“I Am Not Disappointed”
Howard had just returned from a three weeks’ visit to the State Capitol. During his visit he had been much occupied with the thought of entire sanctification. He had talked with different people concerning it and had heard some preaching upon the subject. He was very eager to talk it over with Brother Miles, for the different opinions he had heard expressed did not harmonize with each other. He seized the first opportunity to visit Brother Miles. He was warmly greeted, and they spent the evening in friendly discussion.
“Brother Miles,” said he, “while in the city I talked with an old gentleman concerning sanctification. He said he had heard of it all his life and knew all about it. He claimed that we grow into it; that it is an experience that we cannot attain to until death, but that we gradually grow and develop until we reach it.”
“Yes,” said Brother Miles, “there are many who teach thus, but they have neglected to consider some things that the Bible says. The Bible speaks of it as a present experience. Jude addressed his epistle ‘To them that are sanctified,’ (Jude 1:1) not to those who should be sanctified in the future. When Paul wrote the First Epistle to the Corinthians he addressed it ‘to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,’ (1 Corinthians 1:2) and in chapter six verse 11 he said, ‘Ye are sanctified.’ (1 Corinthians 6:11) In Hebrews 2:11, the writer of that Epistle said, ‘they who are sanctified.’ In 10:29 he speaks of people that were sanctified; so, you see, it is not an experience that we can only get at death.
“Now, as to the question of it being a growth—it is true that we grow in grace; we are to grow and develop in the Christian life so long as we live, but that is altogether a different thing from the experience of entire sanctification. A point to be noted is that growth does not change the nature; it only increases what already exists. Therefore, we can increase in growth only in what we already have. Too, growth does not decrease; therefore, the sin that is innate in the unregenerate cannot be grown out any more than weeds can be grown out of one’s garden. Growth neither gives anything new nor eradicates the old.
“The Bible plainly teaches that our hearts must be purified, and purified not by growth but by a cleansing through the blood of Christ. Let me read you some texts from the Bible. Hebrews 13:12 says, ‘Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.’ Chapter ten verse ten says, ‘We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ (Hebrws 10:10) And verse 29 of this chapter says, ‘the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified.’ (Hebrews 10:29) Now if we are sanctified, as the Scriptures say, by the blood of Christ, does He apply His blood many different times and cleanse us a little at a time? There is no thought of growth in the idea of cleansing. ‘The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.’ (1 John 1:7) It is, therefore, a definite, specific act. It is God who acts in order to sanctify us, as Jude said—‘Sanctified by God the Father.’ (Jude 1:1) And we read, ‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23) This proves that it is not a continuous act, but one act as complete in its results as that act of God which cleanses us from the guilt of our actual transgressions.
“Another thing—we are sanctified by faith. Acts 26:18 speaks of ‘them which are sanctified by faith.’ Peter speaks of ‘purifying their hearts by faith.’ (Acts 15:9) This is exactly the means by which we are justified. There must be a definite act of faith, and this brings a definite operation of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Then too, as I pointed out to you before, the gift of the Holy Ghost, or the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is the same, accompanies this cleansing of the heart, and God does not give the Holy Spirit to us piecemeal. The Holy Spirit fell ‘suddenly’ (Acts 2:2) on the disciples at Pentecost and on other occasions. There was nothing gradual in the work.
“Another thing to take into consideration is the fact that in speaking in the Greek language of sanctification—the Greek being the original language of the New Testament—the past tense is frequently used. This always signifies completed action; it means “once for all.” This tense is used in Ephesians 5:26 where it says of the church, ‘That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.’ The Revised Version says, ‘having cleansed it.’ The work is done now; it is not a future thing; it is not a growth. It did not wait till death. The experience is a present, completed one. There are other similar texts that might be quoted.”
“I see, Brother Miles,” said Howard, “that that old gentleman was mistaken. You are right in what you said about it not being a growth, but that it is a present experience. I found some other people who were teaching very differently. They teach much as you have taught me, but they also say that when one is baptized with the Holy Spirit, he will speak in tongues as the evidence, and they say that no one has the experience unless he does speak with tongues as the evidence. I attended some of their meetings. They certainly are very positive in their teaching, and I saw some strange things among them. I have some of their literature here. Would you like to look at it?”
“I suppose it is just about like that which I already have had,” said Brother Miles. “I am quite well acquainted with their teachings and have attended some of their meetings at various places. There is such a thing as the gift of tongues spoken of in the Scriptures, but the Bible nowhere teaches that all the sanctified will receive this gift, or that all did receive it, or that all who receive the Holy Ghost speak in tongues.
“There was one thing you noticed in their meetings; that is, their love of the spectacular. They love physical manifestation and cultivate emotionalism. As I have already pointed out, these things are no part of salvation. Giving way to wild emotionalism is bound to produce hysterical results. People who ‘fall under the power,’ or who go through wild, unseemly demonstrations, do so as the result of physical excitement of unrestrained enthusiasm. Carried to the extreme this often produces a form of catalepsy. People often go into trances and perhaps lie unconscious for hours. In many cases these things are physical and mental results and do not come from the Spirit of God. The tongues that many people speak nowadays, in many instances no doubt, are mere manifestations of subconscious mental action.
“The same results are often produced outside of religion. Insane persons are said often to speak in tongues. Spiritualistic mediums frequently do the same. It is a well-known fact that among the Chinese and East Indians it is no uncommon thing for people to speak in tongues. These people are not Christians, and the tongues they speak are not by the Holy Ghost. So we need to be careful about this tongue craze that is leading astray so many people. The laws of such demonstrations are very well understood by psychologists. There are many tongues that are not the operation of the Spirit of God. In fact, some of the ‘tongues’ ministers have admitted to me that they could not tell the difference between the false tongues, which they admit are among them, and the true ones. Sometimes people in the meetings who make no profession of religion whatever start speaking in tongues. People who do profess and yet live godless lives frequently speak in tongues. We need some better evidence than this that the Holy Spirit has come.
“The real evidence is the indwelling Spirit of God Himself. It is that pureness of heart; that power that comes only from the Holy Ghost; that enriching of the spiritual life; the fullness of love; all these are evidences of this work wrought in the heart.
“People spoke in tongues in Mr. Wesley’s day, but he rejected it and said it was not of God; that is, the kind of tongues they spoke. The true gift of tongues may be manifested. Some people may speak in tongues when they are sanctified wholly, but the majority do not and never did so far as we have any record. The initial outpouring at Pentecost was perhaps the greatest manifestation that has been seen. I want something as evidence that is a little more substantial than a temporary jabbering in some supposed tongue that neither I nor anyone else understands, and which may be produced by a variety of other causes. When you get the Bible experience, Howard, you will know it without having any need of speaking in tongues. You will have that inner consciousness of the work done. You will know it as really and truly as you knew when you were converted. The experience is just as real and just as definite as the experience of conversion.”
“Brother Miles, will you please tell me how to get the experience? My heart craves it very much. I long to be cleansed entirely. I long for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to dwell in me in His power and glory.”
“I can tell you some things that you must do to receive the experience,” said Brother Miles, “but there are some things that cannot be made plain to you. God has left it so that your heart must reach out for Him and desire Him without fully understanding, until your heart goes beyond the understanding of your mind; so that your heart’s deepest depths are reached. To follow out a mere mental conception of receiving the experience is to be disappointed. For that reason God does not make every step plain to us in the Scripture. But the Holy Spirit will guide us and the yearnings of our hearts will reach out in the right direction.
“The first thing for you to do is to consecrate yourself fully to God. You must yield to the whole will of God. You must come to the place where you are willing not to be your own; not to choose for yourself, but to let God choose for you and work His will in you, for you, and through you. You must dedicate yourself completely to God, without reserve. When you do this you will come to the place where you will realize that you are all surrendered to God. You will know that you have reached the end of self-surrender. Some tell us that this of itself is sanctification. Such is not the case, however, for as I have pointed out to you, sanctification is a work of God wrought in us through the blood of Christ. Consecration and dedication are our part: sanctification is God’s part.
“Along with this dedication of yourself must be an earnest desire and diligent prayer for God to do the work. You received forgiveness of your sins only when you became earnest enough to seek Him with your whole heart. You will become sanctified only when you reach that same earnestness and seek Him with all your heart. Along with a whole-hearted dedication and earnest seeking and asking must go a definite faith. We are sanctified by faith: therefore, it requires as definite and active an operation of faith for our sanctification as it does for our conversion. The Scripture says, ‘What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’ (Mark 11:24) God desires to give you the Holy Spirit. He desires to cleanse your heart completely, and as soon as you reach the point of whole-hearted dedication, earnest seeking, and definite faith, you will receive the experience. One point to keep in mind concerning faith is that it is not struggling or trying, but is simply relying upon God’s promises. It is accepting them as true—true for you here and now. Faith operates naturally, easily, and effectually when we have reached the proper place in consecration and earnest seeking.”
“Brother Miles, how shall I feel when I am sanctified?”
“I have no idea,” said Brother Miles. “Sanctification is no more a matter of feeling than is regeneration. Whatever emotion goes with it is an accidental or incidental thing and no part of the work of God. People are usually joyful when they receive the experience. The emotions of some run very high. If people are of an emotional temperament they are likely to become very happy and perhaps shout. I have seen people who rejoiced and shouted until it seemed they could hardly stop. I have seen other people who were perfectly calm and collected. There was only a quiet, joyful peace, accompanied by no external demonstrations beyond the look of satisfaction and joy in their countenances. These quiet ones who made no demonstration have shown in their lives that they had received just as much of an experience, just as deep an experience, and just as real an experience as those who had been so demonstrative. So I cannot tell you how you will feel when you receive the experience.
“You will need to put into practice with respect to your sanctification the lessons that you learned concerning your justification. You can thereby miss conflicts similar to those through which you passed after your conversion when you trusted your emotions and rated your relationship with God by your emotions. One’s emotions are the result of his temperament. The more emotional one is and the more he trusts his emotions, the greater his spiritual conflicts are likely to be. Great emotions, therefore, are not to be sought after; neither are demonstrations of any kind. Demonstrations of themselves mean nothing. They have little real value from a spiritual standpoint. If one’s joy depends on his emotions, then emotion is a necessary part of life, but if we make any part of our salvation to depend upon our emotions we shall make trouble for ourselves. We must live by faith and base our salvation upon faith, even when our emotions are exalted. Unless we do so, when emotions subside our faith will subside, our confidence in ourselves will subside, and we shall be left to battle against doubts.”
They talked on of various things, and of many other phases of this great experience. As Howard went home he determined in his heart to seek the experience of entire sanctification immediately. He reviewed his life. He saw that he had given his all to God in the beginning, as far as he comprehended what that meant. Now he could realize in a far deeper sense and to a far greater extent the possibilities of a deeper dedication, of a more perfect surrender, of a more extensive yielding. He began to yield himself. He did not find himself able to yield all at once to the full depths of his nature, but gradually he came more and more to the point of self-surrender. Not many days were spent in this, but it was a time of intense heart-searching. He found many indications, small in themselves, but pointing out a great fact, that he had never realized what full self-surrender meant. As fast as he saw how to yield and what to yield, he yielded. The more he yielded, the more intense became his desire for the experience that he was seeking. The more intensely he prayed, the nearer he seemed to draw to God. One night he came to the point where his desire became so great that he determined to shut himself up in his room and seek until he found the experience which he craved.
Howard fell upon his knees. The Holy Spirit seemed at once to open up to his understanding the whole subject in such a way as to enable him quickly to reach the point of complete self-surrender. When he reached that point he knew it; there was a consciousness that there was nothing withheld. Then his faith took hold upon God and he realized that the work was done. His emotions were altogether different from those that filled him at his conversion. This was doubtless because of the difference of his attitude and of his mental state. Some have similar emotions at both times; others quite dissimilar ones. With Howard there was no particular emotion, only it seemed that a great calm and a wonderful peace had settled down upon his spirit. He arose from his knees and went to bed. He did not shout; he did not feel like it. The thing that stood out the clearest of all was the inner consciousness that the work was done. There was a satisfaction in this. He felt like a man who had been on a long journey and who in returning to his own fireside had opened the door, stepped into his own home and reached the end of his journey, the resting place he desired.
The next morning when Howard awoke his heart was full of joy. His Lord seemed very precious to him. It is useless to describe the details of his experience for there is a great variety of personal experiences and we cannot make the experience of one person the test of the experience of another except in that inner work wrought by God’s Holy Spirit. The external manifestations and the emotions vary widely.
A few days later Howard met a man whom he had seen at the Ridge at different times. He told this man of his new experience.
“Yes, said the man, “I was sanctified in the revival last winter. I consecrated and took it by faith just as they told me to.”
“Did you realize that you received the real experience?” asked Howard.
“Well,” said the man, “I did not notice much difference, but I just took it by faith.”
“That is the way I got it, too,” said Howard, “but faith in my case brought real knowledge of a change wrought, of something added to me. I knew the work was done; I know It still. Does that correspond with your experience?”
The man hesitated. “I cannot just say that I feel that way about it. Sometimes I feel that I am sanctified, and then sometimes I doubt it, but I took it by faith the best I knew how.”
The next day Howard went to see Brother Miles to tell about his experience. Howard’s face told the story to Brother Miles before he had said a word. “Ah!” said Brother Miles, “I see you have what you wanted.”
“Yes,” said Howard, “I have it. I know I have it.” Then he told of the gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon his heart and related the particulars of his experience. “I am not disappointed,” he exclaimed. “It is what I have longed for.” “But,” said he, “there is one thing I cannot understand. I was talking to Mr. Jason yesterday and he said that he took it by faith, but that he did not seem to know that he had received anything. I wondered how that was.”
“It is true, Howard, that some people claim to take things by faith from the Lord and still do not have any consciousness within themselves that they have something. We get what we get from the Lord through faith. When we exercise a definite faith for a thing and receive it through that faith, we have an inner consciousness that our prayer has been granted and that we have the thing that we desired. Faith brings knowledge. The trouble with Mr. Jason is that he has never reached the proper depths of consecration and dedication of himself to God so that faith can operate normally. The faith that he exercised was a mere intellectual faith. There is a difference between mere intellectual faith and that real faith of the heart that grasps the promises of God and makes them our own. This latter faith can come only when we have definitely met the conditions God has given us, for what we are asking.
There are many people, who, as they say, take it by faith, who never have it in reality. The trouble is that they do not take it by faith. They only attempt to do so and fail in the attempt. Faith cannot operate effectually until it has a solid basis and that solid basis in receiving entire sanctification is wholehearted dedication and earnest seeking. If there were more of this wholehearted dedication to God, this complete yielding, this choosing of His will instead of our own, there would be fewer people claiming to have the experience without its fruit in their hearts and lives. Real faith brings real experience. But the foundation and background for faith, as I have said, is wholehearted dedication to God and His will. Faith founded on this brings the real experience to the heart. The real experience is something definite and soul-satisfying.”
“Brother Miles, now that I have that foe destroyed from within me and my heart is cleansed, will I have any more temptations, or any more battles to fight?”
“Oh, yes,” said Brother Miles, “you will have plenty of them.”
“But if my heart is pure, how can I be tempted?” asked Howard.
“How was Jesus tempted? His heart was pure, yet it is said, ‘He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.’ (Hebrews 4:15) Adam’s heart was pure but he was tempted and overcome. So, having a pure heart does not guarantee that we shall have no temptation. You will have many battles to fight; you will have many things to overcome. But, you will not have that foe within you to answer to temptation. However, you are still a human being and you will find that you still have the weaknesses that belong to humanity. While you are redeemed from all sin and your heart is purified and made white in the blood of Christ, you will find in yourself many imperfections. There will be imperfections of judgment; of understanding; you will make many mistakes in the course of your life and many times you will find that your wisdom is inadequate.
“You will often need additional strength from God to meet the circumstances that arise. Then, too, you have within yourself those inherited traits and characteristics that are not sinful in themselves but a part of your real self, that sanctification does not eradicate from you because they are not spiritual impurities. These things will have to be carefully guarded. It is also necessary for you to remember that you, though a spiritual being, live in a human body. This fleshly body has its natural functional desires. These must be guarded and guided and sometimes must be overcome by sheer will-power. These things of themselves are not evil, but Paul said that he kept under his body lest while he preached to others he himself might become a castaway. He brought himself into subjection.
“You will not be righteous automatically. You cannot control yourself without an effort. It is true that the greater grace you have the easier you will maintain yourself on the plane of righteousness, but Paul spoke of the Christian life as a battle as well as a race. There must be self-mastery. That means that there is something left to master, something left to overcome. Yes, there are many things in life we must overcome, but we can overcome them through the grace of God and live victorious Christian lives until God shall call us up higher.
“The indwelling Spirit and the power of holiness is a wonderful thing in a life. You will find that some things that have troubled you in the past will trouble you no longer. You will find more of an evenness in your spiritual life than hitherto. You will find greater breadth and depth and an illumination of your spiritual understanding such as you did not have before. Your life will be richer and fuller. The presence of God will be real to you if you live spiritually.
“Sinners are living an abnormal life. Full salvation restores life to normality. One thing to remember, Howard, is to keep simple-hearted. Walk close to God. Do not think you are any better now than you were before, in, and of yourself. Remember that whatever good there is that has come to you is by the grace of God. Live a humble, pure, and godly life, and you will know what is the true value of life and the sweetness of divine fellowship. You will find that human life reaches its normal development only through the operations of the divine Spirit and the outpoured grace and power of God.
“And now, Howard, I shall say a few additional words about the Christian’s personal life: the inner Christian life is the fruit of God’s Spirit working in us. We must maintain that inner spiritual relationship with God whereby we draw from Him our life and the grace we need to keep saved. It is by maintaining that inner Christian character and by this means alone that we can manifest a Christian life to the world about us. Our inner life will be reflected in our outer life. The inner fountain of life must be pure if the outer life is to be pure. Christian character is priceless. If we allow anything to mar our Christian characters, we lose our most precious possession.
“You are young yet, Howard; your life is before you. Be careful to maintain those high ideals you have. Do not lower your standard. Preserve your ideals and remember that whatever success you may make in life can be rated from any proper standpoint a success only when you are successful in carrying out the true principles of Christianity. Christian principle should permeate everything in your life. Only Christian ideals will enable us to live on a lofty plane. True nobility is found in the way of Christ. Let your outward life correspond with the inner ideals you have. Develop integrity, straightforwardness, a rugged honesty. Let your faithfulness characterize every detail of your life. If you will do this, you will become a Christian man who ‘needeth not to be ashamed,’ (2 Timothy 2:15) but one who will stand steadfast and unmovable in the storms of life.”
“It is my purpose, Brother Miles, to live a worthy Christian life. I assure you that I mean to live up to my ideals and put into practice those things that are taught in the Bible. I know it can be done, for other men do it. I know it is worthwhile to do it, not only for time, but for eternity. I thank you for your counsel and advice. I mean to profit by that.”
Howard went back to the ordinary tasks of his life. He became a stalwart Christian and a few years later entered the ministry. His earnest, faithful Christian life was an inspiration to many others.
Here we leave him. We have told you how he passed over the road that led him to that settled, holy, vital Christian manhood which it is God’s will for all to attain. That road all may travel; to that goal of life all may come, and as the days and years go by the Christian life will become broader, richer, and more heavenly until at last, life’s race having been run, the soul will pass joyfully through the gates into the great beyond to the final goal of eternity.