Sanctification by St. Louis Christian Advocate

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 9, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 47.

Sanctification.

By St. Louis Christian Advocate

It is painful to know that there are not a few persons in different parts of our country who are making a specialty or a hobby of the doctrine of sanctification, while their presentation of it is so befogged, disconnected, and imperfect as to include no well-defined or definite view, and their lives exhibit an almost total lack of the true spirit of Christian holiness. Their spirit is often harsh, petulant, impatient of contradiction, boastful, or self-seeking. They are professedly very scrupulous as to the "duty of confessing the blessing," when if they would live as they should, their lives would save their lips a great deal of trouble.

Unless the profession goes hand in hand with humility, and sanctification with unselfishness and upright lives, it is nothing worth—worse than nothing. It does harm both to the professor and to the observer. It brings a reproach upon our holy religion. Better, a thousand times, say nothing on the subject than to make loud professions of holiness, while the life goes in a contrary direction.

We have known a few persons who were said to have been made perfect in love, but they did not placard it, nor be always shouting it out. They quietly and unobtrusively lived it. It shone out in all their tempers, dispositions, words, and actions. They were humble, meek, and lowly, as was their Lord, whom they loved and served with pure hearts fervently.—St. Louis Christian Advocate.