PREPARING
HIS HOUSE
"Ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
Jesus said: ' Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit' (John iii. 5, 6). And Paul wrote to the Romans that, ' If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His' (viii. 9).
So it must be that every child of God, every truly converted person, has the Holy Spirit
in some gracious manner and measure, else he would not be a child of God; for it is only ' as many as are led by the Spirit
of God ' that ' are the sons of God ' (Rom. viii. 14)
It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, who makes us feel how good and righteous,
and just and patient God is, and how guilty we are, and how unfit for Heaven, and how near to Hell. It is the Holy Spirit
who leads us to true repentance and confession and amendment of life; and when our repentance is complete, and our surrender
is unconditional, it is He who reasons with us calms our fears, soothes our troubled hearts, banishes our darkness, and enables
us to look to Jesus and believe on Him for the forgiveness of all our sins and the salvation of our souls. And when we yield
and trust, and are accepted of the Lord, saved by grace, it is He who assures us of the Father's favour and notifies us that
we are saved. ' The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.' He is I the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father' (Rom. viii. 15, 16).
And His that gentle voice we hear,
Soft as the breath of even,
That checks each
fault, that calms each fear,
And speaks of Heaven.
It is He who strengthens the new convert to fight against and overcome sin, and it is He
who begets within him a hope of fuller righteousness through faith in Christ.
And every virtue we possess,
And every victory won,
And every thought of holiness,
Are
His alone.
Blessed be God for this work of the Holy Spirit within the heart of every true child of
His!
But, great and gracious as is this work, it is not the fiery pentecostal baptism with the
Spirit which is promised; it is not the fullness of the Holy Ghost to which we are exhorted. It is only the clear dawn of
the day, and not the rising of the day-star. This is only the initial work of the Spirit. It is perfect of its kind, but it
is preparatory to another and fuller work, about which I wish to write.
Jesus said to His disciples concerning the Holy Spirit, that 'the world (the unsaved, unrepentant)
cannot receive ' Him, ' because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him'; because they resist Him, and will not permit Him to
work in their hearts. And then Jesus added, 'but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you.' He had begun His work in them, but
there was more to follow, for Jesus said, ' and shall be in you' (John xiv. 17)
When a man is building himself a house, he is in and out of it and round about it. But
we do not say he lives in it until it has been completed. And it is in that sense that Jesus said, ' He dwelleth with you.'
But when the house is finished, the owner sweeps out all the chips and saw-dust, scrubs the floor, lays down his carpets,
hangs up his pictures, arranges his furniture, and moves in with his family. Then he is in the fullest sense within it. He
abides there. Now, it is in that sense that Jesus meant that the Holy Spirit should be in them. This is fitly expressed in
one of our songs:
Holy Spirit, come, 0 come,
Let Thy work in me be done!
All that hinders shall be
thrown aside;
Make me fit to be Thy dwelling.
Previous to Pentecost He was with them, using the searching preaching of John the Baptist,
and the life, the words, the example, the sufferings, and the death and resurrection of Jesus as instruments with which to
fashion their hearts for His indwelling. As the truth was declared to them in the words of Jesus, pictured to them in His
doings, exemplified in His daily life, and fulfilled in His death and His rising from the dead, the Holy Spirit wrought mightily
within them; but He could not yet find perfect rest in their hearts; therefore He did not yet abide within them.
They had forsaken all to follow Christ. They had been commissioned to preach the gospel,
to heal the sick, to cleanse the lepers, to raise the dead, to cast out devils. Their names were written in Heaven. They were
not of the world, even as Jesus was not of the world, for they belonged to Him and to the Father. They knew the Holy Spirit,
for He was with them, working in them, but not yet living in them, for they were yet carnal; that is, they were selfish, each
seeking the best place for himself.
They disputed among themselves as to which should be the greatest. They were bigoted, wanting
to call down fire from Heaven to consume those who would not receive Jesus, and forbidding those who would not follow them
to cast out devils in His name. They were positive and loud in their professions of devotion and loyalty to Jesus when alone
with Him. They declared they would die with Him. But they were fearful, timid and false to Him when the testing time came.
When the mocking crowd appeared and danger was near, they all forsook Him and fled; while Peter cursed and swore, and denied
that he knew Him.
But the Holy Spirit did not forsake them. He still wrought within them and, no doubt, used
their very mistakes and miserable failures to perfect within them the spirit of humility and perfect self-abasement in order
that they might safely be exalted. And on the day of Pentecost His work of preparation was complete, and He moved in to abide
for ever. Hallelujah!
And this experience of theirs before Pentecost is the common experience of all true converts.
Every child of God knows that the Holy Spirit is with him; realizes that He is working within, striving to set the house in
order. And with many who are properly taught and gladly obedient this work is done quickly, and the heavenly Dove, the Blessed
One, takes up His constant abode within them; the toil and strife with inbred sin is ended by its destruction, and they enter
at once into the Sabbath of full salvation.
Surely this is possible. The disciples could not receive the Holy Spirit till Jesus was
glorified; because not until then was the foundation for perfect, intelligent, unwavering faith laid. But since the day of
Pentecost, He may be received immediately by those who have repented of all sin, who have believed on Jesus and been born
again. Some have assured me that they were sanctified wholly and filled with the Spirit within a few hours of their conversion.
I have no doubt that this was so with many of the three thousand who were converted under Peter's preaching on the day of
Pentecost.
But often this work is slow, for He can only work effectually as we work with Him, practising
intelligent and obedient faith. Some days the work prospers and seems almost complete, and then peace and joy and comfort
abound in the heart; at other times the work is hindered, and oftentimes almost or quite undone, by the strivings and stirrings
of inbred sin, by fits of temper, by lightness and frivolity, by neglect of watchfulness
and prayer, and the patient, attentive study of His word; by worldliness, by unholy ambitions,
by jealousies and envyings, by uncharitable suspicions and harsh judgments and selfish indulgences, and slowness to believe.
'The flesh lusteth against the Spirit' (Gal. v. 17), seeks to bring the soul back under
the bondage of sin again, while the Spirit wars against the flesh, which is ' the old man ', ' the carnal mind'. The Spirit
seeks to bring every thought into ' captivity . . . to the obedience of Christ ', to lead the soul to that point of glad,
wholehearted consecration to its Lord, and that simple, perfect faith in the merits of His Blood which shall enable Him to
cast out ' the old man ', destroy ' the carnal mind' and, making the heart His temple, enthrone Christ within.
Here on earth a temple stands,
Temple never built with hands;
There the Lord doth
fill the place
With the glory of His grace.
Cleansed by Christ's atoning Blood,
Thou art this fair house of God.
Thoughts, desires, that enter there,
Should they not be pure and fair?
Meet for holy courts and blest,
Courts
of stillness and of rest,
Where the soul, a priest in white,
Singeth praises day and night;
Glory of the love
divine,
Filling all this heart of mine.
My brother, my sister, what is your experience just now? Are you filled with the Spirit?
Or is the old man still warring against Him in your heart? Oh, that you may receive Him fully by faith just now!
HAVE YE RECEIVED
THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?
THE
WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT
"Ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
HOW shall I know that I am accepted of God?that I am saved or sanctified? The Bible declares
God's love and pity for sinners, including me, and reveals His offer of mercy to me in Jesus Christ, on condition that I fully
repent of my sins and, yielding myself to Him, believe on Jesus Christ and, taking up my cross, follow Him. But how shall
I know that I have met these conditions in a way to satisfy Him, and that I am myself saved?
1. The Bible cannot tell me this. It tells me what to do, but it does not tell me when
I have done it, any more than the signboard at the country cross-roads, pointing out the road leading to the city, tells me
when I have reached the city.
2. My religious teachers and friends cannot tell me, for they cannot read my heart, nor
the mind of God toward me. How can they know when I have in my heart repented and believed, and when His righteous anger is
turned away? They can encourage me to repent, believe, obey, and can assure me that, if I do, He will accept me and I shall
be saved; but beyond that they cannot go.
3. My own heart, owing to its darkness and deceitfulness and liability to error, is not
a safe witness previous to the assurance God Himself gives. If my neighbour is justly offended with me, it is not my own heart,
but his testimony that first assures me of his favour once more.
How, then, shall I know that I am justified or wholly sanctified? There is but one way,
and that is by the witness of the Holy Spirit. God must notify me, and make me to know it; and this He does when, despairing
of my own works of righteousness, I cast my poor soul fully and in faith upon Jesus. Says Paul: ' Ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God' (Rom. viii. 15, 16). 'And because ye are sons, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. iv. 6), Unless He Himself assures me, I shall
never know that He accepts me, but must continue in uncertainty all my days.
Come, Holy Ghost, Thyself impress
On my expanding heart;
And show that in the Father's
grace
I share a filial part.
The Founder says: 'Assurance is produced by the revelation of forgiveness and acceptance
made by God Himself directly to the soul. This is the witness of the Spirit. It is God testifying in my soul that He has loved
me and given Himself for me, and washed me from my sins in His own Blood. Nothing short of this actual revelation, made by
God Himself, can make anyone sure of Salvation.'
John Wesley says: 'By the testimony of the Spirit, I mean an inward impression of the soul,
whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly witnesses to my spirit that I am a child of God; that Jesus hath loved
me, and given Himself for me; that all my sins are blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God.'
This witness of the Spirit addressed to my consciousness enables me to sing with joyful
assurance:
My God is reconciled,
His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child,
I
can no longer fear;
With confidence I now draw nigh
And Father, Abba Father! cry
When the Holy Spirit witnesses to me that I am saved and adopted into God's family as His
child then other evidences begin to abound also. For instance:
I. My own spirit witnesses that I am a new creature. I know that old things have passed
away and all things have become new. My very thoughts and desires have been changed. Love and joy and peace reign within me.
My heart no longer condemns me. Pride and selfishness, and lust and temper, no longer control my thoughts nor lead captive
my will. I am a new creature' and I know it, and I infer without doubt that this is the work of God in me.
2. My conscience bears witness that I am honest and true in all my purposes and intentions;
that I am without guile; that my eye is single to the glory of God, and that with all simplicity and sincerity of heart I
serve Him; and, since by nature I am only sinful, I again infer that this sincerity of heart is His blessed work in my soul
and is a fruit of salvation.
3. The Bible becomes a witness to my salvation. In it are accurately portrayed the true
characteristics of the children of God; and as I study it prayerfully, and find these characteristics in my heart and life
I again infer that I am saved. This is true selfexamination and is most useful.
These evidences are most important to guard us against any mistake as to the witness of
the Holy Spirit. The witness of the Spirit is not likely to be mistaken for something else, just as the sun is not likely
to be mistaken for a lesser light, a glow-worm or a moon. But one who has not seen the sun might mistake some lesser light
for the sun. So an unsaved man may mistake some flash of fancy, some pleasant emotion, for the witness of the Spirit. But
if he is honest, the absence of these secondary evidences and witnesses will correct him.
He must know that so long as sin masters him, reigns within him, and he is devoid of the
tempers, ,races and dispositions of God's people as portrayed in the Bible, that he is mistaken in supposing that he has the
witness of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit cannot witness to what does not exist. He cannot lie. Not until sin is forgiven does
He witness to the fact. Not until we are justified from our old sins and born again does He witness that we are children of
God; and when He does so witness, these secondary evidences always follow. Charles Wesley expresses this in one of his matchless
hymns:
How can a sinner know
His sins on earth forgiven?
How can my gracious Saviour show
My name inscribed in Heaven?
We who in Christ believe
That He for us hath died,
We all His unknown peace receive,
And feel His Blood applied.
His love, surpassing far
The love of all beneath,
We find within our hearts, and
dare
The pointless darts of death.
Stronger than death and Hell
The mystic power we prove;
And, conquerors of the
world, we dwell
In Heaven, who dwell in love.
The witness of the Spirit is far more comprehensive than many suppose. Multitudes do not
believe that there is any such thing, while others confine it to the forgiveness of sins and adoption into the family of God.
But the truth is that the Holy Spirit witnesses to much more than this.
He witnesses to the sinner that he is guilty, condemned before God, and lost. This we call
conviction; but it is none other than the witness of the Spirit to the sinner's true condition; and when a man realizes it,
nothing can convince him to the contrary. His friends may point out his good works, his kindly disposition, and try to assure
him that he is not a bad man; but, so long as the Spirit continues to witness to his guilt, nothing can console him or reassure
his quaking heart. This convicting witness may come to a sinner at any time, but it is usually given under the searching preaching
of the gospel, or the burning testimony of those who have been gloriously saved and sanctified; or in time of danger, when
the soul is awed into silence so that it can hear the 'still small voice' of the Holy Spirit.
Again, the Holy Spirit not only witnesses to the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with
God, but He also witnesses to sanctification. ' For by one offering He (that is, Jesus) hath perfected for ever them that
are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us' (Heb. x. 14, 15)
Indeed, one who has this witness can no more doubt it than a man with two good eyes can
doubt the existence of the sun when he steps forth into the splendour of a cloudless noonday. It satisfies him, and he cries
out exultingly, 'We know, we know!' Hallelujah!
Paul seems to teach that the Holy Spirit witnesses to every good thing God works in us,
for he says: ' We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God ' (I Cor. ii. 12). It is for our comfort and encouragement to know our acceptance of God
and our rights, privileges and possessions in Jesus Christ; and the Holy Spirit is given for this purpose, that we may know.
But it is important to bear in mind God's plan of work in this matter.
1. The witness of the Spirit is dependent upon our faith. God does not give it to those
who do not believe in Jesus; and if our faith wavers, the witness will become intermittent; and if faith fails, it will be
withdrawn. Owing to the unsteadiness of their faith, many young converts get into uncertainty. Happy are they at such times
if someone is at hand to instruct and encourage them to look steadfastly to Jesus. But, alas! many old Christians through
unsteady faith walk in gloom and uncertainty and, instead of encouraging the young, they discourage them. Steadfast faith
will keep the inward witness bright.
2. We must not take our attention off Jesus, and the promises of God in Him, and fix it
upon the witness of the Spirit. The witness continues only while we look unto Jesus and trust and obey Him. When we take our
eyes off Him, the witness is gone. Many people fail here. Instead of quietly and confidently looking unto Jesus and trusting
Him, they are vainly looking for the witness; which is as though a man should try to realize the sweetness of honey, without
receiving it in his mouth; or the beauty of a picture, while having his eyes turned inward upon himself instead of outward
upon the picture. Jesus saves. Look to Him, and He will send the Spirit to witness to His work.
3. The witness may be brightened by diligence in the discharge of duty, by frequent seasons
of glad prayer, by definite testimony to salvation and sanctification, and by stirring up our faith.
4. The witness may be dulled by neglect of duty, by sloth in prayer, by inattention to
the Bible, by indefinite, hesitating testimony, and by carelessness, when we should be careful to walk soberly and steadfastly
with the Lord.
5. I dare not say that the witness of the Spirit is dependent upon our health, but there
are some forms of nervous and organic disease that seem so to distract or becloud the mind as to interfere with the clear
discernment of the witness of the Spirit. I knew a nervous little child who would be so distracted with fear by an approaching
carriage, when being carried across the street in her father's arms, that she seemed to be incapable of hearing or heeding
his reassuring voice. It may be that there are some diseases that for the time prevent the sufferer from discerning the reassuring
witness of the heavenly Father. Dr. Asa Mahan told me of an experience of this kind which he had in a very dangerous sickness.
And Dr. Daniel Steele had a similar experience while lying at the point of death with typhoid fever. But some of the happiest
Christians the world has seen have been racked with pain and tortured with disease.
And so there may be seasons of fierce temptation when the witness is not clearly discerned;
but we may rest assured that if our hearts cleave to Jesus Christ and duty, He will never leave or forsake us. Blessed be
God!
6. But the witness will be lost if we wilfully sin, or persistently neglect to follow where
He leads. This witness is a pearl of great price, and Satan will try to steal it from us; therefore, we must guard it with
watchful prayer continually.
7. If lost, it may be found again by prayer and faith and a dutiful taking up of the cross
which has been laid down. Thousands who have lost it have found it again, and often they have found it with increased brightness
and glory. If you have lost it, my brother, look up in faith to your loving God, and He will restore it to you. It is possible
to live on the right side of plain duty without the witness, but you cannot be sure of your salvation, joyful in service,
or glad in God, without it; and since it is promised to all God's children, no one who professes to be His should be without
it.
If you have it not, my brother or sister, seek it now by faith in Jesus. Go to Him, and
do not let Him go till He notifies you that you are His. Listen to Charles Wesley:
From the world of sin and noise
And hurry, I withdraw;
For the small and inward
voice
I wait with humble awe;
Silent am I now and still,
Dare not in Thy presence move;
To my waiting soul reveal
The secret of Thy love.
Do you want the witness to abide? Then study the word of God and live by it; sing and make
melody in your heart to the Lord; praise the Lord with your first waking breath in the morning, and thank Him with your last
waking breath at night; flee from sin; keep on believing; look to Jesus, cleave to Him, follow Him gladly, trust the efficacy
of His Blood, and the witness will abide in your heart. Be patient with the Lord. Let Him mould you, and 'He will save, He
will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing' (Zeph. iii. 17); and you shall
no longer doubt, but know that you are His. Hallelujah!
There are in this loud stunning tide
Of human care and crime,
With whom the melodies
abide
Of th' everlasting chime,
Who carry music in their heart
Through dusky lane and wrangling mart,
Plying their
task with busier feet
Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.
And that 'holy strain' is but the echo of the Lord's song in their heart, which is the
witness of the Spirit.
HAVE
YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?
PURITY
"Ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
A MINISTER of the gospel, after listening to an eminent servant of God preaching on entire
sanctification through the baptism with the Spirit, wrote to him, saying: ' I like your teaching on the baptism with the Holy
Ghost. I need it and am seeking it; but I do not care much for entire sanctification or heart-cleansing. Pray for me that
I may be filled with the Holy Ghost.'
The brother knew him well, and immediately replied: 'I am so glad you believe in the baptism
with the Holy Ghost, and are so earnestly seeking it. I join my prayer with yours that you may receive that gift. But let
me say to you, that if you get the gift of the Holy Ghost, you will have to take entire sanctification with it, for the first
thing the baptism with the Holy Ghost does is to cleanse the heart from all sin.'
Thank God, he humbled himself, permitted the Lord to sanctify him, and he was filled with
the Holy Spirit and mightily empowered to work for God.
Many have looked at the promise of power when the Holy Ghost is come, the energy of Peter's
preaching on the day of Pentecost, and the marvellous results which followed; and they have hastily and erroneously jumped
to the conclusion that the baptism with the Holy Ghost is for work and service only.
It does bring power-the power of God-and it does fit for service, probably the most important
service to which any created beings are commissioned, the proclamation of salvation and the conditions of peace to a lost
world; but not that alone, nor primarily. The primary, the basal work of the baptism, is that of cleansing.
You may turn a flood into your millrace, but until it sweeps away the logs and brushwood
and dirt that obstruct the course, you cannot get power to turn the wheels of your mill. The flood first washes out the obstructions,
and then you have power.
The great hindrance in the hearts of God's children to the power of the Holy Ghost is inbred
sin-that dark, defiant, evil something within that struggles for the mastery of the soul, and will not submit to be meek and
lowly, patient, forbearing and holy, as was Jesus; and when the Holy Spirit comes, His first work is to sweep away that something,
that carnal principle, and make free and clean all the channels of the soul.
Peter was filled with power on the day of Pentecost; but evidently the purifying effect
of the baptism made a deeper and more lasting impression upon his mind than the empowering effect; for years after, in the
Council in Jerusalem, recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Acts, he stood up and told about the spiritual baptism of Cornelius,
the Roman centurion, and his household, and said: 'And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy
Ghost, even as He did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith' (verses 8, 9).
Here he calls attention not to power, but to purity, as the effect of the baptism. When the Holy Ghost comes in to abide the
old man' goes out. Praise the Lord!
This destruction of inbred sin is made perfectly plain in that wonderful Old Testament
type of the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire recorded in the sixth chapter of Isaiah. The prophet was a most earnest preacher
of righteousness (see Isa. i. I o-2o), yet he was not sanctified wholly. But he had a vision of the Lord upon His throne,
and the seraphims crying one to another: ' Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.'
And the very posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried and how much more should the heart of the prophet be moved!
And so it was; and he cried out: 'Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'
When unsanctified men have a vision of God, it is not their lack of power, but their lack
of purity, their unlikeness to Christ, the Holy One, that troubles them. And so it was with the prophet. But he adds: ' Then
flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And
he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged'
(verses 6, 7). Here again, it is purity rather than power to which our attention is directed.
Again, in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel, we have another type of this spiritual baptism.
In Isaiah the type was that of fire, but here it is that of water; for water and oil, and the wind and rain and dew, are all
used as types of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord says, through Ezekiel: 'Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall
be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.'
Here again, the incoming of the Holy Spirit means the outgoing of all sin, of ' all your
filthiness, and from all your idols'. How plainly it is taught! And yet, many of God's dear children do not believe it is
their privilege to be free from sin and pure in heart in this life. But, may we not? Let us consider this.
I. It is certainly desirable. Every sincere Christian and none can be a Christian who is
not sincere-wants to be free from sin, to be pure in heart, to be like Christ. Sin is hateful to every true child of God.
The Spirit within him cries out against the sin, the wrong temper, the pride, the lust, the selfishness, the evil that lurks
within the heart. Surely, it is desirable to be free from sin. He wills that I should holy be; That holiness I long to feel,
That full divine conformity To all my Saviour's righteous will.
2. It is necessary, for without holiness' no man shall see the Lord'. Sometime, somehow,
somewhere, sin must go out of our hearts-all sin-or we cannot go into Heaven. Sin would spoil Heaven just as it spoils earth;
just as it spoils the peace of hearts and homes, of families and neighbourhoods and nations here. Why God in His wisdom allows
sin in the world, I do not know, I cannot understand. But this I understand: that He has one world into which He will not
let sin enter.
He has notified us in advance that no sin, nothing that defiles, can enter Heaven, can
mar the blessedness of that holy place. ' Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully ' (Ps. xxiv.3,
4). We must get rid of sin to get into Heaven, to enjoy the full favour of God. It is necessary.
Choose I must, and soon must choose
Holiness, or Heaven lose.
lf what Heaven loves
I hate,
Shut for me is Heaven's gate.
Endless sin means endless woe;
Into endless sin I go
If my soul, from reason rent,
Takes
from sin its final bent.
As the stream its channel grooves,
And within that channel moves;
So does habit's
deepest tide
Groove its bed and there abide.
Light obeyed increaseth light;
Light resisted bringeth night;
Who shall give me
will to choose
If the love of light I lose?
Speed, my soul, this instant yield;
Let the light its sceptre wield.
While thy God
prolongs His grace,
Haste thee to His holy face.
3. This purification from sin is promised. Nothing can be plainer than the promise of God
on this point. ' Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all
your idols, will I cleanse you.' When all is removed, nothing remains. When all filthiness and all idols are taken away, none
are left.
'But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord' (Rom. V. 2 0, 2 1), Grace reigns,
not through sin, but ' through righteousness ' which has expelled sin. Grace brings in righteousness and sin goes out.
' If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin' (I John i. 7). Hallelujah!
'Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness ' (Rom. vi. 18).
These are sample promises and assurances any one of which is sufficient to encourage us
to believe that our heavenly Father will save us from all sin, if we meet His conditions.
4. Deliverance is possible. It was for this that Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, came into
the world, and suffered and died, that He might ' save His people from their sins ' (Matt. i. 2 1). It was for this that He
shed His precious Blood to ' cleanse us from all sin'. It was for this that the word of God, with its wonderful promises,
was given, ' that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world
through lust' (2 Pet- i. 4); by which is meant escape from inbred sin.
It was for this that ministers of the gospel-Salvation Army officers-are given, ' for the
perfecting of the saints ' (Eph. iv.12), for the saving and sanctifying of men (Acts xxvi. 18). It is primarily for this that
the Holy Ghost comes as a baptism of fire: that sin might be consumed out of us, so that we might be made meet for ' the inheritance
of the saints in light' (Col. 1. 12); that so we might be ready without a moment's warning to go into the midst of the heavenly
hosts in white garments, 'washed in the Blood of the Lamb '. Glory be to God for ever and ever!
And shall all these mighty agents and this heavenly provision, and these gracious purposes
of God, fail to destroy sin out of any obedient, believing heart? Is sin omnipotent? No!
If you, my brother, my sister, will look unto Jesus just now, trusting the merits of His
Blood, and receive the Holy Spirit into your heart, you shall be ' made free from sin '; it ' shall not have dominion over
you'. Hallelujah! Under the fiery touch of His holy presence, your iniquity shall be taken away, and your sin shall be purged.
And you yourself shall burn as did the bush on the mount of God which Moses saw; yet you, like the bush, shall not be consumed;
and by this holy fire, this flame of love, that consumes sin, you shall be made proof against that unquenchable fire that
consumes sinners.
Come, Holy Ghost, Thy mighty aid bestowing!
Destroy the works of sin, the self, the
pride;
Burn, burn in me, my idols overthrowing;
Prepare my heart for Him, for my Lord crucified.
HAVE
YE RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST SINCE YE BELIEVED?
