CHAPTER XVI.

HELPS TO A BELIEF IN ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION.

"ONE PRESENT" makes the following important inquiry : 'By what means may a wavering mind establish itself in the belief of ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION?"

To this I reply:

1. By a proper knowledge of the WORD OF GOD, and by a PROFOUND REVERENCE FOR IT.

Consult the word of God. It will be a light to your feet, and a lamp to your path." We read in the book of Psalms, "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee." So they who know the Scriptures of truth, will put their trust in their decisions, for "the Scriptures cannot be broken."- John 10: 35. Jesus prayed thus:

Sanctify them through thy truth; THY WORD IS TRUTH.” But I insist upon a profound reverence for the word of God. And for this reason: many have a more profound reverence for their creed, their own opinions, or those of others,―for their prejudices, or favored preacher, or commentator, or catechism,—than for the word of God, though they are unwilling to confess it to their own consciences. 2. By believing the truth.

Refer again to those words of Jesus. "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth."-John 17:17. St. Paul explains, 2 Thess. 2: 13.- "Because God hath

from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and BELIEF OF THE TRUTH."

But you are ready to ask, "What are we to understand by 'the belief of the truth'?" I reply: It is, first, to credit the truth in THEOFY; and, second, to credit the truth in a PROMISE. By the first I mean to credit the doctrinal truth as laid down in the Holy Scriptures, and just inferences therefrom: such as, "Be ye holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." "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."- Ezek. 36: 25-27. And again, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."- Deut. 6: 5. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."— Lev. 19:18. Reënjoined by our Lord, in Mark 12: 30, 31. Proceed to the New Testament, where the doctrine is in its noonday glory. Hearken to Jesus: "Be ye therefore PERFECT, even as your FATHER in heaven is perfect."— Mark 5:48. "Blessed are the PURE IN HEART: for they shall see God."- Matt. 5:8. Hear St. John: "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from ALL SIN.". 1 John 1:7. And again: "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure," 1 John 3:3; adding, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Hear St. Paul: "Shall we continue in sin, that

grace may abound?

God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?"- Rom. 6: 1, 2. Adding, "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." Listen to Peter: "For he that hath suffered in the flesh HATH CEASED FROM SIN; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God."-1 Peter 4: 1, 2. Here is a whole "body of divinity," on the subject. And I wish you to keep it in remembrance, as I may refer to it again. Now, it is to credit this great truth, according to the above theory. I could have added much more; but, then, one good "title-deed" to property is as good as fifty. By crediting the truth in a promise I mean placing unwavering and implicit confidence in such a promise as that in 1 John 1: 9.-"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." To which add that promise of our Lord, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."-John 14: 13, 14. Credit these promises; place unfaltering reliance upon the veracity of Jesus.

3. BY TAKING CARE NOT TO MISAPPLY SCRIPTURE.

That is, applying it to a purpose never intended by the Holy Ghost. Mis-assigning Scripture; that is, taking a text to prove what it never was designed to prove, dragging a Scripture away from the doctrine to which it belongs, and applying it to that for which it never was intended. Instance: " My Father is GREATER than I,"

which evidently refers to his human nature; this the Unitarians drag out of its place to prove that Christ did not allow that he was equal with the Father as regards Divinity, therefore not God. The passage, you see, is mis-assigned. The true text for that ought to be this: "I and my Father are ONE." John 10: 30. And it belongs to a text of the same class, proving the same thing, that Jesus claimed to be God,- such as, "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, EVEN AS WE ARE ONE."- John 17: 22. "For One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren." Matt. 23: 8. There you have the perfect equality of the Christian brotherhood. "That they may be one," equality recognized again,-"EVEN AS WE ARE ONE." Here you have an assumption; equality with the brethren he does not look at, but claims at once equality with God. Could he have done so without being guilty of blasphemy, had he not considered himself EQUAL with God, and God, in John 10: 30? Is it not to this St. Paul refers, where he says, "Who being in the form of God THOUGHT IT NOT ROBBERY TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and, being found in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself," &c.— Phil. 2: 6, 7, 8. This is a digression; but I have thrown out the hint for the benefit of that " Inquiring Unitarian." Pardon me, but it shows how such misapply Scripture. Nor is this misconduct confined to such. Those who deny the possibility of being cleansed from all sin before death are guilty of the same. The seventh chapter of Romans, for instance, is dragged away from the experience of an awakened and penitential sinner, which Paul personifies, and which it strikingly

illustrates; and is held as a torch over the experience of all believers, to prove that none before death can attain unto a higher state. They do not understand that the passages * I quoted in the beginning are the true torches to illustrate the doctrine of a higher experience. There are other passages mis-assigned, but time will not permit.

4. By a serious consideration of the PROPRIETY of this doctrine.

That is, its fitness and suitability as to time and place, as well as harmony with the Scriptures. How fit we should be holy and pure here, that we might be happy and useful here! How becoming to those who serve so holy a God, and probationers for a holy heaven!

5. By not holding the truth in mere SPECULATION. That is, holding it in theory only, without reducing it to experience and practice, the sin or fault of many of our Methodist people. Consider well what you have heard, and may the Holy Spirit guide you into all truth. Amen.

*See pages 235-7.