Part 10

=8.= Worked on an essay for the Society tonight, also on a composition for the Board, to be criticized. Eve, met with the Excelsior Society and entered upon the duties of secretary. There being few present, all other exercises were dispensed with but a general discussion on the subject, Is Force More Effectual in Government than Persuasion. I took the negative. Mr. W. Diefendorf also spoke on the negative. The vote was almost unanimous for the negative.

=15.= A. M., recitations as usual. P. M., prepared for Society. Rained all afternoon and evening. No Excelsior meeting. Visited the Philo Society. Participated in general discussion on the following question: Is the Fear of Punishment a Greater Incentive to Exertion than the Hope of Reward? Spoke on the negative. Large majority in our favor on the final vote.

=July 5, 1877.= Met at half-past nine in the Bethel. After a profitable season of prayer, reading the Word, testifying, etc., I presented myself at the altar to seek entire sanctification. I enjoyed that blessing ten years ago, but I had all this time repudiated the second work and accounted for the wonderful change that God had wrought in me at that time to my yielding to the call to preach the blessed gospel of Jesus, after being disobedient. I had often been disgusted, too, with the fanaticism I saw mixed with the professors of the second work; it had steeped me with prejudice through and through.

Though I could not deny that the experience of these people was in perfect harmony with my own, yet I strongly opposed their views, claiming that God does not do his work by piecemeal, but that he makes a full and complete finish of it at once. I attributed the second experience to the fact that after conversion we are weak infants and not able to carry into action the pure nature that God has given us until we grow to that degree of strength that we can successfully cope with outer temptation, and that holy nature given to us in regeneration reaches a degree of development in strength that it will no more be under subjection to sin in the world around us.

Thus, while I did not doubt the truthfulness of their testimony. I thought I comprehended the whole matter and saw the slight mistake, as I supposed, in the basis of their experience.

But God having let Father and Mother Keller and the whole family into this glorious experience, with my dear companion, I began to search the Scriptures anew to see if I might not be mistaken myself. I carefully reviewed my conversion and recollected that I sought and asked of God only pardon of my past sins and relief from my past guilt. That in ten years labor, in which some seven hundred souls came to Christ, I never knew one to seek for anything else but pardon for actual transgression; and it is a fact that we do not ask of God that which we have not apprehended the need of, and God does not give until we ask for a thing.

Moreover, it is claimed that justification is not a partial but complete work of itself, and sanctification, i. e., purification, another. Since seeing every day the change in my dear wife I thought I was beyond doubt of this second work. But, ah, the devil is rallying his forces against me. Am I making a fool of myself coming out here where I have invited and labored with sinners? My old arguments would come up and I had powerful temptations to settle back upon them and forever repudiate the second work. I obtained no light.

P. M. We met at half-past two and held meeting till nearly five. I labored at the altar. At night after Brother Burlison read a Scripture lesson and talked for some time on holiness, we all bowed around the altar; but I could do nothing, all was dark. I came here fully believing in a second work of God in the soul; but now, as I attempt to seek it, how thick the temptations of Satan come up before me! how all my old arguments and objections gather like rubbish, obstructing the light! Sometimes I was about to conclude that this was all foolishness. I was ashamed to bow at the altar and seek sanctification of "soul, body, and spirit" after I had invited sinners to and labored with them at the same altar.

=6.= Arose early this morning and searched the Scriptures and asked God for light. I noticed whenever I felt resigned to God and was willing to make any sacrifice to know the truth I was strongly impressed to seek sanctification.

This morn I was directed to 1 Pet. 5:10 and Eph. 3:14-20. Light is becoming brighter in the Word. Thank God. Met at half-past nine. The foundation of faith was now becoming strong in me. I arose and read some portions of the Word and boldly declared my faith in the second work, and that I was resting in the promises of God to my entire sanctification. Met again, at 2:30 P. M., having spent most of the interval in searching my heart, and truly I found that it has not been as good as I before supposed. Oh how much self there has been in all my past labors! God of power, kill and cast out all of self. I reviewed my observations of the past ten years' labor. About seven hundred souls I have observed seeking salvation, and I can not recall any who did not definitely seek for justification from past sins. It appears that the condemned sinner can think of nothing else and does not possess a capacity to grasp the idea that God is able to destroy all evil in depraved humanity. "God, forgive my past sins and help me in the future to keep from sin," is about as great a blessing as the mind beclouded by guilt can conceive and ask for. With a still more deep and fervent consecration I again sought the blessing of perfect holiness. Glory to God, I was able to claim the blessing by faith, though yet without the anointing of power. After meeting I spent most of the time talking holiness to several brethren, which I felt was pleasing to God.

Eve, Brother Burlison read 1 Corinthians 3, and talked a little; then, an invitation being given, a good many surrounded the altar, several of whom were seeking the blessing. Thank God, some professed to receive the blessing. I am still standing, yea, resting sweetly in the promise of God for entire and constant salvation through the blood of Jesus.

=7.= Today we fasted all day. Met in the Bethel at 9 A. M. and held meeting until after 4 P. M. without intermission. This day I was the least conscious of a physical nature and my relations with a corporeal world of any day in all my life. I seemed to be entirely unconscious of passing time. Only the spirit seemed to live, stir, feel, and take cognizance. Glory to the God of wonders! Is this really but the foot-stool of God?

Mother Keller, Sarah, and I went to Brother L----'s for supper. She (Mrs. L.) very soon began to pour out her bitter railing against holiness and holy ones; but praise God, he kept our souls in perfect peace. After my communing with God in secret for some time, the Lord told me to go immediately to see a poor sick girl near by. Mother accompanied me. Found her barely able to sit up, having been suffering for nearly one year. She had exhausted in vain all available medical aid. We spoke of the Great Physician. She said she believed that he was able to heal her. We called for oil, anointed her in the name of the Lord and laid hands on, and prayed for her present restoration to health. We entreated God with all the faith and earnestness of our inmost soul and then left her in the hands of God, with a comfortable degree of faith that God would raise her up again.

Eve, met at a quarter to eight. Mighty power filled the house. The altar was filled from one side to the other. Several were seeking sanctification. Glory to God, this night he began to give me some of the evidences (besides my hitherto naked faith) that I had got out of the wilderness into Canaan. Jesus, my blessed Savior, just cut me off one bunch of the sweet grapes of this "land." Oh, glory to God, once more I was a little child! I felt the blood of Jesus flowing through my entire "soul, body, and spirit." Heaven on earth! Halleluiah, it is done!

=8.= Sabbath. At five this morning a goodly number met in the Bethel for prayers. The Spirit was with us. Returned to Brother Bell's; ate a piece for breakfast, as we all felt that bodily wants were simple and few while the soul was so dearly fed with the bread of heaven. Met at half-past nine, and after many clear testimonies were given in for Jesus Brother Dunbar preached the word of life with great power and sweetness. Text, "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." He read much of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, where this glorious second work is brought out so clear and forcibly. My soul was never before so wonderfully fed by the gospel in any sermon I ever heard. Oh, how sweet and glorious the word of life came to my renovated heart!

Mother, Sarah, and I went to Brother Furman's for dinner. Returned to the two o'clock meeting. Among many clear witnesses I testified today to the blood that cleanses from all sin and also uncleanness of nature. The long altar was again crowded and several found sanctification in the blood. Some backsliders were restored. God is wonderfully at work. All glory to his name!

At six we met again in the Bethel, after spending a long time in the closet with God. The Spirit impressed me to talk to the people on the commands of Jesus, and in simplicity I did so, using John 14:15 as a text. I read the word of the Lord concerning the duty of washing the saints' feet. Then we proceeded to obey the Lord. God wonderfully blessed me in talking, but my soul leaped for joy as I saw the dear sanctified ones come promptly to the bench and joyfully obey Him whom they love. God wonderfully blessed them, as they all testified the next day. Many of them had never seen the holy ordinance of feet-washing observed before. The Church of God brethren had said that if these holiness people would obey these lowly commands then they would have confidence in them. Thank God, true holiness needs but to be tested to be proved genuine.

=10.= This morn had to miss prayer-meeting in order to take Mother Keller and our dear Levilla to the train, as they go to Upper Sandusky this morn. We will go by buggy at the close of meeting. Sister Bell and Sarah went to the country today to get berries. I wrote and prayed most of the forenoon. Then, feeling very empty and destitute of the stirrings of the Spirit, I sought God earnestly in secret and then started out to work for him. Visited and prayed with two families, but still felt destitute of the Comforter. Met at 2:30 P. M. at the house of God. Several observed that I was being much tried. But I was eager to defeat the enemy of my soul by testifying to the sanctifying power of the blood of Jesus. I did so, declaring that the blood of Jesus had washed from all sin. While I was talking, the Lord showed me that I had now entered upon the path of perfect trust in Jesus, and that as faith was eternal and unchangeable, I had forever abandoned the up-and-down road of feeling. I also (in an absent-minded manner) made the remark that I had been cheated out of the morning prayer-meeting. But quick as thought I saw that it was wrong, for it was either complaining of or speaking lightly of God's providence. This remark furnished a subject of meditation through the afternoon. I see how entirely loyal to God's providence I now was. I felt that the above remark and all similar ones, so common and admissible in my past state, were not only wrong, but could not be true, as I have given myself, all I have, to God, surrendered all my ways, time, talents, means, influence, name, reputation, and everything with which I am connected--wife, child, friends, my destiny--all into the hands of God. I glorify in the blessed truth that no being in the whole universe can cheat me out of anything or do me the least harm. Glory to God forever! How happy I am in accepting all the will and providence of God! From the time of my testimony I realized the glorious river of life flowing through my entire being. What a sweet sense of perfect purity filled my mind and heart! Holiness was written everywhere. My very body seemed sacred and pure, a temple for the holy God. Glory to the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus!

"Precious Jesus, thou hast saved me, Thine and only thine I am. Oh, the precious blood has reached me! Glory, glory to the Lamb!

"Long my yearning heart was trying To enjoy this perfect rest; But I gave all trying over, Simply trusting I was blessed.

"Glory to the blood that bought me, Glory to its cleansing power, Glory to the blood that keeps me, Glory, glory evermore!

"Yes, I will stand up for Jesus; He has sweetly saved my soul, Cleansed me from inbred corruption, Sanctified and made me whole.

"Oh, I can no longer doubt it, Halleluiah, I am free! Jesus saves me, soul and body, And he sweetly dwells in me."

FOOTNOTE:

[6] Brother Warner was one of the principal debaters of the Church of God. Dr. Forney mentions his debates as follows: In August, 1871 with the Reverend Mr. Baker, of the Disciple Church, the proposition being, "The Church of God of which I am a member is the only church of divine origin." In June, 1872, with Leonard Parker, Methodist Episcopal Church, on the old subject of baptism. On May 15, 1874, near Orton, Nebr., he defended the perpetuity and public observance of feet-washing as an ordinance against E. Evans, of the Disciple Church. At the Osborne Schoolhouse, near Seward, Nebr., with C. L. Boyd, Adventist. The proposition discussed was, "The first day of the week has been set apart by divine authority as Sabbath or Lord's day." The discussion was the outcome of a series of addresses by Boyd on the seventh day Sabbath. So well did Warner defend the proposition, says Forney, that at the close of the debate the congregation present voted thirty-six to sixteen that he had established it. The debate continued three evenings.

VIII

THE HOLINESS AWAKENING

The decades of the sixties, seventies, and eighties of the last century witnessed a special revival of the doctrine of holiness, or sanctification. Sanctification was held as being a work of God's grace wrought in the heart subsequent to pardon, and accomplishing for the individual, through consecration and faith in Christ, (1) restoration of the soul from innate depravity and uncleanness, the destruction of that carnal element which antagonizes the godly purpose of the soul, and (2) the infilling and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In short, it was the doctrine of Christian perfection, the state of loving God supremely and of living victorious over every form of sin.

This doctrine was nothing more nor less than one of the great Scriptural truths that had been obscured by the apostasy. It had been taught by the Wesleys, but through the denomination-building zeal of their followers it had become to a great extent a dead letter in their articles of faith. The bright spiritual lights of the world throughout the gospel dispensation were generally individual men and women who believed in and possessed the experience of sanctification; but now the time came, in the unfolding of God's plan, for holiness to be given specific attention on a scale amounting to a general awakening in religious circles. The various Protestant sects had about reached the heyday of their deplorable rivalry, and it was but natural that the unifying influence of holiness, appearing in striking contrast to such rivalry, should appeal to all true Christians. The movement did indeed, as a rule, enlist the most spiritual members of the so-called churches.

This holiness awakening was a movement that should introduce a prophetic day. It was of God. It was not planned by human agency. Individuals here and there of the more earnest and spiritual class of Christians were led into the deeper experience altogether independent of each other. For some reason they felt impelled to give special emphasis to the doctrine of holiness. These tiny flames were by some unseen hand fanned into a great conflagration destined to sweep the country.

A few paragraphs from M. L. Haney's Inheritance Restored, published in 1880, are on this point.

A number of Christian farmers feel strangely moved to aid in the salvation of the perishing, and they plan a laymen's camp-meeting, in which the fires of holiness break out. This leads to the organization of a Laymen's Holiness Association, and results in bringing many hundreds to the joys of pardoned sin and the experience of holiness. Three or four ministers are mutually impressed with the necessity of holding a holiness camp-meeting. The seal of God's approval of the service is so manifest that they are compelled to go farther. An association is formed for the purpose of holding a number of camp-meetings for the promotion of holiness. The work enlarges till many earnest inquirers look to them for specific instruction on the subject of holiness. To meet this demand, and remain true to God, they are compelled to furnish these thirsting thousands with specific holiness literature. Thus the unexpected springing up of a monthly magazine, with books and tracts, all teaching the way of Christ's cleansing blood.

One minister, comparatively illiterate, stands alone for years. He preaches, and prays, and testifies, and sings, and shouts, as here and there a soul is bloodwashed through his ministry. He mourns the downward tendency, as the sympathy of his brethren seems ofttimes withdrawn; but at last God brings one of them to stand by his side. Another, and yet another is added, till God has bound three or four souls in bonds of perfect love. The obligation to disseminate the gospel of holiness among the people of God in all the churches leads them, after much prayer on the subject, to publish a paper which shall be the medium of instruction on the special doctrine of holiness. Without a dollar, or a subscription list, with nothing at the base but unshrinking faith in the God who leads, they launch a weekly paper. But God touches the heart of a wealthy layman, and gives him no peace till he pledges three thousand dollars for the support of that paper....

"God works in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform." When God determined to break the chains of slavery he revealed to no man the time or methods of its accomplishment. In like manner, in the holiness movement, his faithful servants have gone "out, not knowing whither they went." The way has been so rugged at times that many have turned aside; but God has put two in the place of each faltering one, and the ranks of the holiness army are steadily increasing.

We call attention to the remarkable fact that the holiness work has sprung up simultaneously in different parts of the earth; in the east, in the west, in the north, and the south; in the old world, and in the new; among Arminians, and among Calvinists; in cities, in towns, and in country places; indicating an unseen hand and guiding power.

A mechanic, in Pennsylvania, receives a call from the chaplain of King William's court to come to Germany and teach the church of Martin Luther the way of holiness, and four hundred learned ministers sit at the feet of a Presbyterian layman to learn of holiness in the city of Berlin. A young minister, whom God hath baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, completely girds the earth with holy song, as he travels to regain his failing health.

One of Wesley's mightiest sons, is sent to the other side of the globe to receive this blessed experience, under the instruction of a Presbyterian minister. Suddenly an organized army springs up in Europe to spread holiness, and the power of Satan is broken by its advancing legions.

A number of holy men and women are compelled by their convictions to make the circuit of the earth, and are invited to preach, and sing, and testify to holiness in the shadow of the Vatican. Reader, who do you think has planned, and whose hand is guiding, this movement?

The truth is, the holiness movement was a movement prophetically due at this time as the introduction to the great reformation (restoration) that now succeeds it, in which God's people are not only embracing holiness, but are taking their stand free and complete in Christ, distinct from all humanly organized bodies called churches. The reader of church history will observe that the progress of Christianity has not been by gradual, steady increase of light and truth, but by reformation after reformation in which some special truth is emphasized and men's hearts are stirred.

Among the early leaders of the movement in this country were Dr. W. C. and Phoebe Palmer, of New York. Mrs. Palmer, especially, was prominent in this respect. She wrote a number of books on holiness and with her husband held meetings in various openings in the East and was otherwise very active in the cause. William Macdonald, John S. Inskip, Daniel Steele, and J. A. Wood were others who, both by preaching and the press, gave prominence to the doctrine of entire sanctification as a second, distinct work of grace. Holiness societies sprung up, books were written on the subject, periodicals were started, and holiness bands began to canvass the country. Well does the writer remember of seeing when a boy these holiness bands travel about the country in covered wagons. They carried a spiritual fire that caught in the hearts of the more fervent ones who, on the barren plains of sect religion, were seeking for a higher and better Christian experience. The activity on this line was not on the part of the various denominations, as such, but on the part of earnest Christians within the denominations.

Holiness, it must be remembered, is Scriptural, a part of God's will to his children, and the movement must not be regarded as being something new, but as a revival of truth intended for man. Since the attainment of this distinct higher experience requires a perfect consecration, an entire abandonment, to God, it was but natural that the doctrine should be opposed by the pleasure-loving church members, those who were Christians only in name and did not care for any advancement or improvement of their spiritual status. These, of course, were greatly in the majority. The holiness advocates were at once opposed and often persecuted; but silently and surely, as leaven works in the meal, the holiness agitation increased and spread throughout the country. It was a very unwelcome and disturbing element among the cold professors. They said that sinlessness was not to be attained in this life; that we could not be sanctified till death; etc. But when shown by the Scriptures that it is indeed God's will for Christians in this life, they would declare that it is attained by growth, or perhaps would say they had received it in conversion. They were opposed to having any further spiritual obligation placed upon them.