Sermons on the higher life ...

Preface

The most of the sermons composing this volume have been preached at the great camp-meetings held within the last twelve years in various sections of the country — at Vineland, in New Jersey; at Manheim, in Pennsylvania ; at Round Lake, New York ; Hamilton, Mass. ; Old Orchard, in Maine ; Des Plaines, Illinois; Landisville, Pennsylvania; Oakington, Maryland ; Urbana, Ohio ; Denville, New Jersey ; Sing-Sing, New York ; and Thousand Island Park, New York. Some of the sermons have been published, in part, with the proceedings of these camp-meetings, or in the daily and weekly papers of the localities in which they were preached. Very many instances have been brought to the knowledge of the author of the benediction which these sermons have been made to precious souls, in their awakening, illumination, consecration, and entire sanctification. These sermons appear here substantially as they were preached, although they were not originally written with the design of publication. Several tilings have encouraged the author to put these sermons in a permanent form, — the favor which the Lord gave them when they were

II Preface

preached, the wishes of friends to see them in print, the fact that there is no volume of sermons specifically upon "The Higher Life" in our literature either in England or America, and his earnest desire that they may keep on proclaiming a free and a full salvation, long after the lips which uttered them have been silent in death. The author trusts that these reasons will be deemed sufficient by the Christian public, and that a richer and more permanent blessing may attend the printed words than was vouchsafed to them when they were preached.

LEWIS E. DUNN.

Elim Home, * Elizabeth, New Jersey, 1882.

TEXTS OF SERMONS.

PAGE.

I Called to be Saints 7

" Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints." (1 Corinthians i, 2.)

II Consecration 29

" Who, then, is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?" (1 Chron. xxix, 5.)

III Sanctified through the Truth 54

" Sanctify them through thy truth : thy Word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John xvii, 17-19.)

IV Cleansed by the Blood 68

" The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John i, 7.)

V The Power of the Holy Ghost 88

" But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts i, 8.)

VI Perfect Love. . . • 108

" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." (Matt, xxii, 37.)

VII Full Redemption 125

" But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption ; that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." (1 Cor. i, 30, 31.)

hi

IV Texts Of Sermons

PAGE.

VIII

" But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord/' (2 Cor. iii. 18.)

" Awake, awake : put on thy strength, O Zion ; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust ; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem ; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion." (Isaiah lii, I, 2.)

X. . . • The Kest of Faith. . . 179

"For we which have believed do enter into rest; as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest : although the works were finished from the foundation of the world," etc. (Heb. iv, 3-9.)

XI God's Will in Earth and Heaven 195

" Thy will be done."

XII. . . . Christ's Ideal of His Own Church 210

" Husbands, love your wives, even as 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." (Eph. v, 25-27.)

XIII The Receipt for Holiness. ...... 229

" Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans vi, 11.)

XIV. . . The Natural Man and Spiritual Things. . . 245

"But 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. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord , t hat he may instruct him ? But we have the mind of Christ." (1 Cor. ii, 14-16.)

IX.

Strength and Beauty.

TEXTS OF SERMONS. V

PAGE.

XV. . . Contrast between the Worldling and the

Christian. ...» 261

"Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit : speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians v, 17-19.)

XVI Uttermost Salvation 277

" Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." (Heb. vii, 25.)

XYII The Blood and the Testimony 298

" And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." (Rev. xii, 11.)

XVIII Kings and Priests 319

11 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 forever and ever. Amen." (Rev. i, 6.)

XIX. . . Filled with the Fullness of Christ 335

" For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." (Col. ii, 9, 10.)

XX The Blood- washed Throng . 357

" And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they ?' ' etc. (Rev. vii, 13-17.)

Introduction

What a wonderful book is the Bible ! Its thoughts are seed-thoughts. Its words are germs that expand and develop until, like the tree of life, they feed the nations. Its sentences, even its phrases, are the basis of countless sermons and essays. For eighteen centuries the words of Christ have been inspiring the nations, and thousands of men of energy and of eloquence have from age to age borne witness to their saving power. To-day more ministers stand in Christian pulpits than ever before. Their theme is unchanged. It is still " Christ and him crucified." Who talk to-day of Plato or Socrates or Aristotle? Men were they of brilliant intellects and of commanding power. But their w T ords are heard only in the schools. Of Jesus the little children sing, manhood accepts him as sovereign Lord, and old age sees in him "the resurrection and the life."

Every sentence, every word that Jesus uttered has been carefully and critically studied. Profound thinkers have studied their meaning, the best of scholars have translated them into more than two hundred languages, the rich prize them as untold treasures, and so multiplied are they by the power of the press that the poor can have them without money and without price. Who cares to teach Plato or Newton or Locke to the heathen? But now men take their lives in their hands, and haste away to tell the name of Jesus to savages and cannibals,

INTRODUCTION.

and, behold, the savage becomes clothed and in his right mind.

Yet the Bible is not exhausted. Its treasures grow richer as the ages increase. Allusions, dark and meaningless centuries ago, have, by the advance of knowledge, become bright and luminous. Every step of science, every triumph over the elements, enlarges not only our knowledge of God, but gives us clearer views of his Word. We read between the lines more of his wisdom, his compassion, and his love. So is it also in Christian experience. The higher the Christian ascends, his view enlarges. The horizon stretches farther and farther away, and he beholds distant mountain heights that sparkle with the glory of the Lord. The Bible which he read in youth has new beauties. He finds comfort and instruction in expressions which he had never before understood. The Word had been to him always refreshing; but now, possibly in some moment of sorrow, there seems to be pressed from it the " fresh juices of the grape." It is " sweeter than honey and the honey-comb." It is more " to be desired than gold; yea, than much fine gold."

The mission of the preacher of the Gospel is a glorious one. It is to speak Christ's words to men — to so speak them as to instruct, warn, or comforc, and thus to " present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Though the text be old, the sermon is new. It is a fresh application of truth to some yearning heart. Yon moon, of Jupiter has been for ages revolving and shining; but the eye that for the first time sees it through the telescope is enraptured with the view. Christ has been the "star of Bethlehem," " the bright and the morning star," for the centuries ; but when the preacher cries out,

INTRODUCTION.

t ' Behold the Lamb of God!" the sinner for the first time looks and lives. He is a new creature. The tidings, the sermon, the surroundings seem to echo back the Savior's voice, " Behold, I make all things new."

The printed sermon can never equal its utterance from human hps. The presence, the eye of fire and of love, the voice of sweetness and of compassion, the present testimony, and the sympathizing audience are all wanting. Yet it is of great value and power. In it are preserved the thoughts of clear and able minds, the illustrations and imagery that enrich, and the apt and forcible expressions that reach and captivate the heart. In some respects it has advantages over the preached Word. That is heard for the moment, and, if not clearly comprehended, is lost forever. But this is read and re-read. The statement, if not perfectly clear at first, becomes so on examination. The truth may thus be more perfectly impressed upon the understanding. This, in doctrinal teaching, is very important. Great leaders, such as Calvin, Luther, and Wesley, felt the necessity of writing many of their sermons, and of thus placing their doctrines in permanent form before the public eye.

Besides, there are many detained from public worship by watching with friends, or in performing works of mercy. To them the printed sermon becomes a valuable substitute for the teachings of their pastor. Others are confined by illness to a sick-chamber. How much comfort may they derive from the printed page, either read or heard!

The sermons composing this volume are from the pen of Rev. L. R. Dunn, D. D., an able and experienced member of the Newark Conference. In substance they were delivered to congregations which he served,

INTRODUCTION.

or to larger audiences on special occasions. They have been prepared for the press at the request of friends who heard them, and who were profited by their delivery. Their style is clear and forcible, and the illustrations are interesting and profitable. The themes pertain to the higher experiences of Christian life, and are free from the spirit of controversy.

In full conviction that they will be profitable to many who read them, and that they will assist in guiding the earnest inquirer to the cross of Christ and to a high religious experience, I cordially commend them, and wish for them a wide circulation.

M. SIMPSON.

Philadelphia, September 2, 1882.

SERMONS.

i. i

CALLED TO BE SAINTS.

Text: " Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" — 1 Corinthians i, 2.

Max Mtjller has well said, in his lectures on " The Science of Religion/' that " the intention of religion, wherever we meet it, is always holy." And further on he says : " Religion places the human soul in the presence of its highest ideal of perfection, which, for the time being, it can reach or grasp. It lifts it above the level of ordinary goodness, and produces at least a yearning after a higher and a better life — a life in the light of God."

No one can fail to see how exactly this harmonizes with the language of the text. But while all other religions may have this intention, yet all, except the religion of Christ, fail to inform men how they can be made holy, how they can rise up to these ideals of perfection presented to their minds, how they can be lifted up into the light of God. It is just here that the religion of the Bible has the advantage over all other systems. It not

SERMONS.

only calls and commands men to be holy; but it promises to make them holy upon the simplest conditions, which are clearly made known. It proclaims a Deliverer, a Savior, who has died in order to make men holy, who shed his own blood to purify the fountain of human guilt, defilement, and depravity. He came into the world to save sinners. The very name of Jesus was given to him because he would a save his people from their sins not merely from the guilt, condemnation, and power and impurity of sin, but from the sins which produce all these terrible effects.

This, however, is merely a one-sided and partial view of the matter. Christ proposes not only to save men from their sins, but to make them holy ; not only to remove the mountain load of their guilt, but to purify the very fountain of their being. His system would have been seriously, if not fatally, incomplete, if it had proposed merely to deliver men from their sins, and leave them with the tendencies and proclivities of their nature unchecked and unchanged. Great as this work would have been, it would have failed in the ultimate and complete elevation and deliverance of man if it had gone no further. The provision is more ample and widereaching than this. It not only by pardoning man's sins, and justifying him, places him in a new relation to God ; but by renewing and sanctifying him it gives him a new nature. It,not only pardons man, it also purifies him. It not only removes the burden of the sins of his past lifetime, but it implants

CALLED TO BE SAINTS.

in him the beginnings of saintliness. It makes him a " partaker of the divine nature," and puts on him "the new man which after God's image is created in knowledge and true holiness." And so, right here, here in the midst of the city of Corinth, the ancient Paris, surrounded by wealth, voluptuousness, pride, and impurity of every form, there were men and women who were u sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called saints."

This is what Christ's religion proposes to do everywhere, and this it has done in all the ages. An exceedingly able writer, the author of " Ecce Homo," has said : u Among all the men of the ancient heathen world there were scarcely one or two to whom we might venture to apply the epithet holy. But in Christian countries holiness has existed. It has not been rare. There has scarcely been a town or country place where, within a few years, some one has not been found bearing this character." Tertullian boldly said, in his day, to the heathen rulers : " We Christians are alone without crime; no Christian suffers but for his religion." And Minucius Felix says : " Your prisons are full ; but they contain not one Christian."

L What, thex, are we called to be?

The apostle said to the Corinthians, and through them he says to us, " Called to be saints." This word for saint, both in the Hebrew and Greek, signifies a consecrated, godly, holy person. This, indeed, is the almost universal meaning of the word. We have no difficulty, then, in getting at the mean-

SERMONS.

ing of the apostle here. We are called to be holy persons. "We see at a glance that this is no merely ideal or fanciful condition which is referred to, but an actual state or condition which may possibly be realized. The text, divested of its italics, reads simply, " Called saints." This appellation is given by the apostle to all true Christians, because they are separated from the world and devoted to God; and because even in the babe in Christ there are all the elements, in germ, of a saintly character and life. Hence the apostle sends his greeting to the Churches in this form.

Two things, however, are to be borne in mind here :

First. That the standard of religious ex'perience and life was actually higher among them than it is in the minds of many at the present. It meant more among them to be a Christian than it means now. For them to profess to be Christians was frequently the sure road to the dungeon or the amphitheater ; to exile or confiscation of goods ; to the stake or the block. No one would be likely to avow himself a believer in the Christian religion unless he had actually experienced its grace, its power, and its hopes. And with the keen eye of the heathen world watching them, they knew how important it was for them to live holy lives.

With us it is often widely different from this; it has become fashionable, respectable, to be Christians. There is none of the persecution of violence among us; and but little of that of vituperation or

CALLED TO BE SAINTS.

scorn. The vast majority of professing Christians, because of their worldliness, fashion, folly, and pride, meet with very little opposition from the world or the powers of darkness. Religion at the present day, with many, is a matter of convenience, a secondary consideration, a holiday pastime, a Sunday " dress-parade," a sham fight on the part of the Church, in which Satan is sure to conquer. It evidently is not true of very many who bear the name of Christians that they are saints, or can with any propriety be called by that name. Indeed, they themselves repudiate it. But all in the early Church were thus called.

Secondly. While this was affirmed of them in their early religious life, there was constantly held out before them, in the preaching, epistles, prayers, and exhortations of the apostles, a far higher grade of Christian experience, to be enjoyed in this life, and which they were urged to seek and press forward to enjoy. For instance, the members of the Church at Rome were " called saints," were "justified by faith, and had peace with God." " The love of God was also shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto them;" and they had "the witness of the Spirit" to their childship. But they are besought, " by the mercies of God, to present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which was their reasonable service," and to " be transformed, by the renewing of their minds, that they might ' prove what is that good, and acceptable, and

perfect will of God." So the members of the Corin-

SERMONS.

thian Church are called saints; yet they were still carnal, with many irregularities in their Christian character. Hence Paul says, " This also we wish, w even your perfection ;" and he exhorts them to " be perfect." Likewise the Church at Ephesus had so trusted in Christ that they had been " saved and sealed," " quickened with Christ," " and raised up to sit in the heavenlies with him." And yet Paul prayed for them in the matchless prayer recorded in chapter iii, 14-21. The members of the Philippian Church, the most blameless of any of the Churches, perhaps, to which he wrote, were yet called upon to imitate his example in " forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth to the things which are before, and in pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The members of the Church at Colosse are called " saints and faithful brethren ;" yet the apostle prays for them that they might be " filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." And he exhorts them, "if they are risen with Christ, to mortify the deeds of the body;" to "put off all these things, and to put on the new man." To the Thessalonians the Gospel had come in power, and they had been wonderfully saved through it. Yet the apostle utters the oft-repeated prayer for them: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly : and I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

These instances are amply sufficient to illustrate

CALLED TO BE SAINTS.

and confirm what we have said. From all this we may gather that the early Christians had a degree of saintliness, and although often mixed up with carnality, weaknesses, and remaining corruptions, yet they were in the processes of " being saved." Every one who is in Christ is just so far a saint as his faith appropriates him and instrumentally realizes his power to save.

But who are the persons called saints? They are human beings, not angels,, not unfallen beings. They are those who have been, and are, encompassed with frailties, infirmities, and failures; exposed to fierce onsets from the world and all the powers of darkness; and who, while in a probationary state, are liable to fall into sin and its consequences.

More than this, they have been sinners, under guilt and condemnation. " By nature they were children of wrath, even as others." But the sinful nature had developed itself in acts of willful violation of the commands of God, and brought them under his displeasure and wrath. They have been sinners of every grade and of every degree, from the boastful moralist and the proudly self-righteous to the profane, the drunkard, and the libertine. Hear what the apostle says of their previous character and condition. Some of the Corinthians, now called saints, had been " fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, Sodomites, thieves, covetous, and drunkards." He says of the Ephesians, "Ye were dead in trespasses and sins." They were " under the power of Satan, fulfilling the desires of their

SERMONS.

flesh and mind." The Colossians had walked "in uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and cov£tousness," enkindling the wrath of God against them. Such were those who had been saved and sanctified and called saints.

They were saved sinners. They had been " washed, sanctified, justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God." They had been " quickened together with Christ," had been "brought nigh by his blood, and become fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God." They had "put off the old man with his deeds, and had put on the new man." They "were risen together with Christ, and were seeking the things which are above." Now, being " born of God, they do not commit sin : for his seed remaineth in them, and they can not sin because they are born of God." The song which they all join in singing expresses their true condition and the blood by which they were cleansed : " Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." This is the Bible idea of a saint.

This is very different from the idea of the world and Rome and High - churchism. If you ask the worldling what his idea of a saint is, he will tell you he is a sniveling hypocrite, a fanatic, or a fool. The Romanist will tell you that a saint is one who is canonized by the Church after he has been dead for some centuries, and is reported to have wrought a miracle. The High-churchman thinks that he is one who goes scrupulously through all the forms

CALLED TO BE SAINTS.

and ceremonies of the Church, keeps Lent to the letter, and in whose mind the Church is every thing. Such are the ideas entertained by many persons. And yet, in all periods of the Church and of the world, this name has been coveted by certain classes of men. Not only is this true of Christendom, but also among Moslems and the heathen. And what efforts have men made to reach their own ideal, and to be regarded by their fellow-men as saints ! The devotees of Rome have dwelt in lone caves in the mountains, or in the dense shadows of the forest; have lived and died on lofty pillars; have plunged themselves into the seclusion of monastic cells and nunneries; have endured indescribable tortures, both physical and mental; have been wasted away with fastings, and have performed the most humiliating and degrading penances. And some of them, more perhaps than we can know of, have, in the midst of all their surrounding darkness, caught the heavenly light streaming from Calvary, and have washed in the fountain of its blood. Such men as Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, the Marquis de Renty, and Fenelon, and such women as t Margaret, duchess of Alencon, Madame Guyon, and Catherine Adorna, with all their errors, mysticisms, and weaknesses, have furnished examples of saintliness which not only added luster to their own age, but which in history and in song will shed light on all the future of the Church of God.

Again, the Moslem, that he might gain the. character of a saint, as represented in his Koran, and have

SERMONS.

the name of a saint among his fellows, has devoutly gone upon long pilgrimages to Mecca and other sacred places, has performed frequent ablutions, attended punctiliously to his forms of prayer, and practiced the most rigid self-denial. And so the devotees of heathenism, in all the ages, have made pilgrimages to sacred shrines and sacred rivers, offered sacrifices, practiced austerities, have stood with uplifted arm until the rigid muscles have refused to bend, have endured the greatest tortures, and even suffered cruel death, for the purpose of being called saints and having the reverence which such a name has always inspired.

But how few of these have measured up to the divine ideal ! Philosophy, Mohammedanism, heathenism, can not make men holy in the highest sense. Lecky has well said : " Philosophy may dignify, but is impotent to regenerate ; it may cultivate virtue, but it can not restrain vice." The efforts made by the systems referred to are directed mainly to " make clean the outside of the cup and platter f y to whitewash the sepulcher, within which putrefaction and death reign undisturbed. Man wants to be regarded and treated as a saint by his brother man — thus to feed the pride and vanity of his heart, and secure his selfish and ambitious ends. On the other hand, God's plan is first to cleanse man's heart, to purify the very fountain of his being, to humbte self, to " crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof;" to go down into the grave of his fallen and depraved nature, and with the resurrection

CALLED TO BE SAINTS.

power make even the dead to live; and to cause the redeemed and saved man to sit down at the feet of Jesus, humble, gentle, and submissive as a child. He that would become the greatest in the kingdom of God, so the Great Teacher himself declared, must become as a little child. And so it is, that the more saintliness there is in the character the more humility will there be. It is so on the earth ; it will be so in the heaven of heavens forever. So sings Montgomery:

" The bird that soars on highest wing, Builds on the ground her lowly nest ;

And she that doth most sweetly sing, Sings in the shade, when all things rest.

In lark and nightingale we see,

What honor hath humility.

The saint that wears heaven's brightest crown,

In lowliest adoration bends ; The weight of glory bows him down

The most, when most his soul ascends. Nearest the throne itself must be The footstool of humility."

There are, doubtless, various degrees of saintliness, as we have already intimated. We see this in individual Christians, in the successive periods of their career. This is beautifully illustrated in the character of the Apostle Paul. Converted about the year 35-6 A. D., in the year 59 he writes to the Corinthians, " I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God." In 64 he wrote to the Ephesians, " I am less than the least of all saints." In 66 he writes to Timothy, and says, " I