It was about the fifth night of the big holiness meeting at the arbor on Post Oak Ridge.  The country was stirred for miles around.  People from Dobbinsville and Ridgetown and neighboring villages were in regular attendance.  Scores of people had been converted.  Many had been sanctified.  Numbers had been healed.  The forces of sin were enraged.  Wicked men, grim with age, had melted like frost at noonday under the mighty preaching of the Spirit-filled Evangelist.  Old women with lying hearts and gossiping lips had been stricken down in mighty and pungent conviction for their sins.  Young men, roguish and rough and stout-hearted, had come to the old split-log altar and on penitent knees had sobbed out before God the awful sins of their hearts and had gone away happy with the new-found treasure of full salvation.  Young ladies, vain and haughty, had melted under the gospel messages and had come to the feet of Jesus.  Sweet children not yet in their teens had wept their childish transgressions away and in their simple faith had accepted Jesus as their Savior.  Oh, grand and glorious gospel!  How matchless is its power.

Well, as I said, it was about the fifth night of the meeting.  Preacher Bonds was there, and had been the two nights preceding.  He had regarded all the manifestations of God’s power in the meetings with affected indifference.  He said he hated holiness and would hate it as long as he lived.  On being asked what he thought of the miraculous conversions that had taken place in the meeting, he remarked that he would not believe in holiness even if Beelzebub himself were converted in the meetings.

Evangelist Blank said he thought this would be a splendid time to have a testimony-meeting.  So they had one, and he conducted it himself.  Grandma Gray was the first to testify.  She stood trembling, and balanced herself against the back of the old willow rocker.  Around her saintly face there seemed to circle a halo of glory.  At first she only stood and wept.  When she had gained control of her emotions sufficiently to speak, she said, “Oh, the love of God is unspeakable.  How can I praise him for what he has done for me?  He saves me and sanctifies me and heals me.  I praise him for sending Evangelist Blank here.  I would not say a word against the people of Mount Olivet church, but for thirty-some years I lived in that church an up-and-down life.  God knows I wanted to live for him all that time but my experience was not sufficient to keep me.  But since I have learned of the more perfect way, how my heart rejoices in this full salvation.  Since this meeting began, the good Lord has been showing me great light on the church question.  I see the one body of Christ, which is the church.  I have just learned that I was born into the real, true church thirty-some years ago.  O brethren, the day is dawning, the light is shining.  How glad I am that I have lived to see this day.”

When Grandma Gray had well-nigh exhausted her feeble strength in exhorting the people to come to Jesus and accept his truth, she sank into her big willow chair and silently prayed.  For a brief period there was a deathlike stillness over the audience.