The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1919-01-25
Addresses Delivered at the
All-Night Meeting
1913 1919
CONTINUED from last week }
ADDRESS BY APOSTLE PECKHAM

(OOnt1nueQ IIOIn last WcCkJ
ADDRESS BY APOSTLE PECKHAM
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in the Christ: |
will read two verses of Scripture setting forth
the motive and purpose that brought me to Zion !;
and perhaps I will tell you little Of what hap
pened after | came
"For the love of Christ constralneth us; be-
cause we thus Judge that if one died for ALL then
were all dead:
"And that He died for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but
unto Him which died for Them and rose again.
II Corinthians 5:14, 15
| look back upon twenty-four years in Zion.
While our membership does not date back quite
that far, the time we have spent Sin the faith and
contending for the faith" runs over period OF
twenty four years in Zion. Happy years!
The last year has been the happiest and the
best of them ALL Praise be unto our God!
AS saw you stand-that great company who
have moved to Zion City in the last four or five
years-my heart rejoiced. I wondered how many
would have stood if the General Overseer had
asked those to stand who had been in Zion for
over twenty years, and who had started with
John Alexander Dowie in Chicago, in the Little
Wooden Hut"
Perhaps I can speak as few of the rest of you
can, concerning Zion and her great mission and
great work, having been all these years in the
harness..
1t was my privilege, during January and Feb
ruary of the year 1895, to sit at the feet of the
greatest teacher this world had ever seen up to
that tirne-John Alexander Dowie; except none,
unless it be the Apostle Paul and, of course, my
precious Lord and Master. Having had that
privilege the great and mighty truths of Zion
were drilled into my spirit never to be taken out.
I have seen Zion grow up, decline, then rise
again to still higher place. | have watched the
ascending wave I see it tonight mounting high
er and higher until the Lord shall come.
l have seen larger audiences than at present
I have seen seven thousand people gather in this
Tabernacle | have attended nearly all of the
All Night Meetings and everyone of the Feast of
Tabernacles; but numbers do not count with God,
and all things considered these are the best days
ever known in Zion!
AS we sat at the communion table tonight at
the midnight hour and I looked at you brothers
and sisters and saw the deep and earnest spirit
manifested by your looks your attitude, your
eyes, mostened with tears, and felt the deep and
reverential spirit that pervaded this audience, |
said "These are, by far, the best days spiritually
that Zion has ever known"
The motive that brought me to Zion is set forth
in these words-"The love of Christ constraineth
u.s." I came bringing my dying wife, given up
by physicians, just out of the hospital, cut up by
the surgeons; and the mighty hand of God was
stretched forth to set her free. [ knew that
Jehovah was in Zion and that the man who
prayed for her was Gods man. | knew that,
before the prayer was offered | knew it the
minute I laid eyes upon John Alexander Dowie,
who, once heard, could never be forgotten.
| was a Baptist-and when one is Baptist he
is just about as hard to change as a Roman
Catholic. We Baptists thought that we had the
real baptism and we were the people, and all the
people of the world had to come to the Baptist
Church. But we found when we to Zion
that single immersion was not Christian baptism,
and we found that number of things we had be-
lieved in were not Scriptural
We are going on to greater things-wonderful
things, in Zion
Yes, I was under John Alexander Dowie's
leadership. I have been Under the present Gen
eral Overseer's leadership now for twelve years.
Theocracy is the only thing If any man ought
to know whether being under leadership is yoke
or bondage, I ought to know. I have been
through it but in Zion there is no slavery, there
is no driving and have never yet been COM
manded to do anything arbitrarily. I have been
given commands and directions and I have
obeyed them. Sometimes, and generally, have
been given my choice asked whether I would 60
to Cincinnati; asked to pray over it and see if
would take up the work in Chicago, have been
shown reasons for asking us to go to Minneapolis.
Under leadership it is great Joy to obey, and
without leadership can see that this work would
not be within thousand miles of what it is to-
night 1t has all been done under the leadership