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

Phineas F. Bresee
A PRINCE IN ISRAEL
By E. A. Girvin
CHAPTER 5
Returns to Des Moines -- Sanctification of Mrs Wright -- Appointed to Council Bluffs --The
Mormons -- Difficulty of the Work in Council Bluffs -- Elected to General Conference
Sanctification Of Mrs. Wright
At the conference in the autumn of 1868, Brother and Sister Bresee were sent to their former
church at Des Moines. It was a very good charge. They had left it in a prosperous condition four
years before. This second pastorate was of two years duration. During the first year of his pastorate
in Des Moines, Brother Bresee called a 9 o'clock morning meeting, which continued for a number
of days. At one of these meetings, Mrs. E. M. Wright, a very quiet little woman, the wife of the
deputy Secretary of State, suddenly entered into the experience of full salvation, and, without any
warning, fell over in her seat. She had been seeking holiness for some time, and the Lord
wonderfully sanctified her. Brother Bresee, without realizing it, had been preaching holiness to the
best of his ability. Mrs. Wright had a very remarkable experience, and an unction, power, victory and
transformation, surpassing that of any other person that Dr. Bresee ever knew. She wrote her
experience and her pastor sent it to Mrs. Phoebe Palmer to be published in the "Guide to Holiness."
Mr. Wright took the creeping paralysis and got worse and worse through the long, long months and
years. He had two children, and came to know much poverty, losing his position and also his salary
as deputy Secretary of State, under his brother. Through all the bitter trials that came to her, Sister
Wright never flagged or faltered, and always had victory and glory. There were several others
sanctified at the same series of meetings. Otherwise, this pastorate was not very eventful. Towards
the end of the two years spent at Des Moines, Brother and Sister Bresee again visited New York.
Appointed To Council Bluffs
In the fall of 1870, largely as a result of arrangements made by Rev. Joseph Knotts, the Presiding
Elder of the Council Bluffs District, Brother Bresee was appointed to the Broadway church in
Council Bluffs. Knotts was a comparatively young man, a West Virginian, who had come to Iowa
in early life. He was in Des Moines at the time of Brother Bresee's first appointment there, and they
came to be warm friends.
The pastorate at Council Bluffs was an eventful one and lasted three years. The church building
was new, well appointed and commodious. It had been built a few years previously under the
pastorate of Rev. Knotts. Afterward difficulties had arisen and the church became heavily
embarrassed with debt.
The Mormons
The Council Bluffs District was a very difficult field. It was steeped with Mormonism. The
Mormons upon their departure from Nauvoo, Ill., stopped at Council Bluffs, where they established