CHAPTER VII

THE EMERGENCE OF HOLINESS DENOMINATIONS

     Many individuals by the early 1900s mistakenly identified all "holiness" people with either the radical independent revival of the 1880s or Irwinism which plagued the general movement from 1895 to 1900.  These factions brought great hardship on the general body of holiness people who continued to identify with and profess complete loyalty to the established churches.  At the same time the leaders of official Methodism continued to pressure the holiness advocates to accept a changing church.  One Methodist loyalist as a supporter of Wesleyan perfectionism illustrated the dilemma of the movement as a whole when he exclaimed, "We are in the midst of fearful extremes--deadism, formalism, fanaticism, and wildfire.  These are all bad enough, and one about as bad as the other."¹

     As early as the General Conference of 1894 the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South set the tone of future dealings with the holiness people.  The bishops warned:

There has spring up among us a party with holiness as a watchword; they have holiness associations, holiness meetings, holiness preachers, holiness evangelists, and holiness property.  Religious experience is represented as if it consists of only two steps, the first step out of condemnation into peace and the next step into Christian perfection....We do not question the sincerity and zeal of these brethren; we desire the church to profit by their earnest preaching and godly example; but we deplore their teaching and methods in so far as they claim a monopoly on the experience, practice, and advocacy of holiness, and separate themselves from the body of ministers and disciples.²

     The 1896 South Carolina Annual Conference followed the General Conference lead when it moved to restrict the spread of holiness doctrine by passing a resolution which barred evangelists from moving from one point to another.  This ruling, if obeyed, would have effectively crippled the ability of holiness leaders to carry their perfectionist message to the people.³  When the next General Conference for the Southern Church met in Baltimore, Maryland, during May and June, 1898, the ministers only reenforced this ruling:

Any traveling or local preacher or layman who shall hold public religious services within the bounds of any mission, circuit or station, when requested by the preacher in charge not to hold such services, shall be deemed guilty of imprudent conduct, and shall be dealt with as the law provides in such cases.⁴

     Holiness evangelists knew full well the importance of this paragraph and wasted little time in responding.  These individuals first reiterated their general loyalty to the established church while asserting the necessity of holiness meetings and their ultimate responsibility to follow the leadings of God.⁵  Rev. Henry Clay Morrison, founder of Asbury Seminary and editor of the widely circulated periodical, Pentecostal Herald, argued:  "If we are called of God to be evangelists, we would be guilty of treason...were we to suppress His testimony...but acting as before God, and following the dictates of eternal truth and justice, we dare not be silent."⁶

     No doubt the action of the 1898 General Conference brought painful memories to H. C. Morrison who had been expelled from the church in 1896 for violating a similar resolution passed by the Northwest Texas Annual Conference.  The circumstances in that case revolved around Morrison's being scheduled to oversee an interdenominational holiness camp meeting at Dublin, Texas.  However, the local Methodist officials warned him not to honor the appointment.  The evangelist asserted, after reflecting on the situation, "I was there under divine leadership, and however much I might regret trouble in the church, I was not free to leave."  The committee of local Methodist preachers preferred charges against him and Morrison was expelled from the church.  The evangelist stated that the most ironic thing about the whole incident lay in the fact that the wife of one of the accusing preachers attended the camp while her husband busied himself in drawing up official accusations.  She recognized the necessity of heart purity and instantaneously received the sanctifying experience.  "She shouted and testified with great joy" to the very thing her husband labored to destroy.⁷

     Rev. Bud Robinson referred to the ensuing controversy in its entirety as the "holiness wars."  As one holiness leader said, he could not stay in the "old ship" or church as advised because each time the '"great iron wheel' makes a revolution some good holiness brother's head falls off, not because they preach holiness; oh no, perish the thought.  But after trying some of them for twenty years, they find they are inefficient."⁸

     Rev. W. Adams when charged with "inefficiency" by the Northwest Texas Conference presented a summation of his twenty years "labor of love" for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South before a full session of 260 ministers at that conference.  Adams opened his defense by stating that he had received the second blessing on July 30, 1885.  Since that time, he reported 1,761 confessed conversions, 68 sanctifications, 1,376 taken into membership along with 221 infant baptisms.  Adams concluded his defense when he challenged any of the ministers present to an equal report.  Not one minister responded.  However, Rev. Adams requested that his name be withdrawn honorable from the Methodist ministry because the conference three years earlier voted 140 to 51 against the advocacy of "second blessing holiness."  Other ministers expelled or who withdrew included: Robert Lee Harris, Bud Robinson, W. C. Wilson, E. C. DeJernett, Phineas Franklin Bresee, and Martin Wells Knapp.⁹

     Such men once removed from the established churches used independent city missions as early as the 1880s to propagate the doctrine of holiness.  Street meetings, homes for fallen women, children's homes, and evangelist training schools took root.  These endeavors revolved usually around plain but neat rented halls located centrally in communities which ranged from mid-sized rural communities to large inner cities.  Rows of folding chairs provided adequate seating where a "spirit directed" minister led his congregation figuratively to the feet of Jesus.  As one observer commented, "There is nothing in such a place to pamper pride, nothing to hinder the right of way of the evangelist, nothing to divert the attention of the hearers."  In other words apostolic simplicity, efficiency, and directness marked the physical as well as the spiritual atmosphere.  One of the earliest such works among the conservative holiness people flourished in California in the San Francisco Bay Area.¹⁰

     Here the Pacific Coast Holiness Association ran a centrally located rescue mission called the Adelphi Mission.  They physical facilities consisted of an auditorium with a capacity of over five-hundred people; room for their weekly periodical, Pacific Herald of Holiness; book and tract depository; and a training home.¹¹  Services conducted daily in the main auditorium consisted of prayer meetings at noon and evening services at seven with three services scheduled on the Sabbath.  They leased this facility for two years at $100 a month, and according to one participant their "heavenly Father supplied the necessary funds just as they were needed."¹²

     A typical Sabbath opened at nine o'clock in the main hall with services that concluded with an eleven o'clock street meeting.  The large congregation marched through the central San Francisco district singing "Are You Washed in The Blood of The Lamb?"  This usually drew from three to four-hundred onlookers who listened attentively while the minister admonished them to seek God.  After the speaker or "salvationist," as the street people called them, finished, the mission band divided into small groups to tell the gospel story of full redemption.  One contributor reported that each worker as a "soldier of the cross" demonstrated his effectiveness "on the wharfs, on the streets, or in the hall."  These soldiers confirmed that their Sabbath day street evangelism resulted in no less than twelve souls saved.  Such results constituted the rule rather than the exception--Monday night eight more souls joined the ranks, with six or seven on Tuesday.¹³

      New converts were urged to devote as much time as possible to holiness mission work.  Their dedication in "rescuing the fallen, outcast and wayward ones" greatly strengthened the cause of Wesleyan perfectionism, and at the same time put "the carnal church to shame."¹⁴

     Rev. George Newton, editor of the Pacific Herald, organized these proponents into what he called the Army of the Lord.  As members of the Pacific Holiness Association they patterned their extra ecclesiastical endeavor after the Salvation Army with the combined "freedom, truth, and spirit of the free holiness work."¹⁵ This group often cooperated with the Salvation Army.  On Thanksgiving Day in 1884 Mrs. "Major" Wells of the Army led a typical union gathering in Stockton, California, where "twelve or thirteen believers stepped into the fountain and were cleansed from all sin."¹⁶

     The founder and leader of the Salvation Army, "General" William Booth, first started his evangelist work among the poor on the east side of London, England, in 1865.  From this work emerged the sprawling Salvation Army.  By 1894 the Army boasted "shelters, refuges, food deposits, sisterhoods and brotherhoods."  It reported nearly eleven-thousand full-time officers who worked in thirty-eight countries among people speaking thirty-four different languages where 4,595 societies, corps, and posts existed.  The participants held some 2,098,631 meetings annually, plus they visited in 2,747,576 homes yearly.  Their official publication, The War Cry, along with other distributed literature amounted to approximately 43,682,596 individual issues.  Use of drums and tambourines served as advertising media to attract large crowds of people.  One observer commented that these followers of Christ did not merely sing "'Hold the Fort for I am Coming' they in turn stormed the fort and battered down the ramparts of hell, and claimed to be more than conquerors through Him who loved them."¹⁷

     Prior to 1900 independent holiness mission work similar to that done at the Adelphi Mission in San Francisco, gained momentum in a majority of the major cities of America.  A few of these dedicated volunteer activities included: Faith Home, Los Angeles; McCall Mission, Jamestown, New York; Bethel Mission, Topeka; Oliver Gospel Mission, Columbia, South Carolina; Door of Hope, Fort Worth, Texas; Holiness Mission, Temple, Texas; Vanguard Mission, The Temple, and Hephzeibah Rescue Home, St. Louis; Wells Street Mission, Chicago; Revivalist Chapel and Christian Temperance Union Mission, Cincinnati.¹⁸

     Almost all of these rescue works struggles to meet the immediate needs of the people around them.  Rev. S. Willie oversaw the Door of Hope Mission in an area of Fort Worth, Texas, referred to as "Hell's Half Acre."  Within three years of the inception of this rescue work four-hundred individuals confessed conversion; seventy-five sanctifications were recorded; some five-thousand meals were served, and about 25,000 men and boys received shelter on cold nights.¹⁹  In 1893 Mrs. E. E. Otto assisted by Rev. Beverly Carradine founded the Hephzeibah Rescue Home and Purity Work in St. Louis, Missouri.  Over six-hundred young women passed through this institution during its first five years.  Out of that number 321 accepted Christ and when they returned to general society their lives "testified to the transforming power of God."  Mrs. Otto attributed her success in "reaching and establishing girls, who had lost their way, to the fact that all the workers at the home stressed the importance of second blessing holiness."  A monthly periodical, Hephzeibah Home Herald, also appeared in the interest of the home and holiness rescue work.²⁰  The Oliver Gospel Mission in Columbia, South Carolina, came about as a result of the death in August, 1891, or R. C. Oliver who left his personal estate to found a nondenominational holiness mission.²¹

     Here Rev. J. E. Duren Carried on all the specialized activities of a church.  For example, Pastor Duren preached the gospel at twenty-eight regularly scheduled services in May, 1896.  At the same time, he visited in eighty private homes, the state prison, and performed two weddings and one funeral.²²  This slum evangelist focused his primary efforts on the poor and down trodden.  He asserted, "Beneath their rags often beat hearts purified by the precious blood of the Son of God; these have an inheritance beyond the river."  He further revealed his compassion for the poor in a verse of poetry which is reminiscent of the Wesleyan Holy Club:

By February, 1896, Duren organized eight missionaries into the Oliver Gospel Missionary Society which assisted the pastor in helping the poor and needy.  Their rescue work also included a home for girls which accommodated twenty-three and always ran at full capacity.²⁴

     As former derelicts themselves, the workers at such missions toiled unceasingly in the prohibition movement.  J. M. Pike, editor of The Way of Faith published by the Oliver Gospel Mission ran graphic articles devoted to the abolition of the liquor traffic.²⁵  Other holiness publications admonished their readers to stand united against the sale of all intoxicating beverages.  These included, among others, The Vanguard, St. Louis, Missouri; Law and Gospel, Hutchinson, Kansas; and Fire and Hammer, North Topeka, Kansas.  This admonition against liquor also appeared in a pamphlet, Prohibition a Bible Doctrine, which Law and Gospel advertised for twenty-five cents a hundred.  At the same time The Vanguard instructed its subscribers in the name of Christian purity to vote for temperance political candidates.  The Holiness War News at Irving, Kansas, compared the national temperance movement of the 1880s and 1890s to the moral outcry of the pre-Civil War anti-slavery agitation:

If you will watch the statistics, the Prohibition Party is coming with four times the celerity.  American Slavery was a pet lamb as compared with this red dragon.  All The families which have been robbed of fathers and brothers and sons by the rum traffic; all the States of the Union that have been despoiled of their mightiest men; all the churches of Jesus Christ which find the chief obstacle to the advancement of religion in the appetite for strong drinks; and all the intelligence, and all the enthusiasm of the land will yet pack itself into an avalanche that will come crushing down upon this the worst evil that ever afflicted a nation.²⁶

     Those who labored in the inner cities also took an active interest in the propagation of Bible holiness in foreign lands.  Bishop William Taylor of the Methodist Episcopal Church was the first missionary to combine the work of holiness and a totally self-supporting program.  Taylor first conceived the idea of self-supporting work while in California where he labored from 1849 to 1856 among the miners and gamblers of the California gold rush.  This evangelist preached in rented halls, private homes, and most often in the streets.  In 1870 Taylor journeyed to India where he helped to organize the South India Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  He made his most lasting contribution to the cause of Wesleyan holiness as the first Methodist Missionary Bishop to Africa.²⁷

     Taylor and his associates in Africa inaugurated the idea of dividing their forces into two equal companies in order to establish a chain of fifteen to twenty holiness missions across the continent.  One party entered at Loanda on the west coast under the leadership of William Taylor and traveled toward Tanganyika Lake, a distance of about 2,500 miles.  Dr. W. Summers headed the other group which consisted of twenty-two white missionaries, eight men and fourteen women, along with their fifteen children and carriers.  They traveled from the east coast up the Cuanza River, a distance of 120 miles.  At this point they journeyed another one-thousand miles on foot into Central Africa where they joined the Taylor party.  Along the way each group established holiness mission stations.  Two missionaries remained behind at each of these respective sites where they made arrangements for the physical development of the station.²⁸  First they entered:

...into agreement with the local chief and his people, agreeing on their part to import good preachers and teachers from the New World free of expense to the tribe and to purchase tools and machinery for industrial schools.  The chief and his people, on their part, are required to give a thousand acres of land for each school-farm, to provide subsistence for the preachers and teachers; to build houses for the workers, and to pay a small monthly fee for the tuition of the scholars.  Boys and girls may work for their tuition.  Those wishing a full course must be allowed to remain in the school at least five years.  By this agreement the natives are made to feel that they have made a valuable acquisition and the mission is at once put upon a permanent self-supporting basis.²⁹

     Such stations cost approximately two-thousand dollars each to put in full operation and the expense of each missionary from departure in American to being set-up in a fully operational mission and school in Africa averaged five-hundred dollars.  In turn money donated by individuals in the United States went only for transportation to the field and none alloted for return fares.   Once planted on foreign soil these evangelists worked with the local people in such a way as to exemplify Christ and at the same time support themselves.  By October, 1887, the Guide to Holiness reported that the self-supporting mission board selected thirty-two more consecrated missionaries to leave New York as of the first of October of that same year.³⁰

     No fewer than thirty-five self-supporting stations existed in Africa by December 1890.  William P. Dodson, the missionary in charge at the Loanda Mission, estimated the value of the property there at eight-thousand United States dollars.  Loanda, a Portuguese settlement of seventeen -thousand natives and one-thousand Europeans, provided fertile evangelistic soil for Missionary Dodson.  William Taylor described Dodson as "a fine linguist in both the Portuguese and Kimbunda languages; a good  musician, vocal and instrumental; and a good doctor who had attended medical lectures in Philadelphia.  A similar work in Sos Town under the supervision of Rev. H. V. Ekman started in June, 1888, and within a year and a half boasted the organization of three sub-stations twenty to eighty miles inland.  At each location, nationals directed by Pastor Ekman built dwellings and a chapel for their native ministers.  By December, 1890, Ekman reported that no fewer than 165 men and ten women had abandoned heathenism and accepted Christ as their personal savior.³¹

     Self-supporting missions also existed in South America under the direction of evangelists sent there by Bishop Taylor, Rev. Oscar Krauser labored on the western coast among a group of German colonies.  There this evangelist reported that he was well accepted by the locals and that as many as sixty in one place desire prayer with the result reported that the "spirit of God moved on the whole congregation" in such a way that they all professed Christian conversion.  At another colony he met with a similar scene, and in response organize fifteen families into a religious band.  Such accounts constituted the norm for missionary work under the control of William Taylor.  Besides his constituents in Africa.  Taylor had sent three missionaries to India, two to Burma, and twenty-two to South America, all on the self-supporting plan, by May, 1879.³²

     This independent success stimulated jealousy at times in the ranks of the official Methodist Missionary Society.  This took the form of statements of apprehension which surfaced in official Methodist periodicals over the self-supporting method.  The Western Christian Advocate quoted Drs. R. L. Dashiell and John M. Reid as paid representatives of the church when they derided the methods used by Bishop Taylor.  William McDonald editor of the Advocate of Christian Holiness, responded:

We would kindly suggest that brethren who receive $5,000 a year and their traveling expenses, simply to keep the missionary ship afloat, with the aid of a million and a half of members behind them, are not the men to talk about 'irresponsibility' on the part of a man who has, by his own untiring efforts, supported himself and family, and aided by the pittance of a few earnest friends, has during the past year sent twenty-seven missionaries to new fields of lab or, and has several more ready to depart; and all this, while this colossal institution which these Secretaries run has failed to add a single man to the laborers in the foreign field during that time.  We do not object to the $5,000, but these flings at William Taylor's work.³³

     The "Pauline Wesleyan Plan" employed by Taylor served as a model and a catalyst for the establishment and operation of holiness schools for outgoing missionaries.  These operated on the same self-supporting methods as did Bishop Taylor and his workers.³⁴  Mrs. William Osborn initiated such a school in  the fall of 1884 near Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, where she in cooperation with her husband in August, 1884, founded the Wesley Park Camp Meeting Association for returned missionaries.  The school at this place followed a prescribed course of study which included: foreign languages; Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, two Indiana dialects--Hindustani and Marathi--and English; church history; science; and music.  The Bible served as the primary textbook and final authority.  In time the school at Wesley Park inspired Mrs. Osborn to start the Union Missionary Training Institute of Brooklyn, New York, and  a Missionary Training School in Philadelphia.  These offered similar courses of study except at Philadelphia.  Here Mrs. Osborn arranged for qualified students to take selected couirses at the Woman's Medical College located adjacent to her training school.  Students accepted the responsibility of all domestic chores at each of these educational institutions.  This helped to instill a sense of discipline in each pupil.  As Bishop Taylor said, "Those who are going to the heathen as ambassadors of Christ, the carpenter, successors of Peter the fisherman, and Paul the tentmaker, should certainly feel it no disgrace to cook their own food, wash their own clothes, and scrub their own floors."  Such missionary training schools worked in close cooperation with other independent holiness schools in America.³⁵

     These included:  Pauline Holiness College, College Mound, Missouri; The Holiness School, Coldwater, Michigan; Missionary Training College, Beulah Park, near East Oakland, California; Texas Holiness University, Greenville, Texas; God's Bible and Missionary Training Home, Cincinnati, Ohio; Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky; Pacific Bible College, Los Angeles, California.³⁶  At these institutions students received not only training for foreign missions but also for Christian work such as pastors, evangelists, Christian teachers, and musicians--instrumental and vocal.

     Pauline Holiness college opened its doors to 101 students on September 4, 1883, reportedly, the first distinct holiness school in the United States.  O. C. Redd acquired the building at College Mound, Missouri, known formally as McGee College, from the Cumberland Presbyterians who built it at an approximate cost of $35,000.  Rev. Jasper Smith who acted as the first president stated, "This is an institution for both  sexes for their intellectual, moral and religious training based on scriptural methods."  They opposed the use of all intoxicants, and President Smith asserted, "We train the young for Bible living, salvation work for the kingdom of Christ and to avoid the works of the devil."  Instructors expected students to exhibit physical as well as moral purity.  Special school revivals held in the spacious thousand-seat chapel provided students and faculty alike with a welcome break from their day-to-day scholastic activities.  At one such assembly as many as two-hundred stood indicating their need for justification or sanctification.  In the light of such enthusiasm one correspondent confirmed that  many received experiences in Christ and that "under the purifying and unifying power of God, Hell's kingdom received an everlasting overthrow in many hearts while the walls of prejudice, ignorance, and carnality tumbled flat."³⁷

     A similar school started on September 1, 1884, at Coldwater, Michigan, where Lura Mains as principal accepted only girls.  Miss Mains said that inspiration for this work came to her as a result of laboring in the South among the "freedmen and poor whites."  She continued, "these do not need teachers that will set an example of the pride of life, but the poor and ignorant need to be taught industry, economy, cleanliness, and godliness."  Mains initiated her school at Coldwater in order to train young women to meet such needs.  All pupils received free tuition while individual living expenses ran to sixty-five dollars for the forth-week school term.  Initially she had one dollar with a payment of $2.50 due each week for rent and no official backing from any group, but as she said, "We trust God for it all."³⁸

     Principal Mains expected the fourteen girls who enrolled for the first tern to dress plainly with no ornaments of any kind, no corsets, and all clothing supported from the shoulders.  Their diets allowed for no tea, coffee or rich pastries nor meat for supper.  Students retired at 9:30 P.M., arose at 5:30 A.M. with breakfast at 5:50, dinner at 11:45, and supper at 5:15 P.M.  No one could leave the grounds without permission nor under any circumstances attend dances, gaming parties, fairs, circuses or any other activity that might lead the student away from God.  As one eye witness said, "strict purity, plainness, and simplicity" marked the daily routine.³⁹

     The Michigan School opened its third year in new surroundings at Dutton with an enrollment of fifty-nine pupils, forty-three as boarding students.  Individuals expenses could be paid in cash or worked out.  September 1 to May 20, 1887, school expenses totaled:

     Free will donations from individuals of many of the major protestant denominations made it possible for these expenses to be met.  A Congregationalist from Chicago sent one-hundred dollars, a Methodist in Ohio sent twenty dollars through reading the Guide to Holiness, a Wesleyan Methodist sent twenty dollars, a Mennonite gave fifteen dollars, a United Brethren and a Seventh Day Adventist gave ten each.  Small donations, from a dollar down, made up the bulk of money received.  As Miss Main said, "We do not care how God sends it, in large amounts or small, only so the expenses are met."⁴¹

     The turn of the century witnessed one holiness school after another established on the fertile plains of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.  The Wesleyan Methodist Church of American started a school in the Jayhawk State at Eskridge, Kansas, on March 11, 1902.  This resulted primarily through the benevolence of William Trusler who donated "a two story stone edifice which had two rooms for school administrative purposes and four classrooms."⁴²  The stated primary purpose of the school revolved around the equipping of young men and women to accept the responsibilities of life and at the same time to lead all who would into the experience of perfect love.  By January 1, 1903, the students at the school published their own periodical, The Bible School Advocate.  This publication continued at least until September, 1904.⁴³  The school remained under the control of the Wesleyans until the Kansas Annual Conference withdrew its support.  However, the Eskridge facility continued to operate through freewill donations until at least 1916.  During this interval it served as one of the primary institutions where many of the radical/conservative holiness people sent their children.  Editor A. McKinnon of The Two Fires justified the existence of such a school when he asserted that the "public schools are infested with one or more of the following evils: 'Evolution,' 'Catholicism,' 'Infidelity,' and 'Higher Criticism.'  Any one of these will dam your children as well as mine."⁴⁴

     E. Faulkner purchased 320 acres at Plainview, Texas for a prearranged holiness community to be centered around twenty-three acres which he donated for the Central Plains Holiness College.  A board of directors subdivided the tract into sixty city blocks with individuals building lots and broad avenues.  The School received approximately $7,800 on its part for land sold adjacent to the central campus.  According to Frank Alexander, such institutions provided industrial, literary, and Bible oriented training for their students.  Here instructors pointed each pupil to Christ as "Savior, sanctifier, healer, and coming King."⁴⁵

     Rev. B. A. Cordell donated forty-two acres at Greenville, Texas, a city of 9,000.  The Holiness Camp Meeting Association  Board of Directors laid out the campus for Texas Holiness College and the surrounding community in much the same way as did their counterparts in Plainview.  Prices for building lots surrounding the campus ranged from seventy-five dollars to $150 and all proceeds from their sale went toward the start of the college.  Actual class work began in the fall of 1899 with twenty-seven students and Rev. A. M. Hills, a former professor at Asbury College, President.  Tuition for each of the three twelve-week school terms was thirty-two dollars per pupil.  In addition to their many other college activities the students ran a nightly rescue mission in Greenville.  President Hills stated that as many as thirty individuals received either justification or sanctification during the first year at the rescue mission.⁴⁶

     The untiring efforts of President Hills and his qualified staff contributed to the steady increase of Texas Holiness College as revealed by 340 students attending the 1905-1906 term.  During the first two years of operations, the girls' dormitory accommodated all the classrooms and the dining hall provided suitable space for chapel.  One physical improvement after another marked the development of the school.  The Texas Holiness Advocate announced the culmination of this effort with the near completion of a new sixteen-thousand dollar academic building in June, 1906.  The dimensions of this brick structure measure ninety-five feet by sixty feet with an entrance wing of fourteen feet by forty-four feet.  School officials obtained a loan of five-thousand at eight per cent interest to complete this project, but the other buildings at Texas Holiness College remained debt free.  As one advocate stated, this success story illustrated the compatibility between continued growth and the spiritual interests of the college.⁴⁷

     Another holiness educational institution, God's Bible-School and Missionary-Training Home, opened its doors to the public in September, 1900.  Here the primary branches of education; mathematics, grammar, history, geography, orthography, penmanship, and music received emphasis in such a way as to provide each pupil with a better understanding of the scriptures.  The founder, Martin Wells Knapp observed:

The school is only for those who wish to make a speciality of the word of God with such other studies as may be necessary,... It is not a reformatory; it is not a sparking school; it is not a stuffing school.  Instead of the jamming process in vogue in most schools, we teach the pupil how to study, how to investigate, how to express thoughts, and how to succeed as a well-equipped soul-sinning worker.⁴⁸

     Knapp purchased the property for this school at Rhingold, Young, and Channing streets in the Mount Auburn area of Cincinnati in July, 1900.  For this site he paid $20,000 with $3,000 down and the balance to be liquidated in ten equal payments.  By August 1, Editor Knapp moved The Revivalist press from its previous location in the YMCA Building.  At the same time, Knapp scheduled all future Salvation Park Camp-Meetings to be held each year starting on the last Friday in June on what he referred to as "this Mount of Blessing."  Here over the main entrance Knapp fixed the school motto, "Back to the Bible," and below it a sketch of the Holy Bible with a cross and crown.  The founder stated, "So, God has a place in Cincinnati where a full gospel can be preached."⁴⁹  Actually M. W. Knapp acquired his inspiration for God's Bible-School from the Revivalist Chapel.  Knapp initiated this inner-city rescue work and day school in 1899 under the auspices of the International Holiness Union and Prayer League.⁵⁰

     This union of holiness advocates traced its inception from an organizational meeting held in September, 1879, at the Cincinnati home of Evangelist Knapp.  This group grew rapidly while its leaders; Seth C. Rees, President; Martin Wells Knapp, Vice-President; W. H. Hurst, Secretary; G. W. Ruth, Treasurer; gradually assumed the responsibility of performing the primary duties associated with the ministers of any recognized denomination.  Members finalized this organizational process on July 3, 1900, when they adopted the name, Apostolic Holiness Union, and changed their constitution.  This provided only only "for the formation of state and local unions which are interdenominational, but for the organization of 'Apostolic Holiness Societies,' giving all church privileges where such societies are a necessity."  Justification for this final break with the old denominations centered around the growing spirit of opposition to second blessing holiness in the established churches and a desire on the part of the holiness people to return to the simplicity of apostolic first-century Christianity.⁵¹

     As Knapp asserted "the great object of the union is to form associations in the interest of suffering, ostracized people in various localities who are preaching without denominational homes, it favors Union Societies wherever they will best serve the interest of holiness."  Rev. Seth C. Rees formerly of Providence, Rhode Island, compared the establishment of independent societies in Ohio to ones in New England which had prove successful since the late 1880's.  Rees observed:

The hottest churches on the Atlantic Coast are independent; for ten years we have proven that the best results in soul-saving are reached by independent churches, independent missions, and independent camp-meetings.  Therefore, we desire to see god's holy people withdraw from hopelessly dead churches and organize independent churches.  Life is too short, eternity is too long, and these times are too eventful for us to waste our....energies cannonading upon an empty battlefield.⁵²

     The following many name changes revealed the development of this movement during its first twenty-five years--1897-1905 as International Apostolic Holiness Union and Prayer League, 1905-1913 as International Apostolic Holiness Church, 1919-1922 as International Holiness Church, and the Pilgrim Holiness Church upon merger with the Pilgrim Church of California in 1922.  This group further increased its outreach when it absorbed a number of smaller bodies: The Pentecostal Rescue Mission of New York, 1922; The Pentecostal Brethren in Christ of Ohio, 1924; the People's Mission Church of Colorado, 1925; and the Holiness Church of California, 1946.  By the 1930s the denomination moved toward a central organization controlled by a general board and quadrennial delegated conference.  They also moved the church headquarters from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Kingswood, Kentucky, and finally to Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Pilgrim Holiness Advocate acted as the official organ of this denomination.⁵³

     The Pilgrim Holiness Church claimed 32,765 members when it merged with the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America in 1968 to form to the Wesleyan Church.  In 1969 this body reported a total membership in the United States and Canada of 83,313 members, but by December 1982, it claimed a 33.4 per cent increase to 111,111 parishioners.  These were dispersed among 1,824 local churches where as many as 20,049 professed conversion and 6,131 sanctification.⁵⁴

     The Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene emerged during the same period and in much the same way.  Phineas F. Bresee first merged his Los Angeles based Church of the Nazarene with the Pentecostal Churches of America (With congregations in New York and in New England) at Chicago in 1907.  A year later in Pilot Point, Texas, this group united with the Holiness Church of Christ.  At its inception the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarenes boasted a combined numerical strength of 10,414 members dispersed between 228 congregations.  In 1919 the group dropped the term Pentecostal from its official title in order to disassociate themselves completely from the modern day "tongues" movement.  This group, like the Pilgrims, moved steadily toward centralization, and since 1912 the denomination has headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.  The Official organ, Herald of Holiness  was published, and in 1945 the church established a graduate theological seminary there.⁵⁵

     The Nazarenes also gained numerically through mergers with the Pentecostal Mission of Tennessee and the Pentecostal Church of Scotland in 1915, the Layman's Holiness Association of the Dakotas and Minnesota in 1922, the International Holiness Mission and the Calvary Holiness Church of Great Britain in 1952 and 1955 respectively, and the Gospel Workers Church of Canada in 1958.⁵⁶  By 1959 the church showed 478,181 official adherents dispersed between 4,867 local churches.⁵⁷

     However, a few holiness people refused to be driven from the church of their fathers.  The more prominent of these included:  John S. Inskip, William McDonald, Henry Clay Morrison, Charles J. Fowler, and Joseph H. Smith who continually warned the old line denomination:

Either the Methodist Church will see her error and repent of her departure from the teachings of John Wesley and the fathers and take this work heartily to her bosom; or, continuing her increasing hostility, she will compel those carrying it on to seek other shelter, or else the work will be destroyed.  The results are with the church itself.  The river will doubtless flow, whether in the old channel or in the new will depend, not on the brethren of the National Association, but on the church itself.⁵⁸

     The doctrine of Christian holiness as a moral protest against sin in the church had come full circle since the days of John Wesley and his Methodist Societies.  In the spirit of Christian reformers his followers in the United States during the last half of the nineteenth-century used the camp meeting system to propagate their teachings and increase their circle of influence.  This resulted in literally thousands of people being swept into a second religious experience characterized as "perfect love."  Progressively this movement fostered holiness literature and the establishment of independent holiness association.  By the 1880s and 1890s the leaders of these quasi-ecclesiastical bodies reacted progressively to the social and intellectual issues of abusive clerical politics, lack of temperance, attendance at improper amusements, worldly dress, along with the Darwin theory of evolution and Biblical criticism.  These "isms," they argued, eroded the very moral fiber of the church.  The way these activists engaged these issues led ultimately to the formation of separate churches dedicated to the preservation of moral and well as spiritual holiness.

     ¹John S. Gardner, "Center City Fifth Sunday Holiness Meeting July 27-28th," Texas Holiness Advocate (Greenville, Texas), IX, July 12, 1906, 9.     BACK

     ²"Pastoral Address," Journal of The General Conference, 1894, 25; G. W. Wilson, "Holiness vs. Southern Methodist Bishops," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston), N.S. XII, June 7, 1894, 2, 3; "Holiness Derided," Ibid., n.s. VII, December 12, 1889, 4.     BACK

     ³"Unauthorized Evangelists," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VI, January 1, 1896, 4.     BACK

     ⁴H. L. Frey, "Paragraph 302," The Pentecostal Herald (Louisville, Kentucky), X, June 15, 1898, 9.     BACK

     ⁵George D. Watson, "Dangerous Holiness Meetings," Christian Standard and Home Journal (Philadelphia), XIII, March 8, 1879, 73; "Holiness Meetings," Ibid., February 1, 1879, 36; "Church Order," Ibid., January 11, 1879, 12.     BACK

     ⁶H. L. Frey, "Paragraph 302," The Pentecostal Herald (Louisville, Kentucky), X, June 15, 1898, 9; G. W. Stone, "What Shall Be Done?  A Layman's View," Ibid., June 29, 1898, 4; J. W. Harris, "The New Law A Pastor's View," Ibid.; "The Methodist Popery of The South," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston and Chicago), n.s. XV, March 4, 1897, 8.     BACK

     ⁷"'We Forbade Him,'" Beulah Christian (Providence, Rhode Island), V, November, 1896, 2. H. C. Morrison appealed his expulsion to the Kentucky Annual Conference of which he was a member and in turn the conference rein stated him into the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. "Holiness in The M. E. Church, South," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston and Chicago), n.s. XV, February 18, 1897, 8.     BACK

     ⁸J. S. Normandy, "Greenville, Texas," The Pentecostal Herald (Louisville, Kentucky), X, March 30, 1898, 6.      BACK

     ⁹W. M. Adams, "Temple, Texas," Ibid., January 12, 1898, 5; Bud Robinson, Sunshine and Smiles, Life Story, Flash Lights, Sayings and Sermons, 75.     BACK

    ¹⁰"The McCall Mission," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), VI, December 1, 1887, 2.     BACK

    ¹¹"New Headquarters in San Francisco," Ibid., III, December 12, 1884, 2.  The distinctly holiness work in central California began in 1881 under the combined auspices of the Central California Holiness Association and the Southern California Holiness Association.  Jointly these groups published the Pacific Herald of Holiness with A. Coplin as editor.  By 1883 Coplin separated himself from the editorship of the Pacific Herald and founded The Holiness Evangelist, a periodical published in Oakland and dedicated to the establishment of independent holiness churches.  Mrs. S. Richards Boyle, "On The Pacific," Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany (New York), o.s. LXXI, March, 1883, 96, 97; A. Coplin, "The Church of Christ," The Holiness Evangelist (Oakland, California), V, September 1, 1888, 8.     BACK

    ¹²"Band Reports," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), III, December 12, 1884, 3; O. Brewer, "Holiness Work on The Pacific Coast," Michigan Holiness Record (Grand Rapids, Michigan), II, March, 1885, 74.     BACK

    ¹³"Band Reports," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), III, December 12, 1884, 3; "Local Bands," Ibid., V, June 17, 1886, 3.     BACK

    ¹⁴"Mission Work on Holiness Line," Ibid., IV, March 20, 1885, 2.     BACK

    ¹⁵George Newton, "In California," Michigan Holiness Record (Grand Rapids, Michigan) VI, November, 1888, 44.     BACK

    ¹⁶"Grand Thanksgiving Day In Stockton for The Holiness Band," Pacific Herald of Holiness  (San Francisco), III, December 12, 1884, 4.     BACK

    ¹⁷"The Salvation Army," Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany (New York), n.s. XXXIII, November, 1880, 152; "The Salvation Army," Ibid., XXXV, September, 1881, 86; "The Great Success of The Salvation Army," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston and Chicago), XII, June 21, 1894, 12, 13; "The Salvation Army," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VI, January 29, 1896, 4.     BACK

    ¹⁸Washburn, History and Reminiscenses, 26-57; "The McCall Mission," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), VI, December 1, 1887, 2; "Bethel," The Apostolic Faith (Topeka, Kansas), I, March 22, 1899, 8; "Monthly Report," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VI, November 6, 1895, 5; "Door of Hope Mission, Fort Worth, Texas," Ibid., VII, November 25, 1896, 2; "Temple Texas Holiness Mission," The Pentecostal Herald (Louisville, Kentucky), X, March 16, 1898, 15; "Vanguard Mission," The Vanguard  (St. Louis, Missouri), VIII, January 30, 1889, 1; "The Temple at St. Louis," The Revivalist (Cincinnati, Ohio), XII, August 30, 1900, 12; E. E. Otto, "The Hephzeibah Rescue Home's Work in St. Louis," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Chicago and Boston), n.s. XVI, February 10, 1898, 4, 5; "Wells Street Mission," Michigan Holiness Record (Grand Rapids, Michigan), VI, June, 1888, 6; "The Revivalist Chapel," The Revivalist (Cincinnati, Ohio), XII, February 1, 1900, 15; "Jennie Casseday Holiness Mission," Ibid., X, September, 1896, 6.     BACK

    ¹⁹F. H. Coppedge, "Door of Hope Mission, Fort Worth," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VII, November 25, 1896, 2.     BACK

    ²⁰E. E. Otto, "The Hephzeibah Rescue Home's Work in St. Louis," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Chicago and Boston), n.s. XVI, February 10, 1898, 4, 5; Ibid., April 7, 1898, 13.     BACK

    ²¹Albert Deems Betts, History of South Carolina Methodism, 414; "A Kindly Word from Sister Oliver," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VI, June 24, 1896, 2.     BACK

    ²²J. E. Duren, "Monthly Report of Oliver Gospel Mission for May," Ibid., June 10, 1896, 5.     BACK

    ²³J. E. Duren, "City Missionary's Report," Ibid., December 4, 1895, 5.     BACK

    ²⁴J. E. Duren, "Oliver Gospel Mission Monthly Report," Ibid., February 12, 1896, 5; Ibid., IS, December 7, 1898, 4.     BACK

    ²⁵Gospel Temperance Union Supplement to The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes ( Columbia, South Carolina), VI, March 25, 1896, 1-16.     BACK

    ²⁶A. Smith, "Vote Prohibition," The Vanguard (St. Louis, Missouri), VIII, January 30, 1889, 3; "Prohibition a Bible Doctrine," Law and Gospel (Hutchinson, Kansas), II, October, 1886, 80; "Rum, Rum," Fire and Hammer (North Topeka, Kansas), December, 1883, 4; T. DeWitt Talmage, "Prohibition War, National Prohibition," Holiness War News  (Irving, Kansas), 1, January, 1891, 4; Nettie Arnold, "Our National Curse," Ibid., July, 1891, 4; "An Irrepressible Conflict Upon Us," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston), n.s. IX, June 18, 1891, n.p.     BACK

    ²⁷"William Taylor and His Continental Diocese," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), IV, April 17, 1885, 1.  Taylor did not stay for any length of time at one mission station.  His traveling expenses plus the support of his family in the states constituted a large expenditure each year which the bishop met through the sale of his many publications.  These dealt mainly with his extensive travels and included: Adventures in South Africa, Four Years Campaign in India, Ten Years Self-Support Missions, Our South American Cousins, Seven Years Street Preaching.   "Departure of Missionaries," Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany (New York), n.s. XXXI, November, 1879, 149, 150; William Taylor, "William Taylor's Workers," Advocate of Christian Holiness (Boston), o.s. XI, June, 1879, 142; "Publications of Bishop Wm. Taylor," Michigan Holiness Record (Grand Rapids, Michigan), III, October, 1885, 48.     BACK

    ²⁸"Subduing Africa With Jewsharps," Fire and Hammer (North Topeka, Kansas), II, July, 1885, 3; "Bishop Taylor's," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), III, December 12, 1884, 1.  Some of the many items packed inland included: Steel hand tools for building, small musical instruments, and thirty-thousand yards of calico which acted as currency.  "Subduing Africa With Jewsharps," Fire and Hammer (North Topeka, Kansas), II, July, 1885, 3.     BACK

    ²⁹"Wm. Taylor's Mission," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), VI, April 28, 1887, 4.     BACK

    ³⁰"Bishop Taylor's Work," Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany (New York), o.s. XC, October, 1887, 315.     BACK

    ³¹"Letter from Bishop Taylor," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston), n.s., VII, September 19, 1889, 5; "From Dark Africa," Holiness War News (Irving, Kansas), I, January, 1891, 4.     BACK

    ³²William Taylor, "William Taylor's Workers," Advocate of Christian Holiness (Boston), o.s. XI, June, 1879, 142.     BACK

    ³³"William Taylor's Work," Ibid., July, 1879, 165.     BACK

    ³⁴Ibid.     BACK

    ³⁵"Training Homes," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), V, May 27, 1886, 2; William Taylor, "Missionary Training School," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston), n.s. IX, January 1, 1891, 4; "Missionary Training School," Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany (New York), o.s. LXXXII, July, 1888, 2.      BACK

    ³⁶"Pauline Holiness College, College Mound, Mo.," Fire and Hammer (North Topeka, Kansas), III, January, 1885, 4; Lura A. Mains, "Holiness School," Michigan Holiness Record (Grand Rapids, Michigan), III, October, 1885, 48; Charles E. Lambert, "Schools of The Prophets," Pacific Herald of Holiness (San Francisco), V, September 9, 1886, 3; A.M. Hills, "Texas Holiness University," Texas Holiness Banner (Sunset, Texas), I, February, 1900, 14; J. W. Hughes, "A Holiness College," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Chicago and Boston), n.s. XIII, June 13, 1895, 3; "Pacific Bible College," The Pentecost (Los Angeles, California), XXI, September 14, 1905, 4.      BACK   

    ³⁷"Salvation at Pauline Holiness College," Fire and Hammer (North Topeka, Kansas), I, October, 1884, 2; "College Mound Revival Again," Ibid., 6; Cowen, "Church of God (Holiness)," 33-39.     BACK

    ³⁸Lura A. Mains, "Holiness School," Michigan Holiness Record (Grand Rapids, Michigan), II, August, 1884, 34.     BACK

    ^39"Michigan Holiness School, Rules and Regulations," Ibid., III, December, 1885, 58.     BACK

    ⁴⁰Lura A. Mains, "Report of Holiness School," Ibid., V. July, 1887, 22.     BACK

    ⁴¹Ibid.     BACK

    ⁴²Wayne E. Caldwell, "The History of The Kansas Conference of The Wesleyan Methodist Church of America 1871-1968," Ph.D. dissertation (Denver, Colorado: The Iliff School of Theology, 1969), 194, 195.  Cited hereafter, Caldwell, "History of Kansas Conference."     BACK

    ⁴³Third Annual Catalogue of The Kansas Wesleyan Bible School Eskridge, Kansas, 2, 3; The Bible School Advocate (Eskridge, Kansas), I, January 1, 1903, 1; Ibid., II, September 1, 1904, 1.     BACK

    ⁴⁴Caldwell, "History of Kansas Conference," 198, 199; "The Revival," The Two Fires (Eskridge, Kansas), III, April 1, 1912, 4, 5; A. McKinnon, "The Bible School," Ibid.  (Scammon, Kansas), VIII, December 1, 1916, 4.     BACK

    ⁴⁵C. J. Menifee, "History of Holiness on The Plains," Pentecostal Advocate (Peniel, Texas), X, January 3, 1907, 3: Frank T. Alexander, "Emmanuel's Bible School, Beulah, Oklahoma," Ibid., February 21, 1907, 9.    BACK

    ⁴⁶A. M. Hills, "Texas Holiness University," Texas Holiness Banner (Sunset, Texas), I, February, 1900, 5; "Texas Holiness University," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston and Chicago), n.s. XVII, June 15, 1899, 12; A. (Cincinnati, Ohio), XII, September 6, 1900, 12.     BACK

    ⁴⁷L. B. Williams, "Texas Holiness University," Texas Holiness Advocate (Greenville, Texas)," IX, June 28, 1906, 1.  Mary Catching, "Holiness University, Greenville, Texas," Texas Holiness Advocate (Sunset, Texas), I, December, 1899, 5.  Asbury College initiated in 1890 by J. W. Smith at Wilmore, Kentucky, stood as one of the premier holiness schools in the United States.  For Primary accounts surrounding the formative years of this institution see E. F. Walker, "A Holiness College," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston and Chicago), n.s. XIII, June 13, 1895 3; A. M. Hills, "A College Teaching Holiness," Ibid., XVI, June 16, 1898, 15; George R. Buck, "Asbury College, Wilmore, Ky.," Ibid., June 23, 1898, 13; "Commencement at Asbury," The Pentecostal Herald (Louisville, Kentucky), XII, June 13, 1900, 8.     BACK

    ⁴⁸"God's Bible-School," The Revivalist (Cincinnati, Ohio), XII, July 26, 1900, 14, 15; "God's Bible-School," Ibid., August 30, 1900, 15.     BACK

    ⁴⁹"Change of Address," Ibid., August 9, 1900, 3: "God's Bible-School and Missionary-Training Home," Ibid., August 30, 1900, 3; "God's Bible-School and Missionary-Training Home," Ibid., August 30, 1900, 4; "Bible-School Opening," Ibid., October 11, 1900, 15; "Dedication Service" Ibid., 15, 16.     BACK

    ⁵⁰"The Revivalist Chapel," Ibid., January 25, 1900, 11.     BACK

    ⁵¹"The Apostolic Holiness Union," Ibid., August 2, 1900, 12; Seth C. Rees, "Apostolic Holiness Union," Ibid.     BACK

    ⁵²Seth C. Rees, "Independent Holiness Churches," Ibid., October 14, 1900, 2.     BACK

    ⁵³Jones, Guide to Holiness Movement, 421, 422.  For a more complete account of the Pilgrim Holiness Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America until their 1968 merger see Paul Westphal and Paul William Thomas, The Days of Our Pilgrimage, edited by Melvin E. Dieter and Lee M. Haines, J.: Ira F. McLeister and Roy S. Nicholson, Conscience and Commitment, History of The Wesleyan Methodist Church of America, edited by Lee M. Haines, Jr., and Melvin E. Dieter.     BACK

    ⁵⁴Statistical Report of The Wesleyan Church, 1983 Edition, Based on The 1982 Statistical Reports of The Provisional General Conferences, Districts, Departments, Agencies, and Institution of The Wesleyan Church Worldwide, Ronald R. Brannon, General Secretary of The Wesleyan Church, 6, 7, 16.     BACK

    ⁵⁵Jones, Guide to Holiness Movement, 132-135.  For a primary account of the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene parent bodies see Church of The Nazarene (Los Angeles, California), November, 1895; C. W. Ruth Manuscript, "Reminiscent," December 20, 1938, Nazarene Archives, Kansas City, Missouri; A History of The Revival of Holiness in St. Paul's M. E. Church, Providence, R. I., 1880-1887, Or a Statement of The Circumstances Which Led to The Formation of The South Providence Holiness Association and The People Evangelical Church; Government and Doctrines of The New Testament Churches of Christ; Manual of The Pentecostal Church of The Nazarene.  For the Official denominational history see, Timothy L. Smith, Called Unto Holiness The Story of The Formative Years.     BACK

    ⁵⁶Jones, Guide To Holiness Movement, 132-135.     BACK

    ⁵⁷Journal of The Twentieth General Assembly of The Church of The Nazarene edited by B. Edgar Johnson, 197.     BACK

    ⁵⁸"Open Letter to The National Holiness Association," Nazarene Messenger (Los Angeles, California), VIII, July 16, 1903. 7.     BACK