Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

Kirk, in his lectures on Revivals, expresses the opinion that probably no man since the days of
Whitefield has been instrumental in turning so many souls to God by his preaching as the late Rev.
Charles G. Finney, successively of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches. Of him Dr.
Gordon says:
"Certainly we should not know where to look in recent times to find such startling and
overwhelming results attending the proclamation of the gospel as those which were witnessed under
his ministry ... Vast ingatherings attended his labors wherever he went. Of the fruits of one revival
which sprang forth under his preaching, so judicious an observer as Dr. Lyman Beecher declared that
it "was the greatest work of God and the greatest revival of religion that the world has ever seen in
so short a time, one hundred thousand being reported as having connected themselves with Churches
as the results of that great revival!"
Now what is the secret of the wonderful success of this remarkable man? A dip into his
autobiography will reveal it. After passing through powerful spiritual exercises, he had been
converted. Very soon thereafter, while in his law office, the mighty baptism of the Spirit came upon
him. He describes it in the following words:
"I then received a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit. Without any expectation of it, without ever
having thought in my mind that there was such a thing for me, without any recollection that I had
ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended upon me in
a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could fuel the impression like a wave of
electricity going through and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in waves of liquid love; for I
could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the breath of God. I can recollect distinctly that
it seemed to fan me like immense wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed
abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love, and I do not know but I should say I literally
bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. Those waves came over me, one after another,
until I recollect I cried out, 'I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.' I said, 'Lord, I cannot
bear any more.' Yet I had no fear of death ... Thus I continued until late at night. I received some
sound repose. When I awoke in the morning the sun had risen and was pouring a clear light into my
room. Words cannot express the impression this sunlight made upon me. Instantly the baptism I had
received the night before returned upon me in the same manner. I arose upon my knees in the bed
and wept aloud for joy, and remained for some time too much overwhelmed with the baptism of the
Spirit to do anything but pour out my soul to God. It seemed as if this morning's baptism was
accompanied with a gentle reproof, and the Spirit seemed to say to me, 'Will you doubt? Will you
doubt?' I cried, 'No I will not doubt: I cannot doubt.' He then cleared the subject up so much to my
mind that it was impossible for me to doubt that the Spirit of God had taken possession of my soul
[had come back as a new power in his heart].
This remarkable experience seems, in some respects, to be exceptional. (1) This baptism came
very soon after conversion, and seems to have been Pauline in this and other respects. It is believed,
however, that such cases ought to be the rule. (2) It came without being sought as such. President
Finney says he did not remember ever having heard the baptism of the Spirit mentioned, and that he
was not expecting it. And yet, in passing through the powerful spiritual exercises before and after
his conversion, he may have been brought to see the plague of his heart, and his need of something