Delusive Sanctification.
By Editor
THIS is the title of a tract of 27 pages, issued by C. W. Dearborn, of Oakland, Cal., being a reprint of two articles in the New York Examiner, written by Rev. P. A. Nordell, pastor of the First Baptist Church in New London, Conn. We can commend the reasoning as good in most particulars. Among the fruits of this system of perfectionism now known as the “second blessing,” or “holiness” (miscalled, we think), the author gives the following:— “A RELAXED MORALITY.—By limiting sin to voluntary action, much that is sin in its most refined and dangerous form escapes censure by posing as involuntary infirmity. But these so-called infirmities are constantly encroaching on the territory of voluntary action. One transgression after another is palliated as infirmity, until presently the standard of moral obligation is so lowered as to permit a ‘perfectly holy’ man to do, without misgivings of conscience, what an honest man cannot do. This tendency of every form of pretended moral perfection to let down the bars of moral obligation is abundantly proved in the history of the church from the rise of Pelagianism to the latest theories of our own day.” We have had occasion to notice this tendency when speaking of the work of the “holiness bands” in this city. It is a delusion to be feared because it comes under the pretense of earnest piety. But they who have had to deal with fanaticism will be at no loss to detect it, for fanaticism is always zealous, having self-confidence for its foundation. But the publisher surely cannot expect a large circulation of the tract, at the price of 25 cents—about a cent a page.