Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

purpose than I did ... For eighteen years, for example, I maintained a most determined war upon that
evil temper, yet when suddenly provoked, I found myself, and that invariably, betrayed into words
and acts of which I would have occasion to repent and confess as sins ... Nor did my struggles and
most determined resolutions issue in any seeming increase of power over those propensities ... As
far as the inner life was concerned, I seemed to myself to be making no progress. I did considerably
grow in knowledge and in power as a preacher, but the light within did not brighten on toward the
perfect day."
(e) his fear and dread of death "continued to oppress" him during the eighteen years under
consideration.
(f) He keenly felt, as many others have, that his experience was defective, and did not come up
to the standard of uniform joy and peace set up in the Scriptures as the common heritage of all
believers. He felt, too, his inability to minister successfully to those who needed comfort and would
walk along the higher plane of perpetual sunshine. How many other ministers have painfully felt
this!
(g) His complete deliverance and the glorious results. "After some years of most diligent inquiry
and prayer my eyes were opened and I ... emerged 'out of darkness into light.' In that light I have
lived and walked for the past fifty years."
(k) Now, in conclusion, we beg the reader to go back and read again what this distinguished
divine, scholar, and teacher says of his "fifty years' walk with and see how completely he was saved
from the "aching void," "evil tempers," "fear," and everything else that was inconsistent with "the
peace and joy which as an unfailing and unfading light have filled and occupied these last fifty
years," and "have so far surpassed and eclipsed the 'peaceful hours enjoyed' during the ardency of
my 'first love' that the latter is seldom 'remembered or comes into mind.'"
(i) We call special attention to what he says of his increased "conscious growth" during those fifty
years of "meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light." This does not harmonize with Dr.
Mudge's theory that remaining depravity is a necessary condition of "growth in holiness toward
perfection."
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