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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4323-h.zip b/4323-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5a7396 --- /dev/null +++ b/4323-h.zip diff --git a/4323-h/4323-h.htm b/4323-h/4323-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..043232e --- /dev/null +++ b/4323-h/4323-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3559 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Heart-Cry of Jesus, by Byron J. Rees +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: medium ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heart-Cry of Jesus, by Byron J. Rees + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Heart-Cry of Jesus + +Author: Byron J. Rees + +Posting Date: July 25, 2009 [EBook #4323] +Release Date: August, 2003 +First Posted: January 5, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART-CRY OF JESUS *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Heart-Cry of Jesus +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +BY BYRON J. REES, +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Author of "Christlikeness," <BR>"Hulda, the Pentecostal Prophetess," <BR>and +"Hallelujahs from Portsmouth, Nos. 2 and 3." +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="dedication"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +DEDICATION. +<BR> +TO MY MASTER, EVEN CHRIST. +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="intro"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +INTRODUCTION. +</H3> + +<H4> +THE NEED OF THE DAY. +</H4> + +<P> +The saying, "Necessity is the mother of Invention," finds nowhere a +more vivid illustration of its truth than in the publishing enterprises +of the modern Holiness movement. The onward movement of the Holy Ghost +along Pentecostal lines, convicting of depravity, creating a +clean-reading public, and endueing with power both pulpit and pew, has +resulted in a constant and growing demand for full-salvation +literature. Tens of thousands of pulpits do an active business on both +the wholesale and retail plan, with science and philosophy as stock in +trade. Famishing congregations are proffered the bugs of biology, the +rocks of geology, and the stars of astronomy until their souls revolt, +and they demand bread and meat. +</P> + +<H4> +THE NEED BEING SUPPLIED. +</H4> + +<P> +The great soul-cry is being met and answered by the publication and +distribution of soul-feeding, spirit-inspiring, health-giving Holiness +books and papers. God is raising up writers and editors from whose pens +pour melted truths, to the edification and blessing of thousands. +</P> + +<H4> +THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK. +</H4> + +<P> +In this little book we have a production in which the author has made +little attempt at the elucidation of doctrine or the waging of +controversy, but in great simplicity and directness he has presented +the truth with a view to helpfulness, desiring to introduce really +hungry souls into the Canaan life, and provide a well-loaded table of +rich provisions for those who are already "in the Land." +</P> + +<H4> +READERS WILL BE REFRESHED. +</H4> + +<P> +We believe that there is a warmth, fervor and glow about the pages of +this volume which will be most refreshing to many, many readers. May +the Holy Spirit put His seal upon it and give it an extensive +circulation. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +SETH C. REES. +<BR> +PROVIDENCE, R. I., NOVEMBER 15, 1898. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="preface"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE. +</H3> + +<H4> +WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION? +</H4> + +<P> +No one who accustoms himself to the observation of spiritual tides, +winds and currents can be ignorant of the fact that the devout men and +women of the present are earnestly inquiring, "What is sanctification? +What does holiness mean?" They are demanding of the pulpit and of the +church editor something more than the time-worn and moth-eaten excuses +for not teaching a deeper work of grace. The "seven thousand" who have +not "bowed the knee" to the modern Baals are insisting that, if God's +Word teaches entire sanctification for the disciple of Christ +obtainable by faith now, they must possess themselves of this heavenly +grace. +</P> + +<H4> +THE AUTHOR'S DESIRE. +</H4> + +<P> +It is with the purpose and hope that some seeking heart may be helped +that these pages are penned. The author has purposely avoided all +controversial matter. We would not assume the role of the doctrinaire +even were we capable of it. "Not controversy, not theology, but to save +souls," as Lyman Beecher said when dying. +</P> + +<H4> +THE NEED OF SPEED. +</H4> + +<P> +This book has been written in the midst of laborious and unceasing +revival work. For this reason there has been no time to polish +sentences nor improve style. The object has been to get the truth to +the people in plain language, and to do it with despatch, for the time +is short, and men are being saved or damned with electric speed. +</P> + +<H4> +THE BUZZARD AND VULTURE. +</H4> + +<P> +The buzzard and the vulture will find food if they look for it, but +with them we are not concerned. We are, however, terribly in earnest to +help hungry souls to a place of blessing and power. +</P> + +<P> +May God take these leaves and make them "leaves of healing," if not for +"nations," at least for individuals. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +BYRON J. REES. +<BR> +NOVEMBER 14, 1898. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS. +</H2> + +<H4> + <A HREF="#dedication">DEDICATION</A><BR> + <A HREF="#intro">INTRODUCTION</A><BR> + <A HREF="#preface">PREFACE</A><BR> + <A HREF="#prayer">CHRIST'S PRAYER</A><BR> + CHAPTER I. <A HREF="#chap01">A Word in the Prayer</A><BR> + CHAPTER II. <A HREF="#chap02">Some Errors</A><BR> + CHAPTER III. <A HREF="#chap03">Those for Whom Christ Prayed</A><BR> + CHAPTER IV. <A HREF="#chap04">Christ's Prayer Answered</A><BR> + CHAPTER V. <A HREF="#chap05">Christian Unity</A><BR> + CHAPTER VI. <A HREF="#chap06">Fearlessness</A><BR> + CHAPTER VII. <A HREF="#chap07">Responsiveness to Christ</A><BR> + CHAPTER VIII. <A HREF="#chap08">Soul-Rest</A><BR> + CHAPTER IX. <A HREF="#chap09">Prayerfulness</A><BR> + CHAPTER X. <A HREF="#chap10">Success</A><BR> + CHAPTER XI. <A HREF="#chap11">Growth in Christliness of Life</A><BR> + <A HREF="#experience">EXPERIENCE</A><BR> +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="prayer"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHRIST'S PRAYER: +</H3> + +<P> +"SANCTIFY THEM THROUGH THE TRUTH; THY WORD IS TRUTH." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A WORD IN THE PRAYER. +</H3> + +<H4> +CHRIST'S WORDS. +</H4> + +<P> +All who really love Christ love His words. They may not always fully +understand their meaning, but they never reject any of them. The very +fact that any word has been on the lips of Christ and received His +sanction, gives it a sound of music to all who are truly disciples of +the Nazarene. +</P> + +<H4> +MOTHER'S WORDS. +</H4> + +<P> +The words that your mother used frequently—are there any words quite +the same to you? She may be resting under the solemn pines of a silent +cemetery, but, to this hour, if anyone uses one of her favorite words, +instantly the heart leaps in answer, and the mind flies back to her, +and the fancy paints her as you knew her in the garden or at the +fireside or by the window. It lies in the power of a single word to +make the eyes fill and the throat ache because of its association with +the voice of a queenly mother. +</P> + +<H4> +A MAN'S TESTIMONY. +</H4> + +<P> +Thus it is with Christ and HIS words. It matters not where we meet the +word, if it is Christ's we are touched and made tender. An aged man +stands in a prayer-meeting in a bare and cheerless hall, and says in +broken and faltering voice, "The dear Lord has blessedly SANCTIFIED my +heart," and like a flash the room lightens, and the whole place seems +changed and made cheery. The heart cries, "That is my Master's word," +and the entire being is attentive and interested. +</P> + +<H4> +JESUS' LIFE DEAR. +</H4> + +<P> +Yes, to the really regenerated soul everything connected with Jesus is +dear. The place of His birth, the land of His ministry, the garden of +His agony, the mount of His crucifixion, the Olivet of His ascension, +all these are illumined with a peculiar and special light. The mind +dwells lovingly on His parables, ponders deeply His sayings, lingers +tenderly over His words. +</P> + +<H4> +WE WELCOME THE WORD. +</H4> + +<P> +We will NOT therefore shrink from the Word of our Lord: "Sanctify." It +may have been stained by the slime of some unworthy life, or soiled by +the lips of men who prated about sanctification, but knew nothing of +its nature; yet, for all that, since the word is Christ's we hail its +enunciation with gladness. +</P> + +<H4> +CHRIST'S BURDEN. +</H4> + +<P> +The high-priestly prayer of Christ was distinctively for the disciples. +Indeed, He SAYS: "I pray not for the world." That is to say, the +disciples need a peculiar and special work of grace, one which must +follow, not precede, conversion, and therefore not to be received by +the world. In this prayer the loving Master revealed to His immediate +disciples, and to those of all ages and climes, the burning desire of +His heart concerning His followers. The petition ascends from His +immaculate heart like incense from a golden censer, and it has for its +tone and soul, "Sanctify them through thy truth." His soul longed for +this work to be completed quickly. During the last days of His ministry +He talked frequently of the coming Comforter. He admonished them to +"tarry" until an enduement came to them. He knew that unless they were +energized with a power, to which they were as yet strangers, their work +would be worse than futile. +</P> + +<H4> +HE PRAYED FOR SANCTIFICATION. +</H4> + +<P> +It is for the SANCTIFICATION of the disciples that Christ prayed. He +did not ask that they might fill positions of honor and trust; He knew +that there is no nobility but that of goodness. It was more important +that the early preachers should be holy men than that they should be +respected and honored. He did not pray for riches for them; He knew too +well the worthlessness of money in itself. He did not desire for them +thrones, nor culture, nor refinement, nor name. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "'Tis only noble to be good.<BR> + True hearts are more than coronets,<BR> + And simple faith than Norman blood."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +So Jesus prayed that these men who had for three years been His daily +and constant companions should receive an experience which should make +them INTENSELY GOOD; not "goody-goody," which is very different, but +heartily and wholly spiritual and godly. +</P> + +<H4> +THE MEN WE LOVE. +</H4> + +<P> +The men whose names are brightening as the ages fly, were not men who +were always free from prejudices and blunders. They were not men, as a +rule, from university quadrangles nor college cloisters. They were not +the wise, nor the erudite, nor the cultivated, nor the rich. They were +the good men. Brilliant men tire us; wits soon bore us with their +gilt-edged nothings, but men with clean, holy hearts, fixed +convictions, bold antipathies to sin, sympathetic natures and tender +consciences never weary us, and they bear the intimate and familiar +acquaintance which so often causes the downfall of the so-called +"great" in one's estimation. +</P> + +<H4> +THE PERSONAL TOUCH. +</H4> + +<P> +We may forget an eloquent sermon pilfered from Massillon, but we will +never forget a warm handclasp and a sympathetic word from an humble +servant in God's house. Jesus never went for the crowds—he hunted the +individual. He sat up a whole night with a questioning Rabbi; talked an +afternoon with a harlot who wanted salvation; sought out and found the +man whom they cast out of the synagogue, and saved a dying robber on an +adjacent cross. We do not reach men in great audiences generally. We +reach them by interesting ourselves in them individually; by lending +our interest to their needs; by giving them a lift when they need it. +</P> + +<H4> +SANCTIFIED FISHERMEN. +</H4> + +<P> +Jesus with divine sagacity knew that if these untutored fishermen were +to light up Europe and Asia with the torch of the gospel they must have +an experience themselves which would transform them from self-seeking, +cowardly men to giants and heroes. +</P> + +<H4> +THE CARNAL MIND. +</H4> + +<P> +While the true Christian loves Christ and His words, while his higher +and more spiritual nature says "Amen" to the Lord's teaching, yet it +must not be forgotten that the "carnal mind" which remains, "even in +the heart of the regenerate," is "enmity against God." There is a dark +SOMEWHAT in the soul that fairly hates the word "sanctification." +Theologians call it "inbred sin" or "original depravity"; the Bible +terms it the "old man," "the old leaven," "the root of bitterness," +etc. Whatever its name it abhors holiness and purity, and though the +regenerate man loves Christ and His words, he does so over the vehement +protest of a baser principle chained and manacled in the basement +dungeon of his heart. +</P> + +<H4> +GEORGE FOX. +</H4> + +<P> +The devout of all churches recognize the existence of an inner enemy +who bars the gate to rapid spiritual progress. George Fox, the pious +founder of the Friends' Society, said in relation to an experience +which came to him: "I knew Jesus, and He was very precious to my soul, +but I found something within me which would not always keep patient and +kind. I did what I could to keep it down, but it was there. I besought +Jesus that He would do something for me, and when I gave Him my will He +came into me and cast out all that would not be patient, and all that +would not be sweet, and that would not be kind, and then He shut the +door." +</P> + +<H4> +"SIN IN BELIEVERS." +</H4> + +<P> +John Wesley preached a sermon on "Sin in Believers" which is extant and +widely read. All churches recognize it in their creeds, and all have +provision in their dogmas for its expulsion before entrance into +heaven. The Catholics provide a convenient Purgatory; other +denominations glorify Death and ascribe to it a power which they deny +to Christ; while still others rely on growth to cleanse from all sin +and get us ready for the glory-world. The Bible, however, with that +sublime indifference to all human opinions and theories becoming in +divine authority, reveals a SALVATION FROM ALL SIN HERE AND NOW. +</P> + +<P> +The word sanctify means simply "to make holy" (L., sanctificare = +sanctus, holy, + ficare, to make). The work of sanctification removes +all the roots of bitterness and destroys the remains of sin in the +heart. +</P> + +<H4> +UNREASONABLE ANTAGONISM. +</H4> + +<P> +What sound sense can there be in antagonizing a blessing which is +nothing more or less than cleanness—mental, moral and physical +cleanness. The kind of character that would wittingly fight holiness +would object to a change of linen. +</P> + +<H4> +A CHURCH IN JERSEY. +</H4> + +<P> +The eagerness with which truly devout people welcome the preaching of +full salvation is refreshing. It was the writer's privilege to hold an +eight-day meeting with a church in Central New Jersey. The church was +in excellent condition, for the pastor, a godly and earnest man, had +faithfully proclaimed justification and its appropriate fruits. Nearly +all the members were praying, conscientious and zealous Christians. +When, at the first meeting, which was the regular Sunday morning +service, the experience of sanctification was presented, over one +hundred persons arose, thus signifying their desire for the precious +grace! +</P> + +<H4> +OPEN THE ALTAR! +</H4> + +<P> +The language of the child of God is, "Does God want me sanctified? Then +open the altar for I am coming." He does not tarry; he does not higgle +and hesitate; he makes for the "straw pile" if in a New England camp; +the "saw-dust" if down South; the "altar rail" if in a spiritual +church; to his knees at any rate, for God's will he desires and must +have. Thank God he can have it! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SOME ERRORS. +</H3> + +<H4> +THE BEAR-SKIN. +</H4> + +<P> +Satan is very busily engaged in destroying and misrepresenting God's +best experiences. He slanders the work of God in order that His +children may not come into their inheritance. The "bear-skin" frightens +the would-be seeker and keeps him out of the Canaan land. +</P> + +<H4> +ROSENTHAL. +</H4> + +<P> +Darkness hates light. The Prince of Darkness dreads truth and light, +for he knows that if God's children ever see sanctification as it is, +there will be a general stampede for consecration. If the public really +believed that Rosenthal would play the piano in Infantry Hall on a +certain evening, and that there would be no charge for admittance, +South Main street would be black with people hours before the doors +were opened. If the church really believed that God would let them into +an experience where sonatas and minuets and bridal marches and +"Mondnacht" and the "Etude in C sharp minor" would be heard all the +time, and free of charge, all the bishops and the big preachers and +little evangelists and exhorters and ministers would be besieged by a +grand eager throng of people, crying with one accord, "What must I do +to be sanctified?" Lord, hasten the day! +</P> + +<H4> +THE DEVIL STIRRED. +</H4> + +<P> +When a man is awakened and says, "What is sanctification anyway?" then +the devil bestirs himself to silence the soul's questionings. Blessed +is the man who will not be satisfied with anything short of "Thus saith +the Lord." Hound the lies of hell to their covert; run down the false +reports, and determine the truth. +</P> + +<H4> +A CHIMERA. +</H4> + +<P> +One of the lies which Satan is fond of circulating is that +sanctification is a life free from temptation. When this is announced +among those who are awakened on the subject, immediately there is a +great cry, "I don't want to hear any more about sanctification." One +would think by the excitement aroused that people are actually afraid +lest they should by some manner of means be deprived of the privilege +of being tempted. Let all such allay their fears. Jesus was tempted +even on the pinnacle of the temple, and we will never be above our +Lord, and may well expect temptation until we pass from this +world-stage to the other land. No responsible Christian student teaches +any such chimera as a life without temptation obtainable now. +</P> + +<H4> +A DIFFERENCE. +</H4> + +<P> +Personally, we have never heard anyone make such a claim. What we do +teach, and, better still, far better, WHAT GOD PROMISES, is an +experience where we need not YIELD to temptation. There is a +difference, vast and important, between being tempted and yielding to +temptation. +</P> + +<H4> +A TEMPTED PREACHER. +</H4> + +<P> +A man is en route from New York to the West via the Pennsylvania +Railroad. The express stops at a junction in the mountains. He leaves +the car and walks up and down on the platform enjoying the view. Near +the station is a park. Beautiful flowering shrubbery, shell walks, +ivy-clad piles of rocks, splashing fountains, majestic shade trees and +well-kept turf make the place attractive. Beyond the pretty village a +wooded mountain rises toward the bluest of skies, enticing to a stroll +amid the beauties of a forest. The preacher is strongly tempted to stop +over a day and enjoy a brief rest. Then he thinks of his word, given in +good faith, to be in a certain place at an appointed hour; he remembers +the souls which God might save through the sermon which he is expected +to preach the next evening. He is tired and jaded and worn. Would he +not be justified in telegraphing that he would not come until a day or +so later than expected? It is a stout temptation; but when the +black-faced porter shouts, "All aboard," and the bell rings he walks +into the hot and dirty car and continues his tiresome journey. Does not +the reader see that a temptation to rest is very different from +stopping and breaking an engagement and disappointing an audience? +</P> + +<H4> +A CHARMING COMPANION. +</H4> + +<P> +On life's express we are all liable to temptation. We are solicited to +tarry, but we are so intent on our destination, and especially are we +so charmed with our travelling Companion, that we bid farewell to +fountain, and gravelled walks, and towering mountains and push on to +that city. +</P> + +<H4> +WHO TEACHES FANATICISM? +</H4> + +<P> +Another misrepresentation, the circulation of which Satan delights to +further, is that sanctification is an experience in which we can not +sin, and when through this idea men lift their hands in horror and +desist from seeking this precious grace, all hell chuckles with real +satisfaction. But who teaches such fanaticism? Life is always a +probation. The will is free. The Bible teaches this truth, and we +believe it. The holiest saint on earth may, IF HE CHOOSE, sin and go to +hell. Everything hangs upon the choice. Thank God we NEED not fall. +Falling is possible, but not necessary. +</P> + +<H4> +NOT A DAY-DREAM. +</H4> + +<P> +A third evil report is that sanctification is an impracticable +day-dream, unfit for everyday life and the common round of duties. "It +is," so it is said, "all very well for ministers, and class leaders, +and superintendents of Sunday-schools, and people who are not very busy +in life to get sanctification, but it will not stand the strain and +tension to which it would be subjected in some lives." But "God is no +respecter of persons," and what He will do for one of His children He +will do for all. And then, if we only knew it, sanctification is just +suited to the life of trial and perplexity. +</P> + +<H4> +"BILLY" BRAY AND CARVOSSO. +</H4> + +<P> +If there is a man to be found who has to labor hard all day and has a +life full of care, sanctification is just the experience he needs. Read +the life of Mrs. Fletcher, and see how sanctification can help a woman +with multitudinous domestic cares. Study the lives of "Billy" Bray and +William Carvosso, and remember that it was sanctification which helped +these men in their difficulties. If there is a soul anywhere filled +with unspeakable sorrow, shivering alone in the dark, the brightest +light that can come to that stricken soul is full salvation. No matter +how sharp the thorn, nor how galling the fetter, sanctification turns +the thorn into oil, and the fetter into a chain of plaited flowers. +</P> + +<H4> +CLANS. +</H4> + +<P> +It is said by some that sanctification makes people "clannish." +Clannish is a word with a rather offensive taste on the tongue, and is +altogether too harsh a word to apply to that congregative instinct that +makes pure-minded persons crave the fellowship of kindred spirits. +There is nothing intentionally exclusive about the holiness movement. +If a man is shut out it is because he shuts himself out; if he does not +feel at home in a full salvation service it is because he has not yet +obtained full salvation. +</P> + +<H4> +BROWNING CLUBS. +</H4> + +<P> +Men who share great truths and principles in common find in each +other's presence and fellowship great help. Admirers of Browning form +"Browning Clubs"; foot-ball men gather themselves into "associations"; +ministers meet in "Monday meetings"; Christians organize "churches"; is +it to be thought strange if people who are sanctified wholly delight to +meet for conference and mutual help? +</P> + +<H4> +THE SPLITTING OF THE CHURCH +</H4> + +<P> +A few uninformed persons say that "holiness splits the church." But +this is false. When men love God with all their heart and their +neighbors as themselves, nothing can separate them. If, however, people +of different sorts and kinds, some saved and some unsaved, are in one +organization, it will not require anything much to make them differ in +opinion. The real ecclesia, the genuine church, is not so easily split. +One of our most brilliant and spiritual holiness writers has remarked +in pleasantry that the anxiety of some in regard to the splitting of +the church would lead one to think that there was something inside +which they were afraid would be seen in case of a cleavage. +</P> + +<H4> +KEEP TO THE BIBLE. +</H4> + +<P> +Keep to the Bible idea of sanctification. Let not the adversary dupe +you and frighten you from its quest and obtainment. Begin now; seek, +search, pray, consecrate, believe, and soon the blessing will fall upon +your waiting soul. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST PRAYED—"SANCTIFY THEM." +</H3> + +<H4> +CONVERTED MEN. +</H4> + +<P> +The men for whom Christ prayed were converted men, and were living in +justified relation to God. In proof of this statement, let the reader +study the context carefully. +</P> + +<H4> +A CLOUDLESS SKY. +</H4> + +<P> +In the sixteenth chapter of St. John, the one immediately preceding the +sacerdotal prayer, the conversation which is recorded would be +impossible were the disciples conscious of guilt. One can not read +those sublime verses without the irresistible conviction that the +disciples' sky of soul-consciousness was blue and cloudless. There is +no hint in Christ's discourse that these men are "of the world," but +rather it is taken for granted that they are children of God and heirs +of the kingdom. +</P> + +<H4> +A SPECIFIC STATEMENT. +</H4> + +<P> +It is the sheerest folly for one to maintain that the conversion of the +disciples did not occur prior to Pentecost. If words mean anything, +Jesus made a specific statement to the contrary. "Rejoice," says He, +"that your names are written in heaven." In His prayer He says to His +Father: "They have kept Thy word"; "they are Thine"; "I pray for them, +I pray not for the world." Notice the distinction which He makes +between "them" and "the world." These men are picked men. They are very +different from the great unpardoned, sinful throng outside the +kingdom—they are CHRISTIANS. +</P> + +<H4> +THE CHAMBER OF BLESSING. +</H4> + +<P> +A very good evidence of the genuineness of the conversion of the +disciples was their painstaking care to follow out minutely the +directions of their ascended Lord. He had prayed for their +sanctification; they desired it. He had spoken of a coming Comforter, +and they eagerly awaited His advent. He had said, "Tarry in Jerusalem +until" His arrival, and they conscientiously met in an "upper room" for +a ten-day prayer-meeting. "Farewell! friends; farewell! memory-haunted +synagogues; farewell! sacred temple; farewell! long-bearded priests; +farewell all! we must go to prayer: our Lord said that we should be +sanctified." And thus in long line the one hundred and twenty file up +the stairs to the Chamber of Blessing. There is no lightness, no +jesting, no quibbling, no bickering; all are serious, terribly in +earnest, intent on "the promise of the Father." There is Peter, +impulsive and eager, whole-hearted and enthusiastic; there is the meek +and quiet Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet at the old home in Bethany; +there is the child-like saint, the devout and spiritual John; there is +the repentant woman of Magdala; and there are many others who betake +themselves to that sacred place—"the upper room." One all-engrossing +thought fills their minds. "The promise of the Father which ye have +heard of me. The promise of the Father! The promise of the Father! O, +when will He come? We would know more about our departed Lord. He is +gone from us. Our hearts are torn and bleeding and lonely. Jesus said, +'He shall testify of me.' Would that He would come now!" +</P> + +<H4> +WHY ONLY THE FEW? +</H4> + +<P> +But why are there only one hundred and twenty? Was it not into +Jerusalem that Christ entered riding over a cloak-carpeted way amid the +deafening shouts of "Hosanna"? Did He not teach and instruct and heal +hundreds, if not thousands, in and about Jerusalem? Was He not lionized +at times by an admiring public? Yea, truly; but one may admire Christ +and yet not love Him. There are many who at some "hard saying" refuse +to walk with Him. Thousands who have a keen appreciation of "loaves and +fishes" shrink from "leaving all" and following Jesus. A great +concourse is drawn and held spell-bound by a naive, graceful, eloquent, +artless preacher who uses "lilies," and the "grass of the field," and +the "sower" of seed, and the "sparrow" in the air to enforce his truth. +But one may be interested, and yet not be saved. +</P> + +<H4> +THE AESTHETIC ELEMENT. +</H4> + +<P> +In some people religion appeals to the aesthetic nature, and to that +only. They festoon the cross with flowers, but never think of dying on +it. They are charmed by Gothic churches filled with "dim, religious +light." The waves of music from the great; sounding organ awe their +souls and fill them with a pensiveness which they mistake for +repentance. Pointed arches, sculptured capitals, fretted altars, +swinging censers, burning candles, white-robed choir-boys, errorless +order in church service—these auxiliaries influence them so strongly +in their sense of the beautiful that they think, "Surely I love God. +Why, of course I love God." But to love God involves something +practical. It means something more than mere profession. It means +rugged self-denial, Spartan heroism, perhaps the loss of an "arm" or +the "plucking out of an eye." Base must have been the soul which was +not attracted by One who "spake as never man spake"; low-minded the man +who did not see in Him imperishable beauty and refinement of soul; but +ah! discipleship means far more than that. Christ had flown up to +heaven. Who now will prove his love for Him by obeying His commands? +Who will tarry in Jerusalem awaiting the coming Spirit, and then, the +Comforter having come, be ready to "Go into all the world, discipling +all nations"? Answer: All who are truly children of God. The preaching +of sanctification is the touchstone by which the genuineness of +conversions can be tested. The truly living "hunger and thirst after +righteousness"; the dead do not "bother their heads about a second +blessing." +</P> + +<H4> +THE STEAMER "PURITAN." +</H4> + +<P> +Let us illustrate: It was fifteen minutes until the schedule time for +the "Puritan" of the "Fall River Line" to leave her New York pier. The +evening was warm, and the usual crowd filled the decks. Many had come +on board to see their friends off for Newport, Bar Harbor and "the +Pier." Passengers and their friends sat in groups and chatted, talked +about the trip, the weather, the situation at Santiago, the flowers +they held, the concert by the orchestra. It was impossible for an +observer to determine just who were passengers and held tickets, and +who were merely bidding farewell to their friends. Suddenly an officer +in gold-braided cap and blue uniform appeared, and cried out with an +authoritative voice and a look of command, "All ashore who are going +ashore! All ashore who are going ashore!" Immediately there were hasty +hand-clasps and hasty good-byes, and a large part of the company +marched quickly down the stairs and across the gang-plank. Those who +were left held tickets and were "going through." +</P> + +<H4> +THE STAMPEDE FOR SHORE. +</H4> + +<P> +In a revival of religion it is often a matter of considerable +difficulty to determine the genuinely converted. In the confusion of +large altar services, and the crush of great congregations, who are the +saved? No man can tell. Many are moved by sympathy for their friends. +Others are charmed by the congregational singing and the music of the +organ. Many see that the revival is bound to go, and, like Pliable, +they are swept along for a time with it. But there appears in this +mixed company a man with the stamp of divine authority upon his brow, +the gold braid of full salvation on his helmet, the dialect of Canaan +on his tongue and the air of official appointment about his person: +"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord! All ashore who are going +ashore! All ashore who are going ashore!" Immediately "there is no +small stir." Some leave the boat by way of the gang-plank carping at +the words of the officer and arguing as they go; some in great haste +vault the balustrades and railings and leap for the pier; still others +climb out the windows of staterooms and run screaming toward the +nearest ladder which will enable them to leave the "good ship Zion." +Gradually quiet is restored. The company is smaller, and of whom is it +composed? The genuinely converted. What are they doing? They are asking +the nearest officer how soon the boat leaves for New England. "When can +I be sanctified wholly? O, pray for me! I want the blessing now!" They +are "going through." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHRIST'S PRAYER ANSWERED. +</H3> + +<H4> +GOD LISTENS. +</H4> + +<P> +When Christ opens His mouth, God bows down His ear. "I know that thou +hearest me always." The disciples did not wait long until they were +baptized with the Holy Ghost. Christ's prayer found audience and the +answer was not long delayed. +</P> + +<H4> +HEART CLEANSING. +</H4> + +<P> +The baptism with the Spirit which was administered to the one hundred +and twenty effected their sanctification. The cleansing of their hearts +was one of the effects of the out-pouring of the Spirit. Sanctification +and the baptism with the Spirit are therefore coetaneous—they take +place at the same time. +</P> + +<H4> +PETER'S PROOF. +</H4> + +<P> +This is proven by an inspired statement made by Peter. Referring to the +Gentiles he says that God "put no difference between them" and us Jews +who were sanctified at Pentecost, "purifying their hearts by faith." +</P> + +<H4> +THE MANNER OF CLEANSING. +</H4> + +<P> +There need be no confusion as to the manner of cleansing. Jesus prayed, +"Sanctify them THROUGH THY TRUTH." It is by means of the truth preached +of and read, that we first hear of a full deliverance from all sin. It +is "through the truth" that we learn of God's willingness as well as +His power to sanctify. If it had not been for THE BLOOD, Jesus could +never have guaranteed the coming of the Comforter; the blood is "the +procuring cause" of all the blessings which we receive. Everything +comes through the atonement. FAITH is the human condition necessary for +the cleansing of the soul; so that, in a very important sense, we are +sanctified by faith. THE DIVINE OMNIPOTENT HOLY GHOST is the immediate +agency of heart-cleansing. He is the baptizing element administered by +Christ the Divine Baptizer: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." +</P> + +<H4> +FIRE! +</H4> + +<P> +It would be well for us to notice some of the characteristics of the +Pentecostal anointing. John the Baptist, minister of the gospel and +preacher of genuine regeneration, said of Jesus that "he should baptize +with the Holy Ghost and fire," thus using a most powerful symbol to +characterize the nature of the work of the Holy Ghost. Everyone is +familiar with the action of fire; it burns everything combustible with +which it comes in contact. +</P> + +<H4> +CONSEALED SERPENTS. +</H4> + +<P> +We submit that no one can tell just how much there is in the heart that +needs to be consumed. There are things dormant in the unsanctified +heart of which the man never dreams. There are serpents coiled in +balls, and vipers spitting poison, and centipedes, and fat blinking +toads, and vampires, and lizards, and tarantulas, that we never suspect +of being in the soul. But they are there. +</P> + +<H4> +THE EMBRYOS OF CRIME. +</H4> + +<P> +It is God's mercy that says, "Be ye holy," for He knows that unless we +get cleaned out and purified the inner reptiles will poison us to +death. Every unsanctified man carries in his bosom the seeds of all +possible crimes, the embryos of all black actions. There are times when +we half believe that something of the kind is true. Did you ever stand +by the cage of a lion and watch his restless pace and feel that you had +something in you kindred to him? Many a man has gazed into the green +eyes of a wild beast and trembled, feeling a similarity of nature. +Every son of Adam feels the beast stir in him at times, until Pentecost +eradicates the bestial principle. +</P> + +<H4> +SMOULDERING EMBERS. +</H4> + +<P> +The embers from which hell-fire is kindled smoulder in the unsanctified +heart. It is dangerous to attempt to build a Christian character over a +latent volcano. A once active volcano becomes inactive. The lava cools, +the ashes settle, and the smoke drifts away. An enterprising farmer +covers a considerable space of the once fiery volcanic field with fresh +earth carted from a fertile valley. All goes well for a year or two. +The garden prospers, the vegetables are most encouraging, and the +produce is abundant. But one morning the farmer notices that smoke is +issuing from the crater at the summit of the mountain. The sky blackens +and red flames flash amid the clouds of smoke. The land is shaken with +earthquakes. Suddenly, right in the middle of his verdant field, a +great red-lipped chasm opens and blue flames leap upwards and surge +toward the sky. His crops are blasted with the "fierce heat of the +flame," and the work of years is wrecked in a moment. +</P> + +<H4> +BLUE FLAMES OF GEHENNA +</H4> + +<P> +No permanent Christian life can be built upon the foundation of an +unsanctified heart. For a time the graces of the Spirit may seem to +grow, but in some sad hour the surface will split open and the man will +leap back aghast at the blue flames of Gehenna, which singe his brows +and blacken his cheeks. +</P> + +<H4> +THE PROPHET AND PRINCE. +</H4> + +<P> +An old white-haired prophet and a gay young prince are in conversation. +The aged man bows his head upon his staff and weeps. +</P> + +<P> +"For what are you weeping, old man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, I am thinking of the black and dastardly crimes you will commit +when you have once become king." +</P> + +<P> +"Is thy servant a dog, a ruthless town whelp, that he should do such +things?" +</P> + +<H4> +PROPHECY FULFILLED +</H4> + +<P> +But years roll on and the young man is king, and his hands are stained +with crime, and the old man's predictions come true. God had given the +aged saint a view of the boy's breast, and he saw the embryonic seeds +of sin which, if allowed to remain, would sprout and produce a fruitage +of evil deeds. +</P> + +<H4> +THE BROKEN FLOWER +</H4> + +<P> +The secret of the downfall of many a brilliant character is a bosom +sinfulness little expected to be in existence. No man saw the black and +ugly thing but it was there. A lady had a tall and graceful plant. The +flowers were white and beautiful and all the town said, "What a fine +flower!" One day a storm swept across the garden. One plant was +injured; it was the one which people had admired and praised. Filled +with grief, the lady stooped to examine the stem, and found that it had +been pierced by a worm-hole. The insect had worked silently and +secretly. No one saw him cutting into the heart of the tall and +magnificent flower, but in a storm, under a test severe and protracted, +the stem snapped and the choice beauty of the garden was a thing of the +past. +</P> + +<H4> +THE WORM IN THE HEART. +</H4> + +<P> +It is the worm in the heart with his relentless and resistless tooth, +which weakens the character. Under severe and protracted temptation the +will snaps and yields, and the beautiful life is a wreck and fit only +for the dump of the Universe. +</P> + +<H4> +STUMPS AND ROOTS. +</H4> + +<P> +There are many roots, hidden roots, which bury themselves deep in the +soil of the heart. They extend far below clear cerebration, twisting +and twining themselves in "the fringe of consciousness." It takes the +fire of the Holy Ghost to follow them deep into the ground and destroy +them. It used to be a pastime of the boys in eastern Ohio to pile great +heaps of brush upon huge stumps in newly-cleared land. All the long +October day they would toil, raising a stack of dry limbs upon the +stump which needed to be removed. In the evening when twilight came and +the stars shone out, they would light the brush and watch the flames +greedily devour the pile. In the morning when the lads returned to the +scene of the fire, no sign of the stump was to be seen. Looking closely +they saw great holes as large at the top of the ground as a man's body, +and tapering to a small point as they went deep into the earth. The +fire had found the huge roots, and had tracked them into their retreats +and consumed them. +</P> + +<H4> +FIRE OF PENTECOST. +</H4> + +<P> +We pile the brush of time and talents and money and name and self upon +the altar, and the fire of Pentecost, which God sends as He sent to +Mount Carmel of old, will destroy not only the brush, but the roots of +sin, one and all. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHRISTIAN UNITY. +</H3> + +<H4> +A COMMON PLATFORM. +</H4> + +<P> +One of the results spoken of by Christ in His prayer, and brought about +by sanctification, is Christian unity—"that they all may be one." +There is but one remedy for sectism and bigotry, and it is found in the +answer to Christ's petition. When Pentecost comes to us we are all +lifted upon one grand common platform and shake hands and shout and +weep and laugh and get so mixed up that a Presbyterian can not be +distinguished from a Methodist, nor a Friend from an Episcopalian +vestryman. +</P> + +<H4> +FALSE UNITY. +</H4> + +<P> +We have heard much about the organic union of churches. Many great and +good men have looked forward with sanguine hopes to the day when we +should do away with denominations. In a few cases two churches of +different sects have united and worshipped in one congregation. But the +causes of such unity are frequently far from gratifying. In D——the +Methodists and Primitive Methodists clasp hands and join forces because +they can thus make one preacher do the work which two formerly +performed. In K——the Baptists and Presbyterians unite because the +thirteen members of one church and the seven of the other feel lonely +in their great refrigerators and are inclined to make friends and +preserve life. The cold is most intense. In the far North the weather +is sometimes so severe that wild beasts, ordinarily hostile both toward +each other and man, crowd close together near the campfire of the +explorer. +</P> + +<P> +With many churches it is "unite or die!" The mallet of the auctioneer +threatens the steeple-house, the young folks are off "golfing" or +"hiking," and the gray-beards, lonely and terror-stricken as they see +church extinction approaching, favor "a union of forces with some other +church." In the church magazines of the next month appear sundry +articles on "the broad and liberal spirit of the nineteenth century +church." "A large catholicity is taking the place of the old fogyism of +former days," scribbles the hack-writer. +</P> + +<H4> +THE "MILKSOP'S" THEORY. +</H4> + +<P> +In a few cases large congregations have united. When we behold it our +hopes rise, but they are doomed to early blight by a careful study of +the situation. The cause of denominationalism is the tenacious clinging +to faith and doctrines. Whether or no we ought to all believe precisely +alike about non-essentials, one thing is sure, the man who does not +cleave to some faith, heart and head and brain and blood, is worthless +in Christ's army. Milksops may be ornamental, they are certainly not +militant, and God wants soldiers. The man who does not know what he +believes, and the man who says "it does not matter what one believes if +one is only sincere," are more despicable than the Yankees who burned +witches in Salem. Better that a man be "narrow" than that he be so +"broad" as to take in "the devil and all his angels." Out upon our +folly when we barter away the truth of God for a flimsy, tissue-paper +bond of so-called "fellowship"! +</P> + +<H4> +CHRISTIAN ONENESS. +</H4> + +<P> +There is a unity, however, and to it Christ referred, which does not +consist in uniformity of creed but in oneness of heart. When we are +truly sanctified the non-baptizing Quaker, and the trine immersionist, +and the High Church Episcopalian, and the foot-washing Tunker, and the +Methodist, and the Baptist, and the Congregationalist all unite in one +far-reaching melodious chorus, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD!"<BR> +</P> + +<H4> +DISTINCTIONS OBLITERATED. +</H4> + +<P> +Sanctification destroys sticklerism for non-essentials and the lust for +fine distinctions in dogmatics. It slays the doctrinaire and makes a +red-hot revivalist out of him. The purified soul takes the Bible for +his "credo" and loves God's children of whatever name with a generosity +that overtops every inadequate consideration. The sanctified are united +by a common cause and a common experience. Opinions may differ as to +ecclesiastical polity or the mode of baptism, but the white cord of +sanctification is "the bond of perfectness" which makes them one +bundle. Yale and Cornell are rivals with their "eights" and "shells" on +American Hudson, but men from both colleges join forces to beat the +Britishers at Henley. Holiness people of every church unite to "push +holiness." +</P> + +<H4> +THE SPOKES AND THE HUB. +</H4> + +<P> +When the glorious grace of full salvation is experienced, love for +Christ is increased and intensified. Everyone wants to magnify Him and +live close to Him: and as we get close to Him, the Hub, the distance +between us, the spokes, is lessened. +</P> + +<H4> +THE D.D. AND THE NEGRO. +</H4> + +<P> +A D.D. and a negro meet on a Mississippi River boat. They fall into +conversation. The doctor speaks of the Lord. The negro's eyes fill and +he says, "You know my Savior?" and they shake hands and weep and shout. +Why this community of feeling between men of such diverse stations in +life? Both possess the blessing of entire sanctification. +</P> + +<H4> +VARIOUS SECTS +</H4> + +<P> +The writer has had the privilege of preaching in churches of different +denominations in the work of special evangelism, but never has he known +the falling of Pentecostal fire to fail to burn up sectarianism. It is +no easy matter to find out from the preaching of our holiness preachers +under what denominational flag they sail. Full salvation obliterates +the fences which separate the people of God and makes them really "one +in Christ Jesus." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FEARLESSNESS. +</H3> + +<H4> +PETER THE FEARLESS. +</H4> + +<P> +There was a man among the one hundred and twenty "upper room believers" +in whom Pentecost effected a most apparent and almost spectacular +change. It was Peter. We remember him as the man at whom the young girl +pointed her finger and laughed. We recall that he was so cowardly that +he denied his Lord on the spot, swearing that he did not know Him. +Behold this same Peter on the day of Pentecost. He is charging home the +murder of Christ. Fear is gone, and gone forever. He faces men and does +not flinch an iota. Carnality, the source of cowardice, has been +removed, and the weakling is turned into a Lord Nelson for bravery, and +a Savonarola for faithfulness to men's souls. +</P> + +<H4> +SHALL WE TREMBLE? +</H4> + +<P> +Fear of man is one of the most illogical things in the world. Men sell +the blood of Jesus and hope of heaven and eternal happiness because of +"what people say." Think of it, afraid of a man who will die and be +hurried under ground before he rots! Frightened at a thing dressed in a +long black coat and a white cravat with a golden-headed cane and a tall +hat and a frown; a thing which will stop breathing some fine day and +the worms will eat! Shall I tremble when an ecclesiastical Leo utters a +roar? Shall I halt and stammer because a top-heavy lad from a +theological seminary, hopelessly in love with himself, scowls at the +word "sanctification"? +</P> + +<H4> +QUEER COURAGE. +</H4> + +<P> +There are some who bolster their courage by saying ostentatiously, "I +don't care what folks say," but their very vehemence shows that they DO +care a very great deal. We boys all remember how we used to whistle +when we passed a graveyard after dark to show we "weren't afraid"; and +how hard it was to keep our mouths puckered and how shaky our legs felt! +</P> + +<H4> +AFRAID TO BREAK STEP +</H4> + +<P> +The folks we are afraid of are afraid of us. What a situation! A great +regiment of people marching straight down to hell, everyone afraid to +break step for fear the others will laugh! That is precisely the +condition of nearly every sinner. +</P> + +<H4> +COURAGE OF THERMOPYLAE +</H4> + +<P> +Sanctification takes away the shrinking timidity and puts in a courage +like that at Thermopylae. There was once a young man who, previous to +his sanctification, was so timid that he frequently stayed away from +church for no other reason than that he feared God might ask him to +testify. He enjoyed meetings and loved to hear preaching, but the very +idea of testimony would frighten him almost ill. Now he frequently +addresses many hundreds and never feels the slightest embarrassment. +</P> + +<H4> +UNMASK PRURIENCY. +</H4> + +<P> +The ministry is sadly in need of a blessing which will give it courage +to attack sin of all kinds and degrees. We need men who will rip the +mask off the putrid face of corruption and pronounce God's sentence +upon it; who will lift up the trap-door of the cess-pools of men's +hearts and bid them look within at their own slime and filth; who will +"cry aloud and spare not," though the infuriated cohorts of bat-winged +demons snarl and shriek. +</P> + +<H4> +SPEAK PLAINLY. +</H4> + +<P> +There will be a day when men will curse us because we have not preached +more plainly. You can call a spade "a spade" or you can designate it as +"an iron utensil employed for excavating purposes," but if you want +folks to understand what you are driving at use the shorter term. +</P> + +<H4> +SHOOTING OVER MEN'S HEADS. +</H4> + +<P> +There is too little plain Anglo-Saxon preaching. We shoot far over the +heads of our congregations and do not even scar the varnish on the +gallery banister. We dwell on the points of distinction between +Calvinism and Arminianism when the greater part of our people do not +know the difference between an Arminian and an Armenian, and some good +old sister thinks we are preaching on the cruelty of the Turks. Here I +am discussing "The Dangers of Imperialism" and "The Anglo-American +Friendship," while men are starving for the Bread of Life! Brethren in +the ministry, let us be less anxious about the syllogistic accuracy of +our sermons and be more eager to help men live right and quit sin and +go to heaven. +</P> + +<H4> +THE PULPIT CANNON. +</H4> + +<P> +There are many sins which few men have the courage to antagonize in +public. Theoretically the pulpit is supposed to cannonade all sin of +every variety and species, but, alas, it is usually too cowardly. The +Spirit-filled man fears no one from Sandow down to Tom Thumb, from a +plug-hat Bishop to a little pusilanimous dude preacher. +</P> + +<H4> +GHASTLY CRIMES. +</H4> + +<P> +It is not that ministers are unawares of the prevalence of black and +ghastly crimes, but that they dare not speak openly against them. Too +many are contaminated with evil and involved in guilt for the preacher +to voice with impunity the truths which burn in his soul. He knows only +too well that if he dares assert his manhood and exercises the +prerogative of Christ's minister, the retribution will be swift and +terrible, viz: ejectment from his pastorate! +</P> + +<H4> +MURDER +</H4> + +<P> +How ominous is the silence concerning murder. And yet the land is +swarming with crimson-handed murderers and murderesses. Many of them +are members of our "best churches" and move in the most select society. +Some of them read with animation the responses in church service and +repeat the Lord's Prayer with the greatest gusto. A few—not many, we +devoutly trust—talk about "sanctification." Poor, deluded, hoodwinked +souls! they are blinded by Satan. Their hands are red with blood, and +their hearts are black as hell. Were they to ever approach the heaven +of which they sanctimoniously prate, they would be met at the gate with +the curse of murdered infants who never saw the light. +</P> + +<H4> +INFANTICIDE +</H4> + +<P> +If there is a pitiable sight in all God's great universe, if there is a +scene over which angels shed tears and demons shriek laughter, it is an +old cruel-eyed mother, who has seared her conscience and sinned away +all noble womanliness and blasted her own soul, whispering into the +unsoiled ears of her daughter the way in which to murder her own +offspring; and if there is a hot hell, such a mother will make her bed +in it. +</P> + +<H4> +POODLE-DOGS. +</H4> + +<P> +The duties and cares of maternity are too irksome, and so the women who +might be the mothers of John Wesleys and Fenelons and Metchers and +Inskips and Cookmans are petting poodle-dogs and rat-terriers. +</P> + +<H4> +THE VITRIOL OF WRATH. +</H4> + +<P> +How many preachers dare speak in clarion tones what religion and +science concur in asserting concerning vice? But know ye by these +presents, all of Adam's race, that what depraved humanity pronounces +all right and harmless, the Almighty God who whirls the worlds will +corrode and scald with the burning vitriol of His wrath, and woe! woe! +woe! to the man or woman with whom is found sin. +</P> + +<H4> +GILT-EDGED FRAUDS. +</H4> + +<P> +Any tyro knows who drowned Morgan, but the clergyman who "opens up" on +Masonry is a curiosity. Why, how can the ministers say anything when +they are the chaplains of these gilt-edged frauds called "lodges"? It +does not take much calculation to show that an institution which spends +three dollars in giving away one has no right to exist. Some of the +more weak-minded and puerile of the clergy are doubtless in fear lest +their "tongues should be torn out by the roots and their hearts buried +in the rough sands of the seashore." Brave men are not so easily scared. +</P> + +<H4> +BOLOGNA SAUSAGE. +</H4> + +<P> +Secretism in itself is suspicious. Solon said that he wanted his house +so constructed that the people could see him at all hours and thus know +him to be a good man. A system which is so built that the public is +kept in the dark is entitled to the attention of a Pinkerton. Bologna +sausage made in a factory at the door of which is a huge sign, "No +Admittance," may be all right, but you can not make people think so. +</P> + +<H4> +THE ENTERTAINMENT. +</H4> + +<P> +There are few preachers so foolish and illogical as to believe that the +entertainment plan is the best way to raise money for church work, yet +scarcely one of them declares his honest straight-forward conviction +about it. Now and then a Hale, more daring than the rest, writes a +remonstrative article for the Forum, but the great mass keep quiet. A +Pentecostal ministry will wheel its guns into position and load and +fire into the supper and festival crowd notwithstanding the voices of +objectors. +</P> + +<H4> +HEROISM. +</H4> + +<P> +Whatever may be the matter under consideration the sanctified man dares +anything right. God is with him, and he feels His presence. Right is +right, and by the grace of God he will stand by it though all the world +howl and roar. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +RESPONSIVENESS TO CHRIST. +</H3> + +<H4> +A COAL AND A FLAME. +</H4> + +<P> +Among the results of the coming of the Comforter is an increase in warm +personal love for Jesus. Conversion plants divine love (agape) in the +heart, but sanctification quickens and intensifies it. Conversion drops +a coal into the breast; the fuller grace fans it into a flame. +</P> + +<H4> +SOUNDING STRINGS. +</H4> + +<P> +There is a place in experience where Christ's voice sets the whole +being vibrating. The soul is so in tune with Him that the cadences of +His tones fill the soul with a tremor of glee and gladness. If you sing +the scale in a room where there is a piano the corresponding strings of +the instrument will sound. Thus it is with Jesus and the sanctified +soul. When Christ speaks the heart answers spontaneously. +</P> + +<H4> +REGENERATION +</H4> + +<P> +Regeneration does much for us. But there is that even in the heart of +the regenerate which is antagonistic to Christ. The whole man does not +say instinctively, "Thy will be done"; yet there is something within to +which the Lord can appeal. Consult Peter. He tells us of "exceeding +great and precious promises by which we become partakers of the Divine +nature." We "take a part" (partakers) of the divine Shekinah into our +hearts. We are not only "adopted" but born of God, and by a divine +heredity we possess His character. +</P> + +<H4> +SAMUEL. +</H4> + +<P> +We see this beautifully illustrated in the case of Samuel. Given in +covenant to God from his birth, and early taught the word of the Lord, +he possessed the changed heart and the attuned ear. When God's voice +fell out of the skies that night something in Samuel heard what aged +and mitred Eli could not hear. Eli had the theory and reasoned out who +the speaker must be, but the heart of Samuel awoke intuitively at the +sound of that voice. +</P> + +<H4> +THE VOICE FROM THE SKY. +</H4> + +<P> +As Jesus taught in the temple God spoke, and many whose ears were dull +because their hearts were hard and unchanged said, "It thundered." +Others saw that something extraordinary had occurred and admitted that +"an angel spoke to Him." But the disciples whose "names were written in +heaven," and who had regenerated hearts, knew it was the voice of God. +</P> + +<H4> +THE FLINTY WORLD. +</H4> + +<P> +But while the child of God is in sympathy with God he must be +sanctified wholly to be fully, constantly and completely responsive to +Christ. Jesus wants a bride who will live His life with Him and enter +into all His plans and sorrows, ambitions and trials, aims and +purposes. There are many people who are glad Jesus died for them who +know nothing about "suffering with Christ." Yet the Bible is filled +with allusions to it. The Heavenly Bridegroom wants a companion who +will understand Him. This cold, hard, flinty, wicked world does not. +"He came unto His own and His own received Him not." He knocked at the +door of His own vineyard and the husband-men said, "Come, let us kill +the Son." The divine Lord hungers for some one who will not misjudge +His purposes nor impute to Him base motives. +</P> + +<H4> +THE UNAPPRECIATED. +</H4> + +<P> +We have all seen people who were never appreciated. Those who were near +to them by blood and kindred always thought them strange and visionary. +What a sad thing if Christ's bride does not appreciate His aims for the +world, His sorrow over perishing souls, His heart-ache over dying men! +"The fellowship of His sufferings"—what can it mean? It means that we +mourn over the sin in the world which makes Christ weep; sob over the +evil that makes Him hang His fair head and groan. It means that ever +and always we shall look at things from the Christ standpoint. +</P> + +<H4> +THE SHEEP AND THE SHEPHERD. +</H4> + +<P> +"My sheep know [recognize] my voice," says the Shepherd. He states the +principle that "sheep" always hear when He speaks. "Lambs" may be at +times mistaken as to the voices that cry in the soul, but Christians +whose experience entitles them to the designation, "sheep," do not err +as to the speaker. Watch a good shepherd collect his flock at evening. +Every sheep knows him. It is getting dark, and the quiet animals are +busily feeding in the fragrant clover, but the tender cadences of the +voice of their guide and protector pierce their delicate ears and enter +their gentle hearts, and the white flock comes bounding toward the +shepherd. A sportsman in golf suit and plaid cap and with a fine +baritone voice may call earnestly, but "a stranger will they not +follow." The shepherd holds the key to their confidence, and no one +else can unlock the door to their love. +</P> + +<H4> +CHRIST HAS THE KEY. +</H4> + +<P> +Christ has the key to our hearts. He stands in the dusk of evening in +the falling dew and sends His sweet voice out across the billowing +fields of clover, and all His sheep leap toward "the Good Shepherd." +</P> + +<H4> +THE COW AND THE SUNSET. +</H4> + +<P> +Sanctification brings out the power of appreciation in the soul. What +God does for you fills your soul with gratitude, and you can get +blessed any time of day or night by simply reflecting on the mercies +and lovingkindnesses of the Lord. The natural human heart does not +appreciate God, and sees nothing especially lovely in Him. A cow and +the man who owns the cow may stand side by side and look at the same +sunset. The cow sees a big splotch of crimson and gold; the other sees +one of God's sky-paintings, and is inspired to holy living and +self-denial and fidelity to the Master. You must have a "sunset nature" +to appreciate a sunset, and you must be sanctified wholly to see in +Christ a beauty and loveliness which no Murillo and no Raphael and no +Del Sarto have yet put on canvas. +</P> + +<H4> +THE LOVELY CHRIST. +</H4> + +<P> +O the lovely Christ! How the heart aches to go to Him! We get so +homesick for Jesus. People are so dull and uninteresting and vapid and +stupid—so precisely like ourselves—we get weary of the world and its +emptiness, and yearn to fly away to be with the spotless Christ and +live in that +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> + "Undiscovered country, from whose bourne<BR> + No traveller returns"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Some day, thank God! the Bridegroom will step out upon the balcony of +heaven and look at us and speak to us in a tone inaudible to all but +ourselves, and our souls will bound with rapture and the earthen vessel +will crumble and we will spread snowy pinions and wing our flight up to +the presence of our soul's King! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SOUL-REST. +</H3> + +<H4> +AN EFFECT. +</H4> + +<P> +One of the beatific effects of the cleansing of the heart from all sin +is soul-rest. It always accompanies the glorious experience of entire +purity. +</P> + +<H4> +FACIAL INSCRIPTIONS. +</H4> + +<P> +This poor tired world of ours needs rest. Study the faces of the people +you meet in the streets, in the markets, in the cars, in the churches, +and there is one word NOT written on them, and that word is "Rest." You +will find many other words written on them. On some faces you see +"Selfishness" in crabbed, crooked letters; on others "Lust" in +bold-faced type; on others "Gluttony"; on others, "Self-Conceit"; on +others, "Craftiness"; and on through a thousand unworthy legends; but +the one thing which makes life worth living is not found except among +the sanctified. +</P> + +<H4> +VAMPIRES AND BATS. +</H4> + +<P> +It is wonderful how elusive rest is. You may search for it all your +days and grow gray and haggard, and sit down in the evening of life +with the vampires circling about you and be forced to confess, "I have +not found rest!" You may retire from business and say, "I will spend my +declining years in peace," but as the sun goes down the bats come out +and flap the black skinny wings of the sins of other days in your +affrighted face. If you are a student you may drop your books like Dr. +Faust and hurry to the country, but the imp of restlessness will dog +your steps and snare your pathway and you will carry home with you a +Mephisto who will never leave you. +</P> + +<H4> +THE SEEDS OF ANARCHY. +</H4> + +<P> +Some Christian people seek rest in changing preachers, but there is +nothing in that to bring it. You may leave the minister who thumps the +desk and listen to a man with a nasal twang, but you are still restive +and unsatisfied. You think the reason your peace of soul is disturbed +is that Mrs. Garrulous talked about you, or that the weather is rainy +and disagreeable, or that the meetings are dull, or that people are +selfish. The real reason is that you have a restlessness in your heart +characteristic of inbred sin. You possess the seeds of dissatisfaction, +and lawlessness, and anarchy, and nothing but holiness of heart will +expel them. +</P> + +<H4> +THE OCEAN DEPTHS. +</H4> + +<P> +Down in the unfathomed depths of old Ocean there is no movement, no +disturbance. Gigantic "Majesties" and "Kaiser Wilhelms" and "Oregons" +and "Vizcayas" plow and whiten the surface; tempests rage and +Euroclydons roar and currents change and tides ebb and flow, but the +great depth knows no ripple. It is said that down there the most +fragile of frail and delicate organisms grow in safety. In the depths +of the sanctified heart there is no storm and no breaker. Trials may +come and leave white scars; billows may beat and surges may roll, and +water-spouts and tornadoes may make the upper sea boil with anguish and +sorrow and grief, but deep in the heart there is calm. There the +delicate graces of the Spirit thrive and luxuriate. Great, soulless, +iron-keeled, worldly institutions and sharp-prowed cutters may ride +over your sensibilities, but the inner placidity is unbroken. +</P> + +<H4> +THE ETERNAL SABBATH. +</H4> + +<P> +God's plan is to rest us so we can work for Him with ease and success. +He institutes an everlasting Sabbath in the spirit that we may be +ceaseless in sanctified activities. If a man is always jaded and tired +he can not take hold of his work with much enthusiasm. +</P> + +<H4> +SPIRITUAL POISE. +</H4> + +<P> +There is no mistaking the man or woman who has found the second rest. +There is a poise of spirit and a sweet serious balance of soul which +can not be counterfeited. The preacher who appreciates spirituality +sees no sight more beautiful than the serene, calm faces of auditors +from whose souls the tempests have been cast. Life's toils and +distractions and disappointments have all been negatived by the power +of the all-conquering Christ. +</P> + +<H4> +A SCENE AT ALLENTOWN. +</H4> + +<P> +These words are being written in the city of Allentown, Pa., where the +writer is spending ten days in a series of Pentecostal services. Last +evening we saw a symbol of the rest Christ gives. We strolled along the +east bank of the Lehigh River about half an hour after sunset. All the +western sky was beautiful with an afterglow. The water of the river, +silver near the shore and golden toward the west, was as still as the +face of a mirror. The trees on the shore leaned over perfect pictures +of themselves. The hills, which fell back gracefully from the valley, +were covered with cloaks of gold and vermillion and emerald, and not a +leaf stirred in the evening air. Far up the river the tiny bell of a +canal-mule tinkled drowsily. On the veranda of a little cottage a young +mother crooned a lullaby to a slumbering child, and a little bird in a +thick grove called, "Peace! Peace!" +</P> + +<H4> +CALM. +</H4> + +<P> +If God can make so beautiful a scene in the physical world, what can He +not make in the spiritual? Thank God! He can excel anything the natural +eye ever beheld. He can hang the soul with paintings and turn the +"River of Life clear as crystal" through it, and fill the chambers of +the heart with lullabies and the song of birds crying, "Peace!" If +there are times when we are awed and charmed by +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "All the beauty of the world"<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +let us remember that what we see is only a type of the grandeur and +glory and splendor He will put in our spirit-nature if we but permit +Him to sanctify us and cast out the storms and tempests. +</P> + +<H4> +THE PAIN OF SYMPATHY. +</H4> + +<P> +While we may possess and enjoy "the second rest" here and now, we need +not forget that another is promised to us. We get weary physically +sometimes here. The days frequently seem long and trying. There are +hours and hours of labor, and nights and nights of toil, but, thank +God! we can say at each sunset, "I am one day nearer rest." For while a +sanctified man is always at rest spiritually, he can not rest +physically to much satisfaction. In his dreams he can see the white, +drawn faces of the doomed, and hear the wild uncouth shriek of the +tormented. He remembers with horror that one hundred thousand souls are +rolled off into Eternity while the earth makes one revolution! He +thinks of cheerless homes, and torn and bleeding hearts, and wives +waiting for the sound of unsteady steps, and children friendless and +hungry, and figures leaping from bridges, and shaking hands holding +poison, and maniacs behind the bars glaring with wild eye-balls through +dishevelled hair! And he leaps from the couch with the cry, "O the pity +of it all!" And he can not be still, he can not be idle, but is +constrained to do his utmost by word and pen to save a sinking, +gurgling, drowning humanity. +</P> + +<H4> +WHEN IT IS ALL OVER. +</H4> + +<P> +But one day it will all be over. Soon we shall all have preached our +last sermon and prayed our last prayer and spoken our last word. Our +lives will soon have passed into history. That blessed hour will soon +be here in which we shall "lay down the silver trumpet of ministry and +take up the golden harp of praise." Hallelujah, it is coming! it is +coming! Praise the Lord! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PRAYERFULNESS. +</H3> + +<H4> +DELIGHT IN PRAYER. +</H4> + +<P> +The precious grace of entire sanctification brings to the heart a +prayerful spirit. Prayer becomes the normal occupation of the soul. One +is surprised to discover that while it was formerly difficult, if not +irksome, to pray at times, now one prays because it is delightful and +easy. +</P> + +<H4> +DE RENTY. +</H4> + +<P> +Many of us have been surprised to read in the biographies of pious men +and women that they frequently spent hours in prayer. But the +sanctified man understands all that now. He can readily believe that De +Renty heard not the voice of his servant, so intent was he gazing into +the Father's face. He does not doubt that Whitefield in his college +room was "prostrate upon the floor many days, praying for the baptism +with the Holy Ghost." +</P> + +<H4> +J.W. REDFIELD. +</H4> + +<P> +The writer remembers of reading when just a child the thrilling life of +John Wesley Redfield. There was nothing which struck the boy-reader +with greater force than the prayerfulness of the man. It awed him, and +made him long to enjoy such an experience as would make prayer so +delightful. In the golden experience of sanctification he found that +prayer was delightsome and blessed. Such is the uniform testimony of +all who have been cleansed from depravity and anointed with the Holy +Ghost. +</P> + +<H4> +PRAYER HAS ITS ANSWER. +</H4> + +<P> +God means true prayer to have audience. We can not understand how God +can vouchsafe to us such tremendous effects as He asserts shall follow +prayer. We can not defend prayer philosophically; but either "he that +asketh receiveth," or the Bible is misleading and untrustworthy. +</P> + +<H4> +TRUE PRAYER. +</H4> + +<P> +But what is "true prayer"? In the first place, it is prayer which says, +"Thy will be done." If we pray selfishly, "asking amiss," we can hope +for no answer. We will get no hearing. We must ask with the thought, +"What is the Father's will? What does He consider best?" +</P> + +<H4> +DESPERATION. +</H4> + +<P> +True prayer must be earnest. It was the IMPORTUNATE widow that was +heard, and it is the importunate seeker that never fails of an answer. +If when sinners, backsliders, or believers come to the altar they would +pray with earnestness and desperation, there would be a far larger PER +CENT. of them who would go away fully satisfied. God never gives great +blessings to indifferent people. When He sees a man in an agony of +desire and longing, then He hastens to gladden his heart with an answer. +</P> + +<H4> +FAITH. +</H4> + +<P> +Prayer must be full of faith. James makes this clear to us. "Let him +ask in faith nothing wavering." God cannot bestow a blessing upon us if +we doubt Him. If a neighbor doubts your character, how much of your +heart do you let him see? If a fellow-preacher imputes selfish motives +to your acts, how often do you go to him and pour your heart out to +him? But those who believe in us—how frequently we run to them, unlock +our hearts and tell them all! It is thus with God. If we believe His +word, if we are sure of the veracity of His promise, and are +confidently expecting an answer, He will not, can not disappoint us. +</P> + +<H4> +THE FORGIVING SPIRIT. +</H4> + +<P> +There must be in us a forgiving spirit if our prayers are to be heard. +Forgiveness of our enemies precedes blessing for ourselves. "If ye +forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive +your trespasses." If I am bitter in my heart toward any creature, God +can not but be deaf to all my cries. If I nourish hatred, or meditate +revenge, or plot the downfall of any man, my prayers are vain; yea, all +my hope in Christ is futile! +</P> + +<H4> +GOSSIPING PREACHERS. +</H4> + +<P> +O that God may send us all the prayerful blessing! It is better that we +pray than that we discuss politics or talk "shop," or gossip or jest. +If we preachers and evangelists at camps and conventions would pray +more instead of getting in groups and talking about a world of +nothings, our sermons would mean full as much to those whom we address. +</P> + +<H4> +UNBROKEN CONNECTION. +</H4> + +<P> +Sanctification makes it possible for us to "pray without ceasing." The +indwelling Paraclete keeps the heart in a constant spirit of prayer, so +that at all hours and in all places prayers ascend. Communication is +kept up between the heart and the throne of Grod. No snows break the +wires. No floods wash away the poles. From the pulpit, from the +sidewalk, from the counter, from the railway coach, from the sick bed, +an ever-steady stream of prayer is kept up. They may befoul our names, +but they can not stop our praying. They may "cast us out as evil," and +may deny us pulpit privileges, and take away our salaries, but prayer +and praise they can not stifle nor hinder. +</P> + +<H4> +INCENSE AND THUNDER. +</H4> + +<P> +The prayers of God's people are sweet to Him. "With much incense" +burning in a golden censer (Rev. viii. 3) they float to His throne. But +notice the effect of the prayers of saints. Not only is there a silence +of an half-hour but "voices and thunderings and lightnings and an +earthquake" are observed in the earth. The children of God, if they but +pray and believe, can pull spiritual fire and earthquakes down upon +earth and effect great things for God and His Church. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SUCCESS. +</H3> + +<H4> +SUCCESS INTENDED. +</H4> + +<P> +Nothing is clearer in the Acts of the Apostles than that the disciples +after Pentecost had success in gospel service. Everywhere they went God +rained fire upon their Word and sanctioned the truth which they +preached by tremendous moral and spiritual upheavals. +</P> + +<H4> +B. T. ROBERTS. +</H4> + +<P> +Bishop Roberts has put the matter of success very succinctly: "If the +lawyer must win his case and the doctor cure his patient in order to be +successful, the minister and worker must save souls if they in their +calling are to be said to be successful." But alas, saving souls is +precisely what we are not doing. Thank God! there is here and there a +man who stands out as a soul-saver. But the average minister is not +distinguished for revivalism so much as proficiency in making a church +social a "blooming success." +</P> + +<H4> +FALLEN SAMSONS. +</H4> + +<P> +We all want to seem to succeed. We shun and dread the appearance of +failure. When a church begins to rot instead of grow it is natural for +us to do our utmost to find out some way of excusing the retrogression +without admitting our failure to reach men with the gospel. There are +evangelists, who in the palmy days of their power had wonderful, +heaven-gladdening revivals, who have ceased to wield "the sword of the +Lord and of Gideon," and, in order to cover their spiritual nakedness, +are forced to resort to finger-raising, card-signing methods for +stuffing and expanding "the big revival." There is no more sobbing, no +more desperate praying, no more shouting; all is "decent and in order," +as well it may be, for all is dead. +</P> + +<H4> +QUESTION OF EVANGELISM. +</H4> + +<P> +Honor to soul-saving! Show us the man who wins men to our Master, that +we may clasp his hand and look into his face. Right here hangs all the +discussion about evangelism. If the evangelist gets men soundly and +scripturally converted and sanctified, let us bid him Godspeed! If he +only amuses them and deals in paltry three-cent sensationalism, away +with more of the same sort of stuff which we already have in so many +pastors! +</P> + +<H4> +THE DIVINE RECIPE. +</H4> + +<P> +One thing is certain: God intends success and only success for His +people. If, as His children, we fail, it must be because we have not +followed the divine recipe for power and accomplishment. It was because +the one hundred and twenty obeyed Christ and tarried at Jerusalem that +God used the early Church to whip the Roman Empire. +</P> + +<H4> +"HOW TO SUCCEED" +</H4> + +<P> +"How to Succeed," used as the title for a book, will make any book +sell, though it be as dry as a patent-office report. People want to +know how to succeed in the world. How strange then that ministers and +churches who are brilliant and conspicuous failures should shun the +preaching of Pentecost—the one cure for failure and the sole guarantee +of success. +</P> + +<H4> +EMPTY COMFORT. +</H4> + +<P> +How many times some of us have sighed over our inefficiency! How +frequently, in default of apparent results, we have been forced to +console ourselves with the thought that we are "sowing seed" and that +there will be an abundant harvest at no distant date! Thank God! there +is success for us all. Pentecost will give it to us. +</P> + +<H4> +JOHN THE BAPTIST. +</H4> + +<P> +We do not mean by success financial opulence. A man may be a success +and yet as poor as John the Baptist lunching on dried locusts and +honey-comb. One may be as wealthy as Croesus and yet be an awful +failure. A church may be rich and increased with goods and incur the +Laodicean curse. +</P> + +<H4> +PADDED STATISTICS. +</H4> + +<P> +Neither does success mean a great and highly-trumpeted statistical +report to lug to conference. Some of our most inspiring "successes" are +all right on paper, but in reality they are stuffed and padded +scandalously. No, success in Christian work is to "turn many to +righteousness," save souls, and secure the sanctification of believers. +If we do not see such results following our labor, we have either +missed God's plan as to our selection of a field or we are not living +in the present enjoyment of the Pentecostal Baptism. +</P> + +<H4> +THE EPOCHAL EXPERIENCE. +</H4> + +<P> +The preachers and evangelists who have won great successes in the +calling of sinners to repentance have almost without exception +testified to having received an "enduement" or "anointing" subsequent +to their conversion. The Caugheys, the Moodys, the Whitefields, the +Wesleys, the Foxes, the Earles, though in some instances they have not +believed in holiness according to the Wesleyan view, have all had an +epochal event after which their work and works were effective and +startling. +</P> + +<H4> +THE EFFECT OF PENTECOST. +</H4> + +<P> +Pentecost coming to a mission-worker will fill his heart with +enthusiasm and energy, and give him a host of jewels washed from the +mire and shining like meteors. The same experience coming to a mechanic +will fire him with a love for Jesus and a solicitude for souls that +will make him pray and fast and weep and work for his fellow-laborers, +for his neighbors, and for his friends. The Spirit coming to a gifted +singer will cause her to consecrate her voice, like Rachel Winslow in +Sheldon's "In His Steps," so that with holy melody she will reach +hearts hitherto hard and untouched. +</P> + +<H4> +THE PASSION FOR SOULS. +</H4> + +<P> +One of the conditions of success in soul-saving is a passion for the +salvation of immortal men and women. Full salvation always brings this, +and as long as a worker lives in its plentitude and enjoyment he is +consumed with a burning, longing, panting thirst for souls. +</P> + +<H4> +THE GIGANTIC LANDSLIDE. +</H4> + +<P> +The ministers of early Methodism and early Quakerism were not of the +sort who congregate in groups and discuss the relative desirability of +various appointments. They did not spend their leisure in jesting, +punning and guffawing, but in praying, studying, and working, for even +their vacations were turned into days of toil. They spent their all in +one endeavor—to save men from a yawning Pit and a lurid Hell. Nowadays +we live in perpetual relaxation and recreation. Smooth, insipid +preachers talk to shallow, giddy audiences, and the whole thing is on a +gigantic landslide. Lord, save! or death and damnation are sure. +</P> + +<H4> +THE UNCERTAIN FAITH. +</H4> + +<P> +There can be no successful denial of the assertion that real +soul-absorbing earnestness in religion is dying out. We sometimes mock +at the Herculean labors of men like Owen, and Baxter, and Calvin, and +Edwards. But though these men were perhaps more or less legalistic and +at times a little narrow, yet one thing is sure, they made religion the +business of life, and went at it with zest, enthusiasm, and +determination. Your modern "Christian" has "certain intellectual +difficulties"; is "not fixed in belief concerning Socinianism"; does +"not like the old idea of the Atonement"; in fact, is in a state of +fusion so far as his belief and faith are concerned. Men do not give +their life's blood for matters in which they have only a half-faith. +But when one is convinced that men are dying in the dark and that their +salvation depends in a measure on one's activity and fidelity, then one +is hot with zeal and fire from hat to heel and set to working for God +and eternal souls. +</P> + +<H4> +WEEPING OVER CHORAZIN. +</H4> + +<P> +This is the explanation of the zeal of men who are "burning for Jesus." +This is the reason men so frequently wear out in short order after they +are sanctified. They are dipped in fellowship with Christ's sorrow, and +beholding Him weeping over modern Capernaums and Chorazins their hearts +are melted at the sight, and they speed away to preach the gospel of +the lovely Son of God. +</P> + +<H4> +SANCTIFIED SUCCESS. +</H4> + +<P> +No wonder success comes to the sanctified man. Indwelt by the Shekinah, +filled with the Holy Ghost, his whole being energized with power and +force, "whatsoever he doeth prospers." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VISITS OF ANGELS. +</H3> + +<H4> +DESCRIPTIVE PSALM. +</H4> + +<P> +The ninety-first Psalm is a painstaking description of the blessings +and benefits bestowed upon the man that "dwelleth in the secret place +of the Most High." Without doubt the entire chapter should be taken as +a photograph of the sanctified man. Among other things, this fortunate +and favored person is told that he is to have angelic guards and +ministers who will protect him and keep him "in all his ways." +</P> + +<H4> +GOD'S OWN. +</H4> + +<P> +The sanctified are in a peculiar sense God's own, and all the resources +of heaven are pledged to their protection. All the fire companies of +the firmament will turn out to extinguish a fire if it kindle on God's +saints. If need be, Jehovah will empty His balm jars but the wounds of +warriors shall be healed. Angels are detailed for our protection: +heavenly visitants hover near us lest the fires of affliction destroy +us. +</P> + +<H4> +UNDERSTANDING CHRIST. +</H4> + +<P> +The moment the soul is sanctified, it begins to understand Christ in a +new and delightful sense. It is given unto it to not only sit at His +feet in the temple, but to groan with Him in Grethsemane. It +understands Him, and, in suffering, is "as He is in this world." +</P> + +<H4> +A DARK HOUR. +</H4> + +<P> +It was a dark, dark hour for the Master. He had been praying a long +while, perhaps for several hours. The place was one familiar to Him. +Many a night after a long, wearisome day of teaching in the temple, He +had labored painfully up the slope of the Mount of Olives in search of +the quiet of "the Garden." Here the Savior had His oratory. Sometimes +the disciples were with Him; at other times He was alone. +</P> + +<H4> +A NIGHT OF CRISIS. +</H4> + +<P> +But this night was a night of crisis. The old olive trees, in all their +centuries of life, had never witnessed so intense a struggle as that +which took place on the night of His passion. Alive to all the pathos +of the hour, awake to all the gravity of the situation, sensitive to +the slightest breath, He prays to "the Father" with that desperation in +which the flight of time and the doings of the world are all forgotten. +</P> + +<H4> +UNCERTAINTY. +</H4> + +<P> +There was much about the hour which made it a painful one. There was, +first of all, an uncertainty concerning the will of "the Father." With +a great cry the lonely Christ fell to the ground: "If it be thy will +let this cup pass, nevertheless" let thy will, whatsoever it is, "be +done." Evidently He was not at that time really sure what the plan of +"the Father" was in regard to Him. +</P> + +<H4> +A BITTER CUP. +</H4> + +<P> +Uncertainty is a fearful test, when it comes to the soul of a man of +great and energetic purpose. So long as there is no doubt about the +course to be taken, so long as the plan is plainly revealed, it is easy +for a courageous man to advance. But to such a one uncertainty is like +a shock to the body, palsying the form and changing a strong arm into a +nerveless, useless stick of bone and tissue. A cup may be very bitter, +salt with the brine of tears and hot with the fire of vitriol, and yet, +if all the ingredients in that cup are known to him who drinks it, +grief has not reached its superlative. Socrates' duty was plain to him. +Hemlock was in the cup, and he knew it. But the liquor with which God +fills the tumblers of His people is brewed from a thousand elements. +</P> + +<H4> +A TEST. +</H4> + +<P> +To trust in the dark, to believe in a rayless midnight, to cling to a +thread well-nigh invisible, to say "Amen" to God when one has no idea +of the greatness of the meaning of "His will," that is the supremest +test of loyalty. +</P> + +<H4> +THE NIGHT PICKET. +</H4> + +<P> +The night picket stationed far out from the camp has need of much +greater courage than the soldier in battle ranks rushing on toward the +enemy. The man at the lonely picket post, cloaked in darkness, is +guarding against uncertainty. He can not tell at once whether a dark +object is a dangerous spy or a browsing Brindle. Sounds must be noted +and sorted lest the enemy steal up to the slumbering army and destroy +it. The snapping of twigs, the low whistle of a bird, the groan of the +wind, the murmur of a waterfall must all be listened to with care. +</P> + +<H4> +EVIL TIDINGS. +</H4> + +<P> +It is suspense and a nameless dread and fear that sap many a mind and +heart. Moments of breathless expectancy of evil tidings are like years +in the life, bringing ashes to the hair, lines to the cheek and +listlessness to the eye. +</P> + +<H4> +THE PALLED FACE. +</H4> + +<P> +"Be sure you are right, then go ahead," said Tennesseean Crockett; but +supposing that one can not "be sure" of anything except the love of +God, supposing that one looks out through the tangled limbs of the +olive trees of a Gethsemane to a sky studded with pitiless stars, +supposing that the future is obscure and the present black as Styx, +supposing that even the face of the Father Himself is palled and +curtained—then must one be content to trust and only trust. +</P> + +<H4> +THREE DISCIPLES +</H4> + +<P> +There was another cause for pain in "the Garden." The three disciples, +whom He had chosen to accompany Him in His dark and lonely vigil, slept +as He prayed. We can bring ourselves to overlook the negligence and +apathy of Nicodemus and Lazarus and Simon the leper and Zaccheus and +the crowds who had merely heard Him preach. We are willing perhaps to +excuse eight of the twelve for their drowsiness—perchance they did not +apprehend the full meaning of the hour to the Master. But there were +three disciples to whom Christ had ever laid bare His heart. With Him +they stood in the death chamber in the house of Jairus. To them it was +given to behold "the vision splendid" on the mount of transfiguration, +and these alone Jesus chose to enter into the fellowship of his Garden +sufferings. +</P> + +<H4> +NO EXCUSE. +</H4> + +<P> +These men did not nod and sleep ignorant of Christ's need of them. With +that tender confidence with which a truly great and colossal man +sometimes honors his friends, He had said, "My soul is exceeding +sorrowful, even unto death." He had warned them with the words, "Watch +and pray lest ye enter into temptation," and yet they slept! +</P> + +<H4> +"OUR OWN AFFAIRS." +</H4> + +<P> +It must have been a keen disappointment to Jesus to find His most +trusted friends so indifferent to His needs. Is there anything in life +sadder than the discovery that our own affairs are really only our own +affairs? We had thought that they were our friends', as well as our +own. We had supposed that our griefs were theirs also, but when +Grethsemane comes into our lives, and we writhe and twist among the +gnarled and knotted roots, when we turn with blanched, tear-sprinkled +faces to our chosen James and trusted Peter and beloved John to gasp in +their ears the story of our agony, we hear only the heavy breathing of +sound sleepers. +</P> + +<H4> +COLD, HARSH FACT. +</H4> + +<P> +If there is a sharper pang than this, man's heart has not found it. We +are by nature social beings. We crave fellowship and love and sympathy, +and it is so hard for us to realize that our choicest friends are +really "asleep" to our heart cries and heart interests. The cold, harsh +fact can be believed but slowly. Even the Lord seemed to find it hard +to convince His own heart that the John who had leaned at supper upon +His breast, was resting while his Master was sweating blood. He prayed +awhile and then, as if to see whether it was indeed true that no one +watched to help Him, "He came and found them sleeping." Sad, cruel +disappointment, and yet is it so rare that any one of us has not felt +its sadness and cruelty? +</P> + +<H4> +AN ANGEL. +</H4> + +<P> +But while men forgot the Nazarene and His troubles, Grod did not +forget. The Father was not negligent nor careless. "There appeared an +angel unto him from heaven strengthening him." The night was not too +dark for the angel to find Jesus, and the night of our troubles is +never too thick and black for the angels to find us. The paths of "the +Garden" may be grown up in weeds, the rough, scabeous limbs of the +trees may hang close to the ground, the driving clouds may hide the +moon and stars, but some celestial messenger will search us out and +find us. +</P> + +<H4> +IN MANY FORMS. +</H4> + +<P> +God has many angels, and they come in many forms. Sometimes the +solitary sufferer sees only a tiny flower, but love is in the flower, +and he knows he is not utterly forgotten. It may be only an hand clasp, +but warmth and sympathy are in it, and behold it is straightway "an +angel strengthening him." Perchance it is a letter with a foreign +postmark, but in it is nectar and ambrosia for a drooping spirit. Or +the angel may come enveloped in a text of Scripture or flying on the +wings of the music of some old hymn, such as: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Fear not! I am with thee.<BR> + Oh, be not dismayed,<BR> + For I am thy God!<BR> + I will still give thee aid."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +In whatever role the angel may come, God sent him, and his mission is +one of blessing and encouragement. +</P> + +<H4> +HEAVENLY VISITANTS. +</H4> + +<P> +We can well afford to suffer in the darkness, alone and uncomforted, if +angels will but visit us. John Bunyan can well be content in Bedford +gaol, if God but puts a dream in his head and heart that will last in +the memories and characters of men, when the sun is a burned-out cinder +and the stars are dying ash heaps. We can well be satisfied to have +sorrows unutterable and griefs inexpressible, if heavenly visitants +will but come to us. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII. +</H3> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +GROWTH IN CHRISTLINESS OF LIFE. +</H3> + +<H4> +MAKING A BOTCH. +</H4> + +<P> +One may have a clean, pure heart and yet be far from possessing a +matured Christian character. A man may love God with all his heart, and +yet not be wise in his selection of the things that will always please +God. Frequently the preacher may come down from the pulpit having made +a horrible botch of his attempt to serve God in the ministry. He may +feel the fact keenly, and be even more conscious of it than any of his +hearers. And yet that preacher may have a heart as white as Gabriel's +wing and a soul full of love to God and man. But as time goes on, and +he lingers repeatedly at the feet of Christ in prayer, God will show +him how he can serve Him more effectively and without the objectionable +features. +</P> + +<H4> +UNJUST CRITICISM. +</H4> + +<P> +The fact that purity is not maturity has given rise to misapprehension +on the part of many people. Indeed, many of God's dear children have +been misjudged and condemned because they did not have in addition to +pure hearts sound and solid judgment. As soon as a man professes the +blessing of perfect love, the sharp-eyed critics of the neighborhood +look out for "perfect sense," and "perfect manners," and "perfect +life," and when the subject of observation fails to meet the +expectation of the aforesaid critics, there is a great hue and cry that +"Sister A. or Brother B. has not got what is professed," when God knows +they HAVE got JUST what they profess—namely, perfect love, full +salvation. The Lord has never guaranteed a perfect head to any man that +breathes. We will make mistakes as long as we hang around this old +world, and it is injustice to exalted spirits who have this precious +grace, and an insult to the God who gave the grace, to condemn +sanctification because those who profess it are not angels, but simply +men and women cleansed and filled with the Spirit. +</P> + +<H4> +REPEATING MISTAKES. +</H4> + +<P> +But while God makes allowance for our weakness and our frailty, we +ought not to expect Him to indulge us in avoidable and needless errors. +We made a mistake. Very well. We knew no better than to make it. But +now that we do know better, we have no business repeating it. And right +along here comes a great expanse of territory which holiness people +need to cover. Here there is infinite room for advancement and progress. +</P> + +<H4> +"THE IMITATION OF CHRIST" +</H4> + +<P> +Thomas A'Kempis wrote a wonderful book on "The Imitation of Christ." +The failure in so many quarters in becoming Christlike is due to the +false method pursued. First, get a Christlike heart, and then let that +heart govern your life and actions. "Work OUT your own salvation," said +Paul, "for it is God that worketh IN you." Precisely! God puts a holy +heart into a man's breast, and his business from thence on is to bring +his life into line with the heart. The old life-habits may cling to him +for a time, but it is the business of the sanctified soul to free +itself from all that Jesus would not do were He on earth. Imitation of +Christ comes after sanctification, and not before. You simply can not +imitate Jesus if you have a reptile heart in you. If you have a filthy +mind you will talk "smut" and think "smut" in spite of yourself. You +may hide your bad self from the world, but your wife, or your husband, +or your family, those who are acquainted with you intimately, know that +you are base and coarse. +</P> + +<H4> +DANTE. +</H4> + +<P> +A glutton may stand and look at the thin, austere, ascetic face of +Dante and say within himself, "I will be a Dante," but all the world +knows that in a few hours he will be gourmandizing as swinishly as +before. And men look at the beautiful Jesus held up in Unitarian +pulpits and resolve to act like Him, and go right on being selfish, and +proud, and deceitful, and devilish. There must be a moral miracle, +there must be a spiritual upsetting and overturning, before a carnal +heart can begin to imitate the pure and spotless Son of God. +</P> + +<H4> +KINDNESS. +</H4> + +<P> +After we are sanctified, we ought to imitate Christ in kindness. How +kind He was! Where did He abuse anyone? He preached the truth, but He +never maligned any of His auditors. +</P> + +<H4> +THE "LITTLE THINGS" +</H4> + +<P> +It is the "little things" that make up the mosaic of life. Our friends +know us, not by the speeches we deliver, nor the sermons we preach, nor +the books we write, but by the tones of our voices, and the letters we +pen, and the words we use in daily life. Introduce kindness into a +discordant family and how Eden-like the home becomes! Why are we not as +considerate and polite to those who are all the world to us as we are +to strangers and neighbors? Christlike kindness would fill our hearts +with thoughtfulness for those about us. It would bid us carry a torch +to many a darkened life, and incite us to share the burden pressing +upon many an aching shoulder. +</P> + +<H4> +TRUE HUMILITY. +</H4> + +<P> +Christ had great charity for the faults of those with whom He was +associated. How He bore with the dull and almost stupid disciples! How +He bears with us in our worse and more inexcusable blockheadedness! +And, if He is so charitable and patient with our faults, how ought we +to be with others? There comes a time in our lives when we are simply +astonished that people pay any attention to us at all. We are so +conscious of our short-comings, and so keenly aware of our mistakes, +that it seems to us that surely no one is quite so blundering and +fallible as we are. How easy it is then to bear with one another! +</P> + +<H4> +LOOKING-GLASS HUMILITY. +</H4> + +<P> +We ought to work humility out into our lives. Jesus lived an humble +life—a life of the truest and deepest humility. Not a humility +conscious of itself and ever gazing at itself through the fancied eyes +of others, but a humility that was real and unaffected. +</P> + +<H4> +A CHRISTLIKE MAN. +</H4> + +<P> +The writer has in mind a man of deep and earnest piety, a scholar, a +successful preacher and author. With all his learning and scholarship +he is as humble as a child, and one can not look at him without +feeling, "There is a Christ-man." Often as the pen flies quickly across +the page, or as the lips are moving in the delivery of a sermon, or as +an altar service is in progress, the slight, thin figure of that man +flashes to the brain, and the eye grows dim and the heart-prayer rises, +"Lord, make me an humble man." There are so many great men, eloquent +men, learned men, dignified men, but so few humble men. God, increase +their number in the land! +</P> + +<H4> +ACTIVITY. +</H4> + +<P> +Another thing in Jesus' life which sanctified people ought to learn to +imitate was His activity. His days, and even His nights, frequently, +were filled with service. After long days of teaching and preaching, He +would seek out some quiet nook and spend the still and lonely hours of +night in prayer to the Father. +</P> + +<H4> +THE INDIVIDUAL VISION. +</H4> + +<P> +Men who come into close touch and communion with Christ are impelled +irresistibly to earnest and ceaseless service. They see needs which no +one else seems to see. They hear the plaintive voices of dying men, and +the tearful cries of despondent women, and the helpless moans of +unloved children. They have visions which others never understand, and +dream of things with which their dearest friends can not sympathize. +They have given their all that they may know Christ, and He has +rewarded them by disclosing His heart to them. They know why His face +is tearful, and His voice is filled with sadness. They know why He is +"a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." They are baptized into a +baptism of love for souls, and compassion for the sorrowing, similar to +that in which He is plunged. It is for this reason that men hear the +voice of God calling them away from the hearth-stone out into the +desolate earth. +</P> + +<H4> +ST. TELEMACHUS. +</H4> + +<P> +St. Telemachus heard the voice of God, and straightway "followed the +sphere of westward wheeling stars," and journeyed on to Rome muttering, +"The call of God! The call of God!" Not on a foolish errand did he go, +for, after his visit to the Eternal City, gladiatorial combats ceased. +</P> + +<H4> +"HE THAT WARRETH" +</H4> + +<P> +Brethren, be true to Christ. Let not even those who love you best draw +you from a steadfast purpose to spend your life and all for the +Galilean. Flee ease and luxury and comfort, and impose hard tasks upon +yourselves. Your friends may seek to hinder you with cries of, "Rest! +Tarry!" but like Christian in Bunyan's dream stop your ears and go +quickly on your journey. +</P> + +<H4> +THE HOME COMING. +</H4> + +<P> +Some day your little service will be complete. Your sun will set. The +west will be filled with beauty, and the birds will twitter softly in +the trees as you trudge the last mile into the City; and as the shades +deepen, and the air grows chill, the Master Himself will meet you, take +you to His heart, wipe the tear from your cheek, the dust of the road +from your brow, and the sorrow from your heart, and lead you to the +court, where with those whom you love, and those who love you, Eternity +will be spent in the light of His pure and shining face. +</P> + +<A NAME="experience"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +EXPERIENCE +</H3> + +<H4> +THE VALUE OF TESTIMONY. +</H4> + +<P> +It has pleased God to place in our hands two weapons by which we are to +overcome Satan—"the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony." +It was the narrated experiences of the people of God, and the modest +declarations of the saving power of Christ, which convicted me of my +need and led me to seek the grace of God. Very briefly, therefore, I +will sketch God's dealings with my own soul. +</P> + +<H4> +EARLY PRAYER. +</H4> + +<P> +I was born September 30th, 1877, at Westfield, Indiana. My parents were +both ministers in the Society of Friends, and I can not remember When I +first began to pray, for my mother taught me to go to God with +everything, even when a very small child. When I was five and a half +years of age we moved to Walnut Ridge, Indiana, where there was a +Friends' meeting of more than ordinary size and activity. It was here +that my conversion took place. I remember the event as distinctly as if +it were yesterday. +</P> + +<H4> +CONVICTION. +</H4> + +<P> +I always prayed at the family altar, and that was an institution which +was never neglected for anything in our home, and I had never omitted +my evening devotions; but one summer day while playing by myself under +the trees in the front yard, a great fear came upon me lest I had never +had a change of heart. Though less than six years old, I had sat in the +"gallery" behind my father as he preached too often to be ignorant of +the necessity of the new birth. It was a perfect day, but conviction +settled upon me more and more deeply, and a dark shadow seemed to take +the brightness from everything. Unable to endure the heartache any +longer, I ran into the house and sat down with my father and mother, +waiting in silence for some time. Finally I asked them if I had "ever +been converted," told them I "wanted to be," and immediately we knelt +in prayer. How I did weep, and how badly I felt! I can see the back of +that little sewing-rocker now swimming in my tears. (I wonder where +that rocking-chair is now! The last I knew it was in California, having +left us at an auction—an occasion not unfamiliar to most of +preacher-families.) They told me to pray, and I prayed with all my +heart. If ever there was a little boy who felt that he was a great +sinner, I was the boy. I remembered all the things I ever did that I +knew were wrong. My boyish wickednesses, things that seem a rather +absurd lot now in the light of the sins of the average lad of six that +I know to-day, caused me great pain. Soon peace came, and what +happiness! When I went out doors again the very birds twittered with +increased gladness, and the sky seemed a far deeper blue, and the grass +and flowers rejoiced with me in my new-found experience. +</P> + +<H4> +RETROGRESSION. +</H4> + +<P> +Would God I had retained my simple faith in Jesus! But it was not long +before I wandered away from Christ, and the life of prayerfulness and +obedience. For years my religious experience was most unsatisfactory. I +was under frequent convictions, and knew that the Spirit was striving +with me persistently, but I hardened my heart and would not yield +completely to God. As I look back at those years of restlessness and +rebellion, I recall with gratitude the forbearance and long-suffering +of a now sainted mother. How she carried her proud, stubborn boy on her +heart, and how she held onto God's skirt and tugged away until He +answered. +</P> + +<H4> +THE STRIVING OF THE SPIRIT. +</H4> + +<P> +During the winter of 1891-1892 I became almost wretched on account of +conviction. The Holy Ghost fairly dogged my steps and whispered in my +ear at every turn. There were many things which He used to convict me +of—my unfaithfulness and aridity of soul and life. My junior year at +Oak Grove Seminary is distinctly remembered as a time of continuous +conviction and unrest. Now and then I would find peace and comfort for +a time, but they remained only for a time. I kept up secret devotions +very carefully. I never missed my daily prayers, but my life was +inconsistent and God-dishonoring. The lives of real Christians rebuked +me, and the mockery of my empty profession haunted me like a spectre. +</P> + +<H4> +RECLAMATION. +</H4> + +<P> +In the summer of 1892 I began to seek God earnestly, and was not long +in finding pardon and reclamation. No sooner was I at peace with God +than I began to hunger for holiness. O, how my heart longed for full +salvation! I saw much about me that was an indication that there was an +experience enjoyed by some of which I was not possessed. My mother's +calm, victorious life, and her constant unwavering Christian faith, +convicted me. I was proud and selfish, and hypersensitive and +ambitious. She was restful, contented, loving, meek. How frequently I +gave way to some temptation, and how mortified I was to be so +humiliated by the Adversary. +</P> + +<H4> +HUNGER FOR HOLINESS. +</H4> + +<P> +Many of the members of my father's church at Portsmouth had an +experience of freedom and liberty which I craved. In July my father, my +mother, and I spent a couple of days at Douglas camp-meeting. I +remember so well every incident of the trip—my deep unrest as we +entered the grounds, my aversion to certain "boisterous persons" who +said "Bless the Lord" so frequently, my disrelish for food, my dislike +of taking a front seat in the audience. Two old sisters sat facing the +preacher one evening. Their faces were full of joy, and they seemed to +overflow with joy and spiritual exhilaration. I inwardly said, "I wish +I had an experience like they seem to have." I made up my mind I would +seek. I can not recall a word of the sermon. I do not think I heard it +at the time—my mind was so full of an inward struggle. +</P> + +<H4> +CANDIDATE FOR SANCTIFICATION. +</H4> + +<P> +When the call was made, I went forward and consecrated myself and all +my hopes and desires and longings and all to God. How in the world I +had ever acquired so low a desire I do not know, but my chief ambition +had been to be a professor of science in some college. But the Lord put +me through a series of questions: +</P> + +<P> +"Will you be my property henceforth?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Lord." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you willing that people should call you a 'holiness crank'?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Lord." +</P> + +<P> +"Supposing I should ask you to shout, would you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I would do my best at it." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you give up all your plans and be a one-horse preacher of +holiness if I want you to?" +</P> + +<P> +Ah, here was a rub, indeed. Preaching was precisely what I did not +relish. Anything rather than that. I had visions of small salaries, and +country churches, and long, cold rides. I had seen the life of the +preacher ever since I could remember. I debated the question. Then I +answered, "Yes." The audience was singing: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Here I give my all to Thee—<BR> + Friends and time and earthly store.<BR> + Soul and body then to be<BR> + Wholly Thine forever more."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +They told us seekers to raise our hands if we meant it. I meant it, so +up went a hand. Instantly faith got an answer, and the witness came, +and I knew that I was sanctified wholly. +</P> + +<H4> +A DULL SCHOLAR +</H4> + +<P> +But I was a dull scholar, and had to learn many lessons after my +Jordan-crossing. Owing to my failure in definite testimony, my +experience suffered partial eclipse, and my last year at Oak Grove was +more or less dark and unhappy. I was much helped, however, by the +reading of holiness books sent me by a sanctified music-teacher, who +had interest enough in me to write me real Fenelon letters and keep me +supplied with holiness reading. During the summer of 1893 I was more +fully established in the grace, and in the autumn began to preach. +</P> + +<H4> +THE ABIDING CHRIST. +</H4> + +<P> +I have frequently erred in judgment, and made most stupid blunders, but +the perpetual spring experience of full salvation has been my greatest +comfort and blessing. The abiding Christ gives zest and spice to life, +and makes the ministry of holiness delightful and joyous. +</P> + +<H4> +GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS. +</H4> + +<P> +God has blessed my ministry, and given me success. It is all of Him. +What a wonderful God we have! He never leaves us. I have called upon +Him when preaching, and He has always answered. I have cried to Him in +hours of loneliness and discouragement, and He has replied like a +flash. I stood by a cot and watched a saintly mother slip away to the +"undiscovered bourn," and He did not fail me. Hallelujah! He can not +only sanctify, but He can preserve, sustain and keep. Whatever may come +to us, Christ will not forsake us. As we look down the vista of years +to come, and remember that life is swift and serious, we can only lean +hard on the Son of God and push on, confident that His promise, "Lo, I +am with you alway," can not fail. Praise the Lord! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heart-Cry of Jesus, by Byron J. Rees + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART-CRY OF JESUS *** + +***** This file should be named 4323-h.htm or 4323-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/4323/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Heart-Cry of Jesus + +Author: Byron J. Rees + +Posting Date: July 25, 2009 [EBook #4323] +Release Date: August, 2003 +First Posted: January 5, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART-CRY OF JESUS *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +The Heart-Cry of Jesus + + +BY BYRON J. REES, + + +Author of "Christlikeness," "Hulda, the Pentecostal Prophetess," and +"Hallelujahs from Portsmouth, Nos. 2 and 3." + + + + + +DEDICATION. + +TO MY MASTER, EVEN CHRIST. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +THE NEED OF THE DAY. + + +The saying, "Necessity is the mother of Invention," finds nowhere a +more vivid illustration of its truth than in the publishing enterprises +of the modern Holiness movement. The onward movement of the Holy Ghost +along Pentecostal lines, convicting of depravity, creating a +clean-reading public, and endueing with power both pulpit and pew, has +resulted in a constant and growing demand for full-salvation +literature. Tens of thousands of pulpits do an active business on both +the wholesale and retail plan, with science and philosophy as stock in +trade. Famishing congregations are proffered the bugs of biology, the +rocks of geology, and the stars of astronomy until their souls revolt, +and they demand bread and meat. + +THE NEED BEING SUPPLIED. + +The great soul-cry is being met and answered by the publication and +distribution of soul-feeding, spirit-inspiring, health-giving Holiness +books and papers. God is raising up writers and editors from whose pens +pour melted truths, to the edification and blessing of thousands. + +THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK. + +In this little book we have a production in which the author has made +little attempt at the elucidation of doctrine or the waging of +controversy, but in great simplicity and directness he has presented +the truth with a view to helpfulness, desiring to introduce really +hungry souls into the Canaan life, and provide a well-loaded table of +rich provisions for those who are already "in the Land." + +READERS WILL BE REFRESHED. + +We believe that there is a warmth, fervor and glow about the pages of +this volume which will be most refreshing to many, many readers. May +the Holy Spirit put His seal upon it and give it an extensive +circulation. + +SETH C. REES. + +PROVIDENCE, R. I., NOVEMBER 15, 1898. + + + + + +PREFACE. + +WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION? + + +No one who accustoms himself to the observation of spiritual tides, +winds and currents can be ignorant of the fact that the devout men and +women of the present are earnestly inquiring, "What is sanctification? +What does holiness mean?" They are demanding of the pulpit and of the +church editor something more than the time-worn and moth-eaten excuses +for not teaching a deeper work of grace. The "seven thousand" who have +not "bowed the knee" to the modern Baals are insisting that, if God's +Word teaches entire sanctification for the disciple of Christ +obtainable by faith now, they must possess themselves of this heavenly +grace. + +THE AUTHOR'S DESIRE. + +It is with the purpose and hope that some seeking heart may be helped +that these pages are penned. The author has purposely avoided all +controversial matter. We would not assume the role of the doctrinaire +even were we capable of it. "Not controversy, not theology, but to save +souls," as Lyman Beecher said when dying. + +THE NEED OF SPEED. + +This book has been written in the midst of laborious and unceasing +revival work. For this reason there has been no time to polish +sentences nor improve style. The object has been to get the truth to +the people in plain language, and to do it with despatch, for the time +is short, and men are being saved or damned with electric speed. + +THE BUZZARD AND VULTURE. + +The buzzard and the vulture will find food if they look for it, but +with them we are not concerned. We are, however, terribly in earnest to +help hungry souls to a place of blessing and power. + +May God take these leaves and make them "leaves of healing," if not for +"nations," at least for individuals. + +BYRON J. REES. + +NOVEMBER 14, 1898. + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + DEDICATION + INTRODUCTION + PREFACE + CHRIST'S PRAYER + CHAPTER I. A Word in the Prayer + CHAPTER II. Some Errors + CHAPTER III. Those for Whom Christ Prayed + CHAPTER IV. Christ's Prayer Answered + CHAPTER V. Christian Unity + CHAPTER VI. Fearlessness + CHAPTER VII. Responsiveness to Christ + CHAPTER VIII. Soul-Rest + CHAPTER IX. Prayerfulness + CHAPTER X. Success + CHAPTER XI. Growth in Christliness of Life + EXPERIENCE + + + + + +CHRIST'S PRAYER: + +"SANCTIFY THEM THROUGH THE TRUTH; THY WORD IS TRUTH." + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A WORD IN THE PRAYER. + + +CHRIST'S WORDS. + +All who really love Christ love His words. They may not always fully +understand their meaning, but they never reject any of them. The very +fact that any word has been on the lips of Christ and received His +sanction, gives it a sound of music to all who are truly disciples of +the Nazarene. + +MOTHER'S WORDS. + +The words that your mother used frequently--are there any words quite +the same to you? She may be resting under the solemn pines of a silent +cemetery, but, to this hour, if anyone uses one of her favorite words, +instantly the heart leaps in answer, and the mind flies back to her, +and the fancy paints her as you knew her in the garden or at the +fireside or by the window. It lies in the power of a single word to +make the eyes fill and the throat ache because of its association with +the voice of a queenly mother. + +A MAN'S TESTIMONY. + +Thus it is with Christ and HIS words. It matters not where we meet the +word, if it is Christ's we are touched and made tender. An aged man +stands in a prayer-meeting in a bare and cheerless hall, and says in +broken and faltering voice, "The dear Lord has blessedly SANCTIFIED my +heart," and like a flash the room lightens, and the whole place seems +changed and made cheery. The heart cries, "That is my Master's word," +and the entire being is attentive and interested. + +JESUS' LIFE DEAR. + +Yes, to the really regenerated soul everything connected with Jesus is +dear. The place of His birth, the land of His ministry, the garden of +His agony, the mount of His crucifixion, the Olivet of His ascension, +all these are illumined with a peculiar and special light. The mind +dwells lovingly on His parables, ponders deeply His sayings, lingers +tenderly over His words. + +WE WELCOME THE WORD. + +We will NOT therefore shrink from the Word of our Lord: "Sanctify." It +may have been stained by the slime of some unworthy life, or soiled by +the lips of men who prated about sanctification, but knew nothing of +its nature; yet, for all that, since the word is Christ's we hail its +enunciation with gladness. + +CHRIST'S BURDEN. + +The high-priestly prayer of Christ was distinctively for the disciples. +Indeed, He SAYS: "I pray not for the world." That is to say, the +disciples need a peculiar and special work of grace, one which must +follow, not precede, conversion, and therefore not to be received by +the world. In this prayer the loving Master revealed to His immediate +disciples, and to those of all ages and climes, the burning desire of +His heart concerning His followers. The petition ascends from His +immaculate heart like incense from a golden censer, and it has for its +tone and soul, "Sanctify them through thy truth." His soul longed for +this work to be completed quickly. During the last days of His ministry +He talked frequently of the coming Comforter. He admonished them to +"tarry" until an enduement came to them. He knew that unless they were +energized with a power, to which they were as yet strangers, their work +would be worse than futile. + +HE PRAYED FOR SANCTIFICATION. + +It is for the SANCTIFICATION of the disciples that Christ prayed. He +did not ask that they might fill positions of honor and trust; He knew +that there is no nobility but that of goodness. It was more important +that the early preachers should be holy men than that they should be +respected and honored. He did not pray for riches for them; He knew too +well the worthlessness of money in itself. He did not desire for them +thrones, nor culture, nor refinement, nor name. + + "'Tis only noble to be good. + True hearts are more than coronets, + And simple faith than Norman blood." + +So Jesus prayed that these men who had for three years been His daily +and constant companions should receive an experience which should make +them INTENSELY GOOD; not "goody-goody," which is very different, but +heartily and wholly spiritual and godly. + +THE MEN WE LOVE. + +The men whose names are brightening as the ages fly, were not men who +were always free from prejudices and blunders. They were not men, as a +rule, from university quadrangles nor college cloisters. They were not +the wise, nor the erudite, nor the cultivated, nor the rich. They were +the good men. Brilliant men tire us; wits soon bore us with their +gilt-edged nothings, but men with clean, holy hearts, fixed +convictions, bold antipathies to sin, sympathetic natures and tender +consciences never weary us, and they bear the intimate and familiar +acquaintance which so often causes the downfall of the so-called +"great" in one's estimation. + +THE PERSONAL TOUCH. + +We may forget an eloquent sermon pilfered from Massillon, but we will +never forget a warm handclasp and a sympathetic word from an humble +servant in God's house. Jesus never went for the crowds--he hunted the +individual. He sat up a whole night with a questioning Rabbi; talked an +afternoon with a harlot who wanted salvation; sought out and found the +man whom they cast out of the synagogue, and saved a dying robber on an +adjacent cross. We do not reach men in great audiences generally. We +reach them by interesting ourselves in them individually; by lending +our interest to their needs; by giving them a lift when they need it. + +SANCTIFIED FISHERMEN. + +Jesus with divine sagacity knew that if these untutored fishermen were +to light up Europe and Asia with the torch of the gospel they must have +an experience themselves which would transform them from self-seeking, +cowardly men to giants and heroes. + +THE CARNAL MIND. + +While the true Christian loves Christ and His words, while his higher +and more spiritual nature says "Amen" to the Lord's teaching, yet it +must not be forgotten that the "carnal mind" which remains, "even in +the heart of the regenerate," is "enmity against God." There is a dark +SOMEWHAT in the soul that fairly hates the word "sanctification." +Theologians call it "inbred sin" or "original depravity"; the Bible +terms it the "old man," "the old leaven," "the root of bitterness," +etc. Whatever its name it abhors holiness and purity, and though the +regenerate man loves Christ and His words, he does so over the vehement +protest of a baser principle chained and manacled in the basement +dungeon of his heart. + +GEORGE FOX. + +The devout of all churches recognize the existence of an inner enemy +who bars the gate to rapid spiritual progress. George Fox, the pious +founder of the Friends' Society, said in relation to an experience +which came to him: "I knew Jesus, and He was very precious to my soul, +but I found something within me which would not always keep patient and +kind. I did what I could to keep it down, but it was there. I besought +Jesus that He would do something for me, and when I gave Him my will He +came into me and cast out all that would not be patient, and all that +would not be sweet, and that would not be kind, and then He shut the +door." + +"SIN IN BELIEVERS." + +John Wesley preached a sermon on "Sin in Believers" which is extant and +widely read. All churches recognize it in their creeds, and all have +provision in their dogmas for its expulsion before entrance into +heaven. The Catholics provide a convenient Purgatory; other +denominations glorify Death and ascribe to it a power which they deny +to Christ; while still others rely on growth to cleanse from all sin +and get us ready for the glory-world. The Bible, however, with that +sublime indifference to all human opinions and theories becoming in +divine authority, reveals a SALVATION FROM ALL SIN HERE AND NOW. + +The word sanctify means simply "to make holy" (L., sanctificare = +sanctus, holy, + ficare, to make). The work of sanctification removes +all the roots of bitterness and destroys the remains of sin in the +heart. + +UNREASONABLE ANTAGONISM. + +What sound sense can there be in antagonizing a blessing which is +nothing more or less than cleanness--mental, moral and physical +cleanness. The kind of character that would wittingly fight holiness +would object to a change of linen. + +A CHURCH IN JERSEY. + +The eagerness with which truly devout people welcome the preaching of +full salvation is refreshing. It was the writer's privilege to hold an +eight-day meeting with a church in Central New Jersey. The church was +in excellent condition, for the pastor, a godly and earnest man, had +faithfully proclaimed justification and its appropriate fruits. Nearly +all the members were praying, conscientious and zealous Christians. +When, at the first meeting, which was the regular Sunday morning +service, the experience of sanctification was presented, over one +hundred persons arose, thus signifying their desire for the precious +grace! + +OPEN THE ALTAR! + +The language of the child of God is, "Does God want me sanctified? Then +open the altar for I am coming." He does not tarry; he does not higgle +and hesitate; he makes for the "straw pile" if in a New England camp; +the "saw-dust" if down South; the "altar rail" if in a spiritual +church; to his knees at any rate, for God's will he desires and must +have. Thank God he can have it! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SOME ERRORS. + + +THE BEAR-SKIN. + +Satan is very busily engaged in destroying and misrepresenting God's +best experiences. He slanders the work of God in order that His +children may not come into their inheritance. The "bear-skin" frightens +the would-be seeker and keeps him out of the Canaan land. + +ROSENTHAL. + +Darkness hates light. The Prince of Darkness dreads truth and light, +for he knows that if God's children ever see sanctification as it is, +there will be a general stampede for consecration. If the public really +believed that Rosenthal would play the piano in Infantry Hall on a +certain evening, and that there would be no charge for admittance, +South Main street would be black with people hours before the doors +were opened. If the church really believed that God would let them into +an experience where sonatas and minuets and bridal marches and +"Mondnacht" and the "Etude in C sharp minor" would be heard all the +time, and free of charge, all the bishops and the big preachers and +little evangelists and exhorters and ministers would be besieged by a +grand eager throng of people, crying with one accord, "What must I do +to be sanctified?" Lord, hasten the day! + +THE DEVIL STIRRED. + +When a man is awakened and says, "What is sanctification anyway?" then +the devil bestirs himself to silence the soul's questionings. Blessed +is the man who will not be satisfied with anything short of "Thus saith +the Lord." Hound the lies of hell to their covert; run down the false +reports, and determine the truth. + +A CHIMERA. + +One of the lies which Satan is fond of circulating is that +sanctification is a life free from temptation. When this is announced +among those who are awakened on the subject, immediately there is a +great cry, "I don't want to hear any more about sanctification." One +would think by the excitement aroused that people are actually afraid +lest they should by some manner of means be deprived of the privilege +of being tempted. Let all such allay their fears. Jesus was tempted +even on the pinnacle of the temple, and we will never be above our +Lord, and may well expect temptation until we pass from this +world-stage to the other land. No responsible Christian student teaches +any such chimera as a life without temptation obtainable now. + +A DIFFERENCE. + +Personally, we have never heard anyone make such a claim. What we do +teach, and, better still, far better, WHAT GOD PROMISES, is an +experience where we need not YIELD to temptation. There is a +difference, vast and important, between being tempted and yielding to +temptation. + +A TEMPTED PREACHER. + +A man is en route from New York to the West via the Pennsylvania +Railroad. The express stops at a junction in the mountains. He leaves +the car and walks up and down on the platform enjoying the view. Near +the station is a park. Beautiful flowering shrubbery, shell walks, +ivy-clad piles of rocks, splashing fountains, majestic shade trees and +well-kept turf make the place attractive. Beyond the pretty village a +wooded mountain rises toward the bluest of skies, enticing to a stroll +amid the beauties of a forest. The preacher is strongly tempted to stop +over a day and enjoy a brief rest. Then he thinks of his word, given in +good faith, to be in a certain place at an appointed hour; he remembers +the souls which God might save through the sermon which he is expected +to preach the next evening. He is tired and jaded and worn. Would he +not be justified in telegraphing that he would not come until a day or +so later than expected? It is a stout temptation; but when the +black-faced porter shouts, "All aboard," and the bell rings he walks +into the hot and dirty car and continues his tiresome journey. Does not +the reader see that a temptation to rest is very different from +stopping and breaking an engagement and disappointing an audience? + +A CHARMING COMPANION. + +On life's express we are all liable to temptation. We are solicited to +tarry, but we are so intent on our destination, and especially are we +so charmed with our travelling Companion, that we bid farewell to +fountain, and gravelled walks, and towering mountains and push on to +that city. + +WHO TEACHES FANATICISM? + +Another misrepresentation, the circulation of which Satan delights to +further, is that sanctification is an experience in which we can not +sin, and when through this idea men lift their hands in horror and +desist from seeking this precious grace, all hell chuckles with real +satisfaction. But who teaches such fanaticism? Life is always a +probation. The will is free. The Bible teaches this truth, and we +believe it. The holiest saint on earth may, IF HE CHOOSE, sin and go to +hell. Everything hangs upon the choice. Thank God we NEED not fall. +Falling is possible, but not necessary. + +NOT A DAY-DREAM. + +A third evil report is that sanctification is an impracticable +day-dream, unfit for everyday life and the common round of duties. "It +is," so it is said, "all very well for ministers, and class leaders, +and superintendents of Sunday-schools, and people who are not very busy +in life to get sanctification, but it will not stand the strain and +tension to which it would be subjected in some lives." But "God is no +respecter of persons," and what He will do for one of His children He +will do for all. And then, if we only knew it, sanctification is just +suited to the life of trial and perplexity. + +"BILLY" BRAY AND CARVOSSO. + +If there is a man to be found who has to labor hard all day and has a +life full of care, sanctification is just the experience he needs. Read +the life of Mrs. Fletcher, and see how sanctification can help a woman +with multitudinous domestic cares. Study the lives of "Billy" Bray and +William Carvosso, and remember that it was sanctification which helped +these men in their difficulties. If there is a soul anywhere filled +with unspeakable sorrow, shivering alone in the dark, the brightest +light that can come to that stricken soul is full salvation. No matter +how sharp the thorn, nor how galling the fetter, sanctification turns +the thorn into oil, and the fetter into a chain of plaited flowers. + +CLANS. + +It is said by some that sanctification makes people "clannish." +Clannish is a word with a rather offensive taste on the tongue, and is +altogether too harsh a word to apply to that congregative instinct that +makes pure-minded persons crave the fellowship of kindred spirits. +There is nothing intentionally exclusive about the holiness movement. +If a man is shut out it is because he shuts himself out; if he does not +feel at home in a full salvation service it is because he has not yet +obtained full salvation. + +BROWNING CLUBS. + +Men who share great truths and principles in common find in each +other's presence and fellowship great help. Admirers of Browning form +"Browning Clubs"; foot-ball men gather themselves into "associations"; +ministers meet in "Monday meetings"; Christians organize "churches"; is +it to be thought strange if people who are sanctified wholly delight to +meet for conference and mutual help? + +THE SPLITTING OF THE CHURCH + +A few uninformed persons say that "holiness splits the church." But +this is false. When men love God with all their heart and their +neighbors as themselves, nothing can separate them. If, however, people +of different sorts and kinds, some saved and some unsaved, are in one +organization, it will not require anything much to make them differ in +opinion. The real ecclesia, the genuine church, is not so easily split. +One of our most brilliant and spiritual holiness writers has remarked +in pleasantry that the anxiety of some in regard to the splitting of +the church would lead one to think that there was something inside +which they were afraid would be seen in case of a cleavage. + +KEEP TO THE BIBLE. + +Keep to the Bible idea of sanctification. Let not the adversary dupe +you and frighten you from its quest and obtainment. Begin now; seek, +search, pray, consecrate, believe, and soon the blessing will fall upon +your waiting soul. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST PRAYED--"SANCTIFY THEM." + + +CONVERTED MEN. + +The men for whom Christ prayed were converted men, and were living in +justified relation to God. In proof of this statement, let the reader +study the context carefully. + +A CLOUDLESS SKY. + +In the sixteenth chapter of St. John, the one immediately preceding the +sacerdotal prayer, the conversation which is recorded would be +impossible were the disciples conscious of guilt. One can not read +those sublime verses without the irresistible conviction that the +disciples' sky of soul-consciousness was blue and cloudless. There is +no hint in Christ's discourse that these men are "of the world," but +rather it is taken for granted that they are children of God and heirs +of the kingdom. + +A SPECIFIC STATEMENT. + +It is the sheerest folly for one to maintain that the conversion of the +disciples did not occur prior to Pentecost. If words mean anything, +Jesus made a specific statement to the contrary. "Rejoice," says He, +"that your names are written in heaven." In His prayer He says to His +Father: "They have kept Thy word"; "they are Thine"; "I pray for them, +I pray not for the world." Notice the distinction which He makes +between "them" and "the world." These men are picked men. They are very +different from the great unpardoned, sinful throng outside the +kingdom--they are CHRISTIANS. + +THE CHAMBER OF BLESSING. + +A very good evidence of the genuineness of the conversion of the +disciples was their painstaking care to follow out minutely the +directions of their ascended Lord. He had prayed for their +sanctification; they desired it. He had spoken of a coming Comforter, +and they eagerly awaited His advent. He had said, "Tarry in Jerusalem +until" His arrival, and they conscientiously met in an "upper room" for +a ten-day prayer-meeting. "Farewell! friends; farewell! memory-haunted +synagogues; farewell! sacred temple; farewell! long-bearded priests; +farewell all! we must go to prayer: our Lord said that we should be +sanctified." And thus in long line the one hundred and twenty file up +the stairs to the Chamber of Blessing. There is no lightness, no +jesting, no quibbling, no bickering; all are serious, terribly in +earnest, intent on "the promise of the Father." There is Peter, +impulsive and eager, whole-hearted and enthusiastic; there is the meek +and quiet Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet at the old home in Bethany; +there is the child-like saint, the devout and spiritual John; there is +the repentant woman of Magdala; and there are many others who betake +themselves to that sacred place--"the upper room." One all-engrossing +thought fills their minds. "The promise of the Father which ye have +heard of me. The promise of the Father! The promise of the Father! O, +when will He come? We would know more about our departed Lord. He is +gone from us. Our hearts are torn and bleeding and lonely. Jesus said, +'He shall testify of me.' Would that He would come now!" + +WHY ONLY THE FEW? + +But why are there only one hundred and twenty? Was it not into +Jerusalem that Christ entered riding over a cloak-carpeted way amid the +deafening shouts of "Hosanna"? Did He not teach and instruct and heal +hundreds, if not thousands, in and about Jerusalem? Was He not lionized +at times by an admiring public? Yea, truly; but one may admire Christ +and yet not love Him. There are many who at some "hard saying" refuse +to walk with Him. Thousands who have a keen appreciation of "loaves and +fishes" shrink from "leaving all" and following Jesus. A great +concourse is drawn and held spell-bound by a naive, graceful, eloquent, +artless preacher who uses "lilies," and the "grass of the field," and +the "sower" of seed, and the "sparrow" in the air to enforce his truth. +But one may be interested, and yet not be saved. + +THE AESTHETIC ELEMENT. + +In some people religion appeals to the aesthetic nature, and to that +only. They festoon the cross with flowers, but never think of dying on +it. They are charmed by Gothic churches filled with "dim, religious +light." The waves of music from the great; sounding organ awe their +souls and fill them with a pensiveness which they mistake for +repentance. Pointed arches, sculptured capitals, fretted altars, +swinging censers, burning candles, white-robed choir-boys, errorless +order in church service--these auxiliaries influence them so strongly +in their sense of the beautiful that they think, "Surely I love God. +Why, of course I love God." But to love God involves something +practical. It means something more than mere profession. It means +rugged self-denial, Spartan heroism, perhaps the loss of an "arm" or +the "plucking out of an eye." Base must have been the soul which was +not attracted by One who "spake as never man spake"; low-minded the man +who did not see in Him imperishable beauty and refinement of soul; but +ah! discipleship means far more than that. Christ had flown up to +heaven. Who now will prove his love for Him by obeying His commands? +Who will tarry in Jerusalem awaiting the coming Spirit, and then, the +Comforter having come, be ready to "Go into all the world, discipling +all nations"? Answer: All who are truly children of God. The preaching +of sanctification is the touchstone by which the genuineness of +conversions can be tested. The truly living "hunger and thirst after +righteousness"; the dead do not "bother their heads about a second +blessing." + +THE STEAMER "PURITAN." + +Let us illustrate: It was fifteen minutes until the schedule time for +the "Puritan" of the "Fall River Line" to leave her New York pier. The +evening was warm, and the usual crowd filled the decks. Many had come +on board to see their friends off for Newport, Bar Harbor and "the +Pier." Passengers and their friends sat in groups and chatted, talked +about the trip, the weather, the situation at Santiago, the flowers +they held, the concert by the orchestra. It was impossible for an +observer to determine just who were passengers and held tickets, and +who were merely bidding farewell to their friends. Suddenly an officer +in gold-braided cap and blue uniform appeared, and cried out with an +authoritative voice and a look of command, "All ashore who are going +ashore! All ashore who are going ashore!" Immediately there were hasty +hand-clasps and hasty good-byes, and a large part of the company +marched quickly down the stairs and across the gang-plank. Those who +were left held tickets and were "going through." + +THE STAMPEDE FOR SHORE. + +In a revival of religion it is often a matter of considerable +difficulty to determine the genuinely converted. In the confusion of +large altar services, and the crush of great congregations, who are the +saved? No man can tell. Many are moved by sympathy for their friends. +Others are charmed by the congregational singing and the music of the +organ. Many see that the revival is bound to go, and, like Pliable, +they are swept along for a time with it. But there appears in this +mixed company a man with the stamp of divine authority upon his brow, +the gold braid of full salvation on his helmet, the dialect of Canaan +on his tongue and the air of official appointment about his person: +"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord! All ashore who are going +ashore! All ashore who are going ashore!" Immediately "there is no +small stir." Some leave the boat by way of the gang-plank carping at +the words of the officer and arguing as they go; some in great haste +vault the balustrades and railings and leap for the pier; still others +climb out the windows of staterooms and run screaming toward the +nearest ladder which will enable them to leave the "good ship Zion." +Gradually quiet is restored. The company is smaller, and of whom is it +composed? The genuinely converted. What are they doing? They are asking +the nearest officer how soon the boat leaves for New England. "When can +I be sanctified wholly? O, pray for me! I want the blessing now!" They +are "going through." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHRIST'S PRAYER ANSWERED. + + +GOD LISTENS. + +When Christ opens His mouth, God bows down His ear. "I know that thou +hearest me always." The disciples did not wait long until they were +baptized with the Holy Ghost. Christ's prayer found audience and the +answer was not long delayed. + +HEART CLEANSING. + +The baptism with the Spirit which was administered to the one hundred +and twenty effected their sanctification. The cleansing of their hearts +was one of the effects of the out-pouring of the Spirit. Sanctification +and the baptism with the Spirit are therefore coetaneous--they take +place at the same time. + +PETER'S PROOF. + +This is proven by an inspired statement made by Peter. Referring to the +Gentiles he says that God "put no difference between them" and us Jews +who were sanctified at Pentecost, "purifying their hearts by faith." + +THE MANNER OF CLEANSING. + +There need be no confusion as to the manner of cleansing. Jesus prayed, +"Sanctify them THROUGH THY TRUTH." It is by means of the truth preached +of and read, that we first hear of a full deliverance from all sin. It +is "through the truth" that we learn of God's willingness as well as +His power to sanctify. If it had not been for THE BLOOD, Jesus could +never have guaranteed the coming of the Comforter; the blood is "the +procuring cause" of all the blessings which we receive. Everything +comes through the atonement. FAITH is the human condition necessary for +the cleansing of the soul; so that, in a very important sense, we are +sanctified by faith. THE DIVINE OMNIPOTENT HOLY GHOST is the immediate +agency of heart-cleansing. He is the baptizing element administered by +Christ the Divine Baptizer: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." + +FIRE! + +It would be well for us to notice some of the characteristics of the +Pentecostal anointing. John the Baptist, minister of the gospel and +preacher of genuine regeneration, said of Jesus that "he should baptize +with the Holy Ghost and fire," thus using a most powerful symbol to +characterize the nature of the work of the Holy Ghost. Everyone is +familiar with the action of fire; it burns everything combustible with +which it comes in contact. + +CONSEALED SERPENTS. + +We submit that no one can tell just how much there is in the heart that +needs to be consumed. There are things dormant in the unsanctified +heart of which the man never dreams. There are serpents coiled in +balls, and vipers spitting poison, and centipedes, and fat blinking +toads, and vampires, and lizards, and tarantulas, that we never suspect +of being in the soul. But they are there. + +THE EMBRYOS OF CRIME. + +It is God's mercy that says, "Be ye holy," for He knows that unless we +get cleaned out and purified the inner reptiles will poison us to +death. Every unsanctified man carries in his bosom the seeds of all +possible crimes, the embryos of all black actions. There are times when +we half believe that something of the kind is true. Did you ever stand +by the cage of a lion and watch his restless pace and feel that you had +something in you kindred to him? Many a man has gazed into the green +eyes of a wild beast and trembled, feeling a similarity of nature. +Every son of Adam feels the beast stir in him at times, until Pentecost +eradicates the bestial principle. + +SMOULDERING EMBERS. + +The embers from which hell-fire is kindled smoulder in the unsanctified +heart. It is dangerous to attempt to build a Christian character over a +latent volcano. A once active volcano becomes inactive. The lava cools, +the ashes settle, and the smoke drifts away. An enterprising farmer +covers a considerable space of the once fiery volcanic field with fresh +earth carted from a fertile valley. All goes well for a year or two. +The garden prospers, the vegetables are most encouraging, and the +produce is abundant. But one morning the farmer notices that smoke is +issuing from the crater at the summit of the mountain. The sky blackens +and red flames flash amid the clouds of smoke. The land is shaken with +earthquakes. Suddenly, right in the middle of his verdant field, a +great red-lipped chasm opens and blue flames leap upwards and surge +toward the sky. His crops are blasted with the "fierce heat of the +flame," and the work of years is wrecked in a moment. + +BLUE FLAMES OF GEHENNA + +No permanent Christian life can be built upon the foundation of an +unsanctified heart. For a time the graces of the Spirit may seem to +grow, but in some sad hour the surface will split open and the man will +leap back aghast at the blue flames of Gehenna, which singe his brows +and blacken his cheeks. + +THE PROPHET AND PRINCE. + +An old white-haired prophet and a gay young prince are in conversation. +The aged man bows his head upon his staff and weeps. + +"For what are you weeping, old man?" + +"Ah, I am thinking of the black and dastardly crimes you will commit +when you have once become king." + +"Is thy servant a dog, a ruthless town whelp, that he should do such +things?" + +PROPHECY FULFILLED + +But years roll on and the young man is king, and his hands are stained +with crime, and the old man's predictions come true. God had given the +aged saint a view of the boy's breast, and he saw the embryonic seeds +of sin which, if allowed to remain, would sprout and produce a fruitage +of evil deeds. + +THE BROKEN FLOWER + +The secret of the downfall of many a brilliant character is a bosom +sinfulness little expected to be in existence. No man saw the black and +ugly thing but it was there. A lady had a tall and graceful plant. The +flowers were white and beautiful and all the town said, "What a fine +flower!" One day a storm swept across the garden. One plant was +injured; it was the one which people had admired and praised. Filled +with grief, the lady stooped to examine the stem, and found that it had +been pierced by a worm-hole. The insect had worked silently and +secretly. No one saw him cutting into the heart of the tall and +magnificent flower, but in a storm, under a test severe and protracted, +the stem snapped and the choice beauty of the garden was a thing of the +past. + +THE WORM IN THE HEART. + +It is the worm in the heart with his relentless and resistless tooth, +which weakens the character. Under severe and protracted temptation the +will snaps and yields, and the beautiful life is a wreck and fit only +for the dump of the Universe. + +STUMPS AND ROOTS. + +There are many roots, hidden roots, which bury themselves deep in the +soil of the heart. They extend far below clear cerebration, twisting +and twining themselves in "the fringe of consciousness." It takes the +fire of the Holy Ghost to follow them deep into the ground and destroy +them. It used to be a pastime of the boys in eastern Ohio to pile great +heaps of brush upon huge stumps in newly-cleared land. All the long +October day they would toil, raising a stack of dry limbs upon the +stump which needed to be removed. In the evening when twilight came and +the stars shone out, they would light the brush and watch the flames +greedily devour the pile. In the morning when the lads returned to the +scene of the fire, no sign of the stump was to be seen. Looking closely +they saw great holes as large at the top of the ground as a man's body, +and tapering to a small point as they went deep into the earth. The +fire had found the huge roots, and had tracked them into their retreats +and consumed them. + +FIRE OF PENTECOST. + +We pile the brush of time and talents and money and name and self upon +the altar, and the fire of Pentecost, which God sends as He sent to +Mount Carmel of old, will destroy not only the brush, but the roots of +sin, one and all. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHRISTIAN UNITY. + + +A COMMON PLATFORM. + +One of the results spoken of by Christ in His prayer, and brought about +by sanctification, is Christian unity--"that they all may be one." +There is but one remedy for sectism and bigotry, and it is found in the +answer to Christ's petition. When Pentecost comes to us we are all +lifted upon one grand common platform and shake hands and shout and +weep and laugh and get so mixed up that a Presbyterian can not be +distinguished from a Methodist, nor a Friend from an Episcopalian +vestryman. + +FALSE UNITY. + +We have heard much about the organic union of churches. Many great and +good men have looked forward with sanguine hopes to the day when we +should do away with denominations. In a few cases two churches of +different sects have united and worshipped in one congregation. But the +causes of such unity are frequently far from gratifying. In D----the +Methodists and Primitive Methodists clasp hands and join forces because +they can thus make one preacher do the work which two formerly +performed. In K----the Baptists and Presbyterians unite because the +thirteen members of one church and the seven of the other feel lonely +in their great refrigerators and are inclined to make friends and +preserve life. The cold is most intense. In the far North the weather +is sometimes so severe that wild beasts, ordinarily hostile both toward +each other and man, crowd close together near the campfire of the +explorer. + +With many churches it is "unite or die!" The mallet of the auctioneer +threatens the steeple-house, the young folks are off "golfing" or +"hiking," and the gray-beards, lonely and terror-stricken as they see +church extinction approaching, favor "a union of forces with some other +church." In the church magazines of the next month appear sundry +articles on "the broad and liberal spirit of the nineteenth century +church." "A large catholicity is taking the place of the old fogyism of +former days," scribbles the hack-writer. + +THE "MILKSOP'S" THEORY. + +In a few cases large congregations have united. When we behold it our +hopes rise, but they are doomed to early blight by a careful study of +the situation. The cause of denominationalism is the tenacious clinging +to faith and doctrines. Whether or no we ought to all believe precisely +alike about non-essentials, one thing is sure, the man who does not +cleave to some faith, heart and head and brain and blood, is worthless +in Christ's army. Milksops may be ornamental, they are certainly not +militant, and God wants soldiers. The man who does not know what he +believes, and the man who says "it does not matter what one believes if +one is only sincere," are more despicable than the Yankees who burned +witches in Salem. Better that a man be "narrow" than that he be so +"broad" as to take in "the devil and all his angels." Out upon our +folly when we barter away the truth of God for a flimsy, tissue-paper +bond of so-called "fellowship"! + +CHRISTIAN ONENESS. + +There is a unity, however, and to it Christ referred, which does not +consist in uniformity of creed but in oneness of heart. When we are +truly sanctified the non-baptizing Quaker, and the trine immersionist, +and the High Church Episcopalian, and the foot-washing Tunker, and the +Methodist, and the Baptist, and the Congregationalist all unite in one +far-reaching melodious chorus, + + "HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD!" + +DISTINCTIONS OBLITERATED. + +Sanctification destroys sticklerism for non-essentials and the lust for +fine distinctions in dogmatics. It slays the doctrinaire and makes a +red-hot revivalist out of him. The purified soul takes the Bible for +his "credo" and loves God's children of whatever name with a generosity +that overtops every inadequate consideration. The sanctified are united +by a common cause and a common experience. Opinions may differ as to +ecclesiastical polity or the mode of baptism, but the white cord of +sanctification is "the bond of perfectness" which makes them one +bundle. Yale and Cornell are rivals with their "eights" and "shells" on +American Hudson, but men from both colleges join forces to beat the +Britishers at Henley. Holiness people of every church unite to "push +holiness." + +THE SPOKES AND THE HUB. + +When the glorious grace of full salvation is experienced, love for +Christ is increased and intensified. Everyone wants to magnify Him and +live close to Him: and as we get close to Him, the Hub, the distance +between us, the spokes, is lessened. + +THE D.D. AND THE NEGRO. + +A D.D. and a negro meet on a Mississippi River boat. They fall into +conversation. The doctor speaks of the Lord. The negro's eyes fill and +he says, "You know my Savior?" and they shake hands and weep and shout. +Why this community of feeling between men of such diverse stations in +life? Both possess the blessing of entire sanctification. + +VARIOUS SECTS + +The writer has had the privilege of preaching in churches of different +denominations in the work of special evangelism, but never has he known +the falling of Pentecostal fire to fail to burn up sectarianism. It is +no easy matter to find out from the preaching of our holiness preachers +under what denominational flag they sail. Full salvation obliterates +the fences which separate the people of God and makes them really "one +in Christ Jesus." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FEARLESSNESS. + + +PETER THE FEARLESS. + +There was a man among the one hundred and twenty "upper room believers" +in whom Pentecost effected a most apparent and almost spectacular +change. It was Peter. We remember him as the man at whom the young girl +pointed her finger and laughed. We recall that he was so cowardly that +he denied his Lord on the spot, swearing that he did not know Him. +Behold this same Peter on the day of Pentecost. He is charging home the +murder of Christ. Fear is gone, and gone forever. He faces men and does +not flinch an iota. Carnality, the source of cowardice, has been +removed, and the weakling is turned into a Lord Nelson for bravery, and +a Savonarola for faithfulness to men's souls. + +SHALL WE TREMBLE? + +Fear of man is one of the most illogical things in the world. Men sell +the blood of Jesus and hope of heaven and eternal happiness because of +"what people say." Think of it, afraid of a man who will die and be +hurried under ground before he rots! Frightened at a thing dressed in a +long black coat and a white cravat with a golden-headed cane and a tall +hat and a frown; a thing which will stop breathing some fine day and +the worms will eat! Shall I tremble when an ecclesiastical Leo utters a +roar? Shall I halt and stammer because a top-heavy lad from a +theological seminary, hopelessly in love with himself, scowls at the +word "sanctification"? + +QUEER COURAGE. + +There are some who bolster their courage by saying ostentatiously, "I +don't care what folks say," but their very vehemence shows that they DO +care a very great deal. We boys all remember how we used to whistle +when we passed a graveyard after dark to show we "weren't afraid"; and +how hard it was to keep our mouths puckered and how shaky our legs felt! + +AFRAID TO BREAK STEP + +The folks we are afraid of are afraid of us. What a situation! A great +regiment of people marching straight down to hell, everyone afraid to +break step for fear the others will laugh! That is precisely the +condition of nearly every sinner. + +COURAGE OF THERMOPYLAE + +Sanctification takes away the shrinking timidity and puts in a courage +like that at Thermopylae. There was once a young man who, previous to +his sanctification, was so timid that he frequently stayed away from +church for no other reason than that he feared God might ask him to +testify. He enjoyed meetings and loved to hear preaching, but the very +idea of testimony would frighten him almost ill. Now he frequently +addresses many hundreds and never feels the slightest embarrassment. + +UNMASK PRURIENCY. + +The ministry is sadly in need of a blessing which will give it courage +to attack sin of all kinds and degrees. We need men who will rip the +mask off the putrid face of corruption and pronounce God's sentence +upon it; who will lift up the trap-door of the cess-pools of men's +hearts and bid them look within at their own slime and filth; who will +"cry aloud and spare not," though the infuriated cohorts of bat-winged +demons snarl and shriek. + +SPEAK PLAINLY. + +There will be a day when men will curse us because we have not preached +more plainly. You can call a spade "a spade" or you can designate it as +"an iron utensil employed for excavating purposes," but if you want +folks to understand what you are driving at use the shorter term. + +SHOOTING OVER MEN'S HEADS. + +There is too little plain Anglo-Saxon preaching. We shoot far over the +heads of our congregations and do not even scar the varnish on the +gallery banister. We dwell on the points of distinction between +Calvinism and Arminianism when the greater part of our people do not +know the difference between an Arminian and an Armenian, and some good +old sister thinks we are preaching on the cruelty of the Turks. Here I +am discussing "The Dangers of Imperialism" and "The Anglo-American +Friendship," while men are starving for the Bread of Life! Brethren in +the ministry, let us be less anxious about the syllogistic accuracy of +our sermons and be more eager to help men live right and quit sin and +go to heaven. + +THE PULPIT CANNON. + +There are many sins which few men have the courage to antagonize in +public. Theoretically the pulpit is supposed to cannonade all sin of +every variety and species, but, alas, it is usually too cowardly. The +Spirit-filled man fears no one from Sandow down to Tom Thumb, from a +plug-hat Bishop to a little pusilanimous dude preacher. + +GHASTLY CRIMES. + +It is not that ministers are unawares of the prevalence of black and +ghastly crimes, but that they dare not speak openly against them. Too +many are contaminated with evil and involved in guilt for the preacher +to voice with impunity the truths which burn in his soul. He knows only +too well that if he dares assert his manhood and exercises the +prerogative of Christ's minister, the retribution will be swift and +terrible, viz: ejectment from his pastorate! + +MURDER + +How ominous is the silence concerning murder. And yet the land is +swarming with crimson-handed murderers and murderesses. Many of them +are members of our "best churches" and move in the most select society. +Some of them read with animation the responses in church service and +repeat the Lord's Prayer with the greatest gusto. A few--not many, we +devoutly trust--talk about "sanctification." Poor, deluded, hoodwinked +souls! they are blinded by Satan. Their hands are red with blood, and +their hearts are black as hell. Were they to ever approach the heaven +of which they sanctimoniously prate, they would be met at the gate with +the curse of murdered infants who never saw the light. + +INFANTICIDE + +If there is a pitiable sight in all God's great universe, if there is a +scene over which angels shed tears and demons shriek laughter, it is an +old cruel-eyed mother, who has seared her conscience and sinned away +all noble womanliness and blasted her own soul, whispering into the +unsoiled ears of her daughter the way in which to murder her own +offspring; and if there is a hot hell, such a mother will make her bed +in it. + +POODLE-DOGS. + +The duties and cares of maternity are too irksome, and so the women who +might be the mothers of John Wesleys and Fenelons and Metchers and +Inskips and Cookmans are petting poodle-dogs and rat-terriers. + +THE VITRIOL OF WRATH. + +How many preachers dare speak in clarion tones what religion and +science concur in asserting concerning vice? But know ye by these +presents, all of Adam's race, that what depraved humanity pronounces +all right and harmless, the Almighty God who whirls the worlds will +corrode and scald with the burning vitriol of His wrath, and woe! woe! +woe! to the man or woman with whom is found sin. + +GILT-EDGED FRAUDS. + +Any tyro knows who drowned Morgan, but the clergyman who "opens up" on +Masonry is a curiosity. Why, how can the ministers say anything when +they are the chaplains of these gilt-edged frauds called "lodges"? It +does not take much calculation to show that an institution which spends +three dollars in giving away one has no right to exist. Some of the +more weak-minded and puerile of the clergy are doubtless in fear lest +their "tongues should be torn out by the roots and their hearts buried +in the rough sands of the seashore." Brave men are not so easily scared. + +BOLOGNA SAUSAGE. + +Secretism in itself is suspicious. Solon said that he wanted his house +so constructed that the people could see him at all hours and thus know +him to be a good man. A system which is so built that the public is +kept in the dark is entitled to the attention of a Pinkerton. Bologna +sausage made in a factory at the door of which is a huge sign, "No +Admittance," may be all right, but you can not make people think so. + +THE ENTERTAINMENT. + +There are few preachers so foolish and illogical as to believe that the +entertainment plan is the best way to raise money for church work, yet +scarcely one of them declares his honest straight-forward conviction +about it. Now and then a Hale, more daring than the rest, writes a +remonstrative article for the Forum, but the great mass keep quiet. A +Pentecostal ministry will wheel its guns into position and load and +fire into the supper and festival crowd notwithstanding the voices of +objectors. + +HEROISM. + +Whatever may be the matter under consideration the sanctified man dares +anything right. God is with him, and he feels His presence. Right is +right, and by the grace of God he will stand by it though all the world +howl and roar. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +RESPONSIVENESS TO CHRIST. + + +A COAL AND A FLAME. + +Among the results of the coming of the Comforter is an increase in warm +personal love for Jesus. Conversion plants divine love (agape) in the +heart, but sanctification quickens and intensifies it. Conversion drops +a coal into the breast; the fuller grace fans it into a flame. + +SOUNDING STRINGS. + +There is a place in experience where Christ's voice sets the whole +being vibrating. The soul is so in tune with Him that the cadences of +His tones fill the soul with a tremor of glee and gladness. If you sing +the scale in a room where there is a piano the corresponding strings of +the instrument will sound. Thus it is with Jesus and the sanctified +soul. When Christ speaks the heart answers spontaneously. + +REGENERATION + +Regeneration does much for us. But there is that even in the heart of +the regenerate which is antagonistic to Christ. The whole man does not +say instinctively, "Thy will be done"; yet there is something within to +which the Lord can appeal. Consult Peter. He tells us of "exceeding +great and precious promises by which we become partakers of the Divine +nature." We "take a part" (partakers) of the divine Shekinah into our +hearts. We are not only "adopted" but born of God, and by a divine +heredity we possess His character. + +SAMUEL. + +We see this beautifully illustrated in the case of Samuel. Given in +covenant to God from his birth, and early taught the word of the Lord, +he possessed the changed heart and the attuned ear. When God's voice +fell out of the skies that night something in Samuel heard what aged +and mitred Eli could not hear. Eli had the theory and reasoned out who +the speaker must be, but the heart of Samuel awoke intuitively at the +sound of that voice. + +THE VOICE FROM THE SKY. + +As Jesus taught in the temple God spoke, and many whose ears were dull +because their hearts were hard and unchanged said, "It thundered." +Others saw that something extraordinary had occurred and admitted that +"an angel spoke to Him." But the disciples whose "names were written in +heaven," and who had regenerated hearts, knew it was the voice of God. + +THE FLINTY WORLD. + +But while the child of God is in sympathy with God he must be +sanctified wholly to be fully, constantly and completely responsive to +Christ. Jesus wants a bride who will live His life with Him and enter +into all His plans and sorrows, ambitions and trials, aims and +purposes. There are many people who are glad Jesus died for them who +know nothing about "suffering with Christ." Yet the Bible is filled +with allusions to it. The Heavenly Bridegroom wants a companion who +will understand Him. This cold, hard, flinty, wicked world does not. +"He came unto His own and His own received Him not." He knocked at the +door of His own vineyard and the husband-men said, "Come, let us kill +the Son." The divine Lord hungers for some one who will not misjudge +His purposes nor impute to Him base motives. + +THE UNAPPRECIATED. + +We have all seen people who were never appreciated. Those who were near +to them by blood and kindred always thought them strange and visionary. +What a sad thing if Christ's bride does not appreciate His aims for the +world, His sorrow over perishing souls, His heart-ache over dying men! +"The fellowship of His sufferings"--what can it mean? It means that we +mourn over the sin in the world which makes Christ weep; sob over the +evil that makes Him hang His fair head and groan. It means that ever +and always we shall look at things from the Christ standpoint. + +THE SHEEP AND THE SHEPHERD. + +"My sheep know [recognize] my voice," says the Shepherd. He states the +principle that "sheep" always hear when He speaks. "Lambs" may be at +times mistaken as to the voices that cry in the soul, but Christians +whose experience entitles them to the designation, "sheep," do not err +as to the speaker. Watch a good shepherd collect his flock at evening. +Every sheep knows him. It is getting dark, and the quiet animals are +busily feeding in the fragrant clover, but the tender cadences of the +voice of their guide and protector pierce their delicate ears and enter +their gentle hearts, and the white flock comes bounding toward the +shepherd. A sportsman in golf suit and plaid cap and with a fine +baritone voice may call earnestly, but "a stranger will they not +follow." The shepherd holds the key to their confidence, and no one +else can unlock the door to their love. + +CHRIST HAS THE KEY. + +Christ has the key to our hearts. He stands in the dusk of evening in +the falling dew and sends His sweet voice out across the billowing +fields of clover, and all His sheep leap toward "the Good Shepherd." + +THE COW AND THE SUNSET. + +Sanctification brings out the power of appreciation in the soul. What +God does for you fills your soul with gratitude, and you can get +blessed any time of day or night by simply reflecting on the mercies +and lovingkindnesses of the Lord. The natural human heart does not +appreciate God, and sees nothing especially lovely in Him. A cow and +the man who owns the cow may stand side by side and look at the same +sunset. The cow sees a big splotch of crimson and gold; the other sees +one of God's sky-paintings, and is inspired to holy living and +self-denial and fidelity to the Master. You must have a "sunset nature" +to appreciate a sunset, and you must be sanctified wholly to see in +Christ a beauty and loveliness which no Murillo and no Raphael and no +Del Sarto have yet put on canvas. + +THE LOVELY CHRIST. + +O the lovely Christ! How the heart aches to go to Him! We get so +homesick for Jesus. People are so dull and uninteresting and vapid and +stupid--so precisely like ourselves--we get weary of the world and its +emptiness, and yearn to fly away to be with the spotless Christ and +live in that + + "Undiscovered country, from whose bourne + No traveller returns" + +Some day, thank God! the Bridegroom will step out upon the balcony of +heaven and look at us and speak to us in a tone inaudible to all but +ourselves, and our souls will bound with rapture and the earthen vessel +will crumble and we will spread snowy pinions and wing our flight up to +the presence of our soul's King! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SOUL-REST. + + +AN EFFECT. + +One of the beatific effects of the cleansing of the heart from all sin +is soul-rest. It always accompanies the glorious experience of entire +purity. + +FACIAL INSCRIPTIONS. + +This poor tired world of ours needs rest. Study the faces of the people +you meet in the streets, in the markets, in the cars, in the churches, +and there is one word NOT written on them, and that word is "Rest." You +will find many other words written on them. On some faces you see +"Selfishness" in crabbed, crooked letters; on others "Lust" in +bold-faced type; on others "Gluttony"; on others, "Self-Conceit"; on +others, "Craftiness"; and on through a thousand unworthy legends; but +the one thing which makes life worth living is not found except among +the sanctified. + +VAMPIRES AND BATS. + +It is wonderful how elusive rest is. You may search for it all your +days and grow gray and haggard, and sit down in the evening of life +with the vampires circling about you and be forced to confess, "I have +not found rest!" You may retire from business and say, "I will spend my +declining years in peace," but as the sun goes down the bats come out +and flap the black skinny wings of the sins of other days in your +affrighted face. If you are a student you may drop your books like Dr. +Faust and hurry to the country, but the imp of restlessness will dog +your steps and snare your pathway and you will carry home with you a +Mephisto who will never leave you. + +THE SEEDS OF ANARCHY. + +Some Christian people seek rest in changing preachers, but there is +nothing in that to bring it. You may leave the minister who thumps the +desk and listen to a man with a nasal twang, but you are still restive +and unsatisfied. You think the reason your peace of soul is disturbed +is that Mrs. Garrulous talked about you, or that the weather is rainy +and disagreeable, or that the meetings are dull, or that people are +selfish. The real reason is that you have a restlessness in your heart +characteristic of inbred sin. You possess the seeds of dissatisfaction, +and lawlessness, and anarchy, and nothing but holiness of heart will +expel them. + +THE OCEAN DEPTHS. + +Down in the unfathomed depths of old Ocean there is no movement, no +disturbance. Gigantic "Majesties" and "Kaiser Wilhelms" and "Oregons" +and "Vizcayas" plow and whiten the surface; tempests rage and +Euroclydons roar and currents change and tides ebb and flow, but the +great depth knows no ripple. It is said that down there the most +fragile of frail and delicate organisms grow in safety. In the depths +of the sanctified heart there is no storm and no breaker. Trials may +come and leave white scars; billows may beat and surges may roll, and +water-spouts and tornadoes may make the upper sea boil with anguish and +sorrow and grief, but deep in the heart there is calm. There the +delicate graces of the Spirit thrive and luxuriate. Great, soulless, +iron-keeled, worldly institutions and sharp-prowed cutters may ride +over your sensibilities, but the inner placidity is unbroken. + +THE ETERNAL SABBATH. + +God's plan is to rest us so we can work for Him with ease and success. +He institutes an everlasting Sabbath in the spirit that we may be +ceaseless in sanctified activities. If a man is always jaded and tired +he can not take hold of his work with much enthusiasm. + +SPIRITUAL POISE. + +There is no mistaking the man or woman who has found the second rest. +There is a poise of spirit and a sweet serious balance of soul which +can not be counterfeited. The preacher who appreciates spirituality +sees no sight more beautiful than the serene, calm faces of auditors +from whose souls the tempests have been cast. Life's toils and +distractions and disappointments have all been negatived by the power +of the all-conquering Christ. + +A SCENE AT ALLENTOWN. + +These words are being written in the city of Allentown, Pa., where the +writer is spending ten days in a series of Pentecostal services. Last +evening we saw a symbol of the rest Christ gives. We strolled along the +east bank of the Lehigh River about half an hour after sunset. All the +western sky was beautiful with an afterglow. The water of the river, +silver near the shore and golden toward the west, was as still as the +face of a mirror. The trees on the shore leaned over perfect pictures +of themselves. The hills, which fell back gracefully from the valley, +were covered with cloaks of gold and vermillion and emerald, and not a +leaf stirred in the evening air. Far up the river the tiny bell of a +canal-mule tinkled drowsily. On the veranda of a little cottage a young +mother crooned a lullaby to a slumbering child, and a little bird in a +thick grove called, "Peace! Peace!" + +CALM. + +If God can make so beautiful a scene in the physical world, what can He +not make in the spiritual? Thank God! He can excel anything the natural +eye ever beheld. He can hang the soul with paintings and turn the +"River of Life clear as crystal" through it, and fill the chambers of +the heart with lullabies and the song of birds crying, "Peace!" If +there are times when we are awed and charmed by + + "All the beauty of the world" + +let us remember that what we see is only a type of the grandeur and +glory and splendor He will put in our spirit-nature if we but permit +Him to sanctify us and cast out the storms and tempests. + +THE PAIN OF SYMPATHY. + +While we may possess and enjoy "the second rest" here and now, we need +not forget that another is promised to us. We get weary physically +sometimes here. The days frequently seem long and trying. There are +hours and hours of labor, and nights and nights of toil, but, thank +God! we can say at each sunset, "I am one day nearer rest." For while a +sanctified man is always at rest spiritually, he can not rest +physically to much satisfaction. In his dreams he can see the white, +drawn faces of the doomed, and hear the wild uncouth shriek of the +tormented. He remembers with horror that one hundred thousand souls are +rolled off into Eternity while the earth makes one revolution! He +thinks of cheerless homes, and torn and bleeding hearts, and wives +waiting for the sound of unsteady steps, and children friendless and +hungry, and figures leaping from bridges, and shaking hands holding +poison, and maniacs behind the bars glaring with wild eye-balls through +dishevelled hair! And he leaps from the couch with the cry, "O the pity +of it all!" And he can not be still, he can not be idle, but is +constrained to do his utmost by word and pen to save a sinking, +gurgling, drowning humanity. + +WHEN IT IS ALL OVER. + +But one day it will all be over. Soon we shall all have preached our +last sermon and prayed our last prayer and spoken our last word. Our +lives will soon have passed into history. That blessed hour will soon +be here in which we shall "lay down the silver trumpet of ministry and +take up the golden harp of praise." Hallelujah, it is coming! it is +coming! Praise the Lord! + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +PRAYERFULNESS. + + +DELIGHT IN PRAYER. + +The precious grace of entire sanctification brings to the heart a +prayerful spirit. Prayer becomes the normal occupation of the soul. One +is surprised to discover that while it was formerly difficult, if not +irksome, to pray at times, now one prays because it is delightful and +easy. + +DE RENTY. + +Many of us have been surprised to read in the biographies of pious men +and women that they frequently spent hours in prayer. But the +sanctified man understands all that now. He can readily believe that De +Renty heard not the voice of his servant, so intent was he gazing into +the Father's face. He does not doubt that Whitefield in his college +room was "prostrate upon the floor many days, praying for the baptism +with the Holy Ghost." + +J.W. REDFIELD. + +The writer remembers of reading when just a child the thrilling life of +John Wesley Redfield. There was nothing which struck the boy-reader +with greater force than the prayerfulness of the man. It awed him, and +made him long to enjoy such an experience as would make prayer so +delightful. In the golden experience of sanctification he found that +prayer was delightsome and blessed. Such is the uniform testimony of +all who have been cleansed from depravity and anointed with the Holy +Ghost. + +PRAYER HAS ITS ANSWER. + +God means true prayer to have audience. We can not understand how God +can vouchsafe to us such tremendous effects as He asserts shall follow +prayer. We can not defend prayer philosophically; but either "he that +asketh receiveth," or the Bible is misleading and untrustworthy. + +TRUE PRAYER. + +But what is "true prayer"? In the first place, it is prayer which says, +"Thy will be done." If we pray selfishly, "asking amiss," we can hope +for no answer. We will get no hearing. We must ask with the thought, +"What is the Father's will? What does He consider best?" + +DESPERATION. + +True prayer must be earnest. It was the IMPORTUNATE widow that was +heard, and it is the importunate seeker that never fails of an answer. +If when sinners, backsliders, or believers come to the altar they would +pray with earnestness and desperation, there would be a far larger PER +CENT. of them who would go away fully satisfied. God never gives great +blessings to indifferent people. When He sees a man in an agony of +desire and longing, then He hastens to gladden his heart with an answer. + +FAITH. + +Prayer must be full of faith. James makes this clear to us. "Let him +ask in faith nothing wavering." God cannot bestow a blessing upon us if +we doubt Him. If a neighbor doubts your character, how much of your +heart do you let him see? If a fellow-preacher imputes selfish motives +to your acts, how often do you go to him and pour your heart out to +him? But those who believe in us--how frequently we run to them, unlock +our hearts and tell them all! It is thus with God. If we believe His +word, if we are sure of the veracity of His promise, and are +confidently expecting an answer, He will not, can not disappoint us. + +THE FORGIVING SPIRIT. + +There must be in us a forgiving spirit if our prayers are to be heard. +Forgiveness of our enemies precedes blessing for ourselves. "If ye +forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive +your trespasses." If I am bitter in my heart toward any creature, God +can not but be deaf to all my cries. If I nourish hatred, or meditate +revenge, or plot the downfall of any man, my prayers are vain; yea, all +my hope in Christ is futile! + +GOSSIPING PREACHERS. + +O that God may send us all the prayerful blessing! It is better that we +pray than that we discuss politics or talk "shop," or gossip or jest. +If we preachers and evangelists at camps and conventions would pray +more instead of getting in groups and talking about a world of +nothings, our sermons would mean full as much to those whom we address. + +UNBROKEN CONNECTION. + +Sanctification makes it possible for us to "pray without ceasing." The +indwelling Paraclete keeps the heart in a constant spirit of prayer, so +that at all hours and in all places prayers ascend. Communication is +kept up between the heart and the throne of Grod. No snows break the +wires. No floods wash away the poles. From the pulpit, from the +sidewalk, from the counter, from the railway coach, from the sick bed, +an ever-steady stream of prayer is kept up. They may befoul our names, +but they can not stop our praying. They may "cast us out as evil," and +may deny us pulpit privileges, and take away our salaries, but prayer +and praise they can not stifle nor hinder. + +INCENSE AND THUNDER. + +The prayers of God's people are sweet to Him. "With much incense" +burning in a golden censer (Rev. viii. 3) they float to His throne. But +notice the effect of the prayers of saints. Not only is there a silence +of an half-hour but "voices and thunderings and lightnings and an +earthquake" are observed in the earth. The children of God, if they but +pray and believe, can pull spiritual fire and earthquakes down upon +earth and effect great things for God and His Church. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SUCCESS. + + +SUCCESS INTENDED. + +Nothing is clearer in the Acts of the Apostles than that the disciples +after Pentecost had success in gospel service. Everywhere they went God +rained fire upon their Word and sanctioned the truth which they +preached by tremendous moral and spiritual upheavals. + +B. T. ROBERTS. + +Bishop Roberts has put the matter of success very succinctly: "If the +lawyer must win his case and the doctor cure his patient in order to be +successful, the minister and worker must save souls if they in their +calling are to be said to be successful." But alas, saving souls is +precisely what we are not doing. Thank God! there is here and there a +man who stands out as a soul-saver. But the average minister is not +distinguished for revivalism so much as proficiency in making a church +social a "blooming success." + +FALLEN SAMSONS. + +We all want to seem to succeed. We shun and dread the appearance of +failure. When a church begins to rot instead of grow it is natural for +us to do our utmost to find out some way of excusing the retrogression +without admitting our failure to reach men with the gospel. There are +evangelists, who in the palmy days of their power had wonderful, +heaven-gladdening revivals, who have ceased to wield "the sword of the +Lord and of Gideon," and, in order to cover their spiritual nakedness, +are forced to resort to finger-raising, card-signing methods for +stuffing and expanding "the big revival." There is no more sobbing, no +more desperate praying, no more shouting; all is "decent and in order," +as well it may be, for all is dead. + +QUESTION OF EVANGELISM. + +Honor to soul-saving! Show us the man who wins men to our Master, that +we may clasp his hand and look into his face. Right here hangs all the +discussion about evangelism. If the evangelist gets men soundly and +scripturally converted and sanctified, let us bid him Godspeed! If he +only amuses them and deals in paltry three-cent sensationalism, away +with more of the same sort of stuff which we already have in so many +pastors! + +THE DIVINE RECIPE. + +One thing is certain: God intends success and only success for His +people. If, as His children, we fail, it must be because we have not +followed the divine recipe for power and accomplishment. It was because +the one hundred and twenty obeyed Christ and tarried at Jerusalem that +God used the early Church to whip the Roman Empire. + +"HOW TO SUCCEED" + +"How to Succeed," used as the title for a book, will make any book +sell, though it be as dry as a patent-office report. People want to +know how to succeed in the world. How strange then that ministers and +churches who are brilliant and conspicuous failures should shun the +preaching of Pentecost--the one cure for failure and the sole guarantee +of success. + +EMPTY COMFORT. + +How many times some of us have sighed over our inefficiency! How +frequently, in default of apparent results, we have been forced to +console ourselves with the thought that we are "sowing seed" and that +there will be an abundant harvest at no distant date! Thank God! there +is success for us all. Pentecost will give it to us. + +JOHN THE BAPTIST. + +We do not mean by success financial opulence. A man may be a success +and yet as poor as John the Baptist lunching on dried locusts and +honey-comb. One may be as wealthy as Croesus and yet be an awful +failure. A church may be rich and increased with goods and incur the +Laodicean curse. + +PADDED STATISTICS. + +Neither does success mean a great and highly-trumpeted statistical +report to lug to conference. Some of our most inspiring "successes" are +all right on paper, but in reality they are stuffed and padded +scandalously. No, success in Christian work is to "turn many to +righteousness," save souls, and secure the sanctification of believers. +If we do not see such results following our labor, we have either +missed God's plan as to our selection of a field or we are not living +in the present enjoyment of the Pentecostal Baptism. + +THE EPOCHAL EXPERIENCE. + +The preachers and evangelists who have won great successes in the +calling of sinners to repentance have almost without exception +testified to having received an "enduement" or "anointing" subsequent +to their conversion. The Caugheys, the Moodys, the Whitefields, the +Wesleys, the Foxes, the Earles, though in some instances they have not +believed in holiness according to the Wesleyan view, have all had an +epochal event after which their work and works were effective and +startling. + +THE EFFECT OF PENTECOST. + +Pentecost coming to a mission-worker will fill his heart with +enthusiasm and energy, and give him a host of jewels washed from the +mire and shining like meteors. The same experience coming to a mechanic +will fire him with a love for Jesus and a solicitude for souls that +will make him pray and fast and weep and work for his fellow-laborers, +for his neighbors, and for his friends. The Spirit coming to a gifted +singer will cause her to consecrate her voice, like Rachel Winslow in +Sheldon's "In His Steps," so that with holy melody she will reach +hearts hitherto hard and untouched. + +THE PASSION FOR SOULS. + +One of the conditions of success in soul-saving is a passion for the +salvation of immortal men and women. Full salvation always brings this, +and as long as a worker lives in its plentitude and enjoyment he is +consumed with a burning, longing, panting thirst for souls. + +THE GIGANTIC LANDSLIDE. + +The ministers of early Methodism and early Quakerism were not of the +sort who congregate in groups and discuss the relative desirability of +various appointments. They did not spend their leisure in jesting, +punning and guffawing, but in praying, studying, and working, for even +their vacations were turned into days of toil. They spent their all in +one endeavor--to save men from a yawning Pit and a lurid Hell. Nowadays +we live in perpetual relaxation and recreation. Smooth, insipid +preachers talk to shallow, giddy audiences, and the whole thing is on a +gigantic landslide. Lord, save! or death and damnation are sure. + +THE UNCERTAIN FAITH. + +There can be no successful denial of the assertion that real +soul-absorbing earnestness in religion is dying out. We sometimes mock +at the Herculean labors of men like Owen, and Baxter, and Calvin, and +Edwards. But though these men were perhaps more or less legalistic and +at times a little narrow, yet one thing is sure, they made religion the +business of life, and went at it with zest, enthusiasm, and +determination. Your modern "Christian" has "certain intellectual +difficulties"; is "not fixed in belief concerning Socinianism"; does +"not like the old idea of the Atonement"; in fact, is in a state of +fusion so far as his belief and faith are concerned. Men do not give +their life's blood for matters in which they have only a half-faith. +But when one is convinced that men are dying in the dark and that their +salvation depends in a measure on one's activity and fidelity, then one +is hot with zeal and fire from hat to heel and set to working for God +and eternal souls. + +WEEPING OVER CHORAZIN. + +This is the explanation of the zeal of men who are "burning for Jesus." +This is the reason men so frequently wear out in short order after they +are sanctified. They are dipped in fellowship with Christ's sorrow, and +beholding Him weeping over modern Capernaums and Chorazins their hearts +are melted at the sight, and they speed away to preach the gospel of +the lovely Son of God. + +SANCTIFIED SUCCESS. + +No wonder success comes to the sanctified man. Indwelt by the Shekinah, +filled with the Holy Ghost, his whole being energized with power and +force, "whatsoever he doeth prospers." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +VISITS OF ANGELS. + + +DESCRIPTIVE PSALM. + +The ninety-first Psalm is a painstaking description of the blessings +and benefits bestowed upon the man that "dwelleth in the secret place +of the Most High." Without doubt the entire chapter should be taken as +a photograph of the sanctified man. Among other things, this fortunate +and favored person is told that he is to have angelic guards and +ministers who will protect him and keep him "in all his ways." + +GOD'S OWN. + +The sanctified are in a peculiar sense God's own, and all the resources +of heaven are pledged to their protection. All the fire companies of +the firmament will turn out to extinguish a fire if it kindle on God's +saints. If need be, Jehovah will empty His balm jars but the wounds of +warriors shall be healed. Angels are detailed for our protection: +heavenly visitants hover near us lest the fires of affliction destroy +us. + +UNDERSTANDING CHRIST. + +The moment the soul is sanctified, it begins to understand Christ in a +new and delightful sense. It is given unto it to not only sit at His +feet in the temple, but to groan with Him in Grethsemane. It +understands Him, and, in suffering, is "as He is in this world." + +A DARK HOUR. + +It was a dark, dark hour for the Master. He had been praying a long +while, perhaps for several hours. The place was one familiar to Him. +Many a night after a long, wearisome day of teaching in the temple, He +had labored painfully up the slope of the Mount of Olives in search of +the quiet of "the Garden." Here the Savior had His oratory. Sometimes +the disciples were with Him; at other times He was alone. + +A NIGHT OF CRISIS. + +But this night was a night of crisis. The old olive trees, in all their +centuries of life, had never witnessed so intense a struggle as that +which took place on the night of His passion. Alive to all the pathos +of the hour, awake to all the gravity of the situation, sensitive to +the slightest breath, He prays to "the Father" with that desperation in +which the flight of time and the doings of the world are all forgotten. + +UNCERTAINTY. + +There was much about the hour which made it a painful one. There was, +first of all, an uncertainty concerning the will of "the Father." With +a great cry the lonely Christ fell to the ground: "If it be thy will +let this cup pass, nevertheless" let thy will, whatsoever it is, "be +done." Evidently He was not at that time really sure what the plan of +"the Father" was in regard to Him. + +A BITTER CUP. + +Uncertainty is a fearful test, when it comes to the soul of a man of +great and energetic purpose. So long as there is no doubt about the +course to be taken, so long as the plan is plainly revealed, it is easy +for a courageous man to advance. But to such a one uncertainty is like +a shock to the body, palsying the form and changing a strong arm into a +nerveless, useless stick of bone and tissue. A cup may be very bitter, +salt with the brine of tears and hot with the fire of vitriol, and yet, +if all the ingredients in that cup are known to him who drinks it, +grief has not reached its superlative. Socrates' duty was plain to him. +Hemlock was in the cup, and he knew it. But the liquor with which God +fills the tumblers of His people is brewed from a thousand elements. + +A TEST. + +To trust in the dark, to believe in a rayless midnight, to cling to a +thread well-nigh invisible, to say "Amen" to God when one has no idea +of the greatness of the meaning of "His will," that is the supremest +test of loyalty. + +THE NIGHT PICKET. + +The night picket stationed far out from the camp has need of much +greater courage than the soldier in battle ranks rushing on toward the +enemy. The man at the lonely picket post, cloaked in darkness, is +guarding against uncertainty. He can not tell at once whether a dark +object is a dangerous spy or a browsing Brindle. Sounds must be noted +and sorted lest the enemy steal up to the slumbering army and destroy +it. The snapping of twigs, the low whistle of a bird, the groan of the +wind, the murmur of a waterfall must all be listened to with care. + +EVIL TIDINGS. + +It is suspense and a nameless dread and fear that sap many a mind and +heart. Moments of breathless expectancy of evil tidings are like years +in the life, bringing ashes to the hair, lines to the cheek and +listlessness to the eye. + +THE PALLED FACE. + +"Be sure you are right, then go ahead," said Tennesseean Crockett; but +supposing that one can not "be sure" of anything except the love of +God, supposing that one looks out through the tangled limbs of the +olive trees of a Gethsemane to a sky studded with pitiless stars, +supposing that the future is obscure and the present black as Styx, +supposing that even the face of the Father Himself is palled and +curtained--then must one be content to trust and only trust. + +THREE DISCIPLES + +There was another cause for pain in "the Garden." The three disciples, +whom He had chosen to accompany Him in His dark and lonely vigil, slept +as He prayed. We can bring ourselves to overlook the negligence and +apathy of Nicodemus and Lazarus and Simon the leper and Zaccheus and +the crowds who had merely heard Him preach. We are willing perhaps to +excuse eight of the twelve for their drowsiness--perchance they did not +apprehend the full meaning of the hour to the Master. But there were +three disciples to whom Christ had ever laid bare His heart. With Him +they stood in the death chamber in the house of Jairus. To them it was +given to behold "the vision splendid" on the mount of transfiguration, +and these alone Jesus chose to enter into the fellowship of his Garden +sufferings. + +NO EXCUSE. + +These men did not nod and sleep ignorant of Christ's need of them. With +that tender confidence with which a truly great and colossal man +sometimes honors his friends, He had said, "My soul is exceeding +sorrowful, even unto death." He had warned them with the words, "Watch +and pray lest ye enter into temptation," and yet they slept! + +"OUR OWN AFFAIRS." + +It must have been a keen disappointment to Jesus to find His most +trusted friends so indifferent to His needs. Is there anything in life +sadder than the discovery that our own affairs are really only our own +affairs? We had thought that they were our friends', as well as our +own. We had supposed that our griefs were theirs also, but when +Grethsemane comes into our lives, and we writhe and twist among the +gnarled and knotted roots, when we turn with blanched, tear-sprinkled +faces to our chosen James and trusted Peter and beloved John to gasp in +their ears the story of our agony, we hear only the heavy breathing of +sound sleepers. + +COLD, HARSH FACT. + +If there is a sharper pang than this, man's heart has not found it. We +are by nature social beings. We crave fellowship and love and sympathy, +and it is so hard for us to realize that our choicest friends are +really "asleep" to our heart cries and heart interests. The cold, harsh +fact can be believed but slowly. Even the Lord seemed to find it hard +to convince His own heart that the John who had leaned at supper upon +His breast, was resting while his Master was sweating blood. He prayed +awhile and then, as if to see whether it was indeed true that no one +watched to help Him, "He came and found them sleeping." Sad, cruel +disappointment, and yet is it so rare that any one of us has not felt +its sadness and cruelty? + +AN ANGEL. + +But while men forgot the Nazarene and His troubles, Grod did not +forget. The Father was not negligent nor careless. "There appeared an +angel unto him from heaven strengthening him." The night was not too +dark for the angel to find Jesus, and the night of our troubles is +never too thick and black for the angels to find us. The paths of "the +Garden" may be grown up in weeds, the rough, scabeous limbs of the +trees may hang close to the ground, the driving clouds may hide the +moon and stars, but some celestial messenger will search us out and +find us. + +IN MANY FORMS. + +God has many angels, and they come in many forms. Sometimes the +solitary sufferer sees only a tiny flower, but love is in the flower, +and he knows he is not utterly forgotten. It may be only an hand clasp, +but warmth and sympathy are in it, and behold it is straightway "an +angel strengthening him." Perchance it is a letter with a foreign +postmark, but in it is nectar and ambrosia for a drooping spirit. Or +the angel may come enveloped in a text of Scripture or flying on the +wings of the music of some old hymn, such as: + + "Fear not! I am with thee. + Oh, be not dismayed, + For I am thy God! + I will still give thee aid." + +In whatever role the angel may come, God sent him, and his mission is +one of blessing and encouragement. + +HEAVENLY VISITANTS. + +We can well afford to suffer in the darkness, alone and uncomforted, if +angels will but visit us. John Bunyan can well be content in Bedford +gaol, if God but puts a dream in his head and heart that will last in +the memories and characters of men, when the sun is a burned-out cinder +and the stars are dying ash heaps. We can well be satisfied to have +sorrows unutterable and griefs inexpressible, if heavenly visitants +will but come to us. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +GROWTH IN CHRISTLINESS OF LIFE. + + +MAKING A BOTCH. + +One may have a clean, pure heart and yet be far from possessing a +matured Christian character. A man may love God with all his heart, and +yet not be wise in his selection of the things that will always please +God. Frequently the preacher may come down from the pulpit having made +a horrible botch of his attempt to serve God in the ministry. He may +feel the fact keenly, and be even more conscious of it than any of his +hearers. And yet that preacher may have a heart as white as Gabriel's +wing and a soul full of love to God and man. But as time goes on, and +he lingers repeatedly at the feet of Christ in prayer, God will show +him how he can serve Him more effectively and without the objectionable +features. + +UNJUST CRITICISM. + +The fact that purity is not maturity has given rise to misapprehension +on the part of many people. Indeed, many of God's dear children have +been misjudged and condemned because they did not have in addition to +pure hearts sound and solid judgment. As soon as a man professes the +blessing of perfect love, the sharp-eyed critics of the neighborhood +look out for "perfect sense," and "perfect manners," and "perfect +life," and when the subject of observation fails to meet the +expectation of the aforesaid critics, there is a great hue and cry that +"Sister A. or Brother B. has not got what is professed," when God knows +they HAVE got JUST what they profess--namely, perfect love, full +salvation. The Lord has never guaranteed a perfect head to any man that +breathes. We will make mistakes as long as we hang around this old +world, and it is injustice to exalted spirits who have this precious +grace, and an insult to the God who gave the grace, to condemn +sanctification because those who profess it are not angels, but simply +men and women cleansed and filled with the Spirit. + +REPEATING MISTAKES. + +But while God makes allowance for our weakness and our frailty, we +ought not to expect Him to indulge us in avoidable and needless errors. +We made a mistake. Very well. We knew no better than to make it. But +now that we do know better, we have no business repeating it. And right +along here comes a great expanse of territory which holiness people +need to cover. Here there is infinite room for advancement and progress. + +"THE IMITATION OF CHRIST" + +Thomas A'Kempis wrote a wonderful book on "The Imitation of Christ." +The failure in so many quarters in becoming Christlike is due to the +false method pursued. First, get a Christlike heart, and then let that +heart govern your life and actions. "Work OUT your own salvation," said +Paul, "for it is God that worketh IN you." Precisely! God puts a holy +heart into a man's breast, and his business from thence on is to bring +his life into line with the heart. The old life-habits may cling to him +for a time, but it is the business of the sanctified soul to free +itself from all that Jesus would not do were He on earth. Imitation of +Christ comes after sanctification, and not before. You simply can not +imitate Jesus if you have a reptile heart in you. If you have a filthy +mind you will talk "smut" and think "smut" in spite of yourself. You +may hide your bad self from the world, but your wife, or your husband, +or your family, those who are acquainted with you intimately, know that +you are base and coarse. + +DANTE. + +A glutton may stand and look at the thin, austere, ascetic face of +Dante and say within himself, "I will be a Dante," but all the world +knows that in a few hours he will be gourmandizing as swinishly as +before. And men look at the beautiful Jesus held up in Unitarian +pulpits and resolve to act like Him, and go right on being selfish, and +proud, and deceitful, and devilish. There must be a moral miracle, +there must be a spiritual upsetting and overturning, before a carnal +heart can begin to imitate the pure and spotless Son of God. + +KINDNESS. + +After we are sanctified, we ought to imitate Christ in kindness. How +kind He was! Where did He abuse anyone? He preached the truth, but He +never maligned any of His auditors. + +THE "LITTLE THINGS" + +It is the "little things" that make up the mosaic of life. Our friends +know us, not by the speeches we deliver, nor the sermons we preach, nor +the books we write, but by the tones of our voices, and the letters we +pen, and the words we use in daily life. Introduce kindness into a +discordant family and how Eden-like the home becomes! Why are we not as +considerate and polite to those who are all the world to us as we are +to strangers and neighbors? Christlike kindness would fill our hearts +with thoughtfulness for those about us. It would bid us carry a torch +to many a darkened life, and incite us to share the burden pressing +upon many an aching shoulder. + +TRUE HUMILITY. + +Christ had great charity for the faults of those with whom He was +associated. How He bore with the dull and almost stupid disciples! How +He bears with us in our worse and more inexcusable blockheadedness! +And, if He is so charitable and patient with our faults, how ought we +to be with others? There comes a time in our lives when we are simply +astonished that people pay any attention to us at all. We are so +conscious of our short-comings, and so keenly aware of our mistakes, +that it seems to us that surely no one is quite so blundering and +fallible as we are. How easy it is then to bear with one another! + +LOOKING-GLASS HUMILITY. + +We ought to work humility out into our lives. Jesus lived an humble +life--a life of the truest and deepest humility. Not a humility +conscious of itself and ever gazing at itself through the fancied eyes +of others, but a humility that was real and unaffected. + +A CHRISTLIKE MAN. + +The writer has in mind a man of deep and earnest piety, a scholar, a +successful preacher and author. With all his learning and scholarship +he is as humble as a child, and one can not look at him without +feeling, "There is a Christ-man." Often as the pen flies quickly across +the page, or as the lips are moving in the delivery of a sermon, or as +an altar service is in progress, the slight, thin figure of that man +flashes to the brain, and the eye grows dim and the heart-prayer rises, +"Lord, make me an humble man." There are so many great men, eloquent +men, learned men, dignified men, but so few humble men. God, increase +their number in the land! + +ACTIVITY. + +Another thing in Jesus' life which sanctified people ought to learn to +imitate was His activity. His days, and even His nights, frequently, +were filled with service. After long days of teaching and preaching, He +would seek out some quiet nook and spend the still and lonely hours of +night in prayer to the Father. + +THE INDIVIDUAL VISION. + +Men who come into close touch and communion with Christ are impelled +irresistibly to earnest and ceaseless service. They see needs which no +one else seems to see. They hear the plaintive voices of dying men, and +the tearful cries of despondent women, and the helpless moans of +unloved children. They have visions which others never understand, and +dream of things with which their dearest friends can not sympathize. +They have given their all that they may know Christ, and He has +rewarded them by disclosing His heart to them. They know why His face +is tearful, and His voice is filled with sadness. They know why He is +"a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." They are baptized into a +baptism of love for souls, and compassion for the sorrowing, similar to +that in which He is plunged. It is for this reason that men hear the +voice of God calling them away from the hearth-stone out into the +desolate earth. + +ST. TELEMACHUS. + +St. Telemachus heard the voice of God, and straightway "followed the +sphere of westward wheeling stars," and journeyed on to Rome muttering, +"The call of God! The call of God!" Not on a foolish errand did he go, +for, after his visit to the Eternal City, gladiatorial combats ceased. + +"HE THAT WARRETH" + +Brethren, be true to Christ. Let not even those who love you best draw +you from a steadfast purpose to spend your life and all for the +Galilean. Flee ease and luxury and comfort, and impose hard tasks upon +yourselves. Your friends may seek to hinder you with cries of, "Rest! +Tarry!" but like Christian in Bunyan's dream stop your ears and go +quickly on your journey. + +THE HOME COMING. + +Some day your little service will be complete. Your sun will set. The +west will be filled with beauty, and the birds will twitter softly in +the trees as you trudge the last mile into the City; and as the shades +deepen, and the air grows chill, the Master Himself will meet you, take +you to His heart, wipe the tear from your cheek, the dust of the road +from your brow, and the sorrow from your heart, and lead you to the +court, where with those whom you love, and those who love you, Eternity +will be spent in the light of His pure and shining face. + + + + +EXPERIENCE + + +THE VALUE OF TESTIMONY. + +It has pleased God to place in our hands two weapons by which we are to +overcome Satan--"the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony." +It was the narrated experiences of the people of God, and the modest +declarations of the saving power of Christ, which convicted me of my +need and led me to seek the grace of God. Very briefly, therefore, I +will sketch God's dealings with my own soul. + +EARLY PRAYER. + +I was born September 30th, 1877, at Westfield, Indiana. My parents were +both ministers in the Society of Friends, and I can not remember When I +first began to pray, for my mother taught me to go to God with +everything, even when a very small child. When I was five and a half +years of age we moved to Walnut Ridge, Indiana, where there was a +Friends' meeting of more than ordinary size and activity. It was here +that my conversion took place. I remember the event as distinctly as if +it were yesterday. + +CONVICTION. + +I always prayed at the family altar, and that was an institution which +was never neglected for anything in our home, and I had never omitted +my evening devotions; but one summer day while playing by myself under +the trees in the front yard, a great fear came upon me lest I had never +had a change of heart. Though less than six years old, I had sat in the +"gallery" behind my father as he preached too often to be ignorant of +the necessity of the new birth. It was a perfect day, but conviction +settled upon me more and more deeply, and a dark shadow seemed to take +the brightness from everything. Unable to endure the heartache any +longer, I ran into the house and sat down with my father and mother, +waiting in silence for some time. Finally I asked them if I had "ever +been converted," told them I "wanted to be," and immediately we knelt +in prayer. How I did weep, and how badly I felt! I can see the back of +that little sewing-rocker now swimming in my tears. (I wonder where +that rocking-chair is now! The last I knew it was in California, having +left us at an auction--an occasion not unfamiliar to most of +preacher-families.) They told me to pray, and I prayed with all my +heart. If ever there was a little boy who felt that he was a great +sinner, I was the boy. I remembered all the things I ever did that I +knew were wrong. My boyish wickednesses, things that seem a rather +absurd lot now in the light of the sins of the average lad of six that +I know to-day, caused me great pain. Soon peace came, and what +happiness! When I went out doors again the very birds twittered with +increased gladness, and the sky seemed a far deeper blue, and the grass +and flowers rejoiced with me in my new-found experience. + +RETROGRESSION. + +Would God I had retained my simple faith in Jesus! But it was not long +before I wandered away from Christ, and the life of prayerfulness and +obedience. For years my religious experience was most unsatisfactory. I +was under frequent convictions, and knew that the Spirit was striving +with me persistently, but I hardened my heart and would not yield +completely to God. As I look back at those years of restlessness and +rebellion, I recall with gratitude the forbearance and long-suffering +of a now sainted mother. How she carried her proud, stubborn boy on her +heart, and how she held onto God's skirt and tugged away until He +answered. + +THE STRIVING OF THE SPIRIT. + +During the winter of 1891-1892 I became almost wretched on account of +conviction. The Holy Ghost fairly dogged my steps and whispered in my +ear at every turn. There were many things which He used to convict me +of--my unfaithfulness and aridity of soul and life. My junior year at +Oak Grove Seminary is distinctly remembered as a time of continuous +conviction and unrest. Now and then I would find peace and comfort for +a time, but they remained only for a time. I kept up secret devotions +very carefully. I never missed my daily prayers, but my life was +inconsistent and God-dishonoring. The lives of real Christians rebuked +me, and the mockery of my empty profession haunted me like a spectre. + +RECLAMATION. + +In the summer of 1892 I began to seek God earnestly, and was not long +in finding pardon and reclamation. No sooner was I at peace with God +than I began to hunger for holiness. O, how my heart longed for full +salvation! I saw much about me that was an indication that there was an +experience enjoyed by some of which I was not possessed. My mother's +calm, victorious life, and her constant unwavering Christian faith, +convicted me. I was proud and selfish, and hypersensitive and +ambitious. She was restful, contented, loving, meek. How frequently I +gave way to some temptation, and how mortified I was to be so +humiliated by the Adversary. + +HUNGER FOR HOLINESS. + +Many of the members of my father's church at Portsmouth had an +experience of freedom and liberty which I craved. In July my father, my +mother, and I spent a couple of days at Douglas camp-meeting. I +remember so well every incident of the trip--my deep unrest as we +entered the grounds, my aversion to certain "boisterous persons" who +said "Bless the Lord" so frequently, my disrelish for food, my dislike +of taking a front seat in the audience. Two old sisters sat facing the +preacher one evening. Their faces were full of joy, and they seemed to +overflow with joy and spiritual exhilaration. I inwardly said, "I wish +I had an experience like they seem to have." I made up my mind I would +seek. I can not recall a word of the sermon. I do not think I heard it +at the time--my mind was so full of an inward struggle. + +CANDIDATE FOR SANCTIFICATION. + +When the call was made, I went forward and consecrated myself and all +my hopes and desires and longings and all to God. How in the world I +had ever acquired so low a desire I do not know, but my chief ambition +had been to be a professor of science in some college. But the Lord put +me through a series of questions: + +"Will you be my property henceforth?" + +"Yes, Lord." + +"Are you willing that people should call you a 'holiness crank'?" + +"Yes, Lord." + +"Supposing I should ask you to shout, would you?" + +"I would do my best at it." + +"Will you give up all your plans and be a one-horse preacher of +holiness if I want you to?" + +Ah, here was a rub, indeed. Preaching was precisely what I did not +relish. Anything rather than that. I had visions of small salaries, and +country churches, and long, cold rides. I had seen the life of the +preacher ever since I could remember. I debated the question. Then I +answered, "Yes." The audience was singing: + + "Here I give my all to Thee-- + Friends and time and earthly store. + Soul and body then to be + Wholly Thine forever more." + +They told us seekers to raise our hands if we meant it. I meant it, so +up went a hand. Instantly faith got an answer, and the witness came, +and I knew that I was sanctified wholly. + +A DULL SCHOLAR + +But I was a dull scholar, and had to learn many lessons after my +Jordan-crossing. Owing to my failure in definite testimony, my +experience suffered partial eclipse, and my last year at Oak Grove was +more or less dark and unhappy. I was much helped, however, by the +reading of holiness books sent me by a sanctified music-teacher, who +had interest enough in me to write me real Fenelon letters and keep me +supplied with holiness reading. During the summer of 1893 I was more +fully established in the grace, and in the autumn began to preach. + +THE ABIDING CHRIST. + +I have frequently erred in judgment, and made most stupid blunders, but +the perpetual spring experience of full salvation has been my greatest +comfort and blessing. The abiding Christ gives zest and spice to life, +and makes the ministry of holiness delightful and joyous. + +GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS. + +God has blessed my ministry, and given me success. It is all of Him. +What a wonderful God we have! He never leaves us. I have called upon +Him when preaching, and He has always answered. I have cried to Him in +hours of loneliness and discouragement, and He has replied like a +flash. I stood by a cot and watched a saintly mother slip away to the +"undiscovered bourn," and He did not fail me. Hallelujah! He can not +only sanctify, but He can preserve, sustain and keep. Whatever may come +to us, Christ will not forsake us. As we look down the vista of years +to come, and remember that life is swift and serious, we can only lean +hard on the Son of God and push on, confident that His promise, "Lo, I +am with you alway," can not fail. Praise the Lord! + + + +THE END. + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heart-Cry of Jesus, by Byron J. Rees + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART-CRY OF JESUS *** + +***** This file should be named 4323.txt or 4323.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/4323/ + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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The onward movement +of the Holy Ghost along Pentecostal lines, convicting of +depravity, creating a clean-reading public, and endueing with +power both pulpit and pew, has resulted in a constant and growing +demand for full-salvation literature. Tens of thousands of pulpits +do an active business on both the wholesale and retail plan, with +science and philosophy as stock in trade. Famishing congregations +are proffered the bugs of biology, the rocks of geology, and the +stars of astronomy until their souls revolt, and they demand bread +and meat. + +THE NEED BEING SUPPLIED. + +The great soul-cry is being met and answered by the publication +and distribution of soul-feeding, spirit-inspiring, health-giving +Holiness books and papers. God is raising up writers and editors +from whose pens pour melted truths, to the edification and +blessing of thousands. + +THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK. + +In this little book we have a production in which the author has +made little attempt at the elucidation of doctrine or the waging +of controversy, but in great simplicity and directness he has +presented the truth with a view to helpfulness, desiring to +introduce really hungry souls into the Canaan life, and provide a +well-loaded table of rich provisions for those who are already "in +the Land." + +READERS WILL BE REFRESHED. + +We believe that there is a warmth, fervor and glow about the pages +of this volume which will be most refreshing to many, many +readers. May the Holy Spirit put His seal upon it and give it an +extensive circulation. + +SETH C. REES. + +PROVIDENCE, R. I., NOVEMBER 15, 1898. + + + + + +PREFACE. + +WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION? + + +No one who accustoms himself to the observation of spiritual +tides, winds and currents can be ignorant of the fact that the +devout men and women of the present are earnestly inquiring, "What +is sanctification? What does holiness mean?" They are demanding of +the pulpit and of the church editor something more than the time- +worn and moth-eaten excuses for not teaching a deeper work of +grace. The "seven thousand" who have not "bowed the knee" to the +modern Baals are insisting that, if God's Word teaches entire +sanctification for the disciple of Christ obtainable by faith now, +they must possess themselves of this heavenly grace. + +THE AUTHOR'S DESIRE. + +It is with the purpose and hope that some seeking heart may be +helped that these pages are penned. The author has purposely +avoided all controversial matter. We would not assume the role of +the doctrinaire even were we capable of it. "Not controversy, not +theology, but to save souls," as Lyman Beecher said when dying. + +THE NEED OF SPEED. + +This book has been written in the midst of laborious and unceasing +revival work. For this reason there has been no time to polish +sentences nor improve style. The object has been to get the truth +to the people in plain language, and to do it with despatch, for +the time is short, and men are being saved or damned with electric +speed. + +THE BUZZARD AND VULTURE. + +The buzzard and the vulture will find food if they look for it, +but with them we are not concerned. We are, however, terribly in +earnest to help hungry souls to a place of blessing and power. + +May God take these leaves and make them "leaves of healing," if +not for "nations," at least for individuals. + +BYRON J. REES. + +NOVEMBER 14, 1898. + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +DEDICATION +INTRODUCTION +PREFACE +CONTENTS +CHRIST'S PRAYER +CHAPTER I. A Word in the Prayer +CHAPTER II. Some Errors +CHAPTER III. Those for Whom Christ Prayed +CHAPTER IV. Christ's Prayer Answered +CHAPTER V. Christian Unity +CHAPTER VI. Fearlessness +CHAPTER VII. Responsiveness to Christ +CHAPTER VIII. Soul-Rest +CHAPTER IX. Prayerfulness +CHAPTER X. Success +CHAPTER XI. Growth in Christliness of Life +EXPERIENCE + + + + + +CHRIST'S PRAYER: + +"SANCTIFY THEM THROUGH THE TRUTH; THY WORD IS TRUTH." + + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A WORD IN THE PRAYER. + + +CHRIST'S WORDS. + +All who really love Christ love His words. They may not always +fully understand their meaning, but they never reject any of them. +The very fact that any word has been on the lips of Christ and +received His sanction, gives it a sound of music to all who are +truly disciples of the Nazarene. + +MOTHER'S WORDS. + +The words that your mother used frequently--are there any words +quite the same to you? She may be resting under the solemn pines +of a silent cemetery, but, to this hour, if anyone uses one of her +favorite words, instantly the heart leaps in answer, and the mind +flies back to her, and the fancy paints her as you knew her in the +garden or at the fireside or by the window. It lies in the power +of a single word to make the eyes fill and the throat ache because +of its association with the voice of a queenly mother. + +A MAN'S TESTIMONY. + +Thus it is with Christ and HIS words. It matters not where we meet +the word, if it is Christ's we are touched and made tender. An +aged man stands in a prayer-meeting in a bare and cheerless hall, +and says in broken and faltering voice, "The dear Lord has +blessedly SANCTIFIED my heart," and like a flash the room +lightens, and the whole place seems changed and made cheery. The +heart cries, "That is my Master's word," and the entire being is +attentive and interested. + +JESUS' LIFE DEAR. + +Yes, to the really regenerated soul everything connected with +Jesus is dear. The place of His birth, the land of His ministry, +the garden of His agony, the mount of His crucifixion, the Olivet +of His ascension, all these are illumined with a peculiar and +special light. The mind dwells lovingly on His parables, ponders +deeply His sayings, lingers tenderly over His words. + +WE WELCOME THE WORD. + +We will NOT therefore shrink from the Word of our Lord: +"Sanctify." It may have been stained by the slime of some unworthy +life, or soiled by the lips of men who prated about +sanctification, but knew nothing of its nature; yet, for all that, +since the word is Christ's we hail its enunciation with gladness. + +CHRIST'S BURDEN. + +The high-priestly prayer of Christ was distinctively for the +disciples. Indeed, He SAYS: "I pray not for the world." That is to +say, the disciples need a peculiar and special work of grace, one +which must follow, not precede, conversion, and therefore not to +be received by the world. In this prayer the loving Master +revealed to His immediate disciples, and to those of all ages and +climes, the burning desire of His heart concerning His followers. +The petition ascends from His immaculate heart like incense from a +golden censer, and it has for its tone and soul, "Sanctify them +through thy truth." His soul longed for this work to be completed +quickly. During the last days of His ministry He talked frequently +of the coming Comforter. He admonished them to "tarry" until an +enduement came to them. He knew that unless they were energized +with a power, to which they were as yet strangers, their work +would be worse than futile. + +HE PRAYED FOR SANCTIFICATION. + +It is for the SANCTIFICATION of the disciples that Christ prayed. +He did not ask that they might fill positions of honor and trust; +He knew that there is no nobility but that of goodness. It was +more important that the early preachers should be holy men than +that they should be respected and honored. He did not pray for +riches for them; He knew too well the worthlessness of money in +itself. He did not desire for them thrones, nor culture, nor +refinement, nor name. + + "'Tis only noble to be good. + True hearts are more than coronets, + And simple faith than Norman blood." + +So Jesus prayed that these men who had for three years been His +daily and constant companions should receive an experience which +should make them INTENSELY GOOD; not "goody-goody," which is very +different, but heartily and wholly spiritual and godly. + +THE MEN WE LOVE. + +The men whose names are brightening as the ages fly, were not men +who were always free from prejudices and blunders. They were not +men, as a rule, from university quadrangles nor college cloisters. +They were not the wise, nor the erudite, nor the cultivated, nor +the rich. They were the good men. Brilliant men tire us; wits soon +bore us with their gilt-edged nothings, but men with clean, holy +hearts, fixed convictions, bold antipathies to sin, sympathetic +natures and tender consciences never weary us, and they bear the +intimate and familiar acquaintance which so often causes the +downfall of the so-called "great" in one's estimation. + +THE PERSONAL TOUCH. + +We may forget an eloquent sermon pilfered from Massillon, but we +will never forget a warm handclasp and a sympathetic word from an +humble servant in God's house. Jesus never went for the crowds--he +hunted the individual. He sat up a whole night with a questioning +Rabbi; talked an afternoon with a harlot who wanted salvation; +sought out and found the man whom they cast out of the synagogue, +and saved a dying robber on an adjacent cross. We do not reach men +in great audiences generally. We reach them by interesting +ourselves in them individually; by lending our interest to their +needs; by giving them a lift when they need it. + +SANCTIFIED FISHERMEN. + +Jesus with divine sagacity knew that if these untutored fishermen +were to light up Europe and Asia with the torch of the gospel they +must have an experience themselves which would transform them from +self-seeking, cowardly men to giants and heroes. + +THE CARNAL MIND. + +While the true Christian loves Christ and His words, while his +higher and more spiritual nature says "Amen" to the Lord's +teaching, yet it must not be forgotten that the "carnal mind" +which remains, "even in the heart of the regenerate," is "enmity +against God." There is a dark SOMEWHAT in the soul that fairly +hates the word "sanctification." Theologians call it "inbred sin" +or "original depravity"; the Bible terms it the "old man," "the +old leaven," "the root of bitterness," etc. Whatever its name it +abhors holiness and purity, and though the regenerate man loves +Christ and His words, he does so over the vehement protest of a +baser principle chained and manacled in the basement dungeon of +his heart. + +GEORGE FOX. + +The devout of all churches recognize the existence of an inner +enemy who bars the gate to rapid spiritual progress. George Fox, +the pious founder of the Friends' Society, said in relation to an +experience which came to him: "I knew Jesus, and He was very +precious to my soul, but I found something within me which would +not always keep patient and kind. I did what I could to keep it +down, but it was there. I besought Jesus that He would do +something for me, and when I gave Him my will He came into me and +cast out all that would not be patient, and all that would not be +sweet, and that would not be kind, and then He shut the door." + +"SIN IN BELIEVERS." + +John Wesley preached a sermon on "Sin in Believers" which is +extant and widely read. All churches recognize it in their creeds, +and all have provision in their dogmas for its expulsion before +entrance into heaven. The Catholics provide a convenient +Purgatory; other denominations glorify Death and ascribe to it a +power which they deny to Christ; while still others rely on growth +to cleanse from all sin and get us ready for the glory-world. The +Bible, however, with that sublime indifference to all human +opinions and theories becoming in divine authority, reveals a +SALVATION FROM ALL SIN HERE AND NOW. + +The word sanctify means simply "to make holy" (L., sanctificare = +sanctus, holy, + ficare, to make). The work of sanctification +removes all the roots of bitterness and destroys the remains of +sin in the heart. + +UNREASONABLE ANTAGONISM. + +What sound sense can there be in antagonizing a blessing which is +nothing more or less than cleanness--mental, moral and physical +cleanness. The kind of character that would wittingly fight +holiness would object to a change of linen. + +A CHURCH IN JERSEY. + +The eagerness with which truly devout people welcome the preaching +of full salvation is refreshing. It was the writer's privilege to +hold an eight-day meeting with a church in Central New Jersey. The +church was in excellent condition, for the pastor, a godly and +earnest man, had faithfully proclaimed justification and its +appropriate fruits. Nearly all the members were praying, +conscientious and zealous Christians. When, at the first meeting, +which was the regular Sunday morning service, the experience of +sanctification was presented, over one hundred persons arose, thus +signifying their desire for the precious grace! + +OPEN THE ALTAR! + +The language of the child of God is, "Does God want me sanctified? +Then open the altar for I am coming." He does not tarry; he does +not higgle and hesitate; he makes for the "straw pile" if in a New +England camp; the "saw-dust" if down South; the "altar rail" if in +a spiritual church; to his knees at any rate, for God's will he +desires and must have. Thank God he can have it! + + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +SOME ERRORS. + + +THE BEAR-SKIN. + +Satan is very busily engaged in destroying and misrepresenting +God's best experiences. He slanders the work of God in order that +His children may not come into their inheritance. The "bear-skin" +frightens the would-be seeker and keeps him out of the Canaan +land. + +ROSENTHAL. + +Darkness hates light. The Prince of Darkness dreads truth and +light, for he knows that if God's children ever see sanctification +as it is, there will be a general stampede for consecration. If +the public really believed that Rosenthal would play the piano in +Infantry Hall on a certain evening, and that there would be no +charge for admittance, South Main street would be black with +people hours before the doors were opened. If the church really +believed that God would let them into an experience where sonatas +and minuets and bridal marches and "Mondnacht" and the "Etude in C +sharp minor" would be heard all the time, and free of charge, all +the bishops and the big preachers and little evangelists and +exhorters and ministers would be besieged by a grand eager throng +of people, crying with one accord, "What must I do to be +sanctified?" Lord, hasten the day! + +THE DEVIL STIRRED. + +When a man is awakened and says, "What is sanctification anyway?" +then the devil bestirs himself to silence the soul's questionings. +Blessed is the man who will not be satisfied with anything short +of "Thus saith the Lord." Hound the lies of hell to their covert; +run down the false reports, and determine the truth. + +A CHIMERA. + +One of the lies which Satan is fond of circulating is that +sanctification is a life free from temptation. When this is +announced among those who are awakened on the subject, immediately +there is a great cry, "I don't want to hear any more about +sanctification." One would think by the excitement aroused that +people are actually afraid lest they should by some manner of +means be deprived of the privilege of being tempted. Let all such +allay their fears. Jesus was tempted even on the pinnacle of the +temple, and we will never be above our Lord, and may well expect +temptation until we pass from this world-stage to the other land. +No responsible Christian student teaches any such chimera as a +life without temptation obtainable now. + +A DIFFERENCE. + +Personally, we have never heard anyone make such a claim. What we +do teach, and, better still, far better, WHAT GOD PROMISES, is an +experience where we need not YIELD to temptation. There is a +difference, vast and important, between being tempted and yielding +to temptation. + +A TEMPTED PREACHER. + +A man is en route from New York to the West via the Pennsylvania +Railroad. The express stops at a junction in the mountains. He +leaves the car and walks up and down on the platform enjoying the +view. Near the station is a park. Beautiful flowering shrubbery, +shell walks, ivy-clad piles of rocks, splashing fountains, +majestic shade trees and well-kept turf make the place attractive. +Beyond the pretty village a wooded mountain rises toward the +bluest of skies, enticing to a stroll amid the beauties of a +forest. The preacher is strongly tempted to stop over a day and +enjoy a brief rest. Then he thinks of his word, given in good +faith, to be in a certain place at an appointed hour; he remembers +the souls which God might save through the sermon which he is +expected to preach the next evening. He is tired and jaded and +worn. Would he not be justified in telegraphing that he would not +come until a day or so later than expected? It is a stout +temptation; but when the black-faced porter shouts, "All aboard," +and the bell rings he walks into the hot and dirty car and +continues his tiresome journey. Does not the reader see that a +temptation to rest is very different from stopping and breaking an +engagement and disappointing an audience? + +A CHARMING COMPANION. + +On life's express we are all liable to temptation. We are +solicited to tarry, but we are so intent on our destination, and +especially are we so charmed with our travelling Companion, that +we bid farewell to fountain, and gravelled walks, and towering +mountains and push on to that city. + +WHO TEACHES FANATICISM? + +Another misrepresentation, the circulation of which Satan delights +to further, is that sanctification is an experience in which we +can not sin, and when through this idea men lift their hands in +horror and desist from seeking this precious grace, all hell +chuckles with real satisfaction. But who teaches such fanaticism? +Life is always a probation. The will is free. The Bible teaches +this truth, and we believe it. The holiest saint on earth may, IF +HE CHOOSE, sin and go to hell. Everything hangs upon the choice. +Thank God we NEED not fall. Falling is possible, but not +necessary. + +NOT A DAY-DREAM. + +A third evil report is that sanctification is an impracticable +day-dream, unfit for everyday life and the common round of duties. +"It is," so it is said, "all very well for ministers, and class +leaders, and superintendents of Sunday-schools, and people who are +not very busy in life to get sanctification, but it will not stand +the strain and tension to which it would be subjected in some +lives." But "God is no respecter of persons," and what He will do +for one of His children He will do for all. And then, if we only +knew it, sanctification is just suited to the life of trial and +perplexity. + +"BILLY" BRAY AND CARVOSSO. + +If there is a man to be found who has to labor hard all day and +has a life full of care, sanctification is just the experience he +needs. Read the life of Mrs. Fletcher, and see how sanctification +can help a woman with multitudinous domestic cares. Study the +lives of "Billy" Bray and William Carvosso, and remember that it +was santification which helped these men in their difficulties. If +there is a soul anywhere filled with unspeakable sorrow, shivering +alone in the dark, the brightest light that can come to that +stricken soul is full salvation. No matter how sharp the thorn, +nor how galling the fetter, sanctification turns the thorn into +oil, and the fetter into a chain of plaited flowers. + +CLANS. + +It is said by some that sanctification makes people "clannish." +Clannish is a word with a rather offensive taste on the tongue, +and is altogether too harsh a word to apply to that congregative +instinct that makes pure-minded persons crave the fellowship of +kindred spirits. There is nothing intentionally exclusive about +the holiness movement. If a man is shut out it is because he shuts +himself out; if he does not feel at home in a full salvation +service it is because he has not yet obtained full salvation. + +BROWNING CLUBS. + +Men who share great truths and principles in common find in each +other's presence and fellowship great help. Admirers of Browning +form "Browning Clubs"; foot-ball men gather themselves into +"associations"; ministers meet in "Monday meetings"; Christians +organize "churches"; is it to be thought strange if people who are +sanctified wholly delight to meet for conference and mutual +help? + +THE SPLITTING OF THE CHURCH + +A few uninformed persons say that "holiness splits the church." +But this is false. When men love God with all their heart and +their neighbors as themselves, nothing can separate them. If, +however, people of different sorts and kinds, some saved and some +unsaved, are in one organization, it will not require anything +much to make them differ in opinion. The real ecclesia, the +genuine church, is not so easily split. One of our most brilliant +and spiritual holiness writers has remarked in pleasantry that the +anxiety of some in regard to the splitting of the church would +lead one to think that there was something inside which they were +afraid would be seen in case of a cleavage. + +KEEP TO THE BIBLE. + +Keep to the Bible idea of sanctification. Let not the adversary +dupe you and frighten you from its quest and obtainment. Begin +now; seek, search, pray, consecrate, believe, and soon the +blessing will fall upon your waiting soul. + + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST PRAYED--"SANCTIFY THEM." + + +CONVERTED MEN. + +The men for whom Christ prayed were converted men, and were living +in justified relation to God. In proof of this statement, let the +reader study the context carefully. + +A CLOUDLESS SKY. + +In the sixteenth chapter of St. John, the one immediately +preceding the sacerdotal prayer, the conversation which is +recorded would be impossible were the disciples conscious of +guilt. One can not read those sublime verses without the +irresistible conviction that the disciples' sky of soul- +consciousness was blue and cloudless. There is no hint in Christ's +discourse that these men are "of the world," but rather it is +taken for granted that they are children of God and heirs of the +kingdom. + +A SPECIFIC STATEMENT. + +It is the sheerest folly for one to maintain that the conversion +of the disciples did not occur prior to Pentecost. If words mean +anything, Jesus made a specific statement to the contrary. +"Rejoice," says He, "that your names are written in heaven." In +His prayer He says to His Father: "They have kept Thy word"; "they +are Thine"; "I pray for them, I pray not for the world." Notice +the distinction which He makes between "them" and "the world." +These men are picked men. They are very different from the great +unpardoned, sinful throng outside the kingdom--they are +CHRISTIANS. + +THE CHAMBER OF BLESSING. + +A very good evidence of the genuineness of the conversion of the +disciples was their painstaking care to follow out minutely the +directions of their ascended Lord. He had prayed for their +sanctification; they desired it. He had spoken of a coming +Comforter, and they eagerly awaited His advent. He had said, +"Tarry in Jerusalem until" His arrival, and they conscientiously +met in an "upper room" for a ten-day prayer-meeting. "Farewell! +friends; farewell! memory-haunted synagogues; farewell! sacred +temple; farewell! long-bearded priests; farewell all! we must go +to prayer: our Lord said that we should be sanctified." And thus +in long line the one hundred and twenty file up the stairs to the +Chamber of Blessing. There is no lightness, no jesting, no +quibbling, no bickering; all are serious, terribly in earnest, +intent on "the promise of the Father." There is Peter, impulsive +and eager, whole-hearted and enthusiastic; there is the meek and +quiet Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet at the old home in Bethany; +there is the child-like saint, the devout and spiritual John; +there is the repentant woman of Magdala; and there are many others +who betake themselves to that sacred place--"the upper room." One +all-engrossing thought fills their minds. "The promise of the +Father which ye have heard of me. The promise of the Father! The +promise of the Father! O, when will He come? We would know more +about our departed Lord. He is gone from us. Our hearts are torn +and bleeding and lonely. Jesus said, 'He shall testify of me.' +Would that He would come now!" + +WHY ONLY THE FEW? + +But why are there only one hundred and twenty? Was it not into +Jerusalem that Christ entered riding over a cloak-carpeted way +amid the deafening shouts of "Hosanna"? Did He not teach and +instruct and heal hundreds, if not thousands, in and about +Jerusalem? Was He not lionized at times by an admiring public? +Yea, truly; but one may admire Christ and yet not love Him. There +are many who at some "hard saying" refuse to walk with Him. +Thousands who have a keen appreciation of "loaves and fishes" +shrink from "leaving all" and following Jesus. A great concourse +is drawn and held spell-bound by a naive, graceful, eloquent, +artless preacher who uses "lilies," and the "grass of the field," +and the "sower" of seed, and the "sparrow" in the air to enforce +his truth. But one may be interested, and yet not be saved. + +THE AESTHETIC ELEMENT. + +In some people religion appeals to the aesthetic nature, and to +that only. They festoon the cross with flowers, but never think of +dying on it. They are charmed by Gothic churches filled with "dim, +religious light." The waves of music from the great; sounding +organ awe their souls and fill them with a pensiveness which they +mistake for repentance. Pointed arches, sculptured capitals, +fretted altars, swinging censers, burning candles, white-robed +choir-boys, errorless order in church service--these auxiliaries +influence them so strongly in their sense of the beautiful that +they think, "Surely I love God. Why, of course I love God." But to +love God involves something practical. It means something more +than mere profession. It means rugged self-denial, Spartan +heroism, perhaps the loss of an "arm" or the "plucking out of an +eye." Base must have been the soul which was not attracted by One +who "spake as never man spake"; low-minded the man who did not see +in Him imperishable beauty and refinement of soul; but ah! +discipleship means far more than that. Christ had flown up to +heaven. Who now will prove his love for Him by obeying His +commands? Who will tarry in Jerusalem awaiting the coming Spirit, +and then, the Comforter having come, be ready to "Go into all the +world, discipling all nations"? Answer: All who are truly children +of God. The preaching of sanctification is the touchstone by which +the genuineness of conversions can be tested. The truly living +"hunger and thirst after righteousness"; the dead do not "bother +their heads about a second blessing." + +THE STEAMER "PURITAN." + +Let us illustrate: It was fifteen minutes until the schedule time +for the "Puritan" of the "Fall River Line" to leave her New York +pier. The evening was warm, and the usual crowd filled the decks. +Many had come on board to see their friends off for Newport, Bar +Harbor and "the Pier." Passengers and their friends sat in groups +and chatted, talked about the trip, the weather, the situation at +Santiago, the flowers they held, the concert by the orchestra. It +was impossible for an observer to determine just who were +passengers and held tickets, and who were merely bidding farewell +to their friends. Suddenly an officer in gold-braided cap and blue +uniform appeared, and cried out with an authoritative voice and a +look of command, "All ashore who are going ashore! All ashore who +are going ashore!" Immediately there were hasty hand-clasps and +hasty good-byes, and a large part of the company marched quickly +down the stairs and across the gang-plank. Those who were left +held tickets and were "going through." + +THE STAMPEDE FOR SHORE. + +In a revival of religion it is often a matter of considerable +difficulty to determine the genuinely converted. In the confusion +of large altar services, and the crush of great congregations, who +are the saved? No man can tell. Many are moved by sympathy for +their friends. Others are charmed by the congregational singing +and the music of the organ. Many see that the revival is bound to +go, and, like Pliable, they are swept along for a time with it. +But there appears in this mixed company a man with the stamp of +divine authority upon his brow, the gold braid of full salvation +on his helmet, the dialect of Canaan on his tongue and the air of +official appointment about his person: "Without holiness no man +shall see the Lord! All ashore who are going ashore! All ashore +who are going ashore!" Immediately "there is no small stir." Some +leave the boat by way of the gang-plank carping at the words of +the officer and arguing as they go; some in great haste vault the +balustrades and railings and leap for the pier; still others climb +out the windows of staterooms and run screaming toward the nearest +ladder which will enable them to leave the "good ship Zion." +Gradually quiet is restored. The company is smaller, and of whom +is it composed? The genuinely converted. What are they doing? They +are asking the nearest officer how soon the boat leaves for New +England. "When can I be sanctified wholly? O, pray for me! I want +the blessing now!" They are "going through." + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +CHRIST'S PRAYER ANSWERED. + + +GOD LISTENS. + +When Christ opens His mouth, God bows down His ear. "I know that +thou hearest me always." The disciples did not wait long until +they were baptized with the Holy Ghost. Christ's prayer found +audience and the answer was not long delayed. + +HEART CLEANSING. + +The baptism with the Spirit which was administered to the one +hundred and twenty effected their sanctification. The cleansing of +their hearts was one of the effects of the out-pouring of the +Spirit. Sanctification and the baptism with the Spirit are +therefore coetaneous--they take place at the same time. + + PETER'S PROOF. + +This is proven by an inspired statement made by Peter. Referring +to the Gentiles he says that God "put no difference between them" +and us Jews who were sanctified at Pentecost, "purifying their +hearts by faith." + + THE MANNER OF CLEANSING. + +There need be no confusion as to the manner of cleansing. Jesus +prayed, "Sanctify them THROUGH THY TRUTH." It is by means of the +truth preached of and read, that we first hear of a full +deliverance from all sin. It is "through the truth" that we learn +of God's willingness as well as His power to sanctify. If it had +not been for THE BLOOD, Jesus could never have guaranteed the +coming of the Comforter; the blood is "the procuring cause" of all +the blessings which we receive. Everything comes through the +atonement. FAITH is the human condition necessary for the +cleansing of the soul; so that, in a very important sense, we are +sanctified by faith. THE DIVINE OMNIPOTENT HOLY GHOST is the +immediate agency of heart-cleansing. He is the baptizing element +administered by Christ the Divine Baptizer: "He shall baptize you +with the Holy Ghost." + +FIRE! + +It would be well for us to notice some of the characteristics of +the Pentecostal anointing. John the Baptist, minister of the +gospel and preacher of genuine regeneration, said of Jesus that +"he should baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire," thus using a +most powerful symbol to characterize the nature of the work of the +Holy Ghost. Everyone is familiar with the action of fire; it burns +everything combustible with which it comes in contact. + +CONSEALED SERPENTS. + +We submit that no one can tell just how much there is in the heart +that needs to be consumed. There are things dormant in the +unsanctified heart of which the man never dreams. There are +serpents coiled in balls, and vipers spitting poison, and +centipedes, and fat blinking toads, and vampires, and lizards, and +tarantulas, that we never suspect of being in the soul. But they +are there. + +THE EMBRYOS OF CRIME. + +It is God's mercy that says, "Be ye holy," for He knows that +unless we get cleaned out and purified the inner reptiles will +poison us to death. Every unsanctified man carries in his bosom +the seeds of all possible crimes, the embryos of all black +actions. There are times when we half believe that something of +the kind is true. Did you ever stand by the cage of a lion and +watch his restless pace and feel that you had something in you +kindred to him? Many a man has gazed into the green eyes of a wild +beast and trembled, feeling a similarity of nature. Every son of +Adam feels the beast stir in him at times, until Pentecost +eradicates the bestial principle. + +SMOULDERING EMBERS. + +The embers from which hell-fire is kindled smoulder in the +unsanctified heart. It is dangerous to attempt to build a +Christian character over a latent volcano. A once active volcano +becomes inactive. The lava cools, the ashes settle, and the smoke +drifts away. An enterprising farmer covers a considerable space of +the once fiery volcanic field with fresh earth carted from a +fertile valley. All goes well for a year or two. The garden +prospers, the vegetables are most encouraging, and the produce is +abundant. But one morning the farmer notices that smoke is issuing +from the crater at the summit of the mountain. The sky blackens +and red flames flash amid the clouds of smoke. The land is shaken +with earthquakes. Suddenly, right in the middle of his verdant +field, a great red-lipped chasm opens and blue flames leap upwards +and surge toward the sky. His crops are blasted with the "fierce +heat of the flame," and the work of years is wrecked in a moment. + +BLUE FLAMES OF GEHENNA + +No permanent Christian life can be built upon the foundation of an +unsanctified heart. For a time the graces of the Spirit may seem +to grow, but in some sad hour the surface will split open and the +man will leap back aghast at the blue flames of Gehenna, which +singe his brows and blacken his cheeks. + +THE PROPHET AND PRINCE. + +An old white-haired prophet and a gay young prince are in +conversation. The aged man bows his head upon his staff and weeps. + +"For what are you weeping, old man?" + +"Ah, I am thinking of the black and dastardly crimes you will +commit when you have once become king." + +"Is thy servant a dog, a ruthless town whelp, that he should do +such things?" + +PROPHECY FULFILLED + +But years roll on and the young man is king, and his hands are +stained with crime, and the old man's predictions come true. God +had given the aged saint a view of the boy's breast, and he saw +the embryonic seeds of sin which, if allowed to remain, would +sprout and produce a fruitage of evil deeds. + +THE BROKEN FLOWER + +The secret of the downfall of many a brilliant character is a +bosom sinfulness little expected to be in existence. No man saw +the black and ugly thing but it was there. A lady had a tall and +graceful plant. The flowers were white and beautiful and all the +town said, "What a fine flower!" One day a storm swept across the +garden. One plant was injured; it was the one which people had +admired and praised. Filled with grief, the lady stooped to +examine the stem, and found that it had been pierced by a worm- +hole. The insect had worked silently and secretly. No one saw him +cutting into the heart of the tall and magnificent flower, but in +a storm, under a test severe and protracted, the stem snapped and +the choice beauty of the garden was a thing of the past. + +THE WORM IN THE HEART. + +It is the worm in the heart with his relentless and resistless +tooth, which weakens the character. Under severe and protracted +temptation the will snaps and yields, and the beautiful life is a +wreck and fit only for the dump of the Universe. + +STUMPS AND ROOTS. + +There are many roots, hidden roots, which bury themselves deep in +the soil of the heart. They extend far below clear cerebration, +twisting and twining themselves in "the fringe of consciousness." +It takes the fire of the Holy Ghost to follow them deep into the +ground and destroy them. It used to be a pastime of the boys in +eastern Ohio to pile great heaps of brush upon huge stumps in +newly-cleared land. All the long October day they would toil, +raising a stack of dry limbs upon the stump which needed to be +removed. In the evening when twilight came and the stars shone +out, they would light the brush and watch the flames greedily +devour the pile. In the morning when the lads returned to the +scene of the fire, no sign of the stump was to be seen. Looking +closely they saw great holes as large at the top of the ground as +a man's body, and tapering to a small point as they went deep into +the earth. The fire had found the huge roots, and had tracked them +into their retreats and consumed them. + +FIRE OF PENTECOST. + +We pile the brush of time and talents and money and name and self +upon the altar, and the fire of Pentecost, which God sends as He +sent to Mount Carmel of old, will destroy not only the brush, but +the roots of sin, one and all. + + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHRISTIAN UNITY. + + +A COMMON PLATFORM. + +One of the results spoken of by Christ in His prayer, and brought +about by sanctification, is Christian unity--"that they all may be +one." There is but one remedy for sectism and bigotry, and it is +found in the answer to Christ's petition. When Pentecost comes to +us we are all lifted upon one grand common platform and shake +hands and shout and weep and laugh and get so mixed up that a +Presbyterian can not be distinguished from a Methodist, nor a +Friend from an Episcopalian vestryman. + +FALSE UNITY. + +We have heard much about the organic union of churches. Many great +and good men have looked forward with sanguine hopes to the day +when we should do away with denominations. In a few cases two +churches of different sects have united and worshipped in one +congregation. But the causes of such unity are frequently far from +gratifying. In D----the Methodists and Primitive Methodists clasp +hands and join forces because they can thus make one preacher do +the work which two formerly performed. In K----the Baptists and +Presbyterians unite because the thirteen members of one church and +the seven of the other feel lonely in their great refrigerators +and are inclined to make friends and preserve life. The cold is +most intense. In the far North the weather is sometimes so severe +that wild beasts, ordinarily hostile both toward each other and +man, crowd close together near the campfire of the explorer. + +With many churches it is "unite or die!" The mallet of the +auctioneer threatens the steeple-house, the young folks are off +"golfing" or "hiking," and the gray-beards, lonely and terror- +stricken as they see church extinction approaching, favor "a union +of forces with some other church." In the church magazines of the +next month appear sundry articles on "the broad and liberal spirit +of the nineteenth century church." "A large catholicity is taking +the place of the old fogyism of former days," scribbles the hack- +writer. + +THE "MILKSOP'S" THEORY. + +In a few cases large congregations have united. When we behold it +our hopes rise, but they are doomed to early blight by a careful +study of the situation. The cause of denominationalism is the +tenacious clinging to faith and doctrines. Whether or no we ought +to all believe precisely alike about non-essentials, one thing is +sure, the man who does not cleave to some faith, heart and head +and brain and blood, is worthless in Christ's army. Milksops may +be ornamental, they are certainly not militant, and God wants +soldiers. The man who does not know what he believes, and the man +who says "it does not matter what one believes if one is only +sincere," are more despicable than the Yankees who burned witches +in Salem. Better that a man be "narrow" than that he be so +"broad" as to take in "the devil and all his angels." Out upon +our folly when we barter away the truth of God for a flimsy, +tissue-paper bond of so-called "fellowship"! + +CHRISTIAN ONENESS. + +There is a unity, however, and to it Christ referred, which does +not consist in uniformity of creed but in oneness of heart. When +we are truly sanctified the non-baptizing Quaker, and the trine +immersionist, and the High Church Episcopalian, and the foot- +washing Tunker, and the Methodist, and the Baptist, and the +Congregationalist all unite in one far-reaching melodious chorus, + + "HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD!" + +DISTINCTIONS OBLITERATED. + +Sanctification destroys sticklerism for non-essentials and the +lust for fine distinctions in dogmatics. It slays the doctrinaire +and makes a red-hot revivalist out of him. The purified soul takes +the Bible for his "credo" and loves God's children of whatever +name with a generosity that overtops every inadequate +consideration. The sanctified are united by a common cause and a +common experience. Opinions may differ as to ecclesiastical polity +or the mode of baptism, but the white cord of sanctification is +"the bond of perfectness" which makes them one bundle. Yale and +Cornell are rivals with their "eights" and "shells" on American +Hudson, but men from both colleges join forces to beat the +Britishers at Henley. Holiness people of every church unite to +"push holiness." + +THE SPOKES AND THE HUB. + +When the glorious grace of full salvation is experienced, love for +Christ is increased and intensified. Everyone wants to magnify Him +and live close to Him: and as we get close to Him, the Hub, the +distance between us, the spokes, is lessened. + +THE D.D. AND THE NEGRO. + +A D.D. and a negro meet on a Mississippi River boat. They fall +into conversation. The doctor speaks of the Lord. The negro's eyes +fill and he says, "You know my Savior?" and they shake hands and +weep and shout. Why this community of feeling between men of such +diverse stations in life? Both possess the blessing of entire +sanctification. + +VARIOUS SECTS + +The writer has had the privilege of preaching in churches of +different denominations in the work of special evangelism, but +never has he known the falling of Pentecostal fire to fail to burn +up sectarianism. It is no easy matter to find out from the +preaching of our holiness preachers under what denominational flag +they sail. Full salvation obliterates the fences which separate +the people of God and makes them really "one in Christ Jesus." + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FEARLESSNESS. + + +PETER THE FEARLESS. + +There was a man among the one hundred and twenty "upper room +believers" in whom Pentecost effected a most apparent and almost +spectacular change. It was Peter. We remember him as the man at +whom the young girl pointed her finger and laughed. We recall that +he was so cowardly that he denied his Lord on the spot, swearing +that he did not know Him. Behold this same Peter on the day of +Pentecost. He is charging home the murder of Christ. Fear is gone, +and gone forever. He faces men and does not flinch an iota. +Carnality, the source of cowardice, has been removed, and the +weakling is turned into a Lord Nelson for bravery, and a +Savonarola for faithfulness to men's souls. + +SHALL WE TREMBLE? + +Fear of man is one of the most illogical things in the world. Men +sell the blood of Jesus and hope of heaven and eternal happiness +because of "what people say." Think of it, afraid of a man who +will die and be hurried under ground before he rots! Frightened at +a thing dressed in a long black coat and a white cravat with a +golden-headed cane and a tall hat and a frown; a thing which will +stop breathing some fine day and the worms will eat! Shall I +tremble when an ecclesiastical Leo utters a roar? Shall I halt and +stammer because a top-heavy lad from a theological seminary, +hopelessly in love with himself, scowls at the word +"sanctification"? + +QUEER COURAGE. + +There are some who bolster their courage by saying ostentatiously, +"I don't care what folks say," but their very vehemence shows that +they DO care a very great deal. We boys all remember how we used +to whistle when we passed a graveyard after dark to show we +"weren't afraid"; and how hard it was to keep our mouths puckered +and how shaky our legs felt! + +AFRAID TO BREAK STEP + +The folks we are afraid of are afraid of us. "What a situation! A +great regiment of people marching straight down to hell, everyone +afraid to break step for fear the others will laugh! That is +precisely the condition of nearly every sinner. + +COURAGE OF THERMOPYLAE + +Sanctification takes away the shrinking timidity and puts in a +courage like that at Thermopylae. There was once a young man who, +previous to his sanctification, was so timid that he frequently +stayed away from church for no other reason than that he feared +God might ask him to testify. He enjoyed meetings and loved to +hear preaching, but the very idea of testimony would frighten him +almost ill. Now he frequently addresses many hundreds and never +feels the slightest embarrassment. + +UNMASK PRURIENCY. + +The ministry is sadly in need of a blessing which will give it +courage to attack sin of all kinds and degrees. We need men who +will rip the mask off the putrid face of corruption and pronounce +God's sentence upon it; who will lift up the trap-door of the +cess-pools of men's hearts and bid them look within at their own +slime and filth; who will "cry aloud and spare not," though the +infuriated cohorts of bat-winged demons snarl and shriek. + +SPEAK PLAINLY. + +There will be a day when men will curse us because we have not +preached more plainly. You can call a spade "a spade" or you can +designate it as "an iron utensil employed for excavating +purposes," but if you want folks to understand what you are +driving at use the shorter term. + +SHOOTING OVER MEN'S HEADS. + +There is too little plain Anglo-Saxon preaching. We shoot far over +the heads of our congregations and do not even scar the varnish on +the gallery banister. We dwell on the points of distinction +between Calvinism and Arminianism when the greater part of our +people do not know the difference between an Arminian and an +Armenian, and some good old sister thinks we are preaching on the +cruelty of the Turks. Here I am discussing "The Dangers of +Imperialism" and "The Anglo-American Friendship," while men are +starving for the Bread of Life! Brethren in the ministry, let us +be less anxious about the syllogistic accuracy of our sermons and +be more eager to help men live right and quit sin and go to +heaven. + +THE PULPIT CANNON. + +There are many sins which few men have the courage to antagonize +in public. Theoretically the pulpit is supposed to cannonade all +sin of every variety and species, but, alas, it is usually too +cowardly. The Spirit-filled man fears no one from Sandow down to +Tom Thumb, from a plug-hat Bishop to a little pusilanimous dude +preacher. + +GHASTLY CRIMES. + +It is not that ministers are unawares of the prevalence of black +and ghastly crimes, but that they dare not speak openly against +them. Too many are contaminated with evil and involved in guilt +for the preacher to voice with impunity the truths which burn in +his soul. He knows only too well that if he dares assert his +manhood and exercises the prerogative of Christ's minister, the +retribution will be swift and terrible, viz: ejectment from his +pastorate! + +MURDER + +How ominous is the silence concerning murder. And yet the land is +swarming with crimson-handed murderers and murderesses. Many of +them are members of our "best churches" and move in the most +select society. Some of them read with animation the responses in +church service and repeat the Lord's Prayer with the greatest +gusto. A few--not many, we devoutly trust--talk about +"sanctification." Poor, deluded, hoodwinked souls! they are +blinded by Satan. Their hands are red with blood, and their hearts +are black as hell. Were they to ever approach the heaven of which +they sanctimoniously prate, they would be met at the gate with the +curse of murdered infants who never saw the light. + +INFANTICIDE + +If there is a pitiable sight in all God's great universe, if there +is a scene over which angels shed tears and demons shriek +laughter, it is an old cruel-eyed mother, who has seared her +conscience and sinned away all noble womanliness and blasted her +own soul, whispering into the unsoiled ears of her daughter the +way in which to murder her own offspring; and if there is a hot +hell, such a mother will make her bed in it. + +POODLE-DOGS. + +The duties and cares of maternity are too irksome, and so the +women who might be the mothers of John Wesleys and Fenelons and +Metchers and Inskips and Cookmans are petting poodle-dogs and rat- +terriers. + +THE VITRIOL OF WRATH. + +How many preachers dare speak in clarion tones what religion and +science concur in asserting concerning vice? But know ye by these +presents, all of Adam's race, that what depraved humanity +pronounces all right and harmless, the Almighty God who whirls the +worlds will corrode and scald with the burning vitriol of His +wrath, and woe! woe! woe! to the man or woman with whom is found +sin. + +GILT-EDGED FRAUDS. + +Any tyro knows who drowned Morgan, but the clergyman who "opens +up" on Masonry is a curiosity. Why, how can the ministers say +anything when they are the chaplains of these gilt-edged frauds +called "lodges"? It does not take much calculation to show that an +institution which spends three dollars in giving away one has no +right to exist. Some of the more weak-minded and puerile of the +clergy are doubtless in fear lest their "tongues should be torn +out by the roots and their hearts buried in the rough sands of the +seashore." Brave men are not so easily scared. + +BOLOGNA SAUSAGE. + +Secretism in itself is suspicious. Solon said that he wanted his +house so constructed that the people could see him at all hours +and thus know him to be a good man. A system which is so built +that the public is kept in the dark is entitled to the attention +of a Pinkerton. Bologna sausage made in a factory at the door of +which is a huge sign, "No Admittance," may be all right, but you +can not make people think so. + +THE ENTERTAINMENT. + +There are few preachers so foolish and illogical as to believe +that the entertainment plan is the best way to raise money for +church work, yet scarcely one of them declares his honest +straight-forward conviction about it. Now and then a Hale, more +daring than the rest, writes a remonstrative article for the +Forum, but the great mass keep quiet. A Pentecostal ministry will +wheel its guns into position and load and fire into the supper and +festival crowd notwithstanding the voices of objectors. + +HEROISM. + +Whatever may be the matter under consideration the sanctified man +dares anything right. God is with him, and he feels His presence. +Right is right, and by the grace of God he will stand by it though +all the world howl and roar. + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +RESPONSIVENESS TO CHRIST. + + +A COAL AND A FLAME. + +Among the results of the coming of the Comforter is an increase in +warm personal love for Jesus. Conversion plants divine love +(agape) in the heart, but sanctification quickens and intensifies +it. Conversion drops a coal into the breast; the fuller grace fans +it into a flame. + +SOUNDING STRINGS. + +There is a place in experience where Christ's voice sets the whole +being vibrating. The soul is so in tune with Him that the cadences +of His tones fill the soul with a tremor of glee and gladness. If +you sing the scale in a room where there is a piano the +corresponding strings of the instrument will sound. Thus it is +with Jesus and the sanctified soul. When Christ speaks the heart +answers spontaneously. + +REGENERATION + +Regeneration does much for us. But there is that even in the heart +of the regenerate which is antagonistic to Christ. The whole man +does not say instinctively, "Thy will be done"; yet there is +something within to which the Lord can appeal. Consult Peter. He +tells us of "exceeding great and precious promises by which we +become partakers of the Divine nature." We "take a part" +(partakers) of the divine Shekinah into our hearts. We are not +only "adopted" but born of God, and by a divine heredity we +possess His character. + +SAMUEL. + +We see this beautifully illustrated in the case of Samuel. Given +in covenant to God from his birth, and early taught the word of +the Lord, he possessed the changed heart and the attuned ear. When +God's voice fell out of the skies that night something in Samuel +heard what aged and mitred Eli could not hear. Eli had the theory +and reasoned out who the speaker must be, but the heart of Samuel +awoke intuitively at the sound of that voice. + +THE VOICE FROM THE SKY. + +As Jesus taught in the temple God spoke, and many whose ears were +dull because their hearts were hard and unchanged said, "It +thundered." Others saw that something extraordinary had occurred +and admitted that "an angel spoke to Him." But the disciples whose +"names were written in heaven," and who had regenerated hearts, +knew it was the voice of God. + +THE FLINTY WORLD. + +But while the child of God is in sympathy with God he must be +sanctified wholly to be fully, constantly and completely +responsive to Christ. Jesus wants a bride who will live His life +with Him and enter into all His plans and sorrows, ambitions and +trials, aims and purposes. There are many people who are glad +Jesus died for them who know nothing about "suffering with +Christ." Yet the Bible is filled with allusions to it. The +Heavenly Bridegroom wants a companion who will understand Him. +This cold, hard, flinty, wicked world does not. "He came unto His +own and His own received Him not." He knocked at the door of His +own vineyard and the husband-men said, "Come, let us kill the +Son." The divine Lord hungers for some one who will not misjudge +His purposes nor impute to Him base motives. + +THE UNAPPRECIATED. + +We have all seen people who were never appreciated. Those who were +near to them by blood and kindred always thought them strange and +visionary. What a sad thing if Christ's bride does not appreciate +His aims for the world, His sorrow over perishing souls, His +heart-ache over dying men! "The fellowship of His sufferings"-- +what can it mean? It means that we mourn over the sin in the world +which makes Christ weep; sob over the evil that makes Him hang His +fair head and groan. It means that ever and always we shall look +at things from the Christ standpoint. + +THE SHEEP AND THE SHEPHERD. + +"My sheep know [recognize] my voice," says the Shepherd. He states +the principle that "sheep" always hear when He speaks. "Lambs" may +be at times mistaken as to the voices that cry in the soul, but +Christians whose experience entitles them to the designation, +"sheep," do not err as to the speaker. Watch a good shepherd +collect his flock at evening. Every sheep knows him. It is getting +dark, and the quiet animals are busily feeding in the fragrant +clover, but the tender cadences of the voice of their guide and +protector pierce their delicate ears and enter their gentle +hearts, and the white flock comes bounding toward the shepherd. A +sportsman in golf suit and plaid cap and with a fine baritone +voice may call earnestly, but "a stranger will they not follow." +The shepherd holds the key to their confidence, and no one else +can unlock the door to their love. + +CHRIST HAS THE KEY. + +Christ has the key to our hearts. He stands in the dusk of evening +in the falling dew and sends His sweet voice out across the +billowing fields of clover, and all His sheep leap toward "the +Good Shepherd." + +THE COW AND THE SUNSET. + +Sanctification brings out the power of appreciation in the soul. +What God does for you fills your soul with gratitude, and you can +get blessed any time of day or night by simply reflecting on the +mercies and lovingkindnesses of the Lord. The natural human heart +does not appreciate God, and sees nothing especially lovely in +Him. A cow and the man who owns the cow may stand side by side and +look at the same sunset. The cow sees a big splotch of crimson and +gold; the other sees one of God's sky-paintings, and is inspired +to holy living and self-denial and fidelity to the Master. You +must have a "sunset nature" to appreciate a sunset, and you must +be sanctified wholly to see in Christ a beauty and loveliness +which no Murillo and no Raphael and no Del Sarto have yet put on +canvas. + +THE LOVELY CHRIST. + +O the lovely Christ! How the heart aches to go to Him! We get so +homesick for Jesus. People are so dull and uninteresting and vapid +and stupid--so precisely like ourselves--we get weary of the world +and its emptiness, and yearn to fly away to be with the spotless +Christ and live in that + + "Undiscovered country, from whose bourne + No traveller returns" + +Some day, thank God! the Bridegroom will step out upon the balcony +of heaven and look at us and speak to us in a tone inaudible to +all but ourselves, and our souls will bound with rapture and the +earthen vessel will crumble and we will spread snowy pinions and +wing our flight up to the presence of our soul's King! + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +SOUL-REST. + + +AN EFFECT. + +One of the beatific effects of the cleansing of the heart from all +sin is soul-rest. It always accompanies the glorious experience of +entire purity. + +FACIAL INSCRIPTIONS. + +This poor tired world of ours needs rest. Study the faces of the +people you meet in the streets, in the markets, in the cars, in +the churches, and there is one word NOT written on them, and that +word is "Rest." You will find many other words written on them. On +some faces you see "Selfishness" in crabbed, crooked letters; on +others "Lust" in bold-faced type; on others "Gluttony"; on others, +"Self-Conceit"; on others, "Craftiness"; and on through a thousand +unworthy legends; but the one thing which makes life worth living +is not found except among the sanctified. + +VAMPIRES AND BATS. + +It is wonderful how elusive rest is. You may search for it all +your days and grow gray and haggard, and sit down in the evening +of life with the vampires circling about you and be forced to +confess, "I have not found rest!" You may retire from business and +say, "I will spend my declining years in peace," but as the sun +goes down the bats come out and flap the black skinny wings of the +sins of other days in your affrighted face. If you are a student +you may drop your books like Dr. Faust and hurry to the country, +but the imp of restlessness will dog your steps and snare your +pathway and you will carry home with you a Mephisto who will never +leave you. + +THE SEEDS OF ANARCHY. + +Some Christian people seek rest in changing preachers, but there +is nothing in that to bring it. You may leave the minister who +thumps the desk and listen to a man with a nasal twang, but you +are still restive and unsatisfied. You think the reason your peace +of soul is disturbed is that Mrs. Garrulous talked about you, or +that the weather is rainy and disagreeable, or that the meetings +are dull, or that people are selfish. The real reason is that you +have a restlessness in your heart characteristic of inbred sin. +You possess the seeds of dissatisfaction, and lawlessness, and +anarchy, and nothing but holiness of heart will expel them. + +THE OCEAN DEPTHS. + +Down in the unfathomed depths of old Ocean there is no movement, +no disturbance. Gigantic "Majesties" and "Kaiser Wilhelms" and +"Oregons" and "Vizcayas" plow and whiten the surface; tempests +rage and Euroclydons roar and currents change and tides ebb and +flow, but the great depth knows no ripple. It is said that down +there the most fragile of frail and delicate organisms grow in +safety. In the depths of the sanctified heart there is no storm +and no breaker. Trials may come and leave white scars; billows may +beat and surges may roll, and water-spouts and tornadoes may make +the upper sea boil with anguish and sorrow and grief, but deep in +the heart there is calm. There the delicate graces of the Spirit +thrive and luxuriate. Great, soulless, iron-keeled, worldly +institutions and sharp-prowed cutters may ride over your +sensibilities, but the inner placidity is unbroken. + +THE ETERNAL SABBATH. + +God's plan is to rest us so we can work for Him with ease and +success. He institutes an everlasting Sabbath in the spirit that +we may be ceaseless in sanctified activities. If a man is always +jaded and tired he can not take hold of his work with much +enthusiasm. + +SPIRITUAL POISE. + +There is no mistaking the man or woman who has found the second +rest. There is a poise of spirit and a sweet serious balance of +soul which can not be counterfeited. The preacher who appreciates +spirituality sees no sight more beautiful than the serene, calm +faces of auditors from whose souls the tempests have been cast. +Life's toils and distractions and disappointments have all been +negatived by the power of the all-conquering Christ. + +A SCENE AT ALLENTOWN. + +These words are being written in the city of Allentown, Pa., where +the writer is spending ten days in a series of Pentecostal +services. Last evening we saw a symbol of the rest Christ gives. +We strolled along the east bank of the Lehigh River about half an +hour after sunset. All the western sky was beautiful with an +afterglow. The water of the river, silver near the shore and +golden toward the west, was as still as the face of a mirror. The +trees on the shore leaned over perfect pictures of themselves. The +hills, which fell back gracefully from the valley, were covered +with cloaks of gold and vermillion and emerald, and not a leaf +stirred in the evening air. Far up the river the tiny bell of a +canal-mule tinkled drowsily. On the veranda of a little cottage a +young mother crooned a lullably to a slumbering child, and a +little bird in a thick grove called, "Peace! Peace!" + +CALM. + +If God can make so beautiful a scene in the physical world, what +can He not make in the spiritual? Thank God! He can excel anything +the natural eye ever beheld. He can hang the soul with paintings +and turn the "River of Life clear as crystal" through it, and fill +the chambers of the heart with lullabies and the song of birds +crying, "Peace!" If there are times when we are awed and charmed +by + + "All the beauty of the world" + +let us remember that what we see is only a type of the grandeur +and glory and splendor He will put in our spirit-nature if we but +permit Him to sanctify us and cast out the storms and tempests. + +THE PAIN OF SYMPATHY. + +While we may possess and enjoy "the second rest" here and now, we +need not forget that another is promised to us. We get weary +physically sometimes here. The days frequently seem long and +trying. There are hours and hours of labor, and nights and nights +of toil, but, thank God! we can say at each sunset, "I am one day +nearer rest." For while a sanctified man is always at rest +spiritually, he can not rest physically to much satisfaction. In +his dreams he can see the white, drawn faces of the doomed, and +hear the wild uncouth shriek of the tormented. He remembers with +horror that one hundred thousand souls are rolled off into +Eternity while the earth makes one revolution! He thinks of +cheerless homes, and torn and bleeding hearts, and wives waiting +for the sound of unsteady steps, and children friendless and +hungry, and figures leaping from bridges, and shaking hands +holding poison, and maniacs behind the bars glaring with wild eye- +balls through dishevelled hair! And he leaps from the couch with +the cry, "O the pity of it all!" And he can not be still, he can +not be idle, but is constrained to do his utmost by word and pen +to save a sinking, gurgling, drowning humanity. + +WHEN IT IS ALL OVER. + +But one day it will all be over. Soon we shall all have preached +our last sermon and prayed our last prayer and spoken our last +word. Our lives will soon have passed into history. That blessed +hour will soon be here in which we shall "lay down the silver +trumpet of ministry and take up the golden harp of praise." +Hallelujah, it is coming! it is coming! Praise the Lord! + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +PRAYERFULNESS. + + +DELIGHT IN PRAYER. + +The precious grace of entire sanctification brings to the heart a +prayerful spirit. Prayer becomes the normal occupation of the +soul. One is surprised to discover that while it was formerly +difficult, if not irksome, to pray at times, now one prays because +it is delightful and easy. + +DE RENTY. + +Many of us have been surprised to read in the biographies of pious +men and women that they frequently spent hours in prayer. But the +sanctified man understands all that now. He can readily believe +that De Renty heard not the voice of his servant, so intent was he +gazing into the Father's face. He does not doubt that Whitefield +in his college room was "prostrate upon the floor many days, +praying for the baptism with the Holy Ghost." + +J.W. REDFIELD. + +The writer remembers of reading when just a child the thrilling +life of John Wesley Redfield. There was nothing which struck the +boy-reader with greater force than the prayerfulness of the man. +It awed him, and made him long to enjoy such an experience as +would make prayer so delightful. In the golden experience of +sanctification he found that prayer was delightsome and blessed. +Such is the uniform testimony of all who have been cleansed from +depravity and anointed with the Holy Ghost. + +PRAYER HAS ITS ANSWER. + +God means true prayer to have audience. We can not understand how +God can vouchsafe to us such tremendous effects as He asserts +shall follow prayer. We can not defend prayer philosophically; but +either "he that asketh receiveth," or the Bible is misleading and +untrustworthy. + +TRUE PRAYER. + +But what is "true prayer"? In the first place, it is prayer which +says, "Thy will be done." If we pray selfishly, "asking amiss," we +can hope for no answer. We will get no hearing. We must ask with +the thought, "What is the Father's will? What does He consider +best?" + +DESPERATION. + +True prayer must be earnest. It was the IMPORTUNATE widow that was +heard, and it is the importunate seeker that never fails of an +answer. If when sinners, backsliders, or believers come to the +altar they would pray with earnestness and desperation, there +would be a far larger PER CENT. of them who would go away fully +satisfied. God never gives great blessings to indifferent people. +When He sees a man in an agony of desire and longing, then He +hastens to gladden his heart with an answer. + +FAITH. + +Prayer must be full of faith. James makes this clear to us. "Let +him ask in faith nothing wavering." God cannot bestow a blessing +upon us if we doubt Him. If a neighbor doubts your character, how +much of your heart do you let him see? If a fellow-preacher +imputes selfish motives to your acts, how often do you go to him +and pour your heart out to him? But those who believe in us--how +frequently we run to them, unlock our hearts and tell them all! It +is thus with God. If we believe His word, if we are sure of the +veracity of His promise, and are confidently expecting an answer, +He will not, can not disappoint us. + +THE FORGIVING SPIRIT. + +There must be in us a forgiving spirit if our prayers are to be +heard. Forgiveness of our enemies precedes blessing for ourselves. +"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will +also forgive your trespasses." If I am bitter in my heart toward +any creature, God can not but be deaf to all my cries. If I +nourish hatred, or meditate revenge, or plot the downfall of any +man, my prayers are vain; yea, all my hope in Christ is futile! + +GOSSIPING PREACHERS. + +O that God may send us all the prayerful blessing! It is better +that we pray than that we discuss politics or talk "shop," or +gossip or jest. If we preachers and evangelists at camps and +conventions would pray more instead of getting in groups and +talking about a world of nothings, our sermons would mean full as +much to those whom we address. + +UNBROKEN CONNECTION. + +Sanctification makes it possible for us to "pray without ceasing." +The indwelling Paraclete keeps the heart in a constant spirit of +prayer, so that at all hours and in all places prayers ascend. +Communication is kept up between the heart and the throne of Grod. +No snows break the wires. No floods wash away the poles. From the +pulpit, from the sidewalk, from the counter, from the railway +coach, from the sick bed, an ever-steady stream of prayer is kept +up. They may befoul our names, but they can not stop our praying. +They may "cast us out as evil," and may deny us pulpit privileges, +and take away our salaries, but prayer and praise they can not +stifle nor hinder. + +INCENSE AND THUNDER. + +The prayers of God's people are sweet to Him. "With much incense" +burning in a golden censer (Rev. viii. 3) they float to His +throne. But notice the effect of the prayers of saints. Not only +is there a silence of an half-hour but "voices and thunderings and +lightnings and an earthquake" are observed in the earth. The +children of God, if they but pray and believe, can pull spiritual +fire and earthquakes down upon earth and effect great things for +God and His Church. + + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +SUCCESS. + + +SUCCESS INTENDED. + +Nothing is clearer in the Acts of the Apostles than that the +disciples after Pentecost had success in gospel service. +Everywhere they went God rained fire upon their Word and +sanctioned the truth which they preached by tremendous moral and +spiritual upheavals. + +B. T. ROBERTS. + +Bishop Roberts has put the matter of success very succinctly: "If +the lawyer must win his case and the doctor cure his patient in +order to be successful, the minister and worker must save souls if +they in their calling are to be said to be successful." But alas, +saving souls is precisely what we are not doing. Thank God! there +is here and there a man who stands out as a soul-saver. But the +average minister is not distinguished for revivalism so much as +proficiency in making a church social a "blooming success." + +FALLEN SAMSONS. + +We all want to seem to succeed. We shun and dread the appearance +of failure. When a church begins to rot instead of grow it is +natural for us to do our utmost to find out some way of excusing +the retrogression without admitting our failure to reach men with +the gospel. There are evangelists, who in the palmy days of their +power had wonderful, heaven-gladdening revivals, who have ceased +to wield "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon," and, in order to +cover their spiritual nakedness, are forced to resort to finger- +raising, card-signing methods for stuffing and expanding "the big +revival." There is no more sobbing, no more desperate praying, no +more shouting; all is "decent and in order," as well it may be, +for all is dead. + +QUESTION OF EVANGELISM. + +Honor to soul-saving! Show us the man who wins men to our Master, +that we may clasp his hand and look into his face. Right here +hangs all the discussion about evangelism. If the evangelist gets +men soundly and scripturally converted and sanctified, let us bid +him Godspeed! If he only amuses them and deals in paltry three- +cent sensationalism, away with more of the same sort of stuff +which we already have in so many pastors! + +THE DIVINE RECIPE. + +One thing is certain: God intends success and only success for His +people. If, as His children, we fail, it must be because we have +not followed the divine recipe for power and accomplishment. It +was because the one hundred and twenty obeyed Christ and tarried +at Jerusalem that God used the early Church to whip the Roman +Empire. + +"HOW TO SUCCEED" + +"How to Succeed," used as the title for a book, will make any book +sell, though it be as dry as a patent-office report. People want +to know how to succeed in the world. How strange then that +ministers and churches who are brilliant and conspicuous failures +should shun the preaching of Pentecost--the one cure for failure +and the sole guarantee of success. + +EMPTY COMFORT. + +How many times some of us have sighed over our inefficiency! How +frequently, in default of apparent results, we have been forced to +console ourselves with the thought that we are "sowing seed" and +that there will be an abundant harvest at no distant date! Thank +God! there is success for us all. Pentecost will give it to us. + +JOHN THE BAPTIST. + +We do not mean by success financial opulence. A man may be a +success and yet as poor as John the Baptist lunching on dried +locusts and honey-comb. One may be as wealthy as Croesus and yet +be an awful failure. A church may be rich and increased with goods +and incur the Laodicean curse. + +PADDED STATISTICS. + +Neither does success mean a great and highly-trumpeted statistical +report to lug to conference. Some of our most inspiring +"successes" are all right on paper, but in reality they are +stuffed and padded scandalously. No, success in Christian work is +to "turn many to righteousness," save souls, and secure the +sanctification of believers. If we do not see such results +following our labor, we have either missed God's plan as to our +selection of a field or we are not living in the present enjoyment +of the Pentecostal Baptism. + +THE EPOCHAL EXPERIENCE. + +The preachers and evangelists who have won great successes in the +calling of sinners to repentance have almost without exception +testified to having received an "enduement" or "anointing" +subsequent to their conversion. The Caugheys, the Moodys, the +Whitefields, the Wesleys, the Foxes, the Earles, though in some +instances they have not believed in holiness according to the +Wesleyan view, have all had an epochal event after which their +work and works were effective and startling. + +THE EFFECT OF PENTECOST. + +Pentecost coming to a mission-worker will fill his heart with +enthusiasm and energy, and give him a host of jewels washed from +the mire and shining like meteors. The same experience coming to a +mechanic will fire him with a love for Jesus and a solicitude for +souls that will make him pray and fast and weep and work for his +fellow-laborers, for his neighbors, and for his friends. The +Spirit coming to a gifted singer will cause her to consecrate her +voice, like Rachel Winslow in Sheldon's "In His Steps," so that +with holy melody she will reach hearts hitherto hard and +untouched. + +THE PASSION FOR SOULS. + +One of the conditions of success in soul-saving is a passion for +the salvation of immortal men and women. Full salvation always +brings this, and as long as a worker lives in its plentitude and +enjoyment he is consumed with a burning, longing, panting thirst +for souls. + +THE GIGANTIC LANDSLIDE. + +The ministers of early Methodism and early Quakerism were not of +the sort who congregate in groups and discuss the relative +desirability of various appointments. They did not spend their +leisure in jesting, punning and guffawing, but in praying, +studying, and working, for even their vacations were turned into +days of toil. They spent their all in one endeavor--to save men +from a yawning Pit and a lurid Hell. Nowadays we live in perpetual +relaxation and recreation. Smooth, insipid preachers talk to +shallow, giddy audiences, and the whole thing is on a gigantic +landslide. Lord, save! or death and damnation are sure. + +THE UNCERTAIN FAITH. + +There can be no successful denial of the assertion that real soul- +absorbing earnestness in religion is dying out. We sometimes mock +at the Herculean labors of men like Owen, and Baxter, and Calvin, +and Edwards. But though these men were perhaps more or less +legalistic and at times a little narrow, yet one thing is sure, +they made religion the business of life, and went at it with zest, +enthusiasm, and determination. Your modern "Christian" has +"certain intellectual difficulties"; is "not fixed in belief +concerning Socinianism"; does "not like the old idea of the +Atonement"; in fact, is in a state of fusion so far as his belief +and faith are concerned. Men do not give their life's blood for +matters in which they have only a half-faith. But when one is +convinced that men are dying in the dark and that their salvation +depends in a measure on one's activity and fidelity, then one is +hot with zeal and fire from hat to heel and set to working for God +and eternal souls. + +WEEPING OVER CHORAZIN. + +This is the explanation of the zeal of men who are "burning for +Jesus." This is the reason men so frequently wear out in short +order after they are sanctified. They are dipped in fellowship +with Christ's sorrow, and beholding Him weeping over modern +Capernaums and Chorazins their hearts are melted at the sight, and +they speed away to preach the gospel of the lovely Son of God. + +SANCTIFIED SUCCESS. + +No wonder success comes to the sanctified man. Indwelt by the +Shekinah, filled witll the Holy Ghost, his whole being energized +with power and force, "whatsoever he doeth prospers." + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +VISITS OF ANGELS. + + +DESCRIPTIVE PSALM. + +The ninety-first Psalm is a painstaking description of the +blessings and benefits bestowed upon the man that "dwelleth in the +secret place of the Most High." Without doubt the entire chapter +should be taken as a photograph of the sanctified man. Among other +things, this fortunate and favored person is told that he is to +have angelic guards and ministers who will protect him and keep +him "in all his ways." + +GOD'S OWN. + +The sanctified are in a peculiar sense God's own, and all the +resources of heaven are pledged to their protection. All the fire +companies of the firmament will turn out to extinguish a fire if +it kindle on God's saints. If need be, Jehovah will empty His balm +jars but the wounds of warriors shall be healed. Angels are +detailed for our protection: heavenly visitants hover near us lest +the fires of affliction destroy us. + +UNDERSTANDING CHRIST. + +The moment the soul is sanctified, it begins to understand Christ +in a new and delightful sense. It is given unto it to not only sit +at His feet in the temple, but to groan with Him in Grethsemane. +It understands Him, and, in suffering, is "as He is in this +world." + +A DARK HOUR. + +It was a dark, dark hour for the Master. He had been praying a +long while, perhaps for several hours. The place was one familiar +to Him. Many a night after a long, wearisome day of teaching in +the temple, He had labored painfully up the slope of the Mount of +Olives in search of the quiet of "the Garden." Here the Savior had +His oratory. Sometimes the disciples were with Him; at other times +He was alone. + +A NIGHT OF CRISIS. + +But this night was a night of crisis. The old olive trees, in all +their centuries of life, had never witnessed so intense a struggle +as that which took place on the night of His passion. Alive to all +the pathos of the hour, awake to all the gravity of the situation, +sensitive to the slightest breath, He prays to "the Father" with +that desperation in which the flight of time and the doings of the +world are all forgotten. + +UNCERTAINTY. + +There was much about the hour which made it a painful one. There +was, first of all, an uncertainty concerning the will of "the +Father." With a great cry the lonely Christ fell to the ground: +"If it be thy will let this cup pass, nevertheless" let thy will, +whatsoever it is, "be done." Evidently He was not at that time +really sure what the plan of "the Father" was in regard to Him. + +A BITTER CUP. + +Uncertainty is a fearful test, when it comes to the soul of a man +of great and energetic purpose. So long as there is no doubt about +the course to be taken, so long as the plan is plainly revealed, +it is easy for a courageous man to advance. But to such a one +uncertainty is like a shock to the body, palsying the form and +changing a strong arm into a nerveless, useless stick of bone and +tissue. A cup may be very bitter, salt with the brine of tears and +hot with the fire of vitriol, and yet, if all the ingredients in +that cup are known to him who drinks it, grief has not reached its +superlative. Socrates' duty was plain to him. Hemlock was in the +cup, and he knew it. But the liquor with which God fills the +tumblers of His people is brewed from a thousand elements. + +A TEST. + +To trust in the dark, to believe in a rayless midnight, to cling +to a thread well-nigh invisible, to say "Amen" to God when one has +no idea of the greatness of the meaning of "His will," that is the +supremest test of loyalty. + +THE NIGHT PICKET. + +The night picket stationed far out from the camp has need of much +greater courage than the soldier in battle ranks rushing on toward +the enemy. The man at the lonely picket post, cloaked in darkness, +is guarding against uncertainty. He can not tell at once whether a +dark object is a dangerous spy or a browsing Brindle. Sounds must +be noted and sorted lest the enemy steal up to the slumbering army +and destroy it. The snapping of twigs, the low whistle of a bird, +the groan of the wind, the murmur of a waterfall must all be +listened to with care. + +EVIL TIDINGS. + +It is suspense and a nameless dread and fear that sap many a mind +and heart. Moments of breathless expectancy of evil tidings are +like years in the life, bringing ashes to the hair, lines to the +cheek and listlessness to the eye. + +THE PALLED FACE. + +"Be sure you are right, then go ahead," said Tennesseean Crockett; +but supposing that one can not "be sure" of anything except the +love of God, supposing that one looks out through the tangled +limbs of the olive trees of a Gethsemane to a sky studded with +pitiless stars, supposing that the future is obscure and the +present black as Styx, supposing that even the face of the Father +Himself is palled and curtained--then must one be content to trust +and only trust. + +THREE DISCIPLES + +There was another cause for pain in "the Garden." The three +disciples, whom He had chosen to accompany Him in His dark and +lonely vigil, slept as He prayed. We can bring ourselves to +overlook the negligence and apathy of Nicodemus and Lazarus and +Simon the leper and Zaccheus and the crowds who had merely heard +Him preach. We are willing perhaps to excuse eight of the twelve +for their drowsiness--perchance they did not apprehend the full +meaning of the hour to the Master. But there were three disciples +to whom Christ had ever laid bare His heart. With Him they stood +in the death chamber in the house of Jairus. To them it was given +to behold "the vision splendid" on the mount of transfiguration, +and these alone Jesus chose to enter into the fellowship of his +Garden sufferings. + +NO EXCUSE. + +These men did not nod and sleep ignorant of Christ's need of them. +With that tender confidence with which a truly great and colossal +man sometimes honors his friends, He had said, "My soul is +exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He had warned them with the +words, "Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation," and yet +they slept! + +"OUR OWN AFFAIRS." + +It must have been a keen disappointment to Jesus to find His most +trusted friends so indifferent to His needs. Is there anything in +life sadder than the discovery that our own affairs are really +only our own affairs? We had thought that they were our friends', +as well as our own. We had supposed that our griefs were theirs +also, but when Grethsemane comes into our lives, and we writhe and +twist among the gnarled and knotted roots, when we turn with +blanched, tear-sprinkled faces to our chosen James and trusted +Peter and beloved John to gasp in their ears the story of our +agony, we hear only the heavy breathing of sound sleepers. + +COLD, HARSH FACT. + +If there is a sharper pang than this, man's heart has not found +it. We are by nature social beings. We crave fellowship and love +and sympathy, and it is so hard for us to realize that our +choicest friends are really "asleep" to our heart cries and heart +interests. The cold, harsh fact can be believed but slowly. Even +the Lord seemed to find it hard to convince His own heart that the +John who had leaned at supper upon His breast, was resting while +his Master was sweating blood. He prayed awhile and then, as if to +see whether it was indeed true that no one watched to help Him, +"He came and found them sleeping." Sad, cruel disappointment, and +yet is it so rare that any one of us has not felt its sadness and +cruelty? + +AN ANGEL. + +But while men forgot the Nazarene and His troubles, Grod did not +forget. The Father was not negligent nor careless. "There appeared +an angel unto him from heaven strengthening him." The night was +not too dark for the angel to find Jesus, and the night of our +troubles is never too thick and black for the angels to find us. +The paths of "the Garden" may be grown up in weeds, the rough, +scabeous limbs of the trees may hang close to the ground, the +driving clouds may hide the moon and stars, but some celestial +messenger will search us out and find us. + +IN MANY FORMS. + +God has many angels, and they come in many forms. Sometimes the +solitary sufferer sees only a tiny flower, but love is in the +flower, and he knows he is not utterly forgotten. It may be only +an hand clasp, but warmth and sympathy are in it, and behold it is +straightway "an angel strengthening him." Perchance it is a letter +with a foreign postmark, but in it is nectar and ambrosia for a +drooping spirit. Or the angel may come enveloped in a text of +Scripture or flying on the wings of the music of some old hymn, +such as: + + "Fear not! I am with thee. + Oh, be not dismayed, + For I am thy God! + I will still give thee aid." + +In whatever role the angel may come, God sent him, and his mission +is one of blessing and encouragement. + +HEAVENLY VISITANTS. + +We can well afford to suffer in the darkness, alone and +uncomforted, if angels will but visit us. John Bunyan can well be +content in Bedford gaol, if God but puts a dream in his head and +heart that will last in the memories and characters of men, when +the sun is a burned-out cinder and the stars are dying ash heaps. +We can well be satisfied to have sorrows unutterable and griefs +inexpressible, if heavenly visitants will but come to us. + + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +GROWTH IN CHRISTLINESS OF LIFE. + + +MAKING A BOTCH. + +One may have a clean, pure heart and yet be far from possessing a +matured Christian character. A man may love God with all his +heart, and yet not be wise in his selection of the things that +will always please God. Frequently the preacher may come down from +the pulpit having made a horrible botch of his attempt to serve +God in the ministry. He may feel the fact keenly, and be even more +conscious of it than any of his hearers. And yet that preacher may +have a heart as white as Gabriel's wing and a soul full of love to +God and man. But as time goes on, and he lingers repeatedly at the +feet of Christ in prayer, God will show him how he can serve Him +more effectively and without the objectionable features. + +UNJUST CRITICISM. + +The fact that purity is not maturity has given rise to +misapprehension on the part of many people. Indeed, many of God's +dear children have been misjudged and condemned because they did +not have in addition to pure hearts sound and solid judgment. As +soon as a man professes the blessing of perfect love, the sharp- +eyed critics of the neighborhood look out for "perfect sense," and +"perfect manners," and "perfect life," and when the subject of +observation fails to meet the expectation of the aforesaid +critics, there is a great hue and cry that "Sister A. or Brother +B. has not got what is professed," when God knows they HAVE got +JUST what they profess--namely, perfect love, full salvation. The +Lord has never guaranteed a perfect head to any man that breathes. +We will make mistakes as long as we hang around this old world, +and it is injustice to exalted spirits who have this precious +grace, and an insult to the God who gave the grace, to condemn +sanctification because those who profess it are not angels, but +simply men and women cleansed and filled with the Spirit. + +REPEATING MISTAKES. + +But while God makes allowance for our weakness and our frailty, we +ought not to expect Him to indulge us in avoidable and needless +errors. We made a mistake. Very well. We knew no better than to +make it. But now that we do know better, we have no business +repeating it. And right along here comes a great expanse of +territory which holiness people need to cover. Here there is +infinite room for advancement and progress. + +"THE IMITATION OF CHRIST" + +Thomas A'Kempis wrote a wonderful book on "The Imitation of +Christ." The failure in so many quarters in becoming Christlike is +due to the false method pursued. First, get a Christlike heart, +and then let that heart govern your life and actions. "Work OUT +your own salvation," said Paul, "for it is God that worketh IN +you." Precisely! God puts a holy heart into a man's breast, and +his business from thence on is to bring his life into line with +the heart. The old life-habits may cling to him for a time, but it +is the business of the sanctified soul to free itself from all +that Jesus would not do were He on earth. Imitation of Christ +comes after sanctification, and not before. You simply can not +imitate Jesus if you have a reptile heart in you. If you have a +filthy mind you will talk "smut" and think "smut" in spite of +yourself. You may hide your bad self from the world, but your +wife, or your husband, or your family, those who are acquainted +with you intimately, know that you are base and coarse. + +DANTE. + +A glutton may stand and look at the thin, austere, ascetic face of +Dante and say within himself, "I will be a Dante," but all the +world knows that in a few hours he will be gourmandizing as +swinishly as before. And men look at the beautiful Jesus held up +in Unitarian pulpits and resolve to act like Him, and go right on +being selfish, and proud, and deceitful, and devilish. There must +be a moral miracle, there must be a spiritual upsetting and +overturning, before a carnal heart can begin to imitate the pure +and spotless Son of God. + +KINDNESS. + +After we are sanctified, we ought to imitate Christ in kindness. +How kind He was! Where did He abuse anyone? He preached the truth, +but He never maligned any of His auditors. + +THE "LITTLE THINGS" + +It is the "little things" that make up the mosaic of life. Our +friends know us, not by the speeches we deliver, nor the sermons +we preach, nor the books we write, but by the tones of our voices, +and the letters we pen, and the words we use in daily life. +Introduce kindness into a discordant family and how Eden-like the +home becomes! Why are we not as considerate and polite to those +who are all the world to us as we are to strangers and neighbors? +Christlike kindness would fill our hearts with thoughtfulness for +those about us. It would bid us carry a torch to many a darkened +life, and incite us to share the burden pressing upon many an +aching shoulder. + +TRUE HUMILITY. + +Christ had great charity for the faults of those with whom He was +associated. How He bore with the dull and almost stupid disciples! +How He bears with us in our worse and more inexcusable +blockheadedness! And, if He is so charitable and patient with our +faults, how ought we to be with others? There comes a time in our +lives when we are simply astonished that people pay any attention +to us at all. We are so conscious of our short-comings, and so +keenly aware of our mistakes, that it seems to us that surely no +one is quite so blundering and fallible as we are. How easy it is +then to bear with one another! + +LOOKING-GLASS HUMILITY. + +We ought to work humility out into our lives. Jesus lived an +humble life--a life of the truest and deepest humility. Not a +humility conscious of itself and ever gazing at itself through the +fancied eyes of others, but a humility that was real and +unaffected. + +A CHRISTLIKE MAN. + +The writer has in mind a man of deep and earnest piety, a scholar, +a successful preacher and author. With all his learning and +scholarship he is as humble as a child, and one can not look at +him without feeling, "There is a Christ-man." Often as the pen +flies quickly across the page, or as the lips are moving in the +delivery of a sermon, or as an altar service is in progress, the +slight, thin figure of that man flashes to the brain, and the eye +grows dim and the heart-prayer rises, "Lord, make me an humble +man." There are so many great men, eloquent men, learned men, +dignified men, but so few humble men. God, increase their number +in the land! + +ACTIVITY. + +Another thing in Jesus' life which sanctified people ought to +learn to imitate was His activity. His days, and even His nights, +frequently, were filled with service. After long days of teaching +and preaching, He would seek out some quiet nook and spend the +still and lonely hours of night in prayer to the Father. + +THE INDIVIDUAL VISION. + +Men who come into close touch and communion with Christ are +impelled irresistibly to earnest and ceaseless service. They see +needs which no one else seems to see. They hear the plaintive +voices of dying men, and the tearful cries of despondent women, +and the helpless moans of unloved children. They have visions +which others never understand, and dream of things with which +their dearest friends can not sympathize. They have given their +all that they may know Christ, and He has rewarded them by +disclosing His heart to them. They know why His face is tearful, +and His voice is filled with sadness. They know why He is "a man +of sorrows and acquainted with grief." They are baptized into a +baptism of love for souls, and compassion for the sorrowing, +similar to that in which He is plunged. It is for this reason that +men hear the voice of God calling them away from the hearth-stone +out into the desolate earth. + +ST. TELEMACHUS. + +St. Telemachus heard the voice of God, and straightway "followed +the sphere of westward wheeling stars," and journeyed on to Rome +muttering, "The call of God! The call of God!" Not on a foolish +errand did he go, for, after his visit to the Eternal City, +gladiatorial combats ceased. + +"HE THAT WARRETH" + +Brethren, be true to Christ. Let not even those who love you best +draw you from a steadfast purpose to spend your life and all for +the Galilean. Flee ease and luxury and comfort, and impose hard +tasks upon yourselves. Your friends may seek to hinder you with +cries of, "Rest! Tarry!" but like Christian in Bunyan's dream stop +your ears and go quickly on your journey. + +THE HOME COMING. + +Some day your little service will be complete. Your sun will set. +The west will be filled with beauty, and the birds will twitter +softly in the trees as you trudge the last mile into the City; and +as the shades deepen, and the air grows chill, the Master Himself +will meet you, take you to His heart, wipe the tear from your +cheek, the dust of the road from your brow, and the sorrow from +your heart, and lead you to the court, where with those whom you +love, and those who love you, Eternity will be spent in the light +of His pure and shining face. + + + + + +EXPERIENCE + + +THE VALUE OF TESTIMONY. + +It has pleased God to place in our hands two weapons by which we +are to overcome Satan--"the blood of the Lamb, and the word of our +testimony." It was the narrated experiences of the people of God, +and the modest declarations of the saving power of Christ, which +convicted me of my need and led me to seek the grace of God. Very +briefly, therefore, I will sketch God's dealings with my own soul. + +EARLY PRAYER. + +I was born September 30th, 1877, at Westfield, Indiana. My parents +were both ministers in the Society of Friends, and I can not +remember When I first began to pray, for my mother taught me to go +to God with everything, even when a very small child. When I was +five and a half years of age we moved to Walnut Ridge, Indiana, +where there was a Friends' meeting of more than ordinary size and +activity. It was here that my conversion took place. I remember +the event as distinctly as if it were yesterday. + +CONVICTION. + +I always prayed at the family altar, and that was an institution +which was never neglected for anything in our home, and I had +never omitted my evening devotions; but one summer day while +playing by myself under the trees in the front yard, a great fear +came upon me lest I had never had a change of heart. Though less +than six years old, I had sat in the "gallery" behind my father as +he preached too often to be ignorant of the necessity of the new +birth. It was a perfect day, but conviction settled upon me more +and more deeply, and a dark shadow seemed to take the brightness +from everything. Unable to endure the heartache any longer, I ran +into the house and sat down with my father and mother, waiting in +silence for some time. Finally I asked them if I had "ever been +converted," told them I "wanted to be," and immediately we knelt +in prayer. How I did weep, and how badly I felt! I can see the +back of that little sewing-rocker now swimming in my tears. (I +wonder where that rocking-chair is now! The last I knew it was in +California, having left us at an auction--an occasion not +unfamiliar to most of preacher-families.) They told me to pray, +and I prayed with all my heart. If ever there was a little boy who +felt that he was a great sinner, I was the boy. I remembered all +the things I ever did that I knew were wrong. My boyish +wickednesses, things that seem a rather absurd lot now in the +light of the sins of the average lad of six that I know to-day, +caused me great pain. Soon peace came, and what happiness! When I +went out doors again the very birds twittered with increased +gladness, and the sky seemed a far deeper blue, and the grass and +flowers rejoiced with me in my new-found experience. + +RETROGRESSION. + +Would God I had retained my simple faith in Jesus! But it was not +long before I wandered away from Christ, and the life of +prayerfulness and obedience. For years my religious experience was +most unsatisfactory. I was under frequent convictions, and knew +that the Spirit was striving with me persistently, but I hardened +my heart and would not yield completely to God. As I look back at +those years of restlessness and rebellion, I recall with gratitude +the forbearance and long-suffering of a now sainted mother. How +she carried her proud, stubborn boy on her heart, and how she held +onto God's skirt and tugged away until He answered. + +THE STRIVING OF THE SPIRIT. + +During the winter of 1891-1892 I became almost wretched on account +of conviction. The Holy Ghost fairly dogged my steps and whispered +in my ear at every turn. There were many things which He used to +convict me of--my unfaithfulness and aridity of soul and life. My +junior year at Oak Grove Seminary is distinctly remembered as a +time of continuous conviction and unrest. Now and then I would +find peace and comfort for a time, but they remained only for a +time. I kept up secret devotions very carefully. I never missed my +daily prayers, but my life was inconsistent and God-dishonoring. +The lives of real Christians rebuked me, and the mockery of my +empty profession haunted me like a spectre. + +RECLAMATION. + +In the summer of 1892 I began to seek God earnestly, and was not +long in finding pardon and reclamation. No sooner was I at peace +with God than I began to hunger for holiness. O, how my heart +longed for full salvation! I saw much about me that was an +indication that there was an experience enjoyed by some of which I +was not possessed. My mother's calm, victorious life, and her +constant unwavering Christian faith, convicted me. I was proud and +selfish, and hypersensitive and ambitious. She was restful, +contented, loving, meek. How frequently I gave way to some +temptation, and how mortified I was to be so humiliated by the +Adversary. + +HUNGER FOR HOLINESS. + +Many of the members of my father's church at Portsmouth had an +experience of freedom and liberty which I craved. In July my +father, my mother, and I spent a couple of days at Douglas camp- +meeting. I remember so well every incident of the trip--my deep +unrest as we entered the grounds, my aversion to certain +"boisterous persons" who said "Bless the Lord" so frequently, my +disrelish for food, my dislike of taking a front seat in the +audience. Two old sisters sat facing the preacher one evening. +Their faces were full of joy, and they seemed to overflow with joy +and spiritual exhilaration. I inwardly said, "I wish I had an +experience like they seem to have." I made up my mind I would +seek. I can not recall a word of the sermon. I do not think I +heard it at the time--my mind was so full of an inward struggle. + +CANDIDATE FOR SANCTIFICATION. + +When the call was made, I went forward and consecrated myself and +all my hopes and desires and longings and all to God. How in the +world I had ever acquired so low a desire I do not know, but my +chief ambition had been to be a professor of science in some +college. But the Lord put me through a series of questions: + +"Will you be my property henceforth?" + +"Yes, Lord." + +"Are you willing that people should call you a 'holiness crank'?" + +"Yes, Lord." + +"Supposing I should ask you to shout, would you?" + +"I would do my best at it." + +"Will you give up all your plans and be a one-horse preacher of +holiness if I want you to?" + +Ah, here was a rub, indeed. Preaching was precisely what I did not +relish. Anything rather than that. I had visions of small +salaries, and country churches, and long, cold rides. I had seen +the life of the preacher ever since I could remember. I debated +the question. Then I answered, "Yes." The audience was singing: + + "Here I give my all to Thee-- + Friends and time and earthly store. + Soul and body then to be + Wholly Thine forever more." + +They told us seekers to raise our hands if we meant it. I meant +it, so up went a hand. Instantly faith got an answer, and the +witness came, and I knew that I was sanctified wholly. + +A DULL SCHOLAR + +But I was a dull scholar, and had to learn many lessons after my +Jordan-crossing. Owing to my failure in definite testimony, my +experience suffered partial eclipse, and my last year at Oak Grove +was more or less dark and unhappy. I was much helped, however, by +the reading of holiness books sent me by a sanctified music- +teacher, who had interest enough in me to write me real Fenelon +letters and keep me supplied with holiness reading. During the +summer of 1893 I was more fully established in the grace, and in +the autumn began to preach. + +THE ABIDING CHRIST. + +I have frequently erred in judgment, and made most stupid +blunders, but the perpetual spring experience of full salvation +has been my greatest comfort and blessing. The abiding Christ +gives zest and spice to life, and makes the ministry of holiness +delightful and joyous. + +GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS. + +God has blessed my ministry, and given me success. It is all of +Him. What a wonderful God we have! He never leaves us. I have +called upon Him when preaching, and He has always answered. I have +cried to Him in hours of loneliness and discouragement, and He has +replied like a flash. I stood by a cot and watched a saintly +mother slip away to the "undiscovered bourn," and He did not fail +me. Hallelujah! He can not only sanctify, but He can preserve, +sustain and keep. Whatever may come to us, Christ will not forsake +us. As we look down the vista of years to come, and remember that +life is swift and serious, we can only lean hard on the Son of God +and push on, confident that His promise, "Lo, I am with you +alway," can not fail. Praise the Lord! + +THE END. + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Heart-Cry of Jesus, by Byron J. 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