Possibilities of Grace

By Asbury Lowrey

"O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles." --Psalm xliii. 8

I ask Thy heavenly guidance

In all things here below:

Do Thou direct my footsteps

The way that I should go.

Chapter 1

Renunciation of Sin

The Gospel requires, as a condition precedent to the attainment of entire sanctification, the total abandonment of sin. It allows no compromise, no connivance, no tampering or dalliance with sin. Until the seeker has made up his mind to renounce all sin, public and private, including imprudence and the appearance of evil, I see no prospect or possibility of his sanctification.

And this renunciation must be voluntary and cordial. God will not coerce the will, or force the affections, or chain the imagination. He will not, absolutely, and without human concurrence, tear idols from our hands and hearts, or compel us to separate from bad associates, or quit places of sport and dissipation. He will not arbitrarily suspend the laws of habit, by peremptorily arresting the capability of the perversion of passion and appetite, without the effort or consent of the subject. God respects the manhood of man. He helps his needy creatures in every respect in which they are helpless; and yet so as to leave their responsibility unimpaired. What a man can do for himself, as naturally constituted or graciously empowered, he is allowed, and even required, to do. Indeed, God makes the destiny of his creatures hinge on voluntary choice and practical obedience. We find an application of this principle in the universal and inflexible requirement of the Bible to give up all sin, and break away from all wrong and wrongdoing, as a preparatory measure and antecedent condition of full salvation. It is true, that sanctification is by faith alone; but sin neutralizes faith. Jesus says: "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" *1

Now let us see how these propositions agree with the written word: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." 2* To forsake sinful ways and thoughts, according to this text, is made a term of mercy. It is not the condition of salvation in the same sense that faith is; but is an act that puts the candidate into a pardonable relation to God's mercy.

The same injunction is imposed upon believers, only it is made more stringent and comprehensive: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." *3 How sweeping is the prohibition in this case. Let us recapitulate the precepts in a somewhat different form. No companionship with unbelievers, no fellowship with unrighteousness, no communion with darkness, no concord with Belial, no part with an infidel, no agreement with idols. A sacred separation from all these shades of evil is commanded. This withdrawal extends even to the touch: "Touch not the unclean thing." No tangible contact or approach to any kind of uncleanness, however slight, can be permitted. It is only upon this principle of total abstinence from sin that God promises to "receive" us. Until this is done, he declines to put himself into the relation of Father to the penitent, or to recognize seekers of holiness as dear children, entitled to the peculiar honours and immunities of sons and daughters. Nor is it enough to renounce flagrant and positive transgressions; we must be circumspect and prudent. All our peccadilloes and questionable gratifications of appetite and propensity must be given up.

It is worthy of note that the great prayer of the apostle, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly," etc., is immediately preceded by the emphatic precept: "Abstain from all appearance of evil." *4 Indeed, this requirement introduces the prayer, and is made a part of it by the copulative conjunction. A comma only should separate the two sentences.

The apostle could not fill his lungs with the breath of the wonderful supplication until he had commanded the candidates to separate from their souls and life every thing that simulates sin, or wears the look of evil. Initial sanctification, then, is to relax our hold upon all sin --to abjure, break away from, and wash our hands of all evil, and all resemblance of evil.

The serious urgency of this duty is created by several facts: First, the utter incompatibility of any measure or kind of sin with holiness. Second, there is a spurious kind of sanctification, which, like Antinomianism, allows itself seemingly to palliate sin. Vice may occur, but it is at once neutralized, or somehow loses its character, by faith or the blood, in connection with a sanctified nature. An egregious error. Sin in the saved is the same as sin in the unsaved. It invalidates the profession of holiness, brings condemnation, and necessitates forgiveness. Third, there is a degree of holiness which is made to comport with the milder forms of moral obliquity. Certain appetites, vanities, and fashionable follies are allowed, fostered, and extenuated; and yet full salvation is claimed and professed. This is a delusion. It is morally impossible for God to sanctify, so long as we toy or tamper with sin. Faith can no more grasp the blessing of sanctification while under the embargo of cherished sin, than the hand can perform its functions under paralysis. As it is the first duty of a sinner to repent in order to obtain pardon, so it is the first step of a Christian toward the higher altitudes of grace to "renounce the hidden things of dishonesty." Not to break off from open sin merely, but so to expose, introspect, and shred the inner man as to discover and eliminate every rotten thread of unseen evil and private practice. God requires absolute

"truth in the inward parts." *5 Such preparation for holiness is apostolic. It was Paul who commended himself for having "renounced the hidden things of dishonesty," craftiness and deceit. *6

It was he also who said: "We have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man." *7 These abjurations of all sin, and especially those most commonly practiced, were the antecedents of his sanctification. In like manner all who would mount to the sunlit plane of entire holiness must discard and put away all unrighteousness. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." *8

The day of thy great power I feel,

And pant for liberty;

I loathe myself, deny my will,

And give up all for thee.

"I hate my sins, --no longer mine,

For I renounce them too;

My weakness with thy strength I loin;

Thy strength shall all subdue."

Chapter 2

Perfect Conviction of its Attainability

Before we can obtain full redemption, it is necessary that we be fully persuaded that such a blessing lies within our reach. It is contrary to nature for any man to make vigorous effort to obtain something which he does not believe is obtainable. No man attempts to walk on the water or fly to the moon. By intuition he knows such feats are impossible. No man will delve into the bowels of the earth for treasure until quite assured the treasure is there. It is a law of our nature to act only on the prospect of success. So no Christian can earnestly strive and supplicate for a clean heart, unless previously persuaded that such purity comes within the range of possibility.

To bring yourself under the conviction, therefore, that holiness is for you, is a prime necessity. How is this to be done? First, consider the power by which it is to be accomplished, the unlimited power of God which reaches you through the unlimited merit of Christ. We admit that to create a clean heart in a sinner is a greater work than to create a world or light up a sun. But we must remember God has imposed upon Himself the task of cleansing us from all sin. And we read, "All things are possible with God." Whatever does not involve sin, nor imply a contradiction, God can do. And, certainly, to save a man from all moral wrong is not committing sin; nor does it contradict any known truth, much less clash with any attribute of God.

Second, consider the fact that the atonement provides for personal holiness. Inspire your drooping spirits by the recollection that this was the chief purpose of Christ's mission: " Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." *9 He was set forth from the beginning by types and prophecies as the Lamb of God, who should take away "the sin of the world." *10 Repeat to yourself often those texts which reveal the primary design of Christ's sacrifice; such as: "He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." *11 "If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth 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?" 12 "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." *13

If it was the original intention of the sacrificial work of Christ to heal us by his stripes, to purge our conscience from dead works, to redeem us from all iniquity, and to purify us unto himself, then we must concede the attainability of this grace, or take the ground that Christ is a failure. Surely, no one will assert that; and, therefore, we are shut up to the belief that, by the atonement, salvation from all sin is put within our grasp.

Again, stimulate your faith by the truth that God has promised full redemption in the most positive and explicit manner: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them." *14 "This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days," "saith the Lord, I will put my law into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." *15 "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." *16 "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." *17 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." *18

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." *19

No one can doubt, after deliberately reading this class of promises, that God has committed himself by covenant engagement to save men on certain conditions from all sin. To command and promise holiness, and yet withhold the blessing when the conditions are met, would be to tantalize the seeker.

The only thing necessary now is to bring yourself under the conviction that it is attainable immediately. To perfect this belief, appeal again to the word of God and read, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world" *20 Read again,

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." *21

But it is one thing to read those texts and assent to them as parts of the word of God, and quite another thing to cordially embrace them. Truth must be shot into us until, like a ball, it takes effect.

A persuasion that does not carry conviction to the judgment and inspire perfect confidence is no belief at all. True faith is expulsive of doubt and misgiving. It credits every thing God says. When a man explicitly accepts a declaration of Holy Writ, it takes possession of him and burns into his mind a conviction of its truth.

When such a prepossession rules the mind and heart of a seeker, he is at least on the borderline of full redemption.

Chapter 3

Spiritual Hunger Necessary

Our Lord says, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." *22 Here feeding is conditioned on appetite. Those only who hunger and thirst shall be filled. The constant implication is, that those who do not hunger and thirst shall not be filled.

This proposition of the Saviour is equally true in nature and grace. A man who does not relish food cannot receive it. He will grow lean and die in the midst of plenty. The same may be affirmed of the Christian. No appetite means no fatness, and soon no life. He may read and sing about holiness, and hear it preached, and even ask its bestowment in the words of his prayer, and yet if there be no soul hunger for it, not a single step can be taken toward its realization. If the human stomach be charged with food which it loathes, it will be found impossible for the organ to assimilate it. It may be good and nourishing matter, but the absence of a corresponding appetite will prevent the system from taking in and appropriating its nutritious quality.

It is so with the mind. It may be crammed even to satiety with the most exalted truth, and the soul may be practiced in all devout recitals of worship, and still if there be no craving for spirituality, signified by the outward forms, the richest truth and sublimest service will be nothing more to the worshiper than

"sounding brass and tinkling cymbals." Unless he "hunger and thirst after righteousness" he will come and go unfilled. Through the protracted meeting, or Lental service of forty days, be expanded to forty years, still the man that has no keen relish for sanctifying truth and experimental grace, will come to the end of each round of ceremonies and each decade of formal godliness as empty, lean, and starved as when he began. God offers salvation to us, but does not thrust it upon us. He feeds the appetite of spiritual hunger even to fullness and satisfaction; but the man who does not want His grace, and meets the offer of it with revulsion and morbid distaste, He leaves to his selfimposed emptiness and poverty.

Here a question may arise. The reader may say, "I find myself destitute of this indispensable hunger, and consequently, according to the argument, holiness is not attainable to me in my present condition." The fact is admitted, but this does not release you from responsibility. For you can command hunger and thirst. Appetite itself is created by healthy conditions, whether physical or spiritual. Expose a man to malaria, or surround him with an unwholesome atmosphere, or deprive him of proper exercise, and he will become dainty and lose his appetite.

So with a Christian. Let his reading, conversation, habits of life, and associations be irreligious, and he will find in himself a disrelish of spiritual things. On the other hand, let a man betake himself to serious thought about his spiritual state. Let him read the Scriptures, and give himself to prayer; let him read those books and papers which tend to the knowledge and love of God; let him attend such meetings, and associate with such persons, as will be helpful to his religious life. Let any man pursue this course, and immediately he will find deep hunger and thirst for God generated in his soul.

He will soon exclaim, "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth Out for the living God." *23 "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" *24

The want of soul-hunger for the deep things of God explains and accounts for the slow progress of this divine experience in the Churches, and especially in the Methodist Churches, where the doctrine is fully accepted. We have no appetite for the bread which a correct theology has placed upon our table. This lack of appetite is chiefly traceable to two causes:

First. The debilitating atmospheres of worldliness in which the Church has immersed herself She has made herself sick, and become surfeited with unwholesome diet. Her appetite is perverted.

Second. The great lack of explicit preaching and testimony on the subject.

Perhaps the most alarming feature of the modern pulpit is the absence of the Gospel in Gospel preaching.

A thousand sermons are preached every Sabbath, which scarcely relate to the substance of Christianity; whole hours and days are consumed in elaborate discussions on themes remotely connected with religion, but not having in them scarcely a modicum of spiritual food. It is a travesty on Gospel preaching --an utter neglect or a burlesque and sacrilege of Divine things.

But while such ministrations tend directly to quench the adores of devotion, and multiply dead Churches, yet they do not excuse any man who is not athirst for righteousness. Each individual is responsible for his own lack of Divine aspirations. It is not in the power of any man, or class of adverse circumstances, to still the throbbings of the heart for holiness. A seeker may burn with furnace heat in the midst of icebergs. he may sit under a barren pulpit and mingle with the coldest worshipers, and yet, rejecting the chaff and wax, feed on the finest wheat and honey from the rock. While others are cold and indifferent, and even repulsive toward holiness, he may be in a frame of mind to say:

"Restless, resigned, for this I wait,

For this my vehement soul stands still."

Chapter 4

Appetite for Holiness cultivated

The subject of hunger for spiritual food and blessing is so important and indispensable, that we continue the discussion under another head.

Some persons excuse their neglect of holiness on the ground that they feel no interest in the subject. They have no distinct belief in the doctrine, and no appetite for the enjoyment of the experience. For this reason they seem to imagine that no obligation rests upon them to be concerned about the matter.

Their conduct implies that a conviction for purity is exceptional and arbitrarily produced. They are ready to admit that where such conviction exists it is well enough to seek entire sanctification; but where it is wanting, the question may be dismissed with impurity. Now, such a position is founded in error, for the appetite for holiness may be cultivated just as really as a desire for food can be created. In this respect we are largely what we make ourselves to be. Our Lord says: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." This benediction implies that to hunger and thirst is a rewardable act, and, if rewardable, it must be voluntary. If voluntary, it may be concluded that, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, it is completely with our power to revive and nourish aspirations for holiness.

On the other hand, we may, in defiance of the work of the Holy Spirit, repress and extinguish all desire for that state. And, in most cases, I believe a lack of interest in full salvation is traceable to a non-use or misuse of our volitions in regard to the precious theme. If this be so, the absence of a relish for holiness is sin, for it is a self-induced evil. The subject has neglected to cultivate his tastes in the right direction, and perhaps has impaired them by injurious diet.

I do not think it possible for a man to love holiness who loves novels, or craves the staple matter of our secular newspapers. Nor is it possible for a man to find zest in sanctified and sanctifying literature who frequents the theatre and other common resorts of worldly men. The same may be said of those who participate in popular amusements or mingle in the hilarities of fashionable society. Such frivolities and vices create revulsions to holiness. And wherever Christians make worldly customs and tainted literature their element, soul-hunger for purity is sure to die out. A candle cannot burn in the foul air that settles in old wells and cisterns. No more can a flame of holy love exist in an atmosphere of non-Christian habits though not grossly wicked.

But one may say, "If I abstain from all such damaging practices, will I find myself groaning after full redemption?" Not certainly; for negative obedience is only a half compliance with the law of God. Positive work is needed to meet the commandment.

Do something or die, is a universal condition of responsible beings. Now, what is that something which, if done, will create an appetite for holiness?

First. Think on the subject. The apostle exhorts thus: "Wherefore, holy brethren, . . . consider the apostle and high-priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." *25 Consider in this connection His office as a Saviour personal to yourself.

Again the apostle says: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." *26 Here the emphasis of the whole climax is placed upon the word think. Thought is like fire --it burns itself in. Fixed attention on any good idea is like the process of crystallization, where matter sinks, hardens, and takes on forms of beauty. To think seriously and prayerfully on the question of holiness is to transmute the principle into the texture of our inner man. In most cases a man's aspirations are the product of his meditations. I do not think that more than one out of ten of our ministers or members would remain listless on the subject of holiness, if they would but give themselves up to conscientious inquiry touching their duty for ten minutes each day. The prevalent lukewarmness would soon disappear and be succeeded by ardent desire.

Second. Appetite for holiness is cultivated by reading. There is now a rich standard literature on the theme, contributed by different Churches. Added to the books published, there is a liberal supply of periodical matter of good quality. Now, we are persuaded that no one can read a fair proportion of these works with candour, and not be profoundly impressed with the great truth, and convicted for the experience. Like a man whom we met in Scotland, whose prejudices gradually melted away under a series of simple expositions of the privilege, until, under an apparently involuntary impulse, he rose and said, "I believe the doctrine, and want the experience."

Third. Appetite for holiness is cultivated by attending meetings appointed expressly to advocate the cause, and spread the experience of entire sanctification. It is inconsistent and captions to declaim against meetings held especially for this purpose. For missions, education, and all other objects of great importance we hold special conventions, where only the one interest is allowed to be introduced. Why, then, decry a meeting for the most important object of all? What interest can compare with that of advancing a perfect Divine life in the Churches? More have been sanctified by this concentration of thought and effort than by all other instrumentalities. The songs and testimonies and, above all, the hallowing influence of these meetings have travelled round the world and penetrated heathen homes.

A well-conducted service of this sort cannot fail to give birth to cravings for purity that will extend far beyond the number who, by open confession, attain the gift of full salvation. It will elevate the tone of Divine worship, sharpen the relish for spiritual things, and give a new and sweeter zest to all the means of grace.

Fourth. There should be direct and specific prayer that concern and longing for holiness should be awakened in the heart. However cold and indifferent, let earnest supplication be made. By the force of will and under the conviction of duty continue the pleading. Pursue the course we have indicate, dear reader, and you will soon say:

"My anxious soul cries out, oppressed,

Impatient to be freed;

Nor can I, Lord, nor will I rest

Till I am saved indeed."

Chapter 5

Full Surrender

Another step toward entire sanctification is the act of self-surrender, by which we transfer ourselves and all that belongs to us into the hands of Jesus. This act of self. surrender is commonly spoken of as "placing all upon the altar," from which has originated the teaching that "the altar sanctifieth the gift." In this formula there is both a modicum of truth and a liability at least of as much error. If the term altar is used simply to represent the sacrificial offering of Jesus, and the phrase "placing all upon the altar," means nothing more than giving ourselves to Jesus by an act of the will and affections, it is not only harmless, but finds some support in the Scriptures.

In Exodus we read: "Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy." *27 In Matthew it is written: "The altar that sanctifieth the gift." *28 But these references belong to the Old Testament institutions. Christ is our altar, and contact with him alone now sanctifieth. The glorious doctrine of the New Testament is brought out in these words: "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for al ." *29 "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." *30 It is most emphatically true, "that whatsoever toucheth this altar shall be holy."

We read: "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." *31 Again we read:

"Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." *32

These passages teach that we have passed out of our own hands. We are rightfully the property of God. We belong to Him by a twofold claim: First, as the product of His creative power. We are His workmanship in Christ Jesus, both as to original creation by power, and re-creation by grace. Second, we are His by purchase. It is said, we "are bought with a price;" that is, a consideration has been given for us. We have been ransomed, not to ourselves, but to God.

Original sin put us under a threefold bondage --a triple curse. First, it made us aliens to God, and strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. Second, it made us the slaves of sin and Satan. Third, it made our hearts the seat of corruption and death. Now the purchase-price of Christ's blood has been accepted as a sufficient consideration to justify our complete release. But before and after we are actually set at liberty we belong absolutely to the purchaser. It is verily true that he whom the Son makes free is free indeed; it is not, however, the freedom of isolated independence and sovereignty, but the freedom of servants to God. By redemption we simply change masters. We throw off the yoke which is heavy and galling, and bow to that which is

"easy and light." It is instructive to note that the original word "doulos," translated servant when applied to Christians, is the only word indicating and rendered slave when used to denote a bondman. It is only to avoid harshness and the unpleasant association of Ideas that the word is not uniformly rendered slave. It is important, however, to note that the word love or slave, is not used in the New Testament as a term of reproach or dishonour, much less to indicate a servile and degrading relation. It signifies an office and fellowship most exalting. It Is one of the appellations of apostleship, and as a title of Christians it is a synonym of child, disciple, and saint. The term is retained only for the purpose of asserting God's right of property in us, and to show the reasonableness of presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to him. It is on the ground of our property relation to God, and His right to our services, that we found the obligation to consecrate all to Him. A more elaborate discussion of this subject will be found elsewhere. Our purpose now is to lead the seeker by a plain path at once into the promised land.

Give yourself, then, to God through Christ. Do this, not only by a mental act and secret purpose, but by actually putting all your powers and resources at his disposal. Nay, more; wait not to be acted upon like a machine, but exercise your will power, and enter visibly upon His service with all your heart and all your means. Give yourself practically away. Do it as far as possible in detail, but do not bother yourself with the conceit that your consecration is incomplete because you are not able to list and invoice every item which may be unknown or forgotten. God is not a hard master. A willing mind to be all the Lord's sweeps in every thing. Such a purpose, formed and fixed in conscious sincerity, will, no doubt, be accepted of God as the sanctification of yourself to Him. When we give all to God we make a summary transfer of ourselves to Him. It is necessarily done in bulk and not in particularity, nevertheless it takes in all our latent resources and undiscovered possibilities.

It is like making a deed. We first describe the realty, by which all the acres, rods, and inches are mentioned. But as the measurement may not be exact, and questions may arise, the words "more or less" are added. And then to avoid all disputes respecting improvements and things attached to the ground, this sweeping clause is appended: "with all the appurtenances thereto belonging."

In like manner, sign, seal, and deliver yourself over to God. And do it so really that ever after it would strike you as an act of trespass and breach of faith to use any member of your body, or faculty of your mind, or affection of your soul, or portion of your possessions, against God, apart from God, or for any selfish motives that would offend God, and take you or yours in any way out of His hands.

And this dedication must not be compulsory. It must be a freewill offering, for it is not so much a sacrifice as a service; Jesus said: "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me." *33

In the same spirit we must devote ourselves to God. His service is not only perfect freedom, but a real luxury. It must be our meat to do His will. When David was preparing to build the temple, he did not imperiously command the people to give for that purpose, but inquired after their will in the ease, saying,

"Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?" *34

In the same connection it is five times repeated that the officers and people

"offered willingly," the emphasis being placed oh the word willingly.

David and the congregation then rejoiced, not so much for the sum given, as on account of the spirit of willingness that marked the giving. They did it "with a will" and with affection. It is written, "Because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord, David the king rejoiced with great joy." Reader, go thou and do likewise, and, so doing, thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven.

Chapter 6

Exercise the Faith of Trust

"By grace are ye saved, through faith." Eph. ii, 5.

It is the touch of faith alone that brings the healing virtue out of Christ by which the believer is made every whit whole.

Of course true faith is inclusive of all preparatory conditions of believing, such as renunciation of sin, spiritual hunger, consecration, searching the Scriptures, consciousness and confession of remaining sin, and prayer; but they all converge and crystallize in one unmixed self-renouncing allabounding act of trust. Trust is the last link in the chain of causes, and the only one possessing conditionality. Preceding religious acts are conducive to faith, but faith alone bringeth salvation. Like the link that couples a train of cars to the locomotive, all the preceding links are necessary to make the train a unit, and secure the advantage of the moving force, but it is the last link only that joins the train to the power of transportation. Until this connection is made there can be no motion.

The track may be perfect, the cars laden and all put together, the officers on board, the time for starting arrived, but the train cannot budge an inch until the kingbolt drops through the last coupling and makes the coaches fast to the locomotive. In that moment weakness is joined to power, and immobility to motion.

It is so with faith. It is the concentration of all means, the point of contact with Christ. This is the rod that smites the rock, and turns the sluices of living water into the soul. It is the wire that conducts the Divine lightning from the battery of heaven into the soul.

Faith is to full salvation what the touch is to a jar charged with electricity --the medium of communication. By the slightest contact it draws virtue out of Christ. See it demonstrated by the woman in the Gospel. She did not get near enough to touch the full garment of the Saviour, much less His person; she only put a finger on the hem of His garment, and yet there was sufficient efficacy in the approach to attract the healing virtue which made her instantaneously whole. That it was her faith and not physical contact which effected the cure, is proved by the words of Christ, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole." *35

Take this case as an illustration of saving faith: First. It was not faith in the general truths of religion, but faith in the personal Christ, and faith in Him as a supernatural healer. Second. It was not faith for blessings in general, but faith for healing in particular. It was specific, having direct and exclusive reference to her plague. Third. It was faith in the power of faith: "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." Faith, as a grain of mustard seed, will accomplish the work. To touch His person, hear Him speak, meet Him face to face, to be longer in His presence, or receive a smile of recognition from Him, will not be necessary. If I can only come near enough to Him to touch the fringe of his clothes with the tips of my fingers the work will be done. Fourth. It was faith in a complete work. She did not say, I shall be relieved and put in a way of recovery, but, "I shall be whole;" that is, "perfect health will come into my body." Fifth, It was faith in an instantaneous cure. She expected it, and accordingly she realized a perfect cure. This is proved by the concurrent testimony of the three evangelists. Matthew says: "And the woman was made whole from that hour." Mark says: "And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up." Luke says: "And immediately her issue of blood was stanched." Sixth. It was faith carrying with it a convincing evidence of a perfect cure. For it is significantly written: "And she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague." Seventh. It brought not only physical health, but happiness and permanent blessing. The Saviour said to her: "Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." This made her a witness and worshiper of Jesus. She came trembling, and kneeling down before Him, she declared unto Him before all the people, for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed immediately.

Here we have the nature and consequence of true faith. The nature is, unquestioning trust in Christ for a definite object to be obtained instantaneously. The consequence is, immediate health and happiness, a trembling and yet confiding prostration before Jesus, a permanent blessing and a witnessing life.

Chapter 7

Conditions of Faith

Faith is the sole condition of salvation, but there are prior conditions of faith itself. Let us examine these two propositions:

From beginning to end we are saved by grace, through faith --faith being the pivot on which every religious change turns. 1. We are justified by faith.

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." *36 "A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."

*37 "The just shall live by faith." (*38) 2. We are sanctified by faith. "Purifying their hearts by faith." *39 "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." *40 "Which are sanctified by faith that is in me." *41 "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." *42 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." (*43) 3. We receive the witness of our spiritual state by faith. By faith Abel "obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts." By faith Enoch, before he was translated, "had this testimony, that he pleased God." (*44) 4. We nourish and maintain our divine life by faith. "And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." *45 "Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." (*46) 5. We are adopted into the family of God by faith. "That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." *47

So every stage of personal redemption hinges on faith. The Spirit, which alone directly quickens and sanctifies, cannot come in actual contact with the heart to do his finished work, except through faith Beyond enlightenment and conviction for sin, grace cannot become operative until we believe. Therefore the absolute conditionality of salvation resides in faith alone. And yet there are certain antecedent works which are as indispensable to faith as faith is indispensable to salvation. They are not faith, but the conditions of faith. They do not bring life to the soul directly, but put life into faith, and faith kindles the vital flame. Without these accompanying acts faith would be dead, just as a heart that does not beat is dead. Some of these preliminary works are prayer for spiritual hunger, renunciation of sin, submission to God, and a consecration of all to Him forever.

Such deeds of obedience become the feeders of faith after its germ has been implanted by the Holy Spirit and the word. They create a climate and diffuse an atmosphere in which faith can thrive and bear its fruit. First there must be prayer for spiritual hunger. This is the beginning point of practical religious life,

"to call on the name of the Lord." Jesus spake a parable "to this end, that men

" --not Christians only, but men --"ought always to pray, and not to faint." *48

Paul repeats the same lesson, saying: "I will therefore that men pray everywhere." *49 It is the privilege and prime duty of every man to make his appeal to a throne of grace. And the hardest heart will be subdued, and the darkest mind illuminated, if this be done with unfainting perseverance. But without prayer we cannot get into the region of faith. Faith is not a frigid act of the intellect, but an emotion, and that emotion is excited and made strong by supplication.

I sought religion two days with no feeling, or but little, before I found myself in real earnest to be converted. And until my soul was poured out fervently to God, I had no capacity to believe. The same was true when, nine years later, I sought deliverance from the felt remains of indwelling sin. I stopped every thing, retired alone, and made it my sole and decisive business to pray for a clean heart. No previous effort to believe was successful until I met the prior condition, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find." *50 But the moment I cried unto the Lord with all my heart I felt myself spurred on to believe. Then the work was done and the witness came.

If any man, cold and listless, shall stop and betake himself to continual and earnest prayer definitely for a clean heart, he will find two results coming into his experience with surprising quickness; First, a burning thirst for righteousness. Second, a confidence that will develop into a conviction and evidence that the work is done. The process may be a mystery, but the effect will be an undeniable realization that he dies to sin and wakes to holiness and God, with a loathing of all impurity, and a keen and sweet relish for all immaculate things.

Renunciation of sin is a condition of faith. Sin is a mildew, and faith can no more live in connection with cherished sins than grapes can grow and ripen under a blight. Sin as naturally quenches faith as water extinguishes fire. It acts upon the power to believe like paralysis upon the body, enervating the body itself. A man who makes up his mind to allow himself to tamper with sin, even occasionally, finds himself incapable of trusting in Christ for purity. To come out from sinful associations, to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, to "touch not the unclean thing," *51 to "depart from iniquity," is a condition of faith.

Submission to God is a prior requisite of faith. How can self-will, which takes things into its own bands, usurps the place of God, and runs atilt against His commands, at the same time trust in God for pardon and purity? As well trust a forsaken ship to keep you from sinking. The willing and obedient "shall eat the good of the land." A preparation to believe requires us to say, continually and absolutely, "Thy will be done." Not that we are bound to drop our own will into disuse, but to subdue the faculty and put it into accord with the will of God.

To exercise our will-power in choosing what God chooses is the highest act of devotion. It is submission and acquiescence, not slavery nor absorption, that God demands. To have no will of our own is to suspend our volitions and cultivate a sanctified inertness, and treats our power of choice, in which all the virtue of free moral agents is located, as useless, if not as sin. I am persuaded the stronger the will and the more independent its exercise, provided it is operated in unison with the will of God, the greater the virtue involved in it, and the more pleasing will its subordinate use be in the sight of the Creator. It is obvious God likes the similitudes of Himself. And we must conclude that the pleasure of the Creator is enhanced in His creatures in proportion as they approximate His own perfections.

He is better pleased with a tree that has vegetable life, and grows heavenward, than with a stone or particle of dust; better pleased with a beast which has animal life, and governs itself by instinct, than with an unthinking tree; better pleased with a rational man than with an unreasoning animal; but best of all, pleased with a man crowned with a moral character and free-will, who, exercising his power of choice voluntarily, responsibly, and quite independently, selects his Creator as the object of worship, loves him with all his soul, mind, heart, and strength.

Finally, the gift of all to God through Christ is a condition of faith. Any reserve or limitation is a worm at the root of faith. But the moment we are conscious that we are all the Lord's by a solemn act of dedication, confidence will suddenly spring up in the heart.

It is natural to both trust and love those to whom we belong. It is thus that

"faith works by love." It becomes more a work of the affections than of the intellect. As it is written, "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Faith is a loving embrace of Jesus.

Reader, meet these prior conditions of faith, and you will not only believe, but love to believe. To have faith will become as easy and natural as to breathe. You will live in a world of trust, which, mingling with and producing perfect love, will cast out all fear that hath torment. But without meeting these antecedent conditions you can no more believe than a balloon can rise when weighed down to earth with bags of sand.

Chapter 8

Present Faith

All evangelical faith --in essence --is a unit, just as all light in its primary properties is a unit.

But as there are different colours in the same beam of sunshine as seen in the rainbow, so there are different aspects in faith. It may change according to the illumination of the Spirit and the power of truth, just as the moon takes on new phases in proportion to the measure of light received from the sun.

When the sun shines obliquely upon the moon, as seen by us, it is only partially illuminated, and is said to be in her first, second, or third quarter, because there is presented at first only a crescent of the shining surface. But when the great orb of day pours his rays upon the whole hemisphere of the moon at once, then that majestic queen of night is seen to walk the heavens, round, full, and glorious.

These figures may serve to illustrate the diversities of faith. There is a prospective faith which seems to mark the approaches of the soul toward Christ, but does not quite touch Him. He is accepted, and even trusted as able and willing to save to the uttermost. But the adverb of time when is left out. The great salvation is expected, but the exact period of its bestowment is not fixed. And, indeed, the right to claim this salvation now is not fully recognized.

There is a subtle deceit floating through the minds even of believers, that when and after they have done all they can to secure full salvation, they must wait God's time, and with them to wait God's time is to wait indefinitely. They are deluded into the belief that God is pleased with such patience, or relaxation of effort. This lagging, random faith has, in many instances, consumed half a century, and yet not touched Christ for the specific blessing. They have been tacking back and forth, like a vessel at sea, without getting into port. Battling all the time against wind and wave, they never give it up, but never reach the dock, nor make fast to the pier of God's immediate promise. This is usually the fate of those who talk so much about growing into holiness. They seem to expect to infringe upon sin, and crowd the devil, until they force a retreat and gain the field.

This, it will be observed, is a proximate faith --a faith of gradual approaches. It is good in every particular, save one. It has no grip, no limitation of time within which to accomplish its purpose. It goes up ever so high, but, like an eagle sweeping through ether on discursive wing, lights nowhere. Aimless it shoots into vacancy, hits no mark, and then, like a spent ball, dies in air and falls to the ground.

Now, there is a better faith; no truer in its nature, nor more divine in its origin, but better directed and more immediate in its effect. It is a faith that converges and focalises in a definite object. The object may be justification, sanctification, or the endowment of power, but to whichever object it points, the aim is direct and the range short. This may be styled the faith of contact, like that of the woman who touched the hem of the Saviour's garment.

Such a faith renders all the promises which pertain to individual salvation in the present tense, by interjecting the word "now." For example: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean," now. "From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you," now. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us" now

"from all unrighteousness." It is a now salvation --a present-tense sanctification --a belief that the event is this moment transpiring --a conviction that the blood now cleanses, and that the Comforter comes in to abide.

Mr. Wesley says, "To the confidence that God is both able and willing to sanctify us now, there needs to be added one thing more --a Divine evidence and conviction that He doeth it. In that moment," he says "it is done. God says to the inmost soul, According to thy faith be it unto thee. Then the soul is pure from every spot of sin. It is clean from all unrighteousness."

Now this last degree of faith is vital. As the link that couples the forward car to the locomotive is indispensable to the movement of a train, so this faith of touch, this faith of immediate and effectual contact with Christ, is vital to instantaneous sanctification. We may believe that Christ is able and willing to save to the uttermost, and to save now; but we will not, and cannot, realize salvation from all sin until, committing ourselves absolutely to Christ for a perfect cure, we settle down under the conviction that He heals --that we now

"receive the things that we desire of Him." Then,

O'erwhelmed with Thy stupendous grace,

I shall not in Thy presence move;

But breathe unutterable praise,

And rapturous awe, and silent

Chapter 9

Ask for it

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened 'into you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth." Matt. vii, 7, 5.

The gist of the gracious words which we have quoted from the lips of our Teacher is found in the coincidence of these two sentences: "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth." To ask, then, is to receive. To seek is to find. Asking and receiving, seeking and finding, are coetaneous and inseparable events. It is like breathing and living, and living and breathing. Our Lord evidently repeats and modifies His promise to emphasize this thought. His object is to intensify the threefold promise of the seventh verse, and to give it a present and personal application. Nay, more; it is to show the utter impossibility of making a fruitless approach to Him. Can there be a sun without sunshine? Can we take nourishment without reinvigoration?

No more can we ask without receiving, or seek without finding. There are no qualifying terms, and nothing prospective in the passage. It contains only two simple conditions, asking and seeking. Compliance with these reduces the question of salvation to an absolute certainty, and makes its reception immediately actual.

Of course, asking and seeking are generic terms, including all the steps and states of mind involved in coming to Christ, such as repentance, consecration, and faith. But all these may be compressed into one act of surrender, and one cry for mercy. It is, look and live. Can you look into light and not see? No more can you behold the Lamb of God and not have your sins taken away. As the sight of the brazen serpent brought healing to Israel's dying thousands, so a glance into the face of Jesus sends life and health to the soul. But you must ask and you must seek. Yes, you must ask in words and seek in effort. Here lies the mistake of thousands. They delude themselves into a sort of submissive inertia.

In a false sense they put themselves into the hands of God; that is, they nestle down in a totally passive state like dead matter, and complacently in quire, "Is it not enough that we lie in the hands of God 'as clay in the bands of the potter?' " No, it is not enough, if understood in your absurd sense of moral inactivity and spiritual torpor. You are more than a lump of inert matter in the reckoning and requirements of God. You have a will and power of choice and action. God cannot coerce that will; it would be to repeal your responsibility and rob you of manhood to do so. Unresisting passiveness is a virtue, but that is not the limit of penitential concern, or the maximum of Christian duty. You must actually ask. You must earnestly seek. You must do something or die. You are made a "coworker with God," and unless you co-work you will receive the grace of God in vain. *52 Salvation is the product of two concurrent forces:

"God working in us to will and to do," and man working out his "own salvation with fear and trembling." *53 Some persons wheedle themselves into comfortable inaction and sluggishness, by saying," I have no will of my own; it is lost and swallowed up in God's will." Not so. Does God require us to relinquish our manhood, and discard the divine attribute of liberty? No; God is pleased that we have a will, and that we use it with all necessary independence. He only demands that we operate that will in unison and harmony with His own. The height of holiness is acquiescence on our part in the will of God as revealed in His word. But that very acquiescence implies will in us, and will, too, in responsible exercise. How can I acquiesce in the development of God's plans and purposes unless I put forth my volitions to do so? Sanctification in all cases is the concurrence of two wills. God wills "even your sanctification." *54 We must acquiesce by saying, "Thy will be done." *55

God will make haste to work His will in us, provided we thus ask Him; not otherwise. He will set up His kingdom in us, full of "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." But in order to do this and as a hinge on which the whole realization turns, we must "seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness." *56 In any event, reader, ask. Ask, if you feel like it; ask, if you do not feel like it. Seek, if you find yourself so disposed; if not so disposed, nevertheless seek. Have no reference to your emotions or natural inclinations. Ask, and seek, even in defiance of an aversion thereto. Do it on principle. Do it perforce of your will power. Do it under a solemn conviction of your accountability. But put your whole soul into the work. Compose your mind, gather up all your thoughts, concentrate your attention, and put your entire being upon the pursuit of this one object, Jesus and His salvation. As ships make for the harbour in storms, so break from sin and steer for safety. As streams converge and run to the sea, so pour out your soul to God, and centre all the forces of your nature in Him. Be in earnest, and scorn no t to plead. As birdlings bestir themselves in their nest, stretch up their necks, open their beaks, and chatter for the food on which their life depends; so exert yourself and lift imploring eyes and hands and heart for that "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." *57 Do this, and God shall come in loving haste and fill your hungry soul with righteousness. As the mother-bird comes quickly, and cheers her helpless young with the music of her voice and the flutter of her wings, and fills their little mouths with an abundance of farfetched bounty, so the Lord will come to you in His Spirit, descending like a dove and lighting upon you, as He did upon Jesus, and abiding there. He shall herald His approach, not by the hum of His wings, but by the sweeter peal of His promise, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." *58

Prisoner of hope, be strong, be bold;

Cast off your doubts, disdain to fear;

Dare to believe; on Christ lay hold;

Wrestle with Christ in mighty prayer;

Tell Him, --We will not let Thee go,

Till we Thy name, Thy nature know."

Chapter 10

Faith in a Present Christ

Not Christ distant from you; not Christ externally present with you; but Christ in you. Gain this conception, if you would realize His vitalizing presence and power.

The mistake of ages has been to locate Christ at a mysterious distance from the worshiper. We either seek the living among the dead, or in the region of fancy and imagination. In both cases He is conceived of as far away, we know not where. By consequence our faith wanders at random and our prayers seem addressed to vacuity. We think of Christ as having lived a great while ago, on another hemisphere, amid obscure scenes. We accept the fact of His death, resurrection, and ascension; but this last event --His ascension from Olivet --is allowed to project into the mind a conception of wide separation and non-intercourse, and the transmission of Himself within the veil is made to involve to some extent the idea, not only of distance, but of unapproachableness. As He cannot be seen He cannot be reached, is the common feeling.

In other words, as Christ can no longer be apprehended by the senses, we doubt that He can be enjoyed by our sensibilities and moral consciousness. Thus we materialize our religion, and locate our blessed Saviour, not only externally to ourselves, but in some remote place. We call that place heaven, or the presence of the Father, or near the throne. But where that is, how contiguous, or how remote, we have no idea.

All the promises to the effect that Christ will come again to His disciples, we refer to death, or the second coming of our Saviour at the end of the world. On the other hand, the sweet assurances of our Lord that He will receive us to Himself, that we may dwell and reign with Him forever, are assigned to a period subsequent to death. It is not, in our estimation, a vital union and joint reign here in the kingdom of grace, but a heaven and glory hereafter. Thus Jesus is put far away and almost out of existence by a mere prospective faith

--a faith that is practically dead because it realizes nothing and engenders doubt respecting the most precious promises in God's word. Even the pledge that Christ is always present where two or three are met in His name is received more as a part of a narrative and a statement of our Lord's necessary ubiquity than as a truth to be tested and enjoyed by our spiritual susceptibilities.

Now where is the authority for this exile of Jesus from the world --this banishment of His real presence and glory from the present and the personal?

If Jesus is not in the Church and in the hearts of believers, where is He? I say to all such believers and teachers, as Mary said to Peter, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him." *59 I say again, If the seat of Christ's kingdom and the place of his residence are not within you, where are they? Jesus said, "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." *60 Again Jesus said, "If a man love me, he will keep y words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto Him, and make Our abode with him." *61

A true and holy believer worships no God external to himself. Nor does he pray to an impersonal Saviour either within or without himself, much less pay his devotions to an ideal divinity in distant ethereal regions. Nor is it to a God in close proximity to himself that he speaks, but to a real Saviour by whom he is consciously possessed and governed --a God seated on the throne of his affections, reigning in the realm of the emotions, and dominating every passion and appetite. It is Christ in him "the hope of glory" that he adores. The Holy of holies, where Christ the only high-priest now enters and sprinkles the blood, is the heart. And there the real Shekinah now dwells. The veil that hides these Divine realities and glorious manifestations from our view is our physical nature or the crudeness and limitations of our gross senses.

This location of Jesus in and with the believer does not circumscribe the immensity of God, nor discredit the idea of a supreme heaven where He concentrates His visible majesties; but it does discard and dissipate the vague and perfunctory devotions which are as unmeaning and spiritless as the rites and superstitions of pagans. It also puts an end to those dreams about the future and the far-off fairylands which feed upon the emotions and animal sympathies. It makes our religion reasonable by representing Christ as always within speaking distance of the soul. He walks and talks with the believer; He is one with His children, and makes Himself to them "the way, the truth, and the life." The head and members are a unit, and enjoy a common life. If this conception of the nearness of Christ could take possession of us, it would do away with the spiritless formality of worship by putting us on terms of sweet conversational intercourse with our blessed and felt Redeemer. It would banish doubt respecting the fulfilment of promises, suppress fear and anxiety, and pervade the soul with a sense of confiding rest and safety.

Remember, beloved, we are forbidden to say, "Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it?

The word is nigh thee, even in thy month, and in thy heart." *62

Christ is again incarnated --incarnated within you. He is formed within you as

"the hope of glory." What a Divine sacredness this gives to human nature!

What sanctity of body and spirit and soul this fact obliges us to maintain! How it emphasizes the truth, "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." *63

Chapter 11

Administration of the Holy Ghost

As the Holy Spirit is the direct and actual sanctifier, His mission and offices must be considered somewhat at length. We are living under the administration of the Holy Ghost --a truth not sufficiently understood, nor adequately emphasized. Indeed, the Church has not more than half risen to the conception of this great idea. The Gospel Dispensation, which was not fully inaugurated until after the brilliant scene of the Pentecost, is peculiarly the ministration of the Spirit, the third person in the Divine Unity.

There seems to have been a division of the work of redemption among the three persons of the Godhead. The Father occupies the seat of universal rights, and became the originator of all moral movements which had for their object the recovery of the lost. The Father's love was the primary cause and first impulse toward human rescue.

The mission of the Son was to be the visible manifestation of God to the eyes of men to instruct the world in person, and through the living voice to open the promulgation of His own Gospel. And, finally and chiefly, it was the mission of the Son to atone for the sins of mankind by suffering and death.

But to the Holy Ghost is committed the executive department in the kingdom of grace. His work is that of general administration. Not so much origination as application and distribution. He illumines the understanding, revives the recollection of Jesus and His word, quickens the conscience, renews the mind, attests our acceptance with God, sanctifies the whole being, and then takes possession of the purified temple, making the heart His home, and converting it into a seat of unbroken comfort, and using it as a garden in which to produce His own fruit of "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." *64

This view of a division in the work of redemption is supported by the singular fact that all the Divine persons are not equally prominent in every stage of the redeeming enterprise. This enterprise may be divided into three periods: the first extending from the fall to the birth of Christ. During this long preparatory age triplicity in the Godhead was scarcely recognized, and the cooperation of three persons in the salvation of man was but obscurely indicated. The reigning idea under the Jewish economy was the unity of God. Moses and all the prophets swept the chords to the oneness of Jehovah in opposition to the polytheism of surrounding nations. And because the unity of God was the governing note in the songs and paeans of Israel during the long and shadowy epoch, while the Son was only promised, and the Holy Ghost dwelt among the people in but limited measure, that division may be called the dispensation of the Father.

But from the birth of Christ to His ascension, the Son, the second person in the Godhead, appears as the chief actor in the scheme for saving men. Both the Father and the Holy Spirit contribute to give Him pre-eminent distinction and authority. The Father, by saying at the time of his baptism, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" *65 the Holy Spirit, by descending upon Him in the form of a dove. *66

But from the ascension to the close of time the Holy Ghost is presented as the chief revolutionizing agent. He is more frequently mentioned, His offices are more fully defined, and vastly more is ascribed to His agency than ever before. The Jewish institutions had their glory, but they all pale their brightness, and fade away like stars in the light of the sun, before the greater brilliancy of the Spirit's administration.

Paul writes: "If the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." *67

Note the contrasts here: 1. The ministration of law, followed by a ministration of the Spirit. 2. The ministration of death, followed by a ministration of righteousness and life. 3. A ministration "written and engraven in stones," followed by a ministration written and engraven in the heart. 4. A ministration having an inferior glory, but fading out into no glory, in comparison with "glory that excelleth." A ministration dim and destined to pass away, followed by a ministration that remaineth permanent as the fixed stars, and fadeless as the sunlight.

We have an account of the inauguration of this last, best, and most glorious dispensation in the history of the Pentecost. That splendid scene was the beginning of a new era in spiritual religion.

The prophetic order, the priesthood, the sacrificial system, the ceremonial worship, and all symbolic teachings, which had been addressed to the senses of men, passed away, and men were granted "access by one Spirit unto the Father." *68

Christ, having abolished in his flesh the law of commandments contained in ordinances, came proclaiming that "the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." With great emphasis he adds: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." *69

To facilitate and insure this purely spiritual worship, and to enable men to offer up "spiritual sacrifices to God," Christ promised the Comforter, and encouraged His disciples to expect the promise of the Father "not many days hence." Indeed, He affirmed that it was needful that He Himself should go away, in order that the Comforter might come, asserting that if He should not go away, the Comforter would not come unto them, but if he went, He would send Him unto them, that He might abide with them continually, and lead them into all truth. *70

The Pentecost was, therefore, the instalment of the Holy Ghost, the transfer of chief power and authority to Him. From this time He stands forth as the exponent of the Gospel ministration in the Church, and the representative of the Godhead among men. The seal of his appointment was affixed on the day of Pentecost in fire and flame.

From this time it became His prerogative to call and qualify ministers, to furnish them with credentials, to found, vitalize, and sanctify Churches, and to lift up the whole body of believers to be a "chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that " they "should show forth the praises of Him who hath called " them "out of darkness into his marvellous light." *71

Chapter 12

General Offices of the Holy Ghost

The agency of the Holy Ghost in the work of salvation is of transcendent importance. No delineation of the way of life is complete without giving to His offices a lucid exposition. The general prerogatives of the Holy Ghost belong to all times and stages of redemption.

This may be stated as follows:

First. It is the office of the Spirit to awaken, arrest the attention, excite the feelings, and produce conviction for sin.

"And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." *72

The whole world is in a state of spiritual slumber and insensibility, and no power to rouse the soul, or shake off the stupor, resides in men. Left to themselves they would pass life, meet death, and enter eternity with sleep unbroken. The voice of warning, the promises of reward, the melodies of heaven, and the shrieks of hell would fall alike powerless and ineffectual upon the soul. But the Spirit enters and speaks, reviving a consciousness of danger, a conviction of duty, sensibility of want, and desire for help and salvation.

Second. It is the province of the Spirit to renew.

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." *73 "Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." *74

The carnal mind is the seat of corruption, chaos, and death. The soul is dismantled of the image of God, and alienated from His life. The powers and affections are perverted. The Holy Ghost grapples with these perversities, and reconstructs the human heart into a temple of the living God. He makes the whole inner being a domain of order and a seat of purity. He breathes on the dead affections and they revive. He stimulates the dormant faculties and they spring into activity.

Third. It is the function of the Spirit to enlighten and restore spiritual perception.

"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." *75

Sin has done much more than to create a haze about men: it has enveloped them in thick darkness, and obscured and marred their moral vision. They perceive not the grandeur and loveliness of a holy nature and a sinless life, nor have they any just conception of the turpitude of sin, and of its repugnance to the nature of God. The "unsearchable riches of Christ," comprising the realities of experimental religion and the sublimities of heaven, they are equally unable to estimate or even discern. But upon this ocean of darkness, error, and misconception rises the broad and brilliant orb of the Holy Ghost. He spreads His light over the expanse of mind, and the cloud of spiritual wickedness is dissipated. His mellow beams penetrate the soul, repairing vision, and revealing truths. Then truth and error, sin and holiness, appear in their true relations.

Fourth. It is the office of the Spirit to implant and nourish the graces of Christian character.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith." *76

When, by the process of regeneration, the soul is cleared of every noxious weed and bitter root of sin, then the Holy Ghost deposits the seeds of truth as the foundation of right principles, true virtue, and correct practice. But these truths are not left to work out their effect independently. The Holy Spirit acts upon them like the nourishing earth and the quickening beams of the sun upon the germ of vegetation. He fructifies the heart and keeps it in a producing state like a well watered garden or a thrifty vine.

Fifth. It is the work of the Spirit to assure us of our acceptance with God and justified relation to Him.

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." *77 "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." *78

When a true evangelical conversion occurs we are conscious of a happy change; the sense of condemnation is removed, and the stormy soul is hushed to peace and rest. When the graces spring up, revealing their charms and crowding the heart with sweet emotions, we are convinced that some new and precious attribute has been acquired. But we need a witness to attest that this is the work of God involving real salvation. We need a witness to assure us of what we cannot test by sight or feeling, namely, that our "sins are forgiven," and our names "written in the book of life."

We wish to know that God acknowledges and treats us as His children. To supply this lack of evidence the Spirit speaks to human consciousness. He communicates directly with our spirits, and works in us the persuasion that

"we are the sons of God."

His authoritative voice, strangely uttered to the soul, or His deep and glorious impression upon our spiritual sensibilities, settles this momentous question. It is the infallible and abiding witness. Let feelings change, let sceptics cavil and circling mysteries rise, let clouds lower and storms spend their force around him, yet the testimony remains unshaken and decisive.

These are the ordinary functions of the Spirit which have been enjoyed by the people of God in all ages. They have been and still are the common heritage of believers. From the hour that the Spirit began to "strive with man," far back in the twilight of time, down to the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been a factor and active agent in the scheme of redemption. Not in the fullness of measure which belongs to post-Pentecostal times and privileges, but not less real and efficacious on that account. Like a silent partner in a business firm, He supplied, though in comparative obscurity, the riches of grace which made the Abrahams, the Enochs, the Elijahs, and all the mighty heroes and martyrs mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.

But better things and greater were reserved for the Gospel Dispensation.

The prophets predicted the supremacy and dominion of the Spirit in the realm of the heart and operations of experience. Ezekiel says, as the voice of God,

"And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." *79

Joel says: "It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." *80 Jeremiah says: " After these days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." *81 Malachi says: " lie shall sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver:" and shall be like "a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap." *82

Matthew says, more proximately: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." *83 All this began to be actualised on the day of Pentecost; when the Holy Ghost burst, full-orbed, on the Church and world.

Chapter 14

Instruments of Sanctification

Actual salvation is the sublime effect of four concurrent causes --the Atonement, the Truth, Faith, and the Holy Spirit. The Atonement is the foundation work, the procuring cause, the outlet of the great deep of God's redeeming mercies. It is the source and embodiment of all the possibilities of grace. Every gleam of light, every star of hope, every pulsation of joy, every beatific vision, is traceable to the Atonement.

The Truth is the channel of communication between God and man, the first point of contact between the infinitely holy and the fallen. The spoken word of God first broke to man the news of His prospective recovery. All along through the ages new and enlarged editions of this word have been published. Patriarch, prophet, angels, and finally the Son of God Himself. have been successively the mouthpiece of an ever-speaking Divine Will. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by us Son." *84 By the words of His Son, we understand the Gospel, the "glad tidings which are unto all people." The contents of the gospels are the organs of speech employed by the Holy Ghost in speaking to the heart. Men are only the hilt of the "sword of the Spirit," which He grasps and uses to strike down error and sin.

Truth is the fulcrum on which the lever of the Spirit rests in His mighty effort to lift the world up to God. It is the truncheon on which he balances His gun to get the true range of the heart and conscience. Truth is the telephone of the Holy Spirit. He articulates His thoughts through this medium, and verily, as Esaias saith, "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." *85

Faith is the instrumental cause of salvation. It is the beggar's hand that takes a gift --the hand which lifts the cup of salvation to the lips, the hand that grasps the promises and brings them into contact with the heart. Faith is the act that throws its arms around the promises and embraces them. It is the power that brings the soul into that submissive confiding relation to Jesus, where it nestles down on the sweet will of God --a blessed state in which the once turbulent and fretful spirit behaves and quiets itself "as a child that is weaned of the mother." *86

The Holy Ghost is the proximate cause, the immediate force, the power that comes into tangible contact with the human spirit. His touch is creative, cleansing, quickening, beautifying.

Now to each of these great agents entire sanctification is ascribed.

First. To the Atonement. "Who gave Himself for Us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity." *87 "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." *88

Second. To the Truth. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." *89

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." *90 "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." *91

So of Faith: "Purifying their hearts by faith." *92 "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." *93

But all these forces are tributary to the direct work of the Holy Ghost.

His power alone is palpable and effective. His fire alone purges and refines.

"Born of the Spirit." *94 "Washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." *95 "Changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." *96 It is the Holy Spirit alone who goes into a hand-to-hand fight with the man of sin. He grapples invincibly with the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life. He resuscitates dead affections, and revives lost hopes. he restores the faded picture of true holiness.

But while entire sanctification is ascribed and justly ascribed to each one of these four agents, yet it must be remembered that the work is not consummated by either independently. They combine and co-work. There is a blending of offices, a sisterhood of influences, and a grand marshalling and massing of forces.

Who then, can doubt the possibility of full salvation in the presence of such an array of strength. We may doubt the power of nature to bring the seasons around, to quicken and bring up a continent of dead vegetation out of the grave of winter. We may doubt the ability and faithfulness of the sun to rise again in the blush of morning, when he has gone down and left us for hours in the darkness of night, while the world is hushed to silence and put to sleep under the emblem of death. We may question the power of the laws of nature to operate unspent for untold ages to conserve the order of the universe.

But the power of this fourfold grace we may not doubt. It is nothing less than

"the power of God unto salvation." Tired nature may droop and die, exhausted suns may turn to blackness, wheeling planets may cease to move, but the power that saves to the uttermost can never fail. "Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it."

Thou dying Lamb! thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,

'Till all the ransomed Church of God

Are saved, to sin no more."

Chapter 15

Special Offices of the Holy Ghost – Baptism of the Holy Ghost

There are certain offices of the Holy Spirit which belong peculiarly to the Gospel Dispensation. They are not so much a new work of the Holy Ghost, as a new and enlarged edition of the same. They begin, not a new religion, but a new epoch in religion. Not a genesis, but a development. Not the outer court, but the Holy of holies.

The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the generic name for all these offices, which ramifies into different titles indicating specific blessings; such as Comforter, unction, seal, earnest, etc.

We hear nothing of the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the Old Testament, except obscure hints that such a gift is in prospect. Ezekiel says: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you." *97 Joel says: "I will pour out my Spirit." *98

Malachi writes: "He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap." *99 But it was reserved for the new covenant to make the distinct proclamation, that the time had come for the actual bestowment of this great gift. The very core of the short preparatory dispensation of John the Baptist was his announcement, that One cometh after him who should baptize the people "with the holy Ghost, and with fire." *100

And the chief significance of John's baptism is to be found in the fact that it symbolized this extraordinary effusion of the Holy Ghost. The whole subject of baptism has been so wretchedly mixed up with the mode of water baptism that its high import has been lost sight of.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the gist of Christianity, the keynote of the new dispensation, the motive power that moves all its machinery. There is nothing to differentiate Christianity from Judaism but the substitution of the Holy Ghost for the cumbrous externalism of the Levitical code. Water baptism, as John the Baptist taught, is comparatively nothing, and its mode, about which the Church has exhausted and disgraced herself, is less than nothing. Let us peel off the husks, and sweep away the chaff, and get at the real meaning of this Divine and glorious baptism.

The original Greek, according to the best lexicographers, Robinson and Parkhurst, has two distinct meanings: to cleanse, and to purge. *1

01 Robinson defines it: 1. "To wash, to lave, to cleanse by washing." 2. "To baptize in, or with, the Holy Ghost; that is, to overwhelm, richly furnish with all spiritual gifts."

Parkhurst defines it more fully. He says: "It denotes the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles and other believers as well as on account of the abundance of His gifts, as of the virtue and efficacy of the Holy Spirit, who, like living water, refresheth, washeth away pollutions, cleanseth."

We pass by the mode, as indicated by the original, that we may hold the attention to the spiritual effect of the Spirit's work. The manner implies simply and always contact of the material element or spiritual substance with the subject, whether by immersion, dipping, or effusion.

But we cannot entirely trust lexicographers to give us the sense, for they have become so bewildered and dazed by the foolish controversy touching the mode of water baptism, that they all give us a rendering more or less tinged with, and diluted by, the waterway of the question. The great expounder of the Bible is the Bible itself. The context is our best lexicographer. Let us consult this.

John says: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his Hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." *102

This passage contains a complete exposition of the nature of the baptism under consideration. Let us analyse it. John contrasts the two baptisms, giving to the work of Christ the pre-eminence: "I with water," "He with the Holy Ghost, and with fire." The language clearly indicates that John did not intend so much to compliment and exalt Christ as to explain and exalt Christ's baptism. Nor did he purpose to disparage his own work. The baptism of water had its place, and was valuable in its place; it promoted repentance. But, as compared with the Divine baptism, it was as much inferior to his water baptism as John was inferior to Christ.

The baptism of John was unto repentance. There its efficacy stopped. But the baptism of Christ, while it is inclusive of repentance, goes further, and aims at purgation and the bestowment of power. This is shown by the use of the word fire. It is a' baptism that shall act upon its subject like fire on the precious metals, or on combustible matter. The baptism of the Holy Ghost, and of fire, are not, as some affirm, two different baptisms, one of Spirit and the other of fire; but, as Dr. Whedon says, They are "different parts or phases of the same process." He adds, with much force: "The baptism of fire manifested at Pentecost is the severer purgation, burning sin away by the sharper agonies, imparting a severer spiritual purity." *103

That purification is the prime meaning of the text is more fully proved by the words, "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor." The reference, of course, is to the Oriental method of separating wheat from the chaff; wheat representing purity and value, chaff sin and worthlessness. Christ will have a clean floor, and nothing but clean wheat in it. The chaff of sin will not be left lying around in comers of the heart, but thoroughly winnowed out and burned up. I cannot quite agree with Dr. Whedon and some others, that garner, here, means only heaven, and wheat the righteous gathered into it. Wheat is not garnered for reward but for use. It is not a little keepsake; it is wealth, and wealth is power. God does not make righteous men that they may be quickly huddled into heaven. He takes away sin, and enriches them with grace for purposes of usefulness.

The primary application, therefore, of the promise is to the Church militant. She must be a treasure of clean wheat, and, like that staple article, devoted to the support of life.

This text has been greatly mangled by superstitious minds and unspiritual scholars. Some find in it the fire of hell; others, the fire of the judgment; others again, the fire of afflictions. The Roman Catholics, of course, find in it the fire of purgatory. Even the learned Dr. Robinson, author of the most approved Greek Lexicon, leaves us to infer that fire here means some overwhelming visitation of evil.

It is strange that such perversions should obtain, when a glance at the Pentecost would show a literal initial fulfilment of the promise under the emblem of visible fire.

Dr. Adam Clarke's exegesis brings out the true meaning of the text. He says:

"That the influences of the Spirit of God are here designed, needs but little proof. Christ's religion was to be a spiritual religion, and was to have its seat in the heart. Outward precepts, however well they may describe, could not produce inward spirituality. This was the province of the Spirit of God, and of it alone. Therefore, He is represented here under the similitude of fire, because He was to illuminate and invigorate the soul, and penetrate every part, and assimilate the whole to the image of the God of glory." *104

Chapter 16

The Comforter

The most endearing title of the Holy Spirit is Comforter, called in the original paraclete.

As Christ neared the end of His incarnate life, He gently reminded His disciples of His approaching departure: "But now I go my way to Him that sent Me;" "A little while and ye shall not see Me;" "It is expedient for you that I go away." These pathetic announcements of his speedy disappearance filled the hearts of His disciples with sorrow, and agitated their minds with painful forebodings. They saw it would be theirs in the near future to feel all the loneliness and grief of a great bereavement. Christ Himself anticipated their hard lot. The idea seemed to be ever-present with Him as the looked tenderly on His disciples in the midst of His own sufferings, "If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"

He saw that immediately after His going away all the hatred and persecution which had been directed against Himself would be transferred to His disciples. They would not only be as sheep without a shepherd, but as children without a Father; as the original expresses it, they would be [orphanos,] orphans.

Our blessed Lord enters into deep sympathy with them, and proceeds to counteract their sadness by telling them three things:

1. That He would not leave them by way of abandonment, but simply transport Himself to heaven, in order to prepare a place for them. And then promises, when matters shall have been duly arranged, that He will come again for them, and receive them unto Himself, and grant them the unspeakable privilege of living where he lives forever; that is, He would take them into His own family, not as visitors or temporary residents, but as parts of His own house hold. *105

2. He assures them that His departure would be, not so much a separation, as a disappearance. It would be simply the withdrawal of His bodily presence into the regions of invisibility. So He puts it: "A little while, and ye shall not see Me." *106 And yet the absence was real only so far as His incarnate form was concerned, and even that was not long to be continued, for immediately He adds, "And again a little while and ye shall see Me." In short, His departure was to be nothing more than the substitution of a spiritual presence for a material one. Though unseen, He would still dwell among them and in them1

being for every one, and in every place, "the way, the truth, and the life."

3. But He finally and most affectionately quiets their troubled souls with the extraordinary promise that He will send them the Comforter --the [paracletos]

paraclete.

This promise is four times repeated with variations as to His offices:

1. "1 will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever." *108

2. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." *109 "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me." *110

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." *111 Again, "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come."

*112

We have quoted all these passages because they are invested with a transcendent importance, not well understood, nor sufficiently emphasized. They reveal the beginning of a new dispensation --a dispensation purely spiritual and of tremendous power.

The Paraclete, or Comforter, is more than a solace for a temporary sorrow. His office is vastly higher than to mitigate grief and generate sweet emotions. He comes to take charge of the provisional work of Christ, and to administer the affairs of His spiritual kingdom. He comes not to supersede Christ, but to represent Him; not to do an independent work, but to carry out and apply the work of Christ already begun. As Dean Alford says: "Not instead of Him, but in regard of Him, and as a means of manifesting Him." *113

All the features of the dispensation of the Paraclete are brought out in the texts quoted. He is a "teacher," an "advocate," a "guide," "the Spirit of truth,"

"a reminder of the words and works of Christ," an "abiding presence," a

"witness," and, above all, and through all, and by the means of all, He is a

"Comforter."

Dean Alford's note is valuable. Commenting on the original word, [sumpherei,]

*114 rendered "expedient," he says: "This implies that the dispensation of the Spirit is a more blessed manifestation of God than was even the bodily presence of the risen Saviour ... The gift of the Spirit at and since the day of Pentecost was and is something totally distinct from any thing before that time

--a new and loftier dispensation." *115

The mission of the Comforter is threefold: To "reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment;" that is, to convince the world of the turpitude of sin, to lift up a higher standard of righteousness, to make known more vivid ideas of the accountability of man, than belonged to any former revelation from God.

His special work was to lift the world to a loftier plane of spirituality; to breathe into believers a higher life; to purge out all dross and tin from the heart; to array the Church in white robes, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; to clothe her ministry with aggressive power quite irresistible; to advocate the cause of the penitent on the ground of Christ's work and merit; to make truth universal and supreme; to plant the earth with trees of righteousness, heavy and bending with the fruits of His own production; to make the whole earth an orb of beauty, more brilliant than the king of day, whose going forth is prepared as the morning; and, finally and forever, to fill nations, homes, and hearts with a "joy unspeakable and full of glory."

Reader, if you would know all things pertaining to your life and salvation, if you would be sanctified wholly and clothed with the highest measure of power, put yourself under the lead, tuition, and fire of the Holy Ghost. If you would enjoy perfect peace, perfect love, and continual joy, dwell with the Comforter, and open your whole being to His culture and communion. *116

Chapter 17

The Spirit’s Seal

It is a special office of the Spirit under the Gospel economy to seal believers.

The seal belongs to all times and peoples. Perhaps no instrument has been so universally used, or for so long a time, or for purposes so various. Its employment began with the daybreak of time, and continues to the present. Judah, Jacob's son, left his seal with Tamar as a pledge. *117 A peculiar sacredness was attached to the seal, though it has been sometimes used to accomplish wicked designs.

Jezebel sealed letters with Ahab's seal to compass the death of Naboth. *118

But almost always it signifies a good design.

Job says: "God sealeth up the stars." *119 In Deuteronomy we read: "Is not this laid up in store with me, and sea up among my treasures?" *120

The seal has various shades of meaning according to the instrument or subject to which it is applied. It is used to confer dignity, authority, and power, to confirm covenants and testimony, to authenticate documents. But its general purpose is to assure. *121

In the New Testament it means the establishment of any truth beyond all question.

Circumcision is called "a seal of the righteousness of the faith." *122 God's knowledge concerning the permanency of His work is called a seal. "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His." *123

Paul calls his Corinthian converts the seal of his apostleship. "The seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord." *124 That put him in the true succession. It is no muddy stream of historic continuity, and no successive manipulation or imposition of sinful hands, but visible instances of saved sinners. Cruden adds this just comment: "Ye are the certain evidence of my Divine call; my apostolic office hath a confirmation in you by the effect, as the writing is confirmed by the seal."

Sanctification by the impression of the Holy Ghost is called a seal. "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." *125

We may note the following points of analogy between the process of sealing and the process of sanctification:

1. The letter written, the character of a believer: "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men."

2. The wax on which the seal is placed. This may represent a broken and contrite heart: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." *126

3. The seal used. This answers to the word of God: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth." *127

4. The sealer, or the one who applies the seal of God's word. This agent, or person, is the Holy Ghost: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." *128 "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." *129 "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." *130 Thus the Spirit operates through the word.

5. The impression made and left on the heart is the image of God, the image of righteousness, and true holiness. It is the counterpart of the Holy Ghost expressed through the word, and impressed by Himself on the human faculties, features, spirit, and life.

In affixing a seal several things must concur: there must be a contract, two parties, two witnesses, two seals, and two signatures. These are parts answering to these factors in the great transaction of personal salvation. The contract is the great covenant of grace, the most wonderful agreement ever devised in earth or heaven. The parties are, God and penitent sinners --a strange association, but nevertheless true. The signatures are the promise of God, on the one hand, and the renunciation of sin and dedication of the whole being to God at once and forever, on the other. It is an exchange by which we give all, and get all.

When the intrinsic worth of the commodities exchanged are considered, the reciprocation strikes one as an exceedingly uneven barter; we give nothing of value, and get infinite treasure. For man, given in his raw and rotten state, we get God --"the God of all grace and the Father of mercies."

The two witnesses are, as Mr. Wesley would say, "The witness of the Holy Spirit, and the witness of our own spirit." By these two competent witnesses the mutual transfer is authenticated, and the genuineness of the work attested.

Nothing remains now but to affix the seals. The transaction is not complete without two seals, Divine and human. The human seal is faith, unquestioning faith. It is the faith of conviction that God doeth the work, that we are being saved, and that we are safe and secure in the operation. Because, "faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it."

That man has a seal to append to this reciprocal engagement, and that faith is that seal we learn from the words of John: "He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." *131

The new version reads, "Hath set his seal to this, that God is true;" that is, he ratifies by the fullest acceptance the proposition that God is true. And the impression of man's seal must precede the Spirit's seal. But no sooner does faith do its work than the Holy Spirit stamps his magnificent impression on the heart. And it is at once so distinct and bright, that it sets its subject to crying,

"Abba, Father."

And He, the Holy Ghost, does His work with so much definiteness and particularity, that the kind, quality, and measure of the blessing bestowed and work done are made known. And then the subject shouts, as he has a perfect right to do, "We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God."

*132

The supreme office of the Spirit's seal is to assure of eternal life. And this is made an argument to dissuade and prevent us from resisting and frustrating any of His merciful designs. "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." *133

This is confirmation of the assured final perseverance of the saints in the true sense, and in the highest degree possible in this life. It is not confirmation by the imposition of prelatical hands. Nor is it certainty caused by an arbitrary election to eternal life, irrespective of character.

Much less is it priestly absolution, or any mystical virtue imparted by the opus operandum, or mere outward work of the sacrament.

It is a habit of integrity, a confirmed establishment in grace, by the profound operations of the Holy Ghost on the heart and life, and this followed by the sacred sanction of His seal signifying preappointment to eternal glory. He is ticketed through, baggage and all, to the terminus of heaven.

But this is not unconditional. Any seal may be broken. Indeed, the seal is not designed to produce inviolability, but to signify the mind of the sealer. Liability of failure is inherent in a life of probation.

The degrees of assurance may be thus expressed: The possibility of eternal salvation, which belongs to all sinners under the atonement, rises to probability in the case of the converted, with elements of certainty included, but contingent upon his going on to perfection, and not "laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God." *134

In the case of the wholly sanctified and sealed, the probability and contingent assurance of the regenerate rises to the verge of absolute certainty, contingent only upon the maintenance of a holy state. And such perseverance is placed quite beyond doubt, because he has reached the point where the benediction is fulfilled: "Rut the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." *135

Reader, be as wax under the Spirit's seal.

Chapter 18

The Earnest of the Spirit

Closely allied to the anointing and sealing work of the Holy Ghost is the earnest of the Spirit, which is a spiritual gift having the nature of a Divine essence directly communicated to the heart. We read, "Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." *136 Again to the Ephesians, "Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance." *137

Anointing, sealing, and earnest are not separate blessings. They coalesce and form a unit. It is only in thought that we can conceive of them as distinct gifts. In experience they are one and inseparable. We cannot be anointed and sealed, and not have the earnest. The reverse is equally true. We cannot possess the earnest and not. be somewhat anointed and sealed. And yet the three gifts, when addressed to the understanding, appear different, owing to the material symbol by which each is represented.

Anointing suggests oil; sealing, an instrument by which impressions are made; while earnest refers us back to the Oriental practice of presenting the first fruits as a token and pledge of the coming harvest.

In our conception anointing and sealing are more outward, and convey the idea of an application, while earnest is thought of as something within, and means a largess divinely imparted. Anointing and sealing take on the aspect of qualification, but earnest presents itself as a feast to be enjoyed. Hence the apostle says: "Hath given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." *138

It is located in our emotional nature and has to do with the affections. It is the cash down which we get when we become parties, by faith, to the great covenant of grace. It is the sample sheaf which tells of the kind and quality of wheat that the coming harvest is sure to furnish.

The offering of "first-fruits" required by the Levitical code was designed to inculcate the important doctrine and duty of giving the first and best of every thing to God, but gradually it grew into a festival. There were two feasts connected with harvest among the Jews, one at the beginning, the other at the end. Accordingly, in Exodus we find this direction: "And none shall appear before me empty: and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field." *139

These two feasts, the one at the first and the other at the last of the reaping time, may have suggested to the apostle the present and the future ideas which he attaches to the earnest of the Spirit. In Corinthians he calls it "the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts," which must mean a present enjoyment. But in writing to the Ephesians he calls it "the earnest of our inheritance," which is to last until the redemption of the purchased possession, and then to redound to the praise of God's glory.

In the New Testament, this ancient custom of offering "first-fruits" is made to represent spiritual things, and especially to indicate the Spirit's work. Paul writes, "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit." *140 Again he says, "If the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy."

*141

Some, however, think the term earnest has a commercial origin, and signifies the price paid down to bind a bargain, or a deposit made to insure the fulfilment of a contract, or the verification of a promise.

What condescension, love, and compassion there must be in God to usward, to justify such a figure. God leaves a pledge in our hearts that He will be faithful --leaves a deposit of grace to render it certain that He will give holiness and heaven up to the full measure of His covenant engagement. A man who will not believe on such evidence, it would seem, must be removed quite beyond the pale of hope.

But whatever be the source of the figure, there can be no doubt it represents one of the precious offices of the Holy Spirit. He Himself comes into the heart and gives us grace --a pledge of glory, or rather gives a part of glory as a pledge of the whole. It is not only the promise of something, but the thing itself.

Why do Christians bother themselves and waste time in reasoning about the possibilities of the supernatural? They have the supernatural within them. Religion is the veriest delusion, or every experienced Christian has in his heart more convincing evidence an hundred-fold than can be derived from prophecy, miracle, internal evidence of Scripture, science, or logic.

If every thing else should be involved in doubt, and given up, what am I to do with the consciousness that I have the earnest of the Spirit within? What shall I do with the fact that it began with my conversion, and has never left me? Am I told that I am deceived? As well tell me that I am deceived in the feeling that I live. Am I told that my consciousness is an unreal or morbid emotion? As well tell me that I do not taste food when I eat, or feel the stimulus of light when the morning dawns, or enjoy the pleasures of health when I am well.

If the enjoyment of religion can be disproved, then not only Christianity falls, but the universe also. Man is a myth, life a dream, and the whole universe an ideality or splendid illusion.

Reader, in your debate, make much of your religious experience. Magnify the argument of "Christ in you, the hope of glory." In every conflict, when hard pressed, fall back upon your ramparts: "The earnest of the Spirit in your hearts."

The comment of Dr. Adam Clarke is so pertinent and good that I here reproduce it: "From this unction and sealing we have a clear testimony in our souls, the Divine Spirit dwelling constantly in us, of our acceptance with God, and that our ways please Him. The word properly signifies an earnest of something promised; a part of the price agreed for between the buyer and seller, by giving and receiving of which the bargain was ratified; or a deposit which was to be restored when the thing promised was given. The Holy Spirit being an earnest in the heart, and an earnest of the promised inheritance, means a security given in hand for the fulfilment of all God's promises relative to grace and eternal life. We may learn from this that eternal life will be given in the great day to all who can produce the [arrabon] *142 or pledge. He who is found then with the earnest of God's Spirit in heart, shall not only be saved from death, but have that eternal life of which it is the pledge, the earnest, and the evidence. Without this [arrabon] there can be no glory." *143

Chapter 19

Anointing of the Holy Ghost

To anoint with oil was an ancient custom. Samuel anointed Saul and David.

*144 Zadok the priest anointed Solomon. *145 Moses anointed Aaron and his sons. *146 The Tabernacle and altar were anointed.

This anointing ceremony, it is quite plain, had two principal meanings: 1. To confer authority and power. 2. To set apart, sanctify, and render sacred. The power bestowed was not merely official recognition and civil dignity, but Divine appointment by an accompanying spiritual influence of which the gentle application of oil was the emblem.

After Samuel anointed Saul he said: "Is it not be cause the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?" *147 When David was anointed it is said, "The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." *148

After Solomon was anointed God gave him "a wise and an understanding heart." *149

This anointing ceremony was also indicative of sanctification. The direction given to Moses, respecting Aaron and his sons, was thus expressed: "Thou shalt anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them." *150 As further proof that the rite included the idea of personal purification, the oil itself was made ceremonially holy: "Thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, . . . tempered together, pure and holy: . . . it shall be unto you most holy." *151

*152 It may be important to note that the anointing act was preceded by another service especially significant of cleansing, to wit: the washing of water. The following direction was given in relation to mode: "Thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water. And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him." *153

This may indicate the New Testament order: First, sanctification; second, endowment. In the New Testament the words anoint, anointed, and anointing are used to denote the direct operations of the Holy Spirit. The material symbol is dropped, and the substance signified, namely, the Holy Spirit comes into tangible contact with the heart. Where the original word is used in connection with spiritual things it always represents the highest Divine endowment and the most sacred character. It stands for high health, great power, and perfect insight into spiritual and divine things. "Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see;" *154 that is, seek the enlightenment of God's word and Spirit, that your diseased understanding and blurred vision may be cured.

Sin has not only put a film on the eye, but destroyed the capacity to see. It has ruined the faculty of spiritual insight, and struck the soul with blindness. The only perfect cure is the salve of experimental grace. A man may have all the learning in the world, and all the culture the schools can afford, and yet be a mere novice in spiritual understanding.

Learning is exceedingly valuable, but valuable only as an auxiliary. The Holy Ghost is the standard authority, the central orb in the system of truth. He is the schoolmaster whose lessons, put into the heart, and not into the head, makes the humblest Christian often wiser and mightier than the most celebrated scholar.

John says of this class who are Spirit taught, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." *155 This does not mean infallibility, nor is it an assumption of universal knowledge. The context plainly shows that the

"all things" here mentioned are the truths derived from Christ-truths which enter as essential elements into Christian experience by the unctious operations of the Holy Spirit.

In support of this view he again says: "The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no he, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." *156

This passage is flung against certain Antichrists who prowled around the Church in St. John's time, and adroitly tried to seduce the disciples away from the true Christ to their false Christs and spurious gospels.

The writings of "the fathers" contain abundant evidence to this effect. But the apostle wisely aims to confirm them in the true faith by throwing their minds back upon their conscious experience --the personal anointing of the Holy Ghost. Here he advances a truth not sufficiently emphasized and depended upon in systems of theology. It is the important doctrine that experience is the surest anchorage of faith. The decisive appeal is not to miracle, argument, tradition, or history, but to the actual, abiding work of the Spirit within. This is, and ever must be, the strongest evidence of Christianity.

Science and subtle reasoning and satire may cast doubt on every aspect of religious truth, but a real experience is unanswerable. A Christian may be tangled up and utterly confounded in the realm of debate by the "cunning craftiness of men," but a holy experience is a citadel which no enemy can storm. This passage does not teach the vainglorious and conceited idea that we may be so taught of the Spirit that we will not need education, books, or preachers for our instruction. The Spirit teacheth through the word, and that word intelligently expounded. The text simply affirms that a spiritual Christian is a God-taught and divinely-established believer. He stands on the vantage ground of the supernatural within him.

"What we have felt and seen,

With confidence we tell;

And publish to the sons of men

The signs infallible"

To the same effect Paul writes to the Corinthians: "Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ... is God." *157 The emphasis here is placed upon the source of the unction --" is God." The anointing comes direct from Him. It is no human qualification. No educational furnishment, no natural talent, no earthly gift of any sort. It descends immediately from God. It drops from the fingers of Divinity and pours from the born of salvation. It is gently applied by the hand of infinite grace.

The anointing spoken of in these passages is one and the same thing with the

"promise of my Father," mentioned in Luke xxiv, 49, which culminated in the magnificent scene of the Pentecost.

Chapter 20

Application of the Subject

Of what the Gospel teaches on this subject, this is the sum:

1. This anointing is the direct communication of the Holy Spirit to the heart in extraordinary fullness. It is an exact fulfilment of the Saviour's words, that

"God giveth not the Spirit by measure." *158 It has no limit except the limit of capacity to receive. It is being "filled with the Spirit" in every faculty.

2. It is an inward, evidential, abiding light, which serves as a sure guide to truth --a spiritual discernment of spiritual things. It does not discount the word, nor set aside the ordinary means of edification, but it does detect and reject much that claims to be religious thought and instruction. It discriminates between the chaff and the wheat, the form and the power; between the

"charity that never faileth," and the "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal."

3. It accompanies entire sanctification, and is one with it, and in a large measure is inseparable from it; and yet there may be, so to speak, reapplications of the anointing oil. Charles G. Finney testifies that while he was conducting a meeting in Boston, "God gave his soul a thorough overhauling, by which he was lifted into a sublimer plane of life and power." Others have had a similar experience. There is such a thing as being anointed with fresh oil, and having it applied more plentifully.

4. This anointing inducts into office, and confers authority and power. It is the gift which invests a man with ministerial rights, and makes him effective. A man who has not by such anointing received the credentials of the Holy Ghost has no right to be in the ministry. The apostles were commanded to "tarry at Jerusalem" until they received this endowment of power. With a perishing world around them they were held back until thus empowered from on high.

From this historic fact we learn this lesson: Men may run, not only before they are called, but run too soon after they are called. There is a Jerusalem diploma to be obtained, before the duties of the holy office can be rightfully and efficiently discharged. Every candidate stands all unqualified until this unction is poured upon him as it was upon Aaron. The absolute necessity of this qualifying rite is proved by the fact that Christ could not enter upon His public ministry until the Spirit came upon Him at the time of His baptism. It is said the Spirit descended like a dove and abode upon Him.

It was after this that He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." *159

John hesitated to be the instrument to perform the symbolic act of baptism, but Jesus said, "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." *160 From that time it is recorded, "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan," *161 and entered upon His public ministry. The importance of this anointing is still further enhanced by the name applied to our Lord. He is called [Christos,] Christ, which means the anointed One. He is also called [Messias, or Messiah,] which has the same import, the anointed.

*162

Now, if this anointing was necessary in the case of Christ, who was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," how can it possibly be dispensed with in the case of the human ministry? And as this anointing was added to Christ's natural purity, we may infer that the same anointing is receivable by Christians, and is supplementary to entire sanctification. It is pre-eminently a qualifying grace. Without it a man may be good, but he cannot be strong or pre-eminently successful.

A minister may be inducted into office with all the forms and assumption of external sanctity and deep consecration, and yet be as destitute of revival power as the steeple on his church. Many a man has had to speak down from the dizzy height of ecclesiastical preferment, and say with honest David, "I am this day weak, though anointed king!" *163

The question is often asked by educated and sincere ministers, "Why am I not successful? Why are sinners not converted by my preaching?" The true answer is, You have not the anointing.

God never puts a man into His vineyard who cannot accomplish any thing if properly equipped. Inefficient men shut their eyes to the real cause of their inefficiency. While their unfruitfulness cannot be denied, they account for it in fallacious ways. First, on the ground that they are not adapted to revival work. They are built and trained, in their own estimation, for edification and solid work. They move in higher regions of air than the humdrum evangelist does or can. They are constituted to draw and render religion respectable by the use of learning and the graces of oratory. Their province is to batter down some subtle form of infidelity which good people do not know, and do not care to know, and never would know did not these superior preachers first tell them what some Huxley, Darwin, Mill, or Spencer has said. Thus they often project a poison into the mind, which their own discussions fail to antidote. With this class of ministers it often occurs that whole years pass, and not a soul is converted through their agency. And the most painful fact is, these men seem content to have it so.

Another method of accounting for the lack of fruit is the assertion that the Church has assigned to certain men some secular duties, such as teaching, writing, and the management of its various auxiliaries, institutions not deeply spiritual, though generally religious. This is true. But it would be just as true to say that they who have been thus turned aside by an election, from the direct and only proper work of the ministry, have sought the places they occupy. It Is a melancholy fact that Christian ministers regard these outside official positions as promotions, and the Church has been taught so to view them.

The absence of fruit is again palliated by the half-truth, that we are not responsible for results, but simply for the performance of duty. This opiate has put many an unproductive preacher sweetly to sleep, and filled his nights with pleasant dreams. Now the proposition is both true and false.

God will not hold a man responsible for results when he has possessed himself of all available strength, and does faithfully discharge his duty.

But it is not true that a man is not responsible for the lack of fruit, when the lack is the consequence of his own negligence in not seeking the endowment from on high, which is sure to give success. We are responsible for the absence of power in preaching, and consequently for the absence of fruit. It is not enough to preach the Gospel. We must preach it as Paul did, "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." Judgment, no doubt, will be passed upon the tone and spirit of our preaching.

Paul makes frequent reference to the character of his preaching, and always claims a Divine competency to succeed. "My speech and my preaching," be says, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." *164 Again he says: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." *165

Paul is almost boastful of his ability to preach the Gospel: "Who also hath made us able ministers." And yet, though a man of rare learning, he never once attributes his qualification to that cause. he always, without exception, puts stress on the spiritual preparation. He was God-made He was HolyGhost taught. And he carried about with him a consciousness of this abiding power. When he wrote to the Romans he did not say," I shall come to you with an elaborate and well-written sermon;" but he said, "I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ." *166

We may lay it down, therefore, as an absolute rule, that God never called a man to the ministry without proposing and pledging to put him under such an anointing as will make the subject of it efficient in awakening and converting sinners and raising up a holy Church. Of course this endowment is not bestowed unconditionally. We must tarry at Jerusalem and wait for it, as they did on the day of Pentecost; that is, we must put ourselves in the required attitude toward God and the subject, that we may receive.

Finally, it is important to note that this anointing is not restricted to the ministerial order. It was not at the Pentecost, and is not now. It is a universal privilege. The entire laity may be the subject of it. It is worthy of note that Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, puts the Church in with himself as recipients:

"Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God." *167

So the passage in 1 John is predicated, not of ministers, but believers in general. Every follower of Jesus should render himself worthy of the sublime ascription: "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things;"

"But the anointing which ye have received in Him abideth in you."

Chapter 21

Fruits of the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is a great producer the cultivation of heart and life is committed to Him. He breaks up the fallow ground, destroys the wild growth of sin, sows the seeds of truth in the heart, nurses the germinating plants of goodness in the life, and, finally, grows abundant fruit of the best quality.

It is worthy of note that all His fruit is grafted. There is not a natural growth in the whole orchard. He prunes away the shoots of sin from the mind and heart, and then grafts into the stock of the natural affections the living buds of grace.

It is in this way the natural being is made tributary to spiritual and holy fruitage. It is inoculated with a Divine life which puts an end to the evil productions of our nature, and vegetates in their stead a rich and luscious growth.

It is not a mechanical substitution of good fruit for bad, as a man would pick over a barrel of apples, casting away the rotten and reserving the sound, but such an infusion of new life and health into the natural constitution, as converts a bad tree into a good one, and makes it by a second nature produce only good fruit.

In making a Christian, God does not destroy or modify the mental structure, nor do away with our primitive moral susceptibilities. The faculties of the understanding remain unchanged, and the conscience, affections, and will, continue in full force.

All that religion proposes is to quicken, cleanse, and rightly direct these powers. In getting religion a man does not get rid of himself. He simply gets the crookedness of self taken out of him. All the angularities of character are knocked off, not by a process of outward reform, but by chiselling a man down into a thing of beauty by the chastening of his inmost soul. The cloth is not destroyed, but the spots and wrinkles are removed. The self-life is not extinguished, but made to flow in other channels. It is simply the quality of life that is changed by grace. And this is the process: evil is expunged from us by the expulsive power of superior good put into us. All the elements of natural life and organs of power remaining, but their diseased action prevented, by the spirit of health projected into them by the Holy Ghost.

This explains how the Spirit produces His fruit within us. He puts a holy seedforce within us, which neutralizes the sinful covetings of the flesh and spirit. He "turns back our nature's rapid tide, that it may flow to God."

This is clearly the doctrine of the fifth chapter of Galatians, where the works of the flesh and the fruits of the Spirit are contrasted.

Both are located within, and both work outwardly. Both produce harvest, and in each case the harvest corresponds with the seed sown. As the same apostle says in another place, "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." *168 What a huge pile of corruption is here mentioned --called the works of the flesh, the vile produce of a carnal nature.

But when the Spirit displaces the bad seed, and replants the whole area of the heart with Himself, what a field of golden graces spreads out before us: "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." *169 Love, the perennial spring of spiritual life; joy, the upgushing of its waters; peace, the restfulness of a holy mind, and the placidity of God's presence that spreads over it; long-suffering, the enduring quality of a sanctified and merciful heart; gentleness, the amiability of external conduct and softness of manner, the politeness of Christian courtesy; goodness, the brand, the label, that tells the quality of the whole make-up of the man; faith, the atmosphere that surrounds the Christian, and works like heartbeats within him, keeping every attribute of soul and body alive and every organ in motion; meekness, the regulator of temper, the veto of anger, the antidote to fits of madness, the cure of a quarrelsome disposition, the power that draws the stings out of external provocations; temperance, the scales that weighs all our tempers, words, actions, and pursuits, and keeps the Christian in a perfect balance.

Now, reader, by their fruits ye shall know them. The Saviour has given us the rule by which we may test ourselves and others, especially ourselves. There is no use in professing holiness if these fruits are not characteristics of our holiness. Men do not "gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles," and the reason is, it is not the nature of these bushes and briers to produce such precious fruit. It is, therefore, not expected.

But how is it with the vine and fig-tree, which make high pretensions to beauty and thrift. The fig-tree says, "Look at my sturdy trunk and spreading limbs." The vine says, "Behold, and wonder at my length and graceful windings, see my green leaves and numerous branches." But have we any right to concede superior health and life to the vine and trees if they produce no fruit, or but inferior fruit? If the fruit is bad, we say, either the tree is not a good species, or it is not planted in good ground, or it has not been well cultivated, or it is worm-eaten and smitten with decay.

It is easy to make the application. If we do not bear the fruits of the Spirit we are mistaken in supposing we are wholly sanctified. And as sinners can judge of the quality of fruit as well as saints, no claims to superior sanctity, no sacred associations, no amount of zeal in attending spiritual meetings, no plainness in dress, or sanctimony of manner, no parading our interest in the subject of holiness in any way, can compensate in any degree for the want of these Divine fruits. And wanting these it will be impossible to inspire a very high degree of confidence either in us or our theme.

Good fruit, Divine fruit, is the most effectual argument to convince the popular mind of the genuineness of our religion. We may hold absurd theories, but if our spirit is sweet and hallowing, and our conduct unimpeachable, our mistakes will be condoned and our religion accepted. Specimens of what grace can do is the want of mankind. The trade of the world is now carried on chiefly by samples. A small piece of cloth will often sell all the goods a manufacturer can produce. One good apple will sell a whole barrel. So with Christianity. It is taken on trust from what they see in one man.

CHAPTER 8 NOTES

1 John v, 44

2 Isa. iv, 7

3 (2 Cor. vi, 14-17

4 (1 Thess. v, 22

5 Psa. li, 6

6 (2 Cor. iv, 2)

7 (2 Cor. vii, 2)

8 Eph. v, 11

9 Heb. xiii, 12

10 John i, 29

11 Isa. liii, 5

12 Heb. ix, 13,14

13 Titus ii, 14.

14 Ezek. xxxvi, 25-27

15 Jer. xxxi, 33; Heb. x, 16, 17

16 Isa. i, 18 17 Matt. iii, 12

18 (1 John i, 9)

19 (2 Peter i, 4)

20 (1 John iv, 17)

21 (2 Cor. vi, 2)

22 Matt. v 6

23 Psa. lxxxiv, 1, 2

24 Psa xlii, 1, 2

25 Heb. iii, 1

26 Phil. iv, 8

27 Exod. xxix, 37

28 Matt xxiii, 19

29 Heb. x, 10

30 Heb. xiii, 12

31 Rom. xiv, 7, 8

32 (1 Cor. vi, 19, 20)

33 John iv, 34

34 (1 Chron. xxix, 5)

35 Mark v, 34

36 Rom. v, 1

37 Rom. iii, 28

38 Rom. i, 17

39 Acts xv, 9

40 (1Peter 1, 9)

41 Acts xxvi, 18

42 Phil. iii, 9

43 Eph. iii, 17

44 Heb. xi, 4, 5

45 Gal ii, 20

46 (1 Peter i, 5)

47 Gal. iii, 14

48 Luke xviii, 1

49 (1 Tim. ii, 8)

50 Matt. vii. 7

51 (2 Cor. vi. 17)

52 (2 Cor. vi, 1)

53 Phil. ii, 12

54 (1 Thess. iv, 3)

55 Matt. vi, 10

56 Matt. vi, 33

57 Heb. xii, 14

58 Psalm lxxxi, 10

59 John xx, 13

60 Luke xvii. 21

61 John xiv, 23

62 Rom. x, 6-8

63 (1 Thess. iv, 7)

64 Gal. v, 22, 23.

65 Matt. iii, 17

66 Mark i, 10

67 (2 Cor. iii, 7-11)

68 Eph. ii, 18

69 John iv, 23, 24

70 John xvi, 7

71 (1 Peter ii, 9)

72 John xvi, 8

73 Titus iii, 5

74 John iii, 5

75 (1 Cor. ii, 14)

76 Gal v, 22

77 Rom. viii, 16

78 Gal. iv, 6

79 Ezek. xxxvi, 27

80 Joel 1, 28

81 Jer. xxxi, 33

82 Mal iii, 2, 3

83 Matt. iii, 11

84 Heb. i, 1

85 Rom. x, 18

86 Psa. cxxxi, 2

87 Titus ii, 14

88 (1 John 1, 7)

89 John xvii, 17

90 (1 Pet. 1, 23)

91 Acts xx, 32

92 Acts xv, 9

93 Rom. x, 10

94 John iii, 5

95 Titus, iii, 5

96 (2 Cor. iii, 18)

97 Ezek. xxxvi, 25

98 Joel ii, 28

99 Mal. iii, 2

100 Matt. iii, 11

101 Robinson and Parkhurst, Lexicon

102 Matt. iii, 11, 12

103 Whedon's Commentary, in loco

104 Clarke's Commentary, in loco

105 John xiv, 1-23

106 John xvi, 17

107 John xiv, 6

108 John xiv, 16

109 John xiv, 26

110 John xv, 26.

111 John xvi, 7

112 John xvi. 13

113 Greek Testament, Alford's Exegetical commentary on all the passages quoted.

114 [sumpherei:] To confer, to conduce, to be expedient, to be profitable, to be necessary

115 Alford, in loco

116 [paraclete] is a noun from the verb [parakaleo] to call to one's side, presence, and aid. Hence the substantive paraclete literally signifies in advocate, an intercessor, a guide, a helper. But where it is used in John xiv, 16, 26; xv, 26; xvi, 7, the connection shows the word means more than an advocate or guide. He is a consoler, comforter, affording spiritual succor and profound consolation to the disciples, who like [orphans,] as they are called, bereaved of their parents, have been deprived of the visible presence of their blessed Lord, who was the first Comforter. It is worthy of note that Christ does not say. I will send you a Comforter or the Comforter, but another Comforter, which implies they have had already one Comforter. [paraclete] is twice applied to Christ, once referring to Christ exclusively, and once to Christ and the Holy Spirit jointly. First in the passage: "And if a man sin, we have paraklatos [advocate] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." Here the word means intercessor, mediator advocate, and can mean nothing else. It is Christ pleading his own merits on behalf of the man who has fallen into sin. But in John xiv, 16, we read: "He shall give you another Comforter;" that is, the comfort of Christ shall be supplemented by the comfort of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, however, is pre-eminently the Comforter, because that is his special mission. He is always represented as in deep sympathy with the fallen, the weak, the afflicted. Even when He acts in the capacity of advocate, it is more as a sympathizer than mediator; for example, "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Rom. viii, 26.

117 Gen. xxxviii, 18-25

118 (1 Kings xxi, 7)

119 Job ix, 7

120 Deut. xxxii, 34

121 To note the meanings of the original words, as given by the most approved lexicographers, give enlargement to our view. [Sphragis] a seal, the instrument for sealing a signet. 1. A seal, as impressed on letters and instruments of writing. 2. In a spiritual sense, a token, pledge, proof.

[sphragizo,] to seal up. 1. To keep in silence, not to make known. 2. In a spiritual sense, to secure, to any one, to make sure. 3. To set a seal, or mark, upon any thing in token of its being genuine and approved. 4. To attest, to confirm, to establish. --Robinson.

122 Rom. iv, 11

123 2 Tim. ii, 19

124 (1 Cor. ix, 2)

125 Eph. i, 13

126 Psa. li, 17

127 John xvii, 17

128 Eph. iv, 30

129 John xvi, 13

130 John xiv 26

131 John iii, 33

132 (1 Cor ii, 12)

133 (Eph. iv, 30)

134 Heb. vi, 1

135 (1 Peter v, 10)

136 (2 Cor. i, 22)

137 Eph. i, 13, 14

138 (2 Cor. i, 22)

139 Exod. xxiii, 15,16

140 Rom. viii, 23

141 Rom. xi, 16

142 Robinson gives this definition of the original [arrabon], pledge, earnest,

"The Holy Spirit given to Christians as a pledge or earnest of their reception into the kingdom of Christ and its privileges."

143 Clarke's Commentary in loco.

144 1 Sam. x, 1; xv, 13

145 (1 Kings 1, 39)

146 Lev. viii, 12

147 (1 Sam. x, 1)

148 (1 Sam. xvi, 13)

149 (1 Kings iii, 12)

150 Exod. xxviii, 41

151 Exod. xxx, 25, 35, 36

152 There are several cognate words in the original from which we derive the idea of sacred anointing. [Christos,] the Christ, the anointed; [Messias,] the Messiah, the anointed, the Christ; [Chrio,] to rub over, to anoint. In the spiritual sense of the New Testament it means to set apart, to consecrate to sacred work, to fit the subject by the touch and gift of the Holy Ghost for holy uses and effective service. [Chrisma --Chrism,] the anointing substance which symbolizes the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament it means a spiritual endowment or unction from God by the Holy Ghost which purifies and empowers the subject for extraordinary usefulness.

153 Exod. xl, 12, 13

154 Rev. iii, 18

155 (1 John ii, 20)

156 (1 John ii, 72)

157 (2 Cor. i, 21)

158 John iii, 34

159 Luke iv, 18,19

160 Matt. iii, 15

161 Luke iv, 1

162 (John i, 41)

163 ( 2 Sam. iii, 39)

164 1 Cor. ii, 4

165 (2 Cor. iii, 5, 6)

166 Rom. xv, 29

167 (2 Cor. i, 21)

168 Gal. vi, 8

169 Gal. v, 22, 23