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Martin Knapp
Martin Wells Knapp (1853–1901) was an American preacher and Methodist minister whose fervent ministry played a pivotal role in the radical wing of the Holiness movement. Born on March 27, 1853, in Albion, Michigan, he was the son of Jared Knapp, a Methodist class-leader who relocated from New York to Michigan in 1836, and Octavia Wells, both committed Christians living in a modest log cabin. Despite his shy nature and limited family resources, Knapp began studies at a Methodist college in Albion at age 17, funded by $50 from the sale of a calf. He worked on the family farm in summers while studying Greek and Latin at night. Converted at 19 through the prayers of his fiancée, Lucy J. Glenn, and his mother’s example, he soon felt called to preach. In 1877, at age 23, he married Lucy and was assigned a circuit by the Methodist Michigan Conference. Knapp’s preaching career was marked by an intense commitment to holiness and revival. He founded God’s Revivalist magazine in 1888, the International Holiness Union and Prayer League in 1897 (later becoming the Pilgrim Holiness Church), and God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1900. His ministry flourished in Cincinnati after moving there in 1892 with his second wife, Minnie C. Ferle, following Lucy’s death in 1890 after a long illness, leaving him with two young children. Knapp’s prolific output included books like Christ Crowned Within (1886) and Revival Tornadoes (1890), alongside establishing a publishing house and the Salvation Park Camp Meeting. He died of typhoid fever in 1901, leaving a legacy as a preacher who ignited spiritual fervor and institutional growth within the Holiness movement.
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Martin Knapp preaches about the double nature of sin, highlighting how it pollutes both the soul and outer life, turning the heart into a den of vile passions and the exterior life into a panorama of dark deeds. He emphasizes the twofold cure for sin: conversion, which includes pardon, adoption, and life in Christ, and entire sanctification, which involves complete cleansing, perfect love, and a witness of holiness. The sermon also delves into the double conditions required for this cure: repentance, which includes sorrow, giving up sin, confession, and faith, and consecration, which involves death to sin, yielding to God, and appropriating faith.
The Double Work
Sin is a double disease. It pollutes the soul and also poisons the outer life. It converts the heart into a den of vile passions and the exterior life into a panorama of dark deeds. It's twofold nature is clearly declared in God's word. (See Ps. 51; Zech. 13:1; 1 John 1:9, and kindred Scriptures.) On these and like texts we base the following diagram which shows the light of the Word on the subject at a glance: THE DOUBLE DISEASE -- I. Actual transgressions. Rom. 3:23. Wrong deeds. Rom. 3:10-18. Wrong life. Gal. 6:8. Bad fruits. Rom. 7:5; Gal. 5:19-21. Evil waters. Jas. 3:10, 11. Guilt. Rom. 3:19. Death. Rom. 5:12. Eternal punishment. Matt. 25:46. II. Inbred sin. Rom. 6:6, and 7:19-24. Wrong tempers. 1 Cor. 3:1- 4. Wrong state. 1 Cor. 2:14. Bad tree. Matt. 3:10; 7:18. Evil fountain. James 3:12; Matt. 5:19. Pollution. Ps. 51:5; 2 Cor. 7:1. Sickness. Isa. 1:5; Luke 5:31. Debars from heaven. Heb. 12:14; Rev. 21:27. THE DOUBLE CURE. -- I. Conversion. Matt. 18:3. Pardon. Isa. 55:7. Adoption. 2 Cor. 6:17, 18. Life. John 3:36. Witness. Rom. 8:16. II. Entire sanctification. 1 Thess. 5:23. Complete cleansing. 1 John 1:9. Perfect love. 1 John 4:18. Witness. Heb. 10:14, 15. THE DOUBLE CONDITIONS:-- I. Repentance. Luke 13:3. Sorrow for sin. Matt. 5:4. Giving up sin. Isa. 1:16. Confession. Prov. 28:13. Appropriating faith. John 3:16. II. Consecration. Rom. 12:1. Death to sin. Rom. 6:6. Yielding to God. Rom. 6:13. Appropriating faith. Heb. 4 3. In the above and like Scriptures actual transgressions and soul defilement are treated as two distinct phases of man's fall. The first refers to what men do, the second to what they are. The first to outward acts, the second to an inner state. The first life defilement, the second heart defilement. The first a result of the second, the second the cause of the first. The first is like eruptions on the outside, the second the scrofulous soul disease, deeper than muscles, bones, marrow, or nerves, in the very center of the soul life. The cure and conditions are mentioned here in connection with the disease, and will be more fully noticed in future chapters. The twofold nature of the disease makes the Double Cure an imperative necessity. The sinner is like a drowning leper. The leper needs a double work: (1) To be rescued from a Watery grave; (2) To be cured of his disease. When a life preserver will cure the leprosy it will be time to discard the double disease, the double conditions, and the Double Cure. The sinner is like a diseased criminal about to be hung for his crime -- he needs the Double Cure of pardon and healing. When a governor's reprieve will cure the consumption, or doctor's prescription secure a pardon, it will be time to overlook this double work of grace. Until then with the sacred bard shall we not continue to sing: "Be of sin the Double Cure, Save from guilt and make us pure."
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Martin Wells Knapp (1853–1901) was an American preacher and Methodist minister whose fervent ministry played a pivotal role in the radical wing of the Holiness movement. Born on March 27, 1853, in Albion, Michigan, he was the son of Jared Knapp, a Methodist class-leader who relocated from New York to Michigan in 1836, and Octavia Wells, both committed Christians living in a modest log cabin. Despite his shy nature and limited family resources, Knapp began studies at a Methodist college in Albion at age 17, funded by $50 from the sale of a calf. He worked on the family farm in summers while studying Greek and Latin at night. Converted at 19 through the prayers of his fiancée, Lucy J. Glenn, and his mother’s example, he soon felt called to preach. In 1877, at age 23, he married Lucy and was assigned a circuit by the Methodist Michigan Conference. Knapp’s preaching career was marked by an intense commitment to holiness and revival. He founded God’s Revivalist magazine in 1888, the International Holiness Union and Prayer League in 1897 (later becoming the Pilgrim Holiness Church), and God’s Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1900. His ministry flourished in Cincinnati after moving there in 1892 with his second wife, Minnie C. Ferle, following Lucy’s death in 1890 after a long illness, leaving him with two young children. Knapp’s prolific output included books like Christ Crowned Within (1886) and Revival Tornadoes (1890), alongside establishing a publishing house and the Salvation Park Camp Meeting. He died of typhoid fever in 1901, leaving a legacy as a preacher who ignited spiritual fervor and institutional growth within the Holiness movement.