The Significance Of A.H. Argue For Pentecostal Historiography

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120

The

Significance

of A.H.

Argue for Pentecostal

Historiography

Thomas Wm. Miller*

I. The

Early

Years

Andrew

Harvey Argue

has been called “the

greatest

Pentecostal evangelist

Canada

produced

Born in 1868 at

Fitzroy Harbor, near

Ottawa, Ontario,

A. H. Argue was the

grandson

of a Methodist layman

who had

emigrated

from Ireland in 1821. His

grandfather, George Argue,

had been converted under the

preaching

of Gideon Ouseley,

a fiery Wesleyan evangelist. He set sail for the New

World, and

brought

with him five stalwart

sons,

all over six feet in

height. The

family

landed at

Quebec

and settled in the Ottawa

Valley

where they

built a

log

home.

Upon

its

completion,

the sons invited the neighbors

to what were to be the first Methodist services held in that

region

of Canada. One

son,

John Wilson

Argue,

was both a farmer and a Methodist

lay preacher

in Fitzroy Harbor

and, later, in North

Dakota,

where he moved with his

young family.

Among

John’s children his son Andrew

(A.H.),

was a talented violinist who

played

for the local school dances. John

disapproved of his son’s

participation

in these

dances,

and

prayed

for

him,

a fact which A.H. would never

forget.

The

turning point

in Andrew’s spiritual

state came

during

some revival services conducted in the community by

Salvation

Army

workers. There seemed to be little response

and the local dances went on unhindered. One

night,

as Andrew

prepared

to

play

his violin, there flashed into his mind the picture

of his father

praying

for his salvation.

Suddenly,

the decision was made-the violin was put in its case-and he rushed to the revival

meeting

where he went forward at the first invitation. Halfway

to the altar he received an assurance of sins

forgiven.2

As a young man,

A.H. married a Canadian

girl, Eva,

who had been converted

among

the Methodists and had ministered

briefly

with the Salvation

Army.

This

couple

moved to North Dakota where two of their

children, Harvey

and

Zelma,

were born. After a five year

stint at

farming,

the

Argues

returned to the Manitoba

capital where their other four

children, Beulah, Eva, Watson,

and Edwin were born.

It was an astute

move’

for

Winnipeg

was then at the heart of an economic boom that affected the entire Canadian West.

Together with two of his

brothers,

A.H.

began

a real estate business that proved

to be

very

successful.

Winnipeg

was the

gateway

to the virgin

lands which attracted millions

of European emigrant

home-

.

.

‘

‘

1

121

steaders. From 1901 to

1911,

the

Winnipeg population grew, reaching

a total

population

of

450,000. Housing

and land was in great

demand and the

Argue

firm

prospered,

not least of all because in boomtown

Winnipeg

it was said that “God and A.H.

Argue

are the

only

two

persons

that can be trusted.”3 At the same

time,

A.H. was

keenly

interested in

promoting

the work of the

Lord,

and he utilized his business acumen and

increasing

wealth to

support various local ministries.4

Andrew also became active in the support of Holiness causes and was well-known as an effective Methodist

“ranter,”

or lay exhorter, both in the West and in Ontario. He became a close friend of Dr. George Watson,

who came to

Winnipeg

to

proclaim

Holiness doctrines and to teach the

“deeper

truths” of the Second

Coming. So

highly

was this man

regarded by the Argues

that

they

named one son, Watson,

in his honor.

Many

other Holiness Movement workers were known

by A. H., including

Miss

Markle,

a Mennonite from Ontario who had come to conduct a mission in

Winnipeg. Markle was

among

the earliest in the

city

to receive a Pentecostal experience.

She later married A.G. Ward who came into the Pentecostal Movement via the Methodist and the Christian and Missionary

Alliance

groups.

His

son,

C.M.

Ward,

became a prominent

Assemblies of God

clergyman

whose work as a Pente- costal

evangelist

was to

carry

him

throughout

North America. Another was

Anglican clergyman

Archdeacon

Phair,

who at first opposed

the Pentecostal revival under the

leadership

of A.H. Argue, though

he was sympathetic to Holiness

teachings.

A. H. was also familiar with some of the American Holiness

leaders, among them

Bishop

J.H.

King

of the

Fire-Baptized

Holiness Church.5

It was also in

Winnipeg

that he became familiar with Divine Healing teachings,

for it was there that he was healed of a “chronic internal trouble” of some

years’ standing.

When Dr. A.B.

Simpson of the Christian and

Missionary

Alliance visited the

city

in

1906, A. H. went for

prayer;

but a

day passed

without

any sign

of improvement. Then, suddenly,

the

healing power

of God went through

him and the work was done. From that time

on,

the

Argue family

believed and

taught

Divine

Healing.

Eva

Argue

often

prayed for her children in the

years following

when her husband was an itinerant

evangelist,

and she saw them

miraculously

healed.6 No doubt this

religious background

made A.H. a

keenly

interested consumer of news about the Holiness Movement and the new “Latter Rain Movement” of the

early

twentieth

century.

Even before the Pentecostal

experience

arrived in

Winnipeg, news of

extraordinary

works of God in

many

other

places

had already

come. Information from the 1904 Welsh Revival stirred the

2

122

hearts of believers in Winnipeg. Missionaries

brought

back news of the

outpouring

of the

Spirit

in Pandita Ramabai’s Mission in India, and word of unusual

phenomena

at the Door of

Hope Mission,

in China,

followed.

Finally,

there came news of the Latter Rain outpouring

in Kansas and then of the

extraordinary

manifestations of the

Spirit

at William J.

Seymour’s

Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles,

in the

Spring

of 1906.

The

Argues

were

just

one

family among

a

large

number of Canadians who were earnest seekers after more of God. In her 1923

,

‘

account of the start of the Latter Rain Movement in

Winnipeg, Zelma

Argue

stressed the fact that

many

believers

there,

as well as around the

world,

had

long

been

praying

for such a divine effusion of the

Spirit?

Similar evidence of local

hunger

for a mighty manifestation of the

Holy Spirit

came from the Reverend W.J.

Taylor,

a former Superintendent

of the Manitoba and Northwest Ontario District of the PAOC. In his

mimeographed history

of that

District, Taylor wrote:

This

hunger

seemed to be a world-wide

phenomenon.

Consequently

the

Spirit began

to fall almost simul-

taneously

in Los

Angeles, Topeka, Kansas, Norway,

and

Sunderland, England…. Groups

of people in Manitoba

had been in continuous

prayer

for revival, and for a mighty

visitation from God.8

An

anonymous correspondent

sent another

report

to Seymour in Los

Angeles describing

the

Spiritual hunger

that then existed among many

believers in

Winnipeg

at the turn of the

century.

The writer noted that:

For more than a year here some of the saints tarried

before God for an outpouring of His Spirit upon all flesh,

and

especially

for a revival of the Bible standard in

Winnipeg.9

A.H.

Argue

was

preaching

at a

campmeeting

at

Thornbury, Ontario,

in September,

1907, when he first became acquainted

with reports

of

speaking

in

tongues

at the Azusa Street Mission.

It . appears

that a copy of

Seymour’s paper,

The Apostolic

Faith,

had fallen into his

hands,

and he showed it to

Bishop

J.H.

King,

who also was

ministering

in the

camp. King’s response, concerning

the report

was

that,

“It

could

be

possible.”

Klaude Kendrick claimed that this was the first time that

King

had heard of the

phenomenon of speaking in tongues, though the tenets of the Los

Angeles group were similar to those of his own denominations

Argue

did not

go to Los

Angeles

at the

time, though according

to

Seymour, King planned

a visit for

May

of 1907.

Bishop King

was then the editor of

3

123

The

Apostolic Evangel,

and

Seymour evidently hoped

that

King’s forthcoming

visit would

ally him to the Latter Rain Movement

and perhaps

enlist his journal-like at least seven other

periodicals-in the

promotion

of the New Movement.” A.H. returned to his Manitoba home where he continued to

investigate

the

reports

of this

growing religious awakening.

No doubt his Methodist

heritage, his

support

of the Holiness

teachings

and his own

physical healing had inclined him to view those

reports favorably.

Most of them were

replete

with accounts of

supernatural incidents,

as well as tongues speaking.

He

finally

determined to seek for himself an outpouring

of the

Spirit.

So far as it may be ascertained, Mrs. Ellen G. Hebden was the first in Canada to receive the Pentecostal experience,

on November

17th, 1906, ?2 only

a short time after A. H. had been

intrigued by reports

of

tongues speaking

while he was ministering

near Toronto. Yet it is curious that there seemed to be no contact between the Methodist exhorter and the woman

evangelist

at the Hebden Mission in Toronto on Queen Street East. It is evident from Mrs. Hebden’s

publication

The Promise, in which she refers to the

Argue

Mission in Winnipeg, that

they

were soon to know,

and

appreciate

each other. 13

Mr.

Argue

turned his

steps

towards

Chicago,

where W.H. Durham had a remarkably successful Pentecostal mission. He may have been influenced to

go

to

Chicago

instead of Los

Angeles simply

because of distance. It is also

possible

that he made the choice because he was more familiar with

Chicago;

it had been closely

connected with

Winnipeg through

the commercial Great Lakes

grain

trade and

many

new settlers had come from the midwestern United States to take

up the offer of free homesteads

in Manitoba. In any case, the

reports

of the

outpouring

of the

Spirit

in Durham’s North Avenue Mission were sufficient in themselves to attract

spiritually hungry

seekers. Durham had been reared in the Arminian

Wesleyan tradition,

but he

sought

for a

personal Pentecost in

Seymour’s

Mission and received it

early

in 1907. Seymour

witnessed that

event,

for he

reported

in his

paper

that Durham,

whom he identified as a member of the “World’s Faith Missionary Association,”

had fallen backwards and

spoken

in tongues.14

When Durham returned to

Chicago,

a Pentecostal revival broke out which

replicated,

if it did not

exceed,

the supernatural

events of the Azusa Street Mission. The North Avenue Mission was so full of the

power

of

God, according

to eyewitnesses,

that “a thick haze … like blue smoke” filled its upper region.

When this haze was

present,

wrote

pioneer

Howard

Goss, the

people entering

the

building

would fall down in the aisles. Some never

got

to sit in the

pews. Many

came

through

to the

baptism

or

.

.

,

‘

4

124

received divine

healing.

Aimee

Semple,

for

example,

was

instantly healed of a broken

foot,

and was able to walk

immediately.

When the saints were enthralled in

worship

and

engaged

in

vociferous, concerted

prayer,

the noise level was very

great. But,

as Goss

noted, “The

heavenly escape

valve the

Spirit gave

us was

prayer, praise and

worship.”

In

any case,

A.H.

Argue

was

among

the

hundreds,

who there received the

baptism

of the

Spirit and

spoke

in

tongues.

He later described his

experience

in the

words:

perhaps thousands,

following

‘

Being hungry

for God’s best, I went to Chicago to witness what was taking place. Here I saw numbers

being filled with the Spirit, which continued to deepen my hunger. I waited on God for

twenty-one days. (Later

I remembered that Daniel had waited on God for

twenty-one days.) During this time I had a wonderful vision of Jesus. His counte- nance was so radiant that as I lifted my hand before

Him, it became

transparent.

At the end of the

twenty-one days

I was filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking with other tongues as the

Spirit gave utterance.

5

II. Penteocstal

embark evangelists

time, among them, and Andrew Urshan. Bell,

later to become Pentecostal

Chicago. They

experience

in

April, 1907, of that, he was

shortly

to

the

leading

Pentecostal

one of a number of

Howard A.

Goss,

N.

of

became Pentecostals

Beginnings

in

Winnipeg

When A.H. entered into a Pentecostal

he was

nearly forty years

of

age.

In

spite

on a twenty-year career as one of

in North America. He was

prominent pioneers

who attended the Durham Mission at that

Aimee

Semple McPherson,

A

Baptist pastor

from

Texas,

Eudorus

the first chairman of the

Fellowship

Ministers-the forerunner of the Assemblies of God, was also

present.6 Argue

and Bell may have become

acquainted

in

were

good

friends

later,

and in 1921 Argue sent Bell a

report

of his

early ministry

in

Winnipeg

and of his

subsequent Pentecostal

evangelistic ministry.

Not

only

was the North Avenue Mission a

magnet

for

many hundreds who

sought

the Pentecostal

experience,

but it also

a center of

theological controversy.

The issue

agitated

America for several

years.

W.J. Seymour

in Los

Angeles

maintained

of an

experience

of “entire sanctification”

Spirit baptism.

William

Durham, however,

took

particular a number of recent converts in his meetings who “came

through”

to Spirit baptism

with

tongues speaking

without

going through any

This led him to

reject

the former Holiness

throughout

North

sanctification

crisis.

his emphasis on the

necessity

as a

prelude

to

Holy

note of

5

125

Movement

emphasis

on the “second work of

grace”

and to propound

what came to be known as the “Finished Work of Calvary” teaching.

The

theory

was that all the

necessary cleansing from sin had been

accomplished

at the time of the sinner’s conversion,

and no

subsequent

“second work” was essential for Spirit baptism. Though controversy raged

for a

time,

Durham’s views were

adopted by many

of the

leading pioneers

There can be little doubt that A.H.

Argue

subscribed to the Finished Work doctrine. He never even alludes to the

necessity

of a sanctification

experience

as a prelude to

baptism

in the

Spirit.

It is reasonable to assume that

during

his 21 days of seeking in Chicago, he received some instruction from

Durham,

and that he

adopted the Durham

teaching. Thereafter,

he was an

exponent

of the four cardinal

teachings

that came to characterize the

great majority

of twentieth-century Pentecostals; Salvation,

Divine

Healing,

Second Coming and.Spirit Baptism including speaking

in

tongues.

After A.H. had his

personal “Pentecost,”

he wired a telegram to his wife, Eva, which read “Received

Baptism

in Holy

Spirit: coming home on first train.” Zelma later described the event:

.. . Mother has told me since how completely

awed she was by

that

message.

Filled with the Holy Ghost, and now coming

home! When the door

opened

in the early morning and in

walked

father,

she actually stood back at the other end of

the room, uncertain how to greet one who had received this

sacred

experience.

We have smiled over it since. 18

The

story

of A. H. Argue’s experience soon

spread

over

Winnipeg

and scores of

spiritually hungry

folk

began

to come to his

home,

seeking

advice and

help.

A. H. still had a business to

run,

but with

the increase in seekers in the

prayer meetings

he held in his home, he

soon realized that he had to make a decision either to abandon the

Pentecostal

meetings,

or to give up his business. He had been

keenly

interested in the

ministry

since his own conversion and after his

healing through prayer,

he had held revival

meetings

in North

Dakota in which over 50 were converted. But

now,

in Winnipeg, the

duties of both

pastor

and

evangelist

were

being

thrust

upon him,

and he chose to give

up

his lucrative real estate business.

According

to his daughter

Beulah,

A. H. settled matters with his two

brothers,

took the

proceeds

of his settlement and invested the

money

in

income-producing property.

In this

manner,

for the rest of his life

he was able to

provide

for the material needs of his

family,

and on .

occasion,

to

support

the Latter Rain work elsewhere.

Occasionally

where the local Pentecostal

pastor

had a severe financial

struggle,

A. H. would

give

him the entire “love

offering”

and take

nothing

for

himself. It was thus that this charismatic Methodist exhorter

began

6

126

a Pentecostal

and hundreds of conversions.

ministry

characterized

the first to

by many outstanding healings

The first

step

was taken in

Winnipeg,

where the

Holy Spirit

fell on the seekers in A.H.’s home. Within a few weeks, believers also gathered

at the home of a Mrs. Lockhart to seek the

baptism,

but

receive were in the

Argue

home about

May 2,

1907. Zelma was twelve when she attended the

prayer meeting

in which the first three

people

in the Manitoba

capitol

were filled with the

and

spoke

in

tongues.

that

they

were two women and a man, and that the man, A. E. Schwab, was the first to receive. A.H.’s account is as follows:

Spirit

Quickly

night

She

reported

lady evangelist. confirmed,

Returning

to Winnipeg, I started

tarrying meetings in my home. On the third

day, May 2, 1907, three were filled with the Spirit, speaking with tongues as in the Book of Acts….

the news

spread.

Soon we secured a hall for services.

People began

to come from far and near. One

I was preaching from Acts 10:44-46, … Like a flash from heaven the

Spirit

fell in like manner on two

people seated in the

congregation,

one of whom was a Holiness

When the

people

saw the Word thus

it greatly inspired their faith. 19

historic event

The “brother” mentioned

swamped by

sent in another account of this

in The

Apostolic

in the

Argue

home were soon

An

.anonymous correspondent

to

Seymour

which was

reprinted

Faith. It corroborates A.H.’s

account, noting

that:

The

Holy

Ghost first fell in a cottage meeting and three ‘

received their Pentecost with Bible evidence…. At the

‘

Pentecost

Mission,

while a brother was speaking from Acts

.

10:40-46, …

the Holy Ghost fell on two sisters. One started .

speaking right

off in tongues, and another who had come

about 100 miles to attend the meeting fell under the power

for a time and

began

to sing in tongues. It was heavenly.

Souls are

being saved,

believers sanctified, and

baptized

with the

Holy

Ghost while sitting in their seats.zo

in this article was A. H.

Argue.

The

cottage prayer meetings

hordes of inquirers and A.H. rented an empty

building

at 501 Alexander Avenue. As the crowds

increased,

the

rapidly

growing congregation

moved to the Liberal Hall on Notre Dame

and still later to

Langside

Hall. The old

Wesley

church was

eventually purchased,

renovated and became the chief center of

Pentecostalism in Manitoba. In fact, this church became the

largest

one in the Pentecostal Assemblies the

congregation 8,000

for a

single

service. The name was

later

years

to “Calvary Temple,” a title

suggested by Dr.

Price

during

one of his

salvation-healing campaigns

in

Street,

numbered

changed

in Charles S.

of Canada. At

times,

7

127

Winnipeg.

So far as it is

known,

this was the first Pentecostal congregation

in North America to

adopt

such a title for its sanctuary.2′

During

the first tumultous months of the

Spirit’s outpouring

in the

city,

the

Argue

Mission became the

magnet

for thousands of earnest seekers from other Manitoba

communities,

from the far northern Indian Reserves and from Western Canada.

Among

the first seekers were some who later became leaders of Pentecostalism in North

America, such

as

Harry Horton,

Franklin

Small,

A.G. Ward,

R.J. Scott and John McAlister. Mr.

Horton,

the father of Stanley Horton,

first heard of the Azusa

meetings

while on a trip to California.

Upon

his return home to

Winnipeg

he received his own Pentecost in a “home where the full

gospel

was

being pro- claimed. ‘?2

‘

Franklin Hall moved from eastern Canada to

Winnipeg

in 1900. After his

of 1907

conversion,

he wandered into the

Argue

Mission in

April

and there first heard

tongues

and

teaching

on the

baptism

of the

Spirit.

He was deeply

interested,

but before

committing himself, took his mother to the

Argue meetings.

She had

previously opposed the Latter Rain

people

on the basis of

reports,

but now she told Frank that services in the Mission were “the nearest

thing

to old- fashioned Methodism” she had seen since childhood.

Shortly afterwards,

both received the Pentecostal

experience

and

spoke

in tongues

in a

cottage prayer meeting

in Mrs. Lockhart’s home. Franklin Small was destined to become one of the most

prominent of early leaders: he was active in the United States in spreading the “full

gospel.”

He took a

leading

role in the

organization

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada and later, when that denomination rejected

the “Jesus

Only” doctrine,

he founded and directed the Apostolic

Church of Pentecost of Canada.23

A.G. Ward was the director of a Holiness Mission in the Manitoba

capitol

when he became

acquainted

with the

Argue work. He was later instrumental in

introducing

the Latter Rain message

to the New Brethren Mennonite Church in Ontario, out of which came G.A.

Chambers,

the first General

Superintendent

of the

PAOC,

and a number of other

early

Pentecostal

pioneers.

Ward also took the lead in establishing the Pentecostal

Missionary

Union in

1909,

which was the first

attempt

to

organize

the scattered and independent

Latter Rain churches in Canada.24

R.J.

Scott,

the

Superintendent

of the “Home and

Foreign Mission” in

Winnipeg,

was another Holiness Movement advocate who from the

beginning

took a keen interest in the

outpouring

of the

Spirit.

Scott became so enthusiastic that he moved his family to Los

Angeles

and worked in

Seymour’s

Mission. He was instru-

8

128

mental in

organizing

the first “Pentecostal

Camp Meeting”

in California in June, 1907. When members of his

family

returned to Winnipeg, they

continued to

report

to

Seymour

on the

spiritual blessings they

were

receiving.

Tom Anderson was another writer who

corresponded

with the Azusa Street leader

claiming

that he was

enjoying

the fruits of a Spirit-filled life in

Winnipeg.25

John McAlister was a farmer and harness-maker when he first heard of the

outpouring

of the

Spirit

in Manitoba. He moved his family

to Winnipeg and received his baptism with

tongues speaking, in

Argue’s “Apostolic

Faith Mission” in

July,

1907. His

son, Walter,

was also

baptized

in the

Spirit

there at the

age

of ten. Walter later became General

Superintendent

of the PAOC.26 John took the Latter Rain

message

to

Edmonton,

from where it radiated throughout

the

province

of Alberta.

The

Argue

Mission became the main center of the Latter Rain Movement in Western Canada within a few months of its un- planned beginning. Through pioneer

workers like

Small, Ward, McAlister and

Argue,

the Pentecostal

message

was

spread

with astonishing rapidity.

A host of lesser-known workers rose

up spontaneously

to share the full

gospel

with their

neighbors

and relatives. One old

gentleman

from

Poplar Point,

Manitoba visited the

Mission,

had a Pentecostal

baptism,

and took the news

home, where he held

“tarrying meetings.”

In a short

time,

about

twenty had received the same

experience.

From the northern Reserves came Indians

by

the

score, though they

had to travel in mid-winter by dog

team to the end of the

railroad,

then hundreds of miles south by

rail to the Manitoba

capitol.

After

they

received the Pentecostal experience

with

tongues, they

took the

message

back to the scattered

Reserves,

where revival broke out. At their earnest request,

A.H. went there to

preach.

A.G. Ward also ministered to the Indians.

Stanley

Frodsham

reports

an account of Reverend Ward’s

ministry

in which Ward

preached through

an interpreter to the natives of the Fisher River Reservation.2?

A.H.

Argue

became the

pastor

of a

swiftly-enlarging congre- gation

in the

city,

but he

began

an itinerant

evangelistic ministry throughout

Eastern Canada and the northern United States.

Early in 1908 he made a tour of such cities as Toronto

(where

there were at least five Pentecostal

missions), Ottawa, Athens,

New York

City, Washington, D.C., Chicago,

St. Paul and

Minneapolis.

His glowing

account of the work of the

Spirit

in these

places

was combined with a

report

of an

outpouring among

the Manitoba Indians which he sent in to

Seymour.

One of the most

noteworthy facts in the

Argue

record is that

Chicago

had thirteen or fourteen Latter Rain missions in

operation

at that

time, proof

of the effectiveness of the

ministry

of W.H. Durham.28

.

9

129

The

Argue Mission,

like

virtually

all

early twentieth-century Latter Rain

ministries,

came under intense

opposition

and

The

Winnipeg

Pentecostals were

persecution.

derisively

called “the

tongues people”

and

they

were said to be demon-inspired. From the first the gatherings

in the

Argue

home attracted both earnest seekers after the

Baptism,

and determined resistance. Rotten

eggs

and

garbage were thrown at the

worshippers

in an

attempt

to

disrupt

the meetings

in the rented halls. Such

persecution

was so common that the

pioneer

workers came to

expect

it as a matter of

course, wherever

they began

Pentecostal

meetings. Opposition

even came from the ranks of the Holiness Movement.

Despite

such

reactions, both official and

spontaneous,

the Latter Rain Movement was

irresistable in its

appeal

and its

apostolic power.

In the

early meetings

at

Winnipeg, participants

were convinced of such a marked

blessing

of God, as to make all opposition seem irrelevant.

Another

feature

of the local revival was that the Second

Coming of the Lord was understood to be imminent. A.H.

Argue

contended that the Parousia could even take

place

within the next five

years, though

he never set a date for the event. His

expectation

arose out of his

profound

conviction that he was

living

in “the last

days”

and was

witnessing

the last

great outpouring

of the

Spirit.

One of the remarkable features of the

Argue ministry

was the relatively large

number of upper-class

people

that were reached and brought

into the Pentecostal ranks. One of the most

prominent

was Archdeacon

Phair,

a

clergyman

for

forty years

in the

Anglican Church,

and

initially

a critic of the

Argue meetings.

His

personal testimony

was

published

in the autumn of

1908,

and

reprinted

in Zelma

Argue’s

What Meaneth This? in 1923.29

Others

brought

into the Pentecostal

experience

at that time included Professor Baker of St. John’s

College

in

Winnipeg,

Dr. Howard

Geddes, Capt. Stokes,

and a number of business and professional

men. That there were no racial or social barriers in the Argue

Mission is attested both

by the

conversion of these

socially elite individuals and

by

the inclusion of Cree Indians in the meetings.30

A. H.

Argue’s

zeal in promoting the Latter Rain

message,

and his fervent belief in the imminent return of Jesus Christ led him to publish,

at his own

expense,

a number of religious periodicals. He was

strengthened

in his

eschatological

convictions

by

a vision he received in the

early days

of the movement in Winnipeg. He saw, as it

seemed,

a number of wheat fields

heavy

with

grain.

The kernels were

dropping

onto the

ground

and were

being trampled

under foot. “Since

then,”

he wrote, “we have been

doing

our best to

“31′

gather in the

golden grain.

Publication was a logical means of

promo-

10

130

tion and he proved to

be just

as capable as an author and

publisher

as he had been a pastor and

evangelist.

As early as

1908,

A. H. wrote

a summary of the Latter Rain Movement which was the lead article

in a new

journal published

in

Egypt.

The little

paper,

titled The

Promise

of the Father,

recorded the

outpouring

of the

Spirit

on the

Day

of

Pentecost,

and included accounts of the renewed out-

pouring

in the twentieth

century. Copies

were

printed

both in

English

and in Arabic. Of still

greater

influence was The Apostolic

Messenger. Argue

sent it free to

anyone

he

thought

would be

interested in the “full

gospel. “In

one of the first editions of

1908,

he

wrote of its impact worldwide.32 He also drew from John

Wesley

to

explain why

the charismata had

departed

from the

church,

as well

as how

they

could be recovered.33

It is

impossible

to estimate the influence of this

journal

in the

spread

of Pentecostalism worldwide. John

McAlister,

for

example,

was in Eastern Canada when he first heard of the Latter

Rain,

but

he

questioned

the

validity

of

tongues speaking

since he recalled

Paul’s

question

in 1 Corinthians “Do all

speak

with

tongues?”

It

was an article in A.H.’s

magazine

which

changed

his mind:

Argue

had clarified the issue

by pointing

out a distinction between the

gift

of tongues in 1 Corinthians and

tongues speaking

as an evidence of

Spirit baptism

in Acts 2:4.34 This little

journal, then, brought

into

the Pentecostal Movement one of its most effective

pioneering

pastors,

as well as his son who was destined to become a leading

figure

in the PAOC. Some issues of The

Apostolic Messenger totaled over

40,000 copies,

all sent out free

by

A.H. In

1911,

additional

copies

of the

magazine

were

requested by a missionary

in

El

Salvador,

who translated the

articles, using

them in his mission

work.

By 1916,

A.H. had received letters from over

forty

countries

telling

of the

outpouring

of the

Spirit among

thousands of

believers. In later

years,

when he

began

a “full

gospel”

radio

program

in

Winnipeg,

the

journal

was re-named The Revival

Broadcast.3s

,

,

Another

way

in which the zealous Pentecostal

pastor sought

to

introduce

people

to the Latter Rain was through

campmeetings

and

conventions. The first Pentecostal Convention in Western Canada

was

organized by

A.H.

Argue

in the Autumn of 1907.

Flqrence

Crawford,

the

indefatigable

Azusa Street

evangelist

and the

founder of the

Apostolic

Faith of

Portland, Oregon,

came to

Winnipeg

with a group ‘ of

supporters.

she sent a to

Seymour:

.

Later, report

.

There was a great Pentecostal Convention in

Winnepeg

[sic.] beginning

November 15th. Preachers and workers

,

from all parts of Canada were present. A band of workers

.

f

11

131

‘

who were in Portland at the time received a call from God , to go to Winnipeg, and they were present at the convention: ,

Sister Crawford and Mildred, Sister Neal, Brother Conlee

and Brother Trotter. About

twenty

were baptized with the

Holy

Ghost and were

handkerchiefs and

many

healed. The

people brought

aprons

to be blessed as in Acts

19:12,

and the Lord did wonderful the simple faith

of the dear ones that

signs through

brought

them. The Lord saved and

healed one

young

man of the tobacco habit

through

an

anointed

handkerchief, taking

all the desire for the stuff

away

from him. Demons were cast out of those bound

by

them.36 ,

A

year later,

the Fall convention in

Winnipeg

was marked

by more “wonderful works of God.”

Nearly

150 were

baptized

in water,

“some of them

being

filled with the

Spirit

as they came

up

out of the water.”37 In

1908,

A.H. visited Toronto

during

one of his early evangelistic

tours where a convention of the workers and members of the five Missions then in that

city

attracted his notice. Little evidence

survives,

but he seems to have

participated

in the meetings.

He

stayed

in the home of two Christian and

Missionary Alliance

missionaries,

the

Murrays.

A.H. later

reported

that “we were in prayer when

suddenly

the

Holy Spirit

descended

upon

us in a special

way,

and I spoke in other

tongues. Quickly they

arose to their feet and said I had

spoken

in the Arabic

language.”

Back in Winnipeg,

another Convention was held in 1908 at which “a

great number received this wonderful

experience, including

a number of ministers and Christian workers.”38 The 1908 and 1909 Fall Conventions were held in a Lodge Hall on Isabel Street, but a large Baptist

Tabernacle was the venue for the 1910

gathering. People came from

many

areas of Canada and from the U.S.

Many

were baptized

in the

Spirit,

and took the

message

to their home communities,

with the result that new works were started in several places.

Among

those who came into the Latter Rain Movement at the time were members of the Elmer Cantelon

family.39

Elmer’s brothers and, children were well-known workers in the PAOC. Elmer Cantelon and E.A.

Schwab,

the first man to receive the baptism

in

Winnipeg,

were instrumental in

establishing

the first permanent

PAOC District

Camp

in Manitoba.4? In

1908,

the Pentecostal

message

had been embraced

by

a

young

woman at Weldon, Saskatchewan,

sixteen

year

old Christine Larson. This girl

was instrumental in bringing into the new Movement the

family of

George Upton,

whose later

ministry

as

long-time Foreign Missionary Secretary

for the PAOC is well-known. In

1910,

A.H. Argue preached

at a

camp meeting

at Weldon and this

greatly

‘

‘

12

132

encouraged

the small

congregation.41

Another small church had been established

by

R.E. McAlister in Ottawa, the nation’s

capitol, and he invited A. H. to hold a convention there in 1911. The Ottawa residents at first were uncertain how to treat the

evangelist,

but a number of remarkable

healings brought

a favorable

response.

Mrs.’ C.E.

Baker,

a businessman’s

wife,

who was dying of cancer, was one of those healed.

Through

her

healing

her husband was

brought

into the

church, gave up

his business and became a Pentecostal evangelist, launching

the first

meetings by the new sect in Quebec. After his ordination in

1914,

Baker moved to Montreal where he carried on an

aggressive evangelistic ministry

until his death in 1947. Thousands were converted in the

meetings, large

sums of money

were raised for

evangelism, many

new

congregations

were assisted or

encouraged

in

getting started,

and

many

effective workers and missionaries came out of the Montreal

assembly. These were

merely

some of the

consequences

of the

ministry

of A.H.

Argue.4z – ,.

,

III.

Ministry

from

Long

Beach

A.H.

Argue

was the

pastor

of the

Winnipeg congregation

for nearly

six

years,

but in 1912 he moved his

family

to

Long Beach, California. No reason is given for the

move,

but one

may

surmise the motivations behind that action. From the

beginning

of the outpouring

of the

Spirit

in

Winnipeg,

there had been an inter- change

of

correspondence

between the Latter Rain

people there, and those in Los

Angeles.

A. H. had called his local church the “Apostolic

Faith

Mission,”

a title identical to that which

Seymour had assumed for the Azusa Street

congregation.

In

addition,

A.H. had come into the Latter Rain Movement

through

the Durham Mission in

Chicago,

and Durham had received his

personal Pentecost in Los

Angeles.

As a keen

businessman,

A.H. had learned the value of

getting

accurate

information,

and his

pre- disposition

towards

evangelism,

rather than to a settled

pastorate, undoubtedly

influenced the move

strongly.

In the United

States, both Watson and Zelma continued their education while A.H. became

deeply

involved in evangelism. If he ever had

any personal contact with

Seymour

he left no record in his Memoirs nor in

any other of his

writings

or sermons.

He did

report

on his involvement with

Mary Woodworth-Etter, however,

in the 1913 World-Wide

Camp Meeting

at Los

Angeles. This woman

evangelist

had

begun

a salvation-healing ministry in the 1880’s which was most remarkable for the number and

variety of supernatural healings that occurred in it.43 It is indicative of A. H.

‘

‘

.

13

133

Argue’s reputation

at that

early

date that he worked with this

woman

evangelist,

first

by sharing

in the dedication of her

tabernacle in

Indianapolis,

and then in the 1913

Camp Meeting.44

In his

Memoirs, Argue

recalled that eventful

period

as follows:

The revival continued to spread over .

.

great pentecostal

various

parts

of the world. In 1913 a world wide

camp

.

meeting

was called in Los Angeles,

California,

in which I

..

had a

small’part

with Mrs. Woodworth

Etter,

a noted

evangelist. People

came from different

foreign lands,

from _ across Canada

and the U.S. Over 500 tents were on the

.

grounds

and many had rooms and other accommodations

in the city. Some most marvelous

healings

took and

‘

many

were filled with the spirit and the word of God was

place

mightily

confirmed. The spirit of revival kept increasing all

over the land.45

A.H. continued to labor in American

to Canada in 1916.

camp meetings,

conventions and

evangelistic

campaigns

until his return

Within a

year of his coming to the U.S., Argue had acquired recognition

as a leader

among

American

Pentecostals, and

in some of the

formative events that led to the

organization

of participated the Assemblies of God.

About this time, the term “Pentecostal”

began

to be used to distinguish

believers associated with E.N. Bell and H.G.

Rogers

from those who had

previously

used the name “Apostolic Faith.” The switch

apparently

came _

as a result of the “many

regretable things” which

had taken

place under the

“Apostolic

Faith” label.46

The Church

of

God was the first name chosen

by Rogers

and

about 50 other

early workers,

but this name was identical to the

name of another

previously existing organization,

so this

fledgling

body

met in. the summer of 1913 to draw

up a list of ministers which

by

then totaled over

350,

and to set up a new credentials committee.

In

1913,

at the Interstate

Camp Meeting

in Eureka

Springs,

Arkansas,

further

steps

were taken towards the establishment of an

organization, though

it was then advocated as a move towards

providing

Pentecostal workers with an

“association,””

rather than

a denomination. In a

publication

issued

by

E.N. Bell late that summer,

it was announced that a Bureau of Information had been established to

supply

“authentic information from the field.” This

Bureau was headed

by Bell,

several other well-known American

Pentecostals,

and “A.H.

Argue

of Long

Beach,

California.”4′ This particular group

of some 350 workers, with the

acknowledged

but informal

leadership

of men like Bell and

Argue,

was to have a profound

influence

upon

the

organization

of the Assemblies of God at its founding Convention in Hot

Springs,

Arkansas in 1914. Men like

Bell,

A.P.

Collins,

D.C.O.

Opperman

and J.R. Flower

emerged from these

organizational processes

to head

up

the

newly-formed AG,

but there is no further record of A. H.

Argue’s

involvement in

‘

.

14

134

any

administrative

capacity.

While A.H.

Argue

itinerated

throughout

the United

States,

he and his wife

prepared

the children for

possible

future roles in the ministry.

Watson was an avid lover of water

sports,

and the

family home in Long Beach was close

enough

to the ocean to enable him to swim

every day.

He won numerous awards and later in life, after he began assisting

his

father,

he was

styled by

the

press as,

“The Athlete

Evangelist.”

Eva

Argue

made the children

practice

their musical instruments before

they

could

go swimming,

with the result that both Watson and Zelma became

accomplished musicians,

and this

greatly

aided in the future

ministry

of the

Argue

“team.” Both Watson and Zelma, were

baptized

in the

Spirit

at the World-Wide Camp Meeting

of

1913, and,

while still in Long

Beach,

both

began to test their talents

by assisting

in revival

meetings

in small

ways. Their talents were not to be fully

developed, however,

until after the family returned

to

Winnipeg

in 1916. In the

meantime,

A.H. continued with his itinerant

evangelism

from his Long Beach home.

Argue

was

preaching

in the States when the so-called “New Issue”

emerged

in 1915.

Ironically,

the new doctrine was inad- vertently

launched

by

another

Canadian,

R.E.

McAlister,

when he preached

at the 1913 World-Wide

Camp Meeting.

McAlister noted in passing

comment,

that the

baptismal

formula which

appeared

in the Book of Acts referred

only

to the name of Jesus. A “revelation” received

by John G. Sheppe,

of the

power

in Jesus’ name, combined with McAlister’s

aside,

was all that was essential to

give

rise to the Oneness movement.48 What is significant

here,

is that A. H.

Argue was then in

California,

close to the scene of this

development,

was well-acquainted

with both R.E. McAlister and the

early

Assemblies of God

leaders,

and must have been

thoroughly

familiar with all aspects

of the situation.

Hollenweger

has

alleged

that A.H. was one of the

pioneer Pentecostals to be

baptized

a second

time,

as a result of the emergence

of the Jesus

Only teachings.49 Hollenweger’s

inclusion of A.H.

Argue

as one of “the leaders of the Pentecostal movement of the time” is

significant, however,

he was less than accurate in claiming

that “the whole McAlister

family

and almost all Canadian pastors”

were involved in the

re-baptism process. According

to PAOC

historian,

Gordon F.

Atter, Argue

was one of the first to perceive

the

theological dangers

inherent in the Jesus

Only doctrines,

and he

resolutely rejected

it.5° When the New Issue teachings

did

spread throughout

North

America,

A.H.

adopted

a baptismal

formula which

incorporated

the trinitarian

position

with the then-current

emphasis

on the

primacy

of the Son. He

baptized with the

formula,

“In the Name of the Lord Jesus

Christ,

I

baptize you

into the

Father,

Son and

Holy

Ghost.

“5 1

_

.

‘

.

–

.

.

.

15

135

As an itinerant

evangelist,

A. H.

obviously

wished to continue in an orthodox manner

(recall

his Methodist

heritage)

in

baptizing new

converts, yet

he wished to avoid

unnecessary controversy

in working among

those who had

espoused

the Oneness

position.

The controversy

over the Oneness doctrine was

present

in the formative stages

of the Pentecostal Assemblies of

Canada,

from

1917-1919, and it is true, as

Hollenweger

has

noted,

that a number of the

early leaders of that

period

were

supporters

of the doctrine. in the Canadian

West, however,

there was firm resistance to it especially by

A.H.

Argue

and John

McAlister,

who was a

prominent Pentecostal

pastor

in Alberta.12

.

‘

IV.

Winnipeg

and the

Evangelistic

Period

In

1916,

the

Argue family

returned to

Winnipeg,

where A.H. was

asked

again

to take

leadership

of the work. In his remi- niscences,

he referred

only briefly

to the

“problems”

that had arisen during

his absence in California.

Though

he did not

elaborate,

the “problems”

surrounded the

propagation

of the Oneness

teachings in the local

congregation.

Franklin Small had started a Pentecostal Mission in the

city

and had made the New Issue the dominant feature of his

ministry.

Small had been

present

at the 1913 World Wide

Camp Meeting

and returned that same

year

to hold the “eighth

annual Pentecostal Convention” with R.E. McAlister of Ottawa as chief

speaker.

It was at that time

according

to Small’s biographer,

that McAlister

ably

defended the New Issue doctrine. Two

years later,

R.E. McAlister and

evangelist Harvey

McAlister were

re-baptized.

In

July,

of

1916,

the “FIRST PENTECOSTAL CAMP MEETING EVER HELD IN WINNIPEG” was advertized,

with Black

Pentecostal, G.T. Haywood

of Indian- apolis,

L.C. Hall of Chicago, and Frank Ewart of Los

Angeles,

as the main

speakers.

All of these men were zealous Oneness advocates.53

After A. H. took over

leadership

of a somewhat reduced

congre- gation

in the Liberal

Hall,

the

membership steadily

increased. In the first few months of

1917,

about 75 received the

baptism

in the Spirit,

and the

congregation

moved to

larger quarters

in the Langside

Hall. Here Pastor

Argue brought

in several well-known evangelists

for

special meetings, among

them Andrew

Ursham, C.O.

Benham,

and J.H.

King.

J. Rutherford

Spence

is one of the notable converts of that

period.

He was a recent

emigrant

from Scotland and later became a long-time

missionary

to China.

A

rapidly growing congregation required

another

move,

this time into the old

Wesley

Church. The

Langside

Hall had been rented,

but the lease was sold to a business firm for $2,300, which

16

136

sum became the down

payment

for the church.

Though

the congregation meeting

in the

Wesley

Church was destined to become the

largest

in the

PAOC,

it continued to be troubled over the

years by

Oneness

proponents.

The

principal

of the first Canadian Pentecostal Bible

school,

J.E. Purdie,

described in his Memoirs how the New Issue affected the students of his college. Frank Small had

opened up “The Apostolic Temple”

across the road from

Calvary Temple (formerly Wesley Church)

in

1926,

where the students had their classes. Tracts were given

to the students

claiming

that Jesus was the

totality

of the Godhead. Reverend Purdie noted that he vigorously opposed that teaching

with several

carefully-prepared

lectures and the students were convinced of the biblical

support

for the

Trinity.

Purdie was later told

by prominent

PAOC leader Tom Johnstone that if he hadn’t

given

that series of lectures, the entire Canadian Movement might

have been lost to the New Issue.54

A

significant

factor in the retention of hosts of

people

in the PAOC at this

time,

was also the

extraordinary

1920

campaign

of Aimee

Semple McPherson,

in

Winnipeg.

When Aimee found the old

Wesley

Church

“half-filled,” she

announced that she would visit the local dance halls to invite

people

to the

meetings.

The Chief of Police

provided

her with official

protection.

Aimee received enormous

publicity

from the

city’s newspapers

after she addressed more than

2,000

in the dance halls. In a short time the

Wesley Church was

packed

out.

Though

A.H. had

by

that time

given

the leadership

of the

congregation

to C.O. Benham and had become a full-time

evangelist again,

he was

present

for the McPherson meetings.55

The four-week McPherson

campaign

of 1920 consoli- dated the work which A. H. had

begun

in 1907.

However,

the

Argue association with the

congregation

was to be close and blessed for years

to come. A.H. made

Winnipeg

his

permanent headquarters, and his son Watson became

pastor

of the church there in 1924.

Between 1916 and

1920,

A.H.

Argue’s

chief contribution to the fledgling

Pentecostal Movement

lay

in

making Winnipeg

a center for

evangelism

and

discipleship

for all of Western Canada. He acted primarily

as an

evangelist,

and

engaged

in itinerant

evangelism whenever he could. In

1917,

for

example,

he

joined

with W.L. Draffin,

then

pastor

of a Pentecostal Mission in

Toronto,

for a campaign

in the YMCA. Andrew Urshan

helped

for the first three weeks, holding

two services a day for most of that time. Reverend Draffin assisted in the

prayer

room.

Many

were converted and about 200 received the Pentecostal

experience.

Willard and Christine Pierce were then

beginning

their

evangel- istic

ministry,

and

they helped

with the

young people’s

work and

17

137

took

charge

of the music. One of the notable recruits to Pente- costalism at that time was Beatrice

Sims,

who later became a prominent

woman

evangelist.

From this endeavor came a body of people

who

eventually

moved into

Evangel Temple

in Toronto, and helped

to make that church one of the most

prominent

Pentecostal missions in the

city.

The Willard Pierces were its first

pastors.56 Though

he had

frequently

visited Toronto in his role as Pentecostal evangelist,

A.H. does not

appear

to have had

any

close contacts with the Hebden Mission. His ministry was known to Mrs.

Hebden, and she was well aware that a number of workers had

gone

to the foreign

field from the

Winnipeg assembly.

One would

expect

that these two

prominent

and successful

pioneer

Canadian Pentecostal leaders

might

have

cooperated

in

evangelizing

Toronto. As it happened,

A.H. worked with W.L.

Draffin,

without

any apparent support

from Ellen Hebden. The reason for this lack of cooperation, no doubt, is to be found in Mrs. Hebden’s

independent spirit

and in her

rejection

of

any

form of

organization.

She resisted

vigorously even the most

rudimentary

of

organizations

which A.G. Ward sought

to establish in

1909,

the Pentecostal

Missionary

Union

By

the time A.H.

Argue

held his successful

campaign

in Toronto in

1917,

he had become associated with

another, ultimately successful

attempt,

to

organize

the scattered Latter Rain

groups

in Canada. Howard Goss came to Canada in 1915 and

organized

a branch of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the

World,

in Canada. Initially,

Goss met with little

response

from the Canadian

leaders, for their attitude was that God had taken them out of

organ- izations,

and

they

asked

“Why

should we bind ourselves

up?” Among

his chief

opponents

were

George

A.

Chambers,

Arthur H. Atter,

Albert E. Adams and Andrew H.

Argue.

But the

relatively rapid growth

of the new sect

required

some form of

organization: unprincipled

con men were

presenting

themselves as “Pentecostal evangelists”

to

unsuspecting congregations.

Some means had to be found to

identify

“sound

men,”

and the overseas

missionary

funds needed to be handled in an efficient and accountable manner. Eventually,

these leaders reversed their

positions

and met in 1917 at a camp

meeting

site near

Lansdowne,

Ontario. There were

only

six men

present,

and

they rejected

formal

organization.

Another

meeting

was called for

November, 1918,

at which a larger

number of preachers were

present, including

A.H.

Argue.58 It was

agreed that “Fellowship,

not

doctrine,”

would be the basis for the

organization.59

R.E. McAlister added that as

long

as the members believed in the

baptism

in the

Holy Spirit

with

tongues

as the initial

evidence, they

could

acquire

credentials.6° The Pente- costal Assemblies of the World in Canada was the first name

,

, ‘ .

.

.

.

18

138

proposed

for the

organization.

This was

shortened,

and the new sect

acquired

a federal

government

charter in 1919 as The Pente- costal Assemblies of Canada.

Though

this new denomination had taken no official

position

on Oneness

teaching,

Franklin Small continually sought

to have it do so.

Early

in 1920 he gave the PAOC an ultimatum,

threatening

to leave unless the PAOC was amenable to his own views on “eternal

security”

and “the fulness of God in Christ.” Sentiment in the infant

PAOC, however,

had turned against him,

and he withdrew and founded a rival denomination. In the next

publication

of the

PAOC,

Small’s name was absent from the list of ministers.61

Despite

these shifts from

openness

to the Oneness

doctrines,

to outright rejection

of

them,

A.H.

Argue

and John McAlister remained outside the PAOC.

Instead, they joined

a newly-formed Western Canadian Council of the Assemblies of God. As time passed,

those Canadian leaders who had for a time

enthusiastically espoused

the New

Issue,

found it to be

unsatisfactory,

and eventually

concluded it to be unbiblical.

Among

them was Robert E. McAlister. As Walter E. McAlister

noted,

it was

embarrasing

for them,

but

“one by one they came

back to a position on the

Trinity.” Robert

E. McAlister wrote an article titled

“Confessedly,

Great is the

Mystery

of

Godliness,”

in which he acknowledged that he had mistakenly thought

the Godhead could be

adequately

defined in human terms. There

is, he noted,

“a mystery in the Godhead that we must confess.”

Gradually

the bulk of the

young

Pentecostal congregations

in Canada reaffirmed their Trinitarian

stand,

and the

way

was

paved

for a later

amalgamation

of the Eastern and the Western leaders under the

aegis

of the PAOC.62

It

is, nonetheless,

as an

evangelist,

that A.H.

Argue

is best remembered. When he launched out into full-time

evangelism

in 1920,

he took with

him,

his

daughter, Zelma,

and his

son,

Watson. The

youthful Argues

had assisted their father in numerous

meetings before,

but

mainly

as song

leaders, musicians,

and

youth

workers. When

he judged

that

they

had

acquired

sufficient

experience,

A. H. began

to

employ

them in more

demanding spheres

of service. Zelma’s first

evangelistic trip

was with A.H. to

Montreal,

where in 1920

they

held a

campaign

in Charles E. Baker’s church. Pastor Baker

reported

that:

In the large St. Andrews Church,

many were saved, healed,

baptized.

Some had

striking

visions and God’s

mighty

power

was manifested in a wonderful

way.63

In

July,

the team went to the

Arnprior Camp Meeting

and the local

pastor, George

A.

Chambers,

wrote a glowing account of the services.64 A short

campaign

followed in Ottawa, the nation’s

‘

‘ _

.

.

.

19

139

capitol.

Watson

had itinerated in Western Canada for some

.

months,

but

joined

with Zelma and A.H. for

evangelistic meetings in Kingston, and then in Ottawa. It was there that their

minstry

was abundantly

blessed in the

saving

and

healing

of

many people.

In 1920,

the

pastor

of the Ottawa Mission was Robert E.

McAlister, and he

rejoiced

in the numerous

healings

and their effect

upon

the community.

He

reported

on the

evangelistic campaign

as a time of “Great Visitation.” from God.65

,

‘

A.H.

Argue

considered the Ottawa

meetings

to have been the most remarkable in his

experience

to that date because of the supernatural healings

which

accompanied

it.

Though

his hand- written Memoirs were

very

brief and

unorganized

in

content,

the Ottawa

campaign

was recalled with evident

pleasure.

He

quoted

a communication from R.E. McAlister: .

God has caused us at times to stand in wonder and

.

‘

.

”

adoration.

Evangelist

A.H.

Argue …

has been with us to

bring

the

message

of the

outpouring

of the Latter Rain.

After three

days

it became evident divine

healing

was in

God’s

thought

at this time.

Every day

was crowded with

signs

and wonders. Souls were being saved and

baptized

‘. daily. One afternoon four received the baptism while sitting

in their seats. While the sick were being prayed

for, a young

woman who had severe operations and [was] still ill was not

only

healed but received the

baptism.

A woman with

tuberculosis of the nose and face suffered for nine years was ‘

healed. Another woman was healed of leakage of the heart

and received the baptism

sitting

in her seat….

Many

other

healings

took

including

Mrs.

Stephens,

wife of

Commander R.M.T.

place,

of the Canadian

Navy,

Ottawa. His

Stephens

high position placed

them

among

Canada’s

highest

officials. She had been under four doctors for

months. The Ottawa Citizen reported her healing as given

‘

by

her. She and the Commander received the baptism of the

Spirit.

This caused intense interests. 66

Zelma

Argue’s

account of the

campaign

credited the extra- ordinary healings

both to the

ministry

of the Word

by

A. H. and to “A

spirit

of

intercessory prayer”

which settled

upon

the

people. “Strong

men would rise in service and tell of being awakened in the night

to

prayer.

No wonder we saw such results!” The

high

social status of Commander and Mrs.

Stephens

was noted

by

all who reported

on the Ottawa

meetings,

but without

any

evidence of self-congratulation

at

having

reached into the

city’s “upper

crust.” Argue’s ministry

had

long

been marked

by

his

ability

to reach converts in all classes of society. As for the

Stephens, they zealously witnessed

among

their friends both in Canada and

England,

and reported,

in letters to

A.H.,

that

they

had been ridiculed and

.

‘

‘

.

.

.

‘

–

‘

‘

‘

20

140

ostracized for their efforts.

Still, they

vowed to remain true to their convictions.

.

When the

Argue

team visited Montreal for a second

campaign

in December, 1920, healings

were once more in evidence. A

26-year- old

man,

deaf and dumb from the

age

of four, was

prayed

for and healed. The

validity

of that event was vouched for

by

a medical doctor who was present. In Owen

Sound,

another series of meetings in late 1920 were more remarkable for the number who were “baptized

in the

Spirit,”

rather than for

healings, though

some of those also occurred.6′

In January

1921, following

a brief rest in

Winnipeg,

the

Argues began

a series of

meetings

in

Seattle, Washington. One night, during

the second

week,

A. H.

Argue preached

from Numbers

9, on the “Cloud of

Glory.”

Almost before he concluded his

sermon, people

rushed to the altar to

pray

and seek God. Pastor William H. Offiler

wrote a glowing

account of these

meetings.68

From

Seattle,

the

evangelists

moved to nearby

Vancouver, B.C., where an old

friend,

C. Orville

Benham,

was a pastor. Benham had opened

a mission in August of

1920, and

the

Argue meetings put

his work on a’solid

footing.

He estimated the number of converts at more than

200,

and noted that in the first three weeks over 100 had received the Pentecostal

experience.

Some of these

recipients

were prominent

businessmen: three were

gospel preachers.

Even a group of musicians from a cruise

ship,

the S.S.

Empress of Russia,

were converted,

and for a few nights before

sailing, they provided

music for the

meetings.

In Benham’s

opinion,

it was “the

largest

revival yet

witnessed in the

history

of Vancouver.” He credited its success to the

Argue ministry

and to weeks of “intercessory

prayer”

before the

campaign began.69

In

April, 1921,

the team went to

Calgary,

to assist

Harvey McAlister. A new auditorium was filled to overflowing, and over 80 received the Pentecostal

experience.

A.H.’s

ministry

focused on prophetic

events

capturing

the

public’s attention,

while Watson and Zelma

provided

the bulk of the music. A little

later,

a short campaign

with Pastor John McAlister in

Lethbridge

resulted in a number of

conversions,

with over 20

receiving

the

baptism

of the Spirit.

In June of

1921,

the

Argue Evangelistic

Team

began

to itinerate throughout

the United

States,

and thereafter the

majority

of its meetings

were held in American communities. Watson was to leave the team in 1924 to become the

pastor

of the

Winnipeg assembly, but Zelma continued to assist A.H. until his retirement from active ministry. Thereafter,

she carried on as an

evangelist

in her own right.

A

campaign

was held in

Findlay, Ohio,

which was

highly

–

21

141

gratifying

to the local

pastor,

T.K.

Leonard,

and the

people.71 Indeed,

the entire Ohio

community benefited,

for it is believed that a disastrous

drought

was alleviated

by the prayers

of the

evangelist and

people.

The

drought

ended when the believers

prayed

for

rain, and so remarkable was the answer to

prayer,

that the local newspaper,

the

Courier, gave

an account which Zelma later

in her book

.

reprinted

From

Findlay,

the team went to

Oberlin, Ohio,

for a short rest. Zelma noted in her book that Oberlin was the

community

in which Charles G. Finney had been

president

of the

college.

This reference is

only

one of

many

which

may

be found

among

the works of pioneer

Canadian

Pentecostals,

to the life and

ministry

of the famed revivalist.

By July, meetings

were

begun

in

Cleveland,

but these

meetings proved

a difficult

campaign,

because of the

weather, it was the hottest

July

in 40 years. In

spite

of the

weather,

a revival broke

out,

as the local

pastor,

J. Narver Gortner attested.’3

More

meetings

followed in Seattle, then in the midwest.

Following the 1921

meeting

of the’General Council of the Assemblies of God held in St.

Louis, Missouri,

A.H. and his

helpers began meetings just

across the

Mississippi

River in Granite

City.

Pastor C.M. O’Guin had a small

congregation,

but the Lord sent a

gracious outpouring

of the

Spirit

to consolidate and

enlarge

the

asserribly. The team drove about in an old

flag-draped Ford, played

their musical instruments on the streets and thus created considerable

.

interest. The

meetings began well,

but it was in the third week that the “cloud of God’s

glory

settled down over hearts” and multitudes were

baptized

in the

Spirit,

as many as thirteen in a single

day.

Even

. in the homes and the

schools, people

and children

gathered

to pray and seek God. Entire families were

brought

into the church and

by the end of the

campaign,

over 130 were

“Spirit-baptized.”

In a

“. second

campaign

in Granite

City

the next

summer,

similar scenes were recorded

The first

evangelistic campaign

in 1922 was held in

May,

in New

‘ York

City,

in the

newly-purchased

Glad

Tidings

Tabernacle. It was the fifteenth

anniversary

of the establishment of that Pentecostal

Mission,

and the

Argues

were the

special guests

of Pastors Robert . A. and Marie

(Burgess) Brown,

founders of the mission. Members of some 30 local Missions sent

representatives,

and the

2,000

seat Tabernacle was

quickly

filled. Over

fifty

received the

baptism

of the Spirit

and a number were saved. Later in the

month,

the

Argue team traveled to

Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There,

numbers were saved and

baptized,

and a man who had stammered for 28 years was healed. Then followed a

long trip

across the western

plains

to

difficulties

attended the

‘ Dallas, Texas,

where

special meetings.

‘

22

142

A huge tent was

rented,

but because of a series of storms it could not be erected. The Coliseum was then

secured,

but a very hot

spell made the interior of the

building

an inferno.

Finally,

the tent was set

up

in a

park,

surrounded

by

the

city’s largest

dance

hall,

an outdoor vaudeville show, and a baseball diamond. In the midst of this discouraging

prospect, they experienced

what could be described as a

“glorious outpouring”

of the

Holy Spirit.

The weather remained warm and

dry

for the balance of the crusade. H.E.

Alford, the

supporting

Dallas

pastor,

was ecstatic over the results.

Among

those who were

baptized

in the

Spirit

were a prominent Dallas

attorney,

a Baptist

minister,

and a Jewish brother.

Although the

evangelists

had a

special

interest in “the

negroes,”

a

“Strong racial

feeling

would not

permit

the

mingling

of colored

people

in this,

a white folks’

meeting.” Consequently

a special service was arranged

for

them,

to which the whites

begged

to be admitted also. The result was a meeting attended

by approximately 3,000 people. Yet,

“”Care was taken that each side should

keep

on its own side of the line.”

Though

the

Argues

were

keenly

aware of local

prejudices, they prayed

for the black believers until the last one had been helped, though

it took until late the

following morning.

It was a fitting.conclusion

to the

great

Dallas crusades

The next

stop

on their

itinerary

was

Alton, Illinois,

where the Argues

were so successful in their ministries and so

warmly welcomed

by the

saints that

they

made Alton their “second home.” Their

publications, thereafter,

listed both

Winnipeg

and Alton as . their

headquarter

cities. Both

daily newspapers gave

excellent publicity

to the Alton

meetings, including

front

page coverage

of the revival’s

progress.

Zelma collected a number of

eye-witness accounts of the work of God and testimonies to

healing.?6

For the remainder of

1922,

the

Argue Evangelistic

Team held campaigns

in Granite

City, Tacoma,

and

Minneapolis.

The latter meetings

ended on Christmas

Eve,

in the midst of a severe cold snap,

but numbers were

saved,

and

twenty-five

were

“baptized

in the

Spirit.”

After a rest in

Winnipeg, they

set out for

Fresno, stopping

in Los

Angeles

to share in a service with Aimee

Semple McPherson in her new,

Angelus Temple.

In

Fresno,

A.H. was especially

effective in

convincing many

of the “biblical” nature of baptism

in the

Spirit,

and over

eighty enjoyed

the

experience.

Although

a series of meetings had been

planned

for

California,

a call from Alton led them to retrace their

steps

to minister at the opening

service of the new

Gospel

Tabernacle erected

by

the Pentecostals in the heart of that

city.

The new church seated

1,000 people,

but was crowded out with over 1,200 in attendance and some 300-400 were unable to

gain

admission. Fifteen were con-

‘

23

143

verted the first

night,

and

many

others followed in the

meetings each

night.

The services were remarkable for the number of families that were

brought

to

Christ,

for the number of

extraordinary healings

that took

place,

and for the unusual

spirit

of conviction that

gripped

the

impenitent. Many

cried out in their seats for mercy,

knelt on the

floor,

and found Christ as Savior.

Many

were baptized

in the

Holy Spirit

and more than two hundred

gave

their names as converts

by

the time the crusade ended.

At this

point

in his

career,

A.H. was over

fifty years

of

age,

but was as active and

energetic

in his

pulpit

as ever. As historian Gordon Atter has

noted, early

Pentecostal

preachers

were

judged both for the content of their sermons and for the

vitality

of their deliveries. In his

opinion,

A.H.

Argue

was

preeminent among Canadian

evangelists

in the

vigor

and

energy

of his sermon

style.77 ‘

An Argue publication, The Revival

Broadcast,

of 1923-24 has on its cover three characteristic

poses

of the

evangelist.

All of them suggest

a human

dynamo

in action. Gordon Atter recalls an occasion in the 1920’s when A.H. was home in Winnipeg for a rest. He was

present

in a service in which a well-known

preacher

was abysmally failing

to

keep

the attention of the

people.

As Atter

put it,

“A. H. was invited to speak, and in 30 minutes had a crowd at the altar

In

1923, meetings

were held

by

the

evangelist

and his

daughter, Zelma,

in

Denver, Colorado,

and in Byesville, Ohio. The

highlight of the

summer, however,

was the

campaign

in

Binghamton,

New York. The

report by

Pastor John Kellner was

published

in the Canadian Pentecostal

Testimony,

which at that time was issued monthly by the PAOC from its London,

Ontario

headquarters.

As Kellner

noted,

the

“Argue Campaign

in Binghamton” was remark- able for the number of

outstanding

miracles of

healing

that took place.’9

A former

Congressman

from Delaware

publicly

declared his conversion at that time, while a prominent professional man in Binghamton

became

deeply

convicted over his ownership of liquor worth some

$12,000.

He testified that if he broke the bottles he would lose his money, but if he sold the stuff he would lose his soul. His decision was to smash the bottles. There were

many

such accounts,

but Divine

Healing

was the chief characteristic of the meetings.

Those who were

healed,

in all cases, were identified in the published

accounts. A prominent graduate of the Boston Conser- vatory

of Music was healed of an

open

wound in her side. Three children from one

family,

two of whom were deaf and dumb and the other

paralyzed,

were all healed after

prayer.

A woman

crippled with infantile

paralysis

was able to move her

limbs,

and another woman,

unable to walk for

years,

after several

prayers by

the

‘ . ;

‘

.

.

‘

‘

.

,

‘

24

144

poisoning,

tuberculosis,

goiter,

together

in

Kitchener, Spirit.

Ontario,

messages leader,

1930’s. A large

_

sang,

the

Spirit

and even to climb stairs

and

evangelists,

was able to walk

around,

unaided. Other claims to healings included

healing

of tumors, brass

crossed

eyes,

liver

disease,

swollen tonsils, eye problems, rheumatism,

a deformed foot. Most of these accounts were

personally

examined and verified as genuine

by Dr.

Mary Snowe,

a Chicago

specialist

who vouched for the truth of these

claims, according

to Kellner’s

report.

In the months and

years

that

followed,

numerous

campaigns were conducted

by the intrepid evangelists, though

the “team” was

less often. Watson and Zelma had their own individual meetings,

and Zelma for a time teamed

up

with her

younger

sister Beulah.

Early

in

1932, however,

Zelma and A. H. shared in services

in which about

forty

were

baptized

in the

A

healing

service each

Thursday evening

resulted in some definite

healings

and

large

crowds

gathered

to hear

Argue’s

on

prophecy.

Zelma assisted as trombonist and

song

and the

Pastor,

William L. Draffin, wrote that

delegations that had come from other communities to attend the

meetings “carried the revival fires back with them” and since that time

many more had been filled with the

Spirit

in his Church.8°

Zelma

reported

“a

heavenly

visitation” when the

Argue

team ministered at the Ebenezer

Camp Meeting

near

Buffalo,

N.Y. in the

number had received the

baptism

in the

Spirit,

and on the

closing night,

as an anointed

layman played

his

guitar

and

of the Lord came

upon

the

congregation.

“Wave after wave of glory” swept the

people

and more

healings

took

place

that remarkable event. Others were saved and still more were

baptized

in the

Spirit

and

spoke

in

tongues.81

When the famous Braeside

Camp Meeting,

at Paris, Ontario, was begun

in

1935,

A. H. was invited to be the first

evangelist.

Pioneer Canadian Pentecostal J.H. Blair had

purchased

the

camp grounds the

year

before and was anxious that “Braeside”

get

off to the best possible

start. A. H. was assisted, as usual,

by Zelma,

while the Bible Teacher was Asa Miller of

Kalamazoo,

advertising

the

meetings

were described in the

following

manner:

during

and brochures I I th,

the

Argue’s

Evangelists

Daughter

Internationally

Michigan.

In

pamphlets from

July

28th to

August

A. H.

Argue and

Zelma Known Preachers

25

145

Rev.

Argue

is one of the pioneers of our

Movement,

with messages

that are soul stirring, his soul being ablaze with a prophetic message

to a dying world. He is ably assisted

by his daughter Zelma.82.

‘

‘

When Andrew

Harvey Argue preached

at Braeside, he came with a well-earned

reputation

as one of the foremost

evangelists

in North America. He was in his late

sixties,

and

beginning

to manifest the results of three decades of intense,

unsparing

and

self-denying ministry.

Zelma’s admiration for her father is understandable,

given

her natural

respect

for him and her

opportunities

to witness his effectiveness as an

evangelist;

nonetheless she was no

sycophant, and her

pen portraits

of the

“grand

old man” have been validated

by other observers. In her comments

upon

his

personal approach

to the awesome

responsibilities

of the

evangelist,

she wrote that:

The pattern for all his ministry was to first wait much upon

God in confident faith and

expectation,

then declare the

Word and believe God then to act. Out of much

with God in the

wrestling

secret

places,

came the

unpredictable

works of God in the public services.83

Walter E. McAlister met A.H. while just a youth attending the

Argue Mission,

but a half-century later he wrote:

I can still remember how I sat in the services and looked

upon

the shining face of this man of God … He seemed to

me that he was the most

saintly

man that I had ever seen.

His face reflected the glory of God.84

McAlister and Atter both remember the

priority

which A. H.

gave to the altar service.

During

the

1940’s,

A.H.

Argue

continued a fruitful

personal ministry

of

encouragement,

but he could not

longer engage

in an evangelistic ministry.

In fact, the

evangelist

became ill at that

time, no doubt the result of his enormous

outlay

of

energy

for several decades,

and was forced to retire: At the

age

of 79 he had a

leg amputated,

and the other at the

age

of 83. Thus the last fourteen years

of his life were

spent

in a wheelchair. For a time he lived with his

daughter

Beulah and her

husband,

the Reverend

Campbell

B. Smith,

and the last

period,

before his death on January

24, 1959,

he spent

with his daughter,

Eva,

and her husband Fulton

Robinson,

in Winnipeg.

He was then in his 91st

year,

but his wise real estate investment decisions of the

past provided

him with an income sufficient for his needs until his death.

Despite

these limitations on his

physical

activities and his confinement to his

home,

A.H. continued to exercise a great influence on the next

generation

of Canadian Pentecostals. As Beulah

recalled,

he spent his whole time

,

.

.

–

‘

26

146

in

reading

the Bible and

praying,

and often he would talk in tongues. Religious

broadcasts on the radio and his keen interest in worldwide

events,

which he considered to be fulfillments of prophecy, kept

him alert and involved. He was much in prayer for the next

group

of Pentecostal leaders and

greatly encouraged many young

men who came to him for advice and

help. He urged

them to aim at holiness of life and to exercise what he called “Active Faith” in the Lord. One of his most

frequently

used

phrases

with which he challenged young

ministers was “Be

Strong

in the Faith.”85 Zelma reported

a similar

emphasis by

the

evangelist:

On certain

challenges my father stood unwavering.

One

was ‘Have

your

faith backed

up by action!’-that is, have

.

an active faith. In

praying

for the

sick,

he

strongly

emphasized,

with unction, active scriptures such as `Stretch

forth thine

hand!’, ‘Lay

hands on the sick and

they

shall

recover’.86

Having

had this

emphasis throughout

his own

long

and successful career as pastor and

evangelist,

A.H.

Argue prayed fervently, right up

to the time of his

death, for its continuation by the next

generation

of Pentecostal believers.

V.

Argue’s

Contribution to

Historiography

A.H.

Argue’s

contribution to the establishment of North American Pentecostalism is difficult to

assess,

not because it was inconsequential

but because it was so extensive and so effective. He was a pioneering Pentecostal

pastor, publisher, author, evangelist, and denominational

organizer.

His

integrity

as a businessman and a clergyman was unblemished. All who knew

him

were aware of the quality

of his

spiritual

life. His doctrinal

stability

was a great asset to the

fledgling

Movement in both Canada and the United States. As an evangelist, his chief themes were so remarkably confirmed

by divine

healings

as to make then

universally acceptable.

A natural consequence

of this was the elevation of those

evangelistic

themes to the status of official Pentecostal doctrine. Of course, A.H. did not

by

his sole efforts achieve this

result,

but he was one of a select number of people whose ministries led directly to the establishment of numerous Pentecostal

denominations, (e.g.,

A.G.

Ward, William

Seymour,

W.H.

Durham,

Ellen

Hebden,

Aimee

Semple McPherson,

G.B.

Cashwell, C.H. Mason,

E.N. Bell and Howard Goss).

The first

major

contribution which

Argue

made towards that end came with his

founding

of the first Pentecostal work in Western Canada. When he

opened up

his home in

early

1907 for

“tarrying

27

147

‘

meetings”

he

began

what would

eventually emerge

as the

largest Pentecostal

congregation

in the Dominion. There are now

nearly

a dozen similar churches in the Manitoba

capitol.

The

only

other pioneer assembly

to rival A. H.’s

“Apostolic

Faith Mission” for its impact

and outreach was the Hebden Mission in Toronto, and that assembly gradually

faded into

obscurity. By contrast,

the

Winnipeg group expanded

both in numbers and influence under the leader- ship

of

Argue.

Even at an.

early date,

some of the “Pentecostal Conventions” which A. H. organized each autumn in Winnipeg had over

8,000 people

in attendance. No other Canadian Latter Rain assembly

could boast of such a response to its

message.

And the Argue ministry

attracted

people

from all social

levels, including some of the most

respectable

of Winnipeg society-doctors,

college professors, prominent businessmen,

and

clergymen.

From the

beginning,

the

Winnipeg assembly

was a missionary- minded

one, and

a relatively large number of workers went from it to overseas fields. Miss Mariam

Vey was sent out to China as early as 1908. The Reverend John Reid and Martha

Hisey

of Winnipeg were

among

a

group

of Pentecostal missionaries who landed in Liberia in 1908. The African

country

was known then as “the white man’s

grave,”

and it took its toll on most of that first

group

of soul-winners. Reid died within a year and others were forced home by

serious illnesses, but Miss

Hisey,

with an American

co-worker, opened

a mission

station,

in the

interior,

at

Gropaka.

In

1913,

the mission stations in Liberia

experienced

a revival of

religion

that continued until 1916. Among the converts were a Chief and a Witch Doctor and the

practice

of witchcraft was

largely

ended in the region.

This was

accomplished

in an area not

yet brought

under the control of the central

government

in Monrovia.

After her

furlough,

Martha

Hisey

returned in 1915 with several assistants, among

them Ethel

Bingeman

of

Winnipeg. Bingeman was an R.N. who both nursed and

taught

in Liberia until illness forced her return to Canada. After her recovery, she became the national

secretary

of the Pentecostal Women’s

Missionary

Council for 10 years,

then,

as the wife of Robert

Jamieson,

she went to the West Indies for further

missionary

labor.

In

1919, Sophie Nygaard

went to Liberia where she served the Lord for

nearly

40

years.

Christina McLeod and Paul Anderson were two other workers who went overseas from the

Argue

Mission at a very

early

date. But no details of their ministries can be found in the extant sources. J. Rutherford

Spence

of

Winnipeg,

is another who,

in

1919,

went to work for

many years,

in China.8?

According to a very early

source,

several missionaries went from the Manitoba capitol

to

Mongolia,

but information on them is limited to a

.

.

‘

28

148

.

reference in The Promise

( 1 9 1 0), a journal published by the Hebden Mission in Toronto. Mrs. Hebden noted in the article that five Pentecostal workers had

gone

to

Mongolia,

three from Toronto “and two from Brother

Argue’s

Mission in

Winnipeg.”88

It is possible

that the two unidentified missionaries were Christina McLeod and Mr. Anderson.

,

.

Though

A. H.

Argue’s ministry

was primarily evangelistic, he had a concept of his work which included the

foreign

mission field as well as North America. His first

publication

was

designed

for distribution in Egypt, and

copies

of his later

magazines

were

widely distributed around the world. At one

time,

he had

correspondence from over 40 countries

concerning

the Pentecostal

awakening,

and his articles reveal information on the worldwide

growth

of the “Latter Rain” Movement.

The

publications

written

by Argue

also

played

an important role in spreading news of the Latter Rain to multitudes in Canada and the United

States,

and were the means of

bringing

numerous

lay people

and

preachers

into the movement. R.E. McAlister

reported the

experience

of a man in

London, Ontario,

who was healed of cancer after reading a tract A. H. had written titled, “Jesus the

Great Physician.” Though given up by

doctors to

die,

the man was delivered

through

faith in Christ.89 Another

Argue tract,

this one on the

subject

of baptism in the

Spirit,

led John McAlister to seek and

experience

it for himself, and it resulted in his

entering

the Pentecostal

ministry.

The

Argue publications

and the

Argue

Mission made

Winnipeg the focal

point

for the Latter Rain Movement in Western Canada. After John McAlister’s

baptism

in the

Spirit,

he spent a short time in

Winnipeg,

then he

began

a Pentecostal mission in

Edmonton, Alberta. Two men from northern Saskatchewan visited the little mission hall, and asked the

pastor

to hold

meetings

at Emmaville. John

agreed, began services,

and then left his

young

son Walter in charge.

From this

youthful

worker’s

ministry

came a local revival of religion, and a lifetime of fruitful labors. Walter had received the baptism

in the

Holy Spirit

as a boy, while in the

Argue Mission,

and years

later was ordained to the

ministry by

A.H.90

The

spread

of

early

Pentecostalism to the Indian Reserves of northern Manitoba has been recounted

already.

Roland was one of the first towns in that

province

to be affected

by

the new

doctrine, where it was introduced

through

one of the

Argue

sisters who had been married in the town. A rural church was established in the St. Marks district of Manitoba through the

preaching

of A.H. around 1909. From this

congregation

came two

pastors

for the

movement, David A.

Taylor

and W.J.

Taylor,

who would become a

Super-

29

149

intendent for the Manitoba District of the PAOC. Pentecost

reached Altamont

through

the

ministry

of Violet

Graham,

who

went to

Winnipeg

for

employment

and

subsequently

attended the

Argue

Mission. A local church was established in the town

by

1913.

By 1918,

Pentecostal believers were to be found in Fairford,

Myler,

Dauphin

and Gilbert Plains in

Manitoba,

and workers had

begun

to evangelize scattered communities in Saskatchewan,

Alberta,

and

British Columbia.91

It was to be expected that A. H. would have a profound influence

on the first Pentecostal

workers, especially

in Western Canada. His

friend and

colleague

in the Holiness

Movement,

A.G.

Ward,

was

involved in the

Winnipeg meetings

and for a time served as the

pastor

of

Calvary Temple.

R.E. McAlister was

imported

from the

East to

preach

in the

Argue Mission,

and C.O. Benham served as

A.H.’s assistant before he took

up pastoral

duties in Western

Canada. His influence over John McAlister and his son Walter has

been described

already.

A ministerial student of the

Presbyterian

Church,

Thomas T. Latto, attended

Argue’s meetings

in Winnipeg,

accepted

the Pentecostal

doctrine,

and

subsequently

was

obliged

to

leave that denomination. It was he who

began meetings

in Gilbert

Plains, through

which came Ian

Presley,

another Pentecostal cleric.

Indeed,

the number of missionaries and

preachers

who owe their conversion and

Spirit baptism

to the ministries of workers who were touched

by

the life of A. H.

Argue

is legion. What

might

be called the “second

generation”

of Canadian Pentecostals was powerfully impacted by

the

Winnipeg pioneer’s ministry, including his own

children,

three of whom became

preachers

and

evangelists. Another was his

.

nephew

Robert

Argue,

a pastor and Bible school principal,

and

many

of the students who attended the Bible school in

Winnipeg,

such as Gordon F. Atter.

The Bible school was founded

by J. Eustace Purdie in 1925,

and used the facilities of

Calvary Temple

for its classrooms. R.E. McAlister and G.A.

Chambers,

both of whom were friends of A.H. requested

the Reverend

Purdie,

a Spirit-baptized Anglican, to set up

the school. A. H. was a supporter of Bible schools

though

he had only

a sixth

grade

formal education. His

daughter

Beulah entered the first class of 1925 in the

Winnipeg

institution and Watson attended a similar school in

Newark,

New

Jersey.

No

doubt, principal

Purdie

got

much

encouragement

from

A.H.,

for the evangelist

made his home

‘ in Winnipeg

and

frequently

ministered in Calvary Temple.

It is

likely

that he also had a considerable influence on D.N. Buntain,

a Methodist cleric, who took a charge in

Winnipeg

and then

investigated

the claims of the Pentecostals.

Buntain joined

the

‘

,

.

‘

.

,

.

.

30

150

new

group, pastored

the local Pentecostal

congregation,

and in 1926, by

General Conference

vote,

was made first

Superintendent of the Manitoba District.

When,

in

1928,

Manitoban Pentecostals set

up

their own

organization, independent of,

but

cooperating with,

the national PAOC

headquarters

in

Ontario,

some of the Argue

clan were

present

for the vote.

A. H. showed a keen interest in such

organizational procedures, including

those that led to the establishment of the Assemblies of God in 1914 and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada in 1919. He remained the

evangelist par excellence, however,

and never became an ecclesiastical administrator. He valued the benefits that a religious organization

could confer on a fledgling movement such as his

own,

but as his

daughter

Beulah

put it,

he “remained an evangelist

to the end.

“92 Contrary

to the

practices

of some itinerant evangelists

of the

time,

A.H. did not

castigate

the

developing Pentecostal

denominations

as evidence of a decline in

early twentieth-century pentecostal spirituality.

To the end of his

long life,

he

prayed fervently

for the

younger

leaders of those

organ- izations and

recognized

that

they

would have to deal with

problems that were unknown to him and his

pioneering colleagues.

His support

of the denomination is seen

by his willingness

to

attend,

in his 90th

year,

the 1958 Pentecostal World Conference in Toronto. That

meeting,

attended

by

some

6,000

Pentecostal leaders from around the

world,

must have thrilled the heart of the old veteran whose vision from the first had been for a

global

charismatic

‘

awakening.

One further area of

inquiry

into the life and

ministry

of A.H. Argue remains,

the doctrinal distinctives that

figured

most

prominently in his

preaching

and

writing.

Divine

Healing

was one doctrine that emerged early

in his

preaching.

A.H. was

personally acquainted with A.B.

Simpson

and

Mary Woodworth-Etter,

two of the best- known

exponents

of that distinctive. Dr.

Simpson

had

given

much prominence

to

healing

at the turn of the

century, especially

in Winnipeg,

where he

spent

much time in local

pulpits

and in conventions.

Through Simpson’s prayers,

while at

Winnipeg,

A. H. was healed of a chronic illness.

Subsequently,

the doctrine was featured in his

writings

and

preaching,

and his

long ministry included innumerable claims to

supernatural healings.

He

pro- claimed

by

tract and sermon “Jesus the Great

Physician”

and he declared that “There is no doubt the

Scriptures

teach Jesus has made

provision

for

Healing

for our Bodies.93

During

his sojourn in California,

A.H. ministered with Mrs. Woodworth-Etter in campaigns in which

extraordinary

miracles of

healing

took

place.

It is not surprising, then,

that the doctrine of Divine

Healing

should

figure

_

.

31

151

so largely in his sermons,

tracts,

and articles.

Regretably,

few of his sermons survive. “Jesus the Great

Physician”

was one

message which he seems to have

preached

often. A selection of statements from this sermon indicates the nature of A. H.’s

presen-tation

of the doctrine. He

stated,

in part:

To secure

healing,

we see how necessary it is to diligently

hearken to the voice of the Lord

God, and to do that which

is right in His sight;

All

through

the

Scripture,

both in

prophecy

and

types,

healing

for the body is connected with healing for the soul;

The great atonement not

only covers all our sins, but also

‘

our sicknesses. Even in olden

times,

an atonement was

made for sickness

_ ‘

(Nu. 16:41-48);

‘

.

..

‘

One obstacle that often hinders the sick from

being

healed is the lack of active faith.

Many

have a passive faith that does not

oppose healing,

but does not act as

the Lord to heal

though they expect them;

There are some who do not know that there is a difference

between miracles and

healings,

and often when

they

are

” .

prayed

for and an instantaneous miracle is not performed,

‘

they

cease

trusting

and

begin at once to doubt God,

even

when the source of the trouble

may really

be smitten;

.

God often uses some humble servant of His to

even today

bring

the

good

news that Jesus heals the sick;

Note different

Scriptural ways

of

praying

for the sick:

Direct

prayer

of faith, United

prayer

of faith,

Anointing

with oil, They shall

lay hands on the sick;

God

truly

has placed gifts of healing in the church.94

These statements were

amplified

in the sermon with numerous examples, exhortations,

and biblical

quotations

to make the evangelist’s point

that “James has made

provision

for

healing

our bodies.”

A second of A.H.’s characteristic themes was

naturally

evident in his

sermons,

for he had

experienced

conversion to Christ and had become a Methodist exhorter

(lay preacher)

some time before his Pentecostal

baptism.

Thus the

necessity

for a “Born

again” experience

was a cardinal doctrine, and one which evoked little criticism, except

from some in the more traditional denominations. More

objections

had arisen to the Latter Rain

teachings

on supernatural healings,

but where these

proved

to be genuine, as was the case with A.H.’s

ministry,

those who

objected

made little headway.

In any

case, evangelical preaching

on Divine

Healing

and the New Birth were

fairly

well-known in the last

quarter

of the

.

‘

.

‘

‘

‘

.

‘

.

.

‘

‘

32

152

nineteenth

century.

The

emphasis upon

the

Baptism

in the

Holy Spirit

with the evidence of

speaking

in

tongues,

and a

prophetic emphasis upon

the Second

Coming

of Christ,

brought considerably more resistance in the

early

twentieth

century.

The truth of a third

theme,

the Second

Coming,

was a

present reality

to the first

generation

of Latter Rain saints. Numerous references to the

teaching may

be found in

Seymour’s Apostolic Faith,

and in other

early publications.

One of the common phenomena

of the new Movement was the

repeated

occurrence of messages (by tongues

and

interpretation,

or by the

gift

of prophecy) of the nearness of Christ’s Return. This theme was one of the most prominent

in the

Winnipeg evangelist’s repertoire

of sermons. Like so

many early

Pentecostal

believers,

A.H. saw the twentieth- century

Latter Rain Movement as a fulfillment of

prophetic scripture.

In one

published article,

titled

“Closing

Scenes of Prophecy,” he

wrote:

This

generation

has witnessed an almost unbelievable

fulfillment of the

end-of-the-age prophecies.

It is evident

that the coming of the Lord is near, and that this world is

facing

a time of trouble such as was not since the

beginning.

Other facts he adduced in

support

of his views were these: the

‘

closing

of the Gentile

Age;

Daniel’s

1335-day Sign;

the

Airplane

in prophecy;

the Automobile in

Prophecy; Capital

and Labor

(in conflict);

Radio and

Television;

False Christs in the Last

Days;

the Atom and

Hydrogen Bombs;

and Russia in Prophecy.96 His zeal for some 50 years of ministry, three decades of which were in itinerant evangelism,

was motivated

by the fact that he expected

the

Rapture of the Church at

any

moment.

His

daughters

Beulah and Eva recall that A.H. felt so

strongly persuaded

of this

teaching

that he often said the Lord could come within his own

lifetime,

and

perhaps

even within the next five years.9′

Next to his

Bible,

A. H. held an edition of Michael

Paget

Baxter’s Forty Prophetic

Wonders as his favorite book. This volume, eschatological

in nature and first

published

in the nineteenth century,

was based on alleged predictions in Daniel and Revelation. Baxter

suggested

that the Second Advent

might

occur in

1929,

or 1931.

According

to his

grandson

the Reverend Robert Smith of London, Ontario,

the

copy

which A. H. had in his

possession was, “his constant

companion.” “Rarely,”

stated Smith did he see “Grandfather

Argue without

his Bible and his manual on prophecy.

“98 Even

though

the Baxter

prediction

of the

Rapture

in 1929 or 1931 1 went

unfulfilled,

this

proved

to be no

problem

for

A.H.,

for he was

33

153

able to utilize the author’s data and

insights,

and to reject the

setting of dates. In his own

long ministry,

A.H. refused to name a specific date for Christ’s

Return,

but

always

lived and worked as if it were imminent.

The fourth and final doctrine which was cardinal to the evangelist’s theology was, inevitably, given

his

personal

Pente- costal

experience,

the

baptism

in the

Spirit,

with the evidence of tongues speaking.

The

emphasis

he

gave

to this

teaching

was so great

that it was said

by

his

contemporaries

and

admirers,

such as G.A.

Chamber,

Gordon F. Atter and Walter E. McAlister, that “no matter where A.H.

Argue began

in the

Bible,

he always finished

up in Acts 2:4.”This was easily

accomplished,

for he was

not,

in Atter’s estimation,

an

evangelist

with

strong expository skills,

but rather an

evangelist

of charismatic

qualities

and anointed

delivery.99

From the start of his

ministry

with home

prayer meetings

in Winnipeg, Argue

insisted

dogmatically upon

the absolute

necessity of a baptism in the

Spirit,

evidenced

by tongues,

for all born

again believers,

and most

especially,

for those called to a public ministry. This

emphasis

on

Spirit baptism

with

tongues speaking

as its evidence was the distinctive doctrine of

early

Pentecostals. The other three

emphases

described above were

acceptable

to a considerable

segment

of the

evangelical

world at the turn of the century.

The

promotion

of the Latter Rain distinctive

by

men like Argue

and others

was,

as Bloch-Hoell has

noted,

a biblicism based on an

unrelenting

fundamentalism.

100

Argue

and his

colleagues rejected

all

charges

that

they

were introducing

new doctrines to the

body

of Christian

divinity, rather, they

claimed

merely

to have recovered the lost

apostolic

doctrine of the

baptism

in the

Holy Spirit.

In this

proclamation,

A.H.

Argue

of Winnipeg

was

preeminent among

his

brethren,

and

justly

deserves the accolade

given

him

by

the Canadian Pentecostal historian Gordon Atter.

A.H.,

he

noted,

was

probably

the

greatest

Pente- costal

evangelist produced by

Canada.

_

In one final

respect,

A.H.

Argue’s

life is worthy of further

study. His

ministry

in

Winnipeg

and

throughout

North America has amply

called into

question

the thesis advanced

by

Robert

Mapes Anderson in his

book,

Vision

of

the

Disinherited,

that Pente- costalism is merely a small

part

of a long-term

protest against

the urban-industrial-capitalist society

of the

early

twentieth

century.

It was the exclusion of some elements of society from the benefits of industrialization that caused social

disequilibrium

and the cultural despair

in which

early

Pentecostalism flourished.101 Without engaging

in

any

extensive rebuttal of Anderson’s

views,

I would suggest

that the evidence adduced from the life and

ministry

of

.

.

.

‘

.

34

154

A.H. Argue is demonstrative of the universal

appeal

of the new Movement to all Social Classes. It is

noteworthy

that A.H. was already

a successful businessman and

prominent

citizen when he came into the Movement.

Among

his earliest converts were Dr. A. Baker,

a winner of the coveted Governor-General’s medal for

Modern

Languages

and

History

and a Ph.D. instructor for

years

in St. John’s

Anglican College, Winnipeg.

Another was Archdeacon Phair of the

Anglican

Church. Others included

prominent Winnipeggers such as Dr. Howard

Geddes, Captain

Stokes and several

leading community

businessmen.

By the 1920’s,

the Pentecostal ranks were

enlarged by such men as Dr. H.C. Sweet,

the Reverend J.E.

Purdie, a

Wycliffe College [Toronto] graduate,

and

Anglican clergyman; D.N.

Buntain,

a graduate of Wesley Methodist

Theological College in

Winnipeg;

and the Reverend T.T.

Latto,

a

Presbyterian

cleric. Many

other well-educated individuals were available at that

period for

employment

in the

Winnipeg

Bible school. 102 Nor should we overlook the wide

range

of A. H.’s

acquaintances among

the first group

of

pioneer

Pentecostal clerics.

Many

of them were not college-trained men,

but were far

superior

to their

colleagues

in attainments and status. John

McAlister,

for

example,

was a prosperous

harness-maker when A. H.’s

ministry brought

him into the Movement. A.G. Ward had been trained

by both the

Methodists and the Christian and

Missionary

Alliance

groups prior

to his involvement with Pentecostalism in

Winnipeg.

These individuals were enlisted in the Latter Rain Movement

primarily through

the ministry

of A.H.

Argue.

If one were to broaden the list to include influential

pioneers

elsewhere in

Canada,

it would be a

long

one indeed. Suffice it to say here that

pioneer

Pentecostalism cannot be attributed

merely

to social

discontent,

cultural

despair,

or industri- alization. Its

origins

are to be sought,

instead,

in what A.H.

Argue called “a

spirit

of revival all over the land. 103

.

*Thomas William Miller has

recently

moved from Canada to the United States where he chairs the Biblical Studies

Department

of the

Jimmy Swaggart

Bible

College

in Baton

Rouge,

Louisiana.

‘Thomas Wm. Miller,

Taped

Interview with Gordon F.

Atter, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, April 30,

1984. Resources for this

study include, but are not limited to,

original

materials located in the Archives of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada in Toronto, sermons, articles, and evangelistic reports printed

in the Pentecostal

Testimony,

a series of personal

interviews conducted

by the author,

various local church and District histories, and Zelma

Argue’s

What Meaneth This? (Winnipeg: privately published, 1923), reprinted

in a

slightly

revised version as

35

155

‘

Contending for

the Faith

(Winnipeg:

The

Messenger

of God

Publishing House, 1928).

2Zelma Argue, What Meaneth

This?, 10.

3C.M.

Ward,

“Yet Once More,” Pentecostal

Testimony (May, 1956),

4-5, 13.

40ne

example

was the aid he provided to Mrs. Laura B. Crouch and her “Woman’s Home.” In a report written

by Mrs. Crouch, acknowledgement is made of the fact that from 1904 to 1923, the “Woman’s Home”

occupied a three-story

building

obtained from A. H. on a rent free basis. She suggests that his contribution amounted to over $20,000, and that 3,000 women and girls

had been rescued from “white slavery,” hundreds had been converted, and a large number had entered the Lord’s work. She described him “as true a friend … to the work among the friendless as the loving Lord could have brought into our lives.” Zelma

Argue,

What Meaneth This?” 10. 5For a brief biographical sketch of Bishop King, see the article

by David Alexander in this volume.

6 What Meaneth This? 14-16.

7Zelma

Argue,

“Memories of

Fifty

Years

Ago,”

Pentecostal

Evangel

(April 22, 1956), 6-7, 29.

8W.J.

Taylor, History

of the First 50 Years of the Manitoba & N.W. Ontario

District,

1927-1977. Mimeographed. No date.

9 The Apostolic Faith 1:9 (June-September,

1907), 1. The first

thirteen issues of The Apostolic Faith have been

Fred reprinted

in Fred T. Corum, ed. Like As

Of Fire (Wilmington,

Mass.: T. Corum,

1981).

10KIaude Kendrick, The Promise

Fulfilled : A History of

the

Modern Pentecostal Movement

(Springfield,

MO:

Gospel Publishing House,

1959), 176.

11 The Apostolic Faith 1 :8 (May, 1907, 1-2.

12Thomas Wm. Miller, “The Canadian ‘Azusa’: The Hebden Mission in

Toronto,”

Pneuma 8: I (Spring,

1986), 5-29.

‘

‘3 The Promise 15 (March,

1910), 2.

14The Apostolic Faith 1:6 (February-March,

1907), 1-2.

‘5A. H. Argue, “Azusa Street Revival Reaches

Winnipeg,”

Pentecostal

Testimony (May, 1956), 9.

‘

16Frank Ewart, The Phenomenon

of Pentecost (1947, Hazelwood,

MO:

Word Aflame

Press, 1975), 97.

17Robert A.

Larden,

Our Apostolic

Heritage (Calgary: Kyle Printing,

1971), 36. 18

What Meaneth

This?, 10.

19See above, note 15.

20The Apostolic Faith 1:9 (June-September,

1907), 1.

‘

2’Thomas Wm.

Miller,

Interview with H.H.

Barber, pastor

of Calvary Temple

and a keen student of local Pentecostal

history,

1984.

22Stanley

M.

Horton,

“Twentieth

Century

Acts of the

Holy Spirit,” Pentecostal

Evangel (October 21, 1962), 19.

23Larden,

Our Apostolic

Heritage,

36.

24″The Canadian

‘Azusa’,”

20-22.

25Cf. The Apostolic

Faith,

1:6 (February-March,

1907), 7;

1:8 (May, 1907), 1;

1:12 (January,

1908), 4.

36

156

26Thomas Wm.

Miller, Taped

Interview with Walter E.

McAlister, Agincourt, Ontario, May 3,

1984.

27Stanley

H.

Frodsham,

With

Signs Following:

The

Story of

the Pentecostal Revival in the Twentieth

Century, (Springfield,

MO:

Gospel Publishing House,

rev. ed.,

1946) 56-57.

28For a full account of this tour see “Italians and Indians Receive the

Holy 29 Ghost,”

The Apostolic Faith 2:13 [sic.] (May, 1908), 4.

What Meaneth This?, 27-28.

3oJeremiah Rundle, a Cree, gave his testimony which was also included in

31 What Meaneth

This?, 27-28.

32 What Meaneth

This?, 12.

33 What Meaneth

This?, 17.

What Meaneth

This?, 27.

34W.E. McAlister, “A.H.

Argue With The Lord,”

Pentecosta.l

Testimony, (March, 1959), 7,

3?

15, 26.

What Meaneth

This?, 27-28.

36 The Apostolic

Faith,

2:13 [sic.] (May,

1908), 1.

37A.H.

Argue,

Memoirs. Handwritten MSS

copy,

PAOC

Archives, dated

February 21,

1954.

38See above, note 15.

Memoirs.

4°Elmer J. 39Argue, Cantelon, Harvester

of the North,

Toronto:

PAOC,

1969. 4’Paul

Hawkes, compiler, .Songs of

the

Reaper:

The

Story of

the Pentecostal Assemblies

of Canada

in Saskatchewan.

(Saskatoon: PAOC, Sask.

District, 1985), 140.

4zGloria G.

Kulbeck,

What God Hath

Wrought:

A

History of

the Pentecostal Assemblies

of Canada (Toronto: PAOC, 1958), I 14. See also Gordon F. Atter, The Third Force,

(Peterborough,

Ontario

College Press, 1970) 3rd cd. rev., 69.

43The work of Mrs. Woodworth-Etter has

recently

been assessed in Wayne

E. Warner, The Woman

Evangelist:

The

Life

and Times

of Charismatic Woman

Evangelist

Maria B. Woodworth-Etter

(Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow

Press, Inc., 1986).

Her older

autobiographical

works include Acts

of the Holy

Ghost or

Life, and Experience of

Mrs. M. B. Woodworth- Etter, (Dallis:

John F.

Worley Printing Co.,

no

date),

and Signs

and Wonders God

Wrought

in the

Ministry for Forty Years, (Indianapolis,

Ind.: Mrs. M.B.Woodworth-Etter,

1916).

44Zelma

Argue,

“This Is

My Dad,”

TEAM

—

(AG

Men’s

Fellowship magazine)

3:3 (July-September,

1956), 3-6.

45Argue,

Memoirs.

4Ethel E. Goss, The Winds of God: The Story

of the Early

Pentecostal Days (1901-1914)

in the Life of Howard A. Goss (New York: Comet Press, 1958),

167-168.

47Brumback, Suddenly,

156-157.

48William W. Menzies, Anointed To Serve: the Story of the Assemblies of God, (Springfield,

MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1971), 106ff. 49WalterJ.

Hollenweger,

The Pentecostals: The Charismatic Movement in the Churches, trans. R.A. Wilson,

(Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1971) 32 and 43, n. 21.

.

37

157

SO Miller, Taped

Interview with Gordon F. Atter,

April 30,

1984. 3’Miller, Taped Interview

with Gordon F. Atter,

April 30,

1984. 52Miller, Taped Interview

with Walter E. McAlister,

May 3, 1984. S3 Larden, 32-33, 50, 86-87.

s4Gordon Franklin,

Taped

Interview with J. Eustace Purdie, over a period of

several

days,

1973. Used by permission.

55A brief account

of

this

meeting,

written

by A.H. Argue, appears

in Aimee

Semple

McPherson This Is That: Personal

Experiences, Sermons, and

Writings (1919,

rev.

1921,

Los

Angeles:

Echo Park

Evangelistic Association, Inc.,

rev.

1923), 195.

56Argue, Memoirs; Kulbeck,

What God Hath

Wrought, 120; Zelma Argue, Contending,

50.

5’Miller,

“The Canadian ‘Azusa’,” 5-29.

‘

58Miller, Taped

Interview with Gordon F. Atter,

April 30, 1984.

59Miller, Taped

Interview with Walter E. McAlister,

May 3,

1984.

–

6oMiller, Taped

Interview with Gordon F. Atter,

April 30, 1984.

6?Larden,

Our Apostolic Heritage, 90.

62Miller, Taped

Interview with Walter E. McAlister,

May 3,

1984.

63Zelma Argue, What Meaneth This?, 30.

64Zelma Argue, What Meaneth This?, 31.

6sZelma Argue, What Meaneth This?, 32.

‘

6′

66Argue,

Memoirs.

What Meaneth This?, 36. 68

39-40.

69

What Meaneth This?,

70 What Meaneth

This?, 40-41. ..

What Meaneth This?, 41. 71

What Meaneth This?, 42.

‘ ‘

72 What Meaneth

This?, 60. 73

What Meaneth This? 43.

” .

74

75 What Meaneth

This?, 52.

What Meaneth

This?, 51.

‘6 What Meaneth This?, 51-52.

“Miller, Taped

Interview with Gordon F. Atter,

April 30,

1984.

78Miller, Taped

Interview with Gordon F. Atter,

April 30,

1984.

79″Argues Campaign

in Binghamton,” Canadian Pentecostal

Testimony (October, 1923), n.p.

BoW.L. Draffin, “Kitchener, Ontario,” Pentecostal

Testimony, (April, 1932),

12..

81″This Is My Dad,” 3-6.

82″Braeside’s Year of Jubilee, 1935-1985,”Souvenir Booklet,

(Burlington: Western Ontario District, PAOC, 1985).

83Zelma Argue

(with

A.H.

Argue)

“More Than Half a

Century

of Pentecostal

Grace

and Glory,” Pentecostal

Testimony (October, 1958), 8, 36.

84″A. H . Argue with the Lord,” 7, 15, 26.

85Miller, Taped

Interview with Beulah

Argue

and Eva Robinson,

July 29, 1984.

86″This Is My Dad,” 3-6.

_ ‘

,

‘

38

158

B?Kulbeck, 146, 231-233, 318; see also “A Brief History, Outlining

the Early Days

of the Pentecostal Movement in the

City

of

Winnipeg,” Booklet.

(Winnipeg: Calvary Temple,

n.d. [1955?]).

88E. Hebden, “Good News,” The Promise 15 (March, 1910), 2.

89A.H. Argue, “Jesus The Great

Physician,”

The Revival

Broadcast,

I (Midwinter, 1923-1924), n.p.

9oSee Note 30 above.

Miller, Taped

Interview with Walter E. McAlister, May 3,

1984.

9’See above, note 9.

92Miller, Taped

Interview with Beulah

Argue

and Eva Robinson,

July 29,

1984.

93See above, note 90.

94A.H.

Argue,

“Jesus The Great

Physician,”

Pentecostal

Testimony (August, 1957), 5, 28.

9sA.H.

Argue, “Closing

Scenes in

Prophecy,”

Pentecostal

Testimony, (October, 1955), 7,

26.

96Argue, “Closing Scenes,” 7, 26.

97Miller, Taped

Interview with Beulah

Argue

and Eva Robinson,

July 29, 1984.

98Thomas Wm. Miller, Interview with Reverend Robert Smith of London, Ontario, 1983. The Argue

“manual” was

by M. Baxter, Forty Future Wonders: Predicted in Daniel and Revelation. (London,

England: author, 1 1 th ed., 1903).

99Miller, Taped

Interview with Gordon F. Atter,

April 30,

1984.

10ONils Bloch-Hoell, The Pentecostal Movement: Its Origin, Development and Distinctive Character.

(New York:

Humanities

Press, 1964); see also, A.H.

Argue,

“The

Baptism

of the

Holy Ghost,”

Pentecostal

Testimony, (April, 1931 ), 8-10,

16.

101 Roberts Mapes Anderson, Vision ofthe Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).

“”Kulbeck. 52-56.

I03A.H. Argue, Memoirs..

.

39