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

this occasion they asked the Lord to enable them to bring $300 and lay it on the table. When the
money was counted, however, it was discovered that $400 had been brought. This amount was
sufficient to buy the boards and shingles with which to put up an addition to the building. In this
plain, unpretentious, and yet comparatively commodious place, the congregation worshiped for about
seven years.
This building, little more than a great barn, enters into the history of the Nazarene movement, and
becomes one of the sacred places, full of hallowed memories. In connection with it, we can not but
recognize the Divine providence which began more and more to be made manifest with reference
to the work. Truly the plan of God could be seen in the fact that this place, so unpromising in all
outward things, should be made a center, or point of converging conditions, for multitudes. Here it
was that the outgoing of great tides of spiritual life and influence began to mark more clearly the
Divine call that entered into this work It could not be more evident that the very place of beginning
was arranged with Divine wisdom.
Los Angeles was one of the eyes of the world. To it people came from every part of the land, and
from other lands. Many of them began to get in touch with the fire that burned and glowed in this
tabernacle. They felt the impulse of the constant tides of blessing and salvation, and the touch of
Divine power. Many of them came into the glorious experience of full salvation, and carried the
sacred fire back to the lands from whence they had come, thus blazing the way for the work of full
salvation.
During these years there was a constant and sweeping revival, and God gave mighty victory in
the sanctification of believers and conversion of the unsaved. People were drawn to the services by
curiosity, as well as the ordinary impulses which move people to places of worship. It seemed to be
not only a new, but a somewhat strange thing, to have a center of fire in the city, where the people
triumphed in the power of the gospel, and men and women were being saved from week to week
throughout the year. The triumphant songs and mighty shouts of salvation were heard around about,
sometimes to the displeasure, and sometimes to the joy of the people. It came to be in some sense
one of the sights to be seen by strangers in the city.
This was illustrated by a scene like the following: A company of tourists one day, leaving the city
for their eastern homes, were overjoyed to tell what they had seen in Los Angeles, and one of them
asked: "Did you go to the Church of the Nazarene?" The other answered "No, we heard about it, and
intended to go but in some way were hindered." The first rejoined: "Well, you ought to have gone.
You never saw anything like it. The people sang and shouted and stood up and said they were
sanctified, and it was the greatest thing you ever saw."
On one occasion a gentleman secured a bus and driver to show him the sights of the city. Among
other places, he was taken to the Church of the Nazarene. Stopping before a place which looked
more like a great barn than anything else, the driver opened the door of the bus and said: "This is the
Church of the Nazarene." The stranger alighted, looked at it for sometime, and then asked: "Is that
all?" No, it was not all. It was the least part. To use the words of Dr. Bresee: "It was the fire that
burned within that gilded its boards with glory, and made them shimmer and shine with the
glistening light of heaven. When the multitude is gathered together and there are hundreds of one