now, old man Benton, who
twenty years ago was cast out of this church for teaching crooked
doctrine. He has had no preparation whatever for ministerial work, but
in some way he has been able to keep his bunch together for nearly
twenty years; and now since he is an old man, it seems that they still
persist in following him.

"In the early days of my pastorate here my strongest supporter and
co-laborer was Deacon Gramps. This name will sound familiar to some of
the older members. Gramps owned the beautiful farm just to the west of
this Church. A good many years ago through some play, fair or foul,
Gramps was charged with a criminal act and was convicted and sent to the
penitentiary, where three years ago he died. His wife went to St. Louis
to live with her son, and departed this life shortly after moving there.
You are all more or less familiar with the Gramps story, so I shall
leave it, as it is not at all a pleasant topic to discuss.

"It may be of interest to some of you to know just how the doctrine of
holiness ever got started in this community. Well, this old man Benton
whom you all know as the leader of the holiness movement used to be a
member of this church. For many years he lived a consistent Christian
life in this church, so they tell me. About twenty years ago he spent a
whole summer herding cattle down in the hills about thirty miles from
here. While he was down there in the woods all alone with nothing to
occupy his mind, he fell to musing on the death of his little girl who
died a good many years previously to that time and it seems that he
became mentally unbalanced, at least on religious matters. According to
the information given me, he came in contact at this time with a
religious paper teaching strange doctrines, and he embraced these
doctrines and began advocating them with great zeal. As I said before,
he was excommunicated from this church for teaching such doctrines, but
in leaving the church he took a number of our most trusted and tried
members, for instance, the Gray family. Those were the days of great
excitement in this community. It was about this time that I was called
to the pastorate of this church. A few months after my coming Benton and
his bunch got an evangelist from over east, somewhere, to come here, and
he made a mighty stir along heretical lines and many of the best
citizens of our community were drawn into the delusive net. Some of us,
in those days, stood firm in the faith and