09. SoulSaving Service

SOUL-SAVING SERVICE At last the Great War was over. Oh, what a blessing! I had been four years and three months in the army, most of that time having been spent in France and Belgium. Only those who endured something of the burden of the strain and anxiety of those four terrible years can appreciate what a relief it was when the Armistice was signed in November, 1918. I had to wait four more months, however, before I was demobilized in March, 1919, and finally returned to England. Then I was free once again. The question I now had to face was: “Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do?” I had a great desire to engage in some form of soul-saving service for the Lord and I was quite willing to go anywhere the Lord directed me, home or foreign fields. My way was soon made plain. My situation had been reserved for me, and the providential leadings of the Lord indicated that it was His will for me to resume my normal occupation in a London office. The Lord soon opened a door of service for me. I was invited by my Christian friend “Bible Reader” (see Chapter III), who had just taken charge of the work in a little Congregational mission hall in a West Kent village, to come and live in the neighborhood and help in the work. After much prayer and waiting on the Lord I accepted this invitation. In this way the Lord indicated the locality in which I should live and serve Him. My friend “Bible Reader” kindly sought out a comfortable home for me in the neighborhood. This was certainly a providential leading of the Lord; for I, being in the way, the Lord led me to the very spot where I found my future wife For in due course I married the daughter of he good Lady of the house where I stayed.

VILLAGE MISSION WORK When I commenced in this little sphere of service for the Lord, He gave me this blessed promise, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” That promise was given me in 1919. Praise the Lord, how wonderfully He has fulfilled that promise and kept the door of testimony and service open for me ever since, in spite of all sorts of difficulties, oppositions, and trials! After I had been helping in the work for about eighteen months in this little mission hall, another sphere of service opened for me. I was invited by a Baptist church to take charge of the work at a mission hall in another village about two-and-a-half miles away from my home. I duly accepted this invitation and continued to serve the Lord in village mission work for nearly thirteen years. This mission hall was a very well-built little hall situated in a needy spot and accommodated about seventy or eight persons seated. I love these little mission halls, and practically all of my Christian service has been in these humble places. During the thirteen years at this particular mission hall I had the normal experience of Sunday-school work, visitation work, conducting gospel meetings, prayer meetings, and Bible study circles.

Serving the Lord in this way helped to keep me fit physically, as it meant walking or cycling in all weathers two- and-a-half miles each way to the hall every time I visited the people or held meetings. The Lord blessed me in the work by giving me the wholehearted co- operation of my wife and faithful and loving Christian co-workers, with whom I enjoyed happy fellowship and we worked in harmony. Of course, no Christian worker could remain thirteen years in one little mission hall without having a variety of experiences! I had times of great joys and keen sorrows, encouragements and bitter disappointments; sometimes rejoicing in good numbers and times of blessing, at others plodding on week after week with just a faithful few; continuing in the midst of good report and evil report — but through it all, sustained by the Holy Ghost. I have ever been thankful that the Lord preserved my life throughout the Great War and permitted me to have the privilege of serving Him in this unostentatious manner in a little mission hall by ministering to a few humble village folk. I am glad to say that during the last four years that I was responsible for the work at this mission special evangelistic efforts were held each autumn and the Lord gave blessing on each occasion and souls were saved. A HOLINESS AWAKENING In 1932, after my thirteen years’ service in village mission work, the Lord blessed me richly in my inner life by reviving in power the truths concerning entire sanctification and the fullness of the Spirit. The truths which had been made such a blessing to me sixteen years previously were now revived in a wonderful manner by the Spirit of God, and a fresh tide of spiritual blessing flowed into my life. It was “a latter rain” in my spiritual experience. One of the most blessed ways of experiencing a revival of the power of truth is to stand quietly aside and watch the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of Christians in one’s own circle, bringing them into deeper spiritual blessing by applying the same truths of full salvation which have been made such a glorious reality in one’s own experience. This was the way he Lord worked in my own little Christian circle, and it brought a breath of revival into my heart. It was remarkable, too, that this special blessing took place in the autumn of 1932 and thus corresponded with the first great revival in my soul which took place in 1916, also in the autumn. In 1932 there seemed to be a specific movement of the Spirit in each of the months of September, October, and November. 1. THE SEPTEMBER, 1932, AWAKENING The commencement of this movement of blessing in my soul was due, in the first instance, to the Lord stirring up and blessing my two Christian friends, “Bible Reader” and “Bible Teacher.” In the first part of September I stayed for a holiday at a seaside resort where my friend “Bible Teacher” resided. I had an interesting experience on this holiday. I had the joy of assisting in baptizing five believers in the open sea, one of them being my friend himself. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon as a little company of believers gathered on he seashore with an interested company of spectators looking on. I was deputed to assist the chief baptizer, who was an elderly brother. There was a good breeze lowing at the time, and when the elder brother and I stepped into the waves I had to hold him to prevent him from falling. Smilingly, he said, “Just see that I don’t fall over, brother.” My friend was the first to be baptized. He was very keen that all the believers should be thoroughly and scripturally immersed. “Dip them right under,” he exclaimed to me. So, in making sure that the believers were “dipped right under,” watching that my co-baptizer did not fall over, and maintaining my own balance, I had a few thrilling moments. However, the baptisms were carried through all in order and we concluded with a bright open-air service on the beach On this holiday the thoughts of my friend and I were engrossed not only on the question of water baptism but also on the baptism of the Spirit. My friend, who had been a preacher for several years, was deeply stirred I on this subject because an elderly friend of his had received such a blessed experience of the filling of the Spirit and his spiritual life had been so enriched that he was convinced that there was a deep reality in the teaching and experience of a second work of grace. He felt that there was a specific fullness of blessing to be sought and entered into by believers. Several other believers belonging to this company of Christians were also exercised, and prayer meetings were held at 7:00 a.m. on Sundays to wait on the Lord for the fullness of the Spirit. My friend had known about the doctrine of the Spirit, but he now felt that this was utterly insufficient. “What we need to know,” he said to me, “is the fulfillment in our lives of that wonderful prayer of Paul in Ephesians 3:21.” I was delighted to see the way the Lord had worked to bring deeper blessing into my friend’s spiritual experience. My own heart was stirred afresh, and we both had happy fellowship together in seeking to know more fully the meaning of the full blessing of Pentecost. The very first Sunday after my return from this holiday, I saw an awakening for holiness in another soul. I conducted a service on the Sunday evening at a village mission hall and spoke on holiness. At the close, a young Sunday-school teacher who seemed deeply exercised about the matter stayed behind to speak to me, and I had a blessed season of prayer with him. Soon after my return from holiday I met my other friend, “Bible Reader.” He had just returned from a holiday at Newquay. It was remarkable, but he too had been specially blessed afresh by the truths of full salvation. “This is a book you will like to read,” he said, handing me a book which had been given him by a member of the Pentecostal League of Prayer, whom he had met while on holiday. The book was entitled Sanctification, by Mr. Paget Wilkes, of the Japan Evangelistic Band. I read it and it stirred me up still further. It was the clearest message I had read for a long time on the theme of deliverance and cleansing from sin. This book seemed to reawaken and revive in my soul the joy which I had first felt sixteen years before through the truths of entire sanctification My friend had also been greatly blessed by reading some of Brengle’s books on holiness and he passed these on to me also. I also read for the first time most of the Swanwick addresses and other publications of the Japan Evangelistic Band. The Lord blessed these writings greatly to my soul and they brought a breath of revival into my heart. 2. OCTOBER, 1932, AWAKENING In October, a week’s special meetings were held at the village mission hall by Mr. T. B. Rees, the well-known evangelist, and the week before we had prayer meetings every evening. As I had been fired afresh by the truth, of entire sanctification, I specially emphasized this truth among the believers. The Lord set His seal to the testimony. In the atmosphere of a week’s prayer meetings it was easy to emphasize holiness, and during this week I had the joy of seeing a definite movement of the Spirit among the Christians of the mission. I had previously given Sanctification, by Mr. Paget Wilkes, to one of the workers. This book was made a blessing to him, as it had been to me. In his case, the Lord used it to help him into the clear experience of sanctification by faith. During the week of prayer he testified somewhat as follows: “I knew about sanctification in my head but now praise the Lord, I’ve got the blessing in my heart. While I was reading that book, Sanctification, I began thinking about those words ‘Justified by Blood’ and ‘Sanctified by Blood.’ I thought to myself, I have taken the first by faith. Why not the second also? The Blood justifies and also sanctifies. So I believed in the Blood for sanctification and a great rest came into my heart. I know that something has gone from my heart and that Christ is now truly within.” The next night another Christian testified and thanked the Lord for the blessing of sanctification. She had been led into liberty and joy by faith in the passages in Exodus 14:1-31 : “The Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever,” and, “Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.” I had lent another Christian The Baptism of the Spirit, by Dr. Asa Mahan. She testified that the reading of this book had deeply stirred her and she had been in much prayer about it. “I did not feel that I could rest until I had got this great blessing from God,” she said. When she returned the book to me she said, “There, Mr. Brockett, you can have it now, as I feel that God has given me a great blessing in my soul.” And while the Holy Spirit was at work among my dear fellow Christians, He was specially blessing me in my own soul also. It was just at this time that the Holy Spirit gave me such a fresh and blessed revelation of the power of the cleansing blood of Christ that I could not restrain tears of holy joy and I, too, felt impelled to testify to this blessing of the Spirit. (I give particulars of this blessing in the next chapter.) Oh, how wonderfully blessed are the revelations which the Holy Spirit can make to believers when they are walking together in unity and not grieving Him! Oh, how utterly dry and barren spiritual truths are when He withdraws His illumination, unction, and holy fire from our hearts because of sin, unbelief, or any other cause which grieves the Holy Spirit, the only One who can lead us into the truth! 3. THE NOVEMBER, 1932, AWAKENING The next month we had a return visit to the mission for a week’s special meetings of an evangelist who had been used of God to the conversion of several souls during a fortnight’s mission about a year before. He visited my home several times and, as my heart was all on fire with the blessing we had been experiencing, I had some long talks with him about entire sanctification by faith and gave him holiness literature. It was a delight to have fellowship with him. He was very open-minded and free from prejudice, very far removed from the type of Christian who insists that he “got it all at conversion” and opposes any teaching about a second work of grace The Holy Spirit began to work with him also, and the truths of entire sanctification were applied with fresh and convincing power to his heart. A very clear indication that the Spirit of God had been at work was seen one evening during one of his addresses on sanctification. He was speaking to a company who had come to know him and hold him in affectionate regard, especially as he had been the means of the conversion of several present. Yet he was not ashamed to confess openly before all the people that God had spoken afresh to his soul that week. He testified that he had come to see, in a new light, the need of heart cleansing and the “crucifixion of the ‘I,”’ as he expressed it, and that he had, only that very week, a definite transaction with God on the matter. Here surely was true humility of heart and a triumph of God’s grace. Thus, in this spontaneous testimony of our evangelist friend we could see a continuation of the work of the Spirit in our midst which had commenced the previous month. The Lord had set His seal of approval in an unmistakable manner to the testimony of the truth of entire sanctification which had already been such a blessing to others of our little company. I am glad to be able to say that the deepening of spiritual blessing in my evangelist friend’s spiritual life was not a transient affair. Three years afterwards he wrote to me as follows: — “I have just returned from, where I have had a happy time speaking on the power of the Blood, heart circumcision, etc. Several were blessed, praise the Lord.” Again, in another letter: — “God came in wonderfully. I stressed the power of the Blood…At the close of the meetings the whole assembly bore witness to the blessing received.

Everywhere there is a hungering for a ministry that preaches power through faith in the Blood.” It will be seen that my story is not about crowded meetings and sweeping revival blessing. I rejoice to hear of such times of great blessing; but the Lord called me to serve Him for twelve years in an obscure little mission hall with quite a small company, and we must not despise “the day of small things.” In relating how the Lord graciously gave a breath of revival to a few souls, I trust that this account may encourage all who have to plod on patiently week after week in the Lord’s service with perhaps only a small company. Praise the Lord, the Spirit of Pentecost is still present in the Church, ready to sanctify wholly all believers, whether at crowded conventions, or the ones and twos at a humble little village mission hall.

CONTACT WITH HOLINESS MOVEMENTS This revival of blessing in my own soul which commenced in the autumn of 1932 was maintained by the Spirit, and the way the Lord worked was to bring me by providential leadings into contact with Christians connected with holiness movements. For twelve or thirteen years I had been fully occupied with Christian service in he villages in my immediate neighborhood. But from 1932 onwards I was brought afresh into touch with Christians who emphasize the distinctive blessing of entire sanctification by faith. About three years before, there had been a “breath of revival” on holiness lines in another village about three miles away, and a little company of Christians connected with the International Holiness Mission had launched out and commenced a gospel testimony in a disused army hut. I attended some of the week-night meetings, and my faith was greatly strengthened and refreshed through fellowship with the Christians there who testified to the enjoyment of the fullness of blessing. At Easter I attended the Holiness Convention of the International Holiness Mission at Battersea. I was greatly helped by the ministry of Dr. H. E. Jessop, then on a visit from America, and it was a spiritual tonic to me to see the stalwarts whom I had met fifteen years before still standing firm for holiness and rejoicing in the experience of full salvation. In the summer of 1934 my wife, son, and I went to Newquay for our holiday and the Lord brought us into contact with some warmhearted, “out and out” Christians connected with the Pentecostal League of Prayer, including the genial general secretary and his wife. What a blessing is a holiday when God is honored in it! Through fellowship with League members on that holiday, I returned wonderfully refreshed and strengthened in spirit, soul, and body.

I have kept in touch with the League ever since and it has been a great help to me I spiritually, especially the writings of the late Mr. Reader Harris, K.C., and Mr. Oswald Chambers. Thus from 1932 onward the Lord specially blessed my soul by bringing me into happy fellowship with Christians who had a clear experience of the blessing of sanctification by faith, and my spiritual life was greatly enriched thereby.