Phineas F. Bresee - A Prince In Israel - Media Sabda Org

Church Extension: Geo. Newton, F. G. Woodward, Mrs. Ely, W. H. Slack, Mrs. Robert Young.
Rev. Mrs. De Lance Wallace, pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene, at Spokane, Wash., read
an interesting report, stating that the church held its services in a rented hall; that there were 175
members; that there was a promising class of twenty at Garfield; and that God was giving them
blessed victory in the work.
The roll-call of the Assembly disclosed a total membership of ninety, most of whom seem to have
been present. The Rev. R. Pierce was elected secretary, and Rev. C. W. Raymond assistant secretary.
Dr. Bresee was re-elected as General Superintendent, and Rev. E. A. Girvin was appointed historian,
and requested to write the history of the Church of the Nazarene up to that time.
During the progress of the Assembly a great home campmeeting was conducted by the Rev. G W.
Ruth, assisted by Rev. Isaiah Reid, Rev. S. S. Chafe, Mrs. De Lance Wallace, Rev. George Newton,
Rev. R. Pierce, and others. The glory of God was present throughout these great services, and some
two hundred seekers knelt at the altar, most of whom claimed either pardon or purity.
Rev. Isaiah Reid, of Iowa, thus describes this great meeting, in the Nazarene Messenger, of
December 10, 1903:
"It is a great inspiration to face a congregation of from one thousand five hundred to two
thousand, where one feels that the expectation and the joy is to hear, not only about the 'common
salvation,' but that uncommon measure of it involved in full salvation. An anti-holiness preacher who
perchance might have found himself in this pulpit to preach, would find himself unable 'to go on
without proceedin,' as the colored man explained when he found himself unable to introduce the
subject he had in mind. With such countenances before him, such a regiment of eyes looking him
full in the face, and such an atmosphere around him, anti-holiness insinuations, even in his words,
would paralyze his tongue, and the ringing chorus of 'No! No! No!' confuse his thought world.
Imagine him in such a tidal wave as struck us the last Thursday night of the meeting. The very
building seemed surcharged with the divine presence. The songs took fire at once. The melody was
grand, but the thought in the words was like fire in the dry grass on a prairie on a windy evening.
When there was prayer, it was in pentecostal measure. The season of song surpassed the former. The
organ was more melodious. The piano keys danced to the holy music, and the chorus of four horns
was actually needed to give fuller tone and additional noise to the voluminous chorus of human
voices. The evening thankoffering went in as an actual part of the service. Then we sang again.
When the hymn was ended, some of it had to be sung again, for the praise spirit was not yet satisfied.
When one song ended, some one in the congregation would strike up some other chorus. When this
was done, another in another part of the house would do the same. At last the shouts drowned the
songs. The hands went up of their own accord till they looked like a miniature forest. Then each tree
in the forest waved with a white handkerchief. It was like the noise of many waters. Brother Ruth
had arisen to try to preach. He could not. Once he got to where he thought he could read the text, b
ut again the shouts broke out, and the strong cedars of Lebanon bent again and again from the mighty
wind from the skies. The altar began to fill up. The rest of the evening was all taken up with altar
work. Few will ever forget that mighty cyclone of divine power."