Copyright 2007, 2019 by Jim Kerwin¹

A chapter from the book
Sunnyside Papers: Inspirational Sketches
from God’s “Book of Nature”
by
Isaiah Reid

Bountiful, yes — and thankful!²

It is November.³ We have had an old-time Iowa fall. The charming weather has been just like a northern Florida winter, save the softness and balminess of the air. But doubtless for Iowa, the atmosphere we have had is better for us than that in Florida would have been. What is all right for one part of the country is not always the best thing for the other. Certainly, our fall has charmed everyone; and could it last, no one would care to go to California or to [continue reading…]

his is a favorite theory many people.  It is to be noted that it contra­dicts the two methods already spoken of, for if people expect “to grow into it,” it is a plain confession that they neither received it by being “born so,” or at their “conversion.”  It is hardly worthwhile to take space here to show the large percent of professed Christians who hold to this theory, when they can be met almost anywhere, if one commences talking about full salvation.  Properly speaking, this theory should be defined as gradualism. [continue reading…]

Tarrying for the Shine And patience, experience.

Romans 5:4

And hope does not make ashamed.

Romans 5:3

The path of the just is as a shining light.

Proverbs 4:18

And oil to make his face to shine.

Psalm 104:15

A man’s wisdom makes his face to shine.

Ecclesiastes 8:1

I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.

Genesis 30:27

Arise and shine, for your light has come.

Isaiah 60:1

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

eart purity—sanctification—is one of the means to the great end.  It is not a finality in the soul’s advance; heart purity only ends carnality.  As entire forgiveness, which is the only kind the Holy Spirit can witness to, is the end of all actual transgressions, so entire sanctification is the end of all uncleanness.  But God is by no means done with us when He has sanctified us, as many mistaken souls think. [continue reading…]

Public Domain¹

Chapter 7 of Soul-Help Papers
by
Isaiah Reid

“It appeared to men
as if God had changed His mind…”²

An infinite mind must needs adapt His language to the comprehension of a finite mind, since the finite cannot fully comprehend the infinite. God speaks to us in the language of men. He puts things as we see them. He cannot repent of a thing as we do, for the God of all the earth cannot do either a wrong thing³ to repent of or an unwise thing to change. All His attitudes towards wrongdoing and right doing are fixed and settled. He changes not,⁴ for He needs not. When He speaks of changing and of doing what He said He would do, the language is from the human point of view; that is, looking at it as we see it. [continue reading…]

his is the theory of holiness by Imputation without Impartation.  The unvarnished statement runs thus, “As a saint, he is now ‘not in the flesh,’ though the flesh is in him; but he is in the Spirit, and is responsible for the uprisings and sins of the old man.” ¹  At a glance it is evident that this at once denies the removal of the carnal mind, which is the very question at issue.  It is a bold denial of the experience of entire sanctification, and yet at the same time positive claiming of it.  But this is not all of the statement.  It further declares,

He is henceforth pardoned as a son, according to the value of the blood presented before God for him; the person, the individual, now becomes a Christian, the man possessed of these two natures, who should be walking “in the Spirit,” though ever and anon he is made to stumble through the power of the “flesh.”  Thus the saint does not advance in sanctification, by a change being effected in the character of either nature, but in the gradual development of “the new man” by means of the in-working of the Holy Ghost, and in the daily mortification of the members which are upon the earth.  The man is thus gradually sanctified and made more like Christ. Grace and Truth p. 187.

[continue reading…]

Sanctification Not Obtained by Growth

Not by works of righteousness which we have done.
Titus 3:5

eople who are not in the experience of holiness are often hindered and defeated in obtaining the blessing by seeking it in some impossible way.  Satan helps them in this, for so long as he can so deceive them, he hinders them from having the experience.  One of the most plausible of these deceptions is that one who is not holy may become holy by “growth.” [continue reading…]

Public Domain¹

Chapter 8 of Soul-Help Papers
by
Isaiah Reid

We are not to pitch our tent
where we did last night,
but rather a day’s march nearer home.²

“Go forward.” Death was behind Israel in the shape of the flower³ of the Egyptian army; or if not death, then slavery. They could not stand still.

The three disciples could not remain on the mountain of transfiguration;⁴ there was need for them at the foot, where the throngs of needy men were congregated.⁵

The eleven on the slopes of Olivet stood looking into the vacant heavens, where their blessed Lord had just swept through the clouds to His home at the throne. But they could not stay there, even while trying to retain the sweet memory of that wonderful vision. Jesus sent his angel to say to them, “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?”⁶ Nothing wrong in the loving gaze so far as that is concerned. But neither could they stay there. [continue reading…]

A Word Beforehand,

The Holy Way is now available as an e-book in the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo formats.

That the reader may “know the way of God more perfectly”; ¹ have “life more abundantly”; ² ever go forth with Jesus “conquering and to conquer”; ³ walk with Him “in white”; ⁴ and perfect “holiness in the fear of the Lord,” ⁵ have these lines been written.

If only one inquiring soul shall be helped; a bewildered one led into the light; a hungry one fed; an uncertain one established; an opposer won; or any blessed with full salvation, the author, and his words in these few chapters, will be blessed indeed.

Let the blessed Christ, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy, ⁶ have all the glory. [continue reading…]

ogically, the theory which equates holiness with the repression of indwelling sin is but a variety of the method of seeking holiness by growth, and yet there is distinction of features sufficient to be treated under a separate head.  The fact of sin in believers, or indwelling sin, is generally admitted. [continue reading…]

The Growth Method Has No Witnesses

nother reason why we say this grace of sanctification is not reached by “growth” is because it cannot be proved by witnesses.  The people who have this grace and who confess it are not ones who have come into possession of the experience by the method of gradualism.  To the contrary, their universal testimony is that they did not come into it gradually or by growth, but that the work was instantaneous, and by grace, through consecration and faith.  But people who believe in getting there by growth are always on a belated train. [continue reading…]

Public Domain¹

Chapter 9 of Soul-Help Papers
by
Isaiah Reid

How often He finds it needful to “stir up our nest”
and make us try our wings for a new experience
and wider field of usefulness!³

Poor Elijah! The hot sun lay on all the plain burning with an oven-like heat. The grass was withered and dust covered. The fig-tree had cast her fruit. Animals and men hunted the springs for a few drops of water. The children cried piteously. The little lambs lay dead on the hills. The prophet’s retreat by the Cherith brook became besieged with thirsty men and furious animals, fighting for its fast-failing waters. The prophet’s refuge was being taken away. The famine was everywhere. That morning the ravens came no more with the miraculous supply of bread for the man of God. He went for a drink and lo! the waters had ceased to flow. In despairing mood he knelt at his accustomed place of prayer and looked to the hills. The early twilight diffused the cloudless sky, and all nature seemed again to be holding a prayer meeting in which petition was voiced in one word, “Rain, Rain, Rain.” As the rim of the red sun shone first over the east Jordanic hills, the mulberry trees above his head changed their usual “going” as they murmured their petition, and a voice clearly said, “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”⁴ [continue reading…]

How May I Enter In?

The Holy Way is now available as an e-book in the Kindle, Nook, and Kobo formats.

Every seeker after heart purity comes to a place where he asks, “How may I enter in?”  While no one can go through for another, nor step through the same line of circumstances, yet in outline the essential things to be done are the same, so that the way may be told theoretically with such definiteness that the inquirer may be directed safely and surely.  We wish to point out the steps briefly, so that burdened, anxious souls may find their way, mistaken souls may be corrected, and those who are seeking light on the doctrine may find it.  In the limited space we have there will not be room for much elaboration or discussion. [continue reading…]

f you are expecting something so great and so essential to heaven itself, you ought to have good reasons for your expectation.  And what are these reasons?  Did you ever see any soul get sanctification at death?  Is there any provision in the economy of grace which is only available at death’s door?  These are some plain questions.  But let us look at the matter a little more in detail.

1. Sanctification will be possible at death
if the conditions are complied with.

But because that is so, owing to the mercy of God, is no more a valid reason for delaying the matter, than it is for a sinner to put off till the day of his death his compliance with the terms of salvation, simply because those terms may be complied with at that time. [continue reading…]