This is Grammar! Part 2

JOHN BENTON SANCTIFIED WHOLLY
Excerpted From "The Origin & History
Of Primitive Methodism."

Edited by Duane V. Maxey

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       Part 1 is the account I sent out yesterday, how, after God had struck a congregation with Powerful, Holy Ghost conviction under his preaching, John Benton "put to silence" his harsh criticizer, telling him "This Is Grammar!"

       Today, as Part 2 of that story, I have chosen to also send out succeeding paragraphs of that story, wherein we're told of John Benton's Baptism With The Holy Ghost -- an experience which I believe may, in fact, have been his Entire Sanctification.

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PART 1 -- JOHN BENTON'S "GRAMMAR!"

      Hugh Bourne walked thirty-four miles through the rain to Wyrley Bank, arriving there on July 27th, 1810. It was during this evangelistic tour that Bourne met with John Benton, who  was afterwards for several years a successful pioneer missionary. Bourne calls him "an extraordinary man," and he was such if for no other reason than that his sincere piety and zeal were able to triumph over all the disadvantages of illiteracy and natural defects. He had "little grammar and not much command of language," and hence he did not escape reproach and scoffs from both professors and profane. Said a local preacher to him one day after hearing him try to preach at Cannock Common:—"You are bringing a scandal on the cause of Christ, you have had no learning, you do not understand grammar." Benton's most effective answer was given some time after. He was preaching on a Good Friday afternoon from the text, "It is finished." The room was crowded with colliers, and he had got but half-way through his discourse when a large part of the congregation became strangely affected:—

       "Some groaned, others shrieked; some fell from their seats; and the whole assembly was thrown into consternation: he therefore closed the Bible, and went from his stand to pray for mourners; and when passing down among the people he saw his friend, the local preacher, standing and looking on with amazement. Said Benton to him, 'This is grammar!'"

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PART 2 -- JOHN BENTON -- SANCTIFIED WHOLLY

       The reply that came was almost identical in form with that of the astonished witnesses of Christ's wonder-working power: "We never saw it in this fashion." Now, though Benton, with his "little grammar and not much command of language," was far from being an Apollos, he was like him in that he needed fuller spiritual instruction. He could and did rouse the sinner; but he was at a loss what to do with him when he was roused. He could not complete the work he had so well begun. He had still to learn the secret: how to impart true evangelical peace.

       So Hugh Bourne conversed much with him on such high themes. Together they went to Essington Wood to meet a number of inquirers whom Benton had gathered into a kind of class. Bourne "spoke to the people and the Lord made bare His arm; six souls were immediately set at liberty; and Benton entered FULLY into the knowledge of a present salvation. His usefulness after this was greater than it had been before, and it kept increasing."

       Induced by what he heard, Benton resolved to attend the fifth Ramsor Camp Meeting to be held on May 26th, 1811. His experience there gave the finishing-touches to his spiritual education, and completed his equipment. Says he:—"At this meeting I received SUCH A BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AS I NEVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE; and I felt from this day it was my duty to be given up to the work of the ministry."

       So for a time we leave Wyrley Bank and Cannock Wood, where already can be discerned the germ of Darlaston Circuit in the Black Country; and we leave John Benton saying, "Here am I, send me;" and ready to take the place of James Crawfoot, soon to be vacant by his retirement.