"In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious [i. e., 'sanctified and cleansed, a glorious church' (Eph. 5:26,27)], and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel [have 'escaped the corruption that is in the world']. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning" (Isa. 4:2-4). This explains the words of Peter very clearly; the judgment of the house of God is a divine washing and purging. The church, having passed through the spirit of judgment and of burning, all that are left therein "shall be called holy." Therefore, we understand the words of Peter as having reference to the sin-consuming flames of the Sanctifier, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which corresponds with the shaking of the church, of which Paul speaks in Hebrews; for he concludes by saying, "Our God is a consuming fire." If ever there was a time when Peter's words were pertinent, it is now. The hand of the Almighty is upon his church, and he will smite and humble it with his judgments; shake it with his voice from heaven, and consume it with the flames of his Spirit until every foul spirit is driven out and all the "works of the devil" destroyed; that nothing may remain but the pure, unalloyed elements of the divine "kingdom, which can not be shaken." No wonder the churches so often fear and dread the coming of God's holy bands; yea, "a fire burns before them," which quite frequently closes all meeting-houses and every other place where the sects can defeat their access. It is because they know that they are but a collection of ecclesiastical stubble, which can not abide the fire which accompanies the Lord's army of definite witnesses. Here we also see that the charge that insisting upon the definite experience of entire sanctification destroys the churches is true only so far as they are composed of "wood, hay, and stubble." Fire never destroys gold and silver....