LAWTON CHURCH OF GOD, LAWTON,
OKLAHOMA
Home About Us Holiness Library History of the Holiness Movement Early English Bibles Bible Studies View Sermons Links
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Home About Us Holiness Library History of the Holiness Movement Early English Bibles Bible Studies View Sermons Links
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INTRODUCTION.
MORE than twenty years ago a good
brother said to us, “I have a good book here I will give you, and if you will
read it through on your knees it will do you five pounds’ worth of good.” We
wanted to get good, and accepted the book; it was “Christian Perfection, by
Dr. Mahan.” We read it through on our knees, and got good—good, not to be
balanced by five pound notes. We knew something of the experience of Christian
Perfection, and this book greatly tended to show its scriptural foundation, and
to establish us in the faith. We never read any other book through on our knees,
save our Bible; we have thus read that annually every year since, and every year
of our life are more fully convinced that it is God’s will that His people
should be fully saved from all sin, and be “filled with the Holy Ghost.”
During the last twenty years we have read almost everything on the subject we
could lay our hands on, but on the whole, know of no human production which more
clearly sets forth the scriptural character of this great grace than does the
present work. Meeting with the author, he readily gave us permission to reprint
his work, for the edification and salvation of those interested in the subject. The question is not, “What is the
experience of the Church?” but, “What are the provisions of grace?” The
experience of the Church may be far too low, and must never be our standard of
appeal. God has more light to pour upon the world than we have yet seen; and
more grace to bestow than we have yet received. The question with which we
should approach God’s word is, “What is my Father’s will concerning me?”
George Fox, the Quaker, preached the Gospel of salvation from sin—Antinomians
met him at his open air meetings, and contended that we could never get further
in this world than, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” They
would proceed to quote passages which they supposed supported their views, but
the Quaker stopt them with, “Nay, friend, thou must not take God’s Holy Word
to prove thy dirty doctrine!” And he was right. God’s Holy Word enjoins a
holy religion. A good brother says:—“The doctrine we contend for is not
limited to a bare and questionable place, a doubtful and uncertain existence in
the holy records, but is repeatedly and abundantly.—explicitly, and with great
clearness—embodied as a cardinal feature throughout the whole system. It
breathes in the prophecy—thunders in the law—murmurs in the
narrative—whispers in the promises—supplicates in the prayers—sparkles in
the poetry—resounds in the songs—speaks in the types—glows in the
imagery—voices in the language—and beams in the spirit of the whole scheme,
from its Alpha to its Omega—from its beginning to its end. Holiness! Holiness
needed! Holiness required! Holiness offered! Holiness attainable! Holiness a
present duty—a present privilege—a present enjoyment, is the progress and
completeness of its wondrous theme! It is the truth glowing all over—webbing
all through revelation; the glorious truth which sparkles, and sings, and shouts
in all its history, and biography, and poetry, and prophecy, and precept, and
promise, and prayer; the great central truth of the system. The wonder is that
all do not see, that any rise up to question, a truth so conspicuous, so
glorious, so full of comfort.” The experience of Dr. Mahan, as
related towards the end of the work, goes to show that the reception of this
grace was to him what the Old Methodists would call the “Second
Blessing.” He was a Professor in a College, and a successful
Minister of the Gospel, and yet but a babe in grace. He had pointed many sinners
to Christ for justification, and yet often felt as if he would give the world,
if he had it, if some one would help him into the enjoyment of that which he
dimly saw was in reversion for him. However, the time of his deliverance came,
and now for about forty years he has lived and preached on a higher plane, and
has seen a complete revolution of thought on this subject in the Church with
which he is associated. His testimony is the more important, in the estimation
of some persons, coming as it does from outside Methodism, and yet according
with her acknowledged standards. A good brother said to us, some time since,
when we had been insisting on the doctrine as a present privilege, to be
received at once by faith, that there were some amongst us who were teaching
that it was a grace into which we were to grow,
but he had always believed we were to receive it at once as
God’s gift, and then grow in it.
That was evidently Mr. Wesley’s view of the subject. In the early
part of the Methodist Revival, many were brought into the enjoyment of full
salvation. Concerning these, he said:— “Not trusting to the testimony of
others, I carefully examined most of these myself; and every one (after the most
careful inquiry, I have not found an exception either in We heard Dr. Mahan, now in his
seventy-sixth year, preaching the doctrine of holiness with uncommon energy of
body and mind, and we asked him to give us a line to prefix to this issue of his
work, saying if his opinions were still unchanged, and the following day we
received the communication which we print. We have ventured on a large edition,
in order to be able to offer it at a low price, and now send it forth in God’s
name to do His work. We hope to spend our days in sanctified effort to “fill
GEORGE WARNER. 65,
Stepney Green, January, 1875.
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