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Nazarene Founder Bresee Crusades
for Temperance
"It was
during Dr. Bresee's pastorate that the great prohibition movement
began in California, as a result of which Pasadena became a
prohibition city, and I think, the first in the state. The fight was
a very hotly contested one ... Dr Bresee took a very prominent part
in that conflict, so much so, indeed, as to draw the fire of the
enemy upon himself. The opponents of prohibition were so aroused
that they burned him in effigy, and attacked him in the most
vituperative manner in the public press of the city." (Phineas
F. Bresee: A Prince in Israel, E. A Girvin, 1916, p. 88)
"Bresee
himself won as much public notice for his efforts to apply
Christianity to social problems during his years at Pasadena as he
did for his holiness preaching. He was the first to propose that the
conference establish mission ot the Orientals, and founded a
thriving one in his own city. He also participated in the successful
campaign to make Pasadena southern California's first 'dry' town.
One of his temperance discourses became somewhat famous as 'Dr.
Bresee's hyena sermon.' It so angered the liquor dealers that when
the dry forces won out a mob stormed the Methodist parsonage,
threatening the pastor's life." Called Unto Holiness: The
Story of the Nazarenes: The Formative Years, Timothy L. Smith,
Nazarene House, 1962, p. 101)
"the
church today is smitten with weapons more subtle and effective than
the sword of Herod of the fires of Nero or Trajan. We are smitten
with mildew. We are paralyzed by worldliness. We are buried under
forms and pretenses, until the vision is lost, and the testimony in
the power of God by manifestation is lost. Men will preach holiness,
if there is a place for them. ... Culture without piety is bright
and cold and selfish and worldly. To educate a man without piety is
likely to make him worse. The gleam of light is brighter and shines
further, but it leads into the wilderness of doubt and despair. ...
My God let the strands drop down from heaven and call us to take
their ends and weave them into an institution where the Holy Ghost
with infinite glory can mold culture into young life after the
pattern of the heavenlies ... like Abraham will get visions of a
city that hath foundations." (Address by Phineas Bresee called
"Regnant Manhood," 1913 in Grivin, p. 399-400)
See a contemporary leaders
video on justice at vimeo.com/5625656
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