THE DANGER OF THE DOCTRINE OF "HOLINESS."
We repeat that we do not deny that a man can in this life become perfectly holy, so that to the absolute limit of his powers, and so of his obligations, he will commit no sin. We say that, of course he can, or his obligation would cease, and God would not impose the command, "Be ye therefore perfect." Nor do we venture to deny that some have achieved that state of sinlessness. Very possibly some have. The fact that all can is a presumption that some have. We only record our convictions that such are very few, and that the boast made by many nowadays that they have attained what St. Paul had not attained when, but six years before his death, he wrote the last of his pastoral epistles, is itself strong evidence that they think they are something when they are very far from it. But how can a person imagine himself to be perfect when he is not? Only in one way, and that is by not perceiving that to be sin in himself which is sin. God's law is exceeding broad and high and very strict. It is a very hard task, almost impossible, to live up to its precepts. It requires a love and service of God and man that shall control every feeling, thought, word and act of every moment of our lives to the fullest extent of our capacities. It does not transcend our possible knowledge or the reach of our faculties; it covers them to their furthest limit. It makes no allowance for an instant's harboring of a vile thought. It excuses no ignorance or blunder which we might have avoided. It permits no slothfulness in effort. It apologizes for no weakness of the flesh. It shifts no responsibility off from a man's own conscience upon his weak and fallen nature. It reckons not only the obediences of the acts which he performs; but it takes the measure of the failures of his hours of depression and weakness. It holds him to a holiness which, if not as large in its nature, shall be as flawless as that of the blazing throne of God. Who shall say that he has fully met the claims of such a law? Who can boast that he lives without sin? He can do it, and only he, who convinces himself that his own shortcomings are not sins, and that God requires less of him than absolute and total obedience to his law. This is and has been in all ages the great danger of the doctrine of holiness, that, when professed, it sets up a man's attainments as the standard for attainable holiness, instead of setting up the holy law as the standard for his attainments. A man says: "Human power can go so far, and I will not try to go further." And from that moment he stunts his power. He governs the law, instead of letting the law govern him. We do not now speak of the occasional vagary by which perfectionism culminates in licentiousness; but of that more common and dangerous license which those who have attained unto this "second blessing" too often give themselves of ceasing to watch and fight and to keep "smiting under the eye," as stern Paul did the body, and "driving it like a slave in bonds," lest, after having preached holiness unto others, they should themselves be castaways. Does this judgment seem uncharitable? We think not. We cannot appeal to our personal knowledge of those who have claimed to have reached this higher life; but we ask those who have known such if they have not also known others that every day made confession of their sins who were to all human vision quite as free from sin? We do not now speak of their apparent peace, or happy self-satisfaction, or whatever name may be given to their assurance of faith, for that is a blessing which is often attained by those who are not completely sanctified; but does their life and temper, their faithfulness in common duties, shine by contrast with the character of many that can be mentioned who confess that they are still militant? We think not. Wesley preached perfection, but he never professed it? In the forty-second year of his ministry he said, in a published letter: "I have told all the world I am not perfect, I have not attained the character I drew." Nor is it uncharitable to add that the language and actions of the present school of "Holiness" teachers are immodest, pretentious, boastful, and pharisaical. They set themselves apart as a separate body within the Church, and say to the rest: "Stand by, for I am holier than thou." The ordinary means of grace mix them too much with common Christians; and so they get up their separate "holiness meetings," in which to denounce the Church and to thank God that they are not as other men are.—Independent.