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

F. Bresee
A PRINCE IN ISRAEL
By E. A. Girvin
CHAPTER 20
Early Editorial Activity -- Dr. Bresee Reviews the First Three Years -- Some Memorable
Utterances -- Personal Influence -- Unction -- Difficulties of the Work
Early Editorial Activity
In this chapter I shall try to give some dim outline of the scope and characteristics of the labor
performed by Dr. Bresee in connection with the church paper of which he was the chief editor for
so many years. In the issue of the "Nazarene" for October, 1898, he thus discusses the ever-present
question of the money required to carry on the work of God:
"The needs of the work in so many ways are necessarily considerable. The question is often asked,
'How will you get the money necessary to carry it on?' We believe that the work is of God, that we
are called simply to co-operate with Him, and that He is not hard up. We believe that He has the
means at His disposal for His work, and that He will put it into the minds and hearts of His servants.
With this faith we went to this work. We went with the conviction that there should be no
assessments or subscriptions; that there should be no outside methods of raising money, no begging,
nothing that would discriminate between those who were possessed of this world's goods and those
who were not; that there should be no financial classifications or barriers in the way of the poorest
to feel as much at home as the richest. We were convinced that houses of worship should be plain
and cheap, to save from financial burdens, and that everything should say welcome to the poor. We
went feeling that food and clothing and shelter were the open doors to the hearts of the unsaved poor,
and that through these doors we could bear to them the life of God. We went in poverty, to give
ourselves--and what God might give us--determined to forego provision for the future and old age,
in order to see the salvation of God while we were yet here. God has not disappointed us. While we
would be glad to do much more, yet hundreds of dollars have gone to the poor, with loving ministry
of every kind, and with it a way has been opened up to the hearts of men and women, that has been
unutterable joy. The gospel comes to a multitude without money and without price, and the poorest
of the poor are entitled to a front seat at the Church of the Nazarene, the only condition being that
they come early enough to get there. In the midst of it all, let each of us ask what will the Lord enable
me to do, that there may be meat in the house of the Lord? He allows His loving ones to be His
almoners, supremely blest in being permitted to be workers with Him. We do not give merely a
tenth-- 'our all is on the altar.' "
Dr. Bresee Reviews The First Three Years
In the issue of the "Nazarene" of September, 1898, Dr. Bresee says: "Preceded by providential
leadings that could not well be misunderstood, we stood face to face with the problem of going forth
from old relationships to a work into which the Spirit led. It was as little of our seeking as the call
of Abram from the land of Uz was his seeking. The way before us seemed just as indefinite. But it
was to be a way in which He would lead us. A few things were clear. It was to the utmost freedom