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

go in the barn yard where he was. After I bought him, they put him in the barn, got a rope around his
neck and tied him up in the stall. When I came home, Brother Butin, who owned the stable, and in
whose house we lived, came running in all out of breath, saying, 'Brother Bresee, that animal you
got down there will kick the roof off the barn.' He said that I would have to do something with him.
I went out, and, sure enough, he was kicking the furthest for his size of any animal I ever saw. I
picked up a little trace chain, and as he kicked so, I struck him with this trace chain two or three
times--a very small, fine chain it was--and scared him almost to death. I never had any trouble with
him after that, except what would arise from his fear of me. I would come home and unharness that
mule, or harness him, the darkest night. The little mules served me nicely for a time. A man took a
fancy to them, and wanted to trade me out of them; so for those mules and the little buggy I had and
the harness, I got a big, five-year-old horse, a new, two-horse harness and another buggy, not quite
as good as the one I let him have, and fifty dollars. Out of that outfit, I got me a splendid pair of
horses, a fine team and a new harness--nice brass-plated harness--and kept the same buggy. So that
year I had a good living, paid my debts, and went to conference with just as fine a team as you would
see anywhere."
A Great Crisis
That year at Galesburg was a great crisis in the life of young Bresee. It tested his mental caliber,
and brought to the surface and into action qualities which might otherwise have lain dormant for
years. Of this time in his life he says: "In regard to this awful impulse which was upon me that things
should go, I do not know whether it was so much a matter of inspiration of the Spirit, or whether it
came out of my deep indignation at the kind of appointment I had received. I may not have been
intensely spiritual or religious. I can hardly define it, but it was an awful feeling of determination that
things should go. I have sometimes said that it reminded me of the fellow who met the bear, and
began to pray. He finally told the Lord that if he wouldn't help him, not to help the bear, and he
would see one of the biggest fights that ever happened. I had that kind of feeling. It should go,
anyhow; it should go; live or die, it should go. I thought that the Lord would help me, but if He did
not help me, it should go any way. I did not put it in that way, but that was about the spirit of it. I was
in desperation."
Revival Methods
On the first Sunday of his work in that circuit, he announced that in two weeks he would begin
a protracted meeting at one of his six appointments, and pledged the people to such support as he
could obtain from them. This meeting began in October and lasted until spring, the revival services
extending over the six appointments. The young circuit rider preached the best he could. He visited
the people, who were interested and came in such numbers that they filled the large schoolhouses,
where the meetings were held. After preaching, Brother Bresee would give the invitation for seekers
to come to the altar, and if they did not respond, he would go out among the people. As soon as he
had induced some one to admit the need of salvation, and kneel down, he would jump on a bench,
and call to the members of the church to gather round, thus turning the back of the place of meeting
into an altar. In this and every other possible way, he charged the Enemy, and recklessly threw
himself into the conflict. As a result, to use his own words, "The Lord gave him the country." He
once remarked to me of this period of his life: "That charge did me more good than any I ever had.