04. The Call To Holiness

THE CALL TO HOLINESS When I arrived at the base, I was first of all attached to a convalescent camp. Near this camp there was a Salvation Army hut. I went there several times and found that meetings were held in the hut, conducted by an earnest Christian in khaki about ten or twelve years my senior, who was stationed at the base. I found out that he was associated with a movement called the “Inter national Holiness Mission,” headquarters at Battersea, S.W. He had experienced a wonderful conversion and was very keen for souk. One evening he said: “Next Thursday we shall hold a holiness meeting.” I had never heard of a holiness meeting. What is a holiness meeting? I thought to myself. I must go along and see what it is all about. When I went, I was not sure at first that what he talked about was quite sound. He testified to having received a second work of grace, and referred to the “baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire,” a clean heart, the destruction of the old man, etc. This teaching seemed strange to me — I had not heard anything quite like this before. I knew nothing about the teaching of Keswick, Swanwick, or Southport. I was acquainted with the teaching of only one particular school of thought on holiness. My ideas on this subject at that time were briefly as follows. There was a difference between “standing” and “state.” My “standing” in Christ before God was perfect — God saw me in Christ, and Christ himself was my holiness before God, but actually in my “state” I had two opposing natures. In my heart there was the old nature, the “old man,” the “flesh,” and also the new nature, the “new man,” etc. The old nature in my heart was utterly irremediable, and was so corrupt it could not possibly be improved. The new nature in my heart was of God and, therefore, holy and perfect. These two opposing natures would always exist side by side until the Lord came or death; but, by the help of the Holy Spirit within me, I had to keep under the old nature. Whilst I believed in growing in grace, I had no place in my thoughts, at that time, for any second definite work of God in cleansing the heart or in filling with the Spirit. I regarded whatever cleansing took place as having been accomplished at conversion. My theory was that the old nature was so utterly corrupt that it could not be purified; and the new nature, being of God, did not need any purifying. I could not understand, therefore, how there could be any subsequent work of grace after conversion which effected an inner purification of the heart. I had never asked or trusted God to do such a work in me, or in any special sense to fill me with the Holy Spirit. When I heard, therefore, this teaching about a second work of grace cleansing the heart from sin and filling with the Holy Spirit, I felt inclined to reject it because it seemed to be contrary to the theory of the two natures, and the fact that I already had the Holy Spirit. I remembered that in my boyhood days I had heard Christians say, “There is no perfection in ‘the flesh,’” and they had spoken against the danger of “self-occupation.” I was very suspicious, therefore, that this teaching about a clean heart, etc., was simply “perfection in the flesh,” and I thought to myself, I must beware of this error. MY NEED OF A PERSONAL PENTECOST There is a striking analogy between my spiritual experience up to is time and the spiritual condition of the Samaritans in Acts 8, before the Spirit of God had “fallen upon them.” There were four distinctive marks I connected with the Samaritans which were also characteristic of myself. The Samaritans (1) were born of the Spirit, because they had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and there was great joy; (2) had turned away from the sorceries which had “bewitched” them; (3) had been baptized; (4) but in spite of all this, the Holy Spirit had not yet “fallen upon them.”

I, too, (1) had definitely received Christ as Savior and been fully assured of my salvation for three years, through the witness of the Spirit that I was a child of God, and had tasted something of the joy of soul winning; (2) had definitely turned away from skeptical literature which had “bewitched” my mind; (3) had been baptized by immersion; (4) but I could not honestly say that in the full Pentecostal sense of the word, the Spirit had “fallen upon me” and filled me.

I had received Christ by faith but not the Holy Spirit by faith. I had a definite transaction of faith with he Father and received Christ, but I had not sought nor received by faith, as a distinct gift of God, the filling of the Spirit. I took it for granted that, as I was a child of God, the Holy Spirit was already within me; that was sufficient, and all I needed was simply to grow in grace. But the Lord graciously dealt with me and showed me that I still needed the full blessing of Pentecost. One evening the brother leading the meetings spoke from the Epistle to the Thessalonians about sanctification. Two passages of scripture gripped my mind. One was: “This is the will of God, even your sanctification,” and the other: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I kept asking myself, “What did it mean by ‘sanctify wholly’?” Surely it meant, I thought, that this was God’s work, and that He could make the heart wholly pure, freed from sin; and yet I could not reconcile this thought with the “two natures in the heart” theory. In this state of perplexity, I made the matter the subject of earnest prayer. Near to the convalescent camp in which I was staying there was a small clump of trees. One night I crept away alone to this spot and, kneeling down, I pleaded the promise of James 1:5. I prayed somewhat on these lines — “Father, wilt Thou show me what it means to be ‘sanctified wholly’? I ask Thee to give me light, and keep me from being led astray by error. But if there is anything I lack, wilt Thou show it me?” (In the next chapter I relate how the Lord answered my prayer for guidance on the matter of entire sanctification.)