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  WRITINGS OF AARON HILLS
  by Aaron Hills
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A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by Aaron Hills,
compiled for study and devotional reading.

  Chapters: 52

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 01.00. Pentecost Rejected
    2. 01.01.     Pentecost Rejected; And Its Effect On The Churches
    3. 01.02.      Denial of the Heart-cleansing Work of the Holy
    4. 01.03.     What this Pentecostal Blessing is which People are Rejecting, and How It May Be Obtained
    5. 01.04.     Pentecost Received Results in Walking with God and Separation from the World
    6. 02.00. Secret of Spiritual Power
    7. 02.00c.     Contents
    8. 02.01.     What Christ Said About Holiness
    9. 02.02.     What Paul Said About Holiness, part 1
   10. 02.03. What Paul Said About Holiness, part 2
   11. 02.04.     What Paul Said About Holiness, part 3
   12. 02.05.     What Paul Said About Holiness, part 4
   13. 02.06.     What Peter Said About Holiness
   14. 02.07.     What James and John Said About Holiness
   15. 02.08.     What Holiness Is
   16. 02.09.     It Brings Power
   17. 02.10.     Holiness Rejected Makes Strange Bedfellows
   18. 02.11.     Holiness Rejected Produces a Worldly and
   19. 02.12.     Holiness Rejected Produces a Godless Chris
   20. 02.13.     The Heavenly Vision
   21. 03.00. Uttermost Salvation
   22. 03.00c.     Table of Contents
   23. 03.00i.     Introduction
   24. 03.01.     The Uttermost Salvation
   25. 03.02.     Holy Like God
   26. 03.03.     Cleansing From All Sin
   27. 03.04.     How To Obtain The Blessing Of Sanctification
   28. 03.05.     Pledge Of Faith
   29. 03.06.     Any Man's Lawyer
   30. 03.07.     The Sin-principle Condemned To Death
   31. 03.08.     Death Or Glory, Which?
   32. 03.09.     The Promise Of The Father
   33. 03.10.     Moral Insanity
   34. 03.11.     Things That Accompany Salvation
   35. 03.12.     Receiving The Holy Ghost
   36. 03.13.     A Man Of God Unsanctified
   37. 03.14.     The Will Of God
   38. 03.15.     The Reason For Our Hope
   39. 03.16.     Sanctified Wholly
   40. 03.17.     Sanctified By Faith
   41. 03.18.     Finished Sin
   42. 03.19.     A Two-fold Disease And A Double Cure
   43. 03.20.     God's Keeping
   44. S. A Savor of Life Unto Life, Or of Death Unto Death
   45. S. Dying To Live
   46. S. Mocking At Sin
   47. S. Not Ashamed of the Gospel
   48. S. Resisting the Holy Ghost
   49. S. The Cleansing Baptism
   50. S. The Personal Element of Religion
   51. S. The Second Blessing in Experience
   52. S. What is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him?

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  CHAPTER 1: 01.00. PENTECOST REJECTED
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Pentecost Rejected Dedication By Aaron Hills To the watchmen on the towers of
Zion who are troubled by the spiritual dearth of Israel; and to the seeking
souls who are hungering and thirsting for God, and are eager to obtain all that
Jesus has purchased for them with His blood, not yet knowing how great is their
heritage in Christ, -- this book is lovingly and prayerfully dedicated, by The
Author.

PREFACE

Weary with multiplied college labors, and having just completed the biography,
"A Hero of Faith and Prayer," I read last May an article in one of our popular
magazines, "The World’s Work," giving a table that shows, from the published
statistics of the leading Protestant denominations in America, that there is a
lamentable dearth in Zion, and that a spiritual decline is creeping like a
paralysis upon the Churches. That table I reproduce in the first chapter, with
comments made by denominational leaders. It aroused my inmost soul like an
alarm-bell in the night. The Spirit of God instantly moved me to write a book
pointing out to the pastors and editors and denominational leaders the seat of
the difficulty, the nature of the disease that is preying upon the vitals of the
Church of Christ. Oftentimes these leaders are reached through the people, who
get the mind of God first. The real cause of our leanness is: "The Neglect of
Pentecost." The followers of Christ have ceased all too generally to repair to
the sacred chamber and seek with importuning prayer for the Baptism with the
Holy Ghost. The holiness which that baptism would impart is largely wanting in
Christian experience; and therefore the enduement of power is so generally
withheld from our Churches. The result is this awful dearth in Zion, and the
consequent famine of souls. To correct the evil by pointing to the inexhaustible
fountain of grace, and leading back to the "Pentecost Neglected," this book has
been written, with the hope that God will use it to His glory.

Texas Holiness University, Greenville, Texas,

August 12, 1902


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  CHAPTER 2: 01.01.     PENTECOST REJECTED; AND ITS EFFECT ON THE CHURCHES
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1. Pentecost Rejected; And Its Effect On The Churches By Aaron Hills So long as
the early Christian Church frequented the Pentecostal chamber, her career was
one of unbroken triumphs. While her leaders were sanctified, and her preachers
spoke their gospel messages with the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven, the march of her progress was steady and irresistible; nothing could
stay her triumphant course. While the early Christians were taught to look
forward to a second sanctifying work of grace by the baptism with the Holy
Spirit as the normal Christian experience, their zeal was unflagging; their life
was pure; their courage was perfect. The cross and the sword could not make them
halt, the dungeons were bowers of bliss, and the roar of the hungry lions in the
amphitheater was like a bugle-call to glory and honor and immortality. The
Church, while it repeated and renewed its Pentecosts, was full of an
irresistible energy, and moved to conquest against the powers of darkness, "fair
as the moon, glorious as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners."

It was not until the Pentecostal chamber was forsaken, and its experiences
discounted, and the leaders of the Church began to trust to the natural rather
than the supernatural, and substituted oratory, and scholarship, and genius, and
Pagan pomp, and governmental friendship for the baptism with the Holy Spirit and
the Enduement of Power, that the Church fell.

History repeats itself. As Pentecost was rejected then, so it is being rejected
today. Not very long ago the denominations were so widely separated that one of
them might possess a great truth, and the leaders and earnest workers of the
other never hear of it. It is not so much so today. Great truths overleap
denominational bounds, and spread everywhere. Once the Methodists were almost
alone in their advocacy of the great truth of holiness or sanctification as the
privilege of all believers, a second work of grace subsequent to regeneration, a
heart-cleansing wrought by the baptism with the Holy Ghost. John Wesley declared
that this was the great truth which the Methodist Church was chiefly raised up
to propagate. But this truth has crossed the bounds of that denomination now,
and finds its advocates in nearly every great Church in the land. The list of
the writers and authors in the various Churches is really too long to give.
Hence it has come about that very much light on the subject of holiness has shot
through the darkness everywhere, and the leaders of the denominations, and the
more intelligent and widely read, know not a little about this great truth of
sanctification.

Moreover, holiness bands and holiness campmeetings are becoming so numerous as
to be at everybody’s door. A goodly number of well-edited holiness papers and
magazines also are now being published and well circulated everywhere. Thus a
very considerable fraction of Christian people, it they do not have clear and
accurate views of the Pentecostal blessing, at least do know that holiness,
sanctification, that something discussed so much in the Bible, has also many
advocates, and teachers, and witnesses among living men. A subject which God so
strenuously pushes to the front in His Revelation challenges attention. God has
honored the preaching of the Pentecostal blessing, the gospel of full salvation,
with such displays of power, such demonstrations of the Holy Spirit, that all
thoughtful people have rational grounds for believing that there is something in
this holiness movement besides gush, hypocrisy, and fanaticism. The doctrine of
a possible deliverance from sin through the baptism with the Spirit has earned
respectful attention rather than contemptuous rejection. Light has come; and its
reception in many quarters and by many minds has been scarcely more hospitable
than that which was given to Him who was the Light of the world. The Man of
Calvary "came to His own, and His own received Him not:" likewise His
representative, the Holy Spirit, has come to His own, the Church of our day,
offering Pentecostal blessing and power; and He in turn is being frequently and
widely rejected. Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do." But, in the case of not a few today, they do know what they do. They
are intelligently, knowingly, coolly, consciously, deliberately rejecting the
Holy Spirit’s Pentecost. The mighty Finney once said something like this: "There
was a time when ministers were not enlightened on some great evils of the day,
and God used them, notwithstanding their neglect of some great moral reforms;
but now light has come, and duty is plain, and God will not greatly use those
who refuse to walk in the light and do their duty. Show me, if you can, one
minister who neglects the temperance reform, and then is blessed with revivals!"
I believe, if Finney were with us today, and were preaching with the old-time
fidelity and power, he would say in the same spirit: There was a time when
ministers did not know that it was their privilege to receive the baptism with
the Spirit in sanctifying power; but now light has come, and God will not
greatly use and bless with revivals those who refuse to investigate and walk in
the light and seek their Pentecost. Show me a minister who has knowingly
rejected this blessing to whom God is giving many souls! The sad signs of the
times in the religious sky are unmistakable. Hon. H. K. Carroll, the Government
statistician, says: "It is evident from the statistics that all the Churches are
passing through a period of unusual dullness. As a whole, they are making
progress but very slowly. In finances they are thriving with the country; but
the results of religious work are discouraging."

Earnest Christians ought to hide their faces in shame, when an able and friendly
secular magazine, "The World’s Work," begins a grave article as follows in this
May, 1902: "We often hear that the day of the Christian Church is fast waning,
and that it will cease to exist save as a relic of the past; and during the past
two or three years, in representative gatherings of the leading Christian
denominations, the questions of waning interest and declining strength have been
discussed in all seriousness and sadness over and over again. From all parts of
the country, and from other countries, too, come reports of empty pews, a
decrease of Sunday School scholars, depleted treasuries, and a waning of
religious enthusiasm."

Another magazine headed an article last year as follows: "The times spiritually
are in a twist, and knotted -- gotten so by the tremendous force of secularized
religion and false philosophy. No wonder that the world for which Christ died is
perishing; no wonder that it is hard, perhaps was never so hard before, for any
one to ’stand fast in the faith delivered once for all to the saints.’ Instead
of bravely, but lovingly and with emphasis, proclaiming those "life and death"
truths, "Sin and Salvation," which are, in the last analysis, the only essential
and fundamental factors in preaching, the American pulpit, in many important
centers of population and influence, is seemingly content to deal out to
soul-hungry men and women, as sermons, stale but adroit decoctions of unfaith
and misfaith in the integrity of the Old Book, mixed with moral platitudes, and
glossed with conservatism, which is but another name for compromising surrender
of the gospel verities, counterfeiting the truth for popularity and pay." The
bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church have a wide and comprehensive outlook,
and continually hold their fingers on the pulse of Church-life. They say: "The
gulf between capital and labor threatens the Church on both sides, from that of
the rich and that of the poor. The submerged tenth has been allowed to pass out
to other agencies, the Church seeming to have gotten above its business. The
Church has suffered on its borders from the thin speculations and vagaries of
Christian Science. The powerful campmeetings of the olden time have
substantially passed away, and the home has been demoralized by light literature
and the amusement craze. The heart-searching that once prepared the way for the
great work of revival is often avoided as the fanaticism of a past age, and
revivals themselves often ridiculed as the ephemeral phenomena of shallow
natures. In some sections criticism is extended to everything sacred, until the
children are robbed of their respect for the Church, and the Church robbed of
their presence. Higher criticism attacks the Bible itself, denying its
supernatural character and Divine authority. While this higher criticism is
limited to a few centers, yet its influence is filtered down through much of our
literature, taking the authority out of the teaching and the power out of the
preaching. The Bible loses its Divine authority; sin loses its fatal sting; the
law loses its sanction; and God’s government is reduced to a few rules
concerning aesthetics. These are among the principal symptoms indicating the
famine that enervates our Zion. We are retreating when we should advance at
double-quick to keep abreast of the rushing events of our time.

"We have one dire disease -- Spiritual famine -- lack of the witness of the
Spirit, lack of personal experience, lack of spiritual power; and the symptoms
are many and various, but the disease is one ... The moral and spiritual forces,
necessary for the building of great and Christlike characters have been
sidetracked by the dominant forces of worldliness and selfishness." (The
Pentecost Century, September, 1901) In my reading I have come across the
following statements, which, I presume, are correct, and which sadly corroborate
the testimony of the bishops. In 1897, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
there was only one convert to ninety-four members; in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, North, but one to one hundred and thirty-one. In 1898, I have read (I
hope it is a mistake) that the Methodist Episcopal Churches, North and South,
with an aggregate of four million members, sustained an aggregate loss of eight
thousand members; and that, in 1899, the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, lost
twenty-one thousand, nine hundred and four members. Another authority says there
was an actual loss of nearly four thousand. It seems incredible, and does not
quite tally with other figures yet to be given. But all statements are sad and
alarming. For instance, a paper of last week, (May 22, 1902,) informs us that
the eleven thousand preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for the
last four years have not averaged annually one convert apiece. It almost makes
one’s heart stop beating to think that ministers, who are the spiritual
descendants of Wesley, Coke, Asbury, McKendree, and those fathers of Methodism
who swept over the land like cyclones of Holy Spirit power, are now reduced to
such appalling barrenness. But the Methodists are by no means alone in this
trouble. Dr. Burrows, of the Regular Baptist Church, South, says: "The year 1899
has not been noted for any great increase in membership of the Churches." Dr.
Dunning, speaking for the Congregational Church, says: "The denomination is
making little progress temporarily, and even in some respects is retrograding."
"This denomination fell from a gain of nineteen thousand in 1895 to less than
two thousand in 1900. Never in its history has there been such a falling off as
has occurred since 1894." Dr. Beard, in an address a year ago, said of the
Congregational Year-Book for 1900: "There is not a cheerful page in it. In it we
learn that through the efforts of six hundred and thirty thousand members, with
a cash outlay of $7,000,000 for home expenses, there was received during the
twelve months a net addition of only 1,640. In Massachusetts, with a membership
of one hundred and thirteen thousand, and a cash outlay for home expenses of
$1,630,000, there was during that year an actual loss of five hundred and
eighty-eight members. At the National Council lately held in Portland, Me.,
there was reported a net loss for the triennial period of thirty-two thousand
one hundred and three members in the Christian Endeavor Societies."

Dr. Roberts says: The progress of the Presbyterian Church is not so rapid as in
former years. The real reason appears to be the lack of spiritual vigor in all
the Christian denominations."

All denominations, both those that are esteemed liberal and those also that are
rigidly orthodox, except those that are re-enforced by immigration, show a
steady and alarming decline in the rate of increase, as the following table
shows:

Think of those twenty-one branches of the Christian Church, comprising the bulk
and power of the Protestantism of the United States, having their net gain
decrease from nine hundred and five thousand in 1895 to two hundred and
thirty-seven thousand in 1900! What could be more humiliating or more sad? It is
enough to cause mourning in earth and heaven, and to wake up a jubilee in hell!
And the saddest of it all is, that this is a needless barrenness! Human hearts
are just what they have always been, estranged from God and filled with
carnality and sin, no better and no worse than the human hearts of other times.
The Gospel of Christ is not outlawed, or antiquated, or obsolete. It is still
the power of God, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and can prick to
conviction the sinner’s innermost soul. The blessed "Third Person of the
Trinity," the ever-adorable Holy Spirit, is not dead. He can still cleanse the
believer’s heart in the Pentecostal Chamber, and endue with a supernatural power
the ambassador of Christ, and make his message quick and powerful to break the
flinty heart of the foe of God. The resources of prayer are not exhausted, and
heaven is as accessible as even God still waits to hear and answer the
supplications of His people. He still longs to listen to a ten days’ united
supplication of His people that He may open the windows of heaven and pour out
another Pentecost. No Church needs to hang its harps upon the willows and mourn
over the desolations of Zion; for God can still cause His Word to accomplish
that which He pleases, and send the early and the latter rain, and cause the
desert to blossom as a fertile field, and become the Garden of the Lord. No
minister needs to go without sheaves in the Lord’s great harvest-field; for the
promise still holds: "He that goeth forth with weeping, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him:" "Ye shall
reap in due season if ye faint not."

People are pouring like a Niagara-tide through the gates of sin and death into
an awful hell. God has set His heart upon turning that stream of life
heavenward.

Any child of God who will faithfully fall in with God’s wishes and plans and
conditions of success will become a winner of souls. I solemnly declare again,
to the honor of the old Gospel and the glory of the Holy Ghost, all this
barrenness is utterly needless. The young men who study theology under me are
taught to win souls, and to measure their success by their soul-winning. They
are also taught to seek the enduement of power as the most essential condition
of success in the ministry. They are trained in sermon-making with that end in
view. They are taught to expect success; and they have it. Several students that
studied under me one and two years ago have, during the last twelve months, led
more than a hundred souls each to God. One of my last year’s pupils has had a
thousand saved or sanctified since he left the school. One of this year’s pupils
had to leave us two months ago on account of straitness of funds, and he has
since seen one hundred and fifteen people come to the altar and bow to God in
his meetings. None of these students of whom I have written had education enough
to enter our freshmen class in college; yet they have a success in winning men
that nine-tenths of the nobly-educated Doctors of Divinity might covet. One of
our students has seen more people converted during his three summer vacations
than many ministers have in a lifetime. While I am writing these lines we are in
the closing week of the third year of our Texas Holiness University. Since the
commencement of our last school year, September 24, 1901, two hundred and
ninety-four people have knelt at our altar and prayed their way to God; and
since the college opened its doors, less than three years ago, four hundred and
sixty-five souls have thus found God in our college services. In the face of
such facts, and multitudes of similar ones that I might give, is it too much to
say that barrenness on the part of the ministry and the Churches is wholly
unnecessary? The truth is, the theological professors and those who are
responsible for the training of the ministry, and the men high up in
ecclesiastical power in our denominations, are, almost without exception,
magnifying the natural and ignoring the supernatural. They are making a great
deal of talent and education and oratory, and in equal measure they are
discounting the importance of the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

I know I lay myself liable to criticism by these remarks. A reviewer once
reviewed my book, "Holiness and Power," and said that, in the last chapter, I
raised an unfortunate conflict between the filling of the Spirit and education,
and created a prejudice against the latter. It was an uncalled-for and wholly
unfair criticism. My whole life brands it as unjust. I am in the business of
giving to young people all the education I can induce them to acquire. I urge a
classical education on the young men fitting for the ministry. I spent seven
years behind college and university walls myself, and I am a true friend and a
hearty advocate of higher education. I will not be misunderstood on this point.
But, after thirty years of experience and observation, I declare frankly, if I
had to choose between all that the best university can give without the baptism
with the Spirit, and an education through the freshman year of an ordinary
college with the baptism with the Spirit, I should unhesitatingly choose the
latter. The Spirit-filling and the enduement of power from on high will be worth
infinitely more for ministerial success than the final six years of college
training. If our theological professors and the men at the head of our
denominational enterprises would all learn this, and exemplify it, the Churches
would be saved from the disgrace of perennial barrenness.

Well does Joseph Parker, the great preacher of London, say: "Culture can not
take the place of spirituality. I would make the Lord’s house glad with every
expression of love; but this done, I would write on the doorposts, on the roof,
and on every panel the words of Jesus, ’In this place is One greater than the
temple.’ I prefer knowledge to ignorance, but I PREFER HOLINESS TO EITHER.
Culture, when not a chattering and fussy prig, may be right noble and even
majestic; but nothing is so cold as culture, and nothing so mean, when not
inflamed and impassioned by the Spirit of Christ. Today the pulpit is in danger
of being killed by miscalled culture. Men think that, because they have been to
college five years, they ought to be preachers, which is as logical as to say
that a man who has driven an omnibus five years ought to be able to take a ship
across the Atlantic. The Lord continually dashes these culture-pots to pieces
like a potter’s vessel, by making preachers of His own, but clothing them with
mysterious but most beneficent power." The greatest soul-winning preachers of
the century just closed were not college-bred; yet in the face of this fact, so
astonishing and so striking, our theological schools go on turning out dainty,
self-sufficient "CULTURE-POTS," and calling them preachers! If this ghastly
farce goes on much longer, conversions will almost wholly cease, and the honor
of the Church -- the Bride of Christ -- will go down in the dust of humiliating
defeat before her enemies.

It is a good thing that it is so -- a positive blessing. The Holy Spirit resents
being traded off for culture; and He withdraws Himself, saying by that act: "You
seem to think that natural means and agencies are sufficient -- culture and
oratory and ecclesiastical machinery. I will leave you to yourselves until you
learn your insufficiency and remember again your forgotten God."

I rejoice at the concern of the denominational leaders. It is truly a healthy
sign that they are concerned about the desolations of Zion. But they will look
everywhere else for an explanation of their leanness first; then, it is to be
devoutly hoped, they will think of Pentecost rejected, sanctification despised,
and a grieved Holy Spirit!

Just now it is enough to make the devil laugh, and saints and angels listen and
look with wondering amazement, while these disappointed Church leaders turn to
the Sunday Schools and the Y. M. C. A.’s, and the Y. W. C. A.’s, and Y. P. S. C.
E.’s, and B. Y. P. U.’s, and the Epworth Leagues, and W. C. T. U.’s, and
Institutional Churches, and Young Men’s Clubs, and Women’s Auxiliary Societies,
and Ladies’ Aid Societies, and Boys’ Brigades, and fine Churches, and fine
choirs, and brilliant preachers, to help them out of their troubles and cure
their barrenness. Machinery, machinery! "A multiplication of man’s machinery; a
diminution of God’s power!" And God will drive us by a spiritual famine to honor
the Holy Spirit. Amen! let the needed famine come, until men will honor God.
Then the windows of heaven will open, Pentecosts will be multiplied, and God
will pour out a blessing till there shall not be room enough to receive it.

I am not alone in placing a large estimate on Pentecostal baptism as the most
important preparation for the ministry. President Finney was probably the
greatest soul-winner of the Christian centuries. But he was humble and honest
enough to write: "Unless the Spirit sets home and makes the truth of God
effectual, all human eloquence will be in vain; and it is a fact worthy of all
attention and consideration that, with very little human culture, this enduement
of power will make a Christian wise and efficient in bringing souls to Christ."
I will not quote more from Finney. In my book, "Life of Charles G. Finney," I
give one entire chapter to his wise counsel to the ministry. It is the soundest
homiletical instruction I have ever found. He held that the baptism with the
Holy Spirit was "EVERYTHING in the sense of being wholly indispensable to
success." In a similar vein Rev. F. B. Meyer, of London, writes as follows on
"The Relation of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost to Preachers and Preaching:"
"How absurd it is for us to send young men to college to equip them with an
intellectual store of classic and philosophic learning, and to send them out to
teach, without insisting upon it that if Christ waited to be anointed before he
went to preach, no young man ought to preach until he, too, has been anointed
with the Holy Ghost! Never forget that our Lord’s ministry was not in the power
of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, but in the power of the Third Person
of the Holy Trinity. As St. Peter said: ’God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost,
and He went about doing good.’ The Church was conceived by the Holy Ghost; but
the Church, before attempting her ministry, must also be anointed by the Holy
Ghost.

"Pentecost differs from regeneration. In regeneration the Holy Spirit is
described as being WITHIN, but in Pentecost and ever after the Holy Ghost is
described as being UPON (and as filling them and sanctifying them). He anoints,
He falls upon, He equips, and I ask that, before this reading shall close, every
one in reading this who has been regenerated by the Holy Ghost, shall become
anointed, filled, empowered with the Holy Ghost. It would make the GREATEST
DIFFERENCE POSSIBLE IN YOUR LIFE. There is where you have failed, my brother.
You have been preaching the CROSS; but you have not been preaching the CROSS in
the demonstration and power of the blessed Spirit. (1 Peter 1:12)

"Would God that you, my brother ministers, who have been working with the power
of intellect, of energy, of enthusiastic zeal, with but poor effect, may become
linked to the power of God, the Holy Ghost stored in Christ; for as soon as you
are linked to it, not you, but the power of God through you, will repeat the
marvels of Pentecost ... You say to me: ’Sir, tell me how I may get this power
myself.’ As far as I know there are five conditions.

"FIRST. YOU CAN NOT HAVE THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST WITHOUT HAVING THE HOLY
GHOST HIMSELF. That is, the Holy Ghost must come to you as a Person before you
can enjoy His attributes. In other words, YOU MUST BE A HOLY MAN before you can
wield the power of the Holy Ghost. There are plenty of men who think that if
they could only get the power of the Holy Ghost they would be able to fill their
Churches and sell their books, and get themselves name and fame. They want it
(power), but they do not want Him (and His Holiness). You can not have it
without having Him. [And you can not have Him, without having the sanctification
he brings with Him.] If you want the power of the Holy Ghost, open your heart
today and be filled with the Holy Ghost, and then you will have His power.

"SECOND. YOU MUST BE CLEANSED. 0, I do want to speak wisely! I do not want
needlessly to offend you or denounce you. But I do feel in my heart that if the
Holy Spirit is going to work through anybody, HE MUST HAVE A CLEANSED VESSEL.

"THIRD. You must live for the glory of Christ as your supreme end. Jesus Christ
came into the world to glorify the Father, and the Holy Spirit came into the
world to glorify the Son. If, therefore, you want the Holy Ghost to work with
you, you must agree with the Holy Ghost to glorify Jesus.

"FOURTH. Your preaching and teaching must be in harmony with the Word of God.
Remember that the Holy Spirit is like a locomotive; the Word of God like the
steel rails; and you must have the steel rails of the Bible as well as the steam
power of the Holy Ghost. Let the Holy Ghost fill you, but He will work along the
lines of that book.

"FIFTH. The Holy Spirit must be received by faith. Galatians 3:14, is the
battle-ax. I would not be without that text for anything: ’That we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith.’ By faith you are regenerated; by faith
you are justified; BY FAITH YOU ARE SANCTIFIED; BY FAITH YOU RECEIVE THE HOLY
GHOST; by faith you receive Christ as the power of God in your life."

We gladly make this lengthy quotation from this beloved brother. Though we
disagree with him in one particular, as the reader will observe later, yet his
teaching is blessedly true that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is absolutely
essential to true ministerial success; and he admits that this baptism can not
be received unless one is "cleansed," "sanctified," made "a holy man." This is
the very Pentecostal blessing we are writing about. The Holy Spirit would not
dare to fill and empower an unclean, unholy, carnal man; he would be sure to
abuse the power by using it in a carnal, selfish, wicked way. He would certainly
use it to advance his own fame and glory instead of the glory of Christ. This is
doubtless the reason why hundreds of ministers pray for the baptism of the Holy
Spirit for power, for every one who receives it. They reject sanctification;
they will not have holiness, and God can not lend His Holy-Spirit power to a
carnal, unholy man. This is the explanation of the fact that college-trained
preachers who sincerely long for enlarged usefulness, and carry a heavy heart
over their lack of success, preach months, and often years, without a convert,
or perhaps have but four or five. The Holy Spirit is not with them in
Pentecostal power, driving the message home upon the hearts of the people till
it pierces like a barbed arrow and accomplishes its work. That preacher is made
as a soul-winner who gets and retains this Pentecostal experience; this heavenly
illumination; this Divine anointing; this cleansing and empowering of the Holy
Ghost.

It matters not where a church is located, among what people, educated or
ignorant, high or low, rich or poor, native or foreign, -- if the preacher and
the lay members are Spirit-filled and anointed, their enterprise is joined to
the dynamo of the skies; their power is adequate to every need and emergency.
The Almighty God, with all the resources of heaven, is behind their efforts, AND
THEY WILL SUCCEED. They have but to touch the button with the finger of faith,
and something will happen that will astonish three worlds.

How ought the Pentecostal chamber to be prized and the Pentecostal blessing to
be prayed for and coveted Its transcendent importance can not be overestimated.
The coming of the Spirit in power upon our preachers and our Churches is the
need of the hour. It would be like a spice-laden breeze visiting the lattice of
the sick, or like a strong wind to hopelessly-becalmed mariners, filling their
idle sails and speeding them on to their desired havens. It would create again
the long-lost spirit of Pentecostal benevolence to fill the coffers of our
impoverished Missionary Boards, and it would send out a multitude of
missionaries to sow beside all waters. It would bring a blessed stir of Divine
life to the stagnant pools of our highly-endowed theological seminaries. The
Spirit-filled professors would tell the theological students less about
evolution and their monkey ancestors, and show them more how to make a moral
revolution in the communities where they go, and how to induce lost sinners to
become the sons and daughters of God. They would teach the young preachers less
about German rationalism, and more about the baptism with the Holy Ghost. They
would show them how to criticize the Bible less, and how more to read it with
anointed vision, and see in it the deep things of God. The race of sickly,
sentimental, sycophantic, truth-trimming, gospel-diluting, parlor-ornamenting,
dudish, women-worshiped preachers would become extinct. The gushing, perfumed
essays, full of the roses and poses of rhetoric, would no longer find their way
into our pulpits. We should hear no more of sermonettes and Christianettes on
the road to a heavenette. Stalwarts, sons of the old, heroic prophets, would
fill the pulpits; mature men and women, rather than carnal babes, would fill the
now empty pews. Their sanctuary-revering, religion-respecting children would be
with them. The old-time Pauline gospel of righteousness and full-salvation would
be preached in its glorious completeness, and be like fire and hammer to break
the flinty heart in pieces. It would command the respect of thoughtful men. The
Church, the white-robed Bride of Christ, would "arise and shine, her light
having come, and the glory of God having risen upon her." Her onward step would
be the tread of victory: she would be as terrible to the hosts of hell "as an
army with banners." Who that loves the Lord does not long to see Zion thus
clothed with power and glory? What a refreshing chapter of history she would
make after the late annals of humiliating defeat! Let us all turn away with one
accord from reliance on Church fairs, and festivals, and theatricals, and human
learning, and oratory, and fine Churches, and costly choirs, and organizations
and machinery, and carnal means and methods, and seek the baptism with the Holy
Ghost and His continual indwelling with all our hearts. Pentecost universally
welcomed would mean the Church saved and the world evangelized.


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  CHAPTER 3: 01.02.      DENIAL OF THE HEART-CLEANSING WORK OF THE HOLY
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2. The Denial of the Heart-cleansing Work of the Holy Ghost By Aaron Hills

There is a class of religious teachers who champion Pentecost, but belittle the
experience. They commend the baptism with the Holy Ghost, but deny its efficacy
to cleanse the heart from inbred sin. By thus subtracting from the Holy Spirit’s
work they equally diminish the importance of the baptism with the Spirit. Of
course, also in the same proportion, they weaken the motive for seeking the
blessing which they have thus minimized and degraded. Doubtless this treatment
of Pentecost actually keeps multitudes from desiring and seeking with all their
hearts this chief blessing of God. Practically, therefore, it is a partial
rejection of Pentecost. To make more evident what we mean, we will give the
statements of a few writers on this subject, and then challenge their accuracy
in the light of the New Testament in the original language. Rev. R. A. Torrey
says, in "How to Bring Men to Christ," page 106:

"The baptism of the Holy Spirit is always connected with testimony or service.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit has no direct reference to cleansing from sin.
This is an important point to bear in mind for many reasons. There is a line of
teaching on this subject that leads men to expect that, if they receive the
baptism of the Holy Spirit, the old carnal nature will be eradicated.

"There is not a line of scripture to support this position.

"As said above, and as any one can learn for himself if he will examine all the
passages in which the baptism of the Holy Ghost is mentioned, it is always
connected with testimony and service. It is indeed accompanied with a great
moral and spiritual uplifting, and presupposes, as we shall see, an entire
surrender of the will to Christ; but its primary and immediate purpose is
fitting for service.

"We are now in position to define the baptism of the Spirit. The baptism of the
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God falling upon the believer, taking possession of
his faculties, imparting to him gifts not naturally his own, but which qualify
him for the service to which God has called him." In this passage Brother Torrey
absolutely and emphatically denies that the Pentecostal experience cleanses the
heart, and declares that it only empowers for larger service.

F. B. Meyer says: "On this platform [Keswick] we never say self is dead; were we
to do so, self would be laughing at us ’round the corner. The teaching of Romans
6:6, is not that self is dead; but that the renewed will is dead to self, the
man’s will saying ’Yes’ to Christ, and ’No’ to self; through the Spirit’s grace,
it constantly repudiates, and weakens, and mortifies the power of the flesh." In
a similar vein, Prebendary H. W. Webb-Peploe declares: "It is simply according
to our faith that we receive, and faith only draws from God according to our
present possibilities. These are limited by indwelling corruption; and while
never needing to sin in the sphere of the light we possess, it is ever taught at
Keswick, as in every part of God’s Word, that there are, to the very last hour
of our life upon earth, powers of corruption within every man which defile his
very best deeds, and give even to his holiest efforts the nature of sin. Hence,
while teaching that we need never sin against light, we still hold that, judged
by the perfect standard of God, there is the sin of shortcoming and defilement
in every thought, word, and deed of our lives." This is another way of stating
the utterly unScriptural doctrine of necessary and continuous sin, and the
existence of an indwelling corruption within every man from which the blood of
Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit is impotent to cleanse.

Professor Agar Beet, of England, also declares: "I do not find anywhere in the
Bible reason to believe that the inward forces of evil may now by faith, or at
any future time in our lives, be utterly annihilated ... Unless yielded to,
these foulnesses do not defile. Temptation, even though it be from within as the
result of previous indulgence in sin, does not defile or weaken until yielded
to. Consequently, the promise to cleanse from all sin does not necessarily
involve the annihilation of all inward tendencies toward sin. They are
conquerors over sin who have complete victory over each temptation as it arises.
So long as they abide in faith, the cross of Christ stands as an impassable
barrier between them and sin. In this sense they are dead to sin."

Dr. Mudge, of Boston, in his book, page 107, says: "Instead of cleansing, then,
we would suggest that ’empowering’ is a much better term to use, and one less
liable to mislead, for the effect of God’s incoming to the heart of man. We are
convinced that this entirely satisfies the requirements of the Scriptures where
the former word appears, and simply puts in a more modern and intelligible guise
the thought of the inspired writing."

All these five writers above quoted have this in common, that they reject from
their interpretation of Scripture the idea of heart-cleansing from the "carnal
mind," or deliverance from the "old man" of inbred sin, as a Pentecostal
experience. We believe their position can be overthrown by the Word. Remember,
Brother Torrey says: There is not a line of Scripture to support this position,
that the carnal nature will be eradicated" by "the baptism with the Holy Ghost."
Now, let us see:

I. We will begin with Peter’s speech before the council in Jerusalem. He is
telling what happened to Cornelius and his fellow-Gentiles when the Holy Spirit
fell on them; and this is what he says: "And God, who knoweth the heart, bare
them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us: and He made no
distinction between us and them, CLEANSING their hearts by faith." Now here is a
declaration, as plain as language could well make it, that the baptism with the
Holy Ghost, the Pentecostal blessing, cleansed the Jewish Apostles and
disciples, and also cleansed the hearts of the Gentiles, and that God bore
witness to the cleansing. Surely Brother Torrey has read this passage of
Scripture; but it flatly, absolutely contradicts him. We will pursue this
further.

We have already, in Chapter II, heard F. B. Meyer say: "You must be a holy man;"
"You must be cleansed;" "He must have a cleansed vessel." But he is not
consistent with himself. He is author of a tract called "Not Eradication." So
his "cleansing" is not "cleansing" after all, but only a suppression or holding
down of the Old Man" of inbred sin.

Now we will resume our discussion of the above text. (Acts 15:8-9) The Greek
verb used [for] "cleansing their hearts" is the aorist participle of the verb
katharizo. An older form of the verb is kathairo. Both are derived from the
adjective katharos, which means "clean," "pure," "unsoiled," "upright," "void of
evil." We find the adjective used in the following passages: Matthew 5:8,"
Blessed are the pure in heart;" 1 Timothy 1:5, "Out of a pure heart;" 1 Timothy
3:9, "In a pure conscience;" 2 Timothy 2:22," Out of a pure heart;" James 1:27,
"Pure religion and undefiled;" Revelation 15:6, "Pure and white linen;"
Revelation 21:18, "Pure gold;" Revelation 22:1, "Pure river of water."

It is thus seen that this adjective is applied to the heart, the conscience,
religion, white linen, gold, and water. Do Messrs. Torrey and Meyer wish us to
understand that there is no such thing as gold free from alloy? or pure water
free from sediment and dirt? or pure linen free from cotton or wool? But if such
things are possible and actual, why not also a pure conscience cleansed by the
blood, and a pure heart freed from "the carnal mind?"

Now we will take up our verb "katharizo," which we have seen used in Acts 15:9,
"cleansing their hearts" by the Pentecostal baptism. The meanings given to it in
the lexicon, "to cleanse," "to render pure," "to cleanse from leprosy," "to free
from the influence of error or sin." It is used three times in the following
passage (Matthew 8:2-3): "And, behold, there came a leper, and worshiped Him,
saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His
hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his
leprosy was cleansed." Would Brother Torrey have us believe that Jesus did not
cleanse this leper, but only played at it -- a kind of make-believe cleansing?
But if this leper really was cleansed, why are not hearts also really cleansed
from moral defilement by the Pentecostal baptism?

Now we turn to Brother Meyer. Would he have us believe that Jesus did not cast
out the taint and contagion and defilement of this horrible leprosy, but only
suppressed its manifestation a bit, leaving it still infesting the system and
corrupting the blood! What reverent Bible-reader believes this for a moment? But
if the Divine cleansing of the leper does not "suppress" leprosy, but casts it
out, why may we not properly conclude that the Pentecostal baptism with the Holy
Spirit does not "suppress" the carnality of the believer’s heart, but actually
casts it out?

Now we turn to Brother Mudge. He tells us we would better substitute the word
"empower" for the word "cleanse" "as a much better term to use." Well, let us
substitute: "And, behold, there came to Him a leper, and worshiped Him, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst ’empower’ me. And Jesus stretched forth His hand,
and touched him, saying, I will; be thou ’empowered.’ And straightway HIS
LEPROSY WAS ’EMPOWERED!!!’" Dr. Fowler, making this substitution, said: "I am
ashamed of such a suggestion from carnal-scholarship!" Let us try the
substitution in Mark 7:18-19 : "Do ye not perceive that whatsoever thing from
without entereth into a man, it can not defile him; because it entereth not into
his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging
[katharizo] all meats?" It maybe that Dr. Mudge wants the fecal matter of his
bowels "EMPOWERED!!" I prefer to have it "purged" from mine. May the dear Lord
keep us from thus twisting, and distorting, and "wresting" Scripture, to escape
the grip of the blessed truth of sanctification or heart-cleansing! This same
Greek verb appears again in Matthew 23:25 : "Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the
platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess." Brother Torrey says
the heart is not cleansed by the baptism with the Spirit from carnality, but
only "uplifted;" Brother Meyer says carnality is "suppressed;" Brother Mudge has
something only "empowered." We appeal to every woman who has enough of the
Spirit of God in her to love cleanliness and decency: when you wash the dinner
dishes, do you merely "uplift" the dirty cups and platters as Torrey says; or
"suppress" the filth, but let it remain, as Meyer says; or "empower" the plate
to carry the grease, as Mudge says; or do you cleanse the dishes and free them
from dirt, as John Wesley teaches? I will let the self-respecting housekeepers
decide the matter. But we can not yet give up this adjective katharos, which
means ’ clean," "pure," "unsoiled," "upright," "void of evil." It is compounded
with the Greek preposition ek -- (out of) -- into another verb ekkathairo! The
lexicons give the meanings as "to cleanse out," "thoroughly purify," "to purge
out," "to eliminate." Will Brothers Torrey and Meyer, who so vigorously oppose
the doctrine of eradication, and prefer "suppression," take notice; "TO PURGE
OUT," "TO ELIMINATE!" The very origin of the word could make it mean nothing
else, and nothing less. It is used in 1 Corinthians 5:7 : "Purge out, therefore,
the old leaven;" and 2 Timothy 2:21 : "If a man therefore purge himself from
these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, SANCTIFIED, meet for the Master’s use,
prepared unto every good work."

Now, in this last verse we are informed what is the essence or sanctification;
it is to be PURGED of the leaven of carnality; and in the previous verse the
figure of leaven is used, which was to be purged out or put away. In the
nineteenth verse of the twelfth chapter of Exodus we read, "Seven days shall
there be no leaven found in your houses." That leaven was not to be
"suppressed," covered up with a cloth, or concealed in a jar, or kept in the
bread and disguised. It was to be put out. In four passages we are told that we
are sanctified by the Holy Ghost: Romans 15:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter
1:2; and 1 Corinthians 6:2. Now what stage have we reached in our argument?

First. We are sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Second. It is done by the baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:8-9): "cleansing
our hearts."

Third. It consists of "purging out" or "eliminating."

Fourth. It makes us "PURE," like "pure water" or "pure gold," from which
sediment or alloy has been "purged out" or "eliminated;" or like an Israelite’s
home from which leaven has been purged; or like a leper cleansed by Jesus from
his leprosy; or like a platter cleansed by a Christian housewife.

II. We might safely rest our case here. But we have only touched the fringe of
the Scripture evidence for the removal of the carnal mind. Take the Greek
adjective hagios. Its meanings are: 1. "Separate from common use;" 2.
"hallowed;" 3. "pure, righteous." In this latter moral and spiritual sense it is
used a vast number of times in the New Testament; about a hundred times of God
the Father, Son and Spirit; four times of angels; nineteen times of men and
women. We might infer from this, at least, that the cleansing blood of Christ,
and the purifying work of the Holy Ghost in our hearts would induce a holiness
in us in kind like that in God and the angels, alike free from carnality. From
this adjective is formed the verb hagiazo which means "to separate" "to
consecrate," "to cleanse," "to purify," "to sanctify," "to reverence as holy."
This is the verb the Savior used when he prayed: "Sanctify them through Thy
truth." (John 17:17) This is the verb that Paul used when he said: "Christ also
loved the Church, and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify it, having
cleansed it." (Ephesians 5:26) Did Jesus pray for nothing higher and die for
nothing better than to leave the members of His Church a mass of carnality and
inward corruption? This is the verb Paul used when he prayed, "And the very God
of peace himself sanctify you wholly [German, "through and through"]; and I pray
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless." (1
Thessalonians 5:23) Is it thinkable that when the Infinite God undertakes to
sanctify -- make us "pure," "through and through," in "spirit, soul, and body"
-- he still leaves every corner of our being infested with a carnality that is
at war with God? The participle of this verb is used in Hebrews 10:14 : "For by
one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof the
Holy Ghost also is a witness to us." It might be proper to inquire if God has no
higher conception of "perfection" for his sin-hating, blood-bought, and
blood-washed children than that they still remain reeking with carnality? And
has the Holy Spirit no higher mission than to bear witness that each believer
has in him an unremovable carnal mind that is enmity against God? If so, his
service can easily be dispensed with; for the devil would gladly undertake that
job, and does continually.

It is the noun hagiasmos, derived from this same adjective, that is used ten
times in the New Testament, and is translated "sanctification." This is the noun
used in the following texts: "This is the will of God, even your
"sanctification." (1 Thessalonians 4:3) "For God hath not called you unto
uncleanliness, but unto [or in] sanctification." But why this sharp contrast
between uncleanness and sanctification, if the latter itself coexists with "the
old man" of inbred sin? The same noun is used in Hebrews 12:14 : "Follow peace
with all men, and THE SANCTIFICATION without which no man shall see the Lord."
Now, if the Pentecostal baptism with the Spirit that brings sanctification,
still leaves within us "the old man that is corrupt," "the evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God" "the law of sin and death," "the
carnal mind that is enmity against God," pray tell us, Messrs. Meyer and Torrey,
in what sense does that unspeakable blessing fit us to "see God" and enjoy him
forever? This same wonderful adjective, hagios, has such a wealth of spiritual
meaning, and is applied to God a hundred times in the New Testament, is used
four times in that famous passage, 1 Peter 1:15-16 : "Like as He who called you
is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living, because it is
written, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy." Here we are taught that our holiness
or sanctification is to be "LIKE" God’s. Do Brothers Torrey and Meyer wish us to
believe that they think that God and the angels are also carnal and infested
with propensities to sin? If not, why will they, in the face of these passages,
tell us that the sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost still leaves us
uncleansed from "indwelling sin?" "LIKE as He who hath called you is holy, so be
ye yourselves also holy." May God open our eyes to see that God calls us to be
"cleansed," "sanctified," and have a holiness like His own!

Here, then, we reach the same conclusion from another line of argument.

1. The adjective hagios means "pure," "righteous."

2. It is applied one hundred times to God.

3. We are commanded to have the spiritual quality denoted by this adjective
"LIKE AS" God has it.

4. This adjective is the basis of the verb "sanctify," used sixteen times, and
the noun "sanctification," used ten times in reference to people.

5. The Holy Spirit does the sanctifying. (Romans 15:16, and 2 Thessalonians
2:13)

6. The aorist tense of the verb shows, according to Ellicott and other
commentators, an instantaneous and completed action.

7. Acts 15:8-9, declares that this cleansing, or making holy, is produced by the
Pentecostal baptism.

III. Now let us come to the matter of Spiritual circumcision. In the fifteenth
chapter of Genesis we find that Abraham believes God, and it is counted to him
for righteousness. In the seventeenth chapter is his call to perfection or a
sanctified life, made fifteen or twenty years later. Coupled with it is given
the rite of circumcision -- an outward type of an inward cleansing. That it had
an inner spiritual meaning is shown by Deuteronomy 10:16 : "Circumcise therefore
the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked;" also by Deuteronomy
30:6 : "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy
seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that
thou mayest live." In these verses this Divine circumcision is plainly connected
with a life of sanctification, or perfect love, or holiness. This spiritual
meaning of this rite-the removal of something from the heart-was taught by
Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:4): "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and TAKE AWAY the
foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem."

St. Paul endorsed this spiritual meaning of the rite when he wrote (Romans
2:28-29): "For he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, who is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the
letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Undeniably, in the fleshly
rite, something was cut off and removed. Jeremiah said that something was to be
thus "TAKEN AWAY" from the heart; and St. Paul reiterates the idea that
something is to be removed from the heart by a spiritual circumcision. He
further explains this strange rite and the spiritual lesson it teaches in that
remarkable passage, Colossians 2:9-11 : " For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And in Him ye are made full, who is the head of all
principality and power: in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not
made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh [sarx] in the
circumcision of Christ." Paul prayed that the Ephesians might be filled unto all
the fullness of God. Here he explains how: All "fullness of the Godhead" is in
Jesus, and we can come into such relation to Him that we are made full. We
obtain this by spiritual circumcision or entire sanctification, the "putting off
of the body of the flesh." Bishop Ellicott says this is synonymous with the
"body of sin " in Romans 6:6. When we were at Yale President Dwight declared
that the commentator Meyer was the "greatest New Testament exegete living."
Professor Schaff called him the "prince of exegetes." This Meyer thus comments
on this passage: "The spiritual circumcision, Divinely performed, consisted in a
COMPLETE PARTING AND DOING AWAY with this body (of sin) in so far as God, by
means of this ethical circumcision, HAS TAKEN OFF AND REMOVED the sinful body
from man, like a garment drawn off and laid aside."

Dr. Steele, of Boston University, says: "We call the attention of every Greek
scholar to the strength of the original noun ’putting off’. It is a word
invented by Paul, and found nowhere else in the Bible, nor in the whole range of
Greek literature. To show the thoroughness of the cleansing by the complete
stripping off and laying aside of the propensity to evil, the apostle prefixes
one preposition (apo), denoting separateness, to another (ek) denoting outness
(and joins to the stem of a verb denoting to strip or unclothe), and thus
constructs the strongest conceivable term for the entire removal of depravity."
("Half Hours," page 163) "If this does not mean the complete and eternal
separation of depravity, like the perpetual effect of cutting off and casting
away the foreskin, then it is impossible to express the idea of entire cleansing
in any language." (Ibid., page 89) Thus we have the following:

1. A peculiar rite given to Abraham, consisting of the cutting off and casting
away of a piece of human flesh.

2. God applies it to the heart in the Old Testament, showing that it had a
spiritual meaning. (Deuteronomy 30:6)

3. In the New Testament it has its final interpretation. (Colossians 2:9-11) It
consisted in the putting off or separation from the moral nature of the "old
man" of sin, "the body of sin," the sarx of depravity, by the circumcision of
the Holy Ghost, "not made with hands." To repeat the words of the exegete Meyer:
"Spiritual circumcision, Divinely performed, consisted in a COMPLETE PARTING AND
DOING AWAY WITH THIS BODY OF SIN, in so far as God, by means of this ethical
circumcision, HAS TAKEN OFF AND REMOVED THE SINFUL BODY FROM MAN, LIKE A GARMENT
DRAWN OFF AND LAID ASIDE." And yet, in the face of God’s own interpretation of
this rite, and his plain declaration that God removes the body of sin -- sarx --
"the old man" of depravity, from man, and the testimony of the best Greek
exegetes of the world as to the unmistakable meaning of the words and the
teaching of the passage, Brother Torrey is rash enough to make the astounding
declaration, that "there is not a line of scripture to support this position!"

He tells us in his book, "How to Study the Bible," that "we should lay aside our
preconceived opinions before coming to the Book." Verily, he should take his own
medicine! And, if we had the ear of Brother F. B. Meyer, of London, we would ask
him to tell us how much he finds in this Divinely-performed, spiritual
circumcision to warrant his peculiar theory of "suppression." And we would ask
Prebendary H. W. Webb-Peploe the same. He says, "Every part of Scripture teaches
the retention of corruption in man to the last hour of life." The coolness of
this assumption is something amazing.

IV. We turn our attention to Romans 6:6-7 : "Knowing this, that our old man was
crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should
no longer be in bondage to sin. For He that hath died has been made right from
sin.

Adam Clarke’s comment is this: "Does not this simply mean that the man who has
received Christ Jesus by faith, and has been, through believing, made partaker
of the Holy Spirit, has had his old man, all his evil propensities, destroyed,
so that he is not only justified freely from all sin, but wholly sanctified unto
God? The context shows that this is the meaning." On the verse 6 he says: By the
destruction of the body of sin, our old man, our wicked, corrupt, and fleshly
self, is to be crucified; to be as truly slain as Christ was crucified; that our
souls may be as truly raised from a death of sin to a life of righteousness as
the body of Christ was raised from the grave, and afterward ascended to the
right hand of God. Our body of sin is destroyed by this quickening Spirit."

What is plainly taught by the passage is this: by the atoning death of Christ
provision was made for the crucifixion of our "old man," that he, "the body of
sin," might "BE DONE AWAY." This "body of sin," as we remember, Bishop Ellicott
said, was synonymous with the "body of the flesh" in Colossians 2:11, just
examined. In that passage it was to be "put off" by spiritual circumcision,
"LIKE A GARMENT THROWN OFF AND LAID ASIDE." In this passage it is DONE AWAY by
CRUCIFIXION. The old Roman crucifixion meant death; the Roman soldiers did not
play at killing Jesus; they killed him. Precisely so the Divine circumcision of
the heart by the Holy Spirit crucifies the "old man," "the body of sin," and he
is "DONE AWAY." The Greek word is katargethei, and means "to render null," "to
abrogate," "to cancel," "to bring to an end," "to destroy," "to annihilate."

Says Dr. Daniel Steele: "The Greek for ’destroy’ is never used by Paul in the
sense of rendering inactive." Says Cremer, who had no doctrinal partiality to
warp his definition: "Elsewhere it signifies a putting out of activity, out of
power or effect; but with St. Paul it is to ANNIHILATE, to PUT AN END TO, to
BRING TO NAUGHT. So Paul declares he is made free from the law of (the uniform
tendency to) sin and spiritual death. (Romans 8:2) The proclivity to sin is
removed." (Half Hours with St. Paul, page 10) And he enjoins us "TO PUT OFF"
apothesthai the "old man, which is corrupt." The strong meaning of the Greek
verb is "to lay off" as garments, "to put off," "to renounce." And so we hear
Jeremiah say "take away," and hear Paul say "put off" this "old man which is
corrupt." And he declares that this "old man," this "body of sin," this "carnal
mind," is, or may be, so "crucified," "done away," "annihilated," "put an end
to," "brought to naught," that one can be "made free" from this tendency to sin
in the heart, as he himself had been "made free" from it. But the men whom we
are reviewing say it is not true, and "there is not a line of Scripture to
support this position," that the carnal nature can be removed from the heart by
the Holy Spirit. Here, then, is a flat contradiction between Jeremiah and St.
Paul on the one hand, and Torrey, Meyer, Webb-Peploe, and their schools on the
other. If it has come to this, that we must choose between them, I, for one,
shall not hesitate about my choice; I shall stand by the apostles and prophets
and the Old Book.

F. B. Meyer says; "The teaching of Romans 6:6, is not that self is dead, but
that the renewed will is dead to self." We would like to ask what right this
brother has to substitute these new terms "self" and the "renewed will" into
this passage. Neither of them is even hinted at. The text says, "The old man is
crucified, that the body of sin might be dead and done away." He substitutes
"the renewed will" for "the old man," "the body of sin," and makes that "renewed
will" dead to "self." Self is not in the passage, and by no fair interpretation
can be dragged into it. In the immediate context Paul makes a clear distinction
between "self" and this carnal nature. "So now it is no more I [self] that do
it, but sin [the body of sin] which dwelleth in me." (Romans 7:12) " It is no
more I [self] that do it, but sin [the "old man"] which dwelleth in me." (Romans
7:20) "So then I myself with the mind serve the law of God; but with the FLESH
the law of sin." We are painfully impressed with the fact that this is a sad
case of special pleading on the part of our precious Brother Meyer, reading into
Romans 6:6, what is not there at all, nor even remotely hinted at, in order to
avoid the grip of a blessed truth which, intellectually, he does not accept. Yet
his heart clings to it, after all, for he says: "YOU MUST BE HOLY;" "YOU MUST BE
CLEANSED." How often the hearts of theologians are sounder and better than their
heads. We fondly hope and trust that such is the case with all these brethren.

V. Verbs of the New Testament might have been chosen by the inspired writers
which would have taught suppression if they had wished to teach it, as we shall
show.

Says Dr. Daniel Steele (formerly professor of New Testament Greek in Boston
University), in "Milestone Papers," page 114: "It is a remarkable fact that
while the Greek language richly abounds in words signifying repression, a
half-score of which occur in the New Testament, and are translated by to bind,
bruise, cast down, conquer, bring into bondage, let, repress, hold fast, hinder,
restrain, subdue, put down, and take by the throat, yet not one of these
(sunecho, katecho, koluo, sugkleio, katapauo) is used of inbred sin (the carnal
mind); but such words as signify to cleanse, to purify, to mortify or kill, to
crucify, and to destroy." We may add to "put off," to "put away," to "take
away," to "do away," to "annihilate," to "cleanse from," to "purge," to
"eliminate."

Now, on the supposition that the suppression theory is correct, it would be
highly proper for Messrs. Torrey and Meyer to rise and explain how it came about
that Spirit-guided authors of the New Testament always chose the latter class of
verbs rather than the former to reveal God’s method of dealing with the "old
man," "the body of sin," "the carnal mind." But alas! they explain nothing. They
simply put up their bald assertions and assumptions against the plain teaching
of the Greek New Testament.

Brother Meyer has a remarkable passage, which, as Rev. H. E. Millar, of England,
has pointed out, destroys his own position and establishes ours: "Hand over to
Him [Christ] the inner conflict with the evil tendencies of your heart. Transfer
by faith the conflict to Him. He who has begotten the desire of FREEDOM will
give it to you. You can not desire more than He can bestow. According to your
faith so shall it be done unto you. If you can trust Him to KEEP DOWN even the
risings of the self-life, He will do it. What He creates a desire for, He will
give faith to claim; and when He gives faith to claim, those who exercise it and
wait for Him shall never be ashamed. But His work will be so subtle and quiet
that you may hardly realize how much He is doing within your soul."

This, barring a blemish or two, is very beautiful and encouraging. We would
humbly remind our eminent brother that "freedom" from "the evil tendencies of
the heart" is very much more and better than the "repression" he advocates.

He further says: "You can not desire more than He can bestow. According to your
faith, so shall it be done unto you." Amen! Glory! How quickly, then, our
"faith" can lay hold of the following promise with strong "desire" and claim
"freedom," deliverance from the carnal mind: "I will sprinkle clean water upon
you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols
will I CLEANSE you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you: I will TAKE AWAY the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you
to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them ... I will
also SAVE YOU FROM all your uncleannesses ... I the Lord have spoken it, and I
will do it." (Ezekiel 36:25-36) How strangely unlike the suppression theory
these words, "CLEANSE FROM," "SAVE FROM," "TAKE AWAY," do sound! And our brother
says, "According to our faith it shall be done unto us." Amen! That is exactly
what we believe and teach.

But, further, Mr. Meyer says: "If you can trust Him to KEEP DOWN even the
risings of the self-life, He will do it." How strangely unlike the Bible is that
phrase, "keep down the risings of the self-life!" Millar well says: "There is no
foundation in the New Testament for the theory that the best God can do for us
is to ’keep down’ sin in our hearts, and no such word is to be found in the
Greek in connection with sin." But it does do our hearts good to hear Brother
Meyer admit this: "What God creates a desire for, He will give faith to claim;
and when He gives faith to claim, those who exercise it and wait for Him shall
never be ashamed." Hallelujah! There are millions of Christians who have a
heaven-born desire to be rid of "indwelling sin." We personally know that God is
giving to thousands a faith to claim this blessing, and they testify, with
Meyer, that they are not made ashamed! We conclude, then, that, after all, the
suppression theory is out of harmony both with the Greek Testament and with
Christian experience.

VI. We may draw another argument for the actual removal of carnality from two
passages in the writings of Paul. First, take 1 Corinthians 1:1-2 : "And I,
brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as
unto babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for ye were not yet
able to bear it; nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal." Here is
a distinct declaration that the carnality of Christians kept them in a
prolonged, perpetual babyhood. But in Ephesians 5:11-13, Paul tells us that God
gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers "for the PERFECTING
of the saints ... till we all attain unto a FULL-GROWN MAN, unto the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer children." Now,
if carnality keeps Christians in abnormal babyhood and childhood, will these
brethren kindly tell us how a Christian is to become "a full-grown man," unless
the dwarfing carnality is taken away? The apostle says God has made provision
for the "perfecting of the saints" till we "all attain unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ." How can they reach it unless the checking,
belittling, dwarfing "old man which is corrupt" is "PUT OFF" or "TAKEN AWAY?" We
are, therefore, forced to conclude either that God holds out to us a false hope
of maturity and Christian perfection, or He has made ample provision for
"eliminating" the carnal mind. The former alternative is unthinkable; therefore
we gladly accept the latter.

VII. Let us consider the famous passage, 1 John 1:7-10. We shall find it
annihilates their position -- the repression theory. It reads as follows:

"7. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.

"8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

"9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

"10. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in
us."

Let the reader remember that an evil sect of false teachers had risen, who held
that all sin resided in the body, and taught that a man could practice all
enormities of gluttony and impurity and every vice, and still his soul would be
innocent and uninjured. The practices of these teachers became as bad as their
doctrines, and they literally wallowed in profligacy. When they were urged by
holy apostles and teachers to come into fellowship with God by repentance, they
declared that they were already in fellowship with God and did not need to
repent. When urged to give up their vile sins they replied that they had no
sins, and never had any. This awful delusion, that sprung from heathen
philosophy akin to Christian Science of today, which also denies the existence
of sin, was sweeping the Churches. They even taught that Christ had only a
phantom body, and that the atoning death was an unreality. This delusion, had it
been successful, would have swept Christianity out of existence. John wrote this
epistle to meet this error and to give to believers the true grounds of
Christian assurance. He says (1 John 2:26): "These things have I written unto
you concerning them that seduce you;" and (3:7): "Little children, let no man
deceive you." With this introduction, let us read understandingly this first
chapter and a few other verses. In the first three verses (1:1-3) he says: "We
know that Jesus was no phantom man, for we have heard Him with our ears, and
seen Him with our eyes, and handled Him with our hands. We ate, and drank, and
walked, and talked, and slept with Jesus for more than three years, and saw Him
die on the cross for our sins, and saw Him many times after He was risen, and
know that He was a real man, and no phantom Ghost."

Verse 5. Christian truth: "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all."

Verse 6. A BLOW AT THE SEDUCERS: "If we say that we have fellowship with Him,
and walk in the darkness [as these seducers say and do], we lie, and do not the
truth."

Verse 7. The teaching of the Apostle-the faith of Christians: "But if we walk in
the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another, AND THE
BLOOD OF JESUS HIS SON CLEANSETH US FROM ALL SIN."

Verse 8. ANOTHER BLOW AT SEDUCERS: "If we say that we have no sin [and no need
of a Savior from all our past sins, as these vile teachers are saying], we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

Verse 9. The blessed truth of full salvation taught by John: "If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, AND TO CLEANSE US
FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS."

Verse 10. Another blow at the doctrine of seducers: "If we say we have not
sinned [as these seducers say], we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

Chapter 2, verse 4. Other blows at seducers: "He that saith, I know Him, and
keepeth not His commandments [as these drunken and licentious teachers are
doing], is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

Verse 9. "He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in the
darkness until now."

Chapter 3, verse 8. "He that doeth sin [as these men are doing] is of the
devil," etc.

It will thus be seen that the last paragraph of the first chapter, containing
six verses, is written in pairs, the first member contrasted with the second.
The first verses of the three pairs -- verses 5, 7, and 9 -- give the truth as
taught and experienced by Christians. The second verses of the three pairs --
verses 6, 8, and 10, are the apostle’s crushing blow at the awful teaching and
practice of the seducers of the Churches. Verses 5, 7, and 9, put together,
state most impressively the doctrine of full salvation as follows:

"5. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

"7. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

"9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to FORGIVE US our sins,
and to CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." This is the Gibraltar of the
Christian faith, the glorious Gospel of JUSTIFICATION and SANCTIFICATION. But
here is the scathing arraignment of the error that was leading Church members to
sate their lusts, and yet profess to be walking in the light with God and
declaring that they had no sin which needed the atoning blood.

Verse 6. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth."

Verses 8 and 10. "If we say that we have no sin ... if we say we have not sinned
[as these vile men are doing while practicing nameless orgies of vice], we
deceive ourselves, and make Him a liar, and the truth and His word are not in
us."

Chapter 2, verse 4. "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." This grouping of these
verses makes this whole passage perfectly plain, and robs it of all its seeming
contradictions. It is amazing that our Brother Meyer should take these words in
the eighth verse, intended as a warning to wicked deceivers, and apply them to
holy children of God professing sanctification. But this he does in these words:
"What can be clearer than the statement, ’If we say that we have no sin we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us?’ To say that we have not sinned,
or to say that we have no sin, is to show ourselves destitute of God’s truth."
Thus our dear brother takes the weapon furnished by the Apostle John against
vile seducers who deny their sin and need of the atonement, and turns it into a
club with which to pound holy souls like Wesley, and Fletcher, and Bishop
Taylor, who profess sanctification. He holds them up as "destitute of God’s
truth." It is doubtful if so good and great a man ever made a greater perversion
and misapplication of Scripture, or a poorer argument in behalf of a worse
cause.

Now, let us hear from the scholars on this passage. Bishop Westcott, in his
commentary on verse 7, "cleanseth us from all sin," says: "The thought here is
of ’sin,’ and not of ’sins;’ of the spring, the principle, and not of the
separate manifestations." According to Bishop Westcott, then, we may be
"cleansed from" the "principle of sin." Dean Alford in his commentary, says on
verse 9. "Observe, the two verbs [forgive-cleanse] are aorists, because the
purpose of the faithfulness and justice of God is to do each as one great
complex act, to justify and to sanctify wholly and entirely." Here, then, Dean
Alford teaches the very thing we are contending for; that the Holy Spirit, in
sanctifying us, CLEANSES us from all unrighteousness (unrightness). Well does
Millar conclude: "If we are thus sanctified ’wholly and entirely,’ and this is
God’s definite promise as an immediate blessing (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24), what
room is there for indwelling sin? If we are ’sanctified wholly, spirit, soul,
and body,’ there is no department of our being left unsanctified or unholy."

Here is what Adam Clarke, that princely commentator, says on this whole passage:
"Observe here: 1. Sin exists in the soul after two modes or forms: (1) In guilt,
which requires forgiveness or pardon; (2) in pollution, which requires
cleansing.

"2. Guilt, to be forgiven, must be confessed; and pollution, to be cleansed,
must be also confessed. In order to find mercy, a man must know and feel himself
to be a sinner, that he may fervently apply to God for pardon; in order to get a
clean heart, a man must know and feel its depravity, acknowledge and deplore it
before God, in order to be fully sanctified.

"3. Few are pardoned, because they do not feel and confess their sins; and few
are sanctified or cleansed from all sin, because they do not feel and confess
their own sore, and the plague of their hearts.

"4. As the blood of Jesus Christ, the merit of His passion and death, applied by
faith, purges the conscience from all dead works, so the same cleanses the heart
from all unrighteousness.

"5. As ’all unrighteousness is sin,’ so he that is cleansed from all
unrighteousness is cleansed from all sin. To attempt to evade this, and plead
for the continuance of sin in the heart through life, is UNGRATEFUL, WICKED, AND
EVEN BLASPHEMOUS; for as he who says he has not sinned (ver. 10) makes God a
liar, who has declared to the contrary through every part of His revelation; so
he that says the blood of Christ either CAN NOT OR WILL NOT CLEANSE US FROM ALL
SIN IN THIS LIFE, GIVES ALSO THE LIE TO HIS MAKER, who has declared to the
contrary, and thus shows that the Word -- the doctrine, of God is not in him.

"Reader, it is the birthright of every child of God to be cleansed from all sin,
to keep himself unspotted from the world, and so to live as never more to offend
his Maker."

If this had been written for our special benefit, to help us in this argument,
it could not have been a more forcible indorsement of our position. Glory to
God! we are not "following cunningly-devised fables," nor defending a modern
fad; but we are contending for "the faith delivered to the saints." Some may
prefer to controvert this truth of Divine cleansing, and amuse themselves by so
doing; for ourselves, we frankly admit we do not dare to do it.

VIII. We are driven to the same conclusion from the consideration of 1 John 3:3;
1 John 3:5; 1 John 3:8.

Verse 3: "And every one that hath this hope set in Him [Jesus] purifieth
himself, EVEN AS He is pure."

Verse 5: "And ye know that He was manifested to take away sins; and in Him is no
sin.

Verse 8: "To this end was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the
works of the devil." The word for "pure," in verse 3, is defined in the Greek
lexicon "clean, innocent, perfect, chaste, pure." And we are to be pure (kathos)
"even as," "according as," "just as" Christ is pure.

Adam Clarke makes this appropriate comment: "The words may be understood of a
man’s anxiously using all the means that lead to purity; and imploring God for
the sanctifying Spirit, to cleanse the thoughts of his heart ... till he is as
completely saved from his sins as Christ was free from sin."

Many tell us that "this never can be done, for no man can be saved from sin in
this life." Will these persons permit us to ask, How much sin may we be saved
from in this life? Something must be ascertained on this subject: 1. That the
soul may have some determinate object in view; 2. That it may not lose its time,
or employ its faith and energy in praying for what is impossible to be attained.
Now, as He was manifested to take away our sins (ver. 5), to destroy the works
of the devil (ver. 8), and as His blood cleanseth from all sin and
unrighteousness (chap. 1:7-9), is it not evident that God means that believers
in Christ shall be saved from all sin? For if His blood cleanses from all sin,
if He destroys the works of the devil (and sin is the work of the devil), and if
he who is born of God does not commit sin (ver. 9), then he must be cleansed
from all sin; and while he continues in that state he lives without sinning
against God.

How strangely warped and blinded by prejudice and system must men be who, in the
face of such evidence as this, will still dare to maintain that no man can be
saved from his sin in this life, but must daily commit sin, in thought, word,
and deed, as the Westminster divines have asserted; that is, every man is laid
under the fatal necessity of sinning as many ways against God as the devil does;
for he can have no other way of sinning against God except by thought, word, and
deed.

"It is a miserable salvo to say they do not sin as much as they used to do; and
they do not sin habitually, only occasionally. Alas! for this system! Could not
the grace that saved them partially, save them perfectly? Could not that power
of God that saved them from habitual sin save them from occasional or accidental
sin? Shall we suppose that sin, how potent soever it may be, is as potent as the
Spirit and grace of Christ? And if it were for God’s glory and their good that
they were PARTIALLY SAVED, would it not have been more for God’s glory and their
good if they had been PERFECTLY SAVED?"

Verse 5: "Christ came into the world to destroy the power, pardon the guilt, and
CLEANSE FROM THE POLLUTION OF SIN. This was the very design of His manifestation
in the flesh. He was born, suffered, and died for this very purpose; and can it
be supposed that He either CAN NOT or WILL NOT accomplish the object of His own
coming?

Verse 8: "For this very end, with this very design, was Jesus manifested, that
He might destroy [lusae], that He might loose the bonds of sin, and dissolve its
power, influence, and connection." The completeness of Jesus’ work in delivering
us from the work of the devil is shown by the meanings of the verb used; they
are "to loosen," "to unbind," "disengage," "set free," "deliver," "break up,"
"destroy," "demolish." What a glorious deliverance we may have from Jesus! But
Brother Meyer belittles this by the following comment on this passage: "It is no
doubt true that Christ is going to destroy the works of the devil. But there is
nothing in those words to show that He does so in our hearts, either immediately
or suddenly ... We must infer that the process of destruction is a gradual one,
wrought in successive stages."

Bishop Westcott says in his Commentary: "The two objects of the manifestation of
Christ cover the whole work of redemption: ’to take away sins’ (ver. 5); ’to
destroy the works of the devil’ (ver. 8). In this connection ’the works of the
devil’ are gathered up in ’sin’ (indwelling sin), which is their spring. This
the devil has wrought in men. The efficacy of Christ’s work extends both to
’sin’ and ’sins.’"

Dean Alford points out that the aorist tense for the verbs "take away" and
"destroy" implies "TAKE AWAY BY ONE ACT AND ENTIRELY." But Brother Meyer says
"the destruction is a GRADUAL ONE." Alas! When a man is astride of a theological
hobby, how serenely he can ride on over the noblest commentaries, the Greek
text, verb tenses, and all! His blind consistency is painful to contemplate.

Dr. Daniel Steele, in his noble essay on the tense readings of the Greek
Testament, says of the aorist tense in Romans 6:6 : "The aorist here teaches the
possibility of an instantaneous death-stroke to inbred sin, and that there is no
need of a slow and painful process, lingering till physical death or purgatorial
fires end the torment." He says, in closing: "We have looked in vain for one of
the verbs denoting sanctification or perfection in the imperfect tense (which
would teach a progressive work). The verb hagiazo, to sanctify, is always
aorist, or perfect. The same may be said of the verbs katharizo and hagnizo, to
purify. Our inference is that the energy of the Holy Spirit in the work of
entire sanctification, however long the preparation, IS PUT FORTH AT A STROKE BY
A MOMENTARY ACT. This is corroborated by the universal testimony of those who
have experienced this grace." The fact is, we have the most critical and
scholarly modern commentators, like Dr. Meyer, Dean Alford, Bishop Ellicott, and
Bishop Westcott, on our side. If the Greek Testament can teach anything by
nouns, adjectives, verbs, and even prepositions, our doctrine of sanctification
is unmistakably taught by the blessed Book. "Repressive power is nowhere
ascribed to the blood of Christ, but rather purgative efficacy," and that
immediate in its sanctifying operation.

IX. There is the argument which may be drawn from the very meaning of Baptism,
suggested by the symbols used in it. Two days ago we thought that this chapter
of the book was closed. But we find this in the last Christian Witness, July 31,
1902, by Dr. Daniel Steele:

"In trying to show that entire sanctification is nowhere connected with the
Spirit baptism, Mr. Torrey fails in his explanation of ’fire’ in the phrase,
’baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire,’ to note that FIRE IS A PURIFYING
ELEMENT, and is here associated with the Spirit by the rhetorical figure of
hendiadys (one idea expressed by two nouns), just as ’born of water and of the
Spirit’ denotes the first degree of purification. Since earthen and metallic
vessels can not be perfectly cleansed by water, fire is employed as the most
perfect purifier. Water symbolizes the birth as initial cleansing, and fire
symbolizes the complete purification wrought by the Holy Spirit in Pentecostal
fullness. Mr. Torrey comes near to this idea when he says, ’Fire searches,
refines, consumes.’ It refines by consuming the dross."

We have also found this in "A Clean Heart," by G. A. McLaughlin, which confirms
our position, and, with the quotation from Dr. Steele, makes practically an
additional argument against the suppression theory:

"To see the fallacy of those who teach ’suppression,’ all that is necessary is
to notice that the very definitions which they use are contrary to their
teaching. Baptism means cleansing. That is the definition of the word. It could
be just as well translated the cleansing with the Holy Spirit. The very symbol
used in the ordinance of baptism (water) shows that baptism means cleansing.
This is the reason that water and fire are symbols of the operation of the Holy
Spirit. Water and fire are the mightiest cleaning agents known. No symbols in
nature could be more expressive of cleansing. Symbols could not indicate the
cleansing work more clearly.

"A clean heart is not a heart in which sin is suppressed any more than a clean
room is a room in which the dust and dirt have been wet down so they do not
arise. The dirt is still there, and in spite of the wetting down the room is
dirty. Clean cannot be made by any twisting of language to mean the presence of
defilement. When we say that heaven is a clean place, we mean that there is no
defilement in it. If there were any defilement in heaven, if it were repressed
or kept hidden away, still heaven would not be a clean place. This is too
apparent to be misunderstood. And a man who has a clean heart is a man who has
no defilement, either repressed or unrepressed, in his heart. When David prayed
for a clean heart, in Psalms 51:10, he understood that this was what he needed
and might have. A few verses previous to his prayer he said, ’Purge me with
hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.’ Is there
anything in these figures to teach or indicate that he meant to have the stains
of sin covered up or the defilement still there? Does ’whiter than snow’ mean
defilement kept back or repressed? Whoever thought of such a thing except some
people who have a theory to maintain?" (Pages 47, 48)

Two remarkable passages in the Old Testament are at least very pertinent and
suggestive here. Isaiah 1:25 : "I will turn my hand upon thee and PURELY PURGE
AWAY THY DROSS, and TAKE AWAY ALL THY TIN." Malachi 3:1-3 : "The Lord whom ye
seek shall suddenly come to His temple ... But who may abide the day of His
coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a REFINER’S FIRE
and like a fuller’s soap And He shall sit AS A REFINER AND PURIFIER OF SILVER;
and He shall PURIFY the sons of Levi: and PURGE THEM AS GOLD AND SILVER, that
they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." In the Old
Testament, "PURGE AWAY thy dross," "TAKE AWAY ALL THY TIN," "LIKE A REFINER’S
FIRE," "AS A REFINER AND PURIFIER OF SILVER," "PURGE THEM AS GOLD AND SILVER;"
in the New Testament, "baptize you with the HOLY SPIRIT and FIRE," "CLEANSING
YOUR HEARTS BY FAITH." Advocates of "suppression" can get all the comfort out of
such passages that they like [This remark was no doubt of the "tongue in cheek"
variety, for in such passages there is no comfort for them. -- DVM].

Now, if we leave the Scripture and resort to human philosophy we are driven
again to the same conclusion. For --

1. If the repression theory of Torrey and Meyer is correct, then it follows that
Satan was mighty enough to inject into all our race the malignant poison of
indwelling sin, which the might of Christ and the sanctifying grace of the Holy
Spirit are utterly unable to remove. This would logically make Satan mightier
than God, a conclusion repugnant to Christian thought. Satan is indeed mighty,
but OUR CHRIST IS ALMIGHTY, "ABLE TO SAVE TO THE UTTERMOST."

2. As Dr. Steele observes, "The repressive theory or holiness is out of harmony
with Divine purity. Holiness in man must mean precisely the same as holiness in
God, who announces Himself as holy, and then founds human obligation to holiness
upon this revealed attribute. ’Be ye holy, FOR I AM HOLY.’ Who dares to say that
God’s holiness is different in kind from man’s holiness, save that one is
original and the other is inwrought by the Holy Ghost?" (Milestone Papers, page
115)

3. The repression theory reduces all the holiness of the world to mere virtue.
"Virtue is the triumph of right against strong inward tendencies toward the
opposite." Holiness is the state of the heart when it is FREED FROM SUCH
TENDENCIES. "The repressive theory of holiness, involving, as it must, the
co-working of the human soul with the Divine Represser, confounds the broad
distinction between holiness and virtue, and banishes holiness from the earth,
substituting virtue instead. (Ibid., page 118)

4. This repressive theory makes it highly problematical whether we ever can
become holy. Jesus informs us that all power is given Him in heaven and in
earth. The Word also assures us of the Divinity of the Spirit. They are now in
possession of all the power they can ever have in this or any world. If they can
only repress indwelling sin in this world, what ground of presumption (we will
not say assurance) have we that they can do it hereafter? How can we cherish a
rational hope that we can be made cleansed and holy in any world? Is not the
blood of Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit, as potent here and now as it can
ever be?

Apparently these men are depending upon physical death to help out the Holy
Spirit and annihilate sin. But what is death? The devil begot sin: sin brings
forth death. Death, then, is the grandchild of the devil. And the grandchild of
the devil is expected to be a mightier sanctifier than the Omnipotent Spirit of
God! Alas! this theology gets worse and worse, the further you run it down. But
the Roman Catholics go them one better by substituting for death the fire of
purgatory! To our mind, all such teaching is degrading to the Holy Spirit. The
Scriptures hold up sanctification, heart purity, as a boon to be sought here and
now; and God takes a solemn oath that we may "serve Him without fear in holiness
and righteousness before Him all the days of our life." (Luke 1:74-75) We are
willing to rest our argument with a candid Christian public.

We feel sorry to be obliged to criticize the teaching of these brethren. Brother
Torrey and I were fellow-students at Yale. I preached his ordination sermon. Our
first pastorates were within twelve miles of each other. In more ways than one
he has brought me into a debt of gratitude to him. His writings and Brother
Meyer’s were specially helpful to me when I was seeking the baptism with the
Holy Spirit. I love them both for the good they are doing to others and for the
guidance and help they brought to me in one of the critical seasons of my life.
I profoundly believe they are better than their theory about the work of the
Spirit. But I am sure that they are wrong when they deny His power to cleanse
the heart, and that the result of their teaching in this respect is deplorable.

Some years ago I spent a few weeks in Moody Institute, Chicago. I was delighted
with much of the work in the school and the Church. But some things made me sad,
and were to me a surprise. I had not been in the school twenty-four hours before
it was whispered around about me, "He is an eradicationist!" "He believes in
eradication!" In the course of a day or two more, an uneducated young man,
sitting second from me at the table, said in a very loud voice, meant for me and
everybody else to hear, "The doctrine of the eradication of the carnal nature by
the Holy Spirit is one of the most damnable heresies that ever cursed the
Christian Church!" The callow youth made the impression that he was simply
repeating, parrot-fashion, what had probably been taught him in the classroom. I
could but think of John Wesley, and Charles Wesley, and John Fletcher, and Adam
Clarke, and Bishop Asbury, and all the flaming seraphs that had preached
holiness in early Methodism, and the long line of holiness bishops and evangels
that have followed, down to Catherine Booth, and Inskip, and Bishop William
Taylor, second to none since St. Paul in effective and world-wide missionary
labors, and our still living Dr. Daniel Steele, -- all of them victims of this
"damnable heresy!" The names of a hundred evangelists, editors, and leaders of
the Holiness Movement of today might be added, the most effective men in the
Christian Church for the spread of the kingdom of Christ! What can men be
thinking of who teach or repeat such drivel?

Here are some little phrases from John Wesley. He speaks of sanctification as
"the recovery of the whole image of God," "the recovery of the Divine nature,"
"the restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity." He
speaks of the "total death of inbred sin," of "the destruction of the body of
sin," of "entire salvation from inbred sin," of the "root of sin being taken
away," and of "deliverance from the root of bitterness!" Poor, unfortunate John
Wesley! What a sad victim he was of the "damnable heresy!" And yet a writer in
the London Spectator says: "It may well be doubted whether, in the long course
of England’s history, any one has ever influenced her life in so direct,
palpable, and powerful a way as has John Wesley." Queer! -- isn’t it? -- that a
man cursed by such a withering, blighting, "damnable heresy," should thus
surpass all others through long centuries in moving a whole kingdom heavenward!
And what effect does this partial denial of the results of Pentecost have upon
the students of Moody’s Institute? This at least: I was there some weeks,
attending two prayermeetings a day, and sometimes three, and, in all my stay, I
never heard a testimony to sanctification, nor anything that even hinted at it;
nor was it commended by anybody in any sermon or address to which I listened.
Students informed me that testimony to sanctification was discouraged and
practically suppressed, and that under this depressing influence they had lost
ground in their Christian life while in the institute. I was informed that, on
one occasion, a student, who had been there but a week, testified to
sanctification in the gladness of his heart. Moody happened to be present, and
rebuked him so sharply for his testimony that, in astonishment and grief, he
packed his trunk and left.

I am told that this was a common thing with Moody. A Doctor of Divinity, from
Philadelphia, once a pastor in a city in Massachusetts, told me that Brother
Moody held a series of meetings in his place. On the opening night, two blessed
women, eminent for piety throughout the city, testified to sanctification. No
sooner had they sat down than Moody sprang to his feet, and told a ridiculous
story to raise a laugh on them. Said my informant: "Moody fell like a millstone
that instant, and the series of meetings were a failure, never recovering from
that bad break. I made up my mind that the Holy Spirit would not endure to be
always insulted, even by Brother Moody." A prominent clergyman in Chicago told
me that Brother Moody confessed to him that he had consciously lost much of his
Spiritual power. I also heard about his manifest loss of power in Texas. This is
doubtless the explanation of it. He had grieved the Spirit by deliberately
opposing and making light of this heart-cleansing work of the Holy Ghost. I
attended two series of meetings led by Moody, one of them for three weeks, night
and day. There were fifty of us ministers with him constantly. He never
mentioned sanctification to us, or gave us the glimmer of an idea that God
expected us to have such a blessing. Of course no one of us, and no one during
the twenty-one days of meetings, received the baptism with the Holy Ghost. I
look back upon it all now with amazement. But it was manifestly due to his
persistent, derisive rejection of the best results of Pentecost. The whole truth
was not preached, and the Spirit of truth was grieved and hindered in his work.

Mr. Moody did, in one sermon, commend the Holy Spirit for "power in service."
That is the favorite phrase in the Moody Institute. They are all taught to seek
power in that school. But what old political bum does not want power? There is
not a vile leper procuring girls for houses of shame that does not want power.
There is not a fallen wretch in the round world who does not want power. But God
can not safely bestow power of the Holy Spirit upon an unclean man; he would be
sure to abuse it and use it for selfish ends, whether he were a carnal man in
the pulpit, or a carnal man in pothouse politics. This, therefore, is the fatal
flaw in the teaching of the Moody School; sanctification is discarded, and the
pupils are not taught to seek that heart-cleansing as a fundamental condition of
receiving Holy Spirit power.

F. B. Meyer, as we have seen, does say: "YOU MUST BE A HOLY MAN;" "YOU MUST BE
CLEANSED;" but then, with strange inconsistency, he turns around and denies that
you can be holy and cleansed by the destruction of your CARNALITY. How he
expects any one to be "holy" and "cleansed" while this foul thing that is
"enmity to God" remains in the being, is to us a mystery. A little incident that
happened in England will throw a little side-light upon the results of Brother
Meyer’s teaching. Mr. Reader Harris, founder of the Pentecostal League, was
conducting a Holiness Convention. Outside the gateway of the hall stood two men,
one a Plymouth brother, and the other an infidel. They were unknown to each
other, but were both giving away the same tract to those who had remained behind
to seek holiness of heart by prayer for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That
tract was Meyer’s "Not Eradication." Both men thought it was the best way to
defeat the work of the Holiness Convention. This reminds me that some years ago,
Dr. Howard Crosby, of New York, preached a sermon entitled, "A Calm View of the
Temperance Question." The Liquor League printed and circulated gratuitously a
million and a half copies of that sermon in the saloons of America. What morally
sane man can believe that a sermon was inspired in heaven which liquor-dealers
would so abundantly print and distribute? And what more reason have we to
believe that, when infidels distribute Meyer’s tract, it is in harmony with the
truth of God? May the Lord kindly keep me from going into partnership with
infidelity to defeat the spread of holiness! A year or more ago (May, 1901) I
attended a Holiness Convention in Chicago, which lasted ten days. Nearly two
hundred leaders of the Holiness Movement were there from all over America.
Though the place of meeting was quite near to the Moody Institute and easy of
access, I did not see Brother Torrey nor any representative of the Institute
present at any meeting. He thus gave emphatic notice to all the loyal souls of
that great movement that he would have no part or lot with them. It is for this
reason that I call his special theory a partial but very practical rejection of
Pentecost; for it puts him out of sympathy with, and causes him to stand aloof
from, the most potential Pentecostal movement of modern centuries.

(See "Reply to Rev. F. B. Meyer," by Rev. H. E. Millar. A crushing refutation of
his "Not Eradication." Published by Christian Witness Company, Chicago. Also
"Milestone Papers," by Dr. Daniel Steele. Also "A Clean Heart," by G. A.
McLaughlin, Chicago: Witness Company)


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  CHAPTER 4: 01.03.     WHAT THIS PENTECOSTAL BLESSING IS WHICH PEOPLE ARE REJECTING, AND HOW IT MAY BE OBTAINED
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3. What this Pentecostal Blessing is which People are Rejecting, and How It May
Be Obtained By Aaron Hills

If we were to take a text or two to indicate the Divine endorsement of our
teaching and give added weight to our words, out of very many that might be
taken we select two:

Romans 6:6 : "Knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the
body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to
sin."

1 Peter 1:15-16 : "Like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy
in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy, for I am
holy." In these days of spiritual uncertainty and unrest, agnosticism, and soul
famine, it is refreshing to meet a man who knows something. So many people only
"guess" that "may be" they are saved; they have a "perhaps" or "hope-so"
salvation. Paul says, "Knowing this." Let the reader pay strict attention to
what the old saint knew, for it is the clue to a joyous, hopeful assurance of
salvation.

1. He knew that the "old man was crucified."

2. He knew that by this crucifixion "the body of sin" was done away,
"destroyed," "annihilated."

3. He knew that this brought him blessed deliverance from the tormenting bondage
of indwelling sin.

I. Right here some one, to whom holiness literature is a novelty, says: "Please
tell us what is meant by the ’OLD MAN,’ ’the BODY OF SIN?’ The Apostle Paul
gives this "old man" a good many names besides these two in the text which are
very suggestive. These names help us to locate him, and to understand who and
what he is. In Romans 7:17, he calls him "Sin that dwelleth in me," as if, at
some time in his career and every man’s [career] there was a strange inmate in
the soul-house called "sin," a spirit of disobedience to God. In Romans 7:23, he
calls him "the LAW of sin." If for this word "law" we substitute the words "the
CONSTANT TENDENCY" to sin, we shall have the "old man’s" photograph. He is the
strange spirit of the devil, put into every child by race inheritance, a
tendency to do wrong, and run after sin, and run away from God. The nursing babe
sometimes shows it in its mother’s lap. The little children very manifestly
exhibit it in the nursery. Older children show it still more. Adults feel it so
constantly, opposing every good resolution, besieging every holy purpose,
mocking every Divine aspiration, that in spite of their covenant vows, and
earnest prayers, and holy longings, they despair of pleasing God. This "old man"
of indwelling sin destroys the religion of millions of hearts, and destroys the
spiritual peace of millions more. In Romans 7:24, Paul calls him "this body of
death." This image is probably a reference to that awful method of capital
punishment sometimes used by the cruel Romans, which consisted in binding a
corpse to a condemned criminal, eyes to eyes, face to face, mouth to mouth,
bosom to bosom, limbs to limbs; the living man had to carry about the decaying
corpse until its foul stench stifled him, and ended his life. It is an awful
reference to the corrupting influence of the "old man," stifling, if it can,
every holy desire of the soul, until faith dies and every longing for heaven
expires. In Romans 8:2, the "old man" is called "the law if sin and death." Read
for "law," the TENDENCY TO sin and death, and you just have it. It is a
proclivity to evil that is not short-lived; it works on and on, like Asiatic
leprosy, until it brings its victim down to everlasting death. In Romans 8:7, he
is called the "CARNAL MIND" that "is enmity against God, and is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be." In other words, he is an infernal
traitor inside the citadel of the soul, an enemy to God that would be glad to
surrender us to the devil. Indeed, he is the devil’s own child, and his loyalty
to his father can not be broken. He can not be bribed or won over to God; first,
last, and always, he hates God’s law, and hates God himself.

What an awful thing it is for a Christian to voluntarily retain in his heart
such an enemy of Christ! Jesus is called our Bridegroom, and we are his bride.
How would a young husband feel to come home and find that his bride was
entertaining in the guest chamber an old flame of hers who was an avowed enemy
of her husband? Can our Lord be any more pleased with our retention of the
carnal mind? In Hebrews 12:15, this old man is called "a root of bitterness;"
and this "root," planted by the devil in every heart, has an ugly vitality. It
is sure to grow and produce a harvest of malignant fruit -- envy, jealousy,
hatred, revenge. This is what makes it so hard for Christians to forgive
injuries, and so easy to resent wrongs. It makes them sadly conscious of being
unChristlike and strangers to the real spirit of love. In Hebrews 12:1, he is
called "the sin that doth so easily beset us." The preacher who read it "the sin
that doth so easily upset us," was not far astray. It always has snares laid for
our feet. It is always making itself felt at the unexpected and unfortunate
time. We are humbled by it when we least want to be. It finds the weak spot in
everybody’s character; and if at any time there is one gate to the soul
unguarded, this sin is sure to find it out. O, this thing that we are talking
about is a hot-tempered "old man," a touchy "old man," a proud "old man," a vain
"old man," a worldly "old man," and as deceitful as the "father of lies"
himself! What a detestable inmate to have continually about in the heart! He
heeds no threats; he yields to no entreaties. He will stay though unwanted, and
be industriously and continuously at his infernal business of trying to break
the connection of the soul with God, and bring it down to hell. In Hebrews 3:12,
this "old man" is called "an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God." This seems to be the hardest and most suggestive name of all. Think of it!
A heart to doubt Jesus, to question his grace, to cast a suspicion upon his
love, to disbelieve his promises of mercy and guidance! Such a spirit in a wife
would break a loving husband’s heart. Yet Christ, our patient Beloved, is
compelled to bear it through the weary years, while we, His blood-bought ones,
toy with this evil thing in our inmost souls. O the matchless patience of our
Christ, waiting so long for us to permit the Holy Spirit to put out this vile
proclivity to sin and Satan and hell!

There are several other names applied to this "old man" by God; but the list we
have given is quite extended enough to describe him sufficiently for
recognition. In common speech we call him "DEPRAVITY." He is best known among
men by that name. Everybody means by it a sad appetency, a devilish propensity
to sin, to break God’s law, to rebel against His sovereignty -- a proclivity to
do evil rather than good, a trend of nature away from the blessed God.

While this thing remains in the soul the tendencies to backsliding will always
be multiplied; to fall will be comparatively easy. The Christian life will be
robbed of much of its victory and joy. Its fruitfulness will be greatly
lessened, and the Savior’s delight in us will be greatly abridged, as those in
whom His grace has not been permitted to do its perfect work. The removal of
this curse of Satan from the moral nature is called the "cleansing" of the Holy
Spirit (Acts 15:8-9); the "circumcision of the heart" (Deuteronomy 30:6, and
Colossians 2:9-11); the "purging away of dross" (Isaiah 1:25); the "purging them
as gold and silver" (Malachi 3:3); "the SANCTIFICATION without which no man
shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).

Holiness is the state of heart of one thus "sanctified," "purged," "cleansed."
This is what God is talking about when he says: "Like as He who called you is
holy, be ye yourselves also holy, in all manner of living; because it is
written, Ye shall be holy: for I am holy." A few years ago we had a war with
Spain, and when one of our gunboats was on the way to the scene of action, a
Catholic Spaniard, who had been working for years on the boat, was caught
depositing a stick of dynamite in the coal to blow up the vessel. That fanatical
Spaniard may represent the old man in the ship of your soul. Get him out if you
do not want him to deposit a stick of dynamite within you ready to go off at any
moment. Beloved, sanctification will take the Spaniard out of the Lord’s ship,
and put him over into the ranks of the enemy. We will still have foes to fight,
but they will be on the outside. The ship and all within will be loyal to God.
That is what all Christians need. God wants that traitor in the ship taken out
forever. That is done by sanctification, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Then we will not be obliged to sing: "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to
leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; Seal it for thy
courts above." May the day come when God’s children shall all be free from
proneness to wander, or to turn their backs on the blessed Lord!

II. Having seen what holiness is, let us now consider some manifest reasons why
we ought to be holy and why God wishes us to be holy.

1. GOD IS HOLY. Our sun shines with surpassing brilliancy in the sky, so
brilliant we can not look at it except with prepared glasses; but as glorious as
our sun is, there are great spots on it many thousands of miles across. But our
holy God is an undimmed Sun, shining in the sky of the universe, and there has
never yet been, and never will be, one spot on His ineffable holiness. He is a
holy God, and the angels and cherubim and seraphim look up into His face,
crying," Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God of Hosts!" That is the admiration of heaven.
That is our God and Father. He wants His children to be like Him. You never saw
a noble father or mother in your life that was not pleased to have their little
child show the benevolent traits of its parents. If father is active and
energetic, he likes to see that trait in his little son. If mother is sweet and
affectionate, she likes to be told that little Mary has mamma’s sweetness. She
is pleased to have Anna show mamma’s musical gift or talent for art. If father
is a literary man, or an orator, he likes to see indications of these
characteristics cropping out in his child. So our Father in heaven is holy, and
He wants His child to be like Him. There are just two great families of ours,
and they both have the great, unfailing family resemblance. One is the family of
sin; and they all have it stamped on their being. The other is the family of
holiness; and they have the image of God stamped on their being. God is holy.
"Be ye holy." 2. God commands us to be holy. O how men that are trained to obey
commands will execute them! The sailor will obey his captain, and climb the
masts and handle the sheets when the waves are rolling seemingly mountain high,
and the great ship is the sport of the billows, and those masts swing back and
forth till it would seem they would throw him into the deep. But he climbs
because he was commanded to do so. It is a matter of historical fact, and so
said by foreign military critics, that General Grant was reckless and unsparing
of the lives of his men. One time he lost twenty thousand soldiers in an awful
battle, trying in vain to take an objective point, and ordering assault after
assault, our men being driven back and mowed down to death, and there was an
awful and useless loss of life. Colonel Peter A. Porter was commander of a
regiment in that battle that went from Niagara Falls. General Grant gave a
command to Colonel Porter, and Porter looked him in the face and said: "You have
ordered me to a needless death." He turned straight around, led the charge, and
was cut down. Blessed be God! our King, the Captain of our salvation, never
issues a needless command, nor orders to a needless death. He only asks us to
die to self and the sin that damns us, that we may live to God and righteousness
for evermore. He never gave a command that was not sweeter than honey and the
honeycomb, and in the doing of it there is great reward. 3. We ought to become
holy, because sin and every proclivity to sin is so dangerous. I am amazed as I
think of the awful power of Satan, how he has covered the world with sin and
shame and woe; how nation after nation has gone down to wreck and ruin because
of sin. The master-stroke of Satan was made when he planted a germ of evil at
the fountain stream of human life to be communicated through all ages. That was
the germ of carnality. Sin is awful. Sin has cursed individuals, wrecked
families, and made our great cities ungovernable. Sin has wrapped the world in a
garment of misery and shame. Sin has visited heaven, and cast angels down from
their high estate. Sin has filled the bosom of God with sorrow, and will roll a
great Gulf Stream of woe through the universe of God forever. If this proclivity
is in me, ready to act at any time, I pray God to take it out of my soul. The
cleansing Spirit can take that all out of you, and you will have the blessed "I
know" salvation. If Jesus cannot do this, then the devil, who injected this
moral poison into the veins of our race, is mightier than our Christ, He could
inflict an evil which Jesus cannot cure. The very thought is almost an insult to
our adorable God. This leads me to say: 4. We ought to be holy because holiness
brings such blessedness. There is a world of joyless Christians living. There
are multitudes of believers who go bowed down like bulrushes and hang their
harps on the willows. If their souls sing at all, it is in some minor key, like
Windham. The poor hungry heart wails out the sad refrain: "’Tis a thing I long
to know, Oft it causes anxious thought: Do I love the Lord or no? Am I His, or
am I not?"

Again in some unsatisfied hour it sobs its deep, pathetic want in the words:
"Look how we grovel here below, Fond of these earthly toys; Our souls, how
heavily they go To reach eternal joys!"

What a sorry commendation this is of the religion of Jesus! No exuberance of
hope! no joy of assurance! Fullness of life in Christ will bring "beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the Spirit of
heaviness." The birds of gladness will sing, and the flowers of peace will
bloom, and the hallelujahs of praise to our sanctifying and satisfying God will
roll through the arches of the soul, and rise as perpetual incense to our King.

5. Christ came for this purpose, and died for this end. Jesus came to destroy
the works of the devil; and the greatest work of the devil was getting that
carnality planted in the bosom of every child of Adam’s race. I see Christ
leaving His home in heaven, leaving the adoration of cherubim and seraphim, and
taking His lonely way down to suffer for this wicked world, which had no place
for Him. I see Him scourged, and led out to be crucified. I hear the cruel mob
cry, "Crucify Him!" I see Him dying on Calvary’s tree, while God hides His face
from Him, and my Savior cries out, "My God! why hast Thou forsaken me?" And He
is bearing all this -- what for? That He might cure us of sin, and make us
sanctified and holy. When I meditate upon all this in solemn thought, my heart
cries out: "O Jesus, if Thou wert so anxious to have my heart cleansed and
purified, it shall be cleansed. Thy soul shall be satisfied. I yield, I yield,
by dying love compelled. I can hold out no more. I’ll say what you want me to
say, dear Lord; I’ll be what you want me to be."

We ought to want this blessing because God has set His heart upon it. The plan
to restore man to holiness was planned by the Father; and He gave His Son that
we might have it. For this Jesus poured out His Cleansing blood. For this the
sanctifying Spirit was given that we might be holy. For this the plan of
redemption was instituted to restore man to holiness. It is the will, the
desire, the longing, the command of the Triune God, that every moral being in
the universe should be holy. All the work of the atonement for man, and all the
promptings of the Holy Spirit, move to this end. "Holiness! holiness needed,
holiness required, holiness offered, holiness attainable, holiness a present
duty, a present privilege, a present enjoyment, is the progress and completeness
of its wondrous theme." This is the glorious truth that is seen in Bible
history, and biography, and poetry, and prophecy, and precept, and promise, and
prayer: "Be ye holy, for I am holy."

6. Until this blessing is welcomed we shall never attain our true usefulness and
obtain the enduement of power. God could not safely bestow His great gift of
power upon unclean, carnal souls. Most of the great popular preachers who
receive a touch of power from God show how the carnal heart would abuse it and
prostitute it to selfish ends. Few of them keep humble and true. Few keep their
eye single to the glory of God. Few continue to remain great soul-winners. Few
of them can be safely followed by the people. Few of them lead in the great but
unpopular moral reforms of their day. Few of them walk close to God in the paths
of righteousness. Power is a solemn, awful trust; God can not bestow His
Spirit’s power upon any but sanctified souls. III. How may the Pentecostal
blessing be obtained?

I want to answer this solemn question so fully that all who read these lines
with burdened and seeking, or even willing, hearts may surely find the way.
There are so many people that do not know what ails them, believers in Christ
who are still hungry and disappointed, restless and ill at ease. They want, they
know not what; and their pastors, carrying about in their own souls the same
craving, can not tell them.

I believe that all honest and sincere Christians who keep in close touch with
God, and are willing to walk in the light, will, consciously or unconsciously,
be led through certain steps to the blessing of heart-cleansing and
sanctification.

1. The Holy Spirit will awaken in the teachable believer a sense of obligation
to be holy, and drive home a great, deep conviction of want. It is not optional
with the child of God to be sanctified or not. It is commanded nearly a score of
times in the New Testament alone. We are exhorted to it in endlessly varying
language, and encouraged by multiplied promises, and urged on by every
conceivable motive drawn from earth and heaven and hell. We are taught that our
usefulness and the salvation of souls and the glory of God depend upon it.
Sooner or later the ever-present Spirit will show these things to the devoted
and teachable heart and make it feel its need of a deeper and more radical work
of grace, an enlargement of soul, and an enduement of power. Catharine Booth
said, "O, what numbers of ministers, elders, deacons, leaders, Sabbath School
teachers, and the like, have come to me confessing that they have been working
with little results!"

Andrew Murray says: "You know that, before a sinner can be converted, he must be
convicted of sin; just so the believer must be convicted and brought to the
confession of his being in the carnal state. It might be termed a second
conviction, of two things, -- the utter impotence of the flesh to do any good,
and the mighty power of the flesh to work evil. This is the first condition of
getting sanctified. Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Blessed are the Christian
hearts to whom the Holy Spirit reveals their great want of a heart like unto
Christ."

2. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." Blessed are the
believers who mourn over the fact that God’s ideal of a Christian has not been
more speedily realized in them; that they have not crowned King Jesus as the
Lord of their being, and permitted Him to baptize them with the Holy Ghost; who
mourn because they have had so little passion for souls, and won so few
victories, and had so little concern for the lost. Such a mourning is a
forerunner of the comfort of full salvation.

3. The Spirit-led believer will be brought to feel the importance of the
Pentecostal experience. Like the disciples with their commission to represent
Jesus and disciple the world, they will cry out, "Who is sufficient for these
things? Lord, let me have more of Thy likeness and more of Thy power, or let me
die right here; I cannot face the world as I am."

O the stupendous importance of being "filled with the Spirit," in order to be
successful as a Christian parent, or teacher, or leader, or preacher -- anything
that God wants us to be! There is no true and large success without it. How the
disciples prayed for it in the upper chamber! How many others have bowed before
God and sought it with all their hearts! Mrs. Booth says: "God never gave this
gift to any human soul who had not come to the point that he would sell all he
had to get it."

4. The leading Spirit will further show the seeking heart that this blessing is
for each child of God. It is the "promise of the Father" to every one of His
blood-bought children. "The promise is unto you and to your children, and unto
them that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call." Whoever
of the sons of men has a call to be a Christian at all, has a call to be a
sanctified Christian. "This is the will of God, even your sanctification; for
God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification." (Ephesians 4:3-7)

Before any one will ever successfully seek the blessing we are writing about, he
will be led by the Holy Spirit to feel that, as a child of God, it is his
blood-bought right to have it. He may be very ignorant of the philosophy or
theology of the experience; as ignorant, for instance, as the poor Texan was. He
was genuinely converted from a life of ignorance and sin, and began to read and
pray over his New Testament. He had no teacher but the Holy Spirit. He found
much in the book about sanctification, and that it was the will of God that we
should be sanctified. He knelt above the sacred page and prayed: "O God, You say
You want me to be sanctified. I do not know what it means, but You know, and I
want it. Lord, sanctify me now." And heaven came down to greet his soul with a
deluge of glory.

O, dear reader, this blessing is not merely for Saint Paul, and John Fletcher,
and John Wesley, and a few other notable people, but, if you are a true child of
God, it is for YOU. A still further condition of receiving this blessing is to
HUNGER AND THIRST FOR IT, until, like a hungry child, you will cry unto God for
what you want. Jesus said, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be filled." We must long for this blessing with a
craving that will take no denial. You can pray for the baptism with the Holy
Ghost till your tongues are tired, but so long as you fight sanctification as a
possible experience of the children of God, He will not come to your souls.

Moody said: "Let it be the cry of your heart day and night. Young men, you will
get this blessing when you seek it above all else. For months I had been
hungering and thirsting for power in service. I had come to that state that, I
think, I would have died if I had not got it." [After reading earlier in this
book of how Moody later taught that all he received was power, and not purity,
it rather nullifies the good impression one might receive from reading this
here. -- DVM] When men are thus filled with an agony of desire they will not
need to be coaxed to come to the altar. When they get there, they will not be
the pink of propriety, kneeling gracefully on one knee, and covering their face
with a lace handkerchief, silent as a Sphinx: as if possessed of a dumb devil.
When people are hungry enough for sanctification to get it, they will rush to
the altar unceremoniously, and tumble down before God, and cry unto Him for the
Spirit with a holy recklessness, with uplifted face, and loud voice, indifferent
to the opinion of men or devils. That is the spirit that always gets the
blessing.

6. Another condition that must be named is obedience. We read in Acts 5:32, "The
Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that OBEY HIM." The Holy Ghost is not
given to disobedient people. Sanctification does not come to conscious rebels.
It is bestowed only on the obedient. But obedience is more than obedience in
some things. It does not pick and choose what commands to obey, and what to
disregard. Obedience is a whole-hearted, cheerful surrender of the will to obey
God in EVERYTHING. How much it means to have a hearty delight in the law of God,
to love the statutes of the Lord, to feel that they "are sweeter than honey and
the honeycomb, and that in keeping of them there is great reward!" We have too
much obedience nowadays that obeys in everything but -- that easily besetting
sin, worldliness, or pride, or avarice, or tobacco. People are willing to give
up everything but; and behind that Satanic "but" there slips into the life the
darling indulgence, the unhallowed love, the petted sin, which utterly vitiates
the whole life. This is not obedience at all. it is only playing at character
and virtue. Men shrink from known duty, through fear of the opinion of others,
or through dislike of some self-denial. They thus miss the prize of their high
calling in Christ Jesus, for the Spirit is grieved away.

Real obedience consents to obey God about everything, to listen to the slightest
whisper of the Holy Spirit, to grant anything which God asks, to abstain from
anything which His Word and a Spirit-illuminated conscience condemns.

People seeking the baptism with the Holy Ghost have frequent tests of obedience
that are sometimes very striking. With Frances Willard it was the giving up of
gold buttons; with Maggie Van Cott, the surrender of a gold ring given by a dead
husband; with a man I know it was the discontinuance of the sale of tobacco;
with another it was to give up his Masonic lodge; with a girl, the other day, it
was to abandon a vain and fashionable dressing of her hair. In every one of
these cases the heavenly anointing came when the will surrendered in absolute
obedience to God.

7. The next condition is FULL CONSECRATION. Romans 12:1, reads, "I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." The body,
being at present the home of the soul, stands for the whole being. The verb, "to
present" is in the aorist tense, denoting an act done and finished. Whoever,
then, would receive a baptism with the Holy Ghost for entire sanctification, and
be made "holy, acceptable to God," must consecrate himself wholly to the Lord,
body, soul, spirit; eyes to see for God, ears to hear for God, tongue to speak
for God, hands to toil for God, feet to walk in paths of righteousness; the
whole body to be the temple of the Holy Ghost; the intellect to think for God;
the judgment to decide for God; the conscience to be an inward monitor,
condemning everything God condemns, approving everything which He approves; the
memory to record things just, and true, and pure, and holy, and of good report,
and, as readily, burying in the "*Lethe of forgetfulness" everything corrupting,
and low, and vile, and Satanic; [*Lethe = 1. in Greek mythology a river in Hades
producing forgetfulness of the past, 2. such forgetfulness -- Oxford Dict.] the
sensibilities to thrill with such emotions and feelings as would become the
bosom of an angel in heaven; the will to choose Christ, and place Him upon the
throne of the heart, and crown Him Lord of our entire being, and say "amen" to
His blessed will; the life to be lived alone for the glory of God; the
possessions to be held in trust and administered upon, as by a steward, wholly
for the kingdom and glory of God; the reputation to be given over to the Lord
for Him to take care of and defend, everything that you are, or ever shall be,
everything that you have, or ever shall have, to be the Lord’s, WHOLLY His, ONLY
His, for TIME and for ETERNITY, NOW and FOREVER.

"A consecrated spirit," as A. B. Simpson says, "is thus wholly given to God, to
know Him, to choose, to resemble His character, to trust His word, to love Him
supremely, to glorify Him only, to enjoy Him wholly, and to belong to Him
utterly, unreservedly, and forever. This is genuine consecration, and nothing
short of it will bring the blessing we are talking about. Such a consecration as
that will put yourself over into God’s hands to be sanctified; will place you on
the altar, which is Christ. What will He do with such a trust?

8. The soul that has consciously gone thus far has got on believing ground.
There remains nothing left for it to do but to believe. Many try to believe
prematurely, when their will is not fully surrendered, or their consecration is
not complete, and they know it. In such a state of heart, the soul can not
believe. Faith will not take hold. It may try, but it is only playing at
believing; it is not on believing ground, where it can believe. But when the
soul feels its need of sanctification, and mourns, and. hungers, and thirsts,
and is fully surrendered to God for it, and to live it, and has put all on the
altar, till it has the witness of itself and the Spirit of God that there is
absolutely nothing held back, nothing unsurrendered, unconsecrated, then what?
Why, just believe that as you have done your part, God now does His, now IS
DOING IT. You may have to wait a little time as Abraham did beside the altar,
scaring away the birds and jackals of unbelief, a minute, an hour, a day, or
even a week, while you are holding fast in faith for sanctification; but, as
sure as God lives and is true, He will honor a genuine obedience and
consecration and faith with the witnessing fire, the sin-consuming, sanctifying
energy of the Holy Ghost. It is the will of God that you should be sanctified.
(1 Thessalonians 5:3) For this express purpose He shed His blood. (Hebrews
13:12) When your will comes into harmony with God’s will, and you earnestly cry
unto God in faith for the very blessing He died to give you and has promised you
(1 Thessalonians 5:23-24), HE "WILL DO IT." He could not remain a holy God, if
He did not "do it."

Ordinarily the witness comes promptly. Frequently people wait a day or two; but
it is an expectant, prayerful waiting. I have known one man in my meeting to
thus wait seven days, when an unmistakable witness came. I heard one person say
that he thus waited three weeks; but such cases are very rare. More frequently,
by far, they get the witness at the same service in which the work was completed
on the human side. GOD SANCTIFlES AS SOON AS, WITH ALL OUR HEARTS, WE LET HIM.
In my book, "Holiness and Power," I devote ninety-six pages to careful
instruction on how to receive this blessing. I know of no other book that gives
such ample instruction, with the recorded experience of so many witnesses. I
purposely made it so, because my heart was full of sympathy for the souls who
were hungering, as I had done, for this great blessing which they knew not how
to obtain. I refer the reader to that book for further and exhaustive discussion
of this wondrous theme. To be filled with the Spirit means to be sanctified.

We close this Chapter with two quotations from that precious little book, "A
Clean Heart," already noticed.

"Jesus who knew just what the heart of man is, said of it: ’Out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies; these are the things that defile a man." We are accustomed to hear
much said today about the wickedness of our great cities. The wickedness of our
great cities and little cities, and of the whole world, is in men’s hearts, and
all the expressions of it in thought and words are simply the workings out of
what was inside all the time.

"The effort of all the laws and nearly all the religions of the world is to get
men to behave better than their hearts want to behave. And the effort is a
prodigious one -- to behave better than the heart inclines to do. All the crimes
and sins of society are born in men’s sinful hearts. If any religion is to be of
benefit to man, it must have its chief sway in the heart. There never was a more
successful wile of the devil than this -- to keep men’s minds on the externals
of religion to such an extent as to keep their attention from the heart. The
result is that there is a cry that religion is declining. The decay of genuine,
old-time revivals, the decrease of membership in the Churches, the decline of
family religion as witnessed by the increasing number of deserted family altars,
the growing Sabbath desecration, the increasing hunger of the professed Church
for the theater and dance, the small number who attend the means of grace in our
Churches, are all indications that the heart is wrong. They are certain symptoms
of the heart-disease which Higher Criticism, the preaching of evolution, the
increasing number of organizations in the Church, do not check, but, like quack
medicines, they only aggravate the disease and kill the patient. There must soon
be a revival of heart-religion in the present Church organizations or God will
take these candlesticks out of their places and give them to the keeping of some
other whom he will raise up for the purpose.

"As long as the world stands, there is a place for heart religion, and God will
always have it in the world. It is the only hope of the world. Let us each stand
for heart religion, and let us remember that the greater part of religion is on
the inside, and hence needs great attention.

"It seems as if Satan said to many Christians: ’Yes, I see that you feel your
need of a clean heart, and it is right that you should have it; but get it in a
reasonable way. Strive hard for it, or wait until you grow into it, or seek it
by evolution.’ With him it is just as well if you seek it in the wrong way as
though you did not seek it at all. The Psalmist sought it by faith. This is the
Bible method. It is not the popular method. The faith method of salvation has
never been popular with the world, or the worldly part of the Church. The
natural man has much to say about works and charities, but he ridicules your
idea of being saved by faith. The religionist of the Church is as much opposed
to the cleansing of the heart by the faith method.

"The late Dr. Curry used to say that the idea of religion that now obtains in
the Church is to be converted by faith, and then go on and finish the work
ourselves by our own doing instead of trusting God to complete it. Paul declared
that he wished not to be found in his own righteousness of the law, but the
righteousness which is of God by faith in Christ Jesus." The reader will notice
that the subject of this Chapter is HOW TO OBTAIN. Man seeks to attain a clean
heart. This is the human method of doing it for ourselves by growth, evolution,
etc. To OBTAIN is to receive it as a gift from God.

All salvation that we ever receive is by gift from God. There is not a passage
in the Word of God that says it is by works or by growth that we have our hearts
purified. All the passages that speak on the subject declare that it is by
faith. When Paul stood before Agrippa he declared that Jesus gave him a
commission to preach. In that commission it was declared that he was to so
declare that gospel that men might receive an inheritance among them that are
SANCTIFIED BY FAITH. If Jesus told Paul that men are sanctified by faith, it
must be so. Who dares say it is by growth?

Peter declares in Acts 15:9," Purifying their hearts by faith." Why do men dare,
in the face of these unmistakable teachings of Scripture, without a straight,
direct passage to the contrary in all the Word of God, to set up human methods
of saving men from sin (indwelling sin)?

Dear reader, the Word tells us four times that we are sanctified by the Holy
Spirit. Once we are told that this heart cleansing comes at the time of the
baptism with the Holy Spirit Will you, then, by faith receive this baptism for
heart cleansing? Will you let the Holy Spirit crucify the Old Man and do away
with him, that you may be holy? As the refiner’s fire purifies the gold and
silver, will you by faith receive the Spirit, and let the carnal dross of your
being be purged away by the fire of the Holy Ghost?


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  CHAPTER 5: 01.04.     PENTECOST RECEIVED RESULTS IN WALKING WITH GOD AND SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD
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4. Pentecost Received Results in Walking with God and Separation from the World
By Aaron Hills God’s Word On The Subject

I. Commanded

Genesis 17:1 : "The Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto him, I am the
Almighty God; WALK before Me, and be thou perfect."

Deuteronomy 5:33 : "Ye shall WALK in all the ways which the Lord your God hath
commanded you."

Deuteronomy 13:4 : "Ye shall WALK after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep
His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him and cleave unto
Him."

Joshua 22:5 : "Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which
Moses the servant of God commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to WALK
in all His ways, and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him."

Isaiah 2:5 : "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us WALK in the light of the
Lord."

Isaiah 30:21 : "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the
way, WALK ye in it."

Jeremiah 6:16 : "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for
the old paths, where is the good way, and WALK therein, and ye shall find rest
for your souls; but they said, We will not walk therein."

Jeremiah 7:23 : "Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be
My people, and WALK ye in all the ways that I command you, that it may be well
with you."

Ezekiel 37:24 : "They shall also WALK in my judgments, and observe my statutes
and do them."

Micah 6:8 : "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord
require of thee but to do justly, and love mercy, and to WALK humbly with thy
God?"

Galatians 5:16 : "WALK by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh."

Colossians 2:6 : "As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so WALK ye in
Him, rooted and built up in him."

1 John 2:6 : "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to WALK
even as He walked." II. Warnings Leviticus 26:24 : "If ... ye WALK contrary unto
Me, then will I WALK contrary unto you."

Jude 1:15 : "For in the last time there shall be mockers, WALKING after their
ungodly lusts." III. Duty Nehemiah 5:9 : "Ought ye not to WALK in the fear of
our God?"

IV. Promises

Leviticus 26:3-12 : "If ye WALK in My statutes, and keep My commandments and do
them, I will set My tabernacle among you: and My soul shall not abhor you; and I
will WALK among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." V.
Conditions

Deuteronomy 28:9 : "The Lord shall establish thee for a holy people unto
Himself, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God and WALK in His
ways." -- Obedience Romans 8:14 : "For as many as ARE LED by the Spirit of God,
these are the sons of God." -- Spirit-led.

2 Corinthians 5:7 : "For we WALK by faith, not by sight." -- A life of faith
Amos 3:3 : "Shall two WALK together except they be agreed?" -- Agreement with
God

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 : "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath righteousness with iniquity? or what communion hath
light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion
hath a believer with an infidel? and what agreement hath a temple of God with
idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; even as God hath said, I will
dwell in them and WALK in them; and I will be their God and they shall be My
people. Wherefore come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, and will be a Father
unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty." --
Separation from the world. VI. Examples Genesis 5:22-24 : "And Enoch WALKED with
God three hundred years; and he was not, for God took him."

Genesis 6:9 : "Noah was a righteous man, perfect in his generation: Noah WALKED
with God."

Genesis 24:40 : "And he [Abraham] said unto me, The Lord before whom I WALK,
will send His angel with thee, and prosper thy way."

2 Kings 20:3 : "Remember now, O Lord, I beseech Thee, how I have WALKED before
Thee, in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in
Thy sight."

Luke 1:6 : "And they were both righteous before God, WALKING in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."

How much is said in the blessed Book about the duty and the privilege of walking
with God! These passages are so very remarkable and impressive, when grouped
together in an orderly way, that they preach themselves; and it is a solemn
sermon. One almost runs a risk, next to rashness, even to attempt to enlarge
upon these Scriptures.

They manifestly teach us:

1. That God wants us to walk with Him. He has set His heart upon it. He
doubtless made us for this purpose. He might have dwelt alone, as He inhabited
eternity in the mysterious companionship of the Trinity, without a finite moral
being to witness His glory: but he created such beings in His own image that he
might enjoy them; and that they might find their delight in Him. This would
reflect glory upon God, and bring bliss to us.

2. Manifestly, people can walk with God. Enoch did it three hundred years. Three
hundred years is a long time -- longer than any of us can realize. It is [1902]
not yet three hundred years since the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock;
yet what mighty events have transpired, and what developments have intervened!
And there were no Christian Churches then on every other city square, and no
Bibles teeming from great publishing houses, and no religious papers, and no
Sunday Schools! None of these modern helps to holiness were in existence; yet
"Enoch walked with God three hundred years; and he was not, for God took him."
Amidst all the abounding sin of that dark, ancient world, he walked so close to
God that he walked right into heaven without passing through the gateway of
death. As some one has expressed it, one bright morning God and Enoch were
taking their customary walk; they came to the door of God’s house; He stepped
across the threshold, and invited Enoch in; Enoch was too polite to refuse, and
just went in to be forever with the Lord. Yet in the face of such a historic
fact, people coddle themselves in their sins, and say, "One cannot live holy;
one cannot walk with God."

Noah walked with God a long time, perhaps hundreds of years, when the world was
getting so desperately and hopelessly wicked that God had resolved to destroy
it.

Abraham heard God’s call when he was living among his idolatrous fathers, and
"by faith he went out, not knowing whither he went." He only knew that God was
with him, and in his long journey he was walking with God.

Moses walked with God in such intimacy of communion that, somehow, the glory of
the Lord shone out through his face till men could not look upon its dazzling
radiance.

Elijah walked with God when the king and queen and courtiers, and the wealth and
fashion, and priests and people, so far as he knew, were all against him. One
day as he was walking with God, one of the heavenly chariots swung low enough to
take him in; and, in the twinkling of an eye, he swept home to heaven.

None of these men had our opportunities, had our light, our helps, and our
advantages. "Yet they had this witness borne to them, that they had been
well-pleasing to God." O, how it shames our cheap modern piety, that talks about
sin as an unavoidable necessity!

3. If people do walk with God, they must walk where God walks. "He guideth me in
the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake." This old path of righteousness
is the very one that Abel walked in at the beginning of human history, when "he
had witness borne to him that he was righteous." This is the only path in which
God ever did or ever will walk. From eternity He has ever been the same holy
Being. Man’s fashions and customs change. He smiles on this today, and on that
tomorrow; but God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Men run daft after
everything new -- new theology, new criticism, new philosophies, new beliefs. It
has become quite a fad to sneer at Puritanical morals and old-fashioned faiths.
Even John Wesley’s "Perfect Love" is relegated to the back shelf or the
lumber-room. No religious notion over twenty years old is worthy of respect. But
God looks down calmly upon all this fickle foolishness, and says, "Ask for the
old paths, where is the good way, and WALK therein."

It requires no ordinary courage to do it in these days, when men bow, as willows
in a gale, before any fashionable craze of unbelief; and backboneless preachers
and people alike would rather be popular than be right with God. God’s path is
the path of holiness. "And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be
called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, for HE SHALL BE
WITH THEM." (Isaiah 35:8. R. V., Marginal reading) This is why God asks people
to get their hearts cleansed. Without that cleansing, they never will peaceably
walk His road. This way of holiness does not lead through saloons, or
wine-suppers, or dancing-parties, or card-clubs, or theaters, or race-courses,
or Sunday picnics and excursions, or any other worldly and unhallowed pleasures.
The foul, and the vile, and the unclean, and the Godless shall not pass over it.

4. And they must be agreed. Who can delight in companionship when there is
neither fellowship nor harmony? God pointedly asks, "Shall two walk together
except they be agreed?" What two? Why, you and God. And in what is the agreement
to consist? In moral character. Not in scope of intellect: not in largeness of
vision; not in extent of power; but wholly in character. "Be ye holy, for I am
holy." And just as God would not leave His path of holiness to walk with you in
a path of sin, so He will not surrender his character to be in harmony with you.
You, therefore, must choose His path and come into harmony with Him. "Like as He
who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living." Your
disposition must be a harpstring in tune with the heart of God. Your purposes
must all lie parallel to the great redemptive purpose of God, so that you will
be lost in seeking his glory in the salvation of dying men. Your feelings and
emotions must throb and thrill with ecstasies of heaven. Your loves and hates
must be so swallowed up in God that you will love only what He loves, and hate
only what He hates. As the light of the stars blends with the effulgence of the
morning sun, and they are lost in his surpassing glory, so all the outgoings of
your emotional nature should unite with and be lost in the infinite love of God.

5. To this end God requires separation; and He will surely get it if you become
truly sanctified and holy; for you will suddenly find that you have lost your
relish for all that is unlike Him. "Come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord." Evidently the holy God is condemning these unhallowed
unions of every kind, which so blur the spiritual eyesight and deaden the moral
instincts of His children that they can not sense any danger in popular evils,
and thus become the easy victims of tempters and temptations.

God does not want His own blood-bought souls to be in too intimate social
contact, and in the perpetual presence of attractive forms of sin. "Vice is a
monster of such frightful mien That, to be hated, needs but to be seen; But seen
too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

There is no safety for a Christian in intimate, voluntary association with it,
save as one goes in the strength of God, like a missionary, to convert sinners;
and then there should be no social, domestic, or business entanglements.

There was no safety for Samson in company with Delilah and the Philistine lords.
There was no safety for Solomon with his godless wives. There was no safety for
the children of Israel with the Canaanites dwelling in the land. "Be ye
separate, saith the Lord." The Christian Church today has lost its testimony,
and is comparatively powerless, because it is walking hand-in-glove with the
world.

Moody says: "The minister wonders why God does not revive his work; he wonders
why he is losing his hold upon the congregation; he wonders why people do not
come crowding into the Church, and are running after the world. The trouble is
that we have let down the standard; we have grieved the Spirit of God. One
movement of God’s power is worth more than all our artificial power, and what
the Church of God wants today is to get down in the dust of humiliation and
confession of sin, and go out and be separated from the world: and then see if
we do not have power with God and with man."

1. I think this "separation" which God enjoins refers to business partnership.
Many of God’s children yoke themselves with unscrupulous business partners, and
then they are a party to every unhallowed thing their partners do. If the
unChristian partner does business on Sunday, or cheats or swindles, the
Christian member of the firm must wink at the iniquity, share in the profits,
and be a silent accomplice in the sin. In 2 Chronicles 18:1, we read:
"Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab."
God had enriched him, but he made a business alliance and a political alliance
with this prince of sinners, and got into great trouble by it, nearly losing his
life. Afterward Jehoshaphat got a warning from one of God’s prophets: "Shouldest
thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord. Therefore is wrath upon
thee from before the Lord." (19:2) Still he did not learn his lesson, and he
made a partnership with Ahab’s son, Ahaziah, "who did very wickedly." They made
ships to go to Tarshish, and went into the ship-building and shipping business
together. Again a prophet said to him: "Because thou hast joined thyself with
Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works." An indignant God let loose a storm
upon him, "and the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to
Tarshish." (2 Chronicles 20:35-37) That is God’s opinion of an unhallowed
business partnership for one of his children. Undoubtedly He has caused many of
them to fail because they thus bound themselves up with sinners in their
eagerness for gain, to whom otherwise He would have given success.

2. This also forbids a Christian to marry an unbeliever: "Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers." We may be married to whom we will "only in the
Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:39) This unChristian marrying is one of the greatest of
evils to the Church of Christ. God has given us a life-size picture of this form
of sin.

Turn again to the story of Jehoshaphat. He had seven sons. He could not find a
God-fearing girl in all Judah quite high enough socially for the Crown Prince
Jehoram to marry. So he married him to Miss Ahab, the daughter of Jezebel, that
monster of female wickedness. What was the result of this godless union? Read
the awful story. "Jehoram wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord;
for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife." (2 Chronicles 21:4-6) Under her
influence he slew his six brothers; and God smote him with an incurable disease
till he died. Then his horrible wife, Athaliah, after her son’s short reign of
one year, stretched out her murderous hand and slew all her own grandchildren
and children, save little Joash, in order that she herself might reign. (22:10)
He afterward became king, and then later in life became himself a murderer. So
it came about that all the descendants of Jehoshaphat for three generations,
except one great-grandson, were murdered: all because he married his son to a
wicked princess, Miss Ahab. Crime after crime and murder after murder were the
fruit of an evil marriage. Is anything like that going on now? Everywhere, and
all the while. Parents will train a son for God until he gets to be of a
marriageable age; then their love of money gets the better of them, and they
forbid him to marry some poor but beautiful Christian girl, and pick out for him
the Christless Athaliah of a rich Ahab. Christian parents will bring a little
daughter to the altar, and give her to God in baptism. They train her to be pure
as a snowflake, and then, when she is grown, they forbid her to love the worthy
but poor young man who can offer a clean manhood, and a white soul, and
deliberately hand her over in marriage to the lecherous arms of Mr. Beelzebub
Moneybags, whose heart is as black as hell! I know no worship of the golden calf
so basely mean as that! A certain Christian young man of my acquaintance,
superintendent of a Baptist Sabbath School, could not find among all the
hundreds of thousands of Christian young women in his Church a fit helpmeet; so
he married an unChristian worldling. When he knelt to set up the family altar
and invoke the blessing of God on the new home, his young bride sat upright in
her chair, and sneered at him and his religion and his Christ. What a spectacle
for angels and God to look upon! It is just this kind of marriage that is
sending myriads of families to hell. This, I believe, is the reason why many
Christian wives can get no answers to their prayers in behalf of their
unChristian husbands. They deliberately defied God’s law in marriage: and God
must be true to Himself; He will not annul His law to accommodate the
disobedient. They made their bed against the protests of the Spirit, and now
they must lie in it.

3. I believe this truth bears at least upon many of our secret societies. As a
pastor for nearly a score of years, and an evangelist for six years, I have had
some chance for observation, and I have never met the minister or layman who
could maintain spiritual power and be an active member of some secret societies.
To be a member of these lodges you must sanction all initiation performances,
foolishness, feasts, costly regalia, and general worldliness. In some of them
you have fellowship with gamblers, liars, blasphemers, and whoremongers; you
call them brothers, and are bound by oath to help each other in right or wrong.
How can a Christian countenance all this? "And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to
speak of those things that are done of them in secret." (Ephesians 5:11-14)

Moody says: "I do not see how any Christian, most of all a Christian minister,
can go into these lodges with unbelievers. They say they can have more influence
for good; but I say they can have more influence for good by staying out of
them, and then reproving their evil deeds. Abraham had more influence for good
in Sodom than Lot had. If twenty-five Christians go into a lodge with fifty who
are not Christians, the fifty can vote anything they please, and the twenty-five
will be partakers of their sins. They are unequally yoked together with
unbelievers."

Daniel Webster said: "Secret societies are dangerous to the cause of civil
liberty and good government."

John Quincy Adams, one of America’s noblest Presidents, said: I am prepared to
complete the demonstration before God and man that the Masonic oaths,
obligations, and penalties cannot, by any possibility, be reconciled to the laws
of morality, Christianity, or civil law. Secrets written in blood should be
revealed. A tree that bears such fruit should be cut down. No butcher would
mutilate the carcass of a bullock or swine as the Masonic candidate swears
consent to the mutilation of his own body for the breach of an absurd and
unreasonable secret. It is an oath of which a common cannibal would be ashamed."
When we had the last great railroad strike, led by Debbs, what horrible crimes
and deeds were committed! What outlawry went on! One hundred millions’ worth of
property was lost and destroyed, and many, many lives. Murder was rampant. It
made one’s heart sick to see the multitudes of Christian men who were out on the
strike, and defending this outlawry. God is not pleased with such things and
calls loudly for separation.

4. I only mention that God calls us to separate ourselves from the wicked in our
amusements and pleasures. Worldly people will never have a particle of respect
for our religion until we do; neither can we walk with God in these unhallowed
paths, for the Holy One is not there.

Dear reader, are you in the old paths of righteousness, where the saints have
ever walked? Have you come out from among sinners, and left the devil’s common,
and are you walking with God’s holy ones in company with the unseen Christ? When
Moody first went to England he was introduced to a grand old Christian in
Dublin, and he turned to the friend and asked: "Is this young man all O. O.?
Moody asked him to explain. The old saint responded: "Are you all out-and-out
for Christ?" Moody said: "I would rather have that title O. O. than D. D., LL.
D." Dear reader, you would better be known in heaven as O. O., out-and-out for
Christ, than wear any earthly crown. But you will never be thus "out-and-out for
Christ," and walk with him in holiness, until you pass through the Pentecostal
chamber and loose your carnality. The carnal mind, "that is enmity against God
and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," will never consent
to your walking with your Lord. The "old man" does not delight in "the path of
righteousness," and he will betray you, tempt you, cheat you out of it in some
way. He will never rest until he induces you to tread the by-paths of sin. But
the Omnipotent Spirit of God can slay this old man of indwelling sin, and cast
him out, and set you free from his enticements; and then, coming in and taking
possession of you Himself, He will so reveal the lovely Christ to you that you
will be lost in the love of Him. You will delight in no other path but His. Your
soul will be enraptured with His companionship, charmed with His character, and
the Holy One of Nazareth will be all-in-all to your adoring heart. O, seek the
Pentecostal chamber; for it will prove the gate to heavenly delights to your
purified soul. You will walk upon Beulah Summits of blessing, and eat the Eshcol
clusters and the honey of full salvation. The "promise of the Father" will be
realized in your life, the enduement of power of the Most High. The Holy Spirit
will abide in your heart, and give you "the fullness of the blessing" and "the
life more abundant." "The sun shall be no more thy light by day: neither for
brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee
an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down;
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting
light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." THE END


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: 02.00. SECRET OF SPIRITUAL POWER
========================================================================

Secret of Spiritual Power by Aaron Hills


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: 02.00C.     CONTENTS
========================================================================

Contents 1. What Christ Said About Holiness 2. What Paul Said About Holiness,
part 1 3. What Paul Said About Holiness, part 2 4. What Paul Said About
Holiness, part 3 5. What Paul Said About Holiness, part 4 6. What Peter Said
About Holiness 7. What James and John Said About Holiness 8. What Holiness Is 9.
It Brings Power 10. Holiness Rejected Makes Strange Bedfellows 11. Holiness
Rejected Produces a Worldly and Barren Ministry 12. Holiness Rejected Produces a
Godless Christianity 13. The Heavenly Vision


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  CHAPTER 8: 02.01.     WHAT CHRIST SAID ABOUT HOLINESS
========================================================================

1. What Christ Said About Holiness By Aaron Hills

Pentecost filled the world with its fame. It was an epochal hour in Christian
history. It might almost be said to have revolutionized the spiritual activities
of the kingdom of God among men. It was the subject of prophecy hundreds of
years before the eventful day came, and it is now pointed back to as the
birth-hour of a dispensation of grace with the Holy Spirit as the reigning
Executive of the triune God.

How remarkable it is that a day so prominent and eventful in the history of the
Church of Christ should be a subject of contention and debate among the leaders
and teachers of the Church! It would be amazing indeed were it not for the
curious fact that upon every subject of human thought men have taken sides, and
there have been diversities of opinion. A famous writer has said that if there
were any conceivable motive for doing it somebody would rise up and deny that
two and two are four.

Sometimes from a lack of careful thought on the subject, and often nowadays from
a desire to escape the grip of the second blessing theory, men are telling us
that the disciples were never converted until Pentecost; still others tell us
that they were all backslidden and were only restored. These theories have
apparently been invented in the interest both of the theory that "you get it all
at conversion" and also the theory that "there is no such thing as
sanctification."

Now the evidence is absolute and overwhelming that the disciples were Christians
long before Pentecost; for 1. They had "forsaken all" to follow Jesus.

2. They were the children of God, for Jesus said to them: "Fear not, little
flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." They were
not then the children of the devil, but the children of God.

3. They were branches of Christ, the Living Vine, abiding in Him.

4. They had long borne a commission to teach and preach and work miracles in the
name of Jesus. They even cast out devils -- a thing the children of the devil
never do, for his kingdom is not divided against itself.

5. The world hated them "because they are not of the world." The world loves its
own.

6. They were given to Christ, and He had kept them, and none of them were lost
but one. If not lost, they must have been saved.

7. The world did not know the Spirit, but Jesus said to the disciples: "Ye know
him; for he dwelleth with you."

8. Jesus had given them the sacrament to keep in perpetual remembrance of Him.

9. Jesus said of them in the intercessory prayer: "For they are thine. And all
mine are thine . . and I am glorified in them."

10. Again Jesus said: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them;
that they may be one, even as we are one." No language could make it more
evident that Jesus did not class His disciples among sinners. They were sincere
followers of Jesus, and separate from the world.

After the Resurrection, every conversation with His followers indicated that He
still looked upon them as His devout and sincere followers.

Now we are confronted by the striking fact that Jesus’ prayed for these
converted, regenerated disciples, that they might be sanctified. Furthermore, in
His last interview He told them of the promise of the Father, the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, and He strictly charged them to tarry at Jerusalem and wait for it.
He told them that it would endue them with power, and fit them to be witnesses
in all the world.

He had previously commanded them, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect." He had said: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all
thy strength." This was the fountain of John Wesley’s "Perfect Love," or
"Christian Perfection." The crystal stream of Methodism had its rise in the
hills of heaven. The burden of Jesus’ last conversation with His disciples in
the upper chamber, on the eve of His crucifixion, was the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. John the Baptist had said: "I indeed baptize you with water.. . but he
shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."

Jesus’ parting words to His disciples before He ascended were: "John truly
baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days
hence." "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

Great souls, when leaving their followers, do not speak on trivial themes in
their farewell addresses. Nothing can be more evident than that Jesus regarded
the Pentecostal baptism as a matter of the profoundest importance to His
followers of all time. On Pentecost the long-promised and expected blessing
came. What happened? The advocates of the second blessing are not theorizing
here. We walk on the firm ground of revelation and historic fact. The Apostle
Peter was there, one who experienced the blessing and was an eyewitness to all
that occurred there, and he bore this testimony before the council at Jerusalem
as to what happened when the disciples, and also Cornelius and his household,
were baptized with the Holy Spirit: "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare
them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no
difference between us and them, purifying [cleansing] their hearts by faith."

Manifestly this was the cleansing or sanctification that Jesus prayed for in the
upper chamber. It too the abnormal, the unnatural, the depraved out of the
hearts or natures of the disciples. Peter evidently lost his cowardice and
became more modest and humble. James and John lost the worldly ambitions that
urged them to seek first and second place in the kingdom, and the passion that
wanted fire to fall from heaven and burn up a whole village. Thomas lost the
morbid tendency to doubt and disbelieve. Martha doubtless lost her fret about
household cares; and all of them lost self-seeking worldliness and became that
loving band of unselfish believers wholly devoted to Christ described in Acts,
who have been the wonder of the ages.

Along with that heart-cleansing came an unusual power, an sense of the presence
of God with them, an assurance of victory over men and devils, that wholly
lifted them above all fear or anxiety as to results. Opposition did not check
them; persecution did not stay them; threatening Sanhedrins, scowling priests,
and persecuting civil powers could not stop their progress. All men suddenly
became conscious that those humble, obscure, unlettered disciples had all at
once become men of power. Something had happened in their spiritual experience,
quite as striking and marvelous as their regeneration, that riveted upon them
the gaze of the world, and made them in spiritual life and power wondrously like
Jesus, their Lord. The proof of this epochal second blessing experience in the
Bible is absolute. That it sanctified or cleansed the cannot be denied. That it
endued them with a superhuman power to propagate their faith is beyond question.
That this blessing is for all believers, of every age, Peter distinctly declared
at Pentecost. In the face of these undeniable facts, how strangely out of place
it is for religious teachers in the name of Jesus to make light of this
Pentecostal experience, and sneer at this second-blessing baptism with the Holy
Spirit! It is a sad accompanying fact that the ministers who do it are scarcely
saved from the deserved contempt of the world for their barrenness. This is the
need of the hour in all our churches. Our ministers are conspicuously weak when
they might be giants for God. Our churches confront an impudent, scorning world
in conscious helplessness, when they ought to march against its spiritual foes,
terrible as an army with banners. I am writing these lines in a parish in
Louisiana where the worldly, tobacco-using pastor has rejected Pentecost; and as
a consequence, he has not won a soul here in these last two years. The churches
are clothed with barrenness everywhere, and these sanctification-despising,
Holy-Spirit-rejecting, tobacco-enslaved preachers are letting the multitudes
slip away from them into hell. A genuine modern Pentecost is the only known
remedy for the disease of spiritual paralysis that is confessedly ravaging our
churches. This is the Spirit’s dispensation; and the preachers and followers of
Christ must stop rejecting the Holy Ghost and welcome


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 9: 02.02.     WHAT PAUL SAID ABOUT HOLINESS, PART 1
========================================================================

2. What Paul Said About Holiness, part 1 By Aaron Hills

Paul wrote the Thessalonians as Christians, unquestionably declaring them to be
such in 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; and in 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 he as certainly
prays that they may have a second work of grace in their hearts, "to the end he
may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness" (1 Thessalonians 3:13).

Three verses further on (1 Thessalonians 4:3) he writes: "For this is the will
of God even your sanctification." Here is a distinct declaration, not that one
may possibly get such an experience, but that God has provided for this
experience, and that it is His will, that is to say, His command that each of
His children should be sanctified. God’s revealed will is nothing less than a
command.

I wonder any of my readers pray the Lord’s Prayer. How does it read? "Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." How is it done in
heaven by angels? Perfectly. By whom do you pray it may be done on earth? By
yourself, if you pray honestly. You would not dare pray, "Lord, let Thy will be
done by the other fellow, but not by me." That would be mocking God. And so,
Christian reader, you are confronted by this fact, that your sanctification is
God’s will; and Jesus taught you to pray, "Thy will be done." To be consistent,
you should either stop praying the Lord’s Prayer or begin to seek sanctification
with all your heart. That is the way Paul felt about it.

Four verses further on (1 Thessalonians 4:7) he writes: "For God hath not called
us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." If we are called to be Christians at
all, we are called to be sanctified Christians. God wants us to be at our very
best. We cannot afford to be anything less. Through His atoning mercy, by His
holy Word, and by the convictions and wooings of His Spirit, He calls us all to
this blessing. And God never called a child of His to anything that was not
provided for in His grace. The Holy Spirit, by whom Paul says we are sanctified,
stands ready to do His work. Jesus, our great High Priest who baptizes with the
Holy Spirit and fire, stands ready to do His part. God, the triune God, is
ready. The only question is, are we ready? In the next chapter Paul tells us,
"Quench not the Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Why not? Because He sanctifies
us (Romans 15:16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2) He cannot accomplish this
divine work unless we open our hearts to His influence. To resist and oppose the
doctrine of a second work of grace, and fight sanctification, is to quench the
Spirit who sanctifies. This command is followed by a remarkable prayer, four
verses later (1 Thessalonians 5:23): "And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless." This is the second prayer in his brief epistle for holiness and
sanctification. It is very remarkable for its clear teachings on this subject.

1. "The God of peace" himself does the sanctifying. This rules out completely
the idea of self-sanctification by your own pretty living and doing, by your own
fasting and praying, and growing. Nobody ever gets the blessing by that route.
It is not at the end of that line. In the thirty years of my ministry I have
never heard one Christian testify that he got sanctification by growth. God
himself does the sanctifying if it is ever done.

2. The verb sanctify is in the aorist tense, denoting singleness of action, an
instantaneous completed work, as distinguished from a continuance or repetition.
There is no getting sanctified by degrees, by a long process of indefinite
length and uncertain continuousness. The work is to be done in a flash of time
by the baptism with the Holy Ghost.

3. The God of peace himself is thus to sanctify us wholly, "through and
through." This rules out all limitation of the work to any department of our
being, or any single faculty. Some tell us, and would have us believe, that all
God’s commands end in the will; and that when that is correct in it choice or
purpose or decision, all duty is met, and God asks no more. This text utterly
refutes that idea. God wants the whole being -- intellect, sensibility, and
will; body and spirit -- to be cleansed and made fit to be His temple.

4. The prayer continues: And may "your whole spirit and soul and body be
preserved blameless." The body (Greek, soma) means our physical organization
with all its natural appetites and passions and necessary functions. The soul
means the animating principle of the body connected with the senses. The spirit
is the higher soul to which the influences of the other world address
themselves. It is by this faculty that we know God, and feel His power and
presence, and recognize our duty to love and obey Him. This is all to be
sanctified, and then preserved so. This is all there is of a man -- body, soul,
and spirit. There is nothing else about him but his clothes. And the dress
question will easily be settled when the whole being is freed from depravity and
the heart is right with God. What a blessedly complete work God proposes to do
for us! Take all the disordered elements out of us -- all the abnormal
appetites, all base propensities, all proclivities downward that would draw us
away from God and sink us in hell -- and then preserve us in that blessed state
of purity and Christlikeness until God calls us to himself! This is what Paul
prayed for, and it is enough to make us all shout, "Amen!" and go in for the
blessing. It ought to make everybody hunger and thirst for this great salvation,
and cause everyone who has it to be filled with an unutterable joy. This prayer
is immediately followed in the next verse by a gracious promise: "Faithful is he
that called you, who also will do it." Calleth you to what? Oh, he has just told
them that God calls them to sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:7). And now, right
after this prayer for sanctification, he says, "He who calls you will do it." Do
what? Why, sanctify you. Nothing else can be made of this blessed and
encouraging passage of scripture. The steps, which are six, are as follows:

1. The will of God is that we be sanctified (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

2. God calls to the blessing (1 Thessalonians 4:7).

3. The command. "Quench not the Spirit," whereby ye are sanctified (1
Thessalonians 5:19).

4. The prayer. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly" (1 Thessalonians
5:23).

5. And may your "spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless" (1
Thessalonians 5:23).

6. Faithful is He who calls you to be sanctified, who also will do it. A brother
once said, "It took two to sanctify me." "Who were they?" "God and I." "What did
God do?" "He sanctified me." "What did you do?" "I let Him do it." This is
testimony true to life. Anybody can get sanctified who will yield himself to God
for the blessing, and seek it with all his heart.

There is one other passage in the epistle, weighted with awful solemnity, which
I have purposely reserved to the last. After saying, in 1 Thessalonians 4:7,
that God calls us to sanctification, he adds: "He therefore that despiseth,
despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit." We are
sanctified by the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Jesus administers this blessing,
and it is God’s will that we should have it. Therefore he that despiseth this
blessing, and opposes it, and refuses to have it or to seek it, despiseth not
St. Paul, or John Wesley, or Brother Morrison, or Dr. Carradine, or any other
teacher of holiness. He "despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us
his holy Spirit." The First Epistle to the Thessalonians unquestionably teaches
a second work of grace, subsequent to regeneration, called sanctification. It is
urged upon you in the most solemn way. Do not reject this truth. By so doing you
despise God and quench the Spirit, who has been sent to SANCTIFY YOU WHOLLY.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 10: 02.03. WHAT PAUL SAID ABOUT HOLINESS, PART 2
========================================================================

3. What Paul Said About Holiness, part 2 By Aaron Hills The Apostle Paul is the
wisest interpreter and expounder of the gospel of Christ that the ages have
produced. It becomes supremely important to learn what he thought of the
Pentecostal experience. Did he believe in a distinct, epochal spiritual
experience, subsequent to regeneration, and quite as marked in its influence
upon the soul? A goodly number of wise theologians believe that he did. Andrew
Murray says: "To the disciples the baptism with the Spirit was very distinctly
NOT His first bestowal for regeneration." Dr. Watson, a prince among Methodist
theologians, says: "We have already spoken of justification, adoption,
regeneration and the witness of the Spirit, and we proceed to another as
distinctly marked and as graciously promised in the Holy Scriptures. This is
entire sanctification, or holiness."

Theologians ought not to write so unless the Apostle Paul taught it. For we may
be sure that if there was a desired and required second experience Paul would
certainly have found it out, and would have told the churches about it. Did he
do it? And if so, what estimate did he put upon its importance?

We will let the apostle himself decide the matter, as he writes the First
Epistle to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10). In 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
he makes it absolutely certain that he was writing to Christians, as follows:

1. He wrote his epistle "unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God
the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ." It was not fashionable to be a church
member in those days. Nobody would join the church who did not have religion
enough to forsake the world and heathenism and endure persecution for Jesus’
sake. We may be sure these persons were Christians, or they would never have
abandoned the religion of their country and their fathers to belong to a church
"in the Lord Jesus Christ."

2. Paul says, "We give thanks to God always for you all." Who can believe that
this apostle was thanking God always for a mob of sinners?

If he was thanking God for sinners, he certainly had many to be thankful for, as
the heathen world was full of them. But that is unthinkable. He was thanking God
for them because they were Christians.

3. He remembered "without ceasing" their "work of faith, and labor of love, and
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." Here were believers who had the
three cardinal Christian graces -- faith, hope, and love -- walking with God in
an earnest, laborious, patient spirit. They were manifestly Christians.

4. He called them "brethren beloved of God" (1 Thessalonians 1:4, margin). This
phrase is never in the New Testament applied to sinners.

5. He said he knew their election. People are not elected who are not
candidates. Had they been sinners in the "gall of bitterness, and in the bond of
iniquity," it would never have occurred to Paul that they were elected.

6. "And," he says, "ye became imitators of us, and of the Lord" (1 Thessalonians
1:6, A.S.V.). Who ever saw a large company of sinners picking out the best man
on earth and the Lord Jesus himself to imitate?

7. They "received the word . . . with joy of the Holy Ghost." In all my work as
a minister these thirty years, I have never seen a company of sinners who got
any joy from the Holy Ghost. He brings joy and comfort to true believers; but He
brings only awful conviction -- the pangs of hell -- to unbelievers or sinners.

8. These Thessalonians became "ensamples to all that believe." If sinners, they
must have been a choice variety, such as I have never seen! A good example to
all the believers in a whole province!

9. They "sounded out the word of the Lord . . . in every place your faith to
God-ward is spread around." They had a real, vital faith, not in themselves, but
in God; and they had preached Christ so earnestly that everybody knew where they
stood and in whom they believed. This does not indicate that they were weak
Christians, much less unregenerate sinners.

10. Paul says: "Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God."
No better description of a genuine conversion could be asked for. They had
actually forsaken the idols of sin, and quit the sin business, to "serve the
living and true God." The God of mercy and grace requires no more as a condition
of sonship.

11. They waited "for his Son from heaven." Nobody has ever yet found a large
company of sinners on this earth lovingly on the lookout for Jesus to come from
heaven. It is the last conceivable thing that sinners would desire. Paul wrote
to these same church members that the Lord Jesus would be revealed from heaven,
"with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus." No, indeed! Sinners are
not waiting for, and joyfully anticipating, Jesus to come from heaven. They do
not want Him to come. They would prevent His coming and drive Him out of the
universe if they could. But these excellent Thessalonian Christians, full of
faith and hope and love, earnest in life, imitating Paul and Jesus, were waiting
for their Lord from heaven. If these people were not converted, regenerated,
justified disciples of Christ, human language would fail to describe such. A
church filled with such Christians would today be esteemed unusually spiritual,
and its praise would be on all lips. But did the apostle urge upon such
Christians a second work of grace, after such a radical regeneration? He
certainly did.

1. In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 he assured them that he and Timothy had more than
the experience of justification. "Ye are witnesses and God also, how holily and
justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe" (1
Thessalonians 1:10). In other words, they had the experience of sanctification.

2. In 1 Thessalonians 3:10 and 1 Thessalonians 3:13, he writes them that he is
"night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and might perfect
that which is lacking in your faith . . . to the end he may stablish your hearts
unblameable in holiness." In other words, their faith had laid hold of Christ
only for justification; he now wished them to perfect their faith by receiving
the Pentecostal experience, the baptism of the Holy Ghost for sanctification,
"to the end" they might live a holy and unblamable life, as he and Timothy were
living. And the apostle felt that this second experience was so supremely
important that it was the object of his prayers night and day. He knew that
nothing short of the Pentecostal experience would give them the stability and
steadfastness in the Lord that he coveted for them. Nothing but the crucifixion
of the carnal mind would render those believers "unblameable in holiness," and
wholly pleasing to the Lord. And so he prayed for them exceedingly, and urged
them on to the second work of grace.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 11: 02.04.     WHAT PAUL SAID ABOUT HOLINESS, PART 3
========================================================================

4. What Paul Said About Holiness, part 3 By Aaron Hills

We have seen in the previous two chapters that the chief of the apostles wrote
to the Thessalonians his first epistle, urging them in the most explicit terms
to seek entire sanctification as a second work of grace. It was a church only
recently converted from heathenism, yet entire sanctification was the standard
the apostle set for them. But we hold that the apostle was inspired; it was
therefore the standard set by the Holy Ghost.

Some may suppose that this was with Paul an exceptional way of writing to a
church. It will probably surprise such readers to learn that St. Paul wrote or
spoke in at least five books of scripture in which the Pentecostal blessing of
sanctification is clearly taught. In Acts 20:32, we find him addressing the
elders of the Ephesian church. He says: "And now, brethren, I commend you to
God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give
you an inheritance among them which are sanctified." In Acts 26:17-18, he
relates his commission from Jesus at the time of his conversion. It was this:
"Delivering thee from . . . the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open
their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by in me." Here are the two taught pardon and
sanctification.

Paul writes to the Christians at Rome, "called to be saints." In Romans 5:1-2,
he writes, "Be justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace we stand." Here
again we have the two blessings of justification and sanctification, the latter
being called the standing grace. In Romans 6:6 he writes: "Knowing this, that
our old man. is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed."
This means the destruction the of the old man of carnality. In Romans 6:11 he
says: "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ." Here again is the death of the inbred sin, which brings
sanctification. We reckon by faith, and God makes it a fact. In Romans 6:13 he
adds: "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." This is the consecration
that issues in sanctification, for he says, in Romans 6:19 : "So now yield your
members servants to righteousness unto holiness." In Romans 6:18 "Being then
made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness," and in Romans 6:22
: "Being made free from sin, ye become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness and the end everlasting life." In Romans 12:1-2 : "I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be
not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good, and an acceptable, and perfect will of
God." These people were already Christians -- "brethren"; but they are exhorted
to go forward to the Pentecostal blessing of sanctification, which the apostle
calls "the perfect will of God." For in another place he says: "This is the will
of God, even your sanctification." In Romans 15:16 he tells us that we are
"sanctified by the Holy Ghost." If the apostle did not teach a second blessing
to these Roman Christians subsequent to regeneration, and urge it upon them as
supremely important, then language could not do it. The apostle writes to the
Corinthian church in the same strain. In 1 Corinthians 1:2 he addresses his
epistle, among others, "to them that are sanctified in Christ us." In 1
Corinthians 1:10 (A.S.V.) he beseeches them to be "perfected together." In 5:7
he tells them "to purge out . . . the old leaven." In 2 Timothy 2:21 he assures
us that if a man so purges himself, "he shall be . . . sanctified." In 1
Corinthians 6:11 he says of some of them: "Ye are sanctified . . . by the Spirit
of our God." In 2 Corinthians 1:12 (A.S.V.) he glories in the fact that he has
behaved "in holiness and sincerity." In the fifteenth verse he expresses an
intention to visit the church that they "might have a second grace" (margin).
Over and again he lets us know that that second grace is the Pentecostal
experience. In 2 Corinthians 1:22 he tells us that God seals us and gives us
"the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." In 2 Corinthians 7:1 he exhorts:
"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."
How could there be given a plainer exhortation to sanctification? Lest any
Christian should think this a severe and perhaps impossible requirement, he
writes in 2 Corinthians 9:8 : "God is able to make all grace abound toward you,
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good
work."

We turn to his epistle to the Galatians, and we find this great theme still
present in the apostle’s mind. He tells us in Galatians 3:2 that we receive the
Spirit (who sanctifies) by faith, and in the next verse he asks the pointed
question: "Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"
Manifestly Christian perfection is here held up as the goal of endeavor. And he
taught that it came through the Spirit received by faith. In the same chapter
(Galatians 3:14) he shows that Christ died that upon the Gentiles might come (1)
the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus (justification), (2) that we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (sanctification). In the fifth
chapter (Galatians 5:17) he points out the inevitable conflict between the
carnality of the heart and every attempt to serve God, in the striking words:
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye
would." The next verse gives the remedy: "But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are
not under the law." The uniformity tendency to sin is destroyed by the Holy
Spirit in our hearts. And so Paul urges this Pentecostal blessing upon us in the
words: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

We turn to Ephesians, and we find the Pentecostal theme is predominant. The
apostle scarcely gets his letter started before he tells us (Ephesians 1:4) that
God chose us "before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love." In Ephesians 1:13 he tells the Ephesians: "In
whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of
promise." Jesus called the Pentecost al outpouring of the Spirit "the promise of
the Father." In the same chapter (Ephesians 1:18-19) he breaks out into a
prayer, "That ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us-ward who believe." We know what the hope of the
calling is, for he tells us we are chosen to "be holy," and called unto
sanctification. In the third chapter (Ephesians 3:14-20) he breaks out into
another prayer, that believers may be strengthened with the Spirit, and know the
length and breath and height and depth of the love of Christ, and "be filled
with all the fullness of God." In the next chapter (Ephesians 4:12) he tells us
that evangelists, pastors, and teachers were given "for the perfecting of the
saints" -- till we all attain unto a full-grown man, "unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ." In 1 Corinthians 3:1 he calls some
Christians "babes," because they are "carnal." But here he tells us that means
are provided for the perfecting of them until they are full-grown, that is,
freed from carnality by sanctification. In Ephesians 4:24 he tells believers to
"put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness." In Ephesians 4:30 he tells them not to grieve the Spirit, whereby
they are "sealed." In Ephesians 5:18 he tells them to "be filled with the
Spirit," which rules out every form of sin. In Ephesians 5:25-27 he says:
"Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and
cleanse it . . . that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle . . . but that it should be holy and without blemish."

Yet with these two prayers and nine passages of scripture in this single epistle
urging upon believers the Pentecostal experience of sanctification, multitudes
have their eyes blinded to this great truth. Even many religious teachers cannot
see that the apostle taught sanctification as a second work of grace.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 12: 02.05.     WHAT PAUL SAID ABOUT HOLINESS, PART 4
========================================================================

5. What Paul Said About Holiness, part 4 By Aaron Hills The apostle writes to
the Philippians, his best-loved church. He cannot get through the first chapter
without a prayer for their sanctification in these words (Php 1:9-11): "And this
I pray . . . that ye may be sincere and void of offence till the day of Christ;
being filled with the fruits of righteousness." In the next chapter (Php
2:14-15) he says: "Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may
be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke [blemish, A.S.V.]." In
the next chapter (Php 3:15) he assumes that he himself has evangelical
perfection in these words: "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus
minded." In Php 4:19 he gives a promise that includes sanctification in the wide
sweep of its meaning: "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus." As Frances Ridley Havergal says, "What do we need so
much as to have our hearts cleansed and kept sanctified, so that we shall not
sin against God?"

Paul writes to the Colossians. Again in the first chapter he prays for their
sanctification. He has already told them that they have "faith in Christ Jesus";
but he prays (Colossians 1:9-12) that they "might be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye all pleasing who
hath made to be . . saints in light." In Acts 26:18 he calls this an
"inheritance among them which are sanctified." In Colossians 1:22 (A.S.V.) he
tells them Jesus died "to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable
before him." In Colossians 1:28 he declares that the object of all preaching is
"that we may present every man perfect in Christ." In the second chapter he
speaks of spiritual circumcision not made with hands "in putting off the body of
the sins of the flesh." This can mean nothing less, or else, than the putting
off of the old man of depravity in sanctification by the Holy Spirit. In
Colossians 3:5 he writes, "Mortify [make dead] therefore your members which are
upon the earth," and "above all these things put on charity [love], which is the
bond of perfectness" (Colossians 3:14). In Colossians 4:12 Paul quotes the
prayer of Epaphras: "that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of
God." Thus again in this epistle, the second blessing of sanctification is
clearly urged upon justified Christians.

He writes to the Thessalonians. We have already discussed at length the
teachings of the first epistle. We will only re-quote the remarkable verses
here.

1 Thessalonians 2:10 : "Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly
and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe."

1 Thessalonians 3:10; 1 Thessalonians 3:13 "Night and day praying exceedingly
that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your
faith . . . to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness." In
1 Thessalonians 4:3, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." In
1 Thessalonians 4:7, "Go hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto
holiness." In 1 Thessalonians 4:8, "He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not
man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit."

1 Thessalonians 5:19, "Quench not the Spirit." 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 : "And
the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and
soul and body be preserved blameless . . . Faithful is he that calleth you, who
also will do it." When those verses are thus put together, they make wonderful
reading on the subject of the second blessing; for they were written to people
who, Paul says, were already Christians. In his second epistle to the same
church he wrote (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14): "God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
whereunto our gospel."

St. Paul writes to Timothy. He tells him (1 Timothy 2:15) that people will be
saved "if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety." 1
Timothy 6:11-14, "But thou, O man of God, . . . follow after righteousness,
godliness . . . keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable."

2 Timothy 2:19, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity."

2 Timothy 2:21, "If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a
vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto
every good work."

2 Timothy 2:22, "Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness . . . with
them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 2 Timothy 3:17, "That the man
of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good work."

He wrote to young Titus (Titus 2:12): "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present
world."

Two verses later he tells us why Jesus died (Titus 2:14, A.S.V.): "Who gave
himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto
himself a people for his own possession. In the third chapter, he names the
works of grace, justification and sanctification, in these words (Titus 3:5-6):
"He saved us, by the and RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST; which he shed on us
abundantly.’ That is precisely what was promised by God, and accomplished at
Pentecost, as Peter plainly testified.

We come now to the Epistle to the Hebrews. If this letter had been written on
purpose to teach the doctrine of sanctification, how could it have been more
explicit? It has fourteen passages on this subject. Here they are.

Hebrews 2:11 : "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren."

Hebrews 6:1 : "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let
us go on unto perfection."

Hebrews 7:25 : "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost." This
could not be said of Jesus if He did not save us from "the old man" of
"indwelling sin."

Hebrews 9:13-14 : "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an
heifer . . . sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the
blood of Christ . . . purge your conscience?"

Hebrews 10:10 : "By which will we are sanctified."

Hebrews 10:14-15 : "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us."

Hebrews 10:29 : "Who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing."

Hebrews 11:40; Hebrews 12:1 : "God having provided some better thing for us,
that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore . . . let us lay
aside . . the sin which doth so easily beset us."

Hebrews 12:10 : "He [chastens] for our profit, that we might be partakers of his
holiness."

Hebrews 12:11 : "Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness."

Hebrews 12:14 : "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord."

Hebrews 13:12 : "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might with his own blood,
suffered without the gate."

Hebrews 13:20-21 : "Now the God of peace . . . make you perfect in every good
work to do his will." Conclusion In the examination of the writings of the
Apostle Paul we reach the following remarkable results.

1. There are more than seventy passages of scripture urging upon believers the
Pentecostal experience of sanctification, showing beyond all question how
important he esteemed it to be.

2. He prayed nine prayers that Christian believers might become sanctified.

3. Fourteen times he commanded believers to obtain this blessing.

4. In urging upon them this Pentecostal experience, he used the verb "sanctify,"
in its various tenses, sixteen times; the noun "sanctification," nine times;
"righteousness," eight times; "perfect," seven times; "holiness," five times;
"holy," four times; "perfection" and "perfectness," four times; "righteously,"
"cleanse," "without blemish," and "unblameable," twice each; the words "holily,"
"godliness," "without spot," "without reproach," "a pure heart," "complete," and
"uttermost," once each. (See King James and Authorized versions.) In the face of
these facts, can any candid, teachable, and honest mind deny, or doubt for one
moment, that the Apostle Paul urged upon Christian believers the second
Pentecostal experience of sanctification?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 13: 02.06.     WHAT PETER SAID ABOUT HOLINESS
========================================================================

6. What Peter Said About Holiness By Aaron Hills

We have seen in previous chapters how highly Jesus and St. Paul estimated the
importance of Pentecost. Paul was the wisest interpreter and greatest theologian
of the Christian religion and Church. As we have seen, he urged the Pentecostal
experience upon Christian believers, as a second work of grace, in more than
seventy passages of scripture. He evidently believed in the baptism with the
Holy Ghost for sanctification.

What about Peter, the first leader of the apostolic band? Did he, too, accept
this doctrine? We shall see. He had heard his Savior in the upper chamber pray
that the disciples might be sanctified. He had heard His parting charge to tarry
in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. He had heard the parting
promise, "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not, many days hence." "But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."

Peter was among the number that waited in the Pentecostal chamber. He was there
the morning that the Holy Ghost fell upon them, and he, with the rest, was
filled with the Holy Spirit. The day did not pass before he was urging the
multitude in these words: "Repent, and be baptized . . . for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto
you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the
Lord our God shall call" (Acts 2:38-39). In Acts 15:8-9, he tells in a speech
what happened both to Cornelius and his household and to the disciples at
Pentecost: "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and
them, purifying their hearts by faith."

Now we turn to his epistles. In 1 Peter 1:1-2, he writes "to the . . . elect . .
. through sanctification of the Spirit."

He does not get through the first chapter before he writes (1 Peter 1:15-16),
"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy."

He says again (1 Peter 1:22): "Seeing ye have purified your souls . . . love one
another from a clean heart" (A.S.V., footnote). In the next chapter (1 Peter
2:1-2) he exhorts them thus: "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile,
and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire
the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." In 1 Peter 2:5, he
says: "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy
priesthood." In 1 Peter 2:9 (A.S.V.), he tells them: "Ye are an elect race, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, people for God’s own possession." In 1 Peter
2:21-22, he writes them: "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,
that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin." In 1 Peter 2:24, he gives the
very purpose of the death of Christ: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree; that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness."

He commands Christians, in 1 Peter 3:15, "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts."
Dr. Godbey makes this striking comment on this passage: "The unsanctified
Christian has Christ and depravity in his heart. Christ rules or He would not
stay. Cast out all else and let Christ rule alone. That is to sanctify Christ as
Lord of the heart." The verb "sanctify" is in the aorist tense. Dr. Steele
renders it: "Sanctify once for all place in your heart for Jesus as Lord." In 1
Peter 4:1-2, the apostle says: "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased
from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the
lusts of men, but to the will of God." This First Epistle of Peter closes with
the promise (1 Peter 5:10): "But the God of all grace . . . after that ye have
suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." Dr.
Godbey observes that the Christian does not need to suffer any longer than it
takes the old man to be crucified; then God will do the perfecting work, and
stablish the Christian in sanctification. Second Epistle At the very outset (2
Peter 1:3), he assures Christians that Christ "hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto LIFE and GODLINESS." We receive life in regeneration, and
godliness in sanctification.

Then in 2 Peter 1:4 he says Jesus "hath given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." This escape
from corruption is the fundamental idea of sanctification. It is not corruption
suppressed and retained, but corruption slain and escaped from, that is held up
as the blessed hope of the Christian’s heart. In 2 Peter 3:11, he writes:
"Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all conversation [living] and godliness."

He then closes the epistle with the injunction (2 Peter 3:14): "Be diligent that
ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless." The same
adjectives are applied to Jesus, the precious Lamb without spot or blemish,
indicating that we can live like Jesus, the Lamb of God. Conclusion

Here, then, are seventeen passages of scripture in the lips and from the pen of
Saint Peter. In some of these he vigorously exhorts and commands believers to
get sanctified; in others he speaks of Christians as having already obtained the
blessing. He uses such phrases as: "cleansing their hearts," "clean heart," "an
holy priesthood," "an holy nation," "ceased from sin," "partakers of the divine
nature," "escaped the corruption that is in the world," without spot," "without
blemish."

He used the words "sanctify" "sanctification," "purified," "righteous," and
"perfect," one time each; he used the word "godliness" twice an applied the
adjective "holy" to men five times. (See King James and Authorized versions.) He
was the voice of God to give all believers the command, "Be ye holy"; for I am
holy."

He plainly taught that this was induced in the heart of a Christian believer by
the cleansing baptism with the Holy Ghost, the Pentecostal experience. Can any
fair-minded student of the Holy Word bring all these seventeen passages of
scripture together, weigh their meaning, the definition of the words, and the
spiritual import of these wonderful phrases, and then be in doubt as to whether
the Apostle Peter placed a high estimate upon Pentecost? Yea, more, is it not
perfectly evident that he believed that the Pentecostal baptism cleansed the
hearts of Christians and enabled them to be "holy," "sanctified," "without spot
and without blemish"?

Now add to these seventeen passages by Peter the more than seventy others of the
same import from the Apostle Paul. Eighty-seven passages from two authors of the
New Testament, urging Christians to become sanctified and holy, by commands,
exhortations, promises, and prayers! To deny that these writers taught an
epochal experience called sanctification or holiness, subsequent to
regeneration, is to trifle with the solemn Word of God!


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  CHAPTER 14: 02.07.     WHAT JAMES AND JOHN SAID ABOUT HOLINESS
========================================================================

7. What James and John Said About Holiness By Aaron Hills

We have already seen in previous chapters what Jesus and Paul and Peter seemed
to think of the importance of the Pentecostal experience. The evidence is ample,
yea, superabundant. They undeniably regarded the sanctifying work of the Holy
Spirit as a second work of grace subsequent to regeneration. This being true, we
might naturally expect so important a Christian doctrine would find expression
in the writing of James and John. We are not disappointed. Although James’s
epistle is not distinctly doctrinal, yet unmistakable traces of this doctrine
are there. In James 1:4 we read: "But let patience have her perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, wanting noting." Here is a most manifest reference
to that Christian perfection or life of perfect love, induced by the Holy
Spirit, which John Wesley so mightily magnified. Godbey says: Pride is the
Satanic mother of all impatience. It is the baptism with the Holy Spirit that
kills this Satanic pride in Christian hearts, and makes us meek and humble." In
James 3:2 we read: "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man."
Here, again, is this evangelical perfection, or sanctification, evidenced by a
holy conversation. In James 4:8-9 we have the commands: "Cleanse your hands, ye
sinners; and PURIFY your hearts, ye DOUBLE MINDED." In this message the doctrine
of the second work of grace is clearly implied. (1) Here are two classes named
-- sinners and double-minded people. Sinners have no double mind. Their mind is
single -- set on sin, hostile to Jesus and loyal to the devil. Sanctified people
have no double mind. Their mind, also, is single -- wholly set on righteousness,
wholly loyal to Jesus, and hostile to the devil and all his works. It is the
regenerated, justified but unsanctified Christians, who have the double mind.
When they would do good, evil is present with them. For the flesh [sarx] lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. and these are contrary the
one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye Would." It is this
double-minded man that is so unstable in his ways. They love Jesus and His truth
and His service; but the carnal mind often betrays them into sudden acts sadly
at variance with the general tenor of their life. They suddenly do things over
which they sadly grieve, and for which they heartily repent, and seek the
forgiveness of God. It makes them appear inconstant and double. (2) James
commands these sinners to cleanse their hands, that is, forsake their outward
sins; but he commands the double-minded to get their hearts purified by the
sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost. It is never sinners, but always regenerated
children of God, who are exhorted in the Scriptures. to become "purified," and
"sanctified," and "perfected."

I John

We now turn to the First Epistle of John. Here we are on the old battlefield,
where those who fight holiness think they get their weapons from the arsenal of
God’s Word. It is only by a shocking misinterpretation of scripture that
anything can be found here against the doctrine of sanctification. To understand
the epistle, one must know what led the Apostle John to write it. A class of
heretical teachers had arisen in the Early Church called in history Docetae.
They held these errors:

1. All sin was connected with the physical body, but not at all with the
spiritual nature. Matter was essentially impure.

2. Christ did not have a real body, but only a phantom body. He was born without
any participation of matter.

3. All the acts and sufferings of His human life, including the crucifixion,
were only apparent. They denied accordingly His resurrection and ascent to
heaven.

4. It would follow logically that the Savior made no real atonement for sin by
the shedding of His blood.

5. Having led them so far into error, Satan induced them to plunge into riotous
excesses and licentiousness. And when Christian teachers urged them to forsake
their sins and accept Jesus, they replied that they had no need of a Savior, and
had no sins, and no sin. Only their physical body had done anything out of the
way; their souls, their real beings, were still clean and pure, and had no need
of saving grace.

These awful errors were seducing believers and corrupting the Early Church. The
Apostle Peter (2 Peter 2:13-14) wrote of their reveling in their love feasts,
"while they feast with you; having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease
from in; beguiling unstable souls."

Jude said of them (Jude 1:4): "There are certain men crept in unawares . . .
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness."

John explains his epistle by saying (1 John 2:26): "These things have I written
unto you concerning them that seduce you." "Little children, let no man deceive
you" (1 John 3:7).

Now let us see how and what the apostle wrote. In the first paragraph (1 John
1:1-4) he says we know Jesus was no phantom Christ, a man only in appearance;
for we have "seen [Him] with our eyes," and "handled" Him with our hands, and
"we have heard" Him, etc. In the second paragraph there are six verses --
written in pairs. The first member of each pair contains the truth of the gospel
of full salvation, justification and sanctification by the all-sufficient,
cleansing Blood.

These three alternate verses, put together, read as follows:

1 John 1:5. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

1 John 1:7. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin."

1 John 1:9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to FORGIVE us our
sins, and to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness."

Here are the two blessings stated in unmistakable language, forgiveness which is
received in justification, and cleansing which is received in sanctification.
This great truth, the possibility of being cleansed "from all unrighteousness"
(unrighteousness), is the mainspring of the holiness movement of our day.

Now we turn to the second members of these three pairs of texts, which
administer a crushing blow to the awful error that was sweeping over the
churches like a tidal wave of destruction from the bottomless pit.

1 John 1:6. "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness
[indulging in orgies of lusts, as these vile teachers are doing], we lie, and do
not the truth."

1 John 1:8. "If we say we have no sin [as these Christ rejecters are saying
while still practicing vice], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:10. "If we say that we have not sinned [as these wretched profligates
are saying while steeped in iniquity and full of lasciviousness], we make him a
liar, and his word is not in us."

1 John 2:4. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments [as
these seducers are doing while full of disobedience], is a liar, and the truth
is not in him."

1 John 2:22. "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?"

We could quote many more passages to show the meaning and intent of this
epistle.

It is passing strange that the opponents of holiness should quote these verses
which St. John wrote against the teachings of licentious heretics, to oppose the
blessed truth of full salvation. By so doing they make the eighth verse flatly
contradict the seventh, and the tenth contradict the ninth. No sane author, even
though uninspired, would thus contradict himself.

We now proceed to show what further the beloved disciple said about
sanctification.

1 John 2:5. "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God
PERFECTED."

1 John 3:3. "Every man that hath this hope in him [Christ] PURIFIETH himself,
even as he is pure."

1 John 3:5-6. "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in
him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him SINNETH NOT."

1 John 3:8. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that HE MIGHT
DESTROY the works of the devil." No work of the devil is so peculiarly malignant
and so awfully harmful as this implanting of the germ of sin, the poison of
depravity, into the moral nature of every child of Adam. This gave to each
member of the race a spirit of alienation from God, a satanic relish for evil.
This disaster, if not repaired, would be absolutely fatal to the kingdom of God.
But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, to correct this depravity and
restore the race to its rightful heritage of holiness. It would be an awful
reflection on Jesus to say that Satan could inflict an evil on the soul which
the infinite Son of God could not repair.

1 John 4:12. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his LOVE IS
PERFECTED in us.

1 John 4:17. "Herein is our love made PERFECT, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment."

Here we touch that love that is the "fulfilling of the law," and makes us wholly
acceptable to God. This is the evangelical perfection of love, for which John
Wesley contended, and which he so strenuously urged upon the regenerated
children of God. It comes only by the sanctifying baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion

We have seen that James and John, in describing the work of grace in the heart,
used the word "perfect" four times; "perfected" twice; and such phrases as
"purify your hearts," "cleanseth," "cleanse from all unrighteousness" "purifieth
himself " "take away sins," and "destroy the works of the devil" -- eleven
passages in all.

If such Words and phrases do not teach heart-cleansing and sanctification, human
language could not do it. And When we add to these the words of Jesus and Paul
and Peter, we have more than a full hundred passages of scripture, by every
variety of expression, teaching that it is the privilege of the regenerated
child of God to receive the sanctifying baptism with the Holy Ghost.

Whoever does or does not have this experience, this certainly is the teaching of
the Word of God. There is nothing for the honest soul to do but to bow to the
truth and seek a clean heart. If we walk in the light, led by the Spirit, the
blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin. "For God hath not called us
unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." And, "Faithful is he that calleth you, who
also will do it."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 15: 02.08.     WHAT HOLINESS IS
========================================================================

8. What Holiness Is By Aaron Hills

We have seen in the foregoing discussion how very much is said about this
Pentecostal experience in the New Testament. The verb "sanctify" is used twenty
times, and the noun "sanctification" ten times; and such words as "holy,"
"perfect," "righteousness," "perfection" and "holiness," many times each.
Moreover, such words and phrases as "cleanse," "cleanseth from all
unrighteousness," "cleanseth from all sin," "purity your hearts," "purifieth
himself," "a pure heart," "without blemish," "with reproach," "purge,"
"complete," "sinneth not" -- such words, phrases, and kindred phrases move
through the New Testament like a flock of blackbirds through the August sky. And
the blessing indicated by all these scriptures is connected unmistakably with
Pentecost. It was the baptism with the Holy Ghost that cleansed the hearts of
the disciples, "sanctified," "pure," "holy," "perfect," What, now, do these
words mean? What is the Pentecostal blessing? The Bible teaches us that through
race-connection every member of the human race has inherited a depraved and
fallen nature from Adam. Universal human experience proves it sadly true. That
depravity is called in Scripture "the old man," "the body of sin," "sin that
dwelleth in me, "the law of sin," "the body of this death," "the carnal mind,"
the "root of bitterness," "the sin that doth so easily beset us," and "the law
of sin and death." If for the word "law" we substitute its synonym "a uniform
tendency," and read "a uniform tendency to sin and death," we have it exactly.
It is a PROPENSITY TO EVIL in the heart that is "ENMITY AGAINST GOD." The above
list of terms is horribly suggestive; but the thing named in the heart is more
horrible still.

Both the Bible and theology alike teach us another thing, viz., this "carnal
mind," this proneness to sin, is not removed in regeneration. This explains why
Jesus prayed that His regenerated disciples might be sanctified; and why the
apostles invariably urged the Pentecostal experience upon Christian believers,
but never urged sinners to seek it. It is a blessing to which only the
regenerated child of God is eligible. Hear the theologians on this point.

Frederick W. Robertson, the great preacher of Brighton, England, said in a
sermon: "Two sides of our mysterious twofold being here. Something in us near to
hell; something strangely near to God. Half diabolical, half divine; half demon,
half God. In our best estate and in our purest moments, there is a something of
the devil in us, which, if it could be known, could make men shrink from us. The
germs of the worst crimes are in us all." The elder Dr. Stephen Tyng said to his
communicants: "Be watchful. Your Christian course is to be maintained in the
midst of temptations. Though truly a child of God, you will still carry with you
a heart far from sanctified, a remaining sinfulness of nature in the appetites
and propensities which demands increasing vigilance. You cannot afford to relax
your vigilance over the outgoings of your own sinful nature."

Wesley said: "That believers are delivered from the guilt and power of sin we
allow; that they are delivered from the being of sin we deny." In other words,
all Christians, though converted, regenerated, are still "carnal," precisely as
the Corinthians were, and as the early disciples were, until they have their
Pentecost.

While this tendency to sin, this troublesome "old man," remains in the
Christian’s heart, the tendencies to backsliding will always be multiplied and
strong; to fall will be comparatively easy. The Christian life will be robbed of
much of its victory and joy. Its fruitfulness will be lessened and its growth
dwarfed, and the Savior’s delight in us will be greatly abridged, as those in
whom His grace has not been permitted to do its perfect work.

Now it is the appointed work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify the heart, to
cleanse the being from this indwell when we plead for the Spirit, will perform
His priestly office, and baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire. This incoming of
the divine energy will consume carnality, "cleanse" the being, "purify the
heart," "crucify the old man," "saved from all cleanness," "purge away the
dross," "like a refiner’s fire." No evil propensity will be left, like a traitor
in the citadel of the soul, to betray it to Satan in some evil hour. Then, "the
peace of God that passeth all understanding" will mean something; for there will
be no longer any civil war within our hearts. Bull Run defeats and Gettysburg
struggles will be a thing of the past; for there will be no more a law in our
members warring against the law of our mind. The flesh will Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh, so that we may not do the things that we would. The
flesh will be "done away" by the Holy Spirit, who crucified it, and a heavenly
peace will reign in the soul. The unruly appetites and fierce passions will all
become normal and sweetly obedient to the law of Christ. Body, soul, and spirit
will be sanctified through and through, and the whole being will say "Amen" to
the blessed will of God. This is what is meant by "He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." All
unrighteousness of being, everything improper and abnormal in nature, tending to
sin and provocative is cleansed away by the Pentecostal baptism; and the child,
once so cursed by sins and carnality, becomes "holy, acceptable unto God."

It is not difficult to find reasons why God wants this Holy Spirit cleansing
wrought within us. He hates sin and every trace of the work of Satan within our
souls. He loves, like any parent, to have us reproduce His perfect likeness, and
reflect to the moral universe His glory. He wants us to be at our best and
clothed with power for service, and this we never can be while sin dwelleth in
us. He loves to show to onlooking angels what Jesus can do in saving sinners
with an uttermost salvation. It is to the praise of His glory who "loved the
church, and gave himself for it; he might sanctify and cleanse it . . . that he
might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle . . .
but that it should be holy and without blemish."

There remains a little space briefly to indicate the conditions on which this
Pentecostal baptism may be received.

1. It must be sought of God in importuning prayer. "If ye then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" But no lazy praying ever got
this blessing.

2. There must be a complete surrender of the will to God in absolute obedience.
We read in Acts 5:32 that God gives the Holy Spirit "to them that obey him." It
means hearty, whole-souled obedience to the slightest whisper of the Holy
Spirit. It means to surrender whatever the conscience, enlightened by the Holy
Spirit, condemns; to consent to be, to do, to say, to have, to want, or to go as
God directs, without hesitation and without complaint.

I am willing To receive what Thou givest, To lack what Thou withholdest, To
relinquish what Thou takest, To suffer what Thou inflictest, To be what Thou
requirest, To do what Thou commandest. Amen.

3. Present your bodies a living sacrifice to God, in complete consecration.
"Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your
members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Pass yourselves over into
God’s hands to own you completely and forever, your body to be the temple of the
Holy Ghost, and kept pure for His service; your mind to think for God; your
heart to love Him supremely; your lips to talk for Him; your time to be spent
and your possessions to be used in His service.

4. When one has consciously gone so far in seeking this blessing, it is not
difficult to obtain the prize. He has reached believing is received by faith. We
are "sanctified by faith." The heart is cleansed by faith. As Jesus is received
by faith for pardon, so the Spirit is received faith for cleansing and
empowering. The Holy Spirit will come in Pentecostal power when the obedient,
consecrated, praying soul believes for the blessing.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 16: 02.09.     IT BRINGS POWER
========================================================================

9. It Brings Power By Aaron Hills

Power is universally coveted. Men love to gratify ambition and be dominant.
Achievement will bring notoriety and publicity; conquest will be succeeded by
renown. Authority calls forth the consideration and obeisance of others. How
highly these things are esteemed by multitudes! Oh, yes people want power. It
will bring honor, prominence, and gain. Everybody is after it. By it the
railroad magnate car down his rivals; the politician can secure a better office
and lay a heavier hand upon the state; the lawyer can get more clients, and the
doctor more patients, and the preacher a larger audience and a bigger salary?
What a fine thing it is to have power!

Jesus promised power to His disciples. But be it noticed that their hearts were
first cleansed by the Holy Ghost. It is not safe to entrust carnal men with
power. It would almost certainly be abuse and perverted to selfish ends. Witness
what men have done with power through the ages: warriors that have ravaged
realms, kings that have wasted the resources of empires, prelates that have
ruined churches and impeded the progress of the kingdom of God. Jesus’ own
disciples would have done it before Pentecost. John and James wanted first and
second place in what they supposed would be a material and visible kingdom of
God. Had they secured such positions, without an increase of grace, they would
most likely have been ruined. But the great gift of power to the disciples was
wisely postponed until their hearts were cleansed by the Holy Spirit. Then they
were free from selfishness, and would use their extraordinary power with an eye
single to the glory of God. Peter could then preach his moving sermon, not at
all for Peter’s exaltation, but for the glory of Jesus. The whole apostolic
band, suddenly clothed with an unwonted power that made men marvel, could remain
sweet, humble, and modest without a touch of which so often disfigures the
character of carnal man. Paul, cleansed of the Holy Spirit, could move like a
conqueror and king among men, and yet on himself as the servant of all, and
rejoice in the privilege of suffering for the blessed Lord.

What then is the power which Jesus gives?

It is a power to bear witness for Jesus. "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth." It is painful to observe how many professors of religion there are who
have no testimony to give for their Lord. They are silent in the prayer meeting
(or never go to it), silent in the private conversation about their spiritual
life. If the world depended upon them for knowledge, it would never hear that it
had a Savior. A friend of mine once asked President Finney why Prof. _____, of
Oberlin College, never told his experience. He promptly replied, "I think it is
because he has none to tell." Whether these dumb Christians have any experience
at all, God knows. But it is more than likely that their heart-life is so
unsatisfactory, and the pulse-beat of their piety is so feeble, that they are
reluctant to talk about it to others. There is no gushing spontaneity and
overflow of soul, no burning fire within that will not suffer them to keep
silence. But let these same believers come to a Pentecost, and they would at
once be like the early disciples of whom it is written, "And they were all
filled with the Holy. Ghost, and began to speak." When Peter and John were
forbidden to talk about Jesus, their prompt answer was, "We cannot but speak."
Their hearts were too full; like an artesian well, they must pour out what was
in them. When men and women get the Pentecostal pressure and power upon them,
their religion will be heard from. But that witness-bearing was the early form
of preaching. Men will have power to preach with a divine unction when the Holy
Ghost comes upon them, which will be manifest to all. Sinners will be pricked to
their hearts, and will hasten to the altar to unburden their souls, and be rid
of their load of sin. Believers will be fed and built up in the faith of the
gospel President Mahan said that prior to his baptism with the Holy Ghost he was
successful in leading men to Christ, but he could get them no further; he did
not know how to feed the flock of God. All ministers have a similar experience.
Indeed it is now getting worse than that. Without a Pentecostal experience
ministers are now finding themselves unable to win converts.

It would be difficult to name one conspicuously great soul winner during the
last two hundred years who was not by the baptism with the Holy Spirit equipped
for his work. Such men as Edward, Wesley, and Whitefield, Fletcher, Finney,
Caughey, A. B. Earle, Moody, Bishops Matthew Simpson, W. M. Taylor, and the
Booths, Phoebe Palmer and Maggie Van Cott, are illustrations of the enduement of
Pentecostal power. A hundred others only less famous might easily be named who
graduated from the Pentecostal chamber into usefulness and fame. It is not at
all an exaggeration or overstatement to say that they were made by the baptism
with the Holy Ghost.

I find the following in the Texas Christian Advocate, in an article on "The
Enduement of Power":

"In the last twenty-five years the subject of spiritual power for service has
engaged the earnest and prayerful attention of Christian men as it has not since
the days of the apostles. We are to review the results of these profound studies
as given to us in the published works of the leading pastors and evangelists of
Europe and America. A symposium of views upon this subject that, so far as I am
aware, has never before been made.

"I ask first of all, in what does this enduement consist? what does it do for
men?

"It is what the Scriptures call a ’baptism of the Holy Ghost,’ by which a
Christian becomes endued with power for the work to which God has called him. It
was received by the disciples upon the day of Pentecost, and by multitudes in
every age since that time.

"Dr. Fletcher Wharton, in a published sermon, asks, ’What is it, then, to have
this spiritual power?’ He answers: ’Let me answer. Let me answer slowly. It is
to have God in our souls. Not some other one’s experience of God, but God. Ye
shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

"President Finney says that the term ’power,’ used in our text, means ’The power
to prevail with God and man, the power to fasten saving impressions upon the
minds of men.’

"Dr. Adam Clarke says: ’The apostles were endued with power for three purposes,
one of which was that their preaching might be attended by the power of the it,
so that their hearers might believe and be saved.’

"It is the united testimony of all effective workers that the apostolic baptism
of fire, giving power for service, is the supreme need of the Christian today.

"Says Dr. B. M. Long: ’Our efforts will be futile unless we are anointed by the
Spirit of God.’ He adds this important truth: ’Too many of us are satisfied with
conversion, and therefore fail to go forward and get the anointing of the
Spirit, the baptism of power.’

"Mrs. Booth: ’I most unhesitatingly assert that the great want is power.’

"Mr. Moody: ’God has a great many sons and daughters without power. A great many
people are thinking that we need new measures. That is not what the Church of
God needs today. It is the power that the apostles had. When the Spirit of God
is upon us for service, we are anointed, and then we can do great things. So we
are not going to lose anything if we tarry till we get this power.’

"Mr. Finney said: ’No one has at any time any right to expect success unless he
first secure this enduement of power from on high. It is the supreme need of
today.’

"The importance of this matter is vastly intensified if we remember that Jesus
sought and obtained this enduement by the Spirit. It was at His baptism by John
that the Spirit came upon Him, anointing Him for His life work.

"F. B. Meyer: ’His human nature needed to be empowered by the Holy Spirit before
even He could do successful service. If Christ waited to be anointed before He
went to preach, no young man ought to preach until he, too, has been anointed by
the Holy Ghost.’

"Mr. Moody: ’Even Christ Himself did not undertake the great work of preaching
until the Holy Ghost descended upon him for this special service.’

"A medieval legend relates that once upon a time Satan turned preacher and spoke
with great beauty and eloquence upon the humble birth, the lowly life, the cruel
death of the Son of God upon Calvary. He spoke with such tenderness and pathos
that his hearers wept at the recital of the tragic story. At the conclusion of
the sermon, one who knew him asked why he preached. He replied: ’I preach
without unction, therefore all who hear me, although I give them the pure
gospel, are but hardened by it.’ St. Paul refers to just this thing when he says
to the Church at Corinth: ’My speech and my preaching are not with enticing
words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’"

Surely Bishop Thoburn is right when he says: "If we could bring back the church
of Pentecost to earth, or, rather, if we could receive anew universally the
spirit of that model church of all ages, the idea of evangelizing the world in a
single generation would no longer appear visionary; but on the other hand it
would seem so reasonable, so practicable, and the duty to perform it so
imperative, that everyone would wonder why any intelligent Christian had ever
doubted its possibility, or been content to let weary years go by without a vast
universal movement throughout all the churches of Christendom at once to go
forward and complete the task." But still more dear to God than all our
achievements is ourselves, and God gives us not only power to do but power to
be. Multitudes are willing to do great and brilliant things for every one who is
willing to be like Jesus. People prize notoriety above character, and
achievement more than personal worth. God is pleased to have us like Him. The
Holy Spirit, therefore coming into the heart in Pentecostal power, cleanses us
-- in other words, gives us the power to be holy. This is the power that will
make us pleasing to God, and like God. "He that sanctifieth and they who are
sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them
brethren."

Oh, how wonderful a feat it is for the Holy Spirit to fix us up so that Jesus
shall not be ashamed to own us as kinsfolk in the presence of the Heavenly
Father and the holy angels! This is power indeed! power to overcome the world,
the flesh, and the evil; power to be "more than conquerors through him that
loved us." This above all else is dear to God, to have us show to an onlooking
universe that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,"
that we are redeemed from the curse of the fall, and by this redeeming grace can
walk the earth in the white robes of righteousness, and remain "unspotted from
the world shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ye
shall be witnesses."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 17: 02.10.     HOLINESS REJECTED MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
========================================================================

10. Holiness Rejected Makes Strange Bedfellows By Aaron Hills In my rounds in
many states I have observed a remarkable spirit of union and fraternity among
people who seemingly would have no bond of union whatever. Here are the
conflicting theories of these separate classes.

1. There are those who proclaim very openly that there is no such thing as
sanctification. It is a state impossible of attainment. The devil puts his
finger to his nose at this announcement, and all the giddy and backslidden of
earth nod their assent, and the tides of worldliness and sin roll on "merry as a
marriage bell."

2. Another group rise and declare that they "got it all at conversion." Satan
indulges in a little broader smile, and every imp of the pit is delighted, and
all their confederates in the dead churches are serenely happy over the between
class No. 1 and class No. 2.

3. Another company testify that they are of the opinion that somehow they must
have missed it at conversion; but they hope they are growing into it, or would
at least like to do so. Beelzebub, at this, laughs audibly; his confederates in
the pit join in, and class No. 1 and class No. 2 open their ranks to welcome
class No. 3. They all clasp hands and, without the slightest sense of
inconsistency, sing, "How pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity
and love!"

4. Another large throng say that sanctification is a good thing, that would be
very convenient to have around, if we could only get it in this life. It would
truly be just the thing to help us through the tight places of our earthly
pilgrimage. But the inbred sin of our natures is so deep-seated that the blood
of Christ cannot reach it, nor the fire of the Spirit-baptism consume it.
Therefore we must wait until the great physician, death, purges our hearts of
the Satan loose a peal of laughter that makes the wreathing clouds of the
ascending smoke of torment tremble with the waves of jubilant sound. All the
demons of the pit join in to swell the chorus. All the careless and the
backslidden of earth stop their card playing and dancing long enough to make a
motion that classes No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 admit class No. 4 into fraternity.
It carries unanimously, and they all join in singing, "The fellowship of kindred
minds is like to that above."

5. A still larger throng rise and say "Yes, sanctification is a good thing. We
must doubtless all have it to be for heaven. But it is beyond the possibility of
either any divine grace or even death, to effect it; it is to be wrought in us
by our purgatorial fire" This transfers the whole thing over to Apollyon’s
territory! And he rises amidst great applause, and moves that this view be
celebrated by a carnival in hell. It is unanimously carried with a din of
merriment that is indescribable. Meantime this mirth is catching on earth.
Bishops and presiding elders and church officials smile and joke about this
universal sanctification which, like the grace of God, leaves none out. The
spirit of union grows wider, and the first four classes open to take in the
fifth. They lustily sing: "Brothers, brothers all are we, A jolly
confraternity."

It begins to look as if all humanity were going to be banded together in unity
and love.

6. A little company rise and humbly say, with a heavenly radiance on their
upturned faces: "After our conversion we sought, by faith, purity of heart as a
second work of grace. The baptism with the Spirit came upon us with the
suddenness of Pentecost. We are sanctified now; for ’the blood of Jesus Christ .
. . a hallelujah of praise floats down from the skies. But quicker than a flash
the devil leaps to his feet with a roar of rage that makes every cavern of hell
quiver. Every power of darkness fairly howls his hate, every hell-bound bays his
loudest. Meantime on earth every spiritual harlot and covetous moneybags and
scheming ecclesiastic and carnal bigot and backslidden worldling, and all the
other five classes, who were so lenient towards one another’s divergent views,
open up in a torrent of vituperation and rage. With consent they cry, "Down with
this heresy!" "Put them out!" And all earth and hell pour out their hottest
venom against these devoted people, reminding one of the enmity that once howled
about the cross of Christ.

How is all this to be accounted for? How can all those other five classes
tolerate one another so graciously as common bedfellows, while they rise in such
a storm of hate against the testimony to sanctification as given in the blessed
Word?

Candidly now, is not this the only explanation: that this doctrine is the truth,
and the devil is determined that none shall testify that the blood of Jesus . .
. cleanseth us from all sin"? He raises earth and hell to put this testimony
down. John Wesley long ago said, "This is the word which the devil peculiarly
hates, and stirs up his children against; but it is the word which God will
always bless."

Let those who band together to fight holiness think on these things.

Let them ask how it is that the irreconcilable divergence of the first five
views troubles nobody, and the adherents of them are in such sweet peace with
one another; while they all unite in virulent opposition to the sixth view, by
John Wesley and his spiritual descendants, and belch forth a common chorus of
hate like that which raged about the Cross, springing from ever class and
condition of men. Is not this plainly the old war of carnality against truth and
God? Is it not the same contest, age-long, between good and evil, light and
darkness, righteousness and sin? In a Texas conference some years ago three men
preached on the subject of sanctification. The first held that it was gotten at
the time of conversion. The second held that Christians grew into it after
conversion. The third held that we obtained it at death. But all three of those
ministers, and all the rest who did not care when they obtained it, or whether
they received it at all, or whether there was any such thing, banded together
and expelled from the ministry a fellow minister for preaching sanctification as
a second work of grace, received by faith after regeneration!!

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne, Yet that scaffold
sways the future, And, behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own.

What more pathetic passage is there in Christian literature than John Wesley’s
closing appeal, "On Christian Perfection?" "Who is he that will open his mouth
against being cleansed from all pollution, both of flesh and spirit, or against
having all the mind that was in Christ -- has the hardiness to object to the
devoting, not a part, but all our soul, body and substance to God? Let this
Christian perfection appear in its own shape, and who will fight against it? It
must be disguised before it can be opposed. It must be covered with a bearskin
first, or even the wild beasts of the people will scarce be induced to worry it.
But whatever these do, let not the children of God any longer fit against the
image of God. Let not those who are alive to God oppose dedicating all our life
to Him.

"We allow, we contend, that we are justified freely through the righteousness
and the blood of Christ. And why are you so hot against us because we expect
likewise to be sanctified wholly through His Spirit? How long will you who
worship God in spirit . . . set your battle in array against those who seek an
entire ’circumcision of heart’ who thirst to be cleansed ’from all filthiness of
flesh and spirit,’ and to ’perfect holiness in the fear of God?’ Nay, we your
enemies because we look for a full deliverance from the carnal mind, which is
enmity against God? Nay, we are your brethren, your the vineyard of our Lord,
your companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus."


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  CHAPTER 18: 02.11.     HOLINESS REJECTED PRODUCES A WORLDLY AND
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11. Holiness Rejected Produces a Worldly and Barren Ministry By Aaron Hills

Every worthy man will seek to magnify his calling and make it honorable. Every
true soul craves success. The nobler the occupation, the more honorable the
ambition to succeed. Of all human callings, the most sacred and the most
important is to stand as God’s mouthpiece and ambassador, to plead with guilty
souls to be reconciled to God. A man is dead indeed who would not be anxious to
succeed in a work which rescues men from eternal ruin, and gets the smile of God
and heaven for a reward. People with monumental courage climb burning buildings
to rescue the helpless from the flames; they dash through the breakers to rescue
the shipwrecked from the billows. What ought we to do to snatch men and women
from an endless hell? And yet there is not such zeal, we are pained to confess,
in the ministry in general as there ought to be. Lawyers often plead with more
enthusiasm and eloquence when only the value of an old cow is at stake than
preachers manifest in pleading for souls for whom Christ died. Richard Baxter
once said: "Nothing is more sad than to see a dead minister in to dead souls the
living gospel of the living God."

There are two difficulties or perils that confront every minister:

1. The world puts upon his spirit a steady pressure, a devitalizing influence.
Its temptations beat upon him from every quarter as the surf beats upon the rock
that rises out of the deep. His very position multiplies his perils. His gifts
and character make him welcome and sought after by his fellows. The prizes of
life appeal to his ambition. The smiles of society greet him, and the
blandishments of the world charm him and bribe him to forget the seriousness of
his purpose. Honor waves her magic wand, and self-indulgence, like a sorceress,
whispers her incantations to his tempted soul. All these together, by a constant
leaking away of spiritual forces, exhaust the life, and the from his loving
Lord.

Then other things than God become his reliance. Fraternities invite him to
depend upon their friendly help. Culture in the head is substituted for Christ
in the heart. Eloquence and oratory rather than Holy Spirit are deemed more
essential to success. The newspaper and the supplant the Holy Word, and the
flashy to hungry hearts in the place of the gospel of the atoning Christ.
Gradually, but none the less surely, the life becomes self-centered rather than
Christ-centered. The holy abandon of the being to Christ in self-sacrifice, like
a seed sown in the soil, is unknown. The sublime truth of Jesus, "He that loveth
his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall lose it;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal," is
not understood. Selfishness becomes the law of action, and it consumes the heart
of piety like a canker.

2. As an outgrowth of this state of heart and life, truth itself becomes
nebulous and unreal. Speculation takes the place of a "Thus saith the Lord."
Failure in preaching the old gospel, because a lack of dependence upon God,
nurses the foolish idea that changed; that new truths and new measures are
essential to the new conditions. The "gospel of Christ" which Paul was "not
ashamed of" is relegated to the lumber-room, or stake of criticism. The young
preacher is given to by the theological professor that he must be "up to date"
in evolution, higher criticism, and social settlements; he goes from the
seminary to his first pastorate with supercilious contempt of old-fashioned is
wholly unphilosophical, and as for SANCTIFICATION, why should there be a second
blessing when the first is quite superfluous? Education and confirmation are
entirely sufficient for this wonderful new generation coming on from our Sabbath
schools and our cultured homes! Thus it comes to pass that revivals in many
quarters are spurned; full salvation, or, for that matter, any salvation, is
discounted; and the old concern for lost souls does not press, like an
ever-present sorrow, upon the pastor’s heart. The church becomes a social club,
and the pastor its leading lecturer and the toastmaster at periodical suppers!!

God forbid that I should say that this is the universal condition of the Church!
But that this is the condition in some quarters, and that the tendency is toward
it in many, cannot be denied.

Hence we have an educated, polite, fashionable, worldly ministry whose
conspicuous barrenness, in all denominations, is the astonishment of men.

Recently I was told of a minister who is talented and brilliant, and once was
famous as a soul winner. At one time he led one of the greatest revivals that
ever occurred in the Southwest, in which six hundred people found God. After
that he was brought face to face with Pentecost. After deep deliberation he
refused to pay the price of sanctification. Since then, during several years, I
am informed, it is doubtful if he has won a soul, and he has said with
bitterness "I hate the very word sanctification." In other words, he
deliberately rejected Pentecost and he is left in barrenness and bitterness of
soul, even hating "the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord"
(Hebrews 12:14, A. S. V.).


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  CHAPTER 19: 02.12.     HOLINESS REJECTED PRODUCES A GODLESS CHRIS
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12. Holiness Rejected Produces a Godless Christianity By Aaron Hills The phrase
"A Godless Christianity" sounds like a meaningless contradiction; an absurdity
of speech. But let us not be too sure that it is meaningless. I am moved to
write this by General Booth’s graphic description of the dangers confronting the
twentieth century: "I am of the opinion that the dangers which confront the
coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost; Christianity without
Christ; forgiveness without repentance; salvation without regeneration; politics
without God; and heaven without hell." The words are startling in the extreme.
But, alas! there is enough in current phases of the popular religion to make
them no idle picture of an imaginary alarm. For instance,

1. Have we no "politics without God"? The great Gladstone said, "As I think of
the political sins of England I tremble when I remember that God is just." When
we see our own land, and the other of Christendom licensing the infamy of the
liquor traffic, and our cities licensing brothels and tolerating gambling hells,
and the great political parties down on their knees before the oligarchy of rum,
can we believe that old General Booth was so very far out of the way? One of our
most brilliant United States senators a few years ago declared that "morality in
politics is an iridescent dream!" If such an atrocious sentiment should ever
prevail in this country and pass unrebuked, and become the law of political
action, then "politics without God" will no longer be a dreaded specter but a
baneful reality. But,

2. Are none talking of or expecting forgiveness without repentance? Who can
doubt it as he contemplates the low living, the moral obliquities, and
measureless worldliness of people professing godliness? What mean the vicious
habits, the cherished animosities, the low tastes, the loud and profane speech,
the Sabbath desecration, the awful irreverence and financial crookedness of
multitudes of church members? Each one of them thinks himself pardoned, and
expects to be saved. Why the abounding hatred of the doctrine of holiness, as a
possible experience if sin is not still loved and willingly cherished in the
heart?

Nothing is more certain than that this is not God’s picture of repentance. He
says "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts."
Shame and self-loathing and abhorrence of iniquity, coupled with a self-abasing
confession and forsaking of sin, are the characteristic of that repentance which
God is pleased to honor and reward with forgiveness. But the advocates of the
doctrine of necessary and continuous sin either fall far short of any such
experience or their doctrines belie their hearts. Such a doctrine, universally
believed, would land the Church in universal godlessness.

3. Who has not heard of salvation without regeneration? A fashionable minister
of a fashionable church some time ago blandly informed his delighted auditors
that conversion and regeneration were no longer needed as they once were; our
dear people are now so cultured in Sabbath schools and high schools and colleges
that the violent experience of a new birth is quite unnecessary; a little
catechetical instruction and church joining are quite sufficient. The preachers
who have joined the godless lodges, and sported with the world until they have
lost all spiritual power to lead people to God, are very prone to adopt this
theory. It a nice robe to cover their barrenness, such a beautiful whitewash for
their sepulcher of rottenness! They can now flood their churches with multitudes
of unconverted worldlings, and boast of church joiners, and offer incense to
their statistics, and pass on to a higher appointment and a larger salary, and
cover their shame. Meantime the poor, deceived, deluded church members are
populating hell! If this becomes universal it will mean a church swallowed up in
the maelstrom of godlessness.

4. Christianity without Christ -- we shall have it as an awful reality when our
preachers all do as some of them already do, get their themes from the daily
papers instead of from Word, and preach about everything else but Jesus, the
only Hope of sin-cursed men. I was once holding a revival meeting in Michigan.
The international Sabbath lessons at the time were in the Gospel of John. There
was a popular minister in the neighborhood who was teaching a large Bible class
of young men in his Sabbath school. He had not, as I was informed, taken a
lesson from the Bible in six months; and the particular Sunday that the Sabbath
schools in America were studying the wonderful intercessory prayer of Christ in
the upper chamber, this popular preacher was talking to his class about
Portugal! I once attended the Sunday evening service of a prominent preacher of
Boston. His theme for the evening was "The Gospel of Greece." He announced for
his next Sabbath evening the "The Gospel of Montenegro!" What is needed today is
men who will preach the GOSPEL OF CHRIST, "There is none other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved."

5. Heaven without hell. Preachers are now becoming too refined to offend the
sensitive tastes of their cultured parishioners by any mention of the realms of
the lost. The word hell is to gross for their gracious lips to frame. The very
idea of it is banished from thoughts, along with the ghosts and spooks that
tormented our superstitious and benighted ancestors, things which enlightened
people of our day have happily outgrown.

I once heard a prominent preacher in Hartford, Connecticut, say that "if anybody
feared God it was because he did not know Him. A famous preacher in Boston
declared, "There is nothing in God to fear." This awful delusion of no hell is
sweeping over the willing ears of our luxurious, easygoing age. How blindly such
preachers read history! What! the God of the hurricane, and cyclone, and
pestilence, and thunderbolt; and of Sodom and Gormorrah, and of the Canaanites,
and of ancient Jerusalem; the God of the wrecked civilizations and lost empires!
-- nothing in Him to fear! The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews evidently
thought otherwise, and wrote "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and Godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire."

I was once on a train on my way to Cincinnati to lead a revival meeting. Right
behind me were three men: a drummer for a wholesale liquor house, a man who
confessed that he had won all the clothes he had on in a bet, and a man who
boasted how he was constantly cheating the railroads in a matter of freight --
in other words, a liquor man, a gambler, and a thief. After a time their when
one of them said with a bland smile, "There isn’t any hell. Beecher has filled
it up." And so it is liquor men, thieves, gamblers, debauchees, the profane, the
vile, the worldly, the sensual, the devilish, and the fallen preachers -- all
are happy to believe that there is no peril in sin, and nothing in God to fear.
This belief, were it universal, would make of modern society another Sodom.

6. But lastly, and to my mind the worst of all, and the root from which all the
other errors spring, is religion without the Holy Ghost. This takes out of our
modern church life all change of heart, all regeneration, all witness of the
Spirit, all sanctification -- in short, all the supernatural; and substitutes
poor human for the divine. Are we in no dangers from this type of religion
getting among us? What mean the covert and even open sneers at revival and
conversions and the baptism with the Holy Ghost? How is it that churches are
depending wholly upon the culture and oratorical skill and presence and social
standing of their preachers, and with in their turn, are teaching the people to
ignore the Holy Ghost. Witness the following: I supplied the pulpit of a large
church in Massachusetts some years ago. At the close of the sermon, an aged
minister said to me: "It seemed good to hear the old gospel once more; our last
pastor, in seventy-three sermons and prayers, made no reference to the Holy
Spirit!"

Two or three years ago one of my students saw a preacher peer under the pews and
say contemptuously: "Where is that thing that you call the Holy Ghost? You
wouldn’t know Him from an old sow if should see Him!"

Another of my students heard a preacher say in his prayers: "O Lord God, Thou
knowest that we know there is no such thing as the Holy Ghost." Another of my
pupils saw a little time ago in Oklahoma a preacher go about the church before
his audience, waving his hat in the air and crying blasphemously: "If there is
any Holy Ghost in the house we want to get Him out!"

If this kind of conduct is not akin to the sin of blasphemy that hath never
forgiveness what could be? And it is driving God from our sanctuary services,
clothing the churches and sending multitudes to hell. This religion without the
Holy Ghost. A prominent official of a great church, in an address before a great
convention, took the position that children did not need conversion -- merely
training up in the right way. He made religion to be an evolution and education.
He discounted religious experience, and by assertion and illustration made
religion to consist merely in taking hold and performing Christian work. If ever
this kind of teaching takes possession of the Church and goes to seed, we shall
have a godless Christianity, a civilization lost, a church damned.

Let holiness people draw near together and stand firmer than ever for an
inspired Word, a genuine repentance, a regeneration begotten of the Spirit, the
sanctification by the Holy Ghost, God ruling the nations, righteousness the law
of life, and Christ all in all. The billows of unbelief and sin may be rising;
but ours is the cause of truth, and our movement inspired by the Holy Spirit is
the hope of the world.


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  CHAPTER 20: 02.13.     THE HEAVENLY VISION
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13. The Heavenly Vision By Aaron Hills In spite of the stares of the wise, and
the world’s derision, Dare travel the star-blazed road,dare follow the Vision.
The world is a vapor, and only the Vision is real -- Yea, nothing can hold
against hell but the Winged Ideal. -- Edwin Markham

We are in a world where the whole course of things tends to secularize and
degrade whatever is angelic in the soul. Aspiration is depressed, judgment is
warped, conscience is drugged, faith is one, and hope is slain by the incessant
grind of earthliness.

Whatever tends to stimulate the moral nature and bring men into higher condition
than belong to their ordinary experience is a preparation for seeing invisible
things as really and clearly as if they were visible. These visions -- for such
they are -- come in innumerable ways: sometimes by a flash of truth upon the
aroused intellect, sometimes through the quickened affections, sometimes through
the awakened moral sentiments, sometimes through the excited imagination. A
thousand things and occasions can play upon the corded soul and lift it above
itself, till sordid cares are forgotten, and the burdens that have depressed the
spirit are thrown off, and the Son of God breaks the chains of Satan that have
bound him. He then stands and looks for a brief space with clear eye upon
spiritual and eternal things. Clouds disappear, mists vanish, the glamour of
unrealities is dispelled, and for one moment he sees as in the light of God.

How blessed a thing it is that there is in the nature of man that out of which
may come these heavenly visions! How gracious that God kindly uses this
possibility for moral ends, and arrest at times the attention of the soul and
fixes it upon eternal things! Peter had such a vision when God would take narrow
bigotry out of his heart and teach him the sublime truth of the common
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

Little Samuel had such a vision when God would make the child acquainted with
himself, and cause him to be the mouthpiece of Jehovah to a guilty house and a
fallen people. It was Samuel’s call and induction into office as the prophet and
reformer of Israel.

Gideon had such a heavenly vision when God would lead him out of obscurity and
timidly and fearfulness of heart, and clothe him with power for leadership and
deeds of daring.

Saul, the mad bigot, breathing out threatening and slaughter, hating Jesus and
His followers, in spite of manifold evidence of Christ’s divinity and the
innocence of His disciples -- this excited, half-insane fanatic received a
sudden vision of the glory and divinity of Jesus, and the wickedness of his
persecutions, and the awful folly of vision smote him and made him fall before
the pierced feet. He bowed his will in submission, and his life was forever
changed. John, imprisoned on a barren and desolate isle for Christ’s sake,
filled with sorrow over what seemed the impending doom of the kingdom of God,
receive a comforting vision of the Son of Man’s reigning in supernal glory,
overcoming the prince of darkness, and setting up His eternal kingdom of light
and love. The aged apostle gathered hope, and sent his comforting message and
loving warning to the churches to prepare them to resist the onsweeping
persecution of the pagan emperor.

Such were visions, and such their varied purposes in other days. God for similar
ends is sending them yet. Some illustrations of the working of God’s Spirit and
providences will throw light upon this subject. A college student in England had
neglected his studies, rioting at night with dissipated companions, and sleeping
in the classroom when he ought to have been listening. A fellow student came
into his room one morning before he had risen from his pillow and solemnly said
to him in the name of Jesus: "Paley, you are a fool! You are wasting your
opportunities. Do not throw away your life. I have no talent, but you can make
of yourself what you will." Years afterward Paley wrote: "I was so struck with
what he said that I lay in bed until I had formed my plan for life. I ordered my
fire to be always laid at night. I arose at five o’clock in the morning, and
read steadily all day. I allotted to each portion of the day its proper branch
of study, and became Senior Wrangler." What an hour that was when God sent to
that young man a vision of his possible greatness and impending ruin! A
resolution was formed that converted a wrecked and dissipated young man into a
consecrated scholar and one of the most stalwart defenders of Christianity, till
all time and all eternity will be debtor to his influence.

Sometimes souls are aroused by special providences to hear the voice of God and
change their destiny. Such was the case with both Lord Clive and Garfield. Lord
Clive, the founder of England’s great Indian empire, landed in India a wild,
reckless youth with a purse empty and a character lost by dissipation. Weary of
life, which was a disgrace to his friends and a burden to himself, loading a
pistol and putting the muzzle to his head, he drew but only to flash the powder
in the pan. Renewing the priming once more he put his finger on the trigger and
the muzzle to his brow, and was about to draw when, impressed by his remarkable
escapes, he laid the pistol down, saying, godless and graceless man as he was,
"Surely God intends to do some great things by me that He has so preserved me!"
Thus the failure of the deadly weapon to take his life was the voice of God to
his soul, and made him the founder of a Christian empire. So with Garfield. The
reading of a bad book fired his youthful mind to leave the society of his
prayerful mother and have a sensational career at sea. He went to a vessel on
Lake Erie to seek service as a sailor. The captain cursed him and the sailors
jeered at him so brutally that he was abashed. He then thought to begin lower
down by service on a canal-boat. He fell or was knocked into the fourteen times
the first trip, and he could not swim. One night in some way, while he was
handling the rope, it caught in the crevice of the boat by kinking and then
slipped suddenly and threw him into the dark waters where none could see him but
God. He caught the slack rope as he sank, when it suddenly straightened and,
climbing hand over hand, he regained the vessel. Another kink in the rope had
caught in the crevice and saved him. Drenched as he was, he sat down in the
darkness to think. He threw the rope into the crevice six hundred times and it
would not kink again. He said to himself: "I might throw this rope ten times as
many times without its kinking, so there were six thousand chances against my
life. Against such odds Providence alone could have saved me. God therefore
thinks my life is worth saving, and if that’s so I will not throw it away on a
canal-boat. I’ll go home, get an education, and become a man." Thus again a
striking Providence aroused a reckless youth to a sense of his worth, by which a
Christian statesman was saved to the world.

Oh, these experiences that heaven’s messages into the soul these VISIONS that
lifts the curtain of destiny and turn wandering and tardy feet into the path of
divine appointment! How gracious they are! What benedictions from heaven! And
they come to Christians also as a kindly call to a higher and fuller life. It
was the prayers of two holy women, pleading for Moody’s anointing with the Holy
Spirit for special service that brought him his heart-hunger for God, his
vision, and all that he afterward became. It was in the gray dismal morning in
London that the holy Mr. Studd came to and F. B. Meyer’s room and moved him to
welcome the Holy Ghost in all His blessed fullness into his heart. Dr. Wilbur
Chapman says: "I had had visions of this power of the Holy Spirit, and glimpses
of what I might be if I were ’filled with the Spirit,’ but all this time, as it
was with the disciples at Ephesus, was a great lacking." At last by reading a
tract received a vision of how to receive the blessing and he bowed and entered
in. The prophet Isaiah had a vision of the holy God and a holy heaven, and was
convicted for HOLINESS, and received the blessing. It is the hour of all hours
to a believer when this vision and call to holiness comes. The late Professor
Drummond says: "The departure of the soul from God begins when the believer
rejects the tender of holiness. He thus turns away from God to face the perils
of moral deterioration and death. It means moral suicide and ante-mortem
damnation."

Mr. L____ stood high in the church of which a friend of mine was pastor -- a preacher of full salvation. A revival wave of the holiness kind struck that church, and it brought to Brother L---- the vision of a clean heart. But he held off and advocated the growth theory. He stood for a time face to face with God, and the issue consciously rejected sanctification. He soon began to neglect the house of God. The family altar went down. Zeal for the church wanted. Another revival came, in which his own children were converted, but he dodged it. The faithful pastor urged upon him present holiness as the only reliable thing in the midst of life’s uncertain. But he refused all pleadings and persuasions, holding out against the call of God. A few weeks later he fell from a tree and was killed instantly. A minister of unusual gifts and power had a humble brother in his church who was blessedly sanctified. The minister, like the prophet Isaiah, got convicted for a clean heart. He took the humble brother in his carriage out to a grove and asked him to pray for him. But he was not quite willing to pay the price for the unspeakable gift; he felt that the consecration required was too much. The heavenly vision had come, and sanctification was rejected. In the course of time this talented minister lost his power and his sweetness, became bitter and full of the spirit of persecution against holiness. He turned that humble brother out of the church, and hated the cause he represented. Now that minister is a backslidden wanderer in a distant state; while the humble, sanctified brother has become an evangelist known from ocean to ocean

Oh, this vision -- this call to holiness -- it is the touch of God and the
breath of heaven to the soul! If any reader of these lines has seen the truth,
has felt the call, I beseech you, be not disobedient to the heavenly vision."
"He that despiseth, despiseth not man but God, who hath also given unto us his
holy Spirit." It is an awful, a fatal thing to quench the Spirit of God.


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  CHAPTER 21: 03.00. UTTERMOST SALVATION
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Uttermost Salvation by

Aaron Hills

Soli Gloria Deo


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 22: 03.00C.     TABLE OF CONTENTS
========================================================================

Introduction 01. The Uttermost Salvation 02. Holy Like God 03. Cleansing From
All Sin 04. How To Obtain The Blessing Of Sanctification 05. Pledge Of Faith 06.
Any Man’s Lawyer 07. The Sin-principle Condemned To Death 08. Death Or Glory,
Which?

09. The Promise Of The Father 10. Moral Insanity 11. Things That Accompany
Salvation 12. Receiving The Holy Ghost 13. A Man Of God Unsanctified 14. The
Will Of God 15. The Reason For Our Hope 16. Sanctified Wholly 17. Sanctified By
Faith 18. Finished Sin 19. A Two-fold Disease And A Double Cure 20. God’s
Keeping


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  CHAPTER 23: 03.00I.     INTRODUCTION
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Introduction This collection of sermonettes, originally prepared for the
religious press of this country and England, has been made in response to the
oft-repeated requests of many people. They seem to have been used by God to
bless many souls.

More than fifty years ago, we settled it irrevocably that we would live to that
end, and that it should be the supreme purpose of life. The joy of that decision
has kept pace with us through all the years. By voice and pen, in the pulpit and
the class-room, in public and in private, we have been at this glorious work of
helping to save men from sin, and bring the wanderers back to their Father’s
house. Than this we can conceive of no higher work or greater joy. Should this
book prove helpful to Christian workers, it may be followed by others. What else
is worth living for but the kingdom of God?

Yours in Christ, A. M. Hills Pasadena College


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  CHAPTER 24: 03.01.     THE UTTERMOST SALVATION
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1. The Uttermost Salvation

"Wherefore also Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto
God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" -- Hebrews
7:25. This is a desperately wicked world. Every daily paper proves it, every
police court, every lockup, jail and prison; every criminal Court record and all
Criminal Statistics of every civilized or pagan land prove to a demonstration
that this is an awfully wicked world. Men hate God’s law, His Bible, His
character, and His service. They hate HIM, and would banish Him from the
universe if they could.

Men hate each other. The beasts of the forest and the sharks of the deep do not
treat their own kind as men treat their fellow men. With such sin abroad to be
dealt with, we need an omnipotent Savior. Any other kind would only mock the
needs and sorrows of a sin-sick world.

St. Paul did not know any word in the Greek language that would satisfactorily
express his conception of the power of Jesus to save. So, as scholars sometimes
do, he coined a phrase, "eis to panteles," found only here and in Luke, which is
Paul’s gospel. It means "able to save to completeness," "completely, entirely,
perfectly," "clear to the end of every possible need of the soul." And some
scholars put the element of time in it, and add, "save from all the guilt, power
and consequences of sin for ever." Certainly men need, and for ever will need,
such a Savior. I. -- We need one who can save uttermost sinners.

If Jesus cannot do that, His glory is tarnished. He is not an almighty Savior.
The devil can mock His claim to omnipotence and boast to the universe that he
can get men into a pit of sin so deep that even the Son of God cannot get them
out. What right-thinking, moral being can believe anything so dishonoring to the
Lord of glory as that? It is almost blasphemy to even think of it.

(1) He can save infidels, and has saved hundreds of them. We have seen some of
them who were rare trophies of grace. We knew one, Elijah P. Brown, who of all
the infidels in the United States was chosen to deliver an address in honor of
Tom Paine before a convention of infidels. When he was an editor of a paper in
Cincinnati he would print all the names of God with a small letter to insult his
Maker. He built a mansion, and filled the niches on his walls with the busts of
famous infidels. The bust of Robert Ingersoll had the place of honor, and he
pointed to it proudly as his "pastor." He took a dreadful oath that no preacher
should ever darken his door. Out of curiosity he went to hear Moody preach, and
Was converted after the second sermon. He at once founded and published the
Ram’s Horn, one of the most aggressive Christian papers. Jesus had conquered and
saved the proud infidel.

(2) We have seen hundreds of drunkards saved, and thousands who have been saved,
by this mighty Savior. The Lion of the tribe of Judah broke every chain of habit
and brought eternal deliverance to their blighted natures.

(3) We have seen a hopelessly enslaved Cigarette fiend get saved and sanctified
and become the president of a holiness college, when the doctors, before his
conversion, had given him but ten months to live.

(4) We have seen a harlot come to the altar and confess all the sins in the
catalogue of crimes, and then get saved and sanctified and so filled with the
glory of heaven that she could hardly contain herself.

(5) We have seen men preaching the gospel who had worn stripes behind prison
bars for the crime of murder. We are acquainted with an ex-pugilist who has
fought sixty-three battles in the prize ring. Today he is an effective preacher
of full salvation. We have concluded that our Jesus can save to the uttermost
the uttermost sinners. II. -- Jesus is able to save fashionable moral sinners.

Plenty of that class belong to the ranks of culture and fashion. Some of them
are college-bred. They are proud and wealthy and worldly and wicked, and very
much harder to reach than the roughs and down-and-outs in the city slums. People
are loath to believe it, but every experienced Christian worker knows that it is
literally true. We preached in Chicago jail to hundreds of prisoners when they
were taking their exercise as fast as they could walk. Yet seven knelt on the
stone platform and gave themselves to Christ and were saved. But we have offered
the same glorious gospel from the same text to fashionable sinners, and they
laughed Christ to scorn.

However, the Christ who saved Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea and Saul of
Tarsus, still lives, and is saving moral sinners. III. -- Jesus can save the
most hopeless of backsliders.

Oh, the sad condition of those who once knew Jesus, and drank of the cup of His
salvation, and then went back to the cup of demons; poor, heart-broken,
despairing sinners, "having no hope and without God in the world." But the
Savior of David and Peter and the disciples who "forsook Him and fled," is still
restoring the backslidden and the lost. He sends His loving message to them: "I
am married to the backslider." "How can I give thee up?" "Return unto Jehovah
thy God." "I will heal their backslidings; I will love them freely, for mine
anger is turned away." Who will persistently resist such pleading, forgiving
love? IV. -- He can save to the uttermost from every kind O! sin. There are two
kinds of sin, actual and indwelling sin.

(1) Actuals sins are our own voluntary acts of disobedience, for which we are
directly and wholly responsible. We committed them of our. own free choice,
deliberately and willfully. These can be, and must be, pardoned and blotted out
by the grace of Christ.

(2) There is indwelling sin, depravity, the carnal mind. This was born with us
and in us. We were not responsible for being born with it, and so cannot be
pardoned for it. It must be cleansed out of us; and God has made provision in
Christ for that cleansing. It was to that David referred when he prayed:
"Cleanse me from my sin." "Create in me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right
spirit within me" (Psalms 51:2; Psalms 51:10).

God promised through Isaiah: "I will thoroughly purge away thy dross and will
take away all thy tin" (Isaiah 1:25). It was fulfilled to Isaiah himself in the
sixth chapter when he was convicted for holiness and sought and obtained the
blessing (Isaiah 6:7).

What a mockery of salvation that would be which did not save the drunkard from
the appetite for drink, nor the liar from lying, nor the thief from the passion
for stealing nor the murderer from his hate and his desire to kill!

Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to burn out of our hearts the tendency to sin, and
then fills us with Himself, so that there shall be no room for Satan or any of
his belongings. "Preoccupied" is written upon every faculty of our being. V. --
This uttermost Savior can save continually. A Sunday salvation is not enough. We
must have a salvation that will take us through the week. A revival salvation is
not enough. We want a salvation that will hold us when there is no revival. A
campmeeting blessing will not suffice. We need a blessing that will last when
the tents are down and the sermons and songs and prayers are hushed. A youth
religion will not suffice. We need a Savior who can keep us in the fierce
temptations of young manhood and amidst the cares of middle life, and make our
gray hairs of old age a shining crown of eternal glory. A sunshine piety will
not be enough. We want an experience that will abide when the stars are hidden
and the night is on, and the hurricanes of grief and trouble are wrapping their
convoluted blackness about us. A health and prosperity blessing is not
sufficient. When the Sabeans and Chaldeans carry away your possessions, and a
wind, death-laden, strikes the four corners of your dwelling, and those whom you
have most loved turn against you, and the friends whom you have long trusted
smite you with the tongue of slander, and sickness makes life a continuous agony
of pain until you long for death which does not come -- then, then you need the
keeping grace that enabled Job to say, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!" Yes, we need a salvation that saves in every
place, in all kinds of company, in each hour of the day, in every day of the
year, and in every changing circumstance of life, world without end. And Christ
can give it; for He is an uttermost Savior. VI. -- This Savior can save and
sanctify everybody.

He is an almighty Christ, and no respecter of persons. He does not pick out easy
cases upon which to exhibit His power to save. He takes people as they come,
high or low, rich or poor, educated or ignorant, moral or vicious. He says to
thieves, drunkards, murderers and harlots, "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all
the ends of the earth."

I heard Mrs. C. T. Boyce, an evangelist, say she had seen seventy-five thousand
souls kneel at the mercy-seat seeking Christ. She testified: "I was converted,
and when but a child had turned many to Christ. I was a preacher and a
missionary’s wife, but until I was sanctified, I was one of the most
disagreeable wives that ever lived. One day when I was not well my kind husband
harnessed his horse to take me out driving to rest my tired nerves. But I
resented it because he had not asked me first. Think how mean the devil and
carnality can make a wife be! The Holy Spirit convicted me of it, I shut myself
in my room, and prayed until God sanctified me."

"In one of my campmeetings I met Harry J. Elliott. He was a Catholic for
thirty-four years; a bar-tender, horse-racer, gambler. He forged notes . twice
set his uncle’s hotel on fire. He was converted, and four months afterwards was
sanctified. Christ took from him all appetite for liquor, tobacco, gambling and
sin. When I met him he was preparing to be a missionary to Japan. Christ proves
that He is an uttermost Savior by saving and sanctifying all that come unto God
by Him." WILL YOU COME?


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  CHAPTER 25: 03.02.     HOLY LIKE GOD
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2. Holy Like God

"But like as he which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all
manner of living, because it is written ye shall be holy for I am holy" -- 1
Peter 1:15-16. The word "like" suggests at once the divinely implanted principle
of imitativeness. There is not one gifted and noble mother in all the world who
would not be pleased to have her best qualities repeated in the life of her
daughter. There is not one great artist or genius in literature or statesmanship
who would not be pleased at the thought that the great gift would reappear again
in his son. It is a natural feeling of the parental heart.

Now the great moral attribute of God is His infinite, eternal, unchangeable
holiness. Need we wonder that He is so anxious to have this characteristic
reproduced in every child of His redeeming love? It would be the wonder of earth
and heaven if God didn’t feel that way toward us all.

There are many holiness people who are not holy people. They are in the ranks.
They follow the crowd. They like the company; but they have not the inner
experience. We should have a reality as well as a profession -- an experience as
well as a name. They who have the real experience do exploits. They are glorious
as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. I. -- God’s
Holiness is a Perfect Holiness.

It is unthinkable that God should have an imperfect holiness. It would then be
all out of harmony with His other attributes. But our holiness is to be like
God’s. It is to be genuine from skin to core. There is no "suppression" in this
kind of holiness, no concealed carnality within. There is no "inward sin and
corruption to the last hour of life."

Some preach "cleansing and holiness;" but they say, "We shall never be sinless
in this world." There are still "depths upon depths of mischief that lie hidden
within us." Now we might ask what kind of holiness is it that is "not free from
sin to the last day of our lives?" What kind of holiness is it which co-exists
with "indwelling corruption," "which always will defile the very best deeds and
holiest efforts of this life?" What kind of cleansing is it which leaves "depths
upon depths of mischief in us" to defile our lives? Manifestly "corruption"
holiness, "sinful" holiness, is not God’s kind; and our holiness is to be like
God’s.

Some one says, "That is an overwhelming standard. Is it not too high?" We
answer, "Jesus lifted up this standard: ’Be ye therefore perfect.’" John tells
us, "Every one that hath this hope set on Him (Jesus), purifieth himself, even
as He is pure." We should accept the standard and depend on God’s almighty grace
to keep it. II. -- It is eminently Practical Holiness.

"Holy in all manner of living." It is not merely talk and cheap profession, but
godly deportment. It is not fad-riding, but everyday godliness -- that speaks
the truth and pays the grocery bill, and the doctor, and the newspaper, and the
preacher, and the milkman. Its solemn covenants are not a mere "scrap of paper."
Practical holiness is not fanaticism, for it is guided by the Word of God and
walks in "His steps Who did no sin." God practices holiness, and so must we if
we are like Him.

It means holiness in our physical life. We are to "eat or drink, or whatever we
do, for the glory of God." It means to clothe ourselves for health, rather than
for display of our person: bathe, sleep, wake, work and play for God. If our
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, treat it reverently and care for it for
God. If your mouth belongs to God, do not put tobacco or whiskey into it; for
that insults God, and shortens life and your power of service.

It means holiness in your intellectual life, your reading, study, opinions,
doctrines; "bringing every thought and imagination into captivity to Christ." It
means loving truth and seeking it with an honest heart to put it in practice.
Otherwise one is not holy as God is holy.

It means to be holy in political life, hating and Opposing every kind of sin,
prohibiting every public evil. It means to be holy in social life; no ungodly
companionships; no unholy lodges; no forbidden marriages. It means a clean
parlor, a clean library, clean pictures, a clean household where Jesus might
feel at home. III. -- It is a Professed Holiness. 1 Corinthians 16:22

God professes His holiness; and He never wearies of telling us that He is holy.
His command is: "Be ye yourselves holy, for I am holy." Now, plainly, we cannot
have a holiness like God’s unless we have a similar disposition to let it he
known. A quotation was sent to me from a great evangelist. He said: "If you
become holy or sanctified you need not blow a horn about it; people will find it
out without your telling them." That dear brother never said anything more
unwise. He might as well have told his converts: "If you get converted keep
still about it. You need not blow your horn; people will find it out." Such
conduct as that would drive all the Christian religion from the earth. God said:
"Ye are my witnesses." Possess and profess is the law and the life of genuine
Christian experience. The Israelites had to bring a basket of early fruit to the
place of worship, and profess before the priest." . . . And thou shalt set it
down before Jehovah thy God and worship. . . . And rejoice in all the good which
Jehovah thy God hath given thee" (Deuteronomy 26:1-11). Frances Willard tells us
pathetically that She followed false advice, and kept still about her
sanctification until she suddenly waked up to the awful fact that she "had
nothing to keep still about."

God will have the glory, and we must profess the blessing or lose it. The
disciples said: "We cannot but speak the things we saw and heard." We are
witnesses of these things. The devil would like to have us keep still and grieve
the Spirit and lose the blessing. IV. -- It is a Positive Holiness.

We are quite aware that the negative side of holiness comes first -- the
cleansing from indwelling Sin. So the sin question is the basis of the whole
subject of holiness. There can be no holiness at all without getting rid of the
uncleanness of the heart. The very words for holiness and sanctification mean
cleansing from sin.

Hagios means "pure, righteous, holy."

Hagiasmos means "moral purity, sanctification."

Hagiasunen means "sanctification, sanctity, holiness."

Hagiotes means "holiness, sanctity."

Hagiazo means "to separate, consecrate, cleanse, purify, sanctify."

These Greek words do not mean "suppression," or "counteraction," or "filling,"
or "ecstasy," or "empowering," or "emotional experience." They mean getting rid
of defilement. So the sin question is the center of the holiness movement. Sin
is the deadly damnable thing that God hates. "It turned the angels out of
heaven, and wrecked the earth, and murdered the Son of God, and fills hell with
those for whom Christ died."

Holiness means getting rid of sin, actual and inbred, sin in every form and kind
and degree. This is why the devil and wicked men and carnal preachers are so
opposed to the genuine holiness movement. But there is also a positive side to
the blessing. It is more than a cleansed heart. The heart is first emptied of
depravity and wickedness, and then filled with the Holy Spirit, and all the
fruits of the Spirit, joy, peace, goodness, patience, power and love. V. -- It
is a Personal Holiness.

There are those who profess to teach holiness, and who call themselves holy;
only they say they are not holy in themselves, they are holy in Jesus. They
imagine they have a legal, fictitious holiness in Him. He is a covering for
their vileness; and God, when He looks at them, does not see them, but sees
their covering -- Jesus. In other words, they try to make themselves believe
that God works a deception on Himself, like a man looking through green-colored
glasses, who looks at a dry tree and persuades himself that it is green. This is
bad theology; it is not Bible. What does our text say in the Greek and the
Revised Version? "Be ye yourselves also holy," "Ye shall be holy for I am holy."
A Calvinist preacher said to us: "I have holiness; that is, I am not holy in
myself, but I am holy in Christ. God sees Him and not me." Even Charles Spurgeon
preached in one of his sermons: "Arise, believer, and behold thyself perfect in
Christ Jesus. Let not thy sins shake thy faith in the all-sufficiency of Jesus.
Thou art with all thy depravity still in Him, and therefore complete. Thou hast
need of nothing beyond what there is in Him. In Him thou art just and entirely
clean, in Him an object of divine approval and eternal love. Now, as thou art,
and where thou art, feeble, fickle, forgetful, frail in thyself, yet in Him thou
art all that can he desired. Thine unrighteousness is covered, thy righteousness
is accepted, thy strength perfected, thy safety secured, thy heaven certain." To
tell people "full of sins and depravity" such a message was a horrible
perversion of truth. And there is no Scripture for such rank antinomianism. VI.
-- It is a Pure Holiness.

It is because the Holy Ghost fire has burned carnality out. As God said in
Isaiah: "I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross and
will take away all thy tin". (Isaiah 1:25). So also in Malachi: "He is like a
refiner’s fire, and He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And He will
purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall
offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness" (Malachi 3:3-4). "Every one that
hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." Scriptural
holiness has the holy Christ for its model. A man gets a degree of holiness --
holiness of outward conduct in regeneration. He henceforth does not lie, or
swear, ’or Steal, or get drunk, or willfully sin in regeneration. But real
holiness goes deeper than the outer conduct, and cleanses us from the indwelling
sin. That inbred sin principle which fights against our piety and makes us
jealous, and revengeful, and willful, and passionate, and hot-tempered, and
selfish, and self-indulgent, must be and is consumed by the fire of the Holy
Ghost before we have the holiness described in the text that makes us "holy like
God," and "pure as He (Christ) is pure." VII. -- It is a Possible Holiness.

We know it is possible for many unanswerable reasons. (1) Jesus prayed for it
(John 17:1-26). (2) Jesus died for it. "Christ loved the Church and gave Himself
for it that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it" (Ephesians 5:25). (3)
Jesus commanded it (Matthew 5:48). (4) He calls us to it (1 Thessalonians 4:7).
(5) He promises it. "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it" (1
Thessalonians 5:24). (6) He baptizes us with the Holy Ghost and fire to produce
it in our hearts. For these six best of all reasons we know we can have this
blessing. VIII. -- It is a Present Holiness.

Jesus never sought holiness. He had it. God does not seek or try to grow into
holiness; He has it now. And ours is to be like God’s, a present holiness. God
says under oath that we may have it now and all the days of our life (Luke
1:73-75). In our text we are commanded in the aorist tense (genesthete) "Be ye
now at once holy like God." We cannot be absolute, self-contained, independent
and self-sufficient in holiness like God. But ours, derived from Him and induced
by His Holy Spirit baptism, can be in quality like God’s holiness, as a
thimbleful of ocean-water is like the ocean. Thus we can have a perfect
practical, professed, positive, personal, pure, possible, present, holiness. All
praise to the God of our salvation. Jesus Christ then becomes our wisdom from
God, and justification, and Sanctification; and some sweet day He will bring us
to glorification and an eternal heaven. Jesus shall not have prayed and died in
vain. "He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."


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  CHAPTER 26: 03.03.     CLEANSING FROM ALL SIN
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3. Cleansing From All Sin "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

"If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and
do not the truth."

"But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

"If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

"If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us."
-- 1 John 1:5-10. A great heresy arose during the closing years of the first
century. It threatened the utter Subversion and destruction of the Christian
religion. Peter wrote against it (2 Peter 2:12-19). Jude wrote a blistering
message against it (Jude 1:4, Jude 1:10-19). Paul foretold it in his parting
address to the Church of Ephesus (Acts 20:18-35) and in his Second Epistle to
Timothy (2 Timothy 3:1-8). John hurled his fiercest invectives against it in his
first epistle, of which our text is the preliminary summary. Even Jesus
condemned it in His message to the churches (Revelation 2:6; Revelation
2:14-16).

These false teachers were variously called Nicolaitanes and Gnostics. They went
everywhere infesting the churches, denying the real incarnation of Christ and
the reality of His atoning death. Their primal dogma that all evil resided in
matter and did not affect the soul, was a heathen notion imported from Eastern
Asia. Under its baleful influence even church members imbibed the idea that they
could be purified in soul by a mental knowledge of God, and could then indulge
their bodies in any form of vice . without spiritual detriment. A gross
licentiousness resulted, consecrated by a false profession.

Irenaeus says of them: "They assert that they themselves will be saved, not by
practice, but because they are spiritual by nature, and that, as gold, though
mingled With mire, does not lose its beauty, so they themselves, though
wallowing in the mire of carnal works, do not lose their own spiritual essence;
and therefore, though they resort to the banquets which the heathen celebrate in
honor of their false gods, and abstain from nothing that is foul in the eyes of
God or man, they say that they cannot contract any defilement from these impure
abominations, and they scoff at us who fear God as silly dotards." In other
words, these vile heretics taught that "a man might be an outrageous violator of
moral law and yet be a pure and holy saint." It was a subtle error most pleasing
to carnality, and struck a deadly blow at Christian morality. The aged apostle
wrote this epistle as a defense of CHRISTIAN PURITY FROM SIN against Gnostic
purity IN SIN. He says: "These things have I written concerning them that seduce
you" (1 John 2:26).

There is a constant series of burning antithetical ideas, issues between the
true view and the Opposite error, stated in the most intense language. John put
all the earnestness of his Christ-like soul into it, because he saw that the
foundations of Christian purity were involved and Christianity itself was at
stake.

1. -- Then consider the text as a whole. There are six verses in all, with three
antithetical or opposing ideas, two verses to each. The first verse of each pair
of verses states the Christian truth of pardon, purity, and full salvation. The
second verse of each pair is not a description of Christian character at all,
but is a stunning blow at the doctrine and practice of these vile teachers who
are seducing Christians from morality, and by their practice were uniting
professed sanctity with unspeakable depravity.

Let us consider these verses by pairs, and the truth will appear. In 1 John 1:5
the apostle teaches that "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." In
other words, God is light. His children will be children of the light and of the
day. They will walk in the light of moral purity, and will be without darkness,
like their Father.

1 John 1:6 gives the antithesis, -- a blow at the seducers: "If we say (he
meant, If YOU say) that we (you) have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness
(as your false teachers say and do), we (you) lie and do not tell the truth."
That is, "You simply cannot have fellowship with a holy God and practice vice as
you are doing; and if you say that you do, YOU LIE." It was terrific plainness,
and he simply softened it by saying "we" instead of "you," to make the
castigation a little more acceptable.

Take the next pair of verses. 1 John 1:7 gives the blessed hope of salvation:
"If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another (we and God), and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
This is the way of full salvation and complete deliverance from all sin. Walk in
the light of God in faith and obedience, and He will cleanse our hearts "FROM
ALL SIN" Sin of every kind will be taken away.

1 John 1:8 is the antithesis -- another fearful blow at heresy: "If we (you) say
that we (you) have no sin (and no need of a Savior from all past sins, as your
vile teachers would have you believe), we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us (you deceive yourselves and the truth is not in you)."

You Nicolaitan Gnostics affirm that your wicked vices are not wrong, and that
when you practice them you commit no sin; but you are simply deceiving
yourselves. You will not get rid of your sins by denying them, but by confessing
and forsaking, and by praying for an application of the cleansing blood of
Jesus.

Look now at the third pair. 1 John 1:9 gives us again the blessed truth of full
salvation: "If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This verse tells us how
one may walk in the light of a holy God, and obtain justification and
sanctification and complete deliverance from all unrighteousness of heart) . God
has a perfect cleansing for us all.

1 John 1:10 gives the third antithesis -- another blow at the doctrine of these
corrupt teachers: "If we say we have not sinned (as these seducers say), we make
Him a liar and His Word is not in us." In others words: "If you Gnostics, or any
that accept your doctrines, say you have not sinned, while you are wallowing in
shameless orgies of vice, you make God a liar and His Word is not in you."

II. -- If now we write the first verses of these three pairs together, and then
write the second verses together, the correctness of our interpretation will be
more apparent.

1 John 1:5 : "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

1 John 1:7 : "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1 John 1:9 : "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." These three verses are the
Gibraltar of the Christian faith, an epitome of the gospel of full Salvation.
Jesus has made ample provision for us to be justified and sanctified, pardoned
and cleansed, from ALL SIN and ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, and thus made clean and
holy. It is not salvation IN sin, but salvation FROM sin, of every form and
degree. It is what we al must have to get to heaven. The other three verses,
antithetical to these, are a scathing denunciation of the teaching of the
Gnostics, who were corrupting the churches by teaching that people could be in a
saved relation with God and yet be living in drunkenness and licentiousness.
Notice how they read, and think of the pronouns as being in the second person,
instead of the first, and all will be plain.

1 John 1:6 : "If we (you) say that we (you) have fellowship with Him and walk in
darkness, we (you) lie and do not the truth."

1 John 1:8 : "If we (you) say that we (you) have no sin, we (you) deceive
ourselves (yourselves) and the truth is not in us (you)."

1 John 1:10 : "If we say we have not sinned (as these seducers say while
practicing all sin), we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us."

Just such antithetical passages fill the entire epistle, and show to a
demonstration that the beloved apostle was writing against the teaching and
practice of Antinomian heretics who were teaching a salvation IN vice rather
than FROM vice. John himself said, "These things I write concerning them that
seduce you." The above grouping of these verses makes this Scripture perfectly
plain, and robs it of all its seeming contradictions.

III. -- It is amazing that any Christian teachers should wrest this eighth verse
from its connection and divinely-intended meaning, and apply it to holy children
of God who profess sanctification. It is a warning to wicked deceivers and their
followers who are described as "having eyes full of adultery and that cannot
cease from sin," "which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray,
following the way of Balaam." But one preacher applies these words to the best
of Christians thus: "What can be clearer than the statement, ’If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’? To say we have not
sinned, or to say we have no sin, is to show ourselves destitute of God’s
truth." What a wretched interpretation it is to take these words, hurled against
vile seducers of the bride of Christ, and force them to teach as a divine
revelation that the bride herself, with all the heavenly ’Bridegroom’s
sanctifying indwelling, and the cleansing of the Holy Spirit, cannot herself be
pure and clean!

We should like to ask this brother and his fellow-preachers a few questions:

(1) When a sinner has experienced the works of grace described in 1 John 1:7 and
1 John 1:9, that is, when he has been pardoned, and afterward cleansed from "ALL
sin" and "ALL unrighteousness," how much sin has he left in himself to lie
about?

(2) When God has thus pardoned and cleansed one of his obedient, trusting
children, and that child gladly testifies for the glory of Jesus to his
cleansing, does this saint of God lie in saying, "I am now, by the grace of God,
without sin"?

(3) Does an inspired apostle flatly contradict himself with a single pen full of
ink by writing that we may be cleansed from "all sin" and "ALL unrighteousness,"
and yet we still have sin in us until the last breath of life? And does he teach
that to testify to the Holy Spirit’s cleansing would be a lie?

If the King of England should pick up a filthy, ragged London beggar, take him
to his own bath-room and wash him thoroughly, and burn up his rags and clothe
him with the best of garments, would the beggar lie if he should then say, "By
the grace of the King, I am now without filth and without rags"? Of course not!
And no more does a child of the King of kings falsify when he extols the grace
of his heavenly Father.

(4) Do those teachers who declare that "we must have sin in us to the last hour
of life" fitly honor the great salvation of Jesus? "All unrighteousness is sin.
But the apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit, declares that "the blood of Jesus
cleanseth us from ALL sin and ALL unrighteousness."

Adam Clarke well says: "To attempt to evade this and to plead for the
continuance of sin in the heart through life is UNGRATEFUL, WICKED, and even
BLASPHEMOUS; for, as he who says he has not sinned makes God a liar, so he that
says the blood of Christ either cannot or will not cleanse us from all sin in
this life, GIVES ALSO THE LIE TO HIS MAKER." God help us all to keep back from
such awful sin!

Thank God, the old gospel will stand in spite of those who oppose Bible holiness
and plead for the life-long continuance of sin in the heart! No wresting of
Scripture from its connection, and the avowed purpose of the writer, can rob
weary souls of their blood-bought right to be cleansed from every stain of sin.
The seventh verse and the ninth verse tell us of a complete deliverance. There
is a double necessity and a double cure. Sin exists in two forms; actual Sin
which must be pardoned, and inherited indwelling sin or depravity which pardon
cannot reach. It needs to be cleansed away. And if we confess and forsake our
sins they can be pardoned. And afterward, if we abhor our pollution of nature,
our indwelling sin can be cleansed. The immutable Word of God declares (1 John
1:9): "If we confess our sins, God is faithful to His promise and just to His
atoning Son to FORGIVE us our sins and to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness."

Jesus is "an uttermost Savior." His precious blood can and does cleanse from ALL
SIN. And those who have the blessed sanctification of the Holy Ghost can testify
to freedom from sin without lying.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 27: 03.04.     HOW TO OBTAIN THE BLESSING OF SANCTIFICATION
========================================================================

4. How To Obtain The Blessing Of Sanctification "The Lord, Whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to His temple" (Malachi 3:1).

"Ye are the temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:16). A growing number of Christians
are inquiring about the experience of sanctification. Multitudes wish to get rid
of the carnal mind that is enmity against God. Many are weary of moral defeats
and would like to enter upon a life of victory. What large numbers long for a
relief from internal conflicts and sigh for cleansing of heart and soul, for
purity and power!

Well, their hunger and thirst may be gratified. There are some scriptural
conditions to be complied with, and then the longed-for goal will be reached.

I. -- The first condition is a conviction of want. "Blessed are the poor in
spirit," those who are conscious of a soul-need of something more. Nothing short
of this deep sense of need ’will lead one to earnestly seek the blessing, and
pay the price for it. Hannah Whitall Smith, after eight years of Christian
experience, said: "My heart was ill at ease. . . . I resolved, I prayed, I
wrestled, I Strove, I lashed myself up to attain to more faithfulness. But all
in vain! I said, If this is all the Christian life has to offer, it is a
bitterly disappointing thing."

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of herself: "There is an undercurrent of
perplexity and unhappiness about my spiritual state. Why am I thus restless? Why
do I not have all God wants me to have? Ah, why not? Every effort of mine breaks
like a wave upon a rock. We reason, reflect, resolve and pray, weep, strive,
love, love to despair, and all in vain.

Andrew Murray wrote: "The believer must be convicted and brought to the
confession of being in a carnal state. What may be termed a second conviction of
the utter impotence of the flesh to good, and its mighty power to do evil? It is
the seventh of Romans over again." Blessed are those who have such a conviction!
It is a sign that God is moving on their hearts for sanctification.

II. -- The second condition is repentance for having kept the sanctifying Savior
out of His full possession of your nature so long, and for the resulting
failures of life. A Christian lady once said to me, as she was going out of
church, "How can God ever forgive my past?" "Blessed are they that mourn" for
wrong words spoken, questionable deeds done, duties neglected, opportunities
wasted, usefulness impaired, cleansing deferred, holiness hindered, and perhaps
souls lost because we did not have clean hearts filled with the Holy Ghost.

III. -- A third condition is to feel its importance. The one hundred and twenty
in the upper chamber have been commissioned to represent Jesus and disciple the
world! How would they feel about it? Peter would remember his fickleness and
blasphemy, and lying and cowardice. Thomas would remember his doubting, and
James and John their unholy ambition, and Martha her fretting. Mrs. Catherine
Booth said: "God never gave this gift to any soul who had not come to the point
where he would sell all he had to get it." Torrey said: "No man ever got this
blessing who thought he could get along without it."

IV. -- Another condition is, Believe that the promise is for you. Not merely for
Paul and John, and Wesley and Finney, but for you.

Daniel Steele writes: "I took the promise, ’Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you.’ I wrote my
name in the promise, making it read, ’I say unto you -- Daniel Steele.’"

Dr. A. J. Gordon wrote: "The filling of the Spirit belongs to us as a covenant
privilege," because we are the children of God.

Dr. Lowrey wrote: "It is a prime necessity to bring yourself to the conviction
that sanctification is for you. The Scripture affords ample ground for such a
blessed faith.

1. Jesus prayed for it. John 17:17.

2. Jesus died for it. Ephesians 5:25-26, and Hebrews 13:12.

3. God wills it. 1 Thessalonians 4:3.

4. God promises it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 5. God commands it. 1 Peter 1:15.

What more ground of confidence can any soul demand, that you may seek this
blessing with the expectation of receiving it?"

V. -- A fifth condition is to hunger and thirst for it. "Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." One must
desire it intensely with a real craving of soul. A lazy, indifferent, feeble
desire never obtained this blessing. I once said to an audience: "You may pray
for the baptism of the Holy Spirit until your tongues are tired, but as long as
you fight holiness, He will not come." On the way out of the church a lady said:
"I see my mistake; I have long prayed for the Holy Spirit, but all the time I
have been opposing holiness. I now see that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
holiness." She consented to be sanctified, and at once the Spirit came.

David B. Updegraff, the saintly Quaker, writes as follows:-- "I hated pride,
ambition, evil tempers and vain thoughts, but I had them for all that. There
came into my heart a great hunger and thirst to be filled with the fullness of
God."

Anna M. Hammer, a great temperance worker, writes: "Finally a great hunger of
soul came on me. I knew that nothing but ’the anointing that abideth’ would
satisfy my soul. I was in deep conviction for three days in an agony of tears,
as one said to me, ’dying hard.’ But all this time the hunger and aching
increased, until I could no longer resist the pleadings of the Spirit."

Hannah Whitall Smith says: "I began to long after holiness. . . . My whole heart
panted after entire conformity to the will of God."

Rev. J. O. Peck, D. D., writes: "A deep heart hunger began to be realized for a
clean heart. I was not backslidden, and my ministry was never more fruitful, but
the hunger of my soul grew more imperious. I went to a holiness campmeeting and
confessed how I was hungering."

It will be noticed in what similar language all these people depict the deep
longing of their souls for a holy heart. The forerunner of sanctification is
usually a desire for it so intense that it can be fitly likened to "hunger and
thirst," as Jesus said.

VI. -- The sixth condition is obedience. God says: "He gives the Holy Spirit to
them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32). An illustration is furnished by the Bible
itself of this condition. Jesus told the five hundred believers to tarry in
Jerusalem till they were baptized with the Holy Spirit, the blessing promised of
the Father which they should soon receive. Only one hundred and twenty obeyed;
yes, and only one hundred and twenty got the blessing. Jesus had promised (Luke
11:13), "the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him," and commanded to tarry and pray
for the blessing till it came. They obeyed, and prayed in that upper chamber,
and the blessing came.

Obedience means obeying in everything. Mr. Torrey tells of a woman who prayed
and struggled for this blessing until . people thought she would go crazy in the
intensity of her desire. Every time she prayed some little gew-gaw in her hair
was the sticking-point with her. She prayed and prayed, and that would come up
every time. At last, one day, when in prayer, she put her hand to her head and
tore it from her hair and threw it across the room. Immediately the Spirit came,
because she had settled a principle that she would obey God.

Mrs. Maggie Van Cott, of U.S.A., had led seventy-five thousand souls to Christ.
When she was converted she laid aside all her jewelry, of which she had been
vain, but one ring. As often as she prayed for sanctification the Spirit said,
"Put away your ring." At last, one day, when dealing with seekers at the altar,
she saw that her ring was attracting the attention of a seeker, and she took it
off. Immediately the Spirit came. She had settled it that she would obey the
slightest whisper of God.

VII. -- The seventh condition is full consecration. God’s Word is, "Present
yourselves unto God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God." Consecration is the actual present Surrender to God of
our whole being and all we possess. It is the turning over of ourselves to the
Lord to be owned and used by Him, just as a master owns a slave. The ground of
it is Christ’s ownership. He created us. He preserves us. He bought us with His
blood. He has a triple right to us, and in consecration we recognize the right.

Consecration is not an act of feeling; it is an act of will. It can be performed
without feeling. It is a simple recognition of God’s claim upon you for the
service of all your God-given powers.

Rev. B. K. Pierce, D. D., writes: "On my knees I wrote out an . entire surrender
of myself, body, soul and substance, and all pertaining to me, and I solemnly
signed my name to it."

Rev. Isaiah Reid presents this as a proper form of consecration for this
blessing: "O Lord, in view of this thing Thou hast besought of me to do, I
hereby now do really consecrate myself unreservedly to Thee for all time and all
eternity. My time, my talents, my hands, feet, lips, will, my all, my property,
my reputation, my friends and family, my entire being, a living sacrifice to be
and to do all Thy righteous will; -- for the cleansing of my nature from
indwelling sin, I seek the sanctification of my soul.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 28: 03.05.     PLEDGE OF FAITH
========================================================================

5. Pledge Of Faith

"Now, as I have given myself to Thee, I will, from this time forth, regard
myself as Thine. I believe Thou dost accept the offering that I bring. I put all
on the altar. I believe the altar sanctifieth the gift. I believe the blood is
applied NOW as I comply with the terms of Thy salvation. I believe Thou dost now
cleanse me from all sin."

Prof. Dougan Clark, the Friend, says: "The essence of consecration is in the
sentence, ’Yield yourselves unto God.’ When you yield yourselves you yield
everything else. Consecration is not to God’s service, or His work, or to the
church, or to the missionary cause, but to God Himself. ’Yield yourselves unto
God.’ Consecration does not mean the giving up of your sins, or vices, or
depraved appetites, or forbidden indulgences. We cannot consecrate our alcohol,
or our tobacco, or our opium, or our card-playing, or dancing, or theater-going.
He wants none of these things. Actual and known sins must be abandoned at
conversion. He wants all the good things: the son Isaac, most precious to our
heart, laid on the altar. An English periodical had this: ’I am willing To
receive what Thou givest, To lack what Thou withholdest, To relinquish what Thou
takest, To suffer what Thou inflictest, To be what Thou requirest, To do what
Thou commandest. Amen.’"

Amanda Smith says: "You must make your consecration complete, and you must make
it eternal."

VIII. -- The last condition is faith. One might take all the seven steps already
described, and still remain without the blessing. The children of Israel marched
out of Egypt and entirely across the desert to the very border of the Promised
Land, and halted on the wrong side of the border. For lack of faith they did not
get into Canaan. With faith they might have gone in before sundown. Acts 26:18
teaches that we are "sanctified by faith that is in Me" (Jesus) . "We receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:14). Our hearts are
"purified by faith" (Acts 15:8-9). All other conditions lead to this, and
without faith all others would end in failure. As Dr. A. J. Gordon says: "It is
the duty and privilege of believers to receive the Holy Ghost for sanctification
by a definite act of appropriating faith, just as we received Jesus Christ by
faith for justification. It is as sinners that we accept Christ by faith for
justification; it is as sons that we accept the Spirit by faith for
sanctification."

Dr. Steele says: "My faith had three things to master: ’the Spirit, for me, NOW
I’ Upon the promise I ventured with an act of appropriating faith, claiming the
Comforter as my right in the name of Jesus. For several hours I clung by naked
faith. Suddenly I became conscious of a mysterious power . . . melting my
heart."

Dr. Carradine says: "Is everything upon the altar? If so, who is the altar? Paul
tells you -- it is Christ. What does the altar do? God says, "The altar
sanctifies the gift.’ Will you believe that? Will you take God at His word? You
must believe that Christ makes you holy right now. Will you take that step and
receive full salvation? Plant yourself on God’s Word. Dare to believe it, and
hold on till the witness comes."

Andrew Murray says: "Who are ready to come into this life and claim their
heritage as a child of God?

(1) Say, tonight, I must be filled with the Spirit.

(2) I may be filled with the Spirit; God does not give a must without a may.

(3) Say, I would be filled with the Spirit; I long for it.

(4) I shall be filled with the Spirit; O God, I give myself to Thee entirely; I
claim the filling of the Spirit. Thou givest it."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 29: 03.06.     ANY MAN'S LAWYER
========================================================================

6. Any Man’s Lawyer

"My little children, these things write I unto you that ye may not sin [even
once]. And if any man sin [once], we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our
sins only, but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:1, R. V.). This aged Apostle,
nearly one hundred years old, writes to younger Christians, many of them no
doubt his own converts, with tender benignant grace, addressing them as, "My
little children." In the first chapter he has told them about a mighty Savior
and His full salvation from sin, in contrast with the deadly heresy of salvation
in sin. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all . . . If we walk in the
light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness" (1 John 1:5; 1 John 1:7; 1 John 1:9). This is the blessed
salvation that God has prepared for all men, which will enable us to live
without sin. The companion verses (1 John 1:6, 1 John 1:8, 1 John 1:10) were
written against the Gnostics, who were indulging in orgies of vice, yet
professing to be Christians. John says that all who make such professions, yet
live so wickedly are liars, and God’s Word is not in them. Then follows
appropriately the opening of the next chapter.

1. "THESE THINGS I WRITE UNTO YOU THAT YE MAY NOT SIN [EVEN ONCE]." I insert the
words "even once" in brackets because the verb is in the aorist tense and
denotes a single act. This is admitted by the most scholarly modern
commentators. Says Bishop Wescott: "The thought is of the single act, not of the
state. The tense is decisive against the idea that the Apostle was simply
warning his disciples not to draw encouragement for license from the doctrine of
forgiveness. His aim is to produce the completeness of the Christ-like life."
Whedon: "The main aim of the epistle is to show the incompatibility of sinning
as an actual practice, or sin as a permanent State, with the divine fellowship
or communion." So Alfred writes: "That ye may not sin at all; implying the
absence not only of the habit, but of any single act of sin." So Dr. Steele: "In
aiming to produce complete and constant victory over sin, he was not endeavoring
to get forth an abnormal character. An unsinning Christian was in his estimation
neither an impossibility nor an anomaly. He plainly asserts that sinlessness is
the aim of his teaching. We call attention to the aorist tense, "May not sin,
that ye may not commit sin -- a single sin." Lange says: "Sinning applies here
to particular sins, not to small faults and inadvertences which would properly
be no sin." The venerable Apostle was not teaching the world the false doctrine
that sin was a necessity. He himself had been pardoned, and then had been
sanctified in the Pentecostal chamber. He had experienced what he wrote about in
verses seven and nine of the previous chapter. And the opening of this second
chapter implies that he was not conscious of any single sin, much less of a
state of sin. He wanted his converts to live a holy life, as he was living,
without sinning even once.

"This," says Dr. Clarke, "is the language of the whole Scripture; of every
dispensation, ordinance, institution, doctrine and word of God. Sin not. Do not
run into sin; live not so as to promote your own misery; be happy, for it is the
will of God that you should be so; therefore He wills that you should be holy;
holiness and happiness ate inseparable; sin and misery are equally so."

Let this then be the aim of every child of God to sin not. Let it be your fixed
purpose not merely to sin as little as you Ian, but not to sin at all. And by
the sanctifying grace of God, let this aim be realized. We are not to anticipate
failure but success. By God’s cleansing and helping grace, we may find holiness
to be not a distant and impossible ideal, but a blessed, joyous experience.

We should not sin out of respect and reverence for God; for it has made Him
endless sorrow and trouble, and He hates it with an infinite and eternal hatred.
It is opposed to His nature, His perfections and His supremacy. If it should
prevail it would involve His universe in ruin.

Again we should not sin for Jesus’ sake. Sin cost Him descent from eternal
enthronement, the humiliation of His earthly lot, the contradiction and abuse of
vile sinners, the anguish of Gethsemane, the scourging of the Judgment Hall and
the dying agonies of Calvary. He bore them all for us that we might escape the
sorrows of a lost eternity. How wickedly ungrateful it would be to grieve such
holy love by wanton sin!

Still further, we should not sin because it grieves the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is sent to take Jesus’ place and to be ever present to counsel, guide and
help us. He hates sin just as Jesus does. And when we willfully sin it insults
and grieves Him, and drives Him from our hearts.

Again we should not sin for our own sakes. Sin necessarily and inevitably makes
woe. It avenges itself, inflicts its own penalty, strikes its fangs of
retribution into the soul that conceives it, and kindles the fires of its own
eternal burnings. And even if a Christian should sin and afterwards repent and
be forgiven, he has suffered an eternal loss that never can be made good. An act
of obedience has been subtracted from his record for which he can get no reward;
an act of sin has taken place whose evil influence will be felt through eternal
ages. Nobody but God can measure the evil influence and eternal disaster of one
sin. No wonder the holy Apostle entreated his converts not to sin even once.

II. BUT STILL THE BEST OF CHRISTIANS MAY SIN. "And if any man sin [once]." The
tense is still aorist, and denotes a single act. Wescott: "Here again the
thought is of a single act, regarded as past, into which the believer may be
carried against the true tone of his life, as contrasted with the habitual
state." Steele says: "The possibility of a sinless Christian life is still
implied." In this wicked world, where the moral atmosphere is so hostile to
goodness, and sin is so abundant on every hand, assaulting every sense of our
being perpetually, by carelessness, by a little unwatchfulness or unsteadiness
of faith and lack of prayer, the saintliest Christian may trip and fall. He need
not; for the keeping grace is sufficient. "Christ is able to guard you from
stumbling" (Jude 1:24, R. V.). But He will not do it without our cheerful
consent and helpful co-operation. And if through ignorance, inexperience, the
violence of temptation, unwatchfulness, suddenness, you have fallen into one
sin, Swerving a moment from the Christian’s orbit in which you usually revolve
about your center -- Christ, and you have thus grieved the Spirit, do not
continue a moment longer in sin. Do not let days and weeks and, perchance,
months pass by while you lie down in discouragement, and let Satan triumph over
you. Do not despair of being again restored to the favor of God. Your case is
indeed sad, but not hopeless. You may come back at once into the sunlight of
God’s reconciled face. For

III. WE HAVE AN ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER, JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS. The word
here means an attorney, or responsible speaker for us in court. The term implies
that the man is now a culprit on trial before the Father for his sin, and Christ
is the Lawyer to plead for him. The image is borrowed from Roman law; no such
officer as an Advocate being known to the Old Testament. When brought under the
Romans, the Jews and other conquered peoples were obliged to engage Roman
lawyers to plead their cases, as Tertullius in Acts 24:1. A wonderful Advocate
Jesus is! (1). He is Jesus Christ the Righteous.

"Jesus," because "He saves his people from their sins." "Christ," which means
the Divine, Anointed One! "The Righteous One," filled with the holiness of
heaven, who will not try to save anyone in any way incompatible with perfect
holiness. He will not tolerate evil, or smile upon or minimize guilt. If He
secures the pardon of His client it must be in a way consistent with the safety
of the government and the honor of God.

(2) The Righteous One is a successful Advocate because He enjoys the perfect
confidence of the Judge. The Father knows that He will make no unworthy plea,
nor ask a favor of the Court that cannot be safely granted. The Father knows
that however much his Beloved Son loves the trusting sinner, He loves still more
the honor of His Father, and the holiness of the law, and the safety of the
divine government. This Righteous Advocate will not connive at, or condone, or
in anyway conceal the sinner’s guilt. There is no other such Advocate. As He
appears for us at God’s bar of judgment, He admits the sin; He approves of the
law: He acknowledges the justice of the penalty, and yet, Oh blessed fact! He
procures for all who believe, and make Him their Advocate, a full pardon. And
how? Because He pleads not our merits, but His own. For

IV. "HE IS THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS; AND NOT FOR OURS ONLY, BUT ALSO FOR
THE WHOLE WORLD." The propitiation is the Atoning Sacrifice appointed by God
Himself for the sins of the world. "Jesus’ vicarious sufferings were made a
provisory substitute for penalty in the interest of the divine government in
behalf of all who will forsake sin, and accept Jesus as their atoning Savior."

What a plea it enables our Advocate to make! "Remember, O Father, what I
suffered that guilty sinners might be offered pardon! Remember the bloody sweat
of Gethsemane! Remember the scourging and the crown of thorns! Remember the
blood I shed that this repentant, believing disciple might be forgiven this sin!
Remember the promise thou didst make that ’Whosoever believeth in me shall not
perish, but have everlasting life’!"

Listen! The Father speaks: "Son, I remember it all." "Recording Angel, write,
’This sin is blotted out! this repentant, believing child of grace is forgiven
and restored once more to the divine favor .

O child of God, "These things I write unto you that ye sin not even once;" but
should you sin once, haste in repentant faith to the Righteous Advocate, apply
to His blood that "cleanseth from all sin." Then go forth in the strength of Him
"who is able to save to the uttermost," and "keep you from stumbling," and "sin
no more."

O unrepentant, unbelieving sinner, persistently rejecting Christ, what will you
do at the bar of God without this Advocate?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 30: 03.07.     THE SIN-PRINCIPLE CONDEMNED TO DEATH
========================================================================

7. The Sin-principle Condemned To Death

"There is there fore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ...
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of
the sin [principle] and of the death. For what the law could not do, in that it
was, weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and [as an offering] for sin, condemned the sin [principle] in the flesh:
that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1-4, Accurate translation) .

Paul is still relating his experience. He has described in the seventh chapter
his bitter bondage to the sin (depravity) dwelling in him, and the cry of
despair it occasioned. That is the mournful wail of Romans 7:1-25, Paul’s
experience trying to live up to his law-ideal -- in his own strength, without
the help of Christ or the Holy Spirit, whom, as yet, he did not know.

Some say that that chapter is a picture of St. Paul’s best, and of every
Christian’s best!

Never! In that passage there are up to verse 25 twenty-nine "I’s"; "law"
nineteen times; "sin" fourteen times; "me" ten times; "dead and died and death"
seven times, and no Christ and no Holy Spirit. Is that a Christian experience?
If so, then the naked aborigines of Australia, worshipping snakes and
sacrificing to demons are Christians! Indeed, is that the way St. Paul was in
the habit of describing his Christian experience? Emphatically not. In the first
seven verses of the first chapter of this epistle, containing only one sentence,
he had eleven references to Christ. His beloved Savior was "all." In Him He
always triumphed, and was more than conqueror. He called God and men to witness
"how holily and unblameably he walked among men" (1 Thessalonians 2:10).

No, Romans 8:1-39 was the up to date Christian experience of St. Paul. It so
utterly contradicts the experience of Romans 7:1-25 that they cannot both belong
to the same man at the same time. There he was "carnal, sold under sin," a
wretched captive tugging at his chains; here he is free. There he was trying to
save himself; here he is already saved by another. There he was groaning; here
he is shouting happy. There it was agonizing prayer; here it is rapturous
praise. There he was hopelessly defeated; here he is victorious and more than
conqueror through Christ. There it was dark despair; here it is cloudless hope.
In Romans 6:1-23 Paul exhibits sanctification and a life of holiness as provided
for in the atonement, both a blessed privilege and a solemn duty. In the eighth
chapter it is Paul’s experience and the possible experience of every Christian.
It begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation from God.

Godet reports Spener as saying, "If the Holy Scripture was a ring and the
Epistle to the Romans its precious stone Romans 8:1-39 would be the sparkling
point of the jewel." The Holy Spirit brings Christ potentially into the
Apostle’s life, Who not only justifies him but abides in him as a new principle
of death to the sin principle and life to God.

1. Christ justifies the sinner. "There is, therefore, no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). He is fully justified, pardoned and
restored to the favor of God. He is also adopted into the divine family, and the
Holy Spirit bears witness to the fact. "The Spirit himself beareth witness with
our spirit that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of
God, and joint heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:16). The phrase "In Christ Jesus"
means not a legal or federal union. It is a vital union, such as Jesus described
in the parable of the Vine and the branches, a living relation, which passes the
holy life of Christ into us.

Mel Trotter, when a helpless, hopeless drunkard, ready to go to hell for a
drink, got saved so completely and wonderfully that for years he became the
leader of Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. Wonderful Savior!

II. Romans 8:2. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free
from the law of the sin-principle and the death." Godet, the great French
Commentator, says, "Romans 8:14 describe the restoration of holiness by the Holy
Spirit. Sin entails death on the justified, in whom it regains the upper hand as
well as on the unjustified" (Romans 8:12-13). There is therefore only one way of
preventing sin from causing us to perish; that is, that it perish itself. Grace
does not save by patronizing the sin but by destroying it. The word "law" occurs
in Romans 8:2 twice. No one can rightly interpret the seventh and eighth
chapters of Romans without critically noting the sense in which the word "law"
is used each time it occurs. In Romans 8:2 it does not mean any statute, or
decree, or legislative enactment. Dr. Maclaren says it means here "Constancy of
operation." Godet calls it "controlling power imposing itself on the will." Dr.
Steele says it means "Uniform tendency." Dr. Barnes says it means the influence
of the sin (principle) and the death;" that is, if we substitute any one of
these phrases for "law" we shall get the meaning of the verse: "The influence of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the influence of the sin
(principle) and the death;" that is, the moral death that accompanies the sin
(principle) . That is the Apostle’s wonderful testimony of deliverance, which he
gladly proclaimed to the world. He believed that the power of the Holy Spirit
which broke the power of the sin principle over him can deliver others too. In
substance he confessed: "The controlling power of the Holy Spirit in one instant
(aorist tense) made me free from the influence or power of the sin (principle)
depravity. I tried intellectual methods; but found that they could not free me
from the domination of carnality which had captured my passions and desires. I
whipped myself up to keep the law of God; but I found that the proneness to evil
would not loosen its grip upon my being. I tried every human resource, and all
miserably failed. Nothing touched the necessity of my case until I heard of
Jesus Christ. When I applied to Him He sent the Holy Spirit who subverted and
expelled the tendency to sin, and set me free."

III. The law of God could not do this. Hear St. Paul further; -- Romans 8:3 :
"For what the law [of God] could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for
sin, condemned [to death] ’The Sin in the flesh.’"

"Law" in Romans 8:3 means the law of God, the moral law. This law could not
justify or sanctify, as Paul knew by sad experience. It condemned every kind of
sin, but could not save from it. The flesh hindered it. "Flesh" (sarx) here
means "the seat of passion and frailty" and then figuratively "the carnal and
rebellious principle itself" (Adam Clarke) . Human depravity fatally hindered
the law of God. But "God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." Christ
took on Himself human nature as God originally made it, without any sinful
propensity. There was no "he hamartia, the sin principle" in it. Jesus came to
do for us and in us what no written or unwritten law of God could accomplish.

Dear old Dr. Maclaren said: "That life of Jesus, lived in human nature (in a
human body) gives a new hope of the possibilities of that nature lived in us.
What the man Christ Jesus was He was that we may become. In the very flesh in
which the tyrant (the sin principle) rules, Jesus shows the possibility and the
loveliness of a holy life. He condemned to death the sin in the flesh as wholly
unnecessary and no essential part of it."

Godet quotes Theophylact: "He sanctified the flesh and crowned it by condemning
to death the sin (principle) and by showing that the flesh is not sinful in its
(essential) nature."

"But," someone asks, "do not some teach that we must have sin in us"? and "No
man can be free from sin while in the mortal body, which sin must indwell us to
the last moment of our lives"? Let there be no mistake about that: "It is ever
taught at Keswick, as in every part of God’s Word, that there are to the very
last hour of our life upon earth powers of corruption within every man which
defile his very best deeds and give even to his holiest efforts the nature of
sin." "We shall never be sinless in this world." "We do not at Keswick make
light of those depths upon depths of mischief that lie hidden within us."

Yes, we are compelled to admit that this is the fundamental element, and warp
and woof of most Keswick teaching. And the "higher life" conventions in the East
repeat this same unscriptural nonsense. And so do the Moody and Torrey Bible
schools. Torrey says in one of his books: "There is not a line of Scripture that
warrants the idea that the baptism of the Spirit cleanses from inbred sin I"
Poor Torrey!

What about these texts:

1. Acts 15:8-9 (R. V.), "Giving them the Holy Spirit . . . cleansing their
hearts by faith."

2. Romans 6:18 (R. V.), "Being made free from the sin [principle] ye became
servants of righteousness."

3. Rom. 6:27 (R. V.), "But now [not at death] being made free from the sin
[principle] . . . ye have your fruit unto sanctification." That is exactly what
sanctification is -- deliverance from the sin-principle.

4. Romans 8:2 (R. V.), "Law of the Spirit . . . made me free from the law of the
sin."

5. 1 John 1:7, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" 1
John 1:9. "And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

What can possess educated men like Dr. Torrey to pervert and distort and deny
the plain, unmistakable meaning of such texts? And yet they pretend all the time
to be preaching holiness. But observe, it is a new brand of modern holiness --
"Corrupt" holiness! "Sinful" holiness! "Depths upon depths of mischief"
holiness! -- a kind the writers of the Bible never heard of. Yet this moral
rubbish is being peddled out all over the English-speaking world, in the
interest of the father of lies, to side-track true holiness, that cleanses the
heart. See 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and 2 Peter 1:4. "Exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

IV. What man could not do and divine law could not do, Christ has done for us.
Christ, by His incarnation, provided for the pardon of sins, and the expulsion
of the sin principle. He baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and by the entrance of
the Spirit of holiness into our nature, the great usurper -- the sin principle
-- is driven out, executed.

Clarke says: "The design and object of the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ
was to condemn sin: to have it executed and destroyed -- to annihilate its
guilt, power and being in the soul of a believer."

Godet says: "The condemnation of the sin by Christ’s life is the means appointed
by God for its destruction in ours."

Alford: "Sin is throughout the passage an absolute principle. The Apostle is not
speaking of the removal of guilt, but of the practice of sin . . . by the new
and sanctifying power of the Spirit by Christ. The context shows that the
weakness of the law was its having no sanctifying power. It could arouse sin but
could not cast it out." This noble quotation endorses my whole argument, and my
translation, "the sin-principle" of the Greek noun for sin in the singular
number with the article "the" before it. "The sin" occurs twenty-nine times in
three chapters, meaning always "the sin principle." Sixteen of the world’s
greatest commentators endorse our argument and translation and do not leave
Torrey and his Keswick friends an inch of standing. Bless God! we have the
truth, and "the mind of Christ," and of the Spirit.

V. Notice the results, Romans 8:4. "That the ordinance of the law might be
fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Alford: "We
must look for the meaning of the word ’condemned’ in the effects -- victory over
sin, and casting out of Sin" (the sin principle) . This is very important to the
right apprehension of Romans 8:1-39, in this part of which, not the
justification but the sanctification of Christians is the leading subject.
Christ’s victory over the sin is mine, by my union with Him, and participation
in His Spirit. Whedon: "The righteousness of the law does not mean imputed
righteousness, nor simply innocence, but an actual and active personal
righteousness, energized by the Spirit." This does not sound much like
"Corruption holiness," does it?

Dear Dr. Maclaren wrote: "Remember the alternative. There must be condemnation
for us, or for the sin that dwelleth in us. There is no condemnation for them
who are in Christ Jesus, because there is condemnation for the sin that dwells
in them. It must be slain or it will slay us. It must be cast out, or it will
cast us out from God. It must be separated from us, or it will separate us from
Him. We need not be condemned: but if it be not condemned, then we shall be." In
your case, dear reader, which shall it be?

Oh, struggling hearts, mourning over spiritual failures and defeats; falling
below your ideals, watching and weeping and striving in vain, do you want to
keep God’s law, and live a victorious life pleasing to Him? Then come in faith
to Him who opened the fountain for sin and uncleanness. Come to Him who prayed
that you might be sanctified, and shed the blood that cleanses from all sin.
Come in faith, and you will not be disappointed.


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  CHAPTER 31: 03.08.     DEATH OR GLORY, WHICH?
========================================================================

8. Death Or Glory, Which?

TEXT: Romans 8:5-14. "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of
the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the
mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace." --
Romans 8:5-6. On the previous Section, Romans 8:1-4, Lange tells us: "Christ by
becoming man in the flesh and yet having a sinless, fleshly nature, so
maintained this sinlessness and holiness . . . that He made it manifest:

1. That sin does not belong to the flesh in itself, but is inherent in it as a
foreign, unnatural, condemnable, separable, alienable element.

2. That sin in the flesh is condemned and rejected in its carnal appearance;

3. That sin in the flesh should be separated from the entire human nature by
means of the Spirit proceeding from Christ."

We say, Amen! That is precisely what we are always teaching and it is absolutely
contradictory to Keswick teaching.

Now the verses before us tell why God wishes us to be rid of this carnal
principle. "For those who are under the power of the carnal, rebellious
principle" "think of, care for," "relish," "Strive after" "the things of the
flesh," having no relish for spiritual and eternal things; "but they that are
after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." "After" here means "in accordance
with" "in harmony with" the Spirit. Augustus Meyer, the great German exegete,
says, "After the Spirit designates only the sanctifying divine principle, and
not the human spirit. We must choose between these two ruling principles. There
is no avoiding it. And in the next verse the Apostle urges us by the most awful
motives that can be named to make a right choice:-- Romans 8:6. "For the mind of
the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace." In other
words, to live under the influence of the carnal mind -- the depraved tendencies
of our fallen nature -- and to yield to them is to be headed for destruction and
to be liable any hour to be numbered among the damned. Yea, it is already moral
death. But he who has the mind of the Spirit has already the life and peace of
God in his soul and has heaven full in view. And he has peace the soul of life.
"Peace with God is connection with the source of life; peace with one’s self, a
blessed sense of life; peace with the government of God, and His world, an
infinitely richer life" (Lange) . Sanctified people need nobody’s pity,
especially the pity of carnal worldlings. They already have heaven begun in
their hearts. In the next verse the Apostle explains why the indwelling sin is
so dangerous. Romans 8:7 : "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God,
for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be." The word
"flesh" here means the "sin-principle," or depravity. The word for "enmity"
means a principle or state of enmity -- the essence of hatred. "Because it is a
carnal mind and relishes earthly things and sinful things and lives in
opposition to the pure and holy law of God, therefore it is enmity against God;
it is irreconcilable and implacable hatred. "It is not subject to the law of
God." It will come under no obedience, for it is the very principle of
rebellion; and it cannot be subject nor subjected. It is essential to the sin
principle to show itself in rebellion: and when it ceases to rebel it ceases to
be the sin. It dies." So Clarke observes: "From this we learn that the design of
God in the economy of the gospel is not to weaken, curtail, nor lay the carnal
principle in bonds (repress), but to destroy it. As it is not subject and cannot
be subject to the law of God, it must be destroyed else it will continue to
rebel against God. It cannot be mended nor rendered less offensive in its nature
even by the operations of God. It is ever sin, and sin is ever enmity: and
enmity wherever it has opportunity will invariably show itself in acts of
hostility and rebellion against God." Absolutely the only thing God can do with
it consistently with His holiness is to destroy it. For (Romans 8:8) "They that
are in the flesh, (that is in this carnal state) cannot please God." This word
"flesh" here cannot mean the human body; for Enoch dwelt in a human body, "and
before his translation he had this witness borne to him that he had been
well-pleasing to God." Jesus dwelt in a human body, and the Father said: This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. No; "in the flesh" like the phrase
"after the flesh," means to be in subjection to this sin principle which
perverts and deranges all our sensibilities prompting obedience to them rather
than obedience to right reason illuminated by the Holy Spirit. "Cannot please
God!" That settles it. The sin-principle that infests our being must be
condemned and executed so that we may be wholly loyal and wholly pleasing to
God.

I was preaching from these verses in a Holiness Convention in Manchester,
England. A noble Baptist minister was there who had come more than a hundred
miles to be present. I pictured how awful it would be if across the forehead and
breast and back of every unsanctified Christian God should write in ineffaceable
letters the words, "Cannot please God!" But I Said, it was just as true as if
God had written it there. That minister started for the altar saying, "I will
not live longer in a state in which I ’cannot wholly please God.’" Soon he was
gloriously sanctified, and went home to shine for God.

People may talk about taming and subduing and repressing and baptizing into
respectability this inbred sin, this child of the devil, all they like. No such
idea is scriptural. It is not to be "repressed," nor "suppressed" nor
"oppressed," but "expressed" out of our being. The Bible terms are "take away,"
"purge away," "destroy," "consume by fire," "cleanse from," "eliminate,"
"mortify," or "kill." And the real blood-bought, truly-saved children of God who
really love Him will be so anxious to please Him that they will earnestly plead
for the sin-consuming cleansing baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire to burn
out this sinful dross from their hearts and make them wholly pleasing to God.

Romans 8:9. "But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you." The Holy Spirit sustains three relations to
believers: "para" with us, "en" in us, and "epi" upon us. He was with the
disciples before the crucifixion (John 14:17). Jesus then promised that He
should be in them, which was fulfilled at Pentecost. Also He was "upon" them for
power (Acts 1:8). Here then the apostle set forth the experience of
sanctification. "Eiper" "provided that" if only "the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you." The flesh -- the sinful principle possesses men, ruling sinners, and
tormenting unsanctified believers, opposing every good within them. But Jesus
proposes to cleanse the temple and make man again "a habitation of God through
the Spirit." When Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit for cleansing He comes in
and puts out the sin-principle, His enemy and ours, and fills the vacated nature
with Himself to abide in us forever. This is absolutely necessary to our final
salvation.

Romans 8:9. "But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his."

If any man has not this Holy Spirit in some degree of power either with him or
in him, either to subdue or to put out this sin-principle, he is none of His.
"The Apostle does not regard a merely external belonging to Christ as of any
value. Where the Christianity of the inward life is extinct there the
Christianity of the whole man is extinct." -- Lange. This is one of the great
perils of believers. Like the Church of Sardis, they may have a name to live
when Christ knows they are already dead. -- Revelation 3:1.

Romans 8:10. "And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of THE SIN; but
the spirit is life because of righteousness."

Romans 8:11. "But if the Spirit of him that raiseth up Jesus from the dead
dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also
your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

Alford says: "The righteousness of Romans 8:10 is not imputed righteousness but
the IMPLANTED RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT." Amen! This is
the exact teaching of the orthodox holiness churches. Honest Christian scholars
are compelled to endorse our teaching. The meaning of this passage seems to be
this as most in harmony with the context.

"The sin-principle" brought "the death principle" upon the race (Romans 5:12),
and the sentence of physical death must be fulfilled on every human being until
the judgment. No doubt this spiritual life of sanctification will not prevent
our bodies from dying; but it is the earnest of its participation in the
glorious resurrection of Christ. He who receives the Spirit of Christ in
sanctifying fullness, and continues to live a life of obedience to the divine
will shall have a glorious resurrection to life eternal.

Sanctification removes the artificial and abnormal appetites from the body and
leaves the necessary and innocent natural appetites in a normal degree of
strength to be henceforth controlled by the sanctified reason. But still, death
being a judgment on humanity as a race, the body must die, even though
sanctified. Godet says: "Dead here means irrevocably smitten with death."

We mention in passing that Chrysostom, Grotius, and others explain the term
"dead" as "dead unto sin." This if correct would make the doctrine of
sanctification all the stronger. The indwelling Spirit purifies the whole man
even the body and restores all to God.

Romans 8:12-13. "So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh (depraved
nature) to live after the flesh: for if ye live after the flesh ye must die: but
if by the Spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live." .

"The natural man," Hofman observes, "imagines that he owes it to his flesh to
satisfy it." "The flesh here," says Whedon and Miley, "is a depravity not
confined to the body but including the entire tendency to sin." Barnes says:
"Sarx (flesh) here is the corrupt propensities and passions." "The Apostle then
says that we do not owe these corrupt propensities any gratification. We are not
bound to indulge them, because the end is death and ruin, (eternal ruin) . "But
if ye mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live" (life eternal) . Lange says:
"Mortify means to exhaust or abnegate to the very root." Barnes says it means
"to put to death destroy." "Deeds of the body consists in the predominance of
illegal impulses." -- Lange. "The corrupt inclinations and passions are called
the deeds of the body because they are supposed to have their origin in the
fleshly appetites" -- Barnes. . . . "Either your sins and evil propensities must
die, or you must. If they are suffered to live, you will die. If they are put to
death you will be saved. No man can be saved in his sins."

Romans 8:14. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of
God." "This," says Lange, "gives the reason why they shall live." By the
indwelling, sanctifying Spirit the propensities of the carnal nature are
mortified and they are continually led in the way of holiness and so are the
sons of God. "One evidence of piety is a willingness to yield to that influence
and submit to the Spirit. One decided evidence of a want of piety is an
unwillingness to submit to that influence, but where the Holy Spirit is grieved
and resisted." (Barnes.) The influence of the Spirit if followed would lead
every man into the experience of entire sanctification and finally to Heaven.
But when neglected, rejected, or despised, man, driven on by his own carnality,
makes his final home in hell.

Thus closes St. Paul’s greatest and most unanswerable argument. It has proved
that what the law could not do the gospel, revealing Christ and the infinite
Spirit of God, accomplishes; viz, the sanctification of the soul, the
destruction of the depraved tendencies of our nature and the recovery in man of
the image of God. Blessed is the man who accepts the whole gospel and gains
regeneration, sanctification and a glorious heaven!


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  CHAPTER 32: 03.09.     THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER
========================================================================

9. The Promise Of The Father

"And being assembled with them, commanded them that they should not depart from
Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me."
-- Acts 1:4.

First things first, is the law of successful achievement. A trained and
efficient mind has a sense of logical order and sequence. Before a railroad is
built the route is surveyed, the right of way is secured, the funds are
collected, and a vast deal of work is done first that the public does not see.
The erection of the tower and the gilding of the weather vane is not the
beginning of the great cathedral that is to be the home of worshipers for ages.
The plan first, and the foundation, and the great structure: after that, the
windows and the organ.

It is so with the making of the temple of a great spiritual life. There are
things that are initial and primary, and cannot take a secondary place. The
kingdom of God was to be established on earth and among men. It was to be the
greatest enterprise of all ages of human history. "The God of heaven shall set
up this kingdom, and it shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:44).

Jesus had often talked about this kingdom to His bewildered disciples. He
revealed to them as much as they were able to understand. His words were, "I
have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." But He did tell
them things of supremest importance that they were to make first in their lives.

1. -- A Command. When an oriental despot commands, men tremble and obey. He has
power over the life of his subjects. "Jesus commanded them that they should not
depart out of Jerusalem." Martha might have said, "I have neglected all my
domestic and social affairs for a long time now, waiting on Jesus. I do not see
why I cannot abide in my own home in Bethany among my friends!" Matthew might
have said, "I have neglected my business at the custom house these two years,
and I find that my revenues are dwindling. If this goes on much longer I shall
be bankrupt." Peter and John might have said, "Servants are a poor substitute
for proprietors. We must look after our boats and our nets and our fishing, or
the business will be ruined." All the rest of the company might have pleaded
some urgent demand upon their time and attention and energies that would justify
them in going elsewhere at that particular time. Yet here was the command --
"Depart not from Jerusalem; but wait for the promise of the Father!"

Waiting is a tiresome business. It wears on the nerves. It exhausts the
patience. It finally becomes almost unbearable. "Hope deferred maketh the heart
sick." Waiting for a guest that does not arrive, a lover who does not come, a
promise that is not fulfilled! Just waiting! It is such a wearing, exasperating
business!

Wait where? In Jerusalem, in an upstairs prayer-chamber! Why, Lord, the world
waited for your coming thousands of years. And after You came, You waited thirty
years before You opened Your lips to tell about Your mission. And You have
spoken Your life-giving messages to our ears, and wrought Your miracles before
our eyes. We saw You die on the cross for the world’s sin. We have had a
matchless training at Your feet, and we have a message of life through faith in
Christ which the world is in dying need of. Sinners are hungering for the "Bread
of Life" and thirsting for "The Water of Life," and longing to hear of some One
Who can take from their hearts the burden of sin. They are actually dying,
"having no hope and without God." Let us go at once and tell the perishing of
"the Mighty to save," "The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

"No," says the divine . . "First things first! Do not depart from Jerusalem, but
wait for the promise of the Father!"

How slow the Christian Church has been to learn the lesson! Young people will
not take time to get an education to prepare themselves to preach the gospel.
The world is dying, and they are in a hurry to tell a message before they get a
message to tell. They should heed the Master’s command and tarry in the school
of the prophets till they get their message. And when they have their minds
trained and their intellectual apprehension of truth is exact and keen and they
really have a message which men need -- a gospel of salvation which can give
life and hope to the despairing and dying, even then the divine voice says,
"WAIT" for the preparation of the heart.

II. -- " The promise of the Father."

What is it? The immediate context does not tell: but still we know what they
waited for, and what after ten days of waiting they obtained. "Then will I
sprinkle clean water (type of the Holy Spirit) upon you, and ye shall be clean;
from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart
also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you: And I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and
ye shall keep my judgments and do them. And I will save you from all your
uncleannesses" (Ezekiel 36:25-29). "And it shall come to pass afterward that I
will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 2:28). After the ten days of
waiting and prayer, the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, and Peter stood up
and quoted the above, and said: "This is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel, ’I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh’ " (Acts 2:16-17). This pouring
out of the Holy Spirit, then, is what the Father promised, that for which all
the members of the Church of Christ were commanded to wait and pray. This was
the supreme blessing, the thing of first importance, compared with which
everything else was subordinate. This was the burden of Christ’s desire for His
disciples, as He was about to leave them and ascend to His Father. This was the
deepest longing of His heart -- this His parting charge to His Church for all
the coming years -- "DO not henceforth try to teach My gospel, or to preach, or
to be missionaries to evangelize the heathen world until you yourself are
baptized with the Holy Spirit."

Alas! the sad mistakes, the costly blunders, the abortive efforts, the useless
sermons preached, the wasted years, the ruined lives, the lost souls that have
resulted from disregarding this parting charge of the Master! We have put
everything else in the foreground, and emphasized all the other qualifications
for the ministry, until Christ’s FIRST THING has been lost sight of and quite
forgotten.

Hence the perversions of truth, the monstrous errors, the heresies, the
emasculated gospels, the "cunningly devised fables," the fads and hobbies, the
divided and wrecked churches, the multitudes of priests and preachers and people
lost for ever because they would not have the cleansing baptism with the Holy
Spirit!

III. -- The blessing of the Spirit was possible. A promiser puts himself under
obligation to fulfill his promise. He cannot break his word without moral ruin
to himself. But the Promiser in this case is our own heavenly Father. He cannot
lie. He cannot be untrue to us, or to Himself, and "He is able to do what He
hath promised."

Therefore we have every encouragement to seek this blessing expectantly: may we
not say with every possible, or at least every needed assurance, that we may
obtain this great gift of the Holy Spirit? The whole work of salvation, so far
as this life is concerned, culminates in this Pentecostal baptism with the Holy
Spirit.

Every disciple who obeyed Christ and went to that upper chamber and tarried and
prayed till God’s appointed time came, obtained the great blessing. Even so it
is recorded: "He gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him" (Acts 5:32). It is
not a matter of age, or culture, or years of religious experience, or mental
endowment. After one has obtained the blessing of regeneration, then the next
experience may be and should be, the baptism with the Spirit for sanctification.
John Wesley puts on record that one Grace Paddy was converted and then
sanctified within twelve hours. Twice in my own meetings a man was regenerated
and sanctified within five hours. Twice in my presence a seeker obtained the
first blessing of regeneration and then the second blessing of sanctification at
the same after-service. Let it be distinctly understood, both blessings were not
obtained at the same moment, by a single act of faith. The first blessing was
obtained by faith exercised for the first blessing of regeneration, and was
witnessed to by the Spirit; then, by consecration and faith, the second blessing
-- the baptism with the Spirit -- was definitely sought for sanctification, and
was obtained and witnessed to by the Holy Spirit. This is not only the divine
plan and order, but it is the believer’s experience. And God is both willing and
able to bring these experiences very near together in time, if we will have it
so. Oh, the wonders of God’s grace!

IV. -- " Ye shall have power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you" (Acts 1:8).

Every one longs for power. The merchant wants power to draw more customers and
sell more goods; the gambler wants power to win the game; the warrior to win the
battle; the politician to win the election; the statesman to rule the country.
There is not an ambitious sinner on earth who does not covet power to accomplish
his selfish ends. But power is unsafe in a sinner S hands. It is like a stick of
dynamite in the hands of an insane man. There is no knowing what awful deed he
will commit with it. But when God has got sin and selfishness out of a man, and
got divine knowledge into him, then it is perfectly safe for God to entrust him
with a goodly measure of power. So Jesus said, "Tarry in the Jerusalem chamber
till you are sanctified; and you will be endued with power." When a man has a
clean heart and seeks divine wisdom and guidance, he will not abuse power or use
it apart from the glory of God and the good of men. Power to live a victorious
life! Power to guard against all the wiles and traps and hidden snares of the
Evil One! Power to witness successfully for Christ at all times, in all places,
and under all circumstances. Power to do whatever God has for us to do! Power
"to speak a word in season to him that is weary, or tried, or tempted, or in
need of guidance! Power to preach to one, as Nathan preached to David, or to
preach to a thousand, or to ten thousand; or to write a tract, or an article, or
a book that God will use to win thousands to Christ! Wonderful, God-given power!


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  CHAPTER 33: 03.10.     MORAL INSANITY
========================================================================

10. Moral Insanity

"The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart
while they live" (Ecclesiastes 9:3).

God uses the most striking language conceivable about the wickedness of the
human heart. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually" (Genesis 6:5) . "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there
is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have
not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment" (Isaiah
1:6). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can
know it?" "Thou . . . knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked" (Revelation 3:17). In our text sinners are declared
to be full of evil and morally insane.

1. WE ASK: IS THIS LANGUAGE OF GOD TOO STRONG? Are there sufficient points of
analogy to justify such strong figures of speech? Let us see.

Notice that madness is a derangement of the intellectual powers. The judgment is
dethroned. Reason does not act normally. Power of reflection is at least
temporarily lost. Now, what is there in a wicked heart that is similar to this?

1. Sinners waste themselves in efforts to procure trifles, and neglect treasures
infinitely valuable. What would be thought of such conduct in the realm of
business? Suppose that one of the merchant princes, Wanamaker for instance, when
he had ten thousand clerks or salesmen in his employ, had neglected all
purchases and sales, bills receivable and bills payable, all accounts, all
weighty and important affairs of his vast business, and spent his time in
gathering bent pins and broken nails and scraps, and fragments and ravellings of
his goods. How soon he would have been adjudged insane! Just imagine Carnegie,
the great iron prince, neglecting vast interests of his business in which
hundreds of millions of dollars were involved, and wandering about the streets
picking up bits of coal, rags and cigar stumps in the gutter, like a gutter bum.
Everybody would have said, "Carnegie has lost his mind!" But sinners behave in
precisely that way. They chase after the baubles of time, honors, popularity,
applause, wealth, pleasure, which a breath of trouble will blow away, and
neglect character and salvation, the eternal treasures of the soul. They profess
to believe in God’s existence, but they pay more attention to Peter Smith or
Bill Jones! They confess that God has infinite power: but they treat Him with
utter contempt. They know that sin is dangerous; but they pursue and practice it
with mad eagerness. Ah, they know better! It is not a mistake of the head. It is
moral madness.

2. This spiritual insanity is seen by the way sinners treat their best friends.
It is a strange fact that insane people are almost universally inclined to
injure those most dear to them. A famous congressman of Ohio was killed by his
own son in a fit of insanity. A young man in Circleville, Ohio, killed his own
loving mother. A deacon of the writer’s church was a most devoted and
affectionate husband. He gradually lost his mind from the effect of a sunstroke.
In his delirium he assaulted that precious old wife with whom he had lived for
nearly half a century, and also another deacon of the same church whom he had
known and loved from boyhood.

Sam Jones told us of two brothers who were slowly killing their mother by their
wretched vices. One day the father called the family together, and handed a
revolver to one son and a long knife to the other, and said, "There is your
mother, now stab and shoot her to death, make quick work of it. It is infinitely
more merciful than to kill her by inches as you are now doing by your sins." So
multitudes of sinners are the worst enemies of their own families and friends,
and are doing more to curse them than all their professed enemies would even
think of doing.

Think how the sinners treat God who loves them, and gives them every blessing
they enjoy; and added to all the rest, gave His Son to die that they might live.
They scorn all the pleadings of divine mercy, treat Christ himself with
contemptuous neglect. There is no possible explanation of such morally insane
conduct, except that "madness is in their hearts while they live."

3. The moral insanity of sinners is seen by their treatment of fiction as if it
were reality, and their treatment of reality as if it were fiction. If you ever
have visited an insane asylum you certainly did not fail to notice what strange
absurdities had taken possession of the minds of the inmates. And no two of them
alike. It is precisely so with sinners. The eternal truths of God, which have
brought salvation to millions, through the ages, they treat as if fiction and
idle tales; while every foolish fad of modern infidelity and every empty ism
that Satan can invent to delude and damn souls is run after with the most eager
avidity. God’s truths are set at nought and Satan’s lies are welcomed and
adopted. It proves to a certainty that their moral reason is dethroned, and
madness is in their hearts.

4. The moral madness of sinners is seen in their disregard of their spiritual
possessions. Suppose a multimillionaire should appear on the public street
throwing broadcast hundred-dollar bills, and thousand-dollar bonds, certificates
of stocks, notes, deeds of property and costly jewels. How quickly men would
conclude he was insane!

Suppose a princely farmer should order his hired men to shoot his blooded horses
and cattle, set fire to his barns and fences, and his fields of ripening grain,
and his dwellings! Think you his servants would obey? No, indeed! They would
conclude he was a madman and put him in an asylum. But how do men sow broadcast
the treasures of their soul! How they exert themselves to kill reverence for God
and the Bible and sacred things! How they murder conscience and destroy faith,
and stifle gratitude and love and waste purity and break down their power of
will to choose and do right. They know better. Ah, it is insanity of heart!

5. Men show their madness of heart by absurd attempts to achieve
impossibilities. Suppose that the head of the Vanderbilt family should give
orders to all our iron firms for structural iron of such vast weight and size as
it is impossible to construct, and should assemble thousands of workmen on the
ocean shore to construct piers vaster than the pyramids and high as the
mountains. And when questioned about the strange proceedings, he should inform
the astonished world that he was building a suspension bridge across the
Atlantic to make a European connection for the New York Central! How soon his
heirs would shut him up and stop his insane folly! But God sees sinners doing
things quite as absurd. They are seeking blessedness by defying the holy laws of
God. They try to get life in a career of sin, forgetting that the wages of sin
is death! They try to bridge the impassable gulf between them and heaven, by
false hopes, false doctrines, and worse practice. Only moral madness could
pursue such insane folly.

6. Madmen are uninfluenced by counsel. They take no advice. They laugh at danger
and heed no warning. Is it not equally true of sinners? Godly parents say, "My
son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Christian friends invite, "Come
thou with us, and we will do thee good." Earnest ministers plead, "We then, as
ambassadors for Christ, beseech you, as in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to
God." Even the Holy Spirit urges, "Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not
your heart." But parents, friends, preachers and God himself, are turned down
with idiotic mockery and the guilty souls rush on madly to their impending doom!

11. How is such conduct to be explained? What malign cause produces such a havoc
of destiny? It is not any want of intellect; for noble minds are among the
wicked. Nor is it from lack of knowledge. Men have the law of God written in
their very hearts. It is from no lack of natural endowments, or a proper balance
of faculties. Oh no! The text gives the explanation. "The hearts of the sons of
men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live." Downright
wickedness betrays them into such stupendous folly. And back of all this outward
wickedness is the depravity, the carnal nature which makes them go stark mad in
sin. This innate depravity, when cherished, becomes deliberately, obstinately,
inexcusably, insanely wicked.

Remarks:

1. Moral insanity is far more deplorable than mental insanity. The courts never
hold the mentally insane responsible for their conduct. But this is something
for which God and men do hold people responsible. It is a solemn, awful sight to
see a Nebuchadnezzar lose his mind, to see a mighty intellect go into clouds of
darkness! But Oh, to see such a soul lost in ungodly ambition, sensuality,
drunkenness, worldly lusts! No other human evil can be compared with this.

2. It is enough to call forth the compassion of all men. How our pity goes out
to those who have lost their minds! They are haunted by wild vagaries, troubled
by foolish suspicions, excited by needless alarms. All beholders are filled with
pity, sympathy, and a desire to help. But Oh, these morally insane, who are
driven by an evil spirit to utter ruin! How sad the spectacle! It awakes the
compassion of God, angels and men.

3. No wonder God is compelled to confine the wicked by themselves. We dare not
let the mentally insane run at large. Neither property nor life would be safe.
But they are not half so dangerous as a modern infidel in a university chair,
breaking down the faith in God of a whole body of students. No man jeopardizes
human interests as does a distiller, or a saloon-keeper, or a libertine. A
half-crazed scoundrel shot President Garfield and another shot President
McKinley. But what lunatic is half so dangerous to human government as a mad
rebel against God -- a Voltaire, or Tom Paine, or Bob Ingersoll or a modern
infidel in a University chair, breaking down the faith of college students, is
to the divine government? God gives probation to such a little while, but sooner
or later, He is compelled to incarcerate the incurably morally insane in the
mad-house of hell.

4. But Jesus can cure completely. He cast the demons out of the insane Gadarene,
and proved Himself the master of moral insanity. The prodigal son had not had a
sane hour for years; but at last, "he came to himself." Conversion breaks the
spell of the world’s delusions, sanctification wholly restores to the right
mind. None but the sanctified have all the cause of moral madness taken out.
None but they are perfectly sane. Will you let this mighty Savior deal with your
case, and make you "every whit whole," clothed and in your right mind?


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 34: 03.11.     THINGS THAT ACCOMPANY SALVATION
========================================================================

11. Things That Accompany Salvation "Things that accompany salvation" (Hebrews
6:9).

How much the word "SALVATION" means! Print it large; for it stands for the
greatest experience that comes to man in time or eternity. Man is born with a
proclivity to evil, a heart estranged from holiness and from God. At the
earliest dawn of his moral life he gives expression to that evil tendency by the
deliberate choice of sin. Sins multiply. Wrong acts form wrong habits. Habits
rapidly form character. Wrong character soon determines a wrong destiny.
Salvation reverses the entire process and alters the eternal result.

God sends His convicting Spirit to bring us to repentance. If the Spirit is
yielded to, we turn from sin with abhorrence, and forsake a life of
self-gratification, and make the supreme choice to live for the good of others
and for the glory of God. This is, in Scripture language, being "born again."
The life is no longer self-centered but Christ-centered. But there is still left
in us the evil trend. Sooner or later the Spirit will convict us of a need, and
awaken within us a heart-hunger for more grace. "Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). If that
divine prompting is yielded to, the hunger and longing to be delivered from the
carnal mind will be so imperious that the soul will not cease its seeking and
striving and pleading for help from God until the heavens open and Christ pours
out His Spirit with sin-killing energy, and the heart is cleansed from
indwelling sin (Acts 15:9, Luke 11:13). Such has been the experience of
countless thousands of souls. This is what we call "full salvation"! Now what is
it that accompanies such a salvation?

1. -- Power to be what He wishes you to be.

Christ said, "Ye shall have power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and ye
shall be witnesses." Oh, how many Christians perpetually carry about a heavy
heart because they realize that their own life does not measure up to the moral
standard of their own judgment of what a Christian ought to be! Their own inner
light reveals the flecks and flaws, the inconsistencies and blunders, the faults
and sins, into which they have been trapped unexpectedly and unawares by the
great adversary of all good! They sincerely wish they did live more worthily.
They sigh because they are not better specimens of a Christian, better examples
of the might of Christ to save. What poor witnesses for Christ they feel they
are! How little their life commends Christ to sin-burdened souls! But oh! when
this blessing comes in its glorious fullness; when Christ is revealed in His
full power to save; when the flood-tide of salvation joy comes pouring in, and
the heart, like a bird, is full of song, and there is a new light in the face
and a new look in the eye, and a new spirit and steadiness of life in the whole
being -- then, then is realized Jesus’ promise, "Ye shall receive power to be
witnesses."

II. -- Power to do.

"They that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits." Has it not always
been so through the ages? The people who knew God and had a special enduement of
His Spirit, so long as they kept the experience, never lived in vain, never were
just ordinary. They might have been ordinary enough before they received the
blessing, but never afterward. What a list of spiritual giants, men and women,
might be named, from George Fox, the founder of the Quakers or Friends, and
Jonathan Edwards the Puritan, and John Wesley the Methodist, and William and
Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army, and Madame Guyon the Roman Catholic, and
John Bunyan the Baptist, and Finney the Congregationalist -- all leaders of
great movements in the religious world -- down to the present hour; evangelists,
bishops, authors, editors, teachers who have blessed their age, touched the
nations with a hallowing influence, and who light up Christianity itself with a
radiant glory which shall never grow dim! An uncounted host of Christian workers
are rearing godly families, training children for future service in the kingdom
of Christ, teaching in Sabbath schools, doing visitation work where they live,
pushing on the Church and kingdom of Christ to ever-increasing victory and
triumph just because they welcomed the Holy Spirit into their hearts.

III. -- A burden for souls. This is another thing that accompanies this great
salvation.

Paul had it. He said: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
For I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren." It nearly broke
his heart to see them continually rejecting their only Savior. So whenever this
blessing comes, the pastor or the laity can never be satisfied with
fruitlessness. There is an impelling influence, a divine urgency which will not
be quenched. Christians feel it even in the humblest walks of life. The most
illiterate as well as the educated have a heaven-born passion for souls.

I was once spending the night with a man who had been recently saved and
sanctified. He could neither read nor write. But he carried in his pocket a New
Testament, with pages marked by a friend that would teach others how to be saved
or sanctified. With that meager equipment some ten people, his own workmates,
had been led into rich experiences of grace.

David Brainerd said of himself: "I cared not where or how I lived, or what
hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ. While I was
asleep I dreamed of these things: and when I awaked, the first thing I thought
of was this great work. All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all
my hope was in God." John Smith, the mighty Wesleyan preacher, used to say: "I
am a broken-hearted man; not for myself, but on account of others. God has given
me such a sight of the value of souls, that I cannot live if they are not saved.
Oh, give me souls, or else I die!" Of Alleine it is said that "He was infinitely
and insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls; and to this end he poured out
his very heart in preaching and prayer."

Bunyan said: "In my preaching I could not be satisfied unless some fruits did
appear in my work."

Doddridge wrote to a friend: "I long for the conversion of souls more sensibly
than for anything besides. I could not only labor for it, but die for it with
pleasure."

Whitefield prayed: "O God, give me souls, or take my soul!" This was the passion
that brought Jesus from the skies, and it is the spirit that will possess us
when this blessing of full salvation comes to us.

IV. -- Trials.

Trials will assuredly accompany salvation.

It will not be because one has little salvation but because he has much. Trials
are a matter of divine appointment. They let us know what we are and how much we
have got. They are more precious to God than gold.

Less than two years ago a letter came informing us that over three thousand
dollars’ worth of wheat had been stolen from us up in Canada. I never lost one
wink of sleep over it. I said: "Thank God! now I know that I have a good case of
religion. I have something laid up in heaven more precious than barns full of
wheat, where thieves cannot break through and steal!"

St. Paul had ceaseless trials; but he wrote to a church, "Rejoice in the Lord
always: and again I say, rejoice!" Jesus had no end of trials; but when standing
under the very shadow of the cross He said, "My peace I give unto you." "In the
world ye shall have tribulation; but he of good cheer; I have overcome the
world."

V. -- A concern for the kingdom. A concern for the kingdom and the glory of the
King accompanies this great salvation. No sooner had the Spirit come upon the
first disciples than they manifested a great concern for the glory of Jesus.
Everywhere and always, if they wrought a miracle or made an effective Speech
that produced results, they gave Christ the glory. "Therefore let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). "Then Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said unto them: Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this
day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is
made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that BY
THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth, Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from
the dead, even BY HIM doth this man stand before you whole" (Acts 3:8-10). When
the rulers threatened them if they spoke or taught any more "in the Name of
Jesus," they answered, "We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard."

Thus they went forth burning with zeal to glorify Christ and spread His kingdom,
unmoved by scourgings and imprisonments and tortures and death in the
amphitheaters, their lives a living sacrifice for Christ.

Such deeds fitly and naturally accompany this great salvation. Many are now
going everywhere to the ends of the earth to spread the good news. In city or
village or country, in churches or halls or tents or in the streets, with pay or
without pay, with popularity or persecution, on and on they go to rescue souls
from death and hell, and to spread the glory of the Name that is above every
name.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 35: 03.12.     RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST
========================================================================

12. Receiving The Holy Ghost "Receive ye the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22).

"Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?" (Acts 19:2).

"Who have received the Holy Spirit" (Acts 10:47).

"Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?"
(Galatians 3:2).

Multitudes Seem not to realize that we are living in the dispensation of the
Holy Spirit. In the pre-Christian ages men were under the dispensation of the
Father: and the duty of man and the test of man was his acknowledgment and
worship of the One Only God. This was Abraham’s duty and the test of his piety,
as it was with Enoch and Abel.

Then came the dispensation of Christ the Son -- "God manifest in the flesh."
Then it was the duty and the test of men to receive Jesus, and acknowledge Him
as Savior and Lord. This brought life and salvation. But Jesus looked with
unutterable sorrow upon the people, and said, "Ye will not come unto Me that ye
might have life."

Then came the present dispensation -- that of the Holy Spirit, who is now the
representative and executive of the Godhead. Christians are now born of the
Spirit, guided and led by the Spirit, comforted and sanctified and filled and
empowered by the Spirit. It is now the duty and the test of men to yield to the
Spirit and accept Him as Leader and Guide and Sanctifier and Keeper. We get our
present comfort and victory, and our future glorification through Him.

1. -- Note that the Spirit is a Person.

Some have degraded the Spirit to a mere influence. Others have taught that it is
another name for the written Word. But nobody can fairly interpret the words of
Jesus in the upper chamber about the Holy Spirit, and put with them the things
said about Him elsewhere in the Bible, without concluding that He is as truly a
person as God the Father, or His only-begotten Son. He has the very same
personal attributes as the Father. He is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent: He
thinks, feels, and wills; speaks, comforts, guides; inspires, instructs, warns;
is grieved, resisted, rejected; strives, helps, intercedes; speaks and hears; is
blasphemed and His influence so scorned, and His character so insulted, that He
sorrowfully leaves the soul to its eternal doom. He is a person as much as we
are, or as God is, if language can have any meaning.

Sinners can have no internal communion or fellowship with Him, or receive or
know Him. But He convicts them of sin, striving to lead them to repentance and
salvation. Yet He manifests himself to Christians continually, revealing truth
and Christ unto them, trying to sanctify them, and empower them for service, and
fit them for a glorious heaven.

II. -- He is a Gift. That means that His work in the Christian’s life cannot be
earned or procured as a reward of service. He must be served if we are saved:
service and salvation are wedded to each other and can never be divorced. Yet
the incoming of the Spirit into a Christian’s life is so infinitely important,
and transcendentally precious, that it could by no possibility ever be earned.

Moreover, the Spirit’s work in the heart cannot be bought. Simon Magus tried to
do it, but was sternly rebuked for it. No person is opulent enough to procure
this treasure by any effort of generosity. The poorest can have it; but the
richest cannot buy it. The simple reason is, the Spirit is a gift.

Gifts are received, as hungry beggars receive bread; as shivering mendicants
receive clothing to cover their nakedness. Hence the texts quoted at the head of
this article. Hence Jesus said: "The heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him." Hence Peter said: "We are witnesses of these things; and so
is the Holy Spirit whom God hath given to them that obey Him (Luke 11:13 and
Acts 5:32).

Please remember, then, that as truly as God gave His Only Son to a world of
sinners, so truly has He given, and does give, the Holy Spirit to Christians. We
come to God for comfort in sorrow, for healing in sickness, for forgiveness of
sin, for cleansing from impurity. But while strength and cleansing are all gifts
of God to believers, the Author of them all is a gift also.

Instead, then, of seeking these gifts in a half-reluctant manner, now and then
one, would it not be more in harmony with the plan of God to seek Him? For when
the Spirit came to abide in our hearts, He would bring His gifts with Him. It is
not only a delight to God, but He even commands us to RECEIVE Him, and "be
filled with the Spirit." And it grieves His loving heart when we do not obey. He
knows that we lose the most priceless blessing this side of heaven.

III. -- If we receive Him, we must seek Him for His own sake and not for what He
gives. The son of a wealthy father should love him for his own sake, and not for
the sake of the wealth he may inherit. To love selfishly is not to love at all.
So to seek the Spirit for the gifts, is really seeking the gifts, and not
seeking Him at all.

Probably this is one of the chief hindrances in seeking this blessing of
holiness. We "ask and receive not, because we ask amiss" -- selfishly for the
joy, or the honor, or the fame, or the power, or the reward. God is compelled to
withhold the gift for a time until our motives are purified. A Christian woman
sought the baptism with the Spirit for a whole night in prayer, and in the
morning was no nearer the blessing than she was the night before. It was
suggested to her that she was not seeking the Holy Spirit, but the joy of the
Spirit. When she perceived that, she said: "I see my blunder. I have not been
seeking Him at all. I have been seeking some manifestation of Him. I receive Him
now by faith. I just receive HIM whether I ever have a moment’s happiness or
not. I will not . question about that, I will just take HIM." And instantly He
responded to her loving faith, and gave her, not the joy she was seeking, but
His own blessed Self -- a conscious presence in her soul. Of course joy followed
later; for the fruits of the Spirit always come when needed.

We know of a minister who sought the Spirit long and earnestly, that he might
have power, and be like Finney. He did not get the blessing until years
afterward, when he sought in a better way. This may account for the reason that
Moody sought so earnestly for three months, and A. B. Earl for five years,
before the Spirit came. We may be sure the Spirit had ample reason for His
delay. He will not respond to our prayers, until our seeking is for His glory.

It is much to be regretted that some of our holiness evangelists have been
betrayed into magnifying and stressing manifestations, and emotions, and gifts,
until whole audiences have been turned aside to seeking them instead of Him --
the Holy Spirit. We know of a whole body of students led aside on this false
trail by an imperious, dominating will: they sought feelings and ecstasies. The
result was the wrecking of the presidency and the ruin of the religious
experience of many of the students, from which a large number will never
recover. Some lost their sanity, others re-acted into infidelity, and bright
lights were put out.

If you are bent on having manifestations, and ecstatic emotions, and physical
thrills, you can unfailingly get them without God; for the devil can counterfeit
them all, deceiving the very elect. And no sight is more sad than the ultimate
wreckage that follows in the wake of such man-made and Satan-inspired
enthusiasms. But when the movings of the . sensibilities are Pentecostal and
genuine, we bow reverently, and let the Spirit have right of way.

IV. -- How do we receive the Spirit?

(1) By obedience. "God gives the Spirit to them that OBEY Him." He cannot take
up His abode with us while there is any insubordination in our hearts. Not until
we consent to be and do what He wishes, and let Him have His way with us, can we
rationally expect His coming. Obedience comes first.

(2) By faith. "But," said a seeker at the altar to me, "I will not believe that
the Spirit comes and sanctifies me until I feel the experience in my heart." Ah,
then you will never get it. You could deal with a rogue or villain in that way:
and is that all the confidence you have in the Word of the holy God? You must
receive the promised Comforter by faith, without feeling or evidence, except
God’s promise. God will respond to the faith, with the instant gift of the Holy
Spirit. Faith first: experience and feeling afterward.

We were told in England of a devout young woman living in New Zealand, whose
heart became hungry for God. She wanted to be holy and filled with the Spirit,
and knew not how to receive the blessing. She took steamer for London and
attended the famous May Meetings, and still was as hungry as ever. They advised
her to go to the Keswick Convention. She went, and the last meeting of Keswick
week left her as unsatisfied as ever, and her heart was nearly broken. That
evening she attended a holiness meeting in a little hall, led by Reader Harris,
and was sanctified and filled with the Spirit that evening. But, if she had only
known it, she could have been spared the long journey to England and back,
twenty-five thousand miles, and received the Holy Spirit by faith in her own
home in thirty minutes. He was there, and waiting to be received, and He is
waiting to be received by every one who reads these lines. Will you, dear
reader, have Him now?


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  CHAPTER 36: 03.13.     A MAN OF GOD UNSANCTIFIED
========================================================================

13. A Man Of God Unsanctified "So he went back with him, and did eat bread in
his house, and drank water" (1 Kings 13:19). The Bible is the world’s greatest
textbook on morals. It often teaches by personal incidents and story
illustrations. The most important truths are sometimes wrapped up in a narrative
that would delight a child, or interest a sage.

We have here a long chapter detailing the experiences of God trying to reach the
conscience of a king and a nation, and His failure to do it because of the
religious short-coming of two preachers, who ought to have been better men. It
is enough to move the clerical profession at least to serious self-examination.

I. WE ARE INTRODUCED TO AN UNNAMED "MAN OF GOD." Is not that name enough to give
personal distinction to any man? It is like the title God gave to Abraham, "And
he was called the friend of God." "But thou, Israel art the seed of Abraham my
friend." So God called the great lawgiver "my servant Moses;" and called "Daniel
beloved of the Lord." God has splendid titles for His very own. Who is "a man of
God"?

1. He is one of the regenerated. A man who of choice and full purpose of heart
is living in deliberate and persistent rebellion against God would not hold the
glorious title, "a man of God."

2. This "man of God" at least was commissioned by the Almighty to perform an
unpleasant and dangerous task. "And, behold, there came a man of God out of
Judah by the word of Jehovah unto Bethel: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar
to burn incense. And he cried against the altar by the word of Jehovah, and
said, O altar, altar, thus saith Jehovah; Behold, a son shall be born unto the
house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of
the high-places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall they burn
upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which
Jehovah hath spoken: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are
upon it shall be poured out.

"And it came to pass, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, Jeroboam
put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which
he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to
him. The altar also rent, and the ashes poured out, from the altar, according to
the sign which the man of God had given by the word of Jehovah. And the king
said to the man of God, Entreat now the favor of Jehovah thy God, and pray for
me, that my hand be restored to me again. And the man of God entreated Jehovah,
and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before" (R. V.)
.

After all this no one could make Jeroboam believe that this was not a real "man
of God," for

3. God used him and heard his prayers, put a prophecy in his mouth, and brought
it to pass, and punished the idolatrous king who thought to do him violence.
Jehovah says, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."

4. He is sixteen times in this chapter called "the man of God," and God used him
as if he owned him, body and soul. St. Paul, said of God, "Whose I am, and whom
I serve." There can be no doubt about such a character.

5. He proved himself to be "the man of God" because he was unbribable. The
humbled king offered him a reward if he would come back and refresh himself in
his palace. But he replied, "If thou wilt give me half thy house, I will not go
with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: for so was it
charged me by the word of Jehovah, saying, Thou shalt eat no bread, nor drink
water, neither return by the way that thou camest. So he went another way" (R.
V.). A true "man of God" is not to be bribed by high offices, nor big pulpits,
or large salaries, or any royal honors that this old world can offer. He sets
his face like a flint against all sin.

II. "Now THERE DWELT AN OLD PROPHET IN BETHEL." This one is called "a man of
God." He was probably backslidden, and had compromised under the influence of
Jeroboam, and God would not use him. More than likely, also, he was jealous
because God had sent clear to Judah to find a man who would deal faithfully with
the wicked king. When he heard from his son what "the man of God" had said and
done, he followed after him to meet him and entertain him. He found "the man of
God" sitting under an oak, and invited him to his home; but he received the same
answer that was given to the king. "I may not return with thee, for it was said
to me by the word of Jehovah," etc. And the old backslidden prophet said unto
him, "I also am a prophet as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of
Jehovah, saying, Bring him back with thee into thy house, that he may eat bread
and drink water. But he lied unto him. SO he went back with him, and did eat
bread in his house, and drank water." 1 Kings 13:18-19 R. V.

III. HERE COMES THE TRAGEDY OF A NOBLE LIFE.

"The man of God" trusted and honored and used by Jehovah, who could not be
bribed or coaxed to be untrue to God, is deceived by a miserable lie in the
mouth of a backslidden preacher. Oh, the devices of Satan!

We have trained eight hundred students to preach holiness. Some of the brightest
of them, with the richest experience, and a dear witness of the Holy Spirit to
sanctification, and a success in preaching holiness that was more than human,
have met some backslidden church official who told them there was nothing in the
doctrine of sanctification, and invited them to .go back and eat and drink with
the old crowd in the backslidden land. In absolute opposition to the clear
testimony of God, they believed the devil’s lie, and went. That deceived,
disobedient prophet was no more truly slain by the lion, than those precious
young men have been slain as to their marked power and usefulness. They indeed
have their reward in big pulpits and large salaries in backslidden Bethel; but
the unction and glory of their work has departed and "Ichabod" is written across
their lives. To deny and go back on God’s witness to a personal experience, is
fearfully like the sin of blaspheming against the Holy Ghost which hath never
forgiveness.

IV. NOTE THE FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES OF DISOBEDIENCE FROM TRUSTING TO A LIE
AND A LIAR.

1. It was fatal to the noble man of God himself. It cost him his life, even if
it did not cost him his eternal salvation.

2. It resulted in the final ruin of Jeroboam, and of his dynasty. We may well
believe that the fearful warning of "the man of God," and the withering of his
arm, and its restoration in answer to prayer, made a profound impressions on the
king’s wicked heart. It must have moved him mightily to repentance and
reformation. But then "the man of God" himself was slain by the lion for
disobedience, "after these things," says the holy record, "Jeroboam returned not
from his evil way" (R. V.) but pushed on in wickedness until he and his house,
and nation were destroyed from the face of the earth.

V. NOTE THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF LITTLE THINGS.

1. "The man of God" was overtaken by the lying prophet, "sitting under an oak."
If he had not been acting so leisurely, but had hurried along to the completion
of God’s business, he would not have been overtaken, and all would have been
changed.

2. It seems a "peccadillo" to sneering critics what a man eats, or when, or
where, or what road he takes. But God thinks differently. It made a profound
difference to Eve and Adam and "the man of God," what and where they ate and
drank. With some, God tells us, "not even to eat."

3. It seems to many, a matter of indifference whether we receive the Holy Spirit
or not. But we may well believe, if "the man of God had been filled with the
Spirit he would not have believed the devil’s lie in Opposition to the expressed
command of God. And, doubtless, if the old prophet had been sanctified, he would
not have been a backslidden liar, guilty of the death of "the man of God,"
Jeroboam and his nations might have been saved, and God more glorified.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 37: 03.14.     THE WILL OF GOD
========================================================================

14. The Will Of God "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification" (1
Thessalonians 4:3).

It is pleasant to know that somebody is willing for us to be sanctified. Often
the Church is not. Sanctification is peculiarly a Methodist doctrine, but we
have known presiding elders and bishops of that church to persecute and drive
ministers out of their connection because they obtained and professed this
blessing. Members of a person’s own family will often look upon him who obtains
this blessing with a touch of pity as mildly insane. Church leaders will say to
young preachers: "You’ll be ruined if you become a holiness preacher."

Yet, unlike these opposers in the Church and out of it, God tells us it is His
will that we should be sanctified. Read the text again. I. What Is
Sanctification? The Greek New Testament lexicon will make it plain. "The
adjective hagios primarily means pure, clean, without blemish, holy, morally
pure, upright, blameless in heart and life." The verb hagiazo, derived from the
adjective, means "To make clean, to purify, to sanctify." The noun hagiasmos
means "sanctification, purity of heart and life, holiness produced by the Holy
Spirit" (Romans 6:19-22; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8; Hebrews
12:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). This is the testimony of the New Testament
lexicon. The Standard English Dictionary defines "sanctification" as "The
gracious work of the Holy Spirit whereby the believer (not the sinner) is freed
from sin and exalted to holiness of heart and life." Notice:--

(1) It is the Spirit’s work. Sanctification is not the result of culture,
education, growth, striving, self-discipline, self-development, death or
purgatory." The Greek New Testament teaches that this blessing is obtained
immediately, here and now, by the baptism with the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:8-9).
Notice -- (2) "Whereby the believer." Then it is a second work of grace obtained
only after conversion."

(3) "The believer is freed from sin" (inbred sin or depravity) . The great
discussion of St. Paul in Romans 5:1-21, Romans 6:1-23, Romans 7:1-25, Romans
8:1-39 shows that it means we are "freed from depravity" according to the
interpretation of the world’s best scholarship.

We have all inherited depravity through race connection from Adam. This
sanctification of the Holy Spirit is its only cure. It alone cleanses the heart
from the propensity to sin, and makes it clean and pure. As Worcester’s
Dictionary says: "Sanctification is cleansing from corruption, purifying from
the dominion of sin."

Now Ii. Consider The Evidences That Christians May Obtain Such A Blessing.

We might draw a most satisfactory and, as we believe, unanswerable argument:

(1) From the nature and character of God. Surely an infinitely holy God must
hate every kind of sin with an infinite, eternal hatred: and He must do
everything that is right and reasonable to help us get rid of it. He will never
force us to be holy against our wills: but if we will consent to be made holy,
and will seek His help, He will make us holy. Jesus said: "All power is given me
in heaven and on earth," and "He came to destroy the works of the devil."

Now the greatest work of the devil in us was the implanting of depravity, or the
spirit of alienation from God, in every human breast. But Jesus has ample power
to destroy it: and He will destroy it if we will permit Him and will co-operate
with Him. A man said to his friend: "It took two to sanctify me." "Who were
they?" "Why, it took me and God." "Well, what did God do?" "He sanctified me."
"And what did you do?" "I let Him." This is the truth put in few words. We seek:
God sanctifies.

(2) Another evidence of the possibility of such an experience is that it is
God’s will. Our text says: "This is the will of God, even your sanctification."
Only ourselves can frustrate this will of God.

(3) Jesus prayed for it. "Sanctify them" (John 17:17). God will never refuse to
answer the prayer of His holy Son. Nothing can prevent this blessing coming to
us but our own opposition to the will of God.

(4) God commanded it. "Like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourself also
holy in all manner of living; he cause it is written, Ye shall be holy, for I am
holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16).

(5) Our Savior commanded it. "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

(6) Jesus died for it. "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it that he
might sanctify it, having cleansed it" (Ephesians 5:25-26). "Wherefore Jesus
also, that he might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered without
the gate" (Hebrews 13:12).

Now the adorable God will never permit His holy Son to die in vain. Be sure some
people are going to be sanctified: and it may as well be you as anyone. It will
be you if you will be a candidate for the blessing and comply with the
conditions.

(7) God calls us to be sanctified. "For God calls us not for uncleanness, but in
sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:7).

(8) God chose us to be sanctified. "God chose you, beloved of the Lord, from the
beginning unto salvation, in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth." Nothing but obstinate unbelief will shut us out from this blessing (2
Thessalonians 2:13).

(9) God promises this blessing to all that earnestly seek it. "Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness (rightness of heart), for they shall
be filled" (Matthew 5:6). "The God of peace himself Sanctify you wholly. . . .
Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

(10) We are taught to pray for it. The Lord’s prayer is a prayer for
sanctification, and it dovetails into our text as if meant to be a part of it.
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come: Thy will
be done in earth as it is in heaven." Are they not all holy in heaven? Are they
not all free from every form of sin there? Have they not all pure and holy
hearts there? Holiness is the very life and breath and atmosphere of heaven.
Then we are to be like that on earth. Does anyone dare to say that Jesus taught
us to pray for that which cannot be realized? Never! Therefore, we may be
sanctified on earth before we reach heaven.

God declares that nothing shall enter heaven that defileth or worketh
abomination or maketh a lie." The depravity in human hearts does nothing else
than defile and corrupt the imaginations and the thoughts. He perverts the
appetites and desires. This depravity, this wicked alienation from God does
nothing else but "work abominations and make deceits in the individual life, in
the family, in the church, in the school, in the community, in the nation, in
all the world. The world war, with all its indescribable horrors and infamies,
was only the depravity of hell let loose in human hearts to fester, and corrupt,
and blight, and destroy humanity, and blot out the .image of God from the nature
of man. No wonder the triune God hates it and wills its destruction. No wonder
His infinite love has procured a perfect remedy; but it cost the awful price of
Calvary and the atoning death of the only begotten Son of God.

Beloved, shall we allow that awful price to be paid in vain, so far as we are
concerned? Shall you and I reject so great. a salvation procured for us at such
a price? If we do, our damnation will be deserved and swift and inevitable. .

"Without sanctification no man shall see the Lord."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 38: 03.15.     THE REASON FOR OUR HOPE
========================================================================

15. The Reason For Our Hope

"But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer
to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet
with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15). The commentator Godbey asks: "How shall
we sanctify Christ in our hearts?" He answers: "The Christian has Christ and
depravity in his heart. Christ rules or He would not stay: But He has a rival.
Cast out all else, and let Christ rule alone." Is such a state of heart
possible? Can a poor sinner, down in the ditch of sin, abhorred by others and
abhorring himself, climb to such an extraordinary height of grace in a few days?
Can one who is an alien by birth and a sinner by choice, condemned to God’s
wrath, and fit fuel for eternal burnings, come into such a sublime relationship
to God almost immediately? Can his sins be blotted out and pardoned for ever,
and Christ be enthroned within, so that he shall be indwelt and possessed by the
Spirit of God, and his heart he pure and his life holy?

Exactly this and nothing less than this is our sublime hope. It is beyond
philosophy. It surpasses reason. It beggars description. But it is blessedly
true. The star of hope shines through all the clouds of past sins, and all the
darkness of ungodly years. We dare to believe that although we were born with
depravity, and have committed sins innumerable, yet, through the grace of an
atoning Savior, our sins have been forgiven, our hearts have been cleansed, and
by growth in grace we are now being fitted for glory, in God’s own time, to be
received into heaven to dwell with Him forever.

What reason have we for such a daring hope? I. Because God Has Provided For The
Pardon And Regeneration Of Sinners

He held out a marvelous encouragement to those who would turn their back upon
sin and look to Him for mercy. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have
mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7).
Again He looked in compassion upon us, as we were staggering along under the
crushing load of sin, and said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am
meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." We still were
dull of hearing and went on downward, as if intoxicated with sin and enamored
with death. Again in loving pity for the sure doom that awaited us, He said:
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." "And it shall
come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved."

There came a day, how well we remember it, when we grew weary of sin. We longed
for rest from the heavy burden. We took God at His word, and helplessly threw
ourselves upon His mercy. And, to the praise of His name we witness, we were not
disappointed. He buried our sins in the depths of the sea of His infinite love,
and we saw the burden no more. II. We Cherish This Because God Provided
Sanctification For All His Children, And Made It Possible For Us To Be Cleansed
And Holy

Someone exclaims: "Show it. We want the proof." Very well, here it is; enough to
satisfy the most incredulous:

(1) God PLANNED for our sanctification back in eternity. "He chose us in him
before the foundation of the world that we should BE HOLY and without blemish
before him in love" (Ephesians 1:4). And as if this single assurance were not
enough, He tells us again: "God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in
SANCTIFICATION of the Spirit." Now, if, back in the ages, before the
rock-foundations of the earth were laid a hundred million years ago, or the sons
of God shouted for joy over a new-born world, God foresaw the sin and fall of
our race, and all its dire consequences of woe, and provided for our pardon and
sanctification, it is not unreasonable to expect this plan of God to be realized
in time. We are certainly justified in coming to the throne of grace, and
pleading for the fulfillment of the plan. .

(2) We are informed that it is GOD’S WILL that we should be sanctified. "For
this is the will of God, even your SANCTIFICATION (1 Thessalonians 4:3). In
other words, He planned it ages ago; and this gracious purpose is still the
same. What an encouragement to us to seek the great blessing! Does it never
occur to you how we mock God if we do not do it? He taught us to pray, "Our
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come; THY WILL BE
DONE, in earth as it is in heaven." . Stop there, please. Now ask God what is
His will concerning His children. He will reply quickly, "This is the will of
God, even your sanctification." What shall we do about it? Shall we seek the
blessing? Or shall we go on mocking God by repeating a prayer that we do not
even intend shall be answered? God, keep us back from such hypocrisy.

(3) Sanctification is our INHERITANCE.

St. Paul said to an audience, "I commend you to God, and the word of His grace,
which is able to build you . up, and to give you an inheritance among all them
that are sanctified." Most of us are quite careful to look out for an
inheritance. When we are the rightful heir to an estate we put in our claim. The
children of God are all heirs to this inheritance. We can each go with all
boldness to the court of heaven and put in our claim.

(4) The inheritance was bought for us by our Elder Brother. "Christ loved the
church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it"
(Ephesians 5:25-26). "Wherefore Jesus, also, that he might sanctify the people,
suffered without the gate" (Hebrews 13:12-13). Our precious Jesus shed His blood
and poured out His life that we might each become sanctified and holy. How
doubly precious and infinitely desirable it ought to make sanctification seem to
us, when we learn that Jesus suffered with this end in view. We sympathize with
the Christian sister whom we heard pray years ago: "O Lord, help us to
experience in our own hearts and lives all that Jesus bought for us with His own
blood." We shall never forget how that prayer struck through our heart with
conviction for sanctification. We never got over it until we went to the
fountain for cleansing. Is it too much to say that Christians who, knowingly,
reject sanctification are blood despisers and Christ-rejecters?

(5) God COMMANDS us to have sanctification.

Surely it is not rash for us to obey our heavenly Father Who says, "Like as he
which called you is holy, he ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living:
because it is written, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16). He
wants us to be like Him in our inner nature. . He so created the race "in His
own image." But the race fell, and depravity resulted, and it has been passed
down by race connection to every son and daughter of Adam. Each of us was born
with a tendency to sin and a trend toward evil, and "an evil heart of unbelief
to depart from the living God." This is a grief to our heavenly Father. And He
has prepared a remedy: the heart-cleansing baptism with the Holy Spirit for
sanctification.

Oh, the shame of it, if we refuse this blessing, and prefer to retain within us
a spirit of alienation from God! And, oh, the peril of it! It means downright
disobedience: and that persisted in means the death of the soul. Obedience is
the soul of religion. Jesus said, "If ye love me, ye will keep my Commandments;
he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (John
14:15; John 14:21). How is it? Do you love Jesus enough to seek sanctification
and be holy in order to please Him? If not, if you only have a little
fashionable, gushing, sentimental admiration for Jesus, your carnal mind will
easily persuade you to ignore His command and live on with a heart infested with
sin.

(6) God calls us to sanctification.

"God calls us not for uncleanness but unto sanctification" (1 Thessalonians
4:7). "God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in SANCTIFICATION OF THE
SPIRIT and belief of the truth, whereunto He CALLED YOU through our gospel." God
will not force this blessing upon us: but oh! how urgently He calls us to have
it. By the fitful tempers and unruly passions and unholy longings of our poor
wayward hearts, He speaks. By the restlessness and hunger of our souls for a
closer walk with God, He urges. By His blessed Word, and the convicting and
wooing influences of His Holy Spirit, He calls to the fullness of the blessing
of the gospel of Christ.

(7) Jesus PRAYED that we might have sanctification.

"Sanctify them" (John 17:17). Is it improper to seek for, and expect to realize
in this life, what Jesus prayed for in that solemn upper chamber on the night
before He suffered for us? When the shadows of death were upon Him, and He could
already feel its pangs in anticipation, He thought of our need, and prayed that
we might be sanctified. Shall we let that intercessory prayer he offered in
vain?

(8) Jesus is faithful to sanctify us when we want it done. "Faithful is He that
calleth you" (to sanctification -- see previous verse and 1 Thessalonians 4:7)
"Who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24). Oh, the blessed fidelity of Jesus!
How many countless thousands of times He has heard prayers for sanctification,
and poured out His Spirit in efficacious, cleansing power!

(9) When it is done the HOLY GHOST WITNESSES to it. "For by one offering He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof, also, the HOLY SPIRIT
BEARETH WITNESS to us." Others may make light of this whole subject and think
that we are led by a delusion, but when Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Ghost,
thus cleansing our hearts, and the Spirit bears witness to the work, and wakes
the joys of heaven within us, and gives "the peace that passeth understanding,"
it does not matter much what others say about it.

(10) Jesus is NOT ASHAMED of those who have this blessing. "He that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to
call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11). There are a great many professing Christians
who are so unlike Christ, and weak, and worldly, and unstable, and unfruitful,
that they must be a grief to the angels, and Jesus must be ashamed of them. But
when He gets a believer sanctified and Spirit-filled, Jesus is not ashamed of
him.

(11) The end is heaven.

"Now being free from the sin, and become servants of God, ye have your fruit
unto SANCTIFICATION, and the end ETERNAL LIFE" (Romans 6:22). Now, these are the
reasons for the blessed hope within us. We think they are good reasons. And so,
in spite of the sneers and derisions of worldly and backslidden professors, we
go shouting along on our way to heaven.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 39: 03.16.     SANCTIFIED WHOLLY
========================================================================

16. Sanctified Wholly

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 : "And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless . . . . Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." --
GREEK and R. V.

Many preachers and teachers and honest Christians do not understand that the
Bible teaches the need of a second work of grace after regeneration. The First
Epistle to the Thessalonians teaches it very plainly. Notice, 1. -- To whom the
Epistle was written.

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 makes it absolutely certain that Paul was writing to
Christians -- people who had already been regenerated.

1 Thessalonians 1:1 : "Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy unto the Church of the
Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." In those days church
members were converted people. 1 Thessalonians 1:2 : "We give thanks to God
always for you all."

St. Paul certainly was not thanking God for a great company of unregenerated
sinners within the Church.

1 Thessalonians 1:3 : "Remembering without ceasing your work of FAITH, and
labour of LOVE, and patience of HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ."

They had the three Christian graces -- faith, hope, love. 1 Thessalonians 1:4 :
"Knowing, brethren beloved, your election." The apostle did not call a great
company of sinners "brethren beloved," nor did he tell sinners they were
"elected." 1 Thessalonians 1:5 : "They had much assurance." The Holy Spirit bore
witness to them that they were regenerated.

1 Thessalonians 1:6 : "Ye became imitators of us and of the Lord." So they had
selected Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ to IMITATE 1 Thessalonians 1:6 : They
had "joy of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit does not give any joy to sinners. He
convicts them.

1 Thessalonians 1:7 : "They were examples to all Christians."

1 Thessalonians 1:8 : "They sounded forth the word of the Lord." "Your faith to
God-ward is gone forth."

1 Thessalonians 1:9 : "Ye turned from idols to serve the living and true God."

They had a glorious conversion.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 : And they were "waiting for His Son from heaven." Sinners
are never waiting or longing for Jesus to appear.

Now here are all these unmistakable evidences that the apostle was writing to
Christians. If they were not regenerated Christians, there never were any in the
world.

II. -- Notice what Paul wrote to these good Christians.

(1) In 1 Thessalonians 3:6 he tells them that Timothy, whom he had sent back to
see how they were getting on, had returned and brought him the glad tidings of
their faith and love. So they had not backslidden, and the apostle was
delighted.

(2) Nevertheless, in 1 Thessalonians 3:10, he writes: "We are night and day
praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect that which is lacking
in your faith." Why? 1 Thessalonians 3:13 : "To the end he may establish your
hearts UNBLAMABLE IN HOLINESS." In other words he says: "You have exercised
faith for regeneration: but I pray that you may also exercise faith for holiness
or sanctification. Why?

(3) 1 Thessalonians 4:3 gives the reason: "FOR THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, EVEN
YOUR SANCTIFICATION." Regeneration is not all the grace of God’s plan for you.
It is also His will THAT YOU BE SANCTIFIED.

(4) Why? . 1 Thessalonians 4:7 : "For God called us not for uncleanness, but
UNTO SANCTIFICATION."

III. -- What is this sanctification to which God calls us? Notice these
definitions of our English lexicons.

(1) Webster: "Sanctify: To make free from sin, to cleanse from moral corruption
and pollution; to purify" (John 17:17). "Sanctification: The ACT of God’s grace
by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world,
and exalted to a supreme love to God."

(2) Century Dictionary: "Sanctification: The ACT of God’s grace by which the
affections of men are purified and the soul is CLEANSED from Sin and consecrated
to God." . . . "Conformity of heart and life to the will of God."

(3) Standard Dictionary: "Sanctification: The gracious work of the Holy Spirit
whereby the BELIEVER IS FREED FROM SIN AND EXALTED TO HOLINESS OF HEART AND
LIFE."

Now observe --

(a) All these three dictionaries say that sanctification is a work of God, and
not something that you can do for yourself.

(b) Two of them say we are sanctified by "AN ACT OF GOD," performed like all
acts in an instant of time. Then no one can get it by a slow growth.

(c) One says it is a work of the Holy Spirit whereby the BELIEVER (one already a
Christian) is FREED FROM SIN." Then, manifestly, it is a SECOND WORK OF GRACE
subsequent to regeneration. These dictionary definitions are in perfect
agreement with Scripture and teach a better theology than many preachers. .

IV. -- Notice how the text verifies the teaching of the dictionaries.

"And the God of peace HIMSELF sanctify you wholly" (Revised Version and Greek) .
In the Old Testament use of the word "sanctify," viz. "to Set apart from a
common to a sacred use," people could sanctify themselves. But in the New
Testament use of being cleansed from depravity or inward corruption, "THE GOD OF
PEACE HIMSELF" is the only One who can sanctify. No human individual can do it,
no priests or laymen, no college dignitaries can accomplish the task. They can
confer degrees of honor, but they stand dumb and helpless before the depravity
of the human heart. Only the omnipotent God can say, "Be thou clean," and make
it so. The aorist tense of the verb "sanctify" teaches that sanctification is
INSTANTANEOUS. All the Greek grammars teach this, and all the scholarly
commentators. Steele: "The aorist tense denotes singleness of action,
instantaneous sanctification." Ellicott: "The aorist tense denotes instantaneous
perfecting in love."

V. -- Notice how completely God does the work.

"The God of peace Himself sanctify you WHOLLY." The German Bible translates it,
"Sanctify you THROUGH AND THROUGH." Then the text proceeds to show how
completely: "And may your SPIRIT and SOUL and BODY he preserved entire, without
blame."

(a) The "body" can be cleansed from all the abnormal appetites. We were once
preaching to an audience of three thousand people at a holiness campmeeting. We
asked all to rise to their feet who had been instantaneously cleansed from the
appetite for tobacco, intoxicants, and drugs by the Holy Spirit. In a moment
five hundred sprang to their feet, and with hallelujahs of praise testified that
they had been instantaneously cleansed and the chains of habit had been broken.
Thousands of helpless victims of Satan are going down to hell for the want of
just such a salvation.

(b) Then the "soul" can be sanctified: the intellects and sensibilities, with
all their emotions and feelings and ambitions and hopes and fears. The depravity
can be cleansed from this whole realm of faculties, and all can be made
submissive to Christ.

(c) Then there is the "spirit," that part of our nature which has direct
intuition of duty and of moral obligation and of God. The Holy Spirit can
cleanse it from every impulse to disobedience, and make it sweetly and lovingly
loyal to all the blessed will of God. When these three -- body, soul and spirit
-- are brought thus into perfect harmony with God, one has the "mind of Christ"
and is "blameless." Amidst all the abounding wickedness of this polluted, evil
world, the text teaches us that God can "PRESERVE" us, unstained, unsoiled,
clothed in the White raiment of holiness. There is a "keeping" grace for those
who want to be like God.

VI. -- Notice the promise of the text.

We have seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 that "God calls us unto sanctification." In
the text, 1 Thessalonians 5:24, He says: "Faithful is He that calleth you, who
also Will do it." Do what? Why, SANCTIFY You -- the blessing prayed for in the
previous verse. What more could man ask? How could God make it any plainer? Two
men were talking on this subject. One said: "It took two to sanctify me." "Who
were they?" "It took God and me." "What did God do?" "He sanctified me." "What
did you do?" "I let Him do it." Many more people would be sanctified if they
were only willing and would just let God do it. An Opposing will defeats God and
loses the blessing.

Just hear George Fox, the Quaker, testify: "I knew Jesus, and He was very
precious to my soul. But I found something within me that would not keep sweet,
and patient, and kind. I did what I could to keep it down, but it was still
there. I besought Jesus to do something for me, and when I gave Him my will He
came to my heart and took out all that would not be sweet, all that would not be
patient, all that would not be kind, and then He shut the door and He shut
Himself in." Jesus, with His preserving grace, was inside, and sin was outside,
and the door was shut


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 40: 03.17.     SANCTIFIED BY FAITH
========================================================================

17. Sanctified By Faith

"That they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among all them that
are sanctified by faith in me." -- Acts 26:18.

God has through His Word announced many conditions of receiving the Spirit in
sanctifying power.

1. -- There is the conviction of need. "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew
5:3).

2. -- Sorrow for not having received the Spirit before. "Blessed are they that
mourn" (Matthew 5:4).

3. -- Praying for the Spirit. Luke 11:11 : "How much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"

4. -- Obedience of a surrendered will. Acts 5:32 : "The Holy Spirit given to
them that obey him."

5. -- Hunger and thirst for the blessing. Matthew 5:6 : "Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after righteousness.

6. -- Consecration for it. "Present yourselves unto God" (Romans 6:13 and 22:1).

7. -- Faith. "Sanctified by faith in me" (Acts 26:18). This is naturally and
necessarily the last condition. Until the other conditions are met the soul is
not on believing ground, not in the place where it can believe. But when all the
preliminaries have been complied with, there is nothing left for the soul to do
but to BELIEVE AND ENTER IN.

I. -- Jesus speaks authoritatively here of a second work of grace.

If there is any authoritative voice on matters of morals and religion in this
world and during all the ages, it is when Jesus speaks. He had dwelt in the
bosom of the Father before the world was created, and knew the secrets of
eternity. Of all religious teachers He only could say: "I speak that which I do
know, and testify that which I have seen."

Notice the doubles of statements in the context: "I am Jesus whom thou
persecutest. But arise and stand on thy feet: for to this end have I appeared
unto thee (1) to appoint thee a minister (2) and a witness, (1) both of things
wherein thou hast seen me, (2) and of the things wherein I shall appear unto
thee; (1) delivering thee from the people (Jews) (2) and from the Gentiles, unto
whom I send thee, (1) to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to
light (2) and from the power of Satan unto God, (1) THAT THEY MAY RECEIVE
REMISSION OF SINS (2) AND AN INHERITANCE AMONG ALL THEM THAT ARE SANCTIFIED BY
FAITH THAT IS IN ME. Here are five pairs of statements. If the last pair does
not teach two works of grace -- justification and sanctification -- it would be
difficult for human speech to do it.

"But," say some, "talk about a second blessing! I have had a hundred blessings."
We heard this very thing said with a smile before a large audience of ministers
by a doctor of divinity and ex-missionary in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. The
dear brother manifestly thought he was making a masterly and irresistible
argument against a second work of grace.

Now it is doubtless true that that brother had been stirred by the breath of the
Spirit moving upon his heart a hundred, yea, a thousand times. But that distinct
epochal Pentecostal experience which the apostolic band received in that upper
chamber, which so revolutionized and transformed their lives, is in the language
of Wesley, "THE SECOND BLESSING, PROPERLY So CALLED," and no man who has
received that blessing will ever speak lightly of it Pentecosts are not obtained
So easily. The truth is, that Doctor of Divinity did not know what he was
talking about, nor does any other man who speaks flippantly of "The baptism with
the Holy Spirit and fire."

II. -- Notice it is received by faith. On this matter there is a jargon of
conflicting voices:

1. -- Some tell us that we get all the saving grace there is for us at
conversion. There is nothing, they say, beyond regeneration and justification,
but a lifelong struggle with inbred sin and continuous development in spiritual
life. (a) It is a sufficient answer to this to point to Pentecost. The disciples
there received a blessing they had never had before, which continued with them
through all their eventful lives. (b) Christians, but never sinners, are often
exhorted and commanded to seek and obtain this experience of sanctification. (c)
Uncounted multitudes through all the Christian centuries, after being
regenerated, have sought and obtained this sanctifying grace.

2. -- Others say we get it BY GROWTH. But this cleansing by growth is nowhere
taught in Scripture, and there is no recorded example of it in the Bible or out
of it. The hearts of the one hundred and twenty in the upper chamber were
cleansed in the twinkling of an eye by the Holy Ghost.

3. -- Others still tell us that we get the deliverance from inward sin AT DEATH,
or by death. Now all instructed teachers will admit that the grace of God may be
given at death to all justified souls, otherwise prepared for heaven, who have
not knowingly and willfully rejected sanctification. The light may then break on
longing eyes that have never been purposely closed to it. But death itself has
no essential relation to the blessing. God may bestow it an hour, or a day, or a
year, or fifty years before death, as easily as in the moment of transition from
this world to the next, if the soul is only willing and prepared to receive it.
It is nothing but a theological fiction that "SIN IS A NECESSITY," and that we
must be cursed by it "daily" as long as we live. Nothing can possibly be more
unreasonable or more contradictory to the holy Word.

4. -- The Roman Catholic Church puts the blessing further away, and teaches that
we are sanctified BY PURGATORY. That is not the teaching of the Bible.

God said under oath that "we should serve Him IN HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS ALL
OUR DAYS" (Luke 1:73-75). Jesus says in our text that we are sanctified BY FAITH
instantaneously. It is not theory with Christ. He knows.

III. -- What is the nature of sanctifying faith?

1. -- It is a clear intellectual apprehension of a great truth. There is indeed
a great truth as the basis of all rational faith on any subject; for rational
faith is not credulity. On this particular subject there must be an apprehension
of the fall of man and the consequent depravity of the race, from which every
son and daughter of Adam needs to be cleansed. Evolutionists flatly deny all
this; but the whole Bible states or assumes this fact, and bases the whole plan
of salvation upon it. This truth must be known and accepted.

2. -- It must be accepted as true that Christ’s baptism with the Holy Spirit is
the remedy for us by the atonement. This is why we are told that "the blood of
Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). "Wherefore Jesus
also, that He might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered without
the gate" (Hebrews 13:12; Hebrews 10:10, and Ephesians 5:25). But we are as
plainly told that the work is accomplished by the baptism with the Holy Ghost
and fire (Matthew 3:11; Malachi 3:3). "Giving them the Holy Ghost . . .
cleansing their hearts by faith" (Acts 15:8-9).

3. -- It is a heart-faith. Not only the intellect but the whole moral nature is
involved in it, intellect, sensibility and will. Moody said: "Saving faith
involves assent, consent, and laying hold." Dr. Whedon says: "Saving faith is
that belief of the intellect, consent of the affections and act of the will by
which the soul places itself in the keeping of Christ as its Ruler and Savior."

4. -- Saving faith involves a ceasing from labor. Our own efforts end. In
rescuing a drowning man, an experienced swimmer waits till the man ceases to
struggle. Faith is a self-committal of the whole matter of salvation to God, a
sinking of self down into Him and resting there. When Blondin, the famous
tight-rope gymnast, proposed to wheel a man in a wheelbarrow across Niagara
Falls, he asked Blondin what he should do. "Do?" said Blondin, "do nothing but
lie in the barrow like a dead man. I will take you over." And Blondin did it. So
when a soul seeks sanctification, it complies with all the preliminary
conditions which precede faith. Then faith CONFIDENTLY TRUSTS, WITHOUT ANY
EVIDENCE OF FEELING, THAT GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISE AND SANCTIFIES. God never fails
such a believing heart. He does it.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 41: 03.18.     FINISHED SIN
========================================================================

18. Finished Sin

"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be
tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man: but each man is tempted, when
he is drawn away by his own lusts, and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath
conceived, beareth sin: and the sin [principle], when it is full grown, bringeth
forth death" (James 1:13-15; R. V.) . The word "tempt" first meant to test or
try a man in order to prove and perfect him. In that sense only, does God tempt
or try men. If we endure these testings we receive the crown of life.

Then the word came to be used in a bad sense, meaning "to induce a man to sin,
to lure him to his ruin." In that sense God never tempts nor is tempted; but the
God-man, Jesus Christ, was thus tempted. The word "epithurmia," translated
"lust," originally meant "desire," then very strong desire: then it came to mean
strong, impure, unclean, unholy desire or lust. That is the meaning in the text
-- a something that draws a man from moral integrity, and entices to sin and
ruin. This opens up before us the sin question. Sin is the cause of all evil in
the empire of God. People shrink from the study or discussion of it. It is an
unpopular theme in the pulpit. One of the eminent physicians of Manchester,
England, told me that the uncleanest section of the city was around the
University. I asked "why?" His instant answer was "Prudery." Parents, teachers
and preachers are too nice and modest to point out the perils and dangers of
"fashionable sins." Jesus and His Apostles were not so modest.

There seem to have been speculating minds through all ages, who, by their
theories, blamed God for sin. As:

1. Some asserted that "God eternally and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes
to pass" -- all sin included -- thus foreordaining sin and ruin.

2 God deliberately placed men in circumstances that would be fatal to virtue.

3. He created the race with such ungovernable passions that sin was unavoidable.

4. He made natural laws that work out the phenomena we call sin with the
precision of fate. So those who hold this theory tell us that all pangs of
conscience for sin or’ guilt, all sense of responsibility for wrong doing is a
delusion, a foolish notion! If there is any responsibility, it lies with God.
Adam started this theory, when he said: "The woman whom thou gavest to be with
me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." "Four gift was my ruin!"

Now James resents all these theories, as a libel on a holy God, as our text
proves. His theory was that no outward circumstances constitute a temptation to
sin apart from some lust in a man’s own heart. So he said: A man is tempted only
as he is drawn away by something within himself.

I. We find here, then, an explanation of all sin. Our first parents sinned by
gratifying what was, at the beginning, innocent desire, instead of obeying
Conscience and moral reason. That brought depravity to our race -- "the
sin-principle" entered into the world, and the death-principle through "the
sin-principle" and so death passed upon all men" (Romans 5:12). (N. B. Fifteen
of the world’s most scholarly commentators tell us that the Greek noun for sin,
-- "hamartia" in the singular number, with the article "the" before it, means --
"the sin-principle" or "depravity") . This "proclivity" or "inclination to sin"
makes sin easy for any of us. And how do we sin now? "Sin," according to my old
teachers, Dr. Samuel Harris of Yale and President Fairchild of Oberlin,
"consists in the surrender of the will to depraved desire against the protests
of right reason." The language of the text is very striking. As several
commentators have noticed, "Epithermia," lust is personified as an enticing
harlot. She persuades the understanding and will to yield to her solicitation
and the result of the sinful union is the conception and birth of sin. "The sin
principle" of the heart is the fruitful mother of all the sins and crimes that
curse the earth.

We need not blame God -- nor even blame the Devil, as Eve did:-- "The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat." Archbishop Tillotson said: "The worst devil is a
man’s own lust [or depravity] and more strongly inclines him to sin than any
devil without can possibly do." Dr. Theodore Cuyler said: "A man’s worst foe
walks in his own shoes." Every man is his own worst tempter, worst peril and
worst foe.

II. We meet here sin’s growth, or progress. Lust (very strong desire) when it
hath conceived bringeth forth sin; and the sin (principle) when it is finished
(full-grown) bringeth forth death. "The sin principle" -- the inclination to
sin, or depravity, grows by what it feeds on. Every actual sin a man commits
increases the strength of his inclination to sin. The lust grows, like a
blacksmith’s arm, by its own exercise. Unholy desires lead to unholy deeds: and
the deeds feed and inflame the overweening desires. We were born depraved by
nature: and we become more and more depraved by practice. A visit to the slums
will prove this to any open and discerning mind to a demonstration. The
horrible, loathsome creatures living there were once as innocent little boys and
girls, and perhaps no more depraved, than your children or mine. The sin
principle grows, strengthens, increases in its relish for evil. Just as plants
and animals begin to be, then grow, mature and ripen, so in the moral world and
the realm of our soul life.

What then is the nature of the conception mentioned in the text? It is the
surrender of ourselves to the voluntary slaves of desire, the victims of the
uniform tendency to evil, born in us all. The perverted appetites and
propensities grow to Herculean strength. The captive will nearly cease to
struggle, and the turbid current of base passions rushes us on to inevitable
moral death.

Illustrations of this mournful truth are everywhere. In my boyhood, my
schoolmates played games of chance for pins, and played marbles for keeps. Then
other games, cards and billiards, followed until the gambler’s passion was
aroused and it ended in the gambler’s doom in a gambler’s hell. We have watched
the sin of lying from the first conscious prevarication or evasion of the truth,
to the finished habit of unblushing falsehood and deliberate perjury.

We have seen the first indulgence in the intoxicating cup in a few swift years
end in delirium and death. Covetousness becomes finished in the Swindler, the
embezzler and the thief. Impurity of thought and dream and purpose has its
maturity in the pollutions and obscenities and debaucheries of the brothel. An
occasional irreverent word is finished in a stream of horrible blasphemy on the
verge of death and hell. Such is the growth of sin, everywhere and always.

III. The sin principle, when she starts action, has no lesser aim than ultimate
ruin. The final act of the tragedy which sin initiates is always spiritual and
eternal death. She at least mothers "a grizzly terror," "a hideous monster," and
final curse of an indignant God. She plans sin, then more sin and worse sin! The
pimple becomes a festering ulcer, the soreness becomes a consuming cancer! This
is what Satan deliberately planned, when he planted depravity in the human
breast.

It became my painful duty as well as privilege to pray over a dying girl in a
rescue home. She had a Christian father and mother: but in a careless, frivolous
hour, she launched out into a so-called life of pleasure. Oh, if young people
would look ahead and see the end! How the devil cheats them. Sin’s first and
best is soon spent: the worst is always at the end! This girl’s career of
pleasure was ending in two brief years, away from father and mother, in a home
whither she had gone to hide her shame. No one dared touch her save with gloved
hands! Hypodermic injections were given every hour to deaden the unendurable
pain, while she was constantly praying for death! It was "finished sin"!

Leo Frank of Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Cornell University. He was a
millionaire at the head of a great factory. One day he summoned a girl, who was
working in his factory, into his private office, and because she tried to
protect her honor, he struck her and killed her! When he was sentenced to be
hung his wife and mother swooned, but five thousand people in and around the
courtroom cheered. When he was swung into eternity at the end of a rope on the
scaffold, it was amidst the execrations and approval of millions of people -- a
case of "finished sin.

Intelligence from America, reached me in England, that ran as follows: "There
lived a young woman in Boston, unusually gifted and highly educated, cultured to
the highest degree. She used the most charming English I ever heard. She had
traveled through every civilized country of the world, and was as familiar with
many foreign countries as most people are with their own state.

"She read in God’s Word, ’The wages of sin is death.’ She decided to prove those
words untrue ... I was sitting on my porch in the city of Denver, Colorado, when
a little boy rushed up and cried: ’Come over quick, there is a crazy woman at
our house.’ Hastening over, I found this same woman, insane with drugs,
emaciated, unkempt, hollow-eyed, sunken low in sin. We got her into the city
hospital. She escaped in her night-robe, and wandered to the home of a lady
physician. She was then placed in a home and her true character became known ...
She was again taken to the city hospital where she lay for days too weak to
escape.

"She was now so wasted in form that she weighed only fifty-five pounds, while a
year previous she had weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and her physician
told me that when he first knew her she had the most perfect form he ever saw.
She lay for days in the hospital between an old lady, seventy years of age who
had convulsions every thirty minutes, and an old Indian woman.

"Begging not to be allowed to die there, she appealed to the sympathy of some
kind ladies of the Trinity Methodist church, and was removed to a home in North
Denver. She died cursing, while from her lips there issued one vile obscene
sentence after another, with not a friend to close her eyes. She was hurried to
the potter’s field, in a box costing $1.50" -- It was finished sin!

IV. There is no human security against the ravages of the sin-principle. As we
have just seen, all the refinements of culture . and noblest education and
wealth and foreign travel .and social position afford no protection whatever
from its insidious assaults. Its secret lust can be hidden in the noblest soul,
and stir and excite, and spread and grow and develop, until the whole being is
one mass of corruption and death. If there were no other than human defense from
its ravages we might well despair of our race.

But, thank God, the omnipotent Christ can save to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25).
The blood of Christ can cleanse from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7; 1 John
1:9). The fire of the Holy Spirit can burn out the carnality and corruption of
the sin-principle and make us pure and holy (Matthew 3:11; Malachi 3:2-3; John
1:29; Romans 6:22).

"Be ye holy [now at once] for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16). Will you have
deliverance, and have it now?

"Oh, that I was to lie on the fire that never is quenched a thousand thousand
years to purchase the favor of God, and be reunited to him again! But it is a
fruitless wish. Millions of millions of


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 42: 03.19.     A TWO-FOLD DISEASE AND A DOUBLE CURE
========================================================================

19. A Two-fold Disease And A Double Cure

"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts ye double minded." -- James 4:8.

Health is the normal condition of moral beings. It is evidently what the Creator
planned for all the beings He made. When He had finished His creative work He
looked upon it all and pronounced it "very good." It was superlative praise for
superlative wisdom to bestow.

Think of a world without ache or pain with the tides of vitality pulsing
everywhere, and the tint of health upon every cheek, and a God of love brooding
over all, and imparting His perfect life to every being! That was our world as
it came from the hand of its benevolent Creator. But a hostile spirit came upon
the scene. Fallen himself he hated God and everything good or God-like. And with
malignant hand he hurled a temptation at the heart of humanity and shattered the
divine image in every soul. "Hence came sin and all our woe." The first sin
induced "the sin principle:" the sin principle brought "the death principle."
Hence the ravages of pain and disease and death passed upon all men "for that
all sinned."

I. Notice, the disease of Sin exists in two forms. There are:

1. The voluntary sins that we purposely commit. Men choose to steal. Men intend
to lie. Men plan to wrong their neighbor, to commit some crime of violence or
deed of infamy. We perform evil acts with a wicked intention, when we know we
are doing it against the protest of conscience -- the voice of God within us.
Men do such deeds when they know that the laws of God forbid them, when the laws
of men condemn them and prisons yawn for them. But in spite of conscience, and
the laws of men and of God, and threatening prisons and shame and disgrace,
still moral beings who know better, willfully, purposely, defiantly commit sins
and repeat them day after day. And these sinful acts form sinful habits. Sinful
habits form a sinful character and the sinful character becomes fixed, eternal
unlikeness to God. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." Damnation is the
penalty! We are all undone forever unless these sins are forgiven and this
penalty is removed.

2. But what made anyone want to sin? Whatever prompted anyone to swear or lie or
steal or disobey God? Why is it that anyone should ever be so willfully foolish,
so deliberately, insanely unwise as to turn from the path of virtue and
righteousness which leads to blessedness and heaven, and choose the path of
sinfulness which leads straight to eternal death? How can any human being with a
conscience and common sense and moral reason be so blind to self-interest, so
indifferent to his future good as to run in the way of evil as if enamored of
damnation? Nay, how is it that all the human family do it with one common
consent? Ah, why? The Greek New Testament Lexicon gives the clew to the mystery.
It gives two sets of definitions of the most common word for sin in the Greek
language: "Hamartia."

(a) "Error, offense, sin" -- in other words, our voluntary sins.

(b) "The principle or cause of sin, proneness to sin, sinful propensity." Here,
then, are the two forms which the disease of sin takes in human experience.

First, we notice that all the progeny of the human family, while yet young in
years, begins to sin purposely; and we further notice that all keep it up
through life unless the grace of God intervenes to prevent it. This is
undeniably a matter of universal observation and experience -- the first feature
of the disease.

Secondly, thoughtful souls begin to ask, What is the cause of this universal
sinning? Why could not some tribe or family somewhere, be immune to this
universal disease? Nobody has ever found a satisfactory answer to these
questions, but in the Word of God. It informs us that our first parents by their
first sin brought on themselves a radical derangement of their moral nature -- a
proneness to sin. Then they begot children, each of whom inherited this
principle of sin or proneness to sin. And by the simple law of heredity it has
been passed on as an inheritance to every member of the human race. This is not
only a scriptural but a scientific explanation of the universal disease of sin.
It completely brings to light and covers all the facts of the case. We all have
sinned because we all inherited a sinful propensity. Back of every wicked choice
ever made since the first, was an evil appetency or propensity that prompted it.

Here, then, we behold the two forms of the malady of sin:

(a) The voluntary sinning.

(b) The abnormal propensity that prompts it and produces it.

II. Observe there is a double cure for this two-fold disease.

1. The first remedy brings pardon of all sins that are past, and prompts a man
to go out of the sin business. He purposes by the help of God "to sin no more."
"He that is born of God sinneth not." And where does this remedy come from? "God
so loved the world (sinners) that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." The atoning
death of Christ made it possible for God, the Father, to pardon the sinner, set
aside the penalty, on condition of repentance and faith in Christ, restore him
to the divine favor, and treat him as if he had never sinned. This brings
reconciliation between a holy God and the guilty soul. A new family relation is
set up. The man, instead of remaining a condemned sinner with the penalty of
death hanging over his head, is now adopted into the heavenly Father’s family to
feast on the bounty of pardoning love. Thus the first and most visible form of
sin’s disease is cured.

2. But what about that sin principle, that inward heart-propensity to sin? That
must manifestly be dealt with in an entirely different way. Voluntary sins can
be forgiven; but forgiveness will not cure the propensity to evil with which he
was born, and for which he is in no wise responsible. But there is a remedy:
"Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it,
having cleansed it." -- Ephesians 5:25-26. The pardoned souls who are now in
God’s family and form His "Church" are now to be "sanctified" by being
"cleansed" from that "sin-principle" or "propensity to sin" which regeneration
-- the first work of grace -- did not cure or reach.

Once I nearly lost my first-bom child, my precious baby girl, by a severe case
of eczema. After months of doctoring in vain, at last a skillful physician came,
who gave the first remedy for the burning eruption. But a second radical remedy
was needed to reach the root of the difficulty -- by removing the condition of
blood which produced the painful sores. So it is with God’s dealing with sin.
The first remedy cures the outward manifestations of sinning; but sanctification
-- the second work of grace -- is needed to cleanse the heart, the fountain of
all iniquity, from inbred sin.

III. Look now at the text:-- "Cleanse your hands ye sinners: and purify your
hearts ye double-minded." The "hands" represent the doing faculty -- the evil
choices of the will. The sins must be forgiven and the sinning stopped. But the
depraved heart must be cured of its depravity by the medicine of the baptism
with the Holy Spirit, which Christ administers. It "cleanses the heart by
faith." -- Acts 15:8-9.

"Purify your hearts ye double-minded." The sinner has only one mind which is
bent on the self-gratification of sins. The sanctified man has only one mind --
and that is to live for the glory of God. The unsanctified Christian is the only
person who has "a double mind." In regeneration he had the principle of grace
implanted in him; but the old "sin principle" or "evil propensity" has not yet
been removed. So when he would do good evil is present with him. There is a
perpetual conflict in his soul, which will never end until his heart is purified
from the carnal mind.

Look now at the context -- James 4:7-8 : "Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw
nigh unto you . . . Be afflicted and mourn and weep." How these commands ring
out like the sharp crack of a woodsman’s rifle! No hint here at moral inability
-- but always an assumption of present ability to obey God’s commands. We cannot
forgive ourselves or sanctify ourselves. But we can consent to let God do it for
us.

We are all by nature sick with the disease of sin. But a great physician has
come to our city -- the Lord Jesus Christ, with an unfailing cure for our
disease. He will not force His remedies upon us any more than any human
physician does; but He opens an office near by and advertises His remedies in a
Holy Book. If we will only "draw nigh" to Him and ask for His help, He will cure
us "without money and without price." "Rock of ages, deft for me, Let me hide
myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure: Save from wrath and make me pure."


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  CHAPTER 43: 03.20.     GOD'S KEEPING
========================================================================

20. God’s Keeping

"I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved entire . . . faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:23 R. V.) He will
keep the feet of his saints" (1 Samuel 2:9).

"He will give his angels charge over thee in all thy ways" (Psalms 91:11).

"He that keepeth thee will not slumber" (Psalms 121:3).

"That good thing that was committed unto thee, guard through the Holy Spirit
which dwelleth in us" (2 Timothy 1:4-7, R.V.).

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the
Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 1:20, R. V.) .

"My little children, keep [R. V. guard] yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).

God undertakes and promises to keep us, but He tells us to guard and keep
ourselves. What can it mean? Manifestly this: He does not force His keeping
grace upon us. He will use divine agencies and even the help of angels; but He
will not do it without our hearty co-operation and willing, cheerful consent.

I have been a profoundly interested, and often deeply grieved observer of the
spiritual life of those professing holiness in this community for some eight
years. It has made me somewhat qualified to speak.

I am compelled to say that there has been a vast deal of backsliding. I
certainly have seen very many come to the altar in ten different series of
meetings, many in twenty series of meetings; and not a few, I am persuaded, in
as many as thirty series of meetings!

Now this is not normal. It is not God’s plan! This is not in harmony with what
He has said about His keeping power. It certainly does not measure up to our
privileges in Christ. I would write a few lines to Stop, if possible, this
chronic backsliding. It is too dangerous to be permitted to go on unnoticed and
uncorrected.

1. Jesus proposes to guard us from stumbling (R. V.); but our corresponding
attitude of soul is constant trust, and deepest dependence upon God. The Lord
has made our heart His temple, and purposely comes in to keep it clean and holy;
but He does it only by our consent and assistance. There is no compulsion in a
life of grace. Always remember that God never does anything to subvert, or set
aside, or override your own self-sovereignty.

He made us free moral agents to be masters of ourselves, and arbiters of our own
destiny, and He will forever leave us free. God has no slaves in heaven. The
home of the blessed is not a slave pen into which people are stampeded as cattle
are driven into a corral. Only those are there who choose to be; and it was an
ever-repeated and irrevocable choice.

II. Jesus can and will keep us in the blessing only as He gave it to us by our
faith. Jesus says, "Sanctified by faith in me." -- Therefore do not be forever
consulting your feelings, and keeping your fingers on the pulse of your
emotional nature, and your sensibilities . but keep up your devotions and keep
on believing. kotg Let it never be forgotten that a state of purity is never
dependent on emotions, but on faith in Christ as our sanctification. Emotions
and feelings are mere attendants, and depend largely on the temperament, and the
flow of animal spirits and the nervous sensibilities. Disease, infirmities,
weaknesses, aches and pains, and weather may depress the emotions. St. Peter
knew that. He wrote of the incorruptible inheritance, "reserved in heaven for
you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto salvation . . .
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have
been put to grief in manifold trials, that the proof of your faith -- might be
found unto praise and glory" (1 Peter 1:4-7, R. V.). But if you will have
ecstasies, and are more concerned about them than about a clean heart, remember
that the devil can give ecstasies and tongues, and has done it times without
count to vile spiritualistic mediums. Do not seek for emotions. Let them come as
they will; but tell Satan that, feelings or no feelings, by faith in Jesus, you
are still under the blood "that cleanseth from all sin."

III. There is the duty of constant watchfulness. In the course of five verses
(Mark 13:33-37), Jesus bade His disciples four times to watch. "What I say unto
you, I say unto all, Watch." No Christian is ever relieved from this necessity
of constant watchfulness.

Those of us who have crossed the ocean in a steamship, have always gone to our
berths on a dark night with a greater sense of security because we knew that
high up in the crow’s nest, over the bow of the steamer, was a "look out"
sailor. It was his particular business to do two things, viz., to keep constant
watch and report any glimpse of a vessel or an iceberg in the steamer’s path,
and to signal to the engine room below. So it is in our spiritual life. There
are always perils about us. It is the careless souls who are foolhardy and
presumptuous, and will not believe that there is any danger, who are the easy
victims of Satan’s wiles. -- This leads me to observe:

IV. Conscience is that "lookout" sailor aloft over the bow, in the voyage of
life. "Some people with sinful infatuation, put conscience at the stern; it may
utter its cry of remorse after the sin has been committed, and the craft has
struck the peril which stove in the bow. But a conscience that does no more than
weep and moan over sins already committed is of little worth. It is the duty of
a healthy conscience to detect sin in advance, and to sound the alarm to the
will, that has its hand on the helm. The truly righteous man has temptations
floating across his way, as really as the ungodly or the backslider has. The
difference is that the righteous man’s conscience detects the danger ahead, and
gives the signal to the will to "steer clear of the temptation." Yea, it reports
the danger to God in prayer, and help comes from above.

April 15, 1912, the greatest ship that had ever plowed the waves, 882 feet long,
-- the Titantic, was crossing the Atlantic. It had nearly 2,400 lives on board,
and was making its maiden trip at record speed. Her commander, Captain Smith,
had won a name for care and skill, and was at the summit of renown among English
naval officers, and then lost his "patient continuance in well-doing." That
star-lit Sunday night he was feasting to intoxication with millionaires -- six
of them worth in the aggregate, $400,000,000. Other members of the crew were
stupid from champagne, and the lookout in the crow’s nest was thus asleep. Three
other ships sent wireless warnings to them, and alarms were rung, but all in
vain. With utter infatuation they crowded her spend to the limit, and drove on
in a race with death. Death won the race. The ship crashed into an iceberg and
tore out its side. The captain saw his own ruin, drew his revolver and shot
himself. A survivor says he will never forget, to his dying day, how the sixteen
hundred clung to the ship’s rail, shrieking and moaning and groaning, as the
sinking Titantic carried them down to a needless death. That is a perfect
picture of a neglected and drugged conscience, despising all God’s warnings, and
waking up in remorse, when it is forever too late.

V. Our religious safety depends on Our being dead to the world. God says, "Love
not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of
the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lusts
thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."

Now we may ask what is meant by "the world" in this wonderful passage? Bishop
Gore of England defines it thus: "The world is human society organizing itself
apart from God." Bishop Ellicott of England defines the world as: "The sum total
of all that is opposed to the spiritual reign of Christ." Enlarging that
definition, I define as follows: "Those habits, fashions, customs, laws -- those
principles of conduct, ambitions, pleasures and aims of godless people -- which
constitute, in the aggregate, that old hag called the world, that is forever
opposed to God and Christ and all righteousness." That is the thing which
crucified Jesus and still crucifies Him and His cause afresh, and puts Him to an
open shame before our eyes continually.

Now what I am saying is this: those who would keep their piety and grow in grace
must die out to this whole damning and damnable worldliness. We cannot seek its
approbation. We cannot practice the most of its pleasures. We cannot slavishly
follow its fashions. We cannot bow to its opinions, or court its favors, or love
its applause. Above all, we cannot adopt its moral principles as our standard of
conduct, or imitate its customs, or worship at its idolatrous shrines.

St. Paul said, "By whom [Christ] the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the
world." Nobody has a very serious case of religion, who has not thus been
crucified to the world and by the world, and dissolved partnership with it
forever.

I am free to admit that what I am now saying has special reference to women.
Multitudes of professedly Christian women, and altogether too many of them in
the ranks of holiness, seem to act as if they were the bond-slaves of fashion,
and the fashion magazines were their Bible, the dressmaking shops were their
churches, and the dressmakers priestesses to direct their devotions and guide
their prayers.

I believe God is trying by the Holiness Movement to produce a generation of
women who are dead to the fashionable follies and idiotic fooleries of this
hell-bent world. And if you women fail Him, farewell all hopes of a redeemed
humanity.

Some worldly, fashionable females in our churches ask, "What harm is there in
cards, and dancing and theaters?" Many of these people are not amenable to
argument. They are beyond all rational persuasion! They are a thousand times
more afraid of not being in the fashion than they are afraid of sin. They have
drugged consciences. Worldliness has befogged their brains, and reduced their
moral-backbones to the limpness of a cotton string. To seem to be aristocratic,
they will have intoxicants on their tables, even though it does engulf their
husbands and sons in hopeless ruin. They must patronize the dance, even if it is
likely to make their sons drones, and their daughters harlots. "O Fashion!
Fashion! what power hast thou to brow-beat holy nature so that she dare not
speak to assert her sacred claims against thy imperious sway!"

I am not writing for such people. It would be useless. They are abandoned to the
pleasures of Sin. They are strangers to Jesus. They "love the world, and the
love of the Father is not in them." But there are others not utterly committed
to a career of Christless worldliness. They are toying with these fashionable
pleasures which so many church members run after. They are troubled about it
because the Spirit of God has not wholly left them; they are still willing to
listen to the voice divine. For them I write. To them the Spirit speaks; "Oh, do
not this abominable thing that I hate" (Jeremiah 44:4).


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  CHAPTER 44: S. A SAVOR OF LIFE UNTO LIFE, OR OF DEATH UNTO DEATH
========================================================================

A Savor of Life Unto Life, Or of Death Unto Death By Aaron Hills 2 Corinthians
2:14-16.

Paul drew his imagery from the well known customs of his time. We have an
example in that striking passage in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 : "Now thanks be unto
God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor
of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of
Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are the
savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who
is sufficient for these things?" The "Triumph" in Christ, always accorded to
faithful ministers, has reference to the triumphal procession conferred upon a
victorious general on his return from a successful war, in which he was allowed
a magnificent entrance into the capital. In these triumphs the victorious
commander was usually preceded or attended by the spoils of war, and by the
princes, nobles, generals or people whom he had subdued. When Pompey was
accorded his triumph, his chariot was drawn into the city by elephants. For two
days the grand procession of trophies from every land, and a long retinue of
captives, moved into the city along the Via Sacra. Brazen tablets were carried,
on which were engraved the names of the conquered nations, including one
thousand castles and nine hundred cities. The word "savor" is used to denote a
pleasant or fragrant odor as of incense or aromatics. There is an allusion here
to the fact that in the triumphal processions fragrant odors were diffused,
flowers of grateful smell being scattered in the way. On the altars of the gods
incense was burned and sacrifices offered, and the whole city was filled with
the fragrant smoke and with delightful perfumes. So the apostle speaks of the
savor of the knowledge of Christ. In Paul’s triumphal career the knowledge of
the Redeemer was diffused, like the odors in the triumphal march of the
conquerors. And that odor was acceptable to God, as the fragrance of the incense
was pleasant in the march of the returning victor. The effect of the apostle’s
teaching was to make Jesus known and the principles of His kingdom declared. It
pleased God to have His redemptive grace proclaimed, even though there were many
who might not avail themselves of it and would accordingly perish. In these
words of the apostle there is much both to encourage and to solemnize our
hearts.

I. The true minister of the Gospel, with the Spirit of God in his heart, is a
mighty power in the world. Lucius Mummius, the Roman consul, conquered all
Achaia, and destroyed Corinth, Thebes and Colchis, and by order of the Roman
Senate was favored with a triumph and was surnamed Achaicus. But when Paul
entered that same country a poor, footsore, weary, unattended preacher of the
Gospel, he was a mightier conqueror than Mummius. Men did him the honor to
declare that he was one of those that turned the world upside down. Mummius did
nothing but slay and destroy, pillage and burn. His work was wholly destructive.
Paul’s work was constructive. He started influences that renovated the inner
life of the people -- influences that are felt there today, and will be as
lasting as time.

Hannibal, one of the mightiest of all earthly conquerors, came with his legions
to the gates of Rome, and all but took the city.

Paul entered the city as a prisoner in chains; but with the resistless "Sword of
the Spirit" -- the Gospel of Christ, he and the preachers that came after him
captured the city and the throne and the legions and all the provinces of the
mighty empire; and their influence is felt where Roman legions were never seen.
Not a fragment of the great empire is left; but the influence of those preachers
is in the full vigor of an immortal prime, marching on, conquering and to
conquer the entire world.

Julius Caesar was, by common consent, the greatest pagan of the ancient world.
He invaded Britain. Nothing is left of that invasion but a few stones
underground here and there that mark the fortifications of his camps. But the
Christian missionaries that followed him a few centuries later and entered the
island without pomp or splendor or banners or armies, with only the Gospel of
peace in their hands and the love of men and of God in their hearts, laid the
foundations of institutions that stand there today, in their vast and
far-reaching beneficence, like a "tree of life" to the nations.

Alexander the Great marched to India and covered some battlefields with the
slain; but the names of Martyn and Judson and Scudder and Thoburn outshine all
the bejewelled kings and princes and conquering warriors of India. The warriors
of Babylon and Syria and Rome and France and England, have successively overrun
Africa; but the lustre of Moffat and Livingstone and Taylor can never be
obscured.

England sent the flower of her army over to America to fight her colonies. She
has since sent her royal princes and titled statesmen to our shores; but she
gave us her greatest treasures when, with the rude hand of persecution, she
flung to us the godly pilgrim and Puritan ministers and the noble Scotch
Presbyterians who built on the Rock Christ Jesus the foundation of this
Christian republican. It is President Elliot, of Harvard, who says he would
rather be the minister who founded Harvard College than to be any president this
republic has had since the first. Oh, it is a wonderful thing to be counted
worthy to preach the Gospel, to be put in trust with this mighty message of life
that touches the very springs of spiritual activity and awakes powers and
influences that never cease to be felt. It may seem to some that preaching is a
simple and unworthy calling; nevertheless it has pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save men, to build up His kingdom in human hearts -- the only
enduring thing i n the world. Paul felt it. He magnified his office. He thanked
God for it. He felt that he was given a victory over the wickedness of the
earth, over the enemies of the Gospel; he was given success in planting the
kingdom of Christ in human hearts. He was marching on under the approving eye of
Jesus and the unseen hosts, with more solid and substantial joy in his soul than
was ever felt by a Roman general returning from his conquests, laden with the
spoils of victory, and attended by humbled princes and kings in chains, when
assembled thousands shouted "Io triumphe!"

II. We are assured by this Scripture that the work of an honest and faithful
ministry is especially pleasing to God. "For we are unto God a sweet savor of
Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish." Like the smell of
pleasant incense to men were the consecrated labors and ardent zeal of the
faithful ambassadors of Christ to God. And this was true irrespective of their
apparent success. They were responsible only for fidelity to the message, to the
Master who sent them, and to the hearts of men. Whether men were saved or lost,
whether the preacher had a nation at his feet like Samuel, or stood alone like
Elijah; whether he was honored like Daniel, or cast into the dungeon like
Jeremiah, or martyred like Isaiah, in any event God’s mercy was proclaimed, His
love made known, and his moral government over sinners justified. The honest
ministers who cast in their lot with God, and help to make known the glories of
His redemptive work to dying men, are accepted as a sweet savor, whether men
persist in dying or not. God is still true, and His Gospel is true, and He is
pleased with it and those who faithfully publish it to the world forevermore.

III. We are taught that the Gospel and the ministry are twofold in their
influence and operation. They are both a savor of "life unto life" and "of death
unto death" to men. In other words, they bring salvation or hasten and deepen
the damnation of all who hear. The purpose of the Gospel is to save all. It
reveals provisions of mercy for all. If it does not reach all, if some reject
and turn away in scorn and contempt, they necessarily incur a greater disaster
and plunge to a darker doom. The mind shrinks from the contemplation of so
solemn a truth. One is loath to believe that the fate of the persistently wicked
is more dire, and their everlasting woe is intensified by a Savior’s dying for
them, and by the proclamation of mercy to their guilty souls; but we cannot
avoid this conclusion, however dreadful to contemplate it may be. It must be so
in the very nature of things. The very quality of the Gospel that makes life,
produces death. The self-same feature that makes blessing possible makes woe
equally possible. All analogy teaches it. Startling as it may seem, we cannot
deny it if we would. The thoughtful mind finds endless illustration of this
principle both in the realm of matter and of mind.

Water is a liquid that moves easily upon itself. This fact adds immeasurably to
its utility. It flows in streams and rivers, and becomes a mechanical power to
men. It buoys up the navies of the world, and yet lets the swift coursers of the
deep sweep through its tides at wonderful speed. It moves so easily that the
slightest breath of air stirs it, and it keeps pure by perpetual motion. But
this very quality that makes it so essential a blessing to man, also enables it
to respond to the touch of the hurricane and lift its hoary waves to the sky,
and toss the largest ships as so many chips on its billows, and hurl them with
the shock of an earthquake upon the rocks, and burst dams and carry everywhere
desolation and death. The expansive power of steam enables it to drive our
trains and run the levers and wheels and spindles of our factories, and to do
the work of more than a billion of laboring men. But this same quality also
enables it to blow up our boilers and hurl multitudes to sudden death.

Fire as a physical servant of man is a thousand times more helpful than steam.
He who discovered how to produce it by artificial means, was by far the most
beneficent discoverer the race can ever know. However, the same power that
enables fire to feed upon fuel and heat water and fuse metals and cook our food
and warm our homes, also enables it to consume our dwellings and lay our cities
in ashes. The quality which enables electricity to light our cities and move our
cars and turn our engines and flash our thoughts around the world, also causes
it to kill the poor lineman and rive our dwellings with the thunderbolt. When we
leave the material realm and view the nature of man, we find along the whole
range of his faculties the same double possibility of blessedness and woe. The
stomach that can enjoy food can suffer hunger. The nerves that can thrill with
pleasure can throb with pain. The refined taste that can appreciate the
beautiful in art and nature is perpetually tortured by the ugly and the
unsightly. The ear that is sensitive to tone and keenly observant of every
delicate modulation of sound, and able to drink in ecstatic delight from rich
harmonies of music is tortured by the harsh, shrill, discordant tones that
pierce it perpetually. The refined and tender sensibilities that fit a man to
receive transcendent joys from human friendship and society, also rend his very
soul with anguish over the treachery of friends and the cruel heartlessness of
man. That freedom of the will, that self-sovereignty and self-control which give
a man the possibility of character and manhood, and make him godlike and fit for
Heaven, also enable him to be depraved and sinful and devilish and a child of
Hell. Over against every denizin of earth there is an Ebal. Pleasure and pain,
blessing and woe, life and death seem to be essential and inseparable attendants
of each other throughout the empire of God.

Let us not, then, turn away from this truth that the faithful ministry of the
Gospel brings life to some and death to others. Solemn and awful though it be,
it is analogous with God’s truth everywhere. To deny it is to blur our spiritual
perception and do violence to our mental and moral being.

We are compelled, then, to face the awful fact that the very preaching of God’s
blood-bought salvation is going to hasten the ruin of some who hear. The aim is
to save men. The object of all the zeal and sacrifice and toil and prayer is to
bring men into reconciliation to God. The tendency of the Gospel is to save men.
For that purpose it was devised with all the skill of an all-wise God. There is
sufficiency in the Gospel for all men, and it is as really fitted to save one as
another. However it may be received, it is always in itself the same pure and
glorious system of truth, full of benevolence and mercy. Its bitterest enemy
cannot point to one of its provisions that is adapted or designed to destroy
men, or make them miserable. All its powers and influences are those which are
fitted to save. Even though it is the means of death to men, yet the Gospel is
what it is in itself -- a pure and holy and benevolent gift of a benevolent God.
To use the beautiful language of Theodoret: "We indeed bear the sweet odor of
Christ’s Gospel to all; but all who hear it do not experience its saving
effects. Thus to diseased eyes even the light of Heaven is noxious; yet the sun
does not bring the injury. And to those who are in a fever honey is bitter, yet
it is sweet nevertheless. Vultures, too, it is said, fly from sweet odors of
myrrh; yet myrrh is myrrh, though the vultures avoid it. Thus if some be saved,
though others perish, the Gospel retains it own virtue, though some disbelieve
and abuse it, and die."

Serious, awful truth! The minister gives himself to the most blessed of all
possible Christian service. His heart’s desire and prayer to God is that men may
be saved. He goes to homes of trouble and sorrow and offers Gospel consolation.
He goes to hearts of sin and tells of a reconciling Savior; to believers, and
tells them of the sanctifying baptism with the Holy Spirit. The reception his
message receives makes him the savor of life unto life or of death unto death.
The principle is this -- truth resisted deadens the soul. Hearts that do not
break under the hammer of the Gospel grow harder than the nether millstone. The
sensibilities that are not melted by the story of Calvary are frozen into
obdurate impenitence. The will that does not bow to the motives of the cross
grows gigantic in its mighty rebellion against infinite love. The mind that will
not be enlightened by the streaming radiance of an atoning Savior will become
impenetrable dark in its wilful blindness. The believers that will not enter the
Canaan of sanctification when it is offered them, turn back into the wilderness
to die. By every principle of moral and spiritual gravitation the man that falls
from the highest pinnacle of exalted Christian privilege falls to the deepest
abyss of guilt and woe. This is a startling echo of the words of the Son of God:
"Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you, had
been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and
ashes. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be brought down
to hell. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of
judgment, than for thee."

IV. It still remains for me to consider for a moment the solemn responsibility
which this truth lays upon us all.

1. To those of us who are, or ever expect to be, ministers or religious
teachers. Paul felt it, and he cried out: "To the one we are a savor of life
unto life, and to the other a savor of death unto death, and who is sufficient
for these things?" For the arduous and responsible work of the ministry, for a
work whose influence must be felt either in the eternal salvation or damnation
of the soul, who indeed is sufficient? Who is worthy of so important a charge?
Who can undertake it without feeling in himself unfit for it, and that he needs
constant Divine grace? A faithful Scotch minister always had a plaid robe lying
on the foot of his bed that he might rise in the night and wrap himself in it
and pray for his people. One cold winter night his wife chided him for thus
exposing his health. He exclaimed, "Oh, woman! I have six hundred souls to give
account for at the day of judgment, and I know not how it is with some of them.
I must needs rise and pray for them." John Bunyan, preaching one day, said to hi
s people, "When you have your conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ,
when you have an entrance into the holiest and have liberty in prayer remember
me." Dr. Alexander Maclaren said to his congregation: "Remember, I have a great
work on hand, a great deal upon my conscience. Pray for me brethren, pray."

O, ambassadors of Christ! preach the full Gospel of salvation, the whole counsel
of God -- justification, adoption, sanctification and a life of holiness, ever
crying, "Who is sufficient for these things?"

2. A word of warning to those who fill the pews and listen to the Gospel. The
better the preaching is, and the more truth you receive, unless improved, the
more perilous it becomes. By the solemnities of this theme God says to you,
"Take heed how ye hear! how you treat the Gospel! what use you make of Christian
privileges." Better be born in heathendom and live in utter ignorance of a
Savior than to live in a community like this and know Him and reject Him! Better
attend the most Christless university in all this land, where teachers are
unbelievers and irreligion is rampant, than to attend this Holiness college and
be taught by these reverent Christian professors, and leave these halls of
learning a hardened rebel against God!

Better listen to the most heaven-defying infidel every Sabbath than to hear the
faithful offers of the Gospel of full salvation only to turn from them with
scorn. O, the dark fate of that wretched soul who is born of Christian parents,
and reared at a family altar, and brought up in a Christian church, and
instructed by a serious Christian ministry, and watched over and taught by
Christian professors, only at last to despise it all and stagger out into a
Christless career!

It is an awful transition to go from the blazing light of holiness into the
endless night of outer darkness! O God, teach us! teach us all how to hear the
Gospel: how to make a right use of Christian privileges: for "Who is sufficient
for these things?"


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  CHAPTER 45: S. DYING TO LIVE
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Dying To Live By Aaron Hills A Baccalaureate Sermon Before the Graduating Class
of Texas Holiness University, June 11, 1905.

John 12:23-28 "And Jesus answered them saying, The hour is come, that the Son of
man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat
fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it
beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it, and he that hateth his
life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him
follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me,
him will the Father honour. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify thy name." This passage is one of the most complete statements
in the whole Word of God of the dignity and glory of self-sacrifice. The truth
is here put with all the Savior’s inimitable art of statement. Our thoughts are
brought to consider the great law of sacrifice which, now dark and forbidding,
and now radiant and glorious, runs through the whole creation of God. It is a
law without which society could not hold together nor our race live; without
which, indeed, the whole animal kingdom would become extinct. We shrink from
sacrifice if we are base and selfish. We are drawn toward it if, and just so far
as, we are noble. It is at once so difficult and so satisfying! so radically
opposed to our innate selfishness, and so inseparably connected with our highest
sympathies and noblest impulses! It is enshrined in our affections as connected
with the life of Him who is the center of our faith. It is intimately interwoven
with the highest theory and practice of Christian ethics. We must, therefore, in
our religious study and meditations give this theme of sacrifice more than
ordinary attention. We must study it; we must question it; we must wrestle with
it until the gloom of its darkness changes into the radiance of its brighter
aspects, and it gives us a blessing as its shadows flee away.

I. Then let us look at its dark side -- involuntary sacrifice. How very dark it
is! The constant suffering! The necessary pain! The inevitable sacrifice of
beautiful, glorious life in innumerable ways, to sate the insatiable maw, not of
death, but of other life!

It has been so from the beginning of earth’s history. The rocks which we unearth
today have their fossil remains, skeleton inside of skeleton, mute witnesses of
what transpired on the primeval earth. Life everywhere fed upon life, one
creature being sacrificed to keep another creature alive. And the same dark,
mysterious spectacle is witnessed around us every hour. From the lowest form of
insect life, through all grades of being up to man, we behold one preying upon
another. Sometimes an insect carries about the germ of another attached to its
back, that will in time take its life. We behold the feeble and the little
sacrificed to the appetite of the large and the strong. Insects are consumed by
other insects, by reptiles and by birds. The mouse and the sparrow are the
ordained food of the hawk. The smaller fish are eaten by the larger. The lamb is
the prey of the fox and the wolf. The kid is pounced upon by the eagle. The
antelope is devoured by the leopard, and the lion and the tiger leap upon the o
x. They all live by sacrificing each other and cannot live without it.

Man! he, too, lives by the slaughter of innocents, and the vastest and most
costly sacrifices are made to satisfy his carnivorous appetites. Man in a real
sense lives upon his fellowman. I refer not now to cannibalism, nor to the way
in which human lives and human interests are often sacrificed to the selfish
ambition, or the grasping avarice, or the cruel hate, or the devouring lusts of
men. I refer only to the sacrifices made to the wants and necessities of others.
You each live, day by day, because others sacrifice and suffer and die for you.
You can scarcely help yourself even if you would; for dependence upon the
sacrifice of some one is a necessity of civilized life. As you sit with your
family before the cheerful coal fire in the grate, did you ever once reflect
that you have that blessing only because multitudes of men spend their lives
underground in the depths of coal mines, covered with filth, and constantly
exposed to pestilence and explosion and death? You travel over land and sea, and
ship your goods and grain and cattle at a great speed; but the engineers and
firemen and brakemen who drive the trains and handle the cars are prematurely
cut off. Their lives are shortened to serve you. The man who blows the glass
that lets the health-giving and cheerful light into your homes knows that the
number of his days will be lessened. The metallic goods, gold and silver and
plated, and steel and iron ware, are made by workmen who will sooner or later be
killed by the dust they must inhale, and the necessary dangers of their
occupations. 1 have seen the pale workmen making these goods, wearing sponges
over their nostrils. But nothing wholly avails. You want the goods; they die to
make them.

You go to your stores and buy beautiful fabrics and ready-made apparel. You
marvel at their cheapness,, but always want them a little cheaper. They are
cheap -- cruelly, wickedly cheap -- because the work was undersold and underlet;
undersold to you at the price of the cheap life-breath of suffering mortals --
poor men and women compelled to labor by the necessities of their lot, and
crushed to death by the competition and rivalry of trade while they stitched and
embroidered for you, it was as Tom Hood wrote in his immortal poem: "Stitch,
stitch, stitch, In poverty, hunger and dirt, Sewing at once, with a double
thread, A shroud as well as a shirt" And so remember, with at least a little
humane pity, when you buy and wear these wondrously cheap things, remember "O
men with sisters dear, O men with mothers and wives, It is not linen you’re
wearing out, But human creatures’ lives." The makers of certain kinds of lace
must work in very dim light, and always go blind. In our great iron-mills, by an
explosion or the bursting of a pot, men are often roasted alive by a great mass
of molten metal. City, policemen are shot down in the defense of other people’s
homes, and city firemen are often burned to death to keep the property of others
from being burned. The pioneers of civilization cut down the forests, drain the
swamps and the marshes, fight wild beasts and savages, and die doing it; but
others who come after them enter into the fruits of their labors, and enjoy what
they have wrought.

Probably a thousand men will lay down their lives for every mile of our isthmus
canal; but the Nation wants it, the world needs it, and they die to give it to
us. And so on endlessly.

We may, by Christian effort, alleviate this suffering somewhat, and thus
mitigate some of the sternness of this law of sacrifice; but still it will
remain, woven, dark and cruel though it seems to be, into the very fabric of our
being, our progress, and our civilization.

II. Let us now consider the voluntary sacrifice. This is the brighter side.
There is now something Divine in its purpose and holy in its results, and we are
able, partially at least, to understand it. The generous, the unselfish, the
pure, the holy, lavish themselves upon the base and the unthankful. They suffer
in the sufferings of others, and stand between them and the normal results of
their wrong-doing.

All our voluntary benevolent societies that labor among the poor and vicious,
all our free hospitals and charitable institutions, our friendly inns, social
settlements, temperance and missionary organizations, are so many proofs that
the provident and the good are voluntarily bearing the burdens of the vicious.
Somebody must cure these public evils that make society rotten. Somebody must
rescue the children that are born in haunts of vice. Somebody must forget ease
and self-indulgence, and put a precious home behind him and go after the
drunkard, the criminal and the abandoned, or society is undone.

Yes, some, at times, must enter the ranks and brave their bosoms to the missiles
of death, and consent to be mowed down by the privation and sickness of the camp
that liberty may not perish, that nations may live. And glorious as this
patriotic sacrifice is, you can find sweeter and quite as noble vicarious
sacrifice in the quiet obscurity of home and daily life, unnoted of men, and
appreciated by and known only to God.

There are parents caring for unworthy children, sitting with them through long
days and weary nightwatches in illness, bearing their needless sorrows in
thankless sympathy and service, and agonizing over their wretched sins. I have
known an elder sister, by far the most gifted mind in the family, to care for a
sick mother for twelve long years, and care for the home and the father; and
then she helped three brothers and a sister to an education, putting two of them
through college, working for years from early morning till midnight to do it,
her own mind and heart hungering for the opportunity, she was giving to them,
until she was broken in health by the cruel strain. And then she was flung aside
by those whom she had served. I sometimes think the shining sun looks upon
nothing more Divine among men than such sister-love.

Now, you take all these noblest acts of benevolence, all these voluntary
immolations of self for the good of others which human history affords, fashion
them together into one harmonious whole then lift them up into infinite
exaltation, and you have none other than the Character of God Himself as He
stands related to sinful and suffering man -- the God of vicarious sacrifice,
The God Of Love.

III. We see in Jesus the interpretation and perfect illustration of this Divine
law of sacrifice. Hear the blessed words of the text: "Jesus answered them,
saying, The hour is Come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die it
abideth alone: but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. Now is my soul
troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this
cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." Here, you see, is the
Incarnate God bowing down submissive to His Own Sacred Law Of Sacrifice. Not
without the anguish and the struggle, not without the shrinking of soul which
characterizes our own worthiest deeds; but yet He hesitates not. As the grain of
wheat must abide alone except it be cast into the furrow and there perish, so,
if He would save others, Himself he cannot save. But He came to save others.
And, if it be possible, He will save them at whatever cost to Himself. He
therefore keeps back the prayer, "Father, save me from this hour," which
instinctively comes to His lips, and breathe out the petition, "Father, glorify
thy name." He bows to the inevitable condition and makes the sacrifice.

Friends, from a human standpoint of vision, was ever a life so completely thrown
away, so utterly lost? Taking into account the transcendent qualities which
Jesus possessed, the keenness of intellect, the penetration, the foresight, the
ability to read human nature, the sagacity, the magnetism, the force of
character all of which he possessed in unequaled measure, and which He might
have used to His own advantage, was ever life so thrown away? History does not
afford the parallel of one who, with such matchless abilities and opportunities,
so utterly squandered them, and was so completely bankrupted of results. By an
easy use of His remarkable powers He might have acquired vast possessions; but
He purposely became and remained so poor that He had not where to lay His head
often suffering from unappeased hunger, always eating the bread of charity, and
redeemed only by love from abject want. No other man could have so swayed the
masses and created enthusiasm for himself; but He never did, and never tried to
gain a permanent popular following. He might have handled the influential
political leaders of His day, and lifted Himself to the summit of power; but He
never sought their allegiance, or even made their acquaintance. He established
no new school of philosophy, as other great minds before Him had done; He gained
no popular influence; He wrote no books and left not even a line behind Him. He
did not make or alter one law; He did not seat or unseat one ruler; He did not
cast down one heathen altar, or break one poor slave’s chain, or alter one
custom. The religions of the world were, when He died, precisely what they were
when He was born. The governments were as scheming, as corrupt, as tyrannous, as
wicked. He was tried as a common criminal, and made no defense. He was put to
death between two thieves, and all seemed utterly and disgracefully lost. At
that hour a thoughtful man might have likened His life to a comet of surpassing
brilliancy which had suddenly and unexpectedly appeared from some unknown
quarter of the heavens, attracted a brief attention, and then had as suddenly
disappeared, to be as soon forgotten. No husbandman ever went into his field and
sowed the grains of wheat more carelessly than did Jesus apparently throw His
chances away. Was ever life so irretrievably lost? But, yet, with the halo of
that cross lighting up the centuries, and destined, as we know, to yet flood the
whole world with its light, we are able to add, was ever life so gloriously
saved in the losing?

Ah! how supremely wise was the Redeemer’s conduct, and how Divine His example!
This outpouring of God’s own life that others might have life and have it more
abundantly! The great heart of love, "touched with a feeling of our infirmity"
and beating in sympathetic pulsations with the fevered pulse of a suffering
humanity! beholding our ruin and hasting to our redemption! It was the
self-sacrificing love of God in full display, taking our place and suffering in
our stead that you and I, my hearer, and all who will believe, might not perish.
And this was God’s way to lift men. It was just then that God was glorified. No
other act so became Him. The glory of creating sixty millions of worlds and suns
was nothing in comparison! The moment of His extreme humiliation was the moment
of supreme triumph. His death hour was the first hour of His reign as a
redeeming God. Then was infinite love tested and found true. Then was infinite
grace manifested. Then the anthem, "Worthy is the Lamb," began to be sung, and
those hallelujahs of praise which shall continually rise and swell and roll in,
in ever-increasing waves of melody, till Heaven and earth are full of His glory
were first heard! And now notice:

IV. This is the law of godlikeness for us. Hear Jesus state it. "He that loveth
his life shall lose it: and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it
unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me: him will my Father
honor."

1. We can reach our own highest good only by a death to self. There is a
something within us inherited from old Adam that is so infused into all our
faculties that it becomes ourself. We may call this inheritance "depravity," or
"the old man," or "the carnal mind," or "the law of sin and death." It matters
not by what name it goes, it is a dark, diabolical, perverting thing. It
corrupts the heart, perverts the sensibilities, defiles the imagination, drugs
the conscience, weakens the will. "The whole head becomes sick and the whole
heart faint." This vile infection so possesses every faculty that there is no
moral soundness in us. A human life thus defiled by this satanic virus is
alienated from a life of love and a God of love. It does not take to godliness.
It has a subtle affinity for evil, a trend downward, a propensity for sin and
self-indulgence. It displays inordinate selfishness, regardless of the interests
of others and the glory of God. Hence, Jesus said this self must die. "There is
a foe of hidden power The Christian well may fear. More subtle far than outward
sin, And to the heart more dear. It is the power of selfishness, The proud and
willful I; And ere my Lord can reign in me, My very self must die." When a child
of God fully consents to it and seeks the blessing with all his heart, this
propensity to evil can be taken out by the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It was
only subdued in regeneration; it was not destroyed. It was put down; it was not
put out. It "as held in with bit and bridle; but it is a troublesome, fiery
steed, ready to run away with its driver at any moment. It pleads for its life;
but it must be given over to die. In other words, the heart that has it must
consent to die to all that the natural man holds dear, die to all but holiness
and God. When all is put on the altar for death, the heavenly fire will fall and
consume the dross of the heart. The "old man" will die, and from his grave will
come forth "the new man, created in righteousness and holiness of truth."

2. We must thus die to live in the largest usefulness. "Except the grain of
wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone." It is the great Christian
paradox, which Christ Himself so fully illustrated. Die to live; lose your life
in order to save it. He who lives for himself only makes an utter failure of
life. On the contrary, he who lives as if he hated life, who lays all the forces
of his life on the altar of Jesus to be used in the service of God and humanity,
he keeps and saves himself unto life eternal. This is the essential condition
and law of divinest usefulness. "If any man will serve me, let him follow me:
and where I am there will also my servant be." Follow Jesus in the death of
self-sacrifice, in His indifference to worldly honors, and His contempt for
worldly riches and human applause. Follow Him to the firing line, where the
cause of right is the most unpopular, and truth is shot at and stabbed by dagger
tongues, and the battle is hottest for temperance and righteousness, for
humanity and God. Follow Him when others falter and fail, when others hiss and
wag their tongues and curse goodness, and cry with the hate of Hell, "Crucify
him, crucify him!" To follow Jesus then, through the judgment hall and over the
Via Dolorosa and up the steeps of Calvary, while demons howl and rocks rend and
darkness settles, and Goodness and Love are crucified, is to walk the path of
honor and get the crown of final glory.

I entreat you who are young to learn this all-important lesson. You are not yet
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. You are deliberately adopting
life-principles. On the one hand, you see men; all too numerous, who are
grasping, selfish, ambitious, unscrupulous, eager to ride to place and power,
and willing to crush anybody, and to sacrifice any human interest to do it. On
the other hand, here is the perfect God-man, and all who would be like Him,
giving themselves to the ministry of others. Which company will you join? The
lesson of Jesus’ life is this; the path to the divinest and most enduring
usefulness lies through the sepulchre where self-seeking is buried. Give thy
life away if thou wouldst save it forever! In the meanest, over-reaching,
selfishness, labor to make the most of thy little self; so shalt thou lose thy
life, thy soul, thy all!

Oh, how we need this lesson! And I thank God that more and more men are learning
it. There are multitudes today who are poor because they would be honest and
unselfish. They preferred usefulness to a large bank account, and riches of
character to riches of purse. They have saved but little; yet they have saved
conscience and truth and self-respect and love and faith -- true manhood. They
have comforted sorrow, and cured ignorance, and redeemed from vice, and made the
lives of others better. They need none of your pity, for they have laid up
abundance on high.

I have known a wife to live with a drunkard husband. For his sake and her
children’s she consented to be covered with shame and disgrace. She told me her
parents did not know of her anguish. She had but to speak a word and her family
would fly to her rescue; but she concealed her wretchedness and suffered on. And
there are innumerable such wives and mothers who are martyrs to debauchery and
dissoluteness, and who die daily for others. There are daughters who are sweetly
pouring out their lives in the care of aged parents and thus are clothing
themselves with the white robes of the saints.

There are some of God’s purest who are sacrificing the enjoyments of home and
health and strength and fortune to press upon the consciences of this guilty
nation the moral reforms of the day. Others are sailing to foreign shores to
carry the Gospel of Christ to thankless heathen; others still are giving of
their very living to keep them there.

"Sarah Hosmer, of Lowell, Mass., though a poor woman, supported a student in the
Nestorian Seminary, who became a preacher of Christ. Five times she gave fifty
dollars, earning the money in a factory, and sent out five native pastors to
Christian work. When sixty years old, she longed to furnish Nestoria with one
more preacher of Christ; and, living in an attic, she took in sewing until she
had accomplished her cherished purpose. In the hands of this consecrated woman,
money transformed the factory girl and the seamstress into a missionary of the
Cross, and then multiplied her sixfold." She died to live; and the story of her
life is as fragrant as the alabaster box of ointment poured upon the head of
Christ.

I know of women who have dedicated themselves to the care of half a hundred
children apiece in orphanages, mothering the offspring of want and sin without
other compensation than the smile of Christ. Others can be named who go from
homes of abundance and culture and purity to fish fallen girls out of the
purlieus of vice in our great cities. They have been fitly called the angels of
the slums; and they are fitting themselves to be the companions of angels
forever.

We might point to teachers and preachers in great numbers who are toiling
faithfully and enthusiastically for a small fraction of the earthly compensation
they might have gained in some other avocations. Gratitude should lead us to
remember the men in the Cabinet of our Nation who have laid aside a professional
income more than ten times greater than their pittance of a salary, that they
may serve their country. And one of them, Secretary Hay, turned from the
enjoyment of wealth and the sweets of literature and authorship, to serve his
Nation and his age. He became the greatest diplomat of his times, but died
prematurely, a sacrifice on the altar to bless mankind.

O, the spirit of Christ is abroad over the world. It is ennobling and
sanctifying human hearts. Under its holy inspiration men are living and toiling,
they are suffering and dying for others. At times some are troubled in soul like
their Master before them, and cry, "How long, O Lord, how long?" He answers
them: "Suffer child, and sacrifice a little longer." And they toil on for
others, and lose life itself on their heaven-appointed Calvary. Then are they
glorified. These are they that come up out of great tribulation, to wear crowns
of usefulness and eternal victory. "He that saveth his life shall lose it:" he
that gives it in sacrifice shall keep it unto life eternal. May God keep us all
from the consuming canker of selfishness, and help us to give ourselves to the
service of Christ and this dying world.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 46: S. MOCKING AT SIN
========================================================================

Mocking At Sin By Aaron Hills "Fools make a mock at sin." Proverbs 14:9.

Sin is the virus of spiritual beings, the moral malaria of God’s universe. Its
very existence is mysterious; its birth is unexplainable; its influence is
subtle, and its results are awful in the extreme. What facile pen can picture
it? What eloquent tongue, even though it be gifted like an angel’s and blessed
with all the powers possible to a finite intelligence, can fitly describe the
evils it has wrought?

I. Let us notice some of the manifest effects of sin. We need not go far to find
them. We live and walk, we wake and sleep in its evil influence as an
atmosphere. Sin has somehow cast the shadow of its dire evils upon physical
nature. The very ground is cursed for man’s sake; the thorns and briers are
reflections of his unworthiness. The wasting pestilence, the consuming drouth,
the swelling flood, the sweeping tornado, the destroying earthquake, the riving
thunderbolt, are, through some mysterious affinity, sequences, as it were, of
moral evils. But these are only indirect and remote and comparatively harmless
consequences of sin. For it lays hold upon man with a grasp of iron, though its
least touch is a dire curse. The entire bodily organization is deranged by it.
It puts its torturing fingers upon the sensitive nerves, and they writhe and
throb with pain. Sin makes wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. It puts to
the rack every sense, every member, every faculty of the human body, every
organism, every muscle, every nerve. If it were possible to gather together and
inspect at a single glance the awful aggregate of its purely physical effects,
we should all be appalled at the heart-rending spectacle.

Suppose we could assemble, in one vast concourse of suffering, the
pain-stricken, the diseased, the maimed, the lame, the halt, the blind, the
distressed, the bleeding, the broken; could empty all hospitals and sick-rooms,
and invalid chambers; could spread side by side all earth’s convulsed
death-beds; could swing the doors of its asylums and let the inmates be
marshaled in one vast army of madness and driveling idiocy; could bring the
anguished babes, the famine-pinched, the bereaved mothers, and all the bowed and
wrinkled and infirm children of age; could unlock our dungeons and empty all our
scaffolds, bring all suffering criminals and inebriates, the weary, the
heartbroken, the passion-tossed, -- bring every one from every quarter of the
earth who has an ache or a burden or an infirmity or a disease or a wound
occasioned by sin, to this common assemblage of woe! Great God! who but thee
could bear the unutterable vision? What finite ear could endure the cries and
groans and maniac shrieks and sobs and sighs and wails of this hideous,
frightful chorus of physical woes which sin ever occasions? But let not the
march of our thought halt here. Let us move on with quickened energy to the
consideration of the still greater and more deplorable effects of sin upon the
soul. Outward evils are but the shadows of inward realities. If by some mighty
effort of the imagination we could conceive; or if by some supernatural
revelation we could know what is felt and done within the bosoms of men, the
mind itself would be unhinged, and reason would flee from her throne in
contemplation of it. Could we but see, as God sees, all the fierce hatreds, the
consuming lusts, the corrupting desires, the unappeased longings, the wasting
griefs, the stingings of conscience, the stifling fears, the cruel
disappointments, the raging jealousies, the burning revenges, the tortures of
remorse, the goadings of anguish, the unutterable woes of despair that gnaw and
torment and rack and consume hearts that still live to suffer on, unwasted and
inconsumable; could we thus see and know, as God does, what moral beings are
suffering for one moment of time, the knowledge might utterly overwhelm and
forever paralyze the onlooking. Nothing else could be thought of. The whole
universe would appear to be one vast, rayless, shoreless ocean of woe, whose
waves of suffering and agony roared louder than the thunder, and heaved and
tossed without intermission forever.

But; friends, all this is just as real as though we, in our littleness, could
see it and know it. Sin has, sin does this very moment wrap this world in a
mantle of physical and mental anguish. How many other worlds are thus afflicted
we know not. But here, at least, it inflicts every pain, wrings out every tear,
burdens every breaking heart, wounds every tortured spirit, extorts every groan,
convulses every death-bed, and digs every grave. Wherever it is, it will work a
similar havoc. "Sin is a disease of the soul! a paralysis that weakens! a
leprosy that pollutes! a plague that tortures! a pestilence that destroys!" a
crime that damns every being within whose bosom it is permitted to dwell. Its
only mission is destruction; its only possible wages is death; not physical
death merely, but all that that dread word means, -- the loss of Holiness,
Happiness, and Heaven.

There shall be, there are no tears, no crying, no pain, no death in Heaven,
simply because no sin is permitted to enter that blessed realm. But the shadow
of sin even falls there; for God is there, and His loving heart must sadly miss
the faces of the fallen sons of light who should ever be ministering in glory
before His throne. And Jesus is there, bearing the print of the nails and the
wound of the spear. Calvary cannot be forgotten. The incarnate God, whom sin
assaulted with all its accursed agencies, working the ineffable iniquity of the
crucifixion, can not forget that the same wickedness still exists, and every day
spits upon Him and smites Him, crucifies Him afresh and puts Him to an open
shame. Yes, the whole earth is tormented, and groans and travails under its
burden of sin, and Heaven itself misses some of its brightness and glory because
of it. Sin is the loss, the shame, the torment, the eternal detriment of the
whole empire of God.

II. It is not difficult now to see why he is a fool who mocks at sin. In the
common language of men, one is called a fool who acts as if not guided by good
sense, nor possessed of ordinary intelligence and prudence. Plainly, then, he is
acting the fool, who treats as of no consequence anything so disastrous, so
powerful, and so far-reaching in its influence as sin. He is called a fool who
wastes treasures or despises things precious, or mocks at danger, or defies
destruction. It is irrational; it is senseless; it is playing the fool. A famous
queen of the Orient once dissolved a precious pearl and drank it in a cup of
wine to the health of her guests; she was playing the fool. Once an Indian
chief, intoxicated with vanity and a spirit of wreckless daring, and imagining
that he could stem the mighty flood, pushed his bark canoe into the rapids and
went over Niagara. A venturesome fool! A man that hides a viper in his bosom is
a fool. A man who assaults an enraged lioness in a jungle when robbed of her
whelps, alone and empty-handed, is a rash fool. But what of the man who mocks at
sin? It is stronger than a lion; its sting is deadlier than any scorpion’s; the
fell sweep of its mighty tide of evil influences is more irresistible than a
Niagara torrent, and with infernal chemistry it dissolves even the "pearl of
great price" in the cup of its unhallowed indulgence.

Make a mock at sin! As wise would it be to furnish your nursery with gun-cotton
and dynamite for your children’s playthings. As well would it be to take no
precautions against cigars and matches, and nails in the boots, around a powder
mill. A single grain of sand somehow worked its way into the granulating
department of Laflin & Rand’s powder factory in Paterson, N. J., on November 3,
1880. It was a little thing, only a trifle, but its friction caused the ignition
of the powder, and a fearful explosion occurred, which destroyed the mill and
blew the workmen into eternity. What a foolish thing to ignore such a possible
result! But, ah me! men are found every day who are ready to make a mock at sin,
whose least temptation may be a spark of fire to some unexpected magazine of
passion whose fierce explosions will create eternal havoc in the soul. Fools,
fools! Inconsiderate fools!

III. It remains for us to notice in what various ways men really do mock at sin;
that is, make light of it as an unimportant thing. It may be we shall find that
we have all been more or less guilty of playing the fool.

1. Those do it who openly boast of their sins, and who glory in their exploits
of wickedness. How often have I seen a group of men talking together, glorying
in their shame, each in turn laboring to prove himself viler than his fellows!
Any day on our city streets you can hear men boasting of deeds with a kind of
diabolical pride, about which they ought to be silent and blush with unspeakable
shame. St. Paul wept over the mob "whose glory is in their shame."

2. Those who smile on the sins of others and willingly profit by them, and thus
lend tacit encouragement to evil doers, are mocking at sin. It is done in
business by Christian men winking at the sins of wicked partners, and sharing in
the profits of their knavery. It is done in society by Christian people
knowingly putting themselves in intimate association with the vile enemies of
Christ. It is done in politics when people adhere to their party, right or
wrong, blind to its political crimes. It is done weekly, daily, almost hourly,
and it is becoming one of the grave questions of an upright man how he can avoid
it.

3. They are mocking at sin who ridicule its reprovers, and set themselves in
wilful opposition to those who are seeking its reformation. God’s reformers have
nearly always been martyrs through public abuse and hate.

Wesley and Finney and Phillips and Garrison trod no easy path. They wore a crown
of thorns before they wore a chaplet of flowers. Fighting against such men is
often one and the same with fighting against God. Even when they are indiscreet
and impractical, as reformers often are, still we must beware how we oppose them
and impugn their motives, and ridicule their efforts, lest we be found to be
defending the evils which they combat, and thus become of the number of those
who mock at sin.

4. They especially mock at sin who knowingly and willingly set a bad and
contagious example for others, and encourage them to continue in wrong doing.

It makes one shudder to think how much this is done. As to bad examples, how few
do not set them! Number if you can the people who, by their neglect of the
ordinances of God’s house and by their irreligion, and their sneers at ministers
and churches and the means of grace, are beguiling the young to walk in the
counsel of the ungodly, and emboldening the old to sit in the seat of the
scornful. All these are the unpaid emissaries of the prince of darkness, who
spend their lives making a mock at sin.

5. Then there is that large class of people who, by their teaching and creed,
hold out false hopes to the sinful. They lift their scornful outcry against the
solemn warnings in Holy Writ of endless retribution, and laugh at the
consequences of disobeying God. The air is full of it. It appears in the
witticisms of the platform and the press, and in the coarse ribaldry of places
of public resort. The sublime utterances of the old prophets to deter men from
iniquity, the solemn assurances of the apostles, the tender but still more
terrible proclamations of the Son of God of an endless wrath upon final
impenitence, are the passing jests of the street. It is practically a stifling
of the voice of God to the soul, and a making sport of the pollutions and
consequences of sin. A plague once raged in ancient Athens. While the decaying
bodies of the dead lay about the streets unburied, and multitudes were in mortal
agony, and the very atmosphere was pregnant with death, the low and vile would
gather in deserted palaces and abandon themselves to the most degrading
excesses. The air was burdened by their blasphemies and the sound of their
horrible revelry. Instead of supplicating the gods, they practiced their hideous
orgies in time very face of death. So do men forsake the counsels, and despise
the entreaties, and laugh at the threatened judgments of a holy God. They even
stand on the brink of eternity, and face its darkness and deride its perils, and
thus, like fools, make a mock at sin.

6. They commit this folly who, though not abandoned to profligacy of morals,
still cling to sin and resist the pleadings of the Spirit, and procrastinate the
day of repentance and salvation. It is no slight thing for one to deliberately
resolve to continue a little longer in disobedience and rebellion against God.
It is no light thing for a soul to say, either by act or word, "O Lord, I want
to have my own way a little longer, and follow a little farther the way of the
transgressor; a little more of self-indulgence and wrong doing. I may repent
some time, but not yet, Lord; not yet." Ah, what a mocking at sin such conduct
is! What an insult is such trifling to God Almighty!

It matters not how beautiful the exterior conduct may be, nor how courtly and
gracious are the manners; whether the personal demeanor be gentle or gross, the
underlying principle of a sinner’s life is precisely the same,-- a spirit of
rebellion against God, a treating sin as if it were a trifle. You who are as yet
unreconciled to God, you may think yourself a lovely person, and not much of a
sinner. May the God of mercy and grace undeceive you, and check such mocking
while it is yet on your lips. Such unbelief is as fatal as any other. What
difference does it make whether you are torn to pieces by wild beasts in an
amphitheater, or are poisoned by the genial odor of flowers, if, in either case,
death is alike certain?

If you reject the offered mercy of God and wilfully postpone your day of
repentance, you are making light of transgression, and mocking at sin. Though
you in manners be gentle and your tastes refined, and your sensibilities tender,
and your heart affectionate, yet, if God is not loved, and sin is not forsaken,
and Christ is not accepted, you are still trifling with evil, and in covert
rebellion against a holy God. Your destroyer understands you. His enticements
will all come in pleasing form -- like the viper that stung Cleopatra to death,
its breath mingled with sweetest perfume and covered over with flowers -- but
still destruction, with its unsightliness and horrors, is in them.

Though Satan come with smiles and honeyed speech, robed as an angel of light, he
is still only Satan, his bosom glowing with infernal malignity, and his heart
full of hellish wiles.

Oh, that I had the power to create in the minds of all perfect hatred of sin! In
God’s name I pray you, who read these lines, to cease mocking at it. Avoid these
innocent-looking beginnings of evil; these so-called harmless indulgences and
sweetened pleasures of sin. Shut your eyes and your ears, bar all the doors of
your immortal spirit against the solicitations of evil. Its continued presence
is contamination; its touch is leprosy; its vile embrace is certain death.

7. They mock at sin who talk of it as a necessity, and sneer at the possibility
of holiness, and make light of God’s commands to be holy. This is to set at
naught the intercessory prayer of Jesus, and all His precepts, exhortations,
promises, and expressed will that we should be sanctified. This is to scorn the
tears and agony of Jesus who, "that He might sanctify the people, suffered
without the gate." This is to pour contempt on the precious blood of the Son of
God, which "cleanseth us from all sin." Oh, how daring to smile upon carnality,
the fertile mother of all sin, and spurn the baptism with the Holy Ghost, its
only cure! Remember, you have in your very natures a moral atmosphere which can
be aroused by temptation into a very swoon of passion which will sear and blast
the soul with its poisonous breath.

Cease, then, to sport with evil, or to mock at actual or inbred sin. Beware of
all temptations! Look not upon the wine-cup! Its odor is fragrant; its taste is
sweet; it is beautiful to look upon; but delirium and death are in its ruby
depths.

Beware of evil books! Many of them corruscate with flashes of genius. Alas! that
"imperial lepers" should go forth from "palaces of thought" to scatter seeds of
iniquity in the minds of the young, that shall wave in an immortal harvest of
destruction.

Beware of lewd and profane and Sabbath-breaking and infidel companions. "Evil
communications corrupt good manners-" The wicked will receive you into their
companionship, sensitive and pure and reverent and true; they will soil your
modesty, dull your conscientiousness, chill your reverence, trample upon your
virtues, and start you on a path of evil-doing, along which you will hasten "as
if enamored of damnation"!

Oh, may God teach all our hearts the solemn lesson! Sin, like the carnality
which mothers it, has in it despair and destruction and death and Hell. Hate
sin, and flee from it for your very life.

But, O soul! sin is in you; by nature you are depraved and in bondage to it.
Flee, then, to your atoning Savior, who can forgive you, and welcome the Holy
Spirit, who can cleanse you, and break the galling chains of its terrible
bondage.

Throw open every avenue of your being, and welcome God to come in and save and
sanctify, and give eternal deliverance. Oh, what an unspeakable fool is he who
rejects such a salvation, and makes a mock at sin!


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  CHAPTER 47: S. NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL
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Not Ashamed of the Gospel By Aaron Hills Preached Before the State Association
of the Congregational Churches of Pennsylvania Romans 1:16 : "For I am not
ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation." In these days
of Gospel triumphs, the boldness and full significance of this assertion can
scarcely be appreciated. Only as we divest ourselves of nearly everything that
has made us what we are, our surroundings, our age, our civilization, the
marvelous history of the Christian centuries, and, by an effort of the mind, put
ourselves back in Paul’s age and in the place of one to whom he wrote, can we
take in the moral sublimity of this utterance.

It was the age of a gilded, glorious heathenism, waning in its power and corrupt
in its influence. Paul was writing to the Romans, the inhabitants of the capital
city of the world -- Rome, the seat of universal empire, the residence of
statesmen, poets, philosophers, artists, historians, commanders; the seat of
science and literature. It was the abode of men whose thought was philosophy and
learning, whose speech was eloquence and song -- men, the splendor of whose
genius shed new luster on the city and nation and race, and filled the world
with fame.

It was an age and place of enormous wealth existing side by side with the most
abject and distressing poverty. Around carved marble palaces, resplendent with
purple and silver and gold and gems, wandered hundreds of wretched slaves and
troops of naked mendicants who made a trade of their poverty, and lived in
discontented idleness and disgusting dependence on the grudging liberality of
their patrons.

It was also an age at once of atheism and superstition. The services of religion
were performed with most imposing ritualistic splendor; but all heart faith in
religion was dead and gone. Gifted poets preferred the favor of rich but
contemptible patrons to the smile even of Jupiter, and philosophers openly
sneered at the puerile legends of the old mythologies. "The common worship was
regarded," says Gibbon, "by the people as equally true, by the philosophers as
equally false, and by the magistrates as equally useful." Seneca wrote: "We
shall so adore all that ignoble crowd of gods which long superstition has heaped
together, as to remember that their worship has more to do with custom than with
reality." In short, nearly everything in the realm of religion was a matter of
pomp and show, false, hollow and heartless.

It was also an age of intense pleasure-seeking, of boundless luxury, of horrible
cruelty, and of sadness and gloom. The rabble that thronged the crowded streets
wanted nothing but bread and the sports of the circus and the amphitheatre. But
the Roman lords and their women vied with each other in the race of splendor,
and plunged headlong into conscienceless extravagance. Ancient Roman simplicity
and dignity and self-respect and lofty honor were no more. Fortunes were staked
on the throw of a dice. A banquet would cost the price of a vast estate. Fish
were brought from far-off shores; birds from Parthia and Ethiopia; single dishes
were made of the brains of peacocks and the tongues of nightingales. "Countries
were pillaged," says Farrar, and nations were crushed that an Apicius might
dissolve pearls in the wine he drank, or that Lollia Paulina might gleam in a
second-best dress of emeralds and pearls which had cost forty million sesterces.
And side by side with this zest for pleasure was a heartless cruelty, sickening
to contemplate. Whole menageries of beasts and regiments of men fought together
in the arena to the delight of the populace. Capital punishments were by public
crucifixion. Doomed martyrs were covered with pitch and set fire to, that their
shirt of flame might light the public gardens. Masters and mistresses could
inflict a death punishment upon their slaves with no one to call them to
account; and a wanton and senseless barbarity often converted a household into a
pandemonium, resounding with the blows of the scourging, the shrieks of the
tortured, and the groans of the dying. For an unavoidable mistake or mishap, or
a venial fault a cough, a sneeze, or the breaking of a dish, a Roman might fall
into a frenzy of rage, and order his slave to be thrown to the beasts. Even a
matron, for the misplacing of a jewel, or a displeasing arrangement of a tress
of hair, might fly into a fury of anger and order her slave to be lashed or
crucified. In fashionable society nothing was calm and natural. It was either a
deluge of wasting dissipations and turbid pleasure, or a seething cauldron of
vices, or a fierce conflagration of malignant passions! And over the abnormal
social life of heartless self-seeking, there hung clouds of gloom and the
darkness of despair. Life was so intense that it was unendurable; yet men
dreaded death, for their philosophies and religions utterly failed to light the
mystery that enveloped the grave. And scarcely ever did a great Roman live out
the measure of his days and die in peace. It was either assassination or
suicide: If others spared him he fled for refuge from his own crimes or sorrows
to a self-inflicted death, with a mock courage which was ill-disguised despair.
Of this age Juvenal exclaimed in a burst of sadness: "Posterity will add nothing
to our immorality; our descendants can but do and desire the same crimes as
ourselves." And Seneca wrote: "All things are full of iniquity and vice; more
crime is committed than can be remedied by restraint. We struggle in a huge
contest of criminality; daily the passion for sin is greater, the shame in
committing it is less. Wickedness is no longer committed in secret: it flaunts
before our eyes, and has been sent forth so openly into public sight, and has
prevailed so completely in the breast of all, that innocence is not rare, but
non-existent!"

Friends, it was to such a Roman world as this that Paul wrote: "I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ." And at the time of writing, remember, Paul was not a
verdant youth of visionary expectations, of ardent impulses, of feeble
intellect, of slender understanding, and little knowledge of the world.
Twenty-five years before he had an enviable reputation among the great lawyers
of his nation; and for twenty-two years he had been one of the pillars of the
Christian Church, the great apostle to the Gentiles, without a peer in ability
and usefulness, blessed beyond all others with visions and revelations of God.
It was such a man, sobered by experience, in the zenith of his powers, who
calmly proposed to enter Rome the Babylon of iniquity, the huge bayou of reeking
corruption, the awful aggregation of all earth’s wickedness, and conquer it and
purify it with an application of the simple Gospel of Christ. Now let us
consider I. What Paul meant by "the Gospel of Christ."

It will not do for us to theorize here at the outset of this discussion. Paul
shall be his own interpreter. He meant a Divine Christ; for to these same Romans
he spake of "Christ who is over all God blessed forever." Again he meant an
Atoning Christ; for, explaining his preaching to the Corinthians, he wrote: "I
declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, how that Christ died for
our sins."

Again it was the Gospel of a Crucified Christ; for he wrote: "I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." Furthermore, it
was a Gospel of salvation that was conditioned on the acceptance and belief of
the soul; for he says: "The gospel of Christ was the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth," and "we are saved by faith." Moreover, he preached
a gospel of salvation from eternal death; for he wrote: "The Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know
not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction."

Still further; his Gospel did not hint at a second probation for the heathen,
for he wrote to these same Romans that the heathen are "without excuse," for
"God manifested" his truth even "unto them," and they deliberately "refused to
have God in their knowledge:" therefore, "As many as have sinned without law
shall also perish without law ... in the day when God shall judge the secrets of
men according to my gospel by Jesus Christ." And what is more, he taught the
doctrine of Sanctification as a second work of grace, wrought in the heart in
this life by the Spirit of God. He wrote to these same Romans about "being
sanctified by the Holy Ghost," and prayed for the members of the Church in
Thessalonica: "Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and I pray God
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus." In his epistles to the churches, and his sermons, he has
seventy-five verses that teach this second blessing. To be sure, Paul had not
studied Theology at Andover, Mass., and might not have received the latest
revelations on these subjects. But he took his theological course during his
three years tarrying in Arabia, communing with Jesus and the Holy Ghost; and I
am simply pointing out the truths which he calls "my gospel," of which he
declares, "I am not ashamed." And once more, he held up everywhere what some of
our modern finical, fastidious, super-refined preachers and teachers are pleased
to call "the gross and gory theory of the atonement." Fifteen times in his
epistles he lays supreme stress upon "the blood of Christ." "We have peace
through the blood of his cross." "We are made nigh by the blood of Jesus." Our
"consciences are purged by the blood of Christ." The "Church is purchased with
his blood." "God hath set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood." "We have redemption through his blood," and are "now justified by
his blood."

This, my brethren, was the system of truth with which Paul proposed to assault
the wickedness of the heathen world. He had no confidence in glowing oratory, or
brilliant rhetoric, or subtle philosophy, or uncorrupted humanitarian schemes.
If he had used the word "Gospel," in the sense in which some use it today,
meaning by it gushing philanthropy and goody goody sentimentalism; if he had
intended by it merely fine-spun theories about the unity of God, and an
overruling providence, and immutable distinctions between right and wrong, and
the golden rule of equity, and the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, he
would never have dreamed of saying: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ."

It was not at any of these things that the brilliant literati and cultured
heathen philosophers scoffed and derided. O, no: he went to them with the story
of a Divine Savior, walking the earth in the form of a man, and dying on the
cross between two thieves, a sacrifice for the sins of the world, only by whose
atoning blood could the most cultured heathen be saved from everlasting death.
It was this gospel, to the Jew a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness, to
the haughty Romans an offense, and revolting to human nature everywhere and
always, of which Paul was not ashamed. With it, as a Christian Hercules, he
dared to attempt to cleanse the Augean stables of Rome, to smite the heathen
gods, and make the oracles dumb. By its divine power he expected to assault the
principalities and powers of the wickedness of this world, and overturn all the
powers of darkness, and bring in the universal kingdom of Christ, wherein shall
dwell righteousness. And when the unbelieving world lifted its jeers and shouts
of derision at this sublime scheme of Paul, in the strength of his heaven born
faith he answered back: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ."

II. I call your attention to the fact that unlike Paul, some are ashamed of it.

1. For instance, there are those who reject the fundamental doctrine of the
cross. Some of these deny the depravity and utter sinfulness of man that made
the cross an awful necessity, and belittle the crucifixion into a mere incident
or accident in the earthly life of Jesus, instead of being an event necessary
and chosen and predetermined from before the foundation of the world. There are
those who deny the Divinity of Jesus, and thus make His death of no more worth
or potency than the death of Socrates; who deny that His death was vicarious --
He dying in our stead, and that it was an expiation, removing our guilt
(exposure to punishment), and that it was propitiatory, satisfying the awful
holiness of God and the public justice of the moral universe; who deny that it
was even necessary to preserve the honor and integrity of God’s law and
government.

Now, men who reject these truths simply cut the very heart out of the Gospel and
rob it of its convicting and converting power. It will not do to call these mere
theories of men, and so waive them aside as unessential and immaterial, They are
the very essence of the truth as it is in Jesus, the very warp and woof of the
Gospel. Dr. Henry Smith is clearly right when he says: "The very nature of the
sufferings and death of Christ is that they are an expiation for sin. This is
the very idea of a sacrifice. It is its exhaustive definition: it is the thing
itself, and not a deduction or inference from it. This is the fact, and not a
theory about it," Now when men deliberately set at naught these truths that God
has stated over and over again, they are making the cross of Christ of none
effect; they are subliminating it into thin air, as powerless as a weak
speculation or an idle tale. They are practically putting themselves among the
number of those who are ashamed of the Gospel of Christ

2. Again, there are those who ignore the conditions of salvation revealed in the
Gospel. Jesus saw men flocking around Him, and said unto them: "If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Paul declared that his ministry in Ephesus had consisted in teaching publicly
and from house to house, "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ." To these same Ephesians he wrote that "Christ loved the church, and
gave himself up for it that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it ... that he
might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or
wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
These hard, sharp, inexorable conditions of eternal life, and descriptions of
it, are not agreeable, and never can be pleasing to the carnal heart.

Now when religious teachers or preachers dislike these divinely revealed
conditions of life, and hunt around for other and easier terms of salvation that
prick the conscience less, and do not humble the proud will, nor break the hard
heart, nor lessen the attachment to sin, they are simply preaching another
gospel which is not a gospel. Sin is inconceivably wicked, a causeless
rebellion, infinitely insulting and offensive to God, and the atoning Savior is
the only ground of hope, the only source of life. "The carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
The "old man" is the essence of the devil, the spirit of Hell, and the only
remedy for it is the sin-killing, heart-cleansing baptism with the Holy Spirit.
To adopt any slight, minimizing, apologetic conceptions of sin as a triviality,
an infirmity, a necessity, or a negative side of good, "good in the making," and
to applaud morality and culture and self-development as any sort of remedy for
it, is t o belie the whole Gospel. The preacher in the pulpit who does it, or
the man in the pew who wants him to do it, is of the number of those who are
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

3. There are all those who distrust the Gospel as an all-sufficient power to
elevate men, and seek to bolster it up by props and helps and additions, hoping
thus to add to its efficacy. At the time Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans,
heathenism had a most elaborate ritual and highly attractive religious services.
All that art could do had been done to redeem paganism from vulgarity, and cover
up its deformities, and make it beautiful to the eye, and pleasing to men. There
were no less than fifty-one legal religious festivals observed annually at Rome
with all conceivable pomp and splendor. There were illustrations, processions,
festivals and formal prayers for all occasions of life. As James Freeman Clark
has observed, "As the old faith died more ceremonies were added; for as life
goes out, forms come in. As the winter of unbelief lowers the stream of piety,
the ice of ritualism accumulates along its banks." Religion became more and more
a charm, on the exact performance of which the favor of the gods depended; so
that ceremonies were sometimes performed thirty times before the essential
accuracy was attained.

Now, Christianity had absolutely nothing of form and ceremony with which to
displace all this gorgeous ritualism of the heathen world. The worship of the
early Christians was simplicity itself. They never thought of a ritualistic
service until after the decadence of their piety. The entire religious service
of Paul and the disciples of his time consisted of the two sacraments of baptism
and the Lord’s supper, singing and prayer, the expounding of Scripture, and the
proclamation of the Gospel of Christ.

It was by this simple instrumentality that Paul proposed to conquer the heathen
world, and he declared that he was not ashamed of his means. When I think of the
multiplied sacraments, and the attitudinizing of the gorgeously robed priests of
the Roman Catholic Church, their tinkling bells and smoking censers and
sprinkling of holy water, and crucifixes and candles and positions and
man-millenery, and when I see nearly all of this repeated in the Episcopal
service, I am filled with sorrow, and feel in my inmost soul that the evidence
is painfully abundant that many church dignitaries have gone a long step
backward, and have lost confidence in the conquering power of the simple Gospel
of Christ. And when I see ministers and churches resorting to all manner of
devices and expedients, and questionable, catch-penny enterprises for the sake
of securing patronage and support, I cannot help feeling that it evinces a lack
of confidence in the majesty of the Gospel as abundantly able to subdue the
world.

4. There are those who rail at all creeds as manmade, unneeded, and out of place
in the economy of the church of our day. Many are ready to tell you that they
are begotten of bigotry and ignorance, and born in darkness, an inheritance of
past years wholly out of place in our glorious era. "Why not," they say, "take
the Bible as our declaration of faith and be content?" There is something
seemingly so meek and pious and Scriptural, and apparently so clever, in all
this clamor, that multitudes are captured by it. I confess I know of no talk
more puerile. Accept the Bible as our system of faith! Indeed! But whose
interpretation of it? Who does not know that there is an allegorical
interpretation of the Bible, and a mystical, and a rationalistic, and a
spiritualistic, and a Catholic, and a Unitarian, and a Universalian, as well as
an orthodox interpretation, and that some of these are as widely separated as
Heaven and earth?

What is a creed, anyway, but a fair and ample statement of the truths of the
Gospel as understood by those who adopt it? Any church or body of churches owes
it to its membership, owes it to the public, owes it to the age in which it
lives, and owes it to God, to distinctly avow its belief. To do otherwise is to
shirk duty and to deal dishonestly with men.

Those who sneer at creeds and belittle formulas of faith are taking a position
anti-biblical, and anticominon-sense. The Christian religion deals with the
gravest problems of human existence, and human destiny. It is based on the
positive revelation of God’s will to men. The Bible is the most positive of all
books. It is utterly against a "go-as-you-please," believe-what-you-will,"
"happy-go-lucky," superficial, trifling life. Christ was the most positive of
all teachers. His greatest apostle, Paul, in the fervor of his devotion to the
truth, exclaims: "Though an angel from heaven should preach unto you any gospel
other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema."

How utterly unlike them are these theological bantlings who sail on a wild sea
of speculation without anchor, chart, or compass -- who advocate a
"go-as-you-please," believe-what-you-will" system of doctrine; who are
theologically all things to all men, if by any means they can drum up a
following! Such teachers have no permanent and lasting influence for good; for
abiding influence is born of conviction. Such churches have no element to bind
their membership together in lasting union. They are only a social
conglomeration of disconnected individuals, called together by an accident, to
be scattered when the accident is gone. An ample creed, honestly adopted, is a
mighty power. It furnishes the basis of a spiritual education of the youth. It
builds the individual believer on the everlasting rock. It binds the churches
together into a common body of Christ, all alike feeding upon His truth, and
animated by His Spirit, and united in the common work of bringing the world to
Christ. To sneer at creeds is only a cowardly way of sneering at the everlasting
truths which they represent; and to be ashamed of them is to be ashamed of the
Gospel of the Son of God.

5. Those also who favor lowering the standard of admission to the church, who,
in the name of the Master, cater to the world and bid for its support, and seek
its applause, are simply exhibiting a secret dislike for the Gospel conditions
of salvation and the Gospel type of piety. In short, the yoke of the Master has
grown irksome to them; His life is no longer their chosen model, and they are
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

III. Let us consider why Paul was not, and why we should not be, ashamed of the
Gospel. "It was," said he, "the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth." Perhaps I can best illustrate how the Gospel was a power, and what
kind of a power it was, by a quotation or two. In one of his poems Lucretius
declared that faith in the gods had been the curse of the race, and that
immortality was a silly delusion. The elder Pliny wrote: "All religion is the
offspring of necessity, weakness and fear. What God is, if in truth he be
anything distinct from the world, it is beyond the compass of man’s
understanding to know. But it is a foolish delusion which has sprung from human
weakness and human pride, to imagine that such an infinite being would concern
himself with the affairs of men. The vanity of man and his insatiable longing
after existence have led him also to dream of a life after death. A being full
of contradictions, he is the most wretched of creatures. Man is full of desires
and wants that reach to infinity, and can never be satisfied. His nature is a
lie, uniting the greatest poverty with the greatest pride. Among these so great
evils, the best thing God has bestowed on man is the power to take his own
life!"

These statements flash a calcium light upon the awful spiritual condition of the
Roman world. The masses were sunk in a rayless abyss of moral degradation; and
even the cultured, the refined, the truly noble had lost all faith in God, all
sense of the dignity of man, and all prospects for the future. They were
actually living "without hope and without God in the world."

Now, the first element of power in the Gospel was, that it brought to men an
assurance of a God, and the true conception. He was not one of the ignoble
rabble of gods that filled Rome; He was not even another heartless Jove whose
chief mission was to hurl thunderbolts, and who could look on unmoved while men
were swept to death like so many flies. This God was in infinite Father,
infinitely wise and good, with a heart of infinite compassion, and mercy, and
justice and love. And not only so; He was an atoning God, a self-sacrificing
God, carrying the sorrows of the world on His heart, and uniting Himself to man
by an incarnation that He might bear our sins, and die in our stead, and open a
fountain of mercy for the race, Think you there was no power in such a
revelation as that? A morning sun never smote a fog-bank with more power than
this truth smote the deism that floated over the Roman world like a malaria of
death. A second element of power in the Gospel was that it taught the grandeur
and infinite worth of the human soul. What must be the infinite dignity of a
nature for which the infinite God puts forth all the resources of His mighty
love, for which the Son of God could die upon the cross? If such a sacrifice
were meet and proper, then an inconceivable significance attaches to man. When
the Gospel came the heathen world had been so drenched by human gore shed in
wars, in the cruel sports of the arena, by assassination, and infanticide and
suicide, that all sense of the worth of man as man was becoming extinguished
from the human breast. When a Roman babe was born, and the nurse announced it to
the father, if he deigned to give it a kindly look, it was understood that the
child was welcomed and it was allowed to live. But if he turned away with a look
of displeasure, the babe was quietly smothered to death as an unwelcome comer to
the world. Not until the incarnate God crossed the threshold of this earth in
the stable at Bethlehem, did the worth of a babe dawn upon the mind of man. Not
until the price of man’s redemption was paid on Calvary did he have the faintest
conception of the value of the soul. And in Christ men not only found their
worth but also their immortality. If their significance was to be estimated by
the sorrow of an infinite God, then surely this earthly horizon did not bound
their existence. The stage of time on which man was playing his little part had
for its background Eternity. Immortality was not a vain conceit and a
tantalizing dream, but a blessed reality. In Jesus he saw the surety of life
beyond death.

Now, think you, it was a small thing to go to the despairing philosopher with
such a Gospel as that? Was it nothing to tell the homesick captive of war that
he had a home beyond the skies? Nothing to tell the meanest, downtrodden,
half-starved slave in Rome that he was a redeemed child of God! Nothing to tell
a wretched gladiator who must die a death of violence tomorrow in the
amphitheatre that he was or might be by faith a Son of God and an heir of
immortality! There are no words to describe the change wrought in their
conception of themselves by this Gospel. It brought inspiration, incentive, joy,
courage, betterment, hope. It was like a gale of wind to becalmed mariners; like
a morning of peace after a night of anguish on a stormy deep, like awaking in
safety after a sleep of horrid nightmare and frightful dreams. Nor was this all.
This Gospel had in it the power to reform Roman society. If God was the common
Father of all, and Christ died for all, then all are brothers of equal privilege
and common destiny. Send such a truth as that to Rome in the glowing heart of
Paul, and see how it would humble the haughty oppressor and bring the proud
master low; while it would give dignity and importance to the meanest slave, and
lift the downtrodden and lowly incalculably in the scale of being. This Gospel
helped every man to find himself. Each could see his sin as blacker, and feel
his burden of guilt as heavier than ever before. But over against his ill-desert
was set an offer of pardon and a door of hope. Each could, for the first time,
find in Christ, at once an interpreter and an ideal, a condemnation and an
inspiration.

Just as the young Roman painter did not know his own genius until he gazed,
entranced, upon the great masterpiece which revealed all the power of the
pencil, when he cried out in a glow of emotion, "I, too, am a painter," so a
human soul may touch all other heroes, sound the depths of philosophies, try all
other religions; but until it stands face to face with the Lord of the race, the
Savior of the lost, it knows not, it cannot know, it feels not, it cannot feel,
either its own unworthiness, its own boundless capacities, or its own supreme
destiny. The hour when Christ is revealed to the mind and heart, is the hour
when the soul realizes what it is, and what it may become. Here are felt the
woes of sin; here are found the highest motives; here are received the holiest
inspirations.

Paul realized all this. He had seen the gospel tried. He knew that it had a
Divine power, universal in its application and permanent in its results. And,
therefore, he exclaimed with a courage born of certain knowledge, "I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth."

What lessons shall we draw from this theme appropriate to the hour? We know that
Paul made no mistake. His Gospel did go to Rome and it did win. It captured the
city and the empire; regenerated society from top to bottom. It ended polygamy
and slavery. It tore down the amphitheatres and stopped the debasing
gladiatorial shows. It saved for coming generations the civilization of the
world. His Gospel was vital with Divine power. The doctrines of the Fatherhood
of God and the brotherhood of man, of actual sin and inherited depravity, of an
ample atonement made for it by a Divine Savior, who justifies those who repent
and believe, and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies those who receive the baptism
with the Holy Ghost, and eternal retribution for those who will not be saved --
these are truths that never can be eliminated and have any power left. They are
as lasting as the love of God, as enduring as the needs of the soul. To try
other means than these is to go back to instrumentalities that had utterly
failed two thousand years ago. To attempt to lift the world by any other method
is as futile as it would be to try to pry up Pike’s Peak with a rye straw. And
this Gospel is not only efficient; it is sufficient even today. You may point me
to the injustices of our times, to the labor-troubles, to communism, to the
corruptions of our cities, the wickedness of Philadelphia, and Chicago, and New
York; you may even cite me to the Pall Mall Gazette in modern London, and
question the adequacy of the Gospel. But remember that even London, with all her
reeking leprousy of guilt, is white compared with the moral blackness of that
Rome to which Paul preached his Gospel.

Preach the full Gospel of justification for sinners, and sanctification and a
life of holiness for believers. It would cure the selfishness and avarice and
lust from which spring all our social troubles. Nothing more is needed than the
real religion of Jesus, with men to preach it faithfully with the fervor of the
great apostle, and such persons to help them as those men and women who labored
with him in the Gospel. It can cleanse our cities, settle our labor
difficulties, evangelize the nations, and conquer the world for Christ.

Lastly, we need not be ashamed of this religion of Jesus as a source of personal
hope. The wonderful life Paul lived, he lived by faith in the Son of God. The
love of Christ constrained him. It was his meat and drink to do the will of
Jesus. For him to live was Christ. He knew no will, formed no plan, cherished no
desire apart from his Lord. To him, Christ was the object of all longing, the
reward of all toiling, the end of all hope. And when his hour came, he was ready
to be offered up, knowing that to depart was to be forever with his Lord.

Only yesterday I stood by a poor widow, dying in poverty. When her eyes were
closed to all earthly scenes and she no longer saw her human attendants, she
stretched up her thin arms and said: "I am waiting, waiting, waiting for Jesus."
Let us love this old Gospel, enshrine it more completely in our hearts, walk by
it in life, pillow our heads upon it in death. We shall then sweep through the
gates exclaiming: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power
of God unto salvation!"


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  CHAPTER 48: S. RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST
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Resisting the Holy Ghost By Aaron Hills

Sermon by A. M. HIlls, President of Texas Holiness University, delivered at
Salvation Park Camp-meeting, Carthage, O., Sunday morning, June 26, 1905.

(Scripture lesson, Acts 7:51; Acts 7:60.) The words of my text are found in Acts
7:51 : "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist
the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." This was the climax utterance of
a sermon which brought to the preacher a martyr’s crown. It was a simple
discourse. It was simply a resume of the history of the children of Israel, and
while the preacher preached it the Holy Ghost sent it home. (Oh, will Christians
pray this morning that the Holy Ghost will send the message home!) He began away
back with the story of Abraham called out from Ur of the Chaldees, then came
down to Jacob and his children, and he showed that the brothers were moved with
envy against Joseph. That was sin against the Holy Ghost. These brothers had not
knelt for years at Jacob’s family altar and been acquainted with Isaac and the
story of Abraham in vain. They knew better. The spirit of brotherhood taught
them that they ought not to treat beautiful, innocent Joseph that way. God spoke
to their hearts while they were doing it, but they resisted the Holy Ghost. Then
he mentioned Moses, to whom the fathers refused to be obedient, but thrust him
from them. They knew better. God was leading Moses and they had every evidence
of the fact, but their wicked hearts were unwilling to do the will of God, and
they thrust Moses from them and refused to be obedient, in the very spirit of
the carnal heart always. It was a sin against the Holy Ghost. Then he says they
made a golden calf. Ah, they knew better! They had heard just a few days before,
the voice of God thundering from the summits of Sinai amidst smoke and fire,
saying, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." They knew better, but made a
golden calf, and in doing it they sinned against the Holy Ghost.

I suppose we have only a little synopsis of his wonderful sermon, but I dare to
say the preacher pointed to Isaiah, who was sawn asunder for being true to God
and delivering the messages of the Most High. I dare say he mentioned Jeremiah,
thrust into a dark dungeon and nearly starved, because he would be the faithful
mouthpiece of God Almighty. I dare say he mentioned Zechariah, slain between the
porch and the altar because he would be true to God. Coming on down he mentioned
Jesus, whom they had taken, he says, and with wicked hands had crucified and
slain, and when he got so far along he turned to them and made a personal
application. A sermon does not amount to much that has not in it a personal
application. Stephen turned to his audience and said in the words of my text,
"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the
Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye." Then it was that they shut their
ears and hustled him out of the city and stoned him to death, while his face sh
one like an angel, and he was looking up into Heaven and seeing the face of his
God. Ah, what resistance to the Holy Ghost!

I want to call your attention, in the first place, to the fact that the Holy
Ghost comes to us and reveals the truth just as He did to Joseph’s brethren;
just as He did to the people in Moses’ day; just as He did in Isaiah’s day; just
as He did in Jeremiah’s day, in Zechariah’s day, in Christ’s day, in Paul’s day.
He is revealing the truth today. That is His mission; that is why Jesus called
Him the "Spirit of truth." Why? Because truth is the means which God uses to
move human hearts. He does not touch us with physical omnipotence to force us
into Heaven. No, sir! He just touches our hearts with the illumination of Divine
truth, and leaves us to choose whether we will follow God or not.

Secondly, I want you to notice that sometimes people are "stiffnecked,
uncircumcised in heart and in ears." What does that mean? O, this is a double
figure. Sometimes when cattle are being driven under the yoke, as I have driven
cattle by the month myself in my early life, they stiffen their necks and do not
want to do what they are told to do. And then that other expression --
"uncircumcised." -- That had a world of meaning to the Jew. To him it meant to
be cut off from the covenant privileges of his nation; to be cut off from the
privileges of salvation. When this preacher, Deacon Stephen, looked at these
people and said, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do
always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did so do ye," they gnashed their
teeth. When is a person uncircumcised in ears? Why, sir, folks who do not want
to hear the truth of Almighty God. A world of people go to church and do not
want to hear the truth; they are determined they will not hear the truth, and if
the preacher is there to preach the truth, they will not be slow in declaring
that they have had enough of that preacher and his messages and will have no
more of it. When the ten spies came back and brought their report, saying. "Let
us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it," the
people raved and stormed and fumed, and wanted to kill Moses and Joshua and
Caleb; they were simply uncircumcised in ears. When the Jews led Jesus to the
brow of the hill in Nazareth after He had delivered to them that precious
message, and told them that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and that He was
anointed to preach the Gospel to the poor, and bring deliverance to the captives
and sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those that were bruised, and
preach the acceptable year of the Lord; O, it is so strange they did not receive
the precious message in the spirit in which it was given! But they stopped their
ears and hustled Him out on the brow of the hill to cast Him down headlong. They
resisted the Holy Ghost. They were uncircumcised in ears. When the apostle Paul
stood on the stairway of a castle in the city of Jerusalem, and went so far as
to say God had called him to preach to the Gentiles, the very fact that the
Gospel message was to be offered to the Gentiles so enraged them that they
stopped their ears and threw dust in the air, and tore their garments, and would
have killed him. They were "uncircumcised in ears." We see lots of that kind of
people in our churches. I want to tell you that there are people sitting in the
pews of all our big, wealthy churches who have declared in their hearts that
they will not hear Gospel messages and no preacher of theirs shall preach them,
and if they do preach them there is a storm. Dr. Gunsaulus, of Chicago, said one
day, and it went all over the nation, that if the clergy of Chicago should
preach the truth one single Sunday, every pulpit in Chicago would be vacant of
preachers the next morning. I declare to you if I was a pastor in that city and
had the genius and power and eloquence and standing that God Almighty has given
that man I would have preached the truth one Sunday anyway, if I had to give up
the job the next day. Today the churches are dying for the want of the Gospel,
just because rich, worldly, selfish, criminal, sensual church members are daring
the preacher to preach the truth; and when a man stands up and preaches the real
Gospel he does it at the peril of his position, if not his life. Who are the
people who are uncircumcised in heart? I will tell you who they are. They are
the people who have heard the truth and then would not put it in practice. Then
he gets down from the ears to the heart and shows that your heart is just as bad
as your ears. Some of you will hear the truth, but if you do not put it in
practice you will go storming out with the very spirit of Hell in your souls.
You watch this audience this morning. If any folks go out when it gets hot you
will know what is the matter. They have heard just a little more than they want
to hear. Their hearts and their ears are uncircumcised and they will go storming
out with the very spirit of the pit. God help us to understand that He saves men
by the truth, and the man who preaches the truth is not to be muzzled. He comes
from the secret chamber where he meets Almighty God, and he has a God-given
message. Woe be to the man or woman who muzzles the preacher and refuses to let
him preach the truth!

Thirdly, let us now specially consider who are the people who resist the Holy
Ghost. Let us make this very definite, so we will know what we are talking
about. I do not want this audience to say I preached a very eloquent sermon
against the people who lived a couple of thousand years ago. I want this to be a
personal message to each one of you. In the first place, people resist the Holy
Ghost when they are out of Christ, and the Spirit convicts them of sin, and they
refuse to be converted. That is the message and mission of the Holy Ghost. Jesus
said, "And when He is come He will convince the world of sin, of righteousness
and of judgment." Why, when the Apostle Paul, or Saul as he was called, got his
conviction on the way to Damascus, and Jesus of Nazareth unmistakably spoke to
him, if he had put His message off, he would have sealed his destiny. He had
either to go forward and bow to Jesus, or simply be a rejected old Jew, doomed
and damned. God is going to speak to some of you this morning, just such a
message. Woe be unto you if you resist the Holy Ghost!

There was Felix; Paul reasoned with him one morning of sin, of righteousness and
of judgment to come. There stood Drusilla, the accomplice of his crimes, the
woman he had stolen from her lawful husband; he did not want to forsake her; he
did not want to turn from his avarice and ungodliness; his knees smote together;
he trembled, but said to Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a
convenient season I will call for thee." The Apostle Paul went back to his quiet
room, but the Holy Ghost went with him, and never gave Felix another call. He
settled it that day. He resisted, fatally, the Holy Ghost.

Some years ago while holding a revival meeting near Mansfield, this state, at
the close of the service a man named Tom Taylor came to me and related the
following circumstance as an illustration: "During the war when I was a soldier
I came to D_____, Ohio, and while there had a tent-mate by the name of Charlie
Austin, whom I loved very much. One Friday night we went to a mission chapel in
the edge of the city of Cincinnati, and heard the preacher preach a faithful
sermon. The Holy Ghost came to Charlie Austin and convicted him of his sins and
moved him to give his heart to Jesus. He trembled all over, and was on the verge
of yielding. I said, Charlie, this is God’s call; this is your time. He thought
he would go forward and accept Jesus, then he bethought himself, "Oh, I have
bought a ticket for the masquerade ball next Tuesday night, and it is in my
pocket. I want to go to that ball first, then I will bow at the altar and give
my heart to Jesus." Mr. Taylor said, "Oh, Charlie, don’t say that, it might be
fatal to your soul." But he answered, "Yes, I will go to the ball; next Tuesday
night I will be in a royal banquet." A few moments after they rose up and left
the chapel. As they passed out the door it came to with a sharp report, as it
closed with a spring. Charlie said, "What’s that?" His friend answered, "Oh,
nothing but the door coming to;" but turning around to him, Charlie said, "Tom,
the bang of that chapel door was the death knell of my soul." "Oh, don’t say
that, Charlie." "Yes, that was the death knell of my soul; I knew it when I
heard it. I want you to write to my mother and tell her I swam through her tears
and prayers, and have gone to Hell." Mr. Taylor said, "Oh, don’t say that,
Charlie; don’t say that." But that night Charlie could not sleep, and the next
day he was in a raging fever; he could not sleep all day; there was no rest for
him. He said, "Tell mother I have gone to Hell." The next morning the chaplain
of the regiment came and visited him, but all to no purpose. He was a raving
maniac, and at 12 o’clock Tuesday night his soul passed out into eternity to
meet his God. The only "royal banquet" he attended on Tuesday night was the
banquet of the damned. Oh, how much it means to resist the Holy Ghost! Hear me!
Every soul that is ever damned, some time resists the Holy Ghost for the last
time, and it is all over. No one but God Almighty knows but some man or some
woman, or many of them, are getting their last call by the Holy Ghost this
morning. If we knew who it was, we would go down these aisles on our knees, if
need be, and weep over you and beg you to give yourselves to God; but God hides
it from our eyes. You will think of this sermon, many of you, a million years
from this morning in eternity. Mark it!

Second, when people refuse to give up some evil habit or course of action, or
set of opinions when God brings light to the soul, they resist the Holy Ghost.
The opinions we cherish, the views we entertain, the theological ideas that
influence our political actions -- all these have a world more to do with the
Holy Ghost than people dream of. He is abroad in the earth. This is the Holy
Ghost day; this is His administration, and He is dealing with human hearts
everywhere. You cannot get away from the Third Person of the Trinity if you want
to.

President Finney tells us in his autobiography of the marvelous revival of 1857
that swept over the northern part of this country and New England; from Boston
to Omaha. It was the most marvelous work of grace that this world, up to that
time, had ever seen. Fifty thousand souls were converted each week for ten weeks
running. There was no great leader, but it was the work of prayer, and the
marvelous and matchless outpouring of the Holy Ghost. He says very gently that
another section of the country that was committed to the great national evil was
barren. While one section was being swayed and swept by this great movement,
another section was utterly left, as though God had said for the time being,
"You are joined to your idols; I will leave you alone." We learn from this that
we want to be careful what opinions we cherish about national affairs, lest we
resist the Holy Ghost. President Finney says in his autobiography, also
President Mahan in his, that the great revivals that swept over the land between
1830 and 1840 were pulling along certain lines of theological opinion; and that
there was an old school of theology that practically threw on God the
responsibility for all the sin, and all the dearth of harvest of souls, and all
the wickedness of the world; they limited the atonement to a few of the elect,
asserting that all the rest of the human race were created on purpose to be
damned. He said the preachers who held to that doctrine did not have any
revivals, while the preachers who belonged to the new school that believed in
the universal atonement, and the willingness of God to save all who would repent
and meet His conditions, had revivals that were sweeping the country like
prairie fires, and the Holy Ghost was with them everywhere, and crowned their
labors with an abundant harvest and marvelous outpourings of the Spirit of God.
We learn from that that God had grown tired of having His name and character
defamed by the teaching of such awful theology. He may have blessed such
preachers in times pa st, but it is too late; He will bless them no more. Better
be careful what theology you hold. Take the Unitarian or Universalist theology.
I challenge any man or woman in this house to tell me of a genuine, soul-saving
revival of religion under any of their preachers. They do not have revivals.
Their churches are as free from revivals as buried Nineveh. Why? Because they
are clinging to error, and the truth of God and the Spirit of God will not
indorse it. They are bankrupt. God help you to see you cannot question the
divinity of Jesus; you cannot play fast and loose with issues of the eternal
world, and have the backing of the Spirit of God. It cannot be done.

Finney mentions another thing. He says there was a time when ministers could be
utterly indifferent to the temperance question and have the blessing of God with
them. They did not have the light and knowledge, and God did not hold them very
much responsible, and still He would use and bless their ministry; but he says,
"I challenge you to name a preacher now whom God wondrously uses in saving souls
who is silent on this question of intemperance." Why, you cannot find one in the
country. Sam Jones says: "I have never seen a true, genuine, second blessing,
holiness Christian who was not a Prohibitionist from his hat to his heels." It
means something to get such statements from such men; it means that men who
expect to be soul-winners and mightily owned and used of God must be careful
about their political opinions; they must find God’s side and get over on it.
They have to be where the Spirit of God is. Yes, sir; this is what it means. And
then there are our amusements. Oh, how much they mean! Our customs of living. Do
you know that our great fashionable churches are being swept over an awful
precipice into an abyss of hopeless worldliness and ruin on this question? That
great, Spirit-anointed soul, Katharine Booth, the mother of the Salvation Army,
said in her sermon one day, speaking to the women of her congregation, "You may
think you must follow the fashions set by the harlots of Paris, and you may
think you are the children of God; but you will find that you will never be the
bride of Christ. You may think you must have wine on the table because it is
fashionable, and you may have it; but I challenge you that you shall never have
the wine of the Kingdom." Oh, these fashionable amusements! How they are
engulfing our churches! So much so that at the last General Conference of the M.
E. Church, in Los Angeles, it was believed that over one-third, about
three-eighths, of all the church delegates to the Conference actually voted to
remove from the church discipline the clause prohibiting worldly amusements. God
have mercy! It did not pass, but came so near passing that it plainly showed
where the church is drifting. Church members may run after theatres, and
ministers may run after plays where they represent a harlot coming up out of
Hell, the flames coming up after her, and announcing that there is no room in
Hell, making a joke of the whole thing, until God says it is enough, and Hell
fire opens up, as it were, and consumes them. You may indulge in these things if
you will, but the Spirit of God is not in these things. You may play progressive
euchre, and, as Sam Jones says, "progress hellward a mile a minute." You may
dance and dance and dance, but the time is coming when you will circle and swing
for the last time, and will waltz into Hell. The dance is lecherous in its very
nature. "It is essentially unclean," Gail Hamilton said, "and it cannot be
washed." Mrs. General Sherman said: "Virtuous women ought to blush at the very
mention of the dance." Prof. A. G. Sullivan, an ex-dancing master, says:
"Waltzing is the spur to lust." Mr. T. A. Faulkner, a converted dancing master,
tells us that 163 out of 200 fallen women in a single city told the city mission
worker that they fell through the dance; over 80 per cent. Some of you people
train your children to dance, and then expect them to get to Heaven. God have
mercy on you. T he whole thing is from the bottomless pit.

Third. People resist the Holy Ghost when they refuse to give up evil associates.
Don’t you know that is the way the devil is entrapping thousands of our young
converts in all our churches? While boys and girls are sinners they are
associating with the unclean, with the children of Hell; they get converted and
at once the question arises, "Will you give up your evil associates?" and in all
probability it will be fatal to a soul that does not do it. A girl came to the
Texas Holiness University, who was converted at home before she came. She leaped
up from the altar and poured forth a stream of eloquence upon the people, and
the evangelist said, "There is a new preacher." It seemed that her very soul was
aglow with the love and power of God; but she came to our school and went to
corresponding with the unclean young lepers she used to associate with, and her
heart began to go out after them, and before she knew it, almost, she had lost
her sanctification. God brought her down on the floor one day, where she l ay
for an hour, just screaming in agony of soul, and crying to God for mercy. I
stooped down, and whispered in her ear, "Mary, will you give up your evil
associates?" and just left her. Pretty soon she leaped to her feet with the joy
of salvation restored, and again poured out a perfect stream of eloquence,
saying, "Girls, you have to give up your evil companions if you keep God with
you." Would you believe it? that girl went back and married one of them, and
just lost everything.

John Hatfield, the Hoosier evangelist, tells of two young women in his meetings.
One of them came to the altar for sanctification. She wept and cried, and for
six days and nights she kept coming, but did not get the blessing. Finally she
said, "Brother Hatfield, I am engaged to marry a wicked young man; I love him as
I love my life." Brother Hatfield said, "Give him up! give him up! give him up!
or God will withdraw His Spirit from you." She did give him up, and the Holy
Ghost came upon her and made her a flaming evangelist, and she has won hundreds
and hundreds of souls to God. The other girl, a Christian, who had great power
in exhortation, and who led the service of song in his meetings and sang the
Gospel into hearts with her beautiful solos, came to him one day and said,
"Brother Hatfield, I am going to marry an unsaved young man. Mr. Hatfield threw
up his hands and said, "Oh, Anna! Anna! Don’t you do it; if you do, you will
disobey God and grieve His Spirit, and it may be at the risk of your soul’s
salvation." "O," she said, "I think I can win him over." She went on and married
him, and Brother Hatfield says that husband is today a low down, drunken sot,
and that girl is living in a domestic Hell, without hope and without God in the
world. She said to Mr. Hatfield, "I would like to invite you home to take a meal
with me, but I do not dare to ask you; my husband might do violence to you."
Think of a sanctified girl going down to such a Hell as that, because she
resisted the Holy Ghost! I warn you as a father, as a teacher and instructor,
who has the care of young people by the hundred in his hands: I tell you before
God, when you want Jesus, you cannot take some miserable, Christless leper along
with you. A girl went to the altar and got sanctified, and went out in the
audience filled with Holy Ghost power, the radiance of it shining in her face.
She led some others to the altar, and then went out and backslid in an hour. How
do you suppose she did it? After the meeting was over she locked arms with a son
of Belial, and when they got outside of the church he began to sneer, and said,
"You made a pretty gump of yourself, didn’t you." She wilted, and the Spirit of
God left her. I ask of you, what right had a girl who had become the bride of
Christ to go out of the room arm in arm with an emissary of Hell? I tell you
young people, if you do not give up your evil, worldly companions you will lose
your religion and lose your souls as sure as God lives. This has a bearing on
lodges. I want you lodge men to hear, now. I want to tell you that some lodges
have oaths that are a disgrace to cannibal heathen, for the immorality that is
in them. Some of the lodges Christians cannot remain in and have any sort of
relation to the Holy Ghost. You lodge men would better read over on your knees
the oaths that you took, and think of the men with whom you associate. My God,
what oaths! Blasphemous oaths that commit you to shield criminals and be
partakers in crime. Just now the whole labor world is trying to combine in these
labor unions. They just had a labor strike in Chicago which only represented one
union, and sixteen men were killed in that strike, and hundreds have received
injuries from which they will never recover. Oh, the sin, and the crime, and the
hate, and the revenge, and the lust, and the wickedness that was represented by
that strike and that union! You rage at these great trusts that are trying to
take the people by the throat and make every man in h is poverty pay tribute to
their avarice, but I want to tell you that the underlying spirit of these labor
unions is precisely the same, and is born of avarice and has the spirit and
passions of Hell. No man can be a full, fair representative of Christ and His
salvation and yoke himself in these awful institutions. (Now is the time to go
out if anybody is hurt. God help you.)

Well, fourthly, when people refuse to walk in the light and follow the calling
God asks of them, they resist the Holy Ghost. What do you suppose God calls you
into His kingdom for? Do you think He calls you into His Kingdom to sit down in
a palace car with a through ticket in your pocket, to be petted and fanned and
coddled by Pullman car service while you ride home to glory? Is that your idea?
I want to tell you that God calls men and women into His Kingdom to make them
soldiers. He wants them to take their weapons and fight; to go out and make
conquests for God that will astonish Heaven and Earth and Hell. There is a
mighty conflict between the powers of light and the powers of darkness, between
Heaven and Hell; and when God anoints a soul with the Holy Ghost He does it for
a purpose. When a great lieutenant general like General Grant is in command of
an army he knows just where to place his men. He says, "Sheridan is for such a
place; Sherman, you are just the fellow for that place; Thomas, that i s your
place, you are just the man for the place, I can trust you there; Hancock,
yonder is your field," and so on and on, all over the nation. I want to tell you
that the great Commander-in-Chief of the forces of light, Jesus Christ, knows
where to place His servants, and He says to the Holy Ghost, "Speak to that girl
and tell her I want her in India; speak to that other girl over there and tell
her I want her in Africa; speak to that young man over yonder and tell him I
want him in Japan; tell that person I want him in God’s Bible School,
Cincinnati." Oh, God is on the fields! He knows just what He wants and just
where He wants His workmen. Woe be unto us if we say we won’t go where God wants
us. We sing, "I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord, Over mountain or plain
or sea; I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord, I’ll be what you want me to
be."

It sounds good in poetry and song, but the people who practice it are too few.

I was preaching in Finney’s old church at Oberlin, Ohio, one morning, and after
I preached about the Holy Ghost, Father Wright came to me and said, "I want to
give you an illustration." He was then a feeble old man between 70 and 80 years
of age. He said, "When I was a young man in Medina, O., there was a certain
young man there by the name of McClure, a Christian, very active, as bright and
talented as any of the early lights of Oberlin. He taught school and was always
successful; was a member of the church and taught in the Sabbath school, and was
always loved by the people. His friends urged him to go to Oberlin College and
prepare himself for the ministry. Then the thought came to his mind, ’If I go to
Oberlin I will never be anything but Rev. Sam McClure; but if I study law, I may
become "Judge," a great politician and a wealthy man.’ He would study on it for
a while, and then go back to his law books. Finally one night he went into his
office, picked up his law books before him, sat down in a chair, leaning his
face in his hands, and meditated and meditated until the city clock struck
twelve. He then rose up, and lifted a law book over his head, slammed it down
and said, ’I will have my law, come Heaven or Hell.’ He had not more than spoken
the words until he felt a cold chill run down his back and go all over him, and
he felt what he had done. He went to the church officers and said, ’Take my name
off the church record. My soul is utterly hardened and steeled against God. If I
should see as many people as could kneel between here and Cleveland (a distance
of forty-two miles) kneeling and begging me to pray for them, my heart would be
utterly unmoved.’ Oh, the man had settled it! He had settled it! He had settled
it! He lived to become a judge, ’Honorable Judge McClure’; he lived to amass two
hundred thousand dollars; he also became profane and drunken, and one day as he
was sitting in his soft-cushioned carriage, which was drawn up to his residence
to take him to an afternoon entertainment, an arrow from God Almighty struck his
heart, and he died in an instant. He lost his soul for $200,000." Who knows but
what God wanted him to be some mighty President Finney, and like a flaming angel
to herald the Gospel until hundreds and thousands should turn to righteousness,
and receive a crown of fadeless glory, and shine as the stars forever and ever?

There are multitudes of people today who are resisting the Holy Ghost in not
obeying God’s call. God Almighty help you! Why, sir, when God said to Paul, "I
want you to be a missionary to the Gentiles," if Paul had drawn back at that
moment, we would never have heard of him, or just heard of him as the wicked
wretch that held the garments while Deacon Stephen was stoned. That is all we
would ever have heard of that man who stands away up above every other character
in the roll of the centuries; but he let God have, His way with Him. Will you?
God Almighty help you! God has His place for every one of us. Woe unto us if we
miss the place!

Fifth. People resist the Holy Ghost by refusing sanctification when they are
called to it. Jesus baptizes people with the Holy Ghost that they may have
purity of heart and power to do the will of God. The greatest work God does for
souls this side of Heaven is to take carnality out of them and fill them with
the Holy Ghost, and let them loose on this wicked world to move things for God.
God is knocking at hearts. Multitudes of people are coming to the place where
they will have to accept the priceless blessing that will fit them for service,
or resist the Holy Ghost. Oh, how hard He works to get us; to give us something
worth a million worlds! How we hang back and refuse to accept this blessed,
blood-bought gift of God! You are called to it. God urges you to it. There are
sixteen commands in the New Testament, and eighteen prayers that you may have
it. Fourteen passages in the New Testament tell you how you may get it. There
are a hundred passages in the New Testament that point out unmistakably th e
second work of grace. God urges and prays and promises and commands and
entreats, and does everything to get us to seek and obtain the blessing. God in
this day is flooding all the churches in this whole country with light. Don’t
say you do not know what we are talking about. You do know that we are talking
about the second work of grace, the baptism with the Holy Ghost that takes the
carnal nature out of the heart and sets you free and untrammeled. Ah, this is
the greatest blessing that was ever offered to this world. God calls you to it
and wants you to have it. I declare to you the Christian who hears that call and
then refuses grieves the Holy Ghost; he resists Him, and if he keeps on, he will
do it fatally.

There is a city in Texas that has, or did have some years ago, an illustration
of this truth. There was a preacher there who was once a mighty power in the
hands of the Holy Ghost. He had a revival at one time in which more than five
hundred souls were converted. God was wonderfully using him. But there came a
day, as there comes to all of God’s real, true children. when this blessing was
brought to his attention; but he had church honors in view; he had ambitions and
position and salary in his mind, and he weighed the Blessing against these
pebbles of the earth, and finally he concluded he could not pay the price, went
back on it, and God left him. I heard a man say he did not believe that man had
had a convert in five years. I heard a man say, "I believe his influence in this
city is worse than that of any saloon. He is steeped in tobacco and worldliness,
still running after riches, going to the devil, and yet filling one of the
leading pulpits of the city. One day his cousin was talking with him, and in the
course of the conversation in order to fix a date he said. "Yes, I remember the
occasion. It was just so many years ago; it was the year I was sanctified." The
preacher turned pale with rage and said, ’I wish you would never speak that word
again in my presence. I hate the very word.’ " What chance has a man of getting
into Heaven who hates the word "sanctify," that Jesus used in His intercessory
prayer? What do you think about it? Oh, sir, the man is bankrupt for time and
eternity. It is an awful thing to turn your back on this great blessing.

I was holding revival services down in Texas six years ago this summer, and God
wonderfully poured out His Spirit, until men were actually knocked from their
seats and fell to the floor as if some giant hand had struck them. It was the
power of the Holy Ghost; a marvelous meeting. A Baptist minister’s brother who
was present said no man living could look on that scene and not see God in it.
But that Baptist minister, whose church was only fifteen rods from where our
tent was pitched, stayed away from the meeting just as soon as there were
seekers and inquirers from among his church members, and talked and sneered at
that work of the Holy Ghost. That Baptist minister died, raving in his sickness
and cursing God to His face. So you tell me he did not resist the Holy Ghost?
The minister who does these things does it at his eternal peril, and if he does
not stop it, he will land in Hell. It is the most precious work God does, the
work of sanctifying the soul; and whether you are a preacher or layman, if you
lift your voice or your pen against such a work of grace, God help you; you
resist the Holy Ghost.

Sixth, and lastly. We resist the Holy Ghost by making fun of holiness, and
insulting the Holy Ghost. A boy went to a holiness meeting in Indiana some years
ago and was deeply impressed by the Spirit of God, so that he went home and said
to his mother, "I tell you, mother, there is no use talking, the Spirit of God
is there. Some wicked young men I know so well went to the altar and turned from
their sins and were converted. I tell you, mother, God is there." That mother
had enough carnality in her heart to hate holiness. She turned on that boy and
began making fun of him and guying him because he went to the meeting, and kept
it up so persistently that he yielded and let the meeting pass by without
seeking the Lord. In two weeks that precious boy was taken sick. The doctor was
hastily summoned, and when he came the mother happened to be out. He examined
the boy, threw up his hands and said, "My boy, you are awfully sick; you have
only a short time to live." He said, "Is that so? Then call mother." Th e mother
came into the room and met the eyes of her boy blazing with the hate of Hell, as
he said, "Mother, I have sent for you to curse you to your face, and I will
curse you in Hell forever, for when I wanted to go to the meeting and give my
heart to God, you laughed me out of it, and now I have got to die, and I have
got to go to Hell." Oh, it is an awful thing to resist the Holy Ghost.

Dr. Powers, a noble evangelist of Lincoln, Nebraska, told this in my presence.
He said, "My father was an infidel. He wrote a great book on infidelity which
never was published. My mother’s brother’s son imbibed the infidelity of my
father, and he became, at the age of twenty-seven, a perfect demon, an infidel
of the rankest kind. He used to laugh at me and my brother because we served the
Lord. One day in the harvest field, to show his great atheistic daring, he
dropped his cradle and rolled up his sleeves and challenged God. He said, ’I
dare God the Father to come down and fight with me; I dare God the Son to come
down and fight with me.’ God the Father and God the Son took the insult; but the
next day, with that awful daring, he laid down his cradle again, struck up his
sleeves and said, ’I dare the Holy Ghost to come down and fight with me.’
Quicker than a flash the fellow dropped, paralyzed from his arms down. They
carried him to the house and sent hastily for two doctors, who came and examined
him and declared they did not know what was the matter with him; they had never
seen anything like it. In the early part of his sickness he began to groan, ’O
eternity, eternity; how shall I spend eternity!’ He had beautiful, long, curly
hair, and for four days he pulled at it until he had pulled it all out. On the
ninth day, just as the sun was going down, he groaned out, ’O eternity,
eternity; how can I endure eternity?’ and he was gone." I want to tell you, my
dear friends, you would better play with forked lightning bolts than to insult
or resist the Holy Ghost. Oh, the Spirit of God is speaking to some of you
people this morning and telling you something. You would better sport with God’s
thunderbolts than with the Holy Ghost. What are you going to do about this
message? Are you going to resist the Holy Ghost, or not?

Bishop Pierce, one of our most eloquent Southern Bishops, tells us that he was
asked to preach one Sunday morning at a camp-meeting like this. There was in
attendance a courtly Southern gentleman of the old style, who always went to
camp-meeting out of respect for his wife’s piety, and as the Bishop stood up to
preach, this gentleman sat down in a seat before him. God spoke to Bishop Pierce
and said, "This is the last message that old sinner is ever going to get; do
your best." God’s Spirit came upon him and limbered his tongue, and gave him the
fullest possible use of every faculty of his being, and he preached the Gospel
in the power of the Holy Ghost, and from start to finish God sent it like barbed
arrows to that man’s heart. He writhed as if he was sitting on a burning chair,
his face turning as pale as if he was in a coffin; then the blood would rush to
his face again. He went through the sermon, and when it was over, took that
chair and went to his tent, and pulling down the curtains, threw himself on the
floor. The good, Christian wife watched it all, went to the tent and knocked. He
did not open it, and she heard a groan. She peeked through a little crack by the
side of the curtain and saw him on his face in the straw. She said, "Thank God,
he is convicted at last." Dinner time came and she knocked again; no answer but
a groan. She watched the door until supper time, then tapped again, but received
no answer but a groan. She watched the tent until eleven o’clock at night, and
went again and tapped on the door; no answer but a groan. She spent that night
in another tent. In the morning she received the same response as before. She
wept praying and watching until one o’clock on Monday, when the door opened, and
she rushed forward on the wings of love, hoping to meet a Christian husband; but
when she got to him there was an awful look of horror upon his face. He had had
a terrible siege. He had fought the Holy Ghost and driven Him away a t last; but
it took him just twenty-five hours to do it. But it may be that some of you in
the next twenty-five minutes will fight the Holy Ghost and resist Him for ever
and be a damned soul.

During the war there was a soldier who had one of his lower limbs shot off by a
cannon ball close up to his body. He was taken into the hospital and cared for
and dressed tenderly. One day the limb began to bleed profusely. The nurse
stepped right up and put his thumb over the spot and sent for the surgeon, who
came and examined him very carefully and said, "My dear fellow, it is a vein,
and the artery is close by; if it should bleed from the artery instead of the
vein, you could not be saved. You would die in three minutes." They partially
succeeded in stopping it, but it broke out again. The nurse again put his thumb
over the place and sent for the surgeon, who when he came said, "My dear fellow,
I am sorry to tell you it is the artery this time; now get ready to die, for if
he should take his thumb off you would die in three minutes; send your messages
to your friends." The man wrote to his far-away wife and attended to some
business matters. Finally the dear fellow said, "Now, kind nurse, I am ready to
die; take your thumb off." How could he do it? It would mean instant death; but
he could not always stand there with his thumb on the artery; so he turned away,
and took his thumb off, and the hero was gone.

O sinner, I have been pleading today for an hour and a quarter for your soul.
Your destiny is at stake; your eternal destiny is at stake. How can I cease
pleading? I want to know how many in this audience are going to decide to be led
by the Holy Ghost. Oh, Recording angel, stay thy hand while these people decide!
I want every one of you who decides to be led by the Holy Ghost, to do what He
bids you to do, to make your way to Heaven, to conquer in the name of Jesus, to
stand up; everybody who is a Christian, and every one who will decide to be led
by the Holy Ghost. Now, those who want to be saved or sanctified, come to the
altar.


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  CHAPTER 49: S. THE CLEANSING BAPTISM
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The Cleansing Baptism By Aaron Hills

Acts 15:8-9; Acts 15:11 : "And God, which knoweth the heart, bare them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and he made no distinction
between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith . . . . But we believe that
we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in like manner as they."

Prejudice is one of the saddest evidences that ours is a fallen race. It is so
universal that it seems as if none escape. Individuals are so prejudiced against
each other that they will not co-operate for a common good. A Luther refuses to
have any fellowship with a holy Zwingle. Families are kept aloof from each
other. Churches often times will have nothing to do with rival denominations. In
some countries there is a proud and bitter caste-spirit utterly foreign to the
Gospel. Prejudice separates nations, till they watch each other with envious
eyes across a Rhine. Races treat each other as if they were children of a
different God, with nothing in common. It took two visions from Heaven to get
Peter and his Gentile audience together. The Jews felt an ill-disguised contempt
for all the rest of mankind. To the intellectual Greeks all the rest of the
world were ignoble Barbarians. The white race today has much the same feeling
for the black races. The saddest form of prejudice and the most harmful is that
against truth. It leads people to be inhospitable to any new revelation, or any
new idea, or any advance in doctrine. It led the ancient Hebrews to reject
Christianity. It keeps Mohammedans from doing it now. It led Roman Catholics to
reject the light of the Reformation. It led Englishmen to persecute Wesley and
reject the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit, and afterward to oppose him
for advocating the doctrine of perfect love.

I beseech you to lay aside this prejudice. It is an imp direct from the
bottomless pit. Do not think that your little denomination or school of thought
has a corner on all truth. Keep an open eye for light from any quarter; stand
four-square to all the winds of truth that blow. Banish from your heart at once
and forever all unwillingness to hear about this Scriptural doctrine of
sanctification. To oppose it is to oppose the Holy Spirit, who reveals it to our
minds and brings the experience into our hearts. In discussing the text observe,

I. God makes no difference. He "made no distinction between" Peter and his
fellow-disciples, and Cornelius and his Roman soldiers. When it comes to
appearing before God and pleading for mercy, no man living stands an inch above
his fellows. Rich and poor are alike spiritual paupers. Educated and ignorant
need alike the illumination of the heavenly Teacher. High and low alike need to
be lifted from the pit of depravity and sin into which they have fallen.- All
are in condemnation, that God may have mercy upon all. A prominent lawyer and
his wife in New York City, weary of the senseless round of fashionable gayety,
went to a city mission for a new kind of amusement. They were both
church-members, having a form of godliness without the power of it. They sat on
the platform and listened to the Gospel preached to the vile men and women from
the slums. When the altar call was made the filthy, vermin-infested creatures
rose from the audience and started for the altar. The brilliant lawyer and his
fashionable wife rose on the platform, both under conviction, and also started
for the altar. The leader in consternation tried to keep them back: but they
said, "We want that Savior, too." And there they knelt, the cultured and proud
and richly dressed, kneeling with the soaks, and bums and harlots at the same
altar, and found the same Christ. That Christian lady was afterward sanctified
and is now managing one of the most effective homes for the fallen in New York
City. God, when she was seeking mercy, put no difference between her and the
woman of the street.

McNeil, of Scotland, was preaching a sermon from the text: "For there is no
difference." At the close an aristocratic lady came up to him and asked: "Did
you say there is no difference?" "Yes, ma’am, God says it." "Must I be saved
just like my coachman, John?" "Yes, ma’am, if you are saved at all, you must be
saved just like your coachman." "Then I won’t have it at all." And away she went
in a pet of indignation, taking a straight course to the pit. The same kind of
pride sends multitudes to Hell. All the accidents of life, race and color and
rank and station, are nothing to God in matters of salvation. There is no
difference; "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."

II. The text informs us that God knoweth all hearts. Nobody else does. We cannot
tell the true condition of the heart of our most intimate friend. We may be a
stranger to the one that lies in our bosom. Even inspired Samuel could not see
the want of kingship in the eldest born of Jesse. God had to tell him, "Man
seeth not as God seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but, God
looketh on the heart." Neither his father nor his brothers knew the kingly soul
of David; but he was known to God.

We often do not know our own hearts. The old prophet said: "The heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?" God let
Elisha have a view of Hazael’s heart, and the prophet began to weep. "And Hazael
said, Why weepeth my Lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou
wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strongholds wilt thou set on fire,
and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children,
and rip up their women with child." And Hazael said, "But what, is thy servant a
dog that he should do this great thing?" He could not believe that he could ever
be guilty of such atrocities; but he lived to do them. He simply did not know
his own heart, and its awful capabilities of wickedness. But God is never
deceived. He knows the sinner’s heart -- its malignant depravity, its awful
depth of corruption, its open hostility against God and righteousness, and its
bent to sin. He knows a penitent, and "a broken and contrite heart" He will not
despise. He knows and loves a justified heart, and sends the Spirit of adoption
to lead it to cry "Abba Father." Men deny that there are any sanctified hearts:
but God knows them. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
earth to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward
him."

III. The text declares, "God bare them witness." This is the peculiar work of
the Holy Spirit, to bear witness to every person of the condition of his heart.
Jesus said, "When he is come he will convince the world of sin of righteousness,
and of judgment." It was the Spirit of God that made Felix tremble when Paul was
preaching to him. The same power of God today makes men fall prostrate at the
altar of prayer.

God bears witness to a man when he is backslidden. The Spirit-filled prophet
said to David, "Thou art the man." When a man is justified, God lets him know it
by a peace and rest of soul, and the whisper of the Spirit to his heart. And
when a man goes across the Jordan into the Canaan of sanctification, the witness
comes. "For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified,
whereof the Holy Ghost beareth witness unto us." Yes, to the believers in the
first century, and to believers in the twentieth century, the Holy Spirit bears
witness of sanctification, filling the heart with joy unutterable and full of
glory. It matters little what men believe or do not believe about the
possibility of being sanctified in this life, if one has the abiding witness to
the experience in his own heart. This is the privilege of every saint.

IV. God gives the Holy Spirit to believers in Pentecostal power. This blessing
came to the one hundred and twenty in the upper chamber. Peter says, the same
Spirit was given to Cornelius and his household: "Giving them the Holy Ghost as
he did unto us." This Pentecostal baptism with the Spirit is poured out all
around us today, and multitudes rejoice in the unspeakable blessing.

Some one asks, Why is this second blessing given? Several answers may be given
to this inquiry.

1. The blessing was promised. God said by Joel, "I will pour out my Spirit upon
all flesh." Isaiah prophesied, "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my
blessing upon thine offspring." Ezekiel declared, "I will put my Spirit within
you." John the Baptist said, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance:
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to
bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire." Jesus said just before
He ascended, "John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost not many days hence." God has made all these promises, and He must
keep His Word.

2. We need this cleansing baptism because of Inbred Sin. This is called in
Scripture "the old man," "the sin that dwelleth in us," "the law of sin and
death," "the carnal mind." "But," some one asks, Is not this removed, in
regeneration?" No, indeed! The Bible and all the creeds teach us that this
carnality or depravity is left in us after regeneration.

(1) Cumberland Presbyterian, Sec. 57, after mentioning the means of grace, says:
"By such means the believer’s faith is much increased, his tendency to sin
weakened, the lusts mortified, and he more and more strengthened in all saving
grace, and in the practice of holiness, without which no man shall see the
Lord."

It seems, then, that Cumberland Presbyterians have "Tendencies To Sin And Lusts"
after regeneration. Well, that is just what we are talking about.

(2) Lutheran Church, Augsburg Confession: "Since the fall of Adam, all men are
born with a depraved nature, with sinful propensities ... That the Son of God
truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried that he might be a
sacrifice, not only for original sin, but also for all the actual sins of men.
That he also sanctifles those who believe in Him by sending into their hearts
the Holy Spirit." That is exactly what I am trying to teach in this sermon, that
all Lutherans need to be "sanctified by the Holy Spirit," to cleanse them from
their "depraved nature and sinful propensities."

(3) The Reformed Church, Art. 4, Sec. 8: "But we acknowledge that this liberty
of Spirit in the elect children is not perfect, but is as yet weighed down with
manifest infirmity. (Romans 7:4-25 and Galatians 5:17.) And they that believe
according to the spirit of their mind have perpetually a struggle with flesh,
that is, with corrupt nature." It seems then that members of the Reformed
Church, after their regeneration still have to struggle with their "Corrupt
Nature."

(4) Church of England, Ninth Art.: "And this infection of nature doth remain,
yea, in them that are regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh is not subject
to the law of God; and although there is no condemnation for them that believe,
yet this lust hath in itself the nature of sin."

My! What an admission! All the members of the great Church of England have in
them "an infection of nature, and lust which is of the nature of sin." Well, I
am trying to tell them in this sermon how to get rid of it; for they must be
cleansed from it to enter Heaven.

(5) Protestant Episcopal Church: "Original sin standeth not in the following of
Adam; but in the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that is
naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam; and this infection of nature doth
remain, yea, in those that are regenerated."

We could have hoped that the Episcopalians would miss it; but, according to
their own confession, they have this horrible "infection," too, even after
regeneration.

(6) Congregational, Boston Council, Burial Hill, 1865: "We confess the common
sinfulness and ruin of our race, and acknowledge that it is only through the
work accomplished by the life and expiatory death of Christ that believers in
him are justified before God, receive remission of sins, and, through the
presence and grace of the Holy Comforter, are delivered from the power of sin
and perfected in holiness." That is precisely the aim of of this sermon, to
induce Congregationalists and all others, who have had remission of sins, to
suffer the Comforter to deliver them from the "POWER OF SIN and PERFECT THEM IN
HOLINESS." Forty years of intimate acquaintance with members of this
denomination convinces me that they sorely need it.

(7) Salvation Army: "We believe that after conversion there remains in the heart
inclinations to evil, or roots of bitterness, which, unless overpowered by
Divine grace, produce actual sin; but that these evil tendencies can be entirely
taken away by the Spirit of God." That is a scholarly statement of the truth,
and exactly what the modern Holiness Movement stands for. This is what we are
trying to accomplish in the hearts of all believers.

(8) Baptist Church, "Christian Doctrine," by Dr. Pendleton, p. 300:
"Regeneration breaks the power of sin, and destroys the love of sin, that
whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin in the sense of being the slave
thereof; but it does not free the soul from the presence and pollution of sin.
Alas! the regenerated know full well that there is sin in their hearts."

Ah, me! the Baptists have it, too, in spite of regeneration and a first-class
water baptism -- sin in their hearts." And nothing but the baptism with the Holy
Ghost will take it away.

(9) Presbyterian Confession, Chap. 9, Sec. 4: "When God converts a sinner and
translates him into a state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage
under sin; yet by reason of his remaining corruption he doth not perfectly, nor
only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil."

Wonder of wonders! These good Calvinists, in spite of Divine sovereignty, and
unconditional election, and irresistible grace, still have "remaining
corruption," and they will sin! But all this must cease before they can see God.
When will it cease?

(10) M. E. Church (Wesley): "The generality of those who are justified feel in
themselves more or less pride, anger, self-will, and a heart bent to
backsliding." (Sermon, "Sin in Believers.") "But was he not freed from all sin
so that there is no sin in the heart? I cannot say this. I cannot believe it,
because Paul says to the contrary ... And as this position that there is no sin
in a believer, no bent to backsliding, no carnal mind, is thus contrary to the
Word of God, so it is to the experience of his children. They feel a heart bent
to backsliding, a natural tendency to evil, a proneness to wander from God. They
are sensible of sin remaining in the heart."

Alas! even the Methodists, with all their universal atonement and free grace,
have this abominable depravity in them, even after a wonderful conversion at the
altar. And this is the reason Wesley gives for their awful backsliding. I heard
an evangelist say this summer that in one of his late meetings one hundred and
twenty-nine members of a Methodist Church sought and obtained restoration from
backsliding. Evidently they needed a baptism with the Holy Ghost to take the
awful "proneness to wander from God" out of them.

Now listen to the testimony of great religious teachers of world-wide fame.

(a) Dr. Charles Hodge: "According to Scripture and the undeniable evidence of
history, regeneration does not remove all sin."

(b) Dr. John Hall, Pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York: "No
church can be found in a high spiritual condition, if the only definite standard
is placed at justification. Usually it is in the experience beyond justification
that little progress is made." The experience beyond justification is
sanctification, and there the true progress of the believer is to be found.

(c) Dr. Adam Clarke: "I have been twenty-three years a traveling preacher, and
have been acquainted with some thousands of Christians who were in different
states of grace, and I never, to my knowledge, met with a single instance where
God both justifies and sanctifies at the same time." This striking passage
teaches a distinct second work of grace and it laughs in the face of this modern
Methodist dodge, "I got it all at conversion." This was invented to make people
at ease while rejecting sanctification.

(d) Joseph Agar Beet, the first Greek scholar of English Methodism: "It is
worthy of notice that in the New Testament we never read expressly and
unmistakably of sanctification as a gradual process." That is to say, we never
grow into this blessing by gradual development. It is instantaneously received
through the baptism with the Holy Ghost.

(e) The Elder Dr. Steven Tyng, Episcopal Church, New York. He said to those who
were joining his church: "Though truly a child of God, you still carry with you
a heart far from sanctified, a remaining sinfulness of nature in its appetites
and propensities which demands unceasing vigilance. You cannot afford to relax
your vigilance over these outgoings of your own sinful hearts."

What a declaration! "Children of God," yet "far from sanctified," and still
possessing "sinful hearts." Oh, how we all need to be sanctified to be fitted
for God and Heaven!

(f) F. W. Robertson, Church of England: "Two sides of our mysterious, two-fold
being here; something in us near to Hell; something strangely near to God. In
our best estate and in our purest moments there is a something of the devil in
us, which if it could be known, would make men shrink from us. The germs of the
worst crimes are in us all." This precious man did not know the experience of
sanctification. But his awful charge against human nature is literally true of
all who are unsanctified. "Something of the devil is in us; the germs of the
worst crimes are in us all."

Now, I have given you the testimony of ten leading Protestant denominations, and
of six great theologians -- all agreeing that regeneration does not do for the
heart all that needs to be done. It does not remove "carnality," or "depravity,"
the "infection of nature," "the proneness to wander from God," "the bent to
backsliding," "the remaining corruption of soul." Call it what name these
theologians will, there is a dark, troublesome, evil something infesting the
soul, which must be taken out by another work of grace before we are prepared
for Heaven.

3. We need this Holy Ghost blessing because the truly regenerated heart hungers
for it. Christians who are truly living the justified life have longings for
more of the good things of God. A Pisgah View of Canaan awakes a desire to
breathe its vital air. A cluster from Eshcol makes one want to possess the whole
vineyard. A visit with Jesus leads us to pray Him to abide in our hearts.
Blessed are they that thus "hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled."

4. We need the power for service that comes with this blessing. This was the
promise of Jesus: "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you and ye shall be witnesses." Power to witness effectively for God is what the
preachers need, and what all private Christians need. The churches are
languishing and dying all around us for the want of it. Methodist ministers used
to be cyclones of Holy Ghost power, and used to light the land with their
revival fires, in those days when they were true to the doctrine and enjoyed the
experience of holiness. But now, when so many are opposing it, two thousand and
forty-six Methodist Episcopal Churches did not report one convert for the entire
year of 1904. The Methodist ministers were never so well educated as now, and
never so barren. The reason is, they are looking to everything else rather than
to the Holy Spirit for power.

V. Notice now the conditions of receiving this blessing. Look at the story about
Cornelius. He was "a devout man"; he "feared God"; he "gave alms," that is, his
property was consecrated; he "prayed to God always"; he "worked righteousness";
he "was accepted of God." He was not a raw heathen, as opposers of the second
blessing would have us believe. He had heard the Gospel before (see Acts x.
36-37) and accepted it. He had a fine record as a Christian, known on earth and
in Heaven. And this is the primary condition of getting the blessing of
sanctification. One must have, to start with, a "blood-red, snow-white,
sky-blue" case of regeneration. Then let him obey God absolutely, consecrate
wholly, and seek with all his heart by prayer and faith for this baptism with
the Spirit, and the blessing will surely come.

Many seek, when not justified, the second work of grace, and get blessed. They
mistake restoration for sanctification. Afterwards, finding that what they
received does not measure up to sanctification, they are sadly disappointed, and
say there is nothing in it. When holiness is preached in a community, the most
consistent Christians are the first to feel their need, and go to the altar. The
reason is, they are the only ones that are ELIGIBLE to the blessing. They are
walking in the light, and only such are prepared to seek sanctification.

VI. Notice what this baptism did for them. My text says, "it purified (cleansed)
their hearts." This is a death blow to the suppression theory, which holds that
the baptism with the Holy Spirit does not eliminate the carnal mind. All those
evils the creeds and theologians complained of -- the "carnal mind," the "roots
of bitterness," the "sinfulness of nature," the "remaining corruption," the
"bent to backsliding," the inclinations to evil," "pride, anger and self-will,"
and "the germs of crime," -- are cleansed away by the Spirit. Regeneration
cleans up the outward life: sanctification cleanses the HEART-LIFE. Blessed
truth! Precious experience! Wonderful work of grace! It is the richest gift of
God to the heart this side of Heaven.

VII. The text declares that this blessing is received "by faith." Many fail
here. They seek sanctification by works. They spur themselves to perform deeds
of mercy, give alms, visit the sick, minister to the poor, preach to the
prisoners. But all such doings never brought peace to John Wesley; and never
will to anybody else.

Others want to grow into it. But the growth theory has no Scripture in its
support, and no witnesses. It is not found in the religious biographies. In all
the holiness camp-meetings we have attended we never heard one soul testify that
he had grown into sanctification. The reason is it is not obtained in that way.
Once in our hearing an old lady eighty years of age arose and testified as
follows: "I was converted when I was ten years of age. For sixty-nine years I
tried to grow into sanctification and never came any nearer to it than when I
started. I became weary of seeking it by the growth method, and last year I went
to that altar and obtained it by faith in half an hour!"

Sixty-nine years against a half hour! What a contrast in methods. The truth is,
the time element cuts no figure in seeking this blessing. It is received
instantaneously by faith.

Others try to feel it first before they believe. They want the witness to help
the exercise of faith. No, no! It will not answer. Faith is the supreme
condition of receiving any blessing from God. The Infinite Sovereign will not
reverse the order to please any of us. We seek and consecrate, then believe,
then feel the witness and the experience. We are sanctified, as we are
justified, "by faith."

VIII. Peter said to the Council in Jerusalem: "We believe that we shall be saved
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in like manner as they." In other
words, "Cornelius and his people first believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and
were accepted of God; then they received the baptism with the Holy Ghost. These
steps to salvation were taken by the apostolic band; we first believed in Jesus,
and afterward we had our Pentecost. This audience in Jerusalem can be saved in
the same way, or any audience. This is the way to please God and be prepared for
Heaven. Such is the Gospel that Peter preached in Jerusalem, and so he would
preach today. Paul declared that "Jesus was made unto us wisdom from God, and
justification, and sanctification, and redemption." We obtain all but the last
this side of the grave. In conclusion I observe:

1. The text proves (1) that regeneration is not purity; (2) that purity does not
come by growth or development; (3) that there is a second work of grace
subsequent to regeneration; (4) that it is obtained by the baptism with the
Spirit through faith.

2. Do not say you do not need it. David might have said so once, when he was
writing worshipful psalms and prayers for his people. But when he committed
adultery and murder, he found out his need of sanctification and cried: "Purge
me and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."

Peter might have said so once. He did declare that "he was ready to go both to
prison and to death with Jesus," and he would not deny him and forsake him,
though all other men did. But the inconceivable sin was committed by him with
cursing and swearing, before morning. He did not know his own heart.

Henry C. Morrison tells of a Kentucky father who went to town with his little
boy to buy some agricultural implements. Riding out of town the little fellow
began to cry because the father had not bought him some toy he had set his heart
on. The father reached his big hand around and slapped him. They came home, ate
supper, and the little boy and the family went to bed. In the middle of the
night, the quick ear of mother heard moans from the little cot. She hastened to
her darling little boy and laid her hand on him and found him in a raging fever.
The father hurried to the town for the physician. The doctor, examining the boy,
found marks on the face and asked the cause. "O," said the father, "I gave him a
little slap as we were coming out of town." "Well, I find here a lump on the
other side of his head." "Yes." said the father, "as I slapped him he fell over
and his head hit a corner of one of the tools." "Well," said the doctor, "I am
sorry to tell you; but it brought on concussion of the brain, and the little pet
will be dead before morning." And it was so. That kind-hearted but
quick-tempered man had killed his boy. What a pity he had not been sanctified
just before he was tempted to strike that blow! A doctor in Montague County,
Texas, entertained Bud Robinson through a series of meetings, and worked night
after night at the altar. He was an officer of the M. E. Church. All through the
ten days, he argued that he did not need sanctification as a perfect work had
been done in his heart at conversion. The last night of the meeting he prayed
with seekers until one o’clock in the morning. If any one had then told that
doctor that in seven hours he would be a murderer, he would have laughed in his
face, or thought him insane. But Bud Robinson left him at six in the morning to
take the train. At eight the doctor, riding over his place, met a tenant and
discussed a little matter of business with him. He told the tenant that he owed
him one dollar and eighty cents. The tenant said it was one dollar and sixty
cents. Words passed about the twenty cents, until the tenant called him a liar.
The doctor, fresh from working at the altar some hours before, leveled his gun
and shot his neighbor dead.

He thought he did not need sanctification! The murderous "Old man" was in him
and he knew it not. He is in us all unless we have been and are sanctified by
the Holy Ghost. As Robertson said: "Something of the devil" and "the germs of
the worst crimes are in us all." It is a perpetual menace to our peace and our
salvation. Let all who want clean hearts hasten to the altar.


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  CHAPTER 50: S. THE PERSONAL ELEMENT OF RELIGION
========================================================================

The Personal Element of Religion By Aaron Hills Romans 12:6; Matthew 25:15; 1
Timothy 4:14.

Parts of three verses of Scripture put together make remarkable reading, and
teach us impressive lessons much needed by us all.

Here they are:

Romans 12:6. "Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to
us." Matthew 25:15. "To every man according to his several ability." 1 Timothy
4:14. "Neglect not the gift that is in thee."

It is said that America’s illustrious statesman, Daniel Webster, was once asked
at a dinner table, "What is the most important thought that ever occupied your
mind?" He answered in all seriousness, "The most important thought that ever
entered my mind was the thought of my individual responsibility to God." He
enlarged on that thought for some minutes in matchless eloquence, while great
men listened with astonishment in solemn silence, and then he appropriately
arose and left the room as if to be alone with his God.

It is this sense of personal responsibility to God, and the expression of it
toward men to which I wish to call the attention of my readers. There is a
manifest want of individualism in church life and Christian activity, from which
the kingdom of God is suffering great detriment. The trend of our time is toward
clubs, corporations, lodges, fraternities, unions, organizations, companies,
trusts, associations, and congregations; the individual is losing his identity,
is wasting, is actually dying of self-neglect.

I write these words in the cheering hope that some readers may be aroused to
self-consciousness and a sense of their personal obligations to men and to God.
To this end I make the following observations:

1. God intentionally makes men to differ. He bestows on each a personality and
an individuality all his own. Human beings destined for immortality are not made
as bullets are run in a mold, all alike, to fill the same place, to do the same
service, and to be used indiscriminately. We differ alike in natural endowments
and in spiritual gifts. Each has his own peculiar form, features, tastes,
inclinations, strength of will, balance of faculties, combination of powers and
weaknesses, which make him peculiarly himself, unlike anyone else that ever did
live, does live, or ever will live. And we differ no less in our circumstances.
No two souls move through life having precisely the same environment. Parentage,
time of birth, domestic and social conditions, helps, hindrances, fortunes and
misfortunes all more or less vary, sufficiently, at least, to give to the jewel
of every life a setting all its own. And likewise we differ in opportunities.
God says to every soul, "Behold, I have set before thee an open door." No two
have the same path lying before them, the same possibilities, the same successes
and triumphs. Each soul has its own circle of influence as each star has its own
separate orbit. To each his work is like the law of nature and of grace. A
dew-drop has not the mission of a diamond. A lily-bulb has not the opportunity
of an acorn. One is to produce a fragrant flower; the other is to grow into a
forest monarch. So before the advancing feet of every soul, there opens an
avenue of possible usefulness accessible to him alone.

2. I observe that as an ultimate fact, God knows us and deals with us as
individuals. If He is to destroy an antediluvian world it is because each of the
mighty mass has corrupted his way before God, and He prepares an ark for the
saving of eight souls because they are individually righteous. If He sends the
consuming flames of His wrath to devour Sodom, He does not forget to send His
angels to deliver righteous Lot. If He decrees the doom of Jericho, He remembers
the one woman of faith living upon the wall.

If He commissions the armies of Titus to destroy Jerusalem and annihilate a
guilty nation, He tells His few believing children to escape to the mountains.
"Ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel," says God; "There
shall be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that
repenteth." This is God’s way. His care is minute and particular. He knows all
the secrets of each heart. He numbers the hairs of each head. He tasted death
for every man. He offers Himself as a personal friend and Savior to each soul.

Luther used, it is said, to thank God for those little words, "my," "thee,"
"thou," "thy," "me," which are scattered so profusely through the Scriptures.
"The Lord is my rock," "my fortress," "my deliverer." "When thou passest through
the waters I will be with thee." "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and
afterward receive me to glory."

These all show God’s estimate of the importance of the distinct personality of
man. Apart from all others he is born. Singly and for himself he is held
accountable to God. He is to repent for himself, believe for himself, live by
himself, die by himself, and finally be judged by himself and stand or fall as
an individual at the bar of God.

III. As might be expected from the foregoing, God rightly expects special
service of each. Each flower has its own fragrance to shed, each star its own
attraction to exert -- its own light to emit; and each drop of water its own
mission to fulfill. As Dr. Bushnell has wisely written: "If there were any
smallest star in Heaven that had no place to fill, that oversight would beget a
disturbance which no Leverier could compute; because it would be a real and
eternal, and not merely a casual or apparent disorder. One grain of sand, more
or less, would disturb or even fatally disorder the whole scheme of the heavenly
motions. So nicely balanced and so carefully hung are the worlds, that even the
grains of their dust are counted, and their places adjusted to a corresponding
nicety. There is nothing included in the gross or total sum that could be
dispensed with. The same is true with regard to the forces that are apparently
irregular. Every particle of air is moved by laws of as great precision as the
laws of the heavenly bodies, or, indeed, by the same laws; keeping its appointed
place and serving its appointed use. Every odor exhales in the nicest conformity
with its appointed place and law.

"Even the viewless and mysterious heat, stealing through the dark centers and
impenetrable depths of the world, obeys its uses with unfaltering exactness,
dissolving never so much as an atom that was not to be dissolved.

"What now shall we say of man, appearing as it were, in the great circle of
uses? They are all adjusted for him: has he, then, no ends adjusted for himself?
Noblest of all creatures and closest to God, as he certainly is, are we to say
that his Creator has no definite thoughts concerning him, no place prepared for
him to fill, no uses for him to serve, which are the reason for his existence?

"There is, then, I conclude, a definite and proper end or issue for every man’s
existence ... Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan, cherished for it
in the heart of God -- a Divine biography marked out which it enters into life
to live."

We may conclude, then, that God has laid upon each special duties, commensurate
with his individual gifts and opportunities. There is a post of duty for every
man in the army of the Lord, which he alone can fill, and which he has no right
to abandon; nay, cannot abandon to another. The corporal cannot be the colonel,
and the general cannot be a private. One must stand on guard and do picket duty;
another must plan the campaign, and issue the orders and lead the hosts to
battle. "As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same
office, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one
of another." "And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given
to us, whether prophesy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our
faith; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministering; or he that
teacheth to his teaching; or he that exhorteth to his exhorting; he that giveth
let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth with diligence." The rich man
cannot pray or repent by proxy, nor can he delegate to others the duty of
giving. He that is called to rule must not neglect his ruling, and sigh for the
place of the teacher or prophet. As well might the foot abandon the duty of
walking -- and clamor for the duties of the eye, or the ear, or the tongue. A
duty to every man according to his several ability, and no provision for idlers,
is the law of the kingdom of grace. A personal service, a personal effort, a
personal obligation that is measured by no other man’s degree of efficiency or
endeavor; but only by God’s gift and the Heaven-sent opportunity, is the first
requirement of our Lord. Such is the individualism of duty, the personal element
which constitutes a fixed principle in the kingdom of Christ. And corresponding
with these special duties are special responsibilities. The eye has the ability
to see and is responsible for seeing; the ear has the ability to hear and is
responsible for hearing; the feet have the ability to walk and are responsible
for locomotion. These several responsibilities can by no possibility be changed.
They rest where they do in the very nature of things. The superintendent of a
railroad has his individual responsibility; the train dispatcher has his; the
brakeman has his; the switch-tender has his. The position of each lays upon him
his special responsibility for the safety of the traveling public; he has a
distinct commission to do a distinct thing. So long as the duties of the
position are assumed, the attending responsibilities can never be transferred to
any other human being. And so it is in the kingdom of God. We are each called,
by a discriminating, electing grace to do an especial work, which nobody else
can do, and which, if neglected by any one of us, will be forever undone; and
the terrible responsibility for the failure will forever darken the guilty soul.

We are witnesses for Christ, each with his own personal testimony to give in the
court of the world. We were converted one at a time; and to each of us was given
the charge, "Let him that heareth say, Come!" You notice it reads, "Let him
say," let each one personally take up and send along down through the ages the
blessed invitation to "come" and "take of the water of life freely." And to
encourage this individual effort and develop this sense of personal duty and
responsibility, God has given promises of individual reward. Not the church that
converteth a sinner, but "he that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways
shall save a soul from death." It is not written the company that goeth forth
with weeping, but "he that goeth forth with weeping, bearing precious seed,
shall doubtless return, bringing his sheaves with him." And at the last it will
not be said, "Well done, thou good and faithful church and society," but, "Well
done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." We
are "the salt of the earth," each Christian being a grain having his own
personal savor of holy, sanctifying influence to exert. We are "the light of the
world," each individual being expected to reflect his own rays which the "Sun of
Righteousness" has shed upon his soul, each person shining "as a light in the
world."

What a solemn, awful responsibility rests upon every individual Christian to
discharge his duty, to meet his obligation, to be faithful to his trust!

IV. Notice the abounding evidence that a proper sense of the individuality and
personal responsibility of the unit in our church membership is sadly deficient.
I might cite as the crowning evidence the feeble triumphs of our churches, the
comparatively few conversions that are reported in our year books. A single fact
will suffice. A paper lies before me showing that the Methodist Episcopal
churches of Iowa for four out of the last five years, with one hundred and
forty-seven thousand members, had an annual net loss in membership, and the
aggregate loss for five years is three hundred and seventy-eight. What could
such a vast army of Methodists have been about? Were they taking a Rip Van
Winkle sleep for five years? Let us devoutly hope it will not last twenty! No
honest mind can go to the Scriptures and read its prophecies and promises of
Gospel triumphs and believe that such meager results are all that Christians
have a right to expect from faithful effort. God’s Word is not untrue. The
Gospel has lost none of its power or fitness to move wicked hearts. The cross of
Christ is not a waning power. We are compelled, then, to accept the alternative
and conclude that the Gospel power is not applied, and due effort is not made to
save men. But the churches are running; the organizations are all manned; and at
least, make a show of activity. Where lies the fault? I am forced to believe
that there is an evil back of the organization and it is simply this, a
lamentable deficiency of consecrated, prayerful, personal effort. This is
evidenced by the fact that the masses of men in immediate proximity to the
churches are unrenewed, profane and recklessly godless. Christian truth is still
the wisdom of God; the Spirit is still almighty to save; but the masses remain
quiet and undisturbed, sleeping the sleep of death on the brink of Hell because
no Spirit-filled individual goes to them personally and moves them by thundering
alarms or tender persuasions to come to God.

Further evidence is also furnished in the painfully obvious want of Christian
maturity and moral power in the majority of church members. God has made ample
provision for the growing up of each believer out of weakness into the vigor of
spiritual manhood, into great efficiency of Christian service. When we look for
strength and maturity; the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, how
often we find only infantile weakness. When we go to Christians seeking
teachers, we find "they have need that one teach them again, and are become such
as have need of milk and not of strong meat." And why this want of growth and
development? Simply because the powers of individual Christians have not been
"exercised by reason of use"; because they have neglected the gifts that are in
them, and have buried God-given talents in a napkin of sloth. Personal activity
is a prime essential to personal growth in grace. The toilers become the strong
men and women, the pillars of our churches. There are so many weak Christians
because there are so many idle Christians, so few grown Christians because so
few working Christians.

Another evidence is found in the joylessness of Christian experience about which
we hear not a little.There is opportunity enough for joy in Christ’s service.
There is joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. There is an unspeakable delight to be
derived from the consciousness of being a co-laborer with Jesus in His great
work of redeeming the world.

St. Paul, in the midst of his trials and hardships and persecutions and
imprisonments, was "as sorrowful yet always rejoicing." His great soul knew the
unutterable joy of saving men.

If the children of the King are lean-spirited and dyspeptic, it is because
spiritual inactivity has made them diseased. If the sons and daughters of God
walk amidst shadows instead of in the blessed sunlight of Heaven’s conscious
approval, if their lips are filled with wailings instead of hallelujahs, it is
because they do not seek the empowering and put forth continuous, persevering
effort to save souls. To travail in spirit until hearts are born again is to
have one’s own heart filled with transports of joy befitting the bosom of an
angel. It is to have rich foretastes of Heaven.

Further evidence of this weak sense of personal responsibility is seen in
parental neglect of the spiritual interests of children. From multiplying
evidence of the most varied kind it is apparent that legions of believing
parents do not make any personal application of Divine truth to the hearts of
their children, do not lovingly and prayerfully teach them the Word of God, do
not talk with them alone on the most sacred and vital of all subjects -- their
personal relation to Christ. And then these parents hope to compound with their
consciences by sending their children to the Sabbath-school. As if they had any
right to turn over to some other irresponsible person the religious training of
the children which God has given to them to guide and prepare for Heaven. When I
was a student at Yale I was a member of the same church with the venerable
ex-President Woolsey. He had two young daughters by a late marriage. He would
not send them to the Sabbath-school, for he said God held him responsible for
their training, and he spent a portion of Sunday afternoon teaching them.

Still more proof comes in the all too prevalent disposition to relegate to
ministers the sole work of converting men. This is a vile relic of popery and
one of Satan’s most diabolical devices, this custom of regarding ministers as a
class distinct from all others, to whom are entrusted all the concerns of
religion. Perhaps unconsciously, but none the less really, many believers look
upon the work of securing the conversion of men as a purely professional matter.
As well might all the soldiers stand idly by and leave their generals to fight
the battles! How utterly unlike the primitive church is this! Deacon Stephen and
Deacon Philip were as anxious and laborious to secure the conversion of people
as were the Apostles Peter and James, and there was a blessed band of
yokefellows, men and women, who labored with the apostles in the Gospel. No
doubt all the early believers understood that they were individually to do their
utmost to multiply disciples for the Master, and this was as much the rule of
life as i t is now the exception. Today societies are somehow looked upon as
substitutes for persons; self is lost in the congregation; the church is
expected to be active while the individuals who compose it contentedly remain
inactive; it is expected to gather in members whether the individuals gather any
or not, as if the whole could be greater or do more than the aggregate of its
parts. And so it is that individualism is being crushed under ponderous
organizations, and the precious disciples of the Lord are wasting innumerable
opportunities, and are losing their sense of personal responsibility and all due
conception of the calling of God and the grand end of life! Ah, how it delights
Satan! Little does he care how vast the church is as a mass if only each
individual member will sleep.

I will mention but one more sad indication of this evil. It is a common and
well-nigh unchallenged saying that corporations have no souls. But pray tell,
why not? They are composed of men, and men have souls. What is the real
underlying reason but this, that the individual members of corporations, many of
them Christians, have barricaded their consciences behind their business
charters and have conveniently buried their honor and pity and justice and
humanity in their articles of agreement. The corporation can now practice the
grossest injustice, the most overreaching selfishness, and for the sake of gain
can scout morals, drive men to the wall, drive hard bargains and grind their
employees to the very dust. And if you go to each individual of the corporation
and ask for explanation or redress, he will say: "Oh, it is too bad, quite too
bad; but I am not responsible; the company did that!"

But, by and by, death will dissolve their soulless partnerships, and the
individuals who composed them, standing at the bar of a holy God, will learn to
their surprise and sorrow that somebody was responsible.

V. I would now call attention to some considerations which show the absolute
necessity of more personal effort on the part of all who love Christ. Satan is
terribly in earnest to curse the world. His followers are intensely and
personally active. The drunkard is perpetually treating and soliciting
companionship in his wickedness. The gambler will lay his snares and work for
days and weeks and cross land and sea to rope in his victim. The licentious ply
their hellish influence by day and by night, openly and secretly, and labor with
all the tirelessness of a fiend to captivate, seduce and destroy. The skeptic,
the infidel and the scoffer, are never backward to vaunt their hatred of
religion, their opposition to Christ, and to scatter tracts and form societies,
and loan books and to bear testimony against the truth. They boldly lift their
ensign, and enthusiastically champion their cause. They are at it, and all at
it, and always at it, seeking recruits to stand with them and hold aloft the
black flag of rebellion against God Almighty.

Now, all this enthusiasm of wickedness must be met by a corresponding enthusiasm
for righteousness. This zeal to destroy must be matched by zeal to save. This
eager personal endeavor to lure souls to Hell must have pitted against it a
similar personal endeavor to win souls for Christ and Heaven. But this is only a
partial statement of the case. The truth is that by no other possible means can
the religious needs of the age be met. We have so much evil to contend with, so
gigantic in its strength, so diffused in its influence, and so infectious and
malignant in its effort that nothing short of the engagement, the energies, and
the earnestness of the whole church can cope with it. A single illustration will
suffice. Twenty years ago I was a pastor in Allegheny, Pa. At that time, making
the largest deductions needful for children too young to believe in Christ,
there were one hundred thousand souls who, through choice, were without Christ
and "without God in the world," and there were actually two hundred and twenty
thousand souls in Pittsburg and Allegheny who were not indicated by the records
as in any sense pious members and vitally connected with either Protestant or
Catholic churches. And to cope with the twenty-five hundred licensed saloons and
all the aggregated wickedness which such cities represent, and to evangelize
this vast population of more than two hundred thousand, there were all told only
one hundred and fifty-five Protestant ministers.

It was apparent that though within easy reach of the open door of our
sanctuaries, many scores of thousands avoided the ministers and the established
means of grace. If such Christless masses in our cities ever hear the Gospel it
must be carried to them by individual effort. But who must do it? The ministers?
A single moment’s consideration will make plain the impossibility of their doing
it. No clerical force can be maintained that will be adequate for this
stupendous work. Thousands of these people in the great cities are bitterly
prejudiced against the clergy, which fact precludes their approaching them.
Thousands upon thousands of these people are employed all day in shops and
stores, and cannot then be seen; and the average city clergyman has church
engagements four or five evenings in a week. Multitudes of these people sleep
day times and work nights. A thousand obstacles intervene to prevent their being
reached by a few professional men, whose hands are overloaded with work. No; the
ordained. ministry are utterly inadequate to meet this necessity. It was never
designed by God that they should. He never intended that the ministry should do
the whole work of the churches, and relieve the lay-membership of the duty to
make personal exertion to save men. And the condition of human society will
never be such that they could do it if they would.

Plainly this multitudinous work must be divided up among a multitude of workers.
Each Christian must make an honest effort to build the wall of Zion over against
his own house, to labor for the conversion of those under his own roof and in
his own neighborhood. Each Sabbath school teacher must lay it upon his heart to
do a portion of the work. The gentleman in the office must have a deep and
abiding interest in the, spiritual welfare of his clerks. The manufacturer must
somehow give practical expression to a concern for the souls of his employes.
The Christian lady must have an eye to the cause of the Lord among her
neighbors, and the Christian workman must live for Christ and talk for Christ
among the companions of his toil. Each believer must feel that he has feet to
run, and hands to work, and lips to speak, and a heart to love, and a mind to
think and plan for Jesus; must realize that he is an ambassador for Christ with
a commission sent from Heaven to do something and be something for that Savior
who has done so much and been so much for him.

Oh, we surely need today Christians like Luke to write for Jesus, and Mary
Magdalenes to run with swift feet and tell the sorrowing the glad news that
their Lord has risen, and seamstresses like Dorcas and Prisca able to teach
others "the more perfect way," and mechanics like Harlan Page, each bringing a
hundred souls to Christ. We still need teachers like Mary Lyon and servants like
Onesimus, and warm-hearted women like the Bible Marys to serve their Lord.

We still need more men like Rufus and Lucius and Aquila and "Apelles, approved
in Christ," and Christian sisters like Chloe and Tryphena and Tryphosa and
"those women who labored with" Paul "in the Gospel." We sorely need a countless
multitude of individuals who are always conscious of their individual
responsibility to God, and who will not suffer their personality to be
annihilated by church membership. An English minister of fifty years ago,
eminent for Christian usefulness, John Angell James, wrote on the very subject
these burning words: "That is what we want. This we must have or we can never
overtake the population of our country with the Gospel, and the means of grace.
I say it again and again, and I say it with all possible emphasis, and would
send it if I could with a trumpet blast over the land: Societies must not be a
substitute for personal labors. Organization must not crush individualism. . . .
With all members of churches walking in holy conversation and godliness, sending
forth the light of a beautiful example, full of zeal, laboring for the salvation
of their fellows, and inspired with the ambition, and animated with the hope of
saving souls by personal effort, each studying what he could do, and doing what
he could, what might not be looked for as the glorious result of such general
activity, zeal and earnestness?

What an awakening would take place, what revivals would come on! What prayers
would ascend, and what showers of blessings would come down in their season!

"When our churches exhibit such scenes as these, then will God’s work go on in
the earth." And we may add, then, too, our progress will be with a speed
hitherto unparalleled in human history.

VI. Let us consider briefly how this want in modern Christian life is to be met.
First, evidently we are to feel it. This we will certainly do when we seriously,
earnestly, prayerfully study the needs of Christ’s kingdom. Our hearts will soon
begin to ache with sympathy, and each will be prompted to cry, "Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do?" And He would have you do something which is your special
work. Spurgeon has well said: "There is not a spider hanging on the king’s wall
but hath its errand; there is not a nettle that groweth in the corner of the
churchyard but hath its purpose; there is not a single insect fluttering in the
breeze but accomplisheth some Divine decree; and I will never have it that God
created any man, especially any Christian man, to be a blank, and to be a
nothing. He made you for an end. Find out what that end is; find out your niche
and fill it. If it be ever so little, if it is only to be a hewer of wood and a
drawer of water, do something in the great battle for God and truth."

You will doubtless feel your unworthiness and be ready to cry out, "O Lord, who
is sufficient for these things?" This will drive, you to the mercy-seat for the
oil of grace that your light may shine; for the holiness of heart that will give
you a sanctifying influence; for the anointed lips and "the tongue of fire,"
that you may speak with an unction from the Holy One; and for a mind illuminated
and taught by the Spirit that you may fitly hold forth the Word of life." When
you are thus moved and prayerful and in sympathy with the mission of Jesus, the
means and the opportunities will open before you. When once your heart is alive
with zeal and inflamed with a passion for souls, so that you will be impelled to
determine, "I must do something to save souls; I must find means of doing good,"
you will be sure to find them. Your quickened mind will discern duties and
detect needs; you will find some door of opportunity open, some needy soul for
you to reach, some wayward spirit whom you can point to the Lamb of God.

VII. Lastly, consider what encouragements and motives incite us to personal work
for Christ. Oh, if we could have just one worthy conception of our once
crucified Lord of glory, we could never do enough for Him. We would be willing
to imitate Paul, and entreat men night and day with tears to be reconciled to
God.

Or, if we could have a faint appreciation of what it means to save one soul,
what infinite anguish and degradation and woe it is saved from, and what end
less growth in grace and inconceivable development in godlikeness, and eternal
blessedness awaits it, our hearts would glow with the ardor of a seraph, and we
could never be silent for pleading with men to be saved.

Or, again, if we could understand how disastrous mere negative piety may be to
others it would make our hearts ache with grief over our past indolence, and we
never again could be idle in God’s vineyard. Would you stand with folded arms by
a railroad track on which some villain had placed an obstruction, meekly
protesting your innocence, while the express was sweeping down toward it at
fearful speed? Oh, how contemptible and culpable would such do-nothing innocence
be!

But, behold, the long, endless train of sin-laden humanity thundering along down
to death! Have you no personal protest to make, no danger signal to lift, no
warning to give? Shall none be entreated by you personally to believe and live?

Consider, also, the principles of your faith. You believe in a Divine Savior,
who made an atonement for all the race. You believe that it is God’s will that
all should be saved from an endless Hell -- and that, too, by human
instrumentality. You profess to believe all this, and dying men and women around
you know it. Fellow Christians, we must either stop professing our belief in the
stupendous realities of the eternal world, or we must act more as if they were
true. Personal zeal and godly living on the part of Christians are the best
possible antidotes for popular infidelity.

Then consider what immeasurable and everlasting good may result from personal
endeavor. "Live today!" was the morning salutation of John Wesley to Sophia
Cook, a young lady who lived in his house. Inspired by his words she went out to
live for Jesus by teaching His Gospel to children. She suggested to Robert
Raikes the founding of Sabbath schools and aided him, and that was the beginning
of that institution that has brought such blessings to the race.

Talmage once said: "It seemed to be a matter of little importance that a woman,
whose name has been forgotten, prayerfully dropped a tract in the way of a very
bad man by the name of Richard Baxter, and it was the means of his salvation. In
after days he wrote ’The Call to the Unconverted,’ which was the means of
bringing a multitude to God, among others Philip Doddridge. He wrote a book
called ’The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,’ which has brought
thousands to God, among others the great Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote a book
called ’A Practical View of Christianity,’ which was the means of bringing
multitudes to Christ, among others Leigh Richmond. Leigh Richmond wrote a tract
which has been the means of the conversion of multitudes. And that stream of
influence started from the fact that one Christian woman put a tract in the way
of Richard Baxter -- the great tide rolling on and on and on forever." A half a
century ago in Illinois, an audience was asked to do something for Christ.
Little Mary Paxton began by asking her father to come to Sunday school. He was
forty years old; could not read; hated Christians; but he loved his little Mary,
and to please her came to Sunday school. He was converted and became the
greatest Sunday school apostle of our land. He is said to have established 1500
Sunday schools with seventy thousand pupils from which sprang a hundred
Christian churches. What a countless multitude that little child was starting to
Heaven! In Chicago, a woman asked a poor Swede to attend a religious meeting.
She went and was converted, brought her husband and he was converted; and led
the entire crew of a lake vessel to Christ. Moody told us of a precious revival
in which he was, that was begun in the sick-chamber of a poor invalid who was
flat on his back. He was distressed at the thought of the peril of sinners
around him. He invited the brethren of the church to come to his chamber and
pray for a revival; but they were too dead to pray. He invited the sisters; a
few came and prayed and prayed till the Lord suddenly came to his temple with a
wonderful blessing. Oh, who is too feeble, too sick, too poor, too young, or too
old to do something for Jesus! Who can tell what the harvest will be of one
personal endeavor to win a soul? Who can be willing to remain effortless and
fruitless, to go home to Heaven alone and empty-handed, having no sheaves for
the heavenly garner, to stand before Jesus like the barren fig-tree bearing
nothing but le aves?

Oh, that all believers might apprehend that for which they have been apprehended
by Christ Jesus! Oh, that they might know that they are each called to be a
co-worker with Jesus in efforts to save a dying world! John Smith, a mighty
Wesleyan preacher of a past generation, once wrote of himself, "God has given me
such a sight of the value of precious souls, that I cannot live if souls are not
saved. O, give me souls or else I die." If such a passion for soul-saving could
take possession of every disciple of our Lord the world over, so that in the
factory and warehouse and store and shop, in the field and by the way, at the
fireside and in the social gathering, in the city and in the country, on the
land and on the sea, men and women would be eagerly planning and watching for an
opportunity to win someone for Christ, then compassion for the lost and
perishing would burn in each heart, prayers for their salvation would ascend
from each lip, and messages of love and mercy would be spoken by every tongue.

Then, O then, would tarry no longer the coming of the kingdom, and the
redemption of our ruined race, Ye ransomed followers of Jesus, heed this call:
consecrate yourselves to this work: begin at once to personally, persistently
seek the salvation of some soul.


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  CHAPTER 51: S. THE SECOND BLESSING IN EXPERIENCE
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The Second Blessing in Experience By Aaron Hills THE SECOND BLESSING IN
EXPERIENCE, IN THEOLOGY, AND IN THE BIBLE 1 Thessalonians 5:23 : "And the God of
peace himself sanctify you wholly."

I. Experience.

George Fox was born in 1624. He was one of the first of the modern apostles of
holiness, and founder of the Society of Friends. Here is his luminous testimony
concerning his own inner life. "I knew Jesus, and He was very precious to my
soul; but I found something within me that would not keep sweet and patient and
kind. I did what I could to keep it down, but it was there. I besought Jesus to
do something for me, and when I gave Him my will, He came to my heart and took
out all that would not be patient, all that would not be kind, and -- then He
shut the door." Could a second work of grace be stated more beautifully or
definitely?

Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, wrote: "It seems clear that it is still the duty
and privilege of believers to receive the Holy Spirit by a conscious, definite
act of appropriating faith, just as they received Jesus Christ ... It is as
sinners that we accept Christ for our justification; but it is as sons that we
accept the Spirit for our sanctification. The Scriptures show that we are
required to appropriate the Spirit as sons, in the same way that we appropriated
Christ as sinners."

Dr. Gordon did it, and the blessing made him in many respects the most potent
Baptist pastor in New England. He wrote his beautiful book, "Ministry of the
Spirit," to lead others into the same experience.

Rev. J. O. Peck, D. D., one of the greatest pastors Methodism has produced in
America, wrote: "God never left me a single year without a gracious revival, in
which many souls were given as the seals of my ministry. Never had my pastorate
been more favored with the Divine blessing that at Springfield; but in the
summer of 1872 a deep heart hunger that I had never known before began to be
realized. I had not lost spirituality; I longed for; I scarcely knew what. I
examined myself and prayed more earnestly, but the hunger of my soul grew more
imperious. The result was a consciousness of utter emptiness. Then arose an
unutterable longing to be filled. I was prejudiced against the National
Camp-meeting Association, but a conviction was borne in on me, that if I would
go to that meeting and confess how I was hungering, I would be filled with the
Spirit. I went, frankly told my errand, sought the prayers of all, descended to
the altar and knelt before the Lord. By simple faith I was enabled to take
Christ as my sufficiency, to fill and satisfy my hungry soul. The instant I
received Christ as my wisdom, righteousness and sanctification, the stillness
and emotionlessness of absolute quiet permeated my whole being. The tempter
suggested, the Spirit is withdrawn. As quick as thought I replied: with or
without feeling I here and now take Christ as my all in all. At once came the
peace of God that passeth understanding, till I seemed filled with all the
fullness of God."

Now here is the testimony of the immortal Quaker, and of a modern Baptist and a
Methodist divine (all saints of God) to a second work of grace and a second
blessing experience. Similar testimony could be obtained from ten thousand other
souls. There is, then, a second blessing or a second work of grace in Christian
experience.

II. Now, is there such a blessing taught in theology? Let us see if we can get
any witness from the accredited leaders and teachers of any denomination. The
bishops of the M. E. Church South in their address to the General Conference in
1894, said: "The privilege of believers to attain unto a state of entire
sanctification, or perfect love, and to abide therein, is a well-known teaching
of Methodism. Witnesses to this experience have never been wanting in the
Church, though few in comparison with the whole membership. Among them have been
men and women of beautiful consistency and seraphic ardor, jewels of the Church.
Let the doctrine still be proclaimed and the experience still be testified." In
1884, the Centennial Conference of American Methodism, which met in Baltimore,
re-affirmed the faith of the entire Church in all its separate branches: "We
remind you, brethren, that the mission of Methodism is to promote holiness. It
is not a sentiment or emotion, but a principle inwrought in the heart, the
culmination of God’s work in us, followed by a consecrated life. In all the
borders of Methodism this doctrine is preached and the experience of
sanctification is urged. We beseech you, brethren, stand by your standards on
this subject."

Still earlier Bishop Matthew Simpson said: "Sanctification is not regeneration.
Methodism differs from Moravianism, in that it does not hold regeneration and
entire sanctification to be identical. Sanctification is that act of the Holy
Ghost whereby a justified man is made holy." Here, then, is a distinct
announcement of sanctification as a second work or grace by the most eloquent
bishop the Methodist Church ever produced; made more than thirty years ago. In
1874 the bishops of the M. E. Church South thus concluded their address to the
General Conference: "Extensive revivals of religion have crowned the labor of
our preachers, and the life-giving energy of the Gospel in the conversion of
sinners and the sanctification of believers has seldom been more apparent among
us. The boon of Wesleyan Methodism, as we received it from our fathers, has not
been forfeited in our hands!" This was signed by Bishops Paine, Price,
Kavanaugh, Wightman, Marvin, Doggett, McTyeire and Keener. In 1836, in New York
City, Dr. John McClintock, President of Drew Theological Seminary, in the
closing words of his centenary sermon, said: "Knowing exactly what I say, and
taking the full responsibility of it, I repeat, we are the only Church in
history, from the apostles’ time till now, that has put forth, as the very
elemental thought, the great pervading idea of the whole book of God, from the
beginning to the end, the holiness of the human soul, heart and will. It may be
called fanaticism, but, dear friends, this is our mission. If we keep to that,
the triumphs of the next century will throw those of the past into the shade.
There is our mission; there is our glory; there is our power; and there shall be
the ground of our triumph! God keep us true!"

Bishop Elijah Hedding, who died in 1852, said in a conference sermon: "It is as
important that you (the ministers of the New Jersey Conference) should
experience this holy work of sanctification, as it is that the sinners to whom
you preach should be converted." In 1832 the General Conference issued a
pastoral address to the Church, in which is the following:

"When we speak of holiness we mean the state in which God is loved with all the
heart and served with all the power. This, as Methodists, we have said, is the
privilege of the Christian in this life. And we have further said that this
privilege may be instantaneously received by an act of faith, as is
justification." In 1824 the bishops, in their conference address, said: "If
Methodists give up the doctrine of entire sanctification or suffer it to become
a dead letter, we are a fallen people. Holiness is the main cord that binds us
together; relax this and you loosen the whole system. This will appear more
evident if we recall to mind the original design of Methodism. It was to raise
up and preserve a holy people. This was the principal object which Mr. Wesley
had in view. To this end all the doctrines believed and preached by the
Methodists tend." This remarkable deliverance was signed by Bishop McKendree,
Bedding, Soule, George and Roberts.

Bishop Asbury wrote thus from a bed of sickness: "I have found by secret search
that I have not preached sanctification as I should have done. If I am restored
this shall be my theme, more pointedly than ever, God being my helper." At
another time he wrote: "Bless the Lord, O ye saints! Holiness is the element of
my soul. My earnest prayer is that nothing contrary to holiness may live in me."
He wrote to a minister: "O purity! O Christian perfection! O sanctification! It
is Heaven below to feel all sin removed. Preach it, whether they will hear or
forbear. Preach it!"

Dr. Adam Clarke was born in 1762; a man of rare scholarship, a delight to John
Wesley, and one of the best preachers of the realm. He afterward became a prince
among commentators of the Bible. He said: "if the Methodists give up preaching
entire sanctification, they will soon lose their glory. Let all those who retain
the apostolic doctrine -- that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin in
this life -- pray every believer to go on to perfection, and expect to be saved
while here below, unto fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ."

What could be a plainer statement of a second work of grace?

John Fletcher, pronounced by John Wesley to be the most apostolic man he had
ever met, died in 1785. He obtained the blessing of sanctification after
conversion, and lost it several times by not confessing it. He finally learned
to keep it, and confessed: "I now declare unto you, in the presence of God, the
Holy Trinity, that I am now dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God, through
Jesus Christ, who is my indwelling holiness, my all in all."

John Wesley, in 1771, wrote: "Many years since, I saw that without holiness no
man shall see the Lord. I began by following after it. Ten years after God gave
me a clearer view than I had before how to obtain it; namely, by faith in the
Son of God; and immediately I declared to all: We are saved from Sin, WE ARE
MADE HOLY BY FAITH. This I testified in private, in public, in print, and God
confirmed it by a thousand witnesses."

Wesley exhorted his ministers (according to Tyerman, Vol. 2, p. 565) as follows:
"As soon as any penitents find peace, exhort them to go on to perfection."
Preach full salvation now receivable by faith." "This is the word which the
devil peculiarly hates and stirs up his children against, but it is the word
which God will always bless." "Do not neglect to strongly and explicitly urge
believers to go on to perfection." "Preach full sanctification, preach it
definitely, preach it explicitly, preach it strongly, preach it frequently,
preach it constantly, preach it wherever you have an opportunity. Insist on it
everywhere. All our preachers should make a point of preaching it constantly,
strongly, explicitly. Explicitly assert and prove that it may be received by
simple faith. If others grow weary and say little about it, do you supply their
lack of service. Speak and spare not. Let not regard for any man induce you to
betray the truth of God." In the Conference of 1765, Mr. Wesley was asked the
question: "What was the rise of Methodism?" Ans. "In 1729 my brother Charles and
I, reading the Bible, seeing we could not be saved without holiness, followed
after it and incited others to do so. In 1737 we saw that this holiness comes by
faith. In 1738 we saw likewise that men are justified before they are
sanctified; but still holiness was our object, inward and outward holiness: God
then thrust us out to raise up a holy people." But some modern holiness-fighting
Methodists tell us that during the latter years of his life, Wesley "quietly let
drop all insistence upon instantaneous sanctification." This quotation is from a
book whose author is a great denominational leader. It is absolutely untrue, as
the following quotations from Wesley will show. Six years before his death
(1785) he wrote to Rev. Freeborn Garretson: "It will be well, as soon as any of
them find peace with God, to exhort them to go on to perfection. The more
explicitly and strongly you press all believers to aspire after entire
sanctification as attainable now by simple faith, the more the whole work of God
will prosper." To Rev. John Ogilvie, 1785: "God will prosper you in your labors:
especially if you constantly and strongly exhort all believers to expect full
sanctification now by simple faith."

Sept. 15, 1790, 5 months and 17 days before death, he wrote Robert Carr
Brackenburg, Esq.: "I am glad brother D_____ has more light with regard to full
sanctification. This doctrine is the grand depositum which God has lodged with
the people called Methodists; and for the sake of propagating this, he chiefly
appears to have raised us up."

Nov. 26, 1790, 3 months and 6 days before his death, he wrote to Adam Clark: "To
retain the grace of God is much more than to gain it. Hardly one in three does
this. And this should be strongly and explicitly urged on all who have tasted of
perfect love. If we can prove that any one of our local preachers or leaders,
either directly or indirectly speaks against it, let him be a local preacher or
leader no longer. I doubt whether he should continue in the society; because he
that could speak thus in our congregations cannot be an honest man."

Wesley wrote to Rev. John Booth, thirty-one days before his death: "Whenever you
have opportunity of speaking to believers, urge them to go on to perfection.
Spare no pains, and God, even our God, will give you His blessing." On Feb. 27,
1791, four days before his death, he said: "We must be justified by faith and
then go on to full sanctification."

Wesley’s loyalty to Sanctification was his ruling passion in old age and in
death.

Now look at the Catechisms and Discipline. The Catechisim of the M. E. Church
South: Question 60. "What is entire sanctification? Ans. Entire sanctification
or Christian perfection, is that state in which, his heart being cleansed from
all sin, perfected in all righteousness, and entirely devoted to God, the
believer loves God with all his heart, mind and strength, and his neighbor as
himself."

Question 61. "Can a believer be entirely sanctified in this life? Ans. The
believer can and should be entirely sanctified in this life." The M. E. Church’s
larger Catechism has this: Question 294: "What is sanctification? Ans.
Sanctification is that act of divine grace whereby we are made holy." Question
295. "Can and ought a child of God to be cleansed from all sin in this life?
Ans. Yes; the divine command is, ’Be ye holy, for I am holy,’ with the promise
that if we confess our sins he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That
this second work of grace is the teaching of the Catechism of the M. E. Church,
no intelligent and honest Methodist can deny. And Methodist hymns teach the
same. "Now, O my Joshua, bring me in! Cast out thy foe, the Inbred sin. The
carnal mind remove: The purchase of thy death divide, And Oh, with all the
sanctified, Give me a heart of love."

Here is another hymn: "Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit Into every troubled
breast; Let us all in Thee inherit Let us find that second rest. Take away our
bent to sinning, Alpha and Omega be. End of faith, as its beginning, Set our
hearts at liberty."

Here is another that teaches the doctrine of sanctification as a second work of
grace as plainly as language could do it: "Speak the second time be clean, Take
away my inbred sin; Every stumbling-block remove, Cast it out by Perfect love."
In an unabridged Methodist hymnal there are over fifty such hymns. And what is
more, here is the ministerial vow, copied from the M. E. Discipline of the year
1900, Par. 151:

"1. Have you faith in Christ?

"2. Are you going on to perfection?

"3. Do you expect to be made perfect in this life!

"4. Are you earnestly striving after it?"

Every Methodist minister must answer these questions in the affirmative in order
to enter the ministry. It is a vow that has irrevocably committed every one of
them to advocate sanctification as a second work of grace subsequent to
regeneration. I once heard the statement made in a public address that a
Methodist minister who fights holiness as a second work of grace stands perjured
before three worlds.

We have thus far proved that the second blessing of sanctification is a matter
of experience; and is taught, at least in Methodist theology. But some of us are
not Methodists. We are anxious to know whether the second blessing is taught in
the Bible. If so, that settles it. Let us, then, consider:

III. The second blessing in the Scripture. There are about one hundred passages
in the New Testament that teach it most distinctly. But we will confine
ourselves to Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians.

1. Notice what kind of people they were to whom he wrote. That they were noble
Christians is clear from the first chapter, for:

(1) They were members of "the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and
in the Lord Jesus Christ." People did not join the church in those days for
business or social advancement. It often cost them their lives. The church was
not filled with hypocrites or worldlings, but with sincere and devout
Christians, and to such the apostle was writing. (1 Thessalonians 1:1)

(2) Paul gave "thanks to God always for them all." He was not thanking God for
heathen, but for followers of Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 1:2)

(3) "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and
patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1:3) They had the
three Christian graces -- faith, hope and love; and derived them from their
union with Christ.

(4) In the fourth verse he called them "brethren beloved." Paul never used that
term of any but Christians.

(5) He declares that he knew their "election." (1 Thessalonians 1:4) This he
could not have known of sinners.

(6) The next verse declares that the Gospel came to them in "much assurance."
They did not have "a guess-so," but a "know-so" salvation. This is more than a
good many church members have today.

(7) "They became imitators of the apostle and of Christ." In all my travels over
the world I have never met any sinners who picked out the best Christians and
Jesus to imitate; so I conclude they were genuine followers of the Lord.

(8) "They were examples to all that believe in Macedonia." (1 Thessalonians 1:7)
This is no description of unbelievers.

(9) "For from you hath sounded forth the word of the Lord," through all Achaia,
and every place. They must have been, then, a most earnest and aggressive body
of believers.

(10) They had "joy of the Holy Spirit." (1 Thessalonians 1:6) No sinner ever had
that, or ever will.

(11) They had "turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God." (1
Thessalonians 1:9) Oh, what grand churches we should have today, if all the
members would abandon their idols -- tobacco, lodges, cards, theatres, dancing,
avarice, selfishness and unhallowed lusts, and serve the living God with all
their heart. But that is the very kind of Christians these Thessalonians were.

(12) "They were waiting for Jesus from heaven." (1 Thessalonians 1:10) No
sinners want to see Jesus come; that is the last thing any of them desire.

Such were these Thessalonians to whom Paul wrote. Who will dare to say that,
measured by any Gospel standard, they were not Christians of an exalted type of
piety, and a deep experience of grace?

2. Notice now what Paul wrote to them.

(1) In 1 Thessalonians 2:10 he claimed for himself an experience beyond
justification: "Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and righteously and
unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe." That is Christian
perfection.

(2) From 1 Thessalonians 3:6-9 he rejoiceth that the members of that
Thessalonian church had not backslidden but were still his joy and comfort. Yet
in the tenth verse he declares that he is "praying night and day exceedingly
that he may see their face and perfect that which was lacking in their faith."
It is not difficult to see to what he was referring. They had exercised faith
for justification, but not for sanctification: for, he says in the thirteenth
verse. "To the end he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness." In
other words, he longed to see them that he might lead them into the experience
of sanctification, or holiness.

(3) This is still more apparent from what follows. Only three verses later (1
Thessalonians 4:3) he writes: "For this is the will of God, even your
sanctification. That each one of you may know how to possess himself of his own
vessel in sanctification." (1 Thessalonians 4:4) "For God called us not for
uncleanness, but in sanctification." (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

Notice how this is all connected together as a logical and rhetorical whole. "I
desire to see you and perfect your faith, to the end ye may be unblamable in
holiness: FOR this is the will of God even your sanctification: FOR God hath
called us unto sanctification." This is so interlocked and dove-tailed and glued
together that it cannot be pulled apart, or wrenched from its meaning.

(4) In 1 Thessalonians 5:19 we read, "Quench not the Spirit. What has that to do
with this subject? Everything. It is the Spirit who sanctifies, as the Word four
times declares. Our hearts are cleansed through the baptism with the Holy Ghost.
Therefore he that quenches the Spirit defeats the will of God and prevents his
work of grace in the soul.

(5) He says (1 Thessalonians 5:22), "Abstain from every form of evil." And what
bearing has this upon the subject? Very, very much. Only those get sanctified
who abstain from evil and are walking in the light. Start a holiness meeting in
any community: it will be the very best Christians who will be the first at the
altar to seek holiness. Why? Because they are prayerfully walking with God, and
welcome all the light He sends to their hearts. The command is, "Quench not the
Spirit and abstain from all evil," and then the prayer. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

(6) "And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and
soul and body be preserved entire without blame." How much there is in that
wonderful prayer for believers!

(a) You can not get sanctification by your own growth or development or by any
human doings or deservings. The "God of peace himself" does the sanctifying, and
brings the "peace of God that passeth understanding" to the heart.

(b) The verb "sanctify" is in the aorist tense and signifies an instantaneous,
completed action. God sanctifies by one of His own almighty acts in a moment of
time.

(c) He does it "completely;" holoteleis, as the Greek word is, meaning the
whole, to the end of all necessity of our being. The German Bible translates it,
"through and through."

(d) The apostle enlarges upon the completeness of it by saying, "May your spirit
and soul and body be preserved in this sanctification." The Greek word for
"body" means our physical being. The word translated "soul," means the principle
of life, and such faculties as we share with lower animals. The word translated
"Spirit" means that higher spiritual faculty by which we perceive duty and
obligation; by which we know God and our accountability to Him; the faculty
which makes us companions and fellows with angels in the spirit-realm. These
three compose the whole of our being. From the crown of our head to the sole of
our feet there is nothing more of us but our clothes. So completely may God’s
grace sanctify and keep us all!

What a wonderful salvation it is! Carnality slain! The old man crucified! His
vile affections and lusts all gone! The body having only normal appetites and
passions! The soul having clean thoughts and holy desires! The spirit seeing God
and rejoicing in His companionship and presence and love. This is salvation;
this is life; the foretaste and beginning of life eternal.

Then, following this wonderful prayer, is a promise; (1 Thessalonians 5:25)
"Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." Calleth to what? In the
previous chapter, (1 Thessalonians 4:7), he has said that God calls us to
sanctification. Here he says: "Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do
it." Do what? Why, SANCTIFY US. That is what he is writing about, and exhorting
to, and praying for. Nothing can be more evident. A man said, "It took two to
sanctify me." "Who were they?" was asked. "Why, it took me and God." "What did
God do?" "He sanctified me." "What did you do?" "I let him." That is the truth.

It is God’s will that we be sanctified. He calls us to the experience. He will
do it for us if we will let Him. If we will consent to obey God absolutely, to
do and say and be what God wants of us; if we will put our all on God’s altar,
our good things, our soul, body and spirit, mind, heart, will, possessions,
influence, reputation, time, talents, -- all, all to be forever the Lord’s; if
we will consent to walk with Jesus and bear the reproach of holiness in a
godless, Christ-hating world, and look up in faith and prayer that will take no
denial and claim the blessing by faith, the Holy Spirit will be poured out. The
blessing will come; it will not tarry. The willing God will not disappoint his
waiting and expectant child.

We have now found that this second blessing of sanctification is not a theory,
but a matter of experience and of theology, and that it is unmistakably taught
in the Scripture. In conclusion we now turn back to 1 Thessalonians 4:8, and
read it in connection with 1 Thessalonians 4:3 and 1 Thessalonians 4:7. "This is
the will of God even your sanctification: for God hath not called us unto
Uncleanness but unto sanctification." "Therefore he that rejecteth, rejecteth
not man but God, who giveth his Holy Spirit unto you." Rejecteth what?
Sanctification, the blessing he is talking about. The man who rejects it does
not simply reject a doctrine of St. Paul, or an opinion of John Wesley, or of
Finney, or of Carradine or Morrison. You are not rejecting merely a theory of
your poor preacher. You are not dealing with me or any other man. You are
dealing with God. You reject God who giveth His Holy Spirit unto you to sanctify
you. Do not do it, I pray you. Do not quench that Spirit whose work alone can
cleanse your heart and fit you for heaven. The Spirit sanctifies, and without
sanctification "no man shall see the Lord." To grieve Him is always perilous; to
quench Him and fatally resist him is to consign yourself to the realms of
eternal despair.


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  CHAPTER 52: S. WHAT IS MAN THAT THOU ART MINDFUL OF HIM?
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What is Man That Thou Art Mindful of Him? By Aaron Hills

Psalms 8:3-4 : "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon
and the stars which thou hast ordained; What is man that thou art mindful of
him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?" The starry heavens have always
called forth wonder and amazement from thoughtful minds. Every imaginative and
reflecting soul is moved and thrilled by the sight of the splendor of the hosts
of Heaven. David was no exception. When he lay on the Judean plains watching and
guarding his sheep, he was moved by the sublimity of the night. He was led to
exclaim. "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the
stars which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and
the son of man that thou visitest him?"

About five thousand stars are visible to the eye. It seemed wonderful to the
Psalmist that the exalted Being who fills the heavens and whom the Heaven of
heavens cannot contain should waste a thought on such a creature as man. How
much more wonderful would it have seemed to him if he had known some of the
facts revealed by modern science. What if he had been told that this world,
about which he knew so little; was twenty-five thousand miles around, and that
it was whirling at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, and was shooting
through space at the rate of nineteen miles a second, in comparison with which
the swiftest cannon-ball is like motionless rest! What it he had been told that
the sun was more than ninety million miles away, and was fourteen hundred times
larger than our world! Suppose then that David had looked through a modern
telescope that brings five million, five hundred thousand stars within the field
of vision; and had been told that some of those stars were shining with five
thousand times the magnitude and splendor of our sun, and are so far distant
that light, traveling with the inconceivable speed of one hundred and ninety two
thousand miles a second, is fourteen thousand years in reaching this little
speck of a world. If David had known all these revelations of modern science,
how much more would have been his amazement at the fact that God still
condescends to notice man. "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and stars which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou are
mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him?"

I. Notice it is a fact that God is mindful of man very much so. Yea, He is more
mindful of him that of all the glorious stars and suns that shine in all the
firmament of God.

He has no concern for the stars, but He has the deepest concern over the fate of
man. He never wept over burning suns, but He has wept over sinning and suffering
man. He never expended any sympathy on the constellations, but the sorrows of
men have awakened his deepest solicitude. He never visited a distant star to
avert its fate, or alter its doom; but He did visit this far distant little
planet to redeem man from destruction and visit him with the light and glory of
a great salvation. He has proved to a certainty that He bestows more care and
anxious love upon the humblest little babe in the poor man’s cabin than upon all
the material universe.

"Thou madest him a little lower than the angels," but we may add, "Only a
little." We have faculties in kind like theirs. We are hastening on to be their
companions and to stand as peers among them. Yea, "know ye not that we shall
judge angels?" There is a matchless career before us, a destiny bewilderingly
glorious, a growth that will lift us in time above the stature and proportions
of any angels now before the throne of God. This is the stupendous truth at the
bottom of the Holiness Movement. Man is too godlike in his origin, too glorious
in his destiny, to waste himself in a career of sin. If he were only an animal,
he might live as a beast lives on the low plain of animal indulgence. If he were
a thinking machine merely clothed with flesh and blood, his fate would be a
matter of no concern. But he is a child of God, made in the image of God, with a
glorious destiny made possible to him, and crowned with glory and honor! What
honor? The honor of the Son of God assuming his likeness. The additional honor
also of the fact that Jesus, having picked up the poor, ruined, cast-aways of
Satan, saves them, sanctifies them, and is then "not ashamed to call them
brethren."

Surely so great a being as that ought to respect himself enough, and have
sufficient regard for self-interest and the vast possibilities before him, to
refrain from sin. Sin blights, sin destroys, sin damns. One sin hurled the
angels out of Heaven! One sin shut our first parents out of Eden. One sin,
unrepented of, and unforsaken, will shut any of us out of Heaven.

Holiness teachers, then, are on the right track. They hold up the heinousness of
sin, and the glory and beauty of holiness; the measureless growth of a child of
God, and his illimitable possibilities in eternal development; and they cry out
to all with inspired emphasis, "Like as he which calleth you is holy, so be ye
yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written ye shall be
holy; for I am holy."

II. We have seen that God has shown a marvelous and very peculiar interest in
man. We have not adequately pointed out the reasons why. This we will now
proceed to do.

1. Man is a criminal rebel against the government of God It is surprising, when
one stops to think of it, how a great crime fastens upon the criminal the
interest and attention of mankind. There was recently a poor, mean criminal by
the name of Tracey in a western prison, who was practically unknown to men. But
he escaped and defied arrest, and, in fighting for his liberty, held at bay and
evaded his pursuers for a month, killing in the meantime thirteen men. These
foul and revolting crimes fastened upon him the attention of the whole nation,
and he received more notice from the daily press than would be given to a
hundred thousand quiet, law-abiding men. The assassins of Lincoln, Garfield and
McKinley were obscure enough before the commission of their crimes, but their
dastardly deeds fastened upon them the attention of mankind and lifted them to
an immortality of infamy. A thousand ships can ply the peaceful traffic of the
sea in quiet and obscurity, but let one of them lift the black flag of piracy
and begin to wage war upon commerce, and at once this criminal ship elicits the
attention of civilization. The description of this ship, her length, and shape,
and color, and speed, and the number of her crew, become the common knowledge of
mankind; and the navies of the nations will join their efforts to run her down.

Now, man is the rebel and the criminal of the moral universe. He has joined
forces with Satan and the fallen angels in infernal assault upon the government
and empire of God. As such, God and the moral universe bestow on him their
attention, and concern themselves about his fate.

2. Man is sick. Well people receive comparatively little attention. The well
children need but little notice. It is the inmate of the sick chamber that
awakens anxiety and watchfulness, and about the invalid’s couch or chair circles
and swings the life of the home, and perhaps of the whole neighborhood. Now man
is the sick member of the family of God. The angels of the skies, blessed with
the perfect health of Heaven, bend above him and are all ministering spirits
ready to serve. The Father’s heart is touched with sympathy, and the Physician
of Nazareth stands by in readiness to heal.

3. Man is lost. With what quiet uneventfulness the home life moves along in a
blessed monotony for weeks and months and years. But let little Mary toddle off
into the forest, wander among the crags and chasms of the mountain side, and at
once what a sudden end of peace! What a consternation in the home and
neighborhood! How are all peaceful employments abandoned while men and boys turn
out and hunt night and day for the lost. Is there nothing like this in the
spiritual realm? What brought Jesus on His long missionary journey from the
skies? Was it not to seek and to save the lost? The thirty-three years journey
over the inhospitable plains of a Christ-rejecting, heaven-despising,
holiness-hating world, through dark Gethsemane and over the ragged steep of
Calvary, what was it all but a journey after the lost? And God and Heaven are
still engaged in the diligent search after lost, fallen, sick and sinful men.

4. But man is also a sentient being, capable of joy or suffering, and that
eternally. How wonderful does this fact lift our lives into great significance.
Let any millionaire waste his millions in riotous and sense less prodigality,
and no law will stop him -- no hand be lifted to stay his folly. But let that
same man turn around and go to torturing the meanest and most worthless cur that
ever wakened slumber by barking at his shadow in the light of the moon, and at
once he will be arrested for cruelty to animals. The dog has more significance
in the eyes of the law than all his millions, because it can suffer.

Man, measured by such a standard, is of how great a significance! How much
enjoyment is possible to him during the lapse of ages? Not an angel in Heaven
could compute and answer the query. How much could he suffer in the cycles of a
lost eternity? The mind reels in contemplation of the awful problem.

Let us illustrate it. All the vast waters of the Atlantic Ocean could be passed
through an aperture not larger than a straw of wheat. Nothing is needed but an
infinity of time to accomplish the surprising result. President Finney used to
say that one lost soul during the sweep of eternity could suffer, and doubtless
would suffer, more than all the universe has suffered up to the present time.
Nothing but constant suffering and the eternal duration of a lost soul are
needed to reach the appalling result. God, who made man capable of such an
infinitude of joy or suffering, appreciates his importance. The whole physical
universe dwindles into insignificance compared with one single soul capable of
joy or suffering, and that forever.

5, Man is capable of endless development, either in god likeness or the
opposite. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." None of us can ever dimly
conjecture what eternal growth can make of any of us. Sir Isaac Newton was born
so feeble a little babe, only a couple of spans long, that for days he hovered
between two worlds, a mere flutter of life. But in forty years he was
calculating the speed of that light to which his baby eyes so tardily opened,
and was weighing planets and stars in the scales of his mighty intellect! If a
child can make such growth in less than half a century, what will an eternity of
development do for the least of us?

Each lost sinner will some day be a more bloated and horrible monster of
iniquity than Satan is now. And every redeemed saint finally saved will some day
outshine in radiance, and be taller of stature, nobler in growth of godlikeness,
than the mightiest archangel now blazing in glory before the throne of God.

Such reflections as these answer partially, at least, the question, "What is man
that thou art mindful of him?" They lead us to stand in awe before the possible
destiny of man.

Sin is too dangerous to fool with in view of the awful peril involved. Holiness
is too inviting to be neglected in view of the reward -- the infinite prize to
be won. We reiterate once more the ringing words of God, "Like as he who hath
called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of living. Ye shall be holy, for
I am holy."


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-aaron-hills/
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