Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

Finney, and Mahan, and Earle, and why is that of Meyer, and Moody, and Peck, and Pierson, and
Schoolfield, and thousands of others, made nearly tenfold more effective by this baptism of the
Spirit? Is it not because the most important equipment of the gospel minister comes to him when he
teaches his personal Pentecost? Is it not because, as Andrew Murray and others express it, "the first
duty of every clergyman is to beg of God, very humbly, that all he wants to be done in his hearers
may be fully and truly done in himself"? We cannot give to others at conversion or subsequently a
more scriptural type of piety than we ourselves have. Hence, if we should presume to give any
particular word of advice to our brethren of the ministry (especially to the young preachers of our
own Church), in whose ranks we have tried to labor for forty years, it would be this: "Make a journey
to Pentecost" before you attempt to preach any more -- that is, if you have not already been there.
The present weakness of the Church may have resulted largely from your past failure to go.
(2) Having yourselves gone to Pentecost, then urge every penitent and every believer to do the
same thing. We should preach this baptism -- this gift of the Holy Ghost -- as the birthright and high
privilege of every one of God's servants and children. We believe it should be definitely set before
the mind of every earnest soul as something to be desired and sought and obtained by every one at
any time when he will make a full surrender and consecration, and exercise a full faith.
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Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her later life, sought and professed to find and enjoy this
blessing. In her Primitive Christian Experience she says:
"The advantages to the Christian Church, in setting before it distinct points of attainment, are very
nearly the same in result as the advantages of preaching immediate regeneration in preference to
indefinite exhortation to men to lead sober, righteous, and godly lives. It has been found, in the
course of New England preaching, that pressing men to an immediate and definite point of
conversion produced immediate and definite results; and so it has been found among Christians, that
pressing them to as immediate and definite point of attainment will in like manner result in marked
and decided progress. For this reason it is that among the Moravian Christians, where the experience
by them denominated "full assurance of faith" "perfect love," was much insisted on, there were more
instances of high religious faith than in almost any other denomination."
And Dr. Steele well says:
"When a definite point is presented to the believer as attainable immediately, all the energies of
the soul are aroused and concentrated. Prayer is no more at random. There is a target set up to fire
at. Faith as an act -- a voluntary venture -- puts forth its highest energies and achieves its greatest
victories."
At the time we sought and obtained this baptism, there seemed nothing more distinctly and vividly
impressed upon our mind than the importance of the ministry's setting before the people this standard
of attainment something definite that may be reached at once by faith. And we still believe this to
be exceedingly important. We are very sure that presenting this subject in a vague and general way,
as something that may possibly be reached at some future and indefinite time by growth, will
accomplish but little more than will a like presentation of the subject of regeneration. Let every one
understand that it will come as a distinct blessing whenever the simple condition is performed.