"Cleanse yourselves." -- James 4:8; II Cor. 7:1.
"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." -- I John 5:14, 15.
"Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." -- Heb. 12:14.
How shall we seek holiness? Permit us to answer in the words of C. Larew, written quarter of a century ago.
"First of all, you will dedicate all to Him.
Not but what all you have is His, and has been from the beginning, but you have
not so regarded it. You have taken your portion and gone your way heretofore,
wasting your Father's gifts in selfish living. Let all this cease at once; and
let it be your language, the language of your heart, 'What wilt Thou have me to
do?' In word, consecrate all to your Heavenly Father. How will you do this? We
answer, -- consent and decide, that all, whether act, word, thought, desire or
possessions shall be not as self, or men may will, but as God wills. This, you
say, I have tried to do again and again. Doubtless you have, and done it
acceptably, too. But here you halted; you did not believe. Believe what? you
ask. I answer, -- the word of God to you at that point. That word is that He
'accepted' and 'received' you. Hear Him, -- 'Be ye separate and I will receive
you.' You separated yourself, 'presented yourself a living sacrifice;' but did
not believe on the assurance of His word, that you were accepted. No, you
waited for some sign, some sensible manifestation, to come up in your feelings,
to assure you that all was received, thus making some preconceived emotion the
ground of faith. God does not say, faith cometh by feeling, joyous, peaceful,
or otherwise, else you would be right in expecting it to rise and inspire you
with faith. Nay, 'FAITH COMETH BY HEARING, and hearing by the word of God.'
Therefore, when you consecrate all, as well as you are enabled, you have God's
word for the fact that he 'RECEIVES YOU.' This faith will inspire you with
feelings of peace, gladness, and great quiet of soul. In God's order, faith
gives rise to feelings, and not feelings to faith, as you have erroneously
supposed. Hence, you may take God's word and rest upon that. There is no
error in this. It is the only way of success; as has been tried and proved by
hundreds, after having struggled and floundered in this same error.
"To illustrate: suppose the Lord had said, in His
abiding word, 'If any man will place twelve stones upon the earth, and put a
lamb thereon, and burn it to ashes, I will receive him, and be a Father unto
him, and he shall be my son.' Now, I ask, if you should do this, and the lamb
be consumed to ashes, would you not have God's word for your assurance? Yea, as
convincingly as if heard audibly from Heaven, -- that He 'received you.'
"The Lord has not said this; but He has said, as
shown above, that if we 'come out from among them, and BE SEPARATE, and touch
not the unclean thing, He WILL RECEIVE US.' Now, I ask, if we thus do, have we
not the testimony of the Spirit, written in the word, that we are accepted? Do
not fall into the common error of separating the letter of the word from the
spirit of the word. You must by faith, regard the letter as the testimony and
expression of the mind and spirit of God to you; just as you believe the letter
of a friend to be the expression of his mind and spirit. It is through this
written word, directly or indirectly, that the Spirit speaks, testifies, or
witnesses to us. To regard the word as a dead letter, is to remain in darkness
and unbelief. To faith, 'these words are spirit and they are life.' Let us,
therefore, 'believe, nothing doubting.'
"But, says one, 'How am I to know that the
consecration is complete!' I answer, if you see nothing to the contrary, it is;
for the Lord has said, 'If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal
even this unto you.' The question is not, what will come up in the future to
sacrifice and to suffer. In this, 'Take no thought for the morrow,' applies as
well as in anything else. But do you not accept of the will of God as it is
made to appear at the present moment? If this is so, this is all that the King
requires. Only let this continue, moment by moment, and all will continue
acceptable to Him. How great the rest of soul gained by him who thus comes
into the truth.
"But, you ask, into what state, or degree of
godliness may I now apprehend the Lord has brought me? Are my inward foes all
dead? Shall I feel the roots of sin no more from this time?
"This is an important question -- one, the
understanding of which, may have much to do with your future peace and success
in the way of holiness. Many, who have dedicated all, and believed, have been
disappointed in finding, after a little while, the old self-nature stir within
them, and either took it as an evidence that they were deceived, or soothingly
called it 'only temptation;' and have continued to try to believe that all was
entirely pure within.
"We forget that there are two parts, or elements,
in entire sanctification. The one is the placing of the creature, or
sacrifice, upon the altar, -- Consecration. The other is the consuming of it
to ashes, or to its primitive elements, by God's own fire. The gold must first
be put into the crucible; and then melted, and purified, by separating all its
inner dross.
"We must first consent and covenant to give up
'all things,' and then suffer the loss of all. First be nailed to the cross
and then 'die daily,' till 'the world is crucified to us,' and we live not, but
Christ in us.'
"With the first, you have now complied, I trust.
If so, you are 'sanctified,' but perhaps not 'wholly;' you are 'holy,' but
perhaps not yet 'perfected.' You are now as the gold in the crucible, and can
begin to say, 'though he slay me yet will I trust in him;' and hence ready to
'abide the fire.' 'Abide his coming,' as a refiner and purifier. If so, you
are fully in the hands of the 'potter,' and He can now begin to mold you as He
will, for you will now be able to 'abide,' and not 'draw back,' as you once did
when trial came, erroneously considering it an evidence that God was
displeased, and no longer accepted you.
"We often make a joyous and gladsome state of the
mind, the only evidence of our acceptance with the Father. This is a very
mischievous error. To do this, is to make the faith of our acceptance depend
upon our emotions or feelings, as we saw above; whereas 'the word' is the only
true basis of faith; on compliance with which all the promises become ours. We
forget the Saviour endured this, and yet was just as acceptable to the Father
as when His emotion were the opposite. And now, as we are called to 'endure
hardness,' and it is given us 'to suffer with Christ,' and also to bear some
'afflictions for a moment,' we must certainly not consider any one state of
feeling the only acceptable one. For if, 'when need be,' we are in heaviness,
then heaviness must be felt. If to endure hardness, then hardness must be
felt. And if we are to have 'afflictions' then we must sometimes feel
'afflicted.' You therefore see that if you take one class of emotions to be the
evidence of your acceptance, when you feel thus, your faith in God will abound.
But, since our feelings necessarily change and vary, as we have seen above, our
faith in this case will sometimes be lost, and we fall into consequent weakness
and sadness, if not into gloom and discouragement. Nay, such anchor-ground is
too unstable. We need the immovable promise of God, which holds both 'sure and
steadfast,' amid all the varying storms, winds, and rolling billows that come
upon us.
"The only true test point required of us is in
the will. If this be true, -- if it be in the heart to say, 'Thy will be
done,' we are accepted, let our feelings be what they may; 'for where there is
a willing mind, it is accepted.' Ah, this living by feeling, instead of by
faith, has made sad havoc of many a promising disciple. It reverses the order
of God, and keeps the soul off its only true foundation -the promise of the
Father. It is being much as the spoiled child, who, because it is not
permitted constantly to feed upon sweetmeats, but is called by its parent to
partake of substantial fare, and sometime to take that which is bitter, and
also to go forth and endure that which is 'hard and afflicting' loses
confidence in the love and wisdom of its father, and sadly refuses to do his
will.
"Oh! my brother, let your motto be, -- 'Not my
will but thine be done.' 'Do unto me as seemeth unto thee good,' and all will
be well.
"Remember, 'He sitteth as a refiner and purifier
of silver, whose business it is, not to see there is no fire to try us, and no
dross revealed, but to see that the fire gets not too hot, lest it injure and
destroy; nor too cool, lest it do not accomplish its end, the purification of
the heart from all its selfish nature.
"Neither is He at a loss for fuel from which to
make these purging fires. They come from any and every circumstance around us,
that is needful to cross our wills; from many little things connected with
ourselves, our families, our tenderest friends, and the common business of
life, and even from our religious services. He will cause a fire to glow
forth, giving us a sense of the cross, mortification and death which are
necessary to the perfect submission of our wills, and entire acquiescence with
God. And if these fiery trials which are to try you, reveal hidden selfishness
and sin, as the lance reveals offensive matter not before seen, because lying
hid deep within, be not disheartened. It is your physician at work wisely, and
accomplishing the object of your desire, a perfect cure. Courage brother! Keep
your confidence! The ore must be fused before the dross can separate and pass
off. We must die in order to live. And His soothing encouragement to you is,
'And after you have suffered awhile, I will strengthen, establish and perfect
you.' "
"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end. Amen."