HOLINESS by M. E. S.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 23, 1860

HOLINESS.

By M. E. S.

'LINE upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.' Shall we fear, dear brethren and sisters, that we shall think and talk too much on this exalted theme? How grateful I am to God for the work his Spirit is performing east and west in waking up his children to the subject of holiness. The expressions in letters from the dear saints cheer my heart. I do want to see my Saviour. O I do long to be at home; but I know Jesus will never come till his people are all ready for him. He can take nothing with him that in any way defiles. He will never jeopardize his kingdom by admitting into it one heart that is not perfectly pure. Instead of purifying his people when he comes, he then says, 'He that is filthy, let him be filthy still; he that is holy ('without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,' Eph. 'whiter than snow.' Ps.) let him be holy still,' &c. Jesus seals all these classes precisely as he finds them. My greatest burden, my most earnest pleadings are for the people of God. Let them have clean hearts, and then, as the Psalmist says, sinners shall be converted unto God. Babylon is fallen and is still falling; God's children are rising and will continue to rise, and their light will burn brighter and clearer to the end. Oh what a triumph the truth will yet achieve in the hearts of the honest. As the true church becomes holy she will have more of the presence of her God. The doctrines she teaches will have mighty power through her indwelling God and her own purity, while at the same time her holiness will contrast vividly with the corrupt nominal churches. The honest will see it all, and then what a mighty cry will go forth with the loud cry of the third angel. 'Babylon is fallen; come out of her my people.' What a rushing will there be to the standard of truth and holiness! Glory be to God in the highest for the prospect and the light that shines all along our way to the kingdom! Some of us now are watching and praying. Oh for the time when Jesus' prayer will be answered, and his people will be one, a spotless perfect loving one. Then may we look for the blessed appearing of our precious Saviour.

"Wake up brother, wake up sister, Seek, oh seek this holy state."

Do you long for deliverance where Satan can never touch your heart again—never tempt you more? Do you desire to be with Jesus at home? Do you want to be gathered with the entire family of God, from Abel down through patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs with Jesus for our elder brother? There God will wipe the tears from all our faces. There shall be no more death, sorrow, crying nor pain, and there he shall bid us enter into the possession of those things which it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive of; beauty, glory and bliss surpassing our brightest imaginations. But our hearts must, as it were, be emptied and cleansed before we can drink in this fullness of purity and bliss. See our Father looking at us, and beseechingly crying, 'When shall it once be?' Dear child, you long to be free; you long for perfect union with God. Oh! walk right out into the liberty of his dear children; remember 'we walk by faith.' The idea seems to prevail that severe trials unavoidably attend every one who becomes pure in heart. 'Tis true the great enemy of our souls would contest every inch of our way into the kingdom if he could; and so he will too, if we are not aware of his devices. From this want of knowledge, many have waded through deep waters of temptation before they could launch into freedom. Oh how much I thank him who has laid out the way of salvation, that he has provided for us an armor that can completely repel all Satan's attacks and devices. The enemy has power to influence our thoughts and feelings, and it is natural to look at our feelings to determine our progress in the divine life. If Satan can get us to do so while he comes in with his fears and unbelief, as he has power to, you see there is a struggle for us. How can we determine to what extent we are under his influence while resting our hopes on our feelings? I know of no way. But praise God there is sure footing for us. It is entirely out of self in God and in his word. If you will consent to keep your eye there entirely, the enemy will not have power to stop or dishearten you. With the shield of faith—the word of God says so—we can quench all his fiery darts. (Note, we walk by faith from the first and here the shield of faith can repel all the darts of the wicked from the beginning to the end of our way.) Does Satan ever come in and say, Perhaps you don't know anything about religion, it may be you are deceiving yourself and are not a Christian after all? How shall you determine so as to drive back the tempter? Not by looking at your bright experience (which may all be genuine), but by the word of God which says, 'To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.' Rom. vi, 16. One plain declaration of the Bible is all-sufficient. Have I been a child of God? Am I now his child? Let this text answer. Come let us walk by faith a little. Do you, distrusting one, resolve that from this moment you will obey God in all his known will? You can obey him, for he has said that his grace shall be sufficient for you; also, 'I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee.' God's promises are immutable. It is not possible then, if you try to obey God, that you shall not have just as much strength as you need to enable you to do so. God will see to that; you can obey him. Do you resolve to do so, and to suffer his will too? (Don't wait to feel you will do it. It is decision, not feeling, that the Lord asks, and you can but know it when you decide to do anything). Then you bring all you have and are to his disposal and it becomes his. Paul says, you are then his, and hence—the greater including the less—every part of you is his, body, soul, and spirit, every faculty, every propensity is his, a 'living sacrifice.' Do you fear to believe it? God says through the apostle that you are his; will you doubt his word who created you and all things else, and has 'magnified his word above all his name,' while you stop and look within to see if you have faith that you are his? Don't dishonor God. If he says so it is enough. Let us begin to walk by faith, looking at nothing but his word. If Satan can turn us from that he will overcome us. From the moment you determine to yield entire obedience to God, and enter upon that obedience, you are his whether you are aware of it or not, and you may leave the keeping of your heart to him to whom it now belongs, and who has said if we do so he will sustain us. David says, 'The Lord is thy keeper.' Ps. cxxi. Your thoughts, affections, all your feelings, are now his (since they form a part of your heart, and your heart became his when he declared you were 'his servant'). Let him then take care of them (since the work belongs to him of caring for and guarding his own).

Does the way look dark, does self claim indulgence, does fear distress you—whatever it be, the best way of escape is in committing all into the hands of your Keeper. This I find is for me the best way of preserving holiness in the fear of the Lord. Yes you are now the Lord's with the keeping of your soul committed unto him as unto a faithful Creator. Thus you have cast your care on him who careth for you. Leave it all with him, give him every care, every burden. It is all his. Don't try to take it out of his hands by bearing it yourself. You are now to 'reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin by the determination you have of now forsaking it, but alive unto God,' having yielded yourself to obey him. Thus you separate yourself from the world and God says he will now receive you. He is now your Father and you are his son or daughter. God says it; take it for granted then. You brought the Lord a complete sacrifice, an entire submission to his will when you determined to obey him in all things. A sacrifice always implies an altar.

Without Jesus, God would be to us a consuming fire. Had he never died God could not save us, consequently our sacrifice in and of itself could not be received; but Jesus has by his death, by the shedding of his blood for the remission of our sins, opened up a way whereby God can accept the sacrifice we bring him. It is received on the merits of Jesus' blood which thus becomes our altar. An altar sanctifies all that is placed upon it. Anciently the altar was so holy that all who touched the sacrifice that was lying upon it, or on whom the blood was sprinkled were accounted holy. See Lev. vi, 25-27. Now 'if the blood of bulls and goats sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.' Heb. ix, 13, 14.

Then our altar has the sanctifying power. Our sacrifice is accepted (for we have seen, Paul says we are the Lord's when we obey him), and it could only be accepted through Jesus, through his blood which thus is antitypically our altar. Now every altar makes all holy or sanctifies all that is upon it. Your sacrifice must be lying upon Jesus' blood, for God could not receive you without, yet he has received you. Now your altar sanctifies by its own power the gift, and makes you holy. Do you doubt it? Do you wait and look within to see if you have a clean heart? Be careful here also, that Satan do not overcome you by leading you to trust in any way or degree to your feelings. Christ says, 'The altar sanctifieth the gift.' Do you believe him? Oh don't doubt Jesus. Think you one who loved you enough to suffer excruciatingly for you could easily deceive you? No, no, we will not thus cruelly dishonor our Redeemer. The work perhaps looks mighty to you; your iniquities are mighty realities. Well the thought often encourages me as it once did Martin Luther. Jesus is a real Saviour, yea, his blood possesses real virtue to take away real unholiness. Looking at his word alone you see your heart must now be pure. Look at nothing else. It must be so, for Jesus says so. You made no self-reservation in your submission to God, but gave a perfect sacrifice to his will. All the Lord saw because his (he sees all), and it is wholly on the altar of Jesus' merits which sanctifies all that is lying on it. Thus you have a perfect cleansing from 'all unrighteousness.' While you keep your submission to God's will perfect by constantly doing that will as you can best understand it and no more, you lie on the altar that keeps you holy; but when you commit sin or neglect a duty, you have taken so much from the altar. Ask God to forgive you and renew your submission to him. The virtues of your altar restore your purity. Obey God's word, live by it instead of living by your feelings or experiences. Keep your eye upon that, and thus the shield of faith will repel the enemy. God's word and his Spirit will make known your duties to you. Leave the disposal, the care and the consequences of them all with him, while you faithfully perform them as his word and his Spirit reveal them to you. Submit to be led by them and they will lead you in the way everlasting. Come drink of the waters of life, bring your all in submission to God's will; thus lay all on the altar and receive in return a heart full of perfect love. Not till then can you know its indescribable tenderness. My soul is full of gratitude, praise and sweet love to him who has thus far guided me. The light is shining more and clearer on my way. My soul is sweetly reposing in the arms of my everlasting friend and Saviour. I cannot describe the tenderness of this perfect

union with my God. How I do love to sink away into nothing, be hid away in God's love while I glory in praising and exalting him in the highest. It is our most exalted privilege to give ourselves up to glorify him in doing his will here on earth, in devoting ourselves to this high and holy work and thus being united to holy things. Oh how blessed! What if we have dark seasons of temptation to pass through; God is our keeper, and his angel encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them. Then if we don't know where we are ourselves our God knows, and he knows every snare and pitfall around us, and he is our deliverer. Can't we trust him? Yes we can. Oh my heart is full! Praise God, he leads us in a way we know not. I love to adore him. Sweet Jesus! He is mine and I am his. Precious being! He is more lovely to me than everything else beside. Oh I cannot describe the glory, the sweetness of this exalted way. I have had but a glimpse of heavenly things; what must the fullness be! Dear brethren and sisters do come. Oh come! let us travel on together. Jesus is hastening with deliverance for us. Blessed Redeemer! I long to be there. God bless and save my dear brethren and sisters. M. E. S.