Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

that time. In a letter to the writer, dated 10 February, 1898, Dr. Steele, referring to that experience,
says: "I am sure that I was regenerated and had the witness of the Spirit intermittently during
twenty-eight years, and the last year was conscious of a larger growth in spirituality." He was not
then, by the way, in a backslidden state when this blessing came. In the same letter, referring to his
post-Pentecostal experience, given in his Mile-Stone Papers and quoted above, Dr. Steele says that
"it continues the same up to date" -- "soul-rest running through every day and hour," his "assurance
not having been interrupted for one moment" in twenty-seven years.
And Dr. Steele goes on year after year down to the present, as we see, bearing this testimony to
the thoroughness of the work wrought in His soul twenty-seven years ago, completely saving him
from spiritual depravity, and filling him with pure, unmixed "perfect love," as well as giving him the
"abiding" witness of the Spirit. And he is not what might be called a "swift" or partial witness, but
rather a prejudiced and unwilling one. For he once rejected and opposed this theory. And, as an
intelligent and cultivated witness, he ought to be as well qualified for interpreting and applying his
own experience as Dr. Mudge is. And that experience, as given and interpreted by himself, tends
most strongly to confirm, rather than disprove, the theory that the one hundred and twenty at
Pentecost, as well as Cornelius, the Samaritans, Ephesians, and others noticed, were fully sanctified
by the "ethical" fullness or baptism of the Spirit, which they received when ushered into the
dispensation of the Holy Ghost. While the record is not so full and clear in the case of the disciples
at Samaria and Ephesus as it is in that of the apostles at Pentecost, yet the general fact that their
avowal of faith in Christ, against all their traditions and prejudices, and in the face of persecution
for His sake, indicates a degree of surrender, consecration, and faith that would make them ready and
fitted for receiving God's full blessing.
In a former chapter we said that this view of the effect produced by the Pentecostal baptism was
and is held by leading Methodist authors and others. We content ourselves with an extract from the
Rev. Richard Watson, who is still regarded by many as the ablest divine that Methodism has ever
produced. In one of His sermons on this subject, he says:
"We should greatly narrow our view of the subject if we confined the effects of these operations
of the Holy Spirit merely to His miraculous gifts. That which the apostles received in addition was
infinitely more valuable than these gifts, however important they were to the success of their public
ministry. The visible tongues of fire were only emblems of what passed within. It was indeed a
baptism of fire to them. What new creatures did they now become! They were raised from earthliness
to spirituality. Their gross conceptions of the kingdom of Christ were purged away. The bright flame
irradiated their dim eyes to perceive the true and full meaning of the sacred Scriptures, kindled the
ardor of an unquenchable love to Christ, and transformed them into bright reflections of His own
purity. They came together the sincere, but timid and partially enlightened, followers of Christ; and
they departed full of light, power, and love."
If, as Mr. Watson says, "it was indeed a baptism of fire to them," and "kindled the ardor of an
unquenchable love to Christ, and transformed them into bright reflections of His purity," filling them
with "light and power and love," they must have been fully saved -- entirely sanctified.
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