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