Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

to me to be the witness of the Holy Spirit -- that is to say, I have a firm and abiding conviction that
I am wholly the Lord's, which does not seem to be introduced into the mind by reasoning or by any
methods whatever of forced or self-made reflection, and which I can ascribe only to the Spirit of
God. It is a sort of interior voice, which speaks silently but effectively to the soul and bids me be of
good cheer ... I realize that my cup of happiness is full, whatever may be my personal trials and
sorrows, whenever and wherever my heavenly Father is glorified in me."
We notice some clear implications of this experience and testimony:
1. That all "selfishness," "inordinate self-love," or depravity was not removed in regeneration. For
whether we date that work, in Dr. Upham's case, at the time he first "professed religion," or when
he first received the witness of adoption, this lesson is taught us. For (1) this "internal conflict" was
going on during those twenty-nine years, raging more fearfully after he "was removed from the
condition of a servant and adopted into that of a son" than it ever had before, his depravity being
"stimulated to unwonted activity," bringing more clearly than ever to view "the existence and
horrible nature" of this remaining evil within just before his baptism with the Spirit. (2) This
"internal conflict" was not a mere condition of temptation, or temptation itself, perfectly consistent
with a state of entire sanctification, as Dr. Boland suggests. Else Dr. Upham would have felt it after
his "heart was purified by the Holy Spirit," and he was "filled with the blessing of "perfect love," just
as he had after he had received the Spirit of adoption and had "abiding peace and consolation."
(3) This "internal conflict" and selfish bias toward evil was not the result of his having
backslidden. For Dr. Upham says that "during the greater part of that long period" -- the twenty years
between his "profession of religion" and his assurance of adoption -- "I believe that I have striven
earnestly for high religious attainments." That does not look like careless backsliding. And then the
Doctor tells us that it was after he had so grown in grace that he could say, "God had given me great
blessings, such as a new sense of forgiveness, increased love, a clear evidence of adoption and
sonship, closer and deeper communion with himself, but I felt there was something remaining to be
experienced." And he tells us that it was only a few days after he could make such a good profession
as the above that he "daily examined his heart" to see how he then stood with God, and found the
"remains of selfishness" within, and realized that "the remains of every form of internal opposition
to God appeared to be centered in one point of inordinate self-love, or the principle of selfishness."
And, without having backslidden -- for how could he backslide while pressing forward at such a
rate? -- he tells us that an the evening before he received this wonderful baptism he "was greatly
afflicted in mind; tossed to and fro as in a tempest" by this "internal conflict" between depravity, or
selfishness, and divine grace. We repeat, then, that this experience of "internal conflict" resulted
neither from a state of backsliding nor from the resistance of a pure nature to temptation. For Dr.
Upham was clearly not in a backslidden state, and he did not experience this after he was sanctified.
2. The second implication is that sanctification involves the experience of something more than
consecration before or after regeneration. Hence Dr. Upham, viewing the matter from the standpoint
of experience, says: "I would take the liberty to say here that I do not consider consecration and
sanctification the same thing. Consecration is the incipient, the prerequisite act. It is the laying of
ourselves on the altar; but it is not till God has accepted the sacrifice, and wrought upon us by the
consuming and restoring work of the Holy Spirit, that we can be said to be sanctified. It is true that