232 / Development of Church Life in the Older Congregations

(1866-1932) was influential as bishop. Yoder was born near Smithville, Ohio, ordained in northern Tennessee, and moved to West Liberty in 1871. He attended Ohio Northern University and in 1888 began to teach school. He was converted under the English preaching of John S. Coffman during that year. Following this he went west where in the summer of 1896 he was ordained a minister by Bishops John F. Funk and John M. Shenk. In 1897 he attended the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. For a time Yoder served the East Union Amish Mennonite congregation in Iowa where he was ordained bishop in 1906. After a sojourn in Texas he returned to West Liberty and upon David Plank's death in 1912 he became Plank's successor at South Union. Yoder was appreciated as a youth leader; he had talent for administration and espoused the traditional faith of the church during the testing times of the second and third decades of the twentieth century. 9

In the November 15, 1900, issue of the Herald of Truth a correspondent wrote as follows about a situation at West Liberty: "For a while waves of unsound doctrine .rolled high and roared loud in and near West Liberty and many became confused and were tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine." The correspondent failed to mention what the issue was that disturbed the peace of the community. But from other sources it has become possible to learn some details of the crisis.

Apparently revival meetings were going on at a Quaker meetinghouse in the community. According to John Y. King of West Liberty the revival was a stirring one.'° Altar calls were issued and some people who responded experienced trances for as long as two hours. Among those responding were some members of the Bethel Mennonite congregation of West Liberty.

The particular problem that developed was that these Quakers taught the "second work of grace" or "entire sanctification," and this became a point of contention since Mennonite doctrine did not teach this as a necessary type of spiritual experience. According to King there was a strong following of the "second work of grace" movement as a result of the Quaker meetings and the entire Bethel congregation was threatened.

In the crisis, outside leaders were called upon and within a week at least four of them came to the community to offset this expression of the holiness or perfectionist doctrine. According to the correspondent in the Herald of Truth the following came: D.