Sanctification -- What, When, How It Is

By J. H. Collins

Chapter 9

TESTIMONIES

  1. William Carvosso: "No sooner had I uttered or spoken the words from my heart, 'I shall have the blessing now,' than refining fire went through my heart, illuminating my soul, scattered its life through every part, and sanctified the whole." (Memoir, page 36). William Carvosso was a class-leader for fifty years in the Wesleyan Church, in England.

  2. John Fletcher: "I will confess him to all the world; and I declare unto you, in the presence of God, the Holy Trinity, I am now 'dead indeed unto sin.' I do not say, 'I am crucified with Christ,' because some of our well-meaning brethren say, 'By this can only be meant a gradual dying,' but I profess unto you I am dead unto sin and alive unto God." (Journal of H. A. Rogers, page 136).

  3. Bishop Hamline: "All at once I felt as though a hand, not feeble but omnipotent, not of wrath, but of love, were laid upon my brow. I felt it not only outwardly, but inwardly. It seemed to press upon my whole body, and to diffuse all through and through it a holy, sin-consuming energy." ("Guide to Holiness," 1855). Bishop Hamline was a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

  4. Dr. Thomas C. Upham: "I was then redeemed by a mighty power, and filled with the blessing of perfect love. . . . There was no intellectual excitement, no marked joys, when I reached this great rock of practical salvation; but I was distinctly conscious when I reached it." ("Guide to Holiness.") Prof. Upham was a Congregationalist.

  5. Rev. Joseph Benson: "My soul was, as it were, led into God, and satiated with his goodness. He so strengthened my faith as to perfectly banish all my doubts and fears, and so filled me with humble, peaceful love that I could and did devote my soul and body, and health and strength, to his glory and service." (Biography, page 55).

  6. Dr. Sheridan Baker: "I was now fully persuaded of my entire sanctification. The attitude of my soul is now that of complete, unreserved, and eternal surrender to God. Self, property, and everything pertaining to me, have gone out of my heart into my hands, and are held in trust and used for the glory of God." ("Divine Life," March, 1879).

  7. Dr. Adam Clarke: "I regarded nothing, not even life itself, in comparison of having my heart cleansed from all sin, and began to seek it with full purpose of heart.... Soon after this, while earnestly wrestling with the Lord in prayer, and endeavoring self-desperately to believe, I found a change wrought in my soul, which I endeavored, through grace, to maintain amid the grievous temptations and accusations of the subtle foe."
  1. Mrs. Phoebe Palmer: "I could no longer hesitate; reason as well as grace forbade; and I rejoiced in the assurance that I was wholly sanctified through-out body, soul, and spirit. . . . I felt that I was enabled to plunge and lose myself in this ocean of purity. Yes, Plunged in the Godhead's deepest sea, And lost in love's immensity.
  1. Bishop Asbury: "I live in patience, in purity, and in the perfect love of God.... I think we ought modestly to tell what we feel to the fullest." (Journal).

  2. Dr. E. M. Levy: "I seemed filled with all the fullness of God. I wept for joy.... My soul seemed filled with pulses, every one thrilling and throbbing with such waves of love and rapture that I thought I must die from excess of life." ("Advocate of Holiness," 1872). Dr. Levy is pastor of the Berean Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Pa.

  3. Rev. William Bramwell: "It is now about twenty-six years ago; I have walked in this liberty ever since. . . . I then declared to the people what God had done for my soul, and I have done so on every proper occasion since that time, believing it to be a duty." (Life of Bramwell)

  4. Bishop R. S. Foster: "Here again the Spirit seemed to lead me into the inmost sanctuary of my soul -- into those chambers where I had before discovered such defilement -- and showed me that all was cleansed, that the corruptions which had given me such distress were dead -- taken away -- that not one of them remained. I felt the truth of the witness; it was so; I was conscious of it, as conscious as ever I had been of my conversion." ("Guide," 1850).