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

and liberty to preach a full salvation, and to lead seekers into the blessed experience. It was to be
where this work would be so intense and radical that none who were opposed to it would come, to
be obstacles in the way, and to defeat the work. It was to seek the conversion of the unsaved by the
way of the Pentecost, believing what Jesus said, that when the Holy Ghost is come, he will convince
the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. It was to seek especially the poor, to preach the
gospel to them, entering ever y door of ministry through which we could come and bring the good
tidings of eternal life. We did not then know, and we do not now know, what it will grow to. We are
not anxious about final results, but to do the service day by day, which we may be permitted to do
under His leadership. That day three years ago, we stood in the little hall on Main street, a little
company, neither looking backward nor forward, simply looking up. Many doubtless thought that
the outlook was poor, but the little company who waited that day, felt that the uplook was good, and
there was the light of the Divine Presence on their pathway which has never been withdrawn, and
which has never grown dim. The words spoken to Joshua have been verified to us: The doors have
been opened, the difficulties have been removed, a highway has been cast up, and there has been one
continued song of victory. Workers have come from every direction, and have been also raised up
from the stones round about. Singers and players upon instruments, and those who can proclaim the
truth of God, have been raised up under the blessed inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Souls have been
converted and sanctified from week to week, without cessation, for 156 weeks.
"It pays to follow the Lord fully. It pays in our own souls. It pays in the work that He calls us to
do. The way He leads sometimes seems to human wisdom the way of foolishness. But God's ways
are not our ways. They are so much higher and their orbits so different, that they seem to us
sometimes to be erratic. But those who follow where God leads, have no need that sympathy should
be squandered upon them. These have been the three most blessed years we have ever known. The
manifest Divine Presence, the open heavens, the sweeping glory of salvation, have far more than
made up for all else. A few weeks ago I sat with a wife beside her dying husband. They had both
come into this work through much opposition. As we sat and communed together, the wife said: 'We
have never for a moment regretted that we went into the Church of the Nazarene.' I have yet to hear
of one of that little company that went forth that day--about as many as were in that other upper
chamber--who has ever regretted it. They went forth, not to churchanity, but to spread scriptural
holiness over these lands, and their hearts have glowed and burned, not only with joy and victory,
but with thanksgiving and praise."
These words are among the noblest that have ever been uttered in the English language, and for
their simplicity, charm and lofty sentiment, deserve a place beside the greatest expressions of
Shakespeare, Bunyan, Wesley, and our own martyred Lincoln.
Some Memorable Utterances
In the issue of the church paper of February, 1899, Dr. Bresee says: "I am deeply interested in the
work of God everywhere. But I am absorbed with the battle which God gives me to fight. My eyes
are fixed on the particular fortifications of the Enemy which God has given me to storm and carry.
While I am interested in the whole army and the outcome at every point, I am overwhelmingly
absorbed in the work of the particular division He has placed me in, that it bear that blood-stained
banner on to victory. If I am so much interested in the general battle that I allow the banner of my