Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

extravagances of some unbalanced mind. Thus he ran into the shallow fallacy of those sinners who
feast on the failings of the saints -- ex uno disce omnes -- who from one learn the character of all."
Two years ago, in this state, a most earnest and conservative evangelist asked all present who felt
that they had access to God in prayer to stand. Of a congregation of some three hundred and fifty
persons, mostly Church members, only seven stood, three of whom were preachers. The next night
be asked those who had the witness of the Spirit to indicate it by giving him their hand. One of the
seven held back. And these members of different Churches would compare favorably with those of
other towns. This may not have been a fair test, yet we are sure that comparatively few have the
abiding witness of the Spirit. Do we conclude, hence, that all these Church members were hypocrites
or unregenerate? By no means. But we would say of them, as Mr. Moody once said of others:
"Nine-tenths of them seem to be useless to the Church, but when you talk with them, you find they
have some faith, and you cannot say they are not children of God, but they have not the power, they
have not the liberty, they have not the love that real disciples of Christ should have." And we may
add that they have not the assurance, joy, peace, and strength that are the birthright of every believer,
and which come to every soul that receives "the gift of the Holy Ghost."
And as the experience of such disciples is defective, so also is their service, their lives. Two of
the greatest sins of the Church today are covetousness and worldliness. And we are sure that the cure
for these and other evils in the experience and practice of professed Christians is "the baptism with
the Holy Ghost," bringing purity, peace, unselfish love, and power to the doubting, worldly-minded,
and spiritually weak disciples of our Lord. With the hope of doing at least something toward
accomplishing these much-desired results, we have written.
A word now as to the way in which we have tried to do this work:
1. We have had constantly in view two classes whom we desire to reach -- the leaders of thought,
who are more or less familiar with the literature of the subject, and the masses who have not read
much on this theme, but who need to and would be glad to know more of it. The carrying out this
double purpose has made the book much larger than was at first intended, which we regret.
2. We have not gone over the ground usually traversed by Methodist writers on this subject half
a century ago. Their chief contention was that entire sanctification may come in this life rather than
exclusively at death. The controversy today is chiefly as to whether this work is accomplished at or
subsequently to regeneration, and whether, as a subjective purification, it is gradual or instantaneous
in its development. Hence the prominence we have given to the discussion of Pentecost and its
results, as well as to other scriptures that are believed to bear more or less directly on the two points
indicated above, found in Chapters 7, 8, and 9.
3. have made the testimony of experience unusually prominent, because we believe its great
evidential and illustrative value has not been duly appreciated. The chapters discussing the validity
and value of this testimony, and embodying records of the same, are fuller than the demands of the
argument made them, as we wished to illustrate for the general reader the way of this great salvation,
as well as to establish for the more critical reader the chief proposition discussed in our book.