Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

It is believed, however, that there are a few in all Churches who improve this light, perform these
conditions, and enjoy this blessing. In some Churches the light, faith, and experience of the few go
beyond the creeds, standards, and pulpits of those Churches and the faith and experience of the
many. Such creeds, standards, and pulpits belong to the dispensation of the Father or the Son, rather
than to that of the Spirit. The glorious work of salvation through faith in the Son, or that of full
salvation through faith in the doctrine and work of the Spirit, is obscured in such creeds and pulpits.
But, like David, who seems to have climbed to the mountain top and had foregleams of a brighter
day, they go ahead of their creeds, and with him sing of the "joy of God's salvation" that fills their
souls. Dr. Lovick Pierce tells of a Primitive Baptist lady whose faith and experience went a bow-shot
beyond anything dreamed of in the creed and pulpits of her Church, rejoicing in the possession of
the fruit of this blessed baptism. Many Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Congregationalists,
Episcopalians, Lutherans, and others have in their faith overleaped the creeds and pulpit teaching of
their communions, and have claimed and taught the experience of this divine baptism of purity,
peace, and power. Such rare and saintly spirits of these Churches as Jonathan Edwards and His wife,
James Brainerd Taylor, A. B. Earle, T. C. Upham, Asa Mahan, Charles G. Finney, Professor
Tholuck, Frances Ridley Havergal, Hannah Whitall Smith, D. L. Moody, A. B. Simpson, A. J.
Gordon, Andrew Murray, John McNeil, F. B. Meyer, J. Wilbur Chapman, M. H. Houston, and many
others, have risen superior to their early training and partially or wholly above their creeds and
pulpits, and have secured this richer and this Pentecostal higher experience. They call blessing "the
rest of faith.," "the interior life," "the higher life," "the baptism of the Spirit," "entire" or "permanent
sanctification," "the second experience," the "higher grace," "the Christian's secret of a happy life,"
"the induement of the Spirit," " the Spirit-filled life," "the more abundant life," the "baptism of fire,"
etc. They may differ on some minor points, especially in the use of terms, but they are substantially
agreed on three points: First, that this gift or baptism of the Spirit is, as a rule, if not invariably,
subsequent to regeneration, and is instantaneous in its development. Secondly, that it involves a
much richer and purer experience, in which the believer is or may be saved from all actual, if not
original, sin by being filled with the Spirit of love. Thirdly, that it implies the anointing with wisdom
and power for a much more fruitful service. In a word, that it suddenly lifts the believer to a higher
plane of activity, usefulness, and enjoyment than the one on which he started at regeneration.
This doctrine having been embodied in the creed and standards of Methodism, and having been
given prominence in her pulpits, probably more of that Church than of any other have sought and
enjoyed this Pentecostal fullness of salvation. Mr. Wesley says that "a cloud of witnesses" in His day
testified to the truth of this doctrine, attested to them by their experience; and since his day hundreds
and thousands of our people, among them some of the ablest, most learned, and most saintly of our
men and women, have added their testimony to that of the founder, under God, of our Church.
Wesley and His colleagues called it "Christian perfection," "entire sanctification," "perfect love," and
occasionally the "baptism of the Spirit," or the "second blessing." The last term is a favorite one with
a large and growing class of modern Methodists; many others hold on to the terms generally used
by Wesley and Fletcher; while a still more conservative class, because of a real or supposed abuse
or misinterpretation of such terms, are inclined to use the less objectionable ones of the "baptism"
or "gift of the Holy Ghost," the "fullness of the Spirit," being "filled with the Spirit," the "Pentecostal
blessing," etc. And candor requires the admission that there is a difference among them, not only as
to the use of these terms, but also as to their meaning. There is, too, quite a diversity of opinion as
to what is implied in the baptism of the Spirit, or the sanctification of the believer, as well as to the