Consecration and purity or The will of God concerning me.

Front matter

Class. ^2lT_11iZ

Book_: .vyL

Copyright iN^.

CHAPTER I. Consecration

CHAPTER n.

Are we not fully saved when converted?

CHAPTER HI.

How soon after conversion should we begin to seek entire sanctification ?

CHAPTER IV.

Have faith in God.

CHAPTER V.

The joy of the Lord.

CHAPTER VI.

Individual responsibility.

CHAPTER VII.

We count them happy which endure.

CHAPTER VIII.

Is the doctrine of Christian perfection

new?

CHAPTER IX.

The swan song of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's experience. (5)

6 CONTENTS

CHAPTER X.

Experience of Dr. Daniel Steel.

Letter from Drew Theological Seminary, D. S. Spencer.

Reply to D. S. S.

CHAPTER XL Experience of the Author — M. S. Wheeler.

CHAPTER XH.

Experience of Mrs. Mary Grant Cramer, sister of President U. S. Grant.

AND PURITY OR

THE WILL OF GOD CONCERNING ME.

CHAPTER I.

CONSECRATION.

The question is often asked : "What shall I do to prepare myself for the reception of the fullness of the Spirit, or the blessing of perfect love?" And the answer as often is, "Consecrate yourself entirely to Christ."

But perhaps you say : "I did do that when I was converted."

Yes, as far as you knew, and as far as you were able with your limited knowledge of God's requirements, you did give yourself entirely to Christ. You could receive pardon on no other condition.

Justification is a high and joyful state. It is a new birth. We are born of God; made heirs of eternal life and glory. Our sins are pardoned, but we are not entirely free. Believers are not by virtue of the new birth free from the inward taint of sin.

Bishop Hamline said: "I saw that in my heart were the roots of many evils which, though they could not grow while under the reign of grace, yet were ever ready to spring up under the least declinings of faith and love." Having discovered (7)

S CONSECRATION

these roots of bitterness, he continues: "I began to cry unto the Lord to deliver me from the remains of the carnal mind; I pe^^severed in almost unremitted cries for holiness/' Charles Wesley sings:

'Take away our bent to sinning, Let us find that second rest."

Bishop Francis Asbury, in the holy ardor of his soul, cried out: "O, Purity! O, Christian Perfection! O, Sanctification ! It is heaven below to feel all sin removed. Preach it, whether they will hear or forbear. I feel divinely impressed to preach sanctification in every sermon."

Bishop Foster, in his Christian Purity, says: "Holiness always begets happiness. Would you possess the one, you must not fail to gain the other. How great was your bliss when you heard the voice of pardon : when you felt the upspringing of purity within ! How the tumult of your heart was hushed into calm, and fear and sorrow, and remorse, gave place to quietness and assurance! Can you ever forget it? But this was only a prelude, a foretaste of that deeper, sweeter, ever-increasing joy of the heart all filled with God." The poet sings:

"There is a spot to me more dear

Than native vale or mountain; A spot for which affections' tear

Springs grateful from its fountain. 'Tis not where kindred souls abound,

Though that is almost heaven : But where I first my Savior found,

And felt my sins forgiven.

O, sacred hour ! O, hallowed spot !

Where love divine first found me, Wherever falls my distant lot,

My heart shall linger round thee; And when from earth I rise to soar

Up to my home in Heaven, Down will I cast my eyes once more

To where I was forgiven."

Notwithstanding the great joy that comes into the heart with the knowledge of pardoned sin, there is ever a yearning desire to have all sin die out in us.

King Edward VI, who died in his youth, and was considered the most pious prince of his time, had in his Primer the following:

"PRAYER FOK A PURE AND CLEAN

HEART :

The heart of man naturally is corrupt and unsearchable through the multitude of sins, which lie buried in it, insomuch that no man is able to say, 'My heart is clean, and I am clear from sin.* Remove from me, therefore, O Heavenly Father, my corrupt, sinful, stony, stubborn, and unfaithful heart. Create in me a clean heart, free from all noisome and ungodly thoughts. Breathe into my heart, by Thy Holy Spirit, godly and spiritual motions ; that out of the good treasure of the heart I may bring forth good things, unto the praise and glory of Thy name. Amen !" Here the justified soul still feels the remains of the carnal mind, and prays for deliverance.

Bishop Hedding, when addressing a class of ministers, said: **^You have been asked the following questions, and have answered them in the affirmative : *Are you going on to perfection ? Do you expect to be made perfect m love in this life? Are you groaning after it?'

"It is important for you as Christians, and as ministers, to have a thorough understanding of this great subject. The subject is Christian perfection, or being made perfect in love in this life. It is being delivered from sin, and filled with the love of God. I am asked to state the nature of justification, regeneration, and sanctification, and the difference between them as distinct works of grace. I understand justification to be a pardon of past sins; and regeneration, which takes place at the same time, to be a change of heart, or of our moral nature. Regeneration also, being the same as the new birth, is the beginning of sanctification, though not the completion of it, or not entire sanctification. Regeneration is the beginning of purification ; entire sanctification is the finishing of that work."

Christ is a perfect Savior. He has provided an uttermost salvation for His followers. We are exhorted to leave the principles of the doctrines of Christ and go on to perfection. It is our privilege to "comprehend with all saints the length and breadth, the heighth and the depth, and to know the love of God which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God."

As we before said, the first step to be taken in securing this blessing is to renew our consecration. A perfect consecration must precede our reception of the perfect love of God. Paul, the apostle, says :

"I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Not a slaughtered animal body, such as you have been accustomed to offer, but present now at His spiritual altar your own bodies." Not dead bodies, but a living sacrifice, dedicated to God entirely, and irrevocably.

As the ancient sacrifices were never to be taken back, so you must now yield yourselves, body, soul and spirit, to be employed in the service of Him who gave himself for you. Such a sacrifice is much more pleasing to God, and more efficacious in securing the salvation of your soul than any ordinary Jewish sacrifice. Paul reasons: ''For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Dr. Adam Clarke says: "All these phrases are sacrificial, and show that there must be a complete surrender of the person — the body, the whole man, mind and flesh, to be given to God; and that he is to consider himself no more his own, but the entire property of his Maker."

Jesus prayed that His disciples might have personal cleansing from sin — hearts purified and filled with holy love. He said: "Father, I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest me. .... And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may he in them and I in them." This must be perfect love.

Paul says: ''I beseech you, brethren!' How affectionately, how tenderly he addresses them! "By the mercies of God." What a motive for action! The mercies of God; who can compute them? Who can estimate them? Who can comprehend them? Count, if you can, the stars in the milky-way, or all the worlds that roll in infinite space. Count the drops of water in the ocean, or the grains of sand upon its shores: but you can never count the mercies of God. How He has strewn them all along the pathway of our lives. And the promise remains — "He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about" — and "his mercy endureth forever."

Josiah Quincy, formerly president of Harvard College, lived to be ninety-two years of age. He had kept a journal for many years. He was accustomed to sit, in the morning, in a large chair with a broad arm to it, which served as a desk, upon which he wrote his diary. July 1, 1864, he sat down in his chair as usual. His daughter brought him his journal. He at first declined to undertake his wonted task, but his daughter urged him not to abandon it. He took the book, and wrote the first verse of that grateful hymn of Addison:

'When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view I'm lost In wonder, love, and praise."

The weary head dropped upon the bosom. The volume was ended. The soul had fled."

Let us remember the bright things that have come into our lives.

Dr. Guthrie says: "We write our blessings on the water, our afflictions on the rock."

We say, 'T remember when that sad trial came to me. When the light of my life went out. When my wife, or my husband died; when my health failed, and I was a great sufferer. When the earthquake occurred, and the cyclone came. Yes ! I remember these things, but I never had as much to rejoice over as many persons have had."

We may hold a very small object so close to the eye that it shuts out all the landscape. So a little trial may be held so close to the heart that it shuts out all the view of the tender mercies of God. And yet, our afflictive dispensations often prove our greatest blessings.

Many of God's children know by experience what it is to go into their dark Gethsemane alone, as did the suffering Son of God, and with crushed and bleeding hearts, and tear-dimmed eyes, say; "Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." And on such occasions have not the strengthening angels been present to bear us up, to fan us with their wings, and to whisper words of cheer, and courage? As we have arisen, we have felt new strength imparted, and have gone forth with a stronger faith in the overshadowing presence of the Omnipotent One.

Consecration is our part of the work in obtaining sanctification. We do not ask God to consecrate us. We present our bodies a living sacrifice, and ask our Heavenly Father to accept our offering. There ig no merit in our presenting. ''Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saves us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." How quickly the blessing comes when the whole being is entirely consecrated, and the soul steps out on the promises of God.

President Edwards says in his diary: "I have this day been before God, and have given myself, all that I am and have, to God, so that I am in no respect my own. I can challenge no right in myself, in this understanding, this will, these affections. Neither have I a right to this body or any of its members, no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet, these eyes, these ears; I have given myself clean away."

O, that the church of God may measure up to this standard of entire personal consecration! Then, as with Barnabas, ''full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith," much people will be added unto the Lord. Then the power comes, the power that Jesus promised His disciples. Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

What a marvelously glorious experience had those disciples ! I have often tried to imagine what my feelings would have been, could I have stood with them and listened to the words of the Savior,

CONSECRATION IS

as He told them they should be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. Assuring them that they should be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence, and that they should receive power that would qualify them for the work. "And then, with hands uplifted, as he was pronouncing a blessing upon us, while we all beheld steadfastly, we saw his feet part from the earth, and suddenly, but gradually, rising higher and higher, until a cloud received him out of our sight."

No wonder the disciples stood gazing steadfastly up into heaven, transfixed — loath to take their eyes from the cloud of glory which received Him — until the two men in white apparel said : "Ye men of Gallilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

"We came with him to Bethlehem, to help herald his birth — we sang 'Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men' — and now that his redemptive work is finished, we came to accompany him back to the throne of his Father's glory. But he'll not forget you, or cease to love you. He is, according to his promise, coming back for you, and ye shall be caught up together with him. So shall ye be forever with your Lord." But suppose I had been with them, and knew there could be no deception about it. I saw it myself ! I knew that Jesus had gone up on high, and entered into heaven, from whence He came ! Could I ever doubt Him? Could any power of earth cause me to lose faith in His word, or in His promises to me ? No! It would be impossible.

Thank God we have the word, with the assurance that this occurred. And this word has been tested for nineteen hundred years. In it we read: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one."

The same baptism of the Holy Spirit, the strength imparted thereby, is for us if we are His witnesses.

"Ye shall receive power!" What kind of power? Was it to be political, physical, or intellectual power? The power of eloquence or logic? No! The Holy Spirit was to be poured upon them to qualify them to be witnesses that should convince and convert.

Thirty years after he received the blessing of perfect love. Dr. Daniel Steele wrote : "In the promotion of the spirituality of the church, and the conversion of sinners, I see more and more clearly the futility of all substitutes for the Holy Spirit — music, architecture, oratory, literary culture, and social festivities to sway the adults, and young people's organizations and amusements to attract the young. All these are so many fire-flies in place of the sun, "-o illume and warm the world and conserve vegetable and animal life. The spiritual decline over which the churches are mourning began years ago in the neglect, in the pulpit, of those truths which promote regeneration and entire sanctification."

To be witnesses for Jesus in the disciples' day — that age of darkness and unbelief — they needed more than natural human eloquence, or reasoning, or magnetic power. Christ proposed to give them supernatural power to energize and quicken their intelligence, to bring all things that He had spoken to their remembrance. To give power to their utterances, and to give them fortitude and strength with which to meet their adversaries. It gave the disciples fresh life and hope, and under this inspiration the apostles went forth to win the world, with the assurance that the Omnipotent Jesus, Whom they really saw ascend into heaven, would be with them to the end of the world.

They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually praising God. No wonder ! Their joy must have been ecstatic, Jesus had gone, it is true, and they were to see His face no more. They were never more to commune with Him in the body ; but they had seen Him go up to heaven alive. They were to meet Him again. The separation would be short, and the Comforter was soon to come, to abide with them.

It seems to me if I had been one of them, I could hardly have waited to reach the places, but should have been compelled to run with haste to tell the story. They went forth full of joy, full of faith, full of courage, full of energy, and full of power to establish Christ's kingdom. They expected success. When they prayed they expected the answer to their petitions and they were not disappointed.

Jesus said: "John baptised you with water unto repentance, but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost. There is a nobler baptism prepared for you, and which you shall receive from Me, to furnish you for the great work to which I have commissioned you. We believe if any of the carnal mind, or imbred sin, remained in their hearts when this baptism came the cleansing blood was applied, every stain was washed away, and they were wholly sanctified. Nothing short of this could satisfy the divine Lord as to their fitness for the work; and nothing short of this will make us all that God would have us to be.

Our religion does not consist in contemplation alone, but in active struggle to put all sin out of our hearts, and to help others to do the same. Neither should we be satisfied with Christ alone outside of us. We may believe in Christ as crucified, dead, buried, risen, ascended, without being fully saved. We must have Christ in us, the hope of glory. Christ enthroned in our hearts :

"A heart in every thought renewed And full of love divine, Perfect, and right, and pure, and good, A copy, Lord, of Thine."

If our hearts are copies of the Lord's, they will be pure, they will be spotless, without blemish, or wrinkles, or any such thing, and if kept thus, they will be preserved blameless. Then when our hearts are cleansed, they are ready to be filled. The Holy Spirit has full sway in us, and we are sure of success.

Have you not seen times in your own experience when you were in great need, and you opened God's word to find some promise to strengthen and encourage your heart, and as you read the word it seemed full of new meaning? You said: "It is wonderful ! I have read this so many times, and I never understood it as I do now." It was the Holy Spirit revealing the things of God to you.

I once was at a camp meeting where the Rev. J. A. Wood, author of "Perfect Love," "Purity and Maturity," etc., was present. He had just entered into this perfect rest. I remember he was called upon to exhort the unconverted after the morning sermon. That used to be the fashion — a sermon, then an exhortation. Brother Wood could not ex:hort until he had told what God had done for him ; until he had proclaimed Christ's wondrous power to save. Holding the Bible in one hand and the hymn book in the other, he said:

"O, brethren, this Bible and hymn book are both full of it. Full of perfect love, full of purity, full of sanctification. I have time to read only one text, but just listen to it: 'And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' This book is also full of it, but I must take time to read but one stanza. It is this:

'I wait till He shall touch me clean,

Shall life and power impart, Give me the faith that casts out sin.

And purifies the heart.'

Here it is, brethren, given by two eminent authorities, Paul and Charles Wesley. Let us enter into this perfect rest!"

A ministerial brother came once to assist my husband in revival services. Seated in my husband's study, we entered into conversation about the work that lay before us, and the qualifications necessary for the laborers, to ensure success. The next day the brother came in and said : "Ever since our conversation yesterday I have felt that I lack power with God, and I must have the full salvation we talked about. Please tell me your experience. Just how you obtained it, and then pray with me here. I feel as if I could not preach or labor for Christ with this burden on my heart." We kneeled in prayer, and lifted our hearts to God for a blessing to fall on our brother, but he could not enter in because of his unbelief. He went to the meeting that evening, surrendered all to Christ, and by faith the cleansing blood was applied and he was gloriously blessed. He came right over to the parsonage to tell us the glad tidings. Shortly after leaving us, he wrote the following:

''Dear Brother and Sister : Hallelujah ! O, I am wholly the Lord's ! Body, soul, spirit, time, talents, my influence, my all, belongs to God. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. By the help of the dear Redeemer I can hold the cross up higher to-day than I ever did before. It is so easy now to say Glory! Glory! Glory! My soul is filled. My all is on the altar.

"It is midnight. I must close. How I wish I could see you and tell you how much I do lo\e Jesus. I am willing to spend and be spent. O, I am willing to take the smallest appointments or to go as a missionary, or do anything for Jesus. Pray for me, that the work of God may prosper in my hands, and tell my friends that my life is all sufi' shine!"

He continued in this happy frame of mind until Jesus took him home. Though in the prime of life, he lived but a short time afterward.

As this subject was commenced with Frances Havergal's Consecration Hymn, it seems fitting to close with the words spoken by her at the end of her consecrated Hfe. The last day Miss Havergal was living she asked a friend to read the fortysecond chapter of Isaiah to her. When the sixth verse was reached: 'T, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee," Miss Havergal stopped her. "Called — held — kept," she whispered, "Well, I will just go home on that/*

CHAPTER 11.

ARE WE NOT FULLY SAVED WHEN CONVERTED?

"Thou knowest, Lord, I am not blest

As Thou wouldst have me be, Till all the peace and joy of faith

Possess my soul in Thee; And still I seek, 'mid many fears,

With yearnings unexpressed.

The comfort of thy strengthening love,

Thy soothing, settling rest."

Many sincere Christians ask: "Are we not sanctified when we are adopted into the family of God? Can we be lost when we are heirs of heaven? Is it not written: 'He that is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God !' "

Yes. It is impossible for persons converted, living acceptable unto God, in a justified state, to be lost; even if they die before becoming wholly sanctified.

Dr. Peck, in his "Christian Perfection," says : "It is most absurd to suppose that a justified soul can be lost, without having forfeited his justification by backsliding."

Sanctification begins at justification. At the same time that we are justified, we are also born again; sanctified in part, but not entirely purified from all sin. Our Lord prayed for the sanctification of his disciples. In his last prayer with them he said :

"Father, sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth/'

Some say: "God has pardoned our sins. We know when we were converted. We had the assurance that the work was done, and we have been members of the church ever since. We have never backslidden, but we are told that we must seek and obtain this second blessing, which they denominate sanctification, or holiness, and they quote the words : 'Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.' They teach that pardon, or justification, is not sufficient to secure for us a place in heaven."

Mr. Wesley says: "The term sanctified is continually applied by St. Paul, to all that were justified. By this term alone he rarely, if ever, means 'saved from all sin.' " And that consequently, it is not proper to use it in that sense without adding the word wholly, entirely, or the like. Again: "Now the word of God plainly declares, that even those who are justified, who are born again in the lowest sense, 'do not continue in sin'; that they cannot live any longer therein — Rom. vi., 1, 2 ; that they are planted together in the likeness of death of Christ, verse 5; that their old man is crucified with Him ; the body of sin being destroyed, so that henceforth they do not serve sin; that being dead with Christ, they are free from sin, verses 6, 7 ; that they are dead unto sin, and aUve unto God, verse 1 1 ; that sin hath no more dominion over them, who are not under the law, but under grace; but that these, 'being free from sin, are become the servants of righteousness,' verses 14, 18,"

He continues : "How naturally do those who experience such a change imagine that all sin is gone; that it is utterly rooted out of their hearts." . . . **But it is seldom long before they are undeceived, finding sin was only suspended, not destroyed. Temptations return and sin revives, showing that it was but stunned before, not dead. We are enabled by the Spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, of our evil nature; and as we are more and more dead to sin, we are more and more alive to God. It is thus that we wait for sanctification ; for a full salvation from all our sins, from pride, selfwill, anger, unbelief, or, as the apostle expresses it, 'go on to perfection.' "

Paul, in writing to his brethren, the Thessalonians, says : ''And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Christ also 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."

How do we get the spots out of our garments? We purify them by washing. How are the wrinkles removed? It requires heat, or pressure, for this. They may be washed whiter than snow, but oh, the wrinkles ! While they remain it will not be a perfect garment. A hot iron is often used to remove these. Our Heavenly Father sometimes permits fiery trials to come into our lives to polish and beautify our garments of righteousness. ''Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." The trials from which we shrink are often ''Steps into Heaven." Sarah Adams sings :

"Then with my waking thoughts

Bright with Thy praise, Out of my stony griefs

Bethel I'll raise; So by my woes to be Nearer, my God, to Thee !

Nearer to Thee !"

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." 'Tf we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we confess our sins,

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." "Whoso hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure." God's word abounds with these precious promises and exhortations.