THE EVIDENCES OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION—HOW TO RETAIN IT

If not an indispensable, it is certainly not an unimportant thing, that a child of God should be assured as to any work of grace that has been wrought in his soul. The sinner who is seeking Christ, in the pardon of sin, feels that if ever he is converted, he wants to know it; and the believer who is seeking a clean heart, feels that if ever he is sanctified, he wants to know it. And we believe it is not our Heavenly Father’s purpose that His children should be in doubt, whether or not they are His children; nor yet in doubt whether, after fulfilling the conditions upon which He offers them special gifts, they do, or do not receive those gifts. “In quietness and confidence shall be your strength;” but, how can there be quietness and confidence, when our spirits are tossed with doubts, and fears, and questionings as to our acceptance with God, and our true relation to Him? “The joy of the Lord is your strength;” but how can there be joy without the settled assurance that we belong to God, and that He careth for us?

If, then, any of my readers have come to the conclusion that holiness is a duty and a privilege of the Christian believer; if they have, to the best of their ability, and in reliance upon Divine assistance, surrendered all to God, and asking, according to His will, that He will create in them a clean heart, and, humbly believing that He is faithful to all His promises, are now trusting Him for the fulfillment of their longing desires, these, surely, if no others, will be interested in the question: How am I to know when God has sanctified me wholly?

The first evidence that He has so done, is derived from the consciousness on the part of the individual, that he has really surrendered all to Christ. But how is one to know that he has really surrendered all? If he has gone through the struggle that I have elsewhere described; if he has come to the one thing which is hardest to give up, be it a besetting sin, or a self-indulgent habit, or an object of pride, or some idol of the affections, or some duty to be done, or some suffering to be borne, whatever it be, he knows by his own inner consciousness that he has laid it upon the altar, or that he has not. If his heart condemn him not in this matter; if it bear witness that he is not withholding any known thing from God, then he may trust Him wholly, also, for what is unknown; surrendering, first, all he does know, and then all that he does not know. And this is good evidence, as far as it goes, that God has given him a clean heart; for one of the marks or characteristics of such a heart is, that it loves—above all things—to do, and to suffer, God’s will.

The second evidence is also derived from consciousness, and is the witness of our innermost heart that we love God better than any created object. Here, again, many will inquire: How am I to know that I love God better than all else? Ask the faithful, devoted wife, how she knows that she loves her husband better than any other person. She may not be able to answer philosophically, but her own consciousness will not leave her a moment in doubt as to the fact. And does not the consecrated believer feel that his love for his Saviour transcends all other love in his heart; that, just as he would prefer that every star should be blotted from the heavens, rather than that the great orb of day should cease to shine; so he would rather give up all subordinate objects—however beautiful and attractive they may be—than to lose his interest in Christ? Does not his own heart tell him that he would esteem all other loneliness, and bereavement, and sorrow, a light thing in comparison with the hopeless orphanage that would be his portion, if he could look up to the sky above him, and down upon the earth beneath him, and upon animate and inanimate nature all around him, and be forced to say—in the blankness of dark despair—I have no Heavenly Father? He would be willing, if need be, that every subordinate light should be darkened, if only the beams of the Sun of Righteousness may continue to illumine his spiritual sky.

But while the testimony of our inner consciousness, that all is surrendered to God, and that we love Him supremely, is important, and entitled to great weight in deciding the question—Am I, or am I not a sanctified Christian? yet, we are not to rest satisfied in so momentous a matter without having, in addition, the witness of the Spirit. We have already spoken of the witness of the Spirit to our adoption; but the Apostle tells us also, “Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us;” and again, “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” “Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.”

Now, we have stated in another place that, to have God’s love perfected in us—that is, to obtain perfect love—is the same thing as sanctification; and the Scriptures just quoted tell us that we are to know that we have this perfect love, or this entire sanctification, or this abiding and indwelling of Christ, by the Spirit which He hath given us.

And, if it be difficult to define in what the witness of the Spirit consists, I think we may, nevertheless, be able to know under what circumstances, and on what conditions we may expect to receive it; yes, and even to be satisfied that we have received it. Suppose that an individual has been earnestly seeking a clean heart. So far as his consciousness goes, he has laid all upon the altar of consecration. So far as he knows, also, he has given God the supreme place in his heart, and allows Him to reign without a rival in his affections; i.e., he loves God better than anything else, but, wishing by no means to be deceived, he goes to the Lord in prayer, earnestly beseeching Him to give him the witness of the Spirit to his conscious cleansing.

Under these circumstances, I believe we shall not be disappointed in expecting that our compassionate Heavenly Father will do one of two things. He will either by His Spirit so search the heart of the person concerned, as to show him that there is still something wanting in his consecration—something in which he prefers his own will to God’s will—or else He will give him a conviction that there is nothing separating his soul from Him, and fill him with peace, and even, mayhap, with joy in believing. If He shows him nothing lacking in his consecration, he may conclude there is nothing. If He fills him with quiet rest and peace and joy, that is the witness of the Spirit. Let him accept it as such, and joyfully believe that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth him now from all sin. Glory be to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

And if these be the evidences to ourselves that we have received the clean heart, what evidences will convince others of the same fact? An unbelieving world and a gain-saying church will not be convinced by any evidence. The Lord Jesus Christ himself was not regarded as a holy man by even the religious teachers of the day. Those who reject the doctrine of holiness, who do not believe that holiness is required of or privileged to the believer in this state of being, will not be convinced by any evidence that they actually see holy men and women around them. Mistaking infirmities and weaknesses for sins, looking at the outward conduct and not seeing it perfect according to their own standard, they will find plenty of failures and defects, plenty of things to find fault with, even in the lives of those whose hearts may be perfect in love. The following quotation from Dr. Daniel Steele, of America, is in point, viz:

“There are old residents of this country who are by no means favorites with me, and I cut their acquaintance as much as possible, such as ignorance, forgetfulness, mis-judgment, error, inadvertence, failure, and a large family by the name of infirmity. In fact, I have repeatedly cast my vote for their exclusion, but they insist that they have a right to remain since no statute lies against them. They say that they are grossly wronged when confounded with an odious foreigner called sin, who slightly resembles them in external appearance, but is wholly different in moral character. I must confess that a close observation, extended through many years, demonstrates the justice of this plea. Hence I live in peace with these old citizens, but do not delight in their society.”

But the candid inquirer and earnest seeker after holiness will see in the lives of those who are really sanctified something that will constrain him to confess, These men, or these women, have something in their religious experience which I do not possess. And all have a right to expect from those who claim this great salvation such fruits of the Spirit, such holiness of life and conversation, such righteousness, and goodness, and truth, as may be in consonance with the good profession which they witness. God forbid that any sanctified believer should, by impatience, or jealousy, or malice, or ill-temper, or impurity, or covetousness, bring reproach upon the cause of holiness, which is indeed another name for the cause of Christ.

“And Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone” with the reflected radiance which it had received when he was in the presence of Jehovah. An influence conscious or unconscious, will emanate from the acts and words and countenances of saintly men and women which will impress the hearts of others, and draw them to seek for themselves the grace of holiness. They have the wine which maketh glad the heart, and the oil which maketh the face to shine, though like Moses they wist not of it.

But many persons when brought face to face with the fact that such an experience as entire sanctification is the privilege of the believer, through faith in Christ, hesitate to accept it definitely for fear they shall not retain it. They might hope to have it and enjoy it for a moment or a day, but it is too great a stretch of faith for them to believe that such a blessing can by any means be permanent. They are ready to ask, Can it be possible that holiness may be retained as a continuous experience? or, How can it be retained?

In the thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah we have a glorious description of the blessings of the Gospel dispensation; and among other beautiful things we read, “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it,” but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be found there: but the redeemed shall walk there.”

I have spoken so much of holiness as a state, that some of my readers may have imagined that I am describing a kind of happy condition, which when you have attained, you have nothing to do but to sit down quietly, fold your hands, and wait for the messenger which is to summon you to heaven. But holiness is not only a state, but a way; and not only a way, but a highway, wherein the “redeemed” are to walk; and walking on it they shall be seen. God designs that through the great salvation in Christ Jesus, His children should both be “redeemed out of the hands of their enemies,” and “should serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of their lives.”

And here, as elsewhere in the Gospel plan, Christ is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. By Him we get into the highway of holiness; for “I am the door.” By Him we walk upon the highway of holiness; for “I am the way.” So far as the human side is concerned, by a definite act of consecration and faith We enter upon the highway of holiness; and then, by abiding in Christ, we walk upon that highway. Without Christ we cannot get on to the way, and without Him we cannot take a single step after we are on it. Again we must quote George Fox, “We are nothing; Christ is all.”

It was but a single step, the work of a moment, a voluntary definite act of my own, by which I went on board the steamer in New York, purposing to come to England. Asking God’s protection and care, I surrendered myself to the keeping of the steamer and her officers. I might have distrusted the boat or her commander, and declined to go on board. Then I should not have reached my destination. I might have jumped overboard after the voyage was begun. That would have been suicide. I went on board, and remained on board; that was my part. The steamer, under the command of her intelligent captain, brought me to my desired haven. I surrendered myself and luggage to her keeping. She did the rest. I did not go on board of her more and more, nor surrender to her more and more, but I simply gave myself up to her, and she brought me more and more towards the British coast until I arrived there.

In like manner by a definite act of surrender and trust, the soul of the believer is brought into union with Christ; and then if he abides in that union, he is brought along, burdens and all, toward the heavenly shore. He may fail, through unbelief, to experience the consummation of that union, and then, though redeemed, he will not walk in the highway of holiness, or only get on to it in the hour of death. After the union has taken place he still has the suicidal power of sundering it, But if he surrenders and abides, Jesus does the rest. He does not consecrate himself more and more, nor experience sanctification more and more, but he definitely gives up all to Christ; and He causes him to increase more and more in knowledge and in grace, makes him more and more like Himself, adorns Him more and more with all the graces of the Spirit, enables Him to adorn the doctrine of Christ his Saviour more and more in all things, and brings him more and more toward his heavenly rest. He has a pure heart all the time, but the graces of holiness are increasingly developed, and the fruits of the Spirit brought forth more and more abundantly in his daily life. He is sanctified, holy, perfect, in the Scriptural sense of those terms; but he grows in sanctification, he increases in holiness, he ripens in perfection.

Purity is one thing, maturity is quite another. Sanctification is soul-health. A healthy child needs but to be properly fed and cared for in order to grow rapidly and symmetrically and develop into a strong man. But if the child has some constitutional disease, such as scrofula,[1] malnutrition, or softening of the bones, his growth will be irregular, distorted, dwarfish, and may result in permanent deformity. But give him a medicine which shall permeate all his tissues, removing from them every trace of disease, and restoring him to health; then let him drink milk, and he will grow just as a child that was born healthy will grow.

Now, spiritually, we are all born with a constitutional disease—the malady of indwelling sin. And, as before observed, the Church of England is quite right in saying that “this infection of nature continues even in those who have been regenerated.” And so long as it does thus continue—while there may be growth, yet it is not a healthful and vigorous growth, but tardy and irregular, the result being in too many instances, stunted, dwarfish, one-sided Christians. If, however, by the baptism with the Holy Ghost in connection with the cleansing blood of Jesus, this infection is removed, and spiritual health thus given to the believer, he is now in a condition to partake of the sincere milk of the word, and to grow thereby. He grows from strength to strength. Having clean hands and a pure heart, he grows stronger and stronger, ascends into the hill of the Lord, and stands in His holy place. “He shall bring forth fruit in old age, he shall he fat and flourishing.”

In the Canticles we read, “I went down to the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vines flourished, and the pomegranates budded.” The pomegranates are perfect in their budding, but not yet prepared to bring forth fruit like the vines. The vines are perfect and bringing fruit in their season, but not the rich ripe golden fruit of the garden of nuts. So in the Church of Christ there may be sanctified believers, who are yet in the infancy of their Christian life-pure in heart, but having little knowledge or strength. Christ will “gently lead” these young and tender lambs of His flock. He has many things to say unto them, but they cannot bear them now. “If men overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.”

Then there are those who are further advanced in wisdom and strength—living branches of the living vine—bringing forth fruit to the praise of the Husbandman, strong men and women in Christ Jesus. And finally, there are some among every sect and denomination of Christians, who after much chastening which is child-discipline, after many temptations and trials of faith, after, it may be, many afflictions, and sorrows, and disappointments, are enabled to bring forth the sweet lovely autumnal fruits of a ripened Christian character. “The fruits of the valley” are always acceptable to the “Lily of the valley.”

How absurd it would be to maintain that because a child has perfect health, it may not grow larger or stronger. Not less preposterous it is to argue, that because a heart is made holy, there is no longer room for a growth “in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Sound health, whether of body or soul, is the condition of rapid and successful growth.

Let us now return to the question, How shall the blessing of entire sanctification be retained? And the answer is ready: It is to be retained precisely as it was obtained. There is one text of Scripture that meets the case exactly. It is this: “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” Let me inquire of my readers, those who have accepted Christ as their sanctification: How did you thus receive Him?

You received Him first in a belief that holiness is for the Christian a privilege and a duty. You found it stated everywhere in the pages of the Bible that God requires His children to be holy, and that He makes it possible for them to be holy. In that same belief you must continue, if you would retain a holy heart. The doctrine of holiness has not yet found acceptance with a large portion of the visible Church. You will find many excellent and pious Christian people who reject it. And you are to remain fixed in the belief, continuing to search the Scriptures and to bow to their authority, whatever even wise and good men may say in opposition. If you begin to doubt the truth of the doctrine, you will soon doubt also your own experience, lose the evidences of your sanctification, and thus you may lose the grace itself. Walk on as you began to walk, in a firm conviction of the truth and scripturalness of the doctrine and experience of holiness.

And here perhaps I may be pardoned for one word of tender admonition to those disciples, and especially those ministers of Christ who reject the doctrine of holiness, as it has been taught in these pages. Surely no Christian will venture with the open Bible before him to say, I am opposed to holiness; and yet many are practically opposing it by suggesting theological and philological difficulties, calculated rather to bewilder than to enlighten the sincere inquirer and the humble seeker; for by plying with hard questions those who have surrendered all to Christ, and are trusting Him for a clean heart, they may engender doubts in their minds, and even overturn their faith. Perfect love, like every other gospel blessing, is to be received in the spirit of a little child, and the most wise and learned among us may well take heed how they offend or cause to stumble any of the little ones who believe in Christ as their sanctification.

You received Him, secondly, in an earnest desire for a clean heart. You longed for it, you panted for it, you groaned after it. Let those longing desires, that earnest hungering and thirsting, which are the condition and earnest of being filled, continue. Still pray earnestly and seek earnestly for the mind that would rather give up life itself than to commit known sin. Ask that the vessel may be enlarged, so as to contain more of God’s infinite love. It is one of the gospel paradoxes, that the heart made perfect in love, is always satisfied and always wanting more.

“Insatiate to the spring I fly,

I drink, but still am ever dry.”

You received Him, thirdly, in entire consecration—an absolute unconditional surrender to His will. In that same consecration or surrender you must walk in Him. When you yield up yourselves and your all to the Lord, it is not that any part of the sacrifice may be taken back again. You place all on the altar today, not that it might be taken off again tomorrow, but that it may be kept on the altar for ever. If at any time, or in anything, you feel your will rising in opposition to God’s will or providence, check such a rising at once. “Thy will be clone;” let that be the constant attitude of the mind, and the frequent utterance of the lips.

If you voluntarily give place to any suggestion of Satan, if you cherish a single rebellious thought against God, you begin to lose the witness of the Spirit—the crowning evidence of your sanctification; you begin to lose your faith, you will be quickly and easily tempted to disobey, and are too likely to fall into actual backsliding. As you get on to the highway of holiness only by entire consecration, you can walk on it only by a constant continuance of the same.

It is not that the act of consecration has to be made over and over again; but that we are to regard it as of unceasing and binding obligation—and of unending and gladsome privilege as well—all our lives. It is but the work of a moment to unite a man and woman in the covenant of marriage, but in the force of that vow they walk together until death separates them. If there are moments of estrangement followed by reconciliation, they do not find it necessary to have the marriage ceremony again performed, but recognizing the fact that the obligations assumed on the wedding-day have never ceased for a moment, they forgive each other their mutual lapses, and never regard themselves as anything else but husband and wife. In the covenant relations entered into with our Heavenly Father at consecration, we assume like obligations. If any lapses occur, they are all on our side. Let us at once confess them, and seek forgiveness, and never allow ourselves to imagine that our vows have ceased to be binding, or that all is lost because by some fault of our own a temporary cloud has come between us and the face of our Beloved. Sink into self-nothingness and self-abnegation, and continually say, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord in entire surrender, so walk ye in Him.

And let no one hesitate thus to surrender himself entirely, for fear that things too hard for him to bear will be required in the future. Does our Heavenly Father wish us to consecrate ourselves to Him, in order that He may have, and use, the opportunity of making our way peculiarly hard and difficult? Supposing a child should determine to yield its own will to that of its parents in all things—to love them, to obey them, to strive in every particular to please them, and to submit uncomplainingly to their wishes, would the parents for that reason, inflict more suffering and sorrow upon it, and make its path of life exceptionally rough and disagreeable?

The idea is preposterous! Would they not on the contrary shield such a child with all possible care from every needless suffering, grant it every indulgence at all compatible with its best welfare, and to the extent of their ability, make its life a happy one? And is our Heavenly Father less loving and kind than an earthly parent would be? Dare anyone so dishonor His infinite love, as to imagine that because any child of His shall consecrate himself to Him, He will therefore inflict upon him sufferings peculiarly and needlessly severe? Oh, beloved, let us trust God entirely, and put our whole case in His hands, being fully assured that in all things He will care for us, with more than a mother’s tenderness and more than a father’s love.

You received Christ Jesus the Lord, fourthly, in appropriating faith, i.e., a faith that applied the promises of God to yourself at the present moment; and so you must walk in Him. “The Comforter for me now,” wrote Daniel Steele, and taking the promises, determined to believe. It was after several days of trial, during which he held on to this simple assertion by faith

only, that the witness of the Spirit—the evidence made manifest to his consciousness that the blood of Jesus cleansed him then from all sin—was poured into his soul with overwhelming fulness and joy. Whatever else fails, let us keep our faith in active exercise. Truly the Christian, and not less than others the sanctified Christian, must walk by faith. Believe that God is giving you the Holy Spirit, believe that He is sprinkling clean water upon you, believe that He gives you now a clean heart, believe that He is working in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. “All things are possible to him that believeth.”

It happens in the experience of at least the greater number of believers, that the spiritual sky is sometimes darkened by clouds. I do not state this as a matter of necessity, but as a matter of fact. These clouds may arise from our own physical or mental condition, from our surroundings, or from the temptations of Satan. Possibly they are entirely our own fault, and might be avoided altogether by watchfulness and prayer; possibly they are permitted by our Heavenly Father for our chastening and strengthening. The Holy Spirit is an abiding guest in the heart of a sanctified Christian, but He is not always present to his consciousness.

In these times of darkness and doubt, of tossing and tempest, the soul needs to be firmly anchored in Christ, by a fixed and determined faith. Let it be the unalterable resolve of the tried and afflicted one, “Though He slay me yet will I trust in Him.” As when for days we are unable to behold the face of the natural sun, through the looming clouds, yet have no doubt that he is still shining, though we cannot see him, so in times of spiritual darkness, let us believe and have peace in believing, that the Sun of Righteousness shall again arise with healing on His wings, and that we shall again look upon the face of our Beloved One and hear the voice of His mouth.

Thus the retention of a clean heart, and the walking upon the highway of holiness, are found to be a matter of constant surrender and constant trust. If it depended on ourselves, however, vain would be all our efforts either to obtain, or retain, the wondrous blessing. The question is not what we are able to do, but what Christ is able to do. I would specially remind my readers of the following, viz.: “Able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.” “Able to keep you from falling,” “Able to succour them that are tempted.”

When Paul prays for the Thessalonians that they may be sanctified wholly, he also prays that their whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. First made blameless and then kept so; and he adds, “Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it.”

In the fifty-sixth Psalm David exclaims, “Thou hast delivered my soul from death,” words which in the gospel day would be a good profession of conversion, but he adds, “Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living;” and this surely should be the heartfelt desire of every child of God, i.e., that his feet should be kept from falling. In the hundred-and-sixteenth Psalm we find David acknowledging that this prayer had been answered—yes, and more than answered—“Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” “I will walk before God in the land of the living.”

Faith is to the spiritual life what breathing is to the physical life. I take the oxygen of the air into my lungs this moment; it purifies my blood which goes coursing through the tissues of my body, giving life and nutriment to every part; but when another moment comes, I must take another breath, another moment, another breath, and so on. My life is made up of successive moments, and kept up by successive acts of breathing; so that, when I cease breathing, I cease living. In like manner I am trusting in Christ this moment, and He keeps me. “His blood cleanseth me from all sin.” Another moment comes, and I trust Him, and it cleanseth still, another moment, and it cleanseth, and so on to the end. A constant succession of acts of faith is needful for the soul, as breathing is for the body.

Another thought about breathing. That which at first is difficult, becomes easy by habit. The first inspirations of the new born child are painful and hard. A man resuscitated from drowning or suffocation breathes gaspingly and laboriously. He must for a time devote his whole attention to his breathing, he must bring his will to bear upon it. He must exercise both his voluntary and his involuntary muscles to keep up his breathing. But when respiration becomes established, the process then goes on by virtue of the physiological relation between the nervous centers and the muscular system—goes on without the attention of the individual, without any conscious exercise of his volition, while he is engaged about other business, and not at all thinking of his breathing, nay, even while he is asleep.

In many instances also, the exercise of faith in those who are just struggling into life, or those who are just being restored from backsliding, is exceedingly difficult. Their whole attention must be directed to the matter of believing. Their wills must be brought to bear in aid of their believing power; they must strive and determine to believe; and thus by degrees their spiritual respiration will be established, it will become the holy habit of the soul to trust in Christ, they will naturally turn their thoughts to Him when disengaged from other things, and He will not be unmindful of them when necessarily taken up with proper business. Consciously or unconsciously their union with Him will be maintained; and in the valley and shadow of death, when mind and memory are failing, when the departing one cannot recognize the friends around his bed, nor remember the covenants that he has made with God, He will remember it; He will look in mercy upon His dying child, and will receive him to the embraces of His everlasting love. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

Remarks

1. The evidences to ourselves that we are sanctified Christians are, (1) The consciousness of entire surrender, (2) The consciousness of supreme love to God, (3) The witness of the Spirit.

2. The evidences to others that we are sanctified are to be found in a life and conversation such as becometh godliness—the constant bringing forth of the fruits of the Spirit in all righteousness and goodness and truth. If a Christian believer is enabled to rejoice evermore, to pray without ceasing, and in everything to give thanks; and if the skin of his face shines with the radiance of the indwelling Spirit, candid inquirers will be constrained to acknowledge—This man has the pearl I am seeking. But many will refuse to believe on any evidence that anybody is sanctified.

3. Holiness is not only a state to be obtained, a gift to be received, but also a life to be lived, a way to be traveled.

4. By a definite act of consecration and faith we get into the highway of holiness. By continuous surrender and trust, abiding in Christ, we walk upon that highway. He is the Door, and He is the Way.

Quotations

1. “If then, kind reader, you would retain the blessing of perfect love, you must feel, continually, that it is both your duty and privilege to be sanctified. To enjoy at all times the cleansing efficacy of the Redeemer’s blood, continually must you be consecrating all to God, and looking to Him for purity of heart; and, every moment must you believe you are accepted, and that the blood of Jesus cleanseth you from all unrighteousness.” (F. Boynton.)

2. “It is both the Spirit and the blood co-working by the power of a perpetual faith in Christ, that avails for perpetual cleansing. This was taught—in type—in the manner of consecrating the priests. They were to be sprinkled not only with oil, but also with blood.” Exodus 29:21. (L. Woodard.)

3. “The value of a thing is known by what it takes to preserve it, as well as by what it originally costs. Men may steal your diamonds, who would not trouble things of less worth. The cost of holiness was the blood of the Son of God; and greatly does he mistake, who supposes it can be preserved by anything short of eternal vigilance. (Upham.)

4. “A practical question some soul propounds: How to keep the Comforter? He will keep Himself and you too, if you will let Him. He is not so capricious as many imagine. He is in no haste to leave any bosom after so long an endeavor to get an invitation to enter it. Nothing but sin can dislodge Him. The soul which holds Him by faith, shall be upheld by Him. “Teneo et teneor.” (Steele.)

5. “Year by year such Christians are seen to grow-more unworldly and heavenly-minded, more transformed, more like Christ, until even their very faces express so much of the beautiful, inward, Divine life, that all who look at them cannot but take knowledge of them that they live with Jesus, and are abiding in Him.” (W. Smith.)

6. “When Christ is accepted, and enthroned in the heart as an indwelling King, and the government is laid over upon His shoulders, then, indeed, it is in the hands of one who can expel all His enemies, and only by the power of a new affection, even the affection for the new King—chiefest among ten thousand. Yes, and the will, that stiff-necked thing; oh, how He can make it willing in the beauty of holiness, and keep it so.” (Boardman.)

Church of God, beloved and chosen,

Church of Christ, for whom He died,

Claim thy gifts and praise the Giver!

“Ye are washed and sanctified.”

Sanctified by God the Father,

And by Jesus Christ, His Son,

And by God, the Holy Spirit,

Holy, Holy Three in One.

By His will He sancfifieth

By the Spirit’s power within;

By the loving Hand that chasteneth,

Fruits of righteousness to win;

By His Truth, and by His promise,

By the Word, His gift unpriced,

By His own blood, and by union

With the risen life of Christ.

Holiness by faith in Jesus,

Not by effort of thine own,

Sin’s dominion crushed and broken

By the power of grace alone;

God’s own holiness within thee,

His own beauty on thy brow,

This shall be thy pilgrim brightness,

This thy blessed portion now.

He will sanctify thee wholly,

Body, spirit, soul, shall be

Blameless till thy Saviour’s coming

In His glorious majesty!

He hath perfected for ever

Those whom He hath sanctified;

Spotless, glorious, and holy,

Is the Church, His chosen Bride!

(Frances Ridley Havergal.)

[1] Scrofula is the term used for tuberculosis of the neck, or, more precisely, a cervical tuberculous lymphadenopathy. Scrofula is usually a result of an infection in the lymph nodes, known as lymphadenitis.