DEATH TO CARNALITY -- No. 5

     "Holiness is an experience rather than a big blessing. This should be kept in mind by preachers and people. One of our great dangers is that of substituting a thorough understanding of it as a doctrine, for a clear experience of its perfect graces."

     "We assert and publish to the world that he who has a gospel conversion does not need a second siege to bring his powers of soul and body into harmony with the divine will. He loves holiness. It is all his aim and object to be like God. No one needs to cry 'holiness or hell' to get him to seek holiness. There is no persuasive power in hell-fire preaching to a regenerate soul. Such are not in danger of hell. They are as verily on the road to heaven as are the wholly sanctified. And as thoroughly as they have renounced the world and the devil, so thoroughly have they consecrated their lives to God."

     "Let it be remembered that consecration in degree is not dependent upon how much or what the man sees at the time he consecrates; but it does depend upon the degree to which a man devotes his soul and body to the service of God. A man may as thoroughly consecrate himself to God and not know a thing that awaits him, as he could if he knew every detail of life from the present to the grave. 'But,' say some, 'how can a man consecrate to do something when he does not know he will be required to do it?' We answer, 'Man does not consecrate to do this or that, but he consecrates to God; and when the will of God is presented, he proceeds to perform the same in harmony with his consecration.' And the question whether I will or will not do the bidding of God is not a question alone of consecration, but of submission as Well."

     "Every question within the realm of the will is settled at the time of conversion -- not in detail, but in fact. There can be no rebellion in the will, and pardon be secured at the same time. There are many things which the mind does not comprehend at the time of conversion, but the disposition of soul which submits to the present known will of God, will submit to the same will in the future, if the same attitude of soul toward God is preserved."

     "The soul when clear in regeneration delights in the will of God and pants for all the divine fullness. There is not a fiber of his being that rebels against heaven's law, not an atom of his soul, body or spirit that has not been given to God and devoted to His service. If there is, we should like to know what part of man it is that is withheld at conversion, and which he consecrates at the time he seeks holiness.

     "But," say some, "this will run us into Zinzindorfism." Not so. Consecration in its very nature relates to the conduct; that is, the man devotes himself to God, to perform His will as it shall be revealed to him from the time he is converted to the day of his death. "I will do this and be that, and stay here and go there," etc. This all belongs to regeneration.

     "Holiness relates to purifying the heart, that the man may more perfectly perform that for which he has consecrated himself to God, and which he has endeavored to perform with all his might from the day of his conversion. The distinctive features between regeneration and entire sanctification are not to be found along the lines of consecration, but in the work done in the soul. Every man when sanctified wholly is perfectly delivered from sin, root and branch. Herein lies the distinction, and not in the degree of consecration. 'But will not a man see many things at the time he is seeking holiness which he did not see at the time he was converted?' He may or may not. So will he after he is sanctified, all through his life, and if the act of the will by which he determines to do these newly presented duties is called consecration, then the man is not wholly consecrated until he exchanges the cross for the crown." "That which the soul sees relative to coming duties, at the time of seeking holiness, is merely incidental. The one great object of holiness is to purify the soul; to exterminate sin and restore the soul completely to the image of God. And in the very nature of things consecration cannot be a condition of obtaining this experience. The will, having decided at conversion that the world, the flesh, and the devil are to be renounced, and the man is to live to the glory of God, has only to defend its decision and hold the man in harmony with his former vows, while the Holy Spirit through the truth cleanses the soul by the blood of the covenant."

     "But does not a person in a more intelligent sense devote himself to God at the time he seeks holiness? Not necessarily. A person who lives long in the blessed light and glory of regeneration will have quite a thorough understanding of what it is to live for God in this world of sin. He may at this time have a more thorough understanding of what was implied in his consecration, and this he will have at different periods all through his Christian life. Yet this increased comprehension of what was contained in his devotement of himself to God at the first, is not a new nor a deeper consecration, but a more thorough knowledge of the consecration already made.

     "Consecration being the intention or purpose of the soul asserting itself through the will, it is all but ridiculous to suppose that a man can intend or purpose to be only partially the Lord's. He must take his stand on one side of the fence or the other -- all for God or all for the devil. Yet when he has given himself in the fullest sense to God, he will not be able to comprehend all that is contained in his consecration. And not till he has reached the banks of the mystical river where saints cross, will he be able to know all that was implied in his consecration when first he knelt at the cross.

     "The efforts of some well-meaning persons to get seekers of holiness to consecrate, have proven hindrances rather than helps to them in obtaining the experience. A man comes to the altar seeking holiness. He has been a happy, shining pilgrim. There is not an issue between his soul and God relative to his future conduct. He has been blest time and again during his Christian experience as he rededicated his soul and body to God forever, to live and die for Him. Now some one tells him to consecrate. He is all broken up over his burden of inward defilement. He is anxious to do anything to obtain deliverance. He goes through a careful dedication of himself to God, his friend, altar worker, suggesting some things which may not have occurred to his mind before. His mind is diverted from his difficulty. He feels a sensation of peace in his soul, as any one will who rededicates himself to God, whether he is regenerated or wholly sanctified. He accepts this as holiness, and soon awakens to the fact that he was deceived by allowing his mind to be diverted from the object for which he came to the altar, which was not to reconsecrate, but to be made pure.

     "If, then, consecration may not be termed a condition of obtaining holiness, what is the condition upon which we may hope to receive this high state of grace? We answer: The sole condition of salvation in any degree is faith. The abuse of this wholesome doctrine by some has occasioned many to entirely ignore it in a practical sense. Regenerating faith is always preceded by a sense of guilt and godly sorrow, which worketh repentance. This is absolutely essential to the faith that brings pardon to the soul.

     "Sanctifying faith is likewise preceded by " painful consciousness and a hearty acknowledgment of inward pollution. There is too little stress put upon this mighty conviction which the Spirit works in the heart of him who pants for purity. And when souls under the burden of this spiritual defilement are stretching every limb and every joint for perfect purity, let us not defeat the object of their seeking and rob them of their prize so near at hand by switching them off into a reconsecration, but let us urge them to earnest prayers and strong cries for deliverance from their enemies, which now they have discovered by the light of the Spirit. Thus the soul will be held to the work on hand, and as it turns with indescribable loathing from every carnal disposition and unholy bent, faith will be able to appropriate the blood, sin will be exterminated, and the soul will experience perfect rest from the being of sin; and, crowned with the baptism of fire, the man goes forth a shining, burning, invincible witness to the glorious work of entire holiness. Doctrines and theories should be adhered to only as they aid the seeker in obtaining the experience of which they treat.

     "Let none mistake our meaning. We do not say that there will be nothing presented to the mind at the time of seeking holiness to which the mind must not submit, for often this is the case; but we do say that this act of the will at this time is no more consecration than is the same act which the person is called to perform at different times all through his life after he is sanctified wholly; hence it can not be termed, a condition to holiness. If the light of God reveals any line of labor or any cross to which the attention has not been previously called, the will must render its decision in the case in harmony with the divine will before any progress can be made. Questions of conduct naturally belong to regeneration and not to entire holiness. Conversion regulates the conduct and holiness purifies the character." Amen and amen!