{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_6657/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_6657","id":"gutenberg_6657","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6657","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Holiness","Sanctification"],"text":"Produced by Curtis A. Weyant, Charles Franks and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: DOUGAN CLARK, M.D.]\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nTHEOLOGY OF HOLINESS.\n\nBY\n\nDOUGAN CLARK, M. D.\n\nPROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY AND CHURCH\nHISTORY IN EARLHAM COLLEGE, RICHMOND, INDIANA.\n\n\n\nTO THE MEMORY OF\nMY FATHER AND MOTHER,\nDOUGAN AND ASENATH CLARK,\nBOTH FOR MANY YEARS APPROVED\nMINISTERS IN THE FRIENDS' CHURCH,\nAND BOTH LONG SINCE DEPARTED\nTO BE WITH CHRIST, THIS\nBOOK IS LOVINGLY\nDedicated.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n   I. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION A NECESSITY\n  II. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION OBTAINABLE\n III. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN PATRIARCHAL TIMES\n  IV. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN TYPE\n   V. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN PROPHECY\n  VI. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JESUS CHRIST\n VII. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY PAUL\nVIII. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY PETER\n  IX. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JOHN\n   X. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JAMES AND JUDE\n  XI. SANCTIFIED BY GOD THE FATHER\n XII. SANCTIFIED BY GOD THE SON\nXIII. SANCTIFIED BY GOD THE HOLY GHOST\n XIV. SANCTIFIED BY THE TRUTH\n  XV. SANCTIFIED BY FAITH\n XVI. CONCLUSION\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION A NECESSITY.\n\n\n\nScience is a systematic presentation of truth. Theology is the most\nimportant of all sciences. It is the science that treats of God and of\nman in his relation to God. It is a systematic presentation of revealed\ntruth. As the basis of Astronomy is the universe of worlds revealed by\nthe telescope, and as the basis of Geology is the crust of the earth,\nso the basis of Theology is the Divine revelation found in the Holy\nScriptures. The Theology of Entire Sanctification, therefore, is a\nsystematic presentation of the doctrine of entire sanctification as\nderived from the written word of God. Such a presentation we hope--with\nthe help of the Holy Spirit, which we here and now earnestly invoke--to\nattempt to give in this book. May God bless the endeavor, and overrule\nour human weakness, to the glory of His Name. Amen.\n\nIt is a lamentable fact that there is a large class of Christians to\nwhom the subject of entire sanctification is a matter of indifference.\nThey hope, with or without sufficient reason, that their sins are\nforgiven. They propose to live moral and useful lives, and trust, again\nwith or without sufficient reason, that they will go to heaven when\nthey die. The subject of holiness does not interest them. They suppose\nthemselves to be doing well enough without it.\n\nThere are others claiming to be Christians, to whom the subject is even\npositively distasteful. It is an offence to them. They do not want to\nhear it preached. They regard those who claim it as cranks. They look\nupon holiness meetings as being hotbeds of delusion and spiritual\npride. They turn away from the whole subject not only with\nindifference, but with disdain.\n\nThere are still others, and these God's children, as we may charitably\nbelieve, who do not even regard holiness as a desirable thing. They\nassert that it is needful and salutary to retain some sin in the heart\nas long as we live, in order to keep us humble. It is true that they\nare never able to tell how much sin it takes to have this beneficial\neffect, but a certain amount they are bent on having.\n\nAnother class takes the opposite view. They regard holiness as very\ndesirable, and a very lovely thing to gaze upon and think upon, but\nthey also regard it as quite impossible of attainment. They hope to\ngrow towards it all the days of their lives, and to get it at the\nmoment of death. Not sooner than the dying hour, do they believe any\nhuman being can be made holy. Not till death is separating the soul\nfrom the body can even God Himself separate sin from the soul. The\nwhole doctrine of entire sanctification, therefore, they regard as a\nbeautiful theory, but wholly impossible as an experience, and wholly\nimpracticable as a life.\n\nIn general terms, we may say that carnal Christians, as described by\nPaul in I. Corinthians 3:1-4, are opposed to the doctrine of entire\nsanctification. \"The carnal mind is enmity against God,\" and the\ncarnal mind is irreconcilably opposed to holiness. This opposition may\ntake one of the forms already described, or, possibly, some other forms\nwhich have been overlooked, but the root of the hostility is the same\nin all. Wherever \"our old man\" has his home in a Christian's heart,\nthere entire sanctification will be rejected.\n\nBut we must not forget that there are many exceptions. There are\nthousands of sincere, believing hearts in all Christian denominations,\nin whom inbred sin still exists, but not with the consent of the will.\nThey are tired--very tired of the tyrant that rules them, or of the\nceaseless struggles by which, with God's added and assisting grace,\nthey are enabled to keep him under. They long for deliverance. They are\nhungering for full salvation, and rejoice to hear the message of entire\nsanctification through the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. The\nLord bless all these hungering multitudes, and give them the desire of\ntheir hearts by saving them to the uttermost, and may their numbers be\nvastly increased, so that the banner of Christ's church may everywhere\nbe unfurled--the banner on which is inscribed the glorious motto of\nHoliness to the Lord.\n\nNow we meet all objections to the doctrine of entire\nsanctification--whether in the form of indifference, or dislike, or\nundesirableness, or impossibility--with the simple proposition, It is\nnecessary. If this proposition can be established, all objections, of\nwhatever character, must fall to the ground, and the eager cry of every\nChristian heart must be, How can I obtain that priceless blessing which\nis essential to my eternal bliss, which is indispensable, and without\nwhich I shall never see the Lord?\n\nFor this is the language of the Holy Ghost in Heb. 12:14, \"Follow peace\nwith all men, and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord,\"\nand in the Revised Version, \"Follow after peace with all men, and the\nsanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.\" This can mean\nnothing short of entire sanctification, or the removal of inbred sin.\nAnd, surely, it is hardly necessary to argue the question as to the\nindispensableness of this blessed experience, in order to gain an\nentrance into heaven. Everyone will admit that God Himself is a\nperfectly and absolutely holy Being, and He has ever told His followers\nin all ages, \"Be ye holy for I am holy\"--making His own perfect and\nentire holiness the sufficient reason for requiring the same quality\nin His people. And, although the holiness of the highest created being\nwill always fall infinitely short of that of the Infinite God, as\nregards quantity, it will be the same _in quality_, for Jesus\ntells us, \"Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect,\"\nnot, of course, with the unmeasurable amount of perfection which\nappertains to Him, but with the same kind of perfection so far as it\ngoes. And again in Rev. 21:27, we are told that \"There shall in no wise\nenter into it\" (the heavenly city) \"anything that defileth, neither\nwhatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie.\" Heaven is a holy\nplace, and occupied with none but holy inhabitants.\n\nBut if holiness of heart is a necessity in order that we may reach the\nblissful abode of the glory land, when is this stupendous blessing to\nbe obtained? It is by no means, thoughtlessly, that I write obtained\nand not attained. It is very generally spoken of as an attainment, and\nthis form of expression has a tendency to discourage the seeker by\nmagnifying the difficulty of receiving this blessing. The thought\ncontained in the word attainment is that of something earnestly striven\nfor, struggled after, persistently pursued with much labor and toil and\neffort, until, at last, the coveted prize is attained. A very few of\nthe multitudes who went to California, soon after gold was discovered\nthere, attained fortune; but it was after years of hard labor and\nprivation and hardship. The majority died on the way, or while mining\nfor the precious metal, or returned as poor as they went.\n\nOn the other hand, the idea of an obtainment is simply that of a gift.\nAnd entire sanctification is precisely a gift, \"merely this and nothing\nmore.\" It is not received by struggle, nor effort, nor merit of our\nown; it is not a great and laborious enterprise to be undertaken; not\nthe fruit of a long journey or a perilous voyage; not by doing, nor\ntrying, nor suffering, nor resolving, nor achieving, but by stretching\nout the hand of faith and taking. Praise the Lord.\n\nAnd, therefore, we ask again when is this indispensable gift to be\nobtained? The Roman Catholic and the Restorationist answer, in\npurgatorial fire, or in some kind of a second probation after death.\nBut the Holy Scriptures tell us absolutely nothing either of a\npurgatory or a post-mortem probation. On the contrary, they clearly\nteach us that our destiny for all eternity is to be determined in one\nprobation, which is allotted to us in the present life. Let no one\nsuppose, for a moment, that he can be made fit for heaven at any time,\nnor in any place, nor by any means, after he has left this mundane\nsphere. \"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of\nsalvation.\"\n\nBut all the Calvinistic churches by their creeds, and also a large\nportion of the membership of Arminian denominations, without regard to\ntheir creeds, if asked when are we to obtain entire sanctification as\nan essential meetness for heaven, would answer, at death. The\nprevailing idea on this subject, among Christian believers, seems to be\nas follows: First, through repentance toward God and faith toward our\nLord Jesus Christ, we are converted. Our past sins are pardoned, and we\nare born again. After that, our sole business is to grow in grace, and\nby this growth to approach nearer and nearer to the standard of entire\nsanctification, but never even suppose that we can reach that standard\nuntil the moment of death.\n\nNow, grace is the gift of God, and we cannot, possibly, grow in grace\nuntil we receive it. And we can never grow into grace, but grow in it\nafter we get it. We can grow, it is true, in the grace of justification\nto a limited degree and for a limited time. The degree is limited\nbecause of the presence of inbred sin, which is the great, if indeed,\nnot the only hindrance of growth. The time is limited in most cases, at\nleast, because if the justified Christian is brought to see the need\nand the possibility of entire sanctification, and yet fails, as so many\ndo, to enter into the blessing, because of unbelief, he is very prone\neither to backslide, in which case, of course, there will be a\ncessation of growth, or, like the Galatians, he will submit to the\nbondage of legalism, and after having begun in the Spirit, he will seek\nto be perfected in the flesh; in which case Paul's verdict to that\nbeloved church was not ye are growing in grace, but, \"ye are fallen\nfrom grace.\"\n\nIt is plain, therefore, that we can never grow into the blessing of\nentire sanctification. That blessing is to be received by faith, as the\ngift of God in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit; and when the\ngrace has once been obtained in this manner, then we can grow in it\nindefinitely and for a lifetime, possibly even for an eternity. Growth\nin grace is a most blessed thing in its right place, and when rightly\nunderstood and experienced, but it can never bring us to the death of\nthe old man, nor to the experience of entire sanctification.\n\nAnd as growth cannot do this, neither can death. Death is nowhere\nmentioned in Scripture as a sanctifier. Death can separate the soul\nfrom the body, but to separate sin from the soul is a work which God\ncan only do. Jesus Christ is our sanctification, and the Holy Spirit is\nour sanctifier, and even if the work is performed in the article of\ndeath, it is still the Holy Spirit and not death that performs it. And\nif He can perform it in the hour and article of death, where is the\nhindrance to His performing it a week, a month, a year, or forty years\nbefore death--if only the conditions are fulfilled on our part. Do we\nsay that He cannot perform it before death; then where is His\nomnipotence? Do we say that He will not do it before death; then where\nis His own holiness? In either case, we dishonor God and rob ourselves\nof an inestimable and indispensable blessing. God save us from such\nfolly.\n\nScripture, reason and experience, therefore, all unite in the sentiment\nthat entire sanctification is to be sought and obtained now, and if\nnow, then it is to be obtained instantaneously, and if instantaneously\nand now, it follows, also, that it is to be obtained by faith, and from\nthese premises the further conclusion is logically deducible, that we\ncannot make ourselves any better in order to receive it, but that we\nmust take it as we are. And so we arrive at and adopt the pithy precept\nof John Wesley, \"Expect it by faith--expect it as you are--expect it\nnow.\"\n\nIn these remarks we have necessarily anticipated some things which\nbelong more accurately to the next chapter; but we are not seeking so\nmuch for a perfectly methodical arrangement, as for a clear and\nScriptural presentation of the subject. And we proceed to affirm now\nthat entire sanctification is not only essential as the condition of\nentering heaven, but that it is also necessary for the highest results\nof the Christian life on earth. It is not only an indispensable\nblessing to die by, but, if we would fulfill our Father's will in this\nworld, it is indispensable to live by.\n\nBut before leaving entirely the subject of growth in grace, having\ndemonstrated, as we trust, that we can never grow into entire\nsanctification, we ought, perhaps, to explain what we mean by the\nstatement that we can grow indefinitely in that precious grace after,\nand not before, we receive it. Entire sanctification has two sides or\naspects. It has a positive side and a negative side. Its negative side\nis the removal of inbred sin, and is, therefore, a matter of\nsubtraction. And herein, we may remark in passing, is a characteristic\ndifference between entire sanctification and regeneration. The latter\nis a matter of addition, because it implies the impartation of a new\nlife to the soul which has hitherto been \"dead in trespasses and sins.\"\nNow in this negative aspect of entire sanctification there can be no\ngrowth. If a heart is pure it cannot be more pure. If it is free from\nsin it cannot be more free from sin. An empty vessel, as some one has\nsaid, cannot be more empty. There can be no increase in purity.\n\nBut the positive side of entire sanctification is perfect love, and\nthis is a relative expression. It does not mean that all who possess it\nmust have an equal amount of love. Perfect love to each individual is\njust his own heart--not some one else's heart--being filled with love.\nOne individual may have a greater capacity of loving than another, just\nas he may have a greater capacity of seeing or of working. Perfect love\nin a child would not be perfect love in a man; and perfect love in a\nman would not be perfect love in an angel. And perfect love may\nincrease in the same individual so that what is perfect love today may\nnot be perfect love to-morrow. As we commune with God and work with\nHim, as we get more and more acquainted with Christ and With the Holy\nSpirit, and see more of the infinite attractions of the Triune God, how\nis it possible that we should not love Him more and more? \"There will\nnever be a time in earth nor in Heaven,\" says the late Dr. Upham, \"when\nthere may not be an increase of holy love.\" On the positive side of\nentire sanctification, then, there may be and will be growth\nindefinitely and everlastingly. And this is the true growth in grace,\nabout which much more could be said, but we leave it for the present,\nto resume our main theme of the necessity of entire sanctification in\nthis life as well as the life to come.\n\nWe make a definite statement as follows, viz: No Christian can do all\nthat God would have him do, nor enjoy all that God would have him enjoy\nin this world, without the grace of entire sanctification. In the\nbeautiful language of metaphor the Saviour says, \"I am the true Vine\nand My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not\nfruit He taketh away, and every branch in Me that beareth fruit He\npurgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.\" And again, \"Herein is\nMy Father glorified that ye bear much fruit: so shall ye be My\ndisciples.\" Now the abundant fruit requires for its production the\nabundant life, and these are both found in the Lord Jesus Christ. \"I am\ncome,\" says He, \"that ye might have life (in regeneration) and that ye\nmight have it more abundantly\" (in entire sanctification). The abundant\nlife and the abundant fruit, therefore, can only be found in connection\nwith purity of heart.\n\nIt is doubtless _true_ that every living branch, that is to say,\nevery justified and regenerated believer, may and should and must, if\nhe would retain his religion, bring forth some fruit. And it is\nprecisely these branches that are bearing fruit, whom the Great\nHusbandman \"purges\"--sanctifies--that they may bring forth the more\nabundant fruit by which He Himself shall be glorified. And here we\nmight rest our case with a Q. E. D., but another remark or two will be\nin place.\n\nThe late Lord Tennyson could perceive, with the genius of a poet, the\nintimate connection between purity and power. He puts into the mouth of\nSir Galahad, one of his heroes, these beautiful words, viz:\n\n \"My strength is as the strength of ten,\n  Because my heart is pure.\"\n\nNow one of the most common complaints among Christians of all\ndenominations, is because of their weakness and their leanness. And yet\nnothing is clearer than that God has promised to make His people\nstrong, that He has commanded them to be strong in the Lord, and that\nnot to be strong is even blameworthy, not to say criminal in His sight.\nThe reason, then, of our weakness and our leanness and the meagreness\nof our fruitage, can be nothing else than because we do not fulfill the\nconditions on which He promises to make us strong. One of these\nconditions, and an indispensable one, is that we be entirely\nsanctified. It is they that know their God, both in conversion and\nentire sanctification, both in pardon and purity, that shall \"be strong\nand do exploits.\" Beloved, if you would accomplish the work that God\nhas given you to do, and not have to regret its non-accomplishment in\neternity, even if you are saved so as by fire, seek and find that which\nis the essential condition, and ask at once to be wholly sanctified.\n\nAnd if you would have the fullness of joy, even the joy of an uttermost\nsalvation, the peace that passeth understanding, the fellowship with\nthe Father and with His son, Jesus Christ, the sealing and anointing of\nthe Spirit, the white stone and the new name, the abiding presence of\nthe indwelling Comforter, then pray that the very God of Peace may here\nand now sanctify you wholly. Amen.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION OBTAINABLE.\n\n\n\nThis would seem to follow as a necessary corollary from what has been\nsaid in the preceding chapter. If entire sanctification has been proved\nto be not a matter of option but a matter of necessity; if we cannot\nattain to the highest results in Christian privilege, nor in Christian\nenjoyment, nor in Christian service without this blessed experience,\nand if, at the end, we cannot be admitted into the celestial city\nunless we possess it, surely we cannot doubt for a moment that our\ngracious Heavenly Father has provided a way by which this indispensable\nrequisite both for time and for eternity may be received.\n\nBut before discussing this proposition in detail let us have a clear\nunderstanding of what is meant by entire sanctification, and, as a\npreliminary, let us study a few simple theological definitions.\n\nIn the first place, my reader will have no difficulty in believing that\nI fully accept the Arminian doctrine of the universality of the\natonement. The sacrifice of Christ is sufficient for the salvation of\nall mankind, and its benefits are offered to all. \"He tasted death for\nevery man.\" But it does not follow that all men will be saved, and this\nfor the reason that the atonement is not unconditional but conditional.\nIt is offered to all, and all are invited and entreated to accept it.\nBut it is available only in the case of those who believe. \"He that\nbelieveth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be\ncondemned.\" A universal atonement, therefore, does not by any means\nimply a universal salvation.\n\nRedemption is a term of broad and varied application. It is either\ngeneral or special. In one sense it is as broad as atonement. Atonement\nis for sin; redemption is from sin and from all the sad results of sin.\nIn its more special meaning it is applicable only to those who accept\nthe atonement. For these it implies release from the bondage of the\nwill under the law of sin and death, or justification and regeneration.\nIt brings also release from the power and existence of depravity or\nentire sanctification. It promises, in the future, the complete\nglorification of the saints in body, soul and spirit at God's right\nhand, and the deliverance of the creation itself from the \"bondage of\ncorruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.\"\n\nThe first condition on which the benefits of the atonement are offered\nto the sinner is repentance. Both the Saviour Himself and His\nforerunner began their public ministry with words of like import, viz:\n\"Repent ye and believe the gospel.\" Repentance does not mean penance--not\na voluntary sacrifice in our own will for an expiation of sin--nor\nis it merely sorrow for our past sins, although \"godly sorrow\" is one\nof the elements of true repentance. The sorrow of the world may produce\nremorse, that continual biting which tortures the soul of the lost; but\nremorse is not repentance, and the sorrow of the world worketh not life\nbut death. True repentance involves a change of mind, a change of\npurpose, a change of will, and implies not only a godly sorrow for\nsin--sorrow not only because the sin has resulted in physical or mental or\nfinancial or reputational disaster--but because it has grieved the\nSpirit of our God; and it implies not only sorrow for our sin but the\ndetermination to forsake it as well. It is the afterthought, and\ninvolves both regret for what we have done and the purpose to do so no\nmore.\n\nThe next, and specially indispensable, condition for receiving the\nbenefits of the atonement is faith. This means nothing more nor less\nthan taking God at His word. We are assured that without faith it is\nimpossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe \"that\nHe is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.\"\n\"Faith is the substance of things hoped for,\" because it makes them\nreal. It is \"the evidence of things not seen\" because it convinces the\nmind of their actual existence. It is true that all men believe\nsomething, and, therefore, that all men have faith. It is not true that\nall men believe God, and, therefore, not true that all men have saving\nfaith.\n\nAnd here we must make a distinction. Faith is often said to be the gift\nof God, and in the sense of the grace of faith, or the power of\nbelieving, this is true. But the act of faith is the actual exercise of\nthe power of believing, which God has given us. It involves the putting\nforth of the choosing power of the human will, that we may accept the\nsalvation which is offered us. God has given to us all the faith\nfaculty, just as He has given to us the seeing faculty. In the one\ncase, as in the other, we are responsible for the exercise of the\nfaculty thus given. The proper object of the seeing faculty is the\nworld around us, with all its multiplicity of existences. We may open\nour eyes and see or we may close them and fail to see. The proper\nobject of the faith faculty is truth, and especially gospel truth, the\ntruth of salvation through a crucified and risen Lord. We may exercise\nour believing power and accept this great salvation or we may close our\nfaith-eyes, and fail to see and believe, and this to our eternal loss.\n\nFor God commands us to believe and holds us responsible for obedience\nto that as to all other of His commands. The fact of the command\ninvolves the power to obey. Our will, therefore, our choosing power,\nmust be put on the believing side, and not on the side of unbelief. It\nis not that we are required to believe without evidence. It is that our\ndepraved hearts are not willing to believe when the evidence is ample.\nAnd, therefore, our eternal destiny is made to hinge on our obedience\nto the positive command, \"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.\" The great\nand crying sin of our fallen humanity is unbelief. It is this that has\nsundered us, as a race, from our union with God, and it is faith which\nis to be the bond by which we may again be reunited to Him. \"He that\nbelieveth not the Son is condemned already.\"\n\nRepentance and faith are the conditions on which God promises to give\nus the grace of justification. This is pardon for all our past sins.\nGod, for Christ's sake, looks upon us as though we had not sinned. He\naccounts us just, for Jesus' sake, although we are not just in reality.\nAnd herein it is that gospel justification differs from legal\njustification. The individual who is accused of crime and who is\nbrought into court and determined, by a jury of his peers, not to be\nguilty, is at once acquitted and released from all penalty. He is\njustified solely on the ground of his innocence. But no man ever has\nbeen or ever will be justified in the court of heaven on the ground of\nhis innocence. Every responsible human being has broken the law of God.\n\"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.\" And none of those\nwho have broken the law can be justified by the law, that is to say,\nnot one. The law justifies those, and those only, who keep it. None of\nus have kept it, not one of the race of men save only the man Christ\nJesus. The law condemns all those who break it. All the race of men\nhave broken it save only the man Christ Jesus. Therefore, all are under\ncondemnation. But condemnation is incompatible with justification.\nTherefore, again, \"by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be\njustified.\"\n\nAre we not, then, in an absolutely hopeless condition? We should be so\nbut for Christ. But, blessed be God, \"He hath found a ransom.\" \"All we\nlike sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way,\nand the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.\" Jesus Christ\n\"Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.\" And so it comes to\npass that we can be freely justified by His grace, not because of our\ninnocency but because He bore the penalty in our stead. He took the\nplace which was rightfully ours and that is on the cross. He procured\nfor us the place which was and is rightfully His, and that is at God's\nright hand. He suffered what we deserved, and by that very suffering He\nmade us partakers of what He deserves. Glory forever to His Holy Name!\n\nBy the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, therefore, justice is\nsatisfied, and the penalty of the broken law is removed. God is\ninfinitely merciful, but He is also infinitely just. He loves the\nsinner with a boundless love, but He hates the sin with a boundless\nhate. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and will not look\nupon sin with the smallest degree of allowance. His mercy and His love\nmay compassionate the sinner, but this will be of no avail so long as\nHis justice is against him. \"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do\nright?\"\n\nBut in the marvelous plan of salvation by a crucified and risen Lord,\nboth the attributes of mercy and justice are enlisted on behalf of the\nsinner. The mercy of God pardons Him, the justice of God justifies Him,\nand all for Jesus' sake. \"Mercy and truth have met together,\nrighteousness and peace have kissed each other.\" \"God can be just and\nthe justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.\" \"If we confess our sins\nHe is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.\" And in accordance with\nthe way of salvation which He Himself has devised, we can now plead\nwith Him that He would be unjust not to forgive us when we have\ncomplied with these conditions. And so we arrive at the conclusion that\njustification is an act of God's grace by which our sins are pardoned\nfor the sake of Jesus Christ. And this act is instantaneous. God does\nnot pardon sins gradually, nor one at a time, nor by piecemeal, but to\nevery one who repents and believes, He utters the gracious language,\n\"Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee.\" As if by a single\nstroke of the recording angel's pen, the whole dark record is blotted\nout forever. \"As far as the east is from the west so far hath He\nremoved our transgressions from us.\" Glory.\n\nRegeneration is a work of grace which always accompanies justification.\nGod does not justify a sinner without, at the same time, giving him a\nnew life. This new life is a spiritual life imparted to the soul, which\nbefore was dead in trespasses and sins, by the Divine energy of the\nHoly Ghost. If a sinner should be pardoned, without, at the same time,\nreceiving a new nature, he would inevitably fall into sin again. His\nlifetime on earth would be spent in sinning and repenting. But our\nmerciful Father having for Christ's sake looked upon him as just and\nrighteous, when he was not so in reality, now bestows upon him a new\nnature which is just and righteous. He makes him a partaker, indeed, of\nthe Divine nature, and that is a nature which is holy and just and\ngood. And this is the new birth. Men may be full of physical life and\nof intellectual life, but until they are born from above they are\ntotally destitute of spiritual life. Regeneration, therefore, is that\nact of God's grace by which we are born again.\n\nAdoption is the reception of the newly justified and regenerated\nbeliever into the family of God. No longer enemies, nor even strangers\nand foreigners, those who have accepted Christ as their Saviour, now\nreceive the adoption of sons. They become the children of God by faith\nin Jesus Christ. This is their pedigree and they rejoice to declare it.\nA human governor or ruler may pardon a guilty criminal, and grant him a\nreprieve, but he never takes him into his own family. He may forgive\nthe guilty one, but he cannot bestow upon him a new nature, nor can he\nconsent to recognize him as a brother or a son. But God not only\nremits the sins of those whom He saves, He not only delivers them from\nwrath and from punishment, but He gives them a new nature by which they\ncan respond to His love, and He takes them into His own household as\nchildren and heirs, yea, as joint heirs with Jesus Christ. \"Ye are all\nthe children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.\"\n\nThe witness of the Spirit is something not easily defined, but it is\nwell known by those who experience it. It is an impression or\nconsciousness wrought into the mind of the believer by the Holy Ghost,\nwhich gives him the satisfactory assurance that he is a child of God.\nBefore this, he believes, now he knows. This witness, therefore,\nexpels doubt and infuses into the heart of the new-born child of God, a\ncalm, definite and indisputable persuasion that all is now right\nbetween himself and his Heavenly Father. \"The Spirit Himself beareth\nwitness with our spirit that we are the children of God.\" \"Ye have\nreceived the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.\" \"And\nbecause ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into\nyour hearts, crying, Abba, Father.\"\n\nNow the graces that have been mentioned, namely, justification,\nregeneration, adoption and the witness of the Spirit, are all received\nco-instantaneously. They always accompany each other, and whoever has\none of them has them all. The witness of the Spirit, it is true, is not\nalways a constant experience. It may be intermittent, but,\nnevertheless, whenever it is present, it accompanies or attends the\nother experiences to which we have alluded. And we may add that all\nthese graces are but different aspects of the same salvation and are\nproperly and conveniently designated, in common language, by the single\nterm conversion, which term, therefore, must be understood to include\nand imply justification, regeneration, adoption and the witness of the\nSpirit. It is proper, also, in this connection to remark that\nconversion is always a definite and instantaneous event, and never a\nprolonged process. Just so certainly as every human being that comes\ninto this world has a definite, natural birthday, so every one that\ncomes into the kingdom of God has a definite, spiritual birthday. Some\npeople do not know when their natural birthday occurs, nevertheless,\nthey know that they have been born. Some Christians do not know when\ntheir spiritual birthday occurs. Nevertheless, they know that they\nhave been born again. Conversion is the crossing of a definite line\nout of Satan's kingdom into God's kingdom. There is no half-way ground,\nthere is no neutral territory, there is no place where a man can\ntruthfully say, I am neither converted nor unconverted. One moment he\nis out of the ark of safety, the next moment he is in it.\n\nEntire sanctification is an act of God's grace by which inbred sin is\nremoved and the heart made holy. Inbred sin or inherited depravity is\nthe inward cause of which our outward sins are the effects. It is the\nbitter root of which actual sins are the bitter fruits. It is the\nnatural evil tendency of the human heart in our fallen condition. It is\nthe being of sin which lies back of the doing of sin. It is that within\nus which says No, to God, and Yes, to Satan. It exists in every human\nbeing that comes into the world as a bias or proclivity to evil. It is\ncalled in the New Testament, the flesh, the body of sin, our old man,\nsin that dwelleth in me, and the simple term sin in the singular\nnumber. In the Old Testament it is called sin and iniquity. \"Behold,\"\nsays David, \"I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive\nme.\" And when the Seraph brought the live coal and laid it upon the\nmouth of Isaiah, the prophet, his words were, \"Lo, this hath touched\nthy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged.\"\n\nNow all Christian denominations are agreed as to the real existence of\nthis inbred sin and also as to the fact that it is not removed at\nconversion. \"This infection of nature doth remain,\" says the Anglican\nConfession, \"yea, even in them that have been regenerated.\" Most church\ncreeds, indeed, give no reason to expect, and most Christian believers\ndo not expect to be rid of sin till near or in the hour of death. And\nit is regarded as serious heresy in some quarters for a man to either\npreach or claim that the blood of Jesus Christ does really cleanse from\nall sin.\n\nBut God has in every age and in every dispensation required His\nchildren to be holy. And to be holy signifies the destruction or\nremoval of inbred sin, nothing more and nothing less and nothing else\nthan that. How this is accomplished will be discussed further on, but\nhere we say that the removal of innate depravity is entire\nsanctification, and that God has most surely made provision in the\natonement of Jesus Christ for the removal of innate depravity.\nTherefore, He has made provision for entire sanctification, and,\ntherefore again, this wondrous grace is obtainable. Inbred sin goes\nback to the fall of man in the garden of Eden. If not as old as the\nhuman race, it is at least as old as the fall. Since sin entered\nthrough the beguiling of our mother, Eve, by the serpent, inbred sin\nhas existed as a unit of evil in every child of Adam and Eve. The only\nexception is the man, Christ Jesus, the God man, the Divine man, the\npromised seed that should bruise the serpent's head. But as He, the\nLord Jesus Christ, was manifested to destroy the works of the devil,\nand as inbred sin is one of the works of the devil, therefore its\ndestruction is provided for in the atonement, and, therefore, still\nagain, entire sanctification is obtainable.\n\nThe simplest meaning of the word sanctify is to separate or to devote\nto sacred uses. It has this signification nearly always in the Old\nTestament and in a few passages in the New. In other words, whatever is\nconsecrated is sanctified in this limited sense. But from the primary\nmeaning is easily derived its secondary and prominent meaning, of\nseparation from all sin, inward as well as outward, and this is what\nPaul calls being sanctified wholly. It is entire sanctification as\ndistinguished from partial sanctification. This latter appertains to\nall Christians, and is technically so used in the New Testament. The\nformer is the experience of those, and those only, from whom inbred sin\nhas been removed.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN PATRIARCHAL TIMES.\n\n\n\nFor the first twenty-five centuries after the creation of man, he was\nwithout a written law. So far, at least, as the descendants of Seth are\nconcerned, the government, during those early times, seems to have been\npatriarchal. The father of a family retained his authority over his\nchildren and his children's children so long as he lived, and when he\ndied, the branch families did not separate, but continued their\nallegiance to some other patriarch, usually the eldest son of the\nformer. A number of families under their respective patriarchs\nconstituted a tribe, and from the family patriarchs was selected a\nprince for the whole tribe. Among the antediluvian patriarchs were\nAdam, Seth, Enoch and Noah. Those after the flood were Noah, Abraham,\nIsaac, Jacob and each of the twelve sons of Jacob. After Jacob's death,\nit is most likely that Joseph acted, in some sense, as the prince of\nthe tribe during his lifetime. Then came slavery and oppression and\ndeliverance through Moses, and the giving of the law.\n\nAs God's revelation to man has been progressive, first just a few\nfaint streaks of light that usher in the dawn, then broad daylight and\nsunrise, and finally the meridian splendor of the noontide, we are not\nto expect, in these early times, the full and distinct teaching on the\nsubject of holiness, which we find in the Mosaic law, in the writings\nof the prophets, and especially and super-eminently in the New\nTestament. The word holy does not occur in the book of Genesis, and the\nword sanctify is found only once, where Jehovah blessed the seventh day\nand sanctified it.\n\nAnd yet there are, even in these patriarchal times, several narratives\nof extreme interest, which give us glimpses, at least, of the purpose\nof God that His people should be holy, and we even find intimations of\nHis method of sanctification, by conferring it as a second experience\nupon His already saved children, as is so clearly revealed in the New\nTestament.\n\n\"And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.\" Such is\nthe record in Genesis, but when we turn to the eleventh of Hebrews, the\nfaith chapter, we find that \"by faith Enoch was translated that he\nshould not see death; and was not found because God had translated him,\nfor; before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased\nGod.\" Now, if Enoch, even amid the wickedness of antediluvian ages,\nwalked with God and pleased God, and was translated that he should not\nsee death, there surely can be no reasonable doubt that he was a holy\nman, an entirely sanctified man, and hence one whose sins had been\nwashed away in the blood of the lamb, that was \"slain from the\nfoundation of the world.\"\n\n\"Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations; and Noah walked\nwith God.\" The prophet Amos exclaims most pertinently, \"Can two walk\ntogether unless they be agreed?\" It is certain, therefore, that God and\nNoah were agreed, but God, who is infinitely pure and holy, can never\nbe agreed with any person or anything that is unholy. Hence, whatever\nmay be the proper signification of the word perfect, as applied to\nGod's children in Old Testament times, we can scarcely avoid the\nconclusion that Noah was a holy man, an entirely sanctified man, and\nthis notwithstanding his subsequent error in regard to drinking too\nmuch wine, of whose ill effects we may, charitably, suppose he may have\nbeen, up to the time of this sad experience, ignorant.\n\nAbraham dwelt with his father, Terah, who was an idolater, in Ur of the\nChaldees, when he received the call of God to go entirely away from\nhis kindred and his father's house, and depart into a land of\nseparation, a land which the Lord would show him. He obeyed the call,\nand this typifies conversion. He went out not knowing whither he went,\nbut only knowing that the Lord was leading him. At his first move, he\nwas accompanied by his father. And he came out of his native land, it\nis true, but not yet into the promised land. \"He came to Haran and\ndwelt there,\" or to give the record in full, \"And Terah took Abraham,\nhis son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his\ndaughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth with them\nfrom Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came\nunto Haran and dwelt there.\"\n\nContinuing the account in his dying oration, the martyr Stephen says,\n\"And from thence when his father was dead, he removed him into this\nland, wherein ye now dwell,\" but in Genesis the statement is, \"And\nAbram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their\nsubstance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in\nHaran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the\nland of Canaan they came.\" The last tie of nature was sundered when the\nold man died, and then Abram took the second step, which brought him\ninto the promised land. There are two distinct stages in his experience\nbefore he reached the place, which God designed him to occupy. And\nthese we may as well regard as typical, if nothing more, of the first\nexperience under the gospel--that of regeneration--and of the second\nexperience as well, which is entire sanctification.\n\nIn the history of Abraham, a very beautiful and mysterious episode\noccurs, and that is the story of his transient but highly important\nmeeting with Melchizedek, after his successful expedition against the\nkings, who had despoiled Sodom and carried away his nephew, Lot. The\nsacred narrative is as follows, viz.: \"And Melchizedek, king of Salem,\nbrought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High\nGod. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High\nGod, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be the Most High God,\nwhich hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him\ntithes of all.\" No other mention is made of Melchizedek until David\nwrites the 110th Psalm, and this was nearly one thousand years after\nAbraham. The Psalmist writing by inspiration, and alluding beyond all\nreasonable doubt to the Messiah, says, \"The Lord hath sworn and will\nnot repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.\"\nAnd then, again, the inspired record drops Melchizedek out of sight,\nas it were, for another thousand years, and then once more brings him\nto the front in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he is described in\nglowing language as \"first being by interpretation King of\nrighteousness, and after that, also, King of Salem, which is king of\npeace; without father, without mother, without genealogy (R. V.) having\nneither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the son\nof God, abideth a priest continually.\"\n\nComparing, then, the different allusions to this most remarkable\npersonage, the following inferences seem fairly deducible therefrom:\n(1) Melchizedek, being made like unto the Son of God, is preeminently\nthe Old Testament type of the Lord Jesus Christ in his kingly and\npriestly offices. Both Melchizedek and Christ are priests, and yet the\nformer is not of the chosen family. He is a Canaanite. He is,\nunquestionably, greater than Abraham. Of his origin, his ancestry and\nhis descendants, we have no account. He brought forth bread and wine.\nSo did his antitype at the Last Supper. The priesthood of Melchizedek\nwas before that of Aaron. Aaron was a Levite, and Levi paid tithes to\nMelchizedek in Abraham, his ancestor. And the author of the Epistle to\nthe Hebrews argues most conclusively that since Melchizedek was without\nbeginning or end, and greater than Abraham, and with a priesthood that\nexisted centuries before the Levitical priesthood was instituted,\ntherefore Christ, his great antitype, who is from everlasting to\neverlasting, and who hath an unchangeable priesthood, is to abolish the\nAaronic priesthood, whose institution was for a temporary purpose, and\nwas fulfilled when Christ came, who was a priest not after the order of\nAaron because He belonged to another tribe, but a priest forever after\nthe order of Melchizedek.\n\nBut Melchizedek was not only a priest, he was also a king. And it was\nnot only in his everlasting priesthood, but in his regal office also,\nthat he was a type of the Messiah. David was a prophet and a king,\nEzekiel was a prophet and a priest, Jesus, only, combined in His own\nperson the three offices of prophet, priest and king.\n\nNow, if Melchizedek was priest of the Most High God, if he was greater\nthan Abraham, if he was a type of Jesus Christ in His kingly and\npriestly offices, it is impossible not to regard him as a holy man. He\nwas cleansed from all sin. He was sanctified wholly. He was made like\nunto the Son of God, and the Son of God is eternally holy. Praise His\nname. It is, surely, cause of devout thankfulness, that even in those\nprimitive and patriarchal times, when the earth was full of wickedness\nand violence, that even then God had His witnesses to experimental and\npractical holiness.\n\nBefore leaving this point of the eternal priesthood of Christ, let me\nremark that it was a sad day for His Church when the idea became\nprevalent, that ministers of the gospel are in any official sense to be\nregarded as priests. This serious error may have been derived, in part,\nfrom Judaism and, in part, from paganism. It has become incorporated in\nthe creed of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Greek Church as well,\nand has been productive of the most disastrous results. Among the\ndeliverances of the Council of Trent, held at intervals from 1545 to\n1564, and the last Council, which Romish authorities regard as of\nbinding authority, are the following sentences, quoted by the late A.\nA. Hodge, in his Outlines of Theology: \"Whereas, therefore, in the New\nTestament, the Catholic Church has received, from the institution of\nChrist, the holy, visible sacrifice of the Eucharist; it must needs,\nalso, be confessed that there is, in that church, a new, visible and\nexternal priesthood, into which the old has been translated. And the\nsacred Scriptures show, and the traditions of the Catholic Church have\nalways taught, that this priesthood was instituted by the same Lord,\nour Saviour, and that to the apostles, and their successors in the\npriesthood, was the power delivered of consecrating, offering and\nadministering his body and blood, as, also, of forgiving and retaining\nsins.\"\n\nIt is to be feared that not all Protestants are entirely clear of this\nsame idea of the priesthood of the ministry, and that, in thought, at\nleast, many substitute this for the true priesthood, which appertains\nto all believers. Now, the office of a priest is to stand between God\nand man. He mediates, and this Jesus did both by propitiation and\ncontinues to do, forever, by intercession. \"He ever liveth to make\nintercession for us.\" He \"offered one sacrifice for sins forever.\" If\nHe has an unchangeable priesthood, and has already offered Himself as a\nsacrifice, sufficient for the sins of all mankind, the benefits of\nwhich each and every one may obtain on the simple condition of\nrepentance and faith, what possible need can there be of any human\npriesthood to come between God and the sinner? Says George Fox,\n\"Friends, let nothing come between your souls and God, but Christ,\" and\nwe say Amen.\n\nTo sum up on this particular point, we may say that the ancient\npriesthood, both of Melchizedek, the Gentile, and of Aaron, the Jew,\nwith his descendants, were nothing more than types; and a type can have\nno real existence after the antitype has come. Therefore, there is no\nplace for a human priesthood under the Christian dispensation. We are\ntaught in Holy Scripture that no one can come to God except through\nChrist, but we are also taught that all are invited, and all may come\ndirectly to Him. All the officers belonging to the New Testament\nChurch, whether ministers, deacons, presbyters, bishops, elders, or\neven apostles, are described not as priests but \"messengers, watchmen,\nheralds of salvation, teachers, rulers, overseers and shepherds.\" Their\nfunction is to preach the word, to teach, to rule, but never to\nmediate. It is clear, therefore, that ministers as such are not\npriests.\n\nBut we must not forget that, in a very important sense, all Christians\nare priests. But this is through Christ and in Christ, the one great\nand eternal High Priest. They are priests because they are in Christ.\nAnd not only priests, but kings as well. And not only kings and\npriests, but prophets as well. All these blessed privileges are theirs,\nsolely by virtue of their union and fellowship with Christ, who, in a\nmystical and spiritual sense, makes them to be partakers of His own\npriesthood, His own royalty, and His own prophetic office.\n\nThus we hear Peter exclaiming, under the inspiration of the Spirit,\n\"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a\npeculiar people.\"\n\nAnd again: \"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up, a spiritual house,\nan holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God\nby Jesus Christ.\" Precisely. If we are priests, we must perform the\nfunctions of a priest, and one of these functions is the offering of\nsacrifice. What, then, are the sacrifices which are to be offered by\nthe Christian Priest? Certainly, not any expiatory or meritorious\nsacrifices. These are, forever, precluded by the fact that Christ hath\noffered one sacrifice for sins forever. Nothing can be added to, and\nnothing can be subtracted from, that infinite and all-sufficient\noffering.\n\nThe first sacrifice to be made by the Christian priest is the surrender\nof his own body, with all its appetites, organs and capabilities, to\nGod. Listen to Paul.\n\n\"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye\npresent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,\nwhich is your reasonable service.\" Your bodies, because if you are\nChristians, you have already presented your hearts; your bodies,\nbecause through the body, too often temptation enters into the soul and\nleads it to actual sin. Your bodies, because of their wonderful\nmechanism and their equally wonderful activities. If surrendered to the\nLord, He makes them the very thing they were originally designed to\nbe, namely, the obedient servants of the soul, and the soul is already\nHis own obedient servant, so that when the soul commands and the body\nobeys, both are working for God, and when the soul says Go, and the\nbody runs hither and thither, both are going upon God's errands.\n\nIt will be observed that the body is to be presented a living\nsacrifice, not a dead one. All its boundless activities are to be given\nup to God. The expression, no doubt, implies that the whole man,\ndescribed by the apostle, with his inspired trichotomy, as spirit, soul\nand body are to be consecrated unto God, to be His, and His forever,\nand henceforth to be ready to be, to do, and to suffer all His blessed\nwill.\n\nThe command is yield yourselves, not a certain portion of your time,\nnor a certain portion of your money, nor a certain portion of your\neffort, nor your sins, nor your depraved appetites, nor your forbidden\nindulgences. You cannot consecrate your alcohol, nor your tobacco, nor\nyour opium, nor your card-playing, nor your dancing, nor your\ntheatre-going to God. He wants none of these things. All actual and known\nsins must be abandoned at conversion. Consecration is for a subsequent\nand a deeper work. None but a Christian believer can thus present his body\nunto the Lord. Sinners may repent, but Christians are enjoined to\n\"yield themselves unto God, as those who are alive from the dead;\" not\nas those who are \"dead in trespasses and sins.\" Whatever surrender the\nsinner may and must make in order to be saved, the believer must make a\ndeeper, fuller, more complete surrender, of a different character and\nfor a different purpose. That purpose is that he may be wholly\nsanctified, filled with the Spirit, and used to the utmost extent of\nhis capacity for the glory of God. Consecration means yielding\nyourselves unto God. When you yield yourself you yield everything else.\nAll the details are included in the one surrender of yourself.\n\nAnd remember, also, that your consecration is not to God's service, not\nto His work, not to a life of obedience and sacrifice, not to the\nchurch, not to the Christian Endeavor, not to the Epworth League, not\nto any organization, not to the cause of God; it is to God Himself.\n\"Yield yourselves unto God.\" It is, therefore, a personal transaction\nbetween a personal human being and a personal God. Your work, your\nobedience, your sacrifice, your right place and your allotted duty,\nwill all follow in due time. The next sacrifice to be made by the\nChristian priest, is that of testimony and thanksgiving. \"By Him,\ntherefore,\" says the author of the Hebrews, \"let us offer the sacrifice\nof praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving\nthanks to His Name.\"\n\nAnd the next priestly offering of the Christian is a holy life, for the\ninspired author goes on in the next verse, \"But to do good, and to\ncommunicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.\"\nOffer, then, beloved, the body, with the soul and spirit; offer the\nfruit of the lips and offer the fruit of the life, and you will walk\nworthily of your priesthood. Glory!\n\nThe patriarch Jacob had two distinct and well-defined experiences about\ntwenty years apart. The first of these was at Bethel, when, in\nloneliness and anguish of mind, he was plodding on his way toward\nMesopotamia to escape the vengeance of his brother Esau. This vengeance\nwas not causeless, and Jacob lay down upon the ground with a stone for\na pillow, not only distressed in mind from fear and anxiety, but also,\nwe may well suppose, not altogether free from the condemnation of a\nguilty conscience. But Jacob was a man who had faith in God's promises,\neven if he did not always obey His commands. And when he lay down to\nsleep under the open sky, in a state of mind, sad, forlorn, fearful and\ncontrite, God was watching over him, and when he awoke from the\nwondrous vision there vouchsafed to him, he perceived that God was in\nthe place, and he found that he himself, also, was a new man. Now he\ncould not only believe intellectually what God had said, but he could\nand did enter into covenant with Him, taking Jehovah for his God, and\nvowing the tenth or his income to be given to Him. This was such a\nchange of mind and heart as constituted a real conversion.\n\nWhen, after the many mercies and many trials that fell to his portion\nwhilst dwelling with his uncle Laban, and after the lapse of two score\nyears, he was returning to his father's house, no longer poor and\nlonely, but with flocks and herds and wives and children, again he was\nencountered by the fear of his brother Esau who was approaching him\nwith four hundred men. Then it was that there \"wrestled a man with him\nuntil the breaking of the day.\" Note it was the man wrestling with\nJacob--and the man was the angel,--Jehovah, the pre-existent Christ--and\nthe object of his wrestling was to get the Jacob nature, the old\nman, the body of sin, out of Jacob. But Jacob resisted, until by a\ntouch the Divine wrestler made it impossible for him to resist any\nlonger. Now he had to cease his wrestling but he could still cling, and\nhe could still cry, \"I will not let thee go until thou bless me.\"\nJacob's will was now firmly set upon the blessing; he could ho longer\nresist the will of the Blesser, but one thing more he had to do, and\nthat was to tell his name. I am Jacob--supplanter, sinner, and then He\nblessed him there; Jabbok means extinguishment, and Jacob's self-life\nwas extinguished there. He told his name, and in the telling lost it.\nNo longer the supplanter--but Israel, the prince, the prevailer, the\novercomer, and Israel was now a wholly sanctified man. Beloved, tell\nGod your name--sinner--seek with fixed determination for the blessing\nof holiness, fulfill the conditions, and you also shall prevail, and\nyour name will be changed from sinner to saint, priest, prophet, king,\nhaving the blessing of entire sanctification, and the Blesser Himself\nin the person of the Indwelling Comforter. Praise the Lord!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN TYPE.\n\n\n\nThe Mosaic dispensation was legal, ceremonial and typical. \"The law\nhaving a shadow of the good things to come,\" says the author of the\nHebrews. But a shadow always points to a substance; and so far as\nholiness is commanded, and so far as it is shadowed forth in the\nceremonial law, we shall find that there is a corresponding substance\nand reality in the gospel of Christ.\n\nIn the first place, if we study carefully the provisions of the Mosaic\nlaw, we shall be struck with the many forms of ceremonial uncleanness\ndescribed therein, and with the \"divers washings,\" not only of the\n\"hands oft,\" but of the whole body, and of \"cups and pots, brazen\nvessels and of tables.\" All these point to the fact that God will have\na clean people, and a clean people is a holy people. The same thing is\nvividly exhibited in the distinction between clean and unclean animals,\nthe one kind to be used as food, and the other to be disused. Of land\nanimals, only such as both chew the end and divide the hoof, might then\nbe eaten. And of aquatic, only such as have both fins and scales were\nto be accounted clean. There can be no doubt that this restriction in\nregard to food is full of meaning. God help us all as Christian\nbelievers to distinguish between the clean and the unclean in a\nspiritual sense, and not to forget that God will have His people now\npure in heart, clean in soul, holy both within and without.\n\nThe seal of the covenant with Abraham was circumcision, and this became\nthe perpetual rite by which his descendants were admitted to the rights\nand privileges of that covenant. \"Every male child shall be\ncircumcised.\" But this rite was an outward symbol of \"a circumcision\nnot made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in\nthe circumcision of Christ\" (Col. 2: II. R.V.) And in Romans 2: 28-29,\nwe are told that \"He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is\nthat circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which\nis one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,\nand not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God.\" Beloved\nreader, may you and I know what it is to experience the inward\ncircumcision, made without hands, even the putting off of the body of\nthe flesh. And this is entire sanctification. In the consecration of\nAaron and his sons to the priests' office, not only were they to be\nadorned with holy garments for glory and for beauty, not only was the\nbreast-plate to be set with twelve kinds of precious stones, but the\nplate for the mitre was to be made of pure gold, and engraved with the\nmotto \"Holiness to the Lord.\" This was to be always upon the forehead\nof the High Priest, and must signify that Aaron was to be the holy\npriest of a Holy God, and that the law required a continuous holiness,\nas most assuredly the gospel does also.\n\nNow, in the most important sense both the priesthood and the sacrifices\nwere typical of Christ. In the mediatorial work of redemption, he was\nboth the priest and the victim. He offered Himself. And no one will\ndeny that He was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.\nThe holy priest, under the law typified the holy priest, who is a\npriest forever after the order of Melchizedek. But under the gospel\ndispensation all Christians are priests. \"But ye are a chosen\ngeneration, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people.\" And\nwe are priests, not for the purpose of expiation, for expiation was\ncompleted by the Lord Jesus Christ, when He \"bore our sins in His own\nbody on the tree,\" but priests to offer up \"spiritual sacrifices\nacceptable to God through Jesus Christ.\" And every such priest must\nneeds be continuously holy.\n\nThe \"spiritual sacrifices\" which the Christian priest must offer are,\nas previously stated, (1) his body, with all its members and\ncapacities. The heart was given to Christ at conversion. It is,\nhowever, largely through the body that the soul is led into sin, and it\nis through the body, also, that the soul must perform its work for\nChrist, so long as soul and body are united in probation. Hence, the\nApostle exclaims in the twelfth of Romans, \"I beseech you, therefore,\nbrethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living\nsacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable\nservice.\" The Christian must offer (2) also his continual testimony. He\nmust \"hold fast the confession of his faith without wavering.\" \"By him,\ntherefore, let us offer the sacrifices of praise to God continually,\nthat is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.\" And, finally\n(3), the Christian priest must offer the sacrifice of a holy life. \"But\nto do good, and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God\nis well pleased.\" Beloved, let us ask ourselves if we are constantly\noffering as a holy priesthood, a consecrated body, a confessing tongue\nand a godly life. Amen.\n\nThis subject has already been alluded to under a different head, but\nit will bear repetition.\n\nIn the ceremonial used under the law for the cleansing of the leper, we\nfind an impressive type or symbol of holiness. Leprosy is most clearly\nand strikingly a type of inbred sin. It is loathsome, unclean,\nincurable, fatal and hereditary. The leper was driven from society; he\ncould not dwell in the camp nor in the city. He was an outcast. None\nmust be permitted to approach him. They must be warned off by the\ndespairing cry \"unclean, unclean.\" Nothing can be conceived more\ndesolate or more hopeless than the condition of the leper, unless it\nbe, indeed, the sinner who is an \"alien from the commonwealth of\nIsrael, a stranger to the covenants of promise, having no hope and\nwithout God in the world.\"\n\nBut to the leper, in many instances, came the glad \"day of cleansing.\"\nHe might not come into the camp, until the priest went forth to him.\nThe priest and no one else could pronounce him clean. And none but\nChrist has any authority to tell the sinner that he is converted, or\nthe believer that he is sanctified. A clean bird must be slain over\nliving water, another bird dipped into this water flies away toward\nheaven with bloody wing; the leper is sprinkled seven times, to denote\nthe completeness or perfection of his cleansing, with blood by means of\nhyssop and scarlet wool bound to a stick of cedar; he must wash his\nclothes; he must pass a razor over his whole body, and bathe the whole\nbody likewise in water. Certainly, all this needs no explanation.\nSurely, here is atonement by blood, and cleansing by the washing of\nwater through the word, as plainly described as symbolic language can\nutter it.\n\nAll the bloody sacrifices of the Jewish law, the daily sacrifice both\nmorning and evening, the paschal lamb, the Day of Atonement, the\nofferings at the various feasts, and innumerable sacrifices offered for\nindividuals or for the whole people, the guilt offering, the sin\noffering, one for what we have done, the other for what we are, the\npeace offering, the burnt offering, these, also, all point to the Lamb\nthat was slain from the foundation of the world. In all the sacrifices\nwhich we have named, a life was taken and blood was shed. \"Almost all\nthings are, by the law, purged with blood, and without shedding of\nblood is no remission.\"\n\nBut turn now to the New Testament, and read that \"It is not possible\nfor the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.\" Read again, \"If\nthe blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the\nunclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall\nthe blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself\nwithout spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the\nliving God.\" Read again, \"In Him we have redemption through His\nblood\"--\"Having made peace through the blood of His cross\"--\"Ye who are\nfar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ\"--\"Being now justified by\nHis blood\"--\"That He might sanctify the people with His own blood\"--and\nespecially \"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all\nsin.\"\n\nHere, I insert a quotation from that saintly man, Dr. Edgar M. Levy.\n\"When an oblation for sin was offered up under the old dispensation,\nthe priest was commanded to dip his finger in blood, and to sprinkle it\nseven times before the Lord. This denoted the perfection of the\noffering. Nor would the blessed antitype come short of the type. Seven\ntimes, at least, did our Lord pour forth His precious blood. He was\ncircumcised and there, of necessity, was blood. He was buffeted on the\nmouth, and by such brutal hands, that this must needs have been\nattended with blood. He was scourged, and from Roman scouring there\nwas, of course, blood. The crown of thorns was driven into His precious\ntemples and, surely, this was not without blood. The sharp nails\npenetrated into His hands and feet, and again there was blood. And one\nof the soldiers, with a spear, pierced His side, and forthwith came\nthereout blood and water.\"\n\nThe blood of Jesus, then, is the procuring cause of our sanctification\nas it is of our justification. Glory be to His Name forever for the\nprecious, cleansing blood. And every Christian can heartily join in the\nimmortal hymn of Toplady on the \"Rock of Ages,\" and especially with the\nrendering now frequently given to the conclusion of the first stanza,\nviz.:\n\n \"Let the water and the blood\n  From Thy wounded side which flowed,\n  Be of sin the double cure\n  Save from wrath--and make me pure.\"\n\nThe pure olive oil is mentioned many times in Scripture, and was used\nfor a great variety of purposes. In typology, however, it has special\nreference to the office work of the Holy Spirit. He is distinctively\nthe Sanctifier, and to be filled with the Spirit is designated by the\nApostle John as \"the unction\" or \"the anointing.\" The holy anointing\noil was to be sprinkled upon the tabernacle and all its sacred\nvessels. It was also poured upon the heads of prophets, priests and\nkings, as a necessary qualification for the discharge of their\nrespective offices. There can be no doubt but that this use of the\nanointing oil and the sweet perfume, which none were permitted to\nimitate or counterfeit, has a direct typical reference to holiness.\nThe sacred writer, indeed, says as much. \"That they may be most holy;\nwhatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.\" And as all Christians are\nkings and priests unto God, it is necessary that they also be anointed\nwith the Holy Spirit, as their types in the Old Testament dispensation\nwere anointed with the outward oil. \"Be ye clean that bear the vessels\nof the Lord.\" A priest must be holy.\n\nWe have already spoken of leprosy as a type of inbred sin, and of the\nrequirement of blood-shedding in the cleansing of the leper. But before\nthat cleansing was complete, the anointing oil, also, was to be applied\nto the leper, who was healed of his malady. As the priest had already\ntouched his ear, his thumb and his toe with the blood of the sacrifice,\nso now he touched the same parts also with the oil. First, the blood;\nafterwards, the oil. And thus it is in the wondrous plan of salvation\nthrough the Lord Jesus Christ. First, atonement for guilt and to secure\npardon; afterwards, the Holy Ghost baptism for complete cleansing.\nFirst, justification through the blood; then entire sanctification\nthrough the Spirit.\n\nThe anointing oil was also to be applied to the ear, the thumb and the\ntoe of Aaron and his sons in their consecration to the priesthood and,\nfinally, poured upon their mitred heads that it might reach the beard\nand the skirts of the garments, but by no means touch the flesh. And\nso, beloved, we must be touched with blood and oil as to our spiritual\nears, that we may take heed how we hear and what we hear; and as to our\nhands that they may do the work of God in all righteousness, and\ngoodness and truth; and as to our feet, that they may run swiftly and\nbeautifully upon the errands of redeeming love; and, at last, upon our\nheads and running down overall the person to purify and energize the\nwhole man, that we may be \"ever, only, all for Him.\" Praise the Lord.\nAnd this can never happen while the flesh, the carnal mind, is still\nalive.\n\nJesus Christ Himself, the Son of God and the Son of Man, He who was\nholy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, was,\nnevertheless, anointed with the Holy Ghost as a needful qualification\nfor His mediatorial work.\n\nIn the synagogue at Nazareth, He read part of the sixty-first chapter\nof Isaiah. \"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: because the Lord\nhath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He had sent Me\nto bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and\nthe opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the\nacceptable year of the Lord\"--and here He ceased His quotation\nabruptly, without saying a word about \"the day of vengeance of our\nGod.\" It was now a day of grace, not a day of vengeance. But to those\nwho will not accept this grace, that terrible day of vengeance will\nsurely come. Jesus was anointed, and He was holy. His anointed\nfollowers must also be holy. They must seek and find the baptism with\nthe Holy Ghost and fire, they must be sanctified wholly. To be\nbaptized, and filled and anointed with the Holy Ghost is the privilege\nand duty of all God's children. If we would belong to the royal\npriesthood, we must be cleansed from the defilement of sin.\n\nFinally, we will allude to the fire symbol. Gold is spoken of in\nScripture as tried in the fire. So of silver. \"He\" (Christ) \"shall sit\nas a refiner and purifier of silver.\" The precious metals will endure\nthe fire, but \"dross and tin,\" as well as reprobate silver, will and\nmust be consumed. The baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire is a\nsin-consuming baptism. Fire is a great purifier. It makes the substance\nwhich is subjected to it pure through and through, and not like\nanything cleansed by water, pure as to its surface only. \"Our God is a\nconsuming fire.\" Oh, beloved, let us give up to the fire all that is\nfor the fire. Let all depravity, all inbred sin, all tendency to depart\nfrom God and yield to Satan, be burned up in this fiery baptism. May\nGod put upon all His pardoned children not the blood-mark only, but\nthe fire-mark also.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN PROPHECY.\n\n\n\nThe Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The twelve\nprophetic books in the Old Testament following the book of Daniel are\ncalled the Minor Prophets. In the writings of both classes we find many\nallusions and predictions as to the entire sanctification of believers\nin the gospel dispensation and under the reign of Messiah or Christ.\n\nThe sixth chapter of Isaiah is usually regarded as his call to the\nprophetic office. Whether this be so or not, it records a very\nwonderful experience of that grand man, and a remarkable type of the\nbaptism with the Holy Ghost as described in the book of Acts.\n\nIt is quite evident that Isaiah was a converted man before he wrote his\nfirst chapter. In that he laments the sins of the Israelites and the\nJews, all of them God's chosen people, though now divided into the two\nkingdoms and these often at variance, shows the utter futility of their\nown efforts to regain the favor of God, by observances and sacrifices\nand ceremonies, and then tells them how to be converted as plainly as\nany gospel minister in our own day would be able to do. He shows them\nthat the way of salvation is by repentance and faith, and by trusting\nto the unmerited mercy of God. Hear him: \"Wash you, make you clean; put\naway the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;\nlearn to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed; judge the\nfatherless; plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,\nsaith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white\nas snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.\"\n\nHere are repentance and amendment of life and pardon, the washing away\nof guilt and committed sins, symbolical of the New Testament washing of\nregeneration, symbolical also of John's baptism of repentance unto the\nremission of sins.\n\nBut now in the sixth chapter, and \"in the year that king Uzziah died,\"\na wondrous vision of the pre-existent Christ, \"sitting upon a throne\nhigh and lifted up\" and the seraphim crying one to another \"Holy, holy,\nholy is the Lord of hosts,\" was vouchsafed to the prophet. And the\nfirst effect of the glorious things which he saw and heard was not to\nexalt him and minister to his pride, but to fill him with despair at\nhis own depravity. He felt just as Peter did at the first miraculous\ndraught of fishes on the Sea of Galilee, when he exclaimed \"Depart from\nme for I am a sinful man, O Lord.\" Ah! beloved, it never fosters\nspiritual pride, nor any other kind of pride to get a nearer and\nclearer view of Christ than we ever had before. Quite the contrary.\nSuch a vision turns us towards our inner selves, and enables us to\nbehold by contrast the darkness and sinfulness and pollution of our own\nsouls, and in such a view we shall find food for the deepest\nhumiliation, but nothing to nourish pride.\n\nAccordingly, Isaiah exclaimed in agony of soul \"Woe is me! for I am\nundone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of\na people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of\nhosts.\" If we may credit Jewish tradition, it was for the offence of\nsaying that he had seen the King, the Lord of hosts, that the prophet\nwas afterwards sawn asunder. But the record of the glorious vision is\nstill preserved and will, no doubt, be blessed to millions of readers\nin the future, as in the past, and until the end of the age.\n\nBut the seraph was sent to touch the \"unclean lips\" of Isaiah--unclean\nbecause of innate depravity, and unclean notwithstanding he had\nprobably been preaching repentance and amendment of life and\nforgiveness for two or three years before this wondrous experience--to\ntouch them with holy fire. And then he was assured not that his sins of\ncommission and omission were forgiven--that had been done before--but\nthat his iniquity was taken away, and his (inbred) sin purged. This was\na second and a definite experience, and strikingly emblematic of the\nbaptism with the Holy Ghost and fire under the gospel dispensation,\nwhich is also accompanied by \"the purifying of the heart by faith,\" or\nentire sanctification.\n\nHow wondrous are the prophecies of Isaiah after this experience. He\nseems to look down the centuries for seven hundred years and to see the\nglorious blessings of the gospel dispensation almost as clearly as if\nthey were already present. Hear him in the thirty-fifth chapter: \"And\nan highway shall be there and a way; and it shall be called the way of\nholiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for\nthose: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.\" And in\nthe fifty-first chapter: \"Awake, awake! Put on thy strength, O Zion!\nput on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for\nhenceforth, there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and\nthe unclean,\" and in the sixtieth chapter: \"Thy sun shall no more go\ndown, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be\nthine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.\"\n\nTo Jeremiah the Lord said, \"I sanctified thee; and I ordained thee a\nprophet unto the nations,\" which must mean not only that he was set\napart for the office of a prophet, but also that he was cleansed from\ninbred sin, as a necessary preparation for the office itself.\n\nIn the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel we have some striking passages\non the theme before us. These were, no doubt, addressed primarily to\nthe outward Israel, but they may very justly be appropriated by the\nIsrael of God, the Church of Christ, since as Augustine says, \"The New\nTestament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old is revealed in the New.\"\n\nIn the twenty-fifth verse we have the promise of pardon or\njustification with cleansing from the pollution of their past sins:\n\"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean, from\nall your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you.\"\nCommitted sin implies both guilt and pollution. And the pollution that\nis thus acquired by the practice of sinning is removed in regeneration.\nThus the new convert is brought back again to the state of the little\nchild. \"Except ye be converted,\" said the blessed Saviour, \"and become\nas little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God.\" The\nlittle child has neither the guilt nor the pollution of committed sin;\nwhilst he does have within him the inherited or inbred sin of his\nnature.\n\nNow in the promise quoted above, allusion is made to the clean water\nmade from the ashes of a red heifer and sprinkled, under the Mosaic\nlaw, upon those who had incurred ceremonial uncleanness. The thing\nsignified, however, is the precious blood of Christ which cleanseth\nfrom all sin, or possibly the cleansing operation of the Holy Spirit,\ntypified by water, may here be meant. At any rate the twenty-fifth\nverse points to nothing less than a full and free justification.\n\nBut the prophet continues: \"A new heart also will I give you and a new\nspirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out\nof your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh.\" Here we have\ndescribed certainly the experience of regeneration, if indeed not the\nstill fuller experience of entire sanctification. But let us admit that\nit means only the new heart which is given to the penitent sinner at\nhis new birth. Regeneration implies the impartation of a new life by\nthe Divine energy of the Holy Ghost. And this new life is comparable to\nthe \"heart of flesh,\" not, of course, a carnal heart, but a heart\ntender and teachable, and impressible to heavenly influences, such a\nheart as we always find in the new-born babe in Christ.\n\nBut listen still further: \"And I will put My Spirit within you, and\ncause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do\nthem.\" In this verse we have a pre-figuring of the Holy Ghost baptism,\nby which the heart is cleansed from all sin and sanctified wholly, and\nalso of the subsequent \"walking in the Spirit,\" to which Paul alludes\nin one of his epistles. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, who\nwas also seized with prophetic fire at the birth of his son, exclaims,\n\"That He would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand\nof our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and\nrighteousness before Him, all the days of our life.\" Surely the gospel\nof Christ has something better for its recipients than a constant daily\nsinning and repenting, which is too often the experience of Christian\npeople. The twenty-seventh verse, therefore, signifies holiness of\nheart and life through the power of the indwelling Spirit.\n\nHow blessed it is thus to be assured that what we cannot do by our own\nstrength, the Holy Spirit will cause us to do. This doctrine of\nspiritual causation is indeed glorious. Like the mainspring of the\nwatch which supplies the power within, by which the hands are moved\nwithout, and thus the fleeting minutes and hours are correctly\nmeasured, so the Holy Spirit within supplies the energy by which the\nsanctified believer is enabled or caused to adorn the doctrine of\nChrist, his Saviour, in all things, and to bring forth the fruit of the\nSpirit in all righteousness and goodness and truth.\n\nIn the minor prophets, we find numerous allusions to the subject of\nholiness, though their language is often highly figurative. In Hosea\n2:16, after reproving Israel for her unfaithfulness in the past, the\nAlmighty, through His prophet, employs the following language, viz:\n\"And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me\nIshi, and shalt call Me no more Baali,\" and again in the nineteenth\nverse, \"I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea I will betroth thee in\nrighteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies; I\nwill even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the\nLord.\" Now the word Ishi means my husband; while the word Baali means\nmy Lord, and the language, therefore, points to an experience or a\nrelation of marriage. The bride is exalted immeasurably above the\nservant. While the position of the servant points to a legal\njustification and a service for wages and reward, that of the bride\nmust signify entire sanctification, and the closest possible union with\nthe Heavenly Bridegroom. Again, the word betrothed points legitimately\nto a marriage which is always justly expected to follow if both parties\nare faithful to the engagement. Beloved, let us get so near to Christ\nthat we shall not address Him as my Lord, in the spirit of a servant,\nbut as my husband, in the spirit of a loving and faithful wife. At your\nconversion, you are, as it were, betrothed to Him, or in ordinary\nlanguage engaged to Him. At your entire sanctification, your engagement\nis consummated by the marriage union. Engagement must precede marriage,\nit is true, but, as a rule, engagements should not be long. Do not\nneedlessly defer your nuptials, but rather hasten to the embraces of\nEverlasting Love. Like Rebecca, appreciate your high and holy calling,\nand like her say promptly and decidedly, \"I will go.\"\n\nIn the book of Joel we find the prophecy which Peter quoted on the day\nof Pentecost, and assured the multitude of Jews, out of every nation\nunder heaven, that what they beheld on that day was the fulfillment of\nthe same. \"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My\nSpirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,\nyour old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And\nalso upon the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days will I\npour out My Spirit.\"\n\nNow, these words are clearly a foreshadowing of the baptism with the\nHoly Ghost and fire, designed for all of God's children without\ndistinction of nation or sex, and intended, first, to purify their\nhearts by faith (see Acts 15:9) and, secondly, to endue them with power\nfor whatever line of service God may call them to. And we may add that\nthis text, as well as many others, shows that in these gospel days\nwomen as well as men may be, as we find in the facts of our daily\nexperience that they are both called and qualified for the work of the\nministry, as well as other labors in the vineyard of the Lord. But both\nmen and women need the Holy Ghost baptism which consumes inbred sin,\nas an indispensable qualification for the highest efficiency and most\nmarked success in the work to which they may individually be called.\nEvery Christian may and should do something for the Lord, but none can\ndo all for Him which he makes it his privilege and his duty to do,\nwithout the grace of entire sanctification and the fulness of the\nSpirit.\n\nIn the prayer of Habakkuk we have some sentences which point\nunmistakably to the experience of perfect trust in God and perfect love\nfor Him. \"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit\nbe in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields\nshall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and\nthere shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I\nwill joy in the God of my salvation.\" Compare this with John Wesley's\ndescription of a holy man after Paul. One who is enabled to rejoice\nevermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks.\nDoes not Habakkuk answer beautifully to this description?\n\nThe prophecy of Zechariah contains a number of visions, which are, no\ndoubt, full of instruction to those who have eyes to see. We can only\nmention one or two of these. In the third chapter, verses one to seven,\nwe are introduced to Joshua, the high priest, representing the Jewish\npeople, and typifying Christ Jesus with His eternal and unchangeable\npriesthood after the order of Melchizedek. But the Angel Jehovah also\nrepresents Jesus in His capacity of Judge. And Satan, the adversary, is\npresent as the accuser of the brethren, resisting them in the person of\ntheir representative, the high priest.\n\nAnd surely it would seem, at first, as if there was ground for his\naccusations, for Joshua, the high priest, is clothed in filthy\ngarments, and these can signify nothing else than sins, aye, the sins\nof His people imputed to Him as their representative and priest, and\nnot their actual sins only but their inbred sin also, for, \"The Lord\nhath laid on Him the iniquity of us all,\" and \"He hath made Him to be\nsin for us who knew no sin.\" \"His visage was so marred more than any\nman, and His form more than the sons of men.\" \"He hath no form nor\ncomeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we\nshould desire Him.\"\n\n\"Many were astonished at thee,\" says Isaiah. \"Behold the man,\" said\nPilate, as he brought forth Jesus scourged, tortured, bleeding, but\nuncomplaining, and the only answer was \"Crucify Him!\" Thus, beloved,\nwas He clothed in very truth with the filthy garments not of His own\nvileness but of ours.\n\nBut Joshua was \"a brand plucked from the burning,\" and, therefore, in\nHim all His people have found pardon. And now comes the order \"Take\naway the filthy garments from him, and unto him he said, Behold, I have\ncaused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with\nchange of raiment.\" Surely, beloved, we here have nothing less than\nentire sanctification, not in ourselves but in Him, and not only simply\nimputatively and representatively, but actually and experimentally.\nPraise the Lord.\n\nThe prophet Malachi assures us that \"He shall sit as a refiner and\npurifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi\" (that is, the\n\"royal priesthood\" which constitutes the true church) \"and purge them\nas gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in\nrighteousness.\" Surely no one will deny that there is holiness in\nprophecy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JESUS CHRIST.\n\n\n\nGabriel said to Mary in the annunciation, \"Therefore, that holy thing\nthat shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.\" Or in the\nRevised Version, \"Wherefore, also, that which is to be born shall be\ncalled holy, the Son of God.\" The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews\nspeaks of Him as \"holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,\"\nand Peter says that \"He did no sin, neither was guile found in His\nmouth.\" He is called \"Thy holy child Jesus.\" Jesus Christ, therefore,\nwas wholly free both from sin committed and sin indwelling. He was\nabsolutely holy in heart and holy in life, holy in word and holy in\nact, holy in His birth, holy in His death, holy in His resurrection,\nholy in His ascension, holy in His eternity. Glory be to His Holy\nName.\n\nAnd if the Divine Founder of the Christian Church was thus a holy man,\nit would, naturally, be expected that He should desire to have a holy\npeople; and if He desire it, that He should also make provision for it;\nand if He both desire it and hath made provision for it, that we should\nfind allusions to it in His teachings. In this, we are not\ndisappointed, as we shall proceed to show.\n\nThe Sermon on the Mount contains an epitome of the public preaching of\nthe Lord Jesus, and every sentence is pregnant with meaning. From\nbeginning to end, it inculcates holiness as the privilege and duty of\nbelievers. Many things are enjoined which would only be possible to\nthose who are sanctified wholly, such as, \"Bless them that curse you,\ndo good to them that hate you, love your enemies, resist not evil,\" and\nmany others.\n\nThe teachings of our Lord are like the headings of chapters, which are\nfilled out and developed in the writings of the apostles. This is\nremarkably true of the Sermon on the Mount, which, without going\nlargely into details, sets forth the principles which are to govern His\nkingdom on earth. The application and interpretation of these\nprinciples, He leaves to the inspired apostles and evangelists, who\ncontinued to teach and preach after His departure, and to the Holy\nSpirit who is promised to the believing church as its guide, teacher\nand comforter until Christ Himself shall come again.\n\nBut besides many precepts and injunctions which imply holiness, there\nare several, also, which expressly require it. Among the beatitudes at\nthe beginning of the Sermon, we find this striking statement: \"Blessed\nare the pure in heart for they shall see God.\" Now, heart purity\ncannot exist while there is any sin in the heart. Wherever there is sin\nin the heart, whether actual or indwelling, there is also defilement;\nand purity and defilement are incompatible terms.\n\nHeart purity, therefore, is identical with entire sanctification, and\nheart purity is not only a great energizer, so that a man is powerful\nfor good in proportion to the purity of his heart and life, but it is\nalso a great illuminator, so that it enables its possessor to see God.\nThis, of course, does not imply an open or an outward vision, but a\nspiritual apprehension of God, whereby we are brought into fellowship\nand communion with Him, and in a spiritual sense, we maybe truly\nregarded as seeing Him who is forever invisible to outward sense.\n\nThis inward purity, as distinguished from a blameless outward walk, was\nby no means unknown to the Old Testament writers. In the Twenty-fourth\nPsalm, David asks the question \"Who shall ascend into the hill of the\nLord? or who shall stand in His holy place?\" And He immediately answers\nit by saying, \"He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.\" The clean\nhands imply that his works are in accordance with God's law; in other\nwords, that his outward life is free from condemnation. But the \"pure\nheart\" means more than this, and suggests what the same royal Psalmist\nremarks again in the Fifty-first Psalm. \"Behold, thou desirest truth in\nthe inward parts, in the hidden part, Thou shalt make me to know\nwisdom.\" It is also noticeable in the Twenty-fourth Psalm, as already\nquoted, that the clean hands or justification comes before the pure\nheart or entire sanctification. So accurate is the blessed spiritual\nlogic of the Holy Ghost.\n\nReturning to the Sermon on the Mount, we find at the end of Matthew\nfifth the direct command, \"Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your\nFather which is in heaven is perfect,\" or if we take the Revised\nVersion, which is more accurate in translation, the command becomes a\npositive assertion, which is equally forcible. \"Ye, therefore, shall be\nperfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.\"\n\nBut whether command or declaration, it is at first sight simply\nastounding. It is overwhelming. So much so, indeed, that our poor\nhuman spirits shrink back in amazement, and we are ready to say, This\nis wholly impossible. Surely, Jesus cannot mean what He says. Or if He\ndoes, then my case is hopeless. But let us examine the words a little\nmore carefully.\n\nIn the first place, we are to notice that He does not say that we are\nto be equal in perfection to our Father in Heaven. That would, indeed,\nbe too absurd for the wildest fancy to conceive. God is infinite in all\nHis attributes and, therefore, infinite in perfection, and this in all\ndirections. We are poor, finite, sinful human beings, and can never\neven approach the boundless perfection of Him who is wholly without\nlimit, either as to power, space or duration, or righteousness, justice\nand holiness.\n\nBut the command is not, Be ye equal to your Heavenly Father in\nperfection, but, Be ye perfect with the same kind of perfection which\nappertains to Him. It may be similar in kind whilst falling infinitely\nshort of His perfection in degree. Now, God is infinite and perfect in\nall His attributes, but apart from His attributes is His essence. And\nwhat is the perfection which is predicated of the essence of God? Or,\nrather, what is His essence itself? It is love. \"God is love,\" says the\napostle. \"Thy nature and Thy name is love,\" says the great\nhymnologist, Charles Wesley. The essential perfection of the Godhead,\ntherefore, is a perfection of love. And we are assured by the beloved\nJohn that it is possible for us, also, to be made perfect in love, and\nto possess the perfect love which casteth out fear. Hence, if we are\nperfect in love we are perfect even as our Father who is in heaven is\nperfect. Behold the blessed simplicity of the gospel.\n\nThe context of the command referred to proves the same thing. Jesus had\njust been telling His disciples that it is not sufficient for them to\nlove their friends, and do good to those that do good to them. All\nthese things and more are done even by worldly minded people and open\nsinners. Unsaved people love those who love them. But Jesus continues,\n\"I say unto you, love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good\nto them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and\npersecute you.\" Why? \"That ye may be the children of your Father who is\nin heaven,\" for that is just the way He does. He does not wait for a\nman to be His friend before He loves him and shows kindness to him. \"He\nmaketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on\nthe just and on the unjust.\" And, if we are to be the children of such\na Father, we must adopt His sentiments and love in our measure as He\nloves. His essence being love, all His infinite activities are\ncontrolled and regulated and directed by love, and when there is\nnothing contrary to love in our hearts, so that all our finite\nactivities are in like manner impelled and swayed and directed by love,\nthen we are perfect in love, and perfect even as our Heavenly Father is\nperfect. Glory to His Name.\n\nI believe that if we search carefully and prayerfully we shall find the\ndoctrine of entire sanctification in many of the parables of our\nSaviour. Take, for instance, the parable of the sower. Here we are\nexpressly told that the seed is the word of God, and, of course, the\nsowers are all ministers and Christian workers who are trying in any\nright way, to diffuse a knowledge and acceptance of gospel truth. They\nare devoting themselves to the salvation of human souls. Now, mark the\ndifference as to the ground upon which the good seed falls. (1) The\nwayside hearers are not concerted at all. (2) The stony ground hearers\nare converted but not established. Their shallowness is such as to\nprevent them from withstanding trial and temptation and hence they fall\ninto backsliding. (3) The thorny ground hearers are converted, but\ninbred sin remains in their hearts in form of the love of riches,\nwhether these riches are possessed or only desired, or too much care\nand cumber, having so much regard to the secular as to neglect the\nspiritual, or in the form of unsanctified desire, \"the lusts of other\nthings,\" and so by sin that dwelleth in them the word is \"choked,\" and\nthough they may bring forth a little meagre fruit of inferior quality,\nyet they bring \"no fruit to perfection.\" They are justified but not\nsanctified wholly.\n\nNow, our Heavenly Father desires not a little fruit but much fruit.\n\"Every branch that bringeth forth fruit, he purgeth it that it may\nbring forth more fruit.\" To purge is to purify or, in a spiritual\nsense, to sanctify, and this is the condition of abundant fruitage.\nWhen the thorns are removed the good seed will grow and flourish. When\ninbred sin is taken out of the heart the Christian believer will bring\nforth fruit to perfection, even the perfection of love, and this will\nbe the \"much fruit\" whereby God is glorified.\n\nOn one occasion we are told that a lawyer asked Jesus \"What shall I do\nto inherit eternal life?\" and when asked in reply what were the words\nof the Mosaic law he answered, \"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with\nall thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind; and thy\nneighbor as thyself.\" Jesus commended his answer and added \"This do and\nthou shalt live.\" Hence, our Saviour teaches that holiness consists of\nnothing more nor less nor else than perfect love to God and man. What\nconstitutes this love has been already explained.\n\nMartha was a good Christian, but she was \"careful and troubled about\nmany things.\" Mary was a good Christian and still earnestly seeking the\none thing needful, which is full salvation, or holiness of heart and\nlife. Even good Christians may be \"cumbered about much serving,\" and so\nmiss this one thing needful. We cannot doubt that both the sisters, who\nvividly typify the two experiences, obtained the blessing of holiness\nwhen the pentecostal baptism was poured out upon the church of the\nhundred and twenty, if not before. In the marvelous intercessory prayer\nof the Lord Jesus, given in the seventeenth of John, we find these\nexpressions, \"Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth.\" And\nagain, \"For their sakes I sanctify Myself that they also may be\nsanctified through the truth.\" Here we discover the two senses of the\nword sanctify. Jesus sets Himself apart or consecrates Himself to the\nwork of human redemption in order that His followers, in all ages, may\nbe not only set apart or consecrated, but also sanctified wholly, or\nmade holy in heart and life. He gave Himself for the world of sinners\nlost, that they might be forgiven and saved. He gave Himself for the\nchurch, on the other hand, that He might \"sanctify and cleanse it with\nthe washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a\nglorious church, not having spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, but\nthat it should be holy and without blemish.\" Thus, the atoning\nsacrifice of Christ procured pardon and acceptance for the penitent\nsinner. It procured not less, certainly, entire sanctification for the\nconsecrated believer. And it is only by accepting Him as a perfect\nSaviour that He \"is made of God unto us, wisdom and righteousness and\nsanctification and redemption.\"\n\nFor the blessed Saviour does not leave us in doubt as to the method of\nobtaining this great blessing of holiness, nor as to the price, which\nmust be paid for it. Entire sanctification is \"one pearl of great\nprice,\" and he who would possess it must go and sell all that he has.\nThe rich young ruler had a first-class record as to morality and the\noutward observance of the law of God, yet Jesus said to him, \"One thing\nthou lackest,\" and that one thing was perfect love, for He added, \"If\nthou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor,\"\nand then interjecting a promise, \"Thou shalt have treasure in heaven,\nand come take up the cross and follow Me.\" The price was too great, and\nthe young man went away sorrowful. Alas! Myriads of souls since have\nfound the price too great, and by refusing to pay it, have deprived\nthemselves of unspeakable blessing. Christ would not have us become His\nfollowers without counting the cost, and the cost is all that we have\nand all that we are. \"Whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, he\ncannot be My disciple.\"\n\nFirst, we are to forsake, with full purpose of heart, all known sin. It\nmay be the sin which \"easily besets,\" our own bosom sin, near as a\nright eye or a right hand, but if it causes us to stumble, it must be\nrelentlessly sacrificed. And even if the sacrifice seems like crippling\nand maiming us, yet Jesus assures us that it is better to enter into\neternal life with one eye or one hand, than to be consigned to\neverlasting death with two eyes or two hands. In the first place,\ntherefore, we are to \"reckon ourselves dead, indeed, unto sin, but\nalive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.\"\n\nBut we are to become dead, indeed, not only to all sin, but we must be\ndead, also, even to lawful things, except as God in His mercy may grant\nthem to us, to have and enjoy in moderation and to His glory. Jesus\nteaches us that our highest affection, our deepest love must be\nfastened upon Him alone, and that if any individual love, father or\nmother, son or daughter, wife or husband more than Him, such a one is\nnot worthy of Him. We are to love His gifts and thank Him for them, but\nstill more are we to love the Giver Himself.\n\nAnd when we love Him supremely, we shall learn to be satisfied with\nHimself, and what He in His love and mercy chooses to give us. If He\npermits us to have an abundance of earthly goods, we shall thank Him\nand use them as stewards of His for His glory. If He allows our family\ncircle to be invaded by death, and one dear one after another is\ncarried away to the tomb, or if He permits our wealth to be taken from\nus and consign us to poverty and desolation, if His gifts one by one or\naltogether are withdrawn from us, why, praise the Lord, we still have\nthe Giver, and can still say with Job \"The Lord gave and the Lord hath\ntaken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.\"\n\nIt thus appears that the teachings of our Lord require us to be dead to\nsin, and dead to self, yea, even to lawful self, in order that we may\npossess this inestimable blessing of entire sanctification. Let us not\nhesitate, then, beloved, to lay down our lives. \"Whosoever will save\nhis life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for My sake,\nthe same shall save it.\"\n\n\"Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone;\nbut if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY PAUL.\n\n\n\nThe apostleship of the Gentiles was committed specially to Paul. And as\nthe Gospel of Christ is intended for the salvation not of the Jews\nonly, but of all mankind who are willing to accept the conditions, we\nfind in the writings of this apostle, perhaps, a more complete\nexposition and expansion of the teachings of the Lord Jesus than in any\nother inspired author. Jesus gave the concise germinal principles of\nall gospel truth; and Paul deduces from these principles their logical\nconsequences and develops them, under the inspiration of the Holy\nSpirit, into those wonderful epistles to the churches, which, though as\nPeter well observes containing some things hard to be understood, are\nno doubt destined, nevertheless, in the future as in the past, to form\na large part both of the foundation and framework of every system of\ntheological doctrine. How wondrous, for instance, is the scheme of\nredemption as unfolded to us in the Epistle to the Romans! How profound\nand how exalted is the spirituality of the Ephesians and Colossians!\nHow pure and how practical are the directions to the Corinthians! What\na counter-blast to all legality in the church do we have in Galatians!\nWhat a marvelous unfolding of Old Testament typology in the Hebrews!\nWhat a guidebook of unequalled excellency for ministers of all times in\nthe pastoral epistles!\n\nIn the Epistle to the Romans, Paul regards mankind under the two\ndivisions of the Gentile and the Jew, and proceeds to show that both\nclasses alike had failed in their efforts to attain to righteousness\nand salvation.\n\nThe Gentile, it is true, had not been favored with an outward\nrevelation, but he had been permitted to behold the outward universe,\nand to know that it had a Creator \"of eternal power and divinity.\" He\nhad also had a conscience within him, and so much light as rendered him\nan accountable being, with a sense of obligation to a supreme power,\nand furnishing another proof of the existence of a personal God. But\nthe Apostle tells us that they, the Gentiles, did not like to retain\nGod in their knowledge. They wickedly extinguished the light which He\nhad given them, because they were not willing to give up their\nimmoralities. And as their hearts became more corrupt, their intellects\nalso were darkened, and in their senselessness they changed the glory\nof the incorruptible God into the baser image of \"birds and four-footed\nbeasts and creeping things.\" They sank into the grossest idolatry and\nlicentiousness and all wickedness. This picture drawn in colors which\nshock our sensibilities, in the first chapter of Romans, is confirmed\nby the authentic writings of heathen historians, and this in all\nparticulars, Paul says, \"They are without excuse, because they did not\nlive up to the light which they had received, obscure and imperfect as\nit was.\"\n\nAnd how was it with the Jews? The advantage was, indeed, to them much\nevery way, but chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of\nGod. They had an outward revelation, and with it a knowledge of that\nlaw of God, which is holy and just and good.\n\nBut they had failed, if possible, more grievously than the Gentiles\nthemselves. They had received the law by the disposition of angels, as\nStephen told them and had not kept it. They had had far more light than\nthe Gentiles, but they had fallen into the same sins as they. They\nprided themselves on the law, and looked with contempt upon the\nGentiles, and condemned them for their immoralities, and yet were\nguilty of similar immoralities themselves. They talked loudly about the\nwords of the law. \"Do not steal.\" \"Do not commit adultery,\" and yet\nviolated these very commands themselves. Jesus in His scathing\ndenunciation of the Scribes and Pharisees, compared them to whited\nsepulchres, looking well outwardly, but within full of dead men's bones\nand all uncleanness: and He warned His disciples to beware of the\nleaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, and the leaven of the\nSadduces, which is infidelity, and the leaven of the Herodians, which\nis worldly mindedness.\n\nThe cause of failure was the same, both with Jew and Gentile. It was\nsomething that had occurred long before the division into Jew and\nGentile had an existence. It had occurred, in short, when man fell.\nFrom fallen parents our entire race had inherited a fallen nature, that\nis to say, a natural proclivity towards sin. There is a disposition in\nall mankind to yield to temptation, some in one direction, some in\nanother, and thus to say yes to Satan, while they also say no to God.\nThis bias towards evil is sometimes called depravity or original sin.\nIt is called by Paul \"Our old man,\" \"the flesh,\" \"the carnal mind,\"\n\"the body of sin,\" and \"sin that dwelleth in me.\" A good and convenient\nname for it is inbred sin. It is sin in the heart as distinguished from\nsin in the act. It is the inward cause of which our outward sins are\nthe effects. It is the evil root of which our outward sins are the\nbitter fruits.\n\nNow, it was the inbred sin in the hearts of the Gentiles which caused\nthem to quench the light of the knowledge of God, which they must have\nhad for, at least, a generation or two after Noah came out of the ark,\nand which made them blind to the light even of natural religion,\nnotwithstanding before their eyes the heavens were declaring the glory\nof God and the firmament was showing His handiwork, day unto day was\nuttering speech, and night unto night was showing knowledge. They\nforsook the knowledge of God, and He left them to their own reprobate\nminds, the result being that they sank into the grossest idolatry and\nthe most beastly sensuality.\n\nThe Jew had the unspeakable advantage of an outward revelation. He\nreceived through Moses the law of God, which showed him what God\ndesired him to be and do, and what he ought to be and do, but which\nconferred upon him no power for being or doing what it required. It is\nlike a looking-glass placed before a child to show him that his face is\nsoiled, but having no power to cleanse that face. It was like a plumb-line\napplied to a leaning wall, which shows how far it deviates from\nthe perpendicular, but which has no power to make it upright. Nay, it\neven comes to pass that in consequence of inbred sin, the law\nmultiplies offences. It causes sin to abound. We find even in most\nchildren a disposition that impels them to do and to have just what\nthey are told they must not do and have. That is to say, when the law\ncomes in, inbred sin rises in rebellion against it.\n\nThe workings of the sin that dwelleth in us is most vividly described\nby Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans. Over the real meaning of this\nchapter, there has been much discussion and wide differences of\nopinion. Some writers think that this is the best experience of the\ngreat apostle of the Gentiles, and they draw consolation from this\nfact, as well as argument, in favor of continuing to sin in thought and\nword and deed as long as they live. Others think that the apostle is\nnot here describing a Christian experience at all, but the struggles of\na Jew who is seeking the favor of God by keeping His law, but finds his\nattempts to keep it all in vain, the hindrance being inbred sin. I\nfreely admit that it is not what even a justified experience ought to\nbe, for God has assured us through His apostle, John, that He that is\nborn of God doth not commit sin, and, therefore, notwithstanding the\npresence of inbred sin in the heart of the justified and regenerated\nbeliever, yet such a one, by watchfulness and prayer, may be kept from\nacts of sin and from becoming a backslider. But in point of fact, the\nseventh of Romans does describe what, in many cases, is the experience\nof the converted Christian.\n\nFor there are many who even after a clear conversion and a joyful\nsense of God's favor, with the witness of the Spirit to their adoption,\nyet do yield to temptation under the pressure of inbred sin, and so\npass weeks, or months or weary years in what is called an up-and-down\nexperience, not becoming confirmed backsliders, but sinning and\nrepenting, delighting in the law of God after the inward man, but often\nyielding to the demands of the law of sin, which is in their members,\nnot losing their sonship, but losing their communion and their joy,\noften like Peter weeping bitterly over their transgressions, but\nfinding that while the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.\n\nI said that such a process, unsatisfactory as it is, might go on for\nyears. It ends either in complete religious declension amounting,\nsometimes, to apostacy on the one hand, or infinitely better, in the\nentire sanctification of the heart and complete deliverance from inbred\nsin. And in these days of enlightenment, when the doctrine and\nexperience of holiness are so plainly taught, and so generally diffused\namong the children of God, it is, at least, doubtful whether a soul can\ncontinue long in a state of justification, which means that it will\neither go forward to the experience of entire sanctification, or else\nit will fall into back-sliding as did some of the Corinthians, or into\nlegality as did the Galatians.\n\nNow, legality is nothing more nor less than Judaism. It is seeking\nsalvation after the pattern of the Old Testament, and not after that of\nthe New. It is a matter of works, and not a matter of faith. It\ninquires \"What good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?\"\nIt is the child of the bondwoman and not that of the free. It is\nIshmael and not Isaac. It is Sinai and not Calvary.\n\nAnd so it happens that many Christians are simply good Jews. They may\neven possess circumcised hearts, and may yet serve the Lord in the\nspirit of bondage, as did good Jews of old. They fail to realize that\nthey have been called unto liberty, which liberty does not, by any\nmeans, signify license; it does not signify the liberty of making our\nown choices, but the liberty of accepting gladly and submissively God's\nchoices; it does not mean the liberty of doing either right or wrong as\nwe may prefer, but the liberty of always preferring to do right and\nnever wrong, and so to spend our years on earth, doing right in all\ndirections, and doing wrong in none. This, beloved, is the glorious\nliberty of the children of God.\n\nAfter the birth of Ishmael, we may well suppose that Hagar's chief\nemployment in Abraham's house was to look after the said Ishmael, to\ncare for him and to restrain him. Mark, it was never her business to\ncare for or to restrain Isaac. He was the child of promise, the child\nof faith, the son of the lawful wife and the free woman, and when\nIshmael's persecuting spirit broke forth at the weaning of Isaac, then\nthe command was \"Cast out the bond woman and her son.\" Both must go\ntogether or stay together. Ah! beloved, when inbred sin is cast out,\nthere is no more need of the law either to restrain or constrain.\nPerfect love casts out fear; it also casts out sin, and becomes the\nmotive power of the whole spiritual man. \"The love of Christ\nconstraineth us.\"\n\nSo Paul shows us that both Gentiles and Jews had failed to attain unto\nthe law of righteousness, because of inbred sin, which caused the\nformer to put out the light which they had, and the latter to fall\nshort of keeping the law, which was their only hope of salvation, but\nwhich was never intended by its Divine Author to save men, but to show\nthem how utterly incapable they were of saving themselves.\n\nBut Paul does not leave them there. After putting both classes of the\nhuman family into the same position of failure and condemnation, and\ndeclaring that there is no difference, \"for all have sinned and come\nshort of the glory of God,\" he adds, \"Being justified fully by His\ngrace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.\" When man's\nhelplessness and inability have been sufficiently demonstrated, then\nGod comes to his rescue. \"For God hath concluded them all in unbelief,\nthat He might have mercy upon all.\"\n\nThus in the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle teaches the great\ndoctrine of justification by faith and the consequent peace of\nreconciliation, the \"peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.\" But\nhe goes farther than justification, and shows us that sanctification,\nalso, is by faith and not by works. He will not be satisfied with\nanything less than the death of our old man, and the death of inbred\nsin is precisely the experience of entire sanctification. \"Knowing this\nthat our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be\ndestroyed, that, henceforth, we should not serve him.\"\n\nBut we are wholly unable to destroy or do away with the body of sin by\nany resolution or will-power or effort of our own. Sin will not go\ndead at our bidding, nor can we become dead to sin by wishing or\nstriving to be so. Again, we are brought face to face with our\nhelplessness, but the apostle solves the problem for us by directing us\nto resort to the process of reckoning. \"Likewise reckon ye, also,\nyourselves to be dead, indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God, through\nJesus Christ, our Lord.\" Ah! now, our help is laid upon one that is\nmighty. \"The things that are impossible with men are possible with\nGod.\" What we reckon, with the sublime reckoning of faith, Christ can\nmake real and true. We have only, therefore, to reckon ourselves to be\ndead, indeed, unto sin, and leave to Him to make the reckoning good.\nBut we must not fail to reckon ourselves alive as well as dead. And to\nbe alive to God means, in this connection, to be responsive to every\nintimation of His will, to love Him perfectly, to be, to do and to\nsuffer joyfully all that He may determine concerning us, in short, to\nbe sanctified wholly. Oh, beloved, what a blessed reckoning is the\nreckoning of faith! How vastly does it transcend all the reckonings of\nlogic or mathematics. For, by it, we experience a continual deadness\nto sin, and a continual holiness of heart and life.\n\nFor it must be clearly understood that Paul is not asking us to fancy,\nor imagine, or hypothecate. He is not telling us that if we believe a\nthing to be true, the believing will make it true. He is not persuading\nus to reckon without factors and with no result. The factors in his\ndirection are God's promises and commands, alike in the Old Testament\nand in the New, urging His people to be holy, and promising to make\nthem so, and our acceptance of the provision He has made for our\ncleansing, by faith, and then by the reckoning alluded to, the result\nis secured.\n\nIn foggy or cloudy weather, mariners at sea are often compelled to\nresort to what they term dead-reckoning. Sometimes for days together,\nthe sun is hidden by clouds, and no observation can be taken with the\nusual instruments for determining latitude and longitude. Then the\ncaptain ascertains by the compass what direction he is pursuing, and\nby the log, the rate at which the ship is sailing, and thus by marking\nout his daily advance on a chart, he is enabled, with astonishing\naccuracy, to determine when and at what point he will sight the shore\ntoward which the voyage is directed. What he reckons becomes real, when\nhe tells the passengers, \"Within five minutes, we ought to see the\nIrish coast,\" followed within the specified time by the cry from the\nlookout, \"Land, ho!\"\n\nTo the Christian believer, the Bible is both compass and log and chart.\nSometimes, he enjoys the witness of the Spirit clear as the sunshine,\nassuring him that he is going in the right direction, and informing\nhim as to his whereabouts in Christian experience, but when not thus\nfavored, he can still move on by faith, he still has his compass and\nhis chart, and he can still employ the dead-reckoning, and go forward\nwith a holy trust that in due time he shall land in the heavenly port.\nPraise the Lord.\n\nTo comment in detail upon all that the great apostle of the Gentiles\nhas written in reference to entire sanctification would require a\nvolume instead of a single chapter. I must, therefore, content myself\nwith a few selections, and leave the reader to pursue the subject for\nhimself in the inexhaustible mine of the Pauline Epistles.\n\nIn Romans 6:13, we have the best description of consecration that is to\nbe found anywhere. \"Neither yield ye your members as instruments of\nunrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that\nare alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of\nrighteousness unto God.\" And, again, in the 19th verse, \"For as ye\nhave yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto\niniquity; even so, now, yield your members servants to righteousness,\nunto holiness.\"\n\nHere, the apostle clearly teaches us that consecration is not the same\nthing as entire sanctification. The one is an act proceeding from man\nto God, the other is an act proceeding from God to man. It is man who\nconsecrates; it is God who sanctifies.\n\nPerfect consecration is an entire surrender of a personal human being\nto a personal God. The term members may well be understood to include\nall bodily organs and powers, all mental faculties and sensibilities,\nand all appurtenances, such as time, money, influence, culture, health,\nand, in short, the whole personal, individual man, with all his\nbelongings. The surrender must be complete, absolute, unreserved and\nforever. Body, soul, spirit, time, talents, possessions, all that we\nhave and all that we are must be His, wholly His, and His to all\neternity.\n\nSuch a consecration cannot be made by any one who is not already a\nChristian believer. Paul informs us, explicitly, that he is not calling\nupon sinners \"dead in trespasses and sins,\" to consecrate themselves,\nbut upon converted persons, \"those who are alive from the dead.\" How\nthankful we ought to be that he has settled that point forever. Sinners\nmay repent, but only Christians can consecrate. Whatever surrender the\nsinner may and must make in order to be saved, the believer must make a\nbroader, deeper, fuller, more complete surrender of a different\ncharacter and for a different purpose. In repentance, the sinner gives\nhimself away as a dead sacrifice, and his purpose is to receive pardon\nand life. In consecration, the Christian yields to God his living and\nregenerated faculties and powers, and his purpose is that he may be\nsanctified wholly, filled with the Spirit, and used to the utmost\nextent of his capacity for the glory of God.\n\nConsecration does not mean the giving up of our sins, or vices, or\ndepraved appetites, or forbidden indulgences. We cannot consecrate our\nalcohol, or our tobacco, or our opium, or our card-playing, or\ndancing, or theater-going to God. He wants none of these things. All\nactual and known sins must be abandoned at conversion. Our consecration\nis for a deeper work, that is to say, for the removal of inbred sin,\nwhich, after all, is not accomplished by our consecration, though that\nis an essential preliminary, but by the baptism with the Holy Ghost\nand fire.\n\nThe essence of consecration is in the sentence, \"Yield yourselves unto\nGod.\" When you yield yourselves, you yield everything else. All the\ndetails are included in the one surrender of yourself. Changing the\nemphasis, we may read again, \"Yield yourselves unto God.\" Consecration\nis not to God's service, not to His work, not to a life of obedience\nand sacrifice, not to the church, not to the Christian Endeavor, not to\nthe missionary cause, nor even to the cause of God; it is to God\nHimself. \"Yield yourselves unto God.\" Your work, your service, your\nobedience, your sacrifice, your right place and your allotted duty will\nall follow in good time.\n\nConsecration is the willingness, and the resolution and the purpose to\nbe, to do, and to suffer all God's will. Its essence, already given in\nthe words of Paul, is given also in the words of the Saviour. \"Not My\nwill but Thine be, done,\" which is beautifully versified by Frances\nRidley Havergal, in the couplet,\n\n \"Take my will and make it thine,\n  It shall be no longer mine.\"\n\nConsecration being a definite transaction, and made once for all, does\nnot need to be repeated unless we have failed to keep it. To consecrate\nover and over again is like a husband and wife marrying over and over\nagain. We are consecrated just as we are married. The vow is upon us,\nand in the force of that vow, we walk all our days. All we have to do is\nto remember day by day that we are wholly the Lord's, and see to it that\nnothing is taken from the altar. Those who have kept their consecration\ncomplete should testify to its maintenance upon all suitable occasions,\nand never deny it by word, deed or silence.\n\nMany years ago, I saw a form of consecration in an English periodical,\nwhich is here given very slightly modified, and which has been adopted\nby many. Let all my readers unite with the author in entering into this\npersonal yielding to God.\n\n  I am willing\n  To receive what Thou givest,\n  To lack what Thou withholdest,\n  To relinquish what Thou takest,\n  To suffer what Thou inflictest,\n  To be what Thou requirest,\n  To do what Thou commandest.\n               Amen.\n\nIn this connection, we may add that when the consecration is complete,\nit becomes, comparatively, an easy matter to believe. Entire\nsanctification like justification, and, indeed, all other gospel\nblessings and experiences, is to be received by faith. But so long as\nthe surrender to God is not complete, faith refuses to act.\n\nWhen all obstructions are removed by an act of heartfelt and sincere\nconsecration, then it becomes as natural and as easy to believe as it\nis to breathe, after everything that hinders breathing is removed from\nthe air passages. We hear much complaint among Christians of a want of\nfaith. If they only had more faith, they imagine that all would be\nwell. When the disciples of old asked Jesus to increase their faith, He\ntold them, in effect, to use what they had. If it were only a mustard-seed\nfaith, He assured them that it would remove mountains. And we may\njustly conclude that the difficulty with most seekers after entire\nsanctification is not in a want of faith so much as in an incomplete\nsurrender. The carnal mind dies very hard. It attaches itself to one\nworldly thing or another, and refuses to be sundered from what it\nloves, and while this is the case, the individual cannot believe that\nGod gives him the unspeakable blessing of heart purity. But when all\nthe preliminaries have been attended to, and there is nothing else\nneeded but to trust in Jesus, then faith can appropriate His promises,\nand in so doing realize their fulfillment.\n\nAnother class of seekers is very much concerned about the witness of\nthe Spirit to assure them that the blessing has been received. Probably\nin these cases the very point that has not yet been consecrated to God\nis the feeling, or the witness, which they so much desire. \"It often\nhappens,\" says Dr. G. D. Watson, \"that a patient, who has been cured of\nsome contagious disease, has to have a certificate on leaving the\nhospital. In such a case the certificate does not cure him, but\ncertifies that he is cured. How absurd for a patient just entering the\nhospital to clamor for his health certificate before receiving the\ndoctor and taking the remedies. In like manner, it is useless for a\nseeking soul to be clamoring for the witness and waiting for the\nfeeling before receiving Jesus and fully trusting Him for the cure. We\nare not to trust in the experience, but the Saviour who imparts the\nexperience.\"\n\nLet us now return to Paul. In his first epistle to the Corinthians,\nsecond and third chapters, he tells us of three classes of persons: the\nnatural man, the spiritual man, and the babe in Christ. The natural\nman, he tells us, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; they\nare foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are\nspiritually discerned. Such is a description of the unregenerate\nwherever and whenever they are found. Their standard of judgment is not\nthat of the Holy Spirit. They are blind to the truth of God and deaf to\nthe story of salvation. Being without spiritual life they are, of\ncourse, without spiritual judgment. And yet, just such persons are in\nall our churches, and the number is by no means small. And often it\nstrangely happens that these are the very individuals who are\nnoticeably forward in expressing their opinions on the right way of\nmanaging a church. Fine and costly edifices, artistic music,\nentertainments and theatricals, eloquent preaching or lecturing,\nsomething to be proud of and to draw the crowd--these are the things\nwhich in their view make the church of their choice a success; but as\nfor the conversion of sinners, as for the spread of the gospel at home\nand abroad, as for the sanctifying of believers, as for the things of\nthe Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto them. What they need is a\ndeep and pungent conviction, a true repentance, a living faith and a\nsound conversion. May God hasten it in His time.\n\n\"He that is spiritual,\" says our apostle, \"judgeth or discerneth all\nthings, yet he himself is judged or discerned of no man.\" The spiritual\nman is the man who has been baptized with the Spirit and filled with\nthe Spirit, and in whom the Spirit abides as an ever-present Guide,\nComforter and Friend. In short, he is the man who is wholly sanctified\nand saved to the uttermost. I should not, of course, affirm that such a\none is always remarkable for depth or soundness of judgment, for, as\nhis religion is in his heart rather than in his head, the heart may be\nperfect while the head may be weak. And yet holiness, or rather the\nHoly Spirit dwelling in the heart, does have a wonderfully illuminating\ninfluence upon the understanding. And the spiritual man, however many\nthings he may be ignorant of, does understand the condition of the\nnatural man, because he has been there, while he is not understood by\nthe natural man because the latter has not been where he is. And the\nsame is true of the relation of the spiritual man to the carnal\nChristian or babe in Christ. He, also, is understood by one who has the\nSpirit, while he is himself incapable of judging or discerning the\nposition of the latter.\n\nPaul assures the Corinthians that they are \"yet carnal,\" and still he\nasserts that they are \"babes in Christ.\" Such persons, and their name\nis legion in all denominations of Christians, are not wholly natural,\nneither are they wholly spiritual. They are babes in Christ, and,\ntherefore, they may thank God that they are in Christ. They are\nconverted, they are believers, they are disciples, they are justified;\nbut they are not wholly sanctified, and not wholly delivered from the\ncarnal mind. Their state is a mixed one, partly spiritual, partly\ncarnal.\n\nOh, let such as these make an immediate and complete and irrevocable\nconsecration to God, and let them ask for the baptism with the Holy\nGhost and receive Him by faith in His sanctifying and empowering\noffices, that so they may become, not partly, but wholly spiritual. Oh,\nthat spiritual men and women may increase and abound in all our\nchurches. Amen.\n\nIn 2 Corinthians, 7:1, the apostle of the Gentiles bases the\nexperience of entire sanctification on the glorious promises of God.\n\"Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse\nourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting\nholiness in the fear of God.\" To cleanse ourselves is shown by the\nGreek tense to be an act done definitely and once for all. It means,\ntherefore, to put ourselves under the conditions of cleansing by a\ndefinite act of consecration to God. It means to place ourselves in\nco-operation with the Holy Spirit, who is distinctively the Sanctifier\nand Cleanser. It means, also, that we are to seek and find the baptism\nwith the Holy Ghost and with fire, in order that our hearts may be\npurified by faith, and then to continually avoid all sources of\ntemptation and all incentives to evil, so far as we may; and\ncontinuously realize and experience the holiness which Christ has\ninstantaneously wrought in our souls through His Holy Spirit.\nFilthiness of the flesh signifies undue indulgence of sensual\nappetites, as in gluttony, drunkenness and licentiousness, which was\nprobably very prevalent at Corinth. Filthiness of the spirit is\nillustrated by idolatry and pride, nor must we forget that the spirit\nis often polluted also through pampering the body.\n\nPaul's wonderful prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, has been so admirably\ntreated of by Dr. Daniel Steele, that I shall content myself with\nreferring the reader to his book on \"Love Enthroned,\" page 123, and\npass on. A single remark, however, may properly be made. That prayer,\nundoubtedly, embodies all that we mean by entire sanctification and the\nfilling of the Spirit and more.\n\nIn 1 Thess. 5:23, we have another prayer of the great apostle in which\nentire sanctification is expressly petitioned for. \"And the very God of\npeace sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit and soul\nand body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus\nChrist. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.\" The very\nform of the expression in the first clause indicates that it is\npossible to be sanctified wholly and possible to be sanctified\npartially. All Christians are cleansed from the pollution of sins\ncommitted, that is to say, from the pollution they have acquired by\nactually sinning. And thus the Corinthians are addressed by Paul as\nsanctified, although, manifestly, many of them were not holy in heart\nand life. On the other hand, the apostle prays that the Thessalonians\nmay be sanctified wholly, although as a church they were already in a\nhealthy and prosperous condition, the only exception being a few\nmembers who were too neglectful of their outward business and too much\ndisposed to be busy-bodies. So we may conclude, without hesitation,\nthat all Christians are partially sanctified, while many good\nChristians are not wholly sanctified.\n\nBut provision was made in the gospel for the entire sanctification of\nall believers, otherwise Paul would not have prayed for it. And not\nonly for their entire sanctification as a definite, instantaneous act\nof God, as shown by the Greek tense, but, also, for their continual\npreservation in blamelessness, though not in faultlessness, until the\ncoming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And lest they should stagger through\nunbelief he adds, \"Faithful is He that calleth you. You are not to do\nit. He will do it for He is able.\"\n\nAnd this experience extends to the whole man, the spirit which takes\nhold of and communes with God, the soul with its emotions, affections,\ndesires and volitions; the body with its appetites and its powers all\nmade holy and preserved holy. Glory!\n\nOne more citation only and I will leave the reader to his own\nresearches in the rich storehouse of the Pauline writings. Taking it\nfor granted that Paul is the author of the Hebrews, let us read chapter\n7:25 of that profound epistle. \"Wherefore, he is able, also, to save\nthem to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth\nto make intercession for them.\" To the uttermost refers, undoubtedly,\nnot only to time but to quantity. It means entirely, perfectly,\naltogether, through and through. And if he is able he is also willing.\nOh, that all my readers, with the writer, may praise God now and\nevermore for salvation from the uttermost to the uttermost. Amen.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY PETER.\n\n\n\nIn the first place, Peter sanctioned all the writings of his beloved\nbrother, Paul, and this probably at a period when Paul was either dead\nor separated from his ministerial work by imprisonment. There is a\ntradition that both the apostles were put to death on the same day at\nRome, the one by crucifixion, choosing himself to have his head\ndownward because unworthy to die just like his Master--the other by\nbeheading, because he was a Roman citizen, which was deemed, at Rome,\ntoo honorable a position to be subjected to the ignominious death of\nthe cross. Even if this should be true, yet Peter's second epistle, in\nwhich he endorses Paul's teachings, and gives to his writings the same\nauthority as to the rest of the Bible, seems to have been written but a\nshort time previous to his own martyrdom. The mature judgment of\nPeter, therefore, was that Paul was an inspired writer of Scripture,\nand that what he had given to the churches through his epistles, and\nleft as a permanent legacy for the church universal, is to be received\nas gospel truth. And this will apply to his copious and frequent\nallusions to entire sanctification, as well as to the various other\nsubjects treated of by his inspired pen. On the subject of holiness,\ntherefore, Peter and Paul are as one; and we need not be surprised that\nin the very first sentence of his first epistle, he addresses the\nChristians of the Jewish dispersion in Asia Minor--though by no means\nexcluding the Gentile converts--as elect according to the fore-knowledge\n(not predestination) of God the Father through sanctification\nof the Spirit, which must include entire as well as partial\nsanctification, unto (not unconditional happiness or misery,) but unto\nobedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, in one\ngrand outburst of salutation from his glowing heart, he associates\nsanctification of the Spirit, the blood of sprinkling, and the\nobedience of faith. Neither Peter nor Paul stops in the midst of his\nearnest appeals to men's hearts, in order to give a lecture on\nSystematic Theology, but both scatter seed-thoughts all over their\ninspired pages, which are abundant in fruitage to the candid and\nreflecting mind. And right here we remark that Paul to the\nThessalonians employs the same expression, sanctification of the\nspirit, in connection with belief of the truth, and thus putting the\napostle of the circumcision by the side of the apostle of the\nuncircumcision we have sanctification by the blood of Jesus,\nsanctification by faith, sanctification by the Holy Ghost, and even in\na subordinate sense, sanctification by obedience, and all this without\nthe slightest inconsistency or contradiction.\n\nAnd as Peter starts out by calling God's people to holiness, he\ncontinues by reminding them that their hope is to be fixed upon \"an\ninheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away,\nreserved in heaven for you.\" What more natural than that those who are\nexpecting to inherit a holy heaven, should themselves seek while here\nto become a holy people? Surely we should desire a meetness for our\ninheritance as well as a title to it.\n\nAfter speaking of the \"trial of their faith being much more precious\nthan of gold which perisheth,\" the apostle utters forth an imperious\ncall to entire sanctification. \"But as He which hath called you is\nholy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is\nwritten, Be ye holy, for I am holy.\" Thus he quotes from the words of\nthe great lawgiver in Leviticus--that Moses, whom all Jews have\ndelighted to honor, and shows at a glance that the Old Testament, as\nwell as the New, bears witness to the holiness of God, and makes that\nfact a sufficient reason for the command and requirement that His\npeople should be holy, also.\n\nOur Heavenly Father, then, is a holy God and dwells in a holy heaven.\nIs it not most reasonable and most fit that He should require all who\nare to dwell with Him forever in that holy place, to be holy also? And\nin order to find an abundant entrance into that everlasting kingdom,\nwe must be made holy while still clothed in flesh and sojourning upon\nearth. Nothing that is not already pure and holy can pass through the\ngates of pearl into the eternal city, the New Jerusalem.\n\nHoliness is what constitutes the family likeness between our Father in\nheaven and His children both on earth and in heaven. A lady was\naccosted in the streets of a western city by a stranger, who asked her\nif she was not the daughter of such a one, naming him. She replied,\nwith some surprise at the question, in the affirmative. \"I knew you,\"\nsaid the gentleman, \"by your resemblance to your father who was my\nparticular friend twenty-five years ago, away back in the State of\nMaine.\" And the lady was delighted that the lineaments of her father's\ncountenance were so impressed upon her own that she should thus be\nrecognized even by one who had never seen her before as her father's\nchild.\n\nAh! beloved, have we the likeness of our Heavenly Father so imprinted\nupon our faces and upon our walk and upon our conversation that all who\nknow Him shall recognize His features in us? Oh, for more of the family\nlikeness which shall stamp us as sons of God wherever we are and\nwhatever we do. \"Be ye holy, for I am holy.\"\n\nIn comparison with the precious \"blood of Christ\" Peter characterizes\nsilver and gold, which men call precious metals, as \"corruptible\nthings,\" and then gives the striking exhortation, \"Seeing ye have\npurified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto\nunfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a\npure heart fervently,\" and all this on the basis of the new birth which\nthey had already received \"of the incorruptible seed by the word of\nGod.\"\n\nWhy, Peter, although a fisherman and an unlearned and ignorant man, yet\nwhen thou writest under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, it is almost\nas hard to keep up with thee as with thy beloved brother, Paul!\n\nSee how holiness is, as it were, piled up and repeated in various ways\nin the sentence quoted above. (1), \"Ye have purified your souls.\" Yes,\nand it was Peter who spoke before the council at Jerusalem in reference\nto Cornelius and his household, and said that God \"put no difference\nbetween us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.\" The word\n\"purify\" is derived from a Greek root which means \"fire.\" Souls are\npurified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the result is a continual\n\"obeying the truth,\" and (2), the positive side of this purification\nis \"unfeigned love of the brethren,\" and this is love with a pure heart\nand fervent, the same love which John calls perfect love, and the\nstandard of which is in the words of the Lord Jesus, \"As I have loved\nyou that ye also love one another.\"\n\nWas ever more holiness crowded into a single verse? Peter had never\nbeen to a Theological Seminary, but he had listened through three\neventful years to the blessed teachings of the Lord Jesus, and he had\nbeen filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and without\naiming at system or explanation, he has compressed more sound theology\ninto a single verse than we find in many a voluminous treatise and many\na lengthy commentary and many an eloquent sermon.\n\nAnd then in the rapturous eloquence of inspiration he tells us how to\ngrow in grace. \"Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, and\nhypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes\ndesire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby,\" and his\nlast exhortation at the end of the second epistle is, \"But grow in\ngrace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.\"\n\nPeter, by no means, teaches us that we grow into grace, or that we grow\ninto entire sanctification. We first become receivers, and get grace\nbefore we can grow in it, and we must first receive entire\nsanctification before we can grow in it. Like all other gospel\nblessings, this is the gift of God, and is forever, therefore,\nunobtainable by any process of growth. But Peter says in effect, in\norder to grow in grace you must do two things. (1), Lay aside\neverything that hinders growth, specifying malice, guile, hypocrisies,\nenvies, evil speakings. Now it is plain as the sun at noon-day that all\nthese things are the fruits of the carnal mind. And so in a single\nthought the exhortation is to lay aside, or put off, or give up to\ndestruction, the depravity of our nature, the inbred sin which doth so\neasily beset, and which so long as it exists, will be an insuperable\nhindrance to all rapid and symmetrical growth, and (2) desire, and of\ncourse, partake of the sincere milk of the word. Ah, here is wisdom,\nthe secret of successful growth, in the spiritual as in the natural\nworld, is first to become healthy, and then to take plenty of\nnourishment. Holiness is spiritual health, and implies the absence of\ninbred sin which is always spiritual disease. The child that is healthy\nand gets plenty of pure milk will grow and develop rapidly. The time\nwill soon come when he can eat and digest meat and still strengthen and\nexpand his physical organism on this richer diet, and thus he will\nfinally become a large and strong man. But the child may be healthy and\nstill not grow because it is starving for want of food. Or, it may have\nplenty of the most wholesome food and still not grow because disease\nprevents it from assimilating the nourishment. Sound health and plenty\nof food, with proper exercise, are the essentials of the right kind of\ngrowth. Now the Holy Bible contains not only milk for babes, but strong\nmeat for strong men. It has been remarked by another that if Christians\nwould be giants they must eat giants' food. And the essential requisite\nfor appropriating either the milk or the meat is to have a sound\nspiritual constitution and that means simply entire sanctification.\nPeter is right again. We grow by the sincere milk of the word after we\nhave gotten rid of that which always and everywhere obstructs true\ngrowth.\n\nOf course my reader will not understand me to say, any more than Peter\nhimself says, that we experience growth in grace simply by a head\nknowledge of the Holy Scriptures. I do not forget that it is not the\nwritten word but the Eternal Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who\nis the bread of life. Nor do I forget that we feed upon His broken body\nand His shed blood, not by intellect, not by reason, not by culture,\nnot by learning, but by faith.\n\nBut after all it is the Bible, or rather it is Bible truth, whether\npresented on the pages of inspiration or in the preached word, which is\nthe great instrumentality employed by the Holy Spirit, in bringing men\nto Christ, and in feeding and nourishing and strengthening and edifying\nthe church which has thus been gathered to Him. And so both Peter in\nspeaking about the \"sincere milk of the word,\" and Paul in referring to\nthe \"strong meat,\" by which term he characterizes the deeper spiritual\ntruths of revelation, are leading us to Jesus, the true bread, the\nliving bread, the bread of life.\n\nOur apostle passes next to a most glowing description of the Christian\npriesthood, and again the leading idea of holiness flashes from his\npen, \"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an\nholy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by\nJesus Christ.\" Again, \"Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,\nan holy nation, a peculiar people.\" Here is our title of nobility,\nbeloved, and who of us would exchange it for an earldom, or a dukedom\nor a kingdom? Not I at least.\n\nThe Jews of old received spiritual blessing very largely, and even\ntemporal blessing also, through the mediation of an outward priesthood.\nAnd the family of priests were chosen and ordained of God Himself. \"No\nman taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God, as was\nAaron.\"\n\nBut under the Christian dispensation all God's saved people are priests\nas well as kings, and the sacrifices which they offer are spiritual\nsacrifices, the body as a living sacrifice to be consumed like a whole\nburnt offering in His service, \"the fruit of the lips giving thanks to\nHis name,\" and the doing good and communicating, that is to say, a life\nrich in faith and good works, such are the sacrifices with which God is\nwell pleased. But to be a Christian priest in the sense here described\nmust involve and does involve the idea of entire sanctification.\nPeter's words will not allow us to doubt that the priesthood of\nbelievers is a \"holy priesthood.\"\n\nAfterwards, the chief of the apostles exhorts his readers to take ill\ntreatment patiently when they have to suffer, not for doing wrong but\nfor doing well, and reminds us of the example of Christ, \"Who did no\nsin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who when He was reviled,\nreviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed\nHimself to Him that judgeth righteously; who His own self bare our sins\nin His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live\nunto righteousness,\" winding up with a terse expression of the great\ndoctrine of the atonement \"by whose stripes ye were healed.\"\n\nPaul would have us \"dead to sin\" by reckoning. Peter would have us\n\"dead to sins\" by making no response to the suggestions of Satan or the\ntemptations which he may present to us. To be dead either to sin within\nus or to sins without us, implies holiness of heart, that is, entire\nsanctification. Praise the Lord for the perfect agreement of His two\ngreat apostles in regard to this glorious doctrine.\n\nStill further, Peter speaks of the \"holy women\" of old, and exhorts\nChristian women to be like them, particularly in adorning themselves\nnot with gay attire, but with inward and spiritual graces. And in his\nsecond epistle, he alludes to \"holy men of God,\" speaking through the\nOld Testament as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And here we have\nthe best possible definition of inspiration, in regard to which volumes\nhave been written, and very different views expressed by equally\nlearned and candid men. But what can be more satisfactory to the\nhumble, Christian mind than just to feel that when he reads his Bible,\nhe is perusing the words of \"holy men of God who spake as they were\nmoved by the Holy Ghost.\" Such a mind will find no difficulty about\ninspiration.\n\nIn the last chapter of his second epistle, Peter rebukes the unbelief\nof the scoffers, who then believed, and whose successors still believe\nthat the present order of the material universe will continue for an\nindefinite period, if not, indeed, forever. He assures us that the Lord\nhas not forgotten, that He is not slack concerning His promises, but\nthat the very reason why the sinful world has been spared so long is\nbecause of God's long suffering and mercy, \"not willing that any should\nperish, but that all should come to repentance.\" And, then, having\ndeclared that the heavens and the earth which are now, are reserved\nunto fire, that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night,\nthat the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the\nworks that are therein shall be burned up, he exclaims with most\nappropriate words, \"Seeing then, that all these things shall be\ndissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy\nconversation and godliness,\" and this in order \"that ye may be found of\nHim in peace, without spot and blameless.\"\n\nPraise the Lord for the doctrine of entire sanctification as taught by\nthe apostle of the circumcision. Amen.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JOHN.\n\n\n\nJohn, before Pentecost, was emphatically a Son of Thunder. He could\nforbid a man to cast out devils in the name of Jesus, because the man\nwas not of his own particular fold. He was ready to imitate Elijah by\ncalling down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans who would not\nextend the rites of hospitality to his Master. He was eager to have the\nhighest possible place in the coming kingdom of his Lord, and this at\nwhatever cost. But after Pentecost, John was _par excellence_ the\napostle of love. Not that his character became anything like putty. He\ncould still rebuke evil and denounce Diotrephes, and forbid the elect\nlady to receive or countenance any who did not uphold the true, sound\ndoctrines of the gospel. He was still a son of thunder against heresy\nand immorality, but he was preeminently, after his baptism with the\nHoly Ghost, a son of consolation. His soul seems absolutely absorbed in\nthe love of God, and his exhortations to the churches, seemed all to\nconcentrate in two special points, love God and love one another. His\nheart was made perfect in love on the day of Pentecost, and he never\nlost the blessed experience. He retained the blessing because he\nretained the Blesser. The Holy Comforter was his abiding guest and\nkeeper.\n\nThe gospel of John contains many of the most profound and spiritual\ntruths that ever fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus. And the only\ndistinction which John accords to himself, and that always with the\ngreatest modesty and humility, is \"the disciple whom Jesus loved.\"\n\nHe begins his gospel with a sublime assertion of the Deity and\npre\u00ebxistence of Christ as the Eternal Word, then tells of the\nincarnation, how the Word became flesh, and we beheld His glory, how\nalthough He was the Light of the world, yet the world knew Him not, and\nthough He came unto His own (the Jews) yet His own received Him not,\nbut as many as did receive Him, whether Jews or Gentiles, to them gave\nHe power to become the children of God, and this through a new birth,\nnot of human blood, or title, or pedigree, not of man in any way\nwhatever, but of God. It is not sufficient, therefore, to be a child of\nGod by creation, which, indeed, all men are, but by adoption, by the\nreception of the Divine nature by birth. And this new birth is more\nfully unfolded to the Jewish Sanhedrist, Nicodemus, both as to its\nnecessity and its nature. \"Ye must be born again.\" \"The Son of man must\nbe lifted up.\" The new birth is of water and the Spirit. The water is\nthe water of life, the gospel offered freely to all, with its cleansing\nand refreshing and vivifying properties so well symbolized by water,\nand the Holy Spirit is the effective personal agent by whom the\nregeneration is wrought in the heart of the penitent sinner, though His\noperations may be as inexplicable as the wind, which bloweth where it\nlisteth, and is known only by its results. Then we have the hinge-text\nof salvation, \"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten\nSon, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal\nlife.\" Thus, in this marvelous discourse with Nicodemus, we have God's\nlove or God's grace as the source of our salvation, Christ crucified as\nthe ground of it, and the Holy Spirit as the Divine Agent of its\naccomplishment. Glory be to the Triune God.\n\nNot only the discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus on the new birth, but\nHis discourse, also, with the woman of Samaria on true worship is given\nby John alone. It is remarkable that not to a Jewish Rabbi, not to the\nScribes and Pharisees, not to a Jew at all, but to a heathen or\nsemi-heathen woman, Jesus made the first recorded, positive declaration\nof His Messiahship, and showed her that as God is a Spirit, so they that\nworship Him must do so, not in any specific locality, such as Jerusalem\nor Mount Gerizim, and not by any prescribed form or any outward ritual,\nbut in spirit and in truth. No wonder that her heart was immediately\nand completely captivated by so grand and glorious a revelation, and\nthat, at once, she left her waterpot and went her way to become a\npreacher of righteousness to her fellow-townsmen.\n\nPassing over the fifth chapter, with the appeal to the Jews to search\nthe Scriptures and the assurance that they testified of Him; and the\nsixth chapter, with its story of complete self-abnegation, when after a\nstupendous miracle, the people were disposed to take Him by force and\nmake Him a king, but He departed into a mountain Himself alone, and the\nnext day, the wonderful discourse upon the bread of life, which sifted\naway from Him a large proportion of those who had been so ready to\nproclaim Him King, and brought out of the core of His heart those\npathetic words to the twelve, \"Will ye also go away?\", we come to the\nseventh chapter and the feast of Tabernacles, at which, on the occasion\nof the priest pouring water from the pool of Siloam, out of a golden\npitcher into a trumpet-shaped receptacle above the altar, amid the\nrejoicings of the people, Jesus stood and cried, \"If any man thirst let\nhim come unto Me and drink.\" \"He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture\nhath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.\" The\nScripture referred to is, probably, Isaiah 58:11, and, perhaps, other\nsimilar passages. \"And the Lord shalt guide thee continually, and\nsatisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be\nlike a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters fail\nnot.\"\n\nBut the beloved disciple himself gives us an extremely valuable\ninspired commentary on these words of the Lord Jesus, in order that\nreaders in all ages might make the true spiritual application which is\nintended by them. \"But this spake He of the Spirit which they that\nbelieve on Him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given,\nbecause that Jesus was not yet glorified.\" These remarkable words seem\nto clearly imply that notwithstanding the presence and operation of the\nSpirit in the former dispensations of God's grace, yet He was to be\npoured out on all God's children under the gospel in a sense and to an\nextent, which so far transcends the highest manifestation of His power\nin Old Testament times that in comparison it is said the Holy Ghost was\nnot yet given, or, literally, the Holy Ghost was not yet. And this\nwondrous outpouring was to be after the glorification of Jesus and as a\nconsequence of that glorification. So that Pentecost, with its untold\nwealth of privilege, could not be realized till after the death,\nresurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd we are clearly informed that what the church of the hundred and\ntwenty received on the day of Pentecost, namely, the purifying of their\nhearts by faith and the enduement of power, that is to say, entire\nsanctification, with all its blessed accompaniments, was not a\nprivilege confined to apostolic times, and to the opening of the Holy\nGhost dispensation; for Peter boldly assured the wondering multitude\nthat the promise of the same blessed experience \"is to you and to your\nchildren and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God\nshall call.\" And thus it is for the church and for every individual\nbeliever, until Christ Himself shall come again. God help all\nChristians everywhere to see and to believe and to realize it. Amen.\n\nIn the eighth chapter, we are told how Jesus showed the slavery of sin.\n\"Every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin,\" and coupled\nwith this the glorious announcement that, \"If the Son, therefore, shall\nmake you free, ye shall be free indeed.\" Yes, Jesus came to free us not\nsimply from the guilt and the condemnation and the penalty of sin, but\nfrom that which brings guilt and condemnation and penalty, even from\nsin itself.\n\nHere is true Christian liberty, and it does not mean license, it does\nnot mean do as you please, it does not mean the liberty of making your\nown choices, but it does mean be pleased with what pleases God, and in\nthis manner after all you will do as you please, it means the glad\nacceptance of God's choices. And so, after all, you do have your own\nway because it is God's way, it means liberty and choice to do\neverything right and nothing wrong, or to do right in all directions\nand wrong in none. May God bring all His children out of slavery and\ninto freedom for Jesus' sake.\n\nIn the memorable discourse of the Lord Jesus with His disciples at the\nlast supper, as given by John in the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of\nhis gospel, He told them of the blessed Comforter, \"which is the Holy\nGhost,\" whom the Father would send in His name, and as to the method of\nHis coming He says, \"If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My\nFather will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with\nhim.\" Here, I think, beyond a doubt, that the \"We\" refers to the Father\nand the Son, and the manner of Their coming and indwelling in the heart\nof the believer is through Their representative, the Holy Spirit. And\nif this be true, how is it possible that such a heart in which Father,\nSon and Holy Ghost abide, should not be sanctified wholly?\n\nIn his first Epistle, the beloved apostle develops beautifully the\ndoctrine of perfect love. He declares that God's children must not walk\nin darkness or sin, and that those who do so cannot, truthfully, claim\nto have fellowship with Him. \"But if we walk in the light, as He is in\nthe light, we have fellowship one with another,\" (which implies\nfellowship with God) \"and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth\nfrom all sin.\"\n\nThis is a very striking and all-important statement. The verb is in\nthe present tense, and denotes a present and a continuous action. It\ncleanseth persistently and continuously. You trust in Jesus this\nmoment, and the blood cleanseth now, another moment and it cleanseth,\nand thus on, without intermission or cessation. And the cleansing is\nfrom all sin, sin committed and sin inbred, sin in act, word or\nthought, sin outward and sin inward, sin open and sin secret, sin of\nknowledge and sin of ignorance, literally and truly all sin. If this\ndoes not mean entire sanctification, what use is there in language as\nan expression of thought? Surely none.\n\nBut the objection is strongly urged by some that the next verse assures\nus that \"If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the\ntruth is not in us.\" But why sunder this verse from its appropriate\nconnections? Were there not Pharisees in the time of Christ who would\nnot admit that they were sinners, and would not accept the baptism of\nrepentance from John the Baptist? And did not the Apostle John live to\nsee the germs of incipient gnosticism showing themselves in the church,\nassuming, like modern Christian science, that all evil is in matter,\nthe soul is immaculate, and some Gnostics even believing that it was\npossible to have fellowship with God while living in all kinds of\nsensual indulgence and licentiousness, and moreover denying the reality\nof the incarnation of Christ, as also of the crucifixion and\nresurrection? These were the Docetists or Phantasiasts, so well\ndescribed by Longfellow:\n\n \"Ah, to how many faith has been\n  No evidence of things unseen,\n  But a dim shadow, which recasts\n  The creed of the Phantasiasts,\n  For whom no man of sorrows died:\n  For whom the tragedy divine\n  Was but a symbol and a sign,\n  And Christ a phantom crucified.\"\n\nNow John in the passage referred to, tells us that on certain\nconditions it is possible to experience through the blood of Christ,\nwhich means simply the merits of His atoning and vicarious sacrifice, a\ncomplete cleansing from all sin, and then turning to those who deny\nthat they are sinners, he exclaims, and if we say that we have no sin,\nand therefore do not need this cleansing, and can do without this\natonement, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. How\nmuch more rational is such an interpretation than the exposition which\nmakes one verse contradict the other, and represents the apostle as\nfirst assuring us that we may be cleansed from all sin, and then\ndeclaring in effect. \"But be sure to remember that this cleansing is\nnever really affected, and you are never really without sin.\"\n\nThere are so many rich and blessed teachings in this epistle that we\nmust needs make selection and leave many passages to be carefully and\nprayerfully pondered by the reader, with the assurance that there is\nvery much gold to be found for the digging; but we would call attention\nin a special manner to John's description of perfect love. \"There is no\nfear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath\ntorment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.\"\n\nIt is clearly to be inferred from these expressions that whilst all\nChristians do and must love God, yet there is a stage denominated\nperfect love, which many Christians have not yet reached. And this\nstage of religious experience is marked distinctly by the absence of\nfear. Most certainly our apostle does not mean for us to understand\nthat we shall ever get beyond that reverential and filial fear, which\nis the right and proper accompaniment of our childlike relation to our\nHeavenly Father. But he specially describes the fear that will be\ngotten rid of as tormenting fear, and this fear he declares that\n\"perfect love casteth out.\" Now we can readily see the reasonableness\nof this statement. Fear about the future, whether as to temporal or\nspiritual things, fear of evil tidings, fear of man, fear of death, in\nshort, all tormenting fear is caused by the presence of inbred sin. As\na matter of course, therefore, when sin is cast out, fear is cast out\nwith it. Now perfect love is the positive side of entire\nsanctification; it implies the absence of inbred sin and the unmixed\nlove of God occupying the soul. Such love, therefore, most truly must\ncast out fear.\n\nThe impenitent sinner neither fears nor loves God. The awakened sinner\nfears him, but does not love Him. The justified believer both fears and\nloves. Sometimes the fear is in the ascendant and sometimes the love.\nThe entirely sanctified believer loves with all his heart, and has no\ntormenting fear. Praise the Lord.\n\nAnd the beloved apostle instructs us also as to the method of obtaining\nthe blessing of perfect love. It is by the prayer of faith, and the\nprayer of faith involves the idea of a preceding entire consecration.\n\"For,\" says John, \"if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our\nheart,\" which probably signifies that He also will condemn us, and,\ntherefore, we cannot utter a believing prayer for such a blessing as\nentire sanctification while we are not wholly given up to the Lord, for\nwhile that is our case, our heart will continue to condemn us.\n\nBut he continues, \"If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence\ntowards God.\" And again, \"This is the confidence that we have in Him,\nthat if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we\nknow that He hear us, whatsoever we ask we know that we have the\npetitions that we desired of Him.\"\n\nNowhere is the philosophy of the plan of full salvation more\nbeautifully portrayed than in these precious words. We are shown here\nthat (1), the seeker of entire sanctification must be wholly\nconsecrated to God. (2), That he must pray in faith. (3), That he must\npray according to God's will. (4), That then he may know that he has\nthe very thing he asks for. Here is wisdom. Let every seeker act upon\nit. Amen.\n\nNor does John leave us in doubt as to the witness of the Spirit to our\nconscious cleansing. \"If we love one another\" (i.e. with a true and\npure and unselfish and self-sacrificing Christian love) \"God dwelleth\nin us and His love is perfected in us.\" \"Hereby know we that we dwell\nin Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.\" Now to\nhave God's love perfected in us, and to have Him to dwell in us, can\nmean nothing less than entire sanctification, and we know this, as John\ntells us, by His Spirit. We have, therefore, the witness of the Spirit\nto perfect love as well as to adoption.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JAMES AND JUDE.\n\n\n\nJames and Jude were brothers. They were also \"brethren of the Lord.\"\nWhether this expression means actual brothers, namely, children of\nJoseph and Mary, or whether it means only cousins, also whether these\ntwo men were apostles or not, are questions which I leave to the\nBiblical critics. Receiving without argument their respective epistles\nas belonging to the inspired canon, I am to inquire what their teaching\nis in reference to the one theme of this book, that is, entire\nsanctification.\n\nJames, as a writer, is intensely practical. As Bishop of Jerusalem he\npresided specially over the Jewish Christian Church, and his epistle is\naddressed \"to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,\" i.e., to\nthe Jews of the Dispersion, primarily, no doubt, to the Christian Jews,\nbut also secondarily and by way of warning to the unconverted Jews.\nJames was \"zealous of the law.\" He fully agreed with Paul and with\nPeter that the yoke of circumcision and the Mosaic law was not to be\nimposed upon the Gentile Churches, but he, no doubt, strongly insisted\nthat Jewish converts should be still very careful to observe the\noutward law. His epistle is like Matthew's gospel, and savors strongly\nof the Sermon on the Mount. As a bishop and overseer of a Jewish flock\nof Christians, while he fully assented to Paul's teaching on\njustification by faith, he, nevertheless, urged upon the people with\nvehemence that they should show their faith by their works and that\nthey should be \"doers of the word and not hearers only.\" As Paul\ncompletely demolishes the doctrine of salvation by the works of the\nlaw, so James in his epistle offers us an inspired and a vigorous\nprotest against every form of Antinomianism. Thus the two writers, both\nmoved by the Holy Ghost, present the two aspects of gospel truth so\nplainly that he may run that readeth. \"We are saved by faith, not by\nworks,\" says Paul. \"Aye,\" says James, \"but we are saved in good works,\nnot out of them,\" and we must be careful to maintain good works, not in\norder to be saved, but because we are saved. Good works are necessary,\nnot as the ground or the cause of salvation, but as the fruit and\nresultant and test of the salvation which we have received by faith.\nJames, therefore, is not antagonistic to, but only complementary of the\ngreat apostle of the Gentiles.\n\nAnd mark how he strikes or aims right at the mark of Christian\nperfection in the very beginning of his epistle. He assures us that if\nwe let patience have her perfect work, we shall be perfect and entire,\nwanting nothing.\n\nChristian perfection, then, according to James, is perfect patience.\nChristian perfection according to John, is perfect love. Christian\nperfection, according to Paul, is maturity or being \"thoroughly\nfurnished unto all good works.\" Christian perfection, according to\nPeter, is in being established, strengthened, settled. Surely none but\na caviller will find any want of harmony between these different modes\nof expression. They all imply deliverance from sin, which is always\ninstantaneous, and some of them imply a mature Christian character,\nwhich is always gradual.\n\nJames gives a vivid description of inbred sin under the name of lust.\n\"Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and\nenticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth (actual) sin;\nand sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.\"\n\nWe cannot doubt that James, like the other writers of the Bible,\nbelieved in a personal devil, for he speaks of a wisdom which is\n\"devilish\" and if a man is enticed to sin by the natural depravity of\nhis heart, we must not overlook the fact that the enticement implies an\nenticer, and that the wicked spiritual adversary of our race knows how\nto adapt his baits to the peculiar form in which inbred sin is\nstrongest in each individual, and thus, if possible, to entrap and\ndestroy him. Depravity exists by nature in all, but in one man it is\nparticularly felt in the direction of covetousness, in another, of\npride, in another, of ambition, in another, of sensuality. Satan's\ntemptations in the first of these would most likely be something which\nholds out the prospect of getting gain by sinning; in the second, it\nwould be something to feed his intense admiration of self, to cherish\nhis pride; in the third, it would be the hope of political or some\nother kind of power on the condition of sacrificing principle; in the\nfourth, it would be the gratification of bodily appetites as in\ndrunkenness, gluttony, or licentiousness. Thus the trap is set for\nevery man, and the trapper is wary. God save us from his wiles.\n\nAnd as Peter tells us to lay aside inbred sin, as it exists in the form\nof malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and shows itself in\nevil speakings, so James tells us to lay apart \"all filthiness and\nsuperfluity of naughtiness,\" or \"overflowing of wickedness.\" Ah,\nbeloved, most truly did Jesus say that the heart of man is a fountain\nof wickedness, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts and all\nactual sins; yes, there is by nature in each one of us a superfluity of\nnaughtiness, an overflowing of wickedness, a natural depravity, an\ninbred sin, and this must be \"laid apart,\" it must be gotten rid of by\nbringing and subjecting the heart where it dwells to the fiery baptism\nwith the Holy Ghost, and then shall we be in a position to receive,\nwith meekness, the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls.\n\nSt. James speaks of the \"law of liberty,\" and of the \"royal law,\" the\nlatter being, \"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,\" and both mean,\nI apprehend, just what we have already alluded to as the law of love.\n\"Love,\" says Paul, \"is the fulfilling of the law,\" and this is liberty,\nand this is royalty, the freedom to do God's will because we love it,\nand to have all the antagonisms to that blessed will expelled from our\nhearts, and all lawful affections and passions subdued and subjected to\nHim who is our King, and who reigns without a rival in our hearts.\n\n \"I worship Thee, sweet will of God,\n    And all Thy ways adore;\n  And every day I live, I seem\n    To love Thee more and more.\"\n\nIf this is not the true liberty and the true royalty, where shall we find\nthem? Not on earth, at least.\n\nJames does not spend words in exhorting us to seek more religion, but\nhe tersely defines pure religion. And that is what we want. It does not\ndepend upon age, nor size, nor growth. A stalk of corn may be pure as\nsoon as it raises itself above the surface of the ground. Another stalk\nmay be impure and diseased when it is many feet in height. A Christian\nmay seek and find pure religion and undefiled, very soon after he is\nborn again. Another Christian may spend years and years in seeking more\nreligion, and yet not become the possessor of purity of heart.\n\nThis pure religion, according to our author, consists in works of\nbeneficence and love as to its outward manifestations, but its true\ninward principle is in keeping one's self \"unspotted from the world.\"\nOh, that all my readers with myself, may thus keep themselves unspotted\nfrom the world, which involves the idea of being sanctified wholly, and\nin the end \"may be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless.\"\n\nBut an objector here interposes with a quotation from James which is\nsupposed to preclude the possibility of living without sin. \"In many\nthings we offend all.\" But this expression is not to be thus\ninterpreted. To make it mean that all Christians must continue in the\ncommission of sin to the end of their lives, would not only be doing\nviolence to that which is the very trend of our author's teaching,\nnamely, a spotless morality and a pure and holy life, but it would also\nprove too much. For a little further on we read, in reference to that\nunruly evil, the tongue, \"Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and\ntherewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God,\"\nand again, \"Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that they may\nobey us, and we turn about their whole body.\" Surely no expositor would\nmaintain from such language that James was a tamer of horses and a\nprofane swearer. The truth is, that James, out of kindness and\ncourtesy, includes himself among his hearers or readers, and means to\nshow us how liable we are to give offence through rash and ill-advised\nwords, and then, on the other hand, he does not fail to mention the man\nwho does not offend in word, and who is able, by the grace of God, to\nbridle the whole body, that is, to live without sin, and whom, again,\nhe styles a \"perfect man.\"\n\nOur author further informs us that heavenly, divine wisdom is first\npure, then peaceable. The carnal Christian, or babe in Christ, would\noften reverse this arrangement. He is clamorous for peace, often to the\nextent that he would have a wisdom that is first peaceable and then\npure, but the Holy Ghost puts purity first, and He is always right. No\ncompromise must be made with error in doctrine, or evil in practice,\neven for the sake of peace. But when we become possessors of a wisdom\nwhich is first pure, then, also, the other qualities follow in proper\nsuccession, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated and the rest.\n\nListen, again, to the stern moralist and preacher of holiness, \"Cleanse\nyour hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded.\" Here,\nagain, we can but thankfully admire the perfect accuracy of the Holy\nGhost, as regards the method of full salvation. To cleanse the hands is\nto obtain pardon and absolution for what we have done, and it is always\nthe first work of the unsaved man to repent and seek the forgiveness of\nhis sins. When this forgiveness has been obtained, then his hands are\ncleansed, but he may still be double-minded. He may still be unstable\nin all his ways. His spiritual course may still be zig-zag. His life\nmay still be a series of sinning and repenting, and sinning again and\nrepenting again, till he cries out in his misery, \"O wretched man that\nI am, who (not what) shall deliver me from this body of death?\" And\nthen James's prescription comes home to him, \"Purify your hearts, ye\ndouble-minded.\" Seek and obtain the blessing of entire sanctification,\nand, henceforth, with one mind and one purpose, run joyfully in the way\nof Christ's commandments. Justification first and entire sanctification\nafterwards. First cleanse your hands, then purify your hearts. And with\nthis agree the words of the Psalmist, \"Who shall ascend into the hill\nof the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?\" \"He that hath clean\nhands,\" that is, whose sins have been pardoned, \"and a pure heart,\"\nthat is, who has been sanctified wholly. The teachings of the Holy\nGhost are marvelously harmonious in the Old Testament and the New.\n\nFinally, James assures us that the \"prayer of faith shall save the\nsick, and the Lord shall raise him up.\" And not only physical but\nspiritual blessing may be received in the same way for \"If he have\ncommitted sins, they shall be forgiven him.\" His conclusion is that\n\"The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working,\"\nR.V., but I prefer to regard the Greek participle in the original as in\nthe passive voice, and then the meaning would be, as suggested by Dr.\nS.A. Keen in his Faith papers, \"The prayer of a righteous man being\nenergized\" (by the Holy Ghost) \"availeth much.\"\n\nI should understand the \"prayer of faith,\" therefore, to be a prayer\nbegotten in the heart of the believer by the Holy Ghost, and with the\nprayer is communicated also the corresponding faith, and when this is\nthe case, the answer is sure. Faith, in this use of the word, is a\nspecial gift, and may be given to some and withheld from others, also\ngiven at one time and withheld at another, just as God in His infinite\nand unerring wisdom may decide. This kind of faith is one of the\nspecial gifts of which we have an account in the 12th of 1st\nCorinthians, and differs, therefore, from the grace of faith or the\npower of believing the gospel unto salvation when it is presented,\nwhich is given to all men, and for the exercise of which, by actually\nbelieving, all are held responsible. \"He that believeth shall be saved,\nand he that believeth not shall be condemned.\"\n\nAnd it is Jude, the brother of James, who exhorts his readers to pray\nin the Holy Ghost, the very same kind of praying which James calls the\nprayer of faith, and about which Paul also declares that \"the Spirit\nHimself also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should\npray for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for\nwith groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the\nhearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh\nintercession for the saints according to the will of God.\"\n\nA Holy Ghost prayer, therefore, such as Jude alludes to, is a prayer\nthat is energized by the Holy Ghost. It is not the Holy Ghost who does\nthe groaning, but He causes the heart of the consecrated believer to\ngroan, by kindling those intense desires after some specific blessing,\nwhich often are, indeed, too deep for clear expression by utterance,\nand with the groanings, also, the faith is given, which takes hold of\nGod's Almightiness for the answer. Such prayers do, indeed, move the\nhand that moves the world, and whether it be for the healing of the\nsick, or the conversion of sinners, or the entire sanctification of\nbelievers, or the supply of temporal needs, or anything else which the\nHoly Spirit may suggest, the blessing is sure to come.\n\nI am not forgetting that the assistance of the Holy Spirit is needed,\nand that it is obtainable in all true prayer, but ordinary prayer must\nbe founded upon the promises of God and an exercise of will power to\nbelieve those promises, and therefore, it must be accompanied, in order\nto be effectual, by ordinary faith, the act of believing. Extraordinary\nprayer must be inspired directly by the Holy Spirit, and the gift of\nfaith must come directly from Him. So that we have ordinary prayer,\nordinary faith and ordinary results in the one case, while in the\nother, we have extraordinary prayer, extraordinary faith and\nextraordinary results. Praise the Lord.\n\nJude tells us that as Christian believers we are to \"hate even the\ngarment spotted by the flesh,\" that is, to keep entirely clear of all\nthe pollutions of sin, symbolized by the garment of the leper which was\nregarded as unclean, and which passage, when spiritually interpreted,\nmust mean the unspotted holiness of the true Christian. And as to the\nquestion of one's ability to live without sin, he commits us to the\ncare of Him who is \"able to keep us from falling,\" the very thing we\nneed and which we cannot do for ourselves, and \"to present us faultless\nbefore the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.\" First, then, we\nare to be sanctified wholly, then kept from falling by the power of\nChrist through the indwelling Spirit. Finally, presented without spot,\nblameless and faultless in the presence of God's glory in heaven. And\nthis is the gospel according to Jude.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nSANCTIFIED BY GOD THE FATHER.\n\n\n\nThere is one expression in the epistle of Jude, which I purposely\nomitted in the preceding chapter, that it might have a more prominent\nplace in the present one.\n\nNowhere else in the Bible are we expressly declared to be \"sanctified\nby God the Father.\" It is cause of rejoicing, however, that every\nperson of the Godhead, every member of the adorable Trinity, is\nconcerned in the sanctification of a human soul. And this fact, like\nmany others, points to the extreme importance of the subject on which\nwe are treating; for if the working of God the Father, God the Son and\nGod the Holy Spirit is required, and is brought into active operation\nin order to cleanse our hearts from the pollution of sin, and fit us\nfor heaven, then it must be in the estimation of the triune God, a\nmatter of prime necessity that we should be thus cleansed. If God,\ntherefore, regards it as an essential that we be sanctified wholly, let\nus beware of the thought that it is only optional, that it is possible,\nif possible at all, only for the few and not for the many, and that it\ncan be done without, or what is practically too nearly the same thing,\npostponed until we see, or think we see, the near approach of death.\nWhat every person of the Godhead is urging upon our acceptance now,\nlet us not dare either to reject or postpone. \"Behold, now is the\naccepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.\"\n\nPaul said to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, \"And now, brethren, I\ncommend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to\nbuild you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are\nsanctified.\"\n\nAh, beloved reader, we can never estimate the debt we owe to the\nunbounded grace of God. Grace means unmerited favor. Grace is God's\ninfinite love in active working for the salvation of man. And, the\nsource of our sanctification, just as of our justification, and indeed\nof every gospel blessing provided for us, is the grace of God. And when\nour souls are stirred up to ecstatic gratitude and love, by the thought\nof the \"unspeakable gift\" of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the\nunspeakable blessings derived from and through Him, let us not forget\nthat behind it all and over it all, is the broad and incomprehensible\ndeclaration, \"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten\nSon.\"\n\nAbsolute sovereignty, authority, supremacy and paternity belong to God\nthe Father. The Father sends the Son. The Father and the Son send the\nHoly Spirit. Neither the Son nor the Spirit, nor both together, ever\nsend the Father. The Father \"created all things by Jesus Christ.\" Jesus\nChrist cast out devils \"by the Spirit of God.\" The Son reveals the\nFather, for \"no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to\nwhomsoever the Son will reveal Him.\" And the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus,\nfor \"no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost.\" \"He\nshall testify of Me.\" \"He shall take of Mine and show it unto you.\" \"He\nshall not speak of Himself; but what He shall hear\" (from the Father\nand the Son) \"that shall He speak.\"\n\nThus the greatest gift that God the Father has given or could give to\nHis creature man is the gift of His Son. The greatest gift that God the\nSon has given to man after He gave Himself for us is the gift of the\nHoly Ghost, for it is not only said, \"I will pray the Father and He\nshall give you another Comforter,\" and \"whom the Father will send in My\nname,\" but also, \"If I depart I will send Him unto you,\" so we may say\nin general terms, that the Holy Ghost as a personal sanctifier,\nenergizer and Comforter, is the promise of the Father and the gift of\nthe Son. And it may be added that the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit\nto man is the gift of entire sanctification or perfect love. Glory be\nto God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.\n\nAnd thus when Jude tells us that we are sanctified by God the Father,\nHe means not only that we are separated unto the gospel of life and\nsalvation, set apart to God and His service, but, also, that God the\nFather has made ample provision in the death of His Son for all\nChristian believers to be cleansed from every stain of moral\ndefilement, delivered from inbred sin, sanctified wholly, made perfect\nin love, and filled with the Spirit. We repeat, therefore, that it will\nbe a matter of eternal thankfulness and gratitude to the redeemed soul,\nthat the source of all these unspeakable blessings is in the infinite\ngrace and love of God.\n\nEverywhere throughout the Old Testament, the holiness of God is brought\nprominently forward and insisted upon. And His own holiness is\npresented as a sufficient reason why His people should be holy also.\n\"Be ye holy, for I am holy,\" which command and declaration are repeated\nand endorsed by the Apostle Peter in his first epistle, \"But as He\nwhich hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of\nconversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.\"\n\nAs God the Father, therefore, is Himself infinitely holy, and He\nrequires all His children to be holy even in the present life, it goes\nwithout saying, as already shown, that He makes provision in His gospel\nfor them to be made and kept holy. And it is precisely the standard of\nGod's holiness which is set before us by the Saviour as the mark at\nwhich we also are to aim, and aim not vainly nor unsuccessfully. \"Be ye\nperfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.\" Not that our\nperfection or our holiness can be equal to His in degree. That would\nmake the finite equal to the infinite, and would be an impossibility\nand absurdity, but that we are to be perfect in our sphere as He is\nperfect in His, that we are to be holy with the same kind of holiness\nthat appertains to Him, in a word, that we are to be perfect in love as\nHe is perfect love, and that we are to be delivered from all sin, not\nby any effort or any merit of our own but by His unmerited grace in\nChrist Jesus. Let us rejoice and praise His name that we are sanctified\nby God the Father.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nSANCTIFIED BY GOD THE SON.\n\n\n\nAs the source of our entire sanctification is in the unmerited love and\ngrace of God the Father, so the ground of it is in the blood of Christ\nthe Son. Justification and Sanctification are by no means identical,\nbut as regards the origin, the ground, and the means, they are\nprecisely parallel. We are told that justification is by grace, and,\nagain, that it is by the blood of Jesus, and, still again, that it is\nby faith. It is, therefore, God's grace, it is Christ's blood, it is\nman's faith by which we are justified. The originating cause of our\njustification is the grace of God. The procuring cause is the blood of\nJesus Christ. The instrumental cause is our own faith.\n\nAnd all this is equally true of our entire sanctification. We are not\njustified in one way and sanctified in another. We are sanctified as\nwell as justified by the grace of God. We are sanctified as well as\njustified by the blood of Christ. We are sanctified as well as\njustified by our own faith.\n\nAll gospel blessings are founded upon the vicarious sacrifice of the\nLord Jesus Christ. He \"of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness,\n(justification) and sanctification and redemption.\"\n\nAnd sanctification, no more than justification, releases us from our\ndependence upon the atonement. If we are either justified or sanctified\ntoday it is not because we deserve it, but because Christ died for us.\nIf we shall be either justified or sanctified at any future period of\nour eternity, it will not be because we deserve it but because Christ\ndied for us. And so forever and forever we shall need the merit of His\ndeath, and we shall rejoice to join in the song of redemption \"unto Him\nthat loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath\nmade us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and\ndominion forever and ever. Amen.\" We are everlastingly linked to the\natonement of Jesus Christ, and this both for the pardon of past sins,\nand the entire cleansing of the heart.\n\n\"Thou shalt call His name Jesus because He shall save His people from\ntheir sins,\" which signifies, I apprehend, both the forgiveness of\nsins already committed and saving them from the commission of sins in\nthe future. Here, then, we have justification and regeneration. \"Behold\nthe Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.\" This must mean\nthe sin of our nature, the sin that dwelleth in us, the sin that doth\nso easily beset us, in a word, inbred sin. And to have the inbred sin\ntaken away means nothing more and nothing less and nothing else, than\nentire sanctification. Yes, beloved, we are sanctified by God the Son.\n\n\"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.\" Here\nwe have a positive statement that upon certain conditions to be\nfulfilled by us, we shall experience a cleansing from outward sin, and\ninward sin, and sin of ignorance, and conscious sin, and open sin and\nsecret sin, and all sin. There is no mistaking the length and breadth\nand all comprehensiveness of this glorious promise. Beloved, let us\nwalk in the light as He is in the light, and so know, for ourselves,\nthat this wondrous declaration is divinely true.\n\nAnd this is a result of His atoning sacrifice, which result He had in\nview, no less than the removal of our guilt when He laid down His life\nfor us. \"Wherefore, Jesus, also, that He might sanctify the people with\nHis own blood, suffered without the gate.\" Glory to His Name.\n\nHe died, therefore, not alone that we might be saved from guilt and\ncondemnation and penalty, but that we might be saved from sin, or\nsanctified wholly. And I would that every one of my Christian readers\nmight unite in the hymn.\n\n \"The cleansing stream I see, I see,\n  I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me.\n  It cleanseth me. Yes, cleanseth me.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nSANCTIFIED BY GOD THE HOLY GHOST.\n\n\n\nAs already intimated all the persons of the adorable Trinity are\nconcerned in the work of entirely sanctifying a human soul. And this is\nnaturally to be expected, because God is one Trinitarianism is not\nTritheism. In essence one, in personality three, such is the revelation\nof Holy Scripture in regard to the eternal Godhead. The Bible reveals\nthe fact, but does not reveal the how. We bow in adoring gratitude and\nlove before an incomprehensible mystery, and rejoice in believing even\nwithout understanding.\n\nNow the Holy Spirit is regarded by nearly all Christians as\ndistinctively and specially the Sanctifier, \"The renewing of the Holy\nGhost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our\nSaviour,\" is spoken of in the epistle to Titus in direct connection\nwith the \"washing of regeneration,\" and seems intended to be\nexperienced just after it. Possibly the renewing here spoken of, may\nsignify only the change of heart wrought by the Holy Ghost at the new\nbirth, but possibly, also, the apostle had in mind the entire cleansing\nof the heart from sin. And in that case the renewing need not be any\nmore gradual or progressive than the washing, which all admit to be\ninstantaneous.\n\nPeter, in describing, to the Church at Jerusalem, the occurrences which\nhe had witnessed at the house of Cornelius in Cesarea, used this\nlanguage: \"And God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving\nthem the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and put no difference\nbetween us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.\" Evidently here\nthe chief of the apostles gives us to understand that the giving of\nthe Holy Ghost, and the purifying of the heart by faith, are\nco-instantaneous and identical experiences. And if this be so, the Holy\nGhost, who is a Divine person, and not a mere influence, must be the\neffective agent in purifying the heart, that is to say, it is He who by\nHis Divine energy sanctifies us wholly.\n\nAnd with this agree the words of John the Baptist: \"I indeed baptize\nyou with water, unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is\nmightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize\nyou with the Holy Ghost and with fire.\" For what purpose is this fiery\nbaptism with the Holy Ghost? Most certainly that it may consume the\ninbred sin of our nature, as fire consumes the chaff, or destroys the\nalloy that the gold may be left pure.\n\nPaul in his epistle to the Romans uses the following language, viz:\n\"That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,\nministering the gospel of God that the offering up of the Gentiles\nmight be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost.\" This great\napostle was the first to clearly understand the perfect equality\nbetween Jew and Gentile in the gospel of salvation, and as he made\nhundreds of Gentile converts in His extensive missionary journeys, and\noffered them up with their own consent and co-operation in entire\nconsecration to God, they were sanctified by the Holy Ghost.\n\nThe same apostle says to the Thessalonians, \"We are bound to give\nthanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because\nGod hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through\nsanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.\" This is the true\nelection and the true salvation, a salvation from sin, through\nsanctification of the Spirit and this is to be obtained by faith.\n\nAnd the apostle of the circumcision uses language very similar in\naddressing the Jewish Christians who are scattered abroad, and whom he\naddresses as \"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,\nthrough sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of\nthe blood of Jesus Christ.\" Comparing these two citations we observe\nagain, that the blood of Jesus Christ is the ground of our\nsanctification, and by a continuous sprinkling we may have a\ncontinuous cleansing, and also that the Holy Spirit is the effective\nagent in applying that precious blood, and in sanctifying our souls, on\ncondition that we believe the truth. God help all Christians to be not\nfaithless, but believing.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nSANCTIFIED BY THE TRUTH.\n\n\n\nWe have just seen that the Spirit operates in the work of\nsanctification in connection with belief of the truth on our part. And\nwith this agree the words of our Lord in His intercessory prayer.\n\"Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth.\" The word here is\nnot the eternal Logos, but God's revealed truth as given in Holy writ.\nAnd it is a statement of the highest importance, made by Him who is the\ntruth, that the medium or means of our sanctification is in the truth\nof God as made known to us in the gospel of His Son. Here, again, the\nApostle Peter gives expression to the same sentiment when he says:\n\"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that\nby these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the\ncorruption that is in the world through lust.\" If we are favored to\nescape the corruption that is in the world, we are sanctified wholly,\nand this is effected, Peter says, not by works of righteousness, not by\nresolutions or penances, not by striving to do holiness, before we seek\nto be holy, but by faith in the promises of God. These promises are\nvery numerous, and varied in character on the pages of the Bible. By\nseizing upon them as written specially for us, we make them our own,\nand they become in and by Jesus Christ yea and amen, that is to say, we\nrealize them in our own experience to be the truth, and thus when we\nread \"This is the will of God even your sanctification,\" or, \"The very\nGod of peace sanctify you wholly,\" or, \"I will circumcise your heart,\"\nor \"I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my\nstatutes,\" immediately the truth is impressed upon our hearts as a\nglorious reality, and we are enabled to reckon ourselves dead, indeed,\nunto sin, and alive unto God, and to realize that the Saviour's prayer\nis answered and we are in His own blessed words, sanctified \"by the\ntruth.\" If any reader will take a concordance and look for the word\ntruth, and search out the passages containing it, he will be convinced\nthat, however men may look at it, we have to do with the Lord God of\ntruth, and that His estimate of truth is so high that He will by no\nmeans countenance any person or anything that liveth or maketh a lie.\nAnd if we would honor Him, we must honor His truth, the truth that is\nto make us free from the bondage of inbred sin, the truth which we are\ncommanded to buy, whatever may be the price, and sell it not, the truth\nwhich the Lord desires in the inward parts as well as upon the lips,\nthe truth of God, the truth of holiness, the truth by which we are\nsanctified, the truth of the word.\n\nAnd then we shall find in our own experience that \"A God of truth and\nwithout iniquity, just and right is He,\" that He will send out His\nlight and His truth that they may bring us to His holy hill and to His\ntabernacle, that He has given us a banner, even the banner of holiness\nto the Lord, to be displayed because of the truth, and we must never\nlet it trail in the dust, that His truth shall be our shield and\nbuckler, and that while the law was given by Moses, grace and truth\ncame by Jesus Christ.\n\nGlory be to His precious name forever, who is the truth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nSANCTIFIED BY FAITH.\n\n\n\nThe faith-faculty was given to man at His first creation. Adam believed\nGod and was obedient and happy, and the first thing that the wily\ntempter attacked, and, alas, with too much success, was man's faith.\n\"Yea,\" hath God said, and \"Ye shall not surely die.\" First, a question.\nThen, a doubt of God's truth; then, a doubt of His love, and the rest\nwas easy. Man stood so long as he did stand by faith. He fell when he\ndid fall by unbelief.\n\nGod could not be God if He did not have faith in Himself. Man could not\nbe the child of God if he did not have faith in God. Faith binds us in\nthe closest spiritual union with our Father in heaven. Unbelief severs\nthis bond of union and separates us from our Creator and Redeemer.\nBeloved, let us have faith in God.\n\n\"Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ.\" This is the\nChristian's pedigree. It is true that in a broad and subordinate sense\nall men are the children of God since He created them all. And this was\nknown even to a Greek poet, as quoted by Paul at Athens, \"For we are\nalso His offspring.\" But we must not fail to remember that in John's\ngospel we have this statement, viz: \"As many as received Him, to them\ngave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on\nHis name.\" So that it is through faith that we become the children of\nGod, not only by creation, not only by adoption, but by birth, \"Ye must\nbe born again.\" \"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be\nsaved.\" \"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he\nthat believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God\nabideth on him.\" Now, the faith-faculty, or the grace of faith, or the\npower of believing God's truth, when it is presented, is given to all\nmankind. But the exercise of that power which is actual and saving\nfaith, often requires the co\u00f6peration of the human will. And,\ntherefore, God commands us to believe, and holds us responsible for\nobedience to that command. \"He that believeth and is baptized shall be\nsaved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.\" R.V.\n\nThus, it is that we are saved by faith. And this is true not only in\nreligion, but in science as well, and not in science only, but in daily\nlife and daily business as well. Many of the well-established truths\nof science are matters of faith, and not of demonstration. All\nintelligent people believe that there is a hidden force which they\ncall the attraction of gravitation. Nobody can tell what it is, nobody\ncan prove its existence. It is received and adopted by faith, and\nserves as an excellent working hypothesis. That is all. Those who\naccept the undulatory theory of light are necessitated to believe that\nall space is pervaded by an exceedingly tenuous fluid which is called\nether, and that it is in this medium that the waves of light from\nself-luminous bodies are produced. Nobody has demonstrated the existence\nof this ether. It is, for the present, accepted by faith, and explains the\nphenomena of light better than any other hypothesis propounded. Science\nis saved by faith. The home is saved by faith. If want of confidence\ncomes between the husband and wife, or between parents and children,\nfarewell to all the enjoyment of home life.\n\nFinance, commerce, trade are all saved by faith. When business men,\nmanufacturers or merchants lose faith in one another, or in their\ngovernment, investments cease, machinery stops, panics occur, and hard\ntimes are complained of. As faith is the bond that binds men to God, so\nit is the bond that binds men one to another. When confidence is lost,\nall is lost. Even a solvent bank may be broken, from a sudden run upon\nit, caused by want of faith. Now, as faith is the substance of things\nhoped for, because it makes them real, as it is the evidence of things\nnot seen, because it convinces the mind of the actual existence of the\ninvisible, let us apply this thought to the matter in hand that,\nnamely, of entire sanctification.\n\nPaul in his valedictory to the Ephesian elders said to them, \"And now,\nbrethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is\nable to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which\nare sanctified,\" and in the commission to Paul himself the Saviour\nsays, \"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and\nfrom the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of\nsins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is\nin me.\" And as mentioned elsewhere, sanctification of the Spirit is\nused by the apostle in direct connection with belief of the truth.\nThere can be no doubt, therefore, that the instrumental means of entire\nsanctification is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. \"This is the\nconfidence,\" says the beloved John, \"that we have in Him, that if we\nask anything according to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that\nHe hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that\nwe desired of Him.\"\n\nLet the consecrated believer, then, ask for a clean heart, ask for\nperfect love, ask for entire sanctification, ask for the baptism with\nthe Holy Ghost, and he knows he is asking according to the will of God.\nThen, according to John, he knows that he is heard, and knows also by\nfaith, because it is God's promise that he has the petitions he desired\nof Him. That is to say, when he thus prays, he is to put forth the act\nof faith, by an actual volition and will to believe that he has the\nclean heart, the perfect love, the entire sanctification, the Holy\nGhost baptism, which he asked for. And this will be honoring God by\ntaking Him at His word. It will be the first evidence that he is\nsanctified wholly, the evidence of faith, and the other evidence, the\nwitness of the Spirit may be prayed for and waited for, but, in the\nmeantime, he can and must rely with unwavering confidence upon the\nevidence or witness of faith alone. God never sends the witness of the\nSpirit till we honor Him by accepting the witness of faith.\n\nI said we must believe by an act of the will. And some reader may\nobject to this statement by asserting that faith or belief is not a\nmatter of volition, but a matter of evidence. But I am not asking any\none to believe without evidence. I am asking him simply to give its\nrightful force to the evidence. It is not for want of evidence that any\nearnest, consecrated seeker is failing to believe that Christ is able\nand willing to sanctify him wholly, and to do it now. He asserts it in\nmany forms and repeats it again and again as His Divine will that His\npeople should be holy, and if He is not able to make them holy here and\nnow, His omnipotence is impugned, and if He is not willing to make them\nholy here and now, He must desire them to continue longer in sin, which\nthought would impugn His own holiness.\n\nNo, it is not for want of evidence, but because the faith-faculty has\nbecome weakened and paralyzed by sin, and now we must determine to\nbelieve, by putting our will on to the side of faith, and allowing it,\nno longer, to remain on the side of unbelief. Many a seeking soul has\ncome out into the fullness of salvation by singing the hymn:\n\n \"I can, I will, I do believe\n  That Jesus saves me now.\"\n\nThe man who came to Jesus with his right hand withered, was told to\nstretch it forth. He might have said where is my evidence that it will\ndo any good to try? But he put his will into the obedient attitude. He\nwilled to stretch it forth, and made the effort, and with the obedient\nwill the power came from Jesus, and he stretched it forth and was\nrestored. To every one of weak and paralyzed faith, I say, nay, Jesus\nsays, \"Stretch forth thy hand of faith, I am here to be responsible\nfor the result.\" Believe and receive and confess and rejoice. Beloved,\nwe are sanctified by faith. Glory to the Lamb.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\n\n\nI trust it has been sufficiently demonstrated that the doctrine and\nexperience of entire sanctification are fully and clearly taught in\nHoly Scripture. All the way from the patriarchs to the apostles in the\nlaw, in the types, in the Psalms, in the prophets, in the history, in\nthe gospels, in the epistles, we find that God requires His people to\nbe holy and to be holy now, that He makes it, therefore, their\nprivilege to be holy, and that He has made ample provision, in the\nsacrificial offering of Christ, for them to be made holy.\n\n\"For their sakes,\" says the blessed Saviour, \"I sanctify Myself that\nthey also might be sanctified through the truth,\" or as the margin,\n\"truly sanctified,\" or as the Revised Version, \"that they themselves\nalso may be sanctified in truth.\" The Lord Jesus Christ most assuredly\ndid not need to be made holy, but all His redeemed children being\nsubjects of inbred sin do need it. As for Him, He was the \"holy thing\"\nthat was to be born of the Virgin Mary. \"He knew no sin,\" He \"did no\nsin,\" He was \"holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners,\"\nand, therefore, when He says \"I sanctify Myself,\" He means nothing more\nnor less than I consecrate Myself, or I set Myself apart, but in the\nother clause where the term sanctify is used in reference to His\npeople, it must mean that they may be cleansed from all sin entirely\nsanctified, made holy or pure in heart. He sets Himself apart,\ntherefore, to the work of redemption and salvation that He may have a\nholy people on earth, as without controversy He must and will have a\nholy people in heaven.\n\nWe have shown that entire sanctification is coetaneous with the baptism\nwith the Holy Ghost, in fact, that the two experiences are in an\nimportant sense identical, or, at least, so related to each other that\nwhoever has one has the other. It is Christ and none other who baptizes\nwith the Holy. Ghost. \"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and\nfire,\" not as some imagine, I think erroneously, that there are to be\ntwo baptisms, first that of the Holy Ghost, and afterwards that of fire\nin the way of affliction or persecution, though plenty of these are\npromised and experienced by those who would live godly in Christ\nJesus, but simply that He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost under\nthe similitude of fire, that is, that dross and tin and reprobate\nsilver, or, in a word, all inbred sin may be consumed.\n\nNor is it correct to say that there are \"many baptisms\" of the Spirit.\nThe Holy Ghost baptism is received by the consecrated believer once\nfor all, and is never repeated unless by unfaithfulness or backsliding\nhe falls from the precious grace which this baptism confers upon him,\nfrom Christ through the Spirit, and again comes in repentance and\nconfession to do his first works, and again to be filled with the\nSpirit and cleansed from all sin. And even in that case the Holy Ghost\nseldom or never repeats Himself, by giving the same emotional\nexperience as at first, but may and must be received and retained by\nfaith, and the amount of feeling and the kind of feeling which He will\narouse must be left to Himself entirely, I mean to say that the\nexperience may be lost and may be regained, but seldom with the same\nphenomena of consciousness as at the first. Do not speak, then, of\nhaving had many baptisms of the Spirit, but seek and find the one\nbaptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. Do not say that you are desiring\nor that you have had a fresh baptism with the Holy Ghost, but let your\nthoughts and prayers be directed to the one baptism which cleanseth\nand endueth and anointeth.\n\nBut I would not be misunderstood on this point. The Psalmist says, \"I\nshall be anointed with fresh oil,\" and to every sanctified child of\nGod, there may and do come seasons of refreshing, also of girding and\nfilling, and fresh anointing for particular services, which are\nsometimes called fresh baptisms, but which are not to be confounded\nwith the one true abiding Pentecostal experience. These blessings are\nnot to be undervalued or lightly esteemed, but they come because we\nalready have the Blesser Himself as a personal indwelling Presence and\nPower.\n\nMany teachers of holiness inculcate the doctrine that we are first\nsanctified by the blood of Jesus, and afterwards filled or baptized\nwith the Holy Ghost. This opinion would necessitate three separate\nexperiences, where, I think, the Scripture only speaks of two. We\nshould have (1) pardon, (2) entire sanctification by the blood, and (3)\nthe filling of the Spirit. There would thus be a separation between the\nremoving of inbred sin from the heart, and the baptism with the Holy\nGhost. This baptism would, then, be only a qualification for service.\nIt is regarded by these teachers, as only given for an enduement of\npower, to do the work to which we are called. And the practical result\nof this error, for such with due deference I must regard it, is that\nsome will be very anxious to obtain the baptism with the Holy Ghost to\nmake them strong or powerful in their work, but will ignore, or even\ndeny, the doctrine of entire sanctification. Dr. S. A. Keen tells us of\na minister who wrote to him that he did not take much stock in\nsanctification, but that he was very desirous of the Holy Ghost\nbaptism, in order that he might have increased power in the ministry of\nthe word. And, indeed, this seems to be a very prevalent idea, that we\nare to be baptized for service, but not for cleansing.\n\nI trust that no reader who has followed me through the different\nchapters of this book will imagine, for a moment, that I under-value,\nin the slightest degree, the precious blood of Christ, nor do I forget\nthat it is that blood which, as we walk in the light, cleanseth us from\nall sin. I think I have sufficiently stated elsewhere that the blood of\nJesus is the procuring cause of our sanctification, as well as of our\njustification, and that we are forever dependent upon the atonement\nfor the one blessing as well as the other. The blood of the Son of God\nis the ground of our sanctification, but it is the Holy Spirit who is\nthe effective agent in destroying the depravity of our hearts.\n\nIt is true that our Saviour received the Holy Ghost, and that God\nanointed Him for the great work of redemption. And in His case, the\nword used is anointed or descended, and not in any place baptized. He\nneeded not the work of entire sanctification, and, therefore, He is not\nsaid to have been baptized with the Holy Ghost. As a man, He did need\nthe energizing for His work, and, therefore, He is said to have been\nanointed. Beloved, let us not separate what God has joined together.\nThe entire sanctification of the heart and the Holy Ghost baptism are\ncoetaneous experiences, and must not be divorced.\n\nAnd now, beloved reader, I have accomplished my task. I have shown that\nlike a golden thread the doctrine of entire sanctification runs through\nthe Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It is found in patriarchal\ntimes, it is in the law and the prophets, the types and the ceremonies,\nthe gospels and epistles, everywhere showing us that we have to do with\na Holy God, and that we as His children are required to be holy men\nand women.\n\nTo all who shall read this book, I testify that by the grace of God,\nand the blood of Christ, and the sin-consuming baptism with the Holy\nGhost, this poor man, the chief of sinners, is saved to the uttermost.\nGlory to His name.\n\nAnd to you, my readers, I bid farewell, and say, May He \"make you\nperfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.\" Amen.","title":"The Theology of Holiness","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":37992}