Joe Meets His Opposers

Joe and Susie were so elated over their new-found joy that they wanted to tell it everywhere they went and to everyone they met. The joy within their own souls was so great and so wonderful to them that they felt all would be interested in what they had to say, but in this they were mistaken. Very few seemed to care to listen to their testimony. It seemed to Joe that Wednesday night would never come, so anxious was he to get to the prayer meeting.

When called upon Joe led in prayer. He came before the Lord with real thanksgiving for deliverance from sin and for the peace for which every hungry soul longs. Those present marveled at the prayer offered, but were more surprised than ever when Joe added his testimony to the others’ and made a public confession that he had been a church-member since a boy but had never known what peace with God really is until the Sunday night before, when he had confessed all to the Lord and now knew that God had forgiven him.

Susie, in her little white cap, added her testimony also, thanking God for a real knowledge of sins forgiven. Those present marveled at the noted change in the Holmiers, but were surprised to learn that neither had been a Christian all the years they had been professing. Joe had come into their community with such a good reputation and stood so high among the members of his particular faith that the news of his conversion was a surprise to all of them. There were only a few testimonies given after Joe and Susie made their confession, for all seemed to be absorbed in thought. The meeting was dismissed at an earlier hour than any previous meeting, and if Joe could have listened to remarks made in the different groups that congregated he would have heard remarks as follows:

“Now, what do you think about that?”

“Don’t that beat the world?”

“Who would have thought it?”

“Well, what will happen next?”

The prayer and the testimonies of the Holmiers was a topic of conversation for the community for several weeks, some remarking that, if the Holmiers were not Christians, it would be a difficult task for anyone to find a Christian in the entire community. Thus one can see how easily man can deceive man, but truly “the LORD looketh on the heart.”* (1 Samuel 16:7)

Among those present at the prayer meeting was one of the members from the church at Steele’s Crossing. He called on Preacher Brumbaugh at a very early hour Thursday morning to tell him of the confession made by Joe and Susie at the prayer meeting the evening before, and the preacher, in turn, called upon Joe and Susie to make an investigation. He found Joe and Susie ready to welcome him and accepted their kind invitation to stay with them for the evening meal. Nothing was said of the prayer meeting the night before until the meal had ended and Preacher Brumbaugh was preparing to take his departure. Joe felt that his pastor had called to talk about the report that had reached him and inquire why he should make a public confession, but refrained from speaking on the subject, thinking it best to let his pastor approach him along that line so that he would be better prepared to talk to him. At last the minister said, “I hear your hired man is holding cottage prayer meetings around in the neighborhood and having quite a large attendance and people are becoming interested. Do you attend these meetings?”

“I have only been to two of them,” said Joe.

“Is that true?” questioned his pastor. “I guess I have been misinformed then, for I heard that you not only attended but took an active part in the meetings.”

“I do not know just what you would call an active part, and do not know that I have been real active,” replied Joe. “I surely have not been as active so far as I shall be from now on, for I mean to be at every meeting unless I shall be hindered otherwise and I shall have to have a reasonable excuse to keep me away.”

Preacher Brumbaugh stood twirling his hat in his hand, looking down at the floor for some time, and then said, “That is all very well, and I think this a good way to get the faith of your church before the people, but one has to be very careful or he will be led astray. I fear even now that you have gone a little bit too far. I hear that you said you had never been a Christian until you began attending these prayer meetings. Is that true?”

Joe stood looking first at Susie and then at his pastor, seemingly at a loss to know just what to say. At last he found words to say, “It is true and it is not true.”

“I do not understand you,” said Preacher Brumbaugh. “Just what do you mean by its being true and yet not true?”

“I did not say that I had never been a Christian until I began attending the prayer meetings,” said Joe. “But as I was converted last Sunday night after we came home from services, and for the first time in my life found what it really means to have peace in my soul and know that I am right with God. And, as I did not begin to attend prayer meetings until last Wednesday evening, the report that reached your ears is therefore both true and untrue.”

“Come, come, now Brother Holmier,” said Preacher Brumbaugh, “you are not trying to make me believe that you have lived for so many years in the church and kept all its ordinances and have been so faithful in every way and still were not a Christian.”

“You may believe it or not,” said Joe, “but although I have been a member of your church for a number of years I never knew what it meant to be free from guilt and condemnation until last Sunday night, when there in my pantry God spoke peace to my soul. I knew it then and I know it now, thank God.”

“And neither did I,” exclaimed Susie.

“I cannot understand,” said Preacher Brumbaugh, “how you could do all the things that you have done and still say you were not a Christian. We are to know a tree by the fruit that it bears.”

“It is not the things that we did which caused us to fail to be Christians, but the things we do not do,” hastily exclaimed Joe. “And I would not exchange the experience of the last four days for all the years before, for I have found more satisfaction than ever before in my life.”

“That is my experience, too,” said Susie as she stepped to her husband’s side and laid her hand affectionately on his shoulder.

“You had better be careful in jumping from one thing to another, and be content to hold fast to that thing which has stood for so long,” said Preacher Brumbaugh. “You know I come as one to help you, and I fear for you, for I have seen others that have taken up with some new kind of religion only to find that it did not last, and I am sure that is what will happen to you. It will wear off in time. You are only a little excited and when the excitement dies out the religion will die with it and I trust you will be your natural self again.”

“God forbid,” said Joe, “that I should ever have to go back to the heavy load that I have been carrying on my soul for the past few months, for that was torturous to me. And, Preacher Brumbaugh, would you want me to go back to such a life of misery when there is rest and contentment of soul such as I have found? Do you not know what it means to have the load lifted from your soul and feel the peace of God instead?”

“I know what it means to be a Christian like the Bible says,” hastily replied Preacher Brumbaugh, “but as to these wild-fire conversions, I must say I do not care to take in with any of them, for they soon die out and I want some- thing that will last. The Bible says, ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,’* (Mark 16:16) and I do not want anything better than the Bible has to offer.”

“I, too, do not want anything better than the Bible has to offer,” said Joe. “But I have found what it means to know God and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, for I sought Him diligently and have been rewarded for so doing.”

“Well, I guess there is no use in talking any longer on this subject,” said Preacher Brumbaugh, “but I trust you will soon be convinced that the good old way is the best way after all.”

“I have already been convinced that the good old way is the only satisfactory way,” replied Joe as he walked with Preacher Brumbaugh to his buggy.

After bidding him goodbye he returned to the house, where he met Susie. She was wearing a very troubled face. “What shall we do now?” she earnestly inquired. “I felt that Brother Brumbaugh would be delighted to find that we were converted, but I am sure that he is very much displeased. I am at a loss to know just what to do about it.”

“I decided what I shall do about it,” said Joe. Walking to the little stand table in the other room, he picked up the Bible and, holding it up before his wife, said, “I mean to take this as the man of my counsel, and go to it to find out what the Lord would have me to do. It taught me the way to God, and I am sure, if I take it as my counselor, it will teach me the way to live a life that will please my God.”

“But what if they will not accept us as we are in the church? Then what shall we do about it?” eagerly inquired Susie.

“I do not know just what I shall do yet, or what steps I shall take,” said Joe, “but this one thing I have decided to do, and that is from now on I shall make this Book my counselor and shall go to it, and I am sure if I walk as it says I shall please God, and that is what I want more than anything else.”

“I know,” said Susie, “but they might turn us out of the church if we keep on attending the prayer meetings.”

“Which would you prefer,” queried Joe, “the experience of the last few days, or the experience of all the years you spent in the church and were regarded as a good member?”

“I want to know I am right with God,” said Susie as the tears sprang to her eyes. “Oh, may nothing ever come to rob me of the peace which I now have.”

“I can tell you how I feel about it,” said Joe. “If they choose to turn me out of the church because I got converted, they may do so. For if they do not want me because I am a Christian, I am sure they do not need me there, and the sooner they begin proceeding the better. And as to the prayer meetings, I mean to attend every one that I can, for I am sure that prayer will do no one any harm. I feel safe when I say that I have taken this Book as the man of my counsel.”