UGSB LIBRARY
 
 HEART TALKS 
 
 ON HOLINESS 
 
 BY 
 
 COLONEL S. L. BRENGLE 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 "THE WAY OF HOLINESS," "HELPS TO HOLI- 
 NESS," "THE SOUL-WINNER'S SECRET," "WHEN 
 THE HOLY GHOST IS COME/' ETC. 
 
 [SEVENTH EDITION] 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 The Salvation Army Printing and Publishing House 
 122 Went 14th Street 
 
 1918

 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 PREFACE .... V 
 
 I. DEATH OF THE "OLD MAN" . 1 
 
 ii. HOLINESS: WHAT IT is NOT 
 
 AND WHAT IT IS . . 9 
 
 III. HOLINESS : HOW TO GET IT . 17 
 
 IV. HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS . 29 
 
 V. THE OUTCOME OF A CLEAN HEART 37 
 
 VI. HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN HEART 45 
 VII. HOLINESS BEFORE THE FLOOD; 
 
 OR, DO YOU WALK WITH GOD? 53 
 
 VIII. ST. PAUL A PATTERN . . 60 
 
 DC. TESTIFY TO THE BLESSING . 71 
 
 X. KNOWING JESUS ... 77 
 
 XI. FREEDOM FROM SIN . 84
 
 IV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XII. WRESTLERS WITH GOD . . 89 
 
 XIII. UNION WITH JESUS . . 94 
 
 XIV. IN GOD'S SCHOOL . . . 106 
 
 XV. HOLINESS AND SELF-DENIAL . Ill 
 
 XVI. SPIRITUAL POWER . . . 119 
 
 XVII. JESUS THE WORKING MAN . 123 
 
 XVIII. THE LEGACY OF HOLINESS . 128 
 
 XIX. THANKSGIVING . . . 132 
 
 XX. DON'T FLINCH . . .139 
 
 XXI. FAITH IS WHAT YOU WANT . 144 
 
 XXII. PRACTICAL LESSONS OF THE 
 
 RESURRECTION . . . 147 
 
 XXIII. EVIL-SPEAKING . . . 152 
 
 XXIV. HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE . 158 
 XXV. HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE 
 
 MEETING . . . .164 
 
 XXVI. A WORD TO YOU WHO WOULD 
 
 BE USEFUL .... 170 
 
 XXVII. FOOLS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE , 177
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS BOOK is a welcome successor to the 
 writer's famous volume on the same sub- 
 ject, entitled "Helps to Holiness." The aim 
 ef both is intensely practical. The former 
 has won for itself a permanent place in the 
 literature of this great subject, and I have 
 little doubt but that the present work will 
 prove equally useful to the plain people for 
 whom it is written pilgrims, soldiers of 
 Christ, who are seeking how they may order
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 their lives and train their hearts in holiness 
 and righteousness before Him. 
 
 I have said that the aim of these papers is 
 a practical one. Nothing would, I am con- 
 vinced, be more unsatisfactory to the author, 
 a gifted officer of The Salvation Army, 
 than that the perusal of what he has written 
 here should result merely in a better under- 
 standing of the theory of salvation, or even 
 in increased knowledge of the will of God. 
 He has aimed at something more than this 
 to help men and women to enjoy that 
 salvation, and to enjoy it now, and to lead 
 every reader to do that will and to do it 
 all the time. 
 
 The glorious experience here described 
 and -enforced is the true secret of a life of
 
 PREFACE. VII 
 
 happiness and usefulness on earth as it is 
 the highest preparation for the life and 
 service of Heaven. That experience is for 
 you. 
 
 BRAMWELL BOOTH. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 
 
 LONDON. 
 July 8th, /poo.
 
 HEART TALKS 
 
 ON 
 
 HOLINESS 
 
 DEATH OF THE OLD MAN. 
 
 The Son of God came into this world, and 
 lived, and toiled, and taught, and suffered, 
 and died, and rose again in order to accom- 
 plish a two-fold purpose. The Apostle John 
 explains this two-fold work. In 1 John 3 : 
 5, speaking of Jesus, he says, "Ye know that 
 He was manifested to take away our sins." 
 This is His justification, and regeneration, 
 which are done for us and in us. In verse 
 eight he adds, "For this purpose the Son of 
 God was manifested to destroy the works
 
 2 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 of the devil." That is entire sanctification, 
 which is a work done in us. Now, upon an 
 examination of experience and Scripture, we 
 find this is exactly what man needs to have 
 done for him. 
 
 First, he needs to get rid of his own sins, 
 and have a new principle of life planted in 
 him. "All men have sinned and come short 
 of the glory of God," and when any man 
 comes to God, he comes burdened with a 
 sense of his own wrong-doings and tempers. 
 His sins condemn him ; but, thank God, 
 Jesus came to take away our sins. When a 
 man comes with a penitent heart, acknowl- 
 edging himself a sinner, and puts his trust 
 in Jesus, he will find himself suddenly freed 
 from his sins. The sense of guilt will 
 vanish. The power of evil will be broken. 
 The burden will roll away. Peace will fill 
 his heart. He will see that his sins were laid 
 on another, even on Jesus, and he will realize 
 that "with His stripes we are healed." This 
 is c. result of that free pardon, and that free 
 justification for all past offenses, which God 
 gives to every one who surrenders himself 
 heartily to and trusts in Jesus. At the same 
 time God plants in the man's heart a new 
 life. The man is born of God, and receives 
 what Paul calls the washing of regeneration, 
 which washes away all the man's guilt, and 
 all the sin for which he is responsible. At 
 this time, too, there will be planted in the 
 man's heart love, joy, peace, and the various 
 fruits of the Spirit, and if his experience is 
 very marked, as such experiences frequently
 
 DEATH OF THE "OLD MAN." 3 
 
 are, he will probably think there is nothing 
 more to be done. But if he walks in 
 "humbleness of mind" (which, by the way, is 
 a much-neglected fruit of the Spirit), if he 
 speaks often and freely with those who love, 
 the Lord, and if he carefully searches the 
 Word of God and "meditates therein day and 
 night," he will soon find that sin's disease 
 is deeper and more deadly than he thought, 
 and that behind and below his own sins are 
 the "works of the devil," that must also be 
 destroyed before the work of grace in his 
 soul can be complete. 
 
 He will find a big, dark something in him 
 that wants to get mad when things are 
 against him ; something that will not be 
 patient ; something that is touchy and sen- 
 sitive ; something that wants to grumble 
 and find fault ; something that is proud 
 and shuns the shame of the Cross; some- 
 thing that sometimes suggests hard 
 thoughts against God ; something that is 
 self-willed and ugly and sinful. He hates 
 this something in him and wants to get 
 rid of it, and probably condemns himself for 
 it, and maybe will feel that he is a greater 
 sinner now than he ever was before he 
 was converted. But he is not. In fact, 
 he is not a sinner at all so long as he 
 resists this something in himself. Now, 
 what is the trouble with the man? What 
 is the name of this troublesome something? 
 Paul calls it by several names. In the 
 eighth chapter of Romans he calls it "the 
 carnal mind," and he says that it is "enmity
 
 4 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 against God, for it is not subject to the 
 law of God, neither indeed can be." You 
 cannot fix it up. You cannot whitewash it 
 over. You cannot make it better by cul- 
 ture or growth, or by any effort whatever. 
 It is an enemy of God, and cannot be any- 
 thing else. 
 
 In the seventh chapter he calls it "the 
 body of this death," and wonders how he 
 can get deliverance from it. In Ephesians 
 4 : 22, and in Colossians 3 : 9, he calls it 
 the "old man." In Galatians 5 : 17, he calls 
 it "the flesh." James calls it "superfluity 
 of naughtiness," which is also well rendered 
 "the remainder of iniquity." (James 1 : 
 21.) 
 
 John calls it "sin," as distinct from "sins." 
 and the "works of the devil." Ezekiel calls 
 it a "stony heart" (chapter 36: 26). The 
 theologians call it "inbred sin," "original sin" 
 and "depravity." Whatever you wish to 
 call it, it is something evil and awful, that 
 remains in the heart after a man has been 
 converted. 
 
 Some say that it is gotten rid of at 
 conversion, but I never saw any people 
 who found it so, and Mr. Wesley, who was 
 a much wiser man that I am, and who had 
 a far wider range of observation, examined 
 thousands of people on this very point, 
 and he said he never knew of one who got 
 rid of this troublesome thing at conversion. 
 
 Some people say that growing in grace 
 is the remedy.
 
 DEATH OF THE "OLD MAN." 5 
 
 Some people say that you never get rid 
 of it while you live. It will remain in you 
 and war against you till you die. They are 
 not altogether prophets of despair, for they 
 say the new life in you will overcome it 
 and keep it down, but that you will have 
 to stand on guard and watch it, club and 
 repress it, as you would a maniac, till death 
 relieves you. 
 
 The Catholics have fixed up a doctrine of 
 after-death destruction in purgatory for this 
 "old man." 
 
 Personally, this subject once gave me 
 great concern. These warring opinions 
 perplexed me, while the "old man" made 
 increasing war against all my holy desires 
 and purposes. But while I found man's 
 teaching and theories were perplexing, 
 God's teachings were plain and light as day. 
 
 1. God doesn't admit that we get rid of 
 this at conversion, for all His teachings 
 and exhortations concerning it are ad- 
 dressed to Christians. And those who hold 
 this doctrine will have to admit one of 
 two things either that it is not removed 
 at conversion, or that a great number of 
 earnest professors who claim to be con- 
 verted have never been converted at all. 
 Personally, I cannot admit the latter for an 
 instant. 
 
 2. God does, by the mouth of Peter, 
 exhort us to grow in grace, but that simply 
 means in favor with God, by obedience and 
 faith, ard does not touch the subject in
 
 6 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 hand. Corn may grow beautifully and de- 
 light the farmer, but all its growth will 
 not rid the field of weeds, and the farmer 
 will have to look to some other method to 
 get rid of those troublesome things. 
 
 3. Neither does God anywhere teach that 
 this thing need be bothering us till death, 
 or that death will destroy it. 
 
 4. Nor do I find any warrant in the 
 whole Bible for purgatorial fires being the 
 deliverer from this evil. 
 
 5. But I do find that God teaches very 
 plainly how we are to get rid of it. Paul 
 says, "Put off the old man'' (Ephesians 4: 
 22). James says, "Lay apart all filthiness 
 and superfluity of naughtiness." (James 
 1: 21). John says, "The Blood of Jesus 
 Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin," 
 not part or some sin, but "all sin." 
 
 And again, John says, Jesus "was mani- 
 fested to destroy the works of the devil," 
 and God says through Ezekiel, "I will take 
 away the stony heart." 
 
 All these passages teach that we are to 
 get rid of something that bothers or hinders 
 our spiritual life, and show plainly that this 
 work is not to be a slow, evolutionary 
 process, but an instantaneous work, 
 wrought in the heart of the humble believer 
 by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Blessed be God! And the Bible further 
 teaches that the one thing needful on our 
 part to secure this operation of the Holy 
 Spirit is an obedient faith "that laughs
 
 DEATH OF THE "OLD MAN." f t 
 
 at impossibilities, and cries, 'It shall be 
 done.' " 
 
 If this Bible teaching is true, then it is 
 a matter that can be proven by experience. 
 If one man proves it to be so, that es- 
 tablishes the Bible testimony against all the 
 doubters in the world. All men used to be- 
 lieve that the world was flat. Columbus rose 
 up and said it was round, and he proved it 
 against them all. There may be some 
 ignorant old fogies yet who believe the 
 world is flat, but they can prove it to be 
 round, if they will take the trouble, and 
 whether they prove it or not, their purblind 
 belief does not change the fact. 
 
 Just so, the greater part of mankind 
 believes that the "old man'' is destined to 
 live to the end, but as Paul says, "Their 
 unbelief does not make the faith of God of 
 none effect," and humble men and women 
 are rising up every day to declare it is 
 possible, and that all men can prove that 
 he can be destroyed, if they will meet the 
 conditions. 
 
 Oh, that we could get men to understand 
 this ! Oh, that we could get them to take 
 counsel with faith and not with unbelief ! 
 Oh, that we could get them to see what 
 Jesus really came to do ! 
 
 I proved this fifteen years ago, and ever 
 since I have been walking in a day that has 
 no setting sun, and everlasting joy and 
 gladness have been on my head and in my 
 heart. Glory be to God !
 
 8 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 It is no little salvation that Jesus Christ 
 came to work out for us. It is a "great 
 salvation," and it saves. Hallelujah! It is 
 not a pretense. It is not a "make-believe." 
 It is a real salvation from all sin and 
 uncleanness ; from all doubt and fear ; from 
 all guile and hypocrisy; from all malice 
 and wrath. Bless God ! 
 
 When I begin to consider it and write 
 about it, I want to fill the page with praises 
 to God. The hallelujahs of Heaven begin 
 to ring all through my soul, and my heart 
 cries out with those four mystical beasts 
 before the Throne, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord 
 God Almighty," and in spirit I fall down 
 with "the four and twenty elders," and 
 worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, 
 who has taken away my sins and destroyed 
 the works of the devil out of my heart, and 
 come to dwell in me. 
 
 Finally, "Take heed lest there be in any 
 of you an evil heart of unbelief." "And 
 to whom sware He that they should not 
 enter into His rest, but to them that 
 believed not? So we see that they could not 
 enter in because of unbelief.'' "But we 
 which have believed do enter into rest." 
 (Heb. 3; 12, 18, 19, and 4:3.)
 
 HOLINESS. 
 
 II. 
 
 HOLINESS : WHAT IT IS NOT AND WHAT IT IS. 
 
 1. Holiness is not necessarily a state in 
 which there is perpetual rapturous joy. 
 Isaiah tells us that Jesus was "a man of 
 sorrows and acquainted with grief," and 
 Paul tells us of himself that he had con- 
 tinual sorrow and great heaviness because 
 of the rejection of Jesus by his kinsmen 
 after the flesh. Joy is the normal state 
 of a holy man, but it may be mingled with 
 sorrow and grief and perplexities and 
 heaviness on account of manifold tempta- 
 tions. The low-water mark, however, in 
 the experience of a holy person is one 
 of perfect peace the high-water mark is 
 up in the third heaven somewhere; how- 
 ever, this third-heaven experience is not 
 likely to be coastantly maintained. Jesus and 
 the disciples had to come down off the 
 Mount of Transfiguration and to go casting 
 out devils, and Paul returned from the third
 
 10 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 heaven to be buffeted of Satan, and stoned 
 and imprisoned of men. 
 
 2. Holiness is not a state of freedom 
 from temptation. This is a world of trial, 
 and conflict with principalities and powers, 
 darknesses and terrible evils, and the holy 
 soul who is in the fore-front of the conflict 
 may expect the fiercest assaults of the 
 devil, and the heaviest and most perplexing 
 and prolonged temptations. Our blessed 
 Lord was tried and tempted for forty days 
 and forty nights of the devil, and the 
 servant must not be surprised if he is as 
 his Master. 
 
 Paul tells us that Jesus was tempted in 
 all points as we are, and that He is able 
 to succor us when we are tempted. It is 
 no sin to be tempted; in fact, the Apostle 
 James tells us to rejoice when we are sub- 
 jected to all manner, of temptations, for the 
 resulting trial of our faith will produce in 
 us strength and force of holy character, 
 so that we shall be lacking in nothing. 
 (James 1: 2-4.) 
 
 3. Holiness is not a state of freedom 
 from infirmities. It does not produce a 
 perfect head, but rather a perfect heart ! 
 The saints have always been compassed 
 about with infirmities that have proved a 
 source of great trial, but when patiently 
 endured for His dear sake have also proved 
 a source of great blessing. Paul had a thorn 
 in the flesh, an infirmity, a messenger of 
 Satan to buffet him. Possibly it was weak
 
 HOLINESS. 11 
 
 eyes, for he was once stoned and dragged 
 out of the city and left for dead, and in 
 writing to the Galatians he tells us they 
 would have plucked out their eyes and 
 given them to him had it been possible. Or 
 it may have been a stammering tongue, 
 for he tells us he was accounted rude of 
 speech. Anyway, it was an infirmity which 
 he longed to get rid of, doubtless feeling 
 that it interfered with his usefulness, and 
 three times he prayed to the Lord for 
 deliverance, but instead of getting the 
 prayed-for deliverance, the Lord said to 
 him, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for 
 My strength is made perfect in weakness." 
 
 Then Paul cried out, "Most gladly, there- 
 fore, will I rather glory in my infirmities 
 that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 
 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in 
 reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, 
 in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I 
 am weak, then am I strong." 
 
 In the epistle to the Hebrews, Paul tells 
 us that Jesus was "touched with the feel- 
 ings of our infirmities." We may be faulty 
 in memory, in judgment, in understanding, 
 we may have manifold infirmities of body 
 and mind, but God looks upon the purity 
 of the heart, the singleness of the eye, and 
 the loyalty of our affection, and if He does 
 not find us faulty there, He counts us 
 perfect men. It is not in the mere natural 
 perfection that the power and glory of God 
 are manifested, but rather in goodness and 
 purity and patience and love and meekness
 
 12 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 and Ipngsuffering shining forth through in- 
 firmities of flesh and imperfections of mind. 
 
 4. Holiness is not a state of freedom from 
 affliction. The saints of all ages have been 
 chosen "in the furnace of affliction." Job 
 and Jeremiah and Daniel and Paul and the 
 mighty army of martyrs have and shall come 
 up through great tribulations. It is not God's 
 purpose to take us to Heaven on flowery 
 beds of ease, clothe us in purple and fine 
 linen, and keep a sugar plum in our mouths 
 all the time; that would not develop strength 
 of character, nor cultivate simplicity and 
 purity of heart; nor in that case could we 
 really know Jesus, and the fellowship of His 
 sufferings. It is in the furnace of fire, the 
 lions' den, and the dungeon-cell that He most 
 freely reveals Himself to His people. 
 
 Other things being equal, the holy man is 
 less liable to afflictions than the sinner. He 
 does not run into the same excesses that the 
 sinner does, he is free from the pride, the 
 temper, the jealousies, the vaulting ambitions 
 and selfishness that plunge so many sinners 
 into terrible afflictions and ruin, and yet he 
 must not presume that he will get through 
 the world without heavy trials, sore tempta- 
 tions and afflictions. Job was a perfect 
 man, but he lost all his property and his 
 children, and in a day was made a childless 
 pauper, but he proved his perfection by 
 giving God glory, and when his wife bade 
 him curse God and die, he said unto her, 
 "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women
 
 HOLINESS. 13 
 
 speaketh ; what, shall we receive good at 
 the hands of God, and shall we not receive 
 evil?" And when his three friends were 
 undermining his faith, he looked up from 
 off his ash heap, and out of his awful 
 sorrow and desolation, and fierce pain, 
 cried out, ''Though He slay me yet will I 
 trust Him." 
 
 Joseph is one of the few men in the Bible 
 against whom nothing is recorded, but like 
 Daniel, his very holiness and righteousness 
 led to the terrible trials he endured in 
 Egypt. And so it may be, and is, with the 
 saints to-day. But while we may be afflicted, 
 yet we can comfort ourselves with David's 
 assurance, "Many are the afflictions of the 
 righteous, yet the Lord delivereth him out 
 of them all." A friend of mine said he would 
 rather have a thousand afflictions and be 
 delivered out of them all, than have half 
 a dozen and get stuck in the midst of them. 
 
 5. Holiness is not a state in which there 
 is no further development. When the heart 
 is purified it develops more rapidly than 
 ever before. Spiritual development comes 
 through the revelation of Jesus Christ in 
 the heart, and the holy soul is in a con- 
 dition to receive such revelations constantly, 
 and since the finite can never exhaust the 
 infinite, these revelations will continue for 
 ever and prove an increasing and never- 
 ending source of development. It would be 
 as wise to say that a child afflicted with 
 rickets would grow no more when its blood
 
 14 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 was purified; or that corn would grow no 
 
 more when the weeds were destroyed as 
 
 to say that a soul will cease to grow in 
 grace when it is made holy. 
 
 6. Holiness is not a state from which we 
 cannot fall. Paul tells us that we stand 
 by faith (Romans 11: 16-22), and he says, 
 "Let him that thinketh he standeth take 
 heed lest he fall." (1 Cor. 10: 12.) It is an 
 unscriptural and dangerous doctrine that 
 there is any state of grace in this world 
 from which we cannot fall. Probation does 
 not end the moment we believe on Jesus, 
 but rather the moment we quit the body. 
 It is only those who endure to the end 
 who shall be saved. While here we are in 
 the enemy's country, and must watch and 
 pray and daily examine ourselves, and keep 
 ourselves in the love of God lest we fall 
 from His grace, and make shipwreck of our 
 faith. But while we may fall, thank God, 
 it is a state from which we need not fall ; 
 in fact, it is a state which Paul calls, "this 
 grace wherein we stand." Some have asked 
 the question: "How can a holy soul be 
 tempted, or how can it fall?" I will ask 
 the question, How could the angels fall? 
 And how could Adam, just fresh from the 
 hands of His Maker in whose image he was 
 made, fall? And I will ask the more start- 
 ling question still, How could Jesus, the 
 blessed incarnate God Himself, be tempted? 
 We have our five senses and various bodily 
 appetites, none of which are in themselves
 
 HOLINESS. 15 
 
 sinful, but each of which may become an 
 avenue by which the holy soul may be 
 solicited to evil, and each of which must 
 be regulated by the Word of God and domi- 
 nated by the love of Jesus, if we wish ta 
 keep a holy heart, "and stand perfect and 
 complete in the will of God." 
 
 Finally, holiness is a state of conformity 
 to the divine nature. God is love, and there 
 is a sense in which a holy man can be said 
 to be love. He is like God, not in God's 
 natural perfection of power and wisdom 
 and knowledge and omnipresence, but in 
 patience, humility, self-control, purity of 
 heart and love. As the drop out of the 
 ocean is like the ocean, not in its bigness, 
 but in its essence, so is the holy soul like 
 'God. As the branch is like the vine, not 
 in its self-sufficiency, but in its nature, its 
 sap, its fruitfulness, its beauty, so is he 
 that is holy like God. 
 
 This unspeakable blessing is provided for 
 us by our compassionate Heavenly Father 
 through the shed Blood of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and is received through a complete 
 renunciation of all sin, an uttermost con- 
 secration to all the known will of God, im- 
 portunate prayer, and child-like faith. Twen- 
 ty-nine years ago I obtained this crowning 
 blessing of the Gospel through the con- 
 scious incoming of the Holy Spirit when 
 I believed, after weeks of earnest seeking, 
 and, bless God ! still He abides with me, 
 and my peace and joy increase and abound. 
 Many have been my afflictions, and fierce
 
 16 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 and perplexing and prolonged have been 
 my temptations, but with a dare-devil fakh 
 I have pressed on, claiming victory through 
 the Blood, testifying definitely to what I 
 claimed by faith, and proving day by day 
 this grace to be sufficient while the path 
 shines more and more unto the perfect day. 
 Glory be to God forever! 
 
 How may we know when we are backslidden in 
 heart? 
 
 Answer: (1.) When we are filled with our 
 own ways instead of God's ways. For God says: 
 "The backslider In heart shall be filled with his 
 own ways." (Prov. 14: 14.) "Therefore shall 
 they be filled with their own devices." (Prov. 
 1: Si.) 
 
 (2.) When our hearts condemn us. "For if 
 our heart condemn us, God is greater than our 
 heart and knoweth all things." (1 John 3: 20.) 
 
 (3.) When we are unwilling to obey God. "To 
 whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust 
 Him from them, and in their hearts turned back 
 again into Egypt." (Acts 7 : 39.) 
 
 Of course a man who in his heart turns back 
 to the world and the lusts of the flesh, even 
 though he does not openly do so, is a backslider 
 in heart. 
 
 (4.) When we wilfully 'and habitually give 
 way to inward sins and unholy desires and tem- 
 pers. 
 
 Lack of joyful emotions in seasons of great 
 weariness or sickness, or under temptation, BO 
 long as the will is true to God, is not a sign of 
 a backslidden heart. 
 
 "His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." (Pa. 
 112: 7.)
 
 HOLINESS: HOW TO GET IT. 17 
 
 III. 
 
 HOLINESS: HOW TO GET IT. 
 
 'Holiness is that state of our moral and 
 spiritual nature which makes us like Jesus 
 in His moral and spiritual nature. It does 
 not consist in perfection of intellect, though 
 the experience will give much greater clear- 
 ness to a man's intellect and simplify and 
 energize his mental operations. Nor does 
 it necessarily consist in perfection of con- 
 duct, though a holy man seeks with all his 
 heart to make his outward conduct corre- 
 spond to his inward light and love. But 
 holiness does consist in complete de- 
 liverance from the sinful nature, and in the 
 perfection of the spiritual graces of love, 
 joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, truth, meekness and self-control or 
 temperance. 
 
 Righteousness is conformity to the divine 
 law, but holiness is conformity to the divine
 
 18 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 nature. That there is such an experience 
 is revealed to us in three ways : 
 
 1. By the Scriptures. The Bible tells us 
 that God "chastens us for our profit that 
 we may be partakers of His holiness." 
 (Heb. 12: 10.) And He has "given unto 
 us exceeding great and precious promises, 
 that by these ye may be partakers of the 
 divine nature, having escaped the corrup- 
 tion that is in the world through lust." 
 (2 Pet. 1: 4.) In the Bible God makes us 
 very precious promises of holiness. He 
 gives us very solemn and imperative com- 
 mands to be holy. He earnestly exhorts us 
 and graciously encourages us to be holy, 
 and teaches us to pray for holiness. 
 
 2. That there is such an experience is 
 revealed to us by the testimony of the holy 
 men and women who declare that God has 
 brought them into this glorious expe- 
 rience. 
 
 3. It is revealed by the hunger and thirst 
 of our own regenerate hearts; for if these 
 desires to be like God, and to have His 
 love and holiness so fill our hearts as to 
 cast out every sinful thought and desire are 
 begotten in us by the Spirit of God, then 
 may they well be considered as proof that 
 holiness is possible. For the Spirit of God 
 will not beget desires in the hearts of His 
 trusting children only to mock them. 
 
 Nearly all Christians expect to be made 
 holy either before they die, or at the mo-
 
 HOLINESS: HOW TO GET IT. 19 
 
 ment of death. And everybody agrees that 
 we must be holy before we can enter 
 Heaven. The Catholics hold that we are 
 made holy in purgatory ; that the depravity 
 of our nature is cleansed in purgatorial 
 fires, and through its pain and throes we 
 rise to the vision of God. 
 
 Some other Christians maintain that we 
 are sanctified at the moment of death by 
 some mysterious operation of the Spirit of 
 God; while others again insist that we grow 
 into the experience. But we of The Salva- 
 tion Army believe that it is the gift of God. 
 and is the heritage of every soul that is 
 born again, an inheritance into which we 
 can enter at once by hearty consecration 
 and childlike faith. 
 
 How, then, shall this holiness be ob- 
 tained? Not by purgatorial fires, but by 
 Holy Ghost fire. Not by works; that would 
 make man his own Saviour and sanctifier. 
 A great trick of the devil is to lead people 
 to think they will get it by doing something 
 but a man might as well try to lift himself 
 over the fence by his own bootstraps as to 
 transform himself into the divine nature by 
 works. He can get it no more by works 
 than he can change the color of his eyes 
 by works. He can no more rid himself of 
 an inherited temper, or get lust out of his 
 heart, or hatred, or pride, by getting bap- 
 tized, by going to church, by joining The 
 Army, by putting on the uniform, by read- 
 ing the Bible, by doing any or every 
 religious work than he can get scrofula out
 
 20 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 of his blood by doing these things, or add 
 one cubit to his stature. "It is not of works, 
 lest any man should boast." However, a 
 holy man is abundant in good works, and so 
 is one who is truly seeking the blessing. 
 But more of this further on. 
 
 Not by growth. Growth adds to us, but 
 takes nothing from us, neither does it 
 change the nature and disposition. Holi- 
 ness consists in having something taken 
 from us, and in having our spiritual nature 
 made over into the image of Jesus. In 
 order to be holy we must have every un- 
 clean desire and temper and passion of the 
 soul removed. We must "put off the old 
 man, which is corrupt according to the 
 deceitful lusts," as really as a man puts off 
 his old coat, and "put on the new man, 
 which after God is created in righteousness 
 and true holiness," as really as a man puts 
 on his new coat. This is the way God told 
 Paul to tell us to do it. It would be non- 
 sense to talk of growing out of an old coat 
 into a new one. Put off the old coat, put 
 on a new one ! Put off the old Adam, put 
 on the new Adam ! 
 
 It is not by death. I used to think it was, 
 because I was taught so. But I dreaded the 
 thought of being killed by lightning, or 
 shot by a stray bullet. I did not want to 
 die suddenly ; I wanted time to get ready. 
 But, glory to God ! I learned that it is not 
 by death, and now I am ready to meet that 
 old enemy. Hallelujah forever!
 
 HOLINESS : HOW TO GET IT. 21 
 
 Well, how can you get it? From Jesus, 
 the very same Jesus who saved you and 
 spoke peace to your troubled conscience, 
 when you feared you were going to sink into 
 hell. The very same Jesus who died for 
 you. But how? By asking. By giving 
 yourself freely and forever to Him, to be 
 not only your Saviour, but also your Lord 
 and Master; to do and suffer all His blessed, 
 wise, tender will. By believing and receiv- 
 ing. 
 
 If you knew you had to die at sunset to- 
 night, what would you do? You would give 
 yourself to God. If you had any grudges 
 against any of your neighbors, you would 
 give them up, and if you had the opportunity 
 you would ask them to forgive you for 
 hating them, even though they had wronged 
 you or some of your friends. You wouki 
 not stop to think how they would treat you. 
 You would not care. You would feel it your 
 business to get right, and you would leave 
 them with God. If you had robbed any 
 man, you would try to restore to him what 
 was his. If you had any selfish plans, or 
 ambitions, they would sink into molehills 
 before the mighty mountains of eternity, and 
 you would give them up quickly. If you 
 had been unfaithful in the discharge of any 
 duty, you would confess it, mourn over it, 
 and do all in the limited time left you to 
 make the matter right. You would "prepare 
 the way of the Lord, and make his paths 
 straight." Then you would throw up your 
 hands in helplessness, and ask God to for-
 
 22 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 give you for Jesus' sake, and not because 
 there was any merit in yourself. And, if 
 you really trusted, you would receive for- 
 giveness, and be at peace. You would feel 
 Jesus to be your Saviour, and you would 
 rejoice in Him. 
 
 Now you would be a candidate for holi- 
 ness. If the Holy Spirit should now reveal 
 to you the hidden corruption of the human 
 heart, and show you that it was out of this 
 bad soil that grew the bad weeds of hatred 
 and pride, selfish ambitions and envy, lies, 
 adulteries, murders, drunkenness, thefts, and 
 such like, you would cry to God to rid you 
 not only of the weeds, but to entirely change 
 the condition of your heart out of which 
 such unholy things grew. And there would 
 be only one way to get this done, and that 
 would be to ask God to do it for Jesus' sake ; 
 trust Him to do it, and wait with full ex- 
 pectation till He did do it. 
 
 And he would do it. He would purge 
 your heart of all unholy conditions by the bap- 
 tism of the Holy Ghost and with fire, as surely 
 as fire purges gold of dross. Glory to God ! 
 This is just what He wants to do. He wants 
 all His children to be like His well-beloved 
 Son, Jesus. It was for this that He sent 
 Jesus into the world, and it is for this that He 
 baptizes with the Holy Ghost and with fire. 
 
 Some time ago a lady came to the penitent- 
 form for sanctification in one of my meet- 
 ings. After I had questioned her and ex- 
 plained the subject as fully as I could to her 
 and we had prayed, she claimed the blessing
 
 HOLINESS: HOW TO GET IT. 23 
 
 though she did not get any special witness 
 that the work was done. But soon she came 
 again to one of my meetings and testified; 
 her testimony threw light on the difficulty 
 with many people. 
 
 She said that for several day..s_ after, she 
 left the first meeting she did not feel 'any" 
 different, but while about her housework a 
 thought came to her mind. No doubt the 
 Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier Himself, sug- 
 gested it to her, that her sanctification was 
 a part of her Father's will for her, and that 
 He offered it to her on the simple condi- 
 tions of full consecration and childlike faith 
 in Him. Then it dawned upon her that she 
 had met these conditions, and that now in- 
 stead of waiting for any unusual feelings 
 she must just act as though it were 
 done. 
 
 She then added that when she began to 
 count it done and to act as though it were 
 done, then she began to realise that God was 
 doing His part. She began to feel the mighty 
 workings of the Spirit in her heart. 
 
 Now, it is just at this point that many 
 people fail. They wait for feeling, and hesi- 
 tate and doubt and wonder and go with their 
 heads down and repine, and maybe throw 
 away their confidence, when they should 
 recklessly but intelligently give themselves 
 over to Jesus to be His forever, to do His 
 will unto death, step out on the promise with 
 humility and adoring faith toward God, and 
 with a shout of defiance to the devil and all 
 their fears, count the work done.
 
 24 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 One day ten lepers, poor, miserable men 
 with the flesh rotting off their bones, met 
 Jesus, "and they lifted up their voices and 
 said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And 
 when He saw them" (bless Him!) how 
 He loved them and yearned over them in 
 their misery ! But His yearnings over their 
 sick bodies were feeble compared to His 
 mighty yearnings over your diseased soul, 
 my brother, my sister. "And when He saw 
 them, He said unto them, Go, shew your- 
 selves unto the priests." It was a law among 
 the Jews that when a leper was healed, he 
 must go to the priest and get a certificate 
 that he was a safe person to be at large 
 among the people, much as a small-pox 
 patient might have to do among us. But 
 these poor fellows might have objected and 
 said to Jesus, "But look at us ! We are not 
 healed. Our leprosy is just the same. We 
 are not different since you spoke to us. We 
 shall be fools to go in this plight, and we 
 shall not be received if we do go. Do not 
 mock us. Heal us, make us feel different 
 that we may know we are healed, then we 
 will go." 
 
 No, no, no, these poor wretches did not 
 talk so; they did not stop to reason with 
 their doubts and fears ; they did not stop 
 to examine their feelings, or to compare 
 themselves with the healthy folks about them. 
 Jesus had spoken the word, and it was theirs 
 to trust and obey; so they hobbled off, I 
 imagine, as fast as they could go. "And it 
 came to pass" (something always comes to
 
 HOLINESS: HOW TO GET IT. 25 
 
 pass when people trust and obey) "And it 
 came to pass, that as they went they were 
 cleansed." Bless God ! That was cleansing 
 through "the obedience of faith," and it is 
 written for our encouragement and instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 Reader, do you want this experience? If 
 you have it, rejoice and praise God for it. 
 Don't merely keep on seeking it, else you 
 will get into darkness, but go to thanking 
 God for it, and testifying of it to others. 
 But if you have it not, give yourself up fully 
 to God just now, ask for it, believe for it, 
 and if it does not come at once, patiently and 
 expectantly wait for it. Expect it, expect it, 
 expect it ! "He gives His people an expected 
 end." Remind God of His promises. Don't 
 give Him any rest till He comes and sancti- 
 fies you. Tell Him you have come to stay, 
 and that you will not let Him go till He 
 blesses you. Nestle down on His promises 
 close to the loving heart of Jesus and stay 
 there expecting till you know the work is 
 done. 
 
 If the devil and an evil heart of unbelief 
 say: "It is for others, but not for you," 
 you say: "I am all the Lord's; get behind 
 me, Satan," and tell Jesus about it. 
 
 If the devil says : "You don't feel any 
 different," you say: "I am all the Lord's; 
 get behind me, Satan," and tell Jesus about 
 this also. If the devil says: "You can't keep 
 it if you get it," you say: "I am all the 
 Lord's; get behind me, Satan," and don't 
 forget to tell this to Jesus. 
 
 c
 
 2G HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Act out your faith regardless of your 
 feelings, and a heaven of love and joy and 
 peace and patience will soon fill your poor 
 heart, and you will be "lost in wonder, love 
 and praise," only don't bother yourself about 
 your feelings. Your business is to wait on 
 God for orders and inspiration, and then to 
 trust and obey. It is His part of the busi- 
 ness to shine upon you and cleanse you, and 
 fill you with the Holy Ghost, and make your 
 heart bubble over with joy. Claim the 
 promise; feed on the word of God; feast 
 yourself on His love and faithfulness in 
 Jesus; wait on Him in believing, expectant 
 prayer, and you shall be satisfied as with 
 marrow and fatness, and you shall become 
 strong to do a man's work for God and souls. 
 You shall rise above discouragements and 
 difficulties, and you shall chase a thousand 
 of your enemies, and if you can find a fellow 
 with a kindred spirit the two of you shall 
 put ten thousand to flight. 
 
 Glory to God! Go to believing just now, 
 and you shall have peace. Continue to be- 
 lieve, and your peace shall flow like a river. 
 
 Hold on this way, resisting the devil stead- 
 fast in the faith, reminding Jesus of His 
 promises and encouraging your own heart 
 with them, and I declare it will not be long 
 (before your patient, expectant faith receives 
 a great reward. God will say: _ "It is 
 enough ; he has come to stay ; we will bless 
 him," and, calling to mind His ancient 
 promise, He will add : "Open the windows 
 of Heaven and pour him out a blessing that
 
 HOLINESS: HOW TO GET IT. 27 
 
 there shall not be room enough to receive 
 it." (Malachi 3: 10.) Then down into your 
 waiting, trusting, expecting heart will come 
 the Comforter, the blessed Holy Ghost, and 
 up from the deepest centre of your soul will 
 spring the artesian well of living waters of 
 holy love and praise. Then the meek and 
 lowly Jesus will come and dwell in your clean 
 heart, and you will love Him more than a 
 mother loves her first-born babe, or than the 
 bridegroom loves his bride. You will adore 
 Him and worship Him and pour out your 
 heart's treasures upon Him and loathe your- 
 self for all your sins that crowned Him with 
 thorns and nailed Him to the Cross, and 
 your unbelief and hardness of heart that 
 kept Him from you so long. 
 
 Have the blessing now. Let God search 
 you and show you all your heart. Don't be 
 afraid. Heartily give yourself to Him and 
 trust, expect, ask, wait, receive. 
 
 Which is to be sought first, "to be conformed 
 to the image of Christ," or to be a soul-winner ; 
 in other words, which is the more important, to 
 be holy or to save souls? 
 
 Answer : To be holy is more important, 
 for God's first command to every man Is not to 
 save souls, but to be holy. "Not every one that
 
 28 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 sayeth unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter Into the 
 Kingdom of Heaven ; but He that doeth the will 
 of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will 
 say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not 
 prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name cast 
 out devils? and in Thy name done many won- 
 drous works? And then will I profess unto them, 
 I never knew you ; depart from Me, ye that work 
 iniquity." (Matt. 7 : 21-23.) 
 
 What does God care for our works if our 
 (hearts are impure and unholy in His sight? He 
 will take the souls we have been instrumental in 
 saving to Himself and send us to Hell. In fact, 
 God makes holines a prerequisite to effectual 
 and lasting work in soul-saving. "Create in me 
 a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit 
 within me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy sal- 
 Tation, and uphold me with Thy free Spirit. Then 
 will I teach transgressors Thy way, and sinners 
 shall be converted unto Thee." (Psalm 51: 10, 
 12, 13.) "And I will sanctify My great name, 
 which was profaned among the heathen, which 
 ye have profaned In the midst of them ; and the 
 heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith 
 the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in yu 
 before their eyes." (Ezek. 36: 23.)
 
 HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS. 29 
 
 IV. 
 
 HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS. 
 
 God has provided a salvation for us that 
 is perfect in every particular, and that satis- 
 fies both the heart and the mind. It makes 
 its possessor "more than conqueror" over the 
 world, the flesh and the devil, and enables 
 him to do the will of God on earth as it is 
 done in Heaven. It is altogether worthy of 
 its Author. It is a "great salvation." It is 
 not a mere set of beliefs, nor a poor, pitiful 
 little profession, but a full, joyous, super- 
 abounding, all-conquering life. Glory to God! 
 This is the more abundant life. Jesus said: 
 "I am come that they might have life, and 
 that they might have it more abundantly." 
 (John 10: 10.) Praise the Lord, this life is 
 mine, and has been for twenty-nine years. 
 
 And now, for the sake of those who have 
 not obtained this crowning blessing, I wish 
 to point out some of the hindrances to its 
 reception and the reason why so few com- 
 paratively have it.
 
 30 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 1. Many are ignorant of it! Vast multi- 
 tudes of professing Christians never heard 
 of a second work of the Holy Spirit that 
 purifies the heart and perfects it in love. It 
 is, strange to say, an unpopular theme, and 
 is not much spoken of outside Salvation 
 Army holiness meetings, and so God could 
 say to-day, as He did of old, "My people are 
 destroyed for lack of knowledge." (Hos. 4: 
 6.) But this ignorance is due, not altogether 
 to the fact that it is a subject little spoken 
 about, but also because so few people go to 
 'God's Word for their standard of life and 
 experience. It is all written out there so 
 plain that a fool need not err ; but most pro- 
 fessors of religion prefer to take their stan- 
 dard from the people around them rather 
 than from God's Book. Paul says of such 
 folks : "They, measuring themselves by 
 themselves, are not wise." (2 Cor. 10: 12.) 
 And they never will be wise unless they cease 
 looking at poor, perishing men, and look to 
 Jesus only. Wisdom is from above, and 
 must be sought from God Himself and from 
 the study of His Word, and not from the 
 conduct of the people about us. 
 
 2. Unbelief. Many are familiar with the 
 Word of God, but they have not an appro- 
 priating faith. They read the exceeding great 
 and precious promises, but it never occurs to 
 them that on the fulfilment of the con- 
 ditions they can have and will have the 
 things promised. Paul says of these people : 
 "The word preached did not profit them, 
 not being mixed with faith in them that
 
 HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS. 31 
 
 heard it." (Heb. 4: 2.) Instead of crying 
 to God to bring their experience up to the 
 standard of the Bible, they explain the Bible 
 down to the level of their experience, and so 
 never receive the glorious revelation of Jesus 
 to their hearts and the fulness of grace 
 therein promised. 
 
 3. Some seek the wrong thing. They ex- 
 pect the blessing of full salvation to bring 
 deliverance from temptations, infirmities, 
 natural consequences of broken law and the 
 like. I once heard an educated minister 
 pray, "Lord, save us from our impurities and 
 infirmities." My heart said Amen to the first 
 part, but not to the latter. Full salvation 
 delivers always from impurity, but not al- 
 ways from infirmities in this world. God 
 uses our infirmities to bless us. Paul gloried 
 in his infirmities, because through them the 
 power of Christ rested upon him (2 Cor. 12: 
 9, 10), and we read that Jesus was "touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities." (Heb. 
 4. 15.) 
 
 Infirmities and temptations are incorpor- 
 ated by our Heavenly Father into His edu- 
 cational and disciplinary plans for us, and 
 are overruled for our highest good and widest 
 usefulness, and we need not expect to be 
 entirely free from them while we are in the 
 body. If we were free from them we could 
 not enter into "the fellowship of the suffer- 
 ings" of Jesus, nor sympathize with our 
 brethren, and that would be an immeasurable 
 loss to us. It is because Jesus was tempted 
 in all points like as we are and was touched
 
 32 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 with the feeling of our infirmities, that He 
 is able to sympathize with and succor us 
 when we are tempted. (Heb. 2: 18.) And 
 it is only as we enter into the common temp- 
 tations and trials and are afflicted with the 
 common infirmities of humanity, that we can 
 be touched with tender sympathy for and be 
 largely used in blessing humanity. And so 
 we should not seek for an experience that 
 will save us from these things, but rather 
 should do as we are told, and "count it all 
 joy when we fall into divers temptations." 
 (James 1: 2.) 
 
 Nor does this experience of full salvation 
 save us from the natural consequences of 
 broken laws. A man may be enjoying the 
 fulness of God's salvation, but if he ignor- 
 antly breaks the laws of finance or health, 
 he may expect to go into bankruptcy or lose 
 his health as surely as the vilest sinner. And 
 this does not argue at all that his Heavenly 
 Father is displeased with him morally, or 
 that he has lost any measure of his salvation. 
 
 Nor does this experience enable us to 
 please everybody and appear perfect to all 
 men. Our hearts may be as pure as the 
 heart of an archangel, and we may love with 
 a perfect love, and yet our conduct may be 
 misjudged and we be accounted by others as 
 being anything but fully saved. The brethren 
 of Jesus did not believe on Him (John 7: 5), 
 and his critics called Him a glutton and a 
 wine-bibber, and His servants shall hardly 
 be above their Master, but should rejoice to 
 be as their Master.
 
 HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS. 33 
 
 There are two reasons for this. One is 
 that we "have this treasure in earthen ves- 
 sels." (2 Cor. 4: 7) that is, the love of God 
 in our hearts may be perfect and His sal- 
 vation complete, but because of our natural 
 infirmities we may not be able to fully ex- 
 press in our conduct the holy affections and 
 tender sympathies of our heart. Just as clear 
 water in a blue bottle will look blue, or in a 
 yellow bottle will look yellow, so the pure, 
 crystal-like salvation of God in our hearts 
 takes on the color of our earthen vessel. 
 
 The other reason is, that just as when you 
 look at a landscape through smoked glasses 
 everything looks smoky, so the eyesight of 
 many people is so distorted and blurred by 
 sin, by prejudice, by unbelief, that even if 
 our conduct be perfect, they, looking at us 
 through the medium of their own sinfulness, 
 will criticize us as they criticized our Lord 
 before us. This being so, we need not ex- 
 pect the experience of full salvation to make 
 us appear perfect in the eyes of men, but 
 must content ourselves with having a con- 
 science void of offense toward God and to- 
 ward man, and in having His assurance that 
 our ways please Him. 
 
 Others are seeking a sort of "third-heaven" 
 experience, similar to what Paul had, in 
 which they shall see visions, hear voices, be 
 visited by angels, and constantly have tumul- 
 tuous and rapturous joy. Like Peter on the 
 Mount of Transfiguration, they say: "Master, 
 it is good to be here," not knowing that 
 Jesus wants to lead them down into the val-
 
 34 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 ley to cast out devils. Far be it from me to 
 discourage any soul from seeking any ex- 
 perience mentioned in the Bible ! Has not 
 my own heart almost burst with fulness of 
 joy and love? and cannot I, in the Spirit, say 
 with Paul: "Have not I seen the Lord?" 
 Truly the revelation Jesus gave me of Him- 
 self is unutterable, but I got this revelation 
 not by seeking some marvelous experience, 
 but by humbling myself to walk with Him. 
 to wait for His counsel, to do His will and 
 to believe what He said. Then He came to 
 me and took up His abode in my heart. He 
 has shown me, however, that although I am 
 to have His joy, holiness does not consist so 
 much in rapturous, sublimated experiences, 
 as in lowly, humble, patient, trustful love. 
 
 But while some people put the experience 
 up among the clouds, others leave it down 
 among the fogs, and so fail to get it. They 
 think that it simply consists in being free 
 from condemnation, forgetting that a justi- 
 fied man is not condemned. For instance, a 
 man has been condemned about the use of 
 tobacco, or a woman about the feathers in 
 her hat. Each feels that such things are not 
 consistent with a Christian life, and, after a 
 struggle with pride and habit, yields and 
 casts away the offending thing. Of course 
 there is now no condemnation, and that soul 
 feels justified; but it may not yet be sancti- 
 fied, and it is not, unless when the tobacco 
 and feathers went out and off, the Holy 
 Ghost came in, destroying every root of 
 bitterness and sin out of the heart. Holiness
 
 HINDRANCES TO HOLINESS. 35 
 
 is a thing of the heart; it is the purging 
 away of the dross of the soul; it is the 
 renewing of our whole nature so that we 
 are made "partakers of the divine nature." 
 It "makes the tree good." 
 
 My little eight-year-old boy had the 
 nature of holiness revealed to him by the 
 Holy Ghost. Some time ago he professed 
 to get saved, and I think he did get saved, 
 though he is not so saintly as I feel con- 
 fident he will yet be. One evening, not long 
 since, however, he said to his mother : 
 "Mamma, I'm tired of Hying this way." His 
 mamma, of course, queried, "Why, darling, 
 what's the matter now?" "I want to be 
 good all the time," said he. "You tell 
 me to do things, and I go and do them, 
 but I feel angry inside. I want to be good 
 all the time." The next morning, as soon 
 as he awoke, he said : "Mamma, I want 
 you to put that text, 'Create within me a 
 clean heart, O God,' in my text-book." 
 And then when he prayed he pleaded the 
 prayer of the Psalmist, "Search me and 
 know my heart, try me and know my ways, 
 and see if there be any wicked way in me." 
 
 Now, holiness makes one good all the 
 time; not only in conduct, but also in 
 character; not only in outward act, but 
 also in inward thought and wish and feeling 
 and those who are content with anything 
 below this will miss the blessing. 
 
 4. Another hindrance is the failure to 
 rightly "consider the Apostle and High 
 Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who
 
 36 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 was faithful," and to appropriate the grace 
 He offers us. 
 
 The other day an earnest Christian 
 woman was complaining to me at her break- 
 fast table about her pride and her temper, 
 which she had found unconquerable. I 
 suggested that she should consider Jesus, 
 and asked her how she could be proud in 
 the presence of His deep humility, and 
 requested her to imagine Him, the King 
 of kings, the Lord of life and glory, hum- 
 bling Himself and meekly carrying His Cross 
 up Calvary, amid the mocking crowd, while 
 she walked by His side or followed His 
 train in pride, with high and haughty head. 
 She saw the point, and while we were at 
 family prayers, she said she could never 
 .forget that lesson in humility. If people 
 would but study the life and spirit of Jesus, 
 and gladly let His mind be in them, the 
 subject of holiness would be greatly 
 simplified. 
 
 Holiness is not some lofty experience, 
 unattainable except to those who can leap 
 to the stars, but it is rather a lowly experi- 
 ence, which lowly men in the lowly walks 
 of life can share with Jesus, by letting His 
 mind be in them. Bless God forever!
 
 OUTCOME OF A CLEAN HEART. 37 
 
 V. 
 
 THE OUTCOME OF A CLEAN HEART. 
 
 David prayed : "Create within me a clean 
 heart, O God, and renew a right spirit 
 within me. Restore unto me the joy of 
 Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy 
 free Spirit. Then will I teach transgressors 
 Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted 
 unto Thee." He recognized that the blessing 
 of a clean heart would give him wisdom 
 and power and the spirit to teach sinners, 
 and to so teach them that they would be 
 converted. It is the same truth that Jesus 
 expressed when He said, "Cast the beam 
 out of thine own eye, then shalt thou see 
 clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's 
 eye." The beam is inbred sin; the mote is 
 the transgressions that result from inbred 
 sin. The following are some of the results 
 of a clean heart: 
 
 1. A clean heart filled with the Spirit 
 makes a soul-winner out of the tnan who
 
 38 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 receives the blessing. It was so on the 
 day of Pentecost, when the disciples, having 
 their hearts purified by fire and filled with 
 the Holy Spirit, won 3,000 souls to the Lord 
 in one meeting. With the blessing of a 
 clean heart comes a passion of love for 
 Jesus, and with it a passionate desire for 
 the salvation and sanctification of men. It 
 makes apostles, prophets, martyrs, mission- 
 aries, and fiery-hearted soul-winners. It 
 opens wide and clear the channel of com- 
 munion between God and the soul, so that 
 His power, the power of the Holy Ghost, 
 works through him who has a clean heart, 
 surely convicting and graciously converting 
 and sanctifying souls. 
 
 2. The blessing results in a constancy of 
 spirit, The soul finds its perfect balance in 
 God. Fickleness of feeling, uncertainty of 
 temper, and waywardness of desire are 
 gone, and the soul is buoyed up by stead- 
 fastness and certainty. It no longer has to 
 be braced up by vows and pledges and 
 resolutions, but moves forward naturally, 
 with quietness and assurance. 
 
 3. There is perfect peace. The warring 
 element within is cast out, the fear of 
 backsliding is gone, self no longer struggles 
 for supremacy, for Jesus has become all 
 and in all, and that word in Isaiah is ful- 
 filled : "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 
 whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he 
 trusteth in Thee," and the soul is made
 
 OUTCOME OF A CLEAN HEART. 39 
 
 possessor of "the peace of God which 
 passeth all understanding." 
 
 It had "peace with God" that is, a 
 cessation of rebellion and strife when con- 
 verted, but now it has the "peace of God," 
 as the bay has the fulness of the sea. 
 Anxiety about the future, and worry about 
 the present and past go. It took perfect 
 faith to get a clean heart, and perfect faith 
 destroys fret and worry. They cannot abide 
 in the same heart. Said a saint, "I cannot 
 trust and worry at the same time." John 
 Wesley said, "I would as soon swear as 
 fret." 
 
 4. Joy is perfected. There may be sorrow 
 and heaviness on account of manifold 
 temptations, there may be great trials and 
 perplexities, but the joy of the Lord, which 
 is his strength, like a great gulf stream, 
 flows and throbs through the heart of him 
 who is sanctified in an unbroken current. 
 God becomes his joy. David knew this 
 when he said : "Then will I go unto God, 
 my exceeding joy." 
 
 Probably not all who have the blessing 
 of a clean heart realize this full joy, but 
 they may, if they will take time to commune 
 with God and appropriate the promises 
 to themselves. Jesus said : "Ask, and ye 
 shall receive, that your joy may be full." 
 And again Jesus said : "I will see you again, 
 and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy 
 no man taketh from you."
 
 40 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 This joy could not be beaten out of Paul 
 and Silas with many stripes, but bubbled 
 up and overflowed at the midnight hour in 
 the dark dungeon, when their feet were in 
 the stocks and their backs were bruised and 
 torn. It turned Madame Guyon's cell into 
 a palace, and Bedford Jail into an ante- 
 room of Beulah Land and Heaven, from 
 which the saintly tinker saw the Delectable 
 Mountains and the citizens of the Celestial 
 City. Glory to God ! It makes a death-bed 
 "soft as downy pillows are." 
 
 5. Love is made perfect. To be born 
 of God is to have divine love planted in the 
 heart. "Like begets like," and when we are 
 born of God we are made partakers of His 
 nature. 'And "God is love." But this love 
 is comparatively feeble in the new convert, 
 and there is much remaining corruption in 
 the heart to check and hinder, if not to 
 destroy it; but when the heart is cleansed, 
 all conflicting elements are destroyed and 
 cast out, and the heart is filled with patient, 
 humble, holy, flaming love. Love is made 
 perfect. It flames upward toward God, 
 and spreads abroad to all men. It abide3 
 in the heart, not necessarily as a constantly 
 overflowing emotion, but always as an 
 unfailing principle of action, which may 
 burst into emotion at any time. It may 
 suffer, bein.p; abused and ill-treated, but it 
 "is kind." Others may be promoted and 
 advanced beyond it, but "it envieth not." 
 It may be subjected to pressure of all kinds, 
 but it "vaunteth not itself." It is not rash
 
 OUTCOME OF A CLEAN HEART. 41 
 
 It may prosper but it "is not puffed up." 
 "Love doth not behave itself unseemly," or, 
 as Mr. Wesley said, "is not ill-bred." 
 
 Love "seeketh not her own, is not pro- 
 voked, thinketh no evil," is not suspicious. 
 Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but "rejoiceth 
 in the truth." An evangelist was abused ; 
 his enemies were professing Christians, but 
 they backslid. His friends rejoiced, but he 
 grieved. His heart was full of love, and he 
 could not rejoice in the triumph of iniquity 
 even over his enemies. "Love beareth all 
 things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
 endureth all things. Love never faileth." 
 (1 Cor. 13: 4-8.) 
 
 6. The Bible becomes a new book. It 
 becomes self-interpreting. God is in it 
 speaking to the soul. I do not mean by this 
 that all the types and prophecies are made 
 plain to the unlearned man, but all that is 
 necessary to salvation he finds and feeds 
 upon in the Bible. He now understands 
 the word of Jesus : "Man shall not live by 
 bread alone, but by every word that pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of God." Like 
 Job, he "esteems it more than his necessary 
 food," and like David, "rejoices in it more 
 than they that find great spoil." Like the 
 blessed man, he "meditates therein day and 
 night," that he may observe to do according 
 to all that is written therein, that his profit- 
 ing may appear to all. 
 
 7. // begets the shepherd spirit, and 
 destroys the spirit of lordship over God's
 
 42 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 heritage. If Peter was the first Pope, he 
 was not like many that have followed, for 
 instead of lording it over the flock, he 
 wrote : "The elders which are among you 
 I exhort, which am a witness to the suffer- 
 ings of Christ, and also a partaker of the 
 glory that shall be revealed : Feed the flock 
 of God which is among you, taking the 
 oversight thereof, not by constraint, but 
 willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready 
 mind; neither as being lords over God's 
 heritage, but as examples to the flock." 
 If the cleansed man is a superior, it makes 
 him patient and considerate ; if a subordi- 
 nate, willing and obedient. It is the fruit- 
 ful root of courtesy, of pity, of compassion 
 and utterly unselfish devotion. "The Good 
 Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." 
 
 8. Temptation is quickly recognized as 
 such, and is easily overcome through stead- 
 fast faith in Jesus. The holy man takes the 
 shield of faith, and with it "quenches all the 
 fiery darts of the enemy." 
 
 9. Divine courage possesses the heart. The 
 sanctified man sings with David, "I will 
 not fear what man can do unto me ; 
 though a host should encamp against me, 
 yet will I not fear." And with Paul, "I can 
 do all things through Christ which strength- 
 eneth me, for we are more than conquerors 
 through Him that loved us." 
 
 10. There is a keener sense than ever be- 
 fore of the weakness of the flesh, the
 
 OUTCOME OF A CLEAN HEART. 43 
 
 absolute inability of man to help us, and of 
 our own utter dependence on God for all 
 things. The pure in heart sings evermore, 
 "The Blood, the Blood is all my plea." 
 
 11. The cleansed man makes a covenant 
 with his eyes, and is careful which way and 
 how he looks. He also remembers the words 
 of Jesus : "Take heed how ye hear," and 
 again, "Take heed what ye hear." Likewise 
 he bridles his tongue, and seasons his words 
 with salt, not with sugar; salt is better than 
 sugar for seasoning, but it is only for sea- 
 soning. He remembers that "For every idle 
 word that man shall speak, they shall give 
 account in the Day of Judgment." He does 
 not despise the day of small things, and he 
 can content himself with mean things. Fin- 
 ally he realizes 
 
 "That the common deeds of .the common day 
 Are ringing bells in the far-away," 
 
 and he lives "as seeing Him that is invisible," 
 and with glad humility and whole-hearted 
 fidelity discharges his duty with an eye single 
 to the glory of God, without any itching de- 
 sire for the honor that man can give, or other 
 reward than the "well done" of the Lord. 
 
 Is It possible for a man to have the blessing 
 of a clean heart and not know exactly when he 
 obtained It? 
 
 Answer : No. If you have a clean heart you 
 must know a time when your whole heart went
 
 44 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 over to Jesus and He ao poured His Spirit into 
 your heart that from that time you had victory 
 over the carnal mind. A man can't have com- 
 plete victory over the carnal mind and not know 
 it, and he will know when this perfect victory 
 through faith in his 'crucified Lord began. 
 
 In every Instance recorded in the Bible the 
 blessing came instantaneously, and the change 
 was so marked as to be unmistakable. Jacob 
 wrestled all night for the blessing and would not 
 let God go till He blessed him, and said : "As a 
 prince hast thou power with God and with men, 
 and hast prevailed." (Gen. 32: 24-30.) 
 
 The fiery touch that isanctifled Isaiah was also 
 unmistakable. He cried to God In an agouy of 
 conviction for 'holiness and 'then relates the glori- 
 ous experience that followed : "Then flew one 
 the seraphims urrto me, having a live coal in 
 ;his hand, and he laid it upon my mouth, and 
 said : Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine 
 iniquity is taken away and thy sins purged." 
 (Isaiah 6: 6, 7.) 
 
 All the New Testament instances of sanctifica- 
 tlon, as recorded in Acts 2, 8, 10 and 19, were 
 so marked as not only 'to convince the people 
 who received the blessing, but also all who saw 
 them, that they had received the blessing of 
 holiness.
 
 HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN HEART. 45 
 
 VI. 
 
 HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN HEART. 
 
 It is possible to lose the blessing of a 
 clean heart, but thank God, it is also glo- 
 riously possible to keep it. How to do this 
 is a vital question. Two or three years ago, 
 a brother going to a foreign field arose in 
 one of my meetings and said, "I got the 
 blessing three times, but lost it twice. The 
 third time I got it the Lord taught me how 
 to keep it through this text, 'As ye have 
 therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, 
 so walk ye in Him.'" (Col. 2: 6.) 
 
 That is one of the simplest and completes! 
 statements of how to keep the blessing that 
 can be given. The conditions of getting it 
 are the conditions of keeping it. 
 
 1. To keep it there must be continued joy- 
 ful and perfect consecration. We have put 
 all on the altar to get it. We must leave all 
 on the altar to keep it. "All the tithes" must 
 be brought into God's house, and we must 
 present our bodies to Him as "a living sacri-
 
 46 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 fice," recognizing ourselves as no longer our 
 own, but His, by the purchase of His Blood, 
 and ourselves as stewards only of all that is 
 ours our health and strength, our time and 
 talent, our money and influence, our body, 
 mind and spirit, all, all are His, to be used 
 for His glory as fully as the fondest bride 
 would use her all in the interest of her hus- 
 band. And this consecration must keep pace 
 with increasing light. The journey of life 
 is not always through grassy lawns and 
 flowery gardens, but often over burning, 
 shifting, sandy deserts, rock) steeps, fetid 
 swamps and dark and tangled jungles, as 
 the Lord leads the soul in ways it has not 
 known; and at such times self-interest may 
 cry out against the sacrifice. But if the con- 
 secration be perfect, and grounded in love, 
 there will be no turning back, no plunge into 
 seductive and easy by-paths, but a steady 
 march forward, if needs be to Gethsemane's 
 lonely agony, in Pilate's judgment-hall of 
 shame, and Golgotha's dark and awful hour. 
 But, thank God, it will not be alone, for He 
 says, "My presence shall go with thee." 
 Hallelujah! 
 
 2. To keep the bkssing, there must be 
 steadfast, childlike faith. It took faith un- 
 mixed with doubt to grasp the blessing. Un- 
 belief was banished. Doubts were put away. 
 The assurance of God's love in Jesus was 
 heartily believed. His ability and willingness 
 to save now to the uttermost was fully ac- 
 cepted, and His word simply trusted when
 
 HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN HEART. 47 
 
 the blessing was received; and, of course, 
 this same faith must be maintained in order 
 to keep it. God cannot require less of the 
 sanctified man to keep the blessing than He 
 did of the unsanctified man to get it. Peter 
 said, "We are kept by the power of God 
 through faith." Notice, it is "the power of 
 God" that keeps us, but it is faith that links 
 us on to the power, as the coupler links the 
 car on to the locomotive. Faith is the coupler. 
 Paul said of himself, "The life I now live 
 in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of 
 God." And again he tells us that the Jews 
 were cut off through unbelief, and that we 
 stand by faith. 
 
 We may suffer prolonged trials, great per- 
 plexities, and fierce temptations they are a 
 part of the discipline of life but we must 
 
 "Keep on believing, Jesus Is near, 
 Keep on believing, there's nothing to fear ; 
 Keep on believing, this is the way. 
 Faith in the night as well as the day." 
 
 3. To keep the blessing we must pray to 
 and commune much with the Lord. We pray 
 when we talk to God and ask Him for things. 
 We commune with Him when we are still 
 and listen, and let God talk to us, and mold 
 us, and show us His love and His will, and 
 teach us in the way He would have us go. 
 We should pray often and not be in too great 
 a hurry, but take time to be holy, take time 
 to "taste and see that the Lord is good," and 
 to hear what He will say. And this we 
 should do, if possible, in the morning, that 
 we may be strengthened and nourished and
 
 48 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 gladdened for the day. Backsliding usually 
 begins through neglected, or hurried, secret 
 prayer. 
 
 Someone has said, "Stay with God in 
 prayer, stay till He melts you, and then stay 
 when you are melted and plead with God, 
 and He will answer, and you will get changed 
 and transformed and renewed, and you will 
 do execution." 
 
 4. To keep the blessing we must give dili- 
 gent attention to the Bible. The soul needs 
 the food of truth, and Jesus said, "Man shall 
 not live by bread alone, but by every word 
 that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 
 God commanded Joshua, saying, "This book 
 of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, 
 but thou shalt meditate therein day and 
 night." What for? "That thou mayest ob- 
 serve to do according to all that is written 
 therein." And what shall follow? "For then 
 thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and 
 then thou shalt have good success." Then 
 thou shalt keep the blessing. David said of 
 his blessed man, "His delight is in the law 
 of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate 
 day and night." And Paul tells us that the 
 Scriptures are "profitable for doctrine, for 
 reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
 righteousness, that the man of God may be 
 perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
 works." And Peter says, "As new-born 
 babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, 
 that ye may grow thereby." Some professors 
 are smaller ten years after birth than when 
 they were born, because they have not fed
 
 HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN HEART. 49 
 
 on God's Word. Mrs. General Booth read 
 the Bible through several times before she 
 was twelve years old, and grew thereby, until 
 it is not to be wondered at that she became 
 a "mother of nations." I once gave a talk 
 on the use of the Bible to my soldiers, and 
 some of them caught the inspiration and car- 
 ried their Bibles in their pockets after that 
 and spent all the spare time they had in 
 reading and praying, and we could fairly see 
 them grow, until they became powers for 
 God, and some of them are spiritual giants 
 to this day. 
 
 5. To keep the blessing we must confess 
 it, be aggressive, and seek to get others into 
 it. "With the heart man believeth unto 
 righteousness, and with the mouth confession 
 is made unto salvation.'' The man who with- 
 holds his testimony to this grace will lose it. 
 This light hid under a bushel, will go out. 
 God gives it to us that we may put it on a 
 candlestick and lighten all that are in the 
 house, in the corps, in the community, in the 
 nation. Don't limit the power of testimony 
 by unbelief. A torch loses no light and heat 
 by lighting a thousand other torches. Touch 
 a piece of steel with a magnet, and it in turn 
 becomes a magnet. It can then be used to 
 turn ten thousand other pieces into magnets 
 with no loss, but rather with increase of 
 power to itself. But hang it up in idleness, 
 and it gradually loses its power. So with us, 
 my comrades. Let the Holy Ghost touch us 
 with cleansing power and we become divine 
 magnets, and in touching other souls we will
 
 50 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 quicken them and get added power and 
 clearness of experience to ourselves. But 
 let us withhold our testimony, and we lose 
 our power and, like Samson, soon find our- 
 selves "as other men." Testify, testify, testify 
 clearly, definitely, constantly, courageously, 
 humbly if you would keep the blessing. 
 When faith is weak and devils all around, 
 definite testimony scatters the devils, 
 strengthens faith and stirs up and brightens 
 the inward witness. Testify to the Lord, 
 tell Him you have the blessing and thank 
 Him for it. Testify to' your comrades. 
 Testify to your own heart and to the devil. 
 John tells us that the white-robed multitude 
 in Heaven overcame by the Blood of the 
 Lamb and the word of their testimony. So 
 testify, if you would overcome and keep the 
 blessing. 
 
 6. To keep the blessing we must constantly 
 live in the spirit of self-denial. By yielding 
 to fleshly desires, to selfish ambitions, to the 
 spirit of the world, we may lose the labor of 
 years in an instant. The hard hand of the 
 old enemy is ever stretched forth to snatch 
 from us our treasure. We must watch and 
 pray, and keep low at Jesus' feet in pro- 
 foundest humility, if we would keep it. It is 
 all summed up in one word, "Walk in the 
 spirit," "Walk in love." 
 
 Finally, there must be no resting in present 
 attainments. The Lord has clearer revela- 
 tions of Himself for us. We may be filled 
 to the limit of our capacity to-day, but we
 
 HOW TO KEEP A CLEAN HEART. 51 
 
 should ever pray, "O Lord, enlarge the ves- 
 sel," and, this we should expect, and, like 
 Paul, "forgetting the things which are be- 
 hind, and reaching forth unto those things 
 which are before," we should "press toward 
 the mark for the prize of the high calling of 
 God in Christ Jesus," ever remembering that 
 He "is able to do exceeding abundantly 
 above all that we ask or think" not ac- 
 cording to some mysterious power to which 
 we are strangers, but "according to the 
 power that worketh in us," the power of the 
 Holy Ghost that converted us and made us 
 His "dear children." Hallelujah! 
 
 Can God deliver a person from irritability in- 
 stantly, or will the victory come through the 
 process of mortifying your members, as Paul ad- 
 vocated, this being a slow cure, but effective? 
 
 Answer: (1.) A man may be delivered in- 
 stantly by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 (2.) The mortification Paul spoke of was not, 
 as our questioner says, a slow cure, it was In- 
 stantaneous. Paul always advocated an instan- 
 taneous putting off of "the old man" and an in- 
 stantaneous putting on of "the new man." The 
 tenses of the Greek verb prove this.
 
 52 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 (3.) However, a man will never be so saved 
 that he will not have to "watch and pray that ye 
 enter not Into temptation." Satan planted the 
 seeds of sin in the pure heart of Adam, and un- 
 less we trust the cleansing Blood moment by 
 moment, and walk in the Spirit, he will plant 
 seeds of sin in our hearts. We are workers t- 
 gether with God and must work out our salva- 
 tion with fear and trembling, knowing that it ta 
 God that works in us, to will and to do of His 
 good pleasure. (Phil. 2: 13, 14.) 
 
 (4.) All stimulants, tobacco, strong drink, 
 even tea or coffee, if they affect the nerves, all 
 kinds of food that produce dyspepsia, and all ex- 
 cesses that drain the nervous system should be 
 avoided, lest a certain nervous irritability should 
 lead to sinful irritability. God can teach people 
 the difference. "What, know ye not that your 
 body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which ye 
 have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye 
 are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in 
 your body." (1 Cor. 6: 19, 20.) "If any man 
 defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy ; 
 for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye 
 fire." (1 Cor. 3: 17.) "Whether therefore ye 
 oat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 
 glory of God." (1 Cor. 10: 31.)
 
 HOLINESS BEFORE THE FLOOD. 53 
 
 VII. 
 
 HOLINESS BEFORE THE FLOOD J OR, DO YOU WALK 
 WITH GOD? 
 
 "And all the days of Enoch were three hun- 
 dred sixty and five years; and Enoch walked 
 with God; and he icas not, for Qod took him." 
 
 A remarkable biography ! Nowadays men 
 write hundreds of pages about their heroes, 
 and do not say as much as that. But there 
 is a good reason. There is not so much 
 as that to say. 
 
 Enoch was a mighty man, with a wonder- 
 ful life, lived under very unfavorable cir- 
 cumstances, and I have profited much by 
 meditating upon his life, and what I think 
 must have been his secret. 
 
 We are prone to look upon past ages and 
 distant places as peculiarly favorable to god- 
 liness. I remember that years ago I thought 
 if I could go to London and listen to Mr. 
 Spurgeon each week, I could be a Christian, 
 and in my boyhood I wished that I had
 
 54 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 lived in the days of Jesus and heard His 
 wondrous words and questioned Him about 
 the mysteries of godliness, for then I could 
 certainly have been His true follower. 
 Usually the further tack we go, the more 
 godly seems the age, and the more blessed 
 seem the men. 
 
 But really this is not so, and especially is 
 it not so of Enoch's age and place. The age 
 was most ungodly, and men had very little 
 religious light. The world was fast hasten- 
 ing to that dread fulness of sin and unbelief 
 which should cause God to sweep away its 
 people by the deluge and leave but eight per- 
 sons in it. They had no Bible. They "had no 
 law. Men had not yet had a divine revela- 
 tion from Heaven, telling them that they 
 must worship God, must keep the Sabbath 
 day, must honor their parents, must not kill, 
 commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet. Try to 
 imagine an age and place with no such 
 teaching as that ! Every man a law unto 
 himself, his evil passions and lusts and tem- 
 pers having no restraint put upon them, and 
 he plunging continually deeper and deeper 
 into sin and corruption. 
 
 Then they had no Gospel, with Jesus re- 
 vealed as a loving Saviour; they had only 
 one promise of hope and mercy, and that 
 rather vague the one given to the woman 
 after that awful fall in Eden, the promise of 
 the Seed that sometime should come to bruise 
 the serpent's head. It was a black night, 
 with only one lone, dim star shining in the 
 darkness. But Enoch held on to that promise
 
 HOLINESS BEFORE THE FLOOD. 55 
 
 and in its light and hope he walked with 
 God for three hundred years. 
 
 We have a whole Bible, a finished revela- 
 tion. We have the holy, just, good law of 
 God, showing us what we ought to do and 
 what we ought not to do; we have the 
 Gospel, with its full noonday light, showing 
 us how to keep the law, how to get life and 
 power to fulfil the will of God on earth as 
 the angels do it in Heaven. We have Jesus, 
 crucified before our eyes for our sins, dead, 
 buried and raised to glorious life again for 
 our justification, and ascended on high to 
 the right hand of God, far above all created 
 things and all opposing powers of evil, to 
 intercede for us, to pour out the Holy Ghost 
 upon us in rich measure, to live in us through 
 the Spirit; we have commandments, precepts 
 and thousands of promises ; instead of a mid- 
 night, with one lone, dim star shining fit- 
 fully in the darkness, we have a mid-day, 
 with all the splendor of the sun in his 
 strength, together with ten thousand re- 
 flected lights shining upon us; and yet we, 
 in our trembling, pitiful, shameful unbelief, 
 wonder how ever Enoch could walk with 
 God. 
 
 1. I imagine that Enoch made up his mind 
 that it was possible to walk with God ; that 
 is, to be agreed with God, to be of the same 
 mind and heart and purpose as God. Of 
 course, there were stupendous difficulties in 
 the way. There were no Salvation Army or 
 churches or Sunday-schools; there were no 
 holiness conventions, no days with God and
 
 56 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 nights of prayer, no Bible, no War Cry, no 
 religious papers and libraries. In fact, in- 
 stead of these helps to walk with God, he 
 found the whole community against him 
 yea, the whole world, for the Apostle Jude 
 tells us Enoch had to prophesy against the 
 ungodliness he found around him. 
 
 Then, not only did Enoch have these ex- 
 traordinary difficulties to face, but he had all 
 the ordinary difficulties as well. He got 
 married and had a large family of boys and 
 girls to care for; he had all the anxiety of 
 a father to provide for his family and to 
 protect them from the influences all about 
 them. Then, I cannot imagine that he did 
 not have the ordinary infirmities and the sin- 
 ful nature of other men. No doubt he might 
 have said, as you and I have said, that his 
 temperament was peculiar, and that while 
 others with a happier temperament might 
 be able to walk with God, yet with his 
 peculiarly crooked and difficult make-up, it 
 was quite out of the question for him to 
 hope to be holy and walk with God. Then, 
 of course, he had the devil to fight. 
 
 2. I think that Enoch not only believed 
 in the possibility of walking with God, but 
 he made up his mind that he would walk 
 with God. He put his will into this matter. 
 
 3. Not only did Enoch believe in the pos- 
 sibility of walking with God, and determine 
 that as for him he would walk with God, 
 but he took such steps as were necessary to 
 do so. He separated himself in spirit from
 
 HOLINESS BEFORE THE FLOOD. 57 
 
 the ungodly people ab'out him, and he raised 
 his voice against their evil ways, and be- 
 came not only a negatively righteous man, 
 but a positively holy man. 
 
 Enoch had his reward. It paid him to 
 walk with God. He loved God and God 
 loved him, and their affection became so 
 intense that one day God's love overcame 
 the power of gravitation, and drew Enoch 
 from earth to Heaven, and he never saw 
 death. 
 
 Now, I suppose that most people, in read- 
 ing the story, think that Enoch's reward 
 consisted in getting to Heaven without 
 dying. Well, this was certainly a most 
 unusual and blessed experience, and one I 
 suppose that men have wished for all 
 through the ages. There is something about 
 death that is awful, and from which men 
 shrink, and yet, since Jesus has died and gone 
 down into the grave and risen again, the 
 terror is lost to the Christian; still, it is 
 probable that if allowed to choose, most 
 Christians and all sinners would say, " Let us 
 go to heaven as Enoch did." But I cannot 
 consider this Enoch's chief reward. For three 
 hundred years God was his Friend, his Coun- 
 selor, his Comforter, his constant Companion. 
 Oh, what fellowship was that ! What an 
 opportunity to gain wisdom, to build up and 
 round out and ennoble a man's character ! 
 How easy to be good and do good ! How 
 life must have almost burst with fulness ef 
 gladness ! Walking with God ! Talking with 
 God ! Communing with God ! Having mutual
 
 58 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 sympathy with God entering into a union 
 with God as intimate as the union of the 
 bay with the sea; and all this by faith, by 
 simple trust, by childlike confidence. This 
 was Enoch's reward, and it may be yours, 
 my brother, my sister, if you will meet the 
 conditions as Enoch did. 
 
 What are some of the chief differences In the 
 experience of the justified and the wholly sancti- 
 fied? 
 
 Answer : The difference Is one of degree 
 rather than of kind. All the fruits of the Spirit 
 are found in a Justified person which are found 
 in a sanctified one, but are not brought forth 
 in that perfection which is demanded by the 
 law of God. The requirements of God are the 
 same for the justified and the sanctified, but the 
 sanctified, having perfect faith and love and 
 being freed from inbred sin, find the yoke easy 
 and the burden light, while the justified, through
 
 HOLINESS BEFORE THE FLOOD. 59 
 
 internal conflicts, often find them irksome: A. 
 little tract before me states the difference most 
 concisely : 
 
 "(1.) In regeneration sin does not reign, in 
 eanctification it does not exist. 
 
 "(2.) In regeneration sin is suspended, in 
 sanctification it is destroyed. 
 
 "(3.) In regeneration irregular desires, anger, 
 pride, unbelief are subdued; in sanctification 
 they are removed. 
 
 "(4.) Regeneration is salvation from the vol- 
 untary commission of sin ; sanctification is sal- 
 vation from the inbeing of sin. 
 
 "(5.) Regeneration is the old man bound. 
 Sanctification is the old man cast out and 
 spoiled of his goods. 
 
 "(6.) Regeneration is sanctification begun. 
 Entire sanctification is the work completed." 
 
 In justification people seeiag the holiness of 
 God often want more time te get ready to die. 
 In sanctification perfect love has cast out all 
 fear.
 
 60 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 ST. PAUL A PATTERN. 
 
 St. Paul tells us that the Lord Jesus made 
 him "a pattern to them which should here- 
 after believe." (1 Tim. 1: 16.) This fact 
 makes his life and experience exceptionally 
 interesting and valuable to us. And it is an 
 especial mark of our Heavenly Father's wis- 
 dom and love that He has given us such a 
 striking example in every particular of the 
 saving power of Jesus as we have in St. 
 Paul. People say Jesus was divine, and so 
 excuse themselves for their unlikeness to 
 Him, but Paul was human, and if he was 
 like Jesus, so may we be. 
 
 Let us study his experience. 
 
 1. His sufferings. It is difficult to con- 
 ceive any form of suffering to which St. Paul 
 was not subjected, and in every instance the 
 grace of Christ was all-sufficient. Here is a 
 catalogue of his sufferings recorded by him-
 
 ST. PAUL A PATTERN. 61 
 
 self : "In labors more abundant." If our 
 own General exceeds him in heavy labors, it 
 is only because of the improved facilities of 
 later ages for doing more in the same space 
 of time. "In stripes above measure" more 
 than the combined stripes inflicted on all the 
 Christians of the present day. "In prisons 
 more frequent," "In deaths oft. Of the Jews 
 once was I stoned." I was stoned once with 
 one brick, and nearly killed, but Paul re- 
 ceived many stones, and was dragged out of 
 the city like a beast, and left for dead. 
 "Thrice I suffered shipwreck." Commis- 
 sioner McKie suffered shipwreck once, and 
 escaped immediately; but, "a night and a day 
 I have been in the deep," says Paul. "In 
 journeyings often," under such disagreeable 
 circumstances as we who live in the days of 
 palace cars and ocean steamers can scarcely 
 imagine. "In perils of waters, in perils of 
 robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen" 
 the Jews, who hated him bitterly, and 
 sought his life in every city. "In perils by 
 the heathen" whom he sought to save 
 through the knowledge of Jesus, but who 
 clung to their idols. "In perils in the city" 
 by wild, mad mobs. "In perils in the wilder- 
 ness" from ferocious beasts and yet more 
 ferocious men. "In perils in the sea" from 
 drowning and from monsters of the deep. 
 "In perils among false brethren" to whom 
 he would naturally look for help and sym- 
 pathy. "In weariness and painfulness, in 
 watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fast- 
 ings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides
 
 62 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 those things that are without, that which 
 comes upon me daily, the care of all the 
 churches" which were organized from Jewish 
 and heathen converts, and were bitterly op- 
 posed by the idolatrous heathen on the one 
 side, and the bigoted Jews on the other, and 
 which must have been far more difficult to 
 properly organize, train and manage, than 
 any Salvation Army corps. Nor could he 
 look forward to brighter days, when circum- 
 stances would be more favorable, and life 
 more free from pain and care, for he says, 
 "The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, 
 saying that bonds and afflictions wait for 
 me." 
 
 2. His faith in God and love for man. And 
 yet, in spite of all these afflictions and physi- 
 cal sufferings and bitter persecutions, he 
 maintained a joyful faith in God and a ten- 
 der, self-sacrificing love for all men, and 
 when God the Holy Ghost testifies there 
 shall be no "let up" to his stupendous trials, 
 he cries out, "But none of these things move 
 me, neither count I my life dear unto my- 
 self; I take pleasure in infirmities, in re- 
 proaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in 
 distresses for Christ's sake." And in face 
 of all these things he asks, "Who shall sep- 
 arate us from the love of Christ? Shall 
 tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or 
 famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" 
 And though he adds, "We are accounted as 
 sheep for the slaughter," yet "in all these 
 things we are more than conquerors through 
 Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that
 
 ST. PAUL A PATTERN. 63 
 
 neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princi- 
 palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
 any other creature, shall be able co separate 
 us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord." And at last, almost in 
 sight of the block and axe, where his multi- 
 tudinous sufferings were to be crowned by 
 a martyr's death, he exclaimed, "I have 
 fought a good fight, I have finished my 
 course, I have kept the faith." And as his 
 faith in his Lord was not in the least hin- 
 dered or destroyed by his sufferings, so also 
 was his love for his fellow men untouched 
 by them. He says of the Jews, who were 
 his perpetual and bitter enemies, "I say the 
 truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also 
 bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that 
 I have great heaviness and continual sorrow 
 in my heart, for I could wish myself were 
 accursed from Christ for my kinsmen ac- 
 cording to the flesh who are Israelites." 
 This is perfect love. It is love that "suffer- 
 eth long, and is kind." It is love like that 
 of the Lord Jesus Himself. Then again, in 
 writing to his corps in Corinth, many of 
 whom seemed to have gone wrong, and to 
 have made many unjust and contemptuous 
 criticisms of Paul himself, he says, "I seek 
 not yours, but you ; and I will very gladly 
 spend and be spent for you ; though the 
 more abundantly I love you, the less I be 
 loved." Many floods could not quench his 
 love nor drown his faith.
 
 64 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 3. The secret. The secret of Paul's mar- 
 velous endurance, his quenchless faith and 
 burning love is found in his testimony, "I 
 was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." 
 [(Acts 26: 19.) 
 
 Away back in the days when he was a 
 persecutor and was scattering the little flock 
 of Christ, and driving them to death, Jesus 
 met him met him just as He meets men 
 to-day, showed him a "strait gate" and a 
 "narrow way," and Paul was "not disobe- 
 dient to the heavenly vision." Obedience 
 meant social ostracism, banishment from 
 home and friends, overturning of all his 
 plans and ambitions, a life of toil and shame 
 and suffering, the loss of all things and the 
 sacrifice of his life, and yet he was not dis- 
 obedient to the heavenly vision. And, main- 
 taining this cbedient spirit to the end, every- 
 thing else followed. The reason why so few 
 have an experience like Paul's is because so 
 few count the cost as he did, and obey the 
 heavenly vision Jesus gives them. 
 
 Several years ago a bright young girl of 
 eighteen, full of fun and love of society, 
 was induced by a friend to enter an Army 
 meeting for the first time. No sooner had 
 she entered than the faces of the soldiers 
 enchained her eyes, and their testimonies 
 went to her heart. She sat for a while, and 
 Jesus came to her, not in visible presence, 
 or with audible voice, but in a spiritual 
 vision. She left the meeting convicted of sin. 
 On her way home the vision spoke with her. 
 "You ought to have got saved to-night."
 
 ST. PAUL A PATTERN. 65 
 
 "But I am engaged for that dance next 
 Wednesday night." "You should give up 
 the dance." "But there are my lovely white 
 dress and slippers. I will get saved after 
 the dance." "But you may die before 
 Wednesday night, and lose your lovely dress 
 and the dance and your soul." That was 
 sufficient for this young girl. She tore the 
 feathers from her hat, and threw them into 
 the fire. She rushed upstairs, got her lovely 
 white dress, cut it up and cast it into the 
 fire. The next evening she went to the meet- 
 ing. At last a sister, probably discerning in 
 her face the hunger of her heart, went to 
 her and asked, "Don't you want to get saved 
 to-night?" "Of course I do," replied the 
 girl; "why did you not come to me before?" 
 and immediately she rushed to the penitent- 
 form, where, in obedience to the heavenly 
 vision, she found Jesus almighty to save. 
 And after four years her face shines with 
 the glory of her Lord, and her voice rings 
 with triumph as she testifies to the cleansing 
 power of His Blood and the sanctifying 
 power and presence of His Spirit. She was 
 not disobedient to the heavenly vision. 
 
 A man a millionaire came into a meeting 
 and listened to an Army Captain, and the 
 heavenly vision came to him, and he saw the 
 Cross, and the "strait gate," and the "narrow 
 way," and like the rich young man who 
 came to Jesus, he went away, saying, "If it 
 were not for the red stripes around that fel- 
 low's collar I would have gone forward." 
 He was disobedient to the heavenly vision.
 
 66 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Sooner or later the heavenly vision comes 
 to all men. It comes in the whisperings of 
 conscience, in the strivings of the Spirit, in 
 the calls of duty, in the moments of regret 
 for an evil past, in moments of tenderness 
 and sorrow, in the crises of life, in the en- 
 treaties of God's people, in afflictions and 
 losses, in the thunders of the law, in fearful 
 ominous threatenings of eternal judgment, 
 in the death of loved ones, in crushed hopes, 
 disappointed plans and thwarted ambitions. 
 In all these things Jesus hides Himself as 
 He hid Himself in the burning bush, which 
 Moses saw on Horeb, and if men would but 
 turn aside and heed the vision as Moses did, 
 a voice would speak and cause them to know 
 the Lord, and if they would not be dis- 
 obedient to the heavenly vision Jesus would 
 turn them back from the pit, and satisfy 
 every questioning of their minds and every 
 longing of their hearts. God so satisfied 
 the heart and mind of Paul. 
 
 Some people imagine that Paul tells his 
 best religious experience in the seventh 
 chapter of Romans, when he cries out, "Oh, 
 wretched man that I am ! Who shall deliver 
 me from the body of this death?" but the 
 fact is, he is here describing his condition 
 under the law, when, as a convicted sinner, 
 the law showed him what he ought to do, 
 but brought no power to deliver him from 
 his guilty past and the corruptions of his 
 own heart. But in the eighth chapter he 
 finds the secret of deliverance from the con- 
 demnation of the past and the carnal mind,
 
 ST. PAUL A PATTERN. 67 
 
 which prevent his doing the will of God on 
 earth as the angels do it in Heaven. From 
 that point he rises to such marvelous testi- 
 monies, as, "I am crucified with Christ ; 
 nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ 
 liveth in me, and the life which I now live, 
 I live by the faith of the Son of God, who 
 loved me and gave Himself for me." And 
 through a consecration in which he counted 
 all things loss for "Christ and a faith by 
 which he reckoned himself "dead indeed 
 unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord," he entered into an ex- 
 perience in which, as one has well said, he 
 was "free from a repining temper, for he 
 had learned in every state therewith to be 
 content. He was free from vanity, pride, 
 and unsanctified ambitions, for he gloried 
 only in the Cross of Christ. He was free 
 from every feeling of resentment, for he 
 was ready to die for his enemies. He was 
 free from selfishness, for he was ready to 
 spend and be spent for those whose love 
 diminished for him in proportion as his 
 love abounded for them. He was free 
 from covetousness, for he counted all things 
 but dung and dross, for Christ. He was 
 free from unbelief, for he knew in whom 
 he had trusted, and was persuaded that 
 nothing could separate him from the love 
 of Christ. He was free from the fear of 
 man, for stripes, imprisonment and martyr- 
 dom had no terrors being ready to be 
 offered up. He was free from the love of 
 the world, having a desire to depart and to
 
 68 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 be with Christ. The absence of these cor- 
 ruptions implied the maturity of the graces 
 of the Holy Spirit the fulness of love. In- 
 deed, it was that love which constrained 
 him, which cast out fear, and counteracted 
 every tendency opposed to its hallowing in- 
 fluence." 
 
 What a great salvation was this that Paul 
 found through obeying the heavenly vision ! 
 It is ten million leagues beyond the poor 
 little salvation from wrong-doing which most 
 people seek in order to escape Hell. It is a 
 salvation not only from sin, but from self, 
 and a divine union with God in Christ, so 
 intimate and so sacred that father and mother 
 and wife and brother and sister and child, 
 yea, and his own life, are all shut outside. 
 And yet it does not make him nerveless, and 
 lead him to "sing himself away to everlast- 
 ing bliss," but rather to lavish his love upon 
 all men regardless of their hatred or affec- 
 tion, and to pour his life out a sacrifice for 
 the world. Well might he say, "Follow me 
 as I follow Christ." 
 
 And by the grace of God I will follow. 
 
 Will you?
 
 ST. PAUL A PATTERN. 69 
 
 Are the experiences of justification and sancti- 
 fication distinct? And if 8O, how long a time 
 must intervene between them? 
 
 Answer: (1.) They arc distinct. The Thes- 
 salonians were justified, for the apostle tells us 
 that they had received the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and had such faith that it was sounded abroad 
 throughout the whole world, and they endured 
 bitter persecutions rather than deny their faith, 
 but yet they were not wholly sanctified. So, 
 after some very definite instructions, the apostle 
 said : "And the very God of peace sanctify you 
 wholly : and I pray God your whole spirit and 
 soul and body be preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. 5: 
 23.) 
 
 The experience of the disciples before Pente- 
 cost was that of justified persons. They received 
 this justification when they believed on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, forsook all and followed Him. But 
 they were not sanctified wholly until, on the day 
 of Pentecost, they sought and received the bap- 
 tism of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 (2.) Only so long a time need elapse between 
 the two experiences as is necessary for the justi- 
 fied soul to get light on the remains of the car- 
 nal mind in his heart and the way by which, 
 through faith in Jesus, he may get rid of it. 
 
 Many people have been Justified and sanctified 
 within a few hours. There is a boy In one of 
 our New England corps who received the two 
 experiences within a few hours of each, other,
 
 70 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 and gives the clearest and most definite testi- 
 mony to both works. However, in most cases 
 months and even years intervene, through lack 
 of definite teaching, through unwillingness to 
 obey God, and through weak faith, or positive 
 unbelief.
 
 TESTIFY TO THE BLESSING. 71 
 
 IX. 
 
 TESTIFY TO THE BLESSING. 
 
 "And they overcame him by the Blood of the 
 Lamb, and by the word of their testimony." 
 (Rev. 12: 11.) 
 
 A Lieutenant got the blessing of a clean 
 heart in one of my meetings the other day, 
 and then told us he had had the blessing 
 once before but lost it because he failed to 
 testify to it. The devil suggested that it was 
 a great thing to testify to cleansing from all 
 sin ; that people would not understand it ; 
 that they would criticize him; that he would 
 better live it and say nothing about it; and 
 so on, and he heeded these suggestions, kept 
 quiet, and so lost the blessing. 
 
 That was an old trick of the devil's, by 
 which he has cheated many a soul out of this 
 pearl of greatest price. 
 
 Paul says : "With the heart man believeth 
 unto righteousness and with the mouth con- 
 fession is made unto salvation." The con-
 
 72 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 fession is as necessary as the believing. We 
 insist upon this in the matter of justification, 
 and it is equally important in the matter of 
 sanctification. If we do not testify definitely, 
 humbly and constantly to the blessed experi- 
 ence, we put our light under a bushel, and 
 it naturally goes out. 
 
 The late Miss Frances E. Willard received 
 the blessing definitely, was filled with joy 
 and the sweet peace of Heaven and gave a 
 burning testimony of the fulness of the 
 Spirit. Soon afterward she became a teacher 
 in a ladies' school in a section of the coun- 
 try where there was much controversy over 
 the doctrine of holiness. She was advised 
 by her mistaken friends to keep still about 
 sanctification, which she did. Years after- 
 wards she sorrowfully wrote: "I kept still 
 until I soon found I had nothing in particu- 
 lar to keep still about. The experience left 
 me. That sweet persuasiveness, that heaven 
 in the soul which I came to know in Mrs. 
 Palmer's meeting, I do not now feel." 
 
 Mr. Fletcher, whom Mr. Wesley believed 
 to be the holiest man that had lived since 
 days of the Apostle John, made this confes- 
 sion to his people: "My dear brethren and 
 sisters, God is here, I feel Him in this place; 
 but I would hide my face in the dust, because 
 I have been ashamed to declare what He has 
 done for me. For many years I have grieved 
 His Spirit, but I am deeply humbled and He 
 has again restored my soul. Last Wednes- 
 day evening He spoke to me by these words : 
 'Reckon ye yourselves therefore to be dead
 
 TESTIFY TO THE BLESSING. 73 
 
 indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord.' I obeyed the voice 
 of God ; I now obey it, and tell you all to 
 the praise of His love, I am freed from sin, 
 dead unto sin, and alive unto God. I re- 
 ceived this blessing four or five times before, 
 but I lost it by not obeying the order of God, 
 who has told us, 'with the heart man be- 
 lieveth unto righteousness and with the 
 mouth confession is made unto salvation.' 
 But the enemy offered his bait under various 
 colors to keep me from a public declaration 
 of what God had wrought. When I first 
 received the grace, Satan made me wait 
 awhile till I saw more of the fruits. I re- 
 solved to do so, but I soon began to doubt 
 the witness which before I had felt in my 
 heart, and I was in a little while sensible 
 that I had lost both. 
 
 "A second time after receiving this salva- 
 tion (with shame I confess it) I was kept 
 from being a witness for my Lord by the 
 suggestion, 'Thou art a public character ; the 
 eyes of all are upon thee ; and if, as before, 
 by any means thou lost the blessing, it will 
 be a dishonor to the doctrine of heart holi- 
 ness.' I held my peace, and again forfeited 
 the gift of God. 
 
 "At another time I was prevailed upon to 
 hide it by reasoning thus : 'How few even 
 of the children of God will receive this testi- 
 mony! Many of them suppose that every 
 transgression of the Adamic law is sin, and 
 therefore, if I profess myself to be free from 
 sin, all these will give my profession the He.
 
 74 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Because I am not free in their sense, I am 
 not free from ignorance, mistakes and in- 
 firmities. I will therefore enjoy what God 
 hath wrought in me, but I will not say I am 
 perfect in love.' Alas ! I soon found again : 
 'He that hideth his Lord's talent, and im- 
 proveth it not, from that unprofitable serv- 
 ant shall be taken away even that which he 
 seemeth to have.' 
 
 "Now, my brethren, you see my folly. I 
 have confessed it in your presence, and now 
 I am resolved before you all to confess my 
 Master. I will confess Him to all the world. 
 And I declare unto you in the presence of 
 God the Holy Trinity I am now dead in- 
 deed unto sin and alive unto God, through 
 Jesus Christ, who is my indwelling holi- 
 ness." 
 
 This confession put Mr. Fletcher on record, 
 and was the beginning of a life of holiness 
 that has but few parallels for beauty and 
 power. It is only at this point of glad, 
 definite testimony that Christian life and ex- 
 perience become irresistibly catching, like 
 fire when it bursts into flame. 
 
 Those who profess this blessing are often 
 accused of boasting. But this is not true. 
 They are simply declaring that }esus has 
 done for them what He died to do-^-that is, 
 to save them from sin, and they do it in the 
 spirit of a man who, healed of a deadly 
 disease, declares what the doctor has done 
 for him. It is done to bring honor to the 
 doctor, and to encourage other poor sufferers 
 to apply to him ; and to withhold such testi-
 
 TESTIFY TO THE BLESSING. 75 
 
 mony in the presence of multitudes of needy 
 ones would be a crime. 
 
 David said : "My soul shall make her boast 
 in the Lord; the humble shall hear thereof 
 and be glad." Hallelujah! 
 
 As for me, I feel I am under a solemn 
 obligation to let everybody know that Jesus 
 is alive and that He can save to the utter- 
 most, and I am determined to testify to this 
 truth not simply as a doctrine, but as a 
 glorious experience which is mine just now. 
 Praise the Lord! 
 
 Does the entirely sanctified soul always walk 
 with the clear light of the Spirit in his heart, 
 or may he expect seasons of darkness? 
 
 Answer : He may always have the clear light 
 of the Spirit in his heart, though perhaps not 
 the same degree of clearness. He need not ex- 
 pect seasons of darkness. "This, then, is the 
 message whic'h we have heard of him and de- 
 clare unto you, that God is light, and in Him 
 is no darkness at all. If we say that we have 
 fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we 
 lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the 
 light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship 
 one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ, 
 His Son. cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 
 1 : 5-7.) "For ye were sometime darkness,
 
 76 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 but flow are ye light in the Lord ; walk as chil- 
 dren of light. (Ephesians 5: 8.) "And there 
 fa none occasion of stumbling in him." (1 John 
 2: 10.) 
 
 However, a sanctified soul may be in great 
 heaviness on account of temptations, trials, etc. 
 "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a 
 season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through 
 manifold temptations, that the trial of your 
 faith, being much more precious than of gold 
 that perisheth, though it be tried with fire 
 might be found unto praise and honor and glory 
 at the appearing of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 
 1 : 6, 7.) 
 
 Darkness is caused by sin ; disobedience, ua- 
 belief, lack of watchfulness and prayerful ness, 
 lack of love and charity for others, neglect of 
 duty, carelessness and trifling. It is caused by 
 something for which the sanctified soul is re- 
 sponsible. 
 
 Heaviness may be caused by something for 
 which the soul Is not responsible. Perplexities, 
 crosses, malicious temptations of the devil, the 
 eins of others, the chastening of God (as in the 
 joase of Joseph, Job and Paul with the "thorn 
 In his flesh"), sickness and pain may lay the 
 eoul open to very painful seasons of heaviness, 
 ia which, however, its faith holds fast to the 
 promises, its loyalty to God is unwavering, and 
 its devotion to its fellow men unquenchable." 
 
 Paul said of himself : "We are troubled on 
 every side, yet not distressed ; we are perplexed 
 but not in despair ; persecuted but not forsaken ; 
 cast down but not destroyed." (2 Cor. 4: 8, 9.) 
 
 The cause of darkness should be sought out 
 and heartily repented of. 
 
 The cause of heaviness should be patiently 
 borne as a part of God's disciplinary providence. 
 .(1 Peter 1-7.) 
 
 "My son, despise not thou the chastening of 
 the Lord, neither be thou weary of His correc- 
 tion, for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, 
 evea as a father the son in whom he deligihteth." 
 (Prov. 3: 11, 12.) (See also Hebrews 12: 5.)
 
 KNOWING JESUS. 77 
 
 X. 
 
 KNOWING JESUS. 
 
 What an astonishing thing that we can 
 know Jesus ! And yet nothing is more clearly 
 taught in Scripture or more joyously testified 
 to in experience by godly people than this 
 fact. 
 
 This is an age of specialists, when men 
 devote their lives to the pursuit of special 
 departments of knowledge. One learned 
 professor will give fourteen hours a day 
 for forty years to the study of fishes, another 
 to the study of birds, another to that of 
 bugs, and yet another to that of old bones. 
 Another, more ambitious, devotes his life 
 to the study of history, the rise and fall of 
 nations, and yet another to astronomy, the 
 origin and history of worlds. But to know 
 Jesus 'Christ is infinitely better than to 
 know all that has been learned or dreamed 
 of by these professors, for He it was that 
 "made the worlds," and "without Him was 
 not anything made that was made."
 
 78 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Personally, I am inclined to think that to 
 know Edison would be worth more than 
 knowing one or all of his works, and so to 
 know Jesus Christ is the first and best of 
 all knowledge. Amen! 
 
 The knowledge of the naturalist, the as- 
 tronomer, the historian, may be of passing 
 value, but in due time it will be out-of-date 
 and fail. But the knowledge of Jesus Christ 
 is of infinite value, and shall never pass 
 away. It is profitable for this world, and 
 for that which is to come, and only by it 
 does a man come to that knowledge of him- 
 self without which it would be better never 
 to have been born. 
 
 1. In this knowledge of Jesus is hidden 
 the germ of all knowledge, for Paul tells 
 us that "in Him are hid all the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge." (Coloss. 2: 3.) 
 Am I eager for learning and knowledge? 
 Let me constantly seek to know Him, and 
 in due time, in this world, or in the next, I 
 shall know all that is of value for me to 
 know. 
 
 2. In this knowledge lies true culture of 
 both head and heart, especially of the heart 
 In the words of one of the greatest living 
 Christian philosophers, "it enlarges the 
 individual life with universal ideas, lifts time 
 into the stream of eternal purpose, and fills 
 it with eternal issues ; and makes the sim- 
 plest moral act great as a real factor in the 
 evolution of a higher order and an im- 
 mortal character." It makes a man patient
 
 KNOWING JESUS. 79 
 
 with the ignorant and erring and wayward, 
 courteous to his equals and superiors, kindly 
 and generous to his inferiors, gentle and 
 considerate in his own home, and to the 
 woman who is now his wife as he was to 
 her when she was his sweetheart, loving 
 and forbearing with children, thoughtful 
 and tender with the aged in fact, the 
 knowledge of Jesus (not simply scraps of 
 knowledge about Jesus) makes the pos- 
 sessor in his measure like Jesus. Glory to 
 God! 
 
 The essence of this knowledge is love. 
 John says, "Every one that loveth is born of 
 God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, 
 knoweth not God, for God is love." This 
 love is a heavenly thing. The sinner, farthest 
 away from God, loves his own, loves those 
 who love him and do him good. But this 
 love is that which pours itself out upon 
 strangers, upon enemies, and upon those 
 that despitefully use us and say all manner 
 of evil against us; so we come to see that 
 to know Jesus, we must be like Jesus, must 
 have an affinity for Him, must be trans- 
 formed into His image; in other words, we 
 must be born again and sanctified by His in- 
 dwelling Spirit. 
 
 Judas lived with Jesus in the intimacy of a 
 disciple for three years, but if he ever knew 
 Jesus he must have lost that knowledge 
 before he could have gone out to betray Him 
 with a kiss. So we may profess the knowledge 
 of Jesus, but when by wicked tempers and un- 
 holy conduct and deceitful and sinful char-
 
 80 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 acter, we manifest a spirit contrary to His, 
 we give the lie to our profession. In so far 
 as we are unlike Him, to that extent we are 
 ignorant of Him. 
 
 How, then, shall we come to the knowl- 
 edge of Jesus? 
 
 First. We must utterly and forever re- 
 nounce sin, and seek forgiveness for past 
 bad conduct, trusting in the merits of His 
 atonement for acceptance with God, singing 
 from our hearts, "Oh, the Blood, the Blood 
 is all my plea." When we do this we shall 
 come into an initial knowledge of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Second. But we must not only renounce 
 our sins; we must also renounce self. In 
 an all-night of prayer several years ago, I 
 looked at the great audience and queried of 
 the Lord in my heart, "How can all these 
 people get to heaven?" and in the depth of 
 my soul sounded back the words, "He bowed 
 His head and gave up the ghost." 
 
 And I saw how men get to heaven, and 
 how they gain the knowledge of Jesus. He 
 gave Himself for us, and we must give our- 
 selves for Him, and trust and obey, and wait 
 expectantly until He comes to our hearts 
 and reveals Himself to us, and this will He 
 do when we seek Him with all the heart. He 
 surely will. 
 
 Paul said, "What things were gain to me, 
 those I counted loss for Christ," by which
 
 KNOWING JESUS. 81 
 
 things he referred to his lineage from Abra- 
 ham, his exact fulfilment of the law, and his 
 zeal for his church, and adds, "Yea, doubt- 
 less, and I count all things but loss for the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, 
 my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss 
 of all things, and do count them but dung 
 that I may win Christ and be found in Him, 
 . . . that I may know Him." 
 
 People who seek this knowledge without 
 this sacrifice of self may flatter themselves 
 that they know Him, but when the testing 
 time comes, the hours of loneliness and loss, 
 and sickness and pain, and disappointment 
 and perplexity, and thwarted hopes and deso- 
 lation, they will find their sad mistake. The 
 fire will reveal their dross and sin. But 
 to those who make and abide in this sacri- 
 fice, and, fighting the good fight of faith, 
 steadfastly and joyously believe, furnace fires 
 and lions' dens and dungeon cells but dis- 
 close more fully the loveliness of His face, 
 the certainty of His presence, the unfailing 
 strength and comforts of His love. 
 
 Third. This knowledge to be maintained 
 must be cultivated, which is done by com- 
 munion with Him. It is possible for a hus- 
 band and wife to live together for many 
 years, and instead of increasing, except in 
 the most superficial way, in the knowledge 
 of each other, to grow apart, until after many 
 years they are heart strangers to each other, 
 with separate interests, conflicting desires 
 and tempers and alien affinities. To really
 
 82 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 know each other they must be bound to- 
 gether by stronger ties than mere legal 
 forms; they must commune with each other, 
 live in each other's hearts, enter into each 
 other's joys and share each other's sorrows, 
 counsel each other in perplexity, seek the 
 same ends and cultivate the same spirit. 
 
 And so to know Jesus there must be sym- 
 pathy, fellowship, friendship, constantly cul- 
 tivated ; the heart must turn to Him, 
 pour itself out before Him, share its hopes, 
 its joys, its fears with Him, draw its consola- 
 tions, its strength, its courage, its sufficiency, 
 its life, from Him, trust and obey Him and 
 delight itself in Him as its everlasting por- 
 tion. 
 
 Secret prayer must often bring the soul 
 face to face with Him, and the Bible, God's 
 record of Him, must be daily, diligently and 
 lovingly searched, and faithfully applied to 
 the daily life. Thus shall we know Him, 
 and be "changed into the same image, from 
 glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord," 
 and people shall see and feel "Christ in us, 
 the hope of glory." 
 
 O Jesus, Saviour, how I bless Thee that 
 Thou didst seek me when lost and far from 
 Thee and altogether unlike Thee, and didst 
 woo me, and win me, and lead me to Thy- 
 self, and reveal Thyself to me, and make me 
 to know Thee, and ravish my heart, and hum- 
 ble my pride with the joy and love and glory 
 that that best of all knowledge brings! Still
 
 KNOWING JESUS. 83 
 
 reveal Thyself, O Lord, to Thy people, that 
 they may know Thee, and glorify Thee and 
 be satisfied with Thy loving kindness, and 
 fill the earth with Thy fame! 
 
 Does justification fit people for heaven? 
 
 Answer : No ; it gives a title, but sanctiflca- 
 tion gives the fitness. This is the teaching of 
 every orthodox creed in Christendom. The only 
 dispute is as to the manner and the time of 
 receiving it. The command is : "Follow peace 
 with all men, and holiness, without which no 
 man shall see the Lord." Every honest soul 
 who is justified wants holiness, and if he obeys 
 God and walks in the light he will get it very 
 shortly.
 
 84 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 XL 
 
 FREEDOM FROM SIN. 
 
 The most startling thing about sin is its 
 power to enslave. Jesus said, ''He that 
 committeth sin is the servant of sin," and 
 every-day life and experience prove the say- 
 ing to be true. Let a boy or a man tell a 
 lie and he is henceforth the servant of false- 
 hood unless freed by a higher power. Let 
 the bank clerk misappropriate funds, let the 
 business man yield to a trick in trade, let 
 the young man surrender to the clamor of 
 lust, let the youth take an intoxicating glass, 
 and henceforth he is a slave. The cord that 
 holds him may be light and silken, and he 
 may boast that he is free, but he deceives 
 himself; he is no longer free, he is a bond- 
 man. 
 
 We may choose the path in life we will 
 take; the course of conduct; the friends 
 with whom we will associate ; the habits we 
 will form, whether good or bad; but having
 
 FREEDOM FROM SIN. 85 
 
 chosen the ways of sin we are then swept on 
 without further choice by a swiftness and 
 certainty down to hell, just as a man who 
 chooses to go on board a ship is surely 
 taken to the destined harbor, however much 
 he may wish to go elsewhere. We choose 
 and then we are chosen ; we grasp and then 
 we are grasped by a power stronger than 
 ourselves, like the man who takes hold of 
 the poles of an. electric battery; he grasps 
 but he cannot let go at his will; like the 
 man who took the baby boa-constrictor and 
 trained it to coil about him, but when grown 
 it crushed him ; like the lion tamer who put 
 his head in the lion's mouth, but one day 
 the lion closed his mouth and crushed his 
 head as he might an eggshell. 
 
 Just so the sinner is in the grasp of a 
 higher power than his own. He chooses 
 drink, dancing, gambling, worldly pleasure, 
 or human wisdom and fame and power, but 
 soon finds himself captive, only to be surely 
 crushed and ruined forever, unless delivered 
 by some power outside himself. What shall 
 he do? Is there hope? Is there a deliverer? 
 Yes, thank God, there is. Jesus said, "Whom 
 the Son maketh free is free indeed." 
 
 Let the sinner cry to Jesus and He will 
 break the lion's jaw and paralyze the ser- 
 pent's mighty coil, and turn back the current 
 of the devil's electricity, and set the en- 
 slaved captives free. Glory to God ! 
 
 Some years ago, as I was passing out of 
 a church near Boston, one Sunday night, a 
 young man, an artist, stopped me and said,
 
 86 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 "Brother Brengle, do you mean to say that 
 Jesus can save a man from all sin?" 
 
 "Yes, sir," I replied, "that is exactly what 
 I mean to say." 
 
 "Well, if He can," said he, "I want Him 
 to save me, for I am the victim of a habit 
 that masters me. I struggle and vow and 
 make good resolutions, but fall again, and 
 I want deliverance." 
 
 I pointed him to Jesus. We prayed, and 
 the work was done. Glory to 'God ! He 
 remained in and around Boston for six 
 months, shining and shouting for Jesus, and 
 then went to California. Eleven years later 
 I went to San Francisco. One day I heard 
 a knock on my door. A young man entered, 
 looked at me and inquired, "Do you know 
 me?" 
 
 I replied, "Yes, sir; you are the young 
 man that Jesus saved from a bad habit about 
 twelve years ago near Boston." 
 
 "Yes," said he, "and He saves me still." 
 
 "Whom the Son maketh free is free in- 
 deed." 
 
 "He breaks the power of canceled sin, 
 He sets the prisoner free." 
 
 This freedom is altogether complete. Jesus 
 told the disciples to loose a colt that was 
 tied and bring it to Him. Mark tells us 
 that He loosed the tongue of a dumb man 
 and he spake plain. John tells us that when 
 Lazarus came forth from the grave he was 
 "bound hand and foot with grave clothes, 
 end his face was bound about with a nap-
 
 FREEDOM FROM SIN. 87 
 
 kin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and 
 let him go." 
 
 Now John uses exactly the same Greek 
 word when He says of Jesus, "For this pur- 
 pose was the Son of God manifested that He 
 might destroy" (loose) "the works of the 
 devil." 
 
 In other words, he whom Jesus makes free 
 is loosed from the works oi the devil un- 
 hitched from them as fully as was the colt 
 from the post to which it was tied, or as was 
 Lazarus from his grave clothes. Hallelujah! 
 The sinner is bound to his guilty past, but 
 Jesus forgives and forgets it, and he is no 
 longer subject to the penalty of the broken 
 law. 
 
 The converted man is bound to his inbred 
 sin. Jesus looses him and he is free indeed. 
 It is a complete deliverance a perfect liberty, 
 a heavenly freedom that Jesus gives, by 
 bringing the soul under the law of liberty, 
 which is the law of LOVE. 
 
 What is the difference between justification 
 and sanctlflcation? 
 
 Answer : In justification, a man is freely for- 
 given all his sins, is partially renewed in 
 the divine image, is adopted into God's family 
 and enters into peace. "Being justified by faith
 
 88 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 we have peace -with God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 1.) "Ye have received 
 the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, 
 Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
 our spirit that we are the children of God." 
 (Rom. 8: 15, 16.) 
 
 In justification, however, there are remains of 
 the carnal mind. It is a mixed state in which 
 evil tempers, dispositions and desires war against 
 the divine nature in the soul. Paul describes it 
 when he says : "The flesh battles against the 
 Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, and these 
 are contrary the one to the other, so that we 
 may not do the things that we would." (Gal. 
 5: 17, R. V.) Many people also consider the last 
 part of Rom. 7 as a description of the struggle 
 of the justified soul against its inbred sin. 
 
 In sanctification, a man is delivered from the 
 remains of the earnal mind, from doubts and 
 fears, evil tempers and desires, shame of the 
 cross and the like, and is made perfect in sub- 
 mission, in faith, In love. "But now, being made 
 free from sin and become servants to God, ye 
 bave your fruit unto holiness, and the end ever- 
 lasting life." (Rom. 6: 22.) "But the fruit of 
 the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gen- 
 tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: 
 and they that are Christ's have crucified the 
 flesh with the affections and lusts." (Gal. 6: 
 22-24.) "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with 
 Christ in God." (Col. 3: 3.)
 
 WRESTLERS WITH GOD. 89 
 
 XII. 
 
 WRESTLERS WITH GOD. 
 
 Rev. William Bramwell writes in one of 
 his letters, "Almost every night there has 
 been a shaking among the people, and I have 
 seen nearly twenty set at liberty." Then 
 he adds these heart-searching words, "I be- 
 lieve I should have seen many more, but I 
 cannot yet find one pleading man. There 
 are many good people, but I have found no 
 wrestlers with God." 
 
 O my Lord, that is what we want! In 
 these days of organizations, of societies, 
 leagues, committees, multiplied and diver- 
 sified soul-saving and ecclesiastical ma- 
 chinery, together with world-wide oppor- 
 tunity above all things else we want "wrest- 
 lers with God" men and women who know 
 how to pray and who do pray ; not men 
 and women who say prayers, but who pour 
 out their hearts to Him, who call Him to 
 remembrance and "keep not silence and give
 
 90 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Him no rest till He establish and till He 
 make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." 
 
 Some weeks ago I went to a corps for the 
 Sunday morning meeting, just one meeting. 
 Not many people knew I was coming. No 
 special preparation was made ; snow was 
 on the ground, and less than one hundred 
 people were present. But a wrestler with 
 God was there, and oh, how he prayed ! My 
 heart melts within me yet as I think of it. 
 He pleaded with God, he poured out his 
 heart before Him. In his manner and words 
 he was wondrously familiar with God, but 
 it was that sweet familiarity that comes from 
 utter self-abasement and deepest humility, 
 and which enables its possessor to come 
 with unabashed faith right face to face with 
 God and ask great things of Him, because 
 asking only for His honor and the glory of 
 His Son. That morning twenty-four people 
 were at the penitent-form seeking the 
 Lord! 
 
 Several years ago the writer of this wrote 
 an article on the prayers of soul-winners. 
 It fell into the hands of two young officers, 
 one of whom is now in India, and they 
 began to pray, and one of them, it was re- 
 ported, prayed all Saturday night. The 
 next day they went to a hard corps, where 
 it had almost been impossible to get anyone 
 to make a start for Heaven, and that day 
 they saw sixty-two people seeking God. 
 
 The same article was read by a Captain 
 in a certain corps. She became interested
 
 WRESTLERS WITH GOD. 91 
 
 and read it to her soldiers, urging them to 
 greater diligence in prayer. The spirit of 
 prayer fell on the soldiers, and some of 
 them used to ask the Captain for the key 
 and spend half the night in the hall wrest- 
 ling with God until His power fell on the 
 people, and scores of sinners were converted, 
 and the largest corps in that State was built 
 up, and the whole city was stirred. 
 
 The other day a staff officer, in charge of 
 a band of boys, told me that a short time 
 before he went with his boys into a town 
 that after two hours' wrestling with God 
 he got the assurance of a revival. In eight- 
 een days they saw one hundred and fifty 
 people seeking salvation, and fifty more seek- 
 ing the blessing of a clean heart. 
 
 More than all else the Lord wants these 
 wrestling, pleading men. 
 
 Indeed, there are many good men, but few 
 wrestlers with God. There are many who 
 are interested in the cause of Christ, and who 
 are pleased to see it prosper in their corps, 
 their church, their city, their country. But 
 there are but few who bear the burden of 
 the world upon their souls day and night, 
 who make His cause in every clime their 
 own, and who, like Eli, would die if the ark 
 of God were taken ; who feel it an awful 
 shame and a consuming sorrow, if victory 
 is not continually won in His name. 
 
 This spirit of prayer is fed on the Word of 
 God. He who neglects diligent, daily study 
 of and meditation in the Word of God will 
 soon neglect secret prayer, while he who
 
 92 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 feeds upon it will be constantly pouring out 
 his heart in prayer and praise, and in this 
 as in all things, regular practise will culti- 
 vate, increase and perfect the spirit of 
 prayer. 
 
 Again, this spirit of prayer will only thrive 
 where faith is active. Lazy, slow faith 
 quenches prayer. 
 
 Prayer must be followed by watchfulness 
 and dead-in-earnest, patient work, else it 
 will soon grow sickly and die. 
 
 Light and foolish talking and jesting, 
 pride, oversensitiveness that leads to sus- 
 picion, jealousy, envy, selfish ambition even 
 in Christian work, indulgence of appetite, 
 love of the applause of men and desire for 
 the honor that man can give, an uncharitable 
 spirit, criticism and the like, will surely 
 quench the spirit of prayer. 
 
 Jesus says, "Men ought always to pray 
 and not to faint," while Paul says, "Pray 
 without ceasing."
 
 WRESTLERS WITH GOD. 93 
 
 If a sanctified person loses the blessing, has 
 he also lost his justification? and does he have 
 to be forgiven and justified before he can claim 
 sanctification? 
 
 Answer : A man who has lost the blessing 
 can, by hearty repentance, confession and faith, 
 get back at one step to the place from which he 
 fell, and in some cases persons whose hearts 
 have been broken with contrition have so trusted 
 Jesus as to enter into a deeper, richer experience 
 than they had before they .fell. They need not 
 trouble themselves about these fine distinctions, 
 but turn to the Lord with a true heart, trust 
 Him, and He will receive them. "He that 
 coveretih his sins ahall not prosper ; but whoso 
 confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy." 
 (Prov. 28: 13.) "If we confess our sins He 
 is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and 
 to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 
 1: 9.) "My little children, these things write I 
 unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin 
 we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
 Christ the righteous." (1 John 2: 1.) This 
 does not give us license to sin, but gives us 
 liope that if we in an evil hour do sin we can 
 get back again. In the first six verses of the 
 thirtieth chapter of Deuteronomy, God promises 
 Chat if the people who have left Him sihall re- 
 pent of their sins and turn to Him with all 
 their hearts, that He will receive them and will 
 restore them all that they have lost, and adds : 
 "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, 
 and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy 
 God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, 
 that thou mayest live."
 
 94 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 xm, 
 
 UNION WITH JESUS. 
 
 Jesus said, "I and My Father are one," 
 and it is His loving purpose that you and I 
 shall be able to say that too, and say it now 
 in this present time, in the face of the devil, 
 and in holy, triumphant defiance of a frown- 
 ing world and of shrinking, trembling flesh. 
 
 There is a union with Jesus as intimate as 
 that of the branch and the vine, or as that 
 of the various members of the body with the 
 head, or as that between Jesus and the 
 Father. This is shown by such Scriptures 
 as that in which Jesus said, "I am the Vine, 
 ye are the branches," and in His great in- 
 tercessory prayer where He prays, "that 
 they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in 
 Me and I in Thee, that they may be one in 
 Us." It is also shown in such passages as 
 that in which Paul, speaking of Jesus, says 
 that "God hath put all things under His feet 
 and gave Him to be the head over all 
 things to the Church, which is His body,"
 
 UNION WITH JESUS. 95 
 
 and again, "that we may grow up into Him 
 in all things, which is the Head, even 
 Christ," and again, "He that sanctifieth and 
 they that are sanctified are all of one." It 
 is also shown clearly in Paul's testimony, 
 "I am crucified with Christ, neverthe- 
 less I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
 me." 
 
 This union is, of course, not physical, but 
 spiritual, and can be known to the one who 
 has entered into it by the direct witness of 
 the Spirit; but it can be known to others 
 only by its effects and fruits in the life. 
 
 This spiritual union is mysterious yet 
 simple, and many of our every-day relation- 
 ships partially illustrate it. 
 
 Where two people have interests or pur- 
 poses the same, they are to that exterit one. 
 A liberal, conservative, or unionist is one 
 with every other man of his party through- 
 out the whole country in so far as they hold 
 similar principles. This is an imperfect sort 
 of union. And yet it is union. Our Gen- 
 eral may be in any part of the world, push- 
 ing forward his mighty schemes of conquest 
 for Jesus, and every other Salvationist, how- 
 ever humble he may be, just in so far as he 
 has the same spirit and ideals as the General, 
 is one with him. A husband and wife, or a 
 boy and his mother, may be separated by 
 continents and seas, and yet be one. For six 
 months three thousand miles of wild waves 
 rolled between me and a little woman I 
 rejoiced to call "wife," bu my heart was as 
 absolutely true to her and my confidence in
 
 96 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 her fidelity was as supreme as now when 
 we sit side by side and we are one. 
 
 But more perfect, more tender, more holy 
 and infinitely more self-consuming and en- 
 nobling and enduring is the union of the 
 soul with Jesus than is any other possible 
 relationship. It is like the union of the bay 
 with the sea. It is the union of nature, a 
 commingling of spirit, an eternal marriage of 
 heart and soul and mind. 
 
 1. It is a union ^ of will. Jesus said, "I 
 came down from heaven, not to do Mine 
 own will, but the will of Him that sent Me," 
 and again, "My meat is to do the will of 
 Him that sent Me.' And so it is with those 
 who are one with Jesus. The Psalmist said, 
 "I delight to do Thy will, O God," and that 
 is the testimony of everyone who has en- 
 tered into this divine union. There may, 
 and doubtless will, be times when this will 
 is hard to the flesh and blood, but even then 
 the soul says with its Lord, "Not my will, 
 but Thine be done," and prays always, "Thy 
 will be done in earth as it is in heaven." 
 
 In the very nature of things there can be 
 no union with Jesus without this union of 
 will, for there is really very little of a man 
 but his will. That is really all he can call 
 his own. His mind with all its splendid 
 powers and possibilities may be reduced to 
 idiocy; he may be robbed of his property; 
 his health, and even his life may be taken 
 from him, but who can enter into the do- 
 main of his will and rob him of that?
 
 UNION WITH JESUS. 97 
 
 I say it reverently, so far as we know, not 
 even 'God Himself can compel a man's will. 
 God wants to enter into a partnership, an 
 infinitely tender and exalting fellowship, a 
 spiritual marriage with the will of man, and 
 He approaches man with tremendous induce- 
 ments and motives of infinite profit and loss, 
 and yet the man may resist and utterly 
 thwart the loving thought and purpose of 
 God. He can refuse to surrender his will. 
 But surrender he must, if there is to be a 
 union between him and God, for God's will, 
 based as it is on eternal righteousness, 
 founded in infinite knowledge and wisdom 
 and love, is unchangeable, and man's high- 
 est good is in a hearty and affectionate sur- 
 render to it and a union with it. 
 
 2. It is a union of faith of mutual confi- 
 dence and esteem. God trusts him, and he 
 trusts God. God can entrust him with the 
 honor of His name and His holy character 
 in the midst of a world of rebels. God can 
 empower him and beautify him with His 
 Spirit and adorn him with all heavenly 
 graces, without any fear that the man will 
 take the glory of these things to himself. 
 God can heap upon him riches and treasures 
 and honors without any fear that the man 
 will use them for selfish ends or prostitute 
 them to unholy purposes. 
 
 Again, the man trusts God. He trusts 
 God when he cannot trace Him. He has 
 confidence in the faithfulness and love of 
 God in adversity as well as in prosperity.
 
 98 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 He does not have to be fed on sweetmeats 
 and live in sunshine and sleep on roses in 
 order to believe that God is for him. God 
 can mingle bitter with all His sweets, and 
 allow the thorns to prick him, and the 
 storm-clouds to roll all about him, and yet 
 he will stubbornly trust on. Like Job, his 
 property may be swept away in a day, and 
 his children die about him, and yet with Job 
 he will say, "The Lord gave and the Lord 
 hath taken away, blessed be the name of the 
 Lord," and still trust on. 
 
 His own life may be menaced and be 
 filled with weariness and pain, and his faith- 
 less wife bid him curse God and die, and 
 yet he will say, "What ! shall we receive 
 good at the hands of the Lord, and shall we 
 not receive evil?" and still trust on. 
 
 His friends may gather about him and 
 attack his Christian integrity and character, 
 and foolishly assault the foundations of his 
 faith by assuring him that if he were right 
 with God these calamities could never be- 
 fall him, and yet he will look up from his 
 ash-heap and out of his utter wreck and 
 ruin and desolation, cry, "Though He slay 
 me, yet will I trust Him." And though 
 communities or nations conspire against 
 him, he will say with David, "The Lord is 
 my light and my salvation; whom shall I 
 fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; 
 of whom shall I be afraid? Though an 
 host should encamp against me my heart 
 shall not fear; though war should rise 
 against me, in this will I be confident."
 
 UNION WITH JESUS. 99 
 
 .A woman said to me the other day, "I 
 dread to think of the end of the world, it 
 makes me afraid." But though worlds, like 
 drunken men, tumble from their orbits, and 
 though the universe crash into ruin, the 
 child-like confidence of the man who trusts 
 God will enable him to sing with the Psalm- 
 ist, "God is our refuge and strength, a very 
 present help in trouble. Therefore will not 
 we fear though the earth be removed, and 
 though the mountains be carried into the 
 midst of the sea, though the waters thereof 
 roar and be troubled, though the mountains 
 shake with the swelling thereof." 
 
 God can be familiar with such a man. 
 He can take all sorts of liberties with his 
 property, his reputation, his position, his 
 friends, his health, his life, and allow devils 
 and men to taunt him ; but the man un- 
 changeably fixed in his estimate of God's 
 holy character and everlasting love, will 
 still triumphantly trust on. 
 
 3. It is a union of suffering, of sympathy. 
 Once when I was passing through what 
 seemed to me a perfect hell of spiritual 
 temptation and suffering, the Lord sup- 
 ported me with this text, "In all their afflic- 
 tions He was afflicted." (Isaiah 60: 9.) The 
 prophet refers in these words to the afflic- 
 tions of the children of Israel in Egypt and 
 in the wilderness after their escape from the 
 hard bondage of Pharaoh, and he says that 
 in all their sufferings Jesus suffered with 
 them.
 
 100 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Let her child be racked with pain and 
 scorched with fever and choked with croup, 
 yet the mother suffers more than the child ; 
 and so let the people of God be sore tempted 
 and tried, and Jesus agonizes with them. 
 He is the world's great Sufferer. His passion 
 is forever. He once tasted death for every 
 man. He suffers still with every man. There 
 is not a cry of anguish, nor a heartache, nor 
 a pang of spiritual pain in all the world 
 that does not reach His ear and touch His 
 heart, and stir all His mighty sympathies. 
 But especially does He suffer and sympathize 
 with His own believing children. And in 
 turn the man who is one with Jesus suffers 
 and sympathizes with Jesus. Any injury to 
 the cause of Christ causes him more pain 
 and injury than any of his own personal in- 
 terests can do. He mourns over the desola- 
 tion of Zion more than over the loss of his 
 property. The lukewarmness of Christians 
 cuts him to the heart. The cry of the heathen 
 for the Gospel of salvation is to him the cry 
 of the travail, the agony of Jesus Himself. 
 \He gladly says, with David, "The reproaches 
 of them that reproached Thee have falle 
 upon me." He esteems the reproach of 
 "Christ greater treasure than all the pleasure 
 and power and profits of this world com- 
 bined. As the true wife gladly suffers pri- 
 vation and shame and reproach with her 
 husband whom she knows to be righteous 
 and honorable, so he who is one with Jesus 
 "rejoices that he is counted worthy to suffer
 
 UNION WITH JESUS. 101 
 
 shame for His name." He suffers and sym- 
 pathizes with Jesus. 
 
 4. It is a union of purpose. The great 
 mass of men serve God for reward ; they 
 do not want to go to hell ; they want to go 
 to heaven. And that is right. But it is 
 not the highest motive. There is a union 
 with Jesus in which the soul is not so 
 anxious to escape hell as it is to be free 
 from sin, and in which heaven is not so 
 desirable as holiness. The soul in this state 
 thinks very little about its reward. His smile 
 of approval is its heaven. The housekeeper 
 wants wages, but the wife never thinks of 
 such a thing. She serves for love. She 
 is one in purpose with her husband. His 
 triumphs are hers. His losses are hers. All 
 he has is hers, and she is his. And, as the 
 Apostle says, "All things are yours, and ye 
 are Christ's." The will of God is the su- 
 preme good of this man. Someone has said 
 that if two angels were sent into this world, 
 one of whom was to rule it, and the other 
 was to sweep street crossings, that the 
 sweeper would be so satisfied with his Heav- 
 enly Father's will that he would not ex- 
 change places with the ruler. 
 
 The purpose of Jesus is to save the world 
 and uphold the honor of God, and establish 
 truth in the lives, the hearts, the laws, the 
 customs of men, and this is the purpose of 
 this man. 
 
 In order to do this Jesus sacrificed every 
 earthly prospect, and laid down His life, and
 
 102 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 this man does the same. He doesn't stand 
 in the presence of the world's great, crying 
 need and hesitate and wonder if the Lord 
 really wants him to give a few cents or dol- 
 lars for the salvation of the heathen ; he 
 doesn't quibble as to whether 'God really re- 
 quires him to make the sacrifice and leave 
 his dog-kennel and chicken-coop and barn 
 and house furnished a little below the stan- 
 dard of beauty and luxury set by his un- 
 godly neighbors ; he doesn't struggle and kick 
 against the pricks when he feels God would 
 have him forsake business and preach the 
 Gospel. He would loathe himself to have 
 such mean thoughts. He doesn't say : "If 
 I were rich." but out of the abundance of 
 his poverty he pours into the lap of the 
 world's needs, and, like the widow, he gladly 
 gives all his living to save the world ; and 
 when God looks about for a man to stand 
 up for His honor and warn a wicked world 
 and offer terms of peace to sinners, this man 
 doesn't say, "If I were only educated or 
 gifted I would go," but with a heart flaming 
 with love for Jesus and the world He has 
 bought with His Blood, cries out, "Here am 
 I, send me." It can be said of him as it was 
 of his Lord, "The zeal of Thine house has 
 eaten me up." 
 
 iA young carpenter in New England, whose 
 name is unknown, every few months comes 
 to the divisional headquarter.,, and gives a 
 hundred or more dollars for the work of 
 God in India, or some other portion of the 
 world. He is one with Jesus in His purpose
 
 UNIN WITH JESUS. 103 
 
 to save the world. On a bitter wintry day 
 a poor woman came to John Wesley's apart- 
 ment in Oxford University. She was shiver- 
 ing with cold. Wesley asked her why she 
 did not dress more warmly. She replied 
 that she had no warmer garments. When 
 she was gone, Wesley looked at the pictures 
 on his walls, and said to himself in sub- 
 stance, "If my Lord should come, would He 
 be pleased to see these on my walls when 
 His poor are suffering with cold?" Then 
 he sold the pictures and gave to the poor. 
 And in this way began that mighty and life- 
 long beneficence and almost matchless self- 
 sacrifice that has led to the blessing of mil- 
 lions upon millions of men. 
 
 O my God, that Thy people might see 
 what union with Thee really means ! 
 
 Do you ask, "How can I enter into this 
 union?" 
 
 1. Read God's promises until you see that 
 it is possible. Especially read and ponder 
 over the fifteenth and seventeenth chapters of 
 St. John. 
 
 2. Read and ponder over the command- 
 ments until you see that it is necessary. 
 Without this union here there will be no 
 union in eternity. 
 
 3. Make the sacrifice that is necessary fn 
 order to become one with Jesus. 
 
 The woman who will be the true wife of 
 a man must be prepared to give up all other 
 lovers, leave her home, and forsake father,
 
 104 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 mother, brothers and sisters, change her 
 name, and utterly identify herself, her pros- 
 pects for life, her all, with the man she loves. 
 And so must you be prepared to identify 
 yourself utterly with Christ, to be hated, 
 despised, rejected, crucified of men; but 
 armed, baptized with the Holy Ghost, and 
 crowned of God. 
 
 Does your heart consent to this, my 
 brother? If so, make a perpetual covenant 
 with your Lord just ^ow. Do it intelli- 
 gently. Do it with a true heart, in full as- 
 surance of faith, and God will seal you for 
 His own. Do not waver. Do not doubt. 
 Do not cast away your confidence because 
 of your feelings or lack of feelings, but 
 stand by your facts; walk by faith, and God 
 will soon prove His ownership in you in a 
 way that will be altogether satisfactory to 
 both your head and your heart, and con- 
 vincing to men and devils. 
 
 What Is meant by "saved from self" as it is 
 sung of and testified to in The Salvation Army? 
 
 Answer: (1.) It does not mean the destruc- 
 tion of our "will, but the complete union of our
 
 UNION WITH JESUS. 105 
 
 will with the will of God, so that we may say* 
 with Jesus : "Not my will, but Thine be done," 
 and "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." 
 
 (2.) It means that we seek not selfish ends 
 and that we even lay down our rights and our 
 lives for the glory of God and the salvation of 
 men. "Hereby perceive we the love of God be- 
 cause He laid down His life for us, and we 
 ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." 
 (1 John 3: 16.) "He that loveth Oils life shall 
 lose it, and he that hateth bis life in this world 
 shall keep it unto life eternal." (John 12: 25.) 
 "Then said Jesus unto His disciples : If any 
 man will come after Me, let him deny himself 
 and take up "his cross and follow Me. For who- 
 soever will save his life shall lose it, and who- 
 eoever shall lose his life for My sake shall find 
 it" (Matt. 16: 24, 25.)
 
 106 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS, 
 
 XIV. 
 
 IN GOD'S SCHOOL. 
 
 Man is the supreme product of this world, 
 and the struggle with adversity and evil 
 forces is a part of 'God's plan of developing 
 him for mansions and thrones and crowns 
 and kingdoms in the world to come. There- 
 fore we must believe and hope and love and 
 struggle on. "In due time we shall reap, if 
 we faint not." We must beware of dis- 
 couragement and from running away from 
 the conflict. If we flee, we shall perish for- 
 ever. If we fight to the finish, "we shall 
 conquer though we die." 
 
 Nothing can come to us that God does 
 not permit, and which by His grace cannot 
 be made to work out our higher good. God 
 wants to build us up in holy character, but 
 holy character is for eternity and is many- 
 sided, and therefore must be subjected to 
 manifold testings. We must be taught by 
 both pain and pleasure; we must learn how 
 to abound and suffer need. And in this
 
 IN GOD'S SCHOOL. 107 
 
 we shall be plunged often from the heights 
 to the depths, and hurled from the depths 
 to the heights again. 
 
 To-day the sun shines and the world is 
 full of beauty, and life seems a holiday, but 
 to-morrow the storm-clouds lower and the 
 beauty is hid, and we are prone to fear that 
 the sun will shine no more. To-day men 
 look upon us and smile and shout "Ho- 
 sanna !" but to-morrow they frown and gnash 
 their teeth and cry out, "Crucify him !" To- 
 day we have plenty and can feed the multi- 
 tudes of the hungry with what we have to 
 spare; to-morrow we ourselves are hungry 
 and know not where to turn for bread. To- 
 day our pulse is full and we feel strong to 
 chase a thousand; to-morrow we are feeble 
 and broken and life is a burden. , To-day 
 we pray and God hears us before;' we call, 
 and answers while we are yet speaking; to- 
 morrow we plead and weep and moan and 
 the heavens seem shut, and the mocking 
 tempter whispers, "Where is thy God now?" 
 
 To-day Job is the richest man in all the 
 East, and his sons are the strongest and his 
 daughters are the fairest in the land; to- 
 morrow he is a pauper and childless. To- 
 day Joseph is the pet of his father's heart 
 and home ; to-morrow he is under the lash 
 and is toiling and galled with the slave gang's 
 chain. To-day David weds the king's daugh- 
 ter; to-morrow the king, with murderous 
 hate, hurls his javelin at him and chases him 
 over and around the mountains as he would 
 a partridge or a wolf. To-day Daniel sits
 
 108 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 next to the king in the midst of the hundred 
 and twenty princes and counselors; to-night 
 he is in the lions' den. 
 
 What means all this uncertainty and mys- 
 tery of pleasure and pain, of hope and de- 
 spair, of favor and disfavor? Ah, hallelu- 
 jah! it means that God wants us for Him- 
 self. "Whom the Lord loveth He disciplin- 
 eth." It means that He sees there is some- 
 thing in us worth His while to educate, and 
 He is educating us. 
 
 A friend of mine owned a gold mine. He 
 promised the Lord every penny of profit front 
 it. He made nothing, but lost $100,000 in 
 that mine. He went to the Lord about it. 
 The Lord said, "I am educating you, and I 
 can afford to spend millions to do so." My 
 friend cried out, "O Lord, if Thou canst 
 afford it, I can, for Thou knowest I want 
 to be educated in Thy school !" 
 
 God would make us strong in faith, mighty 
 in power, unfailing in hope, content whatever 
 our lot, perfect in love, fearless in our devo- 
 tion to truth, lovers of men and more than 
 conquerors. 
 
 He would wean us from man, in whom 
 there is no help, to Himself; He would de- 
 tach us from, the world and fasten us by 
 every tie to Heaven. When Job shall have 
 learned his lesson, which is not for himself 
 alone, but for ten thousand times ten thou- 
 sand other perplexed sufferers as well, he 
 shall have his riches doubled and restored 
 to him again with strongest sons and fairest 
 daughters. Joseph shall leave the prison cell
 
 IN GOD'S SCHOOL. 109 
 
 and slave gang's chain and sit as a favorite 
 in Pharaoh's palace and rule his empire. The 
 king shall die by his own hand, and David 
 shall sit upon his throne. Daniel shall es- 
 scape from the lions' den and rise to higher 
 honor and esteem than he knew before. Thus 
 shall it be with the man who does not kick 
 against the pricks, but nestles low under 
 God's hand and rejoices and obeys and trusts 
 and doubts not while God educates. 
 
 "Flowers need night's cool darkness, 
 
 The moonlight and the dew ; 
 So Christ from one who loved It, 
 
 His shining oft withdrew, 
 And then for cause of absence 
 
 My troubled soul I scanned, 
 But glory shadelesa snineth 
 
 In Emmanuel's land." 
 
 The secret of peace and victory under all 
 these circumstances is "a little more faith in 
 Jesus." 
 
 In God's school we learn through the heart 
 rather than through the head, and by faith 
 rather than logic. "Lord, I believe!" Amen! 
 
 Holiness is indispensable to your completest 
 usefulness. 
 
 My comrades, you know the way of life and 
 the blessedness of religion. You can tell some- 
 thing of the love of God, and the Joys of the
 
 110 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 redeemed. You can pray, and sing, and lead out 
 to battle the armies of the King. What else Is 
 wanted to complete your qualifications for doing 
 the greatest possible amount of good, but that 
 you shall be able to say to your people, "That 
 which I publish as attainable of personal peace 
 and joy and communion with God I enjoy 
 myself! I am saved, saved inside and out! 
 Saved to the uttermost! Saved now and saved 
 every day!" Moreover, my brethren, there is 
 something above and beyond the mighty influence 
 which flows from, and must ever accompany, 
 such a testimony as that I have named, and that 
 is the mighty power that accompanies the life 
 itself. A .sanctified life means a gentle, tender 
 spirit ; it means a fearless, undaunted zeal ; it 
 means the accompanying manifestation of the 
 Holy Ghost. It is the prelude and condition 
 and assurance of the enduement of power. TH 
 GENERAL, in "Salvation Soldiery."
 
 HOLINESS AND SELF-DENIAL. Ill 
 
 XV. 
 
 HOLINESS AND SELF-DENIAL. 
 
 1. One day Mr. Wesley was to dine with a 
 rich man. One of his preachers, who was 
 present, said, "Oh, sir, what a sumptuous 
 dinner ! Things are very different from what 
 they were formerly. There is but little self- 
 denial now among the Methodists." Mr. 
 Wesley pointed to the table and quietly re- 
 marked, "My brother, there is a fine oppor- 
 tunity for self-denial." 
 
 Denial that is not self-imposed is not self- 
 denial. It might have been self-denial on 
 the part of the host to present a less sumptu- 
 ous table, but there would have been no self- 
 denial on the part of the guest. Adverse 
 circumstances or selfish people may deprive 
 us of the luxuries and even the necessities 
 of life. But our deprivation would not be 
 self-denial. We deny ourselves only when 
 we voluntarily give up that which we like, 
 and which we might lawfully keep. And I 
 have no doubt that God often allows us
 
 112 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 luxuries and abundance, not that we may 
 consume them upon ourselves, but rather 
 that we may deny ourselves joyfully for His 
 dear sake, and the sake of the needy ones 
 about us. 
 
 Often when urging upon well-to-do people 
 the importance of denying themselves in 
 dress and furniture and equipage and the 
 luxuries of life, I have had them turn to me 
 and say, "If God did not mean me to have 
 these things and enjoy them, why did He 
 give me the means to get them?" And, poor 
 things ! they thought they had crushed me 
 with their logic. 
 
 But the answer is simple. God meant them 
 to be stewards, but they considered them- 
 selves owners. God meant them to have 
 the greater blessedness of giving, for "it is 
 more blessed to give than to receive," but 
 they contented themselves with what they 
 considered the blessedness of receiving. God 
 meant them to pass on His bounty to the 
 multitudes of needy ones about them, but 
 they dammed up and diverted the streams of 
 God's mercy and reveled in what they con- 
 sidered God's special favor and license to 
 unlimited self-indulgence, while the multi- 
 tudes for whom God really intended these 
 blessings perished of want. They show un- 
 mistakably by their conduct that they have 
 not the Spirit of Jesus, "Who though He 
 was rich, for our sakes became poor that 
 we through His poverty might be rich," and 
 on the Judgment Day they will surely be
 
 HOLINESS AND SELF-DENIAL. 113 
 
 found wanting, and woful will be their con- 
 demnation. 
 
 Why does God give a woman wealth? 
 That she may spend it on feathers and flow- 
 ers, and silks and satins, and luxurious 
 apartments? Nay; but that she may spend 
 it upon those who are hungry and cold and 
 dying of bitter want. 
 
 Why does God give a mother brilliant, 
 manly sons and lovely daughters? That 
 she may enjoy their presence and tram them 
 for society and a career before the world? 
 Nay; but that she may train them to be 
 martyrs, slum angels, missionaries to the 
 heathen and to the bare-footed, debauched, 
 neglected, devil-ridden children of the saloons 
 and brothels. Oh, as I have looked at my 
 sweet baby boy and girl, and realized the 
 almost infinite difference between their train- 
 ing and that of millions of little ones who 
 have the same rights in Jesus Christ that my 
 children have ; as I have realized the tender 
 care with which they are unceasingly watched 
 and sheltered and trained for God and right- 
 eousness, my heart has poured itself out to 
 Cod in unutterable longings, not that they 
 might be great, but that they might be good ; 
 not that they might fill the earth with their 
 fame, but that they might utterly sacrifice 
 themselves for those who have never known 
 the love and instruction of a sainted mother 
 and a Christian home ! 
 
 Why does God give a man power and 
 influence and fame? That he may be great 
 in the eyes of men and lord it over his
 
 114 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 fellows and clothe himself in purple and 
 "fine linen and live luxuriously? Nay; but 
 that he may throw every jot and tittle of 
 his power and influence into the scale for 
 righteousness of conduct and holiness of 
 character and hasten the utter establishment 
 of the Kingdom of God upon earth. 
 
 Self-denial almost ceases to be self-denial 
 when practised from such a high and holy 
 motive. It is the denial of the lower, base, 
 earthly life, and the gratification of the 
 higher and heavenly self. It is a turning 
 from earth to Heaven; from that which is 
 fleeting and temporal to that which is eter- 
 nal. It enlightens the mind, ennobles the 
 character, perfects the heart and brings us 
 into fellowship with Jesus. Bless God ! 
 Hallelujah! 
 
 "If any man will come after Me, let him 
 deny himself, take up his cross daily and 
 follow Me." 
 
 2. I once read an illustration of Mr. Fin- 
 ney's that has had a marked influence on my 
 life. In substance, it was this : "Suppose 
 a man were traveling in a foreign land, and, 
 being waylaid and captured by brigands, he 
 were sold into slavery, and a great ransom 
 demanded for his release. At last, word 
 reaches his anxious wife, informing her of 
 his sad state, and the only condition upon 
 which he could possibly be restored to her. 
 His bondage is cruel, and is fast wearing 
 his life away, but there is no way of escape 
 except the ransom be paid.
 
 HOLINESS AND SELF-DENIAL. 115 
 
 "All the love and affection and pity and 
 sympathy of the wife's heart are roused to 
 the uttermost. She fears for her loved one's 
 life, she can feel the galling chain, she can 
 see the cruel lash of the slave-driver, she can 
 realize the heart-loneliness and bitter bond- 
 age of her darling, and she wishes she could 
 fly to his side and share his burden and his 
 sorrow, and no sacrifice seems too great to 
 gain his liberty. She sells all her property, 
 she lays her case before her friends and 
 neighbors, and they assist her, and yet she 
 falls far below the amount of the ransom 
 demanded. She labors and toils early and 
 late, and hastens to earn what money she 
 can to add to what she already has; she 
 denies herself every luxury, and almost be- 
 grudges every necessity of life. She thinks 
 of the hard fare of her husband, the coarse, 
 scanty food, the miserable hovel, the hard, 
 filthy bed, the heavy, unremitting labor; 
 and the thought of selfish gratification is 
 painful to her. At last, a stranger hears 
 her sad story, visits her, and gives her $100. 
 She does not for an instant think: 'Now I 
 shall be able to get me a new dress and 
 bonnet in the latest fashion, or get a nice 
 piece of furniture for my rooms, or furnish 
 my table better than in the past.' No, no. 
 She bursts into tears. She thanks the giver, 
 and she cries : 'Now I shall be able to ran- 
 som my love, and soon I shall have him in 
 my arms again.' " 
 
 Now, when the Christian whose heart 
 throbs with love for the Saviour realizes
 
 116 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 that Jesus puts Himself in the place of the 
 prisoner in his lonely, dark cell ; the slave 
 toiling without recompense under the lash, 
 with the galling, clanking chain ; the sick 
 one, on the bed of sleeplessness and pain ; 
 the heathen, in his blindness and ignorance 
 and superstition and fear; the helpless or- 
 phan, and the poor widow, and the outcast 
 sinner, and says, "Inasmuch as ye did it 
 unto one of the least of these ye did it unto 
 Me," he must deny himself. 
 
 When he sees Jesus, lonely and fall of toil 
 and sorrow, again, in the person of these 
 suffering ones, he finds it easier to deny 
 himself than to indulge himself, and self- 
 sacrifice becomes a joy, while self-indul- 
 gence becomes a grief and a moral im- 
 possibility. 
 
 It is for this reason that I deny myself. It 
 is for Jesus, and the souls for whom He 
 died. For years I lived for myself. All 
 my hopes and ambitions centred in myself; 
 even my desire to go to heaven was more 
 a desire to escape from the pains of hell 
 than to enjoy the society of Jesus and re- 
 deemed souls and to do good and be holy. 
 
 But at last all this was changed. My sins 
 became a burden. I loathed myself. The 
 righteous indignation and wrath of God 
 against evil-doers took hold upon me, and 
 I feared I should be lost forever. But I 
 found deliverance through Jesus; through 
 Him I found forgiveness of sins and free- 
 dom from the bondage of selfishness. He 
 did not upbraid me, but loved me freely, and
 
 HOLINESS AND SELF-DENIAL. 117 
 
 won my heart and filled me with confidence 
 and love toward Him that were unutterable 
 With that love to Him came a love for 
 the whole world of saints and sinners. At 
 first I groped about somewhat blindly to 
 know how to express that love, but true 
 love will always finally express itself in 
 uttermost self-sacrifice for its object, and 
 in doing so adds fuel to its flame. Since 
 then, I have found it easier to give than 
 to withhold. I began by giving one-tenth 
 of my income, but I couldn't stop there. 
 Any case of need, any appeal for help, 
 receives prompt attention, until, if it were 
 not for the foresight of a prudent wife, 
 who gets me to lay up money with her 
 for a needed suit, I should frequently be 
 without suitable clothes to wear. 
 
 This is not natural. It is spiritual 
 supernatural. In the old days when I had 
 plenty of money, I can remember that it 
 was rather grudgingly that I subscribed 
 two dollars a year to the support of the 
 Gospel. I should be decidedly ashamed to 
 tell this, but for the fact that I am now 
 "a new creature," . and an honest confession 
 is good for the soul. 
 
 How can I indulge myself while others 
 suffer? How can I hoard up wealth and 
 this world's goods while others perish of 
 want? Why can I not trust Him to supply 
 my wants, who feeds the sparrows witli 
 unfailing supply? Why did He speak so, ii 
 it was not to encourage one to cast abroad
 
 118 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 with an open, liberal hand and trust Him 
 for daily bread ? 
 
 I want the "full strength of trust to 
 prove," and how can I have such trust if 
 I never once in my life give away all I have, 
 and boldly trust Him to supply my need 
 and confound a taunting devil? I have 
 done it. Glory to God! And He has not 
 failed me. Instead of finding my feet on 
 quicksands, I found them on granite, and 
 instead of starvation, I found plenty. Bless 
 God forever ! Oh, there is a divine phil- 
 osophy in self-denial that the wise folks of 
 this world never dream of!
 
 SPIRITUAL POWER. 119 
 
 XVI. 
 
 SPIRITUAL POWER. 
 
 God is the source of all spiritual power, 
 and should be sought for constantly in two 
 ways by meditation in His Word, and by 
 secret prayer if we would have and retain 
 power. 
 
 Several years ago I was "specialing" at 
 a New England corps, commanded by a 
 rather gifted Ensign. He appeared to be 
 much impressed by my familiarity with and 
 use of the Bible, and one day remarked that 
 he would be willing to give a fortune, if 
 he had it, for an equal knowledge of the 
 Scriptures. He was much taken back when 
 I assured him that he was quite mistaken 
 as to the strength of his desire, for if he 
 really wanted to get acquainted with his 
 Bible, he could easily do so by spending 
 the hour and more that he gave to the
 
 120 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 newspapers each day, in prayerful study 
 of 'God's Word. 
 
 Men are everywhere crying and sighing 
 for power and the fulness of the Spirit, 
 but neglecting the means by which this 
 power and fulness are secured. 
 
 The saintly Fletcher said : "An eager 
 attention to the doctrines of the Holy 
 Spirit made me in some degree overlook 
 the medium by which that Spirit works ; I 
 mean the word of truth, by which that 
 heavenly fire warms us. I rather expected 
 lightning, than a steady fire by means of 
 fuel." 
 
 Glad, believing, secret prayer, and patient, 
 constant meditation in the Word of God 
 will keep the sanctified man full of 
 power, full of love and faith, and full 
 of God. 
 
 But neglect of these results in spiritual 
 weakness and dryness, joyless labor and 
 fruitless toil; and, unless remedy is found, 
 spiritual death will surely, if not swiftly, 
 follow. If any reader of this has lost the 
 power and juice and sweetness of his ex- 
 perience through neglect of these simple 
 means, he will not receive the blessing back 
 again by working himself up into a frenzy 
 of agony in prayer, but rather by quieting 
 himself and talking plainly to God about 
 it, and then hearkening diligently to what 
 God says in His Word and by His Spirit. 
 Then peace and power will soon return,
 
 SPIRITUAL POWER. 121 
 
 and need never be lost any more. Hallelu- 
 jah! 
 
 Most people give to their bodies about ten 
 hours a day in eating, drinking and dress- 
 ing and sleeping, and maybe a few minutes 
 to their souls. We ought to give at least one 
 solid hour every day to restful, loving devo- 
 tion with Jesus over our open Bible, for the 
 refreshing, developing and strengthening of 
 our spiritual life. If we would do this, God 
 would have an opportunity to teach, correct, 
 inspire and comfort us, reveal His secrets 
 to us, and make spiritual giants of us. If 
 we will not do this we shall surely be 
 spiritual weaklings all our days, however 
 we may wish to be strong. 
 
 The devil will rob us of this hour if we 
 do not steadfastly fight for it. He will 
 say, "Go and work," before we have got- 
 ten the spiritual food that strengthens us 
 for work. The devil's piety and eager inter- 
 est in God's work is amazing when he sees 
 a soul upon its knees ! It is then that he 
 transforms himself into an angel of light, 
 and woe be to the soul that is deceived by 
 him at this point ! 
 
 I do thank God that, for many years, 
 as a field officer, a divisional officer, and 
 a spiritual special, He has helped me to 
 resist the devil at this point, and to take 
 time with Him until my soul has been 
 filled with his glory and strength, and 
 made triumphant over all the power of the 
 enemy. Glory to God !
 
 122 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 "And now, brethren, I commend you to 
 God, and to the word of His grace, which is 
 able to build you up and to give you an 
 inheritance among all them that are sanc- 
 tified." (Acts 20: 32.)
 
 JESUS THE WORKINGMAN. 123 
 
 XVII. 
 
 JESUS THE WORKINGMAN. 
 
 Peter the Great, Czar of all Russia, and 
 in some respects the mightiest monarch of 
 his day, used to make shoes like a common 
 cobbler, that he might enter into sympathy 
 with his people and help them to realize that 
 labor is not menial, but honorable and full 
 of dignity. It was a great stoop from the 
 throne of Russia to a cobbler's bench, but 
 I will tell you of a greater. 
 
 The Apostle tells us, in Hebrews 1 : 2, 
 that God made the worlds by His Son, and 
 that the Son "upholds all things by the 
 word of His power." 
 
 John tells us, in the first chapter of his 
 gospel that "In the beginning was the 
 Word, and the Word was with God, and 
 the Word was God. All things were made 
 by Him, and without Him was not anything 
 made that was made." He is the Master 
 Workman whom the Heaven of heavens
 
 124 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 cannot contain, inhabiting eternity (Isaiah 
 57: 15), stretching forth the heavens as a 
 curtain, making mighty systems of sun, 
 moon and stars, creating worlds and hurl- 
 ing them into the awful abysses of space 
 and causing them to move, not in chaotic 
 confusion, but in more than clock-like har- 
 mony, by the silent, resistless energy of all- 
 embracing laws. 
 
 He scoops out the bed of the mighty 
 oceans. He tosses aloft hoary mountains 
 and stretches forth vast prairies and sandy 
 deserts. He peoples the world with living 
 creatures, until the imagination is almost 
 paralyzed by the contemplation of His handi- 
 work. He is Maker of the infinitely great 
 and the infinitely small. He made the fixed 
 star billions of miles away and millions of 
 times bigger than the earth on which we 
 live, and He made the tiny insect so small 
 that it can only be seen by the aid of the 
 microscope, and He fitted that little mite 
 with its perfect organs of digestion, respir- 
 ation and reproduction. 
 
 He garnished the heavens and stretches 
 forth the rainbow, and He painted the 
 insect's wings and polished the lens of its 
 littlejjfeye. Oh, He is a wondrous workman! 
 
 But John tells us "The Word was made 
 flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld 
 His glory, the glory as of the only begotten 
 of the Father) full of grace and truth." And 
 the Apostle says that "Forasmuch then as 
 the children are partakers of flesh and 
 blood. He also Himself likewise took part
 
 JESUS THE WORKINGMAN. 125 
 
 of the same. For verily He took not on 
 Him the nature of angels, but He took on 
 Him the seed of Abraham, wherefore in 
 all things it behooved Him to be made 
 like His brethren." 
 
 And when He clothed Himself with our 
 flesh, when He hid His dignity under the 
 humble garb of humanity, He did not come 
 as an aristocrat, but He took a lowly place 
 in a peasant's home. 
 
 He alone of all the children of men chose 
 His mother, and He chose one who was 
 poor and humble and unknown among 
 men. In His mighty descent from the, 
 bosom of the Father to the womb of the 
 Virgin, He might have stopped at the throne 
 of some mighty earthly empire, or among 
 the rich and lordly; but instead of that He 
 went down past thrones and palaces, and 
 was born in a stable in a manger among 
 the cattle, that He might not be other than 
 the lowliest of His brethren. He came to 
 a life of obscurity, of poverty and of toil, 
 and He, who made the worlds and upheld 
 them by the word of His power, learned to 
 be a carpenter. 
 
 The artists, when they paint a picture of 
 Jesus, paint a face of almost womanly soft- 
 ness, and would picture Him to us as a 
 delicate man, with hair parted in the middle 
 and with patrician hands and tapering 
 fingers; but the Bible rather pictures Him 
 to us a horny-handed man of toil, whose 
 back was bent to labor, and who earned 
 His bread by the sweat of His brow. Bless
 
 126 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Him ! Indeed, "He was made like unto 
 His brethren." He became brother to the 
 humblest son of toil, and since He has been 
 a workingman, He has put a dignity on 
 labor that exceeds the dignity of kings and 
 queens. 
 
 Jesus was a workingman, and as such 
 understands workingmen. He knows their 
 weakness, He has been pinched with their 
 poverty, He can sympathize with them in 
 their long hours of toil that bars them 
 from that culture of minrl wh'Hi, no doubt, 
 they crave. He understands. But while He 
 suffered and toiled and was tempted and tried 
 as His brethren, and was debarred from the 
 luxuries of wealth and the culture of schools, 
 yet He was not debarred from culture of the 
 heart and fellowship with His Father. He 
 could be pure, He could be holy, He could 
 be loving and patient and kind and true, 
 and He did this, dying for us that we might 
 escape from our sins and become men after 
 the pattern of Himself. We may not be 
 great, but we may Jbe good. We may not 
 be able to erect a Brooklyn Bridge, or "build 
 a St. Peter's at Rome, but we can do our 
 little task well and in the spirit of Jesus. 
 We can be kind and patient, and faithful 
 and true. We can become partakers^ of His 
 Spirit, and do our work as unto Him, and 
 by and by we shall enter into His glory, 
 and we shall not be rewarded for the great- 
 ness of the work we have done, but rather 
 for the faithfulness with which we have 
 done it. The carpenter who has built 
 

 
 JESUS THE WORKINGMAN. 
 
 127 
 
 houses ; the blacksmith who has shod 
 horses ; the man who has carried a hod ; the 
 boy who has blacked boots ; the clerk who 
 has toiled over the ledger; the farmer 
 who has ploughed the fields and fed 
 cattle, if he has done it faithfully, with 
 his heart washed in the Blood and full 
 of love for the Master and his fellow 
 men, in the spirit of prayer and thanks- 
 giving, shall have as abundant an en- 
 trance into the everlasting Kingdom of 
 Jesus the Carpenter, and shall have a place 
 as near the throne as the man who preached 
 the Gospel to thousands, or governed states 
 and ruled kingdoms. 
 
 "
 
 128 HEAKT TALKS ON HOLINESS, 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 THE LEGACY OF HOLINESS. 
 
 "A^ter the death of Abraham, God blessed his 
 ion Isaac." (Gen. 25: 11.) 
 
 We must die ! We feel that we must live 
 for the sake of our sons, for the people 
 of God whom we love as our own souls, 
 and for the perishing sinners about us. We 
 are prone to magnify our own importance, 
 to think no one's faith is so mighty, no 
 one's industry is quite so fruitful, no one's 
 love quite so unfailing, no one's presence 
 quite so necessary as ours. But after we 
 die the blessed -God will still live ; His years 
 fail not, and He will bless our sons and 
 carry on His work. Glory to God ! 
 
 Have faith in God, brother! Trust the 
 Lord, sister ! He will bless your children 
 after you are dead. 
 
 Be sure you have given your children to 
 God given them not in order that they may 
 be saved from hell, but that they may be
 
 THE LEGACY OF HOLINESS. 129 
 
 saved from sin, from enmity to God, from 
 pride and worldliness and selfishness and 
 unbelief, saved that they may be saviours 
 of others, and God will bless them when 
 you are dead. 
 
 Do not choose ease and wealth and worldly 
 power and fame for your children, but rather 
 choose the lowly way of the Cross. Jesus 
 was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief. He was despised and rejected of 
 men. Ask the Lord with all your heart 
 to make your children like the Master, 
 and to lead them in the paths He trod, and 
 when you are dead God will remember your 
 prayers and bless them. 
 
 Some years ago I was talking with a 
 young lady whom God marvelously blessed 
 and used in His work. Each of us had lost 
 both of our parents when we were quite 
 young. They were godly parents who had 
 given us to the Lord, and then, when it 
 seemed we most needed their counsel and 
 discipline, they died. But God took us up 
 and blessed us. And as we talked about 
 the past we could see the hand of God, 
 through corrections and faithful fatherly 
 chastenings, shaping our whole lives, and 
 bringing blessings out of what seemed the 
 greatest calamities, until we were lost in 
 wonder at His wisdom and goodness, and 
 our mouths were filled with praise. 
 
 If our parents could have foreseen how 
 'God would tenderly care for us and bless 
 us, how it would have softened their dying 
 pillows!
 
 130 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Ah ! there is the secret cause of our 
 trouble, that we cannot foresee! The more 
 reason then why we should trust. "We 
 walk by faith, not by sight," therefore we 
 should trust. "Thou wilt keep him in per- 
 fect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, 
 because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the 
 Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah 
 is everlasting strength." 
 
 God may have blessed Isaac before the 
 death of Abraham, but I am glad we are 
 told that He blessed him after the death 
 of Abraham. God has a memory; He 
 doesn't forget. God is faithful ; He breaks 
 no promises. God is good ; He delights to 
 show mercy and bestow blessings. 
 
 Be faithful yourself. God said of Abra- 
 ham, "I know him, that he will command 
 his children and his household after him, 
 and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to 
 do justice and judgment, that the Lord 
 may bring upon Abraham that which He 
 hath spoken of him." 
 
 Do your part as well as you know how. 
 Search the Bible to know what God will 
 have you do, and do it. 
 
 Pray for wisdom. "If any man lack 
 wisdom let him ask of God, and it shall be 
 given him." God will not upbraid you for 
 your ignorance, if you want to be wise ; 
 therefore pray for wisdom. 
 
 Pray for patience. If you plant corn, 
 it does not spring up the next morning. 
 It lies under the ground for many days, and 
 seems to perish ; but God's eye is upon it,
 
 THE LEGACY OF HOLINESS. 131 
 
 and He will bless it, and cause it to bring 
 forth fruit. And so will it be with your 
 seed-sowing in the hearts of your children; 
 but you must have patience. Pray for pa- 
 tience. If you are patient and have faith in 
 God, and are not walking by sight, you will 
 continue to pray in hope, and to sow "the 
 seed which is the word of God," though it 
 seems to be utterly useless. It is not useless. 
 Glory to God ! Though you may die, yet 
 after you are dead, God will bless your 
 Isaacs. He surely will !
 
 132 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 THANKSGIVING. 
 
 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and 
 into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto 
 Him, and bless His name. DAVID. 
 
 In everything give thanks. PADL. 
 
 As lilies of the valley pour forth perfume, 
 so good hearts pour forth thanksgiving. 
 No mercy is too small to provoke it, no 
 trial too severe to restrain it. As Samson 
 got honey from the carcass of the lion he 
 slew, and as Moses got water from the 
 flinty rock, so the pure in heart are pos- 
 sessed of a sort of heavenly alchemy, a divine 
 secret by which they get blessing out of all 
 things, and for which there is giving of 
 thanks. 
 
 A jubilant old saint in Boston came down 
 to hoary hairs in deepest poverty and had 
 to live on the charity of such friends as God 
 raised up, and He raised them up. Bless 
 His name! He who fed Elijah in the
 
 THANKSGIVING. 133 
 
 wilderness by the brook and in the poverty- 
 stricken home of the desolate widow, found 
 a way to feed His child in Boston. God is 
 not blind, nor deaf, nor indifferent, nor 
 indigent. He is not "the silent God" that 
 some people in their self-conceit and way- 
 ward unbelief suppose. He knows how to 
 be silent, and how to hide Himself from 
 the proud in heart. But He cannot hide 
 Himself anywhere in His big universe from 
 childlike faith and pure, obedient, long- 
 suffering, patient love. Hallelujah! 
 
 This old saint believed, obeyed and 
 rejoiced in God, and He raised up friends 
 to supply her needs. Now, one day one 
 of them went upstairs with a dinner for the 
 old lady, and as she came to the door, she 
 heard a voice within, and thinking there was 
 a visitor present, and delicately wishing 
 that her charity should not be a cause of 
 embarrassment, she stopped and listened. 
 It was the voice of the old Christian at her 
 table, and she was saying, "O Father, I 
 do thank Thee with all my heart for Jesus 
 and this crust !" 
 
 To her thankful heart that crust was more 
 than a feast and a well-filled cupboard and 
 a fat bank-account to him who has not a 
 trustful, thankful spirit. 
 
 I heard of a rich man the other day who 
 killed himself because he feared he might 
 become poor. He was poor. Jesus said, 
 "A man's life consisteth not in the abun- 
 dance of the things which he possesseth," 
 and no more does a man's real riches, but
 
 134 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 rather in the spirit with which he possesses 
 them. 
 
 Heaven is not parceled off into lots and 
 estates. The angels own nothing and yet 
 they possess all things and are eternally 
 rich. And so with the true saint that trusts 
 God and loves and obeys and is thankful. 
 
 The stars in their courses fight for him. 
 He is now in harmony with the elemental 
 and heavenly forces and the eternal laws 
 of the universe of God, and all things work 
 together for his good. Not a hair of his 
 head falls without God's notice. Not a 
 desire rises in his heart but God's great 
 heart throbs responsive to fulfil it, for does 
 not the Psalmist say, "He will fulfil the 
 desires of them that fear Him"? Not simply 
 the fervent prayer, but the timid, secret 
 desire that has not been voiced in prayer, 
 shall be fulfilled. And how dare God 
 do that? Because a holy fear will not 
 allow a desire that is not in harmony with 
 God's character and the interests of His 
 Kingdom. 
 
 Napoleon gave blank checks on his bank 
 to one of his marshals. One complained to 
 the Emperor that the drafts made were enor- 
 mous and should not be allowed. "Let him 
 alone ; he trusts and honors me, and I will 
 trust him," said Napoleon. God puts all 
 things at the command of His saints, and 
 trusts them while He asks them to trust 
 Him. Why, then, should we not be thank- 
 ful? 
 
 Nothing will keep the heart so young
 
 THANKSGIVING. 135 
 
 and banish carking care so quickly, and 
 smooth the wrinkles from the brow so 
 certainly, and fill the life with such beauty, 
 and make one's influence so fragrant and 
 gracious, and shed abroad such peace and 
 gladness, as this sweet spirit of thankful- 
 ness. 
 
 This spirit can and should be cultivated. 
 There is much in the lot of each of us to 
 be thankful for. We should thank him for 
 personal liberty, and for the measure of 
 health we have. There is a good old soul 
 up the Hudson who for thirty years or 
 thereabout has been lying in bed, while her 
 bones have softened, and she is utterly 
 helpless and always in pain, but she praises 
 and praises and praises God. 
 
 We should thank Him that we are not 
 insane, that our poor minds are not un- 
 balanced and rent and torn by horrid night- 
 mares and dreads and nameless terrors and 
 deep despair and wild and restless ravings. 
 We should thank Him for the light and 
 blessings of civilization, past mercies, pres- 
 ent comforts and future prospects, food, 
 with the appetite to eat it, and the power 
 to digest it, raiment to wear, books to read, 
 the Church, The Salvation Army, the open 
 Bible, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the 
 Fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, 
 the glorious possibility of escape from the 
 penalty and the power, the consequences and 
 the character of sin, for home and friends, 
 and heaven bending over all, with God's 
 sweet invitation, "Come !" Truly we have
 
 136 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 much to thank God for, but if we would be 
 thankful, we must set our hearts to do it 
 with a will. We grumble and complain 
 without thought, but we must think to give 
 thanks. To murmur and repine is natural, 
 to give thanks to really give thanks is 
 supernatural, is gracious, is a spirit not 
 earth-born, but comes down from God out 
 of heaven, and yet, like all things from 
 God, it can be cultivated. 
 
 David said, "I will praise Thee." He put 
 his will into it. Daniel "prayed and gave 
 thanks" three times a day. David outdid 
 Daniel, for he says, "Seven times a day do 
 I praise Thee." 
 
 Know this, that if you are not thankful 
 your heart is yet bad, your soul unclean, 
 for good hearts and pure souls are thankful. 
 So go to the root of the matter and get 
 rid of sin and get filled with the Holy Spirit. 
 Flee to Jesus for riddance from the unholy 
 spirit, and the subtle selfishness that pos- 
 sesses you. 
 
 People who live in the midst of foul odors 
 and harsh sounds cease to smell and hear 
 them, but if for a while they could slip 
 away to the sweet air and holy quiet of the 
 woods and fields, and then return to their 
 noxious and noisy homes, their quickened 
 senses would be shocked by the noisome 
 surroundings. And so selfish people often 
 live in themselves so long that they do not 
 realize their selfishness and sin, except as 
 light from heaven falls upon them. But 
 when God's sweet breath blows over them
 
 THANKSGIVING. 137 
 
 and His light shines into them, then they 
 are amazed at themselves. When some 
 humble saint, full of faith and joy and the 
 Holy Ghost, crosses their path, if they will 
 but look, they may see themselves as in a 
 glass. But especially is this so when we 
 look at Jesus ; and if we continue, the look 
 v/ill transform us. It is of this that the 
 Apostle speaks when he says, "We all with 
 open face beholding as in a glass the glory 
 of the Lord are changed into the same image 
 from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the 
 Lord.'' And when this change has taken 
 place the joy of Jesus will be poured into 
 the heart, and praise will well up and bubble 
 forth in thanksgiving as an unfailing foun- 
 tain of sweet waters, filling it with joy, and 
 earth, your little corner of earth, with peace, 
 and gladdening all who see and hear. But 
 if that change has not fully taken place in 
 you, do not withhold the praise that is 
 God's due, but think of His loving kindness 
 and tender and multiplied mercies, and begin 
 to thank Him now, and your very giving of 
 thanks will help to hasten the change. 
 Begin now ! Praise the Lord !
 
 138 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 How must we try the spirits? 
 
 Answer: (1.) Every spirit that leads you to 
 trust in Jesus fully and only, and look upon 
 Him as all-sufficient to save and to keep for 
 ever, Is of God. Every spirit that leads you to 
 joyfully confess and follow Him as your Lord 
 and Saviour, even though it be in the face of 
 the whole world and unto death, is of God. 
 Every spirit that fills with more love to God 
 and man is of God. 
 
 (2.) Pray to God for the Holy Spirit, who can 
 reveal to you every unholy spirit. It is one of 
 <the offices of the Holy Ghost to guide us Into 
 all truth. "The Comforter, which is the Holy 
 Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, 
 'He shall teach you all things, and bring all 
 things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have 
 said unto you." (John 14: 26.) "When He, the 
 Spirit of Truth, is come. He shall guide you into 
 all truth." (John 16: 13.) 
 
 (3.) Go to the Bible and seek for truth there. 
 "And when they shall say unto you, Seek them 
 that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that 
 peep and mutter; should not a people seek unto 
 their God? Should the living seek unto the dead? 
 To the law and to the testimony;" (that is to 
 the Bible) "If they speak not according to this 
 word, it Is because there is no light in them." 
 (Isaiah 8: 19, 20.) 
 
 (4.) "Quench not the Spirit. Prove all things; 
 hold fast that which is good. Abstain from every 
 appearance of evil." (1 Thess. 5: 16-23.) 
 
 (5.) Walt upon God. 
 
 (6.) Don't get in a hurry, and don't do a 
 doubtful thing.
 
 DON'T FLINCH. 139 
 
 XX. 
 
 DON'T FLINCH. 
 
 The other evening I asked a Captain for 
 the story of her conversion. She told me 
 that a few lines in a little book showed her 
 the way to Jesus. She saw through these 
 lines that if she would ask God to save 
 her and would "not flinch" in her faith, He 
 would do it. So she prayed, and then 
 waited for Jesus to come. She was very 
 dark. She lived in a country that was full 
 of spiritual darkness, and there was no one 
 to teach her, and in her ignorance she thought 
 Jesus would come in bodily presence, so 
 she put her room in order and earnestly 
 waited and watched for Him to open the 
 door and come in. But He did not come. 
 
 Then she remembered that God had 
 promised to answer the prayers of two or 
 three ; so she wrote a note to a minister to 
 come and pray with her. But something 
 seemed to whisper to her that this was doubt- 
 ing God, that she was trusting the minister's
 
 140 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 prayer and not the Lord, and this was doubt. 
 So she tore the note up, and, looking to God, 
 without flinching she trusted, when suddenly 
 Jesus came, not in bodily presence, but in 
 Spirit, and her whole soul was flooded with 
 light and love and the glory of God. Bless 
 the Lord forever ! 
 
 Now, I fully believe that it is just at this 
 point that many souls draw back and fail. 
 They flinch at the final test of faith. Just 
 when all is on the altar and there is not one 
 thing more to do but to stand still and see 
 God come, "an evil heart of unbelief" draws 
 back, or Satan comes suggesting something 
 more to do, and the soul, dropping its eyes 
 from the bending heavens, gets into the end- 
 less treadmill of endeavor to either help 
 itself or get somebody to help it, and so 
 misses the prize and never finds God, or 
 rather never gives God a chance to show 
 forth His saving power, and make His pres- 
 ence known. 
 
 While faith stands waiting and trembling, 
 taunted by mocking devils and all manner 
 of suggestions to doubt, it is hard not to 
 flinch, but flinching will prove as fatal to 
 the revelation of Jesus to your souls as a 
 movement will prove to your picture when 
 before the photographer's camera. Be still 
 in your heart and trust, look and wait, and 
 Jesus will surely come. There may be cease- 
 less outward activity; but this inward soul- 
 quiet and watchfulness and faith are abso- 
 lutely necessary to the revelation of the 
 Lord.
 
 DON'T FLINCH. 141 
 
 Abraham slew his birds and beasts and laid 
 them on the altar and waited expectantly 
 for God to come, and God came. 
 
 Solomon built his temple, placed every- 
 thing in order, then prayed and waited, when, 
 lo ! the glory of God filled the temple till 
 the priests could not stand in His presence. 
 
 Elijah slew his bullock, placed it on the 
 altar, poured water over it as a final work of 
 faith, then prayed and waited till the 
 heavens opened and fire fell and consumed 
 his sacrifice. 
 
 The disciples prayed and waited on God 
 for ten days; then suddenly the Holy Ghost 
 fell on them in tongues of fire that filled 
 the world with light. 
 
 If these men had flinched when the time 
 came to steadfastly look to God and believe, 
 the world would never have heard of them. 
 
 A ministerial friend of mine lost the bless- 
 ing of full salvation. I found him in this 
 state and dealt faithfully with him. He 
 went to his church that night, and told his 
 people his condition, and called them around 
 the altar with him ; but he failed to get the 
 blessing. A wise friend of mine, who hap- 
 pened to be present, explained his failure by 
 saying : "He didn't stay on his knees long 
 enough. He was in too big a hurry. He 
 didn't give God time to deal with him." The 
 fact was, he flinched when the time to stead- 
 ily watch and wait and trust came. 
 
 The Lord God declared by the mouth of 
 Isaiah, "He that believeth shall not make 
 haste." (Isaiah 28: 16.) It is in this attitude
 
 142 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 of unflinching watching and waiting that 
 faith and patience are made perfect; and 
 when this perfection is attained, the Lord 
 will come suddenly to 'His temple, even to 
 the heart that has waited for Him. 
 
 Myriads are the souls that can say with 
 the royal Psalmist : "I waited patiently for 
 the Lord, and He inclined unto me and 
 heard my cry. He brought me up also out 
 of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and 
 set my feet upon a rock, and established my 
 goings; and He hath put a new song into my 
 mouth, even praise unto our God." (Psalm 
 40: 1-3.) 
 
 Can a person -who was once sanctified and filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, and who became a back- 
 slider openly, be brought back to God and enjoy 
 the same blessing seeing that the sixth chapter 
 of Hebrews says: "For it is impossible for those 
 who were once enlightened and have tasted of 
 the heavenly gift and were made partakers of 
 the Holy Ghost, and have tested the word of 
 God, and the powers of the world to come, if 
 they shall fall away, to renew them again unto 
 repentance, seeing they crucify unto themselves 
 the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open 
 shame?" 
 
 Answer : A sanctified man who backslides and 
 goes into open sin may be restored if in his 
 inmost heart and soul he does not utterly go
 
 DON'T FLINCH. 143 
 
 away from God, curse God in his heart and 
 crucify Jesus to himself. A sanctified man may 
 backslide and go into open sin and yet not go 
 so far but that in his heart he hates himself 
 rather than Jesus, and feels secret sorrow for 
 his backsliding. It is not impossible to renew 
 such a man as that to repentance, and many 
 have repented and been saved and sanctified and 
 made to praise God again for His infinite mercy, 
 The devil very often wounds tender consciences 
 with these verses, and tries hard to drive some 
 who truly repent and are full of godly sorrow 
 to despair. So long as a man feels sorrow in 
 his heart for backslidings and longs to get back 
 again and love and serve Jesus, he has not 
 passed "the dead line." But let backsliders be- 
 ware, for they are on dangerous ground, and 
 may through the deceitfulness of sin become 
 so hardened that they will never find God any 
 more. 
 
 If anyone who falls into open sin will repent 
 as David did, and pray as he did in Psalm 51, 
 be will soon find that the multitude of God's 
 tender mercies is greater than he supposed.
 
 144 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 FAITH IS WHAT YOU WANT. 
 
 Once in one of our holiness meetings, I met 
 a sister who was evidently in great spiritual 
 distress, with intense hunger for full salva- 
 tion. After a few moments' conversation, I 
 felt assured that she was ready to accept 
 the blessing, and so we knelt in prayer; but 
 for some reason our prayers did not prevail. 
 I then asked if she were sure her conse- 
 cration was complete. She at once declared 
 it was ; she was willing to die for it. 
 
 "Then," said I, "sister, there are three 
 things you must believe. First, do you be- 
 lieve God is able to sanctify you wholly?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Second. Do you believe He is willing?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Then, with your perfect consecration, 
 there is but one other step to take, and the 
 wonder work of grace will be done. Will 
 you believe that He doeth it? For the 
 promise is : 'Whatsoever ye desire when ye
 
 FAITH IS WHAT YOU WANT. 145 
 
 pray, believe that ye receive (are receiving), 
 and ye shall have.' Will you believe this?" 
 
 "But I don't feel that He does." 
 
 "That makes no difference, sister; your 
 faith must precede all feeling." 
 
 "But I can't believe that He has done it." 
 
 "I don't ask you to believe that He has 
 done it, but that He is doing it, in answer 
 to your present faith. You must believe that 
 He doeth it, if ever you get the witness of 
 the Spirit. Say, 'I will believe God.' " 
 
 "Well, I will try." 
 
 "No, that won't do ; you must believe, not 
 try to believe." 
 
 "Well, I am determined to struggle on till 
 the blessing comes." 
 
 "No, sister, your struggles will do no good 
 unless you believe ; and until you do this 
 you are making God a liar." 
 
 "But won't I be lying to say I believe when 
 I don't feel like it?" 
 
 "No, 'for faith cometh by hearing and hear- 
 ing by the Word of God' ; and the Word of 
 God to you is, 'Now are ye clean through the 
 word I have spoken unto you.' 'Ask and ye 
 shall receive.' " 
 
 That evening I saw the sister again. She 
 said, "I have committed myself to God, and 
 shall trust Him, till the witness of my ac- 
 ceptance comes." 
 
 The next day she was in the meeting, and 
 related her experience, telling us that in the 
 night God awoke her with an assurance of 
 His love, and gave her the clear witness of 
 the Spirit that she was entirely sanctified,
 
 146 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 putting glory into her heart and hallelujahs 
 on her tongue. 
 
 Entire consecration is not entire sanctifi- 
 cation. You are commanded to "present your 
 bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
 God.'' This is entire consecration ; but it is 
 also said, "With the heart man believeth unto 
 righteousness; and with the mouth confes- 
 sion is made unto salvation." So then there 
 must be entire consecration, unwavering 
 faith, and frank, artless confession of both 
 to Jesus. This is man's part, and, when these 
 simple conditions are met and steadfastly 
 maintained, against all contrary feelings, God 
 will suddenly come in to His holy temple, 
 filling the soul with His presence, purity and 
 power. This two-fold work by man and 
 God constitutes the one experience of entire 
 sanctification. When this experience is 
 yours, at your very earliest opportunity 
 confess it before men.
 
 PRACTICAL LESSONS. 147 
 
 PRACTICAL LESSONS OF THE RESURRECTION. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 St. Paul tells us, in the first chapter of 
 Ephesians, that the same power which raised 
 Christ from the dead is in us who believe. 
 In the fourth chapter he says of Jesus that, 
 having ascended "on high He led captivity 
 captive and gave gifts unto men." In the 
 third chapter of Philippians he says of him- 
 self, "What things were gain to me, those I 
 counted loss for Christ. Yea, and I count 
 all things but loss for the excellency of the 
 knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for 
 whom I have suffered the loss of all things, 
 and do count them but dung that I may 
 win Christ. . . . that I may know Him 
 and the power of His resurrection." 
 
 The practical, every-day teaching of these 
 Scriptures to me is this : That since Jesus 
 rose from the dead and ascended on high, He 
 puts at my disposal the same power to do and 
 suffer His will that His Heavenly Father 
 gave to Him.
 
 148 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Jesus "was crucified through weakness, yet 
 He liveth by the power of God," and when 
 He rose from the dead He broke every fet- 
 ter forged by Satan, sin and hell, and carried 
 them captive, and opened a way by which 
 every child of man may go free and enter 
 into union with God through the indwelling 
 Holy Ghost, and have the power of God 
 working mightily and triumphantly in him. 
 Bless God forever ! In ancient times victori- 
 ous generals carried captive the captains and 
 kings whom they conquered, with all the 
 wealth they could lay their hands upon, and 
 when they returned to their own people they 
 distributed gifts from the spoils of the 
 enemy. So Jesus, having triumphed over all 
 the power of the enemy, distributed gifts of 
 love and joy and faith and patience and 
 spiritual insight and wisdom to his people, 
 that shall enable them also to have power 
 over all the power of the enemy. 
 
 He came as a lowly stranger into the iron 
 furnace of this sin-cursed, devil-enslaved 
 world. He toiled with its toiling millions, 
 He suffered their sorrows and their sick- 
 nessess, their poverty and their temptations, 
 and when he had impressed upon a few of 
 them a faint sense of His divinity, hid under 
 the humble garb of His humanity, He suf- 
 fered death and dashed their hopes, as they 
 supposed, forever. But He rose again, and 
 ascended "far above all principality and 
 power, and might and dominion," and is set 
 down at the right hand of the Father as our 
 Intercessor, our Advocate, and from that
 
 PRACTICAL LESSONS 149 
 
 place of power He pleads our cause, watches 
 our interests, guides our steps, strengthens 
 our hearts, illuminates our minds, secures for 
 us boundless gifts and graces and immunities 
 which we are at liberty to take by faith and 
 use for the advancement of His Kingdom 
 of holiness and humility, of righteousness 
 and peace and joy in our own hearts and the 
 hearts of others. 
 
 It is His purpose that we should, in a most 
 important sense, sustain the same relation 
 to Him now that He sustained to His 
 Heavenly Father in the days of His human- 
 ity, that we should be baptized with the same 
 Spirit, and preach with the same authority, 
 and secure the same results, and gain the 
 same final and eternal victory, and at last 
 sit down with Him on His throne for ever- 
 more. 
 
 This being so, I am under as much obliga- 
 tion now to be holy, to be empowered by the 
 Spirit, and to be about my Lord's business, 
 as I shall be in heaven.' And, bless God, this 
 is not only an obligation, but an inspira- 
 tion ! 
 
 Who, having caught a glimpse of this high 
 and holy purpose of his resurrected Lord, 
 can ever be content again to grope in the 
 malarial fogs of unbelief and grovel on the 
 dung-hill of this world's poor little pleasures 
 and riches and honors? Who would not for- 
 sake father and mother, and wife and chil- 
 dren, and houses and lands, pluck out a right 
 eye, cut off a right hand or foot, cast off 
 every weight and easily-besetting sin, deny
 
 150 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 himself, take up his cross, esteem all this 
 world's gain as loss, and if needs be, sacri- 
 fice his life in order to "know the power of 
 His resurrection," enter into this "life hid 
 with Christ in God, 1 ' and not disappoint his 
 Lord? 
 
 It was for this we were born, and to fall 
 short of this will be infinite, eternal loss, and 
 doom us to an everlasting night of shame 
 and contempt. 
 
 How great Is the power of testimony ! How 
 pitifully slow we are to talk of God and His 
 dealings with us, and how much we lose by 
 silence ! What a chill comes over the soul when 
 that horrid restraint holds us back from speaking 
 of Christ in the ordinary daily contact with 
 others ! Is it not often a positive burden and 
 condemnation that we are silent? silent about 
 Him when we can speak of anything else; silent, 
 when we feel that even the birds and beasts 
 and trees and flowers, aye, and the very stones, 
 are praising Him? What is the secret of that
 
 PRACTICAL LESSONS. 151 
 
 restraint? Brother Lawrence used to say that 
 we do not talk of Him because we fail to talk 
 to Him. Liberty when alone in His presence 
 will set free our tongues as well as warm our 
 hearts when we mingle with others. Talk to 
 Him about those things which are common in 
 our lives our work, our worries, our little 
 hourly cares as well as the greater problems, 
 and we shall be able to talk, and talk to some 
 purpose, of His power and greatness and love. 
 GENERAL, BKAMWKLL BOOTH in "Books that 
 Bless."
 
 152 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 EVIL-SPEAKING. 
 "Speak evil of no man." (Titus 3:2.) 
 
 This is a command of God, and should be 
 meditated upon and obeyed. A failure to do 
 this leads to innumerable evils. Myriads of 
 souls have backslidden ; multitudes, almost 
 persuaded, have turned back into darkness; 
 many revivals have been quenched ; and 
 many houses of God have become spiritual 
 sepulchres, all because of evil-speaking. But 
 someone will at once ask : "What is evil- 
 speaking ?" 
 
 1. It is evil to tell lies about any man, or 
 slander him in any way. "Thou shalt not 
 bear false witness," God says. A man's repu- 
 tation and character are sacred in the sight 
 of God, and just as he forbids one man to 
 rob another of his property, or to take his 
 life, so He forbids him to lie about another, 
 or rob him of his good name. This is a holy
 
 EVIL-SPEAKING. 153 
 
 commandment, and commends itself to every 
 man's conscience. 
 
 2. It is evil to retail the faults and infir- 
 mities of others. This is a very common 
 form of evil-speaking, but love will cover up 
 such faults and infirmities. Just as it is 
 beautiful in children to never speak about 
 or appear to notice the club-feet or hunch- 
 back or cross-eyes of a little playmate, so it 
 is lovely and Christlike in us to pass by 
 faults and infirmities, and it is evil not to 
 do so. 
 
 3. It is evil to tell of any man's sins and 
 actual wrong-doing where and when it will 
 do no good. 
 
 "But why should we speak evil of no 
 man?" someone may ask. 
 
 1. Because in speaking evil we wrong the 
 man. It is a grievous wrong to speak evil 
 of any man. You do not like anyone to speak 
 evil of you, and you consider it wrong for 
 anyone to do so. But why? When you have 
 answered you have given yourself a reason 
 why you should not speak evil of any man. 
 
 2. Because in speaking evil of any man we 
 wrong those to whom we thus speak. It 
 fills their minds with unholy, unjust preju- 
 dice. It excludes good thoughts, and it 
 tempts them to think and speak evil. 
 
 3. Because we wrong our own souls by 
 evil-speaking. It destroys all generous and 
 kindly thoughts in us, and quenches love. It
 
 154 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 opens our hearts for the devil to enter, and 
 he will make haste to come in. It prevents 
 us from praying in faith and love for the 
 person, which would be infinitely better than 
 speaking evil of him, and which he especially 
 needs, if he is in any way wrong. 
 
 4. Because in speaking evil of any man we 
 grieve the Holy Spirit and break the com- 
 mandment of God. The Holy Spirit leads 
 us to love all men even our enemies ; leads 
 us to love them even as Jesus loved them, 
 but evil-speaking destroys love. The Holy 
 Spirit leads us to pray for all men, especially 
 for those who are faulty and sinful, but evil- 
 speaking quenches the spirit of prayer as 
 water quenches fire. 
 
 5. Because in speaking evil of any man we 
 wrong Jesus. He died for that man. He 
 bought him with His Blood, and even though 
 the man may be a sinner, a backslider, a 
 hypocrite, and refuses to obey God and love 
 and trust Jesus, yet Jesus loves and spares 
 him, and is wronged when he is spoken evilly 
 of. Jesus identifies Himself with the sinner 
 to whom we give a cup of cold water in His 
 name, and says the good we do is done unto 
 Him, and so He will identify Himself with 
 the sinner whom we wrong by evil-speaking, 
 and in the judgment will face us with the 
 wrong as done to Himself unless we heart- 
 ily repent. 
 
 What is the remedy? 
 
 1. If he is bad or faulty in any way, con- 
 sider the fact that he may have secret trials
 
 EVIL-SPEAKING. 155 
 
 and temptations that you know nothing about. 
 He may have business troubles and snares 
 that lead him to wrong, or he may have 
 family trials to which you are a stranger, or 
 he may have had very faulty early training 
 which has marred him for life. Not that 
 these things will excuse him in the Day of 
 Judgment, but they should lead you and me 
 to pity rather than to abuse him by speaking 
 evil of him. 
 
 "I often see in my own thoughts, 
 When they lie nearest Thee, 
 
 That the worst men I ever knew 
 Were better men than me." 
 
 Think about your own evils. This will be 
 far more profitable to you than to think 
 about his, and will be infinitely more likely 
 to make a better man or woman of you. 
 One of the chief dangers to ourselves in 
 evil-speaking is that we come to underesti- 
 mate everybody else, and to esteem our- 
 selves more highly than we ought. We come 
 to look at our own virtues and other people's 
 faults, when we ought to look at their 
 virtues and at our own faults. 
 
 "Yes, they have caught the way of God, 
 
 To whom self lies displayed 
 In such clear vision as to oast 
 
 O'er others' faults a shade." 
 
 If we want to be like Jesus, we must obey 
 the command, "In lowliness of mind let each
 
 156 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 esteem other better than themselves," but 
 this will be an impossibility where evil- 
 speaking is indulged. 
 
 3. Consider how Jesus loves him. If 
 Jesus loved him enough to die for him, 
 if He still loves him enough to spare him, 
 in spite of all his faults and sins, and to save 
 him the moment he repents, trusts and obeys, 
 how dare we speak evil of him? And if he 
 is a follower of Jesus and a child of God 
 even though he may be very imperfect, how 
 dare we speak evil of him? Would we dare 
 speak evil of an angel by the Throne of God 
 and expect God to be deaf and allow our 
 sin to go unpunished? Would we not rather 
 expect His holiness to flame out in terrible 
 wrath and consume us? And is any poor 
 sinful soul that has looked to Jesus for sal- 
 vation any less dear to the heart of God 
 than the shining angels around His 
 Throne? 
 
 4. "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam 
 out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou 
 see clearly to cast the mote out of thy 
 brother's eye." (Matt. 7: 5.) Get a clean 
 heart, full of the Holy Ghost, full of love, 
 and you cannot speak evil of any man. 
 With a heart flaming with love, you 
 will pray for the wrong-doer, and if you 
 see evil in him, you will go to him in 
 love and try to correct him, just as you 
 would go to a blind man walking toward a
 
 EVIL- SPEAKING. 157 
 
 precipice, and try and turn him from certain 
 death. 
 
 "I need Thy mercy for my sin; 
 
 But more than this I need 
 Thy mercy's likeness in my soul, 
 
 For others' sin to bleed. 
 
 "All bitterness is from ourselves, 
 
 All sweetness is from Thee ; 
 Sweet God, forevermore be Thou 
 
 Fountain and fire in me."
 
 158 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 
 
 The other day I received a letter from a 
 young officer, asking for a few suggestions 
 as to how to read and study the Bible. Here 
 they are : 
 
 1. Read and study it as two young lovers 
 read and study each other's letters. As soon 
 as the mail brings a letter from his sweet- 
 heart, the young man grasps it and without 
 waiting to see if there is not another letter 
 for him, runs off to a corner and reads and 
 laughs and rejoices over it and almost de- 
 vours it. If he is a particularly desperate 
 and demonstrative lover (the Lord make 
 us desperate and demonstrative lovers of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ!) he will probably 
 kiss it and carry it next to his heart till 
 the next one comes. 
 
 He meditates on it day and night, and reads 
 it over again and then again. He carries 
 it downtown with him, and on the street-car
 
 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 159 
 
 appears very quiet and thoughtful, till all 
 at once a twinkle comes into his eye, out 
 comes the letter and choice portions are read 
 over again. He delights in that letter. If 
 any part is hard to understand, a letter is 
 sent off post haste for explanations, and the 
 explanation and letter will be most carefully 
 compared, and possibly also previous letters 
 will be studiously compared with this one, 
 like a young man I knew whose fate was 
 hanging in the balance. He wanted assur- 
 ance, but the young woman was coy, and she 
 veiled her true feelings and left him in un- 
 certainty, and he studied her letters and 
 weighed every word and phrase and brought 
 them to me, and had me compare letter with 
 letter, as we should compare Scripture with 
 Scripture, in order, if possible, to discover 
 the state of her mind and heart and his 
 prospects. In due time he was abundantly 
 rewarded. 
 
 Now, that is the way to read the Bible. 
 It is God's will and testament. It is His 
 own carefully written instructions as to what 
 manner of people He would have us be; as 
 to how we should behave ourselves ; what we 
 shall do and not do; what our rights and 
 privileges in Jesus are; what are our peculiar 
 dangers ; how we shall know our enemies 
 and conquer them; how we shall enter 
 into and constantly enjoy His favor, and 
 escape hell and get safely home to heaven.
 
 160 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 II. Read in Acts 17: 11, how the disciples 
 in Berea did. 
 
 1. "They received the Word with all readi- 
 ness of mind." A frank and noble mind is 
 open to the truth and wants it more than 
 gold or pleasure or fame or power. 
 
 2. "They searched the Scriptures." They 
 wanted to know for themselves, and not by 
 hearsay. They searched. Precious things are 
 deeply hidden. Pebbles and stones and au- 
 tumn leaves abound everywhere, but gold and 
 silver and precious stones are hidden deep 
 in the bowels and rocky ribs of the earth ; 
 shells cover the seashore, but pearls are 
 hidden in its depths. And so with truth. 
 Some truths may lie on the surface of the 
 Bible, but those that will altogether satisfy 
 and distinguish us and make us wise unto 
 salvation are found only after diligent 
 search, even as for hid treasure. "Search the 
 Scriptures," said Jesus, "for in them ye think 
 ye have eternal life ; and they are they which 
 testify of Me." If you would know Jesus, 
 search the Scriptures, and you will come to 
 know Him and to see His face, and be like 
 Him. 
 
 3. "They searched daily." Daily, not spas- 
 modically, by fits and starts, but daily, habit- 
 ually, they digged into the Word of God, to 
 find out if the things Paul preached were so. 
 And just so must you do. "Thou shalt medi- 
 tate therein day and night/' was God's in- 
 struction to Joshua. And once this habit is
 
 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 161 
 
 formed the delight in God's Word will be- 
 come unspeakable. 
 
 "Thy words were found, and I did eat 
 them," said Jeremiah, "and Thy Word was 
 unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." 
 "Oh, how love I Thy law ! It is my medita- 
 tion all the day," cried the Psalmist. 
 
 In forming the habit of Bible study we 
 may have to begin and follow it up for a 
 time from a sense of duty, but once the habit 
 is formed, if we are not only hearers but 
 doers of the Word, we shall follow it up for 
 very joy, until we can say with Job, "I have 
 esteemed the words of His mouth more than 
 my necessary food." 
 
 III. Read and study the Word not to get a 
 mass of knowledge in the head, but a flame 
 of love in the heart. "Knowledge puffeth 
 up," but "love buildeth up." Read it to find 
 fuel for affection, food for reflection, direc- 
 tion for judgment, guidance for conscience. 
 
 Read it not alone that you may know, but 
 that you may do. 
 
 IV. Follow carefully the line of thought 
 from verse to verse and chapter to chapter. 
 Often the first part of one chapter belongs 
 to the last part of the preceding chapter. For 
 instance, in the last verse of the fourth chap- 
 ter of Ephesians we read, "And be ye kind 
 to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one 
 another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
 
 162 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 forgiven you," and in the first verse of the 
 fifth chapter we read, "Be ye therefore fol- 
 lowers of God as dear children." 
 
 These two verses belong together. We are 
 to follow God in what? Why, in the spirit 
 of kindness and tender-heartedness and for- 
 giveness. 
 
 Again, in John 7: 53, we read, "And every 
 man went unto his own house," and in 8 : 1, 
 "Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives." 
 
 These two verses belong together. Jesus 
 had no house. Bless Him ! So when they 
 went each to his own house for the night, 
 Jesus went to the cold, dark mount. 
 
 Finally, do not be discouraged if progress 
 in the knowledge of the Word seems slow 
 at first. It is like learning to play an instru- 
 ment or master a trade ; for the first few days 
 or weeks it appears impossible, but it is not 
 so. Some glad day a brain-cell will expand 
 or a veil drop from your face and scales 
 from your eyes, and you will find yourself 
 doing the impossible with ease. 
 
 So it will be in acquainting yourself with 
 the Word of God. Keep at it, keep at it, 
 keep at it ! Cry to God with David, "Open 
 Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous 
 things out of Thy law." 
 
 Pray for an understanding heart. You will 
 only love and understand the Word as Jesus 
 reveals it to you. So walk with Him, take 
 up your cross and follow Him through evil 
 as well as good report. 
 
 After His resurrection He came to His 
 trembling, heart-broken, disappointed disci-
 
 HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE. 163 
 
 pies, and Luke tells us that "beginning at 
 Moses and the prophets, He expounded unto 
 them in all the Scriptures the things concern- 
 ing Himself," and later Luke says, "Then 
 opened He their understanding, that they 
 might understand the Scriptures." 
 
 There are things in the Bible hard to be 
 understood, and we may not know them till 
 we stand by the crystal sea, but we can learn 
 those things that will make us meek and 
 lowly in heart as was Jesus, watchful, patient, 
 loving, kind, forgiving, and utterly zealous 
 and self-sacrificing for the salvation of men. 
 Hallelujah! 
 
 Happy shall we be, if, like David, we can 
 say, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that 
 I might not sin against Thee.'' (Ps. 119: 
 11.)
 
 164 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 HOW TO PREPARE FOR MEETING. 
 
 A long time ago, Luke tells us, when 
 Jesus was a boy of twelve, He went with 
 His parents and neighbors up to Jerusalem 
 to the feast of the Passover. On the return 
 of the company the child Jesus tarried behind 
 in Jerusalem. "And Joseph and His mother 
 knew not of it. But they, supposing Him to 
 have been in the company, went a day's 
 journey; and they sought Him among their 
 kinsfolk and acquaintance and found Him 
 not." 
 
 Their mistake was in taking it for granted 
 that Jesus was in the company. Joseph knew 
 He was not with him, and Mary knew He 
 was not with her, and the kinsfolk and 
 acquaintances knew He was not with them, 
 and yet each took it for granted that He was 
 in the company with someone else. But lo! 
 when they sougTit Him, they found Him not; 
 He was not there.
 
 HOW TO PREPARE FOR MEETING. 165 
 
 Just so, frequently in meetings and con- 
 ventions the people all suppose Jesus is in the 
 company, and yet there may not be one that 
 is personally conscious of His presence, but 
 they take it for granted that He is with 
 someone else, and lo ! He may not be in their 
 midst at all. He has not been perseveringly, 
 importunately, humbly and believingly sought 
 for and invited to come, and so He has 
 stayed behind. 
 
 I remember, a number of years ago, going 
 to a camp-meeting, hoping to find Jesus there 
 in power. I got there two or three days after 
 the opening, and I found, if I now remember 
 rightly, that no one had been saved. There 
 was no grip and power in the meetings. At 
 the appointed hour for the meeting the bell 
 would ring, and the officers and soldiers, who 
 had been laughing and joking and singing 
 songs and visiting each other and making 
 merry generally, would come strolling into 
 the meetings with smiles on their faces and 
 ''God bless you's" on their tongues, but with 
 apparently no solemn consciousness of the 
 holy presence of the Crucified One in their 
 midst. Then the meeting would begin with 
 a rush and bang, and songs and prayers 
 and jokes and laughter and collection and 
 smart testimonies and a Bible reading would 
 follow, and the meeting would end again 
 without souls, and everybody would go 
 out good-naturedly, make a rush for 
 the best seats at the dinner-table and enjoy 
 themselves beautifully until the next meet- 
 ing.
 
 166 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 Everyone seemed to take it for granted 
 that Jesus was in the company, yet no one 
 seemed to be especially conscious of His 
 presence. 
 
 At last it was pointed out that the meetings 
 were galloped through with, but no souls 
 were saved, and it was suggested that per- 
 haps Jesus was missing. A prayer-meeting 
 was called to look for Jesus, and some of the 
 people present had to allow that Jesus was 
 not with them. Then some of them went to 
 their tents to look for Jesus, and some went 
 to the woods and got down on their knees 
 to look for Him, and would not give up the 
 the search until at last, bless Him, He was 
 found, and when He was told that He was 
 expected and that He must come, and that 
 we would not let Him go except He blessed 
 us, then He came, and there was a shout of 
 a King in the camp, and He gave us a touch 
 of His baptism, which is with the Holy Ghost 
 and with fire. The officers, soldiers and saints 
 got awfully in earnest, and the poor sinners 
 got awfully alarmed and convicted, so that 
 they were no longer anxious about what they 
 should have for dinner. And some seemed 
 so anxious to talk with Jesus and get filled 
 with His spirit, and His great thoughts, and 
 to get Him to put the dynamite into their 
 testimonies and songs and prayers that they 
 lost their appetites and didn't care whether 
 they had any dinner at all, if only they could 
 be fed with bread from Heaven. 
 
 Oh, I tell you, it was wonderful, the trans- 
 formation that came over that camp-ground
 
 HOW TO PREPARE FOR MEETING. 167 
 
 when Jesus got there ! The shallow joy that 
 caused men to smile and make an empty 
 racket gave way before that deep joy of the 
 Lord which makes men weep and be serious 
 and fills their faces with the solar light of 
 heaven, and makes their shout almost as ter- 
 rible to the wicked as will be the trumpet 
 peals and awful thunders of the Judgment 
 Day. 
 
 I tell you the presence of Jesus in the 
 power of the Holy Ghost on that camp- 
 ground did make the remaining days of the 
 camp-meeting into veritable judgment-days 
 for some folks. Then the news went abroad 
 that Jesus was in the camp, and the people 
 poured in from all the country round about, 
 and mighty things were done in His nam. 
 Weak folks were made strong. Timid folks 
 became bold as lions. Broken hearts were 
 healed. Sad folks were made into glad folks. 
 The lame man leaped as a hart. The blind 
 saw. The deaf heard. The dumb spake. 
 The hungry multitudes were fed. Spirits 
 that were full of passion and like a storm- 
 tossed sea became peaceful and calm, and 
 dead souls were raised to life. Glory to 
 God! 
 
 I tell you it was the presence of Jesus that 
 saved that camp-meeting from being recorded 
 as a dismal failure, and instead caused it to 
 be remembered as a time of wondrous 
 "refreshing from the presence of the 
 Lord." 
 
 Now Jesus is ready and willing to go up to 
 every camp-meeting and convention and
 
 168 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 council and indoor and outdoor meeting all 
 over the world, and to make His personal 
 presence felt by every saint and soldier, but 
 each one must seek Him as Moses did. God 
 had set Moses to the tremendous task of rul- 
 ing a mob of a million ignorant Israelites, 
 just rescued from centuries of hard bondage, 
 and leading them through a barren, moun- 
 tainous wilderness to the promised land, 
 where they would meet armed hosts, strongly 
 entrenched in fortified cities. The burden 
 was too heavy for Moses, and he cried out 
 to God: "If Thy presence go not with me, 
 carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it 
 be known here that I and Thy people have 
 found favor in Thy sight? Is it not in that 
 Thou goest with us?" And the Lord said 
 unto Moses: "I will do this thing also that 
 thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace 
 in My sight, and I know thee by name. 
 My presence shall go with thee, and I will 
 give thee rest." 
 
 . I do not wonder any longer at the mighty 
 things Moses did. If God goes with a man 
 and tells him what to do and how to do it, 
 and gives him the wisdom and strength with 
 which to do it, then there is nothing too 
 hard for that man. God becomes servant of 
 that man as much as that man is the servant 
 of God. They are co-workers. One man 
 like that can chase a thousand, and if he find 
 a fellow, the two shall put ten thousand to 
 flight. Bless God ! 
 
 But Jesus is holy and humble, and He can- 
 not walk with any but humble, holy men, so,
 
 HOW TO PREPARE FOR MEETING. 169 
 
 my brother, if you want Him to go with you, 
 you must humble yourself and be holy. Moses 
 was the meekest of men, we read. 
 
 Then, too, if we want Jesus to go with us 
 to the meeting, we must invite Him home 
 with us after the meeting. He will not come 
 to the meeting and walk back with us to our 
 tioor, if when we get there we find it in our 
 hearts to bid Him good-night and close the 
 door in His face, and go in and scold the 
 wife and children and talk about our neigh- 
 bors and forget what manner of spirit we 
 are of. Our walk with Him must be con- 
 stant, not fitful, else we shall seek for Him 
 some day and not find Him. 
 
 Oh, that we may always make sure that He 
 is with us, and not to take it for granted, else 
 we shall find that we have been going on a 
 fool's errand without Him ! Poor Joseph and 
 Mary lost five days and had no one knows 
 how much anxiety and heartache, all because 
 they supposed Jesus was in the company, but 
 did not make sure. But, bless God ! after 
 diligent search they found Him. Is He with 
 you now, my brother? If He is not, then 
 get your Bible and go off alone and seek 
 Him, and if you wake up and seek Him 
 with all your heart, He will be found of you.
 
 170 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 A WORD TO YOU WHO WOULD BE USEFUL. 
 
 Does the devil ever tempt you to feel that 
 you are of no use and can do nothing? 
 Every genuine Christian wants to be useful, 
 fruit-bearing, a soul-winner. This desire is 
 characteristic of the new nature, received 
 at conversion. When Paul was converted, 
 he wanted to go back to Jerusalem and tell 
 all his old friends about it, that they, too, 
 might be saved. When you were converted 
 your heart went out to God for the salvation 
 of your friends, and you tried to so live your 
 life before them that they should be brought 
 to Jesus, and it is largely this desire for 
 usefulness and the salvation of others that 
 has led you to become a soldier or an 
 officer. But now that you are in The Army 
 and in its work, do you ever feel that you 
 are useless; that you can do nothing; that 
 your words are powerless to lead people to 
 Jesus?
 
 A WORD TO YOU. 171 
 
 I find a great many such people, and maybe 
 you are such a one, and if so, it is for you 
 I write. I have often felt as you do myself, 
 and therefore can sympathize with you, and 
 maybe can write something to encourage you. 
 And first I would say, do what you can. 
 Angels can do no more. Your talents may 
 not be great, but use what talents you have 
 and God will surely increase them. It is a law 
 of God that what is used shall be increased. 
 Everything that has life begins small. The 
 largest oak was once enfolded in an acorn. 
 The most skilful musician in the world at 
 one time did not know one note from another. 
 The most learned man now living once did 
 not know A from Z. Moses was once a help- 
 less babe in a floating ark of bulrushes. The 
 General was once a young convert. But they 
 grew and increased. If there is spiritual life 
 m you, you will grow, if you will do 
 with your might what your hands find to 
 do. 
 
 Cultivate your talents. There are many 
 thousands of bandsmen in The Army to-day 
 who at one time could not play an instrument, 
 and who did not know a cornet from a con- 
 certina. But they began to practise. It was 
 slow work at first. But they kept at it. 
 Probably the first day they could not see that 
 they had made any progress at all, nor the 
 second day; but in a week or a month they 
 could see. They began, kept patiently at it, 
 and at last succeeded. That is the way to 
 cultivate any talent we have. That is the way 
 to become mighty in prayer, to become ac-
 
 172 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 quainted with the Bible, to learn to speak or 
 sing or fish for souls. Begin, and keep 
 at it. 
 
 Do not get discouraged because you can- 
 not do as well as someone else. God has a 
 work for you to do, and no one else can do 
 it; not even the General could do it. God 
 meant that work for you and you for that 
 work, and if you do not do it, it will never 
 be done. The thing then for you to do is to 
 go to God and thank Him for what gifts you 
 have and for giving you some work to do, 
 and then ask Him for wisdom to do it 
 bravely, faithfully and wisely, and He will 
 surely be with you. 
 
 Do not sit down in the discouragement of 
 unbelief and think because you have not the 
 talents of some gifted person you know that 
 therefore you can do nothing. That is wicked. 
 It is dishonoring to God, pleasing to the devil, 
 and will surely result in a great loss to your 
 soul, if not in the final loss of your soul. 
 Jesus tells us that the man with five talents 
 put his money out at use and gained five 
 talents more, and likewise the man with two 
 talents. But He says that the man with one 
 talent went and wrapped it in a napkin and 
 hid it, and so lost it, and was himself cast 
 out as a slothful and wicked servant into 
 outer darkness, where there is weeping and 
 gnashing of teeth. 
 
 Secondly, encourage your poor, trembling 
 heart with the promises and examples in the 
 Bible. Here is a promise for you, "My 
 beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
 
 A WORD TO YOU. 1(J 
 
 always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
 forasmuch as ye know that your labor is 
 not in vain in the Lord." (1 Cor. 15: 
 58.) The devil tells you that your 
 labor is vain, but God says it is not. Be- 
 lieve God, my brother, and go on with your 
 work. Again the Lord says, "Whatsoever 
 a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 
 David tried on Saul's armor, but he could 
 not fight in that, so he laid it aside and went 
 out against the giant in the name of the 
 Lord, with his sling and a smooth stone out 
 of the brook and slew him. 
 
 Saul's armor, wrought at the forge, may be 
 like the education and culture gained in the 
 theological schools and universities, while the 
 sling and stone are like the wisdom given 
 to simple, humble, faithful hearts by the 
 Holy Ghost, in mills and shops and kitchens, 
 and the lowly places of secret prayer and 
 daily toil. Go, my brother, my sister, in the 
 name of the Lord, with the wisdom He gives 
 you, and you shall slay giants. 
 
 Paul tells us "that not many wise men after 
 the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, 
 are called. But God hath chosen the foolish 
 things of the world to confound the wise ; 
 and God hath chosen the weak things of 
 the world to confound the things which 
 are mighty; and base things of the world, 
 and things which are despised, hath God 
 chosen, yea, and things which are not, to 
 bring to nought things which are, that no 
 flesh should glory in His presence." (1 Cor. 
 1: 26-29.)
 
 174 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 If you were learned and wise and mighty, 
 and did great things, people would give all 
 the glory to your learning and wisdom ; but 
 if you are little and foolish then they have to 
 give the glory to God. Go on, my brother, 
 and do what you can. 
 
 When the Spirit of God came on Shamgar 
 he slew six hundred Philistines with an ox- 
 goad, and Samson slew one thousand with 
 the jawbone of an ass, and Gideon, with 
 three hundred men armed only with earthen 
 pitchers and torches, routed one hundred 
 and twenty thousand Midianites. Hallelu- 
 jah ! 
 
 When Jesus blessed the five little loaves 
 and the two small fishes of the lad, they fed 
 about five thousand men. And so, if you will 
 pray and believe, He will bless your words 
 and works to multitudes. Remember, it is 
 not what you say or do alone, but it is His 
 blessing added to what you say and do that 
 accomplishes the work, and He will surely 
 add His blessing if you will trust and obey. 
 
 I read of an educated minister who had a 
 skeptical lawyer in his congregation, whom 
 he wanted very much to see converted and 
 united with the church, and for whose bene- 
 fit he prepared some very learned and labored 
 sermons. One day, to the minister's delight, 
 the lawyer came to his study with the glad 
 news that he was converted and wished to 
 join the church. After some conversation 
 the pastor rather blushingly inquired, "May 
 I ask which one of my sermons it was that 
 led you to Christ?''
 
 A WORD TO YOU. 175 
 
 Then the lawyer, with some little confusion, 
 replied, "Well, to tell you the truth, pastor, 
 it was not one of your sermons that led me 
 to Christ at all. It was this way. A few 
 Sundays ago we were leaving the church, the 
 steps were very slippery, and old colored 
 Auntie Blank was trying to descend them. 
 She was crippled and feeble and in danger of 
 falling, when I took hold of her arm and 
 assisted her to the sidewalk. She looked up 
 into my eyes and thanked me, and, with a 
 bright smile on her old black face, asked, 'Do 
 you love my Jesus?' and that led me to 
 Christ." Ah, that was the smooth stone that 
 killed the giant when Saul's armor and sword 
 had failed. 
 
 Be a man of much secret prayer, my 
 brother. Acquaint yourself with God ; take 
 time to listen to His voice ; read your Bible ; 
 love it, pray over it ; read good books ; famil- 
 iarize yourself with the "Orders and Regula- 
 tions for Soldiers," by the General, and you 
 will get your mind stored with truths that 
 will be to you as David's smooth stones, and 
 God will surely use you and make you a 
 blessing. 
 
 I remember well the first time I attempted 
 to speak from a text. I utterly failed, and 
 was filled with confusion. But by seeking 
 His face the Lord has long since given me 
 the victory, and I rejoice unutterably at the 
 privilege of speaking for Him, and by living 
 a life of constant prayer down at Jesus' feet, 
 and by a determined exercise of faith, I sel- 
 dom open my mouth to speak for Him with-
 
 176 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 out feeling a deep conviction in my soul that 
 my words are accompanied by the Holy 
 Ghost and are hitting the mark and reaching 
 hearts. And this may be your experience, 
 my brother, my sister, if you will utterly 
 forsake sin, consecrate yourself fully to the 
 interests of Jesus, steadfastly believe and 
 continue in prayer. God said to Moses, "I 
 will be with thy mouth," and He will say 
 the same to you if you wait on Him. He is 
 no respecter of persons.
 
 FOOLS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE 177 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 FOOLS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. 
 
 To the natural heart and the unsanctified 
 mind the commands of God are foolishness. 
 "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy 
 kindred, and from thy father's house, into a 
 land that I will show thee," said God to 
 Abraham. How foolish to leave home and 
 wealth and greatness to go to a land that he 
 knew not ! But Abraham believed and 
 obeyed and became heir of the world. 
 
 "I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou 
 mayest bring forth My people, the children 
 of Israel, out of Egypt," was God's word to 
 Moses. What folly for this poor shepherd, 
 who forty years before had fled from the face 
 of Pharaoh a condemned murderer and 
 hunted vagabond, to seek to deliver a nation 
 of slaves from the iron hand of the haughti- 
 est, mightiest monarch on earth ! But he be- 
 lieved and obeyed, and the proud king was 
 humbled to the dust and the nation of slaves 
 was freed.
 
 178 H^ART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 "For I have appeared unto thee for this pur- 
 pose, to make thee a minister and a witness 
 both of these things which thou hast seen, 
 and of those things in the which I shall ap- 
 pear unto thee, delivering thee from the peo- 
 ple and from the Gentiles, unto whom now 
 I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn 
 them from darkness to light and from the 
 power of Satan unto God, that they may re- 
 ceive forgiveness of sins and inheritance 
 among them which are sanctified by laith 
 that is in Me," said the Lord to Paul. Think 
 of it ! One lone man belonging to a con- 
 quered, despised, hated people, sent to the 
 proud, idolatrous, utterly godless nations 
 with the message that a crucified Jew was 
 the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, 
 and that there was no salvation except in 
 His name. What foolhardiness for this man 
 without wealth, national prestige, political 
 power or social favor to start out in the face 
 of bitter religious hatred and contempt, and 
 national and political antagonism, to convert 
 a lost world to this new faith of a day! 
 But he was "not disobedient to the heavenly 
 vision." He went and the Holy Ghost went 
 with him. He went to unparalleled toils and 
 sufferings, but he won unparalleled victories 
 and heavenly joys and consolations. 
 
 They whipped him time and again; they 
 stoned him ; they thrust him into dark, 
 loathsome dungeons, reeking with slime and 
 filth ; three times he suffered shipwreck, he 
 made long and tedious journeys when there 
 were no ocean greyhounds and no lightning
 
 FOOLS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. 179 
 
 express trains with Pullman palace and dining 
 cars. He was in perils from the water, from 
 robbers, from his own countrymen, from the 
 heathen, in the city, in the wilderness, in the 
 sea, and, worst of all, among false brethren. 
 He suffered from weariness and painfulness; 
 from watchings often when it would have 
 been death to him to go to sleep; from hun- 
 ger and thirst, from fastings often when his 
 spirit was so engaged with his tremendous 
 labors and difficulties that his body refused 
 food ; from cold and nakedness, besides the 
 care of all the churches with their young con- 
 verts just saved from heathenism and contin- 
 ually beset by false teachers within, as well 
 as suffering the most dreadful persecutions 
 from without. 
 
 But none of these things moved him, and 
 God helped him to do more to bring the 
 world to God than any other man who ever 
 lived. 
 
 Does your call to work for God seem fool- 
 ish, unreasonable, impossible? "Have faith 
 in God." Obey like Abraham and Moses and 
 Paul, and you will yet praise Him for all 
 the way He led you and for the part He 
 gave you to do in winning the world from 
 Satan back to God. 
 
 An officer now by my side had been a 
 soldier for some years ; at last he felt he 
 would some time have to go into the work. 
 The call came while his hammer was lifted 
 to strike a blow. He was not disobedient to 
 the cal'l of God. The blow was not struck, 
 and before noon he had sold his kit of tools,
 
 180 HEART TALKS ON HOLINESS. 
 
 and for years he has been a successful officer 
 and is daily increasing in the gifts and 
 graces of those God calls to be leaders. 
 
 Does God call you? Be not disobedient to 
 the heavenly vision. Stay not in the order 
 of your going. Let nothing hinder you. Go, 
 and God^ will be with you as He was with 
 Moses and Paul, and as the years speed by 
 you will increasingly thank God that no busi- 
 ness prospects, no fond friendships, no lust 
 of power or love of secluded ease kept you 
 from the battle's front with its burdens and 
 bitter conflicts and fierce sorrows and soul- 
 satisfying triumphs. One soul joining in the 
 anthem of the redeemed ones around the 
 Throne, saved from hell through your labors, 
 will pay you for all your toils ; one look at 
 the face of Jesus will reward you for all 
 your privations. What care Peter and John 
 and Paul now, if they did lose all to follow 
 Jesus, and did suffer and die for the men 
 they sought to save? And what will you 
 care?
 
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