W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

The second Saturday and Sunday of our revival was the regular time of the quarterly meeting.
When Dr. Harris, the presiding elder of San Antonio District came along, I met him with congratulations of
rejoicing and praising God for his arrival, saying to him, “My dear brother, I am an old presiding elder and
know the duties of your office. Of course you are in charge during your appointed time and I am only an auditor
and your humble helper at your option.” Then he said, “No, brother, please excuse me from preaching, as I shall
not take your place in any of the evening services.” When I insisted that he should feel free to fill his regular
appointment, he said, “I have read in the Bible of a man by the name of Uzzah, who dropped dead because he
took hold of God's ark. I shall certainly profit by his sad fate, for I have never, (and he was on old man) seen a
meeting like this in all of my life. The power of God here manifest throughout this whole town actually excels
anything I have ever known. Therefore I am not willing to do anything, lest I might grieve the Holy host, who is
working here as I never saw in all my life. Truly the people old and young, great and small, saints and sinners,
all manifest to me that they are wrought upon by the Holy Ghost as I never saw before. And I do realize that it is
most unmistakably the presence and power of God.” Such was the verdict of the presiding elder on his arrival
Saturday morning to hold his quarterly meeting. He utterly refusing to take the meeting it devolved on me to do
the preaching; therefore I preached to them on sanctification, closing with an invitation for seekers. Among
others, he took his place at the altar; the Lord sent the power and souls tided over.
After dismissal he took me aside and said, “I have a confession to make to you. Whereas the preachers in my
district had called you to come and hold revival meetings for them, since your arrival they have again written to
you, rescinding all of those engagements and closing their churches against you.” I responded, “Please, brother,
give yourself no trouble about that; it is all right; God will open doors enough.” Then he proceeded, “But,
brother, hold on and let me make my confession.
You must not blame those pastors for rescinding their calls and closing you out. I am to blame for that, because I
ordered them to do so, pursuant to a letter received from the pastor at San Marcus, stating that he had
entertained you in his own house, and gotten acquainted with you and found you to be a wild fanatic, crazy on
holiness, and if I did not want all the churches ruined, the thing to do was to keep you out. Therefore I wrote to
all of my preachers, as he sent me the list of your calls, (as you had given it to him), ordering them to write you
at San Marcus, in care of that pastor, rescinding their calls. I also wrote to Brother Shaw at this place to rescind
and close you out, but I am very glad he did not obey my order, which I assure you I gave in the integrity of my
heart. As to all the balance, I see now I was led astray by the San Marcus pastor, who (as I hope, innocently)
misrepresented you as a wild fanatic. I find you nothing but an old-style Methodist preacher on the Wesleyan
line and preaching (as we all ought to) with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven. I have thoroughly
investigated to my own satisfaction, since I came to this town, and find it is truly the work of God and is as free
from fanaticism as anything I ever saw, and just what I want throughout San Antonio District. I will now write at
once to all these brethren, confessing my mistake and telling them to renew their calls at once.”
The preachers thereafter no longer waited on the slow run of the mails, but poured telegrams on me from all
directions, urging me to come at once. The result was that I found the whole Conference open to me and stayed
there six months, going from city to city, and witnessing the mighty work of God.
The time of the quarterly meeting was really opportune, coming as it did twelve days after my arrival, because I
found Satan so impregnably fortified that if the quarterly meeting had come off a week sooner, it would have
been too early for the coming power. Consequently the presiding elder would have skedaddled me out; but the
twelve days' run by the blessing of God had brought us over the crisis. Then the walls of Jericho had fallen
down flat and God had descended, so putting His subduing hand on the whole community that all of the people
coming, recognized His presence, halted in their tracks, trembled and soliloquized, “Surely God is in this place;
and this is none other than the house of God and the gate to Heaven.”
In this we have a brilliant illustration of what God will do if you are true to Him. That place was so awfully
wicked, and the Church so captured by Satan, that the terrific Gospel, which was absolutely indispensable to
their conviction, actually provoked that mob, who aimed to kill me. But God is always more than a match for
the devil and all his myrmidons. He came to my relief, and put down His omnipotent hand on all the people in a
conviction which suddenly and unexpectedly paralyzed all their Satanic devices and put the importunate cry in