To know that God is mine; to feel that he dwells in my heart, rules my will, my affections, my desires; to know that he loves me ten thousand times better than I love him, — oh, what solid bliss is this!
As I now look back over the twenty-one beautiful years since that eventful hour,
“Oh, how can words with equal warmth The gratitude declare That glows within my ravished heart! But thou canst read it there.”
During these consecrated years I have had time, and every variety of circumstances, to test the genuineness of my submission and the saving power of God, and I am constrained to say, I know “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin.” I state it with the most profound conviction of its truth, as well as of my own weakness and unworthiness. Oh, that I could describe my feelings of gratitude and love as I review the amazing grace and power of God! Truly,
“I stand all bewildered with wonder, And gaze on an ocean of love; While over its waves to my spirit, Comes peace like a heavenly dove.”
In the purified soul, the flow of joy is deeper and steadier than ever before. It breathes an atmosphere of purity, and is conscious that its entire inner being has been cleansed, and harmonized by Christ himself. Someone has beautifully said, “This pure love is the same in nature, sweetness, and power, whether it be in David on the hill of Zion, Moses in the wilderness, or Paul in Athens. The same in the seraphic Fletcher at Madely, Wesley in London, in Fenelon at St. Sulpitius, or Madam Guyon in the Bastile. Like its author, it is forever the same, in all lands, whether on the banks of the Po, the Thames, or the Tiber, — in London, in Jerusalem, in New York. Whether possessed amid the grandeur and beauty of the Alps, in the cottages of the Waldensian mountains, or scattered along the more beautiful rivers, over the broader plains of our own loved America. Names, sects, parties have no power to change it. It is the same under all forms of government and in every dispensation; it is the image and likeness of God, the ‘kingdom of God within you,’ ‘righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’ ”
It is the richest gift of God to man. It sweetens this bitter cup of life, and lessens its sorrows; it smooths the rough places over which we travel, and lightens the valley of the shadow of death. It will go with us to the last. It will bless us while living, bless us when dying, and then melt away in the light of heaven forever. Nothing but love can enter heaven. Pure love is the key that will unlock the pearly gates, and give us a right the tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God.
Some of the precious results of the cleansing power of Jesus in my soul have been:–
1. A sacred nearness to God my Saviour. The distance between God and my soul has appeared annihilated, and the glory and presence of divinity have often appeared like a flood of sunlight, surrounding, penetrating, and pervading my whole being. Glory be to God that even the most unworthy may be “brought nigh by the blood of Christ.”
2. A sense of indescribable sweetness in Christ. The fact that he is “the rose of Sharon;” “the lily of th valley;” “the brightness of his [the Father’s] glory,” and “altogether lovely,” has at times so penetrated my soul as to thrill and fill it with ecstatic rapture. How lovely has the dear Saviour appeared to my soul and how strong the attraction my heart has felt toward him! How I love him!
“When on my new-fledged wings I rise, To tread those shores beyond the skies, What object first shall strike my eyes? And where shall I begin my joys? I’ll run through every golden street, And ask each blissful soul I meet, Where is the God, whose praise you sing?
Oh, lead a stranger to your King.”
Often his glory has shone upon my soul without a cloud. No language can describe the blessedness and sweetness of this state.
3. A deep, realizing sense of spiritual things. Bible truth has appeared transformed into solid realities. The doctrines of the gospel have become to me tangible facts and my soul has triumphed in them as eternal verities.
4. A surprising richness and fullness of meaning in the Scriptures, which I had not before realized. Many portions of the word, which I had hitherto but little understood, now appeared full of meaning, and exceedingly precious. The following passages have been applied many times to my soul with great power: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” — “If a man love me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” — “But if we walk in the light, as is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from sin.” — “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”
5. A triumph over temptation more complete and habitual. When Satan comes he finds the sympathies and affinities of my soul strongly against him; hence he receives no favorable response. Before, I often found elements in my heart siding with the tempter, and felt at all was not right within. There appeared to be an aching void, or a place in my soul which grace had never reached; but since Jesus sent the refining fire through and through my poor heart, I have been sweetly assured that grace has permeated every faculty and fibre my being, and scattered light, love, and saving power through every part. Oh, the beauty, the loveliness, the sweetness of heart-purity!
6. A great increase in spiritual power. This I have realized in my closet devotions, in my pastoral duties, and especially in the ministrations of the blessed truth. Blessed be the Lord, I have learned by experience that men may receive the Holy Ghost in measure limited only by their capacity to receive, and feeble ability to endure. God could easily bless men beyond the power of the body endure and live, if he were disposed to take them to heaven in that way. This increase of power has delivered me from all slavish fear of man, or of future evil. It has given me such love to the Saviour and to his glorious gospel as to make all my duties sweet and delightful. Truly, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
7. A clear and distinct witness of purity through the blood of Jesus. The testimony of the Holy Spirit, and of my own spirit, to the entire sanctification of my soul has been more clear and convincing than any I ever had of my regeneration; although I had no doubt of that for years before the Lord extirpated inbred sin from my soul. “Meridian evidence puts doubt to flight.”
8. A disposition to tell the blessed story of Christ: and his “great salvation.” O for a thousand seraph tongues to publish the glad tidings to perishing men!
Dear reader, I wish I could tell you how clear and sweet the light of purity has shown through the very depths of my soul, the complete satisfaction I have realized since I obtained this pearl of great price! But it can never be told! Its fullness, its richness, and its sweetness can never be expressed. You can know it only by experience, and this is your solemn duty and most exalted privilege. Will you not seek it? Will you not begin now? A holy life is the happiest life, the easiest life, and the safest life you can live. Be persuaded to settle the matter at once, and begin now to seek for purity, and never yield the struggle until you obtain the glorious victory.
The struggle may be severe, but victory will be yours, if you only persevere. When you have once become fully decided that you will never cease consecrating, praying, and believing until you have obtained the blessing you will have surmounted your greatest difficulty, and it will not be long before the streams of pure love will flow through the depths of your soul.
But, in seeking for this priceless blessing, do not attempt to measure yourself by any thing peculiar in the experience of the writer, or of any other person. (See Section IX., question 107. ) The Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. There are various operations of the Spirit in effecting the same work in the human heart. In this narrative of my religious experience I have endeavored to give a simple statement of facts, regardless of what mistaken good men or wicked men may think or say. I would as soon deny God as to flee before the offense of the cross, or quail under the reproach of Christ. Like Peter and John, I “can not but speak the things which I have seen and heard.” I fully believe, to continue in the enjoyment of perfect love, I must confess the whole, and take the consequences. Call it delusion who may; a blessed reality it is to my soul. I know it; I feel it; I have proved it, and I must declare it; and, in the nature of things, I shall be jealous of my own testimony if it does not stir up the devil. During the earlier years of my religious experience, I feared lest I should profess too much, or more than I possessed; but since the Saviour cleansed and filled my soul with perfect love, I have had no fears in that regard. The intense sweetness, the superior excellence, and the divine glory of the perfect love of Jesus can never be exaggerated, nor, indeed, fully described. Thousands in the church of God, who have received this baptism of love and power, can testify that the most glowing description any mortal can give of it, falls infinitely short of the reality. When any soul can truthfully say with Mrs. President Edwards: “My soul is filled and overwhelmed with light, and love, and joy in the Holy Ghost,” there is no danger of exaggeration.
With the blessed doctrine and experience of purity, I am more and more impressed, charmed, and satisfied. Under its quickening power and light, I am amazed, humbled, and delighted. O, that I may enjoy it more fully, live it more perfectly, and preach and teach more clearly, and in every way, by tongue, and pen, and life, do more for its promotion! I expect to preach it as long as I preach any thing, and when I cease preaching it, expect to be in heaven. In looking over these twenty-one years, I see much to humble me in the dust.
I might have written much more in regard to my weakness, unworthiness, and imperfections, and would have done so, had I supposed it would honor Christ more than to write about the fullness of his grace, and the riches of his love. I have tried with all humility to look to God for guidance, and have felt his blessing resting upon me while writing.
My experience is not my own; and it is in the hope that my humble testimony to the fullness and freeness of the grace bestowed upon me, the most unworthy, may encourage and lead others to avail themselves of the fullness in Jesus, that I record my experience of the perfect love of Christ. I have given but a brief and imperfect sketch, a mere outline, of the mercies that the Lord has heaped upon his poor servant. To him be all the glory.
Dear Christian reader, seek holiness. At all hazards seek it. Expect no rest until your soul is made “free indeed in the blood of Jesus. When once you have tasted the blessedness of purity, you will never be able to be sufficiently thankful that you were induced to seek it. If you do not seek it, the period is not distant when you will never be able to forgive yourself for the neglect.
And now, “I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”
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CONCLUSION
In conclusion, dear reader, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.” And “the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
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