Can Change the World Again
With a Praying People.
| | Can Change the World Again With a Praying People. | |
To me to live is Christ.—PHIL. I. 21.
DIVINE LIFE
— AND —
INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITOR
— OF —
SCRIPTURAL HOLINESS.
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Editors{
REV. ASA MAHAN, D.D., LL.D.
REV. A. LOWREY, D.D.
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CONTENTS.
Light and Holiness 41
Keeping Time with God (Poetry) 42
The Doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost as set forth in the Scriptures 42
The Blood that Cleanseth 45
The Glorious Doctrine of the Person of Christ 46
Condition of Spiritual Health 48
Practical Religion 49
Kinds of Temptation 51
Faith and Doubt 52
Error Corrected 53
Thoughts for the Closet 55
Review 57
Intelligence—
Lanoli Camp Meeting 58
Philadelphia Friday Meeting 59
Revivals in the United States 59
Northern Home Counties Clerical and Lay Association 60
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HAUGHTON & CO., 10 PATERNNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C.,
AND 805 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
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Republished by Richard M. Friedrich of Alethea In Heart.
8071 Main St., Fenwick, MI 48834-9649 (989)-637-4179 truthinheart.com
IMPORTANT PROPOSAL.
A FRIEND of the cause living in Cardiff, prompted by the Spirit of Christ in his own heart, proposes to give ten pounds for the circulation of DIVINE LIFE among the Freedmen in the United States, provided other individuals will increase this amount to one hundred pounds. This amount would enable Dr. Lowrey to send nearly, or quite one thousand copies of the work, for one year, to the ministers and teachers of the coloured population in that country, and thus import great spiritual benefits to many hundred thousands of the same class. Should the sum of one hundred pounds be furnished in this country, a like or larger sum would, unquestionably, be contributed by friends of the cause in the United States. Thus all the coloured ministers and teachers, at a small expense, would be furnished with the spiritual light and instruction which, of all other things, they most imperiously need. Nor, as we have intimated, would the influence stop here; but, through these ministers and teachers, would descend to all the coloured population in that country. We must also bear in mind that the future civilization and Christianization of Africa will depend very largely upon the agency of these Freedmen, who can endure the climate of that continent as white missionaries cannot, and that many pupils under the direct influence of these ministers and teachers are now being educated as missionaries to Africa. No one can calculate the extent of the influence likely to result from the success of the proposal before us. Is there anywhere a more propitious opportunity to do good presented? Will not each of our readers send up, in deep sincerity, this request to the Father of all mercies: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do" in this matter?
Prompt action is obviously required in this case, as the publishers of DIVINE LIFE wish to know whether they shall or shall not send over the additional numbers called for. Any whose hearts prompt them to contribute are requested to forward immediately their contributions or pledges to Haughton and Co., 10, Paternoster Row, London, E.C. "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver."
NOTICE OF MEETINGS.
HOLINESS Meeting at 21, Clyde Place, Glasgow, every Sunday at eleven o'clock a.m., and at six p.m. Christians of all denominations, and others, are invited.
SPECIAL NOTICE TO OUR READERS.
The object of publishing literature on the subject of holiness is to have it read. Truth can only produce its sanctifying effect by being brought into actual contact with the mind.
With a view, therefore, of extending the circulation of the DIVINE LIFE AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITOR OF SCRIPTURAL HOLINESS, we offer one shilling of the subscription price as a premium to any one who will send us one or more new subscribers, for twelve months, by the 1st of Sept., 1978. The subscription for twelve months is two shillings and sixpence, post free; and in all cases the amount must accompany the order. If the individual to whom this number is sent cannot give personal attention to this proposition it might be a kindness to some needy and worthy person, and a service rendered to the cause of Christ as well, to call special attention to this offer.
N.B.—Our readers will please notice the change in Dr. Mahan's address.
Present address: Ivy Cottage, Kynaston Road, Stoke Newington, London, N.
Filling the Sacks.
Among the very many memorable utterances of Dr. Cuyler, few merit a more permanant place among the Closet Thoughts of all readers than the following:—
"Go and buy us a little food," said the old patriarch to his sons, when the famine pinched sharply. It is the famine of the heart which sends a sinner to Christ. Beside His mighty granary of grace Jesus stands, ready to fill every man's sack as full as he can carry. It is not a barter for salvation, but a free gift. Jesus puts the money back into the sack's mouth, and says "I have paid the ransom for you; my gift is eternal life." A full pardon He puts in likewise.
But pardon does not fill the sack: He says "My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth" (for that is a sham), "give I unto you." With this comes strength for duty. "I can now: do all things through Christ," exclaims the happy convert. The sack is not full yet. "My grace is sufficient for thee," is the label on the bountiful gift which goes into the believer's soul. Unlike money or corn, grace increases the more of it we use. It is the miracle of the five loaves repeated. Such a veteran disciple as Alexander Duff discovers that after feeding on his divine supply for three-score years, he has "twelve baskets full" at the end of his life banquet. Pardon, peace, strength, and daily grace all go into the Christian's sack. And even then, the bountiful Master says—those promises have I made unto you that "my joy might remain in you and that your joy may be full."
Surely here are inducements enough to attract every hungry soul on earth. It is not a meagre pittance scrimped out by a stingy hand. "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it," is the munificent offer. But, as a witty English divine says, "some Christians have a spiritual lock-jaw, and you cannot get even a spoon between their teeth." These are the half-starved professors who never open their shrunken hearts for a blessing, or their purses to the needy, or their lips to speak a word for Christ. They do not even own a sack; it is a pint measure which they carry about, with a few kernels rattling on the bottom.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
Bulgarian Mission (Mrs. Mumford). Mrs. Tilson, £10; Miss Frow's Sabbath School, Ellichnon, India, £1 7s. 8d. Total £11 7s. 8d.
A YOUNG LADY wishes for a re-engagement as GOVERNESS in a Christian Family. Competent to teach the various branches of English Education, with Elementary French, and Music. Salary £15 per annum, with Laundry Expenses. Apply, L. N., Stirling Villa, Sutton, Surrey.
DIVINE LIFE
AUGUST. 1st.
LIGHT AND HOLINESS.
"What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."—Matt. xix. 6.
ENTIRE Holiness, rightly expounded, does not cast the slightest discredit or obscuration upon any preceding or concurrent work of grace, much less does it underrate or supersede any such work or works. Indeed, so far is it from slighting other and subsidiary attainments, that it really honours them by becoming a consummation which naturally involves the whole auxiliary process of salvation up to that point. There is, therefore, no such thing as a separate sanctification—that is, a sanctification existing independently of justification and its concomitants. Holiness is complex, as well as distinct and crowning. By its very significance and comprehension, as a work of grace begun, it necessarily includes and exalts justification, regeneration, and adoption. There may be justification without complete sanctification, but there can be no sanctification without justification. So there may be regeneration and acceptance in the absence of perfect holiness that does not embody, lift up, and vitalize all prior and correlative stages of salvation. Wherefore, any teaching that depresses or casts a veil of obscuration over the doctrine of forgiveness or the new birth, does great dis-service to the cause of Christ, and directly weakens faith in the propriety of presenting holiness at all to the people as a special attainment. There are no cross purposes in God's methods, and no conflicting interests in His kingdom. There is concord in the plan, and melody in the experience of religion. Holiness chimes with all truth like the harmony of sweet notes from AEolian harp-strings.
(Light.) Paul says, "Whatsoever doth make manifest is light." It is that gift which enables us to discover, that gracious illumination of the natural faculty that imparts to it power to see, things in their real character and true relations.
The chief sources of Light are the Bible and the Holy Spirit. These agencies in most cases operate jointly, and in the order of redemption are made mutually dependent. Like confluent streams, they intermix and form a common force. As two or more rays unite to make the perfection of sunlight, so the Holy Spirit and revealed truth combine to give full effect to the Divine illuminations. Personal salvation begins with the penetrations of light into the mind by which alternately and with greater or less vividness, the turpitude of sin and the beauty of holiness are revealed. The office of Christ as the Light of the world is a prime office. The eye of prophetic vision swept down through the vista of ages and saw Him in this character, and then exultingly shouted to the church, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Isa. lx. 1. Light from Jesus is only another name for life. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Jesus was the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. That He should be the Light of the world is directly claimed by Christ, and it was perhaps the highest prerogative that He ever attributed to Himself. He boldly asserts, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." John viii. 12. Again He says, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me should not abide in darkness." John xii. 46. So it appears that light, life, and Christ Himself, in name and essence, are synonymous terms. The passages just quoted uncover the encouraging side of this light. It is the disc of hope and promise. It is that beam from the Sun of Righteousness that contains the healing quality.
But another phase and flash of this light shows the turpitude of sin, begets a feeling of want, and thunders reproof. It is therefore written, "And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God."—John iii. 19-21.
Here is the nascent state, both of justification and holiness, the breaking in of light, searching light, reproving light, and then inspiring light. In the case of the penitent it uncovers the heart and shows its guilt. It then dissipates the gross darkness of despair, and lifts the weeping eye to Him whose prerogative it is to forgive sin, cancel guilt, and give peace.
In the instance of a Christian convicted for entire sanctification, it maketh manifest the vileness of sin, exhibits the remains of carnality, and enforces upon the conscience the obligation of thorough holiness. At the same time it discovers the hemisphere of privilege by directing the eye to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and by fixing attention and faith upon the blood that cleanseth from all sin. It is in this way that the Son of Righteousness ariseth upon the soul with healing in his wings. Nor can the sanctified at any time do without this light. We have day only so long as the sun shines. The admonition of Jesus is forcibly in point, "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth."—John xii. 35. If this criterion were applied we
should have much less blundering and stumbling, and groping among us. It is in proportion as Christ rises upon the purified soul like the orb of day, that the horizon of experience enlarges. And it is because there is no limitation to the spreading of light, nor to our receptivity of it, that there is no finality in the growth and realizations of holiness.
L.
KEEPING TIME WITH GOD.
What'er our thoughts and purpose be,
They cannot reach their destined end,
Unless, O God, they go with Thee,
And with Thy thoughts and purpose blend.
Keep time with God, and then the power,
Which in His mighty hand doth lie,
Shall crown the designated hour
With wisdom, strength, and victory.
Be not too fast, be not too slow;
Be not too early, not too late;
Go where His orders bid thee go;
Wait, when His orders bid thee wait.
Keep time with God. Await His call,
And step by step march boldly on;
And thus thou shalt not faint nor fall,
And thus shalt wear the victor's crown.
UPHAM.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST AS SET FORTH IN THE SCRIPTURES.
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BY the REV. ASA MAHAN, D.D., LL.D.
OUR previous discussions have been based upon the affirmed fact that there are in the Churches two classes of believers, viz., those who have, and those who have not, in the Scripture sense of the term, "received the Holy Ghost since they believed." The question to which we would now direct special attention is this: Do the Scriptures recognise and affirm this distinction?
TWO CLASSES OF BELIEVERS RECOGNISED IN THE BIBLE.
In verifying the fact that the Scriptures do, and that most clearly, recognise this distinction, we adduce among the many passages that might be brought forward but two, the bearing of these being absolutely decisive. The reader will recollect the question which Paul put to certain disciples whom he found at Ephesus, "all the men being about twelve," viz., "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Alford renders the passage thus: "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?" The literal rendering of the original is this: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost, having believed?" In whichever form the passage is rendered, its bearing upon our present inquiries is the same. The question itself implies absolutely that, in the judgment of the apostle, the fact of regeneration and of faith in Christ, does not of itself imply that the subject has yet been "baptised with the Holy Ghost," much less that he now "has the whole Holy Ghost." The question also implies that, in the inspired judgment of the apostle, there were then in the Churches two classes of believers, namely, those who had, and those who had not, "received the Holy Ghost since they believed." The facts recorded (Acts xix. 1-7) absolutely evince that prior to this time these men all belonged to the latter class, and that after "the Holy Ghost came upon them there," "when Paul had laid his hands on them," they took rank in the former class, those denominated in the New Testament, "spiritual." By no possibility can the facts be explained on any other hypothesis.
The distinction between these two classes, we remark once more is set forth with absolute clearness in 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15, and iii. 1-5. Here three distinct and separate classes are undeniably set before us—"the natural man," who does not "receive the things of the Spirit," and "cannot know them"—the spiritual man who "judgeth all things" (knows "the things of the Spirit") while "he himself is judged of no man," that is, is understood in respect to his experience, by none not having that experience—and believers who "are not spiritual," but "carnal" ''babes in Christ." Suppose that all real believers" have the whole Holy Ghost," or have received, and are now under "the Baptism of the Holy Ghost," then all are "spiritual," and cannot be truly spoken to but "as spiritual." Paul, however, distinguishes between those who have and those who have not "received the Holy Ghost since they believed," and addresses the one class as "spiritual," and the other as "not spiritual, but carnal, as babes in Christ." He also gives the characteristics by which the former class is distinguish- ed from the latter. No fact can be verified from the Bible if the distinction under consideration is not verified by the passages before us.
The three classes—the Natural Man, —the Spiritual Man—and the believer who is "not Spiritual but Carnal"—are before us. What are their common and special relations to the Scriptures, and to the Eternal Verities which they reveal? There are three forms of Divine knowledge equally possible to each of these classes, namely: Historical knowledge, or a knowledge of the facts and events recorded in Scripture—Exegetical knowledge, or a correct interpretation of the Sacred Text—and Doctrinal knowledge, or an acquaintance with the doctrines, truths, and moral precepts of the Bible. These forms of knowledge are equally possible to all men. No class of men have, for example, more correctly reported and elucidated the facts and events recorded in Scripture—or more profoundly and accurately interpreted the Sacred Text—or more fully and perfectly systematised the doctrines and morality of the Bible—than have certain German authors who utterly deny and repudiate the Divine origin and authority of the Scriptures. While these forms of knowledge are thus equally possible to these three classes, every true believer, whether "spiritual" or not, sustains relations to what is known in all respects the opposite of the unbeliever or "natural man." The latter repudiates utterly the Word of God, and all its revelations as of Divine origin and authority. The former have absolute faith in "all Scripture, as given by inspiration of God," and as having absolute authority in all questions of belief and practice, while the entire principle of the life of every such individual is absolute conformity to "every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
What peculiarises and distinguishes "the spiritual man" from each of the others, is a form of knowledge actual with him, and impossible to them in their present state. The eternal verities which "the natural man" utterly discredits, and the believer who is "yet carnal" has absolute faith in, "the spiritual man" "Knows," the Spirit having "enlightened the eyes of his understanding" that he may "know the things " (not what is written about the things, but the things themselves) "which are freely given us of God." It is one thing to understand the meaning of what is written about Christ in the Bible, and fully to credit what is written. It is quite another to have "the Spirit take of the things of Christ, and show them unto us," "show us plainly of the Father," and give us a direct and open vision, or "beholding of the glory of the Lord." It is only by "spiritual discernment " that these things can be thus known. When the soul thus knows God, and the things of God, then, and only then, does "the Lord become its everlasting light, and the days of its mourning are ended." Then, from the sanctuary of the inner being, there "flow out rivers of living water."
DISTINCTION BETWEEN THESE TWO FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE ELUCIDATED.
A single fact recorded (2 Kings vi. 8-17) will enable us to elucidate somewhat the distinction between these two kinds of knowledge and the relations of these three classes of individuals to the same. The reader will readily call to mind the facts which occurred at the city of Dothan, as detailed in the passage above referred to, the terror of the servant of Elisha at the appearance of the hosts of Syria which had come to capture the Lord's prophet, and how all his fears were allayed when, at the prayer of the prophet, the eyes of the servant were opened, and "he beheld the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." We will suppose three individuals to have been present with the prophet at that time—one representing "the natural man;" one the believer who is yet carnal," and, consequently, in the same relation to the facts under consideration that the servant was before his eyes were opened; and the servant with his eyes opened, representing "the spiritual man." To all these the prophet makes a full statement of the facts, just as he sees them. All in common would have understood what had been told them, just as all may attain to a historical, exegetical, and doctrinal knowledge of what is revealed in Scripture. To "the natural man" the question is put, What do you think of what the prophet has told us? His prompt reply is, I don't believe a word of it. It is all a delusion, a lie. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," seen and apprehended when and only when, the Spirit shows them to the mind.
To the same question the reply of the believer who is yet "carnal" is: I credit fully all that the prophet has said, and his statements, every one of which I absolutely believe, do, in fact, somewhat, but not entirely, allay my fear. I cannot realize the facts as he states them. I see the hosts of Syria, but cannot see "the horses and chariots of fire." The former do, and the latter do not, seem real.
To the same question the ready response of "the spiritual man," the servant whose eyes the Spirit of God has opened, is, I KNOW that all that the prophet has spoken is true. The hosts of Syria are not more visible, nor so real, to me as are the fiery hosts "round about Elisha." By no possibility can fear any longer have place in my mind.
Thus real, thus immediately present, and thus visible and all impressive to the eye of the understanding of "the spiritual man" are "the things of God," "things of the Spirit of God," "the things which are freely given us of God." All such "KNOW that Christ is in the Father, and He in them, and they in Him." "They KNOW the love of Christ" and "behold with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord." They are as conscious of Christ as a directly manifested personal presence as they are of their own existence. They KNOW what the Saviour meant when he said, "I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be one in us," because they are in conscious fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ."
This is a form of knowledge absolutely impossible to all who "have not received the Holy Ghost since they believed." However full and perfect our historical, exegetical, or doctrinal knowledge may be, we make no approach whatever to the knowledge of "the only living and true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent," the knowledge common to all, the eyes of whose understanding the Spirit has opened to see and know God, and "the things which are freely given us of God."
We can now understand the meaning of the apostle in the words: "He that is spiritual judgeth (discerneth, or understandeth) all things, yet himself is judged (discerned, or understood) by no man." Aside from the fact that "he that is spiritual is, by the Spirit, made to know the things of God," he has a full understanding of the knowledge and experience of "the natural man" on the one hand, and of the believer who is "yet carnal" on the other, having had their experience himself. They cannot "judge him," however; that is, understand and appreciate his knowledge and experience, they having never been possessed of the same. There is no passage of the Bible, for example, which the writer of this article had thought more upon, studied more carefully, and exegetically understood more fully, than the words of Paul: "The love of Christ constraineth us." In what is here revealed, but understood by few, as I saw clearly, lay the secret of the power of that man of God. To be at all what he was, I, as I saw, must come into the same relations to that love in which he lived and acted. Never, to all eternity, can I forget the moment when—as I was, with tears in my eyes, speaking to an associate upon this passage, telling him of the difference between my experience and that of Paul, and expressing an irrepressible desire to know that secret —in an instant the cloud lifted from my soul, and the veil dropped from the "eyes of my understanding," and stood in the open presence of the love of Christ, "comprehending the breadth and depth, and length and height, and knowing the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge," and "beholding with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord." "In a moment, as in the twinkling of an eye," my whole being was moved, melted, and transformed. In the language of another, "all that went before was as nothing." All the great revelations of God took on new, and before unconceived of, forms, and "appeared in glory." As I opened the Sacred Word it seemed, in all its great revelations, "transfigured before me," and has ever since been a new book to me. Speaking of "the Baptism of the Holy Ghost" which he received, Mr. Moody says: "If I have not, since that time, been a new man, I do not know myself." So I say that if, during the more than forty years that have transpired since the moment above referred to, I have not been a new man and led a new life, I have failed utterly to know myself.
When you, reader, shall have attained to this knowledge of God, and of "the things of the Spirit of God," then you will know what the Bible means by such terms and expressions as—"the Baptism of the Holy Ghost"—"the promise of the Spirit"—"filled with the Spirit"—"endued with power from on high"—"He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever"—"out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters,"—and "God shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended." Bear this in mind, also, that until you shall thus have attained, your dwelling place will be in the dim twilight of "the Sun of Righteousness." Whatever your historical, exegetical, and doctrinal knowledge may be, you will not KNOW God, or "the things which are freely given us of God." You will not be "spiritual, but carnal, a babe in Christ."
THE BLOOD THAT CLEANSETH.
BY REV. L. R. DUNN, D.D.
BLOOD has been regarded in all the ages as of special, and in multitudes of instances, as of sacred value. Two reasons are assigned for this in the Word of God. First, that it is the life of the animal, of the bird, and of man; and, secondly, that it is the blood which maketh atonement for the soul." This latter reason has been recognised by nearly every nation. Hence the blood has been ever streaming from the altars throughout the wide domain of heathenism. Bleeding birds and bleeding beasts, and bleeding men, women and children, have been laid upon those altars, under the vague and vain impression that they could expiate and remove human sin and guilt.
And, in a certain sense, this estimate of the sacredness of blood, and of the efficacy of its shedding, has been typal, not only and especially among the Jews but also among the nations, of the One Great Sacrifice, the one all-cleansing blood of the Lamb of God. Nothing has been more offensive to sceptics of every grade, and especially to the free religionists of the present day, than the frequent reference made in the Word of God, and in the sermons and hymns of the evangelical churches, to the virtue and value of the blood of Christ. But to ignore this great fact is to ignore the greater part of all revealed truth. This scarlet thread, clear and bright, runs through the whole Web and Woof of God's truth, and to remove it would cause the whole system to fall into worthless shreds. But no human power can destroy, or even hush the sound of, the great Evangel: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleauseth us from all Sin." That song has been ringing adown the ages, and never was its resonance more widely heard than it is now. In all ages the Church on earth has been singing, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen," while the Church in heaven has responded in loudest and sweetest strains, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." Saints in heaven, and Saints on earth can never forget that they "washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." And no wonder that the new song, thus learned upon the earth, is sung without intermission in the heavens.
Truly has a great living divine said of this wonderful theme—the efficacy of the blood of the God-man—"This string may be struck by the plectrum year after year, century after century, and its vibration is ever resonant and thrilling, yet sweet and aeolian." Long ages after the objections and the scoffs of infidels and free religionists have been forgotten, this song will be sung in all its freshness and fulness, aye, with increasing sweetness and power. But in order to be able to sing this song we must know, personally and experimentally, the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb. It is said of this Redemption Song, that "no man could learn it but the hundred and forty-four thousand which were redeemed from the Earth"—blessed representatives of all the blood-washed throngs. To sing the song we must know the fact, and to know the fact we must experience it in the realm of our consciousness. And, Blessed be God! there are multitudes now on earth, who know with as much certainty that "the blood of Jesus Christ," the Son of God, cleanseth them from all their sins, as they know any other fact. They could as soon doubt that their pulses beat, or that their hearts throb, or that they lived, as to doubt this. "Oh, it is one thing to read of this in the Book of God, or to hear the testimony of those who have known the truth in a blessed experience, or to sing of it in the "Songs of the Sanctuary," and it is another to feel the cleansing, purifying power of the blood sprinkled upon our hearts and consciences. I remember well the occasion when Alfred Cookman, at one of the great National Camp Meeting love-feasts, stepped to the front of the platform, and, with almost angelic sweetness, said, "Alfred Cookman, Washed in the blood of the Lamb." Dear reader, why may not this blessed experience be yours?
THE GLORIOUS DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
BY REV. C. CLEMANCE, B.A., D.D.
CHAPTER II.
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in be form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. ii. 5-11).
IN showing how these words set forth the person and work of our Lord, we shall—
1. Attempt an Exposition of the passage.
2. Show what light it throws on other Scripture teaching.
3. Point out the relation between the statements here contained to Christian Doctrine generally.
First.—We are to try and see how this passage shapes our thinking as to who and what Jesus Christ is. We have in it three distinct lines of thought:—
a. We have Christ in heaven, subsisting as the God.
b. We have Christ on earth, stooping as the servant.
c. We have Christ again in heaven, but —reigning as the Saviour.
a. We have Christ in heaven, subsisting as God (ver. 6).
There seems to be no room for doubting that this verse declares the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. The word rendered "being" is an important one, and not a mere copula here. It is equivalent to "subsisting;" and this subsisting is, plainly, prior to his being made in the likeness of men, i.e., before Jesus Christ was seen in human form, HE WAS. And this is in exact accordance with what He and His apostles taught. He existed before his advent. "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world." He existed prior to Abraham. "Before Abraham was, I am." He existed before the world was made. "Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." He existed before all creation. "By him were all things created."
But what was the form of His existence? Was He a subordinate, inferior being, doing the bidding of His God, or was He Himself God? Our text tells us, "He subsisted in the form of God," i.e., He was the out-shining, self-revealing God; or, as the writer in the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it, "the express copy of His substance." The outer vestiture of God was His. But, if He be in the form of God, He must BE God. No creature can have the form of the Creator as to its subsistence, however it may resemble Him in moral likeness. The subsistence of a dependent creature cannot be like the subsistence of the independent God.
A further expression is still stronger, viz , that He thought the being equal with God no act of "robbery." The "being equal with God," is a very plain phrase which needs no explanation. The question is, What does our text say that Christ thought the "being equal with God " was ? According to our version it is, "No act of robbery." There is, however, a delicate shade of thought here, which I am not sure that I can succeed in conveying. "Robbery" is taking that which belongs to another, and makes him poorer. But the word rather means, taking that which does not belong to one's self, and making one's self richer. The word "assumption," or "a thing to be caught at," would more nearly express the apostle's idea. Christ thought it no assumption* to be equal with God. The Godhead was not something very near Him, outside Him, which, belonging to Him, would make Him richer. It was His own nature. It was Himself. Equality with God was His own, not something beyond Him to be seized. He could not acquire it. He had it. He subsisted as God. Deity is His, not as attribute conferred, not as possession acquired, not as dignity assumed, not as an assumption at all. It was NO assumption to be equal with God. It was essence, not accident, eternal, intrinsic right, and not a derived glory!
Further: Comparing this expression with the argument in which it stands imbedded, there is another turn of thought, conveying substantially the same view as to Christ's pre-existing glory. It might be called the same thought turned slightly round. The apostle is setting forth the condescension of Christ as a reason why we should cultivate lowliness of mind, and be ready, for the sake of others, to forego what is really and rightfully our own. He argues thus: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though He subsisted in the form of God, and deemed equality with God no assumption, yet he waived that, and emptied Himself, and took a servant's form. When man's necessities were pressing, He did not think it too much to cease to insist for a while on His equality with God." But, then, Christ must have had equality with God, or the argu-
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* We should prefer the passive word, "assumpt," if it were allowable. It would be more exact.
ment can have no force, unless Christ's condescension, as here referred to, be supposed to consist in His not insisting on that, which if He were not God, it would have been blasphemy for him to claim!
There is no interpretation to be given of this passage in accordance with the demands of its terms, its grammar, and its argument, which can land us in any other conclusion than that of the true and proper Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ! Here, then, is our first definite landing-place.
Christ being equal with God in subsistence, then His being is uncreate and underived. He did not borrow existence from the Father, but was externally immanent in Him, really distinct, yet fully equal, the outshining, self-revealing God. He was not dependent on any outside power. Go back to what point of time soever we may, we cannot find the moment when Christ began to be! His existence is unconditioned. It is independent of space or time. It is immutable. It cannot decline. Ere a single seraph had begun to burn before the throne of the Eternal, or a single cherub waited as minister there,—ere the first orb was rolled forth into space, then did Christ exist, then had he existed, as eternally, as unchangeably as now, deriving nought from without, His own eternal and exhuastless fount of life and power above!
Equal with God? Then in Him are all the perfections of God, without stint or flaw. Equal with God? Then his will is the law of the universe. "Thousand thousands minister unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before Him." By His own inherent, everlasting right He is Lord of all! Equal with God? Then all knowledge is His. The past, the present, and the future are one eternal now. The divisions of time, so helpful for us, are not needed by Him. The entire race of mortal life, with all its ten thousand thousand cares, stands out before the Almighty Saviour's eye as a speck on the background of infinite space, as a unit on the background of the infinite age. Equal with God? Then is the great Creator and sustainer. He bears up the pillars of the universe. He is seated on the throne of universal empire. The wheels of Providence, so high that they are "dreadful," at His bidding, move ever, ever on! He "fainteth not, neither is weary." Equal with God? Then hath He the worship of heaven, as well as of earth, as "God over all, blessed for evermore"!
CONDITION OF SPIRITUAL HEALTH.
BY THOMAS D. MARSHALL, ESQ.
No. 2.
PURITY. Every nurse knows that her patient must be clean or he will not recover. Every mother knows that her children must be clean or they cannot be well. So spiritually, to be made clean is to be made whole.
The Son of God became man and died that he might buy us back from the dominion of sin and purify us unto Himself (Titus ii. 14), and now He lives for the very purpose of saving us from our sins. With implicit confidence, therefore, we may call upon Him as our Almighty Sanctifier, "Wash me and I shall be clean." As the refiner's fire cleanses the dross from the metal, and as the fullers' soap removes impurity, so He engages to purify His people, that they and their services may be pleasant and acceptable before God (Mat. iii. 3, 4).
Scriptural purity means the utter abandonment of every defiling companionship and association, and the renunciation of every unholy practice and impure habit; so Paul first "renounced the hidden things of dishonesty," and then exhorted his fellow-believers, "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the Spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord." (2 Cor. vii. 1).
The appetites that lead men into sin may be divided into two classes, the first being the natural and God-created, as hunger, thirst, etc.; the second being the unnatural and self-induced, as the desire for intoxicating drink, tobacco, etc. The former Christ is willing, when the members of the body are yielded to Him (Rom. vi. 13-22), so to govern and regulate that "whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do," we may do "all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. x. 31). The imperious dominion of the latter He is willing to completely remove. Here is liberty for the captive! Here are glad tidings indeed. In a meeting at which I was present, an intelligent man, a builder's foreman, spoke on this subject to the following effect: "Before I was a Christian I was a drunkard; when I became a Christian I gave up the drink, but I did not lose the desire for it. Soon I felt the old appetite getting stronger and stronger, till it swept away all my resolutions and I drank and was drunk. Then I was filled with shame and remorse. I prayed and vowed and sought pardon. I went on again, but again fell in the same way more than once or twice. But a year ago Mr G —— came here and told us that if we gave ourselves up, body and soul, to Christ, and trusted Him to do it, He would take away the desire. I did it, and I have not wanted the drink since."
In this same way our living Lord can and does take away anger, envy, malice, and every evil thing that we, in obedience to His word, renounce. Until He thus cleanses us we cannot possess His joy of health. That man only can be "happy" who "condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth" (Rom. xiv. 22). It has been truly said that omnipotence cannot force happiness upon the selfindulgent or the angry man.
Scriptural purity is only possible when we are willing, thoughtfully and prayerfully, to consider the varied relationships in which we stand, as parents or children, masters or servants, husbands or wives, or positions we may be occupying, ecclesiastical or otherwise, in the Church or in the world, with the definite and fixed purpose of rectifying in His strength, any and everything that He shall show us to be wrong in the relation we sustain or the positions we fill.
A dislocated limb cannot but be a cause of pain and weakness till it is placed in its proper relation to the other members of the body.
There are positions in the professing Church and in the world in which it would be as impossible for an enlightened man of God to maintain a good conscience as it would be impossible to retain physical health while dwelling in a malarious locality, or in a plague-infected house.
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LORD, give me grace to be watchful, and to keep on the armor of faith, that, as I pass from conflict to conflict, I may pass on conquering and to conquer. BOGATSKY
PRACTICAL RELIGION.
BY REV. J. HILES HITCHENS,
Author of "Bible Waters," "The Furnace," "The Penalty," &c.
Well would it be for the Church of Christ if professing Christians would more frequently and solemnly remember that correctness of creed, elaboration of Church machinery, and energetic zeal in service will all prove unavailing and unprofitable unless the professed religion permeates and purifies the life. A man may say credo to all the fundamental verities of Christianity —he may be most punctilious in his observance of Church routine, and most energetic in his efforts to improve others, but if his religion be not vigorous enough to govern him it will never be strong enough to save him. The apostle Paul calls attention to this when writing to Titus. He says, "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."
Here Paul clearly teaches that there are evils to be suppressed and virtues to be developed, and that the gospel of the grace of God is both designed and adapted to accomplish these ends.
"Ungodliness" embraces all unbelief of God's word—all disobedience to the Divine command—all disesteem of the Divine character—all neglect of His Holy claims—in a word, everything that tends to deprive the soul of conformity to God. Ungodliness is un-god-likeness. The ungodly man is one who is opposed to the Infinite One, and who daily departs farther and farther from Him.
"Worldly lusts" embrace all the improper desires pertaining to the present state of being—all those evil passions to which men in this world are prone. "Worldly lusts" is not a phrase denoting simply those gross sins of sensuality and drunkenness which are too common in society. There are many professing Christians who, though temperate and virtuous, are yet too much under the dominion of "worldly lists." What is that yearning for honour which sometimes carries the man beyond the limits of modesty and mutual re- spect?—A worldly lust. What is that thirst for wealth which prevents a man giving, as the Lord has prospered, to the cause of Christ?—A worldly lust. What is that longing for power which leads the man to break clown or leap over all precedents and precautions?—A worldly lust. What is that desire for pleasure which carries a man to questionable practices or forbidden places?—A worldly lust, Oh yes, alas! there is a host of "worldly lusts" clogging our steps at all times. But this "ungodliness" and these "worldly lusts" the religion of Jesus is intended to uproot and destroy." They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."
Whilst the evils are being suppressed the gospel also teaches us that "we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world." These are virtues to be developed.
1. There are those which pertain to the government of self. These are covered by the word "soberly." It is a common mistake to conclude that when the apostles speak of sobriety that they allude alone to the reverse of drunkenness. Paul says, "Let us not sleep but let us watch and be sober." "A bishop must be sober." Deacons' wives must be "grave, not slanderers, sober." Peter says, "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober." "Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer." "Be sober, be vigilant," &c. Now, it is not absence from, or temperance in the use of, strong drinks which is here alluded to by the word "sober." That must be included in Christian sobriety, but the word covers far more than that. To be "sober" is to be discreet, prudent, and blameless in deportment. "Sobriety" is the mastery over our tempers, passions, and appetites. When Paul tells Titus that the gospel was given to develop excellencies and teach men to walk "soberly," he means that it is adapted and designed to train men to becoming and peaceful use of temper, tongue, thoughts, and emotions—in a word, to govern self.
Oh, reader, this is the noblest kind of government, and without it a man is not fit to govern others. He who is monarch of his own mind and life is the only real potentate. The highest sovereignty is that of the man who can truthfully affirm that his thoughts and affections are brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Peter the Great once struck his gardener a blow from which in a few days the poor man died. Hearing of his death Peter exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, "Alas! I have civilized my own subjects; I have conquered other nations, yet I have not been able to civilize or conquer myself." There may be occasions when we may reproach ourselves in like manner. Let us see to it that they do not again occur. Let us make it the grand business of each day to live in all things "soberly."
2. There are virtues pertaining to our relationships to our fellow men. The gospel comes "teaching us that we should live righteously," The religion of Jesus inculcates fidelity, justice, rightness in all our concerns with men. Of old, God gave directions that the very snuffers of the Old Testament sanctuary should be of pure gold; teaching us thereby that He requires the poorest, meanest, and most hidden of his disciples to be free from the contaminations of the world. Christ inculcates our duty when He says, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." There is no greater stumbling block to the world than the inconsistencies of religious professors in their relationship to one another. The absence of righteousness cannot be atoned for by the presence of intelligence. Whitefield often affirmed that he would "rather have a church with ten men in it right with God, than one with five hundred at whom the world laughs in its sleeve." He was right. Better far is it for any Christian fellowship to have only one member added to its numbers in twelve months if that one be full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, than have hundreds of new members who bring into the Church the worldly tempers and tendencies they cherished outside. Yes, it is because there is not enough righteousness—rightness between man and man—that our holy religion is brought into such frequent contempt. The gospel is given to teach us that our hands must be clean, our intentions straightforward, our schemes transparent, our motives pure, our thoughts charitable, our words kindly; in fine, that we should be so crystalline that Heaven's pure and purifying light may be transmitted through us to others.
3. Then the apostle refers to the virtue which pertains to our relationship to God. The Gospel comes "teaching us that we should live godly"—that is, piously—in the full and faithful discharge of our duties to God. Prayer, faith, resignation, vigilance, study of the Divine Word, and efforts to obey the Divine will are all embraced in this word "godly." Godliness is, therefore, to righteousness and sobriety—what the cause is to the effect—what the foundation is to the superstructure—what the root is to the plant—what the tree is to its fruits. To live "godly" is to live in sweet converse with our Maker, so that our affections become gradually assimilated to the character of the Divine Being. A man so living will live righteously and soberly in order to win the smile of his heavenly Father's approbation.
Thus, then, two processes are being carried on in the truly Christian heart and life—the processes of destruction and creation—contraction and expansion—diminution and development, "Ungodliness and worldly lusts" are being suppressed; and a galaxy of glorious virtues toward God and man is being cultivated and confirmed. May this be your experience, dear reader.
KINDS OF TEMPTATION.
BY REV. A. LOWREY, D.D.
DISTINGUISHED by their sources, there are four kinds of temptation. There is a form which may be said to come from God. It is written, "God did tempt Abraham" (Gen. xxii. 1); and we are taught to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." This must imply that in some qualified sense the Lord may lead us into temptation. As the administration of God is sovereign and all-controlling, We must allow that nothing can occur outside of His established chain of causation, or wise permission.
As His power is infinite, and as it has pleased Him to concede influence to second causes, it is easy to see how He can dispose the events of any man's life in a thousand different ways. He may do this by immediate interposition in every case, or by indirection through various media, responsibly independent, and yet subordinated to His control. In this disposing work God is influenced by human conduct, by fervent prayer, and strong faith. Hence the propriety of praying "Lead us not into temptation." We may be rushing headlong into disaster; but God in answer to prayer may cause our path to deflect this way or that, and graciously avert the evil. He did so in the case of David, and Saul of Tarsus; they were both saved on the brink of ruin. God may also tempt us in the sense of trial, by proposing tests to our faith and fidelity. This was the nature of Abraham's temptation; when required to offer up Isaac. Such, too, was the ordeal of Job. The sterling man so understood it, and therefore said, "He knoweth the way that I take, and when He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold."
This crucial process is never designed to ensnare, or project sin into the mind; for God cannot be tempted with evil, "neither tempteth He any man" (Jas. i. 13).
Our Father tempts for the same purpose that He chastises His dear children. We are told that earthly parents chastise for their own pleasure, "but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness." He gives us the philosophy of this disciplinary treatment in the next verse "Now, no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" (Heb. xii. 11). How many have been burnt out and refined in this process! How many have lost all their worthless dross in this kind of a crucible! And how many waste and barren fields—fields all overgrown with briars, and thorns, and noxious weeds—have been cleared and cultivated, mellowed and seeded, dressed and pruned, until they have yielded a rich and abundant harvest.
It is true the work of felling trees, burning logs and brush, grubbing up roots and stumps, ploughing through thorns and thistles, breaking up the har, fallow stones, and finally sowing the seed, and harrowing in with no immediate return, and on the verge of winter—it is true, we say, this tedious and exhaustive preparation is not joyous, but painful and wearisome. But when the harvest comes, the golden yield is a full compensation. So the peaceable fruit of righteousness is more than a reward for all our trials. To be chastened a lifetime is a luxury if it only "makes us partakers of His holiness," and fills us with the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
But the chief sources of temptation are Satan, the world, and carnal appetites. These may be resolved into two kinds, external and internal. The Scriptures do recognize temptation as arising from two causes: external solicitation, and internal, self-caused propensity. James says "But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." Here is temptation springing from unsanctified carnal inclination, or created by an abuse of natural feelings which are innocent in themselves. In either case it is born of self-caused stimulation and illicit indulgence. For all such temptations we are culpable, because they are voluntary. They are superinduced by the free and responsible acts of our will. They are the fires of our own kindling, and pits which our own hands have digged. And if we are drawn away by such forces, the guilt attaches to us as directly as if we had committed some flagrant deed of overt sin. It is the crime of self-seduction. We become our own purveyors. And this offence against nature and the law of God is as clearly recognized and as categorically forbidden in the Scriptures as any crime mentioned in the Decalogue. Hear it. "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul'' (1 Peter ii. 1). "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof " (Rom. xiii. 14). "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; nor abusers of themselves with mankind" (1 Cor. vi. 9).
Much of the gross vice which reeks in our cities and breathes its malaria over the whole land is generated and hatched in this ovarium of illicit thought and feeling. If the bodies of men were transparent and the broodings of meditation were an object of vision, what a nest of unclean things the mind would reveal. Truly it would be as "a cage of unclean birds." The passions it would be seen, are being used to give being to desires and proclivities which afterwards find their birth in crime, sudden and surprising, and still later reach a fatal maturity in habit uncontrollable and ruinous. And these serpents would be discovered to coil and breed in Christian hearts.
Lawful and unlawful affections would disclose themselves as cohabiting in the same soul, and producing the mongrel life of sin and holiness, which most Christians exhibit. Even in the home, in the Church, and on the holy Sabbath day, and in defiance of the restraints of truth and worship, and the monitions of the Blessed Spirit, the unclean creations of the mind would often be most revolting and loathsome. Oh! how subversive to character is this state of things!
There is only one remedy for these unseen evils, and that is, entire sanctification. A compliance with the precept, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," will interject an effectual antidote. And when we are sanctified wholly, according to the imploration of Paul, this form of temptation will have no existence except in possibility. It's very root will be dead and cast out. Repugnance to all sin, seen and unseen, will take its place.
FAITH AND DOUBT.
BY CHARLES FOX, M.R.C.S.
OUR Saviour made Faith the invariable condition of being healed of outward diseases, when present in the flesh in Jewry, as He now makes it the condition of being saved from the spiritual ones, of which the former were typical, while He is present in the Spirit throughout the world. Those who believed were healed— and if they believed truly were healed wholly and at once. Those who doubted remained as before. Their unbelief prevented even His omnipotence doing in their behalf any mighty work. And, when instructing His disciples, as they came to Him discouraged and perplexed at their failures, He taught the same lesson which He had impressed on every suppliant for His mercy. "According unto your faith be it unto you." Our experience is therefore according to our faith—and so also according to our doubt. Faith, we have to learn, is the condition of attainment, not merely at the beginning, but at each subsequent step of the Christian course. "It was of grace that it might be by faith." Consequently the grace we receive, and the graces we bring forth, will depend entirely on our degree of faith. A course of experience that honours Christ must be by faith—and what can more honour Him than full and absolute trust? Peter, while his faith held out, could walk on the waves as well as his Lord. When he failed, the word of admonition to him was, "O thou of little faith! Wherefore didst thou doubt"? Any attempts to make progress in the divine life or to attain to its higher forms but by faith is an effort to scale heaven by Pilate's stairs.
Christians can never reach the heights which they think of, and even long for, but do not believingly regard as present possibilities. Saving faith implies the grasp, as true friendship means the putting forth, of the hand. Those whose faith does not gasp the promises can never get beyond their present attainment, which is that of just escaping the pit— "scarcely saved"—a safety so precarious as to afford little or no evidences, and consequently very little joy, and to keep them necessarily in fear and doubt. As all advance in best things is "according unto" our "faith," they cannot progress, their faith being no better (but probably worse) for all their efforts from day to day.
We have said that "our experience is acording to our faith, and also according to our doubt." The actual experience of many dear Christians is for the most part determined by their doubts rather than by their faith. To be fully justified, to be kept from final apostacy during life, and to be fully sanctified at death, and then to be kept pure for an eternity to come, they regard as among the possibilities of faith. But to be saved from all sin, to be holy, happy, certain, trustful, peaceful, and still, and to follow wholly, to know, love, honour, and be kept by Christ, and to enjoy all this now, while abiding in the flesh, cannot, they say, be for them. They made a great effort to enter into life, and did enter in by faith. That must suffice. That is a privilege far beyond their deserts. They will die, thankful to be just alive, and will rejoice to look forward to life more abundant. Is life, at such a poor, dying rate, determined by faith or by doubt? By doubt, undeniably. These believers have backslidden, "have left their first love," are weak, sickly, and feeble, and "walk in darkness and have no light," for the same reason that Peter began to sink when in the presence of his Lord. They doubt, when they should be "strong in the faith, giving glory to God." If they should speak truly, they would say, "The lives which we live in the flesh (for the most part) we live," not "by the faith," but by doubt, "of the Son of God." Doubt renders abortive our good resolutions, leaves us "in captivity to the law of sin," and fastens to our groaning spirits "the body of this death," and all this, when by faith we might be "more than conquerors through Him that loved us." They would stand and conquer if they expected, and trusted God for grace, to overcome. They fall because, in their doubts, they expect to fall. Our spiritual valetudinarians (as H. W. S. has called them) admit that the Testament is the last will of their Father unto them; yet, because their doubts limit His grace, they do not dream of "entering into their inheritance of the purchased possession." They doubt, and "cannot enter in because of unbelief." "We who have believed do (do now) enter into rest."
ERROR CORRECTED.
"Christian Perfection in the Light of
Scripture."
WE have joined issue with Canon Garbett and those who endorse his views but upon one question connected with this subject, namely, "What is the Perfection that is taught"? The Perfection specifically "taught and inculcated in Scripture," and revealed as attainable by believers, "consists" according to our Canon, to use his own words, "not in, a state of sinlessness, but in the entire supremacy of the Spirit of God over the living man, which sanctifies the entire being not wholly, as our translation wrongly has it, but the whole of it, leaving no part, no, not even a secret corner of the entire soul, that is not filled with the Divine presence and consecrated to the Divine service." Perfection, in this specific sense, is, we are taught, revealed and inculcated in Scripture as a state attainable by all believers, a state which all are required to seek and pray for grace to attain. Permit us in solemn earnestness to put this question to Canon Garbett, to the Editor of the Pathway of Power, and to all who agree with them on this subject: Would you be willing to present this petition to a throne of grace—"May the very God of peace sanctify" us, "not wholly," and save us from all sin, but not so as to render us "sinless," that is, wholly free from the commission of sin? We leave the question with your consciences.
THE DOCTRINE AS TAUGHT IN SCRIPTURE.
We now turn directly "to the Law and to the Testimony" for an answer to the question, What is the revealed doctrine of Perfection? The answer to this question does not depend upon the senses in which the original words rendered perfect in the Old and New Testaments are employed. In a majority of cases the word is not employed at all in revealing this state. In all cases the meaning of such words is to be determined by a reference to the connection in which they stand, and the subjects to which they are applied.
We live, we should bear in mind, under the New Covenant, "which was established upon better promises" than those under which Old Testament saints lived. Now the privileges and moral and spiritual attainments of believers under this "better covenant," was a leading theme of the prophets. In foreshadowing these privileges and attainments, they never employ the word perfection, but set forth the idea represented by the term in language which cannot be misunderstood. All these prophetic promises unite in expressing two ideas—total deliverance from all sin—and corresponding completeness in holiness. Let the reader, for example, turn to Ex. xxxvi, 25-27, and after carefully reading the passage, ask himself what place there can be for sin in the life and character of a believer in whom all that is here specifically promised is fulfilled? If we should "enquire of the Lord," as we are directed to do, verse 37, and should expect anything less than moral and spiritual purification, in all respects, perfect and complete, we should be guilty of palpable unbelief. Christ, as predicted by Mal. iii. 3, is to "sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and is to purify the sons of Levi (all believers), and purify them as gold and silver." To what extent is He to carry forward this process? In Isa. i, 25, we have the answer, "I will purely purge away all thy dross and take away all thy tin." In Jer. 1, 20, we have the same answer in words still more specific in their meaning: "In those days and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." By the express provisions of the New Covenant, Gentiles have become fellow-heirs with the Jews in all the promises. Such is the specific import of all prophetic promises in regard to New Testament saints. No language can be more specific than that which inspiration implies in all these promises, and words are without meaning if these promises do not present to our faith utter salvation from all sin.
Turning now to the New Testament we find Christ, as the mediator of the New Covenant, here revealed as ABLE to fulfil these promises to the letter in our experience (Heb. vii. 25). "Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost (in all respects to perfection) that come unto God by Him." Again we read (2 Cor. ix. 8), "God (through Christ and the power of the Spirit) is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." Thus, salvation to the uttermost, and grace for all that God requires, and nothing short of or diverse from this, are presented to our faith.
The same great fact is equally manifest in the revealed object of Christ's death. "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works" (Tit. ii.14). "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. v. 25-27). "God sending His only Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned (to destruction), sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law (the righteousness which the law requires) might be fulfilled in us" (Rom. viii. 3, 4). "Who, His own self, bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness" (1 Peter ii. 24).
Nothing can be more plain and specific than are the revealed provisions of grace for our sanctification, and nothing in hind or degree is expressed in them but "salvation to the uttermost."
We may now recur to the specific teachings of our Saviour Himself on this subject. The precept, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect," cannot be tortured so as to require perfection in kind or degree, less than utter freedom from sin and obedience full and entire to all the will of God. The petition in the universal prayer, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven," fixes absolutely the direction which all our aims and prayers should take. The same holds true of the intercessory prayer of our Saviour for all believers. "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they may be one in Us"—"I in Them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." Here, undeniably, is a specific prayer for moral purity in believers identical with that possessed by our Saviour Himself.
Now all the teachings and prayers of inspired apostles took specific form from these utterances of Christ. Take the following as examples:—Col, iv. 12, "Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." The meaning of such language cannot be misunderstood, or forced to imply anything less than obedience absolutely perfect to "all the will of God." To the same effect are the prayers embraced in such passages as Eph. iii. 14-21; 1 Thes. v. 23-24; Heb. xiii. 20-21.
All apostolic instructions and admonitions take on the same specific form" —Be perfect"—"Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing," "in nothing deficient," as Alvord renders it— "Keep the commandment without spot, irreproachable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." So Alvord rightly renders the passage.
A form of error more palpably unscriptural, or of more pernicious tendency, is hardly conceivable than that which represents the Word of God as teaching and inculcating as perfection a state and life in which the believer is "sanctified, not wholly," nor saved completely from sin, but is left continually in its partial commission. Such teaching undeniably renders Christ not only "a minister," but inculcator of sin. If Christ teaches and inculcates a state involving sin in any form or degree, so far He inculcates sin, and ministers to it. Will not "masters of Israel," advocates of the Higher Life especially, stop and think, and pray much, before they advance a step farther in such teachings as these?
M.
THOUGHTS FOR THE CLOSET.
THE POWER OF FAITH.—When we contemplate the believer as he is in himself, no creature in existence is, or can be, more weak, or void of power, than he is. "We are not sufficient, of ourselves, to think ANYTHING, as of ourselves." What is true of the believer, as he is in himself, must be true of all his mental states and exercises. In themselves, they must be as void of power as their subject is in himself. In itself, and of itself, faith is not sufficient for anything, but is utterly void of all vitalizing power. Separated from "our sufficiency which is of God," what could we do? what could faith do for ourselves or others?
Yet to the believer, in the infinitude of his weakness and insufficiency, "all things are possible." Let him have faith in God, and nothing is, or can be, "impossible to him." No creature in existence has power to accomplish the results which are brought within the possibilities of his faith. Can we understand why it is, and how it is, that the believer, thus utterly insufficient of himself, and while even his faith is thus utterly powerless in itself and by itself, is thus all-powerful through faith?
We will introduce our views upon this vital subject by adducing, first of all, an illustrative fact. Long Island Sound, which runs east of the City of New York, U.S., and by the States of Connecticut and Rhode Island on the south, would be navigable for the largest vessels, and thus considerably shorten the distance, and render more safe navigation between that city and the Eastern States and Europe, but for a single large reef of rocks which, at a certain point, rendered the passage of such vessels impossible. The Government at length determined to attempt the removal of this obstruction. The method fixed upon was by a system of mining to place beneath all parts of the obstruction vast magazines of powder and other most powerful explosives, and thus to effect its removal by the simultaneous explosion of these magazines. Several years were spent in creating these subterranean chambers, and filling them as designated, upwards of sixty toils of powder and other explosives being placed, it is said, in these chambers. When all was in readiness, but one thing was required to insure the desired result. All electric spark must be sent clown into the centre of these magazines, and thus, in an instant, ignite the whole. As no such event had ever before occurred in that country, there were serious apprehensions in regard to the results upon the buildings on both sides of the Sound in the vicinity of that reef. Hence the people were instructed to vacate their dwellings, and locate themselves where, at the moment when the explosion should occur, they would be in no danger from the falling of buildings. When the train was fixed, and as the time approached, the engineer, who had superintended the whole operation, placed a little daughter, three or four years of age, on a stool in front of a table, and, at the proper moment, said to the child: "Put your finger on that key, and press it down." The child did so, and in an instant the explosion occurred, lifting the rocks above the waters, and scattering them, in broken fragments, in all directions, while all the region round was shaken with terrible convulsions.
Contemplate now a few facts connected with this transaction. Without the sending down of the igniting spark into these magazines, all the explosive power latent there would have remained latent to the end of time. Yet the spark in itself was a powerless thing, no explosive power resided in it, and sent in any other direction no visible results would have arisen from its action. How feeble in itself, too, was the tiny finger that touched that key. Yet, what vast results were rendered possible to that child in consequence of its relations to those magazines. No creature in existence had, or could have had, greater power relatively to those vast results.
In the light of these facts let us, as our next step, consider a single passage of the Sacred Word. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on The, because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Here is the creature void of all peace-resources in himself. Here is faith, or trust, equally void in itself of peace-imparting and peace- keeping power. Here, on the other hand, is a peace-originating and a peace-keeping power of almighty and ever-enduring strength. In the absence of faith, however, that power will eternally remain ineffective in imparting peace to our hearts. We remain, on the other hand, " as the troubled sea, when it cannot rest," and peace to us is an absolute impossibility. But when we " have faith in God," and " make the Lord our trust," then all the peace-imparting, and peace-keeping power which God possesses encircles us, rendering our peace perfect and eternally enduring. Then, " the peace of God (the peace which God enjoys) which passeth all understanding, keeps our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus." Our faith or trust fulfils the conditions on which God's peace-giving and peace-keeping power becomes effective in our experience. Herein is the secret of the power of faith: "All things are possible to him that believeth," not because there is any intrinsic power in him, or in his faith, but because it fulfils the conditions on which Divine power must act in our behalf, and act to the full extent of our need, or God's word of promise must fail.
The principle under consideration is of universal application. Christ has made provisions full and complete for all our needs, temporal and spiritual. He loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that "He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish and has revealed Himself as "able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him." "The very God of peace" has not only revealed Himself as able, through the Spirit, the power which worketh in us," "to make all grace abound toward us, so that we, having all-sufficiency for all things, may abound unto every good work," and as "able to do exceeding abundant above all that we ask or think," but has bound Himself by absolute promise, we believing His word and trusting His grace, to "sanctify us wholly," and preserve our whole spirit and soul, and body, "blameless unto (until) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." All these provisions of grace, all this power to save, to sanctify, and to preserve in blameless purity and obedience are of no avail to us, but a blight upon our temporal and eternal peace, without faith on our part. When we do believe, however, God, the eternal Spirit, will, and must, render all the resources of divine grace and power absolutely effective to our full justification, total sanctification, preservation in blameless obedience, and fulness of joy and peace. To possess all this becomes just as possible to our faith as was the sending of that spark into those magazines to that child in the relations in which it was placed. As the sending of that spank was just as possible to that child as it was, or could have been, to any other human being, so the possession of this grace and power is just as possible to any one believer as it is or can be to any other. All are equal in the totality of their self-insufficiency, and all are in the same relations to the Divine all-sufficiency and the faith, on the condition of the exsistence of which that Divine all-sufficency endues us with, "an all- sufficiency for all things," the exercise of that faith is just as possible to any one believer as to any other. In the church God designs that there shall be an endless diversity of natural talents and special gifts. In personal holiness, divine fellowships and fruitions, and in "the power of the Spirit," any one believer should be equal to any other.
M.
Review.
NEWNESS OF LIFE. By Rev. W. H. M. H.
Aitken, M.A., Mission Preacher.
In a Late issue we commended this book to the special regard of our readers. At the same time we stated that many of its utterances were so important that we should call attention to some of them on some future occasion. As a Mission Preacher, Mr. Aitken occupies a position in this country hardly less influential than Mr. Moody in America. In the sphere of religious thought, the former unquestionably ranks higher than the latter. The special teachings of such a man as Mr. Aitken on such a subject as Newness of Life must be a matter of deep interest to our readers on both sides of the Atlantic. To some of these teachings special attention is now invited.
We begin by citing the last sentence of the first discourse, Newness of Life; a discourse which can hardly be too highly commended. "Shake yourself loose of every encumbrance, turn your back on every defilement, give yourself over like clay to the hand of the potter that He may stamp upon you the fulness of His resurrection glory, that we, beholding as in a mirror the glories of the Lord, may be changed from glory unto glory as by the Spirit of God.''
The most instructive of all these discourses, perhaps, is the second, entitled, "The Three Laws." In this discourse, our preacher gives a very able and conclusive exposition of the reasonings of Paul in the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of Romans, one of the ablest and most conclusive expositions we have yet met with. In chapter 6, the apostle, says Mr. A., "indicates the relation which is established between the justified man and sin. This relation he represents as being the reverse of that which previously existed. Formerly, sin was the master, and man was the slave. Now, by death and resurrection, man is freed from sin (Rom. 6, 7). Sin has lost its dominion, and we are free to yield ourselves to a life of righteousness." But how may the soul pass from a state of servitude under sin, to a state of freedom from its dominion? To answer this question is the express object of the apostle in the 7th and 8th chapters last named. In elucidating the nature of the apostle's reasoning "In these chapters Mr. Aitken presents the Three Laws above
referred to, namely, "The Law of the Mind," of the conscience, or moral nature of man, "The Law of Sin in the Members," or "The Law of Sin and Death," and "The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus." In Rom. vii. 14-25, we have portrayed the experience of the Legalist in his attempts to attain to obedience to the Law of Righteousness "by deeds of Law." The experience here described cannot, our author argues with absolute conclusiveness, be Christian experience, because but two laws are represented as acting here—the Law of the Mind, and the Law of Sin in conflict with the former, with the inevitable result, the absolute servitude and wretchedness of the subject under this Law of Sin. Christian experience is possible, but under "the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus," which Law has no place whatever in the experience described in this passage. Of the exposition which represents this passage as "describing the normal experience of the true Christian," Mr. Aitken thus speaks: "I can conceive of no more fatal perversion of Holy Scripture than such an interpretation, and I cannot but believe this passage, so employed, has been a most effective instrument in the hands of Satan (who knows well how to quote Scripture) in his most favourite work of injuring and degrading evangelical piety."
How is it, when the Third, the New Law, comes in, and by faith we become subject to the Law of the "Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus," and Christ Himself coming into the Inner Man, "uniting our nature to His, welding our will to His will, communicating His nature to ours, and forming Himself within us—the hope of glory? "The certain result is, "the destruction of the body of sin," "the emancipation of the believer from the Law of Sin and Death," and ''the fulfilment in him of the Righteousness of the Law," the moral rectitude which the Law requires. "In forming Himself within us, Christ does not," says our author, "destroy our personality. Our individuality must remain intact for all eternity." Let the reader give special attention to what follows: "Nor again (as the writings of some Christians would almost have us to suppose) by the addition of His own individuality to ours in such wise that we ourselves continue to represent the old man, while He Himself represents the new, so that one part of our nature is depicted as soaring in the clouds, while another is grovelling in earthliness and sin. This is but the seventh chapter of Romans reproduced under a new terminology, and the error is the more perilous because less obvious than the first. Our New Adam identifies Himself with us. He becomes our life; He forms His own nature, in ours, and in doing so conforms ours to His." "As He is, so are we in this world. The power which fitted Him for service is the same which is to fit us; and thus in our measure, that which is tree of the Head is also true of the Spiritual members." With these citations and remarks we again commend this book to our readers. M.
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I FEEL that there are two things it is impossible to desire with sufficient ardor!—personal holiness, and the honor of Christ in the salvation of souls. —McCheyne.
Intelligence.
Lanoli Camp Meeting.
In a late number we gave the call for the Camp Meeting above named, a call issued by a few friends of Christ, in Bombay, who are earnestly desiring and praying for a full "Baptism of the Holy Ghost" upon all believers in India. The only avowed object of the meeting, the first ever held in that country, was the obtaining of this Pentecostal blessing. The call was undenominational, and so was the meeting. The Bombay Guardian of April 27, forwarded to us, contains an account of this meeting, an account from which we take the following most interesting extracts.
"The Camp Meeting closed on Tuesday evening about 10 o'clock. It commenced on the morning of the 17th inst, and was thus seven days in session. They were days that will be long and gratefully remembered by those who had the privilege of being present. The site is admirably suited to such a gathering. The place is one of nature's own Cathedrals. Noble trees intertwine their branches overhead, yielding not a dim religious light, but rather an undimmed religious light, while shielding from the fervid heat of the sun. The temperature of the place was most agreeable by day and by night. Many parts of India were represented in the meetings.
"Many came up with no very strong confidence that the meetings would be successful. But we have not heard of any who remained more than a day who did not gladly testify to the great spiritual power of the Meeting. It had been convened specially that Christians of different localities might spend a season in waiting on the Lord for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; it had been preceded by much prayer; and the blessing granted was really beyond the expectation of the most sanguine. From the first day, and more and more everyday, it was evident that the power of the Spirit was gloriously present, fusing all hearts together, and producing on all the feeling that God was in the midst. The addresses were almost all on the subject of the Holy Spirit. Prejudices and doubt fled away; hungerings and thirstings after righteousness sprang up in many hearts; the spirit of consecration descended; confession was made of shortcomings and failures and half-heartedness in the Lord's work; and it was not long before the Spirit seemed to descend on all the assembly. It was with no selfish desire to have a mere season of religious enjoyment that the majority came together, but rather with the idea that they needed to receive a refreshing from the Lord that would fit them to work the better for the Lord. And there is good reason to believe that this end has been and will be realized. Every day there were conversions of those who had not previously submitted to the Lord, and were awakened and led to Christ in these meetings.
"A friend who was there from the opening, has favoured us with the following jottings:
"The conviction among God's people that they were not doing their duty and were too weak, faint, and ignorant to do the work God had given them to do, led them to inquire if there were not some better way of life and labor than any they had hitherto found. They became convinced that the tidings of this power are in the fulness of the Holy Spirit. And as they saw that in the Scripture the Holy Spirit is promised to all who persistently ask for him, and that they are commanded to ask and receive the Holy Spirit, and to be 'filled with the Spirit,' they could think of nothing better than to withdraw themselves apart from the scenes of care, business, and pleasure, and unite themselves in the earnest pursuit of this inestimable gift. This they have done, and the results have been highly profitable and promising. From the first to the last God was evidently among the people.
''The preaching was plain and simple, and often nothing more was attempted than an exposition of some text or of a Scripture doctrine, in a conversational way: nothing learned, eloquent, or striking was attempted. But never was better attention given by any audience. Every word was eagerly taken up as the thirsty earth drinks the rain. Evidently because every sermon and address had special reference to the work of the holy Spirit. Only this one theme was constantly pursued and with the happiest of results. At first solemnity, and then sadness, seemed to prevail as the people began to see their privileges, and to realize how far short they had come,—soon they began to confess before God their felt wants, their backslidings in heart and life—their failures and little fruit, and want of faith, love, meekness, patience, self-control, gentleness, long-suffering, zeal, watching and prayer.
This was followed by contrition and a dedication of themselves anew to God, as they saw their privileges in the new light thrown on their minds. They did not hesitate to come boldly forward and state their wants and distresses, nor were they ashamed to kneel in numbers in front of the stand, and call on God alone and beseech him to heal them and grant them the promised gift of the Holy Ghost.
"Numbers testified that they had received such an increase of love to God, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, that they had no doubt they had been heard and their prayers answered. This state of things went gradually on until every body seemed filled with joy and peace in believing.
"The doctrine taught showed to believers that it was their privilege to be saved not only from sin but from sinning, that is to say, from unholy passions and un-Christlike tempers, from all that is contrary to the mind of Christ, the being so filled with the Spirit as to exclude all uneasy, disquieting, and corrupting passions and tempers.
"That they may have power to work the works of God; and that they may have this now in answer to believing prayer many were led to ask believingly, and it was wonderful to observe the change produced in their spirit, conversation, and manner.
"The sad and desponding were filled with joy and gladness.
"People who confessed that they had been impatient and imperious became forbearing and gentle. Others who had been in bondage to pride, fear or shame of the Cross of Christ found deliverance. Some who had lost their relish for divine things, and were beginning to love the world and the things of the world, had their affections purified and raised to things above.
If these things be not the work of the Spirit, whose work then is it?"
Philadelphia Friday Meeting.
Before the hour of meeting, Wesley Hall was vocal with songs of praise. At the appointed time, Rev. Mr. Elliott led in prayer. Dr. Levy read the 32nd chapter of Isaiah. "And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly." It is wouderful what provision is made in the gospel to remedy the defects of sin. Some teach that the Church is a hospital for the cure of diseases, hence, we may expect to find there defects of the ear and of sight; to behold the lame and the feeble. I do not believe it. The Church is a camp of well-disciplined soldiers, or it was intended to be such. Christ is ready to heal all who will come to Him. If we have the single eye the body will be full of light, and we shall hear the least whisper of the Spirit. Stretch out the hand and show what a cure Jesus can make.
This is the most pernicious teaching the Church was ever cursed with. In the waiting-room, just after baptism, a brother, who was very happy, said to one who referred to his happiness, "Yes, but I don't expect to be so always. I expect to backslide." He did not get that from the teaching of God's word, but from some other professor. We ought to be astonished when any one backslides. If I understand the teachings of God's word, we are taught Christ can make a perfect cure, and keep us pure. When Lazarus was raised from the dead he did not bind the napkin round his face again; he threw his grave clothes away, and went forth as a man raised by the power of God. Friends, trust Jesus to save you fully. He will bring health and vigour to your soul. Not by the hospital process, but He will speak the word, and it shall be done.
"And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." This full assurance of faith means sanctification, and no one ever had it whose heart was not purified from all sin. We are to have it by faith, and it is to be an abiding experience. I rejoice in saying an experimental knowledge of this. I am a witness to the full assurance of faith. My experience is grounded on the word of the Lord Jesus Christ.—Christian Standard, U.S.
Revivals in the United States.
On Friday, May 10th, Messrs. Moody and Sankey closed their labours in New Haven, Ct. About 1,000 persons were present to listen to the farewell services; persons who had been converted, or quickened, during the revival. Messrs. Pentecost and Stebbins continue the meetings with great promise of success, crowds of solemn listeners attending their services.
Upwards of 800 converts have already joined the various evangelical churches in Hartford, as the result of the work of grace in that city.
Upwards of 300 individuals were hopefully converted, through the labours of Messrs. Pentecost and Stebbins, in the city of Middletown in the same State.
As the result of Rev. E. P. Hammond's winter campaign in Western Virginia and Ohio, between five and six thousand individuals have avowed themselves as converts to Christ. Messrs. Moody, Sankey, and Hammond, have now "turned aside to rest awhile," their exhausting labours demanding it. The usual Camp Meetings in that country are neat, when the work of God may be expected to go on with increasing power.
Northern Home Counties Clerical and Lay Association.
On the 4th and 5th of June, the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of this Association was held at Ware. There was a large attendance of the members and of the general public. The subject of Holiness, we rejoice to learn, engrossed very largely the attention of the Association, several important and carefully-prepared papers being read by different individuals upon the subject. Of these papers the most important of all was read by Canon Hoare. Holiness was rightly defined by the speaker in the following words: "Holiness is nothing else than conformity to the mind and will of God. It is the reflection of His character, in the character of His adopted child. It is the holiness of God written by the Holy Ghost upon the mind and heart of the believer. In following out this definition, we shall find that there are three constituent parts in this conformity: likeness, consecration, and nearness." The subject is elucidated with much ability in this address, and with hardly an utterance which we do not fully endorse.
Our gratification in reading this address was a little marred, however, by the fact that the speaker deemed it expedient to turn aside from so sacred a subject, and aim a needless blow at servants of Christ, who, had they been present on the occasion, would have "sat under his shadow with delight, while his fruit would have been pleasant to their taste." ''I think," he says, "we shall all be agreed that assurance is not holiness. This seems so obvious that you may wonder at my thinking it worth the while to make the statement. But for the last few years I have been convinced that in many modern writings the two things are frequently confounded." He then refers to the following sentence found in DIVINE LIFE, as containing "a remarkable confirmation of this opinion." The sentence is this: "As early as the year 1743 the wife of President Edwards, a very eminent lady, sought and obtained what was then called 'the full assurance of faith,' what the Methodists called entire sanctification, perfect love, &c., and what is now called the rest of faith, higher life, holiness." We seriously question whether Canon Hoare is not the only reader of the article from which that sentence is cited who had the remotest apprehension that in it assurance and holiness were confounded. In that article, holiness, as he has defined it, is, in fact and form, spoken of as the cause of "full assurance of faith," and the latter as the result of the former. In the expression, "full assurance of faith," as representing the experience referred to, assurance was never, before the confusion took form in the mind of Canon Hoare, understood as confounded with holiness. So with all terms referred to. In Heb. xii. 14, we are required to "follow holiness," and in chapter vi. 11, we are exhorted to "have the same diligence (Alvord) with regard to the full assurance of hope." Does Paul here confound assurance and holiness, or set them before us as two separate things to be pursued at different times? By no means. In one case he speaks of the substance, holiness; and in the other of its necessary result, assurance; and of each as implying the other. So in the writings referred to, holiness is presented as the cause or antecedent of assurance, and the latter as the consequent of the former; and they are never, even in appearance, confounded one with the other. We hope that this is the final instance in which, in the elucidation of holiness, the subject will be so far departed from as to make individuals "offenders for a word." One paragraph in this address is so important, that we cite it entire:
"Such holiness as this can only be wrought by the in-dwelling power of the Holy Ghost. Man may imitate man, and may rise to man's standard, but he has no more power to work himself up to the mind and character of God than a sparrow has to work itself into an eagle, or a bramble bush into a vine. It is only by God the Holy Ghost that the character of God can be written upon the mind of man, and hence when we long for holiness we must open our hearts, as it were, for the presence of the Holy Comforter, and plead with Him to come in, and dwell there in full possession. I believe that it is sometimes said, that we are not to pray for the Holy Spirit because He is already given, but surely such an opinion is the result of a low and material view of that sacred and Holy Person. If we were speaking of a past change like the new birth, I can perfectly understand why true believers should not pray for it, inasmuch as they reverently trust that they have long since been born again. Or if we were speaking of some gift which we have earnestly desired, and which we humbly trust has been given to us, I can perfectly understand again why we should leave off praying for it, as the woman of Canaan left off praying for her daughter when she was assured that the Lord had answered her prayer. But if we look on the Holy Spirit not as a thing but as a living, loving Person, one that may come and that may go; one that may dwell within the soul, but one that may be grieved, and driven from his resting place; then surely we must regard Him as one that may be invited, and we must open to Him the doorway of the soul, entreating Him most earnestly to enter in, and reign supreme within the heart."
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IMPORTANT WORK NOW READY,
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THE OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
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Chap. I. Who is the Holy Spirit? Chap. 7. The Evidences of Entire Sanctification.
„ 2. The Spirit's Work in the New Birth „ 8. General Observations on the
„ 3. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Subject of Holiness.
„ 4. Effects of Christ's Baptism.— „ 9. The Enduement of Power.
Entire Sanctification. „ 10. The Indwelling Comforter.
„ 5. Effects of Christ's Baptism. „ 1 1. The Spirit of the Church.
„ 6. How is Holiness to be obtained? „ 12. The Spirit in Prayer.
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"This is a very attractive title of a very attractive book. The volume is beautifully got up, and will form a handsome present both for schools and families. It has our warm commendation."
From the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse.
"This is a thoroughly good book. It is filled with life-like sketches of the men who are amongst the most endeared to the Methodist people. It would be difficult to name any more acceptable gift-book than this work, for which we heartily thank Mr. Christophers."
HAUGHTON & Co., 10 Paternoster Row.
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"DR. BARNARDO'S HOMES."
(East End London Juvenile Mission.)
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President—The RIGHT HON. THE LORD CAIRNS (Lord High Chancellor Of Great Britain). Vice-President—The RIGHT HON. THE LORD KINNAIRD.
Treasurer—WILLIAM FOWLER, EsQ., 33, Cornhill, E.C.
Hon. Director—T. J. BARNARDO, L.R.C.S. Edin., 18 and 20, Stepney Causeway, London, E. Bankers—London and South-Western Bank (Bow Branch).
Committee—
Chairman-S. GURNEY SHEPPARD, EsQ., 31, Oxford-street, W.
ANDERSON, ROBERT, EsQ., LL.D., 7, Ken- PATERSON, REV. H. SINCLAIR, M.D., Belgrave sington Gore, S.W. Presbyterian Church.
BILLING, REV. R. C., Vicar of Holy Trinity, PATON, W. T., EsQ., 23, Barnsbury-park, N.
Islington, N. PELHAM, HON T. H, W., 62, Lincoln's-inn-fields,
BROWN, REV. ARCHIBALD G., East London W.C.
Tabernacle, E. PRICE, REV. AUBREY C., Vicar of St. James's,
DOWSON, H. NAIRNE, EsQ., Bridge Dock, Lime- Chapham.
house, E. SANDS, JOHN, EsQ., 50, Old Broad-Street, E.C.
GORDON, JOHN E., EsQ., National Club, W. SMITH, HEYWOOD, EsQ., M.D., 2 portugal-
KINNAIRD, HON. ARTHUR F., 50, South street, Grosvenor-square,
Audley-street, W. TYLER, REV. W., Congreational Church, Mile
NOBLE, COLONEL, C.R.E., Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. End New Town, E.
The Committee of the above Homes earnestly APPEAL FOR FUNDS to enable them to carry on the deeply important work of these valuable Institutions.
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Our Publishers still have on hands a large stock of back Volumes of
THE CHILDREN'S TREASURY.
For the Years 1874, 1875, and 1876.
These they are now selling at HALF PRICE, in order to reduce their stock, and we would earnestly recommend our readers to send Twelve Stamps to Messrs. Haughton and Co., 10, Paternoster Row, for a specimen Volume. The books for 1875 and 1876 were published at Tow Shillings each in yellow boards, and at Three Shillings in cloth gilt, but can now be obtained for One shilling and Eighteenpence respectively, post free. The last half-yearly volumes, that is from January to June, 1877, and from July to December, 1877, price Two Shillings each, post free, can also be had from the publishers. The entire year's numbers of the
CHILDREN'S TREASURY for 1877,
Neatly bound in one volume, cloth, is also published at 4s., and cloth gilt, 5s. Each.
These would prove attractive presents for children.
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HAUGHTON & CO., 10 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
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An Alethea In Heart REPUBLICATION 2002. For Asa Mahan, and Charles Finney's Complete Works, and hundreds of other holiness works, visit our web site: http://t
ruthinheart.com
Rick Friedrich 8071 Main St., Fenwick, MI 48834-9649 (989)-637-4179
