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Pastor John Roach Straton hastened to write out a 5,000-word apologia pro sua vita. There was no Pentecostalism rife in Calvary Bapist Church; the woman of Lindbergh Monday was a victim of the general Manhattan hysteria or was ill; the five deacons were fractious and had better have resigned; they were "making a grandstand play for publicity." He concluded: "In closing I wish to say that I was duly elected as the engineer of this Gospel train here at Calvary Baptist Church. And throughout the ten years of my leadership the overwhelming majority of the officers and the rank and file of our membership have stood lovingly, loyally and enthusiastically with me in helping me do for Jesus Christ the best job of which I am capable.... As the main engineer I will say that my hand is once more firmly on the throttle, and despite the latest explosion and other puny efforts to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery, or to put goose grease on the track, the old train, thank God, is still making the grade."
Later, and in a more quiet mood, Pastor Straton found the opportunity to say: "... While Warren [his son] was praying, the power of God came over him just as it did over Paul and struck him down in the dust, as it came in ancient times over whole companies of men. I am not ashamed of it, nor is my son ashamed of it.... I am not a publicity hound.... I have been fighting unrighteousness since I came down to New York, and I have been doing it in a corner. What I would rather do than anything else in the world is this: I would like to go to some small village with my good family and a dog, where I could have my friends about me, and have a chance for godly living, to preach to them on God's day, bury their dead, baptize their children and comfort their sorrows. But that may not be. I must forego my plans for a rest and enter God's battle immediately."