Fellow travelers - 1904
Phineas Bresee, a founder of the Church of the Nazarene.
Introduction
Phineas Bresee became a Christian in 1856. Within months, the eighteen-year-old boy became a Methodist preacher in Iowa and soon was in charge of a small circuit of churches. Falling into doubt, he threw himself across an altar one night and prayed earnestly for God’s help. He received such a strong impression of God that night that he later interpreted it as baptism with the Holy Ghost. Bresee became an ardent proponent of the Holiness Movement. While he was serving in California, his Methodist bishop opposed holiness teaching. So after thirty-seven years in the Methodist Church, Bresee left to head a city mission in Los Angeles. In 1895, Bresee and his close friend J.P. Widney started a new holiness work which took the name Church of the Nazarene. The church grew rapidly both in the United States and internationally. Its growth attracted fellow travelers of a less savory stripe. In his report at the Ninth General Assembly, on this day 2 November, 1904, Bresee stated:
Quote
“It often occurs in a new movement, that hobbyists, cranks, and fanatics—more or less—come to it for the purpose of advancing their own peculiar notions; and when they find that this is the embodiment of the old gospel of salvation to the uttermost, without side tracks, they usually disembark at the first station, to the great relief of the crew and through passengers. The pressure from fanaticism on the outside has been especially brought to bear upon some of our churches during the last year, but that it has been allowed to harm us so little, either in spirit or the wrecking of so few souls, is a matter of thanksgiving.”
Bresee, Phineas F. Report to the Ninth General Assembly [of the Nazarene Church] November 2, 1904.