Chapter 11
COMPLETE CONSECRATION, OR THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE EXPERIENCE
For the purposes of discussion, the experience of entire sanctification may be divided into
the human side of the blessing, and the divine side. The human side is that qualification that a
person must reach before God is able to fill the heart with His cleansing power. In other words, it
is the conditions which must be met, or fulfilled, before God will release the sanctifying energy
from the skies that purifies the heart.
Inasmuch as this chapter discusses man's side of the great experience, it becomes an item of
considerable importance, that the reader should study this with care, if he is a seeker for the
experience of full salvation from inherited depravity, or if he is a minister, and desires to teach the
way of holiness, in sermon or conversation.
The first requisite for obtaining the experience of entire sanctification is that the candidate
shall have been scripturally and definitely regenerated. That is, that he shall be in possession of all
his privileges as a regenerated or justified soul. We mean that he shall be, at the time that he
becomes a seeker for this second work of grace, living up closely and loyally to all the demands of
the life that he entered at conversion. Entire sanctification is in no sense an experience of
reclamation. It is not a recovery from backsliding. It is no renewal of one's faith in God, after that
person has been living for some time in a lapsed state. On the contrary it is another experience, on
beyond, and in addition to, anything that a person may receive in the regenerated life. It is not
merely a thrill and an ecstasy. Persons can have great, and sometimes deep emotion, during the
regenerated life. Full salvation is generally manifested by a deeper emotion than is usually
experienced at conversion, but there have been a few instances that have fallen under this writer's
observation, of people appearing to have less emotion when sanctified wholly, than when they
were regenerated. It is not usually the case, but such instances do occur.
Remember what a genuine case of regeneration involves: A real penitence for all sin, and a
complete turning away from it, as a thing greatly displeasing to God. A conscious forgiveness of
all known offenses against God. A knowable witness by the Holy Ghost that God has for Christ's
sake forgiven one, and written his name down in the "Book of Life." A regeneration or new birth
that changes and transforms the life so that all sinful practices are now foregone, and all sinful
associates, and places of resort are forsaken, together with a sense of union with and a testimony
for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and a love for and relation with His people.
While enjoying all this, and consciously living with the sense of His approval resting upon
one, then that soul is a proper candidate for the experience of entire sanctification. If one should
find that he was not experiencing all this, then it is perfectly proper to become a further seeker for
a genuine, positive, and realizable experience of regeneration. We have found, in many years of
public ministry, that there are hundreds of professed Christians who think they are living up to all
the light of regeneration, who find that when a really scriptural standard of this initial experience
is held up, they are woefully short of it. There are not many churches, even among some of the most
spiritual denominations, but will find a few in their membership who do not measure up to the
requirements of the new birth, as set forth in the Word of God. Because of this very fact we have
dwelt with some minuteness upon the evidences of the new birth, in order to prevent any person
from approaching this great experience of heart holiness, with insufficient preparation. Be very
sure that you are a truly justified Christian, before you become a seeker for the further grace of
entire sanctification. Let it ever be remembered that the outward life of a Christian is brought into
all needful conformity to the requirements of righteousness, by the initial or new birth experience.
One ought to be everything that a child of God should be, in his outward conduct, in his relation to
his fellow men, his family, his church, his state and his nation, under the initial grace of
Christianity, before he sets out in his search for a holy heart. Entire sanctification does not affect,
or deal with, the outward acts of a man, but it deals with the inherited moral depravity of his heart.
The new birth has already adjusted his outward life toward God and man, and now sanctification
adjusts his interior life. This is a very important matter, because in this way a person can more
easily tell whether a candidate is truly a Christian or not. If he comes as a seeker for holiness with
his outward life in the community, or in his home, all awry with maladjustments toward spiritual
standards, then he is in no sense a candidate for an interior work of entire sanctification, but needs
the work of full and genuine regeneration. This is the reason that holiness meetings and holiness
altars attract the very best Christians in a community. It is because they are already living faithful
justified lives, and yet realize that there is an interior cleansing of which they stand in need.
The next step is to consecrate yourself, as a living child of God, to Him forever, in order to
be made holy. The word, "consecrate," is said to mean in the original, "to place in the hand." That
would mean that you, a redeemed soul, saved now from the commission of all sinful practices, and
living a life of prayer, praise and loyal service, voluntarily, and with longing desire, place your all
in His hands for the purpose of being made holy. The motive of one's coming to God in this way as
a humble seeker for a holy heart, is usually a great conviction of need. It can almost certainly be
said that if a person has never received the experience of holiness, and yet seriously declares that
he has never had any sense of the need of an interior cleansing, since he became saved, he is an
abnormal human being We have met one or two cases like this, in over thirty years of connection
with the holiness movement, and association with all sorts of people seeking the experience of the
second work of grace. In each case, however, we found that the person was peculiar in other ways,
abnormal about business and home affairs, and full of eccentricities. Religious history and
personal testimony, from the New Testament days to modern times reveal, however, that this heart
hunger for holiness amounting to a great and profound conviction, is found. in practically all truly
regenerated hearts. Many have felt so terribly burdened for a clean heart, that they have found their
desire amounting to agony. Often their friends have feared for their physical welfare. Occasionally
they have fancied that these convicted ones were losing their minds, and time and again people
have been sadly persecuted by their own relatives, or by their friends in the church, because of this
overwhelming desire for holiness.
When this agony of soul is on, it is well for the seeker carefully to go over every item of
his devotement of himself to God. It is well to have the heart say a glad "Amen" of earnest
approval to everything that the Spirit may bring to one's mind, and thus be sure that consecration is
complete. The reader should be careful to note that it does not necessarily follow, that God is
planning to exact everything of one, though He may pass it in review before your eyes. This writer
has known several persons who agonizingly yielded to the question concerning a willingness to go
as a missionary, while their period of heart burden over holiness was on, and then later, never felt
a single impulse toward going. God evidently was sounding them out to see whether the
consecration and abandonment was complete, and in order to have the utterly surrendered soul
itself realize that if He called it would go. We have also seen men and women say yes to a
complete donation of all their earthly goods, while the seeking days were on, and when they had
gloriously obtained the purity for which they sought, they found many ways to use that property for
the advancement of the Kingdom of God, and there was no intimation that God wanted it all
disposed of. It is just possible that this was what Jesus meant when He told the rich young ruler to
sell all his goods and give to the poor, and then come and follow Him. It is barely possible that
had he started to do so, Jesus would have accepted the will for the deed, and directed him to use it
otherwise. If, however, He meant for the young man to do exactly as His words imply, it would
have been vastly better for him, and for future generations, if he had obeyed. And we would
caution the seeker, to be sure that when he says yes, to God, during the agony of self crucifixion,
that he really means it, and will be absolutely ready to obey, for otherwise it will be but a hollow
mockery, and it is fatal to play with situations where Deity is involved.
The seeker should make sure that from henceforth, his time shall be at the disposal of God.
While He allows us, for the most part, to decide just what we think He desires that we should do,
in regard to the devotion of certain items of time, yet it does not take very much experience in
relation to the Church, nor much perusal of the Word, before we realize just about what is
demanded of a fully consecrated soul. There must be time allotted each day for prayer. No family
can be so busy as to neglect it, and stay right with God. Though school may demand the young
people's attendance, and business call for the husband, and a thousand duties wait for the
housewife, yet, if that family, or the heads of it, are wholly consecrated to God, they will arise a
bit earlier, they will adjust the demands of the school and business, and devote a suitable amount
of the day to humble, fervent worship. Bible study cannot be neglected, or one will lose his full
sense of consecration. Complete consecration cannot sleep an extra hour on the Sabbath and let the
minister agonize under the burdens of the coming church service, while the wholly consecrated
layman rests. Full devotement to the Lord will demand that you rise as early on Sunday as on
weekdays and spend that extra time in earnest prayer. Time must be taken for private devotions.
However much one may worship with his family, this will not take the place of private
communion.
Your full consecration must also include your body. The apostle suggests this, "I beseech
you therefore by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice." This will
naturally include all the uses to which a sanctified man can put his body. How ought one, who is
sanctified wholly, to treat his body, which now has become the temple of the Holy Ghost? What
ought he to eat? How often ought he to fast? What ought he to put on that body? How much exercise
ought it to have? What about the gratification of its appetites? For sanctification will not change the
appetites of the body. It will give one ability to regulate them, but he must do this with his own
sanctified intelligence. These physical appetites are a fruitful door through which many temptations
to the sanctified come. These doors must be regulated, by intelligence, and guarded by
discernment. However graciously sanctified, one can never dispense with his good common sense,
this side the resurrection day. Ask yourself the question, will I govern all my body's desires as one
should, whose heart is now fully. freed from unholy carnality, and filled with the Holy Ghost? Will
I give my body rest enough? Will I be careful and not let it grow lazy and indolent and spend too
much time in rest?
Sanctified people must ever remember that while the body is sanctified to God, that
sanctification only covers the matter of the taint of sin. It does not restore the primitive perfection
that made Adam physically perfect. The body, though now in His holy keeping, and occupied by
His holy Spirit, is still a fallen body. It is weak, and will require your best watch-care lest its
weakness become a snare to your holy heart. It is subject to fallen appetites and desires, and will
keep one constantly on the alert, lest Satan take an advantage of this, and overcome you. St. Paul
declares, "I keep under my body, . . . lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I
myself should be a castaway" (1 Cor. 9:27). There can be little doubt but that through this door has
come the fall of more Christians, than probably through that of any other. Ministers by the score
have fallen at this point. In spite of a wholly sanctified heart, physical desire is not dead, and
requires the greatest watching, with much prayer, and, becoming lax at this point, history is witness
that many have collapsed, made shipwreck of their salvation, carried others with them to the pit,
occasioned the backsliding of countless more, and finally made their bed in hell. It cannot be too
impressively stated, that eternal vigilance must be maintained over the physical appetites, despite
the full sanctification of the soul.
The mind must be placed in God's hands. The sacred Book declares that "whatsoever is of
good report, . . . think on these things" (Phil. 4:8). The intellect is another of the items that, though
it is relieved from all taint of sin, when one is sanctified wholly, yet is still in the weakness of the
fallen state. Holy men will ever be compelled to study in order to acquire knowledge. Extra care
must ever be taken to prevent the thoughts from wandering. The apostle to the Gentiles declares
that he made an effort when with his converts, to enable them to "bring into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ." It is an easy thing, many times, to think erroneous thoughts, while all
the time keeping one's every activity safely within the realm of propriety, but "as he thinketh in his
heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). If one has committed his mind to the keeping of God, he cannot read
books that will poison it against God, or any phase of His holy religion. This is precisely the gate
that has admitted modernism. It is just here that evolution entered, and carried away many of God's
best people. Some people prate learnedly about the "freedom of the mind." A sanctified man
cannot have any freedom of the mind, outside the blessed truth of the Bible, and the will of Jesus
Christ. One might just as well talk about an American having freedom to think treasonable thoughts
against the government of this country. This cannot be, if he is to remain an American. He may do
so, if he chooses to become an enemy, but never as a loyal citizen. Neither can one read books that
undermine the teachings of the Bible and still be a Christian. Nor can one follow silent thoughts
that reflect on God, or on the Trinity, or on the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, or on any other
fundamental truth of the Scriptures, and continue to be a loyal Christian. Hence the mind must be
consecrated to God. It must pledge itself that it will be true to Him. It must promise with deep
sincerity that it will ever resist all erroneous and strange doctrines, that reflect upon the teachings
of the Bible. This phase of one's consecration is exceedingly important, because all heresy comes,
not so much from outward sins that men commit, but from intellectual treason against the truth. We
are well aware that minds tinctured with modernism will reply that all the advancement of the
Church during the dark ages was made because men dared to think contrary to the teachings of the
priesthood about them. But this was when the real Bible was denied to people, and they were
asked to remain loyal to the traditions of men. Now, however, the Bible is with us. It has been
translated from the original languages in which it was first written. Now we possess it in all its
beauty and power. Dare we now to throw the door wide open to men to think about it as they will,
and yet call them Christians? This is exactly what has brought modern unbelief into existence. It
was because men
felt privileged to place their own private interpretation on the sacred Book. No one can do that,
and remain a loyal follower of Jesus Christ. "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of
God perfected" (1 John 2:5). Let the candidate promise faithfully, with all the earnest sincerity of
his heart, that he will accept the Book at face value, and keep the Word of God. Several splendid
ministers have fallen at this very point. They once were shining lights in the firmament of the
holiness movement, but their minds were solicited by the temptation to accept some private
explanation of portions of the Word of God. Yielding here, they soon began to bring the whole
Book into question. Ere long, they were wholly at sea. Their public addresses lost all scriptural
compass with which they had formerly been guided. They became derelict ships in the wide ocean
of religious thought. Let your consecration, then, include a deep faithful pledge that you will be
true to the 'Scriptures, and that you will guard yourself against the writings of men that would
poison you against it, as you would guard your body against material poison.
Another item of consecration must be one's conduct. Deeds always speak more loudly than
words. Regardless of what you may profess as to the condition of your heart, unless your conduct
verifies that profession, the world will accept your deeds as the expression of the real man, and
allow that your words are false. Consequently you must pledge to the Lord, as you wait before
Him in deep abandonment, that whatsoever you do, you will do it all to the glory of God. Your
speech must be "seasoned with salt" (Col. 4:6), for, "by thy words shalt thou be justified, and by
thy words shalt thou be condemned" (Matt. 12:37). "Every idle word that men shall speak, they
shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" (Matt. 12:36). How careful one's speech should
be in order that we may give no offense. At home one should be unusually careful of what one is
prompted to say. The shelter of home leads people to be off their usual guard, oftentimes, and to a
person's relatives, sometimes frank speech takes on a tartness, that will soon open a wide door to
the reentrance of the old moral defilement that entire sanctification removed. Argument, unless
conducted with great sweetness and regard for the person opposed, will generate sharp feelings
before one is aware. The Lord never said for us to go and argue the gospel, but to preach it. He
never said that we were to argue about water baptism, but to disciple all nations. He never said
that we were to hair-split over just how much carnality was left in a converted soul, or whither it
went when it was removed, or how it was able to return when it came back, but to testify of Jesus
and His power to save.
Not only must the speech be guarded with great care, but the actions of one's daily life must
be in full conformity to the experience of holiness. Every business transaction, every errand, every
bit of buying or selling, where you go, how long you stay, who went with you, everything,
everything, everything is now to be enacted as though you were already standing at the judgment
bar of God, whither ere long, every one of us must come, and these very things be reviewed by the
Lord Christ Himself. Oh, with what care ought holiness people to walk. How cautiously they ought
to speak. Do you know that every word that you utter is being impressed on the record-taking
phonograph of the sky? Do you know that a mighty photographic equipment is taking moving
pictures of everything you do, and everywhere you go? In the very act of consecration, then, let
your soul register a solemn pledge to God that you will carefully adjust all your conduct to the
rigid requirements of His mighty experience of holiness, and then when the blessing shall fall upon
you, maintain that pledge inviolate unto the end, and. you will give your account to the great Judge
with joy and not with grief, when the accounting day shall come.
Finally, consecrate all your affection to God This is the chief thing that He is after anyhow.
One's prayers, one's gifts, one's testimonies, one's faithfulness in attendance upon divine worship,
are not acceptable unto Him, unless they are performed because you love Him. Offer Him your
affection that He may perfect it with His fiery grace. This will please Him more than anything else.
He says, "Give me thine heart." Ah, that is what He longs for, it is the hearts of His people! May
He have yours? May He fill it with Himself? May He forever possess it as the temple of His
Spirit? May He make it His home? May He cleanse it perfectly of all things that are opposed to
Himself? May He hang new pictures on the walls, and place new furniture in its rooms, and sweep
and garnish and occupy?
Friend, can you look up into the face of God, and assure Him that you are fully, entirely
consecrated to Him forever? Do you now place all your past, all your present, all your future in
His hands? Will you allow Him to open the unread pages of the tomorrows, and announce to you
just what is therein contained as day by day your life rolls on, and will you accept it with
sweetness and humility and utter trust, whether it be joy, or sorrow, or wealth, or poverty, or honor
or dishonor, or good report, or ill report? May He have your family, your business, your means,
your health, your mind, your body, your everything? No soul can receive, much less retain and
possess, the burning fullness of the Holy Ghost in His wholly sanctifying power, unless He can
have just such a complete and entire abandonment of the soul to Himself. Will you, then, say a glad
"Amen" to all God's will for you? Can He check on you for anything that you have?
