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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