The session of Conference held in Medina in 1856 was a time of severe testing to Methodists of Western New York who sympathized with the doctrine and work of holiness as promulgated by Wesley and his co-laborers in early Methodism. The Rev. L. Stiles, Jr., who, as Presiding Elder of the Genesee district, had taken strong ground in favor of the radical and thorough work of God already in progress on his district, was brought to trial on trumped-up charges; and, although he was acquitted of the charges, as a result of the petition presented to the Bishop, both he and Presiding Elder Kingsley were removed from the Cabinet, and also were transferred to the Cincinnati Conference. In fact, being satisfied that one or both of them would be removed, they both requested to be so transferred. Men were appointed in their places who were meekly subservient to the will of the Regency party. The man who succeeded Stiles as Presiding Elder on the Genesee district, at one of his early quarterly meetings distinguished himself and his accession to power by entertaining, putting to vote, and allowing to be passed and recorded as “Quarterly Conference Proceedings,” a preamble and resolutions condemning certain persons of the opposite party in their absence, and who were in no sense amenable to that tribunal.

     Not until near the close of the Conference, when the list of appointments for the ensuing year was read, did the friends of the holiness work realize the extent to which its enemies had triumphed. Ignorant up to this time of what had been going on, when the facts in the case dawned upon them, they experienced a feeling of great despondency, and, for a time, their hearts sank within them. That wonderful man of God, the Rev. William C. Kendall, was a notable exception, however. Nor was it because he failed to comprehend the situation, for he saw things as his desponding brethren saw them. In addition to the generally deplorable state of affairs, he had himself been removed from his circuit after a single year’s pastorate, and placed in charge of a much less important work. But as the Conference business was concluded, and the Bishop called on some one to sing before the closing prayer, with. out announcing any particular hymn Kendall arose, and, with clear and steady voice, began,—
 

“Come on, my partners in distress,
My comrades through the wilderness
     Who still your bodies feel;
Awhile forget your griefs and fears,
And look beyond this vale of tears,
     To that celestial hill.”

     The Bishop was about to offer prayer, but Kendall, all absorbed in his singing, continued:
 

“Beyond the bounds of time and space,
Look forward to that heavenly place,
     The saints’ secure abode:
On faith’s strong eagle pinions rise,
And force your passage to the skies,
     And scale the mount of God.”

     Again the good Bishop would have led in prayer, but the clear voice of the singer continued the third stanza:
 

“Who suffer with our Master here,
We shall before His face appear,
     And by His side sit down.
To patient faith the prize is sure,
And all that to the end endure
     The cross, shall wear the crown.”

     By this time the desponding spirits of the persecuted “Pilgrims” were rallied, their heads were up, their hearts aglow, and, as they also joined in the song, faith revived, hope grew strong, and shouts of victory pealed forth from every quarter. In the meantime the voice of Kendall continued to fill the auditorium with heavenly melody as he led the song to the close of the last stanza:
 

“Thrice blessed, bliss-inspiring hope!
It lifts the fainting spirits up,
     It brings to life the dead.
Our conflicts here will soon be past,
And you and I ascend at last,
     Triumphant with our Head.

“That great mysterious Deity
We soon with open face shall see:
     The beatific sight
Shall fi]l the heavenly courts with praise,
And wide diffuse the golden blaze
     Of everlasting light.”

     Concluding prayer was then offered by the Bishop, the doxology was sung, the benediction pronounced, and the “Pilgrim” preachers went unmurmuringly to their appointments, feeling that they could joyfully go to the ends of the earth, if need should require, to proclaim the Gospel of a free and full salvation.

     Another measure adopted by the Regency party was that of defeating the admission into Conference of devout young men who offered themselves as candidates, if it was supposed that they would hesitate to place themselves fully under their guidance and control. A number of promising young men, of good educational qualifications and of deep piety, who both professed and preached entire sanctification, were compelled to knock at the doors of other Conferences for admission. Concerning this action. and indicating it to be the settled purpose of the Regency party, the Buffalo Advocate, which was their organ, published the following:
 

     Hot-heads and fanatics, from any quarter, will find it hereafter difficult soil on which to produce any of their mischief or scandal. Some attempted to gain admittance to the Conference at its last session, but were repulsed at the threshold, and passed away, disgusted with the forebodings of order and manliness, which [if] a kind Providence permits shall govern hereafter. These, with their sympathizers in and out of the body, are the agencies employed in writing scandal of those who now hold the reins, and who mean to live and govern for God and holiness—and respectable position.

     Here is a published admission of what is charged in the preceding paragraph; and the tone of fancied superiority and of triumphant self-satisfaction in which it is expressed, as also what it suggests by way of innuendo and sarcastic flings, are clear indications of the bitter, persecuting spirit which prompted both it and the action to which it refers.

     Strange as it may appear, the cause of holiness, which was supposed to have received a decided set-back because of the conditions and circumstances narrated in the foregoing paragraph, continued steadily to advance. In fact, it was more prosperous than during previous years. The camp-meetings on the Genesee and Niagara districts, though held without the cooperation of the Presiding Elders, were larger and more fruitful than any that had been held in later years. The districts were aflame with revival interest. Conversions were numerous, and large numbers sought and obtained the blessing of full salvation, or “perfect love.” “So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.”

     The year soon rolled its round, and at the next session of the Genesee Conference, upon the request of a large number of preachers and laymen, I. C. Kingsley and L. Stiles, Jr., were re-transferred to that body. This led a certain Regency Presiding Elder to remark, “If these men come back, we are in for a seven years’ war.” And, true enough, the war was begun at that very session, by the presentation, through the influence of the ministerial conclave, of one bill of charges against B. T. Roberts, and two bills of charges against William C. Kendall. That against Roberts was prosecuted and declared sustained. The proceedings will be presented and reviewed in a subsequent chapter. The charges against Kendall were deferred for lack of time to prosecute, but with the assurance that they would be prosecuted the following year.

     In fact, the gravest wrongs ever done by the Genesee conclave of ministers were those of using their organization for the purpose of shielding the guilty and punishing the innocent. “Charges backed up by the most responsible parties, made against some of its members for dishonest transactions amounting almost to state’s prison offenses, were summarily dismissed; while men of spotless lives, accused of being Nazarites, were turned out of the Church under pretexts so slight as to admit of no defense.” [1]

     William C. Kendall was one of their first victims. He came from an old and highly respected Methodist family of Wyoming County, New York. He and B. T. Roberts were classmates in the academy, in college, and in their Conference course, and their hearts were knit together like the hearts of David and Jonathan. Kendall sought and obtained the experience of holiness during his course in Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Connecticut. He exemplified the grace which he professed, and kept the flame of perfect love alive by diligently laboring to bring others into the same blessed experience. He was graduated in 1848, and within a short time thereafter he united with the Genesee Conference on probation. By natural endowment, educational equipment, and a rich experience in the grace of God, he was eminently qualified for successful labor in any department of the Lord’s vineyard. He has been described as of “a fine, manly form of noble bearing; a frank, open countenance on which rested a sweet, heavenly smile; a pleasant voice of unusual compass and power, perfectly at his command; a mind carefully stored with divine truth as well as with classic lore —and above all a heart fully sanctified to God.”

     Mr. Kendall was acknowledged as one of the most godly, zealous, and successful Methodist ministers in Western New York. An intelligent layman who had long been intimately acquainted with him once said to the author, “I have known many good men, many spiritual men, many holy men, but I regarded William C. Kendall as the divinest man I ever met.” This in substance seems to have been the general verdict of those who had been blessed with the benefits of his ministry. Yet great, and good, and holy as he was, he was one of the most persecuted men in Western New York Methodism. The ministerial conclave never stooped to more contemptible and disreputable work than when it instigated the charges against this noble man of God to which reference has been made. He was not tried, as we have noted, for lack of time, but was sent to a circuit with the charges still pending, and with the assurance that he would be tried on both bills of charges at the next session of the Conference.

     Those who desired and anticipated his ecclesiastical decapitation were providentially disappointed, however, as he was removed from the impending evil by death before the close of the Conference year. In this respect he has been likened to the holy Rutherford, whom he so much resembled in spirit, and who, hearing on his deathbed that he had been summoned to answer at the next Parliament for high treason, calmly remarked that he had got another summons, to appear before a superior Judge and Judicatory, and returned the following message: “I behoove to answer my first summons; and ere your day arrives, I will be where few Kings and great folks come.”

     The only real offense Mr. Kendall had given was that he was in hearty sympathy with the holiness revival which was sweeping over Western New York and other sections of Methodism, and on this account was classed with the “Nazarites.” From the beginning of his ministry he made a specialty of preaching full salvation, being led thereto, in part at least, by a remark of Bishop Hamline which deeply impressed his mind. Certain preachers had been accused of making “a hobby of holiness,” whereupon the Bishop remarked, “Woe to the Methodist preacher, that son of perdition, who does not make holiness his hobby !”

     Mr. Kendall’s first circuit was Cambria, Niagara County, New York. He went to his work fully determined, according to an intelligent interpretation of the Bishop’s words, to “make holiness his hobby.” During his two years’ pastorate at Cambria his ministry was prosperous. Many were converted, and many believers were sanctified wholly. He also served successively at Royalton and Pike, on both of which fields successful revivals attended his labors. At Pike he received one hundred souls into the Church who had been converted in the revival which he held there. On all these fields he preached holiness, or entire sanctification, as the privilege and obligation of all believers, insisting upon inward purity and outward righteousness, and never lowering the standard of Scriptural justification in presenting sanctification as a second work of grace.

     Of course such a ministry could not but be fruitful; and those converted under such labors were clear in experience, as well as vigorous and growing Christians, from the start. Many of them pressed on rapidly into the definite experience of sanctification, and exhibited a freedom and power in laboring for the salvation of others far beyond that of ordinary professors of religion. But this, instead of being generally hailed with joy on the part of many older members of the Church, was an occasion of jealous criticism and bitter opposition. At last a committee was appointed to wait on Mr. Kendall and request him to preach less on holiness, “lest he should drive away men of influence needed by the Church.”

     “Foremost among those who were afraid of holiness, lest it should divide the Church, was a leading member, who had long been prominent in the community. It was afterwards proved that for ten years, including this period, this man had been forging endorsements to banknotes! These he paid on maturity; but at last being sick when a note became due, his crime was discovered, and he punished. Chiefly through the influence of this man, Brother Kendall was removed at the close of the year. On the Covington Circuit, to which he was sent, a large number were saved.” [2]

[1] “Why Another Sect?” p. 70.
[2] “Why Another Sect?” p. 73.