A Bishop’s Sanctification

Leonidas L. Hamline, son of Mark Hamline, was born in Burlington, Connecticut, May 10, 1797. When ten or twelve years old he wrote a sermon on the text, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" The ability and tact which it displayed surprised his parents and friends, and encouraged their hopes. At that age, when plowing in the field, his father " often found him resting his team while he sat on the plow so absorbed in his book as to have forgotten his work."

"With this natural heart towards the things of God, and a theological education, he advanced within the church to become a Bishop in the Methodist church. Although widely useful and marvelously blest in his pulpit and personal labors, He was often exercised with a painful consciousness of deficiency and a growing conviction of the need of a deeper work of holiness, a more perfect conformity to God."

"As his spiritual convictions and perceptions became more and more clear and strong, so he increased in prayer and wrestling with God. He says: "I spent several weeks much of the time before God. I felt that without a clean heart I should soon fall." Indeed, prayer was the habit and occupation of his life. As he drew nearer to God, God drew nearer to him, and his soul increased in power and the fruits of the spirit. He saw holiness more in its loveliness and desirableness. He saw the loveliness of the Divine character, of the word and of worship, in a new light. Still his soul was not satisfied. The introspective habit of his mind, and the acute sensibility of his conscience, allowed no half-way measures, and he found no place to rest short of a finished work."

"In the month of March, 1842, Mr. Hamline went to New Albany, Indiana, for the purpose of enjoying religious privileges of worship, and the counsel of Rev. W. V. Daniels, the pastor of the Church, who was a godly man and walked in the light of a full salvation."

"Suddenly I felt as though a hand omnipotent, not of wrath but of love, were laid upon my brow. That hand, as it pressed upon me, moved downward. It wrought within and without, and wherever it moved it seemed to leave the glorious impress of the Savior’s image. For a few minutes the deep of God’s love swallowed me up all its billows rolled over me."

Under this influence he fell to the floor, and in the joyful surprise of the moment cried out in a loud voice. The work was done." CONTENTS ( 7 of 75 pages selected)
 

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