How to Keep Sanctified

By Charles J. Fowler

Chapter 10

HONOR THE MOVEMENT

The Spirit of God would have the method sustained which He has instituted, at least providentially to carry on this work. The regular ministrations of the Church in the pulpit, prayer meeting, revival services, etc., etc., should be giving attention to this and secure these results; but if they do not, God will have it done by other means as He is now doing in the holiness movement, which method he has been using for some forty or more years.

This means that we need to support this work by our prayers, sympathy, and outward activity in attending its various meetings, etc., and in the giving of our money. We are not meaning to say that we should withdraw these from the local Church where we hold our membership, or from the denomination of which we are a part -- this we do not mean -- but we do mean that we need to honor the movement which God has used to get us sanctified, and do it in ways that are of practical value.

Facts are abundant, in the personal history of multitudes, that prove the position we are taking. In the several decades of this movement a great many people have been at the altars of the holiness meetings as seekers of the experience of entire sanctification, and a great many ministers and laymen in our churches have claimed the blessing, and evidently for a time enjoyed it. But only for a time. Our close and wide observation in twenty-five years has convinced us that this failure has been largely due to a failure to be identified with the movement itself -- a failure to be an avowed and recognized holiness witness and advocate. We know of no person in the entire land who has kept a ringing testimony to this grace outside of those who have been open and constant advocates and defenders of this faith. We do not mean that they have been members of this or that holiness association, or of any association, but we do mean that they have been identified with the holiness people and the movement as such.