REPRESENTING THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF 2X2 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS ON THE INTERNET
Perry, Oklahoma Conv, 1942
of a Peculiar People from 1900-1931
TTT Editor's Note:
The author wrote the following in the format of a play.
Initials were used in place of names.
NOTE: Any names in parentheses have been inserted for clarity by TTT
These initials match some of the initials of the early workers on
the 1905 workers list.
KEY: John Long provided a key to the intials which is given at the end, and also in the TTT Photo Gallery.
PLEASE NOTE: This document is a PLAY (fiction) and is good for illustration purposes but details and quotes within it should not be considered facts.
The statements by players within the play are not documented quotes.
The headings concern events that took place and most are documented.
Let those who read be warned
And let them also reflect
If this should fall into the hands of any
Thus if they feel inclined to question
And they are assured that it will subtract nothing
First Young Man: It is what the World needs.
Second Young Man: But the Church will oppose it.
First Young Man: It crucified Christ and stoned Stephen.
Second Young Man: How far should we go in opposing it?
First Young Man: It is not for us to set ourselves against
it, but to be true to what is committed to us and if that brings opposition,
then let it come.
Second Young Man: The early Christians were persecuted
and Paul, writing to Timothy, said "All who would live godly in Christ
Jesus would suffer persecution."
First Young Man: If the Lord plants a tree, He will cause
it to grow its own kind of fruit. It is not for us to consider what
is to come, but to go forth in His Name and in His way and speak His Truth,
and let time reveal the outcome in ourselves and others.
Second Young Man: How is the work to be supported?
I am prepared to live on little and devote the rest.
First Young Man: The work of God does not depend on money
support. That has been the course of the Christian ages. Always
begging and building and burdening poor people, to support a top heavy
system of worship and service. What is needed is men who have been
set free from the power of money and property, and who are not afraid to
launch out without visible means of support, and prove God's unseen provision.
Second Young Man: I have some money.
First Young Man: It will be easy to get rid of it.
Second Young Man: I am prepared to let it go.
First Young Man: That is the first condition of becoming
a preacher.
Third Young Man: I am a Methodist
First Young Man: Were there any Methodist in the Ark,
or at the Last Supper?
Third Young Man: I have had an experience of Salvation.
First Young Man: Satan will give us anything to keep us
from following Jesus.
Third Young Man: I have been studying for the Methodist
Ministry and have done some local preaching.
First Young Man: Education has nothing to do with it.
Peter became an Apostle in spite of his ignorance, and Paul in spite of
his learning.
Fourth Young Man: The Church is a very old Institution.
First Young Man: You mean the Church of Ireland, but most
of the Irish people believe in the Church of Rome. What has one more than
the other to comment it to honest men's minds and consciences?
Fourth Young Man: I read the lessons on Sunday.
First Young Man: So did the Rulers of the Synagogues,
in the days of Jesus. What the World needs is not readers of the
Scriptures, but doers of what is written in them.
Fourth Young Man: Should I give up reading the lessons?
First Young Man: Begin to follow Jesus, and you may not
have to give up anything--everything may give you up!
2nd, 3rd & 4th Young Men: What do you advise?
First Young Man: That we get rid of every human encumbrance
and go forth to preach Jesus in the way He sent them at the first.
Second Young Man: I will dispose of my money.
Third Young Man: I will give up my Methodist.
Fourth Young Man: I will sell my farm.
First Young Man: That is a right beginning.
J.K.: They are all wrong. They are altogether wrong.
They have always been wrong.
E.C.: There are some good ones among them.
W.I.: The best of them are the worst of them.
A Voice Outside: Who are they 'spakin' of?
Second Voice Outside: Publicans, I think.
Third Voice Outside: No, the 'Clargy!'
First Voice: D'ye mane t'say that they are actually discussin'
whether our religious laiders are wrong or not?
Third Voice: They have settled it that they are all wrong,
and that the best of them are the worst of them.
W.I. (from the platform)--God made an Angel, and he made
himself the devil. God made virgins, and they made themselves harlots.
He made men, and the devil made them clergymen.
First Voice Outside: We ought to mob them, and burn down
their wooden hall. They are insultin' the dacency o'Belfast, and
black guardin' our best men.
Second Voice Outside: If we burn
them out they will have raison t' believe their own words about the Clargy.
If we do wrong to prove that the Clargy are right, we will be like the
Jews who crucified Christ to prove that the Chief Priests were right.
Third Voice: The raison we belave
in the Clargy is, because they march with us on the Twelfth!
W.I. (from the platform): Wooden
halls for worship are an abomination. All Church buildings are an
abomination. All religious title and honours are an abomination.
All educating of men as preachers is an abomination. And we will
be another abomination if we follow the example of the Churches and the
Plymouth Brethren either in the matter of money or property.
W.I.: When Jesus went to Gadara the devils cried out.
P. Bro: You do not preach the Gospel.
W.I.: We do not encourage humbugs to hide behind the Cross
P. Bro: Preach the Gospel.
W.I.: The Gospel includes ALL that was seen in Jesus, and heard from His lips.
P. Bro: What He said was for the Jews, and we have no right to anything on the other side of the Cross.
W.I.: You mean it does not suit our Flesh or our Selfishness to go by what He said. Only a dishonest man would take the Benefit of His Death and refuse to walk in the Light of His Life.
P. Bro: There are two Gospels.
W.I.: One for honest, the other for dishonest men!
J. K.: If the Clergy are wrong and the Plym's are dishonest,
what about those with us who made professions among them? If the
tree is bad, its fruit cannot be good. God does not use the wrongness
of men to bring forth the Righteousness of Christ.
E.C. It is not our Line of Descent that should concerning
us, but out present heart condition before God.
J.K. But we cannot escape Genealogy. Every living
thing has an Ancestry. Apostolic Succession means a succession of
apostles, and the proof that they are the true succession is, that they
hear the original apostolic marks. Sheep succession never runs to
goats. Therefore Clergymen could not bring forth Christians, and
therefore those of us who professed through them were only deceived by
the devil.
W.I.: "J.K. is logical. We are what we are today
in spite of them, and as we owe nothing to them but blindness, there is
no reason why we should give them credit for our eyesight."
J.K.: "God began His human creation with Adam. There
only needed to be one act of creation. Afterward every man came by
natural descent. So with His work of the Gospel."
W.I.: "You mean that as there was a Break in the Line
of Spiritual descent, it was necessary for God to start a new Line by special
act again?"
J.K.: "We are here and no thanks to a Worldly System."
W.I.: "I see what you mean, but where do I come in?"
J.L: "There was no tobacco in the Ark."
(Voice of W.I. from behind)--"John, tell them there were no
Clergy in the Ark!"
(The preacher is thrown off his line by this strange interruption and
sits down as soon as he can bring his speech to a hasty conclusion.)
W.I.: "John was always the Brake on our Progress.
When we set out to follow Jesus, he was selling Books and settled as a
Methodist. He was convinced that we were right and cast in his lot
with us. But he was not convinced that the Clergy were wrong, and there
has always been a holding back in him. For years he has been dragging
his feet on the ground to hinder our going on, and we have decided to part company with him so that he can go his way and we ours, and let him prove whether
God will be with him as He has been with us. All those stand up who believe
that J.....W..... is in Hell!!" (Author's Note; J.W. = John
Wesley, founder of Methodism)
(Nearly all stand up, those who remain seated provoke W.I. to wrath,
and he makes uncomplimentary remarks about their quadruped connections!)
(One of John's English friends rises and begins to speak).
Englishman: "It is not for us to discover the present whereabouts
of the souls of men who are dead. They may not be where we think
they are, and what we say about them can neither injure them nor help us.
It is for us to look to ourselves that we may not come to where we say
they are."
W.I.: "John can go and take his friends with him."
W.I.: "That is paper, and that is paper, and that is paper. And that also is paper. It is all paper!"
(This is his way of correcting E.C.'s manner of speech, and all the people sit awed by his commanding presence, and cutting words. E. C. now seated, straightens himself, and looks straight ahead. W.I. goes on speaking, and soon the people are leaning forward to hear, as he opens up the Scriptures. Nobody can hold their attention like him; and he is so full of energy and wit that hours follow one another, and still he goes on - and still they listen eagerly.)
Second Visitor: "You mean what do I think of HIM!
First Visitor: "I suppose so. It seems to be him, and he seems to be it, and the people seem satisfied to have it so. There is something strange about it."
Second Visitor: "Is it a weakness in them?"
First Visitor: "No, it seems to be a power in him. He has a strong personality, and they like it. "
Second Visitor: "Did you see how they looked after him when he walked across the court yard?"
First Visitor: "I would like to come back a few years from now, and see how this work grows."
Second Visitor: "They will not worship him long. He has been set on a Pinnacle on the Temple, and no man can remain there long without a fall."
First Visitor: "He seems to be a man of strong will."
Second Visitor: "Strong-willed men very often are weak in the presence of temptation. When he falls, it will be a heavy fall.
First Visitor: "But if he does not fall."
Second Visitor: "It has always been so, and God has had to turn His back on His people for their good."
First Visitor: "Did you notice how easily he disposed of the man called John? It was like sending him into Outer Darkness. Excommunication has been the Great Weapon and the Chief Weakness of Organised Religious Bodies."
Second Visitor: "If human families were as brittle as Religious Societies, a man would hardly know from one day to the next, where he was. Still there has been such a thing as Fellowship which survived Threats, Torture and Death."
First Visitor: "There is more of the family spirit here than in the Churches."
Second Visitor: "I hope it lasts, even grows, but there's much against it. The strong-willed man would dispose of others as he disposed of John and nobody would raise a voice against it."
First Visitor: "They are afraid of him and still they like him. It is a pity there is no check on him, or that they cannot control their love, and keep it from becoming worship."
Second Visitor: "I heard it said that in letters they use a capital "H" when they mention him. They do it unconsciously, not knowing that they are thereby declaring their idolatry."
First Visitor: "They speak of him as a man raised up."
Second Visitor: "They will trace their Spiritual Genealogy to him."
First Visitor: "I hear they are doing it now, and many have already given up what they call their old profession, and refer to him as the beginning of a new order, as Adam was the beginning of human descent."
Second Visitor: "What fools these mortals be!"
.
W.I.: "We are growing rapidly. Ten years ago we were a
very small number. Now we are spread over the English speaking world.
We have Conventions in most American States, in New Zealand, Australia,
South Africa, Canada, and here in the British Isles. Last year thousands
of pounds were spent on Conventions." (A murmur of delighted surprise from
the audience)
W.I.: "There are several hundred Workers in the Field, and at
every Convention, there are volunteers ready to go forth. Also the
Truth is clearer than ever, and we have proved that we can do without the
Clergy at births, marriages and deaths."
Voice Outside: "There is a Black Pope!"
Second Voice: "Why do you say that?"
First Voice: "There are a thousand people in the tent and not
one of them dare resist his will. The men on the platform nod to
everything he says, whether they like it or not, and when he turns to them
for approval, they draw their faces into the appearance of a smile, knowing
that their lives as preachers depend on his favor."
Second Voice: "How did he get this power over them?"
First Voice: "He is a strong man by nature, and used to be a
mine boss, and never allowed his will to be resisted. He brought
the same spirit into this work, and uses the same methods in dealing with
these people."
Second Voice: "Do you think they will ever rebel, and throw
off his yoke?"
First Voice: "They are inwardly rebelling now, especially those
who sit on the platform with him, but at the present time they can do nothing,
because he is master of the situation in every way. He has something
to say, and a way of saying it that appeals to the people. The others
are only poor echoes of his voice, and in his presence are not able to
throw off the incubus of fear that almost paralyzes them."
Second Voice: "I wonder how so strange a movement will end?"
First Voice: "It will go the way of all that has been before
it. Prosperity and Establishment change the views of men, and many
have set out to break idols, who have ended up worshippers of Baal or Moloch."
Second Voice: "Do you think this work would end if this man
should die."
First Voice: "Not likely. Where people have been taught
obedience and to look upon their own Will and Desire as evil, and where
they have given up all to do the Will of God, as these have done, the death
of a man would not mean the death of the movement. They might follow
Peter's example and go fishing, but not for long. The thing is too
real to them to be given up completely. It is their very life."
Second Voice: "They are unlike all other religious people."
First Voice: "They are honest to the point of loss. A
man would not sell a farm and give away the money to go preaching unless
there was something unusual in him."
Second Voice: "But our religious people don't like them."
First Voice: "There are several reasons for that. The
Moabites did not like the Hebrews, and Balak wanted Balaam to curse them.
The High Priest and those with him did not like Stephen, and had him stoned
to death as a blasphemer, even though his face shone as the face of an
angel. You have to consider that the Establishment, as a shopkeeper,
who finds it hard enough to live, does not like a competitor setting up
shop beside him. If these Pilgrims gain favor with most of the people,
the Churches and their Clergy will lose influence, and possibly be superseded
altogether."
Second Voice: "Why do these men speak so much about the Clergy
and their Establishments?"
First Voice: "Because they believe that, while the Churches
have a good moral influence, they deceive the people spiritually.
What we think about the Catholics, they think about us. They consider
that spiritual immorality consists in using the Name of Jesus contrary
to what was seen in His own Life, or in the Walk and Work of the Apostles
after Him. And what makes it worse, in their opinion, is that men
take pay for Devotion to Him - or rather for professed devotion to Him.
This, they call spiritual harlotry."
Voice of William Irvine (inside): "Harlot hearted hireling hypocrites!
They take pay where He gave His Life. They are Reverend where He
was despised. They climb up where He humbled Himself. They
are the friends of the world that crucified Him. Harlot hearted hireling
hypocrites!
Crocknacrieve, in 1914
(Gloominess on men's faces. Expressions between doubt and incredulity. Looks and whispers. Signs of a storm among the Overseers. Innocence on the part of the people. William Irvine himself - not himself The old lordliness gone, or going. The note of authority has become husky. Looks a little like Napoleon after Waterloo. Still some signs of the old devotion on the part of some of his old Marshals. But he seems to know the game is up, and St. Helena is being made ready for him. No desire to preach, but wants to work at machinery, or wells, or anything - to escape from Something! Certain Overseers are drawn or driven together. They go for walks in pairs. Their looks are troubled as if they had come to a Time and Place of Decision, and fear takes hold of them.)
First Overseer: "What do you think of it?"
Second Overseer: "I cannot take it in."
First Overseer: "But for years there have been signs."
Second Overseer: "I have doubted the sight of my own eyes."
First Overseer: "There were many things I wondered at."
Second Overseer: "He was hard on others and easy on Himself."
First Overseer: "Do you remember how he used to preach against
the Flesh and make us all tremble?"
Second Overseer: "I used to go to bed at night wondering where
I was, and if I had ever been Right at all. His preaching kept me
constantly on the anxious seat, and when he scrutinized my face, I was
afraid he would see my soul!"
First Overseer: "I was tempted at times to wear smoked glasses!
"
Second Overseer: "What do you think we ought to do?"
First Overseer: "I think he is now like King Uzziah when the
Leprosy rose in his forehead. He will be only too ready to go out
of the Temple and seek the Shelter of a Separate House."
Second Overseer: "To tell you the truth, I feel a bit relieved."
First Overseer: "His rule was provoking rebellion in me."
Second Overseer: "It was sort of a one man show, and we were
like Punch and Judy in his hands. Everybody seemed to know that we
were only puppets to speak and act at his command."
First Overseer: "And they were more nearly right than we cared
to admit. I could neither think nor speak from within when he was
on the platform. "
Second Overseer: "I used to take myself to task for being more
conscious of his presence, and more concerned about his approval than the
Lord's."
First Overseer: "People even gave their testimonies for the
sake of his 'Amen'."
Second Overseer: "They studied him to know what pleased him."
First Overseer: "And he did not see through them."
Second Overseer: "That was because they played to his vanity."
First to Second Overseer: "Here comes So and So."
First Overseer: "I have wondered if there might be Hail with
Thunder! The air has a strange chill in it, and yet it is oppressive!
Second Overseer: "The lightning used to strike hereabouts often!
"
So and So: "July is the month of storms in Fermanagh."
First Overseer: "This one will be heard and felt in the uttermost
ends of the earth. The ------are distant thunder now."
Second Overseer: "I thought I felt the Earth shake!
First Overseer: "Let us go inside."
.
. California ... in 1917
Second Overseer: "Do you think we ought to encourage him?"
Third Overseer: "There are many things to be considered.
How would we explain to the young converts?"
First Overseer: "His coming back would be full of complications and contradictions, and in a little while we could be on the front benches like little boys again."
Second Overseer: "We have been like free men since he ceased to Lord it over us. For my own part, I do not intend going back to the former condition and position - as his porter! "
Third Overseer: "He made us what we are. Except for him I might still be what and where I was when he discovered me."
First Overseer: "It is going to upset our Family Tree."
Second Overseer: "You mean uproot it! Perhaps we made too much of him as our Father in the Gospel. I begin to think I was right before I met him....."
Third Overseer: "Fathers sometimes go wrong without ceasing to be fathers."
First Overseer: "Yes! but spiritual fathers are different. When they fall away, they carry away the whole ground of relationship with them."
Second Overseer: "Do you think then that we should give up the Foundation of Teaching because he is not what he used to be."
First Overseer: "We can still refer to the time we met him, and the necessity of Genealogy, without committing ourself any farther."
Third Overseer: "But supposing somebody asks us who our spiritual Father was, and WHERE he is now?"
Second Overseer: "In that case it would be wise to change the subject!"
First Overseer: "I am wasting my time here. He seems to think he still has the rule over us, and keeps us waiting while he mends a car."
Third Overseer: "I cannot forget the early days, when he was himself and when his words were our meat and drink. How thou art fallen from heaven O Lucifer, Son of the Morning! Sometimes I wish he was back again. All of us together have not the force he had. And the older people mourn for the powers and the glory of the first days."
First Overseer: "But we cannot afford to lose the place we have gained by his fall."
Second Overseer: "I do not like to put it that way."
Third Overseer: "His unfaithfulness gave opportunity and occasion to our faithfulness."
First Overseer: "That sounds better."
(They go off arm-in-arm)
The Year 1928 ... Convention
First Saint: "That was a great sermon on Charity."
Second Saint: "Do you think there is as much love amongst us as there used to be?"
First Saint: "Twenty five years ago we were more like a family, but then there were not so many of us."
Second Saint: "Do you think we are on the decline, and that we are likely to go in the way of the early Church, until we become like Rome?"
First Saint: "I have a great faith in our leaders, and I do not think God would let them err from the Truth when so many are looking to them for guidance."
Second Saint: "But he let the early Church go wrong, because it desired an Easier Way than at the first. He allowed His people in the Old Testament to have what they craved in the way of Flesh.
First Saint: " But they were only His National People, and we are His Spiritual People."
Second Saint: " We are not more Spiritual than the Church at Jerusalem in the days of the Apostles, and it was only a little while after the Blessing at Pentecost that trouble threatened to come in and divide them."
First Saint: "I have heard some talk of a division amongst us, but our leaders make little of it, as if it was only a few rebellious men, who desired to rule or ruin, and they are now where they belong - outside the Testimony."
Second Saint: "It has often puzzled me how we came to speak of being 'in the Testimony.' I have not read anything in the Bible about that. Do you know where we got the name from, or how it came to be a denominational distinction? Some speak of being 'in the Truth,'as if it was some sort of Religious Order."
First Saint: "I never question anything our leaders say or do. My confidence causes me to rest my case in their hands, believing that my salvation depends on submitting to those that have the rule over us, as it is written in the Hebrews."
Second Saint: "Do you think it is wrong for us to doubt or question, especially when what we see and hear is different from what we read?"
First Saint: "I believe that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. I would no more doubt or question our leaders than I would the stars in their courses. "
Second Saint: "I often wish I was like you, but doubts come in spite of me, and sometimes I wonder where I am at, or where any of us are at. Some of our oldest men who suffered many things at the first are not among us now, and when we ask about them we get vague answers."
First Saint: "You may be sure they went badly wrong or they would not be Outside now."
Second Saint: "If they gave up their Faith and Hope and went back into the World again I could understand it, but when I hear that they still believe and live as they did at the first, it puzzles me greatly.
First Saint: "There are many things beyond our Comprehension, but our confidence in our leaders should enable us to let them rest there."
Second Saint: "Maybe so, but I would like to see some of the old faces and hear the old voices again. There have been no days like the Early Days in every way. Love did not need to be dissected and defined then, for it was like a fire, and we all sat and were warmed by it."
First Saint: "Some people live in the past, and measure everything by what they call the Early Days. For my own part, I live in the present and trust the future to our leaders - in whom I have every confidence."
Second Saint: "I sometimes think we have substituted confidence in men for faith in God, and that is why we are so unsettled in heart."
First Saint: "I was never more settled in every way than I am now."
Second Saint: "There are too many of us too well settled in the world to be much disturbed about our souls. I think our trouble began at the same place as in the 11th of Genesis."
First Saint: "What trouble was that?"
Second Saint: "They were Journeyers at first, and then they found a Plain, and settled there and Built and made them a Name and became Confused."
First Saint: "Do you think we are confused?"
Second Saint: "Well, there are some Inside and some Outside and they don't understand one another's speech. They walk in the same way, and do the same work, and speak about the same Person, but have no fellowship together."
First Saint: "Those who do not walk with us, do not walk in the True Way. Those who are not one with us are not in the One Body. 'They went out from us, because they were not of us.' "
Second Saint: "The Clergy used to say the same to persuade themselves that they were fight, when we were very few, but we persuaded ourselves that we were right BECAUSE we were few. We got encouragement from the works of Jesus about the Gate being Strait, and The Way being Narrow, and few there were that found it."
First Saint: "Here comes two Overseers!"
.
Eccentric: (Eddie Cooney) "I claim the liberty I had at the first. We all professed to be Christ-centered then, and our unity was the result of that."
Spokesman: "Where your liberty works uncertainty, and even confusion among the people, it ought to be restrained. We only want you to agree not to go where others have been, and to teach there something different from what has been taught by other Workers."
Eccentric: "Unity is not uniformity, and God does not build with Brick of uniform shape and size, but with Stones of various shapes and sizes. I am getting to be an old man now and cannot find it in my mind or heart to change from what I was, and how I worked, at the first."
Spokesman: "There is an understanding amongst the rest of us, and we can depend on one another not to make any break in speech that would compromise us as a whole."
Eccentric: "I know I am not very reliable that way, and very often say things on impulse that prudence would have restrained. But Impulse might be more trustworthy than Prudence. Had we been prudent at the beginning we would not have gone forth as we did. It was our readiness to let go and launch forth without reserve to do His will that made us different from others. We gave up where they held on and we proved God's leading and providing as we could not have done if we had acted according to our human wisdom and prudence."
Spokesman: "There are considerations now which did not exist then. Thousands of people have professed through the Workers all over the world and they all have been uniformly taught, and you are not in line with the teaching at some points."
Eccentric: "I stand where I did at the first!"
Spokesman: "But we have moved forward."
Eccentric: "Motion is not always Progress. We cut adrift from all that was of the World, with its Worship and Service, that we might give a better testimony to Jesus. Part of the Revelation we got was that we should not possess Religious Property, and that we should not become an Organised People. We saw that the Family was God's Purpose from the Beginning, and the only Bond of Fellowship that of his love shed abroad in each of their hearts. I used Wooden Halls until I saw that they were the thin end of the Property Wedge. And there have been times when I was constrained by my devotion to my fellow Workers to go against my own convictions, but I repented, and believe the Lord forgave me."
Spokesman: "When our numbers were small we were under the sort of control you speak about, but thousands cannot be controlled like tens, and we have been constrained by the very necessity of the case to do what we are doing. You speak against tents and Convention Provision, not stopping to consider that there are places in the World where the Gospel could not be preached, and where the Workers could not survive apart from tents, and many of the converts all over the World were reached through them."
Eccentric: "It is not that I want to be different, but I cannot sanction what I withstood before."
Spokesman: "All we want you to do is agree not to go into other Workers' Fields, and speak and act there otherwise than they have done."
Eccentric: "What fields are left where I might go, and speak and act as I did at first?"
Spokesman: "It is not for us to discover a Field for you, but to keep you from bringing in confusion in the Fields of others.
Eccentric: "What confusion?"
Spokesman: "You undertook the healing of a sick girl, contrary to the Testimony."
Eccentric: "Was it contrary to the Scriptures? You do not need to reproach me with that. If she was not healed, that was sufficient reproach. God's rebukes never leave the sting that men's rebukes nearly always carry. What other confusion did I bring in?"
Spokesman: "You spoke from a tent platform condemning tents, thereby causing Workers to wonder and make Saints to doubt."
Eccentric: "I spoke without pre-meditation, and afterwards on being taken to task about it, saw that it was not wise or prudent, and offered to explain at the next meeting."
Spokesman: "That is the sore spot with us. We never speak without considering the effects of what we say, and therefore we do not compromise one another. You are carried away on waves of enthusiasm, and only realise afterwards that you have made a break. It is because we cannot rely on you that we are here today."
Eccentric: "I admit all that you say without coming to your conclusion. You have known me for nearly thirty years, and my nature is no new revelation to you. I was taken at the first on the same terms as I gave, and we walked together many years as brothers. Is it because I cannot change from being myself that you contemplate cutting me off from your fellowship?"
Spokesman: "We would have acted long ago, but desired to give you every chance to change. Any change we have seen has been for the worse, and we have decided there is no hope."
Eccentric: "It grieves me that I come so far short of your expectations, but you would not want me to do what I could not do from my heart?"
Spokesman: "Are you ready to agree not to go into others' Fields, and not to speak or act there contrary to them?"
Eccentric: "I claim the liberty I had at the first."
Spokesman: (Getting up and preparing to leave the room.) "I will have no more fellowship with him." The others get up and move to go after him, except one, who has recovered enough from his bewilderment to protest against the whole procedure.)
Protester: "You have not made a case against him, and as I am not convinced of wrong in him, I am prepared to stand with him."
.
Old Man: "There is only one Overcomer. I AM the seven times Overcomer of the Seven Churches! I AM One of the Two Witnesses! I AM the Man-Child! I am the Prophet Moses wrote about! I AM the Anti-type of all the types, and I will rule the nations with a rod of iron! I WILL Plague all who resist MY WILL! There is no Salvation for anybody apart from ME!"
First Listener: "He Founded the Testimony by himself, and
of the people there was none with him."
Second Listener: "He trod the wine press alone."
Third Listener: "He brought the Alpha Message and none but he
can speak the Omega word."
First Listener: "We used to be very ignorant of the Truth.
Do you remember the time we thought Peter in the 3rd of Acts was preaching
about Jesus?"
Second Listener: "We were blinded by Testimony tradition."
Third Listener: 'But the True Light is shining now, and
it will not be long until our enemies drink blood."
First Listener: "I was reading in the paper this morning about
Great Heat in some places, and snow on Mount Baldy."
Second Listener: "Everything proves that He is the man."
Third Listener: "There was an Earthquake a few days ago in Chile
and the President has been forced out and is in flight to Argentina.
Second Listener: "Everything is happening just as he said it
would."
Fourth Listener (quoting): "By a prophet the Lord brought Israel
out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved."
First Listener to Second: "How are you getting on with
the message?"
Second Listener: "They like it at first, but seem to soon tire
of it.
First Listener: "It is strange about that, for the more we hear,
the more we want to hear."
First Questioner: "There are strange things coming to pass in
these times. What do you think of them?"
Outsider: "I hardly know what to make of them, but it seems
to me that the world is about to end. "
First Questioner: "We are glad to hear you say that, but there
is Provision made for the Day of Trouble and we do not need to be disturbed."
Outsider: "I believe that the Lord will protect those who are
His and make them strong to stand."
First Questioner: "There is Provision only in the Prophet, and
apart from that, there is nothing but Plagues."
Outsider: "I know that we are safe in Him, but sometimes I wonder
if I can claim that safety, for I am not very sure of myself as a Christian."
First Questioner: "Who do you mean by Him?"
Outsider: "Jesus Christ Himself. There is no other.
First Questioner: "Many people today say they believe in Jesus,
as the people in His day said they believed in Moses, but it is not our
professed belief in dead prophets, we must believe in a living one."
Outsider: "Chr'st' sal've,or our faith is vain."
First Questioner: "But He is not the Prophet spoken of by Peter
in Acts 3:22. "
Outsider: "Do you mean to say that Peter was preaching somebody
else?"
First Questioner: "Certainly. We can prove it to you.
Outsider: "How?"
First Questioner: "Jesus did not come from among His brethren,
and those who did not believe Him were not cut off from among the people."
Outsider: "What happened then between His death and the destruction
of Jerusalem 37 years later? If that was not cutting-off, there never
was one. "
First Questioner: "You are right in saying there never was one.
it is yet to come, and it will come on all who do not believe the Prophet.
"
Outsider: "Do you mean that there is a living man somewhere
in the world now, who is to be a test for all of us?"
First Questioner: "There is a man at the present time in Jaffa
Palestine, who founded the Testimony, and was rejected by his brethren,
and he is to be One of the Two Prophets spoken of in the 11th of Revelation."
Outsider: "Who is the other one?"
First Questioner: "John himself. It says at the end of
the 11th chapter that he must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations
and tongues and kings. He is coming back, and this other prophet
is going to join him in witnessing, and afterwards they are to be killed,
and rise and ascend to heaven in a cloud."
Outsider: "What is the Testimony you speak of that was founded
by your prophet?"
First Questioner: "It went wrong after rejecting him and now
is 75% Pharisee."
Outsider: "Why did it reject him?"
First Questioner: "It was only 25 percent Christian and looked
on what it called Sin through Pharisee eyes."
Outsider: "But I thought it became 75% on rejecting him?"
Second Questioner: "The point is whether you are to believe
him, or get blood for water when you go to the tap.
Outsider: "Are you trying to intimidate me?"
Second Questioner: We are trying to get you into the only
safe place.
Outsider: The only safe place I ever heard of is the Secret
Place of the Most High, and that I am sure is Christ Himself.
Second Questioner: You will drink blood if you reject
the prophet.
Outsider: I hope to be prepared to shed my blood in being
true to the Only Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
.
Old Man Broadcasting: I am the Ho-man of Isaiah 55.
I am the Reader of Revelation. I am the Lamb on the Mount Sion.
I am the Angel who spoke to John, (They sit enraptured). I
will rule them with an iron flail.
(They all speak together) There is none like him! He gave the
Alpha Message, and He only can speak the Omega Word!
Printed for A.M. on behalf of the Elect,
by G. S. 20 Batty St., Rozelle, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia.
NOTE: John Long wrote in the back of a copy of the above
booklet the names for the abbreviations.
Click Here to view this handwritten list. It reads:
J.K. - Joe Kerr
E.C. - Ed Cooney
W.I. - W Irvine
J. L. - J Long
J.W. - John Wesley
John's English friend - J. Goodall
1st Visitor - Alf Magowan
2nd Visitor - Sam King
Overseers:
Geo Walker
E. Weir (Irvine Weir)
J. Kelly
Albert Quinn
Wm Gill
Jack & Bill Carrol
Eccentric: Ed Cooney
Click Here to read more about Alfred Magowan
