CHAPTER VI

THE FIRE BAPTIZED REVOLT  1895 TO 1911

     The Fire Baptized Holiness Church, another group that influenced the holiness movement, originated in the holiness movement, originated in the small rural holiness associations of Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska during the last decade of the nineteenth-century.  There its founder Benjamin Hardin Irwin, taught a subsequent experience to sanctification called the "baptism of fire."  He was not, however, the first individual to advocate a third experience characterized by "fire."1  He relied on other writers including Phoebe Palmer, who when recounting her experience of Christian perfection reiterated:

Over thirty years ago I bound the sacrifice to the altar...a few hours after I felt the consuming energies of the Divine Spirit through my whole being.  I trust that baptism of fire has never been lost.2

Rev. Asbury Lowrey, a leading conservative during the last quarter of the nineteenth-century and a member of the National Camp Meeting Association, supported the third blessing idea.  He differentiated between "sanctification" and "the baptism of fire" by asserting:  "Sanctification purges, refines, restores in the image of God and makes a Saint"; the holy fire "empower, works outwardly touching society and makes a priest mighty through God."3

      Irwin reported during the summer campaign of 1895 that he felt in the "very furnace of intense desire" for the experience.  On October 23, 1895, at Enid, Oklahoma Territory, he claimed to see a vision in which he witnessed "a cross of pure transparent fire."  Within a "few moments the whole room seemed to be on fire."  But not until the night of October 25, 1895 did he first sense a physical sensation of heat.  At this point Irwin characterized his feelings as being at "rest in a measureless ocean of pre living fire."4  He continued, "my fingertips were even hot and seemed to burn in the manifest presence of the in working Deity."5

     News of this phenomenon caused a general uproar among conventional holiness advocates and resulted in the meeting reports  of Irwin being banned by The Christian Witness and The Christian Standard.  However, by January, 1896, editors J. M. Pike of The Way of Faith and A. W. Hall of Wesleyan Methodist, offered their columns for his use.  During the next few months Irwin submitted long flowing accounts of protracted meetings from Des Moines, Coon Rapids, Guthrie Centre, Woodward, and Olmitz, Iowa.6

     As a local elder in the Wesleyan Methodist Church, Irwin held these gatherings in cooperation with Rev. C. P. Sage, a local Wesleyan minister in charge of Guthrie Centre Circuit in the Iowa Conference.  Here Irwin employed his brilliant intellectual powers, magnetic personality, ardent nature, and bold disposition to influence the people of central Iowa to accept his fiery baptism.7  At the Olmitz Camp Meeting in either 1896 or 1897 Irwin fused the local associations of Olmitz, Coalfield, and Ontarioville which were composed largely of Wesleyan Methodists into what was known as the Fire Baptized Holiness Association of Southern Iowa.  In recounting this merger Irwin asserted:

While at the Olmitz Camp Meeting, it was clearly opened to us by the Spirit of God, that the Fire Baptized Saints should unite in a definite organization and an outline for constitution came to me like a divine revelation...The next morning I wrote the organizational constitution and submitted it to some of the brethren.  It met with their most hearty approval.  A few days later it was adopted and the first Fire Baptized Holiness Association was in existence.8

This Fire Baptized group differed little from the typical holiness associations except its primary basis of union was centered in a definite "baptism of fire" received subsequently to sanctification.  The initiation of this Fire Baptized Holiness Association led The Wesleyan Methodist to close its columns to Irwin.  In turn, no doubt, this rebuff played a predominant role in the gradual withdrawal of Irwin from Wesleyan connection.9

     Assisted by Jess Bathurst and George M. Henson, Irwin also held meetings in Kansas during 1896.  The first went to Chetopa to preside over the Twelfth Annual Camp Meeting of the Neosho Valley Holiness  Association whose president was Benjamin Wesley Young.  The well attended camp at Chetopa attracted people from Missouri; Indian Territory; and Baxter Springs, Oswego, Cherryvale, Coffeyville, Altamont, Mound Valley, and Independence, Kansas.  At the evening services, large crowds made it nearly impossible for over half the people to get into the canvas tabernacle.  Rev. Benjamin Young reported: "Wave after wave of Glory swept down upon us: and at times several altar services took place simultaneously causing the meetings to last as late as 2:00 A. M.  Irwin in summing up his impressions exclaimed, "The people in southeast Kansas are in for the 'fire' and slant lightning,"10  B. W. Young related in graphic expression his experience of the "fire."  He stated:

I felt led to pray for the God of Fire.  God got hold of me and the mighty cyclone came and I was prostrated.  All at once the mighty wave struck me,...I rolled in the flames and the flames in me, and the building was a solid mass of fire; it was brighter than five suns could make it.  It was broad daylight, but I couldn't see my wife.  I saw Jesus then as plain as I see my family now, and as soon as I saw Him I melted in tenderness before Him.  It was a sea of glass mingled with fire, and it settled into a while heat.  It is only five days since I received the baptism of Fire.11

     Next the evangelists traveled to Healey and Junction City, Kansas, where it seemed the people swarmed to their meetings.  From the account of Irwin, Healey and the small surrounding towns of Dishton, Manning, Ransom, Shields, and Whiterock witnessed no fewer than "three cases of divine healing, ten cases of Bible regeneration, eleven reclamations, sixteen cases of sanctification, and twenty-seven saints received the 'baptism of fire.'"  At Junction City "one sister seeking the baptism was completely prostrated on the floor, and lay under the power of God from 10:00 P.M. until half past two in the morning."  Once she recovered, she testified to a definite experience in such a way as to "amaze and confound the people."12

     The final stops for this evangelists trio during their 1896 campaign occurred at Zion and Bethel Chapels located eight and six miles respectively from Abilene, Kansas.  A German pietistic group known as the River Brethren used these structures.  At these protracted meetings Irwin reported that at any one service as many as fifty people sought sanctification or the "baptism of fire" at the altar.  The Fire Baptized Evangelist also held meetings at Minco and Purcell, Oklahoma Territory, during 1896 and spent from November 15 to December 7 in Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada.13

     The people of the Winnepeg Interdenominational Holiness League with approximately 130 members received Irwin warmly.  Mrs. Annie Douglas, the local leader, described their services as "seasons of uninterrupted victory."  She reported that the Spirit of God visited their last gathering in such a way as to cause "many sinners in Zion [church members] to run from the building in panic."  One Canadian asserted that Irwin appeared as a man "sent of God who had the two-fold baptism of Jesus resting on him"  This proponent continued, "this evangelist has obviously thrown [away] the trammel of etiquette in order to fearlessly brave the stigma of singularity and uncover sin of every kind, in the church and out of it."  On the other hand, most holiness allies ardently apposed the teachings of Irwin and referred to them as "the third blessing heresy."14

     Holiness periodicals nationwide published long articles warning their readers against the "fire" teaching characterized as a third religious experience.  Rev. J. T. Smith avowed he encountered "bitter and deep rooted opposition to the doctrine of Christian perfection in Western Kansas where Irwin had held meetings.  Smith stated "that one [probably Irwin] claimed to have passed through all the agonies of Gethsemane and all the horrors of Calvary."  The writer continued, "these are the wildest enthusiasts I ever met and they are doing much damage to the cause of Bible holiness.  We want to caution you against these people with their unnatural tone of voice, their unreasonable ideas on customs and dress."15

      Irwin responded quickly to his critics by asserting: "Preachers who have lost their power and are not accomplishing anything for God ought not to charge on the Fire Baptized Prophets.  No people honor the Holy Ghost like those who are baptized with 'fire.'"  He continued his defense in a pamphlet called Pyrophobia; A morbid Dread of Fire.  In this publication, the Apostle of Fire lashed out at his detractors by accusing them of acting as "self-appointed guardians of modern holiness."  "They," he charged, "preach a tame, popular, smooth, and fashionable holiness."  Irwin concluded that despite such opposition, editors, evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and laymen by the hundreds had received the "baptism of fire."  He exclaimed, "The fiery baptism illuminates, penetrates, empowers, emboldens, unfolds, gives a tongue of flame.  This is Christ's baptism and is two-fold in its nature."16

     Rev. John M. Pike, a member of the National Camp Meeting Association and editor of The Way of Faith, received daily correspondence inquiring into the doctrine of divine healing, the second coming of Christ, and the "fire."  Pike demonstrated his support for these teachings when he published:  "Where true holiness is inculcated, the spiritual vision becomes clearer, and the Holy Spirit continued to push these subjects and the people demand light on them from their leaders."17

     December, 1896 found Irwin in South Carolina where according to an eye-witness his meetings took many churches and their congregations in "cyclone fashion."  His first engagement convened at Piedmont, where he used the Wesleyan Methodist Meeting House pastored by Rev. Andrew K. Willis, who after his "fire" experience became the first man to receive the "holy dance."  As a result, many people demonstrated a profound interest as manifested by seven individuals seeking entire sanctification at the first service, eighteen--some for holiness and some for the "fire."  These Wesleyan parishioners received Irwin's experience-oriented message in much the same way as did the Canadians and those along the banks of the Neosho River in Kansas.  "They jumped, shouted, screamed and praised God for 'fire' baptism."18

     Those who accepted this experience included Richard B. Hays, Samuel J. McElroy, and a host of ministers and lay members at the Piedmont Meeting or in subsequent gatherings in South Carolina.  After Irwin returned home to Lincoln, Nebraska, evangelists including Hays, Willis, and McElroy carried the fire baptize doctrine to Georgia where they held meetings at Elberton, Royston, Cannon, and other points.19

     Rev. B. H. Irwin arrived back in the Abilene, Kansas, area in May, 1897, to preach to the River Brethren.  His meetings assembled in Bethel, Zion, and Bell Springs Chapels.  The editor of The Evangelical Visitor, the official organ of the Brethren in Christ Church, characterized Irwin as a man who "undoubtedly is fulfilling the call for which he has been anointed."  In addition to the editor revealed that the most striking feature in his preaching was the exposing of sin in all its forms and hues resulting in the conviction and conversion of sinners, reclaiming of backsliders, and the sanctification and filling with fire of believers."20  By 1898 or 1899 Irwin drew a small group of former River Brethren together and organized them into a local Fire Baptized association at Moonlight, Kansas.21

     Early September, 1897, found Irwin back in Central Iowa at the Olmitz Camp Meeting where he organized his followers into the first Fire Baptized Holiness Association.  He, along with Rev. Oliver Fluke, traveled next to Southeast Kansas where they lead the thirteenth annual camp meeting of the Neosho Valley Holiness Association.  This gathering which lasted from September 24 to October 3 convened in Mound Valley where the leading ministers of the Neosho Valley Association attended.  These included: "Brothers Benjamin W. Young, S. Homer Hipes, John F. Wolford, Sister Maggie, and  others."22  Reports showed the whole proceedings as one "great and decisive victory after another."  At least thirty persons received "radical, sky-clue conversions, fifty cases of sanctification, more than as many cases of divine healing, and twenty-five or thirty cases of the 'baptism of fire.'"  At their business meeting the Neosho Valley Association became the second group to accept "the constitution and basis of union of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association of  Southern Iowa."  Irwin estimated that at least a hundred members took part in this merger.23

     These results illustrated, additionally, how holiness camp meetings typically constituted a major social event and how well attended they were in mid-western rural communities such as Mound Valley.  Interest increased so much, in fact, that at the Fire Baptized Associations; 1903 camp meeting held in Mound Valley it was reported that crowds in the city park reached upwards of 2,000 at anyone time.  One observer commented that "the streets were a perfect jam of buggies all evening,"  This situation led to a reported community wide "bread famine with the three [local] dealers in the 'staff of life' not able to keep up with demand."24

     Not all citizens of the towns where Irwin preached even attempted to tolerate the doctrines and activities he propagated.  Editor L. Linn Albin of the Mound Valley Herald, condemned Irwin and the local association leadership sarcastically:

The holy show at the city park is conducted by a people professing to be Holy, but those whoa re at the head of the show do not conduct themselves in that manner.  A holiness that does not make a man Christ like is a farce and a hypocracy....Christ said 'Follow me' but we fail to find in His teachings where Christ jumped, screamed or rooted in the dust, kicked up his heels and cavorted around like the men and women do at the park who profess to be holy and say they're His disciples.  We voice the sentiment of our best people when we say--God deliver Mound Valley from this demoralizing, desecrating outfit at an early date.25

As Irwin intensified his organizational activities, antagonism increased between his followers and the local denominationally oriented citizens of the rural communities where the Fire Baptized Evangelists most often centered their activities.  In opposing the recognized religious bodies, one "fire" proponent asserted that he refused to be bound to the teachings of "men and churches."  "God" he stated, "had revealed to him to fight against the ecclesiastical spirit that circumscribed the true faith as did the inquisitional order and Popish bulls of the Middle Ages."26

     As a result of such statements, tension finally reached a breaking point between the two groups.  Violence erupted in the form of an open physical assault against Irwin and his constituents at a camp meeting in Iowa.  According to Rev. W. E. Stevenson, several Fire Baptized ministers received injuries in the assault--"Brother C. P. Sage, pistol whipped: Brother Oliver Fluke, hit in the face with a chair; Brother Hammer, struck in the face; and one sister was knocked down"--but not one blow was returned.27

     Irwin and his traveling companion, Oliver Fluke, closed the Mound Valley camp on October 3, 1897, and journeyed some 260 miles to Thompson, Oklahoma Territory.28  While in Oklahoma the evangelist organized a Fire Baptized Holiness organization for that state and immediately following organized a Texas Association.  Rev. G. M. Henson accepted the job as overseer in Oklahoma and Rev. A. R. Hodges in Texas.  The Fire Baptized Evangelists returned to the southeast in 1898 and conducted a successful meeting at Royston, Georgia.  The results of this meeting culminated in the organization of the Georgia Fire Baptized Association with R. B. Hayes in charge.  Next Irwin went to Williston, Florida, where he organized a Fire Baptized Association for that state with N. G. Pulliam as ruling elder.  Thus, by early July, 1898, the charismatic Irwin in quick succession initiated state organizations in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina.  To that time, periodic visits by the founder acted as the only binding force on these associations.29

     As a result Irwin called a general council which met in Anderson, South Carolina, from July 28 to August 8, 1898.  During this series of meetings he and the leaders of the state associations worked out a plan to consolidate the local groups into a national organization  known as the Fire Baptized Holiness Association of America.30  These representatives included: J. F. Wolford, Kansas; G. M. Henson, Oklahoma; A. Hodges, Texas; R. B. Hayes, Georgia; I. S. Ogle, Florida; W. S. Foxworth, South Carolina; S. D. Page, North Carolina; J. H. Wine, Virginia; and D. Awrey of Tennessee.31  These supporters selected Irwin general overseer for life of this new denomination, and the delegates adopted a series of doctrinal points eventually published in a Constitution and General Rules pamphlet  Here the baptism of fire was clearly defended in the following statement: "We believe that the baptism with fire is a definite, scriptural experience, obtainable by faith on the part of the spirit-filled believer."  In 1900 Irwin confirmed the importance of this doctrinal statement when he referred to it as the "MAGNA CHARTA" of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association.32

     The delegates, in addition, passed rules forbidding all members of the new association from belonging to oath-bound or secret societies; to grow, sell, use or handle tobacco in any form; to use morphine; to wear outward adornments such as jewelry, gold feathers, flowers, costly apparel, or ornamentation of any kind.  Traditions added to these written rules also required followers to confess their sins and make public restitution in such matters.  They also rejected use of medical drugs, eating of pork or any food prohibited by the dietary laws of the Old Testament, and wearing of neckties by men.  The final point in this basis of union statement admonished all Fire Baptized people to be ready "to witness on all occasions, to what the Lord has done for us, especially to sanctification, divine healing, and the baptism with the Holy Ghost and 'fire.'"33

     These ten days of organizational meetings were also held in conjunction with nightly religious services which, according to Joseph H. King, were marked by "great earnestness, fervency, boldness, and fanaticism."34  A report first published in The Way of Faith and later in The Christian Witness lent creditability to this charge of fanaticism when it quoted the new overseer who exclaimed, "We had 'music and dancing,' shouts of victory, not thunder bolts and slant lightnings, billows of white fire, and devil shaking dynamite."35  The "triumphant" music referred to played an important part in these conclaves and provided the believers with a positive way to express their dedication to this radical cause.  "The Battle Hymn of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Association" rang loud and true when the congregation sang to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic":

     The vast majority of holiness people opposed the organization of this new church and the rhetoric its leaders employed, especially since its primary reason for existence centered around the propagation of the "fire."  The conservatives argued this third experience relegated Christian perfection to an inferior state.  A correspondent for The Christian Witness illustrated this point when he asserted these people go so far as to teach a "fourth experience (dynamiteism), come-outism, premillenialism, fire baptism, which when all put together, spells fanaticism."37 Another contributor echoed this sentiment when he said:

Today how many who call themselves Christians, hanker after noise, ocular demonstration, shouting, trances and bodily healing, and what they call 'fire,' and see more in these things than they do in refining of the Holy Ghost and the human spirit sweetened by grace, softened by love, quieted by the peace of God, and sitting clothed and in its right mind.38

      Nevertheless, such deriding accusations and admonitions seemed not to daunt the apostle of fire, and after the Anderson Convention closed Irwin again entered the evangelistic field with renewed vigor.  During August, 1898, he presided over meetings in Iowa and in September returned to Mound Valley where he conducted the annual camp meeting of the Southeastern Kansas Fire Baptized Holiness Association (formally Neosho Valley Holiness Association).  Here Irwin encountered, according to his own statement, a battle over the ordinance question.  As a result he accused the Kansans of first "denying the ordinances altogether and perverting the Scriptures in order to sustain their heretical notions."  He continued, "They also refuse to worship Jesus; and openly deny the authority of the written word, teaching infallible spiritual guidance independent of the word of God."  No doubt other issues were at work besides the newly found stand on the ordinance question by the local association leaders and a majority of their followers.

     One plausible explanation might have revolved around the fact that a power struggle developed between Irwin and B. W. Young over whether the local Southeast Kansas association would become incorporated into Irwin's national organization.  In fact J. F. Wolford, not Rev. Young, had represented supposedly all the local Southeast Kansas Fire Baptized people at the recently concluded Anderson, South Carolina organization convention.  Irwin himself confirmed the importance of the control and ordinance issues.  He stated, "This same sectarian, anti-ordinance, anti-organization spirit has ruined the holiness work in many places."  Finally, to add insult to injury, Irwin reported that at the end of the camp meeting he convinced some of the local people to affiliate with his Fire Baptized Holiness Association of America.39  In response Rev. B. W. Young, as president of the local association, withdrew the Southeastern Kansas Fire Baptized Holiness Association from the identity of B. H. Irwin and his national organization.  By August, 1904, the Fire Baptized people of Southeastern Kansas organized sufficiently to incorporate their association under Kansas law.40

     Fire Baptized Evangelists other than B. H. Irwin left the Anderson Convention no less determined to push the radical fight in all parts of the country.  R. B. Hayes reported great successes in the extreme Southeastern states, especially, Georgia, where he confirmed that "the tide of interest was rising higher and higher and a great tidal wave of salvation was sweeping over the country."  At Powersville, Hayes demonstrated his determination to reach the common people when he preached twice on the streets and twice in schoolhouses in addition to his regularly scheduled meetings.  As he stated "God wonderfully opened up the way for highway and hedge work in the slums of the cities and back alleys where they [common people] had never heard the story of full salvation."  Mid-November found Hayes at Carlton, Georgia, in his eleventh tent meeting since the first of April, 1898.  He further illustrated his dedication when he said, "We will hold one more [tent meeting] and then go right on in schoolhouses, halls, and street, preaching till Jesus comes."41

     E. M Murrill, an evangelist from Texas, stated that he received the "fire" twelve months earlier and initiated a holiness mission in Forth Worth, Texas in cooperation with Mrs. C. A. Drake.  One parishioner who attended this work acknowledged his adoration for God by testifying that after he received full salvation, he injured his back in an accident.  He asked the leaders at the mission to anoint him with oil for healing and according to his testimony, while on his knees at the altar, he received instanteous and wonderful healing and the pain disappeared.42

     Other Fire Baptized workers reported unprecedented successes.  John E. Dull labored in Iowa, and while at Coalfield at least twenty persons sought and "definitely received the 'fire.'"  Rev. Dull organized these followers into a Fire Baptized Class.  As a result the superintendent of the Oskaloosa Quarterly Meeting for the Quaker Church attended one of these services and admonished Dull "to desist from teaching the baptism of fire."  The evangelist refused and according to his report when the superintendent "pulled the discipline on him" he leaped and shouted as he exclaimed, "Do what you think best.  We bear this testimony that we please God."  In a similar encounter at Smokey Hollow, Iowa, Rev. Dull characterized his former Quaker brethren as preachers of a "moon-shine holiness that does not get anybody sanctified, they fight the fire, eat hog, and belong to the Iowa State Holiness Association, an apostate institution that fights divine healing, and the premillennial second coming of Jesus and the baptism of fire."  Harassment only intensified the desire of these activists to spread the gospel of the "fire."43

     Rev. N. G. Pulliam confirmed while in Eastman, Georgia, that rowdies threw pine knots at the meeting house after his wife had preached "under the power and demonstration of the blessed Holy Ghost."  But as he said, "perfect love casteth out all fear, and we conducted the service to the Glory of God.  The meeting closed in good order."  They next went to Rhine for about ten days then on to McRae for two weeks and to the south part of Georgia on their way to Florida.44 These advocates traveled generally by train from one appointment to another.  One evangelist revealed his total preoccupation with the 'fire' when he confirmed that as he traveled he felt:

....enveloped with the 'holy fire.'  The noise of the engine seemed to sound notes of praise to God and the clatter of the wheels beneath the cars seemed to be saying glory to God, Hallelujah.  The coaches themselves were fire lighted, and the wheels beneath seemed to be wheels of fire.   Fire! Fire!  Holy Fire!!!45

     The second annual general conference of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association  of America constituted one of the more important events during 1899 in the life of the infant organization.  This assemblage lasted from April 1 through April 10 in Royston, Georgia, where a sizable amount of business took place.  The general overseer, B. H. Irwin, further tightened his hold on the national movement.  By October 6, 1899, he purchased a printing press and set it up at his own residence in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he published Live Coals of Fire, the first periodical dedicated to the "fire."  This sheet appeared semi-monthly with an annual subscription price of one dollar and presented in a newsprint format of eight pages eleven inches by fifteen inches.  From the start of this endeavor Thomas Bickley acted as plant foreman while Albert E. Robinson; Miss Dovie Jordan; Stewart Irwin, his son; and Anna M. Irwin, his wife, assisted Irwin in his new role as editor.46

     This publication provided the leadership of the movement with an uncensored propaganda outlet to the public.  Meeting reports appeared from all over the Eastern half of North America--Moonlight, Kansas; Olmitz, Iowa; Manitoba and Ontario, Canada; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Culpepper, Virginia; Central, South Carolina; Royston, Georgia; Marshall, Texas; Cherokee, Oklahoma Territory; and many other locales.  These gatherings often took place in abandoned store buildings, country schoolhouses, or county courthouses.  But by early January, 1900, at least two new churches were built and dedicated to the Fire Baptized cause.47  Typical services in these structures showed extreme emotionalism as witnessed in an editorial which appeared in Live Coals during October, 1899.  Rev. Irwin confirmed that some parishioners got "the holy screams, and others the holy laugh: some leaped and jumped while others fell prostrate under the power of God.  Some got the 'jerks' while others had sudden and long continued attacks of the hot chills."48

     Such extreme reactions simultaneously accompanied the progressive trend in the movement toward outlandish and unscriptural teachings.  These teachings included dynamite or power taught as a fourth experience followed in quick succession by lyddite and some adherers even even claimed selenite and oxynite (other forms of high explosives).  B. H. Irwin as the leading Fire Baptized Evangelist revealed his support for the dynamite as early as August, 1899, in a sermon preached at Moonlight, Kansas.  The speaker relied on the Bible for confirmation when he quoted from Acts 1:8--"But ye shall receive power (dynamite)."  Romans 1:16--"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ:  for it is the power (dynamite) of God unto salvation."  He employed this scripture to induce all spirit-filled believers to seek, find, and witness to this psychic adventure.49

     This testimony of Rev. Jesse Bathurst of Ness City, Kansas, illustrated this point when he described  his reception of the dynamite.  Rev. Bathurst avowed that while in meditation a little around sphere which looked like a bullet appeared to him.  At that time he developed the spiritual hiccups supposedly; his mouth flew open and "in went the little ball of pure irresistible dynamite."  He continued, "God showed me that was I received the heavenly dynamite."50

     Another leader, J. H. King, also voiced support for all that the association expounded when he stated that he had received both the dynamite and lyddite.  In confirming the reality of this statement King asserted, "There is no mistake of our reception of it.  For we sought definitely, believed definitely, and received definitely, and God was just as definite in giving as we were in receiving."  Sarah M. Payne, a worker in the Live Coals  office added to this chemical jargon the experiences of selenite and oxynite.51  A. M. Hills expressed the feelings of the majority of holiness people when he said, "the Fire Baptized advocates should seek at least one more blessing, the blessing of common sense."52

     Nevertheless, the Fire Baptized Holiness Association of America continued to spread its sphere of influence at least until sometime during the summer of 1900.  As late as June the official periodical showed 140 full time evangelists scattered over twenty-three states or territories and in two Canadian provinces.53  This steady outreach made it possible for the association to make plans to send foreign missionaries, first to Cuba and later to South Africa.  As early as November, 1899, Live Coals reported that "God had called" Rev. John E. Dull to go to Cuba as the first Fire Baptized foreign missionary.  His schedule called for him to reach Havana by January 1, 1900, and there expand his work gradually over the entire island.  In addition, other association evangelists including Stewart T. Irwin revealed that they felt called to go to South Africa on or before March 15, 1900.54

     Dollie Lawson donated Seventy-five acres of land at Benaiah, Tennessee, for a training school designated as the School of the Prophets.  Here outgoing missionaries and local pastors were to be educated.  According to Irwin, this site forth miles north of Chattanooga and seventy miles southwest of Knoxville constituted on the "the finest spots in American."  By November, 1899, Irwin announced plans to construct a building on this site capable of accommodating 250 students, and he announced he needed five-thousand dollars for this project.  Money arrived steadily until the Fire Baptized Evangelist could report one-thousand  still needed.  School started without the actually building, and Emma DeFriece acted as teacher until June 1, 1900.55

     This emerging denomination received a near fatal blow when Benjamin H. Irwin "manifested sin" by living a double life.  This first came to light after Irwin was arrested for drunkenness and bad conduct in Kansas City, Missouri.  Here a local paper carried this story reportedly on the front page where his baggage pictured with the insignia, "Blood and Fire and Holiness Unto the Lord," made sensational headlines.  As a result in June, 1900, Irwin contacted Rev. Joseph H. King who had been acting Live Coals editor since April of the same year and asked him to assume the complete leadership of the paper and the stricken organization56

     King, in response, called a special session of the General Council which convened at Olmitz, Iowa, on June 20 and lasted till July 2, 1900.  After several ballots on the last day the delegates elected Joseph Hillery King the second overseer of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association of America.  The shock of Irwin's spiritual  fall deeply affected the general membership of the organization he had initiated.  Once the cohesive power Irwin exercised over the movement was removed, the organization began to fragment and disintegrate as fast as it had been built.  By 1904 all that remained of the national organization was centered in Georgia and the Carolinas.  However, by January 1905 a counter movement emerged to reestablish the work in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Western Kansas.  The ministers numbered about sixty at that time.57  One seldom recognized contribution of the Fire Baptized Association of America lay in its early acceptance of racial equality for African Americans.  The Apostle of Fire substantiated this point when he elevated several Negroes to the official status of evangelist in his group.  These included:  William E. Fuller from Mountville, ruling elder for the Colored Fire Baptized Association of South Carolina; Alice M. McNeil from Fayetteville, ruling elder from North Carolina; Isaac Gamble from Kingstree, South Carolina; Uncle Powell Woodbury from Marion, South Carolina.  Irwin also held meetings in cooperation with the African Methodist Episcopal Church in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska.58

     Another characteristic in the life of the Fire Baptized Movement mirrored the political rise of William Jennings Bryan and his agrarian populous movement.  This political phenomenon drew its grass roots support from the general class of people and geographical area as did Irwin's cause.  Both movements acted as protests against the Eastern establishment.  As Tom Watson and Bryan assaulted the banking interests of Wall Street and the monopoly power of big business, the holiness radicals assailed what they perceived to be the tyranny and ecclesiastical power of the main line churches.  Thus, this religious revolt paralleled the political economic revolt of populism.59

     A leading twentieth-century Pentecostal historian rightly identified the primary contribution of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association of America to its doctrinal belief in a separate and subsequent baptism of the Holy Ghost and "fire."  This teaching made it easy for them to accept the neo-Pentecostal baptism with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues.  By 1911 the Pentecostal baptism acted as a primary catalyst to draw together what remained of the Irwin movement with another holiness group known as the Pentecostal Holiness Church which also centered its primary activity in the deep South.  These two groups merged on January 31, 1911, and adopted the name Pentecostal Holiness Church.60

     A small faction of the Fire Baptized people opposed this merger because many of their brethren began to adopt the practices of the more liberal Pentecostal Holiness Church of North Carolina.  Some leaders who took part in the merger illustrated this point when they relaxed their standards on wearing neckties and eating pork.  The more radical Fire Baptized opposed this trend because they felt it led to a spirit of worldliness in the church.  As a result, at Pembroke, North Carolina, on October 21, 1916, J. J. Carter along with several other former Fire Baptized Evangelists led a small secession from the larger Pentecostal Holiness Church.61

     The only faction of the initial Fire Baptized work virtually unaffected by the fall of B. H. Irwin was the independent Southeastern Kansas Fire Baptized Association.  This faction split away from Irwin in  1898 over leadership control of the local association and the ordinance question.  These proponents continued to teach the baptism of the "fire" as a subsequent experience to sanctification, the premillennial coming of Christ, and divine healing.  However they continued to reject any identity with B. H. Irwin or any other part of what remained of his national organization after his spiritual fall.62  This denomination, at the same time, maintained what its followers termed a non-ordinance stand.  In other words, they contended that the external ordinances of communion and water baptism were replaced by the living faith of each believer--in what Christ accomplished on the cross and in the baptism of the Holy Ghost as received on the day of Pentecost.63  During the early decades of the twentieth-century the fire Baptized people also confronted the issue of speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost.  A majority rejected this experience focused phenomenon and after much division its teaching was band from the church.64  Thus, the Fire Baptist Church centered in Southeast Kansas continued to move docternally toward the center of the Wesleyan Holiness movement.

     As a result, they expanded the departmental work of their association and gained numerical strength slowly.  They founded an orphanage in the fall of 1919 and purchased their own camp ground in 1926.  In 1949 they also initiated a state accredited secondary school one mile south of Independence, Kansas.  At the 1948 Annual Business Meeting the group reported a weekly Sunday School attendance of 1,787 dispersed among thirty-nine churches.  By 1948 this organization banned from the church pulpits any teaching of the doctrine of the "fire" as a third work and changed their name to the Fire Baptized Holiness Church.65

     1Vincent Synan, The Old-Time Power, 86, 87.  Cited hereafter, Synan, Old-Time Power. Benjamin Hardin Irwin was born in 1854 in a log house near Mercer, Missouri.  His Family moved to Tecumseh, Nebraska, in 1863.  While in Tecumseh, he married Anna M. Stewart (1876), practice law eight years, was converted (1879), ordained a Baptist minister, and sanctified wholly (1891).  B. H. Irwin, "Editorial Correspondence," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, March 23, 1900, 1; Benjamin H. Irwin, "Our Brother's Sorrow," Ibid., May 18, 1900, 4; Benjamin H. Irwin, "Repentance and Confession," Ibid., June 15, 1900, 2; "Death of Mrs. Anna Irwin,"  The Tecumseh (Nebraska) Chieftain, November 15, 1919, 3; History of The State of Nebraska, II, 1003-1005; United Sates 1870 Census, Nebraska, Johnson County, Post Office, Tecumseh, Nebraska, 6.     BACK

     2George Hughes, "Baptism of Fire," Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany (New York), n.s. XXXI, February,1879, 20.  John Fletcher, an eighteenth-century theologian and associate of John Wesley, supported the third experience.  When asked how many baptisms or effusions of the sanctifying spirit were necessary to cleanse a believer, he replied, "If one powerful baptism of the Spirit 'seal you unto the day of redemption, and cleanse you from all moral filthiness' so much the better.  If two or more be necessary, the Lord can repeat them...."John Fletcher, The Works of John Fletcher, 4 vols., II, 632; Benjamin H. Irwin, "The Third Blessing," Live Coals of Fire, I, October 20, 1899, 5.    BACK

     3Asbury Lowrey, "Is The Baptism of The Holy Ghost A Third Blessing?" Divine Life and International Expositor of Scriptural Holiness (New York), III, September, 1879, 46, 47; Asbury Lowrey, "The Conclusion of The Whole Matter," Ibid., November, 1879, 81.     BACK

     4B. H. Irwin, "The Baptism of Fire an Experience," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VI, November 13, 1895, 2. Prior to the time Irwin received the "fire" he was an accomplished holiness evangelist traveling widely and conducting many two-week revival and camp meetings.  His schedule for 1893 included meetings at (in order conducted): Freed, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; Ashland, Illinois; Dennison, Iowa; Bennett, Geneva, and Lincoln, Nebraska; and Lineville, Iowa.  The 1894 schedule included:  Burr Oak, Ballaire, Colby, Smith Center, Healey, Dighton, Kiowa, Kansas; Lancing, Colorado; Knoxville, Iowa; and Geneva and Plymouth, Nebraska.  In 1895 he held meetings in Lovilla, Flogler, Elm Ridge, Iowa; in Nebraska--Bethel M. E. Church, Emanuel M. E. Church, Wesley University Chapel, Valparaiso, and Homer; Lucas, Solan, Foster, and Cherokee, Iowa; DeWitt, Nebraska; Holt and Mulholt, Oklahoma Territory; Clebourne, Texas; Viola Center and Cloud, Iowa.  He reported four-hundred received religious experiences in 1995.  "Camp Meeting Calendar, B. H. Irwin," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston), n.s. XI, May 4, 1893. 8; Ibid., July 15, 1893, 4; Ibid., August 17, 1893, 5, 8; Ibid., XIII, June 27, 1895, 23; Ibid., July 11, 1895, 12; Ibid., September 19, 1895, 12; Ibid., October 10, 1895, 12; Ibid., October 17, 1895, 12; Ibid., XIV, January 23, 1896, 12.  See also "At Home, Kansas, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska," The Christian Standard and International Holiness Journal (Philadelphia), XXIX, October 4, 1894, 10.     BACK

     5Benjamin H. Irwin, "The Central Idea," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, November 10, 1899, 4.     BACK

     6C. P. Sage, "Coon Rapids," The Wesleyan Methodist (Syracuse, New York), LIII, January 1, 1896, 5; C. P. Sage, "Church Notes, Iowa, Coon Rapids," Ibid., January 23, 1896, 4; C. P. Sage, "Coon Rapids," Ibid., March 25, 1896, 4; C. P. Sage, "Guthrie Centre," Ibid., July 15, 1896, 3-5; C. P. Sage, "Iowa, Guthrie Centre," Ibid., July 29, 1896, 5.     BACK

     7Ibid.     BACK

     8B. H. Irwin, "The Central Idea," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, November 10, 1899, 4.     BACK

     9Ibid.; Oliver Fluke, "Iowa," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VII, November 18, 1896, 5.     BACK

    10Benjamin H. Irwin, "Chetopa, Kansas," Ibid., September 2, 1896, 1; Benjamin Young, "Kansas, Mound Valley," Ibid., November 18, 1896, 5. For the negative comments by the editor of the local newspaper see, Chetopa (Kansas) Advance, August 28, 1896, 10.     BACK

    11Benjamin Wesley Young, The Experience, Accident and Obituary of Benjamin Wesley Young, "My Experience," 5-7.     BACK

    12Benjamin H. Irwin, "Brother Irwin's Letter [Healey, Kansas]," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VII, October 14, 1896, 1; Benjamin H. Irwin, "Kansas, Junction City," Ibid., November 11, 1896, 5.     BACK

    13Benjamin H. Irwin, "Minco, Indiana Territory," Ibid., VI, June 17, 1896, 2; Benjamin H. Irwin, "Purcell, Oklahoma," Ibid., VII, July 1, 1896, 2; Benjamin H. Irwin, "Purcell, Indiana Territory," Ibid., July 8, 1896, 1, 2.     BACK

    14Benjamin H. Irwin, "Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba," Ibid., December 2, 1896, 5; Benjamin H. Irwin, "Winnipeg, Manitoba," Ibid., December 16, 1896, 4; Benjamin H. Irwin, "Victory at Winnipeg," Ibid., December 23, 1896, 1; Benjamin H. Irwin, "South Carolina, Piedmont," Ibid., December 30, 1896, 5.     BACK

    15Joseph T. Smith, "From Kansas [Third Work Extravagance]," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Boston and Chicago), N.S. XIV, October 22, 1896,15; L. N. Moore, "Dangers to The Holiness Movement," Ibid., n.s. XVII, November 9, 1899, 3; M. D. Collins, "Baptism With Fire," Ibid., n.s. XVI, March 24, 1898, 2; W. B. Godbey, "Baptism of Fire," Guide to Holiness and Revival Miscellany (New York), n.s. LXXXIX, April, 1899, 109.     BACK

    16B. H. Irwin, "Pyrophobia," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VII, October 28, 1896, 2; B. H. Irwin, "Victory at Winnipeg," Ibid., December 23, 1896, 1.  Irwin's Experience of the Fire along with three other messages entitled Pyrophobia; Old Man; New Man appeared in tract form and sold for two cents each.  "Tracts!  Tracts!!" Ibid., VII, July 29, 1896, 4.      BACK

    17John M. Pike, "Camp Meetings," Ibid., July 29, 1896, 4.     BACK

    18Joseph H. King, "History of The Fire Baptized Holiness Church Chapter 1," The Pentecostal Holiness Advocate (Franklin Springs, Georgia), IV, March 24, 1921, 4, 5; Benjamin H. Irwin, "South Carolina, Piedmont," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VII, December 30, 1896, 5.     BACK

    19J. H. King, "History of The Fire Baptized Holiness Church Chapter III," The Pentecostal Holiness Advocate (Franklin Springs, George), IV, April, 17, 1921, 10.     BACK

   20"Dickinson County Kansas," The Evangelical Visitor (Abilene, Kansas), X, May 15, 1897, 153; Maggie Frahm, "Experience," Ibid., June 15, 1897, 182, 183.     BACK

    21Benjamin H. Irwin, "Editorial Correspondence," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, October 6, 1899, 1.     BACK

    22Oliver Fluke, "Iowa," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VIII, October 13, 1897, 5.     BACK

    23Benjamin H. Irwin, "Brother Irwin's Letter [Mound Valley Camp Meeting]," Ibid., October 20, 1897, 2.     BACK

    24The Mound Valley (Kansas) Herald, August 21, 1903, 3; The Mound Valley (Kansas) Herald, August 28, 1903, 3.     BACK

    25"State Holiness Camp Meeting," Ibid., September 17, 1897, 3; "Hallelujah All The Methodists Are Going to Hell," Ibid., October 1, 1897, 3; "The Holy Show at The City Park," Ibid., October 8, 1897, 5.     BACK

     26Benjamin H. Irwin, "Winnipeg, Manitoba," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), VII, December 16, 1896, 4.    BACK

    27W. E. Stevenson, "A Murderous Assault on B. H. Irwin," Ibid., August 12, 1896, 1.     BACK

    28Benjamin H. Irwin, "Iowa," Ibid., VIII, October 13, 1897, 5.     BACK

    29Synan, Old-Time Power, 87-89.     BACK

    30Joseph Hillery King, Yet Speaketh, Memories of The Late Bishop Joseph H. King, Supplemented by Mrs. Blanche L. King, 86. Cited hereafter, King, Yet Speaketh.     BACK

    31J. H. King, "History of The Fire Baptized Holiness Church, Chapter II," The Pentecostal Holiness Advocate (Franklin Springs, Georgia), IV, March 31, 1921, 10, 11.     BACK

    32Benjamin H. Irwin, "The Central Idea," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, November 10, 1899, 4; "Let The Sifting Continue," Ibid., December 1, 1899, 1; Constitution and General Rules of The Fire Baptized Holiness Church, 3.     BACK

    33Ibid., 2, 4, 7; Synan, Old-Time Power, 89, 90.  These people refused to rely on doctors or their methods to such a degree that one boy died as a result of his parents' not consenting for his having medical care.  R. B. Hayes, "R. B. Hays' Letter," Live Coals (Royston, Georgia), IV, September 12, 1906, n.p.     BACK

    34King, Yet Speaketh, 86.     BACK

    35"Irwin's Fire Baptism' Movement," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Chicago and Boston), n.s. XVI, September 22, 1898, 15.BACK

    36C. T. Stevens, comp., Blood and Fire Songs, No. 67.     BACK

    37L. N. Moore, "Danger to The Holiness Movement," The Christian Witness and Advocate of Bible Holiness (Chicago and Boston), n.s. XVII, November 9, 1898, 3.     BACK

    38"Earthquakes, Cyclones and Fires in Which the Lord is Not," Ibid., XVI, October 13, 1898, 4.  For a more complete attack on Irwin and his baptism of fire see Beverly Carradine, The Santified Life, 252-266.     BACK

    39"Brother Irwin's Letter," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), IX, September 28, 1898, 1; Ibid., October 5, 1898, 2.  For a description of what Irwin meant by the ordinance question refer to the discussion of the radical independent holiness movement in chapter V pages 107-114 of this document.     BACK

    40Incorporation Charter of The Fire Baptized Holiness Association of Southeastern Kansas, August 11, 1904, Secretary of State, Topeka, Kansas.     BACK

    41R. B. Hayes, "Georgia, Carlton," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), IX, October 12, 1898, 5; R. B. Hayes, "Powersville," Ibid., November 16, 1898, 5; R. B. Hayes, "Carlton," Ibid., November 30, 1898, 5.  As early as the fall of 1898 Rev. Hayes reported that for over a year God had been telling him to buy what he termed a "gospel wagon" in order to carry his radical religion to the common people.  By February, 1900, he had this vehicle in the field and reported that it facilitated his evangelistic work.  R. B. Hayes, "Gospel Wagon Wanted," Ibid., October 19, 1898, 5; "William B. Martin, Frank E. Porter, and Stewart Irwin's Letter," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, February 23, 1900, 5.     BACK

    42E. M. Murrill, "What of The Fire," The Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), IX, October 26, 1898, 2; Edward C. Hudson, "A New Testimony," Ibid., November  16, 1898, 5.  The enthusiasm of Rev. Murrell was strengthened greatly on November 14, 1898, when he and Mrs. Ca. A. Drake were united in marriage.  He stated, "She is one of the best women on earth and you know I am a happy Man."  E. M. Murrill, "Holiness Mission at Ft. Worth, Texas," Ibid., November 23, 1898, 1.     BACK

    43John E. Dull, "Iowa, Coalfield," Ibid., October 26, 1898, 5.     BACK

    44N. G. Pulliam, "A Good Meeting," Ibid., November 16, 1898, 1.    BACK

    45"Editorial, Doctrinal Differences," The Pentecostal  Holiness Advocate (Franklin Springs, Georgia), XIII, May 22, 1930, 8.     BACK

    46Joseph E. Campbell, The Pentecostal Holiness Church 1898-1948, Its Background and History, Presenting Complete Background Material Existence of Other Kindred Pentecostal and Holiness Groups, as an Essential and Integral Part of The Total Church Set-up, 200, 526.  Cited hereafter, Campbell, Pentecostal Holiness Church.  "In The South," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, January 12, 1900, 4; "Our Working Force," Ibid., October 20, 1899, 4.     BACK

    47"In The Southland," Ibid., January 12, 1900, 4; "Oliver Fluke's Chapel," April 6, 1900, 4.  Rev. Charles Croft, a traveling companion of B. W. Young, was sanctified in a meeting in the Labette county Courthouse at Oswego, Kansas, in March, 1898, and received the fire in April, 1898 near Dixie, Oklahoma Territory. "Crowning Gift From Heaven," The Apostolic Faith (Topeka, Kansas), I, June 7, 1899, 5.     BACK

    48"Editorial Correspondence," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, October 27, 1899, 1.     BACK

    49"The Dynamite," Ibid., November 10, 1899, 2.     BACK

    50"Jesse Bathurst's Letter," Ibid., November 10, 1899, 5.     BACK

     51Joseph Hillery King, "Our Sojourn in Toronto," Ibid., May 4, 1900, 1; Joseph Hillery King, "Sarah M. Payne," Ibid., June 1, 1900, 4.      BACK

   52A. M. Hills, "Fanaticism Among Holiness People," The Holiness Advocate (Goldsboro, North Carolina), III, April 1, 1903, 5.     BACK

    53"Official List of Ordained Evangelists," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, June 15, 1900, 4.     BACK

   54"Our Cuban Work," Ibid., November 3, 1899, 4: "Our Foreign Missionaries," Ibid., December 15, 1899, 8; "Our Missionaries to Africa," Ibid., December 29, 1899, 4; "Our African Missionaries," Ibid., April 6, 1990, 5.     BACK

    55"The School of The Prophets," Ibid., November 3, 1899, 6; "School of The Prophets," Ibid., November 10, 1899, 4; "Editorial Correspondence, The School of The Prophets, Monthly Report," Ibid., February 23, 1900, 2.  All those who attended the school were required to do physical work such as plow corn, hoe cotton, dig potatoes, wash clothes or milk the cows. Ibid. November 10, 1899, 4.    BACK

   56"A Desert Place Apart," Ibid., April 20, 1900, 4; Samuel Phoebus, "The Fire Baptized Holiness Church, Its History and Practices," Bachelor of Theology Degree (New York: The Biblical Seminary in New York, 1949).     BACK

    57"Official List of The Fire Baptized Holiness Church," Live Coals (Royston, Georgia), III, January 11, 1905, 3.  Defections from the movement were illustrated when the Fire Baptized Ekklesia Society of Kansas City, Kansas, which had been chartered under state law as early as July, 1899, petitioned May 9, 1900, to drop the name Fire Baptized from their charter.  In corporation Charter of The Fire Baptized Ekklesia Society, Kansas City, Kansas, May 9, 1900, Secretary of State, Topeka, Kansas.     BACK

    58"Official List of Ordained Evangelists," Live Coals of Fire (Lincoln, Nebraska), I, December 1, 1899, 8; "A Whirlwind from The North," Ibid., 2.  By 1900 William E. Fuller initiated as many as fifty churches, and in 1905 he served as assistant general overseer and trustee on the executive board of the Fire Baptized Holiness Church.  "Official List of The Fire-Baptized Holiness Church," Live Coals Royston, Georgia), III, January 11, 1905, 3.     BACK

   59Vinson Synan, The Holiness Pentecostal Movement in The United States, 53.     BACK

    60Synan, Old-Time Power, 99, 129-131.     BACK

   61Ibid., 133-134.     BACK

    62"Brother Irwin's Letter," Way of Faith and Neglected Themes (Columbia, South Carolina), IX, September 28, 1898, 1; B. W. Young, "The God of Fire," Two Fires (Scammon, Kansas), VIII, July 15, 1916, 1; "Behold He Cometh," God's Messenger (Elk City, Kansas), XII, March 6, 1919, 1, 2; H. H. Jones, "The Second Coming of Christ," Ibid., May 15, 1919, 1; "Pentecostal Meeting," Ibid., 4.     BACK

   63I. J. Hobbs, "About Water Baptism," Two Fires (Scammon, Kansas), VIII, June 15, 1916, 1.     BACK

   64F. A. Stinson, "The Former and Latter Rain," God's Messenger (Elk City, Kansas), XIII, April 1, 1920. 1.   Evidently the tongues issue came to a crossroads at the 1918 annual camp meeting and those individuals who supported tongues as an evidence of the Holy Ghost withdrew from the church because the leadership rejected the experience as non-scriptural.  "Editorial: Camp Meeting is Over," Ibid., XI, September 5, 1918, 2.     BACK

   65"Orphans' Home," Two Fires (Cherryvale, Kansas), XII, February 15, 1920, 5; "Orphan Home Business Meeting." Ibid., 6; Craig Fankhauser, "A History of The Independence Bible College,"  May 14, 1974, Research Paper Presented in The Class History Theory and Practice (Pittsburg, Kansas: Pittsburg State University); "Historical Issue a Statistical Report of The Fire Baptized Holiness Church," The Flaming Sword (Bellflower, Missouri and Tabor, Iowa), XIV, April 1, 1948, 16, 17.     BACK

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