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This entry is part 7 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'Sin Not a Necessity', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“God graciously tempers His revelations
of our need to our weakness.”2

The reason why many do not apprehend the true nature of the salvation of Jesus Christ is because they do not understand the true nature of sin. Defective views of sin lead to incorrect views of privilege. What we think of the Atonement depends greatly upon our view of the evil which made it necessary.

Without the fullest information about sin, no man can have the fullest information about himself; or, what is still more important, without understanding sin, no man can ever understand God and His dealings with us. The man who has felt his guilt most deeply always appreciates most the value of Christ’s redeeming work. Sin has many aspects, but there are two primary forms in which it exists. We can form no adequate conception of its nature, nor of the remedy God has provided, unless we look at it from these two points of view. We must discriminate between guilt and depravity. [continue reading…]

Consecration: Ch. 20 of “New Testament Holiness”

This entry is part 23 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'CHAPTER_NAME', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“…before blessing comes there must be total, complete and unconditional surrender.”2

Some writers of advanced Christian experience magnify the will and emphasise the importance of absolute submission, while others urge faith as the condition of blessing. Both are right. Perfect trust cannot exist without complete surrender. Nor can we surrender our will to One whom we cannot trust. Lady Maxwell3 could pray, “Put a thorn in every enjoyment, a worm in every gourd, that would prevent, or in any measure retard my progress in Divine life.” And when we can say, from our inmost heart, “I am willing to receive what Thou givest, and to want what Thou withholdest, and to relinquish what Thou takest, and to suffer what Thou inflictest, and to be what Thou requirest, and to do what Thou commandest. Have Thine own way with me and mine in all particulars,” we are not far from the Canaan of God’s perfect love. [continue reading…]

This entry is part 8 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'New Birth and Entire Sanctification', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“…the exact difference between regeneration and entire sanctification…is this: the one has remaining impurity; the other has none.”2

Divine forgiveness and the new birth are ever co-existent and inseparable. No man receives the new name of a child of God without at the same time receiving a new nature. He becomes there and then a partaker of the Divine holiness. Condemnation is removed, the culprit is forgiven, and as invariably as day follows night, a sublime change is wrought by the Holy Spirit, creating within the soul a new spiritual life, a life of loyalty and love. [continue reading…]

This entry is part 24 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'Sanctifying Faith', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“It is only when we cease from our own efforts
and trust in Christ alone
that blessing comes.”
2

There is this difference between consecration and entire sanctification—the one is what we do ourselves by Divine aid, the other is what God does in us. Consecration is our voluntary act in which we give our all to God, while entire sanctification is a work wrought in us by the Holy Ghost. There may be entire consecration without entire sanctification, but there cannot be the latter without the former. The act of consecration must be followed by definite prayer for a clean heart, and then the act of faith by which we receive what we ask for. In answer to our prayer and response to our faith God will put forth His power, and we shall be changed in a moment from indwelling sin to indwelling holiness. We are saved by grace [Ephesians 2:8]. Just as over the blessing of justification, God has written over entire sanctification “to him that worketh not” [Romans 4:5]. Works have no more to do with the sanctifying of the soul than they have to do with the justifying of the soul. Faith is the condition in the one as well as in the other. [continue reading…]

This entry is part 9 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'Purity and Maturity', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“Purity is not the goal of Christian life, but rather
a new starting-point on a higher plane.”
2

There are various degrees of impurity, but, strictly speaking, there are no degrees of purity. According to Webster, the word “pure” means: “entire separation from all heterogeneous and extraneous matter, clear, free from mixture; as pure water, pure air, pure silver or gold.” The word in the New Testament which is most frequently translated “pure” occurs in some of its forms nearly seventy times. We may get at the idea the word was meant to convey by noting how the original is used. It is used

  • of the body, not smeared with paint or ointment;
  • of an army rid of its sick and ineffective;
  • of wheat, when all the chaff has been winnowed away;
  • of vines without excrescences;3
  • of gold without alloy.

[continue reading…]

This entry is part 25 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'Address to Seekers', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“God yields to a thoroughly determined soul,
just as difficulties do.”
2

We do not need to have a complete grasp of the doctrine of entire sanctification in all its relations and bearings in order to enjoy the experience, but if we can have a clear and distinct view of the thing at which we aim it will help us very much to reach it as a definite point of attainment.

In one of the churches of Rome there is a beautiful painting. Those who stand in one position before it always say they see no beauty in it—that it appears like a huge tangled mass. But when the guide leads you to where the light falls properly on the picture, suddenly its wondrous beauty dawns upon you. So it is with holiness. It is only when the Holy Spirit furnishes the light that we see clearly what our privilege is. He only can reveal sin and present the remedy. When we ask humbly and earnestly for His illumination we see clearly the point we are to aim at. “He that willeth to do His will shall know of the doctrine” [John 7:17]. [continue reading…]

This entry is part 10 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'The Present Tense of Cleansing', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“As we obtained pardon by simple faith,
so we must obtain purity.”
2

In meetings held for the promotion of holiness, we have often maintained that, so far as holiness is a deliverance from sin, the following points sum up the facts which cover the whole ground.

  1. Does an infection of nature remain in regenerate persons?
  2. If it does, may this infection of nature be entirely expelled from the soul?
  3. If an infection of nature does remain in regenerate persons, and this may be entirely expelled, when may the deliverance take place?

Most Christians assent readily enough to the first two of these propositions, but there is considerable difference of opinion as to the third, when this salvation may be obtained. Some say at death, others after a long period of growth; but we believe it may be a present and instantaneous experience. We do not mean instantaneous in the same sense as a flash of lightning or an explosion of gunpowder, but in the sense in which death is instantaneous. “A man may be a long time dying, but there is a moment when he dies.” [continue reading…]

This entry is part 26 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'How to Retain the Blessing', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“The primary act of consecration
need not be repeated,
but it must be daily
recognised and confirmed. “
2

There is no step in the Christian life that God and man do not take together. From the beginning to end in the work of salvation there must be both Divine and human action. The words preserve and persevere are so much alike that the one can be spelt from the other. If we are to be preserved we must persevere. It is true that salvation in one sense is all of God, but it is also true that the gifts and graces of the Spirit are only ours when certain conditions are complied with. Peter declares that in Christian life “we are kept by the power of God” [1 Peter 1:5], but St. James teaches that the godly man must “keep himself unspotted from the world” [James 1:27]. The Bible does not contradict itself. To careful readers it explains itself, and the explanation is, that while grace is altogether the gift of God we ourselves have an important part to play. We are to “work out” the salvation which God works within [Philippians 2:12]. [continue reading…]

This entry is part 11 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'A God-Possessed Soul', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“We need Christ in us
as much as we need His death for us.”
2

In previous chapters we have described holiness as that state of grace in which all sin is excluded from the heart, but there is always a positive as well as a negative aspect of spiritual life. This is true both of the new birth and entire sanctification. In conversion the negative aspect is pardon; the positive is regeneration, the impartation of the life of God to the soul. There are no degrees of pardon: it is full, perfect, and complete; but on the positive side perpetual increase is in order: there is “life,” and “more abundant life.” In like manner, while the negative aspect of holiness is the purging of the heart from all that is carnal—and this a full, complete, and entire work, without degrees and gradualism—there is also a positive aspect of holiness which is never separate from the negative; the one always implies the other. The positive blessing is the complete filling of the soul with the life of God. Justification is our coming to Christ; sanctification is Christ coming to us. Entire sanctification is to be entirely possessed by Christ—so filled with His life that sin and Satan are cast out. We must not simply possess life, but the life must possess us. Sin flies before the Divine presence as darkness flies before the light. All would be darkness but for the presence of the light; and all would be sin within us but for the presence of the life.

[continue reading…]

This entry is part 27 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'The Arbiter of the Heart', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“Conscience may discern no evil,
but the peace of God
is a more delicate instrument,
dealing with questions too subtle
for conscience to answer…”
2

The maintenance of a good conscience towards God from day to day is essential to the life of faith. True spirituality cannot exist unless accompanied by scrupulous conscientiousness, the purpose to do right at any cost. Archbishop Temple3 has truly said, “It is always a duty to obey conscience; it is never a duty to disobey.” Conscience requires that we mean well, and do our best. It requires not only that we follow all the light we have, but all that we can obtain, and that we do this gladly. Conscience claims regency in everything that a man should aim to do or to be. “The word ought is the sovereign of all vocabularies.” [continue reading…]

Perfect Love: Ch. 9 of “New Testament Holiness”

This entry is part 12 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'CHAPTER_NAME', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“Love cannot treat its Lord meanly.
She will not give Him the remnant,
the drift, and the dregs of life.”
2

In the New Testament there are two words for love. One is philos, which is the word used to express natural human affection. This exists in greater or less degree throughout the entire animal kingdom, including all natural affections of human nature apart from Divine grace. The other word, agape, is invariably used to express a Divine affection, imparted to the soul by the Holy Ghost. Natural love existed within us before we were regenerated, as it exists in human nature generally; but of Divine love we had none until we were born into the Kingdom of God. The love of God was then “shed abroad in our hearts” [Romans 5:5], and by this alone can we claim the title of children of God, as partakers of His nature [cf. 2 Peter 1:4]. “The love of God here means not our love to God, nor exactly the sense of God’s love to us, but God’s love itself for us.” “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us” [1 John 3:1], not manifested or demonstrated, but bestowed, imparted, given to us as a gift. What a wonderful truth this is, that God’s love for us shall be in us, and become our love to others. Was this not what our Lord asked for when He prayed, “that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them” [John 17:26]? The truth declared is that God gives us His love to love with; He has made His love our property, absolutely given it to us, so that it is now ours. Who can tell all that this means? Inspiration itself can only find relief in adoring gratitude. “Behold what manner of love.”

[continue reading…]

Testimony: Ch. 25 of “New Testament Holiness”

This entry is part 28 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'Testimony', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“God’s love swallowed me up.”2

The Rev. John Fletcher once said to Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers, “Come, my sister, we will covenant together to spread the sacred flame, and testify before men and angels ‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin’”3 [1 John 1:7]. With flowing tears Mrs. Rogers repled, “In the strength of Jesus I will”; and she did, until she went “sweeping through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb.”4 It seems to have been the custom among early Methodists to make humble, prudent, but frank acknowledgement of the work of entire sanctification, when it was wrought in their souls by the power of the Holy Ghost. We give a few testimonies which come first to hand:

“The Lord for whom I waited came suddenly to the temple of my heart, and I had an immediate evidence that this was the blessing I had for some time been seeking.” [continue reading…]

This entry is part 13 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'Evangelical Perfection', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“No word has been the occasion
of so much stumbling and controversy
among Christians as this word ‘perfect.’
But the term is a Scriptural one…”
2

The Scriptural terms “holiness,” “perfect love,” “perfection,” may be used synonymously, because they all point to the same state of grace. John Fletcher3 says: “We frequently use, as St. John, the phrase ‘perfect love’ instead of perfection; understanding by it the pure love of God shed abroad in the hearts of established believers by the Holy Ghost, which is abundantly given unto them under the fulness of the Christian dispensation.”4 But while these terms may be used indiscriminately in speaking of full salvation, each one indicates some essential characteristic and emphasises some different aspect of the truth. Perfect love is expressive of the spirit and temper, or the moral atmosphere in which the entirely sanctified Christian lives. Perfection signifies that spiritual completeness or wholeness into which the soul enters when the last inward foe is conquered, and the last distracting force is harmonised with the mighty love of Christ, every crevice of the nature filled with love, and every energy employed in the delightful service of our adorable Saviour. This implies not only complete deliverance from all spiritual pollution, but the possession of the unmixed graces of faith, humility, resignation, patience, meekness, self-denial, and all other graces of the Spirit. [continue reading…]

This entry is part 14 of 28 in the series New Testament Holiness

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by
Evangelist
Thomas Cook

Graphic for the title of this chapter, 'The Fulness of the Spirit', part of the book 'New Testament Holiness' by Thomas Cook“…there is no blessing which the Father
is so ready to bestow upon those
who ask Him as this very gift.”
2

At the Council of Jerusalem (Acts xv. 8,9) Peter, in giving an account of his visit to Cornelius, and the work of God upon the hearts of those assembled, said: “And God, who knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did to us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”

Two facts are here stated:—

  • That the same fulness of the Spirit which the apostles received at Pentecost was imparted to Cornelius and his household.
  • That the work wrought was the purifying of their hearts by faith.

The conclusion is inevitable that the baptism of the Holy Ghost includes entire cleansing from sin, or, in other words, that the fulness of the Spirit is a synonym for entire sanctification. Since there are but two forces which can sway the soul, the flesh and the Spirit, to be completely filled with either is to exclude the other. All inward renewal is the result of the Holy Spirit’s operation; He is the indispensable agent in the production of spiritual life, both in its beginnings and in its fulness. Theologians speak of God, the Father, as the originating cause of salvation; of Christ as the procuring cause; of the Holy Spirit as the “executive of the Godhead.” This latter phrase, coined by Dr. Hodge,3 of America, very aptly describes the work in the Third Person of the Trinity in the renewal and sanctification of those who trust in Jesus. He comes to the heart in sanctifying power, excluding the evil and filling it with Divine love, when we believe the blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin, just as He comes in regenerating power when we believe for forgiveness, and are adopted into the family of God.

The first point to be recognised, as clearly set forth in the Scriptures, is the fact that all Christians do possess the Holy Spirit. They have not only been brought under His influence, but they have received the Holy Spirit Himself. This is a truth which needs to be particularly emphasised. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” [Romans 8:9]. And the converse of this is necessarily true, that if any man belongs to Christ, he must have the Spirit of Christ. “It is remarkable,” observes Professor Godet,4 “that the Spirit of Christ is here used as an equivalent of the Holy Spirit in the preceding proposition.” Christ dwells in us by His representative, the Holy Spirit, so that a Christ-possessed and a Spirit-possessed soul mean exactly the same thing.

When Ignatius5 was on his trial at Rome, he was asked by the Emperor, “What is the meaning of your name, Theophorus?” (God-bearer). He promptly replied, “He who has Christ in his breast.” And all Christians are God-bearers, whether they realise it or not. The unspeakably glorious mystery of an indwelling Holy Ghost is the possession of even the weakest and most failing child of God. The mistake has often been made of looking upon the incoming of the Holy Spirit as an experience subsequent to conversion, as an arbitrary bestowment rather than a necessary vitality. But the Scriptures plainly teach that the Holy Spirit is a universal gift to all believers, one without which they cannot be believers at all. At the same time, we must recognise the fact that to possess the Holy Spirit is one thing, but to be filled with the Spirit is quite another. Before Pentecost the Holy Ghost had been given to the disciples. Christ had breathed upon them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” [John 20:22]. But Pentecost made an unspeakable difference to them. The visible tongues of fire were only emblems of what had passed within. What new creatures they then became! How their gross conception of Christ’s kingdom was purged away, and how they were raised from earthliness to spirituality! Their intellects were flooded with Divine light, their souls throbbed with Divine sympathies, and their tongues spoke so wonderfully of the things of God, that all who had known them previously were amazed, saying, “What meaneth this?” [Acts 2:12] They were all raised to a new altitude; a new energy and force possessed them. Each one became strong as an iron pillar, “the weakest as David, and the strong as the angel of the Lord.”6 They met together as the sincere, but timid and partially enlightened followers of Christ, but they left the upper room full of light, and power, and love. They were now filled with the Holy Ghost as an all-illuminating, all-strengthening, all-sanctifying presence. The baptism of fire had consumed their inward depravity, subsidised all their faculties, and filled to the full each capacity with Divine energy and life.

“Baptised with” and “filled with the Holy Ghost” are often convertible terms in the Acts of the Apostles, but it is instructive to note that they are not always so. The apostles received but one baptism, but they were “filled” with the Spirit over and over again. The baptism of the Holy Ghost was, and still is, a sort of initiatory rite to the life of Pentecostal service, and fulness, and victory. Christian life begins at Calvary, but effective service begins at Pentecost. Before Pentecost there was not much service rendered by the apostles that was worth the name. But with the Spirit’s baptism they entered upon a new phase of life and service. The analogy of the sacrament of baptism connects the baptism of the Spirit with a new era in Christian life. Pentecost [Acts 2], and the visit to Cornelius [Acts 10], when the baptism of the Spirit is spoken of, were not only historical events, but great representative occasions, which may be held to typify and signify the beginning of the Spirit-filled life.

Almost all prominent Christian workers whose labours have been pre-eminently owned of God bear witness to the reception of a distinct definite blessing which they received subsequent to conversion, and which inaugurated a new era in their spiritual life. If questioned, they would give different accounts, probably, of how they received this experience, and describe it differently, but they suddenly became bold, mighty, aggressive, and conquering. They had received their Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit was in them the fire of love, the light of assurance, and the unction of power.

As far as God is concerned, there is no reason why weary wastes of disappointing years should stretch between Bethel and Peniel,7 between the Cross and Pentecost. It is not the will of God that forty years of wilderness wandering should lie between Egypt and the promised land. In apostolic days there was generally a brief interval between conversion and the baptism of the Spirit, but new converts were introduced at once to this fulness of blessing, and taught to expect it as a positive, conscious, and present experience. Under the preaching of Philip in Samaria [Acts 8:4-13], many were converted, and “when they believed, they were baptised both men and women” [verse 12]. The successive steps through which they passed are mentioned: attention to the word, faith, great joy, and baptism with water. But before they should be disheartened by difficulties and demoralised by defeat, Peter and John were sent unto them from Jerusalem for the special purpose of leading these newly-saved ones into the fulness of blessing. They prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost, and they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost [Acts 8:14-17].

St. Paul’s first question to “certain disciples,” which he found at Ephesus, was “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” [Acts 19:1-2] “Jesus hath sent me,” said Ananias to the newly-converted Saul of Tarsus, “that thou mayest be filled with the Holy Ghost” [Acts 9:17]. How many backslidings would be prevented if we returned to primitive methods, and urged our converts to seek this experience at the beginning of their Christian life! None can deny that the ordinary Christian in our churches, weakened as he is by doubt and palsied by fear, with his worldliness and backslidings, far more resembles the condition of the disciples before Pentecost than after it. Who can read the Acts of the Apostles without coming to the conclusion that the Apostolic Church enjoyed a much larger measure of the Spirit’s fulness than is generally experienced by Christians today? We claim to be sharers in Pentecostal privileges, and yet how few enjoy the fulness of blessing which Christ is exalted to bestow! If we are not filled with the Spirit, at whose door does the blame lie? The question is not, “Has God given?” but, “Have we received?” The might of God was not exhausted on the day of Pentecost. That baptism was simply a pledge and earnest of what God intends to do for His people. We are still in the dispensation of the Spirit, and the promise still stands: “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts ii. 39). The promise is as far-reaching and extensive as the need, and means that by virtue of our new birth it is our individual privilege or birthright to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Each believer has the right to aspire to this, the right to pray for it, and the right to expect it today.

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It is interesting to note the gradation in the teaching of St. John’s Gospel. In chapter iii we have the “life” in its beginning—the new birth (John iii.7). In chapter iv we have “life abundantly”—“a well of water springing up” [John 4:14]. We fill our cup and drink, and keep on drinking from this inexhaustible supply. Those who have learned to do this shall never thirst. The well is for the supply of personal need. But Christianity extends beyond the individual; provision is made for the needs of those about us. Hence we are taught in the seventh chapter that rivers of blessing shall “flow out” from all believers who are filled with the Spirit. “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” [John 7:38]. Blessing is promised here on a magnificent scale. Notice its hugeness, its Godlike vastness! “Rivers,” not a babbling brook or a streamlet; not even a river, but “rivers.” What Divine prodigality! In this experience, “Grace, not in rills, but in cataracts rolls.”8 If it means anything, it means that there is no limit to the blessing God can send, through the feeblest of His servants, if they are prepared to receive what He is ready to bestow. There shall not only be fulness, but overflow. Spirit-filled believers carry life, and satisfaction, and gladness, wherever they go. Their presence is life-giving, fructifying,9 refreshing, even as a river which blesses as it flows. “Everything shall live whithersoever the river cometh” [Ezekiel 47:9]. The weakest, feeblest member of the body of Christ may be so instinct10 with the most vigorous life, that there shall come forth from him a holy river-like abundance to the blessing of the souls of others.

Let us not confuse this fulness of the Spirit with any particular modes of blessing. Sometimes His coming distils as the dew, or it may be like the gentle summer shower, or as the mighty rushing wind. Some have an overwhelming sense of His presence; to others He comes, as it were, without observation, in quiet gladness and confidence. Souls are brought into this blessing with as much diversity as sinners are brought into pardon and peace. He who blesses knows best what we need, and will adapt His gifts to us with infinite wisdom. But though His modes of coming vary, when He does come in fulness to the soul, all its chambers are filled with light, and not a taint of impurity remains.

We often speak and act as if it were the most difficult thing in the world to obtain the fulness of the Spirit, and yet it is certain that there is no blessing which the Father is so ready to bestow upon those who ask Him as this very gift. More willing is He to give the Holy Spirit to each believer than a mother to give the healing medicine to her dying child, or a father to give food and raiment to his soldier son who has just returned from the war. “If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” [Luke 11:13]

 


Footnotes: