In foggy or cloudy weather, mariners at sea are often compelled to
resort to what they term dead-reckoning. Sometimes for days together,
the sun is hidden by clouds, and no observation can be taken with the
usual instruments for determining latitude and longitude. Then the
captain ascertains by the compass what direction he is pursuing, and
by the log, the rate at which the ship is sailing, and thus by marking
out his daily advance on a chart, he is enabled, with astonishing
accuracy, to determine when and at what point he will sight the shore
toward which the voyage is directed. What he reckons becomes real, when
he tells the passengers, "Within five minutes, we ought to see the
Irish coast," followed within the specified time by the cry from the
lookout, "Land, ho!"
To the Christian believer, the Bible is both compass and log and chart.
Sometimes, he enjoys the witness of the Spirit clear as the sunshine,
assuring him that he is going in the right direction, and informing
him as to his whereabouts in Christian experience, but when not thus
favored, he can still move on by faith, he still has his compass and
his chart, and he can still employ the dead-reckoning, and go forward
with a holy trust that in due time he shall land in the heavenly port.
Praise the Lord.
To comment in detail upon all that the great apostle of the Gentiles
has written in reference to entire sanctification would require a
volume instead of a single chapter. I must, therefore, content myself
with a few selections, and leave the reader to pursue the subject for
himself in the inexhaustible mine of the Pauline Epistles.
In Romans 6:13, we have the best description of consecration that is to
be found anywhere. "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God." And, again, in the 19th verse, "For as ye
have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto
iniquity; even so, now, yield your members servants to righteousness,
unto holiness."
Here, the apostle clearly teaches us that consecration is not the same
thing as entire sanctification. The one is an act proceeding from man
to God, the other is an act proceeding from God to man. It is man who
consecrates; it is God who sanctifies.
Perfect consecration is an entire surrender of a personal human being
to a personal God. The term members may well be understood to include
all bodily organs and powers, all mental faculties and sensibilities,
and all appurtenances, such as time, money, influence, culture, health,
and, in short, the whole personal, individual man, with all his
belongings. The surrender must be complete, absolute, unreserved and
forever. Body, soul, spirit, time, talents, possessions, all that we
have and all that we are must be His, wholly His, and His to all
eternity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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