Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

hour of conscious doubt or darkness since that time. A heaven of peace and rest fills my soul. Day
and night the Saviour seems by me."
5. He did not claim "sinless perfection, but was kept from any sin that brought "condemnation,"
or "darkness." Nor did Wesley teach "sinless perfection," but conceded that, because we are "very
imperfect and weak," as Dr. Earle says, mentally and physically, we may commit "sins of infirmity
" without incurring guilt or losing our "rest and peace."
6. He had temptation, but it was more easily resisted: "Temptation is presented, but the power of
it is broken." "It is much easier now to resist temptation than it was before."
7. He was more useful: "My success in leading souls to Jesus has been much greater than before."
Another says of him that "he had no special power as a preacher before the Holy Ghost fell upon
him," but that after that event "conversions under his preaching numbered quite five thousand
yearly."
8. He not only grew in usefulness, but also in grace: "You are then just prepared to grow in divine
things. The roots of your faith can strike deep into the soil of truth and love, and need not be
disturbed until transplanted into heavenly soil, there to continue to grow and flourish in the garden
of the Lord."
Dr. Earle says further:
"I could give a great cloud of witnesses, all testifying to the same thing: that is, after receiving
evidence of regeneration, they felt a longing of heart for something higher -- a fullness of love -- a
state of heart that would enable them to abide in Christ without interruption. This they sought and
found, and many of them, after ten or twenty years, are still enjoying the same blessing, with
increasing sweetness."
The testimony of this very spiritual and eminently useful servant of God ought to have much
weight with our Baptist brethren and other earnest souls who are longing for this "rest of faith" -- this
"fullness of love," this "perfect love," which comes with "the gift of the Holy Ghost" -- the baptism
of peace and power.
We close this chapter with extracts from the testimony of the Rev. Dr. Levy, of Philadelphia, who
has for years been successively pastor of Baptist churches of that city and of Newark, N.J. It was
written by himself in 1872, under the title of From Bondage to Freedom; or, How I Entered into Rest.
Many thousands of copies of it have been circulated in Europe and India. Dr. Levy, who is still
pastor of a Baptist church in Philadelphia, says:
"It pleased God in my earliest childhood to call me by his Holy Spirit. As far back as memory will
allow me to go, I can recall seasons of great distress on account of sin. When other children around
me were busy at play I would often invent some excuse to withdraw, that I might find a place where
I could weep before God in secret.