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QL^ss . ..A^->a»>,..<±s-.A>..^^v--.A>-.ou find the recognition of ^ infantile and lower stage of experience, you will find coupled with it exhortations, commands and promises to go qo to the fuller and more complete experience of sanctification. Another point for you to bear in mind is, that in this as in every- thing else, the Bible fits the human soul, and as the word exhorts us to holiness without, the holy Spirit exhorts us to it within; and wherever you find a true child of God, you find him aspiring to this foil conformity to the will and mind of Christ, whether his creed endof ses it or not. But, further. I find the second class of passages to which I referred far more numerous, in fact, occupying the main portion of the New Testament. Recognizing and holding up a far higher and more glori- oas state of experience, sach as "Bting more than conquerors thron|^h Blm -who prac inde "Dw two the IS, for in aed sonl of any- ronglfor demon- > talk of alvation it as a ngeriug, mrcbes, ou have >ping to )to this the feet longing ' creeds of God od. and they go e in it. ;ontinu- ^pict or a single c>gnised :tations >spel of sction." lat one God.** see the ere fore I fllthi- God," tion of 1 with !r and svery- •rts us ; and this creed (erred New glori- rongh HOLINESS. 5 Blm who hath loved us," "Being able to do all things thronsh Christ, -who strengtheneth us," being 'Complete in Him," which, when it is a practical reality, is a grand reality indeed. "Being reckoned dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord," "DwellioK in God and God in us." In fact almost the whole of the two epistles of St. John have to be ignored or frittered away to meet the experience of the great mass of professing Christian.*! of this day, as well as great portions of the word of God in other places — they are literally inapplicable to the majority of modern Christians. Every- body feels it, and the awful part of it is that instead of these Christians saying. "This is the standard, here is the glorious privilege, here is the grand truth, I do not come up to it. my experience does not match it, I have no faith to stretch myself to this measure, but I will never pull down the btandard, though it damns me" They say, "Oh ! it can't mean what it says;" and so they begin to cut away at the very foundation of God, and take off the most glorious top stone which He has put on the temple of grace — sanctificatioD, holiness complete, and unreserved consecration to God. Now, I say, when you find that class of passages which refers to the lower walks of experience quoted, held up, exhibited, and enforced, as though they coverei the whole realm of Christian experience, to the utter neglect and rejection of the other class, what becomes your duty as an individual wanting to know the will of God in order that \ou may do it ? I say it becomes your duty to examine carefully this word for yourselves, and not to take this person's or ^he other person's opinions, but to ask God, by His holy Spirit, to teach you the meaning of this higher class of passages, determining that whatever it costs you, though it should be friends, church associa'ions. reputation, money, ease, comfort, all you have in this world, if He will show to you that this ^alvation is for you, you will have it. ^ben yon come to that, you will n"t be able to read a page of the New Testament without seeing holiness in almost every sentence. The Holy Spirit will show it to you and if yon miss it, it won't be for want of light ; it will be because you are too idle to seek it. The Lord showed me this early in my Christian experience, and I resolved to seek it for mys-lf. My innate perceptions told me God must delight in holiness, that the gospel scheme was not merely a scheme for atonement, but a scheme tor restontion, and I knew that the chief difficulty in my way was in my heart, therefore I felt it must be God's plan to restore my heart, for that is the ^pring and inspira* tion of my moral being ; and I searched the word of God carefully, and besought Him to show me, saying. "If Thou hast provided this salvation, if there never was another person entered into it on earth, I will try, and I will follow if Thou wilt lead." If you will come to that, God will reveal it unto you. This is just the condition you must come to. "The whole Bible," as a gentleman said to me the other day. "beams with light now." Of course it does, because you ha¥i got hold of the key. You know it it HOLINESS. easy to unlock a difficult lock whsn you have got the key, and the mau who gets bold of this central truth of Christianity gets hold of the key . and. of course, he can unlock all its mysteries and walk in and out. Now, first. I want to note Hint we do not contend for any mere namef or terms by which thit experience is expressed. I suppose that persons have selected or coined names to express this blessing; which would be most compatible with their theological views, seeing that this experience has bean recognized and professed by Christians of almost every shade of opinion, and they have adopted that mode of expression which has best coincided with their different views, but this makes no difference. This is no new doctrine, I may just remark. Some people not familiar with the history of the Church seem to regard it as a doctrine lately invented It is as old as Enoch, and from his day down to the present, God has taken care to keep alive in His Church, even in the days of Papal darkness, the most thorough-going professors and ex- emplifiers of this doctrine. Tho«e who believed in this blessing and exemplified it in their lives in the dark ages, people went thousands of miles to converse with, and to get the inner light which God had given to them, and numbers of such enquirers were brought into this blessed experience. It has been called "The second conversion," "The higher life," "The full assurance of fa th," "Christian perfection*'— to distinguish it from Adamic and angelic perfection— "Perfect love." "Innor sanctification." "The rest of faith." We do not contend for names. The main point is this, that the experience designzied by most ot these terms amounts practically to the same thing, which is Being Saved from Sin. We care not what you call it so that you understand the blessing to mean that. I prefer to use God's terms in everything, and so I select His designations. I think the Holy Ghost understood best the ideas He wished to convey, and therefore I like the terms He has used, such as sanctification. holiness, perfect love. However, we simply take wbat we like best and do not contend about them. And now I want to define the blessing as we believe it and as I be- lieve God will show it to those who really and honestly want to under- stand or rather experieoce it, because it was one of those mysteries of Divine love and grace that yoa will never understand until you ex- perience. Then I want to guard my definition by noting two or three things which are often mistaken for it. Only the other day a gentleman wrote me on one of thase points, and another was conversing with me. which made it appear how very far both had mistaken the teaching of the word of G6d on this matter* First, it is not freedom from infirmity either in mind or body. How anyone can come to im > tM made perfect again, in the way of our apprehension, memory or capacity. This was not necessary for our redemption, or He would have provided for it ; hut He left us still physically impsrfecl. He can save us from sin in our present crippled state of body ?nd mind, and it magnifies His grace the more If people choose to call infirm- ity sin the controversy comes simply to a definition of terms, if a Iap*e of memory, a mistake in judgment, a surprise or abberation of fesHng is sin, I do not contend that we are saved from these, but I do sot gather from the law of Christ that any such things are accouoted sins, neither do I believe the common sense of a little child would sa account them. I leave everybody, bowever, to form their own con- elusion, only that when we speak of en* ire sanctification, or holiness, we do nut mean that a man is saved from simple infirmity. He is saved from allowing his infirmities to degenerate into sin or leading bim into sin He is enabled to make the same use of his infirmities a» Paul did who said, "I glory in mine infirraiiies also that the power OF Christ may rest upon me ;" that is, through my poor weak body and imperfect mind I may tbe more mightily magnify the grace and power ot His salvation. Secondly, neither do we mean deliverance from temptation. There- are some sincere souls here this afternoon who I think are in bondage on this point. I tried to illustrate this on a previous occasion by sbowing how Christ transc-nded the law, when I went rather fuUy^ into the temptation of the Saviour, showing that was not sin, and that while you stand firm and resist, the greater the temptation the greater sympathv Christ has with you, "for he was tempted in all points.'* I will never let that go. " Like as we are, yet without sin." There ar» DO difficulties which apply on this point to the sanctified soul which did not apply to Jesus Christ. ' A man's sensibilities can be excited to the highest degree : he can be as hungry as Jesus was when He cam& out of that forty day's fast, when no doubt His whole being was pros-^ trate, for he was perfect man as well as perfvct God. The devil took that occasion to present an unlawful means of satisfying His hunger ; but He said "No!" and did not sin. Suppose He had said "Yes,"^ then the second Adam would have fallen like the first, and all would have been lost. He resisted even unto blood and did not sin. You da so and. yon will not sin. "Resist the devil and he will flee from YOU.' Saving "Yes" to Temptation is Sin, — not temptation itself. You may be tried to the very extremity, but if you will bang on to the power of God He will save you to the utter- most of your n'^eds. There is no ne essity to sin. " I write unto you, little children, ^nd you, fathers and young men, that ye sin not." There is np necessity if you do but yield yourselves up unto God and not to the devil—" unto whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his- servants ye are, whether of sin unto death or of righteousness unto God," so that you may be severely tempted and yet not sin. a HOLINESS. f il Neither is sanctification/wa/ growth. It does not imply Bnal attain- ment. You must discriminate between purity and maturity. Yott -may have the most perlect baby but he Is not a man yet. He has to grow and develop and increase; but people really and truly do not begin to grow in grace until they are sanctified. It is more frequently a falling down and a getting up again than an even onward progress in grace and salvation. Hence if you really want to grow in grace, if you want to rise to the possibilities of your nature in the salvation of God, you must be delivered from sin, for sin undoes you, knocks you down into the mu^, as it were, and you have to be, as the apostle says, "always layir g the foundation for repentance from dead works." How can such people grow ? Instead of growing on, and on, and on, until they attain the stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus, they stop short in per- petual baoyhond 11. If sanctification is not these things, what is it ? We believe it to be dbltverancb from sin — full conformity of heart, and mind, and will, to the law and mind of God— having the heart circumcised to keep His law having His Spirit in us causing us to walk in His statues and ordinances blamelessly, an inward trans- formation into the very likeness of Christ, a purifying of the motives, purposes, desires affections of the soul, and a thorough committal on the side of God and right at all costs. That is wiat we understand by holiness, and wilt anybody dare to say this is more than God calls us to? Will any Christian ? No, no one who has the Spirit of God dare look me in the face and say that with less than that God is saiisfied. What I You want to keep a little of the image of the devil. What I You want to be mostly saint and a little bit sinner. What 1 You desire to fall short of that perfect reflection of the image of Chritt ; then, as good old Doddridge said, " If you are not aiming after the highest attainments in Christ, you are not in a state of grace at all." The very least measure of the Spirit of God sets a soul longing after the fulness. He can no more rest without it than the angels of Heaven could. He is hungering and thirsting from the time he gets saved until he is filled and satisfied with the righteousness which Jesus ^Christ promised. I argue that holiness is attainable in this life from two or three con- siderations. 1- irst, I argue that holiness is attainable because it is expressly em- phatlcally and repeatedly commanded. Jesus Christ, whose teachings were all, or nearly all, profpective, concludes one of His addresses on the Mount with saying, " Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." What does He mean ? It must at least mean, that in our measure and according to our capacity we are perfectly to has to do not iquently »gress in B, if you of God, >u down "always an such y attain in per- mity of ing the ising us I trans- motives, iaal on erstand 3d calls of God God is e devil. What I Chri»t; ter the at all." g after ieaven saved Jesus se con- tly em' chings )ses on father mean, :tly to lat the >g our 3rif a I that despitefully use him, he is a sanctified man, and I defy any other man to do it. This is the highest test of sanctification. Then again the first great commandment was never abrogated, and never will be. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy MIND, and soul, and strength " And the second is like unto it, "Thy neighbour as thyself" — the Scribe, in answer to whos* question this was spoken was better instructed than many modern Christians, fir he replied, " Well, Master, Thou hast said the truth " And Jesus answered, "Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God." Jesus saw that the man was sincere, and ready to receive the whole truth without quibbling. The first and greatest commandment remains in force to-day as much as it ever was, and must continue in force throughout eternity. It must ever remain the duty of the creature to love the Creator with all his heart, and the duty of the creature to love his fellow as himself. Must it not? But let anyone try to do that without having hi% heart full of the love of God, as some of you have been trying You say, " Yes, that is just where I fa'l ; I know I don't love God with all my heart, and I don't love my neighbour as myself." As a dear lady once said. " When I come to prove my heart I find I don't love my own brothers and sisters as myself, much less my neighbour." I said, " No you will find you need to be sanctified before you can do this." This is the law that Paul says " Jesus Christ came to give me power to fulfil, the great moral law of love." And again, " Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Holi- ness, in this place, means sanctification of the whole nature— a renewal of the very essence and spirit of the soul. Search out these and .kindred passages if you want to know the will of God, for they are far too numerous to quote Then, there can be no controversy that these texts require holiness in us, and not merely right-doing by us, though that is included but ■these passages refer to the renewal of our hearts, I challenge any believer to tell me that he is thoroughly satisfied and happy without fhe realisation, and confident knowledge of the fact that hi dees thus love God and his neighbour. No sooner does a believer begin to pour out his soul in prayer than he cries, " Bring me into conformity with Thy will. Give me all the mind that was in Christ, destroy these roots of bitterness, save me from th's anger, pride, envy, jealousy, love of the world, or whatever may be his besetting sin." The urginga of the Spirit in him tally with the commands to him; the two go to- gether, which is a blessed and wonderful proof that the Spirit teaches all believers that God requires of them to be holy. Now, as God never requires anything which He does not give ns power to perform. He has included this experience in the provisions of His grace. I argue the attainability of holiness, secondly from the provisions of Ihe Gospel. Christ has undertaken this work. What has He undertaken ? 10 HOLINESS. You say he has undertaken the mediatorial work to bring us bick to God. Yes, but the mediatorial work was twofold : it was Godward, and it was manward. Christ, as it were, put one hand on the justice of God, and the other on the sinfulness of man, and He undertook to satisfy the one by removing the other. He made atonement, glorions, full, complete, wanting nothing to be added to it- a ptrlect everlasting sacrifice for our sins, but it vas restorative as well as atoning. The manward aspect of tbe atonement was to bring us back to complete and ettrnal harmony with G^d. He never contemplated leaving our hearts a cage of unclean birds - leaving rampant in us the essence of sin, the very sin of the devil himself— rebellion against God. Impos- sible! He came to restore fcs well as to atone ; to bring us back to our lost integrity and purity, and this was what made tlie atonement necessary. Hence, -''Jhe Son of man was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil." "If," says Paul, "the blcod of bulls and goats sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh : How much more shall the blood ot Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." How much more ? Who can answer tbat, and who dare limit it ? Again "Christ also loved the Church — composed, of course, of in- dividuals—and gave Himself for it ; that He might sanctify and CLEAKSE it — and present it to Himself a glorious church— or body of believers — not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and without blemish." If tbat is not entire sanctitica- tion, what is it ? And there are numerous other passages teaching, quite as emphatically the. purpose and ability of Jesus to bring the hearts of His chosen into complete harmony with Himself. Now, what is the chief work of the devil ? What work of his does God care about most ? His work in man's heart ! God ca'es very little about His work anywhere else. It is the heart of man that the Divine Being covets for His dwelling-place. It is in man's heart the devil has circumvented God and done Him most despite. Now then, Godsa>s "I will win man back again ; I will atone for bis sin, and renew him in the spirit of his mind and yet have him for Myself, and he shall fulfil My ideal of righteousness and holiress just as he would have done had he never fallen." This was necessary in the nature of the case. S n is rebellion against God, transgression of the law either inwaraly or outwardly. You may transgress the law in your thoughts and never move a muscle. All unrighteousness, all unrightness is sin. You Will see it is not from any !ow estimate of hohness, or low per- ceptions of the far-reaching grasp of the law of God that I believe in this blessing, for I believe naan's depravity is equal with his being, and that nothing less than the mighty power of God is equal to cure it; but I believe tbat is. I believe Jesus Christ s plaster is as big as the wcnnd, and that when He professes to cure He can make a perfect cure as he did of the leper, if we will let Him, and honor Him by cur faith, tie came to destroy the works of the devil. Where ? In the HOLINESS. 11 heart of man. What constitutes the essence of sin ? Rebellion. Ah I some of the greatest sinners on earth never swore an oath, never told a lie, perhaps, never did an outwardly immoral thing ; but they have been monstrous rebels ae;aicst God all their lives. They have been sinning aeains' light. These, the Saviour said, were the great sinners. He judged n t after the outward appearance but after the heart. Now what is necessary in tbe nature of the case for God to win completely back again snch as a rebel at heart ? 1 hat He shall renew the heart and take the rebellion cut. It is of no use subduing me merely ; He must renew me. You have a rebellious son. He has run away from your home, spent your money, and trampled your influence m the dust. You love him, and weep over, pnd entreat him to return, and you have no sel- fish motive in your heart. You only want him to come back and be reinstated as a Fon in a 1 his relations and privileges. What is nec*ss< sary ? To win his heart, borne gentleman romes a'ong and says. "I will go after him and bring him back. I will put a baiter round his neck ai d bring him back and compel him to live in your hcitse and be subject to your rule " Or the Qu«tn might pass a law to do it if that were po sible. Would that satisfy you, father ? "Oh, no," you say, "that is all very well, but I want the lad's heart. I want him to ^ee that I love him and to accept me attain as his father and reinstate me on the throne of his affections. It's of no use un'ess you do that.'* And do you th>nk the great God wants or will be satisfied with any- thiLg less than that ? Can it ever satisfy you to be 'ess than perf ctly restored — brought back into perfect harmony with your Father ? Yiur father wants you back so that you will tat-e your stand by Him as Job did, if need be. nlone on the dung-biil, and say, "Yes, though He slay roe, yet will I trust Him. I love Him. I am on His side. He has my heart. I love Him with, all my heart and soul and^ strength." This is the end of the commandment, " Love out of a pure heart." This IS the centre of the scheme of redemption. If God could have saved you short of that. He could have saved you without Christ at all, and might have spared His Son His »gony and blood , but He must have you back c«r^<<, " Sanctify them through Thy truth," and a>so, "As Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they may klso be one in Us." Faul prays for the Thess-ilonians, "And the very God of peace sanctify you whrlly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" There are many other texts of similar import, but th*'se are snffi' ci<-nt ; for surely neither Christ nor Paul could possibly have prayed for ao Experience in believers which they knew to be impossible. Such-' prayers would be utterly incompatible with manly sincerity, much less 12 HOUMESS. 'I Ji'l with Godly sincerity All that i« needed for us to experience an answer to these and such like prayers, is that we second them by an earnest and determined desire to have them fulfilled in our experience. Do you go with what I have stated thus far ? If so, I want to make it plain to you that the Lord in calling you to this experience is not setting you a task which you are unable to perform. Some people say we are to aim at the standard of holiness, but that we must not expect ever to attain to it. This seems to me trifling with the most solemn of obligations, and judging God to be less wise and reasonable than man. Think of any parent here setting his child to work out a sum or a problem, and telling him before he begins that he certainly cannot do It ! Would not the child most reasonably answer. •' What is the use of setting me to do what yon tell me I can never accomplish ?" And would not hU the sinews of effort be cut at a stroke ? We think that just so by the absurd notion to which I have referred, that stimulous which the Holy Spirit has sought to create in the souls of tens of thousands of believers to seek after holiness, has been damped and extinguished. If there needed any further proof of the attainability of this ezperi- fince, it seems to me a most convincing proof that, in almost every instance where our reception into Heaven is referred to, there is the recognition of antecedent purity of character. Search out these refer- ences f' r yourselves ; but let us take two or three as specimens. " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord — they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. ' Their works, that is their antecedent character, follows them. " Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates inio the city." They that do His will, which must mean bemg holy. Again, speaking of the Lamb's wife, " To her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousne&s of saints. * Mark, not of the Lamb, but of saints, wrought out in them through faith in the blood of the Lamb, but theirs, nevertheless. Again, referring to the multitude arrayed in white, the angel taid, " These are they which came out of great tribul- ation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Washed them, of course, while here upon earth and made them white, which signifies holiness. I often hear people talking about the righteousness of the saints as '' filthy rags " Tbey confound things that di£fer. When Paul saici his own righteousness was as filthy rags, he was referring to bis Pharisai- cal righteousnt^ss, before his conversion ; nut the righteousness of God, which is wrought in the soul by faith. People might see the folly of this interpretation by just transposing all the passages that refer to it. And seeing how ridiculous it sounds:— "And there was given unto them white robes," "filthy rags." " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, for their • filthy rags ' do follow them." And, " Who are ihese arrayed in filthy rags * ?" If you are a samt, your righteousness is not filthy rags. Your righteousness is the most precious and HOLINESS. ir 1 answer earnest I. to make e is not ople say t expect 3lemn of an man. um or a nnot do < the use "• And ink that imuloas tens of 3ed and ezperi- »t every e is the se refer- cimens. m their 18 their do His nd may i, which • To her i white, >, but of I Lamb, ayed in t tribul- e blood rth and aints as said his barlsai- of God, folly of sr to it, tn unto ich die /ho are ausness us and valuable thing in the universe in the sight of God, and something that He will glcry in for ever and ever t I fear thousands of people are expecting to enter Heaven who are not pure, and do not want to be pure. Friends, do not deceive your* selves, yon will never enter Heaven without holiuess. " Nothing that defilech or is unclean can in anywise enter therein." Thank God untrue and impure people will pe shut out there. We have had enough of them here, with their hypocrisy, cheating, lying, slandering, and evil deeds. God will not allow impurity to enter and damn an- other world as it has done this. All the liars, and slanderers, and sorcerers, and whoremongers and unbelievers will be left outside. We can't keep them out of our very houses down here, but He will keep^ them out of that city for ever. All will be clean and white, washed inside and out, who walk the golden streets of the New Jerusalem f Won't it be beautiful ? Haste, happy day, when we shall get there ! But I promised to say a few words on the way by which this bless- ing must be obtained. First. Have a definite idea of the blessing. Indefiniteness, in spiritual things, is often the devil. You don't like indefiniteness in your temporal affairs. You know it betrays some- thing wrong. vVhen a roan comes to you with a great deal of palaver, and makes a sort of general proclamation of his good intentions to- wards you and yet refuses to come to any definite point, yon feel that bis protestations don't count for much. Now, I ask, is it possible that the great God has dealt with me in- definitely in that which most concerns my eternal destiny ? Im-^ possible I Then be definite with God. Know what yon want, and seek that. Separate this blessing from all its accidental surrouodiogs. Don't confound it with abounding joy. Tnis sometimes accompanies it, and sometimes not. Don't confound it with any particular means or modes, for the ways by which God brings souls into this experience are quite as diversified as the ways by which He brings them into pardon and peace at first. Realize what it is you want. Salvation from that which has been your bane, your torment, from that which has tripped yon up many a time and sent you on your tace before God with bitter crying and tears — salvation from sin. Go to God. wait on him and comply with the conditions he has laid down and you will get what you seek. Tccn, secondly, \ou must allow thtf Spirit to work in a godlv sorrow for all sins of backsliding and unfaithfulness ot the past, i fear many Christians fiy off here, as soon as the Spirit begins to deal with them by revealing the hidden depths of their hearts, they give up. As one said, not long ago, "I feel as if I had never been converted at all. He has opened up sut h depths of depravity in my heart, I seem worse than ever.'' 1 said that is just what God does for all souls previous to cleansing. He shows you the depth of tbe disease tnat you may take hold of the Physician with that degree of faith which is necessary 14 HOLINESS. ■I a m for perfect healing. When God begins to deal with Christians like this they get anxious and soTOwful. They say, "This roust be wrong. I am so mtserable. I have lost the little peace and joy 1 had. This can never ber«ght," and so they apply some untempered mortar, give up and go back, alas ! whereas if they had held on they would have found that God was dealing with them zs he did with those who thought they weie rich and increased in goods and had need of no- thing, and did not perceive that they were poor, naked, blird and miserable The spirit will convince you of the depravity of your hearts. He wi 1 sh( w up your hidden tombs of pride, hypocrisy, envy, jealousy, frivolity and uoclean thoughts and desires. He will show it all to you. and make you loathe yourself in dust and ashes. In fact the conviction and sorrow that a soul often goes through in this state is far greater than at conversion, because its per- ceptions are 5o deepened, that God is better able to deal with it ; and if you will only abide the process and say, "Yes. Lord, search me. it is bard. Lut I want the evil all out ; cut away Lord, rut away V\ The Lord will search ycu and when be has revf=aled the extent of tHe dis- ease—when you have gone down low enough in self-despair, when you come down right to the depths ;«nd ciy "Uoclean, unclean ; I can do nothing to cure myself, heal me •' He uill make a perfect cure and put a song of thanksgiving in your mouth, and give vou the sunlight of His smile cortinua ly. Many people are not allowed to wait Jong enough for these probings of the spirit. Tbey are hurried too quickly into a profession of the blessing, then when they fall away, they say it was not what they believed it to be, but this coes not make the faith of God of ncne effect. This experience is a b es&ed reality, no matter what man has missed it, no matter what man has fallen from it. The truth remains th- same, th ugh every professor cf it should fall from it, I will never give it up because Mr. or Mrs. S>and so lost it. Furthpr. there are two inaispensihle condtions of attaining this bless- ing — entire comecration andjaith in His promises. Consecration is generally the detective poit t, when people come to this, they have but little trouble about faith, but oh the subtlety of the human heart, bow it will go rouod one particular spot. How it wiU argue "Well but this i« ^uch a little thing. God can't require this." Now. dear friends, remember that while you have respect to cpnse" quences your comecration is not entire. While your mind is arguing, about what would happen or what people wou'd say or what wou'd become of your property, or your children, or your husband, or your circumstances, your consecration is not complete, and you will never get the blessir^g till you get beyond all that. That is a general principle which will guicle every seeker be cause you can apply it to your own individual ca^e. There was a volume of philosophy in those words of the Saviiur, "How can ye be- lieve who receive honor one of another, and seek not the ionor that cometh frt>m God only ?" How can ye ? Ye cannot any more than the devil can. Yon see what consecration means. It means do»H wor HOLINESS. m Jans like >e wrong, id. This rtar. give uld have lose who 3d ofoo- lird and of your sy, envy, dust and ten goes B its per- it : and h me. it 1". The ' tHe dis- hen you [ can do ure and iligbt of ut long quickly !y say it le faith matter t. The ill from Is bless- ome to y of the / it will e this." cpnse- r what 3r your ition is beyond ker be '. was a ye be- )r that e than i dont ^ar«, "I don't care for consequences. I don't care what all the world thinks of me or says of me. I don't care if I lose all my pro- perty and die in the workhouse. I don't care if my husband, or wife, and every friend turns against me. I don't care if I lose my position in the Minis ry- if my Church turns against me. I don't care if I have to sacrifice my business, because I can't do the devilish cheating things that other people do. I don't care if I can't educate my children, ihey will be educated as well as God wants them to be. I don't care if I die before my time. • don't care what happens. I will have this salvation if it is to be had." When you come to that you will get it ; that is the point. If I were asked where I believe thousands of be- lievers stand to-day. I would say — "Just there They are standing where Abraham stood when the Lord called him from his father's house and his native land into a land which he knew not and which he was only afterwards to receive for an inheritance. Thty are standing there, but they are notaoing as Abraham did— coming out and obey- ing—they are standing there arguing, hesitating and halting. And there they have bef n for years. Yuu will have to get over th^t bar and say, "Here goes, Lord, it I, lose all I'm going all lengths with Thee, an J I'll pove Thee, and test Thee, whether Thou can'st save to the uttermost, and whether Thou can'st take care of Thine own." That is consecration. 1 solemnly protest uoto you that I know of no other that is worth a I ush in the sight of God. The second condition is Faith. When you have come thus far then you must believe— trust. I have talked with hundreds of souls, and as a rule, have not found much difticulty about faiib, when the consecration is thorough. Still, there are exceptions, because there are two mistakes made on tois point. There are some morbidly anxious souls whom Sat n gets to be always consecrating, but never trusting. They remind me cf what a friend ot mine once said of a certain person, referring to the offering of the Temple, she said, "You are always scraping the inwards and never getting any further." So these souls go on sci aping the inr wards day after day, year after year, bnt they never bring the offering to the Lord and leave it with Him— ihsit is, trust that he receives it. The other mistake is that people try to trust without scraping the inwards. They won't let the knife go too far because it hurts. They won't examine. When we bring the fliming torchlight of God's truth and hold it before their con ciences, they say it is too strong. I don't want to see that corntr or the other." They are not honest. Ihey don't truly consecrate, and so they get no lurther. Now, what God bath put together let us not be as foolish as to put asunder. We are to consecrate— that is our part. We are to be tborough and sincere and allow the Holy Spirit to have His way let Him reveal to us as He did to Ez'^kiel the hidden corruption of the Temple. Let Him show it up in His own all-glorious light, and don't let us flinch because it barns. Let us draw our shrinking, shrivelled hearts up to the light and say. " Yes. Lord, it hurts, but go on Lord 10 HOLINESS. ii!! I 'I ontil there is nothing else to reveal or to burn " Let us be sincere, but when we hav* the testimony of Bis Spirit that He has thus searched and revealed us, and that we do thus consecrate ourselveiv and are willing to go to Golgotha, to Getbssmane. or to the cross— then let us claim th£ blessing. Let us believe then that His cleans- ing blood does flow over our soub, that He is as good as His word, and that now we have facfd and confessed our sins. He does forgive us all these sios of our believing state, our backsliding and unfaithful- ness, that be does now forgive our sins and cleanse us from all this un- righteousness, and that bavins: cleansed the temple He now comes in and takes possession. Sanctification does not mean that Christ comes and works a work in me, and then departs to Heaven to look on and see bow I maintain it. No, He truly does a Divine work in me, but He cleanses the temp*e for Himself, for His own use. He lights up the Shekinah of His presence in the believer's soul, and then is fulfilled the promise, " I will come unto bim, and make My abode with him, I will sup with him and he with Me." And is He not able to keep that clean which He has cleansed ? It He could do the greater work is He not able to do the lesser ? If Ha can cast out His enenies is He not able to keep them out ? Yes, He can, bless His Holy Name, and all you have to do is to let Him do so, walkifiK by faith in humble submissive obedience to the light He gives you. The great question of the day is. Do you want to be saved from sin ? Are you sick of sm, do you chorse to be set free, is this the one great burden of your soul s desire ? Is it the one thing you desire of the Lord, and for which you are willing to forego all that hinders ? If so I declare unto you that He can do it for you. Yea, that He will do it for you, if you will only come and trust Him. Come along and kneel at His feet, be a little child in spirit, and He will lead you into this kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. " He will give you power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall be impossible unto you " Will you let Him ? If so, come along J'ust now. "The Spirit and the bride siy come, and whosoever will et him come and take of the water of life prbbly !" Amen.