diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/hcrjs10.txt | 2740 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/hcrjs10.zip | bin | 0 -> 50471 bytes |
2 files changed, 2740 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/hcrjs10.txt b/old/hcrjs10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e92c78 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hcrjs10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2740 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Heart-Cry of Jesus, by Byron J. Rees + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other +Project Gutenberg file. + +We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your +own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future +readers. Please do not remove this. + +This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to +view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. +The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the +information they need to understand what they may and may not +do with the etext. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and +further information, is included below. We need your donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: The Heart-Cry of Jesus + +Author: Byron J. Rees + +Release Date: August, 2003 [Etext# 4323] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on January 5, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Heart-Cry of Jesus, by Byron J. Rees +*********This file should be named hcrjs10.txt or hcrjs10.zip********* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, hcrjs11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hcrjs10a.txt + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +etexts, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2001 as we release over 50 new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 4000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts. We need +funding, as well as continued efforts by volunteers, to maintain +or increase our production and reach our goals. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of November, 2001, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, +Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, +Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, +Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, +Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, +and Wyoming. + +*In Progress + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fundraising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fundraising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END* + + + + + + +Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +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 +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. Rees + diff --git a/old/hcrjs10.zip b/old/hcrjs10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9bd5df --- /dev/null +++ b/old/hcrjs10.zip |