V 
 
 
 /-
 
 JfOFFORD COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 THE 
 
 PROBLEM OF METHODISM: 
 
 Being a Reriew of the Residue Theory of Regeneration 
 
 and the Second Change Theory of Sanctification; and 
 
 the Philosophy of Christian Perfection. 
 
 BY THE REV. J. M. BOLAND, A.M., 
 
 Author of "A Bible View of Baptism." 
 
 " Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." St. Paul. 
 
 J. D. Barbee, Agent. 
 
 Publishing House of the m. e. church, South. 
 
 Printed for the Author. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, 
 
 BY J. M. BOLAND, 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following treatise is the result of years of 
 investigation. The conclusions which we have 
 adopted are the most reasonable and scriptural so- 
 lution of the difficult problem involved. If there 
 be those who can not accept our views, we shall 
 think none the less of them for it. We claim the 
 right to think and investigate, and we accord the 
 same to others. If any man has any new light to 
 shed upon the problem we have discussed, let him 
 speak in the fear of God and the love of the truth, 
 and we will hear him patiently. As truth is the 
 pearl we prize above rubies, if we are in error we 
 are ready to receive new light. We are not so 
 shut up to our views but that we are ready to adopt 
 any theory of the divine life which is more reason- 
 able and scriptural than the one we have adopted. 
 
 Our object is not to lower the standard of Chris- 
 tian experience, but to remove some of the confu- 
 sion which has gathered around it, and place it 
 where the inspired writers left it. 
 
 While we have called in question some opinions 
 
 (3)
 
 4 Preface. 
 
 of our standard authors, yet our views quadrate 
 with our Articles of Faith, and are in harmony 
 with our Standards so far as they are in harmony 
 with themselves. We allow no one to esteem our 
 standard authors more highly than we do, but we 
 do not believe that they are infallible any more 
 than the Pope of Rome. If we did not believe 
 that we have thrown new light on some points we 
 would not offer another book on this often investi- 
 gated subject; but believing this, this volume is 
 sent forth on its mission by the Author.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Dr. Thoenwell truly says: "We love opin- 
 ions instead of truth. Education becomes second 
 nature the dogmas of the one are mistaken for 
 the instructions of the other. So we quietly accept 
 as intuitively obvious, that which we learned in the 
 nursery hence, error is perpetuated from age to 
 age. One generation transmits a large legacy of 
 errors to another ; and the dream of tranquillity is 
 not disturbed until some emergency arises, which 
 compels examination and enforces inquiry." 
 
 But even then, the world is slow to give up long- 
 received opinions. Every new idea advanced is 
 weighed and criticised to see if it agrees with pre- 
 conceived opinions, instead of trying it by the 
 standard of reason and the word of God. Though 
 Luther and Melanchthon succeeded in breaking 
 loose from the leading errors of Romanism, they 
 did not live long enough to give to the world a sys- 
 tem of doctrine complete and harmonious in every 
 part. A work of such magnitude as the Reforma- 
 tion could not easily be accomplished in one gener- 
 
 (5)
 
 Introduction. 
 
 ation. The errors of the " Dark Ages" were many, 
 deep, and radical. But, by the aid of science and a 
 more thorough study of the Bible, many of the 
 tenets in that stupendous compilation called Ortho- 
 doxy have been modified; as time moved on new 
 errors were discovered, exposed, and finally re- 
 nounced ; and still the work is not done. 
 
 My idea is that we make a mistake in calling 
 any of our systems orthodox even the best of 
 them. They are all imperfect; they all contain 
 error perhaps a good deal of it. In making up 
 our Creed, we ought to start with the idea of choos- 
 ing between imperfect orthodoxies, and not between 
 one orthodoxy and a hundred heterodoxies; then 
 take the one which on the Avhole presents the few- 
 est difficulties and fits the largest number of ascer- 
 tained facts. I would not dare to frame a form of 
 words, however clear to my mind, and say to an- 
 other man: Accept this, or you are not orthodox. 
 " The Lord has more truth yet to break out of his 
 holy word." I can not sufficiently bewail the con- 
 dition of those who have come to a period in relig- 
 ion. Luther, Calvin, and Knox, great and good 
 and wise and learned ; Arminius, Wesley, and Wat-
 
 Introduction. 
 
 son, also great and good and wise and learned: is 
 it high treason to say of any of them and all of 
 them, " These penetrated not into the whole coun- 
 sel of God ? " With every discussion there has been 
 real progress. More comprehensive and precise 
 statements, as well as clearer conceptions, have been 
 attained up to the present day. In the future prog- 
 ress will largely depend upon our liberality in con- 
 sidering opinions which vary from the current and 
 accepted orthodoxy, and also upon our vigor and 
 boldness in resisting the error we may discover in 
 such opinions. So let us help one another, and God 
 will guide us into all truth. Then we shall all be 
 orthodox.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter I. page 
 
 A General Survey of the Subject 11 
 
 Chapter II. 
 The Twofold Nature of Man 34 
 
 Chapter III. 
 "Sin in Believers." 69 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 "How Readest Thou?" 97 
 
 Chapter V. 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble 131 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 158 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Christian Perfection 191 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 "Not Under the Law, but Under Grace." 223 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 The Laws and Conditions of Spiritual Growth. 249 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life 281 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 " Now of the Things of Which We Have 
 Spoken, This Is the Sum." 308 
 
 (9)
 
 Tjje Pfobleni of Methodism. 
 
 *\*i'Kj* , \t"n>*.i , \,r\*\>" 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 
 
 The mission of Methodism is to 
 " spread scriptural holiness over these 
 lands." Mr. Wesley says : " My broth- 
 er Charles and I, reading the Bible, saw 
 we could not be saved without holiness ; 
 we followed after it and incited others 
 so to do. . . . Holiness was our ob- 
 ject inward and outward holiness. . . 
 God then thrust us out to raise up a holy 
 people." " This doctrine (inward and 
 outward holiness) is the grand deposi- 
 turn which God has lodged with the peo- 
 ple called Methodists ; and for the sake 
 
 (11)
 
 12 The Froblem of Methodism. 
 
 of propagating this doctrine he appears 
 to have raised us up." 
 
 In writing to his brother Charles, 
 Mr. Wesley says : " Insist everywhere 
 on full salvation received now by faith. 
 Press the instantaneous blessing." 
 Again he says : " Let all our preachers 
 make a point of preaching perfection to 
 believers, constantly, strongly, explicit- 
 ly. ... I am afraid Christain per- 
 fection will be forgotten. A general 
 faintness in this respect has fallen on 
 the whole kingdom. Sometimes I seem 
 almost weary of striving against the 
 stream of both preachers and people." 
 He wrote to Dr. Clarke thus : "To re- 
 tain the grace of God is much more 
 than to gain it. And this should be 
 strongly urged on all who have tasted 
 of perfect love. If you can prove that 
 any of our preachers or leaders, either
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 13 
 
 directly or indirectly, speak against it, 
 let him be a preacher or a leader no 
 longer. I doubt whether he should con- 
 tinue in the Society. Because he that 
 could thus speak in our congregation 
 cannot be an honest man." 
 
 Dr. Clarke says : " If Methodists give 
 up preaching entire sanctification they 
 will soon lose their glory. . . . Let 
 all those who retain the apostolic doc- 
 trine, that 'the blood of Jesus Christ 
 cleanseth from all sin,' press every be- 
 liever to go on to perfection and expect 
 to be saved while here below, unto the 
 fullness of the blessing of the gospel of 
 Christ." 
 
 Bishop Asbury says : "lam divinely 
 impressed with a charge to preach sanc- 
 tification in every sermon." 
 
 Bishop McKendree wrote to the se- 
 raphic Summer-field thus : " But superior
 
 14 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 to all these I trust you will ever keep 
 in view, in all your ministrations, the 
 great design which we believe God in- 
 tended to accomplish in the world, in 
 making us ' a people that were not a 
 people.' I mean the knowledge, not of 
 a free and a present, but also a full sal- 
 vation in other words, a salvation from 
 all sin unto all holiness. Insist much 
 on this ; build up the Churches herein, 
 and proclaim aloud that 'without holi- 
 ness no man shall see the Lord.' Under 
 the guidance of the Spirit of Holiness, 
 this doctrine will be acknowledged of 
 God ; signs will follow them that be- 
 lieve and press after this uttermost sal- 
 vation, and our people will bear the 
 mark of their high-calling, become a 
 holy nation, a peculiar people." 
 
 In addition to these individual utter- 
 ances, the Bishops in their quadrennial
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 15 
 
 addresses, and the General Conferences 
 in their pastoral addresses to the whole 
 Church, " have, at various periods, sent 
 forth the most unequivocal and emphat- 
 ic deliverances." 
 
 In their quadrennial address to the 
 General Conference of 1824, the Bish- 
 ops said : " Do we, as preachers, feel the 
 same child-like spirit which so eminent- 
 ly distinguished our first ministers? 
 Do we come to the people in the fullness 
 of the blessing of the gospel of peace? 
 . . . Are we striving by faith and 
 obedience to elevate our hearts and lives 
 to the standard of gospel holiness? or 
 are we wishing to have the standard 
 lowered to our unsanctified natures? 
 In short, are we content to have the 
 doctrine of Christian holiness an article 
 of our Creed only, without becoming ex- 
 perimentally and practically acquainted 
 
 WOFFORB COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 'N a ^_ ___w S ,
 
 16 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 with it? Are we pressing after it as the 
 prize of our high calling in Christ Je- 
 sus? ... If the Methodists lose 
 sight of this doctrine they will fall by 
 their own weight. Their success in 
 gaining members will be the cause of 
 their dissolution. Holiness is the main 
 cord that binds us together. Relax this 
 and you loosen the whole system. . . . 
 The original design of Methodism was 
 to raise up and preserve a holy people. 
 This was the principal object which Mr. 
 Wesley had in view. To this end all the 
 doctrines believed and preached by the 
 Methodists tend. Whoever supposed, 
 or who that is acquainted with the case, 
 can suppose it was designed, in any of 
 its parts, to secure the applause and 
 popularity of the world, or a numerical 
 increase of worldly or impenitent men? 
 Is there any provision made for the ag-
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 17 
 
 grandizement of our ministers or the 
 worldly-mi ndedness of our members? 
 None whatever! " 
 
 In 1832 the General Conference is- 
 sued a pastoral address to the whole 
 Church, in which they said : " When we 
 speak of holiness we mean that state in 
 which God is loved with all the heart 
 and served with all our powers. This, 
 as Methodists, we have said, is the priv- 
 ilege of the Christian in this life. . . . 
 Is it not time, in this matter, to return 
 to first principles ? Is it not time that 
 we throw off the inconsistency with 
 which we are charged in regard to this 
 matter? . . . And when this shall 
 come to pass we may expect a corre- 
 sponding increase of Christian enjoy- 
 ment, and in the force of religious in- 
 fluence we shall exert over others." 
 
 Passing by many more documents of 
 
 2
 
 18 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 this kind from which we might quote, 
 we come to the Centennial Conference 
 of American Methodism, which met in 
 Baltimore in 1884, and which re-af- 
 firmed the faith of the Church in all its 
 branches, in these words : " We remind 
 you, brethren, that the mission of Meth- 
 odism is to promote holiness. This end 
 and aim enters into all our organic life. 
 Holiness is the fullness of life, the crown 
 of the soul, the joy and strength of the 
 Church. It is not a sentiment or an 
 emotion, but a principle inwrought in 
 the heart, the culmination of God's 
 work in us followed by a consecrated 
 life." 
 
 Thus an earnest desire for Bible Ho- 
 liness drew together in Christian sym- 
 pathy and finally organized that band 
 of godly men which were first called 
 the "Holy Club," then "Methodists."
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 19 
 
 As they said themselves, they banded 
 together to " seek inward and outward 
 holiness." They " hungered and thirst- 
 ed after righteousness." They groaned 
 to be M cleansed from all sin," and to be 
 "filled with all the fullness of God." 
 So they " organized class-meetings, 
 where they might open their hearts one 
 to another, and tell their conflicts and 
 triumphs, their joys and sorrows, and 
 thus mutually stimulate and assist." 
 They met in foundries and workshops 
 and in the open air to pray and sing 
 and exhort. In love-feasts they told of 
 their growth in grace and of their yearn- 
 ings after holiness of heart and life. 
 They were filled and ruled by one su- 
 preme, overmastering desire to be holy 
 themselves and urge others to the same 
 experience. They preached it, prayed 
 for it, professed it, sung of it, illustrat-
 
 20 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ed it in their lives, and died testifying 
 " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
 clean seth from all unrighteousness." 
 And when this band of devout souls 
 " crystallized into a Church," it was for 
 the expressed purpose of elevating 
 Christian experience, reviving primi- 
 tive Christianity, and of " spreading 
 scriptural holiness over the land." And 
 so they adopted the " General Rules " 
 of Mr. Wesley's " United Societies " as 
 their "conception of Bible religion, af- 
 firming that all these rules are taught 
 of God in his written word, which is 
 the only rule and the sufficient rule of 
 our faith and practice. And all these 
 we know his Spirit writes on truly 
 awakened hearts." 
 
 In keeping with all this, we call at- 
 tention to the fact that the vows of 
 Church-membership demand a complete
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 21 
 
 consecration : " Dost thou renounce the 
 devil and all his works the vain pomp 
 and glory of the world, with all covet- 
 ous desires of the same, and the carnal 
 desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt 
 not follow or be led by them ? Answer : 
 I renounce them all. Wilt thou then 
 obediently keep God's holy will and 
 commandments, and walk in the same 
 all the days of thy life? Answer: I 
 will endeavor so to do, God being my 
 helper." Thus a complete surrender was 
 demanded of each applicant at the very 
 threshold of the Church ; none were in- 
 vited to join unless he had a fixed " de- 
 sire to flee from the wrath to come, and 
 to be saved from his sins." 
 
 "When ministers were to be set apart 
 in this Church, " these spiritually-mind- 
 ed fathers " said : " Let the following 
 questions be asked : Do they know God
 
 22 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 as a pardoning God? Have they the 
 love of God abiding in them ? Do they 
 desire nothing but God? Are they 
 holy in all manner of conversation?" 
 When, after sufficient trial, these preach- 
 ers were brought forward to be received 
 into the Annual Conference, and ap- 
 pointed regular pastors over the flock, 
 they were asked the following questions 
 viz. : " Have you faith in Christ ? Do 
 you expect to be made perfect in love in 
 this life? Are you groaning after it? 
 Are you resolved to devote yourself 
 wholly to God and his work?" In 
 these questions, and the answers given, 
 the mind and purpose of the Methodist 
 Church are clearly denned. Raised up, 
 as she was, to " spread scriptural holiness 
 over these lands," she has always re- 
 fused to ordain any preacher who was in- 
 different on the subject of Bible holiness.
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 23 
 
 Here, then, we find the central pur- 
 pose and inspiration of Methodism. It 
 is Primitive Christianity revived 
 " Christianity in earnest " " Christ in 
 you the hope of glory:" "whom we 
 preach, warning every man, and teach- 
 ing every man in all wisdom ; that we 
 may present every man perfect in Christ 
 Jesus." "Methodism is for Bible holi- 
 ness, or it is for nothing. Take that out 
 of our preaching and it is emasculated. 
 Take that out of your living and you 
 have nothing left worth your time and 
 effort!" 
 
 If we turn to the Bible we find holi- 
 ness taught, holiness commanded, holi- 
 ness offered, holiness attainable, holiness 
 already attained and enjoyed. If "Christ 
 gave himself for us that he might re- 
 deem us from all iniquity, and purify 
 unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
 
 24 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 of good works," then we may be "puri- 
 fied " and become a " peculiar people." 
 If " Christ died without the gate that 
 he might sanctify the people with his 
 own blood," then the people may be 
 "sanctified'" and "preserved blameless 
 until the coming of the Lord Jesus." 
 If " Christ also loved the Church, and 
 gave himself for it ; that he might sanc- 
 tify and cleanse it, and present it to 
 himself a glorious Church, not having 
 spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but 
 that it should be holy and without blem- 
 ish," then the Church may be " holy, not 
 having spot, or wrinkle, or blemish, or any 
 such thing! " To assume any thing less 
 than this is to cast contempt on the 
 provisions of grace, and to limit and 
 dishonor the vicarious death of Christ ! 
 Holiness is the great truth that glows 
 on every page of revelation, and webs
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 25 
 
 its way all through the Bible. It spark- 
 les, and whispers, and sings, and shouts, 
 in all its prophecy, and biography, and 
 poetry, and promises, and prayers ! No 
 wonder, then, that John and Charles 
 Wesley concluded "from reading the 
 Bible," that they " could not be saved 
 without holiness." The truth is, all who 
 read the Bible as the word of God are 
 led to the same conclusion. Even the 
 Church of Rome, with all her corrup- 
 tions and abominations and perversions 
 of Scripture, found it easier to invent a 
 purgatory in which to purify the soul, 
 than to set aside the grand Bible doc- 
 trine, "without holiness no man shall 
 see the Lord." And if there is a Church 
 on earth which does not hold and teach 
 that holiness is necessary to get to heav- 
 en, I have never heard of it. The only 
 controversy among the Churches is in
 
 26 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 regard to the time, the place, and the 
 means by which the work is done. 
 Methodism stands alone among all the 
 Churches, in preaching a present salva- 
 tion from all sin, by faith in the blood of 
 the Lamb, and the possibility of such a one 
 " abiding in Christ and sinning not." 
 
 Now, while every branch of Method- 
 ism stands pledged to preach a present 
 salvation from all sin, to be followed by 
 a life of holiness, yet it is a lamentable 
 fact that from John Wesley to the pres- 
 ent there have been two theories of the 
 divine life shut up in the womb of Meth- 
 odism ; and, like Esau and Jacob, they 
 have " struggled together." While John 
 Wesley did more than any other man 
 to revive primitive Christianity and to 
 clear up the muddy theology of the 
 Dark Ages, yet it is a remarkable fact 
 that he failed to harmonize his theory
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 27 
 
 of the divine life at some points; "and 
 what shall the man do that cometh after 
 the king?" The modern Methodist 
 fathers and authors, who adopted Mr. 
 Wesley's theory, have not only failed to 
 harmonize Mr. Wesley with himself, 
 but they have " found no end in wan- 
 dering mazes lost." If the reader thinks 
 these are strong statements, we plead 
 guilty, for we weighed every word in 
 order to make them strong; but if he 
 thinks they are too strong, then we ask 
 him to suspend his final judgment until 
 he has read these pages through. 
 
 The great mistake Mr. Wesley made 
 was in adopting the " residue theory of 
 regeneration" and the "second change 
 theory of sanctification." The next mis- 
 take was in confounding " sanctification 
 with Christian perfection." This mis- 
 take has done a deal of harm. Take
 
 28 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 any theory of sanctification you please 
 let it be a first, second, third, or 
 fourth blessing; but do not confound 
 sanctification with Christian perfection. 
 Sanctification is moral purity; perfec- 
 tion is Christian maturity. The one is 
 the result of an act of cleansing; the 
 other is the result of a growth in grace. 
 The one is done in a moment; the other 
 is the work of time and experience. 
 The newborn soul may be pure, but he 
 cannot be mature. 
 
 After reading every book on the sub- 
 ject I could obtain, after consulting 
 every text of scrij)ture quoted, I have 
 reached this conclusion: Regeneration 
 is a complete work in its nature, and 
 includes sanctification, or moral purity, 
 while Christian perfection is a state of 
 freedom from sin, and includes a matu- 
 rity of the Christian graces. The one
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 29 
 
 is instantaneous and complete, admit- 
 ting of no degrees ; the other is progress- 
 ive a growth, a going on, until the full 
 stature of a perfect man in Christ is 
 reached. Holiness and perfect love will 
 fit into this theory, at the proper place, 
 as we proceed. 
 
 The Ninth Article of the Church of 
 England declares that "original sin is 
 the corruption of the nature of every 
 man ; . . . and this infection of nat- 
 ure doth remain in them that are regener- 
 ated" As Mr. Wesley belonged to this 
 Church, and wrote from the stand-point 
 of this Ninth Article, we can see how 
 he came to adopt the residue theory of 
 regeneration ; and then he had to give 
 up the doctrine of sanctification, or else 
 bring in sanctification as a "second 
 change" to get rid of this "remaining 
 corruption." But, as Mr. Wesley cut
 
 30 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 this objectionable clause out of the Ar- 
 ticles of Faith which he prepared for the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in Ameri- 
 ca, it is a little strange that so many 
 American Methodists adopted the resi- 
 due theory of regeneration. 
 
 In reading up on this subject, I have 
 been amazed to see how this theory of 
 the divine life has led men to minify re- 
 generation and magnify sanctification. 
 Take a few examples: "The carnal 
 mind survives the work of regeneration, 
 and is often actively rebellious in the 
 hearts of real Christians." " In this re- 
 generate state, the former corruptions 
 of the heart may remain and strive for 
 the mastery." "Although in regenera- 
 tion holy principles are infused into the 
 soul, yet the change produced is only par- 
 tial." "As long as Christians live in a 
 'partially purified state," etc. " The new
 
 A General Survey of the Subject. 31 
 
 life has existence in a soul partially car- 
 nal in the mere regenerate." " Regen- 
 eration removes some sin or pollution, and 
 entire sanctification removes the corrup- 
 tion which remains after regeneration." 
 " Regeneration consists simply in par- 
 tial renovation and divine adoption." 
 
 Now I submit that any theory of the 
 divine life that leads to such expres- 
 sions as the above cannot be harmo- 
 nized with the Bible idea of the " new 
 birth," the "new man," and the "new 
 creation." Hence, Mr. Wesley never 
 did reconcile the residue theory with 
 his own definition of the " new birth." 
 I would like to see one of our mod- 
 ern " Holiness Conventions" harmonize 
 the following utterances of Mr. Wes- 
 ley: 
 
 1. "By all the grace 1. " To be born again, 
 given at justification, we is to be inwardly changed
 
 32 
 
 J he Problem of Methodism. 
 
 cannot wholly cleanse 
 either our hearts or 
 hands. Most sure we can- 
 not, till it shall please our 
 Lord to speak to our 
 hearts again, to speak the 
 second time, 'Be clean!' 
 and then only, the lep- 
 rosy is cleansed. Then 
 only the carnal mind is 
 destroyed, and inbred sin 
 subsists no more." 
 
 2. " If there be no sec- 
 ond change, no instanta- 
 neous deliverance after 
 justification, then we 
 must remain full of sin 
 till death." " Certainly 
 sanctification is an in- 
 stantaneous deliverance 
 from all sin." 
 
 from all sinfulness to all 
 holiness." "He is cre- 
 ated anew in Christ Je- 
 sus. He is washed, he is 
 sanctified. His heart is 
 purified by faith; he is 
 cleansed from the cor- 
 ruption that is in the 
 world." "That which is 
 born of the Spirit is spir- 
 itual, heavenly, divine, 
 like its author." 
 
 2. "Every one that 
 hath Christ in him the 
 hope of glory is saved 
 from all sin, from all un- 
 righteousness." " It is un- 
 deniably true that sanc- 
 tification is a progressive 
 work, carried on in the 
 
 soul by slow degrees." 
 
 After reading the above deliverances, 
 and many more of the same import, we 
 are prepared to hear him say : " Per-
 
 A General Savvey of the Subject. 33 
 
 haps I have an exceedingly complex idea 
 of sanctification ! "* 
 
 We propose to examine the residue 
 theory of regeneration and the second 
 change theory of sanctification, in the 
 light of reason, psychology, and the 
 Word of God. In order to explain those 
 mental states which have been called 
 "sin in believers," "inbred sin," the 
 "remains of the carnal mind," the " cor- 
 ruption of our nature," the "body of 
 sin," and the "old man," we must first 
 discuss the twofold nature of man, the 
 effects of the fall, and the philosophy 
 of temptation. 
 
 *The only solution of thia confusion is given in 
 the last chapter of this book, to which we call spe- 
 cial attention. 
 3
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 
 
 Every man and of course every 
 Christian has at least two natures.* 
 The one is designed to be subordinate 
 and subservient to the other. Each has 
 its office to fill it takes both to consti- 
 tute a man; and "the highest style of 
 man " is he whose twofold nature is in 
 
 * The sharp psychomachy, Avhich Paul so well 
 portrays, interprets the consciousness of millions. 
 That man is not all of the earth ; that he is en- 
 dowed with a higher nature, reaching to heaven, all 
 Christians agree, and with them thousands who are 
 not Christians coincide. In the minuter analysis 
 of humanity, Dichotomists and Trichotomists con- 
 tend, and many deeply interesting questions in On- 
 tology and Psychology arise. These mysteries of 
 humanity have bewildered theologians, and thereby 
 troubled Christians. 
 (34)
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 35 
 
 harmony at once with itself and with 
 the Creator. 
 
 In reference to the effects of the fall 
 of man and the work of restoration 
 through the gospel, there are two errone- 
 ous opinions or theories. The one is, that 
 such is the condition of man's lower nat- 
 ure, since the fall, that it is impossible 
 for him to live without committing sin 
 daily. The other is, that all the lower 
 affinities and sensibilities of our nature 
 must be so crucified and destroyed that 
 there will be no stirring of the emotions 
 nor enkindling of the desires toward 
 any forbidden object. 
 
 The first theory is supposed to be 
 taught in the seventh chapter of Ro- 
 mans. But the character described 
 there is a convicted Pharisee, and not a 
 renewed and sanctified Christian. The 
 new life and the Christian character
 
 36 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 are described in the eighth chapter of 
 Romans. Moreover, John says : "Who- 
 soever is born of God [and abideth in 
 him] doth not commit sin." 
 
 The second theory is supposed to be 
 set forth in the sixth chapter of Romans 
 and other passages, where the Christian 
 life is represented as a "crucifixion of 
 the old man," and a "death of sin." 
 Now the great object of the gospel is 
 to give to our spiritual nature, which is 
 "dead in sin," its true, original life, 
 and through it to restore all the lower 
 elements of our essential constitution 
 to order and their proper functions, but 
 not to destroy any of them. Dr. Clarke 
 says: "The 'old man,' the 'body of sin,' 
 is the same as the ' infection of our nat- 
 ure,' in consequence of the fall." 
 Hence, the " old man," the " body of 
 sin," must be "destroyed," but not the
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 37 
 
 nature of man. The "corruption of our 
 nature " must be removed, but all the 
 essential elements of our twofold nat- 
 ure are left intact. When the " de- 
 sires are drawn out and enticed " by an 
 evil object, the desires must be " reject- 
 ed" and thereby " mortified" but neither 
 the capacity to desire, nor the suscepti- 
 bility to feel the force of enticement to 
 sin, are to be destroyed ; for that would 
 put man beyond the possibility of being 
 tempted, which possibility must exist 
 while probation continues. 
 
 Let us go to the very root of this sub- 
 ject. Without a clear view of man's 
 essential nature, we are incompetent to 
 judge of the correctness or defects of 
 any theory of the divine life. If we 
 wish to know what were the effects of 
 the fall upon man's essential nature, and 
 what is necessary to renew man's nature
 
 38 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 "in righteousness and true holiness," 
 we must ascertain what that nature was 
 as he came from the hand of his Crea- 
 tor. We learn from the Bible that 
 man, while in a state of innocence and 
 purity, was subjected to temptation ; and 
 that he possessed, then, appetites, emo- 
 tions, and desires similar in nature to 
 those belonging to the human mind and 
 constitution now. " When the woman 
 saw that the tree was good for food, and 
 that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a 
 tree to be desired to make one wise, she 
 took of the fruit thereof and did eat." 
 (Gen. iii. 6.) Here we have: first, a 
 perception of a forbidden object; sec- 
 ond, the appetite for food awakened; 
 third, the emotions of pleasure stirred ; 
 fourth, the desire to know enkindled; 
 and, finally, the volition and act that 
 constituted the sin by which man fell.
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 39 
 
 It is clear, then, that man, in his best 
 estate, possessed all those mental ca- 
 pacities called natural sensibilities, and 
 that these sensibilities were susceptible 
 of being addressed and excited by a 
 forbidden object. Instead, then, of 
 these natural sensibilities being, in some 
 mysterious way, the result of the fall, 
 they belong to and are inseparable 
 from the human constitution in its orig- 
 inal organization. Man, considered in 
 the light of Biblical psychology, pos- 
 sessed them all in his pristine purity. 
 But when he fell, those faculties which 
 were essential to humanity became per- 
 verted and corrupted, and passions 
 which were intended to perform only a 
 subordinate part became controlling; 
 but no new faculty was projected into 
 his constitution. Whatever we may 
 find in man's fallen, depraved nature to
 
 40 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 purify and regulate, we find no constitu- 
 tional sensibilities to be obliterated, no 
 faculty to be destroyed. 
 
 Depravity, then, is not a real entity, 
 existing apart from man's essential con- 
 stitution not an actual substance, or 
 real entity, projected into man's consti- 
 tution; but a corruption and & perversion 
 of man's essential powers. In the ab- 
 sence of spiritual life, the great control- 
 ling principle which was lost in the fall, 
 man's moral nature is not only para- 
 lyzed, but all the lower elements of his 
 essential nature transcend their true 
 bounds and run riot in indulgence, so 
 that " man is prone to go astray from 
 his youth up." Now, this depravity is 
 personified by Paul as the "old man," 
 the "body of sin;" because man's 
 higher nature is under the dominion of 
 his lower nature. This depravity, this
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 41 
 
 dominion of the flesh over the spirit, this 
 "course of carnal thinking," Paul also 
 calls "the carnal mind." Now this 
 "course of carnal thinking," this "in- 
 herited tendency to sin," is what Paul 
 calls "the law of sin and death," from 
 which, he affirms, "the law of the Spir- 
 it of life in Christ Jesus makes us free." 
 Hence, " to be carnally minded is [spir- 
 itual] death ; but to be spiritually 
 minded is life and peace." "Now if 
 any man have not the Spirit of Christ, 
 he is none of his ; " and, " if so be that 
 the Spirit of God dwell in you," then 
 this " law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus hath made you free from the law 
 of sin and death." How any man can 
 read and study the sixth chapter of Ro- 
 mans, where Paul proves conclusively 
 that the normal state of spiritual life 
 presupposes a " crucifixion of the old
 
 42 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 man" and a "destruction of the body 
 of sin " and a "death to sin," and then 
 hold to the "residue theory of regen- 
 eration," is simply amazing! And how 
 any man can read and study the eighth 
 chapter of Romans, where Paul discuss- 
 es the "carnal mind" and the "spirit- 
 ually minded," and then say that " this 
 carnal mind survives the work of re- 
 generation, and is often actively rebell- 
 ious in the hearts of real Christians," 
 is a mystery that transcends the enig- 
 matical philosophy of the Persians. To 
 be able to expose such errors, and to ex- 
 plain those mental states relied on to 
 prove them, we must investigate the 
 laws that govern our twofold nature far 
 enough to have a clear view of the 
 mental states involved in the philoso- 
 phy of temptation. 
 
 In all the discussions of the twofold
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 43 
 
 nature of man which I have seen, bear- 
 ing on the " residue theory of regener- 
 ation," several important facts have 
 been ignored or overlooked. The ad- 
 vancement that has been made in men- 
 tal science, in some of its nicer distinc- 
 tions, since Mr. Wesley's day, puts one 
 on vantage-ground which he did not 
 occupy, or he would have been shocked 
 at the very thought of putting "lust" 
 in the catalogue of " sin in believers ; " 
 for " lust is an inordinate desire," and 
 no desire can become inordinate with- 
 out the sympathy and assent of the will ; 
 and, therefore, wherever "lust" exists, 
 its possessor has fallen into condemna- 
 tion. (Matt. v. 28.) But to the ignored 
 or overlooked facts. All standard au- 
 thors on mental philosophy divide the 
 sensibilities into two classes natural 
 and moral. Under the term " natural
 
 44 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 sensibilities " they speak of natural emo- 
 tions and desires; and under the term 
 " moral sensibilities " they speak of mor- 
 al emotions and obligatory feelings. 
 
 Now, it is in the natural sensibilities 
 that we find a class of mental states 
 that connect us with the material and 
 outer world, perception being the door 
 of communication. These sensibilities, 
 being natural, have no moral quality in 
 themselves, but they form the basis of 
 every solicitation to evil. The mind is 
 so constituted that without the natural 
 sensibilities the natural emotions and 
 desires we cannot see how any man 
 could be enticed to evil ; but with these, 
 we can see how even the Incarnate Son 
 of God could be "tempted in all points 
 like as we are," and how he could " suf- 
 fer, being tempted." 
 
 As the natural sensibilities connect
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 45 
 
 us with the natural world, so the moral 
 sensibilities connect us with the spirit- 
 ual world ; and these form the basis of 
 all religion. In these we find man's 
 capacity to be religious ; and here is the 
 region where the fall expended its 
 blighting power. The effects of the fall 
 upon the natural sensibilities may be 
 accounted for largely in their excessive 
 indulgence, growing out of the absence 
 of a moral or spiritual power to control 
 and direct them. But when we enter 
 the moral nature of man, we find a pict- 
 ure answering to the one drawn by the 
 pencil of inspiration to represent fallen, 
 depraved humanity. 
 
 Now, as sin has done its fearful Avork 
 in man's moral and spiritual nature, so 
 here is the place for the work of resto- 
 ration to be expected and the work of 
 cleansing to be sought. We do not deny
 
 46 The Problem, of Methodism. 
 
 that the entire man will feel the ef- 
 fects of this restoration, when the soul 
 is "renewed according to the divine 
 pattern in righteousness and true holi- 
 ness;" for this restores order to the 
 mind, puts the will upon its throne, and 
 gives it power to resist every solicita- 
 tion to evil, and to "reject" and "mor- 
 tify " the desires excited and drawn out 
 toward forbidden objects. But to say 
 that the natural sensibilities are to be 
 so " crucified " as not to be stirred and 
 enkindled by a pleasing or a desirable 
 object, implies their utter destruction. 
 To say that they may be dead to all 
 evil but alive to all good will not re- 
 move the difficulty, for their being nat- 
 ural and not moral faculties makes no 
 distinction they are simply pleased 
 at whatever is pleasing and desire what- 
 ever is desirable, and the moral facul-
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 47 
 
 ties must detect the evil and the will 
 reject the wrong. 
 
 This brings us to consider the mental 
 states involved in temptation a subject 
 about which much has been written, 
 and which is intimately connected with 
 any theory of the divine life, but espe- 
 cially with the "residue theory of re- 
 generation" and the "second change 
 theory of sanctification." George Bell 
 and Thomas Maxfield, who were the 
 first of Mr. Wesley's lay preachers to 
 profess sanctification as a " second 
 change," soon professed to have become 
 so holy as to be " free from temptation." 
 These enthusiasts and their successors 
 failed to see that probation implies trial, 
 and trial implies temptation,- and there- 
 fore temptation must exist as long as 
 probation lasts. 
 
 But there are others who admit that
 
 48 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 no state of grace in this life will free us 
 from temptation, yet they so confound 
 temptation and sin that they are con- 
 stantly seeking exemption from the for- 
 mer under the name of the latter. 
 These errorists have pressed the doc- 
 trine of self-crucifixion so far that, if 
 they could live up to their theory, they 
 would be incapable of feeling any solic- 
 itation to evil, and hence would be be- 
 yond the reach of temptation. The 
 only way to clear up this confusion is 
 to so analyze the mental states involved 
 in temptation as to be able to locate 
 the exact point at which temptation 
 ends and sin begins. 
 
 Now there can be no temptation (in 
 the sense of a solicitation to evil) unless 
 the solicitation is brought ultimately to 
 press upon the will. The will is the 
 great umpire of the mind ; and every
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 49 
 
 solicitation to evil must come to this 
 tribunal before it can be regarded a 
 temptation. There are some prelimi- 
 nary steps; but there is a principle 
 upon which the temptation presses 
 around which the force of the solicita- 
 tion gathers and enters into contest 
 and that principle is the will. 
 
 Now we can only reach the will from 
 without through perception, the natural 
 emotions, and desires. For instance, a 
 man perceives a forbidden object, which 
 is pleasing to his natural sensibilities ; 
 this stirs his emotions and enkindles 
 his desires, and the desires press upon 
 the will for its concurrence ; then, and 
 not till then, does the solicitation be- 
 come a temptation. The mental process 
 in temptation, therefore, is from per- 
 ception to emotions, from emotions to 
 
 desires, and from desires to the will. 
 4
 
 50 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Let us compare this analysis of temp- 
 tation with the Word of God: "And 
 when the woman saw that the tree was 
 good for food, and it was pleasant to the 
 eyes, and a tree to be desired to make 
 one wise, she took of the fruit thereof 
 and did eat." (Gen. iii. 6.) Here we 
 have the whole process, step by step, 
 from perception to volition, of a success- 
 ful temptation, and it agrees with our 
 analysis in every particular. 
 
 In James i. 14, 15 we find the exact 
 point where temptation ends and sin 
 begins. We give Mr. Wesley's trans- 
 lation of this important text : " Every 
 man is tempted when he is drawn away 
 of his own desire and enticed [so far it 
 is a temptation]. Then when desire 
 hath conceived [gained the assent of the 
 will] it bringeth forth sin." That is 
 clear. The "man is tempted when he
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 51 
 
 is drawn away of his own desire and 
 enticed ; " the solicitation, then, must be 
 addressed to the will, or it is no temp- 
 tation at all, and the will is reached 
 through perception, the emotions, and 
 the desires. It follows, then, that the stir- 
 rings of the emotions and the enkin- 
 dlings of the desires, aside from the con- 
 currence of the will, have no more moral 
 quality than the pulsations of the heart. 
 The one is the natural process for cir- 
 culating the blood ; the other is the nat- 
 ural process of a temptation. And yet 
 a large class of good men so confound 
 temptation with sin the enkindlings of 
 desire with the acts of the will that 
 every time they are severely tempted 
 "drawn away of their own desires 
 and enticed " they imagine that they 
 have sinned. Hence, they are seeking 
 a state of grace in this life in which
 
 52 The Problem of Methodism, 
 
 their emotions and desires will never be 
 stirred or enticed by a forbidden object. 
 They might as well seek a state of ani- 
 mal life in which the heart will cease 
 to throb and the machinery of life con- 
 tinue to move. This is the class of er- 
 rorists who cry aloud for a complete 
 self-crucifixion such a crucifixion as 
 would destroy instead of regulate and con- 
 trol all the lower affinities of our two- 
 fold nature. This is the error which 
 has produced nearly all the fanatics 
 who have bewildered one-half of the 
 Church on the subject of sanctification, 
 and disgusted the other half by their 
 wild vagaries ; and this is the error that 
 built all the monasteries and nunneries 
 of the Dark Ages, and which has led 
 thousands to self-contempt a crime as 
 pernicious as pride ! 
 
 "But, is there no state of grace in
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 53 
 
 this life in which we are saved from 
 evil desires ? " Yes ; but no desire can 
 be evil or become a lust without the 
 sympathy and concurrence of the will. 
 Up to the point where a man is " drawn 
 away of his own desire and enticed" 
 the solicitation is a temptation ; but 
 temptation resisted and foiled is nei- 
 ther an evil nor a sin. We cannot con- 
 ceive how any being can sin except as 
 a moral agent, and we cannot see how a 
 moral agent can sin aside from voli- 
 tion. 
 
 Again, we may reach the will from 
 the opposite direction from within 
 by another road. We said that there 
 is another class of emotions belomrino; 
 to the mind, called the moral emotions. 
 These are followed by feelings of moral 
 obligation. Desires are founded on the 
 natural emotions, while the obligatory
 
 54 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 feelings are based exclusively on the 
 moral emotions. But the desires agree 
 with the obligatory feelings in being in 
 direct contact with the volitive power ; 
 so that the will, in making up its final 
 decision, takes immediate notice of only 
 the desires, on the one hand, and the 
 interdictions of the obligatory feelings 
 on the other ; and in every temptation 
 these two classes of mental states stand 
 before the will in direct and fierce op- 
 position to each other. In the cravings 
 of desire and the interdictions of obli- 
 gation we have the basis of an inter- 
 nal conflict that may be renewed every 
 day and every hour. These two oppos- 
 ing principles were shut up together in 
 our twofold nature as it came from the 
 hand of its Creator, and they are des- 
 tined to renew the conflict with every 
 new temptation during life. To try to
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 55 
 
 escape it is to try to put ourselves be- 
 yond the sphere of temptation and to 
 close up our state of probation. 
 
 As we shall show farther on, not a 
 few mental states, which have been 
 called the "remains of the carnal 
 mind," "inbred sin," and "sin in be- 
 lievers," are nothing more than the 
 consciousness of this internal conflict 
 which always accompanies a severe 
 temptation, but is more keenly felt in 
 the early part of the Christian life on 
 account of the force of old habits. The 
 idea that religion, at regeneration or 
 afterward, does something for us that 
 so destroys our natural sensibilities as 
 to make them no longer susceptible of 
 being " enticed " by evil, has been the 
 source of untold agony among those 
 who have tried to reach such a state. 
 I have known more than one mind de-
 
 56 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 throned by a failure to reach this im- 
 possible state. 
 
 It is time that the Christian world, 
 and especially all Christian teachers, 
 were learning that whatever grace does 
 for us is done according to the fixed 
 laws of the mind, and not by setting 
 these laws aside or by destroying any 
 part of our twofold nature. For the 
 want of recognizing this fact many 
 have been led to believe that they had 
 the " former corruption of the heart re- 
 maining in them and striving for the 
 mastery," when in reality they had 
 only " suffered, being tempted," as did 
 their divine Master before them. The 
 remedy in all such cases is not to be 
 found in the conclusion that sin is una- 
 voidable, nor in the idea that regenera- 
 tion is a "partial renovation," leaving a 
 "residue of sin within us," but in re-
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 57 
 
 jecting the temptation. These sensi- 
 bilities, through which the temptation 
 makes its approach, belong to and are 
 inseparable from the constitution of 
 man. The fact that we are commanded 
 to " make no provision for the flesh, to 
 fulfill the desires thereof," is proof pos- 
 itive that the flesh is not to be so cru- 
 cified as to destroy its susceptibility of 
 being " enticed ; " for without that sus- 
 ceptibility we could not be tempted of 
 evil. And the fact that we may be 
 "tempted without sin" is proof that 
 the stirrings of the emotions and the 
 enkindlings of the desires, aside from 
 the concurrence of the will, are not sin- 
 ful ; neither are they any proof that the 
 " former corruptions of the heart re- 
 main in those who are regenerated." 
 
 Prof. B. B. Edwards says : " To say 
 that all excitement of these suscepti-
 
 58 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 bilities is itself sin is to say that there 
 is no difference between voluntary and 
 involuntary desires ; it is to say that 
 sin is unavoidable. To admit, however, 
 that the excitement of these suscepti- 
 bilities is not in itself a sin and, unless 
 they be indulged by the will, leaves the 
 being as holy as ever, is merely to ad- 
 mit that there is such a thing possible 
 as the temptation of a being who re- 
 mains sinless." 
 
 St. James says: "Let no man say 
 when he is tempted, I am tempted of 
 God : for God cannot be tempted with 
 evil, neither tempteth he any man : but 
 every man is tempted, when he is drawn 
 away of his own desire and enticed. 
 Then when desire hath conceived it 
 bringeth forth sin." (James i. 13, 14, 
 15.) In this delicate figure St. James 
 represents desire, even under entice-
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 59 
 
 ment, as preserving virgin purity until 
 defiled by volition. 
 
 We now have the key to unlock the 
 mysteries of the most obscure and dif- 
 ficult passages in Mr. Wesley's works 
 especially that mysterious sermon on 
 " Sin in Believers." But we must de- 
 fer the investigation of that sermon 
 until the next chapter. There are ex- 
 pressions in other books, which may be 
 noticed now, which the authors would 
 never have made if they had under- 
 stood the twofold nature of man and the 
 philosophy of temptation. 
 
 Dr. J. Dempster says : " Regenera- 
 tion admits of controlled tendencies to 
 sin; entire sanctification extirpates 
 those tendencies." 
 
 Now these "controlled tendencies to 
 sin " in a regenerated soul are nothing 
 more than a consciousness of the natu-
 
 60 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ral " desires being drawn out and en- 
 ticed," which, according to St. James, 
 is the very essence of temptation. To 
 u extirpate these tendencies " would 
 simply destroy man's essential nature, 
 and put him where he "could not be 
 tempted of evil " a perfection which 
 belongs to God, and not to man. 
 
 Dr. D. Curry says : " This carnal 
 mind survives the work of regeneration, 
 and is often actively rebellious in the 
 hearts of real Christians." The learned 
 doctor would hardly have said that if 
 he had taken off his theological spec- 
 tacles when he read Paul on the "car- 
 nal mind " and the " spiritually mind- 
 ed," "the natural man" and "the 
 spiritual man," "the old man" and 
 " the new man." That " real Chris- 
 tians " often feel the uprisings of desire 
 creating a fierce conflict within is very
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 61 
 
 true; even the holy "Jesus suffered, 
 being tempted." But no man was ever 
 a "real Christian" and had the "car- 
 nal mind in his heart" at the same 
 time. To say that the " carnal mind 
 survives the work of regeneration" is 
 to say that a regenerated man is not 
 reconciled to God, " because the carnal 
 mind is enmity against God;" and 
 wherever it exists it exists in a state of 
 " active rebellion," for "it is not subject 
 to the law of God, neither indeed can 
 be." Hence, regeneration either "de- 
 stro}'S the body of sin" "the carnal 
 mind" or else it fails to reconcile us to 
 God. This " carnal mind " is the " law 
 of sin and death that reigns in the un- 
 regenerate," and from which, Paul af- 
 firms, "the law of the Spirit of life in 
 Christ Jesus makes us free;" and "if 
 the Son make you free, you shall be free
 
 62 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 indeed: " but " if any man have not this 
 Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, he is none 
 of his." If Paul had written the sixth 
 and eighth chapters of Romans to over- 
 throw the " residue theory of regenera- 
 tion," he could not have made his ar- 
 guments stronger or his points clearer. 
 
 Dr. Luther Lee says : " There is still 
 a warfare within ; there will be found 
 an opposing element in the sensibilities 
 of the soul, which, though it no longer 
 controls the will, often rebels against it 
 and refuses to obey it. . . . This 
 must be brought into harmony with the 
 sanctified will before the whole soul can 
 be said to be sanctified. When this 
 work is wrought, then the war within 
 will cease." 
 
 Now the Doctor's " warfare within " 
 his " opposing element in the sensi- 
 bility of the soul " is the very essence
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 63 
 
 of temptation, and is realized to a great- 
 er or less degree in every solicitation to 
 evil ; it was thus that " Christ suffered, 
 being tempted." Hence, to destroy this 
 "sensibility of the soul," so that the 
 " war within will cease," is to put us be- 
 yond the susceptibility of being tempt- 
 ed. Hence, Dr. Knapp truly says: 
 " The desires of man are not in them- 
 selves and abstractly considered sinful, 
 for they are deep laid in the constitu- 
 tion which God has given to human nat- 
 ure; and they arise in man involunta- 
 rily, and so far cannot be imputed to 
 him." And Prof. Stuart goes farther 
 and says : " With the deepest reverence 
 I say it: The Lord Jesus Christ himself 
 had a susceptibility of feeling the power of 
 enticement to sin, like that which Adam 
 had before the fall. If not, then he did 
 not really and truly take on him human 
 
 0FFQRD COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 64 The. Problem of Methodism. 
 
 nature. The fact that such a state of 
 susceptibility belonged to Adam in his 
 primitive state shows that it belongs 
 to human nature in its perfect probation- 
 ary state." (" Bib. Repos.," 1839.) An- 
 other able divine has said : " It was in 
 this way that the temptation of Christ 
 caused suffering ; he suffered from the 
 force of desire. Though there was no 
 hesitation whether to obey or not, no 
 strife in the will, yet in the act of mas- 
 tery there was pain. There was self -de- 
 nial; there was obedience at the ex- 
 pense of tortured natural feeling ; 'Jesus 
 suffered, being tempted.' He 'was 
 tempted like as we are; 1 remember this, 
 for the way in which some speak of the 
 sinlessness of Jesus reduces all his suf- 
 fering to physical pain, destroys the 
 reality of temptation, reduces that glo- 
 rious heart to a pretense, and converts
 
 The, Twofold Nature of Man. 65 
 
 the whole of his history into a mere fic- 
 titious drama, in which scenes of trial: 
 were represented, not felt! " 
 
 Once more: Rev. Wm, Bramwell, in. 
 a letter to a friend, says: "An idea is 
 going forth that when we are justified; 
 we are entirely sanctified, and that to 
 feel evil nature after justification is to 
 lose pardon. You may depend upon it, , 
 this is the devil's great gun. We shall 
 have much trouble with this, and I am 
 afraid we cannot suppress it." 
 
 The above paragraph is a remarkablef 
 utterance in itself; but to see the use 
 that certain writers have made of it is, 
 still more remarkable. Now the phrase,: 
 " to feel evil nature after justification is 
 to lose pardon," is exceedingly equivo- 
 cal. If he means by "feeling evil nat-: 
 ure " that the justified believer's nature; 
 
 has become evil by voluntary yielding 
 5
 
 66 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 to temptation, then there can be no con- 
 troversy about "pardon being lost." 
 But if he means by "feeling evil nat- 
 ure" the susceptibility of feeling en- 
 ticement to sin, then, so far from that 
 forfeiting pardon, no state of grace in 
 this life will free us from that suscepti- 
 bility. So the "devil's great gun" is 
 spiked by drawing the line between 
 temptation and sin between the sus- 
 ceptibility to feel enticement to evil and 
 the will yielding to the solicitation. 
 From the above extract from Mr. 
 Bramwell's letters, and one or two re- 
 marks of Mr. Wesley, we believe if 
 those who contended in that day that 
 regeneration and sanctification are co- 
 etaneous had drawn the line between 
 temptation and sin had drawn it clear- 
 ly and sharply then the "residue the- 
 ory " would never have been so gener-
 
 The Twofold Nature of Man. 67 
 
 ally received. The truth is, both schools 
 of theologians of that day frequently 
 confounded temptation and sin. The 
 one class called it " inbred sin," the " re- 
 mains of the carnal mind," which, said 
 they, does not forfeit pardon, but makes 
 a " second change necessary." The 
 other class contended that sin was sin, 
 and that where sin actually existed 
 pardon was forfeited. They were both 
 right and both wrong. Every sin after 
 justification forfeits pardon, but temp- 
 tation is not sin. There are thousands 
 of cases where not only a " second 
 cleansing" is necessary, but a third, a 
 fourth, and, in some cases, one hundred 
 "cleansings" and "blessings" will be 
 received during life; but in all such 
 cases the "foundation for repentance" 
 and a "second cleansing" originated 
 "from dead works" and "defiled gar-
 
 68 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 merits," and the loss of their "first 
 love," and not because " regeneration 
 is a partial renovation " all of which 
 will be made clear as we advance in 
 this investigation. But having capt- 
 ured and spiked the "devil's great gun" 
 we will stop and rest, and renew the 
 battle in the next chapter.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 "Sin in Believers." 
 
 Our respect for Mr. Wesley is pro- 
 found. He did more than any other 
 one man to clear up the muddy theolo- 
 gy of the Dark Ages. If he failed to 
 harmonize his theory of the divine life 
 at some points, he did more than any 
 other man of modern times Luther not 
 excepted to quicken that life in the 
 souls of men. When he "saw, from 
 reading the Bible, that he could not be 
 saved without holiness," if he had ex- 
 purgated the "residue theory of regen- 
 eration " from his Creed, as he finally ex- 
 purgated it from the Creed he prepared 
 for the Methodist Church of America, 
 his body of divinity would have been 
 
 the most harmonious and Biblical ever 
 
 (69)
 
 70 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 given to the world. But that " dead fly 
 in his pot of precious ointment" has 
 been the source of confusion in doctrine 
 and experience through all the history 
 of Methodism. None but those who 
 have read his " Journals " for that ex- 
 press purpose have any correct idea of 
 the amount of trouble and confusion this 
 "residue theory" brought upon Mr. 
 Wesley. A few, and only a few, know 
 something of the magnitude of the 
 trouble and confusion it has introduced 
 into the theology and experience of 
 American Methodism ; and we fear the 
 end is not yet. 
 
 As much as Mr. Wesley wrote, he 
 never wrote any thing so at war with 
 the fundamental principles of the divine 
 life, as taught and explained by himself 
 and set forth in the Word of God, as 
 what he wrote in defense of " Sin in
 
 "Sin in Believers." 71 
 
 Believers." Starting from the stand- 
 point of the Ninth Article of the Church 
 of England, instead of the Bible, he 
 failed to see that all the mental states 
 he describes, as well as the Scripture 
 texts he quotes, can be accounted for 
 and explained without adopting the 
 " residue theory." No one can careful- 
 ly read the first part of the sermon on 
 " Sin in Believers " without being im- 
 pressed with the fact that Mr. Wesley, 
 more under the influence of the " re- 
 mains of High-churchism " than under 
 a consciousness of the " remains of the 
 carnal mind," regarded the "residue 
 theory" as being settled by Church au- 
 thority; and, as a loyal son of the Church, 
 he went to work to defend this dogma 
 (against the teachings of Count Zinzen- 
 dorf ) by appealing to the canons of the 
 Church, the Fathers, and such Scripture
 
 72 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 texts as might bear such application. 
 If any thing had quietly led him to 
 suspect that a great error was couched 
 in this dogma of the Church he would 
 have rejected it, as he did the dogmas 
 of "apostolic succession" and "bap- 
 tismal regeneration." We are con- 
 firmed in this opinion by the fact that 
 Mr. Wesley did finally reject this dogma 
 so far as to cut it out of the Articles of 
 Faith prepared for the Church to be organ- 
 ized in America ! 
 
 But to return: While Mr. Wesley 
 was intensely engaged in reviving prim- 
 itive Christianity as a living power in 
 the soul preaching holiness of heart 
 and life everywhere he went Messrs. 
 Bell, Maxfield, and others in the Society 
 in London came forward and testified 
 that they had found this Bible holiness, 
 having received " sanctification " as a
 
 "Sin in Believers." 73 
 
 " second change." As this opened the 
 way to reach the great object for which 
 he groaned (Bible holiness), without col- 
 liding with the Ninth Article of the 
 Church, Mr. Wesley accepted the testi- 
 mony of these witnesses on the one 
 hand, and the " residue " dogma of the 
 Church on the other hand, and thus he 
 was committed to the "residue theory 
 of regeneration " and the " second 
 change theory of sanctification ; " and 
 his sermons on " Sin in Believers " and 
 "The Repentance of Believers " were an 
 earnest effort of a great mind and a 
 ripe scholar to harmonize these two 
 theories with Christian experience and 
 the teaching of the Bible. But he 
 failed; and if John Wesley failed, there 
 must be a great error hid away in one 
 or both of these "theories." 
 
 To see such a man as Mr. Wesley
 
 74 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 learned, clear, and logical on all other 
 subjects struggling, floundering, first 
 on this side, now on that side of his 
 subject, is one of the saddest scenes in 
 the life of that great man. Have I 
 made it too strong? Let us see. On 
 this side he says : " We allow that the 
 state of a justified person is inexpress- 
 ibly great and glorious. . . . He 
 is created anew in Christ Jesus ; he is 
 washed ; he is sanctified. His heart is 
 purified by faith ; he is cleansed from the 
 corruption that is in the world." " To 
 be born again is to be inwardly changed 
 from all sinfulness to all holiness." Now 
 on the other side he says : " If there be 
 no such second change after justification, 
 . . . then we must be content, as 
 well as we can, to remain full of sin till 
 death; and, if so, we must remain guilty 
 till death, continually deserving punish-
 
 11 Sin in Believers." 75 
 
 ment." Now, I submit that any "the- 
 ory" of the divine life that involved 
 such a man as Mr. Wesley in such ab- 
 surdities and self-contradictions as the 
 above must be at war with reason, 
 common sense, and the Word of God ! 
 
 There is much in the writings of 
 Wesley, Fletcher, Clarke, and Watson 
 which will quadrate with the Ninth Ar- 
 ticle of the Church of England, from 
 which stand-point they all wrote ; but I 
 thank God from the depths of my soul 
 that this "residue" dogma was never 
 in the Articles of Faith of either branch 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
 America. " But it is in our standard 
 works on theology." True; and it is 
 in a great many more that are not 
 " standard works ; " but it is equally 
 true that all these "standard authors," 
 in defining the new birth, have admitted 
 
 #QFF0RD COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 76 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 and affirmed every thing we contend 
 for in regeneration. Hence, we not only 
 have our Articles of Faith on our side, 
 but, if the language of the Fathers 
 the authority of the "standards" is 
 worth any thing, it is worth as much to 
 us as to those who hold to the " residue 
 theory." When doctors and masters 
 differ the pupils can take either side. 
 If Mr. Wesley and the other Fathers 
 of Methodism adopted a "theory" 
 which they could not harmonize with 
 itself, nor reconcile with the plain teach- 
 ing of the Word of God, nor with their 
 own expositions of that Word exposi- 
 tions given by them when they were 
 searching for the mind of the Spirit, as 
 expressed in the language of the text 
 in the light of the context shall we 
 adopt the said "theory" or decide with 
 the Bible and the unbiased expositions
 
 "Sin in Believers." 77 
 
 of the Bible given by these aforesaid 
 Fathers ? One had about as well go to 
 our Articles of Faith, after Mr. Wesley 
 completed his work of expurgation, to 
 find the "residue theory," as to search 
 for it in Clarke's "Commentary" and 
 Wesley's "Notes on the New Testa- 
 ment." Mr. Wesley's sermons on " Sin 
 in Believers " and the " Repentance of 
 Believers " were both written and pub- 
 lished under peculiar circumstances, to 
 meet the follies and excesses of Bell, 
 Maxfield, and their followers. Dr. J. T. 
 Crane, who has looked up all the facts 
 and dates, says : " Bell and the other 
 enthusiasts professed to have become 
 so holy that they were out of the reach 
 of temptation, and denounced all who 
 failed to attain the same fancied heights. 
 Not content with a ' second ' work of 
 grace, by which, as they claimed, their
 
 78 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 hearts were wholly purified from evil 
 tempers, they began to profess a 'third, 1 
 by which their minds, as they said, were 
 lifted above the reach of evil thoughts. 
 Wesley's sermon on * Sin in Believers ' 
 was designed to be a refutation of these 
 unscriptural notions." Yet, in reading 
 the books and periodicals published in 
 this country in the interest of the " res- 
 idue theory," one would almost be led 
 to conclude that when "our standards" 
 are referred to, one or the other of 
 these sermons is the document intended. 
 Such importance being given to these 
 two sermons, it becomes necessary in 
 this investigation to give them a thor- 
 ough examination. But before I begin 
 this analysis let me call attention to 
 two significant historical facts. First, 
 in 1784, only seven years before his 
 death, Mr. Wesley rejected the " resi-
 
 "Sin in Believers." 79 
 
 due theory " so far as to cut it out of 
 our Articles of Faith. Second, in 1785, 
 one year later, he published his sermon 
 on " Perfection," in which he says not 
 a word about " inbred sin " or " the 
 seeds of sin in believers." Add a third 
 fact: In 1763, over twenty-eight years 
 before his death, he published his ser- 
 mon on " Sin in Believers," under the 
 peculiar circumstances already de- 
 scribed. I leave these facts with the 
 reader for the present. 
 
 I have selected four paragraphs from 
 the two sermons referred to ; and as 
 these paragraphs have been transcribed 
 into all the books and periodicals print- 
 ed in the interest of the "residue theo- 
 ry of regeneration" and the "second 
 change theory of sanctification ; " and 
 as these paragraphs state these two 
 theories as strongly as language can
 
 80 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 being the key-note of all the modern 
 writers of this school I hope their se- 
 lection will be satisfactory. After we 
 have examined them in the light of the 
 facts brought out in the last chapter, 
 we will examine proof-texts. 
 
 Mr. Wesley says : (1) " That [justi- 
 fied] believers are delivered from the 
 guilt and power of sin we allow ; that 
 they are delivered from its being we 
 deny." (2) "Christ indeed cannot 
 reign where sin reigns; neither will he 
 dwell where any sin is allowed. But 
 he is and dwells in the heart of every 
 believer who is fighting against all sin, 
 although the heart be not yet purified." 
 (Ser. XIII.) 
 
 What Mr. Wesley means by the "be- 
 ing of sin" and a "heart not yet puri- 
 fied" is. the "infection of our nature," 
 which the Ninth Article says "remains
 
 "Sin in Believers." 81 
 
 in them that are regenerated. . . . 
 And although there is no condemnation 
 for them that believe, yet this corruption 
 hath of itself the nature of sin." Hence, 
 Mr. Wesley calls it "inbred sin," in- 
 dwelling sin," the " being of sin." Paul 
 calls it " the old man," " body of sin," 
 " sin that dwelleth in " the " carnal " or 
 " natural man," " the law of sin which 
 was in my members," when he "was 
 carnal, sold under sin," "the law of sin 
 and death," and "the carnal mind." 
 Now the difference between Paul and 
 the Ninth Article of the Church of 
 England is that Paul used every one of 
 these terms to describe the condition of 
 the unregenerated man, while the Ninth 
 Article applies them to the regenerated 
 believer; and Mr. Wesley, like a loyal 
 Churchman, followed the Article of 
 Faith instead of Paul ! And hundreds
 
 82 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 in this country have followed Mr. Wes- 
 ley! The difference between St. Paul 
 and Mr. Wesley is that Paul says that 
 "the old man is crucified," the "body 
 of sin is destroyed," and that we are 
 " made free from the law of sin and 
 death," when we "put off the old man 
 and put on the new man, which, accord- 
 ing to the divine pattern, is created in 
 righteousness and true holiness ; " while 
 Mr. Wesley says that " if there be no 
 second change after justification, then we 
 must remain full of sin until death 1 " In 
 the sixth chapter of Romans Paul 
 teaches clearly that the normal state of 
 the divine life in the soul includes or 
 presupposes a " crucifixion of the old 
 man," a "destruction of the body of 
 sin," and a "death to sin." This is so 
 clearly his meaning that Dr. A. Clarke 
 says: "The man who has received
 
 "Sin in Believers" 83 
 
 Christ Jesus by faith and has been 
 made a partaker of the Holy Spirit has 
 had his old man destroyed, so that he 
 is not only justified freely from all sin, 
 but wholly sanctified!" In Romans 
 viii. 1-4 Paul, in describing the re- 
 sults of justifying faith, says : " The law 
 of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
 made me free from the law of sin and 
 death." It is so clear that Paul here 
 teaches that justification is immediately 
 followed by entire sanctification that Dr. 
 Clarke says : " The gospel pardons and 
 sanctifies; the carnal man, laboring un- 
 der the overpowering influence of the 
 sin of his nature, ... is first free- 
 ly justified he feels no condemnation ; 
 he is fully sanctified he walks not 
 after the flesh, but after the spirit." 
 
 Again Mr. Wesley says : (3) " In : 
 deed, this grand point that there are
 
 84 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 two contrary principles in believers 
 nature and grace, the flesh and spirit 
 runs through all the Epistles of St. 
 Paul yea, through all the Holy Script- 
 ures: almost all the directions and ex- 
 hortations therein are founded on this 
 supposition, pointing at wrong tempers 
 or practices in those who are, notwith- 
 standing, acknowledged by the inspired 
 writers to be believers." (Ser. XIII.) 
 The first point we notice in this par- 
 agraph is : the facts do not sustain the 
 inferences. The fact that "there are 
 two contrary principles in believers 
 nature and grace, the flesh and spirit" 
 does not sustain the inference that 
 there is "sin in believers;" for Christ 
 had "nature and grace, the flesh and 
 spirit" in him, or else he was not truly 
 a man. The fact that the gospel pro- 
 poses to "destroy the body of sin" to
 
 "Sin in Believers." 85 
 
 "crucify the old man" (which is inbred 
 sin itself) does not sustain the inference 
 that one of our two natures must be de- 
 stroyed. Any one can see that the 
 work proposed in this " second change " 
 is to destroy " nature " and leave 
 "grace," to destroy the "flesh" and 
 leave the " spirit ; " to deny this would 
 be to make Mr. Wesley write nonsense ! 
 Of course " almost all the directions 
 and exhortations in Holy Scripture are 
 founded upon the supposition that nat- 
 ure and grace, the flesh and spirit are 
 in believers ; " for if regeneration, or 
 sanctification either, "destroyed the 
 nature or flesh of a believer," then 
 there would be no need of either "di- 
 rections or exhortations," for said be- 
 liever would then be no longer exposed 
 to the temptation of " making provis- 
 ion for the flesh," or any other tempta- 
 
 gQFFM* COLLEGE UBRtf
 
 86 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 tion. But to say that "Christ will 
 dwell in a heart not yet purified," and 
 that those who are " indulging wrong 
 tempers and practices are nevertheless 
 justified believers " to say all this, and 
 more, in order to make occasion for a 
 " second change," is to put the " residue 
 theory of regeneration " and the " sec- 
 ond change theory of sanctification " on 
 a sandy foundation indeed! 
 
 Once more. Mr. Wesley says: (4) 
 " By all the grace given at justification, 
 though we watch and pray ever so 
 much, we cannot wholly cleanse either 
 our hands or our hearts. Most sure we 
 cannot, till it please our Lord to speak 
 to our hearts again, to speak the second 
 time, ' Be clean ! ' and then only the 
 leprosy is cleansed ; then only the evil 
 root, the carnal mind, is destroyed, and 
 inbred sin subsists no more. But if
 
 "Sin in Believers." 87 
 
 there be no such second change after jus- 
 tification, . . . then we must be 
 content, as well as we can, to remain 
 full of sin till death; and, if so, we must 
 remain guilty till death, continually de- 
 serving punishment ! " (Ser. XIV.) 
 
 This is a remarkable paragraph in 
 many respects, but mainly in that it is 
 the only place in which Mr. Wesley ad- 
 mits that "Sin in Believers" involves 
 "guilt" and "deserves punishment!''] 
 How a man can be u full of sin and guilt, 
 so as to deserve punishment " and be in a 
 " justified state" at the same time, is be- 
 yond my comprehension. And yet to say 
 that such a man has forfeited his justi- 
 fication and needs this second change 
 to re-instate him is to give up the "res- 
 idue theory of regeneration " and the 
 " second change theory of sanctifica- 
 tion!" Of these alternatives I have
 
 88 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 chosen the latter. But a state of guilt 
 and justification can be reconciled about 
 as easily as to conceive how the " carnal 
 mind " can exist in a regenerated be- 
 liever and remain there "till it please 
 the Lord to speak again, to speak the 
 second time, 'Be clean!'"* Will the 
 Christian world never learn that the 
 mind God gave to man in creation is 
 the same mind that he carries with him 
 forever? and that the " carnal mind' 1 '' is 
 nothing more than this same mind un- 
 der the control of our fleshly nature 
 "the course of carnal thinking?" and 
 that all that is necessary to " destroy the 
 carnal mind " is to " renew us in the di- 
 vine image " and take this same mind 
 from under the control of this fleshly 
 
 *We have already shown that regeneration 
 either destroys the " carnal mind," or else it fails 
 to reconcile us to God.
 
 "Sin in Believers." 89 
 
 nature and put it back under the control 
 of the Holy Spirit and our renewed 
 spiritual nature, so that we will " walk 
 not after the flesh but after the Spirit ? " 
 And will learned theologians never 
 learn that in this work of " transform- 
 ing and renewing the mind," neither 
 one of our two natures is destroyed? 
 that the "old man," the "body of sin," 
 "inbred sin," and the "carnal mind," 
 all mean the same thing in Paul's psy- 
 chology ? and that the " old man is cru- 
 cified," the "body of sin is destroyed," 
 the "carnal mind is destroyed," and 
 "inbred sin subsists no more" when 
 we " put off the old man, and put on 
 the new man ? " 
 
 How any man who has studied Paul's 
 Epistle to the Romans can talk about 
 "destroying the carnal mind in a re- 
 generated believer," who has not for-
 
 90 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 feited his justified state by "walking 
 after the flesh," is a mystery I cannot 
 understand ; for no one can be " born of 
 the Spirit" without becoming "spiritu- 
 ally minded," and Paul shows conclu- 
 sively that no one can be "carnally 
 minded " and " spiritually minded " at 
 the same time. There is no half-way 
 house on this "Appian Way" to the 
 spiritual kingdom. Even Mr. Wesley 
 has said : " That which is born of the 
 Spirit is spiritual, heavenly, divine, like 
 its Author" " To be born again is to 
 be inwardly changed from all sinfulness to 
 all holiness." This j)oint cannot be 
 evaded by using the term, " the remains 
 of the carnal mind," for there is noth- 
 ing to remain." Man has but one mind, 
 and that mind is either carnal or spir- 
 itual, according as he " walks after the 
 flesh " or " after the Spirit." If a man
 
 "Sin in Believers." 91 
 
 can walk in opposite directions at the 
 same time, then he can be "carnally 
 minded " and "spiritually minded" 
 then he can be a "justified believer" 
 and be "full of sin and guilt" at the 
 same time ; but not till then. 
 
 Paul's argument runs thus: There 
 can be no carnal mind in those who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the 
 Spirit; for they that walk after the 
 flesh do mind the things of the flesh ; 
 but they that walk after the Spirit do 
 mind the things of the Spirit. For to 
 be carnally minded is spiritual death ; 
 but to be spiritually minded is life and 
 peace. Because the carnal mind is en- 
 mity against God : for it is not subject 
 to the law of God, neither indeed can 
 be. So then, they that walk after the 
 flesh cannot please God. But ye walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit,
 
 92 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. 
 Now if any man have not the Spirit of 
 Christ divelling in him, he is none of 
 his.* Hence, so long as the Spirit 
 dwells in the heart of a believer, and he 
 "makes no provision for the flesh to 
 fulfill the desires thereof," so long there 
 will be no " carnal mind " in him to be 
 destroyed; and hence no need of this 
 " second change." 
 
 Again, if there be "sin in justified 
 believers," and if "we cannot wholly 
 cleanse our hearts, till it please the 
 Lord to speak to our hearts again, to 
 speak the second time, 'Be clean!'" 
 does it not follow that this "sin" is al- 
 lowed to " remain in our hearts " under 
 the divine approval 1 ? The truth is, ac- 
 
 * In the above paraphrase of Rom. viii. 4-9 I 
 have given a clearer idea of Paul's argument than 
 can be given by the ordinary mode of comment.
 
 "Sin in Believers." 93 
 
 cording to the whole statement of the 
 case by Mr. Wesley, this " residue the- 
 ory " charges God with the folly of for- 
 giving sin, the "being and corruption" 
 of which he allows to "remain till he 
 speaks to our hearts again, till he speaks 
 the second time, ' Be clean ! ' " We ask, 
 in the name of Christianity, is this the 
 best the gospel can do for fallen, de- 
 praved, corrupt humanity? Let St. 
 John answer: "If we confess our sins, 
 he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins and to cleanse us from all unright- 
 eousness." Yea, let Mr. Wesley himself 
 answer: "To be born again is to be in- 
 wardly changed from all sinfulness to all 
 holiness" When defining the new birth 
 Mr. Wesley always gave a Bible defini- 
 tion of regeneration, but when he came 
 to speak of sanctification as a " second 
 change " he always became entangled 
 
 WOFFOBD COLLEGE LIBRAE
 
 94 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 and collided with himself. This theory 
 of the divine life never has been har- 
 monized with itself or reconciled with 
 the plain teaching of the Word of God. 
 We believe, and have undertaken to 
 show, that the " residue theory of re- 
 generation" and the "second change 
 theory of sanctification " rest upon a 
 false psychology and a misapplication 
 of a few texts of Scripture. Mr. Wes- 
 ley was led into the one by the Ninth 
 Article of the Church of England, and 
 he accepted the other upon the testimo- 
 ny of some of the members of his soci- 
 ety in London. But "Mr. Wesley had 
 scarcely left London, after receiving 
 this testimony, before two of these wit- 
 nesses, George Bell and Thomas Max- 
 field, began to hold independent meet- 
 ings, declaring that no one could teach 
 the sanctified except those who were
 
 "Sin in Believers." 95 
 
 themselves in that state of grace ; and 
 that God was to be found only among 
 these his saints." * " These enthusiasts 
 professed to have become so holy that 
 they were out of the reach of tempta- 
 tion^ and denounced all who failed to 
 
 * " Maxfield carried off finally about two hundred 
 members, founded an independent congregation, and 
 continued to minister to them for twenty years, and 
 then died. Bell turned prophet, and declared that 
 the world would come to an end on the 28th of 
 February, 1763. When his prophecy was proved 
 false by time, he not only gave up the office of 
 prophet, but abandoned all pretense of religion, 
 went into politics, and died an infidel." Will not 
 our members who are being led out of the Method- 
 ist Church by self-appointed teachers take warn- 
 ing? And will not the leaders of these " Holiness 
 Conventions " pause and " go slow f " There may be 
 danger ahead, around the curve! 
 
 f This was a natural result of the " residue the- 
 ory." Having mistaken the essence of temptation 
 for the " motions of inbred sin," the " remains of
 
 96 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 attain the same fancied heights." Thus 
 the "residue theory" gave Mr. Wesley 
 trouble as long as he lived, and among 
 the great and latest acts of his wonder- 
 ful life, he cut out that clause of the 
 Ninth Article which taught it, and gave 
 American Methodists a Creed from 
 which this Antinomian error was ex- 
 purgated. We are now ready to exam- 
 ine proof-texts. 
 
 the carnal mind," and their "second change" (de- 
 signed to remove this) failing to relieve them, then 
 they were ready for any delusion that might sug- 
 gest itself.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 " How Readest Thou ? " 
 
 While every Christian feels that his 
 experience agrees, in the main, with 
 those mental states which Mr. Wesley 
 describes in his sermon on " Sin in Be- 
 lievers," yet all those mental states can 
 be accounted for without adopting the 
 " residue theory of regeneration." We 
 believe that every text quoted and 
 every mental state described readily 
 and naturally resolve themselves into 
 one of two classes: First, the parties 
 referred to were persons who were pass- 
 ing through severe temptations, out of 
 which they came as pure as ever; or, 
 second, persons who had yielded to 
 temptation in some form, and thereby 
 
 forfeited their justification and " defiled 
 7 (97)
 
 98 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 their garments." To come directly to 
 the point: If there be any force in 
 habit, if passions and desires become 
 strong by exercise and undue indul- 
 gence, if the young Christian be subject- 
 ed to temptation, it follows that he will 
 be severely exercised by the uprising of 
 his desires at the presentation of a once 
 enjoyed but now renounced object. But 
 to say that so long as the will rejects 
 the temptation there is sin is to say 
 that temptation is sin ; and if the will 
 yields to say that such a one is still in 
 a justified state is to say that voluntary 
 transgression does not forfeit justifica- 
 tion. Thus we shall find that the mental 
 states which have been described as 
 " sin in believers," and as being " com- 
 patible with a state of justification," 
 are, in many instances, nothing more 
 than severe temptations, and as such
 
 "How Beaded Thou?" 99 
 
 were not sinful ; in other cases, however, 
 it is equally clear that the will had con- 
 curred with the solicitation, and justifi- 
 cation was forfeited. 
 
 Mr. Wesley himself says : " The 
 more any believer examines his own 
 heart the more will he be convinced of 
 this that faith, working by love, ex- 
 cludes both inward and outward sin 
 from the soul watching unto prayer; 
 that, nevertheless, we are liable, even 
 then, to be tempted, particularly to the 
 sin that did so easily beset us ; . that if 
 the loving eye of the soul be steadfast- 
 ly fixed on God the temptation soon 
 vanishes away; but if not if we are 
 'draw T n out by our own desires,' and 
 caught by the bait of present or prom- 
 ised pleasure, then that desire conceived 
 in us [indulged] brings forth sin." 
 What a pity that a man who had such
 
 100 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 clear views of the Bible idea of the new 
 birth and temptation as Mr. Wesley 
 should have been tied hand and foot by 
 a Church dogma so at war with both. 
 No wonder he drew his pen through 
 that clause in preparing our Articles of 
 Faith. 
 
 But we promised to explain the proof- 
 texts. " What is written in the law ? 
 How readest thou?" Let us begin 
 with 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3. In the preced- 
 ing chapter Paul draws a clear distinc- 
 tion between the natural man and the 
 new man, or the carnal man and the 
 spiritual man; and then begins this 
 chapter thus : "And I, brethren, could 
 not speak unto you as spiritual [men], 
 but as unto carnal [men] ; ... for 
 whereas there are among you envying, 
 and strife, and divisions, are ye not car- 
 nal, and walk as [carnal] men?" (1
 
 "How Readest Thou?" 101 
 
 Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3.) Dr. Clarke says : " Ye 
 act just as the people of the world, and 
 have no more of the spirit of religion 
 than they. . . . These people were 
 wrong in thought, word, and deed!" 
 The fact that Paul speaks unto them, 
 or had spoken unto them, " as babes in 
 Christ," and " fed them with milk, and 
 not with meat, because they were not 
 able to bear it," does not prove that 
 these "carnal men " were then in a jus- 
 tified state; for the context shows that 
 the state of babyhood refers to knowl- 
 edge instead of moral condition (See Dr. 
 Clarke in loco). Moreover, Paul says 
 positively that he "could not speak 
 unto them as unto spiritual men " 
 " Now if any man have not the Spirit of 
 Christ, he is none of his;" but Paul 
 could and did " speak unto them as 
 unto carnal men'" and "to be carnally
 
 102 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 minded is [spiritual] death." Does not 
 that settle the question that these " car- 
 nal men," or, if you prefer, these " nat- 
 ural men " were in a state of spiritual 
 death and condemnation ? Again, Paul 
 said that they " walked as [carnal] 
 men;" and "they that walk after the 
 flesh cannot please God." Once more: 
 if these "carnal men" were still in a 
 justified state, they were also in a sanc- 
 tified state ; for Paul, in addressing this 
 Church, says : " Unto the Church of 
 God which is at Corinth, to them that 
 are sanctified in Christ Jesus," etc. ; " ye 
 are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are 
 justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, 
 and by the Spirit of God." (1 Cor. i. 
 2; vi. 11.) So those " carnal men" had 
 either forfeited their justified state, or 
 else a degree of carnality is also left in 
 a sanctified believer! In either case
 
 "How Reddest Thou?" 103 
 
 the text (1 Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3) proves 
 nothing for the " residue theory of re- 
 generation" and the "second change 
 theory of sanctification." 
 
 The next proof-text is Gal. v. 17: 
 " For the flesh lusteth against the Spir- 
 it, and the Spirit lusteth against the 
 flesh." Now every thing affirmed of 
 the flesh is affirmed of the Holy Spirit 
 in this verse; hence the word "lust" 
 is a mistranslation in both the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth verses. The whole 
 chapter shows conclusively that so far 
 from Paul intending to teach in this 
 text (verse 17) that moral "corruption," 
 or the " carnal mind," could abide in a 
 regenerated believer so as to really 
 "lust" after a forbidden object, he in- 
 tended to teach that a " carnal " and a 
 "spiritual" life were so diametrically 
 opposed that we could not commingle
 
 104 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 the two, but we passed immediately 
 from the one state to the other as soon 
 as we tried to combine them in the same 
 heart. After telling some of these Ga- 
 latians that they had "fallen from 
 grace " (verse 4), Paul goes on to say : 
 "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 
 fulfill the desires of the flesh. For the 
 flesh desireth against the Spirit, and 
 the Spirit desireth against the flesh, 
 (and these are contrary the one to the 
 other) that ye may not do the things ye 
 would. But if ye are led by the Spirit 
 ye are not under the [condemnation] of 
 the law." (Mr. Wesley's trans. Gal. v. 
 16, 17, 18.) So far, then, from these 
 Galatians who were "fulfilling the de- 
 sires of the flesh" being in a justified 
 state and a sample of all justified be- 
 lievers, they refused to "walk in the 
 Spirit," or to be " led by the Spirit,"
 
 "How Beadest Thou?" 105 
 
 and were " under the [condemnation] of 
 the law." Dr. Clarke says : " They had 
 fallen from the grace of the gospel ; and 
 as Christ no longer dwelt in their hearts 
 by faith, pride, anger, ill-will, and all 
 unkind and uncharitable tempers took 
 possession of their souls ; and they were, 
 in consequence, alternately destroying 
 each other. ... It was on this 
 ground that Paul exhorted them to walk 
 in the Spirit, that they might not fulfill 
 the desires of the flesh ; as without the 
 grace of God they could do nothing." 
 On the seventeenth verse Dr. Clarke 
 remarks : " God still continues to strive 
 with you, notwithstanding your apostasy, 
 showing you whence you are fallen, and 
 exciting you to return to him ; but your 
 own obstinacy renders all ineffectual, 
 and through the influence of these dif- 
 ferent principles [the desires of the
 
 106 Th.e Problem of Methodism. 
 
 flesh and the convictions of the Spirit] 
 you are kept in a state of self-opposi- 
 tion and self-distraction, 'so that ye 
 cannot do the things that ye would.' " 
 So far, then, from Gal. v. 17 teaching 
 that a regenerated man may have " in- 
 bred sin," the "carnal mind," and 
 "lust" abiding in him, we find that the 
 persons referred to in that text were 
 "fulfilling the desires of the flesh ; " 
 having ceased "to walk in the Spirit," 
 or to be " led by the Spirit," they had 
 forfeited their justification, had "fallen 
 from grace," and were "under the [con- 
 demnation of the] law! " 
 
 We notice next 1 Thess. v. 23 : "And 
 the very God of peace sanctify you 
 wholly ; and I pray God your whole 
 spirit and soul and body be preserved 
 blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." Now, the sum total of
 
 "How Beadest Thou?" 107 
 
 which Paul speaks is the whole man, and 
 not of a partial cleansing of the moral 
 nature at one time and a complete 
 cleansing of the moral nature at a sub- 
 sequent time. It is one thing to be 
 "pure in heart," and another thing to 
 preserve a pure heart by a holy or pure 
 life ; and as Paul had exhorted them to 
 "be at peace among themselves," to 
 "warn the unruly," to "see that none 
 render evil for evil," to " pray without 
 ceasing," to " quench not the Spirit," to 
 " abstain from all appearance of evil ; " 
 and then prayed that they might be 
 "sanctified wholly" (not holy), and that 
 their "spirit and soul and body might 
 be preserved blameless," it is clear that 
 he had his eye on such a " consecration " 
 of the whole man as would lead to a 
 " blameless " life, and that such an idea 
 as the " residue theory " and the " sec-
 
 108 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ond change theory" never entered 
 Paul's mind. 
 
 The prayer of David is introduced as 
 proof of the " residue theory : " " Create 
 in me a clean heart, God ; and renew 
 a right spirit within me." (Ps. li. 10.) 
 But the necessity of a " clean heart " in 
 this case did not originate in a "partial 
 renovation " at conversion, but in the 
 fact that David had committed a hei- 
 nous sin after his feet had been taken 
 out of the mire and clay, and a "new 
 song put in his mouth;" hence he 
 prayed also that a right spirit might be 
 "renewed in him." 
 
 We pause here to call attention to a 
 psychological fact that will give us the 
 key of interpretation to those passages 
 yet to be examined. We refer to the 
 fact that in all such mental and spiritu- 
 al activity as is put forth in the act of
 
 "How Reddest Thou? " 109 
 
 giving up the world and accepting 
 Christ, there is produced in our mental 
 nature what mental philosophers call a 
 " radical disposition." * This "disposi- 
 tion " is usually referred to, in Chris- 
 tian experience, as " my original pur- 
 pose to serve God and get to heaven." 
 Now, as this " purpose " precedes regen- 
 eration, and is distinct from the spirit- 
 ual life in the soul, it follows that a 
 man may retain this purpose after he 
 has forfeited his justified state and be- 
 come spiritually dead. Thus it was 
 with the Churches at Pergamos, Ephe- 
 sus, Sardis, etc. None of these Church- 
 es had "denied the faith," none had re- 
 nounced Christianity, none had given 
 up their " original purpose to serve God 
 and get to heaven ; " yet in some of 
 
 *See Dr. Hickok's "Science of the Mind," 
 page 335.
 
 110 rhe Problem of Methodism. 
 
 them even this "thing which remained 
 was ready to die," and in all these 
 Churches, except one, there was some 
 open violation of God's laws which in- 
 volved the guilty parties in condemna- 
 tion, and for which they were command- 
 ed to " repent and do their first works." 
 (See Rev. ii., iii.) Now these cases are 
 held up to prove that regeneration is a 
 partial work, leaving a residue of " cor- 
 ruption in them that are regenerated." 
 In his sermon on " Sin in Believers " 
 Mr. Wesley labors hard to show that 
 all these backslidden members in these 
 Churches were still in a justified state 
 and fair representatives of all believ- 
 ers who had not received a "second 
 change." But Christ said to them at 
 Ephesus : " Thou hast left thy first love. 
 Remember, therefore, from whence thou 
 art fallen, and repent, and do thy first
 
 "How Reddest Thou?" Ill 
 
 works." (Rev. ii. 4, 5.) To them at 
 Pergamos Christ said : " Thou hast 
 them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, 
 who taught Balak to cast a stumbling- 
 block before the children of Israel, to 
 eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to 
 commit fornication. So hast thou also 
 them that hold the doctrine of the Nic- 
 olaitans, which thing I hate* Repent; or 
 else I will come unto thee quickly, and 
 will fight against them with the sword 
 of my mouth." (Rev. ii. 14, 15, 16.) 
 
 * Such were Mr. Wesley's " New Testament 
 justified believers" when he was trying to prove 
 the " residue dogma of the Church." Yet he wrote 
 thus to Dr. Clarke: " If you can prove that any of 
 our preachers or leaders, either directly or indirect- 
 ly, speak against perfect love let him be a preacher 
 or a leader no longer. I doubt whether he should 
 continue in the Society. Because he that could 
 speak thus in our congregation cannot be an honest 
 man." So much for a " theory."
 
 112 The Problem, of Methodism. 
 
 To them at Sardis Christ said : "I know 
 thy works, that thou hast a name, that 
 thou livest, and art dead." (Rev. iii. 7.) 
 Comment is unnecessary. But in com- 
 menting on these three Churches Mr. 
 Wesley failed to tell us that the remedy 
 which Christ prescribed for these evils 
 was to " repent and do thy first works;" 
 while he prescribed a " second change ; " 
 that Christ charged their condition to 
 wrong doing and thinking, while he ac- 
 counted for it upon the supposition that 
 "regeneration is a partial cleansing," 
 leaving a "residue of corruption in 
 them that are regenerated." Mr. Wes- 
 ley also failed to tell us that Christ said 
 of the Church at Sardis: " Thou hasta 
 few names even in Sardis which have 
 not defiled their garments; and they shall 
 walk with me in white: for they are 
 worthv." It is clear, then, that Mr.
 
 "How Readest Thou?" 113 
 
 Wesley's representative "justified be- 
 lievers" had all "defiled their garments" 
 And we believe as strongly as Mr. 
 Wesley that all such need a " second 
 cleansing;" and with the Master that 
 all such should "repent and do their 
 first works." But we must and do, in 
 the fear of God, enter a solemn protest 
 against the reason assigned by Mr. 
 Wesley for this " repentance " and "sec- 
 ond cleansing" as being repugnant to 
 the Bible idea of regeneration and sanc- 
 tification. If I were going to prove 
 from the Bible that a justified believer 
 can " fall from grace and forfeit his jus- 
 tified state," I would be willing to rest 
 the whole case on the very texts and ex- 
 amples which Mr. Wesley has intro- 
 duced to prove the " residue theory of 
 regeneration." If any one will read 
 and study every proof-text which has
 
 114 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 been quoted to sustain this "theory," in 
 the light of Biblical psychology and a 
 sound exegesis of the sacred text, all 
 will be clear. 
 
 Our position, then, is this : Regener- 
 ation is a complete work and includes 
 sanctification. Regeneration expresses 
 the nature of the change and sanctifi- 
 cation the result moral purity. Then 
 we draw a distinction between regener- 
 ation and Christian perfection. Regen- 
 eration is an instantaneous work result- 
 ing in moral purity, while perfection is 
 a growth resulting in maturity. Let us 
 examine this position In the light of 
 Scripture. " How readest thou ? M 
 
 The term "regeneration" is used 
 only twice in the New Testament once 
 by Christ and once by Paul. As used 
 by Christ (Matt, xix. 28) it refers to 
 the " new order of things at the general
 
 "How Readest Thou t" 115 
 
 resurrection." As used by Paul it re- 
 fers to the work of grace in the heart 
 which the Scriptures call sanctification. 
 In proof of this we give the text, and 
 then give Mr. Wesley's notes: "But 
 after that the kindness and love of God 
 our Saviour toward man appeared, not 
 by works of righteousness which we 
 have done, but according to his own 
 mercy he saved us by the washing of 
 regeneration and renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost, which he poured forth richly 
 upon us through Jesus Christ our Sav- 
 iour, that being justified by his grace 
 we might become heirs according to the 
 hope of eternal life." (Titus iii. 4-7.) 
 Mr. Wesley says : " In this impor- 
 tant passage the apostle presents us with 
 a delightful view of our redemption. 
 Herein we have, first, the cause of it: 
 . . . second, the effects, which are, 
 
 flOFFORD COLLEGL UBHAKX
 
 116 The Problem, of Methodism. 
 
 (1) Justification being justified, par- 
 doned, and accepted through the alone 
 merits of Christ. ... (2) Sanctifica- 
 tion expressed by the laver of regeneration 
 and the renewal of the Holy Ghost, which 
 purifies the soul and reneivs it in the whole 
 image of God." 
 
 Observe, in the only place in the New 
 Testament where regeneration is used 
 to describe a work of grace in the heart 
 it is used in the sense of sanctification ; 
 and in this place Paul puts it in direct 
 connection with justification. In view 
 of this fact, no wonder Mr. Watson 
 sa}^s : " The regenerate state is also 
 called in Scripture, sanctification." In 
 the Bible sanctification means " to con- 
 secrate, to cleanse, to purify." Sancti- 
 fication, then, is twofold ; we must con- 
 secrate ourselves to God in order for him 
 to cleanse or purify us from sin. Hence,
 
 "How Reddest Thou?" 117 
 
 "if we confess our sins he is faithful 
 and just to forgive us our sins and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness ; " 
 for " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son 
 cleanseth us from all sin." This all- 
 cleansing blood is applied at "forgive- 
 ness " by the Holy Spirit as the agent, 
 and by faith as the condition : "Being 
 sanctified by the Holy Ghost ; " " purify- 
 ing their hearts by faith;" "ye are 
 washed, ye are sanctified in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of 
 God ; " " that they may receive inher- 
 itance among them that are sanctified 
 by faith." Now all this is precisely the 
 same work of grace in the heart which 
 Paul calls the " washing of regenera- 
 tion and the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost" "putting on the new man," 
 "created anew in Christ Jesus'," and 
 the same as that which Christ calls
 
 118 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 "being born of the Spirit." These 
 terms express the nature of regenera- 
 tion, while sanctification expresses the 
 result. 
 
 In the work of salvation the guilt of 
 sin must be pardoned, the pollution of 
 sin must be cleansed, man's spiritual 
 nature must be "created anew," "born 
 of the Spirit," " renewed in the image 
 of God." Now all this is the work of 
 God done for us and in us ; it is all an 
 instantaneous work, and in such rapid 
 succession that it may be said it is all 
 done co-etanewLsly. A partial creation, a 
 partial new birth, a partial forgiveness 
 is just as scriptural as a partial cleans- 
 ing. Hence John declares in language 
 that cannot be misunderstood: "If we 
 confess our sins he is faithful and just 
 to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness;" and he
 
 "How Readiest Thou?" 119 
 
 pledges the justice and faithfulness of 
 God to this divine order of things. 
 
 In referring to the Gentiles who were 
 converted at the house of Cornelius, 
 Peter says : " God put no difference be- 
 tween us and them, purifying their 
 hearts by faith." Now if Peter had 
 known that the " former corruptions of 
 the heart remain in them that are re- 
 generated," surely he would not have 
 said " purifying their hearts," and af- 
 firmed the same of the " three thousand 
 on the Day of Pentecost ! " And if the 
 aj)ostles and elders to whom he was re- 
 porting had been a modern " Holiness 
 Convention," I think some of them 
 would have called him to order ! 
 
 When the " Lord Jesus sent Paul to 
 preach to the Gentiles," he sent him 
 " to open their eyes, and to turn them 
 from darkness to light, and from the 
 
 ^OHURD COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 120 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 power of Satan unto Grod, that they 
 might receive forgiveness of sins, and in- 
 heritance among them that are sancti- 
 fied by faith." (Acts xxv. 18.) Here, 
 again, " forgiveness of sin " and " sanc- 
 tification " are put in direct or immedi- 
 ate connection. 
 
 When Jesus speaks our sins forgiven 
 he says : " Now are ye clean through 
 the word which I have spoken unto 
 you" (John xv. 3) ; or, " I will, Be thou 
 clean, 1 ' and the work is done! The 
 " washing of regeneration " is not a 
 "partial renovation," leaving the "for- 
 mer corruptions to remain in the heart ; " 
 for "he that is washed is clean every 
 whit:' (John xiii. 10.) Mr. Wesley, 
 then, had the highest authority for say- 
 ing that the " washing of regeneration 
 is sanctification." 
 
 Paul says : " Unto the Church of God
 
 'How Reddest Thou?" 121 
 
 which is at Corinth, to them that are 
 sanctified in Christ Jesus;" "ye are 
 washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justi- 
 fied in the name of the Lord Jesus." 
 (1 Cor. i. 2; vi. 11.) In both these pas- 
 sages Paul uses the term "sanctified" 
 to describe the state of grace received 
 at justification. So did the apostle 
 Jude when he began his Epistle thus : 
 "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, to 
 them that are sanctified by God the 
 Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ." 
 The idea suggested by every term 
 used to express the work of regenera- 
 tion indicates that the inspired writers 
 regarded that work as being complete 
 in kind, but not in development. The 
 soul " forgiven and cleansed from all 
 unrighteousness " is to reach maturity 
 by "abiding in Christ" and "growing 
 in grace," and not by a " second
 
 122 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 change," unless he has "left his first 
 love" and "defiled his garments." 
 
 Those who hold that " sanctification 
 is a second change to remove the cor- 
 ruption left in the heart at regenera- 
 tion," have a great deal to say about 
 "crucifying the flesh, the old man," 
 and being "dead to sin." But unfort- 
 unately for their "theory," instead of 
 this state of "crucifixion " and " death 
 to sin " being a state of grace to be 
 sought as a separate and distinct work 
 after regeneration, Paul teaches clearly 
 and pointedly that this state of " cruci- 
 fixion and death to sin " is one of the 
 marks of the new birth ; and that there 
 is no spiritual life unless it includes a 
 death to sin and a life unto holiness. 
 " They that are Christ's have crucified 
 the flesh [the old man] with the affec- 
 tions and lusts" (Gal. v. 24),' "that the
 
 "How Reddest Thou t " 123 
 
 body of sin might be destroyed" (Rom. 
 vi. 6) ; and " being made free from [in- 
 ward and outward]* sin, and become 
 servants of God, ye have your fruit unto 
 holiness " (Rom. vi. 22). Peter says: 
 " See that ye love one another with a 
 pure heart fervently ; being born again, not 
 of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by 
 the Word of God." "Christ bore our 
 sins in his own body on the tree, that 
 we, being dead to sin, should live unto 
 righteousness." (1 Pet. i. 22, 23; ii. 
 24, 25.) 
 
 In the fifth and sixth chapter of Ro- 
 mans Paul discusses the effects of the 
 fall, and then the nature, the condition, 
 and the result of the new birth, or re- 
 generation ; and in the sixth chapter he 
 
 *To say that Paul does not include "inward" 
 or "inbred sin" in this verse is to ignore the cen- 
 tral thought in his argument. (See verse 6.)
 
 124 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 makes a long, lucid argument to prove 
 that the normal state of the " new man" 
 includes, or j>resupposes, a " crucifixion 
 of the old man," the "destruction of 
 the body of sin," and a " death to sin; " 
 for in Paul's Epistles "the old man" 
 and " the new man " are opposite terms, 
 and the two things they represent can 
 no more dwell together than light and 
 darkness, or life and death. In the 
 seventh chapter he describes the condi- 
 tion of an awakened sinner as he strug- 
 gles with the " old man," the " carnal 
 mind," until he cries out, "0 wretched 
 man that I am! who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death?" (This 
 "carnal mind," this "body of sin," this 
 "old man," which I now see is a mass 
 of moral corruption !) The deliverance 
 comes "through Jesus Christ our Lord " 
 (verse 25). Then the eighth chapter an-
 
 "How Reddest Thou?" 125 
 
 nounces that " there is therefore now 
 no condemnation to them which are in 
 Christ Jesus; ... for the law of 
 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
 made me free from this law of sin and 
 death," "hath made me free from this 
 old man," "this body of sin," "this car- 
 nal mind," "this body of death," "this 
 law of sin and death ! ! " Hence, so far 
 from Paul teaching that the " corruption 
 of our nature remains in them that are 
 regenerated," he teaches that this "old 
 man is crucified," and this "body of sin 
 is destroyed," when we "put off the old 
 man and put on the new man, which is 
 created according to the divine pattern 
 in uprightness and moral purity." (See 
 the Greek text of Eph. iv. 24.) 
 
 Christ said : " That which is born of 
 the flesh is flesh, and that which is born 
 of the Spirit is spirit." (John iii. 6.) Dr.
 
 126 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Clarke says : " Like will beget like. The 
 kingdom of God is spiritual and holy ; 
 and that which is born of the Spirit re- 
 sembles the Spirit; for as he is who 
 begat, so is he who is begotten of him. 
 . . . This new birth implies the re- 
 newing of the whole soul in righteousness 
 and true holiness; . . . it compre- 
 hends not only pardon, but also sanctification 
 or holiness." Mr. Wesley says: "That 
 which is born of the Spirit is spiritual, 
 heavenly, divine, like its author. . . . 
 To be born again is to be inwardly 
 changed from all sinfulness to all holiness." 
 Now it comes to this : As Methodists, 
 we must either give up the doctrine of 
 " inherited depravity," or we must aban- 
 don the "residue theory of regenera- 
 tion ; " for if depraved "Adam begat a 
 son in his own likeness, after his image," 
 then the soul that is " born of God," " of
 
 "How Readiest Thou?" 127 
 
 incorruptible seed,' 1 " of the Holy Spirit," 
 cannot be "impure," cannot have "in- 
 bred sin remaining in it ; " but it must be 
 "pure" " cleansed from all unrighteous- 
 ness" "from all sin!" How readest 
 thou? 
 
 Dr. Clarke says: "The 'old man,' 
 the ' body of sin ' is the same which we 
 mean by * indwelling sin ' or the i infec- 
 tion of our nature,' in consequence of 
 the fall." Now this depravity or " in- 
 fection of our nature " creates the ne- 
 cessity of the new birth or regenera- 
 tion i* but, strange to say, learned theo- 
 logians (?) and Bishops (?) would have 
 us believe, or stultify our common sense 
 
 * This is specially true of infants ; for " our best 
 authors hold that infants are born in a justified 
 state, but need regeneration to cleanse the ' corrup- 
 tion naturally engendered of the offspring of 
 Adam.' "
 
 128 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 by trying to believe, that this " corrup- 
 tion of our nature remains in them that 
 are regenerated! " Yea, the Church of 
 England has baptized this error into 
 her Creed and made it a part of her 
 Ninth Article of Faith! Hence, the 
 Church of England is consistent with 
 herself and her Ninth Article when she 
 holds and teaches "baptismal regen- 
 eration, and the eternal damnation of 
 all infants dying unbaptized!" From 
 such an error John Wesley saved Amer- 
 ican Methodism when he gave us an 
 abridgment of the Thirty-nine Articles 
 of the Church of England. But is it 
 not time for our General Conference to 
 appoint a committee to expunge this 
 "residue theory" from our standard 
 works, as Mr. Wesley expurgated it from 
 our Articles of Faith ? After discard- 
 ing Sermons XIII. and XIV. of Mr.
 
 "How Beadest Thou?" 129 
 
 Wesley's as being " standard," the work 
 would be nearly complete. 
 
 Whether we call this "corruption," 
 the " old man," or the "body of sin," or 
 " inbred sin," or the " infections of our 
 nature," or "the carnal mind," or "the 
 law of sin and death," is of little conse- 
 quence; but by whatever name it is 
 called, Paul teaches that there can be 
 no divine or spiritual life in the soul 
 where it remains. To say that this 
 "infection of our nature remains in 
 them that are regenerated," that the 
 " former corruptions of the heart re- 
 main in the regenerate and strive for 
 the mastery," that "the carnal mind 
 survives the work of regeneration, and 
 is often actively rebellious in the hearts 
 of real Christians," to say all this, and 
 more, is to say that Paul and Peter and 
 John did not understand the effects of
 
 130 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 the fall and the nature of the new birth ! 
 The truth is, if a large portion of the 
 New Testament had been written to 
 overturn the " residue theory of regen- 
 eration," and to show that regeneration 
 includes sanctification, the writers could 
 scarcely have been more explicit. If 
 there be passages that seem to teach 
 otherwise, the contexts explain the seem- 
 ing conflict. And while it is impossi- 
 ble to reconcile Mr. Wesley with him- 
 self, yet he always gives a Bible defini- 
 tion of the new birth ; and if a large 
 portion of his " Notes on the New Tes- 
 tament," and a larger portion of Clarke's 
 "Commentary" had been written to 
 overturn this " residue theory," the 
 authors could not have used stronger 
 language.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 
 
 SECTION 1. "INSTINCTIVE CONVICTIONS." 
 
 It is amazing to see to what extent 
 some of the modern Fathers have 
 pressed this doctrine of " Sin in Be- 
 lievers " in order to make room to bring 
 in sanctification as a " second blessing." 
 Dr. Upham,* in his "Interior Life" 
 sums up "all bodily infirmities, such as 
 disordered organs of sight, hearing, and 
 touch," and "all mental derangements, 
 such as unavoidable errors and imper- 
 fections of judgment," and calls them 
 all " involuntary sins sins though that 
 find no recourse but in an immediate 
 and believing application of the aton- 
 ing blood." So the Doctor says : "Now, 
 
 * A convert of Dr. and Mrs. Palmer. 
 
 (131) 
 
 &QFF0RD COLLEGE LIBRM^
 
 132 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 as such infirmities are very frequent, 
 and as indeed they are unavoidable, we 
 shall have abundant occasions to con- 
 fess our trespasses ! " The Doctor con- 
 tinues : " It is in accordance with what 
 has now been said that Christians, . . . 
 wherever they have fallen into such 
 errors and infirmities have an instinctive 
 conviction that the occasion is a fitting 
 one for penitent grief and humble confes- 
 sion, and they find no true peace of mind 
 until they find a sense of forgiveness ! " 
 We presume that the Doctor is right 
 in saying that the conviction for such 
 " infirmities " as he describes is " an in- 
 stinctive conviction ; " at least, we have 
 no idea that the Holy Spirit ever con- 
 victed any one for such "unavoidable 
 infirmities," either "physical" or "in- 
 tellectual." In our experience as a 
 pastor we have met a few of the Doc-
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 1 33 
 
 tor's patients who were "filled with 
 penitent grief" on account of some 
 physical disorder or infirmity, and whose 
 "instinctive convictions gave them no 
 peace of mind." We think that all 
 such theology as the above needs med- 
 ical treatment as much, or more, 
 than the patients for whom it was pre- 
 pared ; and if some doctors of divinity 
 we "wot of" had exposed the errors of 
 Dr. Upham's writings twenty years ago, 
 instead of recommending them to our 
 people, they might have prevented 
 some of the fanaticism which is now 
 troubling the whole Church and hin- 
 dering Methodism in her divine commis- 
 sion to " spread scriptural holiness over 
 these lands." Now if Dr. Upham's 
 theology be true, then it follows as a 
 necessary sequence that, instead of our 
 infirmities and physical disorders afford-
 
 1 34 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ing us an opportunity for developing 
 our moral powers and Christian graces 
 by a calm endurance and a perfect res- 
 ignation, they will rob us of all " true 
 peace of mind," and "fill us with peni- 
 tent grief; " so that as by age and phys- 
 ical decay the hoary-headed pilgrim 
 gradually sinks under the weight of in- 
 firmities, instead of mounting up on 
 wings as eagles and soaring and talking 
 with God in the land of Beulah, his 
 " infirmities and involuntary sins " will 
 multiply upon him, sinking him deeper 
 and deeper in the "slough of despond," 
 while " humble confession " becomes the 
 only words of his mouth, and "peni- 
 tential grief" the sole exercise of his 
 pious heart! 
 
 SECTION 2. A LARGE VIEW OF THE PLAN 
 OF SALVATION. 
 
 According to Bishop Peck in his
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 135 
 
 " Central Idea of Christianity" the re- 
 generated believer who has never for- 
 feited his justified state must go 
 through a second process of conviction, 
 repentance, faith, etc., similar to that 
 through which he entered the new life, 
 before he can be cleansed from all sin. 
 Of course this makes regeneration a 
 'partial work! The nine prerequisites, 
 as laid down by the good Bishop, by 
 which the partial cleansing of regener- 
 ation is to be completed are as follows : 
 " (1) The conviction produced ; (2) the 
 resolution formed ; (3) the feeling neces- 
 sary ; (4) the confession required; (5) 
 the consecration made ; (6) the faith ex- 
 ercised ; (7) the prayer offered ; (8) the 
 evidence received ; (9) the responsibili- 
 ty taken." To the discussion of these 
 nine points the author devotes eighty- 
 one pages, from the reading of which
 
 136 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 I rose up involuntarily repeating, "And 
 found no end in wandering mazes lost, 
 vain wisdom all, and false philosophy ! " 
 If it takes that long to get from regen- 
 eration to sanctification the " Central 
 Idea of Christianity " then the Bishop 
 must have had a large view of the plan 
 of salvation! The difference between 
 Paul and Bishop Peck is that Paul in 
 every place he uses the term sanctifica- 
 tion, except one, puts it in immediate 
 connection with justification, and on one 
 occasion he puts it jirst (1 Cor. vi. 11) ; 
 while the good Bishop takes eighty-one 
 12mo pages to get his justified believ- 
 ers to his central idea moral purity! 
 Instead of St. John taking eighty-one 
 pages, he puts "confession," "forgive- 
 ness," and a thorough moral "cleans- 
 ing from all sin " in one short verse 
 (1 John i. 9). Surely Paul and John
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 137 
 
 had a different theory of the divine life, 
 or a different view of the " Central Idea 
 of Christianity," or a shorter road to 
 reach it than Bishop J. T. Peck ! 
 
 SECTION 3. A NEW DEPARTURE. 
 
 If Bishop Peck were the only advo- 
 cate of the theory which makes regen- 
 eration a "partial renovation " and 
 sanctification a " second change," and 
 then makes this theory the ''Central 
 Idea of Christianity," I would lay down 
 my pen ; but their name is legion, and 
 still they come ! Men and women, self- 
 appointed and losing sight of every 
 thing else, are giving their whole time 
 and energies to this "Central Idea," 
 and are calling the Church the whole 
 Church to this second process of re- 
 pentance, confession, and faith. Camp- 
 meetings and conventions are being 
 held for this specific object, at which
 
 138 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 no minister, elder, or Bishop is invited 
 to preach or preside unless he can pro- 
 nounce this Shibboleth distinctly, and, 
 in some cases, none but justified believ- 
 ers are invited to the altar to " confess 
 their sins and find true peace of mind 
 by a believing application of the aton- 
 ing blood!" Thus have things gone 
 on until now an organization is formed 
 which ignores and decries all Church re- 
 lation, and whose self-constituted preach- 
 ers travel at large in this interest and 
 call upon all justified believers who 
 " have an instinctive conviction that 
 the occasion is a fitting one for penitent 
 grief and humble confession," to "come 
 out of the Church " that they may " find 
 a sense of forgiveness and be sancti- 
 fied." Is it not time for some one to 
 put the brake on this "central idea" 
 car?
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 139 
 
 That there is a great want of person- 
 al holiness in the Church, that many of 
 her members have " left their first love," 
 and others have "defiled their gar- 
 ments," and thereby have cause to con- 
 fess and forsake their personal sins, that 
 the whole Church needs a stronger faith 
 and an increase of the spirit of prayer, 
 I am ready to admit and deeply de- 
 plore ; but I must and do, in the " fear 
 of God and in the love of the Spirit," 
 most respectfully enter a solemn pro- 
 test against the cause assigned for these 
 special organizations and the object 
 proposed as being in theory or spirit 
 any part of Bible religion, much less 
 as being the " Central Idea of Chris- 
 tianity." Leaving out the disorganizing 
 spirit that has already manifested itself 
 in many places, we believe that the " res- 
 idue theory of regeneration " and the
 
 140 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 " second change theory of sanctifica- 
 tion " rest upon a false psychology and 
 a misinterpretation of Scripture. What 
 a fine opportunity Bishop J. S. Key had 
 in May, 1887, when he delivered that 
 grand sermon on " Heart Purity" before 
 the " Georgia Holiness Convention," to 
 bring out some of the historical facts I 
 have given ; but alas ! like Mr. Wes- 
 ley, the good Bishop was committed to 
 the " residue theory " and the " second 
 change theory," and this fact was known 
 to those who invited him to preach be- 
 fore that Convention ! 
 
 SECTION 4. SAWING OFF LIMBS. 
 
 The advocates of the "residue the- 
 ory," in order to make occasion for sanc- 
 tification to come after regeneration, 
 leave something in the regenerated 
 heart which troubles them and their 
 theory about as much as Dr. Upham's
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 141 
 
 "instinctive convictions" troubled his 
 justified believers. Whatever it is 
 which " remains in the heart of the re- 
 generate," according to their own testi- 
 mony, "it is not sin proper" for that 
 would forfeit pardon. Yet, when they 
 come to remove this mysterious some- 
 thing (which has been called by so 
 many names), they prescribe "convic- 
 tion, repentance, confession, faith, and for- 
 giveness /" This looks very much like 
 the Bible prescription for removing 
 "sin proper." At least conviction, con- 
 fession, and forgiveness" imply guilt, 
 and guilt implies condemnation! 
 
 This confusion is worse confounded 
 by confounding sanctification with 
 Christian perfection, and then trying to 
 hold on to the Bible doctrine of instan- 
 taneous sanctification. Take a case or 
 two. In "Perfect Love," page 55, Rev.
 
 142 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 J. A. Wood says : " He who seeks the 
 gradual attainment of entire sanctifica- 
 tion seeks necessarily something less 
 than entire sanctification now that is, 
 he does not seek entire sanctification at 
 all. He who does not aim at the extir- 
 pation of all sin from his heart now 
 tolerates some sin in his heart now. 
 But he who tolerates sin in his heart 
 is not in a condition to offer acceptable 
 prayer to God. ' If I regard iniquity 
 in my heart, the Lord will not hear 
 me.' " 
 
 Now apply this sound reasoning and 
 Bible truth to the hour of regeneration, 
 and see how unwittingly Brother Wood 
 has sawed off the very limb on which 
 he stood as an advocate for " partial 
 renovation in regeneration ! " Any one 
 can see that the "some sin tolerated in 
 the heart of the seeker of gradual sane-
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 143 
 
 tification," and which prevented the 
 Lord from hearing his prayer, is the 
 identical sin left in his heart at regen- 
 eration and creates the necessity for 
 sanctification as a " second cleansing ! " 
 To deny this is to give up the whole 
 theory of " sin in believers," and leave 
 no cause for a "second cleansing" un- 
 less justification has been forfeited by 
 actual transgression, as it had been in 
 David's case. 
 
 Dr. Hibbard, as quoted by Brother 
 Wood, says: "We deny that a man 
 ever yet gained the victory over any sin 
 while his will retained it, even with the 
 most secret or tacit approbation. God 
 will have thorough work ; and full sal- 
 vation will never be given but on con- 
 dition of entire, universal, unconditional 
 abandonment of all sin and acceptance 
 and approval of all the will of God.
 
 144 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Then, and not till then, will come the 
 word that speaks us whole." 
 
 All this I steadfastly believe ; but if 
 applied to the sinner seeking religion, 
 then down goes the limb on which Dr. 
 Hibbard stands. We would like to 
 know what kind of conditions the jus- 
 tified believer negotiated with the Al- 
 mightv bv which he retained the sins 
 which this "second change " is to " for- 
 give " and " cleanse." If " sin and cor- 
 ruption remain in the regenerate," it 
 remains there by the assent of the will 
 of the person regenerated, or at the 
 will and pleasure of the Almighty; if 
 not by the consent of the penitent, then 
 he is in no wise responsible for it ; and 
 if by the consent of the penitent, then 
 the Almmhtv must have agreed to the 
 reservation, or he would not have "jus- 
 tified him freely" and renewed him in
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 145 
 
 his own image. In either case the re- 
 sponsibility of this " remaining sin and 
 corruption " left in the regenerate rests 
 upon God, and not upon the "justified 
 believer." But " God will have thor- 
 ough work" in this " second change" 
 even " entire, universal, unconditional 
 abandonment of all sin." The question 
 now is : Can a man be justified and re- 
 generated on a consecration short of 
 "entire, universal, unconditional aban- 
 donment of all sin ? " and such a conse- 
 cration being made, would not the 
 "word that speaks us whole" come to 
 him then and there? If such a conse- 
 cration secures sanctification, and if no 
 man can be justified on a consecration 
 less than that, then surely " every one 
 who is justified is also sanctified." So 
 Mr. Wesley was right when he made 
 
 the " washing of regeneration and the 
 10
 
 146 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost include 
 sanctification." And Dr. Clarke was 
 risfht also when he said : " The new 
 birth comprehends not only justifica- 
 tion, but also sanctification." " If the 
 Spirit of God dwell in you the whole 
 carnal mind will be destroyed." " He 
 is first freely justified he feels no con- 
 demnation; he is fully sanctified he 
 walks not after the flesh, but after the 
 Spirit." 
 
 The more we look into that theory of 
 the Christian life which makes " regen- 
 eration a partial renovation " and 
 " sanctification a second change," and 
 then confounds sanctification with 
 Christian perfection, the more we are 
 impressed with its want of harmony 
 with itself and the word of God. In 
 "Perfect Love," pages 55, 56, Brother 
 Wood truly says : " To seek a gradual
 
 The, Modern Fathers in Trouble. 147 
 
 purity renders the attainment of entire 
 sanctification impossible. It does so 
 because it excludes the conditions of 
 entire sanctification. The faith which 
 is the proximate condition of entire 
 sanctification can be exercised only in 
 connection with the renunciation of all 
 sin and complete submission to God. 
 Conscious confidence and conscious guilt 
 can not exist in the same heart at the 
 same time the former excludes the 
 latter." 
 
 If that be true, and I believe it is 
 true, then every one who has justifying 
 faith has also sanctifying grace. But 
 if " conscious confidence and conscious 
 guilt can not exist in the same heart at 
 the same time," how can Dr. Upham's 
 believer, who has "instinctive convic- 
 tion" be in a justified state? Are we 
 to understand that " instinctive convic-
 
 148 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 tions" are unconscious convictions, or 
 that the guilt which " conviction and 
 forgiveness" imply is an unconscious 
 guilt ? 
 
 Again, if ''faith can only be exer- 
 cised in connection with the renuncia- 
 tion of all sin," how can any one ex- 
 ercise justifying faith without such a 
 renunciation, and if "all sin be re- 
 nounced " will not sanctification take 
 place at justification ? 
 
 Still again, if "conscious confidence 
 and conscious guilt cannot exist in the 
 same heart at the same time," how will 
 Brother Wood and Bishop Peck ever 
 make the " merely regenerate believer 
 conscious of his remaining sin" and of 
 his need of this u second change," with- 
 out first destroying his " conscious con- 
 fidence" or justifying faith? 
 
 Once more: the advocates of the
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 149 
 
 "residue theory" tell us that "the 
 merely regenerate has remaining im- 
 purity," that " regeneration is a partial 
 renovation," that "the former corrup- 
 tions of the heart remain in them that 
 are regenerated and strive for the mas- 
 tery," that " the carnal mind survives 
 the work of regeneration and is often 
 in a state of active rebellion," and that 
 " if there be no second change after jus- 
 tification, then we must be content to 
 remain full of sin until death." Now, if 
 this be the true state of the regenerated 
 heart, is there no "conscious guilt?" 
 If not, then how did any one ever as- 
 certain that all this " sin and corruption 
 remain in the regenerate " soul ? But if 
 there be " conscious guilt," and if "con- 
 scious guilt excludes conscious confi- 
 dence, or faith," then all who have not 
 received this "second change" are des-
 
 150 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 titute of justifying faith ; or else " con- 
 scious guilt" does not "exclude con- 
 scious confidence;" or else a man may 
 be "full of sin and guilt," and have 
 them both removed without ever being 
 made "conscious" that he needed a 
 "second change!" "We insist that the 
 advocates of the "residue theory" ei- 
 ther abandon their theory in toto, or else 
 untangle their theological hank. As 
 an advocate of the " residue theory," no 
 wonder Bishop J. S. Key, D.D., "ap- 
 pealed for charity" in his sermon on 
 "Heart Purity," page 15. The case 
 calls for all the charity that a Christian 
 possesses ; but can " charity hide such 
 a multitude of sins " as the above cata- 
 logue, all of which are said to " remain 
 in them that are regenerated?" Per- 
 haps the good Bishop, when he made 
 this "appeal for charity," was so ab-
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 151 
 
 sorbed with his theme that for the mo- 
 ment he overlooked the fact that the 
 author of the thirteenth chapter of First 
 Corinthians on one occasion " withstood 
 Peter to the face, because he was [in 
 error and was] to be blamed." 
 
 How much more rational and script- 
 ural to say that every one "born of 
 God" is "washed clean every whit;" 
 that every one " forgiven "is " cleansed 
 from ail unrighteousness," "from all 
 sin ; " and if any one of them now has 
 "impurity," or "is full of sin and 
 guilt," it is because he has failed to 
 "abide in Christ and keep his com- 
 mandments," and thereby "denied his 
 garments." 
 
 SECTION 5. RESIDUE THEORY EXTRACTED 
 WITH A PAIR OF BORROWED FORCEPS. 
 
 We take Brother Wood's " unanswer- 
 able argument" against sanctification
 
 152 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 being a growth, and with it we lift the 
 "residue theory " out by the roots. In 
 his " Purity and Maturity" page 148, he 
 says : " The fact that inbred sin is a 
 unit is proof that we cannot obtain free- 
 dom from it by growth in grace. Like 
 error, inbred sin is a simple, uncom- 
 pounded element or quality, and con- 
 tinues unchangeably the same, at all 
 times and under all circumstances. It 
 cannot be analyzed, and is not subject 
 to any changes ; and in its essential 
 nature it can never be made any thing 
 else. Hence it cannot be divided or sub- 
 divided and removed by parts" 
 
 Now this mysterious something which 
 Brother Wood calls "inbred sin" St. 
 Paul calls the " carnal mind," which he 
 affirms is "enmity against God," and 
 which Brother Wood affirms "contin- 
 ues unchangeably the same at all times
 
 Tlie Modern Fathers in Trouble. 153 
 
 and under all circumstances." Hence 
 regeneration either leaves the soul in a 
 state of "enmity against God," or else 
 lifts "inbred sin " out by the roots ; for 
 Brother Wood truly says, " Inbred sin 
 can not be divided or subdivided and re- 
 moved by parts." So if "inbred sin" 
 the "carnal mind" can not be di^ 
 vided and removed by parts," it is folly 
 to talk about the " remains of the car- 
 nal mind" in a regenerated believer. 
 
 Again : All the advocates of the " res 
 idue theory" tell us that the "sin" 
 which "remains in them that are re- 
 generate is not 'sin proper,' which is ' a 
 transgression of the law,' but it is the 
 1 remains of the carnal mind ' the ' cor- 
 ruption of the nature of every man that 
 is naturally engendered of the offspring 
 of Adam' hence it is called ' inbred 
 sm.' " Now every tyro in theology
 
 154 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 knows that the "standards" all teach 
 that the " necessity of the new birth 
 grows out of the existence of this ' in- 
 bred sin;'" so that if the new birth 
 does not remove this "inbred sin," this 
 "carnal mind," this natural "corrup- 
 tion of our nature," where is the neces- 
 sity of " being born again ? " 
 
 SECTION 6. A FEW FACTS; AND FACTS ARE 
 STUBBORN THINGS. 
 
 The "higher life" to which the re- 
 generated believer is called is a state 
 which is reached by a proper unfolding 
 and exercise of the graces of the "new 
 man," and not by a second process of 
 repentance and cleansing to remove 
 moral corruption left in us at regenera- 
 tion. To "renew, according to the 
 [original] divine pattern in uprightness 
 and moral purity," is truly God-like; 
 and to use these renewed and purified
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 155 
 
 powers so as not to fall into sin again, 
 but to "perfect holiness in the fear of 
 God," is the whole duty and the high- 
 est glory of man ! 
 
 The truth is, if we make those men- 
 tal states which have been called " sin 
 in believers" the result of moral cor- 
 ruption, which regenerating grace could 
 not or did not remove, we charge God 
 with arbitrarily demanding of the re- 
 generated believer a life of holiness 
 when he has failed to supply him with 
 one of the indispensable prerequisites 
 of such a life viz., a pure moral nature 
 and we also make regeneration a 'partial 
 work, or else exclude from it the idea 
 of moral ren ovation altogether ! Which 
 horn of this dilemma will the reader 
 take? 
 
 The great mistake of those who have 
 written upon the "higher life " is found
 
 156 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 in the fact that they have all confound- 
 ed sanctification with Christian perfec- 
 tion; whereas they should have made 
 regeneration include sanctification, and 
 then drawn a distinction between re- 
 generation and perfection. In regener- 
 ation the man is " created anew, accord- 
 ing to the divine pattern, in uprightness 
 and moral purity," and all the condi- 
 tions and principles of a holy life are 
 given ; in perfection we have all these 
 principles unfolded in the maturity of 
 the Christian graces : the one is always 
 complete in itself, the other exhibits 
 different degrees of development. The 
 divine life realized at the new birth is 
 not two, but one. This life, like all 
 life, is a growth; and this growth, like 
 all growth, has its different stages. 
 
 The "residue theory" has been the 
 source of no little trouble in Methodism
 
 The Modern Fathers in Trouble. 157 
 
 for more than a century the cause of 
 untold difficulties to the young Chris- 
 tian the mystery of orthodox theology, 
 and more bewildering to the young 
 preacher than the enigmatical philoso- 
 phy of the Persians ; and, if carried to 
 its legitimate sequences, it would over- 
 throw the very foundations of Christi- 
 anity !
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Regeneration a Partial Renova- 
 tion." 
 
 SECTION I. A BRIEF REVIEW. 
 
 We have shown that the residue the- 
 ory of regeneration was expunged from 
 our Articles of Faith. We have exam- 
 ined those mental states and those 
 Scripture texts which were supposed to 
 teach that " sin remained in them that 
 are regenerated," and found that both 
 could be explained without adopting the 
 "residue theory." We have examined 
 the Bible idea of regeneration, and found 
 that regeneration includes sanctifies tion. 
 We have seen some of the confusion 
 and absurdities of both Mr. Wesley and 
 the modern Fathers in trying to har- 
 monize their residue theory with itself 
 (158)
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 159 
 
 and with the Bible idea of the divine 
 life. So far we have assumed that the 
 residue theory of necessity made regen- 
 eration a "partial work" a "partial 
 renovation." In this review we will let 
 the advocates of this "theory" state 
 their views in their own language.* 
 
 Mr. Wesley says : " If there be no 
 second change after justification, . . . 
 then we must remain full of sin until 
 death." 
 
 Mr. R. Watson says: "In this re- 
 generate state, the former corruptions 
 of the heart may remain and strive for 
 the mastery." 
 
 Bishop Foster says : " The merely re- 
 generate are not entirely free from sin." 
 
 * Our quotations are taken from " Perfect Love" 
 by Rev. J. A. Wood, a book consisting mainly of 
 quotations from authors who hold and defend the 
 " residue theory."
 
 160 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Dr. D. Curry says : " This carnal 
 mind survives the work of regeneration, 
 and is often actively rebellious in the 
 hearts of real Christians." 
 
 Dr. Dick says: "Although in regen- 
 eration holy principles are infused into 
 the soul, yet the change produced is only 
 partial." 
 
 Rev. J. A. Wood says : "As long as 
 Christians live in a partially purified 
 state," etc. " This new life has exist- 
 ence in a soul partially carnal in the 
 mere regenerate. . . . Regeneration 
 removes some sin or pollution." 
 
 Dr. J. Dempster says : " You ask, 
 then, in what does regeneration consist? 
 Simply in this threefold change, viz. : 
 justification, partial renovation, and dir 
 vine adoption." 
 
 We could multiply such quotations 
 almost indefinitely, but the above are
 
 "Regeneration a Fartial Renovation." 161 
 
 enough to show the low estimate all these 
 authors put upon regeneration. Two of 
 them Brother Wood and Bishop Fos- 
 ter speak of those who have been 
 "born of the Spirit," have been "made 
 partakers of Christ," "of the Holy 
 Ghost," "of the divine nature," "cre- 
 ated anew in righteousness and true 
 holiness " they speak of such as the 
 " mere regenerate." Dr. Dick says " the 
 change produced is only partial,''* and 
 Dr. Dempster says it is "simply & par- 
 tial renovation." There it is: "Mere 
 
 REGENERATION SIMPLY CONSISTS IN A 
 PARTIAL CHANGE, A PARTIAL RENOVA- 
 TION ! " What will Mr. Orthodoxy 
 think and say of all this? Surely he 
 has been on a journey, or taking a nap, 
 while these modern Fathers have been 
 dressing up this " new man ? " With 
 
 the "carnal mind still surviving the 
 11
 
 162 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 death throes of crucifixion and in a state 
 of active rebellion," with "the former 
 corruptions of the heart still remaining 
 and striving for the mastery," he looks 
 more like St. Paul's "old man" crying 
 out, "Who shall deliver me from the 
 body of this death?" than St. Paul's 
 11 new man which is created after the di- 
 vine pattern in uprightness and moral pu- 
 rity." 
 
 Now this residue theory is either the 
 " remains of Antinomianism in our Ar- 
 minian theology," or else it is a twin 
 brother thereof, and had its origin in a 
 misinterpretation of St. Paul's Epistles. 
 The application of the seventh chapter 
 of Romans to a regenerated man is no 
 greater perversion of Scripture than is 
 made in trying to prove the residue 
 theory by proof-texts and Scripture ex- 
 amples! And the analogy does not
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation?' 163 
 
 stop at this; for when this "residue 
 theory " gets fixed in the mind of a man, 
 I had as soon try to explain the sev- 
 enth chapter of Romans to an Antino- 
 mian Calvinist as to reason with him. 
 Hence, my object in writing these pages 
 is not to convert any one who holds the 
 "residue theory," but to relieve those 
 who are bewildered by the absurdities 
 involved in this theory, and to show all 
 concerned that a man may reject the 
 " residue theory " and still be in accord 
 with our Articles of Faith and in har- 
 mony with our " standards," so far 
 as they are in harmony with them- 
 selves and the plain teaching of the 
 Bible. 
 
 SECTION 2. AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. 
 
 We would start the young convert, 
 the newborn soul, and the reclaimed 
 backslider exactly on the same plane of 
 
 WOFFOBD COLLEGE LIBRARY
 
 164 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 moral purity which is claimed for one 
 who has received this " second change." 
 St. John's theory of the divine life is : 
 " If we confess our sins, he is faithful 
 and just to forgive us our sins and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
 . . . My little children, these things 
 write I unto you, that ye sin not. And 
 if any man sin, we have an Advocate 
 with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
 righteous ; and he is the propitiation 
 for our sins ; and not for ours only, but 
 also for the sins of the whole world." 
 (1 John i. 9; ii. 1; 2.) In this theory 
 entire sanctification a " cleansing from 
 all unrighteousness" follows "forgive- 
 ness ; " and the " second cleansing " was 
 contingent upon such a man " com- 
 mitting sin," and not because " regener- 
 ation is a partial renovation a partial 
 change"
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation'' 165 
 
 Dr. T. 0. Summers truly says : " Re- 
 generation is an instantaneous work - 
 it admits of no degrees, of no progres- 
 sion. We can not be partially regener- 
 ated we are, or are not, born again." 
 As justification cancels the guilt of sin, 
 so regeneration removes the corruption 
 of sin. God can no more cleanse us in 
 fart than he can forgive us in part. 
 Hence Dr. Summers says: "It is cer- 
 tain that regeneration extends to our 
 whole moral nature. In the new birth 
 the tone, the temper, and tendency of our 
 minds are changed ; the current of our 
 feelings is made to run in a different 
 channel, and the capacity to do the will 
 of God is imparted." (Dr. T. O. Sum- 
 mers on Holiness.) 
 
 What the Doctor here calls a "ca- 
 pacity to do the will of God" is what 
 We mean by the conditions and prin-
 
 166 The Problem, of Methodism. 
 
 ciples of holiness, and what Paul means 
 by "putting on the new man, which is 
 created according to the divine pattern 
 in uprightness and moral purity." 
 Such a man is at one with his Maker 
 - "created anew in the image of God" 
 with the " Holy Spirit to dwell in 
 him and guide him into all truth." But 
 while in the first stages of the Chris- 
 tian life all those mental states which 
 have been mistaken for the "remains 
 of the carnal mind" and the "motions 
 of inbred sin," will, more or less, enter 
 into his experience ; yet, in their origin, 
 they are nothing more than the power 
 of temptation made doubly strong by 
 old habits; and while we fear that 
 many nearly all yield now and then 
 to temptation and commit sin "defile 
 their garments " yet there is no moral 
 necessity for it. Every one "born of
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 167 
 
 God" might "go" right "on to perfec- 
 tion" by "abiding in Christ and keep- 
 ing his commandments." 
 
 While perfection is a "higher life" 
 than regeneration, yet this " higher 
 life " is nothing more than the pure babe 
 in Christ developed into a mature man or 
 woman in Christ Jesus ; together with 
 the moral character which is superin- 
 duced by a retroaction from the activity 
 involved in the conflict with evil in 
 maintaining & pure heart and a justified 
 state. "Sin is not a substance but an 
 act; not a thing existing, but a thing 
 done; " and moral corruption is a retro- 
 action which supervenes upon this vol- 
 untary wrong act, inducing a wrong state 
 of our moral powers. Vice versa, virtue 
 is not a substance, but an act; not a 
 thing existing, but a thing done; and 
 holiness is the result, or the retroaction,
 
 168 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 of voluntary right action. Now God 
 supplies all the essential conditions* of 
 holiness, and we are to "perfect holi- 
 ness in the fear of God" "by abiding 
 in Christ and keeping his command- 
 ments" by "abiding in him and sin- 
 ning not." 
 
 We should never forget that the pos- 
 session of all the moral faculties in a 
 pure state and the possession of holi- 
 ness are two distinct things. The es- 
 sential conditions of a moral agent 
 being given, the self-active power of the 
 will, together with the reflex actions of 
 the will, are the origin and cause of all 
 virtue and holiness, all sin and moral 
 corruption in man. If this metaphys- 
 ical and psychological postulate be con- 
 stantly kept in mind, then all will be 
 
 '* These conditions are intelligence, moral free- 
 dona, moral purity, and a rule of life a law.
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 169 
 
 clear ; but if it be overlooked or ignored, 
 then we are without chart or compass, 
 driving into a darker sea at every 
 plunge ! Now, one of the indispensable 
 prerequisites of a moral agent in order 
 to holy living is & pure moral nature to 
 begin with ; hence, God created Adam 
 pure free from all moral taint. We 
 have now discovered the true philosophy 
 of the Christian life, which unfolds to 
 us the nature and extent of regener- 
 ation. In arranging the plan of salva- 
 tion God saw that in the very nature 
 of things justification would be of no 
 avail to fallen, corrupt man, unless his 
 moral nature was "purified" and "re- 
 newed in the image of him who created him ; " 
 so God provided means by which, in 
 every case where he forgives sins, then 
 and there he " cleanses us from all un- 
 righteousness," and " creates us anew 
 
 JWQFFORD C0LLE6E LIBRARY 
 
 *: * / 
 
 *
 
 170 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 according to the [original] divine pattern in 
 
 UPRIGHTNESS and MORAL PURITY." * So 
 
 that every one who is justified is also " ful- 
 ly SANCTIFIED." 
 
 So patent is this fact, that Dr. Sum- 
 mers says : " Justification without sanc- 
 tification would be of no advantage to 
 us. What if our sins were pardoned 
 what if we were restored to the favor 
 of God ? If our hearts were not renewed 
 and our lives regulated by the Spirit of 
 grace, we should forfeit our justifica- 
 tion as soon as received; we should in- 
 volve ourselves immediately in guilt 
 and condemnation. To retain the di- 
 vine favor we must be born again." 
 (" Holiness," page 22.) Observe, Dr. 
 Summers not only uses the terms 
 
 * If any prefer, they may read " in righteous- 
 ness and true holiness " the other is a better trans- 
 lation of Eph. iv. 24.
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 171 
 
 "born again," "renewed," and "sancti- 
 fication," to express the same work of 
 grace, but he also declares that the 
 work of grace expressed by these terms 
 must immediately follow justification; 
 else " we should forfeit our justification 
 as soon as received." When Dr. Sum- 
 mers wrote the above paragraph he 
 knew that Mr. Wesley had said : " To 
 be born again is to be inwardly changed 
 from all sinfulness to all holiness" And 
 that Dr. Clarke had said: "Sin must 
 be pardoned, and the impurity of the 
 heart washed away before any soul can 
 possibly enter into the kingdom of God. 
 This new birth implies the renewing of 
 the whole soul in righteousness and true 
 holiness." " He is first freely justified 
 he feels no condemnation ; he is ful- 
 ly sanctified he walks not after the 
 flesh, but after the Spirit."
 
 172 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 SECTION 3. ANALYZING CHRISTIAN EXPERI- 
 ENCE IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL CRUCIBLE. 
 
 We are now prepared to examine the 
 experience of those who have professed 
 to have "obtained sanctification as a 
 second change, cleansing them from all 
 sin." The facts can all be accounted 
 for from our stand-point and reconciled 
 with our theory of the divine life. That 
 they had a consciousness of inward cor- 
 ruption after regeneration, and before 
 they received the "second blessing," 
 may be true; but whence came this 
 consciousness of impurity? Did it 
 originate in the supposed fact that " re- 
 generation is a partial renovation," or 
 in the fact that they mistook a severe 
 temptation the uprising of desire un- 
 der enticement for "the remains of the 
 carnal mind," the "motions of inbred 
 sin," or in the fact that they failed at 
 some point to "fulfill the righteousness
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation.'" 173 
 
 of the law by walking after the flesh, 
 and not after the Spirit?" ' We do not 
 accuse them of "denying the faith," 
 nor of having given up their " original 
 purpose to serve God and get to heav- 
 en," but of having failed in the dis- 
 charge of some duty, or having yielded 
 to some temptation and of committing 
 some sin ; and every sin, whether of 
 omission or of commission, leaves a 
 stain of moral corruption. Now, if a 
 sinner who has never "tasted of the 
 heavenly gift" has deep compunctions 
 of conscience in the hour of conviction 
 and repentance, how much more they 
 who have sinned against the light of 
 Christian experience? When David 
 was in such deep agony, and prayed for 
 a "clean heart" and a "renewed spir- 
 it," he was a backslider, and not a "par- 
 tially renovated" convert. When Chris-
 
 174 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 tians pass through such a crucible, and 
 are restored to moral purity, it would 
 be strange if they did not profit by such 
 an experience especially if they begin 
 to seek this restoration with the idea 
 fixed in their minds that it is their 
 privilege to be " cleansed from all sin," 
 and then to "abide in Christ and sin 
 not." But how much better for them 
 if they had been told at regeneration 
 that they were "forgiven and cleansed 
 from all unrighteousness," being " cre- 
 ated anew according to the divine pat- 
 tern in uprightness and moral purity," 
 and that they might go right on to per- 
 fection by "abiding in Christ and keep- 
 ing his commandments." 
 
 We do not deny, but believe, that 
 thousands have sought sanctification as 
 a " second blessing," and that the}' - were 
 then and there sanctified " cleansed
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 175 
 
 from all unrighteousness," "from all 
 sin " but that does not prove that they 
 were not "cleansed from all unright- 
 eousness" when they were first "for- 
 given." Not at all ; for according to 
 John such a " forgiveness " and " cleans- 
 ing" go hand in hand, and he pledges 
 the "faithfulness and justice" of God 
 to this order in their reception. (1 John 
 i.9.) 
 
 We should be very careful how we 
 adopt every theory of the divine life 
 which may claim to be evolved from 
 Christian experience. When we re- 
 member that not one man in every 
 thousand is capable of so analyzing his 
 own mental states as to give any cor- 
 rect theory of mental philosophy, it be- 
 hooves us to go slow in forming a " the- 
 ory 11 of the Christian life from data 
 gathered from what men say they have
 
 176 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 experienced ; not but what they are 
 honest, but because so few are capable 
 of so analyzing and classifying their 
 mental states and feelings as to give 
 data for such a purpose. We know as 
 an historical fact that some of the first 
 who professed to have obtained sancti- 
 fication as a "second change," in less 
 than a week after Mr. Wesley had ac- 
 cepted the theory on their testimony, 
 began to testify that they had "re- 
 ceived a third change or blessing which 
 raised them above temptation," etc. ; 
 and to meet this fanaticism Mr. Wes- 
 ley wrote and published his sermon on 
 " Sin in Believers." 
 
 There is a wide difference between 
 analyzing and classifying known facts 
 until they crystallize into a "theory," 
 and assuming a "theory" and then try- 
 ing to find facts to sustain it. It is very
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation" 177 
 
 easy to assume that "regeneration is a 
 partial renovation," leaving "inbred 
 sin " and a "residue of the carnal mind 
 in the regenerated heart," and then ap- 
 peal to the consciousness of the average 
 Church-member, and get a verdict from 
 thousands in favor of conscious impurity, 
 especially when learned doctors have 
 mistaken the mental excitement caused 
 by a severe temptation for the " carnal 
 mind in a state of active rebellion ! " 
 But put all the facts into a 'psychological 
 crucible and analyze them in the light of 
 Gods word, and we find that they were 
 "cleansed every whit" when they were 
 "washed in the laver of regeneration 
 and renewed by the Holy Ghost ; " and 
 that the reason they now have a con- 
 sciousness of impurity arises from a 
 mistaken idea of the mental states in- 
 volved in temptation, or from the fact 
 12
 
 178 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 that they have " left their first love " 
 and "defiled their garments." 
 
 The old Antinomian idea, that it is 
 necessary for us to sin all through life, 
 and that all sins committed after justi- 
 fication are to be charged up to the 
 "old man," and not to the "new man" 
 I say this old Antinomian, Calvin- 
 istic idea of the Christian life has been 
 greatly strengthened in the minds of 
 our people by those who are always 
 teaching that "regeneration is a, partial 
 renovation," leaving the "carnal mind 
 in a state of active rebellion," and that 
 all this "remaining corruption" and 
 "heart impurity" is compatible with a 
 justified state! We do not charge such 
 teachers with impure motives, but with 
 error, and a "zeal not according to 
 knowledge." When holiness becomes 
 a hobby, and is ridden in the interest of
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 179 
 
 an independent organization, it is time 
 the Church of Christ should rescue it 
 from such a position and give it its 
 proper place in her teachings. I deal 
 not with motives I leave that to the 
 Master but with facts and teachings 
 and their palpable influences and issues. 
 I think the salvation provided in the 
 gospel is a unit entire, indivisible, per- 
 fect. 
 
 SECTION 4. OFFERING STRANGE FIRE ON 
 METHODIST ALTARS-A NEW DEPARTURE. 
 
 The reader of these pages may have 
 regarded some of mv criticisms too se- 
 vere ; but having read every thing that 
 I could find in book form and a vast 
 amount of periodical literature on this 
 subject, my diagnosis of the case was : it 
 calls for heroic treatment. In the Texas 
 Christian Advocate of October 6, 1887, 
 I find an article of nearlv three columns
 
 180 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 on " sanctification as taught by John Wes- 
 ley" written by Rev*. A. H. Sutherland 
 in reply to some brother who had dared 
 to express his views and doubts about 
 the " residue theory of regeneration and 
 the second change theory of sanctifica- 
 tion." After quoting the usual para- 
 graphs from Mr. Wesley paragraphs 
 that have been quoted so much that 
 some editors and proof-readers must 
 have learned them all by rote long 
 ago Brother Sutherland proceeds to 
 make the following appeal and denunci- 
 ation : 
 
 "Therefore, why oppose those who 
 are doing exactly what Mr. Wesley did 
 and enjoined ? Why do you not do that 
 way? Because you do not believe that 
 way ? Then why continue in a Church 
 whose most distinctive, distinguished, 
 and glorious doctrine you reject ? Why
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 181 
 
 come to her altars to offer your strange 
 fire ? Why stand around her tables for 
 your bread ? I declare to you there is 
 distinctiveness in your doctrine to jus- 
 tify a new Church; for there is no 
 Church on earth that holds it as a tenet. 
 No Church no, not one besides the 
 Methodist believes in entire sanctifica- 
 tion before death. Nor does she believe 
 it to be co-etaneous with justification 
 and regeneration and the new birth. 
 You enjoy the distinction which is no 
 honor of being a class, almost a party, 
 in a Church which believes that which 
 is not yet a creed, and of teaching that 
 which your Church emphatically con- 
 demns (?). Brethren, take my advice, 
 suffer the word of exhortation ; retrace 
 your steps, re-read your standards, be 
 converted from the error of your ways 
 [and then seek the second change], or
 
 182 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 quietly withdraw from our Church with 
 our tears and our prayers." 
 
 On this remarkable appeal, denuncia- 
 tion, declamation, and exhortation, so 
 beautifully combined and interspersed 
 with " prayers " and suffused with 
 "tears," I have a few points to make. 
 1. No one can analyze the document 
 without seeing that with Brother Suth- 
 erland to oppose the "residue theory of 
 regeneration and the second change 
 theory of sanctification " is to oppose 
 sanctification itself. In other words, 
 Brother Sutherland has things so con- 
 fused that he can not draw the distinc- 
 tion between rejecting his theory of sanc- 
 tification and rejecting the doctrine of 
 sanctification. To deny this criticism 
 is to make him write nonsense ; and to 
 admit the truth and justice of the crit- 
 icism is to say that Brother Sutherland
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 183 
 
 was fighting a man of straw. There is 
 no use in reasoning with a man who 
 can not distinguish between a certain 
 theory of a doctrine and the doctrine 
 itself. Hence, I have already said that 
 I have no hope of converting such a 
 man no, not if I could reason like 
 Lord Bacon, and exhort like Rev. A. H. 
 Sutherland, and weep like Jeremiah the 
 prophet. 2. When Brother Suther- 
 land said that those who reject the 
 residue theory " enjoyed the distinction 
 which is no honor of bein^ a class in a 
 Church who believe that which is not 
 yet a creed," did he know that we en- 
 joyed both the distinction and the honor 
 of being in a Church from whose Creed 
 this same "residue theory," which we 
 reject, was expunged by Mr. Wesley s own 
 hand ? If he did, was he not a little 
 hasty when he in " tears " invited us to 
 
 WQFFORD COLLEGE LIBRAR V
 
 184 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 " quietly withdraw from the Church " for 
 rejecting an expurgated theory? If he 
 did not know this historical fact, would 
 not an "exhortation to re-read our 
 standards," and add a little Church his- 
 tory and the Articles of Faith to the 
 course be well timed, especially as it 
 might save the good brother a good 
 many imaginary " tears " by removing 
 the hypothetical cause? 3. When 
 Brother Sutherland said that those who 
 hold and teach that regeneration and 
 ganctification are co-etaneous, " are 
 teaching that which our Church emphat- 
 ically condemns" did he know that in 
 teaching thus we were in perfect accord 
 with our expurgated Articles of Faith 
 as prepared by Wesley himself; that 
 we were in accord with our " standard 
 authors " so far as they are in harmony 
 tyith themselves ; and that we were in
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 185 
 
 perfect accord with the word of God, 
 especially as that word is expounded 
 in Mr. Wesley's "Notes" and Clarke's 
 " Commentary ? " If he did know all 
 this, what did he mean, and to whom 
 did he refer, when he said the " Church 
 emphatically condemns " such " teach- 
 ing?" And what did he mean by call- 
 ing such teaching " offering strange 
 fire" on the "altars" of our Church? 
 But if he was ignorant of these facts, 
 instead of " re-reading our standards," 
 I think he had better read them. 4. 
 After showing that there were some in 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
 who rejected his theory of sanctification, 
 he asks (not in "tears"), "Why then 
 continue in a Church whose most dis- 
 tinctive, distinguished, and glorious doctrine 
 you reject?" Reject what? The "glo- 
 rious doctrine of sanctification? " Nay,
 
 186 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 my brother, only your theory of it that 
 is all ! Does Brother Sutherland really 
 know that the " distinctive, distin- 
 guished, and glorious doctrine " of gen- 
 uine Methodism is "a present, full sal- 
 vation from all sin, by faith in Christ" 
 thus ignoring the Romish purgatory 
 after death, and the Calvinistic purga- 
 tory in death, and the residue purga- 
 tory of the second change theory ; and 
 that in rejecting the residue theory in 
 toto we are only doing for our theory of 
 the divine life what Mr. Wesley did for 
 our Creed. Because Mr. Wesley, as a 
 loyal, consistent minister of the Church 
 of England, accepted the residue theory 
 as taught in her Ninth Article ; and be- 
 cause Mr. W'esley struggled with the 
 absurdities of this theory for forty years, 
 until finally he rejected it so far as to 
 expunge it from the Articles of Faith
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 187 
 
 prepared for American Methodists, 
 shall we now turn round and put our 
 necks under this "yoke which neither 
 we nor our fathers were able to bear? " 
 5. But Brother Sutherland reaches his 
 climax when he says, "I declare there 
 is distinctiveness in your doctrine to 
 justify a new Church ! " There is no 
 difference among us about doctrine we 
 all believe alike in the doctrine of sanc- 
 tification the only difference is wheth- 
 er the Bible teaches a, full salvation from 
 all sin now, or a partial cleansing now, and 
 a complete cleansing at some future time ! 
 It is not sanctification, but your theory 
 of it, we reject. This is not all : If any 
 have "tears" to shed, they need not 
 save them until we "quietly withdraw 
 from the Church " and organize " a new 
 Church," for that will never be. Those 
 who are read up in the history of Meth-
 
 188 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 odism know that the "withdrawing" 
 began, and has continued so far, among 
 those who are on the other side of this 
 "theory." It was George Bell, Thomas 
 Maxfield, and others, who were among 
 the first to profess sanctification as a 
 "second change," and upon whose testi- 
 mony Mr. Wesley accepted this theory, 
 who were also the first to " withdraw " 
 and set up for themselves. It is this 
 same "class," or "party,"* who have 
 "quietly," or otherwise, "withdrawn 
 from the Church " in the North-west 
 and organized a force and sent them out 
 to go everywhere and cry, " Come out 
 of the Church!" some of whom have 
 "made havoc among the Churches" in 
 Alabama. It is this same " class," or 
 "party," who have organized all the 
 
 *I am indebted to Brother Sutherland for these 
 terms.
 
 "Regeneration a Partial Renovation." 189 
 
 " Holiness Conventions " that are now 
 operating in this country on an independ- 
 ent line ! And if there ever is to be a 
 general " withdrawing from the Church," 
 and "a new Church organized" on ac- 
 count of this "residue theory," it does 
 not take a prophet to tell where the 
 "withdrawing" will begin, and which 
 "class or party" now "in the Church" 
 will compose the "new Church." I 
 thought I saw that this issue was com- 
 ing before I began to write these pages, 
 and my first object was to arrest this 
 tendency. But Brother Sutherland has 
 raised the issue while I am writing; 
 but to my surprise, instead of following 
 the example of Messrs. Bell and Max- 
 field, he politely asks us to "quietly 
 withdraw from our Church with our 
 tears and our prayers ! " As this is "a 
 new departure" in Methodist history,
 
 190 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 we ask for time to consider the proposi- 
 tion. In the meantime, we hope Brother 
 Sutherland and all his "party in the 
 Church" will read and "re-read our stand- 
 ards," and refer now and then to Method- 
 ist history and "our" Articles of Faith.* 
 
 * There is no article on sanctification among the 
 twenty-five articles of the Methodist creed. There is 
 no allusion to the doctrine or statement as to what we 
 shall believe about it. Sanctification is not a doctrine, 
 but an experience, and when it is presented simply as 
 purity of heart and life before God, it finds none to 
 oppose it, none to cavil at it. To be holy is a duty con- 
 fessed by all Christians, and it is agreed we should 
 own no model or pattern lower than the Great Ex- 
 emplar. While we point out men's sins, and urge them 
 to put them away, none can gainsay our teachings. 
 While we urge that no known sin should be harbored 
 or indulged, all Christians agree with us. It is only 
 when some one puts forward his theory of the opera- 
 tions of divine grace, or puts himself forward as an il- 
 lustration of a particular work of grace, that confu- 
 sion and contradictions arise. As respects the model to 
 which we should conform our lives, it is found in Him 
 alone who says, "Learn of me." To any one who 
 thrusts himself between us and this perfect light, 
 claiming himself to be an example of perfection, we 
 will say. as Diogenes said to Alexander, " Stand out 
 of my sunshine." South-western Methodist.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Christian Perfection. 
 
 Our object has not been to lower the 
 standard of Christian experience or 
 holy living, but to remove some of the 
 difficulties which have gathered around 
 both, and to place each where the in- 
 spired writers left them. We would 
 start the young convert and the re- 
 claimed backslider on exactly the same 
 plane of Christian experience which is 
 claimed for one who has received the 
 "second change." As the whole sub- 
 ject is usually presented, no wonder so 
 few " go on to perfection," and so many 
 get into trouble and confusion. Sancti- 
 fication is not a growth in grace, but an 
 act of cleansing which prepares the new- 
 born soul to grow. It takes the moral 
 
 (191)
 
 192 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 purity of sanctification and a growth 
 in grace to mature into perfection. 
 The young Christians who fail to see all 
 this fail to maintain a pure heart, and 
 for the want of a pure heart they fail 
 to grow; and for the want of a pure 
 heart, and the growth that would follow, 
 they fail to "go on unto perfection." 
 
 SECTION 1. "GROWING OUT OF SIN." 
 
 As the word of God requires purity 
 of heart and a growth in grace, some 
 have concluded that they could grow 
 out of sin into moral purity. Now 
 moral purity is not a question of time, 
 but a growth in grace is. There is no 
 such thing as a gradual growing out of 
 sin; for sin is not a thing to be out- 
 grown, but an act to be forgiven and a 
 stain to be washed away. The guilt of 
 sin must be forgiven and the pollution 
 of sin must be washed away by faith in
 
 Christian Perfection. 193 
 
 the blood of the Lamb ; and all this is 
 an instantaneous work. A full salva- 
 tion from all sin is the present privilege 
 of all who "believe with a heart unto 
 righteousness." There is such a thing as 
 growth in unfolding the Christian graces, 
 which growth results in Christian per- 
 fection ; but the simple act of sanctifica- 
 tion of being "cleansed from all sin " - 
 is a work of the Holy Spirit performed 
 in the " washing of regeneration." 
 
 In the Methodist Quarterly Review for 
 July, 1877, Rev. J. O. A. Clarke, D.D., 
 LL.D., truly says: "Every believer 
 whose sins are truly forgiven, and who 
 is begotten of God, is pure in heart, free 
 from sin, and sanctified. And this sanc- 
 tification is contemporaneous with the 
 new creation. For God from the be- 
 ginning (that is, from the believer's 
 
 hearing and obeying the gospel) hath 
 13 
 
 WQFFQRD COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 
 WO' - ? 
 
 ^
 
 194 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 chosen him to salvation through the 
 sanctification of the Spirit and belief of 
 the truth/ When 'old things are 
 passed away, and all things become 
 new,' the believer is sanctified, freed 
 from sin, and ' becomes a servant of 
 God.' From that moment he is one of 
 the 'elect of God the Father, through 
 sanctification of the Spirit unto obedi- 
 ence and sprinkling of the blood of Je- 
 sus Christ.' " Dr. Clarke is equally 
 clear in reference to the true position of 
 Christian perfection in the divine life. 
 He says : " What is perfection ? and 
 where does it begin ? It is relative, and 
 because it is relative it begins as soon 
 as the believer is created anew in Christ 
 Jesus. In the new creation he is made 
 as perfect in moral character as it is 
 possible for him then to be. He can be 
 no more or less perfect than he is made
 
 Christian Perfection. 195 
 
 at the time by the sanctifying Spirit. 
 . . . Now what of Christian perfec- 
 tion after the new birth ? We answer: 
 It is living in obedience to the constitu- 
 tion and laws of the new man in Christ 
 Jesus. And what are these? They 
 may be summed up in a single word, 
 and that word is growth. It is 'going 
 on unto perfection.' " The Doctor goes 
 on to show that every thing in the Word 
 of God with which the Christian life is 
 compared denotes progress and growth. 
 It is a "journey, a pilgrimage, a voyage, 
 a warfare, a race." It is " likened to a 
 grain of mustard-seed, which grew into 
 a tree;" to the "leaven which leavens 
 the whole lump ; " to a " babe " which is 
 to become a " man in Christ Jesus." But 
 as in nature, there comes a state of ma- 
 turity, and that state of maturity is 
 called Christian perfection.
 
 196 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 SECTION 2. PURITY AND MATURITY. 
 
 We must remember that purity and 
 maturity are not the same. Purity is 
 the result of cleansing; maturity is the 
 result of growth. The justified believer, 
 the newborn soul, is " cleansed from all 
 unrighteousness," is sanctified by the 
 " washing of regeneration and the re- 
 newing of the Holy Ghost; " but he is 
 not a mature Christian, for that implies 
 time, experience, and growth. The Bible 
 teaches a gradual maturity ; but when 
 God cleanses a soul, he says : " I will ; 
 be thou clean," and the work is done! 
 A full salvation from all sin is the pres- 
 ent and constant privilege of all who 
 are in Christ and abide in him ; and all 
 who thus abide in him are prepared for 
 a rapid, solid growth in grace. "He 
 that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
 same bringeth forth much fruit."
 
 Christian Perfection. 197 
 
 The powers of the soul may be de- 
 veloped and the Christian graces may 
 be unfolded in a pure heart. Purity in 
 quality does not exclude increase in 
 quantity. " Water in a small channel 
 may be just as pure as in a large one. 
 A pure stream may increase in volume 
 and power. Mere growth never changes 
 the nature of any thing that which is 
 pure may grow, or that which is impure 
 may grow." The worst sinner grows 
 most rapidly in hellish passions, and the 
 best Christian grows most rapidly in 
 heavenly virtues and the Christian 
 graces. Growth is natural ; the act of 
 cleansing a soul is swper-natural and in- 
 stantaneous. Every change effected by 
 growth relates to quantity or to size ; 
 every change effected by cleansing re- 
 lates to quality or to kind. To be 
 cleansed from all sin is a work to be
 
 198 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 done by the Spirit, acting directly upon 
 the soul ; but to bring the Christian 
 graces to the highest state of maturity 
 is a work of time to be carried on to 
 the day of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The whole object of the gospel is to 
 make man pure and keep him pure. As 
 " inbred sin " is derived from Adam, 
 the first man, so in the new birth 
 righteousness is derived from Christ, 
 our second Adam ; for the " new man 
 is created according to the [original] 
 divine pattern in righteousness and true 
 holiness ; " so that, " as we have borne 
 the image of the earthly, we may also 
 bear the image of the heavenly." 
 " Xow ye are clean through the word I 
 have spoken unto you. Abide in me, 
 and I in you." " If ye keep my com- 
 mandments, ye shall abide in my love ; " 
 and "he that abideth in Christ sinneth
 
 Christian Perfection. 199 
 
 not." Such is the philosophy of a holy 
 life. " Whoso keepeth his word, in him 
 verily is the love of God perfected." 
 Here is "perfect love" and the way to 
 attain it and keep it. Yet Rev. J. A. 
 Wood wrote a book of three hundred 
 and fourteen pages to show that perfect 
 love could be attained only by a " sec- 
 ond process of repentance and faith 
 after regeneration ; " when St. John in 
 the \evy text where Brother Wood got 
 the title of his book, affirms that " whoso 
 keepeth his word, in him verily is the love 
 
 Of God PERFECTED ! " 
 
 SECTION 3. CONFUSION OF CONFOUNDING 
 TERMS WHICH ARE DISTINCT.* 
 
 Those who hold that sanctification is 
 a " second change " have done much to 
 
 * Of all the books I have read, " Perfect Love " 
 and " Purity and Maturity," by Rev. J. A. "Wood, 
 excel in this work of confusion. 
 
 &QFF0RB COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 m :
 
 200 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 strengthen the idea that sanctification 
 is to be reached by a growth. It is 
 done in this way: In order to prove 
 that sanctification is distinct from re- 
 generation, they confound sanctification 
 with Christian perfection (which is 
 reached by a growth) ; and then their 
 proof-texts lead their readers to the con- 
 clusion that whatever this "second 
 change " may be, they are to reach it 
 by a growth in grace. Purity is sanc- 
 tification, and maturity is Christian 
 perfection ; now think of a man writing 
 a book to show that "sanctification and 
 perfection are the same thing," and 
 then writing another book to show that 
 "purity and maturity stand forth in 
 Bible teaching as distinct" and you have 
 the feat which Rev. J. A. Wood has 
 accomplished! The idea that a new- 
 born soul may become a mature Chris-
 
 Christian Perfection. 201 
 
 tian in a moment is more than most 
 minds can comprehend ; yet this is the 
 case if "sanctification and Christian 
 perfection are synonymous pointing to 
 the same state." And Brother Wood's 
 ingenious effort to conceal this absurdity 
 in his theory of Christian experience, 
 by changing terms, is too glaring to es- 
 cape the notice of any mind that is not 
 blinded by a pet theory. 
 
 Now the Bible theory is this : The 
 newborn soul is as pure as the blood of 
 Christ can cleanse it, and this babe in 
 Christ is to become a mature Christian 
 by growing in grace. This confounding 
 sanctification with perfection purity 
 with maturity has led thousands to 
 believe that between regeneration and 
 sanctification there was an indefinite 
 period of gradual development, and 
 that after sanctification is reached the
 
 202 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 whole object of Christian experience 
 and life was accomplished ; and all they 
 have to do after being sanctified is to 
 find a sentimental sofa, provided for the 
 sanctified on their way to heaven, where 
 they may take a seat and chant, 
 
 "My willing soul would stay 
 
 In such a frame as this, 
 And sit and sing itself away 
 
 To everlasting bliss!" 
 
 or, seeing that they can not be made 
 free from sin until they are sanctified, 
 and believing that they can not reach 
 sanctification without a life-time to grow 
 in grace, they content themselves with 
 the fact that they have been converted, 
 and that their original purpose to serve 
 God and get to heaven still remains, 
 and that they intend to hold on to the 
 Church and limp along somehow until 
 they become men or women in Christ
 
 Christian Perfection. 203 
 
 Jesus ; then they will " crucify the old 
 man," which has held them in bondage 
 so long, and "destroy the body of sin" 
 which has been, as a mass of moral cor- 
 ruption, fastened upon them. Thus 
 thousands live either in a state of con- 
 templative inactivity a sentimental 
 quietism or in a state of spiritual dark- 
 ness and condemnation for years, with 
 nothing left but the memory of their 
 past conversion and their original pur- 
 pose to serve God and get to heaven ! 
 
 Now if all these could be made to 
 see and realize that there is no Chris- 
 tian life that does not free us from sin ; 
 that "if any man sin we have an advo- 
 cate with the Father;" that "if we 
 confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
 to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness ; " and that 
 "whosoever abideth in him sinneth
 
 204 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 not" then we might begin to talk about 
 a "pure Church, without spot, or wrinkle, 
 or blemish, or any such thing V But so 
 long as a great many of our ministers 
 believe and preach and publish to the 
 world that the "regenerate have re- 
 maining impurity," or that the " former 
 corruptions of the heart remain in them 
 and strive for the mastery," or that the 
 "carnal mind survives the work of re- 
 generation, and remains in the heart in 
 a state of active rebellion," and that all 
 this may abide or exist " in real Chris- 
 tians" without justification being for- 
 feited, so long w T ill the vast majority of 
 those who " have been once enlightened 
 and have tasted of the good word of 
 God, and the powers of the world to 
 come," be indifferent to the calls to a 
 " higher life." The time has come when 
 every true watchman upon the walls of
 
 Christian Perfection. 205 
 
 Zion must proclaim that there is no 
 spiritual life which does not "cleanse 
 us from all sin ; " that there is no " new 
 man " unless he has been " created ac- 
 cording to the [original] divine pattern 
 in righteousness and true holiness ; " 
 that "whosoever abideth in him sin- 
 neth not," and whosoever hath sin abid- 
 ing in him hath " departed from the 
 living God" and "defiled his gar- 
 ments;" that " he that doeth righteous- 
 ness is righteous, even as he is right- 
 eous," and "he that committeth sin is 
 of the devil ; " and that the " higher 
 life" is reached by "keeping ourselves 
 in the love of God, building up our- 
 selves on our most holy faith, praying 
 in the Holy Ghost," and "looking unto 
 him that is able to keep us from fall- 
 ing," "praying always with all prayer 
 and supplication in the Spirit, and
 
 206 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 watching thereunto with all persever- 
 ance," " till we all come in the unity of 
 the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
 Son of God, unto perfect men, unto the 
 measure of the stature of the fullness 
 of Christ, and grow up into him in all 
 things, who is the Head of the Church." 
 Such is the "higher life" to which 
 every babe in Christ is called, and such 
 is the means by which he is to attain it. 
 
 SECTION 4. HOLINESS PERFECT LOVE-PER- 
 FECT FAITH PERFECTION. 
 
 So far from it being impossible for a 
 sanctified Christian to grow in grace, 
 moral purity is one of the indispensable 
 laws of spiritual life and growth. We 
 have seen that regeneration includes 
 sanctification that " to be born of God 
 is to be changed from all inward sinful- 
 ness to all inward holiness." A soul 
 that is pure possesses a nature from
 
 Christian Perfection. 207 
 
 which holiness proceeds. While holi- 
 ness and perfection presupposes a pure 
 moral nature, yet all the Bible teaches 
 of holiness and perfection as a duty en- 
 joined or a state to be reached, relates 
 to the practical part of Christian life 
 and experience. The Holy Spirit puri- 
 fies our moral nature, and we are to pu- 
 rify our lives. Hence, Paul says : " Let 
 us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness 
 of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holi- 
 ness in the fear of God." The work of 
 "cleansing" and " perfecting holiness " 
 is here enjoined upon us as our ivork. 
 Now, no one can " cleanse " his moral 
 nature ; but he can " cleanse " his life ; 
 and in so doing, he will be "perfecting 
 holiness." Regeneration, born of the 
 Spirit, created anew, and sanctification, 
 are all applied to the act by which 
 man's moral nature is purified and re-
 
 208 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 newed in the divine image ; while " per- 
 fect love," " holiness," and " perfection " 
 are applied to that life of obedience 
 which results in Christian maturity. A 
 failure to observe the distinction be- 
 tween what God does for us and what 
 we are to do for ourselves has created 
 no little confusion among those who 
 have written upon the " higher life." 
 The one is the divine side of the Chris- 
 tian life, the other is the human side. 
 As repentance toward God and faith in 
 our Lord Jesus Christ is sure to be fol- 
 lowed by the " forgiveness of our sins" 
 and a "cleansing from all unrighteous- 
 ness," so obedience is sure to be fol- 
 lowed by a pure life, a growth in grace, 
 and a maturity of the fruits of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 If we are not mistaken in the signs 
 of the times, there is a growing tenden-
 
 Christian Perfection. 209 
 
 cy to run the " higher life " into a state 
 of mere contemplation. This is one of 
 the legitimate results of that theory 
 which confounds sanctification with per- 
 fection purity with maturity. It is 
 easy to comprehend how a soul may be 
 "cleansed from all sin" in a moment, 
 for that is the work of the Spirit; but 
 how a babe in Christ can become a man 
 in Christ Jesus by a single act of faith 
 is not so easily comprehended; and 
 where such a theory is lodged in the 
 mind it paralyzes all Christian activity, 
 and produces an abnormal state of mere 
 contemplation. 
 
 Our proper work as " new creatures " 
 is to "abide in Christ and keep his 
 commandments " to " grow in grace " 
 and "go on to perfection." Hence 
 every itinerant preacher is asked at the 
 
 door of the Conference: "Have you 
 
 14 J
 
 210 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 faith in Christ? Are you going on to 
 perfection ? Do you expect to be made 
 perfect in love in this life? Are you 
 groaning after it? " * The way to ob- 
 tain "perfect love" is obedience: 
 " Whoso keepeth his word, in him ver- 
 ily is the love of God perfected." The 
 way to " perfect holiness " is to " cleanse 
 ourselves" our lives "from all filth- 
 iness of the flesh and spirit." The way 
 to "perfect faith" is by good works: 
 " Seest thou how faith wrought with his 
 works, and by works was faith made per- 
 fect." The command is, "Be ye holy." 
 How ? "As ye have yielded your mem- 
 bers servants to uncleanness and to in- 
 iquity unto iniquity, even so now yield 
 
 * No man would quote these vows to prove that 
 sanctification is a " second change," if he had not 
 first confounded sanctification with Christian per- 
 fection purity with maturity.
 
 Christian Perfection. 211 
 
 your members servants to righteousness 
 unto holiness;" for "now being made 
 free from sin, and become servants of 
 God, ye have your fruit unto holiness." 
 With the Bible before him, how any 
 man can propose to write a book and 
 say, " In this work I shall use the terms 
 sanctification, perfect love, holiness, 
 maturity, and perfection, as meaning 
 the same thing, and as describing the 
 same work of grace in the heart," is a 
 mystery I can not comprehend! And 
 yet all the books on the "higher life" 
 are written from this stand-point. Is 
 it any wonder that those who wrote 
 them and those who read them "find 
 no end in wandering mazes lost?" Is 
 it any wonder that under such teachers 
 the very terms "sanctification," "holi- 
 ness," and " Christian perfection " have 
 become the synonyms of " confusion,"
 
 212 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 "mystery," and "fanaticism?" And 
 what is worse than all is, if a man has a 
 mind that can write a book on a propo- 
 sition so absurd as that, without discov- 
 ering the absurdity, there is but little 
 hope of ever getting him to see how ab- 
 surd such an absurdity really is. If 
 any one thinks this is severe, all I ask 
 is, get the "Southern Methodist Review" 
 for November, 1887, and read the article 
 on "Sanctijication? 
 
 The importance of purifying our lives 
 as God purifies our hearts, in order to 
 " perfect holiness in the fear of God," 
 has not been fully realized by the 
 Church; and nothing tends more to 
 call off the mind of the Church from 
 this important duty than to confound 
 sanctification with Christian perfection. 
 Those who make this mistake gather 
 up a number of proof-texts without any
 
 Christian Perfection. 213 
 
 reference to the contexts; just so the 
 word sanctify, or perfection, or holiness, 
 occurs in the text, they seem never to 
 stop to see the nature of the duty en- 
 joined, or the true application of the 
 word used. To them they all have the 
 same meaning and look to the same 
 end ; and that end is a " second change " 
 to remove " remaining corruption," 
 which they imagine was left in the mor- 
 al nature of those who have been "re- 
 newed in the divine image" and "made 
 partakers of the divine nature." 
 
 The holiness required of us in the 
 Bible is more than "a state of moral 
 purity," or "the right state of our pow- 
 ers," or " the right temper of our minds," 
 or "the right disposition of our souls" 
 holiness is more than all these nega- 
 tive virtues and necessitated states of 
 the soul, which culminate in " doing no
 
 214 The Froblem of Methodism. 
 
 harm." God will supply us with all 
 the prerequisites to holiness (such as 
 freedom from the guilt and pollution of 
 sin, a pure moral nature, and the in- 
 dwelling Spirit) ; but we must " walk 
 after the Spirit," " be led by the Spirit," 
 be " taught of the Spirit" we must 
 "fulfill the righteousness of the law," 
 and " cleanse ourselves from all filthi- 
 ness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 
 holiness in the fear of God." 
 
 A command to do is as much a law 
 as a command not to do ; and a viola- 
 tion of the one command is as much a 
 sin as the violation of the other. The 
 servant of one talent was called a 
 " wicked servant," not because he had 
 used it to do evil, but because he had 
 failed to improve it. The fig-tree w T as 
 cursed, not because it bore pernicious 
 fruit, but because it bore no fruit. The
 
 Christian Perfection. 215 
 
 inhabitants of Meroz were " cursed bit- 
 terly," not because they went over and 
 joined the enemy, but "because they 
 came not up to the help of the Lord, to 
 the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
 " How shall we escape if we neglect so 
 great salvation?" Christ represents 
 many as being condemned at the judg- 
 ment because of duties neglected. The 
 possibility and the duty of a Christian 
 "abiding in Christ and sinning not" 
 of " abiding in him and keeping his 
 commandments " is the grand ques- 
 tion we wish to get before the Church. 
 A Christian life which produces obedi- 
 ence is the "higher life" to which we 
 are called. A 'pure heart, followed by a 
 holy life, is the grand end proposed in 
 the gospel. 
 
 But it seems more reasonable to 
 many that Christ can " cleanse us from
 
 216 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 all sin " than that we can be " preserved 
 blameless " in such a state. That is, 
 they can see how Christ can do his part, 
 but they do not see how we are to per- 
 form our part. Of course, if left to our 
 own strength we would fail; but the 
 grace which renews us in the divine 
 image and purifies our hearts can sus- 
 tain us. John says: "Whosoever is 
 born of God doth not commit sin ; for 
 his seed remaineth in him : and he can 
 not sin, because he is born of God." 
 (1 John iii. 9.) In the new birth we 
 are " renewed in the image of him who 
 created us," we "put off the old man, 
 which is corrupt, and put on the new 
 man, which is created according to the 
 [original] divine pattern in uprightness 
 and moral purity ; " "we are made par- 
 takers of the divine nature," "being 
 born, not of corruptible seed, but of in-
 
 Christian Perfection. 217 
 
 corruptible, by the word of God." Now 
 "that which is born of the Spirit is 
 spirit," and this spiritual nature is the 
 " seed" which "remains in those who 
 are born of God " this is the " law of 
 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which 
 makes us free from the law of sin and 
 death " this " destroys the body of 
 sin," "the carnal mind," and gives us 
 a " spiritual mind," " if so be that the 
 Spirit of God dwells in you." Now the 
 indwelling of this "seed" is an infallible 
 preventive of the commission of sin. 
 Such a man "doth not commit sin, for 
 his seed remaineth in him, and he can 
 not sin because he is born of God." 
 This state is maintained by "abiding 
 in Christ;" "whoso abideth in him sin- 
 neth not; " for if we " abide in him," his 
 " seed will remain in us ; " and so long 
 as " his seed remaineth in us we can
 
 218 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 not sin, because we are born of God" 
 we have the " Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus," which "frees us from the law of 
 sin and death," so " that the righteous- 
 ness of the law is fulfilled in us." A 
 holy life depends, then, upon our "be- 
 ing born of God," and "abiding in 
 Christ." "Abide in me, and I in you. 
 As the branch can not bear fruit of 
 itself, except it abide in the vine, no 
 more can ye, except ye abide in me. I 
 am the vine, ye are the branches. He 
 that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
 same bringeth forth much fruit; for 
 without me ye can do nothing." The ques- 
 tion now is, how are we to "abide in 
 Christ? " The bond of this union with 
 Christ is faith. Paul says: "The just 
 shall live by faith; " " we walk by faith;" 
 "thou standeth by faith;" "the life I 
 now live, I live by faith in the Son of
 
 Christian Perfection. 219 
 
 God." John says : " This is the victory 
 that overcometh the world, even our 
 faith." Peter says: "You are kept by 
 the power of God through faith." Such is 
 the philosophy of a holy life. Holiness 
 is not simply a state of moral purity, 
 but also the result of right actions. God 
 makes us pure, but we are to make our- 
 selves holy. " Blessed are the undefiled 
 in the way, who walk in the law of the 
 Lord." God's law is the test of charac- 
 ter, the rule of life, and the standard of 
 holiness. The gospel does not release 
 us from obedience, but purifies our hearts 
 and gives us grace to keep the law, so 
 "that the righteousness of the law 
 might be fulfilled in us." If God has 
 purified our hearts, we must purify our 
 lives by abiding in him and keeping 
 his commandments," or we will lose our 
 purity and forfeit our pardon, and have
 
 220 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 to "lay again the foundation of repent- 
 ance from dead works." 
 
 "Thou hast a few names, even in 
 Sardis, which have not denied their 
 garments, and they shall walk with me 
 in white ; for they are worthy." (Rev. 
 iii. 4.) Here, then, we have a few 
 names held up by the great Head of the 
 Church who " had not defiled their gar- 
 ments." It is here, during probation, 
 we are to " wash our robes and make 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb ; " 
 and so it is here, in a state of activity 
 and trial, amid the temptations and pol- 
 lutions of this world, we are to "keep 
 ourselves unspotted from the world," 
 and our "garments undenled." Thus 
 did the "few names at Sardis," and 
 thus may all who are " born of God " 
 keep themselves pure. It was this that 
 made them "meet for the inheritance
 
 Christian Perfection. 221 
 
 of the saints in light " " worthy to 
 walk with him in white." The whole 
 life of such a Christian is fragrant with 
 the odors of paradise : 
 
 When one that holds communion with the skies 
 Has filled his urn where these pure waters rise, 
 And once more mingles with us meaner things, 
 'Tis even as if an angel shook his wings. 
 Immortal fragrance fills the circuit wide, 
 That tells us whence his treasures are supplied. 
 If the Church had the moral power 
 of which holiness of life is the precur- 
 sor, she might gird herself for the con- 
 quest of the world. Every member 
 would then be transformed into a faith- 
 ful Caleb or a believing Joshua, to sus- 
 tain the uplifted hands of God's legates 
 as they lead the hosts of Israel to bat- 
 tle and to victory, until a conquered 
 world would join in the song: 
 
 " Justice and mercy, holiness and love, 
 Among the people walk Messiah reigns, 
 And earth keeps jubilee a thousand years."
 
 222 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Having "put on her beautiful gar- 
 ments," the Church would walk through 
 the earth with the mien of an angel, 
 while on every hand, as from the lap of 
 spring, she would scatter the buds of 
 hope to bloom in immortal blessedness. 
 With a love as pure and quenchless as 
 the ethereal fire of heaven, a zeal as 
 fervent as the galvanic flame, a light as 
 clear and stainless as the sunbeams; 
 she would impart a sacred charm to the 
 very name of religion that would cause 
 the eager eyes of youth to look longing- 
 ly forth, as the lark for the morning, 
 that they might pour the sweetest notes 
 of life's earliest song into the listening 
 ear of heaven !
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "Not Under the Law, but Under 
 Grace." 
 
 To unite faith and works, to harmo- 
 nize the law and grace, so as to make a 
 harmonious system of practical religion, 
 is a work of vital interest to every 
 Christian. To do this is to put the 
 Christian on vantage-ground in devel- 
 oping a well-rounded character. It 
 gives him such a view of the plan of 
 salvation as will make him rejoice re- 
 joice though " with fear and trembling." 
 Let no one suppose this to be a work of 
 supererogation ; for I know of no sub- 
 ject of so much importance that is so 
 little understood. While it is possible 
 for one to be saved in spite of doctrinal 
 
 error, yet a clear view of the plan of 
 
 (223)
 
 224 The Problem, of Methodism. 
 
 salvation is necessary to the highest de- 
 velopment of the Christian graces. 
 
 The love of God is the source, the 
 death of Christ is the meritorious cause, 
 and faith is the condition of salvation 
 from the guilt and pollution of sin 
 that is, the plan of salvation originated 
 in the love of God, there is no merit 
 except in the death of Christ, and there 
 can be no forgiveness and renewal of 
 our moral nature without faith. It is 
 exceedingly difficult to state and defend 
 the doctrine of justification and sancti- 
 fication by faith only without seeming to 
 ignore practical obedience. To preach 
 a present salvation from all sin, without 
 " making void the law," is delicate 
 work indeed. 
 
 Let us go back to first principles. 
 Obedience is our normal relation to the 
 divine government. All created intel-
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 225 
 
 ligences are under obligation to obey 
 their Creator. This obligation grows 
 out of their creatureship, and runs par- 
 allel with their endless existence. ~No 
 position we may assume to the divine 
 government, in this life or the next, can 
 release us from this obligation of obedi- 
 ence. So far from the saints in heaven 
 being released from this obligation, 
 their eternal safety grows out of the fact 
 that they have been confirmed in a state 
 of perfect obedience; and, instead of 
 the lost in perdition being thereb}' re- 
 leased from obedience, it is this obliga- 
 tion that will kindle the flames that will 
 enwrap them forever. So far from the 
 impenitent sinner on earth being there- 
 by released from obedience, it is this 
 obligation unmet that involves him in 
 condemnation already ; and, instead of 
 
 the justified believer being therebv re- 
 15
 
 226 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 leased from obedience, he forfeits his 
 justified state the very moment he will- 
 fully violates any one of the commands 
 of God. 
 
 Practical obedience, then, lies back 
 of the atonement, and can never be re- 
 pealed. The design of the atonement 
 was to put us where " the righteousness 
 of the law might be fulfilled in us, who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the 
 Spirit." The plan of salvation was in- 
 troduced to meet the condition of man, 
 not as he came from the hand of his 
 Creator, pure and innocent, but as a 
 fallen, guilty, and depraved being. In 
 arranging this plan the question was 
 not, How can man be released from all 
 obligation to obedience? but, How ean a 
 guilty, depraved being be forgiven, and 
 his moral nature "renewed in upright- 
 ness and moral purity," so that he can
 
 Not Under the Law, bat Under Grace. 227 
 
 keep the law? Now, if it were possi- 
 ble for any sinner to keep the law from 
 this moment until death, he would only 
 perform his duty during that period of 
 time, while all the "unpardoned past" 
 would still stand against him. Hence, 
 if his past sins are ever forgiven and 
 his moral nature " renewed in the di- 
 vine image," it must be done by some 
 plan of mercy. The gospel is such a 
 plan. Through the vicarious death of 
 Christ God offers a full pardon for all 
 past sins and a thorough "cleansing 
 from all unrighteousness," upon the 
 condition of faith only. " To him that 
 worketh not, but believeth on him that 
 justifieth the ungodly, his faith is count- 
 ed for righteousness" "We conclude, 
 therefore, that a man is justified by 
 faith without the deeds of the law." 
 But what now? Is such a justified
 
 228 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 believer thereby released from obedi- 
 ence ? Is his probation at an end ? Is 
 the personal righteousness of Christ so 
 imputed to him that obedience is no 
 part of the condition of his final salva- 
 tion? We will let Paul answer these 
 momentous questions : " There is there- 
 fore now no condemnation to them 
 which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
 For the law of the Spirit of life in 
 Christ Jesus hath made me free [not 
 from the moral law, but] from the law 
 of sin and death, . . . that the 
 righteousness of the [moral] law might 
 he fulfilled in us!" Paul affirms that 
 "Abraham's faith was imputed to him 
 for [instead of past] righteousness ; " 
 that this " was written for our sake, to 
 whom it shall be imputed [in the 
 same way], if we believe; " that in this
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 229 
 
 sense we are "justified by faith only," 
 but that we are thus " made free from 
 the law of sin and death," in order 
 "that the righteousness of the law 
 might be fulfilled [not in Christ for us, 
 but] in us, who walk not after the flesh, 
 but after the Spirit." Now this "fulfill- 
 ing the righteousness of the law " is 
 practical obedience; and this is what 
 St. James meant when he said, " that a 
 man is justified by w r orks, and not by 
 faith only," and "that faith without 
 works is dead." Hence, that which St. 
 Paul calls "fulfilling the righteousness 
 of the law" St. James calls "justifica- 
 tion by works ; " and they agree in this : 
 they both put this practical obedience 
 after justification by faith only. Thus 
 the seeming conflict between Paul 
 and James is reconciled, and faith 
 and works are harmonized so as to
 
 230 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 make a grand system of practical relig- 
 ion. 
 
 Now the only text which seems to 
 conflict with this view is Paul's decla- 
 ration, " We are not under the law, but 
 under grace." Of all the " hard things 
 to be understood in Paul's Epistles," 
 and which " some have perverted to 
 their own destruction," perhaps none 
 has been so perverted as this especial- 
 ly as this has been perverted to the de- 
 struction of good works. The truth is, 
 the declaration, "We are not under the 
 law, but under grace," can have no 
 bearing on practical obedience or good 
 works, unless it be assumed that the 
 gospel has lowered the standard of obedi- 
 ence; but such an assumption would 
 be Antinomianism gone to seed. Owing 
 to the nature of moral law it being "a 
 transcript of the divine mind " God
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 231 
 
 could change his own immutable nature 
 as easily as he could lower the standard 
 of obedience. Through the vicarious 
 death of Christ God can forgive the 
 believing penitent ; but if he could have 
 lowered the standard of obedience one 
 iota, then he could have released man 
 from all obligation to keep the law, and 
 saved his well-beloved Son from the 
 agonies of the garden and the death- 
 throes of the cross. 
 
 What, then, did Paul mean by not 
 " being under the law, but under grace ? " 
 Simply this: We are not under the 
 law, or covenant of works, under which 
 Adam was originally placed, and in 
 which there was no provision for par- 
 don, but we are under the covenant of 
 grace which was provided for the ex- 
 press purpose of granting pardon. But 
 so far from the covenant of grace lower- 
 
 jNJFEORD COLLESt L' n " v 
 
 N* 
 
 wr
 
 232 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ing the standard of obedience, the com- 
 mand still is: "Thou shalt love the 
 Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
 and with all thy strength," and " Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 Christ said : " If ye love me, keep my 
 commandments." Paul said : "Yea, we 
 establish the law ; " and that its " right- 
 eousness must be fulfilled in us." And 
 John said : " Little children, sin not 
 he that committeth sin is of the devil ; 
 but if any man sin, we have an advocate 
 with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
 eous." Thus, while every believer is 
 required to keep the law and live with- 
 out sin, yet, in the event he sins, his 
 case is different from Adam's in this: 
 Adam was under the covenant of works 
 which made no provision for pardon, 
 whereas we are under the covenant of
 
 Not Under the Laic, but Under Grace. 233 
 
 grace which was given for the express 
 purpose of granting pardon ; and this 
 privilege of pardon is extended during 
 our probation to the backslider as well 
 as the returning sinner. But in either 
 case this pardon is obtained not by 
 works, but by faith in Jesus' name. 
 Faith in Christ, as the atoning sacrifice 
 for the sins of the world, is the only 
 condition of forgiveness ; and it is by 
 faith that it might be by grace. If Je- 
 sus had " paid all the debt we owe" as 
 the Antinomians teach, then pardon for 
 past sins and a release from all obliga- 
 tions to keep the law in the future 
 would have been ours by right of j)ur- 
 chase; for if " Jesus paid it all," the 
 whole debt is canceled. In this view, sal- 
 vation would not be of grace, but of 
 debt ; and not only grace, but faith also 
 would have been excluded from the plan
 
 234 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 of salvation ; for if the whole debt is 
 paid, then all other conditions would 
 have been superseded. " Jesus paid it 
 all all the debt I owe," may jingle 
 very well as third-rate poetry, but it 
 contains a false idea of the atonement 
 as set forth in the Bible. According to 
 the Scriptures, an atonement is not 
 only a substitution of one person for an- 
 other, but also the substitution of one 
 kind of suffering for another. Hence 
 Christ did not pay our debt in kind or 
 quantity; * but owing to the dignity of 
 his person and his relation to the divine 
 government, when he took our nature 
 and laid down his life for us, such was 
 the purity of his life and the dignity of 
 
 * Christ did not suffer the remorse of conscious 
 guilt, the bitterest drop in the sinner's cup of woe; 
 nor could he have suffered all that was due the 
 whole race. The idea is absurd.
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 235 
 
 the sacrifice and the nature of his suffer- 
 ing, God could offer pardon on the con- 
 dition of faith, and final salvation on 
 the condition of obedience. The atone- 
 ment, then, is not a commercial transac- 
 tion, in which God proposes to so im- 
 pute the personal righteousness of 
 Christ to me as to release me from per- 
 sonal obedience; but the atonement is 
 such an expediency introduced into the 
 divine administration as that " God can 
 be just, and the justifier of all who be- 
 lieve in Christ;" and when the sinner 
 is thus forgiven and "renewed in up- 
 rightness and moral purity," he is to 
 seek grace through Christ, to enable him 
 to keep the law. And if this is not done, 
 he forfeits his justified state, and falls 
 into condemnation ; and having forfeit- 
 ed his pardon, he becomes responsible 
 for the old debt that had been forgiven.
 
 236 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 In proof of this I refer to the case of 
 the unmerciful servant recorded in the 
 eighteenth chapter of Matthew : " Then 
 his lord . . . said unto him, thou 
 wicked servant, I forgave thee all that 
 debt, . . . shouldest not thou also have 
 had compassion on thy fellow-servant, 
 even as I had pity on thee ? And his 
 lord was wroth, and delivered him to 
 the tormentors, till he should pay all 
 that was due unto him." Thus the 
 man not only forfeited his pardon, but 
 in so doing he became responsible for 
 the old debt which had been forgiven. 
 And that there might be no mistake as 
 to what Christ intended to teach, he 
 said : " So likewise shall my Father in 
 heaven do also unto every one of you, 
 if ye from your hearts forgive not every 
 one his brother their trespasses ! " But 
 some one is ready to ask, Does not God
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 237 
 
 say, " I will forgive their iniquity, and 
 I will remember their sin no more?" 
 Yea, truly ; but we must remember that 
 every woe pronounced against the sin- 
 ner, and every promise made to the 
 righteous in this life is conditional ; 
 and the contingency depends upon the 
 voluntary acts of the creature, and not 
 upon any change "in the Father of 
 lights, with whom is no variableness, 
 neither shadow of turning." Hence 
 God says : " When I say unto the wick- 
 ed thou shalt surely die ; if he turn from 
 his sin, ... he shall surely live." And 
 " when I shall say to the righteous that 
 he shall surely live ; if he turn from 
 his righteousness and commit iniquity, 
 all his righteousness shall not be remem- 
 bered ; but for his iniquity that he hath 
 committed, he shall die." " Yet the chil- 
 dren of thy people say the way of the
 
 238 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Lord is not equal; but as for them, 
 their way is not equal." 
 
 Instead, then, of the personal right- 
 eousness of Christ being so imputed to 
 me as to release me from personal obe- 
 dience, I may forfeit my pardon by fail- 
 ing to forgive my brother ; yea, Christ 
 warned every man in the college of 
 apostles of this danger. Hence, so far 
 from it being true that the justification 
 which comes to me through the merits 
 of Christ being " eternal and uncondi- 
 tional," the Bible teaches that we re- 
 ceive this justification on the condition 
 of faith, and that we retain our justified 
 state on the condition of obedience. 
 And so far from it being true that " if 
 we are once in grace, we are always in 
 grace," the truth is, a man may not 
 only forfeit his justified state, but he 
 may die in that condition ; and dying
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 239 
 
 thus, all his righteousness shall be for- 
 gotten, and he shall be punished for all 
 the sins of his life. The Bible declares 
 that "the righteousness of the right- 
 eous shall not deliver him in the day of 
 his transgression." "When a right- 
 eous man turneth away from his right- 
 eousness and committeth iniquity, and 
 dieth in them, for his iniquity that he 
 hath done shall he die ! " " If a man 
 abide not in me, he is cast forth as a 
 branch, and is withered ; and men gath- 
 er them, and cast them into the fire, and 
 they are burned." "War a good war- 
 fare, holding faith and a good con- 
 science ; which some having put away, 
 concerning faith have made shipwreck : 
 of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander!" 
 Thus we fear that hundreds who " were 
 once enlightened and made partakers 
 of the divine nature, and tasted of the
 
 240 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 good word of God and the powers of the 
 world to come," have now "left their 
 first love," forfeited their justified state, 
 and are drifting toward the breakers 
 where Hymeneus and Alexander made 
 shipwreck of their faith; while others 
 have left the "old ship" and gone to 
 sea in the devil's craft, and as they sail 
 on dreaming they are "bound for Ca- 
 naan's happy shore," lo! it is a demon's 
 breath that fills their sails, and a de- 
 mon's hand that guides their bark to 
 ruin. To every one who wants to save 
 his soul alive in heaven the Bible says : 
 " Christ gave himself for us, that he 
 might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
 purify unto himself a peculiar people, 
 zealous of good works." " The blood of 
 Christ shall purge your conscience from 
 dead works to serve the living God." 
 " He that endureth to the end shall be
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 241 
 
 saved." And "Be thou faithful until 
 death, and I will give thee a crown of 
 life." 
 
 Thus we see that, instead of there be- 
 ing any conflict between justification 
 by faith and justification by works, 
 both are necessary in order to get to 
 heaven. Justification by faith relates 
 to the forgiveness of past sins, and 
 must be repeated as often as we sin 
 willfully. Justification by works is the 
 result of retaining our justified state by 
 " abiding in Christ and keeping his 
 commandments." Now the Bible teach- 
 es that justification by works is the 
 grand basis upon which the final judg- 
 ment will be conducted. In every place 
 where the judgment is brought under 
 review, not one word is said about faith, 
 but every man is to give an account of 
 
 his works. " For we must all appear 
 16
 
 242 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ, that 
 every one may receive the things done 
 in the body, whether they be good or 
 evil." "And I saw the dead, small and 
 great, stand before God ; and the books 
 were opened: and another book was 
 opened, which is the book of life: and 
 the dead were judged out of those 
 things written in the books, according 
 to their works. And the sea gave up 
 the dead which were in it ; and death 
 and hell delivered up the dead which 
 were in them: and they were judged 
 every man according to their works." 
 "Behold, I come quickly; and my re- 
 ward is with me, to give every man ac- 
 cording as his work shall be ! " " Bless- 
 ed are they that do his commandments, 
 that they may have right to the tree 
 of life, and may enter in through the 
 gates into the city."
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 243 
 
 The points discussed in this chapter 
 are so vital, and a clear apprehension 
 of them is so important to every one 
 that would " work out his salvation 
 with fear and trembling/' we pause 
 long enough to give a brief review 
 of these points and the lessons they 
 teach. 
 
 We learn, first, that no sinner can 
 render acceptable obedience to God un- 
 til he lays down his arms of rebellion, 
 accepts pardon, and is " renewed in the 
 divine image," by faith in the blood of 
 the Crucified One. The persistent im- 
 penitent sinner is in a state of enmity 
 against God ; and so long as he occupies 
 this attitude all his boasted morality 
 and good deeds avail him nothing; yea, 
 the Bible declares that "his ways, his 
 thoughts, his sacrifices," and even "his 
 prayers are an abomination unto the
 
 244 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Lord."* If the "righteousness of the 
 righteous shall not deliver him in the 
 day of his transgression," how can any 
 act of the impenitent sinner be accept- 
 able to God? "Your sword first, and 
 then your hand," is the way for a rebel 
 to surrender to his sovereign. " Let 
 the wicked forsake his way, and the un- 
 righteous man his thoughts ; and let him 
 return unto the Lord, and he will have 
 mercy upon him, and to our God, for he 
 will abundantly pardon." A man that 
 has not been subdued by the cross is of 
 necessity under the wrath of God. 
 The atonement is a supreme effort of 
 divine love to save man from the penal 
 consequences of sin. The cross is God's 
 final statement of the impossibility of 
 winking at sin. The dying agonies of 
 
 *A11 this is equally true of a once justified be- 
 liever who is now indulging any secret sin.
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 245 
 
 the Son of God demonstrate that sin 
 can never be pardoned as a mere act of 
 executive clemency that justice is a 
 supreme factor in the government of 
 God a consideration so vital that when 
 Christ placed himself in the sinner's 
 stead, even he had to suffer! Hence, 
 if men will not be reconciled through 
 the death of Christ, they must be sub- 
 jugated by force. When any sinner 
 has proved himself unworthy of a gov- 
 ernment of motive and moral suasion, 
 he is degraded to the level of physical 
 control ; and, as a last resort, God 
 maintains his authority by coercion 
 and penal suffering. The atonement is 
 a fact never to be repeated : it belongs 
 to probation, and probation limits its pro- 
 vision for pardon. 
 
 We learn, secondly, that no justified 
 believer can retain his justified state
 
 246 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 unless he " abides in Christ and keeps 
 his commandments." But not every 
 sin committed after justification is a sin 
 unto death; hence we should not give 
 up the struggle against sin, though we 
 fall into sin again and again ; for " if 
 any man sin, we have an advocate with 
 the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous," 
 " who is touched with the feelings of 
 our infirmities, and who ever liveth to 
 make intercession for us." 
 
 We learn, thirdly, that for a sinner 
 or a backslider to persist in sin, be- 
 cause the gospel is a grand system of 
 forgiveness, is the very essence of in- 
 gratitude, the height of presumption, 
 and shows a love of sin and a hatred 
 of holiness which ought to make the 
 cheek of a demon incarnate blush for 
 shame. Yet there are more men and 
 women going to hell on this line than
 
 Not Under the Law, but Under Grace. 247 
 
 any other. " Because sentence against 
 an evil work is not executed speedily, 
 therefore the hearts of the children of 
 men are fully set in them to do evil! " 
 This is the class "who hold the truth 
 in unrighteousness;" "and for this 
 cause God sends them a strong delusion 
 that they might believe a lie, that they 
 all might be damned." No man ever 
 rejects the oifer of mercy without be- 
 lieving that he will have another op- 
 portunity of being saved. Now every 
 sinner in perdition had his last offer of 
 mercy, but he rejected it, believing he 
 would have another; and in believing 
 that, he believed a lie, and sealed his 
 damnation. 
 
 Finally, as the grace of God is the 
 source, and the death of Christ is the 
 meritorious cause of our salvation, all 
 who get to heaven will join in the song,
 
 248 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 "Unto him who loved us, and gave 
 himself for us, and washed us in his own 
 blood, unto him be honor, glory, power, 
 and dominion forever and forever. 
 Amen!"
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Laws and Conditions of Spir- 
 itual Growth. 
 
 As it is now clear that the higher 
 life is to be reached by growing in 
 grace, it is important to understand the 
 philosophy of moral development. 
 
 All vegetable growth is dependent 
 upon extraneous influences such as 
 soil and sunshine, moisture and heat. 
 No animal can live and breathe aside 
 from air. The mind is dependent upon 
 external conditions which must be sup- 
 plied if vigor and growth are realized. 
 So it is with our moral and spiritual 
 natures. God can not be loved only as 
 the attributes of his nature which awak- 
 en and call forth our love are perceived 
 
 and contemplated by us. " We love 
 
 (249)
 
 250 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 him because he first loved us." The 
 whole question of natural, moral, and 
 gracious ability is too little understood. 
 Such a thing as an agent acting wholly 
 from his own center as a self-centered 
 and self-acting power is not to be 
 found aside from the Divine Being. 
 There is a sense in which dependence 
 is the condition of all created beings. 
 This is one of the fundamental laws 
 underlying their creatureship. " In 
 him we live and move and have our 
 being." The all-pervading Spirit is the 
 conserving and sustaining life of our 
 being. As in natural life we can not 
 breathe without air, so in spiritual life 
 God supplies all the necessary elements 
 and conditions of such a state, so as to 
 make virtue and holiness possible while 
 he keeps us in bonds of obligation and 
 in the sphere of dependence on him.
 
 Spiritual Growth. 251 
 
 God requires no man to do without the 
 ability to do; and this ability being 
 given, or promised, it is left to man, as 
 a responsible agent, to decide whether 
 he will obey or disobey the divine com- 
 mands. 
 
 To understand the laws of grace, so 
 as to know how and where to take hold 
 of them, is a question of vital impor- 
 tance. While all may be ready to ad- 
 mit that God is ready to perform his 
 part, yet but few seem to have compre- 
 hended the laws of divine assistance so 
 as to realize all that the gospel prom- 
 ises. How often does it happen that 
 when we need divine aid we go search- 
 ing in ourselves instead of making the 
 effort and leaving the whole question of 
 ability with God. The performance is 
 our part ; the power to do comes from 
 God. It often happens that the ability
 
 252 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 is given as the effort is put forth. It 
 was thus with the lame man who took 
 up his bed and went his way, and the 
 man with the withered hand who re- 
 ceived the power in the effort to stretch 
 it forth. 
 
 Thus the one talent becomes two by 
 using it. As we go forth in the dis- 
 charge of duty, our ability to do and 
 suffer multiplies like the bread in the 
 hands of the disciples. As they did 
 not wait for the Master to multiply the 
 bread before they began the distribu- 
 tion, but began with what they had, so 
 we are to go forth to our work with our 
 present ability, and God will give the 
 increase as occasion demands. We 
 must prove faithful to the grace already 
 bestowed before we have the right to 
 expect more. Thus the law of increase 
 is found in the activity necessary to em-
 
 Spiritual Growth. 253 
 
 ploy our present capital. Faith be- 
 comes strong by constant exercise. 
 Love glows and burns in proportion to 
 the labor it performs and the sacrifices 
 it makes. So all moral powers live and 
 grow just as they are " exercised unto 
 godliness." The path of the Christian 
 grows brighter as he advances. They 
 who wait on the Lord shall renew their 
 strength ; they shall walk and not faint ; 
 they shall run and not be weary ; they 
 shall mount up with wings as eagles, 
 and soar and talk with God. 
 
 If, then, } T ou have but one talent, be 
 sure to improve that, and in due time it 
 will produce another. One talent im- 
 proved is infinitely better than ten tal- 
 ents lying idle. He that improves that 
 which he hath, more will be given unto 
 him ; while he who fails to improve that 
 which he hath shall lose his original
 
 254 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 capital. Our final attainments depend 
 not so much upon the number of talents 
 originally given as upon the use we 
 have made of them. What thou doest 
 must be done quickly; for "the night 
 cometh, when no man can work." Time 
 is precious. Our interest for all eterni- 
 ty will be effected by what we do dur- 
 ing life during the little space of time 
 that lies between us and the tomb. 
 The foundation laid during our proba- 
 tion is the only foundation on which we 
 can build forever. Let us see that this 
 foundation is laid deep and broad. 
 
 We come now to consider the condi- 
 tions of spiritual growth. If we are 
 born of God we have already come un- 
 der the first condition of growth. Spir- 
 itual life being engendered in the soul 
 by the Holy Spirit, we are " free from 
 the law of sin and death," and are
 
 Spiritual Growth. 255 
 
 ready to " walk after the Spirit " and to 
 "grow in grace." Now this spiritual 
 life, like all life, has the law of expan- 
 sion, of growth within itself, as an in- 
 herent force. There is nothing that has 
 life but what has such a law wrapped 
 up in it. This is the nature of vital 
 force wherever it is found. This dis- 
 tinguishes life from death. Death has 
 no power of growth ; it always tends to 
 dissolution, but life always tends to 
 growth. Thus the life of God, "the 
 law of the Spirit of life," in the soul has 
 a tendency to expand, to grow. All the 
 babe in Christ has to do is to comply 
 with the conditions of spiritual growth ; 
 the law of it being an inherent princi- 
 ple already at work in the newborn 
 soul. If we do not grow it is because 
 we impede the action of this law, just 
 as some tribes of our race hinder the
 
 200 The Problem of Methodism,. 
 
 growth of certain members of their 
 body by placing them in clamps. Un- 
 der the appropriate conditions and in- 
 fluences which lie within our sphere of 
 choice we should, on becoming babes 
 in Christ, grow up unto men in Christ 
 as surely as the child grows to be a 
 man, or as the seed develops into the 
 "blade, then the ear, and then the full 
 corn in the ear." 
 
 We have but little to do with the 
 laivs, but a good deal to do with the 
 conditions of spiritual growth. It takes 
 a Liebig to analyze and classify the 
 laws of vegetable life, but any peasant 
 can raise vegetables enough to supply a 
 village. So it might require an arch- 
 angel to exjDlain the laws of spiritual 
 life and growth, but the simplest child 
 of God may so comprehend and apply 
 the conditions of spiritual growth as to
 
 Spiritual Growth. 257 
 
 become a mature Christian. Our spir- 
 itual life comes from God "that which 
 is born of the Spirit is spirit" and he 
 will keep it intact if we do not check 
 the operation of its laws by allowing 
 obstacles to be interposed. 
 
 In the parable of the sower Christ 
 speaks of some in whom the seed did 
 not bear fruit. "The cares of this 
 world, and the deceitfulness of riches," 
 "choke the word, and it becometh un- 
 fruitful." Christ here recognized the 
 law of growth, and the fact that this 
 law would have acted if it had not been 
 prevented by "the cares of this world, 
 and the deceitfulness of riches." These 
 things prevented the law of spiritual 
 life from "bringing forth fruit to per- 
 fection." We may permit thorns and 
 weeds to grow up and choke the seed 
 
 we sow, or we may keep these obstacles 
 17 
 
 JMUFFORd COLLEGE LIBR/ lDV
 
 258 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 out of the way, leaving the seed to have 
 free course to obey the laws of growth 
 under which they are placed, and so 
 "bring forth fruit" at the appointed 
 time. So in spiritual husbandry the 
 good seed will grow if we do not per- 
 mit the energies and affections of the 
 soul to be drawn off to nourish other 
 and hostile growths. If the powers 
 and affections of the soul are absorbed 
 in other things, of course the divine life 
 can not grow. It is as much impossi- 
 ble for it to unfold and "bring forth 
 fruit to perfection " as it is for corn to 
 grow and mature while overrun and 
 choked with thorns and thistles. The 
 soul must give itself up to the fruits of 
 the Spirit, and let no intruder and 
 usurper come in and occupy the sanc- 
 tum which was "swept and garnished" 
 when " the unclean spirit was cast out."
 
 Spiritual Growth. 259 
 
 We may starve the divine life as 
 well as choke it. Hence, another con- 
 dition of growth is nourishment. A 
 soul conversant with a few old stereo- 
 typed thoughts can never be the home 
 of an expanding spiritual life. In such 
 a soul this life, like every thing else in 
 it, will be dwarfed. In such a soul re- 
 ligion may run into fanaticism, or quiet- 
 ism, but it can not shine out in its own 
 native loveliness and beauty "born of 
 heaven and as free as the air." 
 
 Men of the world sometimes complain 
 that the Church furnishes but few 
 grand, well-rounded Christian charac- 
 ters. One reason is, the world furnish- 
 es such poor, dwarfed, contracted souls 
 for the Church to develop. If the 
 world will furnish great, generous, act- 
 ive, thinking, investigating minds for 
 the divine life to grow in, then the
 
 260 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Church will show great, noble, living, 
 and mature Christians. Another rea- 
 son for this deficiency in Christian 
 growth is found in the fact that the 
 world is always busy trying to persuade 
 or entice the members of the Church to 
 leave the fountain of life and the 
 bread of heaven, and come and sip of 
 the cup of worldly pleasure and eat the 
 husks of worldly comforts ; and, alas ! 
 the majority of them yield to the temp- 
 tation. Thus thousands have gone off 
 after the world and are saying, "We 
 are rich, and increased with goods, and 
 have need of nothing;" and know not 
 that they are wretched, and miserable, 
 and poor, and starved, and blind, 
 and naked! To all such the Master 
 says : " Behold I stand at the door and 
 knock ; if any man hear my voice, and 
 open the door, I will come in to him,
 
 Spiritual Growth. 261 
 
 and will sup with him, and he with 
 me." 
 
 No one can say that his spiritual nat- 
 ure is starved for the want of an ample 
 provision being made. For "there is 
 bread enough in our Father's house" 
 for all his children "enough and to 
 spare." We are not straitened and 
 pressed in on all sides by our Father, 
 but in ourselves. Our Father has made 
 ample provision for the healthy devel- 
 opment of every one born of God. But 
 if we would grow we must feed upon 
 this bread of life. We must drink often 
 and deep at the fountain of life. If we 
 would grow into the highest possible 
 spiritual life we must gaze and wonder, 
 love and adore, hope and rejoice must 
 ply our whole nature with the entire 
 circuit of truth, stretch our cords on 
 this side and now on the other, elicit
 
 262 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 our powers by all truth and beauty. To 
 be a full-grown Christian, we must be 
 developed heavenward and earthward 
 Godward and manward linked to 
 God and man according to our relations 
 to each, and in harmony with both. 
 
 To attain the "full stature of a man 
 in Christ Jesus," we must have a place, 
 and take the time- for meditation and 
 prayer some sacred retreat, where we 
 may be alone with God. The most vivid 
 moral impressions, unless often repeat- 
 ed, will, like the morning dew, be ex- 
 haled by the sun of worldly prosperity 
 or brushed away by our necessary con- 
 tact with the world. Hence the abso- 
 lute necessity of retirement and medi- 
 tation, as well as constant watchfulness 
 against worldly charms. We must cul- 
 tivate the habit of reflection, heavenly 
 contemplation, and prayer. We must
 
 Spiritual Growth. 263 
 
 study God's word ; bringing before the 
 mind every day the great realities 
 which the Bible reveals, and arrest 
 them and hold them to the eye of the 
 soul, and look at them till the impres- 
 sion is left upon our inmost nature till 
 the objects rise and stand out in their 
 magnitude till the effect becomes so 
 fixed and incorporated that when we go 
 out amid sensible objects we will carry 
 the sanctifying influence of these things 
 with us. Thus in the very business 
 and bustle of life our thoughts would 
 recur to the topics of retired medita- 
 tion, and our worldly plans would be 
 formed and executed under some just 
 estimate of the comparative value of 
 things temporal and things eternal. 
 
 It is said that in the Royal Gallery 
 at Dresden may be seen a group of con- 
 noisseurs who sit for hours before a 
 
 jftfUttUKD COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 
 :-._.
 
 264 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 single painting. Then they walk 
 around those halls and corridors whose 
 walls are so eloquent with the triumphs 
 of art, but they hurry back and pause 
 again before that one masterpiece of 
 Raphael. Lovers of art can not enjoy 
 it to the full till they have made it 
 their own by prolonged communion 
 with its matchless forms. One could 
 spend an hour every day for a year upon 
 that assemblage of human, angelic, and 
 divine ideas, and on the last day discov- 
 er some new beauty and new joy. But 
 what thoughts, what ideals of grace, 
 can genius throw upon canvas like those 
 great thoughts of God, of heaven, of 
 eternity, which stand out in the purview 
 of faith as the soul is en rapport with 
 heaven? What conception can art im- 
 agine of the " Divine Child " which can 
 equal in spirituality the conception
 
 Spiritual Growth. 265 
 
 which one has of Christ in the prayer 
 of faith? How often do we say of a 
 pleasure, " I wish I had more time, so 
 that I could enjoy it to my heart's con- 
 tent!" But no enjoyment can be more 
 dependent on time for its performance 
 than heavenly contemplation and secret 
 prayer. Hurried acts of devotion, to 
 be of any value, must be sustained by 
 other approaches to God, which are de- 
 liberate, premeditated, regular, and 
 which shall be to those acts like the 
 abutments of a suspension bridge to 
 the arch that spans the stream. It will 
 not do to lay such foundations in haste. 
 If this be true in building a bridge, 
 how much more so in building a Chris- 
 tian character! This thoughtful duty, 
 this self-examination, this communion 
 with God how dare we to hurry 
 through it as a childish sport?
 
 266 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 The assimilating, transforming power 
 of faith is clearly taught in the Bible 
 and demonstrated in daily experience. 
 This is true of every kind of faith. 
 The whole nature follows the faith, and 
 gravitates toward its object. We meet 
 men in every community in whose faces 
 we see avarice, lust, or conceit, as 
 plainly as if written in words. They 
 have thought and felt under the power 
 of these qualities so long that they are 
 made over into their image. " The 
 Hindoo, who worships Brahma sleep- 
 ing on the stars in immovable calm, 
 comes to wear a fixed expression." The 
 mediaeval saints, who spent days and 
 nights in contemplating the crucifix, 
 came to " show the very lineaments of 
 the Man of Sorrows, as art had de- 
 picted them ; " and, in some cases, it is 
 said that the very " marks of his tort-
 
 Spiritual Growth. 267 
 
 ure were transferred to their bodies." 
 Very early the faith of a man hangs out 
 its label, and soon the whole man be- 
 comes a confession of its truth. A 
 transforming process goes on ; faith is 
 the workman, and the object of faith is 
 the pattern. The work begins within, 
 down among the affections and desires, 
 and the forces move outward until the 
 external man becomes, in feature and 
 expression, like the object of our wor- 
 ship. This power of faith, first to 
 transform and then to reveal, is won- 
 derful. But as faith never reaches its 
 true sphere until it enters the spiritual, 
 and never finds its true object until it 
 reaches up to God, so its greatest trans- 
 forming and revealing power is felt and 
 seen in religious experience. Faith is 
 the power of love directed by will ; and 
 as it works out so it works within,
 
 268 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 shaping all things there after a divine 
 pattern. It is by this principle that 
 Christ unites men to himself. He 
 brings men to believe on him in order 
 that they may become like him. When 
 sin came, death came also ; and the en- 
 tire system began to work toward 
 death, in body and spirit. Christ in- 
 troduces a reversing power, and turns 
 the stream of tendency toward life. 
 This is no mystery, unless it be a mys- 
 tery that one being should change an- 
 other into his likeness, or bring him 
 under his power. We can conceive of 
 a soul so transformed into the image of 
 Christ, so recipient of his truth, so in 
 sympathy with him, so obedient to him, 
 as to have little sense of yesterday or 
 to-morrow, to care little for one world 
 above another, to heed death as little 
 as sleep, because he is so filled with the
 
 Spiritual Growth. 269 
 
 life of God ; for it is the nature of spir- 
 itual life to assert its pre-eminence over 
 physical death. It is toward this high 
 state of spiritual life and development 
 that Christ is trying to bring us sow- 
 ing in our hearts the seeds of truth and 
 love and life eternal. 
 
 As we "grow in grace and in the 
 knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ," 
 there is a united action of all the facul- 
 ties of the soul : thought has more faith 
 in it, and faith more thought; reason 
 more feeling, and feeling more reason ; 
 logic and sentiment melt into each 
 other; courage is tempered with pru- 
 dence, and prudence gets strength and 
 courage from wisdom. The law of the 
 conservation of forces holds here as in 
 the physical universe. This united ac- 
 tion of the mind, this co-operation of 
 all the faculties, this equilibrium of all
 
 270 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 the mental and moral forces of the soul 
 is something far higher than the dis- 
 jointed experience of the early Chris- 
 tian life, something far beyond a state of 
 moral purity or sanctification, something 
 that can only be reached by a growth. 
 It is like the action of the Divine Mind, 
 in which every faculty interpenetrates 
 every other, making God one and per- 
 fect. Now this state of maturity, of 
 perfection in a Christian is an intima- 
 tion that he is approaching the Divine 
 Mind, and getting ready to go and live 
 with God. 
 
 When our growth in grace and spir- 
 itual knowledge is normal and unchecked 
 by sin there comes a state of spiritual 
 life called a mellow maturity. The Chris- 
 tian graces have ripened and the man 
 begins to feel and act like God. His 
 heart grows soft, he speaks more kind-
 
 Spiritual Growth. 271 
 
 ly, a rich autumnal tint overspreads his 
 thoughts and acts. This state is some- 
 times regarded as bordering on fanati- 
 cism, but it is simply the moral and 
 spiritual natures rising above the com- 
 mon walks of men. Something of the 
 divine patience and charity and wisdom 
 begin to show in him, and we now see 
 why God made man in his own image, 
 and gave him his life to live.* 
 
 Such are some of the conditions and 
 results of spiritual growth. The life of 
 God in the soul, with its law of expan- 
 sion wrapped up in it the removal of 
 all obstructions to its growth, giving it 
 a heart "swept and garnished" and a 
 mind "free from the law of sin and 
 
 * The idea that such a state can be reached by 
 a single act of faith is absurd ; hence the absurdity 
 of confounding sanctification with Christian perfec- 
 tion purity Avith maturity.
 
 272 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 death" wholesome food, drawn from 
 the word of God by prayer, meditation, 
 and all the means of grace; and then 
 giving it free action in deeds of mercy 
 in daily life, where we meet so much 
 to move our pity and to stir our ener- 
 gies. 
 
 Thus the divine life, like all life, has 
 its God-appointed methods of develop- 
 ment and conditions of spiritual growth, 
 and he will not change or annul these 
 conditions. We can no more grow in 
 grace while we ignore these conditions 
 than the child can grow while deprived 
 of all the conditions of physical growth. 
 But if we will comply with these con- 
 ditions, we will " go on unto perfection." 
 
 From this stand-point we can see the 
 beauty and force of the following divine 
 instructions viz., "As newborn babes, 
 desire the sincere milk of the word,
 
 Spiritual Growth, 273 
 
 that ye may grow thereby." "There- 
 fore, beloved, seeing ye know these 
 things before, beware lest ye also, be- 
 ing led away with the error of the 
 wicked, fall from your own steadfast- 
 ness. But grow in grace and in the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Je- 
 sus Christ." "For when for the time 
 ye ought to be teachers, ye have need 
 that one teach you again which be the 
 first principles of the oracles of God; 
 and are become such as have need of 
 milk, and not of strong meat. For 
 every one that useth milk is unskillful 
 in the word of righteousness : for he is 
 a babe. But strong meat belongeth to 
 them that are of full age, even those 
 who by reason of use have their senses 
 exercised to discern both good and 
 evil." "Therefore leaving the [first] 
 
 principles of the doctrine of Christ, let 
 18
 
 274 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 us go on unto perfection; not laying 
 again the foundation of repentance from 
 dead works, and of faith toward God." 
 "And he gave some, apostles; and 
 some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; 
 and some, pastors and teachers ; for the 
 'perfecting of the saints, for the work of 
 the ministry, for edifying of the body 
 of Christ: till we all come in the unity 
 of the faith, and of the knowledge of 
 the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
 the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
 Christ: that we henceforth be no more 
 children, tossed to and fro, and carried 
 about with every wind of doctrine, by 
 the sleight of men, and cunning crafti- 
 ness, whereby they lie in wait to de- 
 ceive; but speaking the truth in love, 
 may grow up into him in all things, 
 which is the Head, even Christ." 
 
 After all that has been said and writ-
 
 Spiritual Growt 275 
 
 ten about sanctification, it is the birth- 
 right of all God's children "the base, the 
 substratum of a grand Christian lifer It 
 is to be " cleansed from all unrighteous- 
 ness," "by the washing of regeneration 
 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost" 
 to be " created anew according to the 
 [original] divine pattern in uprightness 
 and moral purity" And Brother Wood 
 says: "Purity is not a high state of 
 grace, when compared with the privi- 
 leges and possibilities in the divine life." 
 Hence the sainted Fletcher said: 
 " With me it is a small thing to be 
 cleansed from all sin ; but to be filled 
 with all the fullness of God ! " And Paul 
 prayed "that ye, being rooted and 
 grounded in love, may be able to com- 
 prehend with all the saints what is the 
 breadth, and length, and depth, and 
 height ; and to know the love of Christ,
 
 276 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 which passeth knowledge, that ye 
 might be filled with all the fullness of 
 God." 
 
 "Finally, my brethren, be strong in 
 the Lord, and in the power of his 
 might; . . . praying always with 
 all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" 
 If we ask the Spirit to help our infirmi- 
 ties, enlighten our minds, elevate our 
 thoughts, purify our desires, and inten- 
 sify our faith, then every groan and 
 sigh will be carried up and whispered 
 by the Spirit in the ear of mercy, and 
 soon the answer returns laden with the 
 richest blessings of heaven. But if we 
 would "pray in the Spirit" and enjoy 
 his aid, we must seek to " know the 
 mind of the Spirit," and then yield to 
 his divine impressions. Wherever he 
 leads we must be willing to go. What- 
 ever he dictates we must be willing to
 
 Spiritual Growth. 277 
 
 speak or do. The desires he inspires 
 we must pour forth in fervent, earnest 
 prayer. Those who are led by the 
 Spirit are brought into a large place. 
 Those who are taught of the Spirit be- 
 come wise in the deep things of God. 
 And those who are faithful co-workers 
 with him enjoy his aid in all its fullness. 
 This aid of the Spirit accounts for those 
 seasons in which we find our souls 
 burdened with a mysterious agony of 
 prayer. These intense groanings are 
 given in answer to some former prayer 
 for the aid of the Spirit ; and now, when 
 we least expected it, the answer comes, 
 and as we talk with God we know what 
 it is to " pray in the spirit ! " In such 
 seasons every nerve of the soul is 
 strung to its highest tension ; we pour 
 out our hearts before God; we pray 
 with groanings that can not be uttered ;
 
 278 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 then words flow apace, and we speak 
 in strains to mortal ears unknown. 
 Such prayer is weakness casting itself 
 upon divine strength ; infirmity leaning 
 on the arm of Omnipotence, and the 
 cry of the soul for the fullness of God. 
 It is the " weary dove returning to the 
 ark" of safety; the soaring eagle 
 mounting upward till lost to all below ; 
 the flight of the soul to the bosom of 
 God, and basking in the supernal light 
 of ineffable glory. To "pray in the 
 spirit " is something more than to ut- 
 ter words in the ear of God. It is the 
 eternal Spirit taking hold of the eternal 
 Father through the mediation of the 
 eternal Son. It is Divinity in us plead- 
 ing with Divinity in heaven ; for "it is 
 not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost 
 which is in you " the " Spirit making 
 intercession for the saints, according to
 
 Spiritual Growth. 279 
 
 the will of God, with groanings that 
 can not be uttered." 
 
 A day of glory will yet dawn upon 
 the Church ; but before that day shall 
 come the Church must travail in agony 
 for the "fullness of God." For this 
 Christ groaned in the garden and died 
 on the cross. For this he sent the 
 Holy Spirit to take his place in the 
 world, and to " abide with the Church 
 forever." And now the Spirit stands 
 pledged to help our infirmities ; to take 
 of the things of Jesus and show them 
 unto us ; to teach us how to pray and 
 what to pray for making intercession 
 for us with groanings that are unutter- 
 able. He is ready to endue us with 
 power from on high and give us tongues 
 of fire to shine into our hearts and 
 give us the light of the knowledge of 
 the glory of God in the face of Jesus
 
 280 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 Christ. He waits to reveal to us the 
 unutterable, the inconceivable, and the 
 unheard-of things which God hath pre- 
 pared for his children. He waits to 
 illuminate our minds and souls with 
 the dazzling beams of grace radiating 
 from the Sun of righteousness. He 
 waits to make the glory of God pass 
 before us, and give us in beatific vis- 
 ions to see the ineffable splendor of the 
 divine nature. He waits to unfold and 
 apply the exceeding great and precious 
 promises to our individual wants, and 
 cause us to rejoice with joy unspeaka- 
 ble and full of glory. He waits to lead 
 us on and on, until we are 
 
 Plunged into the Godhead's deepest sea, 
 
 And lost in his immensity!
 
 CHAPTKR X. 
 
 The Christian's Secret of a Hap- 
 py Life. 
 
 SECTION 1. LOVE AND OBEDIENCE. 
 
 Man was made to love and obey God. 
 This was his peculiar function, his 
 highest bliss, while in his pristine state 
 of purity. To " love God with all the 
 heart, soul, mind, and strength " was, 
 and is, the sum of all his duties, the 
 apex of all his happiness, and the cul- 
 minating point of all his immortal 
 longings. God is love. This is the se- 
 cret of the universe. The whole crea- 
 tion swims in an ocean of divine love. 
 Every law and relation is established 
 in love. To have this love "shed 
 abroad in our hearts by the Holy 
 
 Ghost," and then to respond to its 
 
 (281)
 
 282 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 mighty harmonies, and to know its 
 height and depth, is the great and final 
 achievement. To love God is simply 
 to put ourselves in accord with the rul- 
 ing principle of the universe. Consider 
 Christ as the incarnation of divine love, 
 and we see at once why we are to " love 
 him and keep his commandments." 
 By his incarnation divine love was 
 brought into humanity. This was the 
 only method by which human and divine 
 love could coalesce. Hence, " if any man 
 love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him 
 be accursed when the Lord cometh." 
 
 The character of Christ stands up 
 alone in the world's history. It is a 
 fact the most pure, ennobling, and 
 transforming in the whole range of hu- 
 man knowledge. "He is the fairest 
 among ten thousand, and the one alto- 
 gether lovely." One view of his cruci-
 
 The Christian's Secret. 283 
 
 fied Lord revolutionized Paul's whole 
 nature. Thus it has been with thou- 
 sands. Such a view of the crucified 
 one lifts man's whole nature at once; 
 and, like every thing perfect or divine, 
 the more we know of it the loftier will 
 be our appreciation, and the sublimer 
 will be the transforming results. Like 
 the blue arch above us, the character of 
 Christ rises as we rise, lifting itself up 
 into unattainable heights of purity and 
 moral grandeur. When we shall have 
 studied his nature through endless 
 ages, and shall have passed from one 
 height of glory to a higher still, the 
 highest summit that we shall ever 
 reach will only give us a more enlarged 
 view of his boundless perfection and 
 infinite loveliness. 
 
 Christ came not to teach the doctrine 
 of the fall, but rather to redeem a fallen
 
 284 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 race; not to teach the love of God, 
 but rather to stand forth the incarnation 
 of divine love ; not to teach the resur- 
 rection, but rather to demonstrate it by 
 his own resurrection and ascension. 
 The necessities of man were beyond the 
 reach of mere teaching; he needed 
 more than information. The wail of 
 humanity told that its disorder was 
 more than a synonym of ignorance. 
 Others had taught and theorized. Ages 
 of talk had passed, but man's condition 
 called for one who could perform what 
 others had promised ; one who could 
 make real what others imagined; one 
 who would not save by teaching, but 
 teach by saving; one who would not 
 give a theory of life, but life itself a 
 personal Redeemer, whose words were 
 deeds the deeds of a Being mighty to 
 save. When he could say no more he
 
 The Christian's Secret. 285 
 
 unveiled the cross and let that speak; 
 when his lips were closed, he opened 
 his heart and spake in blood ; when 
 his life-work was ended he exceeded 
 all in the utterances of his death. Si- 
 lence, if you will, every other utterance 
 of his wondrous life ; throw a veil over 
 every other act he performed ; hide 
 every other object in the universe but 
 let me see the cross, for it tells me that 
 he is my all-sufficient Saviour. If you 
 will, pull down the moon, seal up the 
 stars, and extinguish the sun, but let 
 the hill of calvary stand, for there I 
 learn that infinite love agonized to re- 
 veal itself, and died to utter its fullness. 
 But for this an ocean of divine love 
 would have remained forever concealed ; 
 but it found an ocean-channel in the 
 death-throes of the Cross, and now we 
 read in crimsoned lines that " God is
 
 286 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 love ! " divine love ! The source 
 of our redemption ! The essence of all 
 our happiness ! The sweetest harmony 
 of the soul! The music of angels! 
 The quintessence of heaven ! That 
 which melts the hearts of men and 
 reconciles the discords of earth ! A 
 heavenly exotic transplanted in the 
 garden of a purified soul a divine 
 creeper which entwines for support 
 around the cross ! 
 
 We are to be satisfied with nothing 
 less than such a manifestation of su- 
 preme love to God as will lead us to 
 "serve him with a perfect heart" to 
 delight ourselves in him as the source 
 of all our felicity, to find in him all our 
 happiness, so that we can rejoice and 
 solace ourselves in God as our exceed- 
 ing joy. "If ye love me, keep my 
 commandments."
 
 The Christian's Secret. 287 
 
 SECTION 2. THE PHILOSOPHY OF RESIGNA- 
 TION. 
 
 The will of God is the supreme good 
 of all created intelligences. God has a 
 right, an infinite right, to our entire 
 submission. All sin, in its ultimate 
 analysis, is a revolt of the will of the 
 creature from the Creator. Here we 
 find the tap-root of depravity, the jugu- 
 lar vein of the old man, and the spinal 
 column of sin. Now it is reasonable 
 that our restoration should begin where 
 our ruin commenced the remedy must 
 be applied to the seat of the disease. 
 The submission of our wills to God's 
 will is not only right, but our happiness. 
 Without this there can be no true re- 
 ligion in the heart ; for it is implied in 
 the very term disciple, and is a prereq- 
 uisite to the right performance of every 
 Christian duty. Therefore, in the econ- 
 omy of salvation, God requires us to
 
 288 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 submit to him, to his laws and provi- 
 dence, to consecrate ourselves, our 
 bodies and souls, our talents and influ- 
 ence, our time and property our all to 
 him and his cause. We are to do as he 
 directs, suffer as he appoints, and move 
 in the sphere he selects. 
 
 When we thus resign all into his 
 hands then he becomes responsible for 
 our happiness, so long as we keep all 
 upon the altar and live up to our vows 
 of consecration. The assurance to such 
 a one is "all things work together for 
 good " to him. Is not this a grand and 
 happy life? All he requires of us is 
 an entire acquiescence in and submis- 
 sion to his will " not slothful in busi- 
 ness; fervent in spirit; serving the 
 Lord." No need of all this fear and 
 complaint against providence; all this 
 anxious "thought for your life, what ye
 
 The Christian's Secret. 289 
 
 shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor 
 yet for the body, what ye shall put on " 
 all this is superfluous, not to say sin- 
 ful. It is our duty to do as God directs, 
 and "he will supply all our need ac- 
 cording to his riches in glory by Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 The true Christian, therefore, is not 
 weighted down with the distracting 
 care of earthly things ; for he seeks the 
 kingdom of God and his righteousness 
 first first in point of time, in point of 
 importance, and of interest seeks them 
 first all through life, knowing that all 
 other needful things will be added. He 
 gives to the poor, and thereby lends 
 unto the Lord, knowing that he will re- 
 pay a hundred-fold. He goes and 
 works in the Lord's vineyard, knowing 
 that whatsoever is right he shall re- 
 ceive. He serves his " Master in single- 
 19
 
 290 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ness of heart," knowing that he will 
 suj>ply all his necessities. Here is the 
 philosophy of a holy and a happy life, 
 as it was taught not by Socrates and 
 Plato, but by the Son of God. The 
 Lord is our defense, the Holy One of 
 Israel is our refuge, and Omnipotence 
 is pledged in our behalf. "He has 
 sworn, and he will perform it, as for 
 blessing he will bless thee." If it were 
 necessary, he would make the universe 
 tributary to our happiness ; and if that 
 would not redeem his promise, he would 
 create ten thousand more worlds and 
 make them all subservient to the same 
 great end. But what is one drop of 
 water compared to the ocean, a leaf to 
 the sylvan forest, or an atom to the 
 whole creation? Less still are all our 
 wants compared to the resources of him 
 who openeth his hand and satisfieth the
 
 The Christian's Secret. 291 
 
 desires of every living thing. Shall 
 the mite desist from bearing its weight 
 upon the earth lest it should give way 
 beneath its tiny feet? or shall the ani- 
 malcule be troubled lest it should not 
 find room and sustenance in the mighty 
 deep? Yes; let these things be, but 
 let no man fear to take the Lord for his 
 portion lest he should suffer in the end. 
 If there is a scene on earth over which 
 angels might weep, it is the distrustful 
 care so often seen on the faces of those 
 who are called the children of God. 
 Yet how tenderly does Jesus rebuke 
 our unbelief: "0 thou of little faith, 
 wherefore didst thou doubt!" 
 
 As God has promised not only to do 
 his children good, but the greatest 
 good ; and as he looks to our eternal 
 interest as being of more value than 
 that of time, so he regulates every part
 
 292 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 of his providence with reference to our 
 happiness in the world to come; and 
 so it will frequently happen that there 
 will be many things in this life that 
 will be mysterious to us at the time. 
 " What I do now thou knowest not, but 
 thou shalt know hereafter." To carry 
 out his plans, and to make good his 
 promise, our Father has to spoil our 
 earthly comforts and joys in order to 
 increase those to be revealed in heaven. 
 And often that which he sees will make 
 for our happiness in the world to come 
 will appear to us as the destroying 
 angel of all our hopes in this world. 
 Just as the child playing with his toys 
 thinks it a death-stroke to all his hap- 
 piness when his father takes him from 
 them and puts him under a course of 
 mental discipline, simply because the 
 child can onlv see himself as ever re-
 
 The Christian's Secret. 293 
 
 maining a child and retaining his fond- 
 ness for boyish sports, while the father 
 looks far beyond to the time when the 
 boy will be a man, with a capacity to 
 revel in the higher joys that glow amid 
 the corruscations of a brilliant intel- 
 lect; so our heavenly Father, when he 
 tears us away from our earthly toys and 
 puts us under severe discipline, looks 
 far beyond to that blissful abode where 
 an eternal weight of glory will be the 
 feast of the soul. 
 
 It often happens that as the pano- 
 rama of an unfolding providence passes 
 before us we gaze in astonishment at 
 these heavenly wonders ; we strive to 
 comprehend them ; we look at them and 
 ask, " What do they mean? " but no 
 answer comes to our troubled hearts. 
 The clouds roll up and off, and we shud- 
 der as the vision of his chariot sweeps
 
 294 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 by, because we do not see the hand that 
 guides it. We are perplexed on every 
 hand ; we reason, speculate, and philos- 
 ophize, and fall back entangled in the 
 meshes of our own philosophy, and no 
 light comes to our bewildered minds 
 and throbbing hearts. We are left to 
 walk by faith, and not by sight. But it 
 shall not always be thus. At the pres- 
 ent we only look through a glass dark- 
 ly, and we must be content by knowing 
 in part. The reason we think that so 
 little has been revealed is because there 
 is so much yet to be made known ; and 
 the reason that so much looms up in the 
 far-off future which we can not compre- 
 hend is because there is so much al- 
 ready made comprehensible. Instead 
 of being so much troubled about these 
 mysteries that belong to the future, let 
 us feed on that which is already made
 
 The Christian s Secret. 295 
 
 plain. We ought not to refuse to ad- 
 mire and study the worlds which the 
 telescope brings to view be3ause it gives 
 us reason to believe that all we know of 
 the material universe is as nothing 
 compared with what is yet to be re- 
 vealed. He that improves the present 
 will be the better prepared to under- 
 stand the future. The child must 
 neither throw away nor neglect his 
 arithmetic because he can not demon- 
 strate a problem in Euclid. The de- 
 sired knowledge is not withheld arbi- 
 trarily, but is dispensed according to a 
 wise economy, as we are prepared to 
 receive it and are able to bear it. There 
 are some things in the plan of salvation 
 which the angels desired to look into, 
 but they were denied the privilege. 
 The gratification of a mere desire to 
 know might thwart God's designs con-
 
 296 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 cerning us and obstruct the develop- 
 ment of our hearts. Our hearts must 
 keep pace with our intellects, our faith 
 with our curiosity, and our practice 
 with our knowledge. There is enough 
 made plain to guide us in the pursuit of 
 more, and progress is the great law 
 here as well as everywhere else. We 
 are traveling on to the fountain of light, 
 and in that light which makes manifest 
 all these mysteries will be finally ex- 
 plained. If faithful, we shall stand at 
 last on the mount of God, and, looking 
 back, all will be luminous like a thread 
 of silver light running down the mount- 
 ain-side up which the hand of our Fa- 
 ther has led us. 
 
 Shall we not be resigned to his will 
 when he assures us that, whatever may 
 befall his children, he will make it a 
 means of augmenting their happiness
 
 The Christian's Secret. 297 
 
 during the rolling cycles of eternity? 
 What though the history of virtue is a 
 history filled with suffering ; that many 
 of its scenes are drawn in characters of 
 blood; that persecution has often pre- 
 pared her racks and kindled her fires ; 
 that men of purest life and strongest 
 faith have pined in dungeons or wan- 
 dered in exile; and that "others had 
 trials of cruel mockings and scourgings 
 were stoned, were sawn asunder, were 
 tempted, being destitute, afflicted, tor- 
 mented " what of all this, if Paul tells 
 us that they suffered these things " that 
 they might obtain a better resurrec- 
 tion?" Moses, in leaving the "treas- 
 ures of Egypt, in suffering affliction 
 with the people of God, and bearing 
 the reproach of Christ, had respect 
 unto the recompense of the reward ; for 
 he endured as seeing him who is invis-
 
 298 The Problem, of Methodism. 
 
 ible." How often have the sublimest 
 virtues, the holiest affections been 
 evolved under the influence of sorrow ! 
 How much has the world risen in im- 
 portance, how much has the moral uni- 
 verse gained in goodness and glory by 
 the afflictions through which the saints 
 have been called to pass ! Had the 
 trial of virtue been dispensed with, had 
 there been no such thing in the econo- 
 my of providence as tribulation to the 
 righteous, then the examples of Paul's 
 "great cloud of witnesses" would have 
 been lost, the field of moral beaut}^ and 
 heroism wonderfully circumscribed, and 
 the most touching incidents of time 
 would have been lost to the moral uni- 
 verse. Now, add to all this that " eter- 
 nal weight of glory " which these " light 
 afflictions shall work out for us," and 
 is it not enough to lift up the heads that
 
 The Christian's Secret. 299 
 
 are bowed clown and confirm the feeble 
 knees, to suppress every murmur that 
 rises in the throbbing hearts wrung and 
 crushed with sorrow, to clothe the dying 
 hour in the gorgeous drapery of im- 
 mortal visions and hang around the 
 darkness of life and death the glowing- 
 ensign of eternal resignation*! 
 
 SECTION 3. CHRISTIANS. FOR THE TIMES. 
 
 The duties and responsibilities of 
 Christians are peculiar to themselves. 
 They stand isolated in one sense from 
 the mass of the people, and the influ- 
 ence which emanates from them gives 
 tone to the popular movements of their 
 day. They are the exponents of the 
 gospel, the oracles that speak to a 
 slumbering world, the guardians of 
 pure religion. It is desirable to have a 
 ministry who can logically sustain, 
 clearly elucidate, and enforce the doc-
 
 300 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 trines of Christianity ; , but the true 
 power of the gospel is found in the holy 
 lives of those who profess it, be they 
 clergy or laity. The world fixes its 
 standard of religion not so much by 
 the Bible and pulpit as by the effect it 
 produces upon the life and character of 
 Christians. The preacher may expa- 
 tiate Sabbath after Sabbath upon the 
 blessings and influences of the gospel ; 
 but what will this avail if he is sur- 
 rounded by a worldly-minded and time- 
 serving and an unholy Church ? Now 
 if every minister could say to his peo- 
 ple, as Paul did to the Corinthians, " Ye 
 are our epistles known and read of all 
 men," then the mouths of the gainsay- 
 ers would be closed. What cares the 
 infidel world for tenets merely stated 
 and defended in a cold, dogmatic form ? 
 It is the life of a holy man, though
 
 The Christian's Secret. 301 
 
 there be but one, they dread more than 
 all the force of eloquence and the de- 
 ductions of logic. But " if the salt has 
 lost its savor, wherewith shall the world 
 be salted?" Nothing in the moral 
 world is more useless, pernicious, and 
 contemptible than an impure, worldly- 
 minded, pleasure-seeking Church use- 
 less, because it does not answer the 
 avowed end of its existence, to purify 
 the world; pernicious, because it cor- 
 rupts the world ; contemptible, because 
 it is the ridicule of the world and the 
 disgust of heaven. (Rev. iii. 16.) 
 
 The first business and highest voca- 
 tion of every Christian is to " perfect 
 holiness in the fear of God.',' The idea 
 that a man's religion is a secondary 
 thing is egregiously false, because it is 
 based upon a low estimate of the end 
 for which we were created. It is found-
 
 302 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ed on the notion that a man's business 
 constitutes his highest concern, that it 
 is to occupy all his time as the source 
 of his highest enjoyment, and includes 
 all his duties. Now the very reverse of 
 this is true. The divine command is, 
 " Seek first the kingdom of God and his 
 righteousness." "Whether ye eat or 
 drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to 
 the glory of God." Religion should 
 put its impress upon the whole char- 
 acter, expand and dilate every power, 
 enkindle every element of sensibility, 
 make every faculty tributary to its 
 great end, until it becomes the master- 
 principle to regulate every-day life and 
 the true glory of man. Let this become 
 the status of the Church, and who can 
 estimate the results ? 
 
 We need just now, in a peculiar 
 sense, Christians for the times. In the
 
 The Christians Secret. 303 
 
 providence of God the present genera- 
 tion is surrounded by extraordinary 
 events and opportunities. During the 
 last thirty years the civilized world has 
 been in commotion. Sages and philos- 
 ophers, scientists and theologians have 
 gazed in consternation at a series of 
 events so wonderful in their nature and 
 so rapid in their succession as to appear 
 in retrospect more like the illusions of 
 fancy than scenes of real life. Owing 
 to these upheavals, society is thrown up 
 from its lowest depths ; old lines of de- 
 markation are gone ; the obscure have 
 come to the front ; the masses are wan- 
 dering in the chaotic fields of doubt and 
 uncertainty. Thus thousands are drift- 
 ing on these troubled waters, or driving 
 into a darker sea at every plunge, and 
 are anxiously looking for some beacon 
 to guide them into a peaceful harbor.
 
 304 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 We need, therefore, Christians of deep 
 principles to sustain them amid the 
 rage of this terrible storm ; of burning- 
 zeal to stand along the breach of time 
 as the light of the world peering far 
 above the wreck that sweeps around, 
 and throwing the light of the cross far 
 out upon the surging billows, to guide 
 these storm-wrecked mariners to the 
 desired harbor. We need Christians 
 who will ride upon the crest-wave of 
 progress, rise upon the flood-tide of im- 
 provement, and keep pace with the ad- 
 venturous spirit of the age, to mold 
 and direct all for the advancement of 
 the kingdom of Christ. We need 
 Christians of deep experience and stern 
 metal, who will ring out clear and 
 strong upon the world, to call it to a 
 pause in its mad career; men of pure 
 hearts and powerful faith, who can
 
 The Christian's Secret. 305 
 
 stand like the storm-swept rock, the 
 same amid the combined shock of winds 
 and waves; of moral power to com- 
 mand our resources and direct our en- 
 ergies, arresting the proud monjarrchs of 
 crime, the devotees of fashion, and the 
 worshipers- of mammon, and secure 
 their allegiance to the King of kings 
 and Lord of lords. 
 
 In connection with these stirring 
 events a few scientists have made, and 
 are still making, a fearful attack upon 
 the Bible. These enemies of the cross 
 are trying to capture the strongholds 
 of learning and plant their batteries 
 firmly upon the hill of science. At 
 such a crisis every actor on the stage 
 of life is an object of more than ordi- 
 nary interest; for at such a time the 
 facilities for doing either good or evil 
 
 are fearfully augmented. The mind 
 20
 
 306 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 and heart of the devout Christian 
 throbs with joy in the contemplation 
 of the good he may do by "spreading 
 scriptural holiness over these lands." 
 Thanks to heaven, Zion's watchmen 
 have already taken the alarm, while 
 here and there a stripling from the 
 ranks of the laity has gone forth with 
 pebble and sling to meet these Goliaths 
 of sin and Satan. The two hundred 
 thousand converts of 1887 stand up as 
 living witnesses of the fact that the 
 gospel is still the power of God unto 
 salvation. The tide of grace, which 
 has already set in, will no doubt con- 
 tinue to flow until the universal Church 
 shall be refreshed, and the reapers in 
 the Lord's vineyard shall gather 
 sheaves in all lands, and the rejoicing 
 angels shout " harvest home ! " 
 
 But before that day dawns the latent
 
 The Christian's Secret. 307 
 
 energies and dormant powers of the 
 Church must be baptized with holy 
 fire and burning zeal. Instead of the 
 kindling light she must have the glow- 
 ing blaze, and instead of the gentle, 
 permeating heat the volcanic shock 
 and throes of fire and flame. It is the 
 perfection of folly to expect success 
 without these demonstrations of the 
 Spirit* To think of conquering the 
 world without them is as silly as to 
 think of melting icebergs with moon- 
 beams. Heaven sympathizes with a 
 Church in travail ; and for the birth of 
 souls the whole creation groaneth and 
 travaileth in pain together, with mighty 
 throes, until the shout of a newborn 
 world shall usher in the millennial 
 morn.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 "Now of the Things Which We 
 
 Have Spoken, This Is the 
 
 Sum." 
 
 The Problem discussed and the con- 
 clusions reached in the foregoing chap- 
 ters are of so much importance that 
 we add a brief review. In regard to 
 Mr. Wesley's theory of the divine life, 
 we have much we would like to say, 
 but not now. There are a few things, 
 however, that nmst be said here and 
 now. It is evident : 
 
 1. That Mr. Wesley believed in the 
 "second change theory of sanctifica- 
 tion." 
 
 2. That his views of the distinction 
 
 between regeneration and sanctification 
 
 were confused. At one time he said: 
 (308)
 
 Conclusion. 309 
 
 " It is undeniably true that sanctifica- 
 tion is a progressive work, carried on in 
 the soul by slow degrees." At another 
 time he said: "Certainly sanctification 
 is an instantaneous deliverance from all 
 sin." And on one occasion he said: 
 " Perhaps I have an exceedingly com- 
 plex idea of sanctification." 
 
 3. That there is not a passage of 
 scripture which Mr. Wesley uses in de- 
 scribing the state of the sanctified that 
 he does not, somewhere, apply to the 
 state of the regenerated. All that he 
 gives to the one he takes from the oth- 
 er ; hence, according to Mr. Wesley, re- 
 generation and sanctification are iden- 
 tical. 
 
 4. That Mr. Wesley relied on the 
 (so-called) experiences of men for his 
 "second change theory of sanctifica- 
 tion," and not on the word of God ; for
 
 310 The Problem, of Methodism. 
 
 he says, " The Scriptures are silent on 
 the subject. The point is not deter- 
 mined, at least not in express terms, in 
 any part of the oracles of God." And 
 it is a remarkable fact that some of the 
 men upon whose testimony Mr. Wesley 
 accepted the "second change" theory 
 soon after professed a "third blessing," 
 or change, which lifted them up " above 
 temptations." Hence, the question is, 
 not what men say they have experi- 
 enced, but What does the Bible teach ? 
 what is the Bible theory of the divine 
 life? So far as the "second change 
 theory of sanctification " is concerned, 
 Mr. Wesley has taken it out of the 
 doctrines taught in the word of God, 
 and left it to stand or fall upon the tes- 
 timony of men. Is this the reason why 
 those who profess sanctification as a 
 " second change " differ from other good
 
 Conclusion. 311 
 
 men and women in nothing except in 
 "testifying?" 
 
 5. Mr. Wesley was led into the " res- 
 idue theory of regeneration" by the 
 Ninth Article of the Church of En- 
 gland, and this opened the way to ac- 
 cept the " second change theory of sanc- 
 tification," upon human testimony, when 
 "the Scriptures were silent on the sub- 
 ject." But as he changed his views on 
 sanctification from saying it was a " pro- 
 gressive work carried on by slow de- 
 grees," to say it was "an instantaneous 
 deliverance from all sin," so he finally 
 rejected the " residue theory of regener- 
 ation " so far as to cut it out of the Ar- 
 ticles of Faith sent over to America in 
 1784. And he so far abandoned both 
 the "residue theory" and the "second 
 change theory," in his sermon on "Per- 
 fection " in 1785, as to say not one word
 
 312 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 about "inbred sin," and to say that 
 " salvation from all sin is the least, the 
 lowest, branch of perfection." 
 
 6. Mr. Wesley always gave a Bible 
 definition of regeneration ; and but for 
 the fact that he felt bound, as an or- 
 dained elder in the Church of England, 
 to teach the doctrine of her Ninth Ar- 
 ticle,* and for the fact that he was dis- 
 posed to accept, without closely analyz- 
 ing, any good man's experience, there is 
 every evidence to believe that the " res- 
 idue theory " and the " second change 
 theory" would never have had a place 
 
 *Mr. Wesley says: "A serious clergyman de- 
 sired to know in what points we differed from the 
 Church of England. I answered : ' To the hest of my 
 knowledge, in none. The doctrines we teach are 
 the doctrines of the Church of England indeed, 
 the fundamental doctrines of the Church as clearly 
 laid down both in her prayers, articles, and homi- 
 lies: " (Watson's " Life of Wesley," pp. 76, 77.)
 
 Conclusion. 313 
 
 in his theology; or if they had crept 
 in, he would have expunged them from 
 his teachings long before he expunged 
 them from our Articles of Faith. 
 
 We have said that Mr. Wesley al- 
 ways gave a Bible definition of regen- 
 eration Here it is in extenso: 
 
 Mr. W T esley says : " The state of a 
 justified person is inexpressibly great 
 and glorious. He is born again, not of 
 blood, nor of flesh, nor of the will of 
 man, but of God. He is a child of God, 
 a member of Christ, an heir of the 
 kingdom of heaven. The peace of God, 
 which passeth all understanding, keep- 
 eth his heart and mind in Jesus Christ. 
 His very body is a temple of the Holy 
 Ghost, and a habitation of God. 
 Through the spirit he is created anew 
 in Christ Jesus ; he is washed, he is 
 sanctified. His heart is purified by
 
 314 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 faith; he is cleansed from the corrup- 
 tion that is in the world ; the love of 
 God is shed abroad in his heart by the 
 Holy Ghost which is given unto him. 
 And so long as he walketh in love 
 (which he may always do), he worships 
 God in spirit and in truth. He keepeth 
 the commandments of God, and doeth 
 those things which are pleasing in his 
 sight so exercising himself as to have 
 a conscience void of offense toward God 
 and man, and he has power both over 
 inward and outward sin, even from the 
 moment he was justified." 
 
 Again Mr. Wesley says of the new 
 birth : " It is the change wrought in the 
 whole soul by the Almighty Spirit of 
 God when it is created anew in Christ 
 Jesus, when it is renewed after the 
 image of God in righteousness and true 
 holiness, when the love of the world is
 
 Conclusion. 315 
 
 changed into the love of God, pride 
 into humility, passion into meekness ; 
 . . . a change from inward sinful- 
 ness to inward holiness ; when earthly 
 desires the desire of the flesh, the de- 
 sire of the eyes, and the pride of life 
 are in that instant changed by the pow- 
 er of the Spirit of God into heavenly 
 desires." " In a word, when the earth- 
 ly, sensual, devilish mind is turned into 
 the mind that was in Jesus." 
 
 "Well," says Mr. Wesley, "what 
 more than this can be implied in entire 
 sanctification ? It does not imply any 
 new kind of holiness. Let no man im- 
 agine this. From the moment we are 
 justified till we give up our spirits to 
 God, love is the fulfilling of the law. 
 . . . Love is the sum of Christian 
 sanctification. It is the one kind of 
 holiness which is found onlv in various
 
 316 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 degrees in the believers who are dis- 
 tinguished by St. John into little chil- 
 dren, young men, and fathers. The 
 difference between one and the other 
 properly lies in the degree of love." 
 
 Now the same love which is in the 
 "Fathers " is in the " little children ; " 
 and if this "love is the sum of sanctifi- 
 cation," and the love of the babe is the 
 same in kind as that of the father, it 
 follows that if the father is sanctified 
 so is the babe ; if the father is pure, the 
 babe is pure; for the difference is not in 
 kind, but in degree, and the degree de- 
 pends not upon an extra act of cleans- 
 ing, but upon capacity; and this differ- 
 ence of capacity between the babe and 
 the father is the result of growth, and 
 not the result of a "second change;" 
 but in order for the babe in Christ to 
 become a man in Christ, he must have
 
 Conclusion. 317 
 
 not simply a "second blessing," but a 
 "blessing" everyday. But is the babe, 
 the newborn soul, sanctified "wholly?" 
 Certainly ; for he has that " love which 
 is the sum of Christian sanctification." 
 Moreover, Mr. Wesley says : " ' To for- 
 give us our sins ' is to take away the 
 guilt of them ; and to ' cleanse us from 
 all unrighteousness ' is to purify our 
 souls from every kind and every degree 
 of it." " If any sin remain, we are not 
 cleansed from all sin; if any unright- 
 eousness remain in the soul, it is not 
 cleansed from all unrighteousness.' " 
 (See Notes I., John i. 9, and Sermon 
 XL.) But does this babe " go right on 
 to perfection," without a "second 
 change?" Certainly; if he does not 
 "leave his first love" and "defile his 
 garments." In that event he must 
 "repent" and "confess," and be "for-
 
 818 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 given" and "cleansed," just as any 
 other sinner; and this has to be re- 
 peated as often as he willfully "departs 
 from the living God." There is but 
 one process in the Bible to get rid of 
 the guilt, the power, and the pollution 
 of sin, and that process offers a present 
 
 SALVATION FROM ALL SIN, BY FAITH IN 
 
 Christ, to all who will accept it on 
 these terms ; and he who is thus forgiv- 
 en and cleansed is to reach the " higher 
 life," "perfection," or "maturity," by 
 "growing in grace and in the knowl- 
 edge of our Lord Jesus Christ," by 
 " abiding in Christ, and keeping his 
 commandments," and by " walking- 
 after the Spirit" and "fulfilling the 
 righteousness of the law." 
 
 7. It is clear that no little of Mr. 
 Wesley's confusion and " complex ideas 
 of sanctification " grew out of the fact
 
 Conclusion. 319 
 
 that he confounded sanctification with 
 Christian perfection. Hence his origi- 
 nal idea that "sanctification is a pro- 
 gressive work, carried on in the soul by 
 slow degrees." Then, after he had dis- 
 covered that " sanctification is an in- 
 stantaneous deliverance from all sin," 
 he confounded sanctification with holi- 
 ness. This mistake was more natural 
 than the other, because Mr. Wesley 
 was a firm believer in the " doctrine of 
 created holiness." * Now holiness, like 
 perfection, presupposes moral purity, or 
 sanctification ; but as perfection is 
 reached by & pure soul growing in grace, 
 so holiness is the result of a pure soul 
 living right "fulfilling the righteous- 
 
 * A doctrine that has been the source of several 
 errors running all through Methodist theology, and 
 about which I shall have something to say in the 
 future, Deo volente.
 
 320 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 ness of the law." Hence, while moral 
 purity is the result of a divine act, holi- 
 ness in a moral creature is the result of 
 right action that is, God can make us 
 pure; but beyond this he can not make 
 us holy. Hence, the possession of all 
 the moral faculties in a pure or a puri- 
 fied state, and the possession of holiness, 
 should never be confounded any more 
 than purity and maturity. Now Mr. 
 Wesley made both these mistakes ; 
 and m so doing he had at times " an 
 exceedingly complex idea of sanctifica- 
 tion," and not a few of our modern Fa- 
 thers and teachers are in this particu- 
 lar genuine Wesleyan Methodists 
 " Simon Pure." But they differ with 
 Mr. Wesley in this: Mr. Wesley al- 
 ways changed his views when he saw 
 his error;* but they, like the "law of 
 
 *He changed his views, but was too busy to go
 
 Conclusion. 321 
 
 the Medes and Persians, change not;" 
 and, what is worse, they can not see how 
 it was possible for Mr. Wesley to have 
 done so! (Ex vitio alterius, sapiens 
 emendat suum.) 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that Mr. 
 Wesley had the moral courage to fol- 
 low truth although it led him to contra- 
 dict what he had already published. 
 But few men thus love truth, and fewer 
 still understand the charm truth has to 
 such a man. Thus Mr. Wesley went 
 on searching for truth and publishing 
 his thoughts to the world, never dream- 
 ing that those who should come after 
 him would adopt either the errors or 
 
 back and change what he had written and published 
 
 on the subject. Dr. Bledsoe has shown that Mr. 
 
 Wesley intended to revise his works, but finally he 
 
 left this work of revision to those who should come 
 
 after him. Is it not time this work should be done 
 
 bv the General Conference? 
 21
 
 322 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 mistakes with which he started but out- 
 grew and set aside; much less did he 
 suppose that posterity would hold him 
 responsible for errors which he had re- 
 jected by contradicting them. To set 
 this thought clearly before the reader 
 has been the one object we have had in 
 view in arraying Mr. Wesley against 
 himself; but in doing this we have also 
 had some insight into the magnitude of 
 some of the errors which he had inher- 
 ited from the Church of England, the 
 mother of us all. In religious doctrine 
 inherited error, like inherited depravi- 
 ty, can only be overcome by the throes 
 of a new creation and a baptism of light 
 and love. This baptism we believe Mr. 
 Wesley received, and the evidences 
 thereof are found in our expurgated 
 Articles of Faith, and scattered all 
 through his later writings, but especially
 
 Conclusion. 323 
 
 in his sermon on " Perfection," pub- 
 lished only six years before his death 
 and one year after he had publicly re- 
 jected the residue theory of regenera- 
 tion by expunging the clause in which 
 it was baptized into the Creed of the 
 Church. 
 
 Now this sermon on "Perfection" is 
 in such perfect accord with Mr. Wes- 
 ley's "Notes on the New Testament," 
 and with his definition of the new birth, 
 and in such harmony with the theory 
 of the divine life advocated in these 
 pages that if we were to add it as the 
 closing chapter, one who is not familiar 
 with it would never suspect that its 
 author had ever held the " residue the- 
 ory of regeneration," or the "second 
 change theory of sanctification," while 
 not a few who are teaching both these 
 "theories" would read the chapter
 
 324 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 without ever suspecting that Mr. Wes- 
 ley was its author. For the present we 
 take our leave of Mr. Wesley, but not 
 without assuring the reader that our 
 admiration of that great and good man 
 has increased at every step in the in- 
 vestigation necessary to write these 
 pages. 
 
 We learn from this entire discussion 
 several important lessons : 
 
 1. That no state of grace can be 
 reached in this life where our- natural 
 sensibilities may not be stirred and ex- 
 cited toward forbidden objects ; but that 
 there is no sin in this excitement, pro- 
 vided there is no concurrence of the 
 will. 
 
 2. That while temptation necessarily 
 implies the power to yield, j r et the very 
 laws of the mind which make a tempta- 
 tion severe to the young convert will
 
 Conclusion. 325 
 
 react in favor of him who stands firm 
 for a long time. 
 
 3. That the perfection, or "higher 
 life," to which we are called as justified 
 believers is not the result of a " second" 
 and separate act of cleansing, but it is 
 reached by a true unfolding of our mor- 
 al and spiritual powers, together with 
 the integrity of character which is su- 
 perinduced by a retroaction upon the 
 activity involved in resisting tempta- 
 tion successfully. 
 
 4. That while development and pro- 
 gression may ever remain a law of our 
 spiritual and intellectual being, yet 
 when we have so subjected our entire 
 being to the will of Christ that a state 
 of perfect moral equilibrium is reached 
 when the moral strength and reflex 
 influence which follows right action 
 have reached a point that cancels the
 
 326 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 same natural consequences of wrong- 
 action, so that we are "rooted and es- 
 tablished" in the principles of right- 
 eousness then we have reached that 
 holiness and perfection which is required 
 of us, and which is the exalted privilege 
 held up to every believer. 
 
 5. That if God in his wisdom calls 
 the justified soul into eternity as soon 
 as he is regenerated, there is no neces- 
 sity for a " second change " to prepare 
 him for heaven ; but being " renewed 
 in the image of God " and " created ac- 
 cording to the divine pattern in up- 
 rightness and moral purity," he, like 
 the thief, may go directly from the place 
 of forgiveness to the paradise of God, 
 without having to pass through either 
 the theological purgatory of Protestant- 
 ism or the penal purgatory of Catholi- 
 cism.
 
 Conclusion. 327 
 
 6. That the cause of so little holiness 
 in the Church is because so many yield 
 to temptation and live the most of their 
 time in a state of condemnation though 
 they may not have renounced their 
 original purpose to serve God ; and that 
 the conviction of inbred sin which pro- 
 fessing Christians frequently have is 
 not the remains of moral corruption left 
 in them at the new birth, but the cor- 
 ruption resulting from wrong action aft- 
 er justification. 
 
 7. That the reason the best Chris- 
 tians who have ever lived have written 
 the bitterest things against themselves 
 is not because they were cleansed only 
 in part at the moment of regeneration, 
 but because they had reached a state in 
 the divine life which enabled them to 
 detect the slightest deviation from that 
 law which requires truth in the inward
 
 328 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 parts, the righteousness of which is to 
 be fulfilled in us. 
 
 8. That many have had needless 
 trouble from confounding temptation 
 and sin, so that every time they felt 
 any excitement of their sensibilities 
 under enticement, they believed that 
 they had sinned, whereas this excite- 
 ment was the essence of temptation; 
 while another class, accepting the doc- 
 trine of "sin in believers," have lived 
 for years in a state of condemnation, 
 dreaming that all was right, because 
 they had not denied the faith, commit- 
 ting sin daily, but charging it all to the 
 " old man " whom they intended to put 
 to death by and by ; and that nearly all 
 total apostates from the faith come 
 from these two classes of errorists. 
 
 9. That while the "perfection" here- 
 in defined is of necessitv the work of
 
 Conclusion. 329 
 
 time, yet who can tell how soon it may 
 be reached ? The fact is, when we come 
 to understand the philosophy of a holy 
 life we see that it may be reached much 
 sooner than most Christians suppose. 
 If the reflex influence of the first wrong 
 act was such as to pervert and corrupt 
 Adam's entire nature, it is reasonable 
 to suppose that if the young convert 
 would resist and overcome every temp- 
 tation from the moment of conversion, 
 he would not be very long in reaching 
 a moral equilibrium where the reflex 
 influence of right action would over- 
 come the force of old habits, so as to 
 establish him in the truth and give 
 him all the fruits of the Spirit and 
 graces of the gospel. Is not this Chris- 
 tian perfection? 
 
 10. That while it is the privilege and 
 duty of every one born of God thus to
 
 330 The Problem of Methodism. 
 
 go on unto perfection ; yet, " if any man 
 sin, we have an advocate with the Fa- 
 ther," so that no one should give up be- 
 cause he is overtaken again and again, 
 but take warning of the past, continue 
 the struggle until he becomes rooted 
 and grounded and established, so as to 
 "abide in Christ and sin not;" and 
 though this does not put the Christian 
 beyond the reach of temptation, yet it 
 increases his moral power to resist it, 
 and augments the probabilities of his 
 final salvation nevertheless "let him 
 that most assuredly standeth take heed 
 lest he fall." 
 
 Finally, we learn that the true meth- 
 od of obtaining the "higher life," or 
 Christian perfection, is not by " laying 
 again the foundation of repentance and 
 faith," but, "leaving the principles of 
 the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
 
 Conclusion. 331 
 
 perfection " " until we all come in the 
 unity of the faith and knowledge of the 
 Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
 the measure of the fullness of Christ ; " 
 " that we henceforth be no more children 
 but may grow up into him in all things, 
 which is the head, even Christ." And 
 now "as ye have yielded your members 
 servants to uncleanness and to iniquity 
 unto iniquity, even so now yield your 
 members servants to righteousness unto 
 holiness. For when ye were the serv- 
 ants of sin ye were free from righteous- 
 ness, but now being made free from sin, 
 and become servants to Cod, ye have 
 
 YOUR FRUIT UNTO HOLINESS, AND THE 
 END EVERLASTING LIFE."
 
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