XXII.
IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE AND EXPERIENCE OF HOLINESS TO SPIRITUAL LEADERS.
"Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."
A mighty man inspires and trains other men to be mighty. We wonder and exclaim often at the slaughter of Goliath by David, and we forget that David was the forerunner of a race of fearless, invincible warriors and giant-killers.
If we would in this light but study and remember the story of David"s mighty men, it would be most instructive to us.
Moses inspired a tribe of cowering, toiling, sweat-begrimed, spiritless slaves to lift up their heads, straighten their backs, and throw off the yoke; and he led them forth with songs of victory and shouts of triumph from under the mailed hand and iron bondage of Pharaoh. He fired them with a national spirit, and welded and organised them into a distinct and compact people that could be hurled with resistless power against the walled cities and trained warriors of Canaan.
But what was the secret of David and Moses? Whence the superiority of these men? David was only a stripling shepherd-boy when he immortalised himself. What was his secret? To be sure, Moses was "instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," and, doubtless, had been trained in all the civil, military, and scientific learning of his day, but he was so weak in himself that he feared and fled at the first word of questioning and disparagement that he heard (Exodus ii. 14), and spent the next forty years feeding sheep for another man in the rugged wilderness of Sinai. What, then, was his secret?
Doubtless, they were men cast in a kinglier mould than most men; but their secret was not in themselves.
Joseph Parker declared that great lives are built on great promises, and so they are. These men had so far humbled themselves that they found G.o.d. They got close to Him, and He spoke to them. He gave them promises. He revealed His way and truth to them, and trusting Him, believing His promises, and fashioning their lives according to His truth--His doctrine--everything else followed. They became "workers together with G.o.d," heroes of faith, leaders of men, builders of empire, teachers of the race, and, in an important sense, saviours of mankind.
Their secret is an open one; it is the secret of every truly successful spiritual leader from then till now, and there is no other way to success in spiritual leadership.
1. They had an _experience_. They _knew G.o.d_.
2. This experience, this acquaintance with G.o.d, was _maintained_ and deepened and broadened in obedience to G.o.d"s teaching, or truth, or doctrine.
3. They patiently yet urgently _taught others_ what they themselves had learned, and declared, so far as they saw it, the whole counsel of G.o.d.
They were abreast of the deepest experiences and fullest revelations G.o.d had yet made to men. They were leaders, not laggards. They were not in the rear of the procession of G.o.d"s warriors and saints; they were in the forefront.
Here we discover the importance of the doctrine and experience of holiness through the baptism of the Holy Spirit to Salvation Army leaders. We are to know G.o.d and glorify Him and reveal Him to men. We are to finish the work of Jesus, and "fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ" (Col. i. 24). We are to rescue the slaves of sin, to make a people, to fashion them into a holy nation, and inspire and lead them forth to save the world.
How can we do this? Only by being in the forefront of G.o.d"s spiritual hosts; not in name and in t.i.tles only, but in reality; by being in glad possession of the deepest experiences G.o.d gives, and the fullest revelations He makes to men.
The astonishing military and naval successes of the j.a.panese are said to be due to their profound study, clear understanding, and firm grasp of the theory, the principles, the doctrines of war; their careful and minute preparation of every detail of their campaigns; the scientific accuracy and precision with which they carry out all their plans, and their splendid and utter personal devotion to their cause.
Our war is far more complex and desperate than theirs, and its issues are infinitely more far-reaching, and we must equip ourselves for it; and nothing is so vital to our cause as a mastery of the doctrine and an a.s.sured and joyous possession of the Pentecostal experience of holiness through the indwelling Spirit.
I. _The Doctrine._--What is the teaching of G.o.d"s word about holiness?
1. If we carefully study G.o.d"s word, we find that He wants His people to be holy, and the making of a holy people, after the pattern of Jesus, is the crowning work of the Holy Spirit. He commands us to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord" (2 Cor. vii. 1). It is prayed that we may "increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men... to the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before G.o.d" (1 Thess. iii. 12, 13). He says: "As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter i. 15, 16). And in the most earnest manner we are exhorted to "follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"
(Hebrews xii. 14).
2. As we further study the word, we discover that holiness is more than simple freedom from condemnation for wrong-doing. A helpless invalid lying on his bed of sickness, unable to do anything wrong, may be free from the condemnation of actual wrong-doing, and yet it may be in his heart to do all manner of evil. Holiness on its negative side is a state of heart purity; it is heart cleanness--cleanness of thought and temper and disposition, cleanness of intention and purpose and wish; it is a state of freedom from all sin, both inward and outward (Romans vi. 18). On the positive side it is a state of union with G.o.d in Christ, in which the whole man becomes a temple of G.o.d and filled with the fruit of the Spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." It is moral and spiritual sympathy and harmony with G.o.d in the holiness of His nature.
We must not, however, confound purity with maturity. Purity is a matter of the heart, and is secured by an instantaneous act of the Holy Spirit; maturity is largely a matter of the head and results from growth in knowledge and experience. In one, the heart is made clean, and is filled with love; in the other, the head is gradually corrected and filled with light, and so the heart is enlarged and more firmly established in faith; consequently, the experience deepens and becomes stronger and more robust in every way. It is for this reason that we need teachers after we are sanctified, and to this end we are exhorted to humbleness of mind.
Importance of the Doctrine.
With a heart full of sympathy and love for his father my little boy may voluntarily go into the garden to weed the vegetables; but, being yet ignorant, lacking light in his head, he pulls up my sweet corn with the gra.s.s and weeds. His little heart glows with pleasure and pride in the thought that he is "helping papa,"
and yet he is doing the very thing I don"t want him to do. But if I am a wise and patient father, I shall be pleased with him; for what is the loss of my few stalks of corn compared to the expression and development of his love and loyalty? And I shall commend him for the love and faithful purpose of his little heart, while I patiently set to work to enlighten the darkness of his little head. His heart is pure toward his father, but he is not yet mature. In this matter of light and maturity holy people often widely differ, and this causes much perplexity and needless and unwise anxiety. In the fourteenth chapter of Romans, Paul discusses and ill.u.s.trates the principle underlying this distinction between purity and maturity.
3. As we continue to study the word under the illumination of the Spirit, who is given to lead us into all truth, we further learn that holiness is not a state which we reach in conversion. The Apostles were converted, they had forsaken all to follow Jesus (Matthew xix. 27-29), their names were written in Heaven (Luke x.
20), and yet they were not holy. They doubted and feared, and again and again were they rebuked for the slowness and littleness of their faith. They were bigoted, and wanted to call down fire from Heaven to consume those who would not receive Jesus (Luke ix. 51-56); they were frequently contending among themselves as to which should be the greatest, and when the supreme test came they all forsook Him and fled. Certainly, they were not only afflicted with darkness in their heads, but, far worse, carnality in their hearts; they were His, and they were very dear to Him, but they were not yet holy, they were yet impure of heart.
Paul makes this point very clear in his Epistle to the Corinthians. He tells them plainly that they were yet only babes in Christ, because they were carnal and contentious (I Cor. iii.
I). They were in Christ, they had been converted, but they were not holy.
It is of great importance that we keep this truth well in mind that men may be truly converted, may be babes in Christ, and yet not be pure in heart; we shall then sympathise more fully with them, and see the more clearly how to help them and guide their feet into the way of holiness and peace.
Those who hold that we are sanctified wholly in conversion will meet with much to perplex them in their converts, and are not intelligently equipped to bless and help G.o.d"s little children.
4. A continued study of G.o.d"s teaching on this subject will clearly reveal to us that purity of heart is obtained after we are converted. Peter makes this very plain in his address to the Council in Jerusalem, where he recounts the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his household. After mentioning the gift of the Holy Ghost, he adds, "and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith" (Acts xv.
9). Among other things, then, the baptism of the Holy Ghost purifies the heart; but the disciples were converted before they received this Pentecostal experience, so we see that heart purity, or holiness, is a work wrought in us after conversion.
Again, we notice that Peter says, "purifying their hearts by faith." If it is by faith, then it is not by growth, nor by works, nor by death, nor by purgatory after death. It is G.o.d"s work. He purifies the heart, and He does it for those, and only those who, devoting all their possessions and powers to Him, seek Him by simple, prayerful, obedient, expectant, unwavering faith through His Son our Saviour.
Unless we grasp these truths, and hold them firmly, we shall not be able to "rightly divide the word of truth," we shall hardly be "workmen that need not be ashamed, approved unto G.o.d" (2 Tim. ii.
15). Some one has written that "the searcher in science knows that if he but stumble in his hypothesis--that if he but let himself be betrayed into prejudice or undue leaning toward a pet theory, or anything but absolute uprightness of mind--his whole work will be stultified and he will fail ignominiously. To get anywhere in science he must follow truth with absolute rect.i.tude."
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
And is there not a science of salvation, of holiness, of eternal life, that requires the same absolute loyalty to "the Spirit of Truth"? How infinitely important, then, that we know what that truth is, that we may understand and hold that doctrine.
A friend of mine who finished his course with joy, and was called into the presence of his Lord to receive his crown some time ago, has pointed out some mistakes which we must carefully avoid. Here they are:--
"It is a great mistake to subst.i.tute repentance for Bible consecration. The people whom Paul exhorted to full sanctification were those who had turned from their idols to serve the living and true G.o.d, and to wait for His Son sent down from Heaven (I Thess. i. 9, 10; iii. 10-13; v. 23).
"Only people who are citizens of His kingdom can claim His sanctifying power. Those who still have idols to renounce may be candidates for conversion, but not for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire.
"It is a mistake in consecration to suppose that the person making it has anything of his own to give. We are not our own, but we are bought with a price, and consecration is simply taking our hands off from G.o.d"s property. To wilfully withhold anything from G.o.d is to be a G.o.d-robber.
"It is a mistake to subst.i.tute a mere mental a.s.sent to G.o.d"s proprietorship and right to all we have, while withholding complete devotion to Him. This is theoretical consecration--a rock on which we fear mult.i.tudes are being wrecked. Consecration which does not embrace the crucifixion of self and the funeral of all false ambitions is not the kind which will bring the Holy Fire. A consecration is imperfect which does not embrace the speaking faculty" (the tongue), "and the believing faculty" (the heart), "the imagination, and every power of mind, soul, and body, and give all absolutely and for ever into the hands of Jesus, turning a deaf ear to every opposing voice.
"Reader, have you made such a consecration as this? It must embrace all this, or it will prove a bed of quicksand to sink your soul, instead of a full salvation balloon, which will safely bear you above the fog and malaria and turmoil of the world, where you can triumphantly sing:
""I rise to float in realms of light, Above the world and sin.
With heart made pure and garments white, And Christ enthroned within."
"It is a mistake to teach seekers to "only believe," without complete abandonment to G.o.d at every point, for they can no more do it than an anch.o.r.ed ship can sail.
"It is a mistake to subst.i.tute mere verbal a.s.sent for obedient trust. "Only believe" is a fatal snare to all who fall into these traps.
"It is a mistake to believe that the altar sanctifies the gift without the a.s.surance that all is on the altar. If even the end of your tongue, or one cent of your money, or a straw"s weight of false ambition, or spirit of dictation, or one ounce of your reputation, or will, or believing powers be left off the altar, you can no more believe than a bird without wings can fly.
""Only believe" is only for those seekers of holiness who are truly converted, fully consecrated, and crucified to everything but the whole will of G.o.d. Teachers who apply this to people who have not yet reached these stations need themselves to be taught.
All who have reached them may believe, and if they do believe, may look G.o.d in the face, and triumphantly sing: