylvania Eldership. His field was nearer the center of the State than Klein's, as he located at Martinsville, Clark Co., on the boundary line between Illinois and Indiana, as he was to travel in both States. He left Pennsylvania for his future field of labor May 11, 1851, and reached Martinsville, Ill., June 5th. His territory embraced a circuit of 350 miles, as he described it--75 miles to Decatur, Macon county; thence southward to Jasper county, 80 miles; thence eastward to Greene county, Ind., 85 miles; thence northward to Park county, Ind., 55 miles, and thence back to Martinsville, Ill., 55 miles. The counties included are Clark, Macon, Moultrie, Coles, Scott, Cumberland, Jasper and Crawford, Ill., and Park, Greene and Vigo, Ind. The first church which he organized was in Park county, Ind., composed of twenty-three members. He also formed churches at Rife's and Shroll's, Macon county, Ill., Jan. 17, 1852; at Martinsville, in the Garver settlement, and at other points. The work prospered, so that he insisted on more ministers being put on the territory. He had the assistance of T. Hickernell, the General Missionary, and in 1853 I. E. Boyer, of Pennsylvania, reached Decatur and began mission work by taking four of the preaching points in Macon county. In 1854, D. Kyle, of Pennsylvania, arrived at Decatur, and took up some of the points in Macon county. Sandoe preached in Decatur in 1852 and 1853. Around Martinsville he had the assistance of Rupp.

      By 1854 work was started in Sangamon county, by J. H. Hurley, earlier of the East Pennsylvania Eldership. The General Missionary sent to Indiana and Illinois in 1851 with the three other missionaries, Thomas Hickernell, proved an indefatigable worker. He reported in 1852 that "my mission now takes in territory of 1,000 miles and upwards. He organized churches at different points, to which pastors were afterwards appointed. Among the first was one in Auglaize county, Ohio, adjoining Mercer on the south. A German minister of the M. E. Church, living at Kossuth, sent for him to baptize him. A revival followed and a church of God was organized. Hickernell continued his work southward in Ohio through Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Adams counties. The whole southwestern group of counties were territory of much promise. In his work in Ohio he was assisted by C. Sands, who preached largely in German. He complained that many of the points which he opened were neglected by the ministers sent there after he left. In Indiana he preached in Miami county, five counties west of his home. Here he attended a camp-meeting in 1853, and thence traveled 200 miles in his carriage to attend a camp-meeting in Illinois, west of Homer, La Salle county. [87] Some nights during this tour he says, "I slept quietly in my carriage till morning." He also preached in Parke, Vigo, Greene, Marion and Wabash counties, Ind. In Illinois he got as far north as Tazewell county, in central Illinois, and labored in revival meetings in Macon, Moultrie, Marion, Jasper, Clark and Crawford.

      In 1851 when these vast enterprises were inaugurated the statistics published showed that there were 168 churches of God, 375 preaching places, 130 ministers, and 17,550 members. Of the number of churches 27 were reported in Ohio in 1854, by which time the total number had considerably increased. For while the missionaries sent out into Indiana and Illinois were diligently at work in those States, other ministers in those States and in Ohio were making full proof of their ministry. The need of more preachers was deeply felt, as calls came from many directions which could not be answered. The Indiana Eldership had a mission in Defiance county, Ohio, with several churches, where J. Martin and D. Keplinger preached. The latter also traveled through Huntington, Whitley, LaGrange, De Kalb, Allen and Wells counties, Indiana. At Georgetown, Defiance Co., Ohio, a church was formed in 1852. The church at Zanesville then numbered twenty-six. Keplinger, who-labored also at Zanesville, Wells Co., Ind., traveled from 200 to 230 miles every four weeks, and preached "from fourteen to sixteen times every round." In 1853 he had F. Komp as a colleague, and his field included also Elkhart, Kosciusko and Wabash counties, with several "missionaries" to help him. His field was "as much as 450 miles round." The work had been so successfully extended into Miami county that a camp-meeting was held there in 1853. J. Martin had organized a church in Jackson, Steuben Co., Ind. They had introduced "quarterly meetings," which F. Komp says "are of great utility and interest, as people are more likely to attend on such occasions, and hence we can have access to their hearts."

      In Ohio "the Church of God is still engaged in pushing onward the great gospel car of salvation," wrote David Baker in 1850, when reporting from various points in Wayne county. In this county, at Wooster, in 1854, the church decided to build a house of worship. They were not able to do this alone, and so they canvassed twenty-seven other churches for funds. A serious accident occurred in "putting up the timbers," in which a dozen men were more or less seriously hurt. This delayed the work, so that the dedication did not take place until Aug. 5, 1855. Winebrenner preached the sermon. The work was also extended into several new counties southward and westward from Wayne, into Wyandot, Hancock, Coshocton and Seneca. In Columbiana county, which the Ohio ministers again took up, M. Coates organized a church Dec. 14, 1851. Also in Tuscarawas county, and at Paris, Stark county. A bethel was built in Stark county in 1852. In Canaan township, Athens county, a new meeting-house was dedicated in 1853. The work, however, was languishing in Athens and Meigs counties for want of preaching. A church was organized near Upper Sandusky, Wyandot county, in 1851, and one near Columbus, Franklin county. A bethel was built at Father Stump's, Stark county circuit, and dedicated June 22, 1851. In 1853 the meeting-house at Dalton, Wayne county, was completed. The Tiffin circuit, in which Seneca county was included, was making progress under the labors of West and Wilson, and a mission church was formed in Tiffin City in 1854. Other counties in the northwestern part of the State in which good work was done were Defiance, Crawford, Logan, Henry and Wood. In Wood county a church was organized by J. M. West in June, 1852. It consisted of fourteen members. In Tuscarawas county the church at Windfield, "being shut out of the United Brethren church put up a very neat bethel, 34x4O feet in size," which was dedicated in November, 1854. In 1853 continued work around Findlay, Hancock county, was reported, a church having been previously organized in Liberty township, about six miles west of Findlay, on the Blanchard river. Also at another point four miles north of Findlay, and one southward about six miles. West was pastor. J. Myers, on his way to Blanchard Fork to a special meeting, preached in a school-house in Findlay in November, 1853. A. L. Nye did efficient work in Henry and Defiance counties in 1854. But complaint was early made that many points where these aggressive, enthusiastic missionaries had gathered small churches were neglected, or abandoned. School-houses, too, were often closed against the preachers, and the few members not being able to build houses of worship these points were necessarily discontinued. This was true in all the States.

      Closely connected with the contemplated mission work on the part of the [88] East Pennsylvania Eldership in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa was the tour made through the whole territory in 1850 by Winebrenner and Harn. Winebrenner on May 1, 1850, announced that he and Harn would "take a journey to the West during the ensuing Summer." It was to be "a preaching tour for the good of souls and the promotion of the cause of all causes--the church of the living God. We design to make it an exploring missionary tour. Our brethren in Ohio and the far West have long pleaded for a visit." Flake, who had charge of "The Advocate" during Winebrenner's absence, also states that "a visit of this kind was much desired by the brethren West of the mountains." He informed his readers that the two tourists "went.  . . . . . in a plain and strong and roomy carriage, with two horses, which will permit them to seek the scattered members of the Church in their journey of a thousand miles or more, to Iowa." He calls it "an old-fashioned visit to the churches," probably recalling similar tours by Wesley, Asbury, Albright and Whitefield. They started May 20th, on which evening they held services at Mechanicsburg. Thence to Shippensburg, on the 21st; McConnellsburg, on the 22nd; Bloody Run, on the 23rd; Woodbury, on the 24th; Martinsburg, on the 25th and 26th; Shellsburg, on the 27th; Somerset, on the 28th; Bethany, on the 29th; McKeesport, on the 30th; Pittsburg, on the 31st; Old Harmony, on June 1st and 2nd; Wooster, Ohio, on June 8th and 9th. At Wooster they had preaching simultaneously in the bethel and in the court-house at 10 a. m., and "in the afternoon and evening in the Baptist meeting-house." Harn's controversial spirit developed at Wooster. Hearing that a Methodist minister would preach on Monday evening on baptism at Moreland, he went there to hear him, and then arranged to reply to him on Thursday evening. Winebrenner heard Harn's sermon, and regarded it as "a more triumphant refutation of any man's argument than I have ever heard." Not so Mr. Parker, the Methodist minister, for he at once arose "in the congregation and challenged Brother Harn, or myself, to a public debate." This challenge they declined to accept as they "were on a journey through some of the Western States, and had a chain of appointments already out." From Wooster they went to Mendon, Mercer county, via Jeromesville; Ashland, county seat of Ashland county, where they preached in the Court-house; Bucyrus, county seat of Crawford county; Wyandot, Brownsville; Kenton, county seat of Hardin county, and Lima, in Allen county, reaching Mendon, Mercer county, June 21st. At Kenton the Methodists, Baptists and New School Presbyterians had a revival in progress, which they attended, with one hundred and fifty conversions. At Mendon, Thomas Hickernell had a revival in progress. From Mendon, O., they passed on to Fort Wayne, Allen county, Ind. Thence through Noble, Elkhart, St. Joseph and La Porte counties to New Buffalo, Mich., on Lake Michigan. From here "we entered, horses and all, on board the splendid steamboat 'Julius D. Morton,' and crossed the lake to Chicago," where they arrived at 2 o'clock on the night of June 29th. They did not preach in Chicago, but attended services in the Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches, where "the preaching was plain and practical, but the worship cold, heartless and formal." Leaving Chicago July 1st, they went by way of Napiersville, Dupage county; Aurora, Kane county; Syracuse, De Kalb county, and Ogle county, near Mt. Morris, where they found settlers from Washington county, Md., and reached Mt. Carroll, Carroll county, Ill., their main objective point in that State, July 5th. On the evening of July 6th they "commenced a series of meetings in the court-house in Mt. Carroll." During Lord's day "the court-house was thronged all day." Four sermons were preached that day. From Mt. Carroll, on the 9th, they came down to Whiteside county, and thence still southward into Rock Island county, visiting Church of God families, until they reached Stevenson (now Rock Island), where on July 11th, they crossed the Mississippi to Davenport, Scott county, Iowa. Thence down the river to Muscatine, county seat of Muscatine county, where they "met a number of former friends and brethren from Pennsylvania." Thence westward to Iowa City and North Bend, Johnson county, reaching North Bend near midnight, July 13th. This was a Pennsylvania settlement. Here they preached in a school-house, July 14th. The church at that place had "some twenty members or upwards." Returning to Iowa City, they had "preaching in the Baptist meeting-house in the evening" of July, 14th. July 15th they left for Louisa county, stopping at Columbus City. Thence still southward into Henry county, and across Des Moines county to Burlington, where they recrossed the Mississippi into Illinois on their return journey July 18th. They "took the direct road towards Peoria," where they arrived July 20th. Here [89] they "preached three sermons in the Methodist meeting-house and two in the Baptist church." From Peoria they went due south to Springfield, Sangamon county. They passed eastward south of Decatur, Macon county, stopping with Church families, to Charleston, county seat of Coles county, and on to Martinsville, Clark county, near which place "on Sabbath, July 28th, we held a woods meeting at Bro. Fasig's." There was "a small church of God in that neighborhood, numbering some twenty odd members." From Martinsville, Ill., on July 29th they went to Indianapolis, Ind., passing through Vigo, Clay, Putnam and Hendricks counties "on the National Road," into Marion, where the capitol of the State is located. From here eastward they again had "a chain of appointments ahead," reaching to Wayne county, Ind., at the Ohio line. These appointments were in Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian houses of worship, near which families of the Church lived. All along their route these families were found, living many miles apart. They passed through Preble county, north-eastward across Montgomery, Miami, Champaign into Union, and thence south-eastward to Clintonville, Franklin county, four miles north of Columbus, where they again met T. Hickernell, who was conducting "a two-day's meeting" with "a church of God of about twenty members." They reached this point Aug. 10th. They visited the State capitol "in course of erection, and other State institutions." There were several Church of God families living in Columbus. August 13th they left Clintonville, and went north into Delaware county, and thence through Morrow county toward Mansfield, Richland county. Thence eastward through Ashland county back to Wooster, Wayne county. When they reached Wooster they had made a circuit of 1,700 miles. They went 8 miles northwest of Wooster and "attended the Chester camp-meeting, held on the lands of Bro. Peter Sherick and Daniel George." Thence on the 22nd they went "to the Summit county camp-meeting," the next county northeast of Wayne. Returning to Wooster, they tarried there, preaching at various near-by points, until Aug. 30th, when they went to the Reedsburg camp-meeting, in Wayne county. Sept. 2nd they started homeward through Stark and Columbiana counties, into Pennsylvania, their first objective point being Fayetteville, Lawrence county, and thence to the Venango county camp-meeting, which they reached Sept. 5th. After camp on Sept. 12th, they left for Evensburg, Butler county, and on to Old Harmony again, and down to Pittsburg. They went as far south as Washington county, and then eastward to West Newton and Bethany, Westmoreland county, which they reached Sept. 20th. Thence, after a four days' journey they arrived home in Harrisburg on Sept. 28th, after "an absence of four months and eight days, during which we traveled 2,500 miles, preached 124 sermons, passed through six States and 217 cities and towns. Our traveling expenses amounted to $92.65, and our receipts in the shape of collections, etc., to $120.75." In September, 1853, Winebrenner visited western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, assisting at woods meetings and camp-meetings at various points.

      Overtures toward union between the Free Baptist Church and the Church of God were more of a local, than general and official, character. A. D. Williams, Free Baptist minister, and brother-in-law to G. U. Harn, unofficially labored more or less for union of the two bodies. He preached at many points for churches of God, and wrote considerably for publication in "The Advocate." These local movements were earnestly fostered by Benjamin Howard and his son, S. B. Howard, who lived in Eastern Pennsylvania for a number of years and part of the time, about 1850, and again much later, was a member of the East Pennsylvania Eldership. B. Howard, after his preaching tour in East Pennsylvania Eldership in 1848-9, made a tour westward as far as Illinois. He was in Illinois when in 1850 Winebrenner and Harn were on their western tour, and wrote, desiring to meet them. He advocated local union of Free Baptist churches and the Church of God. And ministers of the Free Baptist Church in some localities organized churches of God, some of which became identified with Elderships. Such a course was quite objectionable to the leaders of the Free Baptist Church. Their organ, "The Morning Star," on September 24, 1851, answered this question: "Is it right for a F. W. Baptist minister to lay aside the usages of the F. W. Baptists, and organize a church, calling it the church of God?" The answer was: "It is not. Have we not suffered enough by some of our members and ministers going into almost any and every new notion that is got up? If any are not satisfied with our name and usages, the way is open for them to unite with those whose views are more congenial to their own." It is clear that at that time the name, "Church of God," [90] was a vital point, and on this "The Morning Star" said, "The name is of little consequence compared to the nature." Not so did those F. W. Baptists think in central and western New York, which called themselves churches of God, and from which the Howards came. Nor those in Ohio and Illinois which held like views, and some of which united with those Elderships. But while B. Howard failed to meet Winebrenner and Harn in Illinois, he returned to eastern Ohio by the time the camp-meetings were held there which Winebrenner and Harn attended. At the Summit county camp-meeting the three met; but whatever may have been subjects of discussion or conference between them neither gave any account thereof. But at the Ohio Eldership, held in October, 1850, Howard became a member of the Eldership, and was appointed a "missionary among the churches in Ohio." Within the territory of the Ohio Eldership were some Free Baptist churches, and one of Howard's duties was to work for union between them and the Ohio Eldership. At the same Eldership "Bro. Ray, Free Will Baptist, applied for a union between the Church of God and the Society [church] with which he labors." In 1851 the Standing Committee of the Ohio Eldership appointed Bro. Dennis "to take charge of the Washington and Middletown churches of the Free Will Baptist Association." In the West Pennsylvania Eldership similar efforts of a local character were made by F. W. Baptist churches in the southern counties in New York, and a missionary of the Church of God was sent among them. Winebrenner's and Harn's tour excited much interest among Reformed, Lutheran and Methodist ministers in various localities. They preached in a number of places on the scriptural view of the church of God, and on baptism and other Church doctrines. In some places, as in Miamisburg, Montgomery Co., Ohio, each of the pastors of these three churches "delivered addresses on the subject of baptism and the original organization of the church of God exclusively."

      In Michigan not much was accomplished during this period. Prospects were reported good, but the supply of ministers was inadequate to meet the calls. Wm. Adams in 1853 organized a church in Genesse county, the fourth county north of the Ohio line. A. B. Slyter, the missionary of the Indiana Eldership, lived in Barry county, the third tier of counties north of Indiana, and the second east of Lake Michigan. He preached over "nearly one-half of the southern peninsula of the State, making some four hundred miles round."

      In the territory of the West Pennsylvania Eldership there was progressive activity, with inspiring success. It is true that when J. Myers was in Pittsburg in May, 1854, he sadly exclaimed, "No church here, and the few remaining of the used-to-be church" are still attached "to the principles of the Church. That, however, is all." Yet not so elsewhere. In the Virginia part of the territory Davis, Ober, M. Coates and Wertz labored with self-sacrificing zeal, which was amply rewarded. They labored principally in Marshall, Harrison and Wetzel counties. A number of churches were organized. Houses of worship were built at Bowman's, Upper Turkey Foot, Antioch and on the Wheeling Mission. In Pennsylvania, in 1850, a church was organized of seven members near Laurel Hill Furnace, Westmoreland county; one at Red Stone, same county; one at Stevens' Mills, Indiana county, and two in Somerset county. In this county William Davis enlarged the mission field during 1853 by adding six new appointments, with the prospect of opening more. "Prospects are flattering at these new appointments." Near Jacksonville, Greene county, Stephen Barnhart, a local minister, did good work. Revival meetings were held in many places, and a good number of converts was added to the churches. In the Summer of 1852, the church at West Newton, Westmoreland county, built a meeting-house, which was dedicated Nov. 12th. In 1853 "the brethren and friends in the Slippery Rock Settlement, near Wurtemburg, Beaver county, 12 miles north of New Brighton, erected a new meeting-house," which was dedicated October 28th, "the day previous to the sitting of the Eldership" at said place. There was still considerable German preaching in Venango and several other counties.

      In East Pennsylvania Eldership more attention was now given to confirming and permanently establishing churches than to aggressive Church extension work. Indeed with its five missionaries part of this period in Illinois and Iowa, and the prospective mission to Texas, there were not sufficient funds for mission work at home. Conditions, too, were changing. The United Brethren and the Evangelical Association, and to a less extent the Methodist Church with its exclusively English ministry, were quite successful in their work, and were establishing churches not [91] only in counties around those in which the Church of God was working, but through the territory in which the Church was successfully operating. And the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, and even the Presbyterian Church, were becoming more evangelistic, and were beginning to meet the spiritual needs of their membership more satisfactorily. School-houses were being closed especially against night preaching and revival services, thus making not only missionary work more difficult and expensive, but necessitating the abandonment of many such points where churches could have been established. But the ministry, true to its divine vocation, devoted itself with unabated and well-sustained zeal to its work, and the results justified the self-sacrifice with which the cause was advanced.

      The work of the East Pennsylvania Eldership south of the Potomac was limited to Berkeley and Jefferson counties, W. Va., (at that time a part of Virginia), and Frederick and Loudoun counties, Va. William Johnson was the missionary in this territory in 1853 and 1854, except Loudoun county. He had ten appointments, which he "intended to fill every two weeks."

      In Maryland disaster finally overtook the work in Baltimore. "Owing to the inability of the few brethren at Baltimore to sustain their preacher and keep down

Kimmel's Bethel.

the ground rent on their bethel, the committee have sold it for $800." This was in 1852. But for certain reasons the purchaser refused to take the property, and a second sale was necessary. The Uniontown church, in 1850, after "rejecting from her communion all those who had so far backslidden as to give no evidence of acceptance with God," but receiving "a goodly number into fellowship," "numbered about eighty." There was a church at Waterloo, and one at Sandy Mount, Carroll county, organized in October, 1850, of twelve members, but which in a short time doubled its membership. At Sigler's appointment, Frederick county, a church was organized Sept. 28, 1852. One at Aushour's school-house, Middletown Valley, same county, on Sept. 28, 1852. Henry McBride was elected elder, and George Sigler, deacon. Protracted meetings were held in the vicinity of Emmittsburg, Frederick county, Md. In Washington county the cause was advancing under the energetic labors of the young pastor, A. X. Shoemaker. He had nine appointments, and added a few new ones, among which was Williamsport, on the Potomac.

      In Pennsylvania this period was one of church-building. At Plainfield, Cumberland county, the brethren worshiped in a Union meeting-house, built about [92] 1850. The church was organized by Peter Clippinger in 1854. At Liberty Hall, Wild Cat Valley, Perry county, the church dedicated a new bethel on Nov. 12, 1854. J. Winebrenner and J. F. Weishampel officiated, the latter preaching in German in the afternoon. The church in Martic township, Lancaster county, decided to build a meeting-house in 1850. Martin Huber donated one acre of land for the purpose. The Building Committee were Martin Huber, Stephen Wiggins, Samuel Martin, Abraham Mylin, John Albright, Philip Frankford, Jonathan Sethultz and John Lighteiser. It was a stone house, and was dedicated Feb. 15, 1851. The membership of the church numbered "seven or eight." C. Price preached his first dedicatory sermon on this occasion. In the "new town of Goldsboro," York, county the church began the building of a bethel in 1851. Green Spring church, Cumberland county, dedicated their new bethel Nov. 6, 1852. Winebrenner preached the sermon. The church numbered about forty. On Nov. 28, 1852, "the bethel at John Soule's, Perry county," was dedicated by J. Winebrenner, who stated that "the cause is prospering and the churches appear in good spirits." "Having enlarged and refitted the bethel," the church at Middletown, Dauphin county, held rededicatory services on Feb. 6, 1853. Winebrenner preached in the morning; E. H. Thomas, in the afternoon, and Wm. Mooney, in the evening. At Kimmel's Schuylkill county, they "built a handsome brick meeting-house" in 1852. This house of worship was built on the corner of George Kimmel's farm, who later bequeathed his estate to the German Eldership. Special interest, attaches to the building of the bethel at Elizabethtown, Lancaster county, Pa. April 30, 1853, it was announced that the church at said place "having lost their meeting-house, have resolved on building another." The house was not destroyed, nor honestly lost. But with indomitable courage the church went to work to build a new house, which Winebrenner pronounced an ornament to the town, and as handsome as any meeting-house in the East Pennsylvania Eldership. The corner-stone was laid by J. C. Owens, July 3, 1853, and the "large and handsome new bethel was dedicated by J. Winebrenner Dec. 18, 1853." Other ministers who participated in the services on Saturday afternoon and evening and during the Sabbath were J. Keller, E. H. Thomas, J. C. Owens, J. Ross, A. H. Long and -------- Helfenstein, a Reformed minister. At Weishampel, in Deep Creek Valley, Schuylkill county, a church was organized in 1853, composed of twenty-one "charter members." "Steps were immediately taken to build a house of worship." A stone building was erected "at a probable cost of between $800 and $1,000." The Shippensburg church, in Cumberland county, re-fitted and modernized its bethel in the Summer of 1853, and rededicated it Nov. 6th. The Newburg bethel was built during the same Summer, located 7 miles from Shippensburg, and was dedicated on Oct. 30, 1853, being the Sunday of the Eldership held at that place. E. H. Thomas preached the morning sermon, from Zech. vi. 12, 13. Near Marsh's (or Musk's) school-house, in York county, under the pastorate of J. H. Hurley, the brethren built a comfortable meeting-house in the Fall of 1853. They had been worshiping in a school-house "originally designed for the double purpose of meeting-house and school-house, and had been so used for thirty years. But by some art and craft it has latterly fallen into the hands of sectarian directors, and they have unrighteously taken in hand to exclude Bro. Hurley and the brethren of the Church of God," "informing us that we had night-storming enough, that we could no longer have the use of the house." The new house, also later called "Fairview Bethel," was dedicated June 4, 1854. James Colder preached the sermon. G. W. Coulter preached on Saturday evening. D. Maxwell, as Colder said, "the Bishop in charge," "solemnly dedicated the house."

      The most costly and magnificent church enterprise of this period was that of the Mulberry Street church, Harrisburg, Pa. The inception of this project dates from about the 1st of February, 1854, as Winebrenner announced on Feb. 11th. that "the church of God in this place has concluded to remove their place of worship from Mulberry street to the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, there intending to erect a large and commodious house of God, worthy of the capital of Pennsylvania, and worthy of the Church of God. They bought the plot of ground extending southward from the corner of Fourth and Walnut to the Alley midway between Walnut and Market streets for $5,000. The elders, John Young, Jacob Meily, David Lingle and Isaac Stees "were authorized and empowered to sell so much of said lot or piece of ground as might not be required for the erection of a house of worship and a parsonage." This they did, for the sum of $3,200, reserving ground for the house of worship on the corner of Fourth street and the [93] Alley, and a parsonage lot adjoining, which thus cost them $1,800. The Union Bethel on Mulberry street was "sold to the School Directors of the borough of Harrisburg at and for the sum of $1,800." In this first announcement by Winebrenner of this movement to secure a new home for the Harrisburg church he called it "the Metropolitan Bethel," and adhered to, and advocated, this name until, and after, the laying of the corner-stone. James Mackey was the pastor, and on June 10th he announced that "the new church edifice, which our brethren intend to erect in this borough, is now in progress, The size is 55 feet by 70 feet, and it will be built of brick." The church could not build this house without help from the community and from the other churches of the Eldership. They had the ground, but not a dollar more. McFadden and Winebrenner were active in collecting the funds, a total of about $10,000 being required. The corner-stone was laid Sept. 10, 1854, Winebrenner delivering the address. Mackey, then one of the Editors of "The Advocate," as well as pastor of the church, "solicited a copy of his address from Winebrenner for publication, which he has kindly furnished." A part of this address was published Sept. 21, 1854, and in it Winebrenner said: "The house which we have here commenced . . . we have taken the liberty of calling 'The Metropolitan Bethel.'" He acknowledged that "this is a name not exactly approved by all our friends; nevertheless, we think it is happily chosen and quite appropriate." To this Colder, one of the Editors, appended a Note: "In justice to the brethren in Harrisburg, we must say, that we have never known one of them to use or approve of this name for the new bethel." Winebrenner did not furnish the balance of his address for publication. The bethel was not completed by the time for the meeting of the Eldership, Oct. 26, 1854, as was anticipated, and so the place was changed to Mechanicsburg. At said Eldership Colder was appointed Mackey's successor at Harrisburg, taking charge April 1, 1855. The work on the bethel was resumed early in the Spring of 1855, and the house was completed and dedicated Nov. 4, 1855, the Eldership having convened in it Nov. 3rd. "Wm. Mooney officiated in the morning; J. C. Owens, in the afternoon, and E. H. Thomas and J. Ross, in the evening. As late as March 29, 1855, Winebrenner still called it "Metropolitan Bethel;" but this name does not appear in connection with the dedication and Eldership notice. The record in the Journal is: "The East Pennsylvania Eldership of the Church of God met in the Lecture Room of the Fourth Street Bethel." This has been its name ever since. The controversy over the name was the first outward sign of friction between Winebrenner and Colder, which constituted such an unfortunate episode in the history of the East Pennsylvania Eldership.

      Work was still carried on at Marietta, Lancaster county; Hummelstown, Dauphin county; Pottsville, Schuylkill county; Colebrook Furnace, Lebanon county; New Market, York county; Bloomfield Furnace, Huntingdon county; Roxbury, Franklin county, near York Haven, York county and various points in Adams county where no churches were permanently established. In Schuylkill county, Mahantango Valley, Keller in the Winter of 1850 reported about fifty conversions. In the Hepler community permanent work was done. Also at Kessler's, Pine Grove, Port Carbon, Shamokin and Tremont, Ashland and Schuylkill Haven by 1853. In 1852 Keller organized a church at Donaldson, with Abraham Werntz as elder, and Jacob Hostter, deacon. The Juniata and Matamoras circuit was steadily enlarged, including from ten to fifteen points, among them Matamoras, Millerstown, Red Hill (Perry county), Thompsontown, Lykens Valley, Clark's Valley, Turkey Valley and Wild Cat Valley. In the Winter of 1850-51, A. Snyder, of the Matamoras and Juniata circuit, organized a church at Millerstown, Perry county, consisting of nine members; and one at Thompsontown, Juniata county, consisting of seven members. The Perry county circuit grew by 1854 to have ten appointments. Work was begun in Reading, by Keller, during 1850. In 1850 J. H. Hurley succeeded in organizing a church in New Bloomfield, Perry county, the county seat. In 1852 A. Snyder reported organizing a church at Rebecca Furnace, Morrison Cove circuit. Churches were also organized as follows: At Red Hill, Cumberland county, in 1851; one at Corbin school-house, Huntingdon county, in 1852; one at Deer Lick, under A. J. Fenton, in 1852, on the Fulton county circuit; one at Spruce Hollow, Bedford county, under A. Snyder, pastor; in Dauphin Winebrenner preached for a small church organized in 1853 in the Hall of the Sons of Temperance, J. Haifleigh, pastor; one at Knobsville, Fulton county, in 1853, of fourteen members. In Altoona, Blair county, church work was begun in the [94] Winter of 1852-3, by Wm. Clay. The preaching was in the Baptist meeting-house. In November, 1854, Winebrenner, Harn and Weishampel held a protracted meeting there. No church was as yet organized, though there were about a dozen Church families in the town, and Winebrenner urged organization and the building of a bethel. A lot was at once "selected for a bethel."

      The missionary spirit continued to prevail among the ministers and churches. There were new and inviting fields East of the Alleghenies, as well as West, and in the far southwestern State of Texas. Keller, who had much experience in mission work, in December, 1852, suggested the creation of a new mission in Northumberland, Montour and Columbia counties, lying immediately North of Schuylkill and Dauphin counties. A few points had been taken up in the southern part of Northumberland county, and Weishampel had visited Columbia county and preached in different places. It was to be known as the "Susquehanna Valley Mission," and pledges were at once solicited for the support of the missionary. In 1853 Stees was appointed "to labor as he can on the Susquehanna Mission." Another proposition for a new mission was made by William Johnson, in January, 1853. This was to be in Huntingdon county, embracing the territory around Mount Union, "including Mill Creek, Huntingdon and all the villages east of Tusseys Mountain, from Shirleysburg to Warrior's Mark." The same year Simon Fleegal, who was on the Broad Top circuit, opened appointments in McConnell's Cove, and reported good results. At the Eldership in 1854 A. J. Fenton and Philip Shaw were appointed to the "Iowa Mission." In Lancaster City a division occurred in the Orange Street church, about 1852, and a second church, known as the Chestnut Street church, was organized, with W. G. Coulter, pastor, followed by A. Snyder in 1853. Both "churches seem to be in a prosperous state," said Winebrenner after a visit to the second church April 3, 1853. But "a worm smote the gourd that it withered," and by the beginning of 1854 the Second church "dissolved their connection with the Eldership, by an arbitrary act of their own." Winebrenner seldom was so severe in his denunciations as in this case. He "did not believe them capable of perpetrating such a folly and shame." The following week he published another brief editorial "respecting the disorderly and sinful movement of the Second church of God at Lancaster." "The church is greatly at fault for rashly attempting to dissolve their connection with the Eldership and Church of God," and "recreantly transferring themselves to a sectarian community;" "a criminal movement." The church was taken into fellowship by the United Brethren, who "erred in manifesting a grasping and proselyting spirit, and by opening their arms and showing a readiness to receive into their communion such as by their own legislation they have declared unworthy of Christian fellowship." But the church did not long survive.

      An event of far-reaching significance was the return to the United States of James Colder, Winebrenner's son-in-law. He located in Harrisburg, his native city, where he was born Feb. 16, 1826. He was educated in the schools of Harrisburg, at the Harrisburg Academy, Partridge's Military Institute, and Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., where he graduated in 1849.

      In 1850 he was married to Ellen Winebrenner, who died March 24, 1858. In September, 1849, he joined the Philadelphia M. E. Conference, and was appointed to a circuit in Lancaster county, which he served until 1851, when he was appointed a missionary to China. He reached Fuh-Chau in July, 1851, and labored there as a missionary until the Spring of 1854, when he returned home, reaching New York on April 7, 1854. He had changed his views on the ordinances and Church Polity while in China, and was immersed at Hong Kong, China, November 6, 1853, and severed his connections with the M. E. Church and resigned his appointment as missionary. He had been a frequent contributor to "The Church Advocate" while in China. In May, 1854, he was licensed by the Standing Committee of the East Pennsylvania Eldership. At the Eldership in 1854 he was appointed to Fourth Street church, Harrisburg, and became its pastor in April, 1855. Meanwhile Winebrenner had associated him with himself as Assistant Editor. Colder brought with him from China a youth, Ting Ing-Kau, and a married woman, Cheung Chio. This youth he proposed to educate for a foreign missionary. For this purpose he lectured on China in many pulpits of the Eldership, and as far West as Wooster, Ohio, and received quite an amount of money. The movement was endorsed by the East Pennsylvania Eldership, and by the General Eldership in 1854, Winebrenner personally endorsed it, saying: "Why should not the Church of God awake to the subject of Foreign Missions, and take immediate steps to [95] assist in this mighty and glorious work of Christianizing China? She can at any rate easily afford to educate young Ak-Kau, as he is familiarly called, and send him to his country-men as a messenger from the Church of God."

      Interest in camp-meetings did not seem to abate during this period. In 1850 camp-meetings were held as follows: On the Dauphin county circuit, Landisburg circuit, York county circuit near Newberry; Newburg, Cumberland county; near Churchtown, same county; Broad Top; at Kimmel's, Schuylkill county, and in Mahantango Valley, same county. Also one near Uniontown, Md. All these in the territory of the East Pennsylvania Eldership. In the West Pennsylvania Eldership territory camp-meetings were held in Brush Valley, Indiana county; in Irwin township, Venango county, and one in Marshall county, W. Va. In the Ohio Eldership territory three camp-meetings were held, viz.: Chester township, Wayne county; Reedsburg, same county, and in Summit county. One was held in De Kalb county, Indiana. One was held in Barry county, Mich. The number of conversions reported was one hundred and fifty. The number of tents aggregated from five to twenty-four.

James Colder.

      In 1851 there were twelve camp-meetings held within the territory of the East Pennsylvania Eldership, as follows: In Carroll county, Md., and in Washington county, Md.; on the Dauphin county circuit, on Broad Top circuit; near Shippensburg, Cumberland county, and at Newburg, same county; near Churchtown, same county; near Elizabethtown, Lancaster county; near Mt. Joy, same county; near Goldsboro, York county; one in Fulton county, and two in Schuylkill county, one of them at Kimmel's, and one in the Mahantango Valley. In Ohio Eldership territory the following were held: In Knox county, in Summit county, in Wayne county, one eight miles north-west of Wooster and one near Smithville; one in Ashland county and one in Geauga county. The Indiana Eldership held three camp-meetings, to wit: one near Laketon, Wabash county; one in Whitley county, and one in Mercer county, Ohio. One was held in Kent county, Mich. The West Pennsylvania Eldership reported but two camp-meetings. One of them was held in Indiana county, Pa., and one in Marshall county, W. Va. The brethren in Johnson county, Iowa, held one near North Bend. The number of conversions reported is one hundred and seventy-three.

      In 1852 eighteen camp-meetings were held. Iowa held two, one at North [96] Bend, and one in Benton county. Illinois held one in Pleasant Valley, on the Rock River mission. Indiana held one. Ohio held one in Wayne and one in Ashland county. In the West Pennsylvania Eldership territory one was held in Venango county, Irwin township; one on the Susquehanna River, in Indiana county; one at Turkey Foot, Somerset county, and one in Marshall county, Va. In the East Pennsylvania Eldership territory the following were held: Near Newburg, Cumberland county; Broad Top circuit, Huntingdon county; Orwigsburg and Mahantango Valley, Schuylkill county; in York county; and one in Washington county and one in Carroll county, Md., and "The General and Model Camp-meeting" near the Camp Hill Bethel, Cumberland county. This was an attempt to hold a large camp-meeting, with corresponding results. Camp-meetings in other parts of the Eldership were discountenanced by the leaders, with but partial success. Winebrenner announced and encouraged it editorially, and called it "the great gathering of the people." A day of fasting and prayer was officially fixed for the Tuesday before the camp opened. There was a general camp-meeting committee, and seven subordinate committees. Ten "Rules and Regulations" were published in advance. President C. G. Finney, Oberlin College, who had world-wide fame as a revivalist, was invited, but could not come. It was to be "a camp-meeting for the promotion of piety and the conversion of sinners." It began Aug. 20th and closed Aug. 30th. The general committee had secured one hundred tents from the State Arsenal. Only fifty were needed. It rained the greater part of the time, yet on the second Sunday, with a clear sky, it was estimated that 5,000 people were on the ground. Thirty-four churches were represented. There were forty conversions. The following ministers were present: Winebrenner, Thomas, Swartz, Keller, McFadden, Hurley, Owens, Price, Snyder, Maxwell, Kyle, Hartman, Laverty, S. Fleegal, Haifleigh, J. J. Miller, Bowser, Stamm, Johnson, Hoover, Rockafellow, Kister, Mateer, Shoemaker, Harn, Hinney, Morenzo, and Weishampel. The total number of conversions at all the camp-meetings reported was only one hundred and forty-six. Immediately after the camp-meeting season the question was mooted, "why so little good is done at camp-meetings and other meetings." There was a growing tendency to omit the ordinances of Feet-washing and the Communion, but baptism was generally administered to the converts.

      In the Summer of 1853 the following camp-meetings were held: Near Dodgeville, Des Moines county, Iowa. In La Salle and Macon counties, Ill. Near Peoria, Franklin county, and in Miami county, Ind. In Wayne county, Ohio. One each in Lawrence and Somerset counties, Pennsylvania, and one in Marshall county, Virginia. In East Pennsylvania, one in Deep Creek Valley and one at Kimmel's, Schuylkill county; one in Lancaster county. One near Dillsburg, and one near Andersontown, York county. One in Washington county, Md. One at Stonersville, Bedford county, and one at Nobbsville, 8 miles from McConnellsburg, Fulton county. One near Landisburg, Perry county. One hundred and fifty-nine conversions were reported. The number of tents ranged from nine to twenty-six. At the close of these meetings Winebrenner expressed it as his opinion that "the day is probably past for camp-meetings." The churches were losing interest in them, so that the Standing Committee of the Ohio Eldership "Resolved, That we very much urge the propriety of the circuits and churches in waking up to their duty in sending in their requests for camp-meetings."

      There were twenty-five camp-meetings held in 1854, as follows: One each in Des Moines and Louisa counties, Iowa. In Illinois one was held near Mt. Carroll, Jo Daviess county, and one in Macon county. One was held in Kosciusko county, Ind. Ohio held one in Stark county, and one in Tuscarawas county. In the West Pennsylvania Eldership territory one was held in Marshall county, Va.; one in Fayette county, one in Venango county, one in Indiana county and one near Black Lick Furnace. In the East Pennsylvania Eldership territory camp-meetings were held as follows: One in Washington county, Md., and one in Carroll county, Md.; while in the State of Pennsylvania the following were held: East York circuit, West York circuit, Perry county circuit; Franklin county, near Orrstown; on the Lancaster county circuit, Broad Top circuit, Cumberland county, near Mechanicsburg; Dauphin circuit, near Linglestown; in Deep Creek Valley and near Orwigsburg, Schuylkill county, and one near Fredericksburg, Lebanon county. Comparatively few conversions were reported. The camp-meeting held near Mt. Carroll, Ill., reported forty conversions, while less than that number were reported at all the others.

      The Churches at this period were permeated with a spirit of controversy. [97] Theological polemics were the delight of some of the strongest men in different denominations. The slavery question, more and more agitated in Church and State, contributed to this. The Christian Church was very aggressive under the erudite and forceful leadership of Alexander Campbell, whose spirit was largely imbibed by the ministry of his Church. They kept the subject of baptism prominent in all their ministration; attacked other Churches, and issued repeated challenges to debate the question. The ministers of the Church of God possessed much of the same belligerent spirit; but they confined themselves largely to their own pulpits. Winebrenner was not by nature and training a controversialist. He discussed all the theological questions of the times, as his favorite phrase was, "pro and con." But he never had a formal debate with a minister of any denomination. He generally preserved an attitude in which dignity at times seemed singularly

George U. Harn.

blended with disdain. Not so with Harn, as may be seen in his keen, penetrating eye and aggressive countenance.

      He was a man richly endowed by nature, and of studious habits. He was fortunately placed for the development of his talents, and he rose steadily to larger and larger prominence and usefulness. He was ambitious, and was restless as a caged lion. Fearless, resolute and resourceful as a preacher or antagonist in the arena of debate, he made a splendid record in the theological marathon. Everywhere he went he kindled the beacon-fire of truth touching the distinctive doctrines of the Church of God. As Irving says, he was none of those "who stand shaking in the wind, irresolute which way to steer." There was a bustling, disputatious tone in his preaching, instead of the drowsy tranquility of pulpits in earlier days. Harn was a trained controversialist. He had his first public debate when not over seventeen years of age, on the evils of slavery, in his native State, Maryland, and in the midst of slavery and slave-holders. He was prepared to talk eight hours. The episode at Moreland, Ohio, on the tour which he made with Winebrenner in 1850, revealed his character. Out of it grew a challenge from the minister to [98] whom he there replied to debate the subject of baptism. Harn accepted the challenge. It was a newspaper debate, Mr. Parker, Methodist minister, apparently preferring this. Winebrenner had charged Parker with teaching that "immersion is not baptism." Harn made a specialty of this, and in discussing the mode or action of baptism confronted Parker with the proof of Winebrenner's charge taken from Parker's published sermons and books. The discussion of the subjects of baptism followed. The debate between Harn and A. Keller, a Methodist minister, on the same questions, was held in Irwin township (Barkeyville), Venango county, Pa., in 1853. It continued five days. Harn affirmed that "Immersion in water of a proper subject, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is the only apostolic baptism." Keller affirmed that "Infants are scriptural subjects of baptism." It was a memorable debate, not forgotten for a generation.

      In 1850 J. H. Hurley and Rev. McDougal had a spirited debate on the subject of washing the saints' feet. It was held in Perry county, Pa. The same year Hurley states that he "had a spirited controversy with J. F. Weishampel on the validity of lay baptism, he affirming, and I taking the negative. After discussing it in a friendly manner in "The Church Advocate" for many months, J. F. Weishampel exhausted his store of arguments, and gave the subject over to Elder G. U. Harn. After five more months of debate I gave the closing address."

      B. Ober, from a natural trend of mind, was disputatious, and this spirit was fostered and developed by environment. It might, with James Fenimore Cooper, be said of him what Cooper said of the Indian Chief Mohegan, "That his faults were those of an Indian, and his virtues those of a man." He was a brave and self-reliant disputant, having great tenacity of purpose. The Disciples were the dominant element in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Ober often came in contact with them while preaching in and around Wheeling. On the action of baptism they agreed with the Church of God. But the name of the Church they repudiated, and often made it a subject of discussion. In 1851 Ober and Dickey, a Disciple minister, held a public debate on this subject at Proctor, Wetzel county, W. Va.

      In 1850, at Shiremanstown, Cumberland county, Pa., Elder J. Keller had a five days' debate with A. Owen, of the United Brethren Church, on the Action and the Subject of Baptism. It was quite fully reported in "The Church Advocate" and "The Religious Telescope." Keller was a strong antagonist, but not by nature nor training a controversialist. He was modest and unassuming. He was a tall, well-proportioned man, with strong features and rather commanding presence. He had the reputed intellectual honesty of Montaigne, and made a most successful defense of the propositions he affirmed.

      Greater divergence of views on theological questions now began to be manifested with increased intellectual development and wider reading on the part of the ministry of the Church. Winebrenner urged unanimity, but there were frequent discussions of questions on which they did not agree. On the "essentials of baptism" Winebrenner taught that faith, immersion and a scriptural administrator are "essential to the validity of Christian baptism." Hence, he further defined a scriptural administrator to be one "to whom Christ has given authority," a minister duly ordained. This brought up the question of lay baptism, which was defended by several ministers as justifiable in exceptional cases. They thought Winebrenner's view came dangerously near the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, though they accepted it as the rule.

      The question relative to the admission of persons into local church fellowship before baptism was of a more serious and practical character. In 1851 Winebrenner in a lengthy editorial answered a series of questions, leading up to the final one as to whether it is right and scriptural to receive persons into church fellowship before they have been baptized. While he acknowledged that in the instances referred to in the New Testament the converted persons were first baptized; yet "not before they were in the general church." His conclusion was that "baptism may be administered either before or after addition to the local church." To this view exception was taken by several writers, so that Winebrenner was constrained to reply in another long editorial on "Terms of Church Membership." He laid down the proposition that "Baptism is not the door into the church," and insisted that it "has nothing to do with bringing in of a soul or body into the general or local church." But this did not settle the question. The opposition in fact gained ground, and in 1853 the Ohio Eldership adopted a resolution "instructing the ministers to teach churches not to admit unbaptized persons, into the [99] churches." From Ohio ministers and lay members emigrating to Iowa there introduced the same practice. In 1854 questions on the subject were again addressed to Winebrenner for editorial answer. He replied by reproducing his editorial of 1851, with some additional proofs of his position. In the same issue "Sister M. A. A." taught the contrary, but Winebrenner made no further reply. In subsequent issues of "The Church Advocate" Winebrenner's position was controverted by Henry Fleagle, K. A. Moore and J. E. Cunningham, of the East Pennsylvania Eldership, and M. F. Snavely, of the Iowa Eldership, where baptism before church membership was generally insisted upon. A. L. Nye, of Michigan, defended Winebrenner's views, and Winebrenner himself made brief replies to several of these contributors.

      There was general unanimity on the question of rebaptizing persons who, having been converted and baptized, fell from grace, and were reclaimed. It was quite generally answered negatively. Not so in the case of a person to whom baptism had been administered while in an unregenerated state. Winebrenner taught that "the baptism of unregenerated persons is invalid, from the fact that it is nowhere authorized in the New Testament."

      A discussion of the subject of ministerial ordination was precipitated in 1850 through the mental illusion of several ministers of denominations who mistook the shadow for the substance, the form for the real thing. One of these ministers, says J. H. Hurley, "very politely informed me that we, as a ministry, were not set apart by the imposition of hands; and if we were thus consecrated we were without the regular succession, and consequently unordained." Hurley does not discuss the subject, but simply states that this polite remark caused him to doubt the validity of ordination without the laying on of hands of regularly ordained ministers. D. R. Rockafellow had a similar experience, and though not skeptical, yet was not prepared to meet the objection. Thus the matter rested from April, 1850, to May, 1852, when Winebrenner wrote an editorial in answer to A. Swartz, who had raised several inquiries touching "a time-honored custom to be found marking the history of the church that by us as a religious body has been practically rejected." Winebrenner called the imposition of hands "a ceremony of supererogation," said that he "fully agreed with the denominations around us in the whole form of ordination, except that of laying on of hands," and then called "on the affirmants of this question to show their authority, and they shall be accommodated with a respondent, and perhaps this mooted and perplexing question may be satisfactorily settled." He was sustained in very brief articles by several correspondents, but Swartz demanded that Winebrenner prove his position, which in an editorial in July he declined to do, on the ground that the demand would require him to prove a negative. But he again flung down the gauntlet, and said: "Who, then, among the masters in Israel will come forward as the champion of this time-honored custom? Whoever will undertake the task shall find a respondent." But while Swartz and a writer under the sobriquet of Apostolic Truth each wrote a long article, it was little more than fencing for position. Thus the matter rested until 1854, when a protracted discussion of the question was conducted in "The Church Advocate." It began by the simple statement by J. G. Cunningham, New Grenada, Pa., that "we as an individual church have come to the conclusion to select an elder and deacon, and have them ordained after the Apostles' manner, by fasting and prayer, then by the laying on of hands." He adds, "We think we are surely taught this by the Scriptures." Colder demanded proof of this statement, in a foot-note to Cunningham's article. This challenge Harn could not resist, and he replied in a four-column article, taking the affirmative. Meanwhile the General Eldership Minutes were published, in which there was found the following: "Resolved, That in the opinion of this Eldership persons entering upon the sacred work of the ministry among us should be solemnly set apart by prayer and the imposition of hands by one or more of the bishops of the Church of God." This resolution was not voted on, but it was referred for discussion to the columns of "The Church Advocate." Swartz began the discussion in a six-column article, reaching the conclusion "that there is not a precept or example in the New Testament for us to do that which the resolution contemplates we should do." Harn followed with arguments in favor of the resolution of which he says: "If these arguments are capable of refutation, I confess I am inadequate to the task." E. H. Thomas coincided with Harn, and in consecutive articles submitted "the testimony upon which I rely to prove the doctrine of the resolution." Winebrenner followed Harn, taking, as he did before, the negative side of the resolution. [100] He continued the discussion in a series of nine editorials published at intervals, and closing in the issue of "The Church Advocate" of January 24, 1856, with these words: "In no one single case do we find that the Apostles ordained, or set apart, men to the ministry by the imposition of hands." But Thomas Jefferson's words still remained true: "I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument."

      In October, 1851, the first, but limited, discussion on the "right of female preaching" was begun by Ellen Stewart, Copley, Ohio. There was neither sentiment enough in favor of women preaching, nor interest enough in a discussion of the subject, to give it more than a short lease of life. William Byrd's thought was not verified in this case: "So very pliable a thing is frail man, when women have the bending of him."

      Sporadic polemical outbursts can also be found on the questions of church music, reading sermons, plagiarism, the mourners' bench and church government. Donations as evidences of good will, and to supplement the small salaries of ministers were strongly urged during this period.

      Several notable events outside of the Church, which are of abiding interest, occurred during this period. John Newland Moffit, one of America's greatest revivalists, died in 1850. The death of Adoniram Judson, the senior foreign missionary in India of the London Missionary Society, died the same year. He was a native of Malden, Mass. On the voyage he changed his views regarding baptism. On reaching Calcutta he and his wife were immersed. This led to his withdrawal from the London Missionary Society, and his subsequent identification with the Baptist mission work. June 29, 1852, Henry Clay, who "would rather be right than President," died at Washington. His remarkable intellect, power of gesture and voice placed him in the front rank of America's greatest statesmen. October 24, 1852, Daniel Webster ended his marvelous career. Son of a farmer of moderate circumstances, he gradually-rose to such distinction in the councils of the Nation that his public life became so intimately interwoven with the history of his country that both have come down to posterity together. The stupendous work of revising and retranslating the sacred Scriptures by the American Bible Union was begun in 1852. The ministers, churches and Elderships of the Church of God took a deep interest in this work. Winebrenner in 1853 "strongly favored the new version;" but he recognized the fact that "it will take a long time to overcome existing prejudices and supplant the use of the present English version, imperfect and antiquated as it is."

[FHCG 79-101]