SANCTIFICATION.

215

I intentionally abstained from using the word "Sanctification," though I was endeavouring to typify the experience of it, and to contrast it with conversion. As I went on speaking, a woman in the small assembly put up her hands and began to shout and praise God, “That is Sanctification!" she cried; "I have it! I know it! Praise the Lord!" There was a great stir in the class; some cried, and some asked questions. One woman, who was more advanced in general knowledge and experience than most of the others, declared, that she did not believe in Sanctification, for she had known so many who professed to have it, and had lost it. "Lost what?" I said, "you cannot lose an experience; the joy of it may depart, and certainly does where people rest on their feelings instead of the fact, on the effect, instead of the cause." She confused the sanctification of the believer, with the effect it produced on him. The Spirit which works sanctification in our souls, can keep us in it, if we continue to look to Him, instead of looking at His work. I said to her, what I have said ever since to all who are inclined to argue on the subject: Believers too often dispute about Sanctification, in the same manner as the unconverted do on the subject of Justification. It is not worth while for those who know, to contend with those who only think. I told her to go home and pray about it, and ask the Lord if He had anything more to give, to let her have it.

She was sullen, and hard to persuade; but after a little more conversation and prayer, she consented to lay aside her prejudice and do as I had told her. She did so, and came again the next morning to see me. Fortunately, I was not in my house, but shut up, as my custom was, in the church for meditation and prayer. She followed me thither, but being engaged with my Master, I answered no knocks or taps, whether at the doors or windows; even on this

occasion I did not respond, although I heard some one walk ing round and round the church, and knocking impatiently for admittance. When I came out, I heard that Hannah had called, and wished very much to see me; for she wanted (to use her own expression) "to hug the dear head of him, if she could catch him." She was happy beyond expression, for she had had a dream; and what is more, she said that she had entered into the "second blessing."

In her dream she saw a well of water as clear as crystal; it was beautiful, and the clean pebbles at the bottom quite glistened with brightness, so that she could count them. "There, there," she said, "What does any one want clearer and cleaner than that?" As she looked into this clear well, my voice said to her, "Throw a pebble into it," when she did so; in an instant the water became thick and dirty. "Ah," said my voice again, "The water of grace is always clear as crystal, but the well in which it is that is your heart-is most unclean. The Lord can give you a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within you" (Ps. li. 10). She woke up from her sleep, and immediately began to pray, asking the Lord for a clean heart, until she obtained it.

Some may say, "But what did she obtain ?" This question is seldom if ever asked by persons who know the experience of this blessing; but to those who do not, it is very difficult to convey an idea of what it is by definitions. Let it be enough to understand that there is something desirable to be had, which may be obtained by doing as this woman did. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man" (Prov. xxvii. 19). Those who know it, understand one another and rejoice together. There is no such mutual sympathy and joy as that which brethren have who are partakers of this higher blessing.

After this, Hannah became a restful, peaceful soul; and many others, with her, found that quiet confidence which

A NEW ERA.

217 can only belong to those who can and do trust a risen and living Christ.

It was quite a new era in the work, and called out fresh energies; but like every new thing, it absorbed too much attention, to the exclusion of the simple Gospel for the unsaved. "Christ died for our sins," is only part of the Gospel, though a very important part. . "Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. xv. 3, 4), is also a part, which should not be omitted in its due time and place. These two important truths, I am sure, are needful for scriptural work, and they should both be systematically preached.

CHAPTER XXV.

The Believer's Hope.

1854.

T was indeed a great mistake to supersede the preaching of the truth as it is in Jesus for the

forgiveness of sins, with the higher subject of the

risen Christ. In the freshness of this new-found truth, and thinking that the want of it was the secret of our depression, I was urged on to press it upon the people, and took in connection with it the life and walk of the believer. I exhorted my hearers to pray with me, that God would cleanse our hearts, and even our very thoughts, "by the inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that we might perfectly love Him, and worthily magnify His name." This suited some of the earnest and devoted people; but the majority did not think Sanctification essential to salvation-salvation was all they wanted and all they cared for; nothing else, they said, was necessary.

It was a time of bright light and dull darkness. I was very happy also disappointed. It was as if the influence God had given me in the parish, and on the people as a whole, was being taken away, and that I was not to be the leader any more. I did not see this at the time, nor indeed did I wish to do so, for I thought I had found in this

CHRIST'S SECOND COMING.

219

place my life-work and my sphere of labour. I had even selected a piece of ground in the churchyard for the final resting-place of the weary body.

One day a Christian friend came on a visit, and we had much sympathy and communion together, and discussed all these subjects. He begged me to be patient with the people, as God had been with me, and exhorted me not to scold or discourage them, but rather to lead them out of the low standard of truth in which they lived to a higher and deeper one. His visit was a great comfort at this juncture, and encouraged me very much; but before leaving he plunged me into another gulf of difficulty. At the railway station, as he was going away, he said to me, "Brother, do you believe the Lord is coming again?" "Certainly," I replied.

"What will He come for, do you think?"

"Why," I said, "to judge the quick and the dead, of course." Seeing he was not satisfied, I added, “What else would you have me say?"

He replied quietly, "I thought you would say that; but there is not time to speak about it now. Good-bye! goodbye!" And so saying, he stepped into the train, and was soon out of sight. I was left behind, wondering what he could mean.

One morning the postman brought me a packet of tracts on the Second Coming; but somehow I did not connect this with my friend's question. I merely thought that they were some "Plymouth" effusions, and put them aside. Then a stranger came to church, and, in conversation after the service, asked me if I would read a little book, and give him my opinion of it. It was called "Jesus Comes Quickly." But even this did not enlighten me. I told him that I thought the writer considered the end of the world very near, but that I did not care to dwell on