Witnesses to Perfect Love Part 3

 More witnesses to Perfect Love:

15. Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers: "I was deeply penetrated with his presence, and stood as if unable to move, and was insensible to all around me. While thus lost in communion with my Saviour, he spake those words to my heart: 'All that I have is thine. I am Jesus, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I am thine. My Spirit is thine. My Father is thine. They love thee as I love thee. The whole Deity is thine. He even now overshadows thee. He now covers thee with a cloud of his presence.' All this was so realized to my soul in a manner I can not explain, that I sunk down motionless, being unable to sustain the weight of his glorious presence and fullness of love." -- Journal.

Mrs. Rogers was the wife of an English Wesleyan preacher, and was regarded as one of the most devoted and lovely Christians of her day. Her experience and letters have passed through many editions, and reached nearly a hundred thousand copies.

16. Dr. Edward Payson: "Were I to adopt the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been for some weeks a happy resident. The Sun

of righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as he approached, and now he fills the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of glory, in which I seem to float like an insect in the beams of the sun, exulting, yet almost trembling, while I gaze upon this excessive brightness, and wondering with unutterable wonder why God should deign thus to shine upon a sinful worm." -- Encyclopedia of R. Knowledge.

Dr. Payson was a Congregational minister in the city of Portland, Me., and possessed of rare intellectual powers, and profound and flaming devotion to God.

17. Dr. Stephen Olin: "I have never felt my evidence more clear. I am at least a full believer in our higher doctrines in regard to Christian attainments; and I sometimes say to my intimate friends that I have great comfort in believing that I have been made a partaker of this grace. Doubtless God's will is even our sanctification; and we offend no less against our highest interests than against his most gracious designs when we rest below the best attainable position in religion." -- Letter to his brother, published by Dr. Stevens.

Dr. Olin was President of Wesleyan University, and possessed one of the profoundest minds of his age. A correspondent to the "Christian Advocate and Journal" from New England said, in speaking of Dr. Olin, that he arose in a general class-meeting, in the presence of many visitors and friends of the college alumni and students, and said "he desired to make known the fact that he experienced, and was conscious of enjoying daily and hourly, the blessing of perfect love."

18. Rev. William Bramwell: "My soul was all wonder, love, and praise. It is now about twenty-six years ago; I have walked in this liberty ever since. Glory be to God! I have been kept by his power. By faith I stand.... I then declared to the people what God had done for my soul; and I have done so on every proper occasion since that time, believing it to be a duty." Life of Bramwell.

William Bramwell was one of Mr. Wesley's preachers, and was instrumental in the conversion and sanctification of thousands of souls.

19. Bishop Asbury: "I live in patience, in purity, and in the perfect love of God." -- "God is my portion; he fills me with pure spiritual life. My heart is melted into holy love, and altogether devoted to my Lord." -- "I think we ought modestly to tell what we feel to the fullest." -- Journal.

Francis Asbury was one of the first bishops of the Methodist Church, and was truly an apostolic, self-sacrificing, holy man.

Rev. I. Simmons: "In an instant my soul touched the blood of Jesus. I said, 'He does save;' and as I said it, a holy stillness pervaded my being. A warm glory spread over my heart, at first like the rising of the morning, then increasing in brightness and beauty till my whole frame shook under it. I could not move, but my lips broke forth the praises of my soul, and it seemed as if every seraph was helping me cry, 'O the precious blood of Jesus!' From that time, the earlier years of my Christian life have appeared like the outer court of the temple. I am living in the central glory. My theme now is, a perfect rest of faith in a present Saviour. Glory be to God!" -- Guide, 1870.

I. Simmons is a useful and able minister of the Methodist Church, and member of the N. Y. East. Con.

20. Dr. Daniel Steele: "Suddenly I became conscious of a mysterious power exerting itself upon my sensibilities. My physical sensations, though not of a nervous temperament, in good health, alone, and calm, were like those of electric sparks passing through my bosom with slight but painless shocks, melting my hard heart into a fiery stream of love. Christ became so unspeakably precious, that I instantly dropped all earthly good, -- reputation, property, friends, family, everything, in the twinkling of an eye; and my soul cried out:

"None but Christ to me be given, None but Christ in earth or heaven." Advocate of Holiness, 1870.

Dr. Steele is well known as the author of "Love Enthroned," "Mile-Stone Papers," and a commentary on several parts of the Bible. He is regarded as one of the ripest biblical scholars of the day. He has written perhaps as much on this subject, during the past ten years, as any man in the church.

21. Bishop Whatcoat: "After many sharp and painful conflicts, and many gracious visitations also, on the 28th of March, 1761, my soul was drawn out and engaged in a manner it never was before. Suddenly I was stripped of all but love. And in this happy state, rejoicing evermore, and in everything giving thanks, I continued some years with little intermission or abatement, wanting nothing for soul or body more than I received from day to day." -- Lost Chapters of Methodism.

Bishop Whatcoat was one of the early bishops of the Methodist Church. Bishop Simpson says of his consecration to the Episcopacy, that "holy hands were never laid on a holier head."