CHAPTER 4
THE PROBATION FOR HOLINESS
The advocates of entire sanctification, with Wesley, Fletcher, and
Watson at their head, affirm that this blessing “is as distinctly
marked and as graciously
promised in the Holy Scriptures as justification, regeneration,
adoption,
and the witness of the Spirit.” [Watson’s “Institutes,” Vol IV.,
page 450]
Nevertheless, many honest inquirers are perplexed with intellectual
and
scriptural difficulties on this very point of the distinctness of
this work;
and they are led to ask why God has not set this great blessing
above the
mists of doubt and the possibility of controversy. If this
glorious privilege
is to the other benefits of the atonement as Mt. Blanc is to the
lesser mountains
of Europe, why does it not tower up so manifestly before all eyes as
to render
misconception and unbelief impossible? Infidels make a similar
demand upon
Christianity, that she shall stand forth so radiant with divinity
that the
dullest eye may instantly, without any examination, discover the
unmistakable
seal of heaven on her brow. They say that if a man really wished his
absent servant to do a piece of work, he would make his meaning so
plain, and his signature so characteristic, that the servant
could have no excuse for any mistakes. Bishop Butler well
replies that, if the Master’s intent is to secure the mere doing of
the work. He would write thus plainly, but if he wished to test the
fidelity of the servant, he might purposely leave some obscurities,
which could be made plain only by patiently studying the letter.
[Butler’s “analogy,” Part II., Chap. VI]
Now, since God’s message to man has difficulties in it, and since
Christianity descends from the skies with her seal partially hidden,
and with the purpose of disclosing it only to candid and earnest
seekers, sceptics reject her
claims. We reply to them: God certainly wishes His Gospel to be
received,
but in such a manner as to confer the highest benefit on man, and
to reflect
the highest glory on His Son. This will not be realized by a
mere passive reception of clearly demonstrated truth, but by
stimulating man’s highest powers of research to the most intense
activity, and the most eager desire.
It is the divine order that truth of every kind should fully reveal
itself only to hungry souls. The long research and the hot pursuit
whet the appetite, and prepare the discoverer for a proper
appreciation of the treasure which he has found. The more
valuable the truth, the higher the barriers which hedge it in and
appal all timid seekers, leaving the toilsome search to those
dauntless souls whose unconquerable persistence makes all
opposition bow before
them.”
“It is a painful fact that many who profess faith in Jesus Christ,
and evince a degree of spiritual life, are practically in the
condition of the first twelve believers in Ephesus; they have not in
the depths of their own hearts so much as heard whether there be any
Holy Ghost.” They are living in the ante-pentecostal state, in the
rudimentary dispensation of John. They do not
know “the exceeding greatness of Christ’s power to usward who
believe.” The
Credo, “I believe in the Holy Ghost.” is on their lips, but it is as
ineffectual
for spiritual transfiguration as the Binomial Theorem. Their thirsty
souls
stand at the well of living water, and let down their buckets, and
draw them
up empty, not because the well is dry, but because their rope is not
long
enough to reach the water. An orthodox creed lying dead in the
intellect
is like a dry bucket hanging midway down the well. Merely
intellectual believers lack a vigorous, appropriating faith. To
develop this, difficulties are purposely set before their souls,
to be mastered, and objections, seeming to tower to a mountain
height, must be surmounted. The whole subject of full salvation, as
presented in the Scriptures, does not seem to them to
stand forth distinct from justification and the new birth. The
testimony of
Paul, Peter and John is circumlocutory, and not direct. They drape
their testimony
in mystical phrases, as “dead unto sin,” “the life hid with Christ,”
“risen
with Christ,” “the sealing,” “the baptism,” “the unction of the
Spirit.” They
pray for others to be sanctified wholly; but they do not squarely
avow that
they have themselves grasped this prize. Then, again, it seems to be
impossible
that a soul marred and dwarfed by sin should ever in any sense be
perfect,
in view of the unabated requirements of the law of absolute
holiness.
Moral.—
1. Look not at objections, but beyond them.
2. Surmounted difficulties are the stairway up to the Higher Life.
3. How shall I get faith? Exercise it.
4. When am I prepared to believe fully? When you have fully yielded
all
to Christ.
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