PREFACE
Another
book on the higher Christian life! Why should it be written?
For the same reason that I should preach another Gospel
sermon. Why should you read it? For the same reason that you
should hear again "the old, old story of Jesus and His
love." How strange it is that every one who receives full
salvation gets hold of a pen as soon as he can, and blazons
it abroad to all the world! It is no more wonderful than the
loosened tongue of the young convert. It argues the
genuineness of the blessing found. The very fact that
persons who hate hobbies become, when thus anointed of the
Holy Ghost, men of one idea, and henceforth push this
specialty with tongue and pen as if in the grasp of an
all-absorbing passion, ought to demonstrate to doubters that
there is here a great Gospel truth struggling to reveal
itself to the Church. Reader, do not be afraid of the
multiplication of books on advanced Christian experience.
The light grain will drift off into the chaff, while the
full corn will drop into the bushel and feed the famishing.
It takes many men to explore a continent, many pens to
portray the unsearchable riches of Christ. Believers could
have been saved by one gospel -- one photograph of the
Nazarene. But God chose four evangelists to hold up to the
Son of Man their mirrors, in order to reflect his bright
Image upon our dark world. Who shall be the limners of his
great Successor, the blessed Comforter, but they in whom he
abides, with whom he communes, and on whom he has wrought
his transfiguration? The work of each of these spiritual
artists may fix some wandering eye in a long and earnest
gaze till transformed from glory to glory by the Spirit of
God.
The
venerable Bishop Janes, whose zeal for Christ, and abundant
labors, are almost apostolic, in commending to the Christian
public a book on this high theme by one associated with him
in the episcopal office, used the following eloquent
language: "Every man has his circle of influence. Each
author on this subject will secure some readers that would
not give attention to the writings of others. Here is a
power for good that ought not to be lost. Verily, if there
is any subject on which we need precept upon precept, and
line upon line, the theme of this book is that subject. If
there is any religious truth that should be urged upon the
disciples of Jesus with the sweetness of his constraining
love, and the solemnity of his Divine authority, it is the
truth that Christians may and ought to be holy. O that tens
of thousands of individuals, filled with its bliss, and
inspired by its power, were telling of its charms, and
inviting to its pursuit! O that tens of thousands of
spiritual limners, the Holy Ghost guiding their pencils,
were actively and ceaselessly engaged in portraying the
glories of this subject to the vision of the Church until
every member of it, ravished by its beauties, and impelled
by its attractions, would aspire to its attainment, by faith
enter into its enjoyment, and then join in labors to spread
it!"
It is not
the purpose of the author to bewilder his readers with pages
of speculation, however strong the temptation may be, but to
keep as near as possible to the teachings of the Scriptures,
to his own experience, and to the testimony of others on
whom the Holy Spirit has poured his illumination. It is the
design of the writer, in true Pauline style, "To testify
unto you the Gospel of the grace of God." He may not often
use the pronoun in the first person singular. But he wishes
it to be understood that his arguments have been forged on
the anvil of his own experience. St. Paul's argumentative
epistles are his experience expressed in logical form.
It is
with much sorrow of heart that the writer confesses one
unenviable similarity to the apostle to the Gentiles, in the
fact that he now preaches that part of the Gospel which he
once destroyed. Before his eyes were anointed he saw not, in
the provisions of the atonement, the blessing of the
fullness of Christ as a sharply defined transition in
Christian experience --an instantaneous work of the Spirit
by faith only, as taught by Wesley. Embracing the plausible
theory of a gradual unfolding of the spiritual life without
any sudden uplift by the power of the Spirit, he criticized,
without the charity that is kind, the professors of this
grace, magnifying their imperfections, stigmatizing them as
fanatics and "pluperfects," and judging them all by an
occasional glaring hypocrisy or by the extravagances of some
unbalanced mind. Thus he ran into the shallow fallacy of
those sinners who feast on the failings of the saints --
ex uno disce omnes -- who from one learn the character
of all.
In
unfolding his thoughts on this subject, the author has
deemed it best to simply sketch the scheme of soteriology,
or doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ, and to elaborate
only that which relates to the privileges of advanced
believers. This will account for the apparent lack of
symmetry in the treatment of the whole question of human
salvation. Although the author has addressed special classes
of his readers in the concluding chapters, he has not
restrained himself from occasional exhortation in the
process of his argument. Whenever the temperature rose to a
white heat, he has thought it wise "to strike while the iron
was hot" It may not forestall criticism to confess, in
advance, to this violation of the strict rules of logical
development. The purpose of the writer has not been so much
to create for himself a high reputation as a dialectician,
as to lead willing souls unto "the blessing of the fullness
of Christ" by the shortest path. It is our devout prayer
that these utterances of a soul filled with "joy
unspeakable," and sometimes almost "intolerable," [* "The
Still Hour." -- Prof. Phelps.] may contribute to the
fulfilling of the Pauline petition, "That ye may be filled
with all the fullness of God."
Dr.
Payson thus beautifully illustrates the relation of various
classes of Christians to Christ. He conceives them as ranged
in concentric circles around the radiant form of our
Immanuel: "Some value the presence of their Saviour so
highly that they cannot bear to be at any remove from him.
Even their work they will bring up, and do it in the light
of his countenance, and while engaged in it will be seen
constantly raising their eyes to him, as if fearful of
losing one beam of his light. Others, who, to be sure, would
not be content to live out of his presence, are yet less
wholly absorbed by it than these, and may be seen a little
further off, engaged here and there in their various
callings, their eyes generally upon their work, but often
looking up to the light which they love. A third class,
beyond these, but yet within the life-giving rays, includes
a doubtful multitude, many of whom are so much engaged in
their worldly schemes that they may be seen standing
sidewise to Christ, looking mostly the other way, and only
now and then turning their faces toward the light."
To induce
those who are in the second and third circles to yield to
the drawings of the Son of God, and gladly enter into the
inner circle, and ever abide in the joyful presence of the
crucified Lamb of God, is the motive of the writer, who,
amid his pastoral and pulpit labors, and the more exhausting
studies in preparing a commentary on a portion of the
Pentateuch, has found refreshment in setting up along the
path of his own experience a few guide-boards for the
benefit of those who may wish to walk in the same path. The
writer cannot dismiss his book without invoking upon his
readers the Pauline blessing, as translated by Bishop
Ellicott, "Abstain from every form of evil. But may the God
of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit,
and soul, and body, be preserved entire, without blame, in
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that
calleth you, who also will do it" |