From Called Unto Holiness by Timothy L. Smith
PHINEAS BRESEE AND THE CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE

The Making of the Man

	Dr. Bresee often said that the Church of the Nazarene was born in a holiness revival. The particular revival he meant was the one which William McDonald and George D. Watson conducted while Bresee was pastor of the First Methodist Church, Los Angeles, in 1884. But the new denomination bore so much the stamp of its founder's personality that we could rather say that it was born during the scores of revivals which shaped the character of this young Methodist preacher of the Iowa Conference in the years between 1860 and 1880.

	Phineas F. Bresee was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Delaware County, western New York, on New Year's Eve, 1838. He was the second of three children. His parents, Phineas P. and Susan Brown Bresee, were both earnest Christians from their youth. As Phineas grew to manhood, his father moved first to a better farm, and then purchased a general store at the nearby town of West Davenport. The boy's advantages were few, but he improved them well. Several years at elementary school and parts of two years at an academy at Oneonta, New York, were the extent of his formal education. He was converted in a Methodist "protracted meeting" in February, 1856. Soon after he accepted an "exhorter's license," a first step toward the ministry. The next year his father visited Iowa, and decided to settle on a prairie homestead near Millersburg in that new state.

	Young Bresee soon learned that Iowa was a country where preachers were scarce and traditions free. A mere boy might be admitted to the annual conference "on trial" and be assigned to assist an older man on a Methodist circuit. He joined A. C. Barnhart on the Marengo charge late in 1857. A great revival, one of the hundreds which swept the nation, broke out in various parts of this pastorate during the following year. Bresee then was appointed to his own circuit in the Dutch settlement of Pella. He was admitted to "full connection" as a Methodist minister in 1859 and ordained an elder in 1861. Meanwhile he returned to his native New York and brought back as his bride Maria Hibbard, sister to his boyhood chum and daughter of a well-known Methodist family.

	Bresee requested a transfer from Pella in 1861 because he found that his antislavery convictions were an offense to certain people of southern blood. The heritage of abolitionism from the "burned-over district" of western New York always lay close to his heart. Concern for men's social needs was to remain a primary passion through his life. When the presiding elder sent Bresee to the hard-scrabble circuit at Galesburg, however, the assignment at first embittered, then powerfully challenged the young preacher. An awful impulse gripped him, he said, that the work must go forward. "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 anyway. . . . I was in desperation." He fanned the flames of revival from one end of his charge to the other. In a single year he received 140 people into the membership of the church, bought a comfortable parsonage, and, to his great but somewhat worldly delight, purchased a fine team of horses and a new buggy for the trip to conference in the fall.

	Bresee had, indeed, won his spurs as a Methodist pastor. Though only twenty-three years of age, he was appointed to a fine church in Des Moines, the capital city. Years later he told his biographer that the Galesburg charge had done him more good than any he ever had. "It broke me up, and broke through the chrysalis that was about me, and in some way taught me and impressed me that desperation, earnestness, intensity would win, God helping, in doing God's work."1

	Thereafter Bresee's abilities were recognized and his work was uniformly successful He rescued the Des Moines church from near financial ruin, then served two years as presiding elder of the Winterset district, covering western Iowa. He went thereafter as pastor to congregations at Chariton, Des Moines (for a second term), and Council Bluffs; then, in turn, to Red Oak, Clarinda, and Creston.

	Through these years Bresee became a trusted leader in the Iowa Conference, active especially in the missionary and temperance causes. While at Council Bluffs he served for a time as editor of the Inland Christian Advocate, semiofficial newspaper for the conference. He was elected a delegate to the General Conference which met in New York in 1872. Though one of the youngest men present, he played an important part in securing the election of the former abolitionist Gilbert Haven to the bishop's chair.

	At Red Oak, Bresee erected one of the finest church buildings in Iowa. He began his work there with his first "Home Camp Meeting." A revival broke out which lasted all winter. Hundreds of people in all walks of life were converted. During this meeting the young pastor began his lifelong custom of using popular choruses in the song services, and of training his people to do personal work during altar calls without prompting from the preacher. Here at Red Oak, also, Bresee's conviction matured that a large and commodious building was necessary to any successful gospel work. He pressed this view so earnestly that the editor of the local paper alleged that a new creed had come into being at the Methodist church. Its first article was, "Do you believe in Bresee?" and the second, "Do you believe in the early completion of the new Methodist church?" Evidently the town believed in both.

	And so it was at other places where he preached. A contemporary account of Bresee's ministry at Clarinda stressed especially "the sledge hammer blows" which "saints and sinners and sin received," the pastor's "telling talks in favor of temperance," and his "rich and racy delineations of character." The writer noted also that the largest revival this church ever enjoyed occurred the first year of Bresee's pastorate and that the largest missionary collection ever taken was during his term.2

	More important for subsequent Nazarene history than any of these events, however, was that in the winter of 1866-67 Bresee experienced for the first time the grace of entire sanctification. While presiding elder of the Winterset district, he had passed through an agonizing period of temptation to doubt. "I had a big load of carnality on hand always," he said years later, but it had appeared chiefly in impulses to anger, pride, and worldly ambition. Now, however, it took the form of doubt.

	"It seemed as though I doubted everything. I thought it was intellectual, and undertook to answer it. I thought that probably I had gone into the ministry so early in life, that I had never answered the great questions of being, and of God, and of destiny and sin and the Atonement, and I undertook to answer these great questions. I studied hard to so answer them as to settle the problems which filled my mind with doubt. Over and over again, I suppose a thousand times, I built and rebuilt the system of Faith, and laid the foundations of Revelation, the Atonement, the New Birth, Destiny, and all that, and tried to assure myself of their truth. I would build a pyramid, and walk about it and say: "It is so. I know it is so. It is in accord with Revelation. It is in accord with my intuitions. It is in accord with history and human experience. It is so and I do not question it." And I would not get through the assertions of my certainty, before the Devil or something else would say, "Suppose it isn't so, after all?" and my doubts would not be any nearer settled than they were before."3

	One snowy prayer-meeting night while he was pastor at Chariton, Bresee fell across the altar of his own church and prayed and cried to the Lord for an experience of Christ which would meet his need. At the time he was ignorant of his real condition and of the gospel of holiness as well. "But, in my ignorance," he said years later, "the Lord helped me, and gave me, as I believe, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, though I did not know either what I needed or what I prayed for." He remembered that the experience took away his tendencies to "worldliness, anger and pride," and removed the doubt as well. "For the first time, I apprehended that the conditions of doubt were moral instead of intellectual, and that doubt was a part of the carnality that could only be removed as the other works of the flesh are removed."4

	Dr. Bresee never claimed that from the time of this experience onward he was a faithful preacher of the doctrine of entire sanctification. Quite the contrary, he said later that he did not then clearly understand what had happened to him. The few who professed to be sanctified under his ministry thereafter at Des Moines, Council Bluffs, and other places owed little, he thought, to his instruction. Not for many years did he learn how to expound the doctrine in such a way as to lead others readily into the experience. In fact, by the time he moved to California in 1883, Bresee acknowledged that he was "not in the clear enjoyment of the blessing."5

	Possibly a chief reason for his dissatisfaction with his spiritual life was the same one which impelled him to move to California -- his involvement in an ill-fated gold-mining venture in Mexico. Rev. Joseph Knotts, whom Bresee had come to know first in Des Moines and then in Council Bluffs, had retired from the Methodist ministry in middle life and launched a number of business speculations. Knotts secured appointment as U.S. consul at Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1875. While there he took up options on a number of once fabulous mining properties. On his return to the States he persuaded Jay Cooke, Judge Helfenstein, and other capitalists of national reputation to join him in exploiting the holdings. Knotts made his friend Bresee his chief assistant and a director of several corporations.

	In the autumn of 1879, Bresee asked for appointment to a rather insignificant church at Creston, Iowa, apparently with the purpose of devoting a great deal of his time to these enterprises. Two years later he returned to the Broadway Church, Council Bluffs, where Knotts was a prominent member. Soon after Bresee took charge of an effort to found a new congregation in a wealthy residential section of the city. Early in 1883, however, the Missouri River overflowed its banks and wiped out so much of that portion of the city as to make the new church venture futile. At about the same time Knotts received word that native laborers at the old Prieta mine at Parral, Mexico, had set off a blast which caused an underground stream to pour into the diggings. Tools and machinery in which so much capital had been invested were completely destroyed. The mine was a total loss.

	Bresee was now in financial ruin. He decided to move to California, chiefly, he said, from embarrassment at the thought of "remaining in a country where I was supposed to be wealthy, when, in fact, I was very poor." He also determined never again to attempt to make money but to give the remainder of his life "to the direct preaching of the Word of God." Although his friend Knotts was nearly bankrupt too, he arranged a gift of one thousand dollars to finance Bresee's move to Los Angeles. In August, 1883, the family of seven children and two grandparents left Council Bluffs in an "emigrant car," that is, a railroad freight car fitted out for camp-style living. They arrived in southern California a week before the annual Methodist conference opened there.

	Bresee was invited to preach at the First Methodist Church, Los Angeles, the following Sunday. Little did he realize that he would be installed as pastor of this fine church within two weeks. His sense of defeat at having been compelled to leave Iowa under such circumstances would also have been less painful if he could have foreseen the resolution which the Iowa Conference was shortly to spread upon its records. It ran as follows:

	"Whereas, the demands of our connectional work have called for the transfer of Rev. P. F. Bresee to the Southern California Conference,

	"Resolved, 1. that we deeply regret the departure of such an esteemed and valuable member of our conference, one whose work in Iowa for twenty-five years has endeared him to many hearts and who has contributed so much to the growth of Iowa Methodism;

	"Resolved, 2. that we heartily recommend him to the esteem of our California brethren, and trust that he may have the largest measure of success among them;

	"Resolved, 3. that should he hereafter desire to return to this conference he will meet with a most cordial greeting."6

The Holiness Revival in Southern California

	In the congregation of the First Methodist Church, Los Angeles, Bresee came in contact for the first time with a strong company of laymen who professed sanctification. Their leader was Leslie F. Gay, in whose home a weekly meeting for the promotion of holiness was conducted. Gay had come to Los Angeles in failing health in 1874 and after his recovery became a pillar in the Methodist church. He operated for a while the first vegetable market in the city and eventually became manager of a large fruit ranch. He later entered the real estate and insurance business.

	The group surrounding Gay were by 1883 witnessing the initial success of their efforts to swing the Southern California Conference into line with the national holiness awakening. When their new pastor was appointed, therefore, they began immediately to pray for him. "I instinctively in spirit allied myself with them," Bresee said later, "and, while . . . I was not in the clear enjoyment of the blessing, they seemed to appreciate whatever efforts I could and did make in assisting them in the work of holiness." As early as December, 1883, the Los Angeles Methodist "District Convention," which included both lay and ministerial representatives, made Gay, Bresee, the presiding elder, R. W. C. Farnsworth, and two other pastors "a committee to correspond with the National Holiness Association with a view to the establishment of a branch Association and the securing of competent help to carry on the work." The result was an invitation to William McDonald, newly elected head of the national organization, to come to the West Coast with George D. Watson for a series of revivals.

	McDonald and Watson conducted services at Bresee's church for a period of three weeks late in 1884. The pastor said that he passed through this meeting "in general accord with both the teaching and spirit of these brethren" but he did not come to any special realization of his own spiritual lack. Afterward, however, he was awakened to pray earnestly, as he put it, for "something that would meet my needs," though he did not clearly realize "what they were nor how they could be met.''7 What happened at length must be stated in the words which Bresee himself used in describing to his close friends the experience of which he rarely spoke publicly.

	"I sat alone in the parsonage, in the cool of evening, in the front parlor near the door. The door being opened, I looked up into the azure in earnest prayer, while the shades of evening gathered about. As I waited and waited, and continued in prayer, looking up, it seemed to me as if from the azure there came a meteor, an indescribable ball of condensed light, descending rapidly toward me. As I gazed upon it, it was soon within a few score feet, when I seemed distinctly to hear a voice saying, as my face was upturned towards it: "Swallow it; swallow it," and in an instant it fell upon my lips and face. I attempted to obey the injunction. It seemed to me, however, that I swallowed only a little of it, although it felt like fire on my lips, and the burning sensation did not leave them for several days. While all of this of itself would be nothing, there came with it into my heart and being, a transformed condition of life and blessing and unction and glory, which I had never known before. I felt that my need was supplied. I was always very reticent in reference to my own personal experience. I have never gotten over it, and I have said very little relative to this; but there came into my ministry a new element of spiritual life and power. People began to come into the blessing of full salvation; there were more persons converted; and the last year of my ministry in that church was more consecutively successful, being crowned by an almost constant revival. When the third year came to a close, the church had been nearly doubled in membership, and in every way built up."8

	From this point onward, Dr. Bresee was indeed a wholehearted advocate of the second blessing. He did not, however, change his method of presentation so radically as to incur much opposition. Not until around 1890, when the holiness revival reached a considerable crisis in southern California, did he come to make that doctrine the supreme issue of all his preaching. He later regretted the indecisiveness of his earlier efforts. "If I had known more when I came to this coast, and had had experience and sense," he declared, "I could have swept the whole of Methodism into holiness. It was not set against it enough to prevent me from putting my hands on everything in Methodism in Southern California and drawing it into holiness; but I did not know enough. I neither had the experience nor the general ministerial wisdom to do it. I am very sorry."9

	One justification for Bresee's moderate course was that by 1885 California Methodism seemed to be on the verge of complete acceptance of the doctrine of entire sanctification. A direct attack upon the problem might only have produced division. In May, 1884, for example, before the McDonald and Watson revival, the Los Angeles district preachers' meeting spent an afternoon discussing how to obtain and preach holiness. They then voted to reaffirm their belief in "the doctrine of Christian perfection as taught by Mr. Wesley" and to preach it to their people. Two months later, Presiding Elder R. W. C. Farnsworth published his praise of the "Los Angeles Praying Band," which met Tuesday evenings at Leslie Gay's home. It was "a holiness meeting," he said, "in vital union and harmony with our church." Farnsworth had himself served as its president, ex officio, in obedience to the action of the district convention the previous fall. At the district camp meeting that year, he noted, many had entered into the experience of "a clean heart."10

	The Southern California Methodist Quarterly, which Farnsworth edited on behalf of the conference for several years, seems to have been entirely friendly to the preaching of sanctification. Its columns reported holiness revivals regularly, printed frequent Bible readings by Leslie F. Gay, and carried numerous articles and excerpts of sermons by Bresee, T. E. Robinson, and other leaders. The issue for March, 1885, for example, was devoted almost exclusively to the growing interest in sanctification. Arabella E. Widney, one day to become a charter member of the Church of the Nazarene, wrote against "church entertainments" which were not clearly to the glory of God. Gay contributed a biographical sketch of the evangelists McDonald and Watson. T. E. Robinson described their three weeks' revival at Bresee's church, stressing that "with true holiness comes loyalty." And William McDonald presented in this issue a lengthy argument against the view that sanctification simply enabled the Christian to continue in the "same perfect fullness of divine approbation" which he had received at conversion.

	The revival tide did not recede, despite two extended visits to southern California that summer by Bishop C. H. Fowler, an inveterate foe of what he later called "cranktification." The first conference camp meeting at the new location at Long Beach proved to be a miniature Pentecost, as the Quarterly reported with joy. Bresee, T. E. Robinson, and M. M. Bovard, president of the University of Southern California, all preached on the theme of holiness. Gay and other influential laymen were prominent leaders. Thirty-nine of the seventy-two who testified at the final Sunday morning love feast declared that they enjoyed the experience of entire sanctification, and many others expressed a desire to obtain it. At the last service Bresee preached from Eph. 5:25, equating the baptism of divine love with cleansing from all sin. Although this doctrine was basic to Methodism, he said, the preachers had "not always been as clear and definite in preaching it" as they ought to have been. At the close of the sermon he invited to the altar all who had "received a clean heart during these camp meetings." The congregation joined in farewell testimonies and songs, and in a display of holy enthusiasm like that for which Dr. Bresee later became famous.11

	Those who were in the vanguard of this holiness movement were at the same time significant leaders in all the activities of southern California Methodism. J. P. Widney, a wealthy member of Los Angeles First Church and Bresee's lifelong friend, endowed a new medical college at the University of Southern California in 1885, and became its first dean. The Widneys and the Gays were the mainstays of the "District Aid Committee," an organization devoted to securing better support for underpaid pastors. T. E. Robinson and Bresee spearheaded the new emphasis on Christian education then prominent in the conference. Both urged the importance of rearing children in the nurture of the Lord. Bresee also initiated the organization of a district home missionary society, promoted the permanent establishment of the camp meeting at Long Beach, and led the Methodists in the crusade for prohibition.12

	By the close of his term in the Los Angeles pastorate, Bresee's congregation numbered 650 members, four times that of any other in the conference. His salary was nearly twice as large as that of any other preacher of that group.

	In August, 1886, he accepted appointment to Pasadena, then just a growing village at the foot of the Sierra Madre Mountains fifteen miles away. The church building was in the process of construction and the congregation contained only about one hundred thirty members. "Bresee, what are you going to do at Pasadena?" one of his friends asked. "By the grace of God," he replied, "I am going to make a fire that will reach Heaven." Almost at once he began an evangelistic campaign, preceding the services each evening with a street meeting designed to appeal to the hundreds of men employed in building new homes in the town. By the end of the year the membership of the congregation had more than doubled, making this the second largest church in the conference.

	From August to January of Bresee's second year at Pasadena, 250 members joined the Methodist church. The Southern California Christian Advocate reported that the community was "in the full blaze of revival glory." Holiness Evangelist A. J. Bell and the team of William McDonald and J. A. Wood assisted in special services. Since it seemed impossible to enlarge the house of worship rapidly enough to care for the newcomers, the people constructed at its side a huge tabernacle, seating 2,000 persons. At the end of his second year, Bresee reported that his church numbered 700 members. His salary was $4,350, larger even than that paid at Los Angeles First Church.13

	Meanwhile many others in the conference besides Bresee were promoting holiness successfully. Throughout 1888 and 1889, McDonald and Wood conducted revivals in churches large and small. Leslie Gay became a member of the National Holiness Association in 1887. He was one of only seven laymen from the whole country so chosen and the only representative from the West Coast until Bresee himself was invited to join in 1891. Gay also received the highest honor possible to a Methodist layman when he won election to the General Conference of 1888. Meanwhile he continued to lead the "holiness meetings" at Los Angeles First Church. The pastor there reported in February, 1888, that scarcely a Sabbath passed without persons seeking sanctification at his altars.

	The editor of the Southern California Christian Advocate rejoiced that at the camp meeting at Long Beach in 1889 not a single altar invitation passed in which "a large number did not go forward seeking holiness of heart and life." When eastern leaders of the National Holiness Association came to Beulah Park, Sacramento, for the first "national" camp held in California in many years, the Advocate reported that event, too, with great enthusiasm. "The work done was in the church and for the church," the editor wrote. "All prejudices melted away before the clear presentation of the most glorious doctrine" of Methodism.14

	Bresee himself won as much public notice for his efforts to apply Christianity to social problems during his years at Pasadena as he did for his holiness preaching. He was the first to propose that the conference establish missions to the Orientals, and founded a thriving one in his own city. He also participated in the successful campaign to make Pasadena southern California's first "dry" town. One of his temperance discourses became somewhat famous as "Dr. Bresee's hyena sermon." It so angered the liquor dealers that when the dry forces won out a mob stormed the Methodist parsonage, threatening the pastor's life.15

	As Bresee closed his term at Pasadena in 1890, however, the holiness revival in California was reaching a new and critical phase. The increasing activity of independent holiness bands throughout the state greatly annoyed Methodist officials. Meanwhile the outbreak of the nationwide controversy described in an earlier chapter laid the second-blessing preachers under the necessity of demonstrating again and again their loyalty to the church.

	Thus William McDonald wrote in the California Christian Advocate on New Year's Day, 1890, that the Methodist communion was the true home of "every lover and professor of entire holiness" and the most fruitful field for his labors. This was true despite the fact, as McDonald put it, that "many of her ministers, unhappily, seem to have little interest in the subject of personal holiness, and are far from being all they should be spiritually." While the last phrase provoked an immediate though anonymous rejoinder, the discussion in succeeding issues revealed strong support for Evangelists McDonald and Wood. An article on revivals, appearing in December, 1891, concluded that, although Wesley never magnified one experience to the exclusion of another, he saw clearly that "experimental and practical holiness and church aggressiveness were identical."16

	The appearance of Bishop Willard F. Mallalieu at the Southern California Conference in the fall of 1891 increased the initial advantage which the holiness leaders held. Mallalieu appointed Bresee presiding elder of the Los Angeles district and heartily approved his plan to organize a series of holiness revivals in his territory during the coming year. By December, McDonald and Wood were back in California ready to set the project in motion. From Meridian, Mississippi, Mallalieu wrote McDonald that his heart was "wonderfully burdened for California." He had been praying that there would be "three thousand souls saved on Dr. Bresee's district this year."

	The series of campaigns began at Asbury Church, Los Angeles, where Bresee had been pastor in 1890-91. The evangelists then moved on to North Pasadena. Here the pastor sought and professed the experience of holiness, and scores of conversions resulted. Thereafter, pastors of churches large and small returned to the enjoyment and preaching of full salvation. Although the response was lukewarm in congregations like that at the University Church, heretofore not noted for a "high state of spirituality," as William McDonald put it, little public opposition appeared. The new editor of the Southern California Christian Advocate was sanctified just in time to cancel a blast he had planned to publish against the meetings. The discussions of holiness at the preachers' gatherings in April fairly swamped those who argued that the initial experience of conversion brought all the cleansing God had provided for the soul.

	The largest victory came in the last campaign, held at the First Methodist Church, Los Angeles. Bishop Mallalieu had appointed S. W. Campbell, recently from Cleveland, Ohio, as pastor of this congregation, in response to the request of certain laymen for a man who was "not radical on the subject of holiness." But the result was the same as when Bresee came there nine years before. Leslie Gay and his friends received Campbell with great tenderness, and began at once to pray for his sanctification. On the first Friday morning of the McDonald and Wood meetings there, Dr. Bresee conducted a service of testimony. At its close Campbell himself led the way to the altar. "The people cried and prayed and shouted," an eyewitness wrote, "while their dear pastor was begging for a clean heart."

	Only the Simpson Church in Los Angeles refused to cooperate with Bresee's crusade. This congregation had come into existence in 1889 as a kind of symbol of Methodist aspirations for social eminence in southern California. Numerous wealthy citizens had shared in the construction of a magnificent building which seated twenty-five hundred people and boasted finer appointments than any theater or opera house in the state. Here was dramatic proof, if any were needed, that the first massive resistance to the doctrine of holiness came not so much from Methodist institutions of learning as from wealthy and worldly-minded laymen who dominated the great city churches.17

	For the moment, however, Bresee was master of the situation. He led the delegation from southern California to Omaha, Nebraska, for the General Conference of 1892. The Daily Christian Advocate, organ of that conference, introduced him as a man of strong personality whose district had witnessed a general revival of great power. Among holiness circles, at least, there was talk of his being made a bishop.

	That fall, however, when Bishop John H. Vincent, a determined enemy of the doctrine of entire sanctification, appeared as presiding officer at the Southern California Conference, he made short work of the revival which Bresee had begun. The evangelistic sessions planned for the evening hours of the conference were omitted. Vincent directed that the presiding elders should present reports in writing, rather than make public statements. He removed Bresee from his office without ceremony, and appointed him with thinly veiled disdain to the pastorate of Simpson Church, where the opponents of holiness were in full control. Others whom Vincent called "holiness cranks" received equally summary treatment.

	Bresee's report for the year as presiding elder was, therefore, brief and pointed; it stressed especially the gracious revivals which most of the churches had experienced. "The sanctification of believers, the reclamation of backsliders and the conversion of sinners has been the chief work of most of the pastors," he declared.

	"The work has been pressed in many ways regular and irregular. A good degree of help was given through the agency of our Evangelistic Committee composed of some of the chief laymen of the district, under whose advice and with whose co-operation a three months' campaign was held of Pentecostal meetings, led by the Presiding Elder. . . ."

	The report also emphasized the organization of Epworth Leagues. These youth groups, Bresee said, were "leading the young people both into the richer experiences of the Christian life and out into the various fields of service" as well as "bringing many culturing influences to bear upon them."18

	Although Dr. Bresee was happy at being relieved from administrative work, which he always disliked, the task at Simpson was almost impossible. A heavy debt crushed the church. The congregation had dwindled steadily. Very few of them were willing to accept the gospel of holiness. After a few months Bresee quietly notified the members that he would not remain longer than one year. He advised them either to unite their congregation with First Church or move out farther into a residential portion of the city, selling the property to pay the debt. The next year he was appointed to the Boyle Heights Church, Los Angeles, a substantial but much smaller congregation.

	Though his demotion was apparent to all, Bresee remained high in the esteem of his brethren in the conference and was a key leader of both their evangelistic and their educational work. He was president of the conference board of trustees and the board of church extension and chairman of the committee on education. He encouraged the evangelization of Orientals and prodded the conference to favor legislation in their behalf. The presiding elders of both the Santa Barbara and Fresno districts employed him as preacher at their district camp meetings and noted happily in their annual reports that large numbers of their people had received the experience of perfect love.19

	Bresee's relationship to the University of Southern California during these years is especially significant. He had been vice-president of the board of directors of the university since 1884, and was active in most of the new ventures which that group undertook. In 1892, Bresee and J. P. Widney set out to rescue the institution from the near ruin which unsound financing had brought upon it -- Widney with his money and Bresee with his piety. Widney, who was the founder of the Los Angeles County Medical Association and the most distinguished physician in the city, had made a fortune in real estate development. He had attracted a strong faculty to the Medical School, which he headed, and had kept that arm of the university solvent by the simple expedient of paying the bills himself. In the spring of 1892 the directors asked him to become president of the entire university. The College of Liberal Arts was then eighteen thousand dollars in debt. Widney's first step was to set up a separate governing board for the College of Liberal Arts, both as a means of refinancing the debt and of tying that branch of the institution more closely to the spiritual leaders of California Methodism. Dr. Bresee was made chairman of this new board.20

	At an early meeting, Bresee and two associates brought in a report concerning the philosophy of education proper to such an institution as the Methodist conference intended the university to become. The implications of Bresee's report are so far-reaching that it must be quoted in full:

	"Resolved: That it is the sense of this board that a high standard of spiritual attainment is to be desired in our faculty, as well as high standards of scholarly ability;

	"That: as a business proposition our chief reliance to offset the advantages of secular institutions must be our high moral and religious standard;

	"That: to this end we enquire closely into the purity of private life and character, and soundness of Christian faith and practice, as well as nobility of spiritual life, of each person proposed as a member of the faculty. That no one be elected or retained who is not only a professed Christian but sound in doctrine, consistent in personal life, and an aggressive worker;

	"That: special prominence be given to the devotional exercises of the school, that they be held before the lessons of the day, and of such a nature as will make them attractive and helpful to the students;

	"That: a knowledge of God and our relations to Him as revealed to us in the Scriptures and by the Holy Spirit in the heart, is vastly more important for our students in their preparation for the work of life than mere intellectual attainment. That acquiring such knowledge requires earnest, faithful study, as well as waiting upon God, and that a systematic study of the Scriptures be made a distinct feature of the school instruction in some form and as a part of the studies of each student for each term, as soon as practicable."21

	Little wonder that the succeeding conference enthusiastically adopted Widney's new financial program for the institution. Two of the church's most distinguished and trusted leaders were at the helm. By the time of the annual conference of 1894, the university had passed through its financial crisis, and Widney's principal work was done. Perhaps for this reason he was ready to take up a new project -- association with Phineas Bresee at Peniel Mission.

	Dr. and Mrs. Widney and their daughter, Arabella, had long been active in the evangelistic endeavors which Methodists carried on among the poor and unfortunate. The two women pioneered the organization of deaconess work in southern California in 1889. Bresee and Widney were members of the first executive board. Widney, like Bresee, had also been greatly interested in the progress of prohibition. He served as head of the city's nonpartisan anti-saloon league, and ran for mayor on the Prohibition ticket in 1894. He served several years as a member and president of the Los Angeles Board of Education. The only question Methodists ever raised against Widney came in 1892, when he employed a critical approach to the Scriptures in a series of articles aimed to rebuke an extreme doctrine of divine healing.

	All records agree that Widney was an honored citizen of both the city and the church he loved. But, like Bresee, his abiding passion in recent years had been the evangelization of the poor and the extension of the ministry of scriptural holiness to classes which the church might otherwise miss. Few were surprised, therefore, when he joined the group which was sponsoring Peniel Hall. As we shall see in a moment, this work soon became more important in Widney's eyes than the presidency of the infant university which he had so recently and so nobly served.22

The Founding of the Church of the Nazarene

	Although much of the story of Bresee's labors at Peniel Hall appears in an earlier chapter, we must clarify further the relation of that venture both to Methodism and to the origins of the Church of the Nazarene.

	From the time of Bresee's removal from the presiding eldership in 1892, he sought appointment as a Methodist city missionary in Los Angeles. When, therefore, the proprietors of Peniel Mission invited him and Widney to join in a significant enlargement of their activities, Bresee thought his chance had come to fulfill his desire to spend the rest of his days in such work.

	The reasons why Bishop John N. Fitzgerald, who presided at the annual conference of 1894, refused to grant Bresee a regular appointment to Peniel are not clear. In any case, Bresee appealed directly to his conference for a "supernumerary relation." The request was tabled, following a rather embarrassing debate. Undoubtedly theological issues played a part, but this fact does not appear in any of the Methodist records. It never seems to have been pointed out in print until a year later, when the Los Angeles Times reported that "those in a position to know" said that "the doctor's attitude on various doctrinal questions, notably the doctrine of sinless perfection," had been a chief reason for his leaving the Methodist ministry.

	The conference records show rather that scriptural holiness was a dominant theme at the annual session of 1894. Samuel A. Keen conducted each day "Pentecostal meetings," which were fully reported in the Methodist and public presses. Bresee presided over the educational service at which Widney, as president of the university, gave the principal address. Bresee's presiding elder fully supported his request for a supernumerary relation. In his annual report, another district leader praised Bresee's work as a church and camp meeting evangelist. Despite whatever controversy was going on behind the scenes, the conference reelected Bresee a director of the university and a trustee of the Long Beach camp.

	When, therefore, a few weeks later, the California Christian Advocate reported the first services in the new mission building at Peniel, it cast not the slightest aspersion upon Bresee, Widney, or their associates. Faculty and administrative officers of the university appeared frequently on the program at the hall. Several served as instructors in Widney's "missionary institute." Substantial Methodist laymen like the Leslie Gays were deeply involved in the undertaking. Apparently none of these persons, including Dr. Bresee, had any thought of withdrawing from the Methodist church.23

	The first signs of an impending break came in December, after Bresee had published the "Declaration of Principles" for Peniel, discussed in a previous chapter. The declaration called for an organization of the workers which would permit persons who were not members of any church to make the mission their Christian home. The editor of the California Christian Advocate jumped immediately to the conclusion that Bresee was preparing to set up an independent Methodist church. He urged rather that the mission should follow an unsectarian path, accepting only persons who were members of other evangelical churches, as the Young Men's Christian Association had done.

	Bresee knew that the actual result of such a policy would be to deprive a great mass of poor men of the privileges of church membership. The other leaders at Peniel agreed with him, at least for the moment. Inevitably, however, this plan called for the addition to the program of many activities more characteristic of a church than a mission. Along with the regular Tuesday holiness meeting and the noonday prayer meeting, both of which were descended from traditions by then old among holiness people, the leaders instituted a Sunday school and a Friday night young people's meeting. The latter was especially dear to Dr. Bresee's heart. Its services were soon crowded with young people recently won out of lives of sin.

	One of the chief issues which separated Bresee from the Methodists, therefore, was his program for evangelizing the poor. By early June, 1895, the Methodist pastors in Los Angeles had organized an apparently competitive "City Evangelization Union." They laid ambitious plans for mission work at various neglected locations in the city. Meanwhile the California Christian Advocate commented that "from reports and comments in the air, it may be inferred that Peniel Hall has not the fullest endorsement of the city's Methodist pastors, and that its influence is not in the highest degree favorable to the work of the churches." The cleavage was primarily ecclesiastical, however, not theological.

	The doctrine of sanctification in fact won renewed emphasis among California Methodists during the year Bresee spent at Peniel. In April, 1895, the California Christian Advocate printed an article by W. F. Warren, first president of Boston University, entitled "Shall I Profess Sanctification?" Warren began the answer to this question with these words: "Of course not, unless you have it; but if you are living in that blessed experience, why not tell it?" The remainder of the article was as clear and definite a defense of the second blessing as any holiness expositor had ever written. Many members of the church, Warren declared, were not aware of the privilege and duty of entire sanctification. It was up to those who knew its joys to tell others so that they might find them too. A month later two articles by C. O. McCulloch underlined in equally clear fashion the distinctions between regeneration and the experience of perfect love. McCulloch specifically denied the theory that Christians may simply grow into a sanctified relationship with the Lord. Holiness was the fruit of a second crisis in Christian experience.24

	The immediate cause for the organization of the Church of the Nazarene, therefore, is not so much to be found in Bresee's differences with the Methodists as in those which developed between him and the proprietors of Peniel Hall. Certainly J. P. Widney must have been disillusioned when A. B. Simpson, leader of the Christian and Missionary Alliance and reportedly an extremist on divine healing, appeared as a special worker at the mission in May. Bresee on his part disagreed with Mr. and Mrs. Fergusons' insistence upon the use of young women in rescue work, and their growing interest in foreign missionary schemes.

	In the spring of 1895, Widney decided to resign his position as president of the university and spend a year studying in the East. The board finally accepted the resignation, after their benefactor had turned aside repeated requests that he reconsider. Bresee, meanwhile, made plans to spend the latter portion of that summer at a series of National Holiness Association camp meetings in the Midwest. All the available evidence indicates that neither Bresee nor Widney was contemplating any change in his relationship with Peniel Mission or with the Methodist church. Bishop Cyrus D. Foss was Bresee's traveling companion as far as Colorado, and Bishop Mallalieu joined other friends in extending him a hearty welcome to the Des Plaines camp meeting, near Chicago. Between meetings, Bresee studied the work of various missions in Chicago, held a three days' revival in the First Methodist Church in Springfield, Illinois, and cultivated the friendship of loyal Methodists throughout the area.25

	He returned to Los Angeles in September, however, to find himself "frozen out" of Peniel Hall, to use the blunt phrase of the Los Angeles Times. Friends of Dr. Bresee claimed, so the Times reported, that although he was ostensibly in charge of the mission, he had been excluded from the councils which controlled the movements of the workers. Now the proprietors asked him to withdraw. Since he had no financial interest in the property, he had no other choice but to comply. The man who had forsaken the pulpits of Methodism to minister to the poor was now without a place to preach at all.

	But, like Moses on the desert side of the Red Sea, Bresee remained true to his calling. It seemed providential that during the summer Dr. Widney had changed his plans and was remaining in Los Angeles that year. With characteristic decisiveness, these two fast friends determined to form a new organization in which their program of a church home for the poor might be fully carried out.

	They announced a service for Sunday, October 6, in Red Men's Hall, a short distance from Peniel. A Los Angeles Times reporter, it happened, gave us the only extant firsthand account of this meeting. The leaders, he wrote, announced that although no name had been decided upon for the new denomination, its work was to be chiefly evangelistic and its government congregational Bresee preached in the morning from the text, "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." He declared that the only thing new in the movement was its determination to preach the gospel to the needy, and to give that class a church they could call their own. Gone was the snobbish idea that a mission was good enough for the poor.

	Two weeks later, 82 persons united as charter members of the Church of the Nazarene. Within a short time their number had grown to 135. Among them, in addition to the Bresee and Widney families, were other substantial Methodists: Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Knott, Mrs. A. P. Baldwin, sister to Mrs. Knott, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie F. Gay, and Gardner Howland, a retired paper manufacturer who had been prominent in the holiness movement in New York state. Mrs. Mary J. Willard, an Episcopalian lady of considerable talent who had been sanctified at Peniel Mission, led Colonel Duncan, a wealthy southerner, and others from her denomination into the fold. Most of the membership, however, was made up of recent converts from the poorer sections of Los Angeles.

	On the day of organization Dr. Widney preached on the words of Christ, "Follow me." He pointed out that the essence of Christianity was not to receive a creed or to observe church forms and rituals, but simply to accept the Christ life, to make Christ himself the Lord of one's heart. After an interesting reference to the novelist Tolstoy's recent decision to abandon his high position and go to serve the peasants of a Russian village, Widney attempted to explain why a new denomination was required. The reason, he said, was that the machinery and the methods of the older churches had proved a hindrance to the work of evangelizing the poor.

	Dr. Widney also explained the choice of a name for the church. The word "Nazarene" had come to him one morning at daybreak, after a whole night of prayer. It immediately seemed to him to symbolize "the toiling, lowly mission of Christ." It was the name which Jesus used of himself, Widney declared, "the name which was used in derision of Him by His enemies," the name which above all others linked Him to "the great toiling, struggling, sorrowing heart of the world. It is Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, to whom the world in its misery and despair turns, that it may have hope."26

	The first piece of Nazarene literature ever printed, a little flyer advertising the meetings at Red Men's Hall, bore much the same message. Headed with the words of Jesus, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," the announcement ran as follows:

	"The Church of the Nazarene is a simple, primitive church, a church of the people and for the people. It has no new doctrines, only the old, old Bible truths. It seeks to discard all superfluous forms and ecclesiasticism and go back to the plain simple words of Christ. It is not a mission, but a church with a mission. It is a banding together of hearts that have found the peace of God, and which now in their gladness, go out to carry the message of the unsearchable riches of the gospel of Christ to other suffering, discouraged, sin-sick souls. Its mission is to everyone upon whom the battle of life has been sore, and to every heart that hungers for cleansing from sin. Come.

"'His yoke is easy, his burden is light.
I've found it so, I've found it so. . . .'"

	On the back of the flyer was a listing of the services of the church. Sunday morning began with a young men's prayer meeting at 9:00. Sabbath school followed at 9:45; then, in turn, preaching at 11:00 by Dr. Bresee, a Bible reading at 3:00 by J. P. Widney, called "Walks with the Nazarene," and evangelistic services at 7: 30. A street meeting preceded both the Sunday and the Wednesday evening meetings. The young people's gathering was Friday at 7:30 p.m. Also, on the back of the flyer, the deaconesses were listed as follows: Miss Arabella E. Widney, Miss Emma Stive, Mrs. M. E. Kroft, Mrs. J. W. Ernest, and Mrs. W. S. Knott. Underneath was a note of great interest:

	"We endeavor to supply medical attendance for those who are unable to provide it for themselves. Please notify the pastors or deaconesses of such need.

	"Partially worn clothing is solicited for the poor. Please bring to the church, or notify the deaconesses where it may be had."27

	The reaction of the Methodists to the organization of the new church was surprisingly mild. The article in the California Christian Advocate which reported the event bore no rancor toward the founders. Dr. Widney was allowed to explain their aims to the Los Angeles Methodist preachers' meeting. At the end of his report, resolutions were adopted expressing great appreciation for Widney's services to Methodism. The next week the conference organ carried an editorial which began thus:

	"The Advocate is pained to learn that Dr. P. F. Bresee, for many years an honored member of the Southern California Annual Conference, has, with J. P. Widney, M.D., an influential lay worker in Los Angeles Methodism, decided to withdraw from our church and establish an independent organization. We deem the movement unwise. These brethren are no doubt sincere. They mean to do good. But the Methodist Episcopal Church is doing precisely the kind of work they propose in the new organization. . . . Our people will not oppose this new organization in honest efforts to save men. But we cannot admit the necessity for such divisions of the church of Jesus Christ."28

	Dr. Bresee would only have pointed to the rapid growth of his congregation -- 350 members in a year, 1,500 members and a swarm of other churches in eight years -- as proof that the new organization was indeed necessary.

Characteristics of the Early Nazarenes

	Looking backward on the circumstances surrounding the birth of the Church of the Nazarene in the West, we can understand very well why Bresee always regarded it as a providential event. Certainly very little advance planning preceded the undertaking. Doctrines, rules of discipline, practices of worship, methods of evangelism, and even a name were formulated after the decision had been made to form a new church. For this reason the developments of the first three years are especially significant. We are fortunate indeed that E. A. Girvin, first pastor of the church in Berkeley, California, and clerk of the California Supreme Court, has preserved his and Dr. Bresee's memories of this period.

	What kind of people were these earliest Nazarenes? What was their form of government and discipline, their way of worship, their framework of belief? The answers to these questions are of interest to all.

	First of all, the government of the church was thoroughly democratic. This is surprising in view of the Methodist background of the founders. True, Bresee and Widney were named "general superintendents." But their power was more personal than legal. A church board, composed of trustees and stewards, shared full responsibility for the temporal side of the work. Numerous deaconesses, as we have seen, labored among the poor. Ministers were ordained by vote of the congregation, with the proviso only that the general superintendents must approve the ordination before it became final.

	Dr. Bresee refused from the outset to allow money-raising methods which in any way distinguished those who were able to give generously. There were no pledges, no collections of tithes, no records of individual gifts. Whenever large sums were needed the pastor simply announced well in advance a day for special sacrifice. When the time for the offering came, members of the congregation marched around the altar and placed their contributions on an open Bible. Bresee urged individuals never to let others know what they gave. "This is a church of poor people," he would say, "and I want the poorest to give without being embarrassed and the richest to come without being begged." By 1903, when the permanent house of worship was constructed, Bresee was able to raise $10,300 in cash in one such offering.

	The original constitution specifically recognized the right of women to preach. Mrs. W. S. Knott was the first one so ordained. Her first ministry was to the young women of "Company E," scores of whom she helped win to Christ. She and her husband also founded the Mateo Street Mission, later organized into the Compton Avenue Church.29

	The chief aim of the church was to preach holiness to the poor. This fact is evident from every page of the literature which they published. The first stationery bore at its head the Scripture verse, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Year after year the Nazarenes protested fine and expensive church buildings, "tending necessarily," as Dr. Bresee wrote on one occasion, "to drive the poor from the portals of the so-called house of the Lord." "We don't need forts and barricades," he added; "we need a marching, conquering army." The first Manual announced the church's determination to win the lost "through the agency of city missions, evangelistic services, house-to-house visitation, caring for the poor, comforting the dying." The founders declared themselves convinced that their mission was "to go into the poorer parts of the cities and into neglected places and by the power of the Holy Ghost create centers of fire.30

	In an editorial written in October, 1898, Bresee endeavored to explain the relation between social work and evangelism. Speaking of the days when the church was first organized, he wrote:

	"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."31

	The strong stand against fine church buildings undoubtedly grew out of Bresee's experience at Simpson M.E. Church, Los Angeles. But it was reinforced by the difficulties which the Nazarenes had in securing a place of worship. The congregation moved from first one rented hall to another, in part as a result of complaints that the services were too noisy for the neighbors. Bresee prayed one day for money to build a church. But the answer he believed God gave him was, "I have given myself to you."

	The pastor set out at once to lease a lot and construct a cheap building. In the spring of 1896 the congregation moved to the famous old "Board Tabernacle," located on Los Angeles Street between Fifth and Sixth. Here Bresee was to preach for the next seven years. The rough simplicity of this building combined with the obvious respectability of the pastors and key laymen to create an atmosphere in which rich and poor, high and low, came to feel wonderfully united and at home.

	Evangelizing the destitute obviously did not imply wholesale denunciations of the rich. Bresee urged the well-bred ladies of his congregation not to think that "the poor woman will be chilled because your dress is better." She has more sense and keener insight, he said, than "to care so much about that fruit of the worm. It is your face she looks at, your heart she feels."32

	All of which brings us to a third aspect of the young church: its discipline depended primarily upon the work of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Bresee always thought that if men and women were really sanctified wholly they would of their own accord follow a narrow path. He and his people believed fully, of course, in the historic concept of a disciplined church fellowship, and in the Methodist idea of stating the standards of personal behavior which were required of all. The first Nazarene Manual set forth a simplified version of the "General Rules" which the Discipline of the Methodist churches had contained for decades. Several provisions were omitted, such as the prohibitions of usury and slaveholding. The only new rule forbade voting for the licensing of liquor establishments. The more important departure, however, was that the Nazarenes incorporated their statement into the ritual for the reception of church members, making each such ceremony a reminder to all of the vows they had taken on joining. This step no doubt dictated the effort to beautify and simplify the language of the rules. New members pledged to walk in "hearty fellowship" with the church, and not to rail against its doctrines and usages. And they promised to manifest their desire "to be saved from all sin,"

	"First "By avoiding evil of every kind, such as,

	"(1) The taking of the name of God in vain.

	"(2) The profaning of the day of the Lord, either by unnecessary ordinary labor or business, or by holiday diversions.

	"(3) The use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, or the trafficking in the same, or giving influence, or voting for the licensing of places for the sale of the same.

	"(4) Quarreling, returning evil for evil -- gossiping, slandering, spreading surmises injurious to the good name of others.

	"(5) Dishonesty, taking advantage in buying and selling, bearing false witness, and like fruits of darkness.

	"(6) The indulgence of pride in dress or living, the laying up of treasures on earth.

	"Secondly, By doing that which is enjoined in the word of God.

	"(1) By being courteous to all men.

	"(2) By contributing to the support of the Church and its work, according to the ability which God giveth.

	"(3) By observing carefully the teachings of the Word of God, which is both our rule of faith and practice.

	"(4) Songs, literature, and amusements that are not to the glory of God. The avoidance of such places as the theater, the ball room, the circus and like places, lotteries and games of chance, looseness and impropriety of conduct.

	"(5) By loving God with all the heart, mind, and strength, a faithful attendance upon all the ordinances of God, and the means of grace; such as the public worship of God, the ministry of the Word, the Sacraments, searching the Scriptures and meditating thereon, family and private devotions.

	"(6) By seeking to do good to the bodies and souls of men. Feeding the hungry, clothing the destitute, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and ministering to the needy, as opportunity and ability are given.

	"(7) By pressing upon the attention of the unsaved the claims of the Gospel, inviting them to the house of the Lord, and trying to compass their Salvation.

	"(8) By being helpful to those who are of the household of faith, in love forbearing one another."33

	In some matters, however, Bresee believed that advice and exhortation would be sufficient. Hence membership in secret orders and the use of tobacco were the subject of strict admonition, rather than specific prohibition. Dr. Bresee particularly discouraged preachers from making too much an issue of the way church women dressed. He sometimes told friends that from the day he had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit he had not mentioned that subject in the pulpit. His aim was not to make well-to-do people dress poorly, but to inspire them to love and service. Both rich and poor, he believed, must learn to worship and work and pray together in the joyous unity which Pentecost could bring. Thus in 1899 an article in the Nazarene on "Holiness in Relation to Adornment" warned of the sinfulness of pride in style and fashion and love of the world. But, the writer continued, "we believe every Christian should settle this question of personal adornment in harmony with the Word of God, as the Holy Spirit directs. . . . with a willing heart, and dress only to please God, as you would be found of Him at His coming." Bresee's editorial called "Broadness," in the issue for December 6, 1900, declared that "holiness looks out through eyes of faith and love, and is necessarily broad. Sectarianism, churchanity, and fanaticism are. . . likely to have shortness of vision and to be governed largely by personal interests or prejudices." An undue emphasis upon nonessentials, he warned, can ruin any church.34

	Bresee's position in such matters often led to misunderstanding. When, in 1904, he visited Portland, Oregon, seeking a nucleus for a congregation there, people from one small holiness group attacked him for alleged compromises on the questions of adornment and secret society membership. Bresee replied that the clothes which he and his wife wore were the best defense of their stand on adornment. As for secret societies, he reported later, "I had to confess that I was a member of two societies, one in some sense a secret society, it being somewhat exclusive, and composed only of my wife and myself; but the other was open to all good people, it being the Church of the Nazarene." In commenting on the incident Bresee went on to say:

	"One of the elements of fanaticism seems often to be a feeling of necessity for those thus affected to impose their own notions about social and economic things and methods on everybody, and to regard everybody as heathen who does not exactly think and do according to their shibboleth."35

	Furthermore, the church's creed was brief and made the doctrine of perfect love central. The confession of faith required of all who joined read simply as follows:

	"We believe:

	"1. In one God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

	"2. In the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures as found in the Old and New Testaments, and that they contain all truth necessary to faith and practice.

	"3. That man is born with a fallen nature, and is thus by nature inclined to evil and that continually.

	"4. In the sure loss of the finally impenitent.

	"5. That the atonement through Christ is universal, and whosoever hears the word of the Lord and repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved from the condemnation and dominion of sin. That a soul is entirely sanctified subsequent to justification through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

	"6. That the Spirit of God bears witness in the human heart to justification by faith and to the further work of the entire sanctification of believers.

	"7. In resurrection of the dead and life everlasting."36

	A glance at the longer statement of doctrine which appeared later in the Nazarene Manual will reveal many points which this earlier confession of faith passed over without comment. This was no accident. The undogmatic tenor of Widney's teaching is evident from the sermon he preached at the organization of the church, described above. As for Bresee, the cornerstone of his doctrinal policy to the end of his days was liberality in all matters not in his view absolutely essential to salvation.

	For example, Bresee welcomed to his Los Angeles pulpit preachers who stressed the premillennial view of Christ's second coming, though he did not himself accept this doctrine. W. E. Shepard, once a preacher in the Holiness church and an ardent premillennialist, preached often at the old tabernacle and wrote frequently for the Nazarene. Mrs. Knott was thoroughly converted to his views. Yet Dr. Bresee resisted any attempt these or other persons made to impose premillennialism upon all of the church. He was determined not to raise up a denomination in which the doctrinal statement was merely a collection of latter-day dogmas. Christian perfection, on the other hand, seemed to him the main channel in the stream of gospel truth. He intended that the Nazarenes should sail upon it.37

	A fifth and most important characteristic of the original Los Angeles congregation was that its worship was joyously free. Sundays at the old tabernacle were a kind of holy holiday. Families drove in from all over the city, bringing a basket dinner and preparing to spend the day. After the morning service, usually closed with an altar call, everyone ate together. They then joined in an afternoon service of praise, often conducted like a camp meeting love feast. Visitation among the poor nearby and a street meeting occupied the hour before the evening service. When the church building was erected in 1903, provision was made for Sunday dinners to be served in the basement downstairs. Occasionally meals were prepared while Dr. Bresee preached in the auditorium above. Many a hungry boy, we may be sure, had difficulty keeping his mind on the sermon. More important, many a needy family, hungry for something better than bread, found a sense of belonging in the fellowship that came at noon.

	Nearly every public holiday likewise became a momentous occasion. The "Christmas Love Feast," which Dr. Bresee had conducted in Pasadena or Los Angeles Methodist churches for many years, became a Nazarene institution. Likewise New Year's, Memorial Day, and the Fourth of July were spent in spiritual celebration.

	Dr. Bresee early began to make the Sunday school picnics a high point of the year. The church board would often charter a special train and carry several hundred members to Long Beach. After a morning spent in recreation, the crowd would gather under the pavilion for dinner. The meal was followed by testimonies, songs, and preaching by Dr. Bresee. Nearly every year seekers would crowd the makeshift mourners' bench before time to take the train back home.

	Little wonder that an early news leaflet distributed by the church noted happily that "the voice of prayers and hallelujahs trembling on the lips" and "the shouts of those who conquer" were frequent at the Church of the Nazarene. "Evangelical faith brings Pentecostal glory," the leaflet continued.

	"The presence of the Lord is often so manifest as we are gathered together, that not only do our hearts burn within us, but our tongues are tuned to praise, and triumphant hallelujahs fill the house -- to Jesus be all the glory."38

	Producing this powerful sense of God's presence, or "getting the glory down," as Dr. Bresee put it, was in his eyes the most important aim of every service. Though he instructed I. G. Martin and other musicians who assisted him to keep off the platform any singers who would "make a show," Bresee knew that simple choruses and popular hymns helped to create a sense of emotional expectancy. Since he himself could not carry a tune, he fell into the habit of clapping his hands slowly while the people sang. The audiences soon picked up the custom of clapping through the chorus of nearly every song. Far from halting such direct and simple expressions of feeling, the pastor encouraged them. After all, he was building a church for plain people.

	But "getting the glory down" was not simply a matter of working up emotions. God's presence could be real, he believed, only when it stemmed from the declaration of the great promises of the gospel. Dr. Bresee's preaching illustrates this fact well. He was one of the first men of his generation to use consistently the conversational style of pulpit delivery. Looking directly at his audience, he talked as though he were speaking to each person alone. Every paragraph, nearly every sentence, was packed with truth which spoke to the deepest needs of men. Such preaching could not but set in motion strong currents of feeling. The good doctor would often have to restrain the "amens" and "hallelujahs" so as to be able to complete his message. Toward the end of each sermon, however, he would tie together his thoughts with a succession of such powerful sentences as would nearly lift the people out of their seats. Then the walls of old First Church would echo with the people's joy.

	This, to Dr. Bresee, was indispensable. The glory of the Lord must fill His house. But that glory was a revelation of the good news which was the gospel -- of the truth which answered to the hungers and hopes of all mankind.

	Other aspects of Bresee's conduct of the pastorate helped to keep the tide of feeling running high. For example, he rarely preached more than once on any Sabbath. Most Sunday evenings the platform was occupied by one of a dozen or so special speakers who were his favorites. Evangelists from the East and officials from various other holiness churches were always welcome. Revivals were called "Home Camp Meetings." Special Sundays like Easter and Pentecost were high points of the year.

	Dr. Bresee had a natural instinct for publicity. In May of 1900, Rev. Augustus B. Pritchard was ousted from the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles, because of his earnest preaching upon "the work and power of the Holy Ghost." Bresee at once arranged for him to preach at the tabernacle the following Sunday, and the people turned out in droves. This seemed far more profitable to him than doctrinal hairsplitting.

	Some of the pastor's personal peculiarities became important symbols. For example, he used never to go to the rear to bid people good-by at the close of a service. He claimed that he was so ashamed of his poor preaching that he could not face them. Actually, this plan left him free to speak at length with those who came forward with real problems. But before each service Bresee would stand at the door and welcome every worshiper. If a man came in poor clothing and with obvious embarrassment, the pastor would put his arm around him and usher him to the best seat in the house. Whenever he greeted anyone, at whatever time of day, Bresee said, "Good morning." It was always morning for the Christians, he said, for their eyes were fixed on heaven. He refused ever to back up a buggy. In this world and the next he was interested only in going forward. Although he often carried money with him as he started out on his pastoral calls, he never brought any back. He could not turn away men who really needed help.39

	The growing frequency of services of great emotional power at the tabernacle became at last too much for J. P. Widney; he decided to return to the Methodist church late in 1898. There is no evidence at all of any hard feelings between Bresee and Widney. Their parting was most friendly. It happened that one night, after a great "outpouring of the Spirit," some of the most prominent members of the church went to the altar. Several were overcome completely, and a good deal of noise and confusion resulted. Widney, a quiet-mannered man, decided that he could not be happy any longer amidst such scenes. In October, 1898, delegates from the various churches voted to accept the resignation of the two general superintendents from their lifetime tenure, and to limit the term of office to one year. Widney dropped out, and Bresee became the sole superintendent.40

	The infant denomination which Widney left, however, was soon to grow by leaps and bounds. Bresee's congregation became every year more a church and less a mission. In a summary statement published in the first regular issue of the Nazarene, in January, 1898, Dr. Bresee wrote:

	"It is now somewhat more than two years since, under a peculiar yet unmistakable call of God, the Nazarenes, putting the old things behind them, went out to follow in the footsteps of Him whose name they bear -- to bring comfort to the sorrowing, help to the downcast, a message of help to the brokenhearted, and to carry the gospel of peace to lives burdened with sin. They went out as a feeble band to a new and untried field of labor, taking as their especial work the neglected quarters of our city -- yet soon finding that there are hungry hearts and neglected lives in homes that the world does not call poor, and so the work has broadened out beyond the field originally selected, until now they feel that the call is to go wherever lives are burdened with sin and hearts are crying out, "What shall I do to be saved?" Surely the seal of Divine approval has been upon the work. From the first day in that hall upon Main Street, a revival fire has kept burning that has spread and broadened, until now the Nazarenes are organized, and have their places of worship, on Los Angeles Street in Elysian Heights; in East Los Angeles; in South Pasadena; and in Berkeley at Oakland. Only the lack of available leaders has delayed the opening of the work at other points from which a call has come."41

	We must turn now to the story of the expansion of the movement in the ten years between 1897 and 1907 -- north along the coast, and east across the Rocky Mountains, into the plains and prairie cities of the American Middle West.

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