Evidences of Perfect Love Part 4

104. Are there certain fruits which necessarily flow from a pure heart as evidence of holiness:

"There re certain fruits which flow from sanctification, which must exist where the work itself exists, to assert it, and certain other and counter-fruits, which must necessarily exist where it does not, to declare its absence. Now, these fruits, if carefully considered, must constitute a most important branch of evidence in the case." -- Fosters Christian Purity, p. 158.

The experience carries much of its evidence with it, so that the saved know it. They feel it, they confess it and they diffuse it abroad in the sweetness of their spirit, and in the purity if their lives.

105. By what fruit of the Spirit may we know that our hearts are cleansed from all sin?

"By love, joy, peace, always abiding; by invariable longsuffering, patience, resignation; by gentleness, triumphing over all provocation; by goodness, mildness, sweetness, tenderness of spirit; by fidelity, simplicity, godly sincerity; by meekness, calmness, and evenness of spirit." -- Plain Account, p. 94.

Dr. Macknight says: "The fruit of the Spirit is love to God and man; joy occasioned by that excellent affection; peace with all men; the patient bearing of injuries; a soft, sweet manner of speaking; a beneficent disposition; fidelity to engagements, promises, and trusts; calmness under provocation; temperance in the use of meats and drinks."

106. What are the fruits of inbred sin, and how does it manifest itself in the heart?

The fruits of inbred sin are pride, anger, self-will, jealousy, covetousness, peevishness, impatience, hatred, variance, emulations, strife, envyings, unbelief, and such like. These do not reign in the justified believer, but keep up more or less of a warfare within the soul; "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other." Inbred sin manifests itself to the consciousness of the partially sanctified by clinging to the appetites and tendencies of the soul and seeking and struggling for unlawful indulgence. Hence the risings of anger, pride, self-will, &c.

107. Is the emotional experience in the moment of sanctification various?

There is doubtless as great a variety as in justification and regeneration. Some are exercised in one way, some in another; some have one class of emotions, and some another. Sometimes there is an unusual illumination of soul. Sometimes, a sweet resting and sinking into Christ. Sometimes great joy and ecstasy, though this is not the general experience. Sometimes there is an astonishing increase of faith, and assurance that all sin is gone. Sometimes an overwhelming sense of the divine presence. Sometimes the cleansing energy comes in a mighty torrent, and sometimes in a gentle breeze. Glory to God! although there is a diversity of operation both with respect to the divine and human spirit, yet the blessed results are the same. Let us never mark out a way for God, but seek the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost, until it comes just as he is pleased to manifest it.

Let the prayer of your heart be, --

"Come as thou wilt
I that resign
But O, my Jesus, come."

Sanctified souls are inclined to name the blessing after their principal sensations, harmonizing with their emotional experience.

1. One person realizes principally a marked increase of faith, and he calls it "the rest of faith."

2. Another is conscious of a deep, sweet resting in Christ, and he calls it "resting in God."

3. Another is permeated with a sense of the divine presence, and filled with ecstatic raptures, and calls it "the fullness of God."

4. Another feels his heart subdued, melted, refined and filled with God, and calls it "holiness."

5. Another realizes principally a river of sweet, holy love flowing through the soul, and he calls it "perfect love."

6. Another is prostrated under the power of the refining and sin-killing Spirit, and calls it "the baptism of the Holy Ghost."

7. And another realizes principally a heaven of sweetness in complete submission to God, and he calls it "entire sanctification."

8. While another may feel clearly and strongly conscious of complete conformity to all the will of God, and calls it "Christian perfection." If genuine, the work wrought in each case is essentially the same.