W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

likewise.
There is nothing in it which will not prove a blessing to the reader.
My life has been quite eventful. God sanctified me fifteen years before the Holiness Movement reached the
Great South, where I was born and reared, and He used me to preach entire sanctification from the Atlantic
Ocean to Mexico in anticipation of the oncoming movement. You will also find in this history a ten years' war
with the Campbellites and everything you need on the great baptismal controversy, in which all need light and
grace to walk in it.
This book will be about the size and make of my large Commentaries and will sell perhaps for $1.50. You and
your children cannot do without it.
God bless you.
W. B. Godbey
EXORDIUM
(Introduction)
The Bible is the biography of Christ, excarnate in the Old Testament and incarnate in the New.
It also contains the abbreviated biographies of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and saints. The journey of life is
so precarious, perilous and pestilential that we need all possible help by way of information, warning and
counsel, especially in youth, in order to qualify us to steer between Scylla on the one hand and Charybdis on the
other, as in case of deflection either way, one of the insatiable whirlpools is certain to engulf our foundering
bark. The Bible is the most important of all books. Its biographical phrases are pre-eminent in value, especially
to the young who are so much better qualified to understand them than its doctrinal teachings, which become so
profitable as we advance in years. After the Bible, sainted biographies come next and should be put into the
hands of children and young people, accompanied by special encouragement, with time and opportunity to read
them.
The biographies of criminals, e. g., John A. Murrill, Captain Kidd, Jesse James, Younger Brothers, etc., should
be burned to ashes by fathers and mothers as quickly as they can get their hands on them, as every youth who
reads them takes a cobra into his bosom. This follows as a logical sequence from the seductive power of sin.
“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
That, to be hated needs but to be seen:
But seen too oft, familiar to her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
These poetic lines tell the sad story of millions now in Hell. It is awfully dangerous to hear recitals of atrocious
wickedness, and should be avoided whenever possible.
Once when a circuit rider, I happened to be at home chopping wood at the pile in the yard, when a stalwart man
that lived in the neighborhood came along on his horse cursing like a demon. I said nothing, but picked up my
hat and started out of the gate. My wife, surmising that I was going to do something with the man, said: “Mr.
Godbey, do you let Bill Heddleston alone, for he is worth fifty thousand dollars, and will kill you if you
interrupt him.” I said nothing, but crossed the street to where I had seen the Campbellite pastor at the window
reading, and said to him: “Brother, come with me to the police judge; we must arrest that man.” He refused to
go, saying: “It is not worth while.” I said:
“If you do not go with me, I will send an officer for you,” as I knew he had heard it all, and would have to
witness to it. Then he picked up his hat and went with me. Fortunately, passing a couple of squares, we met the
judge. I at once told him about the man passing our house cursing and swearing like a demon eloped from the
bottomless pit and that I wanted him prosecuted. Turning on his heel and seeing a policeman at a distance, he
roared to him to go into the livery stable, which was directly before him, mount a horse and go after Bill
Heddleston with all his might and bring him back to him.