The Heart-Cry of Jesus | Page 8

experience he needs. Read the life
of Mrs. Fletcher, and see how sanctification can help a woman with
multitudinous domestic cares. Study the lives of "Billy" Bray and
William Carvosso, and remember that it was santification which helped
these men in their difficulties. If there is a soul anywhere filled with
unspeakable sorrow, shivering alone in the dark, the brightest light that
can come to that stricken soul is full salvation. No matter how sharp the
thorn, nor how galling the fetter, sanctification turns the thorn into oil,
and the fetter into a chain of plaited flowers.
CLANS.
It is said by some that sanctification makes people "clannish." Clannish
is a word with a rather offensive taste on the tongue, and is altogether
too harsh a word to apply to that congregative instinct that makes
pure-minded persons crave the fellowship of kindred spirits. There is
nothing intentionally exclusive about the holiness movement. If a man
is shut out it is because he shuts himself out; if he does not feel at home
in a full salvation service it is because he has not yet obtained full
salvation.
BROWNING CLUBS.
Men who share great truths and principles in common find in each
other's presence and fellowship great help. Admirers of Browning form
"Browning Clubs"; foot-ball men gather themselves into "associations";
ministers meet in "Monday meetings"; Christians organize "churches";
is it to be thought strange if people who are sanctified wholly delight to
meet for conference and mutual help?
THE SPLITTING OF THE CHURCH
A few uninformed persons say that "holiness splits the church." But
this is false. When men love God with all their heart and their
neighbors as themselves, nothing can separate them. If, however,
people of different sorts and kinds, some saved and some unsaved, are
in one organization, it will not require anything much to make them
differ in opinion. The real ecclesia, the genuine church, is not so easily
split. One of our most brilliant and spiritual holiness writers has
remarked in pleasantry that the anxiety of some in regard to the
splitting of the church would lead one to think that there was something
inside which they were afraid would be seen in case of a cleavage.
KEEP TO THE BIBLE.

Keep to the Bible idea of sanctification. Let not the adversary dupe you
and frighten you from its quest and obtainment. Begin now; seek,
search, pray, consecrate, believe, and soon the blessing will fall upon
your waiting soul.


CHAPTER III
.
THOSE FOR WHOM CHRIST PRAYED--"SANCTIFY THEM."
CONVERTED MEN.
The men for whom Christ prayed were converted men, and were living
in justified relation to God. In proof of this statement, let the reader
study the context carefully.
A CLOUDLESS SKY.
In the sixteenth chapter of St. John, the one immediately preceding the
sacerdotal prayer, the conversation which is recorded would be
impossible were the disciples conscious of guilt. One can not read those
sublime verses without the irresistible conviction that the disciples' sky
of soul- consciousness was blue and cloudless. There is no hint in
Christ's discourse that these men are "of the world," but rather it is
taken for granted that they are children of God and heirs of the
kingdom.
A SPECIFIC STATEMENT.
It is the sheerest folly for one to maintain that the conversion of the
disciples did not occur prior to Pentecost. If words mean anything,
Jesus made a specific statement to the contrary. "Rejoice," says He,
"that your names are written in heaven." In His prayer He says to His
Father: "They have kept Thy word"; "they are Thine"; "I pray for them,
I pray not for the world." Notice the distinction which He makes
between "them" and "the world." These men are picked men. They are
very different from the great unpardoned, sinful throng outside the
kingdom--they are CHRISTIANS.
THE CHAMBER OF BLESSING.
A very good evidence of the genuineness of the conversion of the
disciples was their painstaking care to follow out minutely the

directions of their ascended Lord. He had prayed for their sanctification;
they desired it. He had spoken of a coming Comforter, and they eagerly
awaited His advent. He had said, "Tarry in Jerusalem until" His arrival,
and they conscientiously met in an "upper room" for a ten-day
prayer-meeting. "Farewell! friends; farewell! memory-haunted
synagogues; farewell! sacred temple; farewell! long-bearded priests;
farewell all! we must go to prayer: our Lord said that we should be
sanctified." And thus in long line the one hundred and twenty file up
the stairs to the Chamber of Blessing. There is no lightness, no jesting,
no quibbling, no bickering; all are serious, terribly in earnest, intent on
"the promise of the Father." There is Peter, impulsive and eager,
whole-hearted and enthusiastic; there is the meek and quiet Mary, who