Freedom From Sin The most startling thing about sin is its power to enslave. Jesus said, 'Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin' (John viii. 34), and everyday life and experience prove the saying to be true. Let a boy or a man tell a lie and he is henceforth the servant of falsehood unless freed by a higher power. Let the bank clerk misappropriate funds, ...read
Future Punishment And The Bible Joseph Cook, one of America's soundest and clearest thinkers, said to me a generation ago, 'Let the Churches banish from their pulpits the preaching of Hell for a hundred years, and it will come back again, for the doctrine is in the Bible, and in the nature of things.' And he said in his great lecture on the 'Final Permanence of Moral Characte ...read
Gideon's Band (Judges vi. and vii.)
One hundred and twenty thousand Midianites had come up to fight against Israel, and thirty-two thousand Israelites rose up to fight for their wives, their children, their homes, their liberty, their lives. But God saw that if one Israelite whipped nearly four Midianites he would be so puffed up with pride and conceit that ...read
Health "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper, and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." (3 John 2.)
The soul-winner must take the best care he knows how of his body, yet without everlastingly coddling and petting and pitying himself. This is his sacred duty. The body is the instrument through which the mind and the soul wo ...read
Hindrances To Holiness God has provided a salvation for us that is perfect in every particular, and that satisfies both the heart and the mind. It makes its possessor 'more than conqueror' over the world, the flesh and the devil, and enables him to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. It is altogether worthy of its Author. It is a 'great salvation.' I ...read
Hindrances To Obtaining The Blessing Holiness has not legs and does not go walking about visiting idle people, as a lazy Christian seemed to think who told me that he thought the experience would "come" to him "some day." A sister aptly remarked: "He might as well expect the hall to come to him."
The fact is, there are hindrances in the way of holiness with most people; but ...read
Holiness -- How To Get It "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea iv. 6).
"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3).
Said an old professor of over eighty years, in a certain holiness meeting: "I believe in holiness; but I don't think it is all got at once, as you ...read
Holiness -- What Is It? "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom, of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21).
Now, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification ... For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (I Thess. iv. 3, 7). Without holiness, "no man can s ...read
Holiness And Duty If holiness delivers us from worry, it increases the sense of duty and of personal responsibility. It was the holiness of His heart that led the twelve-year-old boy Jesus to say to His mother, 'Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' To Him the world was not a playground only, but a field of labor. His Father had given Him work t ...read
Holiness And Humility Those who oppose holiness often say that we who profess it are proud, and that the doctrine tends to spiritual pride. But the truth is, that holiness goes down to the root of all pride, and digs it up utterly. A holy man is one who has found himself out, and pronounced judgment against himself, and comes to Jesus to be made every whit whole. And so ...read
Holiness And Prayer You are coming to a King, Large petitions with you bring:
For His power and grace are such, You can never ask too much.
Prayer is a puzzle to unbelievers, but a sweet privilege to us. A stranger will hesitate to approach a king, but the king's child will climb on the king's knee, and whisper in the king's ear, and ask all sorts of favors ...read
Holiness And Self-Denial One day John Wesley was to dine with a rich man. One of his preachers, who was present, said, 'Oh, sir, what a sumptuous dinner! Things are very different to what they were formerly. There is but little self-denial now among the Methodists.' Wesley pointed to the table and quietly remarked, 'My brother, there is a fine opportunity for self-denia ...read
Holiness And The Sanctification Of The Body The Prophet Isaiah says that God inhabits eternity (Isaiah lvii. 15); and Solomon says, 'The heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee.' (I Kings viii. 27.) But, wonder of wonders! Paul says that we are a habitation of God. 'What!' says he, 'know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?' (I Cor. vi. 19.)' ...read
Holiness And Unconscious Influence Some people often sing:
"Oh, to be nothing, nothing;"
but, in reality, to be something, to be useful, is one of the first and strongest desires that spring up in the heart of a truly saved person. And one of the blessed things about a holy life is its supernatural, constant, and often unconscious influence for good. A holy person does not ...read
Holiness And Worry Worry is a great foe to holiness, and perfect trust puts an end to worry. 'I would as soon swear as fret,' said John Wesley. The murmuring and complaining of His children has ever been a great sin in the sight of God, and has led to untold suffering on their part.
Most people do not see this to be a sin, but it is. It dishonors God, blinds th ...read
Holiness And Zeal For Souls 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men,' said Jesus to Peter and Andrew; and now as then when Jesus saves a soul, that soul wants to catch men, wants to see others saved. Holiness increases this desire, and makes it burn with a quenchless flame.
The zeal of other people blazes up, burns low, and often dies out, but the zeal of a man w ...read
Holiness Before The Flood; Or, Do You Walk With God? 'And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him (Gen. 23, 24).
A remarkable biography! Nowadays men write hundreds of pages about their heroes, and do not say as much as that. But there is a good reason. There is not so much as that to say.
Enoch was a mighty m ...read
Holiness: A Love Service 'I wish I knew the secret of Paul's piety,' said that good man, Asa Mahan, to Mr. Finney one day. 'Paul said, "The love of Christ constraineth us." ' Just then the glorious truth burst upon his mind that we are sanctified not by works, but by faith which works by love, and that the religion of Jesus is not one of vows and resolutions, and te ...read
Holiness: How To Get It Holiness is that state of our moral and spiritual nature, which makes us like Jesus in His moral and spiritual nature. It does not consist in perfection of intellect, though the experience will give much greater clearness to a man's intellect and simplify and energize his mental operations. Nor does it necessarily consist in perfection of conduct, ...read
Holiness: What It Is Not, And What It Is First of all. Holiness is not necessarily a state in which there is perpetual rapturous joy. Isaiah liii. 3 tells us that Jesus was 'a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,' and Paul tells us of himself that he had continual sorrow and great heaviness because of the rejection of Jesus by his kinsmen after the flesh. Joy is the normal state o ...read
