Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

adoption for those that love Him"? Does he nothing to our consciousness but this fact? John says,
"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." Who is that witness but the Spirit?
And does he not witness to the fact of the soundness of our faith -- a fact different from adoption?
Does he not reveal the "deep things of God" -- the profounder experiences of salvation? Does not
John say, "And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us"? Also,
"Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit"? Here
are two facts which it is claimed belong peculiarly to this richer experience of "perfect love" and
through which it is developed our dwelling in Christ and his dwelling in us, witnessed to by the
indwelling Spirit. Whether these two facts necessarily involve "perfect love" or not, they are different
from that of adoption. And no matter whether or not the term is applied to the Spirit's work, his
presence and influence produce conviction, bring knowledge of the fact that we are in Christ and he
is in us -- facts not identical with that of adoption.
And then how does one know that he is forgiven? Dr. Whitehead says, "This witness is given only
to the fact of our sonship or adoption." Forgiveness and adoption are certainly two different things.
We know it may be said that one of these necessarily involves the other. And so we might say that
the having Christ and the Spirit dwelling or abiding in us necessarily involves the cleansing and
empowering that come with the full baptism of the Spirit. For our Lord and St. Paul both teach that
such baptism of the Spirit, or the coming of Christ into the heart, is subsequent to and different from
regeneration and adoption. (John xiv. 16, 17, 20, 23; Acts ii. 4; Eph. iii. 16, 17.)
Part of Dr. Whitehead's objection is put in the following words: "To permit men to claim the
attestation of the Holy Spirit to any kind of experience they may assert to be scriptural is to open the
door to the wildest fanaticism." Dr. Mudge makes similar objection. The same objection has been
repeatedly and persistently urged against the doctrine of the direct witness of the Spirit to adoption,
and that of a direct call from the Spirit to the ministry. And some men have grown fanatical under
the influence of such supposed witness or call. It has been thought necessary, hence, to guard the
professed subjects of this witness and call, as well as others, against deception and mistake by asking
for the added "witness of our spirit" -- the testimony of consciousness -- and the "gifts, grace, and
fruit" accompanying and confirming this call. "The fruit of the Spirit" in the heart of the believer,
and the "fruit" of conversions, resulting from one's incipient ministry, may shut the door to mistake
and fanaticism.
So, in this witness to purity and "perfect love." Intelligent and sober men and saintly women,
believing that the Bible warrants their expecting such a witness, look for it, and then most
confidently and emphatically, though humbly, declare that they have received it. They say that their
own spirit, their consciousness, through a long series of years -- in some cases as long as half a
century most clearly attests that this direct witness is from the Spirit, being confirmed by his
unmixed fruit of love, peace, patience, hope, and joy. Consciousness attests that the selfish or sin
principle, the bias to evil, is extinct, and that the love principle is dominant in their hearts. And
others see nothing in their lives to contradict this claim. Take one passage of scripture which is
believed to bear on this point, I John iv. 17, 18. The subject of this witness most positively declares
that his "love" is perfectly free from "fear," and that he, hence, has no dread of death and its
consequences that he has "boldness" in view of the "judgment" that, while he may instinctively