One may stand up and speak about being sanctified; but if his actions
indicate in some form or another that he is jealous, or ill-tempered,
or selfish, everybody will say, 'No matter what that person may say
about himself, testimony or no testimony, profession or no profession,
he still needs the blessing of Full Salvation!'
Let me, by an illustration or two, help you to see what I mean--the
fruits of the sanctified heart.
A university professor was afflicted with an ungovernable temper. One
day he went to the house of a relative with a view to adjusting some
property matters in dispute. Now, the man to whom he went not only made
unjust claims, but put forth these claims in a way to provoke his
Christian relative to anger. He did it on purpose; he was determined to
show that this man's religion made him no different from the people
round about him. As a consequence, high words arose, and the professor
left the house in a rage, slamming the door behind him.
When he got into the street calm reflection came, and in the place of
anger and bitterness a sense of humiliation and shame and defeat. He
went straight home, up to his room, fastened the door, got down on his
knees, and spent the night pleading that God would not only forgive him
for his display of temper, but would deliver him from those angry
passions which made him such a discredit to his profession of religion.
As morning dawned, peace came to his soul, the power of the Holy Ghost
fell upon him, and a sense of deliverance pervaded his whole being.
He went to the house of his relative, and found him at breakfast. With
deep humility, and in the presence of the family, he confessed his sin,
said not a word about provocation, and only pleaded that they would
forgive him for his display of anger. Thirty years subsequent to this
that professor, who became famous as a man of God, stated that no
temptation or provocation received had ever stirred the emotion of evil
temper within him since that memorable night. He had been delivered.
Instead of the fruit of the flesh, there grew the fruit of the Spirit.
Take the case of a certain mother with several unconverted children.
She was a fretting, chafing woman, and by her impatience,
fault-finding, and nagging she fretted and vexed the whole family. When
she got the blessing she became so even in her disposition that she was
kept in such 'perfect peace' that, by the power of the Holy Ghost, the
domestic circle became like a little heaven below.
Resentful and revengeful persons are so changed that the spirit of
forgiveness and forbearance which they exhibit in their lives is the
admiration of all who know them. Self-seeking Christians are made into
self-sacrificing, cross-bearing saints and soldiers, where formerly
they would only be content if they were having their own way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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