May 30,
1926
Excerpt from a reading at a homecoming service. |
In the fall of 1905, some Christian people were
worshipping in a little store-room on what was then known as City Hall Ave., facing Eighth
Street off Market. Among these were L. J. Tollifson, Thomas Matthews and wife, Bro.
Garrett and others, who with the encouragement of Rev. P. G. Linaweaver, then
Superintendent of the Northern California District and Pastor of Oakland Nazarene Church,
were contemplating the organization of a Church of the Nazarene in San Francisco, when
owing to some difficulty, they were compelled to vacate the premises and were without a
place in which to worship.
At this juncture, the writer, a
traveling salesman and a local preacher at the time in Howard St. Methodist Episcopal
Church, having been greatly blessed in a meeting he had just attended at the First Church
of the Nazarene, Los Angeles, felt definitely called to throw in his lot with the
Nazarenes, and to that end rented a store room himself on Valencia St. near 14th St., and
invited the City Hall Ave., friends to come there to worship, which was done and meetings
were held regularly for several months until he received a letter from Rev. C. B. Langdon,
an old friend and Free Methodist Evangelist, then on the coast, and he wrote Bro. Langdon
and asked him if he would be willing to come to San Francisco and take charge of a little
band of holiness people who were bent on starting a Nazarene work in San Francisco, and if
so, would he come without promise of salary and trust God for results. Bro. Langdon
replied saying that he would come and pending his arrival, the writer sent out letters to
all Christian people he knew around the Bay District, inviting them to a great holiness
rally the following Sunday afternoon in the Valencia St. Hall with Bro. Langdon in charge.
The hall which had a seating capacity of one hundred was well filled and a
gracious meeting followed at the close of which, souls sought and found the Lord, and
several united themselves together for the purpose of planting a Nazarene Church in San
Francisco, and in January, 1906, Bro. Langdon having himself united with the Nazarene
Church in Oakland, was regularly appointed Pastor by the District Superintendent, and
organized a class of which the following were charter members: Walter Hiskey, C. B.
Howard, Bro. Nichols, Mrs. Eliza Schultz, Mrs. Rampe, and Mr. Joseph Grant, deaconess, and
the writer, H.H.B. Ciprico.
It was thought by some of the heads of our church, that the time was not
opportune to commence a Nazarene work in this city. Some thought it would be best to
launch such an enterprise with a tabernacle meeting, engaging Bud Robinson, and a host of
other great lights including Dr. Bresee, the founder of our work in Los Angeles. Many
previous attempts have been made by other holiness churches, such as the Free Methodists,
Friends, and others to get a work started here, but in every instance had met with
failure. Big meetings had been planned and big crowds assembled, but as most of the people
came from out of town, after the smoke of battle had cleared away, there was no one
locally to carry on the work. The only places in the city where holiness as a second
definite experience was taught were, Ferguson's Penial Missions, and Howard St. M.E.
Church, the latter being so only because Rev. A.C. Baue, formerly a holiness evangelist,
was pastor there, and insisted on keeping this doctrine to the front...
And the story continues... by God's faithfulness.
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